This Week in History

HISTORY, 18 Apr 2016

Satoshi Ashikaga - TRANSCEND Media Service

TWH logo history

Apr18-24

QUOTE OF THE WEEK:

“Being HUMBLE is much more important than being WISE! Because GOD doesn’t need a PROUD mouth that SPEAKS much. But a KIND heart that LISTENS.” – Unknown

APRIL 18

2013 A suicide bombing in a Baghdad cafe kills 27 people and injures another 65.

2007 A series of bombings, two of them being suicides, occur in Baghdad, killing 198 and injuring 251.

2007 The Supreme Court of the United States upholds the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act in a 5–4 decision.

1996 In Lebanon, at least 106 civilians are killed when the Israel Defense Forces shell the United Nations compound at Quana where more than 800 civilians had taken refuge.

1992 General Abdul Rashid Dostum revolts against President Mohammad Najibullah of the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan and allies with Ahmad Shah Massoud to capture Kabul.

Afghanistan in 1992:

Afghanistan:

History of Afghanistan:

Economy of Afghanistan:

1988 The United States launches Operation Praying Mantis against Iranian naval forces in the largest naval battle since World War II.

1987 US performs atmospheric nuclear test at Maralinga, Australia.

Note that this atmospheric nuclear test, even if actually performed, is not indicated in the list of Operation Musketeer – Wikipedia. According to this list, the United States performed an underground (not an atmospheric) nuclear test, whose test code name was Delamar, in the United States on 18 April 1987. The same record of the underground test is indicated in the Database of nuclear tests, United States: part 3, 1973-1992 – JohnstonArchive.net, also mentioned below.

Nuclear Tests in Maralinga:

1983 A suicide bomber destroys the United States embassy in Beirut, Lebanon, killing 63 people.

1980 The Republic of Zimbabwe (formerly Rhodesia) comes into being, with Canaan Banana as the country’s first President. The Zimbabwean dollar replaces the Rhodesian dollar as the official currency.

History of Rhodesia/Zimbabwe:

Economy of Zimbabwe:

1974 The Prime Minister of Pakistan Zulfikar Ali Bhutto inaugurates Lahore‘s dry port.

Zulfikar Ali Bhutto:

History of Pakistan:

Relations between Pakistan and Bangladesh:

Bangladesh Liberation War:

History of Bangladesh (former East Pakistan):

1968 US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site.

Nuclear Weapons and the United States:

1961 CONCP is founded in Casablanca as a united front of African movements opposing Portuguese colonial rule.

Morocco:

History of Morocco:

Colonial Rule and Independence of Morocco:

Foreign Relations of Morocco:

Morocco and the United Nations:

Economy of Morocco:

1961 The Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations, a cornerstone of modern international relations, is adopted.

Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations:

1958 A United States federal court rules that poet Ezra Pound be released from an insane asylum.

1955 Twenty-nine nations meet at Bandung, Indonesia, for the first Asian-African Conference (Bandung Conference).

Bandung Conference of 1955:

1951 France, West Germany and Benelux form European Coal and Steel Community.

European Coal and Steel Community:

1954 Gamal Abdel Nasser seizes power in Egypt.

Gamal Abdel Nasser:

Egypt:

History of (Modern) Egypt:

Foreign Relations of Egypt:

Egypt-Israel Relations:

Economy of Egypt:

1946 The International Court of Justice holds its inaugural meeting in The Hague, Netherlands.

International Court of Justice:

History of International Justice:

1945 Over 1,000 bombers attack the small island of Heligoland, Germany.

1943 World War II: Operation Vengeance, Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto is killed when his aircraft is shot down by U.S. fighters over Bougainville Island.

Death of Isoroku Yamamoto:

1942 Pierre Laval becomes Prime Minister of Vichy France.

Vichy France and the Holocaust Collaboration:

1942 World War II: The Doolittle Raid on Japan. Tokyo, Yokohama, Kobe and Nagoya are bombed.

1936 The first Champions Day is celebrated in Detroit, Michigan.

1930 BBC reported there was no news, then played out with piano music.

1915 French pilot Roland Garros is shot down and glides to a landing on the German side of the lines during World War I.

1912 The Cunard liner RMS Carpathia brings 705 survivors from the RMS Titanic to New York City.

RMS Titanic:

1909 Joan of Arc is beatified in Rome.

Joan of Arc:

Beatification and Canonization of Joan of Arc:

1906 An earthquake and fire destroy much of San Francisco, California.

1902 The Guatemala earthquake of 7.5 Mw shakes Guatemala with a maximum Mercalli intensity of VIII (Severe), killing between 800–2,000.

1899 The St. Andrew’s Ambulance Association is granted a Royal Charter by Queen Victoria.

1897 The Greco-Turkish War of 1897 (a.k.a. First Greco-Turkish War) is declared between Greece and the Ottoman Empire.

Greco-Turkish War of 1897:

History of Modern Greece:

History of the Ottoman Empire:

1880 An F4 tornado strikes Marshfield, Missouri, killing 99 people and injuring 100.

1864 Battle of Dybbøl: A Prussian–Austrian army defeats Denmark and gains control of Schleswig. Denmark surrenders the province in the following peace settlement.

1857 “The Spirits’ Book” by Allan Kardec is published, marking the birth of Spiritualism in France.

The Spirits Book:

Allan Kardc and Spiritism:

1848 American victory at the battle of Cerro Gordo opens the way for invasion of Mexico.

1797 The Battle of Neuwied: French victory against the Austrians.

APRIL 19

2011 Fidel Castro resigns from the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba after 45 years of holding the title.

Fidel Castro:

Cuba or the “Republic of Cuba” (Repúlica de Cuba):

Foreign Relations of Cuba:

Cuba and USSR/Russia:

Cuba and the United States:

History and Culture of Cuba:

Economy of Cuba:

2000 Security guard David Sanes killed in accidental bombing in Vieques, Puerto Rico that resulted in U.S. Navy closing down its bombing range there.

1999 The German Bundestag returns to Berlin.

1997 The 1997 Red River Flood overwhelms the city of Grand Forks, North Dakota. Fire breaks out and spreads in downtown Grand Forks, but high water levels hamper efforts to reach the fire, leading to the destruction of 11 buildings.

1995 Oklahoma City bombing: The Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, USA, is bombed, killing 168.

1993 South Dakota governor George Mickelson and seven others are killed when a state-owned aircraft crashes in Iowa.

1993 The 51-day FBI siege of the Branch Davidian building outside Waco, Texas, USA, ends when a fire breaks out. Eighty-one people die.

1989 A gun turret explodes on the USS Iowa, killing 47 sailors.

1987 The Simpsons premieres as a short cartoon on The Tracey Ullman Show.

1987 USSR performs two underground nuclear tests at Perm, Russia.

1985 Two hundred ATF and FBI agents lay siege to the compound of the neo-Nazi survivalist group The Covenant, The Sword, and the Arm of the Lord in Arkansas. The CSA surrenders two days later.

1985 USSR performs nuclear test at Eastern Kazakh/Semipalitinsk USSR.

1975 India’s first satellite, Aryabhata, is launched.

1973 The Portuguese Socialist Party is founded in the German town of Bad Münstereifel.

1973 USSR performs nuclear test at Eastern Kazakh/Semipalitinsk USSR.

1971 Charles Manson is sentenced to death (later commuted life imprisonment) for conspiracy to commit the Tate–LaBianca murders.

1971 Launch of Salyut 1, the first space station.

1971 Vietnam War: Vietnam Veterans Against the War begin “Operation Dewey Canyon III“, a five-day demonstration in Washington, D.C.

Vietnam War in 1971:

Anti-Vietnam War Movements:

Vietnam War Peace Talks/Negotiations:

Viet Nam War and Pertinent Events:

1971 Sierra Leone becomes a republic, and Siaka Stevens the president.

Sierra Leone:

History of Sierra Leone:

Economy of Sierra Leone:

1960 Students in South Korea hold a nationwide pro-democracy protest against president Syngman Rhee, eventually forcing him to resign.

1956 Actress Grace Kelly marries Prince Rainier of Monaco.

Grace Kelly:

Prince Rainier of Monaco:

1954 The Constituent Assembly of Pakistan recognizes Urdu and Bengali as the national languages of Pakistan.

Pakistan:

Foreign Relations of Pakistan:

United State-Pakistan Relations:

History of Pakistan:

Economy of Pakistan:

1951 General Douglas MacArthur retires from the military.

1950 Argentina becomes a signatory to the Buenos Aires copyright treaty.

1948 Burma joins the United Nations.

Burma/Myanmar and the United Nations:

Burma/Myanmar:

History of Burma/Myanmar:

Burmese Monarchy and the British Rule:

Foreign Relations of Burma/Myanmar:

Burma/Britain Relations:

Human Rights in Burma/Myanmar:

Some Relevant Issues on the Rohingya People and the British Rule:

Pro-Democracy Uprising, Ethnic Cleansing and Other Pertinent Issues:

Economy of Myanmar:

1943 World War II: In Poland, the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising begins, after German troops enter the Warsaw Ghetto to round up the remaining Jews.

1943 Swiss chemist Dr Albert Hofmann deliberately takes LSD for the first time.

1942 World War II: In Poland, the Majdan-Tatarski ghetto is established, situated between the Lublin Ghetto and a Majdanek subcamp.

Lublin Ghetto, the Majdandnek Camp and the Majdan-Tatarski Ghetto:

1928 The 125th and final fascicle of the Oxford English Dictionary is published.

1919 Leslie Irvin of the United States makes the first successful voluntary free-fall parachute jump using a new kind of self-contained parachute.

1903 The Kishinev pogrom in Kishinev (Bessarabia) begins, forcing tens of thousands of Jews to later seek refuge in Palestine and the Western world.

1897 Léo Taxil exposes his own fabrications concerning Freemasonry

1892 Charles Duryea claims to have driven the first automobile in the United States, in Springfield, Massachusetts.

1865 Funeral service for Abraham Lincoln is held in the East Room of the White House.

1855 Visit of Napoleon III to Guildhall, London

1839 The Treaty of London establishes Belgium as a kingdom and guaranteeing its neutrality.

1810 Venezuela achieves home rule: Vicente Emparán, Governor of the Captaincy General is removed by the people of Caracas and a junta is installed.

1809 An Austrian corps is defeated by the forces of the Duchy of Warsaw in the Battle of Raszyn, part of the struggles of the Fifth Coalition. On the same day the Austrian main army is defeated by a First French Empire Corps led by Louis-Nicolas Davout at the Battle of Teugen-Hausen in Bavaria, part of a four-day campaign that ended in a French victory.

1778 John Adams secures the Dutch Republic‘s recognition of the United States as an independent government. The house which he had purchased in The Hague, Netherlands becomes the first American embassy.

1770 Marie Antoinette marries Louis XVI of France in a proxy wedding.

1770 Captain James Cook, still holding the rank of lieutenant, sights the eastern coast of what is now Australia.

1713 With no living male heirs, Charles VI, Holy Roman Emperor, issues the Pragmatic Sanction of 1713 to ensure that Habsburg lands and the Austrian throne would be inherited by his daughter, Maria Theresa (not actually born until 1717).

1677 The French army captures the town of Cambrai held by Spanish troops.

1608 In Ireland O’Doherty’s Rebellion is launched by the Burning of Derry

1539 Charles V and Protestants signs Treaty of Frankfurt.

APRIL 20

2015 10 people are killed in a bomb attack on a convoy carrying food supplies to a United Nations compound in Garowe in the Somali region of Puntland.

2013 An earthquake of 6.6-magnitude strikes Lushan County, Ya’an, in China’s Sichuan province, killing more than 150 people and injuring thousands.

2012 One hundred twenty-seven people are killed when a plane crashes in a residential area near the Benazir Bhutto International Airport near Islamabad, Pakistan.

2010 The Deepwater Horizon drilling rig explodes in the Gulf of Mexico, killing eleven workers and beginning an oil spill that would last six months.

2008 Danica Patrick wins the Indy Japan 300 becoming the first female driver in history to win an Indy car race.

1999 Columbine High School massacre: Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold killed 13 people and injured 21 others before committing suicide at Columbine High School in Columbine, Colorado.

1998 German terrorist group the Red Army Faction announces their dissolution after 28 years.

1986 Pianist Vladimir Horowitz performs in his native Russia for the first time in 61 years.

1986 US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site.

Nuclear Weapons and the United States:

1985 The ATF raids The Covenant, The Sword, and the Arm of the Lord compound in northern Arkansas.

1984 The Good Friday Massacre, an extremely violent ice hockey playoff game, is played in Montreal, Canada.

1980 Climax of Berber Spring in Algeria as hundreds of Berber political activists are arrested.

1978 Korean Air Lines Flight 902 is shot down by the Soviet Union.

1972 Apollo 16, commanded by John Young, lands on the moon.

1968 English politician Enoch Powell makes his controversial Rivers of Blood speech.

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

1961 Failure of the Bay of Pigs Invasion of US-backed Cuban exiles against Cuba.

1951 Dan Gavriliu performs the first surgical replacement of a human organ.

1951 US performs atmospheric nuclear test at Enewetak.

Enwetak Nuclear Test Site:

Atmospheric/High-altitude Nuclear Explosion Testing:

Nuclear Tests by the United States:

Nuclear Weapons and the United States:

1946 The League of Nations officially dissolves, giving most of its power to the United Nations.

League of Nations and Its History:

1945 Twenty Jewish children used in medical experiments at Neuengamme are killed in the basement of the Bullenhuser Damm school.

Children at Neuengamme:

Children and the Holocaust:

Nazi’s Human Experiments:

Comparison: Japanese Military Unit 731’s Human Experiments during WWII:

1945 World War II: Führerbunker: Adolf Hitler makes his last trip to the surface to award Iron Crosses to boy soldiers of the Hitler Youth.

1945 World War II: US troops capture Leipzig, Germany, only to later cede the city to the Soviet Union.

1939 Billie Holiday records the first civil rights song “Strange Fruit“.

1939 Adolf Hitler’s 50th birthday is celebrated as a national holiday in Nazi Germany.

1926 Western Electric and Warner Bros. announce Vitaphone, a process to add sound to film.

1922 The Soviet government creates South Ossetian Autonomous Oblast within Georgian SSR.

1918 Manfred von Richthofen, a.k.a. The Red Baron, shoots down his 79th and 80th victims, his final victories before his death the following day.

1914 Nineteen men, women, and children die in the Ludlow Massacre during a Colorado coal-miner’s strike.

Ludlow Massacre:

1902 Pierre and Marie Curie refine radium chloride.

1884 Pope Leo XIII publishes the encyclical Humanum genus.

1876 The April Uprising begins. Its suppression shocks European opinion, and Bulgarian independence becomes a condition for ending the Russo-Turkish War.

1871 The Civil Rights Act of 1871 becomes law.

1865 Astronomer Angelo Secchi demonstrates the Secchi disk, which measures water clarity, aboard Pope Pius IX‘s yacht, the L’Immaculata Concezion.

1862 Louis Pasteur and Claude Bernard complete the experiment falsifying the theory of spontaneous generation.

1836 US Congress passes an act creating the Wisconsin Territory.

1828 René Caillié becomes the first non-Muslim to enter Timbuktu.

1818 The case of Ashford v Thornton ends, with Abraham Thornton allowed to go free rather than face a retrial for murder, after his demand for trial by battle is upheld.

1810 The Governor of Caracas declares independence from Spain.

1809 Two Austrian army corps in Bavaria are defeated by a First French Empire army led by Napoleon at the Battle of Abensberg on the second day of a four-day campaign that ended in a French victory.

1800 The Septinsular Republic is established.

1792 France declares war against the “King of Hungary and Bohemia“, the beginning of French Revolutionary Wars.

APRIL 21

2010 The controversial Kharkiv Pact (Russian Ukrainian Naval Base for Gas Treaty) is signed in Kharkiv, Ukraine, by Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev; it will be unilaterally terminated by Russia on March 31, 2014.

2004 Five suicide car bombers target police stations in and around Basra, killing 74 people and wounding 160.

1993 The Supreme Court in La Paz, Bolivia, sentences former dictator Luis García Meza to 30 years in jail without parole for murder, theft, fraud and violating the constitution.

1992 The first discoveries of extrasolar planets are announced by astronomers Aleksander Wolszczan and Dale Frail. They discovered two planets orbiting the pulsar PSR 1257+12.

1989 Tiananmen Square protests of 1989: In Beijing, around 100,000 students gather in Tiananmen Square to commemorate Chinese reform leader Hu Yaobang.

1987 The Tamil Tigers are blamed for a car bomb that detonates in the Sri Lankan capital city of Colombo, killing 106 people.

1985 The compound of the militant group The Covenant, The Sword, and the Arm of the Lord surrenders to federal authorities in Arkansas after a two-day government siege.

1976 USSR performs nuclear test at Eastern Kazakh/Semipalitinsk USSR.

1975 Vietnam War: President of South Vietnam Nguyễn Văn Thiệu flees Saigon, as Xuân Lộc, the last South Vietnamese outpost blocking a direct North Vietnamese assault on Saigon, falls.

Vietnam War in 1975:

1970 The Hutt River Province secedes from Australia as the Principality of Hutt River.

1967 Greek military junta of 1967–74: A few days before the general election in Greece, Colonel George Papadopoulos leads a coup d’état, establishing a military regime that lasts for seven years.

1966 Rastafari movement: Haile Selassie of Ethiopia visits Jamaica, an event now celebrated as Grounation Day.

1964 A Transit-5bn satellite fails to reach orbit after launch; as it re-enters the atmosphere, 2.1 pounds (0.95 kg) of radioactive plutonium in its SNAP RTG power source is widely dispersed.

1963 The Universal House of Justice of the Bahá’í Faith is elected for the first time.

1962 The Seattle World’s Fair (Century 21 Exposition) opens. It is the first World’s Fair in the United States since World War II.

1960 Brasília, Brazil’s capital, is officially inaugurated. At 09:30, the Three Powers of the Republic are simultaneously transferred from the old capital, Rio de Janeiro.

1952 Secretary’s Day (now Administrative Professionals’ Day) is first celebrated.

1945 World War II: Soviet forces south of Berlin at Zossen attack the German High Command headquarters.

1941 Emmanouil Tsouderos becomes the 132nd Prime Minister of Greece.

1934 The “Surgeon’s Photograph”, the most famous photo allegedly showing the Loch Ness Monster, is published in the Daily Mail (in 1999, it is revealed to be a hoax).

1925 The Manifesto of the Fascist Intellectuals is published in Il Mondo, establishing the political and ideological foundations of Italian Fascism.

1918 World War I: German fighter ace Manfred von Richthofen, better known as “The Red Baron”, is shot down and killed over Vaux-sur-Somme in France.

1914 Ypiranga incident: A German arms shipment to Mexico is intercepted by the U.S. Navy near Veracruz.

1898 Spanish–American War: The United States Navy begins a blockade of Cuban ports. When the U.S. Congress issued a declaration of war on April 25, it declared that a state of war had existed from this date.

1894 Norway formally adopts the Krag–Jørgensen bolt-action rifle as the main arm of its armed forces, a weapon that would remain in service for almost 50 years.

1863 Bahá’u’lláh, the founder of the Bahá’í Faith, declares his mission as “He whom God shall make manifest“.

1856 Australian labour movement: Stonemasons and building workers on building sites around Melbourne march from the University of Melbourne to Parliament House to achieve an eight-hour day.

1836 Texas Revolution: The Battle of San Jacinto: Republic of Texas forces under Sam Houston defeat troops under Mexican General Antonio López de Santa Anna.

1821 Benderli Ali Pasha arrives in Constantinople as the new Grand Vizier of the Ottoman Empire; he remains in power for only nine days before being sent into exile.

1809 Two Austrian army corps are driven from Landshut by a First French Empire army led by Napoleon as two French corps to the north hold off the main Austrian army on the first day of the Battle of Eckmühl.

1806 Action of 21 April 1806: A French frigate escapes British forces off the coast of South Africa.

1792 Tiradentes, a revolutionary leading a movement for Brazil’s independence, is hanged, drawn and quartered.

1782 The city of Rattanakosin, now known internationally as Bangkok, is founded on the eastern bank of the Chao Phraya River by King Buddha Yodfa Chulaloke.

1615 The Wignacourt Aqueduct is inaugurated in Malta.

1526 The last ruler of the Lodi dynasty, Ibrahim Lodi is defeated and killed by Babur in the First Battle of Panipat.

APRIL 22

2014 More than 60 people are killed and 80 are seriously injured in a train crash in the Democratic Republic of the Congo‘s Katanga Province.

2013 The Royal Canadian Mounted Police arrest and charge two men with plotting to disrupt a Toronto area train service in a plot claimed to be backed by Al-Qaeda elements.

2013 Six people die in a shooting in Belgorod, Russia.

2008 The United States Air Force retires the remaining F-117 Nighthawk aircraft in service.

2005 Japan’s Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi apologizes for Japan’s war record.

2004 Two fuel trains collide in Ryongchon, North Korea, killing up to 150 people.

2000 The Big Number Change takes place in the United Kingdom.

2000 In a pre-dawn raid, federal agents seize six-year-old Elián González from his relatives’ home in Miami.

1997 The Japanese embassy hostage crisis ends in Lima, Peru.

1997 Haouch Khemisti massacre in Algeria where 93 villagers are killed.

1993 Version 1.0 of the Mosaic web browser is released.

1992 In a series of explosions in Guadalajara, Mexico, 206 people are killed, nearly 500 injured and 15,000 left homeless.

1986 US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site.

Nuclear Weapons and the United States:

1983 The German magazine Stern claims that the “Hitler Diaries” had been found in wreckage in East Germany; the diaries are subsequently revealed to be forgeries.

1977 Optical fiber is first used to carry live telephone traffic.

1972 Vietnam War: Increased American bombing in Vietnam prompts anti-war protests in Los Angeles, New York City, and San Francisco.

1970 The first Earth Day is celebrated.

1969 British yachtsman Sir Robin Knox-Johnston wins the Sunday Times Golden Globe Race and completes the first solo non-stop circumnavigation of the world.

1966 USSR performs underground nuclear test at Atyrau, Kazakhstan.

Nuclear Tests at Atyrau:

Underground Nuclear Tests:

USSR’s Nuclear Weapons Tests:

Effect and/or Impact of Nuclear Weapons Tests:

1964 The 1964-1965 New York World’s Fair opens for its first season.

1954 Red Scare: Witnesses begin testifying and live television coverage of the Army–McCarthy hearings begins.

1951 Korean War: The Chinese People’s Volunteer Army begin assaulting positions defended by the Royal Australian Regiment and the Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry at the Battle of Kapyong.

1948 Arab–Israeli War: Haifa, a major port of Israel, is captured from Arab forces.

1945 World War II: Führerbunker: After learning that Soviet forces have taken Eberswalde without a fight, Adolf Hitler admits defeat in his underground bunker and states that suicide is his only recourse.

1945 World War II: Prisoners at the Jasenovac concentration camp revolt. Five hundred twenty are killed and 80 escape.

1944 World War II: Operation Persecution is initiated: Allied forces land in the Hollandia (currently known as Jayapura) area of New Guinea.

1944 The 1st Air Commando Group using Sikorsky R-4 helicopters stage the first use of helicopters in combat with combat search and rescue operations in the China Burma India Theater.

1944 Hitler and Mussolini meet at Salzburg.

1930 The United Kingdom, Japan and the United States sign the London Naval Treaty regulating submarine warfare and limiting shipbuilding.

1915 The use of poison gas in World War I escalates when chlorine gas is released as a chemical weapon in the Second Battle of Ypres.

1912 Pravda, the “voice” of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, begins publication in Saint Petersburg.

1906 The 1906 Summer Olympics, not now recognized as part of the official Olympic Games, open in Athens.

1898 Spanish–American War: The USS Nashville captures a Spanish merchant ship.

APRIL 23

2013 At least 28 are dead and more than 70 are injured as violence breaks out in Hawija, Iraq.

2005 First YouTube video uploaded, titled “Me at the zoo“.

1997 Omaria massacre in Algeria: Forty-two villagers are killed.

1993 Sri Lankan politician Lalith Athulathmudali is assassinated while addressing a gathering, approximately four weeks ahead of the Provincial Council elections for the Western Province.

1993 Eritreans vote overwhelmingly for independence from Ethiopia in a United Nations-monitored referendum.

1990 Namibia becomes the 160th member of the United Nations and the 50th member of the Commonwealth of Nations.

1985 Coca-Cola changes its formula and releases New Coke. The response is overwhelmingly negative, and the original formula is back on the market in less than three months.

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

1974 USSR performs nuclear test at Sary Shagan, USSR.

1971 Bangladesh Liberation War: The Pakistan Army and Razakars massacre approximately 3,000 Hindu emigrants in the Jathibhanga area of East Pakistan (now Bangladesh).

Bangladesh Liberation War:

History of Bangladesh:

1968 Vietnam War: Student protesters at Columbia University in New York City take over administration buildings and shut down the university.

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

1968 in the Vietnam War:

Viet Nam War and Pertinent Events:

Vietnam War Peace Talks/Negotiations:

Viet Nam War and Pertinent Events:

1967 Soviet space program: Soyuz 1 (Russian: Союз 1, Union 1) a manned spaceflight carrying cosmonaut Colonel Vladimir Komarov is launched into orbit.

1961 Algiers putsch by French generals.

Algiers Putsch of 1961:

Charles de Gaulle’s Policy on Algeria:

History of Algeria:

Algeria:

Foreign Relations of Algeria:

Algeria and the United Nations:

Economy of Algeria:

1955 The Canadian Labour Congress is formed by the merger of the Trades and Labour Congress of Canada and the Canadian Congress of Labour.

1951 American journalist William N. Oatis is arrested for espionage by the Communist government of Czechoslovakia.

1949 Chinese Civil War: Establishment of the People’s Liberation Army Navy.

1946 Manuel Roxas is elected the last President of the Commonwealth of the Philippines.

1945 World War II: Adolf Hitler‘s designated successor Hermann Göring sends him a telegram asking permission to take leadership of the Third Reich, which causes Hitler to replace him with Joseph Goebbels and Karl Dönitz.

1942 World War II: Baedeker Blitz – German bombers hit Exeter, Bath and York in retaliation for the British raid on Lübeck.

1941 World War II: The Greek government and King George II evacuate Athens before the invading Wehrmacht.

Modern History of Greece:

Greek Resistance in World War II:

1940 The Rhythm Club fire at a dance hall in Natchez, Mississippi, kills 198 people.

1935 The Polish Constitution of 1935 is adopted.

History of Poland:

Poland:

Foreign Relations of Poland:

Poland and Russia:

Economy of Poland:

1932 The 153-year-old De Adriaan Windmill in Haarlem, Netherlands burns down. It is rebuilt and reopens exactly 70 years later.

1920 The Grand National Assembly of Turkey (TBMM) is founded in Ankara, Turkey. It denounces the government of Sultan Mehmed VI and announces the preparation of a temporary constitution.

Grand National Assembly of Turkey:

Ottoman Empire and World War I:

1918 World War I: The British Royal Navy makes a raid in an attempt to neutralize the Belgian port of Bruges-Zeebrugge.

1910 American President Theodore Roosevelt makes his “The Man in the Arena” speech.

Man in the Arena:

1815 The Second Serbian Uprising: A second phase of the national revolution of the Serbs against the Ottoman Empire, erupts shortly after the annexation of the country to the Ottoman Empire.

History of the Ottoman Empire:

History of Serbia:

1661 King Charles II of England, Scotland and Ireland is crowned in Westminster Abbey.

1660 Treaty of Oliva is established between Sweden and Poland.

1655 The Siege of Santo Domingo begins during the Anglo-Spanish War, and fails seven days later.

APRIL 24

2013 Violence in Bachu County, Kashgar Prefecture, of China‘s Xinjiang results in death of 21 people.

2013 A building collapses near Dhaka, Bangladesh, killing 1,129 people and injuring 2,500 others.

2005 Snuppy becomes world’s first cloned dog.

World First Cloned Dog – Snuppy:

2005 Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger is inaugurated as the 265th Pope of the Roman Catholic Church taking the name Pope Benedict XVI.

Pope Benedict XVI:

February 11, 2013: Resignation Announcement of Pope Benedict XVI:

Lightning Strikes the Vatican Hours after Pope’s Resignation Announcement:

Any Real Reason of the Resignation of Pope XVI? :

2004 The United States lifts economic sanctions imposed on Libya 18 years previously, as a reward for its cooperation in eliminating weapons of mass destruction.

1996 In the United States, the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996 is passed into law.

Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996:

1993 An IRA bomb devastates the Bishopsgate area of London.

Irish Republican Army (IRA)/Provisional Republican Army (PIRA):

IRA’s Terrorism:

History of the IRA:

Sinn Féin:

History of Sinn Féin:

Sinn Féin, IRA and the Catholic Church:

1990 Gruinard Island, Scotland, is officially declared free of the anthrax disease after 48 years of quarantine.

1990 STS-31: The Hubble Space Telescope is launched from the Space Shuttle Discovery.

1980 Eight US servicemen die in Operation Eagle Claw as they attempt to end the Iran hostage crisis.

Operation Eagle Claw:

Iran Hostage Crisis:

Timelines of the Iranian Hostage Crisis:

1975 US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site.

Nuclear Weapons and the United States:

1971 Soyuz 10 docks with Salyut 1.

1970 The Gambia becomes a republic within the Commonwealth of Nations, with Dawda Jawara as the first President.

The Gambia:

Foreign Relations of the Gambia:

Gambia-British Relations Today:

Gambia-British Relations in History:

History of the Gambia:

Economy of the Gambia:

1970 The first Chinese satellite, Dong Fang Hong I, is launched.

1968 Mauritius becomes a member state of the United Nations.

History of Mauritius:

Mauritius and the United Nations:

1968 USSR performs nuclear test at Eastern Kazakh/Semipalitinsk USSR.

1967 Vietnam War: American General William Westmoreland says in a news conference that the enemy had “gained support in the United States that gives him hope that he can win politically that which he cannot win militarily.”

Vietnam War in 1967:

Viet Nam War and Pertinent Events:

1967 Cosmonaut Vladimir Komarov dies in Soyuz 1 when its parachute fails to open. He is the first human to die during a space mission.

1965 Civil war breaks out in the Dominican Republic when Colonel Francisco Caamaño, overthrows the triumvirate that had been in power since the coup d’état against Juan Bosch.

Civil War in Dominican Republic of 1965:

Dominican Republic:

History of Dominican Republic:

Economy of the Dominican Republic:

1963 US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site.

1957 The BBC first broadcast The Sky at Night presented by Patrick Moore

1957 Suez Crisis: The Suez Canal is reopened following the introduction of UNEF peacekeepers to the region.

Suez Crisis (1956-1957):

1955 The Bandung Conference ends: Twenty-nine non-aligned nations of Asia and Africa finish a meeting that condemns colonialism, racism, and the Cold War.

1953 Winston Churchill is knighted by Queen Elizabeth II.

1945 Delegates of 46 countries gather in San Francisco to discuss U.N.

History of the United Nations (1) – Overview:

History of the United Nations (2) – Atlantic Charter of 1941:

History of the United Nations (3) – Dumbarton Oaks and Yalta:

History of the United Nations (4) – San Francisco Conference: April 26–June 26, 1945:

1944 World War II: The SBS launches a raid against the garrison of Santorini in Greece.

1933 Nazi Germany begins its persecution of Jehovah’s Witnesses by shutting down the Watch Tower Society office in Magdeburg.

1932 Benny Rothman leads the mass trespass of Kinder Scout, leading to substantial legal reforms in the United Kingdom.

1926 The Treaty of Berlin is signed. Germany and the Soviet Union each pledge neutrality in the event of an attack on the other by a third party for the next five years.

Treaty of Berlin (Germany-Soviet Union) of 1926:

1923 In Vienna, the paper Das Ich und das Es (The Ego and the Id) by Sigmund Freud is published, which outlines Freud’s theories of the id, ego, and super-ego.

Ego and the Id:

Sigmund Freud’s Works:

1922 The first segment of the Imperial Wireless Chain providing wireless telegraphy between Leafield in Oxfordshire, England, and Cairo, Egypt, comes into operation.

1918 First tank-to-tank combat, at Villers-Bretonneux, France, when three British Mark IVs meet three German A7Vs.

1916 Ernest Shackleton and five men of the Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition launch a lifeboat from uninhabited Elephant Island in the Southern Ocean to organize a rescue for the ice-trapped ship Endurance.

1916 Easter Rising: The Irish Republican Brotherhood led by nationalists Patrick Pearse, James Connolly, and Joseph Plunkett starts a rebellion in Ireland.

History of Ireland:

Irish War of Independence:

1915 The arrest of 250 Armenian intellectuals and community leaders in Istanbul marks the beginning of the Armenian Genocide.

The Armenian Genocide of 1915:

Why Does Turkey Deny the Armenian Genocide? :

1914 The Franck–Hertz experiment, a pillar of quantum mechanics, is presented to the German Physical Society.

1913 The Woolworth Building skyscraper in New York City is opened.

1907 Hersheypark, founded by Milton S. Hershey for the exclusive use of his employees, is opened.

1904 The Lithuanian press ban is lifted after almost 40 years.

1895 Joshua Slocum, the first person to sail single-handedly around the world, sets sail from Boston, Massachusetts aboard the sloop “Spray”.

1885 American sharpshooter Annie Oakley is hired by Nate Salsbury to be a part of Buffalo Bill’s Wild West.

1877 Russo-Turkish War: Russian Empire declares war on Ottoman Empire.

Russo-Turkish War (1877-1878):

Treaty of San Stefano:

Congress of Berlin:

History of the Ottoman Empire:

1800 The United States Library of Congress is established when President John Adams signs legislation to appropriate $5,000 to purchase “such books as may be necessary for the use of Congress“.

__________________________________

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, science and technology, 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: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/april_18 to_april_24; http://www.onthisday.com/events/april/18 to april/24; http://www.brainyhistory.com/days/april_18.html to april_24.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”.

This article originally appeared on Transcend Media Service (TMS) on 18 Apr 2016.

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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