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Today in History

crawlinkingsnake

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Tomorrow, Dec 31st, the 6th day of Kwanzaa is the feast of Karamu. Kwanzaa a celebration of African-American culture was founded in 1966.
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Turnip

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1944: Operation Nordwind, the last German offensive on the Western Front in World War II, begins in the last hours of the evening.

1948: The 100,000th airplane landing takes place in West Berlin since the airlift was built.

1964: The three-day census in the GDR ends. According to this, the resident population comprises 17,003,632 people. In 1950 there were 18,388,172 people.

1991: The East-German Fernsehfunk, the former national GDR broadcasting corporation, has its last broadcast day.
 

Harp

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1944: Operation Nordwind, the last German offensive on the Western Front in World War II, begins in the last hours of the evening.

Northwind remains arguably a most audacious but flawed offensive against over extended Allied lines.
The Allies should have anticipated this-Patton did-a cold hard fact Frederick or Peter would have ordered.
 

Turnip

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1795: Russia and Austria agree to partition of Poland again. The third division of the country, with which Poland is erased from the map, finally comes about with the accession of Prussia on October 24th.

1833: Great Britain gains control of the Falkland Islands by setting up a naval base.

1945: The Un-American Activities Committee becomes a standing committee of the US House of Representatives.

1990: After hiding in the Vatican embassy for eleven days, Manuel Noriega, the former ruler in Panama, surrenders to the US invasion forces.
 

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1919: Anton Drexler and a few like-minded people found the German Workers' Party (DAP) at Café Gasteig in Munich, from which the NSDAP will later emerge.

1919: After the day before the revolutionaries called for the overthrow of the Ebert government because of the dismissal of the Berlin police chief Emil Eichhorn, a mass demonstration of half a million people takes place in Berlin. From this the Spartacus uprising develops when demonstrators spontaneously occupy several newspaper buildings.

1938: In the law on changing family names and first names, the National Socialists stipulate that Jewish men must also use the name Israel and Jewish women the name Sara. Details will be regulated later in the Name Change Ordinance on August 17th.
 

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1558: The French under François de Lorraine, duc de Guise take the port city of Calais, the last continental possession of the English ruled by Maria Tudor.

1959: The USA recognizes the Cuban government under Fidel Castro.

1971: During the Vietnam War, an aircraft took off for the last time to spray with the defoliant Agent Orange.

2015: Charlie Hebdo attack in Paris. Two terrorists storm the editorial office of the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo. Twelve people die. As a result of the attack, two hostages were taken, in which several civilians, another terrorist and the two assassins were killed.
 

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1841: Great Britain occupies Hong Kong island in the First Opium War against China.

1934: With the law for the regulation of national work, the founding of the National Socialist German Labor Front in the previous year is formally legitimized. The leader principle is thus introduced in business enterprises. Employees are obligated to absolute obedience to their superiors.

1942: A conference convened by Reinhard Heydrich takes place at the Großer Wannsee in Berlin, at which organizational questions of a “final solution to the Jewish question”, the Holocaust, are discussed. Secretary of the conference is Adolf Eichmann.

1981: The 444-day hostage-taking in Tehran ends with the release of the hostages being held at the US Embassy.
 

Harp

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1841: Great Britain occupies Hong Kong island in the First Opium War against China.
1981: The 444-day hostage-taking in Tehran ends with the release of the hostages being held at the US Embassy.

A college course on the Opium War included the book Professor Lin and The Opium War,
which recounts the penalty for opium possession was instant strangulation.
-----------
Colonel Charlie Beckwith was a fine officer, met him when I served in the 101st Airborne
long before Delta even conceptualized; however Tehran was excessively problematic for any
rescue operation, desert laydown and refueling a tango, choppers aren't sand storm capable besides.
A clustercoitus inside curve pitch Charlie got thrown but like the man and soldier he was he did his best.
 

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1863: A unit of US Union troops massacres some 400 Shoshone Indians during the Battle of Bear River in Idaho.

1916: The military airship LZ 79 drops bombs over Paris during World War I. On the way back, the zeppelin was hit in the rear and had to make an emergency landing in German-occupied Belgium.

1942: The first follow-up conference to the Wannsee Conference takes place in the offices of the Reich Ministry for the Occupied Eastern Territories in Berlin, where a far-reaching definition of “Jew” is established.

1963: Negotiations with Great Britain to join the European Economic Community fail due to the veto of French President Charles de Gaulle.
 

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1933: With the so-called "seizure of power", the appointment of Adolf Hitler as Chancellor of the German Reich by Reich President Paul von Hindenburg, the Weimar Republic ends. Franz von Papen becomes Vice Chancellor.

1934: With the Law on the Reconstruction of the Reich, the sovereignty of the German states is abolished in the course of the co-ordination; these are directly subordinate to the Reich government.

1935: The German Municipal Code, which was designed to be uniform throughout the Reich, introduces the leader principle at municipal level. Democratic elements such as the mayoral election or votes in the council committee are abolished, and the decisive position of the NSDAP is firmly established.

1943: Japan defeats the United States at the Battle of Rennell Island during the Pacific War.

1968: On the Vietnamese Buddhist New Year festival Tết Nguyên Đán, North Vietnamese and Viet Cong units in the Vietnam War begin the Tet Offensive against US troops in the early hours of the morning, which initiates the US military collapse in Vietnam.

1972: On Bloody Sunday, at least 14 pro-Irish demonstrators are shot dead by British paratroopers in the northern Irish city of Derry. The Northern Ireland conflict intensified in the wake of the massacre.
 

Harp

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1968: On the Vietnamese Buddhist New Year festival Tết Nguyên Đán, North Vietnamese and Viet Cong units in the Vietnam War begin the Tet Offensive against US troops in the early hours of the morning, which initiates the US military collapse in Vietnam.

Launched under Giap's brilliant initiative the Tet Offensive struck suddenly and decisively; however Tet itself
did not initiate collapse nor end the war, which continued until 1975, another seven years.
As Camus, a native Algerian noted, 'silk sometimes hides eczema.'
 

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1794: France abolishes slavery in all its territories during the French Revolution.

1890: Contrary to the advice of Chancellor Otto von Bismarck and without his countersignature, the February decrees are published according to the will of Kaiser Wilhelm II. They announce an expansion of workers protection.

1933: The basic rights of the Weimar Constitution, in particular freedom of assembly and freedom of the press, are restricted by the decree of the Reich President for the protection of the German people by Reich President Paul von Hindenburg. Reich Minister of the Interior Wilhelm Frick receives far-reaching powers.

1938: Adolf Hitler personally takes over the supreme command of the Wehrmacht by decree.

1948: Ceylon, now Sri Lanka, becomes independent from Great Britain within the Commonwealth of Nations.

1953: The German Bundestag makes the recruitment of Germans for foreign military services a punishable offense in § 109h StGB. This is to stop the influx into the French Foreign Legion.
 

Harp

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1953: The German Bundestag makes the recruitment of Germans for foreign military services a punishable offense in § 109h StGB. This is to stop the influx into the French Foreign Legion.

Still a lot of Germans in the Legion. French too; despite the rules, francais are simply tagged otherwise
nationals-Canada gets the blame for most.... At the Legion post in Marseilles the adjutant office has a New York
telephone book for aliases.
 

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1945: Three-day Allied air raids on Dresden begin on Shrove Tuesday. Between 18,000 and 25,000 people die in the carpet bombing and the firestorm that follows and Dresden's city center is almost completely destroyed.

1945: With the capitulation of the German units surrounded by the Red Army in Budapest, the battle for the city that had been going on since December 25 in the Second World War ended after an unsuccessful attempt to break out of the city a few hours earlier. The High Command of the Wehrmacht justified the particular exertion, which cost the lives of around 100,000 Wehrmacht soldiers, with the strategic mission of defending Vienna there.
 

Harp

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Like Northwind earlier, tactics considered against strategy and ultimate defeat play a weak hand.
Dresden clearly evidenced Allied vindictiveness.
 

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1943: German students from the age of 15 are drafted into military service as Luftwaffe helpers.

1945: A decree by the German Reich Minister of Justice, Otto Georg Thierack, leads to the formation of court-martials in "enemy-threatened Reich defense districts" that are allowed to convict civilians and military personnel.
 

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1919: In the elections to the constituent national assembly in Austria, women are allowed to vote for the first time. The Social Democratic Workers' Party is the strongest party with 40.8%, ahead of the Christian Social parties.

1923: A separate juvenile criminal law is established in Germany for the first time: the first German Juvenile Court Act (RJGG), drafted by Gustav Radbruch, is enacted.

1925: The state of emergency in Bavaria that had been in force since the Hitler-Ludendorff putsch in 1923 was lifted. This paved the way for the reestablishment of the NSDAP.

1959: Fidel Castro is sworn in as head of government in Cuba and holds this office for 49 years until he relinquishes power to his brother Raúl in 2008 for health reasons.
 

Turnip

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1890: In the elections to the 8th German Reichstag, the so-called “cartel parties” suffer a crushing defeat. The Social Democrats get the most votes for the first time. Due to the strong distortions resulting from the first-past-the-post system, which puts the densely populated regions at a serious disadvantage, they can only win 35 seats.

1929: American Samoa becomes a territory of the United States.

1933: At a secret meeting, Adolf Hitler and Hermann Göring negotiate campaign aid of 3 million Reichsmarks for the NSDAP with German industrialists for the upcoming Reichstag elections.
 

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