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Ernst Röhm, c. 1924

The Röhm scandal was the public disclosure of the homosexuality of Nazi politician Ernst Röhm (pictured) by the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD). It began in April 1931, when the SPD newspaper Münchener Post published a series of front-page stories inaccurately portraying the Nazi Party as dominated by homosexuals. During the 1932 German presidential election, the SPD released a pamphlet edited by the ex-Nazi Helmuth Klotz with letters in which Röhm had discussed his homosexuality. On 12 May 1932, Klotz was beaten by Nazi deputies in the Reichstag building in revenge for his publication of the pamphlet, bringing the matter to national attention, and making Röhm the world's first openly gay politician. The Nazis' electoral performance was not affected by the scandal. Hitler defended Röhm, but had him murdered in 1934, citing both his homosexuality and alleged treachery. This purge began the systematic persecution of homosexual men in Nazi Germany. (Full article...)

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In the news

Shane Warne

Australian cricketer Shane Warne (pictured) dies at the age of 52.
The Winter Paralympics open in Beijing, China.
Russia's invasion of Ukraine is condemned by the United Nations General Assembly.
An earthquake in West Sumatra, Indonesia, leaves fourteen people dead.

On this day

March 5: Learn from Lei Feng Day in China; St Piran's Day in Cornwall, England

Gordon French, co-founder of the Homebrew Computer Club

363 – Roman–Persian Wars: Roman emperor Julian and his army set out from Antioch to attack the Sasanian Empire.
1279 – The Livonian branch of the Teutonic Order suffered a great loss when 71 knights died in the Battle of Aizkraukle.
1824 – The First Anglo-Burmese War, the longest and most expensive war in British Indian history, began.
1966 – BOAC Flight 911 disintegrated and crashed near Mount Fuji shortly after departure from Tokyo International Airport, killing all 113 passengers and 11 crew members on board.
1975 – Computer hobbyists in Silicon Valley held the first meeting of the Homebrew Computer Club (founder pictured), whose members went on to have great influence on the development of the personal computer.

Gerardus Mercator (b. 1512)
Alessandro Volta (d. 1827)
Subroto Mukerjee (b. 1911)

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Today's featured picture

The Soyuz programme is a human spaceflight programme initiated by the Soviet Union in the early 1960s. The Soyuz spacecraft was originally part of a Moon landing project intended to put a Soviet cosmonaut on the Moon. It is the third Soviet human spaceflight programme after the Vostok (1961–1963) and Voskhod (1964–1965) programmes. It is now the responsibility of the Russian Roscosmos space agency, and between the retirement of the Space Shuttle programme in 2011 and the launch of Crew Dragon in 2020, it served as the only vehicle for human spaceflight to the International Space Station.

This picture shows the launch of the Soyuz TMA-13 mission at Gagarin's Start launchpad of the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on 12 October 2008.

Photograph credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls; retouched by Lošmi

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