This date in history

[Jimbuna]

1783 Fighting ceases in the American Revolution, eight years to the day since it began.

1915 French pilot Roland Garros is shot down and glides to a landing on the German side of the lines during World War I.

1942 James Doolittle bombs Tokyo and other Japanese cities.

[Sailor Steve]

This post in the '100 Years' thread caught my eye:

Originally Posted by Jimbuna

Edmond Genet, American volunteer in the French Foreign Legion, becomes the 1st American flier to be KIA after the U.S. declaration of war.

Genet was an interesting person. He was still in the United States Navy when he joined the Foreign Legion, so he was technically a deserter. After his death the War Department sent a telegram to his family assuring them that his service was honorable and as the first official American casualty of the war he would be revered as a hero.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edmond_Genet

What really got my attention was the name itself, and I knew there had to be a connection. Sure enough, at the time Genet was already famous in France as the great-grandson of one of the French Revolution's early heroes. The problem was that the original Edmond Genet, while trying to help the cause of France, became known as a troublemaker and potential enemy of the United States. In his zeal to win American support for France in her war with Britain, Genet recruited soldiers and hired ships to act as privateers, seriously affecting America's position of neutrality, so much so that President Washington himself wanted Genet to be deported back to France. All-in-all the 'Citizen Genet' affair is remembered as a troubled time for the first president.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edmond-Charles_Gen%C3%AAt

[Aktungbby]

Originally Posted by STEED

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

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

Originally Posted by 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.

I wonder how 6700 tons (per the video) compares to APR 16 1946's USS Grancamp fiasco: 2200 tons of ammonium nitrate with the initial blast and subsequent chain-reaction of further fires and explosions in other ships and nearby oil-storage facilities. It killed at least 581 people, including all but one member of the Texas City fire department ...and the nearby USS High Flyer. She was docked about 600 feet (200 m) away from the SS Grandcamp. The High Flyer contained an additional 961 short tons (872 metric tons) of ammonium nitrate and 1,800 short tons (1,600 metric tons) of sulfur. The Grandcamp explosion destroyed the Monsanto Chemical Company plant and resulted in ignition of refineries and chemical tanks on the waterfront. Falling bales of burning twine from the ship's cargo added to the damage while the Grandcamp's anchor was hurled across the city. Two sightseeing airplanes flying nearby had their wings shorn off, forcing them out of the sky. 10 miles (16 km) away, people in Galveston were forced to their knees.http://www.texascity-library.org/disaster/second.php

[Jimbuna]

1943 SS-lt-gen Jurgen Stoop leads destruction of ghetto of Warsaw.

1951 Gen Douglas MacArthur ends his military career.

1967 Beatles sign a contract to stay together for 10 years (they don't).

[Jimbuna]

1918 Manfred von Richthofen, aka The Red Baron, shoots down his 79th and 80th victims marking his final victories before his death the following day.

1942 German occupiers forbids Dutch access to their beaches.

1945 Soviet artillery begins shelling Berlin.

1945 US 7th army captured German city of Nuremberg.

1962 NASA civilian pilot Neil Armstrong takes X-15 to 63,250 m.

1976 George Harrison sings lumberjack song with Monty Python.

[Jimbuna]

1836 Battle of San Jacinto, Texas wins independence from Mexico.

1918 World War I: German fighter ace Baron Manfred von Richthofen "The Red Baron", shot down and killed over Vaux sur Somme in France, Canadian pilot Arthur Roy Brown credited with the kill.

[Aktungbby]

Originally Posted by Jimbuna

1836 Battle of San Jacinto, Texas wins independence from Mexico.

How to take care of 'paperwork' 101! Win the war....and start a new nation all at the same time! http://www.thestoryoftexas.com/discover/artifacts/the-surrender-of-santa-anna

[Von Due]

753 BC - Rome was founded, tradition says.

[Jimbuna]

1915 First military use of poison gas (chlorine, by Germany) in WWI.

1940 Rear Adm Joseph Taussig testifies before US Senate Naval Affairs Committee that war with Japan is inevitable.

1945 Concentration Camp at Sachsenhausen liberated.

[Kaye T. Bai]

1800 - The U.S. Library of Congress is created.
1877 - Russia goes to war with the Ottomans.
1915 - The Armenian Genocide begins.
1918 - The first tank battle occurs between the UK and Germany.
1957 - The Suez Canal is reopened.
1970 - The Gambia becomes a republic.
1993 - The IRA blows up a bomb in London, United Kingdom.
2004 - The U.S. lifts sanctions it had put on Libya 18 years prior.
2005 - Joseph Ratzinger becomes the pope.
2013 - Riots break out in China.

[Jimbuna]

1184 BC The Greeks enter Troy using the Trojan Horse (traditional date).

1953 Winston Churchill knighted by Queen Elizabeth II.

1969 Paul McCartney says there is no truth to rumors he is dead.

[Aktungbby]

1898: Spain declares war on the United States. the united States responds in kind the next day; and an empire is born! much of the miseries of the 20th century will ensue.... ERRRR well we've still got Puerto Rico, Guam and a perpetual lease on Guantanamo Bay. Oddly the war officially ended in 2006 as 'money is the sinews of war' ??!!: To pay the costs of the war, Congress passed an excise tax on long-distance phone service. At the time, it affected only wealthy Americans who owned telephones. However, the Congress neglected to repeal the tax after the war ended four months later, and the tax remained in place for over 100 years until, on August 1, 2006, it was announced that the U.S. Department of the Treasury and the IRS would no longer collect the tax.

[Kaye T. Bai]

1792 - The French national anthem is composed and the first guillotine execution occurs.
1829 - HMS Challenger arrives off the coast of present-day western Australia.
1846 - The Mexican-U.S. War begins.
1862 - During the U.S. Civil War, the U.S. Navy demands the surrender of the enemy-held city of New Orleans, LA.
1864 - During the U.S. Civil War, American forces are defeated by the Confederates at the Battle of Marks' Mills.
1898 - The United States of America declares war on Spain.
1901 - New York becomes the first U.S. state to use automotive license plates.
1916 - The UK declares martial law in Ireland.
1945 - During World War II, Nazi forces withdraw from northern Italy.
1951 - During the Korean War, Chinese forces are forced to withdraw after heavy fighting with UN forces at the Battle of Kapyong.
1975 - During the Vietnam War, Australia evacuates its embassy in South Vietnam as enemy forces approach the country's capital.
1982 - The Israelis withdraw from the Sinai Peninsula.
1983 - Space probe Pioneer 10 travels beyond Pluto's orbit.
2005 - Two new countries apply to join the European Union.
2007 - Former Russian president Boris Yeltsin's funeral is held.
2015 - An earthquake hits Nepal, killing thousands.

[Aktungbby]

404 BC: The Peloponnesian War ends as Athens surrenders to Sparta. Helot brewers from Sparta's enslaved neighbor province of Messinia were compelled to create a new celebratory beer; Hoplite Pale Ale.

[Jimbuna]

1915 First landings at Gaba Tepe and Cape Helles on the Gallipoli Peninsula by ANZAC forces during WWI.

1945 "Elbe Day" - US and Soviet forces meet at Torgau, Germany on the Elbe River during the invasion of Germany in WWII.

1945 Red army completely surrounds Berlin.

1954 Bell labs announces the 1st solar battery made from silicon. It has about 6% efficiency.

1960 First submerged circumnavigation of Earth completed (USS Triton).