This Week in History
HISTORY, 21 Aug 2023
Satoshi Ashikaga | TRANSCEND Media Service
21-27 August 2023
Quote of the Week:
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21 August
1770 James Cook formally claims eastern Australia for Great Britain, naming it New South Wales.
1940 Leon Trotsky is assassinated by a Stalinist agent while in exile in Mexico City.
1941 French resistance member Pierre “Fabien” Georges commits the first violent act of resistance against the Germans in Paris when he assassinates a German naval cadet in the Barches-Rochechouart Metro station. More than 150 Parisians would be shot by the Germans in reprisal.
– A Timeline of Nazi Occupied Paris: June 14, 1940 to August 21, 1944 | Judy McCarver
– The Barbès metro attack, 80 years later – Jowhar somali news leader
– Paris in World War II – Wikipedia
– German military administration in occupied France during World War II – Wikipedia
1942 World War II: The Guadalcanal Campaign: American forces defeat an attack by Imperial Japanese Army soldiers in the Battle of the Tenaru.
1944 Dumbarton Oaks Conference, prelude to the United Nations, begins.
– Dumbarton Oaks Conference | Definition, History, & Facts | Britannica
– History — Dumbarton Oaks (doaks.org)
– The Dumbarton Oaks Conversations and the United Nations, 1944–1994 — Dumbarton Oaks (doaks.org)
1959 United States President Dwight D. Eisenhower signs an executive order proclaiming Hawaii the 50th state of the union. Hawaii’s admission is currently commemorated by Hawaii Admission Day.
– Overthrow of the Hawaiian Kingdom – Wikipedia
– The Devastating Effects of Colonization on Hawai’i (arcgis.com)
– The Struggle For Hawaiian Sovereignty – Introduction | Cultural Survival
– Hawaii’s Long Road to Becoming America’s 50th State | HISTORY
– History of Hawaii – Wikipedia
– The History of Hawaii-US Relations (allthatsinteresting.com)
1968 Cold War: Nicolae Ceaușescu, leader of the Socialist Republic of Romania, publicly condemns the Soviet-led Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia, encouraging the Romanian population to arm itself against possible Soviet reprisals.
– Timeline of events in the Cold War – Wikipedia
– Cold War | Summary, Causes, History, Years, Timeline, & Facts | Britannica
– Warsaw Pact | Summary, History, Countries, Map, Significance, & Facts | Britannica
– NATO – Declassified: NATO and Warsaw Pact: Force Comparisons
1982 Lebanese Civil War: The first troops of a multinational force lands in Beirut to oversee the Palestine Liberation Organization‘s withdrawal from Lebanon.
– Timeline of the Lebanese Civil War From 1975-1990 (thoughtco.com)
– Lebanese Civil War summary | Britannica
– Alert_21_Lebanon_civil_war.pdf (europa.eu)
– Wars and Conflicts of Lebanon (historyguy.com)
– List of wars involving Lebanon – Wikipedia
1991 Latvia declares renewal of its full independence after its occupation by the Soviet Union since 1940.
1991 Coup attempt against Mikhail Gorbachev collapses.
2013 Hundreds of people are reported killed by chemical attacks in the Ghouta region of Syria.
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22 August
1614 Fettmilch Uprising: Jews are expelled from Frankfurt, Holy Roman Empire, following the plundering of the Judengasse.
1941 World War II: German troops begin the Siege of Leningrad.
1942 Brazil declares war on Germany, Japan and Italy.
1944 World War II: Holocaust of Kedros in Crete by German forces.
1978 Nicaraguan Revolution: The FLSN seizes the National Congress of Nicaragua, along with over a thousand hostages.
2012 Ethnic clashes over grazing rights for cattle in Kenya’s Tana River District result in more than 52 deaths
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23 August
30BC After the successful invasion of Egypt, Octavian executes Marcus Antonius Antyllus, the eldest son of Mark Antony, and Caesarion, the last king of the Ptolemaic dynasty of Egypt and only child of Julius Caesar and Cleopatra.
1799 Napoleon I of France leaves Egypt for France en route to seizing power.
1914 The British Expeditionary Force and the French Fifth Army begin their Great Retreat before the German Army.
1929 Hebron Massacre during the 1929 Palestine riots: Arab attacks on the Jewish community in Hebron in the British Mandate of Palestine occur, continuing until the next day, resulting in the death of 65–68 Jews and the remaining Jews being forced to leave the city.
1945 World War II: Soviet–Japanese War: The USSR State Defense Committee issues Decree no. 9898cc “About Receiving, Accommodation, and Labor Utilization of the Japanese Army Prisoners of War“.
1958 Chinese Civil War: The Second Taiwan Strait Crisis begins with the People’s Liberation Army‘s bombardment of Quemoy.
1985 Hans Tiedge, top counter-spy of West Germany, defects to East Germany.
1990 Saddam Hussein appears on Iraqi state television with a number of Western “guests” (actually hostages) to try to prevent the Gulf War.
1990 Armenia declares its independence from the Soviet Union.
1991 West and East Germany announce that they will reunite on October 3.
1991 The World Wide Web is opened to the public.
2007 The skeletal remains of Russia’s last royal family members Alexei Nikolaevich, Tsarevich of Russia, and his sister Grand Duchess Anastasia are discovered near Yekaterinburg, Russia.
2010 The Manila hostage crisis occurred near the Quirino Grandstand in Manila, Philippines killing 9 people including the perpetrator while injuring 9 others.
2011 Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi is overthrown after the National Transitional Council forces take control of Bab al-Azizia compound during the Libyan Civil War.
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24 August
1914 World War I: German troops capture Namur.
1929 Second day of two-day Hebron massacre during the 1929 Palestine riots: Arab attacks on the Jewish community in Hebron in the British Mandate of Palestine, result in the death of 65–68 Jews; the remaining Jews are forced to flee the city.
1944 World War II: Allied troops begin the attack on Paris.
1949 The treaty creating the North Atlantic Treaty Organization goes into effect.
– Formation of Nato – Purpose, Dates & Cold War | HISTORY
– NATO – Declassified: A short history of NATO
– Why was NATO founded? – We are NATO
1950 Edith Sampson becomes the first black U.S. delegate to the United Nations.
– African-American upper class – Wikipedia
– Examining systemic racism, advancing racial equity | Stanford News
– How African-Americans were ‘shut out’ of the American dream – Marketplace
1963 Buddhist crisis: As a result of the Xá Lợi Pagoda raids, the US State Department cables the United States Embassy, Saigon to encourage Army of the Republic of Vietnam generals to launch a coup against President Ngô Đình Diệm if he did not remove his brother Ngô Đình Nhu.
1995 Microsoft Windows 95 was released to the public in North America.
2017 The National Space Agency of Taiwan successfully launches the observation satellite Formosat-5 into space.
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25 August
1609 Galileo Galilei demonstrates his first telescope to Venetian lawmakers.
Seven Years’ War: Frederick II of Prussia defeats the Russian army at the Battle of Zorndorf.
1883 France and Viet Nam sign the Treaty of Huế, recognizing a French protectorate over Annam and Tonkin.
1904 Russo-Japanese War: The Battle of Liaoyang begins.
1914 World War I: Japan declares war on Austria-Hungary.
1920 Polish–Soviet War: Battle of Warsaw, which began on August 13, ends with the Red Army‘s defeat.
1940 World War II: The first Bombing of Berlin by the British Royal Air Force.
1941 World War II: Anglo-Soviet invasion of Iran: The United Kingdom and the Soviet Union jointly stage an invasion of the Imperial State of Iran.
1942 World War II: Second day of the Battle of the Eastern Solomons: a Japanese naval transport convoy headed towards Guadalcanal is turned back by an Allied air attack.
1944 World War II: Paris is liberated.
– The Liberation of Paris | Origins (osu.edu)
– Paris is liberated after four years of Nazi occupation (history.com)
– The hidden history that tells of Paris’ brutal and bloody WWII occupation – The Local
– Artblog | Alan Riding: On Cultural Life In Nazi-Occupied Paris (theartblog.org)
1980 Zimbabwe joins the United Nations.
2017 Conflict in Rakhine State (2016–present): One hundred seventy people are killed in at least 26 separate attacks carried out by the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army, leading to the governments of Myanmar and Malaysia designating the group as a terrorist organisation.
– Rohingya conflict – Wikipedia
– The changing face of conflict in Myanmar’s Rakhine State | Brookings
– An Avoidable War: Politics and Armed Conflict in Myanmar’s Rakhine State | Crisis Group
– Timeline: How the crackdown on Myanmar’s Rohingya unfolded | Rohingya News | Al Jazeera
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26 August
1642 Dutch–Portuguese War: Second Battle of San Salvador: The Dutch force the Spanish garrison at San Salvador (modern day Keelung, Taiwan) to surrender, ending the short-lived Spanish colony on Formosa and replacing it with a new Dutch administration.
1789 The Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen is approved by the National Constituent Assembly of France.
1922 Greco-Turkish War (1919–22): Turkish army launched what has come to be known to the Turks as the Great Offensive (Büyük Taarruz). The major Greek defense positions were overrun.
1936 Spanish Civil War: Santander falls to the nationalists and the republican interprovincial council is dissolved.
1940 World War II: Chad becomes the first French colony to join the Allies under the administration of Félix Éboué, France’s first black colonial governor.
1942 The Holocaust in Ukraine: At Chortkiv, the Ukrainian police and German Schutzpolizei deport two thousand Jews to Bełżec extermination camp. Five hundred of the sick and children are murdered on the spot. This continued until the next day.
1944 World War II: Charles de Gaulle enters Paris.
1966 The South African Border War starts with the battle at Omugulugwombashe.
1977 The Charter of the French Language is adopted by the National Assembly of Quebec.
1999 Russia begins the Second Chechen War in response to the Invasion of Dagestan by the Islamic International Peacekeeping Brigade.
– History of Second Chechen War – Timeline – Historydraft
– ‘Welcome To Hell, Part II’: The Second Chechen War (rferl.org)
– Russia still lives in the shadow of the Chechen war – DW – 09/30/2019
– Chechen involvement in the Russian invasion of Ukraine – Wikipedia
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27 August
1791 French Revolution: Frederick William II of Prussia and Leopold II, Holy Roman Emperor, issue the Declaration of Pillnitz, declaring the joint support of the Holy Roman Empire and Prussia for the French monarchy, agitating the French revolutionaries and contributing to the outbreak of the War of the First Coalition
1793 French Revolutionary Wars: The city of Toulon revolts against the French Republic and admits the British and Spanish fleets to seize its port, leading to the Siege of Toulon by French Revolutionary forces.
1895 Japanese invasion of Taiwan: Battle of Baguashan: The Empire of Japan decisively defeats a smaller Formosan army at Changhua, crippling the short-lived Republic of Formosa and leading to its surrender two months later.
1908 The Qing dynasty promulgates the Qinding Xianfa Dagang, the first constitutional document in the history of China, transforming the Qing empire into a constitutional monarchy.
1916 World War I: The Kingdom of Romania declares war on Austria-Hungary, entering the war as one of the Allied nations.
1922 Greco-Turkish War: The Turkish army takes the Aegean city of Afyonkarahisar from the Kingdom of Greece.
1928 The Kellogg–Briand Pact outlawing war is signed by fifteen nations. Ultimately sixty-one nations will sign it.
– Kellogg-Briand Pact | Facts, Purpose, & Significance | Britannica
– Remembering the Kellogg-Briand Pact
– The Kellogg-Briand Peace Pact: A Contemporary Criticism, 1928-29 | Teaching American History
1943 World War II: Aerial bombardment by the Luftwaffe razes to the ground the village of Vorizia in Crete.
– Razing of Vorizia – August 27, 1943 | Important Events on August 27th in History – CalendarZ
1956 The nuclear power station at Calder Hall in the United Kingdom was connected to the national power grid becoming the world’s first commercial nuclear power station to generate electricity on an industrial scale.
1964 South Vietnamese junta leader Nguyễn Khánh enters into a triumvirate power-sharing arrangement with rival generals Trần Thiện Khiêm and Dương Văn Minh, who had both been involved in plots to unseat Khánh.
1991 The European Community recognizes the independence of the Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.
1991 Moldova declares independence from the USSR.
2009 Internal conflict in Myanmar: The Burmese military junta and ethnic armies begin three days of violent clashes in the Kokang Special Region.
– Myanmar civil war (2021–present) – Wikipedia
– Timeline of the Myanmar civil war (2021–present) – Wikipedia
– The civil war in Myanmar: No end in sight | Brookings
– Human rights in Myanmar – Wikipedia
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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
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