• 1656 – Polish-Lithuanian forces clash with Sweden and its Brandenburg allies in the start of what is to be known as The Battle of Warsaw which ends in a decisive Swedish victory.
• 1812 – The Treaties of Orebro end both the Anglo-Russian and Anglo-Swedish Wars.
• 1857 – Louis Faidherbe, French governor of Senegal, arrives to relieve French forces at Kayes, effectively ending El Hajj UmarTall's war against the French.
• 1863 – American Civil War: Battle of Fort Wagner/Morris Island – the first formal African American military unit, the 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry, fails in their assault on Confederate-held Battery Wagner.
• 1914 – The U.S. Congress forms the Aviation Section, U.S. Signal Corps, giving definite status to aircraft within the U.S. Army for the first time.
• 1925 – Adolf Hitler publishes his personal manifesto Mein Kampf.
• 1942 – World War II: the Germans test fly the Messerschmitt Me-262 using only its jet engines for the first time.
• 1944 – World War II: Hideki Tojo resigns as Prime Minister of Japan due to numerous setbacks in the war effort.
• 1955 – The first Disneyland theme park, in Anaheim, California, officially opens to the public.
• 1966 – Human spaceflight: Gemini 10 is launched from Cape Kennedy on a 70-hour mission that includes docking with an orbiting Agena target vehicle.
• 1968 – The Intel Corporation is founded in Santa Clara, California.
• 1969 – After a party on Chappaquiddick Island, Senator Ted Kennedy from Massachusetts drives an Oldsmobile off a bridge and his passenger, Mary Jo Kopechne, dies.
• 1976 – Nadia Comăneci became the first person in Olympic Games history to score a perfect 10 in gymnastics at the 1976 Summer Olympics.
• 1982 – 268 campesinos ("peasants" or "country people") are slain in the Plan de Sánchez massacre in Ríos Montt's Guatemala.
• 1986 – A tornado is broadcast live on KARE television in Minnesota when the station's helicopter pilot makes a chance encounter.
• 1992 – The ten victims of the La Cantuta massacre disappear from their university in Lima.
• 1994 – The bombing of the Asociación Mutual Israelita Argentina (Argentinian Jewish Communal Center) in Buenos Aires kills 85 people (mostly Jewish) and injures 300.
• 1995 – On the Caribbean island of Montserrat, the Soufriere Hills volcano erupts. Over the course of several years, it devastates the island, destroying the capital and forcing most of the population to flee.
• 1996 – Battle of Mullaitivu. The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam capture the Sri Lanka Army's base, killing over 1200 Army soldiers.

 Good Afternoon –

 I am writing to ask you to save the date for an upcoming event which started May 28^th in San Francisco with a tire in the Pacific Ocean and will end in Virginia Beach on July 28^th with their front tire in the Atlantic ocean. The participants are disabled veterans riding across country on bicycles, handbikes, and recumbent cycles -http://www.s2ssbikeride.org/.

 Dominion and MeadWestvaco are sponsors of the ride in Virginia and did so when the ride last came through the state. This year the ride will have an extended stay in Richmond beginning with on July 24^th and welcomed at the Mansion by the Governor and First Lady at approximately 1:30 pm.

We are inviting you and others (please share the word) who are interested to join us in Capitol Square to welcome the bikers by wearing red, white, and blue, waving flags, cheering, and holding “America” posters. I am waiting on the exact timing and will let you know, but we are anticipating the bike arrival around 1:30. So if you can plan on meeting in front of the Mansion gate about 1:15-1:20 to line up and cheer/greet the veterans, that would be great. We will have posters and flags, but if you want to make/bring your own, you are welcome to. Please wear American colors too!

 Please pass the word on, as we want to ensure we have a great crowd turned out to greet these wounded vets and thank them for their contributions and sacrifices. Thanks and let me know if you have questions.

 Sarah

VA Exceeds 2012 Goal to Improve Online Access to Benefits Information

 Expanding Functions Draw Millions of Monthly Visitors

 WASHINGTON (July 18, 2012) – The Department of Veterans Affairs announced today that 1.67 million Veterans and Servicemembers have registered for the secure, joint VA-Department of Defense (DoD), self-service web portal, eBenefits, which provides online information and access to a wide variety of military and Veteran benefits resources.

 “We know that 3 out of 4 Veterans who use VA services want to connect online, so we must to be there for them with the information they need,” said Allison Hickey, Under Secretary for Benefits. “eBenefits is clearly becoming the platform of choice for Veterans seeking access.”

The strong pace of registrations for the site since its launch in October 2009 has allowed VA to exceed its fiscal year 2012 agency priority goal of 1.65 million users, and puts it on track to meet the 2013 goal of 2.5 million users, as outlined for VA in Performance.gov.

 Veterans and Servicemembers new to the Website www.ebenefits.va.gov are guided through the registration process to get a full-access account, called a premier account, which allows maximum ability to update personal information and learn about benefits without having to visit a VA facility. With the premier account, one passwordundefinedcalled a single sign-onundefinedallows Veterans to access multiple applications on the secure portion of the website.

 A premier account also allows Veterans to check the status of compensation and pension claims that they have filed with VA. This feature, the most popular within the eBenefits application, had over 700,000 visits in June alone. Overall, visits to the site have increased 60 percent over the previous year, approaching 2 million per month.

 On July 1, VA introduced its 11^th consecutive quarterly release of improved functionalities to the eBenefits application that includes benefits eligibility email messages to Servicemembers as they reach career milestones and a new Career Center page with employment self-assessment tools, a resume builder, and a translator that relates military expertise to civilian work skills. The Career Center, which received over 8,000 visits in its first week, has single sign-on connectivity to VA’s Veteran hiring site, “VA for Vets.” Another key function added is a single sign-on capability for Veterans to transition securely between benefits information on eBenefits and health information on VA’s myHealtheVet website without an additional log-on step.

 VA has completed a record-breaking 1 million claims per year the last two fiscal years, and is on target to complete another 1 million claims in FY2012. Even so, too many Veterans have to wait too long to get the benefits they have earned and deserve. That is why VA is aggressively building a strong foundation for a paperless, digital disability claims system – a lasting solution that will transform how VA operates and eliminate the backlog. This plan will help VA achieve Secretary Shinseki’s goal: claim completion in less than 125 days with 98 percent accuracy in 2015 – delivering faster, better decisions for Veterans.

 With the most recent release, there are now 46 self-service features enabling Servicemembers and Veterans the ability to download copies of their official VA and military correspondence, including Veterans civil service preference, service verification, benefits verification letters, military records and VA home loan certificates of eligibility. Servicemembers and Veterans can also access records that directly impact their family members, like the Post-9/11 GI Bill enrollment status, VA payment history, and DoD TRICARE health insurance status.

 The eBenefits application is a key component in VA’s ongoing transformation to a digital environment for Veterans’ benefits delivery. Additional functionality and features will continue to be added to the site throughout the coming months.