[Featured image: Pvt. George H. “Babe” Ruth salutes Gen. John J. Pershing. (Library of Congress photo)]
1930: A former private in the N.Y. National Guard’s 104th Field Artillery Division, George Herman “Babe” Ruth, signs a two-year, $160,000 contract with the New York Yankees, becoming the highest paid player in baseball. Yankee general manager Ed Barrow predicts that “no one will ever be paid more than Ruth.”
1941: Philadelphia Phillies pitcher Hugh Mulcahy becomes the first major league baseball player drafted into the military for what becomes World War II. He joins the 101st Field Artillery Battalion and is quickly discharged when the military cuts loose draftees over the age of 28 on Dec. 5. Two days later, the Japanese attack Pearl Harbor and Mulcahy – and thousands of other ballplayers – will trade their cleats for combat boots.
1943: A single PBY “Catalina” from Patrol Squadron 53 (VP-53) spots a surfaced German U-boat in the Caribbean. The sub’s crew are too busy sunbathing to notice Lt. J.E. Dryden’s plane bearing down on them, and his depth charges sink U-156.
A PBY-5A on Patrol over the Aleutian Islands in 1943. (U.S. Navy photo)
1944: Allen Dulles, the Swiss Director for the Office of Strategic Services (the predecessor to today’s CIA), begins secret negotiations with generals Heinrich von Veitinghoff of the Wehrmacht and Karl Wolff of the SS – hoping to secure the early surrender of German forces in Italy.
1965: The lead elements of 3rd Battalion, 9th Marines begin coming ashore at Da Nang, South Vietnam. Within hours, 1st Battalion, 3rd Marines will arrive aboard transport aircraft at the nearby airbase. The Marines of 3/9 and 1/3 – both part of the 9th Marine Expeditionary Brigade – are the first American ground-combat forces destined for offensive operations against the enemy in Southeast Asia.
Marines wade ashore at Da Nang. (USMC photo)
1983: In a speech to the National Association of Evangelicals, President – and former cavalry officer – Ronald Reagan labels the Soviet Union an “evil empire.”
1991: Just days after Saddam Hussein surrenders, the first planes carrying U.S. troops from the Persian Gulf begin arriving home.
