First Confidential

THIS DAY IN HISTORY - JULY 15th

Rembrandt, Quote

“Choose only one master — Nature.”

~ Rembrandt

Wikiquote (Rembrandt (born Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn - July 15, 1606 – October 4, 1669) a Dutch painter and etcher. He is generally considered one of the greatest painters and printmakers in European art history and the most important in Dutch history.)

(Rembrandt Self-portrait, 1659 • Rembrandt Self-portrait as Shepherd, 1636 • The Anatomy Lesson of Dr. Nicolaes Tulp, 1631 • Christ in the Storm on the Sea of Galilee, 1633 • Portrait of a Standing Woman, 1632 • Syndics of the Drapers' Guild, 1662)

This Day in History

July 15th, 1099

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:
1099 - Christian soldiers take the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem after the final assault of a difficult siege.

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.

July 15th, 1685

English Civil War: (1642–1651) was a series of armed conflicts and political machinations between Parliamentarians (Roundheads) and Royalists (Cavaliers)

English Civil War:
1685 - Monmouth Rebellion: James Scott, 1st Duke of Monmouth is executed at Tower Hill, England after his defeat at the Battle of Sedgemoor on 6 July 1685.

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.

July 15th, 1741

Alaska: the largest state in the United States by area, is situated in the northwest extremity of the North American continent, with Canada to the east, the Arctic Ocean to the north, and the Pacific Ocean to the west and south, with Russia further west across the Bering Strait Alexei Chirikov sights land in Southeast Alaska. He sends men ashore in a longboat, making them the first Europeans to visit Alaska

Alexei Chirikov sights land in Southeast Alaska. He sends men ashore in a longboat, making them the first Europeans to visit Alaska.

Wikipedia  Photo: Alaska; the largest state in the United States by area, is situated in the northwest extremity of the North American continent, with Canada to the east, the Arctic Ocean to the north, and the Pacific Ocean to the west and south, with Russia further west across the Bering Strait.
● Alexei Chirikov, during an expedition, spotted the Alaskan coast ● Digital Map, University of Washington.edu.

July 15th, 1815

Napoleonic Wars: (1803–15) were a series of wars declared against Napoleon's French Empire by opposing coalitions Napoleonic Wars: Napoléon Bonaparte surrenders aboard HMS Bellerophon

French Revolutionary Wars / Napoleonic Wars:
1815 - Napoléon Bonaparte surrenders aboard HMS Bellerophon.

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.
Napoléon “On Board HMS Bellerophon” by William Quiller-Orchardson.

July 15th, 1870

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 Reconstruction era of the United States: Georgia becomes the last of the former Confederate states to be readmitted to the Union

Post (Reconstruction Era) American Civil War:
1870 - Georgia becomes the last of the former Confederate states to be readmitted to the Union.

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.
● Painting: Sherman then marched from Atlanta to the Georgia seacoast, a military campaign that showed the Confederacy was near collapse, credit georgiainfo.edu. ● A political cartoon of Andrew Johnson and Abraham Lincoln, 1865, entitled "The Rail Splitter At Work Repairing the Union."
● 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.

July 15th, 1870

Hudson Bay Company, Canada © Bridgeman Art Library ● Hudson's Bay Company Ships: Prince of Wales and Eddystone bartering with the Inuit off the Upper Savage Islands, Hudson Strait, NWT. Watercolour by Robert Hood (courtesy Library and Archives Canada/C-40364). credit The Canadian Encyclopedia ● Labrador Canada 1749 Hudson Bay (Bayes d'Hudson et de Baffins, et Terre de Labrador, Paris, 1749).

North-Western Territory and Rupert's Land are transferred to Canada from the Hudson's Bay Company, and the province of Manitoba and the North-West Territories are established from these vast territories.

Wikipedia  Image: Hudson Bay Company, Canada © Bridgeman Art Library ● Hudson's Bay Company Ships: Prince of Wales and Eddystone bartering with the Inuit off the Upper Savage Islands, Hudson Strait, NWT. Watercolour by Robert Hood (courtesy Library and Archives Canada/C-40364). credit The Canadian Encyclopedia ● Labrador Canada 1749 Hudson Bay (Bayes d'Hudson et de Baffins, et Terre de Labrador, Paris, 1749).

July 15th, 1918

World War I: Collage

World War I:
1918 - Second Battle of the Marne: begins near the River Marne with a German attack.
Post World War I:
1920 - Polish Parliament establishes Silesian Voivodeship before the Polish-German plebiscite.
1927 - Massacre of July 15, 1927; 89 protesters are killed by the Austrian police in Vienna.

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.

July 15th, 1966

Vietnam War: Operation Swift; U.S. Marines engage the North Vietnamese in battle in the Que Son Valley Vietnam War: Boeing B-52 Stratofortress

Vietnam War:
1966 - Operation Hastings The United States and South Vietnam begin to push the North Vietnamese out of the Vietnamese Demilitarized Zone.

Wikipedia  Photo: Vietnam_War; Side view of an HH-53 helicopter of the 40th Aerospace Rescue and Recovery Squadron as seen from the gunner's position on an A-1 of the 21st Specialist Operations Squadron. (USAF Photo by Ken Hackman), Boston Globe;
Boeing B-52 Stratofortress, credit Free Republic;
Vietnam War: The Big Picture / Boston Globe.

July 15th, 2002

Anti-Terrorism Court of Pakistan hands down the death sentence to British born Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh and life terms to three others suspected of murdering Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl

Anti-Terrorism Court of Pakistan hands down the death sentence to British born Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh and life terms to three others suspected of murdering Wall Street Journal Daniel Pearl.

Wikipedia  Photo: Attack: Daniel Pearl was abducted from Karachi while researching a story on Islamist militancy - his body was found three months later. / Associated Press

July 15th, 2003

Netscape Communications (Netscape) is a US computer services company, best known for Netscape Navigator, its web browser

AOL Time Warner disbands Netscape. The Mozilla Foundation is established on the same day.

Wikipedia  Image: Netscape Communications (Netscape) is a U.S. computer services company, best known for Netscape Navigator, its web browser.