Today in History: South Sudan becomes an independent nation
Today in History:
On July 9, 2011, South Sudan officially became an independent nation.
Also on this date:
In 1850, President Zachary Taylor died of gastrointestinal illness after consuming a large amount of cherries and iced milk on a hot day five days earlier; Vice President Millard Fillmore was sworn in as president the following day.
In 1868, the 14th Amendment to the US Constitution was ratified, granting citizenship and 'equal protection under the laws' to anyone 'born or naturalized in the United States,' including formerly enslaved people.
In 1896, William Jennings Bryant delivered his famous 'Cross of Gold' speech at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago.
In 1918, 101 people were killed in a train collision in Nashville, Tennessee in the deadliest US rail disaster in history.
In 1937, a fire at 20th Century Fox's storage facility in Little Ferry, New Jersey, destroyed most of the studio's silent films.
In 1943, during World War II, the Allies launched Operation Husky, the invasion of Sicily.
In 1944, during World War II, American forces secured Saipan as the last Japanese defenses fell.
In 1947, the engagement of Britain's Princess Elizabeth to Lt. Philip Mountbatten was announced.
In 1965, the Sonny & Cher single 'I Got You Babe' was released by ATCO Records.
In 1982, Pan Am Flight 759, a Boeing 727, crashed in Kenner, Louisiana, shortly after takeoff from New Orleans International Airport, killing all 145 people aboard and eight people on the ground.
In 2004, a Senate Intelligence Committee report concluded the CIA had provided unfounded assessments of the threat posed by Iraq that the Bush administration had relied on to justify going to war.
In 2010, the largest U.S.-Russia spy swap since the Cold War was completed on a remote stretch of Vienna airport tarmac as planes from New York and Moscow arrived within minutes of each other with 10 Russian sleeper agents and four prisoners accused by Russia of spying for the West.
In 2018, President Donald Trump nominated Brett Kavanaugh to fill the seat left vacant by the retirement of Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy.
Today's Birthdays: Artist David Hockney is 88. Author Dean Koontz is 80. Actor Chris Cooper is 74. Musician and TV personality John Tesh is 73. Country singer David Ball is 72. Business executive/TV personality Kevin O'Leary (TV: 'Shark Tank') is 71. Singer Debbie Sledge (Sister Sledge) is 71. Actor Jimmy Smits is 70. US Senator Lindsey Graham is 70. Actor Tom Hanks is 69. Singer Marc Almond is 68. Actor Kelly McGillis is 68. Rock singer Jim Kerr (Simple Minds) is 66. Actor-rock singer Courtney Love is 61. Actor Pamela Adlon is 59. Actor Scott Grimes is 54. Actor Enrique Murciano (TV: 'Without a Trace') is 52. Musician/producer Jack White is 50. Rock singer-musician Isaac Brock (Modest Mouse) is 50. Actor-director Fred Savage is 49. Actor Linda Park (TV: 'Star Trek: Enterprise') is 47. Actor Megan Parlen is 45. Animator/writer/producer Rebecca Sugar is 38. Actor Mitchel Musso is 34. Actor Georgie Henley (Film: 'The Chronicles of Narnia') is 30.
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New York Times
24 minutes ago
- New York Times
Last Soldiers of an Imperial Army Have a Warning for Young Generations
Kunshiro Kiyozumi is a small man with gray hair and a stooped back who lives alone and still pedals his bicycle to the supermarket. At 97, he cuts an unprepossessing figure to the younger shoppers busy texting while filling their carts, unaware his life contains a dramatic story shaped by history's deadliest war. At age 15, Mr. Kiyozumi became the youngest sailor aboard the I-58, an attack submarine of the Imperial Japanese Navy. In the closing days of World War II, it prowled the Pacific Ocean, torpedoing six Allied ships, including the heavy cruiser U.S.S. Indianapolis, which it sank. He served in a military that committed atrocities in a march across Asia, as Japan fought in a brutal global conflict that was brought to an end with the atomic bombings of two of its cities. All told, World War II killed at least 60 million people worldwide. But the living veterans like Mr. Kiyozumi were not the admirals or generals who directed Japan's imperial plans. They were young sailors and foot soldiers in a war that was not of their making. Most were still in their midteens when they were sent to far-flung battlefields from India to the South Pacific, where some were abandoned in jungles to starve or left bearing dark secrets when the empire fell. After Japan surrendered on Aug. 15, 1945, they returned to a defeated nation that showed little interest in their sacrifices, eager to put aside both painful memories and uncomfortable questions about its wartime aggression. Mr. Kiyozumi lived a quiet life, working at a utility company installing the electrical wires that helped power Japan's reconstruction. Over time, his former crewmates died, but he rarely spoke about his wartime experiences. Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
Miami Herald
5 hours ago
- Miami Herald
‘Ahead of his time': Loved ones remember G. Holmes Braddock and his legacy
Garrett Holmes Braddock remembers being both exhilarated and bored when he, as a 7-year-old child, attended University of Miami football games with his grandfather, G. Holmes Braddock. Garrett said he found the games partly boring because he couldn't see well from the stands as a young boy. But he found them exhilarating because he witnessed his grandfather's passion for the Hurricanes. Addressing dozens of mourners from the church's pulpit, Garrett wriggled his body as he shouted UM's 'C-A-N-E-S' chant, which echoed inside the church. 'Growing up in Miami, it was like being related to a superstar,' Braddock's grandson quipped, referencing Braddock's public service. '...His name and his love will always live on in all of our hearts and our memories.' On Sunday afternoon, loved ones and community members honored the life and legacy of Braddock at the church he attended for decades, Kendall United Methodist Church, 7600 SW 104th St. Braddock served on the Miami-Dade County School Board for 38 years and was well-known for his involvement at his alma mater — UM — and for his support of the university's sports programs. READ MORE: 'He shaped the futures of millions of students.' G. Holmes Braddock dies at 100 Braddock died Thursday, just one day after turning 100 years old. During his decades-long tenure on the school board, Braddock championed desegregation efforts, bilingual education in schools and collective bargaining for public school employees. In 1989, the School Board named a high school after him, G. Holmes Braddock Senior High, 3601 SW 147th Ave. He called the designation a career highlight. 'It would have to be having a senior high school named for me. I never expected it,' Braddock told the Herald in 2000. Braddock enrolled at UM in 1946, after serving aboard a medic ship during World War II. He was heavily involved at the university, serving as an assistant to the director of admissions, and held season tickets to Canes football and baseball games since 1946. In 2024, Braddock became one of 11 recipients of UM's President's Distinguished Service Award from UMiami's Sports Hall of Fame and Museum. While beginning the service, the Rev. Ruben Velasco quipped that they were starting 'right on time because that's exactly what [Braddock] would have wanted.' Braddock, Velasco said, planned the service with him, from the quoted scripture to the hymns. 'Like many of you, I am a product of the Miami-Dade County public school system, since kindergarten all the way to high school,' he said. 'And without knowing it, Holmes Braddock has been a major influence in my educational life...' But Velasco said Braddock, too, impacted his life on a personal level. He shared anecdotes of his lunches with Braddock at Chuck Wagon, where the pair talked about sports, public service and faith. Braddock, the reverend said, 'lived out what it means to be a Christian.' 'I am so certain that on the day he... passed away and he went up to be with the Lord, he heard 'Well done, good and faithful servant. Welcome home. I understand you have some questions. Let's talk,'' Velasco said. Turning to the crowd, Braddock's son George Braddock recounted the story of Braddock's life from the beginning. Braddock was raised by a single mother, a school teacher, during the Great Depression. Braddock dedicated his life's work to education. His leadership, most notably in desegregation and bilingual instruction, brought Braddock admirers but also enemies, George said. 'Wow, was he ahead of his time,' he said. Braddock's daughter Rebecca Nimmer, 72, told the Miami Herald she recalled how she and her brothers Bob, George and Jim, would travel across the continuous U.S. in their father's station wagon as he worked as an insurance salesman. One of her most notable memories, she said, was witnessing the horrors of segregation while traveling in the South. 'I didn't realize how much that affected me as a human,' Nimmer said, adding that her father is the reason she values travel and learning about different cultures. Braddock, she said, used his life experiences to serve others. 'Everyone he touched, he left an imprint,' Nimmer said. Daniel Armstrong, 69, grew close with Braddock over the last 35 years during their Sunday morning hangouts at church. Armstrong said their decades-long friendship blossomed over the pair's shared love for ties. Armstrong said he and Braddock would wear different ties and share the stories of how they obtained them. At Christmas time, they held a friendly competition over who had the best holiday-themed tie. Braddock, Armstrong said, was not only a pillar in the community — but at the church. 'He was a gentle, very strong, but a very gentle person,' Armstrong said. 'Compassionate, and very humble.' Braddock's funeral ended with military honors. Uniformed service members folded the American flag that was draped over his casket. They handed the flag to his widow, Virginia 'Ginny' Braddock, as tears streamed down her face. Some of Braddock's eight grandchildren escorted his casket out of the church, as an ode to UM — the university's fight song — played. Braddock was a lifelong supporter of Hurricane athletics, said John Routh and Mark Drobiarz, of the UM Hall of Fame. 'Even in the heat on Sunday, he would go,' Drobiarz told the Herald. 'I'd ask, 'How can you take this?' He would say, 'It's baseball.'' 'He was an icon,' Routh said.
a day ago
At 102, D-Day veteran looks forward to a long-delayed bar mitzvah
DELRAY BEACH, Fla. -- Harold Terens fought in World War II. He's lived almost 102 years, celebrating his birthday a couple weeks early with family and friends in Florida. But he has something more to look forward to. His bar mitzvah. Terens said at his birthday celebration Saturday that his brother got the traditional Jewish ceremony marking the beginning of adulthood when they were kids living in New York, but he did not. 'My mother came from Poland. My father came from Russia. And my mother was a religious Jew. And my father was anti-religious. So they had two sons. And one son, they compromised. One son got bar mitzvahed, the other son didn't," he said. Early next year, Terens said he will finally enjoy that ceremony. At the Pentagon outside Washington, no less. Terens said that came about when he was talking with CNN's Wolf Blitzer on a TV panel and a rabbi overheard the conversation. "I mentioned that I would like to be bar mitzvahed at 103 and he's the rabbi of the Pentagon so that's my next bucket list. I am going to be bar mitzvahed in the Pentagon,' Terens said. Terens turns 102 on Aug. 6. So Saturday's party was a little early. On D-Day — June 6, 1944 — Terens helped repair planes returning from France so they could rejoin the battle. He said half his company's pilots died that day. Terens went to France 12 days later, helping transport freshly captured Germans and just-freed American POWs back to England. Terens was honored in June 2024 by the French as part of the 80th anniversary celebration of their country's liberation from the Nazis. But that isn't all that happened on those Normandy beaches. He married Jeanne Swerlin, now 97. 'I thought my wedding in Normandy last year was the highlight of my life. Number one of all the moments of my life. You know, that's the saying, that life is not measured by how many breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away," Terens said. He survived World War ll, was involved in a secret mission in Iran, another time barely escaping a German rocket after leaving a London pub just before it was destroyed. "My life has been one huge fairy tale, especially with this new wife that I have. Who I love deeply and who I am going to spend the rest of my life till death do us part, as the mayor had us say in Normandy,' Terens said. After the German surrender in 1945, Terens helped transport freed Allied prisoners to England before he shipped back to the U.S. a month later. He married his wife Thelma in 1948 and they had two daughters and a son. He became a U.S. vice president for a British conglomerate. They moved from New York to Florida in 2006 after Thelma retired as a French teacher; she died in 2018 after 70 years of marriage. He has eight grandchildren and 10 great-grandchildren. Terens gets asked a lot about his secret to longevity. "I think if you can learn how to minimize stress, you'll go a long way. You'll add at least 10 years to your life. So that is number one. And 90% is luck,' he said.
