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Post by melody on Jan 10, 2008 8:00:13 GMT -5
January 10 Cuban Troops Begin Withdrawal From Angola 1989 As part of an arrangement to decrease Cold War tensions and end a brutal war in Angola, Cuban troops begin their withdrawal from the African nation. The process was part of a multilateral diplomatic effort to end years of bloodshed in Angola-a conflict that, at one time or another, involved the Soviet Union, the United States, Portugal, and South Africa. The situation in Angola was another indication that, particularly in the 1970s and 1980s, Africa was coming to play a more significant role in the Cold War geopolitics. Additionally, the Cuban intervention in the conflict was yet another event that served to chill relations between the United States and Cuba. www.military.com/todayhistory
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Post by melody on Jan 11, 2008 6:28:38 GMT -5
January 11 Battle of Arkansas Post 1863 Union General John McClernand and Admiral David Porter capture Arkansas Post, a Confederate stronghold on the Arkansas River. The victory secured central Arkansas for the Union and lifted northern morale just three weeks after the disastrous Battle of Fredericksburg. Porter began bombing the fort on the night of January 10. The bombardment continued the following afternoon. Through the afternoon, Union infantry moved towards the fort while the ships passed in front and began firing from the other side of the fort. The Confederate garrison was surrounded, and offered a white flag before the day was out. The Yankees lost 134 men and suffered 898 wounded, but they captured 5,000 Confederates and preserved Union commerce on the Arkansas and White rivers. www.military.com/todayhistory
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Post by melody on Jan 12, 2008 8:01:21 GMT -5
January 12 Soviet Forces Penetrate the Siege of Leningrad 1943 On this day, Soviet troops create a breach in the German siege of Leningrad, which had lasted for a year and a half. The Soviet forces punched a hole in the siege, which ruptured the German encirclement and allowed for more supplies to come in along Lake Ladoga. The siege began officially on September 8, 1941. The people of Leningrad began building antitank fortifications and succeeded in creating a stable defense of the city, but they were also cut off from all access to vital resources in the Soviet interior. In 1942, 650,000 Leningrad citizens died from starvation, disease, exposure, and injuries suffered from the siege and the continual German bombardment with artillery. Barges offered occasional relief in the summer and ice-borne sleds were able to do the same in the winter. A million sick, elderly, or especially young residents of Leningrad were slowly and stealthily evacuated, leaving about 2 million people to ration available food and use all open ground to plant vegetables. A Soviet counteroffensive pushed the Germans westward on January 27, 1944, bringing the siege to an end. It had lasted for 872 days. www.military.com/todayhistory
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Post by melody on Jan 13, 2008 9:57:11 GMT -5
January 13 First Operation Farm Gate Missions Flown 1962 In the first Farm Gate combat missions, T-28 fighter-bombers are flown in support of a South Vietnamese outpost under Viet Cong attack. By the end of the month, U.S. Air Force pilots had flown 229 Farm Gate sorties. Operation Farm Gate was initially designed to provide advisory support to assist the South Vietnamese Air Force in increasing its capability. The 4400th Combat Crew Training Squadron arrived at Bien Hoa Airfield in November 1961 and began training South Vietnamese Air Force personnel with older, propeller-driven aircraft. In December, President John F. Kennedy expanded Farm Gate to include limited combat missions by the U.S. Air Force pilots in support of South Vietnamese ground forces. By late 1962, communist activity and combat intensity had increased so much that President Kennedy ordered a further expansion of Farm Gate. In early 1963, additional aircraft arrived and new detachments were established at Pleiku and Soc Trang. In early 1964, Farm Gate was upgraded again with the arrival of more modern aircraft. In October 1965, another squadron of A-1E aircraft was established at Bien Hoa. Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara approved the replacement of South Vietnamese markings on Farm Gate aircraft with regular U.S. Air Force markings. By this point in the war, the Farm Gate squadrons were flying 80 percent of all missions in support of the Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN). With the build up of U.S. combat forces in South Vietnam and the increase in U.S. Air Force presence there, the role of the Farm Gate program gradually decreased in significance. The Farm Gate squadrons were moved to Thailand in 1967, and from there they launched missions against the North Vietnamese in Laos. www.military.com/todayhistory
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Post by melody on Jan 14, 2008 8:51:33 GMT -5
January 14 United Nations Vote "Deplores" Soviet Intervention in Afghanistan 1980 In a crushing diplomatic rebuke to the Soviet Union, the U.N. General Assembly votes 104 to 18 to "deplore" the Russian intervention in Afghanistan. The resolution was a victory for U.S. diplomats, who had been pushing for a statement from the international organization denouncing the Soviet invasion. The successful and overwhelming passage of the resolution indicated that Cold War alignments were perhaps undergoing an important and far-reaching alteration. Many of the so-called non-aligned nations and Third World countries were appalled by the Soviet action and drew closer to the United States. With the Cold War itself destined to last another decade, U.S. relations with such nations would take on more significance than ever before. www.military.com/todayhistory
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Post by melody on Jan 15, 2008 3:24:20 GMT -5
January 15 Fort Fisher Falls 1865 Fort Fisher in North Carolina falls to Union forces, and Wilmington, the Confederacy's most important blockade-running port, is closed. When President Lincoln declared a blockade of southern ports in 1861, Rebel engineers began construction on a fortress at the mouth of New Inlet, which provided access to Wilmington. Fort Fisher was constructed of timber and sand, and it posed a formidable challenge for the Yankees. The walls were more than 20 feet high and they bristled with large cannon. Land mines and palisades made from sharpened logs created even more obstacles for potential attackers. Union leadership did not make Fort Fisher a high priority until the last year of the war. After the Federals closed Mobile Bay in August 1864, attention turned to shutting down Wilmington. Union ships moved into place in December and began a massive bombardment on Christmas Eve. The next day, a small force failed to capture the fort but the attempt was renewed in January. On January 13, a massive three-day bombardment began. On the third day, 9,000 Yankee infantry commanded by General Alfred Terry hit the beach and attacked Fort Fisher. The Confederates could not repulse the attack. The damage was heavy on both sides: the Union suffered more than 900 Army casualties and 380 Navy casualties, and the Confederates suffered 500 killed or wounded and over 1,000 captured. After the loss of this last major Confederate port, it was only three months before the war concluded. www.military.com/todayhistory
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Post by melody on Jan 16, 2008 0:21:43 GMT -5
January 16 Hitler Descends into His Bunker 1945 On this day, Adolf Hitler takes to his underground bunker, where he remains for 105 days until he commits suicide. On April 29, Hitler married Eva in their bunker hideaway. Eva Braun met Hitler while working as an assistant to Hitler's official photographer. Braun spent her time with Hitler out of public view, entertaining herself by skiing and swimming. She had no discernible influence on Hitler's political career but provided a certain domesticity to the life of the dictator. Loyal to the end, she refused to leave the bunker even as the Russians closed in. Only hours after they were united in marriage, both Hitler and Eva committed suicide. Warned by officers that the Russians were only about a day from overtaking the chancellery and urged to escape to Berchtesgarden, a small town in the Bavarian Alps where Hitler owned a home, the dictator instead chose to take his life. Both he and his wife swallowed cyanide capsules (which had been tested for their efficacy on his "beloved" dog and her pups). For good measure, he shot himself with his pistol. www.military.com/todayhistory
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Post by samSForce on Jan 16, 2008 0:27:53 GMT -5
January 16 Hitler Descends into His Bunker 1945 On this day, Adolf Hitler takes to his underground bunker, where he remains for 105 days until he commits suicide. On April 29, Hitler married Eva in their bunker hideaway. Eva Braun met Hitler while working as an assistant to Hitler's official photographer. Braun spent her time with Hitler out of public view, entertaining herself by skiing and swimming. She had no discernible influence on Hitler's political career but provided a certain domesticity to the life of the dictator. Loyal to the end, she refused to leave the bunker even as the Russians closed in. Only hours after they were united in marriage, both Hitler and Eva committed suicide. Warned by officers that the Russians were only about a day from overtaking the chancellery and urged to escape to Berchtesgarden, a small town in the Bavarian Alps where Hitler owned a home, the dictator instead chose to take his life. Both he and his wife swallowed cyanide capsules (which had been tested for their efficacy on his "beloved" dog and her pups). For good measure, he shot himself with his pistol. www.military.com/todayhistoryI generally believe that life is a very valuable thing that we should embrace and try our hardest to make the best of........but, for Hitler, I honestly believe that his committing suicide was the best thing he could have done for the human race. He embodied evil........and generations are scarred by his actions.....
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Post by melody on Jan 16, 2008 0:35:49 GMT -5
i agree 100%
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Post by melody on Jan 17, 2008 0:22:12 GMT -5
January 17 Soviets Capture Warsaw 1945 Warsaw was a battleground since the opening day of fighting in the European theater. Germany declared war by launching an air raid on September 1, 1939, and followed up with a siege that killed tens of thousands of Polish civilians and wreaked havoc on historic monuments. Deprived of electricity, water, and food, and with 25 percent of the city's homes destroyed, Warsaw surrendered to the Germans on September 27. In 1945, after Stalin mobilized 180 divisions against the Germans in Poland and East Prussia, Gen. Georgi Zhukov's troops crossed the Vistula north and south of the Polish capital, liberating the city from Germans-and grabbing it for the USSR. By that time, Warsaw's prewar population of approximately 1.3 million had been reduced to a mere 153,000. www.military.com/todayhistory
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Post by melody on Jan 17, 2008 20:05:32 GMT -5
this was posted by Doug... Today in history 17 jan 2008 From the 1966 archives of "The Daily Perspective" Nuclear bomb lost at sea An American B-52 Stratofortress bomber carrying four nuclear bombs collided with its own refueling plane today, crashing near the Spanish village of Palomares. Three of the nuclear devices were found shortly after the accident, which occurred during a refueling operation, but the fourth remained missing. "American airmen carrying geiger counters today carried out a top-secret search on the southeastern Spanish coast, apparently looking for a nuclear device missing in the collision of two U.S. Air Force planes," reported The Coshocton Tribune on January 20, 1966. NOTE: The conventional explosives of two of the bombs detonated, contaminating the crash area with uranium and plutonium. Over 1,700 tons of earth was sent to the U.S. for disposal at the Savannah River Plant. www.newspaperarchive.com/DailyPerspectiveFullView.aspxy'all know I am "into" nuclear weapons and I thought this would be rather interesting for the general population of readers... considering current tensions and the political climate today, maybe this will even generate some thoughtful regard to the safety necessary to call yourself worthy of possession of something so diabolically dangerous... America KNOWS what can happen... so does Japan... Why would ANYONE want a third world country to have possession of something so ferociously terrible and permanently devestating... maintaining security is only PART of the problem...these things are just plain hard to work with... no matter who has possession of them. A plane crash is not just a plane crash anymore when the above described problem occurs... -Definately something to think about
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Post by dwayne46992 on Jan 17, 2008 22:15:35 GMT -5
I think that with all the rogue nations trying to buy or build nukes or dirty bombs this proposes a major discussion topic. I believe in the global warming issue but also am weary or nuclear power being the way around that. To me it seems nuclear energy is another way to disguise their real motives. We have to be cautious with what we do with " the best intentions".
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Post by samSForce on Jan 17, 2008 22:20:36 GMT -5
I like this thread, mel....
I had an older guy patient once, and the second I walked into the room, he said "What's today?"....
....and, I said "Everyone know's TODAY was when Pearl Harbor happened...."....
....and, he said "Wow.....your'e the first one who told me what I was looking for...."....
He was an older veteran.....and, I guess it meant alot to him that some people remembered and honored the men that gave their lives, not just on that day, but throughout all Wars the U.S. has been apart of.....
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Post by melody on Jan 17, 2008 22:51:05 GMT -5
thanks howie...to be honest, it just makes me sort of sad that when i bring up military stuff to some of the people i know at work, everyone is clueless...i think it is important to know where we've been as a country, before you can make a decision about where we should go...politics and whatnot...
people often forget why we are able to have the freedoms that we do, and it makes me want to cry, then it makes me sick to my stomach, to know that people just don't care anymore about our country's history...and all that our heroes have gone through, are going through, and will go through....that's why i started this thread...
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Post by melody on Jan 18, 2008 7:16:55 GMT -5
January 18 United States Walks Out of World Court Case 1985 For the first time since joining the World Court in 1946, the United States walks out of a case. The case that caused the dramatic walkout concerned U.S. paramilitary activities against the Nicaraguan government. The Reagan administration's decision in regards to the World Court had little impact on the continuing conflict in Central America. The Court heard Nicaragua's case and decided against the United States; it charged that the U.S. violated international law with its actions against the Sandinistas, and ordered it to pay reparations to Nicaragua in June 1986. The U.S. government ignored the decision. Meanwhile, the Contra actions in Nicaragua achieved little more than death and destruction, and Congress banned further U.S. military aid to the Contras in 1988. www.military.com/todayhistory
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