First Confidential

THIS DAY IN HISTORY - DECEMBER 14th

Margaret Chase Smith, Quote

“I think that it is high time that we remembered that the Constitution, as amended, speaks not only of the freedom of speech but also of trial by jury instead of trial by accusation.”

~ Margaret Chase Smith

Wikiquote (Margaret Chase Smith (December 14, 1897 – May 29, 1995) an American politician, a Republican Senator from Maine, the first woman to be elected to both the U.S. House and the Senate, and the first woman to have her name placed in nomination for the U.S. Presidency at a major party convention (1964 Republican).)

This Day in History

December 14th, 557

Global Earthquake epicenters

Earthquake
557 - Constantinople is severely damaged by an earthquake.

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 14th, 1287

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

Saint Lucia's flood: The Zuiderzee sea wall in the Netherlands collapses, killing over 50,000 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.


December 14th, 1542

Mary, Queen of Scots, (8 December 1542 – 8 February 1587), also known as Mary Stuart or Mary I of Scotland, was queen regnant of Scotland from 14 December 1542 to 24 July 1567 and queen consort of France from 10 July 1559 to 5 December 1560

Princess Mary Stuart becomes Mary, Queen of Scots.

Wikipedia  Painting: Mary, Queen of Scots (8 December 1542 – 8 February 1587), also known as Mary Stuart or Mary I of Scotland, was queen regnant of Scotland from 14 December 1542 to 24 July 1567 and queen consort of France from 10 July 1559 to 5 December 1560.


December 14th, 1782

Joseph and Jacques Montgolfier - the Montgolfier brothers' first balloon lifts off on its first test flight

Joseph and Jacques Montgolfier - the Montgolfier brothers' first balloon lifts off on its first test flight.

Wikipedia  Painting: Hot Air Balloons and the Montgolfier Brothers


December 14th, 1812

Napoleonic Wars: (1803–15) were a series of wars declared against Napoleon's French Empire by opposing coalitions Napoleonic Wars: (1803–15): French invasion of Russia, Retreat and losses, by Illarion Pryanishnikov

Napoleonic Wars:
1812 - French invasion of Russia; comes to an end as the remnants of the Grande Armée are expelled from Russia.

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.
French invasion of Russia; Retreat and losses, by Illarion Pryanishnikov.


December 14th, 1814

War of 1812 collage War of 1812: Battle of Lake Borgne, by Thomas Lyle Hornbrook

War of 1812:
1814 - Battle of Lake Borgne; The Royal Navy seizes control of Lake Borgne, Louisiana.

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.
Battle of Lake Borgne, by Thomas Lyle Hornbrook.


December 14th, 1819

Alabama becomes the 22nd U.S. state

Alabama becomes the 22nd U.S. state.

Wikipedia  Photo: Mobile Alabama skyline; Montgomery, Alabama, State Capital; Alabama bottomland hardwood swamp.


December 14th, 1903

Wilbur Wright makes his first flight at a racecourse at Le Mans, France. It is the Wright Brothers' first public flight

Wright brothers make their first attempt to fly with the Wright Flyer at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina.

Wikipedia  Photo: 1903; Orville Wright successfully makes a flight in a heavier-than-air machine that takes off from level ground under its own power and is controlled during flight. He flies the first airplane.


December 14th, 1913

World War I: Collage

World War I:
1913 - Japanese battleship Haruna, the fourth and last ship of the Kongō-class, launches, eventually becoming one of the Japanese workhorses during World War I and World War II.
1914 - Lisandro de la Torre and others found the Democratic Progressive Party in Brazil.
1918 - Prince Frederick Charles of Hesse, a German prince elected by the Parliament of Finland to become King Väinö I renounces the Finnish throne.
1918 - President of Portugal Sidónio Pais is assassinated.

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.


December 14th, 1939

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:
1939 - Winter War; The Soviet Union is expelled from the League of Nations for invading Finland.
1941 - Japan signs treaty of alliance with Thailand.

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.


December 14th, 1972

Apollo Program: Apollo 11 first manned Moon landing and the first walk on the surface on the moon. Astronaut Buzz Aldrin walks on the surface of the moon near the leg of the lunar module Eagle. Apollo 11 Commander Neil Armstrong took this photograph with a 70mm lunar surface camera. Armstrong and Aldrin explored the Sea of Tranquility for two and a half hours while crewmate Michael Collins orbited above in the command module Columbia. The Blue Marble is a famous photograph of the Earth, taken on December 7, 1972, by the crew of the Apollo 17 spacecraft, at a distance of about 45,000 kilometres (28,000 mi)

Apollo program: Apollo 17; Eugene Cernan and Harrison Schmitt begin the third and final Extra-vehicular activity (EVA) or "Moonwalk" - they are the last humans to set foot on the Moon. (The crew takes the photograph known as The Blue Marble as they leave the Earth.)

Wikipedia  Photo: Apollo Program: Apollo 11 first manned Moon landing and the first walk on the surface on the moon. Astronaut Buzz Aldrin walks on the surface of the moon near the leg of the lunar module Eagle. Apollo 11 Commander Neil Armstrong took this photograph with a 70mm lunar surface camera. Armstrong and Aldrin explored the Sea of Tranquility for two and a half hours while crewmate Michael Collins orbited above in the command module Columbia.
The Blue Marble is a famous photograph of the Earth, taken on December 7, 1972, by the crew of the Apollo 17 spacecraft, at a distance of about 45,000 kilometres (28,000 mi).


December 14th, 2008

Iraqi journalist throws shoes at United States President George W. Bush during press conference in Baghdad - The shoe-thrower - Muntadhar al-Zaidi, an Iraqi journalist with Egypt-based al-Baghdadia television network; Hurling shoes at someone, or sitting so that the bottom of a shoe faces another person, is considered an insult among Muslims; Security personnel surround President Bush after an Iraqi threw his shoes at him in Baghdad Sunday. credit Raw News

Muntadhar_al-Zaidi Iraqi journalist throws shoes at United States President George W. Bush during press conference in Baghdad.

Wikipedia  Photo: Iraqi journalist throws shoes at United States President George W. Bush during press conference in Baghdad - The shoe-thrower - Muntadhar al-Zaidi, an Iraqi journalist with Egypt-based al-Baghdadia television network; Hurling shoes at someone, or sitting so that the bottom of a shoe faces another person, is considered an insult among Muslims; Security personnel surround President Bush after an Iraqi threw his shoes at him in Baghdad Sunday. credit Raw News.


December 14th, 2012

Beijing students leave their elementary school at the end of classes in this March 13, 2012 file photo. At the Chenpeng village primary school in Xinyang in Henan province, a man is suspected of stabbing one elderly woman and 22 children. Mark Ralson, AFP / Getty Images

Chenpeng Village Primary School stabbing: 24 people are injured in a knife attack at a primary school in the Chinese province of Henan.

Wikipedia  Photo: Beijing students leave their elementary school at the end of classes in this March 13, 2012 file photo. At the Chenpeng village primary school in Xinyang in Henan province, a man is suspected of stabbing one elderly woman and 22 children. Mark Ralson, AFP / Getty Images.


December 14th, 2012

Mass murder in America: 28 people, including the gunman, were killed in a mass shooting in Sandy Hook village, Newtown, Connecticut on December 14th, 2012. ● Emilie Parker Memorial Fund/Handout, Reuters ● Caroline Previdi was one of 20 children killed at a Connecticut elementary school on Friday in one of the worst mass shootings in U.S. history. Reuters ● The Hill of Crosses, Jane Cowan ABC News ● Newtown, Connecticut KDRV ● A group of people hold hands and pray at a memorial across from the Colorado theater where a gunman killed 12 and wounded more than 50. Alex Brandon, AP ● Mourners create a memorial at the fountain of the Aurora Municipal Center after a prayer vigil Sunday for the 12 victims of Friday's mass shooting at the Century 16 movie theater. Kevork Djansezian, Getty Images

Mass murder in America:
2012 - Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting: 28 people, including the gunman, were killed in a mass shooting in Sandy Hook village, Newtown, Connecticut.

Wikipedia  Photo: Mass murder in America: 28 people, including the gunman, were killed in a mass shooting in Sandy Hook village, Newtown, Connecticut on December 14th, 2012. ● Emilie Parker Memorial Fund/Handout, Reuters ● Caroline Previdi was one of 20 children killed at a Connecticut elementary school on Friday in one of the worst mass shootings in U.S. history. Reuters ● The Hill of Crosses, Jane Cowan ABC News ● Newtown, Connecticut KDRV ● A group of people hold hands and pray at a memorial across from the Colorado theater where a gunman killed 12 and wounded more than 50. Alex Brandon, AP ● Mourners create a memorial at the fountain of the Aurora Municipal Center after a prayer vigil Sunday for the 12 victims of Friday's mass shooting at the Century 16 movie theater. Kevork Djansezian, Getty Images.