History

Red Grandy/Starsand Stripes
Darmstadt, West Germany, July, 1984: Future basketball Hall of Famer Elvin Hayes, recently retired after 16 outstanding years in the NBA, speaks during a visit to U.S. troops in Germany. In an interview, Hayes criticized the decision by his former team, the Houston Rockets, to use their top draft pick on a second center, Akeem Olajuwon, when they already had Ralph Sampson on the roster. Hayes would have drafted Michael Jordan instead — a choice that seems obvious in hindsight, but must be weighed against Olajuwon's outstanding career in which he led Houston to two NBA titles in the mid-1990s.

Elvin Hayes in Germany, 1984

Darmstadt, West Germany, July 1984: Future basketball Hall of Famer Elvin Hayes, recently retired after 16 outstanding years in the NBA, speaks during a visit to U.S. troops in Germany.

https://www.stripes.com/news/2-000-japanese-christians-march-for-nixon-america-1.24349
Edward Dixon/Stars and Stripes
Tokyo, January, 1974: Hundreds of Japanese Christians bearing signs and a huge effigy of Richard M. Nixon march from Meiji Park to the U.S. Embassy in a show of support for the United States and its beleaguered (by the Watergate scandal) president.

Showing support for Nixon in Tokyo, 1974

Tokyo, January 1974: Hundreds of Japanese Christians bearing signs and a huge effigy of Richard M. Nixon march from Meiji Park to the U.S. Embassy in a show of support for the United States and its beleaguered (by the Watergate scandal) president.

‘Buried at sea’: Navy changes status of 13 sailors killed in sinking of USS Indianapolis

The Navy has finally resolved the fates of 13 sailors aboard the USS Indianapolis that was sunk in WWII.

more History news

WWII veteran Harold Billow, the last known survivor of the Malmedy Massacre, a POW massacre that took place on Dec. 17, 1944, during the Battle of the Bulge, has died. He was 99.

Last known survivor of WWII POW massacre dead at 99

Family and friends are remembering a Pennsylvania man who was the last known survivor of a World War II POW massacre that occurred during the Battle of the Bulge. Harold Billow died May 17. He was 99.

Leland Brummett talks to his sister Vashti as she stands on a Vietnam-era amphibious vehicle on Cove beach in Brigantine, Tuesday, May 24, 2022. They pulled into the Absecon Inlet after one of the two vehicles experienced steering problems.

Vietnam-era amphibious vehicles beached again in Jersey Shore town

The “Wild Sally” and “Big Jack” motored into the Absecon Inlet and drove onto the beach after “Wild Sally” suffered steering issues.

New names recommended for 9 Army bases that honor Confederates

The nine bases are all in former Confederate states and were named during the 1910s and 1940s amid the South’s Jim Crow era.

https://www.stripes.com/news/can-t-believe-i-m-in-one-piece-1.345340
Kim Ki Sam/Stars and Stripes
South Vietnam, 1966: A 1st Battalion, 27th Infantry "Wolfhounds" radioman bandages the arm of his battalion commander, Maj. Guy S. Meloy III, during Operation Attleboro in the jungles of Tay Ninh Province. Meloy, the son of the former commander of U.S. Forces in Korea, eventually rose to the rank of major general.

Operation Attleboro, 1966

South Vietnam, 1966: A 1st Battalion, 27th Infantry “Wolfhounds” radioman bandages the arm of his battalion commander, Maj. Guy S. Meloy III, during Operation Attleboro in the jungles of Tay Ninh Province.

I.G. Edmonds/Stars and Stripes
Tokyo, 1956: Japan's Crown Prince (and future Emperor) Akihito talks with Ethiopia's Emperor Haile Selassie at a reception during Selassie's goodwill visit to Japan. Akihito acceded to the throne in 1990 after the death of his father, Hirohito, the year before.

Akihito and Haile Selassie in Tokyo, 1956

Tokyo, 1956: Japan’s Crown Prince (and future Emperor) Akihito talks with Ethiopia’s Emperor Haile Selassie at a reception during Selassie’s goodwill visit to Japan.

Rose Greenhow was held in the Old Capitol Prison in Washington with her 8-year-old daughter, "Little Rose," during the Civil War after repeatedly being caught spying for the Confederacy. MUST CREDIT: Library of Congress mphoto

The most audacious Confederate spies — and how they got away with it

Because Wall of Spies Experience in Bethesda, Md., is closed to the public, the National Counterintelligence and Security Center has slowly been bringing the museum online for all to see. Its newest exhibit, which went live last week, focuses on spies during the American Civil War

Bob Cutts/Stars and Stripes
Saigon, December, 1965: A truck bomb that heavily damaged the Metropole Hotel, a bachelor enlisted men's quarters for the U.S. military in downtown Saigon, left an eerie footnote in the sign of the Bombay tailor shop. Eight Vietnamese, one U.S. Marine and a soldier from New Zealand were killed in the early-morning blast that also injured more than 175 people, including 72 Americans.

Bomb-damaged tailor shop, 1965

Saigon, December 1965: A truck bomb that heavily damaged the Metropole Hotel, a bachelor enlisted men’s quarters for the U.S. military in downtown Saigon, left an eerie footnote in the sign of the Bombay tailor shop. Eight Vietnamese, one U.S. Marine and a soldier from New Zealand were killed in the early morning blast that also injured more than 175 people, including 72 Americans.

Lauri Törni changed his name to Larry Allan Thorne when he arrived in the United States. He received postings at Forts Dix, Carson, Benning and Bragg. He was selected for training as a Special Forces officer, and in 1963 began his first tour of Vietnam, setting up a base camp near the Cambodian border. Today his grave lies at Arlington National Cemetery.

This soldier fought for Finland, Nazi Germany and US Special Forces

As Finland seeks to join NATO, Lauri Törni embodies all its foreign policy contradictions and entanglements with his improbable story of fighting for three countries — largely to resist Russian aggression.