Wednesday, October 31, 2007
Halloween
[1795 - John Keats, poet, born in Finsbury Pavement, London]
[1887 - Chiang Kai-shek, Nationalist China President, born in Xikou, Chekiang Province, China]
[1896 - Ethel Waters, actress, singer, born in Chester, Pennsylvania]
[1920 - Melina Mercouri, actress, government minister, born in Athens, Greece]
[1941 - German sub (U-552) sinks USS Reuben James (DD-245)- 115 lives are lost
- First U.S. Navy ship lost to enemy action World War II]
[1950 - John (Franklin) Candy, comedian, actor, Mayor of Melonville, born in Newmarket, Ontario, Canada]
Reuben James was one of our "four-piper" destroyers, built between the two World Wars for speed and maneuverability - not survivability. These ships, even as our current day destroyers, were {in their time} the unarmored greyhounds of the sea. When Reuben James went down with the tragic loss of 115 of ship's company, war between the US and Germany had not yet been declared.