This Day in History

[besilarius]

421   Venice, founded by fugitives from the Hunnish sack of Aquileaia

1300  Sometime cavalryman and poet Dante Alighieri took a walk.

1811 the famous sculptor Antonio Canova, who had carved the famous statue of Pauline Bonaparte as a reclining nude Venus, completed a marble statue for her brother depicting him as the god Mars in heroic nudity, which proved so embarrassing that Napoleon hid it in a closet, though it was later given to the Duke of Wellington, who displayed it in his London home, where it remains.

en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Napoleon_as_Mars_the_Peacemaker

1897. Reportedly, latrines in British Army barracks were not lighted at night until1896, because the Crown could save £200 a year, not to mention the cost of installing lamps in the first place.

1898. Assistant Secretary of the Navy Theodore Roosevelt, recommends to Secretary of the Navy John D. Long that he appoint two officers of scientific attainments and practical ability who, with representatives from the War Department, would examine Professor Samuel P. Langley's flying machine and report upon its practicability and its potential for use in war.

1905  Most battle flags captured during the Civil War are returned to the South

1925. During the period between the world wars, Joseph M. Reeves (1872-1948), nicknamed “Billy Goat” because of his beard, was one of the most able senior officers in the history of the U.S. Navy. Both a traditionalist and an innovator, while playing at Annapolis he invented the football helmet and later became the “Father of Carrier Aviation”.
While Reeves was commanding the battleship North Dakota (BB-29) in 1922-1923, one of the ship’s float planes went into the water.  A nearby destroyer promptly dispatched a motor whale boat. While rescuing the plane's crew, one of the destroyermen briefly becoming entangled in the wreckage and was almost pulled under as it sank.
Reeves deeply appreciated this effort, and wanted to show both his gratitude for the rescue and encourage similar efforts if other planes went into the drink.  So he initiated the paperwork for awards.  But he wanted to do something more, something immediate.  Now, as captain of a battleship, Reeves had a pretty good cook, a man who was a top notch baker.  So, the next day that destroyer received enough fresh-baked apple pies for everyone in the crew to have a taste.  Knowing it came from the captain's mess only made it sweeter.  This was much appreciated, and word got out to the fleet that if one of Reeves’ flyers went in, he would be generous in his thanks.
In 1925, Reeves, having qualified as an aviation observer, became Commander, Aircraft Squadrons, Battle Fleet, aboard the Langley (CV-1). This began what was to be his most important work for the fleet: developing carrier aviation.  Now Langley was not the best ship for working aircraft, and planes often went into the sea.  Destroyers were assigned to plane guard duty, which was -- and is -- difficult and dangerous.  While planes were landing, a destroyer serving as plane guard was pretty safe, as she was in an offset position about a thousand yards behind the carrier.  So if a plane went into the sea on its landing approach, the destroyer could make a quick run toward it, put a boat into the water, and fish out the aviators with some degree of safety.
But plane guard duty when aircraft were taking off could be very dangerous.  The destroyer had to stand off the carrier's bow in case a plane fell into the water.  If that happened, attempting a rescue could put the destroyer in great danger.  The Langley was much less nimble than destroyers, and much bigger, while the rescuers’ whaleboats were even smaller, and in danger of getting too close to the flattop and being overrun.
Needing to inspire rescuers, as well as reward them, Reeves recalled the pies from his North Dakota days.  But pies are rather fragile, and don't take rough handling well.  Thinking harder, Reeves realized that the Langley was equipped with something new and unique and not available to destroyers: an ice cream machine.  So Reeves passed the word that a ship whose boat crew pulled a pilot out of the water would get ice cream, gallons of it.  Soon, instead of shunning plane guard duty, destroyermen were actually volunteering for it.
Admiral Reeves' thoughtful incentive worked where orders and exhortations might not have.  It was an easy, elegant answer that benefitted everyone.  And rewarding ships with ice cream for pulling aircrew out of the water became a tradition in the U.S. Navy that lasted into the 1950s when new destroyers began being equipped with their own “geedunk machines

2184  Pavel Andreivich Chekov, Star Fleet officer

3019. of the Third Age.  the Ring was destroyed, Gollum died, and Sauron was overthrown

[besilarius]

47   BC   Ptolemy XIII of Egypt (c. 15), brother and husband to Cleopatra, drowned in the Nile fleeing Caesar's troops

1794. Congress authorizes construction of 6 frigates, including Constitution

1804. From December, the month Napoleon crowned himself Emperor of France, and July of 1806, there were 119 recorded incidents of anti-draft disturbances in the country, with desertions averaging about 800 a month and an officially estimated 4,000 men actually fled to Spain to evade service.

1813. The Duke of Wellington was a notably effective logistical manager, and despite great difficulties his troops were usually better equipped and supplied than those of his French opponents.
This was no mean feat.
Consider the logistical requirements of a cavalry regiment.  On paper cavalry regiments had 407 personnel, organized into six troops, plus a staff, with 478 horses and mules, including mounts for troopers plus draught animals for the baggage, service, and munitions wagons.
To feed the men each day required 407 pounds of biscuit, 407 of meat, and 407 rations of alcoholic beverages, or some 200 pounds of booze, if one included the cask, and omitting additional rations allocated to officers
Feeding the animals required a daily ration of 4,780 pounds of grain, plus 5,786 of hay or straw, not to mention water, which could, with a little luck, be obtained locally.
As the normal issue of ration was three days’ worth, the regiment had to carry a minimum of 12,642 pounds of food and drink for the men, plus 31,698 for the animals.
And then there was a daily fire wood ration of 1,586 pounds, for a three day total of 4,758 pounds, plus additional for the officers.
So the total weight of three days’ rations for a full regiment -- men and beasts, food, drink, and fire wood -- came to roughly 25 tons, if one includes additional allocations for officers.
All this was usually transported by pack mules.  Since commissariat mules commonly could only carry only 200 pounds, 246 mules were needed.  And since the mules had to be fed, a at least four more mules would be required to carry the grain and hay needed for the commissary animals each day.
Now although Wellington's cavalry was often better fed, and usually better mounted, than that of his French opponents, the Duke often remarked that the French seemed to get much better service from their troops.  This was perhaps because  nearly half -- 45.1 percent -- of the officers in the British cavalry had obtained their commissions through purchase, in contrast to only about 18 percent of those in the infantry regiments, and none at all in the French cavalry..

1865. Lincoln, generals Grant and Sherman, and admiral Porter met on the steamer 'River Queen' to plan the end of the Civil War -  President Lincoln was very fond of cats.  So much so that once while en route to a conference with General-in-Chief U.S. Grant and Rear Admiral David Dixon Porter, he picked up three stray kittens and took them into the meeting.  Grant’s aide Horace Porter reported that it was a "curious sight at an army headquarters, upon the eve of a great military crisis" to see the president "tenderly caressing three stray kittens” as he discussed strategy with his commanders.
The President’s affection for cats once led to a minor tiff with Mrs. Lincoln, who was often unhappy about what she perceived to be his lack of appropriate dignity.
Reportedly, during dinner at the White House one evening, Lincoln used a gold fork from the presidential service to feed a cat named “Tabby.”
Mrs. Lincoln asked, perhaps rhetorically, “Don’t you think it’s shameful for Mr. Lincoln to feed Tabby with a gold fork?”
The President replied, “If the gold fork was good enough for former President James Buchanan, I think it is good enough for Tabby.”

[bbmike]

...
The President’s affection for cats once led to a minor tiff with Mrs. Lincoln, who was often unhappy about what she perceived to be his lack of appropriate dignity.
Reportedly, during dinner at the White House one evening, Lincoln used a gold fork from the presidential service to feed a cat named “Tabby.”
Mrs. Lincoln asked, perhaps rhetorically, “Don’t you think it’s shameful for Mr. Lincoln to feed Tabby with a gold fork?”
The President replied, “If the gold fork was good enough for former President James Buchanan, I think it is good enough for Tabby.”

 

[besilarius]

49 BC. Julius Caesar, who has the flu, visits Cicero at Formiae

845    The Vikings sack Paris

1584. Birth of Ivan the Terrible.  Although largely remembered for the homicidal paranoia that came to characterize his reign in later years, while a young man Ivan the Terrible (r. 1547-1584), like a number of other rulers across history – most famously the Caliph Haroun al-Rashid – was wont to go among his people in disguise to get a sense of what they were thinking, an early form of polling one might say.
Once, while visiting a village near Moscow dressed as a beggar, he found no one who would give him lodging for the night, save a poor family. By chance, that very night the poor man’s wife gave birth. Taking his leave the next morning, the Tsar returned shortly in full regalia with numerous dignitaries in train, to hand out generous gifts to his hosts, and become the godfather of their newborn, while ordering the rest of the people of the village to be turned out of their homes, which he promptly burned down to remind them of their obligations to the poor..
Apparently during many of his adventures, Ivan found congenial companions in the company of common criminals.
On one such occasion, the Tsar proposed robbing the Imperial treasury, telling them that he knew how to get inside, which was true enough.
Hardly had he said this than the chief of the gang of thieves with which he was consorting gave him a playful punch in the face, saying, in effect, “Rogue, you want to rob the Tsar, who has been so good to us? Why not rob some rich boyar who is screwing His Imperial Majesty’s subjects out of vast sums?”
Pleased at the response, Ivan swapped caps with the man, and suggested they meet on the morrow at a place in Moscow near the palace, to share a cup of vodka and a meal. The thief readily agreed.
The thief showed up at the appointed place and time, to find, not his roguish companion of the night before, but the Tsar himself holding out a mug of vodka.
As they downed the liquor, Ivan ordered the thief to steal no more, appointed him to a post at court, and assigned him to ferret out criminals.

 1757. Robert Francois Damiens, executed at 42, by skinned, doused with molten lead, castrated, and drawn and quartered, for attempting to kill Louis XV of France

1799  NY State initiates the abolition of slavery, which is completed in 1827

1800  USS Essex becomes first U.S. Navy vessel to pass Cape of Good Hope

1814. HMS Phoebe (36) and HMS Cherub (18) under Cptn. James Hillyar capture USS Essex (46), Cptn. David Porter, off Valparaiso, Chile.

1855, during the planning for the Anglo-French invasion of the Crimea, Empress Eugénie of France is reported to have consulted her husband’s late uncle, the real Napoleon, for guidance, through the use of a Ouija board.

1940. During World War II the Spanish Ambassador to Britain was the Duke of Alba, Jacobo Maria del Pilar Carlos Manuel Fitz-James Stuart, a direct descendant of the deposed Stuart kings of England, though via an illegitimate line.

1942  Operation Chariot: Nocturnal RN/RM commando raid blocks the 'Normandie' dock in Nazi-occupied St Nazaire; five VCs awarded
     Sergeant Thomas Frank Durrant, Royal Engineers. During the famous British naval raid on St. Nazaire, France, on the night of March 27-28, 1942, Sgt. Durrant (1918-1942) was serving with No. 1 Commando, manning a dual-mounted Lewis gun on HM Motor Launch 306. Proceeding up the Loire River, the boat came under heavy fire from the German destroyer Jaguar, which greatly outclassed her. She was hit repeatedly, and Durrant was wounded several times. Twice the Germans summoned the boat to surrender and were refused. Finally the launch was boarded and those who were still alive were taken prisoner, among them Sgt Durrant, who had been wounded 16 times. He died of his wounds on the 29th. Speaking with the prisoners, Kapitänleutnant F.K Paul, commander of the Jaguar, commended them for their gallant fight, and singled out Durrant for special praise. Acting with Paul’s comment in mind, Durrant’s commanding officer, Lieutenant R. O. C. Swayne, initiated the process that led to the award of the V.C. to Sgt. Durrant. Durrant also has the distinction of being the only British soldier to have won the V.C. while serving with the Royal Navy.

[besilarius]

61 BC Pompey the Great hitched elephants to his triumphal chariot, but when the procession reached the walls of Rome, he found that he had to switch to the more conventional horses, because the beasts were too big to pass through the gates

1686, an English regiment of the foot totaled about 600 officers and men, and if at full strength annually received in pay from King James II £10,922 12s 6 d, today perhaps £15.9 million based on average earnings.
Each regiment consisted of a staff of eight officers and specialists, plus ten companies, of which the colonel was also captain of the first, while the lieutenant-colonel and major might also command their own companies.  Companies comprised three officers, five NCOs, a drummer, and 50 private soldiers. 

Staff   Pounds   Shilling   Pence
                       £   s   d
1 Colonel   0   12   0
1 Lieutenant-Colonel   0   7   0
1 Major           0   5   0
1 Chaplain   0   6   8
1 Surgeon   0   4   0
1 Surgeon’s Mate   0   2   6
1 Adjutant   0   4   0
1 Quarter-Master and Marshal   0   4   0
Total for Staff   2   5   2
Each of Ten Companies
1 Captain   0   6   0
1 Lieutenant   0   4   0
1 Ensign           0   3   0
2 Sergeants @ 18 d each   0   3   0
3 Corporals @ 1 s each   0   3   0
1 Drummer   0   1   0
50 Privates @ 2 d each   1   13   4
Total   2   15   4
So total daily pay for a full regiment, including 8 d a day for the colonel as commander of the first company, came to £29 13s 6 d.  Although the lieutenant-colonel and the major might also commanded companies, they had to settle for the same 6 d that ordinary captains earned.
By the way, under existing military regulations, the colonel and most other officers were allowed a percentage of any accounts that they were required to handle, so their actual income was higher than what is indicated here, even without the possibility that they were engaged in less licit skimming.
Of course, the private’s two pence (“tuppence” -- about £12.60 today) was subject to deductions for uniforms, rations, and even arms and equipment, but on average he probably made out at least as well as a common agricultural worker.  Agricultural wages, which were seasonal, were usually about a penny a day when there was work, and might rise to 1½-2 pence during harvest time.   

1805  French fleet under Pierre-Charles Villeneuve sails from Toulon.

1899 Born Lavrenty Beria, Chekist, Marshal of the Soviet Union, Stalin's executioner, executed, 1953

1942         Barents Sea: British light cruiser 'Trinidad' torpedoes herself

1945. During World War II about a quarter of the approximately 100,000 women who served with the Yugoslav partisans died in action.

[besilarius]

1282  "Sicilian Vespers" begin: Palermitans massacre French occupiers, initiating a successful war to transfer the island to the Catalans

1512 at the Battle of Ravenna on April 11, 1512, all of the dozen Spanish regimental commanders present were killed in action, as were 75-percent of the mercenary German regimental commanders in the service of the victorious French, and the French commanding general, the youthful Gaston de Foix.

1639. Massacre of Aberdeen: Montrose's Scots Covenanters slaughter the Royalists

1844  Paul-Marie Verlaine, French poet who wrote "Wound my heart with a monotonous languor", d. 1896

1939         Batman, in "Detective Comics" #27

1945. Building a warship takes a long time, years in fact.  But during the Second World War the United States, by adopting innovative techniques such as modularization, standardization, and prefabrication of many components, plus the adoption triple-shifts in shipyards, was able to realize a dramatic reduction in the time required to construct almost every type of warship.

Average Construction Time in Months
Type       Pre-War   Wartime
Battleship   36-42   29-39
Carrier           30-40   13-25
Heavy Cruiser   30-40   20-24
Light Cruiser   27-38   13-23
AA Cruiser   --   19-24
Figures are based on the difference in construction time between ships laid down in the mid-to late-1930s, when America began to rearm, and those laid down after 1939, when the possibility of war became increasingly likely.  Ships that were deliberately delayed of completion in favor of more desperately needed types, notably aircraft carriers and destroyers, have been omitted.

Some ships were completed in amazingly short times  The “record” in each category is:

Battleship   Indiana (BB-58) 29 months, though the considerably larger Iowa (BB-62) required only 30 months
Carrier   Franklin (CV-13), 13 months
Heavy Cruiser   Pittsburgh CA-72), 20 months
Light Cruiser   Amsterdam (CL-59), 13 months
AA Cruiser   Atlanta (CLAA-51) and San Juan (CLAA-54), 19 months
Figures for smaller warships, notably destroyers and submarines, are harder to calculate, as so many were built, and some shipyards staged publicity stunts in which they completed a ship in record time, often in mere days, but under conditions that could not possibly have been sustained for serial production.  Nevertheless, it appears that destroyers laid down in the late 1930s, when rearmament was just beginning, required some 13-24 months, while those laid down after 1939 could be completed in some 4-8 months, with the record apparently being the Thorn (DD-647), in about 135 days, from keel laying to commissioning.  For submarines in similar circumstances, the figures appear to have been 14-24 months prewar, and as little as 5 months at the peak of the war.  And merchant ships, especially Liberty ships or Victory ships, could be churned out in as little as a month, literally on an assembly line basis.

[besilarius]

1187. Prince Arthur, Duke of Brittany, nephew to Richard Lionheart, possibly murdered by his Uncle John, 1203

1671. HMS Sapphire (36), Cptn. John Pearce, run ashore at the Isles of Scilly by Cptn. and 1st Lt. to avoid capture when 4 sail sighted and was wrecked. They proved to be friendly and the officers were subsequently sentenced to be shot for cowardice.

1822. The Massacre of Chios: Ottoman troops slaughter the rebellious populace, raising Western sympathy for Greek independence

1854. Commodore Matthew C. Perry and Japanese officials sign the Treaty of Kanagawa, opening trade between the U.S. and Japan. The treaty also provided protection for American merchant seamen wrecked in Japanese water

1889. The Eiffel Tower is opened to the public

1842. William G. K. Elphinstone (1782-1842), arguably the worst battalion commander in any of the armies during the Waterloo Campaign (when he commanded the British 33rd Foot), later went on to prove quite possibly the most inept officer ever to command an army, when, as a major general during the First Afghan War (1839-1842), he dithered on so heroic a scale tha, of his 4,000 troops and 10,000 camp followers, only one man escaped death or capture.


1914, some German troops were issued ready-made nooses in the event that they encountered franc-tireurs (irregulars) during the invasion of France and Belgium, with the result that hundreds, perhaps thousands, of innocent civilians were hanged on the slightest pretext.

1945 Soviet Marshal Georgy Zhukov threatened to have the “field service wife” of First Guards Tank Army commander Mikhail Katukov arrested by Smersh as a spy because the general was spending so much time with her he was neglecting his duties.

[besilarius]

1715. During Louis XIV’s long reign (1643-1715) approximately 80-percent of the officers in the French Army were noblemen.

1879. During the Anglo-Zulu War of 1879, which lasted about seven months, the British Army in Zululand, which never amounted to more than about 15,000, including colonials and native troops, inflicted over 500 floggings.

1865. Battle of Five Forks, Lee's line of communications is severed

1936. The Wehrmacht's 26th Infantry Division was quite possibly the most "hard luck outfit" of al! time. Raised as one of the "First Wave" divisions in 1935-1936, during the initial expansion of the German Army, the unit was recruited in Wehrkreis XXI, around Cologne in the Rhineland, and bore that city's famed cathedral as its emblem. It campaigned in France m May and June of 1940, and then spent some time on occupation duty in Western Europe. In June of 1941 the division was assigned to the Eastern Front. At this point its troubles began.
Between June of 1941 and September of 1944, the 26th Infantry Division distinguished itself repeatedly in combat, almost always being in the thickest action, notably at Kursk and Kowel. But it also managed to be almost totally destroyed seven times in this period, each time being rebuilt. After its seventh brush with dissolution, in East Prussia in September of 1944, the division was rebuilt yet again, partially from surplus naval and air force personnel, as part of the "32nd Wave." Redesignated a Volksgrenadierdivision, the 26th was sent west. In December, it participated to the Battle of the Bulge, to be virtually exterminated yet again!
Rebuilt still another time, from old men and young boys, the division finally went down for the last time during the collapse of the Third Reich in the final weeks of April, 1945. In 46 months of combat, the 26th Infantry Division had been destroyed nine times, an average of once every 5.1 months.

1955. The Greek nationalist EOKA movement makes several bomb attacks against British facilities in Cyprus

April 4, 1941, Rear Adm. Claude Bloch, Commandant of the 14th Naval District, warned the garrison at Midway to expect Japanese surface, air, or submarine attack without prior declaration of war at any time, which raises the question as to why another island in his bailiwick proved so unprepared just eight months later.

2002  Simo "Simuna" Häyhä, 96, Finnish sniper in the Winter War, with 505 confirmed kills, nicknamed "White Death"

[bayonetbrant]

1945 Soviet Marshal Georgy Zhukov threatened to have the “field service wife” of First Guards Tank Army commander Mikhail Katukov arrested by Smersh as a spy because the general was spending so much time with her he was neglecting his duties.

that's an awesome anecdote right there

[Sir Slash]

I heard he liked her cause she had an ass like a JS-2. At least that's what Konev told me. 

[besilarius]

1194. tradition holds that King Richard Lionheart first met Robin Hood, in Sherwood Forest

1672 the origins of the bayonet are rather obscure.  The weapon is traditionally associated with Bayonne, a port city at the foot of the Pyrenees in southwestern France, a town apparently noted for a type of hunting knife with a long slender blade.  Various tales are told of how the practice of putting one of these at the end of a musket arose.
One tradition holds that during feuds, local uprisings, or perhaps bandit excursions, some folks, having run out of ammunition, jammed their hunting knives into the muzzles of their muskets to improvise a spear.  Another tale has it that men hunting bear or boar in the Pyrenees would jam a knife into the muzzle of their musket after firing rather than try the long process of reloading, just in case their target took offense.  It’s also possible that both accounts are more or less accurate.
The first references to the military use of the bayonet come from about 1660.  Soon afterwards it began to become common in both Spanish and French armies. By tradition it was introduced into the latter by Jean Martinet, who rose to Inspector General of the French Army before being killed by “friendly” artillery fire in 1672 (not “fragged” as is commonly reported).
The first allusion to bayonets in the English army is found in a Royal Warrant of King Charles II dated April 2, 1672:
Our will and pleasure is, that a Regiment of Dragoones which we have established and ordered to be raised, in twelve Troopes of fourscore in each besides officers, who are to be under the command of Our most deare and most entirely beloved Cousin, Prince Rupert, shall be armed out of Our stoares remaining within our Office of the Ordinance, as followeth; that is to say, three corporalls, two sergeants, the gentlemen at armes, and twelve souldiers of each of the said twelve Troopes, are to have and carry each of them one halbard, and one case of pistolls with holsters; and the rest of the souldiers of the several Troopes aforesaid are to have and to carry each of them one matchlocke musquet, with a collar of bandaliero, and also to have and to carry one bayonet or great knive. That each lieutenant have and carry one partizan, and that two drums be delivered out for each Troope of the said Regiment.

1734, finding that some 1,200 of his soldiers had gone AWOL to join the better-paying Spanish Army at Genoa, King Charles Emmanuel III of Sardinia instituted cavalry patrols to prevent the troops from escaping, and ordered captured deserters executed, which seems to have done little to stem the outflow of troops, lured by that extra cash..

1863. Richmond Bread Riot: Jeff Davis threatens to fire on women & children

1916. German Zeppelins bomb a distillery in Rosyth, causing a flood of fine whiskey.  Reportedly up to thirty Scots drowned trying to save the whiskey.

1941. Nazi occupiers disband the Dutch Boy Scouts

1942. USS 'Hornet' (CV-7) sails from San Francisco, carrying 16 Army B-25Bs
   During the Buna-Gona Campaign against the Japanese in northeastern New Guinea (October 1942- February 1943), 53 percent of the men of the 32nd Infantry Division suffered from malaria, dengue, or other tropical fevers, and the statistical infection rate was 5,358 cases per thousand men on strength, due to reinfections and relapses

1966 C.S. Forester, novelist ("Horatio Hornblower"), b. 1899

[bbmike]

...
1734, finding that some 1,200 of his soldiers had gone AWOL to join the better-paying Spanish Army at Genoa, King Charles Emmanuel III of Sardinia instituted cavalry patrols to prevent the troops from escaping, and ordered captured deserters executed, which seems to have done little to stem the outflow of troops, lured by that extra cash.

Not sure I've seen this happen in a wargame. 

[bayonetbrant]

Warrior Knights from FFG has some mechanics for this

[besilarius]

1770         Theodoros Kolokotronis, Greek soldier, "the old man of Morea", senior commander in the War for Indpendence from the Ottomans (1821-1829)

1860         First ride of the Pony Express

1865         Union forces occupy Richmond & Petersberg, to the tune of "Dixie"

1866. When the royal party came under fire at the Battle of Koniggratz (July 3), Prussian Chancellor Otto von Bismarck said to King Wilhelm I, "As a major I have no right to counsel your Majesty on the battlefield, but as Minister-President it is my duty to beg your Majesty not to seek evident danger!", to which the king, a veteran of Waterloo, replied with a smile, "How can I ride off when my army is under fire?"

1904. The outbreak of the Russo-Japanese War (1904-1905), caused panic among some British officials who, fearing the Russians would use their mobilization for a war in the Far East to mask an invasion of India from Turkestan through Afghanistan, strengthened the Indian Army, a measure that proved quite useful in the war that would break out in 1914.

1919         Wilbur Little, returning black WW I veteran, lynched by a mob in Blakely, Georgia, for wearing his uniform in public.

1942. Admiral Chester W. Nimitz, is named Commander-in-Chief, Pacific Ocean Areas (CINCPOA) and also retains the title of Commander-in-Chief, Pacific Fleet (CINCPAC).

1943         Conrad Veidt, 50, German born American actor (Major Strasser in 'Casablanca')

1944         British bombers attack the German battleship 'Tirpitz' in Norwegian waters

1944         Burma-India: British juggle forces to stem the Japanese drive on Imphal

1945. battery of two British 15-inch Mark I naval rifles installed at Wanstone, in southeastern England, in June of 1942, fired so often at German positions on the other side of the Strait of Dover that they had to be retubed four times before the war ended.

[besilarius]

431   BC   Outbreak of the Peloponnesian War (431-404 BC) [Trad]

1581         Frances Drake completes the second circumnavigation of the world

1707. a military career of some 50 years – for 44 of which he was France’s Commissioner of Fortifications – Sébastien Le Prestre de Vauban (1633-1707), built or rebuilt over 160 fortified places, and participated in 48 sieges, all of them successfully.

1817         Jean-André Masséna, 48, 1st Duc de Rivoli, 1st Prince d'Essling, brilliant Marshal of France, noted looter

1828. Where is the Duke?"
Charles Cavendish Fulke Greville (1794-1865) was a British civil servant during the first half of the Nineteenth Century, and a diarist of some note.  Although he never held any notably important post, he had frequent encounters with many of the most prominent people of his times, and his diary has a wealth of detail of the habits and foibles of the great.  In the case of the Duke of Wellington, his brother, Algernon Frederick Greville (1798-1864), was the field marshal’s private secretary, and seems to have been the source of many an interesting tale, such as this little observation about one of Wellington’s minor foibles.
One of his peculiarities was to never tell anybody where he was going and when my brother or his own sons wished to be acquainted with his intentions they were obliged to apply to the housekeeper, to whom he was in the habit of making them known, and nobody ever dared to ask him questions on the subject.
Fortunately, Wellington seems to have confined this peculiar habit to his civilian life, since it would not have been a good practice while on campaign.

1865         Lincoln sits in Jeff Davis' chair, in the Confederate White House

1882 Harper’s Weekly reported that Queen Victoria’s prize deerhound Hero, the star attraction of the Westminster Kennel Club Show, in Madison Square Garden, was on the alert for assassination plots by setters and terriers of the Irish persuasion.

1913. Arguably, the first communications "Hot Line" in history was established in July of 1913 by the French and Russians in the early twentieth century, to help them coordinate planning and operations in the event of war with Germany, when they initiated a dedicated wireless link between the two general staffs operating about eight hours a day.

1916. Of seven Jewish men serving in the Bavarian 16th Reserve Infantry, Hitler’s regiment, in October, three were killed in action and three were awarded the Iron Cross

1940         Katyn Forest: The Soviets begin mass executions of Polish military officers, police officials, and intellectuals, c. 20,000 die over several weeks

2016. Eric Dott president of Monarch printing and Avalon Hill game company.