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Who save the madman dares to cry: “'Tis I am right, you all are wrong”?
“You all are right, you all are wrong,” we hear the careless Soofi say,
“For each believes his glimm'ering lamp to be the gorgeous light of day.”
~ Sir Richard Francis Burton
Wikiquote (Sir Richard Francis Burton (KCMG FRGS (March 19, 1821 – October 20, 1890) was a British geographer, explorer, translator, writer, soldier, orientalist, cartographer, ethnologist, spy, linguist, poet, fencer and diplomat.)
March 19th, 1279
Mongol Empire:
1279 - Battle of Yamen; A Mongolian victory ends the Song Dynasty in China.
Wikipedia Image: Map of Mongol Empire at its height; Genghis Khan, credit The Field Museum in Chicago; Genghis Khan various Mongolian tribes joined together in 1206; Mongol warriors was created for an Islamic history book, Rashid al-Din's History of the World of 1307, courtesy of the Edinburgh University Library, Scotland.
March 19th, 1649
English Civil War:
1649 - The House of Commons of England passes an act abolishing the House of Lords, declaring it "useless and dangerous to the people of England".
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.
March 19th, 1687
Explorer René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle, searching for the mouth of the Mississippi River, is murdered by his own men.
Wikipedia Painting: La Salle's Expedition to Louisiana in 1684, painted in 1844 by Theodore Gudin. La Belle is on the left, Le Joly is in the middle, and L'Aimable is grounded on the right. (1681 map shows cartographer Claude Bernou's perception of North America before La Salle traversed the Mississippi River - The Rio Grande is listed as Rio Bravo, and the map shows a lack of knowledge of the geography of Texas)
March 19th, 1812
French Revolutionary Wars / Napoleonic Wars:
1812 - The Cádiz Cortes promulgates the Spanish Constitution of 1812.
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 19th, 1853
China:
1853 - Taiping Rebellion; occupies and makes Nanjing its capital until 1864.
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.
March 19th, 1861
New Zealand land wars: First Taranaki War; ends in the Taranaki Region of New Zealand.
Wikipedia Image: Rewi Manga Maniapoto (died 1894) was a Waikato chief who led Maori forces during the British Invasion of Waikato during the New Zealand Wars; Satellite image of New Zealand, NASA's Visible Earth; Bay of Islands.
March 19th, 1863
American Civil War:
1863 - The SS Georgiana, said to have been the most powerful Confederate cruiser, is destroyed on her maiden voyage with a cargo of munitions, medicines and merchandise then valued at over $1,000,000.
1865 - Battle of Bentonville; begins. By the end of the battle two days later, Confederate forces had retreated from Four Oaks, North Carolina.
1965 - The wreck of the SS Georgiana, valued at over $50,000,000 and said to have been the most powerful Confederate cruiser, is discovered by then teenage diver and pioneer underwater archaeologist E. Lee Spence, exactly 102 years after its destruction.
Wikipedia Image: ● Lincoln Memorial; an American national monument built to honor the 16th President of the United States, Abraham Lincoln - located on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. across from the Washington Monument.
● The northern army led by George McClellan and the southern army led by Robert E. Lee met at Antietam Creek, Maryland in September, 1862. It was a bloody battle where 13,000 Confederates and 12,000 Union troops died in just one day. McClellan had hesitated to attack before the battle thus letting the southern troops regroup. Also, he had saved reserves and refused to use them at the end of the battle thinking that Lee was holding reserves for a counterattack, even though those reserves didn't exist. The Union victory stopped Lee's northward advance and was a turning point in the war.
● Battle of Antietam / Stone Bridge at Antietam Battlefield - Sharpsburg, Maryland
● First Battle Between Ironclads: CSS Virginia/Merrimac (left) vs. USS Monitor, in 1862 at the Battle of Hampton Roads.
● Although photography was still in its infancy, war correspondents produced thousands of images, bringing the harsh realities of the frontlines to those on the home front in a new and visceral way. The Atlantic.
March 19th, 1885
North-West Rebellion: Louis Riel declares a Provisional Government in Saskatchewan.
Wikipedia Image: North-West Rebellion; Contemporary lithograph of the Battle of Fish Creek.
March 19th, 1895
The Lumière brothers record their first footage using their newly patented cinematograph (a combination movie camera and projector).
Wikipedia Photo: Auguste and Louis Lumière (Auguste Lumière (left) and Louis Lumière (right))
March 19th, 1918
The United States Congress establishes time zones and approves daylight saving time.
Wikipedia Image: Map of the World Time Zones, credit Mihalko-family
March 19th, 1920
Post World War I:
1920 - The Treaty of Versailles is rejected by the United States Senate for the second time (the first time was on November 19, 1919).
1921 - Italian Fascists shoot from the Parenzana train at a group of children in Strunjan (Slovenia).
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 19th, 1921
Irish War of Independence:
1921 - Crossbarry Ambush; One of the biggest engagements of the war takes place at Crossbarry, County Cork. About 100 Irish Republican Army (IRA) volunteers escape an attempt by over 1,300 British forces to encircle them.
Wikipedia Photo: British troops in Dublin City 1920's during the Irish War of Independence; Not everyone was a separatist in Ireland in 1919. Here the Union Jack flies over Trinity College at the Victory Parade for the First World War in Dublin; It believe the story behind the headlinesin the photo was with the shooting by members of Michael Collins squad of a high-ranking official of the G. N. R. (The Great Northern Railway) on the Southside of Dublin.
March 19th, 1931
Gambling is legalized in Nevada.
Wikipedia Photo: Las Vegas Strip in Paradise and Winchester; Valley of Fire State Park; Great Basin National Park; Mount Charleston.
March 19th, 1932
Sydney Harbour Bridge is opened.
Wikipedia Photo: Sydney Harbour Bridgei (Sydney Harbour from the air, showing the Opera House, the CBD, Circular Quay, the Bridge, the Parramatta River, North Sydney and Kirribilli in the foreground).
March 19th, 1941
World War II:
1941 - The 99th Pursuit Squadron also known as the Tuskegee Airmen, the first all-black unit of the Army Air Corp, is activated.
1944 - Nazi forces occupy Hungary.
1945 - Off the coast of Japan, a dive bomber hits the aircraft carrier USS Franklin, killing 724 of her crew. Badly damaged, the ship is able to return to the U.S. under her own power.
1945 - Adolf Hitler issues his "Nero Decree" ordering all industries, military installations, shops, transportation facilities and communications facilities in Germany to be destroyed.
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 19th, 1943
Frank Nitti the Chicago Outfit Boss after Al Capone, commits suicide at the Chicago Central Railyard.
Wikipedia Photo: Al Capone Chicago Gangster; Historic courtroom at 2600 S. California Avenue, Chicago, IL; Al Capone (in white hat) emerged from a federal building in Chicago after his trial on Dec. 10, 1931. The gangster was convicted of five counts of tax evasion and failing to file a return. Associated Press.
March 19th, 1954
Willie Mosconi sets a world record by running 526 consecutive balls without a miss during a straight pool exhibition at East High Billiard Club in Springfield, Ohio. (The record still stands today.)
Wikipedia Photo: Willie Mosconi the most accomplished pool player in history, in a practice round at the national Pocket Billiards Championship in 1933, credit Associated Press.
March 19th, 1982
Falklands War: Argentine forces land on South Georgia Island, precipitating war with the United Kingdom.
Wikipedia Image: Falkland Islands; Map Falkland Islands and Patagonia; Perito Moreno glacier and Lago Argentino, credit Wideview.it (Falkland Islands and Patagonia), New York Times.
March 19th, 1989
The Egyptian Flag is raised on Taba, Egypt announcing the end of the Israeli occupation after the Yom Kippur War in 1973 and the peace negotiations in 1979.
Wikipedia Photo: Yom Kippur War: credit Phobos.ramapo.edu.
March 19th, 2003
Gulf War - Iraq War:
2003 - United States President George W. Bush orders the start of war against Iraq.
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.
March 19th, 2011
Libyan civil war:
2011 - Battle of Benghazi; After the failure of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi's forces to take Benghazi, French Air Force launches Opération Harmattan, beginning foreign military intervention in Libya.
Wikipedia Photo: Colonel Muammar Gaddafi some time after seizing power in 1969 as a 27-year-old army captain. 1969 - 2011. Associated Press ● Protesters opposed to leader Muammar Gaddafi on a tank in Libya, Ahmed Jadallah, Reuters.
March 19th, 2016
Aviation accidents and incidents:
2016 - Flydubai Flight 981; crashes while attempting to land at Rostov-on-Don international airport, killing all 62 on board.
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
March 19th, 2016
Modern conflicts in the Middle East, social unrest and terrorist attacks:
2016 - Istanbul bombing; An explosion occurs in Taksim Square in Istanbul, Turkey, killing five people and injuring 36.
2013 - Iraq attacks; A series of bombings and shootings kills at least 98 people and injures 240 others across Iraq.
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)