Tuesday, June 30, 2020

Night of the Long Knives By 1934 Adolf Hitler appeared to have complete control over Nazi Germany

Night of the Long Knives

By 1934 Adolf Hitler appeared to have complete control over Nazi Germany, but like most dictators, he constantly feared that he might be ousted by others who wanted his power. To protect himself from a possible coup, Hitler used the tactic of divide and rule and encouraged other leaders such as Hermann Göring, Joseph Goebbels, Heinrich Himmler and Ernst Röhm to compete with each other for senior positions.

Albert Speer pointed out in his book, Inside the Third Reich (1970): "After 1933 there quickly formed various rival factions that held divergent views, spied on each other, and held each other in contempt. A mixture of scorn and dislike became the prevailing mood within the party. Each new dignitary rapidly gathered a circle of intimates around him. Thus Himmler associated almost exclusively with his SS following, from whom he could count on unqualified respect... As an intellectual Goebbels looked down on the crude philistines of the leading group in Munich, who for their part made fun of the conceited academic's literary ambitions. Göring considered neither the Munich philistines nor Goebbels sufficiently aristocratic for him and therefore avoided all social relations with them; whereas Himmler, filled with the elitist missionary zeal of the SS felt far superior to all the others." (1)

Röhm complained to Herman Rauschning about not being appointed a minister in the Nazi government. Röhm told Rauschning: "Adolf is a swine... He only associates with the reactionaries now. His old friends aren't good enough for him. Getting matey with the East Prussian generals. They're his cronies now... Are we revolutionaries or aren't we? The generals are a lot of old fogies. They will never have a new idea... I don't know where he's going to get his revolutionary spirit from. They're the same old clods, and they'll certainly lose the next war." (2)

Opposition to Ernst Röhm

Industrialists such as Albert Voegler, Gustav Krupp, Alfried Krupp, Fritz Thyssen and Emile Kirdorf, who had provided the funds for the Nazi victory, were unhappy with Röhm's socialistic views on the economy and his claims that the real revolution had still to take place. Walther Funk reported that Hjalmar Schacht and his friends in big business were worried that the Nazis might begin "radical economic experiments".

1860 Oxford evolution debate

The 1860 Oxford evolution debate took place at the Oxford University Museum in Oxford, England, on 30 June 1860, seven months after the publication of Charles Darwin's On the Origin of Species.^[1] Several prominent British scientists and philosophers participated, including Thomas Henry Huxley, Bishop Samuel Wilberforce, Benjamin Brodie, Joseph Dalton Hooker and Robert FitzRoy.^[1]
The debate is best remembered today for a heated exchange in which Wilberforce supposedly asked Huxley whether it was through his grandfather or his grandmother that he claimed his descent from a monkey.^[2] Huxley is said to have replied that he would not be ashamed to have a monkey for his ancestor, but he would be ashamed to be connected with a man who used his great gifts to obscure the truth.

The Death of Emperor Montezuma

Montezuma II Xocoyotzín, Emperor of the Aztecs

Montezuma had been selected to be Tlatoani (the word means "speaker") in 1502, the maximum leader of his people: his grandfather, father and two uncles had also been tlatoque (plural of tlatoani). From 1502 to 1519, Montezuma had proven himself to be an able leader in war, politics, religion, and diplomacy. He had maintained and expanded the empire and was lord of lands stretching from the Atlantic to the Pacific. Hundreds of conquered vassal tribes sent the Aztec's goods, food, weapons, and even slaves and captured warriors for sacrifice.

The Death of Montezuma

Cortes and the Invasion of Mexico

In 1519, Hernan Cortes and 600 Spanish conquistadors landed on Mexico's Gulf coast, establishing a base near the present-day city of Veracruz. They began slowly making their way inland, collecting intelligence through Cortes' interpreter/mistress Doña Marina ("Malinche"). They befriended disgruntled vassals of the Mexica and made an

Susan Hayward

Susan Hayward, original name Edythe Marrener, (born June 30, 1917, Brooklyn, New York, U.S.—died March 14, 1975, Los Angeles, California), American film actress who was a popular star during the 1940s and ’50s known for playing courageous women fighting to overcome adversity.

Marrener grew up in a working-class family. Following her graduation from Girls’ Commercial High School, she began working as a photographer’s model. After filmmaker George Cukor saw a colour photo of her in the Saturday Evening Post, she was invited to audition for the part of Scarlett O’Hara in Gone with the Wind (1939). Her lack of acting experience came through in her screen test,

The Germans’ summer offensive in southern Russia, 1942

The German plan to launch another great summer offensive crystallized in the early months of 1942. Hitler’s decision was influenced by his economists, who mistakenly told him that Germany could not continue the war unless it obtained petroleum supplies from the Caucasus. Hitler was the more responsive to such arguments because they coincided with his belief that another German offensive would so drain the Soviet Union’s manpower that the U.S.S.R. would be unable to continue the war. His thinking was shared by his generals, who had been awed by the prodigality with which the Soviets squandered their troops in the fighting of 1941 and the spring of 1942. By this time at least 4,000,000 Soviet troops had been killed, wounded, or captured, while German casualties totaled only 1,150,000.

Libya and Egypt, autumn 1941–summer 1942

In the Western Desert, a major offensive against Rommel’s front was undertaken on November 18, 1941, by the British 8th Army, commanded by Cunningham under the command in chief of Wavell’s successor in the Middle East, General Sir Claude Auchinleck. The offensive was routed. General Neil Methuen Ritchie took Cunningham’s place on November 25, still more tanks were brought up, and a fortnight’s resumed pressure constrained Rommel to evacuate Cyrenaica and to retreat to Agedabia. There, however, Rommel was at last, albeit meagrely, reinforced; and, after repulsing a British attack on December 26, he prepared a counteroffensive. When the British still imagined his forces to be hopelessly crippled, he attacked on January 21, 1942, and, by a series of strokes, drove the 8th Army back to the Gazala–Bir Hakeim line, just west of Tobruk.

The Chinese front and Burma, 1941–42

Japan’s entry into war against the western Allies had its repercussions in China. Chiang Kai-shek’s government on December 9, 1941, formally declared war not only against Japan (a formality long overdue) but also, with political rather than military intent, against Germany and Italy. Three Chinese armies were rushed to the Burmese frontier, since the Burma Road was the only land route whereby the western Allies could send supplies to the Nationalist Chinese government. On January 3, 1942, Chiang was recognized as supreme Allied commander for the China theatre of war; and a U.S. general, Joseph W. Stilwell, was sent to him to be his chief of staff. In the first eight weeks after Pearl Harbor, however, the major achievement of the Chinese was the definitive repulse, on January 15, 1942, of a long-sustained Japanese drive against Ch’ang-sha, on the Canton–Han-k’ou railway.

The fall of Singapore

Meanwhile, on February 8 and 9, three Japanese divisions had landed on Singapore Island; and on February 15 they forced the 90,000-strong British, Australian, and Indian garrison there, under Lieutenant General A.E. Percival, to surrender. Singapore was the major British base in the Pacific and had been regarded as unassailable due to its strong seaward defenses. The Japanese took it with comparative ease by advancing down the Malay Peninsula and then assaulting the base’s landward side, which the British had left inadequately defended. On February 13, moreover, Japanese paratroopers had landed

Pearl Harbor and the Japanese expansion, to July 1942

In accordance with Yamamoto’s plan, the aircraft carrier strike force commanded by Admiral Nagumo Chuichi sailed eastward undetected by any U.S. reconnaissance until it had reached a point 275 miles north of Hawaii. From there, on Sunday,

December 7, 1941, a total of about 360 aircraft, composed of dive-bombers, torpedo bombers, and a few fighters, was launched in two waves in the early morning at the giant U.S. naval base at Pearl Harbor. The base at that time was accommodating 70 U.S. fighting ships, 24 auxiliaries, and some 300 planes. The Americans were taken completely by surprise, and all eight battleships in the harbour were hit (though six were eventually repaired and returned to service);

Japanese policy, 1939–41

When war broke out in Europe in September 1939, the Japanese, despite a series of victorious battles, had still not brought their war in China to an end: on the one hand, the Japanese strategists had made no plans to cope with the guerrilla warfare pursued by the Chinese; on the other, the Japanese commanders in the field often disregarded the orders of the supreme command at the Imperial headquarters and occupied more Chinese territory than they had been ordered to take. Half of the Japanese Army was thus still tied down in China when the commitment of Great Britain and France to war against Germany opened up the prospect of wider conquests for Japan in Southeast Asia and in the Pacific. Japan’s military ventures in China proper were consequently restricted rather more severely henceforth.

Sukarno,

PRESIDENT OF INDONESIA

Sukarno, also spelled Soekarno, (born June 6, 1901, Surabaja [now Surabaya], Java, Dutch East Indies—died June 21, 1970, Jakarta, Indonesia), leader of the Indonesian independence movement

and Indonesia’s first president (1949–66), who suppressed the country’s original parliamentary system in favour of an authoritarian “Guided Democracy” and who attempted to balance the Communists against the army leaders. He was deposed in 1966 by the army under Suharto.

Early Life And Education

Sukarno was the only son of a poor Javanese schoolteacher, Raden Sukemi Sosrodihardjo, and his Balinese wife, Ida Njoman Rai. Originally named Kusnasosro, he was given a new and, it was hoped, more auspicious name,

Prince William, Duke of Cambridge

Prince William, Duke of Cambridge, KG, KT, PC, ADC (William Arthur Philip Louis;^{[fn 1]} born 21 June 1982) is a member of the British royal family. He is the elder son of Charles, Prince of Wales, and Diana, Princess of Wales. Since birth, he has been second in the line of succession to the British throne.

William was educated at four schools in the United Kingdom and studied for a degree at the University of St Andrews. During a gap year, he spent time in Chile, Belize, and Africa. In December 2006, he completed 44 weeks of training as an officer cadet and was commissioned in the Blues and

Benazir Bhutto (1953–2007)

Early Life

Benazir Bhutto was born on June 21, 1953, in Karachi, Pakistan, the eldest child of former premier Zulfikar Ali Bhutto. She went on to found the Pakistan People's Party and serve as the nation's prime minister (from 1971 to 1977). After completing her early education in Pakistan, she pursued her higher education in the United States. Bhutto attended Radcliffe College from 1969 to 1973 and then enrolled at Harvard University, where she graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in comparative government. It was then onto the United Kingdom, where she studied at Oxford University from 1973 to 1977, completing a course in international law and diplomacy.

Wiles's proof of Fermat's Last Theorem

Wiles's proof of Fermat's Last Theorem is a proof by British mathematician Andrew Wiles of a special case of the modularity theorem for elliptic curves. Together with Ribet's theorem, it provides a proof for Fermat's Last Theorem. Both Fermat's Last Theorem and the modularity theorem were almost universally considered inaccessible to proof by contemporaneous mathematicians, meaning that they were believed to be impossible to prove using current knowledge.

1990 June 21, Earthquake devastates Iran

1990

June 21,Earthquake devastates Iran

An earthquake near the Caspian Sea in Iran kills an estimated 50,000 and injures another 135,000 people on June 21, 1990. The 7.7-magnitude tremor wrecked havoc on the simply constructed houses in the area.

Thirty minutes past midnight, with most people sleeping in their homes, a violent quake, centered along the shores of the Caspian Sea in northwestern Iran shattered the nighttime tranquility. A 20,000-square-mile area in the provinces of Zanjan and Gilan was absolutely devastated. This region encompasses both farms and sea resorts–all were demolished. In towns along one 80-mile stretch, every single building was reduced to

June 21, 1948 – Lord Mountbatten resigned as the Governor General of India

On this day, June 21, in the year 1948, Lord Mountbatten resigned as the Governor General of India. Mountbatten was the last British viceroy of India and he was appointed by the British government to wrap up the British Empire in our country.

He served as the last Viceroy of India from February 12, 1947 to August 15, 1947 and then as the first Governor General of free India from August 15, 1947 to June 21, 1948. During his tenure, India got independence in the form of two dominions of India and Pakistan. The task of creating the boundaries between the two nations was also executed under his leadership.

Louis Mountbatten, 1st Earl Mountbatten of Burma

Admiral of the Fleet Louis Francis Albert Victor Nicholas Mountbatten, 1st Earl Mountbatten of Burma (born Prince Louis of Battenberg; 25 June 1900 – 27 August 1979), was a British Royal Navy officer and statesman, an uncle of Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, and second cousin once removed of Queen Elizabeth II. During the Second World War, he was Supreme Allied Commander, South East Asia Command (1943–1946). He was the last Viceroy of India (1947) and the first governor-general of independent India (1947–1948).

The First Victoria Cross Winner 1854
Ever since the Crimean War (1854-56) the Victoria Cross has been the highest award for British service personnel for gallantry in the face of the enemy. It takes precedence in order of wear over all other British orders, decorations, and medals, including the Order of the Garter. Instituted by Queen Victoria in 1856 it was revolutionary at the time of introduction in that award made no distinction between officers and enlisted men. Of some 1358 awarded since then, only fifteen have been won since the end of WW2. The medal is of bronze taken from Russian cannon captured at Sevastopol and these cannon themselves may have been of Chinese origin.

Battle of Bomarsund

The Battle of Bomarsund, in August 1854, took place during the Crimean War, when an Anglo-French expeditionary force attacked a Russian fortress. It was the only major action of the war to take place at Bomarsund in the Baltic Sea.

Bomarsund was a 19th-century fortress, the construction of which had started in 1832 by Russia in Sund, Åland Islands, in the Baltic Sea. Bomarsund had not been completed (only two towers

Ratification of the Constitution by the State of New Hampshire, June 21, 1788

New Hampshire was the ninth state to do so, and with its ratification, the Constitution was officially in effect. New Hampshire's ratification message included several suggested changes to the Constitution, including one which would said "Congress shall never disarm any citizen, unless such as are or have been in actual rebellion." The following text is taken from the Library of Congress's copy of Elliot's Debates.

In Convention of the Delegates of the People of the State of New Hampshire, June the 21st, 1788.

The Convention having impartially discussed and fully considered the Constitution for the United States of America, reported to Congress by the Convention of Delegates from the United States of America, and submitted to us by a resolution of the General Court of said state, passed the 14th day of December last past, and acknowledging with grateful hearts the goodness of the Supreme Ruler

1788 US Constitution comes into effect when New Hampshire is the 9th state to ratify it
The Constitutional Convention. Every state but Rhode Island sent delegates to the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia. The gathering included some of the most respected and talented men in America. George Washington was named president.
Edmund Randolph proposed the "Virginia Plan," drafted by James Madison -- a plan that recommended an entirely new form of government, including an executive, a judiciary, and a legislature composed of two houses and including a number of representatives from each state based on their population.

Solar Eclipse 2020: Safety and precautions to be taken during Surya Grahan

Annual Solar Eclipse 2020: India with several other countries will witness the first Surya Grahan or Annual Solar Eclipse of the year on June 21. However, certain safety measures are advised during this event. Find out the advised precautionary measures below.

Annual Solar Eclipse 2020: India and several other countries will witness the first Surya Grahan or Annual Solar Eclipse of the year on June 21. This will be the deepest Annual Solar Eclipse of 2020 where the moon will cover the centre leaving the outer rim of the sun. In its maximum phase, the sun will appear as a necklace of pearls.

Trump didn’t care for human rights in China

STARTING IN 2017, a picture slowly began to emerge from China’s far northwest:

China casts doubts long-term trade deal possible with Trump ...

compounds surrounded by watchtowers, no trees, high fences, and reports of people being taken away without due process or explanation. Eyewitnesses and family members described how China was building a string of concentration camps for its Uighur minority and others, incarcerating more than 1 million Turkic Muslims in an attempt to eradicate their culture, language and identity, one of the most appalling human rights abuses in the world today.

Second lunar eclipse of 2020 witnessed in Pakistan

The second lunar eclipse of 2020 was witnessed in various parts of the world including Pakistan on night between Friday and Saturday.

It was a partial lunar eclipse which lasted for four hours and 18 minutes. The eclipse started at 10:46pm on Friday in Pakistan and reached the peak at 12:25am on Saturday and ended at 2:04am.

'Ring of fire' solar eclipse begins in Pakistan

As moon made first contact and started covering the Sun, 2020’s first solar eclipse has begun in Pakistan. Sukkar and Gawadar will witness greatest phase of celestial spectacle with over 98 and 97 percent coverage respectively.

Zartaj Gul Wazir stirs up a storm on social media with novel definition of COVID-19

Minister of State for Climate Change Zartaj Gul Wazir had social media in stitches on Saturday after she provided a novel definition of COVID-19.

"COVID-19 means that it has 19 points that can be applied in any country in any way," said during a current affairs show on PTV News.

What is solar eclipse?

The solar eclipse happens when the Moon comes between the Earth and the Sun and blocks the rays of the Sun from directly reaching the Earth. So, it creates a solar eclipse on Earth. There are three kinds of solar eclipses — total, partial, and annular. The June 21 event will be an annular solar eclipse.

The solar eclipse happens when the Moon comes between the Earth and the Sun and blocks the rays of the Sun from directly reaching the Earth. So, it creates a solar eclipse on Earth. There are three kinds of solar eclipses — total, partial, and annular. The June 21 event will be an annular solar eclipse.

What is annular solar eclipse?

The name 'annular' is derived from the Latin word for ring, 'annulus.' Annular eclipses are named for their darkest point even if they only last less than a second. An annular solar eclipse happens when the Moon covers the Sun's center, leaving the Sun's visible outer edges to form a “ring of fire” or annulus around the Moon. People in many parts of the world will see a rare solstice annular solar eclipse on the same day as the June solstice. Ring of Fire' solar eclipse descends upon Pakistan - DAWN.COM

Solar Eclipse 2020 LIVE updates in Pakistan

11:23am - Temperature drops in cities in Sindh

Sukkur, Larkana and Hyderabad saw a drop in temperatures as they witnessed a solar eclipse.

The 'ring of fire' appeared in Sukkur at 11:08 for a few seconds on Sunday. Sukkur is one of the few cities in Pakistan where the 'ring of fire' appeared. Rare 'ring of fire' solar eclipse to dim Africa, Asia - SAMAA

11:08am - ‘Ring of fire’ witnessed in Sukkur

The 'ring of fire' appeared in Sukkur at 11:08 for a few seconds on Sunday. Sukkur is one of the few cities in Pakistan where the 'ring of fire' appeared.

Sun / Solar eclipse 2020 live updates: How and when to watch the suraj grahan in Pakistan

A solar eclipse, or suraj grahan as it is known in Pakistan, is set to occur on June 21 and would be visible in some cities across the country, the Pakistan Meteorological Department (PMD) Climate Data Processing Centre has said in a statement.

Annual Solar Eclipse 2020

According to the centre, "an annular solar eclipse happens when the moon covers the sun's centre, leaving the sun's visible outer edges to form a 'ring of fire' or annulus