After he slapped two soldiers, US Lieutenant General George S. Patton was sidelined from combat command by General Dwight Eisenhower and Army Chief of Staff George C. Marshall. On 3 August 1943, during the Sicily Campaign of World War II, Patton struck, kicked and berated a soldier he found at an evacuation hospital with no apparent injuries, for being "gutless"; in fact, the soldier had malaria with a temperature of 102.2 °F (39.0 °C). Patton struck another soldier complaining of "nerves" at another hospital seven days later and threatened him with a pistol for being a "whimpering coward"; in fact, the soldier had been begging to rejoin his unit. Both soldiers suffered from what is now known as post-traumatic stress disorder. Patton's actions were suppressed in the news until journalist Drew Pearson publicized them. Congress and the general public expressed both support and disdain. Patton was removed from combat command for almost a year, but did take a decoy command in Operation Fortitude to mislead German agents as to the location of the planned invasion of Europe. His later successes commanding the US Third Army largely rehabilitated his reputation.

Read more: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_S._Patton_slapping_incidents

_______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries:

1776:

American Revolutionary War: South Carolina militia repelled a British attack on Charleston. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Sullivan%27s_Island

1846:

Belgian clarinetist Adolphe Sax received a patent for the saxophone (pictured). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saxophone

1914:

Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria and his wife, Sophie, Duchess of Hohenberg, were assassinated by Yugoslav nationalist Gavrilo Princip during a motorcade in Sarajevo, sparking the outbreak of World War I. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assassination_of_Archduke_Franz_Ferdinand_of_Austria

1956:

Workers demanding better conditions held massive protests in Poznań, Poland, but were violently repressed by the following day by 400 tanks and 10,000 soldiers of the Polish People's Army and the Internal Security Corps. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pozna%C5%84_1956_protests

1981:

Seventy-three leading officials of Iran's Islamic Republican Party were killed when a bomb exploded at the party's headquarters in Tehran. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hafte_Tir_bombing

_____________________________ Wiktionary's word of the day:

night-biter: An animal, especially an insect such as a mosquito, that bites during the night. https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/night-biter

___________________________ Wikiquote quote of the day:

I deny that villany is ever necessary. It is impossible that it should ever be necessary for any reasonable creature to violate all the laws of justice, mercy, and truth. No circumstances can make it necessary for a man to burst in sunder all the ties of humanity. It can never be necessary for a rational being to sink himself below a brute.   --John Wesley https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/John_Wesley