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... AND I think the 19th amendment was passed by Congress on this day in 1919 (though ratified in August of 1920). Women could vote.
 
It is, of course, the 71st anniversary of D-Day. My father-in-law got a free trip to Europe around that time, courtesy of the US Army.

And certainly not in the same league, but another anniversary this week is the 60th anniversary of the tragedy at Le Mans 1955.

83 people, including Pierre Levegh, the driver of the Mercedes 300SL that went into the crowd, were killed. The accident is said to have been caused by a slower Austin-Healy that cut off the Mercedes.....but there's many opinion on that.

The BBC has marked the occasion by re-playing their 2010 interview with John Fitch; he was Levegh's co-driver:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p00810tm
 
Me Ol' Fella went into Normandy via Omaha.
 
I talked about the '55 LeMans accident just this afternoon with my cousins' wife at a wedding - who just happens to be the daughter of Phil Walters, the great Cunningham driver from the 1950s. She married a cousin of mine. She told me it was that accident that caused him to retire from racing. He said he had a wife and 4 kids.For those with long memories, he started out racing midgets under the name of Ted Tappett so his folks wouldn't know he was racing. Phil was one of the finest sports car drivers of all time and a war hero. I only met him once or twice before he passed away. Coincidentally, John Fitch was a client of our office when he lived in Stamford. I knew him well and once toured Lime Rock on the back of his Vespa. A real gentleman.
 
Ok, here's another clue - this thread is about D-Day. My Dad served in theater under Patton. He was about 19 when he went off to war. He never talked about it much.
 
And it's worth mentioning the John Fitch was a WW II vet also.

Captain Fitch was a P-51 Mustang pilot with the Fourth Fighter Group on bomber escort missions, and became one of the first Americans to shoot down a German Messerschmitt Me 262 jet fighter. Just two months before the end of the war, he was shot down himself while making a strafing pass on an Axis train. Fitch spent the rest of the war as a prisoner of war.
 
Terrible times. My father-in-law (English) served in Burma and he would never talk about it. Ever.
 
AND, speaking of WWII..And it's the anniversary of two crucial battles in World War II. In 1940, the Britishforces completed their evacuation from Dunkirk, and on this day in 1942, the Battle of Midway took place.
 
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