Reading the paper on Oct. 5, 1941.

It is the fifteenth week of active warfare between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union.

Soviet forces have pushed the Germans and Romanians back from dozens of eastern Ukrainian villages in fierce tank battles, but action there is expected to slow as rains and snow begin to fall over the area.

In the far north, Soviet forces have turned back a Nazi assault against Murmansk and heavy fighting continues against the Finns near Leningrad/St. Petersburg.

The Finns, engaged in diplomatic discussions with Britain, assert they are fighting a defensive war against Soviet forces and are not participating in any war between the ‘great powers.’

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They didn’t see it coming.

It is the year 1900.

The twentieth century.

And the view from here, for the most part, looks good.

A momentous century has passed bringing many advancements; and even more are promised in the new century to come.

And there is peace.

In the year 1900, Europe stood ready to embrace the twentieth century.

And the party started with the Paris World Exhibition, a world’s fair.

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Praying for victory.

On this date in 1789, President George Washington proclaimed November 26 of that year as a national day of thanksgiving.

Its purpose, he said, was to acknowledge the ‘care and assistance’ Americans had received from God in achieving independence and establishing a constitutional government.

Seventy-four years later, on this date in 1863, President Lincoln followed suit, declaring the last Thursday in November as a national day of Thanksgiving, bringing national uniformity to the holiday.

Between Washington’s and Lincoln’s time, thanksgiving celebrations had been singular events — often local celebrations — occurring on various dates.

During the Civil War, both Lincoln and Confederate President Jefferson Davis issued proclamations setting aside days for their people to give thanks to God for victories achieved on Civil War battlefields.

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Letters to FDR

Abandoned farms.

Shuttered retail stores.

Migrant families.

“Hooverville” shanty-towns.

Bread lines.

Riding the rails in search of work.

To all of the people swept up in the nation’s downward spiral, Franklin Roosevelt offered a ‘new deal’ when he became president in 1933.

And he delivered.

Some people were grateful; others were angry.

And FDR received letters from both.

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Baseball and chemical weapons.

The large-scale use of chemical weapons began in World War I.

Both sides tried tear gas first.

But it dispersed quickly and caused only temporary blindness and breathing trouble.

Both France and Germany wanted something stronger and lethal.

So they began putting chlorine, phosgene and mustard gas into grenades and artillery shells.

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The people of 1938.

With words from Henry Wadsworth Longfellow written one hundred years before.

Tell me not, in mournful numbers,

Life is but an empty dream!

For the soul is dead that slumbers,

And things are not what they seem.

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Reading the paper on September 28, 1944.

In the first Allied setback since D-Day, the British effort to seize the Rhine River bridge at Arnhem, in the Netherlands, has failed after a nine-day battle.

In a nighttime operation, 2,400 surviving British troops escaped through German lines in small groups and were evacuated.

1,200 wounded British men, along with 4,000 dead, were left behind.

The Arnhem operation was an attempt to create a northern route into Germany which bypassed the German Siegfried Line defenses, opening an Allied attack route into Germany’s industrial Ruhr Valley.

One British soldier who was captured near Arnhem but later escaped told reporters about an argument he and others from his unit had had with their German captors.

When the Germans asked why the Allies had bombed the civilian targets of Berlin and other German cities, the British soldier had replied that ‘they had started it first’ with the Blitz bombing of London.

These German captors refused to believe that London still stood, having been convinced by German propaganda that Nazi ‘robot bombs’ had completely destroyed the city.

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It is September 27, 1862.

Ten days have passed since McClellan’s Union forces defeated Lee’s army at Antietam.

McClellan has refused Lincoln’s order to pursue and vanquish Lee’s retreating army.

Lincoln believes an opportunity to crush Lee’s forces and end the Civil War in the East has been lost.

And the Secretary of the Interior has told Lincoln an astonishing story at a cabinet meeting.

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It is September 26, 1960.

Richard Nixon and John F. Kennedy are in a Chicago television studio for their first presidential debate.

The moderator, Howard K. Smith, sits at a desk separating the two candidates.

More than sixty-six million people are watching on TV.

And millions more are listening on radio.

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A teenage girl writes to Eleanor Roosevelt.

“March 1, 1934.

“Dear Mrs. Roosevelt,

”I'm sorry this had to be written on funny paper.

“But honest its very funny to live.

“I wished sometimes that I were dead.

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