First Confidential

THIS DAY IN HISTORY - SEPTEMBER 13th

William Drummond, Quote

“He, who will not reason, is a bigot; he, who cannot, is a fool; and he, who dares not, is a slave.”

~ William Drummond

Wikiquote (William Drummond (December 13, 1585 – December 4, 1649), called "of Hawthornden", was a Scottish poet.)

This Day in History

September 13th, 122

Construction of Hadrian's Wall begins

Hadrian's Wall - constriuction begins.

Wikipedia  Photo: Hadrian's Wall was constructed on the northern frontier of Rome's mighty empire, Northumberland, England


September 13th, 335

Emperor Constantine the Great consecrated the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem

Emperor Constantine the Great consecrated the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem.

Wikipedia  Image: Fresco from Monastery of St. Jovan, above the village Gornji Matejevac near Nis. depicting St. Constantine the Great and his wife, holding the cross; Bronze statue of Constantine I in York, England, near the spot where he was proclaimed Augustus in 306; Constantine the Great, mosaic in Hagia Sophia, 1000.


September 13th, 533

Byzantine Empire Collage Byzantine Empire is the great church of Hagia Sophia (Church of the Holy Wisdom) in Constantinople (562)

Byzantine Empire (East Roman Empire):
533 - Belisarius of the Byzantine Empire defeats Gelimer and the Vandals at the Battle of Ad Decimum, near Carthage, North Africa.

Wikipedia  Image: The Baptism of Constantine painted by Raphael's pupils (1520–1524, fresco, Vatican City, Apostolic Palace); Mural of Saints Cyril and Methodius, 19th century, Troyan Monastery, Bulgaria; Justinian I depicted on one of the famous mosaics of the Basilica of San Vitale, Ravenna; The Greek fire was first used by the Byzantine Navy during the Byzantine-Arab Wars (from the Madrid Skylitzes, Biblioteca Nacional de España, Madrid); Alexios I, founder of the Komnenos dynasty.
Photo: Byzantine Empire is the great church of Hagia Sophia (Church of the Holy Wisdom) in Constantinople (562).


September 13th, 1213

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) Third Crusade: Friedrich Barbarossa arrives at Niš, the capital of Serbian King Stefan Nemanja

Crusades:
1213 - Albigensian Crusade; Battle of Muret ends, during the Albigensian Crusade to destroy the Cathar heresy.

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. ● Third Crusade; Crusaders before battle of Hattin.


September 13th, 1229

Map of Mongol Empire at its height; Genghis Khan, credit The Field Museum in Chicago; Genghis Khan various Mongolian tribes joined together in 1206; Mongol warriors was created for an Islamic history book, Rashid al-Din's History of the World of 1307, courtesy of the Edinburgh University Library, Scotland

Mongol Empire:
Ögedei Khan is proclaimed Khagan of the Mongol Empire in Kodoe Aral, Khentii: Mongolia.

Wikipedia  Image: Map of Mongol Empire at its height; Genghis Khan, credit The Field Museum in Chicago; Genghis Khan various Mongolian tribes joined together in 1206; Mongol warriors was created for an Islamic history book, Rashid al-Din's History of the World of 1307, courtesy of the Edinburgh University Library, Scotland.


September 13th, 1501

Michelangelo begins work on his statue of David

Michelangelo begins work on his statue of David.

Wikipedia  Photo: Michelangelo's David


September 13th, 1812

War of 1812 collage

War of 1812:
1812 - Attack at the Narrows; Siege of Fort Harrison.
1814 - British fail to capture Baltimore, Maryland, a turning point in the War of 1812.

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.



September 13th, 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: 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:
1862 - Union soldiers find a copy of Confederate General Robert E. Lee's battle plans in a field outside Frederick, Maryland. It is the prelude to the Battle of Antietam.

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.


September 13th, 1900

Philippine-American War: Battle of Pulang Lupa; Filipino resistance fighters defeat a small American force

Philippine-American War:
1900 - Battle of Pulang Lupa; Filipino resistance fighters defeat a small American force.

Wikipedia  Image: Philippine-American War; 17th U.S. Infantry boarding a train for the front in the Philippines; Lt. Colonel Theodore Roosevelt on 1 July 1898. he is pictured along with his fellow 'Rough Riders'; Photographs of dead Filipino soldiers lying in trenches were often taken by U. S. soldiers and journalists and included in commemorative albums (F. Tennyson Neely, Fighting in the Philippines: A Photographic Record of the Philippine-American War (London, 1899); Sonnichsen, quoted in Russell Roth, Muddy Glory: America’s “Indian Wars” in the Philippines, 1899-1935 (West Hanover, MA, 1981); Soldiers of the Philippine Republic (From Leon Wolff, Little Brown Brother: How the United States Purchased and Pacified the Philippines (Garden City, NY, 1961)), photographs after p. 49); Satellite image of Philippines, NASA.


September 13th, 1914

World War I: Battle of Aisne; begins between Germany and France

World War I: Battle of Aisne; begins between Germany and France.

Wikipedia  Photo: Beaurepaire French National Cemetery, Pontavert Aisne, France; Pontavert is a village in the Department of the Aisne, on the north bank of the Aisne.


September 13th, 1922

The temperature at 'Aziziya, Libya reaches a world record 57.8 °C (136.0 °F)

Temperature at 'Aziziya, Libya reaches a world record 57.8 °C (136.0 °F).

Wikipedia  Photo: Azizia, Libya


September 13th, 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:
1942 - Guadalcanal Campaign; Battle of Edson's Ridge, U.S. Marines - second day of the battle successfully defeated attacks by the Imperial Japanese Army with heavy losses for the Japanese forces.

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.


September 13th, 1948

Margaret Chase Smith is elected senator, and becomes the first woman to serve in both the U.S. House of Representatives and the United States Senate

Margaret Chase Smith is elected senator, and becomes the first woman to serve in both the United States House of Representatives and the United States Senate.

Wikipedia  Photo: Margaret Chase Smith: Smith was the first woman to be elected to both the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives. Smith was also the first woman of a major party to be considered for a presidential candidacy. Credit: Bettmann / CORBIS


September 13th, 1956

IBM RAMAC 305 is introduced, the first commercial computer to use magnetic disk storage

IBM RAMAC 305 is introduced, the first commercial computer to use magnetic disk storage.

Wikipedia  Photo: IBM RAMAC 305, IBM Archives


September 13th, 1971

Attica Prison Riot: occurred at the Attica Correctional Facility in Attica, New York, United States in 1971

Attica Prison Riot: occurred at the Attica Correctional Facility in Attica, New York in 1971.

Wikipedia  Photo: 1,000 prisoners took control of Attica Correctional Facility in New York, taking 33 corrections officers hostage and shutting down the prison for four days. The riots were fueled by the squalid living conditions under which prisoners were living at the time.


September 13th, 1988

Hurricane Collage: (A tropical cyclone is a storm system characterized by a low-pressure center surrounded by a spiral arrangement of thunderstorms that produce strong winds and heavy rain)

1988 - Hurricane Gilbert is the strongest recorded hurricane in the Western Hemisphere, later replaced by Hurricane Wilma in 2005 (based on barometric pressure).
2008 - Hurricane Ike makes landfall on the Texas Gulf Coast of the United States, causing heavy damage to Galveston Island, Houston and surrounding areas.

Wikipedia  Image: Hurricane Andrew sequence, NASA ● Hurricane Mitch at peak intensity (formed October 22, 1998 - Dissipated November 5, 1998) ● Hurricane Katrina taken on August 28, 2005, at 11:45 AM EDT by NOAA when the storm was a Category Five hurricane ● Hurricane Jeanne September 23, 2004, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) ● PDC Global Hazards Atlas displaying 3 hour precipitation accumulation, typhoon Evan (04P), with JTWC positions, segments, and winds...over the South Pacific Ocean ● Satellite imagery provided by NOAA and taken by the Japan Meteorological Agency's MTSAT weather satellite shows Typhoon Roke as it approaches Japan, September 20, 2011. Over 1.3 million ordered to evacuate in Japan ahead of Typhoon Roke.


September 13th, 2001

Civilian aircraft traffic resumes in the U.S. after the September 11 attacks

Civilian aircraft traffic resumes in the U.S. after the September 11 attacks.

Wikipedia  Photo: September 11 Attacks: From top to bottom: the World Trade Center burning; Trinity Cathedral; Statue of Liberty; a section of the Pentagon collapses; 9/11 memorial service.


September 13th, 2013

List of modern conflicts in the Middle East

Modern conflicts in the Middle East, social unrest and terrorist attacks:
2013 - Attack on U.S. consulate in Herat; Taliban insurgents attack the United States consulate in Herat, Afghanistan with two members of the Afghan National Police reported dead and about 20 civilians injured.

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)