Today is the birthday of Harry S. Truman, 33rd President of the United States. Truman assumed the remainder of Franklin D. Roosevelt’s presidency when FDR passed away in April 1945. He then served the next full term after winning the election.

Less than a month after assuming the presidency, on Truman’s birthday, German forces unconditionally surrendered to the Allies, marking the end of WWII in Europe. As such, today is Victory in Europe Day, or V-E Day for much of Europe and the States. 

Harry was a bit of a man’s man. He greatly enjoyed sipping bourbon while playing poker with friends. This rubbed some Americans and staff members the wrong way, as it was a stark contrast to the habits of FDR before him.

However, the phrase “the buck stops here” which has origins in poker, became commonplace during Truman’s time. If you say “the buck stops here” you are taking responsibility for your own actions and the actions of other, rather than passing along the blame or ‘the buck’ to someone else. Truman had the phrase on a nameplate on his desk to remind him that he would be responsible for the collective victories and losses of the country.

It was Truman who authorized the atomic bomb drops in Japan to end WWII in Asia. He says it was the hardest decision he had to make in his entire life. His presidency still faces criticism about that choice, and he defended his decision in his autobiography. 

Truman retired from the presidency nearly penniless. His only income was a small pension from his service in the army. Truman was firm believer in preserving the integrity of the role of President. He felt that to take corporate positions or commercial endorsements would sully his time served. It wasn’t until he published his successful autobiography that he was back in mild financial comfort. 

Truman was not a favorite president among Americans during and immediately after his presidency. However, he is now consistently rated as one of the most important presidents in our nation’s history. His presidential Library is in Independence, Missouri where Truman grew up.

Today is the birthday of Henry Dunant (“Ahn-re Do-nan(t)”), founder of the Red Cross and co-winner of the first Nobel Peace Prize in 1901. 

Traveling through Europe, he happened to pass through the Italian town of Solferino on the same day as a battle had taken place. There were 23 thousand soldiers on the battlefield either injured, dying, or dead and no sign of help for the men. Henry quickly went to the village and recruited volunteers to go out and aid the soldiers, no matter if they were friend or foe. When they ran out of supplies, which was quickly, Henry bought them with his own money and helped buy materials to build a makeshift hospital. 

Dunant published a book about his experience in Solferino and traveled Europe to promote it and his humanitarian ideas. The Geneva Society for Public Welfare created a committee to further explore the ideas in Henry’s book and that committee would become the beginning of the International Committee of the Red Cross. 

Today is the birthday of American novelist Thomas Pynchon. Pynchon’s early work is thoroughly post-postmodern, using unreliable narrators, blending fact and fiction, and often playing with layout in his books.

Not much is known about him personally, which has perhaps fuels the interest in his writing. One thing we do know is he is a big fan of Homer Simpson. He voiced a caricature of himself and refused to recite a line name-calling Homer – not because of the profanity in it, but because he was too big of a fan to insult Homer. 

Pynchon’s most well-known works are The Crying Lot of 49 and Gravity’s Rainbow. His more recent novel, Inherent Vice, was made into a movie of the same name in 2014 starring Joaquin Phoenix. 

 

Paul Laurence Dunbar