On this day in 1937, Japanese bombers attacked and sank the U.S. Navy river gunboat Panay and three Standard Oil Company tankers on the Yangtze River near the Chinese capital of Nanjing. Japan and the United States were not at war at the time. The boats were part of an American naval operation called the Yangtze Patrol, which began following the joint British, French, and American victory in the Second Opium War.
Public reaction was mixed in the U.S., with Franklin D. Roosevelt weighing various diplomatic and military responses only to settle for an apology and compensation.
A flat-bottomed craft built in Shanghai specifically for river duty, Panay served as part of the US Navy’s Yangtze Patrol in the Asiatic Fleet, which was responsible for patrolling the Yangtze River to protect American lives and property in China. Since November, the Panay had been evacuating U.S. citizens from the battle zone around Nanjing. On 11 December, the Panay evacuated some of the last remaining Americans from the city, bringing the number of people aboard to five officers, 54 enlisted men, four US embassy staff, and 10 civilians.
USS Panay
Today is the birthday, in 1946, of Denny Dias, American guitarist, best known for being a founding member of Steely Dan. Dias placed an ad in The Village Voice in the summer of 1970 that read: “Looking for keyboardist and bassist. Must have jazz chops! Assholes need not apply”. Donald Fagen and Walter Becker responded to the advertisement. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vptlTsgu9p0
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