First Confidential

THIS DAY IN HISTORY - JUNE 9th

David Hume, Quote

“A wise man proportions his belief to the evidence.”

“Where men are the most sure and arrogant, they are commonly the most mistaken, and have there given reins to passion, without that proper deliberation and suspense, which can alone secure them from the grossest absurdities.”

~ David Hume

Wikiquote (David Hume (May 7 [O.S. April 26] 1711 – August 25, 1776) was a Scottish philosopher, historian, economist, and essayist, known especially for his philosophical empiricism and skepticism. He was one of the most important figures in the history of Western philosophy and the Scottish Enlightenment.)

This Day in History

June 9th, 411 BC

Greece satellite image, credit NASA; Acrocorinth, looking north towards the Gulf of Corinth; Temple of Apollo Ancient Corinth; Early morning lightning illuminates the sky over the 2,500-year-old Ancient Parthenon temple, at the Acropolis hill during a heavy rainfall in Athens

Ancient Greece:
411 BC - Coup in Athens succeeds, forming a short-lived oligarchy.

Wikipedia  Image: Greece satellite image, credit NASA; Acrocorinth, looking north towards the Gulf of Corinth; The Acrocorinth in the background, behind the Temple of Apollo; Temple of Apollo Ancient Corinth; Early morning lightning illuminates the sky over the 2,500-year-old Ancient Parthenon temple, at the Acropolis hill during a heavy rainfall in Athens.

June 9th, 53

Ancient Rome was a thriving civilization that began growing on the Italian Peninsula as early as the 8th century BC. Located along the Mediterranean Sea and centered on the city of Rome, it expanded to become one of the largest empires in the ancient world Roman Empire Decline and Fall of Rome

Roman Empire:
53 - Roman Emperor Nero marries Claudia Octavia.
68 - Roman Emperor Nero commits suicide, after quoting Homer's Iliad, thus ending the Julio-Claudian Dynasty and starting the civil year known as the Year of the Four Emperors.

Wikipedia  Photo: ● Ancient roman statue ● Detail of Head from Roman Statue of Antinous, credit Corbis ● Statue of Neptune, Trevi Fountain, Rome ● International Sand Sculpture Festival, FIESA 7 ancient Rome.
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.

June 9th, 1650

The Harvard Corporation is established on June 9th, 1650

Harvard Corporation, the more powerful of the two administrative boards of Harvard, is established. It is the first legal corporation in the Americas.

Wikipedia  Photo: Harvard, Annenberg Hall; "the great bristling brick Valhalla....that house of honor and hospitality which...dispenses...laurels to the dead and dinners to the living." Henry James, from The American Scene (1907), credit: Steve Rosenthal

June 9th, 1677

Franco-Dutch War, Battle_of_Konzer_Brücke: forces of the Holy Roman Empire defeat the French Raid on the Medway

Franco-Dutch War:
1677 - Raid on the Medway: Within the next five days the Dutch navy led by Michiel de Ruyter sails up the Thames and the Medway, lays waste to ships anchored at the Royal Dockyard in Chatham and tows away the English flagship HMS Royal Charles as war booty. It is the worst defeat in the Royal Navy's history.

Wikipedia  Painting: Battle of Solebay, The Burning of the Royal James at the Battle of Solebay, 7 June 1672 by Willem van de Velde the younger ● Raid on the Medway:.

June 9th, 1762

Seven Years' War: was a world war that took place between 1756 and 1763. It involved most of the great powers of the time and affected Europe, North America, Central America, the West African coast, India, and the Philippines. Seven Year's War: Battle of Lagos; Naval battle between Britain and France

Seven Years' War:
1762 - Siege of Havana; British forces capture the city of Havana.

Wikipedia  Painting: The Death of General Wolfe (1771) by Benjamin West, depicting the Battle of the Plains of Abraham; Battle of Hochkirch; Battle of Minorca of May 20, 1756, shortly after the French landing on Minorca; Siege of Kolberg (1761); Leibgarde battalion at Kolin, 1757; Battle of Zorndorf in August 1758 where Russian and Prussian armies suffered heavy casualties and both claimed a victory. Battle of Lagos, by Théodore Gudin.

June 9th, 1815

Vienna, Austria: Pallas Athene Fountain, Parliament Building, Vienna, Austria ● The Vienna State Opera; The Vienna State Opera at Night ● Gloriette, Schönbrunn Palace ● Karlskirche in Vienna, Austria ● Sttephanplatz, Graben, Vienna, Austria

End of the Congress of Vienna: held in Vienna from September, 1814 to June, 1815 to settle the many issues arising from the French Revolutionary Wars, the Napoleonic Wars, and the dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire.

Wikipedia  Photo: Vienna, Austria; Pallas Athene Fountain, Parliament Building, Vienna, Austria ● The Vienna State Opera; The Vienna State Opera at Night ● Gloriette, Schönbrunn Palace ● Karlskirche in Vienna, Austria ● Sttephanplatz, Graben, Vienna, Austria

June 9th, 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, Battle of Mobile Bay: at Mobile Bay near Mobile, Alabama, Admiral David Farragut leads a Union flotilla through Confederate defenses and seals one of the last major Southern ports

American Civil War:
1862 - Shenandoah Valley Campaign: Stonewall Jackson concludes his successful Shenandoah Valley Campaign with a victory in the Battle of Port Republic. His tactics during the campaign are now studied by militaries around the world.

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
● Battle of Mobile Bay (1890) by Xanthus Russell Smith.
● 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.

June 9th, 1944

World War II: Tulle, France; 99 civilians are hung from lampposts and balconies by German troops in reprisal for maquisards attacks

World War II: Tulle, France; 99 civilians are hung from lampposts and balconies by German troops in reprisal for maquisards attacks.

French Entrée

June 9th, 1944

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:
1944 - The Soviet Union invades East Karelia and the previously Finnish part of Karelia, occupied by Finland since 1941.

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.

June 9th, 1972

North and South Dakota are admitted as the 39th and 40th U.S. states

Black Hills flood: Severe rainfall causes a dam in the Black Hills of South Dakota to burst, creating a flood that kills 238 people and causes $160 million in damage.

Wikipedia  Photo: The great granite likenesses of Washington, Jefferson, Roosevelt, and Lincoln stare impassively at South Dakota's Black Hills, by James Randklev / Getty Images; South Dakota landscapes, by Bill Fearn; Buffalo roam in South Dakota's Black Hills, by Michael Hanson / Getty Images; Cheyenne River Sioux Tribal Park, South Dakota, by Jack Dykinga; Stallions Fighting, South Dakota, by Melissa Farlow, © credit National Geographic.

June 9th, 1973

Secretariat: Cover of Time, June 11th, 1973 ● Secretariat (1970-89) was the winner of the 1973 Triple Crown and is widely considered to be one of the greatest Thoroughbred race horses of all time, ESPN

Secretariat wins the Triple Crown of Thoroughbred Racing. video

Wikipedia  Image: Secretariat; Cover of Time, June 11th, 1973 ● Secretariat (1970-89) was the winner of the 1973 Triple Crown and is widely considered to be one of the greatest Thoroughbred race horses of all time, ESPN.

June 9th, 1999

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 1995 NATO bombing campaign in Bosnia and Herzegovina / Aug. 30, 1995 by Oleg Stjepanovic (AP) ● Smoke rises from an ammunition depot in Bosnian Serb stronghold Pale near Sarajevo after NATO air strikes ● CK building in the moments after bombing ● Serbia marks the 10th anniversary of the Nato-led bombing campaign ● U.S. F-117 Nighthawk taxis to the runway before taking off from Aviano Air Base, Italy, on March 24, 1999

Yugoslav Wars, NATO bombing of Yugoslavia:
Kosovo War - The Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and NATO sign a peace treaty.

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.
Photo: 1995 NATO bombing campaign in Bosnia and Herzegovina / Aug. 30, 1995 by Oleg Stjepanovic (AP) ● Smoke rises from an ammunition depot in Bosnian Serb stronghold Pale near Sarajevo after NATO air strikes ● CK building in the moments after bombing ● Serbia marks the 10th anniversary of the Nato-led bombing campaign ● U.S. F-117 Nighthawk taxis to the runway before taking off from Aviano Air Base, Italy, on March 24, 1999.

June 9th, 2010

Middle East satellite image; World satellite image

Modern conflicts in the Middle East:
2010 - Nadahan wedding bombing; At least 40 people are killed and more than 70 wounded in a suicide bombing at a wedding party in Arghandab, Kandahar, Afghanistan.
2009 - Pearl Continental hotel bombing; An explosion kills 17 people and injures at least 46 at a hotel in Peshawar, Pakistan.
2008 - Beni Amrane bombings; Two bombs explode at a train station near Algiers, Algeria, killing at least 13 people.

Wikipedia  Image: Middle East satellite image ● World satellite image.