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Good fortune attend each merry man's friend
That doth but the best that he may,
Forgetting old wrongs with carols and songs
To drive the cold winter away.
~ “All Hail to The Days” or “The Praise of Christmas” ~
Traditional 17th century English carol
Wikiquote
December 22nd, 69
Roman Empire:
69 - Emperor Vitellius is captured and murdered at the Gemonian stairs in Rome.
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 22nd, 1769
Sino-Burmese War (1765–1769):
1769 - A war fought between the Qing Dynasty of China and the Konbaung Dynasty of Burma (Myanmar) - ends with an uneasy truce.
Wikipedia Image: Sino-Burmese War (1765–1769): Qing flotilla ● Qing general Agui, involved a many of the Ten Great Campaigns ● Qianlong Emperor during the first year of reign ● The Qianlong Emperor in Armor on Horseback, by Italian Jesuit Giuseppe Castiglione(Long shining)(1688-1766 AD) ● "Empress Xiao Xian Chun", Qianlong's first empress
December 22nd, 1807
Embargo Act of 1807: forbidding trade with all foreign countries, is passed by the United States Congress, at the urging of President Thomas Jefferson.
Wikipedia Painting: Thomas Jefferson, 3rd President of the United States, Rembrandt Peale (1805).
December 22nd, 1808
Ludwig van Beethoven conducts and performs in concert at the Theater an der Wien, Vienna, with the premiere of his Fifth Symphony, Sixth Symphony, Fourth Piano Concerto (performed by Beethoven himself) and Choral Fantasy (with Beethoven at the piano).
Wikipedia Painting: Portrait by Joseph Karl Stieler, 1820; Dead world of aural nothingness - Ludwig van Beethoven.by Abigail Lebrecht.
December 22nd, 1851
The first freight train is operated in Roorkee, India.
Wikipedia Photo: Early Railway Train Signals and Communication
December 22nd, 1864
American Civil War:
1864 - Sherman's March to the Sea; Savannah, Georgia falls to Union General William Tecumseh Sherman concluding his "March to the Sea".
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 22nd, 1894
Dreyfus affair begins in France, when Alfred Dreyfus is wrongly convicted of treason.
Wikipedia Image: Alfred Dreyfus; Excerpt 'Why the Dreyfus Affair Matters', New York Times; The Dreyfus Affair produced an enormous amount of postcards. This card uses the well-known anti-Semitic image of the treacherous Jew (Dreyfus) in the form of a snake (From the postcard series 'Museum of Horror' #6: 'The Traitor'); Dreyfus as a Wandering Jew; Colonel Estherhazy, The true traitor, UTexas.edu.
December 22nd, 1920
GOELRO economic development plan is adopted by the 8th Congress of Soviets of the Russian SFSR.
Wikipedia Painting: Lenin and the GOELRO ("Communism = Soviet Power + Electrification" V.I. Lenin).
December 22nd, 1937
Lincoln Tunnel opens to traffic in New York City. (designed by Ole Singstad, and named after U.S. President Abraham Lincoln)
Wikipedia Photo: Lincoln Tunnel; Funded with Public Works Administration money, construction on the first of three tunnels linking Manhattan and New Jersey began in 1934; In its first year of operation, only 1.8 million vehicles used the new tunnel. Today, it is the busiest vehicular tunnel in the world, with some 45 million vehicles a year passing through; The center tube of the Lincoln Tunnel was opened to traffic today, charging $0.50 per passenger car; Lincoln Tunnel Weehawken helix and entrance 1955, with the south tube under construction, credit: U.S. National Archives.
December 22nd, 1939
World War II:
1939 - Indian Muslims observe a "Day of Deliverance" to celebrate the resignations of members of the Indian National Congress over their not having been consulted over the decision to enter World War II with Britain.
1940 - Himarë is captured by the Greek army.
1942 - Adolf Hitler signs the order to develop the V-2 rocket as a weapon.
1944 - Battle of the Bulge; German troops demand the surrender of United States troops at Bastogne, Belgium, prompting the famous one word reply by General Anthony McAuliffe: "Nuts!".
1944 - The People's Army of Vietnam is formed to resist Japanese occupation of Indo-China, now Vietnam.
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 22nd, 2001
Aircraft hijacking:
2001 - Richard Reid attempts to destroy a passenger airliner by igniting explosives hidden in his shoes aboard American Airlines Flight 63.
Wikipedia Photo: Hijacked Sudan passenger jet lands in Libya, August 27, 2008; Amsterdam false alarm revives airplane hijacking memories, Passengers leave a Vueling plane at a field near Amsterdam Airport after a hijack scare last week that led the Netherlands to scramble F-16 fighter jets, September 2, 2012 Reuters; Egypt Air flight 648 was hijacked in November 1985 by the terrorist Abu Nidal organisation, credit AP; Cockpit section of Pan Am 103 wreckage following a mid-air explosion, December 21, 1988; 747 Pan Am airliner that exploded and crashed over Lockerbie, Scotland, with 259 passengers on board in 1988; Debris lies in a deep gash through the town of Lockerbie, Scotland, caused by the crash of Pan Am flight 103, credit AP; Flight 175 hits the WTC South Tower. The picture was taken from a traffic helicopter. credit: WABC 7/ Salient Stills; Hijacked United Airlines Flight 175 from Boston crashes into the South Tower of the World Trade Center and explodes at 9:03 a.m. on September 11, 2001 in New York City, credit Spencer Platt / Getty Images.