Two interesting notes on "today in history" from the History Channel.1) 25 years ago, massive strikes began in Gdansk, Poland. Workers, led by a then-obscure labor leader named Lech Walesa, "seize the Lenin Shipyard and demand pay raises and the right to form a union free from communist control....A few days after the workers had seized the shipyard, Walesa announced the formation of an organization designed to tie workers from different fields together into one labor movement, known as Solidarity." The rest, as they say, is history.
2) 60 years ago, Japan's unconditional surrender was made public, essentially ending World War II. Japan's surrender came after six horrible years that included Germany's invasion of Poland, the siege of Stalingrad, the attack on Pearl Harbor, the Bataan Death March, the Nazi Holocaust, two atomic bombs, and much more. The next day (August 15), VJ Day was declared. Today, surviving veterans of that war still come to the World War II Memorial on the National Mall in Washington, DC, as well as to the beaches of Normandy. Sadly, however, the "Greatest Generation" will soon be gone, having saved the world from barbarism and tyranny. Let's hope we never see a war like that one again. Our thanks to all who fought for freedom in World War II.
[UPDATE: 3) Whoops, forgot a big one (duh!). 70 years ago, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the Social Security Act, saying "The civilization of the past 100 years, with its startling industrial changes, has tended more and more to make life insecure. Young people have come to wonder what would be their lot when they came to old age. The man with a job has wondered how long the job would last." Those words remain true today.]