This date in history

[Jimbuna]

1857 The first 62 recipients are awarded the Victoria Cross for valour in the Crimean war by Queen Victoria.

1917 1st US troops arrive in France during World War I

1918 The Australian steamer Wimmera is sunk by a mine laid north of Cape Maria van Diemen in 1917 by the German raider Wolf; 26 of its 151 passengers and crew were killed.

1948 US begin airlift “Operation Vittles” to West Berlin.

1963 US President John F. Kennedy gives his famous "Ich bin ein Berliner" (intended to mean "I am a Berliner", but may actually mean "I am a doughnut") speech in West Berlin.

[Jimbuna]

1743 War of the Austrian Succession: Battle of Dettingen: in Bavaria, King George II of Britain personally leads troops into battle. The last time a British monarch commanded troops in the field.

1905 Russian sailors mutiny aboard battleship "Potemkin" and sail for Odessa.

1929 President Paul von Hindenburg refuses to pay German debt of WWI

1942 FBI captures 8 Nazi saboteurs from a sub off NY's Long Island.

1942 PQ-17 convoy leaves Iceland for Archangelsk.

1950 North Korean troops reach Seoul, UN asks members to aid South Korea, Harry Truman orders US Air Force & Navy into Korean conflict.

[Jimbuna]

1914 Franz Ferdinand, Archduke of Austria and his wife Sophie are assassinated in Sarajevo by young Serb nationalist Gavrilo Princip at 10.45, the casus belli of WWI

1919 Treaty of Versailles, ending WWI and establishing the League of Nations, is signed in France.

[Aktungbby]

Originally Posted by Jimbuna

1914 Franz Ferdinand, Archduke of Austria and his wife Sophie are assassinated in Sarajevo by young Serb nationalist Gavrilo Princip at 10.45, the casus belli of WWI

1919 Treaty of Versailles, ending WWI and establishing the League of Nations, is signed in France.

ALL NEATLY TIDIED UP IN ONLY HALF A DECADE! not! ...YOUNG ADOLF (FAR RIGHT) AND HIS DOG FUCHS

<IN THE END (1939) WE'RE ALL FUCH'D ??!! http://www.historyplace.com/worldwar2/riseofhitler/warone.htm

[Jimbuna]

1922 France grants 1 km² at Vimy Ridge "freely, and for all time, to the Government of Canada, the free use of the land exempt from all taxes."

1940 Batman Comics, mobsters rubbed out a circus highwire team known as the Flying Graysons, leaving their son Dick (Robin) an orphan.

1943 Germany begins withdrawing U-boats from North Atlantic in anticipation of the Allied invasion of Europe.

1952 USS Oriskany becomes first aircraft carrier to sail around Cape Horn.

[Jimbuna]

1905 In Russia, the "Potemkin" arrives at Odessa, where sailors take the bodies of dead crewman ashore; sailors join civilians in revolutionary actions of the '1905 Revolution'

1905 The crew of the Russian battleship "Georgei Pobiedonosets" mutinies in support of the "Potemkin", which mutinied three days earlier.

1934 "Night of Long Knives" - Adolf Hitler stages a bloody purge of the Nazi party.

1939 Heinkel He 176 rocket plane flies for first time, at Peenemunde.

1942 U-boats sink and damage 146 allied ships this month (700,227 tons).

1950 US General MacArthur visits front in South Korea/asks for US troops.

[Jimbuna]

1916 First day of the Battle of the Somme: the British Army suffers its worst day, losing 19,240 men (WWI)

1946 US drops atom bomb on Bikini atoll (4th atomic explosion).

1950 First 407 US soldiers flown to South Korea.

1997 United Kingdom returns Hong Kong and the New Territories to the People's Republic of China.

[Jimbuna]

1816 French frigate "La Méduse" runs aground under incompetent leadership of aristocrat Viscount of Chaumareys, forcing evacuation of 400 passengers. 150 men, 1 woman are left on "la Machine," a poorly provisioned raft. 13 days later only 15 survivors remain due to starvation, riots, madness, suicide, and cannibalism.

1839 Slaves aboard a Spanish schooner La Amistad revolt to secure their freedom while being transported from one Cuban port to another.

1926 US Army Air Corps created; Distinguished Flying Cross authorized, to award "heroism or extraordinary achievement while participating in an aerial flight"

1941 Nazi mass murder in Lvov/Lemberg (7,000 dead).

1943 Gulf of Biskaje: Liberator bombers sinks U-126.

1943 Lieutenant Charles Hall becomes first African American pilot to shoot down a Nazi plane.

1957 First submarine designed to fire guided missiles launched, Grayback.

[Jimbuna]

1939 Ernst Heinkel demonstrates 800 kph (500 mph) rocket plane to Adolf Hitler.

1940 British Royal Navy damages the French fleet in Mers-el-Kebir, Algeria, to prevent Germany seizing it.

1943 Liberator bombers sinks U-628

[Jimbuna]

1776 US Congress proclaims the Declaration of Independence and independence from Britain.

1934 Hungarian physicist Leo Szilard patents the chain-reaction design for the atomic bomb.

1940 British destroys French battle fleet at Oran, Algeria, 1267 die.

1944 1,100 US guns fire 4th of July salute at German lines in Normandy.

1944 1st Japanese kamikaze attack, US fleet near Iwo Jima.

1945 Field Marshal Henry Maitland Wilson gives Britain's agreement to use the atomic bomb against Japan at the Combined Policy Committee in Washington D. C.

1954 Meat and all other food rationing officially ends in Britain, nine years after the end of World War II

1976 Israel launches rescue of 103 Air France crew and passengers being held at Entebbe Airport in Uganda by pro-Palestinian hijackers.

1987 Nazi Klaus Barbie, "Butcher of Lyon" sentenced to life in France.

1988 US Navy shoots down Iranian civilian jetliner over Gulf, kills 290.

2017 North Korea tests first successful intercontinental ballistic missile into Sea of Japan.

[Aktungbby]

1826: John Adam's and Thomas Jefferson, both original signers of the Declaration of Independance a half century before, die on the same day!

[Platapus]

Originally Posted by Aktungbby

1826: John Adam's and Thomas Jefferson, both original signers of the Declaration of Independance a half century before, die on the same day!

Almost interesting trivia questions


1. Who died first, Adams or Jefferson?
2. What other president died on July 4th?

[Jimbuna]

1940 Diplomatic relations broken between Britain and Vichy government in France.

1942 Ian Fleming graduates from a training school for spies in Canada.

1943 Battle of Kursk, USSR begins (6,000 tanks).

1943 Liberator bombers sink U-535 in Gulf of Biscay.

1950 US forces enter combat in the Korean War for the first time, in the Battle of Osan.

1954 B-52A bomber makes its maiden flight.

1973 Test cricket debut of English umpire Harold "Dickie" Bird v NZ at Leeds (66 Tests, 69 ODI)

[Jimbuna]

1942 Anne Frank's family goes into hiding in After House, Amsterdam.

1943 Second day of battle at Kursk: 25,000 Germans killed.

1943 US destroyer William D Porter [Willie Dee] launched.

1944 US General Patton lands in France.

1947 The Ak-47 goes into production in the Soviet Union.

1999 U.S. Army private Barry Winchell dies from baseball-bat injuries inflicted in his sleep the previous day by fellow soldiers for his relationship with transgendered showgirl and former Navy combat medic, Calpernia Addams.

[Jimbuna]

1456 A retrial verdict acquits Joan of Arc of heresy 25 years after her death.

1941 US forces land in Iceland to forestall German invasion.

1943 Third day of battle at Kursk: Germans occupy Dubrova.

1943 Erich Hartmann shoots down 7 Russian aircraft at Kursk.

1943 Liberator bombers sinks U-517.

1943 German Submarine U-951 sunk by depth charges, off Cape St. Vincent in the North Atlantic.

1944 RAF Bomber Command drop 2,572 tons of bombs on Caen, France.

1947 Alleged and disputed Roswell UFO incident.

1952 SS United States cross Atlantic in record 82:40.