During this week in 1943, a dog becomes a World War II hero. Chips was a German shepherd-collie-husky mix who’d traveled with the U.S. Army from New York to Europe.
His family knew they had a special dog on their hands. When the Army put out a call for good dogs who could serve on sentry or patrol duty, the Wren family donated Chips.
“It killed my mother to part with him,” John Wren later said. He was a mere toddler when Chips left for war. “But Chips was strong and smart, and we knew he’d be good.”
In the end, Chips was gone for more than 3 years. During that time, he traveled the world, serving in North Africa, Italy, and France, among other places. He even met British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt.
That’s because he was serving as a guard dog during the Casablanca Conference in January 1943.
Yet Chips is most remembered for his actions on July 10, 1943, as Allied forces began their invasion of Sicily. The story continues here: https://www.taraross.com/post/tdih-chips-dog
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On this day in 1862, Confederate forces win the Second Battle of Bull Run. The two-day battle would prove to be one of the bloodier battles of the Civil War.
Union General John Pope was then chasing Confederate General Stonewall Jackson across northern Virginia. Pope thought he knew where Jackson was going, and he thought he had the upper hand.
He was wrong, on both counts.
The story continues here: https://www.taraross.com/post/tdih-bull-run-2
On this day in 1776, George Washington and his troops make a miraculous escape across the East River and into Manhattan. The British failed to notice until it was too late.
Two days earlier, Americans had suffered a crushing defeat at Brooklyn Heights. That battle had ended with Washington’s army cornered in Brooklyn. (See August 22 history post).
Americans faced a problem: Their only escape route was across the East River, but such an escape was complicated by the presence of hundreds of British warships in the area. If the British saw the Americans escaping, these warships would be upon them very quickly.
The story continues here: https://www.taraross.com/post/tdih-escape-brooklyn
On this day in 1963, Martin Luther King, Jr. famously delivers his “I have a dream” speech during the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom.
But did you know that he improvised the most famous portion of the speech, on the spot?
King had been stewing over what to say. The program that day was a long one, and the well-known orator had been given only 5 minutes to speak. Perhaps unsurprisingly, his aides all had different ideas about what he should emphasize during those 5 minutes. As for King, he wanted to think about it alone.
The story continues: https://www.taraross.com/post/tdih-mlk-dream-speech
