SEPTEMBER 29 — 1955 Happy Birthday adventurer Ann Bancroft (tackled Artic and Antartic); 2005 NYT reporter Judith Miller released from jail; 1818 Happy Amniversary Samuel Morse/Lucretia Walker; Sports: 1985 Warren Moon, Oilers sacked 12 times by Cowboys, 1954 Willie Mays makes famous over the shoulder catch
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SEPTEMBER 29
1955 – happy birthday author, teacher, adventurer, and proud member of the National Women’s Hall of Fame Ann Bancroft.
No I’m not talking about the Ann Bancroft that was married to Mel Brooks. This Ann, subtracting the “e” from the end of her first name, from St. Paul Minnesota was the first woman to tackle both the Aortic and the Antarctic.
At the same time.
Okay not at the same time, excuse my melodrama.
In 1986 she was the first female to reach Santa’s front gate by foot and by dogsled. She then became the first woman to ski across Greenland. In 1993 she skis to the south pole, and she didn’t do it alone. She led the American Women’s Expedition to Antarctica to join and thus become the first women’s group to reach the south pole. Being openly gay, Bancroft is a vocal supporter of same sex marriage in the state of Minnesota.
Ann Bancroft everybody, like a boss!
1918 – The Hindenburg line is broken.
…On September 27, the 105th and 106th Infantry Regiments from the New York National Guard captured German held positions at the Knoll, Gillemont Farm and Quennemont Farm. But on September 29, the 107th and 108th infantry Regiments began attacking the Germans on the Hindenburg line. The Hindenburg Line, or the Siegfried Line as the Germans called it, was a heavily fortified area that a several miles near the north coast of France. It had six defensive lines, forming a 6,000 yard zone and well protected. The Hundred Days Offensive began August 8 1918 as Australian, British, French and American forces combined to attack the Hindenburg line.
The 107th sustained the highest number of casualties, over 300 killed and 648 wounded, of any American regiment in a single day during the war. Four men were awarded the Medal of Honor, according to nysm.nysed.govwhich stands for New York’s National Guard in the American century. On October 1, the 3rd Australian Division leapfrogged over the Americans and continued the Hindenburg line breach. With the loss of its last and best line of fortifications, the German Army began a general retreat toward the Le Selle River. The Allies remained in close pursuit. 20005 Car Bombings by Iraqi insurgents in bald kill at l least 95 and injures over a hundred at a vegetable market, bank and police station.
1818 –happy Anniversary Samuel Morse and Lucretia Walker,
…who got married in Concord New Hampshire. Remember – Morse painted art for a living before he made the telegraph. He was commissioned on a paining job in New York when he received word that Lucretia was dying, and by the time Morse got to New Hampshire she was already dead. Morse’s guilt for not being there to say goodbye to her was so overcoming, it is what ssparked his fuel to invent a quicker way of long distance communication which led to Morse code.
2005 – New York Times reporter Judith Miller is released from jail.
…The Plame affair was a political scandal that dealt yet another embarrassing blow to George W. Bush’s presidency. Valerie Plame is a covert CIA officer whose husband, US diplomat Joseph Wilson, wrote a piece In the Times challenging Bush’s assertion of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. Journalist Robert Novak revealed Plame’s identity which is illegal since Plame’s business was classified.
Her husband blamed the Bush administration for letting this happen, saying it was in retaliation for his piece being published. Miller was arrested for not revealing her source, until top white house aide Scooter Libby signed a waiver giving her permission to speak. This led to a scandal, and hen a criminal investigation. Libby was convicted of obstruction of justice, perjury and making false statements to federal investigators in the Plame investigation, but President Bush let him off the hook.
1985 – Warren Moon of the Houston Oilers is sacked by the Dallas Cowboys 12 times.
1954 = Willie Mays makes his famous over the shoulder catch of Vic Wertz’ drive