JFK ANGRY AT NEWS OF STEEL PRICE HIKE
On the heels of a successful brokerage of a settlement between US Steel & the steelworkers union, JFK was informed today by Roger Blough, chairman of US Steel Corporation, that his company is raising steel prices by $6 a ton, or 3.5 per cent.
Before his intercession between labor & management, JFK had been told by the Council of Economic Advisers that an increase in steel prices represented "the greatest single threat" to economic stability.
JFK, therefore, convinced steelworkers that it would be in the best interest of the country to accept arbitration on their contract.
Unnamed sources say that the President is very upset, to put it mildly, about this turn of events & feels "double-crossed" by US Steel executives.
One staffer said shortly after receiving the bad news from Mr. Blough, the President said:
"My father always told me that all businessmen were SOBs, but I never believed it until now."
Roger Blough & JFK (1961)
April 10, 1963
SNIPER FIRES SHOT AT GENERAL WALKER
Retired US Army General Edwin Walker narrowly escaped death around 9 o'clock this evening when a sniper fired a rifle shot through a window at his Dallas home.
The bullet struck the wall just above Walker's head as he sat at his desk.
Reports say while the General was grazed in the arm by shrapnel he is otherwise fine.
An eyewitness, a 14 year neighbor boy, told police he saw 2 men drive out of a church parking lot adjacent to Walker's home just after the shooting.
Police continue to investigate but there are no known suspects in the case at this time.
General Walker, an unsuccessful candidate for governor of Texas last year, had been dismissed from the army for passing out right-wing "John Birch" literature to his troops.*
*The attempted shooting of Walker remained unsolved until December 3, 1963 when the Warren Commission, investigating the assassination of JFK, determined that Lee Harvey Oswald was the man who had fired the shot at Walker. The Commission based their conclusion on a letter that Oswald had left for his wife, Marina, on April 10, 1963, photographs found in Oswald's effects & testimony of firearms experts.
Edwin Walker
April 10, 1963
ATOMIC SUB SINKS WITH TOTAL LOSS OF CREW
The atomic submarine, USS Thresher, sank in the Atlantic Ocean, off the coast of New England, today while on a training mission.
It is reported that the entire crew of 129 including officers, sailors & civilians have perished.
Launched in 1960, the USS Thresher was the 1st of the new class of atomic submarines which are said to be quieter & can reach greater depths than previous atomic subs.
*JFK ordered all flags to be flown at half-staff in honor of the victims. Later an investigation showed that a short circuit in the electrical system of the sub prevented it from surfacing. The US Navy took corrective action to prevent future such tragedies.
USS Thresher, April 1961
April 10, 1942
DEATH MARCH BEGINS ON BATAAN
More than 75,000 Filipino & American troops, captured by the Japanese on Bataan, were marched out today to a prisoner of war camp about a hundred miles away.
There are reports that the prisoners are being mistreated & given little to eat or drink.
The march is expected to take about a week.*
*The Bataan Death March lasted 6 days & some of the victims were brutally executed while others succumbed due to lack of food or water.
American POWs on Bataan
April 10, 1941
STATE OF CROATIA IS CREATED
The armies of Germany & Italy invading Yugoslavia have set up the independent state of Croatia today.
National leader, Ante Pavelic, is to be put in control a pro-Axis regime in the new state.*
*In the coming days, more than 350,000 Serbs, Jews, Gypsies & anti-fascist Croatians will be massacred at the hands of the pro-Axis regime.
Ante Pavelic
April 10, 1933
CCC ESTABLISHED BY FDR
President Franklin D. Roosevelt created the Civilian Conservation Corps, or CCC, today.
The CCC will be a public works relief program intended to serve the dual purpose of providing employment during the Great Depression as well as protecting America's forests.
The agency will offer jobs to unemployed, unmarried males between the ages of 18 & 26.
In speaking about the benefits of the CCC, FDR said:
"The forests are the lungs of our land (which) purify our air & give fresh strength to our people."*
*The CCC, active from 1933 to 1942, will employ over 3 million men.
April 10, 1919
ZAPATA SHOT TO DEATH IN MORELOS
Emiliano Zapata, leader of peasants during the revolution in Mexico, has been shot to death in an ambush in Morelos.
Zapata, who raised an army of peasants in 1910 under the slogan "Land & Liberty", opposed the central government of Mexico under Madero, Huerta & Carranza.
Zapata apparently was tricked into meeting with one of Carranza's generals & was shot upon his arrival for the meeting.
Zapata's "Plan of Ayala" was intended to seize all foreign land & land taken from Mexican villages.
Emiliano Zapata
