Albert Kesselring (1885–1960) was a Luftwaffe Generalfeldmarschall
during World War II. In a military career that spanned both World Wars,
Kesselring became one of Nazi Germany's most skillful commanders, being
one of 27 soldiers awarded the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with
Oak Leaves, Swords and Diamonds. Kesselring joined the German Army as
an officer cadet in 1904, and served in the artillery branch. During
World War I, he served on both the Western and Eastern fronts and was
posted to the General Staff, despite not having attended the War
Academy. During World War II he commanded air forces in the invasions
of Poland and France, the Battle of Britain, and Operation Barbarossa.
As Commander-in-Chief South, he was overall German commander in the
Mediterranean theatre, which included the operations in North Africa.
Kesselring conducted a stubborn defensive campaign against the Allied
forces in Italy until he was injured in an accident in October 1944. He
won the respect of his Allied opponents for his military
accomplishments, but his record was marred by massacres committed by
troops under his command in Italy. After the war, Kesselring was tried
for war crimes and sentenced to death. The sentence was subsequently
commuted to life imprisonment.
Read the rest of this article:
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albert_Kesselring>
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Today's selected anniversaries:
1794:
American inventor Eli Whitney patented the cotton gin , the first ever
machine that quickly and easily separated cotton fibers from their
seedpods.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/cotton_gin>
1915:
World War I: British forces cornered and sank the SMS Dresden, the last
remnant of the German East Asia Squadron, near the Chilean island of
Más a Tierra.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_M%C3%A1s_a_Tierra>
1945:
The British Royal Air Force first used the Grand Slam, a 22,000 lb
(9.98 t) earth quake bomb, on a strategic railroad viaduct in
Bielefeld, Germany.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grand_Slam_bomb>
1991:
The "Birmingham Six", wrongly convicted of the 1974 Birmingham pub
bombings in Birmingham, England, were released after sixteen years in
prison.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Birmingham_Six>
1994:
Version 1.0.0 of the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel, was
released, becoming one of the most prominent examples of open source
software.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linux_kernel>
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Wiktionary's word of the day:
a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush (proverb):
It is preferable to have a small but certain advantage than a mere
potential of a greater one
<http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/a_bird_in_the_hand_is_worth_two_in_the_bush>
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Wikiquote quote of the day:
Only the individual can think, and thereby create new values for
society — nay, even set up new moral standards to which the life of the
community conforms. Without creative, independently thinking and
judging personalities the upward development of society is as
unthinkable as the development of the individual personality without
the nourishing soil of the community.
The health of society thus depends quite as much on the independence
of the individuals composing it as on their close political cohesion.
--Albert Einstein
<http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Albert_Einstein>