On This Day: Volume One

By David J. Phillips

This book chronicles the most important events which have shaped our world in the context of what the media reported on that day, as compared to the viewpoint to-day.

This work is in two volumes, of which this book is the first volume. The subject matter is handled by listing the specific day when the event occurred, going through the calendar a day at a time throughout the year.

What is clearly evident is an extraordinary change in values and the concept of what is considered to be right and what is wrong over the last half century. Has the pendulum swung too far and will it swing back or are we, in the Western World, in continual decline both morally and economically?

The USA has been the land of opportunity, but home grown Liberals are now increasingly sapping the strength of the USA. This book chronicles the destruction of our traditional Christian values and the moral decline of the USA. It gives an insight into the developing world and the failure of the USA to sustain world leadership. The USA seems to be incapable or willing to continue to wear the mantle that England wore for centuries until Socialist Britain handed the mantle over in the 1940s.

When I came to the USA in 1970, the man in the street on seeing a Cadillac, vowed to be in one in another ten years. To-day, increasingly, the desire is to get the 'privileged' out of their Mercedes and BMWs.

• Language: English
• Publisher: iUniverse
• Release date: Jul 19, 2007
• ISBN: 9781469743325

David J. Phillips

David J. Phillips David Phillips graduated from Oxford University, on a full academic scholarship having grown up in the industrial Midlands of England where he was born. He has lived in the U.S.A. for the last 38 years and is a United States citizen, having emigrated with his wife. He has three sons and nine grandchildren. Two of his sons are investment bankers and one is a pediatric heart surgeon. Mr. Phillips has over 40 years of multi-national business development and turnaround management experience as a senior chemical industry executive. He has been CEO of six companies. In four years at Alcolac (owned by Rio Tinto Zinc Plc), he built sales from $45 million/year to $150 million/year and quadrupled operating profit. In two years, he returned Sherex (owned by Schering AG) to substantial profitability after four years of increasing losses. He has been founding CEO of two biotechnology and photochemical start-ups through 7 rounds of financing. One of these, Biocode was one of the founding companies of Authentix, recently acquired by Carlyle for $100 million. As President of the Houdry Process Corporation, he revamped obsolete petrochemical technology to pioneer the worldwide production and use of octane enhancers to replace lead in gasoline. Investments exceeded $10 billion, of which $3 billion have been in Saudi Arabia. When President Nixon normalized relations with China, Houdry under Phillips, already had Americans working in China. Subsequently he and his colleagues introduced Chinese in Mao suits to modern petrochemical and refining technology. During his career, David Phillips has created many new businesses and many thousands of new jobs. He has never closed a plant always opting to find new opportunities for them. He is currently bringing a previously bankrupt plant in New York State back to vibrant life with 40 new jobs so far in the past year. He and his wife of 43 years travel extensively throughout the world and there are few countries in which he has not conducted business. David Phillips came to the US to escape the tyranny of left thinking in 1970. He has lived in several different parts of the USA and most recently in Boston for over 10 years.

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Copyright © 2007 by David Phillips

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ISBN: 978-0-595-46288-9

ISBN 13: 978-1-4697-4332-5 (ebook)

Contents

JANUARY 1

JANUARY 2

JANUARY3

JANUARY4

JANUARY 5

JANUARY6

JANUARY 7

JANUARY 8

JANUARY9

JANUARY 10

JANUARY 11

JANUARY 12

JANUARY 13

JANUARY 14

JANUARY 15

JANUARY 16

JANUARY 17

JANUARY 18

JANUARY 19

JANUARY 20

JANUARY 21

JANUARY 22

JANUARY 23

JANUARY 24

JANUARY 25

JANUARY 26

JANUARY 27

JANUARY 28

JANUARY 29

JANUARY 30

JANUARY 31

FEBRUARY 1

FEBRUARY 2

FEBRUARY 3

FEBRUARY 4

FEBRUARY 5

FEBRUARY 6

FEBRUARY7

FEBRUARY 8

FEBRUARY 9

FEBRUARY 10

FEBRUARY 11

FEBRUARY 12

FEBRUARY 13

FEBRUARY 14

FEBRUARY 15

FEBRUARY 16

FEBRUARY 17

FEBRUARY 18

FEBRUARY 19

FEBRUARY 20

FEBRUARY 21

FEBRUARY 22

FEBRUARY 23

FEBRUARY 24

FEBRUARY 25

FEBRUARY 26

FEBRUARY 27

FEBRUARY 28

MARCH 1

MARCH 2

MARCH 3

MARCH 4

MARCH 5

MARCH 6

MARCH 7

MARCH 8

MARCH 9

MARCH 10

MARCH 11

MARCH 12

MARCH 13

MARCH 14

MARCH 15

MARCH 16

MARCH 17

MARCH 18

MARCH 19

MARCH 20

MARCH 21

MARCH 22

MARCH 23

MARCH 24

MARCH 25

MARCH 26

MARCH 27

MARCH 28

MARCH 29

MARCH 30

MARCH 31

APRIL 1

APRIL 2

APRIL 3

APRIL 4

APRIL 5

APRIL 6

APRIL 7

APRIL 8

APRIL 9

APRIL 10

APRIL 11

APRIL 12

APRIL 13

APRIL 14

APRIL 15

APRIL 16

APRIL 17

APRIL 18

APRIL 19

APRIL 20

APRIL 21

APRIL 22

APRIL 23

APRIL 24

APRIL 25

APRIL 26

APRIL 27

APRIL 28

APRIL 29

APRIL 30

MAY 1

MAY 2

MAY 3

MAY 4

MAY 5

MAY 6

MAY 7

MAY 8

MAY 9

MAY 10

MAY 11

MAY 12

MAY 13

MAY 14

MAY 15

MAY 16

MAY 17

MAY 18

MAY 19

MAY 20

MAY 21

MAY 22

MAY 23

MAY 24

MAY 25

MAY 26

MAY 27

MAY 28

MAY 29

MAY 30

MAY 31

JUNE 1

JUNE 2

JUNE 3

JUNE 4

JUNE 5

JUNE 6

JUNE 7

JUNE 8

JUNE 9

JUNE 10

JUNE 11

JUNE 12

JUNE 13

JUNE 14

JUNE 15

JUNE 16

JUNE 17

JUNE 18

JUNE 19

JUNE 20

JUNE 21

JUNE 22

JUNE 23

JUNE 24

JUNE 25

JUNE 26

JUNE 27

JUNE 28

JUNE 29

JUNE 30

JANUARY 1

In 1959, Fidel Castro led Cuban revolutionaries to victory over Fulgencio Batista.

Also on this day in:

On January 1st, 1959, Fulgencio Batista resigned as President of rebellion-torn Cuba and fled to exile in the Dominican Republic. The rebel forces of Fidel Castro moved swiftly to seize power throughout the island.

The rebel leader and his forces had entered Santiago de Cuba late yesterday and had taken over the Moncado army post without firing a shot. About 5,000 soldiers there surrendered.

Truckloads of soldiers moved into Havana last night to maintain order in conjunction with militia of Senor Castro’s 26th of July Movement, who were also patrolling the streets armed with machine guns and rifles.

The rebel forces forged ahead throughout the island. While some insurgents spread out from Santa Clara, capital of Las Villas Province, which they had seized Wednesday, other groups announced the capture of Camaguey.

General Batista led an exodus from Cuba that has reached a total of perhaps 400 persons fleeing by ship and plane to the United States and the Dominican Republic. They included key political and military leaders and their families.

Comments

Outside of Cuba, Castro has been defined by his relationship with both the United States and with the former Soviet Union. Ever since the failed Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba in 1961 by the United States, the Castro-led government inevitably had an increasingly antagonistic relationship with the U.S., and a simultaneous closeness with the Soviet bloc until the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, after which Castro’s priorities shifted to partnering with regional socialist figures such as Hugo Chávez in Venezuela and Evo Morales in Bolivia.

US policy towards Fidel Castro’s Cuba has been hugely mistaken. The USA forced Castro into the arms of the Soviet Union by seeking to destroy him and to impose its will on Cuba. In turn the Soviets tried to install nuclear missiles in Cuba as an offset to US nuclear missiles in Turkey. The subsequent stand off with Nikita Khrushchev before he backed down was the closest we came to nuclear Armageddon. The continuing US isolation and bullying of Cuba, a small weak country, has been shameful and ineffective. It harmed the development of Cuba and established an undesirable Cuban enclave in the USA. Treatment of Cuba is the biggest single reason for an unfavorable view of the USA worldwide.

Now with Castro ailing, the USA and Venezuela square off to direct Cuba’s future. Who will dominate post-Fidel Cuba?

Fidel Castro traditionally sends a message to Cuban citizens every New Year’s Eve to mark the anniversary of the Jan. 1, 1959, revolution that brought him to power. Yesterday, on the eve of the revolution’s 48th anniversary, the following statement was read by a newscaster on state television and radio—

I am grateful to you for your affection and support. Regarding my recovery, I have always warned that it could be a prolonged process, but it is far from being a lost battle. I collaborate as a disciplined patient, attended by the team of our doctors. I have had exchanges with our closest comrades always when cooperation has been necessary on vitally important issues.

Earlier Saturday, Cuba’s Communist Party daily reported that Castro telephoned the Chinese ambassador in Havana to wish President Hu Jintao a Happy New Year.

The government’s release of the message and the news about his call to the Chinese ambassador seemed aimed at ensuring the world that he is recovering, five months after he underwent emergency intestinal surgery.

Castro, 80, has not been seen in public since shortly before July 31 when he announced he was temporarily stepping aside while he recovered from his operation. He has provisionally ceded power to his brother Raul, the 75-year-old defense minister.

JANUARY 2

In 1905, Japanese Gen. Nogi received from Russian Gen. Stoessel at 9 o’clock P.M. a letter formally offering to surrender, ending the Russo-Japanese War.

Also on this day in:

On January 2nd, 1905, the letter received by Japanese Gen. Nogi from Russian Gen. Stoessel stated—

’Judging by the general condition of the whole line of hostile positions held by you I find further resistance at Port Arthur useless, and for the purpose of preventing needless sacrifice of lives I propose to hold negotiations with reference to capitulation. Should you consent to the same, you will please appoint Commissioners for discussing the order and conditions regarding capitulation, and also appoint a place for such Commissioners to meet the same appointed by me. I take this opportunity to convey to Your Excellency assurances of my respect.

Gen. Nogi responded—

’I have the honor to reply to your proposal to hold negotiations regarding the conditions and order of capitulation. For this purpose I have appointed as Commissioner Major Gen. Ijichi, Chief of Staff of our army. He will be accompanied by some staff officers and civil officials. They will meet your Commissioners Jan. 2, noon, at Shuishiying. The Commissioners of both parties will be empowered to sign a convention for the capitulation without waiting for ratification and cause the same to take immediate effect. Authorization for such plenary powers shall be signed by the highest officer of both the negotiating parties, and the same shall be exchanged by the respective Commissioners. I avail myself of this opportunity to convey to your Excellency assurance of my respect.

Comments

The diplomatic niceties were not reflected in future events. Ten of the Russian generals and admirals responsible for the defense of Port Arthur were court-martialed following General Stoessel’s surrender to the Japanese.

The opposing forces faced each other along a sixty to seventy mile front. They were so close in some locations that Russian troops could easily see the cigarette smoke from off-duty Japanese guards. The Russian lines stretched some 47 miles south of Mukden. At the Battle of Mukden, the Russians fielded an army of some 330,000 men against a Japanese force of nearly 270,000 in the largest military engagement in any war of the nineteenth century, including the American Civil War. The battles at Port Arthur and Mukden clearly demonstrated the lethality of modern warfare and foreshadowed the combined effects of hand grenades, mortars, machine guns and field artillery in World War I. In the two weeks of fighting, an estimated 53,000 Russian troops were either killed or wounded with another 40,000 taken prisoner. The Japanese lost an estimated 41,000 killed and wounded with about 34,000 taken prisoner.

The final defeat of the Russian army at the Battle of Mukden marked the end of the land war in Manchuria.

JANUARY3

In 1959, President Eisenhower signed a proclamation admitting Alaska to the Union as the 49th state.

Also on this day in:

On January 3rd, 1959, the proclamation came almost as an anti-climactic end to a forty-two-year struggle for statehood. The true climax came last June, when the Senate approved the statehood bill, 64 to 20. The proclamation noted the action of Congress, the acceptance of statehood by Alaska voters on Aug. 26, and the certification of the election of her state and national officers on Nov. 25 and concluded that:

The procedural requirements imposed by the Congress on the State of Alaska to entitle that state to admission into the Union have been complied with in all respects, and that admission of the State of Alaska into the Union on an equal footing with the other States of the Union is accomplished.

After the signing, President Eisenhower noted that there had been no such ceremony as the one this noon in almost half a century. President Williams Howard Taft signed the forty-eighth statehood proclamation—on Arizona—on Feb. 14, 1912.

Comments

Alaska has 640,000 residents occupying 570,374 square miles. Alaska is the largest state, about 2.3 times the size of Texas and about one-fifth the size of the Lower 48 states.

The state’s 2005 total gross state product was $39.9 billion. Its per-capita GSP for 2005 was $60,079, 3rd in the nation. Alaska’s economy relies heavily on petroleum extraction, with more than 80 percent of the state’s revenues derived from this industry.

Alaska is one of only six states with no state sales tax and one of seven states that do not levy an individual income tax. To finance state government operations, Alaska depends primarily on petroleum revenues.

JANUARY4

In 1965, President Johnson outlined the goals of his Great Society in his State of the Union address.

Also on this day in:

On January 4th, 1965, the President declared:

This, then, is the state of the union: free and restless, growing and full of hope.

Mr. Johnson emphasized an educational program that he said would require authorization of $1.5 billion in its first year. Government sources said that, coupled with existing programs, would bring expenditures for education to above $3 billion in the fiscal year beginning July 1—or twice the level of educational expenditures in the current fiscal year.

The President said the educational scheme would aid primary and secondary schools, particularly those serving low-income areas, and would include both public and private schools. Greater scholarship and loan aid was pledged to college students.

Mr. Johnson outlined his approach to the Great Society as follows:

He promised to maintain and increase national prosperity partly by the stimulus of a reduction in Federal excise taxes. He also asked Congress to streamline its procedures to make quick tax cuts possible and to make special funds available for emergency public work programs.

He requested doubling the war against poverty this year and called for new emphasis on area redevelopment, further efforts at retraining unskilled workers, an improvement in the unemployment compensation system and an extension of the minimum wage floor to two million workers now unprotected by it. No increase in the present $1.25-an-hour level of the minimum wage would be sought.

He asked for the enactment of a plan to provide medical care for the aged through the Social Security System, and for increased Social Security benefits to the aged. Previously, the President had termed this program his No. 1 priority.

Doubling the fight on poverty, Government sources said, meant seeking twice the current $780 million appropriation. The antipoverty program was started last year.

Comments

Two main goals of the Great Society social reforms were the elimination of poverty and of racial injustice. New major spending programs that addressed education, medical care, urban problems, and transportation were launched during this period. The Great Society in scope and sweep resembled the New Deal domestic agenda of Franklin Roosevelt, but differed sharply in types of programs.

Despite bigger Government and major expenditures there was little measurable success from the Great Society social reforms.

JANUARY 5

In 1914, Henry Ford, head of the Ford Motor Company, introduced a minimum wage scale of $5 per day.

Also on this day in:

On January 5th, 1914, Henry Ford, head of the Ford Motor Company, announced one of the most remarkable business moves of his entire remarkable career. In brief it is—

To give to the employees of the company $10,000,000 of the profits of the 1914 business, the payments to be made semi-monthly and added to the pay checks.

To run the factory continuously instead of only eighteen hours a day, giving employment to several thousand more men by employing three shifts of eight hours each, instead of only two nine-hour shifts, as at present.

To establish a minimum wage scale of $5 per day. Even the boy who sweeps up the floors will get that much.

Before any man in any department of the company who does not seem to be doing good work shall be discharged, an opportunity will be given to him to try to make good in every other department. No man shall be discharged except for proved unfaithfulness or irremediable inefficiency.

The Ford Company’s financial statement of Sept. 20, 1912, showed assets of $20,815,785.63, and surplus of $14,745,095.57. One year later it showed assets of $35,033,919.86 and surplus of $28,124,173.68. Dividends paid out during the year, it is understood, aggregated $10,000,000. The indicated profits for the year, therefore, were about $37,597,312. The company’s capital stock authorized and outstanding is $2,000,000. There is no bond issue.

Comments

Ford will slip to become the No. 3 automaker in the United States next year as Japanese rival Toyota powers ahead in the USA, the world’s largest market.

Ford, which is struggling with mounting losses in North America, has said it is aiming to hold its overall share of the U.S. light vehicle market at between 14 percent to 15 percent, including fleet sales, from the current 17.7 percent as it restructures by shutting 16 plants and cutting more than 50,000 jobs.

Detroit has lost its way.

JANUARY6

In 1912, Congress admitted New Mexico as the 47th state in the Union.

Also on this day in:

On January 6th, 1912, Congress admitted New Mexico as the 47th state in the Union. The admission of the neighboring State of Arizona on February 14, 1912 completed the contiguous 48 states.

The first inhabitants of New Mexico were Native Americans. Francisco Vasquez de Coronado assembled an enormous expedition in Mexico in 1540 to explore and find the mystical Seven Golden Cities. They found several mud baked pueblos in 1541, but no rich cities of gold. Over 50 years after Coronado, Juan de Oñate founded the San Juan colony on the Rio Grande in 1598, the first permanent European settlement in the future state of New Mexico. While developing Santa Fe as a trade center, settlers founded the old town of Albuquerque in 1706, naming it for the viceroy of New Spain, the Duke of Albuquerque. As a part of New Spain, the claims for the province of New Mexico passed to independent Mexico following the 1810-1821 Mexican War of Independence.

The Spanish Trail from Los Angeles, California to Santa Fe, New Mexico was primarily used by Hispanics, white traders and ex-trappers living part of the year in or near Santa Fe. Started in about 1829, the trail was an arduous 2,400 mile round trip sojourn that extended into Colorado, Utah, Nevada and California and back, allowing only one hard round trip per year. The trade consisted primarily of blankets and some trade goods from Santa Fe being traded for horses in California.

Following the Mexican-American War, from 1846-1848, Mexico forcibly ceded its mostly unsettled northern holdings, today known as the American Southwest and California to the United States of America in exchange for an end to hostilities, the evacuation of Mexico City and many other areas under American control. Mexico also received $15 million cash, plus the assumption of slightly more than $3 million in outstanding Mexican debts.

The railway encouraged the great cattle boom of the 1880s and the development of accompanying cow towns. The cattle barons could not keep out sheep herders, and eventually homesteaders and squatters overwhelmed the cattlemen by fencing in and plowing under the sea of grass on which the cattle fed. Conflicting land claims led to bitter quarrels among the original Spanish inhabitants, cattle ranchers, and newer homesteaders. Despite destructive overgrazing, ranching survived and remains a mainstay of the New Mexican economy.

Centuries of continued conflict with the Apache and the Navajo plagued the territory. The Long Walk of the Navajo in 1864 harshly repressed the Navajo and put an end to their raiding. The Navajo returned to most of their lands in 1868. Sporadic Apache raiding continued until Apache chief Geronimo finally surrendered in 1886.

Albuquerque, the largest city in New Mexico, on the upper Rio Grande, was incorporated in 1889.

Comments

The United States built the Los Alamos Research Center in New Mexico in 1943 and developed the atomic bomb, first detonated in the desert on July 16, 1945.

JANUARY 7

In 1979, Vietnamese forces captured the Cambodian capital of Phnom Penh, overthrowing the Khmer Rouge government.

Also on this day in:

On January 7th, 1979, the Cambodian capital, Phnom Penh, was captured, Vietnam and the insurgent front it is backing in Cambodia announced tonight. The regime of dictatorial, militarist domination of the Pol Pot-Ieng Sary clique has completely collapsed, the radio announcement declared. Nothing was said about the whereabouts of Prime Minister Pol Pot and Deputy Prime Minister Ieng Sary. The Hanoi broadcasts also reported the conquest of Kompong Som, Cambodia’s only major seaport and the point of entry for almost all the war material China has sent to Cambodian forces to allow them to continue fighting.

In November 1978, Vietnam invaded Cambodia to stop Khmer Rouge incursions across the border and the genocide of Vietnamese in Cambodia.

The ‘liberation’ of Phnom Penh came almost 45 months after the last remnants of the American-backed Lon Nol regime surrendered to the Communist forces under control of Mr. Pol Pot. The Lon Nol Government surrendered on April 17, 1975.

The Vietnamese backed Salvation Front said it would welcome defectors from the Pol Pot Government and army and ruled out reprisals against prisoners of war. It said, however, that defectors would have to be examined for their past actions before being granted the full rights of citizenship.

In a statement bound to infuriate China, which has thousands of advisers in Cambodia, the Salvation Front invited those people also to defect in return for good treatment. And it warned that advisers who oppose the revolution will be duly punished.

Also on this day in:

Comments

In 1965 the United States sent in troops to prevent the South Vietnamese government from collapsing. Ultimately, however, the United States failed to achieve its goal, and in 1975 Vietnam was reunified under Communist control; in 1976 it officially became the Socialist Republic of Vietnam. During the conflict, approximately 3.2 million Vietnamese were killed, in addition to another 1.5 million to 2 million Lao and Cambodians who were drawn into the war. Nearly 58,000 Americans lost their lives.

The Khmer Rouge was the extreme Communist party that ruled Cambodia from 1975 to 1979. Directly responsible for the death of about 750,000, the policies of the Khmer Rouge led, mainly through starvation and displacement, to the death of over 1 million people. The toll could have been as high as 3 million (from an estimated 1972 population of 7.1 million), through execution, starvation and forced labor. In terms of the number of people killed as a proportion of the population of the country it ruled, the Khmer Rouge was one of the most lethal regimes of the 20th century. One of their mottos, in reference to subjugated people, was: To keep you is no benefit. To destroy you is no loss.

After four years of brutal rule, the Khmer Rouge regime was removed from power in 1979 as a result of the invasion by the Socialist Republic of Vietnam, the very regime the USA had opposed in the Vietnam War.

To-day Vietnam’s economic growth continues to accelerate particularly as the Socialist Republic of Vietnam makes the switch from agriculture to capitalist industry. The growth is the fastest in Southeast Asia. Even more ironic than the ultimate victory of capitalism is that Vietnam’s economic expansion was led by exports to the United States.

In turn it is time for the USA to come to terms with its humiliation in the Vietnam War. Until it does the USA will continue to be a basket case with its Liberals fearfully undermining any positive leadership and police action anywhere in the world as has happened in Iraq and is happening in Iran.

JANUARY 8

In 1918, President Woodrow Wilson outlined his 14 points for peace after World War I.

President Wilson’s address bore a striking resemblance to the speech made last Saturday by Mr. Lloyd George, the British Prime Minister. The President was more definite in declaring that the wrong done to France though the annexation of Alsace-Lorraine must be righted and he differed from Mr. Lloyd George with regard to the Russian situation in that he held out to the Russian people an offer of assistance from America. No doubt was left in the minds of those who listened to the President’s words that this Government has entered heart and soul into the cause of the Entente Allies, to fight for the objects for which they are fighting to free Europe from the menace of Prussianism, to take Alsace-Lorraine from German domination, to prevent Russia from becoming part of the German Empire, to see that Italy has restored to her those portions of the Austro-Hungarian Empire that are inhabited by a people who are Italian in heart and blood, to bring all the Polish peoples into a common Government, to restore Belgium, Serbia, and the small nations that have been devastated by Teuton hordes, to their own, to give the separate nationalities of Austria-Hungary, Turkey and the Balkan States the right to govern themselves as separate entities, to have Northern France restored to French control.

Perhaps the most surprising evidence of responsiveness was given when the President referred to Alsace-Lorraine. He declared that the wrong, done to France by Prussia in 1871 in the matter of Alsace-Lorraine should be righted. Up to that time there had been hearty applause for several of the sentiments and war aims enunciated by Mr. Wilson. But when he referred to Alsace-Lorraine, floor and gallery made known its sympathy with this view in a way that left no doubt of the heartiest endorsement of the thing nearest to the heart of France.

With more feeling than he had shown at any time in the delivery of his address today or in any other important utterance made to the Congress, the President began reading his declaration with reference to the lost French provinces.

All French territory, he said, should be freed and the invaded portions restored, and the wrong done to France by Prussia in 1871 in the matter of Alsace-Lorraine— But here he was obliged to pause. A great shout went up from the Senators and Representatives. The whole Congress came to its feet and continued to express its approval with shouts and hand clapping. The galleries too rose to the occasion and soon the House was in a turmoil of enthusiasm that showed the President how deeply the American people were interested in the realization of France’s dearest hope.

Comments

The fighting in World War I ended when an armistice took effect on November 11, 1918. In the aftermath of World War I the political, cultural, and social order of the world was drastically changed, even outside the areas directly involved in the war. New countries were formed, old ones were abolished.

JANUARY9

In 1968, the Surveyor 7 space probe made a soft landing on the moon

Also on this day in:

On January 9th 1968, the Surveyor 7 space probe made a soft landing on the moon, marking the end of the American series of unmanned explorations of the lunar surface. The spacecraft was launched Sunday from Cape Kennedy, Fla. The first craft in the Surveyor series landed on the moon June 1, 1966, and Surveyor 6 landed last Nov. 9. Of the first six, four landed successfully and two failed because of malfunctions.

The Surveyor 7 spacecraft made a safe landing on the moon tonight, providing a triumphal conclusion to a seven year program that led to mechanized reconnaissance for a manned landing.

The 10-foot high vehicle weighing some 638 pounds had been hurtling toward the moon at 6,000 miles an hour. It was braked by retarding rockets in the last three minutes of its 225,000 mile flight to set down gently. Scientists at the California Institute of Technology’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory here breathed a collective sigh of relief as radio signals continued to stream in, indicating that the Surveyor had beaten unfavorable odds against landing undamaged on terrain of unknown ruggedness.

First reports indicated that the craft had landed almost precisely on its aiming point just north of the crater Tyco in the moon’s unexamined southern hemisphere. Just 45 minutes after touchdown, the Surveyor’s television cameras began transmitting pictures. The first pictures, transmitted to earth and instantly displayed on television screens, showed segments of the moon’s horizon in the background. This provided a proportional indication of big irregularities in the moon’s surface shown in the foreground. There appeared to be scatterings of large boulders and extensive, lake-like indentations, curved as if by erosion.

Scientists hope the $60 million experiment will provide a wealth of new information about the earth’s closest neighbor. The tripodal spacecraft is laden like a Christmas tree with gadgets. It is by far the most sophisticated of the seven craft the National Aeronautics and Space Administration has launched to the moon over the last 18 months as precursors of the Apollo manned flights to be carried out by 1970. Surveyor 7’s equipment even includes a mechanical arm and hand movable with less than two seconds lag by radio signal from the control room here.

Comments

The Surveyor Program consisted of unmanned spaceflights to the Moon, with soft landings, without returning (although Surveyor 6 became the first spacecraft to lift off the moon).

•   Surveyor 1—Launched May 30, 1966; landed on Oceanus Procellarum, June 2, 1966

•   Surveyor 2—Launched September 20, 1966; crashed near Copernicus crater, September 23, 1966

•   Surveyor 3—Launched April 17, 1967; landed on Oceanus Procellarum, April 20, 1967

•   Surveyor 4—Launched July 14, 1967; crashed on Sinus Medii, July 17, 1967

•   Surveyor 5—Launched September 3, 1967; landed on Mare Tranquillitatis, September 11, 1967

•   Surveyor 6—Launched November 7, 1967; landed on Sinus Medii, November 10, 1967

•   Surveyor 7—Launched January 7, 1968; landed near Tycho crater, January 10, 1968

Apollo 12 landed within walking distance of the Surveyor 3 landing site. It was initiated and carried out to demonstrate the feasibility of soft landing on the Moon and was undertaken in preparation for the Apollo Program.

Project Apollo was a series of human spaceflight missions undertaken by the United States of America (NASA) using the Apollo spacecraft and Saturn launch vehicle, conducted during the years 1961-1975. It was devoted to the goal of (in U.S. President John F. Kennedy’s words) landing a man on the Moon and returning him safely to the Earth within the decade of the 1960s. This goal was achieved with the Apollo 11 mission in July 1969.

JANUARY 10

In 1946, the first General Assembly of the United Nations convened in London.

Also on this day in:

On January 10th 1946, the fifty-one nations of the greatest war-time coalition in history, representing four-fifths of the people in the world, started today another chapter in man’s melancholy search for peace and security.

One hundred and forty-seven days after the close of the war that cost more than 20 million casualties and left countless millions homeless, and on the twenty-sixth anniversary of the ratification of the ill-fated League of Nations Covenant, the nations met this afternoon in the blue and gold auditorium of the Central Hall of Westminster for the first meeting of the United Nations General Assembly.

The leading place on today’s program was reserved for a Socialist Prime Minister of Britain—symbolical not only of the rise of the Socialists in Britain but of the swing to the left in many parts of the Allied world. Greeting them on behalf of Britain, which served as the spring-board for the final conquest of Germany, Prime Minister Attlee told them frankly that they would succeed in their new venture only if they brought the same sense of urgency, the same self-sacrifice and the same willingness to subordinate sectional interests with which they fought the war.

There were striking contrasts that indicated the changes of history and illustrated the form and structure of the new security organization. Twenty-five years ago Italy, Japan and Rumania were present because they guessed right about the outcome of the first German war, but today they were absent because they guessed wrong about the second German war. Then the neutrals, Sweden and Portugal, were present because the League of Nations accepted the right of nations to remain neutral in war, but today they were absent because they were not invited and because they are not prepared to abandon their neutrality whenever the Security Council votes the UN powers into action against an aggressor.

The role of France today was more obscure. Overrun in this war, she was allowed to sit in on the major powers over the elections of the officers, but her role was definitely secondary.

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As of 2006, there are 192 United Nations member states, encompassing almost every recognized independent state. From its headquarters in New York City, the UN and its specialized agencies decide on substantive and administrative issues in regular meetings held throughout each year. The organization is divided into administrative bodies, including the General Assembly, Security Council, Economic and Social Council, Secretariat, Trusteeship Council, and the International Court of Justice (ICJ). Additional bodies deal with the governance of all other UN