February 6th

On this day - February 6th 1958 - Several Manchester United players were killed in the Munich air disaster

On February 6th 1958 was the Manchester United fotball team, together with supporters and journalists, returning from a match in Belgrade. The match in the European Cup had ended 3-3 which gave Manchester United a shot at the semi-final. The team's returnflight back to Manchester stopped in Munich to refuel, but in the wintery weather did not everything go according to the plan. The airplane crashed on its third attempt at take off from the Munich-Riem airport due to the slush on the runway. The airplane skidded of the end of the runway, crashed into a fence and finally hit a truck filled with fuel wich exploded. 23 of the people onboard died in the accident, while 21 people survived. It took Manchester United several years to recover from the accident, and to again have a shot at winning the the Euorpean Cup.

The Manchester united players who died were Geoff Bent, Roger Byrne, Eddie Coleman, Duncan Edwards, Mark Jones, David Pegg,Tommy Taylor and Liam "Billy" Wheland. A plaque and a clock can be found on Old Trafford in memory of the accident and the lives in claimed. The Munich tunnel at Old Trafford was named so on the 50th anniversary of the accident.

November 8th

On this day - 8th November 1923 - The Beer Hall Putsch 

The Beer Hall Putsch that is also known as the Munich Putsch, was a failed coup-attempt by by the Nazi party. The idea was to seize power in Munich in the state of Bavaria. The attempt was two thousand men that gathered in the center of Munich. In the city center they confronted the police. The confrontation led to sixteen Nazis deaths and four policemen. Hitler himself was wounded in the confrontation. The coup attempt was inspired by Mussolini's successful attempt in Rome in October. Two days after the attempt Hitler was arrested and charged with high treason, some of his conspirators were arrested, while some fled to Austria. Hitler was found guilty and sentenced to five years in prison. He only served 9 months of the sentence and Hitler saw three benefits with the failed attempt. The first benefit was the attention, the second benefit was that he used the time in prison to write "Mein Kampf" and the final benefit was that Hitler realized that the path to power was trough legitimate means.

Bundesarchiv, Bild 119-1486