First Confidential

THIS DAY IN HISTORY - AUGUST 16th

T. E. Lawrence, Quote

“All men dream, but not equally. Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds wake in the day to find that it was vanity: but the dreamers of the day are dangerous men, for they may act their dream with open eyes, to make it possible.”

~ T. E. Lawrence

Wikiquote (T. E. Lawrence (Thomas Edward Lawrence, CB, DSO (August 16, 1888 – May 19, 1935), known professionally as T. E. Lawrence, was a British Army officer renowned especially for his liaison role during the Sinai and Palestine Campaign and the Arab Revolt against Ottoman Turkish rule of 1916–18. The breadth and variety of his activities and associations, and his ability to describe them vividly in writing, earned him international fame as Lawrence of Arabia, a title which was used for the 1962 film based on his World War I activities.)

This Day in History

August 16th, 1513

Battle of Guinegate (Battle of the Spurs): King Henry VIII of England defeats French Forces who are then forced to retreat

Battle of Guinegate (Battle of the Spurs): King Henry VIII defeats French forces who are then forced to retreat.

Wikipedia  Painting: Battle of the Spurs, 1513 (Henry famously led a cavalry charge against the French, who ran away so quickly that all that could be seen were their spurs, glinting in the sun.)


August 16th, 1777

American Revolutionary War Collage

American Revolutionary War:
1777 - Battle of Bennington: at Walloomsac, New York; Americans led by General John Stark rout British troops under Friedrich Baum.
1780 - Battle of Camden: British defeat the Americans near Camden, South Carolina.

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).


August 16th, 1812

War of 1812 collage

War of 1812, Siege of Detroit: American General William Hull surrenders Fort Detroit without a fight to the British.

Wikipedia  Painting: Damage to the US Capitol after the Burning of Washington; HMS Shannon leading the captured American frigate USS Chesapeake into Halifax, Nova Scotia (1813); USS Constitution vs HMS Guerriere; the death of Tecumseh at Moraviantown; Oliver Hazard Perry's message to William Henry Harrison after the Battle of Lake Erie began with what would become one of the most famous sentences in American military history: "We have met the enemy and they are ours; "Andrew Jackson leads the defence of New Orleans; The mortally wounded Isaac Brock spurs troops on at the Queenston Heights.


August 16th, 1891

Basilica of San Sebastian in Manila, the first all-steel church in Asia, is officially inaugurated and blessed

Basilica of San Sebastian in Manila, the first all-steel church in Asia, is officially inaugurated and blessed.

Wikipedia  Photo: Basilica of San Sebastian in Manila


August 16th, 1900

The Second Boer War (Dutch: Tweede Boerenoorlog, Afrikaans: Tweede Vryheidsoorlog or Tweede Boereoorlog) was fought from 11 October 1899 until 31 May 1902 between the British Empire and the Afrikaans-speaking Dutch settlers of two independent Boer republics, the South African Republic (Transvaal Republic) and the Orange Free State

Second Boer War: Battle of Elands River; ends after a 13-day siege is lifted by the British.

Wikipedia  Photo: Second Boer War; (Dutch: Tweede Boerenoorlog, Afrikaans: Tweede Vryheidsoorlog or Tweede Boereoorlog) was fought from 11 October 1899 until 31 May 1902 between the British Empire and the Afrikaans-speaking Dutch settlers of two independent Boer republics, the South African Republic (Transvaal Republic) and the Orange Free State.


August 16th, 1914

World War I: Collage

World War I:
1914 - Battle of Cer begins. Post World War I:
1920 - Polish–Soviet War; Battle of Radzymin - concludes; the Soviet Red Army is forced to turn away from Warsaw.

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 16th, 1927

Dole Air Race begins from Oakland, California to Honolulu, Hawaii, during which six out of the eight participating planes crash or disappear

Dole Air Race begins from Oakland, California to Honolulu, Hawaii, during which six out of the eight participating planes crash or disappear.

Wikipedia  Photo: Dole Air Race: The plane that won the Dole Air Race from California to Hawaii in 1927. by Irene


August 16th, 1930

Fiddlesticks: the first color sound cartoon

Fiddlesticks: the first color sound cartoon, is made by Ub Iwerks.

Wikipedia  Image: Fiddlesticks: Two-strip Techicolor Flip the Frog stars in Fiddlesticks (1930)


August 16th, 1942

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: Japan accepts the Allied terms of surrender in World War II and the Emperor records the Imperial Rescript on Surrender (August 15 in Japan standard time)

World War II:
1942 - The two-person crew of the U.S. naval blimp L-8 disappears without a trace on a routine anti-submarine patrol over the Pacific Ocean. The blimp drifts without her crew and crash-lands in Daly City, California.
1944 - First flight of the Junkers Ju 287.
1945 - Assassination attempt is made on Japan's prime minister, Kantaro Suzuki.

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. Representatives of Japan stand aboard the USS Missouri prior to signing of the Instrument of Surrender.


August 16th, 1954

The first issue of Sports Illustrated is published on August 16th, 1954.

The first issue of Sports Illustrated is published.

Wikipedia  Image: Sports Illustrated; The first issue of Sports Illustrated, showing Milwaukee Braves star Eddie Mathews at bat and New York Giants catcher Wes Westrum in Milwaukee County Stadium. ● Sports Illustrated cover 2012 Swimsuit Issue


August 16th, 1954

Piña colada: created on August 16, 1954 at the Caribe Hilton’s Beachcomber Bar in San Juan, Puerto Rico by its alleged creator, Ramón 'Monchito' Marrero

Piña colada: created on August 16, 1954 at the Caribe Hilton’s Beachcomber Bar in San Juan, Puerto Rico by its alleged creator, Ramón "Monchito" Marrero.

Wikipedia  Photo: Pina Colada Cocktail (rum, ice, pineapple slice and maraschino cherry)


August 16th, 1960

Parachute: The word 'parachute' comes from the French prefix paracete, originally from the Greek, meaning to protect against, and chute, the French word for 'fall', and it was originally coined, as a hybrid word which meant literally 'that which protects against a fall', by the French aeronaut François Blanchard (1753–1809) in 1785.

Joseph Kittinger parachutes from a balloon over New Mexico at 102,800 feet (31,300 m), setting three records that still stand today: High-altitude jump, free-fall, and highest speed by a human without an aircraft.

Wikipedia  Photo: Felix Baumgartner prepares to skydive from an unofficial altitude of 128,097 feet (39 km) (Photo: Red Bull Stratos) ● Russian soldiers make parachute jumps during a training session during Peace Mission-2009, (Reuters) ● United States parachute jumps ● A parachute deploys as the space shuttle Endeavour touches down at Edwards Air Force Base, Sunday, Nov. 30, 2008 in California. (AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill)


August 16th, 1987

Airliners Crash: ● Pan AM 747 ● U.S. Airways flight 1549 also known as the 'Miracle on the Hudson' navigates an exit ramp near Burlington, New Jersey, June 5, 2011 ● Passengers stand on the wings of a U.S. Airways plane as a ferry pulls up to it after it landed in the Hudson River in New York, Reuters ● US Airways plane crashes into New York Hudson River, Photo: AP

Aviation accidents and incidents:
1987 - Northwest Airlines Flight 255; a McDonnell Douglas MD-82 crashes after take off in Detroit, Michigan, killing 154 of the 155 on board, plus 2 people on the ground.

Wikipedia  Photo: ● Pan AM 747 ● U.S. Airways flight 1549 also known as the "Miracle on the Hudson" navigates an exit ramp near Burlington, New Jersey, June 5, 2011 ● Passengers stand on the wings of a U.S. Airways plane as a ferry pulls up to it after it landed in the Hudson River in New York, Reuters ● US Airways plane crashes into New York Hudson River, Photo: AP


August 16th, 2015

List of modern conflicts in the Middle East

Modern conflicts in the Middle East, social unrest and terrorist attacks:
2015 - Douma massacre; More than 96 people are killed and hundreds injured following a series of air-raids by the Syrian Arab Air Force on the Syrian (rebel) opposition-held market town of Douma.

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)