Joseph Stalin

Today in History 11/28 (Ferdinand Magellan)

A print of Ferdinand Magellan discovering the path to the Pacific (© Hulton Archive/Getty Images)(1520) Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan reaches the Pacific
The navigator is the first European to reach the Pacific Ocean after sailing the treacherous waters around the tip of South America. Magellan had left Spain in search of a western route to the Spice Islands. His expedition will be the first to circumnavigate the globe.
Magellan’s expedition was the first to circumnavigate the globe and the first to navigate the strait in South America connecting the Atlantic and the Pacific oceans. Magellan’s name for the Pacific was adopted by other Europeans.
After sailing through the dangerous straits below South America that now bear his name, Portuguese navigator Ferdinand Magellan enters the Pacific Ocean with three ships, becoming the first European explorer to reach the Pacific from the Atlantic.

On September 20, 1519, Magellan set sail from Spain in an effort to find a western sea route to the rich Spice Islands of Indonesia. In command of five ships and 270 men, Magellan sailed to West Africa and then to Brazil, where he searched the South American coast for a strait that would take him to the Pacific. He searched the Rio de la Plata, a large estuary south of Brazil, for a way through; failing, he continued south along the coast of Patagonia. At the end of March 1520, the expedition set up winter quarters at Port St. Julian. On Easter day at midnight, the Spanish captains mutinied against their Portuguese captain, but Magellan crushed the revolt, executing one of the captains and leaving another ashore when his ship left St. Julian in August. On October 21, he finally discovered the strait he had been seeking.

French map of the first world circumnavigation of Ferdinand de Magellan and Juan Sebastián Elcano, from 1519 to 1522
The Magellan–Elcano voyage. Victoria, one of the original five ships, circumnavigated the globe, finishing 16 months after Magellan’s death.
wiki/Ferdinand_Magellan
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(1520) Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan reaches the Pacific.
Also on this day,

1582 | William Shakespeare marries Anne Hathaway
Eighteen-year-old William Shakespeare and Anne Hathaway, age 26, pay 40 pounds for a wedding license in Stratford-upon-Avon. Six months later the couple will have a daughter, followed later by twins. Scant details will be known about the Bard’s marriage.
1943 | ‘Big Three’ allied leaders Roosevelt, Churchill, and Stalin meet in Tehran
US President Franklin Roosevelt, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, and Soviet leader Joseph Stalin, the so-called ‘Big Three,’ come together to discuss strategies for winning the war against the Nazis. The Tehran Conference is the first time Roosevelt and Stalin meet in person.
1974 | John Lennon joins Elton John in NYC
After losing a bet, John Lennon performs three songs with Elton John at New York’s Madison Square Garden, including Lennon’s hit ‘Whatever Gets You Thru the Night.’ It would be one of Lennon’s final performances, and his last in front of such a large audience.

Today in History 11/28/17

(From left) Soviet Union Premier Josef Stalin, US President Franklin D. Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill at the Teheran Conference, November 28, 1943 (© British Official Photo via AP)(1943) Allied leaders Roosevelt, Churchill, and Stalin meet in Tehran
US President Franklin Roosevelt, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, and Soviet leader Joseph Stalin, the so-called 'Big Three,' come together to discuss strategies for winning the war against the Nazis. The Tehran Conference is the first time Roosevelt and Stalin meet in person.
The Tehran Conference was a strategy meeting of Joseph Stalin, Franklin D. Roosevelt, and Winston Churchill from 28 November to 1 December 1943, after the Anglo-Soviet Invasion of Iran. It was held in the Soviet Union's embassy in Tehran, Iran. It was the first of the World War II conferences of the "Big Three" Allied leaders. It closely followed the Cairo Conference which had taken place on 22–26 November 1943, and preceded the 1945 Yalta and Potsdam conferences. Although the three leaders arrived with differing objectives, the main outcome of the Tehran Conference was the Western Allies' commitment to open a second front against Nazi Germany. The conference also addressed the 'Big Three' Allies' relations with Turkey and Iran, operations in Yugoslavia and against Japan, and the envisaged post-war settlement. A separate protocol signed at the conference pledged the Big Three to recognize Iran's independence.
Start date: Nov 28, 1943
End date: Dec 01, 1943

Mohammad Reza Shah, Stalin und Molotov, Tehran Conference, 1943
The Shah of Iran (center), pictured to the right of Joseph Stalin at the Tehran Conference (1943)

wiki/Tehran_Conference
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Today in History 08/20 (Yellowstone on Fire)

A forest fire blazes out of control in Yellowstone National Park, Montana, Sept 2, 1988 (© Tannen Maury/AP)(1988) Massive fires consume 150,000 acres of Yellowstone
Drought, winds, lightning, and nearly 250 small blazes in just two months all combine to create the largest conflagration in Yellowstone National Park’s recorded history, hitting a peak today on ‘Black Saturday’ with firestorms burning 150,000 acres and smoke so dense that day turns to night.
The Yellowstone fires of 1988 collectively formed the largest wildfire in the recorded history of Yellowstone National Park in the United States. Starting as many smaller individual fires, the flames quickly spread out of control due to drought conditions and increasing winds, combining into one large conflagration which burned for several months. The fires almost destroyed two major visitor destinations and, on September 8, 1988, the entire park closed to all non-emergency personnel for the first time in its history. Only the arrival of cool and moist weather in the late autumn brought the fires to an end. A total of 793,880 acres, or 36 percent of the park was affected by the wildfires.
Date: 1988

Firestorm Mirror Plateu
The Clover Mist fire races north across the Mirror Plateau
wiki/Yellowstone_fires_of_1988
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(1988) Massive fires consume 150,000 acres of Yellowstone.
Also on this day,

636 BCE | Decisive Arab victory at Battle of Yarmouk banishes the Byzantines from Syria
The seesawing power grabs between Arabs and the Byzantine Empire in the Levant comes to a close as Khālid ibn al-Walīd and his 40,000 troops take on Emperor Heraclius’ 150,000-strong force and decisively defeat them. The win will be a springboard for Arab expansion in the region.
1882 | Napoleon’s Russian loss inspires a sonic boom and ‘1812 Overture’ premieres
Listeners gather under a Moscow tent to get the first public earful of Tchaikovsky’s new ‘Festival overture.’ Blasts of cannon fire finish this feisty 70th anniversary tribute to Russia’s rout of Napoleon, and the ‘1812 Overture’ will survive down the ages as everyone’s favorite fireworks soundtrack.
1940 | Former Bolshevist hero Trotsky gets on the wrong side of Stalin and is assassinated
Twice exiled to Siberia for revolutionary acts, then a key player in the Bolshevik Revolution, Leon Trotsky has fallen out of favor with the new Soviet premier, Joseph Stalin, and is living in Mexico City when an assassin’s ice-axe attack fatally wounds him, killing him the next day.

Today in History 08/20/17

Leon Trotsky on Aug 9, 1940, just 11 days before an attack made on him at his home in Mexico City (© AP)(1940) Former Bolshevist hero gets on the wrong side of Stalin
Twice exiled to Siberia for revolutionary acts, then a key player in the Bolshevik Revolution, Leon Trotsky has fallen out of favor with the new Soviet premier, Joseph Stalin, and is living in Mexico City when an assassin's ice-axe attack fatally wounds him, killing him the next day.
Leon Trotsky was a Marxist revolutionary, theorist, and Soviet politician. Initially supporting the Menshevik Internationalists faction within the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party, he joined the Bolsheviks just before the 1917 October Revolution, immediately becoming a leader within the Communist Party. He would go on to become one of the seven members of the first Politburo, founded in 1917 to manage the Bolshevik Revolution. During the early days of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic and the Soviet Union, he served first as People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs and later as the founder and commander of the Red Army, with the title of People's Commissar of Military and Naval Affairs. He became a major figure in the Bolshevik victory in the Russian Civil War.
Lived: Nov 07, 1879 - Aug 21, 1940 (age 60)
Height: 5' 9" (1.74 m)
Spouse: Natalia Sedova (m. 1903 - 1940) · Aleksandra Sokolovskaya (m. 1899 - 1902)
Children: Zinaida Volkova (Daughter) · Lev Sedov (Son) · Sergei Sedov (Son) · Nina Nevelson (Daughter) · Howard Fung (Son)
Movies: The Assassination of Trotsky
Founded: Red Army · Fourth International · Communist International · Left Opposition · Petrograd Soviet · International Committee of the Fourth International
Highlights
  • 1903: Leon Trotsky married Natalia Sedova in 1903.

  • 1917: He was, alongside Lenin, Zinoviev, Kamenev, Stalin, Sokolnikov and Bubnov, one of the seven members of the first Politburo, founded in 1917 to manage the Bolshevik Revolution.

  • 1920: The Red Army was defeated by Poland and the offensive was turned back during the Battle of Warsaw in August 1920, in part because of Stalin's failure to obey Trotsky's orders in the run-up to the decisive engagements.

  • 1924: Shortly after Lenin's death in 1924, the letter was found and publicized by Trotsky's opponents within the Communist Party to portray him as Lenin's enemy.

  • 1926: In early 1926, Zinoviev, Kamenev and their supporters in the "New Opposition" gravitated closer to Trotsky's supporters, and the two groups soon formed an alliance, which also incorporated some smaller opposition groups within the Communist Party.

  • 1940: On Stalin's orders, he was assassinated in Mexico in August 1940 by Ramón Mercader, a Spanish-born Soviet agent.

wiki/Leon_Trotsky
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