This date in history

[Jimbuna]

30 Scholars' estimate for Jesus' crucifixion by Roman troops in Jerusalem.

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 and four destroyers were sunk.

[Jimbuna]

1940 German battlecruisers Gneisenau and Scharnhors sink British aircraft carrier Glorious.

[Jimbuna]

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]

1858 "Big Ben", a 13.76 tonne bell, is recast in the Tower of Westminster.

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

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

[Jimbuna]

1783 Hostilities formally cease in the American Revolutionary War.

1814 Napoleon abdicates unconditionally; he is exiled to Elba.

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

[Jimbuna]

1935 First flight of the Bristol Blenheim.

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.

1961 Russian cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin becomes the first person to orbit Earth (Vostok 1).

[Jimbuna]

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

1940 Second battle of Narvik; 3 German destroyers and one U-boat sunk by the Royal Navy, 5 more German destroyers scuttled.

[Jimbuna]

1912 RMS Titanic hits an iceberg at 11.40pm off Newfoundland.

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

1943 A JN-25 decrypt by American intelligence detailing a forthcoming visit by Marshal Admiral Yamamoto to Balalae Island results in his plane shot down 4 days later.

1945 American planes bomb Tokyo & damage the Imperial Palace.

[Kaye T. Bai]

1865 - U.S. President Abraham Lincoln is shot and the U.S. Secretary of State William Seward is injured in a botched assassination.
1941 - The Germans attack Tobruk, Libya during World War II.
1909 - Armenians are killed by the Ottomans in a massacre.
1981 - The space shuttle Columbia completes its first test flight.
1988 – The USS Samuel B. Roberts strikes a mine in the Persian Gulf.
1991 - The first president of the newly-independent country of Georgia takes office.
1994 - The USAF mistakenly shoots down two U.S. Army helicopters, killing 26 people.
2003 - The Human Genome Project is completed.

[Jimbuna]

1865 Abraham Lincoln dies 9 hours after he is shot attending the play "Our American Cousin" at Ford's Theatre in Washington.

1912 RMS Titanic sinks at 2:27 AM off Newfoundland as the band plays on.

1942 George VI awards George Cross to people of Malta.

1945 British Army liberates Nazi concentration camp Bergen-Belsen.

[Jimbuna]

1945 Colditz Castle, the high-security prisoner of war camp in Germany, is liberated by American troops.

1948 Organization for European Economic Cooperation (EEC) forms in Paris.

1951 British submarine Affray sank in English Channel, killing 75.

1953 British royal yacht Britannia launched by Queen Elizabeth II.

[Kaye T. Bai]

1862 - Amidst the U.S. Civil War, the American capital of Washington ends slavery.
1945 - The Americans liberate a Nazi POW camp in Saxony.
1972 - Apollo 16 takes off from Cape Canaveral in Florida.
1990 - Jack Kevorkian gives his first assisted suicide.
2003 - Ten new countries join the European Union.
2007 - A South Korean man shoots and kills 32 people at the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University. (I have a bit of a personal connection to this since I was in Virginia, at the Norfolk naval base when this happened. RIP.)
2013 - An earthquake strikes Iran.
2014 - The South Korean ferry Sewol capsizes and sinks, killing 304 on board.

[Jimbuna]

1961 1,400 Cuban exiles land in Bay of Pigs in a doomed attempt to overthrow Fidel Castro.

[STEED]

Britain's 'big bang' in Heligoland, 70 years on

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-39590752

[Sailor Steve]

WOW!

That was a big bang! Also one I'd never heard of. Fascinating that they would do that. Looking at the modern video, I'm glad the island survived. Looks like a cool place.

Thanks for posting that, STEED.