The Raid at Cabanatuan was a rescue of Allied prisoners of war (POWs)
and civilians from a Japanese camp near Cabanatuan City in the
Philippines. On January 30, 1945, during World War II, United States
Army Rangers, Alamo Scouts, and Filipino guerrillas (pictured) liberated
more than 500 from the POW camp. Having survived the Battle of Bataan
and the Bataan Death March, followed by years of torture,
malnourishment, and disease, the prisoners feared they would all be
executed when General Douglas MacArthur and his American forces returned
to Luzon. A group of over a hundred Rangers and Scouts from the Sixth
Army and several hundred Filipino guerrillas were sent to rescue the
prisoners. They traveled 30 miles (48 km) behind Japanese lines to
reach the camp. Under the cover of darkness and a distraction by a P-61
Black Widow, the group surprised the Japanese forces in and around the
camp. Hundreds of Japanese troops were killed in the 30-minute
coordinated attack; the Americans suffered minimal casualties. The raid
was depicted in the book Ghost Soldiers and the films Back to Bataan and
The Great Raid.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raid_at_Cabanatuan>
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Today's selected anniversaries:
1578:
Eighty Years' War: Spain won a crushing victory in the Battle
of Gembloux, hastening the disintegration of the unity of the rebel
provinces and bringing an end to the Union of Brussels.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Gembloux_(1578)>
1801:
John Marshall became the fourth Chief Justice of the United
States; his court opinions helped lay the basis for American
constitutional law and made the Supreme Court a coequal branch of
government.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Marshall>
1900:
Datu Muhammad Salleh, leader of a series of major disturbances
in North Borneo, was shot dead in Tambunan, but his followers did not
give up for five more years.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mat_Salleh_Rebellion>
1942:
Second World War: Allied forces retreated from British Malaya
to Singapore, ceding control of the country to Japan.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malayan_Campaign>
1996:
Japanese amateur astronomer Yuji Hyakutake discovered Comet
Hyakutake, which was one of the closest cometary approaches of the
previous 200 years.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comet_Hyakutake>
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Wiktionary's word of the day:
adder stone:
A stone of varying forms and usually glassy with a naturally formed
hole, which is often used as amulet or bead.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/adder_stone>
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Wikiquote quote of the day:
The cynic says "blessed is he who expecteth nothing, for he shall
not be disappointed." I say "blessed is he who expecteth everything, for
he can't always be disappointed.
--Tallulah Bankhead
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Tallulah_Bankhead>