On This Day, November 15, 1864, one of the most destructive military campaigns of the American Civil War began when Union General William Tecumseh Sherman led approximately 62,000 soldiers out of Atlanta, Georgia, on a march that would change the course of the war.

After capturing Atlanta in September, Sherman made a daring decision. Instead of continuing to depend on vulnerable supply lines stretching back to the North, he would march directly across Georgia toward the Atlantic coast, cutting his army off from its usual supplies and forcing the Confederacy to confront the devastating reach of Union military power.

Before departing, Union forces destroyed Atlanta's military and industrial infrastructure. The city had already suffered heavily during the fighting, and the destruction of its remaining war-related facilities left much of its industrial district in ruins.

Then the march began.

Sherman's army divided into two main wings and advanced southeast across Georgia, covering approximately 285 miles toward the Confederate port of Savannah. With their supply lines abandoned, Union soldiers relied heavily on food and resources taken from the countryside.

Railroads, bridges, warehouses, factories, and other infrastructure supporting the Confederate war effort were destroyed. Farms and civilian communities also suffered from confiscation, burning, and widespread disruption. The campaign became infamous for its harsh treatment of the Southern population and its devastating impact on Georgia.

Yet the march also unfolded during a war fought over slavery. Thousands of enslaved African Americans followed the advancing Union army, seeking freedom. Some were liberated, while others faced dangerous conditions, displacement, and uncertainty as the army moved across the state.

Sherman's strategy was designed not simply to defeat Confederate soldiers but to destroy the South's ability and willingness to continue fighting.

After weeks of marching and fighting, Union forces reached Savannah in December. The Confederate defenders abandoned the city, and Savannah surrendered on December 21, 1864. Sherman presented the captured city to President Abraham Lincoln as a Christmas gift.

The campaign demonstrated the enormous reach of Union military power and helped weaken the Confederacy during the final months of the Civil War.

But it also left a lasting legacy of destruction, suffering, and controversy.

https://youtube.com/shorts/P6LjH3VjrEI?si=d6fN1L7yTe-9PJFl

Thought this might be of interest here!

I have been checking some well-known stories from British pop history against sources. Two results surprised me:

- The "guitar groups are on the way out" line pinned on Decca's Dick Rowe comes from Brian Epstein's 1964 memoir. Rowe denied saying it.

- The Blur v Oasis chart clash of August 1995 seems to have started with a miscalculated release date. The "North v South" rivalry was then inflated by the bands and the press.

The other five moments are Redlands and the Times editorial (1967), Bowie ending Ziggy at Hammersmith (1973), Grundy and the Sex Pistols (1976), Queen at Live Aid (1985) and Elton John v The Sun (1988).

I wrote it up with sources here: The Black Archive Research

Which other well-known story from British pop history do you think has been repeated more often than it has been checked?

On This Day, November 13, 1985, one of the deadliest volcanic disasters in modern history devastated Colombia when the Nevado del Ruiz volcano erupted, unleashing enormous waves of volcanic mud, rocks, and debris that buried entire communities.

The eruption began during the afternoon, but the most devastating consequences unfolded that night.

The volcano's heat melted part of its enormous glacier, sending torrents of water rushing down the mountainside. As the water travelled through river valleys, it gathered volcanic ash, rocks, soil, and other debris, transforming into powerful volcanic mudflows known as lahars.

These destructive flows raced down the mountain and swept through towns and villages.

The hardest-hit community was Armero, a thriving town in the Tolima region, approximately 74 kilometers from the volcano's summit.

At around 11:30 p.m., massive waves of mud and debris overwhelmed Armero, burying homes, hospitals, roads, and entire neighborhoods. Within hours, much of the town had been destroyed.

The disaster killed an estimated 24,000 people across the affected communities, including approximately 22,942 in Armero alone. Thousands more were injured, and countless families lost their homes and loved ones.

Perhaps the most heartbreaking part of this tragedy was that the danger had been recognized before the eruption. Scientists had warned about the possibility of destructive mudflows, and hazard maps had identified vulnerable communities. However, warnings and evacuation efforts failed to reach and protect many residents in time.

Among the thousands of victims was Omayra Sánchez, a 13-year-old girl whose story shocked the world.

Trapped in the ruins of her home, with her legs pinned beneath concrete and debris, she remained conscious as rescue workers struggled desperately to save her. For nearly 60 hours, rescuers stayed beside her, but the lack of appropriate equipment made freeing her impossible.

Despite their efforts, Omayra died on November 16, 1985. Her courage and heartbreaking final hours were documented by French photojournalist Frank Fournier. His photographs brought international attention to the suffering in Armero and the desperate efforts of rescue workers.

The Armero tragedy changed Colombia forever. It exposed serious weaknesses in disaster preparedness and emergency communication and helped drive the development of the country's national disaster prevention and response system.

Today, the remains of Armero stand as a memorial to the thousands who lost their lives and a reminder of the devastating power of nature.

On This Day, November 13, 1901, the Caister lifeboat disaster occurred off the coast of Caister-on-Sea, Norfolk, England. It took place during what became known as the "Great Storm," which caused havoc down the east coasts of England and Scotland.

Unfortunately, nine crew members lost their lives while attempting to launch the lifeboat 'Beauchamp' in a brave rescue attempt when a vessel was in trouble on the Barber Sands. Only three men survived. The weather that night was extremely poor, with lashing rain and a strong gale blowing the heavy sea.

Following the disaster, Beauchamp never returned to service and was abandoned in a boatyard before finally being broken up. Up to the time of the accident, she had been launched to the aid of vessels in distress on 81 occasions and saved 146 lives.

The crew who lost their lives in the tragic incident are all buried in Caister Cemetery opposite the Holy Trinity Church, and a monument was completed in 1903 in remembrance of them.

In 2020, this memorial of the Beauchamp and crew memorial with a broken mast, anchor, lifebuoy, and laurel wreaths became protected by Historic England with Grade II listed status.

So much has changed over time that it would take hundreds of books to tell the story. Empires have risen and fallen, languages have vanished, and ethnic groups have disappeared or been assimilated… A period of roughly 2,000 years, from the beginning to the present day. The common thread among all of them, however, is the repeated use of a single title for their rulers: “Βασιλεὺς Βασιλέων (King of Kings).”

The earliest known use of this title comes from the East; the inscription (or a copy of it) in the first image is a monument commemorating a letter by Darius I (the Great) in the region of Caria. Indeed, we know from inscriptions carved into his statues that Ashurbanipal also referred to himself as “šar šarrāni (King of kings)” in Akkadian. This usage continued in the Iranian region in Middle Persian as “šāhān šāh.” Similarly, on the second-to-last relief, we see that Shapur I referred to himself as “βασιλέως βασιλέων Ἀριανῶν” (King of Kings of the Aryans).

On This Day, November 12, 1980, NASA's Voyager 1 spacecraft made its closest approach to Saturn, capturing extraordinary images and collecting scientific data that transformed our understanding of the magnificent ringed planet.

Launched on September 5, 1977, Voyager 1 had already completed a historic encounter with Jupiter in March 1979. After travelling through space for more than three years, it finally reached the Saturnian system.

At approximately 23:46 UTC on November 12, Voyager 1 passed about 126,000 kilometers above Saturn's cloud tops, revealing details of the planet that had never been observed so closely before.

Its cameras captured spectacular views of Saturn's famous rings, revealing intricate structures, including the narrow F-ring and countless bright and dark ringlets. Scientists also discovered previously unknown details about the planet's atmosphere, magnetic environment, and moons.

One of the most fascinating parts of the mission was its encounter with Titan, Saturn's largest moon. Voyager 1 passed within approximately 6,500 kilometers of Titan, discovering a thick, hazy atmosphere dominated by nitrogen, with methane and other hydrocarbons.

The atmosphere was so dense and opaque that the spacecraft's cameras could not see the moon's surface. This discovery raised exciting questions about Titan's chemistry and the possibility of complex prebiotic processes.

Voyager 1's carefully planned route around Titan and Saturn also meant that it could not continue on to Uranus and Neptune. Instead, it headed away from the planetary region on a journey towards interstellar space.

But its journey was far from over.

In August 2012, Voyager 1 entered interstellar space, becoming the first human-made spacecraft to do so. Decades after launch, it continued carrying humanity's message and scientific instruments into the vast unknown.

A spacecraft launched in 1977 had taken us closer to the wonders of Saturn and eventually travelled beyond the boundaries of our solar system.

Seriously, how has Canadian soldier Léo Major not gotten a proper war movie about his life?

For anyone unfamiliar with him:

- He landed in Normandy on D-Day in 1944.

- He lost sight in one eye but refused to be sent home.

- During the Battle of the Scheldt, he captured 93 German soldiers.

- In April 1945, he helped liberate the Dutch city of Zwolle, largely on his own.

- He later served in Korea, becoming the only Canadian to receive the Distinguished Conduct Medal in two different wars.

If you wrote those achievements into a fictional movie, people would probably complain the main character was unrealistically overpowered. 😂

I'm not asking for an exaggerated superhero film. I'd love a historically grounded war movie like Saving Private Ryan or 1917, showing the horrors of war, his courage, his fellow soldiers, and the people he helped liberate.

We have plenty of American WWII movies. I'd love to see more Canadian military history brought to the big screen, especially internationally.

Léo Major's story is extraordinary enough without Hollywood exaggerating it.

For anyone interested, here's his Veterans Affairs Canada profile:

https://www.veterans.gc.ca/en/remembrance/people-and-stories/leo-major

Would you watch a movie about Léo Major? Who would you cast to play him, and who would you want directing it?

On This Day, November 11, 1918, at exactly 11:00 a.m., the guns finally fell silent across the Western Front, bringing an end to more than four years of devastating fighting in the First World War.

Earlier that morning, at 5:00 a.m., representatives of the Allied Powers and Germany had signed an armistice inside a railway carriage in the Forest of Compiègne, France.

The German delegation was led by Matthias Erzberger, while the Allied side was represented by French Marshal Ferdinand Foch and British Admiral Rosslyn Wemyss.

The agreement required German forces to evacuate occupied territories, surrender large quantities of military equipment, withdraw from certain areas, and release Allied prisoners of war. Germany had little choice but to accept the demanding conditions.

Six hours after the agreement was signed, at 11:00 a.m., the ceasefire officially came into effect.

Across Europe, celebrations erupted. Church bells rang, crowds filled the streets, and people embraced, relieved that the terrible fighting had finally stopped. But for millions of families who had lost loved ones, the moment was also filled with grief.

The human cost of the war was staggering. Millions of soldiers and civilians had died, entire communities had been devastated, and a generation had been profoundly changed.

However, the armistice was not the final peace treaty. The First World War formally ended with the signing of the Treaty of Versailles on June 28, 1919.

November 11 subsequently became known as Armistice Day and is now commemorated in many countries as Remembrance Day, honoring those who served and died in war.

At 11:00 a.m. on the 11th day of the 11th month, the guns fell silent. What does this historic moment mean to you?

Remembering all those who sacrificed their lives for future generations.

On This Day, November 11, 1931, Remembrance Day was observed for the first time throughout the British Commonwealth.

It was originally called “Armistice Day” to commemorate the armistice agreement that ended the First World War on Monday, November 11, 1918, at 11 A.M.—on the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month.

From 1921 to 1930, Armistice Day was held on the Monday of the week in which November 11 fell. In 1931, Alan Neill, Member of Parliament for Comox–Alberni, introduced a bill to observe Armistice Day only on November 11. Passed by the House of Commons, the bill also changed the name to “Remembrance Day”.

Remembrance Day is also known as Poppy Day, owing to the tradition of wearing a remembrance poppy. It is a memorial day observed in Commonwealth member states since the end of the First World War to honour armed forces members who have died in the line of duty.

Following a tradition inaugurated by King George V in 1919, the day is also marked by war remembrances in many non-Commonwealth countries.

The First World War officially ended with the signing of the Treaty of Versailles on 28 June 1919.

On This Day, November 10, 1944, WWII: The USS Mount Hood disaster, one of the most devastating accidental explosions in US naval history, occurred at Seeadler Harbor, Manus Island, in the Admiralty Islands, Papua New Guinea.

The American ammunition ship USS Mount Hood (AE-11) was anchored in the harbor, supporting Allied operations in the Pacific during World War II.

The ship was carrying an enormous cargo of ammunition and explosives intended to supply Allied vessels preparing for the invasion of the Philippines.

At approximately 8:55 a.m., disaster struck.

An explosion suddenly erupted aboard the Mount Hood, followed almost immediately by a much larger detonation as thousands of tons of ammunition exploded.

The ship was virtually obliterated.

A gigantic column of smoke rose thousands of feet into the sky. The force of the blast tore through the surrounding harbor, scattering enormous fragments of metal and destroying nearby vessels.

The explosion was so powerful that it created a massive crater on the seabed where the ship had been anchored.

The consequences were catastrophic.

372 people were killed, and another 371 were injured.

Every person aboard the ship was killed.

Every person aboard the Mount Hood at the moment of the explosion was killed. Only 18 members of its crew survived because they were away from the ship at the time.

The nearby repair ship USS Mindanao was particularly badly affected. Its crew suffered 82 deaths, while numerous other vessels were damaged or destroyed.

In total, 36 nearby ships and vessels suffered damage.

Investigators launched an inquiry to establish what had happened. Although the exact cause could not be conclusively determined, later US Navy historical assessments identified careless handling of ammunition as the most likely explanation.

Mount Hood was never recovered. So devastating was the explosion that investigators could not find any identifiable human remains from the ship.

Today, the disaster remains a sobering reminder of the dangers faced by naval personnel transporting and handling enormous quantities of explosives during wartime.

On This Day, November 9, 1888, a shocking discovery in the East End of London brought renewed fear to the streets of Whitechapel.

A young woman named Mary Jane Kelly, aged approximately 25, was found murdered in her small rented room at 13 Miller's Court, Spitalfields.

Her name would become forever associated with one of the most infamous unsolved criminal investigations in British history: the Jack the Ripper murders.

The previous months had seen a series of murders targeting women in London's impoverished Whitechapel district. The crimes had attracted enormous public attention, with newspapers publishing frightening accounts and spreading speculation about the identity of the unknown killer.

Mary Jane Kelly was the fifth woman in the group of victims commonly known as the Canonical Five.

On the night of November 8, Kelly was reportedly seen around Whitechapel. Witnesses later described hearing her singing in her room during the early hours of the following morning.

But by daylight, something terrible had happened.

At approximately 10:45 a.m. on November 9, Thomas Bowyer, an assistant sent by her landlord to collect overdue rent, looked through a window after receiving no response at her door.

What he discovered led to one of the most disturbing crime investigations of Victorian London.

Police officers arrived, and the investigation quickly became a major public concern. The circumstances of the murder were particularly alarming because Kelly had been attacked inside her own room, where the killer had apparently enjoyed more privacy than in the earlier street attacks.

Despite an extensive investigation, numerous witness statements, and widespread newspaper coverage, the murderer was never identified.

The name Jack the Ripper became one of the most infamous names in criminal history. Yet more than a century later, the true identity of the killer remains unknown.

Mary Jane Kelly's murder is generally regarded as the final killing among the five canonical victims attributed to Jack the Ripper. Whether the same person was responsible for every Whitechapel murder has never been conclusively established.

Beyond the mystery and the headlines, however, there was a real woman whose life was cut short. Her story also reflects the poverty, insecurity, and difficult living conditions experienced by many women in London's East End during the Victorian era.