This date in history

[Aktungbby]

Originally Posted by 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.

1789: A little good PR to cover up the nearby disaster it seems: the disaster at Isandlwana of the main British force. Approximately 1300 British(800) and auxiliary(500) forces (out of a force of 1700+) were killed by 20,000 Zulu warriors. There were no prisoners...the Zulu suffered suffered around a thousand killed. The fighting had been hand to hand and no quarter was given to the British regulars(in red). The Zulus had been commanded to ignore the civilians in black coats and this meant that some officers, whose patrol dress was dark blue and black at the time, were spared and escaped.

An officer in advance from Chelmsford's force gave this eyewitness account of the final stage of the battle at about 3:00pm.
"In a few seconds we distinctly saw the guns fired again, one after the other, sharp. This was done several times – a pause, and then a flash – flash! The sun was shining on the camp at the time, and then the camp looked dark, just as if a shadow was passing over it. The guns did not fire after that, and in a few minutes all the tents had disappeared." Nearly the same moment is described in a Zulu warrior's account. "The sun turned black in the middle of the battle; we could still see it over us, or should have thought we had been fighting till evening. Then we got into the camp, and there was a great deal of smoke and firing. Afterwards the sun came out bright again."] The time of the solar eclipse on that day is calculated as 2:29pm.

An eclipse in the middle of a big battle has got to have a psychological effect....they never show that in the movie The measure of respect that the British gained for their opponents as a result of Isandlwana can be seen in that in none of the other engagements of the Zulu War did the British attempt to fight again in their typical linear formation, known famously as the Thin Red Line, in an open-field battle with the main Zulu impi. In the battles that followed, the British, when facing the Zulu, entrenched themselves or formed very close-order formations, such as the square. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Isandlwana

[Jimbuna]

1945 World War II: Karl Dönitz launches Operation Hannibal.

1962 British intellegence officer Kim Philby defects to USSR.

[Jimbuna]

1908 Lieutenant General Robert Baden-Powell publishes "Scouting for Boys" as a manual for self-instruction in outdoor skills and self-improvement. The book becomes the inspiration for the Scout Movement.

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

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

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

1958 After warming to 100,000,000 degrees, 2 light atoms are bashed together to create a heavier atom, resulting in 1st man-made nuclear fusion.

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

1984 Apple Computer Inc unveils its revolutionary Macintosh personal computer.

[Jimbuna]

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.

1964 The Beatles get their first US #1, "I Want to Hold your Hand"

1971 Military coup in Uganda under Major General Idi Amin.

1980 Highest speed attained by a warship, 167 kph, USN hovercraft.

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

[Jimbuna]

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

1907 The Short Magazine Lee-Enfield Mk III rifle officially introduced into British Military Service, 2nd oldest military rifle still in official use.

1926 John Logie Baird gives the first public demonstration of television in his laboratory in London.

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

1945 Soviet forces reach Auschwitz concentration camp.

1968 Israeli submarine Dakar sinks in Mediterranean Sea, 69 die.

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.

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

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

[Jimbuna]

1915 First 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.

1982 Italian police rescue, James Dozier, a US Brigadier General, held hostage by the Red Brigade for 6 weeks.

[Jimbuna]

1856 Victoria Cross established to acknowledge valour in the face of the enemy (United Kingdom and Commonwealth countries).

1916 First bombing of Paris by German Zeppelins takes place.

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

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.

2015 Malaysia officially declares the disappearance of missing flight MH370 an accident.

[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 first ironclad warship launched.

1943 6 British Mosquitos bomb Berlin in daylight.

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. Then world's largest ever state funeral.

[Jimbuna]

1915 First (German) poison gas attack, against Russians.

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

1943 General Friedrich von Paul surrenders to Soviet troops at Stalingrad.

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

1944 U-592 sunk off Ireland.

1950 US President Harry Truman publicly announces support for the development of a hydrogen bomb.

[Mr Quatro]

January 31st 1892

Death of Charles Spurgeon, a Baptist minister considered one of the greatest preachers of all time.

[Jimbuna]

1917 German Großadmiral Alfred von Tirpitz announces unlimited submarine war.

1942 Second Norwegian government of Quisling forms.

1943 German occupiers make Vidkun Quisling Norwegian premier.

1950 USSR demands condemnation of Emperor Hirohito for war crimes.

1968 Saigon police chief Nguyễn Ngọc Loan executes Viet Cong officer Nguyễn Văn Lém with a pistol shot to head. The execution is captured by photographer Eddie Adams and becomes an anti-war icon.

[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 in St. George's Chapel, Windsor Castle, England.

1943 German 6th Army surrenders after Battle of Stalingrad in a major turning point in Europe during World War II.

1954 President Eisenhower reports detonation of 1st H-bomb (done in 1952).

[Aktungbby]

1954 President Eisenhower reports detonation of 1st H-bomb (done in 1952).

...and the nuclear clock is still ticking: <I wasn't even one year old... "nuthin' bad goes outta style either BBY!"https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/25/world/americas/doomsday-clock-nuclear-scientists.html

[Jimbuna]

1917 US liner Housatonic is sunk by German submarine, on the same day that US President Woodrow Wilson breaks off diplomatic relations with Germany.