This day in history

[Alexander I]

23rd December:

1805 - Joseph Smith, the "Mormon" Prophet and Founder of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, is born.

[Zkribbler]

December 24, 1979

Soviet tanks roll into Afghanistan
On December 24, 1979, the Soviet Union invades Afghanistan, under the pretext of upholding the Soviet-Afghan Friendship Treaty of 1978.

[Julian Delphiki]

Soviet-Afghan Friendship

[SlowwHand]

[germanos]

26th december 2004:

[Zkribbler]

Originally posted by germanos
26th december 2004:

[Zoid]

Originally posted by germanos
26th december 2004:

[Zkribbler]

December 27, 1944
FDR seizes control of Montgomery Ward

On this day in 1944, as World War II dragged on, President Franklin D. Roosevelt orders his secretary of war to seize properties belonging to the Montgomery Ward company because the company refused to comply with a labor agreement.

In an effort to avert strikes in critical war-support industries, Roosevelt created the National War Labor Board in 1942. The board negotiated settlements between management and workers to avoid shut-downs in production that might cripple the war effort. During the war, the well-known retailer and manufacturer Montgomery Ward had supplied the Allies with everything from tractors to auto parts to workmen’s clothing--items deemed as important to the war effort as bullets and ships. However, Montgomery Ward Chairman Sewell Avery refused to comply with the terms of three different collective bargaining agreements with the United Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union hammered out between 1943 and 1944. In April 1944, after Sewell refused a second board order, Roosevelt called out the Army National Guard to seize the company’s main plant in Chicago. Sewell himself had to be carried out of his office by National Guard troops. By December of that year, Roosevelt was fed up with Sewell’s obstinacy and disrespect for the government’s authority. (The uber-capitalist Sewell’s favorite insult was to call someone a "New Dealer"--a direct reference to Roosevelt’s Depression-era policies.) On December 27, Roosevelt ordered the secretary of war to seize Montgomery Ward’s plants and facilities in New York, Michigan, California, Illinois, Colorado and Oregon.

In his announcement that day, Roosevelt emphasized that the government would "not tolerate any interference with war production in this critical hour." He issued a stern warning to labor unions and industry management alike: "strikes in wartime cannot be condoned, whether they are strikes by workers against their employers or strikes by employers against their Government." Sewell took the fight to federal court, but lost.

For much of the 20th century, Montgomery Ward, founded in 1872, reigned as one of the country’s largest department store and mail-order retail chains. Heavy competition from Wal-Mart, Target and similar discount stores forced the company to close all of its stores in 2000, though it retains a catalog and internet presence.

[Lord Avalon]

Dec 29

1845 - Texas admitted to US as 28th state.

1890 - US Army massacres 146 Sioux at Wounded Knee.

[Zkribbler]

December 30, 1916
Rasputin murdered

Grigory Rasputin, a self-fashioned Russian holy man, is murdered by Russian nobles eager to end his sway over the royal family.

[Julian Delphiki]

Uh, obviously those historians have not seen Hellboy ?

[Grandpa Troll]

January 01, 1971

Our very own Lazarus and the Gimp was born unto Poly!!!!

[Zoid]

[Zkribbler]

January 2, 1492
Reconquest of Spain

The kingdom of Granada falls to the Christian forces of King Ferdinand V and Queen Isabella I, and the Moors lose their last foothold in Spain.

[Traianvs]

Originally posted by Lord Avalon
Dec 29

1845 - Texas admitted to US as 28th state.

1890 - US Army massacres 146 Sioux at Wounded Knee.

A sad day in history