At about this time in 1944, a hero engages in an action that would earn him the Medal of Honor. John Joseph Tominac’s Medal citation reads like a Hollywood movie script! Would you believe he even rode atop a burning tank, leaping off just as it exploded?
Amazingly, he survived.
Then-1st Lt. Tominac’s bravery came on September 12, near Saulx de Vesoul, France, as he served with the 3rd Infantry Division. Our soldiers had been working their way through France for weeks, and the fighting had been tough. Indeed, half of Tominac’s platoon had been wounded or killed in the month since they’d landed on French shores.
The story continues here: https://www.taraross.com/post/tdih-john-tominac-moh
On this day in 1787, delegates to the Constitutional Convention sign the Constitution. Perhaps you’ve heard what Benjamin Franklin did immediately afterwards?
He’d been spotted by a Philadelphia matron as he emerged from that meeting. She was curious. What had delegates been doing behind closed doors? “Doctor,” she reportedly called out, “what have we got, a Republic or a Monarchy?” Franklin’s response was brief: “A Republic, if you can keep it.”
The tale is simple, yet Franklin is often misquoted. Some think Franklin responded: “A democracy, if you can keep it.”
Modern Americans easily believe this misquote because the foundations of our Constitution are not taught—and thus are not understood. But Franklin and other Founders knew better.
The story continues here: https://www.taraross.com/post/tdih-constitution-day
On this day in 1944, a hero begins a multi-day action that would earn him the Medal of Honor. Oscar Godfrey Johnson, Jr. singlehandedly held off the enemy for two days and two nights—and he lived to tell the story.
His heroism came during the Allied effort to break through the Gothic Line, a chain of defense fortifications in Italy.
“With the defensive positions etched directly into the mountains,” a National WWII Museum publication explains, “the Allies had no choice but to maneuver their way through a virtual labyrinth of German strongpoints. . . . The fighting was slow, grinding, and bloody throughout.”
The story continues here: https://www.taraross.com/post/tdih-oscar-johnson-moh
On this day in 1814, the British begin bombarding Fort McHenry. Famously, a young lawyer named Francis Scott Key watched the battle from a nearby ship. The next morning, Key was relieved to see the American flag waving proudly above the fort. Americans had not surrendered! Key was inspired to write a poem that would later become our national anthem, the Star-Spangled Banner.
Our national anthem has been in the news lately, of course, partly because of the little-known third stanza of Key’s poem. That verse concludes: “No refuge could save the hireling and slave, From the terror of flight, or the gloom of the grave.”
Is the song inherently racist? The story continues here: https://www.taraross.com/post/tdih-national-anthem
