THE BATTLE OF TSUSHIMA BETWEEN IMPERIAL RUSSIA AND JAPAN

May 27, 1905

On this day in 1905, as the war raged between Imperial Russia and Japan, the Japanese won the naval war in the Tsushima Strait in Japan.

In this battle, Japanese fleets led by Admiral Togo Haihachiro destroyed the Russian naval fleet led by Admiral Zinovy ​​Rozhestvensky. In this battle, 30 warships of the Russian Baltic Fleet were sunk by Japan’s stronger fleet of 64 warships, while 10 Russian ships escaped the battle. The battle of Tsushima proved the naval strength of the emerging Asian empire, and the weakness of the Russian navy. Russia’s defeat at Tsushima became a painful and powerful blow to the leadership of Tsar Nicholas II, and it created a negative opinion of the Russian people on the imperial government, which a novice empire in Asia humiliated the third largest empire in the world.

This in turn resulted in Japan's dominance as a powerful Asian nation in the ocean, and it was the beginning of the expansion of Japan's influence in East Asia.

GENERAL EMILIO AGUINALDO'S PURCHASED WEAPONS ARRIVE IN THE PHILIPPINES FROM HONG KONG

May 27, 1898

On this day in 1898, an important cargo transported to the Philippines from Hong Kong arrived in Cavite. Hundreds of boxes containing up to 2000 Mauser rifles and 200,000 rounds of ammunition were unloaded at the port of Cavite, worth 117,000 Mexican pesos, part of the 400,000 Mexican pesos brought by General Emilio Aguinaldo after going to Hong Kong as part of the Biak-na-Bato Agreement. General Aguinaldo negotiated with the United States Consul General in Hong Kong Rounsevelle Wildman to purchase the weapons, which would arrive in the country via two shipments. The first shipment arrived in the country successfully but the second did not arrive, probably for the reason that Wildman was banned from interfering in what was happening in the Philippines because he did not have the authority to speak on behalf of America.

June of the same year when 2,000 new Mausers and 200,000 bullets purchased for 80,000 Mexican pesos arrived in the country, and Teodora Sandiko became the broker of such shipments. These new weapons increased the fighting force of the Filipino revolutionary against Spain. These new weapons were first used in the battle of Alapan, Imus, Cavite the next day, and became the standard weapon of the army of the First Republic of the Philippines.

SUBMERGED NAZI GERMAN BATTLESHIP BISMARCK

May 27,1941

The proud Kriegsmarine or Nazi Germany's navy Bismarck, was sunk on this day in 1941 after it was aided by United Kingdom bombers and planes.

Although Bismarck sank the British warship HMS Hood, the giant Kriegsmarine was left weak, and with the heavy cruiser Prinz Eugen, the Bismarck sailed to Brest, France to repair the ship's wreckage. But when British intelligence spotted Bismarck in the north Atlantic, they took the opportunity to ambush Bismarck.

On the night of 26 May, British aircraft carrier HMS Ark Royal sent bombers to attack Bismarck before it could even land. Bismarck's anti-aircraft defenses were too weak to repel attacking planes as enemy torpedoes pierced them. The attack continued on the barely able to resist Bismarck the next morning, when three British battleships chased the dying ship and began firing at it. HMS Dorshetshire's torpedo rained down on Bismarck and HMS Rodney put an end to the suffering of Bismarck's crew. But to prevent the British from taking victory in sinking the Bismarck, its crews deliberately destroyed the ship, and at 10:40 a.m., the Bismarck capsized more than 560 km from Brest, France. Of the more than 2,200 crew of the ship, 114 people and a cat were left alive and taken prisoner by the British. With the sinking of Bismarck Nazi Germany lost what they considered honor and symbol of their power in the ocean.

American oceanographer Robert D. Ballard discovered the wreckage of Bismarck in June 1989, at a depth of 4,791 km and 650 km west of Brest, France. Bismarck landed horizontally at the foot of an extinct underwater volcano.

Named after the former Chancellor of Imperial Germany Otto von Bismarck, the ship Bismarck was launched in the port of Hamburg, Germany on Valentine’s Day in 1939, and in 1940 he was commissioned as the Kriegsmarine warship. Bismarck carried out only one operation, when it was sent to the Atlantic to counter the British naval blockade of Germany.

TSAR PETER THE GREAT FOUNDED THE CITY OF ST. PETERSBURG RUSSIA

May 27, 1703

Today is the 318th birthday of one of the most luxurious and largest cities in Europe, St. Petersburg in Russia. This city was founded by Tsar Peter the Great in 1703, after he occupied the Ingrian lands from the kingdom of Sweden. Peter the Great took the name of the city from his own patron saint St. Peter, and it has been the name of this great city for over two centuries. Peter the Great founded St. Petersburg between the mouth of the Gulf of Finland and Lake Ladoga.

More than 40,000 workers and slaves were commissioned to build buildings in the new city, designed by Dutch and German engineers invited by Peter the Great. He also invited to the new city important engineers, scientists, architects, shipbuilders, investors and businessmen to assist him in beautifying and modernizing the city so that it would be on par with the luxury and popularity of other cities in Europe. And because Peter the Great was also amazed at the splendor of France’s Versailles palace, he also wanted to have a Palace as grand as his own as in Versailles, so he built the Peterhof Palace as the official home of the Tsar of Russia.

In 1712 he formally moved the capital of his empire from Moscow to St. Petersburg. Petersburg, and it became the fourth largest city in Europe at that time, crowded with palaces, universities, churches, museums and it was also one of the most important ports in Russia, and it was also dubbed as “the window to Europe ". In 1732, the Winter Palace opened, becoming the official center of Imperial Russia's power and the official home of the Tsar. On the other hand, the conservative Russian aristocrats did not like the modernization implemented by Peter the Great, but it did not stop the city from flourishing.

It was 1914 when Petrograd changed its name to the city during World War I, and it was here that widespread anti -government actions erupted, until Tsar Nicholas II was ousted from power in 1917, and the Bolsheviks seized power of the provisional government in November of the same year. In 1924 Petrograd was named Leningrad after Vladimir Lenin when Russia became a communist country. One of the greatest tragedies in human history occurred in this city during World War II, when Leningrad was subjected to a nearly three -year siege from September 1941 to January 1944, in which more than a million people died in the Nazi siege of the city. and several important buildings were destroyed. It became one of the hero cities in the Soviet Union after the war. The name St. was restored. Petersburg after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.

So far one is St. Petersburg among the largest cities in Russia, with a total area of ​​1,432 sq. M. km. It also houses the Hermitage Museum, one of the largest museums in the world, and the headquarters of the Russian Navy.

Referrences:

• https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Saint_Petersburg#:~:text=Founded%20by%20Tsar%20Peter%20the,the%20Russian%20Revolution%20of%201917.

• https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_battleship_Bismarck

• https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Last_battle_of_the_battleship_Bismarck

• https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hong_Kong_Junta

• https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.history.com/.amp/this-day-in-history/the-battle-of-tsushima-strait

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