Joe's Daily U.S. History Lesson -- June 13

JUNE 13 -- 1971 Pentagon papers relesaed; 1923 Harry Houdini frees from straight jacket; 1937 MLB, DiMaggio hits three consecutive homers; 2008 Happy Divorsary Bill Murrey/Jennifer Buter; 1777 Lafayette arrives in South Carolina; 1849 Haslett patents gasmask

JUNE 13 1971 – Pentagon papers damage credibility of Cold War policy. …It showed America that the US government had been lying for years about the Vietnam War. The papers were discovered and released by Daniel Ellsberg, and first brought to the attention of the public on the front page of the New York Times in 1971.

The papers demonstrated that the LBJ administration wasn’t only lying to the people; it was lying to Congress as well. More specifically, the papers revealed that the US had secretly enlarged the scale of the Vietnam War with the bombings of nearby Cambodia and Laos, coastal raids on North Vietnam, and Marine Corps attacks, none of which were reported in the mainstream press. For his disclosure of the Pentagon Papers, Ellsberg was charged with conspiracy, espionage and theft of government property, but the charges were later dropped after prosecutors investigating the Watergate Scandal soon discovered that the staff members in the Nixon White House had ordered the so-called White House Plumbers to engage in unlawful efforts to discredit Ellsberg.

The Pentagon Papers showed people the true extent to which the government had manipulated and lied to them. Some examples included documents of the Kennedy administration openly encouraging and participating in the overthrow of South Vietnamese President Ngo Dinh Diem in 1963; that the CIA believed that the domino theory did not actually appl6y to Asia, and that the heavy American bombing of North Vietnam, contrary to US government pronouncements about its success, was having absolutely no impact on the communists will to continue the fight.

1849 – Lewis Haslett patents the gasmask. …Ancient Greeks used a sponge. In the 9th century a rudimentary form of the gas mask was made in present day Iraq. Prussian miners made another on in 1799, but Haslett from Louisville KY came up with a device that contained elements that allowed breathing through a nose and mouthpiece, inhalation of air through a bulb-shaped filter, and a vent to exhale air back into the atmosphere.

1923 – Harry H Houdini frees himself …from a straight jacket while suspended upside down, 40 above ground in NYC. That’s a good way to stop traffic. It took him two minutes and thirty seven seconds. There’s a film in the library of congress showing Houdini perform the escape. 1937 – Joe DiMaggio hits three consecutive HRs ...against St. Louis Browns

2008 – Happy divorsary Bill NMu8rray and costume designer Jennifer Buter. The divorce was due to abuse and infidelity after 10 years of marriage. 1777- Lafayette arrives in South Carolina. …On June 13, 1777, this 19-year old French aristocrat, Marie-Joseph Paul Roch Tyves Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de Lafayette arrives in South Carolina with the intent to serve as General George Washington’s second-in-command.

In addition to fighting in the American Revolution Lafayette helped shape France’s political structure before and after the French Revolution. The Marquis de Lafayette was born on September 6, 1757, in Chavaniac, France.

During the American Revolution, Lafayette served the Continental Army with distinction, providing tactical leadership while securing vital resources from France. Lafayette fled his home country during the French Revolution, but the Hero of Two Worlds regained prominence as a statesman before his death on May 20, 1834.