October 25 · This Day in America
Five hundred miles off the Azores, lookouts on the USS United States spot a sail at dawn. It is HMS Macedonian, a frigate of the Royal Navy — the most feared fighting force on earth. Captain Stephen Decatur does not run. He maneuvers, holds the range where his heavier guns rule, and methodically dismantles the British ship until her masts are gone and her colors come down. The young United States is at war with the empire it broke from, and the world expects the upstart navy to be swept from the sea. Instead Decatur sails his prize home to Newport, the only enemy warship ever brought into an American port. Wherever the crew goes, crowds line the streets. A nation that was barely a nation has just proven it can win on the water — and that it intends to stay.
Source: www.history.navy.mil
Also on this day · 1962
Ten days into the Cuban Missile Crisis, with the world holding its breath, US Ambassador Adlai Stevenson faces the Soviet delegate in the UN Security Council. Does the USSR have missiles in Cuba — yes or no? When the answer dodges, Stevenson does not blink: "I am prepared to wait for my answer until hell freezes over." Then he unveils the U-2 photographs. The evidence is undeniable, and a watching planet exhales.
Source: www.cfr.org
“I am prepared to wait for my answer until hell freezes over, if that's your decision.”Adlai Stevenson, 1962