Showing posts with label Eisenhower. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Eisenhower. Show all posts

Jun 5, 2015

The Real D-Day

When Allied troops stormed the beaches at Normandy. It was a turning point of WWII, and not a day the world will soon forget. According to the National WWII Museum, June 6th, 1944 wasn’t the only “D-Day.” The term was used for any important operation. “D-Day” was the day of the operation itself, and the days leading up to and after the operation were indicated with “+” and “-”. So the “D” is a variable. If June 6th, 1944 was “D-Day” then June 1st, 1944 was “D-5″, and June 8th was “D+2.”

Since the variable references a specific day, “D” in “D-Day” essentially stands for “Day.”

The Encyclopedia of Word and Phrase Origins says the French meaning of the D is “disembarkation,” and it also quotes a letter from Eisenhower’s executive assistant, Brigadier General Robert Schultz, in 1964 who responded to a letter to Eisenhower asking to clarify the meaning of “D-Day.” Schultz wrote, “Be advised that any amphibious operation has a ‘departed date’; therefore the shortened term ‘D-Day’ is used.”

D-Day has become synonymous with June 6th, 1944 because of the significant impact that particular operation had on World War II and world history.

Nov 5, 2011

Statue of Liberty

The Statue of Liberty, was presented to the American people by the French and unveiled in October 1886. The statue in New York Harbor is the work of French sculptor Frederic Auguste Bartholdi. He called it Liberty Enlightening the World.

Inscribed on a tablet inside the pedestal of ‘Miss Liberty’ is a poem by Emma Lazarus. It describes the statue of a woman holding a book and torch. The symbol of freedom, she waits for immigrants who must pass by her on their way to Ellis Island and admission to America.

“Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame, with conquering limbs astride from land to land; here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand a mighty woman with a torch, whose flame is the imprisoned lightning, and her name Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command the air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame. Keep ancient lands, your storied pomp! cries she with silent lips. Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, the wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost [sic] to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"

The 152-foot high statue, weighing 225 tons sits on Liberty Island. On August 3, 1957, U.S. President Dwight Eisenhower changed the name from Bedloe’s Island to Liberty Island.