This Week in History
HISTORY, 16 Feb 2015
Satoshi Ashikaga – TRANSCEND Media Service
February 16–22
Quote of the Week:
FEBRUARY 16
2013 A bomb blast at a market in Hazara Town in Quetta, Pakistan, kills more than 80 people and injures 190 others.
2011 Under pressure from conservationists and diplomats, Japan’s whaling fleet leaves the Antarctic. For more information on this event, visit, for instance, http://en.mercopress.com/2011/02/16/japan-cuts-short-whaling-season-greenpeace-says-whale-meat-market-overstocked and http://thediplomat.com/2011/02/compromise-for-japanese-whaling/ For more information on Japan’s whaling, visit, for instance, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whaling_in_Japan http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whaling_controversy https://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=AwrBT8iH98xUH20A6QxXNyoA;_ylu=X3oDMTByNzA1YWV1BHNlYwNzcgRwb3MDOQRjb2xvA2JmMQR2dGlkAw–?qid=20071117150420AAiwWzB http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2014/06/140612-whaling-japan-resume-antarctica-animals-ocean-science/ and/or http://uk.whales.org/issues/whaling-in-japan
2006 The last Mobile Army Surgical Hospital (MASH) is decommissioned by the United States Army
2005 The Kyoto Protocol comes into force, following its ratification by Russia.
1999 Across Europe, Kurdish rebels take over embassies and hold hostages after Turkey arrests one of their rebel leaders, Abdullah Öcalan.
1999 In Uzbekistan, a bomb explodes and gunfire is heard at the government headquarters in an apparent assassination attempt against President Islam Karimov.
1991 Nicaraguan Contras leader Enrique Bermúdez is assassinated in Managua.
1988 1st documented combat action by U.S. military advisors in El Salvador. See https://thisdayinusmilhist.wordpress.com/2014/02/16/february-16/ and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salvadoran_Civil_War.
1987 The trial of John Demjanjuk, accused of being a Nazi guard dubbed “Ivan the Terrible” in Treblinka extermination camp, starts in Jerusalem.
1985 Hezbollah is founded.
1979 USSR performs nuclear test at Semipalitinsk, Eastern Kazakhstan USSR.
1977 USSR performs nuclear test at Sary Shagan USSR.
1960 The U.S. Navy submarine USS Triton begins Operation Sandblast, setting sail from New London, Connecticut, to begin the first submerged circumnavigation of the globe.
1959 Fidel Castro becomes Premier of Cuba after dictator Fulgencio Batista was overthrown on January 1.
1945 World War II: American forces land on Corregidor Island in the Philippines.
1943 World War II: Insertion of Operation Gunnerside, Norway.
1943 World War II: Red Army troops re-enter Kharkov.
1942 Kim Jong-Il of DPRK, the successor of Kim Il-Sung and the father of Kim Jung-Un, is born. For Kim Jong-Il, visit, for instance http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kim_Jong-il http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/k/_kim_jong_il/index.html ; http://www.foxnews.com/world/2015/01/29/ex-south-korea-leader-says-kim-jong-il-demanded-10b-in-exchange-for-talks/ and http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/317868/Kim-Jong-Il .
1940 World War II: Altmark Incident: The German tanker Altmark is boarded by sailors from the British destroyer HMS Cossack. 299 British prisoners are freed.
1934 The Austrian Civil War ends with the defeat of the Social Democrats and the Republican Schutzbund.
1927 US restores diplomatic relations with Turkey. Visit http://turkey.usembassy.gov/us_diplomatic_interaction_turkey.html .
1818 The Council of Lithuania unanimously adopts the Act of Independence, declaring Lithuania an independent state.
1874 Silver Dollar becomes legal US tender.
1866 Spencer Compton Cavendish, Marquess of Hartington becomes British Secretary of State for War.
1804 First Barbary War: Stephen Decatur leads a raid to burn the pirate-held frigate USS Philadelphia.
FEBRUARY 17
2008 Kosovo declares independence as the Republic of Kosovo.
1995 The Cenepa War between Peru and Ecuador ends on a cease-fire brokered by the UN.
1992 Nagorno-Karabakh War: Armenian troops massacre more than 20 Azerbaijani civilians in the village of Qaradağlı.
1989 USSR performs nuclear test at Semipalitinsk, Eastern Kazakhstan USSR.
1980 Mount Everest, 1st Winter Ascent by Krzysztof Wielicki and Leszek Cichy.
1979 The Sino-Vietnamese War begins.
1978 The Troubles: The Provisional IRA detonates an incendiary bomb at the La Mon restaurant, near Belfast, killing 12 and seriously injuring 30.
1972 Sales of the Volkswagen Beetle exceed those of the Ford Model-T.
1964 Gabonese president Leon M’ba is toppled by a coup and his rival, Jean-Hilaire Aubame, is installed in his place.
1964 In Wesberry v. Sanders the Supreme Court of the United States rules that congressional districts have to be approximately equal in population. This issue refers to one of the basics of democracy in election. Visit, for instance, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One_man,_one_vote http://www.publicmapping.org/what-is-redistricting/redistricting-criteria-equal-population http://aceproject.org/ace-en/topics/bd/bdb/bdb05/bdb05a http://redistricting.lls.edu/where.php http://redrawingthelines.sitewrench.com/glossaryofterms https://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=AwrBT8xATs5UZOcA6fFXNyoA;_ylu=X3oDMTE0djZ0M2x2BHNlYwNzcgRwb3MDMTIEY29sbwNiZjEEdnRpZANWSVA1NjVfMQ–?qid=20080109143444AALxEGo http://fortworthtexas.gov/redistricting/?id=86786 and/or http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_congressional_apportionment
1953 “Years after serving as the civilian director of the Manhattan Project to build the first atomic bomb, J. Robert Oppenheimer gave one of many speeches opposing the growing nuclear arms race, this one at the Council on Foreign Relations. ‘We may anticipate a state of affairs in which [the U.S. and U.S.S.R.] will each be in a position to put an end to civilization and the life of the other, though not without risking its own…We may be likened to two scorpions in a bottle, capable of killing the other, but only at the risk of his own life.” (Sources: Craig Nelson. “The Age of Radiance.’ New York: Simon & Schuster, 2014, p. 259 and note that Oppenheimer’s speech excerpts were published in the July 1953 edition of Foreign Affairs: “Atomic Weapons and American Policy,” p. 529.)” Quoted from http://www.wagingpeace.org/february-this-month-in-nuclear-threat-history/
1949 Chaim Weizmann begins his term as the first President of Israel
1944 World War II: Operation Hailstone begins. US naval air, surface, and submarine attack against Truk Lagoon, Japan’s main base in the central Pacific, in support of the Eniwetok invasion.
1944 World War II: The Battle of Eniwetok Atoll begins. The battle ends in an American victory on February 22.
1933 The Blaine Act ends Prohibition in the United States.
1897 Emilio Aguinaldo and a group of katipuneros defeat Spanish forces led by General Camilo de Polavieja at the Battle of Zapote Bridge in Cavite.
1885 Bismarck gives Carl Peters’ firm management of East-Africa.
1871 The victorious Prussian Army parades through Paris, France after the end of the Siege of Paris during the Franco-Prussian War.
1867 1st ship passes through Suez Canal.
1863 A group of citizens of Geneva founded an International Committee for Relief to the Wounded, which later became known as the International Committee of the Red Cross.
1854 The United Kingdom recognizes the independence of the Orange Free State.
1838 Weenen massacre: Hundreds of Voortrekkers along the Blaukraans River, Natal are killed by Zulus.
1814 War of the Sixth Coalition: The Battle of Mormans.
1753 In Sweden February 17 is followed by March 1 as the country moves from the Julian calendar to the Gregorian calendar.
1600 The philosopher Giordano Bruno is burned alive, for heresy, at Campo de’ Fiori in Rome.
1568 Holy Roman Emperor agrees to pay tribute to the Sultan for peace.
FEBRUARY 18
2014 At least 76 people are killed and hundreds are injured in clashes between riot police and demonstrators in Kiev, Ukraine.
2007 Terrorist bombs explode on the Samjhauta Express in Panipat, Haryana, India, killing 68 people.
2001 Inter-ethnic violence between Dayaks and Madurese breaks out in Sampit, Indonesia, that will ultimately result in more than 500 deaths and 100,000 Madurese displaced from their homes.
2001 FBI agent Robert Hanssen is arrested for spying for the Soviet Union. He is ultimately convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment.
1991 The IRA explodes bombs in the early morning at Paddington station and Victoria station in London.
1983 Thirteen people die and one is seriously injured in the Wah Mee massacre in Seattle, Washington. It is said to be the largest robbery-motivated mass-murder in US history.
1972 The California Supreme Court in the case of People v. Anderson, (6 Cal.3d 628) invalidates the state’s death penalty and commutes the sentences of all death row inmates to life imprisonment. See also Walter James Bolton’s case in New Zealand in 1957, mentioned below.
1969 PLO-attack El-Al plane in Zurich Switzerland. Visit, for instance, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/El_Al_Flight_432_attack and http://www.shabak.gov.il/English/History/Affairs/Pages/Zurich1969.aspx
1957 Walter James Bolton becomes the last person legally executed in New Zealand.
– For death penalty in New Zealand, visit, for instance, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capital_punishment_in_New_Zealand http://www.amnesty.org.nz/our-work/end-death-penalty/new-zealands-stance-death-penalty ; http://www.nzhistory.net.nz/culture/the-death-penalty http://www.nzhistory.net.nz/culture/the-death-penalty and/or http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10469011
– For pros and cons of death penalty, visit, for instance, http://www.proconlists.com/list/government-politics/the-death-penalty/9 and/or http://usliberals.about.com/od/deathpenalty/i/DeathPenalty.htm
– For Amnesty International’s argument about death penalty, visit http://www.amnesty.org/en/death-penalty/international-law and http://www.amnestyusa.org/our-work/issues/death-penalty/international-death-penalty/death-penalty-and-human-rights-standards
– For arguments about death penalty at the UN, visit, for instance, http://www.ohchr.org/EN/Issues/DeathPenalty/Pages/DPIndex.aspx http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Nations_moratorium_on_the_death_penalty and/or http://www.worldcoalition.org/United-Nations-UN-human-rights-council-death-penalty-abolition-moratorium-resolution.html
– For relevant information on the Second Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, aiming at the abolition of the death penalty, visit https://treaties.un.org/Pages/ViewDetails.aspx?src=TREATY&mtdsg_no=IV-12&chapter=4&lang=en and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Optional_Protocol_to_the_International_Covenant_on_Civil_and_Political_Rights
1957 Kenyan rebel leader Dedan Kimathi is executed by the British colonial government.
1955 Operation Teapot: Teapot test shot “Wasp” is successfully detonated at the Nevada Test Site with a yield of 1.2 kilotons. Wasp is the first of fourteen shots in the Teapot series.
1947 First Indochina War: The French gain complete control of Hanoi after forcing the Viet Minh to withdraw to mountains.
1946 Sailors of the Royal Indian Navy Mutiny in Bombay harbour, from where the action spreads throughout the Provinces of British India, involving 78 ships, twenty shore establishments and 20,000 sailors.
1943 Joseph Goebbels delivers his Sportpalast speech.
1943 The Nazis arrest the members of the White Rose movement.
1942 World War II: The Imperial Japanese Army begins the systematic extermination of perceived hostile elements among the Chinese in Singapore.
1938 During the Nanking Massacre the Nanking Safety Zone International Committee is renamed “Nanking International Rescue Committee” and the safety zone in place for refugees falls apart. For the Nanking Safety Zone and relevant issues on Nanking Massacre, visit, for instance, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nanking_Safety_Zone http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Committee_for_the_Nanking_Safety_Zone http://nvdatabase.swarthmore.edu/content/foreigners-establish-safety-zone-and-intervene-save-civilians-during-nanking-massacre-1937-1 http://rapeofnankingsafetyzone.weebly.com/index.html http://www.history.com/topics/nanjinghttp://www.history.com/topics/nanjing-massacre-massacre and/or http://www.nankingatrocities.net/Terror/terror_02.htm
1932 The Empire of Japan declares Manzhouguo (the obsolete Chinese name for Manchuria) independent from the Republic of China.
1927 U.S. and Canada begin diplomatic relations. Visit, for instance, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canada%E2%80%93United_States_relations http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foreign_relations_of_Canada and/or http://canada.usembassy.gov/canada-us-relations.html
1900 Second Boer War: Imperial forces suffer their worst single-day loss of life on Bloody Sunday, the first day of the Battle of Paardeberg.
1873 Bulgarian revolutionary leader Vasil Levski is executed by hanging in Sofia by the Ottoman authorities.
1814 Napoleonic Wars: The Battle of Montereau.
1797 French Revolutionary Wars: Sir Ralph Abercromby and a fleet of 18 British warships invade Trinidad.
1781 Fourth Anglo-Dutch War: Captain Thomas Shirley opens his expedition against Dutch colonial outposts on the Gold Coast of Africa (present-day Ghana).
1745 The city of Surakarta, Central Java is founded on the banks of Bengawan Solo River, and becomes the capital of the Kingdom of Surakarta.
1637 Eighty Years’ War: Off the coast of Cornwall, England, a Spanish fleet intercepts an important Anglo–Dutch merchant convoy of 44 vessels escorted by 6 warships, destroying or capturing 20 of them.
FEBRUARY 19
2003 An Ilyushin Il-76 military aircraft crashes near Kerman, Iran, killing 275.
2001 The Oklahoma City bombing museum is dedicated at the Oklahoma City National Memorial.
1986 Akkaraipattu massacre: the Sri Lankan Army massacres 80 Tamil farm workers the eastern province of Sri Lanka.
1986 US Senate decides to ratify UN’s anti-genocide convention 37 years later. See http://www.stopthecrime.net/docs/Genocide%20Treaty.pdf . The ratification was done on 25 November 1988. (See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_parties_to_the_Genocide_Convention)
“In response to President Nixon’s request, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in 1970 held hearings on the treaty and favorably reported the treaty to the entire Senate. The latter, however, took no action…. The Foreign Relations Committee did the same in 1971, 1973, 1976 and 1978, but it was not until February 19, 1986, that the Senate voted, 83 to 11, to give its advice and consent to such ratification…. That implementing legislation was adopted on November 4, 1988, with President Ronald Reagan’s signature of the Genocide Implementation Act of 1987, 18 U.S.C. § 1091… On November 25, 1988 (three weeks after the adoption of that federal statute), President Ronald Reagan deposited notice of U.S. ratification with the U.N. Secretary-General. This constitutes the actual act of ratification.” (Quoted from http://dwkcommentaries.com/2013/01/16/united-states-ratification-of-the-genocide-convention/)
– The issue on the reluctance of the United States in the ratification of international human rights treaties, visit, for instance, http://www.nytimes.com/1985/05/06/opinion/l-why-senate-has-not-ratified-genocide-treaty-220191.html http://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/23875/william-korey/human-rights-treaties-why-is-the-us-stalling http://www.newstatesman.com/north-america/2013/10/why-us-so-reluctant-sign-human-rights-treaties https://www.globalpolicy.org/component/content/article/157/26883.html and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_treaties_unsigned_or_unratified_by_the_United_States
– For genocide, visit, for instance, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genocide http://genocidewatch.net/ http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10007043 http://www.religioustolerance.org/genocide0.htm and/or http://www.un.org/en/preventgenocide/adviser/statements.shtml
– For the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (CPPCG), visit, for instance, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genocide_Convention http://legal.un.org/avl/ha/cppcg/cppcg.html http://whitegenocideproject.com/united-nations-genocide-conventions/ and http://www.hrweb.org/legal/genocide.html
1985 William J. Schroeder becomes the first recipient of an artificial heart to leave hospital.
1976 Executive Order 9066, which led to the relocation of Japanese Americans to internment camps, is rescinded by President Gerald R. Ford‘s Proclamation 4417. Visit, for instance, http://www.ford.utexas.edu/library/speeches/760111p.htm and http://www.calisphere.universityofcalifornia.edu/jarda/historical-context.html
1965 Colonel Phạm Ngọc Thảo of the Army of the Republic of Vietnam, and a communist spy of the North Vietnamese Viet Minh, along with Generals Lâm Văn Phát and Trần Thiện Khiêm attempted a coup against the military junta of Nguyễn Khánh.
1963 The publication of Betty Friedan‘s The Feminine Mystique reawakens the Feminist Movement in the United States as women’s organizations and consciousness raising groups spread.
1959 The United Kingdom grants Cyprus independence, which is then formally proclaimed on August 16, 1960.
1953 Censorship: Georgia approves the first literature censorship board in the United States.
1948 The Conference of Youth and Students of Southeast Asia Fighting for Freedom and Independence convenes in Calcutta.
1945 World War II: Battle of Iwo Jima – about 30,000 United States Marines land on the island of Iwo Jima.
1943 World War II: Battle of the Kasserine Pass in Tunisia begins.
1942 World War II: Nearly 250 Japanese warplanes attack the northern Australian city of Darwin killing 243 people.
1942 World War II: President Franklin D. Roosevelt signs the executive order 9066, allowing the United States military to relocate Japanese-Americans to internment camps.
1941 1st transport of Jews to concentration camps leave Plotsk, Poland. For more relevant information, visit, instance, http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/judaica/ejud_0002_0016_0_15867.html ; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Auschwitz_concentration_camp and/or http://www.wikihistory.org/index.php?n=Main.1941CE#toc22
1915 World War I: The first naval attack on the Dardanelles begins when a strong Anglo-French task force bombards Ottoman artillery along the coast of Gallipoli.
1861 Serfdom is abolished in Russia.
FEBRUARY 20
2012 IAEA nuclear inspectors hold discussions about Iran’s nuclear program in Tehran. Visit, for instance, http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/02/24/iran-nuclear-program-iaea_n_1299497.html and https://www.iaea.org/newscenter/focus/iran
2011 North Korea raises concerns regarding nuclear testing; reports show they have dug tunnels at a nuclear test site located in Punggye-ri, North Hamgyong Province. Visit, for instance, http://www.foxnews.com/world/2011/02/20/report-n-korea-likely-preparing-nuclear-test/ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_nuclear_weapons_tests_of_North_Korea ; http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/02/20/us-korea-north-idUSTRE71J0AZ20110220 and http://www.nti.org/country-profiles/north-korea/nuclear/
2009 Two Tamil Tigers aircraft packed with C4 explosives en route to the national air force headquarters are shot down by the Sri Lankan military before reaching their target, in a kamikaze style attack.
2005 Spain becomes the first country to vote in a referendum on ratification of the proposed Constitution of the European Union, passing it by a substantial margin, but on a low turnout.
1991 A gigantic statue of Albania‘s long-time leader, Enver Hoxha, is brought down in the Albanian capital Tirana, by mobs of angry protesters.
1989 An IRA bomb destroys a section of a British Army barracks in Ternhill, England.
1988 The Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Oblast votes to secede from Azerbaijan and join Armenia, triggering the Nagorno-Karabakh War.
1978 The last Order of Victory is bestowed upon Leonid Brezhnev.
1975 USSR performs nuclear test at Semipalitinsk, Eastern Kazakhstan USSR.
1971 The United States Emergency Broadcast System is accidentally activated in an erroneous national alert.
“At 9:33 a.m. EST, the National Emergency Warning Center at the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) headquarters in Colorado Springs allegedly transmitted an emergency teletype message directing all U.S. radio and television stations to cease normal broadcasting by order of President Richard Nixon. The message was not cancelled for more than 40 minutes. This incident may have been caused by a teletype operator loading the wrong tape instead of the routine Emergency Broadcast Network test broadcast. Nevertheless, newsrooms across America were in turmoil and the public was unnecessarily panicked. (Source: Jesus Diaz. This Message From NORAD Announced Global Nuclear War – In 1971. July 5, 2012. http://gizmodo.com/5923528/this-message-from-norad-announced-world-nuclear-war-in-1971 accessed January 7, 2015.)” Quoted from http://www.wagingpeace.org/february-this-month-in-nuclear-threat-history/
1966 Author Valery Tarsis banished in USSR (= departure from USSR). Visit, for instance, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valery_Tarsis and http://www.nytimes.com/1983/03/04/obituaries/valery-tarsis-is-dead-soviet-emigre-novelist.html
1959 The Avro Arrow program to design and manufacture supersonic jet fighters in Canada is cancelled by the Diefenbaker government amid much political debate.
1944 World War II: The United States takes Eniwetok Island.
1944 World War II: The “Big Week” began with American bomber raids on German aircraft manufacturing centers.
1943 The Saturday Evening Post publishes the first of Norman Rockwell‘s Four Freedoms in support of United States President Franklin Roosevelt‘s 1941 State of the Union address theme of Four Freedoms.
1943 American movie studio executives agree to allow the Office of War Information to censor movies.
1942 Lieutenant Edward O’Hare becomes America’s first World War II flying ace.
1941 Nazis order Polish Jews barred from using public transportation. For the timeline of Jewish persecution, including this event, by Nazi, visit, for instance, http://www.historyorb.com/religion/judaism?p=4 and/or http://www.ibuzzle.com/articles/history-and-timeline-of-the-holocaust.html
1941 Romania breaks relations with Netherlands. For more information on diplomatic relations between Romania and Netherlands, visit, for instance, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foreign_relations_of_Romania http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foreign_relations_of_the_Netherlands and http://www.worldatwar.net/timeline/other/diplomacy39-45.html
1935 Caroline Mikkelsen becomes the first woman to set foot in Antarctica.
1933 Adolf Hitler secretly meets with German industrialists to arrange for financing of the Nazi Party‘s upcoming election campaign.
1929 American Samoa organizes as territory of US. For American Samoa, visit http://www.fact-index.com/a/am/american_samoa.html and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Samoa
1921 The Young Communist League of Czechoslovakia is founded.
1913 King O’Malley drives in the first survey peg to mark commencement of work on the construction of Canberra.
1901 The legislature of Hawaii Territory convenes for the first time.
1877 Tchaikovsky‘s ballet Swan Lake receives its première performance at the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow.
1872 In New York City the Metropolitan Museum of Art opens.
1869 Tennessee Governor W. C. Brownlow declares martial law in Ku Klux Klan crisis. For Ku Klux Klan, visit, for instance, http://www.history.com/topics/ku-klux-klan ; and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ku_Klux_Klan
1865 End of the Uruguayan War, with a peace agreement between President Tomás Villalba and rebel leader Venancio Flores, setting the scene for the destructive War of the Triple Alliance.
1864 American Civil War: Battle of Olustee occurs – the largest battle fought in Florida during the war.
1846 Polish insurgents lead an uprising in Kraków to incite a fight for national independence.
1832 Charles Darwin visits Fernando Noronha in Atlantic Ocean.
1816 Rossini’s opera The Barber of Seville premieres at the Teatro Argentina in Rome.
1813 Manuel Belgrano defeats the royalist army of Pío de Tristán during the Battle of Salta.
1810 Andreas Hofer, Tirolean patriot and leader of rebellion against Napoleon‘s forces, is executed.
FEBRUARY 21
2008 US Navy destroys a U.S. spy satellite with a missile. Visit, for instance, http://en.wikinews.org/wiki/US_Navy_successfully_destroys_disabled_spy_satellite http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USA-193 and http://www.rte.ie/news/2008/0221/99864-space/
1975 Watergate scandal: Former United States Attorney General John N. Mitchell and former White House aides H. R. Haldeman and John Ehrlichman are sentenced to prison.
1974 The last Israeli soldiers leave the west bank of the Suez Canal pursuant to a truce with Egypt.
1973 Over the Sinai Desert, Israeli fighter aircraft shoot down Libyan Arab Airlines Flight 114 jet killing 108.
1972 President Richard Nixon visits the People’s Republic of China to normalize Sino-American relations.
1971 The Convention on Psychotropic Substances is signed at Vienna.
1965 Malcolm X is assassinated at the Audubon Ballroom in New York City by members of the Nation of Islam.
1963 US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site.
1958 The peace symbol, commissioned by Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament in protest against the Atomic Weapons Research Establishment, is designed and completed by Gerald Holtom.
1952 The Bengali Language Movement protests occur at the University of Dhaka in East Pakistan (now Bangladesh).
1952 The British government, under Winston Churchill, abolishes identity cards in the UK to “set the people free”.
1945 World War II: Japanese Kamikaze planes sink the escort carrier USS Bismarck Sea and damage the USS Saratoga.
1942 World War II/Asia-Pacific War: Operation Sook Ching is begun to be implemented in Singapore (until 4 March 1942). “Operation Sook Ching was a Japanese military operation aimed at purging or eliminating anti-Japanese elements from the Chinese community in Singapore. From 21 February to 4 March 1942, Chinese males between the ages of 18 and 50 were summoned to various mass screening centres and those suspected of being anti-Japanese were executed.” (Source: http://eresources.nlb.gov.sg/infopedia/articles/SIP_40_2005-01-24.html) For more information on this massacre event, visit, in addition to the above mentioned website, for instance, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sook_Ching http://japanfocus.org/-Hayashi-Hirofumi/3187 http://www.asiauncovered.net/2013/09/haunted-changi-beach-park.html http://wdlhysec2a26.blogspot.com/2013/02/sook-ching-massacre.html http://www.viator.com/tours/Singapore/Changi-WWII-War-Trail-and-Museum-Tour/d18-2984CHA and/or http://eastcoastlife.blogspot.com/2008/09/sook-ching-massacre-in-singapore-ruby.html
1937 The League of Nations bans foreign national “volunteers” in the Spanish Civil War.
1921 Rezā Shāh takes control of Tehran during a successful coup.
1921 Constituent Assembly of the Democratic Republic of Georgia adopts the country’s first constitution.
1919 German socialist Kurt Eisner is assassinated. His death results in the establishment of the Bavarian Soviet Republic and parliament and government fleeing Munich, Germany.
1916 World War I: In France, the Battle of Verdun begins.
1913 Ioannina is incorporated into the Greek state after the Balkan Wars.
1862 American Civil War: Battle of Valverde is fought near Fort Craig in New Mexico Territory.
1848 Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels publish The Communist Manifesto.
1808 Without a previous declaration of war, Russian troops cross the border to Sweden at Abborfors in eastern Finland, thus beginning the Finnish war, in which Sweden will lose the eastern half of the country (i.e. Finland) to Russia.
1804 The first self-propelling steam locomotive makes its outing at the Pen-y-Darren Ironworks in Wales.
1543 Battle of Wayna Daga – A combined army of Ethiopian and Portuguese troops defeats a Muslim army led by Ahmed Gragn.
1440 The Prussian Confederation is formed.
FEBRUARY 22
2011 Bahraini uprising: Tens of thousands of people march in protest against the deaths of seven victims killed by police and army forces during previous protests.
1997 In Roslin, Scotland, scientists announce that an adult sheep named Dolly has been successfully cloned.
1991 Bush and US Gulf War allies give Iraq 24 hours to begin Kuwait withdrawal. Visit http://mukundsathe.com/2014/02/22/this-day-in-history-22-feb-1991-bush-us-gulf-war-allies-give-iraq-24-hrs-to-begin-kuwait-withdrawal/ For more relevant information on the Gulf War, visit, for instance, http://wikipedia.or.ke/index.php/Desert_Storm#Air_campaign
1986 Start of the People Power Revolution in the Philippines.
1979 Independence of Saint Lucia from the United Kingdom.
1974 The Organisation of the Islamic Conference summit begins in Lahore, Pakistan. Thirty-seven countries attend and twenty-two heads of state and government participate. It also recognizes Bangladesh.
1973 Cold War: Following President Richard Nixon‘s visit to the People’s Republic of China, the two countries agree to establish liaison offices.
1972 The Official Irish Republican Army detonates a car bomb at Aldershot barracks, killing seven and injuring nineteen others.
1958 Egypt and Syria join to form the United Arab Republic.
1948 Communist revolution in Czechoslovakia.
1943 World War II: Members of the White Rose resistance, Sophie Scholl, Hans Scholl, and Christoph Probst are executed in Nazi Germany.
1941 Nazi SS begin rounding up Jews of Amsterdam. Visit, for instance, http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10005434 http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Holocaust/occamsterdam.html and/or http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Jews_in_Amsterdam
1921 After Russian forces under Baron Roman von Ungern-Sternberg drive the Chinese out, the Bogd Khan is reinstalled as the emperor of Mongolia.
1916 World War I: Germany institutes unrestricted submarine warfare.
1899 Filipino forces led by General Antonio Luna launch counterattacks for the first time against the American forces during the Philippine–American War. The Filipinos fail to regain Manila from the Americans.
1848 The French Revolution of 1848, which would lead to the establishment of the French Second Republic, begins.
1847 Mexican–American War: The Battle of Buena Vista – 5,000 American troops defeat 15,000 Mexicans.
1821 Greek War of Independence: Alexander Ypsilantis crosses the Prut river at Sculeni into the Danubian Principalities.
1819 By the Adams–Onís Treaty, Spain sells Florida to the United States for five million US dollars.
1797 The Last Invasion of Britain begins near Fishguard, Wales.
1744 War of the Austrian Succession: The Battle of Toulon begins.
______________________________
Satoshi Ashikaga is a member of the TRANSCEND Network for Peace, Development and Environment originally from Japan.
(Sources and references: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/February_16 to February_22; http://www.brainyhistory.com/days/february_16.html to February_15; http://www.historyorb.com/events/february/16 to February/22; and other relevant websites and/or documents, mentioned above.)
This article originally appeared on Transcend Media Service (TMS) on 16 Feb 2015.
Anticopyright: Editorials and articles originated on TMS may be freely reprinted, disseminated, translated and used as background material, provided an acknowledgement and link to the source, TMS: This Week in History, is included. Thank you.
If you enjoyed this article, please donate to TMS to join the growing list of TMS Supporters.
This work is licensed under a CC BY-NC 4.0 License.