This Week in History
HISTORY, 2 Feb 2015
Satoshi Ashikaga – TRANSCEND Media Service
February 2–8
Quote of the Week:
“The mind is everything. Every thought you create manifests itself in the world; if you didn’t achieve something you strive for, you simply didn’t believe in it enough.” – Mario Novak (Source: http://bossmindset.tumblr.com/post/46222445564/the-mind-is-everything-every-thought-you-create )
February 2
2007 The worst flooding in Indonesia in 300 years begins. Visit http://reliefweb.int/disaster/fl-2007-000023-idn ; http://poleshift.ning.com/profiles/blogs/7-of-10-sinking-indonesia-jakarta-worst-floods-since-2007-ground ; and http://indonesiaurbanstudies.blogspot.com/2007/02/flooding-again-in-jakarta.html .
1990 Apartheid: F. W. de Klerk announces the unbanning of the African National Congress and promises to release Nelson Mandela.
1989 Soviet war in Afghanistan: The last Soviet armoured column leaves Kabul.
1987 After the 1986 People Power Revolution, the Philippines enacts a new constitution.
1982 1982 Hama Massacre: the government of Syria attacks the town of Hama.
1972 The British embassy in Dublin is destroyed in protest at Bloody Sunday. Related to this event, visit http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Provisional_Irish_Republican_Army and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sinn_F%C3%A9in .
1971 The international Ramsar Convention for the conservation and sustainable utilization of wetlands is signed in Ramsar, Mazandaran, Iran.
1971 Idi Amin replaces President Milton Obote as leader of Uganda.
1966 Pakistan suggests a six-point agenda with Kashmir after the Indo-Pakistani War of 1965.
1962 USSR performs nuclear test at Semipalitinsk, Eastern Kazakhstan, USSR.
1959 Dyatlov Pass incident . Also visit, among others, http://www.ermaktravel.org/Europe/Russia/Cholat-%20Syachil/Kholat%20Syakhl.htm ; http://rbth.co.uk/travel/2013/02/25/extreme_tourism_in_the_urals_dyatlovs_footsteps_23259.html ; http://skeptoid.com/episodes/4108 ; and http://www.aquiziam.com/dyatlov_pass_1.html .
1957 Iskander Mirza of Pakistan lays the foundation-stone of the Guddu Barrage.
1948 US President Truman urges congress to adopt a civil rights program. Visit http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/primary-resources/truman-civilrights/ ; and http://www.trumanlibrary.org/whistlestop/study_collections/desegregation/large/lessons/dseg.html .
1943 World War II: The Battle of Stalingrad comes to conclusion as Soviet troops accept the surrender of 91,000 remnants of the Axis forces.
1935 Leonarde Keeler tests the first polygraph machine.
1922 Ulysses by James Joyce is published.
1920 France occupies Memel.
1920 The Tartu Peace Treaty is signed between Estonia and Russia.
1848 Mexican–American War: The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo is signed.
1542 Portuguese forces under Cristovão da Gama capture a Muslim-occupied hill fort in northern Ethiopia in the Battle of Baçente.
February 3
2007 A Baghdad market bombing kills at least 135 people and injures a further 339.
1989 A military coup overthrows Alfredo Stroessner, dictator of Paraguay since 1954.
1984 John Buster and the research team at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center announce history’s first embryo transfer, from one woman to another resulting in a live birth.
1969 In Cairo, Yasser Arafat is appointed Palestine Liberation Organization leader at the Palestinian National Congress.
1961 A protest by agricultural workers in Baixa de Cassanje, Portuguese Angola, turns into a revolt, opening the Angolan War of Independence, the first of the Portuguese Colonial Wars.
1961 The United States Air Forces begins Operation Looking Glass, and over the next 30 years, a “Doomsday Plane” is always in the air, with the capability of taking direct control of the United States’ bombers and missiles in the event of the destruction of the SAC‘s command post.
1960 British Prime Minister Harold Macmillan speaks of “a wind of change“, an increasing national consciousness blowing through colonial Africa, signalling that his Government is likely to support decolonisation.
1958 Founding of the Benelux Economic Union, creating a testing ground for a later European Economic Community.
1945 World War II: The United States and the Philippine Commonwealth begin a month-long battle to retake Manila from Japan.
1945 World War II: As part of Operation Thunderclap, 1,000 B-17s of the Eighth Air Force bomb Berlin, a raid which kills between 2,500 to 3,000 and dehouses another 120,000.
1944 World War II: During the Gilbert and Marshall Islands campaign, U.S. Army and Marine forces seize Kwajalein Atoll from the defending Japanese garrison.
1943 The USAT Dorchester is sunk by a German U-boat. Only 230 of 902 men aboard survived. The Chapel of the Four Chaplains, dedicated by President Harry Truman, is one of many memorials established to commemorate the Four Chaplains story.
1931 The Hawke’s Bay earthquake, New Zealand‘s worst natural disaster, kills 258. See the list of earthquakes in New Zealand by visiting http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earthquakes_in_New_Zealand ; and http://scienceblogs.com/gregladen/2011/02/22/why-does-new-zealand-have-so-m/ .
1917 World War I: The United States breaks off diplomatic relations with Germany a day after the latter announced a new policy of unrestricted submarine warfare.
1917 World War I: The United States breaks off diplomatic relations with Germany a day after the latter announced a new policy of unrestricted submarine warfare.
1897 The Greco-Turkish War breaks out.
1852 Justo José de Urquiza defeats Juan Manuel de Rosas at the Battle of Caseros.
1830 The sovereignty of Greece is confirmed in a London Protocol.
1813 José de San Martín defeats a Spanish royalist army at the Battle of San Lorenzo, part of the Argentine War of Independence.
1807 A British military force, under Brigadier-General Sir Samuel Auchmuty captures the Spanish Empire city of Montevideo, now the capital of Uruguay.
February 4
2003 The Federal Republic of Yugoslavia is officially renamed Serbia and Montenegro and adopts a new constitution.
2003 The Bengali Hindus declares the independence of the Republic of Bangabhumi from Bangladesh.
1999 Unarmed West African immigrant Amadou Diallo is shot dead by four plainclothes New York City police officers on an unrelated stake-out, inflaming race-relations in the city.
1998 An earthquake measuring 6.1 on the Richter Scale in northeast Afghanistan kills more than 5,000.
1992 A coup d’état is led by Hugo Chávez against Venezuelan President Carlos Andrés Pérez.
1985 Naval exercises canceled when U.S. refuses to tell New Zealand of nuclear weapons.
1976 In Guatemala and Honduras an earthquake kills more than 22,000.
1975 Haicheng earthquake (magnitude 7.3 on the Richter scale) occurs in Haicheng, Liaoning, China.
1974 M62 coach bombing: The Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) explodes a bomb on a bus carrying off-duty British Armed Forces personnel in Yorkshire, England. Nine soldiers and three civilians are killed.
1969 Yasser Arafat takes over as chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization.
1948 Ceylon (later renamed Sri Lanka) becomes independent within the British Commonwealth.
1945 World War II: The Yalta Conference between the “Big Three” (Churchill, Roosevelt, and Stalin) opens at the Livadia Palace in the Crimea.
1945 World War II: Santo Tomas Internment Camp is liberated from Japanese authority.
1932 Second Sino-Japanese War: Harbin, Manchuria, falls to Japan.
1899 The Philippine–American War begins with the Battle of Manila.
1859 The Codex Sinaiticus is discovered in Egypt.
1846 The first Mormon pioneers make their exodus from Nauvoo, Illinois, westward towards Salt Lake Valley.
1820 The Chilean Navy under the command of Lord Cochrane completes the 2-day long Capture of Valdivia with just 300 men and 2 ships.
1810 The Royal Navy seizes Guadeloupe.
1801 John Marshall is sworn in as Chief Justice of the United States.
1797 The Riobamba earthquake strikes Ecuador, causing up to 40,000 casualties.
1794 The French legislature abolishes slavery throughout all territories of the French Republic. It will be reestablished in the French West Indies in 1802.
1454 In the Thirteen Years’ War, the Secret Council of the Prussian Confederation sends a formal act of disobedience to the Grand Master.
February 5
2004 Rebels from the Revolutionary Artibonite Resistance Front capture the city of Gonaïves, starting the 2004 Haiti rebellion.
2000 Russian forces massacre at least 60 civilians in the Novye Aldi suburb of Grozny, Chechnya.
1997 The so-called Big Three banks in Switzerland announce the creation of a $71 million fund to aid Holocaust survivors and their families.
1994 Markale massacres, more than 60 people are killed and some 200 wounded as a mortar shell explodes in a downtown marketplace in Sarajevo.
1994 Byron De La Beckwith is convicted of the 1963 murder of civil rights leader Medgar Evers.
1988 Manuel Noriega is indicted on drug smuggling and money laundering charges.
1985 Ugo Vetere, then the mayor of Rome, and Chedli Klibi, then the mayor of Carthage meet in Tunis to sign a treaty of friendship officially ending the Third Punic Warwhich lasted 2,131 years.
1975 Riots break in Lima, Peru after the police forces go on strike the day before. The uprising (locally known as the Limazo) is bloodily suppressed by the military dictatorship.
1963 The European Court of Justice‘s ruling in Van Gend en Loos v Nederlandse Administratie der Belastingen establishes the principle of direct effect, one of the most important, if not the most important, decisions in the development of European Union law.
1962 French President Charles de Gaulle calls for Algeria to be granted independence.
1958 A hydrogen bomb known as the Tybee Bomb is lost by the US Air Force off the coast of Savannah, Georgia, never to be recovered.
1958 Gamel Abdel Nasser is nominated to be the first president of the United Arab Republic.
1946 The Chondoist Chongu Party is founded in North Korea.
1945 World War II: General Douglas MacArthur returns to Manila.
1941 World War II: Allied forces begin the Battle of Keren to capture Keren, Eritrea.
1939 Generalísimo Francisco Franco becomes the 68th “Caudillo de España“, or Leader of Spain.
1937 President Franklin D. Roosevelt proposes a plan to enlarge the Supreme Court of the United States.
1924 The Royal Greenwich Observatory begins broadcasting the hourly time signals known as the Greenwich Time Signal or the “BBC pips”.
1918 SS Tuscania is torpedoed off the coast of Ireland; it is the first ship carrying American troops to Europe to be torpedoed and sunk.
1918 Stephen W. Thompson shoots down a German airplane. It is the first aerial victory by the U.S. military.
1917 The Congress of the United States passes the Immigration Act of 1917 over President Woodrow Wilson‘s veto. Also known as the Asiatic Barred Zone Act, it forbade immigration from nearly all of south and southeast Asia. For more information on the Asiatic Barred Zone Act and discrimination of immigrants, visit http://library.uwb.edu/guides/USimmigration/1917_immigration_act.html ; http://www.immigrationinamerica.org/362-asiatic-barred-zone.html?newsid=362 ; http://www.eyewitnesstohistory.com/snpim1.htm ; http://discriminationpzjk.weebly.com/immigration-after-ww1.html ; http://www.mocanyc.org/learn/timeline/immigration_act_of_1917 ; http://www2.maxwell.syr.edu/plegal/ltgb2a/wenbanwq1.htm and/or http://www.fasttrackteaching.com/burns/Unit_4_Cities/U4_Immigrants_and_Discrimination.html .
1917 The current constitution of Mexico is adopted, establishing a federal republic with powers separated into independent executive, legislative, and judicial branches.
1913 Greek military aviators, Michael Moutoussis and Aristeidis Moraitinis perform the first naval air mission in history, with a Farman MF.7 hydroplane.
1909 Belgian chemist Leo Baekeland announces the creation of Bakelite, the world’s first synthetic plastic.
1900 The United States and the United Kingdom sign a treaty for the Panama Canal.
1900 The Battle of Vaal Krantz, South Africa (Boers vs British army). Visit, for instance, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Vaal_Krantz ; http://military.wikia.com/wiki/Battle_of_Vaal_Krantz ; and/or http://plak.co.za/moreinfo/19203/battle-of-vaal-krantz .
1885 King Leopold II of Belgium establishes the Congo as a personal possession.
1869 The largest alluvial gold nugget in history, called the “Welcome Stranger“, is found in Moliagul, Victoria, Australia.
1859 Wallachia and Moldavia are united under Alexander John Cuza as the United Principalities, an autonomous region within the Ottoman Empire, which ushered the birth of the modern Romanian state.
1852 The New Hermitage Museum in Saint Petersburg, Russia, one of the largest and oldest museums in the world, opens to the public.
1810 Peninsular War: Siege of Cádiz begins.
1783 Sweden recognizes US independence. Visit http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ei/bgn/2880.htm ; http://archive.digtriad.com/rss/article/211821/176/Today-In-History—February-5 ; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Declaration_of_Independence ; and/or http://www.theusaonline.com/history/independence.htm .
1782 Spanish defeat British forces and capture Minorca.
62 Earthquake in Pompeii, Italy.
February 6
2014 The Taliban and Pakistani government begin peace negotiations.
2000 Second Chechen War: Russia captures Grozny, Chechnya, forcing the separatist Chechen Republic of Ichkeria government into exile.
1989 The Round Table Talks start in Poland, thus marking the beginning of overthrow of communism in Eastern Europe.
1988 USSR performs nuclear test at Eastern Kazakh/Semipalitinsk USSR.
1984 Moslem militiamen take over West Beirut from Lebanese army.
1981 The National Resistance Army of Uganda launches an attack on a Ugandan Army installation in the central Mubende District to begin the Ugandan Bush War.
1959 At Cape Canaveral, Florida, the first successful test firing of a Titan intercontinental ballistic missile is accomplished.
1951 US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site Argonne Atomic Lab (Ill), to demonstrate lax in security.
1942 World War II: The United Kingdom declares war on Thailand.
1941 British troops conquer Bengazi, Libya.
1922 The Washington Naval Treaty is signed in Washington, D.C., limiting the naval armaments of United States, Britain, Japan, France, and Italy.
1918 British women over the age of 30 get the right to vote.
1900 The international arbitration court at The Hague is created when the Senate of the Netherlands ratifies an 1899 peace conference decree. Visit http://www.pca-cpa.org/showpage.asp?pag_id=1044 ; and/or http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Permanent_Court_of_Arbitration .
1899 Spanish–American War: The Treaty of Paris, a peace treaty between the United States and Spain, is ratified by the United States Senate.
1862 American Civil War: forces under the command of Ulysses S. Grant and Andrew H. Foote give the Union its first victory of the war, capturing Fort Henry, Tennessee in the Battle of Fort Henry.
1840 Signing of the Treaty of Waitangi, establishing New Zealand as a British colony.
1819 Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles founds Singapore.
1806 Battle of San Domingo: British naval victory against the French in the Caribbean.
1778 American Revolutionary War: In Paris the Treaty of Alliance and the Treaty of Amity and Commerce are signed by the United States and France signaling official recognition of the new republic.
February 7
1999 Crown Prince Abdullah becomes the King of Jordan on the death of his father, King Hussein.
1992 The Maastricht Treaty is signed, leading to the creation of the European Union.
1990 Dissolution of the Soviet Union: The Central Committee of the Soviet Communist Party agrees to give up its monopoly on power.
1986 Twenty-eight years of one-family rule end in Haiti, when President Jean-Claude Duvalier flees the Caribbean nation.
1974 Grenada gains independence from the United Kingdom.
1965 US begins regular bombing & strafing of N. Vietnam.
1962 The United States bans all Cuban imports and exports.
1951 Korean War: 705 suspected communist sympathizers are butchered by South Korean forces.
1950 US & Great-Britain recognize Bảo Đại Vietnamese regime. For Bảo Đại, visit http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/B%E1%BA%A3o_%C4%90%E1%BA%A1i ; http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/700820/Bao-Dai ; and/or http://ilove-vietnam.blogspot.com/2014/09/king-bao-dais-palace.html#.VMPnMS586po .
1947 Arabs & Jews reject British proposal to split Palestine. Visit, for instance, http://www.palestineremembered.com/Acre/Palestine-Remembered/Story448.html ; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Nations_Partition_Plan_for_Palestine ; and/or http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/History/partition_plan.html .
1944 World War II: In Anzio, Italy, German forces launch a counteroffensive during the Allied Operation Shingle.
1943 World War II: Imperial Japanese Navy forces complete the evacuation of Imperial Japanese Army troops from Guadalcanal during Operation Ke, ending Japanese attempts to retake the island from Allied forces in the Guadalcanal Campaign.
1900 Second Boer War: British troops fail in their third attempt to lift the Siege of Ladysmith.
1897 Greco-Turkish War: The first full-scale battle takes place when the Greek expeditionary force in Crete defeats a 4,000-strong Ottoman force at Livadeia.
1856 The colonial Tasmanian Parliament passes the second piece of legislation (the Electoral Act of 1856) anywhere in the world providing for elections by way of a secret ballot.
1813 Action of 7 February 1813: stalemate two evenly matched frigates from the French Navy and the British Royal Navy, Aréthuse and HMS Amelia.
1807 Napoleonic Wars: Battle of Eylau – Napoléon‘s French Empire begins fighting against Russian and Prussian forces of the Fourth Coalition at Eylau, Poland.
1783 American Revolutionary War: French and Spanish forces lift the Great Siege of Gibraltar.
February 8
2011 North and South Korean officials meet for working-level military talks, the first Korean dialogue in eight months.
1979 US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site.
1974 Military coup in Upper Volta.
1971 South Vietnamese ground troops launch an incursion into Laos to try to cut off the Ho Chi Minh trail and stop communist infiltration.
1968 American civil rights movement: The Orangeburg massacre: An attack on black students from South Carolina State University who are protesting racial segregation at the town’s only bowling alley, leaves three or four dead in Orangeburg, South Carolina.
1963 The regime of Prime Minister of Iraq, Brigadier General Abdul-Karim Qassem is overthrown by the Ba’ath Party.
1962 Charonne massacre. Nine trade unionists are killed by French police at the instigation of Nazi collaborator Maurice Papon, then chief of the Paris Prefecture of Police.
1955 The Government of Sindh, Pakistan, abolishes the Jagirdari system in the province. One million acres (4000 km2) of land thus acquired is to be distributed among the landless peasants.
1952 Elizabeth II is proclaimed Queen of the United Kingdom.
1950 The Stasi, the secret police of East Germany, is established.
1948 The formal creation of the Korean People’s Army of North Korea is announced.
1945 World War II: The United Kingdom and Canada commence Operation Veritable to occupy the west bank of the Rhine.
1942 World War II: Japan invades Singapore.
1942 Congress advises Franklin D. Roosevelt that, Americans of Japanese descent should be locked up en masse so they wouldn’t oppose the U.S. war effort.
1936 Pandit Jawaharlal follows Gandhi as chairman of India Congress Party. Visit, for instance, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jawaharlal_Nehru ; and/or http://www.biography.com/people/jawaharlal-nehru-9421253#world-war-ii .
1926 German Reichstag decides to apply for League of Nations membership. Visit, for instance, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reichstag_%28Nazi_Germany%29 ; http://www.worldatwar.net/timeline/other/league18-46.html ; and/or http://www.jstor.org/discover/10.2307/3015982?sid=21105689958743&uid=2&uid=3738200&uid=4 . For Nazi and its history, visit, for instance, http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Holocaust/naziregime.html ; and/or http://www.historyonthenet.com/Chronology/timelinenazigermany.htm .
1924 Capital punishment: The first state execution in the United States by gas chamber takes place in Nevada.
1920 Swiss men vote against women’s suffrage.
1904 Battle of Port Arthur: A surprise torpedo attack by the Japanese at Port Arthur, China starts the Russo-Japanese War.
1887 The Dawes Act authorizes the President of the United States to survey Native American tribal land and divide it into individual allotments.
1865 In the United States, Delaware voters reject the Thirteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, and vote to continue the practice of slavery. (Delaware finally ratifies the amendment on February 12, 1901.)
1856 Barbu Dimitrie Ştirbei abolishes slavery in Wallachia.
1817 Las Heras crosses the Andes with an army to join San Martín and liberate Chile from Spain.
1807 Battle of Eylau – Napoleon defeats Russians under General Bennigsen and the Prussians under L’Estocq
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Sources and references: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/February_2 to February 8; http://www.brainyhistory.com/days/february_2.html to february_8.html ; http://www.historyorb.com/events/february/2 to february/8 ; 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 2 Feb 2015.
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