Illuminati-R-Us

23rd August, 1305 - execution of Sir William Wallace by the English. Much bullshit said about this guy, particularly in the film Braveheart. It's Andrew de Moray people should be celebrating, as many of the achievements and victories commonly assigned to Wallace were really his. He's not even in Braveheart, and died in late 1297. Wallace kept forging his signature on documents for a while though, as de Moray's status and name carried considerable clout.

ETA - Ha, as mentioned already in this thread HERE and HERE.

23 August, 1918: The 2nd Battle of the Somme rakes in 7,000 German POW in a day!

Here's one I really like: On that evening, in 1990, the GDR Volkskammer, the one and only free parliament that country ever had, resolved, 294 to 62, to enter the into the "area of applicability of the Grundgesetz", thereby setting the stage for German re-unification on Oct. 3 of that years.

I remember the night well. I was a second year Medical student, my exams were over, and I moonlighted as an untrained nursing assistant in our local hospital. I was watching over a very sick patient, and by coincidence, the radio was on, with a short live segment from the Volkskammer when the result was announced. It was a very moving moment. It was also the 13th birthday, of my future missus, but I didn't appreciate that at the time.

That must have been a very moving night. It also suggests that today is the 35th birthday of your missus, using normal female calculations of age.

She violently agrees with you.

August 24, 1918 - Allied forces advance along the Western Front, nothing particularly unusual

August 24, 410 AD was a bad day to be in Rome, if you didn't happen to be Alarich or one of his Visigoths who conquered and plundered it.

24 August, 1961 - the first GDR citizen to die at the Berlin Wall, Günter Litfin, is shot dead while trying to cross a canal at Humboldthafen.

24th of August, 1482 - the last of the many times England captured Berwick from Scotland, this time as part of an invasion of the country.

Arneb wrote:August 24, 410 AD was a bad day to be in Rome, if you didn't happen to be Alarich or one of his Visigoths who conquered and plundered it.

It was a bit safer to be in Rome on August 24th, 455 CE when Genseric and his Vandals plundered it, and largely kept their word of not killing people or destroying buildings. They did make off with loads of slaves, though.

Don't worry Rome, the Byzantines will be back soon! And then leave you in the lurch again.

25 August, 1918 - there are three siginificant and foreboding instances on the respective "home fronts" on that day:
Rioteers in Berlin smash statues of the Kaiser
The U.S. War Industry exempts people working in the film industry from the draft
The Hungarian government expulses Jews from the countra and seizes their assets - this being 1918, not 1943!

1921 - The U.S. make a separate peace with the German Reich, not having signed the Treaty of Versailles. You have to give it to them, they knew better.
1939 - Great Britain and Poland make a pact of mutual military assistance - they knew very, very well.
1944 - Allied troops take Paris. It is largely undestroyed, because the city's German commander, Dietrich von Choltitz, refused to fight the invaders to the last drop of blood, as of course he had been ordered to do. He knew better, too.

Backlog:
26 August, 1918: German generals suggest a retreat over 110 km in the battle of the Somme. Ludendorff gives them 16.

27 August, 1918: The first two cases of the Spanish flu are noted in two seamen in Boston. The flus is eventually going to kill more people than the war.

479 BC: Battle of Plataiai, the last of the Persian wars. The battle definitively ends Persian expansion attemopts into the Greek peninsula.

And happy 27th, Republic of Moldova

1883: Krakatau erupts, killing 36,000 people

And 1941: Japanese Prime Minister Konoye asks for a summit meeting with Roosevelt - declined.

August 27th, 1746 - MacDonald of Lochgarry and Dr Cameron arrive at the Braes of Achnacarie to escort Prince Charles to Badenoch, setting off the following night.

28 August, 1918: Crown Prince Wilhelm writes, in a public "Tagesbefehl" (daily order): "There is no need for despondency. Even 24 enemy states will not vanquish the German Nation" Yeah, right.
Death toll in the 2nd and 3rd Canadian division along the Somme: 5,801 !

On this day in 1833, the British empire abolishes slavery

1941 All Volga Germans, irrespective of age, sex, or behaviour, are accused of collaboration, and resettlmeent in Siberia is ordered by the Supreme Soviet.

1963 The tape cassette is presented by Philips at the Internationale Funkausstellung in Berlin. Mix tapes, anyone?

August 28th, 1916 - Germany declares war on Romania, and Italy declares war on Germany. The three, of course, are allies in WW2 just over 30 years later.

Arneb wrote:1963 The tape cassette is presented by Philips at the Internationale Funkausstellung in Berlin. Mix tapes, anyone?

Putting the funk in Funkausstellung! Dredging through the few German words I know, "funk" is radio, as in funkwagen which were radio equipped command cars; a stellung was a fortified defensive position, and does "aus" mean "out"? I'm guessing that either there are other meanings or I'm parsing the word wrongly. Or quite possibly both.

Funken=Spark
Funk= "Sparking" - the German word for radio and broadcasting (the word is used for for broadcasting as well as, say. ship, plane or ham radio)

Stellung= position, or, the act of putting something somewhere
aus=out
Ausstellung = The act of putting something out (into view) = Exhibition, or fair

Internationale Funkausstellung = International broadcasting fair
It was first held in 1926, the Berliner Funkturm (=broadcasting tower) was erected on the occasion. It ist still a thing, and a big one. It is actually in this thread already. I mentioned it a few posts above when I reported the anniversary of the release of the Volksempfänger.

Thanks. I was closer than I usually get with German.

29 August, 1918: Germany begins its retreat from Flandres.

1756 - Prussia sends troops to Saxony, beginning the 7 years' war. They were lucky to get out of this one.
1948 . First Soviet atomic bomb test at Semipalatinsk
1962 - The Cuban missile crisis starts to build when U2 spyplanes first spot missile bases on Cuba
2005 - Hurricane Katrina makes landfall.

30 August, 1918 -
Lenin receives two gunshot wounds to the hip and shoulder at the hands of Dora Kaplan, who definitely knew better, but was still executed two days later.
The AEF and BEF hold a combined 250 km worth of frontline in Eastern France. Storming Juvigny, the 32 US Division suffers 2600 losses between 30 August and September 1. We know they won, but for them the meat grinder wasn't relenting a even bit.

1994: Oasis published Definitely Maybe.

The Hundred Days Campaign was particularly bloody but is largely unknown. US Divisions were about twice the size of anyone else's but that is heavy going by any standards.

Arneb wrote:Lenin receives two gunshot wounds to the hip and shoulder at the hands of Dora Kaplan, who definitely knew better, but was still executed two days later.

He was never the same after that. (Whether that's a good thing or not, you can decide.) I took a picture of his Rolls Royce in the museum in Moscow earlier this month.

August 31, 1422 - Hung be the heavens with black, yield day to night!
Comets, importing change of times and states,
Brandish your crystal tresses in the sky,
And with them scourge the bad revolting stars
That have consented unto Henry's death!
King Henry the Fifth, too famous to live long!
England ne'er lost a king of so much worth.

31. August, 1918 -
The August tallies are in. BEF, 108,172 losses; GErmany, 228, 000 losses, among them, 63.579 POW (boy, were they lucky). Only 130,00 for replacent. France, 130,000 losses, 31,000 POW taken.
The U boat war is still a formidable weapon for the Germans: The Allied forces (and neutrals) lose 104 ships, with 278.876 gross register tons; Britain alone loses 41 ships, with 217 crew lost at sea. 7 U boats are sunk, not all of them in action - the cause is undetermined for two.

Anyone like to live in the good old days when we were all great?

The German unification treaty was signed 28 years ago today.
Happy 27th, Kyrghistan and Usbekistan
Sinn Fein announced a unilateral cease-fire 24 years ago.
We'll do this ("Wir schaffen das") said our Chancellor 3 years ago. I am not sure I am with her on this.

ETA:
Oh, and Goodbye England's Rose, 21 years ago. I don't care for the Royals very much, but that was one tragic and sad day.

ETA2: On a more positive note, it's been 16 years for the Missus and me now. Roses all round.

1 September, 1918: The BEF reaches its maximum strength, with 1.916.464 men under arms.

1715 Death of Louis XIV, who of all European monarchs had the longest reign, with 72 out of 76 life year. But watch ya back, Lizzy Two is catching up fast, and shows no sign of relenting.
1983: KAL 007. Anyone remember that one? I was an impressionable 14 yo, and it scared the hell out of me.
1923 The Great Kanto Earthquake shakes the Tokio area, with about 143,000 loss of life

Catching up from yesterday the moral is to always wear your seatbelt. Four people in the car, one wore a seatbelt and lived, though badly injured.

The BEF numbers were going up as Lloyd George finally believed his generals that they would win the war in 1918 and released some of the half million or so A1 class trained soldiers he had kept in the UK.

Heid the Ba wrote:Catching up from yesterday the moral is to always wear your seatbelt. Four people in the car, one wore a seatbelt and lived, though badly injured.

And, trivially, don't DUI. It's quite unbelievable that the raucous drunkard behind the wheel was responsible for her saftey, of all things.