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“We shouldn't maltreat our idols: the gilt comes off on our hands.”
~ Gustave Flaubert
Wikiquote (Gustave Flaubert (December 12, 1821 – May 8, 1880) was a French writer who is counted among the greatest novelists in Western literature. He is known especially for his first published novel, Madame Bovary (1857), for his Correspondence, and for his scrupulous devotion to his art and style.)
December 12th, 627
Byzantine Empire (East Roman Empire):
627 - Battle of Nineveh; a Byzantine army under Emperor Heraclius defeats Persian Emperor Khosrau II.
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.
December 12th, 1098
Crusades
1098 - First Crusade; Massacre of Ma'arrat al-Numan - Crusaders breach the town's walls and massacre about 20,000 inhabitants. After finding themselves with insufficient food, they resort to cannibalism.
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.
Crusades: Battle of Montgisard; 1177, by Charles Philippe Larivière.
December 12th, 1781
American Revolutionary War:
1781 - Battle of Ushant; the British defeat a French fleet.
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).
Painting: Battle of Cape Saint Vincent, by Thomas Buttersworth (1768-1842).
December 12th, 1787
Pennsylvania becomes the second state to ratify the United States Constitution five days after Delaware became the first..
Wikipedia Painting: Scene at the Signing of the Constitution of the United States, by Howard Chandler Christy
December 12th, 1862
American Civil War:
1862 - The Union armored ship USS Cairo sinks on the Yazoo River, becoming the first armored ship to be sunk by an electrically detonated mine.
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.
December 12th, 1901
Guglielmo Marconi receives the first transatlantic radio signal at Signal Hill in St John's, Newfoundland.
Wikipedia Image: Guglielmo Marconi pictured with his telegraph equipment, credit Ann Ronan Picture Library - Heritage-Images.
December 12th, 1911
Delhi replaces Calcutta as the capital of India.
Wikipedia Image: Map Satellite India, Pakistan, Nepal, Bhutan, Tibet AR, Bangladesh.
Delhi, India skyline at night (depiction); Lotus temple, Humayun's Tomb, India Gate and Akshardham temple.
December 12th, 1917
In Nebraska Father Edward J. Flanagan founds Boys Town as a farm village for wayward boys.
Wikipedia Photo: Portrait of Father Flanagan created by Boys Town alum Paul Otera, courtesy of the Archdiocese of Omaha; The first five boys were wards of the court and homeless newsboys. Many other boys sent by the court followed as well as others who came on their own. Source — Boys Town Hall of History, Boys Towns, Nebraska.
"Men of Boys Town (film)" 1938, Spencer Tracy and Mickey Roney, Directed by Norman Taurog USA (Against all odds Father Flanagan starts "Boys' Town" after hearing a convict's story).
December 12th, 1935
Lebensborn Project, a Nazi reproduction program, is founded by Heinrich Himmler.
Wikipedia Photo: Lebensborn Project, a Nazi reproduction program.
December 12th, 1936
Chinese Civil War:
1936 - Xi'an Incident; The Generalissimo of the Republic of China, Chiang Kai-shek, is kidnapped by Zhang Xueliang.
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.
December 12th, 1937
World War II:
1937 - The USS Panay incident; Japanese aircraft bomb and sink United States gunboat USS Panay on the Yangtze River in China.
1939 - Winter War; Battle of Tolvajärvi - Finnish forces defeat those of the Soviet in their first major victory of the conflict.
1939 - HMS Duchess sinks after a collision with HMS Barham off the coast of Scotland with the loss of 124 men.
1940 - Sheffield Blitz; Marples tragedy - approximately 70 people are killed in the Marples Hotel - Fitzalan Square Sheffield , as a result of a German air raid.
1941 - Fifty-four Japanese A6M Zero fighters raid Batangas Field, Philippines - Jesús Villamor and four Filipino fighter pilots fend them off; César Basa is killed.
1941 - United States Marine Corps F4F "Wildcats" sink the first 4 major Japanese ships off Wake Island.
1941 - The United Kingdom declares war on Bulgaria.
1941 - Hungary and Romania declare war on the United States.
1941 - India declares war on Japan.
1942 - Battle of Stalingrad; Operation Winter Storm - Germany troops attempt to relieve encircled Axis forces.
Post World War II:
1948 - Malayan Emergency; Batang Kali Massacre - Scots Guards stationed in Malaysia allegedly massacre 24 unarmed civilians and set fire to the village.
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.
Attack on Pearl Harbor: Battleship Row: taken from a Japanese plane at the beginning of the attack. The explosion in the center is a torpedo strike on the USS Oklahoma. Two attacking Japanese planes can be seen: one over the USS Neosho and one over the Naval Yard; Battleship Row: aerial view of moorings on the southern side of Ford Island, three days after the attack on Pearl Harbor. In upper left is the sunken California, with smaller vessels clustered around her. Diagonally, from left center to lower right are: Maryland, lightly damaged, with the capsized Oklahoma outboard. A barge is alongside Oklahoma, supporting rescue efforts.[1] Tennessee, lightly damaged, with the sunken West Virginia outboard. Arizona, sunk, with her hull shattered by the explosion of the magazines below the two forward turrets. Note dark oil streaks on the harbor surface, originating from the sunken battleships; USS Arizona (BB-39) during the attack; Sailors in a motor launch rescue a survivor from the water alongside the sunken USS West Virginia (BB-48) during or shortly after the Japanese air raid on Pearl Harbor. credit National Archives.
December 12th, 1942
World War II: Holocaust;
1942 - Reich Chancellery meeting of December 12th; Adolf Hitler announces extermination of the Jews.
Wikipedia Photo: World War II, The Holocaust. Sources: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum USHMM, History 1900s, Internet Masters of Education Technology IMET, Techno Friends, Veterans Today, Concern.
December 12th, 1979
Earthquake:
1979 - A major earthquake and tsunami kill 259 people in Colombia.
Wikipedia Image: Preliminary Determination of Epicenters / Aleppo Syria; Anchorage, Alaska - March 28, 1964 Prince William Sound USA earthquake and tsunami; 8.9 Mega Earthquake Strikes Japan; Tsunami Swirls Japan's Ibaraki Prefecture March 12 2011. credit NOAA / NGDC, NOAA National Geophysical Data Center, USGS, National Geographics.
December 12th, 1985
Aviation accidents and incidents:
1985 - Arrow Air Flight 1285; crashes after takeoff in Gander, Newfoundland, killing 256, including 236 members of the United States Army's 101st Airborne Division.
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
December 12th, 1991
Dissolution of the Soviet Union:
1991 - Russian Federation gains independence from the Soviet Union (Union of Soviet Socialist Republics - USSR).
Wikipedia Image: Russia Satellite Map.
December 12th, 2000
United States Presidential Election, 2000: United States Supreme Court releases its decision in Bush v. Gore.
Wikipedia Photo: United States Supreme Court building; Guardian of Law, by James Earle Fraser, US Supreme Court, Washington, DC, USA.
December 12th, 2012
North Korea successfully launches its first satellite, Kwangmyŏngsŏng-3 Unit 2, using a Unha-3.
Wikipedia Photo: The North Korean Unha-3 rocket is pictured at Tangachai space center on April 8, 2012 (Pedro Ugarte, AFP) ● KSLV-1 (Naro) rocket lifts off from the launch pad at Goheung Space Centre. (Yonhap, Lee Sang-hak, AP)