The incident occurred in 1950. Truman was living at Blair House, across the street from the White House, while the White House was undergoing renovations.
Truman was upstairs asleep when the two attackers approached the temporary living quarters. One of the men, Collazo, shot a Secret Service agent, the noise of which prompted the rest of the men assigned to protect Truman to rush outside and kill Collazo on the entrance steps.
Meanwhile the other attacker, Torresola, went to a guard booth in the corner. He shot and mortally wounded officer Leslie Coffelt after taking the guard by surprise. Torresola then made his way to his partner at the entrance to Blair House.
Truman woke up and looked out the window to see what the commotion was all about. He was ordered to get away from the window.
At this point an injured Coffelt, without much longer to live, propped himself against the guard booth and shot Torresola above the ear from thirty feet away.
Coffelt died within hours from the injuries he sustained. He is the only secret Service member to be killed while defending a President.
George Wallace ran for president as part of the American Independent Party and won 5 states, all in the south. (Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and Georgia)
The presidential election of 1968 was eventually won by Republican Richard Nixon.
In the 1948 presidential election, the election which saw Harry Truman elected president despite his predicted defeat, Strom Thurmond won 4 states as a member of the States’ Rights Democratic Party (known as the Dixiecrats). All 4 of these states were in the south as well. (Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, South Carolina)
Soon after Japan surrendered in 1945, workers from petroleum, coal, lumber, truck drivers, and machinists all went on strike. Labor unions in the United States had agreed not to strike while the country was in the midst of WWII.
Coal miners, led by labor giant John L. Lewis, went on strike in May 1946 followed soon by railroad workers.
The railroad strike hit the country hard. Travelers were stranded and the transport of food immediately stopped.
President Truman couldn’t believe the abrupt change in attitude by the members of his country. Less than a year before, the entire nation was working together to win the war and he felt they were being selfish with their demands for higher wages and better working conditions so soon.
The railroad workers rejected the President’s offer of an 18 cent wage increase on the basis that a change in working conditions was also required.
In response, President Truman ordered the US Army to take control of the railroads in order to prevent the country from grinding to a halt. Then, in order to get the railroads running again, he was going to ask Congress for the power to draft the strikers into the Army.
With the threat of the draft fast appraoching, Lewis and the unions accepted the President’s terms at the last minute. President Truman was informed of the acceptance of the settlement during his speech to Congress. “Word has just been received that the rail strike has been settled on terms proposed by the President.”
The recovered artifacts included works by Michelangelo and Manet.
The Nazi’s mainly used two salt mines, the Altaussee and the Merkers, to stash not only their huge stores of stolen art but also large amounts of precious metal. Gold bullion, both domestic and foreign gold currencies, silver bars and coins, and platinum were all recovered by allied forces marching through Europe.
The men responsible for collecting, indentifying, and cataloguing these treasure troves were known as “The Monuments Men.” The men and women of this group were made up of historians and museum personnel, some of which went on to work at the National Gallery of Art and the Metropolitan Museum of Modern Art.
After the war, President Truman would go to the National Gallery of art to view artwork recoverd by Americans in the salt mine whenever he needed step away from the constant demands of his position.
It was and still is the largest mass execution in United States history.
The Dakota people in Southwest Minnesota lived under an unfair system imposed on them by the US government. In exchange for living on reservations, a situation which allowed white settlers to place limit on their hunting grounds, the natives agreed to receive money and goods from the US government. When the payments weren’t given on time, if they were given at all, the natives bought their necessities from traders on credit. Over time the money from the government was given directly to these traders in order to pay off the debt of the people on the reservations, leaving the Dakota people subject to corruption in the event the traders claimed they were owed more than they actually were. When the payments stopped coming the traders stopped extending credit to the Dakota people and they were left without supplies.
In August 1862, in response to their situation, a faction of the Dakota people decided to attack white settlements in the Minnesota River valley in order to make more land available for hunting. One trader, who is claimed to have said they could “eat grass” when told the natives were starving, was found dead with grass stuffed into his mouth. The attacks on white settlements continuted for weeks, resulting in the involvement of the US Army.
The Army captured over three hundred Dakota warriors. In November 1862 they were all put on trial, convicted of murder and rape, and sentenced to death. President Lincoln got involved when an Episcopal Bishop asked him for leniency but was informed the white settlers would still seek revenge if the men were allowed to live. Lincoln then reduced the sentence on 264 of the 303 men, leaving 39 sentenced to death though one received was allowed to live.
The Dakota 38 were all executed by hanging from a single platform.
In October 1918, Alvin York was part of a group of seventeen soldiers sent to attack a post of German machine guns. Six of the men were killed and three more wounded after they captured a group of German soldiers, leaving York as the highest ranking officer of the remaining eight men. The seven soldiers beneath him took cover, guarding the prisoners and tending to the wounded, while York advanced on the German machine guns alone.
With his M1917 Enfield Rifle Sergeant York picked off 18 German soldiers while the machine guns fired on his position. When the remaining Germans realized there was only one man to kill six of them charged with bayonets. At this point York had run out of ammo for his rifle so he drew his pistol and shot all six before they could reach him.
During the shooting the German First Lieutenant in charge of the position was trying to shoot York with his pistol but miraculously missed with every shot. Seeing the losses he had incurred he then offered to surrender.
When York and his seven men returned from the engagement they brought with them 132 captured German soldiers.
In October 1918, in the Argonne Forest of France, the U.S. 77th division attacked the German line under the belief they had support on both their left and right flanks. In reality both their sides were left exposed after the German forces stopped the progress of these support units. Nine companies of the 77th, approximately 554 men, continued to advacnce well past their line and found themselves surrounded by German forces. These men have come to be known as the “Lost Battalion.”
In order to communicate with the rest of the allied forces the leader of the men sent out messengers but after these men were all lost the only effective means of communication was to use carrier pigeons. One of the pigeons sent out the wrong location of their group and as a result the men who were trapped behind enemy lines were subjected to friendly fire. It was only after another carrier pigeon was sent out with the correct coordinates that the lost battalion was saved.
In the end only 194 of the original 554 men were rescued but their presence, and the fact that they stood their ground under intense fighting, allowed for the Allied forces to break through the German lines.
