On this day in ...... 1849, in Venice, the waging of war took a new leap when Austria launched the 1st aerial raid against rebels who the year before had ousted their imperial rulers and declared their city a republic. Some of the time-fused bombs reached their target. Others drifted back to the Austrian camp when the wind shifted. The means for the attack were balloons sent skyward without human pilots -- and thus genuine ancestors of the Predator drones that, as we've posted here, here, and here, generate killing and controversy today. (credit for 1880 Russian image of similar balloon raid)
