On April 1, 1945, after suffering the loss of 116 planes and
damage to three aircraft carriers, 50,000 U.S. combat troops,
under the command of Lieutenant General Simon B. Buckner
Jr., landed on the southwest coast of the Japanese island
of Okinawa, 350 miles south of Kyushu, the southern main
island of Japan.

Determined to seize Okinawa as a base of operations for
the army ground and air forces for a later assault on
mainland Japan, more than 1,300 ships converged
on the island, finally putting ashore 50,000 combat
troops.

Simon Bolivar Buckner Jr.
(18 July 1886 – 18 June 1945)

Buckner was among the casualties,
killed by enemy artillery fire just three
days before the Japanese surrender.

The 1952 film Okinawa starring Pat O’Brien, is one of several movies to depict this decisive episode in the history of the
war.

Fort Buckner is a small United States Army base located immediately south of Camp Foster, near Futenma, on
Okinawa, Japan.

On March 31, 1999, the writing and directing sibling team of
Lana and Lilly Wachowski release their second film, the mind-
blowing science-fiction blockbuster The Matrix.

Later films include Cloud Atlas (2012) and Jupiter Ascending
(2015). A sequel to The Matrix Revolutions, The Matrix
Resurrections, was released in 2021.         
        
        
        
        
        
        
Lilly and Lana Wachowsk.

Oklahoma! opened on Broadway on March 31, 1943. In spite of 
a less-than-promising lead-up, it would go on to set a Broadway
record of 2,212 performances before finally closing five years
later.

On March 30, 1981, President Ronald Reagan was shot in the
chest outside a Washington, D.C. hotel by a drifter named
John Hinckley Jr.

The president had just finished addressing a labor meeting
at the Washington Hilton Hotel and was walking with his
entourage to his limousine when Hinckley, standing among 
a group of reporters, fired six shots at the president, hitting
Reagan and three of his attendants.

White House Press Secretary James Brady was shot in the
head and critically wounded, Secret Service agent Timothy
McCarthy was shot in the side, and District of Columbia
policeman Thomas Delahanty was shot in the neck.

After firing the shots, Hinckley (below) was overpowered
and pinned against a wall, and President Reagan, apparently
unaware that he’d been shot, was shoved into his limousine
by a Secret Service agent and rushed to the hospital. 

Ronald Wilson Reagan (February 6, 1911 – June 5, 2004)

The former convict will be 70 years old May 29th.

SANDY KOZEL