Crew of London fireboat Massey Shaw, 1935. The Massey Shaw Fireboat protected London during the WWII and also rescued troops from Dunkirk @facethenation

Earthrise is a first photo of Earth and some of the Moon's surface that was taken from lunar orbit on December 24, 1968, during the Apollo 8 mission.

Under the Lunar Orbiter Program, satellites took photographs of the Moon’s surface to identify suitable landing sites for the Apollo Program. The actual resolution was presumably kept secret because the imaging technology was also used in US Cold War spy satellites.

Comparison of the original Earthrise image as seen by the public in 1966 and the restored image released in 2008 @facethenation

We wrote about Apollo 8: Story of Christmas Around the Moon 🚀🌖

The Winter War was a military conflict between the Soviet Union and Finland in 1939-1940. It began with the Soviet invasion of Finland on November 30, 1939.

The Shelling of Mainila was a military incident on November 26, 1939, where the Soviet Union's Red Army shelled the Russian village of Mainila, declared that the fire originated from Finland across a nearby border and claimed to have had losses in personnel. Finland proposed a neutral investigation of the incident, but the Soviet Union refused and broke diplomatic relations with Finland on November 29.

On November 30, the Soviets invaded Finland with over 160,000 troops. Although severely outnumbered, the Finns were well led and prepared. Stalin had purged his officer corps in 1937 and executed thousands of his officers. The result was he had politically loyal but tactically inept leaders. And they would pay the price in Finland.

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During the Soviet-Finnish Winter War, Simo Häyhä, a Finnish sniper and competitive shooter, racked up 505 confirmed kills in just 100 days of combat.

The Finnish 🇫🇮 soldiers called him “The Magical Shooter”, the Soviet soldiers had a more apt nickname for him. They called him the “White Death” @facethenation

❄️🏉❄️❄️ Start of a rugby match between England ⚪️ and Ireland ⚫️ at Twickenham, Greater London, 1955

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Young East Berliners shout for joy 🙌 as they run into West Berlin through an opening in the Berlin Wall near the Brandenburg Gate, December 23, 1989.

The new East German government had promised to fully open the gate by Christmas 🎄. The fall of the Berlin Wall, on November 9, 1989, was a pivotal event in world history which marked the falling of the Iron Curtain. For many people in Germany 🇩🇪, especially for those with family 👨‍👩‍👧‍👦 and friends in the other part, this was one of the best days in their lives @facethenation

There were two black pilots in World War I, one on each side of the conflict. Many historians argue that it's either an Ottoman military officer Ahmet Ali Celikten and an American aviation graduate Eugene Jacques Bullard

Who was the first black pilot ever?

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When WWI broke out in 1914, Eugene Jacques Bullard joined the French Foreign Legion 🇫🇷.

Bullard volunteered as a gunner in the French Air Service in 1916. Less than a year later, he made Corporal and qualified as a pilot with Aéro-Club de France license number 6950 @facethenation

In 1908, Ahmet Ali Celikten graduated from school as a First Lieutenant. And then he went to aviation courses in the Naval Flight School that was formed on 25 June 1914 at Yeşilköy. A year later he passed the flying test and joined the Ottoman air force 🇹🇷 @facethenation

Snowball fight in winter of 1920 in London. It was a cold, snowy day in December ☃🧣🧤

❓What is the weather like in your city today?

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Niels Bohr and Albert Einstein discussing quantum mechanics, 1927.

Despite their differences of opinion regarding quantum mechanics, Bohr and Einstein had a mutual admiration that was to last the rest of their lives @facethenation