Where Is The United States in End-time Prophecy? (Pastor Greg Laurie) Pastor Greg Laurie is at the top of my list of great Bible teachers. I’ve listened to him a lot of my lifetime. In his blog (and I urge you to go there) he has a treasure trove of short thought-provoking messages from God’s word. Here’s an example. What part does the United States play in end–time prophecy? This is such an important message. Please allow me to share it with you right now.
Where Is The United States in End-time Prophecy? (Pastor Greg Laurie)
(CNN) Two large wildfires burning for days in Northern California have destroyed more than 1,000 homes and hundreds of outbuildings, fire authorities said.
The Valley Fire has consumed 585 homes as while raging through Lake, Napa and Sonoma Counties over the course of a week. It has destroyed hundreds of other structures and scorched more than 70,000 acres of land, according to the state wildfire fighting agency Cal Fire.
Another wildfire burning in a nearby area, the Butte Fire, has destroyed 511 residences and more than 330 outbuildings in the course of at least 10 days. Cal Fire’s data was posted late Saturday.
Late Saturday, many of the current fires burning in California were nearly 100% contained, and the Valley Fire and Butte Fire were mostly contained.
The American West has seen one of its worst fire seasons this year, burning through a particularly large area of the landscape, according to the National Interagency Fire Center. Nearly 9 million acres have gone up in flames so far this year compared with close to 3 million over the same period in 2014.
This year’s tally is already higher than any other in the last decade. Four years of exceptional drought in California in particular have provided a lot of dry tinder for the flames.
Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei released a video published to YouTube this week in which he warned of an American defeat in any war with Iran.
The clip — published September 13 to Khamenei’s official YouTube channel — is entitled “If Any War Happens.” It features Khamenei’s voice and is accompanied by English subtitles.
The video was viewed almost half a million times by September 18.
The clip begins by showing an image of US President Barack Obama sitting down for an interview in which he says that the US will not have a problem “knocking out [Iran’s] military with speed and dispatch if we choose to,” after which Khamenei’s voice appears to dismiss such a warning, calling it “boasting among strangers,” according to a translation provided in a report by MEMRI — the Middle East Media Research Institute.
The supreme leader then advises the Americans to “use their experiences [in the Middle East] correctly” as images play of suggested American “failures” in the background including photos of the advanced American RQ-170 drone that Iran brought down on its soil in December 2011; a photo of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah against a backdrop of a man flying the Hezbollah flag atop a missile and a mention of the Second Lebanon War in 2006; depictions of US forces being bombed in Afghanistan; and images of US forces carrying a coffin with the text “2003-2011 Iraq war” above it.
“We neither welcome nor begin any war. They must know that should any war break out, one who will emerge humiliated out of it will be invading and criminal America,” says Khamenei, according to the English subtitles.
In the background of the clip, a crowd says: “We will stand until the end, Khamenei is the leader.”
The Iranian leader has issued several threats against the US — and Israel — following the Iranian nuclear deal signed July 14 with world powers, which allows for sanctions relief in exchange for Iran curbing its controversial nuclear program and submitting to inspections.
The US is set to start implementing the deal October 18, but it is not yet clear when punitive measures will be lifted, as the International Atomic Energy Agency must first ensure Iranian compliance with the accord.
HAVANA (AP) — Pope Francis opens his first full day in Cuba on Sunday with what normally would be the culminating highlight of a papal visit: Mass before hundreds of thousands of people in Havana’s evocative Revolution Plaza.
The morning Mass kicks off a busy series of events for Francis, including a formal meeting with President Raul Castro and a likely encounter with his 89-year-old brother, Fidel. Francis will finish with an evening vespers service in the San Cristobal cathedral and meet with Cuban young people.
Young and old turned out in droves Saturday to line Francis’ motorcade route and welcome a man that many credit with helping bring about the thaw in relations between Cuba and the United States.
“This visit is like a breath of hope blowing over Cuba,” Diego Carrera, a retiree, said as he awaited Francis at the start of a 10-day trip to the onetime Cold War adversaries.
Francis wrote a personal appeal to Presidents Barack Obama and Raul Castro and hosted their delegations at a secret meeting at the Vatican last year to seal a deal after 18 months of closed-door negotiations. Since then, the two leaders have reopened embassies in each other’s countries, held a personal meeting and at least two phone calls and launched a process aimed at normalizing ties in fields ranging from trade to tourism to telecommunications.
Upon his arrival, Francis plunged head-first into the rapprochement, urging the Cuban and U.S. governments to push forward on their newly forged path and “develop all its possibilities.”
The Vatican has long opposed the U.S. trade embargo on the grounds that it hurts ordinary Cubans most, and is clearly hopeful that detente will eventually lead to a lifting of sanctions.
But only the U.S. Congress can remove the embargo. Francis will visit Congress next week at the start of the U.S. leg of his trip, but it’s not known if he will raise the issue there.
Standing with Raul Castro by his side, Francis said the developments over recent months have given him hope.
“I urge political leaders to persevere on this path and to develop all its possibilities as a proof of the high service which they are called to carry out on behalf of the peace and well-being of their peoples, of all America, and as an example of reconciliation for the entire world,” he said.
Castro, for his part, criticized the embargo as “cruel, immoral and illegal” and called for it to end. But he also thanked Francis again for his role in fostering “the first step” in a process of normalizing relations.
The pope’s message on Sunday is likely to be less political and more pastoral.
Francis has said he is coming to Cuba as a messenger of mercy, aiming to give solidarity to a long-suffering people and church.
The island’s communist government never outlawed religion per se. But it came close, closing religious schools after Fidel Castro came to power in 1959, expelling priests and sending others to prison or work camps, including the current archbishop of Havana, Cardinal Jaime Ortega.
Castro began easing prohibitions on faith in the 1990s, removing constitutionally enshrined atheism ahead of a visit by Pope John Paul II and reinstating Christmas as a public holiday soon after.
The Catholic Church today has quietly established itself as practically the only independent institution with any widespread influence on the island. Expanding into areas once utterly dominated by the state, the church is providing tens of thousands of people with food, education, business training and even libraries stocked with foreign best-sellers.
But it still is seeking more freedom to spread the faith: Church authorities have long wanted to run full-time private schools and get religious programming on state-run airwaves, both of which the government has resisted
In his airport arrival speech, Francis said he hoped his visit would renew the bonds of friendship so the church can continue to do its job “with the freedom and the means necessary.”
While most Cubans are nominally Catholic, fewer than 10 percent practice their faith.
Magaly Delgado, an accountant, said she would be at the Mass on Sunday because “I’m a believer and this pope interests me a lot because of all the change that he’s making.”
The Jerusalem Post – The recent CNN poll found that only 39 percent of Americans know the president’s religious denomination. According to the survey, 29 percent think he is Muslim, 4 percent think he is Catholic, 2 percent think he is Mormon and 1 percent think he is Jewish.
Is Obama a Muslim? Is Obama a Christian? Why is it important to find out who is he indeed?
JERUSALEM Post, Israel — Palestinian Authority chairman Mahmoud Abbas said he plans to drop a “bombshell” at the end of his speech to the U.N. General Assembly later this month.
Abbas told the London-based Arabic language newspaper Al Quds Al-Arabi, “I am not going to reveal now the nature of this bombshell.”
Some Palestinians believe he might announce his resignation, while others speculate he could suspend the Oslo Accords signed between the Palestine Liberation Organization, Israel, and the United States in 1993.
Another theory is that he will announce the suspension of security cooperation with Israel, which has kept the level of violence down in Palestinian areas of Judea and Samaria (the West Bank).
Abbas is slated to address the General Assembly on Sept. 29.
Some sources close to Abbas have said he plans to resign before the end of the year, but others deny it.
Meanwhile outgoing Israeli U.N. Ambassador Ron Proser responded to the Security Council’s statement calling for both sides to “lower tensions and discourage violence at holy sites in Jerusalem.”
“Muslim worshippers at the Haram al-Sharif must be allowed to worship in peace, free from violence, threats, and provocations,” the statement read.
“This statement, which only uses the Arabic name for the Temple Mount, affirms the right of Muslims to be present and to pray at the compound, but completely ignores the deep connection of the Jewish people to the Temple Mount and the right of all to visit the site,” Proser said.
“The chairman of the Palestinian Authority encourages and legitimizes extremist Islamic activities with his anti-Semitic remarks,” he said, opting to “fuel the fire in a most shameful manner.”
The second Republican debate on Wednesday night was a marathon, running for three hours at the Reagan Library in Simi Valley, Calif. Who crossed the line strong and who stumbled along the way?
WINNERS
Carly Fiorina
Fiorina seized her big moment, having moved up from the “B-team” forum to which she was confined at the first debate in Cleveland last month. If expectations were high for Fiorina, she surpassed them with an engaged, passionate performance. A forceful denunciation of Planned Parenthood might have been her standout moment in terms of connecting with the Republican electorate at an emotional level. But she also scored highly throughout, in moments as diverse as discussing foreign policy on one hand and mixing it up with Donald Trump on the other.
Marco Rubio
Rubio had a strong night, especially on foreign policy, where he showed real depth. He also more than once laid out positions that were somewhat similar to those of his mentor, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, but were delivered with much greater crispness. For example, after Bush meandered through a defense of speaking Spanish on the campaign trail, Rubio argued that it was important for Spanish-speaking voters to hear conservative arguments “directly from me, not from a translator at Univision.” Rubio’s performance at the first debate was also well-received yet made little difference to his polling numbers. Could he get a bump this time?
Chris Christie
For all the negative attention Christie has received recently, he has considerable political skills, not least that he is a formidable debater. His best moment came during an exchange between Fiorina and Trump about their respective business careers. The New Jersey governor, forceful as ever, insisted that “for the 55-year-old construction worker out in that audience tonight who doesn’t have a job, who can’t fund his child’s education, I’ve got to tell you the truth: They could care less about your careers.” No-one knows whether Christie’s performance will change his fortunes with GOP voters who have proven impervious to his charms so far. But he had a good night by any measure.
Ben Carson
Carson went into the debate as the closest challenger to Trump in the polls, with the GOP electorate warming up to his low-key, affable style. Carson did not deviate from that path on Wednesday. He didn’t have any single great moment, but it was a proficient performance. And Carson did show that, despite his laid-back style, he can be quick on his feet. After Trump expressed skepticism about vaccines, a smiling Carson shot back, “He’s an OK doctor” — a phrase Trump had used only days before about Carson, an acclaimed former neurosurgeon.
Ted Cruz
Cruz appealed to the party faithful on Wednesday with a robust defense of the right to bear arms and a vigorous condemnation of the Iran nuclear deal, among other matters. Cruz also showed that he has as strong a command of TV debating technique as anyone in the field — including looking directly into the camera rather than at audience members. It remains unclear if he can expand his support beyond the most conservative reaches of the GOP, but he had a good night.
Donald Trump
Trump was nowhere near as dominant a presence as he was at the first debate, in part because he came under much more sustained attack from his rivals. Trump had some unsteady moments, including one instance when he appeared to suggest he would get himself better informed about threats facing the United States between now and potentially assuming the presidency. He also slid away from his recent personal criticisms of Fiorina by insisting that “she has a beautiful face” — hardly a remark that would win over his own detractors. But he was, on balance, a winner for two reasons. Firstly, for all the punches thrown at him, none put him on the canvas. Secondly, he again got under the skin of Jeb Bush, likely deepening the troubles for the favorite candidate of the GOP establishment.
MIXED
John Kasich
The Ohio governor has been trying to overtake Bush as the establishment choice, and he seemed to be trying to present himself as an electable grown-up. He had his moments but, as one of the lesser-known candidates nationwide, he needs to make a significant impact every time he is in front of a big national audience. He didn’t appear to do so on Wednesday evening.
Mike Huckabee
Huckabee has a very different ideological appeal to Kasich, but there are some stylistic similarities: They are both somewhat folksy politicians who can be very effective communicators. But Huckabee suffered from a similar problem to Kasich: Although he had some strong moments — the Kim Davis controversy is almost tailor-made for him — it seems unlikely that he attained any real breakthrough.
LOSERS
Scott Walker
The Wisconsin governor has been falling precipitously in the polls, in part because his performance at the first debate was widely seen as lacking fire and charisma. Walker came out of the gate impressively on Wednesday night with a jab at Trump — “We don’t need an apprentice in the White House” — but he mostly faded after that. His showing wasn’t as bad as it was in Cleveland, but he did nothing that looked likely to turn around his ailing fortunes.
Rand Paul
Paul was put on his heels at the start of the night when Trump mocked him for, allegedly, not deserving to be on the stage at all. To be fair to Paul, his performance was not objectively bad. It just did nothing to change the minds of a Republican electorate that seems strongly disinclined to back him.
Jeb Bush
The consensus going into Wednesday night’s debate was that Bush needed an animated, commanding performance to erase memories of his hesitant showing in Cleveland. Instead, he delivered more of the same. His remarks on Supreme Court Justice John Roberts, in particular, seemed confused and contradictory. A defensiveness also crept into responses over his brother’s record. And while Bush tried to challenge Trump more assertively than in the first debate, the businessman got the better of most of their exchanges. Bush’s performance, taken in isolation, was not the worst on the stage. But it was far below what might be expected from a man who was the clear GOP front-runner not so long ago.
LINDEN, N.J. (CBSNewYork) — A drone with a video camera plowed into the roof of a home in Linden, New Jersey on Thursday, and questions remained a day later day about who was operating it and why.
As CBS2’s Mark Morgan reported exclusively, Jane White was outside talking to a friend Thursday evening when she was stunned to see a drone flying through her neighborhood.
“I was looking up in the sky and we see the drone actually, you know, like, up there,” White said. “And when I came back around the corner, I heard it crash.”
In fact, it crashed right onto their house.
“When I got here, my daughter said ‘Ma, the drone landed on the house’, and that’s when I called the police,” she said.
Police units and the fire department responded and removed the drone, which police identified as a white Phantom model 2 with a camera attached. It is worth $300 to $700.
The White family told CBS2 the incident took place about 9 p.m. Thursday, and the drone landed right up near the top of the fire escape and some dormer windows.
White’s son, Ray, was asleep when the drone struck the house. But the ensuing commotion jolted him awake.
“It was a big crash, they said, but I didn’t hear it,” he said. “But I came out and saw everything that happened. It’s crazy.”
Jane White said she was aware of the drone crash incident just over two weeks ago at the US Open, and never imagined her life would be interrupted by another remote-controlled aircraft.
“I just wanted to be safe, you know, because they say they can carry anything,” she said. “Like, you know, I didn’t know if they might have explosives. And I have children, so that was my main concern — safety.”
Added Ray White: “It’s just part of life now I guess, because they’re accessible. You know, so, it’s just weird. It’s really weird.”
The White family is certainly relieved that everyone is safe, but they also seemed resigned to the fact that drones are likely here to stay, Morgan reported.
Police were looking late Friday for the operator of the drone. They said the operator called them, admitting the drone had crashed into the Whites’ house.
(CNN)Best-selling author Jackie Collins has died of breast cancer at the age of 77, her publicist Melody Korenbrot told CNN on Saturday.
Collins’ stories of the sexy, glamorous lives of Hollywood made her one of the world’s top-selling novelists,according to her website. With titles such as “Hollywood Wives,” “Rock Star” and “The Stud,” she sold more than 500 million copies in more than 40 countries.
People magazine reported Collins was diagnosed with stage 4 breast cancer six-and-a-half years ago and chose to keep the illness private. The magazine said she confided in her three daughters, Tracy, 54, Tiffany, 48, and Rory, 46.
The Collins family issued a statement on Facebook, saying, “It is with tremendous sadness that we announce the death of our beautiful, dynamic and one of a kind mother, Jackie Collins, who died of breast cancer today.
“She lived a wonderfully full life and was adored by her family, friends and the millions of readers who she has been entertaining for over 4 decades. She was a true inspiration, a trail blazer for women in fiction and a creative force. She will live on through her characters but we already miss her beyond words.”
2011: Author Jackie Collins on dealing with loss 02:14
Her sister, actress Joan Collins, told People she was “completely devastated” by her sister’s death.
“She was my best friend, ” Joan Collins, 82, said. “I admire how she handled this. She was a wonderful, brave and a beautiful person and I love her.”
And now “This Day in History”
September 20, 1519
Magellan sets out
Portuguese navigator Ferdinand Magellan sets sail from Spain in an effort to find a western sea route to the rich Spice Islands of Indonesia. In command of five ships and 270 men, Magellan sailed to West Africa and then to Brazil, where he searched the South American coast for a strait that would take him to the Pacific. He searched the Río de la Plata, a large estuary south of Brazil, for a way through; failing, he continued south along the coast of Patagonia. At the end of March 1520, the expedition set up winter quarters at Port St. Julian. On Easter day at midnight, the Spanish captains mutinied against their Portuguese captain, but Magellan crushed the revolt, executing one of the captains and leaving another ashore when his ship left St. Julian in August.
On October 21, he finally discovered the strait he had been seeking. The Strait of Magellan, as it became known, is located near the tip of South America, separating Tierra del Fuego and the continental mainland. Only three ships entered the passage; one had been wrecked and another deserted. It took 38 days to navigate the treacherous strait, and when ocean was sighted at the other end Magellan wept with joy. He was the first European explorer to reach the Pacific Ocean from the Atlantic. His fleet accomplished the westward crossing of the ocean in 99 days, crossing waters so strangely calm that the ocean was named “Pacific,” from the Latin wordpacificus, meaning “tranquil.” By the end, the men were out of food and chewed the leather parts of their gear to keep themselves alive. On March 6, 1521, the expedition landed at the island of Guam.
Ten days later, they dropped anchor at the Philippine island of Cebú–they were only about 400 miles from the Spice Islands. Magellan met with the chief of Cebú, who after converting to Christianity persuaded the Europeans to assist him in conquering a rival tribe on the neighboring island of Mactan. In fighting on April 27, Magellan was hit by a poisoned arrow and left to die by his retreating comrades.
After Magellan’s death, the survivors, in two ships, sailed on to the Moluccas and loaded the hulls with spice. One ship attempted, unsuccessfully, to return across the Pacific. The other ship, the Vittoria, continued west under the command of Basque navigator Juan SebastiÁn de Elcano. The vessel sailed across the Indian Ocean, rounded the Cape of Good Hope, and arrived at the Spanish port of SanlÚcar de Barrameda on September 6, 1522, becoming the first ship to circumnavigate the globe.
September 20, 1565
First European battle on American soil
Spanish forces under Pedro Menéndez de Avilés capture the French Huguenot settlement of Fort Caroline, near present-day Jacksonville, Florida. The French, commanded by Rene Goulaine de Laudonniere, lost 135 men in the first instance of colonial warfare between European powers in America. Most of those killed were massacred on the order of Aviles, who allegedly had the slain hanged on trees beside the inscription “Not as Frenchmen, but as heretics.” Laudonniere and some 40 other Huguenots escaped.
September 20, 1863
Confederates score a victory at the Battle of Chickamauga
In one of the bloodiest battles of the Civil War, the Confederate Army of Tennessee drove the Union Army of the Cumberland back into Chattanooga, Tennessee, from Chickamauga Creek in northern Georgia. Although technically a Confederate victory, the battle had little long-term effect on the military situation in the region. The battle of Chickamauga resulted in 18,500 Confederate casualties and 16,100 Union casualties.
September 20, 1881
Chester Arthur becomes third president to serve in one year
On this day in 1881, Chester Arthur is inaugurated, becoming the third person to serve as president in that year.
The year 1881 began with Republican Rutherford B. Hayes in office. Hayes served out his first and only term and officially turned over the reins of government to James A. Garfield, who happened to be a close friend of his, in March 1881. Just four months into his term, on July 2, Garfield was shot by a crazed assassin named Charles Guiteau. Guiteau claimed to have killed Garfield because he refused to grant Guiteau a political appointment. Garfield sustained wounds to his back and abdomen and struggled to recover throughout the summer. Though it appeared he would pull through in early September, the autopsy report revealed that the internal bullet wound contributed to an aneurism that ultimately killed Garfield on September 19.
The next day, Vice President Chester Arthur was sworn in as president. Strangely, Garfield’s assassin wrote to the new president from jail, taking credit for vaulting Arthur into the White House. According to President Hayes, Arthur’s administration was best known for “liquor, snobbery and worse.” He served only one term from 1881 to 1885.
This was the second time in American history that three men served as president in one year; a similar situation occured in 1841, when Martin Van Buren, William Henry Harrison and John Tyler all held the office.
September 20, 1918
U.S. officer George S. Patton writes home after Saint-Mihiel offensive
On September 20, 1918, 32-year-old Colonel George S. Patton of the American Expeditionary Force (AEF) writes to his father from the Western Front in France, recounting his experiences during the American-led offensive against the Germans at Saint-Mihiel earlier that month.
Patton had previously served in Mexico in 1916 under General John J. Pershing during the U.S. army’s pursuit of Mexican rebel Pancho Villa. The following year, after the U.S. declared war on Germany, the young officer traveled to France as Pershing’s aide. At Saint-Mihiel, Patton was put in command of the light-tank brigade. The attack marked the AEF’s first major offensive operation as an independent army during World War I, as well as the first time the U.S. had used tanks in battle.
“Dear Papa,” Patton began his letter, “we have all been in one fine fight and it was not half so exciting as I had hoped, not as exciting as affairs in Mexico, because there was so much company. When the shelling first started I had some doubts about the advisability of sticking my head over the parapet, but it is just like taking a cold bath, once you get in, it is all right.” In the rest of the letter, Patton chronicles his experience in battle alongside a brigade commanded by General Douglas MacArthur (later the commander of all Allied forces in the South Pacific during World War II) and his movement on foot across the battlefield, evading German shells and surveying the damage inflicted by the battle. As Patton finally concluded, “This is a very egotistical letter but intersting [sic] as it shows that vanity is stronger than fear and that in war as now waged there is little of the element of fear, it is too well organized and too stupendous.”
Later wounded in the leg by a German machine-gun bullet, Patton was evacuated to a military hospital, where he enjoyed a full recovery. He returned home safe from France, receiving a Distinguished Service Cross and the Purple Heart for his service in World War I. Two decades later, as a general, Patton would play a leading role in World War II, becoming one of the most famous and controversial military figures in U.S. history.
September 20, 1943
British launch Operation Source
On this day in 1943, British submarines attempt to sink the German battleship Tirpitz as it sits in Norwegian waters, as Operation Source gets underway. The Tirpitz was the second largest battleship in the German fleet (after the Bismarck) and a threat to Allied vessel movement through Arctic waters.
In January 1942, Hitler ordered the Germany navy to base the Tirpitz in Norway in order to attack Soviet convoys transporting supplies from Iceland to the U.S.S.R. The Tirpitz also prevented British naval forces from making their way to the Pacific. Winston Churchill summed up the situation this way: “The destruction or even crippling of this ship is the greatest event at the present time…. The whole strategy of the war turns at this period on this ship….”
Attacks had already been made against the Tirpitz. RAF raids were against it in January 1942 failed to hit it. Another raid was made in March; dozens of RAF bombers sought out the Tirpitz, which had been reinforced with cruisers, pocket battleships, and destroyers. All of the British bombers, once again, missed their target.
Sporadic attacks continued to be made against the German battleship, including an attempt in October 1942 to literally drive a two-man craft up to the ship and plant explosives on the Tirpitz‘s hull. This too failed because of brutal water conditions and an alert German defense. In 1943, the battleshipScharnhorst joined the Tirpitz, creating a threat to Allied shipping that caused all convoys to the Soviet Union to be temporarily halted. Finally, in September, six midget British subs set out to take the Tirpitz down for good. The midgets had to be towed to Norway by conventional subs. Only three of the six midgets made it to their target. This time, they were successful in attaching explosives to the Tirpitz‘s keel—and did enough damage to put it out of action for six months. Two British commanders and four crewmen were taken captive by the Germans and spent the rest of the war as POWs.
Ironically, the mighty Tirpitz fired its guns only once in aggression during the entire war—against a British coaling station on the island of Spitsbergen.
September 20, 1946
First Cannes Film Festival
The first annual Cannes Film Festival opens at the resort city of Cannes on the French Riviera. The festival had intended to make its debut in September 1939, but the outbreak of World War II forced the cancellation of the inaugural Cannes.
The world’s first annual international film festival was inaugurated at Venice in 1932. By 1938, the Venice Film Festival had become a vehicle for Fascist and Nazi propaganda, with Benito Mussolini’s Italy and Adolf Hitler’s Germany dictating the choices of films and sharing the prizes among themselves. Outraged, France decided to organize an alternative film festival. In June 1939, the establishment of a film festival at Cannes, to be held from September 1 to 20, was announced in Paris. Cannes, an elegant beach city, lies southeast of Nice on the Mediterranean coast. One of the resort town’s casinos agreed to host the event.
Films were selected and the filmmakers and stars began arriving in mid-August. Among the American selections was The Wizard of Oz. France offeredThe Nigerian, and Poland The Black Diamond. The USSR brought the aptly titled Tomorrow, It’s War. On the morning of September 1, the day the festival was to begin, Hitler invaded Poland. In Paris, the French government ordered a general mobilization, and the Cannes festival was called off after the screening of just one film: German American director William Dieterle’s The Hunchback of Notre Dame. Two days later, France and Britain declared war on Germany.
World War II lasted six long years. In 1946, France’s provincial government approved a revival of the Festival de Cannes as a means of luring tourists back to the French Riviera.
September 20, 1963
President John Kennedy proposes a joint mission to the moon
An optimistic and upbeat President John F. Kennedy suggests that the Soviet Union and the United States cooperate on a mission to mount an expedition to the moon. The proposal caught both the Soviets and many Americans off guard.
In 1961, shortly after his election as president, John F. Kennedy announced that he was determined to win the “space race” with the Soviets. Since 1957, when the Soviet Union sent a small satellite–Sputnik–into orbit around the earth, Russian and American scientists had been competing to see who could make the next breakthrough in space travel. Outer space became another frontier in the Cold War. Kennedy upped the ante in 1961 when he announced that the United States would put a man on the moon before the end of the decade. Much had changed by 1963, however. Relations with the Soviet Union had improved measurably. The Cuban Missile Crisis of October 1962 had been settled peacefully. A “hot line” had been established between Washington and Moscow to help avert conflict and misunderstandings. A treaty banning the open air testing of nuclear weapons had been signed in 1963. On the other hand, U.S. fascination with the space program was waning. Opponents of the program cited the high cost of the proposed trip to the moon, estimated at more than $20 billion. In the midst of all of this, Kennedy, in a speech at the United Nations, proposed that the Soviet Union and United States cooperate in mounting a mission to the moon. “Why,” he asked the audience, “therefore, should man’s first flight to the moon be a matter of national competition?” Kennedy noted, “the clouds have lifted a little” in terms of U.S.-Soviet relations, and declared “The Soviet Union and the United States, together with their allies, can achieve further agreements–agreements which spring from our mutual interest in avoiding mutual destruction.” … What might have come of Kennedy’s idea is unknown–just two months later, he was assassinated in Dallas, Texas. His successor, Lyndon B. Johnson, abandoned the idea of cooperating with the Soviets but pushed ahead with the lunar program. In 1969, the United States landed a man on the moon, thus winning a significant victory the “space race.”
September 20, 1973, in a highly publicized “Battle of the Sexes” tennis match, top women’s player Billie Jean King, 29, beat Bobby Riggs, 55, a former No. 1 ranked men’s player. Riggs (1918-1995), a self-proclaimed male chauvinist, had boasted that women were inferior, that they couldn’t handle the pressure of the game and that even at his age he could beat any female player. The match was a huge media event, witnessed in person by over 30,000 spectators at the Houston Astrodome and by another 50 million TV viewers worldwide. King made a Cleopatra-style entrance on a gold litter carried by men dressed as ancient slaves, while Riggs arrived in a rickshaw pulled by female models. Legendary sportscaster Howard Cosell called the match, in which King beat Riggs 6-4, 6-3, 6-3. King’s achievement not only helped legitimize women’s professional tennis and female athletes, but it was seen as a victory for women’s rights in general.
September 20, 2012
Amish convicted in beard cutting attacks
On this day in 2012, 16 members of a dissident Amish group in Ohio are convicted of federal hate crimes and conspiracy for forcibly cutting the beards and hair of fellow Amish with whom they had religious differences. The government classified the ruthless attacks as hate crimes because beards and long hair have important religious symbolism to the Amish, who are known for their pacifism, plain style of dress and refusal to use many forms of modern technology.
The men and women convicted in the attacks belonged to a group of about 18 families who lived on an 800-acre farm owned by their leader, Samuel Mullet Sr., near Bergholz, Ohio, 100 miles southeast of Cleveland. Mullet, an Amish bishop and father of 18 children, masterminded the 2011 attacks against fellow Amish whom he viewed as enemies of his ultraconservative splinter sect. The five separate assaults involved nine people and spread fear through Amish communities in Ohio, home to an Amish population of roughly 60,000. The perpetrators—sometimes wielding shears meant for horse manes—restrained victims and in some cases hurt those who came to their aid. Afterwards, the attackers took photographs in order to further humiliate the injured parties.
The Amish typically resolve disputes on their own, without involving law enforcement; however, several beard cutting victims reported the attacks to police out of concern that Mullet was operating a cult. Mullet (who did not participate directly in the attacks) and a group of his followers were arrested in late 2011, and their case went to trial in late August 2012. It was the first case in Ohio that applied a landmark 2009 federal law—the Hate Crimes Prevention Act—which gave the government increased powers to prosecute crimes motivated by bigotry.
On September 20, 2012, the 66-year-old Mullet was convicted along with three of his sons, one of his daughters and 11 other followers. On February 8, 2013, a federal judge in Cleveland sentenced Mullet to 15 years in prison. His co-defendants received sentences ranging from one to seven years behind bars.
And finally…Meet Me in Heaven.
That’s what gravesite visitors read on Johnny Cash’s tombstone, just outside of Nashville. (Photo via BillyGraham.org)
And it’s what he urged audiences at numerous Billy Graham Crusades to do—in a manner of speaking.
“Meet Me in Heaven” is also the title of a song inspired by Cash’s brother, Jack, who died an untimely death—and could very well have planted the seed of the Gospel in his younger brother’s heart.
“Uncle Johnny was closest to Jack out of all the siblings,” said Mike Garrett, Cash’s nephew. “And Jack was a profound witness to the family, especially during the last week of his life.”
Jack suffered fatal injuries from a table saw accident in Dyess, Arkansas, where the seven Cash siblings grew up. Carrie, their mother, prayed fervently over all her children, but it was Jack—the third child and one ahead of Johnny in the birth order—who was the evangelist in the family.
He lived for a week following his accident. The family was gathered in his hospital room to hear his last words: “Can you see them? Can you see all the angels around? Meet me in heaven.”
Decades later, it is understood by Garrett to be one of the most pivotal events in the lives of the Cash family members: “My mother (Louise, Johnny’s older sister) said the room lit up—one of those kind of eerie but glowy’ moments right before he passed away.”
But it would be more than 20 years from that moment before the Man in Black would see the Light.
Those years would see the peaks of his fame and career success, but it would also see the dark valleys of his drug and alcohol addiction.
Through it all, his family never wavered. And they never stopped praying for him.
“We lived in Memphis, and Uncle Johnny would occasionally come through town since he lived in Nashville. Mother always witnessed to him, prayed for him and tried to talk to him about Jesus,” Garrett remembered.
“One day, in the mid 1960s, I came home from school and mom told me that Uncle Johnny had visited and told her he had become a Christian. He took her for a drive around town to tell her the story. She thought they were going to have a wreck, because he was so excited about his new faith in Christ. At that point, he understood what it really meant to follow Jesus. Grandma Cash’s prayers were answered.”
Cash’s faith remained intact, despite his struggle with old habits and encounters with demons from the past. In the early 1970s, Billy Graham got word of Cash’s relatively new faith and invited him to be a part of Crusade events.
Billy Graham also invited Cash into what became a friendship that only strengthened as the two men grew older. Together with their wives, they visited one another’s homes and spent vacations together at Cash’s property in Jamaica.
“I remember Uncle Johnny saying to me that he had started going to Billy Graham Crusades—that he would sing and share his testimony. He made that a top priority—a higher priority than concert tours,” Garrett said. (Photo via BillyGraham.org)
Cash once addressed his worldly struggles from the stage at a 1989 Crusade in his home state of Arkansas: “My personal life—my personal problems—have been widely publicized. There have been things said about me that made people ask, ‘Is Johnny Cash really a Christian?’ I take great comfort in the words of the Apostle Paul, who said: ‘What I will to do I do not practice, but what I hate I do. It is no longer I that do it, but the sin that dwells within me. But who will deliver me from this body of death? It is Jesus Christ, our Lord."”
His Spiritual Legacy Lives On
While many may say Johnny Cash was instrumental in their music careers, numerous people have credited his witness to their faith in Christ.
There was a graveside memorial service in 2014 to dedicate a new grave marker at Johnny Cash’s burial site. As Garrett—a minister—conducted the ceremony, he opened up the floor for the 200 in attendance to share any thoughts or memories that would honor his uncle.
“I can’t tell you how many spoke up and said that he was instrumental in them coming to faith in Christ,” Garrett said. “And some of them said he helped them clean their lives up—pointed them toward getting off drugs and alcohol. And pointed them toward good, and away from evil.”
Cash, who spent much of his time ministering to those enslaved in substance abuse, said this of his ultimate purpose in life:
“Only someone who has had such a problem (as substance abuse) can have complete love and compassion and understanding for such people. I love drug addicts. And I love alcoholics. When Jesus said He was sent to heal the brokenhearted and preach deliverance to the captives, I believe these were some of the people He was talking about.
“If some lost, lonely person somewhere out there in a dirty bed, in a dark room, can see the light of Jesus Christ in me, then that is my reward.”
This is Ray Mossholder from the headquarters of Reach More Now in Fort Worth, Texas. And this is This Day in History – July 27
July 27, 1586 –Sir Walter Raleigh brings the 1st tobacco to England from Virginia. How many Europeans did he end up killing?
July 27, 1663 – The British Parliament passed a Navigation Act, which required all goods bound for the colonies be sent in British ships from British ports.
July 27, 1694 – The Bank of England was chartered.
July 27, 1789 – The Department of Foreign Affairs was established by the U.S. Congress. The agency later became known as the Department of State.
You may know of Lewis and Clark’s exploration of the West, but did you know that on July 27, 1806, Meriwether Lewis killed a Blackfoot Indian?
The voyage of Meriwether Lewis and William Clark to explore the West began in May 1804 when the two captains and 27 men headed up the Missouri River. They reached the Pacific Ocean the following year, and on March 23, 1806, began the return journey. After crossing the worst section of the Rocky Mountains, the expedition split up. Clark took most of the men and explored the Yellowstone River country to the south. Lewis, with nine men, headed west to the Great Falls of the Missouri River where he split the small party still further. Six men remained behind to make the portage around the Great Falls. Lewis took the remaining three and headed north to explore the Marias River country of present-day northwestern Montana.
It was a risky, perhaps even irresponsible, decision. Lewis knew the Marias River country was the home of the Blackfoot Indians, one of the fiercest tribes of the Great Plains. Lewis hoped he could meet peacefully with the Blackfoot and encourage their cooperation with the United States. Yet, if they met a hostile Blackfoot band and a fight began, the four explorers would be badly outnumbered.
On July 26, Lewis encountered a party of eight young Blackfoot braves. At first, the meeting went well, and the Indians seemed pleased with Lewis’ gifts of a medal, flag, and handkerchief. Lulled into a false sense of security, Lewis invited the Indians to camp with them. In the early morning of this day in 1806, Lewis awoke to the shouts of one his men–the Indians were attempting to steal their rifles and horses.
Lewis sped after two Indians who were running off with several of the horses, calling out for them to stop or he would shoot. One Indian, armed with an old British musket, turned toward Lewis. Apparently fearing that the Indian was about to shoot, Lewis fired first and hit him in the stomach. The Indians retreated, and the men quickly gathered their horses. Lewis then learned that one of his men had also fatally stabbed another of the Blackfoot.
Fearing the survivors would soon return with reinforcements, Lewis and his men immediately broke camp. They rode south quickly and managed to escape any retribution from the Blackfoot. Lewis’ diplomatic mission, however, had turned into a debacle. By killing at least one Indian, and probably two, Lewis had guaranteed that the already hostile Blackfoot would be unlikely to deal peacefully with Americans in the future.
July 27, 1804 – The 12th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was ratified. With the amendment Electors were directed to vote for a President and for a Vice-President rather than for two choices for President.
July 27, 1836 – The beautiful city of Adelaide, Australia was founded
July 27, 1837- A United States Mint is opened in Charlotte, North Carolina that only handled gold from the California gold rush.
July 27, 1866 – Atlantic telegraph cable successfully laid (1,686 miles long)
July 27, 1898 – the first story about Sherlock Holmes “The Adventure of The Dancing Men” was released.
July 27, 1921, at the University of Toronto, Canadian scientists Frederick Banting and Charles Best successfully isolated insulin–a hormone they believe could prevent diabetes–for the first time. Within a year, the first human sufferers of diabetes were receiving insulin treatments, and countless lives were saved from what was previously regarded as a fatal disease.
Diabetes has been recognized as a distinct medical condition for more than 3,000 years, but its exact cause was a mystery until the 20th century. By the early 1920s, many researchers strongly suspected that diabetes was caused by a malfunction in the digestive system related to the pancreas gland, a small organ that sits on top of the liver. At that time, the only way to treat the fatal disease was through a diet low in carbohydrates and sugar and high in fat and protein. Instead of dying shortly after diagnosis, this diet allowed diabetics to live–for about a year.
A breakthrough came at the University of Toronto in the summer of 1921, when Canadians Frederick Banting and Charles Best successfully isolated insulin from canine test subjects, produced diabetic symptoms in the animals, and then began a program of insulin injections that returned the dogs to normalcy. On November 14, the discovery was announced to the world.
Two months later, with the support of J.J.R. MacLeod of the University of Toronto, the two scientists began preparations for an insulin treatment of a human subject. Enlisting the aid of biochemist J.B. Collip, they were able to extract a reasonably pure formula of insulin from the pancreases of cattle from slaughterhouses. On January 23, 1921, they began treating 14-year-old Leonard Thompson with insulin injections. The diabetic teenager improved dramatically, and the University of Toronto immediately gave pharmaceutical companies license to produce insulin, free of royalties. By 1923, insulin had become widely available, and Banting and Macleod were awarded the Nobel Prize in medicine.
July 27, 1866 – Cyrus Field successfully completed the Atlantic Cable. It was an underwater telegraph from North America to Europe.
July 27, 1906 Leo Durocher is born. He will grow up to be the much loved baseball manager of the Brooklyn Dodgers and the New York Giants.
July 27, 1909 – Orville Wright set a record for the longest airplane flight. He was testing the first Army airplane and kept it in the air for 1 hour, 12 minutes and 40 seconds.
July 27, 1940 – “What’s up, Doc?” Bugs Bunny made his debut in the cartoon A Wild Hare.
World War II is raging as on July 27, 1941, Japanese forces land in Indo-China
On July 27, 1943, Joseph Stalin, premier and dictator of the Soviet Union, issued Order No. 227, what came to be known as the “Not one step backward” order, in light of German advances into Russian territory. The order declared, “Panic makers and cowards must be liquidated on the spot. Not one step backward without orders from higher headquarters! Commanders…who abandon a position without an order from higher headquarters are traitors to the Fatherland.”
Early German successes against Russia had emboldened Hitler in his goal of taking Leningrad and Stalingrad. But the German attack on Stalingrad, thought foolhardy by Hitler’s generals, because of Russia’s superior manpower and the enormous drain on German resources and troop strength, was repulsed by a fierce Soviet fighting force, which had been reinforced with greater numbers of men and materials.
The Germans then turned their sights on Leningrad. Stalin needed to “motivate” both officers and civilians alike in their defense of Leningrad—hence, Order No. 227. But it was hardly necessary. On the same day the order was given, Russian peasants and partisans in the Leningrad region killed a German official, Adolf Beck, whose job was to send agricultural products from occupied Russia to Germany or German troops. The Russian patriots also set fire to the granaries and barns in which the stash of agricultural products was stored before transport. A partisan pamphlet issued an order of its own: “Russians! Destroy the German landowners. Drive the Germans from the land of the Soviets!”
Two major events happen on the same day on July 27, 1944:
The United States regains possession of Guam from the Japanese
and the 1st British jet fighter used in combat – Gloster Meteor – entered the war.
July 27, 1949, the world’s first jet-propelled airliner, the British De Havilland Comet, made its maiden test-flight in England. The jet engine would ultimately revolutionize the airline industry, shrinking air travel time in half by enabling planes to climb faster and fly higher.
The Comet was the creation of English aircraft designer and aviation pioneer Sir Geoffrey de Havilland (1882-1965). De Havilland started out designing motorcycles and buses, but after seeing Wilbur Wright demonstrate an airplane in 1908, he decided to build one of his own.
The Wright brothers had made their famous first flight at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, in 1903. De Havilland successfully designed and piloted his first plane in 1910 and went on to work for English aircraft manufacturers before starting his own company in 1920. De Havilland Aircraft Company became a leader in the aviation industry, known for developing lighter engines and faster, more streamlined planes.
In 1939, an experimental jet-powered plane debuted in Germany. During World War II, Germany was the first country to use jet fighters. De Havilland also designed fighter planes during the war years. He was knighted for his contributions to aviation in 1944.
Following the war, De Havilland turned his focus to commercial jets, developing the Comet and the Ghost jet engine. After its July 1949 test flight, the Comet underwent three more years of testing and training flights. Then, on May 2, 1952, the British Overseas Aircraft Corporation (BOAC) began the world’s first commercial jet service with the 44-seat Comet 1A, flying paying passengers from London to Johannesburg.
The Comet was capable of traveling 480 miles per hour, a record speed at the time. However, the initial commercial service was short-lived, and due to a series of fatal crashes in 1953 and 1954, the entire fleet was grounded.
Investigators eventually determined that the planes had experienced metal fatigue resulting from the need to repeatedly pressurize and depressurize. Four years later, De Havilland debuted an improved and recertified Comet, but in the meantime, American airline manufacturers Boeing and Douglas had each introduced faster, more efficient jets of their own and became the dominant forces in the industry. By the early 1980s, most Comets used by commercial airlines had been taken out of service.
It was on July 27, 1953, after three years of a bloody and frustrating war, the United States, the People’s Republic of China, North Korea, and South Korea agree to an armistice, bringing the Korean War to an end. The armistice ended America’s first experiment with the Cold War concept of “limited war.”
The Korean War began on June 25, 1950, when communist North Korea invaded South Korea. Almost immediately, the United States secured a resolution from the United Nations calling for the military defense of South Korea against the North Korean aggression. In a matter of days, U.S. land, air, and sea forces had joined the battle. The U.S. intervention turned the tide of the war, and soon the U.S. and South Korean forces were pushing into North Korea and toward that nation’s border with China.
In November and December 1951, hundreds of thousands of troops from the People’s Republic of China began heavy assaults against the American and South Korea forces.
In the U.S. presidential election of 1952, Republican candidate Dwight D. Eisenhower strongly criticized President Harry S. Truman’s handling of the war. After his victory, Eisenhower adhered to his promise to “go to Korea.” His trip convinced him that something new was needed to break the diplomatic logjam at the peace talks that had begun in July 1951. Eisenhower began to publicly hint that the United States might make use of its nuclear arsenal to break the military stalemate in Korea. He allowed the Nationalist Chinese government on Taiwan to begin harassing air raids on mainland China. The president also put pressure on his South Korean ally to drop some of its demands in order to speed the peace process.
Whether or not Eisenhower’s threats of nuclear attacks helped, by July 1953 all sides involved in the conflict were ready to sign an agreement ending the bloodshed. The armistice, signed on July 27, established a committee of representatives from neutral countries to decide the fate of the thousands of prisoners of war on both sides. It was eventually decided that the POWs could choose their own fate–stay where they were or return to their homelands.
A new border between North and South Korea was drawn, which gave South Korea some additional territory and demilitarized the zone between the two nations.
The war cost the lives of millions of Koreans and Chinese, as well as over 50,000 Americans. It had been a frustrating war for Americans, who were used to forcing the unconditional surrender of their enemies. Many also could not understand why the United States had not expanded the war into China or used its nuclear arsenal. As government officials were well aware, however, such actions would likely have prompted World War III.
July 27, 1960 – Vice President Nixon was nominated for president on the first round of voting at the Republican convention in Chicago.
On this day in 1962 NASA launched Mariner 2 on a flyby mission to Venus
That’s the same day Martin Luther King Jr. was locked in jail in Albany, Georgia
On July 27, 1964, it is announced that the United States will send an additional 5,000 U.S. troops to Vietnam, bringing the total number of U.S. forces in Vietnam to 21,000. Military spokesmen and Washington officials insisted that this did not represent any change in policy, and that new troops would only intensify existing U.S. efforts. However, the situation changed in August 1964 when North Vietnamese torpedo boats attacked U.S. destroyers off the coast of North Vietnam. What became known as the Tonkin Gulf incident led to the passage of the Tonkin Gulf Resolution, which passed unanimously in the House and 88 to 2 in the Senate. The resolution gave the president approval to “take all necessary measures to repel an armed attack against the forces of the United States and to prevent further aggression.” Using the resolution, Johnson ordered the bombing of North Vietnam in retaliation for the Tonkin Gulf incident.
In 1965, Johnson was faced with a rapidly deteriorating situation in Vietnam. The Viet Cong had increased the level of combat and there were indications that Hanoi was sending troops to fight in the south. It was apparent that the South Vietnamese were in danger of being overwhelmed. Johnson had sent Marines and paratroopers to protect American installations, but he had become convinced that more had to be done to stop the communists or they would soon overwhelm South Vietnam. While some advisers, such as Undersecretary of State George Ball, recommended a negotiated settlement, Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara urged the president to “expand promptly and substantially” the U.S. military presence in South Vietnam. Johnson, not wanting to “lose” Vietnam to the communists, ultimately accepted McNamara’s recommendation. This decision led to a massive escalation of the war.
1965 U.S. jets attack new North Vietnamese air defense sites
July 27, 1965, forty-six U.S. F-105 fighter-bombers attack the missile installation that had fired at U.S. planes on July 24. They also attacked another missile installation 40 miles northwest of Hanoi. One missile launcher was destroyed and another was damaged, but five U.S. planes were shot down in the effort.
On July 24, U.S. bombers on a raid over munitions manufacturing facilities at Kang Chi, 55 miles northwest of Hanoi, were fired at from an unknown launching site. It was the first time the enemy had launched antiaircraft missiles at U.S. aircraft. The presence of ground-to-air antiaircraft missiles represented a rapidly improving air defense capability for the North Vietnamese. As the war progressed, North Vietnam, supplied by China and the Soviet Union, would fashion a very effective and integrated air defense system, which became a formidable challenge to American flyers conducting missions over North Vietnam.
On this day in 1974, the House of Representatives charges President Richard M. Nixon with the first of three articles of impeachment for obstruction of justice after he refused to release White House tape recordings that contained crucial information regarding the Watergate scandal.
In June 1972, five men connected with Nixon’s reelection committee, the Committee to Re-elect the President (CREEP), had been caught breaking into the Democratic National Committee headquarters in the Watergate Hotel in Washington D.C. A subsequent investigation exposed illegal activities perpetrated by CREEP and authorized by senior members of Nixon’s administration. It also raised questions about what the president knew about those activities.
In May 1973, the Senate convened an investigation into the Watergate scandal amid public cries for Nixon’s impeachment. Nixon vigorously denied involvement in the burglary cover-up, most famously in November 1973 when he declared, “I am not a crook.” Although Nixon released some of the tapes requested by the Senate in April 1974, he withheld the most damning of them, claiming executive privilege. On July 24, 1974, the Supreme Court rejected Nixon’s claim of executive privilege and ordered him to turn over the remaining tapes. When he refused to do so, the House of Representatives passed the first article of impeachment against Nixon for obstruction of justice. On August 5, with the impeachment process already underway, Nixon reluctantly released the remaining tapes.
On August 8, 1974, Nixon avoided a Senate trial and likely conviction by becoming the first president to resign. Only two other presidents in U.S. history have been impeached, but didn’t resign. All Andrew Johnson in 1868 and Bill Clinton in 1998.
July 27, 1973 – Walter Blum becomes the 6th jockey in history to ride 4,000 winners
July 27, 1980, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, the former shah of Iran, died of cancer while in exile in Egypt.
Mohammad Reza was enthroned as shah of Iran in 1941, after his father was forced to abdicate by British and Soviet troops. The new shah promised to act as a constitutional monarch but often meddled in the elected government’s affairs. After a communist plot against him was thwarted in 1949, he took on even more powers. However, in the early 1950s, the shah was eclipsed by Mohammad Mosaddeq, a zealous Iranian nationalist who convinced the Parliament to nationalize Britain’s extensive oil interests in Iran. Mohammad Reza, who maintained close relations with Britain and the United States, opposed the decision. Nevertheless, he was forced in 1951 to appoint Mosaddeq premier, and two years of tension followed.
In August 1953, Mohammad Reza attempted to dismiss Mosaddeq, but the premier’s popular support was so great that the shah himself was forced out of Iran. A few days later, British and U.S. intelligence agents orchestrated a stunning coup d’etat against Mosaddeq, and the shah returned to take power as the sole leader of Iran. He repealed Mosaddeq’s legislation and became a close Cold War ally of the United States in the Middle East.
In 1963, the shah launched his “White Revolution,” a broad government program that included land reform, infrastructure development, voting rights for women, and the reduction of illiteracy. Although these programs were applauded by many in Iran, Islamic leaders were critical of what they saw as the westernization of Iran. Ruhollah Khomeini, a Shiite cleric, was particularly vocal in his criticism and called for the overthrow of the shah and the establishment of an Islamic state. In 1964, Khomeini was exiled and settled across the border in Iraq, where he sent radio messages to incite his supporters.
The shah saw himself foremost as a Persian king and in 1971 held an extravagant celebration of the 2,500th anniversary of the pre-Islamic Persian monarchy. In 1976, he formally replaced the Islamic calendar with a Persian calendar. Religious discontent grew, and the shah became more repressive, using his brutal secret police force to suppress opposition. This alienated students and intellectuals in Iran, and support for the exiled Khomeini increased. Discontent was also rampant in the poor and middle classes, who felt that the economic developments of the White Revolution had only benefited the ruling elite. In 1978, anti-shah demonstrations broke out in Iran’s major cities.
On September 8, 1978, the shah’s security force fired on a large group of demonstrators, killing hundreds and wounding thousands. Two months later, thousands took to the streets of Tehran, rioting and destroying symbols of westernization, such as banks and liquor stores. Khomeini called for the shah’s immediate overthrow, and on December 11 a group of soldiers mutinied and attacked the shah’s security officers. His regime collapsed, and on January 16, 1979, he fled the country. Fourteen days later, the Ayatollah Khomeini returned after 15 years of exile and took control of Iran.
The shah traveled to several countries before entering the United States in October 1979 for medical treatment of his cancer. In Tehran, Islamic militants responded on November 4 by storming the U.S. embassy and taking the staff hostage. With the approval of Khomeini, the militants demanded the return of the shah to Iran to stand trial for his crimes. The United States refused to negotiate, and 52 American hostages were held for 444 days. Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi died in Egypt in July 1980.
July 27 was a tragic day in 1981 when Adam John Walsh, age six, was abducted from a mall in Hollywood, Florida, and later found murdered. In the aftermath of the crime, Adam’s father, John Walsh, became a leading victims’ rights activist and host of the long-running television show America’s Most Wanted.
Early in the afternoon on July 27, Adam entered a Sears department store with his mother, Reve. She allowed him to watch a group of older boys play video games in the toy department while she shopped nearby. When she returned for him less than 10 minutes later, he was gone. Investigators learned a teenage security guard had asked the older children to leave because they were causing trouble. Adam, reportedly a timid child who might have been afraid to speak up, followed one of the older boys out and didn’t tell the guard his mother was in the store. He was likely kidnapped outside the store after the other child left. Adam’s parents launched a massive hunt for their son; however, on August 10, 1981, his severed head was discovered by two fishermen in a drainage canal in Vero Beach, Florida, some 100 miles from Hollywood. His body was never found.
In October 1983, career criminal Ottis Ellwood Toole, then an inmate at a Raiford, Florida, prison, confessed to Adam’s abduction and murder and also implicated serial killer Henry Lee Lucas in the crime. However, investigators soon discovered that Lucas couldn’t have been involved because he was in jail in Virginia when Adam was kidnapped. Toole then admitted he had carried out the crime on his own and police announced they had found Adam’s killer. However, investigators were unable to locate Adam’s body where Toole claimed to have buried it and without any physical evidence the Florida state attorney couldn’t prosecute the case.
Several months later, Toole recanted his confession. In the years that followed, Toole repeatedly confessed to killing Adam Walsh and then took back his story. He died of cirrhosis of the liver and AIDS in 1996 in a Florida prison, where he was on Death Row for another murder. Years later, serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer, who was living in Florida at the time of Adam’s abduction, was considered a possible suspect in the case. Dahmer died in a Wisconsin prison in 1994. On December 16, 2008, the police department in Hollywood, Florida, announced that the case against Toole was strong enough to close the investigation into Adam’s death.
John Walsh channeled his grief into advocacy work for crime victims. He was a founder in 1984 of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, and in 1988 he became host of America’s Most Wanted, a show that has since helped law enforcement officials track down hundreds of fugitives. On July 27, 2006, 25 years after Adam went missing, President George W. Bush signed the Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act into law, which created a national database of convicted child sex offenders, strengthened federal penalties for crimes against children and provided funding and training for law enforcement to fight crimes involving the sexual exploitation of children via the Internet.
1989 Atlanta Brave Dale Murphy is the 10th to get 6 RBIs in one inning. The 6th inning to be exact.
On July 27, 1990, the last Citroen 2CV, known as the “Tin Snail” for its distinctive shape, rolls off the production line at the company’s plant in Mangualde, Portugal at four o’clock on the afternoon of July 27, 1990. Since its debut in 1948, a total of 5,114,959 2CVs had been produced worldwide.
The French engineer and industrialist Andre Citroen converted his munitions plant into an automobile company after World War I; beginning in 1919, it was the first automaker to mass-produce cars outside of the United States.
As in Germany (the Volkswagen Beetle), Italy (the Fiat 500) and Britain (Austin Mini), the rise of mass car ownership in France in the 1930s led to a demand for a light, economical “people’s car,” which Citroen answered in the post-World War II years with the 2CV. The company actually began testing the 2CV before the war but kept the project under wraps when war broke out; the original production model was only discovered by chance in the late 1960s. When Citroen finally unveiled the car at the 1948 Paris Motor Show, it was an immediate success: At one point, the waiting time to buy one was five years.
The 2CV (“Deux Chevaux Vapeur” in French, or “two steam horses,” a reference to France’s policy of taxing cars based on their engine output) was a trailblazer among other small cars of its era. Its innovations included a sophisticated suspension system, front-wheel drive, inboard front brakes, a lightweight, air-cooled engine and a four-speed manual transmission.
Its front and rear wings, doors, bonnet, fabric sunroof and trunk lid were all detachable. The 2CV’s endearingly unfashionable form joined the Eiffel Tower as a quintessential symbol of France in popular culture. Citroen released a 2CV van in 1951 and a luxury version, the 2CV AZL, in 1956. New models came out over the years, including the 2CV4 and 2CV 6, capable of reaching speeds above 100 kilometers per hour, in 1970; and the popular “Charleston” model in 1981. That same year, Roger Moore–playing the superspy James Bond in “For Your Eyes Only”–drove a bright yellow, high-performance version of the 2CV, evading his pursuers (in Peugeots) in the requisite Bond movie high-speed car chase.
By the late 1980s, however, consumers were no longer wild about the 2CV’s quirky, antiquated design. This fact, combined with poor performance according to crash-testing and anti-pollution standards, led to the Tin Snail’s demise. In 1988, production moved from France to Portugal, and the last 2CV was produced two years later.
On that same day in 1990 Zsa Zsa Gabor began a 3 day jail sentence for slapping a cop
Fifteen years and five #1 hits after breaking into the music industry by working in a style completely different from her famous father’s, Natalie Cole stopped distancing herself from Nat King Cole’s musical legacy and instead embraced it, recording an entire album of standards from her father’s old repertoire. Though it exposed her to charges of exploiting his memory, it also gave Cole the biggest hit album of her professional career: Unforgettable: With Love, which climbed to the top of the Billboard 200 album chart on July 27, 1991.
Natalie Cole was awarded the Grammy for Best New Artist of 1975 and won the award for Best R&B Vocal Performance, Female, in both 1975 and 1976, ending a run of eight straight wins in that category by Aretha Franklin. A severe drug problem would plague Natalie Cole through the first phase of her professional career, even as she continued to turn out albums on a nearly annual basis. By the time she left her drug habit behind in the early 1980s, however, Cole’s popularity was a thing of the past.
Unforgettable: With Love marked a significant shift in both musical direction and career fortunes for Natalie Cole. The album comprised 22 songs from the Nat King Cole catalog, including solo performances of “Route 66,” “Mona Lisa,” and “Straighten Up And Fly Right” as well as a “duet” between Natalie and her father on his biggest hit of all, “Unforgettable.”
The skillful production work on “Unforgettable” may not have entirely removed the creepiness factor of a daughter singing with her dead father, but the song swept every eligible category in at the 1991 Grammy Awards: Song of the Year, Record of the Year and Best Traditional Pop Performance. Its success on the radio also helped Unforgettable: With Love sell more than 8 million copies, win the Grammy for Album of the Year and, on this day in 1991, top the Billboard album charts.
On this day in 1993, Boston Celtics basketball legend Reggie Lewis collapsed after suffering cardiac arrest while shooting baskets at Brandeis University in Boston, Massachusetts. Two hours later, Lewis was pronounced dead at Waltham-Weston Hospital.
Reggie Lewis grew up shooting baskets every day in his hometown of Baltimore, Maryland. He attended Dunbar High School, where he played on one of the greatest high school basketball teams in history. The team went 31-0 and won the national championship in 1983 with four future NBA stars in the line-up: David Wingate, who went on to play for Georgetown and the New York Knicks; Reggie Williams, who starred as a guard at Georgetown before being drafted by the Los Angeles Clippers; Tyrone “Muggsy” Bogues, the 5-foot-3-inch standout point guard for Wake Forest and later the Washington Bullets and Charlotte Hornets; and Lewis. Lewis was the team’s sixth man and, coming out of Dunbar, was the least heralded of the four. He went on, however, to become the all-time leading scorer at Northeastern University in Boston, and was drafted by the Celtics in the first round of the 1987 NBA draft, the 22nd pick overall.
Lewis was beloved in Boston, where he developed a reputation as a humanitarian and positive role model and had the brightest NBA career of any of the Dunbar boys. In his second year with the Celtics, a team that featured future Hall of Famers Larry Bird, Kevin McHale and Robert Parish, Lewis scored 18.5 points per game. By 1991-92, still playing alongside the Celtic legends, he upped his average to 20.8 points per game and led the Celtics in scoring. Bird then retired, and Lewis became the team’s star, again averaging 20.8 points per game.
To the dismay of fans and teammates, Lewis collapsed on the court during the Celtics’ first game of the 1993 playoffs against the Charlotte Hornets and did not return to the game. A skilled team of cardiologists soon diagnosed him with a dangerous form of cardiac arrhythmia that they said had led to severe heart damage and advised him to end his basketball career. Frustrated, Lewis hired his own doctors, who assured him, incorrectly it turned out, that he could continue to play. At the time of his death, Lewis was planning to rejoin the Celtics for the upcoming 1993-94 season.
Red Auerbach, general manager of the Celtics, was said to be devastated by the death of his young star. “This was the damndest shame you ever heard of. This is a wonderful kid. My heart is broken.” The Celtics retired Lewis’ No. 35 jersey in March 1995. In the wake of Lewis’ death, his widow, Donna Harris-Lewis, began the Reggie Lewis Foundation to continue his charitable efforts in the Boston community, including an annual turkey giveaway at Thanksgiving.
1996 Bombing at Centennial Olympic Park
This day in 1996 – In Atlanta, Georgia, the XXVI Summer Olympiad is disrupted by the explosion of a nail-laden pipe bomb in Centennial Olympic Park. The bombing, which occurred during a free concert, killed a mother who had brought her daughter to hear the rock music and injured more than 100 others, including a Turkish cameraman who suffered a fatal heart attack after the blast.
Police were warned of the bombing in advance, but the bomb exploded before the anonymous caller said it would, leading authorities to suspect that the law enforcement officers who descended on the park were indirectly targeted. Within a few days, Richard Jewell, a security guard at the concert, was charged with the crime. However, evidence against him was dubious at best, and in October he was fully cleared of all responsibility in the bombing.
On January 16, 1997, another bomb exploded outside an abortion clinic in suburban Atlanta, blowing a hole in the building’s wall. An hour later, while police and ambulance workers were still at the scene, a second blast went off near a large trash bin, injuring seven people. As at Centennial Park, a nail-laden bomb was used and authorities were targeted. Then, only five days later, also in Atlanta, a nail-laden bomb exploded near the patio area of a crowded gay and lesbian nightclub, injuring five people. A second bomb in a backpack was found outside after the first explosion, but police safely detonated it. Federal investigators linked the bombings, but no suspect was arrested.
On January 29, 1998, an abortion clinic was bombed in Birmingham, Alabama, killing an off-duty police officer and critically wounding a nurse. An automobile reported at the crime scene was later found abandoned near the Georgia state line, and investigators traced it to Eric Robert Rudolph, a 31-year-old carpenter. Although Rudolph was not immediately found, authorities positively identified him as the culprit in the Birmingham and Atlanta bombings, and an extensive manhunt began.
Despite being one of the FBI’s most wanted fugitives, Rudolph eluded the authorities for five years by hiding in the mountains in western North Carolina before finally being captured on May 31, 2003. As part of a plea agreement that helped him avoid a death sentence, Rudolph pled guilty to all three bombings, as well as the 1998 murder of a police officer, and was sentenced on July 18, 2005 to four consecutive life terms.
During an air show in Ukraine on July 27, 2002, a fighter jet crashed into a crowd of spectators killing 85 people and injuring hundreds more. This was the worst air-show accident to that date.
Thousands of spectators, including many children, were enjoying themselves on a summer Saturday afternoon at the Skniliv Airfield in Lviv. They came to mark the 60th anniversary of the formation of a local unit of the Ukrainian air force. A Russian Sukhoi SU-27 jet was performing a complicated maneuver just above the ground when it nicked a plane on the tarmac. The jet somersaulted and crashed directly into the crowd. The fiery explosion created a horrific scene. The two pilots, however, managed to eject themselves from the plane before the crash and survived with minor injuries.
The president of Ukraine, Leonid Kuchma, immediately fired the head of the air force, began an investigation into the incident and vowed to end all future air shows. Millions of dollars were set aside to assist the victims and their families. The investigation quickly revealed that the pilots were attempting risky maneuvers that had never before been tried. In addition, there were no safety precautions in place to help the pilots direct the planes away from the crowd below in the event of an emergency.
The previous worst air-show disaster was at the U.S. air base in Ramstein, Germany, where three Italian jets collided and one crashed into the crowd. Seventy people were killed in that disaster.
2003 Bob Hope dies at 100
On this day in 2003, the legendary actor-comedian Bob Hope died at the age of 100 in Toluca Lake, California. Known for entertaining American servicemen and women for more than five decades, Hope had a career that spanned the whole range of 20th century entertainment, from vaudeville to Broadway musicals to radio, television and movies.
He was born Leslie Townes Hope, the fifth of seven sons, on May 29, 1903, in Eltham, England. In 1907, Hope’s family moved to Cleveland, Ohio. As a young man, he began his entertainment career as a dancer and vaudeville performer. During the 1930s, he appeared in Broadway musicals, along with such performers as Fanny Brice and Ethel Merman. In 1934, Hope wed the nightclub singer Dolores Reade; the marriage would endure until his death. In 1938, Hope, who became known for his snappy one-liners, rose to national fame with his own radio show on NBC and his first feature film, The Big Broadcast of 1938.
In 1940, Hope co-starred in the box-office hit Road to Singapore with Bing Crosby. The film, about a pair of singing, wisecracking con men, was the first of seven “Road” movies the pair would make. Hope appeared in more than 50 feature films during his career. He hosted the Academy Awards 18 times, although he never won an Oscar himself, an occurrence he turned into a long-running joke. However, he did receive five special awards from the Academy, including two honorary Oscars. Hope was also a top entertainer on TV and from 1959 to 1996 he made 284 “Bob Hope specials” for NBC.
Starting with World War II, Hope began entertaining American troops at military bases around the world. His USO tours traveled to military bases during times of war (Vietnam, the Persian Gulf), as well as times of peace. He was so beloved for his work with the military for more than half a century that Congress passed a resolution in 1997 making Hope an honorary veteran. It was one of the countless honors that Hope received throughout his career. In 1998, he was granted honorary knighthood from Queen Elizabeth.
And finally today July 27, 2015,
NEW YORK (AP) — The Boy Scouts of America on Monday ended its blanket ban on gay adult leaders while allowing church-sponsored Scout units to maintain the exclusion for religious reasons.
The new policy, aimed at easing a controversy that has embroiled the Boy Scouts for years, takes effect immediately. It was approved by the BSA’s National Executive Board on a 45-12 vote during a closed-to-the-media teleconference.
“For far too long this issue has divided and distracted us,” said the BSA’s president, former Defense Secretary Robert Gates. “Now it’s time to unite behind our shared belief in the extraordinary power of Scouting to be a force for good.”
Initial reactions to the decision from groups on both sides suggested the issue would remain divisive.
The Mormon church, which sponsors more Scout units that any other organization, said it was “deeply troubled” by the decision. Church officials suggested they would look into the possibility of forming their own organization to replace Boy Scouts.
“The admission of openly gay leaders is inconsistent with the doctrines of the Church and what have traditionally been the values of the Boy Scouts of America,” said a statement from Mormon headquarters in Salt Lake City.
In contrast, the Human Rights Campaign, a national LGBT-rights organization, said the Boy Scouts should not allow church-sponsored units to continue excluding gays.
“Discrimination should have no place in the Boy Scouts, period,” said the HRC’s president, Chad Griffin. “BSA officials should now demonstrate true leadership and begin the process of considering a full national policy of inclusion.”
Gates foreshadowed Monday’s action on May 21, when he told the Scouts’ national meeting that the long-standing ban on participation by openly gay adults was no longer sustainable. He said the ban was likely to be the target of lawsuits that the Scouts likely would lose.
Two weeks ago, the new policy was approved unanimously by the BSA’s 17-member National Executive Committee. It would allow local Scout units to select adult leaders without regard to sexual orientation — a stance that several Scout councils have already adopted in defiance of the official national policy.
In this May 23, 2014, file photo, former Defense Secretary Robert Gates addresses the Boy Scout leaders
In 2013, after heated internal debate, the BSA decided to allow openly gay youth as scouts, but not gay adults as leaders. Several denominations that collectively sponsor close to half of all Scout units — including the Roman Catholic church, the Mormon church and the Southern Baptist Convention — have been apprehensive about ending the ban on gay adults.
The BSA’s top leaders pledged to defend the right of any church-sponsored units to continue excluding gays as adult volunteers. But that assurance has not satisfied some conservative church leaders.
“In recent years I have seen a definite cooling on the part of Baptist churches toward the Scouts,” said the Rev. Russell Moore, president of the Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission. “This will probably bring that cooling to a freeze.”
A more nuanced response came from the National Catholic Committee on Scouting, which expressed interest in maintaining its ties with the BSA, but also voiced concerns. Notably, it conveyed a reluctance to accept participation by anyone who engaged in sexual conduct outside of a heterosexual marriage.
Under the BSA’s new policy, gay leaders who were previously removed from Scouting because of the ban would have the opportunity to reapply for volunteer positions. If otherwise qualified, a gay adult would be eligible to serve as a Scoutmaster or unit leader.
Gates, who became the BSA’s president in May 2014, said at the time that he personally would have favored ending the ban on gay adults, but he opposed any further debate after the Scouts’ policymaking body upheld the ban. In May, he said that recent events “have confronted us with urgent challenges I did not foresee and which we cannot ignore.”
He cited an announcement by the BSA’s New York City chapter in early April that it had hired Pascal Tessier, the nation’s first openly gay Eagle Scout, as a summer camp leader. Gates also cited broader gay-rights developments and warned that rigidly maintaining the ban “will be the end of us as a national movement.”
The BSA’s right to exclude gays was upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court in 2000. But since then, the policy has prompted numerous major corporations to suspend charitable donations to the Scouts and strained relations with some municipalities.
More recently, the BSA faced a civil rights investigation in New York and lawsuits in other states over the ban.
Kenneth Upton, a lawyer for the LGBT-rights group Lambda Legal, questioned whether the BSA’s new policy to let church-sponsored units continue to exclude gay adults would be sustainable.
“There will be a period of time where they’ll have some legal protection,” Upton said. “But that doesn’t mean the lawsuits won’t keep coming. … They will become increasingly marginalized from the direction society is going.”
Like several other major youth organizations, the Boy Scouts have experienced a membership decline in recent decades. Current membership, according to the BSA, is about 2.4 million boys and about 1 million adults.
After the 2013 decision to admit gay youth, some conservatives split from the BSA to form a new group, Trail Life USA, which has created its own ranks, badges and uniforms. The group claims a membership of more than 25,000 youths and adults.
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