American Minute for April 19th:
Paul Revere was captured along the way, but William Dawes and Samuel Prescott continued the midnight ride from Boston's Old North Church to warn the inhabitants of Concord that British troops were coming to seize their guns. In early dawn, APRIL 19, 1775, American "Minutemen," as poet Emerson wrote, fired the "shot heard round the world" by confronting the British on Lexington Green and at Concord's Old North Bridge. The conflict began that in eight years would end in independence. New England celebrates this as "Patriots' Day." Also on APRIL 19, in the year 1951, General Douglas MacArthur retired from 48 years of patriotic service. The most decorated soldier in U.S. history, MacArthur served in France in WWI, was Superintendent of West Point and the youngest Army Chief of Staff. General Douglas MacArthur was Supreme Allied Commander in the Pacific in WWII and received Japan's surrender. He commanded UN forces against North Korea, but was dismissed by President Truman for not fighting a limited war. Douglas MacArthur said: "Like the old soldier of that ballad, I now close my military career and just fade away, an old soldier who has tried to do his duty as God gave him the light to see that duty."
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