[Featured image: SSgt. Barry Sadler, Special Forces medic-turned signer/songwriter]
1770: A contingent of armed British soldiers fire into a crowd of protesting colonists in what will become known as the Boston Massacre. Five colonists are killed. The soldiers, charged with murder, will contend the protestors were threatening them with rocks and clubs. The killings will spark public outrage, demands for the death penalty for the soldiers responsible, and draw America even closer toward revolution.
1946: During a speech near St. Louis, Mo., former British prime minister Winston Churchill declares that an “iron curtain” has fallen across Europe. Behind it lie capitals now under the control or influence of the Kremlin. His message comes to a surprise to many Americans, who still considered the Soviet Union an ally after World War II. But with border fences and checkpoints going up from the Baltic to the Adriatic, the West comes to the realization that they are in a cold war with Moscow.
Churchill (left) with Gen. Dwight Eisenhower and British general, Bernard Montgomery at a NATO meeting in 1951.
1953: While it is not clear whether brought on by natural causes or an assassination attempt, a cerebral hemorrhage claims the life of Soviet premier Joseph Stalin. Even without counting the 10-20 million Soviet military and civilian fatalities during World War II, more people died as a result of Stalin’s rule than perhaps any ruler in human history. Tens of millions are said to have perished from his manufactured famines, political and military purges, massacres, assassinations, and the brutal Gulags.
1966: The “Ballad of the Green Berets,” composed by U.S. Army Special Forces Staff Sergeant Barry Sadler and author Robin Moore (who served as a nose gunner with the Army Air Forces during World War II), hits the number-one spot on the Billboard Chart where it will remain for five weeks. Prior to joining the Green Berets and serving in Vietnam, Sadler began his military career in the Air Force.
1991: Iraq hands 15 American prisoners of war – including two female soldiers – over to the Red Cross. Captured during Operation DESERT STORM, the U.S. service members endured brutal treatment and some were paraded on television. Nine had been listed as “Missing In Action” before their release.
