Monday, July 22, 2013

On This Day in History - July 22 Anniversary of Jessica Lynch and the Deportations of Jews From Warsaw to Treblinka

Once again, it should be reiterated, that this does not pretend to be a very extensive history of what happened on this day (nor is it the most original - the links can be found down below). If you know something that I am missing, by all means, shoot me an email or leave a comment, and let me know!

http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history

July 22, 2003: Jessica Lynch gets hero's welcome

On this day in 2003, U.S. Army Private Jessica Lynch, a prisoner-of-war who was rescued from an Iraqi hospital, receives a hero's welcome when she returns to her hometown of Palestine, West Virginia. The story of the 19-year-old supply clerk, who was captured by Iraqi forces in March 2003, gripped America; however, it was later revealed that some details of Lynch's dramatic capture and rescue might have been exaggerated.  

Lynch, who was born April 26, 1983, was part of the 507th Ordnance Maintenance Company from Fort Bliss, Texas. On March 23, 2003, just days after the U.S. invaded Iraq, Lynch was riding in a supply convoy when her unit took a wrong turn and was ambushed by Iraqi forces near Nasiriya. Eleven American soldiers died and four others besides Lynch were captured.  

Lynch, who sustained multiple broken bones and other injuries when her vehicle crashed during the ambush, was taken to an Iraqi hospital. On April 1, she was rescued by U.S. Special Forces who raided the hospital where she was being held. They also recovered the bodies of eight of Lynch's fellow soldiers. Lynch was taken to a military hospital in Germany for treatment and then returned to the United States.  

Lynch's story garnered massive media attention and she became an overnight celebrity. Various reports emerged about Lynch's experience, with some news accounts indicating that even after Lynch was wounded during the ambush she fought back against her captors. However, Lynch later stated that she had been knocked unconscious after her vehicle crashed and couldn't remember the details of what had happened to her. She also said she had not been mistreated by the staff at the Iraqi hospital and they put up no resistance to her rescue. Critics–and Lynch herself–charged the U.S. government with embellishing her story to boost patriotism and help promote the Iraq war.  

In August 2003, Lynch received a medical honorable discharge. She collaborated on a book about her experience, I Am a Soldier, Too: The Jessica Lynch Story, which was released later that year. In April 2007, Lynch testified before Congress that she had falsely been portrayed as a "little girl Rambo" and the U.S. military had hyped her story for propaganda reasons. According to Lynch: "I am still confused as to why they chose to lie and tried to make me a legend when the real heroics of my fellow soldiers that day were, in fact, legendary." She added: "The truth of war is not always easy to hear but is always more heroic than the hype."

Here, from the same website, is the story of another historical event that fell on this date:

July 22, 1942: Deportations from Warsaw ghetto to Treblinka begin

On this day in 1942, the systematic deportation of Jews from the Warsaw ghetto begins, as thousands are rounded up daily and transported to a newly constructed concentration/extermination camp at Treblinka, in Poland.  

On July 17, Heinrich Himmler, head of the Nazi SS, arrived at Auschwitz, the concentration camp in eastern Poland, in time to watch the arrival of more than 2,000 Dutch Jews and the gassing of almost 500 of them, mostly the elderly, sick and very young. The next day, Himmler promoted the camp commandant, Rudolph Hoess, to SS major and ordered that the Warsaw ghetto (the Jewish quarter constructed by the Nazis upon the occupation of Poland, enclosed first by barbed wire and then by brick walls), be depopulated–a "total cleansing," as he described it–and the inhabitants transported to what was to become a second extermination camp constructed at the railway village of Treblinka, 62 miles northeast of Warsaw.  

Within the first seven weeks of Himmler's order, more than 250,000 Jews were taken to Treblinka by rail and gassed to death, marking the largest single act of destruction of any population group, Jewish or non-Jewish, civilian or military, in the war. Upon arrival at "T. II," as this second camp at Treblinka was called, prisoners were separated by sex, stripped, and marched into what were described as "bathhouses," but were in fact gas chambers. T. II's first commandant was Dr. Irmfried Eberl, age 32, the man who had headed up the euthanasia program of 1940 and had much experience with the gassing of victims, especially children. He compelled several hundred Ukrainian and about 1,500 Jewish prisoners to assist him. They removed gold teeth from victims before hauling the bodies to mass graves. Eberl was relieved of his duties for "inefficiency." It seems that he and his workers could not remove the corpses quickly enough, and panic was occurring within the railway cars of newly arrived prisoners.  

By the end of the war, between 700,000 and 900,000 would die at either Treblinka I or II. Hoess was tried and sentenced to death by the Nuremberg Tribunal. He was hanged in 1947. 


The legend of the Pied Piper allegedly took place on this date. This day also marked bad news generally for Jews through the ages. King Phillip the Fair ordered Jews out of France. At Polannoe, the Chmielnick massacre killed 10,000 Jews. Washington took command of American troops. Alexander MacKenzie was the first European to complete a transcontinental crossing of Canada. Wellington defeated the French at the Battle of Salmanca in Spain. Hood attacked Sherman in Atlanta, and over 3,000 Union troops were killed. The US Senate rejected President Roosevelt's proposal to add more justices to the Supreme Court. Jews from Warsaw began to be transported to Treblinka. Poland adopted a Communist constitution. Cuba nationalized all previously owned American sugar firms. the Beatles released "Introducing the Beatles". Sonny Liston knocked out Floyd Patterson in the first round for the heavyweight championship. Jimi hendrix quit as the opening act for the Monkeys. Greg LeMonde won his third Tour de France. There was a fire at the top of the Eiffel Tower. Saddam Hussein's two sons were killed on this day. This marks the two-year anniversary of the attacks in Norway, the first being the bombing of a government building in Oslo, the second, by the same man, was the massacre of youths on the relatively nearby island Utøya. 77 people are killed in massive floods in China.

Here's a more detailed look at events that transpired on this date throughout history:

259 - St Dionysius elected as Pope, succeeding Sixtus II
1099 - First Crusade: Godfrey of Bouillon is elected the first Defender of the Holy Sepulchre of The Kingdom of Jerusalem.
1298 - English defeat Scots at Battle of Falkirk
1306 - King Phillip the Fair, orders expulsion of Jews out of France
1376 - The legend of the Pied Piper of Hamelin leading rats out of town is said to have occurred on this date.
1456 - Battle at Nandorfehervar (Belgrade): Hungarian army under Janos Hunyadi beats sultan Murad II
1484 - Battle of Lochmaben Fair - a 500-man raiding party led by Alexander Stewart, Duke of Albany and James Douglas, 9th Earl of Douglas are defeated by Scots forces loyal to Albany's brother James III of Scotland; Douglas is captured.
1489 - "Tractate Niddah" a talmudic edition, 1st printed
1489 - Treaty of Frankfurt signed between Maximilian of Austria and King Charles VIII of France
1515 - Congress of Vienna settles issues between Poland & Holy Roman Empire
1535 - Christians captured in Tunis in uprising against Adm Barbarossa
1582 - Willem van Orange moves from Antwerp to Delft
1587 - A second English colony was established on Roanoke Island off North Carolina. The colony vanished under mysterious circumstances.
1627 - English fleet under George Villiers lands on the Rhe [OS=June 12]
1632 - Foundation laid in Madrid for Buen Retiro-palace for king Philip IV
1648 - 10,000 Jews of Polannoe murdered in Chmielnick massacre
1686 - City of Albany, NY chartered
1691 - Battle at Aghrim: English/Dutch army beats France
1729 - Diamonds found in Minas Geras Brazil
1731 - Spain signs Treaty of Vienna
1739 - Turks defeats Holy Roman Emp at Crocyka Yugoslavia & threaten Belgrade
1775 - George Washington takes command of US troops
1793 - Alexander Mackenzie reaches the Pacific Ocean becoming the first Euro-American to complete a transcontinental crossing of Canada.
1796 - Cleveland, Ohio, founded by Gen Moses Cleveland.
1798 - The USS Constitution was underway and out to sea for the first time since being launched on October 21, 1797.
1812 - English troops under the Duke of Wellington defeated the French at the Battle of Salamanca in Spain.
1859 - V E Walker takes 10-74 in an innings for England v Surrey
1864 - Battle of Atlanta-Hood attacks Sherman, 8449 conf, 3641 US die
1865 - V E Walker takes 10-104 in an innings for Middlesex v Lancs
1893 - Katharine Lee Bates writes "America the Beautiful," in Colorado
1898 - Belgica crew see 1st sunrise in 1600 hrs-1st to endure Antarct winter
1901 - Serbia reactivates diplomatic relations with Montenegro
1905 - Phila Athletic's Weldon Henley no-hits St Louis Browns, 6-0
1912 - 5th Olympic games in Stockholm, Sweden closes
1916 - A bomb went off during a Preparedness Day parade in SF killing 10
1917 - Alexander Kerensky becomes Russian PM
1917 - British bomb German lines at Ypres, 4,250,000 grenades
1918 - Lightning kills 504 sheep in Utah's Wasatch National Park
1919 - De Falla & Massine's "Three-cornered Hat," premieres in London
1921 - 25th US Golf Open: Jim Barnes shoots a 289 at Columbia CC in MD
1922 - Cards enter 1st place, marks 1st time both St Louis teams are on top
1923 - Walter Johnson becomes 1st to strikeout 3,000 (en route to 3,508)
1925 - Yankees purchase infielder Leo Durocher
1926 - 105°F (41°C), Waterbury, Connecticut (state record)
1926 - 108°F (42°C), Troy, NY (state record)
1926 - Cin Red Curt Walker ties record of 2 triples in an inning
1926 - Babe Ruth caught a baseball at Mitchell Field in New York. The ball had been dropped from an airplane flying at 250 feet.
1933 - Wiley Post ended his around-the-world flight. He had traveled 15,596 miles in 7 days, 18 hours and 45 minutes.
1933 - Caterina Jarboro sings "Aida," NYC-1st negro prima donna in US
1933 - Wiley Post completes 1st round-the-world solo flight
1934 - Outside Chicago's Biograph Theatre, "Public Enemy No. 1" John Dillinger is mortally wounded by FBI agents.
1935 - Lester Walton appointed minister to Liberia
1936 - Phillies John Moore hits 3 consecutive HRs
1937 - Irish premier Eamon de Valera wins elections
1937 - The U.S. Senate rejected President Roosevelt's proposal to add more justices to the Supreme Court.
1939 - 1st black woman judge (Jane Matilda Bolin-NYC)
1940 - Dutch prime minister De Geer meets Hitler seeking peace talks
1940 - Jacqueline Kennedy's parents divorce
1941 - Plans for the Pentagon were presented to the House Subcommittee on Appropriations.
1942 - 4th Russian Pantser army forms with 80 tanks
1942 - Gasoline rationing using coupons begins
1942 - Warsaw Ghetto Jews (300,000) are sent to Treblinka extermination Camp
1943 - American forces led by Gen. George S. Patton captured Palermo, Sicily.
1944 - Soviets set up Polish Committee of National Liberation
1946 - Estelle Bennett, rocker (Ronettes)
1946 - Menachen Begin's opposition group surprise attack on King David hotel
1947 - -8°F (-13°C), Charlotte Pass, NSW (Australian record)
1950 - Frank Worrell completes 261 v England at Trent Bridge
1950 - King Leopold, after 6 years in exile, returns to Belgium
1951 - Gen Francisco Craveiro Lopes appointed pres of Portugal
1952 - Poland adopts Communist-imposed Constitution
1954 - Virgin Islands (US) adopts constitution (Revised Organic Act)
1954 - WTHI TV channel 10 in Terre Haute, IN (CBS) begins broadcasting
1955 - U.S. Vice-President Richard M. Nixon chaired a cabinet meeting in Washington, DC. It was the first time that a Vice-President had carried out the task.
1955 - Phillies longest win streak since 1892 hits 11
1958 - US performs atmospheric nuclear Test at Bikini Island
1959 - Benjamin Britten's "Missa Brevis" in D, premieres
1959 - Earth gas found at Kolham (Slochteren) Groningen
1960 - Cuba nationalizes all US owned sugar factories
1961 - WBNB TV channel 10 in Charlotte Amaile, VI (CBS) begins broadcasting
1962 - 1st US Venus probe, Mariner 1, fails at lift-off
1962 - 44th PGA Championship: Gary Player shoots a 278 at Aronimink GC PA
1962 - Chicago White Sox Floyd Robinson goes 6 for 6 (all singles)
1962 - Shirley Englehorn wins LPGA Lady Carling Golf Tournament
1963 - Beatles release "Introducing the Beatles"
1963 - Sonny Liston KOs Floyd Patterson in 1st round for heavyweight boxing title
1965 - Edward Heath succeeds Alec Douglas-Hume as leader of Brit Cons party
1965 - "Till Death Us Do Part" debuted on England’s BBC-TV.
1967 - 1st major appearance by Vanilla Fudge (Village Theater NYC)
1967 - Atlanta Braves use a record 5 pitchers in 9th inning
1967 - Carol Mann wins LPGA Supertest Ladies' Golf Open
1967 - Jimi Hendrix quits as opening act of the Monkees' tour
1968 - Sir John Newsome recommends public schools should take 50% of their intake from the state school system
1969 - Aretha Franklin arrested for disturbing peace in Detroit
1969 - USSR launches Sputnik 50 & Molniya 1-12 communications satellite
1971 - Sudan military counter coup under premier Numeiry
1972 - 10.84" (27.53 cm) of rainfall, Fort Ripley, Mn (state 24-hr record)
1972 - Venera 8 makes soft landing on Venus
1973 - 28th US Women's Open Golf Championship won by Susie Maxwell Berning
1975 - Confederate General Robert E. Lee had his U.S. citizenship restored by the U.S. Congress.
1976 - "Let My People Come" opens at Morosco Theater NYC for 106 performances
1979 - Pat Meyers wins LPGA Greater Baltimore Golf Classic
1981 - Turkish terrorist Mehmet Ali Agca sentenced in a Rome to life
1982 - Academic Text Processing Service forms in Seattle
1983 - -128.6°F (-89.2°C) recorded, Vostok, Antarctica (world record)
1983 - Angels OF Brian Downing error ends his record streak at 244 games
1983 - Dick Smith makes 1st solo helicopter flight around the world
1983 - Poland's PM Januzelski lifts martial law
1984 - 113th British Golf Open: Seve Ballesteros shoots a 276 at St Andrews
1984 - 22nd Tennis Fed Cup: Czech beats Australia in Sao Paulo Brazil (2-1)
1984 - Kathy Whitworth wins Rochester Golf International (her 85th win)
1984 - Laurent Fignon wins Tour de France
1986 - House of Reps impeaches Judge Harry E Claiborne on tax evasion
1987 - Said Aouita of Morocco sets 5k record (12:58.39) in Rome
1987 - Soyuz TM-3 launched with 3 cosmonauts (1 Syrian)
1987 - The U.S. began its policy of escorting re-flagged Kuwaiti tankers up and down the Persian Gulf to protect them from possible attack by Iran.
1988 - 500 US scientists pledge to boycott Pentagon germ-warfare research
1989 - Kristin Huxhold, 18, of Missouri, crowned America's Junior Miss
1990 - 119th British Golf Open: Nick Faldo shoots 270 at St Andrews Scotland
1990 - 90th US Golf Amateur Championship won by Phil Mickelson
1990 - Beth Daniel wins LPGA Phar-Mor in Youngstown Golf Tournament
1990 - Greg LeMond won his third Tour de France. A Minnesota native, Lemond was the first American to win the great French cycling race.
1991 - Jeffrey Dahmer confesses to killing 17 males in 1978
1992 - Colombia drug baron Pablo Escobar escapes prison
1992 - Soyuz TM-15 launches
1993 - NY Yankee Don Mattingly hits his 200th HR
1993 - Soyuz TM-17 lands
1994 - 23rd & last part of Comet Shoemaker-Levy hit Jupiter (since July 16th)
1994 - Doc Gooden admitted to Betty Ford Center
1994 - Mariners play Red Sox as home team at Fenway, as Kingdome is repaired
1994 - Military coup in Gambia: Pres Dawda Jawara flees
1994 - OJ Simpson pleads "Absolutely 100% Not Guilty" of murder
1994 - William Sigei runs world record 10k (26:52.53)
1995 - Space shuttle STS-70 (Discovery 20), lands
1995 - Susan Smith found guilty of drowning her 2 children in SC
1997 - Fire breaks out at Palais de Chaillot in Paris
1997 - The second Blue Water Bridge opens between Port Huron, Michigan and Sarnia, Ontario.
1998 - Iran tested medium-range missile, capable of reaching Israel or Saudi Arabia.
2000 - Astronomers at the University of Arizona announced that they had found a 17th moon orbiting Jupiter.
2002 - Israel assassinates Salah Shahade, the Commander-in-Chief of Hamas's military arm, the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, along with 14 civilians.
2003 - Members of 101st Airborne of the United States, aided by Special Forces, attack a compound in Iraq, killing Saddam Hussein's sons Uday and Qusay, along with Mustapha Hussein, Qusay's 14-year old son, and a bodyguard.
2003 - In Paris, France, a fire broke out near the top of the Eiffel Tower. About 4,000 visitors were evacuated and no injuries were reported.
2004 - The September 11 commission's final report was released. The 575-page report concluded that hijackers exploited "deep institutional failings within our government." The report was released to White House officials the day before.
2005 - Jean Charles de Menezes is killed by police as the hunt begins for the London Bombers. See 7 July 2005 London bombings and 21 July 2005 London bombings
2009 - The longest total solar eclipse of the 21st century, lasting up to 6 minutes and 38.8 seconds, occurred over parts of Asia and the Pacific Ocean.
2011 - Norway is the victim of twin terror attacks, the first being a bomb blast which targeted government buildings in central Oslo, the second being a massacre at a youth camp on the island of Utøya.
2012 - Car bombs kills 20 people and injures 80 in Madaen and Najaf, Iraq
2012 - Pranab Mukherjee is elected President of India
2012 - At least 77 people are killed by torrential rain in Beijing, China








The following links are to web sites that were used to complete this blog entry:

http://www.historyorb.com/today/events.php

http://on-this-day.com/onthisday/thedays/alldays/jul22.htm

http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history

http://www.infoplease.com/dayinhistory

No comments:

Post a Comment