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Home > Joe's Daily U.S. History Lesson > Joe's Daily U.S. History Lesson -- May 8
Podcast: Joe's Daily U.S. History Lesson
Episode:

Joe's Daily U.S. History Lesson -- May 8
Category: Education
Duration: 00:05:56
Publish Date: 2018-05-08 02:00:00
Description:

MAY 8 1945-Happy VE Day WWII allies! German General Jodl signed the unconditional surrender, and shortly thereafter Winston Churchill was informed of the official end of WWII, just days after Adolf Hitler got married and committed suicide. Russian Leader Josef Stalin didn’t like the terms of the surrender, but who cares.

From Moscow to Piccadilly Circus to Los Angeles, people took to the streets and celebrated. From Times Square to Trafalgar Square the party was on. And what a tremendous way for Give Em Hell Harry to celebrate his 61st birthday. Naturally, President Harry Truman dedicated this day to FDR who had suddenly died a month earlier . Speaking of Truman, now it’s his turn.

1884-Happy birthday number 33. Haberdasher Harry was born in Lamar, Missouri in 1884. He met his wife Bess in Sunday school when he was 6 years old. He made a lousy farmer and business man, since the men’s clothing store he co-owned went bankrupt. Good thing he quit his day job.

In 1934 he was elected Senator in the Democratic Party, and headed the war investigating committee, checking into waste and corruption and saving perhaps as much as $15B, according to whitehouse.gov. He was playing poker when he found out he was the new President of the United States.

After VE Day Truman decided to drop the bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, thus ending our conflict with Japan.

In other Harry fun facts, he played the piano every morning for two hours. He also witnessed the signing of the charter of the United Nations, presented to Congress a 21-point program, proposing the expansion of Social Security, a full-employment program, a permanent Fair Employment Practices Act, and public housing and slum clearance. This was known as the Fair Deal. He developed the Truman doctrine with helped Greece and Turkey through Soviet threats, and created an airlift to help out Berlin eat some food despite the Russians attempting to block it.

The newspapers thought that Governor Thomas Dewey would be the next president, and as such printed headlines saying that. Hence the famous picture of Harry holding up a paper that says Dewey Defeats Truman, as Truman won through an incredible come-from-behind victory. He actually had a goat that he named after Dewey. He had a limited war against Korea, not wanting to engage China and Russia. After his presidency he retired and died at age 88 on December 26, 1972. He came up with the saying, the buck stops here. And another great quote, if you can’t convince them, confuse them.

1952- What me worry? ...Happy birthday to Alfred E. Newman, and MAD magazine debuts. Created by editor Harvey Kurtzman and publisher William Gaines, it remains to be utterly hysterical to this day. Yeah, pick one up. They still got it. Cheap! If you’ve never picked one up, do so and check out the fold-ins, the Lighter Side of…Spy Vs Spy, Don Martin Gaggs, A Mad Look at and Drawn-out Dramas, and movie and TV show parodies, it’s by far the funniest magazine I have ever read.
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