DAY 1 - This day in legal and military history

New for 2017!  This year my goal is to post something every day – This day in legal and military history.  Obscure national days.  Occasional personal info.  Let's see how far into the year I can get before I self-destruct.


January 1 

New Year's Day
 
NATIONAL Hangover Day [very aptly named]
 
NATIONAL Polar Bear Plunge Day [I'm cold just thinking about this.  Time for a hot shower.]
 

Today in legal and military [and occasional oddities] history

1863 Emancipation Proclamation frees all US slaves
 
1946 An American soldier stationed in the Philippines accepts the surrender of 20 Japanese soldiers who learned that the war ended back in September 1945 by reading about it in a newspaper
 
1950 US Navy commissions its first female doctor, Mary T Sproul
 
1959 Fidel Castro seizes power in Cuba
 
1962 US Navy SEALS begin
 
1983 The ARPANET officially changed to using Internet Protocol, creating the internet [sorry Dan Quayle]
 
2000 The arrival of Y2K did not result in the end of the world.  It did, however, result in my computer-programmer husband being laid off later that year.  The week before Christmas.  Ouch.