First Confidential

THIS DAY IN HISTORY - JANUARY 4th

Isaac Newton, Quote

“I do not know what I may appear to the world, but to myself I seem to have been only like a boy playing on the sea-shore, and diverting myself in now and then finding a smoother pebble or a prettier shell than ordinary, whilst the great ocean of truth lay all undiscovered before me.”

~ Isaac Newton

Wikiquote (Isaac Newton (January 4, 1643 – March 31, 1727 / Old Style: December 25, 1642 – March 20, 1727) an English physicist, mathematician, astronomer, alchemist, inventor, theologian and natural philosopher. He is often regarded as the most influential scientist in history and is most famous for discovering the Laws of Gravity.)

This Day in History

January 4th, 46 BC

Ancient Rome was a thriving civilization that began growing on the Italian Peninsula as early as the 8th century BC. Located along the Mediterranean Sea and centered on the city of Rome, it expanded to become one of the largest empires in the ancient world Roman Empire Decline and Fall of Rome

Roman Empire:
46 BC - Battle of Ruspina; Julius Caesar defeats Titus Labienus.

Wikipedia  Photo: ● Ancient roman statue ● Detail of Head from Roman Statue of Antinous, credit Corbis ● Statue of Neptune, Trevi Fountain, Rome ● International Sand Sculpture Festival, FIESA 7 ancient Rome.
Relief from a 3rd-century sarcophagus depicting a battle between Romans and Germanic warriors; the central figure is perhaps the emperor Hostilian / Depiction of the Menorah on the Arch of Titus in Rome.

January 4th, 265

China: the world's most populous country, covering approximately 9.6 million square kilometres, second-largest country by land area (China from NASA Wordwind Satellite; Great Wall of China, credit National Geographic; LongJi Terrace, credit National Geographic; Great Bear Rainforest, credit Paul Nicklen, National Geographic; Platoons of clay soldiers were buried with China's first emperor, Qin Shi Huang Di, (required a labor force of 700,000 to build), credit O. Louis Mazzatenta, National Geographic)

China - Jin Dynasty:
265 - Sima Yan, the successor to his father Sima Zhao as the Cao Wei regent, forces Cao Huan to abdicated the throne and establishes the Jin Dynasty.

Wikipedia  Photo: China from NASA Wordwind Satellite; © Great Wall of China, credit National Geographic; LongJi Terrace, credit National Geographic; Great Bear Rainforest, credit Paul Nicklen, National Geographic; Platoons of clay soldiers were buried with China's first emperor, Qin Shi Huang Di, (required a labor force of 700,000 to build), credit O. Louis Mazzatenta, National Geographic.

January 4th, 1490

Anne of Brittany (Duchess of Brittany, later Queen of France and mother to Queen Claude of France) credit Inor, Flickr; Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor and his family; with his son Philip the Fair, his wife Mary of Burgundy, his grandsons Ferdinand I and Charles V, and Louis II of Hungary (husband of his granddaughter Mary of Austria)

Anne, Duchess of Brittany announces that all those who would ally with the king of France will be considered guilty of the crime of Lese-majesty.

Wikipedia  Painting: Anne, Duchess of Brittany (Duchess of Brittany, later Queen of France and mother to Queen Claude of France) credit Inor, Flickr; Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor; and his family; with his son Philip the Fair, his wife Mary of Burgundy, his grandsons Ferdinand I and Charles V, and Louis II of Hungary (husband of his granddaughter Mary of Austria).

January 4th, 1642

English Civil War: (1642–1651) was a series of armed conflicts and political machinations between Parliamentarians (Roundheads) and Royalists (Cavaliers)

English Civil War:
1642 - King Charles I of England sends soldiers to arrest members of Parliament, commencing England's slide into civil war.
1649 - the Rump Parliament votes to put Charles I on trial.

Wikipedia  Painting: English Civil War (1642–1651) was a series of armed conflicts and political machinations between Parliamentarians (Roundheads) and Royalists (Cavaliers);
John Milton publishes Areopagitica; Battle of Naseby, victory of the Parliamentarian New Model Army; Battle of Marston Moor, 1644; "Cromwell at Dunbar", by Andrew Carrick Gow; Oliver Cromwell; King Charles I, painted by Van Dyck; "And when did you last see your father?" by William Frederick Yeames.

January 4th, 1847

Samuel Colt was an American inventor and industrialist from Hartford, Connecticut, founder of Colt's Patent Fire-Arms Manufacturing Company (now known as Colt's Manufacturing Company), and made the mass-production of the revolver commercially viable for the first time

Samuel Colt sells his first revolver pistol to the United States government.

Wikipedia  Image: Samuel Colt was an American inventor and industrialist from Hartford, Connecticut, founder of Colt's Patent Fire-Arms Manufacturing Company (now known as Colt's Manufacturing Company), and made the mass-production of the revolver commercially viable for the first time.

January 4th, 1865

The New York Stock Exchange floor, credit Associated Press; and fisheye view, credit © Geoff Sills, © Eric L Bowers

New York Stock Exchange opens its first permanent headquarters at 10-12 Broad near Wall Street in New York City.

Wikipedia  Photo: The New York Stock Exchange floor, credit Associated Press; and fisheye view, credit © Geoff Sills, © Eric L Bowers.

January 4th, 1896

Capitol Reef National Park: Utah Striped Cliff; Brimhall Natural Bridge; Egyptian Temple, Ross Barnett, Lonely Planet; Aerial view of rocks, Beverly & Woodward Payne Anderson, Lonely Planet; Tall cliffs along Sulphur Creek Canyon, John Elk III, Lonely Planet

Utah is admitted as the 45th U.S. state.

Wikipedia  Photo: Capitol Reef National Park; Utah Striped Cliff; Brimhall Natural Bridge; Egyptian Temple, Ross Barnett, Lonely Planet; Aerial view of rocks, Beverly & Woodward Payne Anderson, Lonely Planet; Tall cliffs along Sulphur Creek Canyon, John Elk III, Lonely Planet.

January 4th, 1903

War of Currents era (War of the Currents or Battle of Currents) in the late 1880s, George Westinghouse and Thomas Edison became adversaries due to Edison's promotion of direct current (DC) for electric power distribution over alternating current (AC) advocated by several European companies[1] and Westinghouse Electric based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

War of Currents era (War of the Currents or Battle of Currents):
1903 - Topsy, an elephant, is electrocuted by Thomas Edison.

Wikipedia  Image: War of Currents; era (War of the Currents or Battle of Currents) in the late 1880s, George Westinghouse and Thomas Edison became adversaries due to Edison's promotion of direct current (DC) for electric power distribution over alternating current (AC) advocated by several European companies[1] and Westinghouse Electric based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
(Thomas Edison American inventor and businessman, known as "The Wizard of Menlo Park", pushed for the development of a DC power network; Nikola Tesla, inventor, physicist, and electro-mechanical engineer, who held several instrumental patents in the Westinghouse AC system).

January 4th, 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 - Operation Carpetbagger, involving the dropping of arms and supplies to resistance fighters in Europe begins.
Post World War II:
1948 - Burma gains its independence from the United Kingdom.

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 4th, 1951

Korean War Collage

Korean War:
1951 - Battle of Seoul; Chinese and North Korean forces capture Seoul.

Wikipedia  Photo: Korean War Collage credit, The Big Picture, Boston Globe - (Associated Press; U.S. Department of Defense / SGT. F.C. Kerr; AP Photo; U.S. Department of Defense / TSGT. Charles B. Tyler; U.S. Department of Defense / TSGT. Charles B. Tyler; U.S. Department of Defense / TSGT. Robert H. Mosier; AP Photo / Max Desfor; U.S. Department of Defense / CPL. P. McDonald; AP Photo / Max Desfor; AP Photo/George Sweers; U.S. Navy / Maj. R.V. Spencer, UAF; AP Photo / Max Desfor).

January 4th, 1959

Luna 1, the first spacecraft to reach the vicinity of the Moon and to orbit the Sun, credit Science Photo Library

Luna 1, the first spacecraft to reach the vicinity of the Moon.

Wikipedia  Photo: Luna 1, the first spacecraft to reach the vicinity of the Moon and to orbit the Sun, credit Science Photo Library.

January 4th, 1974

Watergate Scandal: was a political scandal that occurred in the United States in the 1970s as a result of the June 1972 break-in at the Democratic National Committee headquarters at the Watergate office complex in Washington, D.C., and the Nixon administration's attempted cover-up of its involvement

Watergate Scandal: United States President Richard Nixon refuses to hand over materials subpoenaed by the Senate Watergate Committee.

Wikipedia  Photo: Watergate Scandal: was a political scandal that occurred in the United States in the 1970s as a result of the June 1972 break-in at the Democratic National Committee headquarters at the Watergate office complex in Washington, D.C., and the Nixon administration's attempted cover-up of its involvement.
Watergate Complex Washington, DC, credit Watergate Notes; President Richard M. Nixon defended himself against many allegations, National Archives; Oliver F. Atkins' photo of Nixon leaving the White House shortly before his resignation became effective, August 9, 1974.

January 4th, 2007

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) Nancy Pelosi, first female Speaker of the House in U.S. history, credit Associated Press

110th United States Congress convenes, electing Nancy Pelosi as the first female Speaker of the House in U.S. history.

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).
Nancy Pelosi, first female Speaker of the House in U.S. history, credit Associated Press.

January 4th, 2010

On January 4th, 2010, Burj Khalifa officially opened as the tallest manmade structure in the world; On October 17th, 2003, the pinnacle is fitted on the roof of Taipei 101, a 101-floor skyscraper in Taipei, allowing it to surpass the Petronas Twin Towers in Kuala Lumpur by 56 metres (184 ft) and become the World's tallest highrise

The official opening of Burj Khalifa the tallest skyscraper and building at 829.84 m (2,723 ft).

Wikipedia  Photo: On January 4th, 2010, Burj Khalifa officially opened as the tallest manmade structure in the world; On October 17th, 2003, the pinnacle is fitted on the roof of Taipei 101 a 101-floor skyscraper in Taipei, allowing it to surpass the Petronas Twin Towers in Kuala Lumpur by 56 metres (184 ft) and become the World's tallest highrise.

January 4th, 2013

List of modern conflicts in the Middle East

Modern conflicts in the Middle East, social unrest and terrorist attacks:
2013 - Kawit shooting; A gunman kills eight people in a house-to-house rampage in Kawit, Cavite, Philippines.

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)