This Day in History

[bowlspipe]

On this day in 1947, Howard Hughes piloted the "Spruce Goose" for about a mile.

It is now sitting in the Evergreen Aviation Museum

[sladys]

Hi bowlspipe. Welcome to GEH.

Thanks for your information. Here is the museum in our directory, unfortunately in low resolution image.

http://www.gearthhacks.com/dlfile173...ruce-Goose.htm

[Captain Hornblower]

Pretty cool idea, that "This day in history" stuff. I am going to pick that up and throw in whenever it's possible.

[Captain Hornblower]

The Marco Polo Bridge Incident was a battle between the Republic of China's National Revolutionary Army and the Empire of Japan's Imperial Japanese Army, marking the beginning of the Second Sino-Japanese War (1937-1945).

[sladys]

On this day London was attacked by terrorists (suicide bombers) in 3 subway trains and one double decker bus.
Within 50 seconds 3 train bombs exploded. The bus bomb 1 hour later.

56 people were killed, 700 injured. The bombers were british citicens.

http://www.gearthhacks.com/dlfile76/...s---7/7/05.htm

[Captain Hornblower]

On July 8, 1947, the Roswell Army Air Field (RAAF) issued a press release stating that personnel from the field's 509th Bomb Group had recovered a crashed "flying disc" from a ranch near Roswell, sparking intense media interest.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roswell_UFO_incident

[Captain Hornblower]

On 10.07.1962 the first commercial communication satellite, Telstar, was launched from Cape Canaveral.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telstar

[sladys]

1890: Wyoming becomes 44th. US state.

1920: North Sleswig becomes danish territory again efter 56 years of german territory. King Christian X cross the old border at Christiansfeld on a white horse.

1940: Beginn of The Battle of Britain. At least 70 german bombers attack southern wales docks.

1976: The accident in a Seveso chemical plant, Italy, leading toxic dioxine in the air.

[Captain Hornblower]

The confrontation between the commoners and the ancien régime ultimately led to the people of Paris storming the Bastille on July 14, 1789, following several days of disturbances. At this point, the jail was nearly empty, with only seven inmates: four counterfeiters (who were arrested back the day after), two madmen, and a young aristocrat who had displeased his father. The regular garrison consisted of about 80 invalides (veteran soldiers no longer capable of service in the field) under Governor Bernard-René de Launay. They had however been reinforced by a detachment of 32 grenadiers from one of the Swiss mercenary regiments summoned to Paris by the Monarchy shortly before 14 July.

A crowd of around 1,000 people gathered outside around mid-morning, calling for the surrender of the prison, the removal of the guns and the release of the arms and gunpowder. Two people chosen to represent those gathered were invited into the fortress and slow negotiations began.

In the early afternoon, the crowd broke into the undefended outer courtyard and the chains on the drawbridge to the inner courtyard were cut. A spasmodic exchange of gunfire began; in mid-afternoon the crowd was reinforced by mutinous Gardes Françaises of the Royal Army and two cannons. De Launay ordered a ceasefire; despite his surrender demands being refused, he capitulated and the vainqueurs swept in to liberate the fortress at around 5:30.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bastille
http://www.gearthhacks.com/dlfile735...a-Bastille.htm

[Captain Hornblower]

During Napoleons campaign in Egypt the engineer Bouchard found a Ptolemaic era stele, known as the Rosetta stone named after the port of Rosetta (now Rashid), where it was found. On that stone the same passage was written in two Egyptian language scripts (hieroglyphic and demotic) and in classical Greek. Comparative translation of the stone assisted in understanding many previously undecipherable examples of hieroglyphic writing.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rosetta_Stone

[Captain Hornblower]

Trinity was the first test of a nuclear weapon. It was conducted by the United States on July 16, 1945 at a location 35 miles (56 km) southeast of Socorro, New Mexico, on what is now White Sands Missile Range, headquartered near Alamogordo. Trinity was a test of an implosion-design plutonium bomb—the same type of weapon dropped on Nagasaki, Japan, a few weeks later. The detonation was equivalent to the explosion of around 20 kilotons of TNT, and is usually considered as the beginning of the Atomic Age.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trinity_test
http://www.gearthhacks.com/dlfile621...New-Mexico.htm

[Captain Hornblower]

17.07.1932, a bloody sunday in Altona, today one of Hamburgs suburbs. A march of the SA (Sturmabteilung, functioned as a paramilitary organization of the NSDAP — the German Nazi party. It played a key role in Adolf Hitler's rise to power in the 1930s) through the city of Altona of the Prussian province Schleswig-Holstein became out of control, 18 people were shot.

Shortly before, the administration of Von Papen lifted the ban of the SA and SS (Schutzstaffel, a large security and military organization of the NSDAP in Germany). Fights were predictable as demo of 7,000 uniformed SA-people through the city of Altona, known as "Red Altona" due to the majority of communistically and social democratically electing workership.

The scenery of 1932 has changed a lot caused by sever damage in WW2. The action took place around this placemark. About 800 SA-people passed a crossing at this place, as at 1700 a crowd of communists met the crowd of the SA, who tried to banish the communists successfully. Suddenly shots, and 2 SA people died. The appearing police assumed that the SA was ambushed from roofs and windows and banished the people and shot to real and assumed attackers. 16 uninvolved people died.

It's assumed that both side shot. There are no doubts, that the 2 SA-people were killed by communists. It's never cleared up, who killed the other 16 citizens. After a trial with questionable evidences 4 communists were sentenced to death and on 01.08.1933 executed by hatchet, the first executions in the Third Reich.

[Captain Hornblower]

TWA flight 800 exploded at 00:31 UTC off the coast of Long Island, New York, killing all 230 people on board.

http://www.gearthhacks.com/dlfile752...Flight-800.htm

[McMaster_de]

1989 - 112 people were killed when a United Airline DC-10 airplane crashed in Sioux City, Iowa. 184 people did survive the accident.

[Captain Hornblower]

The Battle of Halidon Hill was fought during the Second War of Scottish Independence. Scottish forces under Sir Archibald Douglas were heavily defeated on unfavourable terrain while trying to relieve Berwick-upon-Tweed.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Halidon_Hill