First Confidential

THIS DAY IN HISTORY - MARCH 1st

John Stuart Mill, Quote

“Truth gains more even by the errors of one who, with due study and preparation, thinks for himself, than by the true opinions of those who only hold them because they do not suffer themselves to think.”

~ John Stuart Mill

Wikiquote (John Stuart Mill (May 20, 1806 – May 8, 1873) a British philosopher, political economist and civil servant. He was an influential contributor to social theory, political theory, and political economy. He has been called "the most influential English-speaking philosopher of the nineteenth century".)

This Day in History

March 1st, 752 BC

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 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)

Founding of Rome - Romulus and Remus:
752 BC - Romulus, legendary first king of Rome, celebrates the first Roman triumph after his victory over the Caeninenses, following The Rape of the Sabine Women.

Wikipedia  Image: Romolo, also known as Quirinus, founder and first king of the Roman Kingdom ● Altar from Ostia showing the discovery of Romulus and Remus (now at the Palazzo Massimo alle Terme) ● Romulus, Victor over Acron, hauls the rich booty to the temple of Jupiter, by Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres ● The Sabine Women, by Jacques-Louis David ● Faustulus (to the right of picture) discovers Romulus and Remus with the she-wolf and woodpecker. Their mother Rhea Silvia and the river-god Tiberinus witness the moment. Peter Paul Rubens, 1616 (Capitoline Museums).


March 1st, 509 BC

Temple of Jupiter Optimus Maximus on Rome's Capitoline Hill is dedicated on the ides of September Theodosius I: 67th Emperor of the Roman Empire; Missorium of Theodosius I, flanked by Valentinian II and Arcadius, 388 Roman Empire Decline and Fall of Rome

Roman Empire:
509 BC - Battle of Silva Arsia; Publius Valerius Publicola Roman consul, celebrates the first triumph of the Roman Republic after his victory over the deposed king Lucius Tarquinius Superbus.
86 BC - Lucius Cornelius Sulla, at the head of a Roman Republic army, enters Athens, removing the tyrant Aristion who was supported by troops of Mithridates VI of Pontus.
293 - Roman emperors Diocletian and Maximian appoint Constantius Chlorus as Caesar to Maximian.
317 - Crispus and Constantine II, sons of Roman emperor Constantine I, and Licinius Iunior, son of Emperor Licinius, are made Caesares.
350 - Vetranio is asked by Constantina, sister of Constantius II, to proclaim himself Caesar.

Wikipedia  Image: Temple of Jupiter Optimus Maximus; Temple of Jupiter Capitolinus (Latin: Aedes Iovis Optimi Maximi Capitolini, Italian: Tempio di Giove Ottimo Massimo, English: "Temple of Jupiter Best and Greatest on the Capitoline") was the most important temple in Ancient Rome, located on the Capitoline Hill.
Theodosius I 67th Emperor of the Roman Empire; Missorium of Theodosius I, flanked by Valentinian II and Arcadius, 388.
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.


March 1st, 1562

The French Wars of Religion (1562–98): Period of civil infighting and military operations, primarily fought between French Catholics and Protestants (Huguenots) (The conflict involved the factional disputes between the aristocratic houses of France, such as the House of Bourbon and House of Guise (Lorraine), and both sides received assistance from foreign sources)

French Wars of Religion:
Huguenots are massacred by Catholics in Wassy, France, marking the start of the French Wars of Religion.

Wikipedia  Painting: The French Wars of Religion; (1562–98): Period of civil infighting and military operations, primarily fought between French Catholics and Protestants (Huguenots). (The conflict involved the factional disputes between the aristocratic houses of France, such as the House of Bourbon and House of Guise (Lorraine), and both sides received assistance from foreign sources).
● Depiction of the Saint Bartholomew's Day massacre by François Dubois. ● Armed procession of the Catholic League in Paris in 1590, Musée Carnavalet. ● Catherine de' Medici One morning at the gates of the Louvre, 19th-century painting by Édouard Debat-Ponsan.


March 1st, 1565

Rio de Janeiro, Brazil: panorama view of the city ● Christ the Redeemer, is a statue of Jesus Christ in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil ● Rio de Janeiro at night ● Rio de Janeiro at carnival

The city of Rio de Janeiro is founded.

Wikipedia  Photo: The city of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; panorama view of the city ● Christ the Redeemer, is a statue of Jesus Christ in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil ● Rio de Janeiro at night ● Rio de Janeiro at carnival.


March 1st, 1781

American Revolutionary War Collage American Revolutionary War, Grand Union - Stars and Stripes Flag American Revolutionary War: Articles of Confederation, formally the Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union, was an agreement among the 13 founding states that established the United States of America as a confederation of sovereign states and served as its first constitution

American Revolutionary War:
1781 - The Continental Congress adopts the Articles of Confederation. 1801 - Pursuant to the District of Columbia Organic Act of 1801, Washington, D.C. is placed under the jurisdiction of the United States Congress.

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).
Grand Union - Stars and Stripes Flag
Articles of Confederation, formally the Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union, was an agreement among the 13 founding states that established the United States of America as a confederation of sovereign states and served as its first constitution.


March 1st, 1815

Napoleonic Wars: (1803–15) were a series of wars declared against Napoleon's French Empire by opposing coalitions French Revolutionary Wars, Battle of the Nile (Battle of Aboukir Bay): Battle begins when a British fleet engages the French Revolutionary Navy fleet in an unusual night action

French Revolutionary Wars / Napoleonic Wars:
1815 - Napoleon returns to France from his banishment on Elba.

Wikipedia  Painting: Battle of Trafalgar: The British HMS Sandwich fires to the French flagship Bucentaure (completely dismasted) in the battle of Trafalgar; Napoleon in Berlin (Meynier). After defeating Prussian forces at Jena, the French Army entered Berlin on 27 October 1806; Battle of the Bridge of Arcole Napoleon Bonaparte leading his troops over the bridge of Arcole, by Horace Vernet; Napoleon as King of Italy (Appiani); Napoleon Crossing the Alps (David). In 1800 Bonaparte took the French Army across the Alps, eventually defeating the Austrians at Marengo; Charge of the Russian Imperial Guard cavalry against French cuirassiers at the Battle of Friedland, 14 June 1807; Battle of Borodino as depicted by Louis Lejeune. The battle was the largest and bloodiest single-day action of the Napoleonic Wars; Napoleon's withdrawal from Russia, a painting by Adolph Northen; Wellington at Waterloo by Robert Alexander Hillingford; Napoleon is often represented in his green colonel uniform of the Chasseur à Cheval, with a large bicorne and a hand-in-waistcoat gesture.
Battle of the Nile (Battle of Aboukir Bay).


March 1st, 1872

Bison Herd, Yellowstone National Park, credit National Park Service

Yellowstone National Park is established as the world's first national park.

Wikipedia  Photo: Yellowstone National Park; ● Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone. ● Great Fountain Geyser in Yellowstone, the first U.S. national park, erupts every 9 to 15 hours, shooting water up to 220 feet high ● Bison Herd, Yellowstone National Park


March 1st, 1912

Parachute: The word 'parachute' comes from the French prefix paracete, originally from the Greek, meaning to protect against, and chute, the French word for 'fall', and it was originally coined, as a hybrid word which meant literally 'that which protects against a fall', by the French aeronaut François Blanchard (1753–1809) in 1785.

Albert Berry makes the first parachute jump from a moving airplane.

Wikipedia  Photo: Felix Baumgartner prepares to skydive from an unofficial altitude of 128,097 feet (39 km) (Photo: Red Bull Stratos) ● Russian soldiers make parachute jumps during a training session during Peace Mission-2009, (Reuters) ● United States parachute jumps ● A parachute deploys as the space shuttle Endeavour touches down at Edwards Air Force Base, Sunday, Nov. 30, 2008 in California. (AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill)


March 1st, 1917

World War I: Collage

World War I:
1917 - United States government releases the unencrypted text of the Zimmermann Telegram to the public.

Wikipedia  Photo: Trenches on the Western Front; a British Mark IV Tank crossing a trench; Royal Navy battleship HMS Irresistible sinking after striking a mine at the Battle of the Dardanelles; a Vickers machine gun crew with gas masks, and German Albatros D.III biplanes. National Archives and Records Administration.


March 1st, 1919

Japan - Korea Satellite image: shows North and South Korea (upper left) as well as the Japanese island of Shikoku, between Kyushu to the southwest and Honshu to the north. credit Earth Observatory, NASA

March 1st Movement begins in Korea.

Wikipedia  Image: Japan - Korea Satellite image: shows North and South Korea (upper left) as well as the Japanese island of Shikoku, between Kyushu to the southwest and Honshu to the north. credit Earth Observatory, NASA.


March 1st, 1932

Charles Lindbergh (February 4, 1902 – August 26, 1974) (nicknamed 'Slim', 'Lucky Lindy' and 'The Lone Eagle') was an American aviator, author, inventor, explorer, and social activist (Lindbergh emerged suddenly from virtual obscurity to instantaneous world fame as the result of his Orteig Prize-winning solo non-stop flight on May 20–21, 1927, from New York's Long Island to Le Bourget Field in Paris, France, a distance of nearly 3,600 statute miles (5,800 km), in the single-seat, single-engine purpose built Ryan monoplane Spirit of St. Louis) Bruno Hauptmann is arrested for the kidnap and murder of Charles Lindbergh Jr.

The son of aviator Charles Lindbergh, Charles Augustus Lindbergh III is kidnapped.

Wikipedia  Photo: Charles Lindbergh (February 4, 1902 – August 26, 1974) (nicknamed 'Slim', 'Lucky Lindy' and 'The Lone Eagle') was an American aviator, author, inventor, explorer, and social activist. (Lindbergh emerged suddenly from virtual obscurity to instantaneous world fame as the result of his Orteig Prize-winning solo non-stop flight on May 20–21, 1927, from New York's Long Island to Le Bourget Field in Paris, France, a distance of nearly 3,600 statute miles (5,800 km), in the single-seat, single-engine purpose built Ryan monoplane Spirit of St. Louis.)
Bruno Hauptmann (Murder, Death by electrocution) / Charles Lindbergh Jr.


March 1st, 1936

Hoover Dam, astride the border between the U.S. states of Arizona and Nevada, is dedicated

Hoover Dam is completed.

Wikipedia  Photo: Hoover Dam, credit National Geographic magazine


March 1st, 1939

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:
1939 - A Japanese Imperial Army ammunition dump explodes at Hirakata, Osaka, Japan killing 94.
1941 - Bulgaria signs the Tripartite Pact, allying itself with the Axis powers.
Post World War II:
1946 - Bank of England is nationalised.
1947 - International Monetary Fund begins financial operations.

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.


March 1st, 1950

Cold War: often dated from 1947–1991, was a sustained state of political and military tension between the powers of the Western world, led by the United States and its NATO allies, and the communist world, led by the Soviet Union, its satellite states and allies Cold War: in Moscow, downed American U-2 pilot Francis Gary Powers is sentenced to ten years imprisonment by the Soviet Union for espionage

Cold War:
1950 - Klaus Fuchs is convicted of spying for the Soviet Union by disclosing top secret atomic bomb data.
1954 - Nuclear testing; The Castle Bravo, a 15-megaton hydrogen bomb, is detonated on Bikini Atoll in the Pacific Ocean, resulting in the worst radioactive contamination ever caused by the United States.

Wikipedia  Photo: Lockheed C-130 Hercules; RAF Menwith Hill, a large site in the United Kingdom, part of ECHELON and the UKUSA Agreement; New Zealand nuclear test, British nuclear tests near the Malden and Christmas Islands in the mid-Pacific in 1957 and 1958; Nevada nuclear tests, Nevada Division of Environmental Protection Bureau of Federal Facilities.
U2, Lockheed TR-1 in flight.


March 1st, 1953

Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin (December 18, 1878 – March 5. 1953) was the Premier of the Soviet Union from 6 May 1941 until his death in 5 March 1953

Soviet leader Joseph Stalin suffers a stroke and collapses. He dies four days later.

Wikipedia  Photo: Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin (December 18, 1878 – March 5. 1953) was the Premier of the Soviet Union from 6 May 1941 until his death in 5 March 1953 ● Young Ioseb, 1894, aged 16 (left) and 23 (right) 1902 ● Prior to the revolution of 1917, Stalin played an active role in fighting the tsarist government. Here he is shown on a 1911 information card from the files of the Tsarist secret police in Saint Petersburg ● Stalin and Vladimir Lenin in 1919 ● A group of participants in the 8th Congress of the Russian Communist Party, 1919. In the middle are Stalin, Vladimir Lenin, and Mikhail Kalinin. ● Stalin in 1941, about 63 years of age.


March 1st, 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: Seven are indicted for their role in the Watergate break-in and charged with conspiracy to obstruct justice.

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.


March 1st, 1992

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

Bosnia and Herzegovina declares its independence from Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.

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.


March 1st, 1995

Yahoo!

Yahoo! is incorporated.

Wikipedia  Image: Yahoo!Inc. is an American multinational internet corporation headquartered in Sunnyvale, California, United States.


March 1st, 2005

United States Supreme Court declares Alabama laws requiring segregated buses illegal, thus ending the Montgomery Bus Boycott

2005 - The Supreme Court of the United States rules that the execution of juveniles found guilty of murder is unconstitutional marking a change in "national standards".

Wikipedia  Photo: United States Supreme Court building; Guardian of Law, by James Earle Fraser, US Supreme Court, Washington, DC, USA.


March 1st, 2007

Tornado Collage: A tornado is a violently rotating column of air that is in contact with both the surface of the earth and a cumulonimbus cloud or, in rare cases, the base of a cumulus cloud.

Tornadoes:
2007 - February-March 2007 Tornado Outbreak: Tornadoes break out across the Southern United States, one of the largest tornado outbreaks in U.S. history.

Wikipedia  Photo: Weather Front System; Tornado near Anadarko, Oklahoma; North Dakota Tornado; F3 Category Tornado Swirls Across A South Dakota Prairie by Carsten Peter; A waterspout parallels a lightning strike over Lake Okeechobee in Florida, by Fred K. Smith, National Geographics, Extream Instability.


March 1st, 2014

List of modern conflicts in the Middle East

Modern conflicts in the Middle East, social unrest and terrorist attacks:
2014 - Kunming attack; At least 29 people are killed and 130 injured in a mass stabbing at Kunming Railway Station in Free Syrian Army captures Al-Bab from Islamic State at least 25 people.
2008 - Alleged fraudulent presidential elections; The Armenian police clash with peaceful opposition rally protesting against allegedly fraudulent presidential elections, as a result ten people are killed.

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)