The principal Bolshevik military force was officially called the “Red Army” from the outbreak to the Russian Revolution through February 1946, when it was renamed the Soviet Army. It continued to operate under that name until the collapse of the Soviet Union in December 1991.
It is little remembered today, but Germany and its Axis allies actually won World War I on the Eastern front, when Lenin’s newly-formed Bolshevik government effectively surrendered in the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, which was superseded by the Treaty of Versailles that gave the Soviets the victory instead. In the treaty, Bolshevik Russia ceded the Baltic States to Germany, and its province of Kars Oblast in the south Caucasus to the Ottoman Empire. It also recognized the independence of Ukraine. Russia also agreed to pay six billion German gold mark in reparations. Historian Spencer Tucker says, “The German General Staff had formulated extraordinarily harsh terms that shocked even the German negotiator.” Under the treaty, the Baltic states were meant to become German vassal states under German princelings.
The socialist revolution against the tsarist regimes of Russian actually began two tsars earlier, with the killing of Alxander II in 1881. But the socialists were held off until Nicholas II finally fell in 1917.
Three men served as President of the United States in 1881: Rutherford B. Hayes, who completed his single term in March; James A. Garfield, who was assassinated and died in September; and Chester Arthur, his Vice President, who succeeded him.
Both Rutherfold B. Hayes and James Garfield served as Union Generals during the American Civil War. Hayes served as an active field commander and was wounded several times and rose to the rank of Brigadier (brevet Major) General. Garfield fought under Grant at Shiloh and as Chief of Staff to William Rosecrans at Chickamauaga.
The practice of brevetting disappeared from the (regular) U.S. military at the end of the 19th century; honors were bestowed instead with a series of medals. Brevetting was declared obsolete in 1922.
Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain, legendary commanding officer of the 20th Maine and hero of Little Round Top at the Battle of Gettysburg, complained in his memoir The Passing of the Armies of the hundreds of officers who received one-grade brevet promotions after the Confederate surrender at Appomattox, so that they could retire at a higher and thus more prestigious rank.
Joshua L. Chamberlain was the last Civil War soldier to die of wounds incurred in the War.
The Elizabethan exclamation, “Zounds!” is a contraction of “God’s Wounds”.
The Purple Heart is a United States military decoration awarded in the name of the President to those wounded or killed, while serving, on or after April 5, 1917, with the U.S. military. With its forerunner, the Badge of Military Merit (which dated to the Revolutionary War) it took the form of a heart made of purple cloth, the Purple Heart is the oldest military award still given to U.S. military members.
By Executive Order of the President of the United States, the Purple Heart was revived on the 200th Anniversary of George Washington’s birth, out of respect to his memory and military achievements, by War Department General Order No. 3, dated February 22, 1932.
Per UL: Purple Heart medals awarded today all come from a batch of 500,000 that were manufactured late in World War II in expectation of being needed for Operations Olympic and Coronet, the planned Allied (mostly US) land invasion and occupation of the Japanese home islands. The Korean, Vietnam, and Gulf Wars combined, and all other US military operations since, did not consume the supply.
Operations Olympic and Coronet were the two parts of Operation Downfall. Casualty predictions varied widely, but were extremely high. Depending on the degree to which Japanese civilians would have resisted the invasion, estimates ran up into the millions for Allied casualties.
The atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki prevented these (up to millions of) Allied casualties.
Nagasaki was the sole Japanese port open to Portuguese trading ships starting in 1569, a deal from which the daimyo Ōmura Sumitada profited personally. *Tempura *(battered and fried seafood and vegetables) spread through Japan from there - the name actually comes from the Portuguese tempero. Nagasaki soon became a Jesuit colony controlled by European missionaries, who had followed St. Francis Xavier to Japan.
St. Francis Xavier was the first Jesuit in India. When he died, his first burial place was in China, and his final resting place is in Goa.
The first bachelors degree program in Jazz Studies in Canada was started at St. Francis Xavier University in Antiigonish, Nova Scotia in 1977…
Not all, but many are probably still on the shelf: http://www.stripes.com/blogs/the-rumor-doctor/the-rumor-doctor-1.104348/are-purple-hearts-from-1945-still-being-awarded-1.116756
In play:
The new Prime Minister of Canada, Justin Trudeau, and his Cabinet just took office this week. Trudeau is the son of the late Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau and, like his father, a Liberal.
Garry Trudeau and Jane Pauley are parents to twins, named Ross and Rachel pre-Friends, and a son Thomas.
The US Congressional legislative information database, known as “Thomas”, possibly derived from “The House Open Multimedia Access System”, but this explanation might be a backronym, as there is no reference to such a name in the annals of the system… It might simply be named after Thomas Jefferson.
NM–scooped by jtur88.
Thomas the Tank Engine is a small fictional steam locomotive in The Railway Series books by the Reverend Wilbert Awdry and his son, Christopher. He became the most popular character in the series, and is the titular character in the accompanying television spin-off series, Thomas & Friends.
A tank locomotive or tank engine is a steam locomotive that carries its water in one or more on-board water tanks, instead of a more traditional tender