a French Foreign Legion Forum

Welcome! Register a free account today to become a member! Once signed in, you'll be able to participate on this site by adding your own topics and posts, as well as connect with other members through your own private inbox!

Historical Moments On this day

Joseph Cosgrove

Moderator
Legionnaire
Joined
Jul 13, 2013
Messages
9,556
Reaction score
7,900
Location
Thailand
Home Country
New Zealand
On this day, 19 July, in 1970
57th Tour de France: Defending champion Eddy Merckx of Belgium wins general, mountains and combination categories.
 

Joseph Cosgrove

Moderator
Legionnaire
Joined
Jul 13, 2013
Messages
9,556
Reaction score
7,900
Location
Thailand
Home Country
New Zealand
And also on the 19th of July 1922,
American swimmer Johnny Weissmuller first to break 1 minute barrier for 100m freestyle; swims 58.6s at Alameda, CA.
Did you know that he always swam with his head out of the water ?
1626670047792.png
The name rings a bell, but I can't recall from where? I mean apart from the fact that he won five Olympic gold medals across two Olympic games, 1924 and 1928.
 
Joined
Jan 14, 2006
Messages
4,272
Reaction score
2,785
Location
U.K.
Home Country
United Kingdom
Anniversary.

Battle of Saucourt, 3 August, 881.


In what is now known as northern France a force of more than 9000 invading Vikings were defeated by the troops of Louis111, the king of West Francia and his brother Cartoman 11.

The battle is celebrated in the Old High German poem; "Ludwigslied".
 
Joined
Jan 14, 2006
Messages
4,272
Reaction score
2,785
Location
U.K.
Home Country
United Kingdom
Anniversary.

Friday 4, August 1944.

Acting on a tip from a Dutch informant, the Gestapo captured 15 year old Jewish diarist Anne Franks and her family in a sealed off area of an Amsterdam warehouse.

The Franks had taken shelter there in 1942 amid fear of deportation to a Nazi concentration camp.
 

Joseph Cosgrove

Moderator
Legionnaire
Joined
Jul 13, 2013
Messages
9,556
Reaction score
7,900
Location
Thailand
Home Country
New Zealand
You should see the idiots who govern us here in the UK. Salauds et Ordure !
You should try living where I am. I'm still waiting on my first jab. Erika, got hers about a month ago, Johnsen, so only one was required, organized by the French consulate. French passport holders, no exceptions.
 
Joined
Jan 14, 2006
Messages
4,272
Reaction score
2,785
Location
U.K.
Home Country
United Kingdom
Anniversary.

August 23-1962.


President de Gaulle escaped death when two OAS commando groups sprayed his car with sub-machine gun fire.
The assassination attempt was staged near the Paris suburb of Clamart as the President was driving to Villacoublay military airfield to fly home. His black Citroen DS limousine was hit at least 12 times, but no one was injured.
 
Joined
Aug 17, 2021
Messages
48
Reaction score
23
Location
USA
Home Country
United States
At 25/08/1997 Kasparov lost to Ä°BM Deeper Blue with a score of 2-1. Ä°t is the first time that a chess champion lost to a computer.
 

Joseph Cosgrove

Moderator
Legionnaire
Joined
Jul 13, 2013
Messages
9,556
Reaction score
7,900
Location
Thailand
Home Country
New Zealand
Hissene Habré died Yesterday (COVID)
for those who do not know who HH was:

Chad's ex-ruler Hissène Habré has died at the age of 79 while serving a life sentence for crimes against humanity.
He was being treated for a coronavirus infection, reports say.
Habré was found guilty in 2016 of crimes committed while he was president from 1982 to 1990.
The conviction was the result of a landmark trial in Senegal. It was the first time an African Union-backed court had tried a former ruler for human rights abuses.
Habré was accused of being behind rape, sexual slavery and ordering killings while in power. He denied any knowledge of the crimes.
A commission of inquiry formed in Chad after he was deposed in 1990 said his government carried out some 40,000 politically motivated murders and 200,000 cases of torture in the eight years he was in power.
During the trial, survivors recounted gruesome details of the torture carried out by Habré's feared secret police.

One of the most notorious detention centres in the capital N'Djamena was a converted swimming pool.
Witnesses said victims endured electric shocks, near-asphyxia, cigarette burns and having gas squirted into their eyes.
In 1990, he was overthrown by rebels, eventually seeking refuge in Senegal.
Two decades later, a court in Chad sentenced him to death in absentia for crimes against humanity.
Commenting on Habré's death, Reed Brody, who had helped campaign for the ex-president to be put on trial, said he "will go down in history as one of the world's most pitiless dictators, a man who slaughtered his own people".

The trial in Senegal was the culmination of years of campaigning by his victims and their families.
After a lot of wrangling, the African Union signed a deal to set up a special tribunal to try the former leader.
Habré seized power in 1982 from Goukouni Oueddei, a former rebel comrade who had won elections.
It was widely believed that he was backed by the CIA, as a bulwark against Libya's then leader Colonel Muammar Gaddafi.
His coup came in the middle of a war with Libya over a disputed piece of land
Backed by the United States and France, Habré's forces drove out the Libyans in 1983. He was also backed by the French.
 

Joseph Cosgrove

Moderator
Legionnaire
Joined
Jul 13, 2013
Messages
9,556
Reaction score
7,900
Location
Thailand
Home Country
New Zealand
Les Morfalous (literally The Greedy-Guts, in French argot ; English title: The Vultures) is a 1984 French adventure film, starring Jean-Paul Belmondo and directed by Henri Verneuil, featuring the French Foreign Legion during the Second World War. It is a remake of the 1970 American war film Kelly's Heroes.

 
Joined
Jan 14, 2006
Messages
4,272
Reaction score
2,785
Location
U.K.
Home Country
United Kingdom
Anniversary : Thursday 7th October 1943.

Nipponese Rear Adml. Shigematsu Sakaibara commander of the Nipponese garrison on Wake Island in the Pacific, ordered the execution of 96 American POWs', claiming that they were trying to make contact with US forces
The men were blindfolded and then shot. May they RIP. A vile act in my opinion.
 
Top