The litany of broken promises
I'll never forget those days. The first being the day I met with the Air Force recruiter. His name was Jason Young and we met in his office in Culver City. I'd been stalked by the Marine Corps recruiter and my dad had told me to ignore them and go see the Air Force guy.
I was an easy sell. It was 1976. My high school grades were nowhere near my ability and my college opportunities were pretty much limited to Santa Monica City College. TSgt Young had me on his hook before I walked through the door to his office. The promise of getting the Vietnam Era GI Bill was enough for me. But I listened to the rest of the pitch.
Serve 20 years I was told, and receive free medical care for life. Serve 20 years I was told and receive a pension for the rest of my life upon retirement. Serve beyond 20 years and the pension goes up. You get to start receiving it right at retirement. Free travel on a space-available basis on military aircraft for the rest of my life. Just make it to 20 years and it would all be mine. So I signed on the dotted line. I spent over 20 hours of my life "processing" into the delayed enlistment program on December 30, 1976. It was actually just after 1:00 a.m. on December 31st when I finally raised my right hand and took the oath of enlistment.
Now the linchpin promise for me was the GI bill's educational benefits. They were also explained to me. Following my leaving the military, I'd get ten full years to use up my four years of educational benefits. Those who joined the military after January 1, 1977 were eligible for a program known as VEAP. Then Congress decided to revamp the GI bill thanks to a congressman from Mississippi. The Montgomery G. I. bill brought back GI bill education benefits to military personnel, but some of us got screwed as a result. When I left the military in July of 1987, I had only until December of 1989, less than three years, to use my four years of educational benefits. I would wind up using none of the benefits I worked so hard to earn. When I finally did go back to school in 2005, 18 years after leaving the Air Force, having those benefits would have been a major help.
Remember that promise of free medical care for life if I'd stayed in for 20 years? At the time there were plenty of military medical facilities to provide this care to military retirees and their families. That is no longer the case. Now military retirees get something called Tricare. Tricare has premiums, deductibles, and co-pays. The promise of free disappeared as Congress sought to contain costs and balance military budgets of the backs of those least able to afford it.
Military members were promised access to base exchange stores and commissaries in retirement. Those benefits helped to supplement the inadequate pay and benefits. Now they want to close more of these stores and break more promises made.
The most sacred promise of all is the one made that the nation will care for those who are injured while in service to that nation. Service-connected disabilities and injuries are the primary reason for the existence of the VA's healthcare facilities. The failure to provide care to veterans as promised is an outrage worth of more than rhetoric from our President. Action is required, and it needs to be immediate action. To quote General George S. Patton "a good plan, violently executed now, is better than a perfect plan execute next week."
Mr. President, make a good plan and execute it now.
* * *
The United States Census of 2010 showed 1,422 people residing in Irwindale, CA. Irwindale, as you may know, is home to a factory where Huy Fong Foods makes its very popular Sriracha sauce. Those 1,422 people reside in 374 households. So when it turns out that 67% of the odor complaints filed with the South Coast Air Quality Management District come from only four of those 374 households, it raises questions about possible motives for filing these complaints.
Turns out that in order to get Huy Fong to move its operations to Irwindale, the city loaned them millions of dollars at low interest rates. The city would get a guaranteed stream of revenue from the loan's interest, jobs would be generated and Huy Fong was going to contribute tens of thousands of dollars to the city's treasury. But then the loan was repaid early, and the revenue and contributions dried up completely. And it turns out that one of the most vocal complainers about the factory's odors is a relative of a member of the City Council that struck this deal with Irwindale.
Something definitely smells here and it isn't the chili peppers being processed at the Sriracha factory.
* * *
I'll be happy to discuss the negatives of Republicans who are among the clear frontrunners for their party's nomination for the 2016 presidential race, when some come to be in that position. Right now there aren't any. There are two people who are clearly trying to position themselves to become the Democratic nominee in that race, Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden.
I'll be the first to admit I let strange things influence my choice of who to vote for in a major election. In the end I chose not to vote for John Kerry in 2004 for something most people would consider to be ridiculous. I would not give him my vote because he couldn't decide whether or not he and his family owned SUVs. You can read my rant on this topic at http://fourohfouram.blogspot.com/2004/10/baby-you-can-drive-my-car-or-my-suv.html.
Sometimes the "why" of a lie is more important than the lie itself. My objections to the lie that President Bill Clinton told under oath lessened because it was related to an extra-marital affair. Lie all you want about sex, but lying under oath is still problematic.
Why did Hillary Clinton lie under oath about the Travelgate scandal? I'd like to know, because it calls her fitness to be President into question. Independent Counsel Robert Ray concluded that Hillary made false factual statements, a nice way of spinning the telling of lies. But did she tell them knowing that they were false? That's what I want to know.
Why did she lie about having been under sniper fire when she visited Bosnia in 1996? Listen to her words:
The problem is, the video doesn't match her words and recollections.
Afterward she blamed her "making a mistake" and having "misspoke" on having been sleep-deprived. It seems pretty clear to me that she wanted to embellish her experience, since it was one of the things she was running on in 2008 and she got caught telling lies.
The issue of what really happened at Benghazi and what role Hillary Clinton, as Secretary of State, played in any cover-up is going to continue to be an issue that Republicans will try to exploit. The fact that she's already got a proven track record as being willing to lie over dumb shit isn't going to help her with this.
Did she engage in a Benghazi cover-up? Probably not. But raising the issue of Benghazi and Clinton's track record in telling the truth is going to damage her chances of being elected, should she choose to run.
I'm beginning to think she shouldn't run. She might win, she might not. We are long past time to elect a woman as Vice-President, and President. A woman becoming her party's nominee and losing isn't going to aid the effort to break the ultimate in glass ceilings.
* * *
Random Ponderings:
$96 to get into Disneyland for one day? Steep.
Pat Sajak's tweets on climate change were amusing. That Ann Coulter is defending him is alarming.
Mark Cuban may be taking flack for his comments regarding racism and Donald Sterling, but he's right on target that we have to recognize our internal biases before we can deal with them.
How long will it take for Chevy to decide when my car is going to be officially recalled?
With all of the horrific stories being told in L. A. County about neglected kids, does Child Protective Services really need to investigate what's going on in the life of pampered Willow Smith?
The United States Senate has more important issues to deal with than the name of an NFL franchise.
Janet Yellen is chosen to speak at the NYU commencement and students don't know who she is? That's really scary.
Ryan Seacrest is clearly not going to become the next American Idol, mostly because he can't sing.
As if the Clippers didn't have enough problems already, now it is coming to light that interim President Dick Parsons, appointed by the NBA to oversee the team's operations while the Sterling situation is sorted out; apparently did NOT play varsity basketball at the University of Hawaii, as he has claimed for decades.
* * *
May 22nd in History:
334 BC – The Macedonian army of Alexander the Great defeats Darius III of Persia in the Battle of the Granicus.
853 – A Byzantine fleet sacks and destroys undefended Damietta in Egypt
1176 – The Hashshashin (Assassins) attempt to murder Saladin near Aleppo.
1200 – King John of England and King Philip II of France sign the Treaty of Le Goulet.
1246 – Henry Raspe is elected anti-king of the Kingdom of Germany, in opposition to Conrad IV.
1254 – Serbian King Stephen Uroš I and the Republic of Venice sign a peace treaty.
1377 – Pope Gregory XI issues five papal bulls to denounce the doctrines of English theologian John Wycliffe.
1455 – Start of the Wars of the Roses: at the First Battle of St Albans, Richard, Duke of York, defeats and captures King Henry VI of England.
1629 – Holy Roman Emperor Ferdinand II and Danish King Christian IV sign the Treaty of Lübeck to end the Danish intervention in the Thirty Years' War.
1762 – Sweden and Prussia sign the Treaty of Hamburg.
1807 – A grand jury indicts former Vice President of the United States Aaron Burr on a charge of treason.
1807 – Most of the English town of Chudleigh is destroyed by fire.
1809 – On the second and last day of the Battle of Aspern-Essling (near Vienna, Austria), Napoleon I is repelled by an enemy army for the first time.
1816 – A mob in Littleport, Cambridgeshire, England, riots over high unemployment and rising grain costs; the rioting spreads to Ely the next day.
1819 – The SS Savannah leaves port at Savannah, Georgia, United States, on a voyage to become the first steamship to cross the Atlantic Ocean. The ship arrived at Liverpool, England, on June 20.
1826 – HMS Beagle departs on its first voyage.
1840 – The transportation of British convicts to the New South Wales colony is abolished.
1848 – Slavery is abolished in Martinique.
1849 – Future U.S. President Abraham Lincoln is issued a patent for an invention to lift boats over obstacles in a river, making him the only U.S. President to ever hold a patent.
1856 – Congressman Preston Brooks of South Carolina beats Senator Charles Sumner with a cane in the hall of the United States Senate for a speech Sumner had made attacking Southerners who sympathized with the pro-slavery violence in Kansas ("Bleeding Kansas").
1863 – American Civil War: Siege of Port Hudson – Union forces begin to lay siege to the Confederate-controlled Port Hudson, Louisiana.
1864 – American Civil War: After ten weeks, the Union Army's Red River Campaign ends with the Union unable to achieve any of its objectives.
1871 – The U.S. Army issues an order for abandonment of Fort Kearny in Nebraska.
1872 – Reconstruction: U.S. President Ulysses S. Grant signs the Amnesty Act into law restoring full civil and political rights to all but about 500 Confederate sympathizers.
1885 – Prior to burial in the Panthéon, the body of Victor Hugo was exposed under the Arc de Triomphe during the night.
1897 – The Blackwall Tunnel under the River Thames is officially opened
1903 – Launch of the White Star Liner, SS Ionic.
1906 – The Wright brothers are granted U.S. patent number 821,393 for their "Flying-Machine".
1915 – Lassen Peak erupts with a powerful force, and is the only mountain other than Mount St. Helens to erupt in the contiguous US during the 20th century.
1915 – Three trains collide in the Quintinshill rail disaster near Gretna Green, Scotland, killing 227 people and injuring 246; the accident is found to be the result of non-standard operating practices during a shift change at a busy junction.
1926 – Chiang Kai-shek replaces communists in Kuomintang, China.
1939 – World War II: Germany and Italy sign the Pact of Steel.
1942 – Mexico enters World War II on the side of the Allies.
1942 – The Steel Workers Organizing Committee disbands, and a new trade union, the United Steelworkers, is formed.
1942 – World War II: Ted Williams of the Boston Red Sox enlists in the United States Marine Corps as a flight instructor.
1943 – Joseph Stalin disbands Comintern.
1945 – Operation Paperclip – United States Army Major Robert B. Staver recommends that the U.S. evacuate German scientists and engineers to help in the development of rocket technology.
1947 – Cold War: in an effort to fight the spread of Communism, the U.S. President Harry S. Truman signs an act into law that will later be called the Truman Doctrine. The act grants $400 million in military and economic aid to Turkey and Greece, each battling an internal Communist movement.
1958 – Sri Lankan riots of 1958: This riot is a watershed event in the race relationship of the various ethnic communities of Sri Lanka. The total number of deaths is estimated to be 300, mostly Sri Lankan Tamils.
1960 – An earthquake measuring 9.5 on the moment magnitude scale, now known as the Great Chilean Earthquake, hits southern Chile. It is the most powerful earthquake ever recorded.
1961 – An earthquake rocks New South Wales.
1962 – Continental Airlines Flight 11 crashes after bombs explode on board.
1963 – An assassination attempt of Greek left-wing politician Grigoris Lambrakis, who will die five days later.
1964 – The U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson announces the goals of his Great Society social reforms to bring an "end to poverty and racial injustice" in America.
1967 – The L'Innovation department store in the center of Brussels, Belgium, burns down. It is the most devastating fire in Belgian history, resulting in 323 dead and missing and 150 injured.
1967 – Vietnam War: Vinh Xuan massacre.
1968 – The nuclear-powered submarine the USS Scorpion sinks with 99 men aboard 400 miles southwest of the Azores.
1969 – Apollo 10 's lunar module flies within 8.4 nautical miles (16 km) of the moon's surface.
1972 – Ceylon adopts a new constitution, thus becoming a Republic, changes its name to Sri Lanka, and joins the Commonwealth of Nations.
1980 – Namco releases the highly influential arcade game Pac-Man.
1987 – Hashimpura massacre in Meerut, India.
1987 – First ever Rugby World Cup kicks off with New Zealand playing Italy at Eden Park in Auckland, New Zealand.
1990 – North and South Yemen are unified to create the Republic of Yemen.
1990 – Microsoft releases the Windows 3.0 operating system.
1992 – After 30 years, 66-year-old Johnny Carson hosts The Tonight Show for the last time.
1992 – Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia and Slovenia join the United Nations.
1997 – Kelly Flinn, the US Air Force's first female bomber pilot certified for combat, accepts a general discharge in order to avoid a court-martial.
1998 – Lewinsky scandal: a federal judge rules that United States Secret Service agents can be compelled to testify before a grand jury concerning the scandal, involving President Bill Clinton.
2002 – In Washington, D.C., the remains of the missing Chandra Levy are found in Rock Creek Park.
2002 – American civil rights movement: a jury in Birmingham, Alabama, convicts former Ku Klux Klan member Bobby Frank Cherry of the 1963 murders of four girls in the bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church.
2003 – In Fort Worth, Texas, Annika Sörenstam becomes the first woman to play the PGA Tour in 58 years.
2004 – The U.S. town of Hallam, Nebraska is wiped out by a powerful F4 tornado (part of the May 2004 tornado outbreak sequence) which kills one resident, and becomes the widest tornado on record at 2.5 miles (4.0 km) wide; a record that wouldn't be broken until a the El Reno tornado on May 31, 2013.
2008 – The Late-May 2008 tornado outbreak sequence unleashes 235 tornadoes, including an EF4 and an EF5 tornado, between May 22 and May 31, 2008. The tornadoes strike 19 states and one Canadian province.
2010 – An Air India Express Boeing 737 goes over a cliff and crashes upon landing at Mangalore, India, killing 158 of the 166 people on board. It is the worst crash involving a Boeing 737.
2011 – An EF5 tornado strikes Joplin, Missouri, killing 162 people and wreaking $2.8 billion worth in damage—the costliest and seventh-deadliest single tornado in U.S. history.
2012 – Tokyo Skytree is opened to public. It is the tallest tower in world (634 m), and the second tallest man-made structure on Earth, after Burj Khalifa (829.8 m).
2013 – British soldier Lee Rigby was murdered in a London Street during a terrorist attack.
2014 – General Prayuth Chan-ocha of the Royal Thai Armed Forces announces a military coup d'état, following six months of political turmoil.
Famous Folk Born on May 22nd:
Princess Elizabeth
Richard Wagner
Per Collinder
Eddie Edwards
Laurence Olivier
Quinn Martin
Michael Constantine
T. Boone Pickens
Harvey Milk
M. Scott Peck
Richard Benjamin
Frank Converse
Susan Strasberg
Paul Winfield
Bernard Shaw
Michael Sarrazin
Ted Kaczynski
Calvin Simon
Tommy John
George Best
Bernie Taupin
Morrissey
Nigel Murray
Jay Carney
Brooke Smith
Alison Eastwood
Ginnifer Goodwin
Maggie Q.
Apolo Ohno
I was an easy sell. It was 1976. My high school grades were nowhere near my ability and my college opportunities were pretty much limited to Santa Monica City College. TSgt Young had me on his hook before I walked through the door to his office. The promise of getting the Vietnam Era GI Bill was enough for me. But I listened to the rest of the pitch.
Serve 20 years I was told, and receive free medical care for life. Serve 20 years I was told and receive a pension for the rest of my life upon retirement. Serve beyond 20 years and the pension goes up. You get to start receiving it right at retirement. Free travel on a space-available basis on military aircraft for the rest of my life. Just make it to 20 years and it would all be mine. So I signed on the dotted line. I spent over 20 hours of my life "processing" into the delayed enlistment program on December 30, 1976. It was actually just after 1:00 a.m. on December 31st when I finally raised my right hand and took the oath of enlistment.
Now the linchpin promise for me was the GI bill's educational benefits. They were also explained to me. Following my leaving the military, I'd get ten full years to use up my four years of educational benefits. Those who joined the military after January 1, 1977 were eligible for a program known as VEAP. Then Congress decided to revamp the GI bill thanks to a congressman from Mississippi. The Montgomery G. I. bill brought back GI bill education benefits to military personnel, but some of us got screwed as a result. When I left the military in July of 1987, I had only until December of 1989, less than three years, to use my four years of educational benefits. I would wind up using none of the benefits I worked so hard to earn. When I finally did go back to school in 2005, 18 years after leaving the Air Force, having those benefits would have been a major help.
Remember that promise of free medical care for life if I'd stayed in for 20 years? At the time there were plenty of military medical facilities to provide this care to military retirees and their families. That is no longer the case. Now military retirees get something called Tricare. Tricare has premiums, deductibles, and co-pays. The promise of free disappeared as Congress sought to contain costs and balance military budgets of the backs of those least able to afford it.
Military members were promised access to base exchange stores and commissaries in retirement. Those benefits helped to supplement the inadequate pay and benefits. Now they want to close more of these stores and break more promises made.
The most sacred promise of all is the one made that the nation will care for those who are injured while in service to that nation. Service-connected disabilities and injuries are the primary reason for the existence of the VA's healthcare facilities. The failure to provide care to veterans as promised is an outrage worth of more than rhetoric from our President. Action is required, and it needs to be immediate action. To quote General George S. Patton "a good plan, violently executed now, is better than a perfect plan execute next week."
Mr. President, make a good plan and execute it now.
* * *
The United States Census of 2010 showed 1,422 people residing in Irwindale, CA. Irwindale, as you may know, is home to a factory where Huy Fong Foods makes its very popular Sriracha sauce. Those 1,422 people reside in 374 households. So when it turns out that 67% of the odor complaints filed with the South Coast Air Quality Management District come from only four of those 374 households, it raises questions about possible motives for filing these complaints.
Turns out that in order to get Huy Fong to move its operations to Irwindale, the city loaned them millions of dollars at low interest rates. The city would get a guaranteed stream of revenue from the loan's interest, jobs would be generated and Huy Fong was going to contribute tens of thousands of dollars to the city's treasury. But then the loan was repaid early, and the revenue and contributions dried up completely. And it turns out that one of the most vocal complainers about the factory's odors is a relative of a member of the City Council that struck this deal with Irwindale.
Something definitely smells here and it isn't the chili peppers being processed at the Sriracha factory.
* * *
I'll be happy to discuss the negatives of Republicans who are among the clear frontrunners for their party's nomination for the 2016 presidential race, when some come to be in that position. Right now there aren't any. There are two people who are clearly trying to position themselves to become the Democratic nominee in that race, Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden.
I'll be the first to admit I let strange things influence my choice of who to vote for in a major election. In the end I chose not to vote for John Kerry in 2004 for something most people would consider to be ridiculous. I would not give him my vote because he couldn't decide whether or not he and his family owned SUVs. You can read my rant on this topic at http://fourohfouram.blogspot.com/2004/10/baby-you-can-drive-my-car-or-my-suv.html.
Sometimes the "why" of a lie is more important than the lie itself. My objections to the lie that President Bill Clinton told under oath lessened because it was related to an extra-marital affair. Lie all you want about sex, but lying under oath is still problematic.
Why did Hillary Clinton lie under oath about the Travelgate scandal? I'd like to know, because it calls her fitness to be President into question. Independent Counsel Robert Ray concluded that Hillary made false factual statements, a nice way of spinning the telling of lies. But did she tell them knowing that they were false? That's what I want to know.
Why did she lie about having been under sniper fire when she visited Bosnia in 1996? Listen to her words:
The problem is, the video doesn't match her words and recollections.
Afterward she blamed her "making a mistake" and having "misspoke" on having been sleep-deprived. It seems pretty clear to me that she wanted to embellish her experience, since it was one of the things she was running on in 2008 and she got caught telling lies.
The issue of what really happened at Benghazi and what role Hillary Clinton, as Secretary of State, played in any cover-up is going to continue to be an issue that Republicans will try to exploit. The fact that she's already got a proven track record as being willing to lie over dumb shit isn't going to help her with this.
Did she engage in a Benghazi cover-up? Probably not. But raising the issue of Benghazi and Clinton's track record in telling the truth is going to damage her chances of being elected, should she choose to run.
I'm beginning to think she shouldn't run. She might win, she might not. We are long past time to elect a woman as Vice-President, and President. A woman becoming her party's nominee and losing isn't going to aid the effort to break the ultimate in glass ceilings.
* * *
Random Ponderings:
$96 to get into Disneyland for one day? Steep.
Pat Sajak's tweets on climate change were amusing. That Ann Coulter is defending him is alarming.
Mark Cuban may be taking flack for his comments regarding racism and Donald Sterling, but he's right on target that we have to recognize our internal biases before we can deal with them.
How long will it take for Chevy to decide when my car is going to be officially recalled?
With all of the horrific stories being told in L. A. County about neglected kids, does Child Protective Services really need to investigate what's going on in the life of pampered Willow Smith?
The United States Senate has more important issues to deal with than the name of an NFL franchise.
Janet Yellen is chosen to speak at the NYU commencement and students don't know who she is? That's really scary.
Ryan Seacrest is clearly not going to become the next American Idol, mostly because he can't sing.
As if the Clippers didn't have enough problems already, now it is coming to light that interim President Dick Parsons, appointed by the NBA to oversee the team's operations while the Sterling situation is sorted out; apparently did NOT play varsity basketball at the University of Hawaii, as he has claimed for decades.
* * *
May 22nd in History:
334 BC – The Macedonian army of Alexander the Great defeats Darius III of Persia in the Battle of the Granicus.
853 – A Byzantine fleet sacks and destroys undefended Damietta in Egypt
1176 – The Hashshashin (Assassins) attempt to murder Saladin near Aleppo.
1200 – King John of England and King Philip II of France sign the Treaty of Le Goulet.
1246 – Henry Raspe is elected anti-king of the Kingdom of Germany, in opposition to Conrad IV.
1254 – Serbian King Stephen Uroš I and the Republic of Venice sign a peace treaty.
1377 – Pope Gregory XI issues five papal bulls to denounce the doctrines of English theologian John Wycliffe.
1455 – Start of the Wars of the Roses: at the First Battle of St Albans, Richard, Duke of York, defeats and captures King Henry VI of England.
1629 – Holy Roman Emperor Ferdinand II and Danish King Christian IV sign the Treaty of Lübeck to end the Danish intervention in the Thirty Years' War.
1762 – Sweden and Prussia sign the Treaty of Hamburg.
1807 – A grand jury indicts former Vice President of the United States Aaron Burr on a charge of treason.
1807 – Most of the English town of Chudleigh is destroyed by fire.
1809 – On the second and last day of the Battle of Aspern-Essling (near Vienna, Austria), Napoleon I is repelled by an enemy army for the first time.
1816 – A mob in Littleport, Cambridgeshire, England, riots over high unemployment and rising grain costs; the rioting spreads to Ely the next day.
1819 – The SS Savannah leaves port at Savannah, Georgia, United States, on a voyage to become the first steamship to cross the Atlantic Ocean. The ship arrived at Liverpool, England, on June 20.
1826 – HMS Beagle departs on its first voyage.
1840 – The transportation of British convicts to the New South Wales colony is abolished.
1848 – Slavery is abolished in Martinique.
1849 – Future U.S. President Abraham Lincoln is issued a patent for an invention to lift boats over obstacles in a river, making him the only U.S. President to ever hold a patent.
1856 – Congressman Preston Brooks of South Carolina beats Senator Charles Sumner with a cane in the hall of the United States Senate for a speech Sumner had made attacking Southerners who sympathized with the pro-slavery violence in Kansas ("Bleeding Kansas").
1863 – American Civil War: Siege of Port Hudson – Union forces begin to lay siege to the Confederate-controlled Port Hudson, Louisiana.
1864 – American Civil War: After ten weeks, the Union Army's Red River Campaign ends with the Union unable to achieve any of its objectives.
1871 – The U.S. Army issues an order for abandonment of Fort Kearny in Nebraska.
1872 – Reconstruction: U.S. President Ulysses S. Grant signs the Amnesty Act into law restoring full civil and political rights to all but about 500 Confederate sympathizers.
1885 – Prior to burial in the Panthéon, the body of Victor Hugo was exposed under the Arc de Triomphe during the night.
1897 – The Blackwall Tunnel under the River Thames is officially opened
1903 – Launch of the White Star Liner, SS Ionic.
1906 – The Wright brothers are granted U.S. patent number 821,393 for their "Flying-Machine".
1915 – Lassen Peak erupts with a powerful force, and is the only mountain other than Mount St. Helens to erupt in the contiguous US during the 20th century.
1915 – Three trains collide in the Quintinshill rail disaster near Gretna Green, Scotland, killing 227 people and injuring 246; the accident is found to be the result of non-standard operating practices during a shift change at a busy junction.
1926 – Chiang Kai-shek replaces communists in Kuomintang, China.
1939 – World War II: Germany and Italy sign the Pact of Steel.
1942 – Mexico enters World War II on the side of the Allies.
1942 – The Steel Workers Organizing Committee disbands, and a new trade union, the United Steelworkers, is formed.
1942 – World War II: Ted Williams of the Boston Red Sox enlists in the United States Marine Corps as a flight instructor.
1943 – Joseph Stalin disbands Comintern.
1945 – Operation Paperclip – United States Army Major Robert B. Staver recommends that the U.S. evacuate German scientists and engineers to help in the development of rocket technology.
1947 – Cold War: in an effort to fight the spread of Communism, the U.S. President Harry S. Truman signs an act into law that will later be called the Truman Doctrine. The act grants $400 million in military and economic aid to Turkey and Greece, each battling an internal Communist movement.
1958 – Sri Lankan riots of 1958: This riot is a watershed event in the race relationship of the various ethnic communities of Sri Lanka. The total number of deaths is estimated to be 300, mostly Sri Lankan Tamils.
1960 – An earthquake measuring 9.5 on the moment magnitude scale, now known as the Great Chilean Earthquake, hits southern Chile. It is the most powerful earthquake ever recorded.
1961 – An earthquake rocks New South Wales.
1962 – Continental Airlines Flight 11 crashes after bombs explode on board.
1963 – An assassination attempt of Greek left-wing politician Grigoris Lambrakis, who will die five days later.
1964 – The U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson announces the goals of his Great Society social reforms to bring an "end to poverty and racial injustice" in America.
1967 – The L'Innovation department store in the center of Brussels, Belgium, burns down. It is the most devastating fire in Belgian history, resulting in 323 dead and missing and 150 injured.
1967 – Vietnam War: Vinh Xuan massacre.
1968 – The nuclear-powered submarine the USS Scorpion sinks with 99 men aboard 400 miles southwest of the Azores.
1969 – Apollo 10 's lunar module flies within 8.4 nautical miles (16 km) of the moon's surface.
1972 – Ceylon adopts a new constitution, thus becoming a Republic, changes its name to Sri Lanka, and joins the Commonwealth of Nations.
1980 – Namco releases the highly influential arcade game Pac-Man.
1987 – Hashimpura massacre in Meerut, India.
1987 – First ever Rugby World Cup kicks off with New Zealand playing Italy at Eden Park in Auckland, New Zealand.
1990 – North and South Yemen are unified to create the Republic of Yemen.
1990 – Microsoft releases the Windows 3.0 operating system.
1992 – After 30 years, 66-year-old Johnny Carson hosts The Tonight Show for the last time.
1992 – Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia and Slovenia join the United Nations.
1997 – Kelly Flinn, the US Air Force's first female bomber pilot certified for combat, accepts a general discharge in order to avoid a court-martial.
1998 – Lewinsky scandal: a federal judge rules that United States Secret Service agents can be compelled to testify before a grand jury concerning the scandal, involving President Bill Clinton.
2002 – In Washington, D.C., the remains of the missing Chandra Levy are found in Rock Creek Park.
2002 – American civil rights movement: a jury in Birmingham, Alabama, convicts former Ku Klux Klan member Bobby Frank Cherry of the 1963 murders of four girls in the bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church.
2003 – In Fort Worth, Texas, Annika Sörenstam becomes the first woman to play the PGA Tour in 58 years.
2004 – The U.S. town of Hallam, Nebraska is wiped out by a powerful F4 tornado (part of the May 2004 tornado outbreak sequence) which kills one resident, and becomes the widest tornado on record at 2.5 miles (4.0 km) wide; a record that wouldn't be broken until a the El Reno tornado on May 31, 2013.
2008 – The Late-May 2008 tornado outbreak sequence unleashes 235 tornadoes, including an EF4 and an EF5 tornado, between May 22 and May 31, 2008. The tornadoes strike 19 states and one Canadian province.
2010 – An Air India Express Boeing 737 goes over a cliff and crashes upon landing at Mangalore, India, killing 158 of the 166 people on board. It is the worst crash involving a Boeing 737.
2011 – An EF5 tornado strikes Joplin, Missouri, killing 162 people and wreaking $2.8 billion worth in damage—the costliest and seventh-deadliest single tornado in U.S. history.
2012 – Tokyo Skytree is opened to public. It is the tallest tower in world (634 m), and the second tallest man-made structure on Earth, after Burj Khalifa (829.8 m).
2013 – British soldier Lee Rigby was murdered in a London Street during a terrorist attack.
2014 – General Prayuth Chan-ocha of the Royal Thai Armed Forces announces a military coup d'état, following six months of political turmoil.
Famous Folk Born on May 22nd:
Princess Elizabeth
Richard Wagner
Per Collinder
Eddie Edwards
Laurence Olivier
Quinn Martin
Michael Constantine
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Tommy John
George Best
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posted by me at 7:36 AM
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