First Confidential

THIS DAY IN HISTORY - APRIL 6th

Julia Abigail Fletcher Carney, Quote

Little drops of water,

Little grains of sand,

Make the mighty ocean

And the pleasant land.

Thus the little minutes,

Humble though they be,

Make the mighty ages

Of eternity.

~ Julia Abigail Fletcher Carney

Wikiquote (Julia Abigail Fletcher Carney (April 6, 1823 – November 1, 1908) an American educator and poet. She wrote the poem "Little things".)

This Day in History

April 6th, 1199

Richard I of England

King Richard I of England wounded by a crossbow bolt while fighting France on March 25th, dies from an infection following the removal of an arrow from his shoulder.

Wikipedia  Image: Richard I of England: The ruins of Château Gaillard. Even a rain of blood – considered a bad omen – did not dissuade Richard from building his vast and expensive fortress in Normandy. ● 19th-century portrait of Richard by Merry-Joseph Blondel ● Richard I being anointed during his coronation in Westminster Abbey, from a 13th-century chronicle ● Effigy (1199) of Richard I at Fontevraud Abbey, Anjou.

April 6th, 1250

Crusades collage: Crusades were a series of religious expeditionary wars blessed by Pope Urban II and the Catholic Church, with the stated goal of restoring Christian access to the holy places in and near Jerusalem - Jerusalem considered a sacred city and symbol of all three major Abrahamic faiths (Judaism, Christianity and Islam)

Crusades:
1250 - Seventh Crusade; Battle of Fariskur - Ayyubids of Egypt captures King Louis IX of France.

Wikipedia  Image: The Siege of Antioch, from a 15th-century miniature; After the successful siege of Jerusalem in 1099, Godfrey of Bouillon, leader of the First Crusade, became the first ruler of the Kingdom of Jerusalem; Baldwin I of Jerusalem; Medieval image of Peter the Hermit, leading knights, soldiers and women toward Jerusalem during the First Crusade; The Battle of Ager Sanguinis, 1337 miniature; Pope Innocent III excommunicating the Albigensians, Massacre against the Albigensians by the crusaders; The capture of Jerusalem marked the First Crusade's success.

April 6th, 1453

Byzantine Empire Collage Byzantine Empire is the great church of Hagia Sophia (Church of the Holy Wisdom) in Constantinople (562)

Byzantine Empire (East Roman Empire):
1453 - Mehmed II begins his siege of Constantinople (Istanbul), which falls on May 29.

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.
Photo: Byzantine Empire is the great church of Hagia Sophia (Church of the Holy Wisdom) in Constantinople (562).

April 6th, 1580

Global Earthquake epicenters

Earthquake:
1580 - Dover Straits earthquake; One of the largest earthquakes recorded in the history of England, Flanders, or Northern France, takes place.
1667 - An earthquake devastates Dubrovnik, then an independent city-state.
2009 - L'Aquila earthquake; A 6.3 magnitude earthquake strikes near L'Aquila, Italy.

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.

April 6th, 1776

American Revolutionary War Collage American Revolutionary War, Grand Union - Stars and Stripes Flag

American Revolutionary War:
1776 - Battle of Block Island; Ships of the Continental Navy fail in their attempt to capture a Royal Navy dispatch boat.

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

April 6th, 1812

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:
1812 - Siege of Badajoz; British forces under the command of the Duke of Wellington assault the fortress of Badajoz. This would be the turning point in the Peninsular War against Napoleon-led France.
1814 - Nominal beginning of the Bourbon Restoration; anniversary date that Napoleon abdicates and is exiled to 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).

April 6th, 1862

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 American Civil War: Battle of Antietam; Stone Bridge at Antietam Battlefield - Sharpsburg, Maryland American Civil War: American Civil War: First Battle Between Ironclads; CSS Virginia/Merrimac (left) vs. USS Monitor, in 1862 at the Battle of Hampton Roads

American Civil War:
1862 - Battle of Shiloh; In Tennessee, forces under Union General Ulysses S. Grant meet Confederate troops led by General Albert Sidney Johnston.
1865 - Battle of Sayler's Creek; Confederate General Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia fights its last major battle while in retreat from Richmond, Virginia.
Reconstruction Era of the American Civil War:
1866 - The Grand Army of the Republic, an American patriotic organization composed of Union veterans of the American Civil War, is founded. It lasts until 1956.

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.

April 6th, 1909

The North Pole (Geographic North Pole or Terrestrial North Pole), defined as the point in the Northern Hemisphere where the Earth's axis of rotation meets its surface. (Not be confused with the North Magnetic Pole -the point on the surface of Earth's Northern Hemisphere at which the planet's magnetic field points vertically downwards.)

Robert Peary and Matthew Henson reach the North Pole.

Wikipedia  North Pole; (Geographic North Pole or Terrestrial North Pole), defined as the point in the Northern Hemisphere where the Earth's axis of rotation meets its surface. (Not be confused with the North Magnetic Pole -the point on the surface of Earth's Northern Hemisphere at which the planet's magnetic field points vertically downwards.) ● Northern Hemisphere Blue Marble image for January with coastlines and the North Pole referenced (red cross). ● Sunset at the North Pole landscape. ● Sunset at the North Pole.

April 6th, 1917

World War I: Collage

World War I:
1917 - The United States declares war on Germany (see United States President Woodrow Wilson's address to Congress.

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.

April 6th, 1919

Mohandas Gandhi Collage

1919 - Mohandas Gandhi orders a general strike.
1930 - Gandhi raises a lump of mud and salt and declares, "With this, I am shaking the foundations of the "British Empire" beginning the Salt March.

Wikipedia  Photo: Mohandas Gandhi, Gandhi (1906), Mohandas K. Gandhi arrived in South Africa as a young British-trained lawyer (1893) - The New York Times; Gandhi in South Africa (1895); Mahatma Gandhi spinning yarn, (1920); Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi.

April 6th, 1926

Varney Airlines makes its first commercial flight (Varney is the root company of United Airlines)

Varney Air Lines makes its first commercial flight (Varney is the root company of United Airlines).

Wikipedia  Early USPS Airmail Mail Plane, Varney Air Lines 1926 ● Stearman C-3B (1928-1929).

April 6th, 1936

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:
1936 - Tupelo-Gainesville tornado outbreak; Another tornado from the same storm system as the Tupelo tornado hits Gainesville,_Georgia killing 203.

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.

April 6th, 1941

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:
1941 - Invasion of Yugoslavia; Nazi Germany launches Operation 25 (the invasion of Kingdom of Yugoslavia).
1941 - Battle of Greece; (Operation Marita) the invasion of Greece.
1945 - Sarajevo is liberated from Nazi Germany and Croatian forces by the Yugoslav Partisans.
1945 - Battle of Slater's Knoll; at Bougainville comes to an end.

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.

April 6th, 1947

Tony Awards are presented for theatrical achievement for the first time

Tony Awards are presented for theatrical achievement for the first time.

Wikipedia  Image: The Tony Awards at Radio City Music Hall, credit New York Times

April 6th, 1965

Launch of Early Bird, the first communications satellite to be placed in geosynchronous orbit

Launch of Early Bird, the first communications satellite to be placed in geosynchronous orbit.

Wikipedia  Photo: NASA launch of Early Bird, or Intelsat I, the world’s first commercial communications satellite, on April 6, 1965, from Cape Kennedy, Florida. credit: NASA Kennedy Space Center ● Intelsat-1 1 [Boeing BSS]

April 6th, 2011

Mexico’s Drug War

War on Drugs:
2011 - San Fernando massacre; In San Fernando, Tamaulipas, Mexico, over 193 bodies were exhumed from several mass graves made by Los Zetas.

Wikipedia  Photo Mexico's Drug War ● U.S. - Mexico border fence between Yuma, Arizona and Calexico, California (David McNew, Getty Images) ● Seized ammunition in Mexico city's airport on March 12, 2009 (Jorge Dan, Reuters) ● Yaneth Deyinara Garcia (center) and Sigifrido Najera (2nd from left), members of the drug Organization "Cardenas Guillen", are presented to the press at the headquarters of the Defense Secretary in Mexico City on March 20, 2009. (Luis Acosta, AFP/Getty Images) ● Federal police officers sit aboard an aircraft while flying to the border city Ciudad Juarez in Mexico, Monday, March 2, 2009. (Miguel Tovar, AP) ● Bodies awaiting autopsies crowd a walk-in refrigerator at the morgue in the border city of Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, Feb. 18, 2009 (Eduardo Verdugo, AP) source: Boston Globe, The Big Picture