On May 12th 1846, a group of nine wagons carrying the Reed and Donner families left Independence Missouri on their journey west. Along the way the size of the group swelled as they joined up with other settlers heading to California for new life. They decided to take a recently scouted path named “Hastings Cutoff”, which promised a more direct route than the main trail. Unfortunately, this trail had not been properly cleared for wagons and was exceedingly treacherous. It also required them to cross the Great Salt Lake Desert, causing a number of oxen to become crazed from thirst and break free from the yokes.
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Things escalated further when a physical altercation between James Reed and another turned deadly. After Reed stopped the man from beating one of his oxen, the man turned the whip on Reed (and possibly his wife). Reed retaliated by stabbing him to death. This resulted in him being banished from the group, and forced to ride on ahead and alone leaving his family behind

On this day (April 30th), in 1945, the Third Reich began its final disintegration with two significant events. First, at around 3:30pm, Adolf Hitler and Eva Braun committed suicide (if you want to hate them even more they killed his dog to test the cyanide first). Only a few hours later, under the cover of darkness, Lieutenant Rakhimzhan Qoshqarbaev of the 674th Infantry Regiment was the first Soldier to hoist a Soviet flag over the Reichstag.

While the fate of Germany had been sealed for quite some time (at least since the Battle of the Bulge), these events served as significant symbolic stakes through the heart of the Nazi regime. The Hitler suicide (which the Germans tried to spin as ole’ Adolf dying as a hero defending Berlin) touched off a leadership shakeup and a rash of imitation suicides by high-ranking Nazis fearful of falling into Allied hands. The raising of a flag over the capitol of a defeated enemy is a timeless symbol of conquest, and surely buoyed the spirits of those still engaged in brutal city fighting. While the flag didn’t last long (it was destroyed by Germans in the continuing back-and-forth fight) it would be re-staged and re-shot like many significant events throughout the war.

On 13 April 1943 the Katyn Massacre was revealed to the world via German radio. While Nazi forces are guilty of some truly horrendous events before and during WWII, in this case they were actually the ones bringing an enormous atrocity against a protected group to light.
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That group was Polish prisoners of war, primarily officers and NCOs, who were systematically murdered and disposed of by Soviet Security Forces in April of 1940. Declassified Soviet records put the total number of dead at 21,857, although the number could be higher.

On this day in 1911 the American military received a significant boost in sidearm firepower! As the year may telegraph, it was on 29 March 1911 that the “Model of 1911” was formally adopted by the Army. It beat a field of 5 other pistols, with its closest competitor being the Savage 1907, also chambered in 45 ACP

On this date in 1941 the Lend-Lease Act was signed into law. This program was designed to support Allied Nations in their fight against the Axis. While it was still 9 months before the attack on Pearl Harbor, the United States had (arguably) ended its official neutrality and threw the “Arsenal of Democracy” behind the Allies

On this day in history in 1945 elements of the U.S. Army began to flow across the recently captured Ludendorff Bridge over the Rhine. American forces unexpectedly captured the still standing (but badly damaged) bridge after defending German forces failed to destroy it. The bridge stood for 10 days after its capture, and it and the surrounding area was subjected to artillery barrages, V-2 rocket attacks, aerial bombardment, Nazi “Frogmen”, and conventional ground attack. The bridge helped deliver six divisions of Soldiers and equipment across the river, and likely helped shorten the war, with victory in Europe being declared only two months later.

Happy (Texas) Independence Day! On March 2nd 1836 the Republic of Texas declared its independence from Mexico. It remained an independent nation until it was annexed by the United States in 1845, becoming the 28th state

December 13th, 1941 was a day filled in equal measures by heroism and despicable treachery on the little island of Ni’ihau in the Hawaiian Islands chain. It all started with the attack on Pearl Harbor, and a Japanese aviator who crash landed on the island.
The pilot was knocked unconscious during the landing, and was relieved of both his pistol and sensitive military documents by an island resident by the name of Hawila Kaleohano. Kaleohana didn’t know of the attack on Pearl Harbor (the island didn’t have electricity or many radios), but he thought the actions prudent because he knew tensions were high between the U.S. and Japan.

This day is history, in 1939, rear-echelon elements of the Finnish army defeated an overwhelming surprise Soviet attack with the assistance of... sausage soup and American made rifles???