On this day:

BarnBuster

BarnBuster

Virtually Unknown Member
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A three-day hostage crisis at a Russian school comes to a violent conclusion September 3, 2004 after a gun battle erupts between the hostage-takers and Russian security forces. In the end, over 300 people died, many of them children, while hundreds more were injured.

On the morning of September 1, a group of Chechan terrorists surrounded students, teachers and parents on the playground of School No. 1 in Beslan as they held a celebration in honor of the first day of the school year. Some people managed to escape while others were killed; however, the majority, an estimated 1,200 adults and children, were herded into the school gym, which the hostage-takers rigged with a number of explosive devices. Later that day, Russian authorities began negotiation talks with the terrorist, whose demands included the withdrawal of Russian troops from Chechnya. Negotiations broke down after two days and early on the afternoon of September 3, an explosion went off in the gym–accidentally, according to some survivors. Some hostages died immediately, and more were killed or injured when the gym collapsed. Further chaos ensued as Russian police and soldiers opened fire on the school. Some hostages were moved to the cafeteria and forced to stand at the windows as human shields, where they where caught in the crossfire.

In total, 331 people were killed as a result of the seige, 186 of them children, and over 700 more individuals were injured. Russian authorities claimed there was a total of 32 terrorists, 31 of whom died during the siege. Some surviving hostages claimed there had been additional terrorists who managed to escape. Residents of Beslan blamed Russian authorities for badly mishandling the crisis, saying rescue operations were poorly planned and troops used excessive force.

Within weeks of the attack, a Russian parliamentary commission was convened, and in December 2006 it issued a report that absolved the authorities of any blame in the outcome of the siege. Details of that report contradicted eyewitness testimony, and survivors and family members of victims characterized the official account as a whitewash. In November 2007 a group of more than 350 Beslan family members and survivors brought a civil suit against the Russian government in the European Court of Human Rights, the judicial organ of the Council of Europe. A second suit was filed in 2011 by an additional 55 Beslan survivors. In April 2017 the court ruled that Russian authorities had failed on numerous levels prior to and during the siege, and it awarded the victims $3.1 million in compensatory damages. The judgment found that officials had ignored concrete intelligence that indicated that an attack on the school was imminent. Additionally, the weapons used in the military response—which included flame throwers, grenade launchers, heavy machine guns, thermobaric charges, antitank rockets, and T-72 main battle tanks—were both excessive and indiscriminate for the purposes of a hostage rescue. Russian officials rejected the findings, describing them as “utterly unacceptable,” and vowed to appeal the decision.

Shamil Basayev, a militant Islamist and leader of the Chechen separatist movement, claimed responsibility for the Beslan school siege. In 2006, Nurpashi Kulayev, the only known surviving hostage-taker, was sentenced to life in prison. That same year, Basayev died in an explosion, the cause of which remains unclear.

www.e-ir.info

Analysis of the Beslan Massacre

The violence in Beslan was more complex than a purely religion-based attack by Islamic extremists: it was also rooted in the Russian-Chechen wars and dramatic recollections of them.
www.e-ir.info www.e-ir.info
 
injinji

injinji

Well-Known Member
BarnBuster said:
On September 2, 1945, the Japanese representatives signed the official Instrument of Surrender, prepared by the War Department and approved by President Truman. It set out in eight short paragraphs the complete capitulation of Japan. The opening words, "We, acting by command of and in behalf of the Emperor of Japan," signified the importance attached to the Emperor's role by the Americans who drafted the document. The short second paragraph went straight to the heart of the matter: "We hereby proclaim the unconditional surrender to the Allied Powers of the Japanese Imperial General Headquarters and of all Japanese armed forces and all armed forces under Japanese control wherever situated."

That morning, on the deck of the U.S.S. Missouri in Tokyo Bay, the Japanese envoys Foreign Minister Mamoru Shigemitsu and Gen. Yoshijiro Umezu signed their names on the Instrument of Surrender. The time was recorded as 4 minutes past 9 o'clock. Afterward, Gen. Douglas MacArthur, Commander in the Southwest Pacific and Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers, also signed. He accepted the Japanese surrender "for the United States, Republic of China, United Kingdom, and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, and in the interests of the other United Nations at war with Japan."

On September 6, Col. Bernard Thielen brought the surrender document and a second imperial rescript back to Washington, DC. The following day, Thielen presented the documents to President Truman in a formal White House ceremony. The documents were then exhibited at the National Archives after a dignified ceremony led by General Wainwright. Finally, on October 1, 1945, they were formally received (accessioned) into the holdings of the National Archives.




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The Japanese can't sleep easy at night, knowing what they did to China (and lots of other places), and what long memories folks in that part of the world have. The outgoing PM tried to amend the constitution to change the status of the armed forces, but was unable to.
 
raratt

raratt

Well-Known Member
cannabineer said:
On this day 161years ago, the Carrington Event peaked, a geomagnetic storm following a coronal mass ejection. Back then the only extended conductive bodies were telegraph lines and railroads. Today’s electrified economy would be crippled by a similar event.

en.m.wikipedia.org

Carrington Event - Wikipedia

en.m.wikipedia.org en.m.wikipedia.org
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I guess getting hit by a magnet would hurt almost as much as a can of soup...
 
cannabineer

cannabineer

Ursus marijanus
raratt said:
I guess getting hit by a magnet would hurt almost as much as a can of soup...
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In 1859 we were at the very start of electric and electronic technology. With how very heavily our economy relies on tech that a big geomagnetic storm would ruin, the stakes are awfully high.

William Forstchen wrote a book “One Second Later” that describes the comprehensive buttrape that an EMP event, natural or induced, would do to our society.
 
raratt

raratt

Well-Known Member
cannabineer said:
In 1859 we were at the very start of electric and electronic technology. With how very heavily our economy relies on tech that a big geomagnetic storm would ruin, the stakes are awfully high.

William Forstchen wrote a book “One Second Later” that describes the comprehensive buttrape that an EMP event, natural or induced, would do to our society.
Click to expand...
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BarnBuster

BarnBuster

Virtually Unknown Member
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"September 5, 1972 Palestinian terrorist group Black September took hostage and later killed 11 Israelis Olympic athletes and a German police officer during the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich, West Germany.

As the Israeli team member slept, eight members of the terrorist group scaled a fence to to enter the Olympic Village at 4:30 a.m. Clad in tracksuit and carrying duffel bags of weapons, the Black September members entered the two Israeli apartments with stolen keys.

Wrestling coach Moshe Weinberg and weightlifter Yossef Romano were killed during an initial struggle.

The intruders captured nine hostages: Yossef Gutfreund, a wrestling referee, sharpshooting coach Kehat Shorr, track and field coach Amitzur Shapira, fencing master Andre Spitzer, weightlifting judge Yakov Springer, wrestlers Eliezer Halfin and Mark Slavin, and weightlifters David Berger and Ze'ev Friedman.

Soon after the massacre began, a Black September spokesman called for the release 234 Palestinian prisoners and West German-held founders of the Red Army Faction, Andreas Baader and Ulrike Meinhof.

For the next 24 hours, there was a tense stand-off between the German police and the eight highly-trained hostage takers. An attempt to storm the building was aborted when the terrorists, who were watching the police's preparations live on television, threatened to kill hostages if the police followed through.

Two more failed attempts followed, as the terrorists demanded a plane to fly out of Germany. In the end, the Black September members were given two helicopters to fly to the Munich airport. German snipers opened fire when the terrorists landed. The shootout killed the nine hostages and five of the terrorists. Three of the terrorists were captured."

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"Operation Wrath of God, covert assassination campaign carried out by Israel to avenge the kidnapping and murder of 11 Israeli athletes by Palestinian militants in September 1972 at the Munich Olympics.

Although Israel had historically targeted the leaders of organizations such as Fatah, the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), the frequency of such assassinations by Israel escalated dramatically in the wake of the massacre in Munich. A secret Israeli committee chaired by Prime Minister Golda Meir and Defense Minister Moshe Dayan is said to have authorized the assassination of everyone directly or indirectly involved with Black September, the Fatah-affiliated group that had orchestrated the Munich killings. The Wrath of God hit squad—code-named Bayonet—was made up of members of Mossad, Israel’s foreign intelligence agency, and supported by special operations teams from the Israel Defense Forces (IDF). The group spent years tracking down and killing those suspected of planning or participating in the Munich massacre. Three of the eight militants who had killed the athletes survived the massacre and were released weeks later from custody by the West German government in exchange for the crew of a hijacked Lufthansa jet; the other five died in a gun battle with police during a failed attempt to rescue the hostages.

The hit squad first killed Wael Zwaiter, a PLO organizer and cousin of Yāsir ʿArafāt, shooting him in the lobby of his Rome apartment building in October 1972. Mahmoud Hamshari, the PLO representative in Paris, was targeted next. After a Wrath of God member, posing as an Italian journalist, scheduled a telephone interview with Hamshari in December 1972, Wrath of God explosives experts broke into his home and planted a bomb in his telephone. Hamshari was called at the time arranged for the interview, and, when he identified himself, the bomb was activated remotely. He died in the explosion.

Four other suspects—Basil al-Kubaisi, Hussein Abad al-Chir, Zaid Muchassi, and Mohammed Boudia—were all killed during the next few months. The most spectacular mission in the Wrath of God campaign took place in April 1973. Ehud Barak, the leader of the IDF’s elite Sayeret Matcal unit, developed an audacious plan to strike at PLO leadership. Dubbed Operation Spring of Youth, the mission involved the amphibious insertion of commando teams into Beirut. Once ashore, they coordinated their efforts with Mossad agents already in the city and deflected attention by donning civilian clothing. While other commando teams staged diversionary raids throughout the city and a squad of Israeli paratroopers assaulted the PFLP headquarters, the main force targeted Muhammad Youssef Al-Najjar, Kamal Adwan, and Kamal Nasser, killing all three.

In 1973 the squad misidentified one of its targets and mistakenly killed an innocent man in Lillehammer, Norway. The investigation of the crime by Norwegian authorities led to the arrest and conviction of five Mossad operatives as well as to the unraveling of Mossad’s extensive network of agents and safehouses throughout Europe. Meir, responding to intense international pressure, suspended the targeted assassination program. Wrath of God’s intended target in Lillehammer had been Ali Hassan Salameh, a Fatah and Black September operations chief known to Mossad as the “Red Prince.” The Wrath of God program was reactivated for a final mission in 1979, when the squad assassinated Salameh in Beirut with a car bomb placed along a route that he frequented.
“Send forth the boys”
Attrib: Golda Meir to Aharon Yariv and Zvi Zamir: 1972 initiation of WRATH OF GOD operation​

www.irishtimes.com

Massacre in Munich

Three decades after the Munich Olympics hostage crisis, Abou Daoud, who planned the kidnapping of the Israeli athletes, tells…
www.irishtimes.com www.irishtimes.com

The Munich Olympics Massacre Table of Contents

Encyclopedia of Jewish and Israeli history, politics and culture, with biographies, statistics, articles and documents on topics from anti-Semitism to Zionism.
www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org

List of Israeli assassinations - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org en.wikipedia.org

Israeli Targeted Killings of Terrorists

Encyclopedia of Jewish and Israeli history, politics and culture, with biographies, statistics, articles and documents on topics from anti-Semitism to Zionism.
www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org
 
BarnBuster

BarnBuster

Virtually Unknown Member
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The daylight attack against London on September 7, 1940, marked the opening phase of the German bomber offensive against Britain, which came to be called the Blitz (September 1940–May 1941) after the German word “blitzkrieg,” meaning “lightning war.” Daylight attacks soon gave way to night raids, which the British found difficult to counter. The British lacked effective antiaircraft artillery and searchlights, as well as night fighters that could find and shoot down an aircraft in darkness. London was subjected to Luftwaffe attacks for 76 consecutive nights. Nearly 2,000 people were killed on the first night of bombing.

The raids followed the failure of the German Luftwaffe to defeat Britain’s Royal Air Force in the Battle of Britain (July–September 1940). Although the raids caused enormous destruction and heavy civilian casualties—some 43,000 British civilians were killed and another 139,000 were wounded—they had little effect on Britain’s ability to continue in the war and failed in its immediate purpose of dominating the skies in preparation for a German invasion of England.

During November, the offensive spread to the larger provincial cities in Britain. The attack on Coventry was particularly destructive; the German force of 509 bombers was guided by the X-Gerät intersecting beam system, and much of the old city center was destroyed, with 380 people killed and 865 injured. The bombing of Coventry came to be seen as a symbol of the barbarity of modern warfare.

In early 1941, the German navy persuaded Hitler to focus attacks on Britain’s maritime resources. In a series of 46 raids between February and May, ports including Plymouth, Portsmouth, Bristol, Swansea, Merseyside, Belfast, Clydeside, Newcastle, and Hull were pounded heavily, although they still managed to function.

Civil defense measures to protect the British people were far from adequate in the early stages of the battle. The government had not adopted the idea of building large shelters to protect the public from bombardment—as was the case in Germany—preferring to rely on semiprivate initiatives, such as the inadequate Anderson family shelters. It was only with reluctance that the underground railway (subway) system was made available to the people of London as an air-raid shelter, a decision that ultimately saved many thousands of lives. The stoical manner in which the people of Britain—especially in London—endured the Blitz made a deep impression on neutral commentators, and the radio broadcasts of U.S. journalist Ed Murrow helped persuade the U.S. public that Britain was not a beaten nation and would continue the fight against Nazi Germany.

During the spring of 1941, active British defenses began to improve. The numbers of antiaircraft guns and searchlights were increased, and in key areas they were radar-controlled to improve accuracy. The problem of guiding interceptors to their targets was partially solved by the introduction of heavily armed Bristol Beaufighters fitted with their own radar. These improvements were reflected in monthly German casualty figures, which rose from 28 in January to 124 in May.

The Blitz came to an effective close in May 1941 when Hitler decided to invade the Soviet Union. The Luftwaffe did not have sufficient resources to conduct a two-front war, and German aircraft were redeployed to the east. This did not, however, prevent a final, vindictive flurry from the Luftwaffe; on May 10, a raid against central London led to the highest nightly casualty figure of the battle: 1,364 killed and 1,616 seriously wounded. 7,736 children were killed and 7,622 seriously wounded. Many children were orphaned or lost brothers and sisters.

Ernie Pyle was one of World War Two's most popular correspondents describes a night raid on London in 1940:
"It was a night when London was ringed and stabbed with fire. They came just after dark, and somehow you could sense from the quick, bitter firing of the guns that there was to be no monkey business this night.​
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Shortly after the sirens wailed you could hear the Germans grinding overhead. In my room, with its black curtains drawn across the windows, you could feel the shake from the guns. You could hear the boom, crump, crump, crump, of heavy bombs at their work of tearing buildings apart. They were not too far away.​
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Half an hour after the firing started I gathered a couple of friends and went to a high, darkened balcony that gave us a view of a third of the entire circle of London. As we stepped out onto the balcony a vast inner excitement came over all of us-an excitement that had neither fear nor horror in it, because it was too full of awe.​
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You have all seen big fires, but I doubt if you have ever seen the whole horizon of a city lined with great fires - scores of them, perhaps hundreds. There was something inspiring just in the awful savagery of it. The closest fires were near enough for us to hear the crackling flames and the yells of firemen. Little fires grew into big ones even as we watched. Big ones died down under the firemen's valor, only to break out again later.​
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About every two minutes a new wave of planes would be over. The motors seemed to grind rather than roar, and to have an angry pulsation, like a bee buzzing in blind fury. The guns did not make a constant overwhelming din as in those terrible days of September. They were intermittent - sometimes a few seconds apart, sometimes a minute or more. Their sound was sharp, near by; and soft and muffled, far away. They were everywhere over London.​
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Into the dark shadowed spaces below us, while we watched, whole batches of incendiary bombs fell. We saw two dozen go off in two seconds. They flashed terrifically, then quickly simmered down to pin points of dazzling white, burning ferociously. These white pin points would go out one by one, as the unseen heroes of the moment smothered them with sand. But also, while we watched, other pin points would burn on, and soon a yellow flame would leap up from the white center. They had done their work - another building was on fire.​
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The greatest of all the fires was directly in front of us. Flames seemed to whip hundreds of feet into the air. Pinkish-white smoke ballooned upward in a great cloud, and out of this cloud there gradually took shape - so faintly at first that we weren't sure we saw correctly - the gigantic dome of St. Paul's Cathedral. St. Paul's was surrounded by fire, but it came through. It stood there in its enormous proportions - growing slowly clearer and clearer, the way objects take shape at dawn. It was like a picture of some miraculous figure that appears before peace-hungry soldiers on a battlefield.​
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The streets below us were semi-illuminated from the glow. Immediately above the fires the sky was red and angry, and overhead, making a ceiling in the vast heavens, there was a cloud of smoke all in pink. Up in that pink shrouding there were tiny, brilliant specks of flashing light-antiaircraft shells bursting. After the flash you could hear the sound.​
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Up there, too, the barrage balloons were standing out as clearly as if it were daytime, but now they were pink instead of silver. And now and then through a hole in that pink shroud there twinkled incongruously a permanent, genuine star - the old - fashioned kind that has always been there.​
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Below us the Thames grew lighter, and all around below were the shadows - the dark shadows of buildings and bridges that formed the base of this dreadful masterpiece.​
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Later on I borrowed a tin hat and went out among the fires. That was exciting too; but the thing I shall always remember above all the other things in my life is the monstrous loveliness of that one single view of London on a holiday night - London stabbed with great fires, shaken by explosions, its dark regions along the Thames sparkling with the pin points of white-hot bombs, all of it roofed over with a ceiling of pink that held bursting shells, balloons, flares and the grind of vicious engines. And in yourself the excitement and anticipation and wonder in your soul that this could be happening at all.​
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These things all went together to make the most hateful, most beautiful single scene I have ever known."​
www.theatlantic.com

London During the Blitz: Then and Now Photographs

The photographer Jim Dyson traveled to locations across London to make comparisons between scenes from the Blitz and present-day on the 75th anniversary of “The Longest Night.”
www.theatlantic.com www.theatlantic.com
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a frightening look at how many bombs were dropped on London over laid on a map​
bombsight.org

Bomb Sight - Mapping the London Blitz

Explore the London Blitz through our website. Discover London during WW2 bombing raids, exploring maps, images and memories. The Bomb Sight web map and mobile app reveals WW2 bomb census maps between 7/10/1940 and 06/06/1941, previously available only by viewing them in the Reading Room of The...
bombsight.org bombsight.org
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historycollection.com

20 Photographs Depicting British Children During the Blitz of World War II

The London Blitz was a series of bombing attacks on Britain carried out by the Nazi Luftwaffe during World War II. The Luftwaffe targeted towns and cities, prioritizing the decimation of London. The Battle of Britain was a series of aerial encounters between the Royal Air Force (RAF) and the...
historycollection.com historycollection.com
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BarnBuster

BarnBuster

Virtually Unknown Member
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On Sept. 8, 1974, President Gerald R. Ford granted a pardon to former President Richard M. Nixon — who had resigned just a month earlier — for any crimes he may have committed during the Watergate break-in and cover-up.. Ford later defended this action before the House Judiciary Committee, explaining that he wanted to end the national divisions created by the Watergate scandal.

The Watergate scandal erupted after it was revealed that Nixon and his aides had engaged in illegal activities during his reelection campaign–and then attempted to cover up evidence of wrongdoing. With impeachment proceedings underway against him in Congress, Nixon bowed to public pressure and became the first American president to resign. At noon on August 9, Nixon officially ended his term, departing with his family in a helicopter from the White House lawn. Minutes later, Vice President Gerald R. Ford was sworn in as the 38th president of the United States in the East Room of the White House. After taking the oath of office, President Ford spoke to the nation in a television address, declaring, “My fellow Americans, our long national nightmare is over.”

Ford, the first president who came to the office through appointment rather than election, had replaced Spiro Agnew as vice president only eight months before. In a political scandal independent of the Nixon administration’s wrongdoings in the Watergate affair, Agnew had been forced to resign in disgrace after he was charged with income tax evasion and political corruption. Exactly one month after Nixon announced his resignation, Ford issued the former president a “full, free and absolute” pardon for any crimes he committed while in office. The pardon was widely condemned at the time.

Decades later, the John F. Kennedy Library Foundation presented its 2001 Profile in Courage Award to Gerald Ford for his 1974 pardon of Nixon. In pardoning Nixon, said the foundation, Ford placed his love of country ahead of his own political future and brought needed closure to the divisive Watergate affair. Ford left politics after losing the 1976 presidential election to Democrat Jimmy Carter. Ford died on December 26, 2006, at the age of 93
 
BarnBuster

BarnBuster

Virtually Unknown Member
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Jack St. Clair Kilby of Texas Instruments demonstrated the first integrated circuit to Mark Shepherd, Cecil Dotson, Willis Adcock, and several others on September 12, 1958.

Kilby’s first working integrated circuit contained a single transistor and supporting components on a slice of germanium, measuring 1/16 × 7/16 in. (1.6×11.1 mm).

Kilby did so just weeks after he demonstrated a multivibrator circuit of discrete silicon elements to Adcock, who had hired him at TI in May of the same year. “Although this test showed that circuits could be built with all semiconductor elements, it was not integrated. I immediately attempted to build an integrated structure, as initially planned,” Kilby wrote in a July 1976 IEEE publishing.

He noted that TI was very supportive of the IC work, but reaction from potential users, specifically military organizations, was mixed. After much debate, a small group within the Air Force, led by RD Alberts, picked up on the IC.

“Alberts’ group then provided the first of a series of contracts which proved invaluable in sustaining the project during the critical years,” Kilby wrote. “These included both research and development efforts to broaden the concept, and manufacturing methods funds which helped support the first manufacturing line. Demonstration vehicles, which clearly showed the advantages of these new techniques, were also included.”

Kilby filed his patent application, describing his new device as “a body of semiconductor material … wherein all the components of the electronic circuit are completely integrated,” on February 6, 1959. The basic elements used by Kilby— bulk resistors, junction capacitors, oxide capacitors, mesa transistors, and inductances— were described in the filing, as were the design parameters for each. The patent was granted in June.

TI announced the IC at a press conference in New York on March 6, 1959, spurring much debate in engineering circles. Soon the work of other pioneering engineers, including Gordon Moore and Robert Noyce, helped lay the road to advancement. Noyce patented the silicon integrated circuit in 1961.

Kilby said in his 1976 publishing on the advancements of the IC: “This progress is not the work of any single individual or small group of individuals. It has come about because of the contributions of thousands of engineers and scientists in laboratories and production facilities all over the world.”

Texas Instruments celebrates September 12th as Jack Kilby Day to honor his contribution. Jack also co-invented the pocket calculator during a long career at Texas Instruments Inc. in Dallas.

Tom Engibous, chairman, president and CEO of Texas Instruments added, “Jack's work changed the world as few inventions before or since have. It's hard to imagine what our company, our industry and our world would have been like without Jack Kilby."

In 2000, Jack won the Nobel Prize in Physics for his part in the invention of the integrated circuit. He shared the prize with Zhores I. Alferov and Herbert Kroemer. The three were elected to honor “basic work on communication and information technology."
 
BarnBuster

BarnBuster

Virtually Unknown Member
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"that our flag was still there"​

On September 14, 1814, Francis Scott Key pens a poem which is later set to music and in 1931 becomes America’s national anthem, “The Star-Spangled Banner.” The poem, originally titled “The Defence of Fort McHenry,” was written after Key witnessed the Maryland fort being bombarded by the British during the War of 1812. Key was inspired by the sight of a lone U.S. flag still flying over Fort McHenry at daybreak, as reflected in the now-famous words of the “Star-Spangled Banner”: “And the rocket’s red glare, the bombs bursting in air, Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there.”

Francis Scott Key was born on August 1, 1779, at Terra Rubra, his family’s estate in Frederick County (now Carroll County), Maryland. He became a successful lawyer in Maryland and Washington, D.C., and was later appointed U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia.

On June 18, 1812, America declared war on Great Britain after a series of trade disagreements. In August 1814, British troops invaded Washington, D.C., and burned the White House, Capitol Building and Library of Congress. Their next target was Baltimore.

After one of Key’s friends, Dr. William Beanes, was taken prisoner by the British, Key went to Baltimore, located the ship where Beanes was being held and negotiated his release. However, Key and Beanes weren’t allowed to leave until after the British bombardment of Fort McHenry. Key watched the bombing campaign unfold from aboard a ship located about eight miles away. After a day, the British were unable to destroy the fort and gave up. Key was relieved to see the American flag still flying over Fort McHenry and quickly penned a few lines in tribute to what he had witnessed.

The poem was printed in newspapers and eventually set to the music of a popular English drinking tune called “To Anacreon in Heaven” by composer John Stafford Smith. People began referring to the song as “The Star-Spangled Banner” and in 1916 President Woodrow Wilson announced that it should be played at all official events. It was adopted as the national anthem on March 3, 1931. Francis Scott Key died of pleurisy on January 11, 1843

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O say can you see, by the dawn's early light,
What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming,
Whose broad stripes and bright stars through the perilous fight,
O'er the ramparts we watched, were so gallantly streaming?
And the rockets' red glare, the bombs bursting in air,
Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there;
O say does that star-spangled banner yet wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave?

On the shore dimly seen through the mists of the deep,
Where the foe's haughty host in dread silence reposes,
What is that which the breeze, o'er the towering steep,
As it fitfully blows, half conceals, half discloses?
Now it catches the gleam of the morning's first beam,
In full glory reflected now shines in the stream:
'Tis the star-spangled banner, O long may it wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave.

And where is that band who so vauntingly swore
That the havoc of war and the battle's confusion,
A home and a country, should leave us no more?
Their blood has washed out their foul footsteps' pollution.
No refuge could save the hireling and slave
From the terror of flight, or the gloom of the grave:
And the star-spangled banner in triumph doth wave,
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave.

O thus be it ever, when freemen shall stand
Between their loved homes and the war's desolation.
Blest with vict'ry and peace, may the Heav'n rescued land
Praise the Power that hath made and preserved us a nation!
Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just,
And this be our motto: 'In God is our trust.'
And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!​

www.smithsonianmag.com

Star-Spangled Banner Back on Display

After a decade’s conservation, the flag that inspired the National Anthem returns to its place of honor on the National Mall
www.smithsonianmag.com www.smithsonianmag.com
www.si.edu

Star-Spangled Banner | Smithsonian Institution

The original Star-Spangled Banner, the flag that inspired Francis Scott Key to write the song that would become our national anthem, is among the most treasured artifacts in the collections of the Smi... Learn more
www.si.edu www.si.edu
 
BarnBuster

BarnBuster

Virtually Unknown Member
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On September 16, 2013, a 34-year-old man goes on a rampage at the Navy Yard in Washington, D.C., killing 12 people and wounding several others over the course of an hour before he is fatally shot by police. Investigators later determined that the gunman, Aaron Alexis, a computer contractor for a private information technology firm, had acted alone.

Shortly after 8 a.m., Alexis used his security pass to enter Building 197 at the Navy Yard, a former shipyard, dating to the early 1800s, and weapons plant that now serves as an administrative center for the Navy. At approximately 8:16 a.m., Alexis, armed with a sawed-off Remington 870 shotgun and dressed in a short-sleeve polo shirt and pants, shot his first victim. Over the course of the next hour, he moved through the 630,000-square-foot, multi-level Building 197, the headquarters of the Naval Sea Systems Command, gunning down more victims and exchanging fire with law enforcement officials. Alexis was shot and killed by police at 9:25 a.m. The shooting spree caused officials to put part of Washington on lockdown due to initial suspicions that other gunmen might have been involved in the incident; however, by the end of the day, authorities determined that Alexis had acted alone.

A Navy reservist from 2007 to 2011, Alexis began work as a computer technician at the Navy Yard on September 9, 2013. Five days later, at a gun store in Virginia, he purchased the Remington 870 and ammunition used in the attack. Investigators found no evidence that any specific event triggered the deadly massacre, and they believed Alexis shot his victims at random. The shotgun he used (he also took a handgun from one of his victims) was etched with several phrases, including “Better off this way” and “My ELF weapon,” and the FBI announced there was a variety of evidence indicating Alexis was under the “delusional belief” he was being controlled by extremely low frequency (ELF) electromagnetic waves. In August 2013, Alexis told police in Rhode Island, where he was working, that he was hearing voices. The private IT contracting firm employing Alexis took him off his assignment for a few days then let him back on the job; weeks later, he went to work at the Navy Yard.

The 12 men and women murdered during the September 16th rampage ranged in age from 46 to 73. They were memorialized by then-President Barack Obama at a September 22, 2013, ceremony in which he remembered them and also issued a call to tighten America’s gun laws. That call largely went unheeded, and the number of mass shootings in the U.S. has continued to rise.
 
DarkWeb

DarkWeb

Well-Known Member
BarnBuster said:

On September 16, 2013, a 34-year-old man goes on a rampage at the Navy Yard in Washington, D.C., killing 12 people and wounding several others over the course of an hour before he is fatally shot by police. Investigators later determined that the gunman, Aaron Alexis, a computer contractor for a private information technology firm, had acted alone.

Shortly after 8 a.m., Alexis used his security pass to enter Building 197 at the Navy Yard, a former shipyard, dating to the early 1800s, and weapons plant that now serves as an administrative center for the Navy. At approximately 8:16 a.m., Alexis, armed with a sawed-off Remington 870 shotgun and dressed in a short-sleeve polo shirt and pants, shot his first victim. Over the course of the next hour, he moved through the 630,000-square-foot, multi-level Building 197, the headquarters of the Naval Sea Systems Command, gunning down more victims and exchanging fire with law enforcement officials. Alexis was shot and killed by police at 9:25 a.m. The shooting spree caused officials to put part of Washington on lockdown due to initial suspicions that other gunmen might have been involved in the incident; however, by the end of the day, authorities determined that Alexis had acted alone.

A Navy reservist from 2007 to 2011, Alexis began work as a computer technician at the Navy Yard on September 9, 2013. Five days later, at a gun store in Virginia, he purchased the Remington 870 and ammunition used in the attack. Investigators found no evidence that any specific event triggered the deadly massacre, and they believed Alexis shot his victims at random. The shotgun he used (he also took a handgun from one of his victims) was etched with several phrases, including “Better off this way” and “My ELF weapon,” and the FBI announced there was a variety of evidence indicating Alexis was under the “delusional belief” he was being controlled by extremely low frequency (ELF) electromagnetic waves. In August 2013, Alexis told police in Rhode Island, where he was working, that he was hearing voices. The private IT contracting firm employing Alexis took him off his assignment for a few days then let him back on the job; weeks later, he went to work at the Navy Yard.

The 12 men and women murdered during the September 16th rampage ranged in age from 46 to 73. They were memorialized by then-President Barack Obama at a September 22, 2013, ceremony in which he remembered them and also issued a call to tighten America’s gun laws. That call largely went unheeded, and the number of mass shootings in the U.S. has continued to rise.
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It's very sad that happened. But also sad that politics get dragged into it. The gun didn't do the crime. We need to get to the root of the issue......mental health and what's causing people to want to cause mass harm.
 
BarnBuster

BarnBuster

Virtually Unknown Member
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Beginning early on the morning of September 17 in 1862, Confederate and Union troops in the Civil War clash near Maryland's Antietam Creek in the bloodiest one-day battle in American history. The Battle of Antietam marked the culmination of Confederate General Robert E. Lee's first invasion of the Northern states. Guiding his Army of Northern Virginia across the Potomac River in early September 1862, the great general daringly divided his men, sending half of them under the command of General Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson to capture the Union garrison at Harper's Ferry.

President Abraham Lincoln put Major General George B. McClellan in charge of the Union troops responsible for defending Washington, D.C., against Lee's invasion. McClellan's Army of the Potomac clashed first with Lee's men on 14 September, with the Confederates forced to retreat after being blocked at the passes of South Mountain. Though Lee considered turning back toward Virginia, news of Jackson's capture of Harper's Ferry reached him on 15 September.

That victory convinced him to stay and make a stand near Sharpsburg, Maryland. Over the course of 15 and 16 September, the Confederate and Union armies gathered on opposite sides of Antietam Creek. On the Confederate side, Jackson commanded the left flank with General James Longstreet at the head of the centre and right. McClellan's strategy was to attack the enemy left, then the right, and finally, when either of those movements met with success, to move forward down the centre.

When fighting began in the foggy dawn hours of 17 September, this strategy broke down into a series of uncoordinated advances by Union soldiers under the command of Generals Joseph Hooker, Joseph Mansfield and Edwin Sumner.

Cannon fire opened the battle with puffs of white smoke rising from the tree line. As 500 artillery pieces firing over 50,000 rounds of ammunition thundered and raked their shot and shell across the rolling terrain and into the battle lines downing men of both sides, sounds of musketry too would crackle as disciplined soldiers stood in rank and file formations only to vanish as though a large and ominous sickle had just swept them from the field. The numerous ridges made excellent locations for cannon. The infantry of both sides made easy targets as they marched across low-lying, open fields nearby

[The single-shot, muzzle-loading musket dictated that infantry fight in closely formed, standing lines of battle to achieve effective concentration of fire. In spite of the revolution caused by the adoption of the rifle-musket, which increased the effective range of a regiment from seventy-five yards to well over 250 yards, the battles of 1861 and early 1862 were largely fought with the smoothbore muskets of earlier periods, and officers were trained to handle their men accordingly. Volley fire (necessitated by the inherent inaccuracy of the smoothbore musket) demanded strict attention to proper alignment of all segments of a military unit, lest a portion of the unit's fire fall harmlessly short. The combination of new rifles that could be shot with great accuracy from far away and old-fashioned battle lines led to unprecedented deaths in the Battle of Antietam (and in the Civil War in general). As in other Civil War battles, both sides in Antietam arranged their infantry shoulder-to-shoulder in two long parallel lines before marching into battle. This type of linear formation made sense in earlier years, when military weaponry consisted mostly of smoothbore muskets (which were accurate only at short range) and bayonets (which, likewise, could only be used at close range). But by the beginning of the Civil War, rifling—the use of helical grooves in the barrel of a weapon, which stabilize a bullet, leading to greater shooting accuracy—was widespread. Now soldiers could make an aimed shot from 100 yards away and shoot into an enemy line with hope of hitting someone from 400 yards away. Armed with rifled muskets, a defensive line could do serious damage when attackers attempted to charge.]​

Posted on the ridgelines, the cannoneers devastated the soldiers in the swales below them. The landscape and the heavy reliance on artillery by both sides made Antietam one of the most significant artillery battles in the Civil War. Cannonading during the battle had never been seen afore on the continent.

As savage and bloody combat continued for eight hours across the region, the Confederates were pushed back but not beaten, despite sustaining some 15,000 casualties. At the same time, Union General Ambrose Burnside opened an attack on the Confederate right, capturing the bridge that now bears his name around 1 p.m.

In a square of ground, centered on the cornfield, measuring about 1,000 yards on a side, nearly 12,000 men from both sides lay dead or wounded. The slaughter had taken four hours at most before it came to a sullen, exhausted halt. In all directions lay hundreds of dead horses, some of which had been partly burned, but the task of thus destroying them was evidently too great for the force detailed for that purpose and they had been left to the elements and the buzzards. Every house, barn and church was turned into a hospital. Dead men and horses lay unburied for days in the brutal September heat. Flies and maggots covered the living and dead in undulating masses, adding to the unsanitary conditions. The stench was unimaginable.

As night fell, thousands of bodies littered the sprawling Antietam battlefield and both sides regrouped and claimed their dead and wounded. Just twelve hours of intense and often close-range fighting with muskets and cannons had resulted in around 23,000 casualties, including an estimated 3,650 dead.

Civil War soldiers had a 7 to 1 chance of surviving a battle wound. Two-thirds of all the 364,000 soldiers in the Union army died of disease. Only one-third died from actual wounds sustained during the war. About 80 percent of the wounds soldiers received during the Civil War were in the soldier’s arms, hands, legs and feet. Amputations had an approximately twenty-seven percent fatality rate.

Burnside's break to reorganise his men allowed Confederate reinforcements to arrive, turning back the Union advance there as well. By the time the sun went down, both armies still held their ground, despite staggering combined casualties. McClellan's centre never moved forward, leaving a large number of Union troops that did not participate in the battle.

On the morning of 18 September, both sides gathered their wounded and buried their dead. That night, Lee turned his forces back to Virginia. The battle also gave President Abraham Lincoln the opportunity to issue the preliminary Emancipation Proclamation, which, on January 1, 1863, declared all slaves in the Confederate states free.

Twenty Union soldiers received Medals Of Honor for their gallantry on the Battle of Antietam. Eight of the twenty men were awarded the Medal for either capturing or saving flags.

(The criteria for issuance of the MOH during the Civil War were different than later years and Congress set down guidelines in 1918 to clear away any inconsistencies of the legislation which had grown around the medal and to finalize rules for its award. 911 MOH’s were invalidated of the 2,625 that were issued during the US Civil War. Many of the Medal’s issuance’s were for picking up the fallen colors (Flag) and advancing. None of these Medals were invalidated as the Flag was an important and reverent rallying symbol for open field charging troops. Sharpshooters on both sides targeted Standard Bearers before officers.bb)

During the American Civil War, as in earlier conflicts, the flags of a combat unit (its "colors") held a special significance. They had a spiritual value; they embodied the very "soul" of the unit. Protecting a unit's flag from capture was paramount; losing one to the enemy was considered disgraceful . There were practical reasons for the flags as well, as the regimental flags marked the position of the unit during battle. The smoke and confusion of battle often scattered participants across the field. The flag served as a visual rallying point for soldiers and also marked the area where to attack the enemy. Carrying the colors for the regiment was the greatest honor for a soldier. Generally the flag bearers were selected or elected to their position by the men and officers of the unit. As one Union Colonel told his men, “the colors bear the same relation to the soldier as honesty and integrity do to manhood. It is the guiding star to victory. When in the smoke and din of battle the voice of the officer is drown by the roar of artillery, the true soldier turns his eye to the colors that he may not stray too far from it, and while it floats is conscious of his right and strength. Take it… guard it as you would the honor of the mother, wife or friend you left behind.”​

Battle of Antietam Civil War Antietam Battle Casualties Army

Battle of Antietam Sharpsburg Maryland, Antietam Killed Wounded Deaths Casualties Battle of Antietam Fatalities Casualty Order Battlefield American Civil War Timeline Map Union Confederate Army Cannon
thomaslegioncherokee.tripod.com
www.historynet.com

Battle Of Antietam

Facts About The Battle Of Antietam (a.k.a. Battle Of Sharpsburg) during the American Civil War Battle Of Antietam Summary: The Battle of Antietam, a.k.a.
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The Wounded of the Civil War
 
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Milovan1

Milovan1

Well-Known Member
50 years ago yesterday Jimi Hendrix died.

LONDON — Jimi Hendrix is dead at age 27. The exact nature of the death is still vague, and a coroner's inquest is to be held in London September 30th. Police, however, say it was a drug overdose. They say he took nine sleeping pills and died of suffocation through vomit.

According to The Guardian, Hendrix's last words were: "I need help bad, man."



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BarnBuster

BarnBuster

Virtually Unknown Member
"On September 22, 1862, President Abraham Lincoln issues a preliminary Emancipation Proclamation, which sets a date for the freedom of more than 3 million enslaved in the United States and recasts the Civil War as a fight against slavery.

When the Civil War broke out in 1861, shortly after Lincoln’s inauguration as America’s 16th president, he maintained that the war was about restoring the Union and not about slavery. He avoided issuing an anti-slavery proclamation immediately, despite the urgings of abolitionists and radical Republicans, as well as his personal belief that slavery was morally repugnant. Instead, Lincoln chose to move cautiously until he could gain wide support from the public for such a measure.

In July 1862, Lincoln informed his cabinet that he would issue an emancipation proclamation but that it would exempt the so-called border states, which had slaveholders but remained loyal to the Union. His cabinet persuaded him not to make the announcement until after a Union victory. Lincoln’s opportunity came following the Union win at the Battle of Antietam in September 1862. On September 22, the president announced that enslaved people in areas still in rebellion within 100 days would be free.

On January 1, 1863, Lincoln issued the final Emancipation Proclamation, which declared “that all persons held as slaves” within the rebel states “are, and henceforward shall be free.” The proclamation also called for the recruitment and establishment of Black military units among the Union forces. An estimated 180,000 African Americans went on to serve in the army, while another 18,000 served in the navy.

After the Emancipation Proclamation, backing the Confederacy was seen as favoring slavery. It became impossible for anti-slavery nations such as Great Britain and France, who had been friendly to the Confederacy, to get involved on behalf of the South. The proclamation also unified and strengthened Lincoln’s party, the Republicans, helping them stay in power for the next two decades.

The proclamation was a presidential order and not a law passed by Congress, so Lincoln then pushed for an antislavery amendment to the U.S. Constitution to ensure its permanence. With the passage of the 13th Amendment in 1865, slavery was eliminated throughout America (although blacks would face another century of struggle before they truly began to gain equal rights).

Lincoln’s handwritten draft of the final Emancipation Proclamation was destroyed in the Chicago Fire of 1871. Today, the original official version of the document is housed in the National Archives in Washington, D.C."

By the President of the United States of America:​
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A Proclamation.​
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Whereas, on the twenty-second day of September, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-two, a proclamation was issued by the President of the United States, containing, among other things, the following, to wit:​
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"That on the first day of January, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, all persons held as slaves within any State or designated part of a State, the people whereof shall then be in rebellion against the United States, shall be then, thenceforward, and forever free; and the Executive Government of the United States, including the military and naval authority thereof, will recognize and maintain the freedom of such persons, and will do no act or acts to repress such persons, or any of them, in any efforts they may make for their actual freedom.​
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"That the Executive will, on the first day of January aforesaid, by proclamation, designate the States and parts of States, if any, in which the people thereof, respectively, shall then be in rebellion against the United States; and the fact that any State, or the people thereof, shall on that day be, in good faith, represented in the Congress of the United States by members chosen thereto at elections wherein a majority of the qualified voters of such State shall have participated, shall, in the absence of strong countervailing testimony, be deemed conclusive evidence that such State, and the people thereof, are not then in rebellion against the United States."​
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Now, therefore I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States, by virtue of the power in me vested as Commander-in-Chief, of the Army and Navy of the United States in time of actual armed rebellion against the authority and government of the United States, and as a fit and necessary war measure for suppressing said rebellion, do, on this first day of January, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, and in accordance with my purpose so to do publicly proclaimed for the full period of one hundred days, from the day first above mentioned, order and designate as the States and parts of States wherein the people thereof respectively, are this day in rebellion against the United States, the following, to wit:​
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Arkansas, Texas, Louisiana, (except the Parishes of St. Bernard, Plaquemines, Jefferson, St. John, St. Charles, St. James Ascension, Assumption, Terrebonne, Lafourche, St. Mary, St. Martin, and Orleans, including the City of New Orleans) Mississippi, Alabama, Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, and Virginia, (except the forty-eight counties designated as West Virginia, and also the counties of Berkley, Accomac, Northampton, Elizabeth City, York, Princess Ann, and Norfolk, including the cities of Norfolk and Portsmouth[)], and which excepted parts, are for the present, left precisely as if this proclamation were not issued.​
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And by virtue of the power, and for the purpose aforesaid, I do order and declare that all persons held as slaves within said designated States, and parts of States, are, and henceforward shall be free; and that the Executive government of the United States, including the military and naval authorities thereof, will recognize and maintain the freedom of said persons.​
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And I hereby enjoin upon the people so declared to be free to abstain from all violence, unless in necessary self-defence; and I recommend to them that, in all cases when allowed, they labor faithfully for reasonable wages.​
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And I further declare and make known, that such persons of suitable condition, will be received into the armed service of the United States to garrison forts, positions, stations, and other places, and to man vessels of all sorts in said service.​
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And upon this act, sincerely believed to be an act of justice, warranted by the Constitution, upon military necessity, I invoke the considerate judgment of mankind, and the gracious favor of Almighty God.​
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In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed.​
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Done at the City of Washington, this first day of January, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty three, and of the Independence of the United States of America the eighty-seventh.​
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By the President: ABRAHAM LINCOLN
WILLIAM H. SEWARD, Secretary of State​
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BarnBuster

BarnBuster

Virtually Unknown Member
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During the American Revolution, the U.S. ship Bonhomme Richard, commanded by John Paul Jones, wins a hard-fought engagement against the British ships of war Serapis and Countess of Scarborough, off the eastern coast of England.

Scottish-born John Paul Jones first sailed to America as a cabin boy and lived for a time in Fredericksburg, Virginia, where his brother had a business. He later served on slave and merchant ships and proved an able seaman. After he killed a fellow sailor while suppressing a mutiny, he returned to the American colonies to escape possible British prosecution. With the outbreak of the American Revolution in 1775, he traveled to Philadelphia and was commissioned a senior lieutenant in the new Continental Navy. He soon distinguished himself in actions against British ships in the Bahamas, the Atlantic Ocean and the English Channel.

In August 1779, Jones took command of the Bonhomme Richard and sailed around the British Isles. On September 23, 1779, the Bonhomme Richard engaged the Serapis and the smaller Countess of Scarborough, which were escorting the Baltic merchant fleet. After inflicting considerable damage to the Bonhomme Richard, Richard Pearson, the captain of the Serapis, asked Jones if he had struck his colors, the naval signal indicating surrender. From his disabled ship, Jones replied, “Sir, I have not yet begun to fight,” and after three more hours of furious fighting it was the Serapis and Countess of Scarborough that surrendered. After the victory, the Americans transferred to the Serapis from the Bonhomme Richard, which sank the following day.

Though Bonhomme Richard sank after the battle, the battle's outcome was one of the factors that convinced the French crown to back the colonies in their fight to become independent of British authority. Bonhomme Richard's final resting location was the subject of much speculation. A number of unsuccessful efforts had been conducted to locate the wreck. The location was presumed to be in approximately 180 feet (55 m) of water off Flamborough Head, Yorkshire, a headland near where her final battle took place. The quantity of other wrecks in the area and a century of fishing trawler operations had complicated all searches. In 2018 remains, possibly those of the Bonhomme Richard, were found in shallow water very close to the coast of Filey, North Yorkshire, England, by the Land and Sea search team Merlin Burrows. However, the location of this wreck does not corroborate with multiple eyewitness accounts from observers on land, who noted that on the morning of September 25, 1779, the Bonhomme Richard disappeared out of sight over the horizon.

Jones was hailed as a great hero in France, but recognition in the United States was somewhat belated. He continued to serve the United States until 1787 and then served briefly in the Russian navy before moving to France, where he died in 1792 amidst the chaos of the French Revolution. He was buried in an unmarked grave. In 1905, his remains were located under the direction of the U.S. ambassador to France and then escorted back to the United States by U.S. warships. His body was later enshrined in a crypt at the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland.

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lokie

lokie

Well-Known Member
September 23, 1908

Merkle's Boner
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


Fred Merkle
Merkle's Boner refers to the notorious base-running mistake committed by rookie Fred Merkle of the New York Giants in a game against the Chicago Cubs on September 23, 1908. Merkle's failure to advance to second base on what should have been a game-winning hit led instead to a forceout at second and a tied game. The Cubs later won the makeup game, which proved decisive as they beat the Giants by one game to win the National League (NL) pennant for 1908. It has been described as "the most controversial game in baseball history".[1]
 
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