This Week in History

HISTORY, 12 Oct 2015

Satoshi Ashikaga – TRANSCEND Media Service

TWH logo history

October 12–18

QUOTE OF THE WEEK:

“For me, it is far better to grasp the Universe as it really is than to persist in delusion, however satisfying and reassuring.” – Carl Sagan

OCTOBER 12

2005  The second Chinese human spaceflight Shenzhou 6 launched carrying Fèi Jùnlóng and Niè Hǎishèng for five days in orbit.

2002  Terrorists detonate bombs in the Sari Club in Kuta, Bali, killing 202 and wounding over 300.

2000  The USS Cole is badly damaged in Aden, Yemen, by two suicide bombers, killing 17 crew members and wounding at least 39.

1999  The former Autonomous Soviet Republic of Abkhazia declares its independence from Georgia

1999  Pervez Musharraf takes power in Pakistan from Nawaz Sharif through a bloodless coup.

1997  Sidi Daoud massacre in Algeria that killed 43 at a fake roadblock.

Sidi Daoud massacre:

Algeria:

Foreign Relations of Algeria:

Algeria and the United Nations:

History of Algeria:

Economy of Algeria:

1992  “1992 Cairo earthquake”, Egypt. At least 510 died.

1991  Askar Akayev, previously chosen President of Kyrgyzstan by republic’s Supreme Soviet, is confirmed president in an uncontested poll.

1988  Birchandra Manu massacre in Tripura, India

1988  Jaffna University Helidrop: Commandos of Indian Peace Keeping Force raided the Jaffna University campus to capture the LTTE chief and walked into a trap.

1986  Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom and Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh visit the People’s Republic of China

1985  US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site.

1984  Brighton hotel bombing: The Provisional Irish Republican Army attempt to assassinate Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and her cabinet. Thatcher escapes but the bomb kills five people and wounds 31.

1973  Japan’s former Prime Minister Tanaka Kakuei is found guilty of taking a $2 million bribe from Lockheed and is sentenced to four years in jail.

1979  The lowest recorded non-tornadic atmospheric pressure, 87.0 kPa (870 mbar or 25.69 inHg), occurred in the Western Pacific during Typhoon Tip.

1979  The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, the first of five books in the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy comedy science fiction series by Douglas Adams is published

1970  Vietnam War: US President Richard Nixon announces that the United States will withdraw 40,000 more troops before Christmas

1968  Equatorial Guinea becomes independent from Spain

Equatorial Guinea:

Foreign Relations of Equatorial Guinea:

History of Equatorial Guinea:

Economy of Equatorial Guinea:

1967  Vietnam War: US Secretary of State Dean Rusk states during a news conference that proposals by the US Congress for peace initiatives are futile because of North Vietnam‘s opposition.

OCT 12, 1967: ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY: Dean Rusk criticizes Congress while fighting continues in South Vietnam – History.com

Viet Nam War and Pertinent Events:

Vietnam War Peace Talks/Negotiations:

For and Anti-Vietnam War Movements:

1964  The Soviet Union launches the Voskhod 1 into Earth orbit as the first spacecraft with a multi-person crew and the first flight without space suits

1963  After nearly 23 years of imprisonment, Reverend Walter Ciszek, a Jesuit missionary, was released from the Soviet Union.

1962  US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site.

See “1985 US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site”, mentioned above.

1961  USSR performs nuclear test at Eastern Kazakh/Semipalitinsk USSR.

1960  Television viewers in Japan unexpectedly witness the assassination of Inejiro Asanuma, leader of the Japan Socialist Party, when he is stabbed and killed during a live broadcast.

1960  Cold War: Nikita Khrushchev pounds his shoe on a desk at United Nations General Assembly meeting to protest a Philippine assertion of Soviet Union colonial policy being conducted in Eastern Europe

1959  At the national congress of APRA in Peru a group of leftist radicals are expelled from the party. They will later form APRA Rebelde.

1958  USSR performs nuclear test at Novaya Zemlya USSR.

1945  World War II: Desmond Doss is the first conscientious objector to receive the US Medal of Honor.

Conscientious Objection and Objector:

History of Conscientious Objection:

“Conscientious Objection”? : A Case of an Official’s Religious Belief against the Same Sex Marriage:

1944  World War II: The Liberation of Athens from the German invaders.

Liberation of Athens from German Occupations:

Photographs and videos on the Liberation of Athens from the German Occupation:

1942  World War II: Japanese ships retreat after their defeat in the Battle of Cape Esperance with the Japanese commander, Aritomo Gotō dying from wounds suffered in the battle and two Japanese destroyers sunk by Allied air attack.

1928  An iron lung respirator is used for the first time at Children’s Hospital, Boston

1917  World War I: The First Battle of Passchendaele takes place resulting in the largest single day loss of life in New Zealand history.

1915  World War I: British nurse Edith Cavell is executed by a German firing squad for helping Allied soldiers escape from Belgium

1890  Uddevalla Suffrage Association is formed.

1871  Criminal Tribes Act (CTA) enacted by British rule in India, which named over 160 local communities ‘Criminal Tribes‘, i.e. hereditary criminals. Repealed in 1949, after Independence of India.

1823  Charles Macintosh of Scotland sells the first raincoat.

1822  Pedro I of Brazil is proclaimed the emperor of the Empire of Brazil.

Empire of Brazil:

 

 

OCTOBER 13

2013  A stampede breaks out on a bridge near the Ratangarh Mata Temple in Datia district, Madhya Pradesh, India during the Hindu festival Navratri, killing 115 people and injuring more than 110.

2010  The 2010 Copiapó mining accident in Copiapó, Chile comes to an end as all 33 miners arrive at the surface after surviving a record 69 days underground awaiting rescue.

1992  An Antonov An-124 operated by Antonov Airlines registered CCCP-82002, crashes near Kiev, Ukraine killing 8.

1990  End of the Lebanese Civil War. Syrian forces launch an attack on the free areas of Lebanon removing General Michel Aoun from the presidential palace.

Lebanese Civil War:

October 13 Massacre:

Taif Agreement of 1989 and Lebanon-Syria Treaty of 1991:

A Few Pertinent UN Resolutions, among Many Others:

Special Tribunal for Lebanon:

For some more information on other international and/or hybrid courts or tribunals, see “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.).”

Lebanon:

Foreign Relations of Lebanon:

History of Lebanon:

Economy of Lebanon:

1988  US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site.

1983  Ameritech Mobile Communications (now AT&T Inc.) launched the first US cellular network in Chicago.

1977  Four Palestinians hijack Lufthansa Flight 181 to Somalia and demand release of 11 members of the Red Army Faction.

1976  The first electron micrograph of an Ebola viral particle is obtained by Dr. F.A. Murphy, now at UC Davis, who was then working at the C.D.C.

1976  A Bolivian Boeing 707 cargo jet crashes in Santa Cruz, Bolivia, killing 100 (97, mostly children, killed on the ground).

1972  Uruguayan Air Force Flight 571 crashes in the Andes mountains, near the border between Argentina and Chile. By December 23, 1972, only 16 out of 45 people lived long enough to be rescued.

1972  An Aeroflot Ilyushin Il-62 crashes outside Moscow killing 174.

1970  Fiji joins the United Nations.

Fiji:

Foreign Relations of Fiji:

Fiji and the United Nations:

History of Fiji:

Economy of Fiji:

1970  USSR performs nuclear test at Sary Shagan, USSR.

1946  France adopts the constitution of the Fourth Republic.

Fourth Republic and the Constitution:

1944  World War II: Riga, the capital of Latvia is occupied by the Red Army.

Occupation of Latvia and Its Relevant History:

Latvia:

Foreign Relations of Latvia:

History of Latvia:

Economy of Latvia:

1943  World War II: The new government of Italy sides with the Allies and declares war on Germany.

1923  Ankara replaces Istanbul as the capital of Turkey.

1921  The Soviet republics of Russia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Georgia sign the Treaty of Kars with the Grand National Assembly of Turkey to establish the contemporary borders between Turkey and the South Caucasus states.

Treaty of Kars:

1918  Mehmed Talat Pasha and the Young Turk (C.U.P.) ministry resign and sign an armistice, ending Ottoman participation in World War I.

1917  The “Miracle of the Sun” is witnessed by an estimated 70,000 people in the Cova da Iria in Fátima, Portugal.

Miracle of the Sun in Fátima:

1915  The Battle of the Hohenzollern Redoubt marks the end of the Battle of Loos in northern France, World War I.

1892  Edward Emerson Barnard discovers D/1892 T1, the first comet discovered by photographic means, on the night of October 13–14.

1884  Greenwich, in London, England, is established as Universal Time meridian of longitude.

1881  First known conversation in modern Hebrew by Eliezer Ben-Yehuda and friends.

1843  In New York City, Henry Jones and 11 others found B’nai B’rith (the oldest Jewish service organization in the world).

1812  War of 1812: Battle of Queenston Heights – As part of the Niagara campaign in Ontario, Canada, United States forces under General Stephen Van Rensselaer are repulsed from invading Canada by British and native troops led by Sir Isaac Brock.

1773  The Whirlpool Galaxy is discovered by Charles Messier.

1710  Port Royal, the capital of French Acadia, falls in a siege by British forces.

 

 

OCTOBER 14

2014  A snowstorm and avalanche in the Nepalese Himalayas triggered by the remnants of Cyclone Hudhud kills 43 people.

2012  20 people are gunned down in a mosque in Dogo Dawa, Nigeria.

Nigeria:

Economy of Nigeria:

History of Nigeria:

1994  The Palestinian leader, Yasser Arafat, The Prime Minister of Israel, Yitzhak Rabin, and the Foreign Minister of Israel, Shimon Peres, receive the Nobel Peace Prize for their role in the establishment of the Oslo Accords and the framing of the future Palestinian Self Government.

Oslo Accords:

1991  The Norwegian Nobel Committee decides to award the Nobel Peace Prize for 1991 to Aung San Suu Kyi of Myanmar (Burma) for her non-violent struggle for democracy and human rights.

1983  Maurice Bishop, Prime Minister of Grenada, is overthrown and later executed in a military coup d’état led by Bernard Coard.

1982  US President Ronald Reagan proclaims a War on Drugs.

War on Drugs:

1981  Vice President Hosni Mubarak is elected as the President of Egypt one week after the assassination of the President of Egypt, Anwar Sadat. Vice President Hosni Mubarak is elected as the President of Egypt one week after the assassination of the President of Egypt, Anwar Sadat.

Hosni Mubarak:

Hosni Mubarak’s Regime:

Political Unrest of Egypt in January 2011:

1979  The first Gay Rights March on Washington, DC, the National March on Washington for Lesbian and Gay Rights, demands “an end to all social, economic, judicial, and legal oppression of lesbian and gay people”, and draws 200,000 people.

LGBT Rights:

1976  The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences decides to award the 1976 Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel to Professor Milton Friedman, University of Chicago, Illinois, USA.

1973  In the Thammasat student uprising over 100,000 people protest in Thailand against the Thanom military government, 77 are killed and 857 are injured by soldiers.

1970  USSR performs nuclear test at Novaya Zemlya USSR.

1970  US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site.

1969  USSR performs nuclear test at Novaya Zemlya USSR.

For some more pertinent information, see “1970 USSR performs nuclear test at Novaya Zemlya USSR”, mentioned above.

1968  Jim Hines of the United States of America becomes the first man ever to break the so-called “ten-second barrier” in the 100-meter sprint in the Summer Olympic Games held in Mexico City with a time of 9.95 seconds.

1968  Apollo program: The first live TV broadcast, by American astronauts in orbit, was performed by the Apollo 7 crew.

1968  Vietnam War: The United States Department of Defense announces that the US Army and US Marine Corps will send about 24,000 soldiers and Marines back to Vietnam for involuntary second tours of duty in the combat zone there.

1968  Vietnam War: Twenty-seven soldiers are arrested at the Presidio of San Francisco in California for their peaceful protest of stockade conditions and the Vietnam War.

Anti-Viet Nam War Movement or Opposition to United States involvement in the Vietnam War:

1964  Leonid Brezhnev becomes the General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, and thereby, along with his allies, such as Alexei Kosygin, the leader of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR), ousting the former monolithic leader Nikita Khrushchev, and sending him into retirement as a nonperson in the USSR.

Leonid Brezhnev

1964  Martin Luther King, Jr receives the Nobel Peace Prize for combating racial inequality through nonviolence.

1962  USSR performs nuclear test at Eastern Kazakh/Semipalitinsk USSR.

1962  The Cuban Missile Crisis begins: A US Air Force U-2 reconnaissance plane and its pilot fly over the island of Cuba and take photographs of Soviet missiles capable of carrying nuclear warheads being installed and erected in Cuba.

Cuban Missile Crisis:

Timeline of the Cuban Missile Crisis:

1958  US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site.

For some more pertinent information, see “1970 US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site”, mentioned above.

1958  The American Atomic Energy Commission, with supporting military units, carries out an underground nuclear weapon test at the Nevada Test Site, just north of Las Vegas.

Nuclear Weapons and the United States:

Atomic Energy Commission of the United States:

History of the Atomic Energy Commission of the United States:

Nevada Test Site:

1956  Dr B R Ambedkar, the Indian Untouchable caste leader, converts to Buddhism along with 385,000 of his followers (see Neo-Buddhism).

Battle of Triangle Hill:

1952  Korean War: United Nations and South Korean forces launch Operation Showdown against Chinese strongholds at the Iron Triangle. The resulting Battle of Triangle Hill is the biggest and bloodiest battle of 1952.

Battle of Triangle Hill:

1949  Chinese Civil War: Chinese Communist forces occupy the city of Guangzhou (Canton), in Guangdong, China.

1949  Eleven leaders of the American Communist Party are convicted, after a nine-month trial in a Federal District Court, of conspiring to advocate the violent overthrow of the US Federal Government.

1947  Captain Chuck Yeager of the United States Air Force flies a Bell X-1 rocket-powered experimental aircraft, the Glamorous Glennis, faster than the speed of sound over the high desert of Southern California and becomes the first pilot and the first airplane to do so in level flight.

1944  Linked to a plot to assassinate Adolf Hitler, Field Marshal Erwin Rommel is forced to commit suicide.

1944  World War II: Athens, Greece, is liberated by British Army troops entering the city as the Wehrmacht pulls out. This clears the way for the Greek government-in-exile to return to its historic capital city, with George Papandreou, Sr., as the head of government.

1943  World War II: The American Eighth Air Force loses 60 B-17 Flying Fortress heavy bombers in aerial combat during the second mass-daylight air raid on the Schweinfurt ball bearing factories in western Nazi Germany.

1943  Prisoners at the Nazi German Sobibór extermination camp in Poland revolt against the Germans, killing eleven SS guards, and wounding many more. About 300 of the Sobibor Camp’s 600 prisoners escape, and about 50 of these survive the end of the war.

Sobibór Extermination Camp:

1939  The German submarine U-47 sinks the British battleship HMS Royal Oak within her harbour at Scapa Flow, Scotland.

1933  Nazi Germany withdraws from the League of Nations.

League of Nations:

Covenant of the League of Nations:

1925  An Anti-French uprising in French-occupied Damascus, Syria. (All French inhabitants flee the city.)

1920  Part of Petsamo Province is ceded by the Soviet Union to Finland.

1915  World War I: The Kingdom of Bulgaria joins the Central Powers.

1808  The Republic of Ragusa is annexed by France.

1806  Battle of Jena–Auerstedt France defeats Prussia.

1805  Battle of Elchingen, France defeats Austria.

 

 

OCTOBER 15

2013  A 7 point 2-magnitude earthquake strikes the Philippines, resulting in more than 215 deaths.

2011  Global protests break out in 120 cities in 48 countries.

Global Protests and/or Occupy Movement on Saturday, October 15, 2011 and Beyond:

2008  The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed down 733.08 points, or 7.87%, the second worst day in the Dow’s history based on a percentage drop.

2007  Seventeen activists in New Zealand are arrested in the country’s first post 9/11 anti-terrorism raids.

2005  A riot in Toledo, Ohio breaks out during a National Socialist/Neo-Nazi protest; over 100 are arrested.

2003  China launches Shenzhou 5, its first manned space mission.

2001  NASA‘s Galileo spacecraft passes within 112 miles of Jupiter‘s moon Io.

1997  The Cassini probe launches from Cape Canaveral on its way to Saturn.

1997  The first supersonic land speed record is set by Andy Green in ThrustSSC (United Kingdom), exactly 50 years and one day after Chuck Yeager first broke the sound barrier in the Earth’s atmosphere.

1993  The Norwegian Nobel Committee decides to award the Nobel Peace Prize for 1993 to Nelson R. Mandela and Frederik Willem de Klerk for their work for the peaceful termination of the apartheid regime, and for laying the foundations for a new democratic South Africa.

1990  Soviet Union leader Mikhail Gorbachev is awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts to lessen Cold War tensions and open up his nation.

1987  The Great Storm of 1987 hits France and England.

1985  The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences decides to award the l985 Alfred Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences to Professor Franco Modigliani, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA,

1979  Black Monday in Malta. The Building of the Times of Malta, the residence of the opposition leader Eddie Fenech Adami and several Nationalist Party clubs are ransacked and destroyed by supporters of the Malta Labour Party.

1978  USSR performs nuclear test at Eastern Kazakh/Semipalitinsk USSR.

1971  The start of the 2500-year celebration of Iran, celebrating the birth of Persia.

1970  Thirty-five construction workers are killed when a section of the new West Gate Bridge in Melbourne collapses.

1969  Vietnam War; The Moratorium to End the War in Vietnam is held in Washington D.C. and across the US. Over two million demonstrate nationally; about 250,000 in Washington D.C..

1966  The Black Panther Party is created by Huey P. Newton and Bobby Seale.

1965  Vietnam War: The Catholic Worker Movement stages an anti-war rally in Manhattan including a public burning of a draft card; the first such act to result in arrest under a new amendment to the Selective Service Act.

Catholic Worker Movement and the Viet Nam War:

Anti-Viet Nam War Movement:

1958  USSR performs nuclear test at Novaya Zemlya USSR.

1956  Fortran, the first modern computer language, is shared with the coding community for the first time.

1953  British nuclear test Totem 1 is detonated at Emu Field, South Australia.

1951  The first episode of I Love Lucy, an American television sitcom starring Lucille Ball, Desi Arnaz, Vivian Vance, and William Frawley, airs on the Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS).

1951  Mexican chemist Luis E. Miramontes conducts the very last step of the first synthesis of norethisterone, the progestin that would later be used in one of the first three oral contraceptives.

1945  World War II: The former premier of Vichy France Pierre Laval is shot by a firing squad for treason.

1944  The Arrow Cross Party (very similar to Hitler’s NSDAP (Nazi party)) takes power in Hungary.

German Occupation of Hungary and the Arrow Cross Party:

1940  The President of Catalonia, Lluís Companys, is executed by the Spanish dictatorship of Francisco Franco, making him the only European president to have been executed.

1934  The Soviet Republic of China collapses when Chiang Kai-shek‘s National Revolutionary Army successfully encircles Ruijin, forcing the fleeing Communists to begin the Long March.

1932  Tata Airlines (later to become Air India) makes its first flight.

1928  The airship, Graf Zeppelin completes its first trans-Atlantic flight, landing at Lakehurst, New Jersey, United States.

1923  The German Rentenmark is introduced in Germany to counter hyperinflation in the Weimar Republic.

1917  World War I: At Vincennes outside Paris, Dutch dancer Mata Hari is executed by firing squad for spying for the German Empire.

1910  Airship America is launched from New Jersey in the first attempt to cross the Atlantic by a powered aircraft.

1904  The Russian Baltic Fleet leaves Reval, Estonia for Port Arthur during the Russo-Japanese War.

1894  The Dreyfus affair: Alfred Dreyfus is arrested for spying.

1888  The “From Hell” letter sent by Jack the Ripper is received by investigators.

1880  Mexican soldiers kill Victorio, one of the greatest Apache military strategists.

1878  The Edison Electric Light Company begins operation.

1815  Napoleon I of France begins his exile on Saint Helena in the Atlantic Ocean.

1793  Queen Marie-Antoinette of France is tried and convicted in a swift, pre-determined trial in the Palais de Justice, Paris, and condemned to death the following day.

 

 

OCTOBER 16

2012  The extrasolar planet Alpha Centauri Bb is discovered.

Alpha Centauri Bb:

2002  Bibliotheca Alexandrina in the Egyptian city of Alexandria, a commemoration of the Library of Alexandria that was lost in antiquity, is officially inaugurated.

Library of Alexandria:

Hypatia of Alexandria:

1998  Former Chilean dictator General Augusto Pinochet is arrested in London on a warrant from Spain requesting his extradition on murder charges.

1996  Eighty-four people are killed and more than 180 injured as 47,000 football fans attempt to squeeze into the 36,000-seat Estadio Mateo Flores in Guatemala City.

1995  The Skye Bridge is opened.

1995  The Million Man March occurs in Washington, D.C.

1993  Anti-Nazism riot breaks out in Welling in Kent, after police stop protesters approaching the British National Party headquarters.

1987  USSR performs nuclear test at Eastern Kazakh/Semipalitinsk USSR.

1986  Reinhold Messner becomes the first person to summit all 14 Eight-thousanders.

1986  US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site.

1984  Desmond Tutu is awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

Desmond Tutu:

1982  USSR performs underground nuclear test.

USSR’s Nuclear Weapons Tests:

Effect and/or Impact of Nuclear Weapons Tests:

Underground Nuclear Tests:

1978  Wanda Rutkiewicz is the first Pole and the first European woman to reach the summit of Mount Everest.

1978  Karol Wojtyla is elected Pope John Paul II after the October 1978 Papal conclave, the first non-Italian pontiff since 1523.

Karol Wojtyla or Pope John Paul II:

1975  Rahima Banu, a two-year-old girl from the village of Kuralia in Bangladesh, is the last known person to be infected with naturally occurring smallpox.

1975  The Balibo Five, a group of Australian-based television journalists based in the town of Balibo in the then Portuguese Timor (now East Timor), are killed by Indonesian troops.

1973  Henry Kissinger and Lê Đức Thọ are awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

1970  In response to the October Crisis terrorist kidnapping, Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau of Canada invokes the War Measures Act.

1968  Yasunari Kawabata becomes the first Japanese person to be awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature.

1964  Soviet leaders Leonid Brezhnev and Alexei Kosygin are inaugurated as General Secretary of the CPSU and Premier, respectively and the collective leadership is established.

1964  China detonates its first nuclear weapon.

China’s Nuclear Weapon Programs:

1958  US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site.

For some more pertinent information, see “1986 US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site”, mentioned above.

1951  The first Prime Minister of Pakistan, Liaquat Ali Khan, is assassinated in Rawalpindi.

1949  The diplomatic relations between the Soviet Union and the German Democratic Republic are established.

East Germany and the Soviet Union:

East Germany during the Cold War Era:

1949  Nikolaos Zachariadis, leader of the Communist Party of Greece, announces a “temporary cease-fire”, effectively ending the Greek Civil War.

1946  Nuremberg Trials: Execution of the convicted Nazi leaders of the Main Trial.

Judgements of 1 October 1946:

Nuremberg Military Tribunal:

1945  The Food and Agriculture Organization is founded in Quebec City, Canada.

1943  Holocaust: Raid of the Ghetto of Rome

Jewish People in Rome:

1940  Holocaust: The Warsaw Ghetto is established.

Warsaw Ghetto:

1939  World War II: First attack on British territory by the German Luftwaffe.

1934  Chinese Communists begin the Long March; it ended a year and four days later, by which time Mao Zedong had regained his title as party chairman.

1923  The Walt Disney Company is founded by Walt Disney and his brother, Roy Disney.

1916  In Brooklyn, New York, Margaret Sanger opens the first family planning clinic in the United States.

1909  William Howard Taft and Porfirio Díaz hold a summit, a first between a US and a Mexican president, and they only narrowly escape assassination.

1906  The Captain of Köpenick fools the city hall of Köpenick and several soldiers by impersonating a Prussian officer.

1905  The Partition of Bengal in India takes place.

1882  The Nickel Plate Railroad opens for business.

1875  Brigham Young University is founded in Provo, Utah.

1869  Girton College, Cambridge is founded, becoming England’s first residential college for women.

1869  The Cardiff Giant, one of the most famous American hoaxes, is “discovered”.

1846  William T. G. Morton first demonstrated ether anesthesia at the Massachusetts General Hospital in the Ether Dome.

1843  Sir William Rowan Hamilton comes up with the idea of quaternions, a non-commutative extension of complex numbers.

1813  The Sixth Coalition attacks Napoleon Bonaparte in the Battle of Leipzig.

1793  The Battle of Wattignies ends in a French victory.

1793  Marie Antoinette, widow of Louis XVI, is guillotined at the height of the French Revolution.

Marie Antoinette:

French Revolution:

A Case Study on Nonviolence: Nonviolence Revolutions vs. the French Revolution:

OCTOBER 17

2003  The pinnacle is fitted on the roof of Taipei 101, a 101-floor skyscraper in Taipei, allowing it to surpass the Petronas Twin Towers in Kuala Lumpur by 56 metres (184 ft) and become the world’s tallest highrise.

2001  Israeli tourism minister Rehavam Ze’evi becomes the first Israeli minister to be assassinated in a terrorist attack.

2000  Train crash at Hatfield, north of London, leading to collapse of Railtrack.

1994  Russian journalist Dmitry Kholodov is assassinated while investigating corruption in the armed forces.

1989  1989 Loma Prieta earthquake (7.1 on the Richter scale) hits the San Francisco Bay Area and causes 57 deaths directly (and 6 indirectly).

1982  USSR performs nuclear test at Novaya Zemlya USSR.

1980  As part of the Holy See–United Kingdom relations a British monarch makes the first state visit to the Vatican.

1979  The Department of Education Organization Act is signed into law creating the US Department of Education and US Department of Health and Human Services.

1979  Mother Teresa is awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

Mother Teresa and Her Biography:

Controversies:

1978  USSR performs underground nuclear test.

USSR’s Nuclear Weapons Tests:

Effect and/or Impact of Nuclear Weapons Tests:

Underground Nuclear Tests:

1977  German Autumn: Four days after it is hijacked, Lufthansa Flight 181 lands in Mogadishu, Somalia, where a team of German GSG 9 commandos later rescues all remaining hostages on board.

1973  OPEC imposes an oil embargo against a number of Western countries, considered to have helped Israel in its war against Egypt and Syria.

1970  Montreal: Quebec Vice-Premier and Minister of Labor Pierre Laporte murdered by members of the FLQ terrorist group.

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

1966  Botswana and Lesotho join the United Nations.

Botswana:

Foreign Relations of Botswana:

Botswana and the United Nations:

History of Botswana:

Economy of Botswana:

Lesotho:

Foreign Relations of Lesotho:

Lesotho and the United Nations:

History of Lesotho:

Economy of Lesotho:

1961  Scores of Algerian protesters (some claim up to 400) are massacred by the Paris police at the instigation of former Nazi collaborator Maurice Papon, then chief of the Prefecture of Police.

1956  Donald Byrne and Bobby Fischer play a famous chess game called The Game of the Century. Fischer beat Byrne and wins a Brilliancy prize.

1956  The first commercial nuclear power station is officially opened by Queen Elizabeth II in Sellafield,in Cumbria, England.

1945  Archbishop Damaskinos of Athens becomes Prime Minister of Greece between the pull-out of the German occupation force in 1944 and the return of King Georgios II to Greece.

1945 A massive number of people, headed by CGT, gather in the Plaza de Mayo in Buenos Aires, Argentina to demand Juan Perón‘s release. It calls “el día de la lealtad peronista” (peronista loyalty day)

1943  The Holocaust: Sobibór extermination camp is closed.

Sobibór Extermination Camp:

1943  The Burma Railway (Burma–Thailand Railway) is completed.

The Burma Railway or the “Death Railway”:

1941  German troops execute the male population of the villages Kerdyllia in Serres, Greece.

1941  World War II: a German submarine attacks an American ship for the first time in the war.

1940  The body of Communist propagandist Willi Münzenberg found in South France, starting a never-resolved mystery.

1933  Albert Einstein flees Nazi Germany and moves to the United States.

1931  Al Capone is convicted of income tax evasion.

1919  RCA is incorporated as the Radio Corporation of America.

1918  Haitian rebels attack the barracks of the Gendarmerie of Haiti, igniting the Second Caco War

1917  First British bombing of Germany in World War I.

1912  Bulgaria, Greece and Serbia declare war on the Ottoman Empire, joining Montenegro in the First Balkan War.

1907  Guglielmo Marconi‘s company begins the first commercial transatlantic wireless service between Glace Bay, Nova Scotia, Canada and Clifden, Ireland.

1905  The October Manifesto issued by Tsar Nicholas II of Russia.

1888  Thomas Edison files a patent for the Optical Phonograph (the first movie).

1861  Nineteen people are killed in the Cullin-La-Ringo massacre, the deadliest massacre of Europeans by aborigines in Australian history.

1806  Former leader of the Haitian Revolution, Emperor Jacques I of Haiti is assassinated after an oppressive rule.

1800  Britain takes control of the Dutch colony of Curaçao.

1660  Nine regicides, the men who signed the death warrant of Charles I, are hanged, drawn and quartered.

1604  Kepler’s Supernova: German astronomer Johannes Kepler observes a supernova in the constellation Ophiuchus.

 

 

OCTOBER 18

2007  Karachi bombing: A suicide attack on a motorcade carrying former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto kills 139 and wounds 450 more. Bhutto herself is uninjured.

2004  Myanmar prime minister Khin Nyunt is ousted and placed under house arrest by the State Peace and Development Council on charges of corruption.

2003  Bolivian gas conflict: Bolivian President Gonzalo Sánchez de Lozada, is forced to resign and leave Bolivia.

1991  The Supreme Council of Azerbaijan adopts a declaration of independence from the Soviet Union.

Azerbaijan:

Foreign Relations of Azerbaijan:

History of Azerbaijan:

Economy of Azerbaijan:

1989  Peaceful Revolution: Erich Honecker resigns as General Secretary of the Socialist Unity Party of Germany.

1988  USSR performs nuclear test at Eastern Kazakh/Semipalitinsk USSR.

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

For some more pertinent information, see “1988 USSR performs nuclear test at Eastern Kazakh/Semipalitinsk USSR”, mentioned above.

1979  USSR performs nuclear test at Eastern Kazakh/Semipalitinsk USSR.

For some more pertinent information, see “1988 USSR performs nuclear test at Eastern Kazakh/Semipalitinsk USSR”, mentioned above.

1979  USSR performs nuclear test at Novaya Zemlya USSR.

1977  German Autumn: a set of events revolving around the kidnapping of Hanns Martin Schleyer and the hijacking of a Lufthansa flight by the Red Army Faction (RAF) comes to an end when Schleyer is murdered and various RAF members allegedly commit suicide.

1975  USSR performs nuclear test at Novaya Zemlya USSR.

For some more pertinent information, see “1979 USSR performs nuclear test at Novaya Zemlya USSR”, mentioned above.

1968  The US Olympic Committee suspends Tommie Smith and John Carlos for giving a “Black Power” salute during a victory ceremony at the Mexico City games.

1967  The Soviet probe Venera 4 reaches Venus and becomes the first spacecraft to measure the atmosphere of another planet.

1962  US performs atmospheric nuclear test at Johnston Island.

Nuclear Tests by the United States:

Atmospheric/High-altitude Nuclear Explosion Testing:

Johnston Atoll:

Various Weapons Tests and Storage at Johnston Atoll, and Permanent Contamination:

1954  Texas Instruments announces the first Transistor radio.

1945  A group of the Venezuelan Armed Forces, led by Mario Vargas, Marcos Pérez Jiménez and Carlos Delgado Chalbaud, stages a coup d’état against president Isaías Medina Angarita, who is overthrown by the end of the day.

1945  The USSR‘s nuclear program receives plans for the United States plutonium bomb from Klaus Fuchs at the Los Alamos National Laboratory.

1944  World War II: Soviet Union begins the liberation of Czechoslovakia from Nazi Germany.

1929  The Judicial Committee of the Privy Council overrules the Supreme Court of Canada in Edwards v. Canada when it declares that women are considered “Persons” under Canadian law.

1922  The British Broadcasting Company (later Corporation) is founded by a consortium, to establish a nationwide network of radio transmitters to provide a national broadcasting service.

1921  The Crimean Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic is formed as part of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic.

History of Crimea:

Crimean Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic and Autonomous Republic of Crimea:

1914  The Schoenstatt Movement is founded in Germany.

1912  First Balkan War: King Peter I of Serbia issues a declaration “To the Serbian People”, as his country joins the war.

First Balkan War:

1898  The United States takes possession of Puerto Rico from Spain.

Puerto Rico:

History of Puerto Rico:

1867  United States takes possession of Alaska after purchasing it from Russia for $7.2 million. Celebrated annually in the state as Alaska Day.

Alaska:

History of Alaska:

1860  The Second Opium War finally ends at the Convention of Peking with the ratification of the Treaty of Tientsin, an unequal treaty.

Opium Wars:

Second Opium War:

1797  Treaty of Campo Formio is signed between France and Austria

______________________________

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, audio/visual 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: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/October_12   to _October18; http://www.onthisday.com/day/october/12   to october/18; http://www.brainyhistory.com/days/october_12.html to _october_18.html; and other pertinent websites 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 12 Oct 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.

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