This day in .....

15 February 1971 – The decimalisation of British coinage is completed on Decimal Day.

Decimal Day

15 February 1971, when the UK and Ireland adopted decimal currency

Decimal Day (Irish: Lá Deachúil)^[1] in the United Kingdom and in Ireland was Monday 15 February 1971, the day on which each country decimalised its respective £sd currency of pounds, shillings, and pence.

Before this date, the British pound sterling (symbol "£") was subdivided into 20 shillings, each of 12 (old) pence, a total of 240 pence. With decimalisation, the pound kept its old value and name, but the shilling was abolished, and the penny was revalued, such that the pound was subdivided into 100 of what were originally called "new pence" ("NP"), and later just pence ("p") when confusion was no longer likely. Each new penny was worth 2.4 old pence (abbreviated "d.").

A coin of half a new penny, a halfpenny, was introduced to maintain the approximate granularity of the old penny, but was dropped in 1984 as inflation reduced its value. An old value of 7 pounds, 10 shillings, and sixpence, abbreviated £7-10-6 or £7:10s:6d. became £7.521/2p. Amounts with a number of old pence which was not 0 or 6 did not convert into a round number of new pence.

The Irish pound had the same £sd currency structure, and the same decimalisation was carried out.

1. ^ "Cad é 5 pingin i ndollair SAM? - Irisleabhar ADL ➡". 29 August 2021. Archived from the original on 2 January 2023. Retrieved 2 January 2023.

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16 February 1983 – The Ash Wednesday bushfires in Victoria and South Australia kill 75.

Ash Wednesday bushfires

This article is about the 1983 bushfires in Victoria and South Australia. For the 1980 bushfires in South Australia, see 1980 Ash Wednesday bushfires.

1983 brushfires in Australia

The Ash Wednesday bushfires, known in South Australia as Ash Wednesday II,^[3] were a series of bushfires that occurred in south-eastern Australia in 1983 on 16 February, the Christian holy day Ash Wednesday. Within twelve hours, more than 180 fires fanned by hot winds of up to 110 km/h (68 mph) caused widespread destruction across the states of Victoria and South Australia.^[4] Years of severe drought and extreme weather combined to create one of Australia's worst fire days in a century.^[5] The fires were the deadliest bushfire in Australian history until the Black Saturday bushfires in 2009.

75 people died as a result of the fires; 47 in Victoria, and 28 in South Australia. This included 14 Country Fire Authority (CFA) and three Country Fire Service (CFS) volunteer firefighters.^[6][7] Many fatalities were as a result of firestorm conditions caused by a sudden and violent wind change in the evening which rapidly changed the direction and size of the fire front.^[8][9] The speed and ferocity of the flames, aided by abundant fuels and a landscape immersed in smoke, made fire suppression and containment impossible.^[10] In many cases, residents fended for themselves as fires broke communications, cut off escape routes and severed electricity and water supplies.^[11] Up to 8,000 people were evacuated in Victoria at the height of the crisis and a state of disaster was declared for the first time in South Australia's history.^[6][8]

A 2001 report found Ash Wednesday to be one of Australia's worst fires.^[12] More than 3,700 buildings were destroyed or damaged and 2,545 individuals and families lost their homes. Livestock losses were very high, with more than 340,000 sheep, 18,000 cattle and numerous native animals either dead or later destroyed.^[13] A total of 4,540 insurance claims were paid totalling A$176 million with a total estimated cost of well over A$400 million (1983 values) for both states, equivalent to A$1.3 billion in 2007.^[1][14] The emergency saw the largest number of volunteers called to duty from across Australia at the same time—an estimated 130,000 firefighters, defence force personnel, relief workers and support crews.^[15]

1. ^ ^{a b c} "Southern Victoria and S.A: Bushfires". E.M.A Disasters Database. Emergency Management Australia, Australian Government. 13 September 2006. Archived from the original on 12 February 2009. Retrieved 25 May 2008.
2. ^ Cite error: The named reference dse was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
3. ^ CFS :: Bushfire History Archived 29 August 2010 at the Wayback Machine
4. ^ "About Ash Wednesday". Country Fire Authority Victoria, Australia. Archived from the original on 23 March 2008. Retrieved 10 May 2008.
5. ^ Bureau of Meteorology. "Climate Education: Ash Wednesday, February 1983". Australian Government. Archived from the original on 8 August 2013. Retrieved 10 May 2008.
6. ^ ^{a b} Collins, Paul (2006). Burn: The Epic Story of Bushfire in Australia. Sydney: Allen and Unwin. ISBN 1-74175-053-9.
7. ^ "Memorials to Firefighters: Remembering Our Fallen". South Australian CFA Promotions Unit. Country Fire Service. Archived from the original on 11 February 2009. Retrieved 16 May 2008.
8. ^ ^{a b} Murray, Robert; Kate White (1995). State of Fire: A History of Volunteer Firefighting and the Country Fire Authority in Victoria. Melbourne, Australia: Hargreen Publishing Company. ISBN 0-949905-63-1.
9. ^ Webster, Joan (2000). The Complete Bushfire Safety Book. Sydney, Australia: Random House Australia. ISBN 1-74051-034-8.
10. ^ Miller, S.I (1984). Report of the Bushfire Review Committee: On Bushfire Disaster Preparedness and Response in Victoria, Australia Following The Ash Wednesday Fires 16 February 1983. Melbourne, Australia: State Government of Victoria. pp. 23–24.
11. ^ Smith, Stewart (2002). "Bushfires. Briefing Paper No. 5/02" (PDF). NSW Parliamentary Research Library Research Service. Archived from the original (PDF) on 28 May 2008. Retrieved 17 May 2008.
12. ^ "Economic Costs of Natural Disasters in Australia. (Report 103)" (PDF). Bureau of Infrastructure Transport and Regional Economics, Australian Government. 2 January 2001. Archived (PDF) from the original on 28 May 2008.
13. ^ "Hazards, Disasters, and Your Community" (PDF). Emergency Management Australia. Archived from the original (PDF) on 16 October 2007. Retrieved 22 February 2008.
14. ^ "Insurance Council Catastrophe Information". Insurance Council of Australia. Archived from the original on 10 May 2008. Retrieved 17 May 2008.
15. ^ "CFS Media Release: Ash Wednesday Memorial". CFS Public Affairs. 15 February 2006. Retrieved 19 May 2008.^{[dead link]}

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17 February 1867 – The first ship passes through the Suez Canal.

Suez Canal

Artificial sea-level waterway in Egypt

The Suez Canal (Arabic: قَنَاةُ ٱلسُّوَيْسِ, Qanāt as-Suwais) is an artificial sea-level waterway in Egypt, connecting the Mediterranean Sea to the Red Sea through the Isthmus of Suez and dividing Africa and Asia (and by extension, the Sinai Peninsula from the rest of Egypt). The 193.30-kilometre-long (120.11 mi) canal is a key trade route between Europe and Asia.

In 1858, French diplomat Ferdinand de Lesseps formed the Compagnie de Suez for the express purpose of building the canal. Construction of the canal lasted from 1859 to 1869. The canal officially opened on 17 November 1869. It offers vessels a direct route between the North Atlantic and northern Indian oceans via the Mediterranean Sea and the Red Sea, avoiding the South Atlantic and southern Indian oceans and reducing the journey distance from the Arabian Sea to London by approximately 8,900 kilometres (5,500 mi), to 10 days at 20 knots (37 km/h; 23 mph) or 8 days at 24 knots (44 km/h; 28 mph).^[1] The canal extends from the northern terminus of Port Said to the southern terminus of Port Tewfik at the city of Suez. In 2021, more than 20,600 vessels traversed the canal (an average of 56 per day).^[2]

The original canal featured a single-lane waterway with passing locations in the Ballah Bypass and the Great Bitter Lake.^[3] It contained, according to Alois Negrelli's plans, no locks, with seawater flowing freely through it. In general, the water in the canal north of the Bitter Lakes flows north in winter and south in summer. South of the lakes, the current changes with the tide at Suez.^[4]

The canal was the property of the Egyptian government, but European shareholders, mostly British and French, owned the concessionary company which operated it until July 1956, when President Gamal Abdel Nasser nationalised it—an event which led to the Suez Crisis of October–November 1956.^[5] The canal is operated and maintained by the state-owned Suez Canal Authority^[6] (SCA) of Egypt. Under the Convention of Constantinople, it may be used "in time of war as in time of peace, by every vessel of commerce or of war, without distinction of flag."^[7] Nevertheless, the canal has played an important military strategic role as a naval short-cut and choke point. Navies with coastlines and bases on both the Mediterranean Sea and the Red Sea (Egypt and Israel) have a particular interest in the Suez Canal. After Egypt closed the Suez Canal at the beginning of the Six-Day War on 5 June 1967, the canal remained closed for eight years, reopening on 5 June 1975.^[8]

The Egyptian government launched construction in 2014 to expand and widen the Ballah Bypass for 35 km (22 mi) to speed up the canal's transit time. The expansion intended to nearly double the capacity of the Suez Canal, from 49 to 97 ships per day.^[9] At a cost of LE 59.4 billion (US$9 billion), this project was funded with interest-bearing investment certificates issued exclusively to Egyptian entities and individuals.

The Suez Canal Authority officially opened the new side channel in 2016. This side channel, at the northern side of the east extension of the Suez Canal, serves the East Terminal for berthing and unberthing vessels from the terminal. As the East Container Terminal is located on the Canal itself, before the construction of the new side channel it was not possible to berth or unberth vessels at the terminal while a convoy was running.^[10]

1. ^ "The Suez Canal – A vital shortcut for global commerce" (PDF). World Shipping Council. Archived (PDF) from the original on 22 April 2018. Retrieved 15 March 2019.
2. ^ "Number of ships passing through the Suez Canal from 1976 to 2021". Statista. 31 March 2022.
3. ^ "Suez Canal Authority". Archived from the original on 13 June 2014. Retrieved 2 May 2010.
4. ^ Elaine Morgan; Stephen Davies (1995). The Red Sea Pilot. Imray Laurie Norie & Wilson. p. 266. ISBN 9780852885543.
5. ^ "Suez Crisis". History.com. A&E Television Networks. 9 November 2009. Archived from the original on 30 March 2019. Retrieved 17 April 2019.
6. ^ "SCA Overview". Suez Canal Authority. Archived from the original on 25 June 2019. Retrieved 25 July 2019.
7. ^ Constantinople Convention of the Suez Canal of 2 March 1888 still in force and specifically maintained in Nasser's Nationalization Act.
8. ^ Feyrer, James. "Distance, Trade, and Income – The 1967 to 1975 Closing of the Suez Canal as a Natural Experiment" (PDF). National Bureau of Economic Research. Archived (PDF) from the original on 11 February 2021. Retrieved 27 March 2021.
9. ^ "New Suez Canal project proposed by Egypt to boost trade". caironews.net. Archived from the original on 29 November 2014. Retrieved 7 August 2014.
10. ^ "Egypt opens East Port Said side channel for navigation". Xinhua. Archived from the original on 25 February 2016. Retrieved 12 March 2016.

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18 February 1268 – The Battle of Wesenberg is fought between the Livonian Order and Dovmont of Pskov

Battle of Wesenberg (1268)

Part of the Northern Crusades

This article is about the 1268 battle. For other uses, see Battle of Wesenberg.

The Battle of Wesenberg, Rakvere or Rakovor^[2] (German: Schlacht bei Wesenberg; Russian: Раковорская битва) was fought on 18 February 1268 between the combined forces of Danish Estonia, the Bishopric of Dorpat, the Livonian Order, and local Estonian militias on one side, and the forces of Novgorod and Pskov, led by Dmitry of Pereslavl, on the other. Medieval accounts of the battle vary with both sides claiming victory; however, the Livonian victory is seen as more plausible as Novgorodian-Pskovian forces retreated out of Danish Estonia, with Livonian Knights launching a retaliatory attack on Izborsk and Pskov soon afterward, in June 1269.^{[3]: 78–79}

1. ^ Selart, Anti. Livonia, Rus’ and the Baltic Crusades in the Thirteenth Century. Leiden: Brill, 2015. ^{[ISBN missing] [page needed]}
2. ^ Nicolle, David; Shpakovsky, Viacheslav (2002). Medieval Russian Armies 1250–1500. Bloomsbury USA. ISBN 978-1-84176-234-0.
3. ^ Smith, Jerry Christopher; Urban, William L. (2001). The Livonian rhymed chronicle (2nd ed.). Chicago, IL: Lithuanian Research and Studies Center. ISBN 0929700341. OCLC 48921064.

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19 February 1649 – The Second Battle of Guararapes takes place, effectively ending Dutch colonization efforts in Brazil

Second Battle of Guararapes

Part of the Pernambucana Insurrection (1649)

The Second Battle of Guararapes was the second and decisive battle in a conflict called the Insurrection of Pernambuco, between Dutch and Portuguese forces in February 1649 at Jaboatão dos Guararapes in Pernambuco. The defeat convinced the Dutch "that the Portuguese were formidable opponents, something which they had hitherto refused to concede."^[8] The Dutch still retained a presence in Brazil until 1654 and a treaty was signed in 1661.^[9]

1. ^ David Marley, p. 133
2. ^ David Marley, Brincks army's disintegrates, the commander himself falling mortally wounded. p. 133
3. ^ David Marley, Some 3,500 Dutch troops march out of Recife under Colonel Brinck (...) p. 133
4. ^ David Marley, (...) confronting 2,600 Portuguese defenders under Governor Barreto dug in on the Guararapes Plain. p. 133
5. ^ David Marley, Dutch losses total 1045 dead, wounded or captured (...) p. 133
6. ^ David Marley, (...) 45 Portuguese killed and 200 wounded. p. 133
7. ^ David Marley, p. 133
8. ^ Charles R. Boxer, The Dutch in Brazil, 1624–1654. Oxford: The Clarendon Press 1957, p. 215.
9. ^ Francis A. Dutra, "Dutch in Colonial Brazil" in Encyclopedia of Latin American History and Culture, vol. 2, p. 419. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1996. ^{[ISBN missing]}

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20 February 1877 – Tchaikovsky's ballet Swan Lake receives its premiere at the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow.

Swan Lake

1877 ballet by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky

This article is about the ballet. For other uses, see Swan Lake (disambiguation).

Swan Lake (Russian: Лебеди́ное о́зеро, tr. Lebedínoje ózero, IPA: [lʲɪbʲɪˈdʲinəjə ˈozʲɪrə] listen^ⓘ), Op. 20, is a ballet composed by Russian composer Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky in 1875–76. Despite its initial failure, it is now one of the most popular ballets of all time.^[1]

The scenario, initially in two acts, was fashioned from Russian and German folk tales and tells the story of Odette, a princess turned into a swan by an evil sorcerer's curse. The choreographer of the original production was Julius Reisinger (Václav Reisinger). The ballet was premiered by the Bolshoi Ballet on 4 March [O.S. 20 February] 1877^[2][3] at the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow. Although it is presented in many different versions, most ballet companies base their stagings both choreographically and musically on the 1895 revival of Marius Petipa and Lev Ivanov, first staged for the Imperial Ballet on 15 January 1895, at the Mariinsky Theatre in St. Petersburg. For this revival, Tchaikovsky's score was revised by the St. Petersburg Imperial Theatre's chief conductor and composer Riccardo Drigo.^[4]

1. ^ "Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky - Years of fame". Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved 19 June 2021.
2. ^ Kant, Marion, ed. (2007). The Cambridge Companion to Ballet. Cambridge Companions to Music. Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press. p. 164. ISBN 978-0-521-53986-9.; 'Old style' date 4 March
3. ^ Chaĭkovskiĭ, Modest Ilʹich; Newmarch, Jeaffreson; Rosa Harriet (1906). The life & letters of Peter Ilich Tchaikovsky. J Lane. p. 735.
4. ^ "Swan Lake Ballet 2018 India". BookMyShow. Archived from the original on 6 March 2018.

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21 February 1848 – Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels publish The Communist Manifesto.

The Communist Manifesto

1848 political publication by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels

The Communist Manifesto (German: Das Kommunistische Manifest), originally the Manifesto of the Communist Party (Manifest der Kommunistischen Partei), is a political pamphlet written by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, commissioned by the Communist League and originally published in London in 1848. The text is the first and most systematic attempt by Marx and Engels to codify for wide consumption the historical materialist idea that "the history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles", in which social classes are defined by the relationship of people to the means of production. Published amid the Revolutions of 1848 in Europe, the Manifesto remains one of the world's most influential political documents.

Marx and Engels combine philosophical materialism with the Hegelian dialectical method in order to analyze the development of European society through its modes of production, including primitive communism, antiquity, feudalism, and capitalism, noting the emergence of a new, dominant class at each stage. The text outlines the relationship between the means of production, relations of production, forces of production, and the mode of production, and posits that changes in society's economic "base" effect changes in its "superstructure". Marx and Engels assert that capitalism is marked by the exploitation of the proletariat (working class of wage labourers) by the ruling bourgeoisie, which is "constantly revolutionising the instruments [and] relations of production, and with them the whole relations of society". They argue that capital's need for a flexible labour force dissolves the old relations, and that its global expansion in search of new markets creates "a world after its own image".

The Manifesto concludes that capitalism does not offer humanity the possibility of self-realization, instead ensuring that humans are perpetually stunted and alienated. It theorizes that capitalism will bring about its own destruction by polarizing and unifying the proletariat, and predicts that a revolution will lead to the emergence of communism, a classless society in which "the free development of each is the condition for the free development of all". Marx and Engels propose the following transitional policies: the abolition of private property in land and inheritance; introduction of a progressive income tax; confiscation of rebels' property; nationalisation of credit, communication and transport; expansion and integration of industry and agriculture; enforcement of universal obligation of labour; and provision of universal education and abolition of child labour. The text ends with a decisive and famous call for solidarity, popularized as the slogan "Workers of the world, unite! You have nothing to lose but your chains".

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22 February 2011 – New Zealand's second deadliest earthquake strikes Christchurch, killing 185 people

2011 Christchurch earthquake

February 2011 earthquake in New Zealand

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

For the aftershock that occurred on 13 June 2011, see June 2011 Christchurch earthquake.

A major earthquake occurred in Christchurch on Tuesday 22 February 2011 at 12:51 p.m. local time (23:51 UTC, 21 February).^[2][10] The M_w6.2 (M_L6.3) earthquake struck the Canterbury region in the South Island, centred 6.7 kilometres (4.2 mi) south-east of the central business district.^[11] It caused widespread damage across Christchurch, killing 185 people^[7][8] in New Zealand's fifth-deadliest disaster.

Christchurch's central city and eastern suburbs were badly affected, with damage to buildings and infrastructure already weakened by the magnitude 7.1 Canterbury earthquake of 4 September 2010 and its aftershocks. Significant liquefaction affected the eastern suburbs, producing around 400,000 tonnes of silt. The earthquake was felt across the South Island and parts of the lower and central North Island. While the initial quake only lasted for approximately 10 seconds, the damage was severe because of the location and shallowness of the earthquake's focus in relation to Christchurch as well as previous quake damage. Subsequent population loss saw the Christchurch main urban area fall behind the Wellington equivalent, to decrease from second- to third-most populous area in New Zealand. Adjusted for inflation, the 2010–2011 Canterbury earthquakes caused over $44.8 billion in damages, making it New Zealand's costliest natural disaster and the 21st-most-expensive disaster in history.^[12][13][14]

1. ^ ^{a b} "M 6.1 – South Island of New Zealand". Earthquake Hazards Program. United States Geological Survey. Archived from the original on 17 June 2019. Retrieved 17 June 2019.
2. ^ ^{a b} "M 6.2 Christchurch Tue, Feb 22 2011: Technical". GeoNet. GNS Science. Archived from the original on 18 April 2019. Retrieved 17 June 2019.
3. ^ Goto, Hiroyuki; Kaneko, Yoshihiro; Naguit, Muriel; Young, John (5 January 2021). "Records of Extreme Ground Accelerations during the 2011 Christchurch Earthquake Sequence Contaminated by a Nonlinear, Soil–Structure Interaction". Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America. 111 (2): 704–722. Bibcode:2021BuSSA.111..704G. doi:10.1785/0120200337. S2CID 233531749.
4. ^ "Deadly Christchurch quake's record ground-shaking lower than first thought". Stuff. 15 February 2021. Archived from the original on 16 February 2021. Retrieved 16 February 2021.
5. ^ "Ice breaks off glacier after Christchurch quake". ABC News. 22 February 2011. Archived from the original on 26 February 2011. Retrieved 11 March 2011.
6. ^ "Earthquake causes glacier to calve". Stuff.co.nz. 23 February 2011. Archived from the original on 23 April 2011. Retrieved 11 March 2011.
7. ^ ^{a b} "Official quake toll rises to 185". Stuff.co. 9 February 2012. Archived from the original on 13 March 2012. Retrieved 9 February 2012.
8. ^ ^{a b} "List of deceased – Christchurch earthquake". New Zealand Police. 8 September 2011. Archived from the original on 14 June 2011. Retrieved 26 December 2011.
9. ^ "Earthquake death toll reaches 113". Stuff. 25 February 2011. Archived from the original on 24 May 2012. Retrieved 30 September 2011.
10. ^ "M 6.2 Christchurch Tue, Feb 22 2011: Details". GeoNet. GNS Science. Archived from the original on 18 April 2019. Retrieved 17 June 2019.
11. ^ "M 6.1 – South Island of New Zealand: Regional information". Earthquake Hazards Program. United States Geological Survey. Archived from the original on 18 June 2019. Retrieved 18 June 2019.
12. ^ "Christchurch rebuild to cost $10b more – Story – Politics – 3 News". 14 October 2013. Archived from the original on 14 October 2013. Retrieved 3 March 2023.
13. ^ Rosanes, Mark. "New Zealand's costliest natural disasters in the past decade". www.insurancebusinessmag.com. Retrieved 3 March 2023.
14. ^ "The Canterbury rebuild five years on from the Christchurch earthquake" (PDF). Reserve Bank of New Zealand. February 2016. Retrieved 5 March 2024.

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23 February 1905 – Chicago attorney Paul Harris and three other businessmen meet for lunch to form the Rotary Club, the world's first service club.

Rotary International

International nonprofit service organization

"Rotarian" redirects here. For the ship, see SS Rotarian.

Rotary International is one of the largest service organizations in the world. The mission of Rotary, as stated on its website, is to "provide service to others, promote integrity, and advance world understanding, goodwill, and peace through [the] fellowship of business, professional, and community leaders".^[1] It is a non-political and non-religious organization.^[2] Membership is by application or invitation and based on various social factors. There are over 46,000^[3] member clubs worldwide, with a membership of 1.4 million individuals, known as Rotary members.^[4]

1. ^ "What is Rotary". Rotary International. Archived from the original on 9 June 2000. Retrieved 2 October 2022.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)
2. ^ Olivo, Antonio (2015-06-28). "In changing times, Rotary Clubs wrestle over prayer". Washington Post. ISSN 0190-8286. Retrieved 2022-12-23.
3. ^ "Join". rotary. Retrieved 2019-06-12.
4. ^ "About Rotary". rotary.

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23 February 1905 – Chicago attorney Paul Harris and three other businessmen meet for lunch to form the Rotary Club, the world's first service club.

Rotary International

International nonprofit service organization

"Rotarian" redirects here. For the ship, see SS Rotarian.

Rotary International is one of the largest service organizations in the world. The mission of Rotary, as stated on its website, is to "provide service to others, promote integrity, and advance world understanding, goodwill, and peace through [the] fellowship of business, professional, and community leaders".^[1] It is a non-political and non-religious organization.^[2] Membership is by application or invitation and based on various social factors. There are over 46,000^[3] member clubs worldwide, with a membership of 1.4 million individuals, known as Rotary members.^[4]

1. ^ "What is Rotary". Rotary International. Archived from the original on 9 June 2000. Retrieved 2 October 2022.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)
2. ^ Olivo, Antonio (2015-06-28). "In changing times, Rotary Clubs wrestle over prayer". Washington Post. ISSN 0190-8286. Retrieved 2022-12-23.
3. ^ "Join". rotary. Retrieved 2019-06-12.
4. ^ "About Rotary". rotary.

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24 February 1303 – The English are defeated at the Battle of Roslin, in the First War of Scottish Independence.

Battle of Roslin

Part of the First War of Scottish Independence (1303)

The Battle of Roslin on 24 February 1303 was a Scottish victory in the First War of Scottish Independence. It took place near the village of Roslin, where a force led by the Scots John Comyn and Sir Simon Fraser ambushed and defeated an English reconnaissance party under Lord John Segrave.^[2]

1. ^ Barrow, G.W.S. (2005) [1965]. Robert Bruce and the Community of the Realm of Scotland (4th ed.). Edinburgh University Press. ISBN 978-0-7486-2022-7.
2. ^ Sadler, John (2005). Border Fury: England and Scotland at War, 1296–1568. Harlow: Pearson Education. p. 86. ISBN 978-0-582-77293-9.

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25 February 1986 – People Power Revolution: President of the Philippines Ferdinand Marcos flees the nation after 20 years of rule; Corazon Aquino becomes the Philippines' first woman president

People Power Revolution

Series of popular demonstrations in the Philippines in 1986 that overthrew Ferdinand Marcos

"EDSA Revolution" redirects here. For other uses, see EDSA Revolution (disambiguation). For other uses of People Power, see People power (disambiguation).

The People Power Revolution, also known as the EDSA Revolution^[a] or the February Revolution,^[4][5][6][7] was a series of popular demonstrations in the Philippines, mostly in Metro Manila, from February 22 to 25, 1986. There was a sustained campaign of civil resistance against regime violence and electoral fraud. The nonviolent revolution led to the departure of Ferdinand Marcos, the end of his 20-year dictatorship and the restoration of democracy in the Philippines.

It is also referred to as the Yellow Revolution^[8] due to the presence of yellow ribbons during demonstrations (in reference to the Tony Orlando and Dawn song "Tie a Yellow Ribbon Round the Ole Oak Tree") as a symbol of protest following the assassination of Filipino senator Benigno "Ninoy" Aquino Jr.^[9] in August 1983 upon his return to the Philippines from exile. It was widely seen as a victory of the people against two decades of presidential rule by President Marcos, and made news headlines as "the revolution that surprised the world".^[10]

The majority of the demonstrations took place on a long stretch of Epifanio de los Santos Avenue, more commonly known by its acronym EDSA, in Metro Manila from February 22 to 25, 1986. They involved over two million Filipino civilians, as well as several political and military groups, and religious groups led by Cardinal Jaime Sin, the Archbishop of Manila, along with Catholic Bishops' Conference of the Philippines President Cardinal Ricardo Vidal, the Archbishop of Cebu.

The protests, fueled by the resistance and opposition after years of governance by President Marcos and his cronies, ended with the ruler, his family, and some of their supporters fleeing to exile in Hawaii; and Ninoy Aquino's widow, Corazon Aquino, inaugurated as the eleventh President of the Philippines.^[11]

1. ^ ^{a b} Sison, Jose Maria (February 24, 2006). "It was a convergence of various forces". Philippine Daily Inquirer. Retrieved August 4, 2014.
2. ^ Araullo, Carolina (March 2, 2000). "Left was at Edsa and long before". Philippine Daily Inquirer. Retrieved August 4, 2014.
3. ^ Suarez, Miguel (February 26, 1986). "Marcos' last days filled with errors and humiliation". The Evening Independent. Associated Press. Retrieved August 4, 2014. She (Imelda) did not tell the crowd by that time all but a few thousand soldiers and officers, mostly those in the presidential guard, had by then turn against Marcos to join Mrs. Aquino's "people power" revolution
4. ^ "G.R. No. 88211". www.lawphil.net. Archived from the original on August 3, 2022. Retrieved February 26, 2021.
5. ^ Ileto, Reynold C. (June 1993). "The 'Unfinished Revolution' in Philippine Political Discourse". 東南アジア研究. 31 (1): 62–82. hdl:2433/56488. ISSN 0563-8682. Retrieved September 29, 2022.
6. ^ "G.R. No. L-82380 April 29, 1988 - AYER PRODUCTIONS PTY. LTD., ET AL. v. IGNACIO M. CAPULONG, ET AL.: April 1988 - Philippine Supreme Court Decisions". www.chanrobles.com.
7. ^ "Speech of President Corazon Aquino on the EDSA Flag Raising, February 25, 1987 | GOVPH". February 25, 1987. Archived from the original on December 2, 2022. Retrieved February 26, 2021.
8. ^ FRIEND, THEODORE (1988). "The "Yellow Revolution": Its Mixed Historical Legacy". Philippine Studies. 36 (2): 166–182. JSTOR 42633078 – via JSTOR.
9. ^ "The Original People Power Revolution". QUARTET p. 77. Archived from the original on February 15, 2008. Retrieved February 28, 2008.
10. ^ Kumar, Ravindra (2004), Mahatma Gandhi at the Close of Twentieth Century, Anmol Publications PVT. LTD., p. 168, ISBN 978-81-261-1736-9, retrieved December 2, 2007.
11. ^ "Edsa people Power 1 Philippines". Angela Stuart-Santiago. Archived from the original on December 13, 2007. Retrieved December 3, 2007.

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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26 February 1815 – Napoleon Bonaparte escapes from Elba.

Napoleon

Military leader and Emperor of the French (1769–1821)

For other uses, see Napoleon (disambiguation) and Napoleon Bonaparte (disambiguation).

Battles of Napoleon

1000km
620miles

Saint Helena

19

Rochefort

18

Waterloo

17

Elba

16

Dizier

15

Leipzig

14

Berezina

13

Borodino

12

Wagram

11

Somosierra

10

Friedland

9

Jena

8

Austerlitz

7

Marengo

6

Cairo

5

Malta

4

Arcole

3

Paris

2

Toulon

1

  

Rescale the fullscreen map to see Saint Helena.

Napoleon Bonaparte (born Napoleone di Buonaparte;^[1][b] 15 August 1769 – 5 May 1821), later known by his regnal name Napoleon I, was a French emperor and military commander who rose to prominence during the French Revolution and led successful campaigns during the Revolutionary Wars. He was the leader of the French Republic as First Consul from 1799 to 1804, then of the French Empire as Emperor of the French from 1804 until 1814, and briefly again in 1815. His political and cultural legacy endures as a celebrated and controversial leader. He initiated many enduring reforms, but has been criticized for his authoritarian rule. He is considered one of the greatest military commanders in history and his wars and campaigns are still studied at military schools worldwide. However, historians still debate the degree to which he was responsible for the Napoleonic Wars, in which between three and six million people died.^[2][3]

Napoleon was born on the island of Corsica into a family descended from Italian nobility.^[4][5] He was resentful of the French monarchy, and supported the French Revolution in 1789 while serving in the French army, trying to spread its ideals to his native Corsica. He rose rapidly in the ranks after saving the governing French Directory by firing on royalist insurgents. In 1796, he began a military campaign against the Austrians and their Italian allies, scoring decisive victories, and became a national hero. Two years later he led a military expedition to Egypt that served as a springboard to political power. He engineered a coup in November 1799 and became First Consul of the Republic. In 1804, to consolidate and expand his power, he crowned himself Emperor of the French.

Differences with the United Kingdom meant France faced the War of the Third Coalition by 1805. Napoleon shattered this coalition with victories in the Ulm campaign and at the Battle of Austerlitz, which led to the dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire. In 1806, the Fourth Coalition took up arms against him. Napoleon defeated Prussia at the battles of Jena and Auerstedt, marched the Grande Armée into Eastern Europe, and defeated the Russians in June 1807 at Friedland, forcing the defeated nations of the Fourth Coalition to accept the Treaties of Tilsit. Two years later, the Austrians challenged the French again during the War of the Fifth Coalition, but Napoleon solidified his grip over Europe after triumphing at the Battle of Wagram.

Hoping to extend the Continental System, his embargo against Britain, Napoleon invaded the Iberian Peninsula and declared his brother Joseph the King of Spain in 1808. The Spanish and the Portuguese revolted in the Peninsular War aided by a British army, culminating in defeat for Napoleon's marshals. Napoleon launched an invasion of Russia in the summer of 1812. The resulting campaign witnessed the catastrophic retreat of Napoleon's Grande Armée. In 1813, Prussia and Austria joined Russian forces in a Sixth Coalition against France, resulting in a large coalition army defeating Napoleon at the Battle of Leipzig. The coalition invaded France and captured Paris, forcing Napoleon to abdicate in April 1814. He was exiled to the island of Elba, between Corsica and Italy. In France, the Bourbons were restored to power.

Napoleon escaped in February 1815 and took control of France.^[6] The Allies responded by forming a Seventh Coalition, which defeated Napoleon at the Battle of Waterloo in June 1815. The British exiled him to the remote island of Saint Helena in the Atlantic, where he died in 1821 at the age of 51.

Napoleon had a lasting impact on the world, bringing modernizing reforms to France and Western Europe^[c] and stimulating the development of nation states. He also sold the Louisiana Territory to the United States in 1803, doubling the latter's size.^[2][13] However, his mixed record on civil rights and exploitation of conquered territories adversely affect his reputation.^[d]

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

1. ^ Dwyer 2008a, p. xv.
2. ^ ^{a b} Roberts 2014, Introduction
3. ^ Messenger, Charles, ed. (2001). Reader's Guide to Military History. Routledge. pp. 391–427. ISBN 978-1-135-95970-8.
4. ^ Roberts 2014, p. 3.
5. ^ Geoffrey Ellis (1997). "Chapter 2". Napoleon. Pearson Education Limited. ISBN 978-1317874690. Archived from the original on 22 August 2022. Retrieved 22 August 2022.
6. ^ Forrest, Alan (2015). Waterloo: Great Battles. Oxford University Press. p. 24. ISBN 978-0-19-966325-5. Archived from the original on 27 February 2024. Retrieved 14 June 2021.
7. ^ Grab 2003, p. 56.
8. ^ Broers, M.; Hicks, P.; Guimera, A. (10 October 2012). The Napoleonic Empire and the New European Political Culture. Springer. p. 230. ISBN 978-1-137-27139-6. Archived from the original on 2 December 2023. Retrieved 2 December 2023.
9. ^ Conner 2004, pp. 38–40.
10. ^ Pérez, Joseph (2005). The Spanish Inquisition: A History. Yale University Press. p. 98. ISBN 978-0-300-11982-4. Archived from the original on 2 December 2023. Retrieved 2 December 2023.
11. ^ Fremont-Barnes & Fisher 2004, p. 336.
12. ^ Grab 2017, pp. 204–211.
13. ^ Connelly 2006, p. 70.
14. ^ Dwyer 2015a, pp. 574–76, 582–84.
15. ^ Conner 2004, pp. 32–34, 50–51.
16. ^ Bell 2015, p. 52.
17. ^ Repa, Jan (2 December 2005). "Furore over Austerlitz ceremony". BBC. Archived from the original on 20 April 2010. Retrieved 5 April 2010.

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27 February 1940 – Martin Kamen and Sam Ruben discover carbon-14.

Carbon-14

Isotope of carbon

"Radiocarbon" redirects here. For the scientific journal, see Radiocarbon (journal). For the dating technique, see Radiocarbon dating.

Carbon-14, C-14, ¹⁴
C or radiocarbon, is a radioactive isotope of carbon with an atomic nucleus containing 6 protons and 8 neutrons. Its presence in organic materials is the basis of the radiocarbon dating method pioneered by Willard Libby and colleagues (1949) to date archaeological, geological and hydrogeological samples. Carbon-14 was discovered on February 27, 1940, by Martin Kamen and Sam Ruben at the University of California Radiation Laboratory in Berkeley, California. Its existence had been suggested by Franz Kurie in 1934.^[3]

There are three naturally occurring isotopes of carbon on Earth: carbon-12 (¹²
C), which makes up 99% of all carbon on Earth; carbon-13 (¹³
C), which makes up 1%; and carbon-14 (¹⁴
C), which occurs in trace amounts, making up about 1 or 1.5 atoms per 10¹² atoms of carbon in the atmosphere. Carbon-12 and carbon-13 are both stable, while carbon-14 is unstable and has a half-life of 5700±30 years.^[4] Carbon-14 has a maximum specific activity of 62.4 mCi/mmol (2.31 GBq/mmol), or 164.9 GBq/g.^[5] Carbon-14 decays into nitrogen-14 (¹⁴
N) through beta decay.^[6] A gram of carbon containing 1 atom of carbon-14 per 10¹² atoms will emit ~0.2^[7] beta particles per second. The primary natural source of carbon-14 on Earth is cosmic ray action on nitrogen in the atmosphere, and it is therefore a cosmogenic nuclide. However, open-air nuclear testing between 1955 and 1980 contributed to this pool.

The different isotopes of carbon do not differ appreciably in their chemical properties. This resemblance is used in chemical and biological research, in a technique called carbon labeling: carbon-14 atoms can be used to replace nonradioactive carbon, in order to trace chemical and biochemical reactions involving carbon atoms from any given organic compound.

1. ^ Kondev, F. G.; Wang, M.; Huang, W. J.; Naimi, S.; Audi, G. (2021). "The NUBASE2020 evaluation of nuclear properties" (PDF). Chinese Physics C. 45 (3): 030001. doi:10.1088/1674-1137/abddae.
2. ^ ^{a b} Waptstra AH, Audi G, Thibault C. "AME atomic mass evaluation 2003". IAEA.org. Archived from the original on 5 May 2023.
3. ^ Kamen MD (May 1963). "Early History of Carbon-14: Discovery of this supremely important tracer was expected in the physical sense but not in the chemical sense". Science. 140 (3567): 584–590. Bibcode:1963Sci...140..584K. doi:10.1126/science.140.3567.584. PMID 17737092.
4. ^ Godwin H (1962). "Half-life of radiocarbon". Nature. 195 (4845): 984. Bibcode:1962Natur.195..984G. doi:10.1038/195984a0. S2CID 27534222.
5. ^ Babin V, Taran F, Audisio D (June 2022). "Late-Stage Carbon-14 Labeling and Isotope Exchange: Emerging Opportunities and Future Challenges". JACS Au. 2 (6): 1234–1251. doi:10.1021/jacsau.2c00030. PMC 9241029. PMID 35783167.
6. ^ "What is carbon dating?". National Ocean Sciences Accelerator Mass Spectrometry Facility. Archived from the original on July 5, 2007. Retrieved 2007-06-11.
7. ^ (1 per 10¹²) × (1 gram / (12 grams per mole)) × (Avogadro constant) / ((5,730 years) × (31,557,600 seconds per Julian year) / ln(2))

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28 February 1947 – February 28 Incident: In Taiwan, civil disorder is put down with the loss of an estimated 30,000 civilians.

February 28 incident

1947 uprising in Taiwan

"2/28" redirects here. For the date, see February 28.

Not to be confused with February 26 incident.

The February 28 incident (also called the February 28 massacre,^[3][4] the 228 incident,^[5] or the 228 massacre)^[5] was an anti-government uprising in Taiwan in 1947 that was violently suppressed by the Kuomintang–led nationalist government of the Republic of China (ROC). Directed by provincial governor Chen Yi and president Chiang Kai-shek, thousands of civilians were killed beginning on February 28.^[6] The incident is considered to be one of the most important events in Taiwan's modern history and was a critical impetus for the Taiwan independence movement.^[7]

In 1945, following the surrender of Japan at the end of World War II, the Allies handed administrative control of Taiwan over to China, thus ending 50 years of Japanese colonial rule. Local residents became resentful of what they saw as high-handed and frequently corrupt conduct on the part of the Kuomintang (KMT) authorities, including the arbitrary seizure of private property, economic mismanagement, and exclusion from political participation. The flashpoint came on February 27, 1947, in Taipei, when agents of the State Monopoly Bureau struck a Taiwanese widow suspected of selling contraband cigarettes. An officer then fired into a crowd of angry bystanders, hitting one man, who died the next day.^[8] Soldiers fired upon demonstrators the next day, after which a radio station was seized by protesters and news of the revolt was broadcast to the entire island. As the uprising spread, the KMT-installed governor Chen Yi called for military reinforcements, and the uprising was violently put down by the National Revolutionary Army. Two years later, and for 38 years thereafter, the island would be placed under martial law in a period known as the "White Terror."^[8]

During the White Terror, the KMT persecuted perceived political dissidents, and the incident was considered too taboo to be discussed. President Lee Teng-hui became the first president to discuss the incident publicly on its anniversary in 1995. The event is now openly discussed, and its details have become the subject of government and academic investigation. February 28 is now an official public holiday called Peace Memorial Day, on which the president of Taiwan gathers with other officials to ring a commemorative bell in memory of the victims. Monuments and memorial parks to the victims of the February 28 incident have been erected in a number of Taiwanese cities. In particular, Taipei's former Taipei New Park was renamed 228 Peace Memorial Park, and the National 228 Memorial Museum was opened on February 28, 1997. The Kaohsiung Museum of History also has a permanent exhibit detailing the events of the incident in Kaohsiung.^[9][10] In 2019, the Transitional Justice Commission exonerated those who were convicted in the aftermath.^[11]

The number of deaths from the incident and massacre was estimated to be between 18,000 and 28,000.^[12] Other estimates are much lower. A government commission was set up under the administration of the pro-Taiwan independence president, Lee Teng-hui, to determine the facts. Using the civil registry set up during the Japanese administration, which was acknowledged by all as very efficient, they determined who was living at the time of the handover to the Chinese administration. The commission was given the power to award to the family of anyone who died in the period of the insurrection and the restoration of Nationalist government rule an amount of NT$6,000,000, about US$150,000. The families did not have to prove that the death was related to the above events. A total of 800 people came forward to get the awards for the people who died during the period.^[13]

1. ^ Forsythe, Michael (July 14, 2015). "Taiwan Turns Light on 1947 Slaughter by Chiang Kai-shek's Troops". The New York Times. Archived from the original on October 27, 2018. To somber cello music that evokes 'Schindler's List,' displays memorialize the lives lost, including much of the island's elite: painters, lawyers, professors, and doctors. In 1992, an official commission estimated that 18,000 to 28,000 people had been killed.
2. ^ Kristof, Nicholas D. (April 3, 1992). "Taipei Journal – The Horror of 2–28: Taiwan Rips Open the Past". The New York Times. Archived from the original on December 13, 2018. Retrieved March 1, 2020.
3. ^ Wu, Naiteh (July 2005). "Transition without Justice, or Justice without History: Transitional Justice in Taiwan" (PDF). Taiwan Journal of Democracy (1): 10. Archived from the original (PDF) on February 25, 2021. The memory of the February 28 massacre, although politically taboo during the KMT's authoritarian rule
4. ^ "Taiwan's hidden massacre. A new generation is breaking the silence". The Washington Post. March 1, 2017. Archived from the original on March 1, 2022. Retrieved February 25, 2021. realization that his grandfather had been one of the tens of thousands of victims targeted and murdered in Taiwan's 'February 28 Massacres.'
5. ^ ^{a b} Shattuck, Thomas J. (February 27, 2017). "Taiwan's White Terror: Remembering the 228 Incident". Foreign Policy Research Institute. Archived from the original on February 15, 2021. Retrieved February 25, 2021. In Taiwan, the period immediately following the 228 Incident is known as the 'White Terror' ... . Just blocks away from the Presidential Palace in Taipei is a museum and park memorializing the victims of the 228 Massacre
6. ^ "China's other massacre". June 4, 2019. Archived from the original on February 13, 2023. Retrieved May 23, 2022.
7. ^ Fleischauer, Stefan (November 1, 2007). "The 228 Incident and the Taiwan Independence Movement's Construction of a Taiwanese Identity". China Information. 21 (3): 373–401. doi:10.1177/0920203X07083320. S2CID 143766317.
8. ^ ^{a b} Chou, Wan-yao (2015). A New Illustrated History of Taiwan. Translated by Plackitt, Carole; Casey, Tim. Taipei: SMC Publishing Inc. p. 317. ISBN 978-957-638-784-5.
9. ^ Ko, Shu-ling; Chang, Rich; Chao, Vincent Y. (March 1, 2011). "National 228 museum opens in Taipei". Taipei Times. p. 1. Archived from the original on April 30, 2019. Retrieved November 14, 2014.
10. ^ Chen, Ketty W. (February 28, 2013). "Remembering Taiwan's Tragic Past". Taipei Times. p. 12. Archived from the original on August 31, 2019. Retrieved November 14, 2014.
11. ^ Lin, Sean (October 6, 2018). "Commission exonerates 1,270 people". Taipei Times. Taipei. Archived from the original on May 13, 2019. Retrieved August 22, 2019.
12. ^ Forsythe, Michael (July 14, 2015). "Taiwan Turns Light on 1947 Slaughter by Chiang Kai-shek's Troops". The New York Times. Archived from the original on October 27, 2018. To somber cello music that evokes 'Schindler's List,' displays memorialize the lives lost, including much of the island's elite: painters, lawyers, professors, and doctors. In 1992, an official commission estimated that 18,000 to 28,000 people had been killed.
13. ^ "DPP questions former Premier Hau's 228 victim figures". The China Post. Taipei. February 29, 2012. Archived from the original on November 29, 2014. Retrieved November 14, 2014.

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1 March 1981 – Provisional Irish Republican Army member Bobby Sands begins his hunger strike in HM Prison Maze.

1981 Irish hunger strike

Protest by Irish republican prisoners in Northern Ireland, in which ten died

The 1981 Irish hunger strike was the culmination of a five-year protest during the Troubles by Irish republican prisoners in Northern Ireland. The protest began as the blanket protest in 1976, when the British government withdrew Special Category Status (prisoner of war rather than criminal status) for convicted paramilitary prisoners. In 1978, the dispute escalated into the dirty protest, where prisoners refused to leave their cells to wash and covered the walls of their cells with excrement. In 1980, seven prisoners participated in the first hunger strike, which ended after 53 days.^[1]

The second hunger strike took place in 1981 and was a showdown between the prisoners and the Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher. One hunger striker, Bobby Sands, was elected as a member of parliament during the strike, prompting media interest from around the world.^[2] The strike was called off after ten prisoners had starved themselves to death, including Sands, whose funeral was attended by 100,000 people.^[1] The strike radicalised Irish nationalist politics and was the driving force that enabled Sinn Féin to become a mainstream political party.^[3]

1. ^ ^{a b} "The Hunger Strike of 1981 – A Chronology of Main Events". CAIN. Archived from the original on 31 May 2007. Retrieved 26 May 2007.
2. ^ McKittrick, David (5 May 2006). "Remembering Bobby Sands". The Independent. UK. Retrieved 26 May 2016.
3. ^ Taylor, Peter (1997). Provos The IRA & Sinn Féin. Bloomsbury Publishing. pp. 251–252. ISBN 0-7475-3818-2.

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2 March 1855 – Alexander II becomes Tsar of Russia.

Alexander II of Russia

Emperor of Russia from 1855 to 1881

In this name that follows Eastern Slavic naming customs, the patronymic is Nikolayevich and the family name is Romanov.

Alexander II (Russian: Алекса́ндр II Никола́евич, tr. Aleksándr II Nikoláyevich, IPA: [ɐlʲɪˈksandr ftɐˈroj nʲɪkɐˈlajɪvʲɪtɕ]; 29 April 1818 – 13 March 1881)^[a] was Emperor of Russia, King of Congress Poland and Grand Duke of Finland from 2 March 1855 until his assassination in 1881.^[1] Alexander's most significant reform as emperor was the emancipation of Russia's serfs in 1861, for which he is known as Alexander the Liberator (Russian: Алекса́ндр Освободи́тель, tr. Aleksándr Osvobodítel, IPA: [ɐlʲɪˈksandr ɐsvəbɐˈdʲitʲɪlʲ]).

The tsar was responsible for other reforms, including reorganizing the judicial system, setting up elected local judges, abolishing corporal punishment,^[2] promoting local self-government through the zemstvo system, imposing universal military service, ending some privileges of the nobility, and promoting university education. After an assassination attempt in 1866, Alexander adopted a somewhat more conservative stance until his death.^[3]

Alexander was also notable for his foreign policy, which was mainly pacifist, supportive of the United States, and opposite of Great Britain. Alexander backed the Union during the American Civil War and sent warships to New York Harbor and San Francisco Bay ostensibly to deter attacks by the Confederate Navy^[4] and sold Alaska to the United States in 1867, fearing the remote colony would fall into British hands if there were another war.^[5] He sought peace, moved away from bellicose France when Napoleon III fell in 1871, and in 1872 joined with Germany and Austria in the League of the Three Emperors that stabilized the European situation.

Despite his otherwise pacifist foreign policy, he fought a brief war with the Ottoman Empire in 1877–78, leading to the independence of the Bulgarian, Montenegrin, Romanian and Serbian states, and pursued further expansion into the Far East, leading to the founding of Khabarovsk and Vladivostok; the Caucasus, approving plans leading to the Circassian genocide;^[6] and Turkestan. Although disappointed by the results of the Congress of Berlin in 1878, Alexander abided by that agreement. Among his greatest domestic challenges was an uprising in Poland in 1863, to which he responded by stripping that land of its separate constitution and incorporating it directly into Russia. Alexander was proposing additional parliamentary reforms to counter the rise of nascent revolutionary and anarchistic movements when he was assassinated in 1881.^[7]

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

1. ^ Wallace 1911, p. 561.
2. ^ "Reformation by the Tsar Liberator". InfoRefuge. 16 October 2007. Retrieved 18 April 2016.
3. ^ "Alexander II | emperor of Russia". Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved 14 May 2018.
4. ^ Yegorov, Oleg (16 August 2017). "What role did Russia play in the U.S. Civil War?". Russia Beyond.
5. ^ Claus-M., Naske (1987). Alaska, a history of the 49th state. Slotnick, Herman E. (2nd ed.). Norman: University of Oklahoma Press. p. 61. ISBN 978-0806125732. OCLC 44965514.
6. ^ King, Charles. The Ghost of Freedom: A History of the Caucasus. p. 94. In a policy memorandum in of 1857, Dmitri Milyutin, chief-of-staff to Bariatinskii, summarized the new thinking on dealing with the northwestern highlanders. The idea, Milyutin argued, was not to clear the highlands and coastal areas of Circassians so that these regions could be settled by productive farmers...[but] Rather, eliminating the Circassians was to be an end in itself – to cleanse the land of hostile elements. Tsar Alexander II formally approved the resettlement plan...Milyutin, who would eventually become minister of war, was to see his plans realized in the early 1860s.
7. ^ "Контрреформы 1889–1892 гг.: Содержание контрреформ // Николай Троицкий". scepsis.net (in Russian).

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2 March 1855 – Alexander II becomes Tsar of Russia.

Alexander II of Russia

Emperor of Russia from 1855 to 1881

In this name that follows Eastern Slavic naming customs, the patronymic is Nikolayevich and the family name is Romanov.

Alexander II (Russian: Алекса́ндр II Никола́евич, tr. Aleksándr II Nikoláyevich, IPA: [ɐlʲɪˈksandr ftɐˈroj nʲɪkɐˈlajɪvʲɪtɕ]; 29 April 1818 – 13 March 1881)^[a] was Emperor of Russia, King of Congress Poland and Grand Duke of Finland from 2 March 1855 until his assassination in 1881.^[1] Alexander's most significant reform as emperor was the emancipation of Russia's serfs in 1861, for which he is known as Alexander the Liberator (Russian: Алекса́ндр Освободи́тель, tr. Aleksándr Osvobodítel, IPA: [ɐlʲɪˈksandr ɐsvəbɐˈdʲitʲɪlʲ]).

The tsar was responsible for other reforms, including reorganizing the judicial system, setting up elected local judges, abolishing corporal punishment,^[2] promoting local self-government through the zemstvo system, imposing universal military service, ending some privileges of the nobility, and promoting university education. After an assassination attempt in 1866, Alexander adopted a somewhat more conservative stance until his death.^[3]

Alexander was also notable for his foreign policy, which was mainly pacifist, supportive of the United States, and opposite of Great Britain. Alexander backed the Union during the American Civil War and sent warships to New York Harbor and San Francisco Bay ostensibly to deter attacks by the Confederate Navy^[4] and sold Alaska to the United States in 1867, fearing the remote colony would fall into British hands if there were another war.^[5] He sought peace, moved away from bellicose France when Napoleon III fell in 1871, and in 1872 joined with Germany and Austria in the League of the Three Emperors that stabilized the European situation.

Despite his otherwise pacifist foreign policy, he fought a brief war with the Ottoman Empire in 1877–78, leading to the independence of the Bulgarian, Montenegrin, Romanian and Serbian states, and pursued further expansion into the Far East, leading to the founding of Khabarovsk and Vladivostok; the Caucasus, approving plans leading to the Circassian genocide;^[6] and Turkestan. Although disappointed by the results of the Congress of Berlin in 1878, Alexander abided by that agreement. Among his greatest domestic challenges was an uprising in Poland in 1863, to which he responded by stripping that land of its separate constitution and incorporating it directly into Russia. Alexander was proposing additional parliamentary reforms to counter the rise of nascent revolutionary and anarchistic movements when he was assassinated in 1881.^[7]

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

1. ^ Wallace 1911, p. 561.
2. ^ "Reformation by the Tsar Liberator". InfoRefuge. 16 October 2007. Retrieved 18 April 2016.
3. ^ "Alexander II | emperor of Russia". Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved 14 May 2018.
4. ^ Yegorov, Oleg (16 August 2017). "What role did Russia play in the U.S. Civil War?". Russia Beyond.
5. ^ Claus-M., Naske (1987). Alaska, a history of the 49th state. Slotnick, Herman E. (2nd ed.). Norman: University of Oklahoma Press. p. 61. ISBN 978-0806125732. OCLC 44965514.
6. ^ King, Charles. The Ghost of Freedom: A History of the Caucasus. p. 94. In a policy memorandum in of 1857, Dmitri Milyutin, chief-of-staff to Bariatinskii, summarized the new thinking on dealing with the northwestern highlanders. The idea, Milyutin argued, was not to clear the highlands and coastal areas of Circassians so that these regions could be settled by productive farmers...[but] Rather, eliminating the Circassians was to be an end in itself – to cleanse the land of hostile elements. Tsar Alexander II formally approved the resettlement plan...Milyutin, who would eventually become minister of war, was to see his plans realized in the early 1860s.
7. ^ "Контрреформы 1889–1892 гг.: Содержание контрреформ // Николай Троицкий". scepsis.net (in Russian).

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3 March 1857 – Second Opium War: France and the United Kingdom declare war on China.

Second Opium War

1856–1860 war between allied British–French forces and Imperial China

"Arrow War" redirects here. For the Korean film, see War of the Arrows.

The Second Opium War (simplified Chinese: 第二次鸦片战争; traditional Chinese: 第二次鴉片戰爭), also known as the Second Anglo-Chinese War, the Second China War, the Arrow War, or the Anglo-French expedition to China, (simplified Chinese: 英法联军之役; traditional Chinese: 英法聯軍之役) ^{[4][full citation needed]} was a colonial war lasting from 1856 to 1860, which pitted Great Britain, France, and the United States against the Qing dynasty of China.

It was the second major conflict in the Opium Wars, which were fought over the right to import opium to China, and resulted in a second defeat for the Qing dynasty and the forced legalisation of the opium trade. It caused many Chinese officials to believe that conflicts with the Western powers were no longer traditional wars, but part of a looming national crisis.^[5]

In 1860, British and French troops landed near Beijing at the Taku Forts, where they had fought for control twice before, and fought their way into the city. Peace negotiations quickly broke down and the British High Commissioner to China ordered the foreign troops to loot and destroy the Imperial Summer Palace, a complex of palaces and gardens at which Qing Dynasty emperors handled affairs of state.

During and after the Second Opium War, the Qing government was also forced to sign treaties with Russia, such as the Treaty of Aigun and the Convention of Peking. As a result, China ceded more than 1.5 million square kilometers of territory to Russia in its north-east and north-west. With the conclusion of the war, the Qing government was able to concentrate on countering the Taiping Rebellion and maintaining its rule.^[6] Among other things, the Convention of Peking ceded the Kowloon Peninsula to the British as part of Hong Kong.

1. ^ Frontier and Overseas Expeditions from India. Volume 6. Calcutta: Superintendent Government Printing. 1911. p. 446.
2. ^ Wolseley, G. J. (1862). Narrative of the War with China in 1860. London: Longman, Green, Longman, and Roberts. p. 1.
3. ^ Magoc, Chris J.; Bernstein, David (2016). Imperialism and Expansionism in American History. Volume 1. Santa Barbara, California: ABC-CLIO. p. 295. ISBN 978-1-61069-430-8.
4. ^ Michel Vié, Histoire du Japon des origines a Meiji, PUF, p. 99. ISBN 2-13-052893-7.
5. ^ Canada, Asia Pacific Foundation of. "The Opium Wars in China". Asia Pacific Curriculum. Retrieved 28 November 2021.
6. ^ "The Second Opium War". Historic UK. Retrieved 28 November 2021.

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4 March 2001 – BBC bombing: A massive car bomb explodes in front of the BBC Television Centre in London, seriously injuring one person; the attack was attributed to the Real IRA.

2001 BBC bombing

2001 IRA terrorist attack on the BBC headquarters in London

The 2001 BBC bombing was a terrorist attack on the BBC's main news centre within BBC Television Centre, on Wood Lane in the White City area of West London.

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5 March 1970 – The Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons goes into effect after ratification by 43 nations.

[URL='https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1970']1970[/URL] – The [URL='https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treaty_on_the_Non-Proliferation_of_Nuclear_Weapons']Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons[/URL] goes into effect after ratification by 43 nations.

 

6 March 1899 – Bayer registers "Aspirin" as a trademark.

Aspirin

Medication

For the Persian-language TV series, see Aspirin (TV series).

Not to be confused with Robert Asprin.

Aspirin, also known as acetylsalicylic acid (ASA), is a nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID) used to reduce pain, fever, and/or inflammation, and as an antithrombotic.^[9] Specific inflammatory conditions which aspirin is used to treat include Kawasaki disease, pericarditis, and rheumatic fever.^[9]

Aspirin is also used long-term to help prevent further heart attacks, ischaemic strokes, and blood clots in people at high risk.^[9] For pain or fever, effects typically begin within 30 minutes.^[9] Aspirin works similarly to other NSAIDs but also suppresses the normal functioning of platelets.^[9]

One common adverse effect is an upset stomach.^[9] More significant side effects include stomach ulcers, stomach bleeding, and worsening asthma.^[9] Bleeding risk is greater among those who are older, drink alcohol, take other NSAIDs, or are on other blood thinners.^[9] Aspirin is not recommended in the last part of pregnancy.^[9] It is not generally recommended in children with infections because of the risk of Reye syndrome.^[9] High doses may result in ringing in the ears.^[9]

A precursor to aspirin found in the bark of the willow tree (genus Salix) has been used for its health effects for at least 2,400 years.^[10][11] In 1853, chemist Charles Frédéric Gerhardt treated the medicine sodium salicylate with acetyl chloride to produce acetylsalicylic acid for the first time.^[12] Over the next 50 years, other chemists, mostly of the German company Bayer, established the chemical structure and devised more efficient production methods.^{[12]: 69–75}

Aspirin is available without medical prescription as a proprietary or generic medication^[9] in most jurisdictions. It is one of the most widely used medications globally, with an estimated 40,000 tonnes (44,000 tons) (50 to 120 billion pills)^{[clarification needed]} consumed each year,^[10][13] and is on the World Health Organization's List of Essential Medicines.^[14] In 2021, it was the 34th most commonly prescribed medication in the United States, with more than 17 million prescriptions.^[15][16]

1. ^ "Aspirin Use During Pregnancy". Drugs.com. 2 April 2018. Retrieved 29 December 2019.
2. ^ "OTC medicine monograph: Aspirin tablets for oral use". Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA). 21 June 2022. Retrieved 4 April 2023.
3. ^ "Poisons Standard October 2022". Australian Government Federal Register of Legislation. 26 September 2022. Retrieved 9 January 2023.
4. ^ "Aspirin Product information". Health Canada. 22 October 2009. Retrieved 20 August 2023.
5. ^ ^{a b} "Zorprin, Bayer Buffered Aspirin (aspirin) dosing, indications, interactions, adverse effects, and more". Medscape Reference. WebMD. Archived from the original on 7 April 2014. Retrieved 3 April 2014.
6. ^ ^{a b c} Brayfield A, ed. (14 January 2014). "Aspirin". Martindale: The Complete Drug Reference. Pharmaceutical Press. Retrieved 3 April 2014.
7. ^ CID 2244 from PubChem
8. ^ Cite error: The named reference b92 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
9. ^ ^{a b c d e f g h i j k l} "Aspirin". American Society of Health-System Pharmacists. 29 November 2021. Archived from the original on 25 April 2017 – via Drugs.com.
10. ^ ^{a b} Jones A (2015). Chemistry: An Introduction for Medical and Health Sciences. John Wiley & Sons. pp. 5–6. ISBN 978-0-470-09290-3.
11. ^ Ravina E (2011). The Evolution of Drug Discovery: From Traditional Medicines to Modern Drugs. John Wiley & Sons. p. 24. ISBN 978-3-527-32669-3.
12. ^ ^{a b} Jeffreys D (2008). Aspirin the remarkable story of a wonder drug. Bloomsbury Publishing USA. ISBN 978-1-59691-816-0. Archived from the original on 8 September 2017.^: 46–48
13. ^ Warner TD, Mitchell JA (October 2002). "Cyclooxygenase-3 (COX-3): filling in the gaps toward a COX continuum?". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. 99 (21): 13371–3. Bibcode:2002PNAS...9913371W. doi:10.1073/pnas.222543099. PMC 129677. PMID 12374850.
14. ^ World Health Organization (2023). The selection and use of essential medicines 2023: web annex A: World Health Organization model list of essential medicines: 23rd list (2023). Geneva: World Health Organization. hdl:10665/371090. WHO/MHP/HPS/EML/2023.02.
15. ^ "The Top 300 of 2021". ClinCalc. Archived from the original on 15 January 2024. Retrieved 14 January 2024.
16. ^ "Aspirin - Drug Usage Statistics, US 2013-2021". ClinCalc. Retrieved 14 January 2024.

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7 March 1914 – Prince William of Wied arrives in Albania to begin his reign as King.

Wilhelm, Prince of Albania

Prince of Albania (1876–1945)

"William of Wied" redirects here. For his father, see William, Prince of Wied.

Wilhelm, Prince of Albania (Wilhelm Friedrich Heinrich; Albanian: Vilhelm, Princ i Shqipërisë, 26 March 1876 – 18 April 1945) was sovereign of the Principality of Albania from 7 March to 3 September 1914. His reign officially came to an end on 31 January 1925, when the country was declared an Albanian Republic.

Outside the country and in diplomatic correspondence, he was styled "sovereign prince", but in Albania, he was referred to as mbret, or king.
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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8 March 1817 – The New York Stock Exchange is founded.

New York Stock Exchange

American stock exchange

This article is about the stock exchange. For its parent company, see Intercontinental Exchange. For the headquarters building, see New York Stock Exchange Building.

The New York Stock Exchange (NYSE, nicknamed "The Big Board")^[4] is an American stock exchange in the Financial District of Lower Manhattan in New York City. It is the largest stock exchange in the world by market capitalization.^[5][6][7]

The NYSE trading floor is located at the New York Stock Exchange Building on 11 Wall Street and 18 Broad Street and is a National Historic Landmark. A previous trading room, at 30 Broad Street, was closed in February 2007.

The NYSE is owned by Intercontinental Exchange, an American holding company that it also lists (NYSE: ICE). Previously, it was part of NYSE Euronext (NYX), which was formed by the NYSE's 2007 merger with Euronext.^[8] According to a Gallup poll conducted in 2022, approximately 58% of American adults reported having money invested in the stock market, either through individual stocks, mutual funds, or retirement accounts.^[9]

1. ^ "History of the New York Stock Exchange". Library of Congress. Archived from the original on April 4, 2016. Retrieved March 28, 2016.
2. ^ "Listings Directory for NYSE Stocks".
3. ^ "Market Statistics – Focus". Focus.world-exchanges.org. World Federation of Exchanges. Retrieved March 18, 2024.
4. ^ "Merriam-Webster Dictionary's definition of "Big Board"". Merriam-Webster. Archived from the original on January 20, 2013. Retrieved November 6, 2012.(subscription required)
5. ^ "The NYSE Makes Stock Exchanges Around The World Look Tiny". Business Insider. Archived from the original on January 26, 2017. Retrieved March 26, 2017.
6. ^ "2016". Archived from the original on February 12, 2019. Retrieved February 6, 2019.
7. ^ "Is the New York Stock Exchange the Largest Stock Market in the World?". Archived from the original on January 26, 2017. Retrieved March 26, 2017.
8. ^ Rothwell, Steve (December 19, 2012), "For the New York Stock Exchange, a sell order", San Jose Mercury News, Associated Press
9. ^ LYDIA SAAD and JEFFREY M. JONES (May 12, 2022). "What Percentage of Americans Own Stock?". Gallup, Inc. Retrieved May 12, 2022.

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9 March 1976 – Forty-two people die in the Cavalese cable car disaster, the worst cable-car accident to date

1976 Cavalese cable car crash

1976 deadly cable car crash in Cavalese, Italy

For the 1998 airplane crash, see 1998 Cavalese cable car crash.

The Cavalese cable car crash is the deadliest cable car crash in history. On 9 March 1976, the steel supporting cable broke as a fully loaded cable car was descending from Mt. Cermis, near the Italian ski resort of Cavalese in the Dolomites, 40 km (25 mi) north-east of Trento. The cause of the disaster was an overlap of the carrier cable with the support cable near the first pylon, which resulted in the carrier shearing the support cable.^[1]

1. ^ Sardi, Luigi (2002) [2002]. I due Cermis. Curcu & Genovese. ISBN 8887534462.

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10 March 1535 – Spaniard Fray Tomás de Berlanga, the fourth Bishop of Panama, discovers the Galápagos Islands by chance on his way to Peru

Tomás de Berlanga

Fourth Bishop of Panamá (1487–1551)

Fray Tomás de Berlanga (1487 – 8 August 1551) was the fourth Bishop of Panamá.^[1][2]

1. ^ Fray Tomas de Berlanga - Catholic Encyclopedia article
2. ^ Eubel, Konrad (1923). Hierarchia catholica medii et recentioris aevi. Vol. III (second ed.). Münster: Libreria Regensbergiana. p. 268. (in Latin)

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11 March 1708 – Queen Anne withholds Royal Assent from the Scottish Militia Bill, the last time a British monarch vetoes legislation

Royal assent

Formal approval of a proposed law in monarchies

Not to be confused with King's Consent.

Royal assent is the method by which a monarch formally approves an act of the legislature, either directly or through an official acting on the monarch's behalf. In some jurisdictions, royal assent is equivalent to promulgation, while in others that is a separate step. Under a modern constitutional monarchy, royal assent is considered little more than a formality. Even in nations such as the United Kingdom, Norway, the Netherlands, Liechtenstein and Monaco which still, in theory, permit their monarch to withhold assent to laws, the monarch almost never does so, except in a dire political emergency or on advice of government. While the power to veto by withholding royal assent was once exercised often by European monarchs, such an occurrence has been very rare since the eighteenth century.

Royal assent is typically associated with elaborate ceremony. In the United Kingdom the Sovereign may appear personally in the House of Lords or may appoint Lords Commissioners, who announce that royal assent has been granted at a ceremony held at the Palace of Westminster for this purpose. However, royal assent is usually granted less ceremonially by letters patent. In other nations, such as Australia, the governor-general (as the Monarch's representative) has the right to dissolve the parliament^[1] and to sign a bill.^{[citation needed]} In Canada, the governor general may give assent either in person at a ceremony in the Senate or by a written declaration notifying Parliament of their agreement to the bill.

1. ^ "The Australian Constitution – Section 5 – Sessions of Parliament – Prorogation and Dissolution". australianpolitics.com. Archived from the original on 20 October 2021. Retrieved 22 August 2021.

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12 March 1947 – Cold War: The Truman Doctrine is proclaimed to help stem the spread of Communism

Truman Doctrine

Anti-Soviet American Cold War foreign policy

The Truman Doctrine is an American foreign policy that pledges American "support for democracies against authoritarian threats."^[1] The doctrine originated with the primary goal of countering the growth of the Soviet bloc during the Cold War. It was announced to Congress by President Harry S. Truman on March 12, 1947,^[2] and further developed on July 4, 1948, when he pledged to oppose the communist rebellions in Greece and Soviet demands from Turkey. More generally, the Truman Doctrine implied American support for other nations threatened by Moscow. It led to the formation of NATO in 1949. Historians often use Truman's speech to Congress on March 12, 1947 to date the start of the Cold War.^[3]

Truman told Congress that "it must be the policy of the United States to support free peoples who are resisting attempted subjugation by armed minorities or by outside pressures."^[4] Truman contended that because totalitarian regimes coerced free peoples, they automatically represented a threat to international peace and the national security of the United States. Truman argued that if Greece and Turkey did not receive the aid, they would inevitably fall out of the United States' sphere of influence and into the communist bloc, with grave consequences throughout the region.

The Truman Doctrine was informally extended to become the basis of American Cold War policy throughout Europe and around the world.^[5] It shifted U.S. policy toward the Soviet Union from a wartime alliance to containment of Soviet expansion, as advocated by diplomat George Kennan.

1. ^ "The Truman Doctrine, 1947". Office of the Historian, Foreign Service Institute, United States Department of State. Archived from the original on May 16, 2017. Retrieved September 24, 2022.
2. ^ Cite error: The named reference DM was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
3. ^ "The Truman Doctrine's Significance". History on the Net. November 10, 2020. Archived from the original on May 1, 2021. Retrieved November 10, 2020.
4. ^ Michael Beschloss (2006). Our Documents: 100 Milestone Documents From The National Archives. Oxford University Press. pp. 194–199. ISBN 978-0-19-530959-1. Archived from the original on June 30, 2023. Retrieved October 27, 2015.
5. ^ Cite error: The named reference MerrillTruDoct was invoked but never defined (see the help page).

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13 March 2013 – The 2013 papal conclave elects Pope Francis as the 266th Pope of the Catholic Church.

[URL='https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2013']2013[/URL] – The [URL='https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2013_papal_conclave']2013 papal conclave[/URL] elects [URL='https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pope_Francis']Pope Francis[/URL] as the [URL='https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_popes']266th[/URL] [URL='https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pope']Pope[/URL] of the [URL='https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catholic_Church']Catholic Church[/URL].

 

14 March 1982 – The South African government bombs the headquarters of the African National Congress in London

1982 bombing of the African National Congress headquarters in London

Pro-apartheid attack by the South African government in Islington, London

The London offices of the African National Congress (ANC) were wrecked by an 11-kilogram (24 lb) bomb which exploded against the rear wall at 9 am on 14 March 1982. Windows up to 400 yards away were broken. Caretaker Vernet Mbatha, an ANC voluntary worker, who was sleeping in a flat above the offices, was injured.^[1] Significant damage was caused to buildings on White Lion Street and Penton Street, where the office was located. The offices served as the ANC's headquarters in exile since the 1960s.^[2]

Anti-apartheid activists blamed the South African government. The decision to bomb the office was made following ANC attacks in South Africa, including a rocket attack on the Voortrekkerhoogte military base in August 1981.^[3] It was also to demonstrate South Africa's displeasure with the British government.^[4] The property was repaired and was the ANC's base until Nelson Mandela's election as South African president in 1994.

General Johann Coetzee, former head of the Security Branch of the South African Police, and eight other South African policemen, admitted to the attack at an amnesty hearing of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in Pretoria in September 1998.^[5] Coetzee claimed the "symbolic attack" was ordered by the National Party government of the time.^[6]

1. ^ Davies, Nick (15 March 2013). "From the archive, 15 March 1982: Bomb blast at ANC London office". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 19 March 2014. Retrieved 8 September 2014.
2. ^ Morris, James. "'Islington's 1982 Blitz': The story of when secret agents bombed ANC offices in Penton Street". Archived from the original on 29 April 2018. Retrieved 28 April 2018.
3. ^ sahoboss (16 March 2011). "Voortrekkerhoogte military base is attacked". Archived from the original on 12 June 2018. Retrieved 28 April 2018.
4. ^ "This day in history: ANC London office bombed - SA Breaking News". Wayback Machine. 14 March 2017. Archived from the original on 10 September 2017. Retrieved 30 September 2021.
5. ^ McGreal, Chris (16 October 1999). "Amnesty for bombers who blasted London ANC office". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 8 September 2014. Retrieved 8 September 2014.
6. ^ Hossack, Colin (8 September 1998). "South Africa: Nat government ordered bombing of ANC London office" – via AllAfrica.

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15 March 1978 – Somalia and Ethiopia signed a truce to end the Ethio-Somali War.

Ogaden War

1977–1978 war between Ethiopia and Somalia over Ogaden region

Not to be confused with Insurgency in Ogaden or Battle of the Ogaden.

The Ogaden War, also known as the Ethio-Somali War (Somali: Dagaalkii Xoraynta Soomaali Galbeed, Amharic: የኢትዮጵያ ሶማሊያ ጦርነት, romanized: ye’ītiyop’iya somalīya t’orinet), was a military conflict fought between Somalia and Ethiopia from July 1977 to March 1978 over the sovereignty of Ogaden. Somalia's invasion of the region, precursor to the wider war,^[32] met with the Soviet Union's disapproval, leading the superpower to end its support for Somalia to fully support Ethiopia instead.

Ethiopia was saved from defeat and permanent loss of territory through a massive airlift of military supplies worth $1 billion, the arrival of more than 12,000 Cuban soldiers and airmen^[33] and 1,500 Soviet advisors, led by General Vasily Petrov. On 23 January 1978, Cuban armored brigades inflicted the worst losses the Somali forces had ever taken in a single action since the start of the war.^[34]

The Ethiopian-Cuban force (equipped with 300 tanks, 156 artillery pieces and 46 combat aircraft)^[26] prevailed at Harar and Jijiga, and began to push the Somalis systematically out of the Ogaden. On 23 March 1978, the Ethiopian government declared that the last border post had been regained, thus ending the war.^[35] Almost a third of the regular SNA soldiers, three-eighths of the armored units and half of the Somali Air Force had been lost during the war. The war left Somalia with a disorganized and demoralized army as well as a heavy disapproval from its population. These conditions led to a revolt in the army which eventually spiraled into the ongoing Somali Civil War.^[36]

1. ^ "Ogaden Area recaptured by Ethiopian Forces with Soviet and Cuban Support – International Ramifications of Ethiopian-Somali Conflict – Incipient Soviet and Cuban Involvement in Ethiopian Warfare against Eritrean Secessionists – Political Assassinations inside Ethiopia". Keesing's Record of World Events (formerly Keesing's Contemporary Archives). 1 May 1978. Archived from the original on 30 June 2022. Retrieved 4 August 2021.
2. ^ Lefebvre, Jeffrey Alan. Arms for the horn : U.S. Security Policy in Ethiopia and Somalia. University of Pitsburg Press. p. 188. OCLC 1027491003.
3. ^ "Arms and Rumors From East, West Sweep Ethiopia". Washington Post. Retrieved 9 September 2022.
4. ^ Cite error: The named reference East-Germany-Ethiopia was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
5. ^ Prentis Woodroofe, Louise (1994). "Buried in the Sands of the Ogaden: The United States, The Horn of Africa and The Demise of Detente" (PDF). London School of Economics and Political Science.
6. ^ "North Korea's Military Partners in the Horn". The Diplomat. Retrieved 6 January 2018.
7. ^ ^{a b} Mekonnen, Teferi (2018). "The Nile issue and the Somali-Ethiopian wars (1960s–78)". Annales d'Éthiopie. 32: 271–291. doi:10.3406/ethio.2018.1657.
8. ^ ^{a b} Fitzgerald, Nina J. (2002). Somalia; Issues, History, and Bibliography. Nova Publishers. p. 64. ISBN 978-1590332658.
9. ^ Malovany, Pesach (2017). Wars of Modern Babylon. University Press of Kentucky. ISBN 978-0813169453.
10. ^ ^{a b} Tareke 2000, p. 656.
11. ^ Ayele 2014, p. 106: "MOND classified documents reveal that the full-scale Somali invasion came on Tuesday, July 12, 1977. The date of the invasion was not, therefore, July 13 or July 23 as some authors have claimed."
12. ^ Tareke 2000.
13. ^ Gorman 1981, p. 208.
14. ^ Tareke 2009, pp. 204–205.
15. ^ Tareke 2000, p. 638.
16. ^ ^{a b} Ayele 2014, p. 105.
17. ^ Gleijeses, Piero (2013). Visions of Freedom: Havana, Washington, Pretoria and the Struggle for Southern Africa, 1976–1991. Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press. p. 45. ISBN 978-1-4696-0968-3.
18. ^ White, Matthew (2011). Atrocities: The 100 Deadliest Episodes in Human History. W.W. Norton & Company. ISBN 978-0-393-08330-9.
19. ^ South Yemen's Revolutionary Strategy, 1970–1985. Routledge. 2019. ISBN 978-1000312294.
20. ^ Dixon, Jeffrey S.; Sarkees, Meredith Reid (2015). A Guide to Intra-state Wars. ISBN 978-0872897755.
21. ^ ^{a b} Tareke 2000, p. 640.
22. ^ Tareke 2000, p. 663.
23. ^ Muuse Yuusuf (2021). Genesis of the civil war in Somalia. London: I.B. Tauris. OCLC 1238133342.
24. ^ ^{a b c d e f g} Tareke 2000, p. 665.
25. ^ ^{a b c} Ayele 2014, p. 123.
26. ^ ^{a b c} "La Fuerza Aérea de Cuba en la Guerra de Etiopía (Ogadén) • Rubén Urribarres". Aviación Cubana • Rubén Urribarres.
27. ^ ^{a b c} "ТОТАЛЬНАЯ СОЦИАЛИСТИЧЕСКАЯ ВОЙНА. НЕДОКУМЕНТАЛЬНЫЕ ЗАПИСКИ: Война между Эфиопией и Сомали 1977–78 гг. Page 2". Archived from the original on 2019-05-09. Retrieved 2009-05-27.
28. ^ "68. Ethiopia/Ogaden (1948-present)". UCA. 1948-07-24. Retrieved 2024-03-26.
29. ^ ^{a b c d e} Ayele 2014, p. 124.
30. ^ "4. Insurrection and Invasion in the Southeast, 1962–78" (PDF). Evil Days: Thirty Years of War and Famine in Ethiopia. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2016-12-26.
31. ^ Evil days: thirty years of war and famine in Ethiopia. New York: Human Rights Watch. 1991. ISBN 978-1564320384 – via Internet Archive.
32. ^ Tareke 2009, p. 186.
33. ^ Clodfelter 2017, p. 557.
34. ^ Pollack, Kenneth Michael (2019). Armies of Sand: The Past, Present, and Future of Arab Military Effectiveness. Oxford University Press. pp. 90–91.
35. ^ Tareke 2000, p. 660.
36. ^ "The Rise and Fall of Somalia". stratfor.com. Retrieved 8 December 2016.

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16 March 1978 – Supertanker Amoco Cadiz splits in two after running aground on the Portsall Rocks, three miles off the coast of Brittany, resulting in the largest oil spill in history at that time

Amoco Cadiz

Oil tanker which ran aground in Brittany, France (1978)

Amoco Cadiz was a VLCC (very large crude carrier) owned by Amoco Transport Corp and transporting crude oil for Shell Oil. Operating under the Liberian flag, she ran aground on 16 March 1978 on Portsall Rocks, 2 km (1.2 mi) from the coast of Brittany, France. Ultimately she split in three and sank, resulting in the largest oil spill of its kind in history to that date.^[1][2]

1. ^ ^{a b c} "Amoco Cadiz (IMO 7336422): Summary for Casualty ID 19780316_001". Casualty Database. Center for Tankship Excellence. Archived from the original on 25 July 2011. Retrieved 16 June 2010.
2. ^ ^{a b} Visser, Auke (26 August 2010). "Amoco Cadiz". International Super Tankers. Archived from the original on 4 March 2012. Retrieved 9 September 2010.

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17 March 1992 – A referendum to end apartheid in South Africa is passed 68.7% to 31.2%.

1992 South African apartheid referendum

"Yes" vote by white South Africans to abolish apartheid

A referendum on ending apartheid was held in South Africa on 17 March 1992. The referendum was limited to white South African voters,^[1][2] who were asked whether or not they supported the negotiated reforms begun by State President F. W. de Klerk two years earlier, in which he proposed to end the apartheid system that had been implemented since 1948. The result of the election was a large victory for the "yes" side, which ultimately resulted in apartheid being lifted. Universal suffrage was introduced two years later.^[3]

1. ^ 1992: South Africa votes for change BBC News
2. ^ Elections in South Africa African Elections Database
3. ^ "1992: South Africa votes for change". 18 March 1992. Retrieved 12 March 2023.

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18 March 1834 – Six farm labourers from Tolpuddle, Dorset, England are sentenced to be transported to Australia for forming a trade union.

Tolpuddle Martyrs

English agricultural labourers convicted for unionising

Tolpuddle

class=notpageimage|

Location of Tolpuddle in England

The Tolpuddle Martyrs were six agricultural labourers from the village of Tolpuddle in Dorset, England, who, in 1834, were convicted of swearing a secret oath as members of the Friendly Society of Agricultural Labourers. They were arrested on charges under the Unlawful Oaths Act during a labour dispute over cut wages before being convicted in R v Loveless and Others and sentenced to penal transportation to Australia.^[1][2] They were pardoned in 1836 after mass protests by sympathisers and support from Lord John Russell and returned to England between 1837 and 1839.

The Tolpuddle Martyrs became a popular cause for the early union and workers' rights movements.

1. ^ Judge, Ben. "18 March 1834: Tolpuddle Martyrs sentenced to transportation". Money Week. Retrieved 18 March 2024.
2. ^ Davis, Graham (2011). In Search of a Better Life: British and Irish Migration. The History Press. p. 94. ISBN 9780752474601. Retrieved 13 March 2015.

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19 March 2013 – A series of bombings and shootings kills at least 98 people and injures 240 others across Iraq.

19 March 2013 Iraq attacks

Bombings and shootings in Baghdad, U.S.-occupied Iraq

The 19 March 2013 Iraq attacks were a series of coordinated bombings and shootings across the capital Baghdad and several major cities in the north and central parts of the country. At least 98 people were killed and more than 240 others injured in the wave of violence, which took place on the tenth anniversary of the beginning of the Iraq War.^{[1][2][3][4][5]}

1. ^ "Baghdad Shia areas hit by deadly car bombs". BBC News. 19 March 2013. Archived from the original on 2 December 2017. Retrieved 19 March 2013.
2. ^ Markey, Patrick; Raheem, Kareem (19 March 2013). "Bombs kill 50 on Iraq invasion anniversary". Reuters. Archived from the original on 13 January 2016. Retrieved 19 March 2013.
3. ^ Margaret Griffis (19 March 2013). "Iraq Invasion Anniversary Carnage: 98 Killed, over 240 Wounded". Antiwar.com. Archived from the original on 7 August 2019. Retrieved 19 March 2013.
4. ^ Mohammed Tawfeeq; Joe Sterling (19 March 2013). "Attacks claim 55 lives on Iraq anniversary". CNN. Archived from the original on 4 February 2015. Retrieved 4 February 2015.
5. ^ "Series of bomb blasts kill scores in Baghdad". aljazeera.com. Archived from the original on 15 February 2015. Retrieved 4 February 2015.

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20 March 1922 – The USS Langley is commissioned as the first United States Navy aircraft carrier.

USS Langley (CV-1)

First United States Navy aircraft carrier

For other ships with the same name, see USS Langley.

USS Langley (CV-1/AV-3) was the United States Navy's first aircraft carrier, converted in 1920 from the collier USS Jupiter (Navy Fleet Collier No. 3), and also the US Navy's first turbo-electric-powered ship. Conversion of another collier was planned but canceled when the Washington Naval Treaty required the cancellation of the partially built Lexington-class battlecruisers Lexington and Saratoga, freeing up their hulls for conversion to the aircraft carriers Lexington and Saratoga. Langley was named after Samuel Langley, an American aviation pioneer. Following another conversion to a seaplane tender, Langley fought in World War II. On 27 February 1942, while ferrying a cargo of USAAF P-40s to Java, she was attacked by nine twin-engine Japanese bombers^[4] of the Japanese 21st and 23rd naval air flotillas^[2] and so badly damaged that she had to be scuttled by her escorts. She was also the only carrier of her class.

1. ^ "H-069-1: "The Covered Wagon": USS Langley (CV-1)". Archived from the original on 3 June 2022. Retrieved 3 June 2022.
2. ^ ^{a b c d e f g h i} Ford et al. 2001, p. 330
3. ^ Messimer, Dwight (1983). Pawns of War: The Loss of the USS Langley and the USS Pecos. Annapolis, MD: United States Naval Institute.
4. ^ USN 2009.

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21 March 1965 – Martin Luther King Jr. leads 3,200 people on the start of the third and finally successful civil rights march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama.

Selma to Montgomery marches

1965 nonviolent protests for African-American voting rights in Alabama, United States

The Selma to Montgomery marches were three protest marches, held in 1965, along the 54-mile (87 km) highway from Selma, Alabama, to the state capital of Montgomery. The marches were organized by nonviolent activists to demonstrate the desire of African-American citizens to exercise their constitutional right to vote, in defiance of segregationist repression; they were part of a broader voting rights movement underway in Selma and throughout the American South. By highlighting racial injustice, they contributed to passage that year of the Voting Rights Act, a landmark federal achievement of the civil rights movement.

Since the late 19th century, Southern state legislatures had passed and maintained a series of Jim Crow laws that had disenfranchised the millions of African Americans across the South and enforced racial segregation. The initial voter registration drive, started in 1963 by the African-American Dallas County Voters League (DCVL) and the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) failed as local White officials arrested the organizers and otherwise harassed Blacks wishing to register to vote. The passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 legally ended segregation but the situation in Selma changed little. The DCVL then invited Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and the activists of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) to amplify the efforts, and these figures drew more prominent people to Alabama. Local and regional protests began in January 1965, with 3,000 people arrested by the end of February. On February 26, activist and deacon Jimmie Lee Jackson died after being shot several days earlier by state trooper James Bonard Fowler during a peaceful march in nearby Marion. To defuse and refocus the Black community's outrage, James Bevel, who was directing SCLC's Selma voting rights movement, called for a march of dramatic length, from Selma to the state capital of Montgomery, calling for an unhindered exercise of the right to vote.^{[3][page needed][4]}

The first march took place on March 7, 1965, led by figures including Bevel and Amelia Boynton, but was ended by state troopers and county possemen, who charged on about 600 unarmed protesters with batons and tear gas after they crossed the Edmund Pettus Bridge in the direction of Montgomery. The event became known as Bloody Sunday.^[5][6] Law enforcement beat Boynton unconscious, and the media publicized worldwide a picture of her lying wounded on the bridge.^[7] The second march took place two days later but King cut it short as a federal court issued a temporary injunction against further marches. That night, an anti-civil rights group murdered civil rights activist James Reeb, a Unitarian Universalist minister from Boston.^[8] The third march, which started on March 21, was escorted by the Alabama National Guard under federal control, the FBI and federal marshals (segregationist Governor George Wallace refused to protect the protesters). Thousands of marchers averaged 10 mi (16 km) a day along U.S. Route 80 (US 80), reaching Montgomery on March 24. The following day, 25,000 people staged a demonstration on the steps of the Alabama State Capitol.

The violence of "Bloody Sunday" and Reeb's murder resulted in a national outcry, and the marches were widely discussed in national and international news media. The protesters campaigned for a new federal voting rights law to enable African Americans to register and vote without harassment. President Lyndon B. Johnson seized the opportunity and held a historic, nationally televised joint session of Congress on March 15, asking lawmakers to pass what is now known as the Voting Rights Act of 1965. He enacted it on August 6, removing obstacles for Blacks to register en masse. The march route is memorialized and designated as the Selma to Montgomery National Historic Trail.

1. ^ Taylor Branch, At Canaan's Edge: America in the King Years 1965–1968
   • Fay Bellamy Powell, Simon & Schuster, 2007, p. 198.
2. ^ "Swarthmore College Bulletin (July 2014)".
3. ^ Kryn, Randall (1989). "James L. Bevel: The Strategist of the 1960s Civil Rights Movement". In Garrow, David (ed.). We Shall Overcome: The Civil Rights Movement in the United States in the 1950's and 1960's. Martin Luther King, Jr. and the Civil Rights Movement, no. 5. Vol. II. Brooklyn, N.Y.: Carlson Publishing Company. ISBN 9780926019027. OCLC 19740619.
4. ^ Randy Kryn, "Movement Revision Research Summary Regarding James Bevel" Archived March 3, 2016, at the Wayback Machine, October 2005, Middlebury College.
5. ^ "Student March at Nyack". The New York Times. March 11, 1965. p. 19. Retrieved March 9, 2015.
6. ^ Reed, Roy (March 6, 1966). "'Bloody Sunday' Was Year Ago". The New York Times. p. 76. Retrieved March 9, 2015.
7. ^ Sheila Jackson Hardy; P. Stephen Hardy (2008). Extraordinary People of the Civil Rights Movement. Paw Prints. p. 264. ISBN 978-1-4395-2357-5. Retrieved March 6, 2011.
8. ^ "James Joseph Reeb". uudb.org. Archived from the original on January 3, 2022. Retrieved July 5, 2019.

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22 March 1945 – The Arab League is founded when a charter is adopted in Cairo, Egypt.

Arab League

Regional organization

This article is about the regional organization. For the geographical region, see Arab world.

The Arab League (Arabic: الجامعة العربية, al-Jāmiʿa al-ʻArabiyya Arabic pronunciation: [al.d͡ʒaː.mi.ʕa al.ʕa.ra.bij.ja] ^ⓘ), formally the League of Arab States (Arabic: جامعة الدول العربية, Jāmiʿat ad-Duwal al-ʿArabiyya), is a regional organization in the Arab world. The Arab League was formed in Cairo on 22 March 1945, initially with six members: Egypt, Iraq, Transjordan, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, and Syria.^[3] Yemen joined as a member on 5 May 1945. Currently, the League has 22 members.

The League's main goal is to "draw closer the relations between member states and co-ordinate collaboration between them, to safeguard their independence and sovereignty, and to consider in a general way the affairs and interests of the Arab countries".^[4] The organization has received a relatively low level of cooperation throughout its history.^[5]

Through institutions, notably the Arab League Educational, Cultural and Scientific Organization (ALECSO) and the Economic and Social Council of its Council of Arab Economic Unity (CAEU), the League facilitates political, economic, cultural, scientific, and social programmes designed to promote the interests of the Arab world.^[6][7] It has served as a forum for the member states to coordinate policy, arrange studies of and committees as to matters of common concern, settle inter-state disputes and limit conflicts such as the 1958 Lebanon crisis. The League has served as a platform for the drafting and conclusion of many landmark documents promoting economic integration. One example is the Joint Arab Economic Action Charter, which outlines the principles for economic activities in the region.

Each member state has one vote in the Council of the Arab League, and decisions are binding only for those states that have voted for them. The aims of the league in 1945 were to strengthen and coordinate the political, cultural, economic and social programs of its members and to mediate disputes among them or between them and third parties. Furthermore, the signing of an agreement on Joint Defence and Economic Cooperation on 13 April 1950 committed the signatories to coordination of military defence measures. In March 2015, the Arab League General Secretary announced the establishment of a Joint Arab Force with the aim of counteracting extremism and other threats to the Arab States. The decision was reached while Operation Decisive Storm was intensifying in Yemen. Participation in the project is voluntary, and the army intervenes only at the request of one of the member states. Heightened military arsenal in many member states and, in a small minority, civil wars as well as terrorist movements were the impetuses for JAF's establishment.^[8]

In the early 1970s, the Economic Council put forward a proposal to create the Joint Arab Chambers of Commerce across international states. That led to the setting up of mandates to promote, encourage and facilitate bilateral trade between the Arab world and significant trading partners.

1. ^ "World Population Prospects – Population Division – United Nations". population.un.org. Archived from the original on 20 May 2020. Retrieved 16 May 2021.
2. ^ "Report for Selected Countries and Subjects". IMF. Archived from the original on 7 April 2021. Retrieved 16 May 2021.
3. ^ "Arab League". The Columbia Encyclopedia. 2013.
4. ^ "Pact of the League of Arab States, 22 March 1945". The Avalon Project. Yale Law School. 1998. Archived from the original on 25 July 2008. Retrieved 15 July 2012.
5. ^ Barnett, Michael; Solingen, Etel (2007), Johnston, Alastair Iain; Acharya, Amitav (eds.), "Designed to fail or failure of design? The origins and legacy of the Arab League", Crafting Cooperation: Regional International Institutions in Comparative Perspective, Cambridge University Press, pp. 180–220, doi:10.1017/cbo9780511491436.006, ISBN 978-0-521-69942-6, archived from the original on 11 June 2018, retrieved 22 December 2021
6. ^ "The Arab League Educational, Cultural and Scientific Organization (ALESCO)". Archived from the original on 27 June 2012. Retrieved 31 March 2024.
7. ^ Ashish K. Vaidya, Globalization (ABC-CLIO: 2006), p. 525.
8. ^ Fanack. "The Joint Arab Force – Will It Ever Work?". Fanack.com. Archived from the original on 13 July 2015. Retrieved 13 July 2015.

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23 March 2020 – Prime Minister Boris Johnson put the United Kingdom into its first national lockdown in response to COVID-19.

COVID-19

Contagious disease caused by SARS-CoV-2

For the global pandemic caused by the disease, see COVID-19 pandemic. For other diseases caused by coronaviruses, see Coronavirus diseases.

Medical condition

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2. The first known case was identified in Wuhan, China, in December 2019.^[7] The disease quickly spread worldwide, resulting in the COVID-19 pandemic.

The symptoms of COVID‑19 are variable but often include fever,^[8] fatigue, cough, breathing difficulties, loss of smell, and loss of taste.^[9][10][11] Symptoms may begin one to fourteen days after exposure to the virus. At least a third of people who are infected do not develop noticeable symptoms.^[12][13] Of those who develop symptoms noticeable enough to be classified as patients, most (81%) develop mild to moderate symptoms (up to mild pneumonia), while 14% develop severe symptoms (dyspnea, hypoxia, or more than 50% lung involvement on imaging), and 5% develop critical symptoms (respiratory failure, shock, or multiorgan dysfunction).^[14] Older people are at a higher risk of developing severe symptoms. Some complications result in death. Some people continue to experience a range of effects (long COVID) for months or years after infection, and damage to organs has been observed.^[15] Multi-year studies are underway to further investigate the long-term effects of the disease.^[16]

COVID‑19 transmission occurs when infectious particles are breathed in or come into contact with the eyes, nose, or mouth. The risk is highest when people are in close proximity, but small airborne particles containing the virus can remain suspended in the air and travel over longer distances, particularly indoors. Transmission can also occur when people touch their eyes, nose or mouth after touching surfaces or objects that have been contaminated by the virus. People remain contagious for up to 20 days and can spread the virus even if they do not develop symptoms.^[17]

Testing methods for COVID-19 to detect the virus's nucleic acid include real-time reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT‑PCR),^[18][19] transcription-mediated amplification,^[18][19][20] and reverse transcription loop-mediated isothermal amplification (RT‑LAMP)^[18][19] from a nasopharyngeal swab.^[21]

Several COVID-19 vaccines have been approved and distributed in various countries, many of which have initiated mass vaccination campaigns. Other preventive measures include physical or social distancing, quarantining, ventilation of indoor spaces, use of face masks or coverings in public, covering coughs and sneezes, hand washing, and keeping unwashed hands away from the face. While drugs have been developed to inhibit the virus, the primary treatment is still symptomatic, managing the disease through supportive care, isolation, and experimental measures.

1. ^ "Covid-19". Oxford English Dictionary (Online ed.). Oxford University Press. April 2020. Retrieved 15 April 2020. (Subscription or participating institution membership required.)
2. ^ "Symptoms of Coronavirus". U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). 13 May 2020. Archived from the original on 17 June 2020. Retrieved 18 June 2020.
3. ^ "Q&A on coronaviruses (COVID-19)". World Health Organization (WHO). 17 April 2020. Archived from the original on 14 May 2020. Retrieved 14 May 2020.
4. ^ ^{a b} Ritchie H, Mathieu E, Rodés-Guirao L, Appel C, Giattino C, Ortiz-Ospina E, et al. (2020–2022). "Coronavirus Pandemic (COVID-19)". Our World in Data. Retrieved 23 April 2024.
5. ^ Mathieu E, Ritchie H, Rodés-Guirao L, Appel C, Giattino C, Hasell J, et al. (5 March 2020). "Coronavirus Pandemic (COVID-19)". Our World in Data. Archived from the original on 24 February 2024. Retrieved 24 February 2024.
6. ^ "The pandemic's true death toll". The Economist. 28 August 2023 [2 November 2021]. Retrieved 28 August 2023.
7. ^ Page J, Hinshaw D, McKay B (26 February 2021). "In Hunt for Covid-19 Origin, Patient Zero Points to Second Wuhan Market – The man with the first confirmed infection of the new coronavirus told the WHO team that his parents had shopped there". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 27 February 2021.
8. ^ Islam MA (April 2021). "Prevalence and characteristics of fever in adult and paediatric patients with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19): A systematic review and meta-analysis of 17515 patients". PLOS ONE. 16 (4): e0249788. Bibcode:2021PLoSO..1649788I. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0249788. PMC 8023501. PMID 33822812.
9. ^ Saniasiaya J, Islam MA (April 2021). "Prevalence of Olfactory Dysfunction in Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19): A Meta-analysis of 27,492 Patients". The Laryngoscope. 131 (4): 865–878. doi:10.1002/lary.29286. ISSN 0023-852X. PMC 7753439. PMID 33219539.
10. ^ Saniasiaya J, Islam MA (November 2020). "Prevalence and Characteristics of Taste Disorders in Cases of COVID-19: A Meta-analysis of 29,349 Patients" (PDF). Otolaryngology–Head and Neck Surgery. 165 (1): 33–42. doi:10.1177/0194599820981018. PMID 33320033. S2CID 229174644.
11. ^ Agyeman AA, Chin KL, Landersdorfer CB, Liew D, Ofori-Asenso R (August 2020). "Smell and Taste Dysfunction in Patients With COVID-19: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis". Mayo Clin. Proc. 95 (8): 1621–1631. doi:10.1016/j.mayocp.2020.05.030. PMC 7275152. PMID 32753137.
12. ^ Wang B, Andraweera P, Elliott S, Mohammed H, Lassi Z, Twigger A, et al. (March 2023). "Asymptomatic SARS-CoV-2 Infection by Age: A Global Systematic Review and Meta-analysis". The Pediatric Infectious Disease Journal. 42 (3): 232–239. doi:10.1097/INF.0000000000003791. PMC 9935239. PMID 36730054. Retrieved 15 November 2023.
13. ^ Oran DP, Topol EJ (January 2021). "The Proportion of SARS-CoV-2 Infections That Are Asymptomatic: A Systematic Review". Annals of Internal Medicine. 174 (5): M20-6976. doi:10.7326/M20-6976. PMC 7839426. PMID 33481642.
14. ^ "Interim Clinical Guidance for Management of Patients with Confirmed Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19)". U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). 6 April 2020. Archived from the original on 2 March 2020. Retrieved 19 April 2020.
15. ^ Cite error: The named reference davis was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
16. ^ CDC (11 February 2020). "Post-COVID Conditions". U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Retrieved 12 July 2021.
17. ^ "Coronavirus disease (COVID-19): How is it transmitted?". World Health Organization (WHO). Retrieved 13 April 2023.
18. ^ ^{a b c} "Overview of Testing for SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19". U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). 11 February 2020. Retrieved 31 July 2022.
19. ^ ^{a b c} "Nucleic Acid Amplification Tests (NAATs)". U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). 11 February 2020. Retrieved 31 July 2022.
20. ^ Gorzalski AJ, Tian H, Laverdure C, Morzunov S, Verma SC, VanHooser S, et al. (August 2020). "High-Throughput Transcription-mediated amplification on the Hologic Panther is a highly sensitive method of detection for SARS-CoV-2". Journal of Clinical Virology. 129: 104501. doi:10.1016/j.jcv.2020.104501. PMC 7286273. PMID 32619959.
21. ^ Cite error: The named reference pmid32621814 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).

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23 March 2020 – Prime Minister Boris Johnson put the United Kingdom into its first national lockdown in response to COVID-19.

COVID-19

Contagious disease caused by SARS-CoV-2

For the global pandemic caused by the disease, see COVID-19 pandemic. For other diseases caused by coronaviruses, see Coronavirus diseases.

Medical condition

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2. The first known case was identified in Wuhan, China, in December 2019.^[7] The disease quickly spread worldwide, resulting in the COVID-19 pandemic.

The symptoms of COVID‑19 are variable but often include fever,^[8] fatigue, cough, breathing difficulties, loss of smell, and loss of taste.^[9][10][11] Symptoms may begin one to fourteen days after exposure to the virus. At least a third of people who are infected do not develop noticeable symptoms.^[12][13] Of those who develop symptoms noticeable enough to be classified as patients, most (81%) develop mild to moderate symptoms (up to mild pneumonia), while 14% develop severe symptoms (dyspnea, hypoxia, or more than 50% lung involvement on imaging), and 5% develop critical symptoms (respiratory failure, shock, or multiorgan dysfunction).^[14] Older people are at a higher risk of developing severe symptoms. Some complications result in death. Some people continue to experience a range of effects (long COVID) for months or years after infection, and damage to organs has been observed.^[15] Multi-year studies are underway to further investigate the long-term effects of the disease.^[16]

COVID‑19 transmission occurs when infectious particles are breathed in or come into contact with the eyes, nose, or mouth. The risk is highest when people are in close proximity, but small airborne particles containing the virus can remain suspended in the air and travel over longer distances, particularly indoors. Transmission can also occur when people touch their eyes, nose or mouth after touching surfaces or objects that have been contaminated by the virus. People remain contagious for up to 20 days and can spread the virus even if they do not develop symptoms.^[17]

Testing methods for COVID-19 to detect the virus's nucleic acid include real-time reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT‑PCR),^[18][19] transcription-mediated amplification,^[18][19][20] and reverse transcription loop-mediated isothermal amplification (RT‑LAMP)^[18][19] from a nasopharyngeal swab.^[21]

Several COVID-19 vaccines have been approved and distributed in various countries, many of which have initiated mass vaccination campaigns. Other preventive measures include physical or social distancing, quarantining, ventilation of indoor spaces, use of face masks or coverings in public, covering coughs and sneezes, hand washing, and keeping unwashed hands away from the face. While drugs have been developed to inhibit the virus, the primary treatment is still symptomatic, managing the disease through supportive care, isolation, and experimental measures.

1. ^ "Covid-19". Oxford English Dictionary (Online ed.). Oxford University Press. April 2020. Retrieved 15 April 2020. (Subscription or participating institution membership required.)
2. ^ "Symptoms of Coronavirus". U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). 13 May 2020. Archived from the original on 17 June 2020. Retrieved 18 June 2020.
3. ^ "Q&A on coronaviruses (COVID-19)". World Health Organization (WHO). 17 April 2020. Archived from the original on 14 May 2020. Retrieved 14 May 2020.
4. ^ ^{a b} Ritchie H, Mathieu E, Rodés-Guirao L, Appel C, Giattino C, Ortiz-Ospina E, et al. (2020–2022). "Coronavirus Pandemic (COVID-19)". Our World in Data. Retrieved 23 April 2024.
5. ^ Mathieu E, Ritchie H, Rodés-Guirao L, Appel C, Giattino C, Hasell J, et al. (5 March 2020). "Coronavirus Pandemic (COVID-19)". Our World in Data. Archived from the original on 24 February 2024. Retrieved 24 February 2024.
6. ^ "The pandemic's true death toll". The Economist. 28 August 2023 [2 November 2021]. Retrieved 28 August 2023.
7. ^ Page J, Hinshaw D, McKay B (26 February 2021). "In Hunt for Covid-19 Origin, Patient Zero Points to Second Wuhan Market – The man with the first confirmed infection of the new coronavirus told the WHO team that his parents had shopped there". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 27 February 2021.
8. ^ Islam MA (April 2021). "Prevalence and characteristics of fever in adult and paediatric patients with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19): A systematic review and meta-analysis of 17515 patients". PLOS ONE. 16 (4): e0249788. Bibcode:2021PLoSO..1649788I. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0249788. PMC 8023501. PMID 33822812.
9. ^ Saniasiaya J, Islam MA (April 2021). "Prevalence of Olfactory Dysfunction in Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19): A Meta-analysis of 27,492 Patients". The Laryngoscope. 131 (4): 865–878. doi:10.1002/lary.29286. ISSN 0023-852X. PMC 7753439. PMID 33219539.
10. ^ Saniasiaya J, Islam MA (November 2020). "Prevalence and Characteristics of Taste Disorders in Cases of COVID-19: A Meta-analysis of 29,349 Patients" (PDF). Otolaryngology–Head and Neck Surgery. 165 (1): 33–42. doi:10.1177/0194599820981018. PMID 33320033. S2CID 229174644.
11. ^ Agyeman AA, Chin KL, Landersdorfer CB, Liew D, Ofori-Asenso R (August 2020). "Smell and Taste Dysfunction in Patients With COVID-19: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis". Mayo Clin. Proc. 95 (8): 1621–1631. doi:10.1016/j.mayocp.2020.05.030. PMC 7275152. PMID 32753137.
12. ^ Wang B, Andraweera P, Elliott S, Mohammed H, Lassi Z, Twigger A, et al. (March 2023). "Asymptomatic SARS-CoV-2 Infection by Age: A Global Systematic Review and Meta-analysis". The Pediatric Infectious Disease Journal. 42 (3): 232–239. doi:10.1097/INF.0000000000003791. PMC 9935239. PMID 36730054. Retrieved 15 November 2023.
13. ^ Oran DP, Topol EJ (January 2021). "The Proportion of SARS-CoV-2 Infections That Are Asymptomatic: A Systematic Review". Annals of Internal Medicine. 174 (5): M20-6976. doi:10.7326/M20-6976. PMC 7839426. PMID 33481642.
14. ^ "Interim Clinical Guidance for Management of Patients with Confirmed Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19)". U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). 6 April 2020. Archived from the original on 2 March 2020. Retrieved 19 April 2020.
15. ^ Cite error: The named reference davis was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
16. ^ CDC (11 February 2020). "Post-COVID Conditions". U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Retrieved 12 July 2021.
17. ^ "Coronavirus disease (COVID-19): How is it transmitted?". World Health Organization (WHO). Retrieved 13 April 2023.
18. ^ ^{a b c} "Overview of Testing for SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19". U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). 11 February 2020. Retrieved 31 July 2022.
19. ^ ^{a b c} "Nucleic Acid Amplification Tests (NAATs)". U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). 11 February 2020. Retrieved 31 July 2022.
20. ^ Gorzalski AJ, Tian H, Laverdure C, Morzunov S, Verma SC, VanHooser S, et al. (August 2020). "High-Throughput Transcription-mediated amplification on the Hologic Panther is a highly sensitive method of detection for SARS-CoV-2". Journal of Clinical Virology. 129: 104501. doi:10.1016/j.jcv.2020.104501. PMC 7286273. PMID 32619959.
21. ^ Cite error: The named reference pmid32621814 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).

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