• Sign up or login, and you'll have full access to opportunities of forum.

Milestones

Go to CruxDreams.com
On the night of April 30 to May 1, 1945, Soviet soldiers hoisted the red Banner of Victory over the defeated Reichstag in Berlin.

The honor of raising the red banner over the Nazi lair fell to the scouts of the 150th Infantry Division, Mikhail Egorov and Meliton Kantaria, led by Lieutenant Alexei Berest.
The Reichstag was captured by Red Army soldiers on May 1, 1945. The fighting in Berlin continued until the complete surrender of the Berlin garrison on May 2, 1945.

An interesting feature should be noted. SS troops took a particularly active part in the defense of the German capital and provided fierce resistance. These were the French division "Charlemagne", where mainly ethnic French served, and the SS division "Nordland", consisting of Dutch, Danes, and Norwegians. In this one can notice a certain paradox that the German capital was desperately stubbornly defended by non-Germans.

It is also interesting to note that for the Russian army this was the third time in history when it had to enter Berlin.
It was first taken in 1760 during the Seven Years' War, when the Russian vanguard of General Chernyshev captured the capital of Prussia. Russian troops entered Berlin for the second time in 1813, during the Napoleonic Wars. And finally, for the third time, Berlin was taken by storm after heavy fighting on May 2, 1945.scale_1200 (1).pngupload-TASS_1207448-pic905v-895x505-27343.jpg
 
ducon007 said:
For me, the greatest (in spite of Alain Prost, Michael Schumacher, Lewis Hamilton...)... and also the craziest!
Click to expand...
I recently watched a documentary about him, and learned that a rules change in F1 may have played into his fatal crash. The cars his team were driving had some form of new technology that assisted in traction control and stability (if I recall correctly), and the cars were basically designed around that. The F1 governing body decided they had an unfair advantage and banned use of that technology. Senna and his team mates had drive the cars with that tech disabled, which made them unstable, and there was no way to modify the cars to go without it.
Not sure what the actual cause of his crash was, but I wonder if that rule change didn't contribute to it.
 
Two hundred years ago, on May 7th 1824, Ludwig Van Beethoven, although totally deaf (and assisted by a co-conductor), conducted the première of his 9th symphony, in the Theater am Kärtnertor, in Vienna. Unusual for a symphony those days, Beethoven had been the first to introduce a vocal part in the last movement, "Ode an die Freude", after a poem from Friedrich Schiller.
 
On May 7, 1895, Alexander Stepanovich Popov first presented his invention at a meeting of the Russian Physical-Chemical Society in St. Petersburg, where he made a report and demonstrated the world’s first radio receiver that he had created.
The device was demonstrated by Popov during a lecture: “On the relationship of metal powders to electrical vibrations.” The first message about this appeared in the newspaper Kronstadt Bulletin. The newspaper noted that the device's bell responded to oscillations of Hertzian waves outdoors at a distance of up to 30 fathoms (about 60 m).

This day went down in the history of world science and technology as the first public demonstration of a radio broadcast.

Alexander_Stepanovich_Popov.jpgppv07.jpg
 
A little bit of history to entertain your day : on May 20th 1824, two hundred years ago, Charles X was crowned as King of France. He would be the last ruling absolutist monarch in France, and the last to get a coronation in the Reims Cathedral. Charles X was the last surviving brother of Louis XVI, who lost his head on the guillotine, 31 years earlier. The latter’s only son, Louis VII, had died ten years old in captivity, also during the revolution. After the fall of Napoleon in 1815, France had restored the absolutist monarchy from before the revolution, as if nothing had happened. With no more male issue from Louis XVI alive, the throne went to the latter’s oldest living brother, Louis XVIII, who died in 1824. Since he had neither male issue, the throne went to the next younger brother, Charles X.

However, the revolutionary spirit was not dead in France. In July 1830, an uprise forced Charles X to abdicate. In an attempt to rescue the monarchy, he passed the throne to his son, Louis XIX, but whose reign only lasted…twenty minutes, before he abdicated in turn, in favour of his 4 years old nephew, Henry V. The latter’s formal ‘reign’ would last only seven days. Ultimately, it was a distant family member of the Bourbons, Louis-Philippe, who became king, but who was forced to accept a constitutional reign, instead of ruling as an absolutist monarch.

The next decades, “Henry V” would maintain his claims on the throne, throughout the July-monarchy (1830-1848), the Second Republic (1848-1852), and the Second Empire (1852-1870). In 1873, in the chaos following the defeat in the French-Prussian War, the fall of the empire, and the Paris Commune, he saw his chance to seize power. From the Chambord Castle he prepared his March on Paris. But even before he started, he was already confronted with so many conditions and restrictions of power he should have to accept, preventing him to become an absolutist monarch, that he gave up his plan. In the Chambord Castle, the carriages in which he wanted to drive to Paris, are still exposed today.
 
Loxuru said:
A little bit of history to entertain your day : on May 20th 1824, two hundred years ago, Charles X was crowned as King of France. He would be the last ruling absolutist monarch in France, and the last to get a coronation in the Reims Cathedral. Charles X was the last surviving brother of Louis XVI, who lost his head on the guillotine, 31 years earlier. The latter’s only son, Louis VII, had died ten years old in captivity, also during the revolution. After the fall of Napoleon in 1815, France had restored the absolutist monarchy from before the revolution, as if nothing had happened. With no more male issue from Louis XVI alive, the throne went to the latter’s oldest living brother, Louis XVIII, who died in 1824. Since he had neither male issue, the throne went to the next younger brother, Charles X.

However, the revolutionary spirit was not dead in France. In July 1830, an uprise forced Charles X to abdicate. In an attempt to rescue the monarchy, he passed the throne to his son, Louis XIX, but whose reign only lasted…twenty minutes, before he abdicated in turn, in favour of his 4 years old nephew, Henry V. The latter’s formal ‘reign’ would last only seven days. Ultimately, it was a distant family member of the Bourbons, Louis-Philippe, who became king, but who was forced to accept a constitutional reign, instead of ruling as an absolutist monarch.

The next decades, “Henry V” would maintain his claims on the throne, throughout the July-monarchy (1830-1848), the Second Republic (1848-1852), and the Second Empire (1852-1870). In 1873, in the chaos following the defeat in the French-Prussian War, the fall of the empire, and the Paris Commune, he saw his chance to seize power. From the Chambord Castle he prepared his March on Paris. But even before he started, he was already confronted with so many conditions and restrictions of power he should have to accept, preventing him to become an absolutist monarch, that he gave up his plan. In the Chambord Castle, the carriages in which he wanted to drive to Paris, are still exposed today.
Click to expand...
Congratulations on your summary of a piece of French History!
A little addition: Charles X was the last "Roi de France" (King of France), as his successor Louis-Philippe called himself "Roi des Français" (King of the French).
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom