Good Morning & God Bless To Every One !
Today is February 19, the 50th day of 2014 and there are 315 days left this year where it is another Blessed Day in the pleasure of our service for our Lord here at:
For God’s Glory Alone Ministries !!!
Let’s get started with a good laugh first: There was a very gracious lady who was mailing an old family bible to her brother in another part of the country. “Is there anything breakable in here?” asked the postal clerk. “Only the Ten Commandments,” answered the lady.
So, What Happened Today In 1881?
United States calls the situation in El Salvador a communist plot
During the Cold War, the U.S. government releases a report detailing how the “insurgency in El Salvador has been progressively transformed into a textbook case of indirect armed aggression by communist powers.” The report was another step indicating that the new administration of Ronald Reagan was prepared to take strong measures against what it perceived to be the communist threat to Central America.
When the Reagan administration took office in 1981, it faced two particularly serious problems in Central America. In Nicaragua, the Reagan administration was worried about the Sandinista regime, a leftist government that took power in 1979 after the fall of long-time dictator Anastacio Somoza. In El Salvador, the administration was concerned about a growing civil war between government forces and leftist rebels. Brutal violence on the part of the Salvadoran military–offenses that included the 1980 rape and murder of four U.S. missionaries had caused the Jimmy Carter administration to cut off aid to the country.
In both nations, Reagan officials were convinced that the Soviet Union was the catalyst for the troubles. To address the situation in Nicaragua, the Reagan administration began to covertly assist the so-called Contras-rebel forces that opposed the Sandinista regime and were based primarily in Honduras and Costa Rica. For El Salvador, the February 19 report was the first volley. The State Department memorandum indicated that the “political direction, organization and arming of the Salvadoran insurgency is coordinated and heavily influenced by Cuba with the active support of the Soviet Union, East Germany, Vietnam and other communist states.” It thereupon provided a “chronology” of the communist involvement in El Salvador.
In response to this perceived threat, the United States dramatically increased its military assistance to the government of El Salvador, provided U.S. advisors to the Salvadoran armed forces, and began a series of National Guard “training exercises” in and around El Salvador. To no one’s surprise, the conflict in El Salvador escalated quickly and charges of torture, kidnapping, and assassination flew from both sides of the civil war. During the 1980s, U.S. military assistance to El Salvador topped nearly $5 billion, but the violence and instability continued unabated. In 1992, the United Nations and President Oscar Arias of Costa Rica arbitrated an agreement between the warring factions in El Salvador. A U.N. commission also condemned U.S. complicity in atrocities committed by the Salvadoran military. President George Bush (who served as Reagan’s vice-president in the previous administration) discounted the U.N. accusations, but claimed that peace in El Salvador was the product of a vigorous U.S. response to communist subversion in the western hemisphere.
Other Memorable Or Interesting Events Occurring On February 19 In History:
1473 – Nicolaus Copernicus is born in Torun, Poland on the Vistula River. The father of modern astronomy, he was the first modern European scientist to propose that Earth and other planets revolve around the sun. For decades, his writings, De revolutionibus remained unknown to all but the most sophisticated astronomers, and most of these men, while admiring some of Copernicus’ arguments, rejected his heliocentric basis. It was not until the early 17th century that Galileo and Johannes Kepler developed and popularized the Copernican theory, which for Galileo resulted in a trial and conviction for heresy. Following Isaac Newton’s work in celestial mechanics in the late 17th century, acceptance of the Copernican theory spread rapidly in non-Catholic countries, and by the late 18th century it was almost universally accepted;
1777 – In the American Revolutionary War, the Continental Congress promotes six brigadier-generals to the rank of major-general. Although the promotions were intended to balance the number of generals from each state, Brigadier-General Benedict Arnold felt slighted that junior officers received promotions ahead of him and, in response, threatened to resign from the Patriot army. Despite having the support of George Washington, Arnold continued to feel unjustly overlooked by his superiors. In 1780, Arnold betrayed his country by offering to hand over the Patriot-held fort at West Point, New York, to the British. His plot was foiled, and Arnold, the hero of Ticonderoga and Saratoga, became the most famous traitor in American history. He continued to fight on the side of the British in the Revolution and, after the war, returned to Britain, where he died destitute in London in 1801;
1807 – Former Vice President Aaron Burr is arrested in Alabama for treason. He is later found innocent, nevertheless, public opinion condemned him as a traitor;
1821 – Future Union General Francis Preston Blair Jr. is born in Lexington, Kentucky. The colorful Blair was instrumental in keeping Missouri part of the Union during the early stages of the Civil War. When the Civil War erupted, he organized Missouri’s Unionist forces and helped save the federal arsenal in St. Louis from the Confederates. Blair personally organized seven regiments from Missouri, and became a brigadier-general, winning the respect of his superiors, Ulysses S. Grant and William T. Sherman. Blair commanded a corps during Sherman’s March to the Sea in Georgia in 1864;
1847 – The first rescuers reach surviving members of the Donner Party, a group of California-bound emigrants stranded by snow in the Sierra Nevada Mountains. Rescuers found the camp completely snowbound and the surviving emigrants delirious with relief at their arrival. Rescuers fed the starving group as well as they could and then began evacuating them. Three more rescue parties arrived to help, but the return to Sutter’s Fort proved equally harrowing, and the last survivors didn’t reach safety until late April. Of the 89 original members of the Donner Party, only 45 reached California;
1881 – Kansas prohibits the manufacture and sale of alcoholic beverages;
1884 – An astonishing series of 37 tornadoes sweeps across the Southeast United States. The twisters, which came at a time in which there was no warning system in place to alert area residents, killed 167 people and injured another 1,000;
1902 – Small Pox vaccination becomes obligatory in France;
1913 – First prize is inserted into a ‘Cracker Jack’ box;
1915 – In World War I, British and French battleships launch a massive attack on Turkish positions at the entrance to the Dardanelles, the narrow strait separating Europe from Asia in northwestern Turkey and the only waterway linking the Mediterranean Sea to the Black Sea. On April 25, troops from Britain, Australia and New Zealand launched a ground invasion of the Gallipoli Peninsula, which bordered the northern side of the strait. The Turkish defense soon pushed the Allies back to the shore, inflicting heavy casualties. Trenches were dug, and the conflict settled into a bloody stalemate for the next eight months. Some 250,000 Allied soldiers died at Gallipoli; Turkish casualty rates were roughly the same. In December, the exhausted and frustrated Allied forces began their retreat. The last Allied soldiers left Gallipoli on January 8, 1916. As a result of the disastrous campaign, Winston Churchill resigned as First Lord of the Admiralty and accepted a commission to command an infantry battalion in France;
1942 – Tommy Dorsey and his orchestra recorded “I’ll Take Tallulah“; watch here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2QFopiZWQ1I;
1942 – President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066, clearing the way for the U.S. military to relocate and intern Japanese-Americans during World War II;
1945 – In World War II, Operation Detachment, the U.S. Marines’ invasion of Iwo Jima, is launched. The Americans had been applying pressure to the Japanese defense of the island with B-24 and B-25 bombers raiding the island for 74 days. The amphibious landings of Marines began the morning of February 19 as the Secretary of the Navy, James Forrestal surveyed the scene from a command ship offshore. As the Marines made their way onto the island, seven Japanese battalions opened fire on them. By evening, more than 550 Marines were dead and more than 1,800 were wounded. The capture of Mount Suribachi, the highest point of the island and bastion of the Japanese defense, took four more days and many more casualties. When the American flag was finally raised on Iwo Jima, the memorable image was captured in a famous photograph that later won the Pulitzer Prize;
1959 – Britain, Turkey and Greece sign agreement granting Cyprus its independence;
1963 – Following the Cuban missile crises which ended October 28 of 1962, the U.S.S.R. informs John F. Kennedy it’s withdrawing several thousand troops from Cuba;
1965 – During the Vietnam War, fourteen war protesters are arrested for blocking the United Nations’ doors in New York;
1966 – In the Vietnam War, Robert F. Kennedy suggests the United States offer the Vietcong a role in governing South Vietnam;
1987 – First ‘Anti-Smoking’ television advertisement appears featuring Yul Brynner;
1997 – FCC makes available 311 for non-emergency calls and 711 for hearing or speech-impaired emergency calls;
2004 – Former Enron Corp. chief executive Jeffrey Skilling was brought to court in handcuffs, charged with fraud, insider trading and other crimes in connection with the energy trader’s colossal collapse. Skilling was later convicted of 19 counts and sentenced to 24 years and four months in prison;
2008 – An ailing Fidel Castro resigned the Cuban presidency after nearly a half-century in power; his brother Raul was later named to succeed him;
2009 – President Barack Obama made a quick visit to Canada, his first trip outside the U.S. since taking office; he reassured Prime Minister Stephen Harper that the U.S. was not cultivating a protectionist streak despite its economic difficulties;
2010 – The Vatican approves of Australian Mary MacKillop as their first saint for canonization;
2013 – For three hours, NASA loses communication with the International Space Station as a result of updating the station’s command and control software;
2013 – It was one year ago TODAY !
Now, Off To The Fun Stuff !
Today’s Patriotic Quote:
“Liberty will come to those who love it.”
President George W. Bush
Today’s Thought/Quote For The Day:
“There is, I think, nothing in the world more futile than the attempt to find out how a task should be done when one has not yet decided what the task is.”
– Alexander Meiklejohn American educator (1872-1964)
Today’s Computer Humor:
Today’s Funny Animal Video:
Funny Dog’s – https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=S1Qn9wVLED0
Today’s Amazing Card Trick Video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=DX7v6pK0lrU
Today’s Try Not To Smile Picture:
Today’s Fact Of The Day:
Bears can run up to 40 miles per hour, fast enough to catch a running horse. The fastest known human alive today is Usain Bolt, who can run 27 mph.
Today’s Thought For The Day:
“A morning-glory at my window satisfies me more than the metaphysics of books.”
– Walt Whitman
Today’s Picture Taken With Impeccable Timing:
Today’s Trivia:
Eyelashes usually last around five months.
Today’s Word For The Day:
acedia, noun: Apathy; boredom; sloth.
Today’s ‘I Love You – Will You Be My Pillow?’:
Today’s Positive Quote:
Hold yourself responsible for a higher standard than anybody else expects of you. Never excuse yourself. Never pity yourself. Be a hard master to yourself – and be lenient to everybody else.
– Henry Ward Beecher
Today’s Founder’s Quote:
“All are subject by nature to equal laws of morality, and in society have a right to equal laws for their government, yet no two men are perfectly equal in person, property, understanding, activity, and virtue, or ever can be made so by any power less than that which created them.”
– John Adams, 1776
Today’s AWE of GOD Picture:
Today’s Clever Word For Clever People:
EYEDROPPER: A clumsy Ophthalmologist
Today’s Phyllis Quote:
“We spend the first twelve months of our children’s lives teaching them to walk and talk and the next twelve years telling them to sit down and shut up.’
Phyllis Diller
Today’s Life’s Lesson:
Today’s Astute Visionary:
“The abdomen, the chest, and the brain will forever be shut from the intrusion of the wise and humane surgeon.”
– Sir John Eric Ericksen, British surgeon, appointed Surgeon-Extraordinary to Queen Victoria 1873
Today’s Lexophile Word Play:
Those who get too big for their pants will be exposed in the end.
Today’s Let’s Be Friends Picture:
Today’s Inspirational Music Video:
Forever – https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=huFra1mnIVE
Today’s Bible Humor:
Q. Who was the greatest financier in the Bible?
A. Noah. He was floating his stock while everyone else was in liquidation.
Today’s Funny Church Sign:
Today’s Verse & Prayer:
Dear friends, since God loved us that much, we surely ought to love each other. No one has ever seen God. But if we love each other, God lives in us, and his love is brought to full expression in us.
– 1 John 4:11-12
Father, it is so comforting to know that you are not far away and that you live in me. Help me see others with your eyes and respond to their needs with your heart so that your love may be complete in me. In the name of Jesus I pray. Amen
It’s been a long night so I’m off for my nap:
So, Until Tomorrow – America, Bless God !!!
