On this day in Military History

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532: During the Nika Riots, an emperor in despair, and holding the Bible, proceeded to the Hippodrome (it was next to the palace complex) and at the race of the day, made a last appeal to the crowd's finer feelings. He tried to allay their anger by appealing to their Christian faith and patriotism. But, he had appealed in vain to the crowd and in vain to their conscience. According to Zonarás, "the crowd answered in one voice: 'Ἐπιορκεῖς σγαυδᾶρι!' (perjurer ass!)".


1287: During the Reconquista, an Aragonese army under King Alfonso III invaded and captured the island of Minorca, then an autonomous vassal state of the Chaliphate of Corboba, with the name of al-Manurqa. Some of the Muslim inhabitants of the island were enslaved and sold in the slave markets of Ibiza, Valencia and Barcelona, while others became Christians. Each year on 17 January, Minorca celebrates its national day.

King Alfonso III the Frank

1608: During the Oromo (=an ethnic group found in Ethiopia, in northern Kenya, and to a lesser extent in parts of Somalia) Raids into Ethiopia, Emperor Susenyos (or Sissinius) with the help of his son-in-law, Gen. Julius and Gen. Kifla Krestos who joined him with their troops, engaged and defeated the Oromo raiders at Ebenat. Susenyos reports 12,000 Oromo killed while only 400 on the Emperor's side were lost.


1781: During the American Revolutionary War, the Battle of Cowpens occurs. A 1,150-strong British army comprised infantry and cavalry with two 3-pounder cannons under Lt. Col. Banastre Tarleton, 1st Baronet, were defeated by the 1,912 Americans of Brig. Gen. Daniel Morgan, at Cowpens, South Carolina. The British lost 110 killed, 200 wounded, 712 captured. The Americans suffered 25 killed, 124 wounded.


1799: Following an unsuccessful attempt to overthrow Napoleonic rule, the Maltese patriot and Catholic cleric, Dun Mikiel Xerri, together with 48 patriots were put before the French firing squad. Shortly before his execution, he shouted to the gathered crowds; May God have pity on us! Long live Malta!

Dun Mikiel Xerri memorial, La Valetta, Malta

1811: During the Mexican War of Independence, the Battle of Calderón Bridge occurs. 6,000 Spaniards under Gen. Félix María Calleja del Rey, 1st Count of Calderón, defeated a force of ca 100,000 Mexican revolutionaries under Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla, near the bridge of Calderón (the combatants' objective). The Mexicans were on the point of victory when a grenade ignited a munitions wagon in their camp, sowing confusion. The Spaniards took advantage, and routed them. The Spanish suffered ca 1,200 killed and wounded. The Mexicans suffered up to 13,000 killed and wounded.


1873: During the Modoc War, the First Battle of the Stronghold occurs. 53 Modoc warriors under Kintpuash, better known as Captain Jack, defeated a 400-strong U.S. Army force under Col. Francis "Frank" Wheaton, at a natural fortress of caves and trenches 300 yards (274 m) wide and 2 miles (3.2 km) long in the lava beds, now known as "Captain Jack's Stronghold", in Northeastern California, United States. The U.S. suffered 37 men killed and wounded; the Modoc had no casualties.

Modoc warrior

1885: During the Mahdist War, the Battle of Abu Klea occurs. The British Desert Column, a force of approximately 1,400 soldiers under Maj. Gen. Herbert Stewart, defeated a Mahdist Sudanese force of ca 13,000, under the Mahdist chief and Dervish Musa wad Helu, at Khartoum, Sudan. The battle was short, lasting barely 15' from start to finish. Casualties for the British were 9 officers and 65 other ranks killed and over a hundred wounded. The Mahdists lost 1,100 dead during the quarter hour of fighting.

The 24-year old gunner Alfred Smith, received the Victoria Cross for his actions in the Battle of Abu Klea

1919: During the Allied Intervention in the Russian Civil War, and a month after the French occupied Odessa, fighting begins in Kherson in the Crimea, that will last until 25 February between the French, Polish and Greek allies, and the Bolsheviks. The troops of the Greek 34th and 7th Infantry Regiments were distinguished by their resistance offered to the assault carried out by the men of the Bolshevik Dniester Division in Kherson. During the Southern Russia Expedition, the Greek troops of A' Corps (24,000 troops under Maj. Gen. Constantine Nither), fought in the battles of Bol-Buyalik, Kherson, Nikolayev and Odessa. Greek losses in the Crimean theatre of the Russian Civil War, accounted for 398 killed, 657 wounded.

Greek troops in Crimea

1941: During the Franco-Thai War (fought for 8 months between Vichy France and Thailand over certain areas of French Indochina that had once belonged to Thailand), the Naval Battle of Koh Chang occurs. A French Navy squadron comprised the light cruiser FS "La Motte-Piquet" and 4 sloops under Cpt. Régis Bérenger, engaged and defeated a Thai naval force comprised the Japanese-built armoured coastal defence vessel HTMS "Thonburi" and 2 torpedo boats commanded by Cdr. Luang Phrom Viraphan, in the Gulf of Thailand. The French left behind them a scene of total devastation. The Thais suffered 36 crewmen killed (including Cdr. Luang Phrom Viraphan), 2 torpedo boats sunk, while the coastal defence ship was crippled. French casualties were minimal.

La Motte-Piquet" moored off Shanghai, China, in 1939

1945: Soviet forces cross the tributary of the Oder, Warta and advance 160 km (100 miles) on a 260-km (160-mile) front forcing the Germans to evacuate Warsaw, which falls that same day. The German defenders encircled at Budapest withdraw to Buda on the western bank of the Danube.


1945: Swedish diplomat Raoul Wallenberg, a humanitarian who worked in Budapest, Hungary, during WWII to rescue Jews from the Holocaust, was taken into Soviet custody while in Hungary; he is never publicly seen again.

Raoul Wallenberg Memorial, Linköping Sweden

1966: The Palomares Incident occurs. A B-52G bomber of the USAF Strategic Air Command collided with a KC-135 tanker during mid-air refuelling at 31,000 feet (9,450 m) over the Mediterranean Sea, off the coast of Spain. The KC-135 was completely destroyed when its fuel load ignited, killing all four crew members. The B-52G broke apart, killing three of the seven crew members aboard. Three Mk28 hydrogen bombs were found on land near the small fishing village of Palomares, Almería, Spain. The fourth, which fell into the Mediterranean Sea, was recovered intact after a 80-day-long search.

The 1.45 megaton, B28RI H-bomb recovered from 2,850 feet (869 meters) of water

1991: Operation Instant Thunder, the bombing of Iraq started, with an extensive aerial bombing campaign. Two days after the deadline set in Resolution, the coalition launched a massive air campaign with more than 1,000 sorties launching per day. Designed by USAF Colonel John A. Warden III, it was planned to be an overwhelming strike which would devastate the Iraqi military with a minimum loss of civilian as well as coalition life. The air campaign was commanded by USAF Lt. Gen. Chuck Horner. It was finished by 23 February 1991 when the allied land invasion of Kuwait took place.
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350: Flavius Magnus Magnentius deposes Roman Emperor Flavius Julius Constans and proclaims himself Emperor. After a 3-year civil war, he will eventually committ suicide by falling on his sword in August 353.

Roman coins during the Magentius' reign

532: During the Nika Riots, Justinian, in despair, considered fleeing, but his wife Theodora dissuaded him. Although an escape route across the sea laid open for the emperor to flee to Heracleia Pontica, Theodora insisted that she would stay in the city, quoting - according to Procopius - "an ancient saying, 'Royalty is a fine burial shroud' ". As Justinian rallied himself, he sent Narses, a popular eunuch, carrying a bag of gold to the Hippodrome. The slightly built eunuch entered alone and unarmed, against a murderous mob that had already killed hundreds. Narses went directly to the Blues' section, where he approached the important Blues and reminded them that Emperor Justinian supported them over the Greens. He also reminded them that the man they chose to crown, Hypatius, was a Green. As Narses left, the bribed Blues shouted to the crowds: Augustus Justinian, tumvicas! (=Augustus Justinian thou conquer! tumvicas is the Greek rendering of the Latin "tu vinci" a common phrase used by the Byzantines to cheer the emperor) and Lord saves Justinian and Theodora!. Almost immediately a quarel broke out between the supporters of Justinian and those of Hypatius and a brawl began. Then, General Belisarius with 3,000 German mercenaries, veterans of the Persian Wars and the Illyrian General Mundus with his 3,000 Eruls, stormed into the Hippodrome. About 30,000 rioters were reportedly killed.


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1126: Emperor Huizong, one of the most famous emperors of the Song Dynasty of China, abdicates the throne in favour of his son Emperor Qinzong.

Emperor Qinzong, the last emperor of the Chinese Song Dynasty

1593: King Naresuan of Siam kills Crown Prince Minchit Sra of Burma in a duel, using war elephants in what is today observed as the Royal Thai Armed Forces day.

The Great Battle of Yuthahatthi, the duel of the two monarchs; Statue in Muang Boraan, Samut Prakan Province, Thailand

1871: Wilhelm I of the House of Hohenzollern and King of Prussia, is proclaimed the first German Emperor in the Hall of Mirrors of the Palace of Versailles, Paris, France towards the end of the Franco-Prussian War. The title German Emperor was carefully chosen by Bismarck. Wilhelm accepted this title grudgingly as he would have preferred Emperor of Germany which, however, was unacceptable to the federated monarchs, and would also have signalled a claim to lands outside of his reign. By this ceremony, the North German Confederation (1867–1871) was transformed into the Deutsches Kaiserreich (=German Empire, 1871–1918).


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1911: A Curtiss pusher airplane flown by Eugene Burton Ely from the Tanforan airfield in San Bruno, California, landed on a platform constructed on the afterdeck of USS "Pennsylvania" (ACR-4). This was the first successful aircraft landing on a ship, and the first using a tailhook apparatus, thus opening the era of naval aviation and aircraft carriers.


1913: During the First Balkan War, with operations in Macedonia completed, the Greek High Command turned its attention to Epirus. Three divisions were transferred to the theater, raising the total of Greek troops to ca. 40,000, along with 80 artillery pieces and six aircraft. The Ottomans had recently modernised the fortifications at Ioannina (capital of Epirus) under the direction of the German General Wilhelm Leopold Colmar Freiherr von der Goltz, also known as Goltz Pasha. The main position were Fort Bizani S of the town and Fort Kastritsa, SE of it. These had permanent concrete gun emplacements with bunkers, searchlights and trenches. Most of the guns were 5.25 cm and 60 mm (2.36 in) caliber. 153,700 Bulgarian and Serbian troops, continue the siege of Edirne (Adrianople), a city in the westernmost part of Turkey, close to the borders with Greece and Bulgaria.
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1942: The Red Army cuts the main supply route for the German II. Armeekorps (General der Infanterie Johannes Mayer) and X. Armeekorps (General der Artillerie Christian Hansen) at Demyansk near Lake Ilmen, forcing the Luftwaffe to begin flying in supplies. Feldmarschall Fedor von Bock takes over command of Heeresgruppe Süd (=Army Group South) from Feldmarschall Walther von Reichenau who died of a heart attack on 17 January. The Soviet South-West Front (Lt. Gen. Fyodor Yakovlevich Kostenko) launches an offensive across the river Donets, to the S of Kharkov (today's Kharkiv, Ukraine) in an attempt to cut of all German forces north of the Sea of Azov. German troops of XI. Armeekorps (General der Infanterie Joachim von Kortzfleisch) recapture Feodosiya and seal off the Soviet bridgehead at Kerch in the Crimea.


1943: The Soviets break through the German stranglehold on Leningrad to relieve the city from the E. In the Caucasus, the Soviet advance continues. Cherkessk, on the right bank of the river Kuban, is captured by the Red Army, who are now less than 400 km (250 miles) SE of Rostov.


1943: The Germans counter attack in Tunisia. They gain ground against the Free French, but are repulsed by British forces.

Tiger 131 is examined by troops hours after it was captured in Tunisia in 1943

1943: The insurgency in the Warsaw Ghetto was launched against the Germans. The first instance of armed resistance occurred when the Germans started the final expulsion of the remaining Jews. The Jewish fighters had some success; the expulsion stopped after four days and the ŻOB (=Jewish Combat Organization) and ŻZW (=Jewish Military League) resistance organizations took control of the Ghetto, building shelters and fighting posts and operating against Jewish collaborators.

Ghetto Heroes' Memorial in Warsaw

1943: RN destroyer HMS "Nubian" (G-36) (Cdr. Douglas Eric Holland-Martin) and Greek destroyer RHNS "Queen Olga" (D-15) (Lt. Cdr. Georgios Blessas) sink the 500 ton Italian Armed merchantman "Stromboli" off Tunis, Tunisia.

The Nubian (left) and the Queen Olga

1944: German forces of Heeresgruppe Mitte (=Army Group Centre) (Generalfeldmarschall Ernst Busch) repel repeated Red Army attacks in the area of Vitebsk.


1945: German troops evacuate Krakow, the second largest city of Poland. Operation Konrad III, a German offensive begins from Lake Balaton, undertaken by the IV.SS-Panzerkorps (SS-Obergruppenführer Herbert Otto Gille), and III. Panzerkorps (SS-Obergruppenführer Georg Keppler) with the aim of encircling ten Soviet divisions in order to lift the Red Army's siege of Budapest.


1945: Nazis evacuate 66,000 inmates from Auschwitz back into Germany as Soviet forces close in.


1945: Liberation of the Budapest Ghetto by the Red Army.


1955: During the Chinese Civil War, the two-day Battle of Yijiangshan Islands begins. The Nationalist defence force consisted of ca 1,000 men under Wang Shen-Ming, were defeated by the PLA's landing force of ca 5,000 troops commanded by Zhang Aiping. According to PRC sources, the Nationalists suffered 567 killed and wounded, 519 taken as prisoners; the Communists lost 393 killed, 1,024 wounded.


1976: During the Lebanese Civil War, the Karantina Massacre occurs. Karantina was a strategically situated slum district in Beirut controlled by forces from the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO), but inhabited mainly by Lebanese and Palestinian Muslims, as well as some Kurds and Armenians. Karantina was overrun by Christian militias with Syrian backing, and a large number of civilians massacred. The fighting and subsequent killings also involved the nearby Maslakh quarter. More than 1,000 civilians were massacred.


2002: The Sierra Leone Civil War officially ends after 11 years of fighting that claimed the lives of at least 50,000 Sierra Leoneans. 2.5 million displaced internally and externally.

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532: Hypatius, Constantinople's Eparch who double-crossed Justinian and was crowned emperor by the revolted crowds during the Nika Riots, was executed and his body was thrown into the sea. 18 Senators who conspired against Justinian were exiled for life (as substitute for the death penalty) and their property was consficated.

Empress Theodora, a native of Famagusta, Cyprus. She saved the Empire from a serious internal crisis

1419: During the Hundred Years' War, Rouen surrendered to King Henry V of England, who annexed Normandy once again to the Plantagenet domains. Those Norman French who had resisted were severely punished: Alain Blanchard, who was active in the defence of the city during its siege, was summarily executed; Robert de Livet, the Catholic cleric who had excommunicated the English king, was packed off to England and imprisoned for five years.

Henry V, the conqueror of Agincourt

1520: During the Danish Reconquest of Sweden, the Battle of Bogesund occurs. A Swedish army of supporters of the Swedish statesman and regent of Sweden, Sten Sture the Younger who tried to keep Sweden independent of Denmark, was defeated by the ca 10,000 Danes of Marshal Otte Krumpen on the ice of lake Åsunden near Bogesund. Sture's forces fell into disarray and fled. Sture himself retreated towards Stockholm, but succumbed to his wounds two weeks later.

The Sten Sture Monument, in Skotteksgården, south of the town centre

1795: The Batavian Republic is proclaimed in the Netherlands bringing to an end the Republic of the Seven United Netherlands.


1817: During the Chile War of Independence, a combined army of Argentine soldiers and Chilean exiles, led by General José de San Martín, crosses the Andes from Argentina to liberate Chile (and then Peru).

José de San Martín and Bernando O'Higgins crossing the Andes

1839: The British East India Company landed Royal Marines at Aden, Yemen, to occupy the territory and stop attacks by pirates against British shipping to India.


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1840: USN Cpt. Charles Wilkes circumnavigates Antarctica, claiming what became known as Wilkes Land (a region covered by the East Antarctic Ice Sheet (EAIS), averaging from 6,000 to 9,500 feet - 1,800 to 2,900 metres - above sea level, including the coasts of Clarie, Banzare, Sabrina, Budd, and Knox, which are all claimed by Australia; and Adélie Coast, which is claimed by France) for the United States.


1862: During the American Civil War, the Battle of Mill Springs occurs. At dawn of 19 January, in Wayne and Pulaski counties, near current Nancy, Kentucky, two CSA brigades of ca 5,900 men under Maj. Gen. George B. Crittenden, assaulted Union's 1st Division, Army of the Ohio, and Brig. Gen. A. Schoepf’s Brigade (total of four brigades) with 4,400 troops. The U.S. suffered 232 killed and wounded; the C.S. suffered 439 casualties. Mill Springs was the larger of the two Union Kentucky victories in January 1862. With these victories, the Federals carried the war into Middle Tennessee in February.

Graves of Union soldiers killed at the Battle of Mill Springs

1871: During the Franco-Prussian War, the Battle of St. Quentin occurs. A 33,000-strong Prussian army under August Karl von Goeben attacked and decisively defeated the 40,000 Frenchmen of Gen. Louis Léon César Faidherbe, inflicting 3,500 casualties. 9,000 French taken prisoners.


WWI-1915: German zeppelins bomb the towns of Great Yarmouth and King's Lynn in the UK killing more than 20, in the first major aerial bombardment of a civilian target.


1941: The damaged by the Greek submarine RHNS "Triton" (Y-5), Italian Submarine, RM "Neghelli" was sunk by the British Destroyer, HMS "Greyhound" (H-05) (Cdr. Walter Roger Marshall-A'Deane) with depth charges, off Phalconera in the Aegean Sea.


1942: Field Marshal Archibald Wavell, warns British PM Winston Churchill that Singapore cannot be held as little had been done to prepare the landward facing defences. Churchill replies that Singapore must be defended and that no question of surrender be entertained until after protracted fighting among the ruins of Singapore city. Field Marshal Wavell orders Lt. Gen. Arthur Percival to prepare Singapore Island for a siege.

Field Marshal Archibald Wavell, 1st Earl Wavell, C-in-C India

1945: The Soviets cross the 1939 Poland-Silesia frontier taking Krakow. East Prussia is also entered from the S by Soviet troops. Red Army forces capture Lodz. They liberate the Lodz ghetto. From its more than 200,000 inhabitants in 1940, less than 900 had survived the Nazi occupation.

Soviets enter Łódź

1983: Nazi war criminal Klaus Barbie, the Butcher of Lyon, is arrested in Bolivia.


1991: During the First Gulf War, the first SCUD missile attack from Iraq hits Israel, injuring 15 people.
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1812: During the Peninsular War, the 13-day Siege of Ciudad Rodrigo ends. The Duke of Wellington's Anglo-Portuguese Army of 10,700 troops with 36 cannon, seized the city from its French 2,000-strong garrison, with 153 cannon. The French lost 529 killed and wounded, while the rest were captured. The allies suffered 318 dead, 1,378 wounded.

Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington

1839: During the War between Chile and the Confederacy (fought from 1836 - 1839 between the Peru-Bolivian Confederation and an alliance between Chile and dissidents from Peru), the Battle of Yungay occurs. A 5,400-strong army comprised Chileans and Peruvian dissidents under the Chilean Manuel Bulnes Prieto and the Peruvian Ramón Castilla y Marquesado, defeated a Confederacy army of 6,000 men from Peru and Bolivia under Andrés de Santa Cruz y Calahumana, at Yungay, Ancash Region, Peru. This was a harsh defeat for the Peru-Bolivian Confederation. Santa Cruz had around 111 officers and 2,500 other ranks killed or wounded, equivalent to a 50% of the original force. The opposing army lost 40 officers and 622 other ranks. The Chilean victory at Yungay effectively brought the Peru-Bolivian Confederation to an end.
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The victory of Yungay is remembered by the Chilean Army with the Hymn of Yungay

1841: With the Convention of Chuenpee, drafted on 20 January, 1841, between the Chinese Qing Dynasty and the British Empire, the island and harbour of Hongkong is ceded to the British crown.


1871: During the Franco-Prussian War, the two-day Battle of Buzenval, ends. The day when Wilhelm I was crowned German Emperor, at Versailles, the 4,070 French under the governor of Paris and C-in-C of all the forces destined for the defence of the capital, Louis Jules Trochu, attacked the Germans west of Paris in Buzenval Park. The attackers seized the town of Saint-Cloud coming close to the new Emperor's headquarters at Versailles. The Germans lost 173 killed (11 officers), 437 wounded or missing (29 officers). The French suffered 700 killed or wounded. This was the last French effort to break out of Paris.


1941: A Nazi officer - allegedly the chief of Abwehr in the Balkans - is murdered in Bucharest, Romania - allegedly by a Greek national - sparking a rebellion and pogrom by the Iron Guard (they blamed the Jews for the murder), that claimed the lives of 125 Jews and 30 soldiers in the two-day clash of the Iron Guard with Romanian Jews and Romanian military.

A destroyed Jewish Synagogue in Bucharest

1942: In the Wannsee suburb of Berlin, the formal adoption of the Final Solution to the Jewish Problem (Die Endlösung) takes place. In practice this meant that all Jews in occupied Europe were to be transported to the east. The able bodied were to work until they died, while the remainder were put to death.


1944: The Red Army recaptures Novgorod.

German retreat from Novgorod

1944: During an ill-conceived assault by the U.S. 36th Infantry Division - also known as the Texas Division - commanded by Maj. Gen. Fred Walker in the vicinity of the town of Sant' Angelo (the allies were attempting to establish a bridgehead at the town of Sant' Angelo, to launch attacks on the Gustav Line near Monte Cassino), they suffer hundreds of casualties. The assault was opposed by two battalions from the German 15. Panzergrenadier-Division (Generalleutnant Rudolf Sperl).


1945: The French First Army (General Jean de Lattre de Tassigny) attacks against the Colmar Pocket in Alsace. A three-week allied operation in bitter, extremely cold winter conditions begins against the German 19. Armee (General der Infanterie Siegfried Rasp).


1945: As part of Operation Hannibal, the evacuation of ~1.8 mil German troops and civilians from Courland, East Prussia, and the Polish Corridor begins.

Refugees crossing the Baltic sea

1949: During the Greek Civil Wat, the last offensive operation of the Communist insurgents begins. The men and women of the Greek Democratic Army (their total strength variously estimated between 2,900 - 6,000 rebels) under Cpt. Yiótes (nom-de-guerre of Charílaos Phlorákes) and Cpt. Diamantís (nom-de-guerre of Ioannes Alexándru) launch a night assault against the 1,500 troops of two infantry battalions of the Hellenic Army, a battalion of the National Guard and the local gendarmerie chapter, under the overall command of Maj. Demetrios Karapipéres, who were defending the mountain town of Kar*****ion, the highest county town in Greece and the most isolated. After a fierce battle and in appaling weather conditions, the Communists will take the town on 21 January and hold it for 18 days.

Greek Communist insurgents

1990: In one of the few occasions during the Glasnost and Perestroika era in which the USSR used force against dissidents, Black January occurs. 93 - 137 civilians were massacred and more than 800 were wounded, during a violent crackdown of the Azerbaijani independence movement in Baku. 20 January is observed as the Day of the Nationwide Sorrow in Azerbaijan.

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1720: With the signing of the Treaty of Stockholm by Sweden on one side and Hanover and Prussia on the other, the Great Northern War comes to an end. Sweden ceded Swedish Pomerania south of the river Peene and east of the river Peenestrom to Prussia.


1793: At the Place de la Révolution (=Revolution Sq; present-day, Place de la Concord), in Paris, France, Louis XVI of France and Navarre, found guilty of high treason, is executed by guillotine.


1864: During the New Zealand Land Wars (a series of armed conflicts that took place in New Zealand between the native Māori population and European settlers over Māori land), the six-month Tauranga Campaign opens. British Imperial troops and settlers' militia engaged in an armed conflict with many of the Māori tribes in the North Island of New Zealand.


1919: Several IRA members acting independently at Soloheadbeg, in County Tipperary, led by Seán Treacy and Dan Breen, attacked and shot two Royal Irish Constabulary officers, Constables James McDonnell and Patrick O'Connell. This incident is widely regarded as the beginning of the Irish War of Independence.

Memorial to Irish War of Independence in Phibsborough, Dublin, Ireland

1940: During the Winter War, the Soviet 8th Army (Col. Gen. Grigori Mihailovich Shtern) launches an attack against the Finnish forces of Group Talvela (comprised the 16th Infantry Rgt, three independent infantry battalions, one bicycle battalion and two arty batteries, under Maj. Gen. Paavo Talvela), without success.

Maj. Gen. Talvela (right) with Marshal Mannerheim

1943: Italian liner "Città di Genoa" is torpedoed by an allied submarine and sunk off Vlorë, southern Albania. 100 crewmen and passengers were killed or drowned. Amongst the dead, was Greek Col. Constantine Davakes, who was arrested by the Italian occupation authorities, along with other Greek officers, suspected of participation in the Greek Resistance and was shipped to a POW camp in Italy. The Davakes' detachment, commanded by him and composed of two infantry battalions - out of the 51st Infantry Regiment - one cavalry troop and one arty battery, was the first Greek unit that received the "full blow" of the Italian invasion on 28 October 1940. He and his men, stood alone against the Italians for two days and successfully repelled the Italian Julia Alpine Division's attack. Davakes' body was recognized by local Greeks and buried at Vlorë. His remains were repatriated after the war.

Col. Davakes

1945: Tannenberg falls to the Red Army. Withdrawing German forces planted demolition charges inside the entrance tower and the tower previously housing von Hindenburg's coffin, of the Tannenberg Memorial commemorated fallen German soldiers of the Battle of Tannenberg in 1914, causing both towers to collapse. On the next day, Germans demolished the remains of the construction with further 30 tonnes (33 tons) of explosives. The ruins were completely removed in 1952 - 1953 by Polish sappers.

The Tannenberg Memorial...

...and its foundations today

1954: The first nuclear-powered submarine, the USS "Nautilus" (SSN-571), is launched in Groton, Connecticut christened by Mamie Eisenhower, the First Lady of the United States.
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1958: The last Fokker C.X in military service, the Finnish Air Force FK-111 target tower, crashes, killing the pilot, 2nd Lt. Aimo Allinen and winch-operator, 2nd Lt. Antti Kukkonen.


1968: During the Vietnam War, the Battle of Khe Sanh opens. In the summer of 1967, American commanders learned of a build-up of People's Army of North Vietnam (PAVN) forces in the area around Khe Sanh in NW South Vietnam. Responding to this, the Khe Sanh Combat Base (KSCB), located on a plateau in a valley of the same name, was reinforced by elements of the 26th Marine Regiment (ca 6,000 U.S. Marines) under Colonel David E. Lownds. The fighting around Khe Sanh, began 21 January, 1968 (concluded around 8 April, 1968) against ~20,000 - 30,000 North Vietnamese men.
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1968: A USAF B-52 bomber carrying four hydrogen bombs crashed near Thule Air Base, Greenland. Six crew members ejected safely, but one who did not have an ejection seat was killed while trying to bail out. The nuclear payload was ruptured and dispersed, which resulted in widespread radioactive contamination.

Aerial photograph of blackened area of ice where a B-52 carrying 4 nuclear weapons crashed

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1506: The first contingent of 150 soldiers of the Schweizergarde (Swiss Guard) under Commandant Kaspar von Silenen, arrive at the Vatican during the pontificate of Pope Julius II. 22 January 1506 is considered the foundation date of the Pontifical Swiss Guards.


1771: During the Falkland Crisis (a dispute between the Spanish Kingdom and the Kingdom of Great Britain over possession of the Falkland Islands in the South Atlantic Ocean that almost led to war between France, Spain and Britain) Spain agrees to cede Port Egmont (the first British settlement in the Falkland Islands) to Great Britain.

Edward Hawke, 1st Baron Hawke, the First Lord of the Admiralty who mobilised the Royal Navy during the crisis

1824: During the First Anglo-Ashanti War, the Battle of Nsamankow occurs. 250 British troops and settlers' militia and 240 Fanti warriors, under Brig. Gen. Sir Charles McCarthy, encountered a 10,000-strong Ashanti force at a 60-foot-wide (18 m) tributary of the Pra River (modern-day, Pra River, Ghana). Almost all the British force were killed immediately, Gen. McCarthy included. McCarthy's gold-rimmed skull was later used as a drinking-cup by the Ashanti rulers.


1830: The plenipotentiaries of Russia, United Kingdom and France confirm the sovereignty of Greece in a London Protocol. The Protocol recognised an independent Greece, under a monarchy, and determined the borders of the country; Prince Leopold of Saxe-Coburg was chosen by the three powers as Prince-Sovereign of Greece and - drawn up at the request of France - one of its provisions established religious toleration and retained in force all the privileges which the Latin Church had hitherto enjoyed in the former Ottoman provinces from which the independent Greek state was created.

The CoA of the first Independent Greek Kingdom, the flag used on land (left) and the flag for use by the Navy and abroad

1849: During the Second Anglo-Sikh War, the nine-month Siege of Multan by the British concludes when the last 12,000 defenders under the ruler of the city-state of Multan (present-day, Multan City, Punjab Province of Pakistan), Dewan Mulraj, surrendered to the British Lt. Gen. Sir William Sampson Whish.


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1863: The January Uprising, a Polish insurrection against conscription into the Imperial Russian Army and an attempt to regain Polish-Lithuanian-Ruthenian Commonwealth from occupation by Tsarist Russia, opens. It lasted until the last insurgents were captured in 1865.

Polonia. Russian officers and soldiers supervise a blacksmith installing fetters on the wrists of a woman representing Poland. The blonde woman behind her, next in line, may represent Lithuania

1879: During the Anglo-Zulu War, the Battle of Isandlwana occurs. A 20,000-strong Zulu army under the Princes Ntshingwayo kaMahole Khozalo and Mavumengwana kaNdlela Ntuli, attacked a portion of the British main force consisting of about 1,800 British, colonial and native troops and about 400 civilians, eleven days after the British invaded Zululand. Of the ca 1,800-force of British troops and African auxiliaries, about 1,300 were killed including commanders, Bvt. Col. Anthony William Durnford and Bvt. Lt. Col. Henry Burmester Pulleine. The Zulus had lost around 1,000 killed, with various unconfirmed estimates for their wounded.


1879: During the Anglo-Zulu War, the Battle of Rorke's Drift occurs. 4,000 Zulu warriors, under Prince Dabulamanzi kaMpande, after cutting off the retreat of the Isandlwana survivors to the Buffalo River, SW of Isandlwana, crossed the river and attacked the fortified mission station at Rorke's Drift. The station was defended by only 139 British soldiers, under Lt. John Rouse Merriott Chard and Lt. Gonville Bromhead who nonetheless inflicted considerable casualties and repelled the attack. 11 Victoria Crosses - seven of them to soldiers of the 2nd/24th Foot, the most ever received in a single action by one Rgt - and 4 Distinguished Conduct Medals were received that day.


1944: Operation Shingle; The U.S. VI Corps (Lt. Gen. Lucian King Truscott, Jr.) lands two divisions - the British 1st Infantry Division and the U.S. 3rd Infantry Division (36,034 men and 3,069 vehicles) - under Maj. Gen. John P. Lucas at Anzio and Nettuno, 30 miles S of Rome.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ePYoYvAO1mw

1945: The Red Army captures Insterburg (present-day Chernyakhovsk, Kaliningrad, Russia) and Allenstein (present-day Olsztyn, Poland) in East Prussia.


1963: The Élysée Treaty, signed by French President, General Charles de Gaulle and German Chancellor, Dr. Konrad Adenauer, at Élysée Palace, Paris, set the seal on reconciliation between the two countries and ended centuries of rivalry between them.


1968: During the Vietnam War, Operation Igloo White, a covert USAF electronic state-of-the-art warfare operation that utilised electronic sensors, computers, and communications relay aircraft in an attempt to automate intelligence collection, begins. The system would assist in the direction of strike aircraft to their targets. The objective of those attacks was the logistical system of the People's Army of Vietnam (PAVN) that snaked through southeastern Laos and was known as the Ho Chi Minh Trail (the Truong Son Road to the North Vietnamese). Igloo White was rushed into service during the Battle of Khe Sanh and successfully passed its first operational test. Combined with Operation Commando Hunt in 1969, the system served as the keystone of the U.S. aerial interdiction effort of the Vietnam Conflict.

EC-121 of the USAF 533rd Reconnaissance Wing

1987: During a demonstration organised by the Peasants' Movement of the Philippines, a militant farmers' group led by Jaime Tadeo, the Mendiola Massacre occurs. Philippine security forces open fire on a crowd of 10,000 - 15,000 demonstrators at Malacañang Palace, Manila, killing 13.


1991: During the First Gulf War, three Iraqi SCUD missiles and one coalition Patriot missile hit Ramat Gan in Israel, injuring 96 people. Three elderly people died of heart attacks.

[valtrex]

1368: The Hongwu Emperor, known also by his given name, Chu Yuan-chang, ascends to the throne of China initiating Ming Dynasty rule over China that would last for three centuries.


1579: The Union of Utrecht, was signed in Utrecht, Netherlands, by the counties, duchies, lordships and bishoprics of the northern Low Countries, that unified them and formed a Protestant republic (Republic of the Seven United Provinces), not recognized by Habsburg Spain.


1719: Charles VI, Holy Roman Emperor, decreed that the counties of Vaduz and Schellenberg be promoted to a principality with the name Liechtenstein for his servant Anton Florian of Liechtenstein, within the Holy Roman Empire.

Anton Florian von Liechtenstein

1793: Russia and Prussia agree and sign a Treaty of Second Partition of Poland in St. Petersburg. Russia would take an enormous slab of land between the Dvina in the N and Dniester in the S. Prussia would acquire a triangle of territory between Silesia and East Prussia. A little Polish buffer-state would be left.


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1900: During the Second Boer War, the Battle of Spion Kop occurs. Maj. Gen. Edward Robert Prevost Woodgate's British force of 1,700, supported by 36 arty pieces, engaged an entreched 388-strong Boer force (8,000 overall), supported by 4 arty pieces and two QF 1, 37 mm autocannon, under Commandant Hendrik Prinsloo, on the hilltop of Spioenkop along the Tugela River, Natal in South Africa. Reports at the end of the battle, which raged for two days stated 332 British troops killed (Gen. Woodgate included), 563 wounded and 163 prisoners taken, but these figures are still open to question with some claiming up to 340 killed and over 1,000 wounded. The Boers suffered 68 killed, 267 wounded.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p-OdrCWjPiQ
To commemorate their fallen, upon returning home the survivors named stands at their local football grounds the Kop, the most famous of these being the Kop at Anfield (Liverpool F.C.)

1941: During the Greco-Italian War, the Greek II/5 battalion (Maj. Demetrios Kaslás) of the 5th Infantry Rgt (Col. Nicholas Georgúlas) with a daring maneuver, takes Height 717 (Bregu Rapit) and captures 7 Italian officers and 147 other ranks prisoners. This battalion will repulse three consecutive counter-attacks launched by the Italians to reclaim it. On the night of 23 - 24 January, the Italians will retake Height 717. Maj. Kaslás will organise a night assault and leading his men personally, will take Height 717 for a second and final time. Major Kaslás for his great personal valour, daring tactics and tenasious perseverance, will receive on 27 January, the Greek Cross of Valour in Gold.

Major Kaslás (right); from 28 October 1940 (Greek entrance to WWII) - 30 April 1941 (Greek capitulation), 89 commissioned officers received the Greek Cross of Valour

1943: The British Eighth Army (Lt. Gen. Bernard Law Montgomery) triumphantly enters Tripoli, Libya. The Vice-Governor of Libya and prefect of Tripolitania offer a formal surrender.

8th Army's embroidered patch

1943: Fighting in Papua is officially reported as over. Australian and American forces defeat the Japanese army in Papua. This turning point in the Pacific War marks the beginning of the end of Japanese aggression.


1944: RN destroyer, HMS "J****" (F53) (Lt. Cdr. William Brabazon Robert Morrison) is bombed and sunk as the fighting rages around the Anzio beachhead. More than 80 survivors were rescued.
[img]http://img96.imageshack.us/img96/9025/hmsj****f53iwmfl003695i.jpg[/img]
The J****

1945: The Soviet 5th Guards Tank Army (Lt. Gen. Vassily Timofeyevich Volyskii) enters Elbing on Baltic (present-day Elbląg, Poland). Marshal Ivan Stepanovich Konev's 1st Ukrainian Front reaches the river Oder in Silesia.


1963: In Portuguese Guinea (modern-day Guinea-Bissau) the first hostilities of the Bissau-Guinean War of Independence broke out when PAIGC (=African Party for the Independence of Guinea and Cape Verde) insurgents attacked the Portuguese garrison in Tite, S of the capital Bissau.


1968: USS "Pueblo" (AGER-2), a USN intelligence ship, commanded by Cdr. Lloyd M. Bucher, is captured by a North Korean sub-chaser and three torpedo boats, weeks before the Vietnamese Tet Offensive, causing an international incident. North Korea stated that Pueblo strayed into their territorial waters, but the United States maintains that the vessel was in international waters at the time of the incident. During the incident, Fireman Apprentice, Duane Hodges, was killed. The Pueblo crew were releaced two days before Christmas, 1968. Pueblo, is currently moored along the Taedong River in Pyongyang, North Korea, where it is used as a museum ship.

[valtrex]

41: 29-year old, Gaius Julius Cæsar Augustus Germanicus, commonly known as Caligula, is assassinated by his Prætorian guard. His lame and hard-hearing uncle, Tiberius Claudius Cæsar Augustus Germanicus, succeeds him.

Gratus proclaims Claudius emperor

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YXQGUh0ySec

1827: During the Greek War of Independence, a Greek force of about 2,000 under the command of the British Philhellene, Maj. Gen. Thomas Gordon, arrive in Piræus and proceed to its fortification. The Greek revolutionaries are reinforced by sea by the steam-powered sloop-of-war "Kartería", commanded by RN Cpt. Frank Abney Hastings, three brigs, five gunboats and other smaller vessels.

Kartería (Greek for "Perseverance") was armed with four 68-pounder guns, the most powerful calibre of the era, no match for larger sailing warships

1859: Political union of the Danubian Principalities of Moldavia and Wallachia; Alexandru Ioan Cuza is elected as ruler. Moldavia, Wallachia alongside Transylvania, became the basis for the Romanian nation-state.

Domnitor, Alexander John Cuza, ruler of the united principalities

1913: During the First Balkan War, 1st Lt. Michael Mutússes and Ens. Aristides Moraitínes, flying their Maurice Farman MF.7 hydroplane, conduct the first ever naval air reconnaissance combat mission by spotting the withdrawing Ottoman fleet, thus confirming its withdrawal within the Dardanelles, after the Ottoman defeat in the Naval Battle of Lemnos. During their sortie, they accurately drew a diagram of the positions of the Ottoman fleet, against which they dropped four bombs. Mutússes and Moraitínes travelled over 97 nautical miles and took them 2h 20' to complete the mission, which was extensively reported in both the Greek and International Press.

Greek destroyer RHNS "Velos" collects the Henry Farman biplane of Mutusses-Moraitines after the air-naval operation over the Dardanelles

1941: During the Greco-Italian War, the men of the Greek 51st Infantry Rgt (Col. Themistocles Ketséas) seize Height 731, which in the Italian Spring offensive will become the symbol of Greek resistance in WWII.

Greek Memorial at the base of Height 731 in Albania. The inscription reads: "Εἷς οἰωνὸς ἄριστος ἀμύνεσθαι περὶ Πάτρης -One omen is best, to fight for one's country" (Homer's Iliad)

1942: German troops of Heeresgruppe Mitte (=Army Group Centre) (Generalfeldmarschall Günther von Kluge), recapture Sukhinichi, a large railway junction on the Moscow - Bryansk line, near Kaluga.


1943: The Soviets take Starobelsk (today's Starobilsk, Ukraine), near the Donets River in the eastern Ukraine, more than 400 km (250 miles) to the W of Stalingrad. Starobelsk had a Soviet prison camp for Polish prisoners of war in 1940. The offensive by the Soviet Trans-Caucasian Front (General Ivan Vladimirovich Tyolenev) towards the Kuban bridgehead is stopped at Novorossiysk and Krasnodar.


1944: The French, attack to the N of Monte Cassino. French Colonial troops (the Moroccans of the 2nd Infantry Division under Brig. Gen. André Dody) made good initial progress against the German 5. Gebirgs-Division (=5th Mountain Division), commanded by General der Gebirgstruppen Julius Alfred Ringel, gaining positions on the slopes of their key objective, Monte Cifalco. Forward units of the 3rd Algerian Division (Maj. Gen. Joseph de Goislard de Monsabert) had also by-passed Monte Cifalco to capture Monte Belvedere and Colle Abate.


1961: A USAF B-52 Stratofortress carrying two Mark 39 nuclear bombs, breaks up in mid-air over Goldsboro, North Carolina. Its crew ejected successfully but while one bomb was recovered, the uranium core of one weapon remains lost.

[valtrex]

1573: During the Takeda Shingen's (a preeminent lord in feudal Japan) Campaign, the Battle of Mikatagahara occurs. A roughly 30,000-strong Takeda Shingen's force engaged and defeated a 11,000-strong army of Takeda's rival, Tokugawa Ieyasu, at Mikatagahara, north of Tokugawa's castle. Takeda Shingen's casualties are estimated at ranges from 500 - 3000. Tokugawa Ieyasu lost almost his entire force.

Takeda Shingen's statue, in his hometown, Kofu

1827: During the Greek War of Independence, a Greek force of ca 500 revolutionaries under Ioannes Notarás, supported by the 68-pounder guns of steamship "Kartería" (Cpt. Frank Abney Hastings RN), attempted, unsuccessfully, to seize the Monastery of St. Spyridon in Piræus, in which 200 Turks had barricaded themselves. The Greeks suffer severe casualties.

Ioannes Notarás

1942: Thailand declares war on the U.K and the U.S following an allied aerial bombardment of Bangkong.


1943: The Red Army succeeds in splitting the remnants of 6. Armee (General der Panzertruppe Friedrich Wilhelm Ernst Paulus) into a northern and a southern pocket. German forces evacuate Armavir, on the left bank of the Kuban River, and Voronezh (located on either side of the Voronezh River in modern Ukraine). Stalin’s Order of the day says that the Red Army has routed 102 German divisions in the last two months.


1945: Marshal Zhukov cuts off the Fortress city of Posen, in East Prussia (present-day, Poznań, Poland) which holds 66,000 Germans and continues his 80-km (50-mile) a day advance westwards.


1969: Brazilian Army captain Carlos Lamarca deserts in order to fight against the military dictatorship, taking with him 10 machine guns and 63 rifles. Lamarca was the only man in the History of Brazil to receive the status of traitor, being considered an "enemy of the state".


1971: Colonel Idi Amin Dada, leads a coup deposing PM Apolo Milton Obote and becomes Uganda's president.


1995: The incident known as Black Brant Scare occurs. A Black Brant XII research rocket - a Canadian-designed sounding rocket - launched from the Andøya Rocket Range off the northwest coast of Norway, almost led Russia to the verge of a nuclear attack after it mistakenly took the rocket, for a U.S Trident missile.

[D-Mitch]

Excellent job valtrex! Thank you very much for your patience to find and to analyse all this informations and to share them with us!

[valtrex]

1565: During the Islamic Invasion of India, the Battle of Talikota occurs. The Deccan (five Muslim-ruled late medieval kingdoms - Bijapur, Golkonda, Ahmadnagar, Bidar and Berar- of southcentral India, located on the Deccan Plateau) Sultanates' 100,000 - 110,000-strong army, supported by dozens of cannon, commanded by their five Sultans, engaged and decisively defeated the ca 150,000-strong army with 100 war elephants of the Hindu Vijayanagar Empire, under Ramaraya, at Talikota, about 80 km (50 miles) to the SE of the city of Bijapur. The Deccan Sultanates suffered moderate to heavy casualties. The Vijayanagar army lost up to 100,000 men while Ramaraya, the pre-eminent general of the Vijayanagar army, was killed.


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1699: The Treaty of Carlowitz, is signed by the Ottoman Empire on one side and a coalition of various European powers including the Habsburg Monarchy, the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, the Republic of Venice and the Russian Empire, in Carlowitz (present-day Sremski Karlovci, Serbia). Austria received all of Hungary (except the Banat of Temesvár, bounded by the Tisza, Mureș, and Danube rivers), Transylvania, Croatia, and Slovenia; the Austro-Turkish treaty was to last for 25 years. Venice acquired the Peloponnese peninsula in southern Greece (which the Turks regained in 1715) and most of Dalmatia, including the harbour of Cattaro (present-day Kotor, Montenegro). Poland returned its conquests in Moldavia but regained Podolia as well as part of Ukraine west of the Dnieper River, which the Turks had conquered in 1672. The Turks and the Russians concluded only a two-year armistice at Carlowitz. The Treaty of Carlowitz marked the beginning of the Ottoman decline, and made the Habsburg Monarchy the dominant power in SE Europe.


1788: The 11 ships which sailed from Great Britain on 13 May 1787 and comprised the First Fleet, led by Cpt. Arthur Phillip, arrive at Sydney Cove, raise the British flag there, and proclaim British sovereignty over the eastern seaboard of New Holland. 26 January each year, is observed as Australia Day and is the official National Day of the Australian Commonwealth.


1808: British Maj. George Johnston, CO of the New South Wales Corps (aka The Rum Corps), leads the only successful armed takeover of government in Australia's history when he deposes the Governor of New South Wales, William Bligh in an incident known as the Rum Rebellion. Maj. Johnston assumed the title of lieutenant-governor, and suspended the judge-advocate and other officials.

A satirical representation of Governor William Bligh being removed from Government House in 1808

1827: During the Greek War of Independence, Kütahy Reshit Mehmet Pasha, successfully reinforces the Turks besieged in the monastery of St. Spyridon in Piræus after his cannonade had succeeded in pushing back the steamship "Kartería" (Cpt. Frank Abney Hastings RN).


1934: The Germano-Polish Non-Aggression Pact is signed in Berlin by the plenipotentiaries of the German government, Konstantin Hermann Karl Freiherr von Neurath and of the Polish government, Józef Lipski, ambassador to Nazi-Germany.

German ambassador, Hans-Adolf von Moltke, Polish leader Józef Piłsudski, German propaganda minister Joseph Göbbels and Józef Beck, Polish Foreign minister, during a meeting in Warsaw five months after the signing of the Pact

1939: During the Spanish Civil War, Barcelona falls into Nationalist hands.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PPfL9SoVSc8

1942: The first U.S. forces arrive in Europe landing in Northern Ireland. The Irish Premier, de Valera protests at the arrival of U.S. troops in Ulster. U.S. President Roosevelt is said to be amazed by this.


1943: Greek destroyer RHNS "Adrias" (L67) (Cdr. Ioannes Tumbas) sank the German submarine U-553 (Kapitänleutnant Karl Thurmann) 312 nautical miles off Cape Finisterre. U-553 by then had conducted ten war patrols, sinking 14 ships totalling 65,116 tonnes (71,779 tons).


1945: 2nd Lt. Audie Murphy performed actions that would lead to him being awarded the Medal of Honor.


1945: Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler is put in command of Heeresgruppe Weichsel (=Army Group Vistula) by Hitler. The Soviets isolate three German armies in East Prussia. The Red Army captures Kattowitz (today's Katowice, Poland) in Upper Silesia. Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp is captured by the Soviets, but they find fewer than 3,000 survivors as the SS has moved most of the remaining prisoners to camps inside Germany.


1951: During the Korean War, the Greek Battalion holds off repeated Chinese attacks on Hill 406 and suffers 3 killed in action, 2 wounded in action, 1 missing in action.

Excellent job valtrex! Thank you very much for your patience to find and to analyse all this informations and to share them with us!

Thanks man, it's easier than it appears to be

[valtrex]

1827: During the Greek War of Independence, the Battle of Kamaterón occurs. A 3,000-strong Greek force comprised 800 Greeks from the island of Cephallonia and foreign Philhellenes under the French born, ethnic Greek, veteran of the Napoleonic wars and aide-de-camp to Joseph Bonaparte, Col. Constantine Dionysius Búrbaches (Constantin Denis Bourbaki), 1,200 irregulars from Corinth under Panayiótes Notarás, and 1,000 Peloponnesians under Ioannes Notarás and Mavrovuniótes Vassos, were attacked and defeated at dawn of 27 January, at the western approaches of Attica, near Athens, by the 2,000 infantry and 600 cavalry of Kütahy Reshit Mehmet Pasha. 300 Greeks were killed (including Col. Búrbaches, two French officers and the force's surgeon). The Ottoman casualties are unknown.


1918: The Finnish Civil War (fought in Finland from the night of 27/28 January - 15 May 1918 between the forces of the Social Democrats led by the People's Deputation of Finland, commonly called the Reds, and the forces of the conservative-led Senate, commonly called the Whites), officially opens when Finnish Red Guards, hang a red lantern atop the tower of Helsinki Workers' Hall to symbolically mark the start of the war. The first hostilities occur when the White Guards tried to capture trains carrying a large shipment of weapons from Petrograd to Viipuri, as promised to the Reds by Lenin.

Finnish Punakaarti (Red Guards)

1939: Maiden flight of the Lockheed P-38 Lightning.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JblYqUSxlrY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o6aFUblGs6Y
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PzTpEW9LwcY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G1R8fcdrFjg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SIQi5B87DP4

1940: Hitler personally takes over planning for Operation Weserübung, the invasion of Denmark and Norway.


1943: The USAAF makes its first raid on Germany with a force of 91 B-17 and B-24 heavy bomber aircrafts, from the VIII Bomber Command (Maj. Gen. Ira Clarence Eaker), hitting Emden and Wilhelmshaven in daylight.


1944: The Germans counter-attack the French at Cassino.

A German Panzer crew attempt to restore their Pz.Kpfw. IV Ausf. H tank's mobility after receiving battle damage during fighting around Monte Cassino

1944: The 900-day Siege of Leningrad is lifted. The Soviet 1st Ukrainian Front (Gen. Nikolai Fyodorovich Vatutin) launches an offensive against the cities of Luzk and Rovno (present-day Rivne, Ukraine). The Soviets cut off 57,000 men in Korsun Pocket, 160 km (100 miles) to the SE of Kiev. Army Group North's commander, Generalfeldmarschall Georg von Küchler orders 18. Armee (Generaloberst Georg Lindemann) to pull back to the river Luga.

German retreat from Leningrad (present-day St. Petersburg, Russia)

1945: The Soviet 1st Baltic Front (Gen. Hovhannes Khachaturi Bagramyan) captures the city of Memel in East Prussia (present-day Klaipėda, Lithuania) on Baltic coast after the German evacuation, which now leaves the whole of Lithuania in German hands. German forces begin evacuating the vital coal mining and industrial region of Upper Silesia.

General Bagramyan

1951: The first nuclear test conducted at the Nevada Test Site occurs, when a one-kiloton bomb, code-named Able dropped on Frenchman Flat, a Tonopah Basin landform used as a nuclear weapons detonation sites at the Nevada Test Site (NTS), some 65 miles (105 km) from Las Vegas, US.


1973: During the Vietnam War, Col. William Benedict Nolde was killed by shell fire at An Lộc, eleven hours before the cessation of all hostilities in accordance with the Paris Peace Accords. He was the last official American combat casualty of the war.


1973: The Paris Peace Accords officially end the Vietnam War.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4sLxzmvW41o

1996: In a military coup Colonel Ibrahim Baré Maïnassara deposes the first democratically elected president of Niger, Mahamane Ousmane.

[Laconian]

Valtrex, nice job.

Tidbit for yesterday, January 26:
1945: 2d Lt. Audie Murphy performed actions that would lead to him being awarded the Medal of Honor. His citation:

MURPHY, AUDIE L.

Rank and organization: Second Lieutenant, U.S. Army, Company B 1 5th Infantry, 3d Infantry Division. Place and date: Near Holtzwihr France, 26 January 1945. Entered service at: Dallas, Tex. Birth: Hunt County, near Kingston, Tex. G.O. No.. 65, 9 August 1945. Citation 2d Lt. Murphy commanded Company B, which was attacked by 6 tanks and waves of infantry. 2d Lt. Murphy ordered his men to withdraw to prepared positions in a woods, while he remained forward at his command post and continued to give fire directions to the artillery by telephone. Behind him, to his right, 1 of our tank destroyers received a direct hit and began to burn. Its crew withdrew to the woods. 2d Lt. Murphy continued to direct artillery fire which killed large numbers of the advancing enemy infantry. With the enemy tanks abreast of his position, 2d Lt. Murphy climbed on the burning tank destroyer, which was in danger of blowing up at any moment, and employed its .50 caliber machinegun against the enemy. He was alone and exposed to German fire from 3 sides, but his deadly fire killed dozens of Germans and caused their infantry attack to waver. The enemy tanks, losing infantry support, began to fall back. For an hour the Germans tried every available weapon to eliminate 2d Lt. Murphy, but he continued to hold his position and wiped out a squad which was trying to creep up unnoticed on his right flank. Germans reached as close as 10 yards, only to be mowed down by his fire. He received a leg wound, but ignored it and continued the single-handed fight until his ammunition was exhausted. He then made his way to his company, refused medical attention, and organized the company in a counterattack which forced the Germans to withdraw. His directing of artillery fire wiped out many of the enemy; he killed or wounded about 50. 2d Lt. Murphy's indomitable courage and his refusal to give an inch of ground saved his company from possible encirclement and destruction, and enabled it to hold the woods which had been the enemy's objective.

From: http://www.history.army.mil/html/moh/wwII-m-s.html

[valtrex]

1547: Henry VIII dies. His 9-year-old son from his third marriage with Jane Seymour, Edward, becomes King Edward VI of England and Ireland and is crowned on 20 February. Edward was the third monarch of the Tudor dynasty and England's first ruler who was raised as a Protestant.


1820: A Russian expedition led by Navy Cpt. Faddey Faddeyevich Bellinsgauzen and Cdr. Mikhail Petrovich Lazarev discovered the Antarctic mainland by approaching the Antarctic coast and seeing ice-fields there.

A commemorative coin dedicated to the first Russian Antarctic expedition

1846: During the First Anglo-Sikh War, the Battle of Aliwal occurs. The 12,000-strong army of the British East India Company commanded by Maj. Gen. Henry George Wakelyn Smith, with 32 cannon, defeated the 30,000-strong Sikh army under Ranjodh Singh Majithia, with 69 cannon, at a ridge between the villages of Aliwal and Bhundri, on the Sutlej river. The Sikhs lost 2,000 men and 67 guns. The British suffered ca 740 killed and wounded. The British won a victory which is sometimes regarded as the turning point of the First Anglo-Sikh War.

The conqueror of Aliwal, Sir Henry George Wakelyn Smith, 1st Baronet of Aliwal

1871: The Franco-Prussian War ends in armistice. With Paris under siege for 130 days and a starving population, Foreign Minister and Acting French President Jules Claude Gabriel Favre (President Jules Trochu had resigned on 25 January) agrees with German Chancellor Bismarck to end the siege and allow food convoys to immediately enter Paris on condition that the French Government of National Defence capitulate. Favre signed the surrender on 27 January at Versailles, with the armistice coming into effect at midnight. Several sources claim that in his carriage on the way back to Paris, Favre broke into tears, and collapsed into his daughter's arms as the guns around Paris fell silent at midnight.

German Empire after the Franco-Prussian War

1921: A symbolic Tomb of the Unknown Soldier is installed beneath the Arc de Triomphe in Paris to honor the unknown dead of the Great War.


1932: The Shanghai Incident occurs. This was a brief war (28 January - 3 March, 1932) fought between the armies of the Republic of China and the Empire of Japan that occurred prior to the Second Sino-Japanese War. Following - staged by the Japanese - anti-Japanese incidents in Shanghai, the Japanese Shanghai Expeditionary Army (ca 90,000 troops) under Gen. Yoshinori Shirakawa, attacked two Chinese Armies under Gen. Jiang Guangnai. The battles initially took place in the Hongkew district of the International Settlement, but soon spread outwards to much of Chinese-controlled Shanghai. On 28 January, planes from the world's first commissioned ship that was designed and built as an aircraft carrier, the Japanese carrier IJN "Hosho", bombed Shanghai in the first major aircraft carrier action in the Far East.

An aircraft lands on the Japanese aircraft carrier IJN "Hosho" sometime around the Shanghai Incident

1941: During the Franco-Thai War, the final air battle of the conflict occurs when at 07:10 hours, the Royal Thai Air Force Martin B-10 of the 50th Bomber Squadron set out on a raid on Sisophon, escorted by thirteen Hawk 75N of the 60th Fighter Squadron. The Japanese mediated the conflict, and a general armistice was arranged to go into effect at 10:00 hours on 28 January. In the short Franco-Thai war, the French suffered 321 killed or wounded, 178 missing; 222 made prisoners. 22 aircraft destroyed, 1 light cruiser damaged. The Thais lost 397 killed or wounded, 21 made prisoners. 8 - 13 aircraft destroyed. 2 torpedo boats sunk, 1 coastal defense ship crippled. The real beneficiaries of the conflict between Thailand and the Vichy French were the Japanese.

The Bangkok Victory Monument

1945: The Ardennes salient is finally eradicated. In the wake of the defeat, many experienced German units were left severely depleted of men and equipment as survivors retreated to the defences of the Siegfried Line. The Battle of the Ardennes was one of the bloodiest of the battles, U.S. forces experienced in WWII. U.S. casualties accounted for 80,987 killed, wounded, missing or captured during the 40-day long battle. The German official figure for the campaign was 84,834 casualties. The British lost 1,408 killed and wounded.

The Mardasson Memorial, located near Bastogne in Belgium, honours the memory of the U.S soldiers who were wounded or killed during the Battle of the Bulge. The Latin inscription on the memorial stone reads: Liberatoribvs Americanis Popvlvs Belgicvs Memor IV.VII.MCMXLVI - The Belgian people remember their American liberators 4th July 1946

1980: The USCG Seagoing Buoy Tender, USCGC "Blackthorn" (WLB-391) (Lt. Cdr. George Sepel) collides with the tanker "Capricorn" while leaving Tampa Florida and capsizes killing 23 USCG crewmembers.

The "Blackthorn" memorial at the Sunshine Skyway Bridge

1982: US Army Brig. Gen. James Lee Dozier is rescued by Italian anti-terrorism forces from 42-day captivity by the Red Brigades, when a team of NOCS (=Nucleo Operativo Centrale di Sicurezza; Central Security Operations Service, a special operations division of the Italian Police) successfully carried out his rescue from an apartment in Padua, without firing a single shot, thus capturing the entire terrorist cell.

NOCS crest; their motto: Sicut Nox Silentes (Silent As Night)

1986: Space Shuttle "Challenger", NASA's second Space Shuttle orbiter to be put into service, breaks apart after liftoff killing all seven astronauts on board.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j4JOjcDFtBE

1996: During the Greco-Turkish Crisis over a set of two small uninhabited islets in the Aegean Sea, situated between the Greek island chain of the Dodecanese and the southwestern mainland coast of Turkey (Limniá islets for the Greeks, Kardak for the Turks), Greek special forces landed on the east islet unnoticed by the nearby Turkish warships.

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1814: During the War of the Sixth Coalition, the Battle of Brienne occurs. About 22,500 Frenchmen with 60 cannon, under Emperor Napoleon, defeated a combined 17,500-strong Russo-Prussian force, with 90 cannon, commanded by Prussian Prince Gebhard Leberecht von Blücher, at Brienne (present-day Brienne-le-Château, north-central France). During the heavy fighting, Napoleon was almost taken prisoner by Maj. Gen. Akim Akimovich Karpov's Cossacks. The battle ended about midnight when the allies retreated. Blücher left behind some 4,000 casualties to France's 3,000.

Maj. Gen. Akim Akimovich Karpov. Gen. Karpov commanded a composite unit consisted of 8 and later of 10 Don cossack regiments

1829: During the Greek War of Independence, the Battle of Martino occurs. A 3,500-strong Ottoman force under Mahmut Pasha, engaged the Greek VI Chiliarchy (an irregular band of roughly 1,000), under Chiliarch (commander of chiliarchy) Mavrovuniótes Vassos, at Martino, a village in eastern Locris, near the ancient Opuntian town of Vumelitæa. The Greeks repelled three consecutive Ottoman attacks. The battle ended when Mahmut Pasha retreated to Eubœa, abandoning at least 200 killed and three Ottoman Imperial standards.

Mavrovuniótes Vassos, lit. Montenegrin Vaso, was born Vaso Brajović, in Bjelopavlići, Montenegro. He arrived in Greece in 1821 and fought for her freedom. He is admired by the Greek people as one of the leading figures of the Cause

1856: Queen Victoria institutes the Victoria Cross.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-kYKR7vXnyM
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1940: During the Winter War, the Battle of Kuhmo opens. Col. Hjalmar Fridolf Siilasvuo's Finnish 9th Infantry Division, launches an attack with the aim of destroying the Soviet 54th Rifle Division (12,800 troops with 120 arty pieces and 35 tanks under Maj. Gen. Gusevski) near the town of Kuhmo in the Kainuu region. Using the tactic of encircling (called motitus by the Finns), the men of the 9th Division, succeded in cutting the Soviet division into three motti (enveloped isolated block). The Soviets however, were led by a competent commander, who having experienced the bitter consequences of the Finnish tactic, organised his defence better. The 54th, though trapped in motti and suffered stiff casualties, was supplied sufficiently by the Soviet Air Force, survived the war and avoided the fate that befell other Soviet divisions trapped in motti.


1941: During the Greco-Italian War, the 20-day Battle of Mal Trebeshinë (Battle of Trebeshina in Hellenic Army nomenclature) opens. The four Italian infantry divisions and one blackshirt division of the XXV. Corpo d' Armata (25th Army Corps) (Gen. Carlo Rossi), are thrown into battle without the slightest consideration of casualties, or the bitter, extremely cold winter conditions, in order to intercept the Greek advance to Tepelenë, by taking the 26-km (16-mile) long Trebeshinë mountain complex and more specifically its crucial strategic Heights, 1285, 1620, 1733 (the homonymous peak Trebeshinë) and 1923. The three divisions of the Greek B' Army Corps (Lt. Gen. Georgios Bakos) plus the 14th Regiment (Col. Nicholas Spendos) from the V Cretan Division (Maj. Gen. Georgios Papastergiu) - 10 regiments in all - are ordered to check the Italian advance. The battle will conclude on 17 February when all Italian efforts foiled. Italians losses in the battle were at least 7,000 killed and wounded. The Greeks suffered 3,500 casualties.

2nd Lt. (Reservist) Hesiod Tsingos. As Officer Commanding (OC) the 11th Coy of 14th Rgt of the V Cretan Division, received the Greek Cross of Valour in Gold, for the capture of Height 1923 on the night of 29 January

1941: During the Greco-Italian War, Greek Premier, General Ioannes Metaxás dies, age 71. He is succeeded by the governor of the Bank of Greece, Alexandros Koryzís.

A handwritten note by Premier Metaxás, as it appears in his personal diary; it reads: "We shall prevail! But for Greeks, more precious than victory, is Glory! 28 October 1940 Metaxás"

1943: During the Guadalcanal Campaign, the two-day Naval Battle of Rennell Island, the last major naval engagement between the United States Navy and the Imperial Japanese Navy during the lengthy Guadalcanal campaign, begins. A USN Task Force (TF 18), comprised 3 heavy cruisers, 3 light cruisers, 2 escort carriers and 8 destroyers, under Rear-Admiral Robert Carlisle Giffen, were attacked by 31 Japanese torpedo bombers, took off from Rabaul. Heavy cruiser, USS "Chicago" (CA-29), suffered two hits on the first day, that caused severe flooding and loss of power. During the afternoon of 30 January, the Japanese attacked again and, despite heavy losses, managed to hit the disabled cruiser with four more torpedoes which sank her. The U.S. suffered one cruiser sank, one destroyer severely damaged in the battle. 85 crewmen killed or drowned. The Japanese lost 12 aircraft destroyed, 60 - 84 killed.

Rear-Admiral Giffen (left)

1944: USS "Missouri" (BB-63), the last Iowa-class battleship, used as a platform for the surrender of the Empire of Japan which ended WWII, is launched.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v5MMVd5XOK8

1944: The Luftwaffe bombs London, while 800 USAAF bombers drop 1,800 tons of bombs on Frankfurt am Main and Ludwigshafen. The RAF hit Berlin for the 14th time. In Bologna, Italy, the Anatomical Theatre of the Archiginnasio (built between 1562 and 1563) is destroyed in an air-raid.


1945: The allied thrust into Rhineland continues, with the capture of Oberhausen, 12 km (7 miles) NE of Duisburg.