This date in history

[Jimbuna]

1917 - 1st Infantry division "Big Red One" shoots 1st US shot in WWI.

1942 - Britain launches major offensive at El Alamein, Egypt.

1943 - First Jewish transport out of Rome reaches camp Birkenau.

1978 - China & Japan formally ends 4 decades of dissension.

[Jimbuna]

1939 - Nazis require wearing of Star of David by Jews.

1945 - Charter of United Nations comes into effect.

1962 - Cuban missile crisis: US blockade of Cuba begins.

[Aktungbby]

1980: SS Poet with load of #2 corn disappears in Bermuda triangle http://articles.philly.com/2010-10-07/news/24979315_1_hunting-accident-oldest-son-ship (http://articles.philly.com/2010-10-07/news/24979315_1_hunting-accident-oldest-son-ship) She had been the troop carrier USS General Omar Bundy (AP-152) launched in 1944... https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/81/General_Omar_Bundy_AP-152.gif
The Poet also gave its Oct. 24 position to the Automated Mutual Assistance Vessel Rescue System, an international center that tracks ship movements in the Atlantic and Pacific.
The next day, as the ship steamed east, it encountered a severestorm (http://articles.baltimoresun.com/2006-03-04/news/0603040137_1_poet-delaware-river-ship#) with 30-foot seas and winds gusting to 60 knots. The storm lashed the Atlantic Coast for the next two days.
Experts said that the storm was nothing unusual, and the Poet had encountered and survived far worse storms in its 36-year career.
The owners of the vessel reported Nov. 3 -- nine days after receiving their last message from the Poet -- that they had not heard from the ship, which was due to dock in Port Said on Nov. 9.
The Poet had vanished into the lonely Atlantic depths without so much as an SOS.
A 200,000-square-mile Coast Guard search of the ocean, from the Straits of Gibraltar to Cape Henlopen, failed to find any trace whatsoever of the ship or its crew. "Capt. Gary Harper, the pilot who was taking the Poet down the Delaware River, noted that the ship was "heavy at the bow and sluggish in responding to the wheel," the Times reported.":hmmm: "She sent no SOS. Nor was there any identifiable EPIRB signal, although there was a brief few second signal that suddenly stopped. This was on the 26th. Earl Johnson, marine radio operator at WHM radio in Baltimore, recalls: “I heard an auto alarm signal or portions thereof consisting of 4 to 6 four-second dashes at one-second intervals on 500 kHz. The auto alarm signal was clear but weak. The signal did not fade in or out but was steady and then abruptly ended.” If this was from the Poet, it would place her right were others had vanished north of Bermuda, at the edge of the Sargasso Sea." http://www.bermuda-triangle.org/the_disappearance_of_the_s_s__.html (http://www.bermuda-triangle.org/the_disappearance_of_the_s_s__.html)

[Torplexed]

The Battle of Agincourt October 25th, 1415, 600 years ago today. The Triumph of Arrows--and eventually Shakespeare.

"This story shall the good man teach his son;
And Crispin Crispian shall ne’er go by,
From this day to the ending of the world,
But we in it shall be remembered-
We few, we happy few, we band of brothers;
For he to-day that sheds his blood with me
Shall be my brother; be he ne’er so vile,
This day shall gentle his condition;
And gentlemen in England now-a-bed
Shall think themselves accurs’d they were not here,
And hold their manhoods cheap whiles any speaks
That fought with us upon Saint Crispin’s day."

http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/03480/1400s_HENRY_V_OF_E_3480211c.jpg

[Jimbuna]

1854 - Charge of Light Brigade (Battle of Balaclava, Crimean War), 409 die.

1918 - Canadian steamship "Princess Sophia" hit a reef off Alaska, 398 die.

1941 - 16,000 Jews massacred in Odessa Ukraine.

1946 - 1st trial against nazi war criminals (Nuremberg).

2001 - Windows XP first became available.

[Aktungbby]

And hold their manhoods cheap whiles any speaks

NOT SO CHEAP! Cod-wise anyhow! How an Elizabethan literate gent(with consumate knowledge of period sartorial splendor on/off-stage) can make such a statement boggles the mind! https://www.royalarmouries.org/assets-uploaded/images/source/DI-2010-1377-Royal-Armour-Henry-VIII-II.8.jpg (https://www.royalarmouries.org/assets-uploaded/images/source/DI-2010-1377-Royal-Armour-Henry-VIII-II.8.jpg)HANK VIII-Alice Cooper (or 'Whiles any sings' for that matter):woot:>http://media.mnn.com/assets/images/2015/09/AliceCooperCodpieceConcert2002.jpg.838x0_q80.jpg (http://media.mnn.com/assets/images/2015/09/AliceCooperCodpieceConcert2002.jpg.838x0_q80.jpg)N uthin' good goes outta style BBY!

[Jimbuna]

1861 - Pony Express ends.

1863 - International conference begins in Geneva aimed at improving medical conditions on battlefields - beginning of the Red Cross.

1863 - Football Association forms in England, standardizing soccer, splitting with rugby.

1918 - Germany's supreme commander General Eric Ludendorff resigns, protesting the terms to which the German Government has agreed in negotiating an armistice.

[Jimbuna]

312 - Constantine the Great is said to have received his famous Vision of the Cross.

1914 - British battleship Audacious sunk by mine.

1979 - Voluntary Euthanasia Society publishes how-to-do-it suicide guide.

1982 - China announces its population at 1 billion people plus.

[Aktungbby]

1954: Benjamin Oliver Davis Jr. Becomes the first black Air Force Brigadier General: October 27, 1954 (temporary); May 16, 1960 (permanent) rising eventually to the rank of full General. From Tuskegee to the top! https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/e/ed/Benjamin_O_Davis_Jr_WWII.jpg/170px-Benjamin_O_Davis_Jr_WWII.jpg (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Benjamin_O_Davis_Jr_WWII.jpg) https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/4c/Partridge_and_davis.jpg/220px-Partridge_and_davis.jpg (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Partridge_and_davis.jpg) It ran in the family: his father Benjamin Oliver Davis, Sr. (1877 or 1880 – November 26, 1970) was the first African-American (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/African-American) general officer in the United States Army (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Army) October 25, 1940 https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/6/6f/Benjamin_o_davis.jpg/220px-Benjamin_o_davis.jpg (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Benjamin_o_davis.jpg)

[Jimbuna]

1492 - Christopher Columbus discovers Cuba and claims it for Spain.

1886 - Statue of Liberty dedicated by US President Grover Cleveland, celebrated by first confetti (ticker tape) parade in New York City.

1904 - St Louis police try a new investigation method - fingerprints.

[Jimbuna]

1942 - Seventh day of battle at El Alamein: Montgomery assault.

1942 - Nazis murder 16,000 Jews in Pinsk, Soviet Union.

1943 - Three allied officers escape out camp Stalag Luft 3.

1944 - 1st Polish Armoured Division liberates Breda, Netherlands.

1944 - Cabadese 2nd Infantry division frees Goes South-Beveland.

[Aktungbby]

1618: Sir Walter Raleigh writer, poet, soldier, politician, courtier, spy, and explorer; convicted of treason against James I in 1604, is finally executed by beheading; Allowed to lead a failed 1617 raiding expedition to the New World, the Spanish ambassador, successfully demanded that King James I reinstate Raleigh's death sentence for violating the peace between England and Spain. Old and not well, the man was an advocate of assisted suicide ahead of his time: "Let us dispatch", he said to his executioner. "At this hour ague (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fever) comes upon me. I would not have my enemies think I quaked from fear." After he was allowed to see the axe that would behead him, he mused: "This is a sharp Medicine, but it is a Physician for all diseases and miseries." https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/3/34/Execution_of_Sir_Walter_Raleigh.jpg/220px-Execution_of_Sir_Walter_Raleigh.jpg (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Execution_of_Sir_Walter_Raleigh.jpg)Having been one of the people to popularise tobacco smoking in England,http://img.cigarsinternational.com/p/90/misc/pb-wra-view2.jpg he left a small tobacco pouch, found in his cell shortly after his execution. Engraved upon the pouch was a Latin inscription: Comes meus fuit in illo miserrimo tempore ("It was my companion at that most miserable time...his cell>https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/3/35/Bloodytower_interior.jpg/220px-Bloodytower_interior.jpg (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Bloodytower_interior.jpg)...His 'Mancave:woot:>https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/72/Raleigh%27s_first_pipe_in_England.jpeg
@ Armistead: let's nominate Neal for this award shall we!:D http://raleigh.happeningmag.com/raleigh-public-relations-society-announces-call-entries-sir-walter-raleigh-awards/ (http://raleigh.happeningmag.com/raleigh-public-relations-society-announces-call-entries-sir-walter-raleigh-awards/) the awards are designed to showcase exemplary work by public relations and communications professionals from across the state. The competition recognizes and honors all practitioners who have achieved excellence in the field — from freelance practitioners to full-service agencies. :salute: They'd never give it to John Lennon or Lord McCartney: I'm so tired, "I'm feeling so upset
Although I'm so tired, I'll have another cigarette
And curse Sir Walter Raleigh
He was such a stupid git"

[Jimbuna]

1939 - USSR & Germany agree on partitioning Poland, Hitler deports Jews.

1939 - German U boat fails on attack of English battleship Nelson with Winston Churchill, Dudley Pound & Charles Forbes aboard.

1941 - USS Reuben James torpedoed by Germans, even though US is not in war.

1942 - 8th day of battle at El Alamein: new Australian assault.

1944 - Anne Frank is deported from Auschwitz to Belsen.

1944 - Last transport for Auschwitz arrives in Birkenau.

1945 - US government announces end of shoe rationing.

[Aktungbby]

1965: London's#1 Supermodel Jean Shrimptonhttp://media.vogue.com/r/h_480,w_660//wp-content/uploads/2014/11/06/01-jean-seberg-beauty-vogue-november-1963.jpg knocks 'em dead At Melbourne's Famed racetack Spring Racing Carnival in a mini-dress! It caused a major sensation. Photojournalists went to town capturing 'the Shrimp's' bare legs....Down Under??!! The day's winning nag did not make the front page that day...and lasses in Australia never looked back: ON the sweltering 94-F. spring afternoon, she was wearing none of the mandatory accessories for the racetrack members’ enclosure – her hat, gloves and stockings were missing. Even more shocking, her dress finished five inches above her knees.
Following her appearance, the front page of The Sun newspaper raged: “There she was, the world’s highest-paid fashion model, snubbing the iron-clad conventions of fashionable Flemington mavens with a dress five inches above the knee – NO hat, NO gloves and NO stockings!” http://www.milesago.com/Features/Images/shrimp.jpg
Derby Day racegoers were horrified. The press clamoured for photos and, within days, the story of the model in the mini had ignited global controversy. IMHO: at £2000 a shoot, an enormous sum for the time, equivalent to at least a year's wages for the average Australian man and gauged by a comparison with The Beatles, who had been paid £1500 for their tour of Australia in June 1964, she did her job..."when ya got it, flaunt it" :03: In Australia, it became an inspiration as young women took up the new fashion, accompanied by predictable media consternation. :salute: In hindsight-50 years later, what was the fuss!:hmmm:

[Jimbuna]

1917 - World War I: Battle of Beersheba in southern Palestine- "last successful cavalry charge in history."

1939 - 27 U boats sunk this month (135,000 ton).

1940 - 63 U boats sunk this month (325,000 ton).

1940 - Battle of Britain, fought between the RAF and Luftwaffe over the English Channel and southern England, ends.

1940 - Deadline for Warsaw Jews to move into Warsaw Ghetto.

1941 - 13 U boats sunk this month (62,000 ton).

1949 - Dutch Nazi Henri 'Hakkie' Holdert, director of Amsterdam paper De Telegraaf and member of the SS, sentenced to 12 years imprisonment.

[Jimbuna]

1914 - German-British naval battle at Coronel, Chile.

1915 - Parris Island is officially designated a Marine Corps Recruit Depot.

1939 - First jet plane, Heinkel He 178, demonstrated to German Air Ministry.

1941 - Japanese marine staff officiers Suzuki/Maejima arrive in Pearl Harbor.

1971 - Eisenhower dollar put into circulation.

[Jimbuna]

1783 - General George Washington, later 1st US President, bids farewell to his army after the American Revolutionary War.

1914 - Great Britain declares the entire North Sea a military area: neutral ships will transit it at their own risk.

1943 - Jewish ghetto of Riga Latvia is destroyed.

1944 - Auschwitz begins gassing inmates.

1960 - Mary Leakey and her team discover the first fossils of Homo habilis, an early human ancestor, at Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania. Homo habilis is thought to be one of the earliest species to make stone tools and lived between 1.4 and 2.3 million years ago.

[Jimbuna]

1918 - Thousands of revolutionary German sailors with the fleet at Kiel mutiny, seize the city, and set up councils of workers and sailors.

1941 - Hirohiti's accord on Yamamoto's attack plan on Pearl Harbor fails.

[Jimbuna]

1862 - Dr Richard Gatling patents Gatling machine gun (Indianapolis).

1921 - The Sturmabteilung or SA (the "Brown Shirts") is formally formed by Adolf Hitler.

1922 - Howard Carter discovers tomb of Tutankhamen in Egypt.

2008 - Barack Obama becomes the first African-American to be elected President of the United States.

[Jimbuna]

1917 - Gen Pershing & US troops see action on Western Front for 1st time.

1937 - Hitler informs his military leaders in a secret meeting of his intentions of going to war.

1943 - Vatican bombed.

[Catfish]

1941 - USS Reuben James torpedoed by Germans, even though US is not in war..

"Even though the US is not in war.."
What was the Reuben James doing there, at that time?

The US Navy had already received the "shoot-on-sight order" against the axis powers in 1940.
Evidentially, US ships had already depth-charged german U-boats. "US-american neutrality patrol" oh well.
Apart from expanding the US territorial waters to the mid-atlantic (30° west) just so, in early 1941.

The Reuben James tried to shield a british freighter, and ran into the torpedo. While the Reuben James was sinking, other destroyers threw depth charges among the swimming survivors, all in plain sight of Kaleun Erich Topp.

The "USS Reuben James torpedoed by Germans, even though US is not in war." without further comment is "a bit" one-sided :hmmm:.

[Jimbuna]

1850 - 1st Hawaiian fire engine.

1917 - [OS Oct 24] Bolshevik revolution begins with bombardmentt of the Winter Palace in Petrograd during the Russian October Revolution.

1918 - Republic of Poland proclaimed.

1925 - British secret agent Sidney Reilly ('Ace of Spies') is executed by the OGPU, the secret police of the Soviet Union.

1941 - Einsatz Gruppe kills 15,000 Jews of Rovno Ukraine.

1941 - Japanese fleet readies assault on Pearl Harbour.

1942 - Nazis kill 12,000 Jews in the Minsk ghetto.

1978 - Shah of Iran places Iran under military rule; general Gholan Reza Azhari forms government (I was in Iran a short while before).

[Aktungbby]

1632: Gustav II Adolf widely known as Gustavus Adolphus is killed in battle: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/aa/Battle_of_Lutzen.jpg/300px-Battle_of_Lutzen.jpg (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Battle_of_Lutzen.jpg) <(enlarges) He is often regarded as one of the greatest military commanders of all time, with innovative use of combined arms (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Combined_arms). His innovative tactical integration of infantry, cavalry, logistics and particularly his use of artillery, earned him the title of the "Father of Modern Warfare". Future commanders who studied and admired Gustav II Adolf include Napoleon, Von Clausewitz and Patton. His advancements in military science made Sweden the dominant Baltic power for the next century. He is also the only Swedish monarch to be styled "the Great (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_people_known_as_The_Great)". He is officially, to this day, called Gustaf Adolf the Great. With a superb military machine with good weapons, excellent training, and effective field artillery, backed by a government which could provide necessary funds, Gustavus Adolphus was poised to make himself a major European leader, but he was killed at Lützen (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_L%C3%BCtzen_(1632)). Gustavus Adolphus was killed at the when, at a crucial point in the battle, he became separated from his troops while leading a reconnaissance party into of mist and gunpowder smoke... and a squadron of murderous Imperial Croatian cavalry!! the body of Gustav II Adolf was plundered of its clothes and gold jewellery and left on the battlefiled dressed only in his shirt and long stockings...Some days it's not good to be king.:hmph: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/33/Gustav_II_Adolph_of_Sweden_bust_2007_St._Peter_MN_ crop.jpgHis statue at Gustavus Adophus College, St. Peter MN. I played sports there. They keep it simple in St Peter; there's no 'Great' on the plaque.:O: His famous horse, Streiff , also wounded and found riderless, is on display to this day> https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/a4/Streiff_-_Livrustkammaren_-_24363.tif/lossy-page1-220px-Streiff_-_Livrustkammaren_-_24363.tif.jpg (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Streiff_-_Livrustkammaren_-_24363.tif)<(enlarges)[wiki]FOOTNOTE: At this time, the Catholic Holy Roman Empire (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holy_Roman_Empire) used the Gregorian calendar (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gregorian_calendar), but Protestant Sweden (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sweden) still used the Julian calendar (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julian_calendar). Hence the Battle of Lützen occurred on 16 November for the Catholics but on 6 November for the Swedes. In Sweden, the death of Gustavus Adolphus has a long tradition of being commemorated on 6 November, Gustavus Adolphus Day (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gustavus_Adolphus_Day), despite the country's adoption of the Gregorian calendar in the 18th century. Since the Protestant Swedes won the battle, I elect to go with today's date:up:

[Jimbuna]

1872 - Cargo ship Mary Celeste sails from Staten Island for Genoa; mysteriously found abandoned 4 weeks later.

1916 - Grand duke Nikolai Nikolayevich warns Tsar of uprising.

1917 - October Revolution (Oct 25 OS) in Russia, Lenin and the Bolsheviks seize power, capture the Winter Palace, overthrowing Provisional Government.

[Jimbuna]

1519 - 1st meeting of Moctezuma II & Hernán Cortés in Tenochtitlan, Mexico.

1917 - People's Commissars gives authority to Lenin, Trotsky & Stalin during October Revolution.

1923 - Hitler stages unsuccessful "Beer Hall Putsch" in Muenchen (Munich).

1942 - Hitler proclaims fall of Stalingrad from Munich beer hall.

1944 - 25,000 Hungarian Jews are loaned to Nazis for forced labour.

1974 - British Lord ('Lucky') Lucan disappears.

[Aktungbby]

1793: Executed: Madame Roland, born Marie-Jeanne Phlippon, https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/3/34/Madame_Roland_IMG_2268.JPG/220px-Madame_Roland_IMG_2268.JPG (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Madame_Roland_IMG_2268.JPG) together with her husband, the Interior Minister, a supporter of the French Revolution and influential member of the Girondist (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Girondist) faction. She fell out of favor during the infamous Reign of terror and died on the:/\\chop ... Her last words enroute to the 'national razor': "Oh Liberty, what crimes are committed in thy name!" proof U can lose your head...but not your mind!:huh: [wiki] The moment is captured in Dickens Tale of Two Cities: " Arriving at the foot of the scaffold, she asked for pen and paper, “to write the strange thoughts that were rising in her”: a remarkable request; which was refused. Looking at the Statue of Liberty which stands there [the large terra-cotta statue set up in the Place de la Révolution where the statue of Louis XV had been torn down], she says bitterly: “O Liberty, what things are done in thy name!” For Lamarche’s sake [a man sent to the guillotine at the same time], she will die first; show him how easy it is to die: “Contrary to the order,” said Samson [the executioner]. – “Pshaw, you cannot refuse the last request of a Lady”; and Samson yielded...1793: The world's most visited museum is open to the public. During the French Revolution the Louvre was transformed into a public museum and the royal collections declared national property The public was given free access on three days per week, which was "perceived as a major accomplishment and was generally appreciated" https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/66/Louvre_Museum_Wikimedia_Commons.jpg/800px-Louvre_Museum_Wikimedia_Commons.jpg (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Louvre_Museum_Wikimedia_Commons.jpg)

[Jimbuna]

1914 - Off Cocos Island, near Sumatra, the Australian cruiser 'Sydney' sinks German cruiser 'Emden', which has been attacking ships in the Pacific.

1923 - Beer Hall Putsc; Nazis fail to overthrow government, 16 die, Hitler flees.

1925 - German NSDAP (Nazi party) forms Schutzstaffel (SS).

1989 - East Berlin opens its borders.

[Jimbuna]

1911 - Chinese Imperial army recaptures Nanking (blood bath).

1918 - German Emperor Wilhelm II flees to Netherlands.

1918 - Western Union Cable Office in North Sydney, Nova Scotia receives a top-secret coded message from Europe stating on November 11, 1918 all fighting would cease on land, sea and in the air.

1944 - Ammunition ship USS Mount Hood (AE-11) exploded at Seeadler Harbour, Manus, Admiralty Islands.

1989 - Germans begin demolishing the Berlin Wall.

[Aktungbby]

1944 - Ammunition ship USS Mount Hood (AE-11) exploded at Seeadler Harbour, Manus, Admiralty Islands.
08:55am , 1944: the USS Mount Hood, the lead ship of her class of Ammunition Ships, exploded at this location while discharging ammunition. The Mount Hood (http://pwencycl.kgbudge.com/M/o/Mount_Hood_class.htm) was an ammunition ship assigned to the US Pacific Fleet. On 11 November 1944, the vessel was loading depth charges in Seeadler Harbor (http://pwencycl.kgbudge.com/S/e/Seeadler_Harbor.htm), Admiralty Islands (http://pwencycl.kgbudge.com/A/d/Admiralty_Islands.htm), when something went terribly wrong. Witnesses reported seeing an explosion similar to that of a single bomb, followed moments later by the explosion of the entire ammunition load of the ship, some 3800 tons of ordnance. This release of explosive (http://pwencycl.kgbudge.com/E/x/Explosives.htm) energy, equivalent a tactical nuclear weapon (http://pwencycl.kgbudge.com/N/u/Nuclear_Bombs.htm), produced one of the most spectacular conventional explosions ever witnessed.http://photos.wikimapia.org/p/00/00/48/08/23_1280.jpg

The Mount Hood was little over 4 months old at the time of the accident, and had just completed her maiden voyage from North Carolina with a hold full of shells and explosives bound for the upcoming Phillipine Invasion. The detonation involved the ship's full load of 3,800 tons of explosives, carved a trench 1000 feet long, 200 feet wide, and 30 to 40 feet deep in the ocean floor and left no trace of the Mount Hood larger than a 16x10ft piece of hull plating. The entire 267-man crew of the Mount Hood (save 18 who had gone ashore moments before the explosion) were never seen again.http://photos.wikimapia.org/p/00/00/48/08/25_1280.jpg

Following the explosion, Seeadler Harbor was bedlam. Nine medium landing craft and a pontoon barge which were moored alongside Mount Hood were also obliterated by the explosion, along with their crews. The repair ship USS Mindanao (ARG-3), moored broadside to the Mount Hood 300 yards away, was decimated by shrapnel from the explosion with 180 of her crew killed or wounded by the blast.http://photos.wikimapia.org/p/00/00/48/08/32_1280.jpg 17 other ships of the US Navy were damaged by either the shock wave or the shrapnel from the blast, or both, and 22 small craft were put out of action or sunk from the damage they received.

Lacking survivor testimony and any major pieces of evidence that would point to a cause for the explosion, a US Naval Review Board was unable to ascertain why the Mount Hood and her crew suffered such a catastrophic end.[wiki] Not quite: "Statement of Carl Hughes of Akron Ohio, dated 10-23-97...
[I was on the fantail of the liberty ship William McGuffey] "where we had a full view of the starboard side of the USS Mount Hood, from bow to stern. ...we saw a puff of smoke originating from the Hood's midship. the smoke was immediately followed by an explosion which sent smoke and flames out of the stack one hundred plus feet in the air. In a matter of seconds another explosion occurred. The latter explosion was very intense and took out in entirety the Mt. Hood. This second explosion caused the Mt. Hood to disappear among smoke and flying debris which had projected nearly seven thousand feet into the air. After the air had cleared somewhat and visibility returned, pieces of the Hood along with its crew were found on the deck of the McGuffey."
"Before the first puff of smoke was seen coming from the Hood's stack, I saw a two man submarine break the water's surface. First I saw the submarine's periscope rise from the water...I saw the conning tower of the...submarine rise from the water four to five feet in the air. From the submarine's view, it could see the whole port and had an especially keen view of the Mt. Hood's midship. It was at this time that the submarine fired a torpedo into the Mt. Hood's midship. Immediately after the Hood took the torpedo hit the first puff of smoke was released from the smoke stack. Next I observed the ...submarine come to a 45 degree angle to the McGuffey. The submarine then fired another torpedo, causing a second wake, this time in the direction of the McGuffey. The torpedo passed the McGuffey at seventy to eighty feet from the port side, coming to rest on a sandbar. The torpedo did not explode."
:hmmm: Footnote; Japanese records have since reflected: no midget subs were in the vicinity...a photo of the torpedo on the sandbar would have been useful. "For some unknown reason, Mt. Hood had been anchored in the midst of the ships of the Seventh Fleet Service Force. Casualties to other vessels would have been minimized if the ammunition ship had been spotted at an isolated location a few miles down harbor, off the ammunition supply depot at Lugos, the customary anchorage for ships of this type. Somebody was at fault for designating an anchorage for Mount Hood so near to the other ships.":hmmm: On November 10, 1944 I was checking 500 lb. bombs for leakage from the nose fuze area, since these were stored at the seashore and likely to leak or become unstable in the high tropical temperatures. A large ship was anchored in the harbor in front of where I was working on the beach. As I was on the beach doing my tasks I distinctly recall hearing a loud engine noise coming from the direction of the bay area. This caught my attention and I looked up and saw the silhouette of a twin engine Japanese "Betty" aircraft flying very low, just over the water, and heading directly for the freighter anchored in the bay. The sky was clear and nothing obstructed my view. I recall the day being bright with sunshine, as were most days on the island. As the plane got closer to the freighter, I clearly observed the Japanese symbol - the Rising Sun , painted on the plane. The Japanese Betty flew directly over the freighter and dropped two bombs - each a direct hit on the deck of the freighter. The Japanese airplane quickly departed and no return airfire or pursuit was followed by the navy. The ship instantly exploded into fireworks like the fourth of July. The Japanese plane disappeared and was totally obscured by the smoke and debris from the freighter.
I later learned that the freighter was the Mount Hood. Edward L. Ponichtera There are persistent claims that either a lone aircraft or submarine was responsible for the disaster. This is more than just a point of honor: The families of Navy men killed in action are entitled to certain benefits denied the families of men who are merely killed in the line of duty. http://ussrainier.com/mthood.html (http://ussrainier.com/mthood.html) The harbormaster was court martialed and sailors were forbidden to write letters home about the matter to prevent a 'propaganda victory' for the Japanese...:hmmm: Good 'sweep under the carpet' IMHO.

[Jimbuna]

1918 - Armistice signed by the Allies and Germany comes into effect, WW I hostilities end at 11.00 am.

1940 - Thousands of Paris students lay a wreath at the Grave of the Unknown Soldier.

1940 - British Fleet Air Arm attack destroys half of Italian fleet at Taranto.

1940 - Willys unveiled its General Purpose vehicle ("Jeep").

[Aktungbby]

1990: Stormie Dawn Jones (May 30, 1977 – November 11, 1990) was the world's first recipient of a successful simultaneous heart and liver organ; passed away at Pittsburg PA. age 13.http://image2.findagrave.com/photos/2007/311/6916650_119454394929.jpg Stormie had a condition which raised her blood cholesterol (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cholesterol) to 10 times normal levels. The condition, which had caused two heart attacks by age six. At the time of the unprecedented operation, she had already undergone double-bypass surgery, making her heart too weak to withstand a liver transplant. The significance of this was the much needed proof for the research hypothesis that the liver controls the cholesterol found in the human body and that the diseases that are a result of high cholesterol could be controlled. Her Dr.'s, Brown and Goldstein, won the Nobel Peace prize for medicine for their research with Stormie. Stormie was the "trial" subject for many of the current drugs taken by patients with high cholesterol and by transplant patients for the prevention of rejections. Her life and death were tracked around the world for the great medical significance and her enduring winning attitude. She lived a 'normal life for six years: "she was working on an autobiography tentatively titled "In the Darkness."
She said it was "about my life, my family, all the pet animals I've had" and about her lifelong fascination with frightening books, movies and television programs...:salute: I know and have met several folks with one or the other transplants and take my Cholesterol med...thankfully and realize: Don't sweat 'no shoes' when ya still got both feet!"

[Jimbuna]

1944 - RAF sinks German battleship "Tirpitz" at Tromso Fjord, Norway.

[Jimbuna]

1841 - James Braid first sees a demonstration of animal magnetism, which leads to his study of the subject he eventually calls hypnosis.

1851 - Telegraph connection between London-Paris linked.

1907 - French cyclist Paul Cornu flies 1st helicopter (twin rotor).

1918 - Russia cancels Treaty of Brest-Litovsk.

[Oberon]

50 years ago today marked the first major battle between American and North Vietnamese land forces at Ia Drang.

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/76/Bruce_Crandall%27s_UH-1D.jpg

[STEED]

14th Nov 1940

Coventry Blitz

14th Nov 2015

75th anniversary of Coventry blitz


The Germans used one of there secret weapons that made this raid a success for them, the beams guided their bombers right to the target.

[Jimbuna]

1916 - William George Barker, flying very low over the Ancre River, spots a large concentration of German troops massing for a counter-attack on Beaumont Hamel, and sends an emergency Zone Call brought to bear all available artillery fire in the area onto the specified target. The force of some 4,000 German infantry was effectively broken up, and Barker is awarded the Military Cross.

1939 - Nazis begin mass murder of Warsaw Jews.

1995 - Space shuttle Atlantis docks with orbiting Russian space station Mir.

[Jimbuna]

1939 - Al Capone freed from Alcatraz jail.

1939 - German U-boat torpedoes tanker Sliedrecht near Ireland.

1940 - World War II: In response to Germany's leveling of Coventry, England two days before, the Royal Air Force bombs Hamburg.

1945 - UNESCO is founded.

[Jimbuna]

1918 - Belgian troops re-enter Brussels, lost to the German invaders on 20 August 1914.

1939 - Neth KNSM passenger ship Simon Bolivar hits German mine, 86 die.

1941 - British troops open attack on Tobruk, North Africa.

1943 - 444 British bombers attack Berlin.

1943 - U-211 sinks in Atlantic Ocean.

[Jimbuna]

1863 - US President Lincoln delivers his Gettysburg address beginning; "Four score & seven years ago..."

1940 - Belgian King Leopold III visits Adolf Hitler.

1940 - First major German air raid on Birmingham - about 440 bombers kill 450.

1943 - U-536 sinks in Atlantic Ocean.

[Jimbuna]

1815 - 2nd Peace of Paris: France & allies after 2nd defeat and abdication of Napoleon Bonaparte.

1815 - Russia, Prussia, Austria & England signs Alliance "for the maintenance of peace in Europe" same day as Treaty of Paris.

1917 - First successful tank use in battle (Britain breaks through German lines) at Battle of Cambrai WWI.

1941 - Adm Nomura & Kurusu hands over Japanese last diplomatic note.

1941 - German "auxiliary cruiser" (armed merchant raider) Kormoran sinks near Australia.

1943 - U-538 sinks in Atlantic Ocean.

1945 - 24 Nazi leaders put on trial at Nuremberg, Germany.

[Jimbuna]

1791 - Colonel Napoléon Bonaparte is promoted to full general and appointed Commander-in-Chief of the Armies of the French Republic.

1916 - HMHS Britannic sinks in the Aegean Sea after a mine explodes, killing 30 people.

1918 - 2 German ammunition trains explode in Hamont Belgium, 1,750 die.

1918 - The German High Seas Fleet of 5 battlecruisers, 9 battleships, 7 cruisers and 49 destroyers surrendered to the British Grand Fleet and were shepherded into the Firth of Forth.

[Jimbuna]

1906 - International Radio Telecommunications Com adopts "SOS" as new call for help.

1941 - British cruiser Devonshire sinks German auxiliary cruiser Atlantis.

1963 - American President John F. Kennedy assassinated by Lee Harvey Oswald in Dallas, Texas.

[Jimbuna]

1942 - Col-gen Von Paul asks Hitler to surrender.

1942 - German 4th & 6th Army surrounded at Stalingrad.

1942 - Japans bombing of Port Darwin, Australia.

1943 - British Forces Broadcasting Service begins operation.

[Jimbuna]

1914 - Benito Mussolini leaves Italy's socialist party.

1922 - Italian parliament gives Benito Mussolini dictatorial powers "for 1 year".

1941 - "Life Certificates" issued to some Jews of Vilna, the rest are exterminated.

1944 - US bombers based on Saipan begin 1st attack on Tokyo.

2012 - Gangnam Style becomes the most viewed youtube video surpassing 808 million views.

[Catfish]

2012 - Gangnam Style becomes the most viewed youtube video surpassing 808 million views.

:dead:

[Aktungbby]

^MY wake up call: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9bZkp7q19f0 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9bZkp7q19f0):DWARNING: Excedrine required

[Jimbuna]

1783 - Britain evacuates New York city, its last military position in United States.

1867 - Alfred Nobel patents dynamite.

1943 - U-600 sinks in Atlantic Ocean.

[Aktungbby]

1943 - U-600 sinks in Atlantic Ocean.

The newly-promoted KrvKpt. Zurmühlen was lost with the entire crew of 54 when U-600 (http://uboat.net/boats/u600.htm), participating in Wolfpack Weddigen, was sunk on 25 Nov 1943 in the North Atlantic north of Ponta Delgada by depth charges from the British frigates HMS Bazely (http://uboat.net/allies/warships/ship/5643.html) and HMS Blackwood (http://uboat.net/allies/warships/ship/5483.html). "Wolf-pack Weddigen was formed in November 1943 off the coast of Portugal (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portugal), to intercept convoys sailing to and from Gibraltar. It was composed of U-boats from the disbanded patrol group Schill (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wolfpack_Schill), with reinforcements from the North Atlantic and from bases in occupied France.
Weddigen originally numbered seventeen U-boats, though two had been destroyed in recent actions, and two others had to withdraw with damage. On 22 November the thirteen U-boats remaining formed a patrol line west of Portugal to await warning of an Allied convoy.
On 23 November one of the Weddigen boats, U-648 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_submarine_U-648), fell in with the frigate HMS Blackwood (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Blackwood_(K313)), of 4th Escort Group accompanying KMS 30 and was destroyed. On 25 November U-600 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_submarine_U-600) also fell in with KMS 30, and was attacked by Blackwood and Bazely (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Bazely_(K311)), and was destroyed by them. On 27 November the Weddigen boats intercepted (combined) convoy SL 140/MKS 31 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Convoy_SL_140/MKS_31), and attacked it over the next five days, though without success. On 27 November the convoys were found again by aircraft, which brought in U-262 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_submarine_U-262). She commenced shadowing until other Weddigen boats could be homed-in. Also during the 27th the convoy was joined by 4 EG, a Support Group of five frigates led by HMS Bentinck (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Bentinck_(K314)) (Cdr EH Chavasse). By evening the U-boats had gathered and started their assault. Franke (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heinz_Franke), in U-262 was able to penetrate the escort screen into the convoy itself, he attacked the ships there from close range. However his boldness was not rewarded by any success; he fired and claimed hits on three ships, but no hits were confirmed. The three other boats that penetrated the screen, U-764 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_submarine_U-764), U-107 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_submarine_U-107_(1940)), and U-238 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_submarine_U-238), also failed to make any hits. During the night the convoy was again reinforced by the arrival of 2 EG (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2nd_Support_Group_(Royal_Navy)), a Support Group led by Captain F.J. "Johnnie" Walker (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frederic_John_Walker), Britain's most successful killer of U-boats, in HMS Starling (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Starling_(U66)). This brought the total number of escorts for the convoy to seventeen warships. Escorts now outnumbered Uboats!!!:timeout: BdU ordered a halt to the attack.:salute: On 29 November U-86 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_submarine_U-86_(1941)) was destroyed by aircraft from the carrier USS Bogue (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Bogue_(CVE-9)), while on 28th U-238 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_submarine_U-238) and U-764 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_submarine_U-764) had been attacked and damaged, also by aircraft from Bogue.
On 7 December Weddigen was disbanded, a number of U-boats returning to base, while others formed a cadre of a new patrol group, code-named Borkum (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wolf_pack_Borkum)." [wiki] Bottom line, Out of 17 boats: four U-boats lost and four damaged over 10 days for no comparable los$$ to the enemy. Franke at least was awarded the Knight's Cross 'for his tenacity'....:timeout: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Convoy_SL_140/MKS_31 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Convoy_SL_140/MKS_31)

[Jimbuna]

1914 - Battleship HMS Bulwark explodes at Sheerness Harbour, England, 788 die.

1916 - Addressing the Chamber of Commerce in Cincinnati, US President Wilson declares that 'The business of neutrality is over. The nature of modern war leaves no state untouched'.

1922 - English archaeologist Howard Carter opens Tutankhamun's virtually intact tomb in Egypt.

1941 - Japanese naval carrier force left its base & moves east toward Pearl Harbour.

1944 - Himmler orders destruction of Auschwitz & Birkenau crematoria.

1962 - Fab Four have their first recording session under name The Beatles.

[Jimbuna]

1895 - Alfred Nobel's will establishes the Nobel Prize.

1942 - French navy at Toulon scuttles ships & subs so Nazis cannot seize them.

1943 - Conference of Teheran (Churchill-Roosevelt-Stalin).

[Jimbuna]

1916 - 1st German air attack on London.

1918 - Kaiser Wilhelm II of Prussia & Germany abdicates.

1974 - John Lennon's last concert appearance (Elton John concert in Madison Square Garden NYC).

1990 - Margaret Thatcher resigns as Britain's PM, replaced by John Major.

[Jimbuna]

1917 - A Supreme Allied War Council meets at Versailles to define war aims.

1941 - Passenger ship Lurline sends radio signal of sighting Japanese war fleet.

1943 - U-86 sinks in Atlantic Ocean.

[Jimbuna]

1782 - Britain signs agreement recognizing US independence.

1922 - 1st speed test of 1st genuine Japanese aircraft carrier Hosho.

1939 - 21 U boats sunk this month (52,000 ton).

1940 - 32 U boats sunk this month (147,000 ton).

1942 - 109 U boats sunk this month (729,000 ton).

1944 - Biggest & last British battleship HMS Vanguard launched.

[Aktungbby]

1803: Spain cedes its holding, the Louisiana territory, formally to France; Napoleon Bonaparte had gained Louisiana for French ownership from Spain in 1800 under the Third Treaty of San Ildefonso (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Third_Treaty_of_San_Ildefonso), but the treaty was kept secret. Louisiana remained nominally under Spanish control, until a transfer of power to France (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_First_Republic) on November 30, 1803, just three weeks before the formal cession to the United States on December 20, 1803. The Louisiana Purchase Treaty was signed on 30 April by Robert Livingston (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_R._Livingston_(chancellor)), James Monroe (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Monroe), and Barbé Marbois (https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Barb%C3%A9_Marbois&action=edit&redlink=1) in Paris (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paris,_France). President Jefferson (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Jefferson) announced the treaty to the American people on July 4. After the signing of the Louisiana Purchase agreement in 1803, Livingston made this famous statement, "We have lived long, but this is the noblest work of our whole lives...From this day the United States take their place among the powers of the first rank." Good not to have 'cloud' on that land-title!:know: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/57/Louisiana_Purchase.png/250px-Louisiana_Purchase.png (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Louisiana_Purchase.png)Before the purchase was finalized, the decision faced Federalist Party (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federalist_Party) opposition; they argued that it was unconstitutional to acquire any territory. Jefferson agreed that the U.S. Constitution (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S._Constitution) did not contain explicit provisions for acquiring territory, but he did have full treaty power and that was enough. A fabulous start: Subsequent acquisitions would round out the anthem's stanza "from sea to shining sea"....https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/29/UnitedStatesExpansion.png/400px-UnitedStatesExpansion.png (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:UnitedStatesExpansion.png):up:[wiki]

[Jimbuna]

1939 - SS-Fuhrer Himmler begins deportation of Polish Jews.

1941 - British cruiser Devonshire sinks German sub Python.

1941 - Japanese emperor Hirohito signs declaration of war.

1943 - FDR, Churchill & Stalin agree to Operation Overlord (D-Day).

[Aktungbby]

1941 - British cruiser Devonshire sinks German sub Python.



Actually: On 1 December, Devonshire's sistership Dorsetshire intercepted the German supply ship Python, based on Ultra (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ultra) intelligence. The German ship was refuelling a pair of U-boats—U-A (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_submarine_U-A) and U-68 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_submarine_U-68_(1940))—in the South Atlantic. The U-boats dived while Python tried to flee. U-A fired five torpedoes at Dorsetshire but all missed her due to her evasive manoeuvres. Dorsetshire fired a salvo to stop Python and the latter's crew abandoned the ship, after detonating scuttling charges. Dorsetshire left the Germans in their boats, since the U-boats still presented too much of a threat for the British to pick up the Germans. Early on the morning of 22 November 1941, Atlantis had been intercepted by HMS Devonshire and sunk in a previous action related to the Dorsetshire/Python incident. The Atlantis survivors were aboard the Python when that vessel was also sunk. ALL these "D-shire" named auxillary ships can get a little confusing. http://www.ahoy.tk-jk.net/MaraudersWW2/2Atlantis.html (http://www.ahoy.tk-jk.net/MaraudersWW2/2Atlantis.html) A must read for any WWII buff regarding a top-secret document captured by the German raider Atlantis regarding the fall of Singapore. Yipes! Atlantis, besides bagging 22 allied ships, had already done some of most serious damage of the war (by the astute Atlantis commander, Bernard Rogge, who understood English and found a green envelope aboard one of his victims)..."Highly Confidential .... To be Destroyed" its envelope marked to:"The Commander-in-Chief Far East.... To be Opened Personally." This highly sensitive, fascinating, and important document was drawn up by the Planning Division of the War Cabinet. It carried details of RAF units, details of Naval strength, an assessment of the role of Australia and New Zealand. A long appreciation regarding the possibility of Japan entering the war, and copious notes on the fortifications at Singapore. One of this document's most worrying aspects was about the inability of Britain to muster a Fleet to defend Singapore, as the Navy was at full stretch in its struggle with Germany and Italy. It stated that even if Japan attacked Indo China and Siam Britain would not intervene, and that Hong Kong would be abandoned. In short, this document stated that Singapore and Malaya could not survive a concentrated attack by Japan. Vice Admiral Wenneker, the German Naval Attache in Japan read the document, and made this assessment of it: "Churchill's Cabinet had decided that the British were unable to send a Fleet to the Far East and must avoid "Open Clash" with Japan, until Military cooperation with US was agreed. The British would not go to war even if Japan attacked Thailand or Indo China. Instead efforts would be made to buy off Japan with concessions including abandoning Singapore and making a deal over Malaya."
The original documents were now despatched off to Berlin at the rush. On its arrival there a copy was given to Hitler, who closely studied it, and then sent it off to the Japanese Naval Attache resident in Berlin, Captain Yokoi.
Thus on the 12th. of December 1940, Yokoi sent a message to his Naval Staff in Tokyo: "I have received from the German Navy, memorandum of the British War Cabinet held on the 15th. of August this year, dealing with operations against Japan. It outlines the main points of the British War Cabinet held on the 15th. of August this year dealing with operations against Japan. It outlines the main points of the British Cabinet decisions that day that Britain was not in a position to resort to war if Japan attacked French Indo China or Siam. That Hong Kong would be abandoned because the existing situation would not allow Britain to send a Fleet to the Far East."
The original copy was handed to Vice Admiral Kondo in Japan, he was at first sceptical of the findings, believing it was a ploy of the British to lull Japan into a false sense of security. But, when learning how the document was captured, he decided to accept the findings as legitimate.
Japan thus had a year's warning before the outbreak of war, that Britain could not defend her Colony at Singapore. Of some interest is what the document was doing aboard a freighter; and that Churchill knew it was in German hands..:hmmm:

[Jimbuna]

1941 - US Naval Intelligence ceases bugging Japanese consul.

1941 - Japanese Admiral Yamamoto sends his fleet to Pearl Harbor.

1943 - First RSHA (Reichssicherheitshauptamt -Nazi Reich Security Head Office) transport out of Vienna reaches Birkenau camp.

1964 - Ringo Starr's tonsils are removed.

[Aktungbby]

11 Frimaire, Year XIII (1804) Napoleon Bonaparte crowns himself emperor; He didn't want to be king' as he did not wish to be 'descended' from any one'! At the moment of the crowning when the Pope said, "Receive the imperial crown...", Napoleon unexpectedly turned and, forestalling the Pope, removed his laurel wreath and crowned himself and then crowned the kneeling Joséphine (wife#1) with a small crown surmounted by a cross, which he had first placed on his own head. https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/2d/David_-_L%27Empereur_Napoleon_se_couronnant_lui-meme.pngHis coronation oath:"I swear to maintain the integrity of the territory of the Republic, to respect and enforce respect for the Concordat (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Concordat_of_1801) and freedom of religion, equality of rights, political and civil liberty, the irrevocability of the sale of national lands; not to raise any tax except in virtue of the law; to maintain the institution of Legion of Honor (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legion_of_Honor) and to govern in the sole interest, happiness and glory of the French people.":|\\...After the coronation the Emperor presented the imperial standards to each of his regiments to each of his regiments...:hmmm:[wiki] The ensuing misery to Europe would finally end in 11 years at Waterloo.:dead:

[STEED]

December 3, 1988: Edwina Currie sparks outrage with ‘salmonella in most eggs’ claim
She put it down to a slip of the tongue, but the colourful junior health minister’s remarks led to a drastic fall in egg sales and eventually her resignation. :03:

[Jimbuna]

1917 - The Supreme Allied War Council, meeting at Versailles to define war aim, fails to reach an agreement.

1943 - Battle of Monte Cassino, Italy begins.

1944 - Hungarian death march of Jews ends.

1944 - Britain's Home Guard ('Dad's Army') is officially stood down at a special farewell parade in Hyde Park, London.

[Jimbuna]

1829 - Britain outlaws "suttee" in India (widow burning herself to death on her husband's funeral pyre).

1918 - US President Woodrow Wilson sails for Versailles Peace Conference in France, 1st President to travel outside US while in office.

1948 - SS Kiangya hits mine in Whangpoo River, China, sinks killing 2,750 die.

[Jimbuna]

1840 - Napoleon Bonaparte receives a French state funeral in Paris 19 years after his death.

1945 - "Lost Squadron" crashes east of Florida (Bermuda Triangle).

[Jimbuna]

1877 - First recording made of the human voice - Thomas Edison reciting "Mary had a little lamb".

1917 - French munition ship "Mont Blanc" explodes in Halifax, kills 1,700.

1941 - Dutch & British pilots see Japanese invasion fleet at Singapore.

1963 - Beatles begin a tradition of releasing a Christmas record for fans.

[Aktungbby]

1865: The Thirteenth Amendment (Amendment XIII) to the United States Constitution abolished slavery and involuntary servitude, except as punishment for a crime. In Congress, it was passed by the Senate on April 8, 1864, and by the House on January 31, 1865. The amendment was ratified by the required number of states on December 6, 1865. On December 18, 1865, the Secretary of State, Seward, proclaimed its adoption. It was the first of the three Reconstruction Amendments adopted following the American Civil War. "Lawdy Lawdy free at last, Free at last"...Of course, Union Commander-in-Chief, U.S. Grant must have been 'chagrined' as his: who were only freed after the 13th amendment in December of 1865. When asked why he didn't free his slaves earlier, Grant stated "Good help is so hard to come by these days.":timeout: ** footnote to history: He probably never actually said that! Grant had freed his only personal servant William James in 1859; the other slaves were owned by his father-in-law on the Dent family farm in Missouri; From 1854 to 1859 Grant managed his father-in-law's farm, White Haven (http://www.nps.gov/ulsg/learn/historyculture/slaveryatwh.htm), where a number of slaves lived and worked. Those slaves belonged to Grant's father-in-law, so Grant himself had no legal authority to set them free. (Some of the slaves at White Haven eventually drifted off during the Civil War; any that remained were freed when Missouri's constitutional convention abolished slavery in January 1865.)

[Jimbuna]

1783 - William Pitt the Younger (24) becomes the youngest ever British Prime Minister.

1941 - Imperial Japanese Navy with 353 planes attack US fleet at Pearl Harbour Naval Base, Hawaii, killing 2403 people.

2009 - The memory of my fathers passing.

[Eichhörnchen]

First UFO sighting in UK?

https://sjhstrangetales.wordpress.com/2013/11/19/mr-cracker-sees-a-ufo/

[Aktungbby]

1865: Finnish composer Jean Sibelius was born in Hämeenlinna.

[Jimbuna]

1914 - Battle of the Falkland Island: British Royal Navy destroys a German battle squadron.

1941 - US & Britain declare war on Japan, US enters WW II.

1941 - President Roosevelt delivers "Day of Infamy" speech to US Congress a day after the bombing of Pearl Harbour.

1941 - Chełmno extermination camp opens, 50 kilometres from Łódź, Poland.

1966 - US & USSR sign treaty to prohibit nuclear weapons in outer space.

[Jimbuna]

1941 - Hitler orders US ships are to be torpedoed.

1961 - SS-Obersturmbannführer (lieutenant colonel) Adolf Eichmann found guilty of war crimes in Israel.

2008 - The Governor of Illinois, Rod Blagojevich, is arrested by federal officials for a number of alleged crimes including attempting to sell the United States Senate seat being vacated by President-elect Barack Obama's election to the Presidency.

[Jimbuna]

1941 - British battleship Prince of Wales and battlecruiser Repulse (Force Z ) sunk following Japanese aerial attacks off Malaya. 840 men die.

[Jimbuna]

1931 - Statute of Westminster gives complete legislative independence to Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Ireland (Free State), and Newfoundland (which was not at that time part of Canada).

1941 - Germany & Italy declare war on USA.

1941 - Japanese attack Wake Island (only failed WW II-landing).

[Aktungbby]

http://www.badassoftheweek.com/images/692386618169/elrod.jpg"For single-handedly taking on two full-strength squadrons of Japanese aircraft, killing two enemy planes, blowing the hell out of a destroyer, and then bravely commanding a valiant stand against impossible odds, Captain Henry T. "Hammerin' Hank" Elrod was posthumously promoted to Major and he became the first Marine Corps aviator to receive the Medal of Honor. Today the main road leading to Marine Corps Officer Candidate School is named in his honor, as is a really awesome-looking guided missile frigate." WARNING: IGNORE FOUL MARINE LINGO:http://www.badassoftheweek.com/index.cgi?id=692386618169#sthash.sC9bs71W.dpuf (http://www.badassoftheweek.com/index.cgi?id=692386618169#sthash.sC9bs71W.dpuf) The view from the other side: Kisaragi was sailing away from the island when she was attacked and sunk by Grumman F4F Wildcat (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grumman_F4F_Wildcat) fighters of Marine Fighter Squadron VMF-211 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VMF-211) that had taken off earlier armed with 45-kilogram (100 lb) bombs. What happened next is unclear as sources disagree: older American accounts attribute her loss to a bomb dropped by 'Hammerin' Hank' Elrod that landed amongst her depth charges on Kisaragi‍ '​s stern, which detonated and sank the destroyer; a more recent account says that Elrod dropped a bomb that penetrated belowdecks and started a fire and that she blew up later just as another pilot was preparing to attack. Japanese accounts says that one bomb demolished the ship's bridge. She sank with the loss of all 157 crewmembers about 30 miles (48 km) southwest of Wake Island...[wiki]https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/45/Kisaragi_II.jpg/300px-Kisaragi_II.jpg (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Kisaragi_II.jpg)[Kisarogi] https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/a8/Wreckage_Wildcat_Wake_Island.jpg/250px-Wreckage_Wildcat_Wake_Island.jpg (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Wreckage_Wildcat_Wake_Island.jpg)and the Wildcat that sank it! Major Elrod was the first aviator to receive the Congressional Medal of Honorhttps://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/74/Moh_right.gif/90px-Moh_right.gif (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Moh_right.gif) And the (even rarer) Wake Island Clasp (to the Marine Expeditionary Medal)https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/0e/WakeIslandDevice.jpg (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:WakeIslandDevice.jpg)USS ELROD, Nicknamed: USS Helllrod' & 'Hammerin' Hank':https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/10/USS_Elrod_%28FFG-55%29_120421-A-OO955-138.jpg/300px-USS_Elrod_%28FFG-55%29_120421-A-OO955-138.jpg (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:USS_Elrod_(FFG-55)_120421-A-OO955-138.jpg)Currently decommissioned, 2015, for sale to another country.

[Jimbuna]

1915 - 1st all-metal aircraft (Junkers J-1) test flown at Dessau, Germany.

1941 - German occupying army do a house search in Paris looking for Jews.

1945 - Special Court of justice convicts Dutch Nazi leader Mussert to death.

1946 - UN accepts 6 Manhattan blocks as a gift from John D. Rockefeller Jr.

1953 - Chuck Yeager reaches Mach 2.43 in Bell X-1A rocket plane.

[Jimbuna]

1577 - Sir Francis Drake sets sail from England to go around world.

1939 - Battle of the River Plate - 3 British cruisers vs German pocket battleship Graf Spee.

1941 - U-81 torpedoes British aircraft carrier HMS Ark Royal.

[Jimbuna]

1542 - Princess Mary Stuart succeeds her father James V and becomes Queen Mary I of Scotland at 6 days old.

1911 - South Pole 1st reached, by Norwegian Roald Amundsen.

1941 - U-557 torpedoes British cruiser Galatea.

[Jimbuna]

1941 - German submarine U-127 sinks.

1941 - USS Swordfish becomes 1st US sub to sink a Japanese ship.

1944 - Bandleader, Major Glenn Miller, lost over English Channel.

1944 - Hizbu'allah (Arm forces for Allah) forms.

1944 - US Congress gives General Eisenhower his 5th star.

[Aktungbby]

1864: The two day battle of Nashville commences. Forces under the Command of George H Thomas,https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/df/George_Henry_Thomas_-_Brady-Handy.jpg/90px-George_Henry_Thomas_-_Brady-Handy.jpg 'The Rock of Chickamauga" utterly destroy the Army of Tennessee led by inept but enthusiastic John Bell Hood.https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/62/Lt._Gen._John_B._Hood.jpg/92px-Lt._Gen._John_B._Hood.jpg The Confederate Army is utterly destroyed as a fighting force. The actions of 4 Minnesota regiments at the critical action of Shy's Hill were particularly noteworthy. Their attack precipitated the collapse of the Confederate position causing the death of Col William Shy for whom the hill was named! His commander, Brig. Gen. Smith, surrendered, though his fate had an unfortunate end. As he was being led back to Nashville, he was struck multiple times on the head by a Federal officer wielding the butt end of a sword. The officer was thought to be Col. William McMillen, who commanded McArthur’s 1st Brigade. Smith was expected to die from the resulting skull fractures; he survived, but was institutionalized for the remainder of his life at an asylum in Nashville.:nope: (note: Col Mcmillen was not a Minnesotan https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_L._McMillen (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_L._McMillen) ) COL. SHY>
http://www.bonps.org/wpr/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/Col.-William-Shy.jpg (http://www.bonps.org/wpr/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/Col.-William-Shy.jpg)
http://www.bonps.org/wpr/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/Photo-2-Pyle-Battle-of-Nashville.jpg (http://www.bonps.org/wpr/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/Photo-2-Pyle-Battle-of-Nashville.jpg)On Shy’s Hill, flies the Minnesota state flag to recognize the fact that Minnesota's 5th 7th 9th & 10th infantry Regiments sustained more casualties at Nashville than at any other battle in which its men fought, and that they played pivotal roles during both days of the Battle of Nashville. With their line exposed to enfilading fire, they sustained significant casualties including four 5th Minnesota color bearers who were shot down in the charge. (Keeping pace with the 1st Minnesota suicide charge at Gettysburg IMHO) A wonder they called it the Civil War!http://www.bonps.org/wpr/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/Shys-Hill-Jan.-2012-051.jpg (http://www.bonps.org/wpr/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/Shys-Hill-Jan.-2012-051.jpg)

[Jimbuna]

1773 - Boston tea party incident - Sons of Liberty protesters throw tea shipments into Boston harbour in protest against British imposed Tea Act.

1914 - World War I: German battleships under Franz Von Hipper bombard the English ports of Hartlepool and Scarborough.

1944 - Ardennes campaign ('Battle of the Bulge') begins in Belgium.

[Jimbuna]

1939 - German pocket battleship Graf Spee scuttled by its crew off Uruguay.

1941 - German submarine U-31 sunk.

1943 - Transport 63 departs with French Jews to nazi-Germany.

1986 - Mrs Davina Thompson makes medical history by having the 1st heart, lung & liver transplant (Papworth Hospital in Cambridge, England).

[Jimbuna]

1941 - German submarine U-434 sinks.

1941 - Japanese troops land on Hong Kong.

[Jimbuna]

1932 - British Broadcasting Corp begins transmitting overseas.

1941 - German submarine U-574 sinks.

1941 - Hitler takes complete command of German Army.

1946 - War breaks out in Indochina as Ho Chi Minh attacks French in Hanoi.

1950 - Gen Eisenhower named NATO commander.

[Jimbuna]

1915 - Final withdraw of all allied troops from Anzac Cove.

1917 - Cheka formed - Soviet state security force and forerunner to the KGB, under Felix Dzerzhinsky after decree by Lenin.

1941 - World War II: First battle of the American Volunteer Group, better known as the "Flying Tigers" in Kunming, China.

1944 - Battle of Bastogne, Nazis surround 101st Airborne (NUTS!).

[Jimbuna]

1620 - 103 Mayflower pilgrims land at Plymouth Rock [OS=Dec 11].

1898 - Scientists Pierre and Marie Curie discover radium.

1988 - Lockerbie disaster: Pan Am Flight 103 destroyed mid air by a terrorist bomb killing all 258 on board over Scotland.

1991 - Soviet Union formally dissolves as 11 of 12 republics sign treaty forming Commonwealth of Independent States.

[Jimbuna]

1942 - World War II: Adolf Hitler signs the order to develop the V-2 rocket as a weapon.

1989 - After 23 years of dictatorial rule, Romania ousts Nicolae Ceausescu.

1990 - Lech Walesa sworn in as Poland's 1st popularly elected president.

[Jimbuna]

1783 - General George Washington resigns his military commission as Commander-in-Chief of the Army to Congress.

1941 - American forces on Wake Island surrender to Japanese.

1943 - Gen Bernard Montgomery told he is appointed commandant for D-day.

1963 - Fire on Greek ship Laconia, 128 die.

1970 - NY World Trade Center reaches highest point (411 m).

[Aktungbby]

1893:https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/e/e1/Engelbert_humperdinck_1854.jpg/170px-Engelbert_humperdinck_1854.jpg (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Engelbert_humperdinck_1854.jpg)Englebert Humperdinck's opera, Hänsel und Gretel is first performed in Weimar Germany! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zb9asu7hFKA (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zb9asu7hFKA) 1823:https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/f7/The_Author_of_%27A_Visit_from_St._Nicholas%27_-_Clement_C._Moore_crop.png/215px-The_Author_of_%27A_Visit_from_St._Nicholas%27_-_Clement_C._Moore_crop.png (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:The_Author_of_%27A_Visit_from_St._Nicholas%27 _-_Clement_C._Moore_crop.png) Clement C. Moore anonymously publishes "A Visit from St. Nicholas (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Visit_from_St._Nicholas)",now known as 'Twas the Night Before Christmas' arguably the best-known verses ever written by an American:huh:
A Visit from St. Nicholas
'Twas the night before Christmas, when all thro' the house
Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse;
The stockings were hung by the chimney with care,
In hopes that St. Nicholas soon would be there;
The children were nestled all snug in their beds,
While visions of sugar plums danc'd in their heads,
And Mama in her 'kerchief, and I in my cap,
Had just settled our brains for a long winter's nap —
When out on the lawn there arose such a clatter,
I sprang from the bed to see what was the matter.
Away to the window I flew like a flash,
Tore open the shutters, and threw up the sash.
The moon on the breast of the new fallen snow,
Gave the luster of mid-day to objects below;
When, what to my wondering eyes should appear,
But a miniature sleigh, and eight tiny reindeer,
With a little old driver, so lively and quick,
I knew in a moment it must be St. Nick.
More rapid than eagles his coursers they came,
And he whistled, and shouted, and call'd them by name:
"Now! Dasher, now! Dancer, now! Prancer and Vixen,
"On! Comet, on! Cupid, on! Donder and Blitzen;
"To the top of the porch! To the top of the wall!
"Now dash away! Dash away! Dash away all!"
As dry leaves that before the wild hurricane fly,
When they meet with an obstacle, mount to the sky;
So up to the house-top the coursers they flew,
With the sleigh full of toys — and St. Nicholas too:
And then in a twinkling, I heard on the roof
The prancing and pawing of each little hoof.
As I drew in my head, and was turning around,
Down the chimney St. Nicholas came with a bound:
He was dress'd all in fur, from his head to his foot,
And his clothes were all tarnish'd with ashes and soot;
A bundle of toys was flung on his back,
And he look'd like a peddler just opening his pack:
His eyes — how they twinkled! His dimples: how merry,
His cheeks were like roses, his nose like a cherry;
His droll little mouth was drawn up like a bow,
And the beard of his chin was as white as the snow;
The stump of a pipe he held tight in his teeth,
And the smoke it encircled his head like a wreath.
He had a broad face, and a little round belly
That shook when he laugh'd, like a bowl full of jelly:
He was chubby and plump, a right jolly old elf,
And I laugh'd when I saw him in spite of myself;
A wink of his eye and a twist of his head
Soon gave me to know I had nothing to dread.
He spoke not a word, but went straight to his work,
And fill'd all the stockings; then turn'd with a jerk,
And laying his finger aside of his nose
And giving a nod, up the chimney he rose.
He sprung to his sleigh, to his team gave a whistle,
And away they all flew, like the down of a thistle:
But I heard him exclaim, ere he drove out of sight —
Happy Christmas to all, and to all a good night.



[This being 'the season' and reviewing all miserable things on this date...this was the best stuff to post!]:rock:

[Jimbuna]

1941 - First ships of admiral Nagumo's Pearl Harbor fleet return to Japan.

1942 - First powered flight of V-1 'buzz bomb', Peenemunde, Germany.

1943 - FDR appoints Gen Eisenhower supreme commander of Allied forces.

1989 - Panama's dictator, Manual Noriega, seeks asylum at Vatican embassy.

[Jimbuna]

1 - 1st Christmas, according to calendar-maker Dionysus Exiguus.

1066 - Duke William of Normandy ('William the Conqueror) crowned king of England.

1868 - Despite bitter opposition, President A Johnson grants unconditional pardon to all persons involved in Southern rebellion (Civil War).

1914 - Legendary "Christmas Truce" takes place on the battlefields of WWI between British and German troops. Instead of fighting, soldiers exchange gifts and play football.

1939 - Montgomery Ward introduces Rudolph the 9th reindeer.

1991 - Mikhail Gorbachev formally resigns as President of USSR in a televised speech.

[Aktungbby]

1818: Silent Night was publicly performed for the first time in during the Midnight Mass at the Church of St Nikolaus in Oberndorf, Austria. 1931:New York's Metropolitan Opera broadcasts an entire live opera over radio for the first time: Hänsel und Gretel...by Engelbert Humperdinck. 1990: the World Wide Web is born in Geneva, Switzerland by English scientist Tim Berners-Lee (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tim_Berners-Lee) . http://i.huffpost.com/gen/717714/thumbs/o-WORLDS-FIRST-WEBSITE-570.jpg?4

[Jimbuna]

1914 - The US Government protests British interference with American merchant ships at sea, but this same day the German announce they will treat food as contraband, subject to seizure; this will weaken America's protest.

1941 - Winston Churchill becomes first British Prime Minister to address a joint meeting of the US Congress, warning that Axis would "stop at nothing."

1943 - British sink German battle cruiser Scharnhorst.

1943 - Count Claus von Stauffenberg tried in vain to plant a bomb in Hitler's headquarters.

[Jimbuna]

1979 - Soviet troops invade Afghanistan, Pres Hafizullah Amin overthrown.

1996 - Taliban forces retake the strategic Bagram air base which solidifies their buffer zone around Kabul.

[Jimbuna]

1915 - Today the British Cabinet recognizes the true nature of the war by deciding to institute compulsory military service, with single men to be conscripted before married ones.

1950 - Chinese troops cross 38th Parallel, into South Korea.

1968 - Israeli assault on Beirut Airport.

1972 - Kim Il-song, becomes president of North Korea.

1972 - Martin Bormanns skeleton found in Berlin (Hitlers deputy).

[Jimbuna]

1778 - British troops occupy Savannah, Georgia.

1812 - The USS Constitution under the command of Captain William Bainbridge, captures the HMS Java off the coast of Brazil after a three hour battle.

1845 - Texas admitted as 28th state of the Union.

1860 - The first British seagoing iron-clad warship, HMS Warrior is launched.

1939 - First flight of the Consolidated B-24 Liberator bomber prototype.

1940 - Germany begins dropping incendiary bombs on London (WW II).

1997 - Hong Kong begins slaughtering all its chickens to prevent bird flu.

[Jimbuna]

1915 - Cromarty Harbour, Scotland - British cruiser Natal explodes: 405 die.

1922 - Creation of the USSR formally proclaimed in Moscow from the Bolshoi Theatre.

1924 - Astronomer Edwin Hubble formally announces existence of other galactic systems at meeting of the American Astronomical Society.

[Jimbuna]

1939 - 25 U boats sunk this month (81,000 ton).

1940 - 37 U boats sunk this month (213,000 ton).

1942 - 60 U boats sunk this month (330,000 ton).

[Aktungbby]

45 BC: Mighty Caesar, astronomy and the gods!
New Year’s Day is celebrated on January 1 for the first time in history as the Julian calendar takes effect.
Soon after becoming Roman dictator, Julius Caesar decided that the traditional Roman calendar was in dire need of reform. Introduced around the seventh century B.C., the Roman calendar attempted to follow the lunar cycle but frequently fell out of phase with the seasons and had to be corrected. In addition, the pontifices, the Roman body charged with overseeing the calendar, often abused its authority by adding days to extend political terms or interfere with elections.
In designing his new calendar, Caesar enlisted the aid of Sosigenes, an Alexandrian astronomer, who advised him to do away with the lunar cycle entirely and follow the solar year, as did the Egyptians. The year was calculated to be 365 and 1/4 days, and Caesar added 67 days to 45 B.C., making 46 B.C. begin on January 1, rather than in March.(beware those 'Ides' BBY:dead:) He also decreed that every four years, a day be added to February, thus theoretically keeping his calendar from falling out of step. Shortly before his assassination in (March) 44 B.C., he changed the name of the month Quintilis to Julius (July) after himself.:up: Later, the month of Sextilis was renamed Augustus (August) after his successor.
Celebration of New Year’s Day in January fell out of practice during the Middle Ages, and even those who strictly adhered to the Julian calendar did not observe the New Year exactly on January 1. The reason for the latter was that Caesar and Sosigenes failed to calculate the correct value for the solar year as 365.242199 days, not 365.25 days.:doh: Thus, an 11-minute-a-year error added seven days by the year 1000, and 10 days by the mid-15th century.
The Roman church became aware of this problem, and in the 1570s Pope Gregory XIII commissioned Jesuit astronomer Christopher Clavius to come up with a new calendar. In 1582, the Gregorian calendar was implemented, omitting 10 days for that year and establishing the new rule that only one of every four centennial years should be a leap year. Since then, people around the world have gathered en masse on January 1 to celebrate the precise arrival of the New Year
And there it all is in a 'leaping' nutshell!
One way or another we still worship the Aten: sundisk at 12 o'clock for the horologists at :subsim:! http://demandware.edgesuite.net/aavp_prd/on/demandware.static/-/Sites-MovadoUS-Library/default/dwd39abad5/content-assets/promo%20squares/TheLegendaryMuseumDial.jpg

[Jimbuna]

1917 - T. E. Lawrence joins the forces of the Arabian sheik Feisal al Husayn, beginning his adventures that will lead him to Damascus by October, 1918.

1943 - Count Claus von Stauffenberg promoted to lt-colonel.

1950 - Ho Chi Minh begins offensive against French troops in Indo China.

[Jimbuna]

1941 - World War II: The U.S. government announces its Liberty ship program to build freighters in support of the war effort.

1942 - WWII: 28 nations at war with Axis powers, pledge no separate peace deals.

1944 - 1st use of helicopters during warfare (British Atlantic patrol).

[Jimbuna]

1496 - Leonardo da Vinci unsuccessfully tests a flying machine.

1777 - General George Washington's revolutionary army defeats British forces at Battle of Princeton, NJ.

1833 - Britain seizes control of Falkland Islands in South Atlantic.

1958 - Edmund Hillary reaches South Pole overland.

[Jimbuna]

1847 - Samuel Colt sells his first revolver pistol to the United States government.

1961 - Longest recorded strike ends-33 yrs-Danish barbers' assistants.

2010 - The Burj Khalifa in Dubai, the world's tallest building, is officially opened.

[Jimbuna]

1836 - Davy Crockett arrives in Texas, just in time for the Alamo.

1919 - National Socialist Party (Nazi) forms as German Farmers' Party.

1930 - Bonnie Parker meets Clyde Barrow for the first time at Clarence Clay's house.

1971 - Globetrotters lose 100-99 to NJ Reds, ending 2,495-game win streak.

1981 - British police arrest Peter Sutcliffe, a truck driver later convicted of "Yorkshire Ripper" murders of 13 women.

[Aktungbby]

1933: Construction commences on the Golden Gate Bridgehttps://mediacenter.smugmug.com/photos/i-V87hBCJ/0/XL/i-V87hBCJ-XL.jpg...rumored to be a favorite of the Blue Angels...and hiking Subsim members :D(Thanks Buddahaid) http://o.aolcdn.com/hss/storage/midas/353e0be49c31505408664e0733c1a588/200953300/DSC02392.jpg http://i225.photobucket.com/albums/dd52/sirwinpb/New%20Years%202016/DSCN3322.jpg (http://s225.photobucket.com/user/sirwinpb/media/New%20Years%202016/DSCN3322.jpg.html)http://photos.denverpost.com/2015/01/05/golden-gate-bridge-historic/ (http://photos.denverpost.com/2015/01/05/golden-gate-bridge-historic/)

[Jimbuna]

1939 - Daily newspaper comic strip "Superman" debuts.

1940 - Mass execution of Poles, committed by Germans in the city of Poznań, Warthegau.

1941 - President Franklin Roosevelt's "4 Freedoms" speech (freedom from speech, worship, want and fear) during US State of Union address.

1987 - Astronomers at University of California see 1st sight of birth of a galaxy.

[Jimbuna]

1916 - In response to pressure from President Wilson, Germany notifies the US State Department that it will abide by strict international rules of maritime warfare.

1944 - US Air Force announces production of 1st US jet fighter, the Bell P-59.

1945 - Lord Haw-Haw (William Joyce) reports total German victory in the Ardennes.

1953 - US President Harry Truman announces American development of the hydrogen bomb.

1999 - Impeachment trial of President Bill Clinton begins in the US Senate.

[Jimbuna]

794 - Vikings attacked Lindisfarne Island (Northumberland).

1835 - The United States national debt is 0 for the first and only time.

1940 - Britain's 1st WW II rationing (bacon, butter & sugar).

1974 - Loch Ness Monster "photographed"

[Jimbuna]

1799 - British Prime Minister William Pitt introduces income tax to raise funds for the war against Napoleon.

1941 - 6,000 Jews exterminated in pogrom in Bucharest, Romania.

1941 - Maiden flight by Canada's British-built Avro Lancaster military plane.

1942 - US Joint Chiefs of Staff created.

1969 - First trial flight of Concorde supersonic jetliner, Bristol, England

[Jimbuna]

1839 - Tea from India 1st arrives in UK.

1912 - World's 1st flying boat's maiden flight, (Glenn Curtiss in NY).

1946 - UN General Assembly meets for 1st time (London).

1947 - Greek steamer "Himara" strikes a wartime mine in Saronic Gulf south of Athens with loss of 392 of 637 aboard.

[Jimbuna]

1879 - Zulu war against British colonial rule in South Africa begins.

1944 - Crakow-Plaszow Concentration Camp established.

1964 - 1st government report warning by US Surgeon General Luther Terry reports that smoking may be hazardous.

[ivanov.ruslan]

1628 was born Charles Perrault

[Jimbuna]

1916 - Max Immelmann and Oswald Boelcke receive the Pour le Merite, the German Empire's highest military award, for achieving eight aerial victories each over Allied aircrafts.

1937 - Plow for laying submarine cable patented.

1945 - German forces in Belgium retreat in Battle of Bulge.

1967 - Dr. James Bedford becomes the first person to be cryonically preserved with intent of future resuscitation.

[Kaye T. Bai]

January 12, 1991 - The U.S. Congress authorizes the use of military force to drive out Iraqi forces from Kuwait. (http://www.thenation.com/article/january-12-1991-congress-votes-send-troops-expel-iraq-kuwait/)

[Jimbuna]

1559 - Elizabeth I crowned Queen of England in Westminster Abbey.

1842 - Dr. William Brydon, a surgeon in the British Army during the First Anglo-Afghan War, becomes famous for (reputedly) being the sole survivor of an army of 16,500 when he reaches the safety of a garrison in Jalalabad.

1915 - Winston Churchill, First Lord of the Admiralty, presents plan for assault on Dardanelles.

1942 - German U-boats begin harassing shipping on US east coast.

1942 - World War II: First use of aircraft ejection seat by a German test pilot in a Heinkel He 280 jet fighter.

1993 - French, British, and US fighter jets launch bombing raids in southern Iraq.

[Jimbuna]

1914 - Henry Ford introduces an assembly line for Model T.

1960 - US Army promoted Elvis Presley to Sergeant.

1966 - David Bowie releases his 1st record (Can't Help Thinking About Me).

[Jimbuna]

1940 - German U-Boot torpedoes Dutch merchant ship Arendskerk (Eagle's Church).

1943 - 1st transport of Jews from Amsterdam to concentration camp Vught.

1944 - European Advisory Commission decides to divide Germany.

1944 - General Eisenhower arrives in England.

1944 - Vught Concentration Camp puts 74 women in 1 cell, 10 die.

1945 - Red Army frees Crakow-Plaszow concentration camp.

1955 - USSR ends state of war with German Federal Republic.

[Jimbuna]

1918 - Austria and Germany are disrupted by strikes as people express impatience with leaders continuing the war.

1941 - US vice admiral Bellinger warns of an assault on Pearl Harbor.

1944 - Gen Eisenhower took command of Allied Invasion Force in London.

[Jimbuna]

1944 - British corvette HMS Violet sinks U-641 in Atlantic Ocean.

1945 - Auschwitz concentration camp begins evacuation.

[Kaye T. Bai]

2002 - The Sierra Leone Civil War ends.

[Jimbuna]

1788 - The first elements of the First Fleet carrying 736 convicts from England to Australia arrives at Botany Bay to set up a penal colony.

1943 - The first Warsaw Ghetto Uprising.

[Aktungbby]

1957: A trio of B-52 bombers completes the first non-stop around the world flight by jet aircraft landing at March Air Force Base CA after more than 45 hours in the aloft.Though Old called the flight "a routine training mission," the Air Force emphasized that the mission demonstrated its "capability to drop a hydrogen bomb anywhere in the world What a message to send out BBY!:up: And 59 years later we can still send the same message:O:https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/b5/Sac_hist_008_x.jpg/220px-Sac_hist_008_x.jpg (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Sac_hist_008_x.jpg)https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/33/B-52-castleafb-1957.jpg

[Kaye T. Bai]

1862 - American forces defeated the Confederates at the Battle of Mill Springs in Kentucky, giving the U.S. its first major victory and handing the Confederacy its first significant defeat in the American Civil War.

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/c/c6/Battle_of_Mill_Springs.png/640px-Battle_of_Mill_Springs.png
American forces chasing away the Confederates in the Battle of Mill Springs, January 19, 1862.

[Jimbuna]

1915 - 1st German Zeppelin attack over Great Britain, 4 die.

1939 - Ernest Hausen of Wisconsin sets chicken-plucking record-4.4 sec.

2012 - FBI shuts down Megaupload.com for alleged copyright infringement, hacker group Anonymous responds by attacking government and entertainment industry websites.

[Jimbuna]

1841 - China cedes Hong Kong to the British during the 1st Opium War.

1942 - Nazi officials hold notorious Wannsee conference in Berlin to organise the "final solution", the extermination of Europe's Jews.

1945 - Franklin D. Roosevelt sworn-in for an unprecedented (and never to be repeated) 4th term as US President.

[Kaye T. Bai]

1976 - The Concorde supersonic jetliner entered service. It would serve until 2003.

[Jimbuna]

1919 - Irish militant nationalist party Sinn Fein creates its own parliament in Dublin and declares Ireland independent of Great Britain, sparking the Irish War of Independence.

1943 - Admiral Sir Andrew Cunningham, Royal Navy, promoted to Admiral of the Fleet.

1944 - 447 German bombers attack London.

1944 - 649 British bombers attack Magdeburg.

2008 - Black Monday in worldwide stock markets. FTSE 100 had its biggest ever one-day points fall, European stocks closed with their worst result since 9/11, and Asian stocks drop as much as 15%.

[Aktungbby]

1793: Louis XVI :/\\chop by all accounts the bookish, amateur locksmith met his end bravely. Irony: he had proposed 'beveling' the blade on the new humane execution machine, the Guillotine...only to become one of the first and most celebrated of its victims!:o A smooth shave-they didn't call it the 'National Razor' fer nuthin:oops: http://a4.files.biography.com/image/upload/c_fit,cs_srgb,dpr_1.0,q_80,w_620/MTE5NTU2MzE1OTY2MDQ3NzU1.jpg

[Kaye T. Bai]

1954 - The first nuclear-powered submarine, the USS Nautilus, is launched.

[Jimbuna]

1879 - Battle of Rorke's Drift: British garrison of 150 holds off 3,000-4,000 Zulu warriors. Eleven Victoria Crosses and a number of other decorations were awarded to the defenders.

[Aktungbby]

1189: Philip Augustus (http://www.historynet.com/king-richard-i-of-england-versus-king-philip-ii-augustus.htm), Henry II of England and Frederick Barbarossa assemble the troops for the Third Crusade (http://www.historynet.com/third-crusade-siege-of-acre.htm). That 'crusader' mentality is still with us today!

[Jimbuna]

1924 - Ramsey MacDonald forms 1st Labour government in Britain.

1945 - World War II: Karl Dönitz launches Operation Hannibal.


1978 - Sweden becomes the first nation in the world to ban aerosol sprays, believed to be damaging to earth's ozone layer.

[Oberon]

1795 - French cavalry capture the Dutch Fleet moored in the Zuiderzee at Den Helder.

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/6c/Helder_Morel-Fatio.jpg

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capture_of_the_Dutch_fleet_at_Den_Helder

[Jimbuna]

1915 - German-British sea battle at Dogger Bank & Helgoland.

1943 - Hitler orders German troops at Stalingrad to fight to the death.

[Jimbuna]

1915 - Alexander Graham Bell in NY calls Thomas Watson in SF.

1916 - Montenegro surrenders to Austria-Hungary.

1918 - Russia declared a republic of Soviets.

1919 - Founding of League of Nations, 1st meeting 1 year later.

1939 - 1st nuclear fission experiment (splitting of a uranium atom) in the US, in basement of Pupin Hall, Columbia University by a team including Enrico Fermi.

1940 - Nazi decrees establishment of Jewish ghetto in Lodz Poland.

1949 - 1st Israeli election - Ben-Gurion's Mapai party wins.

1955 - Russia ends state of war with Germany.

[Jimbuna]

1788 - Captain Arthur Phillip and British colonists hoist the Union Flag at Sydney Cove, New South Wales, now celebrated as Australia Day.

1940 - Nazis forbid Polish Jews to travel on trains.

1942 - WW II Navy flier Don Mason sends message "Sighted sub sank same."

1945 - Soviet forces reach Auschwitz concentration camp.

1998 - President Bill Clinton says "I want to say one thing to the American people; I did not have sexual relations with that woman, Miss Lewinsky."

[Aktungbby]

1998 - President Bill Clinton says "I want to say one thing to the American people; I did not have sexual relations with that woman, Miss Lewinsky." The press made a fortune!:har:https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/5e/37/ce/5e37cef29b7605799bf7aa73cf383a3b.jpghttps://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/ba/60/43/ba6043bd8a6400b162ed0903231ba014.jpghttps://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/62/cc/b9/62ccb91b3f31e3e59bc4e456da301d04.jpg https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/96/c6/1b/96c61be14e1d2c2b8e6a377bb246b5f8.jpgAHHH the good ol' days! As my slightly demented rabid Republican mom said knowingly: "Well...they're Democrats U know":yeah: And the way things are goin' he's about to become the 'First man" in the White House if Hillary wins???!!!:k_confused:http://www.cartoonistgroup.com/properties/kelley/art_images/cg56a1bb0541c0d.jpg (http://www.cartoonistgroup.com/store/add.php?iid=138230)

[Eichhörnchen]

Auschwitz was liberated by Soviet troops.

[Jimbuna]

1944 Leningrad liberated from Germany in 880 days at the loss of 600,000 killed.

1945 Russia liberates Birkenau Concentration Camp in Poland.

1967 The Beatles sign a 9 year worldwide contract with EMI records.

1973 US & North Vietnam's William Rogers & Nguyen Duy Trinh sign cease-fire, ending longest US war and miltary draft.

1996 Germany celebrates its 1st Holocaust Remembrance Day.

[Aktungbby]

1951: On January 27, 1951, (42 days B 4 the biggest day of my life:O:) the government detonated its first (1 kiloton) atomic device on the Frenchman's Flat site, resulting in a tremendous explosion, the flash from which was seen as far away as San Francisco.
Forcefully marking the continued importance of the West in the development of nuclear weaponry, the government detonates the first of a series of nuclear bombs at its new Nevada test site.
Although much of the West had long lagged behind the rest of the nation in technological and industrial development, the massive World War II project to build the first atomic bomb single-handedly pushed the region into the 20th century. Code named the Manhattan Project, this ambitious research and development program pumped millions of dollars of federal funds into new western research centers like the bomb building lab at Los Alamos, New Mexico and the fissionable material production center at Hanford, Washington. Ironically, the very conditions that had once impeded western technological development became benefits: lots of wide-open unpopulated federal land where dangerous experiments could be conducted in secret.
After the war ended, the West continued to be the ideal region for Cold War-era nuclear experimentation for the same reasons. In December 1950, the Atomic Energy Commission designated a large swath of unpopulated desert land 65 miles northwest of Las Vegas as the Nevada Proving Ground for atmospheric atomic testing.
The government continued to conduct atmospheric tests for six more years at the Nevada site. They studied the effects on humans by stationing ground troops as close as 2,500 yards from ground zero and moving them even closer shortly after the detonation. By 1957, though, the effects of radioactivity on the soldiers and the surrounding population led the government to begin testing bombs underground, and by 1962, all atmospheric testing had ceased. WARNING: MAY GIVE U THE "WILLY'S" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9nvTd5mNRz0 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9nvTd5mNRz0)

[Jimbuna]

1807 London's Pall Mall is 1st street lit by gaslight.

1915 1st US ship lost in WW I, William P Frye (carrying wheat to UK).

1944 U-271 & U-571 sunk off Ireland.

[Oberon]

1986 - The Space Shuttle Challenger explodes shortly after launch killing all on board.

[Aktungbby]

1915: President Woodrow Wilson signs a bill merging the Lifesaving Service and the Revenue Cutter Service into The United States Coast Guard! The Amercan Barque SS William P. Frye http://www.wrecksite.eu/img/nav/wreck.gifhttp://www.wrecksite.eu/img/nav/wreck.gifhttp://www.wrecksite.eu/img/wrecks/thumbs/william_p_frye.jpg with a cargo of 186,950 bushels of wheat for England is the first US ship sunk during WWI by Auxillary Cruiser Prinz Eitel Fredrick. On January 27, it was intercepted in the South Atlantic Ocean off the Brazilian coast and ordered to jettison its cargo as contraband. When the American ship’s crew failed to fulfill these orders completely by the next day, the German captain, Max Thierichens, ordered the destruction of the ship. Oddly enough; On 11 March 1915 Prinz Eitel Friedrich, now low on supplies and burdened by over 300 prisoners, arrived at Newport News, Virginia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newport_News,_Virginia). Allied warships were lying outside US waters and to avoid them she exceeded the time limit under international law (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_law) for a combatant ship to remain in a neutral port.http://www.trbimg.com/img-553a9e25/turbine/dp-forty-thousand-tons-of-daring-german-sea-raiders-bring-wwi-to-hampton-roads-20150424/750/750x422 As a result the US authorities interned (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internment) her. Later she was moved, still under the German flag, to Philadelphia Navy Yard (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philadelphia_Navy_Yard) In April 1917, on US entry into the war, Prinz Eitel Friedrich, engines tired and interned, was seized by the US Navy and recondtioed for conversion as a troopship. She was commissioned on 7 April 1917. as USS DeKalb (ID-3010) (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_DeKalb_(ID-3010)) and served for the remainder of the war as a troopship on the trans Atlantic route.[wiki] https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/fc/USS_DeKalb_%28ID_-_3010%29%2C_cira_1918.jpgUSS DeKalb ...looking dazzling indeed! c.1918 Footnote to History:
The United States was still 3,000 miles and two years away from the horrors of the Great War in Europe during the spring of 1915.
But when an audacious German commerce raider eluded its pursuers and anchored off Newport News Shipbuilding (http://www.dailypress.com/topic/business/manufacturing-engineering/defense-equipment/newport-news-shipbuilding-ORCRP017309-topic.html) — drawing a snarling pack of British cruisers to the gates of the Chesapeake Bay — Hampton Roads suddenly found itself perilously close to joining the shooting. The port was already the hub of an epic British effort that would comb the country for more than 500,000 horses and mules worth nearly $3 billion today, then transport them to France. Several British freighters were waiting when they saw the Prinz Eitel Friedrich and its feared German naval ensign make the turn up the James early on March 10. But the fleeting scare was just the first in a nerve-wracking international crisis. Within days, the river teemed with steamers from New York, Baltimore and Washington, D.C. — all choked with sightseers drawn by the defiant vessel that had become the front-page scourge of Allied shipping and the frustrated Royal Navy. The verandas of the Old Point Comfort resort hotels bristled with onlookers, too, all watching the channel for the battered German ship and its promised dash to the Atlantic.
So tense was the standoff that Washington sent Marines from Norfolk Navy Yard and soldiers from Fort Monroe to the Prinz Eitel's pier, where they warded off bomb threats with sandbags and machine guns.
It also put the fort's powerful coastal guns and searchlights on high alert, rousting six companies of artillerymen from the theaters and bars in Phoebus after a British cruiser reportedly ventured in as far as Thimble Shoals.
Just when the Prinz Eitel's reluctant acceptance of internment seemed to bring the danger to an end, however, a second German raider — the Kronprinz Wilhelm — dashed through the blockade and anchored off Newport News, breathing new life into a six-weeks-long drama.
"No place in America was drawn into World War I more quickly than Hampton Roads — and that's because the ports, the military, the shipyard and all those horses intertwined us with the war long before it started," says John V. Quarstein, author of "World War I on the Virginia Peninsula."
"But when these German commerce raiders dash in, they pull us into a spectacular moment in history. We were in the war zone."
Built for Nordeutscher Lloyd shipping company in 1904, the 16,000-ton, 503-foot-long Prinz Eitel served as a passenger liner in the Far East before the war broke out in August 1914.
Designed from the first for easy conversion into an armed commerce raider, the vessel spent less than a week at the Imperial German Navy base at Tsingtao, China, while being refitted and recrewed with deck guns and sailors from the gunboats Luchs and Tiger.
With Korvettenkapitan Max Thierichens of the Luchs in command, the new warship steamed into the Pacific on Aug. 5 to join the German Far East Squadron in the Caroline Islands. But almost immediately it detached for an independent, seven-month cruise during which it sank 11 merchant vessels across the South Pacific and South Atlantic.
"People feared that this ship would show up anywhere," Quarstein says, describing the Prinz Eitel's quick transformation into a dreaded ocean predator and global front-page story.
Yet for most of its 71/2 months at sea, the wary Prinz Eitel avoided potentially dangerous port calls to repair or recoal, preferring instead to depend on occasional German supply ships it met in the open ocean or — much more frequently — whatever it could find in the holds of its victims.
"It was as if a roast pigeon were to fly into the mouth of a starving man," Thierichens told the Daily Press when the ship arrived, describing in fluent English how the Prinz Eitel was nearly stranded at sea until it received a serendipitous identification message from a merchant vessel encountered off Easter Island.
"French ship Jean," the signal read: "Loaded with Cardiff coal."
Turning south, the raider sank five more vessels off the coast of Chile, spurring the pursuit of six British and French cruisers that repeatedly came close but always missed their target.
Veering far toward the Antarctic, the Prinz Eitel evaded the frustrated pack as it rounded Cape Horn, where the bemused crew heard a wireless report announcing its demise almost halfway across the planet.
"The one message that made us laugh was to hear we were sunk again," a German marine told the Daily Press after arriving in Newport News.
"When we rounded the Horn, we heard we'd been lost in the South China Sea."
By the time the fleeing Prinz Eitel left South America and approached the U.S. coast, its coal bunkers were nearly empty and its overworked boilers on the verge of bursting.
Even in a straight line, its extended voyage from Tsingtao measured more than 20,000 miles — and the raider had steered a course of search and evasion that was anything but direct.
Guided in part by Capt. H. H. Kiehne of the Frye, the blacked-out vessel emerged from the darkness off Cape Henry late on the night of March 9, eluding four English warships whose wireless chatter could be heard by Thierichens, his radio man and Kiehne.
At daybreak the Prinz Eitel steamed into the bay, passed quarantine and entered Hampton Roads, dropping anchor off 33rd Street in Newport News by midmorning. Within minutes, a Coast Guard cutter came alongside to safeguard the port's neutrality. Soon crowds of spectators packed the shores, mesmerized by the sight of the notorious but completely unexpected rover.
"Sudden Arrival of German Warship in this Port Creates a Sensation," the Daily Press reported in a giant front-page headline the following morning.
"Until She Put into Newport News Today, Her Whereabouts Were a Mystery."
Prime attraction
When Customs Collector Norman R. Hamilton stepped aboard the Prinz Eitel the next morning, he was greeted by Thierichens with lunch and music from the ship's orchestra.
Both men knew the vessel's rust-streaked hull and blackened stacks were the least of its problems, and that the 24-hour limit for combatant ships to resupply and refuel would be waived because of the repairs it needed.
Within hours of their meeting to discuss the secret terms of the Prinz Eitel's stay, the ship eased into Drydock No. 3, where large crowds looked on as the shipyard prepared to scrape and paint the barnacle-encrusted bottom. Most of more than 300 prisoners taken from the raider's victims were escorted ashore along with each vessel's consignment of mail and the passenger and crew's personal baggage.
The masters of each ship left aboard Hamilton's launch, then gathered to pose for pictures and tell reporters about what they described as generally considerate treatment. The British crews left soon afterward, singing "It's a Long Way to Tipperary" as they boarded streetcars and headed for the horse freighters waiting to carry them home.
Inside the Daily Press, an editorial headlined "German Prowess" described the Prinz Eitel's commander and crew as "famous above all other sailors connected with the war.
"The fact that this ship, which is not a fighting ship at all but a passenger ship with a few guns installed on her decks, should have traveled the high seas for seven months, capturing and sinking 11 vessels, taking and preserving all the captives, including men, women and children, without mishap to any; that she should have eluded every hostile ship of war … never having had the occasion to fire a gun and not losing a man of her crew is a record that distinguishes Capt. Thierichens as one of the greatest navigators and all-round strategists who ever sailed the ocean blue.
"If it were not a violation of neutrality, we should wish him and them good luck and a safe voyage."
Many Americans agreed, and soon the waterfront and river filled with spectators lured by the "terror of the sea" and its "destructive but brilliant record."
A German postcard dated March 12 shows the vessel surrounded by steamers and launches and the shoreline packed with crowds. By March 16, the Daily Press was reporting arriving trains filled to capacity and boats streaming in from New York, Baltimore and Washington — all adding up to some 10,000 people who'd come to see the German raider.
British threats
Embraced by the public and press, Thierichens soon found himself mixing with some of Hampton Roads' leading figures.
On March 21, he was honored at a luncheon staged by Fort Monroe commander Col. Ira P. Haynes, after which he reviewed a full-dress parade of the garrison, Casemate Museum historian Robert Kelly said.
He also attended the March 15 christening of the battleship USS Pennsylvania as a special guest, after which the shipyard president and vice-president entertained him at a Hotel Chamberlin dinner.
Off the Virginia Capes, however, the Royal Navy fumed at the hospitality received by their detested quarry. The British embassy in Washington thundered in protest, too, demanding that the "pirate" vessel be turned away or interned.
Setting up a cordon off the coast, the British warships began exchanging such heated radio messages about their resolve to sink the Prinz Eitel that Haynes met with Adm. Frank E. Beatty of the Navy Yard to prepare for the worst.
Reports of British spies at work only fueled the tension, which flared still hotter after bomb threats.
Dispatching soldiers and Marines with heavy machine guns to the Prinz Eitel's pier, the two American commanders knew that — with the Atlantic Fleet still steaming off Cuba — they had no ships that could stop a British incursion.
And when news of the Prinz Eitel's growing readiness led to reports of a British cruiser slipping into the waters off Thimble Shoals, the guns at the fort prepared to open fire.
"Sudden orders from Fort Monroe for all the artillerymen to immediately report," the Daily Press reported, describing how six companies had been rousted from their theaters, clubs and homes.
"All guns are manned and searchlights play over the Roads and bay," another headline read, reported how the lights combined with signal rockets and aerial flares to be seen for miles.
"Old Point took on an aspect of warfare," the paper reported, describing how the crews of the big 10- and 12-inch coastal guns and smaller 3-inch rapid-fire guns peered out over the bay and channel with the "wildest excitement."
"The British had already shown their disdain for the rules of neutrality in other places. So it was a real threat," Quarstein said.
"But it would have taken them many more ships with much bigger guns to get past Fort Monroe."
Ticking clock
Fueled by daily headlines of Thierichens' intention to leave, the crisis wore on for two more weeks, still drawing spectators in droves.
More than 10,000 filled the river and shoreline on March 29, prompting the bemused captain to tip his cap to the admiring crowd. Then he opened his decks to 200 visitors, including six young women who insisted he pose for pictures.
"You may miss me at any time," he told reporters asking about his coal supply.
""Everybody wanted to know if this daring ship was going to be able to dash out and escape. Everybody was waiting to see if the British would break the neutrality rules and steam in to get it."

In the end, the question was decided by the Prinz Eitel's worn-out boilers and engines, which — without many more weeks of repairs — could not be relied upon to produce more than two-thirds of the ship's rated top speed of 18 knots.
So at 7 p.m. on April 7 — after four weeks of high drama — Thierichens delivered a message requesting internment just hours before his deadline to depart.
"I would like to have gone to sea myself. I would not hesitate to go. But I had to think first of my men," he explained.
"The number and force of the enemy's cruisers watching the entrance to the bay makes it impossible for the dash to the ocean to have any chance of success."
Second surprise
Two days after the Prinz Eitel was boarded by an American crew and towed to the Navy Yard, the Daily Press published a rare Monday extra edition.
"German Cruiser Kronprinz Wilhelm Seeks Haven at Newport News after Giving Slip to Allied Cruisers," the front-page read on April 12, after the giant four-stacker anchored in the spot once occupied by its sister.
Reported sunk a half-dozen times during a voyage of 255 days, the Kronprinz had lurked unseen off the Capes for nearly a week, then taken advantage of a lapse in the Royal Navy's vigilance after the Prinz Eitel's surrender.
Just over 25 tons of coal remained in the blacked-out ship's bunkers when it headed north under cover of darkness, then turned west at full steam toward the mouth of the bay.
"We got in without being seen by the enemy," Kapitanleutnant Thierfelder boasted on his arrival. "And we can get out the same way."
Surprised and embarrassed for a second time, Great Britain responded with angry protests, but the threat from its cruisers had been diminished by the Atlantic Fleet's return to Hampton Roads.
The Kronprinz also was in such bad shape that — despite its captain's promise to dash back to the Atlantic — the time needed for repairs seemed almost certain to push past the deadline for internment.
An alarming outbreak of beriberi played an increasingly important role, too, as the number of cases grew to more than 25 percent of the 500-man crew by April 15, the Daily Press reported.
So despite putting into Drydock No. 2 a few days later to have its battered hull plates tightened and its bottom scraped and painted, the ship followed its comrade's example and interned on April 26 — four days before its deadline.""It's hard for Americans to imagine today just how much these raiders captured the public imagination," "The jury was still out on whether we were going to side with the British. We weren't palsy with them the way we are now. And these ships had sailed around the world against the greatest navy on earth in such a daring way that everybody admired them."


Mark St. John Erickson

[Jimbuna]

1595 William Shakespeare's play Romeo and Juliet is thought to have been first performed. The play was officially published in early 1597.

1916 1st bombing of Paris by German Zeppelins takes place.

1917 British submarine K13 sank in Gaire Loch, Scotland; 32 of her crew died.

1933 German president Paul von Hindenburg appoints Adolf Hitler as chancellor.

1943 New Zealand cruiser Kiwi collides with Japanese submarine I-1 at Guadalcanal.

1944 285 German bombers attack London.

1944 USS Missouri, the last battleship commissioned by the US Navy, is launched.

1944 World War II: About 38 men, women, and children die in the Koniuchy massacre in Poland.

2002 US President George W. Bush in his State of the Union address describes "regimes that sponsor terror" an "Axis of Evil", which includes Iraq, Iran and North Korea.

[Jimbuna]

1661 Oliver Cromwell, Lord Protector of the Commonwealth of England is ritually executed after having been dead for two years.

1862 USS Monitor, the US Navy's 1st ironclad warship launched.

1939 Hitler threatens the Jews during his speech to the German Reichstag (Parliament).

1943 6 British Mosquitos bomb Berlin in daylight.

1943 Hitler promotes Friedrich von Paul to Field Marshal.

1945 "Wilhelm Gustloff" torpedoed off Danzig by Soviet sub-c 9,400 die.

1965 State funeral of Winston Churchill at St Paul's Cathedral in London. Largest ever state funeral.

[Jimbuna]

1865 Congress passes 13th Amendment, abolishing slavery in America (121-24).

1915 1st (German) poison gas attack, against Russians.

1917 Germany notifies US that U-boats will attack neutral merchant ship.

1918 A series of accidental collisions on a misty Scottish night leads to the loss of two Royal Navy submarines with over a hundred lives, and damage to another five British warships.

1940 40 U-boats sunk this month (111,000 ton).

1941 21 U boats sunk this month (127,000 ton).

1942 62 U-boats sunk this month (327,000 ton).

1943 39 U-boats sunk this month (203,100 ton).

1943 Gen Friedrich von Paul surrenders to Russian troops at Stalingrad.

1944 Operation-Overlord (D-Day) postponed until June.

1944 U-592 sunk off Ireland.

[Aktungbby]

1606: Guy Fawkes 13 April 1570 – 31 January 1606), also known as Guido Fawkes, is hanged for his part in the failed gun powder plot...giving rise to Guy Fawkes day! A lifelong mercenary fighting the Dutch in the Spanish army, his luck strangely held: The trial of eight of the plotters began on Monday 27 January 1606. Fawkes shared the barge from the Tower to Westminster Hall (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westminster_Hall) with seven of his co-conspirators. They were kept in the Star Chamber (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_Chamber) before being taken to Westminster Hall, where they were displayed on a purpose-built scaffold. Each of the condemned plot conspirators would be drawn backwards to his death, by a horse, his head near the ground. They were to be "put to death halfway between heaven and earth as unworthy of both". Their genitals would be cut off and burnt before their eyes, and their bowels and hearts removed. They would then be decapitated, and the dismembered parts of their bodies displayed so that they might become "prey for the fowls of the air".:timeout: Fawkes was the last to stand on the scaffold. He asked for forgiveness of the King and state, while keeping up his "crosses and idle ceremonies" (Catholic practices). Weakened by torture and aided by the hangman, Fawkes began to climb the ladder to the noose, but either through jumping to his death or climbing too high so the rope was incorrectly set, he managed to avoid the agony of the latter part of his execution by breaking his neck. His lifeless body was nevertheless quartered and, as was the custom, his body parts were then distributed to "the four corners of the kingdom", to be displayed as a warning to other would-be traitors. [wiki] His image is iconic to this day:03::https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/c/c0/V_for_vendettax.jpg/250px-V_for_vendettax.jpg (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:V_for_vendettax.jpg)

[Oberon]

2003 - The space shuttle USS Colombia breaks up on re-entry over the continental US, killing all on board.

[Jimbuna]

1587 Queen Elizabeth I of England signs death warrant for her cousin, Mary Stuart, Queen of Scots.

1861 Texas secedes from the Union (which precipitates the American Civil War).

1917 German Admiral Tirpitz announces unlimited submarine war.

1923 Fascists Voluntary Militia forms in Italy under Benito Mussolini.

[Jimbuna]

1709 British sailor Alexander Selkirk is rescued after being marooned on a desert island for 5 years, his story inspires "Robinson Crusoe".

1901 Queen Victoria's funeral takes place.

1933 2 days after becoming chancellor, Adolf Hitler dissolves the Reichstag (Parliament).

1934 Dutch RC Bishops warn against fascism/nazism.

1943 German 6th Army surrenders after Battle of Stalingrad, turning point in Europe during WW II.

1962 8 of 9 planets align for 1st time in 400 years.

1974 The F-16 Fighting Falcon flies for the first time.

[Jimbuna]

1904 American occupation of Cuba ends.

1918 1st US pilot to down an enemy airplane, Stephen W Thompson.

1945 US troops under General Douglas MacArthur enter Manilla.

[Aktungbby]

1952: George VI dies and is succeeded by Elizbeth II the current reigning monarch. The queen remains the only female member of the royal family to have entered the armed forces and is the only living head of state who served in World War II.:salute: http://cdn.images.express.co.uk/img/dynamic/galleries/x701/65562.jpg:salute:http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2012/05/24/article-2149307-134385B0000005DC-31_634x529.jpghttp://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2012/05/24/article-2149307-134390F5000005DC-216_634x562.jpgsame ambulance: A121225i in all/both shots.

[fumo30]

^Nice PR pics. I guess most of the war time she was doing something else but changing oils to the halftracks.

[Aktungbby]

^True that: but consider that most warfare is PR-politics by other means'- but, when you no longer ain't 'talkin' the talk' you're 'walkin' the walk'...catastrophically for Victoria's descendants c. 1914-1945.:/\\!! At least she got her hands dirty... and is finishing the tyre job.http://imgur.com/TSFt9.jpghttp://cdn.images.express.co.uk/img/dynamic/galleries/x701/65550.jpgQueen Elizabeth II sitting side saddle on horseback, in uniform as Colonel-in-Chief of the Grenadier Guards in 1947 http://cdn.history.com/sites/2/2015/05/112296044-E.jpeg<I still remember this: During her birthday celebration on June 13, 1981, shots rang out as Elizabeth rode her horse(side side-saddle) in a parade near Buckingham Palace. The Queen’s horse, Burmese, shied at the noise and almost bolted. Her Majesty unflinching, only leant forward to comfort Burmese and continued the Trooping of the Colour parade. Marcus Sarjeant, a 17-year-old who idolized the assassins of John F. Kennedy and John Lennon, had fired six blank shots in the queen’s direction. Swiftly subdued by police, the teen would spend three years in a psychiatric prison under the 1842 Treason Act for, ‘wilfully discharging at the person of Her Majesty the Queen-a blank cartridge pistol, with intent to alarm her.’ Her mother, the Scottish Queen Mother, lived to 101; I suspect the current monarch is a very tough lady. Riding side-saddle for half a century's gotta hurt (I've tried doing that! after a wicked nag crunched on my toes and I had to forgo the use of the stirrup (keeping foot elevated:oops:) while Civil War reenacting for three days of a whole lotta blank cartridges!:O:) and doing it under gunfire on a capricious nag surely 'put's paid' to her 'courage under fire'! PR notwithstanding.:stare: imho:salute:

[Catfish]

And her real name was of course Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, not "Windsor" :D

[Jimbuna]

^Nice PR pics. I guess most of the war time she was doing something else but changing oils to the halftracks.

Nope, never worked on halftracks, she was no ally of Germany at the time.

And her real name was of course Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, not "Windsor" :D

I can think of more 'unfortunate' surnames she could have been related to :know:

[Jimbuna]

1964 Beatles land at NY's JFK airport, for 1st US tour.

1993 Pebbles Flintstone & Bamm Bamm Rubble wed.

2005 Britain's Ellen MacArthur becomes the fastest person to sail solo around the world.

[tomfon]

I would also like to add that on 6th of February 1990 the Soviet Union collapses as the Central Committee of the Communist Party gives up power after 73 years. A turning point for Russia, most definitely.

Two years later the treaty of Maastricht is signed by the 12 member nations of the newly founded European Union. The treaty was supposed to be the first step towards the creation of a monetary union. :hmm2:

[ivanov.ruslan]

1834, a new style, was born Dmitri Ivanovich Mendeleev

[Aktungbby]

1915: D.W. Griffith's groundbreaking and controversial movie is released in Los Angeles: Birth of a Nation under it's original title: The Clansman. Used as a recruiting tool for the KKK. Under President Woodrow Wilson, it was the first American motion picture to be screened at the White House.On the evening of March 21, 1915, President Woodrow Wilson, son of a Presbyterian minister, attended a special screening at the White House of The Birth of a Nation, a film directed by D.W. Griffith and based on The Clansman, a novel written by Wilson's good friend, Baptist minister Thomas Dixon. The film presented a distorted portrait of the South after the Civil War, glorifying the Ku Klux Klan and denigrating blacks. It falsified the period of Reconstruction by presenting blacks as dominating Southern whites (almost all of whom are noble in the film) and forcing themselves upon white women. The Klan was portrayed as the South's savior from this alleged tyranny. Not only was this portrayal untrue, it was the opposite of what actually happened. During Reconstruction, whites dominated blacks and assaulted black women. The Klan was primarily a white terrorist organization that carried out hundreds of murders. After seeing the film, an enthusiastic Wilson reportedly remarked: "It is like writing history with lightning, and my only regret is that it is all so terribly true." Griffith's innovative techniques and storytelling power have made The Birth of a Nation one of the landmarks of film history. In 1992, the United States Library of Congress deemed the film "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" and selected it for preservation in the National Film Registry (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Film_Registry). ATTN: Brits: Donald Crisp (Best Supporting Actor: How Green was my Valley) plays General Grant in this one!:up:https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/c/c5/Donald_Crisp_as_Grant_1915.jpg/300px-Donald_Crisp_as_Grant_1915.jpg (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Donald_Crisp_as_Grant_1915.jpg)https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/61/Birth_of_a_Nation_theatrical_poster.jpg/220px-Birth_of_a_Nation_theatrical_poster.jpg (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Birth_of_a_Nation_theatrical_poster.jpg) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vZ871wZd7UY (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vZ871wZd7UY)

[Jimbuna]

1916 French cruiser "Admiral Charner" torpedoed off Syrian coast, kills 374.

1922 Radio arrives at the White House.

1944 U-762 sunk off Ireland.

1952 Elizabeth II is proclaimed Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain & Northern Ireland, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, etc.

1960 Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom issued an Order-in-Council, stating that she and her family would be known as the House of Windsor, and that her descendants will take the name "Mountbatten-Windsor".

[Kaye T. Bai]

February 9, 2001 - An American submarine crashes into a Japanese ship off the coast of Hawaii, sinking the latter and killing several of its crew.

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/4/45/EhimeMaru.jpg

[Jimbuna]

1900 Dwight Davis established a new tennis trophy, the Davis Cup.

1941 Nazi collaborators destroy pro-Jewish café Alcazar Amsterdam (Alcazar refused to hang "No Entry for Jews" signs in front of cafe).

1944 U-734/U-238 sunk off Ireland.

1945 HMS Venturer sinks U-Boat 864 off the coast of Norway.

1969 Boeing 747 made its first commercial flight.

[Jimbuna]

1531 Henry VIII recognised as supreme head of Church in England following the schism with Rome.

1943 Transport nr 47 departs with French Jews to nazi-Germany.

1944 U-424 sunk off Ireland.

1945 Yalta agreement signed by FDR, Churchill & Stalin.

1975 Margaret Thatcher defeats Edward Heath for leadership of the British Conservative Party.

[Jimbuna]

1921 Winston Churchill becomes British Minister of Colonies.

1938 German troops entered Austria.

1938 The first 'Kindertransport' carrying Jewish refugee children from Nazi Germany arrives in Britain.

1942 German battle cruisers Scharnhorst and Gneisenau and heavy cruiser Prinz Eugen escape from Brest to Germany in a dash up the English Channel.

1946 World War II: Operation Deadlight ends after scuttling 121 of 154 captured U-boats.

1999 US President Bill Clinton acquitted by the Senate in his impeachment trial.

2013 North Korea confirms it has successfully tested a nuclear device that could be weaponized.

[Jimbuna]

1942 Hitler's Operation Sealion (invasion of England) cancelled.

1945 Allied planes begin bombing Dresden, Germany; a firestorm results and over 22,000 die.

[Jimbuna]

1797 The Battle of Cape St Vincent: British fleet under Admiral Sir John Jervis defeats larger Spanish fleet under Admiral Don José de Córdoba y Ramos near Cape St. Vincent, Portugal. Captain Horatio Nelson distinguishes himself.

[Aktungbby]

1898: USS Maine, an armoured cruiser, is best known for her loss in Havana Harbor (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Havana_Harbor) https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/9d/USSMaine.jpg on the evening of 15 February 1898. Sent to protect U.S. interests (epitomizing 'gunboat diplomacy'??!!:doh:) during the Cuban revolt against Spain, she exploded suddenly, without warning, and sank quickly, killing nearly three quarters of her crew. The cause and responsibility for her sinking remained unclear after a board of inquiry investigated. Nevertheless, popular opinion in the U.S., fanned by inflammatory articles printed in the "Yellow Press (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yellow_journalism)" by William Randolph Hearst (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Randolph_Hearst) and Joseph Pulitzer (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Pulitzer), blamed Spain. The phrase, "remember the Maine, to Hell with Spain", became a rallying cry for action, which came with the Spanish American War later that year. While the sinking of Maine was not a direct cause for action, it served as a catalyst, accelerating the approach to a diplomatic impasse between the U.S. and Spain. Suspected of being the victim of a mine subsequent investigations have arrived at a different conclusion...We owe Spain an apology for thin bulkheads, bad press, and bad coal. Author Wegner, in his 2001 book Theodore Roosevelt, the U.S. Navy and the Spanish–American War, suggests that a combination of naval ship design, and a change in the type of coal used to fuel naval ships, might have facilitated the explosion postulated by the thorough private-funded ADM Rickover 1974 study. Up to the time of Maine's building, he explains, common bulkheads separated coal bunkers from ammunition lockers and American naval ships burned primarily smokeless anthracite coal. With an increase in the number of steel ships, the U.S. Navy switched to bituminous coal (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bituminous_coal), which burned at a hotter temperature than anthracite coal, and allowed ships to steam faster. However, Wegner explains, while anthracite coal is not subject to spontaneous combustion, bituminous coal is considerably more volatile. In fact, bituminous coal is known for releasing the largest amounts of firedamp (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Firedamp), a dangerous and explosive mixture of gases. Firedamp is explosive at concentrations between 4% and 16%, with most violence at around 10%. A number of bunker fires had, in fact, been reported aboard U.S. warships before Maine's explosion, in several cases nearly sinking the ships. Wegner also cites a 1997 heat transfer (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heat_transfer) study which concluded that a coal bunker fire, of the type suggested by ADM Rickover, could have taken place and ignited the ship's ammunition.[wiki] All this added up to our takeover of the Philippines at Manila Bay leading to eventual disaster at Bataan (Death March) by 1940's... No military genius here IMHO.:nope: http://www.historytoday.com/sites/default/files/USS_Maine_ACR-1_in_Havana_harbor_before_explosion_1898.jpg

[Catfish]

Even with better coal, surely some pretext would have been found.
(thinking about the Gulf of Tonkin and Vietnam)

Well if it all was based on false assumptions, greed and nationalist empire-building, you could just give the Philippines and Cuba back to Spain.

And then, Spain could give it back to those original inhabitants again. Maybe together with South America :D

[Aktungbby]

BY JINGO! grate minds think alike!http://image.shutterstock.com/display_pic_with_logo/94021/249276145/stock-photo-hemorrhoids-concept-toilet-paper-as-grater-d-249276145.jpg :O: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jingoism (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jingoism) And give back dried up crime ridden California to Mexíco; and Minnesota to the Chippewa, Ojibwa and Santee Sioux-Old Shatterhand and Winnatou would B pleased! I'll just head for Canada(the land of my forbears (thinking about the Gulf of Tonkin and Vietnam) which was a gathering place in the '60's for men in my age group anyway!!:shucks: http://time.com/4061835/david-miller-draft-card/ (http://time.com/4061835/david-miller-draft-card/)https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/e/e6/The_American_War-Dog_by_Oscar_Cesare_1916.jpg/800px-The_American_War-Dog_by_Oscar_Cesare_1916.jpg

[Jimbuna]

1939 German battleship Bismarck was launched.

1942 German U-boat shells Antillian oil refinery.

1944 891 British bombers attack Berlin.

1944 Attack begins at Monte Cassino monastery, Italy.

[Jimbuna]

1940 British search plane finds German supply ship Altmark, used to accommodate aliied sailors from vessles sunk by the Graf Spee, off Norway.

1942 German submarines attack Aruba oil refinery.

[Aktungbby]

1486: The Diet of Frankfort elects Maximilian, Archduke of Austria... King of the Romans!
<H4>Electors:



Bertold von Henneberg-Römhild (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bertold_von_Henneberg-R%C3%B6mhild), Elector of Mainz (1484–1504)
John II of Baden (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_II_of_Baden), Elector of Trier (1456–1503)
Hermann IV of Hesse (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hermann_IV_of_Hesse), Elector of Cologne (1480–1508)
Vladislaus II (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vladislaus_II_of_Bohemia_and_Hungary), King of Bohemia (1471–1516)
Philip (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philip,_Elector_Palatine), Elector Palatine (1476–1508)
Ernest (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ernest,_Elector_of_Saxony), Elector of Saxony (1464–1486)
Albert III (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albrecht_III_Achilles,_Elector_of_Brandenburg), Elector of Brandenburg (1470–1486) Perfectly reasonable order in the midst of chaos for sure: Max succeeded his father, Frederick III (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frederick_III,_Holy_Roman_Emperor), on the latter's death on August 19, 1493. As wars in Italy (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_of_the_League_of_Cambrai) made it impossible for Maximilian to undertake the journey to Rome for the Imperial coronation, on February 4, 1508 at Trent (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trento), he claimed for himself the title of Electus Romanorum Imperator, "Elected Roman Emperor" or "Roman Emperor by election" (rather than by coronation), which was subsequently accepted (February 12, 1508) by Pope Julius II (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pope_Julius_II). Subsequent electees retained the right to call themselves Emperor, rather than merely King, without Papal coronation! AN EU before there was an EU!:rock:

[Jimbuna]

1915 Edward Stone, 1st US combatant to die in WW I, is mortally wounded.

1940 Crew of the British destroyer Cossack board German Altmark in Jøssingfjord, Norway, and realised 299 British prisoners after hand-to-hand fighting with bayonets and the last recorded Royal Naval action with cutlass.

[ABBAFAN]

1461, the Battle of St. Albans. Yorkist forces defeated by Lancastrians under the Duke of Somerset after fierce fighting in and around the town lasting several hours.

[Aktungbby]

AHEM! That was the 2nd Battle of St Albans! :D Wouldn't want to create any confusion in the Wars of the Roses!:know: The poor Lancastrians were so notorious for looting that London barred the gates to the victors; so in the end, the winners (Lancastrians) had little to show for the effort. @ nice site on the Royal Fleet Auxiliary:salute:

[Jimbuna]

1884 General Charles Gordon arrives in Khartoum.

1901 H Cecil Booth patented a dust removing suction cleaner.

1915 Germany begins a blockade of Britain.

1916 The last German garrison in the German colony of Cameroons surrenders.

1979 Snow falls in Sahara Desert.

[ABBAFAN]

The first St. Albans only a scrap and therefore the outcome was irrelevant :). Also yes, looting was a problem which was to have repercussions indeed. I'll be going on the Towton walk in March. :)

[Aktungbby]

1952: Bwana Devil based on the true story of the Tsavo maneaters (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tsavo_maneaters) and filmed with the Natural Vision 3-D system. The film is notable for sparking the first 3-D film (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/3-D_film) craze in the motion picture industry, as well as for being the first 3-D film in color and the first 3-D sound feature in English.https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/0/06/Bwanadevil3.jpg/220px-Bwanadevil3.jpg (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Bwanadevil3.jpg) Starred Robert Stack (the Untouchables) and Nigel Bruce (elementary Dr. Watson to Basil Rathbone:up:) Just the trailer is exciting! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4MMBdQ6pSV4 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4MMBdQ6pSV4)https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/f/fc/Bwana_Devil_audience_1952.jpg/220px-Bwana_Devil_audience_1952.jpg (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Bwana_Devil_audience_1952.jpg) Move over Val Kilmer (MAJ John Henry Patterson in Ghost and the Darkness):D And where are those critters now: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/6e/Lionsoftsavo2008.jpg/275px-Lionsoftsavo2008.jpg (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Lionsoftsavo2008.jpg) the Chicago Field Museum of Natural History The two lion specimens in Chicago's Field Museum are known as FMNH 23970 (killed 9 December 1898) and FMNH 23969 (killed 29 December 1898). Recent studies have been made upon the isotopic signature (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isotopic_signature) analysis of Δ13C (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%CE%9413C) and Nitrogen-15 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nitrogen-15) in their bone collagen (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collagen) and hair keratin (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keratin) and published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA. Using realistic assumptions on the consumable tissue per victim, lion energetic needs, and their assimilation efficiencies, researchers compared the man-eaters' Δ13C signatures to various reference standards: Tsavo lions with normal (wildlife) diets, grazers and browsers from Tsavo East and Tsavo West, and the skeletal remains of Taita people from the early 20th century. This analysis estimated that FMNH 23969 ate the equivalent of 10.5 humans and that FMNH 23970 ate 24.2 humans. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tsavo_Man-Eaters (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tsavo_Man-Eaters)A slight reduction from very brave MAJOR Patterson's claim of 135 victims...but who's counting at that dinner table...:Kaleun_Sick: 1516: Mary Tudor, Henry VIII's first daughter by Warrior Queen: Catherine of Aragon:up:, is born at Greenwich England...for ten years, she will reign as Catholic Bloody Mary...No wonder they call it Greenwich Mean Time !!?? :O: and have a drink named after her!https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/12/Bloody_Mary.jpg/220px-Bloody_Mary.jpg (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Bloody_Mary.jpg):Kaleun_Cheers:

[Aktungbby]

The first St. Albans only a scrap and therefore the outcome was irrelevant :). Also yes, looting was a problem which was to have repercussions indeed. I'll be going on the Towton walk in March. :) I'm envious! Well avoid any old caltrops and try not to end up like some beknighted Trollope ...laying about!:O: Check the 'wanted' posters to see if there's a £100 bounty on yer gandu!:dead:
Timing, snow, wind-driven and recycled arrows made for England's #2 ?? biggest battle ever! The Yorkists had the wind at their backs and could thus outreach the Lancastrian bowmen...Swift retreats are a disaster especially when doffing your armor...to run faster. https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/e/e6/Battle_of_Towton_-_Engagement.svg/300px-Battle_of_Towton_-_Engagement.svg.png (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Battle_of_Towton_-_Engagement.svg)Flanked BBY:03: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/00/Richard_Caton_Woodville%27s_The_Battle_of_Towton.j pg/300px-Richard_Caton_Woodville%27s_The_Battle_of_Towton.j pg (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Richard_Caton_Woodville%27s_The_Battle_of_Tow ton.jpg)<(enlarges) fighting in armor, in water, in a snowstorm...:nope: Men struggling across the river were dragged down by currents and drowned. Those floundering were stepped on and pushed under water by their comrades behind them as they rushed to get away from the Yorkists. As the Lancastrians struggled across the river, Yorkist archers rode to high vantage points and shot arrows at them. The dead began to pile up and the chronicles state that the Lancastrians eventually fled across these "bridges" of bodies. The chase continued northwards across the River Wharfe, which was larger than Cock Beck. A bridge over the river collapsed under the flood of men and many drowned trying to cross. Those who hid in Tadcaster and York were hunted down and killed.

[Jimbuna]

1674 Netherlands & England sign Peace of Westminster (NYC becomes English).

1915 British fleet opens fire on Dardanelles coast.

1941 Nazi police attacked & driven away from Koco, Amsterdam (by young Jews).

1941 Nazi raid Amsterdam & round up 429 young Jews for deportation.

1942 About 150 Japanese warplanes attack the Australian city of Darwin.

1944 823 British bombers attack Berlin.

1944 U-264 sinks off Ireland.

1945 980 Japanese soldiers reportedly killed by crocodiles in 2 days on Ramree Island, Burma.

[Jimbuna]

1917 Ammunition ship explodes in Archangel harbour, about 1,500 die.

1938 UK Foreign Secretary Anthony Eden resigns, says PM Chamberlain appeased Germany.

1941 1st transport of Jews to concentration camps leave Plotsk Poland.

1941 Nazis order Polish Jews barred from using public transportation.

1942 Lt E H O'Hare single-handedly shoots down 5 Japanese heavy bombers, becomes America's first World War II flying ace.

1971 Major General Idi Amin Dada appoints himself president of Uganda.

[Jimbuna]

1431 Joan of Arc's first day of interrogation during her trial for heresy.

1916 Battle of Verdun in WW I begins (1 million casualties).

1917 British Mendi sinks off Isle of Wight, 627 die.

[Jimbuna]

1836 Alamo besieged for 13 days until 6th March by Mexican army under General Santa Anna; entire garrison eventually killed.

1916 French artillery kills entire French 72nd division at Samogneux Verdun.

1919 Fascist Party formed in Italy by Benito Mussolini.

1945 US Marines raise the flag on Iwo Jima, later a famous photo and Marine Corps War Memorial sculpture.

1997 Scientists in Scotland announce they have cloned an adult mammal, producing a lamb named "Dolly".

1998 Osama bin Laden publishes a fatwa declaring jihad against all Jews and Crusaders.

[Jimbuna]

1946 Juan Peron (Labor Party) first elected President of Argentina.

2008 Fidel Castro retires as the President of Cuba after nearly fifty years.

[Jimbuna]

1919 League of Nations set up by Paris Treaty.

1939 1st Anderson bomb shelter in Britain erected in an Islington garden.

1945 US aircraft carriers attack Tokyo.

[Aktungbby]

1874: Honus Wagner is born; 'The Flying Dutchman' baseball shortstop
In 1936 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1936_in_baseball), the Baseball Hall of Fame (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Baseball_Hall_of_Fame_and_Museum) inducted German-American Wagner as one of the first five members (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baseball_Hall_of_Fame_balloting,_1936). He received the second-highest vote total, behind Ty Cobb (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ty_Cobb) and tied with Babe Ruth (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Babe_Ruth).
Although Cobb is frequently cited as the greatest player of the dead-ball era (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dead-ball_era), some contemporaries regarded Wagner as the better all-around player, and most baseball historians consider Wagner to be the greatest shortstop ever. Cobb himself called Wagner "maybe the greatest star ever to take the diamond." In addition, Wagner is the featured player of one of the rarest and most valuable baseball cards (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T206_Honus_Wagner) in the world. https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/e/e9/HonusWagnerCard.jpg/800px-HonusWagnerCard.jpgonly 57 copies are known to exist:The card was designed and issued by the American Tobacco Company (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Tobacco_Company) (ATC) from 1909 to 1911 as part of its T206 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T206) series. Wagner, a nonsmoker, refused to allow production of his baseball card to continue. (Rule one of collectibles: Scarcity creates value BBY!) The ATC ended production of the Wagner card and a total of only 57 to 200 cards were ever distributed to the public, as compared to the "tens or hundreds of thousands" of T206 cards, over three years in sixteen brands of cigarettes, for any other player. In 1933, the card was first listed at a price value of $50 in Jefferson Burdick (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jefferson_Burdick)'s The American Card Catalog (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_American_Card_Catalog), making it the most expensive baseball card in the world at the time. On April 20, 2012, a New Jersey resident purchased a VG-3 graded T206 Wagner card for more than $1.2 million On April 6, 2013, a 1909–11 T206 baseball card featuring Honus Wagner sold at auction for $2.1 million. That's $900,000 in less than one year!:yeah: [wiki]

[Jimbuna]

1797 Bank of England issues its first £1-note.

1815 Napoleon Bonaparte & his supporters leave Elba to start a 100-day re-conquest of France.

1914 HMHS Britannic, sister to the Titanic, is launched at Harland & Wolff, Belfast.

1916 Germans sink French transport ship Provence II, killing 930.

1935 German Luftwaffe is re-formed under Reichsmarshall Hermann Goering.

1942 German battle cruiser Gneisenau deactivated by bomb.

1952 PM Winston Churchill announces Britain has its own atomic bomb.

[Jimbuna]

1942 1st transport of French Jews to nazi-Germany.

1950 General Chiang Kai-shek elected president of Nationalist China.

1976 Final meeting between Mao Zedong & Richard Nixon.

1990 Final day of the rum ration in the Royal New Zealand Navy.

[Jimbuna]

1933 Adolf Hitler bans German Communist Party (KPD).

1941 39 U Boats (197,000 ton) sunk this month.

1943 63 U Boats (359,300 ton) sinks this month.

[Aktungbby]

1504: LEAPDAY: Famous gadabout According to the older understanding, the “discovery” of the Americas was a great triumph, one in which Columbus played the part of hero in accomplishing the four voyages, in being the means of bringing great material profit to Spain and to other European countries, and in opening up the Americas to European settlement. The more recent perspective, however, has concentrated on the destructive side of the European conquest, emphasizing, for example, the disastrous impact of the slave trade (http://www.britannica.com/topic/slave-trade) and the ravages of imported disease on the indigenous peoples (http://www.britannica.com/topic/American-Indian) of the Caribbean (http://www.britannica.com/topic/history-of-West-Indies) region and the American continents. The sense of triumph has diminished accordingly, and the view of Columbus as hero has now been replaced, for many, by one of a man deeply flawed. While this second perception rarely doubts Columbus’s sincerity or abilities as a navigator, it emphatically removes him from his position of honour and unsuccessful explorer Christopher Columbus, after repeated conflicts about the Carribean on his fourth and last New World voyage, having sustained more damage in a storm off the coast of Cuba. arrived at Jamaica ... Unable to travel any farther, the ships were beached in St. Ann's Bay, Jamaica (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Ann_Parish,_Jamaica), on June 25, 1503.
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/c/ca/Eclipse_Christophe_Colomb.jpg/220px-Eclipse_Christophe_Colomb.jpg (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Eclipse_Christophe_Colomb.jpg)
Columbus fills the natives with fear and awe by predicting the lunar eclipse (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lunar_eclipse)


For a year Columbus and his men remained stranded on Jamaica. A Spaniard, Diego Mendez, and some natives paddled a canoe to get help from Hispaniola (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hispaniola). The island's governor, Nicolás de Ovando y Cáceres (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicol%C3%A1s_de_Ovando_y_C%C3%A1ceres), detested Columbus and obstructed all efforts to rescue him and his men. In the meantime, Columbus mesmerized the natives by correctly predicting a lunar eclipse (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lunar_eclipse) for February 29, 1504, using the Ephemeris (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ephemeris) of the German astronomer Regiomontanus (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regiomontanus) who had possibly theorized that the sun and not the earth was the center of the things related to earth-not the earth itself!? Thus frightened, the natives provided Columbus crew with provisions. Rule 1: when braving the unknown with fortifications built from four dismantled ships...Ya gotta eat! :arrgh!: The Fourth Voyage was a failure by almost any standard. Many of Columbus’ men died, the ships were lost and no passage to the west was ever found. Columbus himself would never sail again, and died convinced that he had found Asia, even if most of Europe already accepted the fact that the Americas were an unknown “New World (http://europeanhistory.about.com/od/glossary/g/glnewworld.htm).” Still, the fourth voyage showed better than any other Columbus’ sailing skills, fortitude and resilience, attributes which allowed him to discover the Americas in the first place.[wiki et al]

[Jimbuna]

1940 45 U boats sunk this month (170,000 ton).

1944 Karol Wojtyla, future Pope John Paul II, is run down and injured by a Nazi truck in Krakow.

[Jimbuna]

1916 Germany begins attacking ships in the Atlantic.

1941 Captain America first appears in comic book form, published by Timely Comics.

1941 Himmler inspects Auschwitz concentration camp.

1944 U-358 sinks in Atlantic.

1946 British government nationalises and takes control of the Bank of England, after 252 years.

[Eichhörnchen]

1969: Concorde's maiden flight.

[Jimbuna]

1915 British vice admiral Sackville Hamilton Carden begins bombing of Dardanelles forts.

1938 Trials of Soviet leaders begins in the Soviet Union.

1943 1st transport from Westerbork Neth to Sobibor concentration camp.

1946 Ho Chi Minh elected President of North Vietnam.

1965 One of the most popular musical films of all time, "The Sound of Music", starring Julie Andrews and Christopher Plummer, is released (Best Picture 1966).

[Jimbuna]

1942 1st combat flight for Canadian British-built Avro Lancaster bomber.

[Jimbuna]

1801 Thomas Jefferson is the first US President inaugurated in Washington, D.C.

1809 Madison becomes 1st president inaugurated in American-made clothes.

1861 Abraham Lincoln is inaugurated as 16th US President.

1933 Franklin D. Roosevelt inaugurated as 32nd US President, pledges to pull US out of the Depression, "We have nothing to fear but fear itself".

1936 1st flight of the airship Hindenburg at Friedrichshafen, Germany.

1943 Transport nr 50 departs with French Jews to Maidanek/Sobibor.

1944 1st US bombing of Berlin.

[Jimbuna]

1912 Italian forces are the first to use airships for military purposes, using them for reconnaissance behind Turkish lines.

1915 World War I: The LZ 33, a zeppelin, is damaged by enemy fire and stranded south of Ostend.

1933 Germany's Nazi Party wins majority in parliament (43.9%-17.2M votes).

1936 Spitfire makes its 1st flight (Eastleigh Aerodrome in Southampton).

1946 Winston Churchill's "Iron Curtain" speech (Fulton Missouri) popularizes the term and draws attention to division of Europe.

[Jimbuna]

1836 Battle of the Alamo: after 13 days of fighting 1,500-3,000 Mexicans overwhelm the Texans at the Alamo, killing 182-257 Texans including William Travis, Jim Bowie and Davy Crockett.

1918 US naval boat "Cyclops" disappears in Bermuda Triangle.

1945 117 SD-prisoners executed at Savage Farm.

[Jimbuna]

1530 King Henry VIII's divorce request is denied by the Pope. Henry then declares that he, not the Pope, is supreme head of England's church.

1876 Alexander Graham Bell patents telephone.

1936 Hitler breaks Treaty of Versailles, sends troops to Rhineland.

[Aktungbby]

1965: Six hundred marchers assembled in Selma on Sunday, March 7, and, led by John Lewis (http://www.blackpast.org/aah/lewis-john-r-1940) and other SNCC and SCLC activists, crossed the Edmund Pettus Bridge over the Alabama River en route to Montgomery. Just short of the bridge, they found their way blocked by Alabama State troopers and local police who ordered them to turn around. http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2015/03/08/2669D49300000578-0-image-a-53_1425791939906.jpgWhen the protesters refused, the officers shot teargas and waded into the crowd, beating the nonviolent protesters with billy clubs and ultimately hospitalizing over fifty people.http://www.blackpast.org/files/Alabama_State_Troopers_Attack_John_Lewis_at_the_Ed mund_Pettus_Bridge__public_domain_.jpg

“Bloody Sunday” was televised around the world. Martin Luther King called for civil rights (http://www.blackpast.org/entries-categories/civil-rights) supporters to come to Selma for a second march. When members of Congress pressured him to restrain the march until a court could rule on whether the protesters deserved federal protection, King found himself torn between their requests for patience and demands of the movement activists pouring into Selma. King, still conflicted, led the second protest on March 9 but turned it around at the same bridge. King’s actions exacerbated the tension between SCLC and the more militant SNCC, who were pushing for more radical tactics that would move from nonviolent protest to win reforms to active opposition to racist institutions.

On March 21, the final successful march began with federal protection, and on August 6, 1965, the federal Voting Rights Act (http://www.blackpast.org/primary/voting-rights-acts-1965) was passed, completing the process that King had hoped for. Yet Bloody Sunday was about more than winning a federal act; it highlighted the political pressures King was negotiating at the time, between movement radicalism and federal calls for restraint, as well as the tensions between SCLC and SNCC. NO doubt the cameras' worldwide coverage helped....no one was killed-this time...HEY: "Black lives matter"!!?? OLD GLORY:http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2015/03/08/2669D4D700000578-0-Patriotic_A_young_man_carries_the_Stars_and_Stripe s_over_his_sho-m-76_1425796656768.jpgmeets the FOG OF WAR :hmmm::http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2015/03/08/2669D4EA00000578-0-image-a-47_1425791896960.jpg

[Jimbuna]

1910 Baroness Raymonde de Laroche of Paris becomes the first ever licensed female pilot.

2014 Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 with 239 people loses contact and disappears, prompting the most expensive search effort in history.

[Sailor Steve]

1916: Fred Jane, creator of Jane's Fighting Ships and Jane's Naval Wargame, died on this day.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fred_T._Jane
http://wargamingmiscellany.blogspot.co.uk/2016/03/fred-jane-one-hundred-years-on.html

[Jimbuna]

1916 Mexican General Francisco "Pancho" Villa invades US (18 killed).

1935 Adolf Hitler announces the creation of a new air force.

1943 Greek Jews of Salonika are transported to Nazi extermination camps.

[Aktungbby]

1945: OPERATION MEETINGHOUSE air raid of 9–10 March 1945 was later estimated to be the single most destructive bombing raid in history. Air Force crews met on the Mariana Islands of Tinian and Saipan for a military briefing. They were planning a low-level bombing attack on Tokyo that would begin that evening, but with a twist: Their planes would be stripped of all guns except for the tail turret. The decrease in weight would increase the speed of each Superfortress bomber-and would also increase its bomb load capacity by 65 percent, making each plane able to carry more than seven tons. Speed would be crucial, and the crews were warned that if they were shot down, all haste was to be made for the water, which would increase their chances of being picked up by American rescue crews. Should they land within Japanese territory, they could only expect the very worst treatment by civilians, as the mission that night was going to entail the deaths of tens of thousands of those very same civilians. “You’re going to deliver the biggest firecracker the Japanese have ever seen,” said U.S. Gen. Curtis Lemay. Three hundred and thirty-four bombers, flying at a mere 500 feet, dropped their loads, creating a giant bonfire fanned by 30-knot winds that helped raze the city and spread the flames throughout Tokyo. Masses of panicked and terrified Japanese civilians scrambled to escape the inferno, most unsuccessfully. The human carnage was so great that the blood-red mists and stench of burning flesh that wafted up sickened the bomber pilots, forcing them to grab oxygen masks to keep from vomiting. The raid lasted slightly longer than three hours. “In the black Sumida River, countless bodies were floating, clothed bodies, naked bodies, all black as charcoal. It was unreal,” recorded one doctor at the scene. Only 243 American airmen were lost-considered acceptable losses. 334 B-29s took off to raid with 279 of them dropping 1,665 tons of bombs on Tokyo. The bombs were mostly the 500-pound (230 kg) E-46 cluster bomb (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cluster_munition) which released 38 napalm-carrying M-69 incendiary bomblets (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M-69_incendiary) at an altitude of 2,000–2,500 ft (610–760 m). The M-69s punched through thin roofing material or landed on the ground; in either case they ignited 3–5 seconds later, throwing out a jet of flaming napalm globs. A lesser number of M-47 incendiaries (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M47_bomb) was also dropped: the M-47 was a 100-pound (45 kg) jelled-gasoline and white phosphorus bomb which ignited upon impact. In the first two hours of the raid, 226 of the attacking aircraft unloaded their bombs to overwhelm the city's fire defenses. The first B-29s to arrive dropped bombs in a large X pattern centered in Tokyo's densely populated working class district near the docks in both Koto (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Koto,_Tokyo) and Chuo (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chuo,_Tokyo)city wards (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special_wards_of_Tokyo) on the water; later aircraft simply aimed near this flaming X. The individual fires caused by the bombs joined to create a general conflagration (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conflagration), which would have been classified as a firestorm (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Firestorm) but for prevailing winds gusting at 17 to 28 mph (27 to 45 km/h).. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bombing_of_Tokyo#cite_note-14) Approximately 15.8 square miles 25% of the city was destroyed and some 100,000 people are estimated to have died. A grand total of 282 of the 339 B-29s launched for "Meetinghouse" made it to the target, 27 of which failed to return due to enemy action, mechanical failure, or being caught in updrafts caused by the massive fires Emperor Hirohito's tour of the destroyed areas of Tokyo in March 1945 was the beginning of his personal involvement in the peace process, culminating in surrender six months later. https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/db/Tokyo_kushu_1945-3.jpg/300px-Tokyo_kushu_1945-3.jpg (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Tokyo_kushu_1945-3.jpg)https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/84/Tokyo_1945-3-10-1.jpggreater than Dresden (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bombing_of_Dresden_in_World_War_II), Hiroshima, or Nagasaki (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atomic_bombings_of_Hiroshima_and_Nagasaki) as single events... [wiki] http://www.eyewitnesstohistory.com/tokyo.htm (http://www.eyewitnesstohistory.com/tokyo.htm)

[Jimbuna]

1944 U-575 sinks HMS Asphodel.

[Jimbuna]

1915 The British declare a blockade of all German ports.

1918 Moscow becomes capital of revolutionary Russia.

1935 Hermann Goering officially creates German Air Force, the Luftwaffe.

[Jimbuna]

1917 A German submarine sinks an unamred US merchant ship, the 'Algonquin' on the same day that US President Wilson gives executive order to arm US merchant ships.

1938 Nazi Germany invades Austria (Anschluss).

1940 Finland surrenders to Russia during WWII, gives Karelische Isthmus.

1963 Beatles perform as a trio, John Lennon is ill with a cold.

[Jimbuna]

1915 German cruiser Dresden scuttled off Más a Tierra, Chile, having been pursued by the Royal Navy after the Battle of the Falkland Islands, with her engines worn out and virtually no coal.

1923 German Supreme Court prohibits NSDAP (Nazi party).

1939 Nazi Germany dissolves Republic of Czechoslovakia.

1943 World War II: Kraków Ghetto is "liquidated".

[Jimbuna]

1916 Dutch merchant ship Tubantia torpedoed by German submarine & sinks in North Sea.

1916 Gen Pershing and 15,000 troops chase Villa into Mexico; they stay there for 10 months.

1930 1st streamlined submarine of US navy, USS Nautilus, launched.

1939 Hitler occupies Bohemia & Moravia (Czechoslovakia); Slovakia independent.

1940 Hermann Goering says 100-200 church bells enough for Germany, smelt the rest.

[Jimbuna]

1931 Stalin throws Krupskaya Lenin out of Central Committee.

1932 German police raid Hitler's Nazi headquarters.

1942 Bełżec Concentration Camp opens with the transport of 30,000 Lublin Polish Jews.

1970 US casts their 1st UN Security Council veto (Support England).

[Jimbuna]

1915 French battleship Bouvet explodes, 640 killed.

1945 1,250 US bombers attacks Berlin.

1949 NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organisation) ratified.

[Catfish]

1915 German cruiser Dresden scuttled off Más a Tierra, Chile, having been pursued by the Royal Navy after the Battle of the Falkland Islands, with her engines worn out and virtually no coal.
...

Ah 'yes' :-?

[Jimbuna]

1932 The Sydney Harbour Bridge is opened.

1943 Airship Canadian Star torpedoed & sinks.

1945 800 killed as Kamikaze attacked USS Franklin off Japan.

1945 Adolf Hitler issues "Nero Decree" to destroy all German factories.

2003 Invasion of Iraq by American and British led coalition begins without United Nations support and in defiance of world opinion.

[Jimbuna]

1918 - Germany launches Somme offensive.

1939 Nazi-Germany demands Gdansk (Danzig) from Poland.

1943 Assassination attempt on Hitler fails.

1943 Massacre of the town of Kalavryta, Greece by German Nazi troops.

1944 Gen Eisenhower postpones invasion of the south of France until after Normandy.

[Jimbuna]

1941 James Stewart is inducted into the Army, becoming the first major American movie star to wear a military uniform in World War II.

1943 SS police chief Rauter threatens to kill half Jewish children.

1944 600+ 8th Air Force bombers attack Berlin.

1944 American movie star James Stewart flies his 12th combat mission, leading the 2nd Bomb Wing in an attack on Berlin.

[Jimbuna]

1919 8th Congress of the Russian Communist Party re-establishes a five-member Politburo which later becomes the center of political power in the Soviet Union. It's original members were Vladimir Lenin, Leon Trotsky, Joseph Stalin, Lev Kamenev and Nikolai Krestinsky.

1919 Benito Mussolini forms Fascist movement in Milan Italy.

1933 Enabling Act: German Reichstag grants Adolf Hitler dictatorial powers.

1942 2,500 Jews of Lublin massacred or deported.

1945 Largest operation in WWII's Pacific War, 1,500 US Navy ships bomb the Japanese island of Okinawa.

[Jimbuna]

1603 Scottish King James VI son of Mary Queen of Scots, becomes King James I of England in succession to Elizabeth I, thus joining the English and Scottish crowns.

1916 German submarines torpedo the French Channel packet 'Sussex' which is unarmed.

1944 76 Allied officers escape Stalag Luft 3 (Great Escape).

1999 Kosovo War: NATO commences air bombardment against Yugoslavia, marking the first time NATO has attacked a sovereign country.

[Jimbuna]

1807 British Parliament abolishes slave trade throughout the British Empire; a penalty of £120 per slave is introduced for slave ship captains.

1915 1st submarine disaster; a US F-4 sank off Hawaii, killing 21.

1942 1st 700 Jews from Polish Lvov district reach the Bełżec Concentration camp.

1944 RAF Flight Sgt Nicholas Alkemade survives a jump from his Lancaster bomber from 18,000 feet over Germany without a parachute; his fall was broken by pine trees and soft snow, and he suffered only a sprained leg.

1960 1st guided missile launched from nuclear powered sub (Halibut).

[tomfon]

1957 - Belgium, France, Luxembourg, Italy, the Netherlands and West Germany sign the Treaty of Rome and lay the foundations for establishing the European Economic Community.

[Jimbuna]

1941 Hitler signs Directive 27 (assault on Yugoslavia).

1942 Allies raid German submarine base in St Nazaire.

1944 1,000 Jews leave Drancy, France, for Auschwitz concentration camp.

1944 2,000 Jews are murdered in Kaunas Lithuania.

1944 40 Jewish policemen in Riga, Latvia, ghetto are shot by the Gestapo.

1944 Children's Aktion-Nazis collect all the Jewish children of Lovno.

1945 World War II: Operation Starvation, the aerial mining of Japan's ports and waterways begins.

[Jimbuna]

1854 Britain & France declare war on Russia (Crimean War).

1933 German Reichstag confers dictatorial powers on Hitler.

1939 Spanish Civil War ends, Madrid falls to Francisco Franco.

1941 Sea battle at Cape Matapan: British fleet under Cunningham defeats Italy.

1945 Last German V-1 (buzz bomb) attack on London.

[Jimbuna]

1912 Capt Robert Scott, storm-bound in a tent near South Pole, makes last entry in his diary "the end cannot be far".

1942 British cruiser HMS Trinidad torpedoes itself in the Barents Sea.

1942 British destroyer HMS Campbeltown explodes in St Nazaire: 400 Germans die.

1942 German submarine U-585 sinks.

[Jimbuna]

1867 US buys Alaska from Russia for $7,200,000 (2 cents an acre - Seward's Folly).

1939 The Heinkel He 100 fighter sets the world airspeed record of 463 mph.

1942 1st RSHA-transport from France arrives in camp Birkenau.

1942 SS murders 200 inmates of Trawniki labor camp.

1944 781 British bombers attack Nuremberg.

1945 A defecting German pilot delivers a Messerschmitt Me 262A-1 to Americans.

1949 Riot breaks out in Austurvöllur square in Reykjavík, when Iceland joined NATO.

[Jimbuna]

1814 Forces allied against Napoleon capture Paris.

1933 German Republic gives power to Hitler.

1939 Britain & France agree to support Poland if invaded by Germany.

1951 US tanks exceed 38° of latitude in Korea.

1954 USSR offers to join NATO.

1972 Final day of the rum ration in the Royal Canadian Navy.

[Jimbuna]

1918 United Kingdom: the Royal Air Force is created from the Royal Naval Air Service and the Royal Flying Corps.

1924 Hitler sentenced to 5 years labour but Gen Ludendorff acquitted.

1924 The Royal Canadian Air Force is formed.

1933 Heinrich Himmler becomes Police Commander of Germany.

1933 Nazi Germany begins persecution of Jews by boycotting Jewish businesses.

1969 The Hawker Siddeley Harrier (vertical take-off fighter) enters service with the RAF.

[Jimbuna]

1801 Napoleonic Wars: naval Battle of Copenhagen - The British led by Horatio Nelson destroy the Danish fleet.

1912 Titanic undergoes sea trials under its own power.

1917 US President Wilson asks Congress to declare war against Germany.

1982 Several thousand Argentine troops seize the Falkland (Malvinas) Islands from Great Britain.

[Aktungbby]

1801 Napoleonic Wars: naval Battle of Copenhagen - The British led by Horatio Nelson destroy the Danish fleet.

Indeed! A major affair of heavy guns, losses, and blinding smoke: and the mark of the (handicapped) man. a British (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Kingdom_of_Great_Britain_and_Ireland) fleet under the command of Admiral Sir Hyde Parker (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyde_Parker_(admiral)) fight a huge Danish (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Denmark)fleet (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Danish_Navy) anchored just off Copenhagen (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copenhagen) on 2 April 1801. Vice Admiral Horatio Nelson (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horatio_Nelson,_1st_Viscount_Nelson) led the main attack. He famously is reputed to have disobeyed Sir Hyde Parker's order to withdraw by holding the telescope to his blind eye to look at the signals from Parker. Parker's signals had given Nelson permission to withdraw at his discretion, yet he declined. Copenhagen is often considered to be Nelson's hardest-fought victory, with the Danes offering a very stubborn resistance.A man must know his limitations...and make good use of them:stare: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b1/The_Battle_of_Copenhagen_1801_by_Christian_M%C3%B8 lsted.jpg
Thinking that Nelson might have fought to a stand-still but might be unable to retreat without orders (the Articles of War (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Articles_of_War_(Royal_Navy)) demanded that all ranks 'do their utmost' against the enemy in battle), at 1:30pm Parker told his flag captain (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flag_captain), "I will make the signal of recall for Nelson's sake. If he is in condition to continue the action, he will disregard it; if he is not, it will be an excuse for his retreat and no blame can be imputed to him."Nelson ordered that the signal be acknowledged, but not repeated. He turned to his flag captain (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flag_captain), Thomas Foley (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Foley_(Royal_Navy_officer)), and said "You know, Foley, I only have one eye — I have the right to be blind sometimes," and then, holding his telescope to his blind eye (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turning_a_blind_eye) said "I really do not see the signal!":arrgh!:[ (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Copenhagen_(1801)#cite_note-15) And that is how battles are won through blind perseverance! :03: [wiki]

[Jimbuna]

1922 Joseph Stalin appointed General Secretary of the Russian Communist Party by Vladimir Lenin.

1941 Churchill warns Stalin of German invasion.

1944 British dive bombers attack battle cruiser Tirpitz.

1945 Nazis begin evacuation of camp Buchenwald.

1982 UN Security Council demanded Argentina withdraw from Falkland Islands.

[Jimbuna]

1812 British storm Badajoz fortress in Extremadura, Spain, held by French & Spanish.

1939 Membership of Hitler Youth becomes obligatory.

1974 World Trade Center, then the world's tallest building, opens in New York (110 stories).

[Jimbuna]

1916 German parliament approves unrestricted submarine warfare.

1917 US declares war on Germany, enters World War I.

1939 Great Britain & Poland sign military pact.

1945 Giant Japanese battleship Yamato heads to Okinawa.

[Catfish]

1916 German parliament approves unrestricted submarine warfare. [...]

And again, the german U-Boat war was not "unrestricted", not even in the time Germany declared it was.
In contrary to the Entente, whose war was total and unrestricted, from the beginning to the end. Q-ships and armed merchants are only the tip of the iceberg.

Then the "Kaiser" Emperor William 2nd was only in command of the navy, not army or air force. Although he called back and forbade the intended fire bombing of London after some air raids on the german Ruhr area.

Then, England abolishing slave trade in 1807.. thought it was 1833?


But then i have already given up to comment all i find wrong here :03:

[Aktungbby]

Then, England abolishing slave trade in 1807.. thought it was 1833?


But then i have already given up to comment all i find wrong here :03:
The Slave Trade Act 1807 or the Abolition of the Slave Trade Act 1807, was an Act (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Act_of_Parliament) of the Parliament of the United Kingdom (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parliament_of_the_United_Kingdom) passed on 25 March 1807, with the title of "An Act for the Abolition of the Slave Trade". The original act is in the Parliamentary Archives (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parliamentary_Archives). The act abolished the slave trade (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slave_trade) in the British Empire (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Empire), in particular the Atlantic slave trade (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atlantic_slave_trade), and also encouraged British action to press other European states to abolish their slave trades, but it did not abolish slavery (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slavery) itself. Many of the Bill's supporters thought the Act would lead to the death of slavery, but it was not until 26 years later that slavery itself was actually abolished. It remained legal in most of the British Empire until the Slavery Abolition Act 1833 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slavery_Abolition_Act_1833).
OF particular note: The Act created fines for captains who continued with the trade. These fines could be up to £100 per enslaved person found on a ship. Captains would sometimes dump captives overboard when they saw Navy ships coming in order to avoid these fines. The Royal Navy (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Navy), which then controlled the world's seas, established the West Africa Squadron (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/West_Africa_Squadron) in 1808 to patrol the coast of West Africa, and between 1808 and 1860 they seized approximately 1,600 slave ships and freed 150,000 Africans who were aboard. The Royal Navy declared that ships transporting slaves were the same as pirates (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piracy). Action was also taken against African leaders who refused to agree to British treaties to outlaw the trade, for example against "the usurping King of Lagos (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lagos)", who was deposed in 1851. Anti-slavery treaties were signed with over 50 African rulers.. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slave_Trade_Act_1807#cite_note-12)In the 1860s, David Livingstone (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Livingstone)'s reports of atrocities within the Arab slave trade (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arab_slave_trade) in Africa stirred up the interest of the British public, reviving the flagging abolitionist movement. The Royal Navy throughout the 1870s (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Royal_Navy) attempted to suppress "this abominable Eastern trade", at Zanzibar (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zanzibar) in particular. In 1890 Britain handed control of the strategically important island of Heligoland (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heligoland)e North Sea to Germany in return for control of Zanzibar, in part to help enforce the ban on slave trading...:timeout: wiki http://www.sonofthesouth.net/slavery/slave-trader.htm (http://www.sonofthesouth.net/slavery/slave-trader.htm) & http://www.historynet.com/hanging-captain-gordon.htm (http://www.historynet.com/hanging-captain-gordon.htm) Abraham Lincoln got into the act prior to the Emancipation Proclamation; the only execution of an American convicted of international slave trading, a capital crime under an 1820 federal piracy law: When President Abraham Lincoln refused to pardon Captain Gordon, http://www.correctionhistory.org/html/chronicl/tombs/gordon/gordonsketch2a.jpg he wrote: “I believe I am kindly enough in nature, and can be moved to pity and to pardon the perpetrator of almost the worst crime that the mind of man can conceive or the arm of man can execute; but any man, who, for paltry gain and stimulated only by avarice, can rob Africa of her children to sell into interminable bondage, I never will pardon.”

[Kaye T. Bai]

1862 - The Battle of Shiloh begins. Ultimately, American forces under Ulysses Grant would defeat the Confederates.
1917 - The U.S. declares war on Germany during World War I.
1994 - The Rwandan Genocide begins, tragically one of the great horror stories of modern times.

*snip*

Quite an important event. Abolitionist Frederick Douglass later cited it as one of his reasons why he admired Lincoln; proof that Lincoln despised slavery enough to have a criminal executed for enslaving people.

[Jimbuna]

1926 Mussolini is shot 3 times by Violet Gibson in Rome, only hitting him in the nose.

1945 US planes intercept Japanese fleet heading for Okinawa on a suicide superbattleship Yamato & four destroyers were sunk.

1999 The World Trade Organisation rules in favor of the United States in its long-running trade dispute with the European Union over bananas.

[Aktungbby]

1862 - The Battle of Shiloh begins. Ultimately, American forces under Ulysses Grant would defeat the Confederates.
Quite an important event. Abolitionist Frederick Douglass later cited it as one of his reasons why he admired Lincoln; proof that Lincoln despised slavery enough to have a criminal executed for enslaving people.

:sign_yeah:Considering the massive loss of life at Shiloh and Abe's willingness to enforce the law over the issue to set the matter right makes the anniversary of the following all the more ironic; where is anyone better off actually?!:hmmm: 1994: Civil war in Rwanda erupts hundreds of thousands of Tutsi and Hutu moderates are slaughtered by Hutu extremists. There is no consensus on the number of people killed during the genocide which lasted 100 days. Unlike the genocides carried out by Nazi Germany (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nazi_Germany) and the Khmer Rouge (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khmer_Rouge) in Cambodia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cambodia), authorities made no attempts to record deaths. The succeeding RPF government has stated that 1,071,000 were killed, 10% of whom were Hutu. The journalist Philip Gourevitch (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philip_Gourevitch) agrees with an estimate of one million, while the UN estimates the death toll as 800,000. Alex de Waal (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alex_de_Waal) and Rakiya Omar of African Rights estimate the number as "around 750,000," while Alison Des Forges (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alison_Des_Forges) of Human Rights Watch (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_Rights_Watch) stated that it was "at least 500,000." [wiki] Policymakers in France, Belgium, and the United States and at the United Nations were aware from the start that Tutsi were being targeted for elimination, the leading foreign actors refused to acknowledge the genocide. Not only did international leaders reject what was going on, but they also declined for weeks to use their political and moral authority to challenge the legitimacy of the genocidal government. They refused to declare that a government guilty of exterminating its citizens would never receive international assistance. They did nothing to silence the radio that televised calls for slaughter. Even after it had become indisputable that what was going on in Rwanda was a genocide, American officials had shunned the g-word, fearing that it would cause demands for intervention. Odd that we should fight a five year civil-war over a two hundred year old institution (legal slavery) then 'drop the ball' so miserably having fought yet another war (WWII) supposedly to put an end to genocide. But maybe that's just a weary history-major's perspective. :-?

[Jimbuna]

1940 German battle cruisers sink British aircraft carrier Glorious.

1945 Nazi occupiers executed, Nazi general Christiansen flees Netherlands.

1946 League of Nations assembles for last time.

[Aktungbby]

1945 Nazi occupiers executed, Nazi general Christiansen flees Netherlands.


Interesting case. Possibly proving the case: One should only fight in one world war per lifetime: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/1/11/Friedrichchristiansen.jpg/220px-Friedrichchristiansen.jpg (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Friedrichchristiansen.jpg) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friedrich_Christiansen (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friedrich_Christiansen)

[Nippelspanner]

Monday, April 9, 1912:
A last-minute shakeup occurs on the eve of the maiden voyage that was intended to give Titanic the expertise of Henry Wilde, who had most recently served as Chief Officer on Olympic under Capt. Smith. As a result William Murdoch is demoted to First Officer, the same post he most recently served on Olympic. Charles Lightoller is demoted to Second Officer, a post that had been assigned to David Blair. Blair left Titanic, taking with him the keys to a cupboard where a pair of binoculars were stored. As a result, the Titanic's officers lay claim to the binoculars to be used by the ship's lookouts, who will have to do without on the maiden voyage.

[Catfish]

Interesting case. Possibly proving the case: One should only fight in one world war per lifetime: ...

Sometimes you cannot choose.. the case with Christiansen is difficult to say at least.

[Jimbuna]

1865 US Civil War: Confederate General Robert E. Lee and 26,765 troops surrender at Appomattox Court House to US Lieutenant General Ulysses S. Grant.

1916 The Libau sets sail from Germany with a cargo of 20,000 rifles to assist Irish republicans; Captain Karl Spindler changes the name of the vessel to the Aud to avoid British detection.

1940 German cruiser Blucher torpedoed and capsizes in Oslofjord, 1,000 die.

1945 Battleship Admiral Scheer sunk by RAF bombing in Kiel.

1963 Winston Churchill becomes 1st honorary US citizen.

[Jimbuna]

1912 RMS Titanic sets sail from Southampton for her maiden (and final) voyage.

1945 Allies liberate 1st Nazi concentration camp, Buchenwald (Czech).

1998 The Good Friday/Belfast Agreement for Northern Ireland is signed by the British and Irish governments.

[tomfon]

1917 - Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov (or Vladimir Lenin) was born.

1941 - All forts of the "Metaxas Line" surrender to the Germans after 4 days of fierce battle.

[Jimbuna]

1783 Hostilities formally cease in the American Revolutionary War.

1814 Napoleon abdicates unconditionally; he is exiled to Elba.

1868 The Shogunate is abolished in Japan.

1900 The first modern submarine designed and built by John Philip Holland is purchased by the U.S. Navy.

1912 RMS Titanic leaves Queenstown Ireland for NY.

1933 Hermann Goering becomes Premier of Prussia.

1945 SS burns & shoots 1,100 at Gardelegen.

1951 US President Harry Truman fires Gen Douglas McArthur.

1961 Trial of Adolf Eichmann begins in Jerusalem.

[Aktungbby]

1900 The first modern submarine designed and built by John Philip Holland is purchased by the U.S. Navy.


WHY we R having so much fun today!:subsim:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Philip_Holland (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Philip_Holland) The Monitor, the Merrimak and a slip on Boston ice leads to: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/bc/USS_Holland_SS-1.gif https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/53/SS-1_Holland_diagram.png
"While a teacher in Cork, Holland read an account of the battle between the ironclads Monitor and Merrimack (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Hampton_Roads) during the American Civil War (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Civil_War). He realized that the best way to attack such ships would be through an attack beneath the waterline. He drew a design, but when he attempted to obtain funding, he was turned away....":timeout: Although I submit honorary subsimmer Georg Von Trapp (disgustingly handsome brute:03:) had the most fun: he not only married Whitehead (torpedo inventor's) granddaughter https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/8/8f/Whitehead-Agather_1909circa.jpg/220px-Whitehead-Agather_1909circa.jpg (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Whitehead-Agather_1909circa.jpg) who actually christened the launch of his first sub command Austrian SMU-6 in 1910, only a decade later!!??; racked up serious tonnage in the 'war to end all wars' and eventually 'steered for the Sound of Music instead of the 'sound of the guns'!:up:http://www.sound-of-music.com/fileadmin/user_upload/TRAPP_WHITEHEAD_KINDER.jpg

[Nippelspanner]

<complete chaos>
http://i.imgur.com/4SjBczL.gif
(Please.)

[Aktungbby]

^indeed! http://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1219867198p2/1727927.jpg (http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/1727927.Karl_D_nitz)"The reason that the American Navy does so well in wartime is that war is chaos, and the Americans practice chaos on a daily basis.” Karl Dönitz :arrgh!: Case rests! 1961: Yuri Gagarin becomes the first man to fly in space! The race to the moon is on and a way off this Götterdämmerung'd spinning mudball becomes feasible...:hmph:

[Jimbuna]

1811 1st US colonists on Pacific coast arrive at Cape Disappointment (Washington).

1916 Irish nationalist activist and poet Roger Casement boards submarine U-19 at Wilmshaven, Germany, bound for a rendezvous with the Aud at Tralee.

1937 Sir Frank Whittle ground-tests the first jet engine designed to power an aircraft at Rugby, England.

1941 Vichy-France's head of government Admiral Dalarn consults with Hitler.

1945 Canadian troops liberate Nazi concentration camp Westerbork, Netherlands.

1945 US President Franklin Roosevelt dies in office and Vice-President Harry Truman is sworn in as 33rd US President.

[Jimbuna]

1912 Royal Flying Corps forms (later Royal Air Force).

1940 2nd battle of Narvik; 8 German destroyers destroyed.

1944 Transport nr 71 departs with French Jews to nazi-Germany.

1970 Apollo 13 announces "Houston, we've got a problem!" as Beech-built oxygen tank explodes en route to Moon.

[Eichhörnchen]

14 April 1865:

http://www.history.com/topics/abraham-lincoln-assassination

[BossMark]

1912 - The Atlantic passenger liner Titanic, on its maiden voyage hit an iceberg and began to sink. 1,517 people lost their lives and more than 700 survived.
1918 - The First US Aero Squadron engaged in America's first aerial dogfight with enemy aircraft over Toul, France.
1953 - Viet Minh invaded Laos with 40,00 troops.

[Jimbuna]

1915 Dutch merchant navy ship Katwijk sunk by Germany torpedo.

1918 Douglas Campbell is 1st US ace pilot (shooting down 5th German plane).

1941 1st massive German raid in Paris, 3,600 Jews rounded up.

1942 Destroyer Roper sinks German U-85 of US east coast.

1944 1st Jews transported from Athens arrive at Auschwitz.

1945 American planes bomb Tokyo & damage the Imperial Palace.

[Aktungbby]

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/5d/Titanic_iceberg.jpg/1280px-Titanic_iceberg.jpg
THE likely culprit of the long night of 4/14/12 https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/09/Titanic_porting_around_English.svg/500px-Titanic_porting_around_English.svg.png (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Titanic_porting_around_English.svg)
The chief steward of the liner Prinz Adalbert - How Large Was The Iceberg That Sank The Titanic (http://www.webcitation.org/64K4nFXTL). Navigation Center, United States Coast Guard. Archived fromthe original (http://www.navcen.uscg.gov/?pageName=iipHowLargeWasTheIcebergThatSankTheTITAN IC) on December 30, 2011. Retrieved on December 30, 2011.…
The iceberg suspected of having sunk the RMS Titanic. The iceberg was reported to have a streak of red paint from a ship's hull along its waterline on one side. This iceberg was photographed by the chief steward of the liner Prinz Adalbert on the morning of April 15, 1912, just a few miles south of where the “Titanic” went down. The steward hadn't yet heard about the Titanic. What caught his attention was the smear of red paint along the base of the berg, indication that it had collided with a ship sometime in the previous twelve hours. This photo and information was taken from "UNSINKABLE" The Full Story of RMS Titanic written by Daniel Allen Butler, Stackpole Books 1998. Other accounts indicated that there were several icebergs in the vicinity where the TITANIC collided.

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/27/Titanic-sinking-animation.gif (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Titanic-sinking-animation.gif) A footnote to history I was not aware of: Two weeks before the sinking, Lightoller boarded the RMS Titanic (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RMS_Titanic) in Belfast, acting as first officer (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chief_mate) for the sea trials. Captain Smith gave the post of chief officer (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chief_mate) to Henry Wilde (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Tingle_Wilde) of the Olympic, demoting the original appointee William McMaster Murdoch (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_McMaster_Murdoch) to first officer and Lightoller to second officer. The original second officer, David Blair (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Blair_(mariner)), was excluded from the voyage altogether, while the ship's roster of junior officers remained unchanged. Blair's departure from the crew caused a problem, as he had the key to the ship's binocular case. Because the crew lacked access to binoculars (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Binoculars), Lightoller promised to purchase them when the Titanic got to New York (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_York_City). Later, the missing key and resultant lack of binoculars for the lookouts (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lookout):Kaleun_Binocular: in the crow's nest (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crow%27s_nest) became a point of contention at the U.S. inquiry into the Titanic disaster. wiki ....22.5 (22.5@>%) knots with no binoculars in the lookout stations....a personnel management problem! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Lightoller (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Lightoller)