November 30
CHURCHILL DAY
Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill was born (prematurely) on this day in 1874. He became a British statesman, soldier, and author -- and the first man to be made an honorary citizen of the United States (by an act of Congress on April 9, 1963).
A graduate of Sandhurst Military Academy, Churchill fought in India, the Sudan and South Africa. In 1900 he was elected to the British Parliament. He was the first Lord of the Admiralty (1911-15) in World War I until discredited by the failure of the Dardanelles campaign, which he had championed.
Churchill later served in several cabinet positions in the Liberal government including Chancellor of the Exchequer from 1924 to 1929. Out of office from 1929 to 1939, Churchill issued unheeded warnings of the threat of Nazi Germany.
In 1940, seven months after the outbreak of World War II, Winston Churchill replaced Neville Chamberlain as prime minister. Churchill’s stirring oratory, his energy, and his refusal to make peace with Hitler were crucial to maintaining British resistance.
After the fall of France (on June 22, 1940), Germany intended to defeat the British Royal Air Force (RAF). In July, the German Luftwaffe began to bomb British airfields and ports. By September, the Luftwaffe had begun to make nightly raids on London. The RAF fought bravely but were badly outnumbered. However, they still managed to hold off the Luftwaffe. Churchill expressed his nation’s gratitude to its airmen: “Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few.”
After the post-war Labour party victory in 1945, Churchill became leader of the opposition. In 1951 he was again elected prime minister. Two years later he was knighted. That same year he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature for “...his mastery of historical and biographical presentation and for his brilliant oratory...”
Sir Winston Churchill died in London on January 24, 1965. He is already recorded in our history as one of the greatest statesmen and leaders of the 20th century.
Those Were the Days, the Today in History service from 440 International
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