Big day on the military side of things, at least early on. We start in 533, when the Byzantine army beat up on the Vandals. It occurred at Ticameron, in North Africa. On the one side, the Vandals were commanded by their king, Gelimer. On the other side, we had the Byzantines, commanded by Belisarius. If you know anything about Byzantine history, that last fact tells you all you need to know: Belisarius didn't often lose a battle, no matter what the odds. In fact, he apparently only lost one battle in his entire career, and it was early on. And he fought against his own better judgment, because his army wanted a battle. A mistake he never made again. At any rate, he won this battle, and that pretty much gave his boss, Justinian I control of North Africa. This was a major step in Big J's plan to reconquer the entire Roman Empire. And it basically led to the next step, which was to invade Italy. Guess who led that invasion? Yup. Belisarius rode again. Alas, before the war in Italy ended, Big J got jealous of all his successes, and began to undermine him, to ensure that his plans to set himself up as an independent king never came to fruition. Big J's plan had one tiny little flaw: Belisarius never intended to do any such thing- he was as completely loyal to the emperor as he had ever been. Nevertheless, things won't end well for B.
Anyhow, in 1256, in what we now call Iran, the Mongols under Hulagu, grandson of Genghis Khan; whipped the crap out of the locals at Alamut. These locals were known as "Hashhashin", or to give them their modern name, "assassins". They were the ones who would get really stoned, so they could get a vision of paradise, thus inspiring them to go kill anyone that their leader wanted dead. I would note that, according to the history books, the "reign of terror" the assassins had in the Middle East ended in 1256. Coincidence? Hardly. If you don't know, the Mongols didn't screw around with anyone who could be considered a threat. So the only good assassin was a dead one, and Hulagu was more than happy to have a stronghold full of dead ones. And then he kept going, looking for anybody else he could kill.
In 1778, a lesser known battle occurs as part of the American Revolution. Which involved no Americans, and didn't affect the outcome that much. At any rate, the British and French navies fought at Saint Lucia in the West Indies. Big deal. The French lost, though it wasn't catastrophic.
The big news, as I promised you a couple weeks ago, was in 1864. Recall that we last saw Confederate general John Bell Hood somewhat worse for wear after a night of pain medication, and even worse for wear because the Union force in front of him escaped literally under his nose at Franklin Tennessee. He wasn't happy, and continued north, intending to teach the Yankees a lesson. Alas, he wasn't thinking too clearly, as Franklin had killed a number of his best commanders. But he persevered and moved on until he was "besieging" Nashville, where General George Thomas, aka "the Rock of Chicamauga" had managed to get all his troops together. While Hood pretended he was doing something worthwhile, and also pretended he was going to be able to defeat Thomas; Thomas worked busily to ensure his troops had everything they needed to fight. Grant, the Union Commander in Chief was a bit concerned about what was happening- enough that he had actually sent a replacement for Thomas. As Bruce Catton put it, this was the one time in the War that Grant actually seemed worried about what the enemy was doing, rather than doing his own thing. At any rate, just when Thomas was ready to attack, the area got a massive ice storm. When it finally melted and the roads were passable (luckily for our purposes, on December 15!), Thomas attacked. It didn't go well for Hood- Thomas had more men, with better equipment, more food, and an actual plan other than "sit here and wait for a miracle". Day One (today) saw the Confederates badly mauled. Tomorrow, which was (or is) Day Two, is when things really went downhill for Hill. And his entire army. But we'll talk more about that at a later time. Like tomorrow! Stay tuned!
In 1917, the Bolsheviks in Russia signed an armistice with Germany and Austria, thus pulling out of the War. Given that Russia had been consistently getting their butts kicked, and had bigger priorities than fighting an incredibly unpopular war, it was a good move. But it allowed the Germans to move a lot of troops over to the Western Front, along with some of the more successful generals. It was almost enough to end the War on that front too. But it didn't quite happen, and then the Americans showed up in force. USA! USA! And we all know what happens when the Americans show up, right?
In non-wartime news, 2001 saw a rebuilding project brought to a close. The Leaning Tower of Pisa was reopened after a lengthy and expensive bit of work to keep it from leaning at a 90 degree angle, which would have been A Bad Thing. However, they decided to let it lean, because "The Tower of Pisa" sounds a lot less interesting, and won't get as many tourists.
Back onto the military side of the coin, in 2005 the US Air Force brings the F-22 Raptor into active duty. Yeah, it'll pretty much whup the asses of anything else in the air. And a mere 12 months later, the F-35 gets it's first flight. It's cool, but apparently nowhere near as cool as the Raptor. And let's face it: Lightning II is a much less impressive name than Raptor. Just sayin'.
And that's about it. Catch you on the birthday side!
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