This day in .....

19 March 1932 – The Sydney Harbour Bridge is opened.

Sydney Harbour Bridge

Bridge across Sydney Harbour in Australia

The Sydney Harbour Bridge is a steel through arch bridge in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, spanning Sydney Harbour from the central business district (CBD) to the North Shore. The view of the bridge, the Harbour, and the nearby Sydney Opera House is widely regarded as an iconic image of Sydney, and of Australia itself. Nicknamed "the Coathanger" because of its arch-based design, the bridge carries rail, vehicular, bicycle and pedestrian traffic.^[1][2]

Under the direction of John Bradfield of the New South Wales Department of Public Works, the bridge was designed and built by British firm Dorman Long of Middlesbrough, and opened in 1932.^[3][4] The bridge's general design, which Bradfield tasked the NSW Department of Public Works with producing, was a rough copy of the Hell Gate Bridge in New York City. The design chosen from the tender responses was original work created by Dorman Long, who leveraged some of the design from its own Tyne Bridge.^[5]

It is the tenth-longest spanning-arch bridge in the world and the tallest steel arch bridge, measuring 134 m (440 ft) from top to water level.^[6] It was also the world's widest long-span bridge, at 48.8 m (160 ft) wide, until construction of the new Port Mann Bridge in Vancouver was completed in 2012.^[7][8]

1. ^ "7BridgesWalk.com.au". Bridge History. Archived from the original on 29 August 2007. Retrieved 23 October 2006.
2. ^ "Sydney Harbour Bridge". Government of Australia. 14 August 2008. Archived from the original on 12 May 2012. Retrieved 29 May 2012.
3. ^ "Dr J.J.C. Bradfield". Pylon Lookout: Sydney Harbour Bridge. Archived from the original on 18 February 2011. Retrieved 18 December 2010.
4. ^ "Olympic connections across the UK". BBC News. 19 January 2012. Archived from the original on 20 March 2012. Retrieved 19 March 2012.
5. ^ James Weirick (2007). "Radar Exhibition – Bridging Sydney". Archived from the original on 6 September 2008. Retrieved 20 March 2012.
6. ^ "Sydney Harbour Bridge". culture.gov.au. Australian Government. Archived from the original on 20 September 2010. Retrieved 1 October 2010.
7. ^ "Widest Bridge". Guinness World Records. Archived from the original on 14 September 2012. Retrieved 15 September 2012.
8. ^ "Port Mann Bridge". Transportation Investment Corporation. British Columbia: Province of British Columbia. 2007. Archived from the original on 11 September 2012. Retrieved 15 September 2012. Once complete, the new 10-lane Port Mann Bridge will the second largest and longest cable-supported bridge in North America, and at 65 metres wide it will be the widest bridge in the world.

Read More

 

20 March 1915 – Albert Einstein publishes his general theory of relativity.

General relativity

Theory of gravitation as curved spacetime

For the graduate textbook by Robert Wald, see General Relativity (book).

For a more accessible and less technical introduction to this topic, see Introduction to general relativity.

General relativity, also known as the general theory of relativity, and as Einstein's theory of gravity, is the geometric theory of gravitation published by Albert Einstein in 1915 and is the current description of gravitation in modern physics. General relativity generalizes special relativity and refines Newton's law of universal gravitation, providing a unified description of gravity as a geometric property of space and time, or four-dimensional spacetime. In particular, the curvature of spacetime is directly related to the energy and momentum of whatever is present, including matter and radiation. The relation is specified by the Einstein field equations, a system of second-order partial differential equations.

Newton's law of universal gravitation, which describes gravity in classical mechanics, can be seen as a prediction of general relativity for the almost flat spacetime geometry around stationary mass distributions. Some predictions of general relativity, however, are beyond Newton's law of universal gravitation in classical physics. These predictions concern the passage of time, the geometry of space, the motion of bodies in free fall, and the propagation of light, and include gravitational time dilation, gravitational lensing, the gravitational redshift of light, the Shapiro time delay and singularities/black holes. So far, all tests of general relativity have been shown to be in agreement with the theory. The time-dependent solutions of general relativity enable us to talk about the history of the universe and have provided the modern framework for cosmology, thus leading to the discovery of the Big Bang and cosmic microwave background radiation. Despite the introduction of a number of alternative theories, general relativity continues to be the simplest theory consistent with experimental data.

Reconciliation of general relativity with the laws of quantum physics remains a problem, however, as there is a lack of a self-consistent theory of quantum gravity. It is not yet known how gravity can be unified with the three non-gravitational forces: strong, weak and electromagnetic.

Einstein's theory has astrophysical implications, including the prediction of black holes—regions of space in which space and time are distorted in such a way that nothing, not even light, can escape from them. Black holes are the end-state for massive stars. Microquasars and active galactic nuclei are believed to be stellar black holes and supermassive black holes. It also predicts gravitational lensing, where the bending of light results in multiple images of the same distant astronomical phenomenon. Other predictions include the existence of gravitational waves, which have been observed directly by the physics collaboration LIGO and other observatories. In addition, general relativity has provided the base of cosmological models of an expanding universe.

Widely acknowledged as a theory of extraordinary beauty, general relativity has often been described as the most beautiful of all existing physical theories.^[2]

1. ^ "GW150914: LIGO Detects Gravitational Waves". Black-holes.org. 11 February 2016. Retrieved 18 April 2016.
2. ^ Cite error: The named reference :0 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).

Read More

 

21 March 1963 – Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary (in California) closes.

Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary

Former island prison in San Francisco Bay

United States Penitentiary, Alcatraz Island, also known simply as Alcatraz (English: /ˈælkəˌtræz/, Spanish: [alkaˈtɾas] "the gannet") or the Rock, was a maximum security federal prison on Alcatraz Island, 1.25 miles (2.01 km) off the coast of San Francisco, California, United States. The site of a fort since the 1850s, the main prison building was built in 1910–12 as a U.S. Army military prison.

The United States Department of Justice acquired the United States Disciplinary Barracks, Pacific Branch, on Alcatraz on October 12, 1933. The island became adapted and used as a prison of the Federal Bureau of Prisons in August 1934 after the buildings were modernized and security increased. Given this high security and the island's location in the cold waters and strong currents of San Francisco Bay, prison operators believed Alcatraz to be escape-proof and America's most secure prison.

The three-story cellhouse included the four main cell blocks – A-block through D-block – the warden's office, visitation room, the library, and the barber shop. The prison cells typically measured 9 feet (2.7 m) by 5 ft (1.5 m) and 7 ft (2.1 m) high. The cells were primitive and lacked privacy. They were furnished with a bed, desk, washbasin, a toilet on the back wall, and few items other than a blanket. Black inmates were segregated from other inmates. D-Block housed the worst inmates, and six cells at its end were designated "The Hole". Prisoners with behavioral problems were sent to these for periods of often brutal punishment. The dining hall and kitchen extended from the main building. Prisoners and staff ate three meals a day together. The Alcatraz Hospital was located above the dining hall.

Prison corridors were named after major U.S. streets, such as Broadway and Michigan Avenue, of New York City and Chicago, respectively. Working at the prison was considered a privilege for inmates. Those who earned privileges were employed in the Model Industries Building and New Industries Building during the day, actively involved in providing for the military in jobs such as sewing and woodwork, and performing various maintenance and laundry chores.

The prison closed in 1963, but Alcatraz was reopened as a public museum. The island and prison were occupied by American Indians from 1969 to 1971. It is one of San Francisco's major tourist attractions, attracting some 1.5 million visitors annually. Now operated by the National Park Service's Golden Gate National Recreation Area, the former prison is being restored and maintained.

1. ^ "Alcatraz Island". Geographic Names Information System. United States Geological Survey, United States Department of the Interior.
2. ^ "Escapes from Alcatraz Image Gallery: Federal Penitentiary Wardens". San Francisco History. SFgenealogy. Retrieved March 4, 2022.

Read More

 

22 March 2017 – A terrorist attack in London near the Houses of Parliament leaves four people dead and at least 20 injured.

2017 Westminster attack

Terrorist attack in London

This article is about the March 2017 attack in Westminster. For the similar attack in June 2017 in London, see 2017 London Bridge attack. For other uses, see Westminster attack.

On 22 March 2017, a terrorist attack took place outside the Palace of Westminster in London, seat of the British Parliament. Khalid Masood, a 52-year-old Briton, drove a car into pedestrians on the pavement along the south side of Westminster Bridge and Bridge Street, injuring more than 50 people, four of them fatally. He then crashed the car into the perimeter fence of the palace grounds and ran into New Palace Yard, where he fatally stabbed an unarmed police officer. He was then shot by an armed police officer, and died at the scene.

Police treated the attack as "Islamist-related terrorism". Masood said in a final text message that he was waging jihad in revenge for Western military action in Muslim countries in the Middle East. Amaq News Agency, which is linked to Islamic State, said the attacker answered the group's calls to target citizens of states that were fighting against it, though the claim was questioned by the UK police and government. Police have found no link with a terrorist organisation and believe Masood acted alone.^[1]

1. ^ ^{a b} Sengupta, Kim (27 April 2017). "Last message left by Westminster attacker Khalid Masood uncovered by security agencies". The Independent. Archived from the original on 1 May 2022. Retrieved 27 April 2017.

Read More

 

22 March 2017 – A terrorist attack in London near the Houses of Parliament leaves four people dead and at least 20 injured.

2017 Westminster attack

Terrorist attack in London

This article is about the March 2017 attack in Westminster. For the similar attack in June 2017 in London, see 2017 London Bridge attack. For other uses, see Westminster attack.

On 22 March 2017, a terrorist attack took place outside the Palace of Westminster in London, seat of the British Parliament. Khalid Masood, a 52-year-old Briton, drove a car into pedestrians on the pavement along the south side of Westminster Bridge and Bridge Street, injuring more than 50 people, four of them fatally. He then crashed the car into the perimeter fence of the palace grounds and ran into New Palace Yard, where he fatally stabbed an unarmed police officer. He was then shot by an armed police officer, and died at the scene.

Police treated the attack as "Islamist-related terrorism". Masood said in a final text message that he was waging jihad in revenge for Western military action in Muslim countries in the Middle East. Amaq News Agency, which is linked to Islamic State, said the attacker answered the group's calls to target citizens of states that were fighting against it, though the claim was questioned by the UK police and government. Police have found no link with a terrorist organisation and believe Masood acted alone.^[1]

1. ^ ^{a b} Sengupta, Kim (27 April 2017). "Last message left by Westminster attacker Khalid Masood uncovered by security agencies". The Independent. Archived from the original on 1 May 2022. Retrieved 27 April 2017.

Read More

 

23 March 2001 – The Russian Mir space station is disposed of, breaking up in the atmosphere before falling into the southern Pacific Ocean near Fiji.

Mir

Soviet/Russian space station (1986–2001)

This article is about the Soviet/Russian space station. For other uses, see Mir (disambiguation).

Mir (Russian: Мир, IPA: [ˈmʲir]; lit. 'peace' or 'world') was a space station operated in low Earth orbit from 1986 to 2001, first by the Soviet Union and later by the Russian Federation. Mir was the first modular space station and was assembled in orbit from 1986 to 1996. It had a greater mass than any previous spacecraft. At the time it was the largest artificial satellite in orbit, succeeded by the International Space Station (ISS) after Mir's orbit decayed. The station served as a microgravity research laboratory in which crews conducted experiments in biology, human biology, physics, astronomy, meteorology, and spacecraft systems with a goal of developing technologies required for permanent occupation of space.

Mir was the first continuously inhabited long-term research station in orbit and held the record for the longest continuous human presence in space at 3,644 days, until it was surpassed by the ISS on 23 October 2010.^[13] It holds the record for the longest single human spaceflight, with Valeri Polyakov spending 437 days and 18 hours on the station between 1994 and 1995. Mir was occupied for a total of twelve and a half years out of its fifteen-year lifespan, having the capacity to support a resident crew of three, or larger crews for short visits.

Following the success of the Salyut programme, Mir represented the next stage in the Soviet Union's space station programme. The first module of the station, known as the core module or base block, was launched in 1986 and followed by six further modules. Proton rockets were used to launch all of its components except for the docking module, which was installed by US Space Shuttle mission STS-74 in 1995. When complete, the station consisted of seven pressurised modules and several unpressurised components. Power was provided by several photovoltaic arrays attached directly to the modules. The station was maintained at an orbit between 296 and 421 km (184 and 262 mi) altitude and travelled at an average speed of 27,700 km/h (17,200 mph), completing 15.7 orbits per day.^{[6][7][page needed][8]}

The station was launched as part of the Soviet Union's crewed spaceflight programme effort to maintain a long-term research outpost in space, and following the collapse of the USSR, was operated by the new Russian Federal Space Agency (RKA). As a result, most of the station's occupants were Soviet; through international collaborations such as the Interkosmos, Euromir and Shuttle–Mir programmes, the station was made accessible to space travellers from several Asian, European and North American nations. Mir was deorbited in March 2001 after funding was cut off. The cost of the Mir programme was estimated by former RKA General Director Yuri Koptev in 2001 as $4.2 billion over its lifetime (including development, assembly and orbital operation).^[14]

Cite error: There are <ref group=lower-alpha> tags or {{efn}} templates on this page, but the references will not show without a {{reflist|group=lower-alpha}} template or {{notelist}} template (see the help page).

1. ^ "Mir-Orbit Data". Heavens-Above.com. 23 March 2001. Archived from the original on 8 June 2011. Retrieved 30 June 2009.
2. ^ "Mir FAQ – Facts and history". European Space Agency. 21 February 2001. Archived from the original on 22 October 2012. Retrieved 19 August 2010.
3. ^ "Mir Space Station – Mission Status Center". Spaceflight Now. 23 March 2001. Archived from the original on 17 June 2009. Retrieved 19 August 2010.
4. ^ "NASA – NSSDC – Spacecraft – Details – Mir". NASA. 23 July 2010. Archived from the original on 19 June 2018. Retrieved 22 August 2010.
5. ^ "Soviet/Russian space programmes Q&A". NASASpaceflight.com. Archived from the original on 16 May 2019. Retrieved 22 August 2010.
6. ^ ^{a b} Hall, R., ed. (2000). The History of Mir 1986–2000. British Interplanetary Society. pp. 43, 44. ISBN 978-0-9506597-4-9.
7. ^ ^{a b} Hall, R., ed. (2001). Mir: The Final Year. British Interplanetary Society. ISBN 978-0-9506597-5-6.^{[page needed]}
8. ^ ^{a b} "Orbital period of a planet". CalcTool. Archived from the original on 12 November 2019. Retrieved 12 September 2010.
9. ^ "Mir Space Station Observing". Satobs.org. 28 March 2001. Archived from the original on 23 September 2018. Retrieved 12 September 2010.
10. ^ Mark Wade (4 September 2010). "Baikonur LC200/39". Encyclopedia Astronautica. Archived from the original on 24 August 2010. Retrieved 25 September 2010.^{[unreliable source?]}
11. ^ Mark Wade (4 September 2010). "Baikonur LC81/23". Encyclopedia Astronautica. Archived from the original on 1 February 2010. Retrieved 25 September 2010.^{[unreliable source?]}
12. ^ Macatangay, A.V. & Perry, J.L. (22 January 2007). Cabin Air Quality on Board Mir and the International Space Station—A Comparison (PDF) (Report). Johnson Space Center & Marshall Spaceflight Center: NASA. p. 2. Archived from the original (PDF) on 21 September 2013.
13. ^ Jackman, Frank (29 October 2010). "ISS Passing Old Russian Mir in Crewed Time". Aviation Week.^{[permanent dead link]}
14. ^ Patrick E. Tyler (24 March 2001). "Russians Find Pride, and Regret, in Mir's Splashdown". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 28 April 2014. Retrieved 9 March 2011.

Read More

 

24 March 1989 – In Prince William Sound in Alaska, the Exxon Valdez spills 240,000 barrels (38,000 m3) of crude oil after running aground.

Exxon Valdez oil spill

1989 industrial disaster in Alaska

The Exxon Valdez oil spill was a major environmental disaster that occurred in Alaska's Prince William Sound on March 24, 1989. The spill occurred when Exxon Valdez, an oil supertanker owned by Exxon Shipping Company, bound for Long Beach, California, struck Prince William Sound's Bligh Reef, 6 mi (9.7 km) west of Tatitlek, Alaska at 12:04 a.m. The tanker spilled more than 10 million US gallons (240,000 bbl) (or 37,000 tonnes)^[1] of crude oil over the next few days.^[2]

The Exxon Valdez spill is the second largest in U.S. waters, after the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill, in terms of volume of oil released.^[3][4] It is the costliest disaster ever with no direct human fatalities. Prince William Sound's remote location, accessible only by helicopter, plane, or boat, made government and industry response efforts difficult and made existing response plans especially hard to implement. The region is a habitat for salmon, sea otters, seals, and seabirds. The oil, extracted from the Prudhoe Bay Oil Field, eventually affected 1,300 miles (2,100 km) of coastline, of which 200 miles (320 km) were heavily or moderately oiled.^[2][5][6]

1. ^ "Properties of Prudhoe Bay (2004) (ESTS #679)" (PDF). Environment and Climate Change Canada. Government of Canada. 2004. Archived from the original (PDF) on May 7, 2017. Retrieved March 19, 2019.
2. ^ ^{a b} Cite error: The named reference faq was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
3. ^ Cite error: The named reference histories was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
4. ^ Leahy, Stephen (March 22, 2019). "Exxon Valdez changed the oil industry forever – but new threats emerge". National Geographic. Archived from the original on March 25, 2019. Retrieved October 25, 2019.
5. ^ Cite error: The named reference SpillAroundUs was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
6. ^ Shigenaka, Gary (2014). "Twenty-Five Years After the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill: NOAA's Scientific Support, Monitoring, and Research" (PDF). Office of Response and Restoration. Seattle: National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Retrieved January 17, 2017.

Read More

 

25 March 1931 – The Scottsboro Boys are arrested in Alabama and charged with rape.

Scottsboro Boys

1931 false conviction in the US

For the musical, see The Scottsboro Boys (musical).

The Scottsboro Boys were nine African American male teenagers accused of raping two white women in 1931. The landmark set of legal cases from this incident dealt with racism and the right to a fair trial. The cases included a lynch mob before the suspects had been indicted, all-white juries, rushed trials, and disruptive mobs. It is commonly cited as an example of a legal injustice in the United States legal system.

On March 25, 1931, two dozen people were "hoboing" on a freight train traveling between Chattanooga and Memphis, Tennessee. The hoboes were an equal mix of blacks and whites. A group of white teenage boys saw 18-year-old Haywood Patterson on the train and attempted to push him off, claiming that it was "a white man's train".^[1] A group of whites then gathered rocks and attempted to force all the black teenagers from the train. Patterson and the other black teenagers were able to ward off the group. The humiliated white teenagers jumped or were forced off the train and reported to a nearby train master that they had been attacked by a group of black teenage boys. Shortly thereafter, the police stopped and searched the train at Paint Rock, Alabama and arrested the black teenage boys.^[2] Two young white women were also taken to the jail, where they accused the African American teenage boys of rape. The case was first heard in Scottsboro, Alabama, in three rushed trials, in which the defendants received poor legal representation. All but 13-year-old Roy Wright were convicted of rape and sentenced to death (the common sentence in Alabama at the time for black men convicted of raping white women), even though there was no medical evidence indicating that rape had taken place.^[3]

With help from the Communist Party USA (CPUSA) and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), the case was appealed. The Alabama Supreme Court affirmed seven of the eight convictions, and granted 13-year-old Eugene Williams a new trial because he was a minor. Chief Justice John C. Anderson dissented, stating that the defendants had been denied an impartial jury, fair trial, fair sentencing, and effective counsel. While waiting for their trials, eight of the nine defendants were held in Kilby Prison. The cases were twice appealed to the United States Supreme Court, which led to landmark decisions on the conduct of trials. In Powell v. Alabama (1932), the U.S. Supreme Court ordered new trials.^[4]

The case was first returned to the lower court and the judge allowed a change of venue, moving the retrials to Decatur, Alabama. Judge Horton was appointed. During the retrials, one of the alleged victims admitted to fabricating the rape story and asserted that none of the Scottsboro Boys touched either of the white women. The jury still found the defendants guilty, but the judge set aside the verdict and granted a new trial.

The judge was replaced and the case retried. The new judge ruled frequently against the defense. For the third time a jury—now with one African American member—returned a guilty verdict. The case was sent to the U.S. Supreme Court on appeal. It ruled that African Americans had to be included on juries, and ordered retrials.^[5] Charges were finally dropped for four of the nine defendants. The other five were convicted and received sentences ranging from 75 years to death. Three served prison sentences. In 1936 one of the Scottsboro Boys, Ozie Powell, was shot in the face and permanently disabled during an altercation with a sheriff's deputy in prison. He later pleaded guilty to assaulting the deputy. Clarence Norris, the oldest defendant and the only one sentenced to death in the final trial, "jumped parole" in 1946 and went into hiding. He was found in 1976 and pardoned by Governor George Wallace. Norris later wrote a book about his experiences. He died in 1989 as the last surviving defendant.

The individuals involved and the case have been thoroughly analyzed. It is widely considered a legal injustice, highlighted by the state's use of all-white juries. African Americans in Alabama had been disenfranchised since the Reconstruction era and thus were not allowed on juries because jurors were selected from voter rolls. The case has also been explored in many works of literature, music, theater, film and television. On November 21, 2013, Alabama's parole board voted to grant posthumous pardons to the three Scottsboro Boys who had not been pardoned or had their convictions overturned.^[6]

1. ^ "Scottsboro: An American Tragedy Transcript". PBS. Archived from the original on January 28, 2017. Retrieved January 28, 2017.
2. ^ "A Miscarriage of Justice: The True Story of the Scottsboro Boys". www.sigtheatre.org. Retrieved March 19, 2024.
3. ^ Cite error: The named reference UMKC-SB_acct was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
4. ^ Powell v. Alabama, 1932, 287 U.S. 45.
5. ^ Norris v. Alabama (1935), 294 U.S. 587, 595–596. (PDF)
6. ^ Bentley, Robert J. (November 21, 2013). "Governor Bentley's Statement on the Pardoning of the Scottsboro Boys". Office of Alabama Governor. Archived from the original on January 17, 2017. Retrieved November 29, 2013.

Read More

 

26 March 1839 – The first Henley Royal Regatta is held.

Henley Royal Regatta

Recurring rowing event in Henley-on-Thames, England

51°32′55″N 0°53′39″W / 51.5487°N 0.8941°W / 51.5487; -0.8941

Henley Royal Regatta (or Henley Regatta, its original name pre-dating Royal patronage) is a rowing event held annually on the River Thames by the town of Henley-on-Thames, England. It was established on 26 March 1839. It differs from the three other regattas rowed over approximately the same course, Henley Women's Regatta, Henley Masters Regatta, and Henley Town and Visitors' Regatta, each of which is an entirely separate event.

The regatta lasts for six days (Tuesday to Sunday) ending on the first weekend in July. Races are head-to-head knock out competitions, raced over a course of 1 mile 550 yards (2,112 m).^[1] The regatta regularly attracts international crews to race. The most prestigious event at the regatta is the Grand Challenge Cup for men's Eights, which has been awarded since the regatta was first staged.^[2]

As the regatta pre-dates any national or international rowing organisation, it has its own rules and organisation, although it is recognised by both British Rowing (the governing body of rowing in England and Wales) and FISA (the International Federation of Rowing Associations).^[3] The regatta is organised by a self-perpetuating body of Stewards, who are largely former rowers themselves.^[3] One exception to this rule is that the Mayor of Henley-on Thames Council is an ex-officio Steward. Pierre de Coubertin modelled elements of the organisation of the International Olympic Committee on the Henley Stewards.^[4]

The regatta is regarded as part of the English social season.^[5] As with other events in the season, certain enclosures at the regatta have strict dress codes.^[6]

1. ^ "Henley Royal Regatta – History and organisation – The Course". Archived from the original on 14 June 2011. Retrieved 4 June 2011.
2. ^ "Henley Royal Regatta – History and organisation – Trophies". Retrieved 4 June 2011.
3. ^ ^{a b} "Henley Royal Regatta – History and organisation". Archived from the original on 18 August 2013. Retrieved 4 June 2011.
4. ^ "Coubertin, Britain and the British – A Chronology" (MS Word). Dr Don Anthony. Retrieved 23 June 2008.
5. ^ "Debretts – the traditional season". Retrieved 4 June 2011.
6. ^ [1] Archived 13 January 2011 at the Wayback Machine | What to wear to Henley Royal Regatta

Read More

 

27 March 1915 – Typhoid Mary, the first healthy carrier of disease ever identified in the United States is put in quarantine for the second time, where she would remain for the rest of her life.

Mary Mallon

Irish cook who was a carrier of typhoid fever in New York

"Typhoid Mary" redirects here. For the Marvel Comics character, see Typhoid Mary (character). For the book, see Typhoid Mary: An Urban Historical.

Not to be confused with Mary Mallen.

Mary Mallon (September 23, 1869 – November 11, 1938), commonly known as Typhoid Mary, was an Irish-born American cook who is believed to have infected between 51 and 122 people with typhoid fever. The infections caused three confirmed deaths, with unconfirmed estimates of as many as 50. She was the first person in the United States identified as an asymptomatic carrier of the pathogenic bacterium Salmonella typhi.^[1][2] She was forcibly quarantined twice by authorities, the second time for the remainder of her life because she persisted in working as a cook and thereby exposed others to the disease. Mallon died after a total of nearly 30 years quarantined.^[3][4] Her popular nickname has since become a term for persons who spread disease or other misfortune.

1. ^ Marineli et al. 2013.
2. ^ "'Typhoid Mary' Dies Of A Stroke At 68. Carrier of Disease, Blamed for 51 Cases and 3 Deaths, but Immune". The New York Times. November 12, 1938. Archived from the original on June 5, 2011. Retrieved February 28, 2010.
3. ^ The Gospel of Germs: Men, Women, and the Microbe in American Life, ISBN 0674357086
4. ^ Typhoid Mary: An Urban Historical, ISBN 160819518X

Read More

 

28 March 1999 – Kosovo War: Serb paramilitary and military forces kill 146 Kosovo Albanians in Izbica.

Kosovo War

1998–1999 armed conflict in Kosovo

"Kosovo crisis" redirects here. For the crises in North Kosovo, see North Kosovo crisis.

The Kosovo War (Albanian: Lufta e Kosovës; Serbian: Косовски рат, Kosovski rat) was an armed conflict in Kosovo that lasted from 28 February 1998 until 11 June 1999.^[63][64][65] It was fought between the forces of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (FRY), which controlled Kosovo before the war, and the Kosovo Albanian separatist militia known as the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA). The conflict ended when the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) intervened by beginning air strikes in March 1999 which resulted in Yugoslav forces withdrawing from Kosovo.

The KLA was formed in the early 1990s to fight against the discrimination of ethnic Albanians and the repression of political dissent by the Serbian authorities, which started after the suppression of Kosovo's autonomy and other discriminatory policies against Albanians by Serbian leader Slobodan Milošević in 1989.^[66][67] The KLA initiated its first campaign in 1995, after Kosovo's case was left out of the Dayton Agreement and it had become clear that President Rugova's strategy of peaceful resistance had failed to bring Kosovo onto the international agenda.^[68] In June 1996, the group claimed responsibility for acts of sabotage targeting Kosovo police stations, during the Kosovo Insurgency.^[69][70] In 1997, the organization acquired a large quantity of arms through weapons smuggling from Albania, following a rebellion in which weapons were looted from the country's police and army posts. In early 1998, KLA attacks targeting Yugoslav authorities in Kosovo resulted in an increased presence of Serb paramilitaries and regular forces who subsequently began pursuing a campaign of retribution targeting KLA sympathisers and political opponents;^[71] this campaign killed 1,500 to 2,000 civilians and KLA combatants, and had displaced 370,000 Kosovar Albanians by March 1999.^[72][73]

On 20 March 1999, Yugoslav forces began a massive campaign of repression and expulsions of Kosovar Albanians following the withdrawal of the OSCE Kosovo Verification Mission (KVM) and the failure of the proposed Rambouillet Agreement.^[72][74] In response to this, NATO intervened with an aerial bombing campaign that began on March 24, justifying it on humanitarian grounds.^[75] The war ended with the Kumanovo Agreement, signed on 9 June 1999, with Yugoslav and Serb forces^[76] agreeing to withdraw from Kosovo to make way for an international presence. NATO forces entered Kosovo on June 12.^[77][78] The NATO bombing campaign has remained controversial.^[79] It did not gain the approval of the UN Security Council and it caused at least 488 Yugoslav civilian deaths,^[80] including substantial deaths of Kosovar refugees.^[81][82][83]

In 2001, a UN administered Supreme Court based in Kosovo found that there had been a systematic campaign of terror, including murders, rapes, arsons and severe maltreatments against the Albanian population, and that Yugoslav troops had tried to force them out of Kosovo, but not to eradicate them and therefore it was not genocide.^[84] After the war, a list was compiled which documented that over 13,500 people were killed or went missing during the two year conflict.^[85] The Yugoslav and Serb forces caused the displacement of between 1.2 million^[86] and 1.45 million Kosovo Albanians.^[87] After the war, around 200,000 Serbs, Romani, and other non-Albanians fled Kosovo and many of the remaining civilians were victims of abuse.^[88][89][90]

The Kosovo Liberation Army disbanded soon after the end of the war, with some of its members going on to fight for the UÇPMB in the Preševo Valley^[91] and others joining the National Liberation Army (NLA) and Albanian National Army (ANA) during the armed ethnic conflict in Macedonia,^[92] while others went on to form the Kosovo Police.^[93]

The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) convicted six Serb/Yugoslav officials and one Albanian commander for war crimes.

Cite error: There are <ref group=lower-alpha> tags or {{efn}} templates on this page, but the references will not show without a {{reflist|group=lower-alpha}} template or {{notelist}} template (see the help page).

1. ^ Reidun J. Samuelsen (26 March 1999). "Norske jagerfly på vingene i går". Aftenposten (in Norwegian). Archived from the original on 19 January 2012. Retrieved 26 October 2016.
2. ^ "Turkish Air Force". Hvkk.tsk.tr. Archived from the original on 26 June 2009. Retrieved 24 March 2009.
3. ^ Thomas 2006, p. 47.
4. ^ Daniszewski, John (14 April 1999). "Yugoslav Troops Said to Cross Into Albania". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 20 February 2012.
5. ^ Daly, Emma (14 April 1999). "War In The Balkans: Serbs enter Albania and burn village". The Independent. London. Retrieved 20 February 2012.
6. ^ "Hostage-Taking and Kidnapping Terror in the COE" (PDF). Fort Leavenworth, Kansas: US Army Training and Doctrine Command TRADOC G2. 5 December 2008 [15 September 2008] – via Federation of American Scientists.
7. ^ "A Chronology of U.S.-Middle East Relations". WRMEA. 25 July 1999.
8. ^ Noel, Sid (2005). From Power Sharing to Democracy: Post-Conflict Institutions in Ethnically Divided Societies. McGill-Queen's University Press. p. 109. ISBN 978-0-77357-310-9.
9. ^ Ramet, Sabrina P.; Simkus, Albert; Listhaug, Ola, eds. (2015). Civic and Uncivic Values in Kosovo: History, Politics, and Value Transformation. Central European University Press. p. 121. ISBN 978-9-63386-074-8.
10. ^ Stigler, Andrew L. "A clear victory for air power: NATO's empty threat to invade Kosovo." International Security 27.3 (2003): 124–157.
11. ^ "Milosevic Claims Victory, Lauds Army". Washington Post. 11 June 1999.
12. ^ Reitman, Valerie; Richter, Paul; Dahlburg, John-Thor (10 June 1999). "Yugoslav, NATO Generals Sign Peace Agreement for Kosovo / Alliance will end air campaign when Serbian troops pull out". San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved 20 February 2012.
13. ^ Vladisavljević, Nebojša (2012). "Kosovo and Two Dimensions of the Contemporary Serb-Albanian Conflict". In Hudson, Robert; Bowman, Glenn (eds.). After Yugoslavia: Identities and Politics Within the Successor States. Cham, Switzerland: Palgrave Macmillan. pp. 29–30. doi:10.1057/9780230305137_3. ISBN 978-0230201316. Retrieved 12 December 2022.
14. ^ Wills, Siobhán (2009). Protecting Civilians: The Obligations of Peacekeepers. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press. p. 219. ISBN 978-0-19-953387-9. Retrieved 12 December 2022.
15. ^ "Abuses against Serbs and Roma in the new Kosovo". Human Rights Watch. August 1999. Archived from the original on 13 November 2022. Retrieved 12 December 2022.
16. ^ "The Violence: Ethnic Albanian Attacks on Serbs and Roma". Human Rights Watch. July 2004. Archived from the original on 12 July 2022. Retrieved 12 December 2022.
17. ^ "Kosovo Crisis Update". UNHCR. 4 August 1999. Archived from the original on 2 July 2022. Retrieved 12 December 2022.
18. ^ "Forced Expulsion of Kosovo Roma, Ashkali and Egyptians from OSCE Participated state to Kosovo". OSCE. 6 October 2006. Archived from the original on 28 May 2022. Retrieved 12 December 2022.
19. ^ Kettle, Martin (29 May 1999). "Strength of KLA 'has tripled'". The Guardian.
20. ^ Bartrop, Paul R. (18 January 2016). Bosnian Genocide: The Essential Reference Guide. Bloomsbury Publishing USA. p. 120. ISBN 978-1-4408-3869-9. At the height of its operations, the KLA had some 20,000 armed troops.
21. ^ Bodansky, Yossef (4 May 2011). bin Laden: The Man Who Declared War on America. Crown Publishing Group. pp. 398–403. ISBN 978-0-307-79772-8.
22. ^ Davison, Phil (12 June 1999). "Focus: Kosovo Peace Deal - Briton in KLA 'kills 24 Serbs'". Independent. Retrieved 27 April 2024.
23. ^ "Balkans fighters are taking up arms in Ukraine, with risks for organized crime". Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime. Retrieved 27 April 2024.
24. ^ "Die Bundeswehr zieht in den Krieg". 60xdeutschland.de. 24 March 1999. Archived from the original on 3 September 2011. Retrieved 6 May 2012.
25. ^ "Report to Congress: Kosovo operation allied force after-action report" (PDF). au.af.mil: 31–32. 30 January 2000. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2 November 2016. Retrieved 26 October 2016.
26. ^ ^{a b c d e f} "NATO Operation Allied Force". Defense.gov. Archived from the original on 28 February 2010. Retrieved 28 February 2012.
27. ^ "NATO Operation Allied Force". archive.wikiwix.com. Archived from the original on 2 June 2021. Retrieved 4 January 2024.
28. ^ "Under Orders: War Crimes in Kosovo - 3. Forces of the Conflict". hrw.org. Human Rights Watch.
29. ^ Nation, R. Craig (2003). War in the Balkans, 1991–2002 (PDF). Strategic Studies Institute, U.S. Army War College. p. 227. ISBN 1-58487-134-2. In June 1998, the Yugoslav Army launched a counter offensive, massing over 40,000 troops operating with tanks, helicopters, heavy artillery, and mortar fire, that gathered momentum as it progressed and by late summer seemed to be on the verge of breaking organized resistance once and for all.
30. ^ "Чојство - Булах Глебович".
31. ^ "Fighting for a foreign land". BBC News. 20 May 1999. Retrieved 28 February 2012.
32. ^ "Russian volunteer's account of Kosovo". The Russia Journal. 5 July 1999. Archived from the original on 26 December 2011. Retrieved 28 February 2012.
33. ^ Ukraine in the Crossfire. SCB Distributors. 5 April 2017. ISBN 9780997896541.
34. ^ Daalder & O'Hanlon 2000, p. 151.
35. ^ ^{a b c d e f} "Kosovo Memory Book Database Presentation and Evaluation" (PDF). Humanitarian Law Center. 4 February 2015. Archived from the original (PDF) on 11 January 2019. Retrieved 6 February 2016.
36. ^ "Two die in Apache crash". BBC News. 5 May 1999. Retrieved 6 May 2012.
37. ^ "How to Take Down an F-117". Strategypage.com. 21 November 2005. Retrieved 6 May 2012.
38. ^ "Holloman commander recalls being shot down in Serbia". F-16.net. 7 February 2007. Retrieved 6 May 2012.
39. ^ Cite error: The named reference ejection-history1 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
40. ^ "F-117 damage said attributed to full moon". The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. 6 May 1999. p. A14. Retrieved 20 February 2012.
41. ^ "Nato loses two planes". BBC News. 2 May 1999. Retrieved 6 May 2012.
42. ^ Kislyakov, Andrei (9 October 2007). "Unmanned Aerial Vehicles Increase In Numbers". Radardaily.com. RIA Novosti. Retrieved 28 February 2012.
43. ^ "NATO nam ubio 1.008 vojnika i policajaca". Mondo. 11 February 2013. Archived from the original on 6 August 2016. Retrieved 11 February 2013.
44. ^ "Stradalo 1.008 vojnika i policajaca". www.rts.rs. RTS, Radio televizija Srbije, Radio Television of Serbia.
45. ^ Bideleux, Robert; Jeffries, Ian (2006). The Balkans: A Post-Communist History. Routledge. p. 558. ISBN 978-0-203-96911-3.
46. ^ Chambers II, John Whiteclay (1999). The Oxford Companion to American Military History. Oxford University Press. p. 375. ISBN 978-0-19-507198-6.
47. ^ Coopersmith, Jonathan; Launius, Roger D. (2003). Taking Off: A Century of Manned Flight. American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics. p. 54. ISBN 978-1-56347-610-5.
48. ^ Cockburn, Andrew (3 April 2011). "The limits of air power". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 3 March 2013.
49. ^ Macdonald 2007, p. 99.
50. ^ Bacevich & Cohen 2001, p. 22.
51. ^ Khan, Zafarul-Islam (22 August 2008). Russian Military Intelligence (GRU) Daily Reports on the Iraq War. Pharos. ISBN 978-81-7221-022-9. Retrieved 11 January 2025.
52. ^ "Ein Berliner, ein Dresdener und ein Däne erzählen, wie sie als Freiwillige zu den albanischen Rebellen der UCK kamen: Aus dem Schützenverein ins Kosovo". Berliner Zeitung (in German). 11 July 1999. Retrieved 3 April 2024. Am Nachmittag des 6. April stößt seine Einheit in einem Wäldchen nahe Pristina auf eine Gruppe von Kämpfern des berüchtigten Serbenführers Arkan. Erst nach einem langen, heftigen Schußwechsel ziehen sich Arkans Soldaten zurück. Sie haben zwanzig Männer verloren. Sascha sagt, die Gefallenen seien Russen gewesen. Auch einer der UCK-Soldaten stirbt in diesem Kampf. (German) On the afternoon of April 6, his unit encountered a group of fighters belonging to the notorious Serb leader Arkan in a forest near Pristina. Only after a long, fierce exchange of fire do Arkan's soldiers retreat. They lost twenty men. Sascha says the fallen were Russians. One of the KLA soldiers also dies in this fight. (English)
53. ^ "ОТКРИВАМО: Ко је убијени руски добровољац чији снимак убиства су објавили Албанци(Видео)". 15 February 2014.
54. ^ "List of killed, missing and disappeared 1998-2000".
55. ^ Clodfelter, Micheal (2008). Warfare and armed conflicts : A statistical encyclopedia of casualty and other figures, 1494-2007. McFarland, Incorporated, Publishers. ISBN 978-0-7864-3319-3.
56. ^ ^{a b} "Facts and Figurues – War in Europe". www.pbs.org. Retrieved 27 January 2015.
57. ^ Judah, Tim (1997). The Serbs: History, Myth and the Destruction of Yugoslavia (2009, 3rd ed.). New Haven, Connecticut: Yale University Press. p. 150. ISBN 978-0-300-15826-7. Retrieved 3 January 2021 – via Google Books. the Serbian police began clearing ... people [who] were marched down to the station and deported... the UNCHR registered 848,000 people who had either been forcibly expelled or had fled
58. ^ Kosovo/Kosova: As Seen. pp. Part III, Chap 14.
59. ^ "Civilian Deaths in the NATO Air Campaign – The Crisis In Kosovo". HRW. Archived from the original on 19 April 2009. Retrieved 20 January 2012.
60. ^ "754 Victims of NATO Bombing – Fond za humanitarno pravo/Humanitarian Law Center/Fondi për të Drejtën Humanitare | Fond za humanitarno pravo/Humanitarian Law Center/Fondi për të Drejtën Humanitare". www.hlc-rdc.org. 23 March 2018.
61. ^ "UNHCR - Kosovo Fact Sheet 2019" (PDF). UNHCR.
62. ^ Cite error: The named reference hrw2004 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
63. ^ Boyle, Michael J. (2014). Violence After War: Explaining Instability in Post-Conflict States. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. p. 175. ISBN 978-1421412573.
64. ^ Independent International Commission on Kosovo (2000). The Kosovo Report (PDF). Oxford: Oxford University Press. p. 2. ISBN 978-0199243099.
65. ^ Quackenbush, Stephen L. (2015). International Conflict: Logic and Evidence. Los Angeles: Sage. p. 202. ISBN 978-1452240985.
66. ^ Reveron & Murer 2006, pp. 67–68.
67. ^ Weymouth, Tony. The Kosovo Crisis: The Last American War in Europe?. United Kingdom: Reuters, 2001.
68. ^ Kubo, Keiichi (9 August 2010). "Why Kosovar Albanians Took Up Arms against the Serbian Regime: The Genesis and Expansion of the UÇK in Kosovo". Europe-Asia Studies. 62 (7): 1135–1152. doi:10.1080/09668136.2010.497022. ISSN 0966-8136. S2CID 154405255. Retrieved 7 September 2023.
69. ^ "Under Orders: War Crimes in Kosovo – 2. Background". www.hrw.org. Retrieved 7 August 2020.
70. ^ United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. "Chronology for Kosovo Albanians in Yugoslavia". Refworld. Retrieved 7 August 2020.
71. ^ Mincheva & Gurr 2013, pp. 27–28.
72. ^ ^{a b} "Under Orders: War Crimes in Kosovo (March–June 1999)". Human Rights Watch. 12 June 1999. Retrieved 25 February 2013.
73. ^ Judah (2009). The Serbs. Yale University Press. ISBN 978-0-300-15826-7.
74. ^ "A Review of NATO's War over Kosovo". chomsky.info.
75. ^ "Endgame in Kosovo". The New York Times. New York. 9 December 2007. Archived from the original on 13 December 2007. Retrieved 6 May 2012.
76. ^ "BBC News | Europe | K-For: The task ahead". BBC News.
77. ^ "Kosovo war chronology". Human Rights Watch.
78. ^ "The Balkan wars: Reshaping the map of south-eastern Europe". The Economist. 9 November 2012. Retrieved 26 February 2013.
79. ^ Haines, Steven (May 2009). "The Influence of Operation Allied Force on the Development of the jus ad bellum". International Affairs. 85 (3). Oxford, England: Oxford University Press: 477–490. doi:10.1111/j.1468-2346.2009.00809.x. ISSN 1468-2346. JSTOR 27695026.
80. ^ "The Civilian Deaths". Civilian deaths in the NATO air campaign. Human Rights Watch. February 2000. Retrieved 3 May 2015.
81. ^ "Case Studies of Civilian Deaths". Civilian deaths in the NATO air campaign. Human Rights Watch. February 2000. Archived from the original on 22 October 2014. Retrieved 3 May 2015.
82. ^ Massa, Anne-Sophie (2006). "NATO's Intervention in Kosovo and the Decision of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia Not to Investigate". Berkeley Journal of International Law. 24 (2). Archived from the original on 3 September 2015. Retrieved 3 May 2015.
83. ^ "NATO: We Mistakenly Bombed Refugees". AP News. 15 April 1999. Archived from the original on 14 April 2021.
84. ^ "Kosovo assault 'was not genocide'". BBC. 7 September 2011. Retrieved 19 May 2013.
85. ^ "List of Kosovo War Victims Published". 10 December 2014.
86. ^ Krieger 2001, p. 90
87. ^ "Kosovo / Kosova: As Seen, As Told". OSCE. 5 November 1999. p. 13. Retrieved 27 June 2017.
88. ^ Abrahams 2001, pp. 454–456
89. ^ "Serbia home to highest number of refugees and IDPs in Europe". B92. 20 June 2010.
90. ^ "Serbia: Europe's largest proctracted refugee situation". OSCE. 2008.
91. ^ "Kosovo one year on". BBC. 16 March 2000. Retrieved 4 April 2010.
92. ^ Huggler, Justin (12 March 2001). "KLA veterans linked to latest bout of violence in Macedonia". The Independent. London. Archived from the original on 29 October 2014. Retrieved 4 April 2010.
93. ^ Kosovo Liberation Army: the inside story of an insurgency, by Henry H. Perritt ^{[page needed]}

Read More

 

28 March 1999 – Kosovo War: Serb paramilitary and military forces kill 146 Kosovo Albanians in Izbica.

Kosovo War

1998–1999 armed conflict in Kosovo

"Kosovo crisis" redirects here. For the crises in North Kosovo, see North Kosovo crisis.

The Kosovo War (Albanian: Lufta e Kosovës; Serbian: Косовски рат, Kosovski rat) was an armed conflict in Kosovo that lasted from 28 February 1998 until 11 June 1999.^[63][64][65] It was fought between the forces of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (FRY), which controlled Kosovo before the war, and the Kosovo Albanian separatist militia known as the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA). The conflict ended when the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) intervened by beginning air strikes in March 1999 which resulted in Yugoslav forces withdrawing from Kosovo.

The KLA was formed in the early 1990s to fight against the discrimination of ethnic Albanians and the repression of political dissent by the Serbian authorities, which started after the suppression of Kosovo's autonomy and other discriminatory policies against Albanians by Serbian leader Slobodan Milošević in 1989.^[66][67] The KLA initiated its first campaign in 1995, after Kosovo's case was left out of the Dayton Agreement and it had become clear that President Rugova's strategy of peaceful resistance had failed to bring Kosovo onto the international agenda.^[68] In June 1996, the group claimed responsibility for acts of sabotage targeting Kosovo police stations, during the Kosovo Insurgency.^[69][70] In 1997, the organization acquired a large quantity of arms through weapons smuggling from Albania, following a rebellion in which weapons were looted from the country's police and army posts. In early 1998, KLA attacks targeting Yugoslav authorities in Kosovo resulted in an increased presence of Serb paramilitaries and regular forces who subsequently began pursuing a campaign of retribution targeting KLA sympathisers and political opponents;^[71] this campaign killed 1,500 to 2,000 civilians and KLA combatants, and had displaced 370,000 Kosovar Albanians by March 1999.^[72][73]

On 20 March 1999, Yugoslav forces began a massive campaign of repression and expulsions of Kosovar Albanians following the withdrawal of the OSCE Kosovo Verification Mission (KVM) and the failure of the proposed Rambouillet Agreement.^[72][74] In response to this, NATO intervened with an aerial bombing campaign that began on March 24, justifying it on humanitarian grounds.^[75] The war ended with the Kumanovo Agreement, signed on 9 June 1999, with Yugoslav and Serb forces^[76] agreeing to withdraw from Kosovo to make way for an international presence. NATO forces entered Kosovo on June 12.^[77][78] The NATO bombing campaign has remained controversial.^[79] It did not gain the approval of the UN Security Council and it caused at least 488 Yugoslav civilian deaths,^[80] including substantial deaths of Kosovar refugees.^[81][82][83]

In 2001, a UN administered Supreme Court based in Kosovo found that there had been a systematic campaign of terror, including murders, rapes, arsons and severe maltreatments against the Albanian population, and that Yugoslav troops had tried to force them out of Kosovo, but not to eradicate them and therefore it was not genocide.^[84] After the war, a list was compiled which documented that over 13,500 people were killed or went missing during the two year conflict.^[85] The Yugoslav and Serb forces caused the displacement of between 1.2 million^[86] and 1.45 million Kosovo Albanians.^[87] After the war, around 200,000 Serbs, Romani, and other non-Albanians fled Kosovo and many of the remaining civilians were victims of abuse.^[88][89][90]

The Kosovo Liberation Army disbanded soon after the end of the war, with some of its members going on to fight for the UÇPMB in the Preševo Valley^[91] and others joining the National Liberation Army (NLA) and Albanian National Army (ANA) during the armed ethnic conflict in Macedonia,^[92] while others went on to form the Kosovo Police.^[93]

The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) convicted six Serb/Yugoslav officials and one Albanian commander for war crimes.

Cite error: There are <ref group=lower-alpha> tags or {{efn}} templates on this page, but the references will not show without a {{reflist|group=lower-alpha}} template or {{notelist}} template (see the help page).

1. ^ Reidun J. Samuelsen (26 March 1999). "Norske jagerfly på vingene i går". Aftenposten (in Norwegian). Archived from the original on 19 January 2012. Retrieved 26 October 2016.
2. ^ "Turkish Air Force". Hvkk.tsk.tr. Archived from the original on 26 June 2009. Retrieved 24 March 2009.
3. ^ Thomas 2006, p. 47.
4. ^ Daniszewski, John (14 April 1999). "Yugoslav Troops Said to Cross Into Albania". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 20 February 2012.
5. ^ Daly, Emma (14 April 1999). "War In The Balkans: Serbs enter Albania and burn village". The Independent. London. Retrieved 20 February 2012.
6. ^ "Hostage-Taking and Kidnapping Terror in the COE" (PDF). Fort Leavenworth, Kansas: US Army Training and Doctrine Command TRADOC G2. 5 December 2008 [15 September 2008] – via Federation of American Scientists.
7. ^ "A Chronology of U.S.-Middle East Relations". WRMEA. 25 July 1999.
8. ^ Noel, Sid (2005). From Power Sharing to Democracy: Post-Conflict Institutions in Ethnically Divided Societies. McGill-Queen's University Press. p. 109. ISBN 978-0-77357-310-9.
9. ^ Ramet, Sabrina P.; Simkus, Albert; Listhaug, Ola, eds. (2015). Civic and Uncivic Values in Kosovo: History, Politics, and Value Transformation. Central European University Press. p. 121. ISBN 978-9-63386-074-8.
10. ^ Stigler, Andrew L. "A clear victory for air power: NATO's empty threat to invade Kosovo." International Security 27.3 (2003): 124–157.
11. ^ "Milosevic Claims Victory, Lauds Army". Washington Post. 11 June 1999.
12. ^ Reitman, Valerie; Richter, Paul; Dahlburg, John-Thor (10 June 1999). "Yugoslav, NATO Generals Sign Peace Agreement for Kosovo / Alliance will end air campaign when Serbian troops pull out". San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved 20 February 2012.
13. ^ Vladisavljević, Nebojša (2012). "Kosovo and Two Dimensions of the Contemporary Serb-Albanian Conflict". In Hudson, Robert; Bowman, Glenn (eds.). After Yugoslavia: Identities and Politics Within the Successor States. Cham, Switzerland: Palgrave Macmillan. pp. 29–30. doi:10.1057/9780230305137_3. ISBN 978-0230201316. Retrieved 12 December 2022.
14. ^ Wills, Siobhán (2009). Protecting Civilians: The Obligations of Peacekeepers. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press. p. 219. ISBN 978-0-19-953387-9. Retrieved 12 December 2022.
15. ^ "Abuses against Serbs and Roma in the new Kosovo". Human Rights Watch. August 1999. Archived from the original on 13 November 2022. Retrieved 12 December 2022.
16. ^ "The Violence: Ethnic Albanian Attacks on Serbs and Roma". Human Rights Watch. July 2004. Archived from the original on 12 July 2022. Retrieved 12 December 2022.
17. ^ "Kosovo Crisis Update". UNHCR. 4 August 1999. Archived from the original on 2 July 2022. Retrieved 12 December 2022.
18. ^ "Forced Expulsion of Kosovo Roma, Ashkali and Egyptians from OSCE Participated state to Kosovo". OSCE. 6 October 2006. Archived from the original on 28 May 2022. Retrieved 12 December 2022.
19. ^ Kettle, Martin (29 May 1999). "Strength of KLA 'has tripled'". The Guardian.
20. ^ Bartrop, Paul R. (18 January 2016). Bosnian Genocide: The Essential Reference Guide. Bloomsbury Publishing USA. p. 120. ISBN 978-1-4408-3869-9. At the height of its operations, the KLA had some 20,000 armed troops.
21. ^ Bodansky, Yossef (4 May 2011). bin Laden: The Man Who Declared War on America. Crown Publishing Group. pp. 398–403. ISBN 978-0-307-79772-8.
22. ^ Davison, Phil (12 June 1999). "Focus: Kosovo Peace Deal - Briton in KLA 'kills 24 Serbs'". Independent. Retrieved 27 April 2024.
23. ^ "Balkans fighters are taking up arms in Ukraine, with risks for organized crime". Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime. Retrieved 27 April 2024.
24. ^ "Die Bundeswehr zieht in den Krieg". 60xdeutschland.de. 24 March 1999. Archived from the original on 3 September 2011. Retrieved 6 May 2012.
25. ^ "Report to Congress: Kosovo operation allied force after-action report" (PDF). au.af.mil: 31–32. 30 January 2000. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2 November 2016. Retrieved 26 October 2016.
26. ^ ^{a b c d e f} "NATO Operation Allied Force". Defense.gov. Archived from the original on 28 February 2010. Retrieved 28 February 2012.
27. ^ "NATO Operation Allied Force". archive.wikiwix.com. Archived from the original on 2 June 2021. Retrieved 4 January 2024.
28. ^ "Under Orders: War Crimes in Kosovo - 3. Forces of the Conflict". hrw.org. Human Rights Watch.
29. ^ Nation, R. Craig (2003). War in the Balkans, 1991–2002 (PDF). Strategic Studies Institute, U.S. Army War College. p. 227. ISBN 1-58487-134-2. In June 1998, the Yugoslav Army launched a counter offensive, massing over 40,000 troops operating with tanks, helicopters, heavy artillery, and mortar fire, that gathered momentum as it progressed and by late summer seemed to be on the verge of breaking organized resistance once and for all.
30. ^ "Чојство - Булах Глебович".
31. ^ "Fighting for a foreign land". BBC News. 20 May 1999. Retrieved 28 February 2012.
32. ^ "Russian volunteer's account of Kosovo". The Russia Journal. 5 July 1999. Archived from the original on 26 December 2011. Retrieved 28 February 2012.
33. ^ Ukraine in the Crossfire. SCB Distributors. 5 April 2017. ISBN 9780997896541.
34. ^ Daalder & O'Hanlon 2000, p. 151.
35. ^ ^{a b c d e f} "Kosovo Memory Book Database Presentation and Evaluation" (PDF). Humanitarian Law Center. 4 February 2015. Archived from the original (PDF) on 11 January 2019. Retrieved 6 February 2016.
36. ^ "Two die in Apache crash". BBC News. 5 May 1999. Retrieved 6 May 2012.
37. ^ "How to Take Down an F-117". Strategypage.com. 21 November 2005. Retrieved 6 May 2012.
38. ^ "Holloman commander recalls being shot down in Serbia". F-16.net. 7 February 2007. Retrieved 6 May 2012.
39. ^ Cite error: The named reference ejection-history1 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
40. ^ "F-117 damage said attributed to full moon". The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. 6 May 1999. p. A14. Retrieved 20 February 2012.
41. ^ "Nato loses two planes". BBC News. 2 May 1999. Retrieved 6 May 2012.
42. ^ Kislyakov, Andrei (9 October 2007). "Unmanned Aerial Vehicles Increase In Numbers". Radardaily.com. RIA Novosti. Retrieved 28 February 2012.
43. ^ "NATO nam ubio 1.008 vojnika i policajaca". Mondo. 11 February 2013. Archived from the original on 6 August 2016. Retrieved 11 February 2013.
44. ^ "Stradalo 1.008 vojnika i policajaca". www.rts.rs. RTS, Radio televizija Srbije, Radio Television of Serbia.
45. ^ Bideleux, Robert; Jeffries, Ian (2006). The Balkans: A Post-Communist History. Routledge. p. 558. ISBN 978-0-203-96911-3.
46. ^ Chambers II, John Whiteclay (1999). The Oxford Companion to American Military History. Oxford University Press. p. 375. ISBN 978-0-19-507198-6.
47. ^ Coopersmith, Jonathan; Launius, Roger D. (2003). Taking Off: A Century of Manned Flight. American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics. p. 54. ISBN 978-1-56347-610-5.
48. ^ Cockburn, Andrew (3 April 2011). "The limits of air power". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 3 March 2013.
49. ^ Macdonald 2007, p. 99.
50. ^ Bacevich & Cohen 2001, p. 22.
51. ^ Khan, Zafarul-Islam (22 August 2008). Russian Military Intelligence (GRU) Daily Reports on the Iraq War. Pharos. ISBN 978-81-7221-022-9. Retrieved 11 January 2025.
52. ^ "Ein Berliner, ein Dresdener und ein Däne erzählen, wie sie als Freiwillige zu den albanischen Rebellen der UCK kamen: Aus dem Schützenverein ins Kosovo". Berliner Zeitung (in German). 11 July 1999. Retrieved 3 April 2024. Am Nachmittag des 6. April stößt seine Einheit in einem Wäldchen nahe Pristina auf eine Gruppe von Kämpfern des berüchtigten Serbenführers Arkan. Erst nach einem langen, heftigen Schußwechsel ziehen sich Arkans Soldaten zurück. Sie haben zwanzig Männer verloren. Sascha sagt, die Gefallenen seien Russen gewesen. Auch einer der UCK-Soldaten stirbt in diesem Kampf. (German) On the afternoon of April 6, his unit encountered a group of fighters belonging to the notorious Serb leader Arkan in a forest near Pristina. Only after a long, fierce exchange of fire do Arkan's soldiers retreat. They lost twenty men. Sascha says the fallen were Russians. One of the KLA soldiers also dies in this fight. (English)
53. ^ "ОТКРИВАМО: Ко је убијени руски добровољац чији снимак убиства су објавили Албанци(Видео)". 15 February 2014.
54. ^ "List of killed, missing and disappeared 1998-2000".
55. ^ Clodfelter, Micheal (2008). Warfare and armed conflicts : A statistical encyclopedia of casualty and other figures, 1494-2007. McFarland, Incorporated, Publishers. ISBN 978-0-7864-3319-3.
56. ^ ^{a b} "Facts and Figurues – War in Europe". www.pbs.org. Retrieved 27 January 2015.
57. ^ Judah, Tim (1997). The Serbs: History, Myth and the Destruction of Yugoslavia (2009, 3rd ed.). New Haven, Connecticut: Yale University Press. p. 150. ISBN 978-0-300-15826-7. Retrieved 3 January 2021 – via Google Books. the Serbian police began clearing ... people [who] were marched down to the station and deported... the UNCHR registered 848,000 people who had either been forcibly expelled or had fled
58. ^ Kosovo/Kosova: As Seen. pp. Part III, Chap 14.
59. ^ "Civilian Deaths in the NATO Air Campaign – The Crisis In Kosovo". HRW. Archived from the original on 19 April 2009. Retrieved 20 January 2012.
60. ^ "754 Victims of NATO Bombing – Fond za humanitarno pravo/Humanitarian Law Center/Fondi për të Drejtën Humanitare | Fond za humanitarno pravo/Humanitarian Law Center/Fondi për të Drejtën Humanitare". www.hlc-rdc.org. 23 March 2018.
61. ^ "UNHCR - Kosovo Fact Sheet 2019" (PDF). UNHCR.
62. ^ Cite error: The named reference hrw2004 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
63. ^ Boyle, Michael J. (2014). Violence After War: Explaining Instability in Post-Conflict States. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. p. 175. ISBN 978-1421412573.
64. ^ Independent International Commission on Kosovo (2000). The Kosovo Report (PDF). Oxford: Oxford University Press. p. 2. ISBN 978-0199243099.
65. ^ Quackenbush, Stephen L. (2015). International Conflict: Logic and Evidence. Los Angeles: Sage. p. 202. ISBN 978-1452240985.
66. ^ Reveron & Murer 2006, pp. 67–68.
67. ^ Weymouth, Tony. The Kosovo Crisis: The Last American War in Europe?. United Kingdom: Reuters, 2001.
68. ^ Kubo, Keiichi (9 August 2010). "Why Kosovar Albanians Took Up Arms against the Serbian Regime: The Genesis and Expansion of the UÇK in Kosovo". Europe-Asia Studies. 62 (7): 1135–1152. doi:10.1080/09668136.2010.497022. ISSN 0966-8136. S2CID 154405255. Retrieved 7 September 2023.
69. ^ "Under Orders: War Crimes in Kosovo – 2. Background". www.hrw.org. Retrieved 7 August 2020.
70. ^ United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. "Chronology for Kosovo Albanians in Yugoslavia". Refworld. Retrieved 7 August 2020.
71. ^ Mincheva & Gurr 2013, pp. 27–28.
72. ^ ^{a b} "Under Orders: War Crimes in Kosovo (March–June 1999)". Human Rights Watch. 12 June 1999. Retrieved 25 February 2013.
73. ^ Judah (2009). The Serbs. Yale University Press. ISBN 978-0-300-15826-7.
74. ^ "A Review of NATO's War over Kosovo". chomsky.info.
75. ^ "Endgame in Kosovo". The New York Times. New York. 9 December 2007. Archived from the original on 13 December 2007. Retrieved 6 May 2012.
76. ^ "BBC News | Europe | K-For: The task ahead". BBC News.
77. ^ "Kosovo war chronology". Human Rights Watch.
78. ^ "The Balkan wars: Reshaping the map of south-eastern Europe". The Economist. 9 November 2012. Retrieved 26 February 2013.
79. ^ Haines, Steven (May 2009). "The Influence of Operation Allied Force on the Development of the jus ad bellum". International Affairs. 85 (3). Oxford, England: Oxford University Press: 477–490. doi:10.1111/j.1468-2346.2009.00809.x. ISSN 1468-2346. JSTOR 27695026.
80. ^ "The Civilian Deaths". Civilian deaths in the NATO air campaign. Human Rights Watch. February 2000. Retrieved 3 May 2015.
81. ^ "Case Studies of Civilian Deaths". Civilian deaths in the NATO air campaign. Human Rights Watch. February 2000. Archived from the original on 22 October 2014. Retrieved 3 May 2015.
82. ^ Massa, Anne-Sophie (2006). "NATO's Intervention in Kosovo and the Decision of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia Not to Investigate". Berkeley Journal of International Law. 24 (2). Archived from the original on 3 September 2015. Retrieved 3 May 2015.
83. ^ "NATO: We Mistakenly Bombed Refugees". AP News. 15 April 1999. Archived from the original on 14 April 2021.
84. ^ "Kosovo assault 'was not genocide'". BBC. 7 September 2011. Retrieved 19 May 2013.
85. ^ "List of Kosovo War Victims Published". 10 December 2014.
86. ^ Krieger 2001, p. 90
87. ^ "Kosovo / Kosova: As Seen, As Told". OSCE. 5 November 1999. p. 13. Retrieved 27 June 2017.
88. ^ Abrahams 2001, pp. 454–456
89. ^ "Serbia home to highest number of refugees and IDPs in Europe". B92. 20 June 2010.
90. ^ "Serbia: Europe's largest proctracted refugee situation". OSCE. 2008.
91. ^ "Kosovo one year on". BBC. 16 March 2000. Retrieved 4 April 2010.
92. ^ Huggler, Justin (12 March 2001). "KLA veterans linked to latest bout of violence in Macedonia". The Independent. London. Archived from the original on 29 October 2014. Retrieved 4 April 2010.
93. ^ Kosovo Liberation Army: the inside story of an insurgency, by Henry H. Perritt ^{[page needed]}

Read More

 

29 March 1973 – Operation Barrel Roll, a covert American bombing campaign in Laos to stop communist infiltration of South Vietnam, ends.

Operation Barrel Roll

1964–73 covert US military operation in Laos during the Vietnam War

For other uses, see Barrel roll.

Operation Barrel Roll was a covert interdiction and close air support campaign conducted in the Kingdom of Laos by the U.S. Air Force 2nd Air Division and U.S. Navy Task Force 77 between 5 March 1964 and 29 March 1973, concurrent with the Vietnam War.

The operation was launched to persuade North Vietnam to stop supporting the insurgency in South Vietnam. It became an interdiction campaign against the Ho Chi Minh trail, North Vietnam's main logistical corridor, which ran from southwestern North Vietnam, through southeastern Laos, and into South Vietnam. The operation also increasingly provided close air support for Royal Lao Armed Forces, CIA-backed tribal mercenaries, and Thai Volunteer Defense Corps in a covert ground war in northern and northeastern Laos. Barrel Roll and the "Secret Army" attempted to stem an increasing tide of People's Army of Vietnam (PAVN) and Pathet Lao offensives.

Barrel Roll was one of the most closely held secrets of the American military commitment in Southeast Asia. Due to the ostensible neutrality of Laos, guaranteed by the Geneva Conference of 1954 and the Declaration on the Neutrality of Laos of 1962, both the U.S. and North Vietnam strove to maintain the secrecy of their operations and only slowly escalated military actions there.^[1] In 1975, Laos emerged from nine years of war as devastated as any of the other Asian participants in the Vietnam War.

1. ^ Warner, Roger (1996). Shooting at the Moon: The Story of America's Clandestine War in Laos. Steerforth Press. p. 135. ISBN 9781883642365.

Read More

 

30 March 1981 – U.S. President Ronald Reagan is shot in the chest outside a Washington, D.C., hotel by John Hinckley, Jr.; three others are wounded in the same incident.

Attempted assassination of Ronald Reagan

1981 shooting in Washington, D.C., U.S.

On March 30, 1981, Ronald Reagan, the President of the United States, was shot and wounded by John Hinckley Jr. in Washington, D.C., as Reagan was returning to his limousine after a speaking engagement at the Washington Hilton hotel. Hinckley believed the attack would impress the actress Jodie Foster, with whom he had developed an erotomanic obsession after viewing her in the 1976 film Taxi Driver.

Reagan was seriously wounded by a revolver bullet that ricocheted off the side of the presidential limousine and hit him in the left underarm, breaking a rib, puncturing a lung, and causing serious internal bleeding. He underwent emergency exploratory surgery at George Washington University Hospital, and was released on April 11. No formal invocation of sections 3 or 4 of the Constitution's 25th amendment (concerning the vice president assuming the president's powers and duties) took place, though Secretary of State Alexander Haig stated that he was "in control here" at the White House until Vice President George H. W. Bush returned to Washington from Fort Worth, Texas. Haig was fourth in the line of succession after Bush, Speaker of the House Tip O'Neill, and president pro tempore of the Senate Strom Thurmond.

White House press secretary James Brady, Secret Service agent Tim McCarthy, and D.C. police officer Thomas Delahanty were also wounded. All three survived, but Brady suffered brain damage and was permanently disabled; he died in 2014 as a result of his injury.^[2][5]

On June 21, 1982, Hinckley was found not guilty by reason of insanity on charges of attempting to assassinate the president. He remained confined to St. Elizabeth's Hospital, a psychiatric facility in Washington, D.C. In 2015, federal prosecutors announced that they would not charge Hinckley with Brady's death, despite the medical examiner's classification of his death as a homicide.^[6] Hinckley was discharged from his institutional psychiatric care in 2016.

1. ^ "James Brady's death ruled a homicide, police say". CNN.com. August 9, 2014. Retrieved April 2, 2015.
2. ^ ^{a b} "Medical examiner rules James Brady's death a homicide". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on March 28, 2016. Retrieved June 24, 2017.
3. ^ "James Brady's Death Was a Homicide, Medical Examiner Rules". NBCWashington.com. August 8, 2014. Retrieved April 2, 2015.
4. ^ Pear, Robert (August 25, 1981). "JURY INDICTS HINCKLEY ON 13 COUNTS BASED ON SHOOTING OF PRESIDENT". The New York Times.
5. ^ Corasaniti, Nick (August 8, 2014). "Coroner Is Said to Rule James Brady's Death a Homicide, 33 Years After a Shooting". The New York Times. Retrieved January 2, 2015.
6. ^ Hermann, Peter (January 2, 2015). "Hinckley won't face murder charge in death of James Brady, prosecutors say". The Washington Post. Retrieved January 2, 2015.

Cite error: There are <ref group=lower-alpha> tags or {{efn}} templates on this page, but the references will not show without a {{reflist|group=lower-alpha}} template or {{notelist}} template (see the help page).

Read More

 

31 March 1990 – Approximately 200,000 protesters take to the streets of London to protest against the newly introduced Poll Tax.

Poll tax riots

Series of protests in Great Britain (1990s)

The poll tax riots were a series of riots in British towns and cities during protests against the Community Charge (commonly known as the "poll tax"), introduced by the Conservative government of Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. The largest protest occurred in central London on Saturday 31 March 1990, shortly before the tax was due to come into force in England and Wales.

Read More

 

1 April 2004 – Google announces Gmail to the public.

Gmail

Email service provided by Google

Gmail is a mailbox provider by Google. It is the largest email service worldwide, with 1.8 billion users.^[1] It is accessible via a web browser (webmail), mobile app, or through third-party email clients via the POP and IMAP protocols. Users can also connect non-Gmail e-mail accounts to their Gmail inbox. The service was launched as Google Mail in a beta version in 2004. It came out of beta in 2009.

The service includes 15 gigabytes of storage for free for individual users, which includes any use by other Google services such as Google Drive and Google Photos; the limit can be increased via a paid subscription to Google One.^[3][4] Users can receive emails up to 50 megabytes in size, including attachments, and can send emails up to 25 megabytes in size. Gmail supports integration with Google Drive, allowing for larger attachments. The Gmail interface has a search engine and supports a "conversation view" similar to an Internet forum.^[5] The service is notable among website developers for its early adoption of Ajax.

Google's mail servers automatically scan emails to filter spam and malware.

1. ^ ^{a b} Das Mahapatra, Tuhin (April 23, 2025). "Gmail warns 1.8 billion users of new 'sophisticated' cyberattack: How to detect the scam". Hindustan Times.
2. ^ Siegler, MG (March 14, 2010). "The Key To Gmail: Sh*t Umbrellas". TechCrunch. AOL. Archived from the original on October 22, 2016. Retrieved October 27, 2018.
3. ^ "Manage files in your Google Drive storage - Gmail Help". support.google.com. Retrieved February 11, 2023.
4. ^ "Buy more Google storage - Computer - Google Drive Help". support.google.com. Retrieved April 4, 2023.
5. ^ "Group emails into conversations - Computer - Gmail Help". support.google.com. Retrieved December 8, 2023.

Read More

 

2 April 2014 – A spree shooting occurs at the Fort Hood army base in Texas, with four dead, including the gunman, and 16 others injured.

2014 Fort Hood shooting

Redirect to:

• 2014 Fort Hood shootings

Read More

 

3 April 1997 – The Thalit massacre begins in Algeria; all but one of the 53 inhabitants of Thalit are killed by guerrillas.

Thalit massacre

Massacre of villagers by Islamists during the Algerian Civil War

The Thalit massacre took place in Thalit village (Médéa, near Ksar el Boukhari),^[1] some 70 km from Algiers, on April 3–4, 1997 during the Algerian Civil War. Fifty-two out of the 53 inhabitants were killed by having their throats cut during a 12-hour rampage. The homes of the villagers were burned down afterward. The attack was attributed to "Islamist guerrillas",^[2] thought to be affiliated with the Armed Islamic Group.^[3]

1. ^ Ksar el Boukhari, Algeria Page, retrieved 11 February 2010
2. ^ "More than 80 Algerians killed in weekend massacres", CNN, 6 April 1997, retrieved 11 February 2010
3. ^ Tucker, Spencer (2010). A Global Chronology of Conflict: From the Ancient World to the Modern Middle East. ABC-CLIO. p. 2648. ISBN 978-1-85109-667-1.

Read More

 

4 April 1979 – Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto of Pakistan is executed.

Zulfikar Ali Bhutto

4th President and 9th Prime Minister of Pakistan (1928–1979)

Not to be confused with Zulfiker Ali Bhutto, the Bangladeshi politician.

Zulfikar Ali Bhutto^[a] (5 January 1928 – 4 April 1979) was a Pakistani barrister, politician and statesman who served as the fourth president of Pakistan from 1971 to 1973 and later as the ninth prime minister of Pakistan from 1973 until his overthrow in 1977. He was also the founder and first chairman of the Pakistan People's Party (PPP) from 1967 until his execution in 1979.

Born in Sindh and educated at the University of California, Berkeley and the University of Oxford, Bhutto trained as a barrister at Lincoln's Inn before entering politics. He was a cabinet member during president Iskandar Ali Mirza's tenure, holding various ministries during president Ayub Khan's military rule from 1958. Bhutto became the foreign minister in 1963, advocating for Operation Gibraltar in Kashmir, leading to the 1965 war with India. Following the Tashkent Declaration, he was dismissed from the government. Bhutto established the PPP in 1967, focusing on a left-wing and socialist agenda, and contested the 1970 general election, arising as the largest political party in Western Pakistan^[b] with a landslide victory in Punjab and Sindh; and a coalition victory with National Awami Party in Balochistan and the North-West Frontier. The Awami League, victorious with a landslide in East Pakistan, and the PPP were unable to agree on power transfer, leading to civil unrest in the east, followed by a civil war and a war with India, resulting in the creation of Bangladesh. After Pakistan's loss in the east, Bhutto assumed the presidency in December 1971 and imposed emergency rule, securing a ceasefire on the western front.

Bhutto secured the release of 93,000 prisoners of war through the Simla Agreement, a trilateral accord signed between India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh on 28 August 1973, and ratified only by India and Pakistan. He also reclaimed five thousand square miles (13,000 km²) of Indian-held territory through the Simla Agreement, signed between India and Pakistan in the Indian town of Simla in July 1972. He strengthened diplomatic ties with China and Saudi Arabia, recognized Bangladesh, and hosted the second Organisation of the Islamic Conference in Lahore in 1974. Bhutto's government drafted the current constitution of Pakistan in 1973, after which he transitioned to the prime minister's office. He played a crucial role in initiating the country's nuclear program. However, his policies, including extensive nationalisation which has remained controversial throughout.

Despite winning the 1977 parliamentary elections, Bhutto faced allegations of vote rigging by the right-wing conservative and Islamist opposition, sparking violence across the country. On 5 July 1977, Bhutto was deposed in a military coup by army chief Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq. Controversially tried and executed in 1979, Bhutto's legacy remains contentious, praised for nationalism and a secular internationalist agenda, yet criticised for political repression, economic challenges, and human rights abuses. He is often considered one of Pakistan's greatest leaders. His party, the PPP, continues to be a significant political force in Pakistan, with his daughter Benazir Bhutto serving twice as Prime Minister, and his son-in-law, Asif Ali Zardari, becoming president.

1. ^ "The multipurpose Muslim League". Dawn. 13 August 2012. Retrieved 23 October 2021.

Cite error: There are <ref group=lower-alpha> tags or {{efn}} templates on this page, but the references will not show without a {{reflist|group=lower-alpha}} template or {{notelist}} template (see the help page).

Read More

 

4 April 1979 – Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto of Pakistan is executed.

Zulfikar Ali Bhutto

4th President and 9th Prime Minister of Pakistan (1928–1979)

Not to be confused with Zulfiker Ali Bhutto, the Bangladeshi politician.

Zulfikar Ali Bhutto^[a] (5 January 1928 – 4 April 1979) was a Pakistani barrister, politician and statesman who served as the fourth president of Pakistan from 1971 to 1973 and later as the ninth prime minister of Pakistan from 1973 until his overthrow in 1977. He was also the founder and first chairman of the Pakistan People's Party (PPP) from 1967 until his execution in 1979.

Born in Sindh and educated at the University of California, Berkeley and the University of Oxford, Bhutto trained as a barrister at Lincoln's Inn before entering politics. He was a cabinet member during president Iskandar Ali Mirza's tenure, holding various ministries during president Ayub Khan's military rule from 1958. Bhutto became the foreign minister in 1963, advocating for Operation Gibraltar in Kashmir, leading to the 1965 war with India. Following the Tashkent Declaration, he was dismissed from the government. Bhutto established the PPP in 1967, focusing on a left-wing and socialist agenda, and contested the 1970 general election, arising as the largest political party in Western Pakistan^[b] with a landslide victory in Punjab and Sindh; and a coalition victory with National Awami Party in Balochistan and the North-West Frontier. The Awami League, victorious with a landslide in East Pakistan, and the PPP were unable to agree on power transfer, leading to civil unrest in the east, followed by a civil war and a war with India, resulting in the creation of Bangladesh. After Pakistan's loss in the east, Bhutto assumed the presidency in December 1971 and imposed emergency rule, securing a ceasefire on the western front.

Bhutto secured the release of 93,000 prisoners of war through the Simla Agreement, a trilateral accord signed between India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh on 28 August 1973, and ratified only by India and Pakistan. He also reclaimed five thousand square miles (13,000 km²) of Indian-held territory through the Simla Agreement, signed between India and Pakistan in the Indian town of Simla in July 1972. He strengthened diplomatic ties with China and Saudi Arabia, recognized Bangladesh, and hosted the second Organisation of the Islamic Conference in Lahore in 1974. Bhutto's government drafted the current constitution of Pakistan in 1973, after which he transitioned to the prime minister's office. He played a crucial role in initiating the country's nuclear program. However, his policies, including extensive nationalisation which has remained controversial throughout.

Despite winning the 1977 parliamentary elections, Bhutto faced allegations of vote rigging by the right-wing conservative and Islamist opposition, sparking violence across the country. On 5 July 1977, Bhutto was deposed in a military coup by army chief Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq. Controversially tried and executed in 1979, Bhutto's legacy remains contentious, praised for nationalism and a secular internationalist agenda, yet criticised for political repression, economic challenges, and human rights abuses. He is often considered one of Pakistan's greatest leaders. His party, the PPP, continues to be a significant political force in Pakistan, with his daughter Benazir Bhutto serving twice as Prime Minister, and his son-in-law, Asif Ali Zardari, becoming president.

1. ^ "The multipurpose Muslim League". Dawn. 13 August 2012. Retrieved 23 October 2021.

Cite error: There are <ref group=lower-alpha> tags or {{efn}} templates on this page, but the references will not show without a {{reflist|group=lower-alpha}} template or {{notelist}} template (see the help page).

Read More

 

5 April 1976 – In China, the April Fifth Movement leads to the Tiananmen Incident

Tiananmen Incident

Redirect to:

• Tiananmen Square protests (disambiguation)

Read More

 

6 April 1992 – The Bosnian War begins.

Bosnian War

1992–1995 armed conflict in Bosnia and Herzegovina

The Bosnian War^[b] (Serbo-Croatian: Rat u Bosni i Hercegovini / Рат у Босни и Херцеговини) was an international armed conflict that took place in Bosnia and Herzegovina between 1992 and 1995. Following several earlier violent incidents, the war is commonly seen as having started on 6 April 1992 when the newly independent Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina was internationally recognized. It ended on 21 November 1995 when the Dayton Accords were initialed.^[13] The main belligerents were the forces of the government of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and those of the breakaway proto-states of the Republic of Herzeg-Bosnia and the Republika Srpska which were led and supplied by Croatia and Serbia, respectively.^[14][15]

The war was part of the breakup of Yugoslavia. Following the Slovenian and Croatian secessions from the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia in 1991, the multi-ethnic Socialist Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina – which was inhabited by mainly Muslim Bosniaks (44%), Orthodox Serbs (32.5%) and Catholic Croats (17%) – passed a referendum for independence on 29 February 1992. Political representatives of the Bosnian Serbs boycotted the referendum and rejected its outcome. Anticipating the outcome of the referendum, the Bosnian Serb leadership proclaimed the ”Republic of the Serb People of Bosnia and Herzegovina” on 9 January 1992 (Republika srpskoga naroda Bosne i Hercegovine),^[16] effectively laying the foundation of today's Republika Srpska.

Following the independence declaration of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina on 1 March 1992, the Bosnian Serbs, led by Radovan Karadžić and supported by the government of Slobodan Milošević while supplied by the Yugoslav People's Army (JNA), mobilized their forces inside Bosnia and Herzegovina and over the following months seized control of approximately 70% of the country's territory in a campaign characterized by widespread ethnic cleansing of Bosnian Croats and Bosniaks.

The conflict was initially between Yugoslav Army units in Bosnia which later transformed into the Army of Republika Srpska (VRS) on the one side, and the Army of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina (ARBiH), predominantly composed of Bosniaks, and the Croat forces in the Croatian Defence Council (HVO) on the other side. Tensions between Croats and Bosniaks increased throughout late 1992, resulting in the escalation of the Croat–Bosniak War in early 1993.^[17] The Bosnian War was characterised by bitter fighting, indiscriminate shelling of cities and towns, ethnic cleansing, and systematic mass rape, mainly perpetrated by Serb,^[18] and to a lesser extent, Croat^[19] and Bosniak^[20] forces. Events such as the siege of Sarajevo and the July 1995 Srebrenica massacre later became iconic of the conflict. The massacre of over 8,000 Bosniak males by Serb forces in Srebrenica is the only incident in Europe to have been recognized as a genocide since World War II.^[21]

The Serbs, although initially militarily superior due to the weapons and resources provided by the JNA, eventually lost momentum as the Bosniaks and Croats allied against the Republika Srpska in 1994 with the creation of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina following the Washington Agreement. Pakistan ignored the UN's ban on the supply of arms and airlifted anti-tank missiles to the Bosnian Muslims, while after the Srebrenica and Markale massacres, NATO intervened in 1995 with Operation Deliberate Force, targeting the positions of the Army of the Republika Srpska, which proved key in ending the war.^[22][23] After cease-fires had previously been agreed on September 14 and October 5, 1995, peace negotiations were held in Dayton, Ohio, and the war ended when the Dayton Accords were initialed on 21 November 1995.^[13]

By early 2008, the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia had convicted forty-five Serbs, twelve Croats, and four Bosniaks of war crimes in connection with the war in Bosnia.^{[24][needs update]} Estimates suggest over 100,000 people were killed during the war.^[25][26][27] Over 2.2 million people were displaced,^[28] making it, at the time, the most violent conflict in Europe since the end of World War II.^[29][30] In addition, an estimated 12,000–50,000 women were raped, mainly carried out by Serb forces, with most of the victims being Bosniak women.^[31][32]

1. ^ "Two Republics Transform Selves Into a New, Smaller Yugoslavia". The Los Angeles Times. Associated Press. 28 April 1992. Archived from the original on 5 March 2016. Retrieved 7 January 2011.
2. ^ Chuck Sudetic (3 January 1992). "Yugoslav Factions Agree to U.N. Plan to Halt Civil War". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 18 May 2013. Retrieved 16 December 2010.
3. ^ Ramet 2010, p. 130.
4. ^ Christia 2012, p. 154.
5. ^ CIA 1993, p. 28.
6. ^ Shrader 2003, p. 22.
7. ^ Ramet 2006, p. 450.
8. ^ Mulaj 2008, p. 53.
9. ^ Finlan 2004, p. 21
10. ^ Ramet 2006, p. 451.
11. ^ ^{a b c} Cite error: The named reference RDC 2012 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
12. ^ "After years of toil, book names Bosnian war dead". Reuters. 15 February 2013. Archived from the original on 21 July 2013. Retrieved 30 June 2017.
13. ^ ^{a b} "Dayton Peace Accords on Bosnia". US Department of State. 30 March 1996. Archived from the original on 22 May 2011. Retrieved 19 March 2006.
14. ^ "ICTY: Conflict between Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia". Archived from the original on 7 January 2019. Retrieved 25 April 2015.
15. ^ "ICJ: The genocide case: Bosnia v. Serbia – See Part VI – Entities involved in the events 235–241" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 1 March 2011. Retrieved 25 April 2015.
16. ^ "The Declaration of Proclamation of the Republic of the Serb People of Bosnia and Herzegovina" (Press release) (in Serbian). Official Bulletin of the Serb People in Bosnia and Herzegovina. 27 January 1992. pp. 13–14.
17. ^ Christia 2012, p. 172.
18. ^ Wood 2013, pp. 140, 343.
19. ^ Forsythe 2009, p. 145
20. ^ "Bosnia Handout". fas.org. Archived from the original on 19 October 2017. Retrieved 14 May 2016.
21. ^ "'It's getting out of hand': genocide denial outlawed in Bosnia". The Guardian. 24 July 2021. Archived from the original on 24 July 2021. Retrieved 24 July 2021.
22. ^ Cohen, Roger (31 August 1995). "Conflict in the Balkans: The overview; NATO presses Bosnia bombing, vowing to make Sarajevo safe". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 19 September 2018. Retrieved 5 May 2011.
23. ^ Holbrooke, Richard (1999). To End a War. New York: Modern Library. p. 102. ISBN 978-0-375-75360-2. OCLC 40545454.
24. ^ Bilefsky, Dan (30 July 2008). "Karadzic Sent to Hague for Trial Despite Violent Protest by Loyalists". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Archived from the original on 24 June 2017. Retrieved 25 September 2022.
25. ^ "Bosnia war dead figure announced". BBC. 21 June 2007. Archived from the original on 9 April 2022. Retrieved 16 February 2013.
26. ^ "Bosnia's dark days – a cameraman reflects on war of 1990s". CBC. 6 April 2012. Archived from the original on 15 June 2012. Retrieved 16 February 2013.
27. ^ Logos 2019, p. 265, 412.
28. ^ "Jolie highlights the continuing suffering of the displaced in Bosnia". UNHCR. 6 April 2010. Archived from the original on 29 January 2018. Retrieved 19 October 2010.
29. ^ Hartmann, Florence. "Bosnia". Crimes of War. Archived from the original on 9 May 2015. Retrieved 30 April 2015.
30. ^ Harsch, Michael F. (2015). The Power of Dependence: NATO-UN Cooperation in Crisis Management. Oxford: Oxford University Press. p. 37. ISBN 978-0-19-872231-1.
31. ^ Burg & Shoup 2015, p. 222.
32. ^ Crowe, David M. (2013). War Crimes, Genocide, and Justice: A Global History. Palgrave Macmillan. p. 343. ISBN 978-0-230-62224-1. Archived from the original on 23 January 2023. Retrieved 14 May 2016.

Cite error: There are <ref group=lower-alpha> tags or {{efn}} templates on this page, but the references will not show without a {{reflist|group=lower-alpha}} template or {{notelist}} template (see the help page).

Read More

 

6 April 1992 – The Bosnian War begins.

Bosnian War

1992–1995 armed conflict in Bosnia and Herzegovina

The Bosnian War^[b] (Serbo-Croatian: Rat u Bosni i Hercegovini / Рат у Босни и Херцеговини) was an international armed conflict that took place in Bosnia and Herzegovina between 1992 and 1995. Following several earlier violent incidents, the war is commonly seen as having started on 6 April 1992 when the newly independent Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina was internationally recognized. It ended on 21 November 1995 when the Dayton Accords were initialed.^[13] The main belligerents were the forces of the government of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and those of the breakaway proto-states of the Republic of Herzeg-Bosnia and the Republika Srpska which were led and supplied by Croatia and Serbia, respectively.^[14][15]

The war was part of the breakup of Yugoslavia. Following the Slovenian and Croatian secessions from the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia in 1991, the multi-ethnic Socialist Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina – which was inhabited by mainly Muslim Bosniaks (44%), Orthodox Serbs (32.5%) and Catholic Croats (17%) – passed a referendum for independence on 29 February 1992. Political representatives of the Bosnian Serbs boycotted the referendum and rejected its outcome. Anticipating the outcome of the referendum, the Bosnian Serb leadership proclaimed the ”Republic of the Serb People of Bosnia and Herzegovina” on 9 January 1992 (Republika srpskoga naroda Bosne i Hercegovine),^[16] effectively laying the foundation of today's Republika Srpska.

Following the independence declaration of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina on 1 March 1992, the Bosnian Serbs, led by Radovan Karadžić and supported by the government of Slobodan Milošević while supplied by the Yugoslav People's Army (JNA), mobilized their forces inside Bosnia and Herzegovina and over the following months seized control of approximately 70% of the country's territory in a campaign characterized by widespread ethnic cleansing of Bosnian Croats and Bosniaks.

The conflict was initially between Yugoslav Army units in Bosnia which later transformed into the Army of Republika Srpska (VRS) on the one side, and the Army of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina (ARBiH), predominantly composed of Bosniaks, and the Croat forces in the Croatian Defence Council (HVO) on the other side. Tensions between Croats and Bosniaks increased throughout late 1992, resulting in the escalation of the Croat–Bosniak War in early 1993.^[17] The Bosnian War was characterised by bitter fighting, indiscriminate shelling of cities and towns, ethnic cleansing, and systematic mass rape, mainly perpetrated by Serb,^[18] and to a lesser extent, Croat^[19] and Bosniak^[20] forces. Events such as the siege of Sarajevo and the July 1995 Srebrenica massacre later became iconic of the conflict. The massacre of over 8,000 Bosniak males by Serb forces in Srebrenica is the only incident in Europe to have been recognized as a genocide since World War II.^[21]

The Serbs, although initially militarily superior due to the weapons and resources provided by the JNA, eventually lost momentum as the Bosniaks and Croats allied against the Republika Srpska in 1994 with the creation of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina following the Washington Agreement. Pakistan ignored the UN's ban on the supply of arms and airlifted anti-tank missiles to the Bosnian Muslims, while after the Srebrenica and Markale massacres, NATO intervened in 1995 with Operation Deliberate Force, targeting the positions of the Army of the Republika Srpska, which proved key in ending the war.^[22][23] After cease-fires had previously been agreed on September 14 and October 5, 1995, peace negotiations were held in Dayton, Ohio, and the war ended when the Dayton Accords were initialed on 21 November 1995.^[13]

By early 2008, the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia had convicted forty-five Serbs, twelve Croats, and four Bosniaks of war crimes in connection with the war in Bosnia.^{[24][needs update]} Estimates suggest over 100,000 people were killed during the war.^[25][26][27] Over 2.2 million people were displaced,^[28] making it, at the time, the most violent conflict in Europe since the end of World War II.^[29][30] In addition, an estimated 12,000–50,000 women were raped, mainly carried out by Serb forces, with most of the victims being Bosniak women.^[31][32]

1. ^ "Two Republics Transform Selves Into a New, Smaller Yugoslavia". The Los Angeles Times. Associated Press. 28 April 1992. Archived from the original on 5 March 2016. Retrieved 7 January 2011.
2. ^ Chuck Sudetic (3 January 1992). "Yugoslav Factions Agree to U.N. Plan to Halt Civil War". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 18 May 2013. Retrieved 16 December 2010.
3. ^ Ramet 2010, p. 130.
4. ^ Christia 2012, p. 154.
5. ^ CIA 1993, p. 28.
6. ^ Shrader 2003, p. 22.
7. ^ Ramet 2006, p. 450.
8. ^ Mulaj 2008, p. 53.
9. ^ Finlan 2004, p. 21
10. ^ Ramet 2006, p. 451.
11. ^ ^{a b c} Cite error: The named reference RDC 2012 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
12. ^ "After years of toil, book names Bosnian war dead". Reuters. 15 February 2013. Archived from the original on 21 July 2013. Retrieved 30 June 2017.
13. ^ ^{a b} "Dayton Peace Accords on Bosnia". US Department of State. 30 March 1996. Archived from the original on 22 May 2011. Retrieved 19 March 2006.
14. ^ "ICTY: Conflict between Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia". Archived from the original on 7 January 2019. Retrieved 25 April 2015.
15. ^ "ICJ: The genocide case: Bosnia v. Serbia – See Part VI – Entities involved in the events 235–241" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 1 March 2011. Retrieved 25 April 2015.
16. ^ "The Declaration of Proclamation of the Republic of the Serb People of Bosnia and Herzegovina" (Press release) (in Serbian). Official Bulletin of the Serb People in Bosnia and Herzegovina. 27 January 1992. pp. 13–14.
17. ^ Christia 2012, p. 172.
18. ^ Wood 2013, pp. 140, 343.
19. ^ Forsythe 2009, p. 145
20. ^ "Bosnia Handout". fas.org. Archived from the original on 19 October 2017. Retrieved 14 May 2016.
21. ^ "'It's getting out of hand': genocide denial outlawed in Bosnia". The Guardian. 24 July 2021. Archived from the original on 24 July 2021. Retrieved 24 July 2021.
22. ^ Cohen, Roger (31 August 1995). "Conflict in the Balkans: The overview; NATO presses Bosnia bombing, vowing to make Sarajevo safe". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 19 September 2018. Retrieved 5 May 2011.
23. ^ Holbrooke, Richard (1999). To End a War. New York: Modern Library. p. 102. ISBN 978-0-375-75360-2. OCLC 40545454.
24. ^ Bilefsky, Dan (30 July 2008). "Karadzic Sent to Hague for Trial Despite Violent Protest by Loyalists". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Archived from the original on 24 June 2017. Retrieved 25 September 2022.
25. ^ "Bosnia war dead figure announced". BBC. 21 June 2007. Archived from the original on 9 April 2022. Retrieved 16 February 2013.
26. ^ "Bosnia's dark days – a cameraman reflects on war of 1990s". CBC. 6 April 2012. Archived from the original on 15 June 2012. Retrieved 16 February 2013.
27. ^ Logos 2019, p. 265, 412.
28. ^ "Jolie highlights the continuing suffering of the displaced in Bosnia". UNHCR. 6 April 2010. Archived from the original on 29 January 2018. Retrieved 19 October 2010.
29. ^ Hartmann, Florence. "Bosnia". Crimes of War. Archived from the original on 9 May 2015. Retrieved 30 April 2015.
30. ^ Harsch, Michael F. (2015). The Power of Dependence: NATO-UN Cooperation in Crisis Management. Oxford: Oxford University Press. p. 37. ISBN 978-0-19-872231-1.
31. ^ Burg & Shoup 2015, p. 222.
32. ^ Crowe, David M. (2013). War Crimes, Genocide, and Justice: A Global History. Palgrave Macmillan. p. 343. ISBN 978-0-230-62224-1. Archived from the original on 23 January 2023. Retrieved 14 May 2016.

Cite error: There are <ref group=lower-alpha> tags or {{efn}} templates on this page, but the references will not show without a {{reflist|group=lower-alpha}} template or {{notelist}} template (see the help page).

Read More

 

7 April 1906 – Mount Vesuvius erupts and devastates Naples.

Mount Vesuvius

Active stratovolcano in the Gulf of Naples, Italy

"Vesuvius" redirects here. For other uses, see Vesuvius (disambiguation).

Mount Vesuvius (/vɪˈsuːviəs/ viss-OO-vee-əs)^[a] is a somma–stratovolcano located on the Gulf of Naples in Campania, Italy, about 9 km (5.6 mi) east of Naples and a short distance from the shore. It is one of several volcanoes forming the Campanian volcanic arc. Vesuvius consists of a large cone partially encircled by the steep rim of a summit caldera, resulting from the collapse of an earlier, much higher structure.

The eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD destroyed the Roman cities of Pompeii, Herculaneum, Oplontis, Stabiae and other settlements. The eruption ejected a cloud of stones, ash and volcanic gases to a height of 33 km (21 mi), erupting molten rock and pulverized pumice at the rate of 6×10⁵ cubic metres (7.8×10⁵ cu yd) per second.^[6] More than 1,000 people are thought to have died in the eruption, though the exact toll is unknown. The only surviving witness account consists of two letters by Pliny the Younger to the historian Tacitus.^[7]

Vesuvius has erupted many times since. It is the only volcano on Europe's mainland to have erupted in the last hundred years. It is regarded as one of the most dangerous volcanoes in the world because 3,000,000 people live near enough to be affected by an eruption, with at least 600,000 in the danger zone. This is the most densely populated volcanic region in the world. Eruptions tend to be violent and explosive; these are known as Plinian eruptions.^[8]

1. ^ "Italian Peninsula & Islands - World Ribus". 15 January 2025.
2. ^ "Vesuvio nell'Enciclopedia Treccani". treccani.it (in Italian). Retrieved 7 February 2021.
3. ^ Grasso, Alfonso, ed. (2007). "Il Vesuvio" [Vesuvius]. ilportaledelsud.org (in Italian). Retrieved 8 February 2021.
4. ^ Castiglioni, Luigi; Mariotti, Scevola (2007). Vocabolario della lingua latina : IL : latino-italiano, italiano-latino / Luigi Castiglioni, Scevola Mariotti; redatto con la collaborazione di Arturo Brambilla e Gaspare Campagna (in Italian) (4th ed.). Loescher. p. 1505. ISBN 978-8820166601.
5. ^ "Vesuvio o Vesevius nell'Enciclopedia Treccani". treccani.it (in Italian). Retrieved 8 February 2021.
6. ^ Woods, Andrew W. (2013). "Sustained explosive activity: volcanic eruption columns and hawaiian fountains". In Fagents, Sarah A.; Gregg, Tracy K. P.; Lopes, Rosaly M. C. (eds.). Modeling Volcanic Processes: The Physics and Mathematics of Volcanism. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. p. 158. ISBN 978-0521895439.
7. ^ Cite error: The named reference epistularum was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
8. ^ McGuire, Bill (16 October 2003). "In the shadow of the volcano". The Guardian. Retrieved 8 May 2010.

Cite error: There are <ref group=lower-alpha> tags or {{efn}} templates on this page, but the references will not show without a {{reflist|group=lower-alpha}} template or {{notelist}} template (see the help page).

Read More

 

7 April 1906 – Mount Vesuvius erupts and devastates Naples.

Mount Vesuvius

Active stratovolcano in the Gulf of Naples, Italy

"Vesuvius" redirects here. For other uses, see Vesuvius (disambiguation).

Mount Vesuvius (/vɪˈsuːviəs/ viss-OO-vee-əs)^[a] is a somma–stratovolcano located on the Gulf of Naples in Campania, Italy, about 9 km (5.6 mi) east of Naples and a short distance from the shore. It is one of several volcanoes forming the Campanian volcanic arc. Vesuvius consists of a large cone partially encircled by the steep rim of a summit caldera, resulting from the collapse of an earlier, much higher structure.

The eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD destroyed the Roman cities of Pompeii, Herculaneum, Oplontis, Stabiae and other settlements. The eruption ejected a cloud of stones, ash and volcanic gases to a height of 33 km (21 mi), erupting molten rock and pulverized pumice at the rate of 6×10⁵ cubic metres (7.8×10⁵ cu yd) per second.^[6] More than 1,000 people are thought to have died in the eruption, though the exact toll is unknown. The only surviving witness account consists of two letters by Pliny the Younger to the historian Tacitus.^[7]

Vesuvius has erupted many times since. It is the only volcano on Europe's mainland to have erupted in the last hundred years. It is regarded as one of the most dangerous volcanoes in the world because 3,000,000 people live near enough to be affected by an eruption, with at least 600,000 in the danger zone. This is the most densely populated volcanic region in the world. Eruptions tend to be violent and explosive; these are known as Plinian eruptions.^[8]

1. ^ "Italian Peninsula & Islands - World Ribus". 15 January 2025.
2. ^ "Vesuvio nell'Enciclopedia Treccani". treccani.it (in Italian). Retrieved 7 February 2021.
3. ^ Grasso, Alfonso, ed. (2007). "Il Vesuvio" [Vesuvius]. ilportaledelsud.org (in Italian). Retrieved 8 February 2021.
4. ^ Castiglioni, Luigi; Mariotti, Scevola (2007). Vocabolario della lingua latina : IL : latino-italiano, italiano-latino / Luigi Castiglioni, Scevola Mariotti; redatto con la collaborazione di Arturo Brambilla e Gaspare Campagna (in Italian) (4th ed.). Loescher. p. 1505. ISBN 978-8820166601.
5. ^ "Vesuvio o Vesevius nell'Enciclopedia Treccani". treccani.it (in Italian). Retrieved 8 February 2021.
6. ^ Woods, Andrew W. (2013). "Sustained explosive activity: volcanic eruption columns and hawaiian fountains". In Fagents, Sarah A.; Gregg, Tracy K. P.; Lopes, Rosaly M. C. (eds.). Modeling Volcanic Processes: The Physics and Mathematics of Volcanism. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. p. 158. ISBN 978-0521895439.
7. ^ Cite error: The named reference epistularum was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
8. ^ McGuire, Bill (16 October 2003). "In the shadow of the volcano". The Guardian. Retrieved 8 May 2010.

Cite error: There are <ref group=lower-alpha> tags or {{efn}} templates on this page, but the references will not show without a {{reflist|group=lower-alpha}} template or {{notelist}} template (see the help page).

Read More

 

8 April 1943 – Otto and Elise Hampel are executed in Berlin for their anti-Nazi activities.

Otto and Elise Hampel

German resistance members

Otto and Elise Hampel were a working class German couple who created a simple method of protest against Nazism in Berlin during the middle years of World War II. They wrote postcards denouncing Hitler's government and left them in public places around the city. They were eventually caught, tried, and beheaded in Berlin's Plötzensee Prison in April 1943. Shortly after the end of the war, their Gestapo file was given to German novelist Hans Fallada, and their story inspired his 1947 novel, translated into English and published in 2009 as Every Man Dies Alone (Alone in Berlin in the UK). The story was filmed in 2016 as Alone in Berlin.

Read More

 

9 April 2003 – Iraq War: Baghdad falls to American forces.

Battle of Baghdad (2003)

Part of the invasion of Iraq

For the battle that began in 2006, see Battle of Baghdad (2006–2008). For other battles in Baghdad, see Battle of Baghdad (disambiguation).

The Battle of Baghdad, also known as the Fall of Baghdad, was a military engagement that took place in Baghdad in early April 2003, as part of the invasion of Iraq.

Three weeks into the invasion of Iraq, Coalition Forces Land Component Command elements, led by the U.S. Army 3rd Infantry Division, captured Baghdad. Over 2,000 Iraqi soldiers as well as 34 coalition troops were killed in the battle. After the fall of Baghdad, Coalition forces entered the city of Kirkuk on April 10 and Tikrit on April 15, 2003. The United States officially declared victory against the Iraqi regime of Saddam Hussein on April 15, and President George W. Bush gave his Mission Accomplished speech on May 1.

Baghdad suffered serious damage to its civilian infrastructure, economy, and cultural inheritance from the battle and following unrest, including looting and arson. During the invasion, the Al-Yarmouk Hospital in south Baghdad saw a steady rate of about 100 new patients an hour.^[7]

Cite error: There are <ref group=lower-alpha> tags or {{efn}} templates on this page, but the references will not show without a {{reflist|group=lower-alpha}} template or {{notelist}} template (see the help page).

1. ^ Woods, Kevin M. (2009). Iraqi Perspectives Project: A View of Operation Iraqi Freedom from Saddam's Senior Leadership (PDF). United States Joint Forces Command, Joint Center for Operational Analysis. p. 145; 210. ISBN 978-0-9762550-1-7. Archived from the original (PDF) on June 9, 2010.
2. ^ Iraq Coalition Casualties: Military Fatalities Archived March 26, 2010, at the Wayback Machine
3. ^ "On April 4, 5th RCT ran into several hundred fedayeen from Syria, Jordan, Egypt, and other parts of the Middle East and Africa. The result was wholesale slaughter, but the cost was considerable: two Abrams tanks were destroyed by the attackers, while numerous vehicles sustained damage from RPG fire. The marines killed a senior general from the Republican Guard ... In addition, marine tankers destroyed twelve to fifteen T-72s and T-55s as well as numerous 37mm anti-aircraft guns, which the Iraqis attempted to use against advancing marines." The Iraq War, Wiiliamson Murray, Robert Scales, p.225, Harvard University Press, 2005
4. ^ Myers, Steven Lee (April 7, 2003). "Iraqi Missile Hits Army Base". The New York Times. Archived from the original on June 27, 2018. Retrieved April 30, 2018.
5. ^ "Wages of War – Appendix 1. Survey and assessment of reported Iraqi combatant fatalities in the 2003 War". comw.org. Archived from the original on September 2, 2009. Retrieved December 16, 2011.
6. ^ Iraqi Death Toll, Health Perils Assessed by Medical Group Archived June 18, 2013, at the Wayback Machine
7. ^ Cite error: The named reference usa was invoked but never defined (see the help page).

Read More

 

10 April 1939 – Alcoholics Anonymous, A.A.'s "Big Book", is first published.

Alcoholics Anonymous

Sobriety-focused mutual help fellowship

Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) is a global, peer-led mutual-aid fellowship focused on an abstinence-based recovery model from alcoholism through its spiritually inclined twelve-step program.^[1] AA's Twelve Traditions, besides emphasizing anonymity, stress lack of hierarchy, staying non-promotional, and non-professional, while also unaffiliated, non-denominational, apolitical and free to all.^[1][2][3] As of 2021,^[update] AA estimated it is active in 180 countries with an estimated membership of nearly two million—73% in the United States and Canada.^[4][5]

AA traces its origins to a 1935 meeting between Bill Wilson (commonly referred to as Bill W.) and Dr. Bob Smith (Dr. Bob), two individuals seeking to address their shared struggles with alcoholism. Their collaboration, influenced by the Christian revivalist Oxford Group, evolved into a mutual support group that eventually became AA. In 1939, the fellowship published Alcoholics Anonymous: The Story of How More than One Hundred Men Have Recovered from Alcoholism, colloquially known as the "Big Book". This publication introduced the twelve-step program and provided the basis for the organization's name. Later editions of the book expanded its subtitle to reflect the inclusion of "Thousands of Men and Women".^[6]

The Twelve Steps outline a suggested program of ongoing drug rehabilitation and self-improvement. A key component involves seeking alignment or divining with a personally defined concept of "God as we understood Him".^[a] The steps begin with an acknowledgment of powerlessness over alcohol and the unmanageability of life due to alcoholism. Subsequent steps emphasize rigorous honesty, including the completion of a "searching and fearless moral inventory", acknowledgment of "character defects", sharing the inventory with a trusted person, making amends to individuals harmed, and engaging in regular prayer or meditation to seek "conscious contact with God" and guidance in following divine will. The final step, the 12th, focuses on maintaining the principles of recovery, sharing the message with other alcoholics,^[7] and participating in "12th Step work," such as peer sponsorship, organizing meetings, and outreach to institutions like hospitals and prisons.^[8]

AA meetings differ in format, with variations including personal storytelling, readings from the Big Book, and open discussions. While certain meetings may cater to specific demographic groups, attendance is generally open to anyone with a desire to stop drinking alcohol. The organization is self-supporting through member donations and literature sales. Its operations follow an "inverted pyramid" structure, allowing local groups significant autonomy. AA does not accept external funding or contributions.

Empirical evidence supports AA's efficacy. A 2020 Cochrane review found that manualized AA and Twelve-Step Facilitation (TSF) therapy demonstrated higher rates of continuous abstinence compared to alternative treatments, such as cognitive-behavioral therapy, with added healthcare cost savings over time.^[9][b]

Criticism of AA has addressed various aspects of its program and operations. Concerns have been raised about its overall success rate, the perceived religious nature of its approach, and allegations of cult-like elements. Additional critiques include reports of "thirteenth-stepping", where senior members engage romantically with newer members, and legal challenges related to safety and the religious content of court-mandated participation in AA programs.

1. ^ ^{a b} AA Grapevine (15 May 2013), A.A. Preamble (PDF), AA General Service Office, archived (PDF) from the original on 9 October 2022, retrieved 13 May 2017
2. ^ Michael Gross (1 December 2010). "Alcoholics Anonymous: Still Sober After 75 Years". American Journal of Public Health. 100 (12): 2361–2363. doi:10.2105/ajph.2010.199349. PMC 2978172. PMID 21068418.
3. ^ "Information on AA". aa.org. Retrieved 18 April 2019.
4. ^ "Estimated Worldwide A.A. Individual and Group Membership". www.aa.org. Retrieved 28 September 2024.
5. ^ "Estimates of A.A. Groups and Members". www.aa.org. Retrieved 28 September 2024.
6. ^ "'The Big Book' that gave alcoholics hope in 12 steps turns 75". PBS News. 10 April 2014. Retrieved 6 May 2025.
7. ^ Alcoholics Anonymous: the story of how many thousands of men and women have recovered from alcoholism (4th ed.). New York City: Alcoholics Anonymous World Services. 2001. ISBN 978-1-893007-16-1.
8. ^ Chappel, JN; Dupont, RL (1999). "Twelve-Step and Mutual-Help Programs for Addictive Disorders". Psychiatric Clinics of North America. 22 (2): 425–46. doi:10.1016/S0193-953X(05)70085-X. PMID 10385942.
9. ^ Cite error: The named reference Cochrane2020 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).

Cite error: There are <ref group=lower-alpha> tags or {{efn}} templates on this page, but the references will not show without a {{reflist|group=lower-alpha}} template or {{notelist}} template (see the help page).

Read More

 

11 April 1970 – Apollo 13 is launched.

Apollo 13

Failed Moon landing mission in the Apollo program

This article is about the 1970 spaceflight. For the film based upon it, see Apollo 13 (film). For other uses, see Apollo 13 (disambiguation).

Apollo 13 (April 11–17, 1970) was the seventh crewed mission in the Apollo space program and would have been the third Moon landing. The craft was launched from Kennedy Space Center on April 11, 1970, but the landing was aborted after an oxygen tank in the service module (SM) exploded two days into the mission, disabling its electrical and life-support system. The crew, supported by backup systems on the lunar module (LM), instead looped around the Moon in a circumlunar trajectory and returned safely to Earth on April 17. The mission was commanded by Jim Lovell, with Jack Swigert as command module (CM) pilot and Fred Haise as Lunar Module (LM) pilot. Swigert was a late replacement for Ken Mattingly, who was grounded after exposure to rubella.

A routine stir of an oxygen tank ignited damaged wire insulation inside it, causing an explosion that vented the contents of both of the SM's oxygen tanks to space.^{[note 1]} Without oxygen, needed for breathing and for generating electric power, the SM's propulsion and life support systems could not operate. The CM's systems had to be shut down to conserve its remaining resources for reentry, forcing the crew to transfer to the LM as a lifeboat. With the lunar landing canceled, mission controllers worked to bring the crew home alive.

Although the LM was designed to support two men on the lunar surface for two days, Mission Control in Houston improvised new procedures so it could support three men for four days. The crew experienced great hardship, caused by limited power, a chilly and wet cabin and a shortage of potable water. There was a critical need to adapt the CM's cartridges for the carbon dioxide scrubber system to work in the LM; the crew and mission controllers were successful in improvising a solution. The astronauts' peril briefly renewed public interest in the Apollo program; tens of millions watched the splashdown in the South Pacific Ocean on television.

An investigative review board found fault with preflight testing of the oxygen tank and Teflon being placed inside it. The board recommended changes, including minimizing the use of potentially combustible items inside the tank; this was done for Apollo 14. The story of Apollo 13 has been dramatized several times, most notably in the 1995 film Apollo 13 based on Lost Moon, the 1994 memoir co-authored by Lovell – and an episode of the 1998 miniseries From the Earth to the Moon.

1. ^ "Apollo 13 CM". N2YO.com. Retrieved August 18, 2019.
2. ^ Orloff 2000, p. 309.
3. ^ "Apollo 13 Command and Service Module (CSM)". NASA Space Science Data Coordinated Archive. Retrieved January 9, 2023.
4. ^ "Apollo 13 Lunar Module / EASEP". NASA Space Science Data Coordinated Archive. Retrieved January 9, 2023.
5. ^ Orloff 2000, p. 307.
6. ^ "Apollo 13". NASA Space Science Data Coordinated Archive. Retrieved January 9, 2023.
7. ^ Williams, David. "The Apollo 13 accident". NASA. The Apollo 13 malfunction was caused by an explosion and rupture of oxygen tank no. 2 in the service module.
8. ^ Cortright 1975, pp. 248–249: "I did, of course, occasionally think of the possibility that the spacecraft explosion might maroon us... Thirteen minutes after the explosion, I happened to look out of the left-hand window, and saw the final evidence pointing toward potential catastrophe. "
9. ^ Accident report, p. 143.
10. ^ Cooper 2013, p. 21: "Later, in describing what happened, NASA engineers avoided using the word "explosion;" they preferred the more delicate and less dramatic term "tank failure," and in a sense it was the more accurate expression, inasmuch as the tank did not explode in the way a bomb does but broke open under pressure."

Cite error: There are <ref group=note> tags on this page, but the references will not show without a {{reflist|group=note}} template (see the help page).

Read More

 

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

Polio vaccine

Vaccine to prevent poliomyelitis

Pharmaceutical compound

Polio vaccines are vaccines used to prevent poliomyelitis (polio).^[2][3] Two types are used: an inactivated poliovirus given by injection (IPV) and a weakened poliovirus given by mouth (OPV).^[2] The World Health Organization (WHO) recommends all children be fully vaccinated against polio.^[2] The two vaccines have eliminated polio from most of the world,^[4][5] and reduced the number of cases reported each year from an estimated 350,000 in 1988 to 33 in 2018.^[6][7]

The inactivated polio vaccines are very safe.^[2] Mild redness or pain may occur at the site of injection.^[2] Oral polio vaccines cause about three cases of vaccine-associated paralytic poliomyelitis per million doses given.^[2] This compares with 5,000 cases per million who are paralysed following a polio infection.^[8] Both types of vaccine are generally safe to give during pregnancy and in those who have HIV/AIDS, but are otherwise well.^[2] However, the emergence of circulating vaccine-derived poliovirus (cVDPV), a form of the vaccine virus that has reverted to causing poliomyelitis, has led to the development of novel oral polio vaccine type 2 (nOPV2), which aims to make the vaccine safer and thus stop further outbreaks of cVDPV.^[9]

The first successful demonstration of a polio vaccine was by Hilary Koprowski in 1950, with a live attenuated virus that people drank.^[10] The vaccine was not approved for use in the United States, but was used successfully elsewhere.^[10] The success of an inactivated (killed) polio vaccine, developed by Jonas Salk, was announced in 1955.^[2][11] Another attenuated live oral polio vaccine, developed by Albert Sabin, came into commercial use in 1961.^[2][12]

Polio vaccine is on the World Health Organization's List of Essential Medicines.^[13]

1. ^ Use During Pregnancy and Breastfeeding
2. ^ ^{a b c d e f g h i} World Health Organization (2016). "Polio vaccines: WHO position paper – March, 2016". Weekly Epidemiological Record. 91 (12): 145–68. hdl:10665/254399. PMID 27039410.
3. ^ World Health Organization (2022). "Polio vaccines: WHO position paper – June 2022". Weekly Epidemiological Record. 97 (25): 277–300. hdl:10665/357168.
4. ^ Aylward RB (2006). "Eradicating polio: today's challenges and tomorrow's legacy". Annals of Tropical Medicine and Parasitology. 100 (5–6): 401–413. doi:10.1179/136485906X97354. PMID 16899145. S2CID 25327986.
5. ^ Schonberger LB, Kaplan J, Kim-Farley R, Moore M, Eddins DL, Hatch M (1984). "Control of paralytic poliomyelitis in the United States". Reviews of Infectious Diseases. 6 (Suppl 2): S424 – S426. doi:10.1093/clinids/6.Supplement_2.S424. PMID 6740085.
6. ^ "Global Wild Poliovirus 2014–2019" (PDF). Archived (PDF) from the original on 3 February 2019. Retrieved 3 February 2019.
7. ^ "Does polio still exist? Is it curable?". World Health Organization (WHO). Archived from the original on 29 May 2018. Retrieved 21 May 2018.
8. ^ "Poliomyelitis". World Health Organization (WHO). Archived from the original on 18 April 2017. Retrieved 25 April 2017.
9. ^ "GPEI-nOPV2". Archived from the original on 27 July 2021. Retrieved 1 August 2021.
10. ^ ^{a b} Fox M (20 April 2013). "Hilary Koprowski, Who Developed First Live-Virus Polio Vaccine, Dies at 96". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 25 August 2017. Retrieved 8 September 2017.
11. ^ Bazin H (2011). Vaccination: A History. John Libbey Eurotext. p. 395. ISBN 978-2742007752. Archived from the original on 8 September 2017.
12. ^ Smith DR, Leggat PA (2005). "Pioneering figures in medicine: Albert Bruce Sabin – inventor of the oral polio vaccine". The Kurume Medical Journal. 52 (3): 111–116. doi:10.2739/kurumemedj.52.111. PMID 16422178.
13. ^ World Health Organization (2023). The selection and use of essential medicines 2023: web annex A: World Health Organization model list of essential medicines: 23rd list (2023). Geneva: World Health Organization. hdl:10665/371090. WHO/MHP/HPS/EML/2023.02.

Read More