This date in history

[Jimbuna]

1863 George Armstrong Custer, aged 23, appointed Union Brigadier General.

1900 The Imperial Chinese Court issues what is essentially a declaration of war against foreigners in China blaming them for hostilities and giving license to the Boxers for even greater ferocity.

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.

1966 Vietnam War: US planes bomb the North Vietnamese capital Hanoi and the port city of Haiphong for the first time.

1994 US reopens Guantanamo Naval Base to process refugees.

[Aktungbby]

1613 the Globe Theatre in London burns down; the fire started from a cannon shot during the play Henry VIII...since was no TV, going to executions was entertainment and going to the theater was considered...a real blast !??

[Red Devil]

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

Unsure of origins but not true. The U boats were withdrawing because Hunter Killer Group (2nd Support Group -6 x Black Swan class sloops) under Captain Johnnie Walker were sinking them. Every U boat he found, he sank. Usually in the Bay of Biscay as they were coming out of port. The other reason was the introduction of long rang aircraft that filled the black spot centre of the Atlantic and forced the U boats to stay underwater longer than they had been used to. Better escorts and sonar gave the convoys a better chance. Several got through without even being spotted by the Germans. Another interesting stat is that Walker never lost a man in combat.

[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)

1997 British lease on the New Territories in Hong Kong, established by the Second Convention of Peking, expires.

[Aktungbby]

Originally Posted by Jimbuna

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

The Kreigsmarine's tonnage targeting for the Battle of the Atlantic was 300,000 GRT until the entrance of American forces; at which time the level to win the British Blockade war was upped to 700,000 GRT tons monthly. Given Uboat Aces over-assessment of tonnage misinformation, Nazi homefront propaganda et al, this neccesary tonnage goal was only achieved 2 times during the war: June & Nov of '42 .... thus, the expensive Dönitz-conceived U-boat campaign was a strategic failure and a dismal waste of German war assets.

[Jimbuna]

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

1944 Graf (Count) Claus von Stauffenberg promoted to colonel.

1944 Von Rundstedt against Keitel: "Sign peace, idiots!"

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

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

[Jimbuna]

1901 Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid rob train of $40,000 at Wagner, Montana.

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

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

1976 Ramble Inn attack: the Ulster Volunteer Force killed 6 civilians (5 Protestants, 1 Catholic) in a gun attack at a pub near Antrim; the pub was targeted because it was owned by Catholics.

[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 British Liberator bomber sinks German U-628 in Bay of Biscay.

1996 UK House of Commons announces that the Stone of Scone, aka the Stone of Destiny, used in the coronation of Scottish (and subsequently English and British monarchs), will be returned to Scotland after 700 years in Westminster Abbey.

[Jimbuna]

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

1884 Statue of Liberty presented to US in Paris.

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 First 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.

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

[Red Devil]

2021. The beginning of the end for humanity, look around

[Jimbuna]

1937 Spam, the luncheon meat is first introduced into the market by the Hormel Foods Corporation.

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.

1994 Amazon.com founded in Bellevue, Washington by Jeff Bezos.

[Aktungbby]

1917: T.E. Lawrence(Lawrence of Arabia) and Auda Abu Tayi capture the port of Aquaba from the Ottomon Turks.

[Jimbuna]

1785 US Congress unanimously resolves the name of US currency to the "dollar" and adopts decimal coinage.

1919 British R-34 lands in NY, 1st airship to cross Atlantic (108 hr)

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.

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

[Red Devil]

18 August 1949. Super submariner Red Devil was born in Hull, Yorkshire, England.

sorry jimbuna. if you disagree, you can delete


1942 Anne Frank's family goes into hiding in After House, Amsterdam. 1942 All she wanted was to live.

Desperately sad news considering a neighbour gave her away. I hope the local got his. or her, just desserts.

[Jimbuna]

1865 Mary Surratt, Lewis Powell, David Herold and George Atzerodt are executed for their role in the conspiracy to assassinate US President Abraham Lincoln.

1937 Japanese and Chinese troops clash at the Marco Polo Bridge, beginning the Second Sino-Japanese War.

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

1943 Erich Hartmann shoots down 7 Russian aircraft at Kursk.

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

1947 Alleged and disputed Roswell UFO incident.

2005 Coordinated terrorist bomb blasts strike London's public transport system during the morning rush hour killing 52 and injuring 700