March 5
1915 WW1: LZ 33, a zeppelin, is damaged by enemy fire and stranded south of Ostend.
1916 WW1: Lance Corporal Adolf Hitler moves to the front with 3 Company, 16 Bavarian Reserve Infantry Regiment. (Maser)
1917 WW1: March 5-April 26 Lance Corporal Adolf Hitler serves as a dispatch runner during trench warfare in Flanders with 3 Company, 16 Bavarian Reserve Infantry Regiment. (Maser)
1917 The first edition of Pravda (which in English means 'truth'), the Bolsheviks' newspaper, is printed in Moscow.
1917 March 4 was a Sunday, but President Wilson took the oath of office at the Capitol in the President's Room that morning. The oath was taken again the next day, administered by Chief Justice Edward White on the East Portico of the Capitol. The specter of war with Germany hung over the events surrounding the inauguration. A Senate filibuster on arming American merchant vessels against submarine attacks had closed the last hours of the Sixty-fourth Congress without passage. Despite the campaign slogan "He kept us out of war," the President asked Congress on April 2 to declare war. It was declared on April 6. "...We have been deeply wronged upon the seas, but we have not wished to wrong or injure in return; have retained throughout the consciousness of standing in some sort apart, intent upon an interest that transcended the immediate issues of the war itself. As some of the injuries done us have become intolerable we have still been clear that we wished nothing for ourselves that we were not ready to demand for all mankind—fair dealing, justice, the freedom to live and to be at ease against organized wrong. It is in this spirit and with this thought that we have grown more and more aware, more and more certain that the part we wished to play was the part of those who mean to vindicate and fortify peace. We have been obliged to arm ourselves to make good our claim to a certain minimum of right and of freedom of action. We stand firm in armed neutrality since it seems that in no other way we can demonstrate what it is we insist upon and cannot forget. We may even be drawn on, by circumstances, not by our own purpose or desire, to a more active assertion of our rights as we see them and a more immediate association with the great struggle itself..."
1927 Weimar: The ban against public speaking for Hitler in Bavaria is lifted. (Maser)
1931 Weimar: The six bishops of Cologne compare the errors of National Socialism to those of Action Francaise, already condemned by Pope Pius XII. (THP)
1933 The NSDAP receives 44% of the vote (288 seats out of a total of 647 seats) in the Reichstag elections. Although the Nazis have a sizable plurality over any other party, they still lack an absolute majority. The Nazi-Nationalist coalition is required to give them a narrow majority of 52%. Goebbels is in charge of the Nazi campaign during the elections. (THP)
1933 The SA, Stahlhelm and Schutzpolizei (Protective Police) stage a victory parade in Berlin. (THP)
1935 B'nai B'rith International protests Germany's dissolution of its German lodges. (THP)
1936 First flight of fighter airplane Spitfire Type 300.
1937 The US government sees fit to apologize officially to Nazi Germany for New York mayor LaGuardia's reference to Adolf Hitler as a 'brown shirted fanatic'. "...When the German ambassador protested to U. S. secretary of State Cordell Hull about LaGuardia’s remarks, Hull explained to the ambassador that, personally, he "very earnestly deprecate[d] the utterances which have thus given offense to the German government." Hull had to explain, however, that in America the mayor of New York was free to speak his mind. Hull complained privately to President Roosevelt that LaGuardia was poisoning German-American relations but Roosevelt asked Hull, "What would you say if I should say that I agreed completely with LaGuardia?" Several months later, LaGuardia visited Roosevelt and recorded the following scene: The president smiled as I entered his office. Then he extended his right arm and said, "Heil, Fiorello!" I snapped to attention, extended my right arm and replied, "Heil, Franklin!" And that’s all that was ever said about it..."
1937 German officials announce that the nation's film industry is completely cleansed of Jews. "...During the life of the Third Reich from 1933 to 1945 The German film industry produced 1.363 feature films, most were designed for escapism, only a few were produced for propaganda reasons, they were carefully chosen. Before the outbreak of WW2 German audiences prefered American films, even poor ones, to the Nazi output..."
1940 WW2: The Soviet Politburo decides to "apply the supreme penalty" to Polish POWs at Kozielsk, Starobielsk and Ostaszkow, as well as 11,000 imprisoned in Ukraine and Byelorussia. Executions commence in early April; known also as Katyn massacre.
1941 WW2 Basic Order Number 24: "The Fuehrer has issued the following order regarding collaboration with Japan: "It must be the aim of the collaboration based on the Three Power Pact to induce Japan, as soon as possible, to take active measures in the Far East. Strong British forces will thereby be tied down, and the center of gravity of the interests of the United States of America will be diverted to the Pacific. The sooner she intervenes, the greater will be the prospects of success for Japan in view of the still undeveloped preparedness for war on the part of her adversaries. The Barbarossa operation will create particularly favorable political and military prerequisites for this. To prepare the way for the collaboration it is essential to strengthen the Japanese military potential with all means available. For this purpose the High Commands of the branches of the Armed Forces will comply in a comprehensive and generous manner with Japanese desires for information regarding German war and combat experience, and for assistance in military economics and in technical matters. Reciprocity is desirable, but this factor should not stand in the way of negotiations. Priority should naturally be given to those Japanese requests which would have the most immediate application in waging war. In special cases the Fuehrer reserves the decisions for himself. The harmonizing of the operational plans of the No parties is the responsibility of the Naval High Command. This will be subject to the following guiding principles: a. The common aim of the conduct of war is to be stressed as forcing England to the ground quickly and thereby keeping the United States out of the war. Beyond this Germany has no political, military, or economic interests in the Far East which would give occasion for any reservations with regard to Japanese intentions. b. The great successes achieved by Germany in mercantile warfare make it appear particularly suitable to employ strong Japanese forces for the same purpose. In this connection every opportunity to support German mercantile warfare must be exploited. c. The raw material situation of the pact powers demands that Japan should acquire possession of those territories which it needs for the continuation of the war, especially if the United States intervenes. Rubber shipments must be carried out even after the entry of Japan into the war, since they are of vital importance to Germany. d. The seizure of Singapore as the key British position in the Far East would mean a decisive success for the entire conduct of war of the three powers. In addition, attacks on other systems of bases of British naval power-extending to those of American naval power only if the entry of the United States into the war cannot be prevented-will result in weakening the enemy's system of power in that region and also, just like the attack on sea communications, in tying down substantial forces of all kinds (Australia). A date for the beginning of operational discussions cannot yet be fixed. In the military commissions to be formed in accordance with the Three Power Pact, only such questions are to be dealt with as equally concern the three participating powers. These will include primarily the problems of economic warfare. The working out of the details is the responsibility of the main commission with the co-operation of the Armed Forces High Command. The Japanese must not be given any intimation of the Barbarossa operations."
1941 WW2: Marshall to Short: "…I would appreciate your early review of the situation in the Hawaiian Department with regard to defense from air attack. The establishment of a satisfactory system of coordinating all means available to this end is a matter of first priority…"
1943 WW2: Notes from a meeting of the National Socialist Party in Kiev; Erich Koch, Reich Commissar for the Ukraine; excerpts from speech: "1. We are the master race and must govern hard but just.... 2. I will draw the very last out of this country. I did not come to spread bliss. I have come to help the Fuehrer. The population must work, work, and work again . . . for some people are getting excited that the population may not get enough to eat. The population cannot demand that. One has only to remember what our heroes were deprived of in Stalingrad .... We definitely did not come here to give out manna. We have come here to create the basis for victory. 3. We are a master race, which must remember that the lowliest German worker is racially and biologically a thousand times more valuable than the population here."
1945 WW2: US troops enter Cologne.
1946 Winston Churchill introduces the phrase Iron Curtain into the English language during a speech at Fulton, Missouri. He was describing the Soviet threat to the West. Note: A year before him, on 25 February 1945, an article by Joseph Goebbels entitled "Das Jahr 2000" "The Year 2000") had been published in "Das Reich", and there, the Nazi propaganda minister already used the words "iron curtain" in the same meaning as Churchill. "...A shadow has fallen upon the scenes so lately lighted by the Allied victory. Nobody knows what Soviet Russia and its Communist international organisation intends to do in the immediate future, or what are the limits, if any, to their expansive and proselytising tendencies. I have a strong admiration and regard for the valiant Russian people and for my wartime comrade, Marshal Stalin. There is deep sympathy and goodwill in Britain-and I doubt not here also-towards the peoples of all the Russias and a resolve to persevere through many differences and rebuffs in establishing lasting friendships. We understand the Russian need to be secure on her western frontiers by the removal of all possibility of German aggression. We welcome Russia to her rightful place among the leading nations of the world. We welcome her flag upon the seas. Above all, we welcome constant, frequent and growing contacts between the Russian people and our own people on both sides of the Atlantic. It is my duty however, for I am sure you would wish me to state the facts as I see them to you, to place before you certain facts about the present position in Europe.From Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic, an iron curtain has descended across the Continent. Behind that line lie all the capitals of the ancient states of Central and Eastern Europe. Warsaw, Berlin, Prague, Vienna, Budapest, Belgrade, Bucharest and Sofia, all these famous cities and the populations around them lie in what I must call the Soviet sphere..."
1946 Nuremberg Tribunal: Seventy-Fourth Day: Defense's Application for Witnesses and Documents for Streicher, Funk, and Doenitz.
1953 Death: Josef Stalin, 73, four days after suffering from a brain hemorrhage (internal bleeding). Stalin had run the Soviet Union for 29 years, bringing victory in war and pride in industrialization, but also supervising mass murder, famine, and forced collectivization. "...He was exiled and imprisoned several times for his persistent revolutionary activities. After the police arrested him in 1902 for staging a prison raid, they made these notes in his record: Height 2 archins, 4 1/2 vershoks. Body medium. Age 23. Special features: Second and third toes of the left foot attached. Appearance: Ordinary. Hair dark brown. Beard and moustache: Brown. Nose straight and long. Forehead straight but low. Face long, swarthy and pockmarked. The swarthy, pockmarked perp with the deformed toes would later adopt a series of aliases to avoid future arrests. In 1913, the year after he was appointed to the party's Central Committee, Djugashvili finally settled on the humble name "Stalin," which means Man of Steel. In addition to his official duties, Mr. Steel immediately undertook the task of empire building. He capitalized on the vicious internecine warfare endemic to the Socialist movement, even going so far as to order the assassination of fellow revolutionaries whenever he thought it would help..."
1997 Switzerland announces plans to establish a $4.7 billion government-financed fund, using interest from its gold reserves, to compensate survivors of the Nazi Holocaust and their descendants.
