The Office of the Inspector General of the United States Army is the
agency tasked with investigating the army. Its stated mission includes
"advice and oversight to the army through ... inspection, assistance,
investigations, and training". George Washington and members of the
Continental Congress requested an inspector general for the Continental
Army in 1777, and Thomas Conway was appointed the same year. His
successor was Friedrich Wilhelm von Steuben, a Prussian military officer
who later served as Washington's chief of staff. The office has been
reorganized many times, and has varied in size dramatically. In its
early days, the inspectorate was frequently merged with, or proposed to
be part of, the Adjutant General's department. It expanded greatly after
the Civil War, and had grown to around 2,000 officers by 1993. Leslie C.
Smith (pictured) has been the inspector general since February 2018.
Read more:
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Office_of_the_Inspector_General_of_the_United_States_Army>
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Today's selected anniversaries:
1959:
Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev and U.S. Vice President
Richard Nixon held an impromptu debate at the opening of the American
National Exhibition at Sokolniki Park in Moscow.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kitchen_Debate>
1987:
Iran–Iraq War: In opposition to the American plan to protect
Kuwaiti tankers, Iran laid mines and damaged the SS Bridgeton,
resulting in a propaganda victory for Iran.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bridgeton_incident>
2009:
The MV Arctic Sea, reportedly carrying timber, was allegedly
boarded by hijackers off the coast of Sweden, but much speculation
remains as to the actual cargo and events.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MV_Arctic_Sea>
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Wiktionary's word of the day:
quakebuttock:
(formerly obsolete, rare, now humorous) A coward.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/quakebuttock>
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Wikiquote quote of the day:
War was return of earth to ugly earth, War was foundering of
sublimities, Extinction of each happy art and faith By which the world
had still kept head in air.
--Robert Graves
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Robert_Graves>