On This Day In History

[Gawdzilla Sama]

94 years ago, Al Capone celebrated Saint Valentines day in his own sweet way.

With Guns And Roses?

[Fireball]

42 years ago my wife and I got married.

[Thumpalumpacus]

42 years ago my wife and I got married.

Happy anniversary, brotha.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

42 years ago my wife and I got married.

I got married on Valentine's Day back in 2002. That was my third wife.

[Deesse23]

Launch of the Bismarck. Because nothing says "I love you" with fewer words than "8x38cm"

.... And it WAS 38cm, no exaggerating

[Thumpalumpacus]

Launch of the Bismarck. Because nothing says "I love you" with fewer words than "8x38cm"

.... And it WAS 38cm, no exaggerating  

Rodney sends a 16" kiss.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

Launch of the Bismarck. Because nothing says "I love you" with fewer words than "8x38cm"

.... And it WAS 38cm, no exaggerating  

"With shells as big as trees and guns a big as steers."

[Deesse23]

Launch of the Bismarck. Because nothing says "I love you" with fewer words than "8x38cm"

.... And it WAS 38cm, no exaggerating  

Rodney sends a 16" kiss.  

Surely size matters, but so does..........fire control

[Thumpalumpacus]

Rodney sends a 16" kiss.  

Surely size matters, but so does..........fire control  

True enough, though it didn't take long for the two to be in kissing range.

Anyone interested should check out Drach's video on Bismarck's first and last mission. He does go into the wrecking of Bismarck's fire control:

[Cavebear]

42 years ago my wife and I got married.

Congrats!  Good way to remember your anniversary...  My parents got married 12-26 and Mom always complained she only got one gift to celebrate both days (though they were sometimes spectacular). Dad said he could remember "the day after Christmas".

On the other hand, my first girlfriend broke up with me on Valentines Day.  She was right to do so (me atheist, she very catholic), but it still hurts.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

On the other hand, my first girlfriend broke up with me on Valentines Day.  She was right to do so (me atheist, she very catholic), but it still hurts.

The County Clerk came into her office to marry me and Brenda on Valentine's Day. She said that was the twelfth straight year. Appreciated having the whole world help me remember my anniversary.

[jerry mcmasters]

Arranging to have your anniversary on a holiday is genius, I wish I had thought of that. My anniversary is on...well, something.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

Did that twice. Both women have since died. YMMV

[jerry mcmasters]

Did that twice. Both women have since died. YMMV

That's one way to get out of buying flowers.

[Cavebear]

Arranging to have your anniversary on a holiday is genius, I wish I had thought of that.  My anniversary is on...well, something.

Yeah, good luck on something like March 23rd or August 17th!

I think we guys are not good at remembering days. Seriously (and this is sad), I saw the Sept 11 2001 disaster and searched for a way to remeber the date. It took a full day to think "911"!

Serious questions my first girlfriend asked 2 years later:

1. What day of the week did we first kiss?
2. What was she wearing that night?
3. Was her hair up or down that time.

She remembered that stuff! I don't bother to remember what I had for lunch yesterday. That isn't why I am still single, but it might be a part. She had dozens of stuffed animals and she knew all their names, I have trouble with 4 cats~

[Gawdzilla Sama]

I got one of them Eidotic memories.

[abaris]

Exactly 80 years ago, the members of resistance group "Weiße Rose" were arrested. Four days later, they were killed under the guillotine. Their crime, they produced flyers against the regime. Detailing all the crimes, they were aware of.



Hans and sister Sophie Scholl with their friend Alexander Schmorrel. All were executed.

[abaris]

90 years ago, this very day saw the end of democracy in the first Austrian republic. There was a railroad strike in progress and while parliament debated about it, all three presidents of the house resigned, since the plenum was deeply divided over the results of certain polls.

This in itself could have been easily remedied by the representatives electing new presidents. But the conservative chancellor Dollfuß ordered police to keep the representatives from reassembling and declared that parliament had disbanded itself. A lie, which would have called for new elections under normal circumstances, but Dollfuß used it to establish his clero-fascist regime.



As an aside, only one day later, on march 5th, Germany held it's last, already rigged elections, that provided Hitler with nearly absolute power.

[Minimalist]

March 15, 44 BCE - The Ides of March

Gaius Julius Caesar assassinated by a conspiracy of over-entitled rich assholes who thought they could stop the popular movement which Caesar led.  It resulted in another bloody civil war which left most of them dead and Caesar's heir, Octavian ( later Augustus) as princeps. 

An early example of political violence backfiring.

[Deesse23]

1945: The mightiest Battleship of them all, is no more.

[Thumpalumpacus]

1945: The mightiest Battleship of them all, is no more.

"Don't bring a knife to a gunfight." -- or a baseball bat, for that matter. When your enemy can hit at two hundred miles, you'd better be able to do so as well. The death-knell of the battleship.

[Cavebear]

1945: The mightiest Battleship of them all, is no more.

"Don't bring a knife to a gunfight." -- or a baseball bat, for that matter. When your enemy can hit at two hundred miles, you'd better be able to do so as well. The death-knell of the battleship.

And don't bring just one big guy to fight a gang.

The Yamoto was deadlier.  But still, on April 7, 1945, the Japanese battleship Yamato, one of the greatest battleships of its time, is sunk in Japan’s first major counteroffensive in the struggle for Okinawa.

Weighing 72,800 tons and outfitted with nine 18.1-inch guns, the battleship Yamato was Japan’s only hope of destroying the Allied fleet off the coast of Okinawa. But insufficient air cover and fuel cursed the endeavor as a suicide mission. Struck by 19 American aerial torpedoes, it was sunk, drowning 2,498 of its crew.

I think the real lesson of both was that a single target can always be destroyed.  When you launch something saying "I dare you" someone will dare. And figure out a way...  Who would have thought that bouncing barrel bombs would have destroyed dams in WWII before it was tried?

The next war will be among 100,000+ minor weapons with AI.

[Thumpalumpacus]

And don't bring just one big guy to fight a gang.  

Well, they didn't have any choice -- they didn't have the fuel to send more than Yamato and her escorts. But even had they had all their surviving battleships on Operation Ten-Go, without air cover they are merely targets for the air groups. And Yamato had very little air cover just for herself.

[abaris]

Far as I remember, the whole mission was designed as a grand Kamikaze attack. Do as much damage as possible and don't expect to come home.

[Thumpalumpacus]

Far as I remember, the whole mission was designed as a grand Kamikaze attack. Do as much damage as possible and don't expect to come home.

Exactly, the plan was to ground the ship on Okinawa's north shore and use her guns for fire-support until she was destroyed. The Yamato set sail without enough fuel to make a full round-trip.