This Week in History
HISTORY, 12 Jan 2015
Satoshi Ashikaga – TRANSCEND Media Service
January 12-18
Quote of the Week
“Each one has to find his peace from within. And peace to be real must be unaffected by outside circumstances.” – Mahatma Gandhi (Source: http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/tag/inner-peace )
January 12
2012 A law banning Palestinians who marry Israeli’s from gaining citizenship is upheld by Israel’s Supreme Court
2010 The 2010 Haiti earthquake occurs killing an estimated 316,000 and destroying the majority of the capital Port-au-Prince.
2007 Comet C/2006 P1 (McNaught) reaches perihelion becoming the brightest comet in more than 40 years.
1991 Gulf War: An act of the U.S. Congress authorizes the use of military force to drive Iraq out of Kuwait.
1976 The United Nations Security Council votes 11-1 to allow the Palestine Liberation Organization to participate in a Security Council debate (without voting rights).
1970 Biafra capitulates, ending the Nigerian Civil War.
1966 Lyndon B. Johnson states that the United States should stay in South Vietnam until Communist aggression there is ended.
1962 Vietnam War: Operation Chopper, the first American combat mission in the war, takes place. One year before, in 1961, John F Kennedy said, “Now we have a problem in making our power credible, and Vietnam is the place.” (Source: http://www.quotesandsayings.com/qvietnam.htm )
1951 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (CPPCG) comes into effect. Text: 78_UNTS_277. Visit www.ohchr.org/EN/ProfessionalInterest/Pages/CrimeOfGenocide.aspx .
1950 USSR re-introduces death penalty for treason, espionage & sabotage.
1948 Mahatma Gandhi begins his final fast.
1945 World War II: U.S.S.R begins a large offensive against the Nazis in Eastern Europe.
1944 World War II: Churchill and de Gaulle begin a 2-day wartime conference in Marrakesh.
1932 Hattie Caraway becomes the first woman elected to the United States Senate.
1918 Finland‘s “Mosaic Confessors” law went into effect, making Finnish Jews full citizens.
1911 The University of the Philippines College of Law is formally established; three future Philippine presidents are among the first enrollees.
1908 A long-distance radio message is sent from the Eiffel Tower for the first time.
January 13
2012 The passenger cruise ship Costa Concordia sinks off the coast of Italy. There are 32 confirmed deaths amongst the 4232 passengers and crew.
2009 After two years of trying to maintain order, Ethiopian military forces start pulling out of Somalia.
2001 An earthquake hits El Salvador, killing more than 800.
1991 USSR troops attack Lithuanian independence supporters in Vilnius, killing 14 people and wounding 1000.
1988 Lee Teng-hui becomes the first native Taiwanese President of the Republic of China.
1966 Robert C. Weaver becomes the first African American Cabinet member when he is appointed United States Secretary of Housing and Urban Development.
1964 Karol Wojtyla, the future Pope John Paul II, is appointed archbishop of Kraków, Poland.
1964 Anti-Muslim riots break out in Calcutta, resulting in 100 deaths.
1963 Coup d’etat in Togo results in assassination of president Sylvanus Olympio.
1960 The Gulag system of forced labor camps in the Soviet Union is officially abolished.
1958 The Moroccan Army of Liberation ambushes a Spanish patrol in the Battle of Edchera.
1953 An article appears in Pravda accusing some of the most prestigious and prominent doctors, mostly Jews, in the Soviet Union of taking part in a vast plot to poison members of the top Soviet political and military leadership.
1953 Marshal Josip Tito chosen president of Yugoslavia. For Tito, visit http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Josip_Broz_Tito . For Yugoslavia, visit http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yugoslavia .
1951 First Indochina War: The Battle of Vinh Yen begins, which will end in a major victory for France.
1942 World War II: First use of an aircraft ejection seat by a German test pilot in a Heinkel He 280 jet fighter.
1942 Henry Ford patents a plastic automobile, which is 30% lighter than a regular car.
1910 The first public radio broadcast takes place; a live performance of the opera Cavalleria rusticana is sent out over the airwaves from the Metropolitan Opera House inNew York, New York.
1895 First Italo-Ethiopian War: the war’s opening battle, the Battle of Coatit, occurs; it is an Italian victory.
1882 Richard Wagner completes his opera “Parsifal”.
1847 The Treaty of Cahuenga ends the Mexican–American War in California.
1610 Galileo Galilei discovers Callisto, 4th satellite of Jupiter.
1559 Elizabeth I crowned Queen of England in Westminster Abbey.
888 Odo, Count of Paris becomes King of the Franks.
January 14
2011 Former president of Tunisia, Zine El Abidine Ben Ali flees his country to Saudi Arabia after a series of street demonstrations against his regime and corrupt policies, asking for freedom, rights and democracy, considered as the anniversary of the Tunisian Revolution and the birth of the Arab Spring.
2011 In Afghanistan, the Taliban drop their ban on education for females due to a ‘cultural change’.
1975 USSR breaks trade agreement with US.
1967 New York Times reports U.S. Army is conducting secret germ warfare (= biological warfare) experiments. For germ warfare, visit http://www.uic.edu/classes/osci/osci590/7_1Germ%20Warfare%20Biological%20Weapons.htmhttp://www.uic.edu/classes/osci/osci590/7_1Germ%20Warfare%20Biological%20Weapons.htm ; and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biological_warfare .
1965 Event – US confirms its troops used chemical warfare against the Vietcong.
1953 Yugoslavia elects its 1st president (Marshal Tito). For Yugoslavia, visit http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yugoslavia . For Josip Broz Tito, visit, for instance, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Josip_Broz_Tito; and/or http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/597295/Josip-Broz-Tito .
1944 Soviet Army begins offensive at Oranienbaum/Wolchow.
1929 Afghan King Amanullah forced to resign. For King Amanullah, visit http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Am%C4%81null%C4%81h_Kh%C4%81n .
1914 Henry Ford introduces assembly line, for T-Fords. For Ford’s assembly line, visit http://www.americanautomove.com/henry-ford-and-the-history-of-the-automobile-assembly-line/ . For the assembly line itself, visit http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assembly_line .
1918 Finland and USSR adopts New Style (Gregorian) calendar.
1905 Hubbell, Shubert and Smith’s musical “Fontana,” premieres in New York City.
1900 Giacomo Puccini’s opera “Tosca,” premieres in Rome. For Tosca, visit http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tosca . For Puccini, visit http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giacomo_Puccini .
1897 6,960-m (22,834′) Cerro Aconcagua (Argentina) 1st climbed. For Cerro Aconcagua, visit http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aconcagua ; and http://gosouthamerica.about.com/cs/argabout/a/Aconcagua.htm .
1785 Mozart completes “Dissonantenkwartet” (opus 10). (= String Quartet No. 19 in C major, “Dissonance”, KV. 465) For the list of compositions of Mozart, visit http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_compositions_by_Wolfgang_Amadeus_Mozart#String_quartets .
1784 American Revolutionary War: Ratification Day, United States – Congress ratifies the Treaty of Paris with Great Britain.
1761 The Third Battle of Panipat is fought in India between the Afghans under Ahmad Shah Durrani and the Marhatas.
1690 Clarinet invented, in Nurnberg, Germany. For history of the clarinet, visit http://inventors.about.com/od/cstartinventions/a/Clarinet.htm; and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clarinet#History .
1601 Church authorities burn Hebrew books in Rome. Regarding burning books, visit, for instance, http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/anti-semitism/TalmudBurning.html;and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_book-burning_incidents .
1539 Spain annexes Cuba.
January 15
2014 It is revealed that the National Security Agency, NSA, is using software to spy on nearly 100,000 computers around the world; most of the software is implanted by accessing the Internet, but some technology enables data to be entered or altered through radio wave transmission. On this issue, visit, for instance, http://nypost.com/2014/01/15/nsa-secretly-bugged-100000-pcs-with-spy-software/ ; http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/DC-Decoder/2014/0115/NSA-can-spy-on-computers-via-radio-Snowden-leaks-show-video ; and http://bgr.com/2014/01/15/nsa-spying-offline-computers-radio-waves/ .
2014 The World Bank global forecast predicts an increase in growth to 3.2 percent, from 2.4 percent in 2013.
2011 China announces it may station troops in North Korea to protect its citizens and investment projects. For more information on this issue, visit the website of the World Bank, http://www.worldbank.org/en/topic/forests .
1991 The United Nations deadline for the withdrawal of Iraqi forces from occupied Kuwait expires, preparing the way for the start of Operation Desert Storm.
1973 Vietnam War: Citing progress in peace negotiations, President Richard Nixon announces the suspension of offensive action in North Vietnam.
1970 Moammar Gadhafi is proclaimed premier of Libya.
1970 Nigerian Civil War: After a 32-month fight for independence from Nigeria, Biafra surrenders.
1955 USSR ends state of war with German Federal Republic.
1949 Chinese Civil War: The Communist forces take over Tianjin from the Nationalist Government.
1943 1st transport of Jews from Amsterdam to concentration camp Vught.
1943 World’s largest office building, Pentagon, completed. For more information on Pentagon, visit http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Pentagon
1937 Spanish Civil War: Nationalists and Republican both withdraw after suffering heavy losses, ending the Second Battle of the Corunna Road.
1933 A twelve-year-old girl experiences the first Marian apparition of Our Lady of Banneux in Banneux, Belgium.
1582 Russia cedes Livonia and Estonia to the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth .
January 16
2005 George W. Bush is inaugurated for his second term as President of the United States.
2002 The UN Security Council unanimously establishes an arms embargo and the freezing of assets of Osama bin Laden, al-Qaeda, and the remaining members of the Taliban.
1979 The last Iranian Shah flees Iran with his family for good and relocates to Egypt.
1965 USSR performs nuclear test at Semipalitinsk, Eastern Kazakhstan USSR.
1963 Khrushchev claims to have a 100-megaton nuclear bomb.
1939 Comic strip “Superman” debuts.
1938 Benny Goodman refuses to play Carnegie Hall when black members of his band were barred from performing. For jazz, civil rights movements and/or racial discrimination in the United States, visit, for instance, http://jazz.about.com/od/historyjazztimeline/a/JazzCivilRights.htm ; http://mnjhistory.blogspot.com/2010/11/racial-barriers-in-jazz.html ; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benny_Goodman ; and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Racial_segregation_in_the_United_States .
1925 Leon Trotsky dismissed as CEO of Russian Revolution Military Council.
1920 1st assembly of League of Nations in Paris. For the League of Nations, visit, for instance, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/League_of_Nations ; http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/leagueofnations.htmhttp://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/leagueofnations.htm ; http://www.worldatwar.net/timeline/other/league18-46.html ; and http://avalon.law.yale.edu/20th_century/leagcov.asp .
1795 French Army under Pichegru occupies Utrecht, Netherlands.
1759 British Museum opens in London.
1756 England and Prussia sign Treaty of Westminster. For information on the Treaty of Westminster in 1756, visit http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treaty_of_Westminster_(1756) .
1493 Columbus returns to Spain on his 1st trip.
January 17
2014 Responding to privacy concerns raised by former spy contractor Edward Snowden’s NSA disclosures, U.S. President Barack Obama announces reforms to NSA phone surveillance. For this issue, visit, for instance, http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/nsa-surveillance-program-reaches-into-the-past-to-retrieve-replay-phone-calls/2014/03/18/226d2646-ade9-11e3-a49e-76adc9210f19_story.html ; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NSA_warrantless_surveillance_(2001%E2%80%9307) ; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PRISM_(surveillance_program) ; and http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/dec/16/nsa-phone-surveillance-likely-unconstitutional-judge .
2012 India and China agree to build a functional plan to address border issues.
2010 Ali Hassan al-Majid, former Iraqi minister, also known as Chemical Ali, is sentenced to death for the poison gas attack at Halabja.
2009 Israel declares a unilateral ceasefire in the Gaza War, effective January 18, as Hamas declares a ceasefire of its own.
1995 The Great Hanshin earthquake: A magnitude 7.3 earthquake occurs near Kobe, Japan, causing extensive property damage and killing 6,434 people.
1991 Gulf War: Operation Desert Storm begins early in the morning. Iraq fires 8 Scud missiles into Israel in an unsuccessful bid to provoke Israeli retaliation. (GMT. U.S. Time on January 16). For (Persian) Gulf War in 1991, visit http://www.historyofwar.org/articles/wars_gulf1990.html ; and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gulf_War .
1961 US President Dwight D. Eisenhower delivers a televised farewell address to the nation three days before leaving office, in which he warns against the accumulation of power by the “military–industrial complex” as well as the dangers of massive spending, especially deficit spending. For Eisenhower’s farewell speech, visit https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CWiIYW_fBfY ;.and for its text, visit http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eisenhower%27s_farewell_address .
1961 Former Congolese Prime Minister Patrice Lumumba is murdered in circumstances suggesting the support and complicity of the governments of Belgium and the United States.
1946 The UN Security Council holds its first session. Visit http://www.unmultimedia.org/s/photo/detail/741/0074158.html ; and http://mortalmemory.blogspot.com/2012/01/january-17-un-security-council-held-its.html . Watch one of the sessions (unclear which session) of the UN Security Council in 1946. (YouTube): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LD24k2Ap1Hc .
1945 Swedish diplomat Raoul Wallenberg is taken into Soviet custody while in Hungary; he is never publicly seen again.
1945 World War II: Soviet forces capture the almost completely destroyed Polish city of Warsaw.
1944 World War II: Allied forces launch the first of four assaults on Monte Cassino with the intention of breaking through the Winter Line and seizing Rome, an effort that would ultimately take four months and cost 105,000 Allied casualties.
1941 Franco-Thai War: French forces inflict a decisive defeat over the Royal Thai Navy.
1773 Captain James Cook and his crew become the first Europeans to sail below the Antarctic Circle.
1584 Bohemia adopts Gregorian calendar.
395 Emperor Theodosius I dies in Milan, the Roman Empire is re-divided into an eastern and a western half. The Eastern Roman Empire is centered in Constantinople underArcadius, son of Theodosius, and the Western Roman Empire in Mediolanum underHonorius, his brother (aged 10).
January 18
2014 A new world record is achieved by the United Kingdom’s Lewis Clarke of Bristol; the 16 year-old becomes the youngest person to trek to the South Pole. Visit http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/antarctica/10581992/British-16-year-old-Lewis-Clarke-sets-South-Pole-record.html .
2013 For the first time since the Battle of Mogadishu, the U.S. announces it will officially recognize, and open diplomatic relations with, the new government of Somalia. Visit http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/18/world/africa/somalia-us-recognizes-government.html?_r=0 ; and http://www.africom.mil/Newsroom/Transcript/10201/us-recognizes-the-government-of-somalia .
2009 Gaza War: Hamas announces they will accept Israeli Defense Forces‘s offer of a ceasefire, ending the assault.
2005 The Airbus A380, the world’s largest commercial jet, is unveiled at a ceremony in Toulouse, France.
2002 Sierra Leone Civil War is declared over.
2000 The Tagish Lake meteorite impacts the Earth.
1997 Børge Ousland of Norway becomes the first person to cross Antarctica alone and unaided.
1994 The Cando event, a possible bolide impact in Cando, Spain. Witnesses claim to have seen a fireball in the sky lasting for almost one minute. For the Cando event of 1994, visit http://thenightsky.org/cando.html ; and http://virtualglobetrotting.com/map/1994-cando-event-site/ .
1993 Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday observed in all 50 states of the United States for 1st time. Visit http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Luther_King,_Jr. ; and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Luther_King,_Jr._Day .
1991 Iraq launches SCUD missiles against Israel. Visit http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/january/18/newsid_4588000/4588486.stm . For Iraq’s SCUD missiles, visit http://www.iraqwatch.org/government/US/Pentagon/dodscud.htm .
1991 US acknowledges CIA and US Army paid Noriega $320,000 over his career. Visit http://military.wikia.com/wiki/Manuel_Noriega ; http://worldtimeline.info/usa/usa1991.htm ; http://wikipedia.or.ke/index.php/Manuel_Noriega ; and http://caselaw.findlaw.com/us-11th-circuit/1089768.html .
1985 US (Regan administration) renounces jurisdiction of World Court (= the International Court of Justice of the UN) despite previous promise. Visit http://www.nytimes.com/1985/01/19/world/us-plans-to-quit-world-court-case-on-nicaragua-suit.html . On 6 May 2002, George W. Bush administration sent a letter to the UN regarding the right of the United States to ignore the International Criminal Court’s jurisdiction over the US. Visit http://www.cbsnews.com/news/us-renounces-world-court/ ; and http://usgovinfo.about.com/library/weekly/aa050602b.htm .
1981 Iran accepts US offer of $7.9 billion in frozen assets. Visit, for instance, http://pages.citebite.com/d1v8u0n1i9jxt ; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iran%E2%80%93United_States_relations ; and http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/hostage-crisis .
1978 The European Court of Human Rights finds the United Kingdom government guilty of mistreating prisoners in Northern Ireland, but not guilty of torture.
1977 Scientists identify a previously unknown bacterium as the cause of the mysterious Legionnaires’ disease.
1976 Lebanese Christian militias overrun Karantina, Beirut, killing at least 1,000.
1968 USSR performs nuclear test at Semipalitinsk, Eastern Kazakhstan USSR.
1967 US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site.
1962 US begins spraying foliage in Vietnam to reveal Viet Cong guerrillas.
1962 US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site.
1955 Chinese Civil War: Battle of Yijiangshan is fought.
1945 World War II: Liberation of Krakow, Poland by the Red Army.
1945 World War II: Liberation of the Budapest ghetto by the Red Army.
1945 World War II: Soviet forces liberate Leningrad, effectively ending a three-year Nazi siege, known as the Siege of Leningrad.
1941 World War II: British troops launch a general counter-offensive against Italian East Africa.
1919 Bentley Motors Limited is founded.
1919 World War I: The Paris Peace Conference opens in Versailles, France.
1915 Japan issues the “Twenty-One Demands” to the Republic of China in a bid to increase its power in East Asia.
1913 First Balkan War: A Greek flotilla defeats the Ottoman Navy in the Naval Battle of Lemnos, securing the islands of the Northern Aegean Sea for Greece.
1871 Wilhelm I of Germany is proclaimed the first German Emperor in the Hall of Mirrors of the Palace of Versailles (France) towards the end of the Franco-Prussian War. The empire is known as the Second Reich to Germans.
1778 James Cook is the first known European , who arrives at the Hawaiian Islands, which he names the “Sandwich Islands”.
1644 1st UFO (or USO = Under Submerged Object = aquatic UFO or deep sea UFO) sighting in America, by perplexed pilgrims in Boston. Visit http://www.celebrateboston.com/ufo/first-uso-sighting.htm ; and http://www.celebrateboston.com/ufo/first-ufo-sighting.htm . Also visit https://www.transcend.org/tms/2010/09/ufos/ ; and https://www.transcend.org/tms/2013/03/spirituality-and-virtue-as-corollaries-to-peace/ .
1535 Spanish conquistador Francisco Pizarro founds Lima, the capital of Peru.
350 General Magnentius deposes Roman Emperor Constans and proclaims himself Emperor.
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(Sources and references: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/January_12 to 18; http://www.brainyhistory.com/days/january_12.html to 18: http://worldhistoryproject.org/what-happened-on/1/12 to 1/18; http://www.historyorb.com/events/january/12 to 18; http://www.datesinhistory.com/jan12.php to jan18; and other relevant websites and/or documents, mentioned above.)
Satoshi Ashikaga is a member of the TRANSCEND Network for Peace, Development and Environment, originally from Japan.
This article originally appeared on Transcend Media Service (TMS) on 12 Jan 2015.
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