First Confidential

THIS DAY IN HISTORY - MAY 13th

Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Quote

“How do I love thee? Let me count the ways...”

“I love thee to the depth and breadth and height

My soul can reach...”

Unless you can love, as the angels may,

With the breadth of heaven betwixt you;

Unless you can dream that his faith is fast,

Through behoving and unbehoving;

Unless you can die when the dream is past

—

Oh, never call it loving!

~ Elizabeth Barrett Browning

Wikiquote (Elizabeth Barrett Browning (March 6, 1806 – June 29, 1861) an English poet and the wife of fellow poet Robert Browning.)

The Faithful Friend: Elizabeth Barrett Browning and her cocker spaniel Flush (Artwork: James E McConnell)

This Day in History

May 13th, 1648

Construction of the Red Fort at Delhi is completed on May 13th, 1648

Construction of the Red Fort at Delhi is completed.

Wikipedia  Photo: Red Fort at Delhi ● The splendid Rang Mahal ● Diwan-i-Amm the buit, view of red sand stone colonnades. © C. Babu Rajeev.

May 13th, 1787

Austrlian satellite; Whole Earth, satellite image, credit Science Photo Library The First Fleet is the name given to the eleven ships that sailed from Great Britain on 13 May 1787

1787 - Captain Arthur Phillip leaves Portsmouth, England, with eleven ships full of convicts (the First Fleet") to establish a penal colony in Australia.

Wikipedia  Image: Austrlian satellite; Whole Earth, satellite image, credit Science Photo Library.
Painting: The First Fleet is the name given to the eleven ships that sailed from Great Britain on 13 May 1787

May 13th, 1830

Galápagos Islands, Ecuador: Marine iguana ● Galapagos giant turtle ● Waved Albatrosses on Española ● Galapagos sea lion.

Ecuador gains its independence from Gran Colombia.

Wikipedia  Photo: Galápagos Islands Marine iguana ● Galapagos giant turtle ● Waved Albatrosses on Española ● Galapagos sea lion.

May 13th, 1861

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:
1861 - Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom issues a "proclamation of neutrality" which recognizes the breakaway states as having belligerent rights.
1864 - Battle of Resaca; Union General Sherman begins fighting toward Atlanta, Georgia.
1865 - Battle of Palmito Ranch; in far south Texas, more than a month after Confederate General Robert E. Lee's surrender, the last land battle of the Civil War ends with a Confederate victory.

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.

May 13th, 1917

Miracle of the Sun is witnessed by an estimated 70,000 people in the Cova da Iria in Fátima, Portugal; Lucia, Francisco and Jacinta of Fatima

Three children report the first apparition of "Our Lady of Fátima" in Fátima, Portugal.

Wikipedia  Photo: Miracle of the Sun is witnessed by an estimated 70,000 people in the Cova da Iria in Fátima, Portugal; Lucia, Francisco and Jacinta of Fatima.

May 13th, 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 - Germany's conquest of France begins as the German army crosses the Meuse river.
1940 - Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands flees her country to Great Britain after the German invasion. Princess Juliana takes her children to Canada for their safety.
1941 - Yugoslav royal colonel Dragoljub Mihailović starts fighting with German occupation troops, beginning the Serbian resistance.
1943 - German Afrika Korps and Italian troops in North Africa surrender to Allied forces.
Post World War II:
1948 - Arab–Israeli War (1948); Kfar Etzion massacre - is committed by Arab irregulars, the day before the declaration of independence of the state of Israel on May 14.

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.

May 13th, 1950

Formula One (officially - FIA Formula One World Championship): is the highest class of single-seater auto racing sanctioned by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA)

The first round of the Formula One World Championship is held at Silverstone.

Wikipedia  Photo: Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Formula One ● The start of the final race in the 2012 season, last weekend at the Interlagos circuit in Brazil, Victor R. Caivano, Associated Press ● Singapore Grand Prix's Marina Bay City Circuit September 17th, 2012 ● French Grand Prix in Reims, July 4, 1954.

May 13th, 1980

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:
1980 - Kalamazoo County, Michigan is hit by a F3 tornado and declared a federal disaster area.
1996 - Severe thunderstorms and a tornado in Bangladesh killing 600 people.

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.

May 13th, 1989

In the People's Republic of China, the April Fifth Movement leads to the Tiananmen incident

1989 - Tiananmen Square protests of 1989: Large groups of students occupy Tiananmen Square in Beijing, China, and begin a hunger strike.
1992 - Li Hongzhi gives the first public lecture on Falun Gong in Changchun, People's Republic of China.

Wikipedia  Photo: Tiananmen incident April 5th, 1976 (The incident occurred on the traditional day of mourning, and removal of the displays of mourning - The Gang of Four, ordered the Square to be cleared) ● Tiananmen Square protests of 1989; The “Unknown Rebel”, taken by Jeff Widener, 1989 ● A month before the crackdown, momentum was already gathering as thousands of students swarmed in the square on May 4, 1989 to call for greater freedom of speech and democracy, credit Peter Turley, Corbis.

May 13th, 1994

John William 'Johnny' Carson (October 23, 1925 – January 23, 2005) an American television host and comedian, known for thirty years as host of The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson (1962–1992).

Johnny Carson makes his last television appearance on Late Show with David Letterman.

Wikipedia  Photo: Johnny Carson; (October 23, 1925 – January 23, 2005) an American television host and comedian, known for thirty years as host of The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson (1962–1992). (Carson received six Emmy Awards ● the Governor Award ● 1985 Peabody Award ● inducted into the Television Academy Hall of Fame in 1987 ● awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1992 ● received a Kennedy Center Honor in 1993)

May 13th, 1995

Mount Everest: the Earth's highest mountain, with a peak at 8,848 metres (29,029 ft) above sea level. (Located in the Mahalangur section of the Himalayas)

33-year-old British mother Alison Hargreaves became the first woman to conquer Mount Everest without oxygen or the help of sherpas.

Wikipedia  Image: Mount Everest: the Earth's highest mountain, with a peak at 8,848 metres (29,029 ft) above sea level. (Located in the Mahalangur section of the Himalayas)

May 13th, 2012

List of modern conflicts in the Middle East

Modern conflicts in the Middle East, social unrest and terrorist attacks:
2012 - Cadereyta Jiménez massacre; Forty-nine dismembered bodies are discovered by Mexican authorities on Mexican Federal Highway 40
2011 - Charsadda bombing (2011); in the Charsadda District of Pakistan, two bombs explode, resulting in 98 deaths 140 wounded.
2008 - Jaipur bombings in Rajasthan, India results in dozens of deaths.
2006 - May São Paulo violence (2006); a major rebellion occurs in several prisons in Brazil.
2005 - Andijan Massacre; occurs in Uzbekistan.
1998 - May riots of Indonesia (1998); break out in Jakarta, Indonesia, where shops owned by Indonesians of Chinese descent are looted and women raped.

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)

May 13th, 2014

Soma mine disaster: An explosion at an underground coal mine in south-western Turkey kills 301 miners.

Soma mine disaster: An explosion at an underground coal mine in south-western Turkey kills 301 miners.

Wikipedia  Photo: Soma mine disaster: An explosion at an underground coal mine in south-western Turkey kills 301 miners. (Emrah Gurel, Associated Press)