This date in history

[Jimbuna]

1775 - Battle of Quebec in American Revolutionary War; Americans defeated trying to take British stronghold.

[STEED]

THE BRICK HAS LANDED 30 YEARS AGO...IT'S ALIVE!

UK's first mobile phone user remembers his call 30 years on

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-30430475

[Jimbuna]

45 BC - The Julian calendar takes effect for the first time.

[Aktungbby]

1890: President Benjamin Harrison welcomes Alice Sanger as the first female White House staffer. The last (brevet) general of the Civil War to attain the presidency, Benjamin Harrison followed his grandfather William Henry Harrison, winning election as the nation’s 23rd president in 1888. There is a practical side to politics; not only was the combined Women's movement, National American Woman Suffrage Association, on the rise in 1890; but Caroline Harrison, the very proactive First Lady, was open-minded about suffrage. She supported the hiring of Alice Sanger as the first woman stenographer at the White House. On February 12, 1880, a wooden crate had arrived at the White House containing a new contrivance which would revolutionize presidential letter writing: a Fairbanks and Company Improved Number Two Typewriter. Neither Presidents Hayes, Garfield, Arthur or Cleveland used the “type-writing” machine for correspondence, but by the time Benjamin Harrison arrived at the White House, the typewriter was important enough to have its own two small rooms – shared with the telephone and telegraph – and its own operator, Miss Alice Sanger. The first typed white house letter-a thankyou note- also spelled the end of presidentially autographed letters...the advent of the typewritten letters would make the presidential autograph letter rarer and rarer – driving it, almost, to the point of extinction. http://www.presidentbenjaminharrison.org/learn/collections/women-s-suffrage

[Jimbuna]

1833 - Britain seizes control of Falkland Islands in South Atlantic.

[Aktungbby]

1943: Time magazine declares Josef Stalin 1942's Man of the Year! Winston Churchill perhaps put best and pithiest "If Hitler invaded Hell, I would make at least a favourable reference to the devil" in the House of Commons. and still later in 1942..."It was an experience of great interest to me to meet Premier Stalin … It is very fortunate for Russia in her agony to have this great rugged war chief at her head. He is a man of massive outstanding personality, suited to the sombre and stormy times in which his life has been cast; a man of inexhaustible courage and will-power and a man direct and even blunt in speech, which, having been brought up in the House of Commons, I do not mind at all, especially when I have something to say of my own. Above all, he is a man with that saving sense of humour which is of high importance to all men and all nations, but particularly to great men and great nations. Stalin also left upon me the impression of a deep, cool wisdom and a complete absence of illusions of any kind. I believe I made him feel that we were good and faithful comrades in this war – but that, after all, is a matter which deeds not words will prove." Oddly enough Putin made the cover too in 2014 but not as Man of the Year...no one to 'give the devil his due' it seems

[Jimbuna]

1944 - The Daily Mail becomes the first transoceanic newspaper.

[Aktungbby]

1781: Ricmond Viginia is burned by British troops lead by Bendict Arnold. "Benedict Arnold was personally tasked by Commander-in-ChiefSir Henry Clinton in late December of 1780, to lead a force of 1,600 of his Loyalist troops to raid and capture Richmond, the capital of Virginia, and establish strong defenses at Portsmouth. Clinton hoped that sending an American-born commander to Richmond would convince more Loyalists in the area to join the British cause, which would subsequently give the British Army the upper hand in the Southern Theatre of the war. Arnold's fleet with force of 1600 sailed up the James River, laying waste to plantations and settlements along the way. Arnold's forces marched triumphantly into the city, described by an eyewitness as "undisturbed by even a single shot." From his headquarters at Main Street's City Tavern (he would only stay in Richmond for a day), Arnold wrote a letter to Thomas Jefferson who had fled the city, saying that if he could move the city's tobacco stores and military arms to his ships, he would leave Richmond unharmed. Jefferson's response was livid, refusing that a turncoat do anything to Richmond's supplies. receiving the letter the next day on January 6, Arnold was enraged in turn, and ordered Richmond to be set to the torch. British troops then started a rampage across the city, burning government buildings as well as private homes, ransacking the city of its valuables and supplies. A strong wind spread the flames even more, adding to the destruction. After most of Richmond was burned and its valuables sacked, Arnold led his forces outside of Richmond and to the Westham cannon foundry, which held even more armaments, and preceded to burn it down. After its destruction, the British went down to the city of Chesterfield, and began another spree of violence, burning down homes and looting buildings. Arnold was praised by local Loyalists, as well as his superiors, to be a hero.
The destruction of Richmond, one of the most important cities in the United States, outraged the American populace. George Washington was so angered and humiliated by the destruction of Richmond, that he put a 5,000 guinea bounty on Arnold's head and ordered his aide, the Marquis de Lafayette, to hang Arnold if he encountered him in battle. Continental marksmen were issued targets painted in Benedict's appearance to practice on, if in the event they saw him.
The British, saw Arnold's victory at Richmond as a turning point, and gave them hopes that Loyalists could rise up with them, and quell the American presence in the South. Many slaves were liberated from the raided plantations, as well as Richmond itself, and many of them promptly joined the British Army afterwards, in exchange for their freedom." Considering his victory at Valcour Island in 1776, delaying the British campaign a year, and the amphibious operation on the James River culminating in the destruction of Richmond, Benedict Arnold, in addition to his brilliant generalship at crucial Saratoga, ranks as one of the better admirals of the American Revolution ...on both sidesthe unamed monument to his leg; wounded at Saratoga. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raid_of_Richmond

[Jimbuna]

1681 - 1st recorded boxing match (Duke of Albemarle's butler vs his butcher).

[Aktungbby]

1790: President George Washington delivers the first State of the Union address to the assembled Congress in New York City.
Washington began by congratulations on the present "favorable prospects of our public affairs, most notable of which was North Carolina's recent decision to join the federal republic. North Carolina had rejected the Constitution in July 1788 because it lacked a bill of rights. Good deal for Armistead...he depends on The 1st amendment...in the BILGE 1918: In an address before a joint meeting of Congress, U.S. President Woodrow Wilson discusses the aims of the United States in WWI and outlines his "14 Points" for achieving a lasting peace in Europe. The peace proposal called for unselfish peace terms from the victorious Allies, the restoration of territories conquered during the war, the right to national self-determination, and the establishment of a postwar world body to resolve future conflict. No one listened...The war resumed in 1939...1940: a message from Benito Mussolini is sent to 'upstart' Adolf Hitler. In the letter, the Duce cautions the Fuhrer against waging war against Britain. asking if it was necessary "to risk all-including the regime-and to sacrifice the flower of German generations." Hitler ignored him and commenced with plans to conquer Holland, Belgium, Luxembourg, and France. Mussolini, rather than tie Italy's fortune to Germany's-which would mean sharing the spotlight and the spoils of war, invaded Yugoslavia and, in a famously disastrous strategic move, Greece. The expanded, porous underbelly of Europe, with North Africa thrown in, would get very soft indeed! Ultimately, BenitoBBY found himself completely (literally) 'upside-down' in the relationship...CIAO & thanks DUCE!

[Jimbuna]

1431 - Judges' investigations for the trial of Joan of Arc begin in Rouen, France, the seat of the English occupation government.

[Rockstar]

1942 - Ukrainian cryptanalyst Jerzy Rozycki died when M/S “Lamoriciere“ he was travelling by, sunk near Balearic Isles

[Aktungbby]

Originally Posted by Rockstar

1942 - Ukrainian cryptanalyst Jerzy Rozycki died when M/S “Lamoricière“ he was travelling by, sunk near Balearic Isles

INDEED! "The French passenger ship Lamoricière was crossing the Mediterranean from Algiers to France when she sank near the Balearic Isles. While sailing to Marseille the weather deteriorated severely and the ship altered course to assist a freighter in distress the SS Jumieges. Unfortunately the latter foundered in heavy seas with all hands(20) before the Lamoricière could be of assistance. The captain tried to take shelter behind the island of MENORCA but the ship could not cross the wind. Finally the boilers shut down, all power was lost as water began pouring in through the coal hatches and the ship started to list heavily and began to sink. (The ship had recently been converted from diesel oil to coal owing to wartime shortages) A total of 301 passengers and crew were lost. There were 93 survivors. One of those lost was Jerzy Rozycki, one of the three Polish cryptologists who worked on cracking the German Enigma code in 1932. Rozycki and his team had travelled from France to Algiers in late 1941 to work on the Enigma codes and was returning on the Lamorcière when disaster struck. In 1929, while still a student, Różycki, proficient in German, was one of twenty-odd Poznań University mathematics students who accepted an invitation to attend a secret cryptology course in Warsaw. From September 1932 Różycki served as a civilian cryptologist with the Polish cipher Bureau. After another cryptic member had reconstructed the German military Enigm machine in December 1932, Różycki worked at ongoing development of methods and equipment to exploit Enigma decryption as a source of intelligence. Różycki invented the "clock" method, which sometimes made it possible to determine which of the machine's rotors was at the far right, that is, in the position where the rotor always revolved at every depression of a key. Two other members of the code breaking team, Jan Gralinski and Piotr Smalenski also perished". For the all-important 'wizard War' of WWII, this was a heavy blow. http://members.iinet.net.au/~gduncan/maritime-1a.html SS Lamorciére buit by
SWAN. HUNTER & WIGHAM RICHARDSON, LTD. (WALLSEND-ON-TYNE), http://www.tynebuiltships.co.uk/L-Ships/lamoriciere1921.html

[Aktungbby]

1793: Pierre Blanchard conducted the first balloon flight in the Americas. He launched his balloon from Philadelphia, PA and landed in Deptford, New Jersey. (8 miles?) One of the flight's witnesses that day was President George Washington, and the future presidents: John Adams, Jefferson, Madison and Monroe. Also in 1793, aeronautical showman M. Blanchard was- allegedly- the first to escape his ruptured Hydrogen filled balloon using a parachute (unwitnessed)- heretofore used only with dogs to demonstrate the newly invented device; He had developed the first foldable parachute made from silk, up until that point all parachutes were made with rigid frames. If true...necessity can engender a sudden serious case of GUTS!!! IMHO!

[Jimbuna]

1863 - 1st underground railway opens in London.