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aqconces

History of WWI: Lucky charms gathered by Edward Lovett. - 0 views

www.slate.com/...gathered_by_edward_lovett.html

wwi charms

shared by aqconces on 26 Oct 15 - No Cached
  • During (and after) World War I, British folklorist Edward Lovett made a point of collecting examples of lucky charms and amulets that soldiers had carried to war.
  • Lovett was interested in seeing how country folklore lived on in working-class parts of London.
  • He investigated the use of such charms to cure illnesses, wish ill upon enemies, or attract good luck
  • ...1 more annotation...
  • “Marble four-leaf clover lucky charm belonging to an unknown soldier.”
aqconces

How World War I Shapes U.S. Foreign Policy - The Atlantic - 0 views

www.theatlantic.com/...394616

world war i politics crisis culture history

shared by aqconces on 26 Oct 15 - No Cached
  • What If the Allies Had Lost World War I?
  • A journalist who lived through both the first and second world wars, Frederick Lewis Allen, marveled that the United States went to war in 1941 “with no enthusiasm and no dissent.”
  • Only cranks now question the necessity to fight and defeat Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan.
  • ...2 more annotations...
  • The United States would have found itself after such a negotiated peace confronting the same outcome as it faced in 1946: a Europe divided between East and West, with the battered West looking to the United States for protection.
  • Today’s Europe earnestly seeks to fulfill the vision offered by Wilson in his great “peace without victory” speech of January 22, 1917:
aqconces

How deadly was the poison gas of WW1? - BBC News - 0 views

www.bbc.com/...magazine-31042472

poison gas

shared by aqconces on 26 Oct 15 - No Cached
  • By April, German chemists had tested a method of releasing chlorine gas from pressurised cylinders and thousands of French Algerian troops were smothered in a ghostly green cloud of chlorine at the second Battle of Ypres.
  • With no protection, many died from the agonies of suffocation.
  • Within a few days, the Daily Mail published an editorial lambasting "the cold-blooded deployment of every device of modern science" by the Germans.
  • ...3 more annotations...
  • "Owing to the repeated use by the enemy of asphyxiating gases in their attacks on our positions, I have been compelled to resort to similar methods," Sir John explained.
  • There were commanders on both sides who felt uncomfortable about this new weapon.
  • "I fear it will produce a tremendous scandal in the world... war has nothing to do with chivalry any more. The higher civilisation rises, the viler man becomes," wrote Gen Karl von Einem, commander of the German Third Army in France.
aqconces

Like Game of Thrones, Dead Soldiers Found Frozen in Melting Glaciers | TIME.com - 0 views

newsfeed.time.com/...eserved-bodies-of-wwi-soldiers

shared by aqconces on 26 Oct 15 - No Cached
  • In one of the strangest consequences of global warming yet, glaciers far north in the Italian Alps are slowly melting to reveal the frozen corpses of soldiers killed during World War I.
  • They were casualties of the White War, an obscure part of WWI
  • In May 1915, a newly united Italy decided to join the war on the side of the Allies, opening up a front on the northern border of the country which abutted the enemy Hapsburgs, part of the Central Powers.
  • ...2 more annotations...
  • Far up in the mountains at elevations of over 6,500 feet, Italian troops called the Alpini fought
  • The cold has kept them perfectly intact, like frozen mummies.
aqconces

How Germany Ended Its World War I Reparations Payments - TIME - 0 views

content.time.com/...0,8599,2023140,00.html

germany world war i payments

shared by aqconces on 26 Oct 15 - No Cached
  • World War I ended over the weekend
  • Germany made its final reparations-related payment for the Great War on Oct. 3, nearly 92 years after the country's defeat by the Allies
  • What took Germany so long to pay for the war? Didn't World War I end long ago? Does this mean we're all survivors of the Great War?
  • ...2 more annotations...
  • The story of German reparations involves several payment plans, years of inflation, broken promises, canceled debts and a man named Adolf Hitler who flat out refused to give anyone anything.
  • On Oct. 3, Germany paid off the last installment of interest, finally settling its World War I accounts.
aqconces

Silent Night: The Story of the World War I Christmas Truce of 1914 | TIME - 0 views

time.com/...christmas-truce-1914

world war i christmas truce

shared by aqconces on 26 Oct 15 - No Cached
  • In the hundred years since, the event has been seen as a kind of miracle, a rare moment of peace just a few months into a war that would eventually claim over 15 million lives.
  • But what actually happened on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day of 1914 — and did they really play soccer on the battlefield?
  • one British soldier, Murdoch M. Wood, speaking in 1930, said: “I then came to the conclusion that I have held very firmly ever since, that if we had been left to ourselves there would never have been another shot fired.”
  • ...2 more annotations...
  • Most accounts suggest the truce began with carol singing from the trenches on Christmas Eve
  • Still, a century later, the truce has been remembered as a testament to the power of hope and humanity in a truly dark hour of history.
aqconces

The myths of the battle of Gallipoli | History Extra - 0 views

www.historyextra.com/...myths-gallipoli

shared by aqconces on 26 Oct 15 - No Cached
  • It was a dramatic strategic stroke, originating in the imagination of Winston Churchill, which sent soldiers and sailors far from the drab trenches of Flanders to a romantic country – familiar, from the pages of Homer, to the classically educated officers who served there.
  • This would tilt the odds decisively in the favour of the Allies.
  • The reality was to be very different. Throwing away strategic surprise by bombarding Turkish coastal defences in February 1915, the fleet suffered heavy losses
  • ...2 more annotations...
  • “Mr Winston Churchill’s conception was magnificent.” However, he went on to say it was also “the most damnable folly that ever amateurs were enticed into”.
  • In reality, Gallipoli was a multinational operation
aqconces

Nurse Edith Cavell and the British World War One propaganda campaign - BBC News - 0 views

www.bbc.com/...uk-england-norfolk-34401643

british war propaganda

shared by aqconces on 26 Oct 15 - No Cached
  • Edith Cavell worked as a nurse at the Berkendael Institute in Brussels from 1907, where she helped pioneer modern nursing techniques in Belgium.
  • She was arrested for treason in August 1915 for helping more than 200 Allied soldiers escape occupied Belgium
  • In the immediate aftermath of her death, the nurse was used heavily in the British propaganda drive - a campaign that sometimes obscured the real Edith Cavell.
  • ...2 more annotations...
  • "World War One was the first time propaganda was used as a weapon of war.
  • "It was used to galvanise public opinion against the Germans."
aqconces

British Army Enlisted Indian Children as Young as 10 in World War 1, Claims Book - 0 views

www.ndtv.com/...uring-world-war-1-book-1236217

british army indian children

shared by aqconces on 26 Oct 15 - No Cached
  • Britain's World War I Army included Indian children as young as 10-years-old fighting against the Germans on the western front
  • One of the youngest boys involved in direct combat was a "brave little Gurkha" called Pim, 16, who was given an award for valour by Queen Mary while he was recuperating in hospital in Brighton
  • "In the case of a 10-year-old, it should have been pretty obvious that they were underage,"
aqconces

Hitler constantly high on crystal meth while leading Nazi Germany: report - NY Daily News - 0 views

m.nydailynews.com/...rmany-report-article-1.1973719

hitler nazi meth research history

shared by aqconces on 01 Jun 15 - No Cached
  • New research shows that the German Nazi leader was on a constant supply of crystal methamphetamines to stay awake and energized, according to the UK Independent.
  • The intoxicated Fuhrer, a famous hypochondriac, was on more than 74 different medications while he ordered the systematic murders of Jews across Europe
  • It also claims he took nine shots of methamphetamine while living out his last days in his bunker to ease his pain and stress
  • ...3 more annotations...
  • Hitler was on a steady stream of barbiturate tranquilizers, morphine, nasal and eye drops containing cocaine and other drugs — along with bulls’ semen to boost his testosterone — thanks to his Berlin-based personal physician, Theodor Morell, according to the report
  • He was characterized as “a quack and a fraud and a snake oil salesman”
  • Hitler was shown to have signs of Parkinson's disease by the end of World War II in 1945, and the dizzying array of drugs likely contributed to his serious health issues.
  • aqconces on 01 Jun 15
     
    Studies show that Hitler was constantly high on crystal meth while leading Germany.  Fuhrer was on more than 74 different medications while he ordered murders of Jews.  
aqconces

BBC News - Tsar Nicholas - exhibits from an execution - 0 views

www.bbc.com/...world-europe-18592372

Tsar Nicholas execution exhibit exhibits

shared by aqconces on 09 Mar 15 - No Cached
  • For the first time, Russians have the chance to examine the evidence surrounding the execution of Tsar Nicholas II and his family following the Russian Revolution almost 100 years ago.
  • He and his family and four members of staff were killed without trial by Bolsheviks in the early hours of 17 July 1918, in the cellar of a house in the Urals city of Yekaterinburg.
  • The remains of Nicholas, Alexandra and three of their five children were found in 1991 after the collapse of the Soviet Union.
  • ...1 more annotation...
  • In Soviet times Nicholas was portrayed as a weak and incompetent leader, whose decisions had led to military defeats and the deaths of millions of his subjects.
aqconces

BBC News | Europe | Germans divided over Bismarck - 0 views

news.bbc.co.uk/...142376.stm

Bismarck Germany popularity

shared by aqconces on 09 Mar 15 - No Cached
  • Few Germans question the achievements of the Iron Chancellor, as Bismarck was known
  • But many have come to associate him with the far right because of his politically authoritarian style of government and strong belief in nationhood.
  • He was embraced as a hero by Hitler
  • ...2 more annotations...
  • Some historians say Bismarck's iron rule earned him an undeservedly negative reputation.
  • "People who don't understand history have seized on the fact that he created the country from three wars, and discriminated against the Polish people and others," said the historian Dr Michael Lehmke
aqconces

BBC News - Ukraine protesters topple Lenin statue - 0 views

www.bbc.com/...world-europe-25293328

lenin statue crisis

shared by aqconces on 09 Mar 15 - No Cached
  • Protesters in the Ukrainian capital have toppled a statue of Lenin
  • A crowd estimated to be hundreds of thousands strong gathered in central Kiev
  • protests against Mr Yanukovich's decision to reject a pro-EU association pact
aqconces

BBC News - Vladimir Putin: The rebuilding of 'Soviet' Russia - 0 views

www.bbc.com/...magazine-26769481

putin soviet russia

shared by aqconces on 09 Mar 15 - No Cached
  • Vladimir Putin never kept secret his intention to restore Russian power - what's less clear, he says, is how long the country's rise can continue.
  • If even leading Duma deputies couldn't remember the new prime minister's name, you couldn't blame the rest of the world if it didn't pay much attention to his speech. He was unlikely to head the Russian government for more than a couple of months anyway, so why bother?
  • That man was a former KGB officer, Vladimir Putin
aqconces

BBC News - Russia relations prickly, Philip Hammond predicts - 0 views

www.bbc.com/...election-2015-31787285

russia uk relations

shared by aqconces on 08 Mar 15 - No Cached
  • At least 6,000 people are believed to have been killed
  • Both Ukraine and the pro-Russian rebels say they are withdrawing heavy weapons from the combat zone, but there have been continuing reports of fighting.
  • "We are not going to fight the Russians in Ukraine and we have been very clear and open about that".
  • ...1 more annotation...
  • Russia and Germany have called for an increase in the number of observers monitoring the agreement
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