First Confidential

THIS DAY IN HISTORY - AUGUST 23rd

Oscar Wilde, Quote

“As long as war is regarded as wicked, it will always have its fascination. When it is looked upon as vulgar, it will cease to be popular.”

~ Oscar Wilde

Wikipedia (Oscar Wilde (Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde (October 16, 1854 – November 30, 1900) an Irish essayist, novelist, playwright and poet.)

This Day in History

August 23rd, 406

Radagaisus is executed after he is defeated by the Roman army under Stilicho Roman Empire Decline and Fall of Rome Odoacer, chieftain of the Germanic tribes (Herulic - Scirian foederati), is proclaimed rex Italiae ('king of Italy') by his troops

Roman Empire:
406 - Stilicho over the Roman army executes the defeated Radagaisus.
478 - Odoacer, chieftain of the Germanic tribes (Herulic - Scirian foederati) , is proclaimed rex Italiae ("king of Italy") by his troops.

Wikipedia  Image: Stilicho, with his wife Serena and son Eucharius.
● 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.
The Fall of Rome, Odoacer kills the last emperor form western rome.


August 23rd, 1328

Battle of Cassel: French troops stop an uprising of Flemish farmers

Battle of Cassel: French troops stop an uprising of Flemish farmers.

Wikipedia  Painting: Henry Scheffer: Philippe VI de Valois (Le roi salique): Louis-Philippe Ier: Bataille de Cassel, le 23 août 1328 - La galerie des Batailles - Château de Versailles


August 23rd, 1514

Byzantine Empire Collage

Ottoman Empire (Turkish Empire or Turkey):
1514 - Battle of Chaldiran; ended with a decisive victory for the Sultan Selim I, Ottoman Empire, over the Shah Ismail I, Safavids founder.
1595 - Battle of Călugăreni; Michael the Brave confronts the Ottoman army.

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 23rd, 1572

The French Wars of Religion (1562–98): Period of civil infighting and military operations, primarily fought between French Catholics and Protestants (Huguenots) (The conflict involved the factional disputes between the aristocratic houses of France, such as the House of Bourbon and House of Guise (Lorraine), and both sides received assistance from foreign sources)

French Wars of Religion:
Saint Bartholomew's Day massacre: mob violence against Huguenots in Paris.

Wikipedia  Painting: The French Wars of Religion; (1562–98): Period of civil infighting and military operations, primarily fought between French Catholics and Protestants (Huguenots). (The conflict involved the factional disputes between the aristocratic houses of France, such as the House of Bourbon and House of Guise (Lorraine), and both sides received assistance from foreign sources).
● Depiction of the Saint Bartholomew's Day massacre by François Dubois. ● Armed procession of the Catholic League in Paris in 1590, Musée Carnavalet. ● Catherine de' Medici One morning at the gates of the Louvre, 19th-century painting by Édouard Debat-Ponsan.


August 23rd, 1650

Colonel George Monck of the English Army forms Monck's Regiment of Foot, which will later become the Coldstream Guards

Coldstream Guards: Colonel George Monck of the English Army forms Monck's Regiment of Foot, which will later become the Coldstream Guards.

Wikipedia  Photo: Coldstream Guards Buckingham, by Jogn De Nugent


August 23rd, 1775

American Revolutionary War Collage King George III declares that the American colonies exist in a state of open and avowed rebellion

American Revolutionary War:
1775 - King George III declares that the American colonies exist in a state of open and avowed rebellion.

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).
King George III and George Washington by John Trumbull.


August 23rd, 1799

Napoleonic Wars: (1803–15) were a series of wars declared against Napoleon's French Empire by opposing coalitions General Napoleon Bonaparte first rises to national prominence being named to defend the French National Convention against armed counter-revolutionary rioters threatening the three year old revolutionary government

French Revolutionary Wars / Napoleonic Wars:
1799 - Napoleon leaves Egypt for France en route to seize power.
1813 - Battle of Grossbeeren: the Prussians under Von Bülow repulse the French army.

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.
Napoleon crossing the Alps, by Jacques-Louis David (1748–1825), Rueil-Malmaison, France.


August 23rd, 1864

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:
1864 - Siege of Fort Morgan; Union Navy captures Fort Morgan, Alabama thus breaking Confederate dominance of all ports on the Gulf of Mexico.

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.


August 23rd, 1904

automobile tire chain is patented

Automobile tire chain is patented.

Wikipedia  Photo: 1918 Traffic - automobiles with snow chains


August 23rd, 1914

World War I: Collage

World War I:
1914 - Japan declares war on Germany and bombs Qingdao, China.
1914 - Battle of Mons; the British Army begins withdrawal.

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 23rd, 1923

Captain Lowell Smith and Lieutenant John P. Richter performed the first mid-air refueling on De Havilland DH-4B, setting an endurance flight record of 37 hours

Captain Lowell Smith and Lieutenant John P. Richter performed the first mid-air refueling De Havilland DH-4B.

Wikipedia  Photo: Lowell Herbert Smith / A de Havilland DH-4 that arrived in the United States in August 1917 became the prototype for DH-4s to be manufactured in the U.S. for use by American fliers.


August 23rd, 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: Marseille liberated

World War II:
1942 - Eastern Front; Battle of Stalingrad begins.
1943 - Eastern Front; Battle of Kursk - Kursk is captured by the Soviet Union.
1944 - Marseille is liberated.
1944 - King Michael of Romania dismisses the pro-Nazi government of General Antonescu, who is arrested. Romania switches sides from the Axis to the Allies (see King Michael's Coup).
1944 - United States Army Air Forces B-24 Liberator bomber crashes into a school in Freckleton, England.

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.
Marseille, France at night.


August 23rd, 1958

Chinese Civil War Collage

Chinese Civil War:
1958 - Second Taiwan Strait crisis; begins with the People's Liberation Army 's bombardment of Quemoy.

Wikipedia  Photo: In 1934, Mao Zedong headed the Long March. The Long March was when the Chinese Nationalists, led by Chiang Kai-shek, forced the Chinese Communists, led by Mao Zedong, on a march to the caves of Shaanxi. (colorized); Government soldiers train with modern machine guns; People's Liberation Army attacking government defensive positions in Shangtang; US diplomat Patrick J. Hurley, Chiang Ching-kuo, Chiang Kai-shek, Chang Ch'ün, Wang Shi Jie (王世杰), Mao Zedong; A Communist leader addressing Long March survivors; The PLA enters Beijing in the Pingjin Campaign and control the later capital of PRC.


August 23rd, 1966

Lunar Orbiter 1 takes the first photograph of Earth from orbit around the Moon

Lunar Orbiter 1 takes the first photograph of Earth from orbit around the Moon.

Wikipedia  Photo: Lunar Orbiter 1, NASA


August 23rd, 1990

Armenia declares its independence from the Soviet Union

Armenia declares its independence from the Soviet Union.

Wikipedia  Photo: Armenia Photo Gallery


August 23rd, 2003

Galileo mission is terminated by sending the probe into Jupiter's atmosphere, where it is crushed by the pressure at the lower altitudes

The Galileo spacecraft discovers a moon, later named Dactyl, around 243 Ida, the first known asteroid moon.

Wikipedia  Photo: Galileo Spacecraft was the first Planet Jupiter Obiter, NASA.