Sarah Sundin's Blog, page 324
October 30, 2015
Today in World War II History—Oct. 30, 1940 & 1945
Liberty Ship SS Jeremiah O’Brien in San Francisco, Fleet Week 2014 (Photo: Sarah Sundin)
75 Years Ago—Oct. 30, 1940: Lt. Gen. Henry H. “Hap” Arnold named as US Acting Deputy Chief of Staff for air (combat). In campaign speech in Boston, President Roosevelt promises, “Your boys are not going to be sent into any foreign wars.”
70 Years Ago—Oct. 30, 1945: Final Liberty Ship is delivered, the Albert M. Boe; 2711 produced during the war. US ends shoe rationing, effective at midnight. Movie premiere of Agatha Christie’s And Then There Were None.
October 29, 2015
Today in World War II History—Oct. 29, 1940 & 1945
First drawing of the Selective Service, 29 October 1940
(FDR Library Photo Collection)
75 Years Ago—Oct. 29, 1940: In nationally broadcast lottery, Secretary of War Henry Stimson pulls the first number for the US draft, and first 900 names are pulled, including actor James Stewart. First name pulled: Yuen Chong Chan.
70 Years Ago—Oct. 29, 1945: US Eighth War Loan Drive (Victory Loan Drive) begins. First ballpoint pen goes on sale in US, sold by Reynolds for $12.50 each.
Victory Loan Drive poster by Norman Rockwell
October 28, 2015
Today in World War II History—Oct. 28, 1940
RMS Empress of Britain arriving at Greenock with Canadian troops aboard. (HMS Hood is visible in the background.), 17 December 1939. (British government photo)
75 Years Ago—Oct. 28, 1940: Italians invade Greece from Albania. Off Ireland, U-32 sinks British troopship Empress of Britain, the largest U-boat victim of the war at 42,000 tons (45/623 killed).
October 27, 2015
Today in World War II History—Oct. 27, 1940 & 1945
Battleship USS Texas decked out for Navy Day, 27 October 1940 (US National Archives)
75 Years Ago—Oct. 27, 1940: Italy demands Greece allow Italian occupation or go to war; Greece rejects ultimatum.
70 Years Ago—Oct. 27, 1945: Navy Day: US Navy displays ships in American ports, President Truman reviews fleet aboard USS Missouri in Hudson River, and Midway-class carrier USS Franklin D. Roosevelt is commissioned, New York Navy Yard, NY. New song in Top Ten: “It’s Been a Long, Long Time.”
Pres. Harry Truman aboard USS Renshaw during Navy Day Fleet Review, New York City, 27 Oct 1945; note USS Missouri’s superstructure in background and US Navy aircraft in formation above. (US Navy photo).
October 26, 2015
Today in World War II History—Oct. 26, 1940
“Potato Pete” poster, British, WWII (Imperial War Museum)
75 Years Ago—Oct. 26, 1940: British Ministry of Food subsidizes fish & chips shops to encourage potato consumption. Registration for US draft held in Territory of Hawaii. Maiden flight of prototype North American P-51 Mustang (NA-73) in Inglewood, CA.
October 25, 2015
Today in World War II History—Oct. 25, 1940 & 1945
Brig. Gen. Benjamin O. Davis Sr. in France. August 8, 1944 (US Army photo)
75 Years Ago—Oct. 25, 1940: While bombing Chungking, China, Japanese bombs accidentally almost hit US embassy and US gunboat Tutuila, causing an international incident. Benjamin O. Davis Sr. becomes the first black general in the US Army (father of Benjamin Davis Jr., who would lead the Tuskegee Airmen and in 1954 would become the USAF’s first black general).
70 Years Ago—Oct. 25, 1945: Japanese forces on Formosa (Taiwan) surrender to Chiang Kai-shek at Taipei City.
Victory celebration at Taipei City Hall, Taipei, Taiwan (Formosa), 25 Oct 1945 (Photo: Republic of China Ministry of the National Defense)
October 24, 2015
Today in World War II History—Oct. 24, 1940 & 1945
75 Years Ago—Oct. 24, 1940: RAF night raids on Berlin and Hamburg inflict serious civilian casualties for the first time. British Summer Time is extended year-round.
70 Years Ago—Oct. 24, 1945: United Nations officially comes into existence. Norwegian Nazi collaborator Vidkun Quisling is executed.
October 23, 2015
Today in World War II History—Oct. 23, 1940 & 1945
Adolf Hitler and Francisco Franco, Hendaye train station, France, 23 Oct 1940
75 Years Ago—Oct. 23, 1940: German children 10-18 required to join Hitler Youth or Nazi League of German girls. Hitler meets with Franco at Hendaye, France, but fails to convince him to lead Spain into the war.
70 Years Ago—Oct. 23, 1945: Jackie Robinson is signed by the Brooklyn Dodgers to play for farm club Montreal Royals; Robinson will play for Dodgers starting in 1947, breaking Major League Baseball color barrier.
October 22, 2015
Today in World War II History—Oct. 22, 1940 & 1945
This Is the Army movie premiere at Warner’s Earle Theater in Washington, D.C., on August 12, 1943. (US National Archives)
75 Years Ago—Oct. 22, 1940: Germans force 29,000 Jews from the Saar, Baden, and Alsace-Lorraine to camps in southern France.
70 Years Ago—Oct. 22, 1945: In Hawaii, final performance of Irving Berlin’s This Is the Army; Berlin donated all proceeds to the Army Emergency Relief Fund.
October 21, 2015
Book Beat – A Flying Affair
In 1927, Mittie Humphreys is busy with her family’s famous Morning Glory Farms in Kentucky, where the finest horses are raised. When Charles Lindbergh is scheduled to visit Louisville, Mittie is expected to be a proper society girl and help arrange teas and balls. However, the visit only awakens Mittie’s longing to fly. British aviator Bobby York agrees to give her flying lessons, but when dashing barnstormer Ames Dewberry comes to town, he steals her heart. With Bobby’s patient steadiness, he teaches her to fly well enough to enter an air race – one of the Flying Flappers, the daring female pilots. However, things start to go wrong at the farm, in the race, and with the two men who vie for her love.
What a fun read! Mittie is a daring, avant-garde heroine, full of vim and vigor. Bobby and Ames are perfect romantic foils, each compelling in different ways. In A Flying Affair, Carla Stewart has captured the excitement and danger of early aviation, plus all the roar of the Roaring Twenties. The research forms a solid foundation, but the characters take the story! I loved this book and highly recommend it.
