This day in history.....

This Day In History | General Interest

HITLER BECOMES FÜHRER:
August 2, 1934


With the death of German President Paul von Hindenburg, Chancellor Adolf Hitler becomes absolute dictator of Germany under the title of Führer, or "Leader." The German army took an oath of allegiance to its new commander-in-chief, and the last remnants of Germany's democratic government were dismantled to make way for Hitler's Third Reich. The Führer assured his people that the Third Reich would last for a thousand years, but Nazi Germany collapsed just 11 years later.

Adolf Hitler was born in Braunau am Inn, Austria, in 1889. As a young man he aspired to be a painter, but he received little public recognition and lived in poverty in Vienna. Of German descent, he came to detest Austria as a "patchwork nation" of various ethnic groups, and in 1913 he moved to the German city of Munich in the state of Bavaria. After a year of drifting, he found direction as a German soldier in World War I, and was decorated for his bravery on the battlefield. He was in a military hospital in 1918, recovering from a mustard gas attack that left him temporarily blind, when Germany surrendered.

He was appalled by Germany's defeat, which he blamed on "enemies within"--chiefly German communists and Jews--and was enraged by the punitive peace settlement forced on Germany by the victorious Allies. He remained in the German army after the war, and as an intelligence agent was ordered to report on subversive activities in Munich's political parties. It was in this capacity that he joined the tiny German Workers' Party, made up of embittered army veterans, as the group's seventh member. Hitler was put in charge of the party's propaganda, and in 1920 he assumed leadership of the organization, changing its name to Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei (National Socialist German Workers' party), which was abbreviated to Nazi.

The party's socialist orientation was little more a ploy to attract working-class support; in fact, Hitler was fiercely right-wing. But the economic views of the party were overshadowed by the Nazis' fervent nationalism, which blamed Jews, communists, the Treaty of Versailles, and Germany's ineffectual democratic government for the country's devastated economy. In the early 1920s, the ranks of Hitler's Bavarian-based Nazi party swelled with resentful Germans. A paramilitary organization, the Sturmabteilung (SA), was formed to protect the Nazis and intimidate their political opponents, and the party adopted the ancient symbol of the swastika as its emblem.

In November 1923, after the German government resumed the payment of war reparations to Britain and France, the Nazis launched the "Beer Hall Putsch"--an attempt at seizing the German government by force. Hitler hoped that his nationalist revolution in Bavaria would spread to the dissatisfied German army, which in turn would bring down the government in Berlin. However, the uprising was immediately suppressed, and Hitler was arrested and sentenced to five years in prison for treason.

Imprisoned in Landsberg fortress, he spent his time there dictating his autobiography, Mein Kampf (My Struggle), a bitter and rambling narrative in which he sharpened his anti-Semitic and anti-Marxist beliefs and laid out his plans for Nazi conquest. In the work, published in a series of volumes, he developed his concept of the Fýhrer as an absolute dictator who would bring unity to German people and lead the "Aryan race" to world supremacy.

Political pressure from the Nazis forced the Bavarian government to commute Hitler's sentence, and he was released after nine months. However, Hitler emerged to find his party disintegrated. An upturn in the economy further reduced popular support of the party, and for several years Hitler was forbidden to make speeches in Bavaria and elsewhere in Germany.

The onset of the Great Depression in 1929 brought a new opportunity for the Nazis to solidify their power. Hitler and his followers set about reorganizing the party as a fanatical mass movement, and won financial backing from business leaders, for whom the Nazis promised an end to labor agitation. In the 1930 election, the Nazis won six million votes, making the party the second largest in Germany. Two years later, Hitler challenged Paul von Hindenburg for the presidency, but the 84-year-old president defeated Hitler with the support of an anti-Nazi coalition.

Although the Nazis suffered a decline in votes during the November 1932 election, Hindenburg agreed to make Hitler chancellor in January 1933, hoping that Hitler could be brought to heel as a member of his cabinet. However, Hindenburg underestimated Hitler's political audacity, and one of the new chancellor's first acts was to exploit the burning of the Reichstag (parliament) building as a pretext for calling general elections. The police under Nazi Hermann Goering suppressed much of the party's opposition before the election, and the Nazis won a bare majority. Shortly after, Hitler took on dictatorial power through the Enabling Acts.

Chancellor Hitler immediately set about arresting and executing political opponents, and even purged the Nazis' own SA paramilitary organization in a successful effort to win support from the German army. With the death of President Hindenburg on August 2, 1934, Hitler united the chancellorship and presidency under the new title of Führer. As the economy improved, popular support for Hitler's regime became strong, and a cult of Führer worship was propagated by Hitler's capable propagandists.

German remilitarization and state-sanctioned anti-Semitism drew criticism from abroad, but the foreign powers failed to stem the rise of Nazi Germany. In 1938, Hitler implemented his plans for world domination with the annexation of Austria, and in 1939 Germany seized all of Czechoslovakia. Hitler's invasion of Poland on September 1, 1939, finally led to war with Germany and France. In the opening years of World War II, Hitler's war machine won a series of stunning victories, conquering the great part of continental Europe. However, the tide turned in 1942 during Germany's disastrous invasion of the USSR.

By early 1945, the British and Americans were closing in on Germany from the west, the Soviets from the east, and Hitler was holed up in a bunker under the chancellery in Berlin awaiting defeat. On April 30, with the Soviets less than a mile from his headquarters, Hitler committed suicide with Eva Braun, his mistress whom he married the night before.

Hitler left Germany devastated and at the mercy of the Allies, who divided the country and made it a major battlefield of Cold War conflict. His regime exterminated nearly six millions Jews and an estimated 250,000 Gypsies in the Holocaust, and an indeterminable number of Slavs, political dissidents, disabled persons, homosexuals, and others deemed unacceptable by the Nazi regime were systematically eliminated. The war Hitler unleashed upon Europe took even more lives--close to 20 million people killed in the USSR alone. Adolf Hitler is reviled as one of history's greatest villains.
 
I'll settle for celebrating the fact that we don't have to interact with your ex anymore. Or her mother, for that matter.
 
August 3rd - This Day in History


1492 - Christopher Columbus left Palos, Spain with three ships. The voyage would lead him to what is now known as the Americas. He reached the Bahamas on October 12.
1914 - Germany declared war on France. The next day World War I began when Britain declared war on Germany.
1923 - Calvin Coolidge was sworn in as the 30th president of the U.S. after the sudden death of President Harding.
1936 - The U.S. State Department advised Americans to leave Spain due to the Spanish Civil War.
1936 - Jesse Owens won the first of his four Olympic gold medals.
1943 - Gen. George S. Patton verbally abused and slapped a private. Later, Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower ordered him to apologize for the incident.
1949 - The National Basketball Association (NBA) was formed. The league was formed by the merger between the Basketball Association of America and the National Basketball League.
1956 - Bedloe's Island had its name changed to Liberty Island.
1958 - The Nautilus became the first vessel to cross the North Pole underwater. The mission was known as "Operation Sunshine."
1966 - Lenny Bruce overdosed on morphine at the age of 40.
1979 - Johnny Carson, the "Tonight Show" host, was on the cover of the Burbank, CA, telephone directory.
1981 - U.S. traffic controllers with PATCO, the Professional Air Traffic Controllers Organization, went on strike. They were fired just as U.S. President Reagan had warned.
1984 - Mary Lou Retton won a gold medal at the Los Angeles Summer Olympics.
1988 - The Iran-Contra hearings ended. No ties were made between U.S. President Reagan and the Nicaraguan Rebels.
1988 - The Soviet Union released Mathias Rust. He had been taken into custody on May 28, 1987 for landing a plane in Moscow's Red Square.
1989 - Shiite Muslim kidnappers suspended their threat to execute another hostage. It had been reported that the terrorist in Lebanon had hung Lt. Col. William R. Higgins three days before.
1990 - Thousands of Iraqi troops pushed within a few miles of the border of Saudi Arabia. This heightened world concerns that the invasion of Kuwait could spread.
1992 - The U.S. Senate voted to restrict and eventually end the testing of nuclear weapons.
1994 - Arkansas executed three prisoners. It was the first time in 32 years.
1995 - Eyad Ismoil was flown from Jordan to the U.S. to face charges that he had driven the van that blew up in New York's World Trade Center.
2004 - In New York, the Statue of Liberty re-opened to the public. The site had been closed since the terrorist attacks on the U.S. on September 11
2004 - NASA launched the spacecraft Messenger. The 6 1/2 year journey was planned to arrive at the planet Mercury in March 2011.
 
MrBishop said:
July 28th in History
1914: The first World War begins when Austria-Hungary declares war on Serbia

MrBishop said:
August 3rd - This Day in History
1914 - Germany declared war on France. The next day World War I began when Britain declared war on Germany.
History is not in the least subjective, is it? :lol2:
 
HomeLAN said:
I'll settle for celebrating the fact that we don't have to interact with your ex anymore. Or her mother, for that matter.

But they were so much fun. At least you knew exactly where you stood with them.
 
That was half the fun. That they'd traversed the school system with linguistic skills like that did kinda explain California as a whole, tho.
 
August 6th


1806: The Holy Roman Empire comes to an end when Francis II formally resigns as Holy Roman Emperor and becomes Francis I, Emperor of Austria.


1926: American swimmer Gertrude Ederle becomes the first woman to swim the English Channel. She completes the feat in 14 hours, 31 minutes, faster than anyone before.


1926: The Warner Brothers studio gives the first public exhibition of their Vitaphone system for showing talking motion pictures.

1945: The American bomber Enola Gay drops an atomic weapon on Hiroshima, Japan, destroying a majority of the city and killing 60,000 to 70,000 inhabitants, according to American estimates.


1962: The former British colony of Jamaica gains its independence.


1998: Former White House intern Monica Lewinsky testifies for over six hours before a grand jury investigating her relationship with President Bill Clinton. :lol2:
 
August 7th


1934: The United States Court of Appeals rules that James Joyce's novel Ulysses is not obscene and may be brought into the U.S.


1941: Rabindranath Tagore, the Indian poet, songwriter, philosopher, and advocate for independence who won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1913, dies at the age of 80.


1942: United States Marines land at Guadalcanal in the Solomon Islands, making the first assault of U.S. troops on Japanese positions in the Pacific Ocean. U.S. forces finally capture the island in February 1943.


1947: In a recreation of a possible prehistoric migration, Norwegian explorer Thor Heyerdahl lands his balsa raft, the Kon-Tiki, on a Polynesian island after a journey from Peru.


1961: Soviet cosmonaut Gherman Titov completes 17 orbits of the Earth in 25.5 hours in Vostok 2, becoming the first person to spend more than a day in space.


1964: After two reported North Vietnamese attacks on U.S. warships, the U.S. Congress approves the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, giving President Lyndon Johnson the power to launch the Vietnam War.
 
August 8th


1588: In the Battle of Gravelines, an English fleet led by Lord Charles Howard and Sir Francis Drake destroys the Spanish Armada, a fleet of ships sent by Spain to invade England.


1786: In an early milestone in mountain climbing, Michel Piccard and Jacques Balmat make the first ascent of Mont Blanc, the highest peak in the Alps.


1815: After his final defeat at Waterloo, Napoleon leaves for his forced exile on the remote south Atlantic island of Saint Helena, where he dies six years later.


1846: The U.S. House of Representatives passes the Wilmot Proviso, a controversial measure that bans slavery from territory acquired in the Mexican War. The proviso fails to pass the Senate.


1894: The U.S. administration of President Grover Cleveland recognizes the Republic of Hawaii.


1992: The United States men's Olympic basketball team, made up of professional stars for the first time, defeats Croatia to win the gold medal after dominating the Olympic tournament.
 
August 9th


1848: The Free-Soil Party, a third party organized to oppose the further extension of slavery into American territories, nominates former president Martin Van Buren for president.


1870: The British Parliament passes the Married Women's Property Act, which grants women limited control over property they bring into a marriage and income they earn outside the home.


1945: The U.S. bomber Bock's Car drops an atomic bomb on Nagasaki, Japan, destroying a third of the city and killing 40,000 people, according to U.S. estimates. Japan's government surrenders 5 days later.


1971: The British government in Northern Ireland begins the practice, known as internment, of imprisoning suspected antigovernment guerrillas without trial.

1974: President Richard Nixon, facing impeachment by Congress for his role in Watergate, resigns at noon. Vice President Gerald Ford is sworn in to succeed him.


378: In the battle of Adrianople, Gothic horsemen destroy the attacking Roman forces led by Emperor Valens. The Goths kill an estimated 20,000 of the 30,000 Romans, including Valens.
 
378: In the battle of Adrianople, Gothic horsemen destroy the attacking Roman forces led by Emperor Valens. The Goths kill an estimated 20,000 of the 30,000 Romans, including Valens.
I used to wonder what the original Goths (who were bad-ass warriors) would think of the current self-proclaimed "goths." My guess is that they'd slaughter them out of hand for being annoying.
 
August 10th


1792: In one of the bloodiest events of the French Revolution, a mob overruns the royal Tuilerie Palace, murdering 600 Swiss Guards, while the Legislative Assembly votes to suspend the monarchy.


1821: Missouri is admitted to the Union as the 24th state. Under the Missouri Compromise of 1820, Missouri is allowed to permit slavery within its borders.


1831: William Driver, a ship's captain from Salem, Massachusetts, coins the term “Old Glory” in reference to the American flag.


1846: President James K. Polk signs legislation creating the Smithsonian Institution, with money left for that purpose in the will of English scientist James Smithson.

1921: At the age of 39, Franklin D. Roosevelt notices early signs of poliomyelitis at his summer home in New Brunswick, Canada. The disease will prevent him from ever walking unaided again.


1995: Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols are indicted for the April bombing of an Oklahoma City federal building that killed 168 people and injured over 500 more.
 
Mare said:
1995: Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols are indicted for the April bombing of an Oklahoma City federal building that killed 168 people and injured over 500 more.

My uncle's wife died in that explosion. If there is any justice in the world those two will be shoveling shit in hell!
 
Mare said:
August 10th


1792: In one of the bloodiest events of the French Revolution, a mob overruns the royal Tuilerie Palace, murdering 600 Swiss Guards, while the Legislative Assembly votes to suspend the monarchy.


1821: Missouri is admitted to the Union as the 24th state. Under the Missouri Compromise of 1820, Missouri is allowed to permit slavery within its borders.


1831: William Driver, a ship's captain from Salem, Massachusetts, coins the term “Old Glory” in reference to the American flag.


1846: President James K. Polk signs legislation creating the Smithsonian Institution, with money left for that purpose in the will of English scientist James Smithson.

1921: At the age of 39, Franklin D. Roosevelt notices early signs of poliomyelitis at his summer home in New Brunswick, Canada. The disease will prevent him from ever walking unaided again.


1995: Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols are indicted for the April bombing of an Oklahoma City federal building that killed 168 people and injured over 500 more.


My Little guy starts Kindergarten today!
 
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