Good morning Yonkers, it is Spiritual Sunday, currently in the City of Vision it is mostly cloudy and 64 degrees with north/north-west winds at 8 mph, 82% humidity, the dew point is 58 degrees, the barometer is 30.0 inches and rising, and the visibility is 10 miles. Some clouds this morning will give way to generally sunny skies this afternoon, a high of 81 degrees with north winds at 10 to 15 mph. Mostly clear tonight, a low of 62 degrees with north/north-east winds at 5 to 10 mph. Sun-up occurs at 6:29 AM and descends gracefully beyond the Palisades at 7:17 PM. You’ll have 12 hours and 48 minutes of available daylight. Avon, Lorain County, Ohio, Population: 21,193. At 5:02 AM EDT Avon is clear and 60 degrees. Avon will have ample sunshine today, a high of 74 degrees with north/north-east winds at 5 to 10 mph. Clear skies tonight, a low near 55 degrees with east winds at 5 to 10 mph. Digby, Nova Scotia, Canada, Population: 2,152. At 6:05 ADT Digby is cloudy and 55 degrees. Digby will have showers early then plenty of sun by the afternoon, a high of 69 degrees with north-west winds at 5 to 10 mph. There is a 30% chance of rain this morning. Clear skies for tonight, a low of 49 degrees with north-west winds at 5 to 10 mph. Dothan, Houston County, Alabama. At 4:10 AM CDT Dothan is clear and 74 degrees. Dothan will be partly cloudy early followed by scattered thunderstorms this afternoon, a high of 92 degrees with south-west winds at 5 to 10 mph. There is a 50% chance of rain. Scattered thunderstorms during the evening, partly cloudy skies after midnight, a low of 71 degrees with light and variable winds. You will continue to have a 50% chance of rain through the evening. Today 9/07 In HISTORY: 1 - 1776 - American Revolution - During the Revolutionary War, the American submersible craft Turtle attempts to attach a time bomb to the hull of British Admiral Richard Howes flagship Eagle in New York Harbor. It was the first use of a submarine in warfare. Submarines were first built by Dutch inventor Cornelius van Drebel in the early 17th century, but it was not until 150 years later that they were first used in naval combat. David Bushnell, an American inventor, began building underwater mines while a student at Yale University. Deciding that a submarine would be the best means of delivering his mines in warfare, he built an eight-foot-long wooden submersible that was christened the Turtle for its shape. Large enough to accommodate one operator, the submarine was entirely hand-powered. Lead ballast kept the craft balanced. Donated to the Patriot cause after the outbreak of war with Britain in 1775, Ezra Lee piloted the craft unnoticed out to the 64-gun HMS Eagle in New York Harbor on September 7, 1776. As Lee worked to anchor a time bomb to the hull, he could see British seamen on the deck above, but they failed to notice the strange craft below the surface. Lee had almost secured the bomb when his boring tools failed to penetrate a layer of iron sheathing. He retreated, and the bomb exploded nearby, causing no harm to either the Eagle or the Turtle. During the next week, the Turtle made several more attempts to sink British ships on the Hudson River, but each time it failed, owing to the operators lack of skill. Only Bushnell was really able to competently execute the submarines complicated functions, but because of his physical frailty he was unable to pilot the Turtle in any of its combat missions. During the Battle of Fort Lee, the Turtle was lost when the American sloop transporting it was sunk by the British. Despite the failures of the Turtle, General George Washington gave Bushnell a commission as an Army engineer, and the drifting mines he constructed destroyed the British frigate Cereberus and wreaked havoc against other British ships. After the war, he became commander of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers stationed at West Point. 2 - 1864 - Civil War -In preparation for his march to the sea, Union General William T. Sherman orders residents of Atlanta, Georgia, to evacuate the city. Even though Sherman had just successfully captured Atlanta with minimal losses, he was worried about his supply lines, which stretched all the way to Louisville, Kentucky. With Confederate cavalry leader Nathan Bedford Forrest on the loose, Sherman expected to have a difficult time maintaining an open line of communication and reasoned that he could not stay in Atlanta for long. The number of troops committed to guarding the railroad and telegraph lines was almost as many as he had with him in Atlanta. For Sherman, the defeated residents of Atlanta could only hinder him in his preparations since they represented mouths to feed in addition to his own army. Furthermore, he did not want to bear responsibility for women and children in the midst of his army. Eviction of the residents was Shermans most logical solution. He wrote, I have deemed it to the interest of the United States that the citizens now residing in Atlanta should remove, those who prefer it to go South, and the rest North. The mayor of Atlanta, James Calhoun, protested, but Sherman curtly replied, War is cruelty and you cannot refine it. The general provided transportation south of the city, where the refugees would be let loose near the defeated army of Confederate General John Bell Hood. Between September 11 and 16 some 446 families, about 1,600 people, left their homes and possessions. One young Atlanta woman, Mary Gay, lamented bitterly that her fellow citizens were dumped out upon the cold ground without shelter and without any of the comforts of home. They had only the cold charity of the world. Shermans order surely didnt win him any fans among the Southerners, but he was only starting to build his infamous reputation with the Confederates. In November, he embarked on his march to the sea, during which his army destroyed nearly everything that lay in its path. 3 - 1950 - Cold War - Slightly more than two months after the United Nations approved a U.S. resolution calling for the use of force to repel the communist North Korean invasion of South Korea, the Security Council rejects a Soviet resolution that would condemn the American bombing of North Korea. The Security Council action was another victory for the United States in securing U.N. support for the war in Korea. In June 1950, armed forces from communist North Korea attacked South Korea. Days after the invasion, the United States secured approval in the U.N.s Security Council for a resolution calling for the use of force to repel the communists. The Soviet Union could have vetoed the resolution, but its representatives were boycotting the Security Council because of the U.N. decision not to seat the communist government of the Peoples Republic of China. Just a few days after the Security Council resolution was passed, President Harry S. Truman ordered U.S. military forces into South Korea. The introduction of the U.S. forces turned the tide of the war, and by September 1950, the North Korean forces were in retreat and U.S. planes were bombing military targets inside North Korea. On September 7, the Soviet representative on the Security Council proposed a resolution condemning the United States for its barbarous bombing of North Korea. Referring to U.S. policies in Korea as Hitlerian, the Russian representative called the bombings inhuman. The U.S. representative responded by charging the North Koreans with numerous war crimes, including murdering prisoners of war. He also denied that the bombings were inhuman, insisting that the United States was using every effort to warn North Korean civilians to stay away from the military targets being hit. He concluded by stating, The moral is plain: Those who sow the wind will reap the whirlwind. Moral guilt rests heavily upon the aggressors. By a vote of 9 to 1, the Security Council defeated the Soviet resolution, with only the Russian representative voting to support it. The Security Council defeat of the Russian resolution was another victory for the United States in securing U.N. support for the war effort in Korea. This war marked the first time the United Nations had ever approved the use of force, and U.S. officials were determined to maintain U.N. support for what was, in effect, a U.S. military effort. America supplied the vast majority of the ground, air, and sea forces that responded to the Security Councils resolution calling for the use of force in Korea. The Soviets, sensing the grave consequences of their absence from the vote on that resolution, now desperately tried to attack U.S. actions in Korea. As they discovered with the crushing defeat of their resolution condemning the U.S. bombings, it was too late. 4 - 1921 - The San Antonio River floods on this day in 1921, killing 51 people and causing millions of dollars in damages. The flood was caused by some of the heaviest rainfall ever recorded in Texas. 5 - 1977 - In Washington, President Jimmy Carter and Panamanian dictator Omar Torrijos sign a treaty agreeing to transfer control of the Panama Canal from the United States to Panama at the end of the 20th century. The Panama Canal Treaty also authorized the immediate abolishment of the Canal Zone, a 10-mile-wide, 40-mile-long U.S.-controlled area that bisected the Republic of Panama. Many in Congress opposed giving up control of the Panama Canal--an enduring symbol of U.S. power and technological prowess--but Americas colonial-type administration of the strategic waterway had long irritated Panamanians and other Latin Americans. 6 - 1986 - Bishop Desmond Tutu becomes the archbishop of Cape Town, two years after winning the Nobel Peace Prize for his nonviolent opposition to apartheid in South Africa. As archbishop, he was the first black to head South Africas Anglican church. 7 - 1965 - Vietnam War - U.S. Marines and South Vietnamese forces launch Operation Pirahna on the Batangan Peninsula, 23 miles south of the Marine base at Chu Lai. This was a follow-up to Operation Starlight, which had been conducted in August. During the course of the operation, the Allied forces stormed a stronghold of the Viet Cong 1st Regiment, claiming 200 enemy dead after intense fighting. 8 - Vietnam War - U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert S. McNamara announces plans to build an electronic anti-infiltration barrier to block communist flow of arms and troops into South Vietnam from the north at the eastern end of the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ). The McNamra Line, as it became known, would employ state-of-the-art, high-tech listening devices to alert U.S. forces when North Vietnamese troops and supplies were moving south so that air and artillery strikes could be brought to bear on them. It was estimated that the cost of completing and maintaining the project would be more than $800 million per year. Construction on the barrier line, initially code named Practice Nine and later changed to Dye Marker, began almost at once. But in the end, the concept proved impractical as the North Vietnamese just shifted their infiltration routes to other areas. 9 - 1914 - World War One - Sir John French, commander in chief of the British Expeditionary Force (BEF), begins his first official dispatch from the Western Front during World War I, summarizing the events of the first several weeks of British operations. The transport of the troops from England both by sea and by rail was effected in the best order and without a check, French began. Each unit arrived at its destination in this country [France] well within the scheduled time. The decision to send British troops to fight in France had been made on August 5, 1914—the day before Britain’s formal declaration of war on Germany. Initially, the BEF deployed only 100,000 men, the largest number that the small, professionally trained army could put in the field. On August 23, some 35,000 soldiers of the BEF saw action for the first time against the Germans at the Mons Canal, in southwest Belgium near the French border. The Battle of Mons—the fourth of the so-called Battles of the Frontiers—stalled the German advance by one day, ending nonetheless in a British retreat. French subsequently took his men out of the front line, planning to let them rest behind the Seine River west of Paris. Under pressure from his French counterpart, General Joseph Joffre, as well as his own government, to rejoin the fray and offer support to the beleaguered French forces, he capitulated. As he recounts at the end of his first dispatch: On Saturday, September 5th, I met the French Commander in Chief at his request, and he informed me of his intention to take the offensive forthwith, as he considered conditions very favorable to success. The offensive began the following morning, as British and French forces halted the German advance in the decisive Battle of the Marne. 10 - 1940 - World War Two - 300 German bombers raid London, in the first of 57 consecutive nights of bombing. This bombing blitzkrieg (lightning war) would continue until May 1941. After the successful occupation of France, it was only a matter of time before the Germans turned their sights across the Channel to England. Hitler wanted a submissive, neutralized Britain so that he could concentrate on his plans for the East, namely the land invasion of the Soviet Union, without interference. Since June, English vessels in the Channel had been attacked and aerial battles had been fought over Britain, as Germany attempted to wear down the Royal Air Force in anticipation of a land invasion. But with Germany failing to cripple Britains air power, especially in the Battle of Britain, Hitler changed strategies. A land invasion was now ruled out as unrealistic; instead Hitler chose sheer terror as his weapon of choice. British intelligence had had an inkling of the coming bombardment. Evidence of the large-scale movement of German barges in the Channel and the interrogation of German spies had led them to the correct conclusion-unfortunately, it was just as the London docks were suffering the onslaught of Day One of the Blitz. By the end of the day, German planes had dropped 337 tons of bombs on London. Even though civilian populations were not the primary target that day, the poorest of London slum areas-the East End--felt the fallout literally, from direct hits of errant bombs as well as the fires that broke out and spread throughout the vicinity. Four hundred and forty-eight civilians were killed that afternoon and evening. A little past 8 p.m., British military units were alerted with the code name Cromwell, meaning the German invasion had begun. A state of emergency broke out in England; even home defense units were put to the ready. One of Hitlers key strategic blunders of the war was to consistently underestimate the will and courage of the British people. They would not run or be cowed into submission. They would fight. 11 - 1813 - The United States gets its nickname, Uncle Sam. The name is linked to Samuel Wilson, a meat packer from Troy, New York, who supplied barrels of beef to the United States Army during the War of 1812. Wilson (1766-1854) stamped the barrels with U.S. for United States, but soldiers began referring to the grub as Uncle Sams. The local newspaper picked up on the story and Uncle Sam eventually gained widespread acceptance as the nickname for the U.S. federal government. The Yonkers four day extended forecast is: Monday, partly cloudy, 10% chance of rain, 76/62; Tuesday, afternoon showers, 40% chance of rain, 73/62; Wednesday, partly cloudy, 10% chance of rain, 76/65; Thursday, scattered thunderstorms, 40% chance of rain, 79/66. In baseball last night, the Yankees defeated the Royals 6-2 but again fail to gain ground on the Orioles who beat the Rays 3-2, the Red Sox topped the Blue Jays 4-3 while in the National League the Mets lost to the Reds 2-1. The Yankees are 4 1/2 games behind for a wild card spot. Last night the storm was powerful enough to knock out power for many of us in the Putnam/Westchester area, in Mahopac we lost power at around 7 PM and it was after 1 AM when if was finally restored. I hope the rain was able to do some good, it was a while since we had a significant rain. Today is Sunday, let us give some thought to the Lord and ask his help for any illnesses you may have in your family or with friends and ask that he protect our great country from all enemies foreign and domestic. Get together with family today and enjoy a nice roast beef dinner with all the trimmings or have a nice plate of lasagne, that always tastes great. Whatever you decide for dinner, even if it is a peanut butter and jelly sandwich enjoy! As always, keep safe, (P)ray (U)ntil (S)omething (H)appens, and keep smiling!
Posted on: Sun, 07 Sep 2014 09:33:24 +0000
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