JFK

November 22
Jack Kennedy, when I say those words, so many things pop into the mind. Civil Rights, Death, Nasa, going to the moon, family ties.
The Kennedys were, during the majority of the first part of the 20th century (1900-1968), in every part of the American culture, financial world, politics, government, etc. They shaped who we saw ourselves as a nation, and helped shape who we became.
Today commemorates a very sad day. John Fitzgerald Kennedy, was in Dallas with his wife for a luncheon with civic and business leaders within the city. They were on a motorcade through the city, when Lee Harvey Oswald (and perhaps one or two other people) took shots at JFK, and his wife. Only JFK was hit, and he died less than an hour later.
Everyone has their theory as to what happened, I also have my thoughts on it. I feel because of the advancement of Civil Rights, he, Martin Luther King, and his brother (Robert F Kennedy) were killed by the same group.
Although Kennedy was not in agreement totally with Civil Rights, he understood that it was time to cut bait and run, or stand up. He stood up, but if we notice, after he was assassinated, that VP Johnson (now President) slid things backwards further than they had been for five years previous. Kennedy's hands were tied in a number of ways, but he could not let the flow of tide go backwards once it had started. Like Lincoln, he understood that sometimes we have to step back and say, "Alright, I don't fully agree with this (Lincoln didn't believe in the freeing of the slaves, but knew it was to that point), but to make our nation better, we need to do SOMETHING." So even tho the Cuban Missile Crisis, and Vietnam were at the top of Kennedy's thoughts, he still tried working on what was going on in our own nation. But unfortunately at that time, the state of the world was actually worse off then what was going on in our own nation (thats what some think anyway). And so Kennedy sent young men to both Cuba and Vietnam, where he thought they were needed.
Basically I see Kennedy's presidency as a two edged sword, he was in a position of *damned if you do, damned if you don't*, and really wasn't going to make points with everyone, but he attempted to at least be there for whom he could.
I found this on a site that talked about Kennedy and the Civil Rights:

Kennedy was very good at what would appear to be small gestures. In American football, the Washington Redskins were the last of the big teams to refuse to sign African Americans. Their stadium was federally funded and Kennedy ordered that they were no longer allowed to use the stadium and would have to find a new one. The team very quickly signed up African American players.
Kennedy created the CEEO (Commission on Equal Employment Opportunity). Its job was to ensure that all people employed with the federal government had equal employment opportunities; it also required all those firms that had contracts with the federal government to do the same if they were to win further federal contracts. However, the CEEO was only concerned with those already employed (though it did encourage firms to employ African Americans) and it did nothing to actively get employment opportunities for African Americans. The CEEO was concerned with those in employment within the federal government…….not the unemployed.

http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/john_kennedy_and_civil_rights.htm


First Snowmobile Patented
In 1927, the first patent for a snowmobile was issued to Carl J. Eliason of Sayner, Wisconsin. The patent listed Eliason's invention as a snow machine.

Between the years of 1927 and 1962, thirteen patents were granted to inventors for snow vehicles considered the predecessors to the modern snowmobile.

I have never been on one, and at the rate my life is going, its very doubtful it will happen, tho I wouldn't mind, lol.

Born today, is Charles de Gaulle November 22, 1844
Anyone who has done any type of WW2 research recognizes this name.
Charles André Joseph Marie de Gaulle
22 November 1890 – 9 November 1970) was a French general and statesman who led the Free French Forces during World War II. He later founded the French Fifth Republic in 1958 and served as its first President from 1959 to 1969.

As France was falling to the German Reich, de Gaulle fought back, he felt this was all wrong, and he fought with the Free French Forces, and the Underground.
On 5 June, Prime Minister Paul Reynaud appointed him Under Secretary of State for National Defence and War and put him in charge of coordination with the United Kingdom.
De Gaulle strongly denounced the French government's decision to seek armistice with the Nazis and set about building the Free French Forces from the soldiers and officers deployed outside France or who had fled France with him. On 18 June, de Gaulle delivered a famous radio address via the BBC Radio service. Although the British cabinet initially attempted to block the speech, they were overruled by Churchill.
De Gaulle's Appeal of 18 June exhorted the French people not to be demoralised and to continue to resist the occupation of France and work against the collaborationist Vichy regime, which had signed an armistice with Nazi Germany. Although the original speech could only be heard in a few parts of occupied France, de Gaulle's subsequent ones reached many parts of the territories under the Vichy regime, helping to rally the French resistance movement and earning him much popularity amongst the French people and soldiers. On 4 July 1940, a court-martial in Toulouse sentenced de Gaulle in absentia to four years in prison. At a second court-martial on 2 August 1940 de Gaulle was condemned to death for treason against the Vichy regime.
With being condemned to death, he and his family left for London, and hid there during the war, but he still encouraged his brothers from France to fight the Nazi's and not be cowtowed by them.
On 9 November 1970, two weeks short of what would have been his 80th birthday, Charles de Gaulle died suddenly, despite enjoying very robust health his entire life (except for a prostate operation a few years earlier). He had been watching the evening news on television and playing Solitaire around 7.40 pm when he suddenly pointed to his neck and said "I feel a pain right here." before collapsing. His wife called the doctor and the local priest, but by the time they arrived he had died from a ruptured blood vessel.

His wife asked that she be allowed to inform her family before the news was released. She was able to contact her daughter in Paris quickly, but their son, who was in the navy was difficult to track down and so the President, Georges Pompidou was not informed until 4am the next morning and went on television some 18 hours after the event to inform the nation of the general's death. He said simply; "General de Gaulle is dead. France is a widow"