November 22, 1963

Fightless soldier

On October 12, 1945, Corporal Desmond Doss became the first conscientious objector to receive the Congressional Medal of Honor.

Drafted in 1942, Doss refused to carry a gun due to his staunch religious beliefs. He had taken medics courses in preparation for his possible conscription as Army medics were not required to carry firearms. Nonetheless he received a good deal of opposition from his fellow soldiers and the military brass while in basic training. One officer even tried to have Doss tossed out as a mental case after he refused to carry a rifle.

However, Doss quickly proved himself on numerous occasions while a part of the Allied campaign in the Pacific. He often accompanied patrols into dangerous territories even when he hadn't been officially assigned. Medics, it should be noted, were popular targets for the Japanese as their loss struck a huge blow to the morale of the companies they'd been attached to.

Despite several instances during which Doss put himself in harms way for the good of his fellow soldiers his most daring deeds came in 1945 on Okinawa. After being mowed down by Japanese machine gunners Doss pulled four comrades from the field, crawling to within yards of the enemy guns. Days later he would spend five straight hours singlehandedly pulling from between 50 and 75 wounded men from an active battlefield and lowering them to safety down a 35 foot cliff on a jerry-rigged pulley system of his own making.

Doss' career in the Army came to end just weeks later when a grenade was thrown into the foxhole he'd been occupying while treating another soldier. The explosion riddled his leg with shrapnel, but he still managed to get the wounded man to safety. When Cpl. Doss, himself injured, went back into the field to continue to administer aid he was hit by a sniper, the bullet shattering all three bones in his left arm. He still managed to get himself to safety under his own power.

He did it all without ever carrying a gun or weapon of any kind.

Nuclear progress...

On October 7th, 1963 President John F. Kennedy signed the Limited Test Ban Treaty which was also ratified that fall by the Soviet Union and the United Kingdom. The treaty was designed to rein in the dangerous nuclear arms race being played out by the U.S. and U.S.S.R. It called for a halt to all nuclear testing underwater, in the atmosphere and in space. At the time distinguishing underground tests from natural seismic occurrences would have posed a unique diplomatic challenge and such tests were excluded from the ban. 

Agreement on the terms of the treaty came at the end of nearly 10 years worth of negotiations between the United States and Soviet Union and marked a large step towards the goal of nuclear non-proliferation. 

Barrel

On September 27th, 1989 two men, Peter DeBernardi and Jeffrey Petkovich, went over Niagara Falls in a bright yellow homemade barrel constructed of plate steel and weighing in at 1500 pounds. It also featured plexiglass portholes that allowed the occupants to see outside.

The barrel was the brainchild of DeBernardi (Petkovich was a last minute replacement after a friend of DiBernardi's bailed on the ride) who had always dreamed of going over Niagara. Their stunt marked the first successful two-man plunge over the edge of the famous falls. Both men survived and suffered only minor cuts and bruises.

Zip it

On July 11, 1985 H. Harlan Stone, M.D., head of general surgery at University of Maryland Hospital, announced that he had successfully substituted zippers for sutures in at least 28 patients.

Packs of gauze are needed to stem internal bleeding after portions of the pancreas are removed as a result of severe pancreatitis. The packs need to be changed daily for several days following the procedure and the patient must be repeatedly opened and closed to allow this. In 1978, while attending a medical meeting in Holland, Dr. Stone was turned on to the technique that greatly reduced the time and risk involved in numerous surgeries on individual patients. Once the need for the packs has passed the zippers were removed and the patients stitched up as usual.

The zippers themselves were nothing special; purchased at local shops and sterilized before use.

Papers

On June 30th, 1971 the Supreme Court in a 6-3 ruling allowed the New York Times to continue publishing the Pentagon Papers. Initiated by then Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara in 1967, his aim was to create a written history of American political and military involvement in Viet Nam.

In early 1971 Daniel Ellsberg leaked the Papers to the New York Times. Ellsberg had worked as an aide to former Assistant Secretary of Defense John T. McNaughton, an early head of the project, and had been given access to the work at RAND Corp, a think tank that had been one of the recipients of the Pentagon Papers.

The Papers revealed that four administrations (Truman, Eisenhower, Kennedy and Johnson) had lied to the public about U.S. intentions in Viet Nam; consistently downplaying initial involvement and commitment of American troops.

Beware...

the Ides of March.

On March 15, 44 B.C. Gaius Julius Caesar was stabbed to death in Rome while on his way to attend a session of the Senate. His assassination marked the end of a short, but substantial reign over the burgeoning empire of Rome.

Of his many political reforms one of the most poignant was his allowance of conquered peoples a place in Roman government. Gaius Cassius Longinus and Marcus Junius Brutus, both former enemies and members of the Senate, have been cited as prime conspirators in Caesar's murder.

In a broader sense, Caesar's radical political and social reforms, his manipulation of the government in order to see his policies more easily realized and his efforts to elevate his position and make his own power unassailable were more likely greater contributing factors to his downfall. Many members of the Senate had felt that Caesar's reach and influence had become far too great for one man alone.

The aftermath of Caesar's death was marked by an intense internal power struggle and riots incited by the Roman lower and middle-classes with whom the fallen leader had become immensely popular. In the end, Ceasar's great-grandnephew emerged victorious and assumed position as Rome's first true emperor.