First Confidential

THIS DAY IN HISTORY - NOVEMBER 18th

Margaret Atwood, Quote

“I would rather dance as a ballerina, though faultily, than as a flawless clown.”

~ Margaret Atwood

Wikiquote (Margaret Atwood (Margaret Eleanor Atwood, CC OOnt FRSC (born November 18, 1939) is a Canadian poet, novelist, literary critic, essayist, and environmental activist.)

This Day in History

November 18th, 401

Roman Empire Decline and Fall of Rome

Roman Empire:
401 - Visigoths, led by king Alaric I, cross the Alps and invade northern Italy.

Wikipedia  Image: 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.

November 18th, 1105

Antipope (Latin: antipapa) is a person who, in opposition to the one who is generally seen as the legitimately elected Pope, makes a significantly accepted competing claim to be the Pope, the Bishop of Rome and leader of the Catholic Church

Maginulfo is elected the Antipope as Sylvester IV.

Wikipedia.org  Image: Fresco painting of the Resurrection Chora Church, Istanbul, Turkey.

November 18th, 1307

William Tell shoots an apple off his son's head

William Tell shoots an apple off his son's head.

Wikipedia  Photo: Detail from the Statue of William Tell and his son in Altdorf, Switzerland (Richard Kissling, 1895).

November 18th, 1421

Sint-Elisabethsvloed: A seawall at the Zuiderzee dike in the Netherlands breaks, flooding 72 villages and killing about 10,000 people

Saint-Elisabethsvloed: A seawall at the Zuiderzee dike in the Netherlands breaks, flooding 72 villages and killing about 10,000 people.

Wikipedia  Image: Historical map of the Netherlands (1658) with De Zuyder Zee'; Kinderdijk - Sunrise at the Windmills © Kinderdijk Windmills - Alblasserdam, The Netherlands credit Yen Baet, Flickr.

November 18th, 1493

Christopher Columbus' fleet of three ships sets sail from Spain in 1492, credit Kean Collection / Hulton Archive / Getty Images

Christopher Columbus first sights the island now known as Puerto Rico.

Wikipedia  Paintings: Christopher Columbus' fleet of three ships sets sail from Spain in 1492. credit Kean Collection / Hulton Archive / Getty Images; Christopher Columbus pointing to land in the New World; Romantic Painting of Christopher Columbus arriving to the Americas Primer desembarco de Cristóbal Colón en América, by Dióscoro Puebla 1862.

November 18th, 1809

Napoleonic Wars: (1803–15) were a series of wars declared against Napoleon's French Empire by opposing coalitions

Napoleonic Wars:
1809 - In a naval action during the Napoleonic Wars, French frigates defeat British East Indiamen in the Bay of Bengal.

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.

November 18th, 1916

World War I: Collage

World War I:
1916 - First Battle of the Somme; in France, British Expeditionary Force commander Douglas Haig calls off the battle which started on July 1, 1916.
1918 - Latvia declares its independence from Russia.

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.

November 18th, 1940

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:
1940 - German leader Adolf Hitler and Italian Foreign Minister Galeazzo Ciano meet to discuss Benito Mussolini's disastrous invasion of Greece.
1943 - Battle of Berlin; 440 Royal Air Force planes bomb Berlin causing only light damage and killing 131. The RAF loses nine aircraft and 53 air crew.

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.

November 18th, 1961

Vietnam War: Hovering U.S. Army helicopters</a> pour machine gun fire into a tree line to cover the advance of South Vietnamese ground troops in an attack on a Viet Cong camp 18 miles north of Tay Ninh, northwest of Saigon near the Cambodian border, in Vietnam on March 1965

Vietnam War:
1961 - United States President John F. Kennedy sends 18,000 military advisors to South Vietnam.
1970 - United States President Richard Nixon asks the United States Congress for $155 million USD in supplemental aid for the Cambodian government.

Wikipedia  Photo: Vietnam War: Hovering U.S. Army helicopters pour machine gun fire into a tree line to cover the advance of South Vietnamese ground troops in an attack on a Viet Cong camp 18 miles north of Tay Ninh, northwest of Saigon near the Cambodian border, in Vietnam on March 1965. (AP Photo / Horst Faas) / Boston Globe

November 18th, 1963

Vietnam War: Hovering U.S. Army helicopters</a> pour machine gun fire into a tree line to cover the advance of South Vietnamese ground troops in an attack on a Viet Cong camp 18 miles north of Tay Ninh, northwest of Saigon near the Cambodian border, in Vietnam on March 1965

The first push-button telephone goes into service.

Wikipedia  Photo: Push-button telephone; first push-button telephones used in Denmark (made in Sweden in the beginning of the sixties and it was first fitted with a dial) ● Vintage Push Button Phone by FishboneDeco.

November 18th, 2002

Iraq War: The Persian Gulf War (2 August 1990 – 28 February 1991), codenamed Operation Desert Storm (17 January 1991 – 28 February 1991) commonly referred to as simply the Gulf War, was a war waged by a UN-authorized coalition force from 34 nations led by the United States, against Iraq in response to Iraq's invasion and annexation of Kuwait

Gulf War - Iraq War:
2002 - Iraq disarmament crisis; United Nations weapons inspectors led by Hans Blix arrive in Iraq.

Wikipedia  Photo: USAF F-15Es, F-16s, and a USAF F-15 flying over burning Kuwaiti oil wells; Iraqi Army T-72 main battle tanks. The T-72 tank was a common Iraqi battle tank used in the Gulf War; F-15Es parked during Operation Desert Shield; The oil fires caused were a result of the scorched earth policy of Iraqi military forces retreating from Kuwait; Aerial view of destroyed Iraqi T-72 tank, BMP-1 and Type 63 armored personnel carriers and trucks on Highway 8 in March 1991.