Title: ON THIS DATE | |
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tommytalldog | |
Date Posted:2022-06-06 11:16:50Copy HTML June 6, 1944 D-Day Operation Overlord, the invasion of Normandy by Allied forces. The honor of the opening salvo unleashed upon the German occupiers was given to HMS Belfast. Once the allied troops gained control of the beaches it was all over for the evil Nazis. Facing the Allies in the west & the Russians in the east it was only a matter of time. Live respected, die regretted
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tommytalldog | Share to: #176 |
Re:ON THIS DATE Date Posted:2023-09-24 01:55:50Copy HTML WWI
British troops fired thousands of rounds randomly over German lines. Why you ask? To heat up the water in their machine guns to boil tea.
Four empires vanished after the war. Ottoman, Austro-Hungarian, German, Russian.
New Zealand provided 10% of her population to fight in the conflict. If they had been Canadian troops Art they would have got a container and filled it with sand. Then they would pour some gas in and then light it. My father showed me one day at the old farm so that he could boil water for tea for us both. Do you know how many ships and lives were lost just trying to get that ammo across the North Atlantic and your troops were just wasting it? Hearing this now maybe we shouldn't have bothered. Well tea time is important to the Limeys. Everyone knows that, but Pete makes a point. |
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majorshrapnel | Share to: #177 |
Re:ON THIS DATE Date Posted:2023-09-24 07:23:05Copy HTML Yes, I bet they wasted at least 00000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000.1% of the ammunition used in the war. |
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tommytalldog | Share to: #178 |
Re:ON THIS DATE Date Posted:2023-09-25 02:43:23Copy HTML 1728
Island of Hispaniola was being colonized by two European powers, France & Spain. On the above mentioned date there is a battle for control with the Spanish winning at a river. Since then that stream has been known as the Massacre River. |
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MarkUK | Share to: #179 |
Re:ON THIS DATE Date Posted:2023-09-25 02:51:49Copy HTML Early Spanish colonizers were especially good at massacres. You're playing chess with Fate and Fate's winning.
Arnold Bennett
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tommytalldog | Share to: #180 |
Re:ON THIS DATE Date Posted:2023-09-25 02:54:21Copy HTML Yes, spreading the word of God with the sword. They were better off dead than a heathen. |
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tommytalldog | Share to: #181 |
Re:ON THIS DATE Date Posted:2023-09-25 05:13:01Copy HTML May 8, 1885
Sarah Ann Henley jumped off the Clifton Suspension Bridge in a suicide attempt. The barmaid from Easton, Bristol was distraught after being jilted in a relationship. She plummeted over 200 feet but the billowing effect of her crinoline skirt & her soft mud landing enabled her to survive. She became a local Bristol legend because of this event & died in 1948 at the age of 85 & is buried at Avon View Cemetery. |
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MarkUK | Share to: #182 |
Re:ON THIS DATE Date Posted:2023-09-25 05:39:06Copy HTML A lot of soft mud to land in, but I wouldn't like to try it out, even in a crinoline. You're playing chess with Fate and Fate's winning.
Arnold Bennett
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tommytalldog | Share to: #183 |
Re:ON THIS DATE Date Posted:2023-09-25 06:46:28Copy HTML A lot of soft mud to land in, but I wouldn't like to try it out, even in a crinoline. Wow, that is one hell of a plunge. |
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tommytalldog | Share to: #184 |
Re:ON THIS DATE Date Posted:2023-09-26 11:58:21Copy HTML 1526
Henry VIII orders first pair of football boots (soccer cleats). Apparently 'ol Henry had time to play football in between beheading his wives. |
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tommytalldog | Share to: #185 |
Re:ON THIS DATE Date Posted:2023-09-26 01:10:13Copy HTML 10,000 Years Ago
Human brains began to shrink. It was thought with the advent of farming & a change of diet could be the reason, but it may be the evolution was the development of complex societies which meant humans could rely on collective intelligence rather than individual knowledge. We have become so social that we don't have to know everything anymore.
But don't worry about your shrinking brain. Size does matter, but it does not reflect smarts. Computers used to be the size of a room & now fit in your pocket. |
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tommytalldog | Share to: #186 |
Re:ON THIS DATE Date Posted:2023-09-26 03:02:17Copy HTML 1850
Different shoes for left & right feet developed. Up until then both shoes were identical. |
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majorshrapnel | Share to: #187 |
Re:ON THIS DATE Date Posted:2023-09-26 04:16:45Copy HTML A lot of soft mud to land in, but I wouldn't like to try it out, even in a crinoline. Wow, that is one hell of a plunge. That bridge was Isambard Kingdom Brunel's first major project. |
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tommytalldog | Share to: #188 |
Re:ON THIS DATE Date Posted:2023-09-26 07:45:30Copy HTML A lot of soft mud to land in, but I wouldn't like to try it out, even in a crinoline. Wow, that is one hell of a plunge. That bridge was Isambard Kingdom Brunel's first major project. That is a curious name. |
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majorshrapnel | Share to: #189 |
Re:ON THIS DATE Date Posted:2023-09-27 08:01:02Copy HTML A lot of soft mud to land in, but I wouldn't like to try it out, even in a crinoline. Wow, that is one hell of a plunge. That bridge was Isambard Kingdom Brunel's first major project. That is a curious name. His father was French, Marc Isambard Brunel and the Kingdom part was his mother's maiden name (Sophia Kingdom) Isambard is widely regarded as the greatest engineer of all time and if you ever read his CV you'll know why. Although the Clifton suspension bridge was his first major project it just happened to be the widest span one earth at the time and he would go on to have numerous 'firsts.' He did nothing by halves. His father Marc was a refugee from the French revolution, having royalist sympathies he escaped to the US to keep his head on his shoulders. Marc was also a brilliant engineer and became chief engineer of New York city and d'you know, he designed your capitol building but it was eventually rejected on monetary grounds for the White House. He was the man who invented mass production and his employer was none other than the scourge of France, the Royal Navy. The navy used rope and blocks by the hundreds of miles and thousands. Marc had an idea for making blocks in stages using machines and mass production was born. He contributed handsomely to the defeat of his patriots. Amongst his other inventions were machines for mass producing boots, knitting machines and even printing. Many however think that his invention of the tunnelling shield was his greatest. It was a round frame that was sectioned to carry tunnellers, navvies who dug their own sections out and when all had been dug, they mover the shield forward and started again. It is still the method used to this day. Comically, despite all of this he found himself in debt and embarrassingly ended up in debter's prison. He was released when he announced he was going to emigrate to Russia and work for the Czar. The British government shat themselves at the news and paid off his debt but he had to sign up to Britain for life. So you see, Isambard had BIG boots to fill but he is the one everybody knows and poor ol' Marc is fairly unknown. |
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majorshrapnel | Share to: #190 |
Re:ON THIS DATE Date Posted:2023-09-27 08:18:37Copy HTML This is probably the most iconic picture of Isambard. Those are Brunel type chains behind him, the word small was not in his dictionary. |
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tommytalldog | Share to: #191 |
Re:ON THIS DATE Date Posted:2023-09-29 01:43:55Copy HTML September 29, 2023
Diane Feinstein, senator from California, dies at age 90. A Liberal bastion in the senate, first elected in 1992, was in city politics of San Francisco before that. |
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tommytalldog | Share to: #192 |
Re:ON THIS DATE Date Posted:2023-09-30 12:37:37Copy HTML December 17, 1939
Admiral Graf Spree scuttled by German crew after being duped by the wily Brits at the Battle of the River Plate on December 13, 1939. One British officer wrote: "Our main armament worked well, our secondary less so." |
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tommytalldog | Share to: #193 |
Re:ON THIS DATE Date Posted:2023-09-30 04:20:02Copy HTML 1700's
Doctors used to blow smoke up patient's rectums in a mistaken belief that would resuscitate them. Hence the term "don't blow smoke up my ass." |
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tommytalldog | Share to: #194 |
Re:ON THIS DATE Date Posted:2023-09-30 04:23:58Copy HTML Ancient Germany
Bowling was invented not as a sport, but as a way to be absolved of sin. Kegels were bowling pins & they represented sin. If you could topple them with a round rock you cleansed you soul. Hence the term "kegler for bowler." |
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tommytalldog | Share to: #195 |
Re:ON THIS DATE Date Posted:2023-09-30 04:38:53Copy HTML July 1776
American Patriots in Philadelphia formally declared America's independence from the British crown, but they were not speaking for all Americans. Twenty % of all colonials remained loyal to the crown & roughly half a million refused to back the revolution. The largest group were Anglicans who were loyal to the Church of England & considered it blasphemy to raise arms against their country, King George, & their church. Most were in the southern colonies & of high status. Plantation owners had little reason to join a revolution & when the tide turned many fled to Canada. In 1784, the British government created a fund to compensate loyalists who lost everything in their service to Great Britain as a result of the war. Though 3,000 claims were filed, just over 300 were honored. |
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MarkUK | Share to: #196 |
Re:ON THIS DATE Date Posted:2023-09-30 08:30:39Copy HTML Is this taught in US schools? I suspect not. You're playing chess with Fate and Fate's winning.
Arnold Bennett
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tommytalldog | Share to: #197 |
Re:ON THIS DATE Date Posted:2023-09-30 09:50:30Copy HTML No, add some 6,000 loyalists actually immigrated to GB & were treated with some disdain. Mostly because they lost & GB was not used to that sort of thing. |
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MarkUK | Share to: #198 |
Re:ON THIS DATE Date Posted:2023-10-01 07:26:00Copy HTML Ancient Germany
Bowling was invented not as a sport, but as a way to be absolved of sin. Kegels were bowling pins & they represented sin. If you could topple them with a round rock you cleansed you soul. Hence the term "kegler for bowler." A phrase we're unfamiliar with over here. |
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majorshrapnel | Share to: #199 |
Re:ON THIS DATE Date Posted:2023-10-01 12:49:45Copy HTML In 1974 the first McDonalds was opened in Britain |
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tommytalldog | Share to: #200 |
Re:ON THIS DATE Date Posted:2023-10-01 01:32:02Copy HTML Currently the London Games are going on. That's American football with large Negroes crashing into each other. The games are well attended with the local Limeys thrilled with the action. Perhaps one of the darkies will marry into the royal family..........................hey it has happened before! Both national anthems were sung with an outstanding crowd participation in "God Save the King." |