#OnThisDay, June 19, 1964, having survived a 60-day filibuster, the Civil Rights Act of 1964 passed the US Senate, a milestone in the struggle to extend civil, political, and legal rights and protections to African Americans and to end segregation (depicted in All The Way, 2016)
#OnThisDay, June 17, in 1972, five burglars connected to senior figures in the Nixon administration were arrested in the office of the Democratic National Committee, in the Watergate complex of buildings in Washington, D.C. (depicted in All the President’s Men, 1976)
#OnThisDay, June 16, in 1931, Al Capone pleaded guilty to income tax evasion & 5,000 prohibition violations in a trial at the Chicago Federal Building (depicted in The Untouchables, 1987)
#OnThisDay, June 15, in 1215, overseen by a council of barons, King John of England put his seal to Magna Carta, a cornerstone of the idea of the liberty of citizens (depicted in Ironclad, 2011)
Berthe Mayer was born #OnThisDay in 1913. During the #SecondWorldWar she was a radio operator for #SOE, and provided Allied forces with intelligence about Vichy forces on #Madagascar.
Reinhard #Heydrich, one of the architects of the #holocaust, died #OnThisDay in 1942, from wounds inflicted by Czech SOE agents during an ambush some days earlier.
Reinhard #Heydrich, one of the architects of the #holocaust, died #OnThisDay in 1942, from wounds inflicted by Czech SOE agents during an ambush some days earlier.
#OnThisDay, May 16, 1568, Mary, Queen of Scots fled to England seeking the protection of her first cousin once removed, Queen Elizabeth I (depicted in Mary Queen of Scots, 2018)
#OnThisDay in 1917, the Austro-Hungarian navy attacked the Otranto Barrage. Three cruisers, two destroyers, and three submarines took part in the largest attack on the anti-submarine barrier. Of the forty-seven drifters on the barrage, fourteen were sunk and another four damaged.
Some drifters fought back, including the Gowan Lee, whose captain won the Victoria Cross.
#OnThisDay in 1942, British troops landed on the island of #Madagascar. The British assumed the French would pit up little resistance, but the subsequent campaign lasted almost exactly six months.
It was the first major Allied amphibious invasion of the #SecondWorldWar, with the first use of tank landing ships (LSTs), and the first use of tanks in an amphibious operation.