Milestones: December 4, 2023

December 4, 2023 Brooklyn Eagle Staff

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BRUTAL DICTATOR — FRANCISCO FRANCO BAHAMONDE, BORN DEC. 4, 1892 IN GALICIA, SPAIN, WAS A MILITARY DICTATOR WHO LED THE 1936 COUP THAT TOPPLED THE REPUBLIC OF SPAIN and dragged his country into a three-year civil war. Known just as Francisco Franco, and later ruling as El Caudillo (“The Chief”) until his death in 1975, Franco waged an assault on the existing leftist Republican government. The conflict became known as the Spanish Civil War. Backing Franco were right-wing militias, the Roman Catholic Church, Germany and Italy. Supporting the Republicans and leftist soldiers were the Soviet Union and international volunteers. Franco systemically defeated his opposition and ruled for four decades. Toward the end of his rule, he relaxed his control, introduced economic reforms and promoted tourism.

Franco appointed Prince Juan Carlos as his successor thinking he would maintain the status quo. Instead, the prince — just two days after Franco died — took the first moves toward establishing a democracy,

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RISKING THEIR LIVES — A GROUP OF POLISH CHRISTIANS PLACED THEIR LIVES ON THE LINE WHEN, ON DEC. 4, 1942, THEY ESTABLISHED the Council for the Assistance of the Jews. Leading the charitable group were two women, Zofia Kossak and Wanda Filipowicz. Following the Nazi Sept. 1, 1939 invasion of Poland, the Jewish population were thrown into ghettos or labor camps, or murdered — their homes destroyed and commandeered. The Liberty Brigade, an underground newspaper in Warsaw, started getting the word out at great risk to its reporters.

The Nazis also went after non-Jewish Polish citizens, as they were considered inferior to the Aryans. Although the fate of the Council members is unknown, they have been recognized just for taking this step.

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CAPTIVE FOR 2,454 DAYS — AMERICAN JOURNALIST TERRY ANDERSON, WHO COVERED THE MIDDLE EAST FOR THE ASSOCIATED PRESS BEFORE TAKEN HOSTAGE, was finally released on Dec. 4, 1991. Islamist militants had kidnapped him some 2,454 days before, almost seven years. As chief Middle East correspondent for the Associated Press, Anderson covered the long-running civil war in Lebanon (1975-1990). He was one of 17 Americans and 92 foreigners abducted, his captors linked to Hezbollah and was taken hostage possibly as a response to the Kuwaitis having jailed 17 Shi’ites, the branch of Islam that Hezbollah’s members followed.

However, by the late 1990s U.S. diplomatic relations with Iran and Syria improved. Iran was eager to have U.S. support in furthering its own economic goals. All the same, Terry Anderson sued the Iranian government for $100 million, for its bankrolling of his captors, and received a multi-million dollar settlement.

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PRESIDENT GEORGE H. W. BUSH ORDERED 28,000 U.S. TROOPS TO SOMALIA ON DEC. 4, 1992, FOR HUMANITARIAN RELIEF. Warlords had taken over this impoverished East African nation and were blocking military aid from reaching the people. A historic draught and the fighting of rival clans synergistically created one of the worst humanitarian crises, with one-fourth of Somalia’s population in danger of starvation. Although the United Nations had previously sent a peacekeeping mission, its troops were unable to overcome the fighting and were drawn into the conflict. When Bush sent the large military force, as part of “Operation Restore Hope,” the U.N. had more success in delivering food.

However, the factions’ protracted war meant there was no clear resolution to the humanitarian crisis, and upon his 1993 inauguration, President Clinton started bringing the troops home.

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QUAKERS SET UP DECOY — A DISTANT COUSIN OF GENERAL GEORGE WASHINGTON SET UP A FORCE on December 4, 1780, in the backcountry of the colony of Carolina that helped trick Loyalist soldiers into surrendering. Colonel William Washington, second cousin once removed to the famous Founding Father, cornered Loyalist Colonel Rowland Rugeley and his followers in Rugeley’s house and barn near Camden, South Carolina. Colonel Washington ordered his men to dismount, surround a barn, and fabricate a cannon from a pine log. This was known as a Quaker gun trick, named so because the Society of Friends members deployed it to intimidate when necessary without violating their pacifist vow of non-violence.

The ploy worked perfectly, and Rugueley’s entire force surrendered before any shots were fired.

See previous milestones, here.