Today in History - August 11

A special thanks to Wikipedia.com for following historical information. The sermons I have chosen from Sermonaudio.com

1898 – Spanish–American War: American troops enter the city of Mayagüez, Puerto Rico.

Here is a short excerpt from Howard Zinn's The Twentieth Century (referring to the Spanish-American war):

"A volunteer from this state of Washington wrote: 'Our fighting blood was up, and we all wanted to kill 'n***rs.' ...This shooting human beings beats rabbit hunting all to pieces.' It was a time of intense racism in the United States. In the years between 1889 and 1903, on the average, every week, two Nigroes were lynched by mobs-hanged, burned, mutilated. The Filipinos were brown-skinned and strange looking to Americans...Our men have been relentless, have killed to exterminate men, women, children prisoners and captives. Active insurgents and suspected people from lads ten up, the idea prevailing that the Philippino as such was little better than a dog..."

1929 – Babe Ruth becomes the first baseball player to hit 500 home runs in his career with a home run at League Park in Cleveland, Ohio.

Recommended podcast: Babe Ruth, Mark H. Myers [Sports Character Studies - MLB]

1969 – The Apollo 11 astronauts are released from a three-week quarantine following their liftoff from the Moon.[8]

Recommended sermons and podcast: 50th Anniversary of Apollo 8: Christmas from Space to you, by Phil Layton [Text: Luke 2:14; Genesis 1]