6 June 1944
On this date in 1944…
American, Canadian, and British troops swarmed ashore in the D-Day invasion at Normandy, France. Nineteen soldiers from a Bedford, Virginia company died on Omaha Beach. Most of the rest of the company suffered severe wounds. Bedford lost more residents per capita in the Normandy landings than any other American community.
Other Years:
- 1799 – Patrick Henry died of stomach cancer, while at Red Hill plantation in Brookneal, Virginia.
- 1916 – Thomas Dixon, Jr.’s film The Fall of a Nation is released as a follow-up to D.W. Griffith’s The Birth of a nation and becomes the first movie sequel. The film was mysteriously lost in the 1940’s and no known copies still exist.
- 1862 – The naval battle off Memphis, Tennessee.
- 1868 – After following their trail for 100 miles, troopers from the 3rd U.S. Cavalry out of Fort Sumner, New Mexico surprise a band of Navaho accused of killing settlers near the fort. Though the Indians are entrenched in a ravine, the troops kill 3, wound and capture 11, before the rest escape.
- 1966 – Civil rights activist James Lee Meredith was wounded by a sniper in Mississippi.
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