The List 7380
To All
Good Tuesday Morning December 9, 2025 .
It is going to be clear all day again. The temps are supposed to hit 82 around 1. The next week will be clear for the most part. The temps will climb to 82 again on Wednesday and then temps in the mid and high 70s until Sunday when it drops to 67.
.Regards
skip
.HAGD
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This day in Naval and Marine Corps History (thanks to NHHC)
Here is a link to the NHHC website: https://www.history.navy.mil/. Go here to see the director's corner for all 94 H-Grams.
December 9
1864 While operating on the Roanoke River at Rainbow Bluff, N.C., the side-wheel gunboat Otsego strikes two Confederate mines. The steam tugboat Bazely rushes to help Otsego, but she also hits a mine. Both vessels eventually sink. During this operation, the side-wheel gunboat Wyalusing provides fire cover while boats dragged for mines.
1938 A prototype shipboard radar, XAF, designed and built by the Naval Research Laboratory, is installed on USS New York (BB-34). Installation on U.S. Navy vessels begins in 1940 and proves fruitful in detecting the enemy in World War II.
1941 USS Swordfish (SS 193) makes initial U.S. submarine attack on Japanese ship, torpedoing a ship 150 miles west of Manila. Her claim of sinking, though, is not confirmed in enemy records.
1944 USS Charles F. Hughes (DD 428) and USS Madison (DD 425) bombard German coast artillery positions and troop concentrations along the Franco-Italian border.
2017 The Navy launches its latest branding campaign aimed at attracting a new generation of recruits during live national coverage of the Army-Navy football game. The launch also marks the debut of the Navy's new tagline, "Forged by the Sea."
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This Day in World History
December 9
0536 Having captured Naples earlier in the year, Belisarius takes Rome.
1861 The U.S. Senate approves establishment of a committee that would become the Joint Committee on the Conduct of War.
1863 Major General John G. Foster replaces Maj. Gen. Ambrose E. Burnside as Commander of the Department of Ohio.
1867 The capital of Colorado Territory is moved from Golden to Denver.
1872 P.B.S. Pinchback becomes the first African-American governor of Louisiana.
1900 The Russian czar rejects Boer Paul Kruger's pleas for aid in South Africa against the British.
1908 A child labor bill passes in the German Reichstag, forbidding work for children under age 13.
1917 The new Finnish Republic demands the withdrawal of Russian troops.
1940 The British army seizes 1,000 Italians in a sudden thrust in Egypt.
1941 Franklin D. Roosevelt tells Americans to plan for a long war.
1948 The United States abandons a plan to de-concentrate industry in Japan.
1949 The United Nations takes trusteeship over Jerusalem.
1950 Harry Gold gets 30 years imprisonment for passing atomic bomb secrets to the Soviet Union during World War II.
1950 President Harry Truman bans U.S. exports to Communist China.
1955 Sugar Ray Robinson knocks out Carl Olson to regain the world middleweight boxing title.
1960 The Laos government flees to Cambodia as the capital city of Vientiane is engulfed in war.
1990 Lech Walesa is elected president of Poland.
1992 U.S. Marines land in Somalia to ensure food and medicine reaches the deprived areas of that country see more below
2008 Governor of Illinois Rod Blagojevich is arrested on federal charges, including an attempt to sell the US Senate seat being vacated by President-elect Barack Obama.
Most of you know it as Black Hawk Down
On December 9, 1992, 1,800 United States Marines arrive in Mogadishu, Somalia, to spearhead a multinational force aimed at restoring order in the conflict-ridden country.
Following centuries of colonial rule by countries including Portugal, Britain and Italy, Mogadishu became the capital of an independent Somalia in 1960. Less than 10 years later, a military group led by Major General Muhammad Siad Barre seized power and declared Somalia a socialist state. A drought in the mid-1970s combined with an unsuccessful rebellion by ethnic Somalis in a neighboring province of Ethiopia to deprive many of food and shelter. By 1981, close to 2 million of the country's inhabitants were homeless. Though a peace accord was signed with Ethiopia in 1988, fighting increased between rival clans within Somalia, and in January 1991 Barre was forced to flee the capital. Over the next 23 months, Somalia's civil war killed some 50,000 people; another 300,000 died of starvation as United Nations peacekeeping forces struggled in vain to restore order and provide relief amid the chaos of war.
In early December 1992, outgoing U.S. President George H.W. Bush sent the contingent of Marines to Mogadishu as part of a mission dubbed Operation Restore Hope. Backed by the U.S. troops, international aid workers were soon able to restore food distribution and other humanitarian aid operations. Sporadic violence continued, including the murder of 24 U.N. soldiers from Pakistan in 1993. As a result, the U.N. authorized the arrest of General Mohammed Farah Aidid, leader of one of the rebel clans. On October 3, 1993, during an attempt to make the arrest, rebels shot down two of the U.S. Army's Black Hawk helicopters and killed 18 American soldiers.
As horrified TV viewers watched images of the bloodshed—including footage of Aidid's supporters dragging the body of one dead soldier through the streets of Mogadishu, cheering—President Bill Clinton immediately gave the order for all American soldiers to withdraw from Somalia by March 31, 1994. Other Western nations followed suit. When the last U.N. peacekeepers left in 1995, ending a mission that had cost more than $2 billion, Mogadishu still lacked a functioning government. A ceasefire accord signed in Kenya in 2002 failed to put a stop to the violence, though a new parliament was convened in 2004
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This one is well worth repeating as it is a sign of what is happening to our history…SKIP
Thanks to Carl
https://spectator.org/the-rising-sun-at-treetop-height/
The Rising Sun at Treetop Height
Sunday morning, December 7, 1941.
by NIC ROWAN
On December 7, 1941, my grandmother's father, like so many other Navy men stationed at Pearl Harbor, assumed all the gunfire down at the base was a drill.
It was a Sunday, and he was sleeping in on a day off from his duties as an officer aboard the USS Nevada. His daughter told him around 7:30 a.m. that the family had not received their newspaper. She asked if she could borrow the one next door to read the funny pages.
Worried that she might actually steal a neighbor's newspaper, he rolled out of bed to keep an eye on her. He went to the kitchen and started making coffee. His wife tried calling the newspaper printing plant to see why the family's copy had not been delivered. She called again and again, but could not get through.
When she finally did, she was interrupted by a loud burst of gunfire outside. The family cursed the Army for running a surprise military exercise on a Sunday morning. But soon, my grandmother and her parents realized this one was different. The armed forces often ran drills, but these explosions were too loud, too intense.
My great-grandfather called up his brother, another naval officer, who lived in a house overlooking the base, to see just what the hell was going on.
His brother glanced out his window and said that it looked like a mock battle between the battleships and army airmen, until — my god — a shell whistled over his house and exploded in midair outside. He had to hang up. Something was wrong at Pearl.
My grandmother, her family, and many of their neighbors went outside to survey the sky. It still seemed like a drill, but there were too many planes. And the explosions were too close to civilian structures. "Those damned fools," my grandmother's father thought as he stared upward.
He checked his radio for news and got some Army jargon: "Attention please! Attention please! It has just been announced that Oahu is under enemy attack. There is no need to be alarmed. All persons please stay off the streets and do not use the telephone. All police officers and firemen report to your stations at once."
Soon the reports became more specific, identifying the enemy as Japanese and instructing all Army and Navy personnel to report to their stations. So my grandmother's father threw on a Hawaiian shirt, said goodbye to his family, and ran out to his car.
"I wasn't very sure when I would see them again," he later wrote in his diary.
His fear was justified: as he drove toward drove toward the base with several other officers in uniform, gunfire lit up the road behind them. He swerved into a ditch to avoid being strafed. Overhead, a Japanese Zero screamed by him and the other passengers.
"With a roar, we saw the Rising Sun go past — just to the left of the road, at about treetop height," he later wrote. "He was so close, we could see the expression on the pilot's face. One look convinced me."
Pearl Harbor was under attack.
As he reached the base itself, he witnessed the dire state of affairs: billowing black clouds from oil fires shielded almost the entire harbor from view. Officers were running all over the place, trying their best to defend the base.
My grandmother's father was nearly paralyzed with anger:
"There will probably never be another moment like that in my life. The sight I beheld so stunned me that I was unable to move, unable to talk, even unable to think. I could only stare in first amazement, then disbelief, and finally in rage. The tears coursed down my face as uncontrolled as rain. There before me lay the backbone of the greatest navy in the world — broken, twisted wrecks in a blazing sea of oil."
His ship, the Nevada, had been torpedoed, and its crew had been forced to beach it on a coral ledge. With no post to defend, my grandmother's father found a company of Marines manning anti-aircraft guns. They stationed him behind a turret, and until 11:30 a.m. — around when the attack started to subside — he scanned the sky for enemy planes.
When the attack ended, someone brought him a uniform so he wouldn't have to walk around the base looking like he had just wandered off of the golf course. He stayed at the base the rest of the day, cleaning up and helping the wounded.
All of this happened over 75 years ago, and I only know these eyewitness details because my grandmother recently transcribed her father's diary. She remembers the day, of course, but only as a child would. When I asked her about it recently, she joked that she no longer knows if her recollections are her own or just constructed memories of so many other stories about Pearl Harbor.
Hers is the last generation that has any memory of the day that President Franklin Delano Roosevelt predicted "will live in infamy." He was right — but only for a time.
That time is drawing to a close, and may even be already over. Pearl Harbor is not quite a textbook anecdote yet, like Benedict Arnold's betrayal or even Abraham Lincoln's assassination. But wait another generation, and December 7 — and all of World War II, for that matter — won't command the same gravity it has held for nearly a century.
It always happens this way. Despite the cries to remember the Alamo, to remember the Maine, and, yes, even to never forget the attacks of September 11, 2001, the immediacy of tragedy always passes. Fact becomes myth, myth legend, and legend eventually falls into obscurity.
I hope stories like the ones told by my grandmother and her father prevent Pearl Harbor from slipping away.
Me also BUT WITH EVERY YEAR IT GETS WORSE skip
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Thanks to Interesting Facts
8 Fun Facts About Language That Will Blow Your Mind
Credit: Brett Jordan
Language enriches the world. Different languages and their diversity not only offer us the possibility to communicate but also to have fun . Whether you're a language enthusiast or just curious about the delicacies of communication, prepare for an unexpected adventure into the world of languages.
From the intriguing origins of peculiar words to the fascinating singularities of grammatical structures, here you have some linguistic fun facts to surprise your friends the next time you see them, with a mysterious treat left for the very end.
1
Quick as a fox!
Credit: Chris Liverani
There are no speeding fines in Japan. Well, there are if you're driving, but when it comes to speaking, Japanese people break all speed records .
You've probably had the opportunity to hear someone speak Japanese. Did it sound too fast? You'll be glad to know that it is not just your perception.
In fact –buckle up!– Japanese is the fastest language in the world , and its speakers can produce 7.84 syllables per second. Its accelerated rhythm is due to the compactness of its words and its unique syllabic structure.
2
Pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis
Credit: Ekaterina Grosheva
No, there are no mistakes in the title. You read it right; those astonishing 45 characters make up the longest word in the English language , according to the Oxford English Dictionary. Can you pronounce the whole thing? You'd better get a good breath of fresh air before you try.
If you want to know what it means, this may give you a clue: "pneumo-" refers to the lungs, and the suffix "-osis" indicates a condition, state, or disease. This incredible word refers to a type of lung disorder caused by inhaling silica dust, usually used in the manufacture of glass, pottery, ceramics, bricks, and artificial stone.
3
Official in many countries, but not here
Credit: Ferdinand Stöhr
The United States is a diverse and multicultural nation. English and Spanish are the first and second most spoken languages, but they are only two among many .
Although English is the official language of a few different countries around the world, such as Australia, Canada, and Botswana; it is not the official language of the United States. In fact, the country has no declared official language .
Despite this fact, some states –like Oklahoma , South Carolina , Utah , and many others– have declared English the official state language .
4
The longest alphabet
Credit: Paul Szewczyk
The English alphabet has 26 letters. While that may seem like a lot, it doesn't compare to the number of letters in the alphabet you'll see below.
With 74 letters (33 consonants and 41 vowels), Khmer is the longest alphabet in the world . Even the Guinness World Records recognizes this alphabet for its length!
Also known as Cambodian, Khmer is the official language of Cambodia , spoken by some 15 million native speakers. What makes it even more complex is the fact that words in the same sentence are usually written without spaces between them.
5
Sign languages
Credit: Cottonbro studio
Sign languages are important tools for communication and inclusion, so it is always good to learn how to use them. According to the United Nations , there are about 300 different sign languages worldwide. Approximately 70 million people use sign languages every day around the world.
Different parts of the world have different sign languages with their distinctive structure and characteristics. There is also an international sign language to facilitate global communication.
The UN General Assembly designated 23 September as the International Day of Sign Languages to promote awareness of its value.
6
Hawaiian creativity
Credit: Nikolay Zakharov
Unless It's Raining Men , as in the famous song by the Weather Girls, rain is usually the same, right? Well, it seems it's not always like that, at least not in Hawaii.
The Hawaiian language has about 200 words for rain . This impressive number can be attributed to Hawaiians' deep connection to nature, which also demonstrates the intricate relationship between a language and its environment.
Each of those 200 words defines rain by different characteristics , including its intensity or duration.
7
The most common letter
According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the most used letter in English is E . Which means that many words in our language have it. Do you dare to count how many times E shows up in this article?
Its frequency in our language probably explains why it is worth only 1 point in Scrabble. On the other hand, the least common letters in English, J, X, Q , and Z , are worth 8 and 10 points.
The frequency of the letter E is not a coincidence , it is explained by the fact that it appears in a very used word: the . We also find it in pronouns such as he, she, me, we, and they , and in plurals ending in -es .
8
One of the most intriguing languages in the world is one of the oldest living European languages , too. Euskera , also known as the Basque language , has a long history, and its origins have not yet been established with certainty.
Basque remains a cultural symbol for native speakers and continues to thrive. Although there have been many hypotheses about its origin, specialists stated that Euskera is not an Indo-European language. That is to say that, apparently, it doesn't share roots with any other European language.
Euskera's unknown bases have led to the craziest theories. Some ancient linguists have even attributed its existence to extraterrestrial beings!
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Thanks to the Bear. We will always have the url for you to search items in Rolling Thunder
OPERATION ROLLING THUNDER …
. rollingthunderremembered.com .
Thanks to Micro
From Vietnam Air Losses site for ..December 9
9-Dec: https://www.vietnamairlosses.com/loss.php?id=3064
MOAA - Wall of Faces Now Includes Photos of All Service members Killed in the Vietnam War
The site works, find anyone you knew in "search" feature.
https://www.vvmf.org/Wall-of-Faces/ )
By: Kipp Hanley
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Thanks to Robert and others
World War 11 (Eleven)
YOUNG PEOPLE CANNOT LEARN FROM HISTORY ANY MORE BECAUSE HISTORY IS NO LONGER TAUGHT AS A REQUIRED SUBJECT IN PUBLIC HIGH SCHOOLS.
Theodore " Dutch " J. Van Kirk was the navigator on the "Enola
Gay" when it dropped the bomb at Hiroshima, Japan, and is the last surviving member of the crew. This really happened.
Dutch was asked to speak at a grammar school recently. The young teacher introduced him by saying the speaker was a veteran of World War Eleven
(as in WWII). Dutch stood up and walked out of the school without saying a word. End of story.
GOD HELP US
As a note I asked my oldest granddaughter the other morning 7 December what the significance of December 7 was and she answered that it was the day Pearl Harbor was attacked. I guess if you are a Senior in High School and a straight A student with all advanced AP classes that is what you get. Proud Grandpa Skip
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From the archives
Many of you went to the survival school in the Philippines. The negritos were good at their jobs of showing us how to survive. I still have my big knife made from a jeep leaf spring with 1968 engraved on it. My blow gun disappeared many years ago….skip
Thanks to Shadow
Good , "I was there story"
Shadow
Subject: FW: Colonel Larry McDonald, USMC (Ret)
Shadow, I suspect you knew this Colonel. The email below was sent to me by a good friend here in Fernandina Beach.
Jess
From: Andy Mehalko
Subject: Colonel Larry McDonald, USMC (Ret)
My golf buddy in Melbourne, FL recently passed away & I was thinking about him last night.
Larry had to be at least 6'4" and 250 pounds (no fat) & was a Marine combat pilot. How he ever fit into a cockpit I'll never know.
Before he shipped out for Vietnam, he had to undergo a Marine jungle survival training course. The last exercise was a drop into the Philippine jungle with a Ka-Bar knife, 2 canteens of water, a couple of C-rats boxes & a flare.
If you'd E & E (escape & evade) for 2 days & nights you got an R&R in Bangkok. If the Pilipino villager "captured" you, he got a 50-pound bag of rice for his village, and you went straight to Nam.
The chopper let him down thru the jungle canopy and he decided that rather than ditty dop thru the bush & get caught, he'd go a few klicks from his drop zone & find a place to settle down. He found a dense bamboo grove and after driving out the 2 bamboo vipers who had taken up residency there, settled in for the night.
The next morning, he was dying for a cigarette, so he took one out of a C-rats box. When he went to light it, a little brown arm came out of the bamboo next to him and lit his cigarette with a Zippo lighter with a Marine Corps logo on it. The villager told him to set off his flare, the chopper came in, off loaded the rice bag & took Larry onboard.
He said, "That little sumbitch had spent the whole night sleeping next to me and I never knew it!"
Larry was quite a guy, good golf stick and a hell of a Marine. Rest in peace, Colonel.
Andy
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Thanks to 1440
Paramount's Power Play
Paramount Skydance yesterday presented Warner Bros. Discovery shareholders with a $108.4B offer for the entire company, including its production studios, HBO Max streaming platform, and cable networks such as CNN.
The hostile takeover bypasses Warner's board, which decided last week to sell Warner's studio and streaming arms to Netflix for $82.7B while spinning the cable networks into a new publicly traded company. Paramount, whose bid offers shareholders $2.25 more per share, accuses Warner's board of unfairly favoring Netflix in a weekslong bidding process. Netflix counters that the value of the new standalone cable company will exceed the difference between the offers. Paramount has also raised antitrust concerns regarding Netflix's streaming industry market share.
Paramount's bid has financial backing from an investment firm run by President Donald Trump's son-in-law, Jared Kushner; Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and Abu Dhabi's sovereign wealth firms; and Larry Ellison, the cofounder of Oracle and father of Paramount's CEO.
Farmers Aid Package
The US unveiled a $12B package yesterday to support farmers affected by trade disruptions, particularly losses from reduced exports to China, which was the third-largest market for US agricultural products in 2024 at nearly $25B annually.
Roughly $11B is earmarked for a new USDA assistance program that will offer one-time payments to farmers who grow row crops (such as corn, soybeans, and sorghum), while $1B will be reserved for specialty-crop growers. The funding will be distributed by the end of February and is expected to come from tariff revenue. As of October, the US had collected roughly $195B in customs duties in fiscal year 2025—more than 250% of what it collected in fiscal year 2024.
Soybean and sorghum exports were hit hardest, as China, which historically bought more than half of US exports, paused purchases amid tariff disputes. Chinese purchases have lagged despite trade truce promises, leaving farmers with lower crop prices and rising input costs.
Separately, China's trade surplus has reached $1T for the first time.
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Thanks to Brett
The Trump administration has now located and rescued more than 62,000 children who were smuggled illegally into the United States — a staggering number that exposes the scale of child trafficking operations enabled by the Biden-era border collapse.
White House border czar Tom Homan, speaking on Fox & Friends on Dec. 7, revealed that federal teams have been racing to track down children who disappeared into the country over the past several years. Many, he said, were handed over to "unvetted sponsors" under the previous administration — a policy catastrophic in both scope and consequence.
Homan did not mince words:
"The previous administration lost track of 300,000 children."
"Many of them are in sex trafficking… are in forced labor… are being abused."
Since President Donald Trump returned to office in January, federal agencies have located 62,000 of those missing children, with many being pulled from horrific exploitation networks.
Homan said he could not publicly describe some of the abuse investigators uncovered — calling it "unimaginable" — but stressed that Trump has ordered an all-out mission to find every last one of the missing minors.
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Another from Brett
Daily Memo: Thai-Cambodian Clashes, Coup Attempt in Benin
Cracks in the U.S.-brokered ceasefire are growing.
By: Geopolitical Futures
Renewed fighting. Thailand and Cambodia have accused each other of violating a U.S.-brokered ceasefire following new clashes over the weekend. According to Thai officials, at least one Thai soldier was killed and eight others wounded in renewed fighting along the disputed border. Thailand said it launched airstrikes against Cambodia, accusing it of mobilizing heavy weapons and repositioning combat units. Cambodia, meanwhile, said Thailand opened fire across the border using F-16 fighter jets but insisted it did not fire back.
Another attempted overthrow. Benin President Patrice Talon said the country's army thwarted an attempted coup over the weekend after a group of soldiers announced on state TV the dissolution of the government. Talon also reassured the public that the situation was now under control. Pro-Russia social media accounts celebrated the news of the attempted coup, while the Economic Community of West African States condemned it and neighboring Nigeria deployed fighter jets to support its ally.
China and Russia. The Chinese and Russian militaries conducted their third joint missile defense exercise on Russian territory in early December. According to a statement from China's Ministry of Defense, the drills were not directed at third countries and have "nothing to do with the current international and regional situation."
EU loyalty. Citizens from France and Poland showed the strongest support for leaving the European Union in a new survey commissioned by French magazine Le Grand Continent. Some 27 percent of respondents from France said they were in favor of withdrawing from the bloc, while 25 percent in Poland said the same. Overall, the poll, which included respondents from Germany, France, Poland, Spain, Portugal, Belgium, the Netherlands and Croatia, found that 19 percent of EU citizens wanted their countries to leave the bloc, while 74 percent were in favor of staying.
U.S.-India negotiations. U.S. Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs Allison Hooker is in India this week for talks with Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri. Their meetings are expected to focus on trade as the two countries work to finalize a bilateral trade agreement. Deputy U.S. Trade Representative Rick Switzer will also be in India this week for talks on the first phase of the deal.
Nuclear power strategy. Turkish defense firm Baykar is developing a small modular reactor capable of powering more than 100,000 homes, Turkish Energy and Natural Resources Minister Alparslan Bayraktar said. The move comes amid Turkey's plans to significantly expand its nuclear capacity in the coming years, using three nuclear power plants currently under construction as well as new SMRs. The project by Baykar, best known for producing drones, will provide the technology for the SMR portion of the strategy – which could cover 10 percent of the country's electricity demand.
Touring Gaza. The Israeli army's chief of staff, Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir, toured the Gaza Strip on Sunday, assessing the situation on the ground with several Israeli commanders. He said efforts to eliminate threats on all fronts continue, despite the ceasefire with Hamas.
Ceasefire update. Hamas has fulfilled its obligations under the first phase of the Gaza ceasefire agreement, a Hamas spokesperson said. The official added that the group would not object to the deployment of international forces in Gaza under two conditions: support for Palestinian militants in the fight against Israeli attacks and a guarantee of stability in the strip.
Differing views. Turkey and Qatar are reportedly pushing to begin the second phase of the Gaza peace plan without the complete disarmament of Hamas. In fact, the two countries are pushing to allow Hamas to remain in Gaza and in possession of some weaponry to avoid the complete elimination of its influence there. They are proposing a two-year period for the group's disarmament, while Israel insists on only a few months.
Japanese contraction. Japan's economy contracted at an annualized pace of 2.3 percent in the third quarter, a bigger drop than the initially reported 1.8 percent decline. The disappointing result was driven by weak exports and uncertainty over U.S. tariff policy. Exports declined 1.2 percent and imports fell 0.4 percent, while private consumption increased slightly at 0.2 percent.
Tech collaboration. Russia and Iran signed a cooperation agreement on AI and cybersecurity during a meeting of their communications and information technology working group. Leading technology companies from both countries also signed more than 20 documents on AI, cybersecurity, smart government, blockchain and fintech, and other areas aimed at developing cooperation in the information and communications technology sector.
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This Day in U S Military History December 9
1775 – American troops win their first land victory of the War for Independence at the Battle of Great Bridge, the British leave Virginia soon afterward. The Battle of Great Bridge was fought in the area of Great Bridge, Virginia. The victory by Continental Army and militia forces led to the departure of Governor Lord Dunmore and any remaining vestiges of British power from the Colony of Virginia during the early days of the conflict. Following increasing political and military tensions in early 1775, both Dunmore and rebellious Whig leaders recruited troops and engaged in a struggle for available military supplies. The struggle eventually focused on Norfolk, where Dunmore had taken refuge aboard a Royal Navy vessel. Dunmore's forces had fortified one side of a critical river crossing south of Norfolk at Great Bridge, while Whig forces had occupied the other side. In an attempt to break up the Whig gathering, Dunmore ordered an attack across the bridge, which, based on bad information on the Whig positions, was decisively repulsed. Shortly thereafter, Norfolk, at the time a Tory center, was abandoned by Dunmore and the Tories, who fled to navy ships in the harbor.
1793 – Noah Webster established NY's 1st daily newspaper, American Minerva.
941 – USS Swordfish (SS-193) makes initial U.S. submarine attack on Japanese ship.
1941 – The Automobile Racing Drivers Club of America (ARDCA) closed its doors due to World War II, which created shortages of fuel, tires, and other automotive necessities–including men to drive the cars. After the war, the ARDCA never got started again.
1942 – On Guadalcanal, General Patch's 14th Corps relieves the exhausted Marines. The Marines leave for Australia
1950 – Harry Gold–who had confessed to serving as a courier between Klaus Fuchs, a British scientist who stole top-secret information on the atomic bomb, and Soviet agents–is sentenced to 30 years in jail for his crime. Gold's arrest and confession led to the arrest of David Greenglass, who then implicated his brother-in-law and sister, Julius and Ethel Rosenberg. Gold's arrest was part of a massive FBI investigation into Soviet espionage, particularly the theft of atomic secrets. Gold, a 39-year-old research chemist, made the acquaintance of British atomic scientist Klaus Fuchs during the latter's trips to the United States during World War II. Fuchs worked at the Los Alamos laboratory on the Manhattan Project, the top secret U.S. program to develop an atomic weapon. David Greenglass was also employed at Los Alamos. In February 1950, Fuchs was arrested in Great Britain and charged with passing atomic secrets on to the Soviets. He was convicted and sentenced to 14 years in a British prison. Fuchs then accused Gold of having been the go-between with Soviet agents. Gold was picked up a short time later and eventually confessed to his part. He explained that, at the time, he did not believe that he was helping an enemy, but was instead assisting a wartime ally of the United States. Further questioning of Gold led him to implicate David Greenglass. Greenglass then informed on Ethel and Julius Rosenberg, claiming that both of them actively spied for the Soviet Union during World War II and after. The Rosenbergs were later convicted and executed for espionage.
1950 – X Corps was forced to withdraw from Hungnam by sea. A curtain of intense naval gunfire greatly aided the successful evacuation of 3,834 U.N. military personnel, 1,146 vehicles, 10,013 tons of bulk cargo and 7,000 Korean civilian refugees by elements of the U.S. Navy's Task Force 90.
1952 – Three carriers of Task Force 77 launched aircraft to strike military targets at Munsan, Hyesanjin, Rashin and Hunyun, the latter being the northernmost air raid on the Korean War.
Medal of Honor Citations for Actions Taken This Day
I love the story of one of the Navy pilots who was flying out of Gualdacanal at the time who saw this tall structure with the General at the top all alone and asked if he could come up and watch from there as he did not want to stay in the tent that was on the outskirts of the base because he was told to not turn on any light or smoke and be sure to have his 45 coked and loaded in his hand and to shoot if he heard anything because the Japs would come in and take him. The General said to come on up. On that night he got to see first hand what the big guns of the Jap cruisers could do as they pounded the airfield.
The General was calm cool and collected the whole time
VANDEGRIFT, ALEXANDER ARCHER
Rank and organization: Major General, U.S. Marine Corps, commanding officer of the 1st Marine Division. Place and date: Solomon Islands, 7 August to 9 December 1942. Entered service at: Virginia. Born: 13 March 1887, Charlottesville, Va. Citation: For outstanding and heroic accomplishment above and beyond the call of duty as commanding officer of the 1st Marine Division in operations against enemy Japanese forces in the Solomon Islands during the period 7 August to 9 December 1942. With the adverse factors of weather, terrain, and disease making his task a difficult and hazardous undertaking, and with his command eventually including sea, land, and air forces of Army, Navy, and Marine Corps, Maj. Gen. Vandegrift achieved marked success in commanding the initial landings of the U.S. forces in the Solomon Islands and in their subsequent occupation. His tenacity, courage, and resourcefulness prevailed against a strong, determined, and experienced enemy, and the gallant fighting spirit of the men under his inspiring leadership enabled them to withstand aerial, land, and sea bombardment, to surmount all obstacles, and leave a disorganized and ravaged enemy. This dangerous but vital mission, accomplished at the constant risk of his life, resulted in securing a valuable base for further operations of our forces against the enemy, and its successful completion reflects great credit upon Maj. Gen. Vandegrift, his command, and the U.S. Naval Service.
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AMERICAN AEROSPACE EVENTS for December 9, FIRSTS, LASTS, AND SIGNIFICANT ACCOMPLISHMENTS. THANKS TO HAROLD "PHIL" MYERS CHIEF HISTORIAN AIR FORCE INTELLIGENCE, SURVEILLANCE, AND RECONNAISSANCE AGENCY
9 December
1945: Westinghouse Electric & the Glenn L. Martin Company made the first Stratovision flight tests at Middle River, Md. William Smith flew the plane in the stratosphere for the broadcasts. (24)
1946: Chalmers "Slick" Goodlin, a Bell test pilot, flew the X-1 in its first powered test flight to 550 MPH. (9) (24)
1948: MACKAY TROPHY. An arctic storm forced a C-47 Skytrain to land on the Greenland ice cap, stranding the crew of seven. In a rescue attempt using a B-17 and a towed glider, five more crewmembers became stranded. On 28 December, Lt Col Emil Beaudry landed his skiequipped C-47 on the ice cap to rescue all 12 men and earn the trophy for most meritorious flight of the year. (21)
1950: KOREAN WAR. A C-47 completed the first successful night drop of agents behind enemy lines in Korea. (21)
1952: Republic's XF-91 rocket augmented jet became the first combat aircraft to fly a supersonic flight at Edwards AFB, Calif. (3)
1955: The AF Ballistic Missile Division received the responsibility to develop the Thor intermediate range ballistic missile. (16)
1956: The 463d Troop Carrier Wing at Ardmore AFB, Okla., received the first operational Lockheed C-130 propjet transport, named the "City of Ardmore." (21)
1959: At Brookfield, Conn., Maj William J. Davis and Capt Walter J. Hodgson flew an H-43 Huskie helicopter to a record altitude of 21,952 feet. (24)
1964: Three airmen spent a 38 days in a simulated spaceship to test a helium mixture of atmosphere.
1972: The competitive fly-off between the A-9 and A-10 ended. (3)
1978: With the rise of political tensions and disturbances in Iran, the Military Airlift Command sent a C-5 and a C-141 to move about 900 dependents from Teheran to Europe and the US. (26)
1988: Sierra Research/de Havilland Canada delivered the first E-9A Airborne Telemetry Data Relay Aircraft to Tyndall AFB, Fla. (20)
1992: Operation RESTORE HOPE I. Through 4 May 1993, Air Mobility Command aircraft moved 51,431 passengers and 41,243 tons of cargo in more than 1,000 missions to suppport UN peacekeeping efforts in Somalia. The 28,000 deployed troops protected the food, supplies, and aid workers from armed factions in the country. Additionally, Air Force Reserve crews flew 190 sorties to deliver 1,500 tons of supplies, while refuelers completed 1,170 missions to deliver 82.4 million pounds of fuel. (16) (18)
1998: Operation PHOENIX SCORPION IV/Exercise NOBLE SHIRLEY. Iraq's threat to the Middle East led to another PHOENIX SCORPION deployment and Emergency Deployment Readiness Exercise Noble Shirley to deploy Patriot missiles to Israel. Through 21 December, C-17s airlifted the Patriots from Ramstein AB, Germany, to Nevatim AB, Israel. For this effort, USAFE assumed tactical control of the C-17s and the Air Mobility Command's Tanker Airlift Control Element at Nevatim. This event was the first time that tactical control of strategic airlift assets had passed from US Transportation Command and the Air Mobility Command to another command. (See 16 December) (22) President William J. Clinton presented an honorary fourth star to Benjamin O. Davis, Jr., the first black USAF general and the leader of the "Tuskegee Airmen" in World War II. (21)
2002: TYPHOON PONGSONA. After the typhoon devastated Guam with sustained 150 MPH winds, the Air Mobility Command began airlifting supplies and equipment to the island. In the next 10 days, 58 C-5 missions delivered 1,200 tons of humanitarian relief cargo to Andersen AFB. (21)
2003: DISTINGUISHED FLYING CROSS. TSgt Eric M. Olson, a loadmaster from the 313th Airlift Squadron, helped his aircrew safely land a C-17 hit by enemy fire while leaving Baghdad International Airport. Olson executed his emergency checklists, tended to a wounded passenger, and calmly readied the other passengers for an emergency landing. For his actions, he received the Distinguished Flying Cross on 11 January 2005. (22)
2004: The X-45A Joint Unmanned Combat Aerial System completed its first beyond-line-of-sight test. In the 46-minute sortie, a Dryden Flight Research Center operator at Edwards AFB, Calif., passed the X-45's control to a mission control operator at Boeing's Seattle facility, who changed the vehicle's speed and altitude several times before returning control to Dryden. (3)
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