Albert Speer (1905 – 1981) was a German architect who was, for part of World War II, Minister of Armaments and War Production for the Third Reich. Hitler commissioned Speer to design and construct a number of structures, including the Reich Chancellery and the Zeppelinfeld stadium in Nuremberg where Party rallies were held. Speer also made plans to reconstruct Berlin on a grand scale, with huge buildings, wide boulevards, and a reorganized transportation system. As Hitler's Minister of Armaments and War Production, Speer's reforms were so successful that Germany's war production continued to increase despite massive and devastating Allied bombing. As "the Nazi who said sorry", he accepted responsibility at the Nuremberg trials. After the war, he was tried at Nuremberg and sentenced to twenty years in prison for his role in the Nazi regime, principally for the use of forced labor. He served most of his sentence at Spandau Prison in West Berlin. Following his release from Spandau in 1966, Speer published two bestselling autobiographical works, Inside the Third Reich and Spandau: The Secret Diaries, detailing his often close personal relationship with Hitler, and providing readers and historians with a unique perspective inside the workings of the Nazi regime.
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_________________________ Today's selected anniversaries:
1545:
Counter-Reformation: The Council of Trent, an ecumenical council convoked by Pope Paul III in response to the growth of Protestantism, opened in Trento, Italy. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Council_of_Trent)
1642:
Dutch explorer Abel Tasman became the first European explorer to reach New Zealand. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Zealand)
1769:
Dartmouth College in present-day Hanover, New Hampshire, USA was established by a Royal Charter from British King George III and became the last university founded in the Thirteen Colonies before the American Revolution. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dartmouth_College)
1862:
American Civil War: Union forces under Maj. Gen. Ambrose Burnside suffered severe casualties against entrenched Confederate defenders at the Battle of Fredericksburg in Fredericksburg, Virginia. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Fredericksburg)
1981:
Prime Minister Wojciech Jaruzelski declared martial law in Poland, suspended Solidarity and imprisoned many union leaders. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wojciech_Jaruzelski)
_______________________ Wiktionary's word of the day:
bibulously (adv) Drunkenly; as if intoxicated. (http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/bibulously)
______________________ Wikiquote quote of the day:
Where they burn books, they will also burn people. --Heinrich Heine (http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Heinrich_Heine)