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O'Connor Plating Works disaster 🐰

"On 20 February 1947, a large accidental explosion at the O'Connor Plating Works at 926 East Pico Boulevard in Los Angeles killed seventeen people and injured more than one hundred. Eleven nearby buildings were damaged beyond repair. Press reports mentioned a twenty-five-foot crater. The explosion was caused by the improper handling of perchloric acid, which the plant was using as an experimental method for polishing aluminum. On the day of the accident, the cooling unit required to store perchloric acid safely was not working. A vessel of 130 gallons of the chemical was boiling and may have ignited when a plastic rack was lowered into it. Dick Lane, a Los Angeles television announcer, was working for the experimental television station W6XYZ located nearby and quickly began broadcasting from the disaster site. Two days later, the station was licensed for commercial operation as KTLA-TV. See also * SS Sansinena oil tanker that exploded in Los Angeles. References Category:Industrial fires and explosions in the United States Category:1947 disasters in the United States Category:1947 in California Category:Explosions in 1947 Category:History of Los Angeles "

Semyon Sakhnov 🐰

"Semyon Pavlovich Sakhnov (; 15 February 1900 – 8 March 1950) was a Red Army major general who commanded the 56th Rifle Division in the early stages of the Axis invasion of the Soviet Union (Operation Barbarossa). After fighting as an ordinary soldier in the Russian Civil War, Sakhnov graduated from an officer training school and served there during the 1920s before rising to division command in the late 1930s. He was commanding the 56th Rifle Division in Belarus when Operation Barbarossa was launched. Stationed close to the border, his unit was destroyed in the first days of the war. After more than two months behind German lines, Sakhnov reached the Soviet lines with a small group of other officers, but was expelled from the Communist Party for burying his documents when he was encircled by German units. As a result of this censure, he never held a combat command again and spent the rest of the war in command of a training unit. Early life and Russian Civil War The son of Ukrainian peasants, Semyon Pavlovich Sakhnov was born on 15 February 1900 in Samoylovka in the Saratov Governorate of the Russian Empire (now Saratov Oblast, Russia). He graduated from the village primary school. Drafted into the Red Army on 20 July 1919 during the Russian Civil War, he was sent to serve with a cavalry battalion of the 23rd Rifle Division on the Southern Front. With the latter, Sakhnov fought as a Red Army man in the suppression of revolts in the rear of the 9th Army, and in battles against the Armed Forces of South Russia in the advance on Novocherkassk, on the Manych River, and at Yekaterinodar. He was transferred to the 99th Railroad Detachment at Balashov in February 1920 and later that year became a cadet of the 34th Machine Gun Commanders' Courses at Saratov, which became the Saratov Infantry School in May 1921. With a cadet detachment from the school, Sakhnov fought in the suppression of peasant revolts in Saratov Governorate. Interwar period After graduating from the school in September 1922, Sakhnov remained there as a platoon commander. From October 1927 he was a class commander, and later became an assistant company commander at the school. After completing the Leningrad Armored Courses for the Improvement of Command Cadre in 1931, Sakhnov became a company commander at the tank school reorganized from the Saratov Infantry School, in April 1931. He transferred to the 245th Rifle Regiment of the 82nd Rifle Division at Sverdlovsk, east of the Ural Mountains, in February 1932, serving with it as a battalion commander and assistant regimental commander. He became commander of the 245th before being sent to the Vystrel course for advanced training in November 1937. After completing the course in August 1938, Sakhnov, by then a colonel, was appointed commander of the 71st Rifle Division at Kemerovo in October of that year. The division was disbanded to form an officer cadet school and training courses for commanders within a few months, and in January 1940 Sakhnov became commander of the 23rd Reserve Rifle Brigade, a training unit in the district. He became a major general on 4 June of that year when the Red Army introduced general officer ranks. Appointed commander of the 201st Rifle Division at Tyumen in March 1941, Sakhnov was quickly sent to the Western Special Military District in Belarus, where he took command of the 56th Rifle Division, part of the 4th Rifle Corps of the 3rd Army, on 12 June. World War II The Battle of Białystok–Minsk, 22–25 June 1941 When Operation Barbarossa began on 22 June, the 56th came under attack from three divisions of the German VIII Army Corps in what became known as the Battle of Białystok–Minsk. Spread out over an area of in camps near Grodno in Polish territory annexed by the Soviet Union, close to the border of German-occupied Poland, the division suffered heavy losses and by 10:00 its remnants began retreating to the east and southeast, although one regiment was surrounded defending the Augustów Canal. Sakhnov's communications with his units relied on telephone lines, which were soon cut, preventing him from controlling his forces. German tanks broke through to his command post by 09:00 and he began evacuating to the rear. In the chaos, the headquarters was scattered, and by 14:00 Sakhnov, with the guard platoon, the division's political commissar and chief of artillery, and other headquarters officers, made his way eastward, deep in the German rear. To cross the Neman, the group split up and Sakhnov, with five other officers and six enlisted men, crossed at Grandichi, north of Grodno on the night of 22–23 June. He proceeded to the Ozyory area on the next day, bringing his group to 25 people by collecting retreating troops. The fighting around Grodno, 24–25 June 1941 Sakhnov led his group to the Ozyory area on 24 June, having heard from another officer that Soviet troops were attempting to make a stand at Skidel. They arrived there in the afternoon, finding that the head of the operational department of the neighbouring 85th Rifle Division's staff had organized a defense from remnants of two regiments of the 56th and 85th with roughly 350 personnel. Skidel was surrounded by German tanks and infantry by the end of the day and Sakhnov, who had taken command, withdrew the troops across the Neman to the area of Most under the cover of darkness. On 25 June he and the staff officers went to Shchuchyn by staff car to retrieve rear units of the division there and shifted them and the remnants that could be collected to the area of Lida that night. Seeking the 3rd Army headquarters, supposedly at Lunno, Sakhnov and the division rear units met the commander of the 56th's 184th Rifle Regiment with 700 of his men while en route to Most and headed for Lunno on the morning of 27 June. German defenses in the area of Most on 27 June were porous and the 184th managed to overwhelm them at Rozhanka, capturing several prisoners who were shot, according to Sakhnov's postwar recollections. Later that day they slipped through the German lines to reach the south bank of the Neman at Most, but in the fighting Sakhnov and a group of around 50 people were separated from the regiment. After this engagement, Sakhnov's group gradually split into ever smaller groups that continued to move east over the next few days. Having to detour around German-occupied locations, Sakhnov and four other officers from his unit and the 3rd Army staff slowly made their way northeast on foot. He and the other officers reached Soviet lines on 6 September north of Andreapol in the sector of the 133rd Rifle Division of the 22nd Army, unarmed and dressed in civilian clothes, without his identity papers. For burying his party card with his papers while behind German lines, he was expelled from the Communist Party ten days later, a disgrace that ensured that he could not return to the front. After spending three months under NKVD investigation, Sakhnov was briefly assigned to the Vystrel course in October before being sent to the Siberian Military District under the direction of Lieutenant General Stepan Kalinin to work on raising new units in the district. In December he was appointed commander of the 23rd Reserve Rifle Brigade, a training unit, which was reorganized as a division with the same number in July 1944. Sakhnov spent the rest of the war in Siberia. In this capacity, he was responsible for the formation of new units and the dispatch of march battalions to provide replacements for the army. Postwar After the end of the war, Sakhnov continued to command the division. In October 1945 he became chief of the department of combat and physical training of the staff of the Western Siberian Military District. He was dismissed from the army and became chief of the military department of the Bashkir Agricultural Institute at Ufa in June 1948. Sakhnov died in Moscow on 8 March 1950, and was buried at the Vvedenskoye Cemetery. He was survived by a son, Vyacheslav, who coached basketball at Bashkir State University. Awards and honors Sakhnov was a recipient of the following decorations: * Order of Lenin (21 February 1945) * Order of the Red Banner (3 November 1944) Both awards were made as a reward for the length of his service in the Red Army. References Citations Bibliography = Category:1900 births Category:1950 deaths category:People from Samoylovsky District Category:People from Balashovsky Uyezd Category:Communist Party of the Soviet Union members Category:Soviet major generals Category:Soviet military personnel of the Russian Civil War Category:Soviet military personnel of World War II Category:Recipients of the Order of Lenin Category:Recipients of the Order of the Red Banner "

Yitshak Kreiss 🐰

"Yitshak Kreiss (born 1965) is an Israeli physician and Director General of Sheba Medical Center in Tel Hashomer.. Kreiss served in the Israel Defense Forces in various capacities for 25 years, achieving the rank of Brigadier General. In 2011, he was appointed Surgeon General of the IDF. Kreiss is an expert in disaster medical relief. Biography Yitshak Kreiss was born in Ramat Gan. In 1983, he enrolled in the Atuda program of the Israel Defense Forces and began to study medicine at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He completed his medical degree in 1990. In 1995-1999, he did his residency in internal medicine at Sheba Medical Center. He was also earned an MHA in health administration from Tel Aviv University (2005) and an MPH in public administration from Harvard University (2007). Kreiss is married to Inbal, senior manager for Israel Aerospace Industries who is involved in Arrow missile development. They have three children. The family lives in Shoham. Military career Upon completing his studies, Kreiss served as a medical officer with the Paratroopers Brigade. In 1991-1994, he was attached to Unit 101. Over the years, he moved up the ranks, from a front-line combat surgeon to all levels of command. In October 2011, he assumed the post of IDF Surgeon General. Kreiss established an IDF combat casualty care plan called "My Brother's Keeper" successfully put into practice during Operation Protective Edge. In 2019, he co-edited a comprehensive manual for setting up field hospitals which was published by Cambridge University. Academic career Kreiss is an associate professor of medicine at Tel Aviv University and adjunct associate clinical professor at the Hebrew University School of Medicine. He is one of the heads of the MBA healthcare innovation program of the Herzliya Interdisciplinary Center and serves as a visiting professor in the Faculty of Business Administration of Florida Atlantic University. Medical career Kreiss is an expert in disaster relief and management of field hospitals. In 1999 he led a medical unit in the IDF delegation to Macedonia to provide medical aid to Albanian refugees from Kosovo. In 2004, he headed the medical team sent to Egypt to aid victims of the Sinai terror attack. In 2010, he oversaw the establishment of a field hospital in Haiti to treat earthquake victims. As Chief Medical Officer, he led the campaign to provide humanitarian medical care for victims of the Syrian civil war. As a result, thousands of wounded Syrians have been treated in Israeli hospitals since February 2013Dr. Yitshak Kreiss: Reinventing Israel's bigegst hospital. In November 2013, he oversaw the Israeli relief mission dispatched to the Philippines to aid casualties of Typhoon Haiyan. On August 15, 2016, Kreiss was appointed director of Sheba Medical Center at Tel Hashomer. In 2018, Kreiss signed the "City of Health" agreement, making Sheba Medical Center the recipient of the largest development budget ever awarded to a public hospital in Israel. The funds are earmarked for the creation of an innovative approach to healthcare capable of meeting the challenges of the future. From the earliest days of the Covid-19 pandemic, Kreiss was at the forefront of the Israel's emergency response, with Sheba Medical Center opening the first coronavirus ward in the country. Under Kreiss's direction, a new intensive care unit with hundreds of beds was inaugurated to serve Israel in times of national emergencies. = Awards and recognition = In 2013, Kreiss was the recipient of the Dr. Jean Mayer Global Citizenship Award, granted in appreciation of his humanitarian relief efforts in times of war and peace. In 2014, he was invited by TEDMED to deliver a lecture on leadership response to crisis. In 2018, Kreiss was ranked fifth in TheMarker's annual listing of the 100 most influential people in Israel. In 2019, the Jerusalem Post listed him as one of the 50th most important Jews in the world Published works * Elhanan Bar-On, Kobi Peleg, Yitshak Kreiss, Field Hospitals - A Comprehensive Guide to Preparation and Operation, Cambridge University Press, January 2020, * Kreiss Y, Merin O, Peleg K, Levy G, Vinker S, Sagi R, Abargel A, Bartal C, Lin G, Bar A, Bar-On E, Schwaber MJ, Ash N. Early disaster response in Haiti: the Israeli field hospital experience, Ann Intern Med. 2010 Jul 6;153(1):45-8. doi: 10.7326/0003-4819-153-1-201007060-00253. Epub 2010 May 4. * Zimlichman E, Afek A, Kahn CN, Kreiss Y., The Future Evolution of Hospitals., Isr Med Assoc J. 2019 Mar;21(3):163-164. Review. References Category: Israeli emergency physicians Category:Israeli military doctors Category:Medical academics Category:Hospital administrators Category:1965 births Category:Living people Category:Hebrew University of Jerusalem alumni Category:Tel Aviv University alumni Category:John F. Kennedy School of Government alumni "

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