December 26
1893 Birth: Mao Tse-tung: Chinese statesman who will lead the communist revolution in China and become its first communist leader.
1914 World War I: Jean Monnet obtains a lucrative monopoly contract for the shipment of vital war materials from Canada to France, making a fortune as a war profiteer.
1916 World War I: Joseph Joffre becomes marshal of France.
1916 World War I: Luigi Cadorna on the Sixth Battle of the Isonzo:
In the spring we sustained in the Trentino the powerful, long-prepared Austrian offensive, which the enemy with insolent effrontery styled a punitive expedition against our country. But after the first successes, which were due to the preponderance of material means collected, above all in artillery, the proposed invasion was quickly stopped and the enemy was counter-attacked and forced to retire in haste into the mountains, leaving on the Alpine slopes the flower of his army and paying bitterly the price for his fallacious enterprise not only here but also on the plains of Galicia. Our army did not rest after its wonderful effort. [For the full text, Click here.]
1917 World War I: U.S. government takes over control of nation's railroads:
Eight months after the United States enters World War I on behalf of the Allies, President Woodrow Wilson announces the nationalization of a large majority of the country's railroads under the Federal Possession and Control Act. [For further details, Click here.]
1930 Weimar: Dr. Hjalmar Schacht meets Hermann Goering at a dinner party, takes a liking to him, and agrees to meet with Hitler in January. (THP)
1931 Weimar: Various:
SS-Sturmbannfuehrer Reinhard Heydrich weds Lina von Osten.
Unemployment exceeds 5 million.
1933 Holocaust: The Kantarschi Synagogue in Jassy is burned down by the Romanian Iron Guard.
1934 Power and Earth (Macht und Erde) is published by German geopolitician Karl Haushofer. It implies that a dynamic Germany has the natural right to grasp all of Eurasia and dominate the oceanic countries. Based in part on British political geographer Halfor John Mackinder's 1904 paper "The Geographical Pivot of History," Haushofer's theories of geopolitics have helped shape Adolf Hitler's demands for lebensraum (living space).
1935 Holocaust: Germany revokes the licenses of Jewish traveling salespeople throughout Germany. (Edelheit)
1936 The Israel Philharmonic Orchestra is founded. [For further details, Click here.]
1938 Nazi Germany: The SS Training Office orders a specially revised and expanded, one-volume edition of Michael Prawdin's two books on Genghis Khan. This book is frequently given as a Christmas present by Himmler and every SS leader receives a copy. Adolf Hitler is said to have derived his ideas concerning Blutkitt (blood cement) from this source. (THP)
1939 World War II: Hitler tells a private meeting of his Gauleiter: "The Jews may deceive the world . . . but they cannot deceive me. I know that they are guilty of starting this war: they alone and nobody else." (THP)
1940 Holocaust: Emanuel Ringelblum begins compiling a secret archive of Jewish life in the Warsaw ghetto. [For further details, Click here.]
1941 World War II: Various:
Churchill addresses Congress:
Less than three weeks after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, and as German submarines appeared off the coast of California, Churchill had arrived in Washington to begin coordinating military strategy with the president and leaders of Congress.
The eloquent prime minister began his address on a light note. He observed, "If my father had been an American, and my mother British, instead of the other way around, I might have gotten here on my own. In that case, this would not have been the first time you would have heard my voice." He then grimly predicted that Allied forces would require at least 18 months to turn the tide of war and warned that "many disappointments and unpleasant surprises await us."
Regarding the Japanese aggressors, he asked, "What kind of a people do they think we are? Is it possible that they do not realize that we shall never cease to persevere against them until they have been taught a lesson which they and the world will never forget?" As for the German forces, "With proper weapons and proper organization, we can beat the life out of the savage Nazi." These "wicked men" who have brought evil forces into play must "know they will be called to terrible account if they cannot beat down by force of arms the peoples they have assailed."
When Churchill concluded his 30-minute address, he flashed a "V" for victory sign and departed to thunderous applause. One journalist described this historic address as "full of bubbling humor, biting denunciation of totalitarian enemies, stern courage—and hard facts." [For further details, Click here.]
1941 Holocaust: German Jews are no longer allowed to use public telephones. (THP)
1942 Death: Bosinier de la Chapelle: French murderer of Admiral Darlan, executed at 24.
1943 World War II: Various:
War at Sea: The last major German battleship, the Scharnhorst, is sunk in a gun duel with the British battleship Duke of York in the Arctic off Norway. Only 36 of her 2,000 man crew survive. [For further details, Click here.]
1943 Resistance: Claus von Stauffenberg takes a bomb to Hitler's headquarters, but fails to set it off.
1944World War II: Various:
Patton relieves Bastogne:
On this day, General George S. Patton employs an audacious strategy to relieve the besieged Allied defenders of Bastogne, Belgium, during the brutal Battle of the Bulge.
The capture of Bastogne was the ultimate goal of the Battle of the Bulge, the German offensive through the Ardennes forest. Bastogne provided a road junction in rough terrain where few roads existed; it would open up a valuable pathway further north for German expansion. The Belgian town was defended by the U.S. 101st Airborne Division, which had to be reinforced by troops who straggled in from other battlefields. Food, medical supplies, and other resources eroded as bad weather and relentless German assaults threatened the Americans' ability to hold out. Nevertheless, Brigadier General Anthony C. MacAuliffe met a German surrender demand with a typewritten response of a single word: "Nuts."
Enter "Old Blood and Guts," General Patton. Employing a complex and quick-witted strategy wherein he literally wheeled his 3rd Army a sharp 90 degrees in a counterthrust movement, Patton broke through the German lines and entered Bastogne, relieving the valiant defenders and ultimately pushing the Germans east across the Rhine. (History.com)
Budapest is almost completely encircled by General Tolbukhin's Third Ukraine Front.
Churchill to FDR:
Anthony and I are going to see what we can do to square the Greek entanglement. Basis of action: the King does not go back until a plebiscite in his favor has been taken. For the rest, we cannot abandon those who have taken up arms in our cause, and must if necessary fight it out with them. It must always be understood that we seek nothing from Greece, in territory or advantages. We have given much, and will give more if it is in our power. I count on you to help us in this time of unusual difficulty. In particular I should like you to tell your Ambassador in Athens to make contact with us and to help all he can in accordance with the above principles.
1945 The US Treasury Department accuses Allen Dulles of laundering money from the Nazi Bank of Hungary into Switzerland. The charges are later dropped by the US State Department.As a Christmas present the directors approved a new record player for us. The chaplain brought us two new records, the great Schubert C-major Symphony and Beethoven's Violin Concerto. To the surprise of all of us, for the first time Hess responded to the chaplain's friendly invitation and came to our concert; hitherto he had always listened from his cell. And then came the days real sensation: in the evening he took the New Testament out of the library. Funk asked him in astonishment, "But Herr Hess, what has given you that idea?" Hess smiled mockingly. "Because I thought you would ask." (Speer II)
1967 Laos says communists launched an offensive:
Laotian Premier Souvanna Phouma reports that North Vietnamese troops have started a general offensive against government forces in southern Laos. Phouma reported that at least one battle was being waged near Pha Lane, but said Laotian troops appeared to be in control of the situation. On December 29, North Vietnam denied that its forces began a drive in Laos, but it was supporting the communist Pathet Lao in their long-time campaign against the Royal Lao government. (History.com)
1971 U.S. jets strike North Vietnam: In the sharpest escalation of the war since Operation Rolling Thunder ended in November 1968, U.S. fighter-bombers begin striking at North Vietnamese airfields, missile sites, antiaircraft emplacements, and supply facilities. [For further information, click here]
1972 Death: Harry Truman:
On this day in 1972, former President Harry S. Truman dies in Independence, Missouri.
Then-President Richard Nixon called Truman a man of "forthrightness and integrity" who had a deep respect for the office he held and for the people he served, and who "supported and wisely counseled each of his successors."
Truman was born in Lamar, Missouri, in 1884. The son of a farmer, he could not afford to go to college, so he too worked as a farmer before joining the army in 1916 to fight in World War I. After the war, Truman opened a haberdashery in Kansas City. When that business went bankrupt in 1922, he entered Missouri politics. Truman went on to serve in the U.S. Senate from 1934 until he was chosen as Franklin D. Roosevelt's fourth vice president in 1945; it was during his Senate terms that he became known for his honesty and integrity.
Upon FDR's death on April 12, 1945, Truman became the 33rd president of the United States, assuming the role of commander in chief of a country still embroiled in World War II. With victory in Europe was imminent, Truman agonized over whether to use nuclear weapons to force Japan to surrender. Just four months into his tenure, Truman authorized the dropping of two atomic bombs on Japan in August 1945. He and his military advisors argued that using the bombs ultimately saved American and Japanese lives, since it appeared that the Japanese would fiercely resist any conventional attempt by the Allies to invade Japan and end the war. The use of the new weapon, dropped on the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in early August, succeeded in forcing Japan's surrender, but also killed, injured and sickened thousands of Japanese and ushered in the Cold War.
Although harshly criticized by some for his decision to use the devastating weapon, Truman also displayed integrity and humanitarian virtues throughout his political career. In 1941, Truman drove 10,000 miles across the country in his Dodge to investigate potential war profiteering in defense plants on the eve of World War II. As president, Truman pushed through the Marshall Plan, which provided desperately needed reconstruction aid to European nations devastated by the war and on the verge of widespread famine. He also supported the establishment of a permanent Israeli state.
Truman served as president for two terms from 1945 to 1953, when he and his wife Bess happily retired to Independence, Missouri, where he referred to himself jokingly as "Mr. Citizen." He was hospitalized on December 4, 1972, with lung congestion, heart irregularity, kidney blockages and failure of the digestive system. He died on December 26. A very subdued and private funeral, fitting for the down-to-earth Truman, was held in Independence according to his and his family's wishes. (History.com)
Edited by Levi Bookin (Copy editor)
levi.bookin@gmail.com
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