On a 20 October 20:
2002 The generous amnesty by his excellency the
president is to show gratitude and pride in the heroic stand of the people
who said Yes to him" Interior Minister Mahmoud Diyab al-Ahmed declares.
On 15 October every single one of the 11'445'938 eligible voters voted
Yes in a referendum to give his excellency
another 7 years of dictatorship. Not a single voter chose the only alternative,
No, according to official results. Where does this happen? Why, in the
most perfect democracy the world has ever seen, of course, led by its
beloved Saddam Hussein: Iraq, a far cry from the banana-republic US with
its rigged presidential election of George Dubyu Bush, its
secret arrests, its indefinite imprisonment on occupied Cuban soil of
unlawful combatants, its barbarous death penalty, etc. etc.
All jailed prisoners, detainees and sentenced fugitives for political
reasons are granted a complete, comprehensive, and final amnesty,
Saddam declares in the decree. The amnesty also covers most criminal prisoners
and those held for evading military service, and states: Prisoners
and detainees will be set free immediately except in the case of those
who are sentenced or detained because of murder, then they would be set
free only if the families of victims would forgive them or if they pay
back their debts to the government or people. What is not mentioned
is that all those whom Saddam Hussein considered as even remotely potential
threats have already been freed long ago their souls freed from
the bond of the body Saddam Hussein himself having shot some of
them, including his son-in-law. The amnesty saves the minimal expense
of feeding the prisoners, and the prisons await any future US aggressors
who escape death on the battlefield.
2002 (Sunday) US: start of National
Lead Poisoning Prevention Week.
2000 Egyptian-born Ali Mohamed, a US citizen who served
in the US Army, pleads guilty in New York to helping plan the deadly 07
August 1998 US Embassy bombings in Africa in 1998 that killed 224 people,
including 12 from the US.
1999 Russians shell outskirts of Grozny (CNN)
1997 Microsoft accused of incorporating
browser in Windows 95
The US Justice Department files a complaint against Microsoft, alleging
that the company had violated a consent agreement it had entered into
in 1995. The government accused Microsoft of unfair business practices
in relation to its bundling of its Internet browser with its Windows
95 operating system. The suit came two years after Microsoft settled
government charges that it had illegally exploited its operating system
dominance. The Justice Department asked the court to stop Microsoft
from linking the use of Windows 95 to Microsoft's Internet browser.
|
1996 Japanese Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto's party
won a parliamentary election 1996 After months of
persecution, the FBI notifies Richard Jewell's attorney that Jewell is no
longer a suspect in the Olympic bombing in Atlanta. Jewell was the security
guard who removed the explosives just in time to save hundreds of lives.
1995 UN Asks US to pay up
On the eve of its fiftieth anniversary,
the United Nations announces that the United States, after years of
failing to pay dues or the expenses for peacekeeping missions, owes
the UN $1.25 billion. The debt threatens the United States' membership
in the organization. Under the United Nations' charter, a member would
be forced to relinquish its vote if "its arrears equals or exceeds
what it owes in contributions for the preceding two years. Though
the US seems to be on the way to crossing that mark by 1997, officials
concede that it is highly unlikely that the UN would banish one of
the world's most powerful countries. Still, America's delinquency
was troublesome for the UN, which had exceeded its annual budget by
August of 1995 and was forced to take out a $125 million loan. |
1994 MecklerWeb fails, for lack
of customers, after two weeks
Two weeks after its highly vaunted MecklerWeb service launched, Meckler
Media shut it down. The service, also backed by Digital Equipment
Corp., General Motors, and Ogilvy and Mather, was designed to help
companies create their own Internet presence. The company planned
to charge companies up to $50,000 to create interactive online brochures.
However, the company shut down the service just two weeks after its
launch, saying it had found only one customer willing to pay the high
fees. Instead, the company decided to put its magazines online and
sell advertising. |
1990 Antiwar protest marches begin in 20 US cities (US-Iraq)
1989 US Senate impeaches US District Judge Alcee
L Hastings 1988 Britain ends suspects right to
remain silent in crackdown on IRA 1983 IBM-PC DOS
Version 2.1 released 1981 three members of the radical
Weather Underground are arrested following a bungled armored truck robbery
in Nyack, N.Y 1978 The US Federal Reserve increased
the rediscount rate on loans to 9.5 percent, to counter the inflation fears
that are making the stock market plummet. 1975 Putting
economics ahead of Cold War politics, the US announces a deal to make annual
sales of 6 to 8 million tons of grain to the Soviet Union
1973 OPEC oil embargo begins, following the outbreak of Arab-Israeli
war. 1973 Sat Night Massacre, Watergate prosecutor
Archibald Cox dismissed by Solicitor Gen Bork, AG Richardson & Deputy AG
Ruckelshaus resigned
1973 Watergate special prosecutor
dismissed Solicitor
General Robert Bork dismisses Watergate special prosecutor Archibald
Cox; Attorney General Richardson and Deputy Attorney General Ruckelshaus
resign in protest. Cox had conducted a detailed investigation of the
Watergate break-in that revealed that the burglary was just one of
many possible abuses of power by the Nixon White House. Nixon had
ordered Richardson to fire Cox, but he refused and resigned, as did
Ruckelshaus when Nixon then asked him to dismiss the special prosecutor.
Bork agreed to fire Cox and an immediate uproar ensued. This series
of resignations and firings became known as the Saturday Night
Massacre and outraged the public and the media. Two days
later, the House Judiciary Committee began to look into the possible
impeachment of Nixon. The Watergate
scandal involved the bungled burglary of the offices of the Democratic
National Committee in the Watergate apartment complex in Washington,
D.C., on June 23, 1972. It was eventually learned that the cover-up
went all the way to the White House; President Nixon, facing impeachment,
resigned from the presidency in August 1974. This had a major impact
on the situation in Vietnam. Nixon had convinced President Nguyen
Van Thieu to consent to the provisions of the Paris peace accords
by personally promising (on more than 30 occasions) that the United
States would re-enter the conflict if the North Vietnamese violated
the peace agreement. However, Nixon's successor, Gerald R. Ford, was
not able to keep Nixon's promises because he could not, despite Thieu's
desperate pleas for help, get Congress to appropriate significant
funds to help the South Vietnamese. Having lost its sole source of
aid and support, South Vietnam fell in April 1975. |
1967 In Meridan, Mississippi, and all~white federal jury
convicts 7 men for violating the civil rights of three civil rights workers
by murdering them.
1965 The last Volvo PV544
The Volvo PV544 was first introduced
in 1958 as an updated version of its popular predecessor, the PV444.
Like the PV444 with its laminated windscreen, the PV544 featured an
important safety innovation--it was the first car to be equipped with
safety belts as standard fitting. But the PV544 was also a powerful
automobile, boasting a 4-speed manual transmission option and power
up to 95 bhp. Shortly after its introduction, the 544 became one of
the most successful rally cars, dominating rally racing into the 1960s.
Yet, the PV544 was also affordably priced, and its first-year sales
put Volvo over the 100'000--exported automobiles mark. The PV544 was
successfully reintroduced every year until 1965, when it was decided
by Volvo that production of the model would cease. On this day in
1965, the last 544 was driven off the Volvo assembly line at its Lundy
plant in Sweden by longtime Volvo test driver Nils Wickstrom. Gustaf
Larson, the engineer who had co-founded Volvo with businessman Assar
Gabrielsson in 1927, was present at the ceremony. An impressive total
of 440'000 Volvo PV544s had been produced during its eight-year run,
over half of which had been exported. |
1964 Relations between South
Vietnam, the US, and Cambodia deteriorate
A series of incidents and charges bring relations between Cambodia,
South Vietnam, and the United States to a low point. Cambodia under
Prince Norodom Sihanouk had tried to maintain its neutrality in the
growing conflict between Saigon and the Communists in Vietnam, but
the country became a sanctuary for Viet Cong and North Vietnamese
forces fighting the Saigon government. Sihanouk, not strong enough
to prevent the Communists from using his territory, came under increasing
political and military pressure from the United States and South Vietnam.
In this incident, South Vietnamese
planes strafed a Cambodian village; when Cambodia protested, Saigon
replied by reiterating its accusation that Cambodia was providing
refuge for Viet Cong forces that were attacking across the border
into South Vietnam. On October
22, the United States charged that Cambodian troops crossed over into
South Vietnam and seized an US officer advising South Vietnamese forces.
On October 25, the officer's body was recovered just inside South
Vietnam, and Cambodia was accused of placing the body there to allow
the rescue force to be fired on.
The next day, Cambodians shot down a US Air Force C-123 cargo plane,
loaded with ammunition for a Special Forces camp; eight US servicemen
aboard were killed. By October 28, the United States admitted that
the plane had strayed over Cambodian territory by mistake, but argued
that such incidents arose because of the poorly defined border and
the activities of the Viet Cong in the area.
Despite the charges and threats from Prince Sihanouk and US losses
in personnel and planes, neither side pursued the matter. However,
the use of Cambodia as a sanctuary by the Communists remained a contentious
issue; in 1970, President Richard Nixon ordered US and South Vietnamese
forces to attack the sanctuaries in what became known as the Cambodian
Incursion. |
1963 South Africa begins trial of Nelson Mandela and 8
others for conspiracy.
1962: Cuban Missile Crisis:
bomb or blockade Cuba?
US President Kennedy
is away from Washington on the second day of a planned campaign trip.
He knows that the Soviets are building bases in Cuba for nuclear missiles
that could reach almost everywhere in the US. But the Soviets don't
know that he knows, and the public knows nothing. The Executive Committee
of the National Security Council (EX-COMM)
meets in Washington, presided by the Attorney General, the President's
brother Robert
Kennedy. It approves two alternative speeches prepared for the
President to give one of them, depending on whether the action decided
upon is an air strike or a quarantine of Cuba.
Then Robert Kennedy phones the President to say that he must come
back to Washington make with EX-COMM a decision between the two options.The
President reluctantly agrees. He gives the excuse of an upper
respiratory infection to abandon his trip. Back in Washington,
Kennedy meets, from 13:30 and to 14:30, with EX-COMM. Roswell Gilpatric,
Deputy Secretary of Defense, says: this is a choice between
limited action and unlimited action -- and most of us think it is
better to start with limited action." The President favors a blockade
but would not finalize his decision until the next day. |
1960 The first fully automated post office system is put
into service in Providence, Rhode Island, the $20 million experimental project
electronically sorted and canceled mail at a rate of eighteen thousand pieces
per hour. 1956 15ºC, Esperanza Station, Antarctica
(Antarctic record high) 1949 The last of the Inklings'
Thursday meetings is held this evening. This group of Christians associated
with Oxford included such notable thinkers as J.R.R. Tolkien, C. S. Lewis,
and Owen Barfield.
1947 Un-American Activities
in Hollywood?
The House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) of the US Congress
opens its investigation into communist infiltration of the American
movie industry. Chaired by Congressman Parnell Thomas, the subsequent
hearings focused on identifying political subversives among Hollywood
actors and actresses, writers, and directors.
Although initially opposed by a group of Hollywood heavyweights such
as Humphrey Bogart, Lauren Bacall, and Gene Kelly, the hearings proceeded.
A number of witnesses, including studio owners Walt Disney and Jack
Warner, and movie stars Robert Taylor and Gary Cooper, gave statements
decrying the communist influence in the film industry; some specifically
named colleagues whom they suspected of communist affiliations or
sympathies. Among those denounced
as having un-American tendencies are: Katherine Hepburn, Charles Chaplin
and Edward G. Robinson. Among those called to testify is Screen Actors
Guild President Ronald Reagan, who denies that leftists ever controlled
the Guild and refuses to label anyone a communist.
Another group of witnesses, including writers Dalton Trumbo and Ring
Lardner Jr., were less forthcoming, and loudly complained that the
hearings were illegal, and that questions about their political loyalties
were inappropriate. Eventually, the "Hollywood Ten," as these protesting
witnesses came to be known, were found in contempt of Congress and
went on to serve jail terms.
The fate of the Hollywood Ten terrified many in the film industry,
and when new HUAC hearings started in 1951, Hollywood quickly buckled
to the committee's demands. Hundreds of performers, directors, writers,
and others associated with the movies were placed on a "blacklist,"
effectively banned from employment. Actors such as Zero Mostel and
John Garfield saw their careers in film during the 1940s and 1950s
destroyed for refusing to cooperate with HUAC. Hollywood also responded
by turning out a bevy of films with anticommunist themes, such as
I Was a Communist for the FBI (1951), Big Jim McClain
(1952), and My Son John (1952). |
1945 Egypt, Syria, Iraq and Lebanon form the Arab League
to present a unified front against the establishment of a Jewish state in
Palestine. 1944 Revolution by workers and students
in Guatemala 1944 US 1st army wins battle of Aachen
1944 US forces land at Leyte
Island in the Philippines
More than 100'000 American soldiers land on Leyte Island, in the Philippines,
as preparation for the major invasion by Gen. Douglas MacArthur. The
ensuing battles of Leyte Island proved among the bloodiest of the
war in the Pacific and signaled the beginning of the end for the Japanese.
The Japanese had held the Philippines
since May 1942, when the awful defeat of American forces led to General
MacArthur's departure (while he promised: "I shall return.)
and General Wainwright's capture. MacArthur was back, as he promised,
but his invasion of Luzon required a softening up of the enemy. Thus,
the amphibious landing of the American forces at Leyte and the concomitant
goal of destroying the Japanese fleet in the gulf was undertaken.
The Japanese anticipated the American
landing by launching Operation Sho-Go, an attempt to divert the US
3rd Fleet north and away from the fighting on the island. The Japanese
fleet assembled was the largest ocean task force assembled during
the war, including seven battleships, 11 heavy cruisers, and 19 destroyers.
US submarines and aircraft carriers met the Japanese fleet and the
Battle of Leyte Gulf began on October 23.
Meanwhile on Leyte Island, the US troops took on the Japanese garrison,
which was composed of 8',000 soldiers. It took 67 days to subdue the
island, with extraordinary acts of physical bravery and courage demonstrated
on both sides. Even after the US troops had taken control of the island,
Japanese soldiers who had been hidden away continued to emerge and
fight on, preferring to die than surrender. All told, the Japanese
lost more than 55'000 soldiers during the two months of battle and
approximately another 25'000 in mopping up operations in early 1945.
The US forces lost about 3500-compared with the Japanese loss of 80'000
total. The sea battle of Leyte
Gulf was the same story. The loss of ships and sailors was horrendous
for both sides. The sinking of the American carrier Princeton
resulted in the drowning deaths of 500 men. When the Japanese battleship
Musashi was destroyed by a massive American aerial attack,
more than 1000 sailors died, including the captain who stood on his
bridge and literally went down with his ship. Three days of sea battle
saw the destruction of 36 Japanese warships-compared with the US's
three. It also saw the introduction of the Japanese kamikaze-"divine
wind"--suicide bombers. The St. Lo, a US aircraft carrier,
was one of the first casualties, when one kamikaze pilot drove his
plane straight into its flight deck. More than 5000 kamikaze pilots
died in this gulf battle-taking down 34 ships. But when all was said
and done, the Japanese had not been able to prevent the loss of their
biggest and best warships, signaling the virtual end of the Japanese
Imperial Fleet. The US victory on land and sea opened the door for
General MacArthur's invasion and the recapture of the Philippines.
A personal victory for MacArthur. After advancing
island by island across the Pacific Ocean, US General Douglas MacArthur
wades ashore onto the Philippine island of Leyte, fulfilling his promise
to return to the area he was forced to flee in 1942. The son of an
American Civil War hero, MacArthur served as chief US military adviser
to the Philippines before World War II. The day after Pearl Harbor
was bombed on 07 December 1941, Japan launched its invasion of the
Philippines. After struggling
against great odds to save his adopted home from Japanese conquest,
MacArthur was forced to abandon the Philippine island fortress of
Corregidor under orders from President Franklin Roosevelt in March
1942. Left behind at Corregidor and on the Bataan Peninsula were 90'000
US and Filipino soldiers, who, lacking food, supplies, and support,
would soon succumb to the Japanese offensive. After leaving Corregidor,
MacArthur and his family traveled by boat 900 km to the Philippine
island of Mindanao, braving mines, rough seas, and the Japanese navy.
At the end of the hair-raising 35-hour journey, MacArthur told the
boat commander, John D. Bulkeley, "You've taken me out of the jaws
of death, and I won't forget it." On 17 March the general and his
family boarded a B-17 Flying Fortress for northern Australia. He then
took another aircraft and a long train ride down to Melbourne.
During this journey, he was informed
that there were far fewer Allied troops in Australia than he had hoped.
Relief of his forces trapped in the Philippines would not be forthcoming.
Deeply disappointed, he issued a statement to the press in which he
promised his men and the people of the Philippines, "I shall return."
The promise would become his mantra during the next two and a half
years, and he would repeat it often in public appearances. For his
valiant defense of the Philippines, MacArthur was awarded the Congressional
Medal of Honor and celebrated as "America's First Soldier." Put in
command of Allied forces in the Southwestern Pacific, his first duty
was conducting the defense of Australia. Meanwhile, in the Philippines,
Bataan fell in April, and the 70'000 American and Filipino soldiers
captured there were forced to undertake a death march in which at
least 7000 perished. Then, in
May, Corregidor surrendered, and 15'000 more US and Filipino soldiers
were captured. The Philippines were lost, and the US Joint Chiefs
of Staff had no immediate plans for their liberation. After the US
victory at the Battle of Midway in June 1942, most Allied resources
in the Pacific went to US Admiral Chester Nimitz, who as commander
of the Pacific Fleet planned a more direct route to Japan than via
the Philippines. Undaunted, MacArthur launched a major offensive in
New Guinea, winning a string of victories with his limited forces.
By September 1944, he was poised to launch an invasion of the Philippines,
but he needed the support of Nimitz's Pacific Fleet. After a period
of indecision about whether to invade the Philippines or Formosa,
the Joint Chiefs put their support behind MacArthur's plan, which
logistically could be carried out sooner than a Formosa invasion.
On 20 October 1944, a few hours
after his troops landed, MacArthur waded ashore onto the Philippine
island of Leyte. That day, he made a radio broadcast in which he declared,
"People of the Philippines, I have returned!" In January 1945, his
forces invaded the main Philippine island of Luzon. In February, Japanese
forces at Bataan were cut off, and Corregidor was captured. Manila,
the Philippine capital, fell in March, and in June MacArthur announced
his offensive operations on Luzon to be at an end; although scattered
Japanese resistance continued until the end of the war, in August.
Only one-third of the men MacArthur left behind in March 1942 survived
to see his return. "I'm a little late," he told them, "but we finally
came." |
1942 "Durham Manifesto" calls for fundamental changes
in race relations 1938 Czechoslovakia, complying
with Nazi policy, outlaws the Communist Party and begins persecuting Jews.
The unprecedented Nuremberg Trial. 1940 German troops reach the approaches
to Moscow.
1935 Mao's Long March concludes
Just over a year after the start
of the Long March, Mao Zedong arrives in Hanoi in northwest China
with 8000 survivors, and sets up Chinese Communist headquarters. In
October of 1934, the Communist leader Mao and over 100,000 of his
followers began an epic flight from the vastly superior Nationalist
forces of Chiang Kai-shek. In a retreat known as the Long March, Mao's
forces battled their way across 6,000 miles of territory, before finally
reaching safety in Hanoi. In 1936, under the increasing threat of
Japanese invasion, a coalition is formed between Mao and his Nationalist
foes. But with the defeat of Japan in 1945, civil war erupts again.
Mao's Communist forces emerge triumphant in China in 1949, and the
Nationalists are expelled from the mainland as the People's Republic
of China is declared with Mao as both president of the republic and
chairman of the Communist Party.
Just over a year after the start of the Long March, Mao Zedong arrives
in Shensi Province in northwest China with 4,000 survivors and sets
up Chinese Communist headquarters. The epic flight from Chiang Kai-shek's
Nationalist forces lasted 368 days and covered 6,000 miles, nearly
twice the distance from New York to San Francisco. Civil war in China
between the Nationalists and the Communists broke out in 1927. In
1931, Communist leader Mao Zedong was elected chairman of the newly
established Soviet Republic of China, based in Kiangsi province, in
the southwest. Between 1930 and 1934, the Nationalists launched a
series of five encirclement campaigns against the Soviet Republic.
Under the leadership of Mao, the Communists employed guerrilla tactics
to successfully resist the first four campaigns, but in the fifth,
Chiang raised 700,000 troops and built fortifications around the Communist
positions. Hundreds of thousands of peasants were killed or died of
starvation in the siege, and Mao was removed as chairman by the Communist
Central Committee. The new Communist leadership employed more conventional
warfare tactics, and its Red Army was decimated. With defeat imminent,
the Communists decided to break out of the encirclement at its weakest
points. The Long March began on October 16, 1934. Secrecy and rear-guard
actions confused the Nationalists, and it was several weeks before
they realized that the main body of the Red Army had fled. The retreating
force initially consisted of 86,000 troops, 15,000 personnel, and
35 women. Weapons and supplies were borne on men's backs or in horse-drawn
carts, and the line of marchers stretched 50 miles. The Communists
generally marched at night, and when the enemy was not near, a long
column of glowing torches could be seen snaking over valleys and hills
into the distance. The first disaster came in November, when Nationalist
forces blocked the Communists' route across the Hsiang River. It took
a week for the Communists to break through the fortifications and
cost them 50,000 men--more than half their number. After that debacle,
Mao steadily regained his influence, and in January he was again made
chairman during a meeting of the party leaders in the captured city
of Tsuni. Mao changed strategy, breaking his force into several columns
that would take varying paths to confuse the enemy. There would be
no more direct assaults on enemy positions, and the destination would
now be Shensi Province, in the far northwest, where the Communists
would fight the Japanese invaders and earn the respect of China's
masses. After enduring starvation, aerial bombardment, and almost
daily skirmishes with Nationalist forces, Mao halted his columns at
the foot of the Great Wall of China on October 20, 1935. Waiting for
them were five machine-gun- and red-flag-bearing horsemen. "Welcome,
Chairman Mao," one said. "We represent the Provincial Soviet of Northern
Shensi. We have been waiting for you anxiously. All that we have is
at your disposal!" The Long March was over. The Communist marchers
crossed 24 rivers and 18 mountain ranges, mostly snow-capped. Only
4,000 troops completed the journey. The majority of those who did
not complete the journey had perished along the way. It was the longest
continuous march in the history of warfare and marked the emergence
of Mao Zedong as the undisputed leader of the Chinese Communists.
Learning of the Communists' heroism and determination in the Long
March, thousands of young Chinese traveled to Shensi to enlist in
Mao's Red Army. After fighting the Japanese for a decade, the Chinese
Civil War resumed in 1945. Four years later, the Nationalists were
defeated, and Mao proclaimed the People's Republic of China. He served
as chairman of the country until his death in 1976.
Il a accompli la Longue Marche, la plus longue sans doute du siècle
qu’un dirigeant ait réalisée avec ses partisans, car c’en était vraiment
une : Mao Tsé-Toung et ses troupes communistes avaient mis 369 jours
pour franchir 18 chaînes de montagnes, 24 fleuves, 54 villes et accomplir
12 000 km . Son but : mobiliser la population contre le pouvoir en
place de Tchang Kaï-chek contre lequel Mao-Tsé Toung s’est rebellé
depuis le début des années 30. Au cours de la Longue Marche, les troupes
de Mao rencontrent la population, s’enrichissent de son contact, expliquent
leur combat et deviennent plus forts et plus puissants qu’ils ne l’étaient.
L’Armée rouge de Mao est prête à abattre le régime de Tchang Kaï-chek.
De violents combats opposent tout au long des années 40 les communistes
au régime en place. Premières victoires décisives de Mao en 1948 avec
la prise de Moukden. Début 1949, les communistes font le siège de
Pékin qui se rend le 1er février. Puis ce sera le tour de Nankin,
Shanghai... Tchang Kaï-chek prend la fuite. Il se réfugiera à Formose,
future Taïwan. Mao, lui s’installe à la tête de la Chine, proclame
le socialisme et la République populaire de Chine. Il régnera jusqu’à
sa mort, en 1976, et fera de la Chine l’une des grandes puissances
de ce monde, mais controversée. |
1930 British White Paper restricts Jews from buying Arab
land 1918 Germany accepted US President Wilson's
terms to end World War I. 1911 Roald Amundsen
sets out on race to South Pole 1906 Dr Lee DeForest
demonstrates his radio tube 1905 Great General
Strike in Russia begins; lasts 11 days 1904 Bolivia
and Chile sign a treaty ending the War of the Pacific. The treaty recognizes
Chile's possession of the coast, but provides for construction of a railway
to link La Paz, Bolivia, to Arica, on the coast. 1903
The Joint Commission, set up on 24 January by Great Britain and the United
States to arbitrate the disputed boundary between the District of Alaska
and Canada, rules in favor of the United States. The deciding vote is Britain's,
which embitters Canada. The United States gains ports on the panhandle coast
of Alaska. 1883 Treaty of Ancon, Peru cedes Tarapaca
to Chile 1870 The Summer Palace in Beijing, China,
is burnt to the ground by a Franco-British expeditionary force. 1863
Skirmish at Warm Springs, North Carolina 1844 Orestes
Augustus Brownson is taken into the Roman Catholic Church. He was notable
as an American intellectual with persuasive views. He was the author of
The
American Republic: Its Constitution, Tendencies, and Destiny,
The
American Republic: Its Constitution, Tendencies, and Destiny, The
American Republic: Its Constitution, Tendencies, and Destiny, New
Views of Christianity, Society, and the Church
1827 The naval Battle of Navarino
During the Greek War for Independence,
a combined Turkish and Egyptian armada is destroyed by an allied British,
French, and Russian naval force at the Battle of Navarino. In 1821,
the first nationalist uprisings by the Greeks against their Turkish
rulers touched off a wave of sympathy in Britain and France, whose
cultural traditions enshrined respect for ancient Hellenic values.
Russians sympathized with the Greeks as fellow-members of the Orthodox
Church struggling against a mutual foe in the Near and Middle East--the
Ottoman Empire. After Turkey
enlisted the aid of Egypt in the conflict, Britain, France, and Russia
sent allied squadrons to Navarino Bay on the west coast of the Peloponnese
in the eastern Mediterranean. The European allies had hoped to resolve
the conflict by a simple show of force, but upon arrival in Navarino
Bay their squadrons are immediately fired on by the opposing Egyptian
and Turkish naval force. British Admiral Edward Codrington's squadron
leads the European attack, and by the next day the Europeans' superior
artillery have completely annihilated the Turkish and Egyptian fleets.
In the same year, with its sovereignty guaranteed by the three European
powers, Greece wins its independence after nearly four hundred years
of Turkish rule. |
1818 US-Canadian border established
Great Britain and the United
States sign a diplomatic convention establishing a boundary between
the US and British Canada along the forty-ninth parallel. The boundary
stretches from Lake of the Woods in the east to the Rocky Mountains
in the west. The delegates also agree to a joint occupation of Oregon
territory for ten years, an arrangement that is extended for an additional
ten years in 1827. After 1838, the issue of who possesses Oregon becomes
increasingly controversial, especially when mass American migration
along the Oregon Trail begins during the early 1840s. American expansionists
urge seizure of Oregon, and in 1844, Democrat James K. Polk successfully
runs for president under the platform, "Fifty-four Forty or Fight,"
which refers to his hope of bringing a sizable portion of present-day
Vancouver and Alberta into the United States. However, neither President
Polk nor the British government want a third Anglo-American war, and
on June 15, 1846, the Oregon Treaty is signed. By the terms of the
agreement, the US and Canadian border is extended west along the forty-ninth
parallel to the Strait of Georgia, just short of the Pacific Ocean.
The US gains formal control over the future states of Oregon, Washington,
Idaho, and Montana, and the British retain Vancouver Island and navigation
rights to part of the Columbia River. |
1813 German Kingdom of Westphalia abolished 1805
Austrian general Karl Mac surrenders to Napoléon's army at the battle
of Ulm. -- A 15 heures, les 27'000 hommes dont 3000 à cheval, et 60 pièces
de canon attelées, se rendent. En signe de reddition, le général Mack remet
son épée à l'empereur. Les soldats autrichiens qui défilent devant le vainqueur
jettent à ses pieds toutes leurs armes. 1803 .
The agreement, which provides for the purchase of the western half of the
Mississippi River basin from France at a price of about seven cents per
hectare, doubles the size of the country and paves the way for westward
expansion beyond the Mississippi.
1803 US Senate ratifies
the Louisiana Purchase by a vote of 24 to 7.
The US Senate approves a treaty with
France providing for the purchase of the territory of Louisiana, which
would double the size of the United States.
At the end of 18th century, the Spanish technically owned Louisiana,
the huge region west of the Mississippi that had once been claimed
by France and named for its monarch, King Louis XIV. Despite Spanish
ownership, American settlers in search of new land were already threatening
to overrun the territory by the early 19th century. Recognizing it
could not effectively maintain control of the region, Spain ceded
Louisiana back to France in 1801, sparking intense anxieties in Washington,
D.C. Under the leadership of Napoléon Bonaparte, France had
become the most powerful nation in Europe, and unlike Spain, it had
the military power and the ambition to establish a strong colony in
Louisiana and keep out the Americans.
Realizing that it was essential that the US at least maintain control
of the mouth of the all-important Mississippi River, early in 1803
President Thomas Jefferson sent James Monroe to join the French foreign
minister, Robert Livingston, in France to see if Napoléon might
be persuaded to sell New Orleans and West Florida to the US By that
spring, the European situation had changed radically. Napoléon,
who had previously envisioned creating a mighty new French empire
in America, was now facing war with Great Britain. Rather than risk
the strong possibility that Great Britain would quickly capture Louisiana
and leave France with nothing, Napoléon decided to raise money
for his war and simultaneously deny his enemy plum territory by offering
to sell the entire territory to the US for a mere $15 million. Flabbergasted,
Monroe and Livingston decided that they couldn't pass up such a golden
opportunity, and they wisely overstepped the powers delegated to them
and accepted Napoléon's offer.
Despite his misgivings about the constitutionality of the purchase
(the Constitution made no provision for the addition of territory
by treaty), Jefferson finally agreed to send the treaty to the US
Senate for ratification, noting privately, "The less we say about
constitutional difficulties the better. Despite his concerns,
the treaty was ratified and the Louisiana Purchase now ranks as the
greatest achievement of Jefferson's presidency. |
1740 Maria Theresa became ruler of Austria, Hungary &
Bohemia. 1714 George I of England crowned. .
1709 Marlborough and Eugene of Savoy take Mons in the
Netherlands.
1658
An Act made at a General Court, held at Boston, the
20th of October, 1658 Whereas
there is a pernicious sect (commonly called Quakers), lately risen,
who by word and writing have published and maintained many dangerous
and horrid tenets, and do take upon them to change and alter the received
laudable customs of our nation, in giving civil respect to equals,
or reverence to superiors, whose actions tend to undermine the civil
government, and also to destroy the order of the churches, by denying
all established forms of worship, and by withdrawing from orderly
church-fellowship, allowed and approved by all orthodox professors
of the Truth, and instead thereof, and in opposition thereunto, frequently
meeting themselves, insinuating themselves into the minds of the simple,
or such as are least affected to the order and government of church
and commonwealth, hereby divers of our inhabitants have been infected,
notwithstanding all former laws, made upon the experience of their
arrogant and bold obtrusions, to disseminate their principles among
us, prohibiting their coming in this jurisdiction, they have not been
deterred from their impetuous attempts to undermine our peace, and
hazard our ruin. For prevention
thereof, this court doth order and enact, that every person, or persons,
of the cursed sect of the Quakers, who is not all inhabitant of, but
is found within this jurisdiction, shall be apprehended without warrant,
where no magistrate is at hand, by any constable, commissioner, or
select man, and conveyed from constable to constable, to the next
magistrate, who shall commit the said person to close prison, there
to remain, without bail, unto the next court of assistants, where
they shall have a legal trial: and being convicted to be of the sect
of the Quakers, shall be sentenced to be banished upon pain of death:
and that every inhabitant of this jurisdiction, being convicted to
be of the aforesaid sect, either by taking up, publishing, or defending
the horrid opinions of the Quakers, or the stirring up mutiny, sedition,
or rebellion against the government, or by taking up their absurd
and destructive practices, viz. Denying civil respect to equals and
superiors, and withdrawing from our church assemblies, and instead
thereof frequent meetings of their own, in opposition to our church
order; or by adhering to, or approving of any known Quaker, and the
tenets and practices of the Quakers, that are opposite to the orthodox
received opinions of the godly, and endeavouring to disaffect others
to civil government, and church orders, or condemning the practice
and proceedings of this court against the Quakers, manifesting thereby
their complying with those, whose design is to overthrow the order
established in church and state, every such person, upon conviction
before the said court of assistants, in manner as aforesaid, shall
be committed to close prison for one month, and then, unless they
choose voluntarily to depart this jurisdiction, shall give bond for
their good behaviour, and appear at the next court, where continuing
obstinate, and refusing to retract and reform the aforesaid opinions,
they shall be sentenced to banishment upon pain of death; and any
one magistrate, upon information given him of any such person, shall
cause him to be apprehended, and shall commit any such person to prison,
according to his discretion, until he come to trial, as aforesaid.
[http://worldpolicy.org/americas/religion/masslaw.html] |
1629 John Winthrop is elected governor of Massachussetts
Bay. He is well-known for the journal he kept. 1600
Battle of Sekigahara sets Tokugawa clan as Japan's rulers (shoguns)
1587 In France, Huguenot Henri de Navarre routs Duke de
Joyeuse's larger Catholic force at Coutras. 1541
Coronado writes to the King of Spain: Coronado's
Report to the King of Spain Sent from Tiguex on October 20, 1541
1349 Self-flagellation is condemned by pope Clement VI.
The practice had arisen two hundred years ealier, initiated by the monk
Peter Damien as a means to help himself suppress his lusts. --480
BC Greeks defeat the Persians in a naval battle at Salamis.
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