JUNE 26 — 1948 Berlin Airlift begins; 1844 Happy Anniversary President John and First Lady Julia Tyler; 1993 bill Clinton punishes Iraq; 1993 Happy Anniversary Julia Roberts/Lyle Lovett
JUNE 26
1948 – Berlin Airlift begins.
…After WWII, Germany was split into three sections: The US, Great Britain and France, and the third part on the east side were the Soviet Union. Same thing with Berlin. In June 1948, the UUR tried controlling all of Berlin by cutting traffic to and from West Berlin. I guess the Soviets figured by starving and freezing the people to death they would just embrace the fun of communism.
But Give Em Hell President Harry Truman knew better and began a daily airlift with Britain which brought food, supplies and coal into the city of West Berlin by airlift.
According to ushistory.org, Truman had thrown the gauntlet at Russian leader Josef Stalin’s feet. The USSR had to now choose between war and peace. Stalin refused to give the order to shoot down the American planes.
Over the next eleven months, British and American planes flew over 4000 tons of supplies daily into West Berlin. As the American public cheer Operation Bittles, Stalin began to look bad in the eyes of the world. He was clearly willing to use innocent civilians as pawns to quench his expansionist thirst.
In May 1949, the Soviets ended the blockade, the US and Britain had flown over 250,000 supply missions.
1797 – Charles Newbold patents a cast iron plow.
…But he couldn’t sell it to farmers. Why? Because you can’t use iron on soil or the soil will poison. Charles, my man. Next try a little R&D before you patent something.
1844 – John and Julia Tyler get hitched.
54-year old President Tyler had recently lost his first wife Letitia Christian Tyler to a stroke. The two had eight children together. Julia Gardiner, the Rose of Long Island was young, pretty, and very social.
She was the daughter of former New York Senator David Gardner, who tragically died on Feb 28. That was the day the President, several cabinet members, papa Gardner and daughter Gardner, and several other bigwigs sailed down the Potomac in the USS Princeton. I go into this story in detail on my Feb 28th ep, but long story short cannon went off and exploded on the ship, killing Papa Gardner.
His Accidence President Tyler was downstairs at that particular moment, and came up just in time to catch Julia, who fainted when she got the news her father died. From there on out, the two followed their destiny and soon got married on this day in 1844. She was 24, he was 30 years younger. In fact, the new first lady of the White House was 5 years younger than the president’s oldest daughter.
Weird.
It was said that she was a gold-digger and he needed a trophy wife. A match made I n heaven. Julia Tyler might rival only Jacqueline Kennedy for her flamboyancy: diamond headbands, spirals in her hair, maids of honor dressed in white, and that beautiful greyhound that she would walk, given to her as a present from her husband. She rode around town in a carriage being pulled by six white Arabian horses. Because that wasn’t screaming pay attention to me or anything, #sarcasm.lol .
When her husband entered the room, she began the tradition of having the Marine band play Hail to the Chief, although some historians argue that Sarah Polk started that tradition. John and Julia loved to spend big money on lavish parties at the White House. This is where the Julia Waltz was invented, which was pretty shocking considering waltzes and polkas were very European and America was much more uptight about that type of dancing at the time.
But John’s career was short lived. He flip flopped on his support for the annexation of Texas and slavery in general, and would not only not seek reelection, but actually got kicked out of the Whigs. He tried to have more parties to get back into his party, and everyone showed up at the Tyler’s expense, but it was clear he no longer had actual support from anyone. The couple moved to a plantation in Virginia, and the Rose of Long Island switched from being a Yankee to becoming a Dixie.
The Civil War was in full force when John died in 1862, leaving Julia virtually penniless. For her, the party was over. She took her newly found southern ways and eventually moved back to New York, where she became a southern target as she outspokenly taunted the Northerners. As a Confederate, sympathizer, she had a tough time receiving ex-first lady compensation from the US Congress.
Thirty years after John passed away, Julia would pass away as well, ironically in the same hotel her husband died. Happy anniversary, John and Julia!
In more Civil War news…
1862 – Battle of Beaver Damn Creek.
…According to civilwar.org, the Second of the Seven days battles, Confederate Gen. Robert E Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia initiated his offensive against Union General George B.
McClellan’s Army of the Potomac’s right flank north of the Chickhominy River. A.P. Hill threw his division, reinforced by one of D> Hill’s brigades, into a series of futile assaults against Brig. Gen. Fitz John Porter’s V Corps, which was drawn up behind Beaver Dam Creek Confederate attacks were driven back with heavy casualties.
Jackson’s Shenandoah Valley divisions, however, were approaching from the northwest, forcing Porter to withdraw the next morning to a positionn behind Boatswain Creek just beyond Gaine’s Mill.
1993 – Clinton orders attack on Iraq
… in retaliation for the George HW Bush assassination attempt.
On April 13, 1993, 17 Iraqi nationals were arrested by Kuwaiti officials suspected in a plot to kill Bush a day before Bush was to be honored for ousting Saddam Hussein out of Iraq. The Kuwaitis found about 80 kilograms of plastic explosives inside their Toyota Landcruiser as well as ten cube bombs.
Because the nationals admitted to the FBI the Iraqi Intelligence Service was behind the idea, the fact that the FBI and CIA found the bombs to be linked to the same explosives made in Iraq, and that Saddam had been plotting to kill former President Bush for some time, that was enough for President Slick Willie Clinton, and he used Tomahawk missiles to attack Baghdad.
1993 – Happy anniversary Julia Robert and Lyle Lovett.
…They divorced some two years later, I think.