Two explosive events for the 18th June. Certain tides in the affairs of
men changed on this day.
Five monks from Canterbury reported to
the abbey's chronicler, Gervaise, that shortly after sunset on 18th June 1178, they saw "the upper
horn [of the moon] split in two." Furthermore, Gervase writes, "From
the midpoint of the division a flaming torch sprang up, spewing out, over a
considerable distance, fire, hot coals and sparks. Meanwhile the body of the
Moon which was below writhed, as it were in anxiety, and to put it in the words
of those who reported it to me and saw it with their own eyes, the Moon throbbed
like a wounded snake. Afterwards it resumed its proper state. This phenomenon
was repeated a dozen times or more, the flame assuming various twisting shapes
at random and then returning to normal. Then, after these transformations, the
Moon from horn to horn, that is along its whole length, took on a blackish
appearance" In 1976 the geologist Jack B. Hartung proposed that this
described the formation of the crater Giordano Bruno.
The Battle of Waterloo was fought 197 years ago on Sunday the 18th June 1815 near Waterloo in present-day
Belgium, then part of the United Kingdom of the Netherlands. An Imperial French
army under the command of Emperor Napoleon was defeated by combined armies of
the Seventh Coalition, an Anglo-Allied army under the command of the Duke of
Wellington combined with a Prussian army under the command of Gebhard von Blücher. It was the culminating
battle of the Waterloo Campaign and Napoleon's last. The defeat at Waterloo
ended his rule as Emperor of the French, marking the end of his Hundred Days
return from exile.
 |
| Wellington |
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| von Blücher |
Major Macready
of the Light Division, 30th British Regiment of Halkett’s
Brrigade, described some of the events
at Hougoumont (a farm house in the think of the battle)
When
I reached Lloyd's abandoned guns, I stood near them for about a minute to
contemplate the scene: it was grand beyond description. Hougoumont and its wood
sent up a broad flame through the dark masses of smoke that overhung the field;
beneath this cloud the French were indistinctly visible. Here a waving mass of
long red feathers could be seen; there, gleams as from a sheet of steel showed
that the cuirassiers were moving; 400 cannon were belching forth fire and
death on every side; the roaring and shouting were indistinguishably
commixed—together they gave me an idea of a labouring volcano. Bodies of
infantry and cavalry were pouring down on us, and it was time to leave
contemplation, so I moved towards our columns, which were standing up in
square.
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