Samuel Watkins, Confederate volunteer from Tennessee and author of the well known Co. Aytch died at age 62, his health broken from the Civil War and Reconstruction.
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A second surrender signing insisted upon by Stalin took place in Berlin with a slightly revised instrument of surrender. The original would have sufficed, but Stalin insisted.
This one was signed, for the Germans, by Field Marshal Keitel.
And the war in Europe came to an end.
Celebrations broke out all across Western Europe and North America, which in some instances had begun the day prior. Winston Churchill announced new of the 11:00 p.m. singing at 3:00 p.m. Truman at 9:00 a.m., warning that the war was only half won. All times local.
Karl Dönitz announced the in a speech broadcast from Flensburg at 12:30 p.m., mentioning that the Nazi Party no longer had any role in government.
Hermann Göring surrendered near Radstadt, Austria. Eisenhower would be upset when he learned of the celebrity status his American captors had given him.
German submarines were ordered to surface and report to the Allies.
The Massacre in Trhová Kamenice occurred when German troops in Trhová Kamenice, Czechoslovakia shot supposed partisans. In spite of the surrender, some German forces did not lay down their arms on the 8th.
The Sétif and Guelma massacre began when French police fired on local Algerian demonstrators at a protest in the Algerian market town of Sétif. The beginning of decolonization had begun.
Gen. Ernst-Günther Baade, age 47, died of gangrene; Paul Giesler, age 49, German Nazi official committed suicide; Werner von Gilsa, age 56, German military officer committed suicide after being captured by the Russians; Wilhelm Rediess, age 44, German commander of SS troops in Norway committed suicide; Bernhard Rust, age 61, German Nazi Minister of Science, Education and National Culture committed suicide; Josef Terboven, age 46, German Reichskommissar for Norway during the Nazi occupation committed suicide by detonating dynamite in a bunker.
The US 145th Infantry division took the the ridge near Guagua, southeast of Mount Pacawagan on Luzon and blocked a track along the Mariquina river.
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Kalev Gustav Arro, age 58, and one of the last Estonian Forest Brothers, was killed in a gun battle with Soviet authorities.
Jigme Singye Wangchuck was crowned King of Bhutan. He had been king since 1972, but the coronation took place on this day under the direction of the kingdom's royal astrologers.
Algeria ended its partial embargo on the expert of oil to the Netherlands, breaking with OPEC in order to do so.
The African National Congress rejected proposals agreed upon by Methodist Bishop Abel Muzorewa, and later to become the only Prime Minister of Zimbabwe Rhodesia, and Ian Smith, the only Prime Minister of Rhodesia, for a settlement in Rhodesia.
Bishop Muzorewa died in 2010 at age 84, Smith died in 2007 at age 88.
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OPEC voted to freeze oil prices for three months. Saudi Arabia had been willing to reduce them, but Algeria, Iraq, and Iran, had not been.
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Actor turned politician Ronald Reagan delivered California's State of the State address, noting the oil crisis but asserting it was an opportunity to develop resources, freeing the US from foreign petroleum.
Pierre-Étienne Flandin, a former Prime Minister of France, and briefly Premier of Vichy France, was arrested in Algiers along with former Vichy Interior Minister Marcel Peyrouton, former Vichy Information Secretary Pierre Tixler-Vignacourt, member of parliament André Albert, and Pierre François Boisson, the Vichy Governor-General of French West Africa.
Flandin had been a French pilot during World War One.
Albert had been serving with the Free French forces since June 1943, after he had fled from Vichy.
They would all survive their arrests and falls from grace.
The U-284 was scuttled by the Germans after it received storm damage southeast of Greenland.
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The French Committee of National Liberation granted French citizenship to Algerians classified as "Moslem elites", those being the ability to fluently read and write French. It was expected that this would enfranchise between 20,000 to 30,000 Algerians.
This also abandoned a prior requirement that those obtaining French citizenship abandon Islam.
This would have been a huge move had it come in the 30s, but now, it would prove to be too little, too late.
The Germans raided Nantua, France, in reprisal for resistance activities.
Allied aircraft raided Luftwaffe airfields near Athens at Eleusis, Kalamaki and Tatoi, as well as the harbor facilities at Piraeus in the heaviest raid on Greece to date.
Sarah Sundin's blog, reports that:
Today in World War II History—December 14, 1943: US Army Air Force decides to stop using camouflage paint on planes, with the exception of night fighters and transports, to increase speed and range.
The Red Army took Cherkasy.
John Harvey Kellogg, creator of cornflakes (1878) and founder of the Battle Creek Sanitarium ain Battle Creek, Michigan, died at age 91.
The Provisional Government of Azad Hind ("Free India") was declared with Subhas Chandra as president. Its territory, such as it was, were those portions of Indian occupied by Japan.
It immediately declared it was entering the war on the Japanese side, an example of really not grasping the direction things were headed in, and in fact already well advanced towards.
On the same day, Japan began drafting high school and university students.
The Germans began liquidating the Minsk Ghetto as they were retreating from Belarus.
The RAF made a highly destructive raid on Kassel.
Algerian Jews, 140,000 in number were restored French citizenship, which had been restricted, along with the same for Algerian Arabs, on March 17, 1942 by Gen. Henri Giraud. Arabs had to apply for restoration of their French citizenship.
Watergate prosecutor Archibald Cox was dismissed by the Administration, and attorney General Elliot L. Richardson and deputy attorney General William B. Ruckelshaus resigned. Cox was dismissed by Robert Bork, who later became an unsuccessful Supreme Court nominee, but who nonetheless was influential in the philosophy of the current Supreme Court.
The Sydney Opera House was inaugurated and opened by Queen Elizabeth II.
Saudi Arabia and Algeria halted petroleum exports to the U.S., the embargo now becoming a full-blown disaster.
The United States War Manpower Commission issued the order preventing 27,000,000 civilian employees engaged in essential activity from leaving their employment for non-essential work. An exception existed if a person simply left employment and remained unemployed for thirty days.
Penalties existed for employees and employers who violated the order, including fines up to $1,000 and a year in prison.
We addressed this a bit earlier, but this would probably be regarded as an unconstitutional act today.
The U-175 was sunk by the Coast Guard Cutter Spencer in a heavily photographed action.
Oklahoma! opened on Broadway.
Having a very long initial run, and having been revived from time to time, I have to admit, I've never seen it.
I have been, however, to Oklahoma on numerous occasions.
The Afrika Korps withdrew from Cap Serrat, the Tunisian city that's about as far north in Tunisia as you can go.
The British took El Aouana, Algeria. The ancient city is famous for the French discovery for four dolman there. Dating back to Roman times, the city was named Cavallo, "horse", by the Romans.
A photographer was apparently touring the Port of San Francisco, which I've also been to.
Actor Christopher (Ronald) Walken born on this day in 1943 in New York.
Russian writer and politician Pavel Nikolayevich Milyukov (Па́вел Никола́евич Милюко́в) died in exile in France on this day in 1943. He had been a member of the Provisional Russian Government after the fall of the monarchy. While an opponent of the Communists in his native land, he supported Stalin's efforts to expand Soviet territory and was an ardent supporter of the Soviet war effort against the Germans.
Operation Torch concluded with an Allied victory, which included the French in North Africa switching sides.
On the same day, the Kokoda Track campaign ended in an Allied victory. The Battle of Buna-Gona in New Guinea, commenced. That was noted by Sarah Sundin on her blog, who also noted:
Today in World War II History—November 16, 1942: British troops coming from Algeria first encounter German troops in Tunisia. In Papua New Guinea, US and Australians launch drive to clear the Buna-Gona area.
The Naval Battle of Guadalcanal completely stopped, with that also being an Allied victory.
The Cubs held off the Phillies 26-23 in Wrigley Field after being up by 19. The game remains the highest-scoring game in major-league history. Marty Callaghan of the Cubs batted three times in a single inning.
W. T. Cosgrave became Chairman of the Provisional Government of the Irish Free State, replacing Michael Collins in that role.
An earthquake occurred in the Tel Atlas region of Algeria.
Lex Anteinternet: Islamic Violence, Islamic Silence and Western Rela...: This past week the world has been witness to another outrage committed by those who claim devotion to Islam. If this event were unique, a ...Of note, on this matter, in the past week protests, some pretty heated, have broken out in Pakistan, Algeria and Jordon.
