This day in history...

On March 24, 1944, 76 Allied POW's escape from Stalag Luft III. It was the second mass escape attempt from the Luftwaffe (German Air Force) - run POW camp, built on a site in east Germany specifically chosen for its hard ground that should have made tunneling virtually impossible. The POWs (the plot was conceived by RAF pilot Roger Bushell) apparently didn't get the word, digging not one but three tunnels, dubbed Tom, Dick and Harry by the prisoners (secrecy on the project was such that senior prisoner Captain Herbert Massey, RAF, threatened court-martial for any prisoner who used the word "tunnel" rather than one of the code names during the operation). Bushell's plan called for 200 prisoners to go out; only 76 cleared tunnel "Harry" before alarms went off, and only 3 of those 76 reached the safety of neutral Sweden. Fifty of the remaining 73 (none were American) were executed on Adolph Hitler's personal order. The event inspired the 1960's film The Great Escape. The prison site is now a museum (photo shows path of tunnel "Harry" at present day, white spot beyond the road is the exit)


On March 24, 1993, American astronomers Carolyn and Eugene Shoemaker, and David Levy, discover fragments of a comet orbiting the planet Jupiter. Officially named Shoemaker-Levy 9, it is estimated that the intact comet had been captured by Jupiter's gravity some 20 to 30 years before, and had been broken into fragments by those same gravitational forces just a year earlier. Over a 5 day span in July, 1994, those fragments would crash into the planet. (photo sequence taken by the Hubbell telescope shows one of the collisions)


On March 24, 1721, German Baroque composer Johann Sebastian Bach presents a collection of 6 orchestral concertos to Christian Ludwig, Margrave (a medieval title assigned to military commanders on the border of the Holy Roman Empire) of Brandenburg-Schwedt. The concertos (Bach titled them in French, Six Concerts à plusieurs instruments,or "Six Concertos for Different Instruments") had nothing to do with each other and were likely written by Bach at different times over the previous decade. They did have one unique similarity in that JSB hand wrote the scores himself, rather than dictating them to a copyist. Ludwig was no aficionado of music and tucked them away in his library; they were sold after his death in 1734 for silver coins valued at about $30 at present rates. It was not until 1850 that the pieces, now known as The Brandenburg Concertos, would be published and performed. They are considered to be among the definitive examples of Baroque-era music.

 

Hogan's Heroes was supposedly inspired by the movie Stalag 17.

 

On March 25, 1189, Richard I, Duke of Normandy and King of England, is wounded in the shoulder by a crossbow shot while suppressing a rebellion in southern France. The wound would turn gangrenous and he would die on April 6. Richard I is one of the few historic kings of England known less by his regnal number than his epithet - Richard the Lion Heart, a title he earned in his late teens for his courage in battle. Some chroniclers believe the archer who fired the fatal shot was a boy who was seeking revenge for the death of his father and brothers during the rebellion. Richard not only forgave the boy on his deathbed, he pardoned him and sent him off with 100 shillings. Richard was 41 years old at death. His heart was removed and buried in Rouen, the rest of his body was buried alongside his father at an abbey in Normandy.


On March 25, 1948, meteorologists in the Oklahoma City area issue a tornado forecast to authorities at nearby Tinker Air Force Base. Five days earlier, a tornado struck the base (estimates place it at F3 strength on the modern Fujita scale), and meteorologists on the 25th note that the weather conditions are identical to the previous day. Tinker authorities acted accordingly, and when a tornado (another F3) touched down around 6 that day, there were no injuries, and damage was far less than that from the storm on the 20th. It is the first time a tornado is successfully forecast.

 

On March 28, 1854, France and the United Kingdom declare war on Russia. The immediate grievance is the treatment of Roman Catholics in Palestine, but long-range, western Europe is concerned over Russian encroachment into the Ottoman Empire (including Palestine). The Ottoman and Austrian Empires, along with Sardinia, would soon side with the west in the Crimean War - so-called because it was primarily fought on the Crimean Peninsula along the Black Sea - while Greece would eventually align with Russia. The defeat of the British Light Brigade at Balaclava is the most well-known engagement of the Crimean War, but the west would eventually prevail, with the Russians agreeing to demilitarize positions on the peninsula and giving up some of its holdings on the Black Sea.


On March 28, 1834, Congress censures President Andrew Jackson over his refusal to hand over documents related to his dismantling of the Bank of the United States. It is the first time a president is subjected to this formal notice of disapproval by Congress. Jackson (a Democrat), felt the Bank had too many foreign investors and would not fund his westward expansion. The Whig Party-controlled Congress, led by Senate Majority Leader Henry Clay wanted the Bank maintained, but Jackson vetoed Congress' 1931 legislation to renew its charter. Democrats would expunge the censure when they won Congress in 1837, but Jackson - a notorious duelist - allegedly told a biographer after his retirement that he wished he could have just shot Clay.


On March 28, 1814, Dr. Joseph-Ignace Guillotin, inventor of one of history's most infamous execution devices, is buried near Paris, France. The doctor invented the guillotine in 1789, seeing it as both a humane form of execution and a symbol of social equality during the Revolution, as it would be used as France's instrument of capital punishment regardless of the condemned's station in life. The French public actually saw it as a dignified instrument at first, but its wild overuse during the Reign of Terror led to its decline in favorability, and Dr. Guillotin would later in life admit to embarrassment over what his invention had become. The last execution by guillotine took place in 1977.

 

I know people who'd rather have their head cut off than listen to disco.