Today in History

[GrnMoon]

TODAY IN HISTORY....
September 18th 1964


U.S. destroyers fire on hostile targets in Vietnam.
the end, pretty short i know xD

[Mandalor]

Sep 24, 1789 The First Supreme Court


-Mandalor

[A§H»BierLKW]

21st September, 1981: Sandra Day O'Connor is unanimously approved by the U.S. Senate as the first female Supreme Court justice.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sandra_Day_O%27Connor

Notable case: O'Connor joined with four other justices to rule on the Bush v. Gore case after the 2000 presidential election (to stop the ongoing Florida election recount).

[çöókêz]

#'murica

[VOX]

http://home.online.nl/cclinks/abtf/thursd~1.html

Operation Market Garden is fought to gain the bridges of Nijmegen and Arnhem.
This is the biggest battle fought in the Netherlands in the second world war, if not ever.
Unfortunately, due to bad planning ( the para's where dropped way to far away from the bridge) and unexpected heavy German resistance (a SS panzer-division was stationed near Arnhem to recuperate)
this operation turned into a disaster.
Dutch resistance had reported the presence of this division but somehow this information got lost or wasn't considered trustworthy.

Also , the landscape through which the ground force's had to move to back up the para's was utterly unfit for a quick progress.
Being the Dutch river country, all traffic had to move along the river dikes, flanking maneuver's where
impossible because of the wet, low lying grounds at their sides.
A determined defense could hold the whole column with relative ease..
All this lead to the failure of reaching the ultimate goal...the Arnhem bridge .


Every year the're several commemorations (don't know if this is the right word) to honor the brave
soldiers who fought this battle.
This year it's done on a large scale as it is the 70th anniversary of this battle.

[A§H»BierLKW]

http://home.online.nl/cclinks/abtf/thursd~1.html

Operation Market Garden is fought to gain the bridges of Nijmegen and Arnhem.
This is the biggest battle fought in the Netherlands in the second world war, if not ever.

Ah yes, Monty's grand plan to shorten the war by six months. Thanks Vox.
The Germans managed to capture few thousands of allied troops by the end of it, and the Allies wouldn't reach the Rhine (river) again for another four months.
For a quick Hollywood version, there's the 1977 movie A Bridge Too Far that will bring people up to speed.

[A§H»BierLKW]

22nd September, 1980: Iraq invades Iran.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iran%E2%80%93Iraq_War

Motivated by fears of the Iranian Revolution in 1979 (and to take advantage of the ensuing chaos within Iran), Iraq attacked without warning. They made limited progress into Iran, and by June 1982 Iran had regained all their territory. From then on, Iran was on the offensive for the next 6 years, with the war ending with a ceasefire on the 20th of August, 1988.
The U.S. supplied limited support to Iraq in the bid to keep Iran in check, while the U.S.S.R., France, and China accounted for almost 90% of Iraq's arms imports. However, the U.S. ran a complex and illegal (under U.S. law) programme known as the Iran-Contra affair that indirectly supplied some weapons to Iran.

[A§H»JÓÒK]

On Sept 23, 1642, the first graduation ceremony at Harvard University.

[Mandalor]

Yesterday was the fall equinox ;p
-Mandalor

[A§H»BierLKW]

29th September, 1938 – Munich Agreement: Germany is given permission from France, Italy, and Great Britain to seize the territory of Sudetenland, Czechoslovakia. The meeting takes place in Munich, and leaders from neither the Soviet Union nor Czechoslovakia attend (Czechoslovakian diplomats were not invited to the conference).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Munich_Agreement

Today, it is widely regarded as a failed act of appeasement toward Germany. And on 30th September, upon his return to U.K., British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain delivered his infamous "peace for our time" speech to crowds in London.