The Battle of Dunkirk was fought in Dunkirk, during the Second World War, between the Allies and Nazi Germany. As the Allies were losing the Battle of France on the Western Front, the Battle of Dunkirk was the defence and evacuation to Britain of British and other Allied forces in Europe from 26 May to 4 June 1940. After the Phoney War, the Battle of France began in earnest on 10 May 1940. To the east, the German Army Group B advanced westward. In response, the Supreme Allied Commander—French General Maurice Gamelin—initiated "Plan D" and entered Belgium to engage the Germans in the Netherlands; the plan relied on the Maginot Line fortifications along the German–French border, but German forces had crossed through most of the Netherlands before the French forces arrived. Gamelin instead committed the forces under his command, three mechanised armies, the French First and Seventh Armies and the British Expeditionary Force, to the River Dyle. On 14 May, German Army Group A burst through the Ardennes and advanced to the west toward Sedan turned northward to the English Channel, using Generalfeldmarschall Erich von Manstein's plan Sichelschnitt under the German strategy Fall Gelb flanking the Allied forces.

A series of Allied counter-attacks—including the Battle of Arras—failed to sever the German spearhead, which reached the coast on 20 May, separating the BEF near Armentières, the French First Army, the Belgian Army further to the north from the majority of French troops south of the German penetration. After reaching the Channel, the German forces swung north along the coast, threatening to capture the ports and trap the British and French before they could evacuate to Britain. In one of the most debated decisions of the war, the Germans halted their advance on Dunkirk. Contrary to popular belief, what became known as the "Halt Order" did not originate with Adolf Hitler. Generalobersten Gerd von Rundstedt and Günther von Kluge suggested that the German forces around the Dunkirk pocket should cease their advance on the port and consolidate to avoid an Allied breakout. Hitler sanctioned the order on 24 May with the support of the Oberkommando der Wehrmacht; the army was to halt for three days, which gave the Allies sufficient time to organise the Dunkirk evacuation and build a defensive line.

While more than 330,000 Allied troops were rescued and French military forces nonetheless sustained heavy casualties and were forced to abandon nearly all their equipment. The British Expeditionary Force alone lost some 68,000 soldiers during the French campaign. On 10 May 1940, Winston Churchill became Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. By 26 May, the BEF and the French 1st Army were bottled up in a corridor to the sea, about 60 miles deep and 15 miles wide. Most of the British forces were still around Lille, over 40 miles from Dunkirk, with the French farther south. Two massive German armies flanked them. General Fedor von Bock's Army Group B was to the east, General Gerd von Rundstedt's Army Group A to the west. Both officers were promoted to field marshal. On 24 May, Hitler visited General von Rundstedt's headquarters at Charleville; the terrain around Dunkirk was thought unsuitable for armour. Von Rundstedt advised him the infantry should attack the British forces at Arras, where the British had proved capable of significant action, while Kleist's armour held the line west and south of Dunkirk to pounce on the Allied forces retreating before Army Group B.

Hitler, familiar with Flanders' marshes from the First World War, agreed. This order allowed the Germans to consolidate their gains and prepare for a southward advance against the remaining French forces. Luftwaffe commander Hermann Göring asked for the chance to destroy the forces in Dunkirk; the Allied forces' destruction was thus assigned to the air force while the German infantry organised in Army Group B. Von Rundstedt called this "one of the great turning points of the war."The true reason for the decision to halt the German armour on 24 May is still debated. One theory is that Von Rundstedt and Hitler agreed to conserve the armour for Fall Rot, an operation to the south, it is possible that the Luftwaffe's closer ties than the army's to the Nazi Party contributed to Hitler's approval of Göring's request. Another theory—which few historians have given credence—is that Hitler was still trying to establish diplomatic peace with Britain before Operation Barbarossa. Although von Rundstedt after the war stated his suspicions that Hitler wanted "to help the British", based on alleged praise of the British Empire during a visit to his headquarters, little evidence that Hitler wanted to let the Allies escape exists apart from a self-exculpatory statement by Hitler himself in 1945.

The historian Brian Bond wrote: Few historians now accept the view that Hitler's behaviour was influenced by the desire to let the British off in hope that they would accept a compromise peace. True, in his political testament dated 26 February 1945 Hitler lamented that Churchill was "quite unable to appreciate the sporting spirit" in which he had refrained from annihilating British Expeditionary Force, at Dunkirk, but this hardly squares with the contemporary record. Directive No. 13, issued by the Supreme Headquarters on 24 May called for the annihilation of the French and Belgian forces in the pocket, while the Luftwaffe was ordered to prevent the escape of the English forces across the channel. Whatever the reasons for Hitler's decision, the Germans confidently believed the Allied troops were doomed. American journalist William Shirer reported on 25 May

"Steal Away" is an American Negro spiritual. The song is well known by variations of the chorus: Songs such as "Steal Away to Jesus", "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot", "Wade in the Water" and the "Gospel Train" are songs with hidden codes, not only about having faith in God, but containing hidden messages for slaves to run away on their own, or with the Underground Railroad."Steal Away" the song was composed by Wallace Willis, a slave of a Choctaw freedman in the old Indian Territory, sometime before 1862. Alexander Reid, a minister at a Choctaw boarding school, heard Willis singing the songs and transcribed the words and melodies, he sent the music to the Jubilee Singers of Fisk University in Tennessee. The Jubilee Singers popularized the songs during a tour of the United States and Europe. "Steal Away" the song is a standard Gospel song, is found in the hymnals of many Protestant denominations. An arrangement of the song is included in the oratorio A Child of Our Time, first performed in 1944, by the classical composer Michael Tippett.

Many recordings of the song have been made including versions by Nat King Cole. Songs of the Underground Railroad Banks, Frances. "Narrative" from The WPA Oklahoma Slave Narratives edited by Julie P. Baker. University of Oklahoma Press, 1996. ISBN 0-8061-2792-9 Flickinger, Robert Elliott; the Choctaw Freedmen and the Story of Oak Hill Industrial Academy, Valliant, McCurtain County, Oklahoma. Pittsburgh: Presbyterian Board of Missions for Freedmen, 1914. University of Nebraska Press, 2004. ISBN 0-8032-4787-7 Pike, G. D; the Jubilee Singers and Their Campaign for Twenty Thousand Dollars, Lee And Shepard, Publishers, 1873. "Raymond Dobard, Ph. D. professor of art and art history on hidden meanings in spirituals"

Mount Carmel is a city in and the county seat of Wabash County, United States. At the time of the 2010 census, the population was 7,284, while the next largest town in Wabash County is Allendale, population 475. Located at the confluence of the Wabash and White Rivers, Mount Carmel borders both Gibson and Knox counties of Indiana. A small community known informally as East Mount Carmel sits near the mouth of the Patoka River on the opposite side of the Wabash River from Mount Carmel. Mount Carmel is 5 miles northeast of the Forest of the Wabash, a National Natural Landmark within Beall Woods State Park and about a mile north-northeast of one of its main employers, the Gibson Generating Station. Mount Carmel is the home of Wabash Valley College, part of the Community College System of Eastern Illinois; the town had an unemployment rate of 5.4%, as of Dec 2014. The situation has improved since 1992, when the unemployment rate peaked as high as 15.1% with the loss of industrial jobs. Duke Energy's Gibson Generating Station is the nearest employer of substantial size.

The Gibson County, Indiana power plant is located less than a mile away from Mount Carmel, directly across the river. It is the third-largest coal power plant in the world, the ninth largest power plant in the United States. Additional nearby employers include Toyota Motor Manufacturing Indiana, which produces the Sequoia, Sienna and Highlander Hybrid lines. Many of TMMI's Suppliers and subsidiaries are located in and around Princeton, Indiana, 12 miles away. Other employers include Champion Laboratories plant in Albion, Illinois that produces air and fuel filters and an ATS plant in Lawrenceville, which supplies TMMI. Local employers include several oil and gas firms, exploiting the Southern Indiana Oil Basin, which extends into Illinois and Kentucky, it once had reserves of more than 4,000,000,000 barrels of crude oil. On April 5, 2007, Foundation Coal Holdings, Inc. of Linthicum Heights, announced plans to close the Wabash Mine in nearby Keensburg, meaning a loss of nearly 230 jobs in Wabash County.

Mount Carmel lost 270 jobs in 2003 due to the closing of a Snap-on Tools factory, which had operated since 1937. Mount Carmel is home to part of the Illinois Eastern Community Colleges; the college has 1375 students, has an active international student program. The small town atmosphere provides a laid back, comfortable setting in which international students may study English as a second language; as part of the IECC, residents benefit from a reciprocal agreement where some of the out-of-state fees to attend the University of Southern Indiana are waived, in exchange for similar tuition discounts for Indiana students in IECC schools. Their men's basketball team, the Warriors, won the NJCAA Division I championships in 2001. Mount Carmel's K-12 school district is Wabash Community Schools District 348, it has two elementary schools, divided by grade, a new middle school Mount Carmel Middle School, built in 2000, Mount Carmel High School, the only high school in the county. The high school's football team, The Golden Aces, won the class 3A state championships in 1981, the team made it to the playoffs 21 years in a row.

They play at home in Riverview Stadium known as "The Snake Pit". The stadium is notable for having been built into the side of a large hill. On June 4, 1877 a tornado of F4 intensity touched down just west of Mount Carmel and moved east-northeast, devastating the town; the storm's line of destruction wreaked havoc on a large part of the territory between Third and Fifth streets. The velocity of the wind was estimated at 150 miles per hour for a duration of two minutes; as described in a local newspaper at the time: "During its prevalence the air was filled with flying roofs, doors, rails, etc. Much of the debris was carried more than a mile away. Thirteen persons were killed outright, many others will undoubtedly die of their injuries. There are several others reported missing who are buried in the ruins, it being a rainy day, many farmers who could not work at home were in town. The county court was in session, which caused many people to be in the city. Men and children were blown a distance of 400 feet, as if they were feathers.

The better part of the town Is destroyed. Some seventy families were rendered houseless and much distress is anticipated."Final estimates of the damage indicate that 20 businesses and 100 homes were damaged or destroyed. At least 16 people, as many as 30, were killed, with 100 injured. In the 1920s, there was a hotel in Wabash County near the Grand Rapids Dam and Hanging Rock on the Wabash River; the hotel was owned by Frederick Hinde Zimmerman. During the hotel's nine-year existence it catered to individuals from all over the United States. Mount Carmel is located at 38°24′53″N 87°46′7″W on the Wabash River, which demarcates the Indiana border. According to the 2010 census, the city has a total area of 5.00 square miles, of which 4.86 square miles is land and 0.14 square miles is water. The city was featured in Ripley's Believe It or Not! for its once multicolored bridge over the Wabash River, painted white and black on the Illinois and Indiana sides of the state line, respectively. The old twelve span Parker truss bridge repainted green connected Princeton, Indiana to Mount Carmel via Indiana State Road 64 and Illinois Route 15.

Illinois Route 1 and Illinois Route 15 meet just a few blocks from the bridge. One rail bridge runs parallel to the IN

Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor took place on December 7, 1941. 21 ships were damaged or sunk, 2,400 people were killed. Its most significant consequence was the entrance of the United States into World War II; the US had been neutral but subsequently entered the Pacific War, the Battle of the Atlantic and the European theatre of war. Following the attack, the US interned 120,000 people of Japanese ancestry. From the outbreak of World War II on September 1, 1939 to December 8, 1941, the United States was neutral, as it was bounded by the Neutrality Acts not to get involved in the conflicts embroiling in Europe and Asia. Prior to the attack on Pearl Harbor, public opinion in the United States had not been unanimous; when polled in January 1940, 60% of Americans were in favor of helping the United Kingdom in the war. A majority of Americans believed that the safety of the United States was contingent on the UK winning the war, an larger majority believed that the UK would lose the war if the United States stopped sending war materials to the United Kingdom.

Despite this, the same poll reported that 88% of Americans would not support entering the war against Germany and Italy. Americans were more unsure on the prospect of conflict with Empire of Japan around the same time frame. In a February Gallup poll, a majority of Americans believed that the United States should intervene in Japan's conquest of the Dutch East Indies and Singapore. However, in the same poll, only 39% supported going to war with Japan, while 46% opposed the prospect. Public support for assisting the United Kingdom rose through 1940, reaching about 65% by May 1941. However, opinions on the prospect of becoming involved against Germany and Italy still remained quite high with 80% disapproval. On December 7, 1941, the Japanese launched a surprise attack on the U. S. naval base at Pearl Harbor. After two hours of bombing, 18 U. S. ships were sunk or damaged, 188 U. S. aircraft were destroyed, 2,403 people were killed. All of this happened while the U. S. and Japan were engaging in diplomatic negotiations for possible peace in Asia.

The day after the attack, President Franklin D. Roosevelt addressed a joint session of the 77th United States Congress, calling December 7 "a date which will live in infamy". Within an hour of Roosevelt's speech, Congress declared war on the Empire of Japan amid outrage at the attack, the deaths of thousands of Americans, Japan's deception of the United States by engaging in diplomatic talks with the country during the entire event. Pacifist Representative Jeannette Rankin, a Republican from Montana, cast the only dissenting vote. Roosevelt signed the declaration of war the same day. Continuing to intensify its military mobilization, the U. S. government finished converting to a war economy, a process begun by provision of weapons and supplies to the Soviet Union and the British Empire. Japanese Americans from the West Coast were sent to internment camps for the duration of the war; the attack on Pearl Harbor galvanized a divided nation into action. Public opinion had been moving towards support for entering the war during 1941, but considerable opposition remained until the attack.

Overnight, Americans united against the Empire of Japan in response to calls to "Remember Pearl Harbor." A poll taken between December 12–17, 1941, showed that 97% of respondents supported a declaration of war against Japan. Further polling showed a dramatic increase in support for every able-bodied man serving in the military, up to 70% in December 1941. American solidarity in the war effort made possible the unconditional surrender position taken by the Allied Powers; some historians, among them Samuel Eliot Morison, believe the attack doomed Imperial Japan to defeat because it awakened the "sleeping giant", regardless of whether the fuel depots or machine shops had been destroyed or if the carriers had been caught in port and sunk. U. S. industrial and military capacity, once mobilized, was able to pour overwhelming resources into both the Pacific and European theaters. Others, such as Clay Blair, Jr. and Mark Parillo believe Japanese trade protection was so incompetent that American submarines alone might have strangled Japan into defeat.

The closest friend Roosevelt had in the developing Allied alliance, Sir Winston Churchill, stated that his first thought regarding American assistance to the United Kingdom was that "We have won the war" soon after Pearl Harbor had been attacked. Perceptions of treachery in the attack before a declaration of war sparked fears of sabotage or espionage by Japanese sympathizers residing in the U. S. including citizens of Japanese descent, was a factor in the subsequent Japanese internment in the western United States. Other factors included misrepresentations of intelligence information suggesting sabotage, notably by General John DeWitt, commanding general of Western Defense Command on the Pacific Coast, who had personal feelings against Japanese Americans. In February 1942, Roosevelt signed United States Executive Order 9066, requiring all Japanese Americans to submit themselves for internment. Propaganda made repeated use of the attack, because its effect was enormous and impossible to counter.

"Remember Pearl Harbor!" became the watchwords of the war. The American government understated the damage inflicted in the hope of preventing the Japanese from learning it, but the Japanese had, through surveillance, a good estimate. On December 8, 1941, Japan declared war on the British Empire; the Japanese document discussed world peace and the disruptive actions of the United States and the United Kingdom. The document stated. Although the Imperial Japanese government had made some effort to pre

The Fulton–Mock–Blackmer House is a historic home built in 1820 in Salisbury, North Carolina, USA, whose most famous resident was the actor Sidney Blackmer. It burned in 1984 but a restoration was completed in 2015, it is located in the West Square Historic District, a local historic district designated by the city in 1975, is a contributing structure to the Salisbury Historic District. John Fulton, for whom Fulton Street was named, built the Federalist style house in Salisbury in 1820. An ad in the January 1, 1821 Western Carolinian said, "The subscriber is now finishing a large and commodious house in this place, on the western side of the town, situated between the Male and Female Academies, which he intends as a boarding-house for young ladies." Fulton died in his stepson Maxwell Chambers inherited the property. President Andrew Jackson appointed Fulton's nephew William S. Fulton governor of Arkansas. Girls who attended Salisbury Academy lived in the house, the house became a school. Davidson College owned the house at one time.

The A. J. Mock family added Italianate brackets above the front windows, they replaced original Federal style windows, of which one remained. Actor Sidney Blackmer bought the house in 1931 and the family lived there. Blackmer planted a holly tree and a cucumber magnolia; the 5000-square-foot house at Fulton and Innes Streets sat vacant after a December 1, 1984 fire, after which Suzanne Blackmer could not afford a restoration. Four ionic columns added between 1906 and 1908 were stored, though contractor Al Wilson left the base of one as a guide in case the columns were put back. Wilson fixed the roof and foundation in 1989, actions credited with keeping the house from falling down during years of neglect. In 2008, Jonathan Blackmer, son of Sidney and Suzanne, asked that the house either be torn down or restored for "any public use", such as a museum devoted to his father's career. In June 2012, Historic Salisbury Foundation, which had done some work on the house over the years, agreed to buy it, paying $109,611 to Jonathan Blackmer.

Renovation was under way, in April 2013, the public was allowed inside the house for the first time in 28 years. Architect Joseph K. Oppermann pointed out its "Federal-style windows and shutters, false wood graining on doors and early wallpaper." Blue wallpaper with the photo of Commodore Stephen Decatur was found in the front parlor. Brian Davis, Historic Salisbury Foundation executive director, said the roof would be raised to where it was restoring a full attic. Materials from the historic Grimes Mill, which burned in 2013, were to be used in the house. Glenn and Beth Dixon restored one house on South Ellis Street and wanted to move back to the West Square Historic District. To encourage her husband to restore a home she liked, Beth Dixon asked to look at other houses. One of those was the Fulton–Mock–Blackmer House, which she thought her husband would think was too far gone. Instead, since the foundation had done so much work, Glenn Dixon said, "Oh, no, this is perfect." He wanted a house where everything would be new except the basic structure.

In February 2014, the Dixons bought the house from the Historic Salisbury Foundation for $150,000. Historic preservation tax credits helped the Dixons with the restoration, scheduled to be completed by December 2014; the chimneys were replaced. Otherwise, the couple planned to keep as much of the house's history as possible; the restored 20-foot columns were still needed capitals. Old photos and Jonathan Blackmer's memories helped determine; as much as possible, each section of the house would look. Glenn Dixon said, "Historically, it's 100 percent original." Interior doors dating to 1820 are still in use. Renovation was completed in early 2015; the Fulton–Mock–Blackmer House won a 2015 historic preservation award from Historic Salisbury Foundation, in the category Private Preservation & Neighborhood Revitalization. Video

The Gondoliers. It premiered at the Savoy Theatre on 7 December 1889 and ran for a successful 554 performances, closing on 30 June 1891; this was the twelfth comic opera collaboration of fourteen between Sullivan. The story of the opera concerns the young bride of the heir to the throne of the fictional kingdom of Barataria who arrives in Venice to join her husband, it turns out, that he cannot be identified, since he was entrusted to the care of a drunken gondolier who mixed up the prince with his own son. To complicate matters, the King of Barataria has just been killed; the two young gondoliers must now jointly rule the kingdom until the nurse of the prince can be brought in to determine which of them is the rightful king. Moreover, when the young queen arrives to claim her husband, she finds that the two gondoliers have both married local girls. A last complicating factor is that herself, is in love with another man; the Gondoliers was Sullivan's last great success. In this opera, Gilbert returns to the satire of class distinctions figuring in many of his earlier librettos.

The libretto reflects Gilbert's fascination with the "Stock Company Act", highlighting the absurd convergence of natural persons and legal entities, which plays an larger part in the next opera, Utopia Limited. As in several of their earlier operas, by setting the work comfortably far away from England, Gilbert was emboldened to direct sharper criticism at the nobility and the institution of the monarchy itself; the Gondoliers was preceded by the most serious of the Gilbert and Sullivan collaborations, The Yeomen of the Guard. On 9 January 1889, three months into that opera's fourteen-month run, Sullivan informed the librettist that he "wanted to do some dramatic work on a larger musical scale", that he "wished to get rid of the marked rhythm, rhymed couplets, have words that would have a chance of developing musical effects." Gilbert counselled that the partnership should continue on its former course: I have thought over your letter, while I quite understand and sympathize with your desire to write what, for want of a better term, I suppose we must call'grand opera,' I cannot believe that it would succeed either at the Savoy or at Carte's new theatre....

Moreover, to speak from my own selfish point of view, such an opera would afford me no chance of doing what I best do — the librettist of a grand opera is always swamped in the composer. Anybody — Hersee, Reece — can write a good libretto for such a purpose. Again, the success of the Yeoman —, a step in the direction of serious opera — has not been so convincing as to warrant us in assuming that the public want something more earnest still. On 12 March, Sullivan responded, "I have lost the liking for writing comic opera, entertain grave doubts as to my power of doing it.... You say that in a serious opera, you must less sacrifice yourself. I say that this is just what I have been doing in all our joint pieces, what is more, must continue to do in comic opera to make it successful."A series of acrimonious letters followed over the ensuing weeks, with Sullivan laying down new terms for the collaboration, Gilbert insisting that he had always bent over backwards to comply with the composer's musical requirements.

Gilbert tried to encourage his collaborator: You say that our operas are Gilbert's pieces with music added by you.... I say that when you deliberately assert that for 12 years you, incomparably the greatest English musician of the age — a man whose genius is a proverb wherever the English tongue is spoken — a man who can deal en prince with operatic managers, music publishers and musical societies — when you, who hold this unparalleled position, deliberately state that you have submitted silently and uncomplainingly for 12 years to be extinguished, set aside and effaced by your librettist, you grievously reflect, not upon him, but upon yourself and the noble art of which you are so eminent a professor. Gilbert offered a compromise that Sullivan accepted — that the composer would write a light opera for the Savoy, a grand opera for a new theatre that Carte was constructing for that purpose. Sullivan's acceptance came with the proviso that "we are agreed upon the subject." Gilbert suggested an opera based on a theatrical company, which Sullivan rejected, but he accepted an idea "connected with Venice and Venetian life, this seemed to me to hold out great chances of bright colour and taking music.

Can you not develop this with something we can both go into with warmth and enthusiasm and thus give me a subject in which we can both be interested....?"Gilbert set to work on the new libretto by the early summer of 1889, by the mid-summer Sullivan had started composing Act I. Gilbert provided Sullivan with alternative lyrics for many passages, allowing the composer to choose which ones he preferred; the long opening number was the librettist's idea, it gave Sullivan the opportunity to establish the mood of the work through music. The costumes were designed by Percy Anderson and sets were by Hawes Craven, with choreography by Willie Warde, they worked all summer and autumn, with a successful opening on 7 December 1889. Press accounts were entirely favourable, the opera enjoyed a run longer than any of their other joint works except fo