On this Day in History: 16th August 2005

[Anarcho-Socialist]

On this Day in History: 16th August 2005

1990: (International relations, Argentina) The Argentine government drops its claim on the Falkland Islands. Argentina instead establishes a claim on Bermuda preferring its warmer climes.

1979: (Assassinations, Canada) former Canadian Prime Minister John Diefenbaker is assassinated by Prince Edward Island militant separatists.

1924: (Politics, Britain) Tory Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin accuses his Labour opponent Ramsay McDonald of having "a fake moustache", commencing the famous Moustache-gate scandal of '24.

1918: (Court intrigue, Germany) Kaiser Wilhelm II upsettingly abdicates the throne after hearing courtiers talk about him and refer to the German emperor as “big and fat and has silly facial hair”.

1914: (War & pillage, Jamaica) Germany launches a surprise Zeppelin attack on Montego Bay in the West Indies.

1870: (International relations, France) The Franco-Prussian War begins as a result of striking French horse-cart drivers blocking a consignment of German sausages from reaching the Prussian Embassy in Paris.

417: (War & pillage, Italy) Tribes of Franks and Burgundians sack Rome.

301: (Economics, Italia) Roman Emperor Diocletian is forced to devalue the Denarius currency hoping to stimulate Roman exports to Germania, Mesopotamia and the Indus Valley.

[GoBlue]

1. Not much progress since 301. /nt

[Somawas]

2. Even in 301

it was a Mess O' Potamia.

[wli]

3. no, it was the silk road in 301 (and before, even)

Even the successors of Alexander's Bactrian satraps were confronted by the Chinese, in battle as well as trade, and could do no better than hide behind city walls until finally driven out. A millenium before Islam, Alexander himself took to Persian customs, and took Babylon as his capital. And when Alexander finally turned back, it was India that so discouraged his army.

Mesopotamia was not the same notion then as it is today. China and India, on the other hand, were even then earth-shaking forces, and have remained such even if only on the basis of their huge shares of the planet's population.

[Kipling]

4. God, it's a big wide wonderful world out there.