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14 January 1858 – Napoleon III of France escapes an assassination attempt made by Felice Orsini and his accomplices in Paris.

Napoleon III

Emperor of the French from 1852 to 1870

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

Napoleon III (Charles-Louis Napoléon Bonaparte; 20 April 1808 – 9 January 1873) was President of France from 1848 to 1852 and then Emperor of the French from 1852 until his deposition in 1870. He was the first president, second emperor, and last monarch of France.

Prior to his reign, Napoleon III was known as Louis Napoleon Bonaparte. He was born at the height of the First French Empire in the Tuileries Palace at Paris, the son of Louis Bonaparte, King of Holland (r. 1806–1810), and Hortense de Beauharnais, and paternal nephew of the reigning Emperor Napoleon I. It would only be two months following his birth that he, in accordance with Napoleon I's dynastic naming policy, would be bestowed the name of Charles-Louis Napoleon,^[1] however, shortly thereafter, Charles was removed from his name. Louis Napoleon Bonaparte was the first and only president of the French Second Republic, elected in 1848. He seized power by force in 1851 when he could not constitutionally be re-elected. He later proclaimed himself Emperor of the French and founded the Second Empire, reigning until the defeat of the French Army and his capture by Prussia and its allies at the Battle of Sedan in 1870.

Napoleon III was a popular monarch who oversaw the modernization of the French economy and filled Paris with new boulevards and parks. He expanded the French colonial empire, made the French merchant navy the second largest in the world, and personally engaged in two wars. Maintaining leadership for 22 years, he was the longest-reigning French head of state since the fall of the Ancien Régime, although his reign would ultimately end upon his surrender to Otto von Bismarck and Wilhelm I on 2 September 1870.

Napoleon III commissioned a grand reconstruction of Paris carried out by prefect of the Seine, Georges-Eugène Haussmann. He expanded and consolidated the railway system throughout the nation and modernized the banking system. Napoleon promoted the building of the Suez Canal and established modern agriculture, which ended famines in France and made the country an agricultural exporter. He negotiated the 1860 Cobden–Chevalier Free Trade Agreement with Britain and similar agreements with France's other European trading partners. Social reforms included giving French workers the right to strike and the right to organize, and the right for women to be admitted to a French university.

In foreign policy, Napoleon III aimed to reassert French influence in Europe and around the world. In Europe, he allied with Britain and defeated Russia in the Crimean War (1853–1856). His regime assisted Italian unification by defeating the Austrian Empire in the Second Italian War of Independence and later annexed Savoy and Nice through the Treaty of Turin as its deferred reward. At the same time, his forces defended the Papal States against annexation by Italy. He was also favourable towards the 1859 union of the Danubian Principalities, which resulted in the establishment of the United Principalities of Moldavia and Wallachia. Napoleon doubled the area of the French colonial empire with expansions in Asia, the Pacific, and Africa. On the other hand, the intervention in Mexico, which aimed to create a Second Mexican Empire under French protection, ended in total failure.

From 1866, Napoleon had to face the mounting power of Prussia as its minister president Otto von Bismarck sought German unification under Prussian leadership. In July 1870, Napoleon reluctantly declared war on Prussia after pressure from the general public. The French Army was rapidly defeated, and Napoleon was captured at Sedan. He was swiftly dethroned and the Third Republic was proclaimed in Paris. After he was released from German custody, he went into exile in England, where he died in 1873.

1. ^ Strauss-Schom 2018, pp. 1–2.

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14 January 1858 – Napoleon III of France escapes an assassination attempt made by Felice Orsini and his accomplices in Paris.

Napoleon III

Emperor of the French from 1852 to 1870

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

Napoleon III (Charles-Louis Napoléon Bonaparte; 20 April 1808 – 9 January 1873) was President of France from 1848 to 1852 and then Emperor of the French from 1852 until his deposition in 1870. He was the first president, second emperor, and last monarch of France.

Prior to his reign, Napoleon III was known as Louis Napoleon Bonaparte. He was born at the height of the First French Empire in the Tuileries Palace at Paris, the son of Louis Bonaparte, King of Holland (r. 1806–1810), and Hortense de Beauharnais, and paternal nephew of the reigning Emperor Napoleon I. It would only be two months following his birth that he, in accordance with Napoleon I's dynastic naming policy, would be bestowed the name of Charles-Louis Napoleon,^[1] however, shortly thereafter, Charles was removed from his name. Louis Napoleon Bonaparte was the first and only president of the French Second Republic, elected in 1848. He seized power by force in 1851 when he could not constitutionally be re-elected. He later proclaimed himself Emperor of the French and founded the Second Empire, reigning until the defeat of the French Army and his capture by Prussia and its allies at the Battle of Sedan in 1870.

Napoleon III was a popular monarch who oversaw the modernization of the French economy and filled Paris with new boulevards and parks. He expanded the French colonial empire, made the French merchant navy the second largest in the world, and personally engaged in two wars. Maintaining leadership for 22 years, he was the longest-reigning French head of state since the fall of the Ancien Régime, although his reign would ultimately end upon his surrender to Otto von Bismarck and Wilhelm I on 2 September 1870.

Napoleon III commissioned a grand reconstruction of Paris carried out by prefect of the Seine, Georges-Eugène Haussmann. He expanded and consolidated the railway system throughout the nation and modernized the banking system. Napoleon promoted the building of the Suez Canal and established modern agriculture, which ended famines in France and made the country an agricultural exporter. He negotiated the 1860 Cobden–Chevalier Free Trade Agreement with Britain and similar agreements with France's other European trading partners. Social reforms included giving French workers the right to strike and the right to organize, and the right for women to be admitted to a French university.

In foreign policy, Napoleon III aimed to reassert French influence in Europe and around the world. In Europe, he allied with Britain and defeated Russia in the Crimean War (1853–1856). His regime assisted Italian unification by defeating the Austrian Empire in the Second Italian War of Independence and later annexed Savoy and Nice through the Treaty of Turin as its deferred reward. At the same time, his forces defended the Papal States against annexation by Italy. He was also favourable towards the 1859 union of the Danubian Principalities, which resulted in the establishment of the United Principalities of Moldavia and Wallachia. Napoleon doubled the area of the French colonial empire with expansions in Asia, the Pacific, and Africa. On the other hand, the intervention in Mexico, which aimed to create a Second Mexican Empire under French protection, ended in total failure.

From 1866, Napoleon had to face the mounting power of Prussia as its minister president Otto von Bismarck sought German unification under Prussian leadership. In July 1870, Napoleon reluctantly declared war on Prussia after pressure from the general public. The French Army was rapidly defeated, and Napoleon was captured at Sedan. He was swiftly dethroned and the Third Republic was proclaimed in Paris. After he was released from German custody, he went into exile in England, where he died in 1873.

1. ^ Strauss-Schom 2018, pp. 1–2.

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15 January 1889 – The Coca-Cola Company, then known as the Pemberton Medicine Company, is incorporated in Atlanta.

The Coca-Cola Company

American multinational beverage corporation

The Coca-Cola Company is an American multinational corporation founded in 1892. It manufactures, sells and markets soft drinks including Coca-Cola, other non-alcoholic beverage concentrates and syrups, and alcoholic beverages. Its stock is listed on the New York Stock Exchange and is a component of the DJIA and the S&P 500 and S&P 100 indexes.

Coca-Cola was developed in 1886 by pharmacist John Stith Pemberton. At the time it was introduced, the product contained the stimulants cocaine from coca leaves and caffeine from kola nuts which together acted synergistically. The coca and the kola are the source of the product name, and led to Coca-Cola's promotion as a "healthy tonic". Pemberton had been severely wounded in the American Civil War, and had become addicted to the pain medication morphine. At the time, cocaine was being promoted as a "cure" for opioid addiction, so he developed the beverage as a patent medicine in an effort to control his addiction.^[3]

In 1889, the formula and brand were sold for $2,300 (roughly $71,000 in 2022) to Asa Griggs Candler, who incorporated the Coca-Cola Company in Atlanta, Georgia, in 1892. The company has operated a franchised distribution system since 1889.^[4] The company largely produces syrup concentrate, which is then sold to various bottlers throughout the world who hold exclusive territories.

1. ^ "2024 Annual Report (Form 10-K)". U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. February 20, 2025. Retrieved March 5, 2025.
2. ^ "2023 Proxy Statement". U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. March 10, 2023. Retrieved October 19, 2023.
3. ^ "John "Doc" Pemberton and His Amazing Medicine". www.moas.org. Retrieved May 24, 2024.
4. ^ "The Story of Coca-Cola: A Successful Franchising Strategy". Prestige Franchising Limited. April 27, 2017. Archived from the original on December 15, 2021. Retrieved November 30, 2020.

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16 January 1862 – Hartley Colliery disaster: Two hundred and four men and boys killed in a mining disaster, prompting a change in UK law which henceforth required all collieries to have at least two independent means of escape

Hartley Colliery disaster

1862 mining disaster in England

The Hartley Colliery disaster (also known as the Hartley Pit disaster or Hester Pit disaster) was a coal mining accident in Northumberland, England, that occurred on 16 January 1862 and resulted in the deaths of 204 men and children. The beam of the pit's pumping engine broke and fell down the shaft, trapping the men below. The disaster prompted a change in British law that required all collieries to have at least two independent means of escape.^[1]

1. ^ BBC 2004.

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17 January 1595 – During the French Wars of Religion, Henry IV of France declares war on Spain.

French Wars of Religion

1562–1598 Catholic-Protestant conflicts

The French Wars of Religion were a series of civil wars between French Catholics and Protestants (called Huguenots) from 1562 to 1598. Between two and four million people died from violence, famine or disease directly caused by the conflict, and it severely damaged the power of the French monarchy.^[1] One of its most notorious episodes was the St. Bartholomew's Day massacre in 1572. The fighting ended with a compromise in 1598, when Henry of Navarre, who had converted to Catholicism in 1593, was proclaimed King Henry IV of France and issued the Edict of Nantes, which granted substantial rights and freedoms to the Huguenots. However, Catholics continued to disapprove of Protestants and of Henry, and his assassination in 1610 triggered a fresh round of Huguenot rebellions in the 1620s.

Tensions between the two religions had been building since the 1530s, exacerbating existing regional divisions. The death of Henry II of France in July 1559 initiated a prolonged struggle for power between his widow Catherine de' Medici and powerful nobles. These included a fervently Catholic faction led by the Guise and Montmorency families, and Protestants headed by the House of Condé and Jeanne d'Albret. Both sides received assistance from external powers, with Spain and Savoy supporting the Catholics, and England and the Dutch Republic backing the Protestants.

Moderates, also known as Politiques, hoped to maintain order by centralising power and making concessions to Huguenots, rather than the policies of repression pursued by Henry II and his father Francis I. They were initially supported by Catherine de' Medici, whose January 1562 Edict of Saint-Germain was strongly opposed by the Guise faction and led to an outbreak of widespread fighting in March. She later hardened her stance and backed the 1572 St. Bartholomew's Day massacre in Paris, which resulted in Catholic mobs killing between 5,000 and 30,000 Protestants throughout France.

The wars threatened the authority of the monarchy and the last Valois kings, Catherine's three sons Francis II, Charles IX, and Henry III. Their Bourbon successor Henry IV responded by creating a strong central state and extending toleration to Huguenots; the latter policy would last until 1685, when Henry's grandson Louis XIV revoked the Edict of Nantes.

1. ^ ^{a b} Knecht 2002, p. 91.

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18 January 1977 – Australia's worst rail disaster occurs at Granville, Sydney killing 83.

Granville rail disaster

1977 train derailment in Australia

The Granville rail disaster occurred on Tuesday 18 January 1977 at Granville, a western suburb of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, when a crowded commuter train derailed, running into the supports of a road bridge that collapsed onto two of the train's passenger carriages.

While the official inquiry found the primary cause of the crash to be poor fastening of the track, there were a number of factors that were identified as contributing to the accident.

It remains the worst rail disaster in Australian history; 83 people died and 213 were injured.^[1] An 84th victim, an unborn child, was added to the fatality list in 2017.^[2]

1. ^ "The rail disaster that changed Australia". BBC News. 17 January 2017. Retrieved 26 January 2020.
2. ^ "Unborn child victim remembered at Granville memorial after 40 years".

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19 January 1942 – World War II: The Japanese conquest of Burma begins.

Japanese invasion of Burma

Part of World War II

The Japanese invasion of Burma was a series of battles fought in the British colony of Burma (present-day Myanmar) as part of the Pacific Theater of World War II. The initial invasion in 1942 resulted in the capture of Rangoon and the retreat of British, Indian, and Chinese forces. From 1942 to 1945, the Allies and Japan engaged in a protracted struggle for control of the region, marked by fierce fighting in challenging terrain. The Burma campaign was strategically significant, as it was linked to the war in China and the supply routes to the Chinese Nationalists. The eventual Allied victory in 1945 played a crucial role in the overall defeat of Japan.

1. ^ ^{a b} Bradford 2006, p. 221.
2. ^ ^{a b} 紀念七七抗戰六十週年學術硏討會籌備委員會 1998, p. 240.
3. ^ ^{a b} Facts on File: World War II in the China-Burma-India theater Retrieved 20 March 2016
4. ^ Bayly & Harper 2005, p. 170.
5. ^ Seekins 2006, pp. 123–126, 354.
6. ^ Reynolds 1994, p. 116.
7. ^ ^{a b c} Japanese conquest of Burma, December 1941 – May 1942 Retrieved 20 March 2016
8. ^ McLynn 2011, p. 67.
9. ^ Jifeng, Li (2008). 从沉沦到荣光. 远方出版社. p. 388.
10. ^ ^{a b} Allen 1984, p. 638.
11. ^ Tucker 2003, p. 122.
12. ^ Beevor 2012, p. 309.
13. ^ Zaloga 1999, p. 14.
14. ^ Air Force Sixtieth Anniversary Commemorative Edition: The Flying Tigers p. 33 Retrieved 20 March 2016
15. ^ Grant & Tamayama 1999, p. 380.
16. ^ Black 2016, p. 108.

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20 January 2009 – A protest movement in Iceland culminates as the 2009 Icelandic financial crisis protests start.

2009 Icelandic financial crisis protests

Movement protesting the Icelandic government's handling of the 2009 financial crisis

The 2009–2011 Icelandic financial crisis protests, also referred to as the Kitchenware, Kitchen Implement or Pots and Pans Revolution^[1][2] (Icelandic: Búsáhaldabyltingin), occurred after the 2008–2012 Icelandic financial crisis. There had been regular and growing protests since October 2008 against the Government of Iceland's handling of the 2008 financial crisis. The protests intensified on 20 January 2009 with thousands of people protesting at the parliament (Althing) in Reykjavík.^[3][4][5] These were at the time the largest protests in Icelandic history.^[6]

Protesters were calling for the resignation of government officials and for new elections to be held.^[7] The protests stopped for the most part with the resignation of the old government led by the right-wing Independence Party.^[8] A new left-wing government was formed after elections in late April 2009. It was supportive of the protestors and initiated a reform process that included the judicial prosecution before the Landsdómur of former Prime Minister Geir Haarde.

Several referendums were held to ask the citizens about whether to pay the Icesave debt of their banks. From a complex and unique process, 25 common people, of no political party, were to be elected to form an Icelandic Constitutional Assembly that would write a new Constitution of Iceland. After some legal problems, a Constitutional Council, which included those people, presented a Constitution Draft to the Iceland Parliament on 29 July 2011.^[9]

1. ^ Leigh Phillips (27 April 2009). "Iceland Turns Left and Edges Toward EU". Bloomberg Business Week. Archived from the original on 23 July 2013. Retrieved 20 October 2011.
2. ^ Magnússon, Sigurdur: Wasteland With Words, 2010. Reaktion Books, London. p. 265.
3. ^ Gunnarsson, Valur (21 January 2009). "Icelandic lawmakers return to work amid protests". Associated Press. Archived from the original on 31 January 2009. Retrieved 22 January 2009.
4. ^ "Iceland protesters demand government step down". Reuters. 20 January 2009. Archived from the original on 3 February 2009. Retrieved 22 January 2009.
5. ^ Gunnarsson, Valur; Lawless, Jill (22 January 2009). "Icelandic police tear gas protesters". Associated Press. Archived from the original on 31 January 2009. Retrieved 22 January 2009.
6. ^ Önnudóttir, Eva H. (19 December 2016). "The "Pots and Pans" protests and requirements for responsiveness of the authorities". Icelandic Review of Politics & Administration. 12 (2): 195–214. doi:10.13177/irpa.a.2016.12.2.1. hdl:20.500.11815/230. ISSN 1670-679X.
7. ^ "Opposition attempts to call Iceland elections, bypassing PM". icenews.is. 22 January 2009. Archived from the original on 24 January 2009. Retrieved 22 January 2009.
8. ^ Nyberg, Per (26 January 2009). "Icelandic government falls; asked to stay on". CNN. Archived from the original on 29 January 2009. Retrieved 31 January 2009.
9. ^ "Stjórnlagaráð 2011 – English". Stjornlagarad.is. 29 July 2011. Retrieved 18 October 2011.

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21 January 1976 – Commercial service of Concorde begins with the London-Bahrain and Paris-Rio routes.

Concorde

British–French supersonic airliner

For other uses, see Concorde (disambiguation).

Concorde (/ˈkɒŋkɔːrd/) is a retired Anglo-French supersonic airliner jointly developed and manufactured by Sud Aviation and the British Aircraft Corporation (BAC). Studies started in 1954, and France and the United Kingdom signed a treaty establishing the development project on 29 November 1962, as the programme cost was estimated at £70 million (£1.68 billion in 2023). Construction of the six prototypes began in February 1965, and the first flight took off from Toulouse on 2 March 1969. The market was predicted for 350 aircraft, and the manufacturers received up to 100 option orders from many major airlines. On 9 October 1975, it received its French certificate of airworthiness, and from the UK CAA on 5 December.^[4]

Concorde is a tailless aircraft design with a narrow fuselage permitting four-abreast seating for 92 to 128 passengers, an ogival delta wing, and a droop nose for landing visibility. It is powered by four Rolls-Royce/Snecma Olympus 593 turbojets with variable engine intake ramps, and reheat for take-off and acceleration to supersonic speed. Constructed out of aluminium, it was the first airliner to have analogue fly-by-wire flight controls. The airliner had transatlantic range while supercruising at twice the speed of sound for 75% of the distance.^[5]

Delays and cost overruns increased the programme cost to £1.5–2.1 billion in 1976, (£11–16 billion in 2023). Concorde entered service on 21 January 1976 with Air France from Paris-Roissy and British Airways from London Heathrow. Transatlantic flights were the main market, to Washington Dulles from 24 May, and to New York JFK from 17 October 1977. Air France and British Airways remained the sole customers with seven airframes each, for a total production of 20. Supersonic flight more than halved travel times, but sonic booms over the ground limited it to transoceanic flights only.

Its only competitor was the Tupolev Tu-144, carrying passengers from November 1977 until a May 1978 crash, while a potential competitor, the Boeing 2707, was cancelled in 1971 before any prototypes were built.

On 25 July 2000, Air France Flight 4590 crashed shortly after take-off with all 109 occupants and four on the ground killed. This was the only fatal incident involving Concorde; commercial service was suspended until November 2001. The surviving aircraft were retired in 2003, 27 years after commercial operations had begun. All but two of the 20 aircraft built have been preserved and are on display across Europe and North America.

1. ^ Towey 2007, p. 359.
2. ^ "Ageing luxury jet". BBC News. 25 July 2000. Archived from the original on 14 March 2009. Retrieved 13 November 2006.
3. ^ Cite error: The named reference jlfin was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
4. ^ "Concorde Special – Concorde timeline". FlightGlobal. 21 October 2003.
5. ^ McKinlay, R. M.; Heaton, G. R. I.; Franchi, J. (1976). Dexter, R. R.; Green, J. J. (eds.). "Operational Experience On Concorde". 1976 ICAS Proceedings. Ottawa, Ontario: International Council of Aeronautical Sciences: Figure 5 'Typical flight profile'.

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21 January 1976 – Commercial service of Concorde begins with the London-Bahrain and Paris-Rio routes.

Concorde

British–French supersonic airliner

For other uses, see Concorde (disambiguation).

Concorde (/ˈkɒŋkɔːrd/) is a retired Anglo-French supersonic airliner jointly developed and manufactured by Sud Aviation and the British Aircraft Corporation (BAC). Studies started in 1954, and France and the United Kingdom signed a treaty establishing the development project on 29 November 1962, as the programme cost was estimated at £70 million (£1.68 billion in 2023). Construction of the six prototypes began in February 1965, and the first flight took off from Toulouse on 2 March 1969. The market was predicted for 350 aircraft, and the manufacturers received up to 100 option orders from many major airlines. On 9 October 1975, it received its French certificate of airworthiness, and from the UK CAA on 5 December.^[4]

Concorde is a tailless aircraft design with a narrow fuselage permitting four-abreast seating for 92 to 128 passengers, an ogival delta wing, and a droop nose for landing visibility. It is powered by four Rolls-Royce/Snecma Olympus 593 turbojets with variable engine intake ramps, and reheat for take-off and acceleration to supersonic speed. Constructed out of aluminium, it was the first airliner to have analogue fly-by-wire flight controls. The airliner had transatlantic range while supercruising at twice the speed of sound for 75% of the distance.^[5]

Delays and cost overruns increased the programme cost to £1.5–2.1 billion in 1976, (£11–16 billion in 2023). Concorde entered service on 21 January 1976 with Air France from Paris-Roissy and British Airways from London Heathrow. Transatlantic flights were the main market, to Washington Dulles from 24 May, and to New York JFK from 17 October 1977. Air France and British Airways remained the sole customers with seven airframes each, for a total production of 20. Supersonic flight more than halved travel times, but sonic booms over the ground limited it to transoceanic flights only.

Its only competitor was the Tupolev Tu-144, carrying passengers from November 1977 until a May 1978 crash, while a potential competitor, the Boeing 2707, was cancelled in 1971 before any prototypes were built.

On 25 July 2000, Air France Flight 4590 crashed shortly after take-off with all 109 occupants and four on the ground killed. This was the only fatal incident involving Concorde; commercial service was suspended until November 2001. The surviving aircraft were retired in 2003, 27 years after commercial operations had begun. All but two of the 20 aircraft built have been preserved and are on display across Europe and North America.

1. ^ Towey 2007, p. 359.
2. ^ "Ageing luxury jet". BBC News. 25 July 2000. Archived from the original on 14 March 2009. Retrieved 13 November 2006.
3. ^ Cite error: The named reference jlfin was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
4. ^ "Concorde Special – Concorde timeline". FlightGlobal. 21 October 2003.
5. ^ McKinlay, R. M.; Heaton, G. R. I.; Franchi, J. (1976). Dexter, R. R.; Green, J. J. (eds.). "Operational Experience On Concorde". 1976 ICAS Proceedings. Ottawa, Ontario: International Council of Aeronautical Sciences: Figure 5 'Typical flight profile'.

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22 January 1917 – American entry into World War I: President Wilson of the still-neutral United States calls for "peace without victory" in Europe.

American entry into World War I

The United States entered into World War I on 6 April 1917, more than two and a half years after the war began in Europe. Apart from an Anglophile element urging early support for the British and an anti-Tsarist element sympathizing with Germany's war against Russia, American public opinion had generally reflected a desire to stay out of the war. Over time, especially after reports of German atrocities in Belgium in 1914 and after the sinking attack by the Imperial German Navy submarine (U-boat) torpedoing of the trans-Atlantic ocean liner RMS Lusitania off the southern coast of Ireland in May 1915, Americans increasingly came to see Imperial Germany as the aggressor in Europe.

While the country was at peace, American banks made huge loans to the Entente powers (Allies), which were used mainly to buy munitions, raw materials, and food from across the Atlantic in North America from the United States and Canada. Although President Woodrow Wilson made minimal preparations for a land war before 1917, he did authorize a shipbuilding program for the United States Navy. Wilson was narrowly re-elected in 1916 on an anti-war platform.

By 1917, with Belgium and Northern France occupied by German troops, the Russian Empire experiencing turmoil and upheaval in the February revolution overthrowing the Czar on the Eastern Front, and with the remaining Entente Allied nations low on credit, the German Empire appeared to have the upper hand in Europe.^[1] However, a British economic embargo and naval blockade were causing severe shortages of fuel and food in Germany. Berlin then decided to resume unrestricted submarine warfare. The aim was to break the trans-atlantic supply chain to Britain from other nations to the West, although the German high command realized that sinking American-flagged ships would almost certainly bring the United States into the war.

Imperial Germany also made a secret offer to help Mexico regain territories of the Mexican Cession of 1849, lost seven decades before in the Mexican–American War of 1846–1848, (now incorporated in the Southwestern United States) in an encoded diplomatic secret telegram known as the Zimmermann Telegram, which was intercepted by British intelligence. Publication in the media of that communique outraged Americans just as German submarines started sinking American merchant ships in the North Atlantic in their U-boat campaign. President Wilson then asked Congress for "a war to end all wars" that would "make the world safe for democracy", and Congress voted to declare war on Germany on April 6, 1917.^[2] US troops began to arrive in Europe later that year, and served in major combat operations on the Western Front under the command of General John J. Pershing, particularly during the final Hundred Days Offensive.

1. ^ "World War One". BBC History.
2. ^ Link, Arthur S. (1972). Woodrow Wilson and the Progressive Era, 1910–1917. New York: Harper & Row. pp. 252–282.

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22 January 1917 – American entry into World War I: President Wilson of the still-neutral United States calls for "peace without victory" in Europe.

American entry into World War I

The United States entered into World War I on 6 April 1917, more than two and a half years after the war began in Europe. Apart from an Anglophile element urging early support for the British and an anti-Tsarist element sympathizing with Germany's war against Russia, American public opinion had generally reflected a desire to stay out of the war. Over time, especially after reports of German atrocities in Belgium in 1914 and after the sinking attack by the Imperial German Navy submarine (U-boat) torpedoing of the trans-Atlantic ocean liner RMS Lusitania off the southern coast of Ireland in May 1915, Americans increasingly came to see Imperial Germany as the aggressor in Europe.

While the country was at peace, American banks made huge loans to the Entente powers (Allies), which were used mainly to buy munitions, raw materials, and food from across the Atlantic in North America from the United States and Canada. Although President Woodrow Wilson made minimal preparations for a land war before 1917, he did authorize a shipbuilding program for the United States Navy. Wilson was narrowly re-elected in 1916 on an anti-war platform.

By 1917, with Belgium and Northern France occupied by German troops, the Russian Empire experiencing turmoil and upheaval in the February revolution overthrowing the Czar on the Eastern Front, and with the remaining Entente Allied nations low on credit, the German Empire appeared to have the upper hand in Europe.^[1] However, a British economic embargo and naval blockade were causing severe shortages of fuel and food in Germany. Berlin then decided to resume unrestricted submarine warfare. The aim was to break the trans-atlantic supply chain to Britain from other nations to the West, although the German high command realized that sinking American-flagged ships would almost certainly bring the United States into the war.

Imperial Germany also made a secret offer to help Mexico regain territories of the Mexican Cession of 1849, lost seven decades before in the Mexican–American War of 1846–1848, (now incorporated in the Southwestern United States) in an encoded diplomatic secret telegram known as the Zimmermann Telegram, which was intercepted by British intelligence. Publication in the media of that communique outraged Americans just as German submarines started sinking American merchant ships in the North Atlantic in their U-boat campaign. President Wilson then asked Congress for "a war to end all wars" that would "make the world safe for democracy", and Congress voted to declare war on Germany on April 6, 1917.^[2] US troops began to arrive in Europe later that year, and served in major combat operations on the Western Front under the command of General John J. Pershing, particularly during the final Hundred Days Offensive.

1. ^ "World War One". BBC History.
2. ^ Link, Arthur S. (1972). Woodrow Wilson and the Progressive Era, 1910–1917. New York: Harper & Row. pp. 252–282.

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23 January 393 – Roman Emperor Theodosius I proclaims his eight-year-old son Honorius co-emperor.

Theodosius I

Roman emperor prior to the Splitting of Rome into East and West from 379 to 395

For other uses, see Theodosius I (disambiguation).

Theodosius I (Ancient Greek: Θεοδόσιος Theodosios; 11 January 347 – 17 January 395), also known as Theodosius the Great, was Roman emperor from 379 to 395. He won two civil wars and was instrumental in establishing the Nicene Creed as the orthodox doctrine for Nicene Christianity. Theodosius was the last emperor to rule the entire Roman Empire before its administration was permanently split between the Western Roman Empire and the Eastern Roman Empire. He ended the Gothic War (376–382) with terms disadvantageous to the empire, with the Goths remaining within Roman territory but as nominal allies with political autonomy.

Born in Hispania, Theodosius was the son of a high-ranking general of the same name, Count Theodosius, under whose guidance he rose through the ranks of the Roman army. Theodosius held independent command in Moesia in 374, where he had some success against the invading Sarmatians. Not long afterwards, he was forced into retirement, and his father was executed under obscure circumstances. Theodosius soon regained his position following a series of intrigues and executions at Emperor Gratian's court. In 379, after the eastern Roman emperor Valens was killed at the Battle of Adrianople against the Goths, Gratian appointed Theodosius as a successor with orders to take charge of the military emergency. The new emperor's resources and depleted armies were not sufficient to drive the invaders out; in 382 the Goths were allowed to settle south of the Danube as autonomous allies of the empire. In 386, Theodosius signed a treaty with the Sasanian Empire which partitioned the long-disputed Kingdom of Armenia and secured a durable peace between the two powers.^[9]

Theodosius was a strong adherent of the Christian doctrine of consubstantiality and an opponent of Arianism. He convened a council of bishops at the First Council of Constantinople in 381, which confirmed the former as orthodoxy and the latter as a heresy. Although Theodosius interfered little in the functioning of traditional pagan cults and appointed non-Christians to high offices, he failed to prevent or punish the damaging of several Hellenistic temples of classical antiquity, such as the Serapeum of Alexandria, by Christian zealots. During his earlier reign, Theodosius ruled the eastern provinces, while the west was overseen by the emperors Gratian and Valentinian II, whose sister he married. According to historian Andreas Schwarcz, the marriage was specifically arranged to consolidate Theodosius' political and military power.^[10] Theodosius sponsored several measures to improve his capital and main residence, Constantinople, most notably his expansion of the Forum Tauri, which became the biggest public square known in antiquity.^[11] Theodosius marched west twice, in 388 and 394, after both Gratian and Valentinian had been killed, to defeat the two pretenders, Magnus Maximus and Eugenius, who rose to replace them. Theodosius's final victory in September 394 made him ruler of the entire empire; he died a few months later and was succeeded by his two sons, Arcadius in the eastern half of the empire and Honorius in the west.

Theodosius was said to have been a diligent administrator, austere in his habits, merciful, and a devout Christian.^[12][13] For centuries after his death, Theodosius was regarded as a champion of Christian orthodoxy who decisively stamped out paganism. Modern scholars tend to see this as an interpretation of history by Christian writers more than an accurate representation of actual history. He is fairly credited with presiding over a revival in classical art that some historians have termed a "Theodosian renaissance".^[14] Although his pacification of the Goths secured peace for the Empire during his lifetime, their status as an autonomous entity within Roman borders caused problems for succeeding emperors. Theodosius has also received criticism for defending his own dynastic interests at the cost of two civil wars.^[15] His two sons proved weak and incapable rulers, and they presided over a period of foreign invasions and court intrigues, which heavily weakened the empire. However, the descendants of Theodosius ruled the Roman world for the next six decades, and the east–west division endured until the fall of the Western Roman Empire in the late 5th century.

1. ^ Ruiz, María Pilar García; Puertas, Alberto J. Quiroga (2021). Emperors and Emperorship in Late Antiquity. Brill. pp. 160, 165. ISBN 978-90-04-44692-2.
2. ^ Lenaghan, J. (2012a). "High imperial togate statue and re-cut portrait head of emperor. Aphrodisias (Caria)". Last Statues of Antiquity. LSA-196.
3. ^ Smith & Ratté, pp. 243–244.
4. ^ Weitzmann, Kurt (1977). Age of Spirituality: Late Antique and Early Christian Ar. Metropolitan Museum of Art. pp. 28–29. ISBN 9780870991790.
5. ^ Lenaghan, J. (2012b). "Portrait head of Emperor, Theodosius II (?). Unknown provenance. Fifth century". Last Statues of Antiquity. LSA-453.
6. ^ Hydatius and Zosimus
7. ^ Marcellinus Comes and Jordanes
8. ^ Bagnall et al., pp. 36–40.
9. ^ Simon Hornblower, Who's Who in the Classical World (Oxford University Press, 2000), pp. 386–387
10. ^ Schwarcz, Andreas (2003). "Marriage and Power Politics in the Fifth Century". Medieval Prosopography. 24: 37.
11. ^ Lippold, Adolf (2022). "Theodosius I". Encyclopedia Britannica.
12. ^ Epitome de Caesaribus 48. 8–19
13. ^ Gibbon, Decline and Fall, chapter 27
14. ^ Oxford Dictionary of Late Antiquity, pp. 1482, 1484
15. ^ Woods 2023, Family and Succession.

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24 January 1916 – In Brushaber v. Union Pacific Railroad Co., the Supreme Court of the United States declares the federal income tax constitutional.

Brushaber v. Union Pacific Railroad Co.

1916 United States Supreme Court case

Brushaber v. Union Pacific Railroad Co., 240 U.S. 1 (1916), was a landmark United States Supreme Court case in which the Court upheld the validity of a tax statute called the Revenue Act of 1913, also known as the Tariff Act, Ch. 16, 38 Stat. 166 (October 3, 1913), enacted pursuant to Article I, section 8, clause 1 of, and the Sixteenth Amendment to, the United States Constitution, allowing a federal income tax. The Sixteenth Amendment had been ratified earlier in 1913. The Revenue Act of 1913 imposed income taxes that were not apportioned among the states according to each state's population.

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25 January 1890 – Nellie Bly completes her round-the-world journey in 72 days.

Nellie Bly

American investigative journalist (1864–1922)

For the fictional character, see "Frankie and Johnny".

Preview warning: Page using Template:Infobox writer with unknown parameter "footnotes"

Elizabeth Cochrane Seaman (born Elizabeth Jane Cochran; May 5, 1864 – January 27, 1922), better known by her pen name Nellie Bly, was an American journalist who was widely known for her record-breaking trip around the world in 72 days in emulation of Jules Verne's fictional character Phileas Fogg, and for an exposé in which she worked undercover to report on a mental institution from within.^[1] She pioneered her field and launched a new kind of investigative journalism.^[2]

1. ^ Bernard, Diane (July 28, 2019). "She went undercover to expose an insane asylum's horrors. Now Nellie Bly is getting her due". The Washington Post.
2. ^ "American Experience". PBS. Archived from the original on March 5, 2017. Retrieved September 6, 2017.

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26 January 1998 – Lewinsky scandal: On American television, U.S. President Bill Clinton denies having had "sexual relations" with former White House intern Monica Lewinsky.

Clinton–Lewinsky scandal

1998 American political sex scandal

"Sexgate" redirects here. For general information about sexual scandals, see Sex scandal.

The Clinton–Lewinsky scandal was a sex scandal involving Bill Clinton, the president of the United States, and Monica Lewinsky, a White House intern. Their sexual relationship began in 1995—when Clinton was 49 years old and Lewinsky was 22 years old—and lasted 18 months, ending in 1997.^[1] Clinton ended televised remarks on January 26, 1998, with the later infamous statement: "I did not have sexual relations with that woman, Ms. Lewinsky." Further investigation led to charges of perjury and to the impeachment of Clinton in 1998 by the U.S. House of Representatives. He was subsequently acquitted on all impeachment charges of perjury and obstruction of justice in a 21-day U.S. Senate trial.^[2]

Clinton was held in civil contempt of court by Judge Susan Webber Wright for giving misleading testimony in the Paula Jones case regarding Lewinsky,^[3] and was also fined $90,000 by Wright.^[4] His license to practice law was suspended in Arkansas for five years; shortly thereafter, he was disbarred from presenting cases in front of the U.S. Supreme Court.^[5]

Lewinsky was a graduate of Lewis & Clark College. She was hired during Clinton's first term in 1995 as an intern at the White House through the White House Internship Program and was later an employee of the White House Office of Legislative Affairs. It is believed that Clinton began a personal relationship with her while she worked at the White House, the details of which she later confided to Linda Tripp, her Defense Department co-worker who secretly recorded their telephone conversations.^[6]

In January 1998, Tripp discovered that Lewinsky had sworn an affidavit in the Paula Jones case, denying a relationship with Clinton. She delivered tapes to Ken Starr, the independent counsel who was investigating Clinton on other matters, including the Whitewater controversy, the White House FBI files controversy, and the White House travel office controversy. During the grand jury testimony, Clinton's responses were carefully worded, and he argued "it depends on what the meaning of the word is is",^[7] with regard to the truthfulness of his statement that "there is not a sexual relationship, an improper sexual relationship or any other kind of improper relationship".^[8]

This scandal has sometimes been referred to as "Monicagate",^[9] "Lewinskygate",^[10] "Tailgate",^[11] "Sexgate",^[12] and "Zippergate",^[12] following the "-gate" construction that has been used since the Watergate scandal.

1. ^ Bennett, Jessica (September 1, 2021). "Monica Lewinsky Is (Reluctantly) Revisiting 'That Woman'". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved January 20, 2023.
2. ^ Posner, Richard A (2009). "Introduction". An Affair of State The Investigation, Impeachment, and Trial of President Clinton. Harvard University Press. ISBN 978-0-674-00080-3. Retrieved March 1, 2012.
3. ^ Broder, John M.; Lewis, Neil A. (April 13, 1999). "Clinton is found to be in contempt on Jones lawsuit". The New York Times. p. 1. Retrieved March 5, 2012.
4. ^ Jackson, Robert L. (July 30, 1999). "Clinton Fined $90,686 for Lying in Paula Jones Case". Los Angeles Times.
5. ^ Gearan, Anne (October 1, 2001). "Clinton Disbarred From Practice Before Supreme Court". The New York Times. Associated Press.
6. ^ "Tripp: I Am Not Intimidated". CBS. July 7, 1998. Retrieved January 26, 2010. In January, Tripp gave Starr the tapes. She made the recordings secretly at her home at the urging of her friend Lucianne Goldberg, a New York literary agent.
7. ^ Noah, Timothy (September 13, 1998). "Bill Clinton and the Meaning of 'Is'". Slate. Retrieved July 15, 2009.
8. ^ President Bill Clinton Archived October 31, 2013, at the Wayback Machine, The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer, January 21, 1998.
9. ^ Rich, Frank. "Journal; Monicagate Year Two", The New York Times, December 16, 1998.
10. ^ Rich, Frank. "Journal; Days of the Locust", The New York Times, February 25, 1998.
11. ^ Hennenberger, Melinda. "The President Under Fire", The New York Times, January 29, 1998.
12. ^ ^{a b} James Barron with Hoban, Phoebe. "Dueling Soaps", The New York Times, January 28, 1998.

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27 January 1918 – Beginning of the Finnish Civil War.

Finnish Civil War

1918 civil war in Finland

The Finnish Civil War^[a][b] was a civil war in Finland in 1918 fought for the leadership and control of the country between White Finland and the Finnish Socialist Workers' Republic (Red Finland) during the country's transition from a grand duchy ruled by the Russian Empire to a fully independent state. The clashes took place in the context of the national, political, and social turmoil caused by World War I (Eastern Front) in Europe. The war was fought between the Red Guards, led by a section of the Social Democratic Party with backup of the Russian bolsheviks and the White Guards of the senate and those who opposed socialism, with major assistance by the German Imperial Army, along the German goal to control Fennoscandia. The paramilitary Red Guards, which were composed of industrial and agrarian working class people, controlled the cities and industrial centres of southern Finland. The paramilitary White Guards, which consisted of land owners and the middle and upper class Finns, controlled rural central and northern Finland, and were led by General C. G. E. Mannerheim.

In the years before the conflict, Finland had experienced rapid population growth, industrialisation, urbanisation and the rise of a comprehensive labour movement. The country's political and governmental systems were in an unstable phase of democratisation and modernisation. The socio-economic condition and education of the population had gradually improved, and national awareness and culture had progressed. World War I led to the collapse of the Russian Empire, causing a power vacuum in Finland, and the subsequent struggle for dominance led to militarisation and an escalating crisis between the left-leaning labour movement and the conservatives. The Reds carried out an unsuccessful general offensive in February 1918, supplied with weapons by Soviet Russia. A counteroffensive by the Whites began in March, reinforced by the German Empire's military detachments in April. The decisive engagements were the Battles of Tampere and Viipuri, won by the Whites, and the Battles of Helsinki and Lahti, won by German troops, leading to overall victory for the Whites and the German forces. Political violence became a part of this warfare with around 12,000 casualties, most of them were Reds. Moreover about 12,500 Red prisoners died of malnutrition and disease in camps. In total 39,000 people, of whom 36,000 were Finns, died in the conflict.

In the immediate aftermath, the Finns passed from Russian governance to the German sphere of influence with a plan to establish a German-led Finnish monarchy. The scheme ended with Germany's defeat in World War I, and Finland instead emerged as an independent, democratic republic. The civil war divided the nation for decades. Finnish society was reunited through social compromises based on a long-term culture of moderate politics, religion, and a post-war economic recovery.

1. ^ Including conspirative co-operation between Germany and Russian Bolsheviks 1914–1918, Pipes 1996, pp. 113–149, Lackman 2009, pp. 48–57, McMeekin 2017, pp. 125–136
2. ^ ^{a b} Arimo 1991, pp. 19–24, Manninen 1993a, pp. 24–93, Manninen 1993b, pp. 96–177, Upton 1981, pp. 107, 267–273, 377–391, Hoppu 2017, pp. 269–274
3. ^ Ylikangas 1993a, pp. 55–63
4. ^ Muilu 2010, pp. 87–90
5. ^ ^{a b} Paavolainen 1966, Paavolainen 1967, Paavolainen 1971, Upton 1981, pp. 191–200, 453–460, Eerola & Eerola 1998, National Archive of Finland 2004 Archived 10 March 2015 at the Wayback Machine, Roselius 2004, pp. 165–176, Westerlund & Kalleinen 2004, pp. 267–271, Westerlund 2004a, pp. 53–72, Tikka 2014, pp. 90–118

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).

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28 January 1958 – The Lego company patents the design of its Lego bricks, still compatible with bricks produced today.

Lego

Plastic construction toy

This article is about the construction toy. For the company, see The Lego Group. For the Italian newspaper, see Leggo. For other uses, see Lego (disambiguation).

Lego (/ˈlɛɡoʊ/ ^ⓘ, LEG-oh; Danish: [ˈle̝ːko];^[1] stylised as LEGO) is a line of plastic construction toys manufactured by the Lego Group, a privately held company based in Billund, Denmark. Lego consists of variously coloured interlocking plastic bricks made of acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS) that accompany an array of gears, figurines called minifigures, and various other parts. Its pieces can be assembled and connected in many ways to construct objects, including vehicles, buildings, and working robots. Assembled Lego models can be taken apart, and their pieces can be reused to create new constructions.^[2][3]

The Lego Group began manufacturing the interlocking toy bricks in 1949. Moulding is done in Denmark, Hungary, Mexico, and China. Brick decorations and packaging are done at plants in the former three countries and in the Czech Republic. Annual production of the bricks averages approximately 36 billion, or about 1140 elements per second. One of Europe's biggest companies, Lego is the largest toy manufacturer in the world by sales.^[4][5] As of July 2015^[update], 600 billion Lego parts had been produced.^[6]

Lego maintains a large fan community based around building competitions and custom creations, and a range of films, games, and ten Legoland amusement parks have been developed under the brand.

1. ^ Brink, Lars; Lund, Jørn; Heger, Steffen; Jørgensen, J. Normann (1991). Den Store Danske Udtaleordbog. Copenhagen: Munksgaard. p. 845. ISBN 87-16-06649-9.
2. ^ "Lego History-About Us". Lego. Archived from the original on 5 September 2015. Retrieved 6 September 2015.
3. ^ "How a Lego Works". How Stuff Works. 28 June 2006. Archived from the original on 10 January 2021. Retrieved 6 September 2015.
4. ^ "Lego Builds on Its Position as World's No. 1 Toy Maker". The Wall Street Journal. 28 September 2021. Retrieved 16 October 2023.
5. ^ "Lego: the brick behemoth that wants to be as big as Disney". Financial Times. Retrieved 16 October 2023. Such innovations have propelled the family-owned toymaker to become one of Europe's biggest corporate success stories.. Lego, with essentially just one product in endless iterations, has become by far the biggest toymaker in the world by sales, and on a different level altogether in terms of profits.
6. ^ "The message is the medium". Intellectual Property Office blog. Gov.uk. Archived from the original on 20 August 2022. Retrieved 20 August 2022.

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29 January 1980 – The Rubik's Cube makes its international debut at the Ideal Toy Corp. in Earl's Court, London.

Rubik's Cube

3D combination puzzle

The Rubik's Cube is a 3D combination puzzle invented in 1974^[2][3] by Hungarian sculptor and professor of architecture Ernő Rubik. Originally called the Magic Cube,^[4] the puzzle was licensed by Rubik to be sold by Pentangle Puzzles in the UK in 1978,^[5] and then by Ideal Toy Corp in 1980^[6] via businessman Tibor Laczi and Seven Towns founder Tom Kremer.^[7] The cube was released internationally in 1980 and became one of the most recognized icons in popular culture. It won the 1980 German Game of the Year special award for Best Puzzle. As of January 2024^[update], around 500 million cubes had been sold worldwide,^[8][9][10] making it the world's bestselling puzzle game^[11][12] and bestselling toy.^[13] The Rubik's Cube was inducted into the US National Toy Hall of Fame in 2014.^[14]

On the original, classic Rubik's Cube, each of the six faces was covered by nine stickers, with each face in one of six solid colours: white, red, blue, orange, green, and yellow. Some later versions of the cube have been updated to use coloured plastic panels instead. Since 1988, the arrangement of colours has been standardised, with white opposite yellow, blue opposite green, and orange opposite red, and with the red, white, and blue arranged clockwise, in that order.^[15] On early cubes, the position of the colours varied from cube to cube.^[16]

An internal pivot mechanism enables each layer to turn independently, thus mixing up the colours. For the puzzle to be solved, each face must be returned to having only one colour. The Cube has inspired other designers to create a number of similar puzzles with various numbers of sides, dimensions, and mechanisms.

Although the Rubik's Cube reached the height of its mainstream popularity in the 1980s, it is still widely known and used. Many speedcubers continue to practice it and similar puzzles and compete for the fastest times in various categories. Since 2003, the World Cube Association (WCA), the international governing body of the Rubik's Cube, has organised competitions worldwide and has recognised world records.

1. ^ Evans, Pete (27 October 2020). "Canadian company that owns classic toys Etch A Sketch and Aerobie buys Rubik's Cube for $50M". CBC News.
2. ^ Fotheringham, William (2007). Fotheringham's Sporting Pastimes. Anova Books. p. 50. ISBN 978-1-86105-953-6.
3. ^ de Castella, Tom (28 April 2014). "The people who are still addicted to the Rubik's Cube". BBC News Magazine. BBC. Retrieved 28 April 2014.
4. ^ Cite error: The named reference :0 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
5. ^ "25th Anniversa[r]y of Erno Rubik's Magic Cube. First introduced to the Western World by Pentangle Puzzles in 1978". puzzlemuseum.com. Retrieved 29 November 2020.
6. ^ Daintith, John (1994). A Biographical Encyclopedia of Scientists. Bristol: Institute of Physics Pub. p. 771. ISBN 0-7503-0287-9.
7. ^ Michael Shanks (8 May 2005). "History of the Cube". Stanford University. Archived from the original on 20 January 2013. Retrieved 26 July 2012.
8. ^ Prakash, Prarthana. "How the Rubik's Cube has lived to 50 years—and continues to be popular among members of Gen Z and beyond". Fortune Europe. Retrieved 3 April 2024.
9. ^ Adams, William Lee (28 January 2009). "The Rubik's Cube: A Puzzling Success". Time. Archived from the original on 1 February 2009. Retrieved 5 February 2009.
10. ^ Jamieson, Alastair (31 January 2009). "Rubik's Cube inventor is back with Rubik's 360". The Daily Telegraph. London. Archived from the original on 11 January 2022. Retrieved 5 February 2009.
11. ^ "eGames, Mindscape Put International Twist on Rubik's Cube PC Game". Reuters. 6 February 2008. Archived from the original on 12 February 2009. Retrieved 6 February 2009.
12. ^ Marshall, Ray. "Squaring up to the Rubchallenge". Archived from the original on 20 January 2013. Retrieved 15 August 2005.
13. ^ "Rubik's Cube 25 years on: crazy toys, crazy times". The Independent. London. 16 August 2007. Retrieved 6 February 2009.
14. ^ "National Toy Hall Of Fame 2014 - CBS News". CBS News. 6 November 2014.
15. ^ Dempsey, Michael W. (1988). Growing up with science: The illustrated encyclopedia of invention. London: Marshall Cavendish. p. 1245. ISBN 0-87475-841-6.
16. ^ Ewing, John; Czes Kosniowski (1982). Puzzle It Out: Cubes, Groups and Puzzles. Cambridge: Press Syndicate of the University of Cambridge. p. 4. ISBN 0-521-28924-6. Retrieved 19 May 2014.

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29 January 1980 – The Rubik's Cube makes its international debut at the Ideal Toy Corp. in Earl's Court, London.

Rubik's Cube

3D combination puzzle

The Rubik's Cube is a 3D combination puzzle invented in 1974^[2][3] by Hungarian sculptor and professor of architecture Ernő Rubik. Originally called the Magic Cube,^[4] the puzzle was licensed by Rubik to be sold by Pentangle Puzzles in the UK in 1978,^[5] and then by Ideal Toy Corp in 1980^[6] via businessman Tibor Laczi and Seven Towns founder Tom Kremer.^[7] The cube was released internationally in 1980 and became one of the most recognized icons in popular culture. It won the 1980 German Game of the Year special award for Best Puzzle. As of January 2024^[update], around 500 million cubes had been sold worldwide,^[8][9][10] making it the world's bestselling puzzle game^[11][12] and bestselling toy.^[13] The Rubik's Cube was inducted into the US National Toy Hall of Fame in 2014.^[14]

On the original, classic Rubik's Cube, each of the six faces was covered by nine stickers, with each face in one of six solid colours: white, red, blue, orange, green, and yellow. Some later versions of the cube have been updated to use coloured plastic panels instead. Since 1988, the arrangement of colours has been standardised, with white opposite yellow, blue opposite green, and orange opposite red, and with the red, white, and blue arranged clockwise, in that order.^[15] On early cubes, the position of the colours varied from cube to cube.^[16]

An internal pivot mechanism enables each layer to turn independently, thus mixing up the colours. For the puzzle to be solved, each face must be returned to having only one colour. The Cube has inspired other designers to create a number of similar puzzles with various numbers of sides, dimensions, and mechanisms.

Although the Rubik's Cube reached the height of its mainstream popularity in the 1980s, it is still widely known and used. Many speedcubers continue to practice it and similar puzzles and compete for the fastest times in various categories. Since 2003, the World Cube Association (WCA), the international governing body of the Rubik's Cube, has organised competitions worldwide and has recognised world records.

1. ^ Evans, Pete (27 October 2020). "Canadian company that owns classic toys Etch A Sketch and Aerobie buys Rubik's Cube for $50M". CBC News.
2. ^ Fotheringham, William (2007). Fotheringham's Sporting Pastimes. Anova Books. p. 50. ISBN 978-1-86105-953-6.
3. ^ de Castella, Tom (28 April 2014). "The people who are still addicted to the Rubik's Cube". BBC News Magazine. BBC. Retrieved 28 April 2014.
4. ^ Cite error: The named reference :0 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
5. ^ "25th Anniversa[r]y of Erno Rubik's Magic Cube. First introduced to the Western World by Pentangle Puzzles in 1978". puzzlemuseum.com. Retrieved 29 November 2020.
6. ^ Daintith, John (1994). A Biographical Encyclopedia of Scientists. Bristol: Institute of Physics Pub. p. 771. ISBN 0-7503-0287-9.
7. ^ Michael Shanks (8 May 2005). "History of the Cube". Stanford University. Archived from the original on 20 January 2013. Retrieved 26 July 2012.
8. ^ Prakash, Prarthana. "How the Rubik's Cube has lived to 50 years—and continues to be popular among members of Gen Z and beyond". Fortune Europe. Retrieved 3 April 2024.
9. ^ Adams, William Lee (28 January 2009). "The Rubik's Cube: A Puzzling Success". Time. Archived from the original on 1 February 2009. Retrieved 5 February 2009.
10. ^ Jamieson, Alastair (31 January 2009). "Rubik's Cube inventor is back with Rubik's 360". The Daily Telegraph. London. Archived from the original on 11 January 2022. Retrieved 5 February 2009.
11. ^ "eGames, Mindscape Put International Twist on Rubik's Cube PC Game". Reuters. 6 February 2008. Archived from the original on 12 February 2009. Retrieved 6 February 2009.
12. ^ Marshall, Ray. "Squaring up to the Rubchallenge". Archived from the original on 20 January 2013. Retrieved 15 August 2005.
13. ^ "Rubik's Cube 25 years on: crazy toys, crazy times". The Independent. London. 16 August 2007. Retrieved 6 February 2009.
14. ^ "National Toy Hall Of Fame 2014 - CBS News". CBS News. 6 November 2014.
15. ^ Dempsey, Michael W. (1988). Growing up with science: The illustrated encyclopedia of invention. London: Marshall Cavendish. p. 1245. ISBN 0-87475-841-6.
16. ^ Ewing, John; Czes Kosniowski (1982). Puzzle It Out: Cubes, Groups and Puzzles. Cambridge: Press Syndicate of the University of Cambridge. p. 4. ISBN 0-521-28924-6. Retrieved 19 May 2014.

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30 January 1933 – Adolf Hitler's rise to power: Hitler takes office as the Chancellor of Germany.

Adolf Hitler's rise to power

Events leading to Hitler's dictatorship of Germany

The rise to power of Adolf Hitler, dictator of Nazi Germany from 1933 to 1945, began in the newly established Weimar Republic in September 1919, when Hitler joined the Deutsche Arbeiterpartei (DAP; German Workers' Party). He quickly rose to a place of prominence and became one of its most popular speakers. In an attempt to more broadly appeal to larger segments of the population and win over German workers, the party name was changed to the Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei (NSDAP; National Socialist German Workers' Party), commonly known as the Nazi Party, and a new platform was adopted. Hitler was made the party leader in 1921 after he threatened to otherwise leave. By 1922, his control over the party was unchallenged. The Nazis were a right-wing party, but in the early years they also had anti-capitalist and anti-bourgeois elements. Hitler later initiated a purge of these elements and reaffirmed the Nazi Party's pro-business stance. This included killings of Hitler's critics within the party during the Night of the Long Knives, which also served as a tool to secure power.

In 1923, Hitler attempted a coup in Bavaria, known as the Beer Hall Putsch. He was arrested and put on trial, which garnered him national fame. He was sentenced to five years in fortress confinement, but served only nine months.^[1] During this time, he wrote Mein Kampf, which became the handbook of his ideology of Nazism. Once released, Hitler switched tactics, opting to instead seize power through legal and democratic means. During the 1920s, he and the Nazis ran on a platform of anti-communism, antisemitism, and ultranationalism. Party leaders vociferously criticized the ruling democratic government and the Treaty of Versailles, while promising to turn Germany into a world power. Most Germans were indifferent to Hitler's rhetoric as the German economy began to recover, in large part due to loans from the United States under the Dawes Plan.^[2] The German political landscape was dramatically affected by the Wall Street crash of 1929. The Great Depression brought the German economy to a halt and further polarized German politics. During this tumultuous time, the German Communist Party also began campaigning and called for a revolution. Some business leaders, fearful of a communist takeover, began supporting the Nazi Party.

Hitler ran for the presidency in 1932 and was defeated by the incumbent Paul von Hindenburg, but achieved a strong showing of second place in both rounds. In July 1932, the Nazis became the largest party in the Reichstag, albeit short of an absolute majority. Traditionally, the leader of the party who held the most seats in the Reichstag was appointed Chancellor. However, President von Hindenburg was hesitant to appoint Hitler. Following several backroom negotiations—which included industrialists, Hindenburg's son Oskar, former chancellor Franz von Papen, and Hitler – Hindenburg acquiesced and on 30 January 1933, he formally appointed Hitler as Germany's new chancellor. Although he was chancellor, Hitler was not yet an absolute dictator.

The groundwork for Hitler's dictatorship was laid when the Reichstag was set on fire in February 1933. Baselessly blaming communists for the arson, Hitler convinced von Hindenburg to pass the Reichstag Fire Decree, which severely curtailed the liberties and rights of German citizens as Hitler began eliminating his political opponents. Following its passage, he began arguing for more drastic means to curtail political opposition, and proposed the Enabling Act of 1933. This law gave the German government the power to override individual rights prescribed by the constitution, and vested the Chancellor (Hitler) with emergency powers to pass and enforce laws without parliamentary oversight. The law came into force in March, and by April, Hitler held de facto dictatorial powers and ordered the construction of the first Nazi concentration camp at Dachau for communists and other political opponents. Hitler's rise to power was completed in August 1934 when, after Hindenburg's death, Hitler merged the chancellery with the presidency into the title of Führer ("leader").

Hitler's rise to power was aided by his willingness to use violence in advancing his political objectives and to recruit party members willing to do the same. In addition to electoral battles in which Hitler participated as a speaker and organizer, violent street battle took place between the Communists' Rotfrontkämpferbund and the Nazis' Sturmabteilung (SA). Once the Nazi dictatorship was firmly established, the Nazis themselves created a mythology surrounding their rise to power. German propaganda described this time period as either the Kampfzeit (the time of struggle) or the Kampfjahre (years of struggle).

1. ^ Shirer 1960, p. 78.
2. ^ U.S. State Dept., "The Dawes Plan".

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31 January 1953 – A North Sea flood causes over 1,800 deaths in the Netherlands and over 300 in the United Kingdom.

North Sea flood of 1953

Late January-early February 1953 North sea flood storm

The 1953 North Sea flood (Dutch: Watersnoodramp) was a major flood caused by a heavy storm surge that struck the Netherlands, north-west Belgium, England and Scotland. Most sea defences facing the surge were overwhelmed, resulting in extensive flooding.

The storm and flooding occurred during the night of Saturday, 31 January to the morning of 1 February 1953. A combination of a high spring tide and a severe European windstorm caused a storm tide of the North Sea. The combination of wind, high tide, and low pressure caused the sea to flood land up to 5.6 metres (18 ft 4 in) above mean sea level.

Realising that such infrequent events could reoccur, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom carried out large studies on strengthening of coastal defences. The Netherlands developed the Delta Works, an extensive system of dams and storm surge barriers. The UK constructed storm surge barriers on the Thames Estuary and on the Hull where it meets the Humber Estuary.

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1 February 1964 – The Beatles have their first number one hit in the United States with "I Want to Hold Your Hand".

I Want to Hold Your Hand

1963 single by the Beatles

For other uses, see I Want to Hold Your Hand (disambiguation).

"I Want to Hold Your Hand" is a song by the English rock band the Beatles, written by John Lennon and Paul McCartney. Recorded on 17 October 1963 and released on 29 November 1963 in the United Kingdom, it was the first Beatles record to be made using four-track recording equipment.

With advance orders exceeding one million copies in the UK, "I Want to Hold Your Hand" would have gone straight to the top of the British record charts on its day of release had it not been blocked by the group's first million-seller "She Loves You", their previous UK single, which was having a resurgence of popularity following intense media coverage of the group. Taking two weeks to dislodge its predecessor, "I Want to Hold Your Hand" stayed at number one for five weeks and remained in the UK top 50 for 21 weeks in total.^[3]

It was also the group's first American number-one hit, entering the Billboard Hot 100 chart on 18 January 1964 at number 45 and starting the British Invasion of the American music industry. By 1 February, it topped the Hot 100 and stayed there for seven weeks before being replaced by "She Loves You". It remained on the Billboard chart for 15 weeks.^[4] "I Want to Hold Your Hand" became the Beatles' best-selling single worldwide, selling more than 12 million copies.^[5] In 2018, Billboard magazine named it the 48th biggest hit of all time on the Billboard Hot 100.^[6] In the UK, it was the second-highest-selling single of the 1960s, behind "She Loves You".^[7]

1. ^ MacDonald 1998, p. 89.
2. ^ Breihan, Tom (15 November 2022). "The Beatles – "I Want To Hold Your Hand". The Number Ones: Twenty Chart-Topping Hits That Reveal the History of Pop Music. New York: Hachette Book Group. p. 39.
3. ^ Gambaccini 1991, pp. 27.
4. ^ Harry 1985, pp. 66.
5. ^ Harry 2000, p. 561.
6. ^ "Hot 100 turns 60". Billboard. Retrieved 6 August 2018.
7. ^ "Ken Dodd 'third best-selling artist of 1960s'". BBC News. 1 June 2010. Retrieved 7 September 2020.

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2 February 1913 – Grand Central Terminal is opened in New York City.

Grand Central Terminal

Railway terminal in Manhattan, New York

"Grand Central Station" redirects here. For other uses, see Grand Central Station (disambiguation).

Grand Central Terminal (GCT; also referred to as Grand Central Station or simply as Grand Central) is a commuter rail terminal located at 42nd Street and Park Avenue in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. Grand Central is the southern terminus of the Metro-North Railroad's Harlem, Hudson and New Haven Lines, serving the northern parts of the New York metropolitan area. It also contains a connection to the Long Island Rail Road through the Grand Central Madison station, a 16-acre (65,000 m²) rail terminal underneath the Metro-North station, built from 2007 to 2023. The terminal also connects to the New York City Subway at Grand Central–42nd Street station. The terminal is the third-busiest train station in North America, after New York Penn Station and Toronto Union Station.

The distinctive architecture and interior design of Grand Central Terminal's station house have earned it several landmark designations, including as a National Historic Landmark. Its Beaux-Arts design incorporates numerous works of art. Grand Central Terminal is one of the world's ten most-visited tourist attractions,^[5] with 21.6 million visitors in 2018, excluding train and subway passengers.^[3] The terminal's Main Concourse is often used as a meeting place, and is especially featured in films and television. Grand Central Terminal contains a variety of stores and food vendors, including upscale restaurants and bars, a food hall, and a grocery marketplace. The building is also noted for its library, event hall, tennis club, control center and offices for the railroad, and sub-basement power station.

Grand Central Terminal was built by and named for the New York Central Railroad; it also served the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad and, later, successors to the New York Central. Opened in 1913, the terminal was built on the site of two similarly named predecessor stations, the first of which dated to 1871. Grand Central Terminal served intercity trains until 1991, when Amtrak consolidated its New York operations at nearby Penn Station.^{[N 2]}

Grand Central covers 48 acres (19 ha) and has 44 platforms, more than any other railroad station in the world. Its platforms, all below ground, serve 30 tracks on the upper level and 26 on the lower. In total, there are 67 tracks, including a rail yard and sidings; of these, 43 tracks are in use for passenger service, while the remaining two dozen are used to store trains.^{[N 3]}

1. ^ Cite error: The named reference MTA-GCT was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
2. ^ Cite error: The named reference ridership was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
3. ^ ^{a b} Cite error: The named reference tourists was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
4. ^ "Cultural Resource Information System (CRIS)". New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation. November 7, 2014. Archived from the original on April 4, 2019. Retrieved July 20, 2023.
5. ^ Shields, Ann (November 10, 2014). "The World's 50 Most Visited Tourist Attractions – No. 3: Times Square, New York City – Annual Visitors: 50,000,000". Travel+Leisure. Archived from the original on April 17, 2019. Retrieved November 14, 2018. No. 3 Times Square,...No. 4 (tie) Central Park,...No. 10 Grand Central Terminal, New York City

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

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3 February 1998 – Cavalese cable car disaster: a United States military pilot causes the death of 20 people when his low-flying plane cuts the cable of a cable-car near Trento, Italy.

Cavalese cable car disaster (1998)

Redirect to:

• 1998 Cavalese cable car crash

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4 February 1169 – A strong earthquake struck the Ionian coast of Sicily, causing tens of thousands of injuries and deaths, especially in Catania.

1169 Sicily earthquake

The 1169 Sicily earthquake occurred on 4 February 1169 at 08:00 local time on the eve of the feast of St. Agatha of Sicily (in southern Italy). It had an estimated magnitude of between 6.4 and 7.3 and an estimated maximum perceived intensity of X (Extreme) on the Mercalli intensity scale. The cities of Catania, Lentini and Modica were severely damaged, and the earthquake also triggered a paleotsunami. Overall, the earthquake is estimated to have caused the deaths of at least 15,000 people.

1. ^ Barbano, Maria Serafina; De Martini, P.M.; Pantosti, D.; Smedile, A.; Del Carlo, P.; Gerardi, F.; Guarnieri, P.; Pirrotta, C. (2010). "In search of tsunami deposits along the eastern coast of Sicily (Italy): state of the art". In Guarnieri, Pierpaolo (ed.). Recent progress on earthquake geology (PDF). New York: Nova Science Publishers. ISBN 9781608761470. OCLC 429026456.
2. ^ ^{a b} Cite error: The named reference CFTI5MED was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
3. ^ Azzaro, R.; Barbano M.S. (2000). "Analysis of the seismicity of Southeastern Sicily: a proposed tectonic interpretation". Annali di Geofisica. 43 (1): 171–188. Viewed 25 June 2012.

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5 February 1810 – Peninsular War: Siege of Cádiz begins.

Siege of Cádiz

1810–1812 siege during the Peninsular War

For other battles in the same place, see Battle of Cádiz.

Peninsular War: Siege of Cádiz

120km
75miles

7

Tarifa

6

Bornos

5

Zújar

4

Barrosa

3

Baza

2

Fuengirola

1

Cádiz

   

  current battle

The siege of Cádiz was a siege of the large Spanish naval base of Cádiz^[5] by a French army from 5 February 1810 to 24 August 1812^[6] during the Peninsular War. Following the occupation of Seville, Cádiz became the Spanish seat of power,^[7] and was targeted by 70,000 French troops under the command of the Marshals Claude Victor and Nicolas Jean-de-Dieu Soult for one of the most important sieges of the war.^[8] Defending the city were 2,000 Spanish troops who, as the siege progressed, received aid from 10,000 Spanish reinforcements as well as British and Portuguese troops.

During the siege, which lasted two and a half years, the Cortes of Cádiz – which served as a parliamentary Regency after Ferdinand VII was deposed – drew up a new constitution to reduce the strength of the monarchy, which was eventually revoked by Fernando VII when he returned.^[9]

In October 1810, a mixed Anglo-Spanish relief force embarked on a disastrous landing at Fuengirola. A second relief attempt was made at Tarifa in 1811. However, despite defeating a detached French force of 15,000–20,000 under Marshal Victor at the Battle of Barrosa, the siege was not lifted.

In 1812, the Battle of Salamanca eventually forced the French troops to retreat from Andalusia, for fear of being cut off by the Coalition armies.^[10] The French defeat contributed decisively to the liberation of Spain from French occupation, due to the survival of the Spanish government and the use of Cádiz as a jump-off point for the Coalition forces.^[1]

1. ^ ^{a b} Rasor 2004, p. 148.
2. ^ Clodfelter 2002, p. 174.
3. ^ Napier 1840, p. 100.
4. ^ Southey 1828e, p. 68.
5. ^ Hindley 2013.
6. ^ Fremont-Barnes 2002, pp. 12–13.
7. ^ Russell 1818, p. 306.
8. ^ Fremont-Barnes 2002, p. 26.
9. ^ Noble 2007, p. 30.
10. ^ Moore 2021.

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6 February 1833 – Otto becomes the first modern King of Greece.

Otto of Greece

King of Greece from 1832 to 1862

Otto (Greek: Όθων, romanized: Óthon; German: Otto Friedrich Ludwig von Wittelsbach; 1 June 1815 – 26 July 1867) was King of Greece from the establishment of the Kingdom of Greece on 27 May 1832, under the Convention of London, until he was deposed in October 1862.

The second son of King Ludwig I of Bavaria, Otto ascended the newly created throne of Greece at age 17. His government was initially run by a three-man regency council made up of Bavarian court officials. Upon reaching his majority, Otto removed the regents when they proved unpopular with the people, and he ruled as an absolute monarch. Eventually, his subjects' demands for a constitution proved overwhelming, and in the face of an armed (but bloodless) insurrection, Otto granted a constitution in 1843.

Throughout his reign, although Otto tried to make significant reforms to modernize Greece, seeing himself as Enlightened absolutist, establishing educational Institutions and several state services, he was unable to resolve Greece's major part of poverty and prevent economic meddling from outside. Greek politics in this era were based on affiliations with the three Great Powers that had guaranteed Greece's independence, Britain, France and Russia, and Otto's ability to maintain the support of the powers was key to his remaining in power. To remain strong, Otto had to play the interests of each of the Great Powers' Greek adherents against the others, while not irritating the Great Powers. When Greece was blockaded by the British Royal Navy in 1850 and again in 1854, to stop Greece from attacking the Ottoman Empire during the Crimean War, Otto's standing amongst Greeks suffered. As a result, there was an assassination attempt on Queen Amalia, and finally, in October 1862, Otto was deposed while in the countryside. He died in exile in Bavaria in 1867.

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7 February 2009 – Bushfires in Victoria leave 173 dead in the worst natural disaster in Australia's history.

Black Saturday bushfires

Deadly bushfires in Victoria State, Australia, in 2009

The Black Saturday bushfires were a series of bushfires that either ignited or were already burning across the Australian state of Victoria. Saturday, 7 February 2009 was one of Australia's all-time worst bushfire disasters. The fires occurred during extreme bushfire weather conditions and resulted in Australia's highest-ever loss of human life from a bushfire,^[10] with 173 fatalities.^[11] Many people were left homeless and family-less as a result.

As many as 400 individual fires were recorded on Saturday 7 February; the day has become widely referred to in Australia as Black Saturday.

Then Deputy Prime Minister Julia Gillard described Black Saturday as "a tragedy beyond belief, beyond precedent and beyond words … one of the darkest days in Australia’s peacetime history."^[12]

The 2009 Victorian Bushfires Royal Commission, headed by Justice Bernard Teague, was held in response to the bushfires.

1. ^ Collins, Pádraig (12 February 2009). "Rudd criticised over bush fire compensation". The Irish Times. Ireland. Archived from the original on 9 October 2012. Retrieved 19 February 2009.
2. ^ "About Black Saturday – Country Fire Authority". 27 September 2019. Archived from the original on 27 September 2019. Retrieved 31 December 2019.
3. ^ "What has Australia learned from Black Saturday?". 16 April 2019. Archived from the original on 16 April 2019. Retrieved 31 December 2019.
4. ^ "2009 Victorian Bushfires". 20 May 2019. Archived from the original on 20 May 2019. Retrieved 31 December 2019.
5. ^ Cite error: The named reference Australian Medical Journal was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
6. ^ Cite error: The named reference VBRC-Vol.01-ch.5-p.075 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
7. ^ Rennie, Reko (1 April 2009). "Marysville fire deliberately lit: police". The Age. Melbourne. Archived from the original on 7 September 2017. Retrieved 5 June 2010.
8. ^ "Lightning starts new bushfires in Grampians". Australia: ABC News. 8 February 2009. Archived from the original on 7 August 2020. Retrieved 9 February 2009.
9. ^ "Police track arsonists responsible for Victoria bushfires". The Australian. 10 February 2009. Archived from the original on 13 February 2009. Retrieved 14 February 2009.
10. ^ Huxley, John (11 February 2009). "Horrific, but not the worst we've suffered". The Sydney Morning Herald. Archived from the original on 13 February 2009. Retrieved 16 July 2020.
11. ^ 2009 Victorian Bushfires Royal Commission – Final Report (PDF) (Report). Government Printer for the State of Victoria. July 2010. Archived (PDF) from the original on 27 February 2019. Retrieved 16 July 2020.
12. ^ "Black Saturday bushfires". Lawson Crescent Acton Peninsula, Canberra: National Museum of Australia. 7 February 2023. Archived from the original on 6 January 2020. Retrieved 10 April 2024. Deputy Prime Minister Julia Gillard, 2009: A tragedy beyond belief, beyond precedent and beyond words … one of the darkest days in Australia's peacetime history.

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8 February 1942 – World War II: Japan invades Singapore.

Battle of Singapore

Redirect to:

• Fall of Singapore

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9 February 1849 – The new Roman Republic is declared.

Roman Republic (1849)

Redirect to:

• Roman Republic (1849–1850)

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10 February 2009 – The communications satellites Iridium 33 and Kosmos 2251 collide in orbit, destroying both.

2009 satellite collision

First hypervelocity spacecraft collision

The two satellites involved in the collision: Iridium 33 (silver and gold) and a digital rendering of Kosmos 2251 (blue cylinder)

On February 10, 2009, two communications satellites—the active commercial Iridium 33 and the derelict Russian military Kosmos 2251—accidentally collided at a speed of 11.7 km/s (26,000 mph) and an altitude of 789 kilometres (490 mi) above the Taymyr Peninsula in Siberia.^{[1][2][3][4][5][6]} It was the first time a hypervelocity collision occurred between two satellites; previous incidents had involved a satellite and a piece of space debris.^[7]

1. ^ McDowell, Jonathan (February 15, 2009). "Jonathan's Space Report No. 606". Archived from the original on April 5, 2017. Retrieved February 17, 2009. Strela-2M satellites had lifetimes of around 3 years, and Gen. Yakushin of the Military Space Forces was quoted in Moscow Times as saying Kosmos-2251 went out of service in 1995.
2. ^ Iannotta, Becky (February 22, 2009). "U.S. Satellite Destroyed in Space Collision". Space.com. Archived from the original on February 13, 2009. Retrieved February 12, 2009.
3. ^ Achenbach, Joel (February 11, 2009). "Debris From Satellites' Collision Said to Pose Small Risk to Space Station". The Washington Post. Retrieved February 12, 2009.
4. ^ Marks, Paul (February 13, 2009). "Satellite collision 'more powerful than China's ASAT test". New Scientist. Archived from the original on February 15, 2009. Retrieved February 17, 2009. (putting the collision speed at 42,120 kilometres per hour (11.7 km/s)
5. ^ Matthews, Mark K. (February 13, 2009). "Crash imperils satellites that monitor Earth". Orlando Sentinel. Archived from the original on February 16, 2009. Retrieved February 17, 2009. (reporting it as "what amounted to a 26,000 mph [7.7 miles/sec] collision")
6. ^ "Collision between Iridium 33 and Cosmos 2251". N2YO. Archived from the original on February 16, 2009. Retrieved February 17, 2009.
7. ^ "Satellite Collision Leaves Significant Debris Clouds" (PDF). Orbital Debris Quarterly News. 13 (2). NASA Orbital Debris Program Office: 1–2. April 2009. Archived from the original (PDF) on May 27, 2010. Retrieved May 20, 2010.

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11 February 1979 – The Iranian Revolution establishes an Islamic theocracy under the leadership of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.

Iranian Revolution

Revolution in Iran from 1978 to 1979

This article is about the 1979 revolution. For the 1905–1911 revolution, see Persian Constitutional Revolution. For the series of reforms launched in 1963, see White Revolution.

"1979 Revolution" redirects here. For the video game based on the events, see 1979 Revolution: Black Friday.

The Iranian Revolution^{[Note 1]} was a series of events that culminated in the overthrow of the Pahlavi dynasty in 1979. The revolution led to the replacement of the Imperial State of Iran by the Islamic Republic of Iran, as the monarchical government of Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi was superseded by Ruhollah Khomeini, an Islamist cleric who had headed one of the rebel factions. The ousting of Mohammad Reza, the last shah of Iran, formally marked the end of Iran's historical monarchy.^[4]

In 1953, the CIA- and MI6-backed 1953 Iranian coup d'état overthrew Iran’s democratically elected Prime Minister, Mohammad Mossadegh, who had nationalized the country's oil industry to reclaim sovereignty from British control.^[5][6][7] The coup reinstated Mohammad Reza Pahlavi as an absolute monarch and significantly increased United States influence over Iran. Economically, American firms gained considerable control over Iranian oil production, with US companies taking around 40 percent of the profits. Politically, Iran acted as a counterweight to the Soviet Union and aligned closely with the Western Bloc. Additionally, the US provided the Shah both the funds and the training for SAVAK, Iran’s infamous secret police, with CIA assistance.^[8][9][10]

By the late 1960s and early 1970s, with the US increasingly involved in the Vietnam War and unable to maintain its interests globally, it adopted the Nixon Doctrine, effectively shifting the burden of regional security to allied states. Iran under the Shah, became "regional policemen" in the Persian Gulf, with Iran’s defense budget increasing around 800 percent over four to five years, as it purchased advanced weaponry from the US. This rapid militarization contributed to severe economic instability, including spiraling inflation, mass migration from rural areas to cities, and widespread social disruption. At the same time, the Shah’s regime grew increasingly authoritarian; those who spoke out were often arrested or tortured by SAVAK.^[11] Much of this repression unfolded with little scrutiny or challenge from the US. By the late 1970s, popular resistance to the Shah’s rule had reached a breaking point.^[8][12][13] Additionally in 1963, the Shah launched the White Revolution, a top-down modernization and land reform program that alienated many sectors of society, especially the clergy. Khomeini emerged as a vocal critic and was exiled in 1964. However, as ideological tensions persisted between Pahlavi and Khomeini, anti-government demonstrations began in October 1977, developing into a campaign of civil resistance that included communism, socialism, and Islamism.^[14][15][16] By 1977, mass protests were underway. A key turning point occurred in August 1978, when the Cinema Rex fire killed around 400 people. While arson by Islamist militants was later alleged, a large portion of the public believed it was a false flag operation by the Shah's secret police (SAVAK) to discredit the opposition and justify a crackdown, fueling nationwide outrage and mobilization. By the end of 1978, the revolution had become a broad-based uprising that paralyzed the country for the remainder of that year.^[17][18]

On 16 January 1979, Pahlavi went into exile as the last Iranian monarch,^[19] leaving his duties to Iran's Regency Council and Shapour Bakhtiar, the opposition-based prime minister. On 1 February 1979, Khomeini returned, following an invitation by the government;^[12][20] several million greeted him as he landed in Tehran.^[21] By 11 February, the monarchy was brought down and Khomeini assumed leadership while guerrillas and rebel troops overwhelmed Pahlavi loyalists in armed combat.^[22][23] Following the March 1979 Islamic Republic referendum, in which 98% approved the shift to an Islamic republic, the new government began drafting the present-day constitution of the Islamic Republic of Iran;^{[24][14][15][25][26]} Khomeini emerged as the Supreme Leader of Iran in December 1979.^[27]

The revolution was fueled by widespread perceptions of the Shah's regime as corrupt, repressive, and overly reliant on foreign powers, particularly the United States and the United Kingdom. Many Iranians felt that the Shah's government was not acting in the best interests of the Iranian people and that it was too closely aligned with Western interests, especially at the expense of Iranian sovereignty and cultural identity.^[28][29] However others perceived the success of the revolution as being unusual,^[30] since it lacked many customary causes of revolutionary sentiment, e.g. defeat in war, financial crisis, peasant rebellion, or disgruntled military.^[31] It occurred in a country experiencing relative prosperity,^[12][26] produced profound change at great speed,^[32] and resulted in a massive exile that characterizes a large portion of Iranian diaspora,^[33] and replaced a pro-Western secular^[34] and authoritarian monarchy^[12] with an anti-Western Islamic republic^{[12][25][26][35]} based on the concept of Velâyat-e Faqih (Guardianship of the Islamic Jurist), straddling between authoritarianism and totalitarianism.^[36] In addition to declaring the destruction of Israel as a core objective,^[37][38] post-revolutionary Iran aimed to undermine the influence of Sunni leaders in the region by supporting Shi'ite political ascendancy and exporting Khomeinist doctrines abroad.^[39] In the aftermath of the revolution, Iran began to back Shia militancy across the region, to combat Sunni influence and establish Iranian dominance in the Arab world, ultimately aiming to achieve an Iranian-led Shia political order.^[40]

1. ^ Yarshater, Ehsan (2004). "Iran ii. Iranian History (2) Islamic period (page 6)". In Yarshater, Ehsan (ed.). Encyclopædia Iranica. Vol. XIII/3: Iran II. Iranian history–Iran V. Peoples of Iran. London and New York: Routledge & Kegan Paul. pp. 243–246. ISBN 978-0-933273-89-4. Fear of the shah and his regime had disappeared, and anti-government and pro-Khomeini demonstrations escalated, with the soldiers refusing to shoot the offenders, who went on a rampage, burning cinemas and destroying banks and some government buildings.
2. ^ Chalcraft, John (2016). "The Iranian Revolution of 1979". Popular Politics in the Making of the Modern Middle East. Cambridge University Press. p. 445. ISBN 978-1-107-00750-5. (...) thirty-seven days by a caretaker regime, which collapsed on 11 February when guerillas and rebel troops overwhelmed troops loyal to the shah in armed street fighting.
3. ^ Momayezi, Nasser (November 1997). "Islamic Revivalism and the Quest for Political Power". Journal of Conflict Studies. Archived from the original on 14 January 2023. Retrieved 23 August 2022.
4. ^ Gölz (2017), p. 229.
5. ^ "How Britain Crushed Democracy in Iran". tribunemag.co.uk. Retrieved 16 June 2025.
6. ^ Staff (13 October 2023). "CIA admits 1953 Iranian coup it backed was undemocratic". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 16 June 2025.
7. ^ "The C.I.A. in Iran: Britain Fights Oil Nationalism". archive.nytimes.com. Retrieved 16 June 2025.
8. ^ ^{a b} "America and Iran are teetering on the brink of war. This is why they hate each other". ABC News. 3 January 2020. Retrieved 19 June 2025.
9. ^ Ghazvinian, John (13 June 2023). "The Final Emperor. In America and Iran: A history, 1720 to the present". Iranian Studies. 56 (3): 258. doi:10.1017/irn.2023.20. ISSN 0021-0862.
10. ^ "CIA'S ROLE IN FORMING SAVAK | CIA FOIA (foia.cia.gov)". www.cia.gov. Retrieved 19 June 2025.
11. ^ Ghosh, Palash R. (20 March 2012). "Iran: The Long Lasting Legacy of the 1953 U.S./CIA Coup". International Business Times. Retrieved 19 June 2025.
12. ^ ^{a b c d e} Cite error: The named reference Milani Shah was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
13. ^ Sylvan, David; Majeski, Stephen (2009). U.S. foreign policy in perspective: clients, enemies and empire. London: Routledge. p. 121. doi:10.4324/9780203799451. ISBN 978-0-415-70134-1. OCLC 259970287.
14. ^ ^{a b} Abrahamian (1982), p. 479.
15. ^ ^{a b} Afkhami, Gholam-Reza (12 January 2009). The Life and Times of the Shah. University of California Press. ISBN 978-0-520-94216-5. Archived from the original on 19 January 2023. Retrieved 20 June 2015.
16. ^ Abrahamian, Ervand. 2009. "Mass Protests in the Islamic Revolution, 1977–79." Pp. 162–78 in Civil Resistance and Power Politics: The Experience of Non-violent Action from Gandhi to the Present, edited by A. Roberts and T. G. Ash. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
17. ^ Mottahedeh, Roy. 2004. The Mantle of the Prophet: Religion and Politics in Iran. p. 375.
18. ^ "The Iranian Revolution". fsmitha.com. Archived from the original on 10 October 2016.
19. ^ Kabalan, Marwan J. (2020). "Iran-Iraq-Syria". In Mansour, Imad; Thompson, William R. (eds.). Shocks and Rivalries in the Middle East and North Africa. Georgetown University Press. p. 113. After more than a year of civil strife and street protests, Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi left Iran for exile in January 1979.
20. ^ Milani, Abbas (2008). Eminent Persians. Syracuse University Press. ISBN 978-0-8156-0907-0. Archived from the original on 19 January 2023. Retrieved 12 November 2020.
21. ^ "1979: Exiled Ayatollah Khomeini returns to Iran". BBC: On This Day. 2007. Archived 24 October 2014 at the Wayback Machine
22. ^ Graham (1980), p. 228.
23. ^ Kurzman (2004), p. 111.
24. ^ "Islamic Republic | Iran". Britannica Student Encyclopedia. Archived from the original on 16 March 2006.
25. ^ ^{a b} Kurzman (2004).
26. ^ ^{a b c} Amuzegar (1991), p. 253
27. ^ Sadjadpour, Karim (3 October 2019). "October 14th, 2019 | Vol. 194, No. 15". Time. Archived from the original on 9 December 2022. Retrieved 20 March 2023.
28. ^ Leigh, David; Evans, Rob (8 June 2007). "Shah of Iran". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 16 June 2025.
29. ^ "Iranian Revolution | EBSCO Research Starters". www.ebsco.com. Retrieved 16 June 2025.
30. ^ Amuzegar (1991), pp. 4, 9–12.
31. ^ Arjomand (1988), p. 191.
32. ^ Amuzegar (1991), p. 10.
33. ^ Kurzman (2004), p. 121.
34. ^ Amanat 2017, p. 897.
35. ^ International Journal of Middle East Studies 19, 1987, p. 261
36. ^ Özbudun, Ergun (2011). "Authoritarian Regimes". In Badie, Bertrand; Berg-Schlosser, Dirk; Morlino, Leonardo (eds.). International Encyclopedia of Political Science. SAGE Publications, Inc. p. 109. ISBN 978-1-4522-6649-7. Another interesting borderline case between authoritarianism and totalitarianism is Iran, where an almost totalitarian interpretation of a religious ideology is combined with elements of limited pluralism. Under the Islamist regime, Islam has been transformed into a political ideology with a totalitarian bent, and the limited pluralism is allowed only among political groups loyal to the Islamic revolution.
37. ^ R. Newell, Waller (2019). Tyrants: Power, Injustice and Terror. New York, USA: Cambridge University Press. pp. 215–221. ISBN 978-1-108-71391-7.
38. ^ "The religious-ideological reason Iran calls for Israel's destruction". The Jerusalem Post. 21 February 2022. Archived from the original on 24 February 2022.
39. ^ Nasr, Vali (2006). "The Battle for the Middle East". The Shia Revival. New York: W. W. Norton & Company. p. 241. ISBN 978-0-393-32968-1.
40. ^ M. Lüthi, Lorenz (2020). Cold Wars: Asia, the Middle East, Europe. New York: Cambridge University Press. pp. 491, 505–506. doi:10.1017/9781108289825. ISBN 978-1-108-41833-1.

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).

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12 February 2004 – The city of San Francisco begins issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples in response to a directive from Mayor Gavin Newsom.

San Francisco 2004 same-sex weddings

Political event in the United States

The San Francisco 2004 same-sex weddings took place between February 12 and March 11, 2004, after San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom directed the city-county clerk to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples. California Attorney General Bill Lockyer and a number of interest groups sued to end the practice. About 4,000 such licenses were issued before the California Supreme Court ordered a halt to the practice on March 11. On August 12, 2004, the California Supreme Court voided all of the licenses that had been issued in February and March.

The legal dispute over the issuance of marriage licenses to same-sex couples led to the 2008 In re Marriage Cases ruling by the California Supreme Court, which legalized same-sex marriage in California.

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13 February 1955 – Israel obtains four of the seven Dead Sea Scrolls.

Dead Sea Scrolls

Ancient Jewish manuscripts

The Dead Sea Scrolls, in the narrow sense identical with the Qumran Caves Scrolls, are a set of ancient Jewish manuscripts from the Second Temple period. They were discovered over a period of ten years, between 1946 and 1956, at the Qumran Caves near Ein Feshkha in the West Bank, on the northern shore of the Dead Sea. Dating from the 3rd century BCE to the 1st century CE,^[1] the Dead Sea Scrolls include the oldest surviving manuscripts of entire books later included in the biblical canons, including deuterocanonical manuscripts from late Second Temple Judaism and extrabiblical books. At the same time, they cast new light on the emergence of Christianity and of Rabbinic Judaism.^[2] In the wider sense, the Dead Sea Scrolls also include similar findings from elsewhere in the Judaean Desert, of which some are from later centuries. Almost all of the 15,000 scrolls and scroll fragments are held in the Shrine of the Book at the Israel Museum located in Jerusalem.

The Israeli government's custody of the Dead Sea Scrolls is disputed by Jordan and the Palestinian Authority on territorial, legal, and humanitarian grounds—they were mostly discovered following the Jordanian annexation of the West Bank and were acquired by Israel after Jordan lost the 1967 Arab–Israeli War^[3]—whilst Israel's claims are primarily based on historical and religious grounds, given their significance in Jewish history and in the heritage of Judaism.^[4]

Many thousands of written fragments have been discovered in the Dead Sea area – most have been published, together with the details of their discovery, in the 40-volume Discoveries in the Judaean Desert. They represent the remnants of larger manuscripts damaged by natural causes or through human interference, with the vast majority holding only small scraps of text. However, a small number of well-preserved and nearly intact manuscripts have survived—fewer than a dozen among those from the Qumran Caves.^[1] Researchers have assembled a collection of 981 different manuscripts (discovered in 1946/1947 and in 1956) from 11 caves,^[5] which lie in the immediate vicinity of the Hellenistic Jewish settlement at the site of Khirbet Qumran in the eastern Judaean Desert in the West Bank.^[6] The caves are located about 1.5 kilometres (1 mi) west of the northwestern shore of the Dead Sea, whence the scrolls derive their name. Archaeologists have long associated the scrolls with the ancient Jewish sect known as the Essenes, although some recent interpretations have challenged this connection and argue that priests in Jerusalem or other unknown Jewish groups wrote the scrolls.^[7][8]

Most of the manuscripts are written in Hebrew, with some written in Aramaic (for example the Son of God Text, in different regional dialects, including Nabataean) and a few in Greek.^[9] Other discoveries from the Judaean Desert add Latin (from Masada), and some later Arabic manuscripts from the 7th-8th centuries CE (from Khirbet al-Mird).^[10] Most of the texts are written on parchment, some on papyrus, and one on copper.^[11] Though scholarly consensus dates the Dead Sea Scrolls to between the 3rd century BCE and the 1st century CE,^[12] there are Arabic manuscripts from associated Judaean Desert sites that are dated between the 8th and 10th century CE.^[12] Bronze coins found at the same sites form a series beginning with John Hyrcanus, a ruler of the Hasmonean Kingdom (in office 135–104 BCE), and continuing until the period of the First Jewish–Roman War (66–73 CE), supporting the paleography and radiocarbon dating of the scrolls.^[13]

Owing to the poor condition of some of the scrolls, scholars have not identified all of their texts. The identified texts fall into three general groups:

1. About 40% are copies of texts from Hebrew scriptures.
2. Approximately 30% are texts from the Second Temple period that ultimately were not canonized in the Hebrew Bible, such as the Book of Enoch, the Book of Jubilees, the Book of Tobit, the Wisdom of Sirach, Psalms 152–155, etc.
3. The remainder (roughly 30%) are sectarian manuscripts of previously unknown documents that shed light on the rules and beliefs of a particular sect or groups within greater Judaism, such as the Community Rule, the War Scroll, the Pesher on Habakkuk, and The Rule of the Blessing.^[14]

1. ^ ^{a b} "The Digital Dead Sea Scrolls: Nature and Significance". Israel Museum Jerusalem. Retrieved 4 November 2023.
2. ^ "Dead Sea Scrolls | Definition, Discovery, History, & Facts | Britannica". www.britannica.com. Retrieved 17 November 2021.
3. ^ Lash, Mordechay; Goldstein, Yossi; Shai, Itzhaq (2020). "Underground-Archaeological Research in the West Bank, 1947–1968: Management, Complexity, and Israeli Involvement". Bulletin of the History of Archaeology. 30. doi:10.5334/bha-650. ISSN 1062-4740. S2CID 229403120.
4. ^ Duhaime, Bernard; Labadie, Camille (2020). "Intersections and Cultural Exchange: Archaeology, Culture, International Law and the Legal Travels of the Dead Sea Scrolls". Canada's Public Diplomacy. Palgrave Macmillan Series in Global Public Diplomacy. Cham: Springer International Publishing. p. 146. doi:10.1007/978-3-319-62015-2_6. ISBN 978-3-319-62014-5. ISSN 2731-3883. S2CID 236757632. Thus, the Palestinian Authority and Jordan base their claims on territorial aspects (places of discovery of the scrolls), humanitarian (illegal deprivation following the occupation of East Jerusalem by Israel) and legal (they claim to have proof of purchase of several scrolls) while, for its part, Israel's claims are primarily based in religious notions, invoking the sacred history of the Jewish people and recalling that the scrolls discovered in Qumran are, for the majority, the oldest known copies of biblical texts and are therefore of fundamental importance for the historical and religious heritage of Judaism.
5. ^ "Hebrew University Archaeologists Find 12th Dead Sea Scrolls Cave". The Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Archived from the original on 2 June 2017. Retrieved 7 June 2017.
6. ^ Donahue, Michelle Z. (10 February 2017). "New Dead Sea Scroll Find May Help Detect Forgeries". nationalgeographic.com. Archived from the original on 15 June 2018. Retrieved 19 November 2017.
7. ^ Ofri, Ilani (13 March 2009). "Scholar: The Essenes, Dead Sea Scroll 'authors,' never existed". Ha'aretz. Archived from the original on 6 January 2018. Retrieved 26 May 2017.
8. ^ Golb, Norman (5 June 2009). "On the Jerusalem Origin of the Dead Sea Scrolls" (PDF). University of Chicago Oriental Institute. Archived (PDF) from the original on 10 June 2010. Retrieved 11 May 2010.
9. ^ Vermes, Geza (1977). The Dead Sea Scrolls. Qumran in Perspective. London: Collins. p. 15. ISBN 978-0002161428.
10. ^ "Languages and Scripts". Leon Levy Dead Sea Scrolls Digital Library. Retrieved 18 December 2024.
11. ^ McCarthy, Rory (27 August 2008). "From papyrus to cyberspace". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 22 December 2016. Retrieved 17 December 2016.
12. ^ ^{a b} "The Digital Library: Introduction". Leon Levy Dead Sea Scrolls Digital Library. Retrieved 1 November 2023.
13. ^ Leaney, A.R.C. From Judaean Caves: The Story of the Dead Sea Scrolls. p. 27, Religious Education Press, 1961. ^{[ISBN missing]}
14. ^ Abegg, Jr., Martin; Flint, Peter; Ulrich, Eugene (2002). The Dead Sea Scrolls Bible: The Oldest Known Bible Translated for the First Time into English. San Francisco: Harper. pp. xiv–xvii. ISBN 0060600640. Retrieved 24 November 2023.

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14 February 1899 – Voting machines are approved by the U.S. Congress for use in federal elections.

Voting machine

Machine used to vote in elections

Not to be confused with Political machine.

A voting machine is a machine used to record votes in an election without paper. The first voting machines were mechanical but it is increasingly more common to use electronic voting machines. Traditionally, a voting machine has been defined by its mechanism, and whether the system tallies votes at each voting location, or centrally. Voting machines should not be confused with tabulating machines, which count votes done by paper ballot.

Voting machines differ in usability, security, cost, speed, accuracy, and ability of the public to oversee elections. Machines may be more or less accessible to voters with different disabilities.

Tallies are simplest in parliamentary systems where just one choice is on the ballot, and these are often tallied manually. In other political systems where many choices are on the same ballot, tallies are often done by machines to give faster results.

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15 February 2001 – The first draft of the complete human genome is published in Nature.

Human genome

Complete set of nucleic acid sequences for humans

For a non-technical introduction to the topic, see Introduction to genetics.

The human genome is a complete set of nucleic acid sequences for humans, encoded as the DNA within each of the 23 distinct chromosomes in the cell nucleus. A small DNA molecule is found within individual mitochondria. These are usually treated separately as the nuclear genome and the mitochondrial genome.^[1] Human genomes include both protein-coding DNA sequences and various types of DNA that does not encode proteins. The latter is a diverse category that includes DNA coding for non-translated RNA, such as that for ribosomal RNA, transfer RNA, ribozymes, small nuclear RNAs, and several types of regulatory RNAs. It also includes promoters and their associated gene-regulatory elements, DNA playing structural and replicatory roles, such as scaffolding regions, telomeres, centromeres, and origins of replication, plus large numbers of transposable elements, inserted viral DNA, non-functional pseudogenes and simple, highly repetitive sequences. Introns make up a large percentage of non-coding DNA. Some of this non-coding DNA is non-functional junk DNA, such as pseudogenes, but there is no firm consensus on the total amount of junk DNA.

Although the sequence of the human genome has been completely determined by DNA sequencing in 2022 (including methylome), it is not yet fully understood. Most, but not all, genes have been identified by a combination of high throughput experimental and bioinformatics approaches, yet much work still needs to be done to further elucidate the biological functions of their protein and RNA products.

1. ^ Brown TA (2002). The Human Genome (2nd ed.). Oxford: Wiley-Liss.

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16 February 1985 – Hezbollah is founded.

Hezbollah

Lebanese political party and militant group

For other uses, see Hezbollah (disambiguation).

"Hizbullah" redirects here. For the Indonesian militant group formed during the Japanese occupation, see Hizbullah (Indonesia).

Hezbollah (/ˌhɛzbəˈlɑː/ HEZ-bə-LAH;^[55] Arabic: حزب الله, romanized: Ḥizbu 'llāh, pronounced [ħizbuˈɫːaːh], lit. 'Party of God')^[a] is a Lebanese Shia Islamist political party and paramilitary group.^[56][27] Hezbollah's paramilitary wing is the Jihad Council,^[57] and its political wing is the Loyalty to the Resistance Bloc party in the Lebanese Parliament. Its armed strength was assessed to be equivalent to that of a medium-sized army in 2016.^[58]

Hezbollah was founded in 1982 by Lebanese clerics in response to the Israeli invasion of Lebanon.^[20] Inspired by the Iranian Revolution of 1979 and Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini's model of Islamic governance, Hezbollah established strong ties with Iran. The group was initially supported by 1,500 Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) instructors, who helped unify various Lebanese Shia factions under Hezbollah's leadership.^[59] Hezbollah's 1985 manifesto outlined its key objectives, which include expelling Western influence from the region, destroying Israel, pledging allegiance to Iran's supreme leader, and establishing an Islamic government influenced by Iran's political ideology. However, the manifesto also emphasized Lebanese self-determination.^[60] Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, Hezbollah fought against Israeli forces and the South Lebanon Army (SLA), eventually leading to Israel's withdrawal from southern Lebanon in 2000.^[61] Hezbollah also played a prominent role in the 2006 Lebanon War and later became involved in the Syrian civil war, where it fought alongside the Syrian government against rebel forces.^[62]

In 2009, Hezbollah updated their manifesto to oppose political sectarianism, appeal to non-Islamic movements, and promote a national unity government. The updated manifesto has the same basic approach to foreign policy, emphasizing the hegemonic strategies of the US and Israel's role in the region as a forward base for colonizing the region.^[63][64]

Since the 1990s, Hezbollah has grown into a significant political force in Lebanon. The group operates a vast social services network, including schools and hospitals, and runs a satellite TV station, Al-Manar. Politically, Hezbollah's Loyalty to the Resistance Bloc holds 15 seats in the Lebanese Parliament, making it a powerful player in Lebanon's government.^[65] However, the group's influence has led to growing domestic criticism. Following the 2020 Beirut port explosion, Hezbollah was accused of obstructing efforts to hold those responsible accountable, contributing to a decline in public trust. A 2024 Arab Barometer survey found that 55% of Lebanese have "no trust at all" in Hezbollah, although it remains popular among the Shia population.^[66]

Despite calls for disarmament under United Nations Security Council resolutions, Hezbollah has expanded its military capabilities. Its armed wing is now considered stronger than the Lebanese Armed Forces,^[67] making it one of the most powerful non-state actors in the world. Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah declared in 2021 that the group had 100,000 fighters.^[68] Hezbollah has been involved in several high-profile attacks; it is believed to be responsible for the bombing of the US embassy and the American and French barracks bombings in Beirut in 1983, the assassination of Rafic Hariri in 2005,^[69][70] as well as later attacks, including bombings and hijackings.^[71][72] While Hezbollah has been regarded as a resistance movement by some scholars,^[73][74][75] the entire organization, or its military wing alone, has been designated as a terrorist group^[76] by at least 26 countries, as of October 2020, including most Western countries.^[77]

Since October 2023, Hezbollah has been at war with Israel. During this war, Nasrallah was assassinated after 32 years of leading the group, along with other key members of Hezbollah leadership. The conflict has led to an Israeli invasion of Lebanon, and is currently in a ceasefire.

1. ^ "Is Hezbollah Reshuffling Its Leadership with New Appointments?". This is Beirut. Retrieved 29 June 2025.
2. ^ Beeri, Tal (12 January 2025). "Ali Damoush - The New Head of Hezbollah's Executive Council". Alma Research and Education Center. Retrieved 29 June 2025.
3. ^ "Fadlallah Hits Back at March 14 over Karam Release, Marouni Slams 'Treason Accusations'". Naharnet. 18 April 2013.
4. ^ ^{a b c} Philip Smyth (February 2015). The Shiite Jihad in Syria and Its Regional Effects (PDF) (Report). The Washington Institute for Near East Studies. pp. 7–8. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2 April 2015. Retrieved 13 March 2015.
5. ^ ^{a b c} Dalacoura, Katerina (2012). "Islamist Terrorism and National Liberation: Hamas and Hizbullah". Islamist Terrorism and Democracy in the Middle East. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp. 66–96. doi:10.1017/CBO9780511977367.004. ISBN 978-0-511-97736-7. LCCN 2010047275. S2CID 150958046.
6. ^ Stepanova, Ekaterina (2008). Terrorism in Asymmetrical Conflict: Ideological and Structural Aspects (PDF). Oxford University Press. p. 113. Archived from the original (PDF) on 10 March 2016.
7. ^ "Hezbollah and the Lebanese Popular Movement".
8. ^ Salamey, Imad; Pearson, Frederic (2007). "Hezbollah: A Proletarian Party with an Islamic Manifesto – A Sociopolitical Analysis of Islamist Populism in Lebanon and the Middle East". Small Wars & Insurgencies. 18 (3): 416–438. doi:10.1080/09592310701674358. ISSN 0959-2318. S2CID 143896155.
9. ^ "Hezbollah, the Lebanese Sectarian State, and Sectarianism". Middle East Institute. Retrieved 13 April 2017.
10. ^ Bassel F, Salloukh (2015). "The Sectarian Image Reversed: The Role of Geopolitics in Hezbollah's Domestic Politics". Middle East Political Pcience.
11. ^ Joshua L. Gleis; Benedetta Berti (2012). Hezbollah and Hamas: A Comparative Study. JHU Press. ISBN 978-1-4214-0671-8.
12. ^ Schenker, David (7 October 2015). "Putin and the Shiite 'Axis of Resistance'". The Hill. Archived from the original on 31 October 2023. Retrieved 25 May 2016. Assad, backed by Hezbollah and Iran, began his campaign to eradicate Sunni regime opponents...this new axis — which targets Syrian Sunnis instead of Israel — is deeply polarizing.
13. ^ Sullivan, Marisa (April 2014), Hezbollah in Syria (PDF), Institute for the Study of War, archived (PDF) from the original on 4 November 2019, retrieved 26 June 2015, "Opposition is greatest with Lebanon's Sunni community, which view Hezbollah as choosing sides in sectarian conflict, killing fellow Muslims, and losing sight of its resistance to Israel."
14. ^ "Saudi clerics attack Shi'ites, Hezbollah". Reuters. 1 June 2008. Retrieved 10 December 2024.
15. ^ Elie Alagha, Joseph (2011). Hizbullah's Documents: From the 1985 Open Letter to the 2009 Manifesto. Amsterdam University Press. pp. 15, 20. ISBN 978-90-8555-037-2.
    Shehata, Samer (2012). Islamist Politics in the Middle East: Movements and Change. Routledge. p. 176. ISBN 978-0-415-78361-3.
16. ^ Husseinia, Rola El (2010). "Hezbollah and the Axis of Refusal: Hamas, Iran and Syria". Third World Quarterly. 31 (5): 803–815. doi:10.1080/01436597.2010.502695. S2CID 219628295.
17. ^ Levitt, Matthew (2013). Hezbollah: The Global Footprint of Lebanon's Party of God. Hurst Publishers. p. 356. ISBN 978-1-84904-333-5. Hezbollah's anti-Western militancy began with attacks against Western targets in Lebanon, then expanded to attacks abroad intended to exact revenge for actions threatening its or Iran's interests, or to press foreign governments to release captured operatives.
18. ^ Hanhimäki, Jussi M.; Blumenau, Bernhard (2013). An International History of Terrorism: Western and Non-Western Experiences. Routledge. p. 267. ISBN 978-0-415-63540-0. Based upon these beliefs, Hezbollah became vehemently anti-West and anti-Israel.
19. ^ Siegel, Larry J. (2012). Criminology: Theories, Patterns & Typology. Cengage Learning. p. 396. ISBN 978-1-133-04964-7. Hezbollah is anti-West and anti-Israel and has engaged in a series of terrorist actions including kidnappings, car bombings, and airline hijackings.
20. ^ ^{a b} "Who Are Hezbollah?". BBC News. 21 May 2008. Retrieved 15 August 2008.
21. ^ ^{[5][17][18][19][20]}
22. ^ Carvajal, Doreen (14 December 2004). "French Court Orders a Ban on Hezbollah-Run TV Channel". The New York Times. Retrieved 8 October 2024.
23. ^ Saad-Ghorayeb 2002, pp. 168–86.
24. ^ "Hezbollah chief in new attack on same-sex relations". France 24. Agence France-Presse. 29 July 2023.
25. ^ Cite error: The named reference social conservative was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
26. ^ "Interior Ministry releases numbers of votes for new MPs". The Daily Star. 9 May 2018. Archived from the original on 8 March 2021. Retrieved 24 October 2019.
27. ^ ^{a b} "What Is Hezbollah?". Council on Foreign Relations. Retrieved 17 December 2023.
28. ^ "Lebanon's Hezbollah chief Nasrallah says group has never been stronger". Reuters. 18 October 2021.
29. ^ "Hassan Nasrallah says Hezbollah has 100,000 fighters". The New Arab. 18 October 2021.
30. ^ "Lebanon Hezbollah chief says movement has 100,000 fighters". France 24. 18 October 2021.
31. ^ "Report: Hezbollah opens base in Cuba". Ynet news. 9 January 2011. Retrieved 16 July 2020.
32. ^ "Hezbollah is the Long Arm of Iran – Factsheet 5". 20 September 2019. Retrieved 8 February 2023.
33. ^ Pardo, Ramon Pacheco (February 2011). "Beyond Iran" (PDF). The Majalla. 1561: 12–14. Archived from the original (PDF) on 15 July 2012. Retrieved 5 April 2013.
34. ^ "New Experience of Hezbollah with Russian Military". 2 February 2016. Archived from the original on 28 July 2018.
35. ^ Rosenfeld, Jesse (11 January 2016). "Russia is Arming Hezbollah, Say Two of the Group's Field Commanders". The Daily Beast.
36. ^ Kendall-Taylor, Andrea; Fontaine, Richard (23 April 2024). "The Axis of Upheaval". Foreign Affairs. Vol. 103, no. 3. ISSN 0015-7120. Archived from the original on 9 September 2024. Retrieved 1 August 2024.
37. ^ "Iran and Venezuela: Axis of Anti-Americanism". United Against Nuclear Iran. Retrieved 3 October 2024.
38. ^ ^{a b} "Iraq admits Lebanese Hezbollah and Iranian RG fight alongside Iraqi security forces". 9 November 2014. Archived from the original on 15 June 2018. Retrieved 28 July 2018.
39. ^ "Hezbollah Fights Alongside LAF Demonstrating its Continuing Control over Lebanon". The Tower. 21 August 2017. Archived from the original on 2 February 2020. Retrieved 28 July 2018.
40. ^ "Yemeni FM slams Hezbollah's Houthi support: report". The Daily Star. Archived from the original on 28 July 2018. Retrieved 28 July 2018.
41. ^ "Lebanon's Hezbollah denies sending weapons to Yemen". Reuters. 20 November 2017.
42. ^ "Wagner Group 'tasked to deliver Russian weapons to Hezbollah' – US intelligence". 4 November 2023.
43. ^ "Why Assad's alliance with Iran and Hezbollah will endure". 8 February 2019. Retrieved 8 February 2023.
44. ^ "Hezbollah – International terrorist organization". Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs. 22 July 2013.
45. ^ Levitt, Matthew (2013). Hezbollah: The Global Footprint of Lebanon's Party of God. Georgetown University Press. p. 23. ISBN 978-1-84904-333-5.
46. ^ "Clashes on border with Syria allow Lebanese army to cripple Hezbollah". Al-Arab. February 2025. Retrieved 12 February 2025.
47. ^ Alabi, Rizik (6 February 2025). "Syrian Army Advances Into Lebanese Territory, Clashes With Hezbollah". The Media Line. Retrieved 6 February 2025.
48. ^ Francis, Xavier (21 May 2020). "Israel Impressed How Turkish Army Crushed Hezbollah In Idlib, Syria". Latest Asian, Middle-East, EurAsian, Indian News.
49. ^ "Israel learned from Hezbollah's defeat at the hands of Turkey". The Jerusalem Post.
50. ^ "Turkish strike in Syria kills nine Hezbollah members, according to source". Haaretz.
51. ^ "Beware Iran's 'Axis of Resistance' | People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK)". Archived from the original on 31 October 2021. Retrieved 16 January 2020.
52. ^ ^{a b} Nimrod Raphaeli (11 February 2009). "The Iranian Roots of Hizbullah". MEMRI. Archived from the original on 11 February 2009.
53. ^ Addis, Casey L. (May 2011). Hezbollah: Background and Issues for Congress. DIANE Publishing. p. 8. ISBN 978-1-4379-4177-7. Echoing the ideology of Iranian Supreme Leader Grand Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, Hezbollah's 1985 statement identified the United States and the Soviet Union as Islam's principal enemies and called for the "obliteration" of Israel.
54. ^ "Hezbollah fighters train Iraqi Shiite militants near Mosul". longwarjournal.org – FDD's Long War Journal. 5 November 2016.
55. ^ Cite error: The named reference HarperCollins-2013 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
56. ^ "Hezbollah". Encyclopædia Britannica. 15 December 2023. Retrieved 17 December 2023.
57. ^ Levitt, Matthew (2013). Hezbollah: The Global Footprint of Lebanon's Party of God. Hurst Publishers. p. 15. ISBN 978-1-84904-333-5. ... the Jihad Council coordinates 'resistance activity'.
    Ghattas Saab, Antoine (15 May 2014). "Hezbollah cutting costs as Iranian aid dries up". The Daily Star. Retrieved 1 June 2014. ... Hezbollah's military wing ... Known as the 'Jihad Council'
58. ^ "Hezbollah: Not a terror group but a midsized army". Haaretz. August 2016. Archived from the original on 8 April 2022.
59. ^ Adam Shatz (29 April 2004). "In Search of Hezbollah". The New York Review of Books. 51 (7). Archived from the original on 22 August 2006.
60. ^ Itamar Rabinovich (2008). Israel in the Middle East. UPNE. ISBN 978-0-87451-962-4.
61. ^ Lopez, German (24 September 2024). "Israel's Strikes on Lebanon". The New York Times.
62. ^ Barnard, Anne (3 January 2014). "Mystery in Hezbollah Operatives Life and Death". The New York Times.
63. ^ Cite error: The named reference Berti was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
64. ^ Cite error: The named reference reuters20091130 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
65. ^ Deeb, Lara (31 July 2006). "Hizballah: A Primer". Archived from the original on 19 October 2011.
66. ^ Stroul, Dana (23 September 2024). "Israel and Hezbollah Are Escalating Toward Catastrophe". Foreign Affairs. Retrieved 29 September 2024.
67. ^ Barnard, Anne (20 May 2013). "Hezbollah's Role in Syria War Shakes the Lebanese". The New York Times. Retrieved 20 June 2013.
68. ^ El Deeb, Sarah (18 October 2021). "Hezbollah leader declares his group has 100,000 fighters". Associated Press News. Retrieved 21 October 2021.
69. ^ "Lebanon: UN-backed tribunal sentences Hezbollah militant in Hariri assassination". UN News. 11 December 2020. Retrieved 10 December 2024.
70. ^ "Rafik Hariri killing: Hezbollah duo convicted of 2005 bombing on appeal". 10 March 2022. Retrieved 10 December 2024.
71. ^ Laverty, Rory; Lamothe, Dan (21 September 2024). "For Americans scarred by Beirut bombings, a measure of delayed justice". The Washington Post. Hezbollah was founded in 1982, as violence against U.S. troops in Lebanon spiked. In addition to its roles in the major bombings of 1983, the militant group was involved in the bombing of the U.S. Embassy annex in Beirut in 1984 that killed 23 people, the hijacking of TWA Flight 847 in 1985 and the Khobar Towers attack in Saudi Arabia in 1996 that killed 19 U.S. airmen, according to the Office of the Director of National Intelligence.
72. ^ Lopez, German (24 September 2024). "Israel's Strikes on Lebanon". The New York Times. Hezbollah first gained international notoriety in 1983, when it blew up the American embassy in Beirut, Lebanon's capital, and later American and French barracks there.
73. ^ Farida 2019, p. 1-2.
74. ^ Daher 2019, p. 8.
75. ^ Al-Aloosy 2020, p. 43, 74.
76. ^ Kanter, James; Rudoren, Jodi (22 July 2013). "European Union Adds Military Wing of Hezbollah to List of Terrorist Organizations". The New York Times. Retrieved 4 September 2013.
77. ^ Roche, MaryClare; Robbins, Michael (12 July 2024). "What the Lebanese People Really Think of Hezbollah". Foreign Affairs. ISSN 0015-7120. Retrieved 28 September 2024.

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).

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17 February 1979 – The Sino-Vietnamese War begins.

Sino-Vietnamese War

War between China and Vietnam in 1979

This article is about the 1979 war. For other Sino-Vietnamese military conflicts, see Sino-Vietnamese War (disambiguation).

The Sino-Vietnamese War (also known by other names) was a brief conflict that occurred in early 1979 between China and Vietnam. China launched an offensive ostensibly in response to Vietnam's invasion and occupation of Cambodia in 1978, which ended the rule of the Chinese-backed Khmer Rouge. The conflict lasted for about a month, with China withdrawing its troops in March 1979.

In February 1979, Chinese forces launched a surprise invasion of northern Vietnam and quickly captured several cities near the border. On 6 March of that year, China declared that its punitive mission had been accomplished. Chinese troops then withdrew from Vietnam. Vietnam continued to occupy Cambodia until 1989, suggesting that China failed to achieve one of its stated aims of dissuading Vietnam from involvement in Cambodia. China's operation at least forced Vietnam to withdraw the 2nd Corps, from the invasion forces of Cambodia to reinforce the defense of Hanoi.^[13] Additionally, it demonstrated that the Soviet Union, China's Cold War communist adversary, was unable to protect its Vietnamese ally.^[14] The conflict had a lasting impact on the relationship between China and Vietnam, and diplomatic relations between the two countries were not fully restored until 1991, following the withdrawal of Vietnamese troops from Cambodia and the dissolution of the Soviet Union. The Sino-Vietnamese land border was formally agreed upon in 1999.

1. ^ ^{a b c} Cite error: The named reference :4 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
2. ^ ^{a b} Nga, Đỗ Thu. "Trung Quốc – đi hùng hổ, về ê chê ở CT biên giới 1979: Nhìn số lượng và thiệt hại về xe tăng là biết". songdep.com.vn (in Vietnamese). Sống Đẹp. Archived from the original on 22 February 2022. Retrieved 9 March 2022.
3. ^ Copper 2009, p. 71.
4. ^ King V. Chen (1987): China's War With Việt Nam, 1979. Hoover Institution Press, Stanford University, page 103
5. ^ ^{a b} Cite error: The named reference mil.chinaiiss.org was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
6. ^ ^{a b} China at War: An Encyclopedia, p. 413, at Google Books
7. ^ Howard, Russell D. (September 1999). "USAF Institute for National Security Studies, USAF Academy" (PDF). Regional Security Series. INSS Occasional Paper. 28. Archived (PDF) from the original on 3 October 2021. Retrieved 3 October 2021.
8. ^ ^{a b} Tonnesson, Bởi Stein (2010). Vietnam 1946: How the War Began. University of California Press. p. 2. ISBN 9780520256026.
9. ^ ^{a b} Chan, Gerald (1989). China and international organizations: participation in non-governmental organizations since 1971 (illustrated ed.). Oxford University Press. p. 80. ISBN 0195827384. Archived from the original on 12 October 2022. Retrieved 19 May 2018.
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13. ^ Vn, Baotintuc (18 February 2019). "Nghệ thuật chỉ đạo đấu tranh trong Cuộc chiến đấu bảo vệ biên giới phía Bắc". baotintuc.vn (in Vietnamese). Retrieved 8 August 2023.
14. ^ Elleman, Bruce A. (2001). Modern Chinese Warfare, 1795–1989. Routledge. p. 297. ISBN 0415214742.

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18 February 2003 – Nearly 200 people die in the Daegu subway fire in South Korea.

Daegu subway fire

2003 subway arson in Daegu, South Korea

On February 18, 2003, an arsonist set fire to a Daegu Metro subway train as it arrived at Jungangno station in central Daegu, South Korea. The resulting blaze, which spread when a second train stopped at the same station, killed 192 people and injured another 151. It remains the deadliest loss of life in a single deliberate incident in South Korean peacetime history, surpassing the 1982 shooting rampage committed by Woo Bum-kon.

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