This Day in History

[Sir Slash]

Very interesting stuff about Ceasar's legions. I had never heard that before. 

[besilarius]

1807. The last Jacobite pretender to the thrones of England, Scotland, and Ireland was Henry Benedict Stuart, the younger brother of the “Young Pretender”, a Roman Catholic cardinal who died in 1807.  The claim to the throne then passed through several female connections, so that the current pretender is Franz von Wittlesbach, the Duke of Bavaria, a grandson of Crown Prince Rupprecht of Bavaria who had commanded a German Army Group on the Western Front in the Great War.

 1863.  Steam sloop Wyoming is first Western ship to engage Japanese forces in the Battle of Shimonoseki strait.

[besilarius]

1483  Last date on which the Princes of the Tower were know to be alive: King Edward V (12), and his brother Prince Richard of Shrewsbury (9), sons of England's late King Edward IV, imprisoned by their uncle, who has become King Richard III.  Never to be seen again.
Chancellor Thomas More investigated this years later.  His conclusion relies primarily on circumstantial evidence and lays blame on Richard and his henchmen.  Still in debate.

1500. the "Wedding of Blood" in Perugia, when Astorre Baglioni married Lavinia Colonna, and were promptly in a coup by cousin Grifonetto Baglioni.
Like many Italian cities, Perugia had a pretty homicidal domestic political life, with the great families indulging in frequent assassination, murder, and massacre.  By the onset of the sixteenth century this struggle culminated in the primacy of the Baglioni, a family so blood-thirsty that when not slaughtering their enemies they did away with each other, culminating in the  “Wedding of Blood” in July of 1500, when one faction of the family took advantage of the marriage of the head of a rival faction to massacre him and virtually all his close kin. 

[Sir Slash]

Damn! No more Italian weddings for me. 

[besilarius]

111BC  Double Triumph of the Metelli Brothers: Marcus for the conquest of Sardinia, Gaius for Thrace

1215. King John "assents" to the Magna Carta.

1747. George Byng promoted to Vice Admiral of the Blue.

[bayonetbrant]

1215. King John "assents" to the Magna Carta.

those quotes are doing some heavy lifting 

[besilarius]

622. . AH. 1 The Hajj, Mohammed fled from Mecca to Medina, marking the start Islamic Chronology
1054  The Great Schism between Western and Eastern Christianity, as leaders of the two branches swap excommunications

1946.  US court finds 46 SS members guilty of war crimes in the Malmedy massacre.  Senator Joe McCarthy tries to get the sentences commuted.

[besilarius]

663. Constant II is the last Roman emperor to actually visit Rome.  The highlight of his visit was stealing all the lead roofing.
1793 Charlotte Corday, the assassin of Jean Paul Marat is guillotined.
1864  John Bell Hood Is promoted to command the Army of the Tennessee.  This neatly solves Sherman's problems and assures the capture of Atlanta.

[besilarius]

1779 the largest prize value of the American Revolution, Commodore Abraham Whipples squadron consisting of Continental frigates Providence, Queen of France and sloop Ranger, captures 11 British prizes off the Newfoundland Banks sailing from Jamaica. The cargoes are worth more than $1 million.

1792. John Paul Jones dies in Paris, alone and forgotten.  Douglas MacArthur later comments, "there is nothing so fleeting as military glory."

1914. The British navy invites the Imperial German navy to Fleet Week at Spithead.

[besilarius]

711. Tariq's Arab-Berbers army defeated the Visigoths in the Battle of Guadalete initiating a 781 year war for Iberia.  Up until the 1490s, the Reconquista took up all the energy in Spain, which made it of little consequence to the rest of Europe.

1812. USS Constitution, Captain Isaac Hull, escapes a British battle squadron after an epic three day chase.  Regrettably, due to politics Captain Hull spends most of the war on the beach.

[bayonetbrant]

1792. John Paul Jones dies in Paris, alone and forgotten.  Douglas MacArthur later comments, "there is nothing so fleeting as military glory."

quite the tragedy....

[besilarius]

1711. Treaty of Pruth ends the Russo-Turkish war.  This was started when Charles XII f Sweden was recovering in the Ottoman empire after his smashing defeat At Poltava.  Aching for revenge, he encouraged the Turks to war against Russia under Peter the Great.
Peter led his forces and made a real hash of things.  Forced into a fortified camp with water supplies cut, he was in real danger.  Bear in mind that he was the only spark dragging Russia out of it's medieval mindset and turning it into a great, conquering empire.  His death or capture would have allowed the boyars to seize power and frustrate his plans.  The historical consequences of an insular Muscovite principality, with no interest in the west, are mind boggling.
However, Peter did not stay czar without understanding the levers of power.  He bribed the Ottoman commander, Mehmet pasha, and got a very easy peace treaty.

[besilarius]

1805. In the lead up to Trafalgar, the battle of Cape Finisterre. Admiral Robert Calder fights an inconclusive action with Villeneuve's Franco Spanish fleet.  Calder refuses to re engage the following day and heads back towards Brest.  Villeneuve retires to Cadiz and his meeting with Nelson.
1905. The remains of John Paul Jones are identified in Pere Lachaise cemetery in Paris before being transferred for re burial in Annapolis.

[Sir Slash]

As I recall, Calder was called-back to England to give report why he hadn't done better in that battle. Nelson let him sail home in his flagship, one of Nelson's most powerful, in order to avoid diminishing his stature within the navy, a class move indeed. 

[besilarius]

Yes, I forgot that.