13 Februrary

February 13 1945 – Royal Air Force Bombers Take Off for the First Raids in the Fire-Bombing of Dresden

February 13 1945 – Royal Air Force Bombers Take Off for the First Raids in the Fire-Bombing of DresdenRate this post Under the cover of darkness, 254 bombers took off on February 13, 1945 from British airfields bound for Dresden, a German cultural and railroad center near the eastern edge of rapidly-shrinking Nazi territory. Hours later, one of the most controversial Allied actions of World War II would result in the deaths of tens of thousands of civilians, launching a debate about wartime morality that continues to this day. In the middle of 1944, just weeks after the Allied invasion of Normandy on June 6th, intelligence officers and Royal Air […]

February 13 1931 – New Delhi becomes the capital of India

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February 13 1931 – New Delhi becomes the capital of IndiaRate this post On February 13, 1931, the British Viceroy of India formally inaugurated New Delhi as the capital of India. The city still retains its capital status and has become one of the most populous and prominent cities of the nations. The area that forms modern-day Delhi shows evidence of having been continually inhabited since 600 BC, although if Indian legends are to be believed, the Pandavas built the city Indraprastha here as far back as 2000 BC. Historians have found evidences of Mauryan civilization here, dating back to about 300 BC. Recorded history also provides us evidence of […]

February 13 1960 – France conducted its first Nuclear Test

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February 13 1960 – France conducted its first Nuclear TestRate this post Code-named as “Gerboise Bleue”(Blue Desert Rat), the first French nuclear test was conducted on 13 February 1960. This day marks the beginning of a series of four atmospheric nuclear tests at the Reganne Oasis situated in the Sahara Desert of Algeria. Considered to be quite large for a country’s first nuclear test, Gerboise Bleue was accompanied by an explosive yield of 70 kilotons. After wrapping up the Gerboise test series, France migrated to underground testing at a different site in the Algerian Sahara called In Ecker where it conducted 13 more nuclear tests until 1967. Subsequently, French nuclear […]