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Highlights for November 20
1620 First English Child Born in New England
Peregrine White, the son of Susanna and William White, is born aboard the Mayflower, anchored near the tip of Cape Cod in Massachusetts. She is the first child ever born of English parents in New England.
Nine days before, the Mayflower arrived to the New World carrying the White family and approximately one hundred other English settlers, commonly known as the pilgrims. The majority of the pilgrims were Puritan Separatists, who traveled to America to escape the jurisdiction of the Church of England, which they believed violated the biblical precepts for true Christians.
After a month of exploration by a party of armed pilgrims, during which time Peregrine White was born, the settlers decide on Plymouth as the location of their new community. The Mayflower arrives in Plymouth harbor on December 16, 1620, and construction on the settlement begins on December 23. Despite a difficult first winter, the settlement perseveres, and Peregrine is saved the fate of Virginia Dare. In 1587, Virginia Dare became the first child ever born to English parents in America, but in 1588 she mysteriously disappeared along with approximately one hundred other English colonists on Roanoke Island in present-day North Carolina. Peregrine White eventually becomes a captain of militia, settles in Marshfield, Massachusetts, and lives to the ripe old age of eighty-three.
On this day, one of the bloodiest battles in the history of the U.S. Marine Corps began. The 2nd Division landed on Tarawa, an atoll (a ring-shaped coral reef enclosing a lagoon) in the Gilbert Islands, on amphibious tractors with little armor. Their 3.5-mile surge up the beachfront was met with heavy fire from Japanese shore guns. So much smoke and coral dust was raised by this preinvasion bombardment that fire was halted for half an hour to allow the smoke to clear. When the smoke did finally clear, it unveiled hundreds of U.S. Marines struggling to wade ashore through blood-stained turf. The landing craft had come in at extremely low tide, forcing soldiers to clamor a full half-mile to shore. Some of them got caught in barbed wire strung through the shallow water and were gunned down.
The leader of the Second Division, Colonel David Shoup, stood in waist-deep water, his leg badly wounded, directing the assault. Shoup was one of four Marines to receive a Medal of Honor for his bravery at Tarawa. Sadly, the other three Marines received their medals posthumously. At 6:15 the next morning, Major General Julian C. Smith sent in the rest of the Marine division, which faced the same merciless fire as the day before. But slowly, with the help of tanks, howitzers, flame throwers, TNT charges, and grenades, they fought their way inland. By the end of the second day, Shoup radioed to headquarters: "We are winning." The American press covered "Bloody Tarawa" more thoroughly than any previous campaign. The 1,000 American soldiers killed in just seventy hours, as well as the pictures of bodies floating in red surf, shocked the nation. Still, despite heated debate about the execution of Tarawa, it was an undisputed victory. Almost the entire Japanese garrison, a total of 4,690 men, had been killed.
1945 The first day of the Nuremberg Trials
The International Military Tribunal begins trying German war criminals at Nuremberg. Following Germany's defeat in World War II, Winston Churchill planned to shoot top German and Nazi military leaders without a trial, but Henry Stimson, the U.S. Secretary of War, pushed President Roosevelt to consider holding an international court trial. Since the trial did not begin until after the death of President Roosevelt, President Harry S. Truman appointed Supreme Court Justice Robert Jackson to head the prosecution team. The four countries pressing charges were Great Britain, the United States, Russia, and France.
In his thoughtful opening remarks, Robert Jackson eloquently summarized the significance of the trial. "That four great nations, flushed with victory and stung with injury, stay the hand of vengeance and voluntarily submit their captive enemies to the judgment of law," said Jackson, "is one of the significant tributes that power has ever paid to reason."
The trial, which lasted 78 days, attempted to hold Nazi and German military officials accountable for atrocities including the massacre of 30,000 Russians during the German invasion and the massacre of at least 50,000 people in the Warsaw Ghetto. Twenty-four defendants were tried, including Hermann Goering, the designated successor to Hitler, and Rudolf Hess, Hitler's personal secretary. All defendants pleaded not guilty to the charges. When one of the defendants demanded that an anti-Semitic lawyer represent him, an ex-Nazi was assigned to his defense.
Because of the mountains of evidence and the many languages spoken by the defendants and prosecutors, the trial was beset with logistical problems. During the proceedings, Rudolf Hess feigned amnesia to escape responsibility. Though many expected the most excitement to arise from the cross-examination of Hermann Goering, his testimony was a letdown: he was even attacked by his fellow defendants for refusing to take responsibility for anything.
Twenty-one defendants were convicted: 12 were sentenced to hang, and the rest were sent to prison. One man escaped the hanging by remaining at large while Goering escaped by committing suicide first. On October 16, 1946, 10 Nazi officials were hanged.
If you have other Birthdays or events to add for this day please E-Mail me.
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