First Confidential

THIS DAY IN HISTORY - AUGUST 12th

Edith Hamilton, Quote

“Mind and spirit together make up that which separates us from the rest of the animal world, that which enables a man to know the truth, and that which enables him to die for the truth.”

~ Edith Hamilton

Wikiquote (Edith Hamilton (August 12, 1867 – May 31, 1963) was a German-American educator and author who was "recognized as the greatest woman Classicist". She was sixty-two years old when The Greek Way, her first book, was published in 1930. It was instantly successful, and is the earliest expression of her belief in "the calm lucidity of the Greek mind" and "that the great thinkers of Athens were unsurpassed in their mastery of truth and enlightenment".)

This Day in History

August 12th, 30 BC

Ancient Egypt: Giza Pyramids ● Great Sphinx ● Abu Simbel Temples ● Egyptian King Tutankhamun  ● Beautiful images of Egyptian gods and goddesses adorn tomb walls in the Valley of the Kings - The god Ptah, a creator deity, in the tomb of Ramesses III 	● Abu Simbel Egypt Cleopatra VII Philopator, the last ruler of the Egyptian Ptolemaic dynasty, commits suicide, allegedly by means of an asp bite

Ancient Egypt:
30 BC - Cleopatra VII Philopator, the last ruler of the Egyptian Ptolemaic dynasty, commits suicide, allegedly by means of a venomous snake bite.

Wikipedia  Photo: Ancient Egypt;Giza PyramidsGreat SphinxAbu Simbel Temples Egypt, credit National Geographic ● Egyptian King Tutankhamun, credit National Geographic ● Beautiful images of Egyptian gods and goddesses adorn tomb walls in the Valley of the Kings - The god Ptah, a creator deity, in the tomb of Ramesses III. ● Abu Simbel Egypt. Cleopatra VII Thea Philopator, © DeA Picture Library.


August 12th, 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 - First Crusade / Battle of Ascalon; Crusaders under the command of Godfrey of Bouillon defeat Fatimid forces led by Al-Afdal Shahanshah - considered the last engagement of the First Crusade.
1164 - Battle of Harim; Nur ad-Din Zangi defeats the Crusader armies of the County of Tripoli and the Principality of Antioch.

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.


August 12th, 1480

Byzantine Empire Collage

Ottoman Empire (Turkish Empire or Turkey):
1480 - Battle of Otranto: Ottoman troops behead 800 Christians for refusing to convert to Islam.
1687 - Battle of Mohács: Charles of Lorraine defeats the Ottomans.

Wikipedia  Image: Ottoman Empire Maximal extent with the vassal states of the Ottoman Empire in AD 1590s; Battle of Kosovo (1389); Fall of Constantinople (1453); Sultan Mehmed I Ottoman miniature, 1413-1421; Fall of Constantinople (1453); Siege of Rhodes (1522); Battle of Kosovo (1389); Battle of Mohács (1526).


August 12th, 1898

Spanish-American War: Satellite image Cuba, credit: Jeff Schmaltz, MODIS Rapid Response Team, NASA / GSFC; A Catalan satirical drawing published in La Campana de Gràcia (1896), criticizing U.S. behavior regarding Cuba; W. A. Rogers. 'The Battle of Desmayo - The Cuban Balaklava' In: Harper's Pictorial History of the War with Spain. Vol. 1. New York: Harper & Brothers Publishers, 1899. NYPL, United States History, Local History and Genealogy Division

Spanish-American War: An Armistice ends the Spanish-American War.

Wikipedi  Image: Satellite image Cuba, credit: Jeff Schmaltz, MODIS Rapid Response Team, NASA / GSFC; A Catalan satirical drawing published in La Campana de Gràcia (1896), criticizing U.S. behavior regarding Cuba; W. A. Rogers. "The Battle of Desmayo - The Cuban Balaklava" In: Harper's Pictorial History of the War with Spain. Vol. 1. New York: Harper & Brothers Publishers, 1899. NYPL, United States History, Local History and Genealogy Division.


August 12th, 1898

Hawaiian Islands Chain Collage: Hawaiian Islands (Hawaiian: Mokupuni o Hawai‘i) are an archipelago of eight major islands, several atolls, numerous smaller islets, and undersea seamounts in the North Pacific Ocean, extending some 1,500 miles (2,400 kilometres) from the island of Hawaiʻi in the south to northernmost Kure Atoll (the northwesternmost island in Hawaii is Green Island, which is joined to the Kure Atoll)

Hawaiian flag is lowered from Iolani Palace in an elaborate annexation ceremony and replaced with the flag of the United States to signify the transfer of sovereignty from the Republic of Hawai`i to the United States.

Wikipedia  Hawaiian Islands, NOAA Satellite; Na Pali Coast, Kaua'i, by Diane Cook and Len Jenshel, National Geographic; Volcanic Coast, Haleakala National Park, by Paul Chesley, National Geographic; Living Earth - Pu'u 'O'o crater, by Frans Lanting; Volcano erupting on the Big Island in Hawaii in July by Alain Barbezat for National Geographic; The blue ocean line of Honolulu - an aerial view.
Hawaiian Islands (Hawaiian: Mokupuni o Hawai‘i) are an archipelago of eight major islands, several atolls, numerous smaller islets, and undersea seamounts in the North Pacific Ocean, extending some 1,500 miles (2,400 kilometres) from the island of Hawaiʻi in the south to northernmost Kure Atoll (the northwesternmost island in Hawaii is Green Island, which is joined to the Kure Atoll).


August 12th, 1914

World War I: Collage

World War I: the United Kingdom declares war on Austria-Hungary; the countries of the British Empire follow suit.

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.


August 12th, 1944

World War II:  Nazi German troops end the week-long Wola massacre, during which time at least 40,000 people were killed indiscriminately or in mass executions

World War II: Wola massacre; Nazi German in a week-long Wola massacre, during which time at least 40,000 people were killed indiscriminately or in mass executions.

Wikipedia  Photo: Massacre of civilians at Sant'Anna di Stazzema (Memorial relief) - SS soldiers broke into houses, schools and churches, shooting their victims with machine guns, throwing hand grenades into houses and setting fire to buildings and churches.


August 12th, 1944

World War II: Waffen SS troops massacre 560 people in Sant'Anna di Stazzema

World War II: Waffen SS troops massacre 560 people in Sant'Anna di Stazzema.

Wikipedia  Photo: Massacre of civilians at Sant'Anna di Stazzema (Memorial relief) - SS soldiers broke into houses, schools and churches, shooting their victims with machine guns, throwing hand grenades into houses and setting fire to buildings and churches.


August 12th, 1944

World War II: Alençon is liberated by General Leclerc, the first city in France to be liberated from the Nazis by French forces

World War II: Alençon is liberated by General Leclerc , the first city in France to be liberated from the Nazis by French forces.

Wikipedia  Photo: Alençon was the first French city to be liberated in France from the Nazis.


August 12th, 1953

Nuclear weapons testing, Soviet atomic bomb project: continues with the detonation of Joe 4, the first Soviet

Thermonuclear weapons testing, Soviet atomic bomb project: continues with the detonation of Joe 4, the first Soviet thermonuclear weapon.

Wikipedia  Photo: A test of a U.S. thermonuclear weapon (hydrogen bomb) at Enewetak atoll in the Marshall Islands, Nov. 1, 1952. - U.S. Air Force - Time Life Pictures / Getty Images


August 12th, 1960

Echo 1A, NASA's first successful communications satellite, is launched

Echo 1A NASA's first successful communications satellite, is launched.

Wikipedia  Photo: In 1960, the large balloon-like satellite Echo-1 felt these solar pressure effects loudly and clearly. "Photon pressure played orbital soccer with the Echo-1 thin-film balloon in orbit. The shards were flung far and wide by sunlight." (Image credit: NASA)


August 12th, 1977

Space Shuttle program: STS-28 August 8-13, 1989, Space shuttle Columbia arrives at Launch Pad 39B after the rollout from the Vehicle Assembly Building the night before ● An electrical storm and driving rain preceded the first night launch of a shuttle mission on August 30, 1983 ● Columbia’s second mission launched on November 12, 1981. (Commanded by Joe H. Engle and piloted by Richard H. Truly, it was also the last time NASA flew a rookie crew and the external fuel tank was painted white.)

Space Shuttle program: Space Shuttle Enterprise; first free flight of the Space Shuttle Enterprise.

Wikipedia  Photo: Space Shuttle program; STS-28 August 8-13, 1989, Space Shuttle Columbia arrives at Launch Pad 39B after the rollout from the Vehicle Assembly Building the night before ● An electrical storm and driving rain preceded the first night launch of a shuttle mission on August 30, 1983 ● Columbia’s second mission launched on November 12, 1981. (Commanded by Joe H. Engle and piloted by Richard H. Truly, it was also the last time NASA flew a rookie crew and the external fuel tank was painted white.) credit NASA.