Catsmate
13th Incarnation
It's complicated....
Posts: 3,748
Favourite Doctors: Thirteen, Six, Five, Two, Eight, Eleven, Twelve, One, Nine...
Traits: Eccentric, Insatiable Curiousity.
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Post by Catsmate on Nov 11, 2020 11:38:11 GMT
10NOV
In 474CE the Byzantine Emperor Leo II dies after a reign of just ten months, aged about sevem. He is succeeded by his highly unpopular father Zeno, who becomes sole ruler of the Byzantine Empire. Leo II was the son of Zeno, the Isaurian general and future emperor, and Ariadne, a daughter of the emperor Leo I. Leo II was made co-emperor with his grandfather Leo I on 18NOV0473, and became sole emperor after Leo I died (of dysentery) on 18JAN0474. Zeno was vastly unpopular, due to a lack of dynastic prestige, with his only familial ties to the imperial throne being his marriage to Ariadne, the daughter of Leo I, and through his deceased son; he was also seen as a foreigner by the Byzantine elite (he was an Isaurian) and the treasury was empty on his ascension. The has been considerable speculation that Leo II was poisoned, with his mother Ariadne the main suspect.
- A perfect opportunity to see the term "Byzantine" in action.
In 937 in the Ten Kingdoms of China, Li Bian usurps the throne and deposes Emperor Yang Pu. The Wu State is replaced by Li (now called "Xu Zhigao"), who becomes the first ruler of Southern Tang.
- A wonderfully murky period to drop a group of travellers; assassination, plots and rebellions abound.
In 1202 Christian crusaders (part of the Fourth Crusade) begin a siege of the Christian city of Zara (now Zadar in Croatia), directly contrary to the instructions of Pope Innocent III forbidding it and threatening excommunication, This was the first major action of the Fourth Crusade and the first (but certainly not last) attack against a Christian city by Christian crusaders. The crusaders had an agreement with Venice for transport, but were unable to pay, and agreed with the Venetians to capture Zara, a constant battleground between Venice on one side and Croatia and Hungary on the other. The siege ended on 24NOV when the Crusaders and their Venetian allies sacked the city.
In 1293 Raden Wijaya is crowned as the first monarch of Majapahit kingdom of Java, taking the regnal name Kertarajasa Jayawardhana. This is considered the beginning of the Majapahit Empire.
In 1444 the crusading forces of King Władysław III of Poland and his allies are defeated by the Turks under Sultan Murad II at the Battle of Varna, fought near Varna in eastern Bulgaria. King Władysław is killed and the Crusade of Varna ends.
In 1580 during the Second Desmond Rebellion in Ireland, the Royal (English) Army beheads over 600 people, including surrendered papal troops and civilians, after three-day siege at Dún an Óir in County Kerry in Ireland.
In 1659 Chattrapati Shivaji Maharaj, the Maratha King kills Afzal Khan of the Adilshahi in the Battle of Pratapgarh, at the fort of Pratapgad near the town of Satara in Maharashtra, India. This was their first significant Marathas military victory against a major regional power, and led to the eventual establishment of the Maratha Empire.
In 1702 English colonists under the command of James Moore besiege Spanish St. Augustine during Queen Anne's War. The siege is ineffectual, the Spanish are warned and prepared, though Moore destroyed some coastal Spanish communities north of St. Augustine, and the English artillery did little damage to the fortress walls. On 29DEC Spanish troops arrive from Cuba and force Moore and his forces to flee in disgrace.
In 1793 during the French Revolution the "Goddess of Reason" is proclaimed by the French Convention at the suggestion of Pierre Gaspard Chaumette. The Cult of Reason was France's first established state-sponsored atheistic religion, intended as a replacement for Catholicisml it lasted barely a year.
In 1821 the "Cry of Independence" is uttered by Rufina Alfaro at La Villa de Los Santos in Panama setting into motion a revolt which led to Panama's independence from Spain. According to legend Rufina Alfaro led a march on 10NOV1821 that resulted in the population of Los Santos rising up against Spanish rulers; she led a march in which she shouted "Viva la Libertad" (Long Live Liberty).
- This is one of those fascinating historical stories, however there is not agreement on whether Alfaro existed at all or was a later folk memory.
- She is described as tall and slim, very attractive and to have had black hair, dark eyes and tanned skin; so if a suitable companion/traveller is available, the scenario has a good basis....
In 1847 the passenger ship Stephen Whitney, a packet ship in Robert Kermit's Red Star Line, is wrecked in thick fog on West Calf Island, off the southern coast of Ireland. 92 of the 110 on board are killed when the ship sinks in less than ten minutes. The ship was en-route to Liverpool, from New York, with a mixed cargo (including twenty crates of clocks) Travelling in thick fog the ship's captain (Charles W. Popham) mistook the Crookhaven lighthouse for the one at the Old Head of Kinsale while the lighthouse on Cape Clear Island was obscured by fog (a common event) compounding the error in navigation. At around 10PM the ship sighted the rocks and attempted to turn, but it's stern struck the western tip of West Calf Island; it was thrown broadside onto the rocks by waves, completely breaking up within about ten minutes. The disaster results in the construction of the Fastnet Rock lighthouse to replace Cape Clear.
In 1871 the journalist Henry Morton Stanley locates the missing explorer and missionary, Dr David Livingstone, in Ujiji, near Lake Tanganyika. The 1,100km relief expedition is something of a farce, poorly organised and planned. Stanley brought a thoroughbred stallion to ride through the tropical forest, but the animal died within a few days. Many of his porters deserted while the others were decimated by tropical diseases. And the famous phrase "Doctor Livingstone, I presume?" wasn't uttered, this was a later fabrication by Stanley.
In 1898 the Wilmington insurrection of 1898 begins, the only instance of a municipal government being overthrown in United States history. This was a mass riot and civil insurrection by white supremacists in the town of Wilmington in North Carolina, organised the the state's white Southern Democrats to overthrow the legitimately elected local Fusionist government. A mob, perhaps two thousand strong, expelled black and white political leaders from the city, destroyed the property and businesses of black citizens and murdered up to three hundred people.
In 1918 the Western Union Cable Office in North Sydney in Nova Scotia, Canada, receives a top-secret coded message from Europe to be transmitted to Ottawa and Washington DC. It stated that on 11NOV1918 all fighting would cease on land, sea and in the air.
In 1940 the Vrancea earthquake, a powerful quake of magnitude 7.7, strikes Romania killing an estimated 1,000 and injuring approximately 4,000 more.
In 1942 Case Anton is activated and Germany invades Vichy France following French Admiral François Darlan's agreement to an armistice with the Allies in North Africa.
In 1944 the ammunition ship USS Mount Hood explodes at Seeadler Harbour (in Manus one of the Admiralty Islands in the Pacific). At least 432 people are killed. The cause of the detonation of around four thousand tonnes of munitions is unknown; it occurred at 8:55AM while some unloading was underway. The only survivors from the ship were a number of crew ashore. There were two explosions, the first occurred in a amidships hold and the second, a few seconds later, appears to have involved almost all the cargo. There was little wreckage to be found, most embedded in other nearby ships, and no identifiable human remains. Several other ships were damaged.
In 1972 Southern Airways Flight 49 from Birmingham, Alabama is hijacked by three armed criminals. In a thirty hour airborne siege the aircraft visits three countries and travels 6,500km. At one point the hijackers threaten to crash the aircraft into a nuclear reactor at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory. After two days the plane is allowed to land in Havana, where the hijackers are arrested, tried and jailed, before being returned to the US. jailed by Fidel Castro.
In 1975 the Witch of November claims another ship then the 218m bulk freighter SS Edmund Fitzgerald sinks during a storm on Lake Superior, killing all 29 crew on board. The Edmund Fitzgerald remains the largest ship (at ~26,000t unladen) to have sunk on the Great Lakes, and the best known. Th 'Big Fitz' carried a number of passengers in addition to tends of thousands of tonnes of taconite iron ore pellets and was a well known and popular ship in the area. The ship left from Superior in Wisconsin (near Duluth) on the afternoon of 09NOV en route to Detroit. The next day the Edmund Fitzgerald and a second taconite freighter, the SS Arthur M. Anderson, were caught in a severe storm on Lake Superior, with hurricane-force winds and waves up to twelve metres high. Shortly after 7:10PM the Edmund Fitzgerald sank suddenly in water 160m, about 27 kilometres from Whitefish Bay, near the twin cities of Sault Ste. Marie. The last radio message, ten minutes earlier aid "We are holding our own", despite the abysmal weather.
In 1979 a Canadian Pacific freight train, of 106 cars, carrying a range of explosive and poisonous bulk chemicals from Windsor in Ontario derails in Mississauga, just west of Toronto, causing a massive explosion and the largest peacetime evacuation in Canadian history. The derailment occurred at 11:53PM that Saturday, at the Mavis Road crossing where a railcar experiencing bearing lubrication problems had overheated; the heat had burned through the axle and bearing. The impact caused several tank cars filled with liquefied propane to burst and ignite. Other tankers cars also burst, spilling a horrific mix of styrene, toluene, propane, sodium hydroxide (caustic soda), and chlorine onto the tracks and into the air. A massive explosion resulted, sending a fireball 1,500m, visible from 100km away. Quick thinking by the crew allowed them to disconnect the forward section of the train, and move those cars to safety. Fearful of the effects of the chemical smoke, and the leaking chlorine, spreading through suburban Mississauga the authorities evacuated more than 200,000 people.
In 2002 a large, widespread and rare outbreak of storms sees a tornado outbreak stretching from Northern Ohio to the Gulf Coast of the United Sates with 88 tornadoes reported in seventeen US states. 36 people are killed.
In 2008 five months after landing on Mars, NASA declares the Phoenix mission concluded after communications with the lander were lost.
In 2009 a naval clash between ships of the South and North Korean navies occurs off Daecheong Island in the Yellow Sea, and is known as the Battle of Daecheong.
Comments? Suggestions? Ideas?
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Post by missyfan45 on Nov 11, 2020 19:38:02 GMT
Zeno,François Darlan,Henry Morton Stanley, Dr David Livingstone, Afzal Khan,Robert Kermit,Chattrapati Shivaji Maharaj, King Władysław III, Raden Wijaya,Li Bian(could be a story like Marco Polo),and Innocent III are good people to meet. The USS Hood explosion could have been done in order to contain a alien threat. And the "Goddess of Reason" could have been a actual person.
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Catsmate
13th Incarnation
It's complicated....
Posts: 3,748
Favourite Doctors: Thirteen, Six, Five, Two, Eight, Eleven, Twelve, One, Nine...
Traits: Eccentric, Insatiable Curiousity.
|
Post by Catsmate on Nov 12, 2020 19:03:29 GMT
11NOV
In 308CE at the capital of the Pannonia Superior province, the old Roman fortress at Carnuntum, a meeting of the Emperors of the Roman Empire occurs, called and led by the 'Emperor Emeritus' Diocletian in an attempt to resolve the disputes between the emperors of the Tetrarchy which was escalating into civil war. Also present are Galerius (Augustus of the East) and Maximianus (former Augustus of the West). At the time the Empire was split into two, East and West, each led by twin emperors; the 'Augustus' who was senior, and the Caesar, the junior emperor. After the joint retirement of the Augusti, Diocletian and Maximian, in 305 the emperors were Constantius (Western Augustus) and Galerius (Eastern Augustus) with Severus and Maximinus Daia as their Caesars however these positions were under threat by usurpers.
In 1028 Byzantine Emperor Constantine VIII dies, ending his uninterrupted reign as emperor or co-emperor of the Byzantine Empire of 66 years. While the 63 years as co-emperor ( successively with his father; stepfather, Nikephoros II Phokas, uncle, John I Tzimiskes; and brother, Basil II) went fairly smoothly, his three years as sole emperor did not; Constantine had no interest in politics, statecraft or the military and his thankfully brief reign is describes as "an unmitigated disaster" which led to "a collapse of the military power of the Empire". He was a lazy, indolent, narcissistic and impulsive man who spent his life in the search of pleasure and entertainment. By the time he became emperor he also suffered from chronic gout and could hardly walk; he was prone to impulsive cruelty, persecuting the nobility and ordering an orgy of torture (blinding was a favoured punishment). Even on his deathbed matters did not go well; influenced by his self-serving advisors he changed his mind about nominating a successor, eventually choosing the weak Romanos Argyros, whom he forced to divorce his wife and marry Constantine's daughter Zoë. The wedding took place on 08NOV, Constantine died on 11NOV and Romanos was crowned Romanos III on 15NOV.
- A splendid opportunity to enmesh a group of travellers in Byzantine court politics.
In 1100 Henry I of England marries Matilda of Scotland, the daughter of Malcolm III of Scotland and a direct descendant of the Saxon king Edmund Ironside, at Westminster Abbey; Matilda is crowned in the same day. Matilda of Scotland is often referred to as Good Queen Maud (or Matilda of Blessed Memory) and was a popular and capable queen, often acting as regent for her absent husband, as well as a noted patron of the arts and a significant landowner in her own right. The marriage was political, intended to reinforce Henry's position (he was after all rather close-by when his brother, William Rufus has that unfortunate 'hunting accident')
In 1215 the Fourth Council of the Lateran meets, convoked by Pope Innocent III, and defines a number of aspects of church teaching, including the doctrine of transubstantiation. However the council dealt with more than spiritual matters. The Fourth Council, or "Great Council", of the Lateran Palace was the largest such gathering; 71 patriarchs and metropolitan bishops attended, as did 412 other bishops, over 900 abbots and priors along with the representatives of several monarchs.
- So plenty of cover for a few more.
In addition to the doctrinal matters the council confirmed the elevation of Frederick II as Holy Roman Emperor and adjudicated several other political matters. These led to violence between the supporters of Simon de Montfort (not to be confused with the others of the same name) and those of Raymond VI of Toulouse and his heirs. This was mainly over claims to Raymond's lands in the wake of the Albigensian Crusade. While Simon doeson't appear in Sanctuary he is referenced/
In 1500 the Treaty of Granada, between Louis XII of France and Ferdinand II of Aragon, ends the Second Italian War, and the monarchs agree to divide the Kingdom of Naples between them, after removing Frederick IV of Naples from the Neapolitan throne.
In 1572 Tycho Brahe observes the supernova SN 1572. Tycho's Nova (the term simply meaning 'new star' rather than having astrophysical meaning) was one of eight supernovae visible to the naked eye in historical records. It appeared in early November of 1572 and was independently 'discovered' several times. It was a highly significant event for the late medieval world; the appearance of a "new star" forced the revision of ancient models of the heavens and to speed on a revolution in astronomy that began with the realisation of the need to produce better astrometric star catalogues (mainly for navigation). It also challenged the Aristotelian dogma of the unchangeability of the realm of stars. The development of rapid printing allowed the wide distribution of Tycho writings on the event. For example, in England Queen Elizabeth had the mathematician and astrologer Thomas Allen brought in to advise her on the implication of the new star, while in Ming China the star became a political issue, since it was interpreted as an evil omen.
In 1620 the Mayflower Compact ("Agreement Between the Settlers of New Plymouth") is signed in what is now Provincetown Harbor near Cape Cod. While often considered an important element of the democratic tradition, the signatories were approximately two-fifths of the settlers (all male) and specifically acknowledged the authority of King James. The original text has been lost, only later copies are extant.
In 1673 the Second Battle of Khotyn is fought in the Ukraine between the forces of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth (under the command of Jan Sobieski) and the Ottoman army. The Ottomans suffer a serious defeat and are forced to retreat from most Commonwealth lands. Sobieski used his victory to pave his way to victory in the election for a new king (Michael Wisniowiecki having died the day before the battle).
- The king officially died from a severe case of food poisoning in the Palace of the Archbishops of Lwów. However there has been speculation that he was assassinated by generals angered at the declining power of the Commonwealth.
The battle is noted for the significant use of the rockets designed by Kazimierz Siemienowicz.
- Siemienowicz was a polymath, specialising in military engineering who had been fascinated by artillery and rocketry. He had studied extensively various branches of science and engineering, including mathematics, mechanics, metallurgy, hydraulics, architecture, optics and tactics. His papers discussed the use of poison gases (which he opposed, considering them dishonorable) and biological weapons (which he supported). Regarding the latter he either made a inspired guess regarding the transmission vector for rabies (he advocated, and may have testedm introducing the saliva of rabid dogs into artillery shells) several centuries early or has some external knowledge.
- Siemienowicz is mostly remembered for his magnum opus Artis Magnae Artilleriae pars prima ("The Great Art of Artillery, the First Part", 1650) which was used as a textbook in the field for over two hundred years. It covered the fabrication of artillery pieces and shells, gunpowder, rocketry, demolitions and civil engineering, multi-stage rockets, rocket artillery and batteries and rockets with delta wing stabilisers.
- Lack of opportunity and possibly personal conflicts caused him to move to the Netherlands in the late 1540s. He died there, probably in Amsterdam in 1651, not long after the publication of his book. It is rumoured that he was murdered by guildmasters (whom he had opposed) angered by his open publication of concepts they kept as guild secrets. No trace of a second volume has survived. This was not an unknown practice in the period.
In 1675 Gottfried Leibniz first uses integral calculus for to determine the area under the graph of y = ƒ(x). He did not publish this work for nine years however.
In 1724 Joseph Blake, alias Blueskin, a highwayman and friend of the notorious Jack Sheppard is hanged in London. Blake is probably best remembered for his friendship with "Gentlemen Jack" Sheppard and for his attack on the infamous "Thief-Taker General" Jonathan Wild in the Old Bailey (Central Criminal Court). Any of these men could pop up in a scenario set in the early 1700s. Sjeppard is probably the most interesting. He inspired two operas, an immensely popular novel, a song that’s till around today and a set of Hogarth engravings. He escaped from prison four times and Daniel Defoe ghostwrote his autobiography. He’s been the subject of three films, numerous plays and novels and the James brothers used his name as an alias. He may have inspired the murder of Lord William Russell, but never killed anyone. He was known as "Gentleman Jack" or "Jack the Lad" but was hanged in 1724, aged just 22, as Jack Shepard. Wild was a major figure in the London underworld of the period, one notable for operating on both sides of the law, posing as a public-spirited crimefighter entitled the "Thief-Taker General" while running a significant criminal empire. He used his "crime fighting" role to remove rivals and launder the proceeds of his own crimes. Blake was a more minor figure, a highwayman (mainly on the Hampstead Road), burglar and prison escapee. It's not known how he obtained the nickname.
In 1750 riots break out in Lhasa after the murder of the Tibetan regent by two Chinese Manchu officials, who were themselves among the ~130 Chinese killed in the uprising.
In 1750 The F.H.C. Society, better known as the Flat Hat Club, is formed at the Raleigh Tavern in Williamsburg, Virginia by students of the College of William and Mary. It is the first college fraternity, then a secret society, in America. Ah, a secret society who had Thomas Jefferson as a member. There's some interesting possibilities there, including links to the Secret Congress and the Real History of America. The name actually comes from the society's motto: Fraternitas, Humanitas, et Cognitio (brotherhood, humanity, and knowledge). Fiction, from the Devil's Alphabet Society to Buffy is full of such sinister secret societies.
In 1778 in the Cherry Valley massacre, British troops, Loyalists and Seneca Indian forces attack a fort and village of Cherry Valley in eastern New York during the American Revolutionary War, killing more than forty civilians and soldiers.
In 1805 during the Napoleonic Wars, specifically the the War of the Third Coalition, eight thousand French troops attempt to slow the retreat of a vastly superior Russian and Austrian force at the Battle of Dürenstein near Dürenstein (modern Dürnstein) in Austria, in the Wachau valley on the river Danube.
In 1813 during the War of 1812 the Battle of Crysler's Farm sees about nine hundred British and Canadian troops defeat a far larger American force (about 8,000) causing the Americans to abandon their Saint Lawrence campaign.
In 1880 Australian bushranger Ned Kelly is hanged at Melbourne Gaol.
- While Glenrowan was probably the last opportunity to alter Australian history and start a war featuring steam-powered Gatling guns, armoured trains and airship dropped bombs (Kelly Country) might someone want to break Kelly out of gaol?
In 1887 August Spies, Albert Parsons, Adolph Fischer and George Engel are executed as a result of the Haymarket affair, a bomb attack on police that took place at a labour demonstration on 04MAY1886 at Haymarket Square in Chicago and was part of the turbulent and violent politics of the period. Those executed were probably not involved in the bombing.
In 1919 an ongoing dispute between the Industrial Workers of the World ('Wobblies') and the American Legion in Centralia in Washington turns violent during an Armistice Day parade. The conflict resulted in six deaths and morel wounded and an ongoing and especially bitter dispute over the motivations and events that precipitated the event.
In 1923 in the finale, for the moment, to the Beer Hall Putsch, one Adolf Hitler is arrested in Munich for high treason.
In 1940 the German auxiliary cruiser Atlantis the SS Automedon and the top secret British mail intended for the British Far East Command, including a large quantity of decoding tables, Fleet orders and Naval Intelligence reports. The most significant find was a small green bag in the chart room near the bridge; the bag contained documents prepared by the British War Cabinet's Planning Division for Robert Brooke Popham, Commander-in-Chief of the British Far East Command, which included their evaluations of the strength and status of British land and naval forces in the Far East, a detailed report on Singapore's defences, and information on the roles to be played by Australian and New Zealand forces in the Far East in the event that Japan entered the war. A copy was provided to the Japanese government and may have played a prominent part in the Japanese decision to enter the war.
In 1966 NASA launches Gemini 12, the last Gemini mission. On board are James Lovell and Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin.
In 1975 Australian sees a constitutional crisis when Governor-General Sir John Kerr dismisses the government of Gough Whitlam, appoints Malcolm Fraser as caretaker Prime Minister and announces a general election to be held in early December. Whitlam attempted to dismiss the Governor-General earlier in the day and these were accusations of British interference in Australian politics.
In 1977 a shipment of explosives detonates at a train station in Iri (Iksan) in South Korea at about 9:15PM. At least 56 people are killed and hundreds injured.
In 2000 a fire in an ascending train in the tunnel of the Gletscherbahn Kaprun 2 funicular (cable-car railway) in Kaprun, Austria kills 155 people, mainly from smoke inhalation. The skiers and snowboarders, their way to the Kitzsteinhorn Glacier, were trapped inside the tunnel when an electrical short ignited flammable hydraulic fluid from the brake system; this allowed the fire to spread rapidly, stopped the train 600m into the tunnel and disables the door opening system. Power was also lost quickly, eliminating external contact and lighting.
Comments? Ideas?
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Post by missyfan45 on Nov 12, 2020 22:46:15 GMT
Carnuntum,Ned Kelly,John Kerr,James Lovell and Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin during Gemini 12,Gough Whitlam,Malcolm Fraser,Robert Brooke Popham,August Spies, Albert Parsons, Adolph Fischer and George Engel (they could have been mind controlled), Joseph Blake, Jack Sheppard , Jonathan Wild, Gottfried Leibniz,(could be a good celebrity historical)Tycho Brahe (DWM already did him), and Nikephoros II Phokas are good people to meet.
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Catsmate
13th Incarnation
It's complicated....
Posts: 3,748
Favourite Doctors: Thirteen, Six, Five, Two, Eight, Eleven, Twelve, One, Nine...
Traits: Eccentric, Insatiable Curiousity.
|
Post by Catsmate on Nov 13, 2020 18:01:22 GMT
12NOV
In 954 at the age of thirteen Lothair III is crowned king of the West Frankish kingdom at the Abbey of Saint-Remi in Reims, France. He was the oldest son of King Louis IV and succeeded to the throne at Louis's death, though Lothair had already been associated with the throne since the illness of his father in 951. Lothair inherited a fragmented kingdom, where the great magnates took lands, rights and offices, with little regard for the authority of the king but left it thirty years later a strong and generally united state.
In 1028 (as mentioned previously) the future Byzantine empress Zoë takes the throne as empress consort to Romanos III Argyros; she was approximately fifty at the time of her accession and wedding. Zoë Porphyrogenita was one of the exemplars of the term "byzantine" applied to the politics of the era and empire; she was born when her father (Constantine VIII) was nominal co-emperor to his brother, Basil II. After Basil died in 1025 (when Zoë was 47) her father ascended the Byzantine throne as sole emperor and reigned, badly, for three years. The marriage of Zoë and Romanos III was, to put it mildly, troubled; the couple rapidly grew estranged, with both taking a series of lovers and Zoë obsessed with the idea of bearing a child. Zoë's relationship with her sister Theodora were equally strained and the palace was a hive of conspiracies, until Theodora was forced to take religious vows and confined in the monastery of Petrion. Romanos was found dead in his bath in 1034, after a lengthy illness. Both the illness and his death have been attributed to Zoë, her young lover (then a low-born palace servant, the future Michael IV) both or other parties. Zoë and Michael were married the same day as the supposed murder, and he was crowned Emperor Michael IV on the following day.
- A ceremony performed by the Patriarch Alexios I with the choice of death or a large pile of gold to help him choose.
While Zoë seems to have believed Michael would prove to be a more devoted husband than Romanos,or at least a more pliable one, she was mistaken. Michael IV was concerned about Zoë turning on him the way she had turned on her first husband so he excluded Zoë from politics and placed all power in the hands of his brother, the eunuch John the Orphanotrophos. Zoë was confined (again) to the palace gynaeceum (women's quarters) , and kept under strict surveillance. The disgruntled empress conspired against John but without success.
By 1041 it was obvious that Michael IV was dying (one of those lengthy illnesses) so John the Eunuch forced Zoë to adopt Michael, the son of his and Michael IV's sister. Michael IV died on the night of 10DEC1041 refusing to see his wife. His nephew was crowned emperor Michael V and banished Zoë to a monastery on Principus (an island in the Sea of Marmara) for attempted regicide. However Zoë was popular with the commons and his treatment of the legitimate heir to the Macedonian Dynasty caused a popular uprising in Constantinople; Michael V desperately tried to keep his throne but was deposed on 19APR1042 in favour of Zoë and the unwilling Theodora.
In 1912 King George I of Greece makes a triumphal entry into Thessaloniki after its liberation from 482 years of Ottoman rule.
In 1912 the frozen bodies of Robert Scott and his men are found on the Ross Ice Shelf in Antarctica, along with the records of their last camp.
- What else might have been found frozen with them? Other than those fossils they'd dragged along...
In 1927 Leon Trotsky is expelled from the Soviet Communist Party, leaving Joseph Stalin in undisputed control of the Soviet Union.
In 1928 the liner SS Vestris sinks approximately 330 km off Hampton Roads in Virginia, killing at least 110 passengers, most of whom were women and children who died after the vessel is abandoned. On The Vestris had left New York at around 4PM on 10NOV carrying 128 passengers and 198 crew. The ship was in poor shape, ballast tanks had not been pumped out, the hatches of her bunkers were buried under coal but had not been battened and secured, and she was overloaded below her load line marks. On 11NOV she ran into a severe storm that flooded her boat deck and swept away two of her lifeboats, the violent swaying caused part of her cargo and bunker coal shifted, causing the ship to list to starboard. About 7:30PM a heavy wave caused her to make a lurch further to starboard and overnight the water rose to the level of the floor-plates in the stokehold, coming in through every possible opening faster than her pumps could remove it. By the morning of Monday 12NOV she was rapidly shipping water and expected to sink. At 09:56AM Vestris' sent an SOS message but her location was off by over sixty kilometres. The erroneous SOS was repeated at 11:04. In the next hour the ship's Master (William J Carey) gave the order to abandon ship, despite the heavy seas and weather. As the ship listed to starboard he ordered the port lifeboats to be launched first; 13 children and 37 women were put in the first boats to be loaded. Unfortunately the boats were still in their cradles as the ship sank, at least one was dragged down with the ship, while others were damaged and sunk. The Vestris finally sank at about 2PM, with people still on-board; her Master was last seen walking down the port side of his ship. The first ship to come to the rescue did not arrive until about 5:45PM. Of those who died 68 were passengers (from a total 128) and 48 were crew (from 198),
In 1936 in California, the San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge opens to traffic.
In 1940 Soviet Foreign Minister Vyacheslav Molotov arrives in Berlin to discuss the possibility of the Soviet Union joining the Axis Powers.
In 1941 temperatures around Moscow drop to −12°C as the Soviet Union launches ski troops for the first time against the freezing German forces near the city.
In 1944 the Royal Air Force launches 29 Avro Lancaster bombers carrying 12,000 lb Tallboy bombs, against the German battleship Tirpitz off Tromsø in Norway. The ship is sunk. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Air_Force
In 1954 after decades of use as a point of entry for immigrants, the station and detention centre at Ellis Island ceases operations.
In 1958 a team of rock climbers led by Warren Harding completes the first ascent of The Nose on El Capitan in Yosemite Valley.
In 1961 a series of murders occur on the sailing ketch Bluebelle. Of the seven people on-board when the ship leaves Fort Lauderdale in Florida on 08NOV, only one, Terry Jo Duperrault (aged 11) would be alive a week later. Bluebelle was a 18m twin-masted sailing ketch based out of Fort Lauderdale; she'd been chartered by an optometrist, Dr. Arthur Duperrault, from Wisconsin, for a trip from Fort Lauderdale to The Bahamas. On board were the doctor, his wide (Jean), his three children (Brian, 14, Terry Jo, 11, and Renee, 7) and her skipper, a decorated pilot Julian Harvey with his new (and sixth) wife, Mary Dene. The exact sequence of events on the boat is unknown but it is believed that late on 12NOV, as the Bluebelle began the return journey to Fort Lauderdale, Harvey killed his wife, and stabbed Dr. Duperrault, Jean, and Brian to death when the witnessed her death. At the time Terry Jo was in the lower cabin resting. When the girl came on deck Harvey shoved her below deck and scuttled the sailboat, planning to leave in a dinghy. When Harvey was later picked up by the tanker Gulf Lion, the drowned body of Renee was discovered in the dinghy.
Terry Jo was able to untie 1m2 cork float and launch herself just as the ship sank; she drifted for four days without food or water she was rescued in the Northwest Providence Channel by the Greek freighter Captain Theo. Harvey had been picked up three days earlier in the dinghy along with Renee's dead body and had told United States Coast Guard investigators that a squall had brought down the Bluebelle's masts, holed the ship's hull and ruptured the fuel tank for the auxiliary engine, starting a fire. He claimed to have found Renee floating in the water and tried unsuccessfully to revive her (she was found to have drowned). After Harvey was informed of Terry Jo's rescue, he checked into a motel under an assumed name and committed suicide with a razor blade. His motive for the murder is believed to have been the $20,000 insurance policy on his wife, but the murder was seen by Dr. Duperrault. This was not Harvey's first suspicious "accident"; he had survived a car accident that claimed another of his six wives and her mother, and he'd owned to ships, the yacht Torbatross and the powerboat Valiant which had sunk under suspicious circumstances. All had yielded large insurance settlements.
In 1965 another doomed ship leaves Florida. The SS Yarmouth Castle was a cruise liner, operating in the water around Florida and The Bahamas, who departed Miami for Nassau at about 4PM on 12NOV1965, with 376 passengers and 176 crewmen (552 people) aboard. The ship was old, steel hulled with a wooden superstructure that had been extensively repainted, captained by 35-year-old Byron Voutsinas for the short trip (they should have arrived the next day). Shortly after midnight a fire started in room 610 on the main deck; the room was used as a storage space and contained mattresses, chairs and other combustible materials. There was no sprinkler head in the room. The exact source of the fire was never determined but jury-rigged wiring is suspected. The fire was detected about a hour later and the captain informed and he inspected the fire, which was spreading rapidly. He returned to the bridge and at 1:20A, the ship was stopped. The radio officer could not send a distress call because of flames and smoke in the radio room and soon the crew were forced to abandon the bridge. At 1:24AM the captain gave order to abandon ship, fire0fighting been impossible due to rotten hoses and lack of water pressure; the fire had disabled electrical power and steam lines so no general alarm could no be sounded.
The captain proceeded to the lifeboat containing the emergency radio, but could not reach it; he and several crewmen launched another lifeboat and abandoned ship at about 1:45AM. Later. The captain Voutsinas testified that he wanted to reach one of the rescue vessels to make an emergency call.
Two ships came to the rescue; a Finnish freighter (the Finnpulp) was about 13km ahead of Yarmouth Castle and noticed that Yarmouth Castle had slowed significantly on the ship's RADAR. Looking astern he saw the glowing flames, The Finnpulp turned around and attempted to contact Nassau without success, though at 1:36AM the Finnpulp successfully contacted the US Coast Guard in Miami, the first distress call sent out. The passenger liner Bahama Star was following Yarmouth Castle at about twelve miles distance. At 2:15 a.m., Captain Carl Brown noticed rising smoke and a red glow on the water. Realizing that this was Yarmouth Castle, he ordered the ship ahead at full speed. Bahama Star radioed the U.S. Coast Guard at 2:20 a.m.
Of the 552 people on board, ninety died on the Yarmouth Castle, only two of them crew.
In 1969 independent investigative journalist Seymour Hersh breaks the story of the My Lai Massacre of 16MAR1968 where US troops ran amok and murdered between 347 and 504 unarmed people, many of whom were gang raped. Twenty-six US soldiers were charged with criminal offenses, but only one, Lieutenant William Calley Jr., was convicted. He served three-and-a-half years under house arrest.
In 1970 the Oregon Highway Division attempts to destroy the rotting carcass of a beached sperm whale with explosives, leading to the now infamous "exploding whale" incident. Ignoring expert guidance George Thornton, the engineer in charge of the operation, about a half-tonne of commercial dynamite was used, rather than the suggested 4kg. The result was......messy.
In 1970 the 1970 Bhola cyclone makes landfall on the coast of East Pakistan, becoming the deadliest tropical cyclone in history.. At least half-a-million people died, primarily due to coastal flooding, mainly in the low-lying islands of the Ganges Delta, from the storm surge that flooded much of the The Pakistani government, led by junta leader General Yahya Khan, was criticised for its slow response to the disaster, leading to the opposition Awami League gained a landslide victory in the provincal election the following month. This partially triggered the Bangladesh Liberation War and the creation of the country of Bangladesh.
In 1977 France conducts the Oreste low-yield underground nuclear test, the fourteenth of a group of 29.
In 1980 NASA space probe Voyager I makes its closest approach to Saturn and takes the first images of its rings; that day it came within 124,000 kilometers of Saturn's cloud-tops. Voyager detected complex (though presumably natural) structures in the rings of Saturn, the production of hydrocarbons by auroral activity and studied the Saturnian moon Titan.
In 1981 NASA's Space Shuttle Mission STS-2, using the Space Shuttle Columbia, is the first time a crewed spacecraft is launched into space twice.
In 1982 Yuri Andropov becomes the General Secretary of the Communist Party's Central Committee, succeeding Leonid I. Brezhnev, who died two days previously. Though rumours suggest he'd been dead for longer.
In 1996 a Saudi Arabian Airlines Boeing 747 and a Kazakh Ilyushin Il-76 cargo plane collide in mid-air near New Delhi, killing 349 in the deadliest mid-air collision to date.
In 1999 the magnitude 7.2 Düzce earthquake shakes northwestern Turkey, killing at least 845 people and injuring over five thousand.
In 2014 the Philae lander, deployed from the European Space Agency's Rosetta probe, reaches the surface of Comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko.
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Post by missyfan45 on Nov 13, 2020 19:56:12 GMT
Yuri Andropov(maybe it was a body double),William Calley Jr., (could have been mind controlled),Seymour Hersh,Warren Harding,Robert Scott(maybe some Ice Warriors or other aliens? DWM covered him),Vyacheslav Molotov,Leon Trotsky,Lothair III,Terry Jo Duperrault,Michael IV (could be a Masque of Mandragora prequel), King George I and Leonid I. Brezhnev are good people to meet. And that comet could be something related to the Nemesis statue's comet.
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Catsmate
13th Incarnation
It's complicated....
Posts: 3,748
Favourite Doctors: Thirteen, Six, Five, Two, Eight, Eleven, Twelve, One, Nine...
Traits: Eccentric, Insatiable Curiousity.
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Post by Catsmate on Nov 14, 2020 20:12:06 GMT
13NOV
In 1002 the English king Æthelred II orders the killing of all Danes in England, and event known as the St. Brice's Day massacre. The exact scope of the massacre is unknown, certainly there is evidence of some mass killings (e.g. the recovery of the skeletons of ~38 men, aged between 16 and 25, found during an excavation in Oxford in 2008). It's beliebved that among those killed was Gunhilde, a sister of Sweyn Forkbeard, King of Denmark and her husband. The massacre did help to provoke Sweyn's invasion in 1003. At the time probably most Danes lived in the Danelaw, where Æthelred's writ did not run and where the Danes were too strong to be easily attacked; it's likely that the killings only occurred in larger towns with small Danish communities (e.g. Oxford, Bristol, Gloucester and London)
In 1093 Malcolm III of Scotland is decisively defeated, and killed along with his son Edward, in the Battle of Alnwick. With Malcolm’s death the Scottish army found itself leaderless, and headed back to Scotland; the bodies of Malcolm and his son were interred at Tynemouth Priory. The death of Malcolm and his heir meant that there was a dispute over the succession between Malcolm’s surviving sons and his younger brother Donald Bane,triggering a civil war and suiting William Rufus, king of England, well.
In 1160 Louis VII of France marries his third wife, Adela of Champagne. Previously Louis had married Eleanor of Aquitaine (they divorced), and Constance of Castile, who died in childbirth; like many monarchs he was obsessed with producing a male heir. Adele (or Alix) would give birth to Louis VII's only son, Philip II, and to the future Byzantine empress Agnes.
In 1595 the Nevado del Ruiz volcano in Columbia erupted three times which were audible 100km away. A large cloud of ash was ejected, which completely darkened the surrounding area. The eruption was presaged by a large precursor earthquake on 10NOV. More than 600 people died as a result of the 'lahar' a fast moving, descending mud flow capable of scoring rock and erasing obstacles. For more information see the entry for 1985.
In 1642 during the First English Civil War, Royalist and Parliamentarian forces skirmish at the Battle of Turnham Green; in the end the Royalists withdraw in the face of the Parliamentarian army and fail to take London. Their inability to take London forces the Royalists to withdraw on Oxford for the winter, giving the Parliamentarians an important strategic victory. Further the attack on Brentford by Rupert's cavalry encouraged the Londoners to side with the Parliamentarians.
In 1715 during the Jacobite rising in Scotland, the forces of the Kingdom of Great Britain halt the Jacobite advance, at the Battle of Sheriffmuir, although the action is inconclusive The Jacobite failure was odd; the Jacobite leader, the Earl of Mar, could easily have moved past the Duke of Argyll's forces to link up with the English Jacobites and Catholics in the north of England. However the Earl was inexperiences, and perhaps incompetent.
In 1775 Patriot revolutionary forces under General Richard Montgomery occupy Montreal, as part of the invasion of Quebec. The city would remain in American hands until 01DEC.
In 1841 Scottish physician and scientist James Braid first witnessed a demonstration of 'animal magnetism' by Charles Lafontaine, which leads him to begin the study of the subject he eventually calls hypnotism. Braid was a pioneer of hypnotism and hypnotherapy as well as hypnotic anaesthesia and chemical anaesthesia.
In 1851 the Denny Party, a group of American pioneers, lands at Alki Point, before moving to the other side of Elliott Bay to what would become Seattle.
In 1864 during the American Civil War, the three-day Battle of Bull's Gap ends in a Union rout as Confederates under Major General John Breckinridge pursue them to Strawberry Plains in Tennessee.
In 1887 a peaceful protest in London, with thirty thousand people protesting about unemployment and coercion in Ireland, and demanding the release of MP William O'Brien, clash with the Metropolitan Police and the British Army. About eighty people are badly injured.
In 1901 the "Great Storm" of that year reaches it's climax and batters the English coast; also that night, off the coast of Caister-on-Sea in Norfolk, a lifeboat is lost with nine deaths. In total forty ships were sunk and more than 200 sailors drowned during the storm.
In 1914 during the Zaian War, a French attack on Berber tribesmen goes awry when the Berbers inflict the heaviest defeat of French forces in Morocco at the Battle of El Herri. French losses were significant, about 623 North African, Senegalese and French soldiers (including their commander) were killed and 176 wounded.
In 1920 a small group of teenagers inadvertently carry out the largest train robbery in US history; they hijack and break into a rail car on the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad after it was loaded with a United States Mint shipment of currency, bonds and gold at Omaha in Nebraska. The thieves emptied the bags from the rail car and loaded them into a waiting automobile, unaware that the mailbags were carrying vastly more than the normal amount of valuables. Around $3,500,000 was stolen.
In 1927 the Holland Tunnel opens to traffic, the first tunnel under the Hudson River carrying vehicles between New Jersey and New York City. The tunnel was officially opened at 4:5PM by President Calvin Coolidge.Over twenty thousand people walked the entire length of the tunnel before it was closed to pedestrians at 7PM, re-opening for to vehicular traffic at 12:01AM.
In 1940 Walt Disney's animated musical film Fantasia is first released, on the first night of a roadshow at New York's Broadway Theatre. The music critic and composer Deems Taylor acts as the film's Master of Ceremonies, providing a live introduction to each animated segment.
In 1950 General Carlos Delgado Chalbaud, President of Venezuela, is assassinated in Caracas. Chalbaud was leader of a military junta that ruled the country, after the 1945 and 1948 coups. He was kidnapped and assassinated by a group led by Rafael Simon Urbina and his nephew Domingo Urbina, in Caracas. His murder seems to have been the unintended outcome of a failed kidnapping; Urbina was trying to overthrow the Chalbaud presidency. After the capture and imprisonment of Urbina he was killed on the orders of the Direction of National Security, efficiently securing Pérez Jiménez's position as the strongman in Venezuela for the next few years.
In 1956 the Supreme Court of the United States confirms the ruling in the case of Browder v. Gayle and declares Alabama laws requiring segregated buses illegal, thus ending the Montgomery bus boycott. While the Montgomery bus boycott resounded far beyond the desegregation of public buses, stimulating activism and participation in the national Civil Rights Movement and bringing Martin Luther King to national attention, it spawned an immediate and violent backlash in Montgomery. Buses were attacked and passengers sniped and attacked and black churches with bombed.
In 1966 in response to Fatah raids against Israelis near the West Bank border, Israel launches an attack on the village of As-Samu.
In 1985 [see also 1585] the volcano Nevado del Ruiz in Colombia erupts; the heat melts a glacier, causing a lahar (volcanic mudslide) that buries the town of Armero. Approximately 23,000 people are killed. The eruption began at 3:06PM and had been predicted in advance; however warnings were ignored and the authorities would not take costly preventive measures without clear warnings of imminent danger. About 35 million tonnes of material was ejected, producing pyroclastic flows that melted summit glaciers and snow, generating four thick lahars that raced down river valleys on the volcano's flanks. The lahars, formed of water, ice and rocks ran down the volcano's sides at an average speed of 60km/h (16m/s) eroding soil, dislodging rock, and destroying vegetation. One of the lahars virtually erased the town of Armero in Tolima, which lay in the Lagunilla River valley. About one quarter of its 28,700 inhabitants survived.
In 2002 during the Prestige oil spill, a storm bursts a tank of the oil tanker MV Prestige. The tanker sinks on 19NOV, dumping 63,000 tonnes of heavy fuel oil on the coast of Galicia. The Prestige was 26 years old and structurally unsound.
In 2012 a total solar eclipse occurs in parts of Australia and the South Pacific.
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Post by missyfan45 on Nov 15, 2020 0:17:21 GMT
John Breckinridge,Deems Taylor,Carlos Delgado Chalbaud, Charles Lafontaine,Richard Montgomery,Malcolm III of Scotland ,William O'Brien,Adela of Champagne,the Earl of Mar, and Louis VII are good people to meet. The Supreme court case of Browder v. Gayle and the Montgomery bus boycott could be a good sequel to Rosa. And Nevado del Ruiz could be agood "moral dilemma" scenario.
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Catsmate
13th Incarnation
It's complicated....
Posts: 3,748
Favourite Doctors: Thirteen, Six, Five, Two, Eight, Eleven, Twelve, One, Nine...
Traits: Eccentric, Insatiable Curiousity.
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Post by Catsmate on Nov 15, 2020 15:24:37 GMT
14NOV
In 1770 the Scottish traveller and travel writer James Bruce discovers what he believes to be the source of the Nile. He had been determined for years to "reach the source of the Blue Nile" and had set out on OCT1770 with a small party. On 14NOV1770 they reached Gish Abay, where Bruce drank a toast to King George III from the springs there.
In 1812 during the Napoleonic Wars, French forced, under Marshals Victor and Oudinot, are defeated by the Russians under General Peter Wittgenstein at the Battle of Smoliani. The battle was the last effort of the French to reestablish their northern flank in Russia (the "Dwina Line") but poor morale and mounting attrition within the French ranks (they suffered greatly from exposure, frostbite and disease) led to their defeat.
In 1817 the revolutionary Policarpa Salavarrieta who had spied on Spanish forces for the Revolutionary Forces during the Spanish Reconquista of the Viceroyalty of New Granada is executed by firing squad.
In 1889 at 9:40AM Elizabeth Cochrane boards the Augusta Victoria, a steamer of the Hamburg America Line and leaves New York. Better known as Nellie Bly the pioneering female journalist she hopes to match, or better, the fictional Phineas Fogg and travel around the world in less than 80 days. She will visit England, France (where she met Jules Verne in Amiens), Brindisi, the Suez Canal, Colombo (Ceylon), the Straits Settlements of Penang and Singapore, Hong Kong, and Japan, all the while sending reports back to her sponsors at the New York World by telegraph; efficient submarine cable networks and the electric telegraph having revolutionised communications. Bly also travelled both light and alone, unlike Fogg. She arrives back in New Jersey on 25JAN1890 at 3:51PM, having completed the trip in 72 days.
- Bly was a fascinating character, ripe to appear in a scenario set in the period from 1880 to 1920. She was more than a journalist, also being an industrialist, inventor, and charity worker.
- She worked undercover to report on a mental institution from within, suggesting several Whovian possibilities.
In 1922 the British Broadcasting Company begins radio service in the United Kingdom when station 2LO begins broadcasting on medium wave from Marconi House in London to the surrounding area. The first news bulletin is read by Arthur Burrows, the company's founding Director of Programmes. The following day the network adds two more stations 5IT in Birmingham and 2ZY in Manchester and all three BBC stations broadcast the General Election results.
In 1938 the Lions Gate Bridge, the First Narrows Bridge, opens to traffic and connects Vancouver to the North Shore region. The suspension bridge is over 1,800m long with 11m towers.
- The name "Lions Gate" comes from the Lions, a pair of mountain peaks north of Vancouver. Northbound traffic on the bridge heads in their general direction. A pair of cast concrete lions, designed by sculptor Charles Marega, were placed on either side of the south approach to the bridge in January 1939. They're probably nothing sinister....
In 1940 during the Battle of Britain the English town of Coventry is heavily bombed by over five hundred German Luftwaffe aircraft. Much of the city is heavily damaged, and Coventry Cathedral is almost completely destroyed. The attack, code-named Operation Mondscheinsonate went very well from the German perspective; the X-Gerät radion navigational system functioned perfectly and the pathfinders dropped marker flares at 7:20PM, allowing accurate bombing of the city. Coventry Cathedral was first hit around 8PM and despite efforts to fight the fires was soon burning. While it's often stated, including in Who, that Churchill was aware of the attack because of decoded Enigma intercepts this is actually a myth. An attack was expected but the target was not known, and London was favoured.
In 1941 German troops, aided by local auxiliaries, murder about nine thousand residents of the Słonim Ghetto, in Western Belarus, in a single day.
In 1957 law enforcement officers become suspicious when many expensive cars bearing license plates from around the United States arrive in "the sleepy hamlet of Apalachin", in rural Tioga County in upstate New York. The Apalachin meeting, of over one hundred figures from US organised crime groups was planned to be a historic summit of the American Mafia, held at the home of mobster Joseph "Joe the Barber" Barbara, at 625 McFall Road in Apalachin. The meeting was held to discuss various topics including loansharking, narcotics trafficking, and gambling, along with dividing the operations controlled by the recently murdered Albert Anastasia. After setting up roadblocks, the police raided the meeting, causing many of the participants to flee into the woods and area surrounding the Barbara estate; more than 60 underworld bosses were detained and indicted following the raid. Twenty of those who attended the meeting were charged with "Conspiring to obstruct justice by lying about the nature of the underworld meeting", though all the convictions were overturned on appeal. One of the most direct and significant outcomes of the Apalachin Meeting was that it helped to confirm the existence of a nationwide criminal conspiracy, a fact that some, including Federal Bureau of Investigation Director J. Edgar Hoover, had long refused to acknowledge.
In 1967 six months after building a prototype, American physicist Theodore Maiman is granted a patent for his ruby laser systems, the world's first laser.
In 1969 NASA launches Apollo 12, the second crewed mission to the surface of the Moon. The landing site for the mission was located in the southeastern portion of the Ocean of Storms.
In 1970 Southern Airways Flight 932 crashes in the mountains near Huntington, West Virginia, killing 75, including almost all of the Marshall University football team.
In 1971 the Mariner 9 probe enters orbit around Mars. Mariner 9 had been launched toward Mars on 20MAY1971 and was the first spacecraft to orbit another planet. While the surface of Mars was obscured by dust storms for several months following its arrival, the orbiter managed to send back clear pictures of the surface after several months.
In 1973 students at the Athens Polytechnic begin an uprising, a massive demonstration of popular rejection of the Greek military junta of 1967–74. Three days later events starting with a tank crashing through the gates of the Polytechnic will see forty dead.
In 2001 a magnitude 7.8 earthquake strikes a remote part of the Tibetan plateau. It has the longest known surface rupture recorded on land (~400 km) and is the best documented example of a supershear earthquake.
- What was really going on there?
In 2003 astronomers discover 90377 Sedna, the most distant trans-Neptunian object; a strange dwarf planet of reddish colour and highly eccentric orbit.
In 2016 a magnitude 7.8 earthquake strikes Kaikoura in New Zealand, at a depth of 15km, resulting in the deaths of two people.
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Post by missyfan45 on Nov 15, 2020 23:28:48 GMT
James Bruce,Theodore Maiman,Peter Wittgenstein,Charles Marega,Elizabeth Cochrane, .Arthur Burrows, and Joseph "Joe the Barber" Barbara are good people to meet. Apollo 12 could have met some aliens on the Moon or the Silence. The Coventry attack could have been a much more devastating blitz in a ah story. Sedna could have been a lush green planet before the Timelords destroyed it like the planet of the Fendhal. And The source of the Nile could have some Osirian artifacts in it.
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Catsmate
13th Incarnation
It's complicated....
Posts: 3,748
Favourite Doctors: Thirteen, Six, Five, Two, Eight, Eleven, Twelve, One, Nine...
Traits: Eccentric, Insatiable Curiousity.
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Post by Catsmate on Nov 16, 2020 18:42:02 GMT
15NOV
In 655 Penda of Mercia, the most powerful monarch within what will become 'England' is defeated at killed by Oswiu of Northumbria at the Battle of the Winwaed. Penda had attempted to, and been mostly successful in, dominating England, having achieved a serious of military victories over his contemporaries, mainly the previously dominant Northumbrians. The battle also marked the effective demise of Anglo-Saxon paganism. Despite it's historical importance very little is known of the battle, including where it happened. The two armies are said to have met near a river, the "Winwæd", but this river has never been conclusively identified. After the battle Oswiu concluded his campaign in the district of 'Loidis' (what became Leeds in West Yorkshire) the Winwæd is usually thought to have been near Leeds, perhaps a tributary of the Humber; suggestions include the River Went and the River Don. It is known, from the medieval chroniclers, that the battle was fought by the river during heavy rains (indeed it's possible man more combatants died from drowning than otherwise).
- The perfect opportunity for in-the-field military historical research. Bu the way, some chronicles mention supernatural intervention in the battle....
In 1315 at the Battle of Morgarten, the militia of the Schweizer Eidgenossenschaft ambushes the much larger, professional Austrian army of Leopold I and rout them, The battle was an important step in the creation of what is now Switzerland and may well have been the first large scale use of 'halberds' (polearms) against armoured, mounted, knights; polearms, including the long pike would become iconic parts of the Old Swiss Confederacy.
- Another opportunity for military historical research in the field.
In 1532 commanded by Francisco Pizarro, Spanish conquistadors under Hernando de Soto meet Inca Empire leader Atahualpa for the first time outside the Inca city of Cajamarca, arranging a meeting on the city plaza the following day.
A year later in 1533 Francisco Pizarro arrives in Cuzco, the capital of the Inca Empire. Like the other Spaniards he is astonished by the size and appearance of the city. However he's there to collect the ransom for Atahualpa, to fill the infamous Ransom Room.
In 1705 Austrian and Danish forces are victorious over a larger force of Hungarians and French at the Battle of Zsibó, in Zsibó, then in the Principality of Transylvania. The Danes and Austrians launched a powerful attack on the French and Kuruc infantry and forced a retreat that won the battle.
In 1806 during the Pike Expedition, one of several sent my Jefferson into the new Louisiana Territory, Lieutenant Zebulon Pike sees a distant mountain peak while near the Colorado foothills of the Rocky Mountains, Tava, now generally known as Pike's Peak. While not as well known as the Lewis and Clark Expedition (covered previously), the Pike Expedition also explored the newly acquired territory, including trespassing in Spanish lands.
In 1864 Union General William Tecumseh Sherman begins his fanous, or infamous, March to the Sea.
In 1889 in a rare example of a popular monarch being overthrown, Brazil is declared a republic by Marshal Deodoro da Fonseca as Emperor Pedro II is deposed in a military coup. Pedro was unwilling to oppose the coup, despite enjoying the support of the vast majority of the populace; it was a time of stability and progress for Brazil when the nation had achieved a prominent place as an emerging power in the world. However he was opposed by the ruling circles, especially by a small, nominally republican, minority who considered the emperor a bar to their political and economic ambitions.
In 1920 the League of Nations assembles for the first time at the Salle de la Réformation in Geneva
In 1928 the RNLI lifeboat Mary Stanford capsises in Rye Harbour with the loss of the entire 17-man crew.
In 1939 in Washington, DC, US President Franklin Roosevelt lays the cornerstone of the Jefferson Memorial.
In 1966 the US Gemini programme concludes with the successful return of the Gemini 12 capsule, landing safely in the Atlantic Ocean.
In 1967 the US X-15 rocket-plane programme sees it's only fatality of the when the aircraft disintegrates during the 191st flight; Air Force test pilot Michael J. Adams is killed.
In 1969 in the Barents Sea a near disaster occurs when the Soviet submarine K-19 collides with the American submarine USS Gato. The K-19 was a Hotel class ballistic missile sub with a particularly interesting history of accidents and incidents. The cause of the collision is disputed. The Gato was lightly damaged and continued her patrol. The Doctor Who scenario 'One of our submarines is missing' by Jez Miller is based around such a collision.
That same day in 1969 over a quarter-of-a-million people gather in Washington DC to protest against the Vietnam War.
In 1971 Intel releases the world's first commercial single-chip microprocessor, the 4004, which would see use in a variety of devices from calculators to games machines.
In 1979 American Airlines Flight 444, a Boeing 727 flying from Chicago to Washington DC, is forced to make an emergency landing when smoke starts coming from it's cargo hold. A package from the 'Unabomber' (Ted Kaczynski) was responsible; a faulty timing mechanism prevented the bomb from exploding which would probably have destroyed the aircraft. As bombing an airliner is a federal crime, the Federal Bureau of Investigation became involved, designating the case UNABOM for University and Airline Bomber.
In 1988 in the Soviet Union, the unmanned Space Shuttle Buran makes its only space flight.
In 2007 Cyclone Sidr hits Bangladesh, killing over five thousand people.
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Post by missyfan45 on Nov 16, 2020 23:06:09 GMT
William Tecumseh Sherman,Michael J. Adams, Zebulon Pike,Marshal Deodoro da Fonseca,Francisco Pizarro, Leopold I,Penda of Mercia, Oswiu of Northumbria,and Emperor Pedro II are good people to meet. American Airlines Flight 444 could have been blown up thus making the Unabomber relevant and dangerous in a ah. And the anti-Vietnam protest could easily go worse in a ah story.
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Catsmate
13th Incarnation
It's complicated....
Posts: 3,748
Favourite Doctors: Thirteen, Six, Five, Two, Eight, Eleven, Twelve, One, Nine...
Traits: Eccentric, Insatiable Curiousity.
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Post by Catsmate on Nov 17, 2020 12:30:11 GMT
16NOV
In 951CE during his expansionist phase Emperor Li Jing, of the Southern Tang kingdom in China, sends expeditionary force of 10,000 men under Bian Hao to conquer the kingdom of Chu. While the conquest/absorption is successful, ending the Chu Kingdom, his constant warfare drained the wealth of the country, leaving it unable to resist the Later Zhou invasion in 956.
In 1272 while returning from the Ninth Crusade, Prince Edward becomes King of England upon the death of his father, Henry III. Edward I is better knon as Edward Longshanks (from his height) and the Hammer of the Scots (from his actions); he was involved in the fighting in the Middle East for several years, surviving an assassination attempt in June of 1272 and probably suffering infection or poisoning from his injuries. He was in Sicily on his way back to England when he learned of his father's death; his still-poor health, and confidence in the interim arrangements, meant his return was slow, taking almost two years. In Edward's absence, the country was governed by a royal council, led by Robert Burnell. The new king embarked on an overland journey through Italy and France, where among other things he visited Pope Gregory X. He arrived in England on 02AUG1274 and was formally crowned on 19AUG.
In 1491 the affair of the Holy Child of La Guardia comes to it's bloody end when at least eight people are publicly executed by during an auto-da-fé, held in the Brasero de la Dehesa outside of Ávila in Spain. The case had lasted over a year and involved numerous Inquisitors; finally a group of Jews and converts were tortured into confessing to the murder of a probably mythical child, one of the more horrific examples of Blood Libel. The Holy Child remains a folk saint in Spanish Roman Catholicism and the church in Spain still insists on the crrectness of the verdicts. No body or remains was ever found and there is no evidence that a child disappeared or was killed. The incident took place one year before the expulsion of the Jews from Spain, and the case was part of the pretext for the expulsion.
In 1532 Francisco Pizarro and his men capture Inca Emperor Atahualpa and slaughter hundreds at the Battle of Cajamarca. The "battle" was one sided in the extreme, with around 180 Spaniards killing more than two thousand Incas, Atahualpa's counselors, commanders, and unarmed attendants, without loss of their own. The capture of Atahualpa and his, subsequent ransom, marked the opening stage of the conquest of the pre-Columbian civilization of Peru.
In 1776 during the American Revolutionary War, British forces capture Fort Washington, at the north end of Manhattan Island, from the Patriots. The capture was greatly assisted when one of the fort's officers, William Demont, deserted and furnished Lord Howe with detailed plans of the American fortifications and troop placements. Most of the prisoners taken, nearly three thousand, died over the winter from cold, starvation and disease while interned in British ships in New York harbor.
In 1793 during the French Revolution the 'Drownings at Nantes' begin with the execution of of ninety dissident Roman Catholic priests at what Jean-Baptiste Carrier called "the national bathtub". In all over four thousand would be killed in this manner, thrown from a specially modified barge into the Loire. One priest, a Father Landeau, survived the killings due to his swimming abilities; he managed to escape during a struggle, jump from the barge into the Loire, and swim to safety.
In 1797 – The Prussian heir apparent, Frederick William, becomes King of Prussia as Frederick William III.
In 1822 the Santa Fe Trail begins when Missouri trader William Becknell arrives in Santa Fe in New Mexico having used the route. William Becknell was a soldier, politician, and trader who is generally credited with initiating the Santa Fe Trail, a route that was wide enough for wagon trains and draft teams, making it easier for traders and emigrants along the route connecting Franklin in Missouri with Santa Fe.
In 1849 a Russian court sentences writer Fyodor Dostoyevsky to death for anti-government activities linked to a radical intellectual group. His execution is prevented at the last moment by the arrival of a cart delivering a letter from the Tsar commuting the sentence to hard labor in exile in Siberia.
In 1855 David Livingstone becomes the first European to see the Victoria Falls, the Mosi-o-Tunya ("the smoke that thunders") in what is now Zambia-Zimbabwe.
- Livingstone is someone who could turn up in a scenario set in mid-nineteenth century Africa, or who could have found or unearthed a MacGuffin for later scenarios.
In 1857 during the Indian Rebellion the Residency at Lucknow is relieved for the second time. British forces arrive the previous day and signal their intent by semaphore. The British commander, Colin Campbell, was mindful of the heavy loss of life experienced by the first Lucknow relief column and so approached from the west, securing each position as he went, to protect his communications and supply train.
- The residency would be an interesting place for a group of time travellers to arrive in, causing all sorts of potential problems.
In 1863 at the Battle of Campbell's Station, Confederate troops unsuccessfully attack Union forces, their failure allows General Ambrose Burnside to secure Knoxville in Tennessee. Burnside's forces arrived at the crossroads first, by forced marching, that rainy November day and entrenched themselves quickly. Longstreet's Confederates were seen not twenty minutes later.
- Had Longstreet reached Campbell's Station first, the Knoxville Campaign's results might have been rather different.
In 1885 the Canadian politician and rebel leader of the Métis, the "Father of Manitoba" Louis Riel is hanged for treason. Of him Sir John A. Macdonald, who was instrumental in upholding Riel's sentence, is quoted as saying:
In 1920 the national airline of Australia, Qantas, is founded by Paul McGinness, Sir Hudson Fysh and Sir Fergus McMaster, as Queensland and Northern Territory Aerial Services Limited. There is plenty of scope for Quantas appearing in a scenario set Down Under, especially in the Pulp era. Initially the company operated air taxi, light freight and air mail services but they'd later branch into the Royal Flying Doctor Service of Australia, an excellent opportunity for uncovering odd goings on in the backwoods.
In 1938 the Swiss chemist Albert Hofmann synthesises LSD from ergotamine at the Sandoz Laboratories in Basel. Historically the drug would not be examined until 1943 when Hofmann decided to testi; during the synthesis he accidentally absorbed a small amount of the drug through his fingertips and discovered its powerful effects. Hofmann carried out pioneering work in the synthesis and testing of several psychedelic drugs.
In 1940 in occupied Poland, the Nazis close off the Warsaw Ghetto from the outside world. At it's height the"Jewish Residential District in Warsaw" housed 460,000 Jews in an area of 3.4km2, who barely subsisted on meager food rations.
Also in 1940 New York City's "Mad Bomber" George Metesky places his first bomb at a Manhattan office building used by Consolidated Edison. Metesky would place dozens more until captured in JAN1957, injuring several people. He was deemed insane and confined to the Matteawan Hospital; he was released in 1973.for
In 1944 during the Battle of Hürtgen Forest, the town of Düren is destroyed by Allied aircraft. While overshadowed by the later Battle of the Bulge, the Battle of Hürtgen Forest was the longest battle on German territory during World War II and remains the longest single battle the U.S. Army has ever fought. Over two hundred thousand troops were involved, with over fifty thousand casualties.
In 1965 tThe Soviet Union launches the Venera 3 space probe toward Venus; it will be the first spacecraft to reach the surface of another planet.
In 1973 NASA launches Skylab 4 with a crew of three astronauts from Cape Canaveral, Florida for an 84-day mission. Skylab 4 was the third crewed Skylab mission and placed the third and final crew aboard the first American space station.
In 1974 the Arecibo radio message is broadcast from Puerto Rico. This was an attempt at interstellar communication, a radio message carrying basic information about humanity and Earth sent to globular star cluster M13. It was meant as a demonstration of human technological achievement, rather than a real attempt to enter into a conversation with extraterrestrials as the signal would be almost impossible to detect at a distance of 25,000 light years.
In 1989 El Salvadoran troops kills six Jesuit priests and two others at Jose Simeon Canas University. The Jesuits were advocates of a negotiated settlement between the government of El Salvador and the Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front (FMLN), the guerilla organization that had fought the government for a decade. The murders attracted international attention to the Jesuits' efforts and increased international pressure for a cease-fire, representing one of the key turning points that led toward a negotiated settlement to the war.
In 1992 a metal detector enthusiast named Eric Lawes, unearths a chest containing a horde of Roman coins and artefacts in Hoxne in Suffolk, known as the Hoxne Hoard is discovered by metal detectorist Eric Lawes The Hoxne Hoard remains the largest hoard of late Roman silver and gold discovered in Britain.
- What else might an amateur find buried?
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Post by missyfan45 on Nov 17, 2020 17:23:24 GMT
Eric Lawes,(maybe a buried alien spaceship?),William Becknell David Livingstone (could be a ally like ridell), Fyodor Dostoyevsky,Sir John A. Macdonald, George Metesky,Paul McGinness, Sir Hudson Fysh and Sir Fergus McMaster, Frederick William III, and Robert Burnell are good people to meet.The Battle of Cajamarc could be a adventure like the Aztecs. And LSD could be used as a plot point in a 60's themed adventure.
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Catsmate
13th Incarnation
It's complicated....
Posts: 3,748
Favourite Doctors: Thirteen, Six, Five, Two, Eight, Eleven, Twelve, One, Nine...
Traits: Eccentric, Insatiable Curiousity.
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Post by Catsmate on Nov 18, 2020 12:26:20 GMT
17NOV In 887CE the last legitimate Carolingian emperor, Charles the III (generally 'Charles the Fat') is deposed by the Frankish nobles in an assembly at Frankfurt, in favour of His nephew Arnulf of Carinthia, who becomes king of the East Frankish Kingdom. Charles III was a great-grandson of Charlemagne, and the last emperor to rule over all the realms of the Franks. He was a poor shadow of his great-grandfather, lethargic, weak and inept, frequently sickly and an incompetent ruler.
- One of the main reasons for his deposing was his payments to Viking raiders to procure peace, notably at the infamous Siege of Paris (885–886), which led to Arnulf's coup.
Forced into quiet retirement, Charles died of natural causes (probably, he had significant health problems, probably including epilepsy) in JAN0888, just a few weeks later The Carolingian Empire fell apart rapidly after his death, splintering into five successor kingdoms, and creating numerous internecine wars.
In 1183 during the Genpei War, an attempt by forces of Minamoto no Yoshinaka to invade Yashima, a small island off the coast of Shikoku and an important base for the Taira clan, leads to the Battle of Mizushima. Minamoto's invasion force is defeated in the mainly maritime skirmish.
In 1292 John Balliol, referred to derisively as Toom Tabard ("empty coat"), becomes King of Scotland in a process heavily influenced by King Edward I of England (the 'Hammer of the Scots') bringing an end to the interregnum period. Edward used his influence over the process to subjugate Scotland and undermined Balliol's personal reign by treating Scotland as a vassal of England; this influence in Scottish affairs tainted Balliol's reign and the Scottish nobility deposed him and appointed a Council of Twelve to rule instead after four years. This would lead to the Auld Alliance with France and the Wars of Scottish Independence.
In 1511 Henry VIII of England concludes and agreement with Ferdinand II of Aragon, known as the Treaty of Westminster, a pledge of mutual aid against the French.
In 1558 with the death of Queen Mary I of England the Elizabethan era begins as she is succeeded by her half-sister Elizabeth. Mary ('Bloody Mary') is a controversial and divisive figure in English history, not least to a deliberate attempt at demonisation by her Protestant successors. She was the first woman to successfully claim the throne of England, despite competing claims and determined opposition, and enjoyed great popular support and sympathy during most of her reign, though especially from the Roman Catholics in England. The circumstances around her death are interesting; in 1587 Mary believed her was pregnant, with the baby due in MAR1558. However no child was born, and Mary was forced to accept that her half-sister Elizabeth would be her lawful successor. Unless of course there was a child.... Certainly Mary was ill from, at the latest, MAY1558 and suffering from weakness and frequent bouts of pain (this, and the earlier false pregnancy, many have been caused by uterine cancer or ovarian cysts). Mary died, at the age of 42, at St James's Palace in London; the city was suffering from a plaque, believed to be influenza. Curiously one of her great supporters, Reginald Pole the last Roman Catholic Archbishop of Canterbury, died the same day. later the same day.
In 1796 during the incessant French Revolutionary Wars, French forces defeat the Austrians in Italy at the Battle of the Bridge of Arcole, fought about 25km southeast of Verona. The battle saw a bold maneuver by Napoleon Bonaparte's French Army of Italy to outflank the Austrian army led by József Alvinczi and cut off its line of retreat. The French victory effectively ended the Austrian attempt to lift the Siege of Mantua.
In 1810 as a result of Sweden's defeat in the Finnish War and the Pomeranian War, Sweden declares war on its previous ally the United Kingdom to begin the Anglo-Swedish War. The 'war' so no fighting ever take place and trade continued as usual; effectively the war existed only on paper.
In 1820 the American seal hunter and explorer, Captain Nathaniel Palmer, encounters the Antarctic Peninsula, the first Americans to see Antarctica (the ships of Fabian Gottlieb von Bellingshausen and Edward Bransfield had been there slightly earlier) reported sighting land earlier in 1820. Along with English sealer George Powell, Palmer also co-discovered the nearby South Orkney Islands archipelago. becomes the (The Palmer Peninsula is later named after
In 1837 an earthquake in Valdivia in south-central Chile, causes a tsunami that crosses the Pacific and causes significant destruction along Japan's coast and that of Hawaii, as well as landslides in South America and the innundation of several small Pacific islands. While powerful the 'quake is considered a precursor to that of 1960, the most powerful earthquake in recorded history.
1858 in the Modified Julian Calendar, this is Day Zero. Julian day is the continuous count of days since the beginning of the Julian Period and is used primarily by astronomers, and in software for easily calculating elapsed days between two events.
In 1863 during the American Civil War, the Siege of Knoxville begins when Confederate forces led by General James Longstreet place Knoxville in Tennessee, under siege. The Knoxville campaign was a series of battles and maneuvers in East Tennessee in the fall of 1863 designed to secure control of the city of Knoxville and with it the railroad that linked the Confederacy east and west.
In 1869 in Egypt the Suez Canal, linking the Mediterranean Sea with the Red Sea, is inaugurated. The opening ceremonies began at Port Said (on the evening of 15NOV) with illuminations, fireworks, and a banquet on the yacht of the Khedive Isma'il Pasha of Egypt and Sudan. The following morning the various royal guests arrive (Empress Eugenie in the Imperial yacht L'Aigle, the Crown Prince of Prussia, and Prince Louis of Hesse) along with other international guests. The afternoon sawMuslim and Christian blessings of the canal followed in the evening with more banqueting and fireworks.
In 1878 an attempt is made, by the anarchist Giovanni Passannante, to assassinate King Umberto I of Italy on Largo della Carriera Grande in Naples. The King survived with a slight wound in an arm, Prime Minister Benedetto Cairoli blocked the aggressor, and was himself injured. Passannante's action brought disorder in many cities, with a total of several dead, wounded, and arrested; for example on 18NOV a group of anarchists threw a bomb into a crowd in Florence that was celebrating the king's survival, killing three and injuring a dozen more.
In 1894 Herman Webster Mudgett, better known as H. H. Holmes, one of the first modern serial killers, is arrested in Boston. 'Holmes' confessed to 27 murders, and is believed to have killed as many as two hundred, he as convicted and sentenced to death for only one murder, that of accomplice and business partner Benjamin Pitezel. Most of his victims were killed in a mixed-use building which he owned in Chicago, later called "The Murder Castle", in and around the World's Fair.
In 1903 at the Second Party Congress in Brussels, the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party splits into two groups: The Bolsheviks (Russian for "majority") and Mensheviks (Russian for "minority") the larger faction.
In 1939 in response to Anti-Nazi demonstrations, prompted by the death of Jan Opleta, all Czech universities are shut down, more than 1,200 students sent to concentration camps and nine are executed.
In 1947 American scientists John Bardeen and Walter Houser Brattain observe the basic principles of the transistor, a key element for the electronics revolution of the later 20th century. It would take several years of work to develop useful and producible devices from the discovery.
In 1953 the remaining human inhabitants of the Blasket Islands, off the coast of Kerry in Ireland, are evacuated to the mainland. Similarly to other evacuations (notably St. Kilda in Scotland) because of lack of economic activity, expense of providing basic and emergency services and increasingly extreme weather. The islands remain uninhabited, except for occasional campers.
In 1957 a Vickers Viscount, G-AOHP of British European Airways, crashes at Ballerup after the failure of three engines on approach to Copenhagen Airport, caused by a malfunction of the anti-icing system on the aircraft. There are no fatalities.
In 1969 Negotiators from the Soviet Union and the United States meet in Helsinki in Finland to begin the first round of SALT I (Strategic Arms Limitation Talks) negotiations aimed at limiting the number of strategic nuclear weapons on both sides. The negotiations would continue until MAY1972, meetings alternating between Helsinki and Vienna.
In 1970 the Soviet Union lands Lunokhod 1 ('Moonwalker') on Mare Imbrium (Sea of Rains) on the Moon from the the orbiting Luna 17 spacecraft. This is the first freely mobile, remote-controlled robot to land on another celestial body. Intended for a lifetime of three lunar days (approximately three Earth months), the 750kg vehicle, operated on the lunar surface for eleven lunar days (321 Earth days) and traversed a total distance of 10.54km, powered by a polonium radio-thermal generator.
In 1989 fifty years after the Nazi repression the Velvet Revolution begins in Czechoslovakia, when a student demonstration in Prague is violently quelled by riot police. This sparks an uprising aimed at overthrowing the communist government, which succeeds on 29DEC.
In 1990 Fugen-dake, part of the Mount Unzen volcanic complex in the Nagasaki Prefecture of Japan, becomes active again and erupts, after a series of minor earth tremors. The first eruptions are phreatic, a steam-blasts, from two places near a shrine at the summit. These eruptions continue intermittently over the following months.
In 2000 a catastrophic landslide in Log pod Mangartom in Slovenia, kills seven, and causes extensive damage.
In 2013 an unusual, late-season, tornado outbreak strikes the Midwest of the United States. Illinois and Indiana are most affected with tornado reports as far north as lower Michigan. In all around 75 tornadoes touch down in approximately an 11-hour time period, including seven EF3 and two EF4 tornadoes. At least eleven people die, from tornado damage and extreme weather (winds reached 160km/h), and over a hundred are injured.
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Post by missyfan45 on Nov 18, 2020 23:17:52 GMT
Giovanni Passannante, John Bardeen and Walter Houser Brattain, H. H. Holmes,Benjamin Pitezel,Nathaniel Palmer, Queen Mary I (she's always a good villain for a historical as big finish showed, and has many anecdotes about her enough for a thread of it s own)Arnulf of Carinthia,and John Balliol are good people to meet.Mare Imbrium could be a underground base in a spy like adventure. And Mount Unzen could be like You only live twice.
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Catsmate
13th Incarnation
It's complicated....
Posts: 3,748
Favourite Doctors: Thirteen, Six, Five, Two, Eight, Eleven, Twelve, One, Nine...
Traits: Eccentric, Insatiable Curiousity.
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Post by Catsmate on Nov 19, 2020 13:22:02 GMT
18NOV In 326CE the (old) St. Peter's Basilica in Rome is consecrated by Pope Sylvester I. The church was constructed by order of Constantine, on the site of the Circus of Nero, and the same site as the current St. Peter's.
In 401 the Visigoths, led by king Alaric I, cross the Alps and invade northern Italy. Alaric had previously been an ally of Rome (under Emperor Theodosius) where he's Alaric helped defeat the Franks and other enemies of Rome, but received little recognition for his efforts and left the Roman army disappointed. In 395 Theodosius died and the Roman armies effectively disintegrated, leaving Alaric as leader of the only effective field force remaining in the Balkans. There was no significant confrontation with Roman forces for a period of about nine months, until he faced the Roman general Stilicho on the Via Postumia.
In 1095 Pope Urban II opens the Council of Clermont, a gathering of about three hundred church and lay leaders at Clermont in Auvergne (at the time part of the Duchy of Aquitaine). The main result of the synod was the call to arms that became the First Crusade, in support of the request by the Byzantine emperor Alexius I Comnenus for military assistance against the Seljuk Turks.. However several other matters were discussed at Clermontl; the Cluniac reforms of the Church, the excommunication of Philip I of France and the 'Truce of God', an attempt on the part of the church to reduce feuding among the Frankish nobility,
In 1421 a seawall at the Zuiderzee dike in the Netherlands breaks catastrophically during a heavy storm, leading to what is known as known as St Elizabeth's flood. The Grote Hollandse Waard is flooded, covering some 72 villages and killing perhaps eleven thousand people.
In 1494 the French king, Charles VIII, occupies Florence during the Italian Wars. Charles's army had arrived at Florence in mid-November and created fears of rape and pillage in the Florentines; this led them to exile Piero de' Medici and to establish a republican government. A peaceful accord was negotiated with Charles.
In 1601 Tiryaki Hasan Pasha, an Ottoman provincial governor, routs the far larger Habsburg forces (commanded by Ferdinand the Archduke of Austria) during the Siege of Nagykanizsa. The battle was part of the Long War between the Ottoman Empire and the House of Habsburg, lasting from 1593 to 1606.
In 1626 the new St Peter's Basilica is consecrated.
In 1730 partially reconciled with his father, Frederick William, the future Frederick the Great of Prussia is granted a pardon by his father and is released from confinement. While Frederick the Great is generally conceived as the model of Prussian discipline this was not so in his youth; in July and August of 1730 the eighteen year old Frederick, and his close friend Hans Hermann von Katte (a Prussian officer in his twenties, who served as one of Frederick's tutors), plotted to flee to England with a number of junior army officers. The ploy was revealed to Frederick William on 05AUG and Frederick and Katte were subsequently arrested and imprisoned in Küstrin. Because they were army officers who had tried to flee Prussia for Great Britain, Frederick William leveled an accusation of treason against the pair, effectively threatening his crown prince with execution. Frederick William also considered forcing Frederick to renounce the succession in favour of his brother, Augustus William. Frederick was compelled to watch the beheading of his confidant Katte at Küstrin on 06NOV. He was granted a royal pardon and released from his cell on 18NOV.
In 1803 the Battle of Vertières, the last major battle of the Haitian Revolution, is fought, leading to the surrender of the remaining French forces and establishment of the Republic of Haiti, the first black republic in the Western Hemisphere. The battle is curious for the brief intermission; during the fighting the French commander, General Rochambeau, temporarily declared a cease-fire to send his congratulations to the Haitians for their bravery.
In 1809 in a naval action in the Bay of Bengal. part of the Napoleonic Wars, French frigates defeat and capture three ships of the British East Company, a significant victory for the French frigate squadron of Commodore Jacques Hamelin.
In 1812, also during the Napoleonic Wars, the French are heavily defeated at the Battle of Krasnoi, where Marshal of France Michel Ney's leadership leads to him becoming known as "the bravest of the brave". The 'battle' was actually a drawn out series of skirmishes fought over fours days during the final stage of Napoleon's retreat from Moscow. The Russians under General Mikhail Illarionovich Kutuzov inflicted heavy losses on the remnants of the Grande Armée.
In 1863 King Christian IX of Denmark signs the November constitution that declares Schleswig to be part of Denmark. This is seen by the German Confederation as a violation of the London Protocol and leads to the German–Danish war of 1864, or the Second Schleswig War. The Schleswig-Holstein Question, loosely summarised as how controls the two duchies, was a significant irritat in European politics of the time. The British statesman Lord Palmerston is reported to have said:
In 1883 the American and Canadian railroads institute five standard continental time zones, ending the confusion of thousands of local times.
In 1901 and 1903 diplomatic agreements are made between Britain, Panama and the United States regarding the status of the Panama Canal. In 1901 the Hay–Pauncefote Treaty is agreed, in which Britain withdraws it's objections to an American-controlled canal in Panama. While in 1903 the Hay–Bunau-Varilla Treaty is signed by the United States and Panama, giving the United States exclusive rights over the Panama Canal Zone.
In 1905 Prince Carl of Denmark becomes King Haakon VII of Norway.
In 1909 after political unrest in Nicaragua leads to the execution of perhaps five hundred 'revolutionaries' (two of who are Americans) by order of José Santos Zelaya., the United States sends two warships and a force of Marines to Bliefields in Nicaragua, nominally to establish and protect a neutral zone to protect foreign lives and property. This acts as a base of operations for the anti-Zelayan rebels, leading to Zelaya turning over power to José Madriz and fleeing to Spain on 17DEC.
In 1928 the animated short film Steamboat Willie, is released; the first fully synchronized sound cartoon, featuring the third appearances of cartoon characters Mickey Mouse and Minnie Mouse. It premiered at Universal's Colony Theater in New York City.
In 1929 a powerful (magnitude 7.2) undersea earthquake centered on the Grand Banks, off Newfoundland, causes a massive landslip and tidal waves. Twelve of the submarine transatlantic telegraph cables connecting Europe to Canada are broken while the tsunami destroys many communities in the southwest Burin Peninsula. The tidal waves took about 143 minutes to cover the 340km distance to Burin, where it was about 13m high and killed about thirty people. Smaller waves were seen as far as Bermuda and Portugal.
In 1947 a small fire in a basement storeroom of the huge Ballantyne's Department Store complex in Christchurch, New Zealand, spreads from about 3:30PM due to poor management. Eventually the fire and smoke destroys much of the store and kills 41 people. There were no automatic extinguishers or fire doors, no operational fire alarms or sprinklers, nor were the staff trained in an evacuation plan; there were no external fire escapes either. At the time the store occupied a corner site, about 4,500m2 in size with a frontage totaling over 150m on three sides. Inside the store was a maze of connected building with departments on several floors, catering to the elite of Canterbury (the neoclassical tea-rooms on the upper floor were particularly sumptuous).
In 1949 a coal miners strike at Enugu colliery in Nigeria is violently repressed by British colonial police; the Iva Valley Shooting sees 21 miners and bystanders shot dead and 51 wounded.
In 1978 in 'Jonestown', a remote settlement in Guyana, Jim Jones leads his Peoples Temple followers to a mass murder–suicide; in all 918 people are killed, 909 of them in Jonestown itself, where 631 adults and 278 children die, mostly by poison. Earlier in the day US Congressman Leo Ryan and eight members of his party, investigating the cult, are murdered by members of the Peoples Temple at a small airstrip at Port Kaituma, a few kilometres from Jonestown.
In 1999 students and former students at Texas A&M University are constructing the annual 'Aggie Bonfire' when the stack of over five thousand logs collapses, killing and injuring 27 others. The 'Aggie Bonfire' was a long-standing annual tradition at Texas A&M University as part of the college rivalry with the University of Texas at Austin that had lasted over ninety years.
In 2013 – NASA launches the Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN (MAVEN) probe to Mars. It was intended to investigate the upper atmosphere and ionosphere of Mars and how the solar wind strips volatile compounds from this atmosphere.
Comments? Ideas? Suggestions?
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Post by missyfan45 on Nov 19, 2020 20:27:51 GMT
King Haakon VII, José Santos Zelaya, Michel Ney, King Christian IX,Tiryaki Hasan Pasha, Pope Urban II, Alaric I, Mikhail Illarionovich Kutuzov, Hans Hermann von Katte,Pope Sylvester I,and Jacques Hamelin are good people to meet. The opening of Steamboat Willie, could be good for time tourists to go to. And Jonestown could be a good mind control themed story as well.
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Catsmate
13th Incarnation
It's complicated....
Posts: 3,748
Favourite Doctors: Thirteen, Six, Five, Two, Eight, Eleven, Twelve, One, Nine...
Traits: Eccentric, Insatiable Curiousity.
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Post by Catsmate on Nov 20, 2020 19:15:42 GMT
19NOV
In 461CE Libius Severus is declared emperor of the Western Roman Empire, though in fact it was the empire's magister militum, military commander, Flavius Ricimer who controls affairs. On 07AUG Ricimer had had the previous emperor, Majorian murdered to clear the throne for a more pliable successor, Severus was one of the last Western emperors, an office emptied of any effective power. He died on 15AUG465 probably of natural causes, though some sources suggest he was poisoned by Ridimer.
In 636 in what is now Iraq the Battle of al-Qādisiyyah, at the small frontier town of Qadisiyyah, and ends in a decisive victory for the Rashidun Caliphate over the forces of the Sasanian Empire. Despite being an important event in Islamic history, the larger Sasanian army effectively collapsed after their leader, Rostam Farrokhzad, was killed during the battle, very little detail is known about it. One fact that is known is the vast amount of spoils, including the famed the 'flag of Kāveh', ajewel-encrusted royal standard, that the Muslims captured.
In 1493 Christopher Columbus goes ashore on an island called, by the inhabitants, Borinquen that he'd first seen the day before. He names it San Juan Bautista and later it is renamed Puerto Rico.
In 1794 The Treaty of Amity, Commerce, and Navigation, Between His Britannic Majesty and the United States of America (commonly known as Jay's Treaty) is signed by the United States and the Kingdom of Great Britain. The treat was an attempt to resolve some of the lingering problems left over from the American Revolutionary War. The agreement angered France and bitterly divided Americans, ensuring the growth of the First Two-Party System, splitting the sou8ntry between the pro-Treaty Federalists and the anti-Treaty Jeffersonian Republicans (later the Democratic-Republicans).
In 1802 the Garinagu, also known as Black Caribs, arrive at British Honduras (now Belize) having been 'relocated' from the Caribbean island of Saint Vincent in the British West Indies.
In 1863 US President Abraham Lincoln delivers the Gettysburg Address at the dedication ceremony for the Soldiers' National Cemetery at Gettysburg in Pennsylvania. This is likely to be an event that would attract time travellers of the historically curious and touristic varieties. Interestingly, despite the numbers present and the availability of photography, neither the site of the address (it may not have been delivered within Gettysburg itself bur rather in the adjacent Evergreen Cemetery), nor the text of the speech are known. At least five versions of the speech were prepared by Lincoln, all different, and newspaper accounts, supposedly noted contemporaneously, also differ with each other and with the drafts. Definitely time for some investigation.
In 1881 just before dawn, an extremely bright fireball is seen in the sky over the Ukraine, near Odessa. Soon afterwards word is received of a meteorite impact near the village of Grossliebenthal, southwest of Odessa. The recovered object was a stony chondrite of a common type, with little metal content.
In 1885 Bulgarian victory in the Battle of Slivnitsa, part of the Serbo-Bulgarian War, solidifies the unification between the Principality of Bulgaria and Eastern Rumelia.
In 1911 near to dusk, after 4:3PM, and in a storm two ships are lost on the Doom Bar, a sandbar at the mouth of the estuary of the River Camel, where it meets the Celtic Sea on the north coast of Cornwall. The ships lost were both sailing vessels; the Island Maid, a schooner from Belfast, bound from Llanelly to Cherbourg with 220 tonnes of coal, and the brigantine Angele, laden with coal and bricks from Swansea to L'Orient. The crew of the Island Maid were rescued by the lifeboat Arab, which launched around 4:50PM, but all the crew of the Angela barring her captain, were killed. The 'Doom Bar' has an interesting history, allegedly created by a mermaid in an act of vengeance it has been the site of over six hundred maritime incidents, including scores of shipwrecks.
In 1941 the battle between the cruiser HMAS Sydney and the auxiliary cruiser HSK Kormoran ends with the ships sinking each other off the coast of Western Australia. 645 Australian and 77 German seamen die in the encounter. The incident remains somewhat controversial, the sole occasion when a converted merchant ship managed to sink a true warship in a stand-up fight. There have been numerous accusations and conspiracy theories alleging the German ship violated the rules of war or that a Japanese submarine took part. However none of these stand up to scrutiny, especially after the discovery of the wrecks in 2008. The most likely explanation is that Sydney's commander, Captain Joseph Burnett, was lured into a close-range battle where his ship's advantages were of little benefit.
- I've speculated about advanced technology and the German commerce raiders previously.
In 1943 Nazis forces exterminate the population of Janowska concentration camp in Lemberg (Lviv) in western Ukraine; at least six thousand Jews are murdered after a failed uprising and mass escape attempt.
In 1944 the Battle of Vianden sees about thirty members of the Luxembourgish resistance defend the town of Vianden against a larger Waffen-SS force atemoting to take the strategically useful observation post of Vianden Castle.
- A perfect little skirmish to drop a few time travellers into (though probably more used to Timelords rather than AITAS). Perhaps it's use as an observation post wasn't the only reasons the Germans wanted the castle?
In 1969 the Apollo 12 Lunar Excursion Module Intrepid lands astronauts Pete Conrad and Alan Bean land at Oceanus Procellarum (the "Ocean of Storms"). and become the third and fourth humans to walk on the Moon.
San Juanico disaster In 1984 beginning at 5:40AM a series of explosions at the Pemex petroleum storage depot sees massive leakage of liquified petroleum gas in the facility at San Juan Ixhuatepec in Mexico City; the explosions and the resulting massive fires kills at least five hundred people (many are reduced to ash). The explosions and fires consumed over 11,000m3 of LPG, destroyed the facility and devastated the local town of San Juan Ixhuatepec. Thousands of people suffered severe burns.
In 1985 US President Ronald Reagan and Soviet Union General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev meet for the first time in Geneva.
- The perfect background for a conspiratprial scenario; what subjects might be under discussion but not on the official agenda? Wjo's delivering a secret briefing to the leaders? Who's trying to kill/kidnap/replace/mind-control them?
In 1999 The People's Republic of China launches its first Shenzhou spacecraft, an uncrewed test vehicle. After orbiting the Earth 14 times the craft was de-orbited and landed in 110 kilometres north-west of Wuhai in Inner Mongolia.
In 2002 the Greek oil tanker Prestige splits in half and sinks off the coast of Galicia, releasing over 50,000 tonnes of crude oil and causing the largest environmental disaster in Spanish and Portuguese history.
In 2010 at 3:44PM the Pike River Mine in New Zealand sees the first of a series of four explosions that kill twenty-nine people.
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Post by missyfan45 on Nov 20, 2020 23:21:46 GMT
Pete Conrad and Alan Bean ,Rostam Farrokhzad, Libius Severus,Flavius Ricimer,and the Garinagu are good people to meet. The Geneva summit could be good for a kidnapping plot for a AH story.The Doom Bar could have been a Silurian base. The Odessa Fireball could have been a crashing Judoon/other alien spaceship. And the Gettysburg Address could be a good pure historical or a adventure a time meddler to intervene.
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Catsmate
13th Incarnation
It's complicated....
Posts: 3,748
Favourite Doctors: Thirteen, Six, Five, Two, Eight, Eleven, Twelve, One, Nine...
Traits: Eccentric, Insatiable Curiousity.
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Post by Catsmate on Nov 21, 2020 16:40:46 GMT
20NOV
In 284CE Gaius Aurelius Valerius Diocletian becomes Emperor Diocletian of the Roman Empire. Diocletian will reign for twenty six years, and reorganise the administration of the empire (not without resistance; Carinus, the surviving son of Emperor Carus feels that he is better suited to the role, leading to the Battle of the Margus), stabilising the empire and bringing the Crisis of the Third Century to an end. Diocletian drasticlaly restructures the imperial administration establishing the Tetrarchy system with two senior (Augusti) and two junior emperors (Caesars).
- Emperor Carus died, in decidedly odd circumstances; while engaged in a very successful campaign in Persia against the Sassanid Empire. There he was said to have been struck by a bolt of lightning.....
- Diocletian was also involved in that campaign, where he reached the heights of Consul. Curiously there is no known record of Diocletian prior to 282CE...
Under Diocletian the empire's borders were secured and he also and purged it of all threats to his power. He also separated and enlarged the empire's civil and military services and reorganised the empire's provincial divisions, establishing the largest and most bureaucratic government in the history of the empire. This bureaucratic and military growth, and massive construction projects increased the state's expenditures and necessitated a comprehensive tax reform. He also initiated the Diocletianic Persecution (303–312) the empire's last, largest, and bloodiest official persecution of Christianity.
In 762CE during the An Shi Rebellion in China, the Tang dynasty (involved in a series of conflicts with various regional powers and smaller states), with it's allied Huihe (part of the Uyghur Khaganate), recaptures Luoyang from the rebels.
In 1194 the city of Palermo, capital of Kingdom of Sicily, is conquered the Holy Roman Emperor Henry VI. Henry will be crowned king on 25DEC; he is probably best remembered for his capture and ransom of King Richard I of England, a ransom that caused much unrest in England, and financed Henry's campaigns.
In 1407 during the Armagnacs/Burgundian conflict John the Fearless, Duke of Burgundy, and Louis of Valois, Duke of Orléans agree to a truce under a vow of solemn reconciliation. John was a scion of the French royal family and played a key role in French national affairs during the early fifteenth century, particularly in the struggles to rule the country for the mentally incapablel King Charles VI (his cousin) and the Hundred Years' War with England. John was a rash, ruthless and unscrupulous politician. Three days after the 'truce' Louis is brutally murdered on the Bridge of Montereau in Paris; John does not conceal his involvement in the assassination and declared it to be a justifiable act of "tyrannicide".
In 1441 the Peace of Cremona ends the war between the Republic of Venice and the Duchy of Milan, over mastery in northern Italy. The negotiations began in late September at the field of Cavriana near Cremona, chosen as neutral ground, after a armistice arranged by Francesco Sforza on 06AUG.
In 1695 Zumbi, a Brazilian of Kongo origin, the last leader of Quilombo dos Palmares and one of the pioneers of resistance to slavery of Africans by the Portugeuse, is executed by the forces of Portuguese bandeirante Domingos Jorge Velho. The Quilombo dos Palmares was a settlement of Afro-Brazilian people who had liberated themselves from slavery in what is now Alagoas in Brazil. His contemporary slaves believed that he was a demigod, possessing unusual strength and courage due to being Possessed by Orixas, African spirits.
In 1739 the Battle of Porto Bello, between British and Spanish forces during the War of Jenkins' Ear (part of the War of the Austrian Succession) begins in Panama.
In 1776 during the American Revolutionary War, British forces land at the Palisades and then attack Fort Lee. The Continental Army starts to retreat across New Jersey. The battle marked the successful invasion of New Jersey by British and Hessian forces and the subsequent general retreat of the Continental Army.
In 1805 Beethoven's only opera, Fidelio, premieres at the Theater an der Wien in Vienna in it's original long (three act) form. The success of these performances was hindered by the fact that Vienna was under French military occupation, and most of the audience were French military officers who had little interest in German opera.
In 1815 the Second Treaty of Paris is signed, bringing the Napoleonic Wars to an end and returning the French frontiers to their 1790 extent, imposing large indemnities, and prolonging the occupation by Allied troops for several more years
In 1820 in an incident that inspires the writing of Moby-Dick by Herman Melville, the whaling ship Essex (from Nantucket in Massachusetts) is attacked and sunk by a large sperm whale, estimated at over eighty tonnes and 26 metres long, about 3,000km from the western coast of South America. Stranded far from from the coast of South America with little food and water, the twenty surviving crew were forced to make for land in the ship's surviving whaleboats, suffering severe dehydration, starvation, and exposure on the open ocean. The survivors resorted to eating the bodies of the crewmen who had died and then drawing lots to determine who would be eaten. Eight survivors were rescued, more than three months after the sinking of the Essex.
- It's unknown what had caused the large bull while to act so strangely. Initially it lay motionless on the surface facing the ship, picking up speed (to an estimated 24 knots) and ramming the Essex.
In 1910 the Mexican Revolution begin when Francisco Madero issues the Plan de San Luis Potosí, denouncing Mexican President Porfirio Díaz (and the election that brought him to power) calling for a revolution to overthrow the government of Mexico.
In 1936 José Antonio Primo de Rivera, founder of the fascist Falange party and eldest son of General Miguel Primo de Rivera (the former dictator of Spain) is executed in Alicante prison for involvement in the insurrection. can execution squad. The Republic offered the Nationalists a prisoner exchange involving Primo de Rivera and a son of Francisco Largo but the offer was refused by Franco. The death of the founder of Falange eliminated a formidable rival to Franco.
In 1945 the Nuremberg trials open with trials against 24 Nazi war criminals start at the Palace of Justice at Nuremberg.
In 1968 the Farmington Mine disaster, an explosion at the Consolidated Coal Company's Number 9 mine in Farmington in West Virginia kills 78 miners. The explosion, at approximately 5:30AM, was felt 20km away; 21 of the 99 miners inside escaped. The cause of the explosion was never determined and nineteen bodies were never recovered.
In 1969 the Cleveland Plain Dealer newspaper publishes explicit photographs of dead villagers from the My Lai Massacre in Vietnam, increasing pressure on the US government to act.
In 1969 Native American activists seize control of Alcatraz Island and maintain the Occupation of Alcatraz for nineteen months.
In 1977 Egyptian President Anwar Sadat becomes the first Arab leader to officially visit Israel; he meets Israeli prime minister Menachem Begin and speaks before the Knesset in Jerusalem.
In 1979 about 200 Sunni Muslims revolt in Saudi Arabia at the site of the Kaaba in Mecca during the pilgrimage, seize control of the Grand Mosque and take about six thousand pilgrims hostages. The Saudi government fights a series of skirmishes over two weeks to regain control. Hundreds of militants, security forces and hostages caught in the crossfire, are killed in the battles.
In 1980 an accident during an exploratory oil drilling operation in Lake Peigneur in Louisiana causes the drill to break into Diamond Crystal Salt Mine under the lake. The resultant sinkhole swallowed the drilling platform, eleven barges holding supplies for the drilling operation, a tugboat, hundreds of trees, and 26 hectares of the surrounding terrain, along with about five million tonnes of water. So much water drained into the caverns that the flow of the Delcambre Canal (which usually emptied the lake into Vermilion Bay) was reversed, causing salt water from the Gulf of Mexico to flow into what was suddenly a dry lake-bed (and briefly creating a fifty metre waterfall). The water flowing into the mine displaced vast amounts of air, and the mine caverns erupted through the shafts as geysers up to 120m high. There were no human fatalities, though a fisherman who was on the lake at the time had a narrow escape. Some days after the disaster nine of the eleven sunken barges popped out of the whirlpool and refloated on the lake's surface.
In 1990 Andrei Chikatilo (the 'Butcher of Rostov'), one of the Soviet Union's most prolific serial killers, is arrested; he eventually confesses to 56 killings of women and children between 1978 and 1990. He was convicted and sentenced to death in OCT1992.
In 1992 a fire breaks out in Windsor Castle, badly damaging the castle and causing fifty million pounds in damage. The castle suffered extensive damage and was fully repaired within the next few years.
In 1998 the first module, Zarya, ('Dawn' technically the Functional Cargo Block) of the International Space Station is launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. It provided electrical power, storage, propulsion, and guidance to the ISS during the initial stage of assembly.
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Post by missyfan45 on Nov 22, 2020 0:27:26 GMT
Gaius Aurelius Valerius,Anwar Sadat, Menachem Begin,Herman Melville, (could have been a even bigger bloop like creature that scared the whale),John the Fearless,Andrei Chikatilo, Zumbi,Porfirio Díaz,Miguel Primo de Rivera, José Antonio Primo de Rivera,and King Richard I of England are good people to meet. The Nuremberg trials could be averted or the Nazi's could have escaped in a alternate history story.And the premiere of Fidelio could be great for time tourists to go to.
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Catsmate
13th Incarnation
It's complicated....
Posts: 3,748
Favourite Doctors: Thirteen, Six, Five, Two, Eight, Eleven, Twelve, One, Nine...
Traits: Eccentric, Insatiable Curiousity.
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Post by Catsmate on Nov 22, 2020 20:15:32 GMT
21NOV
In 164BCE during the Maccabean Revolt against the Seleucid Empire, Judas Maccabeus, son of Mattathias of the Hasmonean family, restores the Second Temple in Jerusalem. This event is of immense significance in Judaism and commemorated each year by the festival of Hanukkah.
In 235 Pope Anterus succeeds Pontian as the nineteenth pope. Little is known of his origin, life, or death and accounts suggest he was probably Greek, possibly a freed slave and died naturally or was martyred.
- A blank space in history to write a story in fact.
In 1009 in what is now Vietnam, Lê Ngoạ Triều, the last monarch of the Lê family is killed and Lý Công Uẩn is enthroned as emperor of Đại Cồ Việt, founding the Lý dynasty.
In 1386 Timur of Samarkand (aka 'Timmur the Lame' or Tamerlane) continues his attempt to emulate the conquests of Genghis and captures and sacks the Georgian capital of Tbilisi, taking King Bagrat V of Georgia captive, during his first invasion of Georgia. Timur was a Turco-Mongol conqueror who founded the Timurid Empire in and around what is now Afghanistan, Iran and Central Asia, becoming the first ruler of the Timurid dynasty. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest military leaders and tacticians in history, as well as a patron of art and architecture. He was also the last of the great nomadic conquerors of the Eurasian Steppe, and his empire set the stage for the rise of the more structured and lasting Islamic empires. During his wars around seventeen million people, slightly over 5% of the Terrestrial population, died.
In 1676 the Danish astronomer Ole Rømer presents the data allowing the first quantitative measurements of the speed of light.
- Rømer also invented the modern concept of the thermometer, though the 'Rømer' scale is overshadowed by Fahrenheit.
Hi examination of the concept of light having a finite, and fixed, speed was something of a new departure at the time, and inspired by attempts to solve the Longitude Problem.
- The determination of longitude is a significant practical problem in cartography and navigation. Prizes were offered for a method to determine the longitude of a ship out of sight of land.
At the time it was proposed that the timing of the eclipses of the moons of Jupiter could be used to estimate longitude, though this technique was problematic.
- It also meant that a lot of people were watching the Galilean moons...
By comparing the times of the eclipses in Uranienborg, near Copenhagen, and Paris the difference in longitude of Paris to Uranienborg was calculated. Rømer did not in fact calculate a value for the speed of light, this was done by others, based on his data, e.g. Christiaan Huygens. The value determined was approximately 212,000 km/s, an error of about one-third. Rømer's view that the velocity of light was finite was not fully accepted until measurements of the so-called aberration of light were made by James Bradley in 1727.
In 1783 in Paris Jean-François Pilâtre de Rozier and François Laurent d'Arlandes make the first untethered hot air balloon flight, in a Montgolfier hot-air balloon.
- Pilâtre later died when his balloon crashed near Wimereux in the Pas-de-Calais during an attempt to fly across the English Channel; he and his companion, Pierre Romain, became the first known fatalities in an air crash.
Prior to the free-flight there had been several tethered tests to gain some experience of controlling the balloon, but at around 2PM the two men set off from the garden of the Château de la Muette in the Bois de Boulogne, in the presence of the King. Their 25-minute flight travelled about nine kilometres, at a maximum altitude of 900 metres. The pair landed safely at the Butte-aux-Cailles, then on the outskirts of Paris.
In 1877 Thomas Edison announces his invention of the phonograph, a machine that can record and play sound.
- Two curious developments of this device were his Talking Doll and his attempt to communicate with the dead, the Necrophone.
In 1894 during the First Sino-Japanese War, Lüshunkou (later known as Port Arthur) falls to the Japanese, giving them a decisive victory in the war. (This should not be confused with the later Battle of Port Arthur in 1904 during the Russo-Japanese War). However Japanese prestige from the victory was tempered by accounts of widespread massacre of the Chinese inhabitants of the city by victorious Japanese troops, allegedly in response to the torture and murderous treatment the Chinese had shown Japanese prisoners of war at Pyongyang and elsewhere. News of the supposed massacre soon spread among the Western public, damaging Japan's public image and nearly torpedoing ongoing efforts by Japan to renegotiate the unequal treaties with the United States. Reports of a massacre were first published by Canadian-American journalist James Creelman of the New York World, whose account was widely circulated within the United States; a US investigation Creelman's reports concluded they were extremely exaggerated.
In 1905 the journal Annalen der Physik publishes a paper entitled Ist die Trägheit eines Körpers von seinem Energieinhalt abhängig? (Does the Inertia of a Body Depend Upon Its Energy Content?). This is the fourth of the Annus Mirabilis papers published by Albert Einstein. In the paper Einsten uses the work of Maxwell and Hertz, combined with his own development of Relativity, to show that an object that possesses inertial rest mass possesses energy by virtue of that mass, separate and distinct from its classical kinetic and potential energies. This leads to the deduction that the 'rest energy' is found by the equation ER = m.c2
In 1910 sailors on board much of the Brazilian navy violently rebel in what is known as the Revolta da Chibata (Revolt of the Lash).
In 1916 at 8:12AM mines laid by the German submarine SM U-73 sink the British hospital ship HMHS Britannic, the largest ship lost in the First World War and a sister vessel of RMS Olympic and the RMS Titanic.
In 1918 a pogrom takes place in Lwów (now Lviv); over three days, at least 50 Jews and 270 Ukrainian Christians are killed by Poles. The 1918 Lwów events were widely publicized in the international press. US President Woodrow Wilson appointed a commission, led by Henry Morgenthau Sr., to investigate violence against the Jewish population in Poland. The Morgenthau Report would be published in October 1919.
In 1920 during the Irish War of Independence, "Bloody Sunday" sees over thirty people die in Dublin The evnts began that morning when teams from the Irish Republican Army's intelligence unit killed a group of British Intelligence agents in a series of targeted assassinations organised by Michael Collins and approved by Cathal Brugha, Minister for Defence for the Irish Republic, to eliminate the "Cairo Gang" a group of British intelligence officers and informers. In fact Brugha had drastically reduced the number of targets; Collins and Gay had planned to kill about fifty people. IRA operatives went to a number of addresses and killed or fatally wounded 15 men, mostly British Army officers (one was a Royal Irish Constabulary sergeant and two were Auxiliaries responding to the attacks). The assassinations sparked panic among the British authorities and many British agents fled to Dublin Castle for safety.
That afternoon a football match was being held in Croke Park stadium on the north side of Dublin when RIC, supported by "Black and Tans", Auxiliaries, and British soldiers, were sent to carry out a cordon and search operation. During the operation the RIC fired into the spectators and players, firing over a thousand shots in about ninety seconds. Fourteen people were killed, two of them children, and at least sixty wounded. As the spectators streamed out an armoured car on St James Avenue fired its machine guns over the heads of the crowd, trying to halt them. The massacre further turned Irish public opinion against the British authorities. Overall, the IRA assassination operation severely damaged British intelligence, while the later reprisals increased support for the IRA at home and abroad.
In 1927 in the town of Serene, Colorado, striking coal miners are fired on with with machine guns by a detachment of state police in what became known as the Columbine Mine massacre. Six strikers were killed, and dozens were injured.
In 1942 the Alaska Highway (also known as the Alcan Highway) is officially celebrated, though this actually happened on 28OCT. The road was a difficult route for many years, and not open to civilian traffic until 1948. It begins at the junction with several Canadian highways in Dawson Creek, British Columbia, and runs to Delta Junction, Alaska, via Whitehorse in the Yukon territory, a distance of about 2,700 kilometres. The road had many steep slopes, a poor surface, switchbacks to ascend and descend hills and few guardrails; the numerous bridges were a mix of pontoons and temporary log bridges.
In 1950 the Canoe River train crash sees two Canadian National Railway trains collide in northeastern British Columbia. 21 die, 17 of them Canadian troops bound for Korea.
In 1953 the Natural History Museum in London announces that the "Piltdown Man" skull, initially believed to be one of the most important fossilized hominid skulls ever found, is a hoax. In fact few people accepted the genuineness of the skull, even when it was found in 1912 by Charles Dawson there were serious doubts. It is most probably that Dawson, and amateur archaeologist, probably perpetrated the hoax.
In 1961 in Honolulu, the La Ronde restaurant opens; it was the first revolving restaurant in the United States and the third in the world.
In 1964 the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge opens to traffic, a suspension bridge connecting the New York City boroughs of Staten Island and Brooklyn. At the time it is the world's longest bridge span.
In 1969 the first permanent ARPANET link is established between UCLA and the Stanford Research Institute RI. Eight years later, on 22NOV1977, the first true Internet transmission occurs when three institutions are connected; SRI in Menlo Park, California and the University of Southern California in Los Angeles via University College London.
In 1970 during the Vietnam War Operation Ivory Coast sees a joint United States Air Force and Army team raids the Sơn Tây prisoner-of-war camp in an attempt to free American prisoners of war thought to be held there. Due to poor intelligence there were no prisoners held there.
- Unless of course the raid actually had a completely different purpose?
In 1979 the United States Embassy in Islamabad in Pakistan, is attacked by a mob and set on fire, killing four people.
In 1980 a deadly fire breaks out at the MGM Grand Hotel in Paradise, Nevada. Eighty-seven people are killed and more than 650 are injured, mainly due to smoke inhalation.
In 1992 a major tornado strikes the Houston area in the afternoon. Over the next two days one of the largest tornado outbreaks ever spawns over 100 tornadoes. This exceptionally long-lived and geographically large outbreak produced more than one hundred tornadoes (possibly up to 145) over a 41 hour period. tornadoes. 26 people are killed and hundreds injured.
In 1996 thirty-three people die when a Humberto Vidal shoe shop in Río Piedras, Puerto Rico, explodes due to a gas leak.
In 2004 the island of Dominica is hit by the most destructive earthquake in its history. The northern half of the island sustains the most damage, especially the town of Portsmouth. In neighboring Guadeloupe, one person is killed. The Les Saintes earthquake occurred at 07:41:07 local time, with a magnitude of 6.3 One of the odder consequences was the Boiling Lake, on southern Dominica near the Valley of Desolation, where a flooded fumarole was discovered to have emptied. Previously the lake had been around 15m deep, and maintained a temperature of 80–90°C.
In 2009 shortly before dawn, an explosion at a coal mine in Heilongjiang, China, kills 108.
In 2013 fifty-four people are killed when the roof of the Maxima shopping centre in the Zolitūde neighbourhood of Riga, Latvia collapses at 5:41PM.
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Post by missyfan45 on Nov 23, 2020 2:03:39 GMT
Charles Dawson,Pope Anterus,James Creelman, Jean-François Pilâtre de Rozier and François Laurent d'Arlandes,Ole Rømer (maybe they spotted some alien life on those moons), Timur of Samarkand,and Cathal Brughaare good people to meet. La Ronde could be a good example for a space themed version of it. Bloody Sunday could be a good pure historical. And the sinking of the Britannic could be a good tragedy to intervene in.
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Catsmate
13th Incarnation
It's complicated....
Posts: 3,748
Favourite Doctors: Thirteen, Six, Five, Two, Eight, Eleven, Twelve, One, Nine...
Traits: Eccentric, Insatiable Curiousity.
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Post by Catsmate on Nov 23, 2020 13:28:49 GMT
22NOV
In 498CE after the death of Pope Anastasius II, Symmachus is elected Pope in the Lateran Palace, while Laurentius is elected Pope in Santa Maria Maggiore. The church was having one of it's periodic doctrinal schisms.
- At the time of his death Anastasius II had been attempting to calm the internal tensions; then he suddenly and unexpectedly died, an event acclaimed as "divine intervention" by his opponents.
Pope Symmachus reigned as pope for fifteen years though his tenure was marked by the serious schism over who was actually pope, as Laurentius was elected pope on the same day at the Basilica of Saint Mary by a dissenting faction who sided with the Byzantines and the Eastern Roman Emperor Anastasius. Symmachus's accession was quite probably aided by serious levels of bribery.
In 845 Nominoe, the first first Duke of Brittany, inflicts a serious defeat on the Frankish king Charles the Bald at the Battle of Ballon near Redon in Brittany. The main cause for Charles' defeat was his own impetuosity; angered by Nominoë's appropriation of border lands and his resistance to Charles' attempt to impose Frankish authority he gathered a small force, around 3,000 strong and allowed himself to be lured into marshland at the confluence of the Oust and Aff rivers, between Redon and Bains-sur-Oust, near Ballon Abbey. There Nominoë's far smaller (~1,000) light cavalry and their knowledge of this treacherous wetlands inflicted a serious defeat on the larger force.
- In fact, after the defeat, rumors circulated that Charles had been killed, forcing him to make a rapid public appearance in Maine to reassure people that he lived.
In 1307 under pressure from Philip IV of France, Pope Clement V issues the papal bull Pastoralis Praeeminentiae which instructed all Christian monarchs in Europe to arrest all Templars and seize their assets. Clement was forced to support the campaign against the Templars by Philip IV who owed them a great deal of money and had initiated the first arrests against the Templars on 13OCT.
In 1574 the Spanish navigator Juan Fernández, searching for a faster route from Callao to Valparaíso, discovers a number of islands (now known as the Juan Fernández Islands) off Chile. Fernández is best known for the discovery of a fast maritime route from Callao in Peru to Valparaíso in Chile, taking a detour west from the coast and avoiding the northernly Humboldt Current which used to slow down ships sailing south along the coast. Fernández may also have been the first European to reach New Zealand, in 1575.
In 1635 Dutch colonial forces on Taiwan launch a 'pacification campaign' against native villages, resulting in Dutch control of the middle and south of the island.
In 1718 Royal Navy Lieutenant Robert Maynard leads an attack on the vessels of the British pirate Edward Teach ("Blackbeard") off the coast of North Carolina. Teach is killed in the fighting. Maynard found the pirates anchored on the inner side of Ocracoke Island on the evening of 21NOV and waited until the next morning to attack. Teach was busy entertaining guests and had not set a lookout, in addition many of his crew were ashore. Maynard suffered serious casualties from gunfire from Teach's ship, but ambushed him and his followers when they boarded.
In 1837 Canadian journalist and politician William Lyon Mackenzie calls for a rebellion against the United Kingdom in his essay To the People of Upper Canada, published in his newspaper The Constitution. The resulting insurrection was brief but forced a reorganisation of British Canada. After the defeat Mackenzie continued attacks on Canada from the United States (the Patriot War of 1838–39), later becoming an American citizen and moving back to Upper Canada after participants in the rebellion received amnesty. Mackenzie's grandson would become Prime Minister of Canada.
In 1873 a collision between the French steamer SS Ville du Havre and the Scottish iron clipper Loch Earn in the Atlantic breaks the steam ship in two and leads to 226 fatalities. Shortly afterwards the Loch Earn has to be abandoned soon afterwards, with all aboard transferred to another shop.
- Interestingly the Loch Line had a bad reputation, losing seventeen of 25 ships in various accidents, disappearances, wrecks and military actions. When the line was sold off only five ships remained.
In 1935 the China Clipper, a Martin M-130 four-engine flying boat, inaugurates the first commercial trans-Pacific air service, connecting Alameda in California with Manila with passenger, airmail and small cargo services.
- Absolutely perfect for a late Pulp era adventure.
- Even before the service started the airline had flown over 750,000km to map out routes, stop-overs and landing points. What might they have found?
On the inaugural flight the China Clipper was supposed to fly over the San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge (which was still under construction at the time); however the pilot (Edwin Musick) realised the plane would not clear the structure and flew under the bridge. On 29NOV the flight reached Manila, after traveling via Honolulu, Midway Island, Wake Island and Guam. The relatively short range of the aircraft meant that hotel, catering, docking, repair, and radio facilities had to be put in place at the intermediate stops along the route; at the time Wake and Midway islands were virtually uninhabited. The clippers were basically small, flying/floating luxury hotels; they had sleeping accommodation, dining rooms and leisure facilities in addition to the usual aircraft seating. In fact on the early flights the crew outnumbered the passengers. (Perhaps not surprising as a return ticket cost US$1,700, about three times the cost of a decent new car).
In 1943 Sextant, the first Cairo Conference is held at a residence owned by the American ambassador to Egypt (Alexander Kirk) about 12km from the city and quite near the Giza Pyramid complex. Attending were US President Franklin Roosevelt, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, and Chinese Premier Chiang Kai-shek to discuss strategy against against Japan during World War II and to made decisions about postwar Asia. leading to the Cairo Declaration of 27NOV.
In 1948 during the Chinese Civil War, elements of the Chinese Communist Second Field Army under Liu Bocheng trap the Nationalist 12th Army, beginning the Shuangduiji Campaign, the largest engagement of the Huaihai Campaign.
In 1956 the Summer Olympics (XVI Olympiad,) are opened in Melbourne. However the equestrian events were held in Stockholm in June due to veterinary quarantine rules. They ere the first games to be staged in the Southern Hemisphere and Oceania, as well as the first to be held outside Europe or North America, and were unusually late to accommodate the antipodal seasons. There were some tensions, especially in the water polo, between Hungary and the Soviet Union (who were engaged in an armed conflict at the time). Two Australians wone three gold medals; athlete Betty Cuthbert became the "Golden Girl" by winning three golds in track events while Murray Rose won three gold medals in swimming.
In 1963 US President John F. Kennedy is assassinated and Texas Governor John Connally is seriously wounded by Lee Harvey Oswald, who also kills a Dallas Police officer J. D. Tippit after fleeing the scene.
In 1971 Britain sees it's worst mountaineering tragedy, the Cairngorm Plateau Disaster; five children and one of their adult leaders are found dead from exposure in the Scottish mountains. The incident saw six fifteen-year-old Edinburgh school students and their two leaders, on a navigational expedition in a remote area of the Scottish mountains, attempt to take shelter but become stranded for two nights on the high plateau in a blizzard. A sixth student and the group's leader survived the ordeal with severe hypothermia and frostbite.
In 1975 on the death of fascist dictator Francisco Franco, Juan Carlos is declared King of Spain.
In 1977 British Airways inaugurates a regular London to New York City supersonic Concorde service.
In 1988 in Palmdale, California, the first prototype B-2 Spirit stealth bomber is revealed.
In 1995 at 6:15AM local time a powerful, magnitude 7.3, earthquake strikes the Gulf of Aqaba region, between Egtpot and Saudi Arabia, and shakes the Sinai Peninsula and Saudi Arabia region. Eight people are killed.
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Post by missyfan45 on Nov 23, 2020 18:29:49 GMT
Lee Harvey Oswald,John Connally,Robert Maynard, Edward Teach,Nominoe, William Lyon Mackenzie,Pope Anastasius II (could be a temporary companion that could get killed off),,Symmachus,Laurentius,Edwin Musick,J.D. Tippit,Betty Cuthbert,and Juan Fernández are good people to meet. The Melbourne Olympics could be a good plot for terrorists to intervene in. And Loch Earn could be home to another Skaraksen.
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Catsmate
13th Incarnation
It's complicated....
Posts: 3,748
Favourite Doctors: Thirteen, Six, Five, Two, Eight, Eleven, Twelve, One, Nine...
Traits: Eccentric, Insatiable Curiousity.
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Post by Catsmate on Nov 24, 2020 12:50:00 GMT
Due to the forum software eating my post the entry for 23NOV is postponed. As this is the fourth time this has happened I'm considering dropping this entirely.
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Post by missyfan45 on Nov 24, 2020 14:37:29 GMT
please dont drop this i think this is a really good idea!. Never give up!
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Catsmate
13th Incarnation
It's complicated....
Posts: 3,748
Favourite Doctors: Thirteen, Six, Five, Two, Eight, Eleven, Twelve, One, Nine...
Traits: Eccentric, Insatiable Curiousity.
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Post by Catsmate on Nov 25, 2020 12:38:33 GMT
OK a second try. Hopefully this time it doesn't disappear into the ether...
23NOV
In 534BCE, according to tradition, Thespis of Icaria becomes the first actor to portray a character on stage, as opposed to speaking as themself. Thesis is credited with numerous firsts in the field of acting (hence 'thespian'). He was the inventory of 'tragedy' in the classical sense, a then-new style of sung epic poem in which one singer (or actor) performed the words of several individual characters in the stories, distinguishing between the characters with the aid of different masks and voices. Also in 534BCE he won the first annual competition for the best performers of tragedy, held at the City Dionysia in Athens. Thespis is said to have introduced the first principal actor in addition to the chorus. Curiously this is actually referenced in the Whoniverse, in the theatrically themed EU novel Theatre of War: Finally another innovation of Thespsi was the idea of theatrical touring; he would travel around various cities while carrying his costumes, masks and other props in a horse-drawn wagon.
- Thespis is an interesting historical character and one that certainly merits some on-site investigation. Did he develop the ideas with which he is credited? Humans are story-tellers and the telling of stories has transmitted ideas for centuries, any alternation in the way stories were told would have a profound impact on humanity.
In 1248CE the sixteen-month-long Siege of Seville, by Christian troops under King Ferdinand III of Castile, ends with the surrender of the city. This was the last significant military operation of the early Reconquista and the most complex military operation undertaken by Ferdinand. Curiously a few accounts of the siege make reference to what might be gunpowder artillery in the western world. The chronicle of Albertus Magnus states that the Moorish defenders used artillery which was loaded with rocks in the siege, and does not appear to be referring to the usual stone throwing torsion/counterweight siege engines. If this is true it's decades before the first definite use of gunpowder weapons in Europe.
In 1499 at the age of twenty-four Perkin Warbeck is hanged at Tyburn for attempting to escape from the Tower of London. His death, however, utterly failed to end the mystery and controversy around the 'Princes in the Tower' the sons of Edward IV (Edward V and Richard of Shrewsbury, Duke of York) who disappeared during the regency and reign of their uncle, Richard III.
- Of course in the Whoniverse we know that Warbeck's claim to be Richard of Shrewsbury is untrue, for certain excellent reasons revealed in The Kingmaker.
Warbeck, as pretender to the throne, invaded England on a number of occasions, with some support from France and other European states and Ireland, though he never achieved much except being and expensive irritation to Henry VIII. After being captured and forced to 'confess' the untruth of his claims Warbeck became a minor part of the royal court (presumably where Henry could keep and eye on him) under guard at all times. After attempting to escape Warbeck was then imprisoned in the Tower Of London, where he met and plotted with Edward Plantagenet, 17th Earl of Warwick; the two attempted and escape but were recaptured once again. Both were executed, along with Warbeck's ally John Atwater (former Mayor of Cork, and quite probably the man who came up with the whole plot in the first place).
- Time for a sequel to The Kingmaker? Certain of the "original cast" could easily reappear for a comp through a history rather different from that in the textbooks...
In 1531 in Switzerland the brief Second War of Kappel results in the dissolution of the alliance of the Protestant cantons in the Old Swiss Confederacy . The war began on 09OCT when the Catholic cantons declared war on Zürich, mainly due to the eagerness of Huldrych Zwingli, the Protestant leader, for a military confrontation and a food embargo. That,in turn, was caused by the refusal of the Catholic cantons to become involved in the Musso war against the Duchy of Milan. The only battle between the two sides, which ended in the major Catholic win, was 11OCT and saw Zwingli killed (and then burned for heresy). On 23NOV the war was ended with the cantons accepting a limited form of religious freedom.
In 1644 Areopagitica; A speech of Mr. John Milton for the Liberty of Unlicenc'd Printing, to the Parlament of England, a prose polemic in pamphlet form is published by John Milton. Areopagitica, as it's generally known, is among history's most influential and impassioned philosophical defences of the principle of a right to freedom of speech and expression, one that is still quoted today and that has been cited in numerous court cases. Many of its expressed principles have formed the basis for modern justifications of free speech. Milton used Areopagitica to call for the repeal of the the Licensing Order of 1643, which required pre-publication censorship of certain works and themes. In that it failed, the Presbyterians in Parliament had no intention of tolerating free expression of ideas and used the order to silence the more radical Protestants (the 'Independents') as well as works supporting the King, which had begun to appear in London.
In 1733 a slave insurrection on St. John (in what was then the Danish West Indies now the United States Virgin Islands) begins with open acts of rebellion by slaves at the Coral Bay plantation (owned by Magistrate Johannes Sødtmannthe) and seizure of the fort at Coral Bay. This was achieved by rebels pretending to be delivering a shipment of wood, a regular event. Once inside they used hidden knives to kill most of the garrison. About 150 African slaves from the Akwamu tribe (present-day Ghana) were involved, led by an Akwamu chief, known as King June, a field slave and foreman on the Sødtmann estate. The rebel leaders met regularly at night for some time to develop their plan
- In their homeland many of the Akwamu had been nobles, wealthy merchants or other powerful members of their society. These high ranking Akwamu developed plans to instigate an insurrection, take control of St. John and rule it. They planned to continue the production of sugar and other crops by using Africans of other tribes as slave laborers.
The rebellion persisted for months, and gain control of much of the island; August 1734, the slave rebellion was one of the earliest and longest slave revolts in the Americas. The Danish officials appealed for help to French colonists at Martinique, (520km away) and, on 23APR1734, two French ships arrived at St. John with several hundred French and Swiss troops who suppressed the rebellion. By mid-May the island was under Danish control once again and the French ships returned to Martinique on 01JUN. The local militia tracked down the remaining rebels over the following three months and generally tortured them to death: More background.
In 1808 French and Polish troops, led by Marshal Jean Lannes, decisively defeat the Spanish at Battle of Tudela, near Tudela in the Navarre region of Spain.
In 1863 the Battle of Chattanooga begins. Union forces (led by General Ulysses S. Grant) are besieged in Chattanooga in Tennessee by the Confederate Army of Tennessee under General Braxton Bragg. The Chattanooga campaign was a series of maneuvers and battles in October and November 1863 in and around the town. On 23NOV the Union Army of the Cumberland advanced from the fortifications around Chattanooga to seize the strategic high ground at Orchard Knob while elements of the Union Army of the Tennessee (under General Sherman( maneuvered to launch a surprise attack against Bragg's right flank on Missionary Ridge.
In 1876 the corrupt Tammany Hall leader William Magear Tweed (better known as Boss Tweed) is delivered to the authorities in New York City by the USS Franklin, after being captured in Spain. Tweed is a fascinating character, and a very important figure in the history of New York City. He led, though not alone, the Democratic Party political machine (centred in Tammany Hall) that played a major role in the politics of nineteenth century New York City and State. At the height of his influence, Tweed was the third-largest landowner in New York City and owner, director or controller of a vast range of companies and institutions; his greatest influence came from being an appointed member of a number of boards and commissions, giving him effective control over political patronage in New York City (through his ability to ensure the loyalty of voters through jobs he could create and dispense on city-related projects). Tweed was convicted for stealing an estimated $25 to $45 million from New York City taxpayers. However he didn't profit personally to anything like this degree. Most of the embezzled funds were actually used to assist needy constituents. Tweed was a moderniser, who actually created a far more efficient city management; he worked to expand and strengthen welfare programs, especially those by private charities, schools, and hospitals. With his base in the Irish Catholic community, he opposed efforts of Protestants to require the reading of the King James Bible in public schools (which was done deliberately to keep out Catholics). He also assisted in the founding of the New York Public Library. Tweed used the machinery of the city's government to provide numerous social services, including orphanages, almshouses and public baths, and to subsidise schools and hospitals. Tweed also pushed through funding for a teachers college and prohibition of corporal punishment in schools, as well as salary increases for school teachers.
- A truly fascinating, and deeply polarising, figure. But one that bestrode New York of the period, helped create the modern city, and could easily pop up in a period scenario.
In 1914 the last US forces withdraw from Veracruz, occupied seven months earlier in response to the Tampico Affair.
In 1924 The New York Times published Edwin Hubble's discovery that the Andromeda is actually another island galaxy far outside our own Milky Way. Edwin Powell Hubble was an American astronomer and played an immense role in the fields of extra-galactic astronomy and observational cosmology, extending astronomy to a larger scale and integrating physics into the discipline. He proved observationally that many objects previously thought to be clouds of dust and gas and classified as "nebulae" were actually galaxies beyond the Milky Way. He was one of the first astronomers to use the 'Cephid yardstick' (he strong direct relationship between Cepheid type stars variable luminosity and their pulsation period, which had been developed by Henrietta Swan Leavitt in 1908) for estimate galactic and extragalactic distances. In fact the idea that Andromeda was a galaxy dates back to Kant in 1755 but was disputed and unprovable at the time.
In 1934 an Anglo-Ethiopian boundary commission in the Ogaden discovers an Italian garrison at Walwal, well within Ethiopian territory, leading to the Abyssinia Crisis and eventually the Italian annexation and occupation of Abyssinia.
In 1946 a minor dispute between French and Vietnamese forces in Haiphong in Vietnam (a French patrol ship seized Chinese junk attempting to bring contraband into the port) escalates and leads to French warships shelling the city and killing over six thousand people. This was the first armed clash between French forces and Vietnamese Nationalists and would lead to the Battle of Hanoi in December and the First Indochina War.
In 1963 at 5:14PM, the BBC broadcasts the first episode of a new science fiction television serial, Professor X. While initialy overshadowed by coverage of the assassination of President Kennedy the series became a surprise hit and later acheived cult status, spawning an array of audioplays, original noveks and games. The show concerned a mysterious scientist who travelled through time and space inside a craft called a "TASID", which resembled a pillar box on the outside. The series was noted for it's exploration of alternate universes, including one where the Nazis won the Second World War and one where Kennedy wasn't assassinated. Notable monsters introduced over the decades are the Cybs, the Weylanni, the XTerminators, and the Snow Vikings. Fans of the serial have a rivalry with those of the rival serial Nightshade.
In 1971 representatives of the People's Republic of China attend the United Nations, including the United Nations Security Council, for the first time.
- Presumably this is when they gain access to UNIT also.
In 1972 the Soviet Union makes its final attempt at launching the N1 rocket. Like the previous attempts it ends in failure.
- Though not as disastrous as the second test.
The N1 was a super-heavy launch vehicle, roughly the Soviet analogue to the US Saturn V, a 3,000 tonne behemoth intended to large deliver payloads, around 100 tonnes to low Earth orbit or 30 tonnes to trans-lunar insertion. Persistent problems with underfunding, lack of design direction, haste and unavailability of technical skills meant the project failed repeatedly. The 1972 test start well, with a successful lift-off went well; however at T+90 seconds the programmed shutdown of the core propulsion system caused the failure of lines carrying fuel and oxidiser and an explosion and the break-up of the vehicle.
In 1974 the Massacre of the Sixty sees sixty Ethiopian politicians, aristocrats, military officers, and other persons , executed at Kerchele Prison by the provisional military government. The massacre presaged the Red Terror and Ethiopian Civil War that would follow in years after.
In 1976 Jacques Mayol is the first man to reach a depth of 100 metres undersea without breathing equipment.
In 1978 a powerful cyclone makes landfall at Trincomaleein in eastern Sri Lanka. Over a thousand people are killed.
In 1978 radio stations all over Europe alter their transmission frequencies as the Geneva Frequency Plan of 1975 goes into effect. This realigned much of of Europe's long wave and medium wave broadcasting frequencies to prevent interference between transmitters.
In 1980 at 7:34PM local time,the Irpinia earthquake shakes southern Italy, centered on the village of Conza; while of magnitude 6.3 the quake causes between 2,483 and 4,900 deaths.
In 2007 the MS Explorer, a Liberian-registered cruise liner carrying 154 people and specifically intended for arctic operations, sinks in the Antarctic Ocean south of Argentina after hitting an iceberg near the South Shetland Islands. There are no fatalities. The Explorer was the first vessel of that kind used specifically to operate in the icy waters of the Antarctic Ocean and had departed from Ushuaia in Argentina on 11NOV2007 on a 19-day cruise intended to trace the oute of 20th century explorer Ernest Shackleton through the Drake Passage. In the early hours of the morning she hit an object, presumed to be and iceberg, in the Bransfield Strait close to King George Island. The object struck by Explorer made a gash in the hull around four metres long which allowed water to enter. A mayday call was transmitted at 04:24 UTC and several ships were contacted, rescue operations were coordinated by the Argentine Coast Guard Corps. By 07:30 UTC all 152 passengers, guides and 54 crew were evacuated and had taken to the Explorer's lifeboats; they were picked up around 10:00 that morning.
- There are persistent and unanswered questions about the sinking, including some from maritime experts.
In 2015 Blue Origin's New Shepard space vehicle became the first rocket to successfully fly to space and then return to Earth for a controlled, vertical landing.
Comments? Ideas? Suggestions? Requests?
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Post by missyfan45 on Nov 25, 2020 20:23:52 GMT
Thespis of Icaria,Jacques Mayol,William Magear Tweed,John Milton,Henrietta Swan Leavitt,Edward Plantagenet, 17th Earl of Warwick,Edwin Hubble, Huldrych Zwingli, Albertus Magnus,Jean Lannes,Braxton Bragg,Perkin Warbeck, and King Ferdinand III of Castile are good people to meet.Professor X could be in a alternate universe where his show is called doctor who. And the PRC c could develop their own version of UNIT for a campaign.
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