Today in History

[giaka]

32 years ago I got married for the first time. 

[Papa Lazarou]

1904   The Japanese destroy the Russian Baltic fleet (yes, they sailed round the world just to get sunk) at Port Arthur in Korea

[Flyer]

Dec. 6, 1917

On this day in 1917, a Belgian steamer and French freighter, both loaded with ammunition, explode in Canada's Halifax Harbor, leveling part of the town and killing nearly 1,600 people and injuring approximately 8,000. The 8 million tons of TNT carried by the ships was intended for use in World War I.

The ships were gathered in Halifax, the meeting point for convoys to begin the dangerous Atlantic crossing, during which they were threatened by the deadly and stealthy German U-boat submarines. The HMS High Flyer was assigned to lead the convoy. The freighter from France, the Mont Blanc, had picked up a full load of TNT in New York and came into the harbor on a foggy morning. Due to the poor conditions, it collided with the Imo, a Belgian steam boat, also carrying ammunition. A fire resulted and both ships were abandoned immediately.

A British ship, the Pictou, was at a pier in the harbor and was also filled with ammunition. The crew of the Pictou immediately fled and set the ship free upon witnessing the collision. The High Flyer was the only ship that took any action to try to stop the disaster--it sent 23 men toward the collision to attempt to sink the vessels. They were too late: A massive explosion occurred just as they reached the ships.

The explosion sent burning debris throughout Halifax. It also caused a large wave to form that pushed the ships at pier right up out of the harbor. A Canadian army officer stationed at Halifax described the result, "All that could be seen for a great circumference were burning buildings, great mounds of iron and brick in the streets and dead bodies." A 2.5- mile radius was completely demolished and the explosion could be felt 125 miles away. The wave of water hit a Navy ammunition plant located near the shores, possibly saving it from the fire.

Most other places nearby were not so lucky: The railway station collapsed from the blast and crushed scores of people inside. About 100 more were killed in a sugar plant located near the water. Of the 500 students located in schools nearby, less than 10 survived. In all, the death toll was somewhere between 1,200 and 4,000, but no one knows for sure because so much of the city was completely obliterated. Many more might have died except for a snowstorm later that day that helped put out the flames. Still, 25,000 people were left homeless in the wake of the disaster.

[JonS]

1862   President Abraham Lincoln orders the hanging of 39 of the 303 convicted Indians who participated in the Sioux Uprising in Minnesota. They are to be hanged on December 26.
  I never read anything about Lincoln remotely like that.

After further review, like most things, it's complicated.
http://www.historynet.com/abraham-lincoln-deciding-the-fate-of-300-indians-convicted-of-war-crimes-in-minnesotas-great-sioux-uprising.htm

[Flyer]

After further review, like most things, it's complicated.

Good sig. line.
 

[Papa Lazarou]

1862   President Abraham Lincoln orders the hanging of 39 of the 303 convicted Indians who participated in the Sioux Uprising in Minnesota. They are to be hanged on December 26.
  I never read anything about Lincoln remotely like that.

After further review, like most things, it's complicated.
http://www.historynet.com/abraham-lincoln-deciding-the-fate-of-300-indians-convicted-of-war-crimes-in-minnesotas-great-sioux-uprising.htm

this bit sums it up:

Bishop Henry Whipple, head of the Minnesota Episcopal Church, spoke often of the hypocrisy of federal Indian policies. In a newspaper editorial he wrote, "f . . . vengeance is to be more than a savage thirst for blood, we must examine the causes which have brought this bloodshed . . . . Who is guilty of the causes which desolated our border? At whose door is the blood of these innocent victims? I believe that God will hold the Nation guilty." Whipple was a cousin to Henry Halleck, Lincoln's general-in-chief, so the bishop gained an audience with the president in November and urged clemency. Lincoln was impressed. "He came here the other day," Lincoln said later, "and talked with me about the rascality of this Indian business, until I felt it down to my boots. - See more at: http://www.historynet.com/abraham-lincoln-deciding-the-fate-of-300-indians-convicted-of-war-crimes-in-minnesotas-great-sioux-uprising.htm#sthash.0MLgmAFg.dpuf

[Papa Lazarou]

On Dec. 7, 1941, Japanese warplanes attacked the home base of the U.S. Pacific fleet at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii, drawing the United States into World War II. More than 2,300 Americans were killed.

[JonS]

1972   The crew of Apollo 17, the last manned mission to the moon, lifts off at Cape Canaveral, Florida.

[Flyer]

Dec. 7, 1963
The "Singing Nun" Sister Luc-Gabrielle (nee Jeanne-Paule Marie Deckers) reached #1 in America on the pop charts with "Dominique", a song praising St. Dominic, in French!!
It would remain #1 for four weeks, preventing "Louie Louie" from ever doing the same.
Deckers' career and life ended tragically in 1985, when she committed suicide in the face of a massive tax bill from the Belgian government relating to unpaid taxes on royalties that Deckers had donated in full to the Roman Catholic Church.
I can still remember the words to this day in French.
 

[JonS]

Dec. 7, 1963
The "Singing Nun" Sister Luc-Gabrielle (nee Jeanne-Paule Marie Deckers) reached #1 in America on the pop charts with "Dominique", a song praising St. Dominic, in French!!
It would remain #1 for four weeks, preventing "Louie Louie" from ever doing the same.
Deckers' career and life ended tragically in 1985, when she committed suicide in the face of a massive tax bill from the Belgian government relating to unpaid taxes on royalties that Deckers had donated in full to the Roman Catholic Church.
I can still remember the words to this day in French.
 

Very sad. I don't remember the song very well, but I do remember it being played a lot on the radio.

[Flyer]

RIP John
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[Blunder]

On Dec. 7, 1941, Japanese warplanes attacked the home base of the U.S. Pacific fleet at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii, drawing the United States into World War II. More than 2,300 Americans were killed.

I thought it was the Germans.

Anyway, in a few days, 12/11/41 to be exact, Herr Hitler declared war on the US.  If on this Thursday you get a sense of deja vu remember you read it here first.

[sodapop6620]

Kecksburg UFO Incident (1965)
Many believe that the large fireball observed in the sky above Ontario, Canada, and at least six US states in 1965 was nothing more than a passing meteor. However, some witnesses in the small town of Kecksburg, Pennsylvania, claim a car-sized, acorn-shaped object with hieroglyphic-like markings crashed in a nearby wood and was then carted off by the military. Government officials long denied these allegations, but 40 years later, in 2005, NASA made what admission regarding the suspicious object?

http://encyclopedia.thefreedictionary.com/Kecksburg+UFO+incident

[Papa Lazarou]

Government officials long denied these allegations, but 40 years later, in 2005, NASA made what admission regarding the suspicious object?

that the moon really is made of cheese?

[Veefer800canuck]

Dec 9, 1972:
"I Am Woman" by Helen Reddy tops the U.S. pop charts

[Flyer]

1st Young Men's Christian Association in North America opens. (Montreal)
 

[mxvet57]

Ralph Baer, inventor of the gaming console, dies at 92

http://www.cnn.com/2014/12/08/tech/gaming-gadgets/ralph-baer-obit/index.html

[Flyer]

Dec. 10, 1967
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When he left his final recording session in Memphis, Otis Redding intended to return soon to the song he'd been working on—he still had to replace a whistled verse thrown in as a placeholder with additional lyrics that he'd yet to write. In the meantime, however, there was a television appearance to make in Cleveland, followed by a concert in Madison, Wisconsin. On its final approach to Madison on this day in 1967, however, the private plane carrying soul-music legend Otis Redding would crash into the frigid waters of a small lake three miles short of the runway, killing seven of the eight men aboard, including Redding. "Sittin' On The Dock Of The Bay" would be released in its "unfinished" form several weeks later, with Redding's whistled verse a seemingly indispensable part of the now-classic record. It would soon become history's first posthumous #1 hit and the biggest pop hit of Redding's career.

[Cookie]

Dec. 10, 1967
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When he left his final recording session in Memphis, Otis Redding intended to return soon to the song he'd been working on—he still had to replace a whistled verse thrown in as a placeholder with additional lyrics that he'd yet to write. In the meantime, however, there was a television appearance to make in Cleveland, followed by a concert in Madison, Wisconsin. On its final approach to Madison on this day in 1967, however, the private plane carrying soul-music legend Otis Redding would crash into the frigid waters of a small lake three miles short of the runway, killing seven of the eight men aboard, including Redding. "Sittin' On The Dock Of The Bay" would be released in its "unfinished" form several weeks later, with Redding's whistled verse a seemingly indispensable part of the now-classic record. It would soon become history's first posthumous #1 hit and the biggest pop hit of Redding's career.

[JonS]

1869   Governor John Campbell signs the bill that grants women in Wyoming Territory the right to vote as well as hold public office.

[sodapop6620]

First Nobel Prizes Awarded (1901)
The Nobel Prizes, named after Swedish chemist Alfred Nobel, are awarded annually to those who have made outstanding contributions to the fields of physics, chemistry, physiology or medicine, literature, peace, and—since 1969—economic sciences. Nobel is said to have been inspired to create the prizes after reading his own prematurely published obituary, which condemned his invention of dynamite and referred to him as "the merchant of death." What family has amassed the most Nobel Prizes?

http://encyclopedia.thefreedictionary.com/Nobel+Prize

[JonS]

1936   Britain's King Edward VIII abdicates the throne to marry American Wallis Warfield Simpson.

[Flyer]

Dec. 11, 1968
Filming began for The Rolling Stones 'Rock & Roll Circus.' As well as clowns and acrobats, John Lennon and his fiancee Yoko Ono performed as part of a supergroup called The Dirty Mac, along with Eric Clapton, Mitch Mitchell, and Keith Richards. It was originally meant to be aired on the BBC, but the Rolling Stones withheld it because they were unhappy with their performance. The film was eventually released in 1996.

[Flyer]

Dec. 12, 1901
Italian physicist and radio pioneer Guglielmo Marconi succeeds in sending the first radio transmission across the Atlantic Ocean, disproving detractors who told him that the curvature of the earth would limit transmission to 200 miles or less. The message--simply the Morse-code signal for the letter "s"--traveled more than 2,000 miles from Poldhu in Cornwall, England, to Newfoundland, Canada.

[Flyer]

December 13, 1951,
Maj George Davis of the 334th Fighter Interceptor Squadron shoots down four MiG-15 s in a single day.
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[sodapop6620]

Max Planck's Quantum Theory Is Born (1900)
Considered the inventor of quantum theory, Max Planck shocked the science world by showing that atoms emit or absorb energy in bundles, or quanta, not in a continuous stream as taught by Newtonian physics. This insight, along with subsequent developments by Einstein, Bohr, and others, established the revolutionary quantum theory of modern physics and earned Planck the 1918 Nobel Prize in Physics. In 1945, Planck's son was executed following a failed attempt to assassinate what political figure?

http://encyclopedia.thefreedictionary.com/Max+Planck

[Flyer]

Dec. 15, 2006
The co-founder of Atlantic Records Ahmet Ertegun died, aged 83. Ertegun who founded Atlantic Records with Herb Abramson in 1947 helped make Ray Charles and Aretha Franklin stars and signed the Rolling Stones and Led Zeppelin in the early 70s. He suffered a head injury when he fell at a Rolling Stones concert at New York's Beacon Theatre in October, and died after slipping into a coma.
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[sodapop6620]

Battle of the Bulge Begins (1944)
This major German counter-offensive on the Western Front during World War II was the largest and bloodiest battle fought by the US Army during the war. Taking advantage of foggy weather, German forces attacked the thinly held American front in the Belgian Ardennes sector, catching the Allied forces unprepared. The Germans penetrated deep into the Allied lines. However, an American force held out at Bastogne, and the arrival of reinforcements turned the tide. How did the battle get its name?

I don't think it has anything to do with fat men.

http://encyclopedia.thefreedictionary.com/Battle+of+the+Bulge

[Flyer]

Dec. 16, 1835
The Great NY Fire of 1835 began on the evening in a five-story warehouse at 25 Merchant Street (now called Beaver Street) at the intersection with Pearl Street between Hanover Square, Manhattan and Wall Street in the snow-covered city and was fed by gale-force winds blowing from the northwest towards the East River. With temperatures as low as −17 °F (−27 °C) and the East River frozen solid, firefighters had to cut holes in the ice to get water. Water then froze in the hoses and pumps. Attempts to blow up buildings in its path (a technique later regarded as counterproductive) were thwarted by a lack of gunpowder in Manhattan (probably NOT the case today - Ed.). Firefighters coming to help from Philadelphia said they could see signs of the fire there.

[JonS]

Near Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, Orville and Wilbur Wright make the first successful flight in history of a self-propelled, heavier-than-air aircraft.

[sodapop6620]

The Simpsons Debuts (1989)
One of the most popular animated TV shows in US history, The Simpsons has earned its spot in pop culture history through its parodies of the "Middle American" lifestyle. The show, created by Matt Groening, is a spin-off of a series of animated shorts originally aired on The Tracey Ullman Show and is currently both the longest-running American sitcom and the longest-running American animated program.

[Veefer800canuck]

Near Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, Orville and Wilbur Wright make the first successful flight in history of a self-propelled, heavier-than-air aircraft.

I was able to see the actual wright flyer at the smithsonian this past spring.
It was amazing.

[Flyer]

Dec. 17, 1939
Canada signs British Commonwealth Air Training Plan, a $1.281 billion program to train pilots, navigators, wireless operators and gunners from UK, Canada, Australia and NZ; instructors from the Royal Canadian Air Force working at 107 schools and 184 ancillary units across Canada will eventually train 130,000 Allied aircrew.

[JonS]

1865   Slavery is abolished in the United States. The 13th Amendment is formally adopted into the U.S. Constitution, ensuring that "neither slavery nor involuntary servitude… shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction."

[stew71]

Today in 1856,  J J Thomson, discoverer of the electron, inventor of the mass spectrometer, and winner of the 1906 Nobel Prize, was born.

[Flyer]

Dec. 18, 1941

A week of air raids over Hong Kong, a British crown colony, was followed up on December 17 with a visit paid by Japanese envoys to Sir Mark Young, the British governor of Hong Kong. The envoys' message was simple: The British garrison there should simply surrender to the Japanese—resistance was futile. The envoys were sent home with the following retort: "The governor and commander in chief of Hong Kong declines absolutely to enter into negotiations for the surrender of Hong Kong..."

The first wave of Japanese troops landed in Hong Kong with artillery fire for cover and the following order from their commander: "Take no prisoners." Upon overrunning a volunteer antiaircraft battery, the Japanese invaders roped together the captured soldiers and proceeded to bayonet them to death. Even those who offered no resistance, such as the Royal Medical Corps, were led up a hill and killed.

The Japanese quickly took control of key reservoirs, threatening the British and Chinese inhabitants with a slow death by thirst. The Brits finally surrendered control of Hong Kong on Christmas Day.

[Flyer]

Dec. 20, 1941
The Flying Tigers, American pilots in China, enter combat against the Japanese over Kunming.
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[JonS]

1933   The German government announces 400,000 citizens are to be sterilized because of hereditary defects.

[sodapop6620]

The Louisiana Purchase (1803)
Early American settlers in the western territories depended on the Mississippi River's port of New Orleans for commerce. When Spain retroceded New Orleans to France in 1800, Americans feared their access to the river would be blocked, so President Thomas Jefferson sent negotiators to broker a deal for the port city. Why did Napoleon ultimately sell the entire Louisiana territory, including New Orleans, to the US for only about 4 cents per acre, or a sum total of $15 million?


And born today.

Samuel Mudd (1833)
Mudd was the physician who set the broken leg of John Wilkes Booth, Abraham Lincoln's assassin, just hours after Booth fled the crime scene. A Confederate sympathizer, Mudd was accused of aiding Booth's escape and tried along with Booth's other accomplices. Throughout, Mudd maintained that he had not recognized the disguised Booth, an acquaintance of his, and had been unaware of the assassination, but he was nonetheless convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment. Why was he pardoned in 1869?

[Papa Lazarou]

Why did Napoleon ultimately sell the entire Louisiana territory, including New Orleans, to the US for only about 4 cents per acre, or a sum total of $15 million?

Probably to bribe the US. France was fighting the rest of Europe at the time.

[JonS]

Dec. 20, 1941
The Flying Tigers, American pilots in China, enter combat against the Japanese over Kunming.
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One of those flew past where I live, a couple of times, last week. What a great sound.

[JonS]

1620   The Pilgrims land at or near Plymouth Rock.

[Flyer]

Dec. 21, 1940
Born on this day, Frank Zappa, multi' instrumentalist, producer and composer. Recorded with The Mothers Of Invention and solo, 1969 album 'Hot Rats', 1974 album 'Apostrophe', featuring 'Don't Eat The Yellow Snow'. First band was The Blackouts, recorded one of the first concept albums 'Freak Out'. Zappa died of prostate cancer on 4th December 1993.
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[Cookie]

Dec. 21, 1940
Born on this day, Frank Zappa, multi' instrumentalist, producer and composer. Recorded with The Mothers Of Invention and solo, 1969 album 'Hot Rats', 1974 album 'Apostrophe', featuring 'Don't Eat The Yellow Snow'. First band was The Blackouts, recorded one of the first concept albums 'Freak Out'. Zappa died of prostate cancer on 4th December 1993.
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I know. [emoji1]

Sent from my XT1058

[Jet-A-Pumper]

1st flight of what is, IMO, one of the coolest aircraft ever built by humans:

The SR-71 Blackbird

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[kneescrubber]

1st flight of what is, IMO, one of the coolest aircraft ever built by humans:

The SR-71 Blackbird

I'll second that.

[stew71]

1st flight of what is, IMO, one of the coolest aircraft ever built by humans:

The SR-71 Blackbird

I'll second that.

Third-ed. Grew up in Yuba City near Beale AFB where the 9th SRW was based.  Watched many of those beauties take off in my youth. 

One of my high school friends was "interviewed" by the FBI because he drew up some rather accurate schematics of the SR cockpit controls using what was publicly available at the time. No Internet or Google at the time, kiddies. His dad was a retired aerospace engineer so the feds were rather concerned that there was some Soviet influence going on. Nope. Just a smarter-than-average high school kid who put 2 and 2 together. This was around the time the movie "War Games" came out so we kidded John that the sequel will be based on him.

Back on topic...

1864 – Union General William T. Sherman presents the city of Savannah, Georgia, to President Lincoln.

Sherman wired Lincoln with the message, “I beg to present you, as a Christmas gift, the city of Savannah, with 150 heavy guns and plenty of ammunition, and also about 25,000 bales of cotton.”

[Papa Lazarou]

Today in history, many years ago, it was December the 22nd. And, lo! the daylight started coming back.

Happy ex Winter Solstice everyone.

[Flyer]

Dec. 22, 1967
The Jimi Hendrix Experience, Pink Floyd, The Who, Keith West and Tomorrow, Eric Burdon & The Animals, 1984 (featuring future Queen guitarist Brian May) and Soft Machine all appeared at The Olympia, London at an all night festival 'Christmas On Earth Continued'. The DJ was John Peel plus the venue featured a paddling pool, light shows and a movie theatre, tickets £1.
Those were the days...

[JonS]

Dec 25, 1941- Bing Crosby introduces "White Christmas" to the world.