First Confidential

THIS DAY IN HISTORY - JANUARY 7th

Abraham Lincoln, Quote

“The dogmas of the quiet past are inadequate to the stormy present. The occasion is piled high with difficulty, and we must rise with the occasion. As our case is new, so we must think anew and act anew.”

~ Abraham Lincoln

Wikiquote (Abraham Lincoln (February 12, 1809 – April 15, 1865) was the 16th President of the United States and led the country during the American Civil War.)

This Day in History

January 7th, 1598

Boris Godunov was the most noted member of an ancient, now extinct, Russian family of Tatar origin; Boris Godunov Overseeing the Studies of his Son, painting by N. Nekrasov

Boris Godunov becomes Czar of Russia, the last continental possession of England.

Wikipedia  Painting: Boris Godunov was the most noted member of an ancient, now extinct, Russian family of Tatar origin; Boris Godunov Overseeing the Studies of his Son, painting by N. Nekrasov.

January 7th, 1608

Susan Constant, Discovery, and Godspeed: wind-powered ships that brought English colonists to Jamestown in 1607, credit National Park Service, Sidney King Paintings

The Jamestown, Virginia is destroyed by fire.

Wikipedia  Painting: Susan Constant, Discovery, and Godspeed: wind-powered ships that brought English colonists to Jamestown in 1607, credit National Park Service, Sidney King Paintings.

January 7th, 1610

Galileo Galilei demonstrates his first telescope to Venetian lawmakers Galileo Galilei demonstrates his first telescope to Venetian lawmakers

Galileo Galilei makes his first observation of the four Galilean moons: Ganymede, Callisto, Io and Europa, although he is not able distinguish the last two until the following day.

Wikipedia  Painting: Fresco by Giuseppe Bertini depicting Galileo showing the Doge of Venice how to use the telescope
Image: Montage of Jupiter's four Galilean moons, in a composite image comparing their sizes and the size of Jupiter. (Io, Europa, Ganymede, Callisto);

January 7th, 1904

The International Radiotelegraphic Convention adopts three dots, three dashes and three dots—SOS in Morse code—as the standard wireless distress signal, on November 3, 1906, credit Smithsonian

The distress signal "CQD" is established only to be replaced two years later by "SOS".

Wikipedia  Image: The International Radiotelegraphic Convention adopts three dots, three dashes and three dots—SOS in Morse code—as the standard wireless distress signal, on November 3, 1906, credit Smithsonian.

January 7th, 1940

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:
1940 - Winter War; Battle of Raate Road - Finnish 9th Division stops and completely destroys the overwhelming Soviet forces on the Raate-Suomussalmi road.
1942 - Battle of Bataan; begins.
1945 - Battle of the Bulge; British General Bernard Montgomery holds a press conference in which he claims credit for victory in the Battle of the Bulge.

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 7th, 1959

Cuban Revolution Collage

Cuban Revolution:
1959 - The United States recognizes the new Cuban government of Fidel Castro.

Wikipedia  Photo / Map: The leadership of the Cuban revolution; Fidel Castro played the leading role in the Cuban revolution against Fulgencio Batista (1957) AFP; Fidel Castro leads men in a cheer, Cuba, 1957, Bettmann/ Corbis; Cuban Airlift to the United States (1959 and 1962); Resiste Cuba, homenaje a la revolución cubana y sus héroes música: Protesta-Por Cuba; Che Guevara and Fidel Castro ; Official caption: "Off loading Cuban refugees at the Miami sea buoy", photo dated 4 May 1964; Photo No. 7CGD-050464 #12; Guerrillero Heroico - Alberto Korda's famous photograph of Che Guevara; The popularized cropped version.

January 7th, 1960

UGM-27 Polaris, Polaris A-3 on launch pad prior to a test firing at Cape Canaveral; Test firing of a Polaris missile, credit Nebraskastudies.org

Polaris missile is test launched.

Wikipedia  Photo: UGM-27 Polaris, Polaris A-3 on launch pad prior to a test firing at Cape Canaveral; Test firing of a Polaris missile, credit Nebraskastudies.org.

January 7th, 1990

The Leaning Tower of Pisa reopens after 11 years and $27,000,000 to fortify it, without fixing its famous lean

The interior of the Leaning Tower of Pisa is closed to the public because of safety concerns. (The Leaning Tower of Pisa reopens after 11 years and $27,000,000 to fortify it, without fixing its famous lean on December 15th, 2001.)

Wikipedia  Photo: The Leaning Tower of Pisa, credit Travels.

January 7th, 1993

Kingdom of Yugoslavia: (Serbo-Croatian: Kraljevina Jugoslavija, Краљевина Југославија) was a state stretching from the Western Balkans to Central Europe which existed during the often-tumultuous interwar era of 1918–1941 1995 NATO bombing campaign in Bosnia and Herzegovina / Aug. 30, 1995 by Oleg Stjepanovic (AP) ● Smoke rises from an ammunition depot in Bosnian Serb stronghold Pale near Sarajevo after NATO air strikes ● CK building in the moments after bombing ● Serbia marks the 10th anniversary of the Nato-led bombing campaign ● U.S. F-117 Nighthawk taxis to the runway before taking off from Aviano Air Base, Italy, on March 24, 1999

Yugoslav Wars, NATO bombing of Yugoslavia:
1993 Kravica attack (1993); The Bosnian Army executes a surprise attack on the village of Kravica in Srebrenica.

Wikipedia  Map: Kingdom of Yugoslavia; Belgrade, Yugoslavia; A twilight moon rises above the Kamniske mountains and Slovenia’s Sava River Valley, Slovenia, credit National Geographic; Yugoslavia, November 1977, credit National Geographic.
Photo: 1995 NATO bombing campaign in Bosnia and Herzegovina / Aug. 30, 1995 by Oleg Stjepanovic (AP) ● Smoke rises from an ammunition depot in Bosnian Serb stronghold Pale near Sarajevo after NATO air strikes ● CK building in the moments after bombing ● Serbia marks the 10th anniversary of the Nato-led bombing campaign ● U.S. F-117 Nighthawk taxis to the runway before taking off from Aviano Air Base, Italy, on March 24, 1999.

January 7th, 2016

List of modern conflicts in the Middle East

Modern conflicts in the Middle East, social unrest and terrorist attacks:
2016 - Aleppo offensive (November–December 2016); Syrian army continues large-scale attack and controls the revival (Sheikh Lutfi, Marja, Bab al-Nairab, Maadi, Al-Salhin) in the east of Aleppo backed by Aleppo and Iranian militias.
2010 - Nag Hammadi massacre; Muslim gunmen in Egypt open fire on a crowd of Coptic Christians leaving church after celebrating a midnight Christmas mass, killing eight of them as well as one Muslim bystander.

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)