First Confidential

THIS DAY IN HISTORY - JANUARY 12th

Edmund Burke, Quote

“Whoever undertakes to set himself up as a judge of Truth and Knowledge is shipwrecked by the laughter of the gods.”

~ Edmund Burke

Wikiquote (Edmund Burke (January 12, 1729 – July 9, 1797) was an Irish political philosopher, Whig politician and statesman who is often regarded as the father of modern conservatism.)

This Day in History

January 12th, 475

Byzantine Empire Collage

Byzantine Empire (East Roman Empire):
475 - Basiliscus becomes Byzantine Emperor, with a coronation ceremony in the Hebdomon palace in Constantinople.

Wikipedia  Image: The Baptism of Constantine painted by Raphael's pupils (1520–1524, fresco, Vatican City, Apostolic Palace); Mural of Saints Cyril and Methodius, 19th century, Troyan Monastery, Bulgaria; Justinian I depicted on one of the famous mosaics of the Basilica of San Vitale, Ravenna; The Greek fire was first used by the Byzantine Navy during the Byzantine-Arab Wars (from the Madrid Skylitzes, Biblioteca Nacional de España, Madrid); Alexios I, founder of the Komnenos dynasty.

January 12th, 1908

Eiffel tower, Paris, France, Fisheye - HDR, credit Erlend Robaye, Getty Images

A long-distance radio message is sent from the Eiffel Tower for the first time.

Wikipedia  Photo: Eiffel Tower, Paris, France, Fisheye - HDR, credit Erlend Robaye, Getty Images.

January 12th, 1915

Rocky Mountain National Park is a national park located in the north-central region of the U.S. state of Colorado (features majestic mountain views, a variety of wildlife, varied climates and environments—from wooded forests to mountain tundra)

Rocky Mountain National Park is formed by an act of the United States Congress.

Wikipedia  Photo: Rocky Mountain National Park is a national park located in the north-central region of the U.S. state of Colorado (features majestic mountain views, a variety of wildlife, varied climates and environments—from wooded forests to mountain tundra)
Rocky Mountain National Park; BioBlitz 2012 in Colorado, credit National Geographic; credit Mark Sanders, National Geographic; credit Ron Niebrugge, Alamy.

January 12th, 1915

Suffragettes were members of women's suffrage (right to vote) movements in the late 19th and 20th century, particularly in the United Kingdom and United States

Woman's suffrage:
1915 - The United States House of Representatives rejects a proposal to give women the right to vote.

Wikipedia  Photo: Woman's suffrage: in the United Kingdom and United States, credit Library of Congress ● Emmeline Pankhurst (100 Most Important People of the 20th Century) ● Christabel Pankhurst ● Women suffragists demonstrating for the right to vote, February 1913 ● Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution became law on August 26, 1920, and women could vote in the Presidential election.

January 12th, 1918

Finland's 'Mosaic Confessors' law went into effect, making Finnish Jews full citizens

Finland's "Mosaic Confessors" law went into effect, making Finnish Jews full citizens.

Wikipedia  Photo: Finland's "Mosaic Confessors" law went into effect, making Finnish Jews full citizens.

January 12th, 1942

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:
1942 - United States President Franklin_D._Roosevelt creates the National War Labor Board.

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 12th, 1962

Vietnam War: Operation Swift; U.S. Marines engage the North Vietnamese in battle in the Que Son Valley

Vietnam War:
1962 - Operation Chopper;, the first American combat mission in the war, takes place.
1966 - United States President Lyndon B. Johnson states that the United States should stay in South Vietnam until Communist aggression there is ended.

Wikipedia  Photo: Vietnam_War; Side view of an HH-53 helicopter of the 40th Aerospace Rescue and Recovery Squadron as seen from the gunner's position on an A-1 of the 21st Specialist Operations Squadron. (USAF Photo by Ken Hackman), Boston Globe;
Vietnam War: The Big Picture / Boston Globe.

January 12th, 1991

Iraq War: The Persian Gulf War (2 August 1990 – 28 February 1991), codenamed Operation Desert Storm (17 January 1991 – 28 February 1991) commonly referred to as simply the Gulf War, was a war waged by a UN-authorized coalition force from 34 nations led by the United States, against Iraq in response to Iraq's invasion and annexation of Kuwait

Iraq War:
1991 - An act of the United States Congress authorizes the use of military force to drive Iraq out of Kuwait.

Wikipedia  Photo: USAF F-15Es, F-16s, and a USAF F-15 flying over burning Kuwaiti oil wells; Iraqi Army T-72 main battle tanks. The T-72 tank was a common Iraqi battle tank used in the Gulf War; F-15Es parked during Operation Desert Shield; The oil fires caused were a result of the scorched earth policy of Iraqi military forces retreating from Kuwait; Aerial view of destroyed Iraqi T-72 tank, BMP-1 and Type 63 armored personnel carriers and trucks on Highway 8 in March 1991.

January 12th, 2005

Deep Impact comet strike, artwork, credit Gil Babin / Eurelious / Science Photo Library; NASA's former Deep Impact comet-bomber space probe; A Delta II rocket launches from Cape Canaveral carrying the Dawn spacecraft

Deep Impact (spacecraft) launches from Cape Canaveral on a Delta II.

Wikipedia  Image: Deep Impact comet strike, artwork, credit Gil Babin / Eurelious / Science Photo Library; NASA's former Deep Impact comet-bomber space probe; A Delta II rocket launches from Cape Canaveral carrying the Dawn spacecraft.

January 12th, 2010

Global Earthquake epicenters

Earthquake:
2010 - Haiti earthquake of 2010; occurs killing an estimated 316,000 and destroying the majority of the capital Port-au-Prince.

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.