This date in history

[Jimbuna]

1915 World War I: 4 people in Norfolk are killed in the 1st German Zeppelin air raid attack on the United Kingdom.

1974 China and South Vietnam clash over the Paracel Islands, resulting in a Chinese victory.

1977 Snow falls in Miami, Florida. This is the only time in the history of the city that snowfall has occurred. It also fell in the Bahamas.

1978 The last Volkswagen Beetle made in Germany leaves VW's plant in Emden. Beetle production in Latin America would continue until 2003.

1981 US & Iran sign agreement to release 52 American hostages.

1983 Klaus Barbie, SS chief in Lyon in Nazi-occupied France, arrested in Bolivia.

[Red Devil]

Originally Posted by Aktungbby

1911: Legendary airman, Eugene Ely, lands aboard
USS Pennsylvania in San Francisco Bay in first shipboard touchdown after having flown off a ship 3 days before...essentially confirming carrier warfare's feasibility w/o a one-way trip later used by desperate Japan in WWII...

Didnt know that they already had mid air refueling - 3 day flight WOW!!!

[Jimbuna]

1771 Spain cedes Falkland Islands to Britain.

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.

1905 In St Petersburg, Russia, a large demonstration of workers led by Father Gapon, march to the Winter Palace with a petition to the Tsar; troops fire on protesters in what becomes known as 'Bloody Sunday'

[Red Devil]

1771 Spain cedes Falkland Islands to Britain.

It was never argie. French came saw nothing and left, spain arrived said sod this and gave it to Britain. Now that its got potential minerals and oil, the argies decided it was theirs. Oil company wanted to do some exploratory work, and London said its up the the Falkland Islanders who does what and where. Communist labour MP said he would 'give it back to the argies' if he got in. Luckily he didn't.

[Jimbuna]

1795 War of the First Coalition: French cavalry captures 14 Dutch ships and 850 guns near the port of Den Helder - rare instance of cavalry capturing a fleet.

1920 Dutch refuse to turn over ex-Emperor William II of Germany to allies.

1945 World War II: Karl Dönitz launches Operation Hannibal to evacuate German soldiers and civilians from Prussia by sea.

1968 Spy ship USS Pueblo & 83-man crew seized in Sea of Japan by North Korea.

1973 US President Richard Nixon announces an accord has been reached to end the Vietnam War.

1976 The Provisional Irish Republican Army truce of February 1975 is officially brought to an end.

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

[Jimbuna]

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

1916 The Military Service Bill, calling for conscription of men for war services, passes in the British House of Commons.

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

1943 Jewish patients, nurses and doctors incinerated at Auschwitz-Birkenau.

1962 Brian Epstein signs management contract with the Beatles.

1968 Operation Coburg, an Australian and New Zealand military action during the Vietnam War, begins.

1972 Japanese Sgt. Shoichi Yokoi is found hiding in a Guam jungle, where he had been since the end of World War II.

[Jimbuna]

1918 Russia declared a republic of Soviets.

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.

1969 US-North Vietnamese peace talks begin in Paris.

1981 52 Americans held hostage by Iran for 444 days arrived back in US

1981 Mao's widow Jiang Qing sentenced to death.

1983 China's supreme court commutes Chiang Ch'ing's death sentence to life.

1983 Nazi war criminal Klaus Barbie arrested in Bolivia.

[Jimbuna]

1788 Captain Arthur Phillip and British colonists hoist the Union Flag at Sydney Cove, New South Wales, now celebrated as Australia Day. Referred to as Invasion Day by some First Nations people.

1841 Hong Kong proclaimed a sovereign territory of Britain.

1932 British submarine M-2 sinks in English Channel (60 dead)

1945 Soviet forces reach Auschwitz concentration camp.

1972 Serbian air stewardess Vesna Vulovic survives 10,160m fall without parachute - world's highest fall without a parachute.

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"

[Jimbuna]

1924 Lenin placed in Mausoleum in Red Square, Moscow.

1941 Peruvian ambassador Ricardo Rivera-Schreiber warns American Ambassador of Japanese assault on Pearl Harbor.

1944 Siege of Leningrad lifted by the Soviets after 880 days and more than 2 million Russians killed.

1945 Soviet troops liberate Auschwitz and Birkenau Concentration Camps in Poland.

1968 French submarine Minerve disappears in the Mediterranean with the loss of 52 crew.

1972 The British Army and the Irish Republican Army engage in gun battles near County Armagh; British troops fire over 1,000 rounds of ammunition.

1972 Two Royal Ulster Constabulary officers shot dead by IRA in an attack on their patrol car in the Creggan Road, Derry.

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

1996 Germany celebrates its 1st Holocaust Remembrance Day.

[Red Devil]

1972 The British Army and the Irish Republican Army engage in gun battles near County Armagh; British troops fire over 1,000 rounds of ammunition.

Actually The PIRA. The IRA is the political wing. PIRA were gun nutters.

[Jimbuna]

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

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

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

1986 Space shuttle challenger explodes 73 seconds after liftoff from Cape Canaveral, with all 7 crew members killed, including Christa McAuliffe who was to be the first teacher in space.

[Jimbuna]

1595 William Shakespeare's play "Romeo and Juliet" is thought to have been first performed. Officially published early 1597.

1886 Karl Benz patents the "Benz Patent-Motorwagen" in Karlsruhe, Germany, the world's 1st automobile with a burning motor.

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

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

1943 U.S. cruiser "Chicago" is heavily damaged by Japanese bombers on the first day of the Battle of Rennell Island.

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

1980 6 Iranian-held US hostages escape with help of Canadians.

1985 Oxford University refuses to award Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher an honorary degree.

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.

[Red Devil]

Originally Posted by Jimbuna

1986 Space shuttle challenger explodes 73 seconds after liftoff from Cape Canaveral, with all 7 crew members killed, including Christa McAuliffe who was to be the first teacher in space.

The hardest part was seeing it happening live on tv. A hell of a shock.

[Rockstar]

80 years ago tonight. 13 Halifaxes and Stirlings used the H2S ground-mapping radar operationally for the first time.

[Aktungbby]

...after 5 years, to this fabulous thread Rockstar!