This date in history

[Jimbuna]

1945 Battle of Berlin: Red Army begins its attack on the capital of Nazi Germany.

1946 First US launch of captured V-2 rocket, White Sands, NM; 8 km alt.

1948 Organization for European Economic Cooperation (EEC) forms in Paris.

1951 British submarine Affray sank in English Channel, killing 75.

1953 British royal yacht Britannia launched by Queen Elizabeth II.

[Jimbuna]

1942 12 Lancasters bomb MAN factory in Augsburg.

1942 Operations begin to destroy Sobibor Concentration Camp.

1942 POW French General Henri Giraud escapes from his castle prison in Festung Königstein.

1961 1,400 Cuban exiles land in Bay of Pigs in a doomed attempt to overthrow Fidel Castro.

2002 Four Canadian Forces soldiers are killed in Afghanistan by friendly fire from two United States Air Force F-16s, the first deaths in a combat zone for Canada since the Korean War.

[Jimbuna]

1874 David Livingstone, African explorer, buried in Westminster Abbey.

1912 Cunard liner RMS Carpathia brings 705 survivors from the RMS Titanic to New York City.

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

1916 US Secretary of State Warns Germany that the USA may break diplomatic relations unless torpedo attacks on unarmed ships stop.

1934 Adolf Hitler names Joachim von Ribbentrop ambassador for disarmament.

1942 James Doolittle bombs Tokyo & other Japanese cities.

[Jimbuna]

1770 British explorer Captain James Cook first sights Australia.

1775 American Revolution begins in Lexington, Massachusetts. The "Shot Heard Round the World" took place in Concord later that day.

1943 Jews refuse to surrender the Warsaw Ghetto to SS officer Jürgen Stroop, who then orders its destruction, beginning the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising.

1951 General Douglas MacArthur ends his military career.

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

1989 Gun turret explodes on USS Iowa, killing 47 sailors.

[Aktungbby]

Originally Posted by Jimbuna

1989 Gun turret explodes on USS Iowa, killing 47 sailors.

ON A HAPPIER NOTE: A MIGHTY 'HAZE GRAY AND UNDER WAY" BEING TOWED THRU THE CARQUINEZ STRAIT (OFF MARE ISLAND<WHERE I'LL SAIL TODAY!!) FROM THE SUISUN GHOST FLEET ENROUTE TO HER MUSEUM BERTH IN L.A. TO WHERE I GOT THIS ONCE IN A LIFETIME VIEW FROM THE TOP PARAPET OF OLD FT. POINT AS SHE EXITED SAN FRANCISCO BAY'S HELL'S GATE UNDER THE GOLDEN GATE BRIDGE: 1954 THE 0NLY TIME ALL FOUR IOWA'S WERE IN FORMATION>https://www.flickr.com/photos/konabish/6497548649/ <to enlarge) All four Iowa-class battleships steaming together (1954). Ship closest to the camera is USS Iowa (BB-61). The others are (from near to far): USS Wisconsin (BB-64), USS Missouri (BB-63) and USS New Jersey (BB-62). This was the only occasion that all four Iowa Class BB's were steaming in formation. Arguably; two years later...the most powerful surface armada the world ever saw(USS IOWA (ALLEGEDLY) HAD NUCLEAR W-23 'KATIE' SHELLS??!!) WE SHOULD REACTIVATE ALL FOUR; PAINT THEM A LIGHT SHADE OF GRAY AND SEND THEM TO SOUTH CHINA SEA 'ON A GOODWILL TOUR'....TEDDY ROOSEVELT WOULD BE PROUD: AS "NUTHIN' DIPLOMATIC GOES OUTTA STYLE" <1907 (KLIK 2 ENLARGE ALL LITTLE PICS) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_White_Fleet

[ABBAFAN]

20th April 1889, Adolf Hitler born in Braunau am Inn. Austria-Hungary.

[Jimbuna]

1814 Napoleon Bonaparte bids emotional farewell to his old guard at Palace of Fontainebleau.

1899 David Beatty is appointed executive officer of the HMS Barfleur, a small battleship and flagship of the China Station.

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.

1934 Heinrich Himmler becomes inspector Prussian secret state police.

1945 Soviet artillery begins shelling Berlin.

1999 Columbine High School massacre: Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold kill 13 people and injure 24 others before committing suicide at Columbine High School, Colorado.

[Jimbuna]

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

1916 Ulster Protestant and Irish nationalist Sir Roger Casement lands at Tralee Bay, Ireland from a German submarine; discovered at McKenna's Fort and arrested by the Royal Irish Constabulary.

1916 The Aud, carrying a cargo of 20,000 rifles to assist Irish republicans in staging what would become the 1916 Rising, is captured by the British Navy and forced to sail towards Cork Harbour.

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.

1945 Allied troops occupy German nuclear laboratory.

1989 Thousands of Chinese crowd into Beijing's Tiananmen Square cheering students demanding greater political freedom.

[Jimbuna]

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

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

1945 Concentration Camp at Sachsenhausen liberated.

2006 Four Canadian soldiers are killed 75 kilometers north of Kandahar, Afghanistan by a roadside bomb planted by Taliban militants, the worst single day combat loss for the Canadian army since the Korean War.

[Jimbuna]

1867 Queen Victoria & Napoleon III turn down plans for a channel tunnel.

1941 Greek Army surrenders to Germany, RAF brings Greek king George II to Egypt.

1945 Concentration camp Flossenburg liberated.

1988 A Greek pedals self-powered aircraft, 74 miles.

[Jimbuna]

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

1953 Winston Churchill knighted by Queen Elizabeth II

1967 Vietnam War: American General William Westmoreland says in a news conference that the enemy had "gained support in the United States that gives him hope that he can win politically that which he cannot win militarily."

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

1969 US B-52's drop 3,000 ton bombs at Cambodian boundary.

[Jimbuna]

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

1945 Soviet forces complete their encirclement of Berlin, cutting off all access points west of the German capital.

1960 First submerged circumnavigation of Earth completed by USS submarine Triton in 60 days, 21 hours.

[Aktungbby]

Originally Posted by Jimbuna

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

Originally Posted by Jimbuna

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

the 'down underers' would have done well to reread Homer as to tactics and deception... and I aint just 'talkin Turkey'THE BEETLING WALLS OF TROY TOOK TEN YEARS TO SURMOUNT...AND GALLIPOILI NEVER MADE IT OFF THE BEACH....

Contrary to popular opinion, the archaeological site of Troy does not embody just one ancient city. In fact, this site comprises the ruins of at least nine different settlements, built one on top of the other, dating back to the early Bronze Age. The first city was founded in the 3rd millenium BC and flourished as a mercantile city due to its location. This unique site enabled its inhabitants to control the Dardanelles (today’s Çanakkale Strait), a waterway which is used by every merchant ship passing from the Aegean Sea and heading for Black Sea. The extensive remains at this archaeological site are the most significant demonstration of the first contact between the civilizations of Anatolia and the Mediterranean world. Naturally, Troy is one of immense significance to understand the early development of European civilization at such critical stage. Moreover, Troy is of exceptional cultural importance because of the profound influence of Homer’s Iliad on the creative arts over more than two millennia.

[Jimbuna]

1945 Marshal Henri Philippe Petain, leader of France's Vichy collaborationist regime during WW II, arrested for treason.

1945 World War II: Battle of Bautzen - last successful German tank-offensive of the war and last noteworthy victory of the Wehrmacht.

1982 Argentina surrenders to Great Britain on South Georgia Island, near the Falkland Islands.

1986 World's worst nuclear disaster: 4th reactor at Chernobyl nuclear power station in USSR explodes, 31 die, radioactive contamination reaches much of Western Europe.

[Jimbuna]

1865 Steamboat "SS Sultana" explodes in the Mississippi River, killing up to 1,800 of the 2,427 passengers in the greatest maritime disaster in United States history. Most were paroled Union POWs on their way home.

1940 Himmler orders establishment of Auschwitz Concentration Camp.

1943 Witold Pilecki escapes from Auschwitz after having voluntarily been imprisoned there to gain information about the Holocaust.

1945 Italian partisans capture Benito Mussolini at Dongo (Lake Como).

1946 First radar installed aboard a commercial ship.

1960 First atomic powered electric-drive submarine launched (Tullibee).