Scott Allsop's Blog, page 47

23rd February 1836: The Siege of the Alamo begins, lasting for thirteen days before the final battle

Having received few reinforcements by the time the Mexicans attacked on 6 March, the Alamo’s defenders suffered a decisive defeat that is believed to have killed every soldier in the ...

22nd February 1946: The ‘Long Telegram’ sent by George F. Kennan, a senior American diplomat in Moscow

The Long Telegram emphasized that the Soviet Union was inherently expansionist and ideologically driven, and advocated for the restriction of Soviet influence rather than direct ...

21st February 1885: the Washington Monument in Washington, D.C. was dedicated

The 555-foot tall Washington Monument was dedicated at a ceremony featuring President Chester Arthur alongside fellow politicians, engineers and ...

20th February 1939: Pro-Nazi rally held at Madison Square Garden in New York City

On February 20, 1939, at an event that arguably marked the height of the German American Bund, Fritz Julius Kuhn addressed approximately 20,000 people at a rally at New York City’s Madison Square ...

18th February 1915: Germany initiates a policy of unrestricted submarine warfare during the First World War

On February 4, 1915, Admiral Hugo von Pohl of the German High Seas Fleet warned that ‘every enemy merchant vessel’ in British waters would be targeted and that ‘it may not always be possible to prevent attacks on enemy ships from harming neutral ...

16th February 1861: Abraham Lincoln meets the girl who advised him to grow a beard to gain more votes

During the presidential campaign, 11-year-old Grace Bedell had written a letter to Abraham Lincoln in which she suggested that he would look more distinguished, and garner more votes, if he grew a ...

15th February 1946: ENIAC, the world’s first programmable general-purpose electronic digital computer, formally dedicated

ENIAC was soon put to use running calculations to help build a hydrogen bomb, and continued to operate until ...

14th February 1939: German battleship Bismarck launched at the Blohm & Voss shipyard in Hamburg

Bismarck was the first of two of the largest battleships ever built by Germany. Ordered for Nazi Germany’s Kriegsmarine, the ship was a testament to Nazi Germany’s ambitions to build a powerful and modern ...

13th February 1981: The sewers of Louisville, Kentucky, explode after industrial waste makes its way into the tunnels

The explosion wiped out services for thousands of residents, while the stench from the open sewers was ...

11th February 1919: Friedrich Ebert elected as first President of the German Weimar Republic

Although committed to democratic principles, the Weimar Republic and President Ebert faced persistent challenges from both the left and the right amidst the daunting task of guiding Germany through economic turmoil, political polarization, and the drafting of a new ...