JULY 18 — 1918 2nd Battle of Marnes; 1921 Happy Birthday aviator John Glenn; 1969 Ted Kennedy loses car in river; 1951 Wilcott becomes oldest to win boxing heavyweight title
JULY 18
1918 – Second Battle of Marne.
…France, the U.S., the U.K., and Italy V the German Empire. The result: Decisive Allied victory. Not to mention the last German offensive on the Western Front. To quote worldwar1.com, the American Expeditionary Force with over 250,000 men fighting under overall French command played key roles both in the initial defense and the later advances. In the Second Battle of Marne with 30,000 killed and wounded, the United States started suffering casualties on the enormous scale usually associated with the battles of the Great War.
By early July 1918, it became obvious that the Germans would not be able to launch more than one other great attack. By now, it was generally assumed that if the Germans attacked the fight would surely go down in Champagne. Ferdinand Foch, French leader of the Allies, authorized a counter offense on the 18th of July, and initiated 24 divisions of the French Army, along with American, UK and Italian troops. Once the American troops arrived, Ding Ding, it was on. The Allied reserves were now ready for the counterattack, and as expected by the High Council, the Champagne front managed to hold with the troops already there. French General Charles “The Butcher” margin and his Tenth Army, as well as the Sixth Army led the attack, advancing five miles on the first day alone. The French Fifth Army and Ninth Army meanwhile launched subsidiary attacks in the west.
By the 20th of July, the Germans retreated.
the Allied Command retained complete freedom in the selection of the front upon which the counterattack should fall. The selection by the Germans of Champagne and the eastern face of the Marne salient, as the fronts on which they were to make their last effort was fortunate for the Allies; for this decision of the enemy allowed an Allied counterattack which, while affording immediate relief to the enemy’s thrust, would also obtain other advantages for the Allied cause.
1921 – Happy Birthday aviator, engineer, astronaut, and US Senator from Ohio John Glenn.
What a slacker, huh? I say that sarcastically, obviously. You realize this guy once circled planet Earth three times? If I try circle around anything three times I’m dizzier than a bessy bug. He didn’t just circle the Earth, though. John Glenn was the first American to orbit the Earth during the space race with the Soviet Union. Born in Ohio today 1921 in Ohio, Glenn left college to fight as a Marine pilot in WWII, China and Korea, where he shot down three MIG-15 aircraft and received tons of awards. After Korea, Glenn set his first record when he flew from L.A. to New York in less than 3.5 hours. In 1959, NASA chose Glenn and six astronauts to fly on the Mercury spacecraft.
After being part of the Mercury 7, Glenn flew the Friendship 7 mission, and that my friends are when he became the first American to orbit our beloved planet. As you can imagine, the awards, medals, and induction into the United States Astronaut Hall of Fame. John Glenn resigned and began a life of politics in Ohio, when he served as Democratic Senator from 1970 to 1999, yes four terms folks.
And if that weren’t amazing enough, before he finished his term; on October 29, 1998 at age 77 years old, John Glenn was launched into space as part of the Discovery Team, and spent 9 days out there; the oldest person to ever do so. John Glenn passed away December 8, 2016. Happy birthday John!
1923 – Happy Birthday Jerry Lemelson from NYC.
Wiki says he help patent and innovate automatic warehouses, industrial robots, cordless telephones,l fax machines, video cassette recorders, camcorders, and magnetic tape drives that were used in Sony walkman tape players.
1969 – Ted Kennedy loses control of his car
…and his passenger on Chappaquiddick Island. Senator Ted Kennedy of Massachusetts, according to his testimony, was driving his Oldsmobile, along with his passenger 28-year old Mary Jo Kopechne from a party when he accidentally drove it off a wooden bridge into a tide-swept pond. Kennedy was able to get out of the car but Mary Jo wasn’t. He allegedly tried to look for her but couldn’t find her. For some reason he didn’t report the incident until the morning, and his his car and Mary Jo were found sunk to the bottom, just like Ted’s chances for presidency.
Or as National Lampoon said, Hey Ted, are you going to run for President? Ted: I’ll drive off that bridge when I get to it. Oh I just didn’t say that.
Ted’s wife blamed her subsequent miscarriage on the incident, so I suppose it caused two deaths. On July 25, Kennedy pleaded guilty to leaving the scene of an accident, and although his chances of becoming president were nill, he was able to serve as a US senator of Massachusetts.
In boxing news…
1951 – Jersey Joe Walcott at age 37 becomes the oldest to win heavyweight champion