This Week in History

HISTORY, 23 Oct 2023

Satoshi Ashikaga - TRANSCEND Media Service

23-29 October 2023

Quote of the Week:

“All that we are is the result of what we have thought: it is founded on our thoughts and made up of our thoughts.” – Gautama Buddha

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23 October

1295  The first treaty forming the Auld Alliance between Scotland and France against England is signed in Paris.

1850  The first National Women’s Rights Convention begins in Worcester, Massachusetts.

1911  The Italo-Turkish War sees the first use of an airplane in combat when an Italian pilot makes a reconnaissance flight.

1912  First Balkan War: The Battle of Kumanovo between the Serbian and Ottoman armies begins.

1940  Adolf Hitler and Francisco Franco meet at Hendaye to discuss the possibility of Spain entering the Second World War.

1942  World War II: Allied forces commence the Second Battle of El Alamein, which proves to be the key turning point in the North African campaign.

1942  World War II: The Battle for Henderson Field begins on Guadalcanal.

1944  World War II: The Battle of Leyte Gulf begins.

1956  Secret police shoot several anti-communist protesters, igniting the Hungarian Revolution.

1965  Vietnam War: The 1st Cavalry Division (Airmobile), in conjunction with the Army of the Republic of Vietnam, launches an operation seeking to destroy Communist forces during the siege of Plei Me.

1972  Vietnam War: Operation Linebacker, a US bombing campaign against North Vietnam in response to its Easter Offensive, ends after five months.

1983  Lebanese Civil War: The U.S. Marines Corps barracks in Beirut is hit by a truck bomb, killing 241 U.S. military personnel. A French Army.

[1]      Timeline of the Lebanese Civil War:

[2]      Hezbollah:

[3]      U.S. and the Lebanese Civil War:

[4]      Lebanese Civil War and the Intelligence Community:

1989  The Hungarian Republic officially replaces the communist Hungarian People’s Republic.

1991  Signing of the Paris Peace Accords which ends the Cambodian–Vietnamese War.

1998  Israel and the Palestinian Authority sign the Wye River Memorandum.

2011  The Libyan National Transitional Council deems the Libyan Civil War over.

2022  Xi Jinping is elected as General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party by the Central Committee, beginning a third term of the paramount leader of China.

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24 October

1360  The Treaty of Brétigny is ratified, marking the end of the first phase of the Hundred Years’ War.

1648  The Peace of Westphalia is signed, marking the end of the Thirty Years’ War and the Eighty Years’ War.

1795  Poland is completely consumed by Russia, Prussia and Austria.

1812  Napoleonic Wars: The Battle of Maloyaroslavets takes place near Moscow.

1851  William Lassell discovers the moons Umbriel and Ariel orbiting Uranus.

1911  Orville Wright remains in the air nine minutes and 45 seconds in a glider at Kill Devil Hills, North Carolina.

1912  First Balkan War: The Battle of Kumanovo concludes with the Serbian victory against the Ottoman Empire.

1930  A bloodless coup d’état in Brazil ends the First Republic, replacing it with the Vargas Era.

1930  Johan Galtung, a Norwegian sociologist who is the principal founder of the discipline of peace and conflict studies,  is born in Oslo.

1945  The United Nations Charter comes into effect.

[1]      History of the United Nations Charter:

[2]      Problems of the United Nations Charter:

1949  The cornerstone of the United Nations Headquarters is laid.

1954  US President Dwight D. Eisenhower pledges United States support to South Vietnam.

[1]      Timeline of America’s Vietnam War:

[2]      From Eisenhower to Nixon:

[3]      The U.S. Eventually Abandons South Vietnam:

1964  Northern Rhodesia gains independence from the United Kingdom and becomes Zambia.

1975  In Iceland, 90% of women take part in a national strike, refusing to work in protest of gender inequality.

1980  The government of Poland legalizes the Solidarity trade union.

[1]      Solidarity (Solidarność) Movement 1980-1989:

[2]      Solidarity, CIA, Vatican and Bankers:

[4]      Lech Walesa:

2008  “Bloody Friday” saw many of the world’s stock exchanges experience the worst declines in their history, with drops of around 10% in most indices.

2014  The China National Space Administration launches an experimental lunar mission, Chang’e 5-T1, which will loop behind the Moon and return to Earth.

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25 October

1747  War of the Austrian Succession: A British fleet under Admiral Edward Hawke defeats the French at the Second Battle of Cape Finisterre.

1812   War of 1812: The American frigate, USS United States, commanded by Stephen Decatur, captures the British frigate HMS Macedonian.

1822  Greek War of Independence: The First Siege of Missolonghi begins.

1854  The Battle of Balaclava takes place during the Crimean War. It is soon memorialized in verse as The Charge of the Light Brigade.

1900  The United Kingdom annexes the Transvaal.

1944  World War II: Heinrich Himmler orders a crackdown on the Edelweiss Pirates, a loosely organized youth culture in Nazi Germany that had assisted army deserters and others to hide from the Third Reich.

1944  World War II: The final attempt of the Imperial Japanese Navy to win the war climaxes at the Battle of Leyte Gulf.

1945  Fifty years of Japanese administration of Taiwan formally ends when the Republic of China assumes control.

1949  The Battle of Guningtou in the Taiwan Strait begins.

1962  Cuban Missile Crisis: Adlai Stevenson shows the United Nations Security Council reconnaissance photographs of Soviet ballistic missiles in Cuba.

1971  The People’s Republic of China replaces the Republic of China at the United Nations.

1973  Egypt and Israel accept United Nations Security Council Resolution 339.

1980  Proceedings on the Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction conclude.

1983  The United States and its Caribbean allies invade Grenada, six days after Prime Minister Maurice Bishop and several of his supporters are executed in a coup d’état.

1990  The Kazakh Soviet Socialist Republic declares its sovereignty from the Soviet Union.

1997  After a civil war, Denis Sassou Nguesso proclaims himself President of the Republic of the Congo.

2001  Microsoft releases Windows XP, which becomes one of Microsoft’s most successful operating systems.

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26 October

1597  Imjin War: Korean Admiral Yi Sun-sin routs the Japanese Navy of 300 ships with only 13 ships at the Battle of Myeongnyang.

1640  The Treaty of Ripon is signed, restoring peace between Covenanter Scotland and King Charles I of England.

1813  War of 1812: A combined force of British regulars, Canadian militia and Mohawks defeat the United States Army in the Battle of the Chateauguay.

1860  Unification of Italy: The Expedition of the Thousand ends when Giuseppe Garibaldi presents his conquests to King Victor Emmanuel of Sardinia.

1909  Japanese occupation of Korea: An Jung-geun assassinates Japan’s Resident-General of Korea.

1912  First Balkan War: The Ottomans lose the cities of Thessaloniki and Skopje.

1917   World War I: Brazil declares war on the Central Powers.

1918  World War I: Erich Ludendorff, quartermaster-general of the Imperial German Army, is dismissed by Kaiser Wilhelm II for refusing to cooperate in peace negotiations.

1937   Nazi Germany begins expulsions of 18,000 Polish Jews.

1944  World War II: The Battle of Leyte Gulf ends with an overwhelming American victory.

1947  Partition of India: The Maharaja of Kashmir and Jammu signs the Instrument of Accession with India, beginning the Indo-Pakistani War of 1947–1948 and the Kashmir conflict.

1955  After the last Allied troops have left the country, and following the provisions of the Austrian Independence Treaty, Austria declares that it will never join a military alliance.

1956  Hungarian Revolution: In the towns of Mosonmagyaróvár and Esztergom, Hungarian secret police forces massacre civilians. As rebel strongholds in Budapest hold, fighting spreads throughout the country.

1958  Pan American Airways makes the first commercial flight of the Boeing 707 from New York City to Paris.

1967  Mohammad Reza Pahlavi crowns himself Emperor of Iran.

1977  Ali Maow Maalin, the last natural case of smallpox, develops a rash in Somalia. The World Health Organization and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention consider this date to be the anniversary of the eradication of smallpox, the most spectacular success of vaccination.

1979  Park Chung Hee, President of South Korea, is assassinated by Korean CIA head Kim Jae-gyu.

1985  The Australian government returns ownership of Uluru to the local Pitjantjatjara Aboriginals.

[Pitjantjatjara Aboriginals]

1991   Three months after the end of the Ten-Day War, the last soldier of the Yugoslav People’s Army leaves the territory of the Republic of Slovenia.

1994  Jordan and Israel sign a peace treaty.

1995  Mossad agents assassinate Palestinian Islamic Jihad leader Fathi Shaqaqi in his hotel in Malta.

2002  Approximately 50 Chechen terrorists and 150 hostages die when Russian special forces troops storm a theater building in Moscow, which had been occupied by the terrorists during a musical performance three days before.

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27 October

1870  Franco-Prussian War: Marshal Bazaine surrenders to Prussian forces at the conclusion of the Siege of Metz along with 140,000 French soldiers.

1922  A referendum in Rhodesia rejects the country’s annexation to the South African Union.

1924  The Uzbek SSR is founded in the Soviet Union.

1944  World War II: German forces capture Banská Bystrica during Slovak National Uprising thus bringing it to an end.

1958  Iskander Mirza, the first President of Pakistan, is deposed by General Ayub Khan, who had been appointed the enforcer of martial law by Mirza 20 days earlier.

1962  By refusing to agree to the firing of a nuclear torpedo at a US warship, Vasily Arkhipov averts nuclear war.

1967  Catholic priest Philip Berrigan and others of the ‘Baltimore Four’ protest the Vietnam War by pouring blood on Selective Service records.

[Philip and Daniel Berrigan in Their Protests to the Vietnam War]

1971  The Democratic Republic of the Congo is renamed Zaire.

1979  Saint Vincent and the Grenadines gains its independence from the United Kingdom.

1981  Cold War: The Soviet submarine S-363 runs aground on the east coast of Sweden.

1988   Cold War: Ronald Reagan suspends construction of the new U.S. Embassy in Moscow due to Soviet listening devices in the building structure.

1991  Turkmenistan achieves independence from the Soviet Union.

1997  The 1997 Asian financial crisis causes a crash in the Dow Jones Industrial Average.

2014  Britain withdraws from Afghanistan at the end of Operation Herrick, after 12 years four months and seven days.

2019  Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant founder and leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi kills himself and three children by detonating a suicide vest during the U.S. military Barisha raid in northwestern Syria.

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28 October

969    The Byzantine Empire recovers Antioch from Arab rule.

1420  Beijing is officially designated the capital of the Ming dynasty when the Forbidden City is completed.

1516  Second Ottoman–Mamluk War: Mamluks fail to stop the Ottoman advance towards Egypt at the Battle of Yaunis Khan.

1531  Abyssinian–Adal war: The Adal Sultanate seizes southern Ethiopia.

1628  French Wars of Religion: The Siege of La Rochelle ends with the surrender of the Huguenots after fourteen months.

1835  The United Tribes of New Zealand are established with the signature of the Declaration of Independence.

1918  World War I: A new Polish government in western Galicia is established, triggering the Polish–Ukrainian War.

1918  World War I: Czech politicians peacefully take over the city of Prague, thus establishing the First Czechoslovak Republic.

1922  Italian fascists led by Benito Mussolini march on Rome and take over the Italian government.

1940  World War II: Greece rejects Italy’s ultimatum. Italy invades Greece through Albania a few hours later.

1956  Hungarian Revolution: A de facto ceasefire comes into effect between armed revolutionaries and Soviet troops, who begin to withdraw from Budapest. Communist officials and facilities come under attack by revolutionaries.

1962  The Cuban Missile Crisis ends and Premier Nikita Khrushchev orders the removal of Soviet missiles from Cuba.

[1]      Timeline of the Cuban Missile Crisis:

[2]      Behind the Cuban Missile Crisis:

1965  Pope Paul VI promulgates Nostra aetate, by which the Roman Catholic Church officially recognizes the legitimacy of non-Christian faiths.

1990  Georgia holds its only free election under Soviet rule.

2007  Cristina Fernández de Kirchner becomes the first directly elected female President of Argentina.

2009  US President Barack Obama signs the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act.

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29 October

1863  Eighteen countries meet in Geneva and agree to form the International Red Cross.

1914  Ottoman entry into World War I.

1923  Turkey becomes a republic following the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire.

1929  Black Tuesday: The New York Stock Exchange crashes, ending the Great Bull Market of the 1920s and beginning the Great Depression.

1941  The Holocaust: In the Kaunas Ghetto, over 10,000 Jews are shot by German occupiers at the Ninth Fort, a massacre known as the “Great Action”.

1942  The Holocaust: In the United Kingdom, leading clergymen and political figures hold a public meeting to register outrage over Nazi Germany‘s persecution of Jews.

1944  The Dutch city of Breda is liberated by 1st Polish Armoured Division.

1944  World War II: The Soviet Red Army enters Hungary.

1948  Israeli-Palestinian conflict: Safsaf massacre: Israeli soldiers capture the Palestinian village of Safsaf in the Galilee; afterwards, between 52 and 64 villagers are massacred by the IDF.

1956  Suez Crisis begins: Israeli forces invade the Sinai Peninsula and push Egyptian forces back toward the Suez Canal.

[1]      Suez Crisis in the Cold War Era:

[2]      Why Was the Suez Crisis Important?

[3]      Suez Crisis, CIA and MI6:

1964  The United Republic of Tanganyika and Zanzibar is renamed to the United Republic of Tanzania.

1969  The first-ever computer-to-computer link is established on ARPANET, the precursor to the Internet.

1972  The three surviving perpetrators of the Munich massacre are released from prison in exchange for the hostages of the hijacked Lufthansa Flight 615.

1991  The American Galileo spacecraft makes its closest approach to 951 Gaspra, becoming the first probe to visit an asteroid.

1998  In South Africa, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission presents its report, which condemns both sides for committing atrocities.

2004  The Arabic-language news network Al Jazeera broadcasts an excerpt from a 2004 Osama bin Laden video in which the terrorist leader first admits direct responsibility for the September 11, 2001 attacks and references the 2004 U.S. presidential election.

2015  China announces the end of its one-child policy after 35 years.

[1]      China’s One-Child Policy:

[2]      One-Child Policy and China’s Military Forces (PLA):

________________________________________

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.


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This article originally appeared on Transcend Media Service (TMS) on 23 Oct 2023.

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