1918

Today in History 08/13 (Berlin Wall)

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Two East German workers put pieces of broken glass on the top of the Berlin wall in August 1961 (© Kreusch/AP)(1961) East is sealed off from West in a divided capital
While the city sleeps, Soviet-backed East German soldiers begin erecting a barbed-wire barrier in Berlin, making solid what’s been for 15 years a geopolitical split within Germany’s capital. Transit between communist East Berlin and capitalist West Berlin is now strictly verboten.
The Berlin Wall was a guarded concrete barrier that physically and ideologically divided Berlin from 1961 to 1989. Constructed by the German Democratic Republic, starting on 13 August 1961, the Wall completely cut off West Berlin from surrounding East Germany and from East Berlin until government officials opened it in November 1989. Its demolition officially began on 13 June 1990 and was completed in 1992. The barrier included guard towers placed along large concrete walls, which circumscribed a wide area that contained anti-vehicle trenches, “fakir beds” and other defenses. The Eastern Bloc claimed that the Wall was erected to protect its population from fascist elements conspiring to prevent the “will of the people” in building a socialist state in East Germany. In practice, the Wall served to prevent the massive emigration and defection that had marked East Germany and the communist Eastern Bloc during the post-World War II period.
Address: Zimmer Street 88 · 10117 Berlin
Phone: 030 3087770
Construction started: Aug 13, 1961
Destroyed: Nov 09, 1989
Berlin Wall Map
Map of the Berlin Wall, showing checkpoints.

wiki/Berlin_Wall
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(1961) East is sealed off from West in a divided capital.
Also on this day,

1521 | Conquistadors capture capital city of the Aztecs
Conquistador Hernán Cortés and his troops have laid siege to Tenochtitlan for more than two months and now the Aztec empire’s sprawling capital surrenders. European military might, combined with a smallpox epidemic brought by the invading Spaniards, dooms what will become Mexico City.
1624 | France’s ‘Red Eminence’ gets a prime royal appointment
French clergyman Armand Jean du Plessis rose through Church ranks with impressive speed, becoming Cardinal Richelieu two years ago, and he’s now appointed King Louis XIII’s chief minister. Richelieu will hold considerable power and dodge some very wily conspiracies launched against him.
1918 | US Marines enlist their first female recruit
Her country embroiled in World War I, 39-year-old Opha Johnson is first in line to enlist at the US Marine Corps Reserves, becoming the first female Marine in history. More than 300 other women will follow Johnson’s lead and serve as Marines during the war, paving the way for future women in the US military.

Today in History 08/13/17

Newly recruited Marine Opha Johnson at Marine Corps headquarters in Washington, DC (© Marine Corps Women's Marine Reserve/Marine Corps Archives & Special Collections)(1918) US Marines enlist their first female recruit
Her country embroiled in World War I, 39-year-old Opha Johnson is first in line to enlist at the US Marine Corps Reserves, becoming the first female Marine in history. More than 300 other women will follow Johnson's lead and serve as Marines during the war, paving the way for future women in the US military.
Opha May Johnson was the first woman to enlist in the United States Marine Corps. She joined the Marine Corps Reserve in 1918, officially becoming the first female Marine.
Born: 1879 · Indiana, Midwestern United States
Died: Aug 11, 1955 · Washington, D.C., United States
Buried: Rock Creek Cemetery
Highlights
  • 1898: Historical records identify she married Victor H. Johnson on 20 December 1898 at the Sixth Presbyterian Church in Washington, DC.

  • 1918: According to 1918 newspaper articles, as well as the published history of Women Marines in World War I, Johnson's first duties were as a clerk at Marine Corps headquarters, managing the records of other female reservists who joined after she did.

  • 1955: Opha May Johnson died on Thursday, 11 August 1955, at Mount Alto Veterans Hospital in Washington, D.C.

wiki/Opha_May_Johnson
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Today in History 07/18 (Nelson Mandela)

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Nelson Mandela (© Allan Tannenbaum/The LIFE Images Collection/Getty Images)(1918) A South African political icon is born
Rolihlahla Mandela, later given the name Nelson by a teacher, is born in Mvezo, South Africa. He will go on to become a lawyer and political activist, spending 27 years in prison for conspiring to overthrow the state, before serving as president of South Africa from 1994 to 1999.
Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela was a South African anti-apartheid revolutionary, political leader, and philanthropist who served as President of South Africa from 1994 to 1999. He was the country’s first black head of state and the first elected in a fully representative democratic election. His government focused on dismantling the legacy of apartheid by tackling institutionalised racism and fostering racial reconciliation. Ideologically an African nationalist and socialist, he served as President of the African National Congress party from 1991 to 1997.
Lived: Jul 18, 1918 – Dec 05, 2013 (age 95)
Height: 6′ 0″
Spouse: Graça Machel (m. 1998 – 2013) · Winnie Madikizela-Mandela (m. 1958 – 1996) · Evelyn Mase (m. 1944 – 1958)
Parties: African National Congress · South African Communist Party
Education: University of South Africa · University of the Witwatersrand (1943 – 1949) · University of Fort Hare (1939 – 1940) · University of London International Programmes · University of London · Healdtown Comprehensive School (1937 – 1939)
Founded: Umkhonto we Sizwe · Truth and Reconciliation Commission · African National Congress Youth League · The Elders

Nelson Mandela in Umtata at the age of 19
Photograph of young Mandela, taken in Umtata in 1937
wiki/Nelson_Mandela
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(1918) A South African political icon is born.
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1334 | First artist of the Renaissance, Giotto, begins work on a bell tower
Florence Cathedral needs a new campanile, or bell tower, and Italian artist Giotto di Bondone, famous for his paintings and frescoes, begins work on what will be a 277-foot structure made vibrant with geometric patterns of Carrara white, Prato green, and Siena red marble.
1927 | A ferocious batter, Ty Cobb, becomes the first to hit 4 grand
Once described as “daring to the point of dementia,” baseball player Ty Cobb has a surly reputation to match his spectacular play on the field, and now he adds to his legend by getting his 4,000th hit for a double off of his old Tigers teammate, pitcher Sam Gibson.
1976 | A Romanian gymnast, Comăneci, performs a flawless Olympic routine
Romanian gymnast Nadia Comăneci, 14, is rewarded for her Montreal Olympics uneven bars routine with the unprecedented score of a perfect 10. The first perfect score in modern Olympics history stuns the sports world and will catapult Comăneci to international fame.

Today in History 07/18/17

Curious onlookers inspect Sen. Ted Kennedy's car in July 1969, Chappaquiddick Island, MA (© AP)(1969) Senator Ted Kennedy drives off bridge and into scandal
Just after 11PM, Senator Ted Kennedy drives his colleague Mary Jo Kopechne away from a party near Martha's Vineyard, and about an hour later their car goes off a bridge and into a pond, where Kennedy escapes, but Kopechne does not. The ensuing scandal will be blamed for hindering Kennedy's presidential ambitions.
The Chappaquiddick incident was a single-vehicle car accident on Chappaquiddick Island, Massachusetts, on July 18, 1969, that was the result of U.S. Senator Ted Kennedy's negligence and resulted in the death of his 28-year-old companion, Mary Jo Kopechne, who was trapped inside the vehicle.
Date: Jul 18, 1969

Map of Chappaquiddick
wiki/Chappaquiddick_incident
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Today in History 04/01/18

Official war photographers and SE 5a Scouts of No 1 Squadron, RAF at Clairmarais aerodrome near Ypres, France in 1918 (© 2nd Lt. D McLellan/IWM via Getty Images)(1918) Britain’s Royal Air Force is formed
Combing the Royal Flying Corps and Royal Naval Air Service, the RAF is the world’s largest air force. Formed at the tail end of World War I, the force will find its greatest glory 22 years later during the Battle of Britain.
The history of the Royal Air Force, the air force of the United Kingdom, spans a century of British military aviation. The RAF was founded on 1 April 1918, towards the end of the First World War by merging the Royal Flying Corps and the Royal Naval Air Service. After the war, the RAF was greatly reduced in size and during the inter-war years was used to “police” the British Empire. The RAF underwent rapid expansion prior to and during the Second World War. During the war it was responsible for the aerial defence of Great Britain, the strategic bombing campaign against Germany and tactical support to the British Army around the world.
Airco D.H.9A
Airco DH.9A
wiki/History_of_the_Royal_Air_Force
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(1918) Britain’s Royal Air Force is formed.
Also on this day,
1698 | `Washing the lions`
1919 | Bauhaus founded
1939 | Spanish Civil War


Today in History 03/11/18

Influenza victims crowd into an emergency hospital near Fort Riley, Kansas, in this 1918 file photo (© National Museum of Health/AP)(1918) Deadliest flu pandemic in recorded history begins
Hundreds of soldiers at Fort Riley, Kansas, are sick with a virulent form of influenza, prompting the first reporting of the epidemic. The flu will go on to infect some 500 million people and kill between 50 million and 100 million, according to most estimates.
The 1918 flu pandemic was an unusually deadly influenza pandemic, the first of the two pandemics involving H1N1 influenza virus. It infected 500 million people around the world, including people on remote Pacific islands and in the Arctic, and resulted in the deaths of 50 to 100 million, making it one of the deadliest natural disasters in human history.
Fatalities: 50,000,000

CampFunstonKS-InfluenzaHospital
Soldiers from Fort Riley, Kansas, ill with Spanish influenza at a hospital ward at Camp Funston
wiki/1918_flu_pandemic
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Today in History 11/11/17

People celebrate along Broadway near Times Square in New York as news of the armistice spreads on November 11, 1918 (© AP)(1918) The ‘war to end all wars’ has itself finally ended
Germany and the Allies sign an armistice to end the war at the 11th hour on the 11th day of the 11th month. Over 16 million people have died in four years of fighting. The First World War is described as “the war to end all wars” due to the bloody devastation. This day will hereafter be known as Armistice Day.
An armistice is a formal agreement of warring parties to stop fighting. It is not necessarily the end of a war, since it may constitute only a cessation of hostilities while an attempt is made to negotiate a lasting peace. It is derived from the Latin arma, meaning “arms” and -stitium, meaning “a stopping”.
The announcing of the armistice on November 11, 1918, was the occasion for a monster celebration in Philadelphia
The announcing of the armistice on November 11, 1918, was the occasion for large celebrations in the allied nations.

wiki/Armistice
Honor guard at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Arlington, Virginia, in 1921 (© Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division, [LC-USZ62-94538])(1921) The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier is dedicated in Arlington
The remains of an unknown US soldier killed in the First World War have been interred in a tomb in Arlington National Cemetery, and US President Warren Harding consecrates the monument known as the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. Many more soldier remains will follow.
The Tomb of the Unknowns is a monument dedicated to U.S. service members who have died without their remains being identified. It is also known as the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, but it has never been officially named. It is located in Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia, United States of America. The World War I “Unknown” is a recipient of the Medal of Honor, the Victoria Cross, and several other foreign nations’ highest service awards. The U.S. Unknowns who were interred are also recipients of the Medal of Honor, presented by U.S. Presidents who presided over their funerals.
Address: Memorial Dr, Arlington, VA 22211
Phone: (877) 907-8585
Opened: 1921
Architect: Thomas Hastings

Tomb of The Unknown Soldier 11-11-1922
Tomb as of November 11, 1922. The Tomb of 1931 would occupy this same location.

wiki/Tomb_of_the_Unknowns
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