Illuminati-R-Us

Heid the Ba wrote:10th August 1993: Oklahoma City Bombing when several Lone Wolf not-terrorists blow up a federal building.

Um, THIS Oklahoma City Bombing? Are you saying the one that happened on April 19, 1995 actually happened on August 10th, 1993?

Hmmm, maybe THAT's why it wasn't in the German Wikioedia for August 10...?

Yeah, maybe.

Ah, yes, about that. I misread the wiki entry, the indictments were on 10th August not the actual bombing. Reading is hard.

13th August 1704: a coalition including Scotland and Prussia defeat France and Bavaria.

13 August, 1961 Niemand hatte die Absicht, eine Mauer zu errichten.

13 August, 1918: The Czech Republic is recognized by Great Britain as an Allied Nation. A Decleration of War against the German Reich follows immediately.

14 August, 1918: The German Crown Council stated that a victory in the field is more improbable than ever. Gerneral Ludendorff (you know, one of the most ardentproponents of the stab-in-the-bag legend in later years) recommends immediate peace talks.

1040: The real Macbeth kills the real Duncan I in the battle of Elgin and crowns himself King of Scotland.

1994 Carlos the Jackal is apprehended in Sudan and delivered to France.

15 August, 1918 - The Chancellor, Max von Baden is warned by Crown Prince Rupprecht of Bavaria that the German Army will not survive another winter and that an early collapse is a distinct possibility.

Tension is mounting in this one, don't tell us how it ends!

Just go on nagging me, and I'll make it a cliffhanger.

And be careful, this is the one area of history where I have some knowledge, so I might be tempted to follow on through with it until August, 2045.

Nothing newsworthy seems to have happened on 16 August, 1918. But on that day in 1870 our boys beat the French Army in the Battle of Mars-la-Tour. Go, Krauts!

Yeah Prussia!

If all else was quiet in 1918 Dunsterforce was still cutting about the Caucasus. Also The 26 Commissars.

August 16th, 1819 - the Peterloo Massacre, where a crowd of 60,000 men, women and children in Manchester demanding the vote and were attacked by armed cavalry. There were 15 deaths and over 600 injured. Rule Britannia!

17 August, 1918: The French again 1800 m on the German trenches - using 1.138 pieces of artillery and taking 1800 POW. It was still meat grinder time.

Oh yes, and Dunsterville arrived in Baku on that day, now that Heid mentions him.

On 17 August, 1962, a young East German, Peter Fechter, tries to flee the GDR across the Berlin Wall. He is shot and wounded, and slowly bleeds to death while no-one from the GDR side comes to his aid. He is not the first or the last victim of the Wall, but his death becomes a symbol and an icon for the true face of the Socialist paradise that is the GDR.

20 August, 1918 - An attack with Phosgen gas by American troups near Baccarat - 250 German soldiers gassed, 20 killed.

The August coup of 1991 starts in (and heralds the ensuing end of) the Soviet Union. I was in my little flat revising for my first State Exam, and I remember being glued to the radio listening to the BBC World Service. I was really frightened the coup leaders would be able to engineer a rollback. However numerous the failings of Boris Yeltsin, he showed guts during these days.

ETA Here's another significant one: During the 1933 Berliner Funkausstellung (Berlin Broadcastingf Exhibition; it is still held every two years and is a consumer electronics mega event) the Volksempfänger (People's receiver) is presented - the first mass-market radio available in Germany (which was rather a poor conuntry at the time). The Nazis will later make the Volksempfänger one of their prime means of propaganda. Imagine a facebook filter bubble with raving far-right hate and conspiracy garbage, and that filter bubble is all there is.

19 August 1918. Allied forces advance along several parts of the Western front. Which is the recurring theme these days. A U boat is sunk by a sea mine off Folkstone.

1934 Germany is holding a referendum allowing the government to unite the offices of President (vacant after the death of Hindenburg) and Chancellor in one person: Adolf Hitler. It is on that day that Hitler officially becomes Der Führer.

20 August. 1918 - Battlo of Noyon and the Ailette, and another black day according to Ludendorff. Spoiler Alert - it won't get much better if you're routing for the Krauts.

The Central Executie Committee of the Soviet Union abolishes the right to own ground. Bang!

Without wishing to give the ending away to Hindenburg or Ludendorff, The Second Battle of the Somme kicks off on 21st August 1918 and it is worse for the Germans than Amiens was.

I wanted to reveal that one tomorrow!

OK, some news to keep Ludendorff's mood up: In 1870, our boys began the siege of Metz. Hey!

Some VERY VERY VERY BAD news for anyone interested in the rule of law: In 1942, Roland Freisler, practically evil incarnate in the form of a lawyer, became Presiding Judge of the Volksgerichtshof (People's Court). This is the opening of maybe the darkest chapter modern justice has ever written (he died in a bomb raid on his very court in February, 1945. He had ordered the defendants into a shelter and was picking up files, when Justice struck in the form of a dirct hit and falling masonry).

Extremely bad news for one Lev Davidovich Bronstein, who is attacked with an ice pick, of all things, in Mexico City on that day. Leo Trotzki died a day later.

Beresovsky, Litwinenko and the Skripals are all eeirly reminiscent of that high-profile we-will-get-you-anywhere-you-care-to-flee murder, aren't they?

21 August, 1918 - Second battle of the Somme, as previously reported.

1991 - Independence of Latvia from the Soviet Union, congrats!

2017 - Absofuckinglutely great Total Solar Eclipse sweeping over the absofuckinglutely greatest country on Earth. Arneb and his eldest stand absofuckinlutely agape but don't forget to shoot absofuckinglutely stunning pics and it did happen. Fuck yeah, it's been a year already!

21st August, 1689 - victory for the bad guys at the Battle of Dunkeld.

Come to think of it, there was another (temporary) victory for the bad guys on

21 August, 1968 - Soviet and other Warsaw Pact troops (luckily none from the GDR) invade Czechoslovakia and put an end to the Prague Spring, which had tried to develop a Socialism with a Human Face. Nope.

22nd August, 1485 – death of Dick the Shit at the Battle of Bosworth Field.

22 August 1918 - The last military success for the Mittelmaächte plays out along some rivers in Albania. In the West, the Allied Forces start transitioning from a stepwise approach to a more aggressive approach. Gen. Haig: "There is no need any more to advance step by step"

22 August, 1922 - Death of Michael Collins, in a firefight.
22 August, 1981: Close passage of Saturn by Voyager 2; first close-up photos of Iapetus (the black and white one) taken.

Arneb wrote:2017 - Absofuckinglutely great Total Solar Eclipse sweeping over the absofuckinglutely greatest country on Earth. Arneb and his eldest stand absofuckinlutely agape but don't forget to shoot absofuckinglutely stunning pics and it did happen. Fuck yeah, it's been a year already!

SoFi17.jpg

I forgot to acknowledge that wonderful photograph and anecdote. Chapeau, sir.