June 6

1944: Operation Overlord begins. Four years before, in June 1940, Adolf Hitler claimed “the most famous victory in history” when France fell to the German war machine. The miracle of the time was the successful evacuation of 338,000 British Expeditionary Force soldiers from the northern coast of France (carried out between May 27 and June 4). By October 1940, Winston Churchill was advised that British troops, even with the help of the United States, could not soon gain a foothold on mainland Europe. When Germany invaded Russia in June 1941, Joseph Stalin asked the West to help create a second front to split German troops and in doing so, divide and conquer.

Britain was numerically disadvantaged and wished to avoid such costly assaults as the Somme and Passchendaele of World War I. Two plans were put forth, Operation Roundup and Operation Sledgehammer but both were seen as unlikely to succeed. Rather than attack mainland Europe, Britain opted for an attack on French North Africa and moved onto Sicily and then Italy. The idea of an attack across the English Channel was not completely off the table. The United States, now in on the planning, went against Churchill’s request in May 1943. They were supplying the bulk of both manpower and military equipment. The lack of adequate numbers of landing craft and the difficulty of air support were both issues to overcome before real plans could be laid.

As more ideas and equipment emerged, so did likely plans for a European assault. Four likely landing sites were considered: Brittany, the Cotentin Peninsula, Normandy, and the Pas de Calais. The two peninsulas could be cut off by Germans, Calais was the closest point to England and were within range of V-1 and V-2 rockets. The Germans thought it the most likely landing site and so it was most heavily fortified but offered few options for expansion. Normandy was able to offer a broad front from which assaults could venture forth in a variety of directions. The site was chosen and the attack was to take place on May 1, 1944. This plan was accepted by all parties participating.

US generals first saw the actual plans in December 1943 which called for three landing divisions with two more in support. They insisted the landing division be increased to five with three airborne divisions giving support. Eventually a total of 39 divisions were committed to the Operation, 22 American and 12 British along with 3 Canadian and one each from Poland and France. Over a million troops were committed to the attack on Normandy. The Battle of Normandy begun on this day lasted until August 30 and was a decided Allied victory, turning the tide in World War II. A total of over 2 million Allied troops were employed during the three months with over a quarter million Allied casualties. German troops numbered over 1 million overall and 530,000 of them were either killed or captured.

In the months leading up to World War II, there was a tendency among many Americans to talk absently about the trouble in Europe. Nothing that happened an ocean away seemed very threatening. – Gene Tierney

Our vision of war is probably too influenced by the biggest one of all, World War II, where the forces of evil were so unambiguous and so relentless that there was no choice but to commit to total war and to demand unconditional surrender. Seldom, though, is it quite that clear cut. – David Horsey

Americans, particularly after World War II, tended to romanticize war because in World War II our cause was the cause of humanity, and our soldiers brought home glory and victory, and thank God that they did. But it led us to romanticize it to some extent. – Neil Sheeha

We learned in World War II that no single nation holds a monopoly on wisdom, morality or right to power, but that we must fight for the weak and promote democracy. – Joe Baca

Close Call

Engraving of Alexis Bidagan St. Martin’s wound by Dr. Beaumont

June 6, 1822: Alexis Bidagan St. Martin is shot. He was a twenty year old Canadian who worked as a fur trapper and while at a trading post on Mackinac Island, he was shot at close range when a musket loaded with buck shot accidentally discharged. Although in excellent health overall, he was not expected to survive due to the severity of the injuries sustained. He was shot in the stomach and lost some of the muscles in his abdomen and a few ribs were also broken. He was treated by US Army surgeon William Beaumont. For the next 17 days, all food that St. Martin ate came out through the hole in his stomach. Finally, some of the food began to stay inside and his bowels began to function again. Even after healing, there remained a fistula or healed hole into St. Martin’s stomach.

The exact physiology of digestion was unknown at the time and Dr. Beaumont realized an opportunity to study the mechanisms involved in the process. He could and did lower foods tied to a string into the hole in St. Martin’s abdomen, allow the food to digest for various periods of time, and then pull them back out to study what had transpired. Beaumont continued to experiment on St. Martin until 1833, not out of goodwill or thankfulness on St. Martin’s part, but because Beaumont had coerced the illiterate Canadian to sign a contract who then became the servant of the doctor. St. Martin was able to carry out normal chores such as chopping wood and carrying burdens without ill effect and did not complain of pain or problems with his wound. Some of the experiments were a different story.

In 1825, Beaumont was transferred to Fort Niagara and St. Martin went with him there. The experiments continued and Beaumont was also able to extract a sample of gastric acid to analyze. Shortly after arriving, St. Martin left for Canada and Beaumont continued working with the gastric acid he had collected. This allowed him to see that foods were not just digested by mashing and squeezing of the stomach, but by the contents of the stomach as well. The process was seen as chemical rather than mechanical, a new finding. By 1828, as Beaumont was relocated again in Wisconsin, St. Martin was ordered to return as his handyman. A new series of experiments were conducted on temperature, exercise, and emotions as related to digestion.

Beaumont published his findings in 1833 in a book entitled Experiments and Observations on the Gastric Juice, and the Physiology of Digestion. At that time, the men parted ways with St. Martin going back to Canada and Beaumont heading to St. Louis. During the next twenty years, Beaumont tried several times to get St. Martin to return for more experiments, but could not induce him to do so. Beaumont slipped on ice and died from his injuries in 1853. St. Martin lived until 1880 and died in Quebec. His family kept his body until decomposition set in to keep any medical teams for exhuming the corpse for continued study or to perform an autopsy. Attempts to put his stomach in a museum were also thwarted.

A child, like your stomach, doesn’t need all you can afford to give it. – Frank A. Clark

To have a stomach and lack meat, to have meat and lack a stomach, to lie in bed and cannot rest, are great miseries. – William Camden

Never call a stomach a tummy without good reason. – William Strunk Jr.

Everyone tells me I’ve had such an interesting life, but sometimes I think it’s been nothing but stomach disturbances and self-concern. – Cary Grant

Also on this day: Not the Village People – In 1844, the YMCA was founded.
Novarupta – In 1912, the largest volcanic eruption of the twentieth century began.
Camden, New Jersey – In 1933, the first drive-in theater opened.
Maxwell Got Smart – In 1925, Maxwell Motor Company reorganized.
Whipping Through the Windy City – In 1892, the ‘L’ trains of Chicago began service.

Whipping Through the Windy City

Chicago’s ‘L’ trains

June 6, 1892: Chicago’s ‘L’ trains began service. On this date, a small steam locomotive pulled four wooden coaches carrying 27 men and 3 brave women from the 39^th Street station and 14 minutes later arrived at the Congress Street Terminal. The tracks are still in use today on the Green Line. By the next year service was extended to 63^rd Street and Stony Island Avenue. Also in 1893, service included a stop at the Transportation Building at the World’s Columbian Exposition. Finally, they began running on the Lake Street Elevated Railroad, still in 1893 and by 1895 the Metropolitan West Side Elevated was also in service.

The biggest drawback of early ‘L’ service was the lack of stops in the central business district. Instead, the elevated trains dropped people at stub terminals on the periphery, all necessitated because the state laws of the times required approval of property owners adjacent to where tracks would be built. This was not easily obtained for the downtown regions. Charles Tyson Yerkes had already overcome this type of problem in London while building their Underground and he came to help Chicago also move forward with mass transit. His methods were memorialized in later novels and his ruthlessness was legendary. At one point, he got permission for a mile-long ‘L’ over Van Buren Street from Wabash Avenue to Halsted Street. Permission came from those on the west side of the street and he built the track on the east side where property owners had opposed him.

By the turn of the century, many more lines were added and over the decades, the running of the system passed from one entity to another. Public takeover of the mass transit systems was in disarray and they could not continue running without subsidies, so in 1947 the Chicago Transit Authority (CTA) acquired the Chicago Rapid Transit Company and the Chicago Surface Lines. They updated many of the antiquated cars and introduced an express service known as the A/B skip-stop service. The routing provided better service with fewer stops as long as you were on the correct train. Stops were either A, B, or AB and getting an A or B train meant you could skip many of the stops and arrive at your destination in less time.

Today, the ‘L’ is the fourth largest heavy rail rapid transit system in the US in terms of route mileage – 102.8 miles and moves riders 229.12 million times a year. The number of riders has been stable since the CTA takeover in the 1940s. There were an average 594,000 riders boarding each weekday by 1960 and 577,000 in 1985. The Loop Flood of 1992 caused two subway stations to be closed for several weeks and dropped riders to only 418,000 that year. In this century, it remains the third busiest rail mass transit system in the United States with only New York City and Washington Metro serving more customers.

In light of the attacks on mass transit systems in other countries, shouldn’t we be beefing up?… Clearly more could be done. – Susan Collins

With the increased cost of gasoline, it doesn’t appear that we’re going to see a slowing of interest in mass transit. I think it’s going to continue to grow. – Tom Barrett

The last job I applied for was to be a bus driver for the Chicago Transit Authority in 1957. – Vernon Jordan

Beyond highways and roads, we need more money for mass transit, intercity passenger rail and freight rail. We have a long way to go to bridge the funding gaps. – Bill Lipinski

Also on this day: Not the Village People – In 1844 the YMCA was founded.
Novarupta – In 1912, the largest volcanic eruption of the twentieth century began.
Camden, New Jersey – In 1933, the first drive-in theater opened.
Maxwell Got Smart – In 1925, Maxwell Motor Company reorganized.

Novarupta

Novarupta lava dome

June 6, 1912: Novarupta becomes active, the name itself means “new eruption.” The volcano is located in the Aleutian Range in Alaska, about 290 miles southwest of Anchorage. The volcano spewed 3.6 cubic miles or 15 cubic kilometers of material from June 6-8. It was the largest eruption of the 20th century. The 1815 eruption of Tambora was seven times larger and Krakatoa in 1883 was twice as large. Today, the volcano is listed as Caldera type with lava dome.

The magma was drained from Mount Katmai and shunted to Novarupta. The lava dome formed after two-and-a-half days and plugged the volcano. The Pyroclastic flow (superheated [1,800º F] gas and rocks traveling at speed [up to 50 mph]) formed the Valley of Ten Thousand Smokes. The valley was named by Robert F. Griggs in 1916. He was exploring the area in the aftermath of the volcano for the National Geographic Society. Today, the area is protected by the Katmai National Park and Preserve. The park itself covers 7,383 square miles, about the size of Wales. It is famous both for this volcanic valley as well as for brown bears living in the area.

There are about 1,500 active volcanoes worldwide. About 75% of them are located in the Pacific Ring of Fire – an area from New Zealand, around the eastern edge of Asia, containing the Aleutian Islands and the western coast of North and South America. The US has 52 active volcanoes, 43 of them in Alaska. The most notorious recent volcano in the US was the Mount St. Helens eruption of 1980. That volcano was only one-tenth as strong as Novarupta.

The Volcanic Explosivity Index (VEI) is like the Richter Scale for earthquakes. It allows for comparisons of the volatility and magnitude of volcanic eruptions. The VEI scale goes from 0-8. All VEI 8 eruptions occurred in ancient history – the most recent was more than 26,500 years ago. There have been 8 VEI 7 volcanoes in the last 10,000 years and 39 VEI 6 in that same time period. The last VEI 6 volcano was Mount Pinatubo in 1991.

“Adopt the pace of nature: her secret is patience.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson

“I love to think of nature as an unlimited broadcasting station, through which God speaks to us every hour, if we will only tune in.” – George Washington Carver

“In wilderness I sense the miracle of life, and behind it our scientific accomplishments fade to trivia.” – Charles A. Lindbergh

“I’m really interested in conveying sort of a spiritual connection with nature in my work, … It’s about Mother Nature and the protective element. Of course, nature can be extremely threatening as well.” – Amy Fisher

This article first appeared at Examiner.com in 2009. Editor’s update: Katmai National Park and Preserve was established on December 2, 1980 as a national park. The park is named after Mount Katmai rather than the nearest city which is King Salmon about 290 miles away. After being designated as a national monument, it was largely ignored until the 1950s. In its wild state, sockeye salmon abounded and also the brown bears that fed on the salmon as well as much other wildlife both on land and in the water. After a series of boundary growth-spurts, the 4,093,077 acres were made a national park by the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act in 1980. There are at least 18 individual volcanoes within the park, seven of them active since 1900. The last eruption within the park took place in 2006 at Fourpeaked Mountain.

Also on this day: Not the Village People – In 1844 the YMCA was founded.
Camden, New Jersey – In 1933, the first drive-in theater opened.
Maxwell Got Smart – In 1925, Maxwell Motor Company reorganized.

Maxwell Got Smart

Maxwell logo

June 6, 1925: The Maxwell Motor Company reorganizes. The company was founded in 1904 in Tarrytown, New York by Jonathan Dixon Maxwell and Benjamin Briscoe and originally named Maxwell-Briscoe Company. In 1907 a fire destroyed the Tarrytown factory. A new building, the largest automobile factory in the world, was built in New Castle, Indiana. They were partnered with a group called United States Motor Company in 1910. There was a falling out amidst the backers and the company dissolved in 1913 with only Maxwell-Briscoe surviving.

At the time of the reorganization, the company assets were bought by Walter Flanders and he renamed the company as Maxwell Motor Company. The company moved to Detroit, Michigan while continuing to produce cars in Indiana as well as in Dayton, Ohio. For a while, Maxwell was one of the Big Three auto makers in the US along with Buick and Ford. Since other companies were making affordable cars, Maxwell offered their own Model 25 costing $695 ($17,000 today). The five-seat car included an electric horn (optional), electric starter, and headlights. It also had shock absorbers, an innovation at the time, to protect the radiator.

Maxwell was soon over-extended and deeply in debt. By the end of World War I, half their production line went unsold as the 1920 recession hit the market. In 1921 Walter P. Chrysler took a controlling interest in the company and re-incorporated it in West Virginia with himself as chairman. Chrysler formed his own eponymous company and the Maxwell line was phased out. All assets were absorbed by Chrysler Corporation. The Maxwell line inspired a line of 4-cylinder cars at Chrysler in 1926 and was again used in a new line, called Plymouth.

Today, Chrysler Group, LLC is headquartered in Auburn Hills, Michigan. Sergio Marchionne is Chairman and CEO of the company as well as the CEO of Fiat. They have three manufacturing plants in Canada and two more in Mexico. There are seventeen plants in the US. They produce Chryslers cars, Dodge cars and vans, Ram trucks, Jeep SUVs, Mopar parts and accessories, and Global Electric Motorcars (GEM) environmentally friendly transportation. With global economy issues causing a drop in sales, the company filed Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on April 30, 2009. Italian automaker, Fiat, purchased a 20% stake in the company with an option to increase to a maximum of 51%. The US government financed the deal with $6.6 billion.

The car has become the carapace, the protective and aggressive shell, of urban and suburban man. – Marshall McLuhan

Our national flower is the concrete cloverleaf. – Lewis Mumford

Driving a brand new car feels like driving around in an open billfold with the dollars flapping by your ears as they fly out the window. – Grey Livingston

For every ‘Drive Safely’ sign, shouldn’t there be a ‘Resume Normal Driving’ sign? – Robert Brault

Also on this day:

Not the Village People – In 1844 the YMCA was founded.
Novarupta – In 1912, the largest volcanic eruption of the twentieth century began.
Camden, New Jersey – In 1933, the first drive-in theater opened.

Camden, New Jersey

June 6, 1933: The first Drive-In Theater opens in Camden, New Jersey. Drive-ins consist of a large screen or perhaps a large wall painted white, a projection booth, parking area, and the major revenue portion of the enterprise – the concession stand. The first drive-ins had speakers next to the screen, like amplifiers at a rock concert. These switched to individual speakers that hung on the window which eventually morphed into low frequency broadcasts on selected AM or FM stations that were picked up on the car’s radio.

First drive-in theater in Camden, New Jersey

Richard M Hollingshead, Jr., a Camden chemical company owner, first tested the idea of an outdoor theater in his own driveway. He nailed a screen to a tree and hid various radios behind it to test for sound. He projected onto his screen using a 1928 Kodak projector. He parked cars on block to test for the proper tilt and distance needed to afford all people a view. He applied for a patent in August 1932 and received #1,909,635 on May 16, 1933. This patent was declared invalid seventeen years later.

He advertised his new concept for theater with this slogan: “The whole family is welcome, regardless of how noisy the children are.” It worked. The idea spread and popularity for the drive-in peaked in the 1950s and 60s with over 4,000 theaters in the United States alone. They were ideal for families because there was no need for a babysitter. They were ideal as dates for teenagers because of the isolating effect. The major drawback was how to project a movie during daylight. It was never solved and as a result viewing could only begin at twilight.

There were several other reasons for the decline of the venue along with the limited viewing hours. They were labeled as “passion pits” and lived up to the name with some converting to sexploitation movies. Revenue was lost when friends would sneak in by hiding in the trunk of paying guests. Real estate prices escalated, color TV became common along with VCRs making it possible to watch movies at any time, either recorded or rented from video stores. By the 1990s there were fewer than 600 theaters with a total of 815 screens in the US. Today, drive-ins are making a come back as they provide a relatively inexpensive night out for the whole family, no matter how noisy the kids are.

“He’s too nervous to kill himself. He wears his seat belt in a drive-in movie.” – Neil Simon

“The movies enable an actor not only to act but also to sit down in the theater and clap for himself.” – Will Rogers

“When I was a kid, if a guy got killed in a western movie I always wondered who got his horse.” – George Carlin

“Only thing worse than watching a bad movie is being in one.” – Elvis Presley

Also on this day:
Not the Village People – In 1844 the YMCA was founded.
Novarupta – In 1912, the largest volcanic eruption of the twentieth century began.

Not the Village People

First YMCA in North America. Now Hotel Gault.

June 6, 1844: The Young Men’s Christian Association [YMCA] is founded in London, England by George Williams and other Evangelical Christians. The Y was founded at the end of the Industrial Revolution in response to the unhealthy social conditions practiced by many of the young men who had moved to large cities to find work. Some were even living at their factories. Away from family, and without direction, Williams hoped to give these young men a better place to stay along with a moral compass to steer by.

Williams was born on a form in Somerset, England. He moved to London and found work in a draper’s shop. That means he worked in a dry goods store where cloth might be sold, sometimes now called a haberdashery. The drapers were a strong trade guild at the time. There was a University named after Williams in Montreal. It was founded by the Montreal branch of the YMCA. It has merged with Concordia University and is now called the Sir George Williams Campus.

At the 1851 Great Exhibition at the Crystal Palace in London, publicity leaflets were handed out to visitors from around the globe. Many took the idea back to their home countries. In that same year, YMCAs were brought to the US – where eventually they were credited with the invention of both basketball and volleyball. The focus of the clubs moved from religious indoctrination to personal health and fitness by the late 1880s. Williams was granted knighthood by Queen Victoria on the 50^th anniversary of its founding.

Today, the YMCA is a worldwide institution operating in 122 countries – from Angola to Zimbabwe. They have been responsible for the establishment of many colleges and universities along with the concept of night school, allowing for the continuance of education while the student remains a full-time employee. Britain has almost 150 Ys with nearly 1 million members. In the US alone there are over 2,500 YMCAs with over 20 million members. Worldwide there are more than 14,000 Ys with over 45,000,000 members.

“Of the 30,000 South Bay Family YMCA participants, more than 10,000 are with us as a result of the Strong Kids Campaign.” – Tina Williams

“We live and breathe the four core YMCA values of honesty, respect, responsibility and caring. We try to build strong families, children and communities. We promote character development and high self-esteem on the team. I wouldn’t be doing this if I didn’t believe in those values. I pick my coaches with the values in mind.” – Dave Richards

“We’re happy to support organizations like the YMCA that support great programs in the communities that we serve.” – Erica Abbett

“The YMCA going in there is wonderful news for midtown. I hope the stakeholders now can come together and do something phenomenal there. This is too big of an opportunity for it not to happen.” – Teresa Tomlinson

Also on this day:
In 1912 Novarupta began to explode.
In 1933, the first drive-in theater opened in Camden, New Jersey.