This Week in History

HISTORY, 6 Apr 2015

Satoshi Ashikaga – TRANSCEND Media Service

Apr 6-12

QUOTE OF THE WEEK:

Whatever you deeply accept this moment as it is – no matter what forms it takes – you are still, you are at peace.” – Eckhart Tolle, Stillness Speaks.

APRIL 6

2012  Azawad declares itself independent from the Republic of Mali.

2011  In San Fernando, Tamaulipas, Mexico, over 193 bodies were exhumed from several mass graves made by Los Zetas.

– Visit, for instance, Mexico’s San Fernando Massacres: A Declassified History; _ and/or _ Wikipedia: 2011 San Fernando massacre.

2010  Maoist rebels kill 76 CRPF officers in Dantewada district, India.

2008  2008 Egyptian general strike starts led by Egyptian workers later to be adopted by April 6 Youth Movement and Egyptian activities .

2005  Kurdish leader Jalal Talabani becomes Iraqi president; Shiite Arab Ibrahim al-Jaafari is named premier the next day.

2004  Rolandas Paksas becomes the first president of Lithuania to be peacefully removed from office by impeachment.

1998  Pakistan tests medium-range missiles capable of reaching India.

1994  The Rwandan Genocide begins when the aircraft carrying Rwandan president Juvénal Habyarimana and Burundian president Cyprien Ntaryamira is shot down. [This date, 6 April 1994, was considered as the initiation of the commencement of this genocide. The actual act of the genocide might have begun, in Kigali, for instance, between the night time of this day and the next day, on 7 April 1994.]

– Visit, for instance, History: The Rwandan Genocide ; _ Rwanda: the wake of a genocide ; _ Rwanda Genocide; _ Rwandan Genocide News; _ United States Holocaust Memorial Museum: Rwanda ; _ and/or _ Case Study: Genocide in Rwanda, 1994.

– For UN Reports on the Rwandan genocide, visit, for instance, Outreach Programme on the Rwanda Genocide and the United Nations ; _ and/or _ http://www.un.org/events/rwanda/backgrounder.html.

– Visit the website of the UN International Tribunal for Rwanda.

– For pertinent information on the UN Peacekeepers in Rwanda in 1994, visit, for instance, Wikipedia: United Nations Assistance Mission for Rwanda ; _ Rwanda: United Nations Assistance Mission for Rwanda UNAMIR (October 1993 – March 1996) ; _ and/or _ Peace and Conflict: Peacekeepers in Rwanda.

– For Roméro Dallaire, the-then chief of the UN Peacekeeping Mission in Rwanda, visit, for instance, Romero Dallaire, Meeting the ‘Devil’ in Rwanda ; _ The Rwandan Genocide ; _ and/or _ UN/DALLAIRE GENOCIDE.

– For Kofi Annan, the-then head of the UN Peacekeeping Operations in 1994, and the Rwandan Genocide, visit, for instance, The Rwanda “Genocide Fax”: What We Know Now ; _ The UN, Rwanda and the ‘Genocide Fax’ – 20 Years Later; _ Ghosts of Rwanda: Interview Kofi Annan ; _ UN chief’s Rwanda Genocide regret; _ and/or _ Kofi Annan and the Rwanda Genocide.

– Watch the movie, Hotel Rwanda, which depicts the Rwandan Genocide situation.

Check books on Rwanda Genocide available on the market.

1984  Members of Cameroon‘s Republican Guard unsuccessfully attempt to overthrow the government headed by Paul Biya.

1972  Vietnam War: Easter Offensive – American forces begin sustained air strikes and naval bombardments.

1957  USSR performs nuclear test (atmospheric tests).

1955  US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site.

1945  World War II: the Battle of Slater’s Knoll on Bougainville comes to an end.

1945  World War II: Sarajevo is liberated from German and Croatian forces by the Yugoslav Partisans.

1941  World War II: Nazi Germany launches Operation 25 (the invasion of Kingdom of Yugoslavia) and Operation Marita (the invasion of Greece).

1930  Gandhi raises a lump of mud and salt and declares, “With this, I am shaking the foundations of the British Empire,” beginning the Salt Satyagraha.

1919  Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi orders a general strike.

1917  World War I: The United States declares war on Germany (see President Woodrow Wilson’s address to Congress).

1782  King Buddha Yodfa Chulaloke (Rama I) of Siam (modern day Thailand) founded the Chakri dynasty.

 

 

APRIL 7

2009  Mass protests begin across Moldova under the belief that results from the parliamentary election are fraudulent.

2009  Former Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori is sentenced to 25 years in prison for ordering killings and kidnappings by security forces.

2003  U.S. troops capture Baghdad; Saddam Hussein‘s regime falls two days later.

1999  The World Trade Organization rules in favor of the United States in its long-running trade dispute with the European Union over bananas.

1995  First Chechen War: Russian paramilitary troops begin a massacre of civilians in Samashki, Chechnya.

1994  Rwandan Genocide: Massacres of Tutsis begin in Kigali, Rwanda. Also see the description of this genocide on 6 April 1994, mentioned above. [The actual commencement date of the genocide in Kigali might have begun between “the evening/night time or near midnight of 6 April 1994 and the early morning of 7 April 1994”. Some documents records “6 April 1994”, while others, “7 April 1994”.] Visit the documentation of the US Department of State on the Rwanda Genocide.

1992  Republika Srpska announces its independence.

1988  US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site.

1985  Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev declares a moratorium on the deployment of middle-range missiles in Europe.

1980  The United States severs relations with the Islamic Republic of Iran.

1978  Development of the neutron bomb is canceled by President Jimmy Carter.

1971  President Richard Nixon announces his decision to increase the rate of American troop withdrawals from Vietnam.

1969  The Internet‘s symbolic birth date: publication of RFC 1.

1956  Spain relinquishes its protectorate in Morocco.

1955  Winston Churchill resigns as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom amid indications of failing health.

1954  President Dwight D. Eisenhower gives his “domino theory” speech during a news conference.

1951  US performs atmospheric nuclear test at Enwetak.

1948  The World Health Organization is established by the United Nations.

1946  Syria‘s independence from France is officially recognized.

1945  World War II: Visoko is liberated by the 7th, 9th, and 17th Krajina brigades from the Tenth division of Yugoslav Partisan forces.

1945  World War II: The Japanese battleship Yamato, the largest battleship ever constructed, is sunk by American planes 200 miles north of Okinawa while en route to a suicide mission in Operation Ten-Go.

1943  Ioannis Rallis becomes collaborationist Prime Minister of Greece during the Axis Occupation.

1943  Holocaust: In Terebovlia, Ukraine, Germans order 1,100 Jews to undress to their underwear and march through the city of Terebovlia to the nearby village of Plebanivka where they are shot dead and buried in ditches.

1939  World War II: Italy invades Albania.

1933  Prohibition in the United States is repealed for beer of no more than 3.2% alcohol by weight, eight months before the ratification of the XXI amendment.

1927  First long-distance public television broadcast (from Washington, D.C., to New York City, displaying the image of Commerce Secretary Herbert Hoover).

1906  The Algeciras Conference gives France and Spain control over Morocco.

1906  Mount Vesuvius erupts and devastates Naples.

 

 

APRIL 8

2013  The Islamic State of Iraq enters the Syrian Civil War and begins by declaring a merger with the Al-Nusra Front under the name Islamic State of Iraq and ash-Sham.

2006  Shedden massacre: The bodies of eight men, all shot to death, are found in a field in Ontario, Canada. The murders are soon linked to the Bandidos motorcycle gang.

2004  Darfur conflict: The Humanitarian Ceasefire Agreement is signed by the Sudanese government and two rebel groups.

1970  Bahr el-Baqar incident: Israeli bombers strike an Egyptian school. 46 children are killed.

1960  The Netherlands and West Germany sign an agreement to negotiate the return of German land annexed by the Dutch in return for 280 million German marks as Wiedergutmachung.

1959  The Organization of American States drafts an agreement to create the Inter-American Development Bank.

1959  A team of computer manufacturers, users, and university people led by Grace Hopper meets to discuss the creation of a new programming language that would be called COBOL.

1953  Mau Mau leader Jomo Kenyatta is convicted by Kenya‘s British rulers.

1950  India and Pakistan sign the Liaquat-Nehru Pact.

1946  Électricité de France, the world’s largest utility company, is formed as a result of the nationalisation of a number of electricity producers, transporters and distributors.

1945  World War II: After an air raid accidentally destroys a train carrying about 4,000 Nazi concentration camp internees in Prussian Hanover, the survivors are massacred by Nazis.

1943  U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt, in an attempt to check inflation, freezes wages and prices, prohibits workers from changing jobs unless the war effort would be aided thereby, and bars rate increases by common carriers and public utilities.

1942  World War II: The Japanese take Bataan in the Philippines.

1942  World War II: Siege of LeningradSoviet forces open a much-needed railway link to Leningrad.

1929  Indian Independence Movement: At the Delhi Central Assembly, Bhagat Singh and Batukeshwar Dutt throw handouts and bombs to court arrest.

1924  Sharia courts are abolished in Turkey, as part of Atatürk’s Reforms.

1918  World War I: Actors Douglas Fairbanks and Charlie Chaplin sell war bonds on the streets of New York City’s financial district.

1911  Dutch physicist Heike Kamerlingh Onnes discovers superconductivity.

1906  Auguste Deter, the first person to be diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease, dies.

1904  The French Third Republic and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland sign the Entente cordiale.

1886  Italy and Prussia ally against the Austrian Empire.

1866  Italy and Prussia ally against the Austrian Empire.

1832  Black Hawk War: Around three-hundred United States 6th Infantry troops leave St. Louis, Missouri to fight the Sauk Native Americans.

1808  The Roman Catholic Diocese of Baltimore is promoted to an archdiocese, with the founding of the dioceses of New York, Philadelphia, Boston, and Bardstown (now Louisville) by Pope Pius VII.

1740  War of Jenkins’ Ear: Three British ships capture the Spanish third-rate HMS Princess.

 

 

APRIL 9

2009  In Tbilisi, Georgia, up to 60,000 people protest against the government of Mikheil Saakashvili.

2003  2003 invasion of Iraq: Baghdad falls to American forces; Iraqis turn on symbols of their former leader Saddam Hussein, pulling down a grand statue of him and tearing it to pieces.

1999  Battle of Košare begins, part of Kosovo War.

– For Kosovo War, visit, for instance, A Kosovo Chronology ; _ 1999 – a documentary about Kosovo War and ethnic cleansing ;_ Kosovo Profile;_ Religious aspect of the Yugoslavia – Kosovo conflict ;_ and/or _ Kosovo War.

– For NATO and Kosovo War, visit, for instance, NATO Bombing of Yugoslavia ;_ NATO’s War;_ NATO’s role in relation to the conflict in Kosovo;_ and NATO’s ‘Humanitarian War’ over Kosovo ;_ NATO’s role in Kosovo.

– For NATO’s involvement in the Balkans, visit, for instance; _ The Oil factor in Kosovo independence ; _ The Oil Wars in the Balkans;_ U.S. and NATO Goals in the Balkans ; _ and/or _ Balkans To Caspian: U.S. And NATO Continue Cold War.

For war crimes in Kosovo War (including war crimes committed by Serbia and those committed by NATO), visit, for instance, War crimes in the Kosovo War ; _ War Crimes in Kosovo a Country Awaits ;_ War Crimes in The Kosovo War; _ EULEX and War Crimes ; _ The Those Vulnerable Affected the War are those that make us Cry ; _ 12 War-Crimes Suspects Held by NATO’s Police in Kosovo ; _ Lazanski: NATO committed a war crime in 1999;_ NATO war crimes in Serbia and Kosovo ; _ and _ Kosovo War Crime Investigation Will Have to Include NATO.

1992  A U.S. Federal Court finds former Panamanian dictator Manuel Noriega guilty of drug and racketeering charges. He is sentenced to 30 years in prison.

1991  Georgia declares independence from the Soviet Union.

1989  The April 9 tragedy in Tbilisi, Georgian Soviet Socialist Republic, an anti-Soviet peaceful demonstration and hunger strikes, demanding restoration of Georgian independence is dispersed by the Soviet army, resulting in 20 deaths and hundreds of injuries.

1981  The U.S. Navy nuclear submarine USS George Washington accidentally collides with the Nissho Maru, a Japanese cargo ship, sinking it.

1980  The Iraqi regime of Saddam Hussein kills philosopher Muhammad Baqir al-Sadr and his sister Bint al-Huda after three days of torture.

1975  8 people in South Korea, who are involved in People’s Revolutionary Party Incident, are hanged.

1969  The first British-built Concorde 002 makes its maiden flight from Filton to RAF Fairford.

1960  Dr. Hendrik Verwoerd, Prime Minister of South Africa and architect of apartheid, narrowly survives an assassination attempt by a white farmer called David Pratt in Johannesburg.

1957  The Suez Canal in Egypt is cleared and opens to shipping.

1955  US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site.

1952  Hugo Ballivián‘s government is overthrown by the Bolivian National Revolution, starting a period of agrarian reform, universal suffrage and the nationalisation of tin mines.

1949  UN International Court of Justice held Albania responsible for incidents in Corfu Channel & awards Britain damages. Visit, for instance, Corfu Channel (United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland v. Albania) ; _ and/or _.Corfu Channel Case.

1948  Fighters from the Irgun and Lehi Zionist paramilitary groups attacked Deir Yassin near Jerusalem, killing over 100.

1948  Jorge Eliécer Gaitán‘s assassination provokes a violent riot in Bogotá (the Bogotazo), and a further ten years of violence in Colombia known as La violencia.

1947  The Journey of Reconciliation, the first interracial Freedom Ride begins through the upper South in violation of Jim Crow laws. The riders wanted enforcement of the United States Supreme Court‘s 1946 Irene Morgan decision that banned racial segregation in interstate travel.

1945  The United States Atomic Energy Commission is formed.

– Visit, for instance, History of the Atomic Energy Commission ; _ The Atomic Energy Commission ; _ and/or _ Table Guide to Department of Energy & Atomic Energy Commission laboratories Technical Report Holdings.

1945  World War II: The Battle of Königsberg, in East Prussia, ends.

1942  World War II: The Battle of Bataan/Bataan Death March – United States forces surrender on the Bataan Peninsula. The Japanese Navy launches an air raid on Trincomalee in Ceylon (Sri Lanka); Royal Navy aircraft carrier HMS Hermes and Royal Australian Navy Destroyer HMAS Vampire are sunk off the island’s east coast.

1940  Vidkun Quisling seizes power in Norway.

1940  World War II: Operation WeserübungGermany invades Denmark and Norway.

– Visit, for instance, Operation Weserübung: Germany’s assault on Denmark and Norway; _ and _ The Scharnhost: The History.

1918  The National Council of Bessarabia proclaims union with the Kingdom of Romania.

1918  World War I: The Battle of the Lys – the Portuguese Expeditionary Corps is crushed by the German forces during what is called the Spring Offensive on the Belgian region of Flanders.

1917  World War I: The Battle of Arras – the battle begins with Canadian Corps executing a massive assault on Vimy Ridge.

1916  World War I: The Battle of Verdun – German forces launch their third offensive of the battle.

1914  Mexican Revolution: One of the world’s first naval/air skirmishes takes place off the coast of western Mexico.

1867  Alaska Purchase: Passing by a single vote, the United States Senate ratifies a treaty with Russia for the purchase of Alaska.

 

 

APRIL 10

2012  United Nations deadline for Syrian troop withdrawal passes as violence continues.

– Visit, for instance, Hopes for peace dashed as deadline for Syrian withdrawal passes ; _ Annan ‘gravely concerned’ about Syria as deadline for pullout passes ; _ and/or _ Syria ceasefire: fighting continues as deadline passes.

2009  President of Fiji Ratu Josefa Iloilo announces he will suspend the constitution and assume all governance in the country, creating a constitutional crisis.

1998  Northern Ireland peace deal reached (Good Friday Agreement).

– For Good Friday Agreement, visit, for instance, Good Friday Agreement: British-Irish History ; _ Northern Ireland Peace Agreement (The Good Friday Agreement) ; _ and _ The Agreement.

1991  A rare tropical storm develops in the South Atlantic Ocean near Angola; the first to be documented by satellites.

1986  US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site.

1981  France performs nuclear test.

– Visit, for instance, 1981-82 French nuclear tests ; _ France’s nuclear weapons: Origin of the Force de Frappe ; _ and France’s nuclear testing programme.

1972  Seventy-four nations sign the Biological Weapons Convention, the first multilateral disarmament treaty banning the production of biological weapons.

– Visit, for instance, The Biological Weapons Convention ; _ Convention on the Prohibition of the Development, Production and Stockpiling of Bacteriological (Biological) and Toxin Weapons and on their Destruction ; _ List of parties to the Biological Weapons Convention ; _ Arms Control Association: Fact sheets and briefs ; _ NTI: The Biological Weapons Convention ; _ and/or _ The Biological Weapons Convention: An Overview.

1972  Vietnam War: For the first time since November 1967, American B-52 bombers reportedly begin bombing North Vietnam.

1972  Tombs containing bamboo slips, among them Sun Tzu‘s Art of War and Sun Bin‘s lost military treatise, are accidentally discovered by construction workers in Shandong.

1972  Twenty days after he is kidnapped in Buenos Aires, Oberdan Sallustro is murdered by communist guerrillas.

1971  Ping-pong diplomacy: In an attempt to thaw relations with the United States, the People’s Republic of China hosts the U.S. table tennis team for a week-long visit.

1968  US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site.

1963  US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site.

1957  The Suez Canal is reopened for all shipping after being closed for three months.

1957  USSR performs atmospheric nuclear test.

1953  Warner Bros. premieres the first 3-D film from a major American studio, entitled House of Wax.

1944  Rudolf Vrba and Alfréd Wetzler escape from the Birkenau death camp.

1941  World War II: The Axis powers in Europe establish the Independent State of Croatia from occupied Yugoslavia with Ante Pavelić‘s Ustaše fascist insurgents in power.

1919  Mexican Revolution leader Emiliano Zapata is ambushed and shot dead by government forces in Morelos.

1912  RMS Titanic sets sail from Southampton, England on her maiden and only voyage.

1904  British mystic Aleister Crowley transcribes the third and final chapter of The Book of the Law.

1868 At Arogee in Abyssinia, British and Indian forces defeat an army of Emperor Tewodros II. While 700 Ethiopians are killed and many more injured, only two British/Indian troops die.

1866  The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA) is founded in New York City by Henry Bergh.

1864  Archduke Maximilian of Habsburg is proclaimed emperor of Mexico during the French intervention in Mexico.

1826  The 10,500 inhabitants of the Greek town of Missolonghi begin leaving the town after a year’s siege by Turkish forces. Very few of them survive.

1821  Patriarch Gregory V of Constantinople is hanged by the Ottoman government from the main gate of the Patriarchate and his body is thrown into the Bosphorus.

 

 

APRIL 11

2012 An 8.2 magnitude earthquake hits Indonesia, off northern Sumatra at a depth of 16.4 km. A tsunami hits the island of Nias at Indonesia.

2011  An explosion in the Minsk Metro, Belarus kills 15 people and injures 204 others.

2007  2007 Algiers bombings: Two bombings in the Algerian capital of Algiers kill 33 people and wound a further 222 others.

2006  Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad announces that Iran has successfully enriched uranium.

2002  Over two hundred thousand people marched in Caracas towards the Presidential Palace of Miraflores, to demand the resignation of president Hugo Chávez. 19 of the protesters are killed, and the Minister of Defense Gral. Lucas Rincon announces Hugo Chávez resignation on national TV.

2002  The Ghriba synagogue bombing by Al Qaeda kills 21 in Tunisia.

1990  Customs officers in Middlesbrough, England, United Kingdom, say they have seized what they believe to be the barrel of a massive gun on a ship bound for Iraq.

1987  The London Agreement is secretly signed between Israeli Foreign Affairs Minister Shimon Peres and King Hussein of Jordan.

1983  USSR performs nuclear test at Eastern Kazakh/Semipalitinsk, USSR.

1981  A massive riot in Brixton, South London, results in almost 300 police injuries and 65 serious civilian injuries.

1979  Ugandan dictator Idi Amin is deposed.

1968  President Lyndon B. Johnson signs the Civil Rights Act of 1968, prohibiting discrimination in the sale, rental, and financing of housing.

1963  US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site.

1961  The trial of Adolf Eichmann begins in Jerusalem.

– Visit, for instance, The History Place: Biographies of Nazi Leaders: Adolf Eichmann ; _ Assignment: Murder! Adolf Eichmann ; _ Adolf Eichmann ; _ and/or _ The Capture of Nazi Criminal Adolf Eichmann.

1957  United Kingdom agrees to Singaporean self-rule.

1957  USSR performs atmospheric nuclear test.

1955  The Air India Kashmir Princess is bombed and crashes in a failed assassination attempt on Zhou Enlai by the Kuomintang.

1952  The Battle of Nanri Island takes place.

1951  The Stone of Scone, the stone upon which Scottish monarchs were traditionally crowned, is found on the site of the altar of Arbroath Abbey. It had been taken by Scottish nationalist students from its place in Westminster Abbey.

1951  Korean War: President Harry Truman relieves General of the Army Douglas MacArthur of overall command in Korea.

– Visit, for instance, Why Did Truman Really Fire MacArthur? ; _ The Korean War: Douglas MacArthur in the Korean War ; _ Roger Dingman on: Use of Atomic Weapons in Korea ; _ Truman, MacArthur, and the Korean War ; _ Korea: forgotten nuclear threats ; _ Korean War FAQ ; _ Tactics vs Strategy: MacArthur vs Truman ; _ and/or _ Timeline of Nuclear Threats on the Korean Peninsula.

1945  World War II: American forces liberate the Buchenwald concentration camp.

– Visit, for instance, Buchenwald (Germany) ; _ Holocaust Encyclopedia: BUCHENWALD ; _ Buchenwald Concentration Camp; _ Mashpedia: Buchenwald: Videos Top ; _ Third Reich Ruins: Buchenwald Concentration Camp; _ Buchenwald Concentration Camp ; _ and/or _ History & Overview of Buchenwald.

1921  Emir Abdullah establishes the first centralized government in the newly created British protectorate of Transjordan.

1919  The International Labour Organization is founded.

– Visit the International Labour Organization: Origins and History.

1909  The city of Tel Aviv is founded.

1876  The Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks is organized.

1868  Former Shogun Tokugawa Yoshinobu surrenders Edo Castle to Imperial forces, marking the end of the Tokugawa shogunate.

– Visit, for instance, The Age of Samurai: 1185 – 1868 ; _ Wikipedia: Samurai ; _ Edo Period (1603 – 1867) ; _ The Fall of the Samurai in Late Tokugawa Japan ; _ Tokugawa Period and Meiji Restoration ; _ and _ Wikipedia: Meiji period.

1856  Battle of Rivas: Juan Santamaria burns down the hostel where William Walker‘s filibusters are holed up.

1814  The Treaty of Fontainebleau ends the War of the Sixth Coalition against Napoleon Bonaparte, and forces him to abdicate unconditionally for the first time.

1809  Battle of the Basque Roads Naval battle fought between France and the United Kingdom

1727  Premiere of Johann Sebastian Bach‘s St Matthew Passion BWV 244b at the St. Thomas Church, Leipzig

1713  War of the Spanish Succession (Queen Anne’s War): Treaty of Utrecht.

 

 

APRIL 12

2012  A ceasefire in the 2011-2012 Syrian uprising comes into effect. See the Timeline of the Syrian War.

2009  Zimbabwe officially abandons the Zimbabwe Dollar as its official currency.

2007  A suicide bomber penetrates the Green Zone and detonates in a cafeteria within a parliament building, killing Iraqi MP Mohammed Awad and wounding more than twenty other people.

2002  A female suicide bomber blows herself up at the entrance to Jerusalem’s Mahane Yehuda open-air market, killing 7 and wounding 104.

1999  US President Bill Clinton is cited for contempt of court for giving “intentionally false statements” in a sexual harassment civil lawsuit.

1998  An earthquake in Slovenia, measuring 5.6 on the Richter scale occurs near the town of Bovec.

1994  Canter & Siegel post the first commercial mass Usenet spam.

1983  USSR performs nuclear test at Eastern Kazakh/Semipalitinsk, USSR.

1980  Samuel Doe takes control of Liberia in a coup d’état, ending over 130 years of minority Americo-Liberian rule over the country.

1970  Soviet submarine K-8, carrying four nuclear torpedoes, sinks in the Bay of Biscay four days after a fire on board.

1961  The Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin becomes the first human to travel into outer space and perform the first manned orbital flight, in Vostok 3KA-2 (Vostok 1).

1957  USSR performs atmospheric nuclear test.

1955  The polio vaccine, developed by Dr. Jonas Salk, is declared safe and effective.

1945  U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt dies while in office; vice-president Harry Truman is sworn in as the 33rd President.

1937  Sir Frank Whittle ground-tests the first jet engine designed to power an aircraft, at Rugby, England.

1927  April 12 Incident: Chiang Kai-shek orders the Communist Party of China members executed in Shanghai, ending the First United Front.

1917  World War I: Canadian forces successfully complete the taking of Vimy Ridge from the Germans.

1877  The United Kingdom annexes the Transvaal.

__________________________________

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/April_6 to 12; http://www.historyorb.com/events/april/6 to 12; http://www.brainyhistory.com/days/april_6.html ; to _12.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 author 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 6 Apr 2015.

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