This Day in History

[bob48]

I didn't know that. That is interesting.

[besilarius]

1848. Ulysses Grant Assigned to the 4th Infantry Regiment, stationed in Missouri, Grant spent several years on the frontier. Although he had serious reservations about the justice of the war with Mexico (1846-1848), he remained in the army and accumulated a distinguished war record. Initially assigned to Zachary Taylor’s little army on the Rio Grande, Grant fought in the battles of Palo Alto and Resaca de la Palma in May 1846, and took part in the storming of Monterrey the following September. Early in 1847 his regiment was transferred to Winfield Scott’s army, and Grant took part in the siege of Vera Cruz in March, the battles of Cerro Gordo (April), Churubusco (August), and Molino del Rey, as well as in the storming of Chapultepec Castle and the final capture of Mexico City (all September). Although for most of this campaign, Grant was actually assigned as regimental quartermaster, he voluntarily took part in several actions, and earned two brevet – honorary – promotions and a citation for merit from General Scott (which was delivered to him by 1st Lt. John Pemberton, who would surrender Vicksburg to him in 1863).

[bayonetbrant]

Fort Circle's upcoming Halls of Montezuma game covers that war. It was pretty well-received at Origins this year

[besilarius]

1797   Horatio Nelson loses right arm during failed attack on Santa Cruz, Tenerife.     The assault relied on speed to surprise the Sapanish.  An alert defence made it much harder for the landing forces.  Also, the slippery nature of the beach hindered the move off of the beach.  Nelson bravely led the force as they slithered and lurched under heavy fire.

 1798   HMS Resistance (44), Cptn. Edward Pakenham, struck by lightening while anchored in the Straits of Banca, caught fire and violently exploded.

[Barthheart]

…
 1798   HMS Resistance (44), Cptn. Edward Pakenham, struck by lightening while anchored in the Straits of Banca, caught fire and violently exploded.

Yikes! 

[Sir Slash]

Shocking isn't it? 

[besilarius]

1593. French leader of the Hygienists in France, Henri of Navarre agrees to "convert" to Catholicism to end the Wars of Religion.  "Paris is worth a mass."

1914. July of 1914 found Radomir Putnik, the Vojvoda -- Commander-in-Chief -- of the Serbian Army at Bad Gleichenberg, a fashionable spa in Austria, hoping that the mineral waters would help ease his emphysema.  Although relations between Austria-Hungary and Serbia were rather sour due to the assassination of the Archduke Franz Ferdinand by the Serb nationalist Gavrilo Princep in Sarajevo on June 28th, the crisis seemed to have passed.  Then, almost out of the blue, on July 24th, Austria-Hungary issued a stern ultimatum to Serbia.  Quite naturally, Putnik decided to return home, and boarded a train on July 25th.  Now Field Marshal Count Franz Conrad von Hotzendorff, the Chief of the Imperial-and-Royal General Staff, a brilliant, if unstable character, had a clever idea.  Hoping to "decapitate" the Serbian Army at a single stroke, when Putnik's train reached Budapest, Conrad had the field marshal arrested.  The very next day, however, the I-and-R Foreign Ministry convinced Conrad that having the ailing and aged (67) Putnik commanding the Serb forces would be better than having a younger man in charge, and so, pretending to make a chivalrous gesture, the Vojvoda was released.  Due to the deepening crisis, Putnik had to travel home by way of Romania, and thus did not arrive until August 5th, by which time Austria-Hungary had initiated military operations against Serbia, sparking World War I.

Now, while Putnik was making his way back to Serbia, the War Ministry in Belgrade was in an uproar.  It seems that when he left for Bad Gleichenberg, Putnik had taken with him the key to his safe, in which lay the mobilization orders and defense plans in the event of war with the Hapsburg Empire.  Without the Vojvoda, no one knew what to do.  Fortunately, when Putnik's subordinates dithered, War Minister Dusan Stefanovic took matters into his own hands; although without any legal authority over mobilization orders or war planning, he had the safe dynamited, and by the time Putnik resumed command everything was in readiness.

And so, when the Imperial-and-Royal Army undertook a full scale invasion of Serbia on August 12th, Putnik, despite the delay in mobilization, despite his emphysema (which would kill him in 1917), and despite his age, promptly beat the pants off the invaders.

[besilarius]

795. King Off a of Media dies.  His great accomplishment was building Off as dyke, which set the border with the Welsh.  An amazing construct that even the Romans would have appreciated.  Another important result of building the dyke was that Offa defined the border between England and Wales. According to an old tradition, "it was customary for the English to cut off the ears of every Welshman who was found to the east of the dyke, and for the Welsh to hang every Englishman whom they found to the west of it."
1184. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erfurt_latrine_disaster
You have to read it to believe it.
Don't you hate it when this happens?

[bayonetbrant]

795. King Off a of Media dies.  His great accomplishment was building Off as dyke, which set the border with the Welsh.  An amazing construct that even the Romans would have appreciated.  Another important result of building the dyke was that Offa defined the border between England and Wales. According to an old tradition, "it was customary for the English to cut off the ears of every Welshman who was found to the east of the dyke, and for the Welsh to hang every Englishman whom they found to the west of it."
1184. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erfurt_latrine_disaster
You have to read it to believe it.
Don't you hate it when this happens?

1973 Kate Beckinsale is born  (yes, she's 50 this year)

[Sir Slash]

Kate Beckinsale.    A.I. Will NEVER be able to do that!

[Martok]

1914. July of 1914 found Radomir Putnik, the Vojvoda -- Commander-in-Chief -- of the Serbian Army at Bad Gleichenberg, a fashionable spa in Austria, hoping that the mineral waters would help ease his emphysema.  Although relations between Austria-Hungary and Serbia were rather sour due to the assassination of the Archduke Franz Ferdinand by the Serb nationalist Gavrilo Princep in Sarajevo on June 28th, the crisis seemed to have passed.  Then, almost out of the blue, on July 24th, Austria-Hungary issued a stern ultimatum to Serbia.  Quite naturally, Putnik decided to return home, and boarded a train on July 25th.  Now Field Marshal Count Franz Conrad von Hotzendorff, the Chief of the Imperial-and-Royal General Staff, a brilliant, if unstable character, had a clever idea.  Hoping to "decapitate" the Serbian Army at a single stroke, when Putnik's train reached Budapest, Conrad had the field marshal arrested.  The very next day, however, the I-and-R Foreign Ministry convinced Conrad that having the ailing and aged (67) Putnik commanding the Serb forces would be better than having a younger man in charge, and so, pretending to make a chivalrous gesture, the Vojvoda was released.  Due to the deepening crisis, Putnik had to travel home by way of Romania, and thus did not arrive until August 5th, by which time Austria-Hungary had initiated military operations against Serbia, sparking World War I.

Now, while Putnik was making his way back to Serbia, the War Ministry in Belgrade was in an uproar.  It seems that when he left for Bad Gleichenberg, Putnik had taken with him the key to his safe, in which lay the mobilization orders and defense plans in the event of war with the Hapsburg Empire.  Without the Vojvoda, no one knew what to do.  Fortunately, when Putnik's subordinates dithered, War Minister Dusan Stefanovic took matters into his own hands; although without any legal authority over mobilization orders or war planning, he had the safe dynamited, and by the time Putnik resumed command everything was in readiness.

And so, when the Imperial-and-Royal Army undertook a full scale invasion of Serbia on August 12th, Putnik, despite the delay in mobilization, despite his emphysema (which would kill him in 1917), and despite his age, promptly beat the pants off the invaders.

Heh, that's pretty good.   

1973 Kate Beckinsale is born  (yes, she's 50 this year)

Well that makes me feel at least a little old (if not quite as old as her).  She's still a babe, though.   

[besilarius]

1057  Battle of Dunsinane Hill ("The Seven Sleepers"): Earl Siward defeats King MacBeth of Scotland.
1770  William Bligh goes to sea as An Able Seaman on the sloop Hunter (10 guns).

Friedrich Wilhelm Viktor Albrecht von Preußen (1859-1941) was rather intelligent and talented, though not as much as he thought he was. 
Wilhelm was also glib, too glib for his own good. or Germany’s, often coming out with howlers that were in the least embarrassing and at worse exacerbated diplomatic tensions.  He often he called his Uncle Edward VII of Britain “a Satan” and his cousin George V “a nice boy,” referred to the attitudinally challenged King Victor Emanuel III of Italy as “The Dwarf,” and so forth.
1901: At the funeral of his grandmother, Queen Victoria, Wilhelm told the British Foreign Secretary that his cousin Tsar Nicholas was “only fit to live in a country house and grow turnips,” which was probably correct, but seriously undiplomatic.
1906 : During a banquet at the American embassy in Berlin, Wilhelm spoke of how Germany’s population was outgrowing its territory, and speculated that France, which seemed to be declining in population, might cede some territory to help ease the problem.
1908: Wilhelm told a reporter that during the Boer War he had scuttled a Franco-Russia conspiracy to enter the conflict on the side of the Boers, that he had supplied the British with the winning war plan, and that his navy was actually intended to fight the Japanese!  The subsequent uproar actually caused the Kaiser to shut up for a few months.
Perhaps Wilhelm’s most enduring gaffe occurred on July 27, 1900, when he coined the term which would be attached to Germans for decades to come while addressing troops preparing to join the international expedition to suppress the “Boxer Rebellion” in China;
"When you meet the enemy, you will beat him; you will give no pardon and take no prisoners.  Those whom you capture are at your mercy.  As the Huns a thousand years ago under King Attila made a name for themselves that has lasted mightily in memory, so may the name 'German' be known in China, such that no Chinaman will ever again dare to look askance at a German."
Even with his family, Wilhelm could be dense.  Every year on the Empress Augusta Victoria’s birthday he gave her twelve hats.  Despite numerous hints, he never caught on to the fact that, since he insisted on picking them out himself they were often in bad taste.  The Empress tried to avoid wearing them, but he usually insisted.  This continued until 1916, when the Empress convinced him that it was essential that the Imperial family set a good example by eschewing luxuries during the war.

 

[Martok]

This is the first time I've ever heard Wilhelm unironically referred to as "intelligent".  Perhaps he actually was, but if so, then clearly not enough.   

[bob48]

Fascinating. 

[besilarius]

1942. Stalin orders the creation of "penal battalions" in the Red Army.
 the Soviets arranged for men imprisoned in the GULAG to “remit” their sentences through service in penal battalions at the front.

Sentences of five years or less could be remitted by one month in a penal unit;
Sentences of between five and seven years, by two months;
Sentences of seven to ten years, by three months.
Men with longer sentences were not permitted to remit them by service in penal units because they were almost all imprisoned for political offenses.  So in effect, remission of sentence by voluntary service in a penal – or shtraf – unit was open mostly to persons sent to the GULAG for criminal offenses.

Considering that the death rate in some GULAG camps seems to have approached 100 percent, service at the front in shtraf battalion, which overall seem to have had a 50-percent casualty rate, may not have been such a bad idea; especially since, if a man was wounded, he was usually released from furtHer time in a penal unit.