Today in History

[Peacoat]

Today in 1961 a concrete wall replaced the barbed wire fence that separated East and West Germany, it became known as the Berlin wall. Construction lasted a little over two weeks and remained in place for thirty years. Most thought it would never come down.

 

[belfastboy]

Today in 1961 a concrete wall replaced the barbed wire fence that separated East and West Germany, it became known as the Berlin wall. Construction lasted a little over two weeks and remained in place for thirty years. Most thought it would never come down.

I watched a short bit on Netflix last night showing the East Germans taking hammers and chisels to the wall. Brought a tear to my eye....tears of joy......a great day in history.

 

[Peacoat]

A German friend of mine got a piece of the wall when it was being chiseled and sent it to me. It is in a frame in my living room; I'm looking at it right now. Yes, it was a great day in history—a day I thought would never come.

 

[GHT]

MG is a British automotive marque and M.G. Car Company Limited was the British sports car manufacturer that made the marque famous. Best known for its 'midget' open two-seater sports cars, MG also produced saloons and coupés with engines up to 3-litres in size. MG cars had their roots in a 1920s sales promotion sideline of Morris Garages, a retail sales and service centre in Oxford belonging to William Morris. The business' manager, Cecil Kimber, modified standard production Morris Oxfords and added MG Super Sports to the plate at the nose of the car back in August 1924. A separate M.G. Car Company Limited was then incorporated, separating MG from it's parent Morris Motors. I couldn't find the actual day in August but MG enthusiasts held a 95th anniversay last weekend, shame I couldn't get there. The red car is known as, Old Number One, the group photo was taken at a place called Beaulieu, a motor museum in Southern England.

 

[Peacoat]

I think that is a TF in the foreground, with 1954 being the last year this model was made. I used to have a 1958 MG-A. Although I had no formal training as an MG mechanic, by the time I sold that car, I could have gone to work in any garage that specialized in MG repair. It was temperamental, to say the least. Wish I still had it, but I was a kid when I sold it and needed the money for a car with a backseat.

Today in 1904, Helen Keller graduated from Radcliffe College. Oh, and she did it with honors. An amazing feat considering she was both deaf and blind, and had been so since age 19 months. She was the first deaf-blind person to receive a BA degree.

 

[scotrace]

September 1, 1939, Germany invaded Poland, and began the Second World War. Some 85 million men, women and children, or about 3% of the world population, would lose their lives before it was all over--most of them in Russia.

September 1, 1985, a joint American-French expedition locates the remains of the RMS Titanic.

 

[GHT]

September 1, 1939, Germany invaded Poland, and began the Second World War. Some 85 million men, women and children, or about 3% of the world population, would lose their lives before it was all over--most of them in Russia.

After WW2, both the victors and the vanquished embarked on a baby boom, producing a generation known as the baby boomers. This was encouraged here in the UK with parents getting tax breaks and other incentives. It wasn't until decades later that records proved more babies were born during the conflict than the accumulated deaths, war victims or otherwise.

 

[Peacoat]

September 1, 1939, Germany invaded Poland, and began the Second World War. Some 85 million men, women and children, or about 3% of the world population, would lose their lives before it was all over--most of them in Russia.

Now that's a biggie; how could I have forgotten that. 80 years ago today. Thanks for reminding us.

 

[GHT]

I think that is a TF in the foreground, with 1954 being the last year this model was made. I used to have a 1958 MG-A. Although I had no formal training as an MG mechanic, by the time I sold that car, I could have gone to work in any garage that specialized in MG repair. It was temperamental, to say the least. Wish I still had it, but I was a kid when I sold it and needed the money for a car with a backseat.

You're not the only son of Uncle Sam that has a fondness for that particular model:

 

[Peacoat]

Today's date in:

1945, Japan formally surrendered in ceremonies aboard the USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay, ending WW II.

1960, Wilma Rudolph, nicknamed Skeeter for her blinding speed, won the first of her three gold medals at the Rome Summer Olympics. She was born in 1940, outside of Clarksville, TN and attended Tennessee State University in Nashville where she trained under legendary track coach Ed Temple. She was the first American woman to win three gold medals in track and field at a single Olympic Games. Unfortunately her life was cut short, dying of brain cancer in 1994 while living in Brentwood, TN, just outside of Nashville.

 

[Fading Fast]

Today's date in:

1945, Japan formally surrendered in ceremonies aboard the USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay, ending WW II.....

Just wanted to add some of the pics from this event:

 

[Lean'n'mean]

On this day in 1783, the war of independance was formally ended by the signing of the 'Treaty of Paris'

 

[GHT]

September 1, 1939, Germany invaded Poland, and began the Second World War. Some 85 million men, women and children, or about 3% of the world population, would lose their lives before it was all over--most of them in Russia.

On this day, September 3rd 1939, a final British note was presented in Berlin at 9am giving Hitler until 11am to give an undertaking to withdraw his troops from Poland.

At the time of 11.15am (BST), British Prime Minster Neville Chamberlain announces on BBC Radio to the nation that the deadline of the final British ultimatum for the withdrawal of German troops from Poland expired at 11.00am and stated that “no such undertaking had been received and that consequently this nation is at war with Germany”.

 

[Peacoat]

Today in 1940 Nazi Germany began its 8 month blitz of London with a bombing attack. There were 14,286 civilians killed and 20,325 injured.

After the battle was over, Sir Winston gave a speech in which, he made one of his famous quotes, "Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few." Pilots who fought in the campaign have been known as The Few ever since.

 

[Peacoat]

18 years ago today—9/11/01. And the untold story of what to do with all of those planes (230+) enroute over the Atlantic when every airport in this country was closed. The only planes flying were Air Force One and its three fighter escorts. What is little known is the role Newfoundland played in giving safe haven to all of those planes and the passengers. The largest airports participating were Torbay in St. John's, Gander Airport and Goose Bay. They took them all in. People in the surrounding areas opened their homes, and churches were made available to the stranded travelers.

This story will be told tonight on NATGEO on "Control the Skies."

 

[Woodtroll]

18 years ago today—9/11/01. And the untold story of what to do with all of those planes (230+) enroute over the Atlantic when every airport in this country was closed. The only planes flying were Air Force One and its three fighter escorts. What is little known is the role Newfoundland played in giving safe haven to all of those planes and the passengers. The largest airports participating were Torbay in St. John's, Gander Airport and Goose Bay. They took them all in. People in the surrounding areas opened their homes, and churches were made available to the stranded travelers.

This story will be told tonight on NATGEO on "Control the Skies."

It’s hard to believe it’s been 18 years. I’d like to think “We will never forget”, but I fear that many already have...

 

[LizzieMaine]

There are now adults who have no memory of this event, just as, in 1959, there were adults who had no memory of Pearl Harbor. Time Marches On.

When the air-traffic ban was lifted after 9/11, the first plane I saw overhead was a B-17 bomber, en route to a scheduled airshow at our local transportation museum. It was flying low and it made a great deal of noise, and I nearly had a coronary right there in the grocery store parking lot.

 

[Harp]

I can recall seeing an AWACS plane take off from Tinker AFB in Oklahoma City on 9/11 or 9/12, a lone bird.

 

[Woodtroll]

There are now adults who have no memory of this event, just as, in 1959, there were adults who had no memory of Pearl Harbor. Time Marches On.

When the air-traffic ban was lifted after 9/11, the first plane I saw overhead was a B-17 bomber, en route to a scheduled airshow at our local transportation museum. It was flying low and it made a great deal of noise, and I nearly had a coronary right there in the grocery store parking lot.

Right you are. Young folks who weren't born yet, or who are too young to remember, are one thing. Adults who witnessed the events either first-hand or via media are another. We as a country seem to believe now that if we "play nice" with these people, elect them to office, or show them respect, eventually we will win them over. These people are not our friends, never will be, and are sworn to eliminate any other religion frrom the face of the earth. Why in the world would we think we could make peace with them?

Never Forget.

 

[LizzieMaine]

The world will be a much better place when humanity is as embarassed and ashamed that it ever believed in any kind of religious fundamentalism as it is ashamed and embarassed that it ever believed in any kind of racial or cultural fundamentalism. We've still got a long ways to go.

But to get back to the 9/11-in-cultural-memory discussion the paralell with Pearl Harbor is interesting. Eighteen years after 12/7, you still had ceremonies and commemorations, but generally speaking you didn't have the kind of public displays you have today. On 12/7/59, for example, you didn't have Dick Tracy on the comic page pausing in his pursuit of Flyface to take off his hat and bow his head the way he did in today's strip commemorating 9/11. There was no presidential moment of silence for Pearl Harbor in 1959, nor have I found any evidence of special TV or radio programs dealing with the anniversary, or any think-piece syndicated newspaper columns or magazine articles. That's not to say the thirty-and-forty-and-up population didn't think about the attack when they saw 12/7 on the calendar, but it wasn't still, eighteen years on, the cultural force in the American mind that 9/11 still is eighteen years later.

The death tolls of Pearl Harbor and 9/11 were close enough for the events to be considered cultural equivalents -- but I submit that an argument can be made that 9/11 still has more cultural resonance eighteen years on than Pearl Harbor did. I don't really think people are forgetting.