During the first week of the invasion there were 150,000 casualties among Soviet troops, and by October that year, German troops had taken 3 million Soviet prisoners of war. Joseph Stalin, taken by surprise, found his military overwhelmed by the German onslaught. In June 1941 Adolf Hitler broke the non-aggression pact signed in 1939 by Germany and the Soviet Union when he invaded Russia with an army of more than 3 million men, 7,000 artillery pieces, 3,000 tanks, and 2,500 aircraft. But the war between Germany and Russia would be the first major land defeat for Hitler, and that defeat is considered the beginning of the decline of Nazi Germany. It was a battle of giants, and the largest military invasion of WWII: Nazi Germany against Communist Russia. First and foremost, the Hindenburg was filled with hydrogen, a highly flammable gas, instead of a less-combustible alternative such as helium. In 37 seconds the Hindenburg was destroyed by fire 36 of the 97 passengers and crew died. In May 1937, during its attempt to dock, the luxury liner burst into flames above Lakehurst Naval Air Station in New Jersey. It was just as luxurious as it was enormous - it even had a specially designed lightweight baby grand piano on board, and, paradoxically, a smoking lounge. The airship was three times as long and double the height of a Boeing 747 of today, all wrapped up in a silver-painted fabric membrane. Commercial airship travel was gaining popularity, and the Hindenburg was the largest zeppelin ever built (in fact, it was the largest thing ever to fly). In the 1930s, there was a dream of commercial airships ferrying passengers across the Atlantic in no time at all, just 60 hours. ©Keystone-France/Gamma-Keystone via Getty Images The crew was not fully up to speed on the liner, its equipment (such as the state-of-the-art Marconi wireless messaging system) and its emergency procedures. Sure, they'd reviewed the ship's equipment, but it was never test driven it was unproven. For example, there were only 16 lifeboats, enough for only about one-third to one-half of the passengers on board, and crew members weren't prepared with binoculars or proper lighting. It didn't carry adequate safety equipment. First, there were no safety regulations in place for a ship as large as the Titanic. Multiple mistakes were made that collectively sent the Titanic to its tragic end in April 1912. But just five days into the trip from England to New York City, the luxury liner collided with an iceberg off the coast of Newfoundland consumed by damage she sank, killing more than 1,500 passengers and crew. More than a century ago, the RMS Titanic set sail on her maiden voyage across the North Atlantic. It's approved for use as a treatment for multiple myeloma, which is a blood and bone marrow cancer, as well as treatment for skin lesions associated with leprosy, and research is underway on its potential treatment for other cancers, HIV-related complications, and autoimmune conditions such as lupus and Crohn's disease. Thalidomide does have its uses, although always with the risk of severe birth defects or infant mortality. By the time the manufacturer finally pulled the drug, an estimated 100,000 pregnant women had taken it, and an estimated 40 percent of babies exposed to the drug died (either during the pregnancy or shortly after birth). Affected babies were often born with shortened arms or legs and with flipper-like hands and feet (a condition called phocomelia) some babies were born with other defects such as malformed eyes, ears, hearts and other organs. By 1961, though, negative effects of the drug were becoming evident - babies were born with severe deformities. Thalidomide was introduced in the early 1950s as a safe over-the-counter sedative, and went on to be prescribed to pregnant women as a morning sickness treatment during the 1950s and 1960s across 46 countries.
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