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Friday, February 14, 2014

JFK'S VALENTINE'S DAY NEWS CONFERENCE

JFK SAYS MEETING SHOULD BE PREPARED AT A LOWER LEVEL

Washington, D.C. (JFK+50) President John F. Kennedy conducted a news conference 52 years ago today, Valentine's Day, February 14, 1962, in which a reporter asked this question...

"Mr. President, this being Valentine's Day, sir, do you think it might be a good idea if you would call Senator Strom Thurmond* of South Carolina down to the White House for a heart-to-heart talk about the whole disagreement over the censorship of the military speeches and what he calls your defeatist foreign policy?"





Senator Strom Thurmond
August 8, 1961

*Strom Thurmond (1902-2003) was born in Edgefield, South Carolina.  He graduated from Clemson University in 1923 and was admitted to the bar in 1930.  ST served in the army during WWII and served as SC governor from 1947-1951.  

In 1948, he was the presidential nominee of the States Rights or Dixiecrat party. ST completed his political career in the US Senate from 1956-2003.



President Kennedy's response was...

"Well, I think that that meeting should be probably prepared at a lower level..."



MASSACRE IN CHICAGO 85 YEARS AGO TODAY
Chicago, Illinois (JFK+50) 85 years ago today, Valentine's Day, February 14, 1929, seven members of the Bugs Moran gang of the North side were gunned down by henchmen representing Al Capone.
The assassins, using shotguns and Thompson sub-machine guns, were dressed in stolen police uniforms.
The Moran gang members were disarmed, lined up and then shot.  Six of the gang died instantly while one died an hour later.
Al Capone would escape justice until May 1929 when he was convicted of carrying a concealed weapon and sentenced to prison for ten months. 

Later, he would be sent to prison for 11 years on a charge of income tax evasion.
US TROOPS SUFFER DEFEAT IN NORTH AFRICA
Kasserine Pass, North Africa (JFK+50) American forces were defeated 71 years ago today, February 14, 1942, here at the Kasserine Pass by the Afrika Corps led by Field Marshall Erwin Rommel.
The attack came after Rommel's army had been driven out of Egypt at the Battle of El Alamein by British forces under Bernard Montgomery.
US  forces were defeated attempting to defend a two mile wide gap in the Dorsal Mountains of Tunisia.  
Americans suffered a thousand dead and hundreds taken prisoner.

VALENTINE'S DAY TRAGIC FOR TR

New York City (JFK+50) Theodore Roosevelt, future Governor of New York and 26th president of the United States, lost his wife and his mother on Valentine's Day, February 14, 1884, 130 years ago today.  

Mr. Roosevelt's mother, Mittie, had been suffering from typhoid fever while his wife of 4 years, Alice Lee, was suffering from a severe kidney ailment known as Bright's Disease.   
Alice Lee Roosevelt had just given birth to daughter Alice two days earlier.TR would leave his baby girl with his sister and head to the Dakota territories. Roosevelt returned to political life in 1896.