This Week in History

HISTORY, 18 May 2015

Satoshi Ashikaga – TRANSCEND Media Servie

May 18-24

QUOTE OF THE WEEK:

“Reserve your right to think, for even think wrongly is better than not to think at all.” Hypatia of Alexandra

MAY 18

2009  Sri Lankan Civil War: The LTTE are defeated by the Sri Lankan government, ending almost 26 years of fighting between the two sides.

2006  The post Loktantra Andolan government passes a landmark bill curtailing the power of the monarchy and making Nepal a secular country.

1993  EU – riots in Nørrebro, Copenhagen caused by the approval of the four Danish exceptions in the Maastricht Treaty referendum. Police opened fire against civilians for the first time since World War II and injured 11 demonstrators. In total 113 bullets are fired.

1991  Northern Somalia declares independence from the rest of Somalia as the Republic of Somaliland but is not recognized by the international community.

1980  Gwangju Massacre: students in Gwangju, South Korea begin demonstrations calling for democratic reforms.

1974  Nuclear test: under project Smiling Buddha, India successfully detonates its first nuclear weapon becoming the sixth nation to do so.

1965  Israeli spy Eli Cohen was hanged in Damascus, Syria.

1959  Launch of the National Liberation Committee of Côte d’Ivoire in Conakry, Guinea.

1955  Operation Passage to Freedom, the evacuation of 310,000 Vietnamese civilians, soldiers and non-Vietnamese members of the French Army from communist North Vietnam to South Vietnam following the end of the First Indochina War, ends.

1948  The First Legislative Yuan of the Republic of China officially convenes in Nanking.

1944  Deportation of Crimean Tatars by the Soviet Union government.

1944  World War II: Battle of Monte Cassino – Conclusion after seven days of the fourth battle as German paratroopers evacuate Monte Cassino.

1933  New Deal: President Franklin D. Roosevelt signs an act creating the Tennessee Valley Authority.

1927  After being founded for 20 years, the Government of the Republic of China approves Tongji University to be among the first national universities of the Republic of China.

1917  World War I: The Selective Service Act of 1917 is passed, giving the President of the United States the power of conscription.

1910  The Earth passes through the tail of Comet Halley.

1900  The United Kingdom proclaims a protectorate over Tonga.

1811  Battle of Las Piedras: The first great military triumph of the revolution of the Río de la Plata in Uruguay led by José Artigas.

 

 

MAY 19

2010  The Royal Thai Armed Forces concludes its crackdown on protests by forcing the surrender of United Front for Democracy Against Dictatorship leaders.

1997  The Sierra Gorda biosphere, the most ecologically diverse region in Mexico, is established as a result of grassroots efforts.

1991  Croatians vote for independence in a referendum.

1986  The Firearm Owners Protection Act is signed into law by U.S. President Ronald Reagan.

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

1972  US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site.

1963  The New York Post Sunday Magazine publishes Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s Letter from Birmingham Jail, drafted shortly after his arrest on April 12th during the Birmingham campaign advocating for civil rights and an end to segregation in Birmingham, Alabama. The letter was in response to “A Call for Unity“: a statement made by eight white Alabama clergymen against King and his methods, following his arrest, and became one of the most-anthologized statements of the African-American Civil Rights Movement.

1959  The North Vietnamese Army establishes Group 559, whose responsibility is to determine how to maintain supply lines to South Vietnam; the resulting route is the Ho Chi Minh trail.

1950  Egypt announces that the Suez Canal is closed to Israeli ships and commerce.

1943  World War II: British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt set Monday, May 1, 1944 as the date for the Normandy landings (“D-Day”). It would later be delayed over a month due to bad weather.

1942  World War II: In the aftermath of the Battle of the Coral Sea, Task Force 16 heads to Pearl Harbor.

1941  Viet Minh, a communist coalition, formed at Cao Bằng Province, Vietnam.

1934  Zveno and the Bulgarian Army engineer a coup d’état and install Kimon Georgiev as the new Prime Minister of Bulgaria.

1922  The Young Pioneer Organization of the Soviet Union is established.

1919  Mustafa Kemal Atatürk lands at Samsun on the Anatolian Black Sea coast, initiating what is later termed the Turkish War of Independence.

1848  Mexican–American War: Mexico ratifies the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo thus ending the war and ceding California, Nevada, Utah and parts of four other modern-day U.S. states to the United States for US$15 million.

 

 

MAY 20

2014  More than 118 people are killed in two bombings in Jos, Nigeria.

2012  Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu tells his cabinet that Israel’s identity is threatened by hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants from Africa.

2002  The independence of East Timor is recognized by Portugal, formally ending 23 years of Indonesian rule and three years of provisional UN administration (Portugal itself is the former colonizer of East Timor until 1976).

1996  Civil rights: The Supreme Court of the United States rules in Romer v. Evans against a law that would have prevented any city, town or county in the state of Colorado from taking any legislative, executive, or judicial action to protect the rights of gays and lesbians.

1990  The first post-Communist presidential and parliamentary elections are held in Romania.

1983  First publications of the discovery of the HIV virus that causes AIDS in the journal Science by Luc Montagnier.

1980  In a referendum in Quebec, the population rejects by a 60% vote the proposal from its government to move towards independence from Canada.

1976  USSR performs nuclear test at Sary Shagan, USSR.

1969  The Battle of Hamburger Hill in Vietnam ends.

1968  Operation OAU begins during the Nigerian Civil War

1967  The Popular Movement of the Revolution political party is established in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

1964  Discovery of the cosmic microwave background radiation by Robert Woodrow Wilson and Arno Penzias.

1958  US performs nuclear test at Enwetak (atmospheric tests).

1956  In Operation Redwing, the first United States airborne hydrogen bomb is dropped over Bikini Atoll in the Pacific Ocean.

1949  In the United States, the Armed Forces Security Agency, the predecessor to the National Security Agency, is established.

1948  Chiang Kai-shek is elected as the first President of the Republic of China.

1941  World War II: Battle of Crete – German paratroops invade Crete.

1940  The Holocaust: The first prisoners arrive at a new concentration camp at Auschwitz.

1932  Amelia Earhart takes off from Newfoundland to begin the world’s first solo nonstop flight across the Atlantic Ocean by a female pilot, landing in Ireland the next day.

1927  At 07:52 Charles Lindbergh takes off from Roosevelt Field in Long Island, New York, on the world’s first solo non-stop flight across the Atlantic Ocean. He touched down at Le Bourget Field in Paris at 22:22 the next day.

1927  Treaty of Jeddah: the United Kingdom recognizes the sovereignty of King Ibn Saud in the Kingdoms of Hejaz and Nejd, which later merge to become the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

1902  Cuba gains independence from the United States. Tomás Estrada Palma becomes the country’s first President.

1884  Dinuzulu kaCetshwayo becomes the king of the Zulu Nation.

 

 

MAY 21

2012  A suicide bombing kills more than 120 people in Sana’a, Yemen.

2006  The Republic of Montenegro holds a referendum proposing independence from the State Union of Serbia and Montenegro. The Montenegrin people choose independence with a majority of 55%.

2001  French Taubira law is enacted, officially recognizing the Atlantic slave trade and slavery as crimes against humanity.

1998  President Suharto of Indonesia resigns following the killing of students from Tri Sakti University earlier that week by security forces and growing mass protests in Jakarta against his ongoing corrupt rule.

1994  The Democratic Republic of Yemen unsuccessful attempts to secede from the Republic of Yemen; a war breaks out.

1991  Mengistu Haile Mariam, president of the People’s Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, flees Ethiopia, effectively bringing the Ethiopian Civil War to an end.

1991  Former Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi is assassinated by a female suicide bomber near Madras.

1988  US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site.

1986  US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site.

1982  Falklands War: A British amphibious assault during Operation Sutton leads to the Battle of San Carlos.

1981  The Italian government releases the membership list of Propaganda Due, an illegal pseudo-Masonic lodge that was implicated in numerous Italian crimes and mysteries.

1981  Irish Republican hunger strikers Raymond McCreesh and Patsy O’Hara die on hunger strike in Maze prison.

1979  White Night riots in San Francisco following the manslaughter conviction of Dan White for the assassinations of George Moscone and Harvey Milk.

1970  USSR performs nuclear test at Novaya Zemlya, USSR.

1969  Civil unrest in Rosario, Argentina, known as Rosariazo, following the death of a 15-year-old student.

1968  USSR performs nuclear test (underground).

1966  The Ulster Volunteer Force declares war on the Irish Republican Army in Northern Ireland.

1961  American civil rights movement: Alabama Governor John Malcolm Patterson declares martial law in an attempt to restore order after race riots break out.

1946  Physicist Louis Slotin is fatally irradiated in a criticality incident during an experiment with the demon core at Los Alamos National Laboratory.

1937  A Soviet station, North Pole-1, becomes the first scientific research settlement to operate on the drift ice of the Arctic Ocean.

1932  Bad weather forces Amelia Earhart to land in a pasture in Derry, Northern Ireland, and she thereby becomes the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean.

1927  Charles Lindbergh touches down at Le Bourget Field in Paris, completing the world’s first solo nonstop flight across the Atlantic Ocean.

1917  The Commonwealth War Graves Commission is established through royal charter to mark, record and maintain the graves and places of commemoration of Commonwealth of Nations military forces.

1911  President of Mexico Porfirio Díaz and the revolutionary Francisco Madero sign the Treaty of Ciudad Juárez to put an end to the fighting between the forces of both men, concluding the initial phase of the Mexican Revolution.

1881  The American Red Cross is established by Clara Barton in Washington, D.C.

1879  War of the Pacific: Two Chilean ships blocking the harbor of Iquique (then belonging to Peru) battle two Peruvian vessels in the Battle of Iquique.

1871  French troops invade the Paris Commune and engage its residents in street fighting. By the close of “Bloody Week“, some 20,000 communards have been killed and 38,000 arrested.

 

 

MAY 22

2014  General Prayuth Chan-ocha of the Royal Thai Armed Forces announces a military coup d’état, following six months of political turmoil.

2011  Islamic militants attack, penetrate the defensive perimeter, and seize at least one building at a naval aviation base, PNS Mehran, outside Karachi, Pakistan.

2005  A Presidential election is held in Mongolia; the result is a victory for Nambaryn Enkhbayar of the Mongolian People’s Revolutionary Party (MPRP).

2002  American civil rights movement: a jury in Birmingham, Alabama, convicts former Ku Klux Klan member Bobby Frank Cherry of the 1963 murders of four girls in the bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church.

1997  Kelly Flinn, the US Air Force‘s first female bomber pilot certified for combat, accepts a general discharge in order to avoid a court-martial.

1992  – Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia and Slovenia join the United Nations.

1990  Microsoft releases the Windows 3.0 operating system.

1990  North and South Yemen are unified to create the Republic of Yemen.

1987  Hashimpura massacre in Meerut, India.

1974  US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site.

1972  Ceylon adopts a new constitution, thus becoming a Republic, changes its name to Sri Lanka, and joins the Commonwealth of Nations.

1967  Vietnam War: Vinh Xuan massacre.

1964  The U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson announces the goals of his Great Society social reforms to bring an “end to poverty and racial injustice” in America.

1958  Sri Lankan riots of 1958: This riot is a watershed event in the race relationship of the various ethnic communities of Sri Lanka. The total number of deaths is estimated to be 300, mostly Sri Lankan Tamils.

1947  Cold War: in an effort to fight the spread of Communism, the U.S. President Harry S. Truman signs an act into law that will later be called the Truman Doctrine. The act grants $400 million in military and economic aid to Turkey and Greece, each battling an internal Communist movement.

1945  Operation Paperclip – United States Army Major Robert B. Staver recommends that the U.S. evacuate German scientists and engineers to help in the development of rocket technology.

1943  Joseph Stalin disbands Comintern.

1942  World War II: Ted Williams of the Boston Red Sox enlists in the United States Marine Corps as a flight instructor.

1942  Mexico enters World War II on the side of the Allies.

1939  World War II: Germany and Italy sign the Pact of Steel.

1926  Chiang Kai-shek replaces communists in Kuomintang, China.

1906 The Wright brothers are granted U.S. patent number 821,393 for their “Flying-Machine“.

1897  The Blackwall Tunnel under the River Thames is officially opened

1885  Prior to burial in the Panthéon, the body of Victor Hugo was exposed under the Arc de Triomphe during the night.

1872  Reconstruction: U.S. President Ulysses S. Grant signs the Amnesty Act into law restoring full civil and political rights to all but about 500 Confederate sympathizers.

1848  Slavery is abolished in Martinique.

 

 

MAY 23

2014  The World Trade Organization upheld its November decision to continue banning European imports of seal products on the grounds of concern for the suffering of the hunted animals; the WTO is also reexamining its exception for indigenous hunters.

2010  Jamaican police begin a manhunt for drug lord Christopher Coke, after the United States requested his extradition, leading to three days of violence during which at least 73 bystanders are killed.

2009  Former South Korean president Roh Moo-hyun commits suicide, jumping from a 45 meter cliff in Bongha, Gimhae, South Korea.

2008  The International Court of Justice (ICJ) awards Middle Rocks to Malaysia and Pedra Branca (Pulau Batu Puteh) to Singapore, ending a 29-year territorial dispute between the two countries.

2002  The “55 parties” clause of the Kyoto Protocol is reached after its ratification by Iceland.

1998  The Good Friday Agreement is accepted in a referendum in Northern Ireland with 75% voting yes.

1995  The first version of the Java programming language is released.

1992  Italy’s most prominent anti-mafia judge Giovanni Falcone, his wife and three body guards are killed by the Corleonesi clan with a half-ton bomb near Capaci, Sicily. His friend and colleague Paolo Borsellino will be assassinated less than 2 months later, making 1992 a turning point in the history of Italian Mafia prosecutions.

1970  USSR performs nuclear test (underground).

1967  Egypt closes the Straits of Tiran and blockades the port of Eilat at the northern end of the Gulf of Aqaba to Israeli shipping.

1960  Israel announces capture of Nazi Adolf Eichmann in Argentina.

1951  Tibetans sign the Seventeen Point Agreement for the Peaceful Liberation of Tibet with China.

1949  The Federal Republic of Germany is established and the Basic Law for the Federal Republic of Germany is proclaimed.

1948  Thomas C. Wasson, the US Consul-General, is assassinated in Jerusalem, Israel.

1945  World War II: The Flensburg Government under Reichspräsident Karl Dönitz is dissolved when its members are captured and arrested by British forces at Flensburg in Northern Germany.

1945  World War II: Heinrich Himmler, the head of the Schutzstaffel, commits suicide while in Allied custody.

1932  In Brazil, four students are shot and killed during a manifestation against the Brazilian dictator Getúlio Vargas, which occurred in the city of São Paulo. Their names and surnames were used to form the MMDC, a revolutionary group that would act against the dictatorial government, especially in the Constitutionalist Revolution (“Revolução Constitucionalista”, in Portuguese), the major uprising in Brazil during the 20th century.

1915  World War I: Italy joins the Allies after they declare war on Austria-Hungary.

1911  The New York Public Library is dedicated.

1907  The unicameral Parliament of Finland gathers for its first plenary session.

1846  Mexican–American War: President Mariano Paredes of Mexico unofficially declares war on the United States.

1844  Declaration of the Báb the evening before the 23rd: a merchant of Shiraz announces that he is a Prophet and founds a religious movement that would later be brutally crushed by the Persian government. He is considered to be a forerunner of the Bahá’í Faith, and Bahá’ís celebrate the day as a holy day.

 

 

MAY 24

2002  Russia and the United States sign the Moscow Treaty.

2001  The Versailles wedding hall disaster in Jerusalem, Israel kills 23 and injures over 200.

2001  Mountain climbing: Temba Tsheri, a 16-year-old Sherpa, becomes the youngest person to climb to the top of Mount Everest.

2000  Israeli troops withdraw from southern Lebanon after 22 years of occupation.

1994  Four men convicted of bombing the World Trade Center in New York in 1993 are each sentenced to 240 years in prison.

1993  Eritrea gains its independence from Ethiopia.

1992  The last Thai dictator, General Suchinda Kraprayoon, resigns following pro-democracy protests.

1991  Israel conducts Operation Solomon, evacuating Ethiopian Jews to Israel.

1988  Section 28 of the United Kingdom’s Lo(cal Government Act 1988, a controversial amendment stating that a local authority cannot intentionally promote homosexuality, is enacted.

1982  Liberation of Khorramshahr: Iranians recapture of the port city of Khorramshahr from the Iraqis during the Iran–Iraq War.

1981  Ecuadorian president Jaime Roldós Aguilera, his wife, and his presidential committee die in an aircraft accident while travelling from Quito to Zapotillo minutes after the president gave a famous speech regarding the 24 de mayo anniversary of the Battle of Pichincha.

1972  US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site.

1970  The drilling of the Kola Superdeep Borehole begins in the Soviet Union.

1967  Egypt imposes a blockade and siege of the Red Sea coast of Israel.

1963  Baldwin–Kennedy meeting on race relations in the US

1961  Cyprus joins the Council of Europe.

1961  American civil rights movement: Freedom Riders are arrested in Jackson, Mississippi, for “disturbing the peace” after disembarking from their bus.

1958  United Press International is formed through a merger of the United Press and the International News Service.

1956  Conclusion of the Sixth Buddhist Council on Vesak Day, marking the 2,500 year anniversary after the Lord Buddha‘s Parinibbāna.

1951  US performs nuclear test at Enwetak (atmospheric tests).

1948  Arab–Israeli War: Egypt captures the Israeli kibbutz of Yad Mordechai, but the five-day effort gives Israeli forces time to prepare enough to stop the Egyptian advance a week later.

1943  The Holocaust: Josef Mengele becomes chief medical officer of the Auschwitz concentration camp.

1941  World War II: In the Battle of the Atlantic, the German Battleship Bismarck sinks then-pride of the Royal Navy, HMS Hood, killing all but three crewmen.

1940  Acting on the orders of Soviet leader Joseph Stalin, NKVD agent Iosif Grigulevich orchestrates an unsuccessful assassination attempt on exiled Russian revolutionary Leon Trotsky in Coyoacán, Mexico

1940  Igor Sikorsky performs the first successful single-rotor helicopter flight.

1939  First issue of Fashizmi is published in Tirana.

1930  Amy Johnson lands in Darwin, Northern Territory, becoming the first woman to fly solo from England to Australia (she left on May 5 for the 11,000 mile flight).

1921  The trial of Sacco and Vanzetti opens.

1915  World War I: Italy declares war on Austria-Hungary.

1900  Second Boer War: The United Kingdom annexes the Orange Free State.

1844  Samuel Morse sends the message “What hath God wrought” (a biblical quotation, Numbers 23:23) from the Old Supreme Court Chamber in the United States Capitol to his assistant, Alfred Vail, in Baltimore, Maryland, to inaugurate the first telegraph line.

1832  The First Kingdom of Greece is declared in the London Conference.

______________________________

Satoshi Ashikaga is a member of the TRANSCEND Network for Peace, Development and Environment originally from Japan.

(Sources and references: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/May_18 to 24; http://www.historyorb.com/events/may/18 to 24; http://www.brainyhistory.com/days/may_18.html to 24.html; and other pertinent websites and/or documents, mentioned above.) Note that the views expressed in the cited or quoted websites and/or documents in this article do not necessarily reflect those of the editor/complier of this article. These websites and/or documents are cited or quoted for academic or educational purposes.

This article originally appeared on Transcend Media Service (TMS) on 18 May 2015.

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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