Daras' History Patrol

History from years and decades past. What happened and when.

[darasr22]

July 7

On July 7, 2005; four bomb blasts shook the London Underground metro and Tavistock Square. 3 of the bombs were on metros and the fourth in Tavistock square on a bus.

The first bomb detonated on a six-vehicle London Underground Circle line train, number 204, voyaging eastward between Liverpool Street and Aldgate. At the time, it was close to the Liverpool Street, which was also damaged. 

The second bomb detonated in the second vehicle of another six-vehicle London Underground Circle line train, number 216, which had quite recently left Edgware Road and was voyaging westward towards Paddington. A passing train was slightly damaged.

A third bomb was exploded on a six-vehicle London Underground Piccadilly line train, number 311, voyaging southward from King's Cross St Pancras to Russell Square. The gadget detonated roughly one moment after the assistance left King's Cross, by which time it had gone around 500 yards.

Right around one hour after the assaults on the London Underground, a fourth bomb was exploded on the top deck of a number 30 double-decker bus, voyaging its course from Marble Arch to Hackney Wick.

The blast at 9:47 am in Tavistock Square ripped off the rooftop and annihilated the back piece of the transport. The impact occurred close to BMA House, the central command of the British Medical Association, on Upper Woburn Place. Various specialists and clinical staff in or close to that building had the option to give prompt crisis help.

In all, 52 people died, including exchanges students. All 4 suicide bombers died during the attacks. The attacks led to the UK creating a new national anti-terror squad, which patrols the London metro.

[darasr22]

July 6

On July 6, At 2:23 pm CDT, Delta flight 1288 was approved for departure on Runway 17. As the principal official was propelling the chokes and arriving at a velocity of 40 knots (or 74 km/h), the cockpit lost lighting and instrumentation. The economy class passengers and flight team heard an exceptionally noisy bang and encountered a large impact. The pilot then, at that point, finished departure by drawing in the brake, which carried the airplane to a possible stop without utilization of reversers or spoilers.

When the airplane halted, the first officer failed to contact the control tower since there was no signal in the cockpit. The flight group then, at that point, initiated crisis power, reached Pensacola tower, and proclaimed a crisis. The cockpit's leap seat traveler, an off-duty Delta Boeing 767 pilot deadheading with the individual cockpit team individuals, went to investigate the back of the airplane. At the point when the first officer saw the over-wing exits open and about a portion of the travelers missing alongside hearing motor clamor, he got back to the cockpit and encouraged the commander to close down the motors.

After the landing, it was discovered that two died and five escaped with serious injuries afterwards.

[darasr22]

July 6

On July 6, At 2:23 pm CDT, Delta flight 1288 was approved for departure on Runway 17. As the principal official was propelling the chokes and arriving at a velocity of 40 knots (or 74 km/h), the cockpit lost lighting and instrumentation. The economy class passengers and flight team heard an exceptionally noisy bang and encountered a large impact. The pilot then, at that point, finished departure by drawing in the brake, which carried the airplane to a possible stop without utilization of reversers or spoilers.

When the airplane halted, the first officer failed to contact the control tower since there was no signal in the cockpit. The flight group then, at that point, initiated crisis power, reached Pensacola tower, and proclaimed a crisis. The cockpit's leap seat traveler, an off-duty Delta Boeing 767 pilot deadheading with the individual cockpit team individuals, went to investigate the back of the airplane. At the point when the first officer saw the over-wing exits open and about a portion of the travelers missing alongside hearing motor clamor, he got back to the cockpit and encouraged the commander to close down the motors.

After the landing, it was discovered that two died and five escaped with serious injuries afterwards.

[darasr22]

July 5 - The Battle of Chippawa

During the War of 1812, the United States fought hard against Britain, who still occupied forts in Northern America. One of the greatest triumphs for the United States was The Battle of Chippawa, which occurred on July 5, 1814. 

    After it became clear that Napoleon was losing in Europe, the British army resettled in Canada, which threatened the United States. In addition, this threatened Native Americans, and they partnered with the US Army to reclaim Chippawa. Under the instruction of the US Army, Native Americans quickly approached the British but retreated upon being fired upon. Then, with the help of the US Army, they once again approached the British.

    The British Army, which was heavily disorganized, randomly fired, and the US returned fire for half-an hour, before finally the British fled and the US chased some of them down all the way to Chippawa.

[darasr22]

July 4th Fireworks.

Happy Independence Day to all those in the United States. As a result of the historical achievement, I decided to dedicate today to that event.

On July 4, 1776, the United States Congress at the time declared the United States and its 13 colonies (originally) and any future colonies or states, to be fully independent of British colonial rule.

John Adams originally asked for Thomas Jefferson to write (by hand, no typewriters or computers back then!) the document, which was then edited and then signed on July 4, while the first version was written on July 2 by Thomas Jefferson.

Now, while Congress ratified the constitution on July 4, the document was signed on the 19th of the month and with John Hancock’s extremely large signature, the document now rests in the National Archived building.

[darasr22]

Thai Financial Problems

On July 2, 1997, the Thai government was forced to float their currency, the Thai Baht due to its low standing an its inability to stay pegged to the US dollar. As a result, this triggered the Asian Financial Crisis, which harmed South Korea, Indonesia, and of course Thailand due to the other two countries having strong ties with Thailand and because of Thailand’s large debt.

In Indonesia, the rupiah began to lose value in July and hit a big low in November. In light of this, then President Suharto resigned from office in May the following year and since then, Indonesia has never really been as strong as they were before that time period.

In South Korea, the won fell so bad that a 1 USD could afford 1700 won, however, the currency recovered later, but it was delayed since the impact mainly started a day later, on July 3, when many companies in South Korea tried to press legal action against the Thai government. It recovered later by raising the investment return cap from 28% to 100 and then accepting a 5.4 million dollar aid by the International Monetary Fund.

More countries also suffered, however, it was not as bad for all of them and in time, all recovered, including Thailand. This however, was not as bad as the later 2008 financial crisis.

[darasr22]

Let’s do some athletics today. July 1st. The first Tour de France in 1903.

The first day of July was widely popular in 1903, it was the first day of the 19-day long Tour de France, the first ever Tour de France in fact. Originally, the event would run for five weeks and the entry fee was 20 francs. However, the length and the prize money attracted barely 20 people one week before the race.

Because of this, the newspaper and sponsor of the race, L’Auto, postponed it and made it a nearly 3 week race. Along with this, other conditions included a cut-in-half entry fee and 20000 franc prize for the top performers and encouraged early admission by promising 5 francs a day to the first 50 to sign up.

In this Tour de France, there were six stages and unlike most bike races, pacers, who could be mistaken as contestants were not allowed. Favorite for the race at the time Maurice Garin did well and won the first stage, and ended up winning the entire race. He was later stripped of the title for cheating the next year.

[darasr22]

Getting a letter from the Immortal Seven.

On June 25, 1688; the Immortal Seven, consisting of nobles Charles Talbot, William Cavendish, Thomas Osborne, Richard Lumley, Henry Compton, Edward Russell, and the author Henry Sydney wrote the invitation to large Dutch ruler Prince William of Orange to send a small army to England in order to overthrow English King James II. King James II just had his son, who was heir to the throne. However, the rumor around the nation was that the heir to throne was not the biological son of King James II. This, along with the high disapproval of King James II’s policies, lead to public outrage.

While the letter arrived to Prince William on June 30, several events occurred in between that period of time. On June 26 and 27, several English citizens protested outside the palace of King James II, some even threatening to kidnap or kill his son hoping to end his reign. Many were arrested, and some were even executed later for these threats which further riled up the crowds.

On June 28, small groups of armed militias of various groups advanced towards the English army and attempted to protest the king and riot against him. They also called for the king to make his daughter, Mary, the heir to the throne because she was mostly confirmed to be his biological daughter. 

The same events occurred on June 29, and finally, on June 30th, the letter itself arrived to Prince William to send the Dutch army and it finally began the Glorious Revolution of 1688 in November that year.

[darasr22]

Portugal vs. Holland. The Battle of Macau

On June 24, 1622 (just one short of 400 years ago), after 3 days of fighting between the Dutch and the Portuguese armies in Macau (now in Southeastern China), the Portuguese successfully repelled the Dutch armies from invading and taking control of Macau.

The Dutch had tried attacking Macau in the past as they occupied a port in Hirado, Japan while the Portuguese occupied Nagasaki. Because of Macau’s closeness to Japan, the Dutch envied the ease of trade and the various advantages of the location of Macau. The Dutch also knew that the Philippines would be unavailable to Spaniards who were also large traders.

In their previous attempts, the Dutch armies were significantly weaker and smaller. However, as many events in Europe had already occurred in the past months that were hurting the economy, the Dutch went all in. They attacked by surrounding Macau and then closing in. Fortunately for Portugal, they already knew and had begun advancing outside the borders destroying Dutch ships and boats as they came. This left the Dutch with the a weak army when they came to the land and they were quickly left to lose. The Dutch never really tried again and later on, after the surrender of Goa to India, the Portuguese left Asia alone completely.

Fun Fact: Hirado is now merged in the Nagasaki Prefecture in Japan.

[darasr22]

The Deadly Battle of Doiran and Its Story

From June 22 - June 23, the Battle of Doiran (1913) took place between the armies of the Bulgarians and the Greeks. At Dorian Lake, after the Greeks defeated southern Bulgarian troops earlier in the Second Balkan War, they met again with the Bulgarians at Lake Dorian and battled it out again.

Originally, the Greek were having a hard time getting into Bulgaria. This time, they rushed the Bulgarians and after a lengthy battle, captured several border cities, including the city of Sofia. This caused the Bulgarians to flee North and to ultimately give the land to the Greek. This battle was significant for the time as it was one of the biggest advancements made by the Greek against the Bulgarians and it had a whopping death toll of 252 soldiers.

[darasr22]

The Day Civil Rights Prevailed

On June 19, 1964, after an extremely long, 83 day filibuster in the US Senate, the Civil Rights Act was approved to be signed. But how did the debate begin?

Well, for decades, we have had an issue with Civil Rights. Even after the end of slavery and the Civil War, which ended 99 years before the act, people of color continued to suffer racial discrimination in many ways. Whether it be on public transit, in the bathroom, at restaurants, or even in terms of what schools one could apply to.

Finally, when the Civil Rights Act was introduced, we had a chance of getting rid of that problem once and for all. Even though it took 83 days to finally get it approved after days and months of debate, the end result was positive, as the bill changed the law and for the first time, expressly prohibited all the types of discrimination I mentioned earlier.

So for those that wonder how everyone came to be equal in this country, here is your answer. The Civil Rights act of 1964.

[darasr22]

Operation Arc Light (Sounds official)

On June 18, 1965, during the Vietnam War, the United States began to use the Boeing B-52F Fighter Jets for the US military to drop normal bombs on the communist North Vietnam (or Vietcong) troops that were making an attempt to take over Vietnam. Previously, the United States had been training to use nuclear warfare, however, they figured that the casualties and the risk involved was too great. As a result, they began training soldiers for normal bombs and ordinary bomb drops in 1964. The Boeing-B52 was purchased because Boeing had a long-standing relationship with the US Military.

With the US Military’s contract in mind, Boeing made the air-crafts capable of carrying a massive 30 tons of what was called “conventional bombs” while flying. This would allow for many strikes at once and the ability to clear an area filled with thousands within minutes.

Finally, on June 18, 1965, the United States used the planes for the first time in Operation Arc Light, with 27 planes dropping bombs ranging from 750 pounds each to a 1000 pounds each on Vietcong strongholds, eliminating a large amount of the threat. Since then, the fighter jets and operations similar to Arc Light have been used in many other nations, but we have not had a use for them in the recent past.

[darasr22]

Welcome to Space Royal Prince!

On June 17, 1985, a very special flight took off from the Kennedy Space Center in Space Shuttle Discovery, a rocket that was already on it’s fifth voyage around the Earth. The flight, named STS-51-G took off from Platform A at 7:33 am from the space station in Florida. Onboard, 5 Americans were present. Daniel Brandenstein (Commander) and John Creighton (Pilot) led the operation while John Fabian, Steven Nagel, and Shannon joined as specialists. However, this was one of the few flights that had some other members on board.

The first member was a French pilot named Patrick Baudry who had served in the French Air Force and had also worked in the French Space Research Center. Also on board was someone whose status put him above everyone else. Prince Sultan Salman Al Saud from Saudi Arabia, who like Patrick Baudry was a former fighter pilot, joined on board the aircraft becoming the first Arab to fly in space and the first member of the Saudi Royal Family to fly in space as well. Both Baudry and Prince Al Saud were present as payload specialists with an additional French Astronaut and an additional Saudi Astronaut present as backup payload specialists. The flight’s mission was to deploy a tracking device on a satellite, which was not all that easy because it took 64 orbits to finally get it on.

Apart from the unique members and the mission, this flight was one of the first to utilize Autopilot on long space flights and for the five sleeping times that the cabin had, they were each woken up from a distinct song chosen by the American pilots, the first time that such a ritual was ever performed on a US Space Aircraft.

After all the activities were conducted, the flight finally landed back at Edwards Air Force Base, California on June 24, 1985 after a mission time lasting 7 days, which was somewhat long for the time period. Hopefully, as this marks a milestone for space exploration, we will see many more of these flights and journeys made by American astronauts and astronauts from other nations as well to continue assisting in our understanding of the universe.

[darasr22]

The Day Yugoslavia Surrendered

Yugoslavia was long known and is still known as one of the few countries that has split or been destroyed in the past few decades, but few people know the struggles that Yugoslavia went through, especially World War II and perhaps one of their biggest surrenders prior to being split.

It began on March 27, 1941, when the Yugoslavian people overthrew the then Prince Paul and replaced him with King Peter II. Following this, German leader Adolf Hitler issued “Fuhrer Directive 25″ describing the order to invade Yugoslavia, in which Italy also participated.

Then, it began. On April 6 1941, several German and Italian military aircraft and tanks stormed Yugoslavia killing thousands and injuring hundreds if not thousands more. During this period, the Yugoslav Army could not do anything. They had been poorly trained, had almost no good equipment, and just had no idea how to defeat the larger and much more powerful German army.

The German soldiers would only stop when directed to and that day came 11 days later, on April 17, 1941; as Yugoslavia declared and unconditional surrender hoping and signed the armistice treaty with Germany. Following this, the end of Yugoslavia began and it was soon partitioned and occupied by the Axis Powers.

[darasr22]

A Tornado? Time to pack your things!

In 1948, at the Tinker Air Force Base in Oklahoma City, two tornadoes hit the base, being spotted only moments earlier at an airport near the base (7 miles away), by men in the airport control tower. Now today, we would have tornado warnings and tornado sirens going off and everyone would run for their lives. But no one knew that this would set the stage for all of that.

At approximately 9;50 pm, two tornadoes were seen by the watchman at the control tower of Will Rogers Airport. Of course, he had heard of the news that the tornadoes were there, but he did not know that it would be at the airport. Naturally, he phones ahead, warning the Air Force base of the impending damage and possible consequences. By 10 pm, the tornadoes reached the base and many personnel, hiding inside, watched as their expensive military aircraft was thrown around and as they lost what is today equivalent to $106.5 million.

Later, an inquiry was conducted. How was it not seen? Was it anyone’s fault? As a result, a scientific team of geologists and military personnel got together. Through examining weather patterns, conditions, and signals that might be coming from the tornadoes, they established the first ever set of guidelines for tornado warnings and tornado detection. A few days later, they successfully predicted the first predicted tornado in American history and in most of the world’s history. Who knows, if this hadn’t happened, we would have lost so much more to tornadoes in the past that destroyed millions of homes and vehicles. At least we now have warnings and guidelines on where to hide and how to handle it!

[darasr22]

The Failed Assassination of the Vietnam War.

On this day, February 27, in 1962, two Republic of Vietnam (South Vietnam) fighter pilots attempted to assassinate the President of Vietnam at the time, Ngo Dinh Diem. The two pilots named Pham Phu Quoc and Nguyen Van Cu were first and second Lieutenants of the Republic of Vietnam Air Force would be expected to support Diem, as he was part of South Vietnam, however, they  claimed that they disliked his handling of the war from their views and that he was not confronting Vietcong (North Vietnam).

Originally, Cu was already biased against Diem as he had read many articles against him and his dad had essentially brainwashed him against Diem. At a later point, Cu fed propaganda to Quoc to recruit him as well. The two figured that Diem was not doing enough and that they were more driven against communism and the Vietcong in general, thus they made a plan to assassinate Diem. Knowing that the most likely idea to work would be using bombs, both Quoc and Cu used their fighter jets and training to fly over the President’s residence and bomb the building.

Although the bombs successfully penetrated the building, no member of Diem’s immediate family was injured severely and Diem himself was unharmed as the bomb that landed close to him failed to detonate leading him to believe that he has a divine and straightforward connection with God. Fighter jets and tanks as well as Jeeps responded and opened fire at the rebel jet planes while pursuing them on ground and in the air. Eventually, Quoc’s plane was damaged by a naval carrier and he ejected in the water where a naval patrol arrested him. Cu was able to fly away and fled to Cambodia.

Afterwards, several grew angry at Diem and called him out for being a poor leader which led to his death in 1963 after his murder. Quoc was imprisoned until that date and Cu was in exile in Cambodia, being allowed to return after Diem’s death. Both once again rejoined the Republic of Vietnam Air Force after their punishments which lasted around 18-19 months.

Overall, I would say that this story has had mixed feelings for me. On some level, I can reason with what Cu and Quoc did but I am surprised by the lenient sentences and I did expect something much harsher for Quoc, such as capital punishment, as he essentially committed treason. I also have mixed feelings about Diem. He should have been more active against the Vietcong and should have led more of a fight. At least in the end, South Vietnam beat the communist Vietcong of the Vietnam War.

[darasr22]

Alaskan Airlines 261 Crash. Whose fault?

On this day, January 31, in 2000, the Alaskan Airlines Flight 261 crashed en route from Jalisco, Mexico to Seattle, Washington with a small layover in San Francisco.

On January 31, at around midday or in the afternoon, the flight, containing 83 passengers and 5 five staff, took off from Jalisco and flew alongside the Pacific Ocean towards Seattle’s airport for international flights. During its flight, what was described as “a loss of airplane pitch control” was experienced. What this meant was that due to low maintanence standards of the Jackscrews on the aircraft meant for holding heavy objects together. As a result, the plane could not be supported and the engine was not able to work properly either.

The main problem affected by the low maintenance was the horizontal stabilizer that kept the plane balanced and of course, stable. Earlier in the flight, the pilots made communication with the Seattle airport concerning the problem and tried to keep flying and reroute to Los Angeles International. However, the pilot and captain went to the jammed stabilizer and successfully unjammed it as the plane began to plunge into a nose-dive straight down and saved the plane.

This was not all, a few moments later, the jackscrew, unable to hold the weight of its part of the aircraft, fell loose and, the pilots, unable to control the plane, dove straight down in the Pacific Ocean. All 88 people on board were killed.

After the incident, many investigations were released into Alaska Airlines and their maintenance issues. Many families planned to sue although only one went to court. Personally, I would have tried to ask Alaska Airlines flights to stay grounded for a while if I were the Aviation Board. Since then, maintenance standards across most airports in the US have been improved as a result for any incoming or outgoing aircraft.

I think that personally, this was a terrible mistake on the efforts of Alaskan Airlines. Knowing that laws are different and require mandatory replacing of parts after a certain distance is traveled now, it feels better. But this was most certainly avoidable right from the start.