Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, March 2, 1994 TAG: 9403010105
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Greg Edwards
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
The fabled Chinese Amazon, known as "Double Pistol," took time out from killing Japanese to get married. The bridegroom was Gen. Li Chi-meng, one of the 8,000 followers of the two-gun female fighter whom the Japanese had nicknamed "Monster Water Snake." She had taken an oath in 1937 to avenge the killing of her family by the Japanese. The happy couple sealed their union by burning the skulls of 42 Japanese soldiers.
The Joint Chiefs of Staff were considering the consolidation of the Navy and War departments into a consolidated Department of Defense. Plans called for the department to be headed by a civilian cabinet member.
Heinrich Himmler, chief of the Gestapo and leader of the SS - a private army of 600,000 - became the No. 2 man in Germany. He succeeded Reichsmarshal Hermann Goering, whose Luftwaffe had failed to keep his pledge to protect Germany from air attack.
Production of armored plate for U.S. landing barges was at a standstill because of a strike by 6,000 employees at the Great Lakes Steel Corp. over a worker's firing.
Manager Leo Durocher said that his Brooklyn Dodgers would be in the National League fight the next season and that he was willing to undergo an elbow operation if his presence was needed in the infield. Inspired by the sparkle of the All-American Girls Professional Softball team, Dodger owner Branch Rickey decided to dress the Dodgers up in jockey satin uniforms for evening games.
Mary Pearson, a senior at Hollins College, won Harper's Magazine's nationwide contest for college students with her short story "Fire Eater." The story was about the clash of personalities between a hard-boiled staff sergeant and a new lieutenant during the defense of Manila and the fall of Bataan.
A convoy hauling one of the greatest contingents of U.S. troops ever arrived safely in England with reinforcements for Gen. Dwight D. Eishenhower's invasion army then massing on British soil.
Legislation providing for a longer work week for women in essential war industry received favorable action by the Virginia General Assembly. The House of Delegates advanced on third reading a bill that would extend the work week for women from 48 to 52 hours.
The allies scored their first major military victory in Burma with the destruction of a Japanese force of 6,000. Driven back, hemmed in and split up, most of the Japanese fought to the death.
Lt. General Alexander A. Vandergrift, commandant of the Marine Corps and hero of Guadalcanal, kicked off the Red Cross fund raising drive in Roanoke at the Academy of Music.
Virginia Senator Harry Byrd praised the governmental principles of a group of New Orleans businessmen who had been urging him to run for president, but he told them in a letter that he was not a candidate.
Great Britain, a reluctant foe against the Finns, threw its weight behind Russia's peace-now-or-else demands on Finland, in hopes the Axis satellite might pull out of the war soon.
An attractive 23-year-old English girl said she hoped to marry the American soldier who she said was the father of her quadruplets. The babies' father, who had a wife in the United States, was present at the quads' birth, the mother said. The father, a sergeant from Pittsburgh, came forward and said he wanted to marry the mother of the children, one of whom had died.
by CNB