Today in History ^08/02/17

August 2, 2017 by GµårÐïåñ Leave a Comment

Lt. John F. Kennedy (right) and his PT-109 crew in the South Pacific in July 1943 (© AP)

(1943) PT boat is sunk and a young lieutenant helps save mates

Lt. j.g. John F. Kennedy leaps into the Pacific Ocean after a nighttime attack by a Japanese destroyer has sunk his command, the PT-109 patrol torpedo boat. The future US president swims through burning wreckage and manages to help save all but two of his crew, leading survivors to an island to await rescue.

PT-109 was a PT boat last commanded by Lieutenant, junior grade John F. Kennedy in the Pacific Theater during World War II. Kennedy’s actions to save his surviving crew after the sinking of PT-109 made him a war hero, which proved helpful in his political career. The incident may have also contributed to his long-term back problems.

Keel laid: Mar 04, 1942
Launched: Jun 20, 1942

Map of the events of 2 August 1943

wiki/Motor_Torpedo_Boat_PT-109

Navy destroyer USS Maddox in August 1964 (© DOD/AP)

(1964) Confrontation in waters off Vietnam escalates a war

The Pentagon reports that North Vietnamese torpedo boats have fired on the USS Maddox as it patroled off the north coast of Vietnam in the Gulf of Tonkin. The incident will result in a rapid escalation of the Vietnam War but questions about the Pentagon’s report will linger.

The Gulf of Tonkin incident, also known as the USS Maddox incident, was an international confrontation that led to the United States being drawn more directly into the Vietnam War. It involved either one or two separate confrontations involving North Vietnam and the United States in the waters of the Gulf of Tonkin. The original American report blamed North Vietnam for both incidents, but eventually became very controversial with widespread claims that either one or both incidents were false, and possibly deliberately so. On August 2, 1964, the destroyer USS Maddox, while performing a signals intelligence patrol as part of DESOTO operations, was pursued by three North Vietnamese Navy torpedo boats of the 135th Torpedo Squadron. Maddox fired three warning shots and the North Vietnamese boats then attacked with torpedoes and machine gun fire. Maddox expended over 280 3-inch and 5-inch shells in a sea battle. One U.S. aircraft was damaged, three North Vietnamese torpedo boats were damaged, and four North Vietnamese sailors were killed, with six more wounded. There were no U.S. casualties. Maddox “was unscathed except for a single bullet hole from a Vietnamese machine gun round”.

Date: Aug 02, 1964

Chart showing the U.S. Navy’s explanation of the Gulf of Tonkin Incident

wiki/Gulf_of_Tonkin_incident

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Today in History ^06/29/17

June 29, 2017 by GµårÐïåñ Leave a Comment

Beach on the island of Tahiti, French Polynesia (© Peter Adams/Getty Images)

(1880) A South Seas paradise becomes a French colony

King Pōmare V cedes a 403-square-mile island in the remote South Pacific to France as he abdicates his throne under pressure from his chiefs. Tahiti will be the crown jewel of French Polynesia, but indigenous Tahitians will have to wait until 1946 for full French citizenship.

Tahiti is the largest island in the Windward group of French Polynesia; this overseas collectivity of the French Republic is sometimes referred to as a French overseas country. The island is located in the archipelago of the Society Islands in the central Southern Pacific Ocean, and is divided into two parts: The bigger, northwestern part Tahiti Nui and the smaller, southeastern part Tahiti Iti. The island was formed from volcanic activity and is high and mountainous with surrounding coral reefs. The population is 183,645 inhabitants, making it the most populous island of French Polynesia and accounting for 68.5 percent of its total population.

Population: 183,645 (2012)
Travel tip: The unique and ubiquitous island of Tahiti is world -renowned for its Polynesian charm, colorful culture and romantic ambiance. The grass-skirted hip shaking of Tahitian dance is sure to get your toes tapping and heart thumping—let the celebratory vibe of this magical locale rejuvenate and excite you to the core. Warm … @tripadvisor
Area: 403.48 sq miles (1,045 km²)
Island groups: Society Islands · Windward Islands
Location: Pacific Ocean
Points of interest: Paul Gauguin Museum · Robert Wan Pearl Museum

wiki/Tahiti

J. Robert Oppenheimer circa 1940s (© Agence France Presse/Getty Images)

(1943) A president reassures physicist working on The Bomb

A clash between General Leslie Groves and physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer threatens to derail a top-secret American military project in the New Mexico desert, and President Franklin Roosevelt intervenes with a letter of heartfelt support written to get the Manhattan Project back on track.

The Manhattan Project was a research and development undertaking during World War II that produced the first nuclear weapons. It was led by the United States with the support of the United Kingdom and Canada. From 1942 to 1946, the project was under the direction of Major General Leslie Groves of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Nuclear physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer was the director of the Los Alamos Laboratory that designed the actual bombs. The Army component of the project was designated the Manhattan District; “Manhattan” gradually superseded the official codename, Development of Substitute Materials, for the entire project. Along the way, the project absorbed its earlier British counterpart, Tube Alloys. The Manhattan Project began modestly in 1939, but grew to employ more than 130,000 people and cost nearly US $2 billion (about $27 billion in 2016 dollars). Over 90% of the cost was for building factories and to produce fissile material, with less than 10% for development and production of the weapons. Research and production took place at more than 30 sites across the United States, the United Kingdom, and Canada.

Two types of atomic bombs were developed concurrently during the war: a relatively simple gun-type fission weapon and a more complex implosion-type nuclear weapon. The Thin Man gun-type design proved impractical to use with plutonium so a simpler gun-type called Little Boy was developed that used uranium-235, an isotope that makes up only 0.7 percent of natural uranium. Chemically identical to the most common isotope, uranium-238, and with almost the same mass, it proved difficult to separate the two. Three methods were employed for uranium enrichment: electromagnetic, gaseous and thermal. Most of this work was performed at the Clinton Engineer Works at Oak Ridge, Tennessee.

In parallel with the work on uranium was an effort to produce plutonium. After the feasibility of the world’s first artificial nuclear reactor was demonstrated in Chicago at the Metallurgical Laboratory, it designed the X-10 Graphite Reactor at Oak Ridge and the production reactors in Hanford, Washington, in which uranium was irradiated and transmuted into plutonium. The plutonium was then chemically separated from the uranium. The Fat Man implosion-type weapon was developed in a concerted design and development effort by the Los Alamos Laboratory.

The project was also charged with gathering intelligence on the German nuclear weapon project. Through Operation Alsos, Manhattan Project personnel served in Europe, sometimes behind enemy lines, where they gathered nuclear materials and documents, and rounded up German scientists. Despite the Manhattan Project’s tight security, Soviet atomic spies still penetrated the program.

The first nuclear device ever detonated was an implosion-type bomb at the Trinity test, conducted at New Mexico’s Alamogordo Bombing and Gunnery Range on 16 July 1945. Little Boy and Fat Man bombs were used a month later in the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, respectively. In the immediate postwar years, the Manhattan Project conducted weapons testing at Bikini Atoll as part of Operation Crossroads, developed new weapons, promoted the development of the network of national laboratories, supported medical research into radiology and laid the foundations for the nuclear navy. It maintained control over American atomic weapons research and production until the formation of the United States Atomic Energy Commission in January 1947.

wiki/Manhattan_Project

(From left) Mick Jagger and Keith Richards in London on July 1, 1967 after their release from prison on drug charges (© Gamma-Keystone/Getty Images)

(1967) Nonexistent pot and four uppers nail Jagger and Richards

A salacious trial in England wraps up after a drug bust at Rolling Stones guitarist Keith Richard’s home. No “indian hemp” was actually found, and singer Mick Jagger had only four amphetamine pills, but they’re both convicted and sentenced to prison, Jagger for three months and Richards a year. They’ll spend just two days in prison before the convictions are thrown out.

The Atlantis space shuttle docks with Mir, the Russian space station, 216 nautical miles above Russia, on June 29, 1995 (© NASA)

(1995) Statecraft in space as an American shuttle meets the Mir

For the first time in history a US space shuttle docks with a Russian space station, as Atlantis shuttle commander Robert ‘Hoot’ Gibson pilots his craft at 17,500 mph to dock with the massive Mir space station. Their meeting creates the largest manmade object ever to orbit the earth.

The Shuttle–Mir Program was a collaborative space program between Russia and the United States, which involved American Space Shuttles visiting the Russian space station Mir, Russian cosmonauts flying on the shuttle, and an American astronaut flying aboard a Soyuz spacecraft to engage in long-duration expeditions aboard Mir.

The project, sometimes called “Phase One”, was intended to allow the United States to learn from Russian experience with long-duration spaceflight and to foster a spirit of cooperation between the two nations and their space agencies, the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and the Russian Federal Space Agency (Roskosmos). The project helped to prepare the way for further cooperative space ventures; specifically, “Phase Two” of the joint project, the construction of the International Space Station (ISS). The program was announced in 1993, the first mission started in 1994 and the project continued until its scheduled completion in 1998. Eleven Space Shuttle missions, a joint Soyuz flight and almost 1000 cumulative days in space for American astronauts occurred over the course of seven long-duration expeditions.

During the four-year program, many firsts in spaceflight were achieved by the two nations, including the first American astronaut to launch aboard a Soyuz spacecraft, the largest spacecraft ever to have been assembled at that time in history, and the first American spacewalk using a Russian Orlan spacesuit.

The program was marred by various concerns, notably the safety of Mir following a fire and a collision, financial issues with the cash-strapped Russian Space Program and worries from astronauts about the attitudes of the program administrators. Nevertheless, a large amount of science, expertise in space station construction and knowledge in working in a cooperative space venture was gained from the combined operations, allowing the construction of the ISS to proceed much more smoothly than would have otherwise been the case.

wiki/Shuttle–Mir_Program

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Today in History ^06/03/17

June 3, 2017 by GµårÐïåñ

U.S. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant poses at Cold Harbor, Virginia, in June 1864 during the American Civil War (© AP)

(1864) General Grant makes a tragic decision at Cold Harbor

Confederate forces are entrenched just 10 miles southeast of Richmond, capital of the Confederacy. Union General U. S. Grant orders a full frontal assault, despite his reinforcements not having arrived, and 7,000 Union troops are dead within an hour’s time in one of the Civil War’s bloodiest battles.

The Battle of Cold Harbor was fought from May 31 to June 12, 1864, with the most significant fighting occurring on June 3. It was one of the final battles of Union Lt. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant’s Overland Campaign during the American Civil War, and is remembered as one of American history’s bloodiest, most lopsided battles. Thousands of Union soldiers were killed or wounded in a hopeless frontal assault against the fortified positions of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee’s army.

Start date: May 31, 1864
End date: Jun 12, 1864

wiki/Battle_of_Cold_Harbor

Gangs of American sailors and marines armed with sticks during the Zoot Suit Riots in Los Angeles in June 1943 (© Anthony Potter Collection/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

(1943) Military men target Latinos in L.A. rioting

Fueled by racism, and what’s perceived as the flaunting of wartime rationing rules, the Zoot Suit Riots flare in Los Angeles as white Marines and Navy sailors attack young Latino men. Other cities will see similar clashes between soldiers and minorities wearing the distinctive suit.

The Zoot Suit Riots were a series of attacks in June 1943 in Los Angeles, California, United States, by white American servicemen stationed in Southern California against Mexican American youths and other minorities who were residents of the city.

Date: 1943

wiki/Zoot_Suit_Riots

Aretha Franklin in concert (© Ron Howard/Redferns/Getty Images)

(1967) Aretha Franklin gets some R-E-S-P-E-C-T

Aretha Franklin hits No. 1 on the ‘Billboard’ Hot 100 singles chart with her version of Otis Redding’s ‘Respect,’ turning the song into a women’s anthem. Decades later, Rolling Stone will rank her recording as one of the five greatest songs of all time.

“Respect” is a song written and originally released by American recording artist Otis Redding in 1965. The song became a 1967 hit and signature song for R&B singer Aretha Franklin. The music in the two versions is significantly different, and through a few minor changes in the lyrics, the stories told by the songs have a different flavor. Redding’s version is a plea from a desperate man, who will give his woman anything she wants. He won’t care if she does him wrong, as long as he gets his due respect, when he brings money home . However, Franklin’s version is a declaration from a strong, confident woman, who knows that she has everything her man wants. She never does him wrong, and demands his “respect”. Franklin’s version adds the “R-E-S-P-E-C-T” chorus and the backup singers’ refrain of “Sock it to me, sock it to me, sock it to me…” Franklin’s cover was a landmark for the feminist movement, and is often considered as one of the best songs of the R&B era, earning her two Grammy Awards in 1968 for “Best Rhythm & Blues Recording” and “Best Rhythm & Blues Solo Vocal Performance, Female”, and was inducted in the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1987. In 2002, the Library of Congress honored Franklin’s version by adding it to the National Recording Registry. It was placed number five on Rolling Stone magazine’s list of The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time. It was also included in the list of Songs of the Century, by the Recording Industry of America and the National Endowment for the Arts. Franklin included a live recording on the album Aretha in Paris (1968).

Album: I Never Loved a Man the Way I Love You
Artists: Aretha Franklin · Otis Redding
Duration: 2:21
Genre: R&B / Soul, Soul

wiki/Respect_(song)

Valerie Solanas, 28, enters police headquarters after she was arrested for shooting Andy Warhol in New York on June 3, 1968 (© Jerry Haynes/NY Daily News Archive/Getty Images)

(1968) Pop art provocateur is nearly assassinated

Already well into his 15 minutes of fame, Andy Warhol, the king of Manhattan’s underground art-world elite, is shot at his famed workspace, The Factory. He will survive after a 5-hour operation, and his would-be assassin, Valerie Solanas, will be diagnosed as a paranoid schizophrenic.

Andy Warhol was an American artist, director and producer who was a leading figure in the visual art movement known as pop art. His works explore the relationship between artistic expression, celebrity culture, and advertising that flourished by the 1960s, and span a variety of media, including painting, silkscreening, photography, film, and sculpture. Some of his best known works include the silkscreen paintings Campbell’s Soup Cans and Marilyn Diptych, the experimental film Chelsea Girls, and the multimedia events known as the Exploding Plastic Inevitable.

Lived: Aug 06, 1928 – Feb 22, 1987 (age 58)
Height: 5′ 11″ (1.80 m)
Periods: Pop art · Modern art
Education: Carnegie Mellon University (1945 – 1949) · Schenley High School (1942 – 1945)
Buried: St. John the Baptist Byzantine Catholic Cemetery
Parents: Julia Warhola (Mother) · Andrej Warhola (Father)

wiki/Andy_Warhol

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Today in History ^05/27/17

May 27, 2017 by GµårÐïåñ

Jedediah Smith, only known likeness, drawing circa 1835 (© REX Features)

(1831) Pioneering mountain man meets his end

Jedediah Strong Smith, 32, has earned his middle name by surviving three massacres, a bear mauling, and travels through the vast wilds of the American West, including the unforgiving Mojave Desert. Exploring near the Santa Fe Trail in present day Kansas, Smith is killed by Comanche warriors.

Jedediah Strong Smith, was a clerk, frontiersman, hunter, trapper, author, cartographer, and explorer of the Rocky Mountains, the North American West, and the Southwest during the early 19th century. After 75 years of obscurity following his death, Smith was rediscovered as the American whose explorations led to the use of the 20-mile-wide South Pass as the dominant point of crossing the Continental Divide for pioneers on the Oregon Trail.

Born: Jan 06, 1799 · Bainbridge, NY
Died: May 27, 1831 · Ulysses, KS
Romance: NN Smith
Parents: Sally Smith (Mother) · Jedediah Strong Smith, I (Father)
Children: Gordon Smith (Son)
Siblings: Austin Smith · Peter Smith · Ira Smith
Highlights
1822: Coming from a modest family background, Smith traveled to St. Louis and joined William H. Ashley and Andrew Henry’s fur trading company in 1822.

1826: Smith and his party of 15 other men left the Bear River on August 7, 1826, and after retrieving the cache he had left earlier, headed south through present-day Utah and Nevada to the Colorado River, finding increasingly harsh conditions and difficult travel.

1828: Smith and his party of 15 other men left the Bear River on August 7, 1826, and after retrieving the cache he had left earlier, headed south through present-day Utah and Nevada to the Colorado River, finding increasingly harsh conditions and difficult travel.

1829: Late in 1829, Smith Jackson and Sublette wrote another letter to William Clark.

1830: Smith later wrote a letter to Secretary of War John Eaton in 1830 making the location of the South Pass public information.

1831: The only known portrait of Jedediah Smith, painted after his death in 1831, showed the long hair he wore over the side of his head, to hide his scars.

wiki/Jedediah_Smith

Russian and Japanese warships clash at the Battle of Tsushima during the Russo-Japanese War, 27-28 May 1905 (© Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

(1905) First naval battle of its kind pits Russia vs. Japan

The first and only ‘decisive’ naval battle fought by modern steel battleship fleets, and also the first in which radio communications play a decisive role, the Battle of Tsushima will result in a crushing blow to the mighty Russian Imperial Navy, as Japanese forces destroy almost their entire fleet.

The Battle of Tsushima, also known as the Battle of Tsushima Strait and the Naval Battle of the Sea of Japan in Japan, was a major naval battle fought between Russia and Japan during the Russo-Japanese War. It was naval history’s only decisive sea battle fought by modern steel battleship fleets, and the first naval battle in which wireless telegraphy played a critically important role. It has been characterized as the “dying echo of the old era – for the last time in the history of naval warfare ships of the line of a beaten fleet surrendered on the high seas.”

Start date: May 27, 1905
End date: May 28, 1905

wiki/Battle_of_Tsushima

Louis Zamperini peers out of the hatch nose of a bomber on Jan 1, 1943 (© Jack Rice/AP Photo)

(1943) A survivor’s incredible odyssey begins

Former Olympic track runner and now US Army Air Corps bombardier, Louie Zamperini is shot down 850 miles south of Oahu, Hawaii. He will survive 47 days on the open ocean, only to be captured, imprisoned, and tortured in Japanese POW camps, all of which prove Zamperini is “unbreakable.”

Louis Silvie “Louie” Zamperini was a US prisoner of war survivor in World War II, a Christian evangelist and an Olympic distance runner. Zamperini took up running in high school and qualified for the US in the 5000m race for the 1936 Berlin Olympics. He finished 8th in the event. In 1941 he was commissioned into the United States Army Air Forces as a Lieutenant. He served as a bombardier in B-24 Liberators in the Pacific. On a search and rescue mission, mechanical difficulties forced Zamperini’s plane to crash in the ocean. After drifting at sea for 46-47 days he landed on the Japanese occupied Marshall Islands and was captured. He was taken to a prison camp in Japan where he was tortured. Following the war he initially struggled to overcome his ordeal. Later he became a Christian Evangelist with a strong belief in forgiveness. Zamperini is the subject of two biographical films, the 2014 Unbroken and the 2015 Captured by Grace.

Lived: Jan 26, 1917 – Jul 02, 2014 (age 97)
Height: 5′ 11″ (1.80 m)
Spouse: Cynthia Applewhite (m. 1946 – 2001)
Movies: Zamperini: Still Carrying the Torch
Education: Torrance High School · University of Southern California
Children: Cissy Zamperini (Daughter) · Luke Zamperini (Son)
Highlights
1943: His death had mistakenly been announced previously, when the US government classified him as KIA during World War II, after his B-24 Liberator aircraft went down in 1943, and no survivors were located by the military.

1946: Louis Zamperini married Cynthia Applewhite on May 25, 1946; their marriage lasted 55 years till 2001.

2010: In 2010, Zamperini detailed his experiences in Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption, written by Laura Hillenbrand.

2011: In May 2011, Zamperini was guest of honor at Magellan Christian Academy’s graduation ceremony with over 700 attendees at the University of North Florida in Jacksonville, Florida.

2011: In late July 2011, Zamperini received the Kappa Sigma Golden Heart Award during the Kappa Sigma 68th Biennial Grand Conclave held at the Flamingo Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada.

2014: After Zamperini’s death on July 2, 2014, the Tournament announced that it is “committed to honoring him as the Grand Marshal of the 2015 Rose Parade”.

wiki/Louis_Zamperini

Russian writer and former Nobel Prize-winner Alexander Solzhenitsyn arrives at Vladivostok airport on May 27, 1994 (© Michael Evstafiev/AFP/Getty Images)

(1994) Banished son of Russia returns to his motherland

Winner of 1970’s Nobel Prize in Literature, author Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn returns to the homeland that exiled him for the very writing that garnered him acclaim. Communism’s fall now allows the author of ‘The Gulag Archipelago’ to be reunited with a country he hasn’t seen for 20 years.

Aleksandr Isayevich Solzhenitsyn was a Russian novelist, historian, and short story writer. He was an outspoken critic of the Soviet Union and communism and helped to raise global awareness of its Gulag forced labor camp system. He was allowed to publish only one work in the Soviet Union, One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich, in the periodical Novy Mir. After this he had to publish in the West, most notably Cancer Ward, August 1914, and The Gulag Archipelago. Solzhenitsyn was awarded the 1970 Nobel Prize in Literature “for the ethical force with which he has pursued the indispensable traditions of Russian literature”. Solzhenitsyn was afraid to go to Stockholm to receive his award for fear that he would not be allowed to reenter. He was eventually expelled from the Soviet Union in 1974, but returned to Russia in 1994 after the state’s dissolution.

Lived: Dec 11, 1918 – Aug 03, 2008 (age 89)
Spouse: Natalia Dmitrievna Svetlova (m. 1973 – 2008) · Natalia Alekseevna Reshetovskaya (m. 1957 – 1972) · Natalia Alekseevna Reshetovskaya (m. 1940 – 1952)
Awards: Nobel Prize in Literature (1970) · State Prize of the Russian Federation (2006) · Templeton Prize (1983)
Education: Southern Federal University · Rostov State University
Children: Ignat Solzhenitsyn (Son) · Stepan Solzhenitsyn (Son) · Yermolai Solzhenitsyn (Son)
Parents: Taisiya Solzhenitsyna (Mother) · Isaakiy Solzhenitsyn (Father)

wiki/Aleksandr_Solzhenitsyn

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Today in History ^04/30/17

April 30, 2017 by GµårÐïåñ

Lithograph showing Napoleon (center) formally presenting a copy of the treaty for the Louisiana Purchase to the American Commissioners in 1803 (© Science Source/Getty Images)

(1803) US makes Louisiana Purchase for $15 million

At a cost of about four cents per acre, the American government purchases from the French 828,000 square miles of land, stretching across much of North America. France needs the money for another looming war with Britain, and President Thomas Jefferson is happy to oblige.

The Louisiana Purchase was the acquisition of the Louisiana territory by the United States from France in 1803. The U.S. paid fifty million francs and a cancellation of debts worth eighteen million francs for a total of sixty-eight million francs. The Louisiana territory included land from fifteen present U.S. states and two Canadian provinces. The territory contained land that forms Arkansas, Missouri, Iowa, Oklahoma, Kansas, and Nebraska; the portion of Minnesota west of the Mississippi River; a large portion of North Dakota; a large portion of South Dakota; the northeastern section of New Mexico; the northern portion of Texas; the area of Montana, Wyoming, and Colorado east of the Continental Divide; Louisiana west of the Mississippi River; and small portions of land within the present Canadian provinces of Alberta and Saskatchewan. Its non-native population was around 60,000 inhabitants, of whom half were African slaves.

Start date: 1801
End date: Apr 30, 1803

wiki/Louisiana_Purchase

Identification card of the fictional Major William Martin (Public domain)

(1943) ‘Operation Mincemeat’ fools the Nazis

The British dress a corpse as one of their officers, load it with fake invasion plans, and release the body off Spain’s coast. The Germans will find the body, believe the plan, and expect the Brits to invade Greece, instead of the real target, Italy.

Operation Mincemeat was a successful British disinformation strategy used during the Second World War. As a deception intended to cover the 1943 Allied invasion of Sicily, two members of British intelligence obtained the body of Glyndwr Michael, a tramp who died from eating rat poison, dressed him as an officer of the Royal Marines and placed personal items on him identifying him as Captain William Martin. Correspondence between two British generals which suggested that the Allies planned to invade Greece and Sardinia, with Sicily as merely the target of a feint, was also placed on the body.
wiki/Operation_Mincemeat

Adolf Hitler in 1945 (© ullstein bild/ullstein bild via Getty Images)

(1945) Hitler commits suicide as Soviet Red Army takes Berlin

Hiding in his fortified underground bunker with his wife of 40 hours by his side, Adolf Hitler shoots himself, and Eva Braun takes a cyanide pill. Their bodies are hauled to the ruined garden above the bunker, doused with gasoline, and burned.

Adolf Hitler was a German politician who was the leader of the Nazi Party, Chancellor of Germany from 1933 to 1945, and Führer of Nazi Germany from 1934 to 1945. As dictator of the German Reich, he initiated World War II in Europe with the invasion of Poland in September 1939, and was central to the Holocaust.

Lived: Apr 20, 1889 – Apr 30, 1945 (age 56)
Height: 5′ 9″ (1.75 m)
Spouse: Eva Braun (m. 1945 – 1945)
Children: Jean-Marie Loret (Son)
Founded: Nazi Party · Schutzstaffel · Hitler Youth · Gestapo · Sturmabteilung · Wehrmacht · Waffen-SS · 1st SS Panzer Division Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler
Parents: Alois Hitler (Father) · Klara Hitler (Mother)
Highlights
1918: His wartime experience reinforced his German patriotism and he was shocked by Germany’s capitulation in November 1918.

1923: On 8 November 1923 Hitler and the SA stormed a public meeting of 3,000 people organised by Kahr in the Bürgerbräukeller, a beer hall in Munich.

1934: In August 1934, Hitler appointed Reichsbank President Hjalmar Schacht as Minister of Economics, and in the following year, as Plenipotentiary for War Economy in charge of preparing the economy for war.

1936: In August 1936, in response to a growing economic crisis caused by his rearmament efforts, Hitler ordered Göring to implement a Four Year Plan to prepare Germany for war within the next four years.

1938: In early 1938, in the wake of the Blomberg–Fritsch Affair, Hitler asserted control of the military-foreign policy apparatus, dismissing Neurath as foreign minister and appointing himself Oberster Befehlshaber der Wehrmacht (supreme commander of the armed forces).

1945: In the final days of the war, during the Battle of Berlin in 1945, Hitler married his long-time lover, Eva Braun.

wiki/Adolf_Hitler

A North Vietnamese tank rolls through the gate of the presidential palace in Saigon, Vietnam, on April 30, 1975, signifying the fall of South Vietnam (© AP)

(1975) Saigon falls to communists as South Vietnam surrenders

The Viet Cong and People’s Army control South Vietnam’s largest city after Saigon’s defensive forces surrender, effectively ending the Vietnam War. The capital will be renamed ‘Ho Chi Minh City,’ as the communist reunification of the country begins.

The Fall of Saigon, or the Liberation of Saigon, depending on context, was the capture of Saigon, the capital of South Vietnam, by the People’s Army of Vietnam and the National Liberation Front of South Vietnam on April 30, 1975. The event marked the end of the Vietnam War and the start of a transition period to the formal reunification of Vietnam under the Socialist Republic.

Date: Apr 30, 1975

wiki/Fall_of_Saigon

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