Britain’s Operation Dynamo gets underway as President Roosevelt makes a radio appeal for the Red Cross
On this day in 1940, American President Franklin D. Roosevelt makes known the dire straits of Belgian and French civilians suffering the fallout of the British-German battle to reach the northern coast of France, and appeals for support for the Red Cross
“Tonight, over the once peaceful roads of Belgium and France, millions are now moving, running from their homes to escape bombs and shells and machine gunning, without shelter, and almost wholly without food,” broadcast FDR.
On May 26, the British Expeditionary Force was evacuated from Dunkirk in France. Ships arrived at Calais to remove the Force before German troops occupied the area, and it was hoped that 45,000 British soldiers could be shipped back to Britain within two days. The German air force, though, had other plans. Determined to prevent the evacuation, the Luftwaffe initiated a bombing campaign in Dunkirk and the surrounding area. British, Polish, and Canadian fighter pilots succeeded in fending off the German attack in the air, allowing finally for a delayed, but successful, evacuation nine days later. But the cost to civilians was great, as thousands of refugees fled for their lives to evade the fallout of the battle.
“Britain’s Operation Dynamo gets underway as President Roosevelt makes a radio appeal for the Red Cross.” 2008. The History Channel website. 25 May 2008, 10:27 http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history.do?action=Article&id=6422.
0017 – Germanicus of Rome celebrated his victory over the Germans.
1521 – Martin Luther was banned by the Edict of Worms because of his religious beliefs and writings.
1647 – A new law banned Catholic priests from the colony of Massachusetts. The penalty was banishment or death for a second offense.
1736 – The British and Chickasaw Indians defeated the French at the Battle of Ackia.
1791 – The French Assembly forced King Louis XVI to hand over the crown and state assets.
1805 – Napoleon Bonaparte was crowned King of Italy in Milan Cathedral.
1831 – Russians defeated the Poles at battle of Ostrolenska.
1864 – The Territory of Montana was organized.
1868 – U.S. President Andrew Johnson was acquitted, by one vote, of all charges in his impeachment trial.
1896 – The last czar of Russia, Nicholas II, was crowned.
1938 – The House Committee on Un-American Activities began its work of searching for subversives in the United States.
1946 – A patent was filed in the United States for an H-bomb.
1959 – The word “Frisbee” became a registered trademark of Wham-O.
1972 – The Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty (SALT I) was signed by the U.S. and USSR. The short-term agreement put a freeze on the testing and deployment of intercontinental and submarine-launched ballistic missiles for a 5-year period.
1977 – George H. Willig was arrested after he scaled the South Tower of New York’s World Trade Center. It took him 3 1/2 hours.
1994 – U.S. President Clinton renewed trade privileges for China, and announced that his administration would no longer link China’s trade status with its human rights record.
Pequot massacres begin
During the Pequot War, an allied Puritan and Mohegan force under English Captain John Mason attacks a Pequot village in Connecticut, burning or massacring some 500 Indian women, men, and children.
As the Puritans of Massachusetts Bay spread further into Connecticut, they came into increasing conflict with the Pequots, a war-like tribe centered on the Thames River in southeastern Connecticut. By the spring of 1637, 13 English colonists and traders had been killed by the Pequot, and Massachusetts Bay Governor John Endecott organized a large military force to punish the Indians. On April 23, 200 Pequot warriors responded defiantly to the colonial mobilization by attacking a Connecticut settlement, killing six men and three women and taking two girls away.
On May 26, 1637, two hours before dawn, the Puritans and their Indian allies marched on the Pequot village at Mystic, slaughtering all but a handful of its inhabitants. On June 5, Captain Mason attacked another Pequot village, this one near present-day Stonington, and again the Indian inhabitants were defeated and massacred. On July 28, a third attack and massacre occurred near present-day Fairfield, and the Pequot War came to an end. Most of the surviving Pequot were sold into slavery, though a handful escaped to join other southern New England tribes.
“Pequot massacres begin.” 2008. The History Channel website. 25 May 2008, 10:26 http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history.do?action=Article&id=5035.
Colonel William Crawford proceeds toward the Ohio
On this day in 1782, American Colonel William Crawford marches his army towards the Ohio River, where General George Washington has charged him with attacking local Indians who had sided with the British in the American Revolution.
Colonel Crawford, a close friend of General Washington and a veteran of British military encounters with Native Americans in the French and Indian War, Pontiac’s Rebellion and Lord Dunmore’s War, had agreed to come out of retirement in Fayette County, Pennsylvania, to assist his fellow Virginian in the fight for American independence.
The expedition ended in a slow, harrowing death for Crawford. On June 6, his supply chain disintegrated and Wyandot Indians surrounded Crawford and his men. The Indians of the Ohio region were enraged by the recent slaughter of pacifist Christian Indians at the Moravian mission in Gnadenhutten, Pennsylvania. Unfortunately for Crawford, some of the perpetrators of the Gnadenhutten Massacre were among his men.
Patriots had shot the women and children of the Gnadenhutten mission from behind as they knelt in prayer on March 8, 1782. The Wyandots, under Chief Konieschguanokee (Captain Pipe), took their revenge by torturing the members of Crawford’s party. Crawford and his son-in-law William Harrison were scalped and burned at the stake; Crawford finally died after two hours of torment. At least 250 members of Crawford’s party were killed in the disastrous encounter.
Crawford’s horrendous death ensured that he would be remembered as a martyr. The site of his execution is included on the National Register of Historic Places and a monument has been erected there in his memory. Counties in Ohio and Pennsylvania also bear his name.
“Colonel William Crawford proceeds toward the Ohio.” 2008. The History Channel website. 25 May 2008, 10:27 http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history.do?action=Article&id=634.
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