Today in History...

[phdhorn 6224]

Might seem weird to put "History" in "Current Events, but 1) no where else seems fitting, and 2) well, "Today in History" is a current lookback on an episode of the past.  Figured as an historian that I'd start this and people could put shit in here to make you go, "hmmmmm...." or whatnot.  Maybe stuff too small for a separate thread but big enough to get a mention. Maybe this will die, but hell, let's give it a shot. 

Speaking of giving it a shot, today, the Civil War changed permanently.  Well, that wouldn't happen until "Day of Reckoning" July 4, 1863 (for reasons explained maybe this coming July 4), but today marks the beginning of the Siege of Vicksburg, which lasted up through July 4, when the Confederates surrendered, and the Mississippi was once again open to unfettered Union traffic (and also of course no longer able to service Confederate needs).  This was the beginning of the end (IMHO) for the Confederacy.  The "High Water" Mark at Gettysburg was probably that, but this event was where it all started changing.  Confederate victories after this were less consequential and this really was the straw.

May 18, 1863, Ulysses Grant goes "boom boom!" and shells the living (and dying) shit out of Vicksburg and pretty much creates a city of starving zombies.

[gsoda3 3234]

does vicksburg really still not celebrate july 4?

[DoobieWah 1410]

In 1048, Persian poet Omar Khayyam was born.

In 1803, England declared war on Napoleon, (and France).

In 1920, Man O' War won the 45th Preakness.

In 1926, nutjob Andrew Kehoe blew up an elementary school in Bath, Michigan killing some 45 people, mostly children. He was mad he lost a minor election.

In 1940, the Germans marched into Brussels.

In 1969, Apollo 10 launched on its mission to orbit the moon in the final run-up to the first lunar landing three months later.

In 1970, Tina Fey was born.

In 1974, India became the 6th member of the "Nuclear Club".

In 1980, Mt St Helen's blew killing 60.

 

HTH.  😀

 

 

[phdhorn 6224]

2 hours ago, gsoda3 said:

does vicksburg really still not celebrate july 4?

It's a myth. They were celebrating July 4th as early as 1902, pretty much par for the course in the Confederate States.

[miguelito 11204]

1918 my grandfather was born.  Still kicking today.  Gonna go see him after work.

[Sbbruin 21697]

Awesome, happy 100 to Gramps Miguelito!

[Onboard 2.0 9083]

8 hours ago, phdhorn said:

Might seem weird to put "History" in "Current Events, but 1) no where else seems fitting, and 2) well, "Today in History" is a current lookback on an episode of the past.  Figured as an historian that I'd start this and people could put shit in here to make you go, "hmmmmm...." or whatnot.  Maybe stuff too small for a separate thread but big enough to get a mention. Maybe this will die, but hell, let's give it a shot. 

Speaking of giving it a shot, today, the Civil War changed permanently.  Well, that wouldn't happen until "Day of Reckoning" July 4, 1863 (for reasons explained maybe this coming July 4), but today marks the beginning of the Siege of Vicksburg, which lasted up through July 4, when the Confederates surrendered, and the Mississippi was once again open to unfettered Union traffic (and also of course no longer able to service Confederate needs).  This was the beginning of the end (IMHO) for the Confederacy.  The "High Water" Mark at Gettysburg was probably that, but this event was where it all started changing.  Confederate victories after this were less consequential and this really was the straw.

May 18, 1863, Ulysses Grant goes "boom boom!" and shells the living (and dying) shit out of Vicksburg and pretty much creates a city of starving zombies.

Grant may very well be the best general ever produced at West Point. 

[phdhorn 6224]

... and Vicksburg may very well be the best campaign ever fought by an American armed force.

[RPM 26185]

16 minutes ago, phdhorn said:

... and Vicksburg may very well be the best campaign ever fought by an American armed force.

Patton and 3rd Army may tend to disagree with you.

[phdhorn 6224]

They may, but they be finding a whole Army of War historians themselves who say that Vicksburg may be up there is the most effective single battle ever. The only other comparison I've heard is the Trenton 1776 battle, or Cowpens and Daniel Morgan.

Of course all that could be argued, but military historians say that the effectiveness and overall strategy of Vicksburg was on the par of very few other battles in American history. I agree. This also cover Sherman's brilliant defeating of facing Johnston head-on, forcing him to surrender eventually.

Although Patton's battles were epic brilliant, could be argued that he certainly help shorten the war, but by that time the outcome had been pretty much decided.  The Civil War was completely up in the air until Vicksburg.

Edited May 18, 2018 by phdhorn

[Onboard 2.0 9083]

55 minutes ago, phdhorn said:

... and Vicksburg may very well be the best campaign ever fought by an American armed force.

As a whole probably when everything  is considered.  I'd give Lee the nod for the most audacious with Chancellorsville maybe. Grant was a complete tactician from troop movement to quartermaster logistics.

[Hugo Stiglitz 23356]

 

[Hugo Stiglitz 23356]

 

[Bosco 56]

51 years ago...

 

Edited June 1, 2018 by Bosco

[Steamboat1874 4031]

10 minutes ago, Bosco said:

51 years ago...

 

Lock thread.

[Onboard 2.0 9083]

Just now, Steamboat1874 said:

Lock thread.

Biased avatar checks out.

[Doc Reeves 6434]

Today in 1921 was the Tulsa Massacre. 

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tulsa_race_riot

Or or as trumpets like to say “the good old days”

[Trey3216 15325]

22 minutes ago, Doc Reeves said:

Today in 1921 was the Tulsa Massacre. 

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tulsa_race_riot

Or or as trumpets like to say “the good old days”

I didn’t know trumpets talked

[phdhorn 6224]

Sgt. Pepper's was released June 1 in the UK, June 2 in the U.S.

Edited June 1, 2018 by phdhorn

[Hugo Stiglitz 23356]

 

[UDontKnow 10439]

On 6/1/2018 at 2:16 PM, Trey3216 said:

I didn’t know trumpets talked

You're correct. They don't talk. They toot-blarn!

[El Diablo 4232]

On 6/1/2018 at 2:16 PM, Trey3216 said:

I didn’t know trumpets talked

Oh if only Roxanne Pulitzer's could. 

[MaybeACoordinator 8349]

On 6/1/2018 at 12:36 PM, Hugo Stiglitz said:

 

 

On 6/1/2018 at 12:37 PM, Hugo Stiglitz said:

 

Two of my favorite places as a kid. We had a membership at the Shamrock pool, but I only got to go Astroworld a few times. I was glad I got to take my son before they tore it down. 

[El Diablo 4232]

I vaguely remember Billy Sol Estes but don't remember this detail.

On June 3, 1961—57 years ago today—the body of U.S. Department of Agriculture Agent Henry Marshall, a Robertson County native, was found lying dead next to his truck at his farm near Franklin. He had been shot five times with his own bolt-action .22 caliber rifle. The shooting was ruled a suicide. At the time of his death, Marshall was investigating financier and LBJ crony Bill Sol Estes, who was involved in an illegal scheme to transfer cotton allotments. The next year Estes was indicted by a federal grand jury on dozens of counts of fraud and eventually he was convicted in a swindle that authorities said cost investors, banks and the government at least $24 million. After his release from prison in late 1983, Estes told a Robertson County grand jury that Marshall was murdered because of fears he would blow the whistle on the scam and claimed the killing was carried out on the orders of then Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson. The cause of death ruling was changed to homicide after his testimony.

[Armybrat 40678]

Yep, remember that scandal well. It was a yuge story at the time, but the alleged LBJ involvement didn't go anywhere just like the story of the murdered reporter down in Alice (or Victoria) - because Johnson couldn't be touched. Some swinging dicks are immune to the law, as we all know.

[Armybrat 40678]

Anyway, today in 1942, Japanese carrier-based planes strafe Dutch Harbor in the Aleutian Islands as a diversion of the attack on Midway Island.

(My dad was there)

[RandomIdoit 655]

• 350 – The Roman usurper Nepotianus, of the Constantinian dynasty, proclaims himself Roman emperor, entering Rome at the head of a group of gladiators.
• 713 – The Byzantine emperor Philippicus is blinded, deposed and sent into exile by conspirators of the Opsikion army in Thrace. He is succeeded by Anastasios II, who begins the reorganization of the Byzantine army.
• 1140 – The French scholar Peter Abelard is found guilty of heresy.
• 1326 – The Treaty of Novgorod delineates borders between Russia and Norway in Finnmark.
• 1539 – Hernando de Soto claims Florida for Spain.
• 1608 – Samuel de Champlain completes his third voyage to New France at Tadoussac, Quebec.
• 1621 – The Dutch West India Company receives a charter for New Netherland.
• 1658 – Pope Alexander VII appoints François de Laval vicar apostolic in New France.
• 1665 – James Stuart, Duke of York (later to become King James II of England), defeats the Dutch fleet off the coast of Lowestoft.
• 1781 – Jack Jouett begins his midnight ride to warn Thomas Jefferson and the Virginia legislature of an impending raid by Banastre Tarleton.
• 1839 – In Humen, China, Lin Tse-hsü destroys 1.2 million kg of opium confiscated from British merchants, providing Britain with a casus belli to open hostilities, resulting in the First Opium War.
• 1861 – American Civil War: Battle of Philippi (also called the Philippi Races): Union forces rout Confederate troops in Barbour County, Virginia, now West Virginia.
• 1864 – American Civil War: Battle of Cold Harbor: Union forces attack Confederate troops in Hanover County, Virginia.
• 1866 – The Fenians are driven out of Fort Erie, Ontario back into the United States.
• 1885 – In the last military engagement fought on Canadian soil, the Cree leader, Big Bear, escapes the North-West Mounted Police.
• 1889 – The first long-distance electric power transmission line in the United States is completed, running 14 miles (23 km) between a generator at Willamette Falls and downtown Portland, Oregon.
• 1916 – The National Defense Act is signed into law, increasing the size of the United States National Guard by 450,000 men.
• 1935 – One thousand unemployed Canadian workers board freight cars in Vancouver, beginning a protest trek to Ottawa.
• 1937 – The Duke of Windsor marries Wallis Simpson.
• 1940 – World War II: The Luftwaffe bombs Paris.
• 1940 – World War II: The Battle of Dunkirk ends with a German victory and with Allied forces in full retreat.
• 1940 – Franz Rademacher proposes plans to make Madagascar the "Jewish homeland", an idea that had first been considered by 19th century journalist Theodor Herzl.
• 1941 – World War II: The Wehrmacht razes the Greek village of Kandanos to the ground and murders 180 of its inhabitants.
• 1942 – World War II: Japan begins the Aleutian Islands Campaign by bombing Unalaska Island.
• 1943 – In Los Angeles, California, white U.S. Navy sailors and Marines clash with Latino youths in the Zoot Suit Riots.
• 1950 – Herzog and Lachenal of the French Annapurna expedition become the first climbers to reach the summit of an 8,000-metre peak.
• 1962 – At Paris Orly Airport, Air France Flight 007 overruns the runway and explodes when the crew attempts to abort takeoff, killing 130.
• 1963 – The Buddhist crisis: Soldiers of the Army of the Republic of Vietnam attack protesting Buddhists in Huế, South Vietnam, with liquid chemicals from tear-gas grenades, causing 67 people to be hospitalised for blistering of the skin and respiratory ailments.
• 1965 – The launch of Gemini 4, the first multi-day space mission by a NASA crew. Ed White, a crew member, performs the first American spacewalk.
• 1969 – Melbourne–Evans collision: off the coast of South Vietnam, the Australian aircraft carrier HMAS Melbourne cuts the U.S. Navy destroyer USS Frank E. Evans in half.
• 1973 – A Soviet supersonic Tupolev Tu-144 crashes near Goussainville, France, killing 14, the first crash of a supersonic passenger aircraft.
• 1979 – A blowout at the Ixtoc I oil well in the southern Gulf of Mexico causes at least 3,000,000 barrels (480,000 m³) of oil to be spilled into the waters, the second-worst accidental oil spill ever recorded.
• 1980 – An explosive device is detonated at the Statue of Liberty. The FBI suspects Croatian nationalists.
• 1980 – The 1980 Grand Island tornado outbreak hits Nebraska, causing five deaths and $300 million (equivalent to $891 million in 2017) worth of damage.
• 1982 – The Israeli ambassador to the United Kingdom, Shlomo Argov, is shot on a London street; he survives but is left paralysed.
• 1984 – Operation Blue Star, a military offensive, is launched by the Indian government at Harmandir Sahib, also known as the Golden Temple, the holiest shrine for Sikhs, in Amritsar. The operation continues until June 6, with casualties, most of them civilians, in excess of 5,000.
• 1989 – The government of China sends troops to force protesters out of Tiananmen Square after seven weeks of occupation.
• 1991 – Mount Unzen erupts in Kyūshū, Japan, killing 43 people, all of them either researchers or journalists.
• 1992 – Aboriginal land rights are granted in Australia in Mabo v Queensland (No 2), a case brought by Eddie Mabo.
• 1998 – After suffering a mechanical failure, a high speed train derails at Eschede, Germany, killing 101 people.
• 2006 – The union of Serbia and Montenegro comes to an end with Montenegro's formal declaration of independence.
• 2012 – A plane carrying 153 people on board crashes in a residential neighborhood in Lagos, Nigeria, killing everyone on board and 10 people on the ground.
• 2012 – The pageant for the Diamond Jubilee of Elizabeth II takes place on the River Thames.
• 2013 – The trial of United States Army private Chelsea Manning for leaking classified material to WikiLeaks begins in Fort Meade, Maryland.
• 2013 – At least 119 people are killed in a fire at a poultry farm in Jilin Province in northeastern China.
• 2017 – London Bridge attack: Eight people are murdered and dozens of civilians are wounded by Islamist terrorists. Three of the attackers are shot dead by the police.

[Underdog 28437]

10 minutes ago, RandomIdoit said:

•  

I’d like to make history with that avatar of yours. 

[Walden Ponderer 12639]

In ancient Rome, June 3rd was the festival day for the goddess Bellona, the Roman goddess of war who was the most important deity in the Roman pantheon when dealing with foreign relations.

Declarations of war, and the signing of all treaties, were the bailiwick of Bellona; all Roman Senate meetings relating to foreign war were conducted in the Templum Bellonæ (Temple of Bellona) on the Collis Capitolinus outside the pomerium, near the Temple of Apollo Sosianus.

In statuary and paintings, Bellona is typically depicted with a helmet on her head, usually wearing a breastplate or plate armour, wielding a sword, spear, and shield, or on occasion holding a flaming torch, or sounding the Horn of Victory and Defeat.

Numerous heraldic crests from the feudal period took Bellona as a theme, and in these depictions she acquired wings (something with which the Romans never attributed her, but which would have appealed to early Catholics who were desirous of co-opting ancient themes for their own use -- Bellona as an avenging angel would have been an appealing device for a knight).

[El Diablo 4232]

1 hour ago, Walden Ponderer said:

In ancient Rome, June 3rd was the festival day for the goddess Bellona, the Roman goddess of war who was the most important deity in the

In statuary and paintings, Bellona is typically depicted with a helmet on her head, usually wearing a breastplate or plate armour, wielding a sword, spear, and shield, or on occasion holding a flaming torch, or sounding the Horn of Victory and Defeat

Bologna? Helmet and breast plate?

 

[cmontexas 3242]

1995- Pedro Martinez of the Montreal Expos pitches nine perfect innings against San Diego before giving up a leadoff double to Bip Roberts in the 10th inning of the Expos' 1 - 0 win. Martinez becomes the second pitcher in history, after Harvey Haddix, to have a perfect gamebroken up in extra innings.

[phdhorn 6224]

Today in 1885, 21 year old Frances Fulsom married Grover Cleveland in the White House, the third time a Prez got hitched while in office.
Frances was known for being a tad bit scandalous by revealing her arms, neck and upper torso:

Then there's Helen Taft:

Does she look kinda sad?  Well you would too, if you had a 300 lb. walrus on top of you procreating kids.

Edited June 4, 2018 by phdhorn

[Parliament 14112]

Cleveland was a great President. Reformed Government, spent conservatively, beat cancer and married a babe, 22 years his junior. #tipofhat

[Gil Bang 25865]

75 years ago today, the Battle of  Midway began. 

[PRONG HORN 3108]

June 4

 

 

[Walden Ponderer 12639]

June 4, 1939, the MS St. Louis (a German ocean liner carrying 937 Jewish refugees seeking asylum from Nazi persecution) circled off the coast of Florida, hoping for permission to enter the United States (having been denied asylum in Cuba on May 27th); rather than welcoming the refugees and protecting them from the Nazis, however, the U.S. ordered them to return to Europe; according to several witnesses, in fact, not only did the Americans deny the St. Louis the right to land, they actually fired warning shots across the bow.

More than 200 of the unfortunate passengers later died in Nazi concentration camps. The event is recorded in history as "The Voyage of the Damned" and the description is not even remotely amiss. The saddest part of the story is that, had the St. Louis attempted a landing in the Dominican Republic rather than the United States, they would have been welcomed with open arms, the Dominicans having already decided to grant asylum to all those fleeing Nazi persecution.

[Hugo Stiglitz 23356]

 

[LongestHorn 759]

When Robert Kennedy was murdered on June 5, 1968, he left behind 10 children and his wife, who was pregnant with the couple’s 11th child.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assassination_of_Robert_F._Kennedy

 

[LongestHorn 759]

[phdhorn 6224]

Quote

 

[Armybrat 40678]

[Trey3216 15325]

"My fellow Americans: Last night, when I spoke with you about the fall of Rome, I knew at that moment that troops of the United States and our allies were crossing the Channel in another and greater operation. It has come to pass with success thus far.
And so, in this poignant hour, I ask you to join with me in prayer:

Almighty God: Our sons, pride of our Nation, this day have set upon a mighty endeavor, a struggle to preserve our Republic, our religion, and our civilization, and to set free a suffering humanity.

Lead them straight and true; give strength to their arms, stoutness to their hearts, steadfastness in their faith.

They will need Thy blessings. Their road will be long and hard. For the enemy is strong. He may hurl back our forces. Success may not come with rushing speed, but we shall return again and again; and we know that by Thy grace, and by the righteousness of our cause, our sons will triumph.

They will be sore tried, by night and by day, without rest-until the victory is won. The darkness will be rent by noise and flame. Men's souls will be shaken with the violences of war.

For these men are lately drawn from the ways of peace. They fight not for the lust of conquest. They fight to end conquest. They fight to liberate. They fight to let justice arise, and tolerance and good will among all Thy people. They yearn but for the end of battle, for their return to the haven of home.

Some will never return. Embrace these, Father, and receive them, Thy heroic servants, into Thy kingdom.

And for us at home - fathers, mothers, children, wives, sisters, and brothers of brave men overseas - whose thoughts and prayers are ever with them - help us, Almighty God, to rededicate ourselves in renewed faith in Thee in this hour of great sacrifice.

Many people have urged that I call the Nation into a single day of special prayer. But because the road is long and the desire is great, I ask that our people devote themselves in a continuance of prayer. As we rise to each new day, and again when each day is spent, let words of prayer be on our lips, invoking Thy help to our efforts.

Give us strength, too - strength in our daily tasks, to redouble the contributions we make in the physical and the material support of our armed forces.

And let our hearts be stout, to wait out the long travail, to bear sorrows that may come, to impart our courage unto our sons wheresoever they may be.

And, O Lord, give us Faith. Give us Faith in Thee; Faith in our sons; Faith in each other; Faith in our united crusade. Let not the keenness of our spirit ever be dulled. Let not the impacts of temporary events, of temporal matters of but fleeting moment let not these deter us in our unconquerable purpose.

With Thy blessing, we shall prevail over the unholy forces of our enemy. Help us to conquer the apostles of greed and racial arrogancies. Lead us to the saving of our country, and with our sister Nations into a world unity that will spell a sure peace a peace invulnerable to the schemings of unworthy men. And a peace that will let all of men live in freedom, reaping the just rewards of their honest toil.

Thy will be done, Almighty God.

Amen."

- President Franklin D. Roosevelt, The 32nd President of The United States of America
June 6, 1944

[miguelito 11204]

That prayer is beautiful and chilling.  Without getting too political, I'll just say that it's depressing how things have deteriorated.  Mostly with regard to writing moving speeches like that, but also in other ways.  (There's no way FDR could've fit all that into a tweet).

[Armybrat 40678]

74 years ago today Bryan Fox of Granger, Texas went ashore on Omaha Beach in the first wave and was shot up so badly he spent the next year in a stateside hospital recovering. Later he became a prominent local educator & rancher.

I had the privilege of falling off one of his cutting horses during the BBQ engagement party he & his wife Geraldine threw for me & my bride-to-be in the spring of 1967. Bryan later passed away from a heart attack suddenly at age 80+ while doing what he loved best - participating in a week long trail drive in Southeast Texas with many of his fellow ranchers & their families. He was an awesome Texan, as was his wife. RIP.

[Buffsoldier 1895]

3 hours ago, Trey3216 said:

"The darkness will be rent by noise and flame."

Indeed.

[El Diablo 4232]

On June 7, 1998—20 years ago today--in a crime that shocked the nation, James Byrd, Jr., a 49-year-old black man, was hooked by a chain to a 1982 Ford pickup truck and dragged to his death on Huff Creek Road in Jasper. Two white men were later sentenced to death; one of them, Lawrence Russell Brewer, was executed in 2011. John William King remains on death row. A third defendant, Shawn Berry, received a sentence of life with the possibility of parole.

[kmac30 416]

On June 7, 1998—20 years ago today--in a crime that shocked the nation, James Byrd, Jr., a 49-year-old black man, was hooked by a chain to a 1982 Ford pickup truck and dragged to his death on Huff Creek Road in Jasper. Two white men were later sentenced to death; one of them, Lawrence Russell Brewer, was executed in 2011. John William King remains on death row. A third defendant, Shawn Berry, received a sentence of life with the possibility of parole.

Dang, can’t believe that was 20 years ago.

[Uncle Nate 2097]

On 6/6/2018 at 11:21 AM, Armybrat said:

74 years ago today Bryan Fox of Granger, Texas went ashore on Omaha Beach in the first wave and was shot up so badly he spent the next year in a stateside hospital recovering. Later he became a prominent local educator & rancher.

I had the privilege of falling off one of his cutting horses during the BBQ engagement party he & his wife Geraldine threw for me & my bride-to-be in the spring of 1967. Bryan later passed away from a heart attack suddenly at age 80+ while doing what he loved best - participating in a week long trail drive in Southeast Texas with many of his fellow ranchers & their families. He was an awesome Texan, as was his wife. RIP.

My first savings account was at the Granger State Bank, so this hits close to home for me.

[Walden Ponderer 12639]

June 7, 1494, The Treaty of Tordesillas (Portuguese: "Tratado de Tordesilhas"; Spanish: "Tratado de Tordesillas") was signed at (wait for it) Tordesillas, a city in what is now the Valladolid Province in Spain.

The treaty divided the newly discovered lands outside Europe between Portugal and Castile along a line of demarcation roughly halfway between the Cape Verde Islands and Cuba and Hispaniola, granting the Eastern half of the world to Portugal, and the Western half to Castile (soon to be Spain).

The general upshot (and, as with any treaty of this scope, there were numerous exceptions, provisos, and strange circumstances leading to argument) was Spanish dominance in most of the colonial Americas not under French or English control (comprising the majority of Central and South America), and Portuguese control of Brazil, a handful of Atlantic island territories, and any new lands discovered in Africa, India, China, Japan and the Philippines.

As a practical matter, the Spanish were much more successful than the Portuguese in exploiting these self-appointed spoils, as shown by a cursory review of places in the world where each language is spoken. Spanish has a global reach (including in the Philippines, which were "discovered" by Portuguese explorer Magellan... who claimed them for Spain!), whereas Portuguese is mostly limited to Brazil, Indonesia, and Portugal. Shout out to Portuguese Goa, of course, though when you think about it "discovering" India was an even more preposterous notion than "discovering" the Americas.

[Patricio Swayze 17058]

Seems unfair to leave out Mozambique, Angola, São Tomé and príncipe, and Macau.