3rd November 1914 (Tuesday)

BORN TODAY: in Japanese occupied Port Arthur  in the Kwantung Leased Territory (a territorial concession from the Chinese to Western Powers) on the Liáodōng Peninsula in Manchuria (now Dalian in North East China – voted “China’s most livable city” in 2006) – Saburo Okita, Japanese economist, politician and briefly Minister for Foreign Affairs.

 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saburo_Okita

War!

Russia declares war On Turkey, and British and French forces bombard the Turkish forts at the entrance to the Dardanelles. Montenegrin forces bombard the Austro-Hungarian naval base at Cattaro (modern Kotor). The British bombard Aqaba (then a Turkish possession, now in Jordan) on the Red Sea Gulf of Aqaba.

http://www.firstworldwar.com/onthisday/1914_11_03.htm

The German navy unsuccessfully raids Great Yarmouth on England’s East coast.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raid_on_Yarmouth

The North Sea: disregarding complaints about International Law, the British government declares the whole of the North Sea a “military area”, and requires all neutral merchant ships in future to put into British ports for inspection and subsequent escort, without   any ‘illegal’ cargo bound for Germany. [UK Government archives].

http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/pathways/firstworldwar/spotlights/blockade.htm

In Armenia, near the foot of Holy Mount Ararat (later successfully annexed by Turkey), Russian forces occupy the town of Bayazid.

Middle East: The 16th Brigade, Indian soldiers who left Bombay on 16th October, arrive at the mouth of the Shatt Al-Arab waterway in (what is now) southern Iraq. [Roger Ford – “Eden to Armageddon: World War 1 in the Middle East”].

 

 

28th March 1913 (Friday)

BORN TODAY, in Elbistan, central southern Turkey – Astrid Aghajanian (born Helen Galdzakian) Armenian survivor of the 1915 genocide. After her father was shot, she and her mother escaped from forced march, were found first by Bedouin tribesmen (who sold them to another) and then saved by a Turkish Officer.

She eventually settled in Shoreham-by Sea (West Sussex) in England, via Aleppo (Syria), British Palestine (1920s), fleeing to Amman in Jordan in 1948, to Cyprus (Kyrenia) but forced to flee again after the Turkish invasion of Cyprus in 1974.

She died in Gloucester (UK) in May 2012. “”You may destroy the spider’s home, but he will always build it again.”

Arms Race: The UK House of Commons (the lower house of the Parliament) votes for a major expansion of the British (military) fleet, which is expected to increase by five battleships, eight cruisers and sixteen torpedo boats.

Crime and Punishment: In Carroll Country, Virginia, USA, Floyd Allen and his son Claud are put to death in the electric chair. Floyd was convicted of obstructing justice, after which the judge, the sheriff, the county prosecutor and two other people were murdered in a courthouse shooting which Floyd was found guilty of instigating.

Accidents: At the Pitsea explosive factory in Essex, UK, which produces dynamite and gelignite, three men die and others are injured by an explosion in a guncotton drying stove.

One person dies and 28 are injured after a combination of driver error and inadequate signalling cause a railway accident at Marylebone Station in London.

History of Transport: The Oxford  based Morris car-plant in the UK produces its first ever vehicle: a “Bullnose Morris Oxford”.

Extreme Weather:  On South Island, New Zealand at least 3 people drown in severe flooding in Canterbury, Otago and Southland.