June 22: France surrenders to Germany in 1940

Following the German invasion of France in 1940 Hitler decided to wipe out history by having the French surrender in the same wagon on 22 June 1940. The carriage was then taken back to Berlin and put on display until 1943. With the advance of Berlin in 1945 the Waffen SS initially moved it into Thuringia and then finally destroyed it by fire.

The armistice of June 22, 1940 is the name of an agreement to end hostilities between the authorities of the German Third Reich and representatives of the French government of Marshal Petain, in the context of World War II, which was signed in Rethondes in that date, in the car called the armistice (the same one that had signed the armistice of November 11, 1918 that ended World War I).

A Frenchman wept as German soldiers marched into Paris on June 14, 1940. Source: National Archives and Records Administration.

It was necessary to prevent France continued alliance with Britain.

On the other hand, Hitler did not want to irritate either Italian or the Spanish potential allies. Hitler met with Benito Mussolini on June 18 in Munich to convince him to accept the instructions of Weygand that Hitler had foreseen with respect to France.

June 22, 1940. France surrenders, gets divided into German and Italian occupation zones, and an unoccupied rump state under the Vichy Regime.

Besides the two aforementioned areas, Germany recovered Alsace and Lorraine, both lost in the Treaty of Versailles and rename as the "forbidden zone".

Hitler walks through his Camps Elyséss: Germany's invasion of France culminated in France's surrender in a formal ceremony held in a railroad car in Compiegne Forest on June 22, 1940 

The armistice established the official conditions of the German occupation of France, which was divided into two main areas, the occupied zone, under German control, and the call free zone, under the authority of Vichy France.

Signing of the Franco-German Armistice at Compiègne (June 22, 1940)

By the German delegation attended, Hitler, Goering, Erich Raeder, Rudolf Hess, von Ribbentrop, Wilhelm Walther von Brauchitsch and Keitel. Paul-Otto Schmidt was Hitler's translator. By the French delegation were present Charles Huntziger, Leon Noel, Maurice Le Luc, Jean Bergeret and Georges Marie Joseph Parisot.

June 21: Today is the anniversary of the flight of the king of France, Louis XVI with his family to Austria to seek refuge and counter support, in 1791.

Marie Antoinette and King Louis XVI of France

Relations between the Church and the French Assembly deteriorated so that the February 13, 1790 all the religious orders were suppressed and, on July 12, called Civil Constitution of the Clergy which removed 51 dioceses and 4,000 parishes approved.

Bishops and priests would be elected by the National Assembly. Then they issued a decree ordering all clergy to swear in favor of the Constitution, which produced a polarization: the sworn and refractory, faithful to Pope Pius VI who condemned the Constitution. Louis XVI had to sanction the law under pressure.

The king broke down and decided to flee Paris with his family to seek the intervention of friendly powers, such as the Holy Roman Empire, based in Vienna; and Prussia, based in Berlin. Indeed, it is recalled that Marie Antoinette was of the house of Habsburg, daughter of the emperors of Austria, Francis I and Maria Theresa of Austria.

The Flight to Verennes of King Louis XVI of France in 1791

The June 21, 1791, the king and his family were recognized at the Parador de Varennes and returned to Paris.

Marie Antoinette: "Madam deficit" 

The great mistake that Louis XVI was a modest float switch by Real coach. Marie Antoinette was excessively vain and did not admit return to their land of origin underdressed. So they were easily recognized and arrested.

Portrait of King Louie XVI, Marie Antoinette and Family

Before fleeing, the King wrote some notes left on his desk in which he declared that he had never agreed to the demands of the new constitutional government.

Louis XVI and his family, dressed as bourgeois, arrested in Varennes.

These letters were fatal to declare treason trial of Louis XVI to the country and which lead to a trial that ended with the execution of the King on the guillotine.

December 31: New Year’s Eve is celebrated every year on December 31, in the Gregorian calendar. It is a day when people celebrate the end of the year and receive the new year with joy.

Tradition to celebrate New Year’s Eve varies from one place to another and from one country to another.

New-Years-Eve

According to tradition, during New Year’s Eve, families gather to dine together, to start the year with all family members. More and more people decide to celebrate this day in restaurants where you can enjoy a Christmas menu.

Dinner in any case usually copious and in many houses is very elaborate since around her family members in many cases much time they cannot share a meal together does come together. The dinner cannot miss the Christmas cakes, turkey, pork in some countries and spirituous liquors and Champagne.

Happy New Years Eve is the common greeting which is exchanged amongst people at midnight of 31st December, because the night of December 31st is known as New Years Eve, the night before New Year. In many countries New Years Eve is also known as Saint Sylvester’s Day or Old Year’s Day, in the Georgian calendar. Happy New Year’s Eve is celebrated all over the world. To celebrate New Year’s Eve, people host New Year’s Eve parties, socialize amongst friends and family, dance and drink, and count down the last few seconds of the present year together. This is often followed by a breathtaking display of fireworks marking the end of the present year, and the beginning of a new one. New Year’s Eve is a festive holiday celebrated all over the world where each country and individuals arrange a unique display of fireworks as a tradition.

December 30: On December 30, 1922, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was formed.

The Soviet Union had a one-party political system dominated by the Communist Party until 1990, and although it was a federal union of 15 subnational Soviet republics, the Soviet state was structured under a national government and a highly centralized economy.

Lenin speaking at an assemble of Red Army troops bound for the Polish front. Photograph taken in Sverdlov Square, Moscow, on 5 May 1920. This is the original photo with Trotsky and Kamenev standing on the steps of the platform; later versions produced under Stalin's administration had them removed.

The Russian revolution of 1917 that brought down the Russian Empire had as successor to the Russian Provisional Government, which was short-lived, because the Bolsheviks won the Russian Civil War and founded the Soviet Union in December 1922 with the merger of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic, Russian Soviet Federal Socialist Republic of Transcaucasia, the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic, and the Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic.

The Russian republic was by far the largest of the 15 republics.

After the death of the first Soviet leader, Vladimir Lenin, in 1924, Joseph Stalin eventually won the struggle for poder and led the country through a large-scale industrialization, with a centralized economy and extreme political repression. In June 1941, during World War II, Germany invaded the Soviet Union, a country with which it had signed a non-aggression pact. After four years of brutal warfare, the Soviet Union emerged victorious as one of the world's two superpowers, along with the United States.

The Soviet Union and its Eastern European allies were involved in the Cold War, which was a prolonged global ideological and political struggle against the United States and its allies of the Western bloc; USSR finally yielded to the economic problems and internal and externos. during this period political unrest, the Soviet Union became the reference model for future socialist states.

From 1945 to 1991, the Soviet Union and the United States dominated the global agenda of economic policy, foreign affairs, military operations, cultural exchange, scientific progress including the initiation of space exploration, and sports (including the Olympic Games). In the late 1980s, the last Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev tried to reform the state with his policies of perestroika and glasnost, but the Soviet Union collapsed and was formally dissolved in December 1991 after the failed coup of agosto. After that, the Russian Federation assumed its rights and obligations.

December 29: Today is the anniversary of the annexation of the Republic of Texas to the United States of America in 1845 and became the 28th U.S. State.

Boundaries of Texas as annexed, 1845

Anglo immigrants, mainly from the southern United States, began to migrate to Mexican Texas in the early 1820s at the request of the Mexican government, which sought to increase the sparsely populated land of its northern border.

The boundaries of the United States and neighboring nations as they appeared in 1843

The Anglo Americans soon became the majority in Texas and eventually became disillusioned with the Mexican authorities.

The state of Coahuila, which was part of Texas since 1824, approved a plan for the gradual emancipation of slaves in the state in 1827, angering many of the new settlers who had moved to Texas from USA and had lived in Mexico for about a decade.

James K. Polk of Tennessee, president-elect of the United States during the joint house Texas treaty debates.

For these and other reasons, (Manifest Destiny) Texas declared its independence from Mexico, which is at war with Mexico. In 1836, the fighting ended and Sam Houston became the first president of the Republic of Texas, elected on a platform favoring annexation to the United States.

A map, published in the Newark Daily Advertiser as the U.S. Senate was considering a Joint Resolution for the Annexation of Texas that had been adopted by the House of Representatives.

The citizens of Texas approved the new constitution and the annexation ordinance on October 13, 1845. US President James K. Polk signed the documents formally integrating Texas in United States on December 29, 1845.

December 28: According to Galileo Galilei’s drawings, he observed Neptune for the first time on December 28, 1613. However, Galileo thougt that it was a star rather than a planet.

Galileo Galilei

The drawings show that Galileo observed Neptune on December 28, 1612, and again on January 27, 1613; on both occasions, Galileo mistook Neptune for a fixed star when it appeared very close (in conjunction) to Jupiter in the sky.

Historically it was thought that Galileo thought that Neptune was a blue fixed star, and therefore, that is why he has not been credited for its discovery.

Neptune is currently low in the southeastern sky around midnight in the constellation Aquarius. Created with Stellarium.

According to a new theory proposed by Australian researchers, Astronomer Galileo Galilei may have discovered Neptune in 1613 — 234 years before the planet was officially found.


Read more: http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/275582#ixzz3v9iLiRzW

December 27: Today is the anniversary of Charles Darwin shipment aboard the HMS Beagle on whose journey began formulating his theory of evolution in 1831.

Route of the Darwin´s journey on H.M.S. Beagle

On December 27th, 1831, H.M.S. Beagle sailed out of Plymouth harbor in Great Britain. Charles Darwin became seasick almost immediately and started to have second thoughts about the voyage.

Darwin spent most of that time exploring the mainland, a total of three years and three months. The remaining 18 months were spent at sea.

The book, which has also been known as Research Journal, brings its exciting travel memoir as well as annotations scientific nature relating to biology, geology, and anthropology that prove the extraordinary powers of observation of the author.

Although the path of the HMS Beagle happened sometimes in the same places, Darwin scientific references ordered by places, rather than chronologically.

His journal represents the first entries that suggest ideas that later would lead him to write his theory of evolution by natural selection.