TODAY IN HISTORY

The Rolls Royce Silver Wraith made its first test run on this day-the luxury auto for decades following the War.

Iceland becomes the first country to approve abortion for medical and social reasons[1935]

Paul Gadd,aka Gary Glitter, retired from pop music in 1976 & went in to more unsavoury pursuits.

DENG OPENS NEW CHINA RELATIONS:
January 29, 1979

On January 29, 1979, Deng Xiaoping, deputy premier of China, meets President Jimmy Carter, and together they sign historic new accords that reverse decades of U.S. opposition to the People's Republic of China.

Deng Xiaoping lived out a full and complete transformation of China. The son of a landowner, he joined the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in 1920 and participated in Mao Zedong's Long March in 1934. In 1945, he was appointed to the Party Central Committee and, with the 1949 victory of the communists in the Chinese Civil War, became the regional party leader of southwestern China. Called to Beijing as deputy premier in 1952, he rose rapidly, became general secretary of the CCP in 1954, and a member of the ruling Political Bureau in 1955.

A major policy maker, he advocated individualism and material incentives in China's attempt to modernize its economy, which often brought him into conflict with Mao and his orthodox communist beliefs. With the launch of the Cultural Revolution in 1966, Deng was attacked as a capitalist and removed from high party and government posts. He disappeared from public view and worked in a tractor factory, but in 1973 was reinstated by Premier Zhou Enlai, who again made him deputy premier. When Zhou fell ill in 1975, Deng became the effective leader of China.

In January 1976, Zhou died, and in the subsequent power struggle Deng was purged by the "Gang of Four"--strict Maoists who had come to power in the Cultural Revolution. In September, however, Mao Zedong died, and Deng was rehabilitated after the Gang of Four fell from power. He resumed his post as deputy premier, often overshadowing Premier Hua Guofeng.

Deng sought to open China to foreign investment and create closer ties with the West. In January 1979, he signed accords with President Jimmy Carter, and later that year the United States granted full diplomatic recognition to the People's Republic of China.

In 1981, Deng strengthened his position by replacing Hua Guofeng with his protýgý, Hu Yaobang, and together the men instituted widespread economic reforms in China. The reforms were based on capitalist models, such as the decentralization of various industries, material incentives as the reward for economic success, and the creation of a skilled and well-educated financial elite. As chief adviser to a series of successors, he continued to be the main policy maker in China during the 1980s.

Under Deng, China's economy rapidly grew, and citizens enjoyed expanded personal, economic, and cultural freedoms. Political freedoms were still greatly restricted, however, and China continued as an authoritative one-party state. In 1989, Deng hesitantly supported the government crackdown on the democratic demonstrations in Tiananmen Square. Later that year, he resigned his last party post but continued to be an influential adviser to the Chinese government until his death in 1997.

GANDHI ASSASSINATED:
January 30, 1948

Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, the political and spiritual leader of the Indian independence movement, is assassinated in New Delhi by a Hindu fanatic.

Born the son of an Indian official in 1869, Gandhi's Vaishnava mother was deeply religious and early on exposed her son to Jainism, a morally rigorous Indian religion that advocated nonviolence. Gandhi was an unremarkable student but in 1888 was given an opportunity to study law in England. In 1891, he returned to India, but failing to find regular legal work he accepted in 1893 a one-year contract in South Africa.

Settling in Natal, he was subjected to racism and South African laws that restricted the rights of Indian laborers. Gandhi later recalled one such incident, in which he was removed from a first-class railway compartment and thrown off a train, as his moment of truth. From thereon, he decided to fight injustice and defend his rights as an Indian and a man. When his contract expired, he spontaneously decided to remain in South Africa and launched a campaign against legislation that would deprive Indians of the right to vote. He formed the Natal Indian Congress and drew international attention to the plight of Indians in South Africa. In 1906, the Transvaal government sought to further restrict the rights of Indians, and Gandhi organized his first campaign of satyagraha, or mass civil disobedience. After seven years of protest, he negotiated a compromise agreement with the South African government.

In 1914, Gandhi returned to India and lived a life of abstinence and spirituality on the periphery of Indian politics. He supported Britain in the First World War but in 1919 launched a new satyagraha in protest of Britain's mandatory military draft of Indians. Hundreds of thousands answered his call to protest, and by 1920 he was leader of the Indian movement for independence. He reorganized the Indian National Congress as a political force and launched a massive boycott of British goods, services, and institutions in India. Then, in 1922, he abruptly called off the satyagraha when violence erupted. One month later, he was arrested by the British authorities for sedition, found guilty, and imprisoned.

After his release in 1924, he led an extended fast in protest of Hindu-Muslim violence. In 1928, he returned to national politics when he demanded dominion status for India and in 1930 launched a mass protest against the British salt tax, which hurt India's poor. In his most famous campaign of civil disobedience, Gandhi and his followers marched to the Arabian Sea, where they made their own salt by evaporating sea water. The march, which resulted in the arrest of Gandhi and 60,000 others, earned new international respect and support for the leader and his movement.

In 1931, Gandhi was released to attend the Round Table Conference on India in London as the sole representative of the Indian National Congress. The meeting was a great disappointment, and after his return to India he was again imprisoned. While in jail, he led another fast in protest of the British government's treatment of the "untouchables"--the impoverished and degraded Indians who occupied the lowest tiers of the caste system. In 1934, he left the Indian Congress Party to work for the economic development of India's many poor. His protýgý, Jawaharlal Nehru, was named leader of the party in his place.

With the outbreak of World War II, Gandhi returned to politics and called for Indian cooperation with the British war effort in exchange for independence. Britain refused and sought to divide India by supporting conservative Hindu and Muslim groups. In response, Gandhi launched the "Quit India" movement it 1942, which called for a total British withdrawal. Gandhi and other nationalist leaders were imprisoned until 1944.

In 1945, a new government came to power in Britain, and negotiations for India's independence began. Gandhi sought a unified India, but the Muslim League, which had grown in influence during the war, disagreed. After protracted talks, Britain agreed to create the two new independent states of India and Pakistan on August 15, 1947. Gandhi was greatly distressed by the partition, and bloody violence soon broke out between Hindus and Muslims in India.

In an effort to end India's religious strife, he resorted to fasts and visits to the troubled areas. He was on one such vigil in New Delhi when Nathuram Godse, a Hindu extremist who objected to Gandhi's tolerance for the Muslims, fatally shot him. Known as Mahatma, or "the great soul," during his lifetime, Gandhi's persuasive methods of civil disobedience influenced leaders of civil rights movements around the world, especially Martin Luther King Jr. in the United States.

Here's a Guardian report from 31st January 1826, showing how people had severe punishments for petty offences in those days -


Seven years for a pound of butter


The Guardian


The following sentences have been passed: Tranported Seven Years - James Bowker, 15, for stealing one pound weight of butter (Michael Higgins, 15, for the same offence, 12 months). Thomas Crabtree, 16, for stealing two silk handkerchiefs. Frederick Wil¬son, 23, for stealing wearing apparel. James Bargatty, 29, for stealing 100 pounds of peach-wood.

Imprisoned Two Years - John M'Conville, 15, for stealing two yards of cloth etc (Thos. Johnson, 17, for the same offence, three months ), Thomas Heald, 77, for stealing six pieces of calico. John Christie, 51, for stealing six brass boxes. (Margaret Christie, 26, for the same offence acquitted.) Johanna Gill, 25, for stealing 10 yards of print. (Caroline Stables, 17, and Juliana Hague, I6, for the same offence, six months).

Imprisoned 12 Months - Samuel Hickson, 19, for stealing wearing apparel. John Eastwood, 14, for stealing four pieces of woollen cloth. Ottiwell Cooper, 55, for stealing a piece of woollen cloth. Thomas Nuttall, 24, for stealing a silk gown. William Thomas, 18, for stealing two books.

Imprisoned Six Months - John Stevens, 20, for stealing a pocket book. John Hampson, 18, and James Monks, 18, for stealing a cotton coat. Mary Edwards, 26, for stealing three silk handkerchiefs. John Ogden, 21, for stealing 40 pounds of hatter's fur (William Mellor, 18, charged with the same offence, acquitted). Ann Salt, 30, and Martha Moors, 51, for stealing a shirt (Jane Salt, 14, charged with the same offence, acquitted). G Robinson 16, and Thomas M'Cardle, 16, for stealing wearing apparel (Peter Briggs, 15, charged with the same offence, acquitted). John Antrobus, 26, for stealing a bed. Susannah Brown, 38, for stealing three pounds of rags (Mary Everty, 25, for the same offence, three months). William Hudson, 34, for stealing 50 yards of cloth. James Davies, for stealing gold and bank notes. Edward Pearce, stealing coats. James Baguley for stealing copper. Thomas Walton, for stealing flocks (William Whitey for the same offence, three months). Saml Edgar, 17, for stealing three watches.

Imprisoned Four Months - John Uncles, 16, Michael Cox, 15, and John Wilson, 5, for stealing a goose.

Imprisoned Three Months - John Anderson, 34, for stealing 10 pounds of beef. Alice Cavannah, for stealing two drinking glasses. John Penketh, 18, for stealing lead. Thomas Johnson, 45, for stealing one umbrella. Catharine M'Carvan, 21, for stealing a sovereign, Mary Black, for stealing a shawl.

Imprisoned Two Months - Thomas Abbott, 29, for stealing a hat and a pair of breeches.

guardian.co.uk

Tranported Seven Years - James Bowker, 15, for stealing one pound weight of butter.


Imprisoned Six Months - James Davies, for stealing gold and bank notes!!

GERMANS UNLEASH U-BOATS:
January 31, 1917

On January 31, 1917, Germany announces the renewal of unlimited submarine warfare in the Atlantic, and German torpedo-armed submarines prepare to attack any and all ships, including civilian passenger carriers, said to be sited in war-zone waters. Three days later, the United States broke diplomatic relations with Germany, and just hours after that the American liner Housatonic was sunk by a German U-boat. None of the 25 Americans on board were killed, and all were later picked up by a British steamer.

When World War I erupted in 1914, President Woodrow Wilson pledged neutrality for the United States, a position that the vast majority of Americans favored. Britain, however, was one of America's closest trading partners, and tension soon arose between the United States and Germany over the latter's attempted quarantine of the British isles. Several U.S. ships traveling to Britain were damaged or sunk by German mines, and in February 1915 Germany announced unrestricted warfare against all ships, neutral or otherwise, that entered the war zone around Britain. One month later, Germany announced that a German cruiser had sunk the William P. Frye, a private American vessel that was transporting grain to England when it disappeared. President Wilson was outraged, but the German government apologized and called the attack an unfortunate mistake.

The Germans' most formidable naval weapon was the U-boat, a submarine far more sophisticated than those built by other nations at the time. The typical U-boat was 214 feet long, carried 35 men and 12 torpedoes, and could travel underwater for two hours at a time. In the first few years of World War I, the U-boats took a terrible toll on Allied shipping.

In early May 1915, several New York newspapers published a warning by the German embassy in Washington that Americans traveling on British or Allied ships in war zones did so at their own risk. The announcement was placed on the same page as an advertisement of the imminent sailing of the British-owned Lusitania ocean liner from New York to Liverpool. On May 7, the Lusitania was torpedoed without warning just off the coast of Ireland. Of the 1,959 passengers, 1,198 were killed, including 128 Americans.

The German government maintained that the Lusitania was carrying munitions, but the U.S. demanded reparations and an end to German attacks on unarmed passenger and merchant ships. In August, Germany pledged to see to the safety of passengers before sinking unarmed vessels but in November sunk an Italian liner without warning, killing 272 people, including 27 Americans. Public opinion in the United States began to turn irrevocably against Germany.

In 1917, Germany, determined to win its war of attrition against the Allies, announced the resumption of unrestricted warfare. The United States broke off relations with Germany, and on February 22 Congress passed a $250 million arms appropriations bill intended to make the United States ready for war. Two days later, British authorities gave the U.S. ambassador to Britain a copy of the "Zimmermann Note," a coded message from German foreign secretary Arthur Zimmermann to Count Johann von Bernstorff, the German ambassador to Mexico. In the telegram, intercepted and deciphered by British intelligence, Zimmermann stated that, in the event of war with the United States, Mexico should be asked to enter the conflict as a German ally. In return, Germany promised to restore to Mexico the lost territories of Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona. On March 1, the U.S. State Department published the note, and American public opinion was galvanized against Germany.

In late March, Germany sunk four more U.S. merchant ships, and on April 2 President Wilson appeared before Congress and called for a declaration of war against Germany. On April 4, the Senate voted 82 to six to declare war against Germany. Two days later, the House of Representatives endorsed the declaration by a vote of 373 to 50, and America formally entered World War I.

On June 26, the first 14,000 U.S. infantry troops landed in France to begin training for combat. After four years of bloody stalemate along the western front, the entrance of America's well-supplied forces into the conflict was a major turning point in the war. When the war finally ended, on November 11, 1918, more than two million American soldiers had served on the battlefields of Western Europe, and some 50,000 of these men had lost their lives.

So in both WWI and WWII - U.S. property was attacked without cause, thus engaging the American military in war retaliation?

I'm not a good student of history and the above is a question.

In both wars the U.S. declared neutral positioning did they not? But were drawn in by Germany and then Japan.

Why?

This may help you WC.

America's long-standing policy of isolationism left the United States reluctant to involve itself with what was popularly perceived, among the American public, as a European war.

Early in 1917, Germany resumed its policy of unrestricted submarine warfare. This, combined with public indignation over the Zimmermann telegram, led to a final break of relations with the Central Powers. After further U-boat attacks on American merchant ships, President Woodrow Wilson requested that Congress declare war on Germany, which it did on April 6, 1917 (see: Woodrow Wilson declares war on Germany on Wikisource). The House approved the war resolution 373-50, the Senate 82-6. Wilson hoped a separate peace could be achieved with Austria-Hungary; however, when it kept its loyalty to Germany, the US declared war on Austria-Hungary in December 1917.

Although the American contribution to the war was important, particularly in terms of the threat posed by an increasing US infantry presence in Europe, the United States was never formally a member of the Entente, but an "Associated Power". Significant numbers of American troops only arrived in Europe in the summer of 1918.

Germany calculated that it would be some time before large number of American troops could be sent to Europe, and that, in any event, the U-boat offensive would prevent their arrival. Still, the United States had been in a state of full military-related production, aiding the Entente for quite some time, and had also loaned the Allied powers vast sums of money. For these reasons, the Germans had made the decision to resume unrestricted submarine warfare, despite the threat of U.S. intervention, gambling that they would win the war before America could make an impact on the battlefield.

The United States Navy sent a battleship group to Scapa Flow to join with the British Grand Fleet, a number of destroyers to Queenstown, Ireland and several submarines to the Azores and to Bantry Bay, Ireland to help guard convoys. Several regiments of U.S. Marines were also dispatched to France. However, it would be some time before the United States would be able to contribute significant manpower to the Western and Italian fronts.

The British and French wanted the United States to send its infantry to reinforce their troops already on the battlelines. Indeed, throughout the war, the American forces were short of their own artillery, aviation, and engineering units. However, General John J. Pershing, American Expeditionary Force (AEF) commander, resisted breaking up American units and using them as reinforcements for British Empire and French units. Without experience in this type of warfare, Pershing ordered the use of frontal assaults, which had been discarded by that time by British Empire and French commanders as too costly in lives of their troops. As a result, the AEF suffered a very high rate of casualties in its operations in the summer and fall of 1918.

ITN

Thanks for the excellent response. Am in a battle with myself to find shoes and to launch myself into the working world...but will return and read and start my own research.

I have never read much about WWI and your earlier post about the German U-boats opened up a whole new curiosity in my lack of knowledge...

Got my attention and again thanks!

1st February 1552 - Sir Edward Coke, the famous English jurist, was born -



Sir Edward Coke (1552-1634), English jurist, who is considered one of the most eminent jurists in all English history, and best known as a compiler of the law. Often called Lord Coke or Lord Cooke, he was born in Norfolk, and educated at the University of Cambridge. He was admitted to the bar in 1578, became a member of Parliament in 1589, and became solicitor general in 1592. He became speaker of the House of Commons and then attorney general, after having competed for the latter appointment with the English philosopher and statesman Francis Bacon; this victory was the beginning of a long-standing rivalry between the two men. Coke's first years as representative of the Crown were characterized by ruthless support of authority; his prosecution of Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex, of the English statesman, courtier, and writer Sir Walter Raleigh, and of the Gunpowder Plot conspirators has been termed severe.

In 1606 Coke was made chief justice of the Court of Common Pleas. Thereafter he vigorously championed the common law against all other authority, even against the royal prerogative and the privilege of the church. In 1613 King James I of England promoted Coke to the Privy Council and to the office of chief justice of the King's Bench, thinking that Coke would be more easily managed in this post, but Coke continued to clash with the Crown. In 1616, at the instigation of Bacon (then attorney general), charges on relatively minor issues were brought against him, and he was removed from office. The following year, however, Coke was reappointed to the Privy Council, and after his reelection to Parliament in 1620 he once again challenged royal authority. The following year Coke helped impeach Bacon, then lord chancellor. He was also a leader in a debate urging that Parliament should not be subservient to the king. A few years later, Coke helped to write the Petition of Right, the most explicit statement of the principles of liberty to appear in England up to that time. It became an integral part of the English constitution.

Coke was a stern but able judge. His compilations of the law took the form of Reports on the cases he heard, issued regularly (1600-15, 1656-59); and four volumes of the Institutes of the Laws of England (1628-44), analyses of legal statutes, criminal law, and court jurisdiction.

Wouldn't it be good if we still ruled India - and America, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, and whatever other country was ours?

If we were still the Overlords of the Americans, they wouldn't be carrying guns - we would have have made them a less barbarous and peace-loving nation. They would eat their food with a knife and a fork rather than just a fork. Australians would learn that drinking Castlemaine XXXX in the middle of the Outback whilst eating kangaroo steaks is NOT culture (Shakespeare and Blackadder are culture) and New Zealanders would to do something fun without the use of sheep.

Shove it.

BATTLE OF STALINGRAD ENDS:
February 2, 1943

On this day, the last German troops in the Soviet city of Stalingrad surrender to the Red Army, ending one of the pivotal battles of World War II.

On June 22, 1941, despite the terms of the Nazi-Soviet Pact of 1939, Nazi Germany launched a massive invasion against the USSR. Aided by its greatly superior air force, the German army raced across the Russian plains, inflicting terrible casualties on the Red Army and the Soviet population. With the assistance of troops from their Axis allies, the Germans conquered vast territory, and by mid-October the great Russian cities of Leningrad and Moscow were under siege. However, the Soviets held on, and the coming of winter forced a pause to the German offensive.

For the 1942 summer offensive, Adolf Hitler ordered the Sixth Army, under General Friedrich von Paulus, to take Stalingrad in the south, an industrial center and obstacle to Nazi control of the precious Caucasian oil wells. In August, the German Sixth Army made advances across the Volga River while the German Fourth Air Fleet reduced Stalingrad to a burning rubble, killing over 40,000 civilians. In early September, General Paulus ordered the first offensives into Stalingrad, estimating that it would take his army about 10 days to capture the city. Thus began one of the most horrific battles of World War II and arguably the most important because it was the turning point in the war between Germany and the USSR.

In their attempt to take Stalingrad, the German Sixth Army faced a bitter Red Army under General Vasily Zhukov employing the ruined city to their advantage, transforming destroyed buildings and rubble into natural defensive fortifications. In a method of fighting the Germans began to call the Rattenkrieg, or "Rat's War," the opposing forces broke into squads eight or 10 strong and fought each other for every house and yard of territory. The battle saw rapid advances in street-fighting technology, such as a German machine gun that shot around corners and a light Russian plane that glided silently over German positions at night, dropping lethal bombs without warning. However, both sides lacked necessary food, water, or medical supplies, and tens of thousands perished every week.

Soviet leader Joseph Stalin was determined to liberate the city named after him, and in November he ordered massive reinforcements to the area. On November 19, General Zhukov launched a great Soviet counteroffensive out of the rubble of Stalingrad. German command underestimated the scale of the counterattack, and the Sixth Army was quickly overwhelmed by the offensive, which involved 500,000 Soviet troops, 900 tanks, and 1,400 aircraft. Within three days, the entire German force of more than 200,000 men was encircled.

Italian and Romanian troops at Stalingrad surrendered, but the Germans hung on, receiving limited supplies by air and waiting for reinforcements. Hitler ordered Von Paulus to remain in place and promoted him to field marshal, as no Nazi field marshal had ever surrendered. Starvation and the bitter Russian winter took as many lives as the merciless Soviet troops, and on January 21, 1943, the last of the airports held by the Germans fell to the Soviets, completely cutting the Germans off from supplies. On January 31, Von Paulus surrendered German forces in the southern sector, and on February 2 the remaining German troops surrendered. Only 90,000 German soldiers were still alive, and of these only 5,000 troops would survive the Soviet prisoner-of-war camps and make it back to Germany.

The Battle of Stalingrad turned the tide in the war between Germany and the Soviet Union. General Zhukov, who had played such an important role in the victory, later led the Soviet drive on Berlin. On May 1, 1945, he personally accepted the German surrender of Berlin. Von Paulus, meanwhile, agitated against Adolf Hitler among the German prisoners of war in the Soviet Union and in 1946 provided testimony at the International Military Tribunal at Nuremberg. After his release by the Soviets in 1953, he settled in East Germany.

Some letters sent by readers to The Guardian in 1874 and the answers they got to their questions -

Monday February 2, 1874
The Guardian


(54) Parish Umbrella
In some country districts one occasionally comes across communistic practices such as the existence of a suit of mourning, the property of the parish which is lent for those solemn scenes wherein poor humanity is returned to its native dust.

Parish coats being in existence, a parish umbrella seems only a natural sequence. In the churchwardens' accounts of Burnley, as given by Wilkinson, there is an entry of £2.10s. paid for an umbrella.

My good friend Mr Owen has given me the following from the accounts of the churchwardens of Rosthorne: "May 8, 1775, paid William Hunt for an umbrella £2.6s."
By 1790, 15 years of service, it may be presumed, had superannuated the venerable gingham, as we then find an entry for £1.1s. paid to Duncan Maclean for another.

The degeneracy of the age must have struck consternation into the hearts of many sticklers for the good old custom of getting wet through when they saw the advertisement in Harrop's Manchester Mercury for June and September, 1778, of umbrellas for sale in this town by Mr Watson. It is strange that an article found sculptured on the bas-reliefs of Nineveh and alluded to by Aristophanes and Plutarch should only have come into use in Manchester 90 years ago.

Dudley Armitage, Rusholme.

(56) The Pretty Girls of Stockport

I copy this local song from a street ballad sheet: Their rosy cheek and sparkling eye / Make the lads to smile as they pass by: / No cunning fox is half so sly / As the pretty girls of Stockport ...

Is the author known, and is the song anywhere printed in the dialect? Thomas Ratcliffe

(71) "Yard of Ale" (No. 39, January 19)

This is not a Shakespearean phrase, but it is one that is not uncommon. The ordinary "ale-yard" was a glass tube about a yard in length, with which, in old times, ale was in some districts measures out. The name occurs in "Evelyn's Diary".

(61) Siege of Manchester, 1642

Is there any plan of the fortifications in Manchester when Lieutenant Colonel Rosworm had the command. It was he who, who, having done his work by conract and not been paid as promised, uttered that remarkable phrase in his remonstrance: "If I had done so and so, then I should have been a Manchester man, for never let an unthankful man and promise breaker have another name". EE


guardian.co.uk

COUSTEAU PUBLISHES THE SILENT WORLD:
February 3, 1953

On February 3, 1953, French oceanographer Jacques-Yves Cousteau publishes his most famous and lasting work, The Silent World.

Born in Saint-Andrý-de-Cubzac, France, in 1910, Cousteau was trained at the Brest Naval School. While serving in the French navy, he began his underwater explorations, filming shipwrecks and the underwater world of the Mediterranean Sea through a glass bowl. At the time, the only available system for underwater breathing involved a diver being tethered to the surface, and Cousteau sought to develop a self-contained device.

In 1943, with the aid of engineer ýmile Gagnan, he designed the Aqua-Lung, the world's first self-contained underwater breathing apparatus (scuba). With the Aqua-Lung, the largely unexplored world lying beneath the ocean surface was open to Cousteau as never before. He developed underwater cameras and photography and was employed by the French navy to explore navy shipwrecks. In his free time, he explored ancient wrecks and studied underwater sea life.

In 1948, he published his first work, Through 18 Meters of Water, and in 1950 Lord Guinness, a British patron, bought him an old British minesweeper to use for his explorations. Cousteau converted the ship into an oceanographic vessel and christened it the Calypso. In 1953, he published The Silent World, written with Frýdýric Dumas, and began work on a film version of the book with film director Louis Malle. Three years later, The Silent World was released to world acclaim. The film, which revealed to the public the hidden universe of tropical fish, whales, and walruses, won Best Documentary at the Academy Awards and the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival.

With the success of the film, Cousteau retired from the navy to devote himself to oceanography. He welcomed geologists, archaeologists, zoologists, environmentalists, and other scientists aboard the Calypso and led numerous excursions to the world's great bodies of water, from the Red Sea to the Amazon River. He headed the Conshelf Saturation Dive Program, in which men lived and worked for extended time periods at considerable depths along the continental shelves.

His many books include The Living Sea (1963), Three Adventures: Galýpagos, Titicaca, the Blue Holes (1973), and Jacques Cousteau: The Ocean World (1985). He also produced several more award-winning films and scores of television documentaries about the ocean, making him a household name. He saw firsthand the damage done to the marine ecosystems by humans and was an outspoken and persuasive environmentalist. Cousteau died in 1997.

On this day in 1399, John of Gaunt died -



John of Gaunt. Son of Edward III of England, husband of Katherine Swynford, father of Henry IV of England.


John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster (June 24, 1340 – February 3, 1399) was the third surviving son of King Edward III of England and Philippa of Hainault. He gained his name "John of Gaunt" because he was born at Ghent in 1340. The fabulously wealthy Gaunt exercised tremendous influence over the throne during the minority reign of his nephew, Richard II, and during the ensuing periods of political strife, but took care not to be openly associated with opponents of the King.

John of Gaunt's legitimate male heirs, the Lancasters, included Kings Henry IV, Henry V, and Henry VI. John of Gaunt's illegitimate descendants, the Beauforts, later married into the House of Tudor, which ascended to the throne in the person of Henry VII. In addition, Gaunt's legitimate descendants included his daughters Philippa of Lancaster, Queen consort of John I of Portugal and mother of King Edward of Portugal, Elizabeth, Duchess of Exeter, the mother of John Holland, 2nd Duke of Exeter, and Katherine of Lancaster, Queen consort of Henry III of Castile, a grand-daughter of Peter I of Castile and the mother of John II of Castile.

When John of Gaunt died in 1399, his estates were declared forfeit to the crown, as Richard II had exiled John's less diplomatic heir, Henry Bolingbroke, in 1398. Bolingbroke returned and deposed the unpopular Richard, to reign as King Henry IV of England (1399–1413), the first of the descendants of John of Gaunt to hold the throne of England.



Duke of Lancaster

Upon the death of his father-in-law Henry of Grosmont, 1st Duke of Lancaster, he received half of Henry's lands, the title Earl of Lancaster, and the distinction as the greatest landowner in the north of England, because of his first marriage to his cousin, Blanche of Lancaster (1359), heiress to the Palatinate of Lancaster. John received the rest of the inheritance only when Blanche's sister, Maud (married to William V, Count of Hainaut), died on April 10, 1362.

Gaunt received the title "Duke of Lancaster" from Edward III on 13 November 1362. John was by then well-established as a fabulously wealthy prince, owning at least thirty castles and vast estates across England and France. His household was comparable in scale and organisation to that of a monarch.

After the death of his elder brother, Edward, the Black Prince, John of Gaunt became increasingly powerful. He contrived to protect the religious reformer John Wyclif, with whose aims he sympathised. However, Gaunt's ascendancy to political power coincided with widespread resentment at his influence. At a time when English forces encountered setbacks in the Hundred Years' War against France, and Edward III's rule had started to become domestically unpopular, due to high taxation and to the king's affair with Alice Perrers, political opinion closely associated the Duke of Lancaster with the failing government of the 1370s. Furthermore, while the king and the Prince of Wales had the status of 'popular heroes' due to their success on the battlefield, John of Gaunt had never known any such military success, which might have bolstered his reputation.

When King Edward III died in 1377 and John's ten-year-old nephew succeeded to the throne as Richard II of England, Gaunt's influence strengthened further. However, mistrust remained, and some suspected him of wanting to seize the throne for himself. John took pains to ensure that he never became associated with the opposition to Richard's kingship; but as the virtual ruler of England during Richard's minority, he made some unwise decisions on taxation that led to the Peasants' Revolt in 1381, during which the rebels destroyed his Savoy Palace.

In 1386, Richard, who had by now assumed more power for himself, dispatched Gaunt to Spain as an ambassador. However, crisis ensued almost immediately, and in 1387, Richard's misrule brought England to the brink of civil war. Only John of Gaunt, upon his return to England, was able to bring about a compromise between the Lords Appellant and King Richard, ushering in a period of relative stability and harmony. During the 1390s, John of Gaunt's reputation of devotion to the well-being of the kingdom became much restored. Gaunt died of natural causes on February 3, 1399 at Leicester Castle, with his beloved third wife Katherine by his side.



The banner of the House of Plantagenets monarchs.

The monarchs of the House of Plantagenets were Henry II, Richard I, John, Henry III, Edward I, Edward II, Edward III and Richard II.

wikipedia.org

Feb 03 125000 BCE,

Bhunk and Looka, discover that fire can be created by rubbing flint on a red rock.

The British invented fire - and the wheel.

4th February 1587 - Elizabeth I sends the second death warrant for Mary, Queen of Scots (Elizabeth's cousin) from London to Fotheringhay castle where Mary was imprisoned. Mary was a Catholic, and wanted to get rid of the Protestant Elizabeth because she thought a Catholic should be on the English throne, even though the English were overwhemingly Protestant. This eventually led to the imprisonment, and execution, of Mary, Queen of Scots.


In October 1586, Elizabeth I sent this letter to Mary, Queen of Scots -

To Mary, queen of Scots, October 1586


You have in various ways and manners attempted to take my life and to bring my kingdom to destruction by bloodshed. I have never proceeded so harshly against you, but have, on the contrary, protected and maintained you like myself. These treasons will be proved to you and all made manifest. Yet it is my will, that you answer the nobles and peers of the kingdom as if I were myself present. I therefore require, charge, and command that you make answer for I have been well informed of your arrogance.

Act plainly without reserve, and you will sooner be able to obtain favour of me.

Elizabeth



Although she signed the warrant for Mary's execution, Elizabeth tore it up. Another copy was signed, and - before the queen could change her mind yet again - Burghley and others upon the council sent if off. Elizabeth's life was in constant danger while Mary lived, as numerous plots attested. Her councilors were determined to keep her safe. As for Elizabeth, she was understandably torn between protecting her throne and taking the life of a fellow sovereign, even one she did not respect or like.

The second warrant was sent from London on 4th February, and reached Fotheringhay on the following evening. On the 7th the Earls of Shrewsbury and Kent, who were in charge of the execution, warned Mary to prepare for death on the following day. On the 9th news of the execution reached London, and was received by the Queen with surprise and horror. She openly raged against her councilors; her capable secretary Davison, who had given her the second warrant, was sent to the Tower.


englishhistory.net

The longest surgical operation in modern history..4 days--commences in Chicago,Ill. to remove Gertrude Levandowski's 308 pound ovarian cyst!

The British invent the Tea Bag and the pinkie in the air while drinking a cuppa!

FIRST U.S. PRESIDENT ELECTED:
February 4, 1789

George Washington, the commander of the Continental Army during the Revolutionary War, is unanimously elected the first president of the United States by all 69 presidential electors who cast their votes. John Adams of Massachusetts, who received 34 votes, was elected vice president. The electors, who represented 10 of the 11 states that had ratified the U.S. Constitution, were chosen by popular vote, legislative appointment, or a combination of both four weeks before the election.

According to Article Two of the U.S. Constitution, the states appointed a number of presidential electors equal to the "number of Senators and Representatives to which the state may be entitled in Congress." Each elector voted for two people, at least one of whom did not live in their state. The individual receiving the greatest number of votes was elected president, and the next-in-line, vice president. (In 1804, this practice was changed by the 12th Amendment to the Constitution, which ordered separate ballots for the office of president and vice president.)

New York--though it was to be the seat of the new United States government--failed to choose its eight presidential electors in time for the vote on February 4, 1789. Two electors each from Virginia and Maryland were delayed by weather and did not vote. In addition, North Carolina and Rhode Island, which would have had seven and three electors respectively, had not ratified the Constitution and so could not vote.

That the remaining 69 unanimously chose Washington to lead the new U.S. government was a surprise to no one. As commander-in-chief during the Revolutionary War, he had led his inexperienced and poorly equipped army of civilian soldiers to victory over one of the world's great powers. After the British surrender at Yorktown in 1781, Washington rejected with abhorrence a suggestion by one of his officers that he use his preeminence to assume a military dictatorship. He would not subvert the very principles for which so many Americans had fought and died, he replied, and soon after, he surrendered his military commission to the Continental Congress and retired to his Mount Vernon estate in Virginia.

When the Articles of Convention proved ineffectual, and the fledging republic teetered on the verge of collapse, Washington again answered his country's call and traveled to Philadelphia in 1787 to preside over the Constitutional Convention. Although he favored the creation of a strong central government, as president of the convention he maintained impartiality in the public debates. Outside the convention hall, however, he made his views known, and his weight of character did much to bring the proceedings to a close. The drafters created the office of president with him in mind, and on September 17, 1787, the document was signed.

The next day, Washington started for home, hoping that, his duty to his country again served, he could live out the rest of his days in privacy. However, a crisis soon arose when the Constitution fell short of its necessary ratification by nine states. Washington threw himself into the ratification debate, and a compromise agreement was made in which the remaining states would ratify the document in exchange for passage of the constitutional amendments that would become the Bill of Rights.

Government by the United States began on March 4, 1789. In April, Congress sent word to George Washington that he had unanimously won the presidency. He borrowed money to pay off his debts in Virginia and traveled to New York. On April 30, he came across the Hudson River in a specially built and decorated barge. The inaugural ceremony was performed on the balcony of Federal Hall on Wall Street, and a large crowed cheered after he took the oath of office. The president then retired indoors to read Congress his inaugural address, a quiet speech in which he spoke of "the experiment entrusted to the hands of the American people." The evening celebration was opened and closed by 13 skyrockets and 13 cannons.

As president, Washington sought to unite the nation and protect the interests of the new republic at home and abroad. Of his presidency, he said, "I walk on untrodden ground. There is scarcely any part of my conduct which may not hereafter be drawn in precedent." He successfully implemented executive authority, making good use of brilliant politicians such as Alexander Hamilton and Thomas Jefferson in his Cabinet, and quieted fears of presidential tyranny. In 1792, he was unanimously reelected but four years later refused a third term.

In 1797, he finally began his long-awaited retirement at Mount Vernon. He died on December 14, 1799. His friend Henry Lee provided a famous eulogy for the father of the United States: "First in war, first in peace, and first in the hearts of his countrymen."

February 6th 1952: King George VI dies in his sleep. His daughter becomes Queen Elizabeth II.

Here's how the BBC reported it at the time -

His Majesty, King George VI, has died peacefully in his sleep at Sandringham House.

The official announcement from Sandringham, given at 1045 GMT, said the King retired in his usual health, but passed away in his sleep and was found dead in bed at 0730 GMT by a servant.

He was 56, and was known to have been suffering from a worsening lung condition.

Princess Elizabeth, who is at the Royal hunting lodge in Kenya, immediately becomes Queen at the age of 25.

She has been informed of her father's death, and is preparing to return to London, but a thunderstorm has delayed the departure of her plane.

She is expected back tomorrow afternoon, when she will take the Royal Oath which will seal her accession to the throne.

The cabinet met this morning as soon as the Prime Minister, Winston Churchill, was informed of the news, to discuss the constitutional implications.

The House of Commons has also been suspended as a mark of respect.

Before MPs adjourned, Prime Minister Winston Churchill offered their condolences, saying, "We cannot at this moment do more than record the spontaneous expression of grief."

He is due to make a broadcast to the nation at 2100 GMT tomorrow.

As the news of the King's death spread, all cinemas and theatres closed, and BBC programmes were cancelled except for news bulletins. Flags in every town were at half-mast, and sports fixtures were cancelled.

A crowd began to gather outside Buckingham Palace during the afternoon, as diplomats from around the world arrived in official cars to write their condolences in the visitors' book.

By 2100 GMT the police had to press the growing number of mourners back from the gates and on to the pavement. Despite the bitter cold and rain, the silent, weeping crowd stayed until long after it grew dark.

The news was greeted with shock and grief throughout the world. In the United States, President Truman, in a formal statement from the White House, paid tribute to the King.

He said, "He shared to the end of his reign all the hardships and austerities which evil days imposed on the brave British people.

"In return, he received from the people of the whole Commonwealth a love and devotion which went beyond the usual relationship of a King and his subjects."

Both the US Senate and the House of Representatives voted to adjourn out of regard for the dead King.

The body of King George is to lie in state in Westminster Hall from next Monday, 11 February, until the funeral.


King George VI and his queen, Elizabeth, in London during World War II.

February 7th 1478 - Thomas More, the Catholic martyr, was born.

* *

Thomas More was born in Milk Street, London on February 7, 1478, son Sir John More, a prominent judge. He was educated at St Anthony's School in London. As a youth he served as a page in the household of Archbishop Morton, who anticipated More would become a "marvellous man."1. More went on to study at Oxford under Thomas Linacre and William Grocyn. During this time, he wrote comedies and studied Greek and Latin literature. One of his first works was an English translation of a Latin biography of the Italian humanist Pico della Mirandola. It was printed by Wynkyn de Worde in 1510.

* * * Around 1494 More returned to London to study law, was admitted to Lincoln's Inn in 1496, and became a barrister in 1501. Yet More did not automatically follow in his father's footsteps. He was torn between a monastic calling and a life of civil service. While at Lincoln's Inn, he determined to become a monk and subjected himself to the discipline of the Carthusians, living at a nearby monastery and taking part of the monastic life. The prayer, fasting, and penance habits stayed with him for the rest of his life. More's desire for monasticism was finally overcome by his sense of duty to serve his country in the field of politics. He entered Parliament in 1504, and married for the first time in 1504 or 1505.

* * * More became a close friend with Desiderius Erasmus (ca. 1466-1536) during the latter's first visit to England in 1499. It was the beginning of a lifelong friendship and correspondence. They produced Latin translations of Lucian's works, printed at Paris in 1506, during Erasmus' second visit. On Erasmus' third visit, in 1509, he wrote Encomium Moriae, or Praise of Folly, (1509), dedicating it to More.

* * * One of More's first acts in Parliament had been to urge a decrease in a proposed appropriation for King Henry VII. In revenge, the king had imprisoned More's father and not released him until a fine was paid and More himself had withdrawn from public life. After the death of the king in 1509, More became active once more. In 1510, he was appointed one of the two undersheriffs of London. In this capacity, he gained a reputation for being impartial, and a patron to the poor. In 1511, More's first wife died in childbirth. More was soon married again, to Dame Alice.

* * * During the next decade, More attracted the attention of King Henry VIII. In 1515 he accompanied a delegation to Flanders to help clear disputes about the wool trade. Utopia opens with a reference to this very delegation. More was also instrumental in quelling a 1517 London uprising against foreigners, portrayed in the play Sir Thomas More, possibly by Shakespeare. More accompanied the King and court to the Field of the Cloth of Gold. In 1518 he became a member of the Privy Council, and was knighted in 1521.

* * * More helped Henry VIII in writing his Defence of the Seven Sacraments, a repudiation of Luther, and wrote an answer to Luther's reply under a pseudonym. More had garnered Henry's favor, and was made Speaker of the House of Commons in 1523 and Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster in 1525. As Speaker, More helped establish the parliamentary privilege of free speech. He refused to endorse King Henry VIII's plan to divorce Katherine of Aragón (1527). Nevertheless, after the fall of Thomas Wolsey in 1529, More became Lord Chancellor, the first layman yet to hold the post.

* * * While his work in the law courts was exemplary, his fall came quickly. He resigned in 1532, citing ill health, but the reason was probably his disapproval of Henry's stance toward the church. He refused to attend the coronation of Anne Boleyn in June 1533, a matter which did not escape the King's notice. In 1534 he was one of the people accused of complicity with Elizabeth Barton, the nun of Kent who opposed Henry's break with Rome, but was not attainted due to protection from the Lords who refused to pass the bill until More's name was off the list of names. In April, 1534, More refused to swear to the Act of Succession and the Oath of Supremacy, and was committed to the Tower of London on April 17.**More was found guilty of treason and was beheaded on July 6, 1535. His final words on the scaffold were: "The King's good servant, but God's First." More was beatified in 1886 and canonized by the Catholic Church as a saint by Pope Pius XI in 1935.

DAVIS CUP COMPETITION ESTABLISHED:
February 9, 1900

On February 9, 1900, the solid silver trophy known today as the Davis Cup is first put up for competition when American collegian Dwight Filley Davis challenges British tennis players to come across the Atlantic and compete against his Harvard team.

Davis, born in St. Louis, Missouri, won the intercollegiate tennis singles championship in 1899. In the summer of that year, he and his Harvard teammates traveled to the West Coast to play against some of California's best players. Impressed by the enthusiasm with which spectators greeted the national competition, Davis decided to propose an international tennis event. He won the support of the U.S. National Lawn Tennis Association and personally spent $750 on the construction of an elegant silver trophy bowl, 13 inches high and 18 inches in diameter. In February 1900, Davis put the International Lawn Tennis Challenge Trophy up for competition.

Great Britain, regarded as the world's leading tennis power, answered Davis' challenge, and on August 8, 1900, three top British players came to the Longwood Cricket Club in Brookline, Massachusetts, to compete against Davis and his all-Harvard team.

Davis had devised a three-day format for the event that still exists today: two singles matches on the first and third days, and a doubles match on the second day. He was captain of the U.S. team and on August 8 received serve on the very first Davis Cup point, which he hit out. He ending up triumphing in the singles match, however, and the next day with Holcombe Ward defeated the British doubles team. Rain forced the cancellation of two of the singles matches, and the first Davis Cup ended with a 3-0 Harvard sweep.

Davis was famous for his powerful left-handed serve and concentrated on a risky net play strategy that won him brilliant victories and unexpected defeats. With Ward, he won the U.S. doubles title in 1900 and 1901, and he was ranked fourth nationally in 1902. That year, the British returned for a Davis Cup rematch in New York, and the star American doubles team succumbed to the ascendant Doherty brothers--Laurie and Reggie. The United States pulled ahead in singles, however, and kept the International Lawn Tennis Challenge Trophy with a 3-2 overall victory.

The next year, the Doherty brothers helped take the trophy back to England for the first time. In 1904, Belgium and France entered the Davis Cup competition, and soon after, Australia and New Zealand, whose players played collectively as Australasia. The trophy did not return to the U.S. until 1913 and then stayed only for a year before departing for Australasia.

After receiving a law degree, Dwight Davis returned to St. Louis and became involved in local politics. Beginning in 1911, he served as public parks commissioner and built the first municipal tennis courts in the United States. He fought in World War I and earned the Distinguished Service Cross for bravery. In 1920, he made an unsuccessful bid for the U.S. Senate but the next year traveled to Washington nonetheless as director of the War Finance Corporation. Beginning in 1923, he served as assistant secretary of war under President Calvin Coolidge and in 1925 was made secretary of war proper. In 1929, President Herbert Hoover appointed him governor-general of the Philippines, and he served in this post--which essentially made him the ruler of the Philippines--for the next four years.

Throughout his distinguished career as a statesman, Davis remained involved in tennis as both an avid recreational player and an administrator. In 1923, he served as president of the U.S. Lawn Tennis Association. When the International Lawn Tennis Challenge Trophy ran out of room for names, he donated a large silver tray to go with the bowl.

Today, the Davis Cup, as the International Lawn Tennis Challenge Trophy is commonly known, is the premier trophy of international team tennis. Each year, dozens of nations compete for the right to advance to the finals. Shortly before his death in 1945, David said of the growing prestige of the Davis Cup, "If I had known of its coming significance, it would have been cast in gold."

Letters written by readers sent in to the Guardian in 1864 -

Thoughts unsuited to the Sabbath

Wednesday February 10, 1864
The Guardian


Sir - Will you kindly permit me through the medium of your journal, to beg of the youthful part of your numerous readers, who are in the habit of sending valentines at this time of the year, not to post any of these charming missives on Saturday.

Not to speak of the hard Sunday morning's work it would give to the poor postmen, (preventing their taking even their usual Sunday's rest), think of the many minds that the reception of valentines on this day will fill with thoughts totally unsuited to the Sabbath, and to public worship. By such a very trifling effort as posting these valentines on another day than Saturday, much of this will be prevented.

Yours truly,
Epsilon, Southport




Sir - Travelling from Manchester on Friday last per Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway Company with samples weighing with cases 1201b, I was charged excess on the entire weight, and informed that no luggage except my own personal wearing apparel (of which I had none with me) was allowed to be carried free.

I paid the amount under protest, stating that my cases contained wearing apparel, only which by the company's own rules is allowed, no mention there being made to its being my own personal wearing apparel.

The transaction was afterwards ratified at head-quarters. Perhaps you, or some of your readers, can inform me whether this was an illegal imposition or an illiberal but legal charge.

I remain, sir, yours truly
FC





Notices to Correspondents

A. Q. C. - Yes.

Etrangere. - No.

A Goldbeater's Apprentice. - He cannot

H. B. - We decline to accept wagers.

Sam. - If he is a weekly lodger you can let the rooms and you have a lien on his goods for the amount of rent due.

M. A. Foy. - It is not our business to correct or explain our London [correspondent's] errors; but we believe that he has hastily supposed the 18th Parliament of Great Britain and Ireland, which the present one is, to be the same thing as the 18th Parliament of Queen Victoria, and has not perceived the absurdity of the conclusions resulting from his own calculations on this erroneous basis.

An Anxious Mother. - Write to the captain of the ship.

A. H. M. - The parents are responsible if they refuse to give information to the Registrar.

C. E. - The establishment is 148,242 officers and men besides the troops serving in India.

guardian.co.uk

Coach driven at 15mph panics the public

Saturday February 11, 1826
The Guardian


Ministers have announced that it is not their intention this year to propose any change in the Corn Laws. The distress which prevails among the most industrious part of the community in some of the cotton districts is extreme; it is greater perhaps than has ever before prevailed in this country, and it is a bitter commentary on such a state of things to find the landed Interest resolutely defending the monopoly which secures them an absolute superflux of luxuries, without any personal or mental exertions on their part to create or to acquire it.

The London Mail Cart: We have heretofore had occasion to notice the extreme and dangerous speed at which this vehicle is driven from the coach-office, at the Royal Hotel, to the post-office. We have observed it three days this week ; and on Thursday, particularly, it passed down Market-street with the horse at full gallop, and people running to get out of the way.

The speed at which it was going could not, we think, be less than fourteen or fifteen miles per hour, which, in a crowded thoroughfare, is absolutely intolerable. If we observe any more such furious driving, we will lay an information ourselves, rather than that it shall not be put a stop to.

Price of Butchers' Meat: Amidst all the enormous reduction which has taken place in property of almost every kind, we had not yet heard that there has been any reduction in the price of butchers' meat, which we believe is very generally charged 8d per lb. This, for a period such as the present is an extravagant rate; it ought to be reduced, and if persons in the middle class will make a short but determined stand, it will be reduced.

Anti-Slavery Resolution: A meeting of the gentlemen who signed the requisition for a public meeting on the slavery question was held on Monday to consider of the course to be adopted. About fifty of the requisitionists attended; and the general feeling seemed to be, that it was time to put an end to the courtesy which led to requisitions being addressed to the borough reeve and constables, and by thus divesting those offices of the consequence with which this courtesy has invested them, to reduce them to their proper stations. At a meeting of the provisional committee it was determined to send over a deputation to Sir Oswald Mosley, bart [sic] to invite him to preside on the occasion.

guardian.co.uk
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Britain invented trains and the first trains in the world ran in the North of England in the early 19th Century.

Critics of the new form of transport believed that the "sheer speeds" involved - between 30 and 40 mph (faster than anything known before) - would kill the passengers.

YALTA CONFERENCE ENDS:
February 11, 1945

On February 11, 1945, a week of intensive bargaining by the leaders of the three major Allied powers ends in Yalta, a Soviet resort town on the Black Sea. It was the second conference of the "Big Three" Allied leaders--U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, and Soviet Premier Joseph Stalin--and the war had progressed mightily since their last meeting, which had taken place in Tehran in late 1943.

What was then called the Crimea conference was held at the old summer palace of Czar Nicholas II on the outskirts of Yalta, now a city in the independent Ukraine. With victory over Germany three months away, Churchill and Stalin were more intent on dividing Europe into zones of political influence than in addressing military considerations. Germany would be divided into four zones of occupation administered by the three major powers and France and was to be thoroughly demilitarized and its war criminals brought to trial. The Soviets were to administer those European countries they liberated but promised to hold free elections. The British and Americans would oversee the transition to democracy in countries such as Italy, Austria, and Greece.

Final plans were made for the establishment of the United Nations, and a charter conference was scheduled to begin in San Francisco in April.

A frail President Roosevelt, two months from his death, concentrated his efforts on gaining Soviet support for the U.S. war effort against Japan. The secret U.S. atomic bomb project had not yet tested a weapon, and it was estimated that an amphibious attack against Japan could cost hundreds of thousands of American lives. After being assured of an occupation zone in Korea, and possession of Sakhalin Island and other territories historically disputed between Russia and Japan, Stalin agreed to enter the Pacific War within two to three months of Germany's surrender.

Most of the Yalta accords remained secret until after World War II, and the items that were revealed, such as Allied plans for Germany and the United Nations, were generally applauded. Roosevelt returned to the United States exhausted, and when he went to address the U.S. Congress on Yalta he was no longer strong enough to stand with the support of braces. In that speech, he called the conference "a turning point, I hope, in our history, and therefore in the history of the world." He would not live long enough, however, to see the iron curtain drop along the lines of division laid out at Yalta. In April, he traveled to his cottage in Warm Springs, Georgia, to rest and on April 12 died of a cerebral hemorrhage.

On July 16, the United States successfully tested an atomic bomb in the New Mexico desert. On August 6, it dropped one of these deadly weapons on Hiroshima, Japan. Two days later, true to its pledge at Yalta, the Soviet Union declared war against Japan. The next day, the United States dropped another atomic bomb on Nagasaki, and the Soviets launched a massive offensive against the Japanese in Manchuria. On August 15, the combination of the U.S. atomic attacks and the Soviet offensive forced a Japanese surrender. At the end of the month, U.S. troops landed in Japan unopposed.

When the full text of the Yalta agreements were released in the years following World War II, many criticized Roosevelt and Churchill for delivering Eastern Europe and North Korea into communist domination by conceding too much to Stalin at Yalta. The Soviets never allowed free elections in postwar Eastern Europe, and communist North Korea was sharply divided from its southern neighbor.

Eastern Europe, liberated and occupied by the Red Army, would have become Soviet satellites regardless of what had happened at Yalta. Because of the atomic bomb, however, Soviet assistance was not needed to defeat the Japanese. Without the Soviet invasion of the Japanese Empire in the last days of World War II, North Korea and various other Japanese-held territories that fell under Soviet control undoubtedly would have come under the sway of the United States. At Yalta, however, Roosevelt had no guarantee that the atomic bomb would work, and so he sought Soviet assistance in what was predicted to be the costly task of subduing Japan. Stalin, more willing than Roosevelt to sacrifice troops in the hope of territorial gains, happily accommodated his American ally, and by the end of the war had considerably increased Soviet influence in East Asia.