On this day in history...

[Heid the Ba]

It is a mighty close run thing, the "Who is the biggest Tudor arsehole? competition. That said, Hampton Court is lovely.

[Arneb]

And that is even though I HATE Lunnin'.

25 years ago today, Lithuanians voted overwhelmingly to secede from the Soviet Union.

Given that uncle Vlad, from a position of military superiority, speaks of the dissolution of the Soviet Union as "the biggest gepoplitical catastrophe of the 20th century", I can understand that the Lithuanians and their neighbouring countries hedge more amicable feelings toward the good old US of A than quite a few in our little living room community here.

[Мастер]

Given that uncle Vlad

I'm probably guilty of this one myself, but that's short for Vladislav. Vladimir has the diminutive Vova.

from a position of military superiority, speaks of the dissolution of the Soviet Union as "the biggest gepoplitical catastrophe of the 20th century", I can understand that the Lithuanians and their neighbouring countries hedge more amicable feelings toward the good old US of A than quite a few in our little living room community here.

And this is somewhat embarrassing. Small countries need help. But the rest of Europe as a whole easily has the population and the resources to defend itself from Russia, for decades, at a minimum. Both population and GDP are larger than that of the US, in fact, and the supply lines would be much shorter. Europe should be entirely capable of seeing to its own defence. It needs only decide that they want to do so, something that hasn't happened so far.

If a small unpopulated island off the coast of Alaska were invaded by a foreign power, I suspect the entire resources of the US military would be devoted to administering a rather severe punishment on the responsible nation. I'm pretty confident that would not happen in Europe (witness Crimea).

[Arneb]

Given that uncle Vlad

I'm probably guilty of this one myself, but that's short for Vladislav. Vladimir has the diminutive Vova.

Ouch, but good to know I won't make that mistake again.

from a position of military superiority, speaks of the dissolution of the Soviet Union as "the biggest gepoplitical catastrophe of the 20th century", I can understand that the Lithuanians and their neighbouring countries hedge more amicable feelings toward the good old US of A than quite a few in our little living room community here.

And this is somewhat embarrassing. Small countries need help. But the rest of Europe as a whole easily has the population and the resources to defend itself from Russia, for decades, at a minimum. Both population and GDP are larger than that of the US, in fact, and the supply lines would be much shorter. Europe should be entirely capable of seeing to its own defence. It needs only decide that they want to do so, something that hasn't happened so far.

If a small unpopulated island off the coast of Alaska were invaded by a foreign power, I suspect the entire resources of the US military would be devoted to administering a rather severe punishment on the responsible nation. I'm pretty confident that would not happen in Europe (witness Crimea).

Absolutely, and it's something the Merkins keep telling the dovish Europeans, especially us über-holy Germans, all the time. OTOH, the Cold War deal was: You creep under our nuclear and conventional umbrella. In return, we call the shots, and you agree to non-proliferation. France didn't quite play along (force de frappe), and the UK didn't need to, cause special relationship.

Life was comfortable under those conditions, and who wants to get out of the comfy chair? Pacifism is wonderful, escpecially from under Uncle Sam's nuclear umbrella. Let the idjit Merkins do the durdy work.

[Lance]

Given that uncle Vlad

I'm probably guilty of this one myself, but that's short for Vladislav. Vladimir has the diminutive Vova.

Vladislav the Impaler just doesn't have the same ring to it.

[Heid the Ba]

Arse, on looking the chap up to find a link to his deeds I found that I had missed an "e" off the end. So Alte Fritz. No doubt another grammar lesson from Arneb or Mactep will follow.

If you insist!

I think you want to go with "Der Alte Fritz". Adjective endings are different, depending on whether they are preceded by the definite article, the indefinite article, or no article. (Nice, eh?). If you don't want to include the "Der" (and I think you should include it), then you need "Alter Fritz". If there are several and this is one of them, then it would be "Ein alter Fritz". These are all nominative masculine endings.

Der/Dem/Den Alte(n) Fritz resurrection. I mention him in an article and say " . . . in Russia's war with der Alte Fritz they . . .", can we all live with that? Autocorrect seems to prefer "Dre alte Fritz" which amuses me more than it should.

[Heid the Ba]

11th February 1990: Nelson Mandela released. As he never re-offended I think we can declare his imprisonment a success.

[Мастер]

11th February 1990: Nelson Mandela released. As he never re-offended I think we can declare his imprisonment a success.

I don't know, he went on to become a politician.

[Lianachan]

20th February 1472 - Orkney and Shetland become part of Scotland.

[Lance]

In 2015; Cyndi and I started CPAP therapy.

[tubeswell]

23 Feb 303, Diocletian begins persecuting Christians by razing a church at Nicomedia

Today we may see the 10 thousandth post in thisgame

[Heid the Ba]

24th Feb 1303 Battle of Roslin. Us -v- England, we won (probably).

[Lianachan]

15th March 2004, George Harrison is inducted into the Rock'n'Roll Hall of Fame.

Video of a fine tribute to him that night, his song While My Guitar Gently Weeps played by his son Dhani Harrison with Steve Winwood, Jeff Lynne, Tom Petty and Prince. Features a disappearing guitar at the end.

Watch on youtube.com

[Heid the Ba]

16th March 1995 – Mississippi formally ratifies the Thirteenth Amendment, becoming the last state to approve the abolition of slavery. The Thirteenth Amendment was officially ratified in 1865.

[Arneb]

Aren't they generous in the South?

[Arneb]

90 years ago today, March 16, 1926, Robert Goddard fired the first liquid-fueled rocket. It rose 12.5 m and stayed aloft for 2.5 s.

[Lianachan]

270 years ago today, April 16th 1746, the Scottish Highlands died.

[Мастер]

Four hundred years ago, on April 23, 1616, Miguel de Cervantes died. Ten days later, on April 23, 1616, William Shakespeare died.

[Arneb]

That is such a beautiful coincidence. Nice find!

Regardless of calendar, there are three GDR-related events to commemorate:

68 years ago today, students of the Berlin University demonstrated against political meddling in academic affairs by the Soviet city administration. The goal was to found a Free University of Berlin in the area of Berlin under Western Allied command. That became a realitiy on 4 December of that year. On a personal level, this is interesting to me because both my parents and I studied at that University.
40 years ago today , the Palace of the Republic, aka Ballast of the Republic, aka Plazzo Protzo, aka Erich's Lamp Store, was officially opened
26 years ago today, the people of the city of Kar-Marx-Stadt voted, with a 3/4 majority, to change the name back to its original name, Chemnitz

[Arneb]

And VERY important:
On this date 500 years ago, the German Reinheitsebot was first introduced by a local ruler in Ingolstadt - that only barley, hops and water should go into beer. Prost!

[Heid the Ba]

Prost! Karl-Marx-Stadt gets a mention in a Bond film, but you knew that.

[Arneb]

30 years ago, block 4 of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant blew up, causing a meltdown of the reactor core.

[Мастер]

30 years ago, block 4 of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant blew up, causing a meltdown of the reactor core.

Is today Tuesday?

[Lance]

Is today Tuesday?

I'm sure it is somewhere.

[Lianachan]

Is today Tuesday?

I'm sure it is somewhere.

Most likely place, I would assume, is tube's crazy upside down world.