On This Day, May 20: Pennsylvania Avenue closed to traffic in front of White House
On this date in history:
In 526, up to 300,000 people were killed in an earthquake in Syria and Antioch.
In 1873, Levi Strauss and Jacob Davis were granted a patent for blue jeans with copper rivets.
In 1927, Charles Lindbergh took off from New York in his single-engine monoplane, "The Spirit of St. Louis," bound for Paris. While he winged his way across the Atlantic, his mother taught her chemistry class at Cass Technical High School as usual.
In 1940, German forces punched through the Allied lines in Abbeville, France, to reach the English Channel. The Battle of Abbeville one week later culminated in the evacuation of Dunkirk.
In 1969, in one of the more infamous and bloody battles of the Vietnam War, U.S. troops seized Dong Ap Bia mountain, commonly known as Hamburger Hill.
In 1974, Judge John Sirica ordered U.S. President Richard Nixon to turn over tapes and other records of 64 White House conversations on the Watergate affair.
In 1989, Chinese Premier Li Peng declared martial law in Beijing in response to heightened student demonstrations in Tiananmen Square.
In 1995, President Bill Clinton permanently closed Pennsylvania Avenue in front of the White House after more than 200 years of mostly unimpeded traffic.
In 2002, East Timor, a small Pacific Coast nation, gained independence from Indonesia. It is called Timor Leste.
In 2013, a tornado struck the Moore, Okla., area near Oklahoma City, killing 24 people, injuring more than 300 and destroying many buildings, including two elementary schools.
In 2018, King Mswati III announced he was changing the name of his country, Swaziland, to eSwatini, which means "land of the Swazis."
In 2024, a New Zealand auction house sold a single feather from an extinct huia bird for $28,417, making it the most expensive feather in history. The bird, the last recorded sighting of which was in 1907, was considered sacred by the Māori people.
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CBS News
5 hours ago
- CBS News
The lasting impact of Operation Babylift 50 years after the end of the Vietnam War
In April 1975, during the chaotic final days of the Vietnam War, there were some 3,000 babies in the country that had been fathered by U.S. servicemen. "Dad felt very responsibly that he wanted to get those babies out," Steve Ford told CBS News — "dad" in this case being then-President Gerald Ford. "The word was once the North got into Saigon, that these babies would be possibly slaughtered, killed," Steve Ford said. President Ford moved urgently, and Operation Babylift was born, flying more than 2,500 of those children to the United States. But the first flight in the operation crashed just minutes after takeoff, killing 78 of the nearly 250 children on board. The president was undeterred, and the flights resumed the very next day, filled with cardboard file boxes that had been repurposed into makeshift cradles. "Dad met the first plane, and one of the best pictures for me is seeing him carrying that first baby off the plane," Steve Ford said. Thuy Williams, then just 5 years old, was on that flight. "There's actually a picture of me reading a book to the little kid next to me and I just look calm," she told CBS News. Williams had originally been placed on the first flight — the one that crashed — but was pulled off at the last moment due to overcrowding. Her mother, who brought her to the plane, believed she had died in the wreckage. It wasn't until decades later that the two were reunited in Vietnam. Even beyond the tragedy of the crash, the mission has drawn some criticism over the years. Not all of the children airlifted were orphans. Some had been temporarily placed in orphanages by parents desperate to get them to safety, believing they might be reunited someday. In a small number of cases, children were evacuated without parental or family consent, fueling debate over the ethics of the operation. "My mom gave me up to save my life," Williams said when asked about some of the problems with the operation. "A lot of those kids, their parents gave them up to save their lives. Yes, I know that some were taken that weren't supposed to, that parents expected to get their kids back, but the reality is, what would their life have been like if their parents did get them back, you know? They wouldn't have had the opportunities that they had here in the U.S." Steve Ford acknowledged, "Anytime you have a mission like this, is it gonna be 100%? Absolutely not. That's- this is war. You're trying to do the best you can very quickly." "I can not imagine what that mother would have to process to make that decision," he said of women like Williams' mother, who gave their kids up to get them out of the country. Williams was adopted by a couple in Portland, Oregon, and said she began to consider herself an American "pretty much probably right away." "When your first memories are seeing people killed, those are things you wanna leave behind," she said. Ten years after her arrival in the U.S., Williams made the under-18 National Soccer Team. She then spent eight years in the Army, built a construction company and started a nonprofit that takes kids to Africa. To this day, she coaches soccer, track and lacrosse, and she's so close to her players that she's officiated weddings for two of them. "I understand the opportunities that I had being here in the U.S. I just wanted to serve," she said. Steve Ford and Williams recently had a chance to meet at the Gerald Ford Museum. "My dad would love her story. It would bring tears to his eye to see what she's done with her life," Steve Ford said. "Someone said to me, I'm not sure they'd come get those babies today. I think back on dad. He had the moral clarity to go save those babies. And we had an obligation to do something, to help them," he added.
New York Post
7 hours ago
- New York Post
Story of Vietnamese orphans who resettled here 50 years ago proves there are greater things than politics
Fifty years ago, near the end of the Vietnam War, as North Vietnamese troops headed south, the director of the Cam Ranh Christian Orphanage, Pastor Nguyen Xuan Ha — known to everyone as Mr. Ha —decided it was time to escape to somewhere safe. Mr. Ha put 85 children and staff on two buses and headed for Saigon where he hoped they could flee to safety. One of the buses was shot at by a North Vietnamese soldier and the buses separated. Somehow they re-united in Saigon. After renting a boat and getting some distance from shore, the engine quit. For five days they drifted before a Thailand tanker approached. The captain refused to help, but later changed his mind, turned around and towed them for a while. After cutting the tow line, a group of fishermen towed them toward Singapore. Soldiers refused to let them ashore. Mr. Ha wrote a name on a piece of paper and asked a soldier if he could locate a missionary named Ralph Neighbour to help. Dr. Neighbour (now 96), newly arrived in Singapore, was miraculously found. He picks up the story from there in an email to me: 'Singapore government kept them out on St. John's Island. Our missionary team took clothes and food out. USA embassy contacted Swiss United Nations Refugee Center. Special flight arrived. Children whisked thru Singapore on bus with windows covered. Government feared losing neutrality during war. No official record they were there.' I knew Dr. Neighbour from when he was a pastor in Houston where I worked at a local TV station. He called and asked if I could help get the orphans and staff to the United States and find temporary housing for them. I contacted some Washington officials I knew and permission for them to enter the country was granted. When they arrived in Houston, a church couple with a large ranch offered them shelter and food until the Buckner Children and Family Services in Dallas could assist with processing and adoptions. I interviewed the youngest, oldest and one in between who made the anniversary trip. Sam Schrade, who was a baby when he was rescued from the streets of Saigon, is 51 and owns a successful media business in Houston. How would his life have been different had he stayed in Vietnam? He says the fact that he is of 'mixed race' (American-Asian) would make it 'doubly hard' because native Vietnamese 'look down upon such people. I have been told by many people I would not have had a good life here because of the race issue and a government that didn't want me.' Kelli St. German, now 56, thinks she might have been growing coffee beans and doing hard labor had she not come to America. She also believes she would not have developed a strong faith because of the state's antipathy toward religion. 'I became a teacher for 30 years.' Thomas Ho, the oldest orphan, now 76, was 25 when he left Vietnam. He helped organize the evacuation and prepared small amounts of food for the children. In America he became a chef and then studied to become an engineer. He says if he had stayed in Vietnam, 'I might not have survived, especially at my age now. Life here is very difficult. A lot of the food is not very healthy.' Reuniting with these adults, many of whom I met when they were children, is a reminder that there are things far greater than politics, celebrities and the petty jealousies that are the focus of too many of us. There are few greater blessings than to have had a role in changing these lives for the better. These former orphans are blessed. So am I. Cal Thomas is a veteran political commentator, columnist and author.
New York Post
10 hours ago
- New York Post
Shipwreck mystery solved as lost vessel resurfaces 140 years after tragic sinking
This discovery made major waves. Researchers have discovered a vessel that sank over 140 years ago — closing the book on one of the UK's most enduring maritime mysteries. Footage of the long-lost wreckage is currently making waves online. The historic steamer, dubbed the SS Nantes, had sunk in 1888 after colliding with a German boat, resulting in the deaths of most of the crew, Jam Press reported. The freighter then lay undiscovered for nearly a century and a half until 2024, when diver and explorer Dominic Robinson identified the shipwreck by dinnerware he found at the wreck site. 5 'It's quite a sad story,' said Dominic Robinson (pictured), who helped identify the wreck. Jam Press 'Even though the wreck had been dived before, it was never identified and this small piece of broken plate allowed us to do exactly that,' the 50-year-old former army officer, who'd been diving for 35 years, told Jam Press. Meanwhile, maritime history expert Dr. Harry Bennett dubbed the recovery the 'underwater archaeological equivalent of a needle in a haystack,' the BBC reported. 'I think the local dive team are to be congratulated on a splendid piece of detective work which reveals this maritime disaster,' said the professor, who teaches at the University of Plymouth. 5 Footage of the sunken vessel, which had been lost to history for 140 years. Jam Press Built in 1874, the SS Nantes was a cargo ship operated by the Cunard Steamship Company. The 14-year-old vessel was traveling from Liverpool, UK, to Le Havre, France, with a load of coal in tow when it was struck by the German sailing vessel Theodor Ruger, which tore a 'big hole in its side,' Bennett recounted to CNN. 'For several hours, the crew tried to save their ship using all manner of materials to try and fill the hole, including mattresses,' he recalled. 'But eventually they lose that fight and the ship goes down very rapidly.' 5 The SS Nantes (pictured) had collided with a German sailing vessel. Jam Press/Rick Ayrton Bennett said that the SS Nantes 'drifted for several hours, before it finally made its way to the bottom, sadly, with many of its crewmen on board.' Their escape efforts were reportedly hindered by the fact that the lifeboats were damaged in the collision. 'There were some 23-odd fatalities,' Bennett told BBC. 'There were three survivors.' 5 Divers at the wreck of the SS Nantes, which was identified in part by the shard of a plate that bore the emblem of the Cunard Steamship Company. Jam Press/Rick Ayrton Meanwhile, corpses from the wreckage washed ashore in Cornwall, where locals were confronted by the horrific sight of bodies intermingled with pieces of the SS Nantes. Unfortunately, after plunging to the bottom of the ocean, the ship was 'essentially lost' as it was a time period with 'no satellite navigation,' per Dr. Bennett. 5 The plate with the stamp of the Cunard Steamship Company. Jam Press/Rick Ayrton It wasn't until 2024 that the local dive team identified the sunken vessel. Johnson had caught wind of the unidentified wreck from the UK Hydrographic Office and decided to investigate himself. Toward the end of a mostly fruitless dive, the wreck-plorer saw the broken plate, which provided a major clue as to the vessel's identity. 'I decided to bring it up to the surface [and] we found that [it] had the Cunard Steamship crest on it,' recalled Jonhson. 'It was then bingo, we've found it.' Researchers also identified the sunken ship by the build, technology on board, and dimensions of the vessel — which measured around 240 feet long. After examining the crews' footage and methodology, Dr. Bennett declared that 'beyond any reasonable shadow of a doubt, this is the SS Nantes.' While the sinking of the SS Nantes was an awful tragedy, Robinson hopes that the discovery at least provides a bit of closure to the heartwrenching saga. 'One of the things I like to think is by solving mysteries and telling those stories, I'm ensuring that those people aren't forgotten,' he said.
