Douglas MacArthur's escape from the Philippines during World War II began on 11 March 1942, after U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt ordered him to withdraw. MacArthur left Corregidor Island and traveled in PT boats with his forces through stormy seas patrolled by Japanese warships, reaching Mindanao two days later. Arriving in Australia, he declared, "I came through and I shall return". MacArthur, a well-known general who had a distinguished record in World War I, had retired from the army in 1937 to become a defense advisor to the Philippine government. He was recalled to active duty in July 1941, a few months before the outbreak of the Pacific War with the Empire of Japan, to become commander of the U.S. Army Forces in the Far East, which included Philippine forces. By March 1942, the Japanese invasion of the Philippines had compelled him to withdraw his forces on Luzon to Bataan. The doomed defense of Bataan captured the imagination of the American public, and MacArthur became a living symbol of Allied resistance to the Japanese, at a time when the news from all fronts was uniformly bad. Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Douglas_MacArthur%27s_escape_from_the_Philippines> _______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries: 222: Disgusted with Roman emperor Elagabalus's disregard for Roman religious traditions and sexual taboos, the Praetorian Guard assassinated him and his mother and threw their mutilated bodies in the Tiber. <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elagabalus> 1843: During a period of activity known as the Great Eruption, Eta Carinae briefly became the second brightest star in the night sky. <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eta_Carinae> 1966: Indonesian President Sukarno signed the Presidential Order Supersemar, giving General of the Army Suharto the authority to restore order during the recent mass killings. <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supersemar> 1978: After hijacking a bus north of Tel Aviv, members of Palestine Liberation Organization faction Fatah engaged in a shootout with the Israel Police, resulting in the deaths of 38 civilians and most of the perpetrators. <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coastal_Road_massacre> 1993: Janet Reno was confirmed by the Senate as the first female United States Attorney General. <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Janet_Reno> _____________________________ Wiktionary's word of the day: dot matrix: 1. (computing) A two-dimensional array or pattern of dots used (for example, by a display device or a printer) to represent alphanumeric characters and pictures. 2. (computing) Clipping of dot matrix printer. <https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/dot_matrix> ___________________________ Wikiquote quote of the day:   Advances in science when put to practical use mean more jobs, higher wages, shorter hours, more abundant crops, more leisure for recreation, for study, for learning how to live without the deadening drudgery which has been the burden of the common man for ages past. Advances in science will also bring higher standards of living, will lead to the prevention or cure of diseases, will promote conservation of our limited national resources, and will assure means of defense against aggression. But to achieve these objectives — to secure a high level of employment, to maintain a position of world leadership — the flow of new scientific knowledge must be both continuous and substantial.   --Vannevar Bush <https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Vannevar_Bush>