Reply #7: this day in history

[slaveplanet]

The First Shot: 22 August 1914
By Richard van Emden
http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/worldwars/wwone/firstshot_01.shtml

The first British shots of World War One occurred near a small Belgian village in August 1914. Richard van Emden recounts a little-told prologue to a war that would last for years, and ultimately cost millions of lives.

The first waves of troops

On 21 August 1914, a squadron of 120 cavalrymen belonging to the 4th Dragoon Guards were sent forward to reconnoitre the land ahead of the advancing British Expeditionary Force.

The first wave of troops of the BEF had landed on the continent up to a week before, yet no contact had been made with the enemy. However, as British forces advanced deeper into France and then Belgium, unmistakable reports were being received from civilians that large numbers of German troops were advancing through Brussels towards the Belgian town of Mons.

Among the cavalrymen that day was a 16-year-old boy, Benjamin Clouting, the son of a groom working on a large estate in Sussex. Ben had grown up around the stables and had learned to ride from an early age. A boyhood interest in all things military, and a love for horses, brought Ben to the attention of several army officers who visited the big house. One of the officers, Adrian Carton de Wiart, who was later to win the Victoria Cross in the war, encouraged the young boy to enlist and so in August 1913, Ben joined up despite being just 15 years old.

One year later, he was still well underage when the war broke out. Nevertheless, he was a fully trained cavalryman and was allowed to travel to France, although only after adamantly refusing to be left behind in England. Now, three weeks after war had been declared, he found himself riding, on a warm summer evening, in an advance guard towards thousands of enemy soldiers.

Unbeknown to him, he was about to be involved in the first engagement undertaken by British soldiers on continental Europe since the Battle of Waterloo, 99 years earlier. In an interview given shortly before he died in 1990, Ben recalled the first British contact with the enemy and the opening shot - the first of billions fired in the four-year war.
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Adolf Hitler to his Army commanders, August 22, 1939:
"Thus for the time being I have sent to the East only my 'Death's Head Units' with the orders to kill without pity or mercy all men, women, and children of Polish race or language. Only in such a way will we wing the vital space (lebensraum) that we need. Who still talks nowdays about the Armenians?"

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August 22, 1995 FBI agent Lon Horiuchi shoots at Randy Weaver's cabin in Idaho
August 22, 1994 DNA testing links O. J. Simpson to murder of Nicole Simpson and Ron Goldman
August 22, 1990 President Bush calls up military reserves
August 22, 1988 U.S. performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
August 22, 1975 Assassination attempt on president Gerald Ford
August 22, 1973 Chilean parliament accuses President Allende violating laws
August 22, 1973 Henry Kissinger succeeds William Rogers as min of Foreign affairs
August 22, 1969 Hurricane Camille strikes U.S. Gulf Coast kills 255
August 22, 1966 Beatles arrive in New York City
August 22, 1962 Failed assassination on president De Gaulle
August 22, 1962 U.S.S.R. performs nuclear test at Novaya Zemlya U.S.S.R.
August 22, 1962 Savannah, world's 1st nuclear-powered ship, completes maiden voyage from Yorktown, Va, to Savannah, Ga
August 22, 1958 Great Britain performs atmospheric nuclear test at Christmas Island
August 22, 1953 Shah of Persia returns to Teheran
August 22, 1945 Vietnam conflict begins as Ho Chi Minh leads a successful coup
August 22, 1944 Last transport of French Jews to nazi-Germany
August 22, 1942 Brazil declares war on Germany, Japan and Italy
August 22, 1941 Nazi troops reach Lenningrad
August 22, 1939 Dutch border guards take positions for German invasion
August 22, 1933 International Zionists Congress opens in Prague
August 22, 1926 Gold discovered in Johannesburg, South Africa
August 22, 1921 J. Edgar Hoover becomes asst director of FBI
August 22, 1914 Battle at Charleroi: Gen von Bulows troops beat French
August 22, 1914 1st encounter between British and German troops (in Belgium)
August 22, 1914 Battle in Ardennen: Neufchateau, Rossignal, Tintigny and Virton
August 22, 1914 Canada's Finance Act, 1914, receives assent
August 22, 1914 General Martos' troops occupy Soldau/Neidenburg East Prussia
August 22, 1914 German troops execute 384 inhabitants of Tamines Belgium
August 22, 1914 Von Ludendorff and von Hindenburg move into E Prussia enroute to Russia
August 22, 1911 Mona Lisa stolen from Louvre (Recovered in 1913)
August 22, 1911 Vincenzo Perugia steals Mona Lisa from Louvre, Paris
August 22, 1910 Japan annexes Korea after 5 years as a protectorate
August 22, 1864 Geneva Convention signed by 12 nations
August 22, 1851 Gold fields discovered in Australia
August 22, 1775 King George III proclaims colonies to be in open rebellion
August 22, 1642 Civil War in England began between Royalists and Parliament
August 22, 1614 Trades people under Vincent Fettmilch chase and plunder Jews out of ghetto in Frankfurt
August 22, 1582 King James IV of Scotland captured
August 22, 1572 Failed assassination on Admiral De Coligny
August 22, 1543 Emperor Charles V's army occupies Duren
August 22, 1485 Battle of Bosworth Field - Henry VII's forces defeat Richard III
August 22, 1454 Jews are expelled from Brunn Moravia by order of King Ladislaus
August 22, 1138 English defeated Scots at Cowton Moor Banners of various saints were carried into battle which led to being called Battle of the Standard
August 22, 565 St. Columba reported seeing monster in Loch Ness