December 13, 2023
QUOTE
The fear of God makes a hero; the fear of man makes a coward.
--Alvin C. York
BIRTHDAYS
1780 – Johann Wolfgang Döbereiner, German chemist, invented the Döbereiner’s lamp
1816 – Werner von Siemens, German engineer and businessman, founded Siemens
1818 – Mary Todd Lincoln, 16th First Lady of the United States
1887 – Alvin C. York, Colonel, Medal of Honor recipient
1925 – Dick Van Dyke, Actor, singer, and dancer
1929 – Christopher Plummer, Canadian actor and producer
IN MEMORY
1466 – Donatello, Italian painter and sculptor
1784 – Samuel Johnson, English poet and lexicographer
1961 – Grandma Moses, Painter
2018 – Noah Klieger, Holocaust survivor who became an award-winning Israeli journalist
IN ON THIS DAY
1577 – Sir Francis Drake sets sail from Plymouth, England, on his round-the-world voyage.
1623 – The Plymouth Colony establishes the system of trial by 12-men jury in the American colonies.
1636 – The Massachusetts Bay Colony organizes three militia regiments to defend the colony against the Pequot Indians, a date now considered the founding of the National Guard of the United States.
1962 – NASA launches Relay 1, the first active repeater communications satellite in orbit.
1974 – In the Vietnam War, the North Vietnamese forces launch their 1975 Spring Offensive (to 30 April 1975), which results in the final capitulation of South Vietnam.