This Date in History: June 8

On June 8, 1874, Brigadier General Alfred Terry ordered George Custer to organize and lead a reconnaissance of the Black Hills.  (Custer’s Best: The Story of Company M, 7th Cavalry at the Little Bighorn)

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Reinhard Gehlen, Army brigadier general, born April 3, 1902 in Erfurt, chief of Foreign Armies East intelligence operations, winner of the War Service Cross 1st Class, chief West German Federal Intelligence Service (Bundesnachrichtendienst) after the war, author The Service: The Memoirs of General Reinhard Gehlen, died June 8, 1979 in Berg am Starnberger See, on himself:

“As a young officer I stubbornly refused to learn a foreign language beyond what I had picked up at school, so that there could be no risk of my being posted to military intelligence work within the General Staff, let alone to the secret service itself.”  (2,000 Quotes From Hitler’s 1000-Year Reich)