What happened in History on this date

[Zeta Vandyke]

THE KINGDOM OF THE NETHERLANDS DECLARES WAR WITH JAPAN

[Inter-Allied Review, December 15, 1941.]

On December 8th, Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands issued the following proclamation:

The Kingdom of the Netherlands considers itself in a state of war with Japan.

While negotiations which were in progress between the governments of the United States and Japan were not yet completed, and while President Roosevelt exhibited the greatest patience and did his utmost to preserve peace in the Pacific, and while an appeal which President Roosevelt had sent to the Emperor of Japan still remained unanswered, Japanese forces attacked American and British territory without a declaration of war.

Thus war has been forced on the United States and the British Empire. You know how Germany, in the same manner that Japan now emulates in Asia, attacked many countries in Europe, one after another. Japan, motivated by the same spirit of aggression and the same disregard of law, follows in the footsteps of her German Axis partner.

Neither the safety of the territories of our Kingdom in the Far East, nor the Ties which bind us to our British Allies, nor the special relations which exist between the Netherlands and the United States allow the Government of the Kingdom to look on passively.

The Kingdom of the Netherlands considers itself in a state of war with Japan because the aggression-which seeks to put out of action, one by one, the countries which desire peace-can only be halted through a strong coalition.

Now that the American and British peoples, with whom we are closely bound in friendship, are attacked, the Kingdom of the Netherlands places all its armed forces and resources at the disposal of the allied war effort.

The development of our Kingdom for centuries has been guided by a unified destiny. In the hurricane which threatens this development, it rises with resolute unity to maintain its place in the world. The Netherlands did not hesitate to defend herself immediately, with courage, when she was viciously attacked in Europe. The Netherlands East Indies will not waver now that she is menaced by a similar attack.

The Indies stood with the Netherlands in her hour of trial. The Netherlands and our West Indies will stand with the East Indies now that the Indies are resisting aggression. I rely on the Navy, the Army and the Air Force, the authorities and the civilian services.

I and all my subjects rely on the courage, resolution and determination of all those in the Indies. Trusting in God, whom all my subjects desire to serve in freedom and who know that our cause is righteous and our conscience clear, we accept the challenge together with our powerful allies.

We will triumph and our Kingdom, beset but at the same time purified, steeled and standing with inviolable pride will survive stronger than ever to live under our free banner in a world free from aggression.

In the Indies, Governor General Van Starkenborgh Stachouwer made the following declaration by radio to the population of the Netherlands East Indies:

People of the Netherlands East Indies: In its unexpected attack on American and British territories while diplomatic negotiations were still in progress, the Japanese empire has consciously adopted a course of aggression. These attacks, which have thrown the United States of America and the British empire into active war on the side of already-fighting China, have as their object the establishment of Japanese supremacy in the whole of east and southeast Asia. These aggressions also menace the Netherlands East Indies in no small measure. The Netherlands government accepts the challenge and takes up arms against the Japanese empire.

Edited December 8, 2017 by Zeta Vandyke

[Pamela Galli]

32 minutes ago, Zeta Vandyke said:

 

Now that the American and British peoples, with whom we are closely bound in friendship, are attacked, the Kingdom of the Netherlands places all its armed forces and resources at the disposal of the allied war effort.

That is touching. I remember well when we had not alienated our friends.

[Phil Deakins]

14 minutes ago, Pamela Galli said:

That is touching. I remember well when we had not alienated our friends.

Not the people, Pamela, not the people.

[Madelaine McMasters]

4-23-2020    After witnessing the success of placing Brexit in the hands of the British public via referendum, the physics community submits M-theory to a live vote on America's Got Talent, asking the audience whether the membranes underpinning the physical world should be 10 or 11 dimensional. In an unexpected twist, five dimensions wins the vote as a write-in. Exit polling shows that younger voters predominantly picked from the two listed candidates, with no clear preference for either. Those over 60, who called in a majority of the votes, expressed overwhelming support for "5", explaining that, in addition to the three physical dimensions and time, the fifth dimension is one of imagination and is called "The Twilight Zone".

Edited April 23, 2019 by Madelaine McMasters

[Selene Gregoire]

3 hours ago, Madelaine McMasters said:

4-23-2020    After witnessing the success of placing Brexit in the hands of the British public via referendum, the physics community submits M-theory to a live vote on America's Got Talent, asking the audience whether the membranes underpinning the physical world should be 10 or 11 dimensional. In an unexpected twist, five dimensions wins the vote as a write-in. Exit polling shows that younger voters predominantly picked from the two listed candidates, with no clear preference for either. Those over 60, who called in a majority of the votes, expressed overwhelming support for "5", explaining that, addition to the three physical dimensions and time, the fifth dimension is one of imagination and is called "The Twilight Zone".

There are five people who disagree that the Fifth Dimension is one of imagination and called The Twilight Zone.

 

[Zeta Vandyke]

04-23-2005 The first video ever uploaded on Youtube

[Scylla Rhiadra]

4 hours ago, Madelaine McMasters said:

4-23-2020    After witnessing the success of placing Brexit in the hands of the British public via referendum, the physics community submits M-theory to a live vote on America's Got Talent, asking the audience whether the membranes underpinning the physical world should be 10 or 11 dimensional. In an unexpected twist, five dimensions wins the vote as a write-in. Exit polling shows that younger voters predominantly picked from the two listed candidates, with no clear preference for either. Those over 60, who called in a majority of the votes, expressed overwhelming support for "5", explaining that, addition to the three physical dimensions and time, the fifth dimension is one of imagination and is called "The Twilight Zone".

Michael Gove: I think the people in this country have had enough of experts, with organizations from acronyms, saying—
Interviewer: They've had enough of experts? The people have had enough of experts? What do you mean by that?
Michael Gove: People from organizations with acronyms saying that they know what is best and getting it consistently wrong.
Inteviewer: The people of this country have had enough of experts?
Michael Gove: Because these people are the same ones who got consistently wrong what was happening.
Interviewer: This is proper Trump politics this, isn't it?
Michael Gove: No it's actually a faith in the—
Inteviewer: It's Oxbridge Trump.
Gove: It's a faith, Faisal, in the British people to make the right decision.

(I knew I'd remember the quote after I'd logged off!)

[Lindal Kidd]

04/23/1915 - The Advisory Committee for Aeronautics becomes the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA), the forerunner of NASA.

-- and today I am reading the autobiography of A. Scott Crossfield, the first man to exceed Mach 2, flying the D558-II Skyrocket research aircraft for NACA.  Crossfield went on to play a key role in the development and tests of the iconic X-15.  He was featured in Life magazine and was one of my childhood heroes.

[Madelaine McMasters]

3 hours ago, Lindal Kidd said:

04/23/1915 - The Advisory Committee for Aeronautics becomes the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA), the forerunner of NASA.

-- and today I am reading the autobiography of A. Scott Crossfield, the first man to exceed Mach 2, flying the D558-II Skyrocket research aircraft for NACA.  Crossfield went on to play a key role in the development and tests of the iconic X-15.  He was featured in Life magazine and was one of my childhood heroes.

I love Scott Crossfield, Lindal!

He was featured in one episode of a documentary series on the X Planes I saw long ago. I'm sure you know all this from reading his autobiography, but I remember him talking about how the 1/4" thick skin of the X-15 fuselage would "oil can" right next to the pilot's seat as it heated up during flight, saying "that'll get your attention". During a test firing of the X-15 rocket motor on a fixed stand in the desert, the back of the plane exploded, accelerating the cockpit (with him in it) forward down the track at what was estimated to be 100gs. That changed the shape of his eyeball and he had to get a bigger watch so he could read the hands. He never told anyone about it.

There was also film of his landing after one supersonic flight, where he was having great difficulty damping an oscillation that threatened to kill him. Once on the ground, they discovered that a substantial portion of the rudder and horizontal stabilizer had melted away.

Crossfield's understated recollections of those harrowing episodes remind me of Dad's stories of landing a Corsair on an aircraft carrier in heavy seas. He described the ordeal as "annoying".

Edited April 23, 2019 by Madelaine McMasters

[Lindal Kidd]

The melted stabilizer wasn't one of Crossfield's flights, but occurred during the record setting speed run (and the last flight of the X-15) made by Pete Knight (4520 mph, Mach 6.5...I had to look it up).  I learned a lot more about this that I probably wanted to because the unexpected hypersonic flow that caused the burn-through was used as an example of unintended consequences of design modifications by an instructor I had in an engineering seminar.

Crossfield had two dicey landings...the first was the very first unpowered drop test flight.  The hydraulic control system was too sluggish, and it set up an oscillation in the final landing flare that almost proved fatal...but Crossfield, as he tells it, lucked out and managed to set the plane down at just the right point in the cycle.  That may be the one that you mentioned.  The second was one you may have seen on film.  The X-15 touches down on its main landing skids, which are far back toward the rear.  The nose is always still high in the air, and because the main gear is so far back, it always comes down hard as the plane loses speed.  This time, it came down so hard that the X-15 darn near broke in half, behind the cockpit.  It turned out that it was not pilot error, but a failure of the nose gear to provide the correct amount of shock absorption.

That ground test explosion footage is downright terrifying.  It's amazing that nobody was killed.  They actually used the footage in the movie "X-15" starring the young Charles Bronson.  The fellow in the silver pressure suit who you see being helped from the cockpit is actually Scott Crossfield.  Although the plane looks totally destroyed, it was actually re-built and flew again.

I didn't know this, but looked it up in Wikipedia after I read Crossfield's book:  He died in 2006, in a plane crash, at the age of 85.  He was flying a Cessna 210 from Georgia to Manassas, VA and encountered severe thunderstorms en route.  It's believed that the plane broke up in the air.  In his book, he relates an incident that he always considered one of his worst performances -- he, and a number of fellow naval reserve pilots, were to fly to Denver for a big celebration of "Fifty Years of Flight", but due to a series of incidents, most of them never arrived.  Crossfield himself, and his wingman, turned back due to facing what appeared to be severe weather ahead, and low fuel.  They later learned that the weather was not that severe, and that they had been within six minutes of Denver.  I wonder if part of his decision in 2006 to press ahead into the bad weather was due to this much earlier incident which had haunted him for many years.  He writes of it, "Not once since then, either on land or in the air, have I ever turned back from any course that I set upon, no matter how dark the clouds that lay ahead."

Edited April 24, 2019 by Lindal Kidd

[CheriColette]

ANZAC Day Reflection 25th April. Lest We Forget. 

We are here to reflect on the sacrifice of so many young lives in the many conflicts that Australia and New Zealand have been involved in and recognise the service of all. Little did the soldiers who landed on April 25, 1915 imagine what they were embarking on would become the thing of legend.

[Madelaine McMasters]

On 4/24/2019 at 12:14 AM, Lindal Kidd said:

The melted stabilizer wasn't one of Crossfield's flights

Thanks for correcting my memory, Lindal.

I don't think I've watched any other X-15 stuff and don't recall Pete Knight, so I don't know how I commingled Knight's melted stabilizer and Scott Crossfield's oscillating landing.

My flight instructor owned a Cessna 210, and I got to fly it to/from Oshkosh the summer I learned to fly. I think it was a turbo, and it was too damned fast. I had no time to noodle with anything during the 20 minutes or so of cruise between West Bend and Oshkosh. I'd rather fly a Cub, even (particularly?) if that means never getting there in a strong headwind.

Edited April 25, 2019 by Madelaine McMasters

[Selene Gregoire]

My dad finally got his pilot license when he retired. Bought a 45 Aeronca. Last I knew, when he passed, the rest of the family had it repainted (it was green). What's happened to it since I have no idea but if they sold it... someone's head will be on the chopping block.

[Lindal Kidd]

I just noticed something from re-reading Maddy's last post there.  Maddy, you were a STUDENT PILOT and you flew into and out of AirVenture!?  (For you non-aviators, the annual EAA Fly-In at Oshkosh results in what is, for that week, the world's busiest airspace.  Like flying into Los Angeles International, times five.)

Your instructor must've been sadistic.  I hope you set him on fire.

[CheriColette]

 

 

[Love Zhaoying]

On 4/23/2019 at 10:37 AM, Madelaine McMasters said:

Those over 60, who called in a majority of the votes, expressed overwhelming support for "5", explaining that, in addition to the three physical dimensions and time, the fifth dimension is one of imagination and is called "The Twilight Zone".

While I’m “only” 53, the new Twilight Zone series seems a bit hokey.

[Rhonda Huntress]

36 minutes ago, Love Zhaoying said:

While I’m “only” 53, the new Twilight Zone series seems a bit hokey.

And to completely derail the thread ....

Have you seen "Love, Death and Robots" on Netflix?  It is like a mix of Twilight Zone and Heavy Metal.

 

[Madelaine McMasters]

11 hours ago, Love Zhaoying said:

While I’m “only” 53, the new Twilight Zone series seems a bit hokey.

I'm 48 and wasn't aware there was a new series. Some people can't leave well enough alone.

[Love Zhaoying]

13 minutes ago, Madelaine McMasters said:

I'm 48 and wasn't aware there was a new series. Some people can't leave well enough alone.

Interestingly, it’s hosted by Jordan Peele. I thought you were older, something about maturity and wisdom.

[Madelaine McMasters]

1 hour ago, Love Zhaoying said:

I thought you were older...

That's my long term goal!

Edited April 28, 2019 by Madelaine McMasters

[Lindal Kidd]

On 4/23/2019 at 10:37 AM, Madelaine McMasters said:

...the physics community submits M-theory to a live vote on America's Got Talent, asking the audience whether the membranes underpinning the physical world should be 10 or 11 dimensional. In an unexpected twist, five dimensions wins the vote as a write-in. Exit polling shows that younger voters predominantly picked from the two listed candidates, with no clear preference for either. Those over 60, who called in a majority of the votes, expressed overwhelming support for "5"...

Physics by democracy?  I don't think I've heard anything sillier than the time the Alabama legislature debated a law that would make pi equal to 3.

[Selene Gregoire]

4 hours ago, Madelaine McMasters said:

I'm 48 and wasn't aware there was a new series. Some people can't leave well enough alone.

So you are still a kid then. 

 

Not even trying to watch the new one. No way could it live up to Rod's standards.

Edited April 28, 2019 by Selene Gregoire

[Madelaine McMasters]

Just now, Selene Gregoire said:

So you are still a kid then. 

My favorite episode (not that I've seen many) of Twilight Zone is "Kick the Can". If I'm doing it right, I'll always be a kid. I see evidence you're doing it right, as are so many of the people here.
 

[Selene Gregoire]

1 hour ago, Madelaine McMasters said:

My favorite episode (not that I've seen many) of Twilight Zone is "Kick the Can". If I'm doing it right, I'll always be a kid. I see evidence you're doing it right, as are so many of the people here.
 

Yes! The best!

Mother always warned me to never, ever grow up and I never will. 

[Madelaine McMasters]

1 hour ago, Lindal Kidd said:

Physics by democracy?  I don't think I've heard anything sillier than the time the Alabama legislature debated a law that would make pi equal to 3.

That story is as made up as mine, though more plausible. I did once meet a man who claimed that PI is a human construct, and tried to use the PI=2 ploy to prove it...

And, if you don't pay too much attention, you can prove that PI = 3, or any other number... https://www.wikihow.com/Falsely-Prove-That-Pi-Equals-3

Absurdity is becoming increasingly plausible, which may require me to be a little more careful in the future.

Edited April 28, 2019 by Madelaine McMasters