August 19 (A Double)

480 B.C. – The Battle of Thermopylae ended: Persian forces finally overran the heavily outnumbered Spartan defenders of the narrow pass at Thermopylae in Greece.

NOTE: This event was also posted on August 9...The date is often debated, and many note it in September. 

I am posting it again on purpose, because it is one of my favorite and greatest battles in world history - one with many far-reaching results.

1. The Persians suffered so many casualties, this was their best opportunity of crushing the Greeks before they mounted a nationwide defense...They fought many more battles, but this was the beginning of the end.

2. Sparta lost its great king (Leonidas) and suffered such a loss to its finest forces it wasn't strong enough to continue its traditional role as the leader (hegemon) of the Greek city-states following the war.

3. As a result of Persian losses at the battle, the Athenians were able to lead the Greek city-states to a win in the rest of the war...And as a result of Spartan losses, Athens was able to establish itself as the Greek hegemon, which eventually led to the Peloponnesian War.

A few details of the battle: The Spartans had around 300 troops and about 7,000 allied forces, which suffered over 4,000 casualties, including all but one Spartan. The Persians had 3,400,000 troops and suffered around 30,000 casualties...Alright, Herodotus probably exaggerated a little on the 3.4 million, but it is estimated the Persians had at least 170,000 troops.

14 - Roman Emperor Augustus Caesar died.

Augustus was an incredibly important figure in history...He was Julius Caesar’s hand-picked (adopted) successor, and the man who put the final end to the Roman Republic - establishing the Roman Empire after winning a civil war.

Also, his 40-year reign began an unprecedented time of peace, known as the Pax Romana (the Roman Peace)...A peace enforced by Rome.

Unfortunately for the Empire, there were few emperors of Augustus’ skill and Augustus didn’t establish a method for peaceful succession, which wreaked havoc on the Empire for the rest of its days.

1503 - Pope Alexander VI died accidentally of poison intended for a guest.

Such was papal politics in the Middle Ages...Which is why the Reformation had to come.

1936 - The Soviet Purges: Generals Kamenev and Zinovjev were tried for 'Trotskyism.'

The Purges were one of the many ways Stalin eliminated his enemies, and the 1930’s saw an awesome display of his power through the purging of the Communist Party and officer corp of the Soviet military...As well as millions of otherwise innocent Soviet citizens.

Sadly, but predictably, the Soviet Union paid dearly for these purges when Hitler invaded, because the Soviet military was in complete disarray due to lack of experienced leadership.

1942 - The German Sixth Army was ordered to capture Stalingrad:  WWII.

The city of Stalingrad wasn’t a necessary objective for the Germans, but Der Fuhrer wanted to eliminate the city of Joseph Stalin's name and desperately needed the Caucasian oil fields...No one ever accused Hitler of being a strategic genius, and he insisted on ordering his troops into what became the largest, most bloody battle in world history.

The result was awesome, brutal, and the turning-point in the war on this front.

1944 - President Franklin Roosevelt sent an envoy to China to reconcile problems between the Nationalists and Communists:  WWII.

Too little, too late...There was no reconciliation of the two factions, and truth be told both used WWII as a stockpiling, recruiting, and training ground for their war which followed The War.

1991 - Soviet hard-liners announced President Mikhail S. Gorbachev had been removed from power.

The Communists and Gorbachev - who was a commie - were at the end of their rope, and this event ended poorly for both...But a new Russian power-broker was emerging, and becoming the star of this event. This Russian was Boris Yeltsin (President of the Russian Federation), who took on the coup plotters by calling for a general strike.

1996 - Ralph Nader accepted the presidential nomination of the Green Party, denouncing tax breaks for corporations and calling for a "political alternative" to the two mainstream parties.

Third Party candidates, and their parties, are a joke. Those on the Right only help the Left by stealing votes from Republicans, and those on the Left only help the Right by stealing votes from Democrats...Anyone who tells you otherwise either doesn't know better or is out and out lying to you.