I was never in the army or anything, so I'm no good at orienteering or any other surveying/wilderness skills, but the concept of just going out and surveying land where nobody except Indians have ever been before is mind-boggling, if you do have geopositioning to work with.

I imagine there's a book about ti somewhere, but honestly I have no idea how you could do much of anything except describe major rivers and mountains etc.

That was my reaction to reading that as well. Time for some research I suppose. :)

May 15.

1536. Anne Boleyn, wife of King Henry VIII and Queen of England, stands trial in London for treason, adultery and incest. She is condemned to death, which sentence is carried out four days later. The trial occurs only three years after Henry VIII divorced Catherine of Aragon, a divorce that precipitated a break from Rome and the advent of Protestantism in England, so that Henry could marry Anne. In the three intervening years, however, Anne was unable to give Henry a male heir, and Henry had become enamored of another woman, Jane Seymour. Anne did have time, however, to bear him the future Queen Elizabeth I.

1701. The War of Spanish Succession, one of those three major wars that King Louis XIV of France was involved in that were mentioned yesterday, begins. The war lasts 13 years (most of the rest of what is left of Louis XIV's life) and involves a struggle by France and Spain against basically the rest of western Europe to try to unite the French and Spanish crowns under one Bourbon king. The result is the ascension of Philip V to the Spanish throne but his renounciation of any claim to the throne of France. With this war the concept of trying to maintain teh balance of power in Europe becomes a central theme in European politics. The war also spills over into North American and the West Indies, where it is generally known to the British colonists as Queen Anne's War.

1756. The Seven Years War begins -- an important development in the lives of some young men in America who will later be involved in the Revolution, most notably George Washington.

1776. The Virginia Convention instructs its delegates to the Constitution Congress to propose independence from Great Britain, paving the path to the Declaration of Independence.

1864. The Battle of New Market is fought in teh Shenendoah Valley by cadets of the Virginia Military Institute fighting alongside Confederate troops against the Union forces led by Franz Sigel. The Union forces are part of Grant's coordinated strategy to bring pressure to bear against multiple fronts to crush the Confederacy. The Confederates win teh battle, forcing a Union retreat and thwarting Grant's plans to seriously threaten Lee's flank.

1911. The United States Supreme Court rules that Standard Oil -- the oil conglomerate founded by John D. Rockefeller, must be broken up under the anti-monopoly laws. The conglomerate is broken up into 34 separate companies, some of which went on to become what was later known as Exxon, Mobile and Chevron. John D. Rockefeller had long since retired from active management, but as he owned nearly 25% of the shares of the various entities, many of which rapidly increased in value following the breakup, the case had the odd result of quickly making him the richest man in the world. There is also a serious question of whether the breakup was necessary (it was mostly politically motivated) as STandard Oil's dominance of the American oil market had greatly decreased the decade before the breakup, and international competition was rapidly increasing. Nonetheless, the breakup of the oil conglomerate was very popular on Main Street, America.

The image below, from 1906 Puck magazine, shows an infant Hercules Teddy Roosevelt (the then-President) battling the Standard Oil hydra.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...05-23-1906.jpg

1928. Mickey Mouse premiers in his first cartoon, Plane Crazy.

1940. McDonald's opens its first restaurant, in San Bernadino, California.

And so it is, that the Taliban and U.S. forces have been building up to mount a fierce battle in June or July I beleive....Strange with all our technology...

I just read about this in passing in a (oddly) Middle East textbook last semester: A few years before this date, Washington was the main person in a significant precursory event of the Seven Years War. Washington led a small British unit in attacking a small French scouting party. Washington's guys ended up killing the scout leader, which brought a swarm of French aggression on Washington, who eventually had to surrender position.

He was my age -- 22 years old.

One thing you learn once you get to know enough historical characters -- if you're really going to do something BIG in life, you probably are very, VERY far along your way to doing it by the time you're 30, 35 at the latest.

May 16.

1770. 14 year old Marie Antionette marries 15 year old Louis-Auguste, the Dauphin of France, who in four years will take the French throne. At age 38, months after her husband was already executed, the "Widow Capet" is beheaded by guillotine.

1836. Edgar Allen Poe, then 27 years old, marries his 13 year old first cousin, Virginia.

1866. Charles Elmer Hires invents root beer.

1868. President Andrew Johnson is acquitted by one vote in his impeachment trial in the US Senate.

1920. Pope Benedict XV canonizes Joan of Arc as a saint.

1966. China begins the Cultural Revolution by issuing teh "May 16th Notice". The Cultural Revolution completely revamps the social, political and economic order in Communist China for its nearly one billion people. Millions die, and a tremendous number of historical artifacts are destroyed.

May 17

1792. 24 stockbrokers gather under a buttonwood tree outside of 68 Wall Street, New York City, NY and sign an agreement called the Buttonwood Agreement. It is noticeably short.
　
25 years later the organization adopt a constitution and name the organization the New York Stock & Exchange Board. As of May 2008, the New York Stock Exchange is the largest stock exchange by market captialization, with its listed companies having a then-value of $28.5 trillion.


1902. Greek archeologists discover the Antikythera Mechanism. Dated to 150-100 BC, it is a fascinatingly complex device designed to predict astronomical movements. Nothing of similar complexity will be developed until the 14th century, when astronomical clocks are invented. It is, effectively, the oldest known scientific calculator and has been referred to as the world's first analog computer, although its seemingly flawless manufacturing suggests that it may have had predecessors that are as yet uncovered.

A schematic of what is believed to be the full device (not all was recovered):


http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...hanism.svg.png


1954. The United States Supreme Court hands down its decision in Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka. The unanimous ruling overturns the SCOTUS's previous decision in Plessy v. Ferguson, and declares that separate educational institutions for separate races are inherently unequal, and therefore violate the Equal Protection Clause of the Constitution's 14th Amendment. The decision paves the way for integration and the Civil Rights Movement that will blossom in the 60s. The decision is quickly and easily accepted in Topeka, Kansas, which had only had segregated schools at the elementary school level. Other states adn governors, however, were not nearly so accepting. In 1957, Governnor Orval Faubus called out his national guard to block black students' entry to Little Rock High School. President and former five star general Dwight (Ike) Eisenhower responded by deployment a portion of the 101st Airborne Division and by federalizing Faubus' national guard. In 1963, Governor George Wallace of Alabama personally stood in the doorway at the Unviersity of Alabama to prevent two black students from enrolling and followed his "segregation now, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever" policy that was first articulated in his 1963 inaugural address. He moves aside at the behest of Alabama National Guard general Henry Graham, who was ordered by President Kennedy to remove the governor.

Wallace will go on to have an interesting career. Elected four times as governor of Alabama (non-consecutive terms), he runs for President in 1972, but is shot while on campaign in Maryland in an assassination attempt. He survives, but one of the bullets lodges in his spine, rendering him paralyzed below the waist. In the late 70s, he declares that he is a born-again Christian, and that his policy regarding segregation was misguided. He doesn't comment on whether the increasing voter turnout of Alabama's minority population played a role in his decision. During his last term in office, in the mid 80s, he appints a record number of African-Americans to public office. He was married three times. His first wife died shortly after being elected the first (and still only) female governor of Alabama. His second wife was an attractive former performer, whose mother, a well-known colorful and notorious woman said of the quite-short governor "Why George ain't titty high". After being divorced, he married a country music singer.
　
1990. The World Health Organization removes homosexuality from the list of psychiatric diseases.

Not Steamboat Willie?

Oddly enough, that was the year that self-installed closet organizing kits became popular.

I thought that, too. But it seems his first appearance (sans sound) was Plane Crazy.

May 18.

1152. King Henry II of England marries Eleanor of Aquitaine, which among other notable effects, results in a movie with Peter O'Toole as the King and Katherine Hepburn as his wife some 800 years later (the Lion in Winter).

1860. Abraham Lincoln wins the Republican nomination for President, defeating rivals William Seward (who will go on to be Secretary of State and become better known for being involved in "Seward's Folly", the monumentally stupid (as it was then thought at the time) idea of buying Alaska from Russia for $7.2MM) and abolitionist Salmon Chase (who will become Secretary of the Treasury).

1863. The Siege of Vicksburg begins.

1896. The US Supreme Court hands down Plessy v. Ferguson, declaring that the "separate but equal" doctrine passes Constitutional muster.

1980. Mount St. Helen's erupts in Washington state, killing 53 people and causing approximately $3 billion in damage.

And you can watch it here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jMoAXM96ZE0

I would've bet anything that it was Steamboat Willie, but in reading more about it, I guess Steamboat Willie was his breakout role in his third film. I guess it's kind of like Harrison Ford being in American Graffitti before Star Wars.

Good thing I didn't bet the house on that.

May 19.

Not a really big day.

1499. Catherine of Aragon, then 12, is married by proxy to Arthur Tudor, Prince of Wales, then 13. They do not meet for another two years, and soon thereafter Arthur dies. Seeking to avoid paying back the dowry, King Henry VII arranges to have her marry his second son, Henry, Duke of York, who will become Henry VIII. His efforts to divorce Catherine will result in Henry's break with the Catholic Church and the conversion of England to Protestantism.

Her daughter will become Queen Mary I of England, better known as Bloody Mary, whose efforts to revert the kingdom back to Catholicism are reversed by her successor, and half-sister, Queen Elizabeth I.

1802. Napoleon founds the Legion of Honor.

1848. The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo is signed, ending the MExican-American War and ceded over vast amounts of territory to the US.

ROFL

May 20

325. The first Nicean Council is held to resolve some outstanding theological issues in the Catholic Church. The first Ecumenical Council of the Catholic Church, it helped resolve such issues as the relationship of Christ to the Father, the divinity of Jesus, and the calculation of Easter.

1862. President Lincoln signs the first Homestead Act into law. The law allows anyone to take title to land outside the original 13 colonies if they (1) filed an application, (2) improved the land, and (3) filed for a deed. The act allowed a homesteader to take up to 160 acres for free, and was open to any person who had not taken up arms against the United States. The law remains in effect (it was subsequently updated a couple fo times) until a new law was passed over 100 years later, in 1976. Under the law, 1.6 million homesteads were awarded covering 270 million acres, or 10% of the entire area of the United States.

Unfortunately, however, the law was frequently abused. Designed to promote agriculture, the acreage covered was usually too small to support a family, and was instead used to lay claim to resources, especially water and timber and, less often, oil.

1873. Levi Strauss and Jacob Davis receive a patent for blue jeans iwth copper rivets.

1927. The Treaty of Jedda is signed, by which the United Kingdom recognizes the independent sovereignty of the Kingdoms of Hejaz and Nejd, which will later be unified into the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

1940. Auschwitz receives its first prisoners.

1941. German paratroopers assault Crete. Though they will ultimately win the island, the cost is much higher to the elite German paratroopers than
the Germans expected, and Hitler is very reluctant to use them on such a mission again. This leads to a significant strategic error later when the Germans fail to take Malta, which is used as a base by the British to impinge German supply lines to North Africa.

1956. The first American airborne hydrogen bomb is dropped on Bikini Atoll.

1983. First publication of the discovery of teh HIV virus which leads to AIDS.

May 21.

878. The Muslim Sultan of Sicily captures Syracuse. I mostly include this one as I suspect most people have no idea that there once was a Muslim Sultan of Sicily...

1956. Pro Slavery forces enter Lawrence, Kansas and burn parts of the town. Thsi leads to a reaction by abolitionists, and the era becomes known as "Bleeding Kansas".

1871. French Troops enter the Paris Commune.

1881. Clara Barton establishes the American Red Cross.

1927. Charles LIndberg completes the first solo transatlantic flight.

1932. Amelia Earhart becomes the first woman to complete a transatlantic flight.

Fixed you typo.

I love that you have kept this going. I haven't looked back, are these different events than you posted a year ago?

No. I initially started this thread on January 1, 2009, but sometime in April I had to stop as I was both very busy at work and gearing up to move. I just couldn't find the time.

Life settled down after we moved last summer, and by fall I was ready to go again, but I figured I'd wait until I got to where I had left off and then pick up from there and continue on.

Some of the earlier ones are REALLY detailed. When I had enough time and interest in a particular item, I'll go all out. You might want to start from page one and just go from there. I should be able to find the time to do more of those going forward, but the opportunity hasn't quite arisen.

Two of the longer ones:

http://www.chiefsplanet.com/BB/showp...4&postcount=82


http://www.chiefsplanet.com/BB/showp...1&postcount=99

Say what you will about Chuck's politics, but he certainly had a set of brass ones.

May 22

1840. Britain abolishes the transporting of convicts to New South Wales, the most populous province in Australia.

1856. Congressman Preston Brooks of South Carolina beats Massachusetts Senator Charles Sumner with a cane for insulting both the State of South Carolina and another Senator, who was a relative of Brooks. Sumner takes three years to recover sufficiently to return to the Senate. Several of Sumner's fellow Senators sought to intervene, but Brooks brought a friend who, waving a gun, tells them not to interfere. Brooks beat Sumner into unconsciousness, breaking his cane in the process.

South Carolinians praised Brooks, and many sent him new canes and instructed him to "hit him again!" Surviving an expulsion vote in the House (of which Brooks was a member), he voluntarily resigned. Fellow Congressman Anson Burlingame of Connecticut denounced Brooks' attack as cowardly on teh floor of the House. Brooks offered him a duel, which Burlingame promptly accepting, selecting rifles as his weapon (as was his right as he had the choice of weapons, having been offered the duel). To get around laws prohibiting duels, Burlingame proposed that the duel be held in the Navy Yard on the Canadian side of the New York border. Brooks, reportedly dismayed by Burlingame's enthusiastic acceptance and reputation as a crack shot, refused to show up, citing unspecified danger to his person if he had to cross Northern states to reach the site of the duel.

Brooks died of the croup in 1957. Brooksville, Florida and Brooks County, Georgia, are named in his honor.

Sumner returned to the Senate and offered a harsh anti-slavery speech on the floor in 1859. During the War, he was chairman of the foreign relations committee, and was an expert on the pro/anti Union sentiment in Great Britain. As soon as the war began he was an ardent supporter of Reconstruction and following the Civil War, Sumner is an ardent Radical Republican.

Sumner High School, the first black high school west of the Mississippi, was named in his honor when it was opened in St. Louis in 1875.

Ironically, but fittingly, Sumner High School in Topeka, Kansas, was central to the drama surrounding the Supreme Court's decision in Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka.

Numerous other schools, counties and towns across America are named for Sumner, as well as the Sumner Tunnel in Boston and this statue, in Harvard Yard:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...y_sculptor.JPG

1906. Wright Brothers are granted a patent for their "flying machine"

1939. Germany and Italy sign the Pact of Steel.

1947. President Truman signs into law an act granting aid to Greece and Turkey, beginning what will become known as the Truman Doctrine.

1980. The arcade game Pac Man is released.

1992. Johnny Carson hosts the Tonight Show for the last time.

May 23

1498. Girolamo Savonarola, a Dominican frair who protested the Renaissance, immoral art and, most importantly, the corruption of the clergy is put to death by order of Rodrigo Borgia, a member of the (in)famous Borgias, better known then as Pope Alexander VI. The name Borgia will become synonymous with corruption and the debasement of teh papacy during this era.

1568. The Dutch declare their independence from the Hapsburg monarchy of Spain, beginning the 80 year war which will end in 1648 with the Treaty of Westaphalia.

1934. American bank robbers Bonnie and Clyde are ambushed and killed by American law enforcement officers.

1995. The first version of the Java programming language is released.

May 24.

1844. Samuel Morse sends the first telegraphic message -- "What hath God wrought" from the old Supreme Court chamber in Washington DC to his assistant in Baltimore.

1856. John Brown and his men murder five slavery supporters in another chapter of what will become known as Bleeding Kansas.

1883. After 14 years of construction, the Brooklyn Bridge opens.

1940. Igor Sikorsky conducts the first successful single rotor helicopter test flight.

1941. The German battleship Bismarck sinks the HMS Hood, the pride of the British Navy. Her magazine having been hit, the Hood instantly blew up, killing all but three crew members. The sinking was a severe psychological blow to the British, but the Hood and her consort had scored some hits on the Bismarck as well, which knocked her forward radar out of action and caused contamination of stored fuel oil, forcing her to reduce speed to no more than 20 knots. She had also had her position identified. Eventually, her commander felt that she must return to the French coast but was caught and sunk before she could do so.

"Shoot!"

"FIRE!"

"SHOOT!"

"FIRE!"

In reviewing the history here, I found the following video which may be of interest. It's a History Channel production on the effort to sink the Bismarck. I will be watching it myself later. :D

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IuTNJ...eature=related

(that one is the first of several)

2004. North Korea bans mobile phones. (good God. :rolleyes: )

:spock:

ROFL. Yeah, I'll fix it. Yeesh.

May 25

1521. The Diet of Worms ends with Holy Roman Emperor Charles V declaring Martin Luther an outlaw pursuant to the Edict of Worms.

Martin Luther had been given safe passage to and from the Council of Worms to defend himself, but despite that, it was understood that shortly after the Edict was issued he would be, inevitably, tried, convicted and executed. To prevent such a fate, on his return home he was essentially kidnapped by Prince Frederick, who faked a highway attack on Luther, and hid him in Wartburg Castle. It was at this time that Luther started his German translation of the Bible.

(side note: Germany at this time consisted of a number of small semi-autonomous principalities, and "Price Frederick" was a princeling of Saxony, having no relation to Emperor Charles V)

By the time he left Wartburg Castle, the Edict was unenforceable in Germany due to rising sentiment in favor of Protestantism. The Edict was, however, strictly enforced in those territories under Charles' direct control, such as (modern day) Belgium, Luxembourg and the Netherlands.

1925. Charles T. Scopes is indicted for teaching Darwin's Theory of Evolution, which will ultimately lead to the Scopes trial.

1940. The French army having effectively disintegrated as a result of the speed, tenacity and direction of the German attacks, the Battle of Dunkirk begins. By this date, the British Expeditionary Force and French 1st Army are bottled up in ana rea about 60 miles deep by 20 miles wide. Most of the British are still near Lille, about 40 miles from Dunkirk. von Rundstedt's Panzer divisons, under their enterprising and daring commander Heinz Guderian, are within 10 miles of Dunkirk. Hitler, however, has given the order for the tanks to stop. On May 23, General Lord Gort, commander of British forces, had put his army on half-rations, and had already seen the inevitable.

1961. President Kennedy announces to a special joint session of Congress his plan to put a man on the Moon before the end of the decade.

Diet of Worms would be a great name for a medieval Catholic minstrel rock band.

May 26.


1830. Congress passes the Indian Removal Act, which President Jackson will sign into law two days later.

1868. President Johnson is acquitted of impeachment by one vote.

1938. The House Un-American Activities Committee holds its first session.

1940. Britain declares this date to a Day of National Prayer for its army, seemingly hopelessly trapped and doomed in France. The British start moving quickly to get back to the sea, while the Royal Navy starts to organize a massive evacuation. General Brooke commands a complicated fighting withdrawal as German troops make probes and reconnaissance attacks in advance of an imminent assault.

1959. Pittsburg Pirates pitcher Harvey Haddix retires the first 36 batters to face him, losing his perfect game bid in the 13th inning. The game was against the Milwaukee Braves, who featured Hammerin' Hank Aaron and had gone to the World Series each of the last two years. It is considered one of the greatest pitching feats in MLB history. In 1993, Bob Buhl, a starting pitcher for those Braves' temas (though not the starter that day) revealed that Braves pitchers had been stealing signs from the Pirates catcher, who was exposing his hand signals. From their bullpen, the Braves pitchers were positioning a towel to reveal what Haddix would be throwing. And for 12-2/3rd innings, it didn't matter one damn bit.

Haddix would later go on to be the winning pitcher in game 7 of the 1960 World Series, having come on in relief and being the pticher of record when Bill Mazeroski hit his famous home run.

I'm on the edge of my seat. I can't wait to see how this turns out!

Ugh. Not exactly a day to look back on with pride.

Yeah. Downer of a day, really.

May 27.


893. Simeon I is crowned Emperor of the First Bulgarian Empire. Under his reign, which will last for about 30 years, this empire will reach the height of its power. By 1018, however, the last of the Bulgarian mountain retreats will have surrendered to the Byzantine Empire, headed by Basil II, "BulgarSlayer", and the empire is abolished.

For those who are curious, the Second Bulgarian Empire arises starting in 1185 when certain nobles break away, and will last until approximately 1400 when it is subjugated by the Ottoman Turks and its burgeoning empire.


1703. Tsar Peter the Great founds the city of Saint Petersburg, a/k/a Petrograd, a/k/a Leningrad.

The Church of the Savior on Spilled Blood, St. Petersburg:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...urg_church.jpg


1933. The Securities Act is signed into law.

1940. British troops desperately trying to reach the Dunkirk defensive perimeter get bottled up at a bridge over the Yser canal in the town of Poperinge. The Luftwaffe strafes the columns for several hours putting 80% of the vehicles there out of action. General Brooke (not yet Lord Alanbrooke) orders counterattacks to disrupt German operations. The Le Paradis massacre occurs, when an SS division machine guns 97 British prisoners. Most British troops arrive within the Dunkirk defensive perimeter by nightfall. Heavy bombing and artillery shelling of Dunkirk continues. Evacuations begin.

1941. The German battleship Bismarck is sunk, with nearly 2,100 men killed.

1942. The quality of the human race is greatly improved when Reinhard Heydrich is assassinated near Prague, Czechoslovakia, though it will take nearly a week for him to die from his injuries.

1962. The Centralia, Pennsylvania mine fire starts. It still burns to this day, and will likely go on for decades more.

Brewers fan, eh?

LMAO

Took long enough.

Heydrich was a neat character. Started out in the navy but got booted for banging someone else's chick. A great fencer and violinist, too.

Oh, and bat-shit crazy and evil for icing on the proverbial cake.

He didn't believe that "his Czechs" would hurt him so he rode around in a convertible the same route each day. A couple of British-trained Czech chaps threw a bomb into his car. And, he died of septic shock when bits of the car seats embedded in his body. (that's all from memory, might have gotten some things wrong).

Yes. I remember the dishonorable discharge from the Navy. He wasn't overfond of the Navy High Command after that, as I recall.

Teh assassination attempt was interesting, IIRC. The two assassins botched the attempt. Think a gun jammed or something. Then they started to run and Heydrich decided to chase them, and then one turned and shot him or somesuch. It was basically one of the oddest successful assassination attempts ever.

I don't think he was shot.

Right. I looked it up and I just missed on the mode of death. :D


On that date, Heydrich was ambushed while he rode in his open car in the Prague suburb of Libeň. As the car slowed to take the hairpin bend in the road, Gabčík took aim with a Sten sub-machine gun, but it jammed and failed to fire. At that very moment, instead of ordering his driver to speed away, Heydrich called his car to a halt in an attempt to take on the two attackers. Kubiš then immediately threw a bomb (a converted anti-tank mine) at the rear of the car. The explosion wounded Heydrich and also Kubiš himself.

Yeah, that's it. Oh and as usual, damn you, Amno.

I should've remembered it was a bomb. I've seen that blown up car picture more than a few times.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...h-Attentat.jpg

Oh, and "made you look" (again). Ha ha.



:p :p :p :p

A little nasty irony that he died from festering pieces of upholstery.

May 28.

585 BC. A solar eclipse occurs. Normally, this isn't such a big deal, but it had two very interesting effects, one of which was local, short term and not significant in the larger historical sense, and the other of which wasn't perceived for many centuries, but is much more crucial to historians. The solar eclipse occurs during the Battle of Halys, which was the last battle in a five year war between the Medes and the Lydians. The Medes lived in what is now northwestern Iran, while the Lydians were from Anatolia. The two people see the eclipse as an omen that the Gods wanted the fighting to stop, so they did. The battle is more popularly known as the Battle of the Eclipse.

More significantly, because the eclipse can be dated precisely, the Battle of the Eclipse is one of the earliest dates of an historical event that can be identified precisely, and thus is a cardinal date from which other dates for historical events can be calculated.

1588. The Spanish Armada, 151 ships and 30,000 men strong, sets sail from Lisbon headed for the English Channel. The Armada planned to pick up an addition 30,000 men in the Spanish Netherlands and invade England.

1774. The First Continental Congress convenes.

1905. The Battle of Tsushima ends. Fought between the navies of Tsarist Russia and Imperial Japan, it represents the only truly decisive sea battle fought between modern battleships. The battle is a crushing defeat for the Russian navy, who had seen their fleet sail 18,000 miles only to have 2/3rds of it destroyed while sinking only three Japanese torpedo boats.

The battle was the first victory of an Asian nation over a Western power in the modern age, and was a severe blow to the prestige of Russian's ruling Romanov family. The battle also seemingly confirmed the need for modern battleships, and in a few short months the British would authorize laying the keel of the HMS Dreadnought, which more or less rendered all other warships afloat (incluidng the entire British navy at the time) obsolete and kicked off the dreadnought arms race.

1940. Belgium surrenders to Germany, which among other consequences leaves a 20 mile gap in the Dunkirk defenses. Confused battles occur all along the Dunkirk perimeter, with the British having command and control issues. The British are slowly driven inward toward Dunkirk. Evacuation operations are ongoing, as the Luftwaffe and RAF fight to control the skies over Dunkirk and the Channel.

1942. In retaliation for the assassination of Richard Heydrich, Nazis kill over 1,800 Czecholosvakians.

1982. The British win the Battle of Goose Green in the Falklands War. I mainly include this to laugh at both the name of the battle and at the war in general.

May 29

(need to get a bit ahead of the game here -- this weekend is going to be busy)

1453. On this date, 1453, the Ottoman armies of Sultan Mehmet II ("the Conqueror") finally captured Constantinople after a siege lasting two months, extinguishing the last remnants of the Byzantine Empire which was the last vestige of the Roman Empire. Although by this time the Empire was a pathetic shell of its former self, controlling barely more than the territory beyond its famed Theodosian Walls and some isolated territories along the Aegean Coast, the fall of the fabled city sent shock waves through Europe, which long had ignored the desperate pleas of their fellow Christian state to assist them in holding off the Muslims.

The last emperor died heroically at the walls defending his beloved city. Although Mehmet (who was quite young at this point) would become reknowned for his religious tolerance, he gave over the city to the traditional three days of sacking following its capture, and the Ottoman army fell on the city, raping and pillaging.


Mehmet the Conqueror.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...ellini_003.jpg

1867. The Austrian-Hungarian Compromise is signed into law, giving birth to the Austro-Hungarian Empire, which will last only until the end of World War I.

1953. Edmund Hillary and Sherpa Tenzing Norgay become the first to reach the summit of Mount Everest.

Big deal. Now, 13 year old, one-legged, blind midgets climb it.

True. I did it while sleep walking a few months ago myself...


:D

May 30

1431. Joan of Arc is burned at the stake in Rouen, France.

1536. The ever busy Henry VIII marries Jane Seymour, who was a lady in waiting to each of his first two wives. She, too, will die soon, though at least she wasn't beheaded like her predecessor. She instead will die of postnatal complications only a year after being married.

1806. Future President Andrew Jackson kills a man in a duel. The man had accused Jackson's wife of bigamy, which was technically true as Jackson and his wife had wed thinking that her divorce had been finalized. It was the first ever in the history of Kentucky, however, and had not quite been completed. They retook their vows after the divorce was fully completed, however. The bigamy charge will rear its ugly head again in the exceedingly nasty John Quincy Adams - Andrew Jackson election contests 20 years later.

1814. Napoleon is exiled to the island of Elba.

1854. The Kansas-Nebraska Act becomes law, repealing the Missouri Compromise of 1820, opening the door to Bleeding Kansas by virtue of the popular sovereignty clauses in the law regarding slavery, and setting the stage for the Civil War.

1859. Big Ben rings for the first time.

1869. Decoration Day, the predecessor to Memorial Day, is celebrated for the first time by order of the Commander in Chief of the Grand Army of the Republic (a fraternal organization of Civil War veterans).

1911. The first Indianapolis 500 is run, with Ray Harroun winning in his Marmon Wasp.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...MarmonWasp.JPG

1922. The Lincoln Memorial is dedicated.

May 31. Warning -- do not do anything special this day. You won't make the list. Seriously, if you aren't finding the cure for cancer, you won't even sniff the list.

1279 BC. Rameses II, the Great, becomes Pharoah of Egypt. Generally regarded as the greatest emperor of Ancient Egypt, he holds the throne for over 66 years, dying when he was 90 (or 99, accounts differ) years old. His mummified body was discovered in a royal tomb (to which it had been moved long after his death to preserve it against grave robbers) in 1881, and is now at the Cairo Museum. His wife was the almost equally famed Nefertari.

Although he was indeed great, as greatness is measured in those times -- conquering new lands, etc. -- his empire was under constant attack following his death, and within 150 years the New Kingdom of Egypt, which represented the zenith of Ancient Egyptian glory and power, would come to an end.

Among other things, Rameses II was famed for his many sons by his wives and concubines, and the funerary complex he built for his sons (many of whom he outlived) is the largest funerary complex of Ancient Egypt yet discovered.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...sesIIEgypt.jpg


1678. The procession of Lady Godiva is honored at the Great Fair in Coventry, England. A tradition that continues to this day and is known as the Godiva Procession during the Godiva Festival. (please ignore the fact that it is almost certain that the whole thing is just a legend and no noblewoman ever rode naked to get anyone a concession on taxes).

1864. The Battle of Cold Harbor begins. Ulysses S. Grant makes what is likely his worst mistake as a general, charging fortified Confederate lines and decimating his troops.

1911. RMS Titanic is launched.

1916. The Battle of Jutland begins, the largest naval combat of WWI and the last major engagement of traditional surface fleets the world will see before the advent of aircraft carriers changes naval warfare forever. The result of the battle is inconclusive, but Germany's navy is penned back into its docks for the rest of the war.

1927. The last Model T rolls off the assembly line, after a production run of 19 years and slightly over 15 million vehicles. The first vehicle to be mass produced, it was initially sold at a price of $850 per vehicle (roughly the equivalent of $20,000 in today's money) when other vehicles sold at the equivalent of $50,000 in today's money. By the 1920s, the price had fallen to under $300 due to increasing efficiencies, making it extremely affordable to middle class workers.

1962. Adolf Eichmann gets his neck stretched in Israel.

June 1

987. Hugh Capet is elected King of France, beginning the Capetian Dynasty which lasted until 1328 directly, and until the end of the French monarchy when collateral branches are included. As of 2009, Capetians are still the heads of state of Spain (King Juan Carlos I, a Bourbon, which is a branch of Capetians) and Luxembourg (Grand Duke Henri, House of Bourbon-Parma). Hugh Capet is also generally considered the founder of "Modern" France, as he moved his seat of governance to Paris and exerted control from there, which all subsequent French kings would do as well.

1215. Genghis Khan captures Beijing.

1495. Friar John Cor is recorded as the first known distiller of Scotch Whisky. The word Whisky is the English derivative of the Gaelic word "usquebaugh", which was shortened to "usky" over time. What does "usquebaugh" mean in Gaelic? Why "Water of Life" of course...

1812. President James Madison asks Congress to declare war on the United Kingdomm, beginning the ill-fated and utterly moronic War of 1812.

1974. The Heimlich Manuever is published in the journal Emergency Medicine. Which mostly gives me the chance to post this link (Eddie Izzard):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6MnurooA2tw

1980. Cable News Network (CNN) begins broadcasting.

June 2.

455. The Vandals sack Rome. This sack, the second of three Barbarian sacks of Rome, is more thorough than the first, lasting 14 days.

1835. PT Barnum starts his first circus tour of the United States.

1886. Grover Cleveland marries Frances Folsom, becoming the first and only President to wed in the White House (President John Tyler had previously wed, but had done so in NYC). One doubts such a marriage would occur today -- Cleveland was 49 years old, Folsom just 21, at the time of the wedding.

1896. Guglielmo Marconi applies for a patent for his newest invention. Some worthless device called "radio".

1924. Manager Miller Huggins writes out a lineup card replacing first basemen Wally Pipp with Lou Gehrig. Gehrig would apprear on the next 2,130 lineup cards submitted by Yankee managers.

1953. Queen Elizabeth II is coronated.

June 3.

1850. "City of Kansas" is incorporated by Jackson County, Missouri.

1937. The Duke of Windsor, formerly King Edward VIII of England, marries his mistress Wallis Simpson, an American and two time divorcee. His intention to marry her while still King of England set off a Constitutional crisis in England and its dominions. Ultimately, he determined to resign the throne, which he did six months prior to being married. They were married in France, and no members of the royal family attended. Indeed, the couple would never live in England, and it would be years before Simpson ever saw another member of the royal family.

Simpson was Time's first ever Woman (rather than Man) of the Year, for 1936.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...allis_Time.jpg

1940. The last British troops leave from Dunkirk, which is captured by the Germans. A total of 338,226 men were successful evacuated, including 137,996 French, Polish and Belgian soldiers. (note, a few French troops were evacuated on June 4). The British escape was not only critical in terms of manpower, but especially in leadership, as the cream of the British Army was evacuated under the Germans' noses, including future Field Marshals Alanbrooke, Alexander and Montgomery.

.

June 4.

1584. Sir Walter Raleigh establishes the first English colony on Roanoke Island, old Virginia (now North Carolina). And, of course, in case you were wondering why the capital of North Carolina is Raleigh, now you know...

1615. The forces of Tokugawa take Osaka Castle in Japan after a lengthy siege, ending all resistance to the Tokugawa Shogunate which will lead Japan until the Meiji restoration in the late 1800s.

1896. Henry Ford, in a tiny workshop behind his home at 58 Bagley Avenue, Detroit, completes the Ford Quadricycle, his first gasoline powered automobile, and gives it a successful test run. He named it the Quadricycle because the vehicle ran on four bicycle tires, driven by a chain and a four horsepower engine. You can still see the Quadricycle today at the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, Michigan.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...cycle_crop.jpg

1919. The US Congress approves the 19th Amendment, giving the vote to women, and sends it to the states for ratification.

1939. The MS St. Louis is denied port in Florida, after having previously been turned away in Cuba. A German vessel, she is carrying 930 Jewish and 7 non-Jewish refugees seeking to escape Nazi Germany. Efforts to bring the ship to port in Canada are rebuffed by its Prime Minister. Eventually, the ship offloads nearly 300 passengers in England, and the rest in Antwerp where, it is estimated, approximately 200-250 of its passengers end up slain by the Nazis following German occupation of the low countries the following year. The adventures of the ship are memorialized in the 1974 book Voyage of the Damned. (which, for the sake of full disclosure, I have not read and am not familiar with)

1940. Nazi forces enter Paris.

1942. The Battle of Midway begins, it ends in a resounding victory for the United States only 7 months after it had entered the war as a result of Pearl Harbor, when US forces sink four Japanese aircraft carriers to the loss of only one. The loss of so many large carriers and talented aircrews are effectively irreplaceable for Japan, which struggles to build replacements, while US production is rapidly increasing output. In fact, Japan would not be able to assemble so many fleet carriers until 1944 (which carriers had largely inexperienced aircrews). By comparison, the US had commissioned two dozen fleet and light carriers, as well as a number of escort carriers.

As a result, the US effectively seizes the initiative and puts Japan on the defensive.

1989. The People's Liberation Army (China) [lord, the irony...] liberates the people in Tianamen Square against their will, ending the protests of 1989. The event is sometimes known in China as the "June 4th Massacre", but more popularly as the "June 4 Incident". The date "May 35th" is often used by individuals in China to avoid its government's internet censorship.

1989. Solidarity's victory in the (moderately) free elections in Poland spark off Anti-Communist protests across Eastern Europe, and begin what is known as the Autumn of Nations, in which a number of Eastern European nations throw off the shackles of Communism.

You have to think that his Cabinet was giving him high-fives and saying stuff like, "Score, dude".

And no doubt the Vice President at the time, who we all know was Vice President mumblecough was probably thinking "Sweet, my chances of sitting in the big chair just went up dramatically!"

June 4, 2010: National Doughnut Day

June 5

1851. Harriet Beecher Stowe's novel Uncle Tom's Cabin, or Life Among the Lowly, begins publication as a 40 week serial in an abolitionist periodical. Ms. Stowe wrote the book in response to the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850. As a result of its tremendous popularity, she was convinced to sell it as a book. It was the best selling novel of the 19th century, and the second best selling book, after only the Bible, and had a tremendous influence on the sectional debate that would ultimately lead to the Civil War. It is fair to say that it is one of the most influential novels in human history.

1947. In a speech at Harvard University, Secretary of State (and former 5 star US General) George Marshall calls for economic aid to war torn Europe, in furtherance of our own national security interests, first introducing what will become known as the Marshall Plan.

1967. The Six Day War begins, with Israel launching preemptive attacks on certain of her Arab neighbors.

1968. Robert Kennedy, the brother of former President John Kennedy, who was assassinated in Dallas only five years earlier, is shot at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles by Palestinian Sirhan Sirhan, and dies the next day. He becomes the third son of Joseph and Rose Kennedy to die. In addition to the John and Robert, their oldest brother Joe Jr., was killed while in the service during WWII. Another child, a daughter, died in a plane crash while only 28 years old.

Sirhan Sirhan planned the murder well in advance, and was fixated on Kennedy and his promise to support Israel. The murder occurred on the one year anniversary of the Six Day War. As of this date, he remains in prison, his sentence having been commuted from death to life imprisonment as a result of a California Supreme Court decision ruling the death penalty in violation of California's Constitution.

1975. The Suez Canal opens for the first time since the Six Days War.

1981. The Centers for Disease Control report that five individuals in teh Los Angeles California area are suffering from a rare form of pneumonia seen only in patients with weakened immune systems. This is effectively the first recognized cases of AIDS.

1989. In response to the Tiananmen Square Massacre, a single man stepped in front of a tank column that was exiting the square. The picture was a sensation. The man survived the experience, but has never been definitively identified by the West, and rumors abound as to who he was and whether he was executed shortly thereafter.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...ianasquare.jpg

June 6. My God...

1644. The Qing Dynasty takes over from the Ming as on this date, Qing forces capture Beijing. The Qing will rule until 1912, when the Republic of China is established.

1844. The YMCA is founded, in London.

1892. Chicago El begins operation.

1925. Chrysler Corporation is founded by Walter Percy Chrysler. No word on whether he was bailed out the following week.

1933. The first Drive-In theater opens, in Camden, New Jersey.

1944. D-Day. Operation Overlord commences the Battle of Normandy, with nearly 155,000 troops hitting the beaches. (more on this later).

1946. The Basketball Association of America is formed in New York City. It contains six teams that are still part of the NBA, which is the organization that was formed when the BBA and NBA merged in 1949. The six team -- Boston Celtics, Minneapolis Lakers, PHiladelphia Warriors (now Golden State Warriors), Fort Wayne Pistons, New York Knickerbockers and the Rochester Royals (now the Sacramento Kings). Other teams, such as the Chicago Stags, Detroit Falcons, Indianapolis Jets, Pittsburgh Ironmen, Providence Steamrollers and St. Louis Bombers flame out along the way.

Just wanted to note that I had intended a full-blown write up on D-Day, which is what has held me up. But in fear of falling iether further behind, I'm just going to forge ahead here. I hope to backtrack and cover D-Day in more detail later.

June 7.

1776. Richard Henry Lee, of Virginia, presents the Lee Resolution to the Continental Congress. The motion is seconded by (future President) John Adams, of Massachusetts, and will lead to the Declaration of Independence a few weeks later.
Lee is a member of the famous Lee family of Virginia. His nephew, Light Horse Harry Lee, will become famous as a general serving under Washington, but less famous than his son (and Richard Henry Lee's grand-nephew), Robert E. Lee.

The Lees are memorialized in the musical 1776.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I2Tiar8FqXU

1893. Gandhi's first act of civil disobedience.

1965. The US Supreme Court hands down Griswold v. Connecticut. It rules that states cannot infringe on the right of a married couple to use contraceptives. Yes, that's right. In some states in 1965, until this decision was handed down, a husband could not legally buy or use a condom.

1982. Priscilla Presley opens Graceland to the public.

June 8

1191. Richard, Coeur de Lion (the LionHearted) arrives in Acre, beginning his crusade. Amusingly, like most English kings of this era, he spoke little or no English having lived (and continuing to live) in the Duchy of Aquitaine in Southern France.

1789. James Madison introduces 12 amendments to the Constitution in the House, ten of which will be ratified and become known as the Bill of Rights. Another is ratified in 1992 and becomes the 27th amendment.

1949. Exemplifying the foolishness of the era, an FBI report names Danny Kaye, Helen Keller, Frederick March, Edward G. Robinson and others as members of the Communist Party.

1959. The USS Barbero, a navy submarine, assists the United States Postal Service in its tests of the delivery of mail by.......wait for it.......................................missile.

Yes, missile mail was attempted by many organizations around the world and never found to work very well. Surprising, really. ON this particular date the Barbero, replaced the nuclear warheads of two missiles with, yes, mail, to effect delivery.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...missile.png<b></B>

I wonder why missile mail never took off. Maybe they decided that the risk of accidental nuclear holocaust rose whenever people sent mail to the Soviet Union.

Maybe I should've named this thread "a date close to this date, in history". I'll start catching up...

June 9

Emperor Nero of Rome, all on this date: 53 AD, marries his stepsister Claudia Octavia. 62 AD, executes his wife and stepsister Claudia Octavia (happy Anniversary honey, sorry but I'm having you beheaded). 68 AD, commits suicide.

1650. The Harvard Corporation is established, the first legal corporation in the Americas. It is the more important of Harvard University's two governing boards.

1934. Donald Duck makes his debut in The Wise Little Hen.

1954. Attorney Joseph Welch, special counsel to the United States Army, lashes out at Senator Joseph McCarthy during Senate hearings on whether Communism had infiltrated the Army. Welch was taking a stand defending a young attorney at his law firm. McCarthy's antics, and Welch's rebukes, were quickly spread nationally via the new medium of television.

The comments drew applause from the gallary. The answer to Welch's question, of course, was that McCarthy in fact had no decency. Had never had. McCarthy had already been under fire from fellow Senators, and Welch's remarks drove the point home. Within six months he was formally censured by the Senate. Within three years he was dead, at the age of 48. The official cause of death was acute hepatitis, but it was rumored that his rampant alchoholism had finally caught up with him.

Fred Fisher, the young attorney who was slandered by McCarthy and whom Welch was defending, went on to have a brilliant legal career at Welch's law firm of Hale and Dorr, becoming a partner and serving as President of the Massachusetts Bar Association in 1973-74.

1959. The USS George Washington, the first submarine to carry ballistic missiles, is launched.

:LOL:

I don't know if it's like this everywhere, but many of the people I knew in the National Lawyers Guild might as well have been communists.

To be honest, I've never even heard of it.

June 10.

1190. Frederick I, Holy Roman Emperor, better known as Barbarossa ("red beard"), drowns in the river Saleph while attempting to lead an army to Jerusalem during the Third Crusade. Operation Barbarossa, the Nazi invasion of the USSR, was named after this charismatic German leader.

1692. Bridget Bishop is hanged at Gallows Hill near Salem, Massachusetts for "certaine Detestable Arts called Witchcraft & Sorceries", the first of the eventual 19 people hanged. Another person, a man, who refused to enter a plea was crushed to death by stone in an effort to get him to do so.

1898. Marines land on the island of Cuba during the Spanish-American War.

1935. Dr. Robert Smith takes his last drink, and founds Alcoholics Anonymous.

1940. Norway surrenders to the Nazis, a serious blow and surprising reversal for the British.

1944. Cincinnati Red Joe Nuxhall becomes the youngest person to ever appear in a major league baseball game. He is a spry 15 years of age.

June 11.

1184 BC. Troy is captured, sacked and burned by the Greeks. Note that there is considerable disagreement over which century, much less which precise date this occurred. This is the date calculated by Eratosthenes, an ancient Greek. But though he was much closer to the time of the event in question, he was still writing a thousand years after the fact, so take it with a massive grain of salt.

1776. The Contintental Congress appoints a committee of five to draft a declaration regarding its independence. Serving on the committee are Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Roger Sherman and Robert Livingston. The selection of the committee and decision of who would try to write the declaration are humorously memorialized in the musical 1776, where Jefferson is portrayed as a young man who ardently desires to return to his wife in Virginia and is instead "forced" to write the declaration by Adams.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vYhjBcYnzvU


1920. At the Republican National Convention in Chicago, party leaders gather in a back room of the Blackstone Hotel to reach a consensus on their candidate for the Presidency, leading the Associated Press to first use the phrase "smoke-filled room". The party's nominee becomes Warren Harding, an unlikely candidate, who goes on to win the Presidency. Harding would have a fairly talent-laden Cabinet, but his administration is marked by corruption and he goes down in history as one of our more mediocre Presidents.

1938. The Nationalist Government of China intentionally floods the Yellow River to slow down or stop Japanese troops. Approximately 500,000 Chinese civilians are killed, as the government decided not to warn anyone about the flooding in order to surprise the Japanese.

1962. Frank Morris, John Anglin and Clarence Anglin successfully escape Alcatraz Prison. Their efforts are memorialized in Clint Eastwood's 1979 movie "Escape from Alcatraz".

June 12.

1775. British General Thomas Gage puts Boston under martial law, and declares that all colonists that put down their arms would be given pardons, with two exceptions. Samuel Adams and John Hancock, if captured, were to be hanged.

1939. The Baseball Hall of Fame opens in Cooperstown, New York.

1942. Anne Frank receives a diary for her 13th birthday. A month later the young Jewish girl and her family she will go into hiding to avoid increasing Nazi persecution.

1943. The Jewish Ghetto in Berezhany, western Ukraine, is liquidated. Nearly 1,200 Jews are led to the old Jewish cemetary and executed.

1964. Nelson Mandela is sentenced to life in prison for sabotage.

1967. The Supreme Court declares all laws prohibiting interracial marriage to be unconstitutional.

1987. At the Brandenberg Gate in Berlin, Germany, President Reagan challenges Mikhail Gorbachev to "tear down this wall".


1994. Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman are murdered in Los Angeles, California. Former NFL star OJ Simpson is later acquitted of the murder charges, but found liable in a civil action.

June 13

1373. The Anglo-Portugese Alliance between England (later succeded by the United Kingdom, and Portugal, goes into effect. It is the oldest known alliance still in effect.

1525. Martin Luther marries, in violation of Church celibacy rules.

1777. The Marquis de Lafayette, of France, lands to help Continental forces. He will prove instrumental in assisting the revolutionary movement.

1934. Hitler and Moussolini meet for the first time, in Venice, Italy. Il Duce is dressed in a military uniform and, underestimating Hitler as so many had, and would, treats him pompously. He very much viewed himself as the senior memory of the nationalist socialism, having already led Italy for over a decade, compared to Hitler's few months, at the time of the meeting. Hitler, having been given bad instructions by his ambassador, is wearing civilian dress and looks and feels out of place. Moussolini later refers to Hitler as a "silly little monkey".

1942. The US establishes the Office of Strategic Services, the progenitor of the CIA.

1944. The first V-1 "flying bombs" are launched by the Nazis at London. Only 4 of 12 reach their target. Later, over 100 rockets a day will be launched. The terror and resultant Allied strategic focus on their removal are utterly disproportionate to the threat posed by them.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...1-20040830.jpg

1966. The Supreme Court hands down its ruling in Miranda v. Arizona, establishing "Miranda Rights."

1971. The New York Times begins publication of the Pentagon Papers.

I hate this.

I doubt many here know what the heck the Pentagon Papers were, so I thought I'd expand on this a bit, as it's really a fascinating little nugget of history.

In the late 60s, America was of course tied up in the Vietnam War. The Defense Department commissioned a comprehensive review of US-Vietnam relations from '45 to '67. The review was completed in '68. One of the contributors to the report was Daniel Ellsberg, a military analyst with the Rand Corporation.

The report was classified top secret, and was not intended for publication or distribution.

In 1971, the New York Times began running excerpts from the report on its front page. The revelations caused a furor. A number of items in the report clearly showed that many senior politicians, including candidate LBJ and then President LBJ, had lied to the public about matters relating to Vietnam. The Nixon Administration brought a lawsuit seeking to stop publication by the NYT, a case that quickly rose to the Supreme Court. Meanwhile, the Administration also threatened anyone involved with felony treason under the 1917 Espionage Act.

To ensure open debate, then Democratic Senator Mike Gravel of Alaska entered 4,100 pages of the Pentagon Papers into the Congressional Record, where they enjoyed absolute privilege under the Constitution.

The upshot of this massive furor was a Supreme Court case that found expansively in favor of freedom of speech rights by newspaper publications and an American public that turned even more viciously on the Vietnam War.

In response to the leaks John Ehrlichman would form what would become known as the "White House Plumbers", who would then play a prominent role in the Watergate fiasco.

Ellsburg, meanwhile, got off scot free after being indicted. In its absolute zeal to erase him, the federal government, under intense pressure from the White House, had managed to break every rule ever written for prosecutorial conduct, including illegal wiretaps and breaking into the offices of Ellsburg's psychiatrist in an attempt to find his file. The judge tossed the case out on its ear.

June 14.

1777. Congress establishes the stars and stripes as the official flag of the United States. Eddie Izzard fans will recognize the importance of this.

1789. Whiskey distilled from maize, i.e. Bourbon Whiskey, is first produced by Baptist minister Elijah Craig, in Kentucky. Bourbon County, Kentucky to be precise. Hence the name. The Craig legend, however, is more than likely just that, only a legend.

1900. Hawaii becomes a US territory.

1938. Action comics releases its first issue, introducing Superman.

1940. Paris is occupied by the Germans. Ilsa goes to Viktor, who is desperately ill in a railroad car. Rick leaves the city by train without her, heartbroken.

1940. 728 Polish political prisoners are shipped to a newly opened concentration camp. The first residents of Auschwitz.

1954. President Eisenhower signs a bill into law adding the words "Under God" to the US Pledge of Allegiance which had been around for about 60 years.

1966. The Vatican abolishes the Index Librorum Prohibitorum -- the list of prohibted books, which had been in effect since 1557. Since many of the books are now considered the foundation stones of science and philosophy, presumably they determined that it wasn't making them too bright. Authors with works on the list include Kepler, Sartre, Voltaire, Victor Hugo, Kant, Hume, Descartes, Francis Bacon, Locke, John Milton, and Galileo. :shake:

1982. The Falkland Islands War ends. It is a resounding victory for the rights of sheep everywhere.

LMAO

"We need the Falklands, for strategic sheep purposes!"

June 15

763 BC. Assyrians record a solar eclipse which is later used to fix many other events in Mesopotamian history.

1215. King John I puts his seal on Magna Carta.

1752. Ben Franklin proves that lightning is electricity.

1775. George Washington is appointed commander of the Continental Army.

1844. Charles Goodyear receives a patent for vulcanization, a process to strengthen rubber.

1846. The Oregon Treaty is signed by the US and the United Kingdom, fixing the 49th parallel as the boundary between the US and Canada west of the Rocky Mountains.

1864. Ulysses S. Grant and the Army of the Potomac reach the outskirts of Petersburg, Virginia. Robert E. Lee and the Army of Northern Virginia, travelling on interior lines, has once again beaten Grant to his objective. Grant, who has already established his rabid tenacity, doesn't intend to leave, and both sides settle in for a siege.

Petersburg was a city just south of Richmond, and a main supply route into the city. Without Petersburg, Richmond, the Confederate Capital, could not survive. The siege was not a true siege, in which an objective is surrounded and all supplies are cut off. Rather, Petersburg was besieged, and the armies engaged in trench warfare. Eventually, over 30 miles of trenches were dug by the Union, which with superior resources and manpower, was constantly spreading the length of the line and causing Lee's troops to thin themselves out to avoid being outflanked. The siege would last for nine months, and the resulting Union victory was swiftly followed by the surrender of the entire Army of Northern Virginia.

1864. Arlington National Cemetary is established when the Union declares the 200 acres formerly owned by Robert E. Lee to be effectively forfeit, and starts burying the Union dead on the Confederate commander's former property. In 1882 the Supreme Court ruled that the act was illegal, and awarded the property to Lee's oldest surviving son, George Washington Custis Lee, who sold it back to the government for $150,000.

1882. Crown Prince Wilhelm becomes Kaiser Wilhelm II, the last Kaiser of Imperial Germany. Of course, Imperial Germany only lasted 47 years, so I guess it's not saying all that much.

1911. Tabulating Computing Recording Corporation is incorporated. It will later change its name to something you might find more recognizable: IBM.

1916. President Wilson signs a charter for the Boy Scouts of America, making them the only federally chartered youth organization.

June 16.

1858. Abraham Lincoln gives the House Divided speech. Surprisingly, it's not about tariffs.

1903. Ford Motor Company is incorporated.

1904. Bloomsday. Irish author James Joyce begins his relationship with Nora Barnacle, and therefore uses this day to set the events of his novel Ulysses, all of which occur within this single date. The date is therefore celebrated as Bloomsday in Ireland, being named after Leopold Bloom, the protagonist of the novel.

1940. In a sad closing chapter of a French military hero from WWI, the 84 year old Henri Philippe Petain, Marshal of France, becomes Premier of Vichy France, which collaborated with the Nazis. Following the war, he is convicted of and sentenced to death by firing squad for treason, a sentence that is commuted to life imprisonment by his former protege Charles de Gaulle. He eventually dies, completely senile while inprisoned on an island off the Atlantic Coast of France. Calls are occassionally made for him to be reinterred at a site prepared for him near Verdun, the WWI battle where he achieved his greatest fame. Mount Petain, in the Canadian Rockies, was named for him in 1919, one of a number of other summits named for French military leaders of WWI, such as Foch, and Joffre.

1976. The Soweto uprising, a non-violent demonstration by 15,000 students in Soweto, South Africa, turns into days of rioting after police open fire.

Wow, I didn't know that, although I suppose I'm not surprised.

June 17

1631. Mumtaz Mahal dies during childbirth. Her husband, Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan I, will spend 20 years building a mausoleum for his beloved wife. We know it as the Taj Mahal.

1775. The Battle of Bunker Hill is fought. Although a tactical victory for the British, in that they took the hill, they suffered serious losses in doing so.

1932. The "Bonus Army" starts assembling in Washington DC. These were veterans of the First World War, who were seeking early payment of a bonus that had been promised to them. Eventually, they will be dispatched by military forces under the command of Chief of Staff Douglas MacArthur. His aide, Dwight Eisenhower, will lament MacArthur's attitude toward the Bonus Army and the publicity-seeking methods MacArthur used.

1944. Iceland declares independence from Denmark and becomes an independent republic.

(I hope to have more to say on the Bonus Army later)