Under the Julian calendar in use at the time, Washington's birth was recorded as February 11, 1731. Britain's 1752 adoption of the Gregorian calendar shifted the date to February 22, 1732, the date Americans now celebrate. Washington himself began observing the new date after the calendar reform.
The 1932 kidnapping and killing of 20-month-old Charles Lindbergh Jr. had gripped the nation for years. Hauptmann, a German immigrant carpenter, was convicted largely on handwriting analysis and marked ransom bills found in his possession. He was executed months later, though doubts about the evidence and his guilt persisted for decades afterward.
As the People's Liberation Army pressed its advantage in the Taiwan Strait, the Nationalist government under Chiang Kai-shek, with American naval support, withdrew its garrison from the Dachen Islands off the Chinese coast. The evacuation, part of Operation King Kong, marked a retreat in the broader Chinese Civil War standoff and heightened Cold War tensions over Taiwan.