June 8
1191. Richard, Coeur de Lion (the LionHearted) arrives in Acre, beginning his crusade. Amusingly, like most English kings of this era, he spoke little or no English having lived (and continuing to live) in the Duchy of Aquitaine in Southern France.
1789. James Madison introduces 12 amendments to the Constitution in the House, ten of which will be ratified and become known as the Bill of Rights. Another is ratified in 1992 and becomes the 27th amendment.
1949. Exemplifying the foolishness of the era, an FBI report names Danny Kaye, Helen Keller, Frederick March, Edward G. Robinson and others as members of the Communist Party.
1959. The USS Barbero, a navy submarine, assists the United States Postal Service in its tests of the delivery of mail by.......wait for it.......................................missile.
Yes, missile mail was attempted by many organizations around the world and never found to work very well. Surprising, really. ON this particular date the Barbero, replaced the nuclear warheads of two missiles with, yes, mail, to effect delivery.
Quote:
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Originally Posted by Postmaster General Arthur Summerfield
"This peacetime employment of a guided missile for the important and practical purpose of carrying mail, is the first known official use of missiles by any Post Office Department of any nation." Summerfield proclaimed the event to be "of historic significance to the peoples of the entire world", and predicted that "before man reaches the moon, mail will be delivered within hours from New York to California, to Britain, to India or Australia by guided missiles. We stand on the threshold of rocket mail."
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