On this day in history

[darlowolf64]

In 1923, following a meeting in a beer hall in Munich, a little known political party in Germany tried to carry out a coup d’etat to overthrow the government of Bavaria. It became known as “The Beer Hall Putsch”.

The putsch was inspired by Benito Mussolini's successful March on Rome from 22 to 29 October 1922. The plan was to use Munich as a base for a march against Germany's Weimar Republic government.

A group of 2,000 members of the party were led by a former WW1 corporal, Adolf Hitler, to the Field Marshals Hall in the centre of the city. Amongst the main members of the group were Herman Goering, Rudolph Hess, Ernst Rohm, former WW1 General Erich Ludendorff and Heinrich Himmler.

In the vanguard were four flag bearers followed by Adolf Lenk and Kurt Neubauer, Ludendorff's servant. Behind those two came more flag bearers, then the leadership in two rows. Hitler was in the centre, to his left, in civilian clothes, was Ludendorff. To Hitler's right was Max Erwin Von Scheubner-Richter who was killed in the subsequent confrontation. To his right came Alfred Rosenberg. On either side of these men were Ulrich Graf, Hermann Kriebel, Friedrich Weber, Julius Streicher, Hermann Göring, and Wilhelm Brückner.

They were confronted by a police cordon and this resulted in the death of 15 members of the NSDAP and four Bavarian police officers. Goering received a gunshot wound which lead to him developing an addiction to morphine. Goering was spirited away to Innsbruck and while Hitler escaped, he was arrested two days later.

Also on November 9th…

1688 – Glorious Revolution: William of Orange captures Exeter.
1729 – Spain, France and Great Britain sign the Treaty of Seville.
1780 – American Revolutionary War: In the Battle of Fishdam Ford a force of British and Loyalist troops fail in a surprise attack against the South Carolina Patriot militia under Brigadier General Thomas Sumter.
1791 – The Dublin Society of United Irishmen is founded.
1799 – Napoleon Bonaparte leads the Coup of 18 Brumaire ending the Directory government, and becoming First Consul of the successor Consulate Government.
1862 – American Civil War: Union General Ambrose Burnside assumes command of the Army of the Potomac, after George B. McClellan is removed.
1870 - The Battle of Coulmiers ends in a Pyrrhic victory for the French army during the Franco-German War of 1870.
1872 – The Great Boston Fire of 1872.
1887 – The United States receives rights to Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.
1906 – Theodore Roosevelt is the first sitting President of the United States to make an official trip outside the country, doing so to inspect progress on the Panama Canal.
1907 – The Cullinan Diamond is presented to King Edward VII on his birthday.
1913 – The Great Lakes Storm of 1913, the most destructive natural disaster ever to hit the lakes, reaches its greatest intensity after beginning two days earlier. The storm destroys 19 ships and kills more than 250 people.
1914 – SMS Emden is sunk by HMAS Sydney in the Battle of Cocos.
1918 – Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany abdicates after the German Revolution, and Germany is proclaimeda Republic.
1960 – Robert McNamara is named president of the Ford Motor Company, becoming the first non-Ford family member to serve in that post. He resigns a month later to join the newly-elected John F. Kennedy administration.
1965 – A Catholic Worker Movement member, Roger Allen LaPorte, protesting against the Vietnam War, sets himself on fire in front of the United Nations building.
1967 – Apollo program: NASA launches the unmanned Apollo 4 test spacecraft, atop the first Saturn Vrocket, from Florida's Cape Kennedy.
1979 – Cold War: Nuclear false alarm: The NORAD computers and the Alternate National Military Command Center in Fort Ritchie, Maryland detected purported massive Soviet nuclear strike. After reviewing the raw data from satellites and checking the early-warning radars, the alert is cancelled.
1985 – Garry Kasparov, 22, of the Soviet Union, becomes the youngest World Chess Champion by beating fellow Soviet Anatoly Karpov.
1989 – Cold War: Fall of the Berlin Wall: East Germany opens checkpoints in the Berlin Wall, allowing its citizens to travel to West Berlin.

 

[Paddingtonwolf]

Although he was under that flag in 1985, I don’t think Garry would particularly like being called Soviet! That whole match was Karpov the golden boy of the party and Kasparov the young Azer iconoclast.

 

[jd1981]

It’s quite freighting how many times early warning systems have picked up false nuclear attacks didn’t even know about the one in 1979.
The one in September 1983 is pretty scary story to if it wasn’t for Stanislav Petrov it may have turned out differently.

 

[Paddingtonwolf]

Imagine if the computers didn’t play noughts and crosses like in Wargames

 

[jd1981]

Imagine if the computers didn’t play noughts and crosses like in Wargames

Great film and a very clever concept probably the earliest concepts of AI

 

[leedswolf]

Surely Metropolis is an earler cinematographic concept of AI?

 

[Paddingtonwolf]

And also the HAL 9000

 

[leedswolf]

Star Wars?

 

[Paddingtonwolf]

Wargames was a cracking film though

 

[Paddingtonwolf]

Star Wars?

The droids are certainly AI. Threepio’s ability to learn over six million forms of communication and Artoo having a personality are AI concepts for me.

 

[darlowolf64]

November 10th - The Fall of the Berlin Wall

During a Politburo meeting on 7th November 1989 the East German government had a discussion about loosening restrictions for travel from East Germany To West Germany. The meeting was led by new Chairman of the State Egon Krenz and it stipulated that East German citizens could apply for permission to travel abroad without having to meet the previous requirements for those trips. To ease the difficulties, the Politburo led by Krenz decided on 9 November to allow refugees to exit directly through crossing points between East Germany and West Germany, including between East and West Berlin. Later the same day, the ministerial administration modified the proposal to include private, round-trip, travel. The new regulations were to take effect the next day.

The announcement of the regulations which brought down the Wall took place at an hour-long press conference led by Günter Schabowski, the party leader in East Berlin and the top government spokesman, beginning at 18:00 CET on 9 November and broadcast live on East German television and radio. Schabowski was joined by Minister of Foreign Trade Gerhard Beil and Central Committee members Helga Labs and Manfred Banaschak.

Schabowski had not been involved in the discussions about the new regulations and had not been fully updated. Shortly before the press conference, he was handed a note from Krenz announcing the changes, but given no further instructions on how to handle the information.

The news began spreading immediately: the West German Deutsche Presse-Agentur issued a bulletin at 19:04 which reported that East German citizens would be able to cross the inner German border "immediately". Excerpts from Schabowski's press conference were broadcast on West Germany's two main news programs that night.

After hearing the 9 November broadcast, East Germans began gathering at the Wall, at the six checkpoints between East and West Berlin, demanding that border guards immediately open the gates. The surprised and overwhelmed guards made many hectic telephone calls to their superiors about the problem. At first, they were ordered to find the "more aggressive" people gathered at the gates and stamp their passports with a special stamp that barred them from returning to East Germany—in effect, revoking their citizenship. However, this still left thousands of people demanding to be let through "as Schabowski said we can".  It soon became clear that no one among the East German authorities would take personal responsibility for issuing orders to use lethal force, so the vastly outnumbered soldiers had no way to hold back the huge crowd of East German citizens.

Finally, at 23:30 on 9 November, Harald Jäger, commander of the Bornholmer Straße border crossing, yielded, allowing guards to open the checkpoints and letting people through with little or no identity-checking. As the Ossis swarmed through, they were greeted by Wessis waiting with flowers and champagne amid wild rejoicing.

Shortly after midnight, on the 10th November a crowd of West Berliners jumped on top of the Wall and were soon joined by East German youngsters and they began using various tools to chip off souvenirs, demolishing lengthy parts in the process, and creating several unofficial border crossings. These people became quickly earned the nickname Mauerspechte (wallpeckers)

The evening of 9th/10th November 1989 is known as the night the Wall came down.

Also on 10th November...

1202 – Fourth Crusade: Despite letters from Pope Innocent III forbidding it and threatening excommunication, Catholic crusaders begin a siege of Zara (now Zadar, Croatia).
1775 – The United States Marine Corps is founded at Tun Tavern in Philadelphia by Samuel Nicholas.
1847 – The passenger ship Stephen Whitney is wrecked in thick fog off the southern coast of Ireland, killing 92 of the 110 on board. The disaster results in the construction of the Fastnet Rock lighthouse.
1871 – Henry Morton Stanley locates missing explorer and missionary, David Livingstone in Ujiji, near Lake Tanganyika, famously greeting him with the words, "Dr. Livingstone, I presume?".
1918 – The Western Union Cable Office in North Sydney, Nova Scotia, receives a top-secret coded message from Europe (that would be sent to Ottawa and Washington, D.C.) that said on November 11, 1918, all fighting would cease on land, sea and in the air.
1942 – World War II: Germany invades Vichy France following French Admiral François Darlan's agreement to an armistice with the Allies in North Africa.
1944 – The ammunition ship USS Mount Hood explodes at Seeadler Harbour, Manus, Admiralty Islands, killing at least 432 and wounding 371.
1954 – U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower dedicates the USMC War Memorial (Iwo Jima memorial) in Arlington Ridge Park in Arlington County, Virginia.
1975 – The 729-foot-long freighter SS Edmund Fitzgerald sinks during a storm on Lake Superior, killing all 29 crew on board. Ontario singer-songwriter Gordon Lightfoot wrote, composed, and recorded the song "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald". He was inspired to write the song when he saw the name misspelled "Edmond" in Newsweek magazine two weeks after the sinking; Lightfoot said he felt that it dishonored the memory of the 29 who died
1975 – Israeli-Palestinian conflict: the United Nations General Assembly passes Resolution 3379, determining that Zionism is a form of racism.
1979 – A 106-car Canadian Pacific freight train carrying explosive and poisonous chemicals from Windsor, Ontario, Canada derails in Mississauga, Ontario.
1983 – Bill Gates introduces Windows 1.0.

 

[Paddingtonwolf]

Compare Mississauga with Lac Megantic. They were lucky once. Not twice.

 

[darlowolf64]

November 11th

The Armistice of 11 November 1918 was signed at Le Francport near Compiègne that ended fighting on land, sea, and air in World War I between the Entente and their last remaining opponent, Germany. Previous armistices had been agreed with Bulgaria, the Ottoman Empire and Austria-Hungary. This brought to an end what became known as "The Great War" and "The War to End All Wars".

The Armistice was the result of a hurried and desperate process. The German delegation headed by Matthias Erzberger crossed the front line in five cars and was escorted for ten hours across the devastated war zone of Northern France, arriving on the morning of 8 November 1918. They were then taken to the secret destination aboard Ferdinand Foch's private train parked in a railway siding in the Forest of Compiègne. Foch appeared only twice in the three days of negotiations: on the first day, to ask the German delegation what they wanted, and on the last day, to see to the signatures. The Germans were handed the list of Allied demands and given 72 hours to agree. The German delegation discussed the Allied terms not with Foch, but with other French and Allied officers.

There were very few negotiations. The Germans were able to correct a few impossible demands (for example, the decommissioning of more submarines than their fleet possessed), extend the schedule for the withdrawal and register their formal protest at the harshness of Allied terms. But they were in no position to refuse to sign. The cabinet had earlier received a message from Paul von Hindenburg, head of the German High Command, requesting that the armistice be signed even if the Allied conditions could not be improved on. The Armistice was agreed upon at 5:00 a.m. on 11 November 1918, to come into effect at 11:00 a.m

Many artillery units continued to fire on German targets to avoid having to haul away their spare ammunition. The Allies also wished to ensure that, should fighting restart, they would be in the most favourable position. Consequently, there were 10,944 casualties, of whom 2,738 men died, on the last day of the war.

Augustin Trébuchon was the last Frenchman to die when he was shot on his way to tell fellow soldiers, who were attempting an assault across the Meuse river, that hot soup would be served after the ceasefire. He was killed at 10:45 a.m

Marcel Toussaint Terfve was the last Belgian soldier to die as he was mortally wounded from German machine gun fire and died from his lung wound at 10:45 a.m.

Earlier, the last British soldier to die, George Edwin Ellison of the 5th Royal Irish Lancers, was killed that morning at around 9:30 a.m. while scouting on the outskirts of Mons, Belgium.

The final Canadian, and Commonwealth, soldier to die, Private George Lawrence Price, was shot and killed by a sniper while part of a force advancing into the Belgian town of Ville-sur-Haine just two minutes before the armistice to the north of Mons at 10:58 a.m.

Henry Gunther, an American, is generally recognized as the last soldier killed in action in World War I. He was killed 60 seconds before the armistice came into force while charging astonished German troops who were aware the Armistice was nearly upon them. He had been despondent over his recent reduction in rank and was apparently trying to redeem his reputation.

After the war, there was a deep shame that so many soldiers died on the final day of the war, especially in the hours after the treaty had been signed but had not yet taken effect. In the United States, Congress opened an investigation to find out why and if blame should be placed on the leaders of the American Expeditionary Forces, including John Pershing. In France, many graves of French soldiers who died on 11 November were backdated to 10 November.

Also on 11th November...

1880 – Australian bushranger Ned Kelly is hanged at Melbourne Gaol.
1887 – Four convicted anarchists were executed as a result of the Haymarket affair.
1889 – The State of Washington is admitted as the 42nd state of the United States.
1919 – The Industrial Workers of the World attack an Armistice Day parade in Centralia, Washington, ultimately resulting in the deaths of five people.
1919 – Latvian forces defeat the West Russian Volunteer Army at Riga in the Latvian War of Independence.
1921 – The Tomb of the Unknowns is dedicated by US President Warren G. Harding at Arlington National Cemetery.
1923 – Adolf Hitler is arrested in Munich for high treason for his role in the Beer Hall Putsch.
1926 – The United States Numbered Highway System is established.
1930 – Patent number US1781541 is awarded to Albert Einstein and Leó Szilárd for their invention, the Einstein refrigerator.
1934 – The Shrine of Remembrance is opened in Melbourne, Australia.
1940 – World War II: In the Battle of Taranto, the Royal Navy launches the first all-aircraft ship-to-ship naval attack in history.
1940 – World War II: The German auxiliary cruiser Atlantis captures top secret British mail from the Automedon, and sends it to Japan.
2004 – The Palestine Liberation Organization confirms the death of Yasser Arafat from unidentified causes. Mahmoud Abbas is elected chairman of the PLO minutes later.
2006 – Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II unveils the New Zealand War Memorial in London, United Kingdom, commemorating the loss of soldiers from the New Zealand Army and the British Army.

 

[darlowolf64]

November 12th

The opening of the Bay Bridge, California.

The San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge, known locally as the Bay Bridge, is a complex of bridges spanning San Francisco Bay in California. As part of Interstate 80 and the direct road between San Francisco and Oakland, it carries about 260,000 vehicles a day on its two decks. It includes one of the longest bridge spans in the United States.

The toll bridge was conceived as early as the California Gold Rush days, with "Emperor" Joshua Norton famously advocating for it, but construction did not begin until 1933. Designed by Charles H. Purcell, and built by American Bridge Company, it opened on Thursday, November 12, 1936, six months before the Golden Gate Bridge. It originally carried automobile traffic on its upper deck, with trucks, cars, buses and commuter trains on the lower, but after the Key System abandoned its rail service on April 20, 1958, the lower deck was converted to all-road traffic as well. On October 12, 1963, traffic was reconfigured to one way traffic on each deck, westbound on the upper deck, and eastbound on the lower deck, with trucks and buses also allowed on the upper deck.

The bridge consists of two crossings, east and west of Yerba Buena Island, a natural mid-bay outcropping inside San Francisco city limits. The western crossing between Yerba Buena and downtown San Francisco has two complete suspension spans connected at a center anchorage. Rincon Hill is the western anchorage and touch-down for the San Francisco landing of the bridge connected by three shorter truss spans. The eastern crossing, between Yerba Buena Island and Oakland, was a cantilever bridge with a double-tower span, five medium truss spans, and a 14-section truss causeway. Due to earthquake concerns, the eastern crossing was replaced by a new crossing that opened on Labor Day 2013.

Also on 12th November...

1912 – The frozen bodies of Robert Scott and his men are found on the Ross Ice Shelf in Antarctica.[6]
1918 – Dissolution of Austria-Hungary: Austria becomes a republic.[7] After the proclamation, a coup attempt by the communist Red Guard is defeated by the social-democratic Volkswehr.
1920 – Italy and the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes sign the Treaty of Rapallo.
1927 – Leon Trotsky is expelled from the Soviet Communist Party, leaving Joseph Stalin in undisputed control of the Soviet Union.
1928 – SS Vestris sinks approximately 200 miles (320 km) off Hampton Roads, Virginia, killing at least 110 passengers, mostly women and children who die after the vessel is abandoned.
1933 – Nazi Germany uses a referendum to ratify its withdrawal from the League of Nations.
1938 – Nazi Germany issues the Decree on the Elimination of Jews from Economic Life prohibiting Jews from selling goods and services or working in a trade, totally segregating Jews from the German economy.[11]
1940 – World War II: The Battle of Gabon ends as Free French Forces take Libreville, Gabon, and all of French Equatorial Africa from Vichy French forces.
1940 – World War II: Soviet Foreign Minister Vyacheslav Molotov arrives in Berlin to discuss the possibility of the Soviet Union joining the Axis Powers.
1941 – World War II: Temperatures around Moscow drop to −12 °C (10 °F) as the Soviet Union launches ski troops for the first time against the freezing German forces near the city.
1941 – World War II: The Soviet cruiser Chervona Ukraina is destroyed during the Battle of Sevastopol.[12]
1942 – World War II: Naval Battle of Guadalcanal between Japanese and American forces begins near Guadalcanal. The battle lasts for three days and ends with an American victory.
1944 – World War II: The Royal Air Force launches 29 Avro Lancaster bombers, which sink the German battleship Tirpitz, with 12,000 lb Tallboy bombs off Tromsø, Norway.
1948 – Aftermath of World War II: In Tokyo, the International Military Tribunal for the Far East sentences seven Japanese military and government officials, including General Hideki Tojo, to death for their roles in World War II.
1954 – Ellis Island ceases operations.

 

[darlowolf64]

13th November

The 1954 Rugby League World Cup was rugby league football's first World Cup and was held in France in October–November 1954. Officially known as the "Rugby World Cup", four nations competed in the tournament: Australia, France, Great Britain and New Zealand. A group stage was held first, with Great Britain topping the table as a result of points difference. They went on to defeat France (who finished second in the table, level on points) in the final, which was held at Paris' Parc des Princes before 30,368 spectators.
The first rugby league world cup was an unqualified success. It was played in a uniformly good spirit, provided an excellent standard of play and was a fitting celebration of France's 20th anniversary as a rugby league-playing nation.

The World Cup was a French initiative. Led by Paul Barrière, who donated the Rugby League World Cup trophy himself, they had been campaigning for such a tournament since before the Second World War. Teams from Australia, Great Britain, New Zealand and the United States were invited to join the hosts, France, for the first World Cup in 1953. However, the tournament was not held until 1954, with all teams except the United States participating. The French had suggested that the United States play but the other nations were concerned about a lack of competitiveness which was borne out by France beating the United States 31–0 on 9 January 1954. It had been suggested that Wales be invited instead of the USA but they weren't approached.

The uncertainty of the ultimate outcome was of particular interest. In the early 1950s all four competing nations were quite capable of beating each other – no test series in the period was a foregone conclusion. The captains for this historic event were Puig-Aubert (France), Cyril Eastlake (New Zealand), Clive Churchill (Australia) and Dave Valentine (Britain).

The BBC broadcast the whole match live in the UK via the Television Continental Exchange – a rare novelty for the time. France opened the scoring with a penalty Puig-Aubert kick from 45 yards out and played well early in the match, leading early in the second half thanks to a brilliant try from Cantoni. However Great Britain did not waver, with credit for the win given to a starring role by centre Phil Jackson and the play of their forward pack, as well as the tough match France had played against Australia in Nantes two days earlier. Great Britain defeated France 16–12 and became the first team to lift the World Cup.

Also on 13th November...

1642 – First English Civil War: Battle of Turnham Green: The Royalist forces withdraw in the face of the Parliamentarian army and fail to take London.
1715 – Jacobite rising in Scotland: Battle of Sheriffmuir: The forces of the Kingdom of Great Britain halt the Jacobite advance, although the action is inconclusive.
1864 – American Civil War: The three-day Battle of Bull's Gap ends in a Union rout as Confederates under Major General John C. Breckinridge pursue them to Strawberry Plains, Tennessee.
1922 – The United States Supreme Court upholds mandatory vaccinations for public school students in Zucht v. King.
1927 – The Holland Tunnel opens to traffic as the first Hudson River vehicle tunnel linking New Jersey to New York City.
1940 – Walt Disney's animated musical film Fantasia is first released at New York's Broadway Theatre, on the first night of a roadshow.
1941 – World War II: The aircraft carrier HMS Ark Royal is torpedoed by U-81, sinking the following day.
1947 – The Soviet Union completes development of the AK-47, one of the first proper assault rifles.
1956 – The Supreme Court of the United States declares Alabama laws requiring segregated buses illegal, thus ending the Montgomery bus boycott.
1982 – Ray Mancini defeats Duk Koo Kim in a boxing match held in Las Vegas. Kim's subsequent death (on November 17) leads to significant changes in the sport.
2001 – War on Terror: In the first such act since World War II, US President George W. Bush signs an executive order allowing military tribunals against foreigners suspected of connections to terrorist acts or planned acts on the United States.
2002 – Iraq disarmament crisis: Iraq agrees to the terms of the UN Security Council Resolution 1441.
2002 – During the Prestige oil spill, a storm bursts a tank of the oil tanker MV Prestige, which was not allowed to dock and sank on November 19, 2002, off the coast of Galicia, spilling 63,000 metric tons of heavy fuel oil, more than the Exxon Valdez oil spill.
2013 – Hawaii legalizes same-sex marriage.
2013 – 4 World Trade Center officially opens.
2015 – Islamic State operatives carry out a series of coordinated terrorist attacks in Paris, including suicide bombings, mass shootings and a hostage crisis. The terrorists kill 130 people, making it the deadliest attack in France since the Second World War.

 

[sycophantia]

It's interesting that 1642 is referred to as the first English civil war, not sure why the Wars of the Roses don't hold that title.

 

[Langers]

It's interesting that 1642 is referred to as the first English civil war, not sure why the Wars of the Roses don't hold that title.

I think it's because the War of the Roses was two opposing sides fighting for the same thing - the crown - whereas the Civil War was a struggle fought by the Roundheads to change the system of government

Not 100% sure on this, however!

 

[leedswolf]

It's interesting that 1642 is referred to as the first English civil war, not sure why the Wars of the Roses don't hold that title.

Is it because the War of the Roses was a dynastic power struggle with different claimants to the English throne, whereas the Civil War was a conflict over the role of parliament and religous practices of the monarchy?

 

[sycophantia]

I think it's because the War of the Roses was two opposing sides fighting for the same thing - the crown - whereas the Civil War was a struggle fought by the Roundheads to change the system of government

Not 100% sure on this, however!

Seems feasible, although a fight by 2 opposing sides from the same country to gain power still seems like a civil war to me.

 

[Paddingtonwolf]

The Wars of the Roses could really be called the Wars of the English Succession.