The Winter War (30 November 1939 – 13 March 1940) began when the Soviet Union (USSR) invaded Finland three months after the outbreak of World War II. The USSR had sought to annex Finnish territory, including land near Leningrad, 32 km (20 mi) from the border. After Finland refused, the USSR attacked with more than twice as many soldiers, thirty times as many aircraft, and a hundred times as many tanks as the defending forces. The Red Army had been crippled by Joseph Stalin's Great Purge and the Finnish Defence Forces repelled the invasion in temperatures down to −43 °C (−45 °F) for much longer than expected. A reorganized Soviet offensive broke through in February 1940 and forced the Finns to seek peace. Finland ceded 11 percent of its territory, but retained sovereignty. Soviet casualties have been estimated at 321,000 to 381,000, compared to Finnish casualties of 70,000. The poor performance of the Red Army encouraged Adolf Hitler to consider an attack on the USSR. After a 15-month lull called the Interim Peace, the Continuation War and Operation Barbarossa began in June 1941.

Read more: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winter_War

_______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries:

1781:

Astronomer and composer William Herschel discovered the planet Uranus while in the garden of his house in Bath, Somerset, thinking it was a comet. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uranus

1845:

German composer Felix Mendelssohn's Violin Concerto, one of the most popular violin concertos of all time, received its world première in Leipzig. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Violin_Concerto_(Mendelssohn)

1920:

The Kapp Putsch briefly ousted the Weimar Republic government from Berlin. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kapp_Putsch

1964:

Kitty Genovese was murdered in New York City, prompting research into the bystander effect due to the false story that neighbors witnessed the killing and did nothing to help her. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_of_Kitty_Genovese

1988:

The Seikan Tunnel, the longest and deepest tunnel in the world at the time, opened between the cities of Hakodate and Aomori, Japan. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seikan_Tunnel

_____________________________ Wiktionary's word of the day:

shenanigans: 1. (uncountable) Mischievous play, especially by children. 2. (uncountable) Deceitful tricks; trickery, games. 3. (countable) plural of shenanigan. https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/shenanigans

___________________________ Wikiquote quote of the day:

War is a survival among us from savage times and affects now chiefly the boyish and unthinking element of the nation. The wisest realize that there are better ways for practicing heroism and other and more certain ends of insuring the survival of the fittest. It is something a people outgrow. But whether they consciously practice peace or not, nature in its evolution eventually practices it for them, and after enough of the inhabitants of a globe have killed each other off, the remainder must find it more advantageous to work together for the common good.   --Percival Lowell https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Percival_Lowell