This Week in History
HISTORY, 28 Aug 2023
Satoshi Ashikaga - TRANSCEND Media Service
28 Aug – 3 Sep 2023
Quote of the Week:
“An eye for an eye only ends up making the whole world blind.” – Mahatma Gandhi
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28 August
632 Fatimah, daughter of the Islamic prophet Muhammad, dies, with her cause of death being a controversial topic among the Sunni Muslims and Shia Muslims.
– August 28, 632: Controversial Death of Fatimah, Daughter of Muhammad – History and Headlines
– Attack on Fatima’s house – Wikipedia
– Burial of Fatima – Wikipedia
1189 Third Crusade: The Crusaders begin the Siege of Acre under Guy of Lusignan.
– Crusades Timeline – World History Encyclopedia
– How many Crusades were there, and when did they take place? | Britannica
– Crusades – World History Encyclopedia
1521 Ottoman wars in Europe: The Ottoman Turks occupy Belgrade.
1542 Turkish–Portuguese War: Battle of Wofla: The Portuguese are scattered, their leader Christovão da Gama is captured and later executed.
1810 Napoleonic Wars: The French Navy accepts the surrender of a British Royal Navy fleet at the Battle of Grand Port.
– Timeline of the Napoleonic era – Wikipedia
– Napoleon’s strategies and tactics in the Napoleonic Wars | Britannica
– The Napoleonic Wars – Military History – Oxford Bibliographies
– French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars – Wikipedia
1833 The Slavery Abolition Act 1833 receives royal assent, making the purchase or ownership of slaves illegal in the British Empire with exceptions.
1849 Revolutions of 1848 in the Austrian Empire: After a month-long siege, Venice, which had declared itself independent as the Republic of San Marco, surrenders to Austria.
1850 Richard Wagner’s Lohengrin premieres at the Staatskapelle Weimar.
– Richard Wagner: Prelude to «Lohengrin», Simon Rattle – YouTube
1879 Anglo-Zulu War: Cetshwayo, last king of the Zulus, is captured by the British.
– The Disastrous Anglo-Zulu War – YouTube
– Major Events of the Anglo-Zulu War timeline | Timetoast timelines
– Anglo-Zulu Wars 1879-1896 | South African History Online (sahistory.org.za)
– The causes of the Anglo-Zulu War of 1879
– The British Took On 30,000 Men & Lost: The Great Zulu Victory | War History Online
1916 World War I: Germany declares war on Romania.
1916 World War I: Italy declares war on Germany.
1944 World War II: Marseille and Toulon are liberated.
1990 Gulf War: Iraq declares Kuwait to be its newest province.
– Timeline of the Gulf War (1990–1991) – Wikipedia
– Iraqi invasion of Kuwait – Wikipedia
– Gulf War syndrome – Wikipedia
1998 Second Congo War: Loyalist troops backed by Angolan and Zimbabwean forces repulse the RCD and Rwandan offensive on Kinshasa.
– Timeline: Democratic Republic of Congo’s crisis at a glance (concernusa.org)
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29 August
1315 Battle of Montecatini: The army of the Republic of Pisa, commanded by Uguccione della Faggiuola, wins a decisive victory against the joint forces of the Kingdom of Naples and the Republic of Florence despite being outnumbered.
1526 Battle of Mohács: The Ottoman Turks led by Suleiman the Magnificent defeat and kill the last Jagiellonian king of Hungary and Bohemia.
1541 The Ottoman Turks capture Buda, the capital of the Hungarian Kingdom.
1842 Treaty of Nanking signing ends the First Opium War.
– Opium Wars | Timeline | Britannica
– How The Opium War Changed China Forever | The National Interest
– Drugs and War: What Is the Relationship? | Annual Review of Political Science (annualreviews.org)
1885 Gottlieb Daimler patents the world’s first internal combustion motorcycle, the Reitwagen.
1898 The Goodyear tire company is founded in Akron, Ohio.
1910 The Japan–Korea Treaty of 1910, also known as the Japan–Korea Annexation Treaty, becomes effective, officially starting the period of Japanese rule in Korea.
1911 Ishi, considered the last Native American to make contact with European Americans, emerges from the wilderness of northeastern California.
1941 World War II: Tallinn, the capital of Estonia, is occupied by Nazi Germany following an occupation by the Soviet Union.
1944 World War II: Slovak National Uprising takes place as 60,000 Slovak troops turn against the Nazis.
1949 Soviet atomic bomb project: The Soviet Union tests its first atomic bomb, known as First Lightning or Joe 1, at Semipalatinsk, Kazakhstan.
– Soviet Atomic Program – 1946 – Nuclear Museum
– How Did The Soviets Learn To Make An Atom Bomb? – YouTube
– Nuclear weapon – Soviet Union, Cold War, Arms Race | Britannica
– From the Russian Perspective: The Cold War Atomic Intelligence Game, 1945–70
– Radiological Conditions at the Semipalatinsk Test Site, Kazakhstan: | IAEA
– Slow Death In Kazakhstan’s Land Of Nuclear Tests (rferl.org)
– The nuclear sins of the Soviet Union live on in Kazakhstan (nature.com)
– How Kazakhstan Fought Back Against Soviet Nuclear Tests – Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
1966 Leading Egyptian thinker Sayyid Qutb is executed for plotting the assassination of President Gamal Abdel Nasser.
1997 At least 98 villagers are killed by the Armed Islamic Group of Algeria GIA in the Rais massacre, Algeria.
– Armed Islamic Group (GIA) | Encyclopedia.com
– Algerian Civil War – Wikipedia
– List of massacres during the Algerian Civil War | Military Wiki | Fandom
– General Smail Lamari and the Massacres of 1997-8 – Algeria-Watch
– BBC NEWS | Programmes | From Our Own Correspondent | Violent past haunts Algeria’s fresh start
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30 August
70 Titus ends the siege of Jerusalem after destroying Herod’s Temple.
1721 The Great Northern War between Sweden and Russia ends in the Treaty of Nystad.
1813 Creek War: Fort Mims massacre: Creek “Red Sticks” kill over 500 settlers (including over 250 armed militia) in Fort Mims, north of Mobile, Alabama.
1835 Australia: Melbourne, Victoria is founded.
1945 The Japanese occupation of Hong Kong comes to an end.
1962 Japan conducts a test of the NAMC YS-11, its first aircraft since World War II and its only successful commercial aircraft from before or after the war.
1963 The Moscow–Washington hotline between the leaders of the U.S. and the Soviet Union goes into operation.
1981 President Mohammad-Ali Rajai and Prime Minister Mohammad-Javad Bahonar of Iran are assassinated in a bombing committed by the People’s Mujahedin of Iran.
1995 Bosnian War: NATO launches Operation Deliberate Force against Bosnian Serb forces.
– Bosnian War timeline | Timetoast timelines
– NATO intervention in Bosnia and Herzegovina – Wikipedia
– Bosnia and Herzegovina–NATO relations – Wikipedia
1998 Second Congo War: Armed forces of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and their Angolan and Zimbabwean allies recapture Matadi and the Inga dams in the western DRC from RCD and Rwandan troops.
– History of the Second Congo War (thoughtco.com)
– Timeline: Democratic Republic of Congo’s crisis at a glance (concernusa.org)
– Eastern Congo: A Legacy of Intervention: 1960-2023
2014 Prime Minister of Lesotho Tom Thabane flees to South Africa as the army allegedly stages a coup.
2012 The last remaining American troops leave Afghanistan, ending U.S. involvement in the war.
– Timeline of the War in Afghanistan (2001–2021) – Wikipedia
– Costs of the 20-year war on terror: $8 trillion and 900,000 deaths | Brown University
– United States documents leak of the War in Afghanistan – Wikipedia
– Afghan War Diary, 2004-2010 – WikiLeaks
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31 August
1795 War of the First Coalition: The British capture Trincomalee (present-day Sri Lanka) from the Dutch in order to keep it out of French hands.
1813 Peninsular War: Spanish troops repel a French attack in the Battle of San Marcial.
1895 German Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin patents his navigable balloon.
1907 Russia and the United Kingdom sign the Anglo-Russian Convention, by which the UK recognizes Russian preeminence in northern Persia, while Russia recognizes British preeminence in southeastern Persia and Afghanistan. Both powers pledge not to interfere in Tibet.
– Avalon Project – The Anglo-Russian Entente – 1907 (yale.edu)
– “The Anglo-Russian Convention of 1907 made a neutral buffer of Tibet, recognized Britain’s interest in Afghanistan, and partitioned Persia into spheres of influence.”
1918 World War I: Start of the Battle of Mont Saint-Quentin, a successful assault by the Australian Corps during the Hundred Days Offensive.
1920 Polish–Soviet War: A decisive Polish victory in the Battle of Komarów.
1939 Nazi Germany mounts a false flag attack on the Gleiwitz radio station, creating an excuse to attack Poland the following day, thus starting World War II in Europe.
1941 World War II: Serbian paramilitary forces defeat Germans in the Battle of Loznica.
1963 Crown Colony of North Borneo (now Sabah) achieves self governance.
1991 Kyrgyzstan declares its independence from the Soviet Union.
1993 Russia completes removing its troops from Lithuania.
1994 Russia completes removing its troops from Estonia.
1996 Saddam Hussein‘s troops seized Irbil after the Kurdish Masoud Barzani appealed for help to defeat his Kurdish rival PUK.
– Iraqi–Kurdish conflict – Wikipedia
– Persecution of Feyli Kurds under Saddam Hussein – Wikipedia
– The Kurds’ Story | The Survival Of Saddam | FRONTLINE | PBS
– The Kurds – A Chronology | The Survival Of Saddam | FRONTLINE | PBS
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1 September
1880 The army of Mohammad Ayub Khan is routed by the British at the Battle of Kandahar, ending the Second Anglo-Afghan War.
1923 The Great Kantō earthquake devastates Tokyo and Yokohama, killing about 105,000 people.
1939 World War II: Nazi Germany and Slovakia invade Poland, beginning the European phase of World War II.
1939 J. Robert Oppenheimer and his student Hartland Snyder publish the Oppenheimer–Snyder model, proving for the first time in contemporary physics how black holes could develop.
1967 Six-Day War: The Khartoum Resolution is issued at the Arab Summit, and eight countries adopt the “three ‘no’s against Israel”.
– Timeline: The Six Day War : NPR
– EVENTS LEADING UP TO SIX-DAY WAR
1974 The SR-71 Blackbird sets (and holds) the record for flying from New York to London in the time of one hour, 54 minutes and 56.4 seconds at a speed of 1,435.587 miles per hour (2,310.353 km/h).
1969 A coup in Libya brings Muammar Gaddafi to power.
– Timeline: Gaddafi’s 42 years in power | Reuters
– History of Libya under Muammar Gaddafi – Wikipedia
– Reception and legacy of Muammar Gaddafi – Wikipedia
1981 Central African President David Dacko is ousted from power in a bloodless military coup led by General André Kolingba.
1982 The United States Air Force Space Command is founded.
1983 Cold War: Korean Air Lines Flight 007 is shot down by a Soviet Union jet fighter when the commercial aircraft enters Soviet airspace, killing all 269 on board, including Congressman Lawrence McDonald.
– Timeline of events in the Cold War – Wikipedia
– The Cold War: Costs and Results
– Cold War propaganda (alphahistory.com)
– Propaganda Campaigns During the Cold War (stanford.edu)
2008 Iraq War: The United States Armed Forces transfers control of Anbar Province to the Iraqi Armed Forces.
– 2003 invasion of Iraq – Wikipedia
– Timeline of the Iraq War – Wikipedia
– Financial cost of the Iraq War – Wikipedia
– The Costs of War in Iraq | Costs of War (brown.edu)
– Casualties of the Iraq War – Wikipedia
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2 September
31BC Final War of the Roman Republic: Battle of Actium: Off the western coast of Greece, forces of Octavian defeat troops under Mark Antony and Cleopatra.
1666 The Great Fire of London breaks out and burns for three days, destroying 10,000 buildings, including Old St Paul’s Cathedral.
1807 Napoleonic Wars: The British Royal Navy bombards Copenhagen with fire bombs and phosphorus rockets to prevent Denmark from surrendering its fleet to Napoleon.
– Napoleonic Wars Timeline – World History Encyclopedia
– Napoleonic tactics – Wikipedia
1856 The Tianjing incident takes place in Nanjing, China.
1898 Battle of Omdurman: British and Egyptian troops defeat Sudanese tribesmen and establish British dominance in Sudan.
1939 World War II: Following the start of the invasion of Poland the previous day, the Free City of Danzig (now Gdańsk, Poland) is annexed by Nazi Germany.
1944 The last execution of a Finn in Finland takes place when soldier Olavi Laiho is executed by shooting in Oulu.
1945 World War II: The Japanese Instrument of Surrender is signed by Japan and the major warring powers aboard the battleship USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay.
1945 Communist leader Ho Chi Minh proclaimed the Democratic Republic of Vietnam after the end of the Nguyễn dynasty.
1946 The Interim Government of India is formed, headed by Jawaharlal Nehru as vice president with the powers of a Prime Minister.
1957 President Ngô Đình Diệm of South Vietnam becomes the first foreign head of state to make a state visit to Australia.
1960 The first election of the Tibetan Parliament-in-Exile. The Tibetan community observes this date as Democracy Day.
1968 Operation OAU begins during the Nigerian Civil War.
– Nigerian Civil War – Timeline
– Nigerian Civil War (1967-1970) • (blackpast.org)
– List of wars involving Nigeria – Wikipedia
– Timeline of Nigerian history – Wikipedia
1985 Sri Lankan Civil War: Sri Lankan Tamil politicians and former MPs M. Alalasundaram and V. Dharmalingam are shot dead.
– The Sri Lankan Civil War and Its History, Revisited in 2020 (harvard.edu)
– Overview of the Sri Lankan Civil War (thoughtco.com)
1990 Transnistria is unilaterally proclaimed a Soviet republic; the Soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev declares the decision null and void.
1998 The UN‘s International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda finds Jean-Paul Akayesu, the former mayor of a small town in Rwanda, guilty of nine counts of genocide.
2008 Google launches its Google Chrome web browser.
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3 September
1411 The Treaty of Selymbria is concluded between the Ottoman Empire and the Republic of Venice.
1855 American Indian Wars: In Nebraska, 700 soldiers under United States General William S. Harney avenge the Grattan massacre by attacking a Sioux village and killing 100 men, women and children.
1870 Franco-Prussian War: The Siege of Metz begins, resulting in a decisive Prussian victory on October 23.
1914 World War I: Start of the Battle of Grand Couronné, a German assault against French positions on high ground near the city of Nancy.
1939 World War II: France, the United Kingdom, New Zealand and Australia declare war on Germany after the invasion of Poland, forming the Allied nations. The Viceroy of India also declares war, but without consulting the provincial legislatures.
1941 The Holocaust: Karl Fritzsch, deputy camp commandant of the Auschwitz concentration camp, experiments with the use of Zyklon B in the gassing of Soviet POWs.
– Auschwitz | Holocaust Encyclopedia (ushmm.org)
– Auschwitz: Key Dates | Holocaust Encyclopedia (ushmm.org)
– Nazi human experimentation – Wikipedia
– “At the Auschwitz camp in German-occupied Poland, they conducted experiments with Zyklon B (previously used for fumigation) by gassing some 600 Soviet prisoners of war and 250 ill prisoners in September 1941.”
1944 Holocaust: Diarist Anne Frank and her family are placed on the last transport train from the Westerbork transit camp to the Auschwitz concentration camp, arriving three days later.
1945 A three-day celebration begins in China, following the Victory over Japan Day on September 2.
1954 The People’s Liberation Army begins shelling the Republic of China-controlled islands of Quemoy, starting the First Taiwan Strait Crisis.
– The Taiwan Strait: A History Of Crisis Since 1949 (ndtv.com)
– China-Taiwan Conflict: Explained | Taiwan Strait Crisis (popularmechanics.com)
– China military drills send ‘stern warning’ to Taiwan after US visit | Conflict News | Al Jazeera
– Legacy and Lessons of the Second Taiwan Strait Crisis | Nippon.com
1981 The Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women, an international bill of rights for women, is instituted by the United Nations.
– Gender equality and women’s rights | OHCHR
– What does gender equality look like today? | UN Women – Headquarters
– The impact of gender discrimination on a Woman’s Mental Health – eClinicalMedicine (thelancet.com)
1987 In a coup d’état in Burundi, President Jean-Baptiste Bagaza is deposed by Major Pierre Buyoya.
2004 Beslan school siege results in over 330 fatalities, including 186 children.
2016 The U.S. and China, together responsible for 40% of the world’s carbon emissions, both formally ratify the Paris global climate agreement.
– Greenhouse gas emissions by China – Wikipedia
– Greenhouse gas emissions by the United States – Wikipedia
– Climate change in China – Wikipedia
– Climate change in the United States – Wikipedia
2017 North Korea conducts its sixth and most powerful nuclear test.
– Timeline of the North Korean nuclear program – Wikipedia
– North Korea Nuclear Overview (nti.org)
– Nuclear Weapons Program – North Korea (fas.org)
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Satoshi Ashikaga is a member of the TRANSCEND Network for Peace Development Environment. Having worked as researcher, development program/project officer, legal protection/humanitarian assistance officer, human rights monitor-negotiator, managing-editor, and more, he prefers a peaceful and prudent life. His previous work experiences, including those in war zones and war-torn zones, constantly remind him of the invaluableness of peace.
Tags: History
This article originally appeared on Transcend Media Service (TMS) on 28 Aug 2023.
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