TheBattle of Gonzales was the first military engagement of theTexas Revolution. It was fought nearGonzales,Texas, on October 2, 1835, between rebelliousTexian settlers and a detachment of Mexican army troops. In 1831, Mexican authorities gave the settlers of Gonzales a small cannon to help protect them from frequentComanche raids. Over the next four years, the political situation in Mexico deteriorated, and in 1835 several states revolted. As the unrest spread, ColonelDomingo de Ugartechea, the commander of all Mexican troops in Texas, felt it unwise to leave the residents of Gonzales a weapon and requested the return of the cannon. When the initial request was refused, Ugartechea sent 100 dragoons to retrieve the cannon using peaceful means. On October 1, settlers voted to initiate a fight. Mexican soldiers opened fire as Texians approached their camp in the early hours of October 2. After several hours of desultory firing, Mexican soldiers withdrew. Although the skirmish had little military significance, it marked a clear break between the colonists and the Mexican government and is considered to have been the start of the Texas Revolution. News of the skirmish spread throughout the United States, where it was often referred to as the "Lexington of Texas". The cannon's fate is disputed. It may have been buried and rediscovered in 1936, or it may have been seized by Mexican troops after theBattle of the Alamo.
TheBattle of Quebec (French:Bataille de Québec) was fought on December 31, 1775 between AmericanContinental Army forces and the British defenders of thecity of Quebec, early in theAmerican Revolutionary War. The battle was the first major defeat of the war for the Americans, and it came at a high price. GeneralRichard Montgomery was killed,Benedict Arnold was wounded, andDaniel Morgan and more than 400 men were taken prisoner. The city's garrison, a motley assortment of regular troops and militia led byQuebec's provincial governor, GeneralGuy Carleton, suffered a small number of casualties. In the battle and the following siege, French-speakingCanadiens were active on both sides of the conflict. The American forces received supplies and logistical support from local residents, and the city's defenders included locally raised militia. When the Americans retreated, they were accompanied by a number of their supporters; those who remained behind were subjected to a variety of punishments after the British re-established control over the province.
TheRivadavia class was a two-shipgroup ofbattleships (Spanish:acorazados) designed by the AmericanFore River Shipbuilding Company for theArgentine Navy. NamedRivadavia andMoreno, they were Argentina's counter to Brazil's twoMinas Geraes-class battleships. During their construction, the Argentine battleships were frequently subject of rumors involving their sale to a foreign country, especially after the beginning of theFirst World War. Throughout their careers,Rivadavia andMoreno were based inPuerto Belgrano and served principally astraining ships and diplomatic envoys. They were modernized in the United States in 1924 and 1925 and were inactive for much of theSecond World War due to Argentina's neutrality.Struck from the navy lists on 1 February 1957,Rivadavia wasscrapped in Italy beginning in 1959.Moreno was struck on 1 October 1956 and was towed to Japan in 1957 for scrapping.
SMSGoeben ("His Majesty's ShipGoeben") was the second of twoMoltke-classbattlecruisers of theImperial German Navy, launched in 1911 and named after the GermanFranco-Prussian War veteran GeneralAugust Karl von Goeben. Along with hersister shipMoltke,Goeben was similar to the previous German battlecruiser design,Von der Tann, but larger and with increased armor protection and two more main guns in an additionalturret. Compared to their British rivals in theIndefatigable class,Goeben andMoltke were significantly larger and better armored. Several months after her commissioning in 1912,Goeben, with thelight cruiserBreslau, formed the GermanMediterranean Division and patrolled there during theBalkan Wars. After the outbreak ofWorld War I on 28 July 1914,Goeben andBreslau evaded British naval forces in the Mediterranean and reachedConstantinople. The two ships were transferred to theOttoman Empire on 16 August 1914, andGoeben became the flagship of theOttoman Navy asYavuz Sultan Selim, usually shortened toYavuz. In 1936 she was officially renamedTCG ("Ship of the Turkish Republic")Yavuz; she carried the remains ofMustafa Kemal Atatürk fromIstanbul toİzmit in 1938.Yavuz remained the flagship of theTurkish Navy until she was decommissioned in 1950.
SMSWestfalen ("His Majesty's shipWestphalia") was one of theNassau-classbattleships, the first fourdreadnoughts built for theGerman Imperial Navy.Westfalen waslaid down atAG Weser inBremen on 12 August 1907, launched nearly a year later on 1 July 1908, and commissioned into theHigh Seas Fleet on 16 November 1909. The ship was equipped with a main battery of twelve 28 cm (11 in) guns in six twinturrets in an unusual hexagonal arrangement. The ship served with hersister ships for the majority ofWorld War I, seeing extensive service in theNorth Sea, where she took part in several fleet sorties. These culminated in theBattle of Jutland on 31 May – 1 June 1916, whereWestfalen was heavily engaged in night-fighting against British light forces.Westfalen led the German line for much of the evening and into the following day, until the fleet reachedWilhelmshaven. On another fleet advance in August 1916, the ship was damaged by a torpedo from a Britishsubmarine.The ship remained in Germany while the majority of the fleet was interned inScapa Flow after the end of the war. In 1919, following thescuttling of the German fleet in Scapa Flow,Westfalen was ceded to the Allies as a replacement for the ships that had been sunk. She was then sent toship-breakers in England, who broke the ship up for scrap by 1924.
USSMassachusetts (Battleship No. 2) was anIndiana-classbattleship and the secondUnited States Navy ship comparable to foreign battleships of the time. Authorized in 1890 and commissioned six years later, she was a small battleship, though with heavy armor and ordnance. The ship class also pioneered the use of anintermediate battery. She was designed forcoastal defense and as a result her decks were not safe from high waves on the open ocean.Massachusetts served in theSpanish–American War (1898) as part of theFlying Squadron and took part in the blockades ofCienfuegos andSantiago de Cuba. She was decommissioned in 1906 for modernization. In 1917 she was recommissioned to serve as a training ship for gun crews duringWorld War I. She was decommissioned for the final time in March 1919 under the nameCoast Battleship Number 2 so that her name could be reused forError: {{USS}} invalid control parameter: 0 (help). In 1921 she wasscuttled in shallow water off the coast ofPensacola, Florida.
The list presents 110 swords and 12 sword mountings from ancient to feudal Japan, spanning from the lateKofun to theMuromachi period. The objects are housed in Buddhist temples,Shinto shrines, museums or held privately. TheTokyo National Museum houses the largest number of these national treasures, with 20 of the 122. During theYayoi period from about 300 BC to 300 AD, iron tools and weapons such as knives, axes, swords or spears, were introduced to Japan from Korea and China. Shortly after this event, Chinese, Korean, and eventually Japanese swordsmiths produced ironwork locally.
Before dawn on January 30, 1964, GeneralNguyen Khanh ousted the military junta led by GeneralDuong Van Minh from the leadership ofSouth Vietnam without firing a shot. It came less than three months after Minh's junta had themselves come to power in abloody coup against then PresidentNgo Dinh Diem. The coup was bloodless and took less than a few hours—after power had been seized Minh's aide and bodyguard, MajorNguyen Van Nhung was arrested and summarily executed. After a tumultuous year in power, Khanh was himselfdeposed in February 1965 and forced into exile.
In September 1775, early in theAmerican Revolutionary War, ColonelBenedict Arnold led a force of 1,100Continental Army troops on an expedition fromCambridge, Massachusetts to the gates ofQuebec City. The expedition passed through the wilderness encountering unanticipated problems along the way. By the time Arnold reached the French settlements above the Saint Lawrence River in November, his force was reduced to 600 starving men. Arnold's troops crossed the Saint Lawrence on November 13 and 14 and attempted unsuccessfully to besiege Quebec City. Arnold was rewarded for his effort in leading the expedition with a promotion tobrigadier general.
TheBattle of Marengo was fought on 14 June 1800 betweenFrench forces underNapoleon Bonaparte andAustrian forces near the city ofAlessandria, inPiedmont,Italy. The French overcameAustrian GeneralMichael von Melas's surprise attack near the end of the day, driving the Austrians out of Italy, and enhancing Napoleon's political position inParis asFirst Consul of France in the wake of hiscoup d’état the previous November.[1] It was followed by a propaganda campaign, which sought to rewrite the battle three times during Napoleon’s rule.[2]
First flown on 15 April 1952, theBoeing B-52 Stratofortress is a long-range,subsonic,jet-poweredstrategic bomber designed and built byBoeing and operated by theUnited States Air Force (USAF). Built to carry nuclear weapons forCold War-eradeterrence missions, the B-52 Stratofortress replaced theConvair B-36. Superior performance at high subsonic speeds and relatively low operating costs kept the B-52 in service despite the advent of later aircraft and the 50th anniversary of continuous service with its original primary operator came in 2005.
United States Army Air Forces (USAAF) very long range bomber units conducted eleven air raids on Japanese-occupiedSingapore between November 1944 and March 1945 duringWorld War II. Most of these raids targeted the naval base and dockyard facilities on the island, though several minelaying missions were conducted in nearby waters. After the American bombers were redeployed the BritishRoyal Air Force assumed responsibility for minelaying operations near Singapore and continued these until 24 May 1945.
TheCourageous class, sometimes called theGlorious class, was the first multi-ship class ofaircraft carriers to serve with the BritishRoyal Navy. The three ships –HMS Furious,HMS Courageous andHMS Glorious – were originally laid down as "large light cruisers" (battlecruisers) during theFirst World War. While very fast, their minimal armour and few guns limited their long-term utility in the post-war Royal Navy. Rather thanscrap them, they were converted to aircraft carriers and operated in that role until the end of theSecond World War.
John Kourkouas (Greek:Ἰωάννης Κουρκούας,fl. ca. 915–946), was one of the most important generals of theByzantine Empire. His successes in battle against the Muslim states in the East definitively reversed the course of the centuries-longByzantine–Arab Wars and began Byzantium's 10th-century "Age of Conquest". In 923, Kourkouas was appointed commander-in-chief of the Byzantine armies along the eastern frontier, facing theAbbasid Caliphate and the semi-autonomous Muslim border emirates. He kept this post for more than twenty years, overseeing decisive Byzantine military successes that altered the strategic balance in the region.
Lieutenant GeneralNguyễn Chánh Thi (February 23, 1923 – June 23, 2007) was an officer in theArmy of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN). He is best known for frequently being involved in coups in the 1960s and wielding substantial influence as a key member of various juntas that ruledSouth Vietnam from 1964 until 1966, when he was overpowered byVietnam Air Force chief and Prime MinisterNguyen Cao Ky in apower struggle and exiled to the United States.
Operation Postmaster was a British World War Two operation conducted on the Spanish island ofFernando Po, by theSmall Scale Raiding Force (SSRF) and theSpecial Operations Executive (SOE) in January 1942 to seize Axis ships. While the ships' officers were attending a party arranged by an SOE agent, commandos overpowered the Axis ships' crews and sailed off. The raid boosted SOE's reputation at a critical time and demonstrated its ability to plan and conduct secret operations no matter the political consequences.[4]
SMSDeutschland was the first of fiveDeutschland classpre-dreadnoughtbattleships and launched on 20 November 1904. With the outbreak ofWorld War I in mid-1914,Deutschland and her sisters were tasked with defending the mouth of theElbe and theGerman Bight from possible British incursions.Deutschland and the other four ships of her class were then attached to theHigh Seas Fleet as the II Battle Squadron; participating in most of the large-scale fleet actions in the first two years of war, culminating in theBattle of Jutland on 31 May – 1 June 1916. After the battle,Deutschland was assigned to coastal defense duties and, in 1917, was withdrawn from combat service. She was broken up for scrap by 1922.
%2c_Antonio_Jacobsen.jpg)
![Les dernières cartouches [The last bullets], by Alphonse-Marie-Adolphe de Neuville](/mt/?noimg=&dark=on&url=http%3a%2f%2fwww.wikipedia.org%2fwiki%2fFile%3aAlphonse-Marie-Adolphe_de_Neuville_-_Les_derni%25C3%25A8res_cartouches_(1873).jpg)
