This Week in History

HISTORY, 13 Jul 2015

Satoshi Ashikaga – TRANSCEND Media Service

July 13 -19

QUOTE OF THE WEEK:

“Character cannot be developed in ease and quiet. Only through experience of trial and suffering can the soul be strengthened, ambition inspired, and success achieved.” – Helen Keller

JULY 13

2008  Battle of Wanat begins when Taliban & al-Qaeda guerrillas attack US Army & Afghan National Army troops in Afghanistan. The U.S. deaths were, at that time, the most in a single battle since the beginning of operations in 2001.

2003  French DGSE personnel abort an operation to rescue Íngrid Betancourt from FARC rebels in Colombia, causing a political scandal when details are leaked to the press.

1985  The Live Aid benefit concert takes place in London, England, United Kingdom and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, as well as other venues such as Sydney, Australia and Moscow, Russia, Soviet Union.

1980  USSR performs nuclear test at Eastern Kazakh/Semipalitinsk USSR.

Health, and Ecological Issues in Kazakhstan/Semipalatinsk:

1977  Somalia declares war on Ethiopia, starting the Ethiopian-Somali War.

1973  Alexander Butterfield reveals the existence of the “Nixon tapes” to the special Senate committee investigating the Watergate break in.

1962  US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site.

Ecological and Health Issues in and around the Nevada Test Site:

1942  5,000 Jews of Rovno Polish Ukraine, executed by Nazis.

1941  World War II: Montenegrins begin a popular uprising against the Axis powers (Trinaestojulski ustanak).

1919  The British airship R34 lands in Norfolk, England, completing the first airship return journey across the Atlantic in 182 hours of flight.

1905  The verdict in the six-month-long Smarthavicharam trial of Kuriyedath Thathri is pronounced, leading to the excommunication of 65 men of various castes.

1878  Treaty of Berlin: The European powers redraw the map of the Balkans. Serbia, Montenegro and Romania become completely independent of the Ottoman Empire.

1854  In the Battle of Guaymas, Mexico, General José María Yáñez stops the French invasion led by Count Gaston de Raousset-Boulbon.

 

 

JULY 14

2003  In an effort to discredit U.S. Ambassador Joseph C. Wilson, who had written an article critical of the 2003 invasion of Iraq, Washington Post columnist Robert Novak reveals that Wilson’s wife Valerie Plame is a CIA “operative”.

2002  French President Jacques Chirac escapes an assassination attempt unscathed during Bastille Day celebrations.

2000  A powerful solar flare, later named the Bastille Day event, causes a geomagnetic storm on Earth.

1992  386BSD is released by Lynne Jolitz and William Jolitz beginning the Open Source Operating System Revolution. Linus Torvalds releases his Linux soon afterwards.

1984  USSR performs nuclear test at Eastern Kazakh/Semipalitinsk USSR.

1979  USSR performs nuclear test.

1976  Capital punishment is abolished in Canada.

1972  USSR performs underground nuclear test.

1969  The United States $500, $1,000, $5,000 and $10,000 bills are officially withdrawn from circulation.

1962  US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site.

1958  Iraqi Revolution: In Iraq the monarchy is overthrown by popular forces led by Abdul Karim Kassem, who becomes the nation’s new leader.

1957  Rawya Ateya takes her seat in the National Assembly of Egypt, thereby becoming the first female parliamentarian in the Arab world.

1950  Korean War: North Korean troops initiate the Battle of Taejon.

1948  Palmiro Togliatti, leader of the Italian Communist Party, is shot and wounded near the Italian Parliament.

1944  US assault on Coutances Cotentin.

1943  In Diamond, Missouri, the George Washington Carver National Monument becomes the first United States National Monument in honor of an African American.

1933  The Nazi eugenics begins with the proclamation of the Law for the Prevention of Hereditarily Diseased Offspring that calls for the compulsory sterilization of any citizen who suffers from alleged genetic disorders.

1933  Gleichschaltung: In Germany, all political parties are outlawed except the Nazi Party.

1928  New Vietnam Revolutionary Party is founded in Huế amid providing some of the communist party‘s most important leaders in its early years.

1916  Start of the Battle of Delville Wood as an action within the Battle of the Somme, which was to last until 3 September 1916.

1900  Armies of the Eight-Nation Alliance capture Tientsin during the Boxer Rebellion.

1881  Billy the Kid is shot and killed by Pat Garrett outside Fort Sumner.

1874  The Chicago Fire of 1874 burns down 47 acres of the city, destroying 812 buildings, killing 20, and resulting in the fire insurance industry demanding municipal reforms from Chicago’s city council.

 

 

JULY 15

2014  Mohammed Zakari, a leader of Islamist militant group Boko Haram, has been arrested by Nigerian police; Boko Haram is implicated in hundreds of deaths and kidnappings, and Zakari is wanted for the recent killings of seven people.

2006  Twitter is launched, becoming one of the largest social media platforms in the world.

2003  AOL Time Warner disbands Netscape. The Mozilla Foundation is established on the same day

2002  Anti-Terrorism Court of Pakistan hands down the death sentence to British born Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh and life terms to three others suspected of murdering The Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl.

2002  “American Taliban” John Walker Lindh pleads guilty to supplying aid to the enemy and to possession of explosives during the commission of a felony.

1991  US troops leave northern Iraq.

1979  US President Jimmy Carter gives his so-called malaise speech, where he characterizes the greatest threat to the country as “this crisis in the growing doubt about the meaning of our own lives and in the loss of a unity of purpose for our nation” but in which he never uses the word malaise.

1975  Space Race: Apollo–Soyuz Test Project features the dual launch of an Apollo spacecraft and a Soyuz spacecraft on the first joint Soviet-United States human-crewed flight. It was both the last launch of an Apollo spacecraft, and the Saturn family of rockets.

1974  In Nicosia, Cyprus, Greek Junta-sponsored nationalists launch a coup d’état, deposing President Makarios and installing Nikos Sampson as Cypriot president.

1971  The United Red Army is founded in Japan.

1967  USSR performs nuclear test at Eastern Kazakh/Semipalitinsk USSR.

1966  Vietnam War: The United States and South Vietnam begin Operation Hastings to push the North Vietnamese out of the Vietnamese Demilitarized Zone.

1957  US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site.

1955  Eighteen Nobel laureates sign the Mainau Declaration against nuclear weapons, later co-signed by thirty-four others.

1954  First flight of the Boeing 367-80, prototype for both the Boeing 707 and C-135 series.

1927  Massacre of July 15, 1927: Eighty-nine protesters are killed by the Austrian police in Vienna.

1922  Japanese Communist Party is established in Japan.

1920  The Polish Parliament establishes Silesian Voivodeship before the Polish-German plebiscite.

1918  World War I: The Second Battle of the Marne begins near the River Marne with a German attack.

1916  In Seattle, Washington, William Boeing and George Conrad Westervelt incorporate Pacific Aero Products (later renamed Boeing).

1910  – In his book Clinical Psychiatry, Emil Kraepelin gives a name to Alzheimer’s disease, naming it after his colleague Alois Alzheimer.

1838  Ralph Waldo Emerson delivers the Divinity School Address at Harvard Divinity School, discounting Biblical miracles and declaring Jesus a great man, but not God. The Protestant community reacts with outrage.

1834  The Spanish Inquisition is officially disbanded after nearly 356 years.

1815  Napoleonic Wars: Napoleon Bonaparte surrenders aboard HMS Bellerophon.

1799  The Rosetta Stone is found in the Egyptian village of Rosetta by French Captain Pierre-François Bouchard during Napoleon‘s Egyptian Campaign.

1789  Gilbert du Motier, marquis de Lafayette, is named by acclamation Colonel General of the new National Guard of Paris.

1741  Aleksei Chirikov sights land in Southeast Alaska. He sends men ashore in a longboat, making them the first Europeans to visit Alaska.

 

 

JULY 16

2014  The US adds new sanctions against Russia, prohibiting certain Russian international businesses from accessing US capital markets; the move extends previous sanctions targeting specific individuals and their companies.

2009  Industrial espionage by Chinese: “Dongfan Chung, a former engineer employed by Boeing and Rockwell International, was found guilty of economic espionage on this day. Chung, a Chinese born naturalized United States citizen was accused of giving secretive information about space shuttle technology to China.” – ThePeopleHistory.com

1999  John F. Kennedy, Jr., piloting a Piper Saratoga aircraft, dies when his plane crashes into the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Martha’s Vineyard. His wife Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy and sister-in-law Lauren Bessette are also killed.

1990  The Parliament of the Ukrainian SSR declares state sovereignty over the territory of the Ukrainian SSR.

1981  Mahathir Mohamad becomes Malaysia‘s 4th Prime Minister.

1979  Iraqi President Ahmed Hassan al-Bakr resigns and is replaced by Saddam Hussein.

1973  Watergate scandal: Former White House aide Alexander Butterfield informs the United States Senate that President Richard Nixon had secretly recorded potentially incriminating conversations.

1969  Apollo program: Apollo 11, the first mission to land astronauts on the Moon, is launched from the Kennedy Space Center at Cape Kennedy, Florida.

1965  outh Vietnamese Colonel Phạm Ngọc Thảo—an undetected communist spy—was hunted down and killed after being sentenced to death in absentia for a February 1965 coup attempt against Nguyễn Khánh.

1951  The Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger is published for the first time by Little, Brown and Company.

1950  Chaplain–Medic massacre: American POWs were massacred by North Korean Army.

1948  The storming of the cockpit of the Miss Macao passenger seaplane, operated by a subsidiary of the Cathay Pacific Airways, marks the first aircraft hijacking of a commercial plane.

1948  Following token resistance, the city of Nazareth, revered by Christians as the hometown of Jesus, capitulates to Israeli troops during Operation Dekel in the 1948 Arab–Israeli War.

1945  Manhattan Project: The Atomic Age begins when the United States successfully detonates a plutonium-based test nuclear weapon near Alamogordo, New Mexico.

1942  Holocaust: Vel’ d’Hiv Roundup (Rafle du Vel’ d’Hiv): The government of Vichy France orders the mass arrest of 13,152 Jews who are held at the Winter Velodrome in Paris before deportation to Auschwitz.

1931  Emperor Haile Selassie I signs the first constitution of Ethiopia.

1927  Augusto César Sandino leads a raid on U.S. Marines and Nicaraguan Guardia Nacional that had been sent to apprehend him in the village of Ocotal, but is repulsed by one of the first dive-bombing attacks in history.

1909  Persian Constitutional Revolution: Mohammad Ali Shah Qajar is forced out as Shah of Persia and is replaced by his son Ahmad Shah Qajar.

1809  The city of La Paz, in what is today Bolivia, declares its independence from the Spanish Crown during the La Paz revolution and forms the Junta Tuitiva, the first independent government in Spanish America, led by Pedro Domingo Murillo.

 

 

JULY 17

2014  Malaysia Airlines Flight 17, a Boeing 777, crashes near the border of Ukraine and Russia after being shot down. All 298 people on board are killed.

1998  A diplomatic conference adopts the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, establishing a permanent international court to prosecute individuals for genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes, and the crime of aggression.

Also visit This Week in History: July 1, 2002    The International Criminal Court is established to prosecute individuals for genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes, and the crime of aggression. (= The Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court comes into force.)

1998  Papua New Guinea earthquake: A tsunami triggered by an undersea earthquake destroys 10 villages in Papua New Guinea killing an estimated 3,183, leaving 2,000 more unaccounted for and thousands more homeless.

1996  TWA Flight 800: Off the coast of Long Island, New York, a Paris-bound TWA Boeing 747 explodes, killing all 230 on board.

1989  Holy See–Poland relations are restored.

1989  First flight of the B-2 Spirit Stealth Bomber.

1985  Founding of the EUREKA Network by former head of states François Mitterrand (France) and Helmut Kohl (Germany).

1981  USSR performs nuclear test at Eastern Kazakh/Semipalitinsk USSR.

1979  Nicaraguan dictator General Anastasio Somoza Debayle resigns and flees to Miami, Florida.

1976  The opening of the Summer Olympics in Montreal is marred by 25 African teams boycotting the New Zealand team. “Most sovereign African, and a few other, nations boycotted the Montreal Games when the International Olympic Committee (IOC) would not support, as had other international sporting organizations, the banning from competition of those countries whose athletes had participated in sporting events in South Africa as long as apartheid continued. The New Zealand rugby team had been touring South Africa during apartheid and were excluded from international sporting events due to implementation of the anti-apartheid policy.”

1976  East Timor is annexed, and becomes the 27th province of Indonesia.

1975  Apollo–Soyuz Test Project: An American Apollo and a Soviet Soyuz spacecraft dock with each other in orbit marking the first such link-up between spacecraft from the two nations.

1973  King Mohammed Zahir Shah of Afghanistan is deposed by his cousin Mohammed Daoud Khan while in Italy undergoing eye surgery.

1968  A revolution occurs in Iraq when Abdul Rahman Arif is overthrown and the Ba’ath Party is installed as the governing power in Iraq with Ahmed Hassan al-Bakr as the new Iraqi President.

1962  Nuclear weapons testing: The “Small Boy” test shot Little Feller I becomes the last atmospheric test detonation at the Nevada National Security Site.

1958  US performs atmospheric nuclear test at Enwetak.

1948  The South Korean constitution is proclaimed.

1945  World War II: The main three leaders of the Allied nations, Winston Churchill, Harry S. Truman and Joseph Stalin, meet in the German city of Potsdam to decide the future of a defeated Germany.

1944  World War II: Napalm incendiary bombs are dropped for the first time by American P-38 pilots on a fuel depot at Coutances, near Saint-Lô, France.

1936  Spanish Civil War: An Armed Forces rebellion against the recently elected leftist Popular Front government of Spain starts the civil war.

1932  Altona Bloody Sunday: A riot between the Nazi Party paramilitary forces, the SS and SA, and the German Communist Party ensues.

1918  Tsar Nicholas II of Russia and his immediate family and retainers are murdered by Bolshevik Chekists at the Ipatiev House in Yekaterinburg, Russia.

1899  NEC Corporation is organized as the first Japanese joint venture with foreign capital.

1896  Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi, the Indian sage, at age 16, spontaneously initiates a process of self-enquiry that culminates within a few minutes in his own permanent awakening.

1867  Harvard School of Dental Medicine is established in Boston, Massachusetts. It is the first dental school in the U.S. that is affiliated with a university.

1791  Members of the French National Guard under the command of General Lafayette open fire on a crowd of radical Jacobins at the Champ de Mars, Paris, during the French Revolution, killing as many as 50 people.

1771  Bloody Falls Massacre: Chipewyan chief Matonabbee, traveling as the guide to Samuel Hearne on his Arctic overland journey, massacres a group of unsuspecting Inuit.

1794  The sixteen Carmelite Martyrs of Compiègne are executed 10 days prior to the end of the French Revolution’s Reign of Terror.

 

 

JULY 18

2013  The Government of Detroit, with up to $20 billion in debt, files for the largest municipal bankruptcy in U.S. history.

2012  At least seven people are killed and 32 others are injured after a bomb explodes on an Israeli tour bus at Burgas Airport, Bulgaria.

1996  – Battle of Mullaitivu: the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam capture the Sri Lanka Army‘s base, killing over 1200 soldiers.

1995  Dreaming of You by Selena, released posthumously, became the best-selling Latin album in the United States. It was noted by Billboard magazine as a “historic event” for Latin music.

1994  Rwandan Genocide: The Rwandan Patriotic Front takes control of Gisenyi and north western Rwanda, forcing the interim government into Zaire and ending the genocide.

1994  The bombing of the Asociación Mutual Israelita Argentina (Argentine Jewish Community Center) in Buenos Aires kills 85 people (mostly Jewish) and injures 300.

1992  The ten victims of the La Cantuta massacre disappear from their university in Lima.

1984  McDonald’s massacre in San Ysidro, California: in a fast-food restaurant, James Oliver Huberty opens fire, killing 21 people and injuring 19 others before being shot dead by police.

1982  Two hundred sixty-eight campesinos (“peasants” or “country people”) are slain in the Plan de Sánchez massacre in Ríos Montt‘s Guatemala.

1968  Intel is founded in Mountain View, California.

1966  Human spaceflight: Gemini 10 is launched from Cape Kennedy on a 70-hour mission that includes docking with an orbiting Agena target vehicle.

1944  World War II: Hideki Tōjō resigns as Prime Minister of Japan because of numerous setbacks in the war effort.

1942  World War II: the Germans test fly the Messerschmitt Me 262 using its jet engines for the first time.

1936  An army uprising in Spanish Morocco starts Spanish Civil War.

1925  Adolf Hitler publishes his personal manifesto Mein Kampf.

1914  The U.S. Congress forms the Aviation Section, U.S. Signal Corps, giving official status to aircraft within the U.S. Army for the first time.

1870  The First Vatican Council decrees the dogma of papal infallibility.

1862  First ascent of Dent Blanche, one of the highest summits in the Alps.

1857  Louis Faidherbe, French governor of Senegal, arrives to relieve French forces at Kayes, effectively ending El Hajj Umar Tall‘s war against the French.

1841  Coronation of Emperor Pedro II of Brazil, on 18 July.

1812  The Treaties of Orebro ends both the Anglo-Russian and Anglo-Swedish Wars.

 

 

JULY 19

2001  Michael Brunet discovers the skull of Sahelanthropus tchadensis, thought to be the oldest known species in the human family tree, in the Djurab Desert, Chad. It lived 6-7 million years ago, about the same time as the last common ancestor to apes and humans.

1997  The Troubles: The Provisional Irish Republican Army resumes a ceasefire to end their 25-year campaign to end British rule in Northern Ireland.

1992  A car bomb placed by mafia with collaboration of Italian intelligence kills Judge Paolo Borsellino and five members of his escort

1983  The first three-dimensional reconstruction of a human head in a CT is published.

1981  In a private meeting with U.S. President Ronald Reagan, French Prime Minister François Mitterrand reveals the existence of the Farewell Dossier, a collection of documents showing that the Soviets had been stealing American technological research and development.

1979  The Sandinista rebels overthrow the government of the Somoza family in Nicaragua.

1976  Sagarmatha National Park in Nepal is created.

1972  Dhofar Rebellion: British SAS units help the Omani government against Popular Front for the Liberation of Oman rebels in the Battle of Mirbat.

1964  Vietnam War: at a rally in Saigon, South Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyễn Khánh calls for expanding the war into North Vietnam.

1964  USSR performs nuclear test at Eastern Kazakh/Semipalitinsk USSR.

1963  Joe Walker flies a North American X-15 to a record altitude of 106,010 meters (347,800 feet) on X-15 Flight 90. Exceeding an altitude of 100 km, this flight qualifies as a human spaceflight under international convention.

1961  Tunisia imposes a blockade on the French naval base at Bizerte; the French would capture the entire town four days later.

1957  US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site.

1947  Korean politician Lyuh Woon-hyung is assassinated.

1947  The Prime Minister of the shadow Burmese government, Bogyoke Aung San and 6 of his cabinet and 2 non-cabinet members are assassinated by Galon U Saw.

1943  World War II: Rome is heavily bombed by more than 500 Allied aircraft, inflicting thousands of casualties.

1942  World War II: Battle of the Atlantic – German Grand Admiral Karl Dönitz orders the last U-boats to withdraw from their United States Atlantic coast positions in response to the effective American convoy system.

1940  World War II: Army order 112 forms the Intelligence Corps of the British Army.

1940  Field Marshal Ceremony: First occasion in World War II, that Hitler appointed field marshals due to military achievements.

1940  World War II: Battle of Cape Spada – The Royal Navy and the Regia Marina clash; the Italian light cruiser Bartolomeo Colleoni sinks, with 121 casualties.

1919  Following Peace Day celebrations marking the end of World War I, ex-servicemen riot and burn down Luton Town Hall.

1916  World War I: Battle of Fromelles – British and Australian troops attack German trenches in a prelude to the Battle of the Somme.

1870  Franco-Prussian War: France declares war on Prussia.

1864  Taiping Rebellion: Third Battle of Nanking – The Qing dynasty finally defeats the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom.

1848  Women’s rights: a two-day Women’s Rights Convention opens in Seneca Falls, New York.

1702  Great Northern War: A numerically superior Polish-Saxon army of Augustus II the Strong, operating from an advantageous defensive position, is defeated by a Swedish army half its size under the command of King Charles XII in the Battle of Klissow.

______________________________

Satoshi Ashikaga, having worked as researcher, development program/project officer, legal protection/humanitarian assistance officer, human rights monitor-negotiator, managing-editor, and more, prefers a peaceful and prudent life, especially that in communion with nature.  His previous work-experiences, including those in war-zones and war-torn zones, remind him of the invaluableness of peace.  His interest and/or expertise includes international affairs, international law, jurisprudence, economic and business affairs, project/operations or organizational management, geography, history, the environmental/ecological issues, visual/audio documentation of nature and culture, and more. Being a member of the TRANSCEND Network for Peace, Development and Environment, he is currently compiling This Week in History on TMS.

(Sources and references: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/July_13   to 19; http://www.historyorb.com/events/july/13 to 19; http://www.brainyhistory.com/days/july_13.html to 19.html; and other pertinent web sites and/or documents, mentioned above.)

  1. The views expressed in the cited or quoted websites and/or documents in this article do not necessarily reflect those of the author of this article. These websites and/or documents are cited or quoted for academic or educational purposes. Neither the author of this article nor the Transcend Media Service (TMS) is responsible for the contents, information, or whatsoever contained in these websites and/or documents.
  2. One of the primary purposes of this article is to provide the readers with opportunities to think about “peace”, including positive peace and negative peace as well as external/outer peace and internal/inner peace, and more, directly or indirectly, from various angles and/or in the broadest sense, through historical events. It is because this article is prepared specifically for the TMS whose main objective is to address “peace” through peace journalism.

This article originally appeared on Transcend Media Service (TMS) on 13 Jul 2015.

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