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It is called the strangest battle of WWII. It took place at the Castle Itter in Austria on May 5, 1945 and was the only battle where Americans and Germans fought alongside one another during the war. Five days after Hitler bumped himself off and two days before Germany surrendered, 14 American soldiers and 20 Wehrmacht soldiers fought together against the Waffen SS to free French VIPs that included former prime ministers, generals and a tennis star.
A movie about this event is scheduled to come out next year.
William Wyeth James (1848-1920)
Cousin of Jesse James
Rode with Quantrill
Joined the Ku Klux Klan
Was a captain in the Franco-Prussian War
He was wounded by a boomerang thrown by an Australian Bushman
Fought Maori natives in New Zealand
He fought with the British against Zulus in South Africa
Was part of an expedition in Bolivia
His last years were spent working in a furniture store in Texas
When I first read about him I thought he was just some old fart spinning yarns, like that cartoon character Commander McBragg, but I've come across other soldier of fortune guys that traveled the world back then looking for wars to participate in, so I guess it's possible he did all that.
Guy Gabaldon (1926-2006)
" The Pied Piper Of Saipan"
He was an 18 year old marine who persuaded over 1,300 Japanese to surrender during WWII. He received the Navy Cross. The movie Hell To Eternity is based on his life.
One day on a railroad platform in Jersey City, NJ, the famous stage actor, Edwin Booth, pulled Abraham Lincoln's son to safety after he had fallen down onto the railroad tracks.
Sometime later, Edwin Booth's brother, shot and killed Abraham Lincoln.
In 1980, Iraqi president Saddam Hussein donated hundreds of thousands of dollars to a local church in Detroit and was given the key to the city by Mayor Coleman Young.
The first vending machine was in Alexandria, Egypt, 2000 years ago. It dispensed water when a coin was inserted.
In 1926, Sean le Noble of Chicago, tried to manufacture a perfectly round, chocolate-covered caramel candy, but when the first batch came out of the machine in all different shapes and sizes an employee remarked, "these are duds." The Milk Dud was born.
Beau Brummell (1778-1840) the famed English setter of fashion, had each pair of his gloves made by two different glove makers, one preparing only the thumbs.
When gunfighter Johnny Ringo was 14 years old, he and his family left Missouri in 1864 by wagon to go to California because of health reasons for his father. Along the Oregon Trail in Wyoming the old man hopped of the wagon and his shotgun accidentally discharged, blowing the top of his head off. A witness said that his hat went 20 feet in the air. His son Johnny dug a grave and they buried Martin Ringo along the trail on a hill and marked the grave with a flat stone with the name M. Ringo scratched into it.
118 years later in 1982, Ringo researcher Ed Bartholomew located the grave after searching for hundreds of miles along the Oregon Trail. It was in the brush next to another grave marker for a man who died 4 years earlier on the same trail.
The Ringo family settled in California but Johnny soon took to drinking and became violent when drunk. His sisters didn't want anything to do with him so he drifted down to Texas where he began killing people during the "Mason County War" also known as the "Hoodoo War."
He had been in and out of jails but managed to escape each time. Once he was locked up with another crazed gunman, John Wesley Hardin, Hardin complained to the jailer that he shouldn't have to share a cell with such a dangerous man as Ringo.
Ringo was acquitted of his crimes and became a constable in Loyal Valley, Texas, for a short time before moving to Arizona.
In 1879, he was in a saloon in Safford, Arizona, and offered to buy another man a drink of whiskey, the man refused, saying that he only drank beer. Ringo got mad and fired his pistol, creasing the man's ear.
Ringo soon became associated with Ike Clanton, Curly Bill Brocius and an outlaw gang known as the Cochise County Cowboys and was suspected of committing robberies and murders with them.
He became an enemy to Doc Holliday and the Earps. Wyatt suspected him of shooting his brothers.
On July 14, 1882, Ringo's body was found sitting against a tree trunk in Turkey Creek Valley, Arizona. He had a bullet hole through his temple and his gun was hanging from one finger in his hand. There were a lot of rumors but the coroner ruled it a suicide.
He is buried in front of the tree where his body was found. The grave is located on private land and you must get permission to visit.
There was a TV show called Johnny Ringo that aired on CBS from 1959-1960 starring Don Durant, who also sang the theme song. You can find episodes and the song on YouTube.
The first worker to die during the construction of Hoover Dam was J.G. Tierny on December 20, 1922. The last person to die there was J.G. Tierny's son, who died on December 20, 1935.
Stalin, Hitler, and Franz Joseph, who are collectively responsible for about 80 million deaths, all lived in Vienna at the same time.
On June 20, 1941, Soviet archaeologists uncovered the tomb of Tamerlane, a descendent of Genghis Khan. A warning inscription read "Whoever opens my tomb will unleash an invader more terrible than I." They opened it anyway. Germany invaded the Soviet Union two days later.
Hitler was born 129 years after Napoleon.
He came to power 129 years after Napoleon.
He invaded Russia 129 years after Napoleon.
He was defeated 129 years after Napoleon.
WWI started after Archduke Franz Ferdinand was assassinated in his car. The license number of the car was Alll 118. The official end of WWI was Armistice Day 11 11 18.
There were only two cars in the state of Ohio in 1895. They crashed into each other, then there were no cars. (I suspect this one could be a lie, there had to have been more than two cars in Ohio in 1895.)
I bet there weren't too many arguments of ball and strike calls during that game.
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