This date in history

[Aktungbby]

Originally Posted by Jimbuna

1994 Ukraine says it will give up world's 3rd largest nuclear arsenal.

Given the present global situation with Russian expansion into Syria, Crimea, Kazakhstan & present-day Ukraine...that might have been the turning point of WWIII...

[Jimbuna]

Originally Posted by Aktungbby

Given the present global situation with Russian expansion into Syria, Crimea, Kazakhstan & present-day Ukraine...that might have been the turning point of WWIII...

I wonder if they're regretting that decision now

[Aktungbby]

My private sources tell me they are. But that the Lithuanian, Estonian, and Latvians, many of whom attended a small Lutheran Norwegian college in MN in the 70's are equally perturbed as this will not stop with Kiev's pummeling.

[Jimbuna]

1920 French passenger ship Afrique sinks near La Rochelle; 553 die.

1923 French & Belgian troops occupy Ruhr to collect reparations.

1964 First government report by US Surgeon General Luther Terry warning that smoking may be hazardous.

[Jimbuna]

1913 After using other pseudonyms over the years, Josef Dzhugashvili signs himself as Stalin ("man of steel") in a letter to the newspaper Social Democrat.

1916 Max Immelmann and Oswald Boelcke receive the Pour le Merite, the German Empire's highest military award, for achieving eight aerial victories each over Allied aircraft.

1945 US Task Force 38 destroys 41 Japanese ships in Battle of South China Sea.

1948 Mahatma Gandhi begins his final fast.

1962 Operation Ranch Hand begins, a US Air Force operation to spray South Vietnamese forests with defoliants such as Agent Orange.

1967 Louisville, Kentucky, draft board refuses exemption for boxer Muhammad Ali.

[Jimbuna]

1908 Henri Farman becomes the first person to fly an observed circuit of more than 1km, winning the Grand Prix d'Aviation.

1915 Winston Churchill, First Lord of the Admiralty, presents plan for assault on Dardanelles.

1922 Conference of Cannes concerning German retribution payments ended.

1923 Taking advantage of the chaotic condition of Germany, Hitler stages a demonstration of 5000 storm troopers and denounces the 'November crime'

1942 German U-boats begin harassing shipping on US east coast.

1942 First use of aircraft ejection seat by a German test pilot in a Heinkel He 280 jet fighter.

1943 Adolf Hitler declares "Total War" against the Allies.

1992 Japan apologizes for forcing Korean women into sexual slavery during World War II

[Jimbuna]

1815 War of 1812: the USS President, an American frigate, is captured by four British frigates.

1922 Arthur Griffith is elected president of the Irish Free State after Eamon de Valera resigns in opposition to the Anglo-Irish Treaty (De Valera will lead a military opposition seeking a unified and independent Ireland)

1943 First transport of Jews from Amsterdam to concentration camp Vught.

1944 General Eisenhower arrives in England.

1944 Vught Concentration Camp puts 74 women in 1 cell, 10 die.

1955 USSR ends state of war with German Federal Republic.

1991 Elizabeth II signs letters patent that allows Australia to institute its own Victoria Cross, the first Commonwealth realm to do so.

2001 Wikipedia a free Wiki or content encyclopedia is launched by Jimmy Wales and Larry Sanger.

[Red Devil]

I'm looking forward to the entry:

On this day in xxxx; nothing happened

[Aktungbby]

Originally Posted by Jimbuna

1815 War of 1812: the USS President, an American frigate, is captured by four British frigates. Captain Hope of HMS Endymion should get most of the credit imho:

Which they did! Considering the USS Constitution's victories over HMS Guerriere, 4 to 1 odds weren't inappropriate! followed by the defeat of HMS JAVA ...and the classic 'backing of the sail' maneuver to defeat HMS Cayan AND HMS Levant

The battle began, in the evening with Constitution to windward, Levant and Cyane on her port quarter. After broadsides where exchanged for 15 minutes, Cyane attempted to cross Constitution's stern and rake her. Stewart ordered the sails thrown aback, and Constitution instead raked Cyane. As Levant tried to cross Constitution's bows, Stewart ordered the sails filled again, and raked Levant from astern. As Levant drifted downwind with battered rigging, Constitution turned again to engage Cyane, at this point the ship surrendered

The USS Constitution's new skipper Commander Cmdr. Billie J. Farrell has some big shoes to fill!

[Jimbuna]

1913 British House of Commons accepts Home Rule for Ireland (but the Great War gets in the way of it happening)

1917 "Zimmermann Telegram" is sent from Germany to Mexico, stating in the event of the US entering World War I on the allied side, Mexico would be given Texas, Arizona and New Mexico. Intercepted by British intelligence and partially deciphered by the next day. It's release in March shifts US public opinion in favor of war against Germany.

1939 The Irish Republican Army (IRA) begins a 14 month long bombing campaign in England.

1941 US vice admiral Bellinger warns of an assault on Pearl Harbor.

1943 Red Army recaptures Pitomnik airport at Stalingrad.

1944 General Eisenhower takes command of Allied Invasion Force in London.

1945 Adolf Hitler moves into the Fuhrerbunker, his underground bunker in Berlin.

[Jimbuna]

1945 Auschwitz concentration camp begins evacuation.

1945 Swedish diplomat Raoul Wallenberg, credited with saving tens of thousands of Jews from the Nazis, arrested by Soviet secret police in Hungary.

1955 US Submarine Nautilus begins first nuclear-powered test voyage.

1961 President Dwight D. Eisenhower delivers a televised farewell address to the nation three days before leaving office, in which he warns against the accumulation of power by the "military-industrial complex".

1972 Seven men who were held as internees escape from the prison ship HMS Maidstone in Belfast Lough, North Ireland.

1980 Provisional Irish Republican Army bomb prematurely detonates on a passenger train near Belfast, kills three and injuring five (including the bombers)

[Jimbuna]

1788 First elements of the First Fleet carrying 736 convicts from England to Australia arrives at Botany Bay to set up a penal colony.

1919 The Paris peace conference (aka the Versailles peace conference) opens to draw up the treaties formally ending the Great War (WWI)

1943 Soviets announce they have broken the long Siege of Leningrad by Nazi Germany by opening a narrow land corridor, though the siege would not be fully lifted until a year later.

1981 Iran accepts US offer of $7.9 billion in frozen assets.

1991 Iraq launches SCUD missiles against Israel.

[Jimbuna]

1915 World War I: Four people in Norfolk are killed in the first German Zeppelin air raid attack on the United Kingdom.

1940 The Three Stooges film "You Nazty Spy!" about the Nazis released with the disclaimer "Any resemblance between the characters in this picture and any persons, living or dead, is a miracle."

1950 Maiden flight by Canada's Avro Canada CF-100 military plane.

1971 The Beatles' "Helter Skelter" is played at Charles Manson trial.

1981 Muhammad Ali talks a despondent 21 year old out of committing suicide.

1983 Klaus Barbie, SS chief in Lyon in Nazi-occupied France, arrested in Bolivia.

[Jimbuna]

1921 British submarine HMS K5 (which was unusually equipped with steam turbines) sinks with 57 crew during exercises in the Bay of Biscay.

1936 Edward VIII succeeds British King George V

1942 Nazi officials hold notorious Wannsee Conference in Berlin to organize the "final solution", the extermination of Europe's Jews.

1944 RAF drops 2,300 ton of bombs on Berlin.

1945 Franklin D. Roosevelt sworn-in for an unprecedented (and never to be repeated) 4th term as US President.

1949 J. Edgar Hoover gives Shirley Temple a tear gas fountain pen.

1981 The US diplomats and citizens held hostage at the US embassy in Tehran are released and begin their journey home after 444 days.

[Aktungbby]

1937: President Franklin D. Roosevelt becomes the first president inaugurated (his second inaugural)on January 20 instead of March 4. This was in accordance with the newly ratified 20th Amendment ie: the 'Lame Duck' amendment which reduced the time a defeated predecessor (a lame duck)had to remain uselessly in office following an election. Thus was our Democratic Process perfected!