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Today in History

3fingers

One Too Many
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1,797
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Illinois
I am surprised no one has mentioned this, but unless I'm mistaken, this is the day that will live in infamy—the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941.
Given a man on the street video that I had the misfortune of seeing a while back infamy isn't as long as it used to be.
 

Peacoat

*
Bartender
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6,455
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South of Nashville
Today, in 1980, on New York's upper west side, a psychotic gunman ensured the Beatles would never perform together again. Just as on February 3, 1959, this is another day the music died.

Peace be with you John.
 

GHT

I'll Lock Up
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9,793
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New Forest
On this day in 1941, the United States entered the second world war,following the attack on Pearl Harbor.
To Winston Churchill the Japanese attack on United States naval forces at Pearl Harbour was one of the greatest days of the most terrible war in Great Britain’s history. He was appalled, calculating, and exhilarated – perhaps in equal measures.

He was dining at Chequers, the country retreat of prime ministers, when he heard the news. His guests were US Ambassador Gil Winant and Averell Harriman, President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s special envoy to Europe.

A butler brought in a portable radio for the party to listen to the BBC Home Service. When the attack was confirmed Churchill leapt to his feet and said he must declare war on Japan at once. His guests dissuaded him from this impetuous act, historian Walter Reid recounts in “Churchill 1940-1945,” his book about wartime relations among the Allied leaders.

The prime minister phoned Roosevelt, and asked “Mr. President, what’s this about Japan?” FDR responded that it was true, and they were all in the same boat now.

To Churchill, this meant one thing above all: victory. Britain was no longer alone. Finally, the US would enter the war.
 

MissMittens

One Too Many
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1,628
Location
Philadelphia USA
Today in 1869, Wyoming was the first state to grant women's suffrage.

Today in 1936, Edward VIII abdicated the British throne to marry an American divorcee, Wallis-Simpson.

Today in 1941, the Japanese Imperial Army overrun and started their occupation of Guam.
 
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Lean'n'mean

I'll Lock Up
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4,087
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Cloud-cuckoo-land
On this day in 1898, the 'Treaty of Paris' was signed, thus ending the Spanish-American war.

On this day in 1869, women were granted the vote in Wyoming.

On this day in 1967, Otis redding was killed in a plane crash.
 

scotrace

Head Bartender
Staff member
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14,392
Location
Small Town Ohio, USA
Dec. 11, 1941, Germany and Italy declare war on the United States. And in 1972, Apollo 17 landed on the moon--the last such mission.

Today, we have a surrogate human on Mars, and there's a Tesla roadster sailing by overhead while it digs for goodies.

Edit to add: And the Voyager probe has entered interstellar space.
 
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MissMittens

One Too Many
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1,628
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Philadelphia USA
Today in 1882, the Bijou Theater in Boston became the first U.S. playhouse lit by electricity.

Today in 1909, a color movie was demonstrated at Madison Square Gardens.
 
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17,215
Location
New York City
I'm one day late as yesterday was the hundredth anniversary of the birth of Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn (DOB 12/11/18).

From Wikipedia:
Aleksandr[a] Isayevich Solzhenitsyn[c] (/ˌsoʊlʒəˈniːtsɪn, ˌsɒl-/;[2] 11 December 1918 – 3 August 2008)[3][4][5] was a Russian novelist, historian, and short story writer. He was an outspoken critic of the Soviet Union and communism and helped to raise global awareness of its Gulag forced labor camp system. He was allowed to publish only one work in the Soviet Union, One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich (1962), in the periodical Novy Mir. After this he had to publish in the West, most notably Cancer Ward (1968), August 1914 (1971), and The Gulag Archipelago (1973). Solzhenitsyn was awarded the 1970 Nobel Prize in Literature "for the ethical force with which he has pursued the indispensable traditions of Russian literature".[6] Solzhenitsyn was afraid to go to Stockholm to receive his award for fear that he would not be allowed to reenter. He was eventually expelled from the Soviet Union in 1974, but returned to Russia in 1994 after the state's dissolution.


And a famous passage, which, for me, is a wonderful exposition of a rubber-meets-the-road moment in a statist dictatorship:
DuLLGSgW0AYhSU6.jpg-large.jpeg
 

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