ActiveHistory » Anniversaries

300 Years ago today (24th Jan. 1712): Birth of Frederick the Great

Russel Tarr — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 21:38:17 +0000

Frederick II’s first act on assuming the throne of Prussia in 1740 was to take his state to war—a consequence, he later explained, of possessing a well-trained army, a full treasury and a desire to establish a reputation. For the next quarter century he confronted Europe in arms and emerged victorious, but at a price that left his kingdom shaken to its physical and moral core. As many as a quarter million Prussians died in uniform, to say nothing of civilian losses. Provinces were devastated, people scattered, the currency debased. The social contract of the Prussian state—service and loyalty in return for stability and protection—was broken…[more].

---
Related Articles at ActiveHistory:

75 Years Ago Today (23rd Jan. 1937): Second Moscow Show Trial

Russel Tarr — Sun, 22 Jan 2012 21:08:16 +0000

The second Moscow show trial (The Trial of the Seventeen) took place. 17 leading Communists were accused of participating in Trotsky’s plot to overthrow Stalin. 13 of them were sentenced to death. The Moscow Trials were a series of show trials conducted in the Soviet Union and orchestrated by Joseph Stalin during the Great Purge of the 1930s. The victims included most of the surviving Old Bolsheviks, as well as the leadership of the Soviet secret police. After Stalin’s death and Nikita Khrushchev’s revelations in the 1950s, the Moscow Trials are today universally acknowledged as show trials in which the verdicts were predetermined, and then publicly justified through the use of coerced confessions, obtained through torture and threats against the defendants’ families…[more].

---
Related Articles at ActiveHistory:

75 Years Ago Today (19th Jan 1937): Howard Hughes breaks the air record

Russel Tarr — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 21:46:11 +0000

American industrialist, film producer and aviator Howard Hughes broke the U.S. transcontinental air record, flying from Burbank, California to Newark, New Jersey in 7 hours, 28 minutes and 25 seconds. The New York Times report of the event can be found here.

---
Related Articles at ActiveHistory:

100 Years Ago Today (18th Jan. 1912) – Scott reaches the South Pole

Russel Tarr — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 21:43:59 +0000

British explorer Robert Falcon Scott’s expedition reached the South Pole, but discovered that Roald Amundsen’s Norwegian team had beaten them by over a month. In addition to Capt. Scott, Lieut. Bowers, and Dr. Wilson, two others, Capt. Titus Oates and Petty Officer Edgar Evans made the final push to the Pole. Conditions were appalling: temperatures plummeting to minus 45 degrees F., nearly impassable terrain, blinding blizzards, or blinding sunshine. On January 16, nearing their objective, Scott and his team make a disheartening discovery – evidence that the Norwegians have beat them to the Pole. In fact, the Norwegians had arrived four weeks earlier on December 14, 1911. Psychologically numbed by the finding, the team pushes on. We pick up Scott’s journal on the following day… [more].

---
Related Articles at ActiveHistory:

400 Years Ago Today (17th Jan. 1612) – Birth of Thomas Fairfax

Russel Tarr — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 21:01:51 +0000

Birth of Thomas Fairfax, 3rd Baron Fairfax of Cameron, English general, commander of the Parliamentary army during the English Civil War. Known as “Black Tom” for his dark complexion, Sir Thomas gained a reputation as a gallant and courageous commander in the struggle to control Yorkshire — but his fortunes were mixed. In March 1643, the Fairfaxes were routed by Lieutenant-General Goring at the battle of Seacroft Moor near Leeds; then in May, Fairfax took Goring prisoner in a spectacular victory at Wakefield against heavy odds… [more].

---
Related Articles at ActiveHistory:

600 Years Ago Today (6th Jan. 1412) – Birth of Joan of Arc

Russel Tarr — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 21:01:32 +0000

Birth of Joan of Arc, French martyr, saint and national heroine. (This is the date given in a letter from Lord Perceval de Boullainvilliers. Her actual
date of birth is impossible to verify, and she could only estimate her age)

---
Related Articles at ActiveHistory:

100 Years Ago Today (5th January 1912): The Bolshevik Party was Formed

Russel Tarr — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 21:42:02 +0000

Lenin’s Bolshevik faction of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party broke away from the main party and formed what would later become the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. The Bolsheviks were born out of Russia’s Social Democrat Party. When the party split in 1903, the Bolsheviks only had one obvious leader – Lenin.

In the last years of the C19th, the Social Democrats had competed with numerous other ideologies in Russia. Included in these ideologies were the Socialist Revolutionaries and Populists. As with many movements based on pure ideologies, the Social Democrats frequently spent their time arguing about their beliefs and where they should go to further them. The intellectuals in the movement, men such as Plekhanov and Julius Martov, spent their time in debate as opposed to actually getting their beliefs out to the workers and peasants. It was as a result of this that Lenin wrote “What is to be done” in 1902. The work was smuggled into Russia and clearly expressed his views regarding what the Social Democrats should be doing as a party. Lenin attacked party members who “were content to wait while history took its predetermined course.” Rather than wait, Lenin wanted to kick-start the issue he believed in to get things done rather than wait on polemics…[more]

---
Related Articles at ActiveHistory:

10 Years Ago Today (29th Nov 2001): Death of George Harrison

Russel Tarr — Mon, 28 Nov 2011 21:45:40 +0000

Death of George Harrison, British rock guitarist, singer and songwriter
(The Beatles)

---
Related Articles at ActiveHistory:

25 Years Ago Today (29th Nov 1986): Death of Cary Grant

Russel Tarr — Mon, 28 Nov 2011 21:42:54 +0000

Death of Cary Grant, British-born American film actor (‘Bringing Up
Baby’, ‘Gunga Din’, ‘His Girl Friday’, ‘The Philadelphia Story’, ‘To Catch
A Thief’, ‘North by Northwest’, and more)

---
Related Articles at ActiveHistory:

75 Years Ago Today (25th Nov. 1936): Anti-Comintern Pact

Russel Tarr — Thu, 24 Nov 2011 21:39:26 +0000

Germany and Japan signed the Anti-Comintern Pact, an agreement to
collaborate against the threat of Soviet Communism

---
Related Articles at ActiveHistory:

20 years ago today (24th Nov 1991): Death of Freddie Mercury

Russel Tarr — Wed, 23 Nov 2011 21:44:21 +0000

Death of Freddie Mercury, Zanzibar-born British rock singer and
songwriter (Queen)

---
Related Articles at ActiveHistory:

75 Years Ago Today (20th Nov. 1936): Death of Jose Antonio Primo de Rivera

Russel Tarr — Sun, 20 Nov 2011 20:38:20 +0000

Death of Jose Antonio Primo de Rivera, Spanish politician, founder of the
Spanish fascist party, the Falange. (Executed)

---
Related Articles at ActiveHistory:

25 Years Ago Today (8th Nov 1986): Death of Vyacheslav Molotov, Russian statesman and diplomat

Russel Tarr — Mon, 07 Nov 2011 21:41:53 +0000

Death of Vyacheslav Molotov, Russian statesman and diplomat

---
Related Articles at ActiveHistory:

25 Years Ago Today (6th Nov 1986): Alex Ferguson was appointed manager of Manchester United FC

Russel Tarr — Sun, 06 Nov 2011 20:40:55 +0000

Alex Ferguson was appointed manager of Manchester United FC

---
Related Articles at ActiveHistory:

50 Years ago Today (31 Oct 1961) – Stalin’s body removed from Lenin’s Mausoleum

Russel Tarr — Mon, 31 Oct 2011 11:23:41 +0000

De-Stalinisation: former Soviet leader Joseph Stalin’s body was removed from Lenin’s mausoleum in Red Square, Moscow and reburied within the Kremlin walls, out of public view.

---
Related Articles at ActiveHistory: