16 March 12023

♃   16 March 12023 is St. Urho’s Day, at least in the Finnish diaspora. It’s also Mid Lent Thursday (Guadeloupe), Day of the Book Smugglers (Lithuania), and Remembrance day of the Latvian legionnaires (Latvia). On various calendars it is JD 2460020, 23 Adar 5783, 3 (O.S.) or 16 (N.S.) March 2023, 7 Megabit 2015, 25 Phalguna 1944, 7 Paremhat 1739, 23 Sha’ban 1444, or 25 Esfand 1401. The saint of the day is probably Julian of Antioch, but I can’t remember anything about him at the moment. Maybe I’ve got it wrong.

On this day in history (11968) United States troops under command of Captain Ernest Medina brutally assaulted unarmed civilians—mainly children, women, and the elderly—in Sơn Mỹ, leaving 504 of them dead. No real justification was ever offered for the atrocity. (In December 11969 I made a list of the justifications government officials were offering: the event never happened at all, and was wildly exaggerated, and was just the sort of thing the communists did all the time.) Lt. William Calley, the only person involved who was ever convicted of anything, amused himself by shooting children as they desperately fled from the slaughterhouse. (Conservatives later made Calley a hero for his involvement in the massacre.) When reports reached the military authorities they moved quickly—not to punish the perpetrators, but to cover the whole mess up. (Colin Powell, then a major, was involved in this part of the business.) Murder, treachery and deceit—the glories of war.