June 19, 1865 Juneteenth is the oldest known celebration commemorating the end of slavery in the United States.  It was June 19, 1865 that the Union soldiers, led by General Gordon Granger, landed at Galveston, Texas with news that the war had ended and that the enslaved were now free.  Note: this was two and a half years after President Lincoln ‘s Emancipation Proclamation — which had become official January 1, 1863.  The Emancipation Proclamation had little impact on the Texans due to the minimal number of Union troops to enforce the new Executive Order.  However, with the surrender of […]

June 14, 1777 Flag Day commemorates June 14, 1777, when the Continental Congress passed a resolution “that the flag of the thirteen United States be thirteen stripes, alternate red and white; that the union be thirteen stars, white in a blue field, representing a new constellation.”  Since that time, generations of Americans have celebrated the flag as a symbol of our God-given freedoms and God-blessed nation.  In every American military campaign, “Old Glory” has been a symbol of our unique American freedoms and ideals. Interesting, “Old Glory” was the name that American merchant sea Captain William Driver placed on the […]

June 6, 1944 During World War II, the Battle of Normandy, which lasted from June 1944 to August 1944, resulted in the Allied liberation of Western Europe from Nazi Germany’s control.  Code-named “Operation Overlord”, the battle began on June 6, 1944, also known as D-Day, when some 156,000 American, British, and Canadian forces landed on five beaches along a 50-mile stretch on the heavily fortified coast of France’s Normandy region.  The invasion was one of the largest amphibious military assaults in history and required extensive planning.  Prior to D-Day, the Allies conducted a large-scale deception campaign designed to mislead the […]