Today in 1787 Delaware became the first state to ratify the Constitution.
The 9th state to ratify was New Hampshire on June 21, 1788, making the Constitution the law of the land.
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Today in 1987 Soviet Premier Mikhail Gorbachev arrived for a summit President Reagan, resulting in the significant Intermediate-Range Nuclear Force (INF) Treaty. This treaty eliminated nuclear warheads rather than limit them.
To be sure, some critics said the treaty would leave Europe at the mercy of Russia’s massive conventional forces and would lower US defensive capabilities. The treaty however was popular with the public.
The treaty was ratified by the Senate and went into effect June 1988. By June 1991, the US destroyed 800 missiles and the Soviet Union destroyed 1,800.
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Today in 1982 at the state penitentiary in Huntsville, Texas, Charles Brooks became the first condemned inmate to be executed with an intravenous lethal injection.
The method was quickly adopted as a more humane method of execution. In the next decade 32 states, the federal government and the military adopted lethal injection.
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Of course, I’m sure all of us are aware that today’s “date which will live in infamy” is Pearl Harbor Day. We realize the event changed our country and the rest of the world. For many of us nothing more need be said; we know what happened, if not in detail, and we honor the fallen of that day. For others like me, it is a fascinating story of how it came about. Details become significant and new ones continue to be revealed.
Gordon Prange is a historian who devoted his research skills to Pearl Harbor for decades. His books, “Pearl Harbor: The Verdict of History” and “At Dawn We Slept” are as detailed and comprehensive as any sources that can be found. I’d recommend them as the first sources to any student.
He wrote that exhaustive congressional committees “produced reams of testimony and documentation but could not come up with the clear-cut, foolproof answers that would have satisfied the American people.” And concludes, “Today the story of American unreadiness at Pearl Harbor remains a puzzle with no single answer…”
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Today in 2011, the 70th anniversary of Pearl Harbor Day, was the last observance ceremony at Pearl Harbor attended by the Pearl Harbor Survivors Association. The 2,700 remaining members are in their late 80′s and 90′s and dissolving fast. The association disbanded December 31, 2011.
The Sons and Daughters of Pearl Harbor Survivors, with about 20 chapters, are carrying on the annual observances.