First Confidential

THIS DAY IN HISTORY - JANUARY 3rd

George Orwell, Quote

We sleep safe in our beds

because rough men stand ready in the night

to visit violence

on those who would do us harm.

~ George Orwell

Wikiquote (George Orwell (June 25, 1903 - January 21, 1950)

This Day in History

January 3rd, 1431

Joan of Arc Collage: An artist's interpretation, since the only known direct portrait has not survived. (Centre Historique des Archives Nationales, Paris, AE II 2490) (1485); Joan of Arc's Death at the Stake, by Hermann Stilke (1843); Jeanne d' Arc, by Eugene Thirion (1876); Joan at the coronation of Charles VII, by Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres in (1854); Joan of Arc and Prophet-French Pilgrimage; Joan interrogated in her prison cell by Cardinal Winchester, by Hippolyte Delaroche, (1824); Saint Joan of Arc, Vatican City; Joan of Arc in Battle, by Hermann Anton Stilke

Hundred Years' War, Joan of Arc:
1431 - Joan of Arc is handed over to Bishop Pierre Cauchon.

Wikipedia  Painting: Joan of Arc: An artist's interpretation, since the only known direct portrait has not survived. (Centre Historique des Archives Nationales, Paris, AE II 2490) (1485); Joan of Arc's Death at the Stake, by Hermann Stilke (1843); Jeanne d' Arc, by Eugene Thirion (1876); Joan at the coronation of Charles VII, by Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres in (1854); Joan of Arc and Prophet-French Pilgrimage; Joan interrogated in her prison cell by Cardinal Winchester, by Hippolyte Delaroche, (1824); Saint Joan of Arc, Vatican City; Joan of Arc in Battle, by Hermann Anton Stilke.


January 3rd, 1431

Leonardo da Vinci Self-portrait in red chalk, Royal Library of Turin 1512 to 1515; Leonardo da Vinci has so much captured the imagination as his flying machines (Flying Machine and Armatur)

Leonardo da Vinci unsuccessfully tests a flying machine.

Wikipedia  Drawing: Leonardo da Vinci self-portrait in red chalk, Royal Library of Turin 1512 to 1515; Leonardo da Vinci has so much captured the imagination as his flying machines (Flying Machine and Armatur).


January 3rd, 1777

American Revolutionary War Collage

American Revolutionary War:
1777 - Battle of Princeton; American forces under the command of George Washington defeat British general Charles Cornwallis attack.

Wikipedia  Paintings: Washington Crossing the Delaware, by Emanuel Leutz; Battle of the Chesapeake, French (left) and British (right) lines; Battle of Bunker Hill, The Death of General Warren at the Battle of Bunker Hill by John Trumbull; The Defeat of the Floating Batteries at Gibraltar, September 13, 1782, by John Singleton Copley; Washington and the Comte de Rochambeau at Yorktown, 1781; "The surrender at Saratoga" shows General Daniel Morgan in front of a French de Vallière 4-pounder; Surrender of Cornwallis at Yorktown by (John Trumbull, 1797).


January 3rd, 1823

Texas - The name, based on the Caddo word tejas meaning 'friends' or 'allies', was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in East Texas

Stephen F. Austin receives a grant of land in Texas from the government of Mexico.

Wikipedia  Map: Texas - The name, based on the Caddo word tejas meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in East Texas, credit map of Texas, Geomart.


January 3rd, 1888

Lick Observatory (an astronomical observatory, owned and operated by the University of California / the world's first permanently occupied mountain-top observatory), situated on the summit of Mount Hamilton, in the Diablo Range just east of San Jose, California, USA

The refracting telescope at the Lick Observatory, measuring 91 cm in diameter, is used for the first time. It was the largest telescope in the world at the time.

Wikipedia  Photo: Lick Observatory (an astronomical observatory, owned and operated by the University of California / the world's first permanently occupied mountain-top observatory), situated on the summit of Mount Hamilton, in the Diablo Range just east of San Jose, California, USA.


January 3rd, 1870

Brooklyn Bridge is a bridge in New York City and is one of the oldest suspension bridges in the United States (Brooklyn Bridge fisheye, looking towards Manhattan. New York City), credit Sayed Dhansay, Flickr

The construction of the Brooklyn Bridge begins.

Wikipedia  Picture: Brooklyn Bridge is a bridge in New York City and is one of the oldest suspension bridges in the United States (Brooklyn Bridge fisheye, looking towards Manhattan. New York City), credit Sayed Dhansay, Flickr.


January 3rd, 1911

Global Earthquake epicenters

Earthquake:
1911 - Kebin earthquake; a 7.7 magnitude earthquake destroys the city of Almaty in Russian Turkestan.

Wikipedia  Image: Preliminary Determination of Epicenters / Aleppo Syria; Anchorage, Alaska - March 28, 1964 Prince William Sound USA earthquake and tsunami; 8.9 Mega Earthquake Strikes Japan; Tsunami Swirls Japan's Ibaraki Prefecture March 12 2011. credit NOAA / NGDC, NOAA National Geophysical Data Center, USGS, National Geographics.


January 3rd, 1932

The government of Colombia sends military forces to suppress a month-long strike by United Fruit Company workers, resulting in an unknown number of deaths

Martial law is declared in Honduras to stop a revolt by banana workers fired by the United Fruit Company.

Wikipedia  Photo: Colombian army soldiers patrol a banana farm, credit Luis Acosta, AFP / Getty Images; A banana plantation grows adjacent to dense tropical rainforest. (Bwindi Impenetrable National Park, Uganda), credit Jason Edwards, National Geographic.


January 3rd, 1944

World War II: Second firestorm raid on Germany, the Royal Air Force conducts an air raid on the town of Kassel, killing 10,000 and rendering 150,000 homeless World War II: Battle of Leyte Gulf; Battle of Leyte Gulf; The first kamikaze attack: A Japanese plane carrying a 200-kilogram (440 lb) bomb attacks HMAS Australia off Leyte Island World War II: German V1 flying-bomb and V2 Rockets - Preparations for a Salvo Launch of V-2 Rockets in the Heidelager near Blizna (Poland) (1944) World War II: Eastern Front (World War II); was a theatre of World War II between the European Axis powers and co-belligerent Finland against the Soviet Union, Poland, and some other Allies which encompassed Northern, Southern and Eastern Europe from 22 June 1941 to 9 May 1945

World War II:
1944 - Top Ace Major Greg "Pappy" Boyington is shot down in his Corsair by Captain Masajiro Kawato flying a Zero.
1945 - Admiral Chester W. Nimitz is placed in command of all U.S. Naval forces in preparation for planned assaults against Iwo Jima and Okinawa in Japan. 1945 - Nuremberg, Germany (in German, Nürnberg) is severely bombed by Allied forces.

Wikipedia  Photo: Bombing of Dresden in World War II; August Schreitmüller's sculpture 'Goodness' surveys Dresden after a firestorm started by Allied bombers in 1945.
USS Bunker Hill was hit by kamikazes piloted by Ensign Kiyoshi Ogawa and another airman on 11 May 1945. 389 personnel were killed or missing from a crew of 2,600; Ensign Kiyoshi Ogawa, who flew his aircraft into the USS Bunker Hill during a Kamikaze mission on 11 May 1945; Kamikaze Missions - Lt Yoshinori Yamaguchi's Yokosuka D4Y3 (Type 33 Suisei) "Judy" in a suicide dive against USS Essex. The dive brakes are extended and the non-self-sealing port wing tank is trailing fuel vapor and/or smoke 25 November 1944.
German V1 flying-bomb and V2 Rockets - Preparations for a Salvo Launch of V-2 Rockets in the Heidelager near Blizna (Poland) (1944), credit German History in Documents and Images GHDI.

Eastern Front (World War II); Germans race towards Stalingrad. August 1942; Soviet children during a German air raid in the first days of the war, June 1941, by RIA Novosti archive; Soviet sniper Roza Shanina in 1944. About 400,000 Soviet women served in front-line duty units Caucasus Mountains, winter 1942/43; Finnish ski patrol: the invisible enemy of the Soviet Army with an unlimited supply of skis; Men of the German Engineers Corps cross a river which is swollen after the first autumn rains, to strengthen bridges linking the German positions on the central front in Russia. by Keystone / Getty Images. October 1942; Russian snipers fighting on the Leningrad front during a blizzard. Photo by Hulton Archive / Getty Images, 1943; German soldiers surrendering to the Russians in Stalingrad, the soldier holding the white flag of surrender is dressed in white so that there could be no doubt of his intentions, a Russian soldier is on the right of the photograph. by Keystone / Getty Images, January 1943.


January 3rd, 1947

The U.S. Capitol is pictured on the opening day of the 112th United States Congress in Washington, January 5, 2011, credit: Jim Bourg, Reuters; Obama Health Care Speech to Joint Session of Congress, September 2009 (by Executive Office of the President of the United States)

Proceedings of the United States Congress are televised for the first time.

Wikipedia  Photo: The U.S. Capitol is pictured on the opening day of the 112th United States Congress in Washington, January 5, 2011, credit: Jim Bourg, Reuters; Obama Health Care Speech to Joint Session of Congress, September 2009 (by Executive Office of the President of the United States).


January 3rd, 1959

Alaska: the largest state in the United States by area, is situated in the northwest extremity of the North American continent, with Canada to the east, the Arctic Ocean to the north, and the Pacific Ocean to the west and south, with Russia further west across the Bering Strait

Alaska is admitted as the 49th U.S. state.

Wikipedia  Photo: Alaska; the largest state in the United States by area, is situated in the northwest extremity of the North American continent, with Canada to the east, the Arctic Ocean to the north, and the Pacific Ocean to the west and south, with Russia further west across the Bering Strait.


January 3rd, 2004

Airliners Crash: ● Pan AM 747 ● U.S. Airways flight 1549 also known as the 'Miracle on the Hudson' navigates an exit ramp near Burlington, New Jersey, June 5, 2011 ● Passengers stand on the wings of a U.S. Airways plane as a ferry pulls up to it after it landed in the Hudson River in New York, Reuters ● US Airways plane crashes into New York Hudson River, Photo: AP

Aviation accidents and incidents:
2004 - Flash Airlines Flight 604; crashes into the Red Sea, resulting in 148 deaths, making it the deadliest aviation accident in Egyptian history.

Wikipedia  Photo: ● Pan AM 747 ● U.S. Airways flight 1549 also known as the "Miracle on the Hudson" navigates an exit ramp near Burlington, New Jersey, June 5, 2011 ● Passengers stand on the wings of a U.S. Airways plane as a ferry pulls up to it after it landed in the Hudson River in New York, Reuters ● U.S. Airways plane crashes into New York Hudson River, Photo: AP


January 3rd, 2015

List of modern conflicts in the Middle East

Modern conflicts in the Middle East, social unrest and terrorist attacks:
2015 - Baga massacre; Boko Haram militants raze the entire town of Baga, Nigeria, starting the 2015 Baga massacre and killing as many as 2,000 people.

Wikipedia  Photo: Middle East satellite image, NASA. ● Camels are seen early morning on a beach in the Marina area of Dubai October 16, 2008. (Steve Crisp, Reuters) ● A portrait of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad burns during clashes between rebels and Syrian troops in Selehattin, near Aleppo, on July 23, 2012. (Bulent Kilic, AFP / GettyImages) ● Egyptians gather in their thousands in Tahrir Square to mark the one year anniversary of the revolution on Jan. 25, 2012 in Cairo Egypt. Tens of thousands have gathered in the square on the first anniversary of the Arab uprising which toppled President Hosni Mubarak. (Jeff J Mitchell, Getty Images) ● Black smoke rises above the Tehran skyline as supporters of Mir Hossein Mousavi burn tires and other material in the streets as they fight running battles with police to protest the declared results of the Iranian presidential election in Tehran, Iran, Saturday, June 13, 2009. (Ben Curtis, AP) ● The Iron Dome defense system fires to interecpt incoming missiles from Gaza in the port town of Ashdod, Thursday, Nov. 15, 2012. (Tsafrir Abayov, AP)