Today In History

68 years ago in Arnhem began Montgomery's success to 90%...



EDIT : Here are links to the 1946 picture "Theirs is the glory", about the operation Market-Garden.
This movie is in 2 parts, in English (French subtitled)

Part 1
Part 2

October 14, 1947

Captain Chuck Yeager of the U.S. Air Force broke for the first time the sound barrier onboard the experimental Bell X-1



Sure, that was "the right stuff", Sir...

October 22, 1941

In retaliation for the attack against Karl Hotz, commander of the occupation troops of Lower Loire, killed two days earlier in Nantes by a commando of the Special Organization (armed wing of the French Communist Party), 48 French civilian hostages, mostly trade unionists and communists, are shot by the nazis in Châteaubriant, Nantes and Mont Valérien.



Châteaubriant monument


Mont Valérien monument




EDIT : Link to the Wiki topic Retaliation for the death of Karl Hotz (French only).

October 25, 1415

At Azincourt , north of France, during the Hundred Years war, the elite of French cavalry of Charles d'Albret, mostly nobles, more numerous but non disciplined, using out of date tactics and a tad arrogant facing Henry V army of "commoners", is massacred in less than seven hours by the English archers, more versatile and disciplined.

This battle is a major turning point in this war, showing the overwhelming superiority of the English longbowmen and English tactics in these times. Even today, the battle of Azincourt remains one of the greatest defeats in the history of the French armies, a monumental thrashing.




Here's a link to a documentary video about this battle : Azincourt, a friday in hell.

A monster is born,

on October 30th 1961, 11:32, the largest explosion ever caused by mankind took place above the island Nowaja Semlja.

This is the original film:



this is an animation:



The tsar bomba (AN602) was a hydrogen bomb with a power of 57 Megatons TNT (designed for a maximum load of 100 Megatons even, but the load was reduced for this test), while its original weight was 27 tons (8m long, 2m diameter). This result is 4000 times stronger than the bomb that was ignited above Hiroshima (little boy).

This is the original:





and this is a model:



The shockwave was so intense that it was noticeable on the opposite side of the earth, and it was still measurable when it had encircled the earth 3 times.



Wikipedia: Tsar bomba

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