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  • Originally posted by Zkribbler

    But, by the time of the break up, no one cared if they stayed together.
    Originally posted by Hueij

    I did...
    Within weeks they'll be re-opening the shipyards
    And notifying the next of kin
    Once again...

    Comment


    • April 15

      1865 - President Lincoln dies of bullet wound.

      1912 - "Unsinkable" Titanic sinks after failing to dodge iceberg (better they had rammed it).

      1924 - Rand McNally releases its first road atlas.

      1947 - Jackie Robinson breaks Major League Baseball color barrier.
      Those who would give up Essential Liberty to purchase a little Temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety. - Ben Franklin
      Iain Banks missed deadline due to Civ | The eyes are the groin of the head. - Dwight Schrute.
      One more turn .... One more turn .... | WWTSD

      Comment


      • RIP Abe
        note: i am abe reincarnated.

        Comment


        • April 18, 1906

          The Great San Francisco Earthquake

          At 5:13 a.m., an earthquake estimated at close to 8.0 on the Richter scale strikes San Francisco, California, killing hundreds of people as it topples numerous buildings. The quake was caused by a slip of the San Andreas Fault over a segment about 275 miles long, and shock waves could be felt from southern Oregon down to Los Angeles.

          San Francisco's brick buildings and wooden Victorian structures were especially devastated. Fires immediately broke out and--because broken water mains prevented firefighters from stopping them--firestorms soon developed citywide. At 7 a.m., U.S. Army troops from Fort Mason reported to the Hall of Justice, and San Francisco Mayor E.E. Schmitz called for the enforcement of a dusk-to-dawn curfew and authorized soldiers to shoot-to-kill anyone found looting. Meanwhile, in the face of significant aftershocks, firefighters and U.S. troops fought desperately to control the ongoing fire, often dynamiting whole city blocks to create firewalls. On April 20, 20,000 refugees trapped by the massive fire were evacuated from the foot of Van Ness Avenue onto the USS Chicago.

          By April 23, most fires were extinguished, and authorities commenced the task of rebuilding the devastated metropolis. It was estimated that some 3,000 people died as a result of the Great San Francisco Earthquake and the devastating fires it inflicted upon the city. Almost 30,000 buildings were destroyed, including most of the city's homes and nearly all the central business district.


          Those who would give up Essential Liberty to purchase a little Temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety. - Ben Franklin
          Iain Banks missed deadline due to Civ | The eyes are the groin of the head. - Dwight Schrute.
          One more turn .... One more turn .... | WWTSD

          Comment


          • April 18, 1775

            Revere and Dawes warn of British attack

            On this day in 1775, British troops march out of Boston on a mission to confiscate the American arsenal at Concord and to capture Patriot leaders Samuel Adams and John Hancock, known to be hiding at Lexington. As the British departed, Boston Patriots Paul Revere and William Dawes set out on horseback from the city to warn Adams and Hancock and rouse the Minutemen.
            By 1775, tensions between the American colonies and the British government had approached the breaking point, especially in Massachusetts, where Patriot leaders formed a shadow revolutionary government and trained militias to prepare for armed conflict with the British troops occupying Boston. In the spring of 1775, General Thomas Gage, the British governor of Massachusetts, received instructions from Great Britain to seize all stores of weapons and gunpowder accessible to the American insurgents. On April 18, he ordered British troops to march against Concord and Lexington.

            The Boston Patriots had been preparing for such a British military action for some time, and, upon learning of the British plan, Revere and Dawes set off across the Massachusetts countryside. They took separate routes in case one of them was captured: Dawes left the city via the Boston Neck peninsula and Revere crossed the Charles River to Charlestown by boat. As the two couriers made their way, Patriots in Charlestown waited for a signal from Boston informing them of the British troop movement. As previously agreed, one lantern would be hung in the steeple of Boston's Old North Church, the highest point in the city, if the British were marching out of the city by Boston Neck, and two lanterns would be hung if they were crossing the Charles River to Cambridge. Two lanterns were hung, and the armed Patriots set out for Lexington and Concord accordingly. Along the way, Revere and Dawes roused hundreds of Minutemen, who armed themselves and set out to oppose the British.

            Revere arrived in Lexington shortly before Dawes, but together they warned Adams and Hancock and then set out for Concord. Along the way, they were joined by Samuel Prescott, a young Patriot who had been riding home after visiting a lady friend. Early on the morning of April 19, a British patrol captured Revere, and Dawes lost his horse, forcing him to walk back to Lexington on foot. However, Prescott escaped and rode on to Concord to warn the Patriots there. After being roughly questioned for an hour or two, Revere was released when the patrol heard Minutemen alarm guns being fired on their approach to Lexington.

            About 5 a.m. on April 19, 700 British troops under Major John Pitcairn arrived at the town to find a 77-man-strong colonial militia under Captain John Parker waiting for them on Lexington's common green. Pitcairn ordered the outnumbered Patriots to disperse, and after a moment's hesitation, the Americans began to drift off the green. Suddenly, the "shot heard around the world" was fired from an undetermined gun, and a cloud of musket smoke soon covered the green. When the brief Battle of Lexington ended, eight Americans lay dead and 10 others were wounded; only one British soldier was injured. The American Revolution had begun.
            1929

            First "Our Gang" film with sound debuts

            Small Talk, the first "Our Gang" picture with sound, debuts on this day in 1929. Producer Hal Roach had started producing the Our Gang short comedies in 1922. The series' mischievous band of kids, later known as the "Little Rascals," quickly caught on with the public, especially after characters Spanky, Alfalfa, and Darla were added in the early 1930s. In 1938, Roach sold the Our Gang rights to MGM, which produced the shorts until 1944. In total, more than 100 Our Gang films were made.
            1942

            Doolittle leads air raid on Tokyo
            On this day in 1942, 16 American B-25 bombers, launched from the aircraft carrier USS Hornet 650 miles east of Japan and commanded by Lieutenant Colonel James H. Doolittle, attack the Japanese mainland.

            The now-famous Tokyo Raid did little real damage to Japan (wartime Premier Hideki Tojo was inspecting military bases during the raid; one B-25 came so close, Tojo could see the pilot, though the American bomber never fired a shot)--but it did hurt the Japanese government's prestige. Believing the air raid had been launched from Midway Island, approval was given to Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto's plans for an attack on Midway--which would also damage Japanese "prestige." Doolittle was eventually awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor.

            A book describing the raid, 30 Seconds Over Tokyo by Ted Lawson, was adapted into a film starring Spencer Tracy in 1944.
            Those who would give up Essential Liberty to purchase a little Temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety. - Ben Franklin
            Iain Banks missed deadline due to Civ | The eyes are the groin of the head. - Dwight Schrute.
            One more turn .... One more turn .... | WWTSD

            Comment


            • One day late, but still...

              April 21st, 1918: the Red Baron was killed just after 11 a.m. on 21 April 1918, while flying over Morlancourt Ridge, near the Somme River.

              The guy that shot him:
              Attached Files
              Within weeks they'll be re-opening the shipyards
              And notifying the next of kin
              Once again...

              Comment


              • 1970 first earth day

                Comment


                • Originally posted by b etor
                  1970 first earth day
                  USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA!
                  The video may avatar is from

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                  • Originally posted by b etor
                    1970 first earth day
                    My kid sister was born on the day that would eventually be designated Earth Day. But she pre-dated it by several years. She tells people she's older than dirt.

                    Comment


                    • I love being beaten by women - Lorizael

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                      • Bismarck sunk by Royal Navy

                        On May 27, 1941, the British navy sinks the German battleship Bismarck in the North Atlantic near France. The German death toll was more than 2,000.

                        On February 14, 1939, the 823-foot Bismarck was launched at Hamburg. Nazi leader Adolf Hitler hoped that the state-of-the-art battleship would herald the rebirth of the German surface battle fleet. However, after the outbreak of war, Britain closely guarded ocean routes from Germany to the Atlantic Ocean, and only U-boats moved freely through the war zone.

                        In May 1941, the order was given for the Bismarck to break out into the Atlantic. Once in the safety of the open ocean, the battleship would be almost impossible to track down, all the while wreaking havoc on Allied convoys to Britain. Learning of its movement, Britain sent almost the entire British Home Fleet in pursuit. On May 24, the British battle cruiser Hood and battleship Prince of Wales intercepted it near Iceland. In a ferocious battle, the Hood exploded and sank, and all but three of the 1,421 crewmen were killed. The Bismarck escaped, but because it was leaking fuel it fled for occupied France. On May 26, it was sighted and crippled by British aircraft, and on May 27 three British warships descended on the Bismarck and finished it off.
                        In Spring of 1941,
                        The war had just begun.
                        The Germans had the biggest ships;
                        They had the biggest guns.
                        The Bismarck was the biggest,
                        The Terror of the Seas,
                        With guns as big as piers
                        And shells as big as trees.

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                        • D-DAY

                          June 6, 1944 Operation Overlord
                          Hi, I'm RAH and I'm a Benaholic.-rah

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