The Battle of the Bulge was the last major German offensive on the
Western Front in World War II. It was intended that the German army
would split the Allied line in half, capture Antwerp, sweep north and
encircle and destroy four Allied armies, thus forcing them to
negotiate for peace. Although unsuccessful, it nevertheless tied down
huge amounts of Allied resources, and a slow response to the
resulting gap in their lines erased months from their timetable. An
alternative analysis is that the offensive allowed the Allies to
severely deplete the cream of German army outside the defenses of the
West Wall and in poor supply state, greatly easing the assault on
Germany afterward. In numerical terms, it is the largest battle the
United States Army has ever fought.
Read the rest of this article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_the_Bulge
Today's selected anniversaries:
1640 John IV was declared King of Portugal, resulting in a war with
Spain.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_IV_of_Portugal)
1822 Pedro I was crowned the first Emperor of Brazil.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pedro_I_of_Brazil)
1955 Rosa Parks refused to give her bus seat to a white man and was
arrested for violating Montgomery, Alabama's racial segregation
laws.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rosa_Parks)
1990 Channel Tunnel workers from the United Kingdom and France met
40 meters beneath the English Channel seabed, establishing the
first ground connection between the island of Great Britain and
the mainland of Europe since the last ice age.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Channel_Tunnel)
Wikiquote of the day:
"The art of being wise is the art of knowing what to overlook." ~
William James
(http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/William_James)