Coalhouse Fort is an English artillery fort built in the 1860s to guard the lower Thames from seaborne attack. It stands at Coalhouse Point in Essex on the north bank of the river, at a location near East Tilbury that was vulnerable to raiders and invaders. It was the last in a series of fortifications dating back to the 15th century and was the direct successor to a smaller mid-19th century fort on the same site. It was initially a front-line fortification, supported by Shornemead Fort and Cliffe Fort on the Kent shore. Over time, as batteries and forts further downriver became the front line of the Thames defences, its main weapons were replaced with smaller quick-firing guns intended for use against fast-moving surface and aerial targets. Its last military use was as a training facility after the Second World War. Decommissioned in 1949, the fort fell into dereliction, despite its historical and architectural significance. Its restoration has been funded in part by the Heritage Lottery Fund and the Warner Bros. film studio, which used it as a location for the opening scenes of the 2005 film Batman Begins.
Read more: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coalhouse_Fort
_______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries:
1850:
San Diego, the first European settlement in what is now California, was incorporated as a city. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Diego
1899:
Philippine–American War: For the only time during the course of the war, Philippine President Emilio Aguinaldo personally led troops against the U.S. in the Battle of Marilao River. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Marilao_River
1941:
Encouraged by the British Special Operations Executive, a group of pro-Western Serb-nationalist Royal Yugoslav Air Force officers planned and conducted a coup d'état after Yugoslavia joined the Axis powers. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yugoslav_coup_d%27%C3%A9tat
1958:
First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union Nikita Khrushchev also took over the role of Premier. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikita_Khrushchev
1998:
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved the drug sildenafil (chemical structure pictured), better known by the trade name Viagra, for use as a treatment for erectile dysfunction, the first pill to be approved for this condition in the United States. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sildenafil
_____________________________ Wiktionary's word of the day:
wan: 1. Pale, sickly-looking. 2. Dim, faint. 3. Bland, uninterested. https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/wan
___________________________ Wikiquote quote of the day:
The thought of every group is seen as arising out of its life conditions. Thus, it becomes the task of the sociological history of thought to analyse without regard for party biases all the factors in the actually existing social situation which may influence thought. This sociologically oriented history of ideas is destined to provide modern men with a revised view of the whole historical process. --Karl Mannheim https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Karl_Mannheim
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