11 MAY
1571 Niwa Nagashige (丹羽 é·é, May 11, 1571 â April 30, 1637) was a Japanese daimyÅ who served the Oda clan. Nagashige was the eldest son of Niwa Nagahide and married the 5th daughter of Oda Nobunaga. He took part in his first campaign in 1583, assisting his father in the Battle of Shizugatake against Shibata Katsuie. In 1584, the Battle of Nagakute, at the age of thirteen, Nagashige led a troop of the Niwa clan in place of his father, who was ill.
1861 Frederick Russell Burnham DSO (May 11, 1861 â September 1, 1947) was an American scout and world-traveling adventurer. He is known for his service to the British South Africa Company and to the British Army in colonial Africa, and for teaching woodcraft to Robert Baden-Powell in Rhodesia. He helped inspire the founding of the international Scouting Movement.
1888 Willis Augustus “Ching” Lee Jr. (May 11, 1888 â August 25, 1945) was a vice admiral of the United States Navy during World War II. Lee commanded the American ships during the second night of the Naval Battle of Guadalcanal (November 14â15, 1942) and turned back a Japanese invasion force headed for the island. The victory ended Japanese attempts to reinforce their troops on Guadalcanal, and thus marked a turning point in both the Guadalcanal Campaign and the Pacific War itself. Lee was also a skilled sport shooter, and won seven medals in the 1920 Olympics shooting events (including five gold medals), tied with teammate Lloyd Spooner for the most anyone had ever received in a single games. Their record stood for 60 years. He was the most successful athlete at the 1920 Olympics.
1888 Irving Berlin (born Israel Beilin; Yiddish: ×שר×× ××××××â; May 11, 1888 â September 22, 1989) was an American composer and lyricist, widely considered one of the greatest songwriters in American history. In 1917, Berlin was drafted into the United States Army, and his induction became headline news, with one paper headline reading, “Army Takes Berlin!” But the Army wanted Berlin, now aged 30, to do what he knew best: write songs. While stationed with the 152nd Depot Brigade at Camp Upton, he then composed an all-soldier musical revue titled “Yip Yip Yaphank”, written to be patriotic tribute to the United States Army. By the following summer, the show was taken to Broadway where it also included a number of hits, including “Mandy” and “Oh! How I Hate to Get Up in the Morning”, which he performed himself. The shows earned $150,000 for a camp service center. One song he wrote for the show but decided not to use, he would introduce twenty years later: “God Bless America.”
1911 Phil Silvers (May 11, 1911 â November 1, 1985) was an American entertainer and comedic actor, known as “The King of Chutzpah”. His career as a professional entertainer spanned nearly sixty years. Silvers achieved major popularity when he starred in The Phil Silvers Show, a 1950s sitcom set on a U.S. Army post in which he played Master Sergeant Ernest (Ernie) Bilko. He also starred in the films It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (1963), and A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum (1966). He is a winner of two Primetime Emmy Awards for his work on The Phil Silvers Show and two Tony Awards for his performances in Top Banana and A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum.
1950 John Francis Kelly (born May 11, 1950) is a board member at Caliburn International and a retired U.S. Marine Corps general who served as the White House Chief of Staff for President Donald Trump from July 31, 2017, to January 2, 2019. He had previously served as Secretary of Homeland Security in the Trump administration. Kelly enlisted in the Marine Corps during the Vietnam War and was commissioned as an officer near the end of college. He rose through the ranks, eventually serving in his last military post from 2012 to 2016 as the four-star General leading United States Southern Command, the unified combatant command responsible for American military operations in Central America, South America, and the Caribbean. Prior to joining the Trump administration in January 2017, Kelly had been on the board of advisors of DC Capital Partners, an investment firm that now owns Caliburn. Kelly was selected as the first Secretary of Homeland Security in the Trump administration. Kelly earned a reputation for being an aggressive enforcer of immigration law. After six months, he was selected to replace Reince Priebus as White House Chief of Staff in an attempt to bring more stability to the White House. He was the first career military officer to serve in the position since Alexander Haig during the Nixon and Ford Administrations.
MILITARY HISTORY SOCIETY OF ROCHESTER
ROCHESTERMILITRY.COM
