THAT TIME THAT NIXON WAS ATTACKED
In 1958, on a trip through Latin America, vice president Nixon's car was attacked by an angry crowd and nearly turned over, while he was traveling through Venezuela.
The crowd was angry about some of the us cold war policies.
Nixon was on a goodwill trip.
By 1958, relations between the United States and Latin America had reached their lowest point in years.
Latin American argued that their countries needed more basic economic assistance, not more arms to repel communism.
They also questioned the American support of dictatorial regimes in Latin America simply because those regimes claimed to be anticommunist.
The U.S. awarded the Legion of Merit medal to Venezuelan dictator Marcos Perez Jimenez in 1954; Jimenez was overthrown by a military coup early in 1958.
The trip began with Nixon engaging in loud and bitter debates with student groups during his travels through Peru and Uruguay.
In Caracas, Venezuela, however, things took a dangerous turn.
A large crowd of angry Venezuelans who shouted anti-American slogans stopped Nixon’s motorcade through the capital city.
They attacked the car, damaged its body and smashed the windows.
Inside the vehicle, Secret Service agents covered the vice president and at least one reportedly pulled out his weapon.
They escaped from the crowd and sped away. In Washington, President Eisenhower dispatched U.S. troops to the Caribbean area to rescue Nixon from further threats if necessary.
OSCAR WILDE'S KISSES
19th century poet and writer, Oscar Wilde's tomb is covered in thousands of lipstick kiss marks left by years of fans, that visit his grave in Paris France.
The epitaph is a verse from The Ballad of Reading Gaol:
"And alien tears will fill for him
Pity's long-broken urn,
For his mourners will be outcast men,
And outcasts always mourn."
In 2011 a glass barrier was erected to make the monument 'kiss proof'.
TRUMAN'S CLASSIFIED BRIEFINGS
Harry S. Truman, America's 33rd president, was born on May 8, 1884, in Lamar, Missouri.
President Truman inherited the presidency 82 days after being vice president.
He succeeded Franklin D. Roosevelt, upon his death on April 12, 1945.
1947, the president had a new foreign policy in the making.
In its later stages it was called "Containment" and was aimed at blocking Communist expansion anywhere in the world.
The Marshall Plan and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) were the major manifestations of containment and committed the United States to a role of world leadership it had never before been willing to assume.
FDR's condition was a closely held secret, and he had not prepared Truman for ascension to the presidency.
He was the president that started the tradition of top secret intelligence briefings in 1952.
He wanted to make sure that his successor was better prepared than he was.
He offered classified briefings to each of the nominees and it is a tradition that is still practiced today.
Shortly after the Allies achieved victory in Europe, Truman was faced with a tough decision.
He decided to drop the first atomic bombs on Imperial Japan.
The two bombs ultimately killed more than 200,000 people.
Truman struggled through the Korean War.
He faced a frustrated and angry Congress that was beginning to threaten impeachment proceedings against him.
He declined to run for president again in 1952 and returned home.
Truman died in Kansas City, Missouri, on Dec 26, 1972.
DID YOU KNOW..
Harry's parents could not decide on his middle name, but since both final alternatives began with "S," the Trumans adopted the middle initial by itself.
Truman wanted to attend West Point, but was not accepted because of poor eyesight.
He did join the Missouri National Guard in 1905.
World War I, he served in the U.S. Army as an artillery battery commander in France.
He married his childhood sweetheart, Elizabeth Virginia ("Bess") Wallace.
He opened a men's clothing store, which failed.
Harry and Bess had one daughter, Mary Margaret.
He helped integrate the military.
Truman's Fair Deal program managed to extend Social Security to 10 million additional people, provided flood control, and raised the minimum wage to 75 cents an hour, but failed to win national health insurance and more assistance for farmers.
There is a museum called the Art Car Museum in Houstin Texas.
it is filled with ornately painted, decorated vehicles.
It is also known as Garage Mahal
It opened in 1998.
It features a bunch of different automobiles ranging from hippie vans to police cars.
STAR MUSEUM
There is a large fort in the shape of a star that is located in a village in Groningen, Netherlands.
IT was build in 1593.
It's original purpose was to control the only road between Germany and the city of Groningen.
Controlled by Spaniards during the time of the 80 years war.
Now it's used as a museum
LETTERS FROM SPACE
About 1 month before Apollo 11 was set to launch, Buzz Aldrin, Neil Armstrong and Michael Collins signed hundreds of envelopes as a form of life insurance for their families.
They gave them to friends and on important days like the day they landed on the moon, their friend gave them to their families, if they did not return from the moon their families could sell them.
Armstrong's envelopes have spent decades as a family heirloom.
Now they're giving one away for a good cause.
The family donated the envelope to be auctioned off to support the Astronaut Scholarship Foundation.
This is the first time one of the envelopes has been offered up by the Armstrong estate.
Previous envelopes have sold for thousands of dollars at auction.
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