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22 July 1456 – Ottoman wars in Europe: Siege of Belgrade: John Hunyadi, Regent of the Kingdom of Hungary, defeats Mehmet II of the Ottoman Empire.

Ottoman wars in Europe

Series of military conflicts between the Ottoman Empire and various European states

A series of military conflicts between the Ottoman Empire and various European states took place from the Late Middle Ages up through the early 20th century. The earliest conflicts began during the Byzantine–Ottoman wars, waged in Anatolia in the late 13th century before entering Europe in the mid-14th century with the Bulgarian–Ottoman wars. The mid-15th century saw the Serbian–Ottoman wars and the Albanian-Ottoman wars. Much of this period was characterized by the Ottoman expansion into the Balkans. The Ottoman Empire made further inroads into Central Europe in the 15th and 16th centuries, culminating in the peak of Ottoman territorial claims in Europe.^[1][2]

The Ottoman–Venetian wars spanned four centuries, starting in 1423 and lasting until 1718. This period witnessed the fall of Negroponte in 1470, the siege of Malta in 1565, the fall of Famagusta (Cyprus) in 1571, the defeat of the Ottoman fleet at the Battle of Lepanto in 1571 (at that time the largest naval battle in history), the fall of Candia (Crete) in 1669, the Venetian reconquest of Morea (Peloponnese) in the 1680s and its loss again in 1715. The island of Venetian-ruled Corfu remained the only Greek island not conquered by the Ottomans.^[3]

In the late seventeenth century, European powers began to consolidate against the Ottomans and formed the Holy League, reversing a number of Ottoman land gains during the Great Turkish War of 1683–99. Nevertheless, Ottoman armies were able to hold their own against their European rivals until the second half of the eighteenth century.^[4][a]

In the nineteenth century the Ottomans were confronted with insurrection from their Serbian (1804–1817), Greek (1821–1832) and Romanian (1877–1878) subjects. This occurred in tandem with the Russo-Turkish wars, which further destabilized the empire. The final retreat of Ottoman rule began with the First Balkan War (1912–1913), and culminated in the signing of the Treaty of Sèvres after World War I, leading to the partitioning of the Ottoman Empire.

1. ^ Macfie (1996).
2. ^ Stavrianos (1958).
3. ^ Kakissis (2011), p. 224.
4. ^ Aksan (2007), pp. 130–135.
5. ^ Woodhead (2008), p. 983.

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23 July 1881 – The Boundary Treaty of 1881 between Chile and Argentina is signed in Buenos Aires.

Boundary Treaty of 1881 between Chile and Argentina

Territorial settlement

The Boundary Treaty of 1881 (Spanish: Tratado de Límites de 1881) between Argentina and Chile was signed on 23 July 1881 in Buenos Aires by Bernardo de Irigoyen, for Argentina, and Francisco de Borja Echeverría, for Chile, with the aim of establishing a precise border between the two countries based on the uti possidetis juris principle. Despite dividing largely unexplored lands, the treaty laid the groundwork for nearly all of Chile's and Argentina's 5600 km^[1] current border.

1. ^ See Libro de Defensa de Chile Continuidad : Historia y Geografía Archived 2009-07-26 at the Wayback Machine

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24 July 1411 – Battle of Harlaw, one of the bloodiest battles in Scotland, takes place.

Battle of Harlaw

1411 Scottish clan battle

The Battle of Harlaw (Scottish Gaelic: Cath Gairbheach) was a Scottish clan battle fought on 24 July 1411 just north of Inverurie in Aberdeenshire. It was one of a series of battles fought during the Middle Ages between the barons of northeast Scotland and those from the west coast.

The battle was part of a series of battles fought to resolve competing claims to the Earldom of Ross, a large region of northern Scotland. Robert Stewart, Duke of Albany, Regent of Scotland, had taken control of the earldom ostensibly as guardian of his granddaughter Euphemia Leslie, but in truth, though Donald of Islay, Lord of the Isles had the superior claim, Albany wanted Ross for his younger son, John. Donald, Lord of the Isles, had married Euphemia's aunt Mariota. Donald therefore invaded Ross with the intention of seizing the earldom by force and preventing Albany from taking all of Scotland.

The nearest contemporary record of the battle is found in the Irish Annals of Connacht, where under the year 1411, it is stated, "Mac Domnaill of Scotland won a great victory over the Galls of Scotland".^[3] The 2011 article by Iain G. MacDonald, "Donald of the Isles and the Earldom of Ross: West-Highland Perspectives on the Battle of Harlaw", also cites sources recording the victory.^[4]

1. ^ "Battle of Harlaw". UK Battlefields Resource Centre. The Battlefields Trust. Archived from the original on 12 December 2010. Retrieved 26 January 2011.
2. ^ Site Record for Harlaw, Battle of Harlaw, Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland
3. ^ "Commemorating the Battle of Harlaw (1411) in Fifteenth-Century Scotland" (PDF). pure.ed.ac.uk. p. 5. Retrieved 12 October 2024.
4. ^ Iain G. MacDonald, "Donald of the Isles and the Earldom of Ross: West-Highland Perspectives on the Battle of Harlaw" (registration required).

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25 July 1467 – The Battle of Molinella: The first battle in Italy in which firearms are used extensively.

Battle of Molinella

1467 battle between the republics of Venice and Florence

The Battle of Riccardina or Battle of Molinella, fought on July 25, 1467, in Molinella, was one of the most important battles of the 15th century in Italy.

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26 July 1745 – The first recorded women's cricket match takes place near Guildford, England.

History of women's cricket

The history of women's cricket can be traced back to a report in The Reading Mercury on 15 Aug 1745 and a match that took place between the villages of Bramley and Hambledon near Guildford in Surrey.^[1]

The Mercury reported:

"The greatest cricket match that was played in this part of England was on Friday, the 26th of last month, on Gosden Common, near Guildford, between eleven maids of Bramley and eleven maids of Hambledon, all dressed in white. The Bramley maids had blue ribbons and the Hambledon maids red ribbons on their heads. The Bramley girls got 119 notches and the Hambledon girls 127. There was of bothe sexes the greatest number that ever was seen on such an occasion. The girls bowled, batted, ran and catches as well as most men could do in that game."^[2]

1. ^ Judy Threlfall-Sykes (October 2015). A History of English Women's Cricket, 1880–1939 (PDF) (Thesis). pp. 55–56. Retrieved 29 July 2016.
2. ^ Recorded by G B Buckley in Fresh Light on 18th Century Cricket. See also: History of Women's Cricket

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27 July 1890 – Vincent van Gogh shoots himself and dies two days later.

Vincent van Gogh

Dutch painter (1853–1890)

"van Gogh" redirects here. For other uses, see van Gogh (disambiguation) and Vincent van Gogh (disambiguation).

In this Dutch name, the surname is Van Gogh, not Gogh.

In this article, we use Dutch capitalization for the tussenvoegsels in Dutch family names. The first letter in Van Gogh is capitalized unless it is preceded by a name, initial or title of nobility.

Vincent Willem van Gogh (Dutch: [ˈvɪnsɛnt ˈʋɪləɱ vɑŋ ˈɣɔx] ^ⓘ;^{[note 1]} 30 March 1853 – 29 July 1890) was a Dutch Post-Impressionist painter who is among the most famous and influential figures in the history of Western art. In just over a decade, he created approximately 2100 artworks, including around 860 oil paintings, most of them in the last two years of his life. His oeuvre includes landscapes, still lifes, portraits, and self-portraits, most of which are characterised by bold colours and dramatic brushwork that contributed to the rise of expressionism in modern art. Van Gogh's work was beginning to gain critical attention before he died from a self-inflicted gunshot at age 37.^[5] During his lifetime, only one of Van Gogh's paintings, The Red Vineyard, was sold.

Born into an upper-middle-class family, Van Gogh drew as a child and was serious, quiet and thoughtful, but showed signs of mental instability. As a young man, he worked as an art dealer, often travelling, but became depressed after he was transferred to London. He turned to religion and spent time as a missionary in southern Belgium. Later he drifted into ill-health and solitude. He was keenly aware of modernist trends in art and, while back with his parents, took up painting in 1881. His younger brother, Theo, supported him financially, and the two of them maintained a long correspondence.

Van Gogh's early works consist of mostly still lifes and depictions of peasant labourers. In 1886, he moved to Paris, where he met members of the artistic avant-garde, including Émile Bernard and Paul Gauguin, who were seeking new paths beyond Impressionism. Frustrated in Paris and inspired by a growing spirit of artistic change and collaboration, in February 1888 Van Gogh moved to Arles in southern France to establish an artistic retreat and commune. Once there, his paintings grew brighter and he turned his attention to the natural world, depicting local olive groves, wheat fields and sunflowers. Van Gogh invited Gauguin to join him in Arles and eagerly anticipated Gauguin's arrival in late 1888.

Van Gogh suffered from psychotic episodes and delusions. He worried about his mental stability, and often neglected his physical health, did not eat properly and drank heavily. His friendship with Gauguin ended after a confrontation with a razor when, in a rage, he severed his left ear. Van Gogh spent time in psychiatric hospitals, including a period at Saint-Rémy. After he discharged himself and moved to the Auberge Ravoux in Auvers-sur-Oise near Paris, he came under the care of the homeopathic doctor Paul Gachet. His depression persisted, and on 29 July 1890 Van Gogh died from his injuries after shooting himself in the chest with a revolver.

Van Gogh's work began to attract critical artistic attention in the last year of his life. After his death, his art and life story captured public imagination as an emblem of misunderstood genius, due in large part to the efforts of his widowed sister-in-law Johanna van Gogh-Bonger.^[6][7] His bold use of colour, expressive line and thick application of paint inspired avant-garde artistic groups like the Fauves and German Expressionists in the early 20th century. Van Gogh's work gained widespread critical and commercial success in the following decades, and he has become a lasting icon of the romantic ideal of the tortured artist. Today, Van Gogh's works are among the world's most expensive paintings ever sold. His legacy is celebrated by the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam, which holds the world's largest collection of his paintings and drawings.

1. ^ "BBC – Magazine Monitor: How to Say: Van Gogh". BBC. 22 January 2010. Archived from the original on 26 September 2016. Retrieved 10 September 2016.
2. ^ Sweetman (1990), 7.
3. ^ Davies (2007), p. 83.
4. ^ Veltkamp, Paul. "Pronunciation of the Name 'Van Gogh'". vggallery.com. Archived from the original on 22 September 2015.
5. ^ Paintings, Authors: Department of European. "Vincent van Gogh (1853–1890) | Essay | The Metropolitan Museum of Art | Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History". The Met’s Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History. Retrieved 14 March 2024.
6. ^ "The Woman Who Made Vincent van Gogh". The New York Times. 14 April 2021. Retrieved 12 September 2023.
7. ^ McQuillan (1989), 9.

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28 July 1996 – The remains of a prehistoric man are discovered near Kennewick, Washington. Such remains will be known as the Kennewick Man.

Kennewick Man

Ancient skeleton of Indigenous American man

Kennewick Man or Ancient One^{[nb 1]} was a Native American man who lived during the early Holocene, whose skeletal remains were found washed out on a bank of the Columbia River in Kennewick, Washington, on July 28, 1996. Radiocarbon tests show the man lived about 8,400 to 8,690 years Before Present, making his skeleton one of the most complete ever found this old in the Americas,^[1] and thus of high scientific interest for understanding the peopling of the Americas.^{[2][3][nb 2]}

The discovery precipitated a nearly twenty-year-long dispute. Native American tribes asserted legal rights to rebury the man under the federal Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA), a law that protects Indian remains from disrespectful treatment, such as storage in labs, museums, and private collections.^[5] The United States Army Corps of Engineers, which holds jurisdiction over the land where the remains were found, retained legal custody. The science community wished to conduct research on the skeleton and asserted he was only distantly related to today's Native Americans and more closely resembled Polynesian or Southeast Asian peoples, a finding that would exempt the case from NAGPRA.

Technology for analyzing ancient DNA had been improving since 1996, and in June 2015, scientists at the University of Copenhagen published a study of Kennewick Man's sequenced genome, which found that Kennewick Man is nested within the diversity of contemporary Native Americans, though he cannot be associated specifically with any particular modern group.^[1] In September 2016, the US House and Senate passed legislation to return the remains to a coalition of Columbia basin tribes. Kennewick Man was buried according to Indian traditions on February 18, 2017, with 200 members of five Columbia basin tribes in attendance, at an undisclosed location in the area.^[6] Within the scientific community since the 1990s, arguments for a non-Indian ancient history of the Americas, including by ancient peoples from Europe, have been losing ground in the face of ancient DNA analysis.^[7] The identification of Kennewick Man as closely related to modern Native Americans symbolically marked the "end of a [supposed] non-Indian ancient North America".^[7]

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

1. ^ ^{a b} Rasmussen, Morten; Sikora, Martin; et al. (June 18, 2015). "The Ancestry and Affiliations of Kennewick Man". Nature. 523 (7561): 455–458. Bibcode:2015Natur.523..455R. doi:10.1038/nature14625. PMC 4878456. PMID 26087396.
   et al. list

   • Morten Rasmussen
   • Martin Sikora
   • Anders Albrechtsen
   • Thorfinn Sand Korneliussen
   • J. Víctor Moreno-Mayar
   • G. David Poznik
   • Christoph P. E. Zollikofer
   • Marcia Ponce de León
   • Morten E. Allentoft
   • Ida Moltke
   • Hákon Jónsson
   • Cristina Valdiosera
   • Ripan S. Malhi
   • Ludovic Orlando
   • Carlos D. Bustamante
   • Thomas W. Stafford, Jr.
   • David J. Meltzer
   • Rasmus Nielsen
   • Eske Willerslev1
2. ^ Preston (2014).
3. ^ Stafford (2014).
4. ^ Lemonick & Dorfman (2006).
5. ^ Gulliford, Andrew (February 28, 2010). "Bones of Contention: The Repatriation of Native American Human Remains". The Public Historian. 18 (4). University of California Press. Archived from the original on December 24, 2023. Retrieved December 24, 2023. The Smithsonian Institution alone had 18,600 American Indian remains. Indians are further dehumanized by being exhibited alongside mastodons and dinosaurs and other extinct creatures. No other issue has touched a more sensitive chord than these disrespectful nineteenth-century collecting practices.
6. ^ "Tribes lay remains of Kennewick Man to rest". The Spokesman-Review. Spokane, Washington. February 20, 2017. Retrieved February 20, 2017.
7. ^ ^{a b} Cite error: The named reference Kakaliqouras was invoked but never defined (see the help page).

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29 July 1957 – The International Atomic Energy Agency is established.

International Atomic Energy Agency

International organization

Vienna (HQ)

New York

Geneva

Seibersdorf

Monaco

Toronto

Tokyo

Trieste

class=notpageimage|

IAEA's worldwide sites:^[3]

In Europe:

• Vienna – Headquarters
• Geneva – Liaison Office
• Monaco – Laboratory/Research Centre
• Seibersdorf – Laboratory/Research Centre
• Trieste – Laboratory/Research Centre

In North America:

• New York City – Liaison Office
• Toronto – Regional Safeguard Office

In Asia:

• Tokyo – Regional Safeguard Office

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) is an intergovernmental organization that seeks to promote the peaceful use of nuclear energy and to inhibit its use for any military purpose, including nuclear weapons. It was established in 1957 as an autonomous organization within the United Nations system;^[4][5] though governed by its own founding treaty, the organization reports to both the General Assembly and the Security Council of the United Nations, and is headquartered at the UN Office at Vienna, Austria.

The IAEA was created in response to growing international concern toward nuclear weapons, especially amid rising tensions between the foremost nuclear powers, the United States and the Soviet Union.^[4] U.S. president Dwight D. Eisenhower's "Atoms for Peace" speech, which called for the creation of an international organization to monitor the global proliferation of nuclear resources and technology, is credited with catalyzing the formation of the IAEA, whose treaty came into force on 29 July 1957 upon U.S. ratification.

The IAEA serves as an intergovernmental forum for scientific and technical cooperation on the peaceful use of nuclear technology and nuclear power worldwide. It maintains several programs that encourage the development of peaceful applications of nuclear energy, science, and technology; provide international safeguards against misuse of nuclear technology and nuclear materials; and promote and implement nuclear safety (including radiation protection) and nuclear security standards. The organization also conducts research in nuclear science and provides technical support and training in nuclear technology to countries worldwide, particularly in the developing world.^[6]

Following the ratification of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons in 1968, all non-nuclear powers are required to negotiate a safeguards agreement with the IAEA, which is given the authority to monitor nuclear programs and to inspect nuclear facilities. In 2005, the IAEA and its administrative head, Director General Mohamed ElBaradei, were awarded the Nobel Peace Prize "for their efforts to prevent nuclear energy from being used for military purposes and to ensure that nuclear energy for peaceful purposes is used in the safest possible way".^[7]

1. ^ "List of Member States". www.iaea.org. 29 November 2024.
2. ^ (IAEA), International Atomic Energy Agency. "IAEA Annual Report 2022" (PDF). www.iaea.org. p. 6. Retrieved 3 March 2024.
3. ^ Cite error: The named reference Offices was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
4. ^ ^{a b} "History". IAEA. 8 June 2016. Retrieved 8 September 2022.
5. ^ IAEA Factsheet, Archived 13 April 2016 at the Wayback Machine, Review Conference of the Parties to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (2015)
6. ^ "International Atomic Energy Agency". Britannica. Retrieved 8 September 2022.
7. ^ Nations, United. "2005 – International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and Mohamed ElBaradei". United Nations.

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30 July 1733 – The first Masonic Grand Lodge in the future United States is constituted in Massachusetts.

Freemasonry

Group of fraternal organizations

"Masonic" and "Freemason" redirect here. For the ghost town, see Masonic, California. For other uses, see Freemason (disambiguation).

"Freemasons" redirects here. For the house music producers, see Freemasons (DJs).

Freemasonry (sometimes spelled Free-Masonry)^[1][2][3] or simply Masonry includes various fraternal organisations that trace their origins to the local guilds of stonemasons that, from the end of the 14th century, regulated the qualifications of stonemasons and their interaction with authorities and clients. Freemasonry is the oldest fraternity in the world and among the oldest continued organizations in history.^[4]

Modern Freemasonry broadly consists of two main recognition groups: Regular Freemasonry, which insists that a “volume of sacred law”, such as the Bible, the Quran, or other religious scripture be open in a working lodge, that every member professes belief in a Supreme Being, that no women be admitted, and that the discussion of religion and politics do not take place within the lodge; and Continental Freemasonry, which consists of the jurisdictions that have removed some, or all, of these restrictions.

The basic, local organisational unit of Freemasonry is the Lodge. These private Lodges are usually supervised at the regional level (usually coterminous with a state, province, or national border) by a Grand Lodge or Grand Orient. There is no international, worldwide Grand Lodge that supervises all of Freemasonry; each Grand Lodge is independent, and they do not necessarily recognise each other as being legitimate. Lodges are found around the world and on all populated continents; however due to anti-Masonry and laws that effectively ban the tradition, it does not have a presence in every country. In the spirit of brotherhood and hopefulness, however, Freemasons usually presume that clandestine lodges may nonetheless exist in those countries in which it is banned, even if they may not actually exist.

The degrees of Freemasonry are the three grades of medieval craft guilds: Entered Apprentice, Journeyman or Fellow of the craft^[5] (now called either “Fellowcraft” or “Fellow Craft”^[5][6] in English speaking jurisdictions, and “Companion” in non-English speaking jurisdictions), and Master Mason. The candidate of these three degrees is progressively taught the meanings of the symbols of Freemasonry and entrusted with grips, signs, and words to signify to other members that he has been so initiated. The degrees are part allegorical morality play and part lecture. These three degrees form Craft (or Blue Lodge) Freemasonry, and members of any of these degrees are known as Free-Masons,^[7] Freemasons or Masons. Once the Craft degrees have been conferred upon a Mason, he is qualified to join various "Concordant bodies" which offer additional degrees. These organisations are usually administered separately from the Grand Lodges who administer the Craft degrees. The extra degrees vary with locality and jurisdiction. In addition to these bodies, there are further organizations outside of the more traditional Rites of Freemasonry, that require an individual to be a Master Mason before they can join (such as the Rosicrucian Society of England).

Throughout its history, Freemasonry has received criticism and opposition on religious and political grounds. The Catholic Church, some Protestant denominations, and certain Islamic countries or entities have expressed opposition to or banned membership in Free-Masonry. Opposition to Freemasonry is sometimes rooted in anti-Semitism or conspiracy theories,^[8][9] and Freemasons have historically been persecuted by authoritarian states.^[10][11]

1. ^ https://linfordresearch.info/fordownload/Other%20Books/J%20and%20B%20exposure%201797%20edn.pdf
2. ^ "History of Free Masonry". mtnebo91wv.org. Retrieved 7 November 2024.
3. ^ Paine, Thomas (2 January 1818). "Thomas Paine Origin Free Masonry » Internet Infidels". Internet Infidels. Retrieved 7 November 2024.
4. ^ "History of Freemasonry | United Grand Lodge of England". www.ugle.org.uk. Retrieved 6 September 2024.
5. ^ ^{a b} "The Second Degree: Fellow Craft". Freemasonry. Retrieved 7 November 2024.
6. ^ "Fellow Craft Degree Fee (NewMember)". Paul Revere Lodge. Retrieved 7 November 2024.
7. ^ "General Regulations of a Free Mason 1723 – The Square Magazine". Retrieved 7 November 2024.
8. ^ "Freemasonry". encyclopedia.ushmm.org. Retrieved 19 August 2024.
9. ^ Schreiber, Jean-Philippe (9 November 2010). "Jews and Freemasonry in the nineteenth century: An overview of current knowledge". Archives Juives (in French). 43 (2): 30–48. ISSN 0003-9837.
10. ^ Önnerfors, Andreas (24 January 2017). Freemasonry: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford University Press. p. 105. ISBN 9780198796275.
11. ^ Ruiz, Julius (June 2011). "Fighting the International Conspiracy: The Francoist Persecution of Freemasonry, 1936–1945". Politics, Religion & Ideology. 12 (2): 179–196. doi:10.1080/21567689.2011.591981. ISSN 2156-7689.

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31 July 1492 – All remaining Jews are expelled from Spain when the Alhambra Decree takes effect.

Alhambra Decree

1492 decree expelling Jews from Spain

The Alhambra Decree (also known as the Edict of Expulsion; Spanish: Decreto de la Alhambra, Edicto de Granada) was an edict issued on 31 March 1492, by the joint Catholic Monarchs of Spain (Isabella I of Castile and Ferdinand II of Aragon) ordering the expulsion of practising Jews from the Crowns of Castile and Aragon and its territories and possessions by 31 July of that year.^[1] The primary purpose was to eliminate the influence of practising Jews on Spain's large formerly-Jewish converso New Christian population, to ensure the latter and their descendants did not revert to Judaism.^[2] Over half of Spain's Jews had converted as a result of the religious persecution and pogroms which occurred in 1391.^[3] Due to continuing attacks, around 50,000 more had converted by 1415.^[4] A further number of those remaining chose to convert to avoid expulsion. As a result of the Alhambra decree and persecution in the years leading up to the expulsion of Spain's estimated 300,000 Jewish origin population, a total of over 200,000 had converted to Roman Catholicism in order to remain in Spain, and between 40,000 and 100,000 remained Jewish and suffered expulsion. An unknown number of the expelled eventually succumbed to the pressures of life in exile away from formerly-Jewish relatives and networks back in Spain, and so converted to Roman Catholicism to be allowed to return in the years following expulsion.^[5]:17

In 1924, the regime of Primo de Rivera granted Spanish citizenship to a part of the Sephardic Jewish diaspora, though few people benefited from it in practice.^[6] The decree was then formally and symbolically revoked on 16 December 1968 by the regime of Francisco Franco,^[7] following the Second Vatican Council. This was a full century after Jews had been openly practising their religion in Spain and synagogues were once more legal places of worship under Spain's Laws of Religious Freedom.

In 2015, the government of Spain passed a law allowing dual citizenship to Jewish descendants who apply, to "compensate for shameful events in the country's past".^[8] Thus, Sephardic Jews who could prove that they are the descendants of those Jews expelled from Spain because of the Alhambra Decree would "become Spaniards without leaving home or giving up their present nationality".^[9][10] The Spanish law^[11] expired in 2019 and new applications for Spanish citizenship on the basis of Sephardic Jewish family heritage are no longer allowed. However, the descendants of the Jews exiled from the Iberian Peninsula may still apply for Portuguese citizenship.

1. ^ "The Edict of Expulsion of the Jews – 1492 Spain". www.sephardicstudies.org. Retrieved 27 June 2017.
2. ^ Szlajfer, Henryk (2023). "Chapter 1: Terminology as Differentiation". Jews and New Christians in the Making of the Atlantic World in the 16th–17th Centuries: A Survey. Studies in Critical Social Sciences. Vol. 269. Leiden and Boston: Brill Publishers. pp. 1–21. doi:10.1163/9789004686441_002. ISBN 978-90-04-68644-1. ISSN 1573-4234. LCCN 2023043705. S2CID 259313511.
3. ^ Pérez, Joseph (2012) [2009]. Breve Historia de la Inquisición en España (in Spanish). Barcelona: Crítica. p. 17. ISBN 978-84-08-00695-4.
4. ^ Gerber, Jane (1994). The Jews of Spain: A History of the Sephardic Experience. New York: The Free Press. pp. 1–144. ISBN 978-0029115749.
5. ^ Pérez, Joseph (2007). History of a Tragedy: The Expulsion of the Jews from Spain. Translated by Hochroth, Lysa. University of Illinois Press. ISBN 9780252031410.
6. ^ Celia Prados García: La expulsión de los judíos y el retorno de los sefardíes como nacionales españoles. Un análisis histórico-jurídico (in Spanish)
7. ^ "1492 Ban on Jews Is Voided by Spain", The New York Times, 17 December 1968
8. ^ "Sephardic Jews eager to apply for Spanish citizenship", Washington Post, 17 February 2014
9. ^ "1492 and all that", The Economist, 22 February 2014
10. ^ Stavans, Ilan (1 April 2014). "Repatriating Spain's Jews". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 27 June 2017.
11. ^ "BOE-A-2015-7045 Ley 12/2015, de 24 de junio, en materia de concesión de la nacionalidad española a los sefardíes originarios de España". pp. 52557–52564.

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1 August 1971 – The Concert for Bangladesh, organized by former Beatle George Harrison, is held at Madison Square Garden in New York City.

The Concert for Bangladesh

1971 benefit concert organised by George Harrison and Ravi Shankar

This article is about the concerts. For the album, see The Concert for Bangladesh (album). For the film, see The Concert for Bangladesh (film).

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The Concert for Bangladesh (or Bangla Desh, as the country's name was originally spelt)^[1] was a pair of benefit concerts organised by former Beatles guitarist George Harrison and Indian sitar player Ravi Shankar. The shows were held at 2:30 and 8:00 pm on Sunday, 1 August 1971, at Madison Square Garden in New York City, to raise international awareness of, and fund relief for refugees from East Pakistan, following the Bangladesh Liberation War-related genocide and the 1970 Bhola cyclone. The concerts were followed by a bestselling live album, a boxed three-record set, and Apple Films' concert documentary, which opened in cinemas in the spring of 1972.

The event was the first-ever benefit of such a magnitude,^[2] and featured a supergroup of performers that included Harrison, fellow ex-Beatle Ringo Starr, Bob Dylan, Eric Clapton, Billy Preston, Leon Russell and the band Badfinger. In addition, Shankar and Ali Akbar Khan – both of whom had ancestral roots in Bangladesh – performed an opening set of Indian classical music. The concerts were attended by a total of 40,000 people, and the initial gate receipts raised close to $250,000 for Bangladesh relief, which was administered by UNICEF.

After collecting the musicians easily, Harrison found it extremely difficult to get the recording industry to release the rights for performers to share the stage, and millions of dollars raised from the album and film were tied up in IRS tax escrow accounts for years, but the concert has been recognised as a highly successful and influential humanitarian aid project, generating both awareness and considerable funds as well as providing valuable lessons and inspiration for projects that followed, such as Live Aid.^[3][4][5]

By 1985, through revenue raised from the Concert for Bangladesh live album and film, an estimated $12 million had been sent to Bangladesh,^[6] and sales of the live album and DVD release of the film continue to benefit the George Harrison Fund for UNICEF. Decades later, Shankar would say of the overwhelming success of the event: "In one day, the whole world knew the name of Bangladesh. It was a fantastic occasion."^[7]

1. ^ Harry, p. 135.
2. ^ The Editors of Rolling Stone, p. 43.
3. ^ Cite error: The named reference RS Encyclopedia was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
4. ^ Interviews with Charles J. Lyons and Kofi Annan, in The Concert for Bangladesh Revisited.
5. ^ Rodriguez, p. 51.
6. ^ Cite error: The named reference Johnston/LA Times was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
7. ^ Cite error: The named reference Olivia p 286 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).

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2 August 1990 – Iraq invades Kuwait, eventually leading to the Gulf War.

Iraqi invasion of Kuwait

Beginning of the 1990–1991 Gulf War

"Invasion of Kuwait" redirects here. For other uses, see List of wars involving Kuwait.

The Iraqi invasion of Kuwait began on 2 August 1990 and marked the beginning of the Gulf War. After defeating the State of Kuwait on 4 August 1990, Iraq went on to militarily occupy the country for the next seven months.^[16] The invasion was condemned internationally, and the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) adopted numerous resolutions urging Iraq to withdraw from Kuwaiti territory. The Iraqi military, however, continued to occupy Kuwait and defied all orders by the UNSC. After initially establishing the "Republic of Kuwait" as a puppet state, Iraq annexed the entire country on 28 August 1990; northern Kuwait became the Saddamiyat al-Mitla' District and was merged into the existing Basra Governorate, while southern Kuwait was carved out as the all-new Kuwait Governorate.^[17] By November 1990, the adoption of UNSC Resolution 678 officially issued Iraq an ultimatum to withdraw unconditionally by 15 January 1991 or else be removed by "all necessary means" from Kuwaiti territory. In anticipation of a war with Iraq, the UNSC authorized the assembly of an American-led military coalition.

After Iraq failed to meet the UNSC's deadline, the coalition pursued the directive to forcefully expel Iraqi troops from Kuwait by initiating the Gulf War aerial bombardment campaign on 17 January 1991. As the bombardment campaign continued over the next month, Iraq fired missiles at Israel; the Iraqi government had hoped that an Israeli retaliation would prompt the coalition's Muslim-majority states to rescind their support for the campaign against Iraq. However, no such retaliation took place, and the coalition began a ground invasion of Iraqi-occupied Kuwait and parts of Iraq on 23 February 1991. As Iraqi troops retreated from Kuwait, they set fire to over 700 Kuwaiti oil wells, but this strategy was ultimately unsuccessful in thwarting the coalition's advance. By 28 February 1991, the Iraqi military had been devastated and Kuwaiti independence was restored.

Though the true intent behind Iraq's decision to attack Kuwait is disputed, a variety of speculations have been made. One possible motive concerned Iraq's inability to repay the US$14 billion that it had borrowed from Kuwait during the Iran–Iraq War.^[18] Proponents of this theory point to Kuwait's surge in petroleum production, which kept Iraq's revenues down; Kuwait's oil production levels were above the mandatory quota that was specified by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), which had consequently urged the country to moderate production amidst a sharp decrease in global oil prices.^[19] Iraq interpreted the Kuwaiti government's refusal to decrease oil production as an act of aggression against the Iraqi economy. In early 1990, Iraq accused Kuwait of slant drilling to steal Iraqi petroleum across the Iraq–Kuwait border, though some Iraqi sources indicated that Saddam Hussein had already made the decision to attack Kuwait a few months before the actual invasion.^[20] Within two days of the invasion, most Kuwaiti troops had been overrun by the Iraqis and most Kuwaiti officials had retreated to Saudi Arabia and Bahrain.

1. ^ Al Moquatel Archived 14 July 2014 at the Wayback Machine
2. ^ "1990: Iraq invades Kuwait". BBC On This Day. BBC. 2 August 1990. Retrieved 20 April 2010.
3. ^ Johns, Dave (24 January 2006). "1990 The Invasion of Kuwait". Frontline/World. PBS. Retrieved 20 April 2010.
4. ^ ^{a b c} "Kuwait Organization and Mission of the Forces". Country Studies. Library of Congress. January 1993. Archived from the original on 10 January 2009. Retrieved 20 April 2010.
5. ^ “We shot down 52 Iraqi aircraft at the start of the invasion” https://sputnikarabic.ae/amp/20200802/لواء-طيار-كويتي-كبدنا-العراق-خسائر-فادحة-وهكذا-واجهنا-الغزو-1046165623.html
6. ^ "Kuwaiti casualties". kkackm. Archived from the original on 18 March 2022. Retrieved 27 June 2018.
7. ^ Jane's Armour and Artillery 2003–2004
8. ^ Armies of the Gulf War, Gordon L. Rottman, 1993, p.48,49
9. ^ Tanki v operacii "Shok i trepet", Aleksei Brusilov, Leonid Karyakin, Tankomaster 2003–08(Russian: Танки в операции «Шок и трепет», Алексей Брусилов, Леонид Карякин, Танкомастер 2003–08)
10. ^ See the House of Lords case Kuwait Airways Corporation v Iraqi Airways Corporation [2002] UKHL 19.
11. ^ "Kuwaiti Casualties". kkamkm. Archived from the original on 18 March 2022. Retrieved 27 June 2018.
12. ^ "IRAQ: NAVAL THREAT TO US FORCES". Archived from the original on 25 December 2018. Retrieved 19 December 2014.
13. ^ المبحث الرابع, إعادة بناء القوات المسلحة لكل من دول مجلس التعاون الخليجي، بعد الحرب, Al Moquatel
14. ^ "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 13 August 2017. Retrieved 1 October 2018.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
15. ^ "Kuwait had loaned a battery of French 155mm Mk F3 SP guns to Iraq during the Iran-Iraq War and a further 80 fell into Iraqi hands after the invasion."/Armies of the Gulf War. Gordon L. Rottman, Ronald Volstad. Osprey Publishing. 1993. P.49
16. ^ "Thirty years on, Iraq's invasion of Kuwait still haunts region". 1 August 2020.
17. ^ Fineman, Mark (29 August 1990). "Iraq Remaps Kuwait as Province 19". Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on 23 January 2021. Retrieved 23 January 2021.
18. ^ Cite error: The named reference airCombatInformationGroup was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
19. ^ Cite error: The named reference OPEC2 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
20. ^ Gause, F. Gregory III (2005). "The International Politics of the Gulf". In Louise Fawcett (ed.). International Relations of the Middle East. Oxford: The University Press. pp. 263–274. ISBN 0-19-926963-7.

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3 August 1795 – Treaty of Greenville is signed, ending the Northwest Indian War in the Ohio Country.

Treaty of Greenville

1795 treaty ending the Northwest Indian War

This article is about the 1795 treaty. For the 1814 treaty, see Treaty of Greenville (1814).

The Treaty of Greenville, also known to Americans as the Treaty with the Wyandots, etc., but formally titled A treaty of peace between the United States of America, and the tribes of Indians called the Wyandots, Delawares, Shawanees, Ottawas, Chippewas, Pattawatimas, Miamis, Eel Rivers, Weas, Kickapoos, Piankeshaws, and Kaskaskias was a 1795 treaty between the United States and indigenous nations of the Northwest Territory (now Midwestern United States), including the Wyandot and Delaware peoples, that redefined the boundary between indigenous peoples' lands and territory for European American community settlement.

It was signed at Fort Greenville,^[1] now Greenville, Ohio, on August 3, 1795, following the Native American loss at the Battle of Fallen Timbers a year earlier in August 1794. It ended the Northwest Indian War of 1785-1795 in the Ohio Country of the old Northwest Territory (1787-1803), and limited Indian country to remaining lands of northwestern Ohio, and began the practice of annual payments of goods, supplies and food, following the land concessions. The parties to the treaty were a coalition of Native American tribes known as the Western Confederacy, and the United States government represented by new United States Army General Anthony Wayne (1745-1796), and local frontiersmen.

The treaty became synonymous with the end of the American frontier in the eastern United States, in that part of the old Northwest Territory that would become the new state of Ohio and other adjacent future federal territories and future states around the Great Lakes and further west to the Mississippi River.

1. ^ for Nathanael Greene, a Major General in the American Revolutionary War (1775-1783)

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4 August 1701 – Great Peace of Montreal between New France and First Nations is signed.

Great Peace of Montreal

1701 peace treaty between New France and First Nations

"Treaty of Montreal" redirects here. For other similarly named agreements, see Montreal Convention (disambiguation).

The Great Peace of Montreal (French: La Grande paix de Montréal) was a peace treaty between New France and 39 First Nations of North America that ended the Beaver Wars. It was signed on August 4, 1701, by Louis-Hector de Callière, governor of New France, and 1300 representatives of 39 Indigenous nations.^[1]

The French, allied to the Hurons and the Algonquins, provided 16 years of peaceful relations and trade before war started again.^{[citation needed]} Present for the diplomatic event were the various peoples; part of the Iroquois confederacy, the Huron peoples, and the Algonquin peoples.^[2]

This has sometimes been called the Grand Settlement of 1701,^[3] not to be confused with the unrelated Act of Settlement 1701 in England. It has often been referred to as La Paix des Braves, meaning "The Peace of the Braves".

1. ^ Francis, Daniel. Voices and Visions. Oxford University Press. p. 82.
2. ^ Charlotte Gray The Museum Called Canada: 25 Rooms of Wonder Random House, 2004
3. ^ "Grand Settlement of 1701". Archived from the original on 2009-09-28. Retrieved 2013-09-17.

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5 August 1957 – American Bandstand, a show dedicated to the teenage "baby-boomers" by playing the songs and showing popular dances of the time, debuts on the ABC television network.

American Bandstand

American TV program featuring musical performances and dancing (aired 1952–1989)

American Bandstand (AB) was an American music-performance and dance television program that aired regularly in various versions from 1952 to 1989. ^[1] It was hosted from 1956 until its final season by Dick Clark, who also served as the program's producer. It featured teenagers dancing to Top 40 music introduced by Clark. The program was televised from Philadelphia from its 1952 debut until its move to Los Angeles in 1963^[2]

Over the decades, a wide range of musical acts appeared to lip sync one of their latest singles. Artists would sing naturally to the studio audience over a background of their own disc, while viewers at home would hear only the original recording.^[3] Freddy Cannon holds the record for most appearances, at 110.^[4]

Following the show's success, other similar long-running music programs such as Soul Train and the British series Top of the Pops followed. Clark eventually assumed ownership of the program through his company.

1. ^ Fontenot, Robert. "American Bandstand Timeline". About.com. Archived from the original on April 12, 2014. Retrieved October 28, 2013.
2. ^ "American Bandstand integration | The Pop History Dig". pophistorydig.com. Retrieved November 17, 2024.
3. ^ Arena, Neil (2022). Tonite, Tonite - the story of the original Mello-Kings. London: Arena & Stephens. pp. 88–89. ISBN 9781739083199.
4. ^ "Freddy Cannon". www.history-of-rock.com. Retrieved November 9, 2024.

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6 August 1284 – The Republic of Pisa is defeated in the Battle of Meloria by the Republic of Genoa, thus losing its naval dominance in the Mediterranean

Republic of Pisa

Italian maritime republic (c. 1000–1406)

The Republic of Pisa (Italian: Repubblica di Pisa) was an independent state existing from the 11th to the 15th century and centered on the Tuscan city of Pisa. It rose to become an economic powerhouse, a commercial center whose merchants dominated Mediterranean and Italian trade for a century, before being surpassed and superseded by the Republic of Genoa.

The republic's participation in the Crusades secured valuable commercial positions for Pisan traders, thereafter the city grew in wealth and power. Pisa was a historical rival to Genoa at sea and to Florence and Lucca on land.^[1]

The power of Pisa as a mighty maritime nation began to grow and reached its apex in the 11th century when it acquired traditional fame as one of the main historical maritime republics of Italy.

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. ^ "Pisa | Italy". Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved 2020-10-13.

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7 August 1944 – IBM dedicates the first program-controlled calculator, the Automatic Sequence Controlled Calculator (known best as the Harvard Mark I)

Harvard Mark I

Early American electromechanical computer (1944)

The Harvard Mark I, or IBM Automatic Sequence Controlled Calculator (ASCC), was one of the earliest general-purpose electromechanical computers used in the war effort during the last part of World War II.

One of the first programs to run on the Mark I was initiated on 29 March 1944^[1] by John von Neumann. At that time, von Neumann was working on the Manhattan Project, and needed to determine whether implosion was a viable choice to detonate the atomic bomb that would be used a year later. The Mark I also computed and printed mathematical tables, which had been the initial goal of British inventor Charles Babbage for his analytical engine in 1837.

According to Edmund Berkeley, the operators of the Mark I often called the machine "Bessy, the Bessel engine", after Bessel functions.^[2]

The Mark I was disassembled in 1959; part of it was given to IBM, part went to the Smithsonian Institution, and part entered the Harvard Collection of Historical Scientific Instruments. For decades, Harvard's portion was on display in the lobby of the Aiken Computation Lab. About 1997, it was moved to the Harvard Science Center. In 2021, it was moved again, to the lobby of Harvard's new Science and Engineering Complex in Allston, Massachusetts.^[3]

1. ^ Cohen (2000), p. 164.
2. ^ Berkeley, Edmund Callis. Giant Brains, or, Machines That Think (Classics To Go) (p. 6). Otbebookpublishing. Kindle Edition.
3. ^ Powell, Alvin (July 23, 2021). "Harvard's Mark 1 finds its new home". Harvard Gazette. Retrieved August 17, 2023.

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8 August 1876 – Thomas Edison receives a patent for his mimeograph.

Mimeograph

Type of duplicating machine

This article is about the stencil-based process. Not to be confused with the spirit duplicator which is sometimes incorrectly called a "mimeograph".

For the EP by Old 97's, see Mimeograph (EP).

A mimeograph machine (often abbreviated to mimeo, sometimes called a stencil duplicator or stencil machine) was a low-cost duplicating machine that worked by forcing ink through a stencil onto paper.^[1] The process was called mimeography, and a copy made by the process was a mimeograph.

Mimeographs, along with spirit duplicators and hectographs, were common technologies for printing small quantities of a document, as in office work, classroom materials, and church bulletins. For even smaller quantities, up to about five, a typist would use carbon paper. Early fanzines were printed by mimeograph because the machines and supplies were widely available and inexpensive. Beginning in the late 1960s and continuing into the 1970s, photocopying gradually displaced mimeographs, spirit duplicators, and hectographs.

1. ^ "Definition of MIMEOGRAPH". www.merriam-webster.com.

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9 August 1936 – Summer Olympics: Jesse Owens wins his fourth gold medal at the games.

Jesse Owens

American track and field athlete (1913–1980)

For the film, see Jesse Owens (film).

James Cleveland "Jesse" Owens (September 12, 1913 – March 31, 1980) was an American track and field athlete who won four gold medals at the 1936 Olympic Games.^[3]

Owens specialized in the sprints and the long jump and was recognized in his lifetime as "perhaps the greatest and most famous athlete in track and field history".^[4] He set three world records and tied another, all in less than an hour, at the 1935 Big Ten track meet in Ann Arbor, Michigan, a feat that has never been equaled and has been called "the greatest 45 minutes ever in sport".^[5]

He achieved international fame at the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin, Germany, by winning four gold medals: 100 meters, long jump, 200 meters, and 4 × 100-meter relay. He was the most successful athlete at the Games and, as a black American man, was credited by ESPN with "single-handedly crushing Hitler's myth of Aryan supremacy".^[6]

The Jesse Owens Award is USA Track & Field's highest accolade for the year's best track and field athlete. Owens was ranked by ESPN as the sixth-greatest North American athlete of the 20th century and the highest-ranked in his sport. In 1999, he was on the six-man short-list for the BBC's Sports Personality of the Century.

1. ^ "East Technical High School". Cleveland Metro Schools. April 5, 2017.
2. ^ Edmondson, Jacqueline (2007). Jesse Owens: A Biography. US: Greenwood Publishing Group. p. 29. ISBN 978-0-313-33988-2. Retrieved September 6, 2014.
3. ^ Treasure Trove: A Collection of ICSE Poems and Short Stories. Darya Ganj, New Delhi, India: Evergreen Publications Ltd. 2020. p. 103. ISBN 978-93-5063-700-5.
4. ^ Litsky, Frank (1980), "Jesse Owens Dies of Cancer at 66", The New York Times, New York, retrieved March 23, 2014
5. ^ Rothschild, Richard (May 24, 2010). "Greatest 45 minutes ever in sports". Sports Illustrated. Archived from the original on August 9, 2016. Retrieved December 10, 2019.
6. ^ Schwartz, Larry (2000). "Owens Pierced a Myth". ESPN Internet Ventures. Archived from the original on July 6, 2000.

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10 August 1641 – The Treaty of London between England and Scotland, ending the Bishops' Wars, is signed

Bishops' Wars

British wars 1639–1640 concerning religion in Scotland

For the religious conflict in the Holy Roman Empire in 1592–1604, see Strasbourg Bishops' War.

The Bishops' Wars^[b] were two separate conflicts fought in 1639 and 1640 between Scotland and England, with Scottish Royalists allied to England. They were the first of the Wars of the Three Kingdoms, which also include the First and Second English Civil Wars, the Irish Confederate Wars, and the 1650 to 1652 Anglo-Scottish War.

In 1637, Charles I, then king of both Scotland and England, imposed changes in religious practice on the Church of Scotland. These were strongly opposed by many Scots who, in 1638, signed a National Covenant and became known as Covenanters. The General Assembly of the Church of Scotland then expelled bishops from the church, turning a religious dispute into a struggle for political supremacy. The new Covenanter government raised an army to prevent Charles using force to restore his authority.

The First Bishops' War began in early 1639, when minor skirmishing between Covenanters and Scottish Royalists took place in north-east Scotland. In June, English and Scottish armies assembled near Berwick-upon-Tweed, but withdrew without fighting, after reaching a treaty. The peace terms included calling a new General Assembly and Scottish Parliament, which Charles hoped would reverse their earlier decisions. Instead, they were re-confirmed, and both sides again made preparations for war. In 1640, in what is now called the Second Bishops' War, the Scots invaded and occupied parts of northern England, after winning a victory at the Battle of Newburn.

Under the interim Treaty of Ripon, the Covenanters continued the occupation pending a final settlement, during which Charles agreed to pay their expenses. This required him to recall the Parliament of England to raise money for this purpose and to ratify the treaty which was finalised in August 1641. Though this ended the Bishops' Wars, political differences between Charles and the new English Parliament escalated to the outbreak of the First English Civil War in August 1642.

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. ^ "Cogadh Sìobhalta Shasainn - Ath-shealladh". gd.eferrit.com.

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11 August 1952 – Hussein bin Talal is proclaimed King of Jordan.

Hussein of Jordan

King of Jordan from 1952 to 1999

"King Hussein" redirects here. Not to be confused with Hussein bin Ali, King of Hejaz. For Jordan's crown prince, see Hussein, Crown Prince of Jordan.

Hussein bin Talal (Arabic: الحسين بن طلال, romanized: Al-Ḥusayn bin Ṭalāl; 14 November 1935 – 7 February 1999) was King of Jordan from 11 August 1952 until his death in 1999. As a member of the Hashemite dynasty, the royal family of Jordan since 1921, Hussein was a 40th-generation direct descendant of the Islamic prophet Muhammad.

Hussein was born in Amman as the eldest child of Talal bin Abdullah and Zein Al-Sharaf. Talal was then the heir to his own father, King Abdullah I. Hussein began his schooling in Amman, continuing his education abroad. After Talal became king in 1951, Hussein was named heir apparent. The Jordanian Parliament forced Talal to abdicate a year later due to his illness, and a regency council was appointed until Hussein came of age. He was enthroned at the age of 17 on 2 May 1953. Hussein was married four separate times and fathered eleven children.

Hussein, a constitutional monarch, started his rule by allowing the formation of the only democratically elected government in Jordan's history in 1956, which he forced to resign a few months later, declaring martial law and banning political parties. Under Hussein, Jordan fought three wars against Israel, including the 1967 Six-Day War, which ended in Jordan's loss of the West Bank. In 1970, Hussein expelled Palestinian fighters from Jordan in what became known as Black September. The King renounced Jordan's ties to the West Bank in 1988 after the Palestine Liberation Organization was recognized internationally as the sole representative of the Palestinians. He lifted martial law and reintroduced elections in 1989 when riots over price hikes spread in southern Jordan. In 1994 he became the second Arab head of state to sign a peace treaty with Israel.

At the time of Hussein's accession in 1953, Jordan was a young nation and controlled the West Bank. The country had few natural resources, and a large Palestinian refugee population as a result of the 1948 Arab–Israeli War. Hussein led his country through four turbulent decades of the Arab–Israeli conflict and the Cold War, successfully balancing pressures from Arab nationalists, Islamists, the Soviet Union, Western countries, and Israel, transforming Jordan by the end of his 46-year reign into a stable modern state. After 1967 he engaged in efforts to solve the Israeli–Palestinian conflict. He acted as a conciliatory intermediate between various Middle Eastern rivals, and came to be seen as the region's peacemaker. He was revered for pardoning political dissidents and opponents, and giving them senior posts in the government. Hussein, who survived dozens of assassination attempts and plots to overthrow him, was the region's longest-reigning leader. He died at the age of 63 from cancer in 1999 and was succeeded by his eldest son, Abdullah II.

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12 August 1952 – The Night of the Murdered Poets: Thirteen prominent Jewish intellectuals are murdered in Moscow, Russia, Soviet Union.

Night of the Murdered Poets

1952 execution of thirteen Soviet Jews

The Night of the Murdered Poets (Russian: Дело Еврейского антифашистского комитета, romanized: Dela Yevreyskovo antifashistskovo komiteta, lit. 'Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee affair'; Yiddish: הרוגי מלכות פֿונעם ראַטנפאַרבאַנד, romanized: Harugim malkhes funem Ratnfarband, lit. 'Soviet Union Martyrs') was the execution of thirteen Soviet Jews in the Lubyanka Prison in Moscow on 12 August 1952.^[1] The arrests were first made in September 1948 and June 1949. All defendants were falsely accused of espionage and treason as well as many other crimes. After their arrests, they were tortured, beaten, and isolated for three years before being formally charged. There were five Yiddish writers among these defendants, all of whom were part of the Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee.

1. ^ Rubenstein, Joshua (2001). "Introduction." In: Rubenstein and Vladimir Naumov (Eds.), Stalin's Secret Pogrom: The Postwar Inquisition of the Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2001. ISBN 9780300129397. p. 504.

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13 August 1516 – The Treaty of Noyon between France and Spain is signed. Francis I of France recognizes Charles's claim to Naples, and Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor, recognizes Francis's claim to Milan.

War of the League of Cambrai

Fourth & Fifth phase of the Italian Wars (1508–1516)

Not to be confused with Battle of Cambrai.

The War of the League of Cambrai, sometimes known as the War of the Holy League and several other names,^[1] was fought from February 1508 to December 1516 as part of the Italian Wars of 1494–1559. The main participants of the war, who fought for its entire duration, were France, the Papal States, and the Republic of Venice; they were joined at various times by nearly every significant power in Western Europe, including Spain, the Holy Roman Empire, England, the Duchy of Milan, the Republic of Florence, the Duchy of Ferrara, and the Swiss.

The war started with the Italienzug of Maximilian I, King of the Romans, crossing into Venetian territory in February 1508 with his army on the way to be crowned Holy Roman Emperor by the Pope in Rome. Meanwhile, Pope Julius II, intending to curb Venetian influence in northern Italy, brought together the League of Cambrai—an anti-Venetian alliance consisting of him, Maximilian I, Louis XII of France, and Ferdinand II of Aragon—which was formally concluded in December 1508. Although the League was initially successful, friction between Julius and Louis caused it to collapse by 1510; Julius then allied himself with Venice against France.

The Veneto–Papal alliance eventually expanded into the Holy League, which drove the French from Italy in 1512; disagreements about the division of the spoils, however, led Venice to abandon the coalition in favor of an alliance with France. Under the leadership of Francis I, who had succeeded Louis on the throne of France, the French and Venetians would regain the territory they had lost in a campaign culminating in the Battle of Marignano in 1515; the treaties of Noyon (August 1516) and Brussels (December 1516), which ended the war the next year, would essentially return the map of Italy to the status quo of 1508.

1. ^ The conflict comprising the 1508–1516 portion of the Italian Wars may be divided into three separate wars: the War of the League of Cambrai (1508–1510), the War of the Holy League (1510–1514), and Francis I's First Italian War (1515–1516). The War of the Holy League may be further divided into the Ferrarese War (1510), the War of the Holy League proper (1511–1514), an Anglo-Scottish War (1513) and an Anglo-French War (1513–1514). Certain historians (notably Phillips and Axelrod) refer to each of the component wars separately, while others (notably Norwich) treat the entire conflict as a single war.

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14 August 1971 – Bahrain declares independence from Britain

Bahrain

Country in West Asia

This article is about the country in West Asia. For other uses, see Bahrain (disambiguation).

Bahrain,^[a] officially the Kingdom of Bahrain,^[b] is an island country in West Asia. It is situated on the Persian Gulf, and comprises a small archipelago made up of 50 natural islands and an additional 33 artificial islands, centered on Bahrain Island which makes up around 83 percent of the country's landmass. Bahrain is situated between Qatar and the northeastern coast of Saudi Arabia, to which it is connected by the King Fahd Causeway. The population of Bahrain is 1,501,635 as of May 14, 2023, based on elaborations of the United Nations data, of whom 712,362 are Bahraini nationals.^[2] Bahrain spans some 760 square kilometres (290 sq mi),^[13] and is the third-smallest nation in Asia after the Maldives and Singapore.^[14] The capital and largest city is Manama.

According to archeologist Geoffrey Bibby, Bahrain is the site of the ancient Dilmun civilization.^[15] It has been famed since antiquity for its pearl fisheries, which were considered the best in the world into the 19th century.^[16] Bahrain was one of the earliest areas to be influenced by Islam, during the lifetime of Muhammad in 628 AD. Following a period of Arab rule, Bahrain was ruled by the Portuguese Empire from 1521 until 1602, when they were expelled by Shah Abbas the Great of the Safavid Iran. In 1783, the Bani Utbah and allied tribes captured Bahrain from Nasr Al-Madhkur and it has since been ruled by the Al Khalifa royal family, with Ahmed al Fateh as Bahrain's first hakim.

In the late 1800s, following successive treaties with the British, Bahrain became a protectorate of the United Kingdom.^[17] In 1971, it declared independence. Formerly an emirate, Bahrain was declared a semi-constitutional monarchy in 2002, and Article 2 of the newly adopted constitution made Sharia a principal source for legislation. In 2011, the country experienced protests inspired by the regional Arab Spring.^[18] Bahrain's ruling Sunni Muslim Al Khalifa royal family has been criticised for violating the human rights of groups including dissidents, political opposition figures, and its majority Shia Muslim population.^[19]

Bahrain developed one of the first post-oil economies in the Persian Gulf,^[20] the result of decades of investing in the banking and tourism sectors;^[21] many of the world's largest financial institutions have a presence in the country's capital. It is recognized by the World Bank as a high-income economy. Bahrain is a member of the United Nations, Non-Aligned Movement, Arab League, Organisation of Islamic Cooperation and the Gulf Cooperation Council.^[22] Bahrain is a Dialogue partner of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization.^[23][24]

1. ^ "Constitution of the Kingdom of Bahrain (Issued in 2002) and Its Amendments (Issued in 2012)" (PDF). National Institution for Human Rights. National Institute for Human Rights. Archived (PDF) from the original on 4 August 2020. Retrieved 31 August 2020.
2. ^ ^{a b c} "Bahrain 2020 Census". Information and eGovernment Authority. 28 February 2021. Archived from the original on 2 May 2021. Retrieved 5 April 2021.
3. ^ Bahrain Country Study Archived 18 April 2023 at the Wayback Machine Library of Congress
4. ^ Cite error: The named reference pew was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
5. ^ "Bahrain ends special pact". The Straits Times. 15 August 1971. Archived from the original on 10 December 2014. Retrieved 10 December 2014.
6. ^ Cite error: The named reference CIA was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
7. ^ "Facts & Figures". data.gov.bh. Archived from the original on 3 January 2024. Retrieved 3 January 2024.
8. ^ "World Population Prospects 2022". United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Population Division. Retrieved 17 July 2022.
9. ^ "World Population Prospects 2022: Demographic indicators by region, subregion and country, annually for 1950-2100" (XSLX) ("Total Population, as of 1 July (thousands)"). United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Population Division. Retrieved 17 July 2022.
10. ^ ^{a b c d} "Report for Selected Countries and Subjects: October 2024". imf.org. International Monetary Fund.
11. ^ "Human Development Report 2023/24" (PDF). United Nations Development Programme. 13 March 2024. Archived (PDF) from the original on 13 March 2024. Retrieved 13 March 2024.
12. ^ Bahrain Government Annual Reports, Volume 8, Archive Editions, 1987, page 92
13. ^ "Bahrain – the World Factbook". 19 October 2021. Archived from the original on 10 December 2023. Retrieved 24 January 2021.
14. ^ "Area of Bahrain Expands to 765.3 square kilometres". Archived from the original on 1 February 2018. Retrieved 1 February 2018.
15. ^ Oman: The Lost Land Archived 6 October 2014 at the Wayback Machine. Saudi Aramco World. Retrieved on 7 November 2016.
16. ^ EB (1878).
17. ^ "The history of British involvement in Bahrain's internal security". openDemocracy. Archived from the original on 9 July 2021. Retrieved 7 July 2021.
18. ^ "Bahrain says ban on protests in response to rising violence". CNN. 1 November 2012. Retrieved 16 November 2012.
19. ^ "How Bahrain uses sport to whitewash a legacy of torture and human rights abuses | David Conn | Sport". The Guardian. Retrieved 19 July 2018.
20. ^ "Bahrain: Reform-Promise and Reality" (PDF). J.E. Peterson. p. 157. Archived (PDF) from the original on 26 February 2014. Retrieved 23 February 2014.
21. ^ "Bahrain's economy praised for diversity and sustainability". Bahrain Economic Development Board. Archived from the original on 28 December 2010. Retrieved 24 June 2012.
22. ^ "Bahrain". IMUNA | NHSMUN | Model UN. Archived from the original on 9 July 2021. Retrieved 7 July 2021.
23. ^ "Shanghai Cooperation Organisation". eng.sectsco.org. Archived from the original on 16 August 2023. Retrieved 1 September 2023.
24. ^ "Bahrain granted the status of SCO dialogue partner". bna.bh/en/. 15 July 2023. Retrieved 1 September 2023.

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15 August 1914 – The Panama Canal opens to traffic with the transit of the cargo ship SS Ancon.

Panama Canal

Shipping route across Central America

The Panama Canal (Spanish: Canal de Panamá) is an artificial 82-kilometer (51-mile) waterway in Panama that connects the Atlantic Ocean with the Pacific Ocean, cutting across the Isthmus of Panama, and is a conduit for maritime trade. Locks at each end lift ships up to Gatun Lake, an artificial fresh water lake 26 meters (85 ft) above sea level, created by damming up the Chagres River and Lake Alajuela to reduce the amount of excavation work required for the canal. Locks then lower the ships at the other end. An average of 200,000,000 L (52,000,000 US gal) of fresh water is used in a single passing of a ship. The canal is threatened by low water levels during droughts.

The Panama Canal shortcut greatly reduces the time for ships to travel between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, enabling them to avoid the lengthy, hazardous route around the southernmost tip of South America via the Drake Passage, the Strait of Magellan or the Beagle Channel. It is one of the largest and most difficult engineering projects ever undertaken.

Colombia, France, and later the United States controlled the territory surrounding the canal during construction. France began work on the canal in 1881, but stopped because of lack of investors' confidence due to engineering problems and a high worker mortality rate. The US took over the project in 1904 and opened the canal in 1914. The US continued to control the canal and surrounding Panama Canal Zone until the Torrijos–Carter Treaties provided for its handover to Panama in 1977. After a period of joint American–Panamanian control, the Panamanian government took control in 1999. It is now managed and operated by the Panamanian government-owned Panama Canal Authority.

The original locks are 33.5 meters (110 ft) wide and allow the passage of Panamax ships. A third, wider lane of locks was constructed between September 2007 and May 2016. The expanded waterway began commercial operation on 26 June 2016. The new locks allow transit of larger, Neopanamax ships.

Annual traffic has risen from about 1,000 ships in 1914, when the canal opened, to 14,702 vessels in 2008, for a total of 333.7 million Panama Canal/Universal Measurement System (PC/UMS) tons. By 2012, more than 815,000 vessels had passed through the canal.^[1] In 2017, it took ships an average of 11.38 hours to pass between the canal's two outer locks. The American Society of Civil Engineers has ranked the Panama Canal one of the Seven Wonders of the Modern World.^[2]

1. ^ "Panama Canal Traffic—Years 1914–2010". Panama Canal Authority. Archived from the original on 30 December 2010. Retrieved 25 January 2011.
2. ^ "Seven Wonders". American Society of Civil Engineers. Archived from the original on 2 August 2010. Retrieved 21 February 2011.

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16 August 1916 – The Migratory Bird Treaty between Canada and the United States is signed.

Migratory Bird Treaty

1916 treaty between Canada and the United States

The Migratory Bird Treaty or Convention is an environmental treaty between Canada and the United States. It was originally signed on 16 August 1916 by the United States and the United Kingdom (representing Canada), entered into force on 6 December 1916 and has since been amended several times.

Whereas, many species of birds in the course of their annual migrations traverse certain parts of the Dominion of Canada and the United States; and

Whereas, many of these species are of great value as a source of food or in destroying insects which are injurious to forests and forage plants on the public domain, as well as to agricultural crops, in both Canada and the United States, but are nevertheless in danger of extermination through lack of adequate protection during the nesting season or while on their way to and from their breeding grounds;

His Majesty the King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and of the British dominions beyond the seas, Emperor of India, and the United States of America, being desirous of saving from indiscriminate slaughter and of insuring the preservation of such migratory birds as are either useful to man or are harmless, have resolved to adopt some uniform system of protection which shall effectively accomplish such objects ...^[1]

1. ^ "Canada Treaty Information - View Treaty". Archived from the original on 2011-10-03. Retrieved 2011-05-18.

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17 August 1945 – The novella Animal Farm by George Orwell is first published.

Animal Farm

1945 novella by George Orwell

This article is about the novel by George Orwell. For other uses, see Animal Farm (disambiguation).

Animal Farm is a satirical allegorical novella, in the form of a beast fable,^[1] by George Orwell, first published in England on 17 August 1945.^[2][3] It tells the story of a group of anthropomorphic farm animals who rebel against their human farmer, hoping to create a society where the animals can be equal, free, and happy. Ultimately, the rebellion is betrayed, and under the dictatorship of a pig named Napoleon, the farm ends up in a state far worse than before.

According to Orwell, Animal Farm reflects events leading up to the Russian Revolution of 1917 and then on into the Stalinist era of the Soviet Union, a period when Russia lived under the communist ideology of Joseph Stalin.^[1][4] Orwell, a democratic socialist,^[5] was a critic of Stalin and hostile to Moscow-directed Stalinism, an attitude that was critically shaped by his experiences during the Barcelona May Days conflicts between the POUM and Stalinist forces, during the Spanish Civil War.^[6][a] In a letter to Yvonne Davet, Orwell described Animal Farm as a satirical tale against Stalin ("un conte satirique contre Staline"),^[7] and in his essay, "Why I Write" (1946), wrote: "Animal Farm was the first book in which I tried, with full consciousness of what I was doing, to fuse political purpose and artistic purpose into one whole".^[8]

The original title of the novel was Animal Farm: A Fairy Story, but US publishers dropped the subtitle when it was published in 1946, and only one of the translations, during Orwell's lifetime, the Telugu version, kept it. Other title variations include subtitles like "A Satire" and "A Contemporary Satire".^[7] Orwell suggested the title Union des républiques socialistes animales for the French translation, which abbreviates to URSA, the Latin word for "bear", a symbol of Russia. It also played on the French name of the Soviet Union, Union des républiques socialistes soviétiques.^[7]

Orwell wrote the book between November 1943 and February 1944, when the United Kingdom was in its wartime alliance with the Soviet Union against Nazi Germany and the British intelligentsia held Stalin in high esteem, a phenomenon Orwell hated.^[b] The manuscript was initially rejected by several British and American publishers,^[9] including one of Orwell's own, Victor Gollancz, which delayed its publication.^[c] It became a great commercial success when it did appear, as international relations and public opinion were transformed as the wartime alliance gave way to the Cold War.^[10]

Time magazine chose the book as one of the 100 best English-language novels (1923 to 2005);^[11] it also featured at number 31 on the Modern Library List of Best 20th-Century Novels,^[12] and number 46 on the BBC's The Big Read poll.^[13] It won a Retrospective Hugo Award in 1996^[14] and is included in the Great Books of the Western World selection.^[15]

1. ^ ^{a b} Meija 2002.
2. ^ Bynum 2012.
3. ^ 12 Things You 2015.
4. ^ Gcse English Literature.
5. ^ Orwell 2014, p. 23.
6. ^ Bowker 2013, p. 235.
7. ^ ^{a b c} Davison 2000.
8. ^ Orwell 2014, p. 10.
9. ^ Animal Farm: Sixty.
10. ^ Dickstein 2007, p. 134.
11. ^ Grossman & Lacayo 2005.
12. ^ Modern Library 1998.
13. ^ "The Big Read". BBC. April 2003. Retrieved 22 March 2020.
14. ^ The Hugo Awards 1996.
15. ^ "Great Books of the Western World as Free eBooks". Prodigal no more. 5 March 2019 – via WordPress.

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

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17 August 1945 – The novella Animal Farm by George Orwell is first published.

Animal Farm

1945 novella by George Orwell

This article is about the novel by George Orwell. For other uses, see Animal Farm (disambiguation).

Animal Farm is a satirical allegorical novella, in the form of a beast fable,^[1] by George Orwell, first published in England on 17 August 1945.^[2][3] It tells the story of a group of anthropomorphic farm animals who rebel against their human farmer, hoping to create a society where the animals can be equal, free, and happy. Ultimately, the rebellion is betrayed, and under the dictatorship of a pig named Napoleon, the farm ends up in a state far worse than before.

According to Orwell, Animal Farm reflects events leading up to the Russian Revolution of 1917 and then on into the Stalinist era of the Soviet Union, a period when Russia lived under the communist ideology of Joseph Stalin.^[1][4] Orwell, a democratic socialist,^[5] was a critic of Stalin and hostile to Moscow-directed Stalinism, an attitude that was critically shaped by his experiences during the Barcelona May Days conflicts between the POUM and Stalinist forces, during the Spanish Civil War.^[6][a] In a letter to Yvonne Davet, Orwell described Animal Farm as a satirical tale against Stalin ("un conte satirique contre Staline"),^[7] and in his essay, "Why I Write" (1946), wrote: "Animal Farm was the first book in which I tried, with full consciousness of what I was doing, to fuse political purpose and artistic purpose into one whole".^[8]

The original title of the novel was Animal Farm: A Fairy Story, but US publishers dropped the subtitle when it was published in 1946, and only one of the translations, during Orwell's lifetime, the Telugu version, kept it. Other title variations include subtitles like "A Satire" and "A Contemporary Satire".^[7] Orwell suggested the title Union des républiques socialistes animales for the French translation, which abbreviates to URSA, the Latin word for "bear", a symbol of Russia. It also played on the French name of the Soviet Union, Union des républiques socialistes soviétiques.^[7]

Orwell wrote the book between November 1943 and February 1944, when the United Kingdom was in its wartime alliance with the Soviet Union against Nazi Germany and the British intelligentsia held Stalin in high esteem, a phenomenon Orwell hated.^[b] The manuscript was initially rejected by several British and American publishers,^[9] including one of Orwell's own, Victor Gollancz, which delayed its publication.^[c] It became a great commercial success when it did appear, as international relations and public opinion were transformed as the wartime alliance gave way to the Cold War.^[10]

Time magazine chose the book as one of the 100 best English-language novels (1923 to 2005);^[11] it also featured at number 31 on the Modern Library List of Best 20th-Century Novels,^[12] and number 46 on the BBC's The Big Read poll.^[13] It won a Retrospective Hugo Award in 1996^[14] and is included in the Great Books of the Western World selection.^[15]

1. ^ ^{a b} Meija 2002.
2. ^ Bynum 2012.
3. ^ 12 Things You 2015.
4. ^ Gcse English Literature.
5. ^ Orwell 2014, p. 23.
6. ^ Bowker 2013, p. 235.
7. ^ ^{a b c} Davison 2000.
8. ^ Orwell 2014, p. 10.
9. ^ Animal Farm: Sixty.
10. ^ Dickstein 2007, p. 134.
11. ^ Grossman & Lacayo 2005.
12. ^ Modern Library 1998.
13. ^ "The Big Read". BBC. April 2003. Retrieved 22 March 2020.
14. ^ The Hugo Awards 1996.
15. ^ "Great Books of the Western World as Free eBooks". Prodigal no more. 5 March 2019 – via WordPress.

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18 August 1783 – A huge fireball meteor is seen across Great Britain as it passes over the east coast.

1783 Great Meteor

Bolide observed on 18 August 1783

The 1783 Great Meteor was a meteor procession observed on 18 August 1783 from the British Isles, at a time when such phenomena were not well understood. The meteor was the subject of much discussion in the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society and was the subject of a detailed study by Charles Blagden.

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19 August 1964 – Syncom 3, the first geostationary communication satellite, is launched. Two months later, it would enable live coverage of the 1964 Summer Olympics.

Syncom

1960s and 80s NASA program to develop communications satellites

Syncom (for "synchronous communication satellite") started as a 1961 NASA program for active geosynchronous communication satellites, all of which were developed and manufactured by the Space and Communications division of Hughes Aircraft Company (now the Boeing Satellite Development Center). Syncom 2, launched in 1963, was the world's first geosynchronous communications satellite. Syncom 3, launched in 1964, was the world's first geostationary satellite.^{[citation needed]}

In the 1980s, the series was continued as Syncom IV with some much larger satellites, also manufactured by Hughes. They were leased to the United States military under the Leasat program.

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20 August 1882 – Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture debuts in Moscow, Russia.

1812 Overture

1880 concert overture by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky

"The Year 1812" redirects here. For the leap year, see 1812.

The Year 1812, Solemn Overture, Op. 49, popularly known as the 1812 Overture,^[1] is a concert overture in E♭ major written in 1880 by Russian composer Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. The piece commemorates Russia's successful defense against the French invasion of the nation in 1812.

The overture's first public performance, under the baton of Ippolit Al'tani, took place in Moscow on 20 August [O.S. 8 August] 1882,^[2] under a tent, near the still unfinished Cathedral of Christ the Saviour, which also memorialised the 1812 defence of Russia.^[3]

The fifteen-minute overture is best known for its climactic volley of cannon fire, ringing chimes, and a brass fanfare finale. It has also become a common accompaniment to fireworks displays on the United States' Independence Day.^[4] The 1812 Overture went on to become one of Tchaikovsky's most popular works, along with his ballet scores to The Nutcracker, The Sleeping Beauty, and Swan Lake.^[5]

1. ^ "Tchaikovsky Research: The Year 1812, Op. 49 (TH 49)". Retrieved 21 June 2015.
2. ^ Lax, Roger; Smith, Frederick (1989). The Great Song Thesaurus. Oxford: Oxford University Press. p. 230. ISBN 978-0-19-505408-8.
3. ^ Felsenfeld, Daniel. Tchaikovsky: A Listener's Guide, p. 54. Amadeus Press, 2006.
4. ^ Hernández, Javier C. (3 July 2022). "Amid Ukraine War, Orchestras Rethink '1812 Overture,' a July 4 Rite – Some ensembles have decided not to perform Tchaikovsky's overture, written as commemoration of Russia's defeat of Napoleon's army". The New York Times. Retrieved 4 July 2022.
5. ^ Robinson, Harlow (2012). Rzhevsky, Nicholas (ed.). The Cambridge Companion to Modern Russian Culture. Cambridge University Press. p. 268. ISBN 978-1-107-00252-4.

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21 August 1982 – Lebanese Civil War: The first troops of a multinational force lands in Beirut to oversee the Palestine Liberation Organization's withdrawal from Lebanon.

Lebanese Civil War

1975–1990 conflict in Lebanon

The Lebanese Civil War (Arabic: الحرب الأهلية اللبنانية Al-Ḥarb al-Ahliyyah al-Libnāniyyah) was a multifaceted armed conflict that took place from 1975 to 1990. It resulted in an estimated 150,000 fatalities^[5] and led to the exodus of almost one million people from Lebanon.^[6]

The religious diversity of the Lebanese population played a notable role in the lead-up to and during the conflict: Lebanese Christians and Lebanese Sunni Muslims comprised the majority in the coastal cities; Lebanese Shia Muslims were primarily based throughout southern Lebanon and in the Beqaa Valley in the east; and Druze and Christians populated the country's mountainous areas. At the time, the Lebanese government was under the influence of elites within the Maronite Christian community.^[7][8] The link between politics and religion was reinforced under the French Mandate from 1920 to 1943, and the country's parliamentary structure favoured a leading position for Lebanese Christians, who constituted the majority of the population. However, Lebanon's Muslims comprised a large minority and the influx of thousands of Palestinians—first in 1948 and again in 1967—contributed to Lebanon's demographic shift towards an eventual Muslim majority. Lebanon's Christian-dominated government had been facing increasing opposition from Muslims, pan-Arabists, and left-wing groups. The Cold War also exerted a disintegrative effect on the country, closely linked to the political polarization that preceded the 1958 Lebanese crisis. Christians mostly sided with the Western world while Muslims, pan-Arabists, and leftists mostly sided with Soviet-aligned Arab countries.^[9]

Fighting between Lebanese Christian militias and Palestinian insurgents, mainly from the Palestine Liberation Organization, began in 1975 and generated an alliance between the Palestinians and Lebanese Muslims, pan-Arabists, and leftists.^[10] The conflict deepened as foreign powers, namely Syria, Israel, and Iran, became involved and supported or fought alongside different factions. Over the course of the conflict, these alliances shifted rapidly and unpredictably. While much of the fighting took place between opposing religious and ideological factions, there was significant conflict within some faith communities, especially amongst both Christians and Shias. Peacekeeping forces, such as the Multinational Force in Lebanon and the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon, were stationed in Lebanon during this time.

In 1989, the Taif Agreement marked the beginning of the end for the fighting as a committee appointed by the Arab League began to formulate solutions to the conflict. In March 1991, the Parliament of Lebanon passed an amnesty law that pardoned all political crimes that had been perpetrated prior to the law's time of enactment.^[11] In May 1991, all of the armed factions that had been operating in Lebanon were dissolved, excluding Hezbollah, an Iran-backed Shia Islamist militia. Though the Lebanese Armed Forces slowly began to rebuild as Lebanon's only major non-sectarian armed institution after the conflict,^[12] the federal government remained unable to challenge Hezbollah's armed strength. Religious tensions, especially between Shias and Sunnis, persisted across Lebanon since the formal end of the hostilities in 1990.^[13]

1. ^ ^{a b c d e f g} Mays, Terry M. Historical Dictionary of Multinational Peacekeeping. Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, 1996, pp. 9–10
2. ^ "The Taif Agreement" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 17 April 2018. Retrieved 9 August 2017.
3. ^ Ranstorp, Magnus, Hizb'allah in Lebanon: The Politics of the Western Hostage Crisis, New York, St. Martins Press, 1997, p. 105
4. ^ World Political Almanac, 3rd ed., Chris Cook.
5. ^ UN Human Rights Council. 23 November 2006. "IMPLEMENTATION OF GENERAL ASSEMBLY RESOLUTION 60/251 OF 15 MARCH 2006 ENTITLED HUMAN RIGHTS COUNCIL." p.18.
6. ^ Byman, Daniel, and Kenneth Michael Pollack. Things Fall Apart: Containing the Spillover from an Iraqi Civil War. p. 139
7. ^ Inhorn, Marcia C., and Soraya Tremayne. 2012. Islam and Assisted Reproductive Technologies. p. 238.
8. ^ "Who are the Maronites?". BBC News – Middle East. 6 August 2007.
9. ^ "Beware of Small States: Lebanon, Battleground of the Middle East." p. 62
10. ^ Halliday, 2005: 117
11. ^ "Ex-militia fighters in post-war Lebanon" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 23 September 2015. Retrieved 23 September 2013.
12. ^ "Lebanon's History: Civil War". ghazi.de.
13. ^ Rolland, John C. 2003. Lebanon: Current Issues and Background. p. 144. ISBN 978-1590338711.

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22 August 1953 – The penal colony on Devil's Island is permanently closed.

Devil's Island

Prison of Cayenne in French Guiana

For other uses, see Devils Island.

The penal colony of Cayenne (French: Bagne de Cayenne), commonly known as Devil's Island (Île du Diable), was a French penal colony that operated for 100 years, from 1852 to 1952, and officially closed in 1953, in the Salvation Islands of French Guiana.

Opened in 1852, the Devil's Island system received convicts from the Prison of St-Laurent-du-Maroni, who had been deported from all parts of the Second French Empire. It was notorious both for the staff's harsh treatment of detainees and the tropical climate and diseases that contributed to high mortality. The prison system had a death rate of 75 percent at its worst and was finally closed down in 1953.^[1]

Devil's Island was also notorious for being used for the exile of French political prisoners, with the most famous being Captain Alfred Dreyfus, who had been accused of spying for Germany. The Dreyfus affair was a scandal extending for several years in late 19th and early 20th century France.^[2][3]

1. ^ Cite error: The named reference toth was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
2. ^ "The Last Prisoner on Devil's Island". 1981. Archived from the original on 20 July 2008. Retrieved 28 April 2012. Excerpt from the People's Almanac, posted at "trivia-library.com. Archive.org
3. ^ "Devil's Island Prison History and Facts". prisonhistory.net.

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23 August 1898 – The Southern Cross Expedition, the first British venture of the Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration, departs from London.

Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration

Period of history from the 1890s to the 1920s

The Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration was an era in the exploration of the continent of Antarctica which began at the end of the 19th century, and ended after the First World War; the Shackleton–Rowett Expedition of 1921–1922 is often cited by historians as the dividing line between the "Heroic" and "Mechanical" ages.^[1][2][3]

During the Heroic Age, the Antarctic region became the focus of international efforts that resulted in intensive scientific and geographical exploration by 17 major Antarctic expeditions launched from ten countries.^[4] The common factor in these expeditions was the limited nature of the resources available to them before advances in transport and communication technologies revolutionized the work of exploration.^[1][5] Each of these expeditions therefore became a feat of endurance that tested, and sometimes exceeded, the physical and mental limits of its personnel. The "heroic" label, bestowed later, recognized the adversities which had to be overcome by these pioneers, some of whom did not survive the experience: a total of 19 expedition members died during this period.

Both the geographic and magnetic South Poles were reached for the first time during the Heroic Age. The achievement of being first to the geographical pole was the primary object in many expeditions, as well as the sole rationale for Roald Amundsen's venture, which became the first to reach it in 1911. Other expeditions aimed for different objectives in different areas of the continent. As a result of all this activity, much of the continent's coastline was discovered and mapped, and significant areas of its interior were explored. The expeditions also generated large quantities of scientific data across a wide range of disciplines, the examination and analysis of which would keep the world's scientific communities busy for decades.^[6]

1. ^ ^{a b} Cite error: The named reference Fisherlate was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
2. ^ Smith, p. 414
3. ^ The historian Aant Elzinga gives the much later date of 1945, considering World War II to be the turning point in Antarctic research.Elzinga, Aang (1993). Changing Trends in Antarctic Research. Dordrecth: Springer. ISBN 978-0-58-528849-9.
4. ^ Barczewski, pp. 19–20.
5. ^ Huntford, p. 691 – "before machines took over."
6. ^ For example, the scientific results of the Scottish National Antarctic Expedition, 1902–04 were still being published in 1920 (Speak, p. 100). 25 volumes of results from the Terra Nova Expedition, 1910–13 had been published by 1925. ("British Antarctic Expedition 1910–13". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Archived from the original on 15 July 2012. Retrieved 4 December 2008.)

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24 August 1991 – Mikhail Gorbachev resigns as head of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.

Mikhail Gorbachev

Leader of the Soviet Union from 1985 to 1991

"Gorbachev" redirects here. For other people with the surname, see Gorbachev (surname).

Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev^[f][g] (2 March 1931 – 30 August 2022) was a Soviet and Russian politician and statesman who served as the last leader of the Soviet Union from 1985 to the country's dissolution in 1991. He served as General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1985 and additionally as head of state beginning in 1988, as Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet from 1988 to 1989, Chairman of the Supreme Soviet from 1989 to 1990 and the president of the Soviet Union from 1990 to 1991. Ideologically, Gorbachev initially adhered to Marxism–Leninism but moved towards social democracy by the early 1990s. He was the only Soviet leader born after the country's foundation.

Gorbachev was born in Privolnoye, Russian SFSR, to a poor peasant family of Russian and Ukrainian heritage. Growing up under the rule of Joseph Stalin in his youth, he operated combine harvesters on a collective farm before joining the Communist Party, which then governed the Soviet Union as a one-party state. Studying at Moscow State University, he married fellow student Raisa Titarenko in 1953 and received his law degree in 1955. Moving to Stavropol, he worked for the Komsomol youth organization and, after Stalin's death, became a keen proponent of the de-Stalinization reforms of Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev. He was appointed the First Party Secretary of the Stavropol Regional Committee in 1970, overseeing the construction of the Great Stavropol Canal. In 1978, he returned to Moscow to become a Secretary of the party's Central Committee; he joined the governing Politburo (25th term) as a non-voting member in 1979 and a voting member in 1980. Three years after the death of Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev—following the brief tenures of Yuri Andropov and Konstantin Chernenko—in 1985, the Politburo elected Gorbachev as general secretary, the de facto leader.

Although committed to preserving the Soviet state and its Marxist–Leninist ideals, Gorbachev believed significant reform was necessary for its survival. He withdrew troops from the Soviet–Afghan War and embarked on summits with United States president Ronald Reagan to limit nuclear weapons and end the Cold War. Domestically, his policy of glasnost ("openness") allowed for enhanced freedom of speech and press, while his perestroika ("restructuring") sought to decentralize economic decision-making to improve its efficiency. Ultimately, Gorbachev's democratization measures and formation of the elected Congress of People's Deputies undermined the one-party state. When various Warsaw Pact countries abandoned Marxist–Leninist governance in 1989, he declined to intervene militarily. Growing nationalist sentiment within constituent republics threatened to break up the Soviet Union, leading the hardliners within the Communist Party to launch an unsuccessful coup against Gorbachev in August 1991. In the coup's wake, the Soviet Union dissolved against Gorbachev's wishes. After resigning from the presidency, he launched the Gorbachev Foundation, became a vocal critic of Russian presidents Boris Yeltsin and Vladimir Putin, and campaigned for Russia's social-democratic movement.

Gorbachev is considered one of the most significant figures of the second half of the 20th century. The recipient of a wide range of awards, including the Nobel Peace Prize, in the West he is praised for his role in ending the Cold War, introducing new political and economic freedoms in the Soviet Union, and tolerating both the fall of Marxist–Leninist administrations in eastern and central Europe and the German reunification. Gorbachev has a complicated legacy in Russia. While in power, he had net positive approval ratings, being viewed as a reformer and changemaker. However, as the Soviet Union collapsed as a result of these reforms, so did his approval rating; contemporary Russians often deride him for weakening Russia's global influence and precipitating an economic collapse in the country. Mikhail Gorbachev also ran unsuccessfully in 1996 which, despite neoliberal reforms in Russia at the time, showed mass unpopularity with the results of his administration and possibly regret in the collapse of the USSR.

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. ^ "Gorbachev" Archived 2 April 2015 at the Wayback Machine. Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary.
2. ^ "Gorbachev, Mikhail" Archived 13 May 2019 at the Wayback Machine, Oxford Dictionaries. Retrieved 4 February 2019
3. ^ "Gorbachev". Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary. Merriam-Webster. Retrieved 4 February 2019.

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24 August 1991 – Mikhail Gorbachev resigns as head of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.

Mikhail Gorbachev

Leader of the Soviet Union from 1985 to 1991

"Gorbachev" redirects here. For other people with the surname, see Gorbachev (surname).

Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev^[f][g] (2 March 1931 – 30 August 2022) was a Soviet and Russian politician and statesman who served as the last leader of the Soviet Union from 1985 to the country's dissolution in 1991. He served as General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1985 and additionally as head of state beginning in 1988, as Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet from 1988 to 1989, Chairman of the Supreme Soviet from 1989 to 1990 and the president of the Soviet Union from 1990 to 1991. Ideologically, Gorbachev initially adhered to Marxism–Leninism but moved towards social democracy by the early 1990s. He was the only Soviet leader born after the country's foundation.

Gorbachev was born in Privolnoye, Russian SFSR, to a poor peasant family of Russian and Ukrainian heritage. Growing up under the rule of Joseph Stalin in his youth, he operated combine harvesters on a collective farm before joining the Communist Party, which then governed the Soviet Union as a one-party state. Studying at Moscow State University, he married fellow student Raisa Titarenko in 1953 and received his law degree in 1955. Moving to Stavropol, he worked for the Komsomol youth organization and, after Stalin's death, became a keen proponent of the de-Stalinization reforms of Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev. He was appointed the First Party Secretary of the Stavropol Regional Committee in 1970, overseeing the construction of the Great Stavropol Canal. In 1978, he returned to Moscow to become a Secretary of the party's Central Committee; he joined the governing Politburo (25th term) as a non-voting member in 1979 and a voting member in 1980. Three years after the death of Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev—following the brief tenures of Yuri Andropov and Konstantin Chernenko—in 1985, the Politburo elected Gorbachev as general secretary, the de facto leader.

Although committed to preserving the Soviet state and its Marxist–Leninist ideals, Gorbachev believed significant reform was necessary for its survival. He withdrew troops from the Soviet–Afghan War and embarked on summits with United States president Ronald Reagan to limit nuclear weapons and end the Cold War. Domestically, his policy of glasnost ("openness") allowed for enhanced freedom of speech and press, while his perestroika ("restructuring") sought to decentralize economic decision-making to improve its efficiency. Ultimately, Gorbachev's democratization measures and formation of the elected Congress of People's Deputies undermined the one-party state. When various Warsaw Pact countries abandoned Marxist–Leninist governance in 1989, he declined to intervene militarily. Growing nationalist sentiment within constituent republics threatened to break up the Soviet Union, leading the hardliners within the Communist Party to launch an unsuccessful coup against Gorbachev in August 1991. In the coup's wake, the Soviet Union dissolved against Gorbachev's wishes. After resigning from the presidency, he launched the Gorbachev Foundation, became a vocal critic of Russian presidents Boris Yeltsin and Vladimir Putin, and campaigned for Russia's social-democratic movement.

Gorbachev is considered one of the most significant figures of the second half of the 20th century. The recipient of a wide range of awards, including the Nobel Peace Prize, in the West he is praised for his role in ending the Cold War, introducing new political and economic freedoms in the Soviet Union, and tolerating both the fall of Marxist–Leninist administrations in eastern and central Europe and the German reunification. Gorbachev has a complicated legacy in Russia. While in power, he had net positive approval ratings, being viewed as a reformer and changemaker. However, as the Soviet Union collapsed as a result of these reforms, so did his approval rating; contemporary Russians often deride him for weakening Russia's global influence and precipitating an economic collapse in the country. Mikhail Gorbachev also ran unsuccessfully in 1996 which, despite neoliberal reforms in Russia at the time, showed mass unpopularity with the results of his administration and possibly regret in the collapse of the USSR.

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. ^ "Gorbachev" Archived 2 April 2015 at the Wayback Machine. Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary.
2. ^ "Gorbachev, Mikhail" Archived 13 May 2019 at the Wayback Machine, Oxford Dictionaries. Retrieved 4 February 2019
3. ^ "Gorbachev". Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary. Merriam-Webster. Retrieved 4 February 2019.

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25 August 1835 – The first Great Moon Hoax article is published in The New York Sun, announcing the discovery of life and civilization on the Moon.

Great Moon Hoax

Fake series in the New York newspaper The Sun in 1835

Not to be confused with Moon landing conspiracy theories.

The "Great Moon Hoax", also known as the "Great Moon Hoax of 1835" was a series of six articles published in The Sun (a New York newspaper), beginning on August 25, 1835, about the supposed discovery of life and civilization on the Moon. The discoveries were falsely attributed to Sir John Herschel and his fictitious companion Andrew Grant.^[1]

The story was advertised on August 21, 1835, as an upcoming feature allegedly reprinted from The Edinburgh Courant.^[2] The first in a series of six was published four days later on August 25. These articles were never retracted; however, on September 16, 1835, The Sun admitted the articles were in fact fabricated.^[3]

1. ^ Vida, István Kornél (2012). "The "Great Moon Hoax" of 1835". Hungarian Journal of English and American Studies. 18 (1/2): 431–441. JSTOR 43488485.
2. ^ Maliszewski, Paul. "Paper Moon", Wilson Quarterly. Winter 2005. p. 26.
3. ^ ""The Great Moon Hoax" is published in the "New York Sun" | August 25, 1835". HISTORY. Retrieved 2023-11-29.

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26 August 1791 – John Fitch is granted a United States patent for the steamboat.

John Fitch (inventor)

18th-century American inventor and entrepreneur

John Fitch (January 21, 1743 – July 2, 1798) was an American inventor, clockmaker, entrepreneur, and engineer. He was most famous for operating the first steamboat service in the United States. The first boat, 45 feet long, was tested on the Delaware River by Fitch and his design assistant Steven Pagano.

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27 August 1232 – Shikken Hojo Yasutoki of the Kamakura shogunate promulgates the Goseibai Shikimoku, the first Japanese legal code governing the samurai class

Samurai

Warriors in pre-industrial Japan

For other uses, see Samurai (disambiguation).

Samurai (侍) or bushi (武士, [bɯ.ɕi]) were members of the warrior class in Japan. They were originally provincial warriors who served the Kuge and imperial court in the late 12th century, and eventually came to play a major political role until their abolition in the late 1870s during the Meiji era.^[1][2]

In the Heian period, powerful regional clans were relied on to put down rebellions. After power struggles, the Taira clan defeated the Minamoto clan in 1160.^[3] After the Minamoto defeated the Taira in 1185, Minamoto no Yoritomo established the Kamakura shogunate, a parallel government that did not surplant the imperial court.^[4][5] The warriors who served the Shogunate were called gokenin, landholding warriors whose retainers were called samurai.^[6][7] Gokenin were regulated by the Samurai-dokoro.

During the Sengoku Period, the term was vague and some samurai owned land, others were retainers or mercenaries.^[8] Many served as retainers to lords (including daimyo).^{[citation needed]} There was a great increase in the number of men who styled themselves samurai by virtue of bearing arms.^[9] During the Edo period, 1603 to 1868, they were mainly the stewards and chamberlains of the daimyo estates, roles they had also filled in the past. During the Edo period, they came to represent a hereditary class.^[10] On the other hand, from the mid-Edo period, chōnin (townsman) and farmers could be promoted to the samurai class by being adopted into gokenin families or by serving in daikan offices, and low-ranking samurai could be transferred to lower social classes, such as chōnin, by changing jobs.^[11][12]

In the 1870s, samurai families comprised 5% of the population.^{[citation needed]} As modern militaries emerged in the 19th century, the samurai were rendered increasingly obsolete and very expensive to maintain compared to the average conscript soldier. The Meiji Restoration formally abolished the status, and most former samurai became Shizoku. This allowed them to move into professional and entrepreneurial roles.

1. ^ Vaporis, Constantine Nomikos (14 March 2019). Samurai An Encyclopedia of Japan's Cultured Warriors. Bloomsbury Publishing. ISBN 9798216141518.
2. ^ Samurai: The Story of a Warrior Tradition, Harry Cook, Blandford Press 1993, ISBN 0713724323
3. ^ Cite error: The named reference nhkgenpei was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
4. ^ Spafford, David (2014). "Emperor and Shogun, Pope and King: The Development of Japan's Warrior Aristocracy". Bulletin of the Detroit Institute of Arts. 88 (No. 1/4): 10-19. {{cite journal}}: |issue= has extra text (help)
5. ^ Shigekazu, Kondo (2021). „The ‚Horse-Race’ for the Throne: Court, Shogunate, and Imperial Succession in Early Medieval Japan,”. Göttingen: V&R unipress.
6. ^ Conlan, Thomas (2020). The Rise of Warriors During the Warring States Period. Stockholm: Axel and Margarate Ax:son Johnson Foundation.
7. ^ Deal, William (2007). Handbook to Life in Medieval and Early Modern Japan. Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780195331264.
8. ^ Cummins, Anthony (2012). In Search of the Ninja. History Press. ISBN 9780752483559.
9. ^ Birt, Michael P. (2017) [1st pub. 1985]. "Samurai in Passage: The Transformation of the Sixteenth-Century Kanto". In Kleinschmidt, Harald (ed.). Warfare in Japan. Routledge. p. 338. ISBN 9780754625179.
10. ^ Howland, Douglas R. (May 2001). "Samurai Status, Class, and Bureaucracy: A Historiographical Essay". The Journal of Asian Studies. 60 (2): 353–380. doi:10.2307/2659697. ISSN 0021-9118. JSTOR 2659697.
11. ^ 武士（ぶし）／侍（さむらい） (in Japanese). Shūeisha. Archived from the original on 19 July 2024. Retrieved 19 July 2024.
12. ^ Cite error: The named reference ocha was invoked but never defined (see the help page).

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28 August 1845 – The first issue of Scientific American magazine is published.

Scientific American

American monthly science magazine

Academic journal

Scientific American, informally abbreviated SciAm or sometimes SA, is an American popular science magazine. Many scientists, including Albert Einstein and Nikola Tesla, have contributed articles to it, with more than 150 Nobel Prize-winners being featured since its inception.^[2]

In print since 1845, it is the oldest continuously published magazine in the United States. Scientific American is owned by Springer Nature, which is a subsidiary of Holtzbrinck Publishing Group.

1. ^ Scientific American, Inc. (1862)Men of progress : American inventors presented to the subscribers of the Scientific American. Munn & Co. (New York), publisher.
2. ^ "Front Matter". Scientific American, vol. 110, no. 1, 1914. JSTOR 26012562. Accessed 3 July 2023.

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