This date in history

[Jimbuna]

1814 British forces capture Washington, D.C. and destroy many landmarks (War of 1812)

1949 North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) goes into effect.

1968 France becomes the world's fifth thermonuclear power with a detonation on Mururoa Atoll in the South Pacific.

[_dgn_]

During French Wars of Religion and on the occasion of the marriage of Henry of Navarre (the future King Henry IV), sometimes Protestant, sometimes Catholic, with Margaret of Valois (the "Queen Margot"), daughter of Catherine of Medicis and sister of the King of France Charles IX (replaced 2 years later on the throne by an other brother, Henry III), the main leaders of the mighty "Protestant Faction" met in Paris.

During the night of 23 and 24 August 1572, for reasons not yet fully known (but mainly because of the close ties between the French Calvinists and enemy countries of French kingdom) and in circumstances not yet fully detailed by historians, the people of Paris, helped by the Swiss Guards (and likely, by the faithful Scottish Guards), began to eradicate the "internal enemy", after hearing the sound of alarm ("tocsin") from the bell-tower of the church of Saint-Germain-L'Auxerrois, located opposite the "Palais du Louvre" (and at the time, the royal chapel), alarm which was taken over by most of the bell towers in Paris.

As for the reasons and the course of these tragical events, the exact number of the victims is still not exactly known. In general, historians believe that here were between 2000 and 3000 persons killed in Paris, but similar massacres took place, the following days, in the rest of the kingdom (estimated between 3000 and 7000 other victims).

[Jimbuna]

1875 Captain Matthew Webb makes the 1st observed and unassisted swim across the English Channel in 21 hours and 45 minutes.

1892 British naval officer David Beatty is promoted to lieutenant.

1943 Admiral Lord Louis Mountbatten appointed Supreme Allied Commander in SE Asia.

1944 General Charles de Gaulle walks the Champs Elysees in Paris after the liberation of the city from Nazi occupation.

1955 Last Soviet forces leave Austria.

[_dgn_]

Originally Posted by Jimbuna

1944 General Charles de Gaulle walks the Champs Elysees in Paris after the liberation of the city from Nazi occupation.

Sorry, Captain, but the battle for Paris and its liberation took place on August 25, and de Gaulle walked the Champs-Elysées only on August 26.


Cheers

[Jimbuna]

Originally Posted by _dgn_

Sorry, Captain, but the battle for Paris and its liberation took place on August 25, and de Gaulle walked the Champs-Elysées only on August 26.


Cheers

Typo, 44 for 45

[Jimbuna]

1346 Battle of Crécy, south of Calais in northern France; Edward III's English longbows defeat Philip VI's army, cannons used for first time in battle.

1922 Japanese cruiser Niitaka driven onto rocks in storm at Kamchatka, 284 killed.

1945 Japanese diplomats board USS Missouri to receive instructions on Japan's surrender at the end of WWII

1957 USSR announces successful test of intercontinental ballistic missile.

1985 French government denies knowledge of attack on Rainbow Warrior.

[Jimbuna]

1939 Erich Warsitz in a Heinkel He-178 makes the 1st manned jet-propelled flight.

1945 US troops land in Japan after Japanese surrender.

1979 1st Earl Mountbatten of Burma, cousin of Queen Elizabeth II and last Viceroy of India, is killed along with three companions, two of them children by the IRA when his boat is blown up near Sligo, Ireland.

2008 Barack Obama becomes the first African-American to be nominated by a major political party for President of the United States.

[Jimbuna]

1914 Battle of Helgoland: British fleet beats German, 1,100 killed.

1963 Martin Luther King Jr. delivers his "I have a dream" speech addressing the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom civil rights march at Lincoln Memorial, Washington, D.C.

[Jimbuna]

1896 Chop suey invented in NYC by chef of visiting Chinese Ambassador.

1943 Danish Navy scuttles its warships so as not to be taken by Germany.

1945 British liberate Hong Kong from Japan.

1949 USSR performs its first nuclear test at Semipalatinsk, Kazakh SSR

1962 US U-2 flight sees SAM launch pads in Cuba.

1990 Saddam Hussein declares America can't beat Iraq.

[Aktungbby]

1967: The U S Senate confirmed the appointment of Thurgood Marshall as the first black justice on the U S Supreme Court. 1983: Guion S. Bluford Jr. becomes the first black American astronaut to travel in space aboard Challenger. He was the second person of African descent however to go into space, as a Cuban-born Cosmonaut had preceeded him into space. 1861:: Famed Western explorer, political rival: Union General John C. Fremont, institutes martial law in Civil War Missouri and declares slaves to be free...his martial proclamation is countermanded by President Abraham Lincoln.... too little? too soon? such is the nature of wartime politics!!?.

[Jimbuna]

1146 European leaders outlaw crossbow, intending to end war for all time.

1932 Hermann Goering elected Chairman of the Reichstag.

1939 Isoroku Yamamoto appointed Commander-in-Chief of the Japanese flee.

1941 Siege of Leningrad by German troops begins during WWII

1941 Winston Churchill approves a nuclear programme (Tube Alloys), first national leader to do so.

1945 General Douglas MacArthur lands in Japan.

1960 East Germany imposes a partial blockade on West Berlin.

[Jimbuna]

1888 The body of Jack the Ripper's first victim, Mary Ann Nichols, is found in Whitechapel in London's East End.

1939 Staged "Polish" assault on radio station in Gleiwitz.

1942 U-boats sink and damage 131 allied ships this month (639,946 tons)

1994 The Provisional Irish Republican Army (Sinn Féin) declares a ceasefire in Northern Ireland.

1997 Diana, Princess of Wales, dies in a car crash in a road tunnel in Paris.

[Jimbuna]

1752 Liberty Bell arrives in Philadelphia.

1915 The German ambassador to the US pledges again that German submarines will no longer sink liners without warning and providing safety of passengers and crew following the sinking of the British liner "Arabic"

1920 France creates Greater Lebanon.

1939 Adolf Hitler orders extermination of mentally ill through the "T4 Euthanasia Program," arguing that wartime "was the best time for the elimination of the incurably ill"

1939 The Wound Badge for Wehrmacht, SS, Kriegsmarine, and Luftwaffe soldiers is instituted. The final version of the Iron Cross was also instituted on this date.

1939 In the "scoop of the century," Telegraph journalist Clare Hollingworth becomes the first to report the outbreak of World War II

1944 King George VI promotes Montgomery to field marshal.

1945 V-J Day, formal surrender of Japan aboard USS Missouri marks the end of World War II (US date, 2nd September in Japan)

1950 13 North Korean divisions open assault on UN lines.

1969 Colonel Muammar Gaddafi deposes King Idris in the Libyan revolution.

[Jimbuna]

1666 Great Fire of London begins at 2am in Pudding Lane, 80% of London is destroyed.

1942 German troops enter Stalingrad.

1944 Future US President George H. W. Bush bails from a burning plane during a mission in the Pacific.

1944 Holocaust diarist Anne Frank sent to Auschwitz concentration camp.

1945 V-J Day, formal Surrender of Japan aboard USS Missouri marks the end of World War II (Japanese date, 1st September in US)

1987 Donald Trump takes out a full page NY Times ad lambasting Japan.

[Aktungbby]

1901: then Vice-president, Teddy Roosevelt, offered the advice, "Speak softly and carry a big stick." at the Minnesota State Fair...the 1907 Great White Fleet will exemplify the concept: 1944: George Bush I is shot down and rescued by USS Finback.