On another day in history, understandably forgotten by most, as it was barely reported by the press: July 11, 1995, the U.S. Government, under President Clinton, released a cache of Soviet cables that had been decoded during WWII and the Cold War under Project Verona. The cables indicated that everyone charged by Sen. McCarthy was indeed a Soviet agent. Sen. McCarthy has been viciously slandered by history for doing his job, under mandate, as Chairman of the Senate Committee on Government Operations which included the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations. It was Congressman Richard Nixon, not Senator McCarthy who headed the HUAC. It is that confusion that has condemned his memory. It's a horrendous shame that Sen. McCarthy's rightful vindication has been withheld from him.


https://www.nytimes.com/books/first/...es-venona.html
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One can find books which praise Adolf Hitler as a champion against Communism.

June 10th update on June 10th.
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People (many of whom feature in the decrypts), as well as the New York Times, have praised Stalin as a champion against Naziism. Both enslaved and murdered many millions of innocent people and one shouldn't use one evil to defend another. Besides, they were in cahoots with each other (Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact) until Hitler screwed his buddy by invading the Soviet Union on 22 June 1941. One is reminded of two bank robbers fighting over the loot. BTW, Communism and Fascism are the same thing: Stateism, the supremacy of the State over the individual. Communism and Naziism aren't antagonists, they're rivals for the same thing. My wife's grandfather survived a Nazi concentration camp. Her grandmother and other family members fought the Nazis as partisans in Italy, and her great uncle, Walter Audisio, was the guy who killed Mussolini.

This is fun, I love history! :-)
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Today in 1692, Bridget Bishop was hanged as a witch in Salem MA, and in 1752 Benjamin Franklin went a flew a kite.
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On this date in 1955, towards the end of the 24 Hour race at Le Mans France, the Mercedes Benz 300SLR driven by Pierre Levegh was propelled into the air following a wreck and flew in flaming pieces into the crowd, killing the driver and 81 spectators. That race was completed despite this tragedy, though later ones in Germany and Switzerland were cancelled, and bans against racing were temporarily imposed in Spain and Mexico. A ban remains in Switzerland to this day, whereas Spain and Mexico still remain bullish on corridas.
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Today in 1987, President Ronald Reagan famously challenged General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev to "tear down this wall" in a speech from Berlin. Speaking of walls, in 1994 Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman were stabbed to death outside her Brentwood home. O.J. Simpson, her ex-husband, continues to search for her killer from behind the walls of the Lovelock Correctional Center in Nevada.
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On this day in 323 BC Alexander the Great died in Babylon at the age of 33. One wonders how the flow of Western history might differ today had he been content with an empire that stretched from the Danube to the Nile and the Tigris and Euphrates, and had he not attempted a bridge too far by forging on to the Oxus and the Indus.

On the plus side, he at least outlived Bucephalus.
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On this Flag Day in 1951, the first commercially-produced computer, UNIVAC, was delivered to the US Census Bureau. Within 6 months, upon my own delivery, it counted me. And in 1954 the US held a national Civil Defense alert, urging millions of Americans to duck, cover, and kiss their @$$ goodbye.
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Today in 1215 King John was forced to put his seal on the Magna Carta, guaranteeing feudal rights to his barons. The common people? Eh, not so much. And in 1986 King Richard made his 1,000th start in a NASCAR race.

On a cultural note, in 1300 Dante Alighieri was named a prior of Florence, two years before he was banished from his native city. And speaking of immortal poets, in 1963 Kyu Sakamoto hit #1 on the US pop charts with his song "Sukiyaki" . . . the only time this has happened with a song sung entirely in Japanese.
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If yesterday was on skates for some, today is decidedly on wheels. On June 16 1884 the first roller coaster in America opened at Coney Island NY. It roared along at a blistering 6 MPH for 600 feet, and cost a nickel . . . which, by my rough estimation, would equal in today's money about $328,614. And today in 1903, in Detroit MI the Ford Motor Company was incorporated. It is still in business today, even if Detroit is closed. Finally, at Columbia Record's Studio A in Manhattan, folk icon Bob Dylan flipped the switch back in 1965 and recorded what Rolling Stone magazine named the greatest song of all time.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=syNLBJ_Lq9E
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In 1994 Al Cowlings and O.J. went for a ride in a white Ford Bronco.
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And in 1972, a continent removed from LA, five men were arrested in DC's Watergate Hotel for felonious burglary and possession of implements of crime.
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Today, in 1923, Checker produced its first taxi at its Kalamazoo factory. Speaking of crosstown traffic and zoos, in 1967 the Monterey Pop Festival reached its climax when Jimi Hendrix set his Fender on fire.

And in 1798 John Adams passed the first of the Alien and Sedition Acts, relating to restrictions on immigration, which was opposed by many as being detrimental to American principles. Thankfully, we have evolved past such issues. :-)
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Oddly enough, Adams was a Federalist in a Federalist controlled government when he pulled this nonsense.
The Feds just wanted to shut up the burgeoning Democratic-Republican party and remain in power.
This move stuck a fork in the Federalists, lost them the 1800 election, and allowed Thomas Jefferson to take office.
The Alien act was repealed in 1802, and the Sedition Act was left to expire.

John Adams was a total blockhead, quite frankly.
Always on the wrong side of the fence, promoting French and English ideals, and just normally wrong.
His boy was his polar opposite and very much galvanized our independence.

On a personal basis, I really enjoy this very period of our country's history.
The whole Thomas Jefferson era, actually.
If it's okay, I'm just gonna continue to blather, Thomas.
I ****in LOVE history. :-)
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Blather away, brother. You are skilled at it. :-) Plus, you are correct about the whole Adams/Jefferson conflict.
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Mr. Thomas, on the 4th of July, will you tell everyone that John Adams and Thomas Jefferson both died on that day in 1826?
Their friendship is such a great story. I've wanted to read their letters for quite some time, and I plan to do that soon.
My goal is to get smarter than you, stud. :-) (:-))
It may be possible if I can stay alive for 50 more years and you check out relatively soon.
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The achievement of one's goals is greatly eased by setting them worm-belly low. :-)
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On this day in 1972, the US Supreme Court ruled against Curt Flood in his case seeking to become a free agent, reaffirming the 1922 decision that baseball was a sport and not a business, and was thus exempt from anti-trust law. Remember this the next time you drop a few hundred on a pair of plastic seats. Flood, a star player with the Cards for a decade, never played again. Speaking of judicial matters, in 1953 Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were executed as spies for allegedly providing atomic bomb secrets to Soviet agents. They denied these charges until the end. In the meantime, Klaus Fuchs, a physicist who had actually confessed to such espionage, was in England's Wakefield prison, from which he was released in 1959 after serving less than 9 1/2 years of a 14-year sentence.

On a cultural note, and to return to our 5 cents theme, in 1905 about 450 people attended the opening of the first Nickelodeon in Pittsburgh PA. Remember THAT the next time you drop 15 bucks to see the newest billion-dollar blockbuster . . . and an additional 6 bucks on a nickel's worth of popcorn.
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Today in history nothing much happened, or at least nothing much happened which interests me. Yes, in 1863 West Virginia joined the Union as either the 35th or the 24th state, depending on whether or not one counts the 11 states of the Secession. But this was more symbolic than significant at the time, and West Virginia remains pretty insignificant to this day. And in 1963 the US and USSR agreed to the establishment of the hotline, to ease communications in times of tension. But this also has, thankfully, proven to be symbolic, as it has never been used "in anger". Actually, its most significant usage has been as a prop in numerous movies, beginning with the dueling apocalyptic classics of Fail Safe and Dr. Strangelove.

Yet speaking of movies, one historical landmark did occur on June 20 1975. That is the release of Jaws, which became the first summer blockbuster film ever. I leave it to you to decide if this was a positive or negative development. :-)
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Today in history they cranked up the Alaska pipeline for it's maiden voyage.
Along the 800 mile stretch, numerous sections of pipes split, and gazillions of welds failed.

Now, the tie-in to Thomas' post. Bear with me...
On this job the derisive term "Hoopie" was formed and exists to this day.
The pipeline was made of 48" diameter 1/2" thick steel.
This is super easy stuff to weld. I can tell you this because I can weld it to pass xray in one shot, and I can't weld worth a damn. What I can do is boss welders, so that's what I did for lots of years.
As you can imagine, 800 miles of pipe requires an extraordinary amount of manpower. When you hurt that hard for help, the quality of skills that come with the manpower suffers.

In the 3rd year of that 3 year project, it turned out that every able-bodied man in West Virginia was a welder. If they could make a spark, they were hired.
Problem was, a high percentage really couldn't weld to save their ass. So Aleyeska brought in chill rings. Chill rings are basically hoops that fit inside or outside pipe.
They facilitate welding in extremely difficult situations by pulling heat away from the weld, making it easier to control an arc. They have no place on any pipeline.
Then the men were babied along and taught to weld in critical situations they should have had no part in. They should have been welding bumpers on trucks.

As you'll have with guys at work, these men were teased and tortured.
Anyone who was seen anywhere near a chill ring was called a Hoopie, regardless of where they came from, their skill level, or actual tradecraft, and are still called Hoops today.
Among fitters and welders, it's much like "yanks and rebels".

You may take it from there, my crusty, old, scalawag brother. :-)
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