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“For most of human history we have searched for our place in the cosmos. Who are we? What are we? We find that we inhabit an insignificant planet of a hum-drum star lost in a galaxy tucked away in some forgotten corner of a universe in which there are far more galaxies than people. We make our world significant by the courage of our questions, and by the depth of our answers.”
~ Carl Sagan
Wikiquote / CORBIS (Carl Sagan (November 9, 1934 – December 20, 1996) an American astronomer, astrophysicist, cosmologist, author, science popularizer and science communicator in astronomy and natural sciences.)
December 20th, 69
Roman Empire:
69 - Vespasian, formerly a general under Nero, enters Rome to claim the title of emperor.
217 - The papacy of Zephyrinus ends. Callixtus I is elected as the sixteenth pope, but is opposed by the theologian Hippolytus who accuses him of laxity and of being a Modalist, one who denies any distinction between the three persons of the Trinity.
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.
December 20th, 217
Catholic Ecumenical Councils:
217 - The papacy of Zephyrinus ends. Callixtus I is elected as the sixteenth pope, but is opposed by the theologian Hippolytus who accuses him of laxity and of being a Modalist, one who denies any distinction between the three persons of the Trinity.
Wikipedia Photo: Catholic Ecumenical Councils include 21 councils over a period of 1700 years. (While definitions changed throughout history, in today's Roman Catholic understanding Ecumenical Councils are assemblies of Patriarchs, Cardinals, residing Bishops, Abbots, male heads of religious orders and other juridical persons, nominated by the Roman Pontiff.) They meet to discuss matters of faith and Church discipline.
December 20th, 1192
Crusades
1192 - Richard the Lion-Heart is captured and imprisoned by Leopold V of Austria on his way home to England after signing a treaty with Saladin ending the Third crusade.
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: 12th century Dürnstein Castle (destroyed by the Swedes in 1645) - Richard the Lion-Heart was imprisoned here in 1193 by Duke Leopold VI of Austria, credit Richard Shaw, Flickr.
December 20th, 1522
Byzantine Empire (East Roman Empire):
1522 - Byzantine–Ottoman Wars; Siege of Rhodes - Suleiman the Magnificent accepts the surrender of the surviving Knights of Rhodes, who are allowed to evacuate. They eventually settle on Malta and become known as the Knights of Malta.
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 20th, 1606
The Susan Constant, the Godspeed and the Discovery sets sail from England to establish Jamestown, Virginia, the first permanent English settlement in the Americas.
Wikipedia Painting: Susan Constant, Discovery, and Godspeed: wind-powered ships that brought English colonists to Jamestown in 1607, credit National Park Service, Sidney King Paintings.
December 20th, 1803
The Louisiana Purchase is completed at a ceremony in New Orleans.
Wikipedia Image: Thomas Jefferson, 3rd President of the United States, Rembrandt Peale (1805). - Coronation of Napoleon I on his Imperial Throne by Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres, 1806. Louisiana Territory purchased by the United States from France for $15 million, more than doubling the size of the young nation.
December 20th, 1808
French Revolutionary Wars / Napoleonic Wars:
1808 - Peninsular War - the Siege of Zaragoza begins.
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.
Battle of the Nile (Battle of Aboukir Bay).
December 20th, 1812
Grimm’s Fairy Tales first publication.
Wikipedia Image: Grimm Brothers; Grimm’s Fairy Tales ● Rapunzel, illustrated by Johnny Gruelle ● Jack and the Beanstalk, illustration by Arthur Rackham froma 1918 English Fairy Tales, by Flora Annie Steel ● Charles Folkard, illustration for Grimm's Fairy Tales.
December 20th, 1860
American Civil War:
1860 - South Carolina becomes the first state to attempt to secede from the United States.
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 20th, 1915
World War I:
1915 - Gallipoli Campaign; Last Australian troops evacuated from Gallipoli.
1917 - Cheka, the first Soviet secret police, is founded.
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 20th, 1924
Adolf Hitler is released from Landsberg Prison.
Wikipedia Image: Adolf Hitler's Mein Kampf: (December 20th, 1924, Adolf Hitler publishes his personal manifesto Mein Kampf) People “could have known” what was coming if they read Mein Kampf, said teacher Annette Zschatzsch, looking at the display with her students. But people did not read it.”
December 20th, 1941
World War II:
1941 - First battle of the American Volunteer Group , better known as the "Flying Tigers" in Kunming, China.
1942 - Bombing of Calcutta by the Japanese.
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 20th, 1946
The popular Christmas film It's a Wonderful Life is first released in New York City.
Wikipedia Image: It's a Wonderful Life; Theatrical release poster; Henry Travers as Clarence Odbody, after 'saving' George; George Bailey (James Stewart), Mary Bailey (Donna Reed) and their youngest daughter Zuzu (Karolyn Grimes).
December 20th, 1951
EBR-1 (Experimental Breeder Reactor I) in Arco, Idaho becomes the first nuclear power plant to generate electricity. (the electricity powered four light bulbs)
Wikipedia Photo: EBR I Team 1951 - Koch is 2nd from left; Idaho National Laboratory.
December 20th, 1987
History's worst peacetime sea disaster, when the passenger ferry Doña Paz sinks after colliding with the oil tanker Vector 1 in the Tablas Strait in the Philippines, killing an estimated 4,000 people (1,749 official).
Wikipedia Photo: Doña Paz.
December 20th, 1989
United States invasion of Panama: The United States sends troops into Panama to overthrow government of Manuel Noriega (first combat use of purpose-designed stealth aircraft).
Wikipedia Map of Panama; B-2 Spirit Stealth Bomber.
December 20th, 1996
NeXT merges with Apple Computer, starting the path to Mac OS X.
Wikipedia Photo: NeXT merges with Apple Computer.
December 20th, 2007
The painting Portrait of Suzanne Bloch (1904), by the Spanish artist Pablo Picasso, is stolen from the São Paulo Museum of Art, along with O Lavrador de Café (The Coffee Worker, 1939) by the major Brazilian modernist painter Candido Portinari.
Wikipedia Photo:The painting Portrait of Suzanne Bloch (1904) and O Lavrador de Café (The Coffee Worker, 1939).