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!
Aug 7, 1964: Congress passes Gulf of Tonkin Resolution
The United States Congress overwhelming approves the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, giving President Lyndon B. Johnson nearly unlimited powers to oppose "communist aggression" in Southeast Asia. The resolution marked the beginning of an expanded military role for the United States in the Cold War battlefields of Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia.
By 1964, America's ally, South Vietnam, was in serious danger of falling to a communist insurgency. The insurgents, aided by communist North Vietnam, controlled large areas of South Vietnam, and no amount of U.S. military aid and training seemed able to save the southern regime. During the presidencies of Dwight D. Eisenhower and John F. Kennedy, hundreds-and then thousands-of U.S. military advisers had been sent to South Vietnam to train that nation's military forces. In addition, hundreds of millions of dollars in military and economic assistance had been given to South Vietnam. The administration of President Lyndon B. Johnson made the decision that only direct U.S. military intervention in the conflict could turn the tide. However, Johnson was campaigning in the presidential election of 1964 as the "responsible" candidate who would not send American troops to fight and die in Asia. In early August, a series of events occurred that allowed Johnson to appear statesmanlike while simultaneously expanding the U.S. role in Vietnam.
On August 2, North Vietnamese torpedo boats attacked an American destroyer in the Gulf of Tonkin. Johnson responded by sending in another destroyer. On August 4, the two destroyers reported that they were under attack. This time, Johnson authorized retaliatory air attacks against North Vietnam. He also asked Congress to pass the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution. This resolution declared, "The United States regards as vital to its national interest and to world peace the maintenance of international peace and security in Southeast Asia." It also gave Johnson the right to "take all necessary measures to repel any armed attack against the forces of the United States and to prevent further aggression." The House passed the resolution by a unanimous vote; the vote in the Senate was 88 to 2. Johnson's popularity soared in response to his "restrained" handling of the crisis.
The Johnson administration went on to use the resolution as a pretext to begin heavy bombing of North Vietnam in early 1965 and to introduce U.S. combat troops in March 1965. Thus began a nearly eight-year war in which over 58,000 U.S. troops died. In a wider sense, the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution can be considered America's Cold War policy toward all of Southeast Asia at the time. The resolution was also another example of the American government's less than candid discussion of "national security" matters during the Cold War. Unspoken during the Congressional debate over the resolution was the fact that the commanders of the U.S. destroyers could not state with absolute accuracy that their ships had actually been attacked on the night of August 4, nor was any mention made of the fact that the U.S. destroyers had been assisting South Vietnamese commandos in their attacks on North Vietnamese military installations. By the late 1960s, the tangle of government deceptions and lies began to unravel as public confidence in both Johnson and the American military effort in Vietnam began to erode.
This date marks the anniversary of Congress passing the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, which really stepped up American involvement in Vietnam. It would wind up being a huge war and, at the time, the longest conflict that the United States would be involved. Much of it started with the Congressional vote in favor of the Gulf of Tonkin, and it would continue to escalate. But that was not the only thing that happened on this date. The Battle of Crannon between Athens and Macedon occurred on this date in 322BC, following the death of Alexander the Great. Otto the Great became King of Germany. Napoleon reinstated slavery in St. Domingue (Haiti). Not too much later, Haiti would gain it's independence. Bolivar defeated the Spanish at the Battle of Boyacá. Germany annexed what would come to be known as South West Africa, and later Namibia. The Peace Bridge between the United States and Canada opened on this day. Germany invaded France during the First World War. Joyce's novel "Ulysses" was not banned following a court ruling on this date. Jacqueline Kennedy gave birth on this day, becoming the first First Lady to have a baby in a very long time.
Also, I would like to wish my mom a very happy birthday today!
Here's a more detailed look at events that transpired on this date throughout history:
322 BC - Battle of Crannon between Athens and Macedon following the death of Alexander the Great.
626 - Battle at Constantinople: Slavic/Persians/Avarenvloot defeated
768 - Stephen III [IV] begins his reign as Catholic Pope
936 - Otto I the Great becomes King of Germany
1409 - Council of Pisa closes
1461 - the Ming Dynasty Chinese military general Cao Qin stages a coup against the Tianshun Emperor.
1479 - Battle of Guinegate: Emperor Maximilian I vs King Louis XI
1485 - Henry (VII) Tudors army lands in Milford Harbor, South Wales
1498 - Columbus arrives in Caribbean
1573 - Francis Drakes fleet returns to Plymouth
1575 - Spanish troops conquer Oudewater, almost all inhabitants died
1588 - -8] English assault on Spanish Armada
1606 - The first documented performance of Macbeth performed at the Great Hall at Hampton Court.
1620 - Kepler's mother arrested for witchcraft
1620 - Battle at Ponts-the-Ce, Poitou: French king Louis XIII beats his mother Marie de Medici
1710 - Earl van Godolphin resigns as English minister of Finance
1714 - The Battle of Gangut: the first important victory of the Russian Navy.
1750 - Slave uprising on Curacao
1760 - Ft Loudon, Tennessee surrenders to Cherokee Indians
1782 - George Washington creates Order of Purple Heart
1789 - Congress creates Dept of War & Lighthouse Service
1802 - Napoleon orders re-instatement of slavery on St Domingue (Haiti)
1814 - Pope Pius VII reinstates Jesuits
1819 - Battle of Boyacá; Bolívar defeats Spanish in Colombia
1820 - 1st potatoes planted in Hawaii
1864 - Battle of Moorefield, WV
1879 - The opening of the Poor Man's Palace in Manchester.
1882 - Hatfields of south WV & McCoys of east Ky feud, 100 wounded or die
1884 - Germany annexes Angra Pequena (Southwest-Africa)
1885 - 5 German warships anchor at Zanzibar
1888 - Theophilus Van Kannel of Phila patents revolving door
1893 - 53rd Congress (1893-95) convenes
1900 - Diamond workers in Amsterdam strike
1904 - Train derailed on bridge in Eden Colo during a flash flood, kills 96
Macedonian King and Conqueror of Persia Alexander the GreatMacedonian King and Conqueror of Persia Alexander the Great 1907 - Walter Johnson wins 1st of his 416 wins, 7-2 over Cleveland
1909 - US issues 1st Lincoln penny
1912 - Progressive (Bull Moose) Party nominates Theodore Roosevelt for pres
1914 - British Gloucester vs German Breslau/Goeben off Greece
1914 - French government awards king Albert of Belgium the Great Cross
1914 - French troops under Gen Bonneau occupy Altkitrch at Elzas
1914 - German army occupies city of Liege Belgium
1914 - Lord Kitchner says "Your country needs you," poster spreads over UK
1915 - Assault up Russell's Top at Gallipolis, 232 Australians die
1915 - St Louis 3rd base coach Miller Huggins, calls for ball Bkln rookie obliges, Huggins steps aside, & Card runner scores
1921 - Cyclist Piet Moeskops becomes world champ sprinter
1925 - League of Nation advises against Turk/Iraqi division of Mosoelgebied
1927 - Peace Bridge between US & Canada dedicated
1927 - US rum smuggler Horace Alderman kills 3
1929 - Charles Ruijs de Beerenbrouck forms Dutch government
26th US President Theodore Roosevelt26th US President Theodore Roosevelt 1929 - Ruth ties record by hitting grand slams in consecutive games
1929 - Jo Baer (born Josephine Kleinberg), Seattle USA, American artist
1930 - A large mob estimated at 2,000 lynch two young black men, Thomas Shipp and Abram Smith in Marion Indiana
1930 - Richard Bedford Bennet forms Canadian government
1933 - The Iraqi Government slaughters over 3,000 Assyrians in the village of Sumail. The day becomes known as Assyrian Martyrs Day.
1934 - US Court of Appeals upheld lower court ruling striking down government's attempt to ban controversial James Joyce novel "Ulysses"
1935 - 60% of voters agrees to nazism in Danzig (Gdansk)
1938 - Leo Durocher, hits 2,000th Dodger home run
1938 - Nazi's close theologic department of Innsbruck university
1940 - Churchill recognizes De Gaulle government in exile
1940 - Largest amount paid for a stamp ($45,000 for 1 1856 British Guiana)
1940 - Alsace Lorraine is annexed by the Third Reich (Germany) during World War II
1941 - 551 Jews are shot in Kishnev ghetto in Romania
1942 - 1st American offensive in Pacific in WW2, Guadalcanal, Solomon Is
1942 - Resistance bombs Rotterdam railway
Baseball Player and Manager Leo DurocherBaseball Player and Manager Leo Durocher 1942 - Transport 16 departs with French Jews to nazi-Germany
1943 - Red Army recaptures Bogodukov
1944 - Anton de Kom arrested by Surinam resistance fighter
1944 - Canada/Polish offensive direction Falaise: Total Cooperation
1944 - German counter attack at Avranches fails
1944 - July 20th Plot trial under Roland Freis in Berlin begins
1944 - US 3rd Army reaches suburbs of Brest Brittany
1944 - IBM dedicates the first program-controlled calculator, the Automatic Sequence Controlled Calculator (known best as the Harvard Mark I).
1946 - 1st coin bearing portrait of Negro authorized
1947 - Balsa raft Kon Tiki crashes into a Polynesian archipelago reef
1947 - The Bombay Municipal Corporation formally takes over the Bombay Electric Supply and Transport (BEST).
1948 - 1st Dutch government of Beel resigns
1948 - Delfo Cabrera wins 11th Olympic marathon (2:34:51.6)
1949 - "All after Love" closes at Mark Hellinger Theater NYC after 121 perfs
1950 - Police bar white players-Lou Chirban, Stan Mierko, & Frank Dyle, from playing in Negro League
1951 - Douglas D-558-II Skyrocket reaches 1,992 kph
1951 - US viking rocket reaches 210 km height (record)
1953 - Eastern Airlines enters jet age, uses Electra prop-jet
1954 - "Golden Apple" closes at Alvin Theater NYC after 125 performances
1954 - Charles Mahoney becomes 1st US black to serve as a full UN delegate
1955 - Bar-Ilan University founded in Israel
1955 - KSTF TV channel 10 in Scottsbluff-Gering, NB (CBS/NBC) begins
1955 - Tokyo Telecommunications Engineering, the precursor to Sony, begins selling its first transistor radios in Japan.
1956 - Boston Red Sox fine Ted Williams $5,000 for spitting at Boston fans
1956 - British government sends 3 aircraft carriers to Egypt
1956 - Dynamite transport explodes in Colombia; about 1200 die
1957 - US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
1959 - Explorer 6 transmits 1st TV photo of Earth from space
1959 - The Lincoln Memorial design on the U.S. penny goes into circulation. It replaces the "sheaves of wheat" design
1960 - Ivory Coast (Côte d'Ivoire) gains independence from France
1960 - Students stage kneel-in demonstrations in Atlanta churches
1960 - Wiffi Smith wins LPGA Waterloo Golf Open
1961 - Cosmonaut Gherman Titov circles Earth for a full day in Vostok 2
1961 - Soviet premier Khrushchev predicts USSR economy will surpass US
1962 - USSR performs nuclear test at Eastern Kazakh/Semipalitinsk USSR
1963 - Jacqueline Kennedy becomes 1st, First Lady to give birth since Mrs Cleveland
1964 - 31st NFL Chicago All-Star Game: Chicago 28, All-Stars 17 (65,000)
1964 - Turkey begins air attack on Greek-Cypriots
1964 - US Congress approves Gulf of Tonkin resolution
1966 - Race riot in Lansing Michigan
1970 - 1st computer chess tournament
1970 - Christine Perfect (McVie) joins Fleetwood Mac
1970 - WDHN TV channel 18 in Dothan, AL (ABC) begins broadcasting
1970 - 4, including presiding judge, killed in courthouse shootout in San Rafael, California (Police charge Angela Davis provided weapons)
1971 - Apollo 15 returns to Earth
1972 - Hall of Fame inducts Berra, Sandy Koufax, Lefty Gomez & Early Wynn
1974 - Philippe Petit walks tightrope strung between twin towers
1976 - Chako Higuchi wins LPGA Colgate-European Golf Open
1976 - US Viking 2 goes into Martian orbit after 11-month flight from Earth
1976 - Scientists in Pasadena, California, announce Viking I found strongest indications to date of possible life on Mars
1977 - "Shenandoah" closes at Alvin Theater NYC after 1,050 performances
1978 - Eddie Mathews, Addie Joss, & Larry MacPhail inducted to Hall of Fame
1978 - Thousands of mourners file past body of Pope Paul VI
1980 - Hurricane Allen ravages Caribisch area, about 70 killed
1981 - The Washington Star ceases all operations after 128 years of publication.
1983 - "Merlin" closes at Mark Hellinger Theater NYC after 199 performances
1983 - 1st World Track & Field Championships
1983 - 65th PGA Championship: Hal Sutton shoots a 274 at Riviera CC LA
1983 - Bobby Murcer Day at Yankee Stadium
1983 - Grete Waitz of Norway, wins 1st all-women Marathon (Helsinki Fin)
1983 - Patti Rizzo wins LPGA Boston Five Golf Classic
1983 - Some 675,000 employees strike AT&T
1984 - David Rabe's "Hurlyburly," premieres in NYC
1984 - Japan beats US for olympic gold medal in baseball
1984 - Jim Deshales becomes 1,000th playing Yankee
Singer & Actress Barbra StreisandSinger & Actress Barbra Streisand 1985 - Barbra Streisand records "Broadway Album"
1985 - Baseball players end a 2 day strike
1985 - Takao Doi, Mamoru Mohri and Chiaki Mukai are chosen to be Japan's first astronauts.
1986 - "Honky Tonk Nights" opens at Biltmore Theater NYC for 4 performances
1986 - Daniel Buettner, Bret Anderson, Martin Engel & Anne Knabe begin cycling journey of 15,266 miles from Prudhoe Bay Alaska to Argentina
1987 - 5 Central American presidents sign peace accord in Guatemala
1987 - Javed Miandad scores 260 v England at The Oval, 28 fours 1 six
1987 - Lynne Cox swims 4.3 km from US to USSR in 39°F (4°C) Bering Sea
1988 - Martha Nause wins Planters Pat Bradley International Golf Tournament
1988 - Writers guild end their 6 months strike
1988 - Rioting in New York City's Tompkins Square Park.
1989 - U.S. Congressman Mickey Leland (D-TX) and 15 others die in a plane crash in Ethiopia.
1990 - Desert Shield begins - US deploys troops to Saudi Arabia
1990 - NY Yankee Kevin Mass sets record with 12th HR in 1st 92 at bats & becomes 21st to hit a ball into 3rd deck of Seattle's Kingdome
1991 - Charles Austin breaks US high jump record at 7'10½"
1991 - Court rules Manuel Noriega, may access some secret US documents
1991 - Darrin Lewis hits his 1st major league HR
1991 - Manhattan Cable final day of amnesty to return illegal cable boxes
1991 - US sets 400m relay record at 37.67 seconds
1992 - Cleveland Indians turn a triple play
1992 - Tampa Bay group purchases SF Giants
1993 - "Camelot" closes at Gershwin Theater NYC after 56 performances
1993 - Tropical storm Brett ravages Venezuela, 118 killed
1994 - "Hedda Gabler" closes at Criterion Theater NYC after 33 performances
1994 - 1st telephone link between Israel & Jordan
1994 - Carolyn Hill wins McCall's LPGA Golf Classic at Stratton Mountain
1994 - Ernesto Samper sworn in as president of Colombia
1997 - STS 85 (Discovery 23) launches into orbit
1997 - Ung Huot appointed Cambodia's 1st premier
2007 - Barry Bonds of the San Francisco Giants breaks baseball great Hank Aaron's record by hitting his 756th home run.
2008 - Georgia launches a military offensive to surround and capture the capital of South Ossetia, Tskhinvali, from Russian control, starting the South Ossetia War.
2012 - 21 people are killed by a gun attack in a church in Okene, Nigeria
2012 - Heavy rain forces 20,000 people to flee their homes in Manila, Phillipines
2012 - 200,000 people are evacuated from Shanghai in anticipation of Typhoon Haikui
1789 - The U.S. War Department was established by the U.S. Congress. 1782 - George Washington created the Order of the Purple Heart. 1888 - Theophilus Van Kannel received a patent for the revolving door. 1914 - Germany invaded France. 1928 - The U.S. Treasure Department issued a new bill that was one third smaller than the previous U.S. bills. 1934 - The U.S. Court of Appeals upheld a lower court ruling striking down the government's attempt to ban the controversial James Joyce novel "Ulysses." 1942 - U.S. forces landed at Guadalcanal, marking the start of the first major allied offensive in the Pacific during World War II. 1947 - The balsa wood raft Kon-Tiki, which had carried a six-man crew 4,300 miles across the Pacific Ocean, crashed into a reef in a Polynesian archipelago. 1959 - The U.S. launched Explorer 6, which sent back a picture of the Earth. 1960 - The Cuban Catholic Church condemned the rise of communism in Cuba. Fidel Castro then banned all religious TV and radio broadcasts. 1964 - The U.S. Congress passed the Gulf of Tonkin resolution, which gave President Johnson broad powers in dealing with reported North Vietnamese attacks on U.S. forces. 1974 - French stuntman Philippe Petit walked a tightrope strung between the twin towers of New York's World Trade Center. 1976 - Scientists in Pasadena, CA, announced that the Viking 1 spacecraft had found strong indications of possible life on Mars. 1981 - After 128 years of publication, "The Washington Star" ceased all operations. 1983 - AT&T employees went on strike. 1987 - The presidents of five Central American nations, met in Guatemala City, and signed an 11-point agreement designed to bring peace to their region. 1990 - U.S. President George H.W. Bush ordered U.S. troops and warplanes to Saudi Arabia to guard against a possible invasion by Iraq. 1999 - Tony Gwynn of the San Diego Padres got his 3,000th hit of his major league career. 2003 - In California, Arnold Schwarzenegger announced that he would run for the office of governor. 2003 - Stephen Geppi bought a 1963 G.I. Joe prototype for $200,000.
1789 Congress established the U.S. War Department. 1947 The wooden raft Kon-Tiki, which carried Thor Heyerdahl and five companions more than 4,000 miles, crashed into a reef in the Pacific. 1959 The United States launched Explorer 6, which sent back a picture of Earth. 1964 Congress passed the Tonkin Gulf Resolution, which expanded President Johnson's use of military powers in the Vietnam War. 1987 Lynne Cox becomes the first person to swim from the United States to the Soviet Union, making the 2.7 mile trip through the frigid waters of the Bering Strait. Cox is surprised by the (relatively) warm welcome she receives from the Soviets. 1998 U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania were bombed, by terrorists. Some 224 were killed and more than 5,500 injured. 2000 Sen. Joseph Lieberman of Conn., was selected by Al Gore to be the first Jewish vice-presidential candidate on a major party ticket. 2007 Barry Bonds passes Hank Aaron on baseball’s all-time homerun list. The record, however, is discredited by many because of Bond’s alleged steroid use.
The following links are to web sites that were used to complete this blog entry:
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