#Duchy of Lorraine flag

[wallpapers4screen]

[brookstonalmanac]

Events 8.16 (before 1920)

1 BC – Wang Mang consolidates his power in China and is declared marshal of state. Emperor Ai of Han, who died the previous day, had no heirs. 942 – Start of the four-day Battle of al-Mada'in, between the Hamdanids of Mosul and the Baridis of Basra over control of the Abbasid capital, Baghdad. 963 – Nikephoros II Phokas is crowned emperor of the Byzantine Empire. 1328 – The House of Gonzaga seizes power in the Duchy of Mantua, and will rule until 1708. 1513 – Battle of the Spurs (Battle of Guinegate): King Henry VIII of England and his Imperial allies defeat French Forces who are then forced to retreat. 1570 – The Principality of Transylvania is established after John II Zápolya renounces his claim as King of Hungary in the Treaty of Speyer. 1652 – Battle of Plymouth: Inconclusive naval action between the fleets of Michiel de Ruyter and George Ayscue in the First Anglo-Dutch War. 1777 – American Revolutionary War: The Americans led by General John Stark rout British and Brunswick troops under Friedrich Baum at the Battle of Bennington in Walloomsac, New York. 1780 – American Revolutionary War: Battle of Camden: The British defeat the Americans near Camden, South Carolina. 1792 – Maximilien de Robespierre presents the petition of the Commune of Paris to the Legislative Assembly, which demanded the formation of a revolutionary tribunal. 1793 – French Revolution: A levée en masse is decreed by the National Convention. 1812 – War of 1812: American General William Hull surrenders Fort Detroit without a fight to the British Army. 1819 – Peterloo Massacre: Seventeen people die and over 600 are injured in cavalry charges at a public meeting at St. Peter's Field, Manchester, England. 1841 – U.S. President John Tyler vetoes a bill which called for the re-establishment of the Second Bank of the United States. Enraged Whig Party members riot outside the White House in the most violent demonstration on White House grounds in U.S. history. 1844 – Governor-general of the Philippines Narciso Claveria, signs a decree to reform the country's calendar by skipping Tuesday, December 31, as a solution to anomalies that had existed since 1844. 1858 – U.S. President James Buchanan inaugurates the new transatlantic telegraph cable by exchanging greetings with Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom. However, a weak signal forces a shutdown of the service in a few weeks. 1859 – The Grand Duchy of Tuscany formally deposes the exiled House of Lorraine. 1863 – The Dominican Restoration War begins when Gregorio Luperón raises the Dominican flag in Santo Domingo after Spain had recolonized the country. 1869 – Battle of Acosta Ñu: A Paraguayan battalion largely made up of children is massacred by the Brazilian Army during the Paraguayan War. 1870 – Franco-Prussian War: The Battle of Mars-la-Tour is fought, resulting in a Prussian victory. 1876 – Richard Wagner's Siegfried, the penultimate opera in his Ring cycle, is premiered at the Bayreuth Festspielhaus. 1891 – The Basilica of San Sebastian, Manila, the first all-steel church in Asia, is officially inaugurated and blessed. 1896 – Skookum Jim Mason, George Carmack and Dawson Charlie discover gold in a tributary of the Klondike River in Canada, setting off the Klondike Gold Rush. 1900 – The Battle of Elands River during the Second Boer War ends after a 13-day siege is lifted by the British. The battle had begun when a force of between 2,000 and 3,000 Boers had surrounded a force of 500 Australians, Rhodesians, Canadians and British soldiers at a supply dump at Brakfontein Drift. 1906 – The 8.2 Mw Valparaíso earthquake hits central Chile, killing 3,882 people. 1913 – Tōhoku Imperial University of Japan (modern day Tohoku University) becomes the first university in Japan to admit female students. 1913 – Completion of the Royal Navy battlecruiser HMS Queen Mary. 1916 – The Migratory Bird Treaty between Canada and the United States is signed. 1918 – The Battle of Lake Baikal was fought between the Czechoslovak Legion and the Red Army.

[whatthecrowtold]

#unhallowedarts The Tale Of Lohengrin, Wagner and the Golden Age of Illustration

“Aye , quick it is with the seeds of

change

With blessing and with bane.

But I deem it a thousand years shall run

Or ever beneath the open sun Thy voice shall sound again”

(T.W. Rolleston)

It was a knight in shining armour all right, albeit not white-steeded but pulled up the river Scheldt by a white swan, to save Elsa, ubiquitous damsel in distress, from dark Count Telramund’s cabal to usurp the Duchy of Brabant. In trial by combat, goes without saying, as it was the custom back in the days of King Henry the Fowler, which were at the turn of the 10th century when the place was part of the East-Frankish kingdom of Austrasia. Or so Richard Wagner would have it in his usually somewhat giddy take on Medieval epics and historical events. The valiant’s name, however, was Lohengrin, the one from Lothringen, Lorraine, obfuscating the man’s true origins: Lohengrin hailed from the grail castle Monsalvat, Wagner’s scene for “Parsifal” thirty years after “Lohengrin” premiered in Weimar in 1850.

Lohengrin’s mystical provenance is one of the arch-Romantic opera’s central motifs and, of course, the Germans have a word for it, “Frageverbot”, the forbidden question after the man’s origins, checking at least two of the “tall, dark, stranger” three boxes. Lohengrin is a luminous figure, but a rather sad one and the story ends in tears when the hero sails, swan-propelled, into the sunset after his work is done. Bitter, but Wagner and the zeitgeist wouldn’t have it any other way.

The tale of Lohengrin itself hails back to the High Middle Ages, honourably mentioned by Wolfram von Eschenbach in the early 13th century as Garin le Loherain in the minnesinger's “Parsifal”, gets two own contemporary verse epics and several variants of the swan knight theme over the next centuries until Wagner collected them all and crammed the rich material into his three hour opera, along with heroics from antiquity, elements that were perceived as Germanic paganism in the rather clouded view of the 19th century on Iron Age customs and beliefs and politics of Wagner’s own day when the Germans fought for their national unity. Along with romanticised Christian mysticism. Lohengrin is a grail knight, after all. And they do get properly married, Elsa and Lohengrin, to the sounds of “Here Comes the Bride”, no less, faithfully guided, “Treulich geführt” in Wagner’s original German from the opera’s libretto, a tune heard at the fabled joyous event across the globe ever since a Prussian royal wedding in 1858.

Wirkmächtig, efficacious, and if only for said tune, even if the topic borrowed from the old tale of Zeus and Semele, the metaphysic being hiding its true identity because the partner-to-be, as the saying goes, “can’t handle the truth” should raise every imaginable red flag, Romantic mystery or not. Even if Lohengrin reveals his true identity in the end, before his picturesque exeunt when the king calls to arms to make war against the pagan marauding Hungarians down South.

On that note, it is not without irony that Willy Pogany, born in 1882 in the back-then Austro-Hungarian city of Szeged, illustrated the tale of Wagner’s “Lohengrin” for Rolleston’s retelling with rich imagery that equals that of the better known Arthur Rackham’s of the “Ring” trilogy published around the same time. Pogany’s “Lohengrin” hit the booksellers’ shelves in 1911, along with “Parsifal” and “Tannhäuser”, when precious “gift books”, illuminated by the luminaries of the Golden Age of Illustration, were still all the rage as Christmas presents in a time when “education” was a hallmark of what passed as “better classes” back in the day.

Pogany, pronounced PO-gahn, immigrated to the US before the Great War turned the world upside down in Europe, after getting properly married in London, revealing his true identity from the very beginning, goes without saying. He continued to illustrate mainly children’s books and stuck to his Art Nouveau-influenced style that sometimes reminds of Edmund Dulac, albeit with stronger lines and expressions than the Anglo-French better-known master would come up with in his dreamy takes on often the same themes as Pogany took on.

T.W. Rolleston retelling of Wagner's "Lohengrin" along with all of Willy Pogany's enchanting (and often quite dark) illustrations can be cherished following the link to a facsimile below:

[sane-human]

so it was called "the holy roman empire" because the papal states holified it, despite being made up of, you know, several Germanic kingdoms barely connecting each other?.

Yup! The Holy Roman Empire , not Holy , not Roman and not really an Empire XD

I personally see them as like a monster of Frankenstein kinda Empire! With the main five ducats , them being the Duchy of Lorraine, Duchy of Saxony, Duchy of Bavaria, Duchy of Bohemia and Duchy of Swabia , like pieces of these ducats sewn together! (But I also added some more to the design from the coats of arms in the eagle of the flag) +the eye of the western Roman Empire

[awallofswords]

Magnificent and important Sabre of Leopold II of Habsburg-Lorraine, Grand Duke of Tuscany (1824-1859).

Iron hilt with gilt rosettes and the crowned cipher "L II" of Grand Duke Leopold II of Tuscany.

The grip of cut black ebony panels. The pommel, grip finish, and the guard of the quillons gilded.

Truly magnificent edged blade with polychrome blued and richly gilded decorative etching on both sides depicting trophies of arms, flags, crossed rifles, and rich arabesque decoration.

Iron scabbard with gilt fittings with sun symbols and the gilt inscription: "Firenze 18 Giugno 1844". On two suspension rings. Total length: 98.5 cm.

Leopold was born the second son of Grand Duke Ferdinand III and his first wife Luisa Maria of Naples-Sicily in Florence, Palazzo Pitti. Married to Princess Maria Anna of Saxony since 1817, he succeeded his late father in government on 18 June 1824. After the death of his beloved first wife Maria Anna, the Grand Duke married Princess Maria Antonia of Naples-Sicily on 7 June 1833. Maria Antonia bore ten children within eighteen years, six of whom reached adulthood, two daughters and four sons. The revolutions of 1847/1848 in the context of the Risorgimento moved him to issue a constitution on 15 February 1848. However, it was not sufficient for the radical forces in the population, who wanted to completely eliminate Austrian rule. Leopold II then left the country in February 1849 and a provisional republican government was formed, which briefly allied itself with the revolutionary Roman Republic that had existed in the Papal States for about five months at the same time. Already in April, the attempt at a republican democracy in Tuscany was crushed by a counter-revolution initiated by Austrian troops and the Grand Duke was able to return. In April 1859, a popular uprising tried to force him to join the Kingdom of Sardinia-Piedmont in the Sardinian War against Austria. As Leopold II had pledged neutrality towards Austria, he left Tuscany with his family on 27 April and abdicated on 21 July 1859 in favour of his son Ferdinand IV from his second marriage. However, Ferdinand no longer ruled the Grand Duchy, as Tuscany joined the Kingdom of Sardinia after a referendum in 1860, thus ending the rule of the House of Habsburg-Lorraine-Tuscany

Source: The Sale Room

[enbies-and-felonies]

Hi! Infodump? Infodump

alsoooo this is what I remember from hours of documentaries and wikipedia that may not necessarily be remembered correctly and w/ minimal wikipedia fact checking lol

The old Prussians were a bunch of baltic people who lived around where Kaliningrad is today. after the crusades in the Middle East, European christian leaders wanted to get rid of the last pagans in Europe 😬 and promised the same rewards for driving out the pagans in the area as the crusades in the Middle East, incentivizing crusading orders to begin the northern crusades in the area (which also included Lithuania.)

the Teutonic Knights, who were from germany (hence "teutonic") converted or killed/drove out the pagans from the area, and started a huge migration of German people to the area. they also tried to convert Lithuanians, but they failed. the Lithuanians later converted to christianity anyway when they joined with Poland to create the polish-lithuanian commonwealth.

after setting up a government there, there was not much left to do, as far as crusading went, and they chafed a lot with the christian neighboring countries as well. at the battle of grunwald (1410) they were defeated by the polish-lithuanian commonwealth and reduced to the duchy of prussia, under polish rule.

then, Albert, the elector of Brandenburg, (1490-1568) an electorate in the Holy Roman Empire (800-1806, could be called the predecessor of Germany, a precarious collection of >1000 germanic countries that was more of an alliance than an actual country, "the Holy Roman Empire is neither holy, nor roman, nor an empire" -voltaire) also became ruler/grand master of prussia/the teutonic order (though prussia itself was not a part of the hre, and a fiefdom of Poland).

he passed down the title to Frederick William the Great Elector (1620-1688), who seized a chance in the 30 years war to ally with Sweden against Poland and force Poland to let prussia go. voila, the kingdom of prussia-brandenburg. however, he was not allowed to call himself king because a) Poland kept a small chunk of prussia for themselves, so the king of Poland also had the right to call himself king of prussia, and b) Brandenburg was still a part of the hre, which already had an emperor, and they didn't like having another guy in the hre call himself king.

(also these guys were all hohenzollerns)

okay! so his son Frederick I inherited Brandenburg- prussia, then his son Frederick I (not a typo, they were both Frederick I), then Frederick William I, also called the "soldier king." he put a great focus on military, but funnily enough, while his son Frederick II is known as the promoter of the arts who turned prussia from a backwater country into a European superpower, Frederick II entered a lot more wars than his "soldier king" father ever did. Frederick William I was also known for 'the Potsdam giants," his army of carefully selected soldiers who were all over 6 ft. also, Frederick William I was a terrible, strict father who was so bad that Frederick II tried to escape with his gay lover. Frederick William I was... not happy.

Frederick II was also known for being short, making his coffee with champagne and mustard, playing the flute, being even more misogynistic than other European rulers at the time, and tricking germans into liking potatoes (which grew well in German soil) so that they wouldn't have to rely on other countries for crops.

okay so Frederick II is also called Frederick the great (or große, which sounds like "gross" lol) completely reformed prussia, and also engaged with a lot of wars (that he won) with his military genius (cough cough using the fantastic military he inherited from his father cough). notable wars include the war of Austrian succession, in which he contested the legitimacy of Maria Theresa's succession to her father's throne (which was sort of an excuse to stole the fertile land of Silesia from Austria), and the 7 years war, the world war before the world wars, which was started again over Silesia.

prussia really rocketed to the European stage during the 7 years war, when it was surrounded by extremely powerful enemies (the French, Austrians, and Russians) on all sides, and was forced to do most land fighting by her own because her ally Britain was a) focusing on fighting France on the American stage, b) focusing on naval battle, and c) did not have the resources for huge land army. Britain mostly helped financially (on the European front, at least). prussia was losing terribly, but after a series of miracles, including russia withdrawing because the queen died and her nephew (I think?) who succeeded her loved prussia ("I'd rather be a Prussian soldier than a Russian czar," or something like that) and the Austrian generals being too careful and not seizing chances like prussia did. the fact that prussia managed to come out on top (even though they failed miserably in the beginning) was huge, and would continue to put them at odds with austria in the years following.

prussia also participated in the first partition of Poland w/ russia & austria. Poland should have dissolved prussia when they had the chance when they defeated the Teutonic Knights back in the battle of grunwald. :/

because Frederick II never had children with his wife (I wonder why) his nephew Frederick William II succeeded him, followed by Frederick William III, Frederick William IV, followed by William I.

(if you ever need to guess a Prussian monarch's name, guess frederick, William, or Frederick William)

William I bullied other northern German states like Saxony and Hesse into the northern German confederation, which was set up very soon after the seven weeks war with austria, in which prussia and austria fought to be the dominant power in the German confederation, a group of German countries that followed the dissolution of the fragile hre after the napoleonic wars.

(fun fact about the napzoelanic wars- Frederick William III, who was king of prussia during the Napoleonic wars and got his ass kicked, was incredibly indecisive and rather useless. his wife, queen Louise, became involved in politics and was very well-liked by the people.)

prussia won the seven weeks war, and thus was created the northern German confederation. in 1870, after the franco-prussian war broke out (in which Otto von Bismark, who knew the power of media, cleverly made it seem that France had been the aggressor), the southern German states joined the northern German confederation against France, laying siege to Paris. this sort of set up the stage for ww1 Franco-german aggression, in which France tried to take back the alsace-lorraine region prussia had stolen.

so! the southern German states joined the northern German confederation and officially became the German empire, and William I became Kaiser William I. prussia was the dominant force within the German government.

however, following Germany's defeat in ww1 and kaiser William II's (kaiser William I's grandson) abdication, prussia was reduced to the free state of prussia. while it still existed, all its power was sucked out. however, prussia was, compared to the rest of germany, much more economically stable during the disaster that was the Weimar Republic.

during n*zi germany, h*tler looked up to Frederick the great (who had nothing to do with nazism, and brandenburg-prussia had been known for receiving religious refugees), and the legacy of Prussian militarism, tarnishing the legacy of both. after ww2, the allies officially dissolved prussia because they wanted to remake germany during occupation, and they believed prussia would be an enduring symbol of aggression and militarism. (which, to be is fair, is its legacy- Bismarck himself described prussia as "not a nation with an army, but an army with a nation). Prussia was split into different German states, and east prussia became Kaliningrad, which was given to russia, and exists as an exclave today. while other germanic countries that existed alongside prussia like Bavaria and Saxony still exist as current-day states in germany, prussia does not.

Prussia's flag is also very cool- white, with black horizontal stripes at the top and bottom and a black eagle.

uh yeah! also look up the prussia meander kokoshnik- it's really cool. it was a wedding gift for duchess Cecile when she married kaiser William II.

bro,,,,,,,,,,, this was so fucking cool and when i asked for infodumps you DELIVERED /positive!!!!!

thank you!! this was really interesting and i loved it!!!! /gen

[highsocietyhq]

☾ ° › TO EXACT REVENGE 

Small incidents were happening all over the world. It was a small wonder considering the unbearable political atmosphere. Information leakages were plaguing Russia. First the incidents were small, insignificant so to say, but gradually they grew bigger and more extensive. At first, Russia directed its attention to Iceland, a country that had a history with espionage, but as they dug around they realized the country wasn’t the culprit. However, Russia discovered something else: the king of Iceland was dying. His health having deteriorated over the past few months. Once Russia found out about it, the whole world did. The secret was out and Alacrity did not appreciate the way they had been kept in the dark. Russia couldn’t care less though: they had not found the answer they had been looking for. South Korea came to their aid, hoping the joined effort would result in a victory of one sorts. 

☾ ° › FOR YOURSELF OR FOR YOUR FRIENDS

France’s need for money had raised several questions but only a selected few had known whole the truth. Some answers were given in June. At the end of the month, French troops began marching to the north-eastern border of the country. The move was done quickly, efficiently and without a warning whatsoever. The duchy of Lorraine was swarming with soldiers bearing the French flag. As the news reached Belgium and Germany, the countries began moving their own military as well --- but it was all too late to prevent what had been planned. By the time Equanimity forces were somewhat prepared, France had invaded Luxembourg. 

☾ ° › IS NOT ONLY A RIGHT

Finland had lost --- that much had been clear the past months. All invaders had been driven away from Russia months ago, and everyone had been waiting for the negotiations to result in a peace treaty. Expectations aren’t always met. By the time the news reached the southern capital, Russian troops had advanced from the north, through the duchy of Lapland, and were advancing towards the south.  More Russian soldiers came from the east from Karelia. Not only was the Finnish army terribly unprepared, they lacked the resources to fight on two fronts. Within a week the Russian forces had overtaken Helsinki, and seized power. The parliament building and the royal palace were occupied with Russians.

☾ ° › IT IS AN ABSOLUTE DUTY

Despite the controversial reputation that Alacrity held, they had one thing to offer that the other alliances did not have: independence from other members. France did as it pleased --- but no one else was dragged into the fight. No one else paid for the country’s decisions. Portugal had acted on its own --- and they had dealt with the situation mainly on their own. Confluence and Equanimity had more restricting dynamics, which was why Sweden chose to leave Equanimity for Alacrity. Alacrity, indeed, was a slightly different alliance: fighting within was not impossible at all. Tensions were rising between England and Ireland over Northern Ireland. Both governments were suspicious of the other’s actions and no amount of negotiating could have saved the situation. The atmosphere resulted in minor attacks on both sides of the border. 

[andyhre]

Chapters 2-4

Chapter 2: Bored

Bohemond of Otranto was bored.  Bored of Otranto itself, of Norman Italy and the success of his late father's schemes for piecing together a duchy out of the petty principalities and exarchates in the toe and heel of Italy, much like his Uncle Roger had also done in Sicily, but mostly he was bored with the day-to-day business of being the disinherited son of a great man.  His younger half-brother had cheated him out of inheriting the Duchy of his famous father, Robert de Hauteville, whom everyone had called Guiscard -- "the wily one" in the French of his family's native Normandy.  If he were to rise to greatness, it would be through conquest of his own kingdom, much as Normans had been doing in the Mediterranean for the last 50 years.  But while Bohemond was stronger that Duke Robert Guiscard, he lacked the cunning that had taken Roger and Robert from younger sons of a nothing nobleman to the Count of Sicily and the Duke of Apulia and Calabria in the course of their lifetimes.  The problem for Bohemond was how to top their success, and it was a problem he could not solve.

 If only Bohemond had been born a generation earlier. His father and uncle had been destined for obscurity, the sixth and twelfth sons of a second marriage of a minor noble. But almost all of the Hauteville brothers had followed their centuries-old Viking roots, and taken to raiding, traveling to Italy to make their names and scrabble titles and lands to rule. Guiscard had been the most successful, but his even his much younger brother Roger had gotten the prosperous island of Sicily as a virtual kingdom.  If Bohemond had been born of that generation, then he could have used his ambition and strength to find himself a principality of some sort.  Instead, all of the petty princelings had been gobbled up by his elders and he was left to serve his younger brother, also called Roger, who’d usurped his rightful place in his father’s legacy.

 The Roman Empire had still controlled bits and pieces of southern Italy when the Hauteville clan arrived before Bohemond had been born.  With his father, he’d crossed the Adriatic and attempted to march on the Roman capital in Constantinople.  It always puzzled Bohemond why the Romans spoke Greek and why they did not rule the dusty, priest-ridden city of Rome to the north of his father's duchy, ruled by the Pope.  But that did not deter him from his efforts to conquer it.  He was made to conquer.  But to rule?  He'd not yet had the chance and things did not look good.  He'd led armies for his father in campaigns against the Empire, but they had all failed, and Bohemond, while noble in his efforts to make the best of a botched adventure, had come away with nothing.  When his father decided he wanted a new wife, he’d taken advantage of the fact that Bohemond’s mother was his too-close cousin, and thus Bohemond became a sort-of bastard, losing his patrimony to the children of his father’s second wife.

 So his chance at inheritance was gone.  And also gone were the days of a quick assault of a decrepit Roman fortress in Calabria or Apulia -- if he wanted his own County or Duchy, he would need to gather troops and try again to carve something out of the body of the Empire in the Balkans or the Peloponnesus.  And the Emperor of the Romans, Alexis Comnenus, knew the Hauteville family from their earlier attempts, and was wary.   So it was nothing doing there, at least not for now.

 So Bohemond was just bored.

 He'd even been given a boring name.  Not Bohemond, that was his middle name, one he'd chosen to emphasize to focus on a life of adventure.   His real name was Mark.  Who ever heard of King Mark?  No one would respect Duke Mark.  Mark, at best, was a petty knight with a tiny hamlet, Sir Mark of the Cattle-Crossing. Bohemond was a name destined for greatness, but was Bohemond going to find a way to fulfill his destiny?

And so he was stuck in Otranto, staring out at the Ionian Sea, frustrated and bored.  And then a ship came in, bearing the sign of a red cross on a field of white.  It was a new flag, unfamiliar to Bohemond, so he headed down to the docks, hopeful that this would add a little excitement to his otherwise dull, dull life.  What he found changed the world.

Chapter 3: Fat but Unhappy

Raymond of Saint Gilles should have been happy. Here he was, with a young and docile new wife, ruling over his warm, fertile lands of Toulouse and Narbonne. Just two autumns ago, his Uncle William had died and the inheritance had added much of the rich lands Provence to his growing principality spanning much of the Languedoc north of the Pyrenees. For a normal prince of his stature, life was good.

 But Raymond was not normal.  Yes, he had the girth emblematic of his rank, and had fathered children on all three of his wives, but inwardly he longed to make a great religious undertaking, and do Something Really Big for God.  His peers among Europe’s ruling nobility paid passing service to God in their words, and perhaps in their giving to the church.  But Raymond knew most of them were insincere, or at best motivated by fear of eternal damnation.  He, on the other hand, loved God, and as lord over so many souls himself, Raymond longed to do some great deed to prove his devotion to the only Lord he had ever known.  He’d taken a pilgrimage before.  He’d fought the infidel in Spain.  But he’d never found the one great deed worthy of his devotion to Father, Son, and Holy Spirit

 So he was unhappy, despite his wealth, power, and tremendous good fortune.

 Elvira was already pregnant with another child, and indisposed this morning.  Rather than wait for her to emerge from her chambers, Raymond decided to go hawking. With the barest of retinues, he ventured forth from Toulouse and headed north into the countryside.  Coming up the main road from Cahors, he spied riders – one clearly with the Papal crest flying behind him – and when they reached him, he was excited to see he’d been summoned to Clermont, a church city far to the north, to meet with the Pope himself and with Adhemar, the powerful Bishop of Le Puy.  Perhaps this was his moment, his chance to do something truly great for the Lord.  Had the Church chosen him to bring Spain fully back into Christendom?  He longed to find out what his Holiness had planned for him.

 He sent a page back to tell Elvira to pack and meet him start packing, and to meet him in Clermont, several days ride to the north. She would be days in planning, what with her pregnancy and the general difficulty that came with a young Duchess eager to establish herself as worthy of her new titles.  Rather than wait for her, he and the rest of his train went directly north, eager to learn what St. Peter’s successor had in store.

 As they rode off, something strange occurred to Raymond. Suddenly he was happy.

   Chapter 4: The Disinherited Duke It wasn't just.  His uncle Godfrey had chosen him as to be his heir, probably because they shared a name.  And as heir to the title of Duke of Lorraine, that was supposed to make him, well, the Duke of Lorraine, the rich lowlands that stretched from Cologne to the mouth of the Rhine.  He wasn't an oldest son, that was his brother Eustace who had inherited their father's title of Duke of *Upper* Lorraine, but Uncle Godfrey, that old hunchback who couldn't father a child for all the gold in Christendom, had named Godfrey his heir.  And when he died, the King of Germany hd pushed Godfrey aside.  It wasn't just! As he did on most days, Godfrey stewed on this for several hours, ranting about how Henry IV, whom everyone knew would eventually be crowned Holy Roman Emperor , had basically just taken Godfrey's inheritance and given it to Henry's own son Conrad.  Now Godfrey was hardly any better off than his twerp of a little brother, Baldwin.  Henry had left Godfrey nothing but scraps -- the towns of Bouillon and Antwerp, little pinpricks on the map his family had controlled for eons, dating back almost to when Charlemagne had divided the empire and created Lorraine as the middle Kingdom between what was now France and Germany.   Bldwin would snicker now and then, which Godfrey knew was just to get him started again, but sometimes he couldn't help it.  It simply was not just.

In the first few years, Godfrey figured he'd keep pressing Henry for a fairer split of the lands and in the meantime he'd just carve out a bigger kingdom by fighting for it, but when he looked at the family map, he realized King Henry had chosen shrewdly.  In every direction, his lands were surrounded, either by his own brother's patrimony, or by Conrad's, and if he fought against the son of his liege, there would be no chance of any further redress from that quarter.  Godfrey was stuck.

But Godfrey was the direct heir of Charlemagne himself (well, through  female line anyway), and he was not one to let a setback like this last too long.  Sure, he had been moping about Bouillon for over a decade, but now it was time to act.  Well, soon anyway.  Baldwin pointed out he'd been saying that it was time to act for almost a decade since the first decade had passed, and that Godfrey was getting old and maybe even a little hunched himself, just like the Uncle who'd given him such a worthless paper title of Duke of Lower Lorraine.  Godfrey and Baldwin had probably spent too much time together and things were getting a bit tense.

 For some reason, as the morning drifted into afternoon, Bouillon was suddenly abuzz. This was particularly unusual because Bouillon was pretty much never abuzz.  Godfrey dragged himself away from his full afternoon of self-pity and went to see what was going on.  Baldwin tagged along of course; Baldwin was like his  annoying shadow sometimes, almost an ever present reminder that despite his inheritance, Godfrey was also just a lesser son of a great house.

When they reach the courtyard, Godfrey got the news -- Pope Urban in Clermont, far to the south, had called for a great pilgrimage in force to liberate Jerusalem from the Saracens. On everyone's lips was a new word -- Crusade -- a taking of the cross as a sign of commitment to this great pilgrimage.   And Pope Urban particularly wanted the nobility who could afford to leave their lands in the hands of the others, or better still who did not have lands to leave behind, to lead this Crusade. Godfrey had land, yes, but Bouillon and Antwerp had never been much to speak off and it wasn't going to hold him back now.  Then he chuckled -- he'd give it to Baldwin and let him stew by himself while Godfrey set off for Jerusalem and a new chance for greatness, one that King Henry could not take from him this time.

[brookstonalmanac]

Events 8.16 (before 1900)

1 BC – Wang Mang consolidates his power in China and is declared marshal of state. Emperor Ai of Han, who died the previous day, had no heirs. 942 – Start of the four-day Battle of al-Mada'in, between the Hamdanids of Mosul and the Baridis of Basra over control of the Abbasid capital, Baghdad. 963 – Nikephoros II Phokas is crowned emperor of the Byzantine Empire. 1328 – The House of Gonzaga seizes power in the Duchy of Mantua, and will rule until 1708. 1513 – Battle of the Spurs (Battle of Guinegate): King Henry VIII of England and his Imperial allies defeat French Forces who are then forced to retreat. 1570 – The Principality of Transylvania is established after John II Zápolya renounces his claim as King of Hungary in the Treaty of Speyer. 1652 – Battle of Plymouth: Inconclusive naval action between the fleets of Michiel de Ruyter and George Ayscue in the First Anglo-Dutch War. 1777 – American Revolutionary War: The Americans led by General John Stark rout British and Brunswick troops under Friedrich Baum at the Battle of Bennington in Walloomsac, New York. 1780 – American Revolutionary War: Battle of Camden: The British defeat the Americans near Camden, South Carolina. 1792 – Maximilien de Robespierre presents the petition of the Commune of Paris to the Legislative Assembly, which demanded the formation of a revolutionary tribunal. 1793 – French Revolution: A levée en masse is decreed by the National Convention. 1812 – War of 1812: American General William Hull surrenders Fort Detroit without a fight to the British Army. 1819 – Peterloo Massacre: Seventeen people die and over 600 are injured in cavalry charges at a public meeting at St. Peter's Field, Manchester, England. 1841 – U.S. President John Tyler vetoes a bill which called for the re-establishment of the Second Bank of the United States. Enraged Whig Party members riot outside the White House in the most violent demonstration on White House grounds in U.S. history. 1858 – U.S. President James Buchanan inaugurates the new transatlantic telegraph cable by exchanging greetings with Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom. However, a weak signal forces a shutdown of the service in a few weeks. 1859 – The Grand Duchy of Tuscany formally deposes the exiled House of Lorraine. 1863 – The Dominican Restoration War begins when Gregorio Luperón raises the Dominican flag in Santo Domingo after Spain had recolonized the country. 1869 – Battle of Acosta Ñu: A Paraguayan battalion largely made up of children is massacred by the Brazilian Army during the Paraguayan War. 1870 – Franco-Prussian War: The Battle of Mars-la-Tour is fought, resulting in a Prussian victory. 1876 – Richard Wagner's Siegfried, the penultimate opera in his Ring cycle, premieres at the Bayreuth Festspielhaus. 1891 – The Basilica of San Sebastian, Manila, the first all-steel church in Asia, is officially inaugurated and blessed. 1896 – Skookum Jim Mason, George Carmack and Dawson Charlie discover gold in a tributary of the Klondike River in Canada, setting off the Klondike Gold Rush.

[brookstonalmanac]

Events 8.16

1 BC – Wang Mang consolidates his power and is declared marshal of state. Emperor Ai of Han, who had died the previous day, had no heirs. 942 – Start of the four-day Battle of al-Mada'in, between the Hamdanids of Mosul and the Baridis of Basra over control of the Abbasid capital, Baghdad. 963 – Nikephoros II Phokas is crowned emperor of the Byzantine Empire. 1328 – The House of Gonzaga seizes power in the Duchy of Mantua, and will rule until 1708. 1513 – Battle of the Spurs (Battle of Guinegate): King Henry VIII of England and his Imperial allies defeat French Forces who are then forced to retreat. 1570 – The Principality of Transylvania is established after John II Zápolya renounces his claim as King of Hungary in the Treaty of Speyer. 1652 – Battle of Plymouth: Inconclusive naval action between the fleets of Michiel de Ruyter and George Ayscue in the First Anglo-Dutch War. 1777 – American Revolutionary War: The Americans led by General John Stark rout British and Brunswick troops under Friedrich Baum at the Battle of Bennington in Walloomsac, New York. 1780 – American Revolutionary War: Battle of Camden: The British defeat the Americans near Camden, South Carolina. 1792 – Maximilien de Robespierre presents the petition of the Commune of Paris to the Legislative Assembly, which demanded the formation of a revolutionary tribunal. 1793 – French Revolution: A levée en masse is decreed by the National Convention. 1812 – War of 1812: American General William Hull surrenders Fort Detroit without a fight to the British Army. 1819 – Peterloo Massacre: Seventeen people die and over 600 are injured in cavalry charges at a public meeting at St. Peter's Field, Manchester, England. 1841 – U.S. President John Tyler vetoes a bill which called for the re-establishment of the Second Bank of the United States. Enraged Whig Party members riot outside the White House in the most violent demonstration on White House grounds in U.S. history. 1858 – U.S. President James Buchanan inaugurates the new transatlantic telegraph cable by exchanging greetings with Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom. However, a weak signal forces a shutdown of the service in a few weeks. 1859 – The Grand Duchy of Tuscany formally deposes the exiled House of Lorraine. 1863 – The Dominican Restoration War begins when Gregorio Luperón raises the Dominican flag in Santo Domingo after Spain had recolonized the country. 1869 – Battle of Acosta Ñu: A Paraguayan battalion made up of children is massacred by the Brazilian Army during the Paraguayan War. 1870 – Franco-Prussian War: The Battle of Mars-la-Tour is fought, resulting in a Prussian victory. 1891 – The Basilica of San Sebastian, Manila, the first all-steel church in Asia, is officially inaugurated and blessed. 1896 – Skookum Jim Mason, George Carmack and Dawson Charlie discover gold in a tributary of the Klondike River in Canada, setting off the Klondike Gold Rush. 1900 – The Battle of Elands River during the Second Boer War ends after a 13-day siege is lifted by the British. The battle had begun when a force of between 2,000 and 3,000 Boers had surrounded a force of 500 Australians, Rhodesians, Canadians and British soldiers at a supply dump at Brakfontein Drift. 1906 – The 8.2 Mw Valparaíso earthquake hits central Chile, killing 3,882 people. 1913 – Tōhoku Imperial University of Japan (modern day Tohoku University) becomes the first university in Japan to admit female students. 1913 – Completion of the Royal Navy battlecruiser HMS Queen Mary. 1916 – The Migratory Bird Treaty between Canada and the United States is signed. 1918 – The Battle of Lake Baikal was fought between the Czechoslovak Legion and the Red Army. 1920 – Ray Chapman of the Cleveland Indians is hit on the head by a fastball thrown by Carl Mays of the New York Yankees, and dies early the next day. Chapman was the second player to die from injuries sustained in a Major League Baseball game, the first being Doc Powers in 1909. 1920 – The congress of the Communist Party of Bukhara opens. The congress would call for armed revolution. 1920 – Polish–Soviet War: The Battle of Radzymin concludes; the Soviet Red Army is forced to turn away from Warsaw. 1923 – The United Kingdom gives the name "Ross Dependency" to part of its claimed Antarctic territory and makes the Governor-General of the Dominion of New Zealand its administrator. 1927 – The Dole Air Race begins from Oakland, California, to Honolulu, Hawaii, during which six out of the eight participating planes crash or disappear. 1929 – The 1929 Palestine riots break out in Mandatory Palestine between Palestinian Arabs and Jews and continue until the end of the month. In total, 133 Jews and 116 Arabs are killed. 1930 – The first color sound cartoon, Fiddlesticks, is released by Ub Iwerks. 1930 – The first British Empire Games were opened in Hamilton, Ontario by the Governor General of Canada, the Viscount Willingdon. 1933 – Christie Pits riot takes place in Toronto, Ontario. 1942 – World War II: A naval L-class blimp drifts in from the Pacific and eventually crashes in Daly City, California. The two-man crew cannot be found. 1944 – First flight of a jet with forward-swept wings, the Junkers Ju 287. 1945 – The National Representatives' Congress, the precursor of the current National Assembly of Vietnam, convenes in Sơn Dương. 1946 – Mass riots in Kolkata begin; more than 4,000 people would be killed in 72 hours. 1946 – The All Hyderabad Trade Union Congress is founded in Secunderabad. 1954 – The first issue of Sports Illustrated is published. 1960 – Cyprus gains its independence from the United Kingdom. 1960 – Joseph Kittinger parachutes from a balloon over New Mexico at 102,800 feet (31,300 m), setting three records that held until 2012: High-altitude jump, free fall, and highest speed by a human without an aircraft. 1962 – Eight years after the remaining French India territories were handed to India, the ratifications of the treaty are exchanged to make the transfer official. 1964 – Vietnam War: A coup d'état replaces Dương Văn Minh with General Nguyễn Khánh as President of South Vietnam. A new constitution is established with aid from the U.S. Embassy. 1966 – Vietnam War: The House Un-American Activities Committee begins investigations of Americans who have aided the Viet Cong. The committee intends to introduce legislation making these activities illegal. Anti-war demonstrators disrupt the meeting and 50 people are arrested. 1972 – In an unsuccessful coup d'état attempt, the Royal Moroccan Air Force fires upon Hassan II of Morocco's plane while he is traveling back to Rabat 1975 – Australian Prime Minister Gough Whitlam symbolically hands over land to the Gurindji people after the eight-year Wave Hill walk-off, a landmark event in the history of Indigenous land rights in Australia, commemorated in a 1991 song by Paul Kelly and an annual celebration. 1987 – Northwest Airlines Flight 255, a McDonnell Douglas MD-82, crashes after takeoff in Detroit, Michigan, killing 154 of the 155 on board, plus two people on the ground. 1989 – A solar particle event affects computers at the Toronto Stock Exchange, forcing a halt to trading. 1991 – Indian Airlines Flight 257, a Boeing 737-200, crashes during approach to Imphal Airport, killing all 69 people on board. 2005 – West Caribbean Airways Flight 708, a McDonnell Douglas MD-82, crashes in Machiques, Venezuela, killing all 160 people on board. 2008 – The Trump International Hotel and Tower in Chicago is topped off at 1,389 feet (423 m), at the time becoming the world's highest residence above ground-level. 2010 – AIRES Flight 8250 crashes at Gustavo Rojas Pinilla International Airport in San Andrés, San Andrés y Providencia, Colombia, killing two people. 2012 – South African police fatally shoot 34 miners and wound 78 more during an industrial dispute at Marikana near Rustenburg. 2013 – The ferry St. Thomas Aquinas collides with a cargo ship and sinks at Cebu, Philippines, killing 61 people with 59 others missing. 2015 – More than 96 people are killed and hundreds injured following a series of air-raids by the Syrian Arab Air Force on the rebel-held market town of Douma. 2015 – Trigana Air Flight 267, an ATR 42, crashes in Oksibl, Pegunungan Bintang, killing all 54 people on board. 2017 – The Minamata Convention on Mercury enters in force. 2020 – The August Complex fire in California burns more than one million acres of land.

[brookstonalmanac]

Events 8.16

1 BC – Wang Mang consolidates his power and is declared marshal of state. Emperor Ai of Han, who had died the previous day, had no heirs. 942 – Start of the four-day Battle of al-Mada'in, between the Hamdanids of Mosul and the Baridis of Basra over control of the Abbasid capital, Baghdad. 963 – Nikephoros II Phokas is crowned emperor of the Byzantine Empire. 1328 – The House of Gonzaga seizes power in the Duchy of Mantua, and will rule until 1708. 1513 – Battle of the Spurs (Battle of Guinegate): King Henry VIII of England and his Imperial allies defeat French Forces who are then forced to retreat. 1570 – The Principality of Transylvania is established after John II Zápolya renounces his claim as King of Hungary in the Treaty of Speyer. 1652 – Battle of Plymouth: Inconclusive naval action between the fleets of Michiel de Ruyter and George Ayscue in the First Anglo-Dutch War. 1777 – American Revolutionary War: The Americans led by General John Stark rout British and Brunswick troops under Friedrich Baum at the Battle of Bennington in Walloomsac, New York. 1780 – American Revolutionary War: Battle of Camden: The British defeat the Americans near Camden, South Carolina. 1792 – Maximilien de Robespierre presents the petition of the Commune of Paris to the Legislative Assembly, which demanded the formation of a revolutionary tribunal. 1793 – French Revolution: A levée en masse is decreed by the National Convention. 1812 – War of 1812: American General William Hull surrenders Fort Detroit without a fight to the British Army. 1819 – Peterloo Massacre: Seventeen people die and over 600 are injured in cavalry charges at a public meeting at St. Peter's Field, Manchester, England. 1841 – U.S. President John Tyler vetoes a bill which called for the re-establishment of the Second Bank of the United States. Enraged Whig Party members riot outside the White House in the most violent demonstration on White House grounds in U.S. history. 1858 – U.S. President James Buchanan inaugurates the new transatlantic telegraph cable by exchanging greetings with Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom. However, a weak signal forces a shutdown of the service in a few weeks. 1859 – The Grand Duchy of Tuscany formally deposes the exiled House of Lorraine. 1863 – The Dominican Restoration War begins when Gregorio Luperón raises the Dominican flag in Santo Domingo after Spain had recolonized the country. 1869 – Battle of Acosta Ñu: A Paraguayan battalion made up of children is massacred by the Brazilian Army during the Paraguayan War. 1870 – Franco-Prussian War: The Battle of Mars-la-Tour is fought, resulting in a Prussian victory. 1891 – The Basilica of San Sebastian, Manila, the first all-steel church in Asia, is officially inaugurated and blessed. 1896 – Skookum Jim Mason, George Carmack and Dawson Charlie discover gold in a tributary of the Klondike River in Canada, setting off the Klondike Gold Rush. 1900 – The Battle of Elands River during the Second Boer War ends after a 13-day siege is lifted by the British. The battle had begun when a force of between 2,000 and 3,000 Boers had surrounded a force of 500 Australians, Rhodesians, Canadians and British soldiers at a supply dump at Brakfontein Drift. 1906 – The 8.2 Mw Valparaíso earthquake hits central Chile, killing 3,882 people. 1913 – Tōhoku Imperial University of Japan (modern day Tohoku University) becomes the first university in Japan to admit female students. 1913 – Completion of the Royal Navy battlecruiser HMS Queen Mary. 1916 – The Migratory Bird Treaty between Canada and the United States is signed. 1918 – The Battle of Lake Baikal was fought between the Czechoslovak Legion and the Red Army. 1920 – Ray Chapman of the Cleveland Indians is hit on the head by a fastball thrown by Carl Mays of the New York Yankees, and dies early the next day. Chapman was the second player to die from injuries sustained in a Major League Baseball game, the first being Doc Powers in 1909. 1920 – The congress of the Communist Party of Bukhara opens. The congress would call for armed revolution. 1920 – Polish–Soviet War: The Battle of Radzymin concludes; the Soviet Red Army is forced to turn away from Warsaw. 1923 – The United Kingdom gives the name "Ross Dependency" to part of its claimed Antarctic territory and makes the Governor-General of the Dominion of New Zealand its administrator. 1927 – The Dole Air Race begins from Oakland, California, to Honolulu, Hawaii, during which six out of the eight participating planes crash or disappear. 1929 – The 1929 Palestine riots break out in Mandatory Palestine between Palestinian Arabs and Jews and continue until the end of the month. In total, 133 Jews and 116 Arabs are killed. 1930 – The first color sound cartoon, Fiddlesticks, is released by Ub Iwerks. 1930 – The first British Empire Games were opened in Hamilton, Ontario by the Governor General of Canada, the Viscount Willingdon. 1933 – Christie Pits riot takes place in Toronto, Ontario. 1942 – World War II: A naval L-class blimp drifts in from the Pacific and eventually crashes in Daly City, California. The two-man crew cannot be found. 1944 – First flight of a jet with forward-swept wings, the Junkers Ju 287. 1945 – The National Representatives' Congress, the precursor of the current National Assembly of Vietnam, convenes in Sơn Dương. 1946 – Mass riots in Kolkata begin; more than 4,000 people would be killed in 72 hours. 1946 – The All Hyderabad Trade Union Congress is founded in Secunderabad. 1954 – The first issue of Sports Illustrated is published. 1960 – Cyprus gains its independence from the United Kingdom. 1960 – Joseph Kittinger parachutes from a balloon over New Mexico at 102,800 feet (31,300 m), setting three records that held until 2012: High-altitude jump, free fall, and highest speed by a human without an aircraft. 1962 – Eight years after the remaining French India territories were handed to India, the ratifications of the treaty are exchanged to make the transfer official. 1964 – Vietnam War: A coup d'état replaces Dương Văn Minh with General Nguyễn Khánh as President of South Vietnam. A new constitution is established with aid from the U.S. Embassy. 1966 – Vietnam War: The House Un-American Activities Committee begins investigations of Americans who have aided the Viet Cong. The committee intends to introduce legislation making these activities illegal. Anti-war demonstrators disrupt the meeting and 50 people are arrested. 1972 – In an unsuccessful coup d'état attempt, the Royal Moroccan Air Force fires upon Hassan II of Morocco's plane while he is traveling back to Rabat 1975 – Australian Prime Minister Gough Whitlam symbolically hands over land to the Gurindji people after the eight-year Wave Hill walk-off, a landmark event in the history of Indigenous land rights in Australia, commemorated in a 1991 song by Paul Kelly and an annual celebration. 1987 – Northwest Airlines Flight 255, a McDonnell Douglas MD-82, crashes after takeoff in Detroit, Michigan, killing 154 of the 155 on board, plus two people on the ground. 1989 – A solar particle event affects computers at the Toronto Stock Exchange, forcing a halt to trading. 1991 – Indian Airlines Flight 257, a Boeing 737-200, crashes during approach to Imphal Airport, killing all 69 people on board. 2005 – West Caribbean Airways Flight 708, a McDonnell Douglas MD-82, crashes in Machiques, Venezuela, killing all 160 people on board. 2008 – The Trump International Hotel and Tower in Chicago is topped off at 1,389 feet (423 m), at the time becoming the world's highest residence above ground-level. 2012 – South African police fatally shoot 34 miners and wound 78 more during an industrial dispute at Marikana near Rustenburg. 2013 – The ferry St. Thomas Aquinas collides with a cargo ship and sinks at Cebu, Philippines, killing 61 people with 59 others missing. 2015 – More than 96 people are killed and hundreds injured following a series of air-raids by the Syrian Arab Air Force on the rebel-held market town of Douma. 2015 – Trigana Air Flight 267, an ATR 42, crashes in Oksibl, Pegunungan Bintang, killing all 54 people on board. 2017 – The Minamata Convention on Mercury enters in force. 2020 – The August Complex fire in California burns more than one million acres of land.

[brookstonalmanac]

Events 8.16

1 BC – Wang Mang consolidates his power and is declared marshal of state. Emperor Ai of Han, who had died the previous day, had no heirs. 942 – Start of the four-day Battle of al-Mada'in, between the Hamdanids of Mosul and the Baridis of Basra over control of the Abbasid capital, Baghdad. 963 – Nikephoros II Phokas is crowned emperor of the Byzantine Empire. 1328 – The House of Gonzaga seizes power in the Duchy of Mantua, and will rule until 1708. 1513 – Battle of the Spurs (Battle of Guinegate): King Henry VIII of England and his Imperial allies defeat French Forces who are then forced to retreat. 1652 – Battle of Plymouth: Inconclusive naval action between the fleets of Michiel de Ruyter and George Ayscue in the First Anglo-Dutch War. 1777 – American Revolutionary War: The Americans led by General John Stark rout British and Brunswick troops under Friedrich Baum at the Battle of Bennington in Walloomsac, New York. 1780 – American Revolutionary War: Battle of Camden: The British defeat the Americans near Camden, South Carolina. 1792 – Maximilien de Robespierre presents the petition of the Commune of Paris to the Legislative Assembly, which demanded the formation of a revolutionary tribunal. 1793 – French Revolution: A levée en masse is decreed by the National Convention. 1812 – War of 1812: American General William Hull surrenders Fort Detroit without a fight to the British Army. 1819 – Peterloo Massacre: Seventeen people die and over 600 are injured in cavalry charges at a public meeting at St. Peter's Field, Manchester, England. 1841 – U.S. President John Tyler vetoes a bill which called for the re-establishment of the Second Bank of the United States. Enraged Whig Party members riot outside the White House in the most violent demonstration on White House grounds in U.S. history. 1858 – U.S. President James Buchanan inaugurates the new transatlantic telegraph cable by exchanging greetings with Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom. However, a weak signal forces a shutdown of the service in a few weeks. 1859 – The Grand Duchy of Tuscany formally deposes the exiled House of Lorraine. 1863 – The Dominican Restoration War begins when Gregorio Luperón raises the Dominican flag in Santo Domingo after Spain had recolonized the country. 1869 – Battle of Acosta Ñu: A Paraguayan battalion made up of children is massacred by the Brazilian Army during the Paraguayan War. 1870 – Franco-Prussian War: The Battle of Mars-la-Tour is fought, resulting in a Prussian victory. 1891 – The Basilica of San Sebastian, Manila, the first all-steel church in Asia, is officially inaugurated and blessed. 1896 – Skookum Jim Mason, George Carmack and Dawson Charlie discover gold in a tributary of the Klondike River in Canada, setting off the Klondike Gold Rush. 1900 – The Battle of Elands River during the Second Boer War ends after a 13-day siege is lifted by the British. The battle had begun when a force of between 2,000 and 3,000 Boers had surrounded a force of 500 Australians, Rhodesians, Canadians and British soldiers at a supply dump at Brakfontein Drift. 1906 – The 8.2 Mw Valparaíso earthquake hits central Chile, killing 3,882 people. 1913 – Tōhoku Imperial University of Japan (modern day Tohoku University) becomes the first university in Japan to admit female students. 1913 – Completion of the Royal Navy battlecruiser HMS Queen Mary. 1916 – The Migratory Bird Treaty between Canada and the United States is signed. 1918 – The Battle of Lake Baikal was fought between the Czechoslovak Legion and the Red Army. 1920 – Ray Chapman of the Cleveland Indians is hit on the head by a fastball thrown by Carl Mays of the New York Yankees, and dies early the next day. Chapman was the second player to die from injuries sustained in a Major League Baseball game, the first being Doc Powers in 1909. 1920 – The congress of the Communist Party of Bukhara opens. The congress would call for armed revolution. 1920 – Polish–Soviet War: The Battle of Radzymin concludes; the Soviet Red Army is forced to turn away from Warsaw. 1923 – The United Kingdom gives the name "Ross Dependency" to part of its claimed Antarctic territory and makes the Governor-General of the Dominion of New Zealand its administrator. 1927 – The Dole Air Race begins from Oakland, California, to Honolulu, Hawaii, during which six out of the eight participating planes crash or disappear. 1929 – The 1929 Palestine riots break out in Mandatory Palestine between Palestinian Arabs and Jews and continue until the end of the month. In total, 133 Jews and 116 Arabs are killed. 1930 – The first color sound cartoon, Fiddlesticks, is released by Ub Iwerks. 1930 – The first British Empire Games were opened in Hamilton, Ontario by the Governor General of Canada, the Viscount Willingdon. 1933 – Christie Pits riot takes place in Toronto, Ontario. 1942 – World War II: A naval L-class blimp drifts in from the Pacific and eventually crashes in Daly City, California. The two-man crew cannot be found. 1944 – First flight of a jet with forward-swept wings, the Junkers Ju 287. 1945 – The National Representatives' Congress, the precursor of the current National Assembly of Vietnam, convenes in Sơn Dương. 1946 – Mass riots in Kolkata begin; more than 4,000 people would be killed in 72 hours. 1946 – The All Hyderabad Trade Union Congress is founded in Secunderabad. 1954 – The first issue of Sports Illustrated is published. 1960 – Cyprus gains its independence from the United Kingdom. 1960 – Joseph Kittinger parachutes from a balloon over New Mexico at 102,800 feet (31,300 m), setting three records that held until 2012: High-altitude jump, free fall, and highest speed by a human without an aircraft. 1962 – Eight years after the remaining French India territories were handed to India, the ratifications of the treaty are exchanged to make the transfer official. 1964 – Vietnam War: A coup d'état replaces Dương Văn Minh with General Nguyễn Khánh as President of South Vietnam. A new constitution is established with aid from the U.S. Embassy. 1966 – Vietnam War: The House Un-American Activities Committee begins investigations of Americans who have aided the Viet Cong. The committee intends to introduce legislation making these activities illegal. Anti-war demonstrators disrupt the meeting and 50 people are arrested. 1972 – In an unsuccessful coup d'état attempt, the Royal Moroccan Air Force fires upon Hassan II of Morocco's plane while he is traveling back to Rabat 1975 – Australian Prime Minister Gough Whitlam symbolically hands over land to the Gurindji people after the 8-year Wave Hill walk-off, a landmark event in the history of Indigenous land rights in Australia, commemorated in a 1991 song by Paul Kelly and an annual celebration.[ 1987 – Northwest Airlines Flight 255, a McDonnell Douglas MD-82, crashes after takeoff in Detroit, Michigan, killing 154 of the 155 on board, plus two people on the ground. 1989 – A solar particle event affects computers at the Toronto Stock Exchange, forcing a halt to trading. 1991 – Indian Airlines Flight 257, a Boeing 737-200, crashes during approach to Imphal Airport, killing all 69 people on board. 2005 – West Caribbean Airways Flight 708, a McDonnell Douglas MD-82, crashes in Machiques, Venezuela, killing all 160 people on board. 2008 – The Trump International Hotel and Tower in Chicago is topped off at 1,389 feet (423 m), at the time becoming the world's highest residence above ground-level. 2012 – South African police fatally shoot 34 miners and wound 78 more during an industrial dispute at Marikana near Rustenburg. 2013 – The ferry St. Thomas Aquinas collides with a cargo ship and sinks at Cebu, Philippines, killing 61 people with 59 others missing. 2015 – More than 96 people are killed and hundreds injured following a series of air-raids by the Syrian Arab Air Force on the rebel-held market town of Douma. 2015 – Trigana Air Flight 267, an ATR 42, crashes in Oksibl, Pegunungan Bintang, killing all 54 people on board. 2017 – The Minamata Convention on Mercury enters in force.

[brookstonalmanac]

Events 8.16

1 BC – Wang Mang consolidates his power and is declared marshal of state. Emperor Ai of Han, who had died the previous day, had no heirs. 963 – Nikephoros II Phokas is crowned emperor of the Byzantine Empire. 1328 – The House of Gonzaga seizes power in the Duchy of Mantua, and will rule until 1708. 1513 – Battle of the Spurs (Battle of Guinegate): King Henry VIII of England and his Imperial allies defeat French Forces who are then forced to retreat. 1652 – Battle of Plymouth: Inconclusive naval action between the fleets of Michiel de Ruyter and George Ayscue in the First Anglo-Dutch War. 1777 – American Revolutionary War: The Americans led by General John Stark rout British and Brunswick troops under Friedrich Baum at the Battle of Bennington in Walloomsac, New York. 1780 – American Revolutionary War: Battle of Camden: The British defeat the Americans near Camden, South Carolina. 1792 – Maximilien de Robespierre presents the petition of the Commune of Paris to the Legislative Assembly, which demanded the formation of a revolutionary tribunal. 1793 – French Revolution: A levée en masse is decreed by the National Convention. 1812 – War of 1812: American General William Hull surrenders Fort Detroit without a fight to the British Army. 1819 – Peterloo Massacre: Seventeen people die and over 600 are injured in cavalry charges at a public meeting at St. Peter's Field, Manchester, England. 1841 – U.S. President John Tyler vetoes a bill which called for the re-establishment of the Second Bank of the United States. Enraged Whig Party members riot outside the White House in the most violent demonstration on White House grounds in U.S. history. 1858 – U.S. President James Buchanan inaugurates the new transatlantic telegraph cable by exchanging greetings with Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom. However, a weak signal forces a shutdown of the service in a few weeks. 1859 – The Grand Duchy of Tuscany formally deposes the exiled House of Lorraine. 1863 – The Dominican Restoration War begins when Gregorio Luperón raises the Dominican flag in Santo Domingo after Spain had recolonized the country. 1869 – Battle of Acosta Ñu: A Paraguayan battalion made up of children is massacred by the Brazilian Army during the Paraguayan War. 1870 – Franco-Prussian War: The Battle of Mars-la-Tour is fought, resulting in a Prussian victory. 1891 – The Basilica of San Sebastian, Manila, the first all-steel church in Asia, is officially inaugurated and blessed. 1896 – Skookum Jim Mason, George Carmack and Dawson Charlie discover gold in a tributary of the Klondike River in Canada, setting off the Klondike Gold Rush. 1900 – The Battle of Elands River during the Second Boer War ends after a 13-day siege is lifted by the British. The battle had begun when a force of between 2,000 and 3,000 Boers had surrounded a force of 500 Australians, Rhodesians, Canadians and British soldiers at a supply dump at Brakfontein Drift. 1906 – The 8.2 Mw Valparaíso earthquake hits central Chile, killing 3,882 people. 1913 – Tōhoku Imperial University of Japan (modern day Tohoku University) becomes the first university in Japan to admit female students. 1913 – Completion of the Royal Navy battlecruiser HMS Queen Mary. 1916 – The Migratory Bird Treaty between Canada and the United States is signed. 1918 – The Battle of Lake Baikal was fought between the Czechoslovak Legion and the Red Army. 1920 – Ray Chapman of the Cleveland Indians is hit on the head by a fastball thrown by Carl Mays of the New York Yankees, and dies early the next day. Chapman was the second player to die from injuries sustained in a Major League Baseball game, the first being Doc Powers in 1909. 1920 – The congress of the Communist Party of Bukhara opens. The congress would call for armed revolution. 1920 – Polish–Soviet War: The Battle of Radzymin concludes; the Soviet Red Army is forced to turn away from Warsaw. 1923 – The United Kingdom gives the name "Ross Dependency" to part of its claimed Antarctic territory and makes the Governor-General of the Dominion of New Zealand its administrator. 1927 – The Dole Air Race begins from Oakland, California, to Honolulu, Hawaii, during which six out of the eight participating planes crash or disappear. 1929 – The 1929 Palestine riots break out in Mandatory Palestine between Palestinian Arabs and Jews and continue until the end of the month. In total, 133 Jews and 116 Arabs are killed. 1930 – The first color sound cartoon, Fiddlesticks, is released by Ub Iwerks. 1930 – The first British Empire Games were opened in Hamilton, Ontario by the Governor General of Canada, the Viscount Willingdon. 1933 – Christie Pits riot takes place in Toronto, Ontario. 1942 – World War II: A naval L-class blimp drifts in from the Pacific and eventually crashes in Daly City, California. The two-man crew cannot be found. 1944 – First flight of a jet with forward-swept wings, the Junkers Ju 287. 1945 – The National Representatives' Congress, the precursor of the current National Assembly of Vietnam, convenes in Sơn Dương. 1946 – Mass riots in Kolkata begin; more than 4,000 people would be killed in 72 hours. 1946 – The All Hyderabad Trade Union Congress is founded in Secunderabad. 1954 – The first issue of Sports Illustrated is published. 1960 – Cyprus gains its independence from the United Kingdom. 1960 – Joseph Kittinger parachutes from a balloon over New Mexico at 102,800 feet (31,300 m), setting three records that held until 2012: High-altitude jump, free fall, and highest speed by a human without an aircraft. 1962 – Eight years after the remaining French India territories were handed to India, the ratifications of the treaty are exchanged to make the transfer official. 1962 – Pete Best is discharged from The Beatles, to be replaced two days later by Ringo Starr. 1964 – Vietnam War: A coup d'état replaces Dương Văn Minh with General Nguyễn Khánh as President of South Vietnam. A new constitution is established with aid from the U.S. Embassy. 1966 – Vietnam War: The House Un-American Activities Committee begins investigations of Americans who have aided the Viet Cong. The committee intends to introduce legislation making these activities illegal. Anti-war demonstrators disrupt the meeting and 50 people are arrested. 1972 – In an unsuccessful coup d'état attempt, the Royal Moroccan Air Force fires upon Hassan II of Morocco's plane while he is traveling back to Rabat. 1987 – Northwest Airlines Flight 255, a McDonnell Douglas MD-82, crashes after take off in Detroit, Michigan, killing 154 of the 155 on board, plus two people on the ground. 1989 – A solar particle event affects computers at the Toronto Stock Exchange, forcing a halt to trading. 1991 – Indian Airlines Flight 257, a Boeing 737-200, crashes during approach to Imphal Airport, killing all 69 people on board. 2005 – West Caribbean Airways Flight 708, a McDonnell Douglas MD-82, crashes in Machiques, Venezuela, killing all 160 people on board. 2008 – The Trump International Hotel and Tower in Chicago is topped off at 1,389 feet (423 m), at the time becoming the world's highest residence above ground-level. 2012 – South African police fatally shoot 34 miners and wound 78 more during an industrial dispute at Marikana near Rustenburg. 2013 – The ferry St. Thomas Aquinas collides with a cargo ship and sinks at Cebu, Philippines, killing 61 people with 59 others missing. 2015 – More than 96 people are killed and hundreds injured following a series of air-raids by the Syrian Arab Air Force on the rebel-held market town of Douma. 2015 – Trigana Air Flight 267, an ATR 42, crashes in Oksibl, Pegunungan Bintang, killing all 54 people on board. 2017 – The Minamata Convention on Mercury enters in force.

[brookstonalmanac]

Events 8.16

1 BC – Wang Mang consolidates his power and is declared marshal of state. Emperor Ai of Han, who had died the previous day, had no heirs. 963 – Nikephoros II Phokas is crowned emperor of the Byzantine Empire. 1328 – The House of Gonzaga seizes power in the Duchy of Mantua, and will rule until 1708. 1513 – Battle of the Spurs (Battle of Guinegate): King Henry VIII of England and his Imperial allies defeat French Forces who are then forced to retreat. 1652 – Battle of Plymouth: Inconclusive naval action between the fleets of Michiel de Ruyter and George Ayscue in the First Anglo-Dutch War. 1777 – American Revolutionary War: The Americans led by General John Stark rout British and Brunswick troops under Friedrich Baum at the Battle of Bennington in Walloomsac, New York. 1780 – American Revolutionary War: Battle of Camden: The British defeat the Americans near Camden, South Carolina. 1792 – Maximilien de Robespierre presents the petition of the Commune of Paris to the Legislative Assembly, which demanded the formation of a revolutionary tribunal. 1793 – French Revolution: A levée en masse is decreed by the National Convention. 1812 – War of 1812: American General William Hull surrenders Fort Detroit without a fight to the British Army. 1819 – Peterloo Massacre: Seventeen people die and over 600 are injured in cavalry charges at a public meeting at St. Peter's Field, Manchester, England. 1841 – U.S. President John Tyler vetoes a bill which called for the re-establishment of the Second Bank of the United States. Enraged Whig Party members riot outside the White House in the most violent demonstration on White House grounds in U.S. history. 1858 – U.S. President James Buchanan inaugurates the new transatlantic telegraph cable by exchanging greetings with Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom. However, a weak signal forces a shutdown of the service in a few weeks. 1859 – The Grand Duchy of Tuscany formally deposes the exiled House of Lorraine. 1863 – The Dominican Restoration War begins when Gregorio Luperón raises the Dominican flag in Santo Domingo after Spain had recolonized the country. 1869 – Battle of Acosta Ñu: A Paraguayan battalion made up of children is massacred by the Brazilian Army during the Paraguayan War. 1870 – Franco-Prussian War: The Battle of Mars-la-Tour is fought, resulting in a Prussian victory. 1891 – The Basilica of San Sebastian, Manila, the first all-steel church in Asia, is officially inaugurated and blessed. 1896 – Skookum Jim Mason, George Carmack and Dawson Charlie discover gold in a tributary of the Klondike River in Canada, setting off the Klondike Gold Rush. 1900 – The Battle of Elands River during the Second Boer War ends after a 13-day siege is lifted by the British. The battle had begun when a force of between 2,000 and 3,000 Boers had surrounded a force of 500 Australians, Rhodesians, Canadians and British soldiers at a supply dump at Brakfontein Drift. 1906 – The 8.2 Mw Valparaíso earthquake hits central Chile, killing 3,882 people. 1913 – Tōhoku Imperial University of Japan (modern day Tohoku University) becomes the first university in Japan to admit female students. 1913 – Completion of the Royal Navy battlecruiser HMS Queen Mary. 1916 – The Migratory Bird Treaty between Canada and the United States is signed. 1918 – The Battle of Lake Baikal was fought between the Czechoslovak Legion and the Red Army. 1920 – Ray Chapman of the Cleveland Indians is hit on the head by a fastball thrown by Carl Mays of the New York Yankees, and dies early the next day. Chapman was the second player to die from injuries sustained in a Major League Baseball game, the first being Doc Powers in 1909. 1920 – The congress of the Communist Party of Bukhara opens. The congress would call for armed revolution. 1920 – Polish–Soviet War: The Battle of Radzymin concludes; the Soviet Red Army is forced to turn away from Warsaw. 1923 – The United Kingdom gives the name "Ross Dependency" to part of its claimed Antarctic territory and makes the Governor-General of the Dominion of New Zealand its administrator. 1927 – The Dole Air Race begins from Oakland, California, to Honolulu, Hawaii, during which six out of the eight participating planes crash or disappear. 1929 – The 1929 Palestine riots break out in Mandatory Palestine between Palestinian Arabs and Jews and continue until the end of the month. In total, 133 Jews and 116 Arabs are killed. 1930 – The first color sound cartoon, called Fiddlesticks, is made by Ub Iwerks. 1930 – The first British Empire Games were opened in Hamilton, Ontario by the Governor General of Canada, the Viscount Willingdon. 1942 – World War II: A naval L-class blimp drifts in from the Pacific and eventually crashes in Daly City, California. The two-man crew cannot be found. 1944 – First flight of a jet with forward-swept wings, the Junkers Ju 287. 1945 – The National Representatives' Congress, the precursor of the current National Assembly of Vietnam, convenes in Sơn Dương. 1946 – Mass riots in Kolkata begin; more than 4,000 people would be killed in 72 hours. 1946 – The All Hyderabad Trade Union Congress is founded in Secunderabad. 1954 – The first issue of Sports Illustrated is published. 1960 – Cyprus gains its independence from the United Kingdom. 1960 – Joseph Kittinger parachutes from a balloon over New Mexico at 102,800 feet (31,300 m), setting three records that held until 2012: High-altitude jump, free fall, and highest speed by a human without an aircraft. 1962 – Eight years after the remaining French India territories were handed to India, the ratifications of the treaty are exchanged to make the transfer official. 1962 – Pete Best is discharged from The Beatles, to be replaced two days later by Ringo Starr. 1964 – Vietnam War: A coup d'état replaces Dương Văn Minh with General Nguyễn Khánh as President of South Vietnam. A new constitution is established with aid from the U.S. Embassy. 1966 – Vietnam War: The House Un-American Activities Committee begins investigations of Americans who have aided the Viet Cong. The committee intends to introduce legislation making these activities illegal. Anti-war demonstrators disrupt the meeting and 50 people are arrested. 1972 – In an unsuccessful coup d'état attempt, the Royal Moroccan Air Force fires upon Hassan II of Morocco's plane while he is traveling back to Rabat. 1987 – Northwest Airlines Flight 255, a McDonnell Douglas MD-82, crashes after take off in Detroit, Michigan, killing 154 of the 155 on board, plus two people on the ground. 1989 – A solar particle event affects computers at the Toronto Stock Exchange, forcing a halt to trading.[1] 2005 – West Caribbean Airways Flight 708, a McDonnell Douglas MD-82, crashes in Venezuela, killing all 160 people on board. 2008 – The Trump International Hotel and Tower in Chicago is topped off at 1,389 feet (423 m), at the time becoming the world's highest residence above ground-level. 2012 – South African police fatally shoot 34 miners and wound 78 more during an industrial dispute at Marikana near Rustenburg. 2013 – The ferry St. Thomas Aquinas collides with a cargo ship and sinks at Cebu, Philippines, killing 61 people with 59 others missing. 2015 – More than 96 people are killed and hundreds injured following a series of air-raids by the Syrian Arab Air Force on the rebel-held market town of Douma.

[brookstonalmanac]

Events 8.16

1 BC – Wang Mang consolidates his power and is declared marshal of state. Emperor Ai of Han, who had died the previous day, had no heirs. 963 – Nikephoros II Phokas is crowned emperor of the Byzantine Empire. 1328 – The House of Gonzaga seizes power in the Duchy of Mantua, and will rule until 1708. 1513 – Battle of the Spurs (Battle of Guinegate): King Henry VIII of England and his Imperial allies defeat French Forces who are then forced to retreat. 1652 – Battle of Plymouth: Inconclusive naval action between the fleets of Michiel de Ruyter and George Ayscue in the First Anglo-Dutch War. 1777 – American Revolutionary War: The Americans led by General John Stark rout British and Brunswick troops under Friedrich Baum at the Battle of Bennington in Walloomsac, New York. 1780 – American Revolutionary War: Battle of Camden: The British defeat the Americans near Camden, South Carolina. 1792 – Maximilien de Robespierre presents the petition of the Commune of Paris to the Legislative Assembly, which demanded the formation of a revolutionary tribunal. 1793 – French Revolution: A levée en masse is decreed by the National Convention. 1812 – War of 1812: American General William Hull surrenders Fort Detroit without a fight to the British Army. 1819 – Peterloo Massacre: Seventeen people die and over 600 are injured in cavalry charges at a public meeting at St. Peter's Field, Manchester, England. 1841 – U.S. President John Tyler vetoes a bill which called for the re-establishment of the Second Bank of the United States. Enraged Whig Party members riot outside the White House in the most violent demonstration on White House grounds in U.S. history. 1858 – U.S. President James Buchanan inaugurates the new transatlantic telegraph cable by exchanging greetings with Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom. However, a weak signal forces a shutdown of the service in a few weeks. 1859 – The Tuscan National Assembly formally deposes the House of Habsburg-Lorraine. 1863 – The Dominican Restoration War begins when Gregorio Luperón raises the Dominican flag in Santo Domingo after Spain had recolonized the country. 1869 – Battle of Acosta Ñu: A Paraguayan battalion made up of children is massacred by the Brazilian Army during the Paraguayan War. 1870 – Franco-Prussian War: The Battle of Mars-la-Tour is fought, resulting in a Prussian victory. 1891 – The Basilica of San Sebastian, Manila, the first all-steel church in Asia, is officially inaugurated and blessed. 1896 – Skookum Jim Mason, George Carmack and Dawson Charlie discover gold in a tributary of the Klondike River in Canada, setting off the Klondike Gold Rush. 1900 – The Battle of Elands River during the Second Boer War ends after a 13-day siege is lifted by the British. The battle had begun when a force of between 2,000 and 3,000 Boers had surrounded a force of 500 Australians, Rhodesians, Canadians and British soldiers at a supply dump at Brakfontein Drift. 1906 – An estimated 8.2 MW earthquake hits Valparaíso, Chile, killing 3,886 people. 1913 – Tōhoku Imperial University of Japan (modern day Tohoku University) becomes the first university in Japan to admit female students. 1913 – Completion of the Royal Navy battlecruiser HMS Queen Mary. 1916 – The Migratory Bird Treaty between Canada and the United States signed. 1918 – The Battle of Lake Baikal was fought between the Czechoslovak Legion and the Red Army. 1920 – Ray Chapman of the Cleveland Indians is hit on the head by a fastball thrown by Carl Mays of the New York Yankees, and dies early the next day. Chapman was the second player to die from injuries sustained in a Major League Baseball game, the first being Doc Powers in 1909. 1920 – The congress of the Communist Party of Bukhara opens. The congress would call for armed revolution. 1920 – Polish–Soviet War: The Battle of Radzymin concludes; the Soviet Red Army is forced to turn away from Warsaw. 1923 – The United Kingdom gives the name "Ross Dependency" to part of its claimed Antarctic territory and makes the Governor-General of the Dominion of New Zealand its administrator. 1927 – The Dole Air Race begins from Oakland, California, to Honolulu, Hawaii, during which six out of the eight participating planes crash or disappear. 1929 – The 1929 Palestine riots break out in Mandatory Palestine between Palestinian Arabs and Jews and continue until the end of the month. In total, 133 Jews and 116 Arabs are killed. 1930 – The first color sound cartoon, called Fiddlesticks, is made by Ub Iwerks. 1930 – The first British Empire Games were opened in Hamilton, Ontario by the Governor General of Canada, the Viscount Willingdon. 1942 – World War II: The two-person crew of the U.S. naval blimp L-8 disappears without a trace on a routine anti-submarine patrol over the Pacific Ocean. The blimp drifts without her crew and crash-lands in Daly City, California. 1944 – First flight of the Junkers Ju 287. 1945 – An assassination attempt is made on Japan's prime minister, Kantarō Suzuki. 1945 – The National Representatives' Congress, the precursor of the current National Assembly of Vietnam, convenes in Sơn Dương. 1946 – Mass riots in Kolkata begin; more than 4,000 people would be killed in 72 hours. 1946 – The All Hyderabad Trade Union Congress is founded in Secunderabad. 1954 – The first issue of Sports Illustrated is published. 1960 – Cyprus gains its independence from the United Kingdom. 1960 – Joseph Kittinger parachutes from a balloon over New Mexico at 102,800 feet (31,300 m), setting three records that held until 2012: High-altitude jump, free fall, and highest speed by a human without an aircraft. 1962 – Eight years after the remaining French India territories were handed to India, the ratifications of the treaty are exchanged to make the transfer official. 1962 – Pete Best is discharged from the Beatles, to be replaced two days later by Ringo Starr. 1964 – Vietnam War: A coup d'état replaces Dương Văn Minh with General Nguyễn Khánh as President of South Vietnam. A new constitution is established with aid from the U.S. Embassy. 1966 – Vietnam War: The House Un-American Activities Committee begins investigations of Americans who have aided the Viet Cong. The committee intends to introduce legislation making these activities illegal. Anti-war demonstrators disrupt the meeting and 50 people are arrested. 1972 – In an unsuccessful coup d'état attempt, the Royal Moroccan Air Force fires upon Hassan II of Morocco's plane while he is traveling back to Rabat. 1987 – Northwest Airlines Flight 255 a McDonnell Douglas MD-82 crashes after take off in Detroit, Michigan, killing 154 of the 155 on board, plus two people on the ground. 1989 – A solar flare from the Sun creates a geomagnetic storm that affects micro chips, leading to a halt of all trading on Toronto's stock market. 2008 – The Trump International Hotel and Tower in Chicago is topped off at 1,389 feet (423 m), at the time becoming the world's highest residence above ground-level. 2012 – South African police fatally shoot 34 miners and wound 78 more during an industrial dispute at Marikana near Rustenburg. 2013 – The ferry St. Thomas Aquinas collides with a cargo ship and sinks at Cebu, Philippines, killing 61 people with 59 others missing. 2015 – More than 96 people are killed and hundreds injured following a series of air-raids by the Syrian Arab Air Force on the rebel-held market town of Douma. 2017 – Minamata Convention on Mercury entered into force.