U.S. aircraft in flight over an Airfield in Hawaii PBY-6A Catalina parked in the grass. Mountains in the background. U.S. Fighter aircraft making touch and go landings. B-17 bomber parked on ramp. Heavy storm clouds form by mountain in background.
German civilian Matthias Gierens, a 37 year old railroad worker, is hanged in Rheinbach Germany for the August 15, 1944 murder of a downed American flyer, who was later identified as U.S. Army Air Forces 2nd Lieutenant Lester E. Reuss, from Forsythe, Montana. Reuss was the navigator on U.S. Army B-17 bomber #42-31183 which was downed by German aircraft after it attacked the Airdrome at Wiesbaden, Germany. Gierens and three other German civilian men, Peter Kohn, Peter Back, and Matthias Krein, were convicted on June 2, 1945 in Ahrweiler, Germany, for the murder of the American airman after his parachute landing near Priest, Germany. The trial was the first Allied trial in Germany of civilians charged with a war crime. Military police are seen escorting Gierens toward the gallows in a prison yard in Rheinbach. A German Catholic priest performs the rites. U.S military officer reads charges as Gierens is readied for execution (the officer is possibly Lt. Col J.V. Roddy, of San Francisco, who was in charge of the hanging). Trap door opens and Gierens is hung. The U.S. Army executioners were Master Sgt. John C. Woods, a former Texas State executioner, and Staff Sgt. Thomas Robinson, of Bronx, New York. Witnesses present included seven U.S. Lieutenant Colonels and one British officer, a number of Military Police, news correspondents, and photographers.
First test flight of the amphibian aircraft to be used by United States Navy out of San Diego, California, to document unchartered territory in Alaska. An aircraft taxis and takes off from the airfield. Mountains in the background. The aircraft in flight over sea. Ships docked at sea in the background. The wheels of the aircraft fold and the aircraft taxis at sea. Pilots load tri-lens aerial camera aboard an aircraft. Lieutenant B H Wyatt, Commander of the expedition, discusses problems with pilots. The Commander points at a map. Tents in the background.
President Lyndon B. Johnson crowns his daughter Luci Baines Johnson at the Azalea Festival in Norfolk, Virginia. Luci Baines Johnson, seated in a decorative float, arrives at the Azalea Festival. She waves towards the gathering. President of the United States Lyndon Baines Johnson and wife Lady Bird Johnson arrives at the festival. President Johnson crowns Luci as the Queen of the Azalea Festival.
Sesquicentennial in Washington DC. Still image of snow covered railroad train tracks of the Pennsylvania Railway Station at corner of 6th and B streets, cutting across the Mall. Animation shows: a model of Washington DC made by McMillan Commission in the year 1901. Elevated view of the landmark Union Station train station from roughly the 1920s, and view of the Plaza and new city Post Office building. Model shows the location of the station. 1908 Officers Buildings and the building for members of the House of Representatives. The Treasury Department Building for the Bureau of Revenue and building for the Bureau of Printing and Engraving. Early view from 1920s of the West Wing of the White House. View of building housing the Corcoran Art Gallery. American National Red Cross building and National Headquarters building for the Daughters of the American Revolution. View of the Pan American Union building. National Academy of Sciences building exterior.
A weekend barbeque at United States President Lyndon B. Johnson's ranch in Texas, United States. A man cooks beef on a barbecue at the LBJ ranch in Stonewall, Texas. A woman prepares sourdough biscuits and a man cooks chicken on the grill. President Johnson, his wife Lady Bird Johnson and pregnant daughter Luci Baines Johnson-Nugent greet Latin American diplomats and their wives as they arrive.
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