This Week in History

HISTORY, 25 Apr 2016

Satoshi Ashikaga - TRANSCEND Media Service

Apr 25–May 1

QUOTE OF THE WEEK:

“Ask yourself this: If I could have everything I wanted, would I want this, or continue to do that?” – Nancy Garen

APRIL 25

Today is the WORLD MALARIA DAY:

2015 Riots break out in Baltimore, Maryland following the death of Freddie Gray in police custody.

2015 Nearly 9,100 are killed after a massive 7.8 magnitude earthquake strikes Nepal.

2007 Boris Yeltsin‘s funeral: The first to be sanctioned by the Russian Orthodox Church for a head of state since the funeral of Emperor Alexander III in 1894.

Boris Yeltsin:

2005 One hundred seven people die in Amagasaki rail crash in Japan.

2005 Bulgaria and Romania sign accession treaties to join the European Union.

2005 The final piece of the Obelisk of Axum is returned to Ethiopia after being stolen by the invading Italian army in 1937.

2001 Michele Alboreto is killed while testing an Audi R8 at the Lausitzring in Germany.

1990 Violeta Chamorro takes office as the President of Nicaragua, the first woman to hold the position.

Violeta Chamorro:

Politics of Nicaragua:

History of Nicaragua:

Economy of Nicaragua:

1988 In Israel, John Demjanjuk is sentenced to death for war crimes committed in World War II.

John Demjanjuk:

1986 Mswati III is crowned King of Swaziland, succeeding his father Sobhuza II.

Swaziland, Its History, and Culture:

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

1983 Pioneer 10 travels beyond Pluto‘s orbit.

1983 American schoolgirl Samantha Smith is invited to visit the Soviet Union by its leader Yuri Andropov after he read her letter in which she expressed fears about nuclear war.

1982 Israel completes its withdrawal from the Sinai Peninsula per the Camp David Accords.

Camp David Accords of 1978:

Israel’s Withdrawal from the Sinai Peninsula:

1982 USSR performs nuclear test at Eastern Kazakh/Semipalitinsk USSR.

For some more pertinent information, see “1984 USSR performs nuclear test at Eastern Kazakh/Semipalitinsk USSR,” mentioned above.

1981 More than 100 workers are exposed to radiation during repairs of a nuclear power plant in Tsuruga, Japan.

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

For some more pertinent information, see “1984 USSR performs nuclear test at Eastern Kazakh/Semipalitinsk USSR,” mentioned above.

1977 USSR performs nuclear test at Eastern Kazakh/Semipalitinsk USSR.

For some more pertinent information, see “1984 USSR performs nuclear test at Eastern Kazakh/Semipalitinsk USSR,” mentioned above.

1975 As North Vietnamese forces close in on the South Vietnamese capital Saigon, the Australian Embassy is closed and evacuated, almost ten years to the day since the first Australian troop commitment to South Vietnam.

1975 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:

1974 Carnation Revolution: A leftist military coup in Portugal overthrows the fascist Estado Novo regime and establishes a democratic government.

1973 US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site.

Nuclear Weapons and the United States:

1972 Vietnam War: Nguyen Hue Offensive: The North Vietnamese 320th Division forces 5,000 South Vietnamese troops to retreat and traps about 2,500 others northwest of Kontum.

Vietnam War in 1972:

Nguyen Hue Offensive:

Easter Offensive of 1972:

1971 USSR performs nuclear test at Eastern Kazakh/Semipalitinsk USSR.

For some more pertinent information, see “1984 USSR performs nuclear test at Eastern Kazakh/Semipalitinsk USSR,” mentioned above.

1966 The city of Tashkent is destroyed by a huge earthquake.

1965 Teenage sniper Michael Andrew Clark kills three and wounds six others shooting from a hilltop along Highway 101 just south of Santa Maria, California.

1962 US performs atmospheric nuclear test, at Christmas Island.

Nuclear Tests at Christmas Islands:

Atmospheric Nuclear Tests of the United States and Radioactive Fallout:

Nuclear Tests by the United States:

1961 Robert Noyce is granted a patent for an integrated circuit.

1961 France performs nuclear test at Reggane, Algeria.

French Nuclear Tests in Reggane, Algeria:

Some Pertinent YouTube Videos:

Pertinent Reports:

Radiation Contaminations in Reggane:

France’s Nuclear Tests:

1960 The United States Navy submarine USS Triton completes the first submerged circumnavigation of the globe.

1959 The Saint Lawrence Seaway, linking the North American Great Lakes and the Atlantic Ocean, officially opens to shipping.

1954 The first practical solar cell is publicly demonstrated by Bell Telephone Laboratories.

1953 Francis Crick and James D. Watson publish “Molecular Structure of Nucleic Acids: A Structure for Deoxyribose Nucleic Acid” describing the double helix structure of DNA.

1951 Korean War: Assaulting Chinese forces are forced to withdraw after heavy fighting with UN forces, primarily made up of Australian and Canadian troops, at the Battle of Kapyong.

Battle of Kapyong:

Korean War:

Korean War Timelines:

1946 Naperville train disaster kills 47 in Naperville, Illinois.

1945 The last German troops retreat from Finland’s soil in Lapland, ending the Lapland War. Military acts of Second World War end in Finland.

1945 Fifty nations gather in San Francisco to begin the United Nations Conference on International Organization.

Birth of the United Nations (1) – Overview:

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

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

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

1945 Liberation Day (Italy): The Nazi occupation army surrenders and leaves Northern Italy after a general partisan insurrection by the Italian resistance movement; the puppet fascist regime dissolves and Benito Mussolini is captured after trying to escape. This day was set as a public holiday to celebrate the Liberation of Italy.

1945 Elbe Day: United States and Soviet troops meet in Torgau along the River Elbe, cutting the Wehrmacht of Nazi Germany in two, a milestone in the approaching end of World War II in Europe.

1944 The United Negro College Fund is incorporated.

1943 The Demyansk Shield for German troops in commemoration of Demyansk Pocket is instituted.

1940 Merkið, the flag of the Faroe Islands is approved by the British occupation government.

1938 US Supreme Court delivers its opinion in Erie Railroad Co. v. Tompkins and overturns a century of federal common law.

1920 At the San Remo conference, the principal Allied Powers of World War I adopt a resolution to determine the allocation of Class “A” League of Nations mandates for administration of the former Ottoman-ruled lands of the Middle East.

1916 Anzac Day (Anzac = Australian and New Zealand Army Corps) is commemorated for the first time on the first anniversary of the landing at Anzac Cove.

ANZAC:

1916 Easter Rising: The United Kingdom declares martial law in Ireland.

Easter Rising of 1916:

History of Ireland:

Irish War of Independence:

Sinn Féin:

History of Sinn Féin:

History of the IRA:

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

Sinn Féin, IRA and the Catholic Church:

1915 World War I: The Battle of Gallipoli begins: The invasion of the Turkish Gallipoli Peninsula by Australian, British, French and New Zealand troops begins with landings at Anzac Cove and Cape Helles.

1901 New York becomes the first US state to require automobile license plates.

1898 Spanish–American War: The United States declares war on Spain.

Spanish-American War:

Timeline of the Spanish-American War:

1882 Tonkin Campaign: French and Vietnamese troops clashed in Tonkin, when Commandant Henri Rivière seized the citadel of Hanoi with a small force of marine infantry.

1859 British and French engineers break ground for the Suez Canal.

Suez Canal:

History of the Suez Canal:

APRIL 26

Today is the WORLD INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY DAY:

2005 Under international pressure, Syria withdraws the last of its 14,000 troop military garrison in Lebanon, ending its 29-year military domination of that country (Syrian occupation of Lebanon).

2002 Robert Steinhäuser infiltrates and kills 16 at Gutenberg-Gymnasium in Erfurt, Germany before dying of a self-inflicted gunshot.

1994 China Airlines Flight 140 crashes at Nagoya Airport in Japan, killing 264 of the 271 people on board.

1991 Seventy tornadoes break out in the central United States. Before the outbreak’s end, Andover, Kansas, would record the year’s only F5 tornado.

1989 People’s Daily publishes the People’s Daily editorial of April 26 which inflames the nascent Tiananmen Square protests

1989 The deadliest tornado in world history strikes Central Bangladesh, killing upwards of 1,300, injuring 12,000, and leaving as many as 80,000 homeless.

1986 A nuclear reactor accident occurs at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in the Soviet Union (now Ukraine), creating the world’s worst nuclear disaster.

Chernobyl Nuclear Disaster:

1986 France performs nuclear test at Muruora Island.

Muruora:

History of France Nuclear Tests in the Pacific:

France’s Nuclear Tests:

1982 Fifty-seven people are killed by former police officer Woo Bum-kon in a shooting spree in South Gyeongsang Province, South Korea.

1981 Dr. Michael R. Harrison of the University of California, San Francisco Medical Center performs the world’s first human open fetal surgery.

1973 US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site.

Nuclear Weapons and the United States:

1970 The Convention Establishing the World Intellectual Property Organization enters into force.

1968 US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site.

See some more pertinent information, see “1973 US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site”, mentioned above.

1966 A new government is formed in the Republic of the Congo, led by Ambroise Noumazalaye.

1966 The magnitude 5.1 Tashkent earthquake affects the largest city in Soviet Central Asia with a maximum MSK intensity of VII (Very strong). Tashkent is mostly destroyed and 15–200 are killed.

1965 A Rolling Stones concert in London, Ontario is shut down by police after 15 minutes due to rioting.

1964 Tanganyika and Zanzibar merge to form Tanzania.

1963 In Libya, amendments to the constitution transform Libya (United Kingdom of Libya) into one national unity (Kingdom of Libya) and allows for female participation in elections.

1962 NASA‘s Ranger 4 spacecraft crashes into the Moon.

1960 Forced out by the April Revolution, President of South Korea Syngman Rhee resigns after twelve years of dictatorial rule.

1958 Final run of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad‘s Royal Blue from Washington, D.C., to New York City after 68 years, the first U.S. passenger train to use electric locomotives.

1956 SS Ideal X, the world’s first successful container ship, leaves Port Newark, New Jersey for Houston, Texas.

1954 The Geneva Conference, an effort to restore peace in Indochina and Korea, begins.

Geneva Conference of 1954:

1945 World War II: Filipino troops of the 66th Infantry Regiment, Philippine Commonwealth Army, USAFIP-NL and the American troops of the 33rd and 37th Infantry Division, United States Army are liberated in Baguio City and they fight against the Japanese forces under General Tomoyuki Yamashita.

1945 World War II: Battle of Bautzen: Last successful German tank-offensive of the war and last noteworthy victory of the Wehrmacht.

1944 Heinrich Kreipe is captured by Allied commandos in occupied Crete.

1944 Georgios Papandreou becomes head of the Greek government-in-exile based in Egypt.

1943 The Easter Riots break out in Uppsala, Sweden.

1942 Benxihu Colliery accident in Manchukuo leaves 1549 Chinese miners dead.

1937 Spanish Civil War: Guernica (or Gernika in Basque), Spain is bombed by German Luftwaffe.

1933 The Gestapo, the official secret police force of Nazi Germany, is established.

Gestapo:

1925 Paul von Hindenburg defeats Wilhelm Marx in the second round of the German presidential election to become the first directly elected head of state of the Weimar Republic.

1923 The Duke of York weds Lady Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon at Westminster Abbey.

1865 Union cavalry troopers corner and shoot dead John Wilkes Booth, assassin of President Lincoln, in Virginia.

1865 American Civil War: Confederate General Joseph E. Johnston surrenders his army to General William Tecumseh Sherman at the Bennett Place near Durham, North Carolina. Also the date of Confederate Memorial Day for two states.

1805 First Barbary War: United States Marines captured Derne under the command of First Lieutenant Presley O’Bannon.

1803 Thousands of meteor fragments fall from the skies of L’Aigle, France; the event convinces European scientists that meteors exist.

1802 Napoleon Bonaparte signs a general amnesty to allow all but about one thousand of the most notorious émigrés of the French Revolution to return to France, as part of a reconciliary gesture with the factions of the Ancien Régime and to eventually consolidate his own rule.

APRIL 27

2014 Popes John XXIII and John Paul II are declared saints in the first papal canonization since 1954.

John XXIII:

Karol Wojtyla or Pope John Paul II:

2012 At least four explosions hit the Ukrainian city of Dnipropetrovsk with at least 27 people injured.

2011 The April 25–28 tornado outbreak devastates parts of the Southeastern United States, especially the states of Alabama, Mississippi, Georgia, and Tennessee. Two hundred five tornadoes touched down on April 27 alone, killing more than 300 and injuring hundreds more.

2007 Estonian authorities remove the Bronze Soldier, a Soviet Red Army war memorial in Tallinn, amid political controversy with Russia.

2006 Construction begins on the Freedom Tower (later renamed One World Trade Center) in New York City.

2005 The superjumbo jet aircraft Airbus A380 makes its first flight from Toulouse, France.

Airbus A380:

2002 The last successful telemetry from the NASA space probe Pioneer 10.

1996 The 1996 Lebanon war ends.

1996 Lebanon War:

1994 South African general election: The first democratic general election in South Africa, in which black citizens could vote. The Interim Constitution comes into force.

1993 All members of the Zambia national football team lose their lives in a plane crash off Libreville, Gabon en route to Dakar, Senegal to play a 1994 FIFA World Cup qualifying match against Senegal.

1992 The Russian Federation and 12 other former Soviet republics become members of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank.

1992 Betty Boothroyd becomes the first woman to be elected Speaker of the British House of Commons in its 700-year history.

1992 The Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, comprising Serbia and Montenegro, is proclaimed.

1989 The April 27 demonstrations, student-led protests responding to the April 26 Editorial, during the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989.

1987 The US Department of Justice bars Austrian President Kurt Waldheim from entering the United States, saying he had aided in the deportation and execution of thousands of Jews and others as a German Army officer during World War II.

1986 The city of Pripyat as well as the surrounding areas are evacuated due to Chernobyl disaster.

1981 Xerox PARC introduces the computer mouse.

1978 Former United States President Nixon aide John D. Ehrlichman is released from an Arizona prison after serving 18 months for Watergate-related crimes.

Watergate Scandal:

1977 Twenty-eight people are killed in the Guatemala City air disaster.

1975 USSR performs nuclear test at Eastern Kazakh/Semipalitinsk USSR.

1974 Ten thousand march in Washington, D.C., calling for the impeachment of US President Richard Nixon

1967 Expo 67 officially opens in Montreal, Canada with a large opening ceremony broadcast around the world. It opens to the public the next day.

1967 US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site.

Nuclear Weapons and the United States:

1962 US performs atmospheric nuclear test, at Christmas Island.

Nuclear Tests at Christmas Islands:

Atmospheric Nuclear Tests of the United States and Radioactive Fallout:

Nuclear Tests by the United States:

1961 Sierra Leone is granted its independence from the United Kingdom, with Milton Margai as the first Prime Minister.

Sierra Leone:

History of Sierra Leone:

Economy of Sierra Leone:

1960 Togo gains independence from French-administered UN trusteeship.

History of Togo:

Togo:

Economy of Togo:

1953 Operation Moolah offers $50,000 to any pilot who defected with a fully mission-capable Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-15 to South Korea. The first pilot was to receive $100,000.

1950 Apartheid: In South Africa, the Group Areas Act is passed formally segregating races.

History of Apartheid:

1945 World War II: Benito Mussolini is arrested by Italian partisans in Dongo, while attempting escape disguised as a German soldier.

Benito Mussolini:

Mussolini’s Doctrine:

Timeline – Mussolini:

1945 World War II: German troops are finally expelled from Finnish Lapland.

1941 World War II: The Communist Party of Slovenia, the Slovene Christian Socialists, the left-wing Slovene Sokols (also known as “National Democrats”) and a group of progressive intellectuals establish the Liberation Front of the Slovene Nation.

1941 World War II: German troops enter Athens.

German Occupation of Greece during World War II:

Mussolini-led Italy’s Invasion of Greece in October 1940:

Hitler and Mussolini:

Modern History of Greece:

1936 The United Auto Workers (UAW) gains autonomy from the American Federation of Labor.

1927 Carabineros de Chile (Chilean national police force and gendarmerie) are created.

1914 Honduras becomes a signatory to the Buenos Aires copyright treaty.

1911 Following the resignation and death of William P. Frye, a compromise is reached to rotate the office of President pro tempore of the United States Senate.

1909 Sultan of Ottoman Empire Abdul Hamid II is overthrown, and is succeeded by his brother, Mehmed V.

History of the Ottoman Empire:

1906 The State Duma of the Russian Empire meets for the first time.

1904 The Australian Labor Party becomes the first such party to gain national government, under Chris Watson.

1865 The steamboat Sultana, carrying 2,400 passengers, explodes and sinks in the Mississippi River, killing 1,800, most of whom are Union survivors of the Andersonville and Cahaba Prisons.

1861 American President Abraham Lincoln suspends the writ of habeas corpus.

1840 Foundation stone for new Palace of Westminster, London, is laid by wife of Sir Charles Barry.

APRIL 28

Today is the WORLD DAY FOR SAFETY AND HEALTH AT WORK:

2001 Dennis Tito becomes the world’s first space tourist.

1996 Port Arthur massacre, Tasmania: A gunman, Martin Bryant, opens fire at the Broad Arrow Cafe in Port Arthur, Tasmania, killing 35 people and wounding 23 others.

Port Arthur Massacre:

1996 Whitewater controversy: President Bill Clinton gives a 4½ hour videotaped testimony for the defense.

Whitewater Controversy:

1994 Former Central Intelligence Agency counterintelligence officer and analyst Aldrich Ames pleads guilty to giving U.S. secrets to the Soviet Union and later Russia.

1988 Near Maui, Hawaii, flight attendant Clarabelle “C.B.” Lansing is blown out of Aloha Airlines Flight 243, a Boeing 737, and falls to her death when part of the plane’s fuselage rips open in mid-flight.

1987 American engineer Ben Linder is killed in an ambush by U.S.-funded Contras in northern Nicaragua.

Death of Ben Linder:

1986 High levels of radiation resulting from the Chernobyl disaster are detected at a nuclear power plant in Sweden, leading Soviet authorities to publicly announce the accident.

Chernobyl Nuclear Disaster:

1986 The United States Navy aircraft carrier USS Enterprise becomes the first nuclear-powered aircraft carrier to transit the Suez Canal, navigating from the Red Sea to the Mediterranean Sea to relieve the USS Coral Sea.

1978 President of Afghanistan, Mohammed Daoud Khan, is overthrown and assassinated in a coup led by pro-communist rebels.

1977 The Budapest Treaty on the International Recognition of the Deposit of Microorganisms for the Purposes of Patent Procedure is signed.

1977 The Red Army Faction trial ends, with Andreas Baader, Gudrun Ensslin and Jan-Carl Raspe found guilty of four counts of murder and more than 30 counts of attempted murder.

1975 General Cao Văn Viên, chief of the South Vietnamese military, departs for the US as the North Vietnamese Army closed in on victory.

Vietnam War in 1975:

Viet Nam War and Pertinent Events:

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

1970 Vietnam War: US President Richard Nixon formally authorizes American combat troops to fight communist sanctuaries in Cambodia.

1970 in the Vietnam War:

Vietnam War and Communism in Cambodia:

1969 Charles de Gaulle resigns as President of France.

Charles de Gaulle:

1965 United States occupation of the Dominican Republic: American troops land in the Dominican Republic to “forestall establishment of a Communist dictatorship” and to evacuate U.S. Army troops.

US Occupation of the Dominican Republic of 1965:

Civil War in Dominican Republic of 1965:

Dominican Republic:

History of Dominican Republic:

Economy of the Dominican Republic:

1952 The Sino-Japanese Peace Treaty (Treaty of Taipei) is signed in Taipei, Taiwan between Japan and the Republic of China to officially end the Second Sino-Japanese War.

Sino-Japanese Peace Treaty (Treaty of Taipei):

Second Sino-Japanese War:

1952 Occupied Japan by the Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers: The United States occupation of Japan ends as the Treaty of San Francisco, ratified September 8, 1951, comes into force.

Occupation of Japan:

Peace Treaty with Japan of Sep 8, 1951:

“Peace Treaty with Japan” and the “Security Treaty between the US and Japan”:

Research Guide on the Occupation of Japan:

A Few Selected Books:

1952 Dwight D Eisenhower resigns as Supreme Allied Commander of NATO.

Eisenhower and NATO:

1950 Bhumibol Adulyadej marries Queen Sirikit after their quiet engagement in Lausanne, Switzerland on July 19, 1949.

1949 The Hukbalahap are accused of assassinating former First Lady of the Philippines Aurora Quezon, while she is en route to dedicate a hospital in memory of her late husband; her daughter and ten others are also killed.

1948 Igor Stravinsky conducted the premier of his American ballet, Orpheus, in New York City at New York City Center.

1947 Thor Heyerdahl and five crew mates set out from Peru on the Kon-Tiki to prove that Peruvian natives could have settled Polynesia.

1945 Benito Mussolini and his mistress Clara Petacci are executed by a firing squad consisting of members of the Italian resistance movement.

Benito Mussolini:

Mussolini’s Death:

Timeline – Mussolini:

Mussolini’s Doctrine:

1944 World War II: Nine German E-boats attacked US and UK units during Exercise Tiger, the rehearsal for the Normandy landings, killing 946.

1932 A vaccine for yellow fever is announced for use on humans.

1930 The Independence Producers hosted the first night game in the history of Organized Baseball in Independence, Kansas.

1920 Azerbaijan is added to the Soviet Union.

1887 A week after being arrested by the Prussian Secret Police, Alsatian police inspector Guillaume Schnaebelé is released on order of William I, German Emperor, defusing a possible war.

1869 Chinese and Irish laborers for the Central Pacific Railroad working on the First Transcontinental Railroad lay ten miles of track in one day, a feat which has never been matched.

1796 The Armistice of Cherasco is signed by Napoleon Bonaparte and Vittorio Amedeo III, the King of Sardinia, expanding French territory along the Mediterranean coast.

1792 France invades the Austrian Netherlands (present day Belgium), beginning the French Revolutionary War.

APRIL 29

Today is the DAY OF REMEMBRANCE FOR ALL VICTIMS OF CHEMICAL WARFARE:
Today is the INTERNATIONAL DANCE DAY:

2013 A powerful explosion occurs in an office building in Prague, believed to have been caused by natural gas, injures 43 people.

2011 The Wedding of Prince William and Catherine Middleton takes place at Westminster Abbey in London.

Wedding of Prince William and Catherine Middleton:

2004 Oldsmobile builds its final car ending 107 years of production.

2004 Dick Cheney and George W. Bush testify before the 9/11 Commission in a closed, unrecorded hearing in the Oval Office.

9/11 Official Story:

“9/11 Truth Movement”:

Counter-“9/11 Truth Movement”:

9/11 Various Aspects:

Bush Family, CIA, and Osama bin Laden:

Al-Qaeda:

YouTube Videos on 9/11:

A Few Books, Among Many Others, relating to 9/11:

1999 The Avala Tower near Belgrade is destroyed in the NATO bombing of Yugoslavia.

1997 The Chemical Weapons Convention of 1993 enters into force, outlawing the production, stockpiling and use of chemical weapons by its signatories.

International Ban of Chemical Weapons and the Chemical Weapons Convention:

1994 Commodore International declares bankruptcy.

1992 Los Angeles riots: Riots in Los Angeles, following the acquittal of police officers charged with excessive force in the beating of Rodney King. Over the next three days 53 people are killed and hundreds of buildings are destroyed.

1991 The Racha earthquake of 7.0 Mw affects Georgia with a maximum MSK intensity of IX (Destructive), killing 270 people.

1991 A cyclone strikes the Chittagong district of southeastern Bangladesh with winds of around 155 miles per hour (249 km/h), killing at least 138,000 people and leaving as many as ten million homeless.

1986 Chernobyl disaster: American and European Spy Satellites capture the ruins of the 4th Reactor at the Chernobyl Power Plant.

Satellite Images of the Chernobyl Nuclear Disaster:

Chernobyl Nuclear Disaster:

1986 A fire at the Central library of the City of Los Angeles Public Library damages or destroys 400,000 books and other items.

1975 Vietnam War: The North Vietnamese Army completes its capture of all parts of South Vietnamese-held Trường Sa Islands.

Vietnam War in 1975:

Viet Nam War and Pertinent Events:

1975 Vietnam War: Operation Frequent Wind: The U.S. begins to evacuate U.S. citizens from Saigon before an expected North Vietnamese takeover. U.S. involvement in the war comes to an end.

Vietnam War in 1975:

1974 Watergate scandal: United States President Richard Nixon announces the release of edited transcripts of White House tape recordings relating to the scandal.

Watergate Scandal:

Watergate Tapes:

1971 US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site.

Nuclear Weapons and the United States:

1970 Vietnam War: United States and South Vietnamese forces invade Cambodia to hunt Viet Cong.

Vietnam War in 1970:

Viet Cong:

Viet Nam War and Pertinent Events:

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

1968 The controversial musical Hair, a product of the hippie counter-culture and sexual revolution of the 1960s, opens at the Biltmore Theatre on Broadway, with its song becoming anthems of the anti-Vietnam War movement.

1967 After refusing induction into the United States Army the day before (citing religious reasons), Muhammad Ali is stripped of his boxing title.

Muhammad Ali and Conscientious Objection:

Conscientious Objection and Objector:

History of Conscientious Objection:

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

1965 Pakistan‘s Space and Upper Atmosphere Research Commission (SUPARCO) successfully launches its seventh rocket in its Rehber series.

1964 US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site.

For some more pertinent information, see “1971 US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site,” mentioned above.

1953 The first US experimental 3D television broadcast showed an episode of Space Patrol on Los Angeles ABC affiliate KECA-TV.

1951 Tibetan delegates to the Central People’s Government arrive in Beijing and draft a Seventeen Point Agreement for Chinese sovereignty and Tibetan autonomy.

Tibetan Issues:

History of Tibet:

Economy of Tibet:

14^th Dalai Lama:

1946 Father Divine, a controversial religious leader who claims to be God, marries Edna Rose Ritchings, a celebrated anniversary in the International Peace Mission movement.

1946 The International Military Tribunal for the Far East convenes and indicts former Prime Minister of Japan Hideki Tojo and 28 former Japanese leaders for war crimes.

International Military Tribunal for the Far East:

Hideki TOJO:

Charter of the International Military Tribunal for the Far East:

International Military Tribunal for the Far East Charter (IMTFE) – UiO.no; or the same Charter on this site – Macaleter.edu;

Judgement by the International Military Tribunal for the Far East, and Other Pertinent Documents:

Radhabinod Pal and His Judgement:

War Crimes:

History of War Crimes:

Development of the “Crimes of Aggression” or the “Crimes against Peace” in the Modern Times:

Some Pertinent Articles:

1945 The Italian commune of Fornovo di Taro is liberated from German forces by Brazilian forces.

1945 The Dachau concentration camp is liberated by United States troops.

1945 World War II: Führerbunker: Adolf Hitler marries his longtime partner Eva Braun in a Berlin bunker and designates Admiral Karl Dönitz as his successor. Both Hitler and Braun commit suicide the following day.

Eva Braun and Adolf Hitler:

1945 World War II: The Captain-class frigate HMS Goodall (K479) is torpedoed by U-286 outside the Kola Inlet becoming the last ship of the Royal Navy sunk in the European theatre of World War II.

1945 World War II: Start of Operation Manna.

1945 World War II: The German army in Italy unconditionally surrenders to the Allies.

1944 World War II: British agent Nancy Wake, a leading figure in the French Resistance and the Gestapo‘s most wanted person, parachutes back into France to become a liaison between London and the local maquis group.

1916 Easter Rising: Martial law in Ireland is lifted and the rebellion is officially over with the surrender of Irish nationalists to British authorities in Dublin.

Easter Rising of 1916:

History of Ireland:

Irish War of Independence:

Sinn Féin:

History of Sinn Féin:

History of the IRA:

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

Sinn Féin, IRA and the Catholic Church:

1916 World War I: The British 6th Indian Division surrenders to Ottoman Forces at the Siege of Kut in one of the largest surrenders of British forces up to that point.

1910 The Parliament of the United Kingdom passes the People’s Budget, the first budget in British history with the expressed intent of redistributing wealth among the British public.

1903 A 30 million cubic-meter landslide kills 70 in Frank, North-West Territories, Canada.

1882 The “Elektromote“, forerunner of the trolleybus, is tested by Ernst Werner von Siemens in Berlin.

APRIL 30

Today is the INTERNATIONAL JAZZ DAY:

2014 A bomb blast in Ürümqi kills three people and injures 79 others.

2013 Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands abdicates and Willem-Alexander becomes King of the Netherlands.

2012 An overloaded ferry capsizes on the Brahmaputra River in India killing at least 103 people.

2009 Azerbaijan State Oil Academy shooting: Twelve people were killed (students and staff members) by an armed attacker.

2009 – Seven people are killed and another ten injured at a Queen’s Day parade in Apeldoorn, Netherlands in an attempted assassination on Queen Beatrix.

2009 Chrysler files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.

2008 Two skeletal remains found near Yekaterinburg, Russia, are confirmed by Russian scientists to be the remains of Alexei Nikolaevich, Tsarevich of Russia and Grand Duchess Anastasia Nikolaevna, one of his sisters.

2004 US media release graphic photos of American soldiers abusing and sexually humiliating Iraqi prisoners at Abu Ghraib prison.

2000 Canonization of Faustina Kowalska in the presence of 200,000 people and the first Divine Mercy Sunday celebrated worldwide.

1995 US President Bill Clinton becomes the first President to visit Northern Ireland.

1994 Formula One racing driver Roland Ratzenberger is killed in a crash during the qualifying session of the San Marino Grand Prix run at Autodromo Enzo e Dino Ferrari outside Imola, Italy.

1993 CERN announces World Wide Web protocols will be free.

1985 France performs nuclear test at Muruora Island.

Muruora:

History of France Nuclear Tests in the Pacific:

France’s Nuclear Tests:

1982 The Bijon Setu massacre occurs in Calcutta.

1980 The Iranian Embassy siege begins in London.

1980 Beatrix becomes Queen of the Netherlands.

1975 Fall of Saigon: Communist forces gain control of Saigon. The Vietnam War formally ends with the unconditional surrender of South Vietnamese president Dương Văn Minh.

1973 Watergate scandal: US President Richard Nixon announces that White House Counsel John Dean has been fired and that other top aides, most notably H. R. Haldeman and John Ehrlichman, have resigned.

Watergate Scandal:

Watergate Tapes:

1966 The Church of Satan is established at the Black House in San Francisco.

1963 The Bristol Bus Boycott is held in Bristol to protest the Bristol Omnibus Company‘s refusal to employ Black or Asian bus crews, drawing national attention to racial discrimination in the United Kingdom.

Bristol Bus Boycott of 1963:

1961 K-19, the first Soviet nuclear submarine equipped with nuclear missiles, is commissioned.

1957 Supplementary Convention on the Abolition of Slavery entered into force.

1948 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:

1948 In Bogotá, Colombia, the Organization of American States is established.

1947 In Nevada, the Boulder Dam is renamed the Hoover Dam a second time.

1945 World War II: Führerbunker: Adolf Hitler and Eva Braun commit suicide after being married for less than 40 hours. Soviet soldiers raise the Victory Banner over the Reichstag building.

1943 World War II: Operation Mincemeat: The submarine HMS Seraph surfaces in the Mediterranean Sea off the coast of Spain to deposit a dead man planted with false invasion plans and dressed as a British military intelligence officer.

1939 NBC inaugurates its regularly scheduled television service in New York City, broadcasting President Franklin D. Roosevelt‘s N.Y. World’s Fair opening day ceremonial address.

1939 The 1939-40 New York World’s Fair opens.

1938 The animated cartoon short Porky’s Hare Hunt debuts in movie theaters, introducing Happy Rabbit (a prototype of Bugs Bunny).

1937 The Commonwealth of the Philippines holds a plebiscite for Filipino women on whether they should be extended the right to suffrage; over 90% would vote in the affirmative.

1927 The Federal Industrial Institute for Women opens in Alderson, West Virginia, as the first women’s federal prison in the United States.

1925 Automaker Dodge Brothers, Inc is sold to Dillon, Read & Co. for US$146 million plus $50 million for charity.

1920 Peru becomes a signatory to the Buenos Aires copyright treaty.

1907 Honolulu, Hawaii becomes an independent city.

1900 Hawaii becomes a territory of the United States, with Sanford B. Dole as governor.

History of Hawaii:

1894 Coxey’s Army reaches Washington, D.C. to protest the unemployment caused by the Panic of 1893.

1885 Governor of New York David B. Hill signs legislation creating the Niagara Reservation, New York’s first state park, ensuring that Niagara Falls will not be devoted solely to industrial and commercial use.

1871 The Camp Grant massacre takes place in Arizona Territory.

1863 A 65-man French Foreign Legion infantry patrol fights a force of nearly 2,000 Mexican soldiers to nearly the last man in Hacienda Camarón, Mexico.

1838 Nicaragua declares independence from the Central American Federation.

History of Nicaragua:

MAY 01

Today is the MAY DAY:
Today is the INTERNATIONAL WORKERS’ DAY:

2011 Barack Obama announces that Osama bin Laden, the suspected mastermind behind the September 11 attacks has been killed by United States special forces in Abbottabad, Pakistan. Due to the time difference between the United States and Pakistan, bin Laden was actually killed on May 2.

2011 Pope John Paul II is beatified by his successor, Pope Benedict XVI.

Pope John Paul II:

2009 Same-sex marriage is legalized in Sweden.

Sweden and the Same-Sex Marriage:

LGBT Rights:

2008 The London Agreement on translation of European patents, concluded in 2000, enters into force in 14 of the 34 Contracting States to the European Patent Convention.

2007 The Los Angeles May Day mêlée occurs, in which the Los Angeles Police Department‘s response to a May Day pro-immigration rally become a matter of controversy.

2006 The Puerto Rican government closes the Department of Education and 42 other government agencies due to significant shortages in cash flow.

2004 Cyprus, Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovakia, and Slovenia join the European Union, celebrated at the residence of the Irish President in Dublin.

2003 Invasion of Iraq: In what becomes known as the “Mission Accomplished” speech, on board the USS Abraham Lincoln (off the coast of California), U.S. President George W. Bush declares that “major combat operations in Iraq have ended”.

2001 Philippine President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo declares the existence of “a state of rebellion”, hours after thousands of supporters of her arrested predecessor, Joseph Estrada, storm towards the presidential palace at the height of the EDSA III rebellion.

1999 Spongebob SquarePants premieres on Nickelodeon after the 1999 Kids’ Choice Awards.

1999 The body of British climber George Mallory is found on Mount Everest, 75 years after his disappearance in 1924.

1995 Croatian forces launch Operation Flash during the Croatian War of Independence.

Operation Flash:

1994 Three-time Formula One world champion Ayrton Senna is killed in an accident during the San Marino Grand Prix at Imola.

1993 Dingiri Banda Wijetunga became president of Sri Lanka automatically after killing of R Premadasa in LTTE bomb explosion

1990 The former Philippine Episcopal Church (supervised by the Episcopal Church of the United States of America) is granted full autonomy and raised to the status of an Autocephalous Anglican Province and renamed the Episcopal Church of the Philippines.

1989 Disney-MGM Studios opens at Walt Disney World near Orlando, Florida, United States.

1987 Pope John Paul II beatifies Edith Stein, a Jewish-born Carmelite nun who was gassed in the Nazi concentration camp at Auschwitz.

Edith Stein:

1983 Greek composer Mikis Theodorakis is awarded the Lenin Peace Prize.

1982 Operation Black Buck: The Royal Air Force attacks the Argentine Air Force during Falklands War.

1978 Japan’s Naomi Uemura, travelling by dog sled, becomes the first person to reach the North Pole alone.

1977 Thirty-six people are killed in Taksim Square, Istanbul, during the Labour Day celebrations.

1974 The Argentine terrorist organization Montoneros is expelled from Plaza de Mayo by president Juan Perón.

1971 Amtrak (the National Railroad Passenger Corporation) takes over operation of U.S. passenger rail service.

1970 Protests erupt in Seattle, following the announcement by U.S. President Richard Nixon that U.S. Forces in Vietnam would pursue enemy troops into Cambodia, a neutral country.

Anti-Vietnam War Movements:

1965 Battle of Dong-Yin, a naval conflict between ROC and PRC, takes place.

1961 The Prime Minister of Cuba, Fidel Castro, proclaims Cuba a socialist nation and abolishes elections.

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:

1960 Cold War: U-2 incident: Francis Gary Powers, in a Lockheed U-2 spyplane, is shot down over the Soviet Union, sparking a diplomatic crisis.

1960 Formation of the western Indian states of Gujarat and Maharashtra. Also known as “Maharashtra Day“.

1957 Thirty-four people are killed when a Vickers Viking airliner crashes in Hampshire England.

1956 A doctor in Japan reports an “epidemic of an unknown disease of the central nervous system”, marking the official discovery of Minamata disease.

Minamata Disease:

1956 The polio vaccine developed by Jonas Salk is made available to the public.

Polio Vaccine:

Jonas Salk:

1950 Guam is organized as a United States commonwealth.

History of Guam:

1948 The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (North Korea) is established, with Kim Il-sung as leader.

Kim Il-sung:

Democratic People’s Republic of Korea:

1947 Portella della Ginestra massacre against May Day celebrations in Sicily by the bandit and separatist leader Salvatore Giuliano where 11 persons are killed and 33 wounded.

Portella della Ginestra Massacre:

Salvatore Giuliano:

1946 The Paris Peace Conference concludes that the islands of the Dodecanese should be returned to Greece by Italy.

[Note that the TWH (i.e. This Week in History) considers that Wikipedia’s description of the Paris Peace Conference on May 1, 1946, as mentioned above, may be wrong because the Paris Peace Conference of 1946 was held from July 29 to October 15, 1946. In fact, Wikipedia, in its article, “Paris Peace Treaties, 1947”, also writes as follows: “The Paris Peace Treaties were signed on 10 February 1947, as the outcome of the Paris Peace Conference, held from 29 July to 15 October 1946.”]

Paris Peace Conference of 1946:

1946 Start of three-year Pilbara strike of Indigenous Australians.

1945 World War II: Yugoslav Partisans free Trieste.

World War II and Trieste:

Yugoslavia during World War II:

AVNOJ, Yugoslavia and World War II:

History of Yugoslavia:

1945 World War II: Up to 2,500 people die in a mass suicide in Demmin following the advance of the Red Army.

Mass Suicide in Demmin of 1945:

1945 World War II: Nazi propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels and his wife Magda commit suicide in the Reich Garden outside the Führerbunker. Their children are also killed by having cyanide pills inserted into their mouths by their mother, Magda.

1945 World War II: A German newsreader officially announces that Adolf Hitler has “fallen at his command post in the Reich Chancellery fighting to the last breath against Bolshevism and for Germany”. The Soviet flag is raised over the Reich Chancellery, by order of Stalin.

1944 World War II: Two hundred Communist prisoners are shot by the Germans at Kaisariani in Athens, Greece in reprisal for the killing of General Franz Krech by partisans at Molaoi.

1941 World War II: German forces launch a major attack on Tobruk.

1940 The 1940 Summer Olympics are cancelled due to war.

1940 Summer Olympics:

1933 The Catholic Worker begins publishing.

Catholic Worker Movement:

1933 The Humanist Manifesto I published.

Humanist Manifesto I:

1933 The Roca–Runciman Treaty between Argentina and Great Britain is signed by Julio Argentino Roca, Jr., and Sir Walter Runciman.

1931 The Empire State Building is dedicated in New York City.

1930 The dwarf planet Pluto is officially named.

1927 The Union Labor Life Insurance Company is founded by the American Federation of Labor.

1927 The first cooked meals on a scheduled flight are introduced on an Imperial Airways flight from London to Paris.

1925 The first Ritual of the Calling of an Engineer is held at the University of Toronto, Canada.

1925 The All-China Federation of Trade Unions is officially founded. Today it is the largest trade union in the world, with 134 million members.

1915 The RMS Lusitania departs from New York City on her two hundred and second, and final, crossing of the North Atlantic. Six days later, the ship is torpedoed off the coast of Ireland with the loss of 1,198 lives.

1900 The Scofield Mine disaster kills over 200 men in Scofield, Utah in what is to date the fifth-worst mining accident in United States history.

1898 Spanish–American War: Battle of Manila Bay: The United States Navy destroys the Spanish Pacific fleet in the first battle of the war.

1894 Coxey’s Army, the first significant American protest march, arrives in Washington, D.C.

1886 Rallies are held throughout the United States demanding the eight-hour work day, culminating in the Haymarket affair in Chicago, in commemoration of which May 1 is celebrated as International Workers’ Day in many countries.

1885 The original Chicago Board of Trade Building opens for business.

1887 Proclamation of the demand for eight-hour workday in the United States.

1875 Alexandra Palace reopens after being burned down in a fire in 1873.

1869 The Folies Bergère opens in Paris.

1866 The Memphis Race Riots begin. In three days time, 46 blacks and two whites were killed. Reports of the atrocities influenced passage of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution.

1865 The Empire of Brazil, Argentina, and Uruguay sign the Treaty of the Triple Alliance.

________________________________

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_25 to_may_1; http://www.onthisday.com/events/april/25 to may/1; http://www.brainyhistory.com/days/april_25.html to may_1.html; and other pertinent web sites and/or documents, mentioned above.)

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.
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 25 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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