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Historical Moments On this day

Crawdad

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Earth quake near here (5.4). I felt it in my high rise building (10 th floor)
Épi centre, Montélimar in thé Drôme, but reached Grenoble, Avignon, Montpellier and Nîmes
Mid day

5.4 is unusually strong for France, isn't it? Thankfully, there were no deaths, few injuries, and minimal damage.

I'm also pretty thankful that I live in a place where earthquakes really don't happen. At least with hurricanes you have plenty of time to prep or get outta Dodge.
 

Crawdad

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"They owed GB hundreds of ships." Hmmm, how's that?

The Treaty of Versailles, that's how. If you don't want to have harsh surrender terms forced on you, don't get in a fight with the British or French. And if you do fight them, don't lose.

Hell, we owed France a pile of money after our War of Independence. After Louis XVI got the chop, we got the bright idea to stop repaying the debt. Problem was, we didn't have a navy, and so the French commenced to take the debt out of our commercial shipping by sinking or capturing 2,000 of our merchant ships. We responded by issuing letters of marque and commissioning warships. For about 2 years, we had an undeclared naval war going against our former allies Thankfully, Napoléon took power in France and smoothed things over before the situation got completely out of hand. Point is, bad things can happen when you go around dishonoring treaties.
 

Surfguy

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"They owed GB hundreds of ships." Hmmm, how's that? Always someone owes something to UK (England). How that can always be true?
Did UK ever owed and paid something to someone? Evan brexit would end up with EU owing money to UK. I don't know should I despise you are respect you because of all that shady games?
The simple reason Germany started WW2 and lost meant they owe.
 

jonny

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Sorry to all the South Africans on here, it's a day late:
11 1899 October the Boer war (or at least one of them):

The South African Boer War begins between the British Empire and the Boers of the Transvaal and Orange Free State.
The Boers, also known as Afrikaners, were the descendants of the original Dutch settlers of southern Africa. Britain took possession of the Dutch Cape colony in 1806 during the Napoleonic wars, sparking resistance from the independence-minded Boers, who resented the Anglicization of South Africa and Britain’s anti-slavery policies. In 1833, the Boers began an exodus into African tribal territory, where they founded the republics of the Transvaal and the Orange Free State. The two new republics lived peaceably with their British neighbors until 1867, when the discovery of diamonds and gold in the region made conflict between the Boer states and Britain inevitable.
Minor fighting with Britain began in the 1890s, and in October 1899 full-scale war ensued. By mid June 1900, British forces had captured most major Boer cities and formally annexed their territories, but the Boers launched a guerrilla war that frustrated the British occupiers. Beginning in 1901, the British began a strategy of systematically searching out and destroying these guerrilla units, while herding the families of the Boer soldiers into concentration camps. By 1902, the British had crushed the Boer resistance, and on May 31 of that year the Peace of Vereeniging was signed, ending hostilities.
The treaty recognized the British military administration over Transvaal and the Orange Free State and authorized a general amnesty for Boer forces. In 1910, the autonomous Union of South Africa was established by the British. It included Transvaal, the Orange Free State, the Cape of Good Hope, and Natal as provinces.

Boer in Afrikaans means farmer -so I am led to believe.

Just to take a side step and reply to a comment that sexpert made to Chas concerning why the first commandos were army:

Well it's all to do with the Boers. No really! The word commando stems from the the Afrikaans word Kommando which means Command. The great man Sir Winston Churchill himself was captured by the Boers after resigning his commission and working as a war correspondent, (which is unusual because it took him three attempts to get to Sandhurst, He later escaped and was given a hero's welcome back in Blighty.

He was so impressed with guerrilla tactics, he said to himself that that is the kind of way to put mayhem into the enemies communications and transport. Get behind the lines and hit them below the belt.
Which led to Adolf stating any commandos caught were to be executed.

Why did he pick army and not the Royal Marines (BTW the Royal was added April 1802- because of the exceptional bravery shown throughout the "French wars"), because quite simply the Marines were too busy with manning the ships guns RM artillery and gaurding their bases, many of them overseas, - MNBDO Mobile Naval Base Defense Organization.
And besides The Boers were army, or at least they weren't Navy and therefore the Navy would have nothing to do with any of the these skull skulduggery, cloak and dagger army tactics.:rolleyes:

It wasn't until Montgomery insisted that that this most prestigious of outfits -for want of a better word- should be sent to Scotland and train in commando techniques that in '43, the Royal Marines could add Commando to their official title. Needless to say that this did not go down well with the Army commandos who had been in the thick of it from the beginning:sick:

The irony of it all is that after the 2nd world war, the Army commando units were disbanded and the SBS were placed under the charge of the RM, both are still going strong.


 

Crawdad

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we kicked his ass too bro .. ok with help from the Prussians !
What do you mean, "too"? Because while America didn't necessarily lose the "Quasi-War" with France; we definitely didn't win. We didn't even even get good terms; France agreed to cease hostilities, terminate our 1778 alliance, and forgive part of our debt; we agreed to resume payments on the balance.

The only tangible benefit was that: as a result of our alliance with France being terminated, we were allowed to remain neutral during the Napoleonic wars (War of 1812 notwithstanding). This allowed us to continue selling cotton to Britain and tobacco to France; the last thing we needed just then was to both have to pick a side and have our troops go mucking around on the Continent. Especially when faithfully maintaining that alliance would have meant: losing the cotton trade with the Brits, having the Royal Navy chewing up the rest of our trade ships, and winding up on the losing side of a series of costly land wars in Europe.
 

Joseph Cosgrove

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Pearl Harbor:

The worst part of it was was the build up to the attack was seen by British and Dutch pilots on the 6th near the Philippines. Apparently someone along the chain of command thought they were on maneuvers and it was lost somewhere along the way. With hind sight... :cry:

"On Nov. 25, 1941, the Roosevelt Administration was seeking a modus vivendi* with Japan that would buy three months' time in the Pacific."

It wasn't until the next day (8th of December) that the Japs declared war on America and the Brits.
Sir Winston Churchill was chilling out at Chequers when he heard the news that Pearl harbor had just bee attacked.
In one of his memoirs he wrote:
“Being saturated and satiated with emotion and sensation, I went to bed and slept the sleep of the saved and thankful,”

*an arrangement or agreement allowing conflicting parties to coexist peacefully, either indefinitely or until a final settlement is reached.
 

Joseph Cosgrove

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10 December 1901
First noble peace prize awarded to the co-founders of the the Red Cross:
Jean Henri Dunant and Frederic Passy. OK, but boooring :rolleyes:.
However, let's take a looksy at Alfred Noble's life and how his prizes came about. He died on the 10th of Dec 1896 - this time for real.
Alfred’s brother, Ludvig, fell ill in France in 1888 and died. A French newspaper mixed up the two men and published Alfred’s obituary. In it he was heavily criticised for his invention of dynamite. The dumb Frenchmen (at the time) did not realize that dynamite in those days was used, in a safer way to dig slate.
The newspapers went on to publish "Le marchand de la mort est mort” (The merchant of death is dead) the obituary said: "Dr. Alfred Nobel, who became rich by finding ways to kill more people faster than ever before, died yesterday." 🐸.This did very much affect the Swedish Dr. Noble as he was fluent in French (and English and German and Russian). As he did not want he legacy to be associated with the death (or bank robberies or blowing up trains etc).
He was born the son of of an an engineer and inventor. One of eight children, who struggled until his dad got a job manufacturing explosives in Russia. Here he (Alfred) studied chemistry. They later returned to Sweden where a tragic accident was to change Alfred's life. An explosion in the family business shook him up so much (pun intended;)) as five people were killed, one of them Emil, Alfred's younger brother. Nb, the brother that the French got mixed with was called Ludviv. He therefore decided to put his knowledge of Chemistry to good use and come up with a safe explosive by mixing a mixture of nitroglycerin and an 'absorbent substance',[I've no idea what that might be]. Which he called dynamite. An of course he patented his invention and became stinkingly rich by it.
"He continued for the rest of his life to take out money-making patents on his creations and by the time of his death the number had risen to 355. Alfred’s wealth was also considerably enhanced by his 90 armaments factories and investment in oilfields along the Caspian Sea."
Making him even more rich.
On his death, from a heart attack, he left the equivalent of $300 million in today's money to fund the Noble prizes.
there are two -among others- which spring to mind:
Myanmar Rohingya: Suu Kyi to defend genocide charge at UN court
Noble peace prize in 1991 - off with her head :cool:

And Bob my main man for literature, it 2016
 

dusaboss

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Pearl Harbor:

The worst part of it was was the build up to the attack was seen by British and Dutch pilots on the 6th near the Philippines. Apparently someone along the chain of command thought they were on maneuvers and it was lost somewhere along the way. With hind sight... :cry:

"On Nov. 25, 1941, the Roosevelt Administration was seeking a modus vivendi* with Japan that would buy three months' time in the Pacific."

It wasn't until the next day (8th of December) that the Japs declared war on America and the Brits.
Sir Winston Churchill was chilling out at Chequers when he heard the news that Pearl harbor had just bee attacked.
In one of his memoirs he wrote:
“Being saturated and satiated with emotion and sensation, I went to bed and slept the sleep of the saved and thankful,”

*an arrangement or agreement allowing conflicting parties to coexist peacefully, either indefinitely or until a final settlement is reached.
It was also reported to US by Aussie radar station. America needs something to get in war, Having in mind how their government operates when starting war, I wouldn't be surprised if they let that happened itencionaly
 

jonny

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10 December 1901
First noble peace prize awarded to the co-founders of the the Red Cross:
Jean Henri Dunant and Frederic Passy. OK, but boooring :rolleyes:.
However, let's take a looksy at Alfred Noble's life and how his prizes came about. He died on the 10th of Dec 1896 - this time for real.
Alfred’s brother, Ludvig, fell ill in France in 1888 and died. A French newspaper mixed up the two men and published Alfred’s obituary. In it he was heavily criticised for his invention of dynamite. The dumb Frenchmen (at the time) did not realize that dynamite in those days was used, in a safer way to dig slate.
The newspapers went on to publish "Le marchand de la mort est mort” (The merchant of death is dead) the obituary said: "Dr. Alfred Nobel, who became rich by finding ways to kill more people faster than ever before, died yesterday." 🐸.This did very much affect the Swedish Dr. Noble as he was fluent in French (and English and German and Russian). As he did not want he legacy to be associated with the death (or bank robberies or blowing up trains etc).
He was born the son of of an an engineer and inventor. One of eight children, who struggled until his dad got a job manufacturing explosives in Russia. Here he (Alfred) studied chemistry. They later returned to Sweden where a tragic accident was to change Alfred's life. An explosion in the family business shook him up so much (pun intended;)) as five people were killed, one of them Emil, Alfred's younger brother. Nb, the brother that the French got mixed with was called Ludviv. He therefore decided to put his knowledge of Chemistry to good use and come up with a safe explosive by mixing a mixture of nitroglycerin and an 'absorbent substance',[I've no idea what that might be]. Which he called dynamite. An of course he patented his invention and became stinkingly rich by it.
"He continued for the rest of his life to take out money-making patents on his creations and by the time of his death the number had risen to 355. Alfred’s wealth was also considerably enhanced by his 90 armaments factories and investment in oilfields along the Caspian Sea."
Making him even more rich.
On his death, from a heart attack, he left the equivalent of $300 million in today's money to fund the Noble prizes.
there are two -among others- which spring to mind:
Myanmar Rohingya: Suu Kyi to defend genocide charge at UN court
Noble peace prize in 1991 - off with her head :cool:

And Bob my main man for literature, it 2016

Great summary, I did
n’
10 December 1901
First noble peace prize awarded to the co-founders of the the Red Cross:
Jean Henri Dunant and Frederic Passy. OK, but boooring :rolleyes:.
However, let's take a looksy at Alfred Noble's life and how his prizes came about. He died on the 10th of Dec 1896 - this time for real.
Alfred’s brother, Ludvig, fell ill in France in 1888 and died. A French newspaper mixed up the two men and published Alfred’s obituary. In it he was heavily criticised for his invention of dynamite. The dumb Frenchmen (at the time) did not realize that dynamite in those days was used, in a safer way to dig slate.
The newspapers went on to publish "Le marchand de la mort est mort” (The merchant of death is dead) the obituary said: "Dr. Alfred Nobel, who became rich by finding ways to kill more people faster than ever before, died yesterday." 🐸.This did very much affect the Swedish Dr. Noble as he was fluent in French (and English and German and Russian). As he did not want he legacy to be associated with the death (or bank robberies or blowing up trains etc).
He was born the son of of an an engineer and inventor. One of eight children, who struggled until his dad got a job manufacturing explosives in Russia. Here he (Alfred) studied chemistry. They later returned to Sweden where a tragic accident was to change Alfred's life. An explosion in the family business shook him up so much (pun intended;)) as five people were killed, one of them Emil, Alfred's younger brother. Nb, the brother that the French got mixed with was called Ludviv. He therefore decided to put his knowledge of Chemistry to good use and come up with a safe explosive by mixing a mixture of nitroglycerin and an 'absorbent substance',[I've no idea what that might be]. Which he called dynamite. An of course he patented his invention and became stinkingly rich by it.
"He continued for the rest of his life to take out money-making patents on his creations and by the time of his death the number had risen to 355. Alfred’s wealth was also considerably enhanced by his 90 armaments factories and investment in oilfields along the Caspian Sea."
Making him even more rich.
On his death, from a heart attack, he left the equivalent of $300 million in today's money to fund the Noble prizes.
there are two -among others- which spring to mind:
Myanmar Rohingya: Suu Kyi to defend genocide charge at UN court
Noble peace prize in 1991 - off with her head :cool:

And Bob my main man for literature, it 2016

There are way too many people on this planet, and they all have to eat, that’s the core of the global climate problem. As long as f@cking is more popularthan dying, this will always be the destruction eventually of humanity. Therefore, the only logical solution is to make war, not love. Well, that’s my take on it anyway.

 
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Joseph Cosgrove

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It was also reported to US by Aussie radar station. America needs something to get in war, Having in mind how their government operates when starting war, I wouldn't be surprised if they let that happened itencionaly
The conspiracy of the US and GB over pearl harbor has been looked at many many times. There is not an ounce of truth in it.
 

Joseph Cosgrove

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Jonny and Dusa (or is it the same person ? :cool:o_O:unsure::unsure:. Welcome back. It's always good to hear from you guys.
 

jonny

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Yep, I confess to be also Serbian, just pretending to be Norwegian because I like Jarlsberg cheese. I’m also a very short corporal living in southern France, while spending a fair bit of time with my ladyboy in Thailand when I can get some time off.
 

Joseph Cosgrove

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Come on guys, the forum was a bit slow so I thought I'd throw in a bit of humour. Sorry, completely my fault. I've learnt my lesson, no humour. :) , even that smiling face should earn me a rebuke.
 

dusaboss

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Yep, I confess to be also Serbian, just pretending to be Norwegian because I like Jarlsberg cheese. I’m also a very short corporal living in southern France, while spending a fair bit of time with my ladyboy in Thailand when I can get some time off.
Be careful Johnny. Elon Musk was sued for calling a guy pedo. (Cave diver who were in that rescue operation of kids in cave in Thailand couple y ago). Maybe Joe calls his lawyer. Besides, Joe were with ladyboy just once. And when he found out that she is boy it was too late. He already paid her couple drinks and diner, took room etc. At that point who would let little bit of winkle ruing a fun. :) :D :).

Sorry Joe I couldn't resist. :)
 

Joseph Cosgrove

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Be careful Johnny. Elon Musk was sued for calling a guy pedo. (Cave diver who were in that rescue operation of kids in cave in Thailand couple y ago). Maybe Joe calls his lawyer. Besides, Joe were with ladyboy just once. And when he found out that she is boy it was too late. He already paid her couple drinks and diner, took room etc. At that point who would let little bit of winkle ruing a fun. :) :D :).

Sorry Joe I couldn't resist. :)
Dusa, There is NO way I would pay a Thai a drink and diner, lady boy or the real thing. When you live here, you quickly see through their false smiles. No I'd pay for
little bit of winkle ruing a fun.
afterward the event and then it would be adieu.
 

Ex-Pongo

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14 October1066 Battle of Hastings (Also Erika's birthday;))

In 1066 the course of British history changed forever when William, the Duke of Normandy, landed on the southern coast of England and seized the country from its Anglo-Saxon king Harold Godwinson. The French had a long history of claims in England, and in 1002 the English king Aethelred the Unready married the sister of Richard II, the Norman duke.

The Normans weren't the only ones keen on the English throne - the Norwegians, led by King Harald Hardrada, invaded northern England but Harold defeated them at the Battle of Stamford Bridge on September 25, but at the cost of severely weakening his army immediately prior to William the Conqueror's invasion.

William invaded with around 7,000-12,000 men, and constructed a castle in the area of Hastings. This is where the famous Battle of Hastings would happen, on October 14, 1066. King Harold was killed (by an arrow to the eye according to legend - though this is debated among historians)* and William marched on London, eventually receiving the capitulation of the English barons and Harold's uncrowned successor Edgar Aetheling.

William was crowned on 25 December 1066 and reigned until 1087. The conquest introduced the Norman language to England, eliminated the English elite, changes to governance and the formal elimination of slavery.

* It is also debated by historians that Harold's mother was watching during archery practice. One archer was so clumsy that Harold's mum says "you want to watch that one, he'll end up having someone's eye out". :unsure: :)
* Another highly debated legend by historians is that just before Harold went into battle his mum warned : watch your back son and keep your eye open for any stray arrows.o_O:)
View attachment 5455
Harold's death scene from the Bayeux tapestry

Just goes to show how important stopping for a brew helps,
 
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