This day in .....

16 April 2007 – Virginia Tech shooting: Seung-Hui Cho guns down 32 people and injures 17 before committing suicide.

Virginia Tech shooting

2007 mass shooting in Blacksburg, Virginia, US

This article is about the April 16, 2007, shootings. For the 2006 incident, see William Morva.

The Virginia Tech shooting was a spree shooting that occurred on Monday, April 16, 2007, comprising two attacks on the campus of the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (Virginia Tech) in Blacksburg, Virginia, United States. Seung-Hui Cho, an undergraduate student at the university, killed 32 people and wounded 17 others with two semi-automatic pistols before committing suicide. Six others were injured jumping out of windows to escape Cho.

The first shooting occurred at West Ambler Johnston Hall, a dormitory, where two people were killed; the main attack was a school shooting at Norris Hall, a classroom building, where Cho chained the main entrance doors shut and fired into four classrooms and a stairwell, killing thirty more people. As police stormed Norris Hall, Cho fatally shot himself in the head. It was the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history and remained so for nine years until the Pulse nightclub shooting. It remains the deadliest school shooting in U.S. history and the deadliest mass shooting in Virginia history.

The attacks received international media coverage and provoked widespread criticism of U.S. gun culture.^[9] It sparked debate about gun violence, gun laws, gaps in the U.S. system for treating mental health issues, Cho's state of mind, the responsibility of college administrations,^[10] privacy laws, journalism ethics, and other issues. News organizations that aired portions of Cho's multimedia manifesto were criticized by victims' families, Virginia law enforcement officials, and the American Psychiatric Association.^[11][12]

Cho had previously been diagnosed with selective mutism and severe depression. During much of his middle school and high school years, he received therapy and special education support. After graduating from high school, Cho enrolled at Virginia Tech. Because of federal privacy laws, the university was unaware of Cho's previous diagnoses or the accommodations he had been granted at school. In 2005, Cho was accused of stalking two female students.^[13] After an investigation, a Virginia special justice declared Cho mentally ill and ordered him to attend treatment. Because he was not institutionalized, he was allowed to purchase guns.^[14] The shooting prompted the state of Virginia to close legal loopholes that had allowed individuals adjudicated as mentally unsound to purchase handguns without detection by the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS). It also led to the passage of the first major federal gun control measure in the U.S. since 1994. The law strengthening the NICS was signed by President George W. Bush on January 5, 2008.^[15]

Administrators at Virginia Tech were criticized by the Virginia Tech Review Panel, a state-appointed panel tasked with investigating the incident, for failing to take action that might have decreased the number of casualties.^[16] The panel's report also reviewed gun laws and pointed out gaps in mental health care as well as privacy laws that left Cho's deteriorating condition untreated when he was a student at Virginia Tech.^{[17]: 78 [18]: 2}37°13′37″N 80°25′19″W / 37.227°N 80.422°W / 37.227; -80.422

1. ^ Cite error: The named reference AJ was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
2. ^ Cite error: The named reference Norris was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
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4. ^ Cite error: The named reference Williams was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
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13. ^ Cite error: The named reference Stalking was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
14. ^ Cite error: The named reference Luo was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
15. ^ Cite error: The named reference Cochran was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
16. ^ Urbina, Ian (August 30, 2007). "Virginia Tech Criticized for Actions in Shooting (Published 2007)". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Archived from the original on January 26, 2021. Retrieved December 4, 2020.
17. ^ Cite error: The named reference MR.VII was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
18. ^ Cite error: The named reference MR.Sum was invoked but never defined (see the help page).

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17 April 1907 – The Ellis Island immigration center processes 11,747 people, more than on any other day.

Ellis Island

Island in New York Harbor in the US

For other uses, see Ellis Island (disambiguation).

Ellis Island is an island in New York Harbor, within the U.S. states of New Jersey and New York. Owned by the U.S. government, Ellis Island was once the busiest immigrant inspection and processing station in the United States. From 1892 to 1954, nearly 12 million immigrants arriving at the Port of New York and New Jersey were processed there;^[6] approximately 40% of Americans may be descended from these immigrants. It has been part of the Statue of Liberty National Monument since 1965 and is accessible to the public only by ferry. The north side of the island is a national museum of immigration, while the south side of the island, including the Ellis Island Immigrant Hospital, is open to the public through guided tours.

The name derives from Samuel Ellis, a Welshman who bought the island in 1774. In the 19th century, Ellis Island was the site of Fort Gibson and later became a naval magazine. The first inspection station opened in 1892 and was destroyed by fire in 1897. The second station opened in 1900 and housed facilities for medical quarantines and processing immigrants. After 1924, Ellis Island was used primarily as a detention center for migrants. During both World War I and World War II, its facilities were also used by the US military to detain prisoners of war. After the immigration station's closure, the buildings languished for several years until they were partially reopened in 1976. The main building and adjacent structures were completely renovated into a museum in 1990.

The 27.5-acre (11.1 ha) island was expanded by land reclamation between the late 1890s and the 1930s and, at one point, consisted of three islands numbered 1, 2, and 3. Jurisdictional disputes between the states of New Jersey and New York persisted until the 1998 U.S. Supreme Court ruling New Jersey v. New York. The Supreme Court ruled that, while most of the island is in New Jersey, the natural portion of the island (on the northern end) is an exclave of New York. The northern half of Ellis Island comprises the former Island 1 and includes the main building, several ancillary structures, and the Wall of Honor. The hospital structures on the island's southern half occupy the former sites of islands 2 and 3, and there is a ferry building between Ellis Island's northern and southern halves. Historically, immigrants were subjected to medical and primary inspections, and they could be detained or deported. The island is commemorated through the Ellis Island Medal of Honor, and it has received several federal, state, and municipal landmark designations.

1. ^ "Ellis Island – Hudson County, New Jersey". USGS. Archived from the original on March 29, 2024. Retrieved January 1, 2011.
2. ^ "Proclamation 3656 – Adding Ellis Island to the Statue of Liberty National Monument". April 5, 2010. Archived from the original on September 26, 2017. Retrieved April 3, 2010.
3. ^ "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. March 13, 2009.
4. ^ "New Jersey and National Registers of Historic Places – Hudson County". New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection – Historic Preservation Office. Archived from the original on October 9, 2014. Retrieved August 2, 2014.
5. ^ Ellis Island Main Building Interior Designation Report 1993.
6. ^ "Overview + History | Ellis Island". Statue of Liberty & Ellis Island. March 4, 2020. Archived from the original on September 18, 2021. Retrieved September 10, 2021.

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18 April 1506 – The cornerstone of the current St. Peter's Basilica is laid.

St. Peter's Basilica

Catholic basilica and landmark in Vatican City

For other uses, see St. Peter's Basilica (disambiguation).

Church in Vatican City

The Papal Basilica of Saint Peter in the Vatican (Italian: Basilica Papale di San Pietro in Vaticano), or simply St. Peter's Basilica (Latin: Basilica Sancti Petri; Italian: Basilica di San Pietro [baˈziːlika di sam ˈpjɛːtro]), is a church of the Italian High Renaissance located in Vatican City, an independent microstate enclaved within the city of Rome, Italy. It was initially planned in the 15th century by Pope Nicholas V and then Pope Julius II to replace the ageing Old St. Peter's Basilica, which was built in the fourth century by Roman emperor Constantine the Great. Construction of the present basilica began on 18 April 1506 and was completed on 18 November 1626.^[3]

Designed principally by Donato Bramante, Michelangelo, and Carlo Maderno, with piazza and fittings by Gian Lorenzo Bernini, St. Peter's is one of the most renowned works of Italian Renaissance architecture^[4] and is the largest church in the world by interior measure.^{[note 1]} While it is neither the mother church of the Catholic Church nor the cathedral of the Diocese of Rome (these equivalent titles being held by the Archbasilica of Saint John Lateran in Rome), St. Peter's is regarded as one of the holiest Catholic shrines. It has been described as "holding a unique position in the Christian world",^[5] and as "the greatest of all churches of Christendom".^[4][6]

Catholic tradition holds that the basilica is the burial site of Saint Peter, chief among Jesus's apostles and also the first Bishop of Rome (Pope). Saint Peter's tomb is directly below the high altar of the basilica, also known as the Altar of the Confession.^[7] For this reason, many popes, cardinals and bishops have been interred at St. Peter's since the Early Christian period.

St. Peter's is famous as a place of pilgrimage and for its liturgical functions. The pope presides at a number of liturgies throughout the year both within the basilica or the adjoining St. Peter's Square; these liturgies draw audiences numbering from 15,000 to over 80,000 people.^[8] St. Peter's has many historical associations, with the early Christian Church, the Papacy, the Protestant Reformation and Catholic Counter-Reformation and numerous artists, especially Michelangelo. As a work of architecture, it is regarded as the greatest building of its age.^[9]

St. Peter's is ranked second, after the Archbasilica of Saint John Lateran, among the four churches in the world that hold the rank of major papal basilica, all four of which are in Rome, and is also one of the Seven Pilgrim Churches of Rome. Contrary to popular misconception, it is not a cathedral because it is not the seat of a bishop.^[10]

1. ^ "Take Amazing 360° Tour of St. Peter's in Vatican City". National Geographic. 19 July 2015. Archived from the original on 23 February 2021. Retrieved 12 September 2024.
2. ^ "St. Peter's Basilica - Dome" (in Italian). Vatican City State. Archived from the original on 19 July 2020. Retrieved 12 July 2020.
3. ^ Baumgarten 1913
4. ^ ^{a b} Banister Fletcher, the renowned architectural historian calls it "the greatest creation of the Renaissance" and "... the greatest of all churches of Christendom" in Fletcher 1921, p. 588.
5. ^ James Lees-Milne describes St. Peter's Basilica as "a church with a unique position in the Christian world" in Lees-Milne 1967, p. 12.
6. ^ "St. Peter's Basilica (Basilica di San Pietro) in Rome, Italy". reidsitaly.com. Archived from the original on 23 February 2015. Retrieved 22 February 2015.
7. ^ Giuliani, Giovanni (1995). "Altar of the Confession". Guide to Saint Peter's Basilica. Archived from the original on 3 September 2023. Retrieved 17 August 2021.
8. ^ "Papal Mass". Papal Audience. Archived from the original on 24 February 2021. Retrieved 28 February 2012.
9. ^ Cite error: The named reference BF was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
10. ^ Noreen (19 November 2012). "St. Peter's Basilica in Vatican Is Not The Official Church Of The Pope". Today I Found Out. Archived from the original on 15 February 2019. Retrieved 14 February 2019.

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19 April 1608 – In Ireland, O'Doherty's Rebellion is launched by the Burning of Derry.

O'Doherty's rebellion

Failed rebellion in 1608 in Ulster, Ireland

O'Doherty's Rebellion, also called O'Dogherty's Revolt, was an uprising against the Crown authorities in western Ulster, Ireland. Sir Cahir O'Doherty, lord of Inishowen, a Gaelic chieftain, had been a supporter of the Crown during the Nine Years' War (1593–1603), but angered at his treatment by Sir George Paulet, governor of Derry, he attacked and burned Derry in April 1608. O'Doherty was defeated and killed in the Battle of Kilmacrennan in July. The rebellion ended with the surrender of the last die-hards at the Siege of Tory Island later in the same year.

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20 April 1862 – Louis Pasteur and Claude Bernard complete the experiment disproving the theory of spontaneous generation.

Spontaneous generation

Theory of life arising from non-living matter

This article is about historical theories on the ongoing emergence of life. For the origin of life, see Abiogenesis.

Spontaneous generation is a superseded scientific theory that held that living creatures could arise from non-living matter and that such processes were commonplace and regular. It was hypothesized that certain forms, such as fleas, could arise from inanimate matter such as dust, or that maggots could arise from dead flesh. The doctrine of spontaneous generation was coherently synthesized by the Greek philosopher and naturalist Aristotle, who compiled and expanded the work of earlier natural philosophers and the various ancient explanations for the appearance of organisms. Spontaneous generation was taken as scientific fact for two millennia. Though challenged in the 17th and 18th centuries by the experiments of the Italian biologists Francesco Redi and Lazzaro Spallanzani, it was not discredited until the work of the French chemist Louis Pasteur and the Irish physicist John Tyndall in the mid-19th century.

Among biologists, rejecting spontaneous genesis is no longer controversial. Experiments conducted by Pasteur and others were thought to have refuted the conventional notion of spontaneous generation by the mid-1800s. Since all life appears to have evolved from a single form approximately four billion years ago, attention has instead turned to the origin of life.

1. ^ Bondeson, Jan (31 December 2018). "Spontaneous Generation". The Feejee Mermaid and Other Essays in Natural and Unnatural History. Ithaca, New York: Cornell University Press. pp. 193–249. doi:10.7591/9781501722271-009. ISBN 9781501722271.

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21 April 1948 – United Nations Security Council Resolution 47 relating to Kashmir conflict is adopted.

Kashmir conflict

Territorial conflict in South Asia

The Kashmir conflict is a territorial conflict over the Kashmir region, primarily between India and Pakistan, and also between China and India in the northeastern portion of the region.^[1][2] The conflict started after the partition of India in 1947 as both India and Pakistan claimed the entirety of the former princely state of Jammu and Kashmir. It is a dispute over the region that escalated into three wars between India and Pakistan and several other armed skirmishes. India controls approximately 55% of the land area of the region that includes Jammu, the Kashmir Valley, most of Ladakh, the Siachen Glacier,^[3][4] and 70% of its population; Pakistan controls approximately 30% of the land area that includes Azad Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan; and China controls the remaining 15% of the land area that includes the Aksai Chin region, the mostly uninhabited Trans-Karakoram Tract, and part of the Demchok sector.^{[3][note 1]}

After the partition of India and a rebellion in the western districts of the state, Pakistani tribal militias invaded Kashmir, leading the Hindu ruler of Jammu and Kashmir to join India.^[11] The resulting Indo-Pakistani War ended with a UN-mediated ceasefire along a line that was eventually named the Line of Control.^[12][13] In 1962, China invaded and fought a war with India along the disputed Indo-Chinese border, including in Indian administered-Ladakh, marking their entry to the Kashmir conflict.^[14] In 1965, Pakistan attempted to infiltrate Indian-administered Kashmir to precipitate an insurgency there, resulting in another war fought by the two countries over the region. After further fighting during the war of 1971, the Simla Agreement formally established the Line of Control between the territories under Indian and Pakistani control.^[15][16] In 1999, an armed conflict between the two countries broke out again in Kargil with no effect on the status quo.^[17]

In 1989, an armed insurgency erupted against Indian rule in Indian-administered Kashmir Valley, after years of political disenfranchisement and alienation, with logistical support from Pakistan.^[18][19][20] The insurgency was actively opposed in Jammu and Ladakh, where it revived long-held demands for autonomy from Kashmiri dominance and greater integration with India.^{[21][22][23][24]} Spearheaded by a group seeking creation of an independent state based on demands for self-determination, the insurgency was taken over within the first few years of its outbreak by Pakistan-backed Jihadist groups striving for merger with Pakistan.^{[25][26][27][28][29]} The militancy continued through the 1990s and early 2000s—by which time it was being driven largely by foreign militants^[30][31] and spread to parts of the adjoining Jammu region^{[32][33][34][35]}—but declined thereafter. The fighting resulted in tens of thousands of casualties, both combatant and civilian. The militancy also resulted in the exodus of Kashmiri Hindus from the predominantly Muslim Kashmir Valley in the early 1990s. Counterinsurgency by the Indian government was coupled with repression of the local population and increased militarisation of the region, while various insurgent groups engaged in a variety of criminal activity.^{[36][37][38][39]} The 2010s were marked by civil unrest within the Kashmir Valley, fuelled by unyielding militarisation, rights violations, mis-rule and corruption,^[40][41] wherein protesting local youths violently clashed with Indian security forces,^[42] with large-scale demonstrations taking place during the 2010 unrest triggered by an allegedly staged encounter,^[43][44] and during the 2016 unrest which ensued after the killing of a young militant from a Jihadist group, who had risen to popularity through social media.^[45][46][47] Further unrest in the region erupted after the 2019 Pulwama attack.^[48]

According to scholars, Indian forces have committed many human rights abuses and acts of terror against the Kashmiri civilian population, including extrajudicial killing, rape, torture, and enforced disappearances.^[49][50] According to Amnesty International, no member of the Indian military deployed in Jammu and Kashmir has been tried for human rights violations in a civilian court as of June 2015^[update], although military courts-martial have been held.^[51] Amnesty International has also accused the Indian government of refusing to prosecute perpetrators of abuses in the region.^[52] Moreover, there have been instances of human rights abuses in Azad Kashmir, including but not limited to political repressions and forced disappearances.^[53] Brad Adams, the Asia director at Human Rights Watch said in 2006 "Although 'Azad' means 'free', the residents of Azad Kashmir are anything but free. The Pakistani authorities govern Azad Kashmir with strict controls on basic freedoms".^[54] The OHCHR reports on Kashmir released two reports on "the situation of human rights in Indian-Administered Kashmir and Pakistan-Administered Kashmir".

1. ^ Yahuda, Michael (2 June 2002). "China and the Kashmir crisis". BBC. Retrieved 22 March 2019.
2. ^ Chang, I-wei Jennifer (9 February 2017). "China's Kashmir Policies and Crisis Management in South Asia". United States Institute of Peace. Archived from the original on 10 March 2017. Retrieved 22 March 2019.
3. ^ ^{a b} Slater, Christopher L.; Hobbs, Joseph J. (2003). Essentials of World Regional Geography (4 ed.). Brooks/Cole Thomson Learning. p. 312. ISBN 9780534168100. LCCN 2002106314 – via Internet Archive. India now holds about 55% of the old state of Kashmir, Pakistan 30%, and China 15%.
4. ^ Malik, V. P. (2010). Kargil from Surprise to Victory (paperback ed.). HarperCollins Publishers India. p. 54. ISBN 9789350293133.
5. ^ Cite error: The named reference Time was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
6. ^ "Kashmir: region, Indian subcontinent". Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved 16 July 2016.
7. ^ "Jammu & Kashmir". European Foundation for South Asian Studies (EFSAS). Retrieved 4 May 2020.
8. ^ Snow, Shawn (19 September 2016). "Analysis: Why Kashmir Matters". The Diplomat. Retrieved 4 May 2020.
9. ^ Hobbs, Joseph J. (March 2008). World Regional Geography. CengageBrain. p. 314. ISBN 978-0495389507.
10. ^ Margolis, Eric (2004). War at the Top of the World: The Struggle for Afghanistan, Kashmir and Tibet (paperback ed.). Routledge. p. 56. ISBN 9781135955595.
11. ^ Copland, Ian (2003). "Review of War and Diplomacy in Kashmir: 1947–48. By C. Dasgupta". Pacific Affairs. 76 (1): 144–145. ISSN 0030-851X. JSTOR 40024025. As is well known, this Hindu-ruled Muslim majority state could conceivably have joined either India or Pakistan, but procrastinated about making a choice until a tribal invasion – the term is not contentious – forced the ruler's hand.
12. ^ Lyon, Peter (2008). Conflict Between India and Pakistan: An Encyclopedia. ABC-Clio. p. 80. ISBN 9781576077122.
13. ^ "Kashmir | History, People, & Conflict". Encyclopedia Britannica. Archived from the original on 30 April 2015.
14. ^ Bose, Sumantra (2003), Kashmir: Roots of Conflict, Paths to Peace, Harvard University Press, p. 76, ISBN 0-674-01173-2, The intervening years [between 1958 and 1962] were notable for China's entry into the international politics of the Kashmir conflict. China's relations with India deteriorated precipitously after the Chinese annexation of Tibet in 1959, and rising tensions flared into a military conflict in late 1962 at a number of disputed border flashpoints stretching in an east-west arc along the Himalayan ranges, including a desolate area called Aksai Chin on Ladakh's frontier with Tibet and China's Xinjiang province.
15. ^ "Simla Agreement". Bilateral/Multilateral Documents. Ministry of External Affairs, Government of India. Retrieved 27 September 2013.
16. ^ Fortna, Virginia (2004). Peace time: cease-fire agreements and the durability of peace. Princeton University Press. ISBN 978-0-691-11512-2.
17. ^ MacDonald, Myra (2017). Defeat is an Orphan: How Pakistan Lost the Great South Asian War. Oxford University Press. pp. 27, 53, 64, 66, 67. ISBN 978-1-84904-858-3. p. 27: It was not so much that India won the Great South Asian War but that Pakistan lost it.
    p. 53: The story of the Kargil War—Pakistan's biggest defeat by India since 1971 —is one that goes to the heart of why it lost the Great South Asian War.
    p. 64: Afterwards, Musharraf and his supporters would claim that Pakistan won the war militarily and lost it diplomatically. In reality, the military and diplomatic tides turned against Pakistan in tandem.
    p. 66: For all its bravado, Pakistan had failed to secure even one inch of land.
    p. 66-67:Less than a year after declaring itself a nuclear-armed power, Pakistan had been humiliated diplomatically and militarily.
18. ^ Ganguly 2016, p. 10: "In December I989, an indigenous, ethno-religious insurgency erupted in the Indian-controlled portion of the disputed state of Jammu and Kashmir. The internal dimensions of this crisis, like that in the Punjab, also stemmed primarily from various shortcomings in India's federal order.".
19. ^ Metcalf & Metcalf 2006, p. 273: "The year 1989 marked the beginning of a continuing insurgency, fuelled by covert support from Pakistan. The uprising had its origins in Kashmiri frustration at the state’s treatment by Delhi. The imposition of leaders chosen by the centre, with the manipulation of local elections, and the denial of what Kashmiris felt was a promised autonomy boiled over at last in the militancy of the Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front, a movement devoted to political, not religious, objectives.".
20. ^ Hussain 2018, p. 104: "In the late 1980s, a small group of Kashmiris who had lost faith in Indian democracy decided to take the long-standing conflict between India and Pakistan to a new level. These individuals, mostly jailed MUF political activists, collectively decided to go to Pakistani-administered Kashmir in search of training and weapons. Inspired by the ideology of the Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF), a party that advocated for an independent Kashmir, these individuals, with the support of Pakistan intelligence agencies, initiated an armed rebellion in the Valley and popularized the slogan of aazadi (Khan, 1992, 131–41).".
21. ^ Zutshi 2019, p. 133: "Far from desiring autonomy from India, Jammu and Ladakhi politics was based on demands for autonomy from Kashmir and its repressive governments instead, and greater integration with India. … The insurgency, thus, widened the divides among the sub-regions of Kashmir, the long-term repercussions of which on state politics are only recently becoming clearer.".
22. ^ Snedden 2021, pp. 5–6: "The JKLF’s stance was popular with Muslim Kashmiris, many of whom thought that independence was ‘just around the corner’. However, this possibility was not popular with all J&K-ites: Hindu Kashmiris (called Pandits), some Muslim Kashmiris, and many people located in Jammu or Ladakh strongly wanted J&K to be with India. Some Muslims in the Kashmir Valley and in Jammu wanted J&K to join Pakistan.".
23. ^ Behera 2006, (p. 115) "The winter of 1989–90 marked the onset of the Kashmiri insurgency … while the Ladakhi Buddhists began their violent agitation for status as a union territory in August 1989. The next few years witnessed a growing communalization of the political idiom, strategies, and goals of various political movements in the state. Where the Kashmiris cast their demand for secession in terms of a Hindu-Muslim divide, especially after the Pandit exodus in 1990, the Buddhists mobilized against the Kashmiris on the basis of a Buddhist-Muslim divide, which they also extended to the Shias of Leh, who are almost all of Balti stock and ethnically similar to Ladakhi Buddhists." (p. 122) "After suffering political and economic neglect at the hands of successive state governments, Jammu began making demands again as well. These ranged from a separate state of Jammu to regional autonomy and a regional council. Significantly, the proposals were all rooted in Jammu’s regional aspirations, while the religious (Hindu) identity remained dormant.".
24. ^ Schofield 2003, pp. 184–185:"Neither the Buddhists of Ladakh nor the Hindus of Jammu share the objectives of the Muslim Kashmiris of the valley. Their main concern has been to press for autonomy against dominance from the more populous valley. … In Ladakh, the troubles between Muslims of the Kargil district and Buddhists which erupted in 1989 have now subsided. … However, even the Muslims of Jammu, who are not Kashmiri speaking, do not necessarily support the demands of the valley Kashmiri Muslims. … Mistrust, however, remains between Muslims and the displaced Kashmiri Pandits, some of whom are now demanding a separate homeland in the valley for the 700,000 Pandits living in different parts of India.".
25. ^ Chowdhary 2016, pp. 111–112: "As militancy gained ground, there was mushrooming of militant organisations with different ideologies and different objectives. While India remained the common target for all these organisations, there were lot of internal differences. The difference was not merely represented by the ultimate objectives of JKLF (complete independence of erstwhile princely state of Jammu and Kashmir from both India and Pakistan) and Hizb (merger with Pakistan) but also with regard to the role of religion in the movement. A number of outfits like Allah Tigers were keen on enforcing ‘Islamic’ code on the people as well. It ‘went about smashing Srinagar’s bars, closing down cinema halls, video parlours and beauty parlours, saying that they were un-Islamic. It was decreed that all women would wear the burqa, and dress according to Islamic tradition’ (Sidhva, 1992: 40–2). There were others who saw armed militancy in Kashmir as part of the Pan-Islamic struggle being waged at the global level. These were jehadis who entered the scenario of militancy quite early. Lashkar-e-Toiba, according to Sikand, entered Kashmir in 1990 and intensified its activities in 1993.".
26. ^ Hussain 2021, (p. 324) "Pakistani support gave a religious tone to the armed insurgency in Kashmir, overshadowing the nationalist vision of an independent and united state of Jammu and Kashmir. ... Fearful that the independent ideology of the JKLF would sideline their interests in the Valley, Pakistan abandoned the JKLF and supported militant groups that would advocate Kashmir’s accession to Pakistan." (p. 325) "After the intervention of Pakistan in Kashmir post 1989, the Jamaat saw Kashmir as a part of the worldwide Muslim community, and its incorporation into the Muslim state of Pakistan as the first step toward eventual unity of all Muslims. Thereafter, the party provided a religious rationale for advocating Kashmir’s accession to Pakistan, and defined the armed struggle against India as a holy war—a jihad. ... In the early 1990s, the Jamaat took center stage in the militant movement, and its armed wing, the Hizbul Mujahideen (HM), gave the jihad a practical shape. This powerful group, funded and supported by Pakistan’s intelligence services, molded the insurgency to suit Pakistan’s interests." (p. 326) "Pakistan also nurtured several small Valley Islamist groups like the Allah Tigers, Al-Umar, and the Muslim Mujahedeen to fragment the support base of the JKLF and popularize the idea of waging an armed struggle along Islamic lines. ... The JKLF’s increasing marginalization in the Valley was accompanied by the suppression of the organization in Pakistan-administered Kashmir.".
27. ^ Warikoo 2011, p. 78: "During the first phase of militancy in Kashmir which started in 1989, the Islamist militant groups strived to "bring structural changes at cultural levels of Kashmir society", seeking to Islamicize the socio-political set-up in the Valley to bring it in tune with the Islamic state of Pakistan and the Muslim Ummah. Though militancy in Kashmir was launched initially by the Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) ostensibly to achieve azadi (independence), within a few months a number of militant groups emerged advocating Nizam-e-Mustafa as the objective of their struggle. Now the term azadi gave way to jihad. Various Islamist groups like Jamaat-e-Islami and its militant wing Hizbul Mujahideen, women’s wing Dukhtaran-e-Millat, Jamiat- ul-Mujahideen, Allah Tigers, Jamiat-ul-Ulemma Islam, Al Badr, Al Jihad Force, Al Umar Mujahideen, Muslim Mujahideen, Islamic Students League, Zia Tigers etc. proclaimed the objective of their struggle as Islamicization of socio-political and economic set-up, merger of Kashmir with Pakistan, unification of Ummah and establishment of an Islamic Caliphate.".
28. ^ Webb 2012, p. 44: "The first wave of militancy from 1988 through to 1991 was very much an urban, middle-class affair dominated by the secular, pro-independence Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) (Schofield 1996: 240). Much of the fighting was concentrated in Srinagar, and also certain rural centers such as Anantnag, Baramulla and Kupwara, while most of the militants were unemployed university graduates who had campaigned for the MUF in the 1987 election. ... Gradually the number of militant groups began to increase, with the JKLF losing its position of dominance to the Islamist, pro-Pakistan Hizbul-Mujahideen in the early 1990s (Jones 2008; Kumar 2002). The rise of Islamic, pro-Pakistan groups is frequently associated with a shift to a more rural-based militancy (Howard 1999: 40).".
29. ^ Mathur, Shubh (2016). The Human Toll of the Kashmir Conflict: Grief and Courage in a South Asian Borderland. Palgrave Macmillan US. pp. 21–. ISBN 978-1-137-54622-7. writers like Baba (2014), Bose (2005), Schofield (2010) and Robinson (2013) see it as an indigenous Kashmiri response to the decades of political repression and the denial of the Kashmiri right to self-determination.
30. ^ Chowdhary 2016, p. 112: "According to [Sikand], after the Mujahideen victory in Afghanistan in 1992, ‘numerous jihadist outfits in Pakistan began turning their attention towards Kashmir. By the late 1990s, these Pakistani jihadists were playing a key role in the fighting in Kashmir, eclipsing even local Kashmiri groups’ (Sikand, 2001: 222). Harkat-ul-Ansar, Al-Faran, Harkat-ul-Mujahideen and Jaish-e-Mohammed were such organisations that dominated the scenario of militancy at different points in time. The increased number of foreign militants in the period after mid-1990s gets reflected from the large percentage of the killing of these militants by Indian security forces as compared to the local militants – from 5.7 per cent foreign militants killed in 1995, the percentage was increased to 53.9 per cent in 2000 and 69.38 per cent in 2003 (Routray, 2012: 182).".
31. ^ Behera 2006, 155: "With the Hazratbal siege and surrender of JKLF militants in April 1993, the insurgency took a new course. It became increasingly difficult for the Hizb-ul-Mujahideen to recruit members of the Kashmiri cadre. Attributing this to fatigue, Pakistan decided to push more Afghan veterans, Pakistani nationals, and foreign mercenaries into the Valley. This trend gathered momentum in 1996, when the Taliban marched into Kabul.".
32. ^ Kumar & Puri 2009, p. 268: "By the end of the 1990s, there were more Pakistanis than Kashmiris amongst the mujahideen. The Lashkar’s list of ‘martyred commanders’, for example, named men from all over Pakistan. The mujahideen had more sophisticated arms, communications and planning, and they inflicted much greater damage in raids on army and police posts, convoys and barracks, government buildings and civilians. Within Kashmir, conflict spread from the Kashmir valley to the Muslim majority districts of Jammu, where Hindus and nomads began to be targeted in the border villages.".
33. ^ Bhatia 2020, p. 8: "Insurgency originated in Kashmir as an indigenous secessionist movement. However, by the time it spread widely to various parts of Jammu, it had turned extremist and ruthlessly violent in character due to the involvement of non-Kashmiri militants sneaking in from across the India–Pakistan borders. For around a decade, insurgency was at its peak in various parts of Jammu, resulting in public killings due to frequent incidents of blasts and attacks by militants in and around Jammu city.".
34. ^ Bose 2021, p. 100: "With the help of the renegades, the Indian forces were able to reassert control over most of the Kashmir Valley. Guerrilla activity moved out to remote, forested parts of the Valley, and in the late 1990s a new, deadly theatre of insurgency opened up in the Jammu region’s Rajouri and Poonch districts (on which more below), in addition to the Doda-Kishtwar zone.".
35. ^ Bhatia 2021, p. 84: "That being so, when Kashmir-based insurgency spread to parts of Jammu in the late 1990s and early 2000, many Muslim youth of these districts joined insurgency alongside Kashmiris and many extremist Pakistan-backed groups. Insurgency, thus, took a brutal shape when it hit these regions and many communal killings have been recorded during those periods. Hindus were targeted and killed in a few villages, during marriage ceremonies and while travelling in buses (Swami, 1998, Puri, 2008). In these districts, the responses of the Hindu communities was also extreme, as many vehemently endorsed the right-wing politics.".
36. ^ Metcalf & Metcalf 2006, p. 273–274: "Upwards of 100,000 of [Kashmiri Hindus] left the state during the early 1990s; their cause was quickly taken up by the Hindu right. As the government sought to locate ‘suspects’ and weed out Pakistani ‘infiltrators’, the entire population was subjected to a fierce repression. By the end of the 1990s, the Indian military presence had escalated to approximately one soldier or paramilitary policeman for every five Kashmiris, and some 30,000 people had died in the conflict. Subsequent years saw a reduction in violence coupled with widespread participation in Indian elections, and a consequent lowering of troop strength despite the absence of a settlement. The general consensus is that the Kashmiris seek a degree of regional autonomy, not a union with Pakistan.".
37. ^ Zutshi 2019, pp. 132–133: "The insurgency and counter-insurgency as well as the criminal elements that proliferated as law and order disintegrated and guns became readily available had a devastating impact on Kashmiri society. Violence engulfed the Valley, with targeted assassinations and kidnappings of important political and academic figures by Kashmiri insurgents; bombings and other attacks by external groups; thefts and killings by local criminal gangs; and reprisals by Indian security forces. Kashmir became inhabitable for most Kashmiris as any semblance of community, civil society, and normalcy was replaced by terror, lawlessness, rumour, and suspicion. Many Kashmiris were forced to leave the Valley and the mass exodus in the first few years of the insurgency of Kashmiri Pandits, the minority community of Hindus—which felt increasingly targeted by local and external groups—further polarized Kashmiri society, this time along lines of religion. These developments subverted the popular nature of the insurgency, tarnishing the very real political grievances that underlay it with the brush of criminality and Islamic radicalism.".
38. ^ Kumar & Puri 2009, p. 268: "The Indian government adopted increasingly draconian measures in response, and civilians were frequently trapped in the battle between Indian troops and the Islamic militias. The counter-insurgency policy of using erstwhile mujahideen to fight present ones worsened an already fragile law and order infrastructure, letting in revenge killings. By the end of the decade, more than 35,000 people had been killed, the vast majority Muslim, and families who had lost one member at the hands of Islamic militias and another at the hands of the security forces were more a norm than exceptions in the Kashmir valley.".
39. ^ Webb 2012, p. 45: "The Islamization and internationalization of militancy in Kashmir was also accompanied by its criminalization (Schofield 1996: 267–8). Initially the militants enjoyed wide popular support; however, as people became increasingly war-weary from the steadily mounting number of casualties, this support gradually began to evaporate. Consequently, the militants were forced to resort to tactics such as kidnapping to extort money and food from the local population (Ganguly 1997: 139; Baweja 1995: 19–25). This, however, only further alienated the militants from common Kashmiris and initiated a vicious cycle of increasing resentment and violence perpetrated both by the militants and Indian security forces, who increasingly engaged in torture, rape and extra-judicial killings (Amnesty International 1995; Asia Watch and Physicians for Human Rights 1993). Indian apologists claim that such allegations are usually false or grossly exaggerated and point out that the militants themselves are guilty of the same crimes (Kumar n.d.: 136). That both sides of the conflict are guilty of human rights abuses is undeniable, as is the fact that most victims of the violence are innocent civilians. Various estimates of the number killed since 1989 range from 20,000 to 50,000, while some 200,000, mostly Hindu, Kashmiris have fled the Valley and live as refugees in Jammu and elsewhere in India (Wirsing 1998: 126).".
40. ^ Zutshi 2019, p. 137: "The lack of resolution of the basic issues related to the insurgency and its impact, especially the continued presence and impunity of the Indian security forces in the Valley, blatant human rights violations within and outside the Valley, combined with rampant mis-governance, corruption, and the inability of state governments to provide basic services, has provided ample cause for young Kashmiri Muslim men and women to participate in the azaadi movement.".
41. ^ Bose 2021, pp. 131–132: "That new phase of the Kashmir conflict came to be symbolised not by the gun-wielding insurgent – armed militancy did not revive significantly – but by the stone-pelter. Mass stone-pelting at the enforcers of the state-of-exception regime revived a decades-old tradition of protest in the Valley, which had been temporarily displaced by the Kalashnikov-carrying insurgents from 1990 to the mid-2000s. Major stone-pelting uprisings led by a new generation of youth born in the 1990s broke out in the Kashmir Valley in 2010 and again in 2016, and during the decade the stone replaced the AK-47s wielded by the previous generation as the weapon of everyday struggle.".
42. ^ Webb 2012, p. 49: "Since mid-2010, Srinagar and other areas of the Valley have been regularly shut down by violent protests, strikes and curfews, as a new generation of Kashmiris who have grown up surrounded by political violence continue to press the claim for separation from India.".
43. ^ Snedden 2021, p. 280: "In 2010, over 120 ‘unarmed’ Kashmiris were killed by police in protests that followed the security forces’ alleged staged killings of three Kashmiri civilians in Kupwara District.75 (Six Army personnel were later court martialled and sentenced to life imprisonment, but were bailed in 2017 pending a retrial.) One of the protesters was a young Kashmiri whose death further enraged Kashmiris.".
44. ^ Chowdhary 2016, p. 151: "However, it was in 2010 that Kashmir witnessed massive resistance politics. For five months of summer, the normal political processes came to a halt and whole of Kashmir was overtaken by separatist upsurge. The background to this upsurge was provided by the continuous eruption over the incidents of human rights violations by the security forces. Though there were other protests in the early months of 2010, it was the case of the killing of three civilians in Machail sector that resulted in massive protests. The killing of 17-year-old boy Tufail Mattoo during these protests led to further protests. In a cycle of protests and killing during the protests around 110 people were killed. The protests with each killing became intensified.".
45. ^ Bose 2021, pp. 180–181: "In July 2016, the Kashmir Valley descended into a maelstrom of violence that lasted six months before tapering off in early 2017. The trigger was the death of Burhan Wani, a militant in his early twenties. ... His career as a guerrilla was rather curious. Although he was an active militant for almost six years and evaded capture by hiding out in the forested upper reaches of Tral, he is not known to have engaged in any significant operations against the Indian forces. That may explain the longevity of his guerrilla existence – six years is an unusually long time for a militant to survive on the run in Kashmir. ... During his guerrilla years, Burhan Wani became a household name in the Kashmir Valley – as a social-media celebrity. He used Facebook to post photographs of himself and his comrades, and audio and video clips in which he sermonised about armed struggle and resistance.".
46. ^ Snedden 2021, pp. 280–281: "In July 2016, severely agitated Kashmiris staged massive protests after the Indian security forces killed the young, high-profile and popular, Kashmiri militant, Burhan Wani, from the Hizbul Mujahideen. According to Indian Army officers, Wani was a ‘Facebook fighter’: he ‘fought’ using social media rather than in actual kinetic operations against India’s security forces. Kashmiris saw him otherwise: they considered him to be a more moderate and inclusive fighter, a ‘poster boy’ militant, even ‘a phenomenon, the glamorous hero of an almost romantic anti-State rebellion’.".
47. ^ Kazi 2018, pp. 173–174: "In 2016 Kashmir witnessed an extraordinary revolt in the aftermath of the extrajudicial murder of Burhan Wani, a young militant commander, in an encounter with the army and the police in Pulwama. Unlike previous protests that spread from urban to rural areas, Wani’s death prompted a spontaneous mass revolt across Kashmir, especially in rural areas of southern Kashmir that had been relatively pacified. The Indian state sought to contain the uprising through a brutal, punitive response, resulting in a spate of killings, the blinding of civilians through the use of pellet guns, the destruction of civilian property, violence and assault against women by security forces, the arrest and/or disappearance of protesting youths, and a blockade of civil supplies amid an undeclared albeit formidable siege across Kashmir Valley.".
48. ^ "Pakistan warns India against attacking". BBC News. 19 February 2019.
49. ^ Iqbal, Sajid; Hossain, Zoheb; Mathur, Shubh (2014). "Reconciliation and truth in Kashmir: a case study". Race & Class. 56 (2): 51–65. doi:10.1177/0306396814542917. ISSN 0306-3968. S2CID 147586397.
50. ^ Kazi, Rape, Impunity and Justice in Kashmir 2014, pp. 14–46.
51. ^ "India: "Denied": Failures in accountability for human rights violations by security force personnel in Jammu and Kashmir". Amnesty International. 30 June 2015. Retrieved 4 July 2015.
52. ^ Essa, Azad (10 September 2015). "India 'covering up abuses' in Kashmir: report". Al Jazeera. Retrieved 13 November 2021.
53. ^ Asian Legal Resource Centre (27 August 2010). "Pakistan: Thousands Of Persons Remain Missing". Scoop. Archived from the original on 4 October 2012. Retrieved 10 March 2012.
54. ^ Adams, Brad (21 September 2006). "Pakistan: 'Free Kashmir' Far From Free". Human Rights Watch. Archived from the original on 14 March 2013. Retrieved 8 August 2012.

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22 April 1970 – The first Earth Day is celebrated

Earth Day

Annual international event on April 22

For the measurement of time of one rotation, see Day. Not to be confused with Earth Hour.

Earth Day is an annual event on April 22 to demonstrate support for environmental protection. First held on April 22, 1970, it now includes a wide range of events coordinated globally through earthday.org (formerly Earth Day Network)^[1] including 1 billion people in more than 193 countries.^[1][2][3]

In 1969 at a UNESCO conference in San Francisco, peace activist John McConnell proposed a day to honor the Earth and the concept of peace, to first be observed on March 21, 1970, the first day of spring in the northern hemisphere. This day of nature's equipoise was later sanctioned in a proclamation written by McConnell and signed by Secretary General U Thant at the United Nations. A month later, United States Senator Gaylord Nelson proposed the idea to hold a nationwide environmental teach-in on April 22, 1970, and hired a young activist, Denis Hayes, to be the national coordinator. The name "Earth Day" was coined by advertising writer Julian Koenig.^[4] Denis and his staff grew the event beyond the original idea for a teach-in to include the entire United States. Key non-environmentally focused partners played major roles. Under the leadership of labor leader Walter Reuther, for example, the United Auto Workers (UAW) was the most instrumental outside financial and operational supporter of the first Earth Day.^[5][6][7] According to Hayes: "Without the UAW, the first Earth Day would have likely flopped!"^[5] Nelson was later awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom award in recognition of his work.^[8][9] The first Earth Day was focused on the United States. In 1990, Denis Hayes, the original national coordinator in 1970, took it international and organized events in 141 nations.^[10][11][12] On Earth Day 2016, the landmark Paris Agreement was signed by the United States, the United Kingdom, China, and 120 other countries. This signing satisfied a key requirement for the entry into force of the historic draft climate protection treaty adopted by consensus of the 195 nations present at the 2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference in Paris. Numerous communities engaged in "Earth Day Week actions," an entire week of activities focused on the environmental issues that the world faces.^[13] On Earth Day 2020, over 100 million people around the world observed the 50th anniversary in what is being referred to as the largest online mass mobilization in history.^[3]

1. ^ ^{a b} "Earth Day 2020: What Is It and How Do People Mark It Around the World?". The Independent. April 21, 2020. Retrieved February 19, 2021.
2. ^ "1 billion people are taking part in Earth Day - here are some reasons to be hopeful this year". Euronews. April 20, 2022. Retrieved March 9, 2023.
3. ^ ^{a b} "The 50th Anniversary of Earth Day Unites Tens of Millions of People Across the World in Action and a Multi-Platform Event". Yahoo. April 24, 2020. Archived from the original on April 22, 2021. Retrieved February 19, 2021.
4. ^ Frazier, Reed (April 22, 2015). "Julian Koenig, Well-Known Adman, Named Earth Day". NPR. Retrieved March 10, 2025.
5. ^ ^{a b} "Labor and environmentalists have been teaming up since the first Earth Day". Grist. April 2, 2010. Retrieved April 28, 2020.
6. ^ "Meet 'Mr. Earth Day,' the Man Who Helped Organize the Annual Observance". Time. Retrieved April 28, 2020.
7. ^ "The Rumpus Interview with Earth Day Organizer Denis Hayes". The Rumpus.net. April 2, 2009. Retrieved April 28, 2020.
8. ^ Striepe, Becky (April 21, 2013). "Earth Day Care2 Healthy Living". Care2.com. Archived from the original on April 23, 2013. Retrieved April 24, 2013.
9. ^ "Planet vs. Plastics Global Theme for Earth Day 2024". earthday.org. n.d. Retrieved January 20, 2024.
10. ^ "Staff – The Buillitt Foundation". Bullitt.org. Archived from the original on August 7, 2011. Retrieved April 22, 2011.
11. ^ "The Rumpus Interview With Earth Day Organizer Denis Hayes". The Rumpus.net. April 17, 2020. Retrieved April 20, 2020.
12. ^ "How Earth Day gave birth to the environmental movement". The Harvard Gazette. January 1990. Archived from the original on March 28, 2010. Retrieved April 22, 2010.
13. ^ "Earth Day: Let's pledge to keep our environment clean, says Mamata". The Statesman. April 22, 2018.

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23 April 1348 – The founding of the Order of the Garter by King Edward III is announced on St. George's Day.

Order of the Garter

Order of chivalry founded by Edward III of England

The Most Noble Order of the Garter is an order of chivalry founded by Edward III of England in 1348. The most senior order of knighthood in the British honours system, it is outranked in precedence only by the decorations of the Victoria Cross and the George Cross. The Order of the Garter is dedicated to the image and arms of Saint George, England's patron saint.

Appointments are at the Sovereign's sole discretion, typically made in recognition of national contribution, service to the Crown, or for distinguished personal service to the Monarch.^[2] Membership of the order is limited to the sovereign, the Prince of Wales, and no more than 24 living members, or Companions. The order also includes Supernumerary Knights and Ladies (e.g., members of the British royal family and foreign monarchs).

The order's emblem is a garter circlet with the motto Honi soit qui mal y pense (Anglo-Norman for "Shame on him who thinks evil of it") in gold script.^[3] Members of the order wear it on ceremonial occasions.

1. ^ Cite error: The named reference SGC was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
2. ^ "The Order of the Garter". The Royal Family. 11 November 2015. Archived from the original on 7 April 2022. Retrieved 21 August 2016.
3. ^ Bruges, William (1430–1440). "Stowe MS 594". William Bruges' Garter Book. Archived from the original on 9 January 2020. Retrieved 28 May 2023. Languages: Anglo-Norman

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24 April 1926 – The Treaty of Berlin is signed. Germany and the Soviet Union each pledge neutrality in the event of an attack on the other by a third party for the next five years.

Treaty of Berlin (1926)

This article refers to the German–Soviet Neutrality and Non-Aggression Pact, signed in 1926. For the previous treaty signed in 1878, see Treaty of Berlin (1878)

Agreement between Germany and the Soviet Union

The Treaty of Berlin (German–Soviet Neutrality and Nonaggression Pact) was a treaty signed on 24 April 1926 under which Germany and the Soviet Union pledged neutrality in the event of an attack on the other by a third party for five years. The treaty reaffirmed the German–Soviet Treaty of Rapallo (1922).^[1]

Ratifications for the treaty were exchanged in Berlin on 29 June 1926, and it went into effect on the same day. The treaty was registered in League of Nations Treaty Series on 3 August 1926.^[2] It was renewed by additional protocol signed on 24 June 1931,^[3] ratified on 5 May 1933.^[4] The additional protocol was registered in League of Nations Treaty Series on 15 February 1935.^[5]

1. ^ Crozier 1997: 67
2. ^ League of Nations Treaty Series, vol. 53, pp. 388–396.
3. ^ Tucker 1992: 227
4. ^ Moss 2005: 284
5. ^ League of Nations Treaty Series, vol. 157, pp. 384–391.

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25 April 1916 – Anzac Day is commemorated for the first time on the first anniversary of the landing at ANZAC Cove.

Anzac Day

National day of remembrance in Australia, New Zealand and Tonga on 25 April

Anzac Day^[a][b] is a national day of remembrance in Australia, New Zealand and Tonga that broadly commemorates all Australians and New Zealanders "who served and died in all wars, conflicts, and peacekeeping operations" and "the contribution and suffering of all those who have served".^[3][4] Observed on 25 April each year, Anzac Day was originally devised to honour the members of the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (ANZAC) who served in the Gallipoli campaign, their first engagement in the First World War (1914–1918).

1. ^ ^{a b} "Rā o Ngā Hōia". Te Aka Māori Dictionary. Archived from the original on 26 January 2023. Retrieved 18 April 2022.
2. ^ "Rā Whakamahara ki ngā Hōia o Ahitereiria me Aotearoa – te Aka Māori Dictionary". Archived from the original on 26 January 2023. Retrieved 26 January 2023.
3. ^ "ANZAC Day". Australian War Memorial. Archived from the original on 1 May 2013. Retrieved 24 April 2013.
4. ^ "Anzac Day Today". Anzac.govt.nz. New Zealand Ministry for Culture and Heritage. Archived from the original on 27 April 2011. Retrieved 22 April 2011.

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

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26 April 1943 – The Easter Riots break out in Uppsala, Sweden.

Easter Riots

For the riots during Easter in Sweden in 2022, see 2022 Sweden riots.

For the riots in Quebec during the 1917 Conscription Crisis, see Quebec Easter riots.

1943 clashes between Nazis and anti-fascists in Sweden

The Easter Riots (Swedish: Påskkravallerna) is the name given to a period of unrest in Uppsala, Sweden, during the Easter of 1943. The fascist group Swedish Socialist Union (SSS, Swedish: Svensk Socialistisk Samling, previously the National Socialist Workers' Party) held its national congress in Uppsala, amid the Second World War and only days after the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. The unrest climaxed on 26 April, when the SSS ended the congress by holding a demonstration at the Royal Mounds of Old Uppsala.^[1][2]

Thousands of anti-fascists gathered to protest against the Nazi gathering at the Royal Mounds, a historical site that held much political symbolism among Swedish nationalists. Policemen had been called in from Stockholm to defend the demonstration, and after the situation became increasingly tense they resorted to violence, dispersing the peacefully protesting crowds and onlookers alike with heavy force.^[3]

1. ^ Andersson, Peter (23 August 2011). "Kamprad var djupt inblandad i nazistisk rörelse" (in Swedish). Sveriges Radio. Retrieved 20 September 2014.
2. ^ Payne, Stanley G. (2001). A History of Fascism 1914-1945. London: Routledge. p. 306.
3. ^ Alkarp, Magnus (2013). Fyra dagar i april: Påskkravallerna i Uppsala 1943 (in Swedish). Historiska Media. ISBN 9789186297725.^{[page needed]}

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27 April 1861 – American President Abraham Lincoln suspends the writ of habeas corpus.

Habeas corpus in the United States

Recourse in US law against unlawful detention

In United States law, habeas corpus (/ˈheɪbiəs ˈkɔːrpəs/) is a recourse challenging the reasons or conditions of a person's confinement under color of law. A petition for habeas corpus is filed with a court that has jurisdiction over the custodian, and if granted, a writ is issued directing the custodian to bring the confined person before the court for examination into those reasons or conditions. The Suspension Clause of the United States Constitution specifically included the English common law procedure in Article One, Section 9, clause 2, which demands that "The privilege of the writ of habeas corpus shall not be suspended, unless when in cases of rebellion or invasion the public safety may require it."

United States law affords persons the right to petition the federal courts for a writ of habeas corpus. Individual states also afford persons the ability to petition their own state court systems for habeas corpus pursuant to their respective constitutions and laws when held or sentenced by state authorities.

Federal habeas review did not extend to those in state custody until almost a century after the nation's founding with the Habeas Corpus Act of 1867.^[1] During the Civil War and Reconstruction, as later during the war on terror, the right to petition for a writ of habeas corpus was substantially curtailed for persons accused of engaging in certain conduct. In reaction to the former, and to ensure state courts enforced federal law, a Reconstruction Act for the first time extended the right of federal court habeas review to those in the custody of state courts (prisons and jails), expanding the writ essentially to all imprisoned on American soil. The federal habeas statute that resulted, with substantial amendments, is now at 28 U.S.C. § 2241. For many decades, the great majority of habeas petitions reviewed in federal court have been filed by those confined in state prisons by sentence of a state court for state crimes (e.g., murder, rape, robbery, etc.), since in the American system, most crimes have historically been a matter of state law.

The right of habeas corpus is not a right against unlawful arrest, but rather a right to be released from imprisonment after such arrest. If one believes the arrest is without legal merit and subsequently refuses to come willingly, then one may still be guilty of resisting arrest, which can sometimes be a crime in and of itself (even if the initial arrest itself was illegal) depending on the state.

1. ^ Gregory, Anthony (April 15, 2013). The Power of Habeas Corpus in America. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. p. 120. ISBN 978-1-107-03643-7.

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28 April 1789 – Mutiny on the Bounty: Lieutenant William Bligh and 18 sailors are set adrift, and the rebel crew returns to Tahiti briefly before setting sail for Pitcairn Island.

Mutiny on the Bounty

1789 mutiny aboard the British Royal Navy ship HMS Bounty

This article is about the historical event. For other uses, see Mutiny on the Bounty (disambiguation).

The mutiny on the Bounty occurred in the South Pacific Ocean on 28 April 1789. Disaffected crewmen, led by acting-Lieutenant Fletcher Christian, seized control of the ship, HMS Bounty, from their captain, Lieutenant William Bligh, and set him and eighteen loyalists adrift in the ship's open launch. The reasons behind the mutiny are still debated. Bligh and his crew stopped for supplies on Tofua, where a crew member was killed. Bligh navigated more than 3,500 nautical miles (6,500 km; 4,000 mi) in the launch to reach safety and began the process of bringing the mutineers to justice. The mutineers variously settled on Tahiti or on Pitcairn Island.

Bounty had left England in 1787 on a mission to collect and transport breadfruit plants from Tahiti to the West Indies. A five-month layover in Tahiti, during which many of the men lived ashore and formed relationships with native Polynesians, led those men to be less amenable to naval discipline. Relations between Bligh and his crew deteriorated after he reportedly began handing out increasingly harsh punishments, criticism, and abuse, with Christian being a particular target. After three weeks back at sea, Christian and others forced Bligh from the ship. Twenty-five men remained on board afterwards, including loyalists held against their will, and others for whom there was no room in the launch.

After Bligh reached England in April 1790, the Admiralty despatched HMS Pandora to apprehend the mutineers. Fourteen were captured in Tahiti and imprisoned on board Pandora, which then searched without success for Christian's party that had hidden on Pitcairn Island. After turning back towards England, Pandora ran aground on the Great Barrier Reef, with the loss of 31 crew and four Bounty prisoners. The ten surviving detainees reached England in June 1792 and were court-martialled; four were acquitted, three were pardoned, and three were hanged.

Christian's group remained undiscovered on Pitcairn until 1808, by which time only one mutineer, John Adams, remained alive. His fellow mutineers, including Christian, were dead, killed either by one another or by their Polynesian companions. No action was taken against Adams. Descendants of the mutineers and their accompanying Tahitians have lived on Pitcairn into the 21st century.

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29 April 1945 – Dachau concentration camp is liberated by United States troops.

Dachau concentration camp

Nazi concentration camp in Germany (1933–1945)

"Dachau" redirects here. For the town, see Dachau, Bavaria. For other uses, see Dachau (disambiguation).

48°16′08″N 11°28′07″E / 48.26889°N 11.46861°E / 48.26889; 11.46861

Dachau (UK: /ˈdæxaʊ/, /-kaʊ/; US: /ˈdɑːxaʊ/, /-kaʊ/;^[3][4] German: [ˈdaxaʊ] ^ⓘ) was one of the first^[a] concentration camps built by Nazi Germany and the longest-running one, opening on 22 March 1933. The camp was initially intended to intern Hitler's political opponents, which consisted of communists, social democrats, and other dissidents.^[6] It is located on the grounds of an abandoned munitions factory northeast of the medieval town of Dachau, about 16 km (10 mi) northwest of Munich in the state of Bavaria, in southern Germany.^[7] After its opening by Heinrich Himmler, its purpose was enlarged to include forced labor, and eventually, the imprisonment of Jews, Romani, Germans, and Austrians that the Nazi Party regarded as criminals, and, finally, foreign nationals from countries that Germany occupied or invaded. The Dachau camp system grew to include nearly 100 sub-camps, which were mostly work camps or Arbeitskommandos, and were located throughout southern Germany and Austria.^[8] The main camp was liberated by U.S. forces on 29 April 1945.

Prisoners lived in constant fear of brutal treatment and terror detention including standing cells, floggings, the so-called tree or pole hanging, and standing at attention for extremely long periods.^[9] There were 32,000 documented deaths at the camp, and thousands that are undocumented.^[10] Approximately 10,000 of the 30,000 prisoners were sick at the time of liberation.^[11][12]

In the postwar years, the Dachau facility served to hold SS soldiers awaiting trial. After 1948, it held ethnic Germans who had been expelled from eastern Europe and were awaiting resettlement, and also was used for a time as a United States military base during the occupation. It was finally closed in 1960.

There are several religious memorials within the Memorial Site,^[13] which is open to the public.^[14]

1. ^ "Dachau – 7th Army Official Report, May 1945". TankDestroyer.net. May 1945. Archived from the original on 30 January 2016. Retrieved 30 January 2016.
2. ^ "Holocaust Encyclopedia – Dachau". United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Washington, DC. Retrieved 30 January 2016.
3. ^ Wells, John C. (2008). Longman Pronunciation Dictionary (3rd ed.). Longman. ISBN 978-1-4058-8118-0.
4. ^ "Dachau". Webster's New World College Dictionary.
5. ^ Megargee, Geoffrey P., ed. (2009). Encyclopedia of Camps and Ghettos, 1933–1945. Vol. 1, Pt. B: Early camps, youth camps, and concentration camps and subcamps under the SS-Business Administration Main Office (WVHA): Pt. B / vol. ed.: Geoffrey P. Megargee. Vol. 1. Bloomington: Indiana University Press. ISBN 978-0-253-35328-3.
6. ^ "Dachau". encyclopedia.ushmm.org. Retrieved 13 April 2022.
7. ^ "Ein Konzentrationslager für politische Gefangene in der Nähe von Dachau". Münchner Neueste Nachrichten ("The Munich Latest News") (in German). The Holocaust History Project. 21 March 1933. Archived from the original on 29 November 2017. Retrieved 8 May 2015. The Munich Chief of Police, Himmler, has issued the following press announcement: On Wednesday the first concentration camp is to be opened in Dachau with an accommodation for 5000 persons. 'All Communists and—where necessary—Reichsbanner and Social Democratic functionaries who endanger state security are to be concentrated here, as in the long run it is not possible to keep individual functionaries in the state prisons without overburdening these prisons, and on the other hand these people cannot be released because attempts have shown that they persist in their efforts to agitate and organise as soon as they are released.'
8. ^ Concentration Camp Dachau Entry Registers (Zugangsbuecher) 1933–1945. retrieved 13 November 2014
9. ^ "Station 7: Courtyard and Bunker". Dachau Concentration Camp Memorial Site. Archived from the original on 21 September 2013. Retrieved 20 September 2013.
10. ^ "Station 11: Crematorium". Dachau Concentration Camp Memorial Site. Archived from the original on 21 September 2013. Retrieved 20 September 2013.
11. ^ "Investigation of alleged mistreatment of German guards at the Concentration Camp at Dachau, Germany, by elements of the XV Corps". Archived from the original on 3 November 2014. Retrieved 3 June 2015.
12. ^ "Headquarters Seventh Army Office of the Chief of Staff APO TSS, C/O Postmaster New York, NY 2 May 1945 Memorandum to: Inspector General, Seventh Army The Coming General directs that you conduct a formal investigation of alleged mistreatment of German guards at the Concentration Camp at Dachau, Germany, by elements of the XV Corps. A. White, Major General, G.S.C. Chief of Staff Testimony of: Capt. Richard F. Taylor 0-408680, Military Government, Detachment I-13, G-3". Archived from the original on 3 November 2014. Retrieved 3 June 2015.
13. ^ "Station 12: Religious Memorials". Dachau Concentration Camp Memorial Site. Archived from the original on 21 September 2013. Retrieved 20 September 2013.
14. ^ "1945 – present History of the Memorial Site – Dachau Concentration Camp Memorial Site". www.kz-gedenkstaette-dachau.de. Archived from the original on 21 February 2019. Retrieved 21 February 2019.

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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1 May 1921 – The Jaffa riots commence

Jaffa riots

1921 riots in Jaffa, Mandatory Palestine

Not to be confused with Jaffa riots (April 1936).

The Jaffa riots (commonly known in Hebrew: מאורעות תרפ"א, romanized: Me'oraot Tarpa)^[1] were a series of violent riots in Mandatory Palestine on May 1–7, 1921, which began as a confrontation between two Jewish groups but developed into an attack by Arabs on Jews and then reprisal attacks by Jews on Arabs.^[2] The rioting began in Jaffa and spread to other parts of the country. The riot resulted in the deaths of 47 Jews and 48 Arabs, with 146 Jews and 73 Arabs wounded.^[3]

1. ^ The word Tarpa being the transliteration of the Hebrew תרפ"א and which is no more than the Hebrew date 5681 Anno Mundi, corresponding to the year 1921 in the Gregorian calendar.
2. ^ Kessler, Oren. "1921 Jaffa riots 100 years on: Mandatory Palestine's 1st 'mass casualty' attack". The Times of Israel. Retrieved 2022-04-24.
3. ^ Report of the Commission of Inquiry into the disturbances in Palestine in May, 1921, with correspondence relating thereto (Disturbances), 1921, Cmd. 1540, p. 22 & 60.

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2 May 1920 – The first game of the Negro National League baseball is played in Indianapolis.

Negro National League (1920–1931)

American professional baseball league

For the later league of the same name, see Negro National League (1933–1948).

The first Negro National League (NNL I) was one of the several Negro leagues that were established during the period in the United States when organized baseball was segregated. The league was formed in 1920 with former player Rube Foster as its president.

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3 May 1616 – Treaty of Loudun ends a French civil war.

Treaty of Loudun

1616 treaty which ended a civil war caused by a schism in the French monarchy

The Treaty of Loudun was signed on 3 May 1616 in Loudun, France, and ended the war that originally began as a power struggle between queen mother Marie de Medici's favorite Concino Concini (recently made Marquis d'Ancre) and Henry II de Condé, the next in line for Louis XIII's throne.^[1] The war gained religious undertones when rebellious Huguenot princes joined Condé's revolt.

1. ^ Moote 1991, p. 86

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4 May 1919 – May Fourth Movement: Student demonstrations take place in Tiananmen Square in Beijing, China, protesting the Treaty of Versailles, which transferred Chinese territory to Japan.

May Fourth Movement

1919 political movement in China

"Wusi" redirects here. For other uses, see WUSI.

Not to be confused with June 4th movement.

The May Fourth Movement was a Chinese cultural and anti-imperialist political movement which grew out of student protests in Beijing on May 4, 1919. Students gathered in front of Tiananmen to protest the Chinese government's weak response to the Treaty of Versailles decision to allow the Empire of Japan to retain territories in Shandong that had been surrendered by the German Empire after the Siege of Tsingtao in 1914. The demonstrations sparked nationwide protests and spurred an upsurge in Chinese nationalism, a shift towards political mobilization, away from cultural activities, and a move towards a populist base, away from traditional intellectual and political elites.

The May Fourth demonstrations marked a turning point in a broader anti-traditional New Culture Movement (1915–1921) that sought to replace traditional Confucian values and was itself a continuation of late Qing reforms. Even after 1919, these educated "new youths" still defined their role with a traditional model in which the educated elite took responsibility for both cultural and political affairs.^[1] They opposed traditional culture but looked abroad for cosmopolitan inspiration in the name of nationalism and were an overwhelmingly urban movement that espoused populism in an overwhelmingly rural country. Many political and social leaders of the next five decades emerged at this time, including those of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).^[2]

1. ^ Schwarcz (1986), pp. 9–11.
2. ^ Hayford (2009), p. 569.

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5 May 1260 – Kublai Khan becomes ruler of the Mongol Empire.

Kublai Khan

Mongol Khan and founder of the Yuan dynasty (1215–1294)

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

"Setsen Khan" redirects here. For the Khalkha khanate, see Sechen Khan.

For the poem, see Kubla Khan.

Kublai Khan^[b][c] (23 September 1215 – 18 February 1294), also known by his temple name as the Emperor Shizu of Yuan and his regnal name Setsen Khan, was the founder and first emperor of the Mongol-led Yuan dynasty of China. He proclaimed the dynastic name "Great Yuan"^[d] in 1271, and ruled Yuan China until his death in 1294.

Kublai was the second son of Tolui by his chief wife Sorghaghtani Beki, and a grandson of Genghis Khan. He was almost 12 when Genghis Khan died in 1227. He had succeeded his older brother Möngke as Khagan in 1260, but had to defeat his younger brother Ariq Böke in the Toluid Civil War lasting until 1264. This episode marked the beginning of the fragmentation of the empire.^[4] Kublai's real power was limited to the Yuan Empire, even though as Khagan he still influenced the Ilkhanate and, to a significantly lesser degree, the Golden Horde.^[5][6][7]

In 1271, Kublai established the Yuan dynasty and formally claimed orthodox succession from prior Chinese dynasties.^[8] The Yuan dynasty came to rule over most of present-day China, Mongolia, Korea, southern Siberia, and other adjacent areas. He also amassed influence in the Middle East and Europe as Khagan. By 1279, the Yuan conquest of the Song dynasty was completed and Kublai became the first non-Han emperor to rule all of China proper.

The imperial portrait of Kublai was part of an album of the portraits of Yuan emperors and empresses, now in the National Palace Museum collection in Taipei. White, the color of the imperial costume of Kublai, was the imperial color of the Yuan dynasty based on the Chinese philosophical concept of the Five Elements.^[9]

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. ^ Robinson, David (2019). In the Shadow of the Mongol Empire: Ming China and Eurasia. Cambridge University Press. p. 50. ISBN 9781108482448. Retrieved 18 March 2022.
2. ^ Robinson, David (2009). Empire's Twilight: Northeast Asia Under the Mongols. Harvard University Press. p. 293. ISBN 9780674036086. Retrieved 18 March 2022.
3. ^ Brook, Timothy; Walt van Praag, Michael van; Boltjes, Miekn (2018). Sacred Mandates: Asian International Relations since Chinggis Khan. University of Chicago Press. p. 45. ISBN 9780226562933. Retrieved 18 March 2022.
4. ^ Encyclopædia Britannica. p. 893.^{[full citation needed]}
5. ^ Marshall, Robert. Storm from the South: from Genghis Khan to Khubilai Khan. p. 224.
6. ^ Borthwick, Mark (2007). Pacific Century. Westview Press. ISBN 978-0-8133-4355-6.
7. ^ Howorth, H. H. The History of the Mongols. Vol. II. p. 288.
8. ^ Kublai (18 December 1271), 《建國號詔》 [Edict to Establish the Name of the State], 《元典章》[Statutes of Yuan] (in Classical Chinese)
9. ^ Chen, Yuan Julian (2014). "Legitimation Discourse and the Theory of the Five Elements in Imperial China". Journal of Song-Yuan Studies. 44 (1): 325–364. doi:10.1353/sys.2014.0000. S2CID 147099574. Retrieved 27 April 2018.

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5 May 1260 – Kublai Khan becomes ruler of the Mongol Empire.

Kublai Khan

Mongol Khan and founder of the Yuan dynasty (1215–1294)

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

"Setsen Khan" redirects here. For the Khalkha khanate, see Sechen Khan.

For the poem, see Kubla Khan.

Kublai Khan^[b][c] (23 September 1215 – 18 February 1294), also known by his temple name as the Emperor Shizu of Yuan and his regnal name Setsen Khan, was the founder and first emperor of the Mongol-led Yuan dynasty of China. He proclaimed the dynastic name "Great Yuan"^[d] in 1271, and ruled Yuan China until his death in 1294.

Kublai was the second son of Tolui by his chief wife Sorghaghtani Beki, and a grandson of Genghis Khan. He was almost 12 when Genghis Khan died in 1227. He had succeeded his older brother Möngke as Khagan in 1260, but had to defeat his younger brother Ariq Böke in the Toluid Civil War lasting until 1264. This episode marked the beginning of the fragmentation of the empire.^[4] Kublai's real power was limited to the Yuan Empire, even though as Khagan he still influenced the Ilkhanate and, to a significantly lesser degree, the Golden Horde.^[5][6][7]

In 1271, Kublai established the Yuan dynasty and formally claimed orthodox succession from prior Chinese dynasties.^[8] The Yuan dynasty came to rule over most of present-day China, Mongolia, Korea, southern Siberia, and other adjacent areas. He also amassed influence in the Middle East and Europe as Khagan. By 1279, the Yuan conquest of the Song dynasty was completed and Kublai became the first non-Han emperor to rule all of China proper.

The imperial portrait of Kublai was part of an album of the portraits of Yuan emperors and empresses, now in the National Palace Museum collection in Taipei. White, the color of the imperial costume of Kublai, was the imperial color of the Yuan dynasty based on the Chinese philosophical concept of the Five Elements.^[9]

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. ^ Robinson, David (2019). In the Shadow of the Mongol Empire: Ming China and Eurasia. Cambridge University Press. p. 50. ISBN 9781108482448. Retrieved 18 March 2022.
2. ^ Robinson, David (2009). Empire's Twilight: Northeast Asia Under the Mongols. Harvard University Press. p. 293. ISBN 9780674036086. Retrieved 18 March 2022.
3. ^ Brook, Timothy; Walt van Praag, Michael van; Boltjes, Miekn (2018). Sacred Mandates: Asian International Relations since Chinggis Khan. University of Chicago Press. p. 45. ISBN 9780226562933. Retrieved 18 March 2022.
4. ^ Encyclopædia Britannica. p. 893.^{[full citation needed]}
5. ^ Marshall, Robert. Storm from the South: from Genghis Khan to Khubilai Khan. p. 224.
6. ^ Borthwick, Mark (2007). Pacific Century. Westview Press. ISBN 978-0-8133-4355-6.
7. ^ Howorth, H. H. The History of the Mongols. Vol. II. p. 288.
8. ^ Kublai (18 December 1271), 《建國號詔》 [Edict to Establish the Name of the State], 《元典章》[Statutes of Yuan] (in Classical Chinese)
9. ^ Chen, Yuan Julian (2014). "Legitimation Discourse and the Theory of the Five Elements in Imperial China". Journal of Song-Yuan Studies. 44 (1): 325–364. doi:10.1353/sys.2014.0000. S2CID 147099574. Retrieved 27 April 2018.

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6 May 1906 – The Russian Constitution of 1906 is adopted (on April 23 by the Julian calendar).

Russian Constitution of 1906

Reorganization of the Imperial Russian government following the 1905 revolution

The Russian Constitution of 1906 refers to a major revision of the 1832 Fundamental Laws of the Russian Empire, which transformed the formerly absolutist state into one in which the emperor agreed for the first time to share his autocratic power with a parliament. It was enacted on 6 May [O.S. 23 April] 1906, on the eve of the opening of the first State Duma. This first-ever Russian Constitution was a revision of the earlier Fundamental Laws, which had been published as the Code of Laws of the Russian Empire (Russian: Свод законов Российской империи, pre-1918 Russian orthography: Сводъ законовъ Россійской Имперіи) in 1832. It was granted during the Russian Revolution of 1905, in a last-ditch effort by the imperial government to preserve its own existence and keep the empire from disintegration.

The new constitution provided for a bicameral Russian parliament, without whose approval no laws were to be enacted in Russia. This legislature was composed of an upper house, known as the State Council, and a lower house, known as the State Duma. Half of the members of the upper house were appointed by the Tsar, while the other half were elected by various governmental, clerical and commercial interests. Members of the lower house were to be chosen by different classes of the Russian people, through a complex scheme of indirect elections—with the system being weighted to ensure the dominance of the propertied classes. While the Duma held the power of legislation and the right to question the Tsar's ministers, it did not have control over their appointment or dismissal, which was reserved to the monarch alone. Nor could it alter the constitution, save upon the emperor's initiative. The Tsar retained an absolute veto over legislation, as well as the right to dismiss the Duma at any time, for any reason he found suitable.^[1] The emperor also had the right to issue decrees during the Duma's absence—though these lost their validity if not approved by the new parliament within two months.

This charter had been granted under duress, and Nicholas abhorred its restrictions upon his power, which he had sworn at his coronation to pass on to his son. He dismissed the First and Second Dumas when they proved "unsatisfactory" to him,^[2] and unilaterally altered the election statutes (in violation of the constitution) to ensure that more landed persons would be elected to future Dumas. Although the resulting Third and Fourth Dumas proved more lasting, they still quarreled with the Tsar and his government over the general direction of state policy, and over the fundamental nature of the Russian state. Ultimately, with the outbreak of the Russian Revolution of 1917, the Duma took a leading role in bringing about the Tsar's abdication, which led in turn to the abolition of monarchy and the ascent to power of the Russian Provisional Government under Kerensky. However, that liberal government would be overthrown a few months later in the October Revolution, with the rise of the Bolsheviks signifying Russia's transition to a dictatorship.

1. ^ "Основные Законы Российской Империи – Викитека". ru.wikisource.org (in Russian). Retrieved 2017-11-17.
2. ^ Ukase of 3 June 1907.

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7 May 1832 – Greece's independence is recognized by the Treaty of London.

London Conference of 1832

International conference to establish the Kingdom of Greece

The London Conference of 1832 was an international conference convened to establish a stable government in Greece. Negotiations among the three Great Powers (Britain, France and Russia) resulted in the establishment of the Kingdom of Greece under a Bavarian prince. The decisions were ratified in the Treaty of Constantinople later that year. The treaty followed the Akkerman Convention which had previously recognized another territorial change in the Balkans, the suzerainty of the Principality of Serbia.^{[1] [2]}

1. ^ Konstantopoulou Photeine, The foundation of the modern Greek state: Major treaties and conventions, 1830–1947 (1999)
2. ^ Mitev, Plamen; Parvev, Ivan; Baramova, Maria; Racheva, Vania (2010), Empires and Peninsulas: Southeastern Europe between Karlowitz and the Peace of Adrianople, 1699–1829, ISBN 978-3-643-10611-7

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8 May 1899 – The Irish Literary Theatre in Dublin produced its first play.

Irish Literary Theatre

The Irish Literary Theatre was a short-lived theatrical project that existed from 1899 to 1901. Its purpose was to establish a national stage for Irish plays performed by Irish performers to amplify the Irish cultural identity (apart from Great Britain) and encourage authors to write works of serious depth. It was founded by W. B. Yeats, Lady Gregory, George Moore and Edward Martyn as part of the Irish Literary Revival and it was centered in Dublin.

Productions included The Countess Cathleen, The Heather Field, Maeve, The Last Feast of Fianna and The Bending of the Bough.

Although it crumbled due to monetary instability, it laid the groundwork for what would become the Abbey Theatre.

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9 May 1662 – The figure who later became Mr. Punch makes his first recorded appearance in England

Punch and Judy

Traditional British puppet show

For other uses, see Punch and Judy (disambiguation).

Punch and Judy is a traditional puppet show of Italian origin featuring Mr Punch and his wife Judy. The performance consists of a sequence of short scenes, each depicting an interaction between two characters, most typically the anarchic Mr Punch and one other character who usually falls victim to the intentional violence of Punch's slapstick. First appearing in England in 1662, Punch and Judy was called by The Daily Telegraph "a staple of the British seaside scene".^[1] The various episodes of Punch comedy—often provoking shocked laughter—are dominated by the clowning of Mr Punch.^[2]

The show is performed by a single puppeteer inside the booth, known since Victorian times as a "professor" or "punchman", and assisted sometimes by a "bottler" who corrals the audience outside the booth, introduces the performance, and collects the money ("the bottle"). The bottler might also play accompanying music or sound effects on a drum or guitar, and engage in back chat with the puppets, sometimes repeating lines that may have been difficult for the audience to understand. In the Victorian era, the drum and pan pipes were the instruments of choice. Today, most professors work solo, since the need for a bottler became less important when street performing with the show gave way to paid engagements at private parties or public events. In modern shows the audience is encouraged to participate, calling out to the characters on the stage—typically shouting "He's behind you!"—to warn them of danger or clue them in to what is going on behind their backs.^[1]

1. ^ ^{a b} Cite error: The named reference British seaside was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
2. ^ "Mr Punch celebrates 350 years of puppet anarchy". BBC. 11 June 2015.

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10 May 1933 – Censorship: In Germany, the Nazis stage massive public book burnings.

Nazi book burnings

1930s campaign to destroy prohibited literature and research in Nazi Germany and Austria

The Nazi book burnings were a campaign conducted by the German Student Union (German: Deutsche Studentenschaft, DSt) to ceremonially burn books in Nazi Germany and Austria in the 1930s. The books targeted for burning were those viewed as being subversive or as representing ideologies opposed to Nazism. These included books written by Jewish, half-Jewish, communist, socialist, anarchist, liberal, pacifist, and sexologist authors among others.^[1] The initial books burned were those of Karl Marx and Karl Kautsky,^[2] but came to include other authors, including Albert Einstein, Helen Keller, Magnus Hirschfeld, and effectively any book incompatible with Nazi ideology. In a campaign of cultural genocide, books were also burned en masse by the Nazis in occupied territories, such as in Poland.^[3]

1. ^ "Book Burning". History Unfolded: US Responses to the Holocaust. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.
2. ^ Strätz, Hans-Wolfgang (1968). Die studentische "Aktion wider den undeutschen Geist" im Frühjahr 1933. In: Vierteljahrshefte für Zeitgeschichte, 16 (in German). pp. 347–353.
3. ^ Hench, John B. (2010) Books As Weapons, p. 31. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press. ISBN 978-0-8014-4891-1

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11 May 1987 – Klaus Barbie goes on trial in Lyon for war crimes committed during World War II.

Klaus Barbie

Nazi German Gestapo leader (1913–1991)

Nikolaus Barbie (25 October 1913 – 25 September 1991) was a German officer of the Schutzstaffel and Sicherheitsdienst who worked in Vichy France during World War II. He became known as the "Butcher of Lyon" for having personally tortured prisoners—primarily Jews and members of the French Resistance—as the head of the Gestapo in Lyon. After the war, United States intelligence services employed him for his anti-communist efforts and aided his escape to Bolivia, where he advised the dictatorial regime on how to repress opposition through torture. In 1983, the United States apologised to France for the U.S. Counterintelligence Corps helping him escape to Bolivia,^[2] aiding Barbie's escape from an outstanding arrest warrant.^[3]

In 1972, it was discovered he was in Bolivia. While in Bolivia, the West German Intelligence Service recruited him. Barbie is suspected of having had a role in the Bolivian coup d'état orchestrated by Luis García Meza in 1980. After the fall of the dictatorship, Barbie lost the protection of the government in La Paz. In 1983, he was arrested and extradited to France, where he was convicted of crimes against humanity and sentenced to life in prison. Although he had been sentenced to death in absentia twice earlier, in 1947 and 1954, capital punishment had been abolished in France in 1981. Barbie died of cancer in 1991, at age 77, in his Lyon prison.

1. ^ "Klaus Barbie The Butcher of Lyon". Holocaust Research Project. Retrieved 29 September 2015.
2. ^ Bönisch & Wiegrefe 2011.
3. ^ Cite error: The named reference criminaltospy was invoked but never defined (see the help page).

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12 May 1797 – War of the First Coalition: Napoleon Bonaparte conquers Venice.

Napoleon

Emperor of the French (r. 1804–1814, 1815)

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

Battles of Napoleon

800km
497miles

19

Saint Helena

18

Rochefort

17

Waterloo

16

Elba

15

Dizier

14

Leipzig

13

Berezina

12

Borodino

11

Wagram

10

Somosierra

9

Friedland

8

Jena

7

Austerlitz

6

Marengo

5

Cairo

4

Malta

3

Arcole

2

Paris

1

Toulon

   

Rescale the fullscreen map to see Saint Helena.

Napoleon Bonaparte^[b] (born Napoleone Buonaparte;^[1][c] 15 August 1769 – 5 May 1821), later known by his regnal name Napoleon I, was a French general and statesman who rose to prominence during the French Revolution and led a series of military campaigns across Europe during the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars from 1796 to 1815. He led the French Republic as First Consul from 1799 to 1804, then ruled the French Empire as Emperor of the French from 1804 to 1814, and briefly again in 1815. He was King of Italy from 1805 to 1814 and Protector of the Confederation of the Rhine from 1806 to 1813.

Born on the island of Corsica to a family of Italian origin, Napoleon moved to mainland France in 1779 and was commissioned as an officer in the French Royal Army in 1785. He supported the French Revolution in 1789 and promoted its cause in Corsica. He rose rapidly through the ranks after winning the siege of Toulon in 1793 and defeating royalist insurgents in Paris on 13 Vendémiaire in 1795. In 1796, Napoleon commanded a military campaign against the Austrians and their Italian allies in the War of the First Coalition, scoring decisive victories and becoming a national hero. He led an invasion of Egypt and Syria in 1798 which served as a springboard to political power. In November 1799, Napoleon engineered the Coup of 18 Brumaire against the French Directory and became First Consul of the Republic. He won the Battle of Marengo in 1800, which secured France's victory in the War of the Second Coalition, and in 1803 he sold the territory of Louisiana to the United States. In December 1804, Napoleon crowned himself Emperor of the French, further expanding his power.

The breakdown of the Treaty of Amiens led to the War of the Third Coalition by 1805. Napoleon shattered the coalition with a decisive victory at the Battle of Austerlitz, which led to the dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire. In the War of the Fourth Coalition, Napoleon defeated Prussia at the Battle of Jena–Auerstedt in 1806, marched his Grande Armée into Eastern Europe, and defeated the Russians in 1807 at the Battle of Friedland. Seeking to extend his trade embargo against Britain, Napoleon invaded the Iberian Peninsula and installed his brother Joseph as King of Spain in 1808, provoking the Peninsular War. In 1809, the Austrians again challenged France in the War of the Fifth Coalition, in which Napoleon solidified his grip over Europe after winning the Battle of Wagram. In summer 1812, he launched an invasion of Russia, briefly occupying Moscow before conducting a catastrophic retreat of his army that winter. In 1813, Prussia and Austria joined Russia in the War of the Sixth Coalition, in which Napoleon was decisively defeated at the Battle of Leipzig. The coalition invaded France and captured Paris, forcing Napoleon to abdicate in April 1814. They exiled him to the Mediterranean island of Elba and restored the Bourbons to power. Ten months later, Napoleon escaped from Elba on a brig, landed in France with a thousand men, and marched on Paris, again taking control of the country. His opponents responded by forming a Seventh Coalition, which defeated him at the Battle of Waterloo in June 1815. Napoleon was exiled to the remote island of Saint Helena in the South Atlantic, where he died of stomach cancer in 1821, aged 51.

Napoleon is considered one of the greatest military commanders in history, and Napoleonic tactics are still studied at military schools worldwide. His legacy endures through the modernizing legal and administrative reforms he enacted in France and Western Europe, embodied in the Napoleonic Code. He established a system of public education,^[2] abolished the vestiges of feudalism,^[3] emancipated Jews and other religious minorities,^[4] abolished the Spanish Inquisition,^[5] enacted the principle of equality before the law for an emerging middle class,^[6] and centralized state power at the expense of religious authorities.^[7] His conquests acted as a catalyst for political change and the development of nation states. However, he is controversial because of his role in wars which devastated Europe, his looting of conquered territories, and his mixed record on civil rights. He abolished the free press, ended directly elected representative government, exiled and jailed critics of his regime, reinstated slavery in France's colonies except for Haiti, banned the entry of blacks and mulattos into France, reduced the civil rights of women and children in France, reintroduced a hereditary monarchy and nobility,^[8][9][10] and violently repressed popular uprisings against his rule.^[11]

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

1. ^ Dwyer (2008a), p. xv.
2. ^ Grab (2003), p. 56.
3. ^ Broers, M.; Hicks, P.; Guimera, A. (10 October 2012). The Napoleonic Empire and the New European Political Culture. Springer. p. 230. ISBN 978-1-137-27139-6. Archived from the original on 2 December 2023. Retrieved 2 December 2023.
4. ^ Conner (2004), pp. 38–40.
5. ^ Pérez, Joseph (2005). The Spanish Inquisition: A History. Yale University Press. p. 98. ISBN 978-0-300-11982-4. Archived from the original on 2 December 2023. Retrieved 2 December 2023.
6. ^ Fremont-Barnes & Fisher (2004), p. 336.
7. ^ Grab (2017), pp. 204–211.
8. ^ Dwyer (2015a), pp. 574–76, 582–84.
9. ^ Conner (2004), pp. 32–34, 50–51.
10. ^ Bell (2015), p. 52.
11. ^ Repa, Jan (2 December 2005). "Furore over Austerlitz ceremony". BBC. Archived from the original on 20 April 2010. Retrieved 5 April 2010.

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13 May 1940 – World War II: Germany's conquest of France begins, as the German army crosses the Meuse. Winston Churchill makes his "blood, toil, tears, and sweat" speech to the House of Commons.

Blood, toil, tears and sweat

Phrase used by UK Prime Minister Winston Churchill

For other uses, see Blood, Sweat & Tears (disambiguation).

"Blood, toil, tears and sweat" was a phrase made famous in a speech given by Winston Churchill to the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom on 13 May 1940; the speech itself is sometimes known by that name.

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14 May 1796 – Edward Jenner administers the first smallpox inoculation.

Edward Jenner

English physician and pioneer of vaccines (1749–1823)

For the New Zealand poet and translator, see Edward Jenner (writer).

Edward Jenner (17 May 1749 – 26 January 1823) was an English physician and scientist who pioneered the concept of vaccines and created the smallpox vaccine, the world's first vaccine.^[1][2] The terms vaccine and vaccination are derived from Variolae vaccinae ('pustules of the cow'), the term devised by Jenner to denote cowpox. He used it in 1798 in the title of his Inquiry into the Variolae vaccinae known as the Cow Pox, in which he described the protective effect of cowpox against smallpox.^[3]

Jenner is often called "the father of immunology",^[4] and his work is said to have saved "more lives than any other man".^{[5]: 100 [6]} In Jenner's time, smallpox killed around 10% of the global population, with the number as high as 20% in towns and cities where infection spread more easily.^[6] In 1821, he was appointed physician to King George IV, and was also made mayor of Berkeley and justice of the peace. He was a member of the Royal Society. In the field of zoology, he was among the first modern scholars to describe the brood parasitism of the cuckoo (Aristotle also noted this behaviour in his History of Animals). In 2002, Jenner was named in the BBC's list of the 100 Greatest Britons.

1. ^ Riedel S (January 2005). "Edward Jenner and the history of smallpox and vaccination". Proceedings (Baylor University. Medical Center). 18 (1). Baylor University Medical Center: 21–25. doi:10.1080/08998280.2005.11928028. PMC 1200696. PMID 16200144.
2. ^ Baxby D (2009) [2004]. "Jenner, Edward (1749–1823)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/14749. Retrieved 2 December 2022.
3. ^ Baxby D (1999). "Edward Jenner's Inquiry; a bicentenary analysis". Vaccine. 17 (4): 301–307. doi:10.1016/s0264-410x(98)00207-2. PMID 9987167.
4. ^ Cite error: The named reference JennerBBC was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
5. ^ Cite error: The named reference Baron1838_vol2 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
6. ^ ^{a b} "How did Edward Jenner test his smallpox vaccine?". The Telegraph. Telegraph Media Group. 13 May 2016. Archived from the original on 26 January 2022. Retrieved 2 December 2017.

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15 May 1940 – Richard and Maurice McDonald open the first McDonald's restaurant.

Richard and Maurice McDonald

American fast food company founders

Richard "Dick" McDonald (February 16, 1909 – July 14, 1998) and Maurice "Mac" McDonald (November 26, 1902 – December 11, 1971), collectively known as the McDonald brothers, were American entrepreneurs who founded the fast food company McDonald's.

The brothers opened the original McDonald's restaurant in 1940 in San Bernardino, California,^[3][4] where they created the Speedee Service System to produce their meals, a method that became the standard for the fast food industry. After hiring Ray Kroc as their franchise agent in 1954, they continued to run the company until they were bought out by Kroc in 1961.

1. ^ legacy.com
2. ^ legacy.com
3. ^ "The Real McDonald's: The San Bernardino Origins of a Fast Food Empire". PBS SoCal. 2016-08-05. Retrieved 2025-03-26.
4. ^ Klein, Christopher (2015-05-15). "How McDonald's Beat Its Early Competition and Became an Icon of Fast Food". HISTORY. Retrieved 2025-03-26.

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16 May 1888 – Nikola Tesla delivers a lecture describing the equipment which will allow efficient generation and use of alternating currents to transmit electric power over long distances.

Nikola Tesla

Serbian-American engineer and inventor (1856–1943)

For other uses, see Nikola Tesla (disambiguation).

Nikola Tesla (/ˈnɪkələ ˈtɛslə/;^[1] Serbian Cyrillic: Никола Тесла [nǐkola têsla]; 10 July 1856 – 7 January 1943) was a Serbian-American^[2][3] engineer, futurist, and inventor. He is known for his contributions to the design of the modern alternating current (AC) electricity supply system.^[4]

Born and raised in the Austrian Empire, Tesla first studied engineering and physics in the 1870s without receiving a degree. He then gained practical experience in the early 1880s working in telephony and at Continental Edison in the new electric power industry. In 1884 he immigrated to the United States, where he became a naturalized citizen. He worked for a short time at the Edison Machine Works in New York City before he struck out on his own. With the help of partners to finance and market his ideas, Tesla set up laboratories and companies in New York to develop a range of electrical and mechanical devices. His AC induction motor and related polyphase AC patents, licensed by Westinghouse Electric in 1888, earned him a considerable amount of money and became the cornerstone of the polyphase system which that company eventually marketed.

Attempting to develop inventions he could patent and market, Tesla conducted a range of experiments with mechanical oscillators/generators, electrical discharge tubes, and early X-ray imaging. He also built a wirelessly controlled boat, one of the first ever exhibited. Tesla became well known as an inventor and demonstrated his achievements to celebrities and wealthy patrons at his lab, and was noted for his showmanship at public lectures. Throughout the 1890s, Tesla pursued his ideas for wireless lighting and worldwide wireless electric power distribution in his high-voltage, high-frequency power experiments in New York and Colorado Springs. In 1893, he made pronouncements on the possibility of wireless communication with his devices. Tesla tried to put these ideas to practical use in his unfinished Wardenclyffe Tower project, an intercontinental wireless communication and power transmitter, but ran out of funding before he could complete it.

After Wardenclyffe, Tesla experimented with a series of inventions in the 1910s and 1920s with varying degrees of success. Having spent most of his money, Tesla lived in a series of New York hotels, leaving behind unpaid bills. He died in New York City in January 1943.^[5] Tesla's work fell into relative obscurity following his death, until 1960, when the General Conference on Weights and Measures named the International System of Units (SI) measurement of magnetic flux density the tesla in his honor. There has been a resurgence in popular interest in Tesla since the 1990s.^[6]

1. ^ "Tesla" Archived 24 October 2021 at the Wayback Machine. Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary.
2. ^ Burgan 2009, p. 9.
3. ^ "Electrical pioneer Tesla honoured". BBC News. 10 July 2006. Archived from the original on 10 October 2020. Retrieved 20 May 2013.
4. ^ Laplante, Phillip A. (1999). Comprehensive Dictionary of Electrical Engineering 1999. Springer. p. 635. ISBN 978-3-540-64835-2.
5. ^ O'Shei, Tim (2008). Marconi and Tesla: Pioneers of Radio Communication. MyReportLinks.com Books. p. 106. ISBN 978-1-59845-076-7.
6. ^ Van Riper 2011, p. 150

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16 May 1888 – Nikola Tesla delivers a lecture describing the equipment which will allow efficient generation and use of alternating currents to transmit electric power over long distances.

Nikola Tesla

Serbian-American engineer and inventor (1856–1943)

For other uses, see Nikola Tesla (disambiguation).

Nikola Tesla (/ˈnɪkələ ˈtɛslə/;^[1] Serbian Cyrillic: Никола Тесла [nǐkola têsla]; 10 July 1856 – 7 January 1943) was a Serbian-American^[2][3] engineer, futurist, and inventor. He is known for his contributions to the design of the modern alternating current (AC) electricity supply system.^[4]

Born and raised in the Austrian Empire, Tesla first studied engineering and physics in the 1870s without receiving a degree. He then gained practical experience in the early 1880s working in telephony and at Continental Edison in the new electric power industry. In 1884 he immigrated to the United States, where he became a naturalized citizen. He worked for a short time at the Edison Machine Works in New York City before he struck out on his own. With the help of partners to finance and market his ideas, Tesla set up laboratories and companies in New York to develop a range of electrical and mechanical devices. His AC induction motor and related polyphase AC patents, licensed by Westinghouse Electric in 1888, earned him a considerable amount of money and became the cornerstone of the polyphase system which that company eventually marketed.

Attempting to develop inventions he could patent and market, Tesla conducted a range of experiments with mechanical oscillators/generators, electrical discharge tubes, and early X-ray imaging. He also built a wirelessly controlled boat, one of the first ever exhibited. Tesla became well known as an inventor and demonstrated his achievements to celebrities and wealthy patrons at his lab, and was noted for his showmanship at public lectures. Throughout the 1890s, Tesla pursued his ideas for wireless lighting and worldwide wireless electric power distribution in his high-voltage, high-frequency power experiments in New York and Colorado Springs. In 1893, he made pronouncements on the possibility of wireless communication with his devices. Tesla tried to put these ideas to practical use in his unfinished Wardenclyffe Tower project, an intercontinental wireless communication and power transmitter, but ran out of funding before he could complete it.

After Wardenclyffe, Tesla experimented with a series of inventions in the 1910s and 1920s with varying degrees of success. Having spent most of his money, Tesla lived in a series of New York hotels, leaving behind unpaid bills. He died in New York City in January 1943.^[5] Tesla's work fell into relative obscurity following his death, until 1960, when the General Conference on Weights and Measures named the International System of Units (SI) measurement of magnetic flux density the tesla in his honor. There has been a resurgence in popular interest in Tesla since the 1990s.^[6]

1. ^ "Tesla" Archived 24 October 2021 at the Wayback Machine. Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary.
2. ^ Burgan 2009, p. 9.
3. ^ "Electrical pioneer Tesla honoured". BBC News. 10 July 2006. Archived from the original on 10 October 2020. Retrieved 20 May 2013.
4. ^ Laplante, Phillip A. (1999). Comprehensive Dictionary of Electrical Engineering 1999. Springer. p. 635. ISBN 978-3-540-64835-2.
5. ^ O'Shei, Tim (2008). Marconi and Tesla: Pioneers of Radio Communication. MyReportLinks.com Books. p. 106. ISBN 978-1-59845-076-7.
6. ^ Van Riper 2011, p. 150

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16 May 1888 – Nikola Tesla delivers a lecture describing the equipment which will allow efficient generation and use of alternating currents to transmit electric power over long distances.

Nikola Tesla

Serbian-American engineer and inventor (1856–1943)

For other uses, see Nikola Tesla (disambiguation).

Nikola Tesla (/ˈnɪkələ ˈtɛslə/;^[1] Serbian Cyrillic: Никола Тесла [nǐkola têsla]; 10 July 1856 – 7 January 1943) was a Serbian-American^[2][3] engineer, futurist, and inventor. He is known for his contributions to the design of the modern alternating current (AC) electricity supply system.^[4]

Born and raised in the Austrian Empire, Tesla first studied engineering and physics in the 1870s without receiving a degree. He then gained practical experience in the early 1880s working in telephony and at Continental Edison in the new electric power industry. In 1884 he immigrated to the United States, where he became a naturalized citizen. He worked for a short time at the Edison Machine Works in New York City before he struck out on his own. With the help of partners to finance and market his ideas, Tesla set up laboratories and companies in New York to develop a range of electrical and mechanical devices. His AC induction motor and related polyphase AC patents, licensed by Westinghouse Electric in 1888, earned him a considerable amount of money and became the cornerstone of the polyphase system which that company eventually marketed.

Attempting to develop inventions he could patent and market, Tesla conducted a range of experiments with mechanical oscillators/generators, electrical discharge tubes, and early X-ray imaging. He also built a wirelessly controlled boat, one of the first ever exhibited. Tesla became well known as an inventor and demonstrated his achievements to celebrities and wealthy patrons at his lab, and was noted for his showmanship at public lectures. Throughout the 1890s, Tesla pursued his ideas for wireless lighting and worldwide wireless electric power distribution in his high-voltage, high-frequency power experiments in New York and Colorado Springs. In 1893, he made pronouncements on the possibility of wireless communication with his devices. Tesla tried to put these ideas to practical use in his unfinished Wardenclyffe Tower project, an intercontinental wireless communication and power transmitter, but ran out of funding before he could complete it.

After Wardenclyffe, Tesla experimented with a series of inventions in the 1910s and 1920s with varying degrees of success. Having spent most of his money, Tesla lived in a series of New York hotels, leaving behind unpaid bills. He died in New York City in January 1943.^[5] Tesla's work fell into relative obscurity following his death, until 1960, when the General Conference on Weights and Measures named the International System of Units (SI) measurement of magnetic flux density the tesla in his honor. There has been a resurgence in popular interest in Tesla since the 1990s.^[6]

1. ^ "Tesla" Archived 24 October 2021 at the Wayback Machine. Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary.
2. ^ Burgan 2009, p. 9.
3. ^ "Electrical pioneer Tesla honoured". BBC News. 10 July 2006. Archived from the original on 10 October 2020. Retrieved 20 May 2013.
4. ^ Laplante, Phillip A. (1999). Comprehensive Dictionary of Electrical Engineering 1999. Springer. p. 635. ISBN 978-3-540-64835-2.
5. ^ O'Shei, Tim (2008). Marconi and Tesla: Pioneers of Radio Communication. MyReportLinks.com Books. p. 106. ISBN 978-1-59845-076-7.
6. ^ Van Riper 2011, p. 150

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16 May 1888 – Nikola Tesla delivers a lecture describing the equipment which will allow efficient generation and use of alternating currents to transmit electric power over long distances.

Nikola Tesla

Serbian-American engineer and inventor (1856–1943)

For other uses, see Nikola Tesla (disambiguation).

Nikola Tesla (/ˈnɪkələ ˈtɛslə/;^[1] Serbian Cyrillic: Никола Тесла [nǐkola têsla]; 10 July 1856 – 7 January 1943) was a Serbian-American^[2][3] engineer, futurist, and inventor. He is known for his contributions to the design of the modern alternating current (AC) electricity supply system.^[4]

Born and raised in the Austrian Empire, Tesla first studied engineering and physics in the 1870s without receiving a degree. He then gained practical experience in the early 1880s working in telephony and at Continental Edison in the new electric power industry. In 1884 he immigrated to the United States, where he became a naturalized citizen. He worked for a short time at the Edison Machine Works in New York City before he struck out on his own. With the help of partners to finance and market his ideas, Tesla set up laboratories and companies in New York to develop a range of electrical and mechanical devices. His AC induction motor and related polyphase AC patents, licensed by Westinghouse Electric in 1888, earned him a considerable amount of money and became the cornerstone of the polyphase system which that company eventually marketed.

Attempting to develop inventions he could patent and market, Tesla conducted a range of experiments with mechanical oscillators/generators, electrical discharge tubes, and early X-ray imaging. He also built a wirelessly controlled boat, one of the first ever exhibited. Tesla became well known as an inventor and demonstrated his achievements to celebrities and wealthy patrons at his lab, and was noted for his showmanship at public lectures. Throughout the 1890s, Tesla pursued his ideas for wireless lighting and worldwide wireless electric power distribution in his high-voltage, high-frequency power experiments in New York and Colorado Springs. In 1893, he made pronouncements on the possibility of wireless communication with his devices. Tesla tried to put these ideas to practical use in his unfinished Wardenclyffe Tower project, an intercontinental wireless communication and power transmitter, but ran out of funding before he could complete it.

After Wardenclyffe, Tesla experimented with a series of inventions in the 1910s and 1920s with varying degrees of success. Having spent most of his money, Tesla lived in a series of New York hotels, leaving behind unpaid bills. He died in New York City in January 1943.^[5] Tesla's work fell into relative obscurity following his death, until 1960, when the General Conference on Weights and Measures named the International System of Units (SI) measurement of magnetic flux density the tesla in his honor. There has been a resurgence in popular interest in Tesla since the 1990s.^[6]

1. ^ "Tesla" Archived 24 October 2021 at the Wayback Machine. Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary.
2. ^ Burgan 2009, p. 9.
3. ^ "Electrical pioneer Tesla honoured". BBC News. 10 July 2006. Archived from the original on 10 October 2020. Retrieved 20 May 2013.
4. ^ Laplante, Phillip A. (1999). Comprehensive Dictionary of Electrical Engineering 1999. Springer. p. 635. ISBN 978-3-540-64835-2.
5. ^ O'Shei, Tim (2008). Marconi and Tesla: Pioneers of Radio Communication. MyReportLinks.com Books. p. 106. ISBN 978-1-59845-076-7.
6. ^ Van Riper 2011, p. 150

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17 May 1536 – Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn's marriage is annulled.

Anne Boleyn

Queen of England from 1533 to 1536

For other uses, see Anne Boleyn (disambiguation).

Anne Boleyn (/ˈbʊlɪn, bʊˈlɪn/;^[7][8][9][b] c. 1501 or 1507 – 19 May 1536) was Queen of England from 1533 to 1536, as the second wife of King Henry VIII. The circumstances of her marriage and execution, by beheading for treason, made her a key figure in the political and religious upheaval that marked the start of the English Reformation.

Anne was the daughter of Thomas Boleyn (later Earl of Wiltshire), and his wife, Elizabeth Howard, and was educated in the Netherlands and France. Anne returned to England in early 1522, to marry her cousin James Butler, 9th Earl of Ormond; the marriage plans were broken off, and instead, she secured a post at court as maid of honour to Henry VIII's wife, Catherine of Aragon. Early in 1523, Anne was secretly betrothed to Henry Percy, son of Henry Percy, 5th Earl of Northumberland, but the betrothal was broken off when the Earl refused to support it. Cardinal Thomas Wolsey refused the match in January 1524.

In February or March 1526, Henry VIII began his pursuit of Anne. She resisted his attempts to seduce her, refusing to become his mistress, as her sister Mary had previously been. Henry focused on annulling his marriage to Catherine, so he would be free to marry Anne. After Wolsey failed to obtain an annulment from Pope Clement VII, it became clear the marriage would not be annulled by the Catholic Church. As a result, Henry and his advisers, such as Thomas Cromwell, began breaking the Church's power in England and closing the monasteries. Henry and Anne formally married on 25 January 1533, after a secret wedding on 14 November 1532. On 23 May 1533, the newly appointed Archbishop of Canterbury Thomas Cranmer declared Henry and Catherine's marriage null and void. Five days later, he declared Henry and Anne's marriage valid. Clement excommunicated Henry and Cranmer. As a result of the marriage and excommunications, the first break between the Church of England and the Catholic Church took place, and the King took control of the Church of England. Anne was crowned queen on 1 June 1533. On 7 September, she gave birth to the future Queen Elizabeth I. Henry was disappointed to have a daughter, but hoped a son would follow and professed to love Elizabeth. Anne subsequently had three miscarriages and by March 1536, Henry was courting Jane Seymour.

Henry had Anne investigated for high treason in April 1536. On 2 May, she was arrested and sent to the Tower of London, where she was tried before a jury, including Henry Percy, her former betrothed, and her uncle Thomas Howard, 3rd Duke of Norfolk. She was convicted on 15 May and beheaded four days later. Historians view the charges, which included adultery, incest with her brother George, and plotting to kill the King, as unconvincing.^[11][12]

After her daughter, Elizabeth, became queen in 1558, Anne became venerated as a martyr and heroine of the English Reformation, particularly through the works of George Wyatt.^[13] She has inspired, or been mentioned in, many cultural works and retained her hold on the popular imagination. She has been called "the most influential and important queen consort England has ever had",^[14] as she provided the occasion for Henry to declare the English Church's independence from the Vatican.

1. ^ "Doubts raised over Anne Boleyn portraits". Hever Castle. 24 February 2015. Retrieved 19 June 2021.
2. ^ Spender, Anna. "The many faces of Anne Boleyn" (PDF). Hever Castle. Archived (PDF) from the original on 9 October 2022. Retrieved 19 June 2021.
3. ^ "The Offspring of Thomas and Elizabeth Boleyn". The Tudor Society. 25 March 2015. Retrieved 22 October 2021.
4. ^ "Letters and papers, foreign and domestic, of the reign of Henry VIII". Internet Archive. 13 December 1862. Retrieved 21 October 2021.
5. ^ Cite error: The named reference Ives, p.3 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
6. ^ Weir 1991
7. ^ Pronunciations with stress on the second syllable were rare until recently and were not mentioned by reference works until the 1960s; see The Big Book of Beastly Mispronunciations (2006) by Charles Harrington Elster
8. ^ Jones, Daniel Everyman's English Pronouncing Dictionary 12th edition (1963)
9. ^ Wells, John C. (1990). Longman pronunciation dictionary. Harlow, England: Longman. p. 83. ISBN 0-582-05383-8. entry "Boleyn"
10. ^ M. A. E. Wood, Letters, ii. 74-75; Letters and Papers of the Reign of Henry VIII, v. 12
11. ^ Gairdner, James, ed. (1887). Letters and Papers, Foreign and Domestic, Henry VIII, Volume 10, January–June 1536. Her Majesty's Stationery Office. pp. 349–371.
12. ^ Wriothesley, Charles (1875). A Chronicle of England During the Reigns of the Tudors, From A.D. 1485 to 1559. Vol. 1. Camden Society. pp. 189–226.
13. ^ Ives 2004, pp. 48–50.
14. ^ Ives 2004, p. xv.

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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18 May 1565 – The Great Siege of Malta begins, in which Ottoman forces attempt and fail to conquer Malta.

Great Siege of Malta

Ottoman Empire's invasion of Malta in 1565

This article is about the siege in 1565. For other sieges of Malta, see Siege of Malta (disambiguation).

The Great Siege of Malta (Maltese: L-Assedju l-Kbir) occurred in 1565 when the Ottoman Empire attempted to conquer the island of Malta, then held by the Knights Hospitaller. The siege lasted nearly four months, from 18 May to 8 September 1565.

The Knights Hospitaller had been headquartered in Malta since 1530, after being driven out of Rhodes, also by the Ottomans, in 1522, following the siege of Rhodes. The Ottomans first attempted to take Malta in 1551 but failed. In 1565, Suleiman the Magnificent, the Ottoman Sultan, made a second attempt to take Malta. The Knights, who numbered around 500 together with approximately 6,000 footsoldiers, withstood the siege and repelled the invaders.

This victory became one of the most celebrated events of sixteenth-century Europe, to the point that Voltaire said: "Nothing is better known than the siege of Malta." It undoubtedly contributed to the eventual erosion of the European perception of Ottoman invincibility, although the Mediterranean continued to be contested between Christian coalitions and the Muslim Turks for many years.^[6]

1. ^ At least two companies of Spanish Tercios took part in the defence of Fort St Elmo. Cañete, Hugo A. (3 July 2020). "La leyenda negra del fuerte de San Telmo y los tres capitanes españoles del Tercio Viejo de Sicilia que lo defendieron (Malta 1565) | Grupo de Estudios de Historia Militar". Grupo de Estudios de Historia Militar (in Spanish). Retrieved 4 July 2020.
2. ^ Cite error: The named reference paoletti2008 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
3. ^ Arnold Cassola, The 1565 Great Siege of Malta and Hipolito Sans's La Maltea (Publishers Enterprise Group: Malta, 1999).
4. ^ Cite error: The named reference SOM was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
5. ^ Cite error: The named reference Giacomo Bosio 1643 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
6. ^ Fernand Braudel, The Mediterranean and the Mediterranean World in the Age of Philip II, vol. II (University of California Press: Berkeley, 1995).

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19 May 1963 – The New York Post Sunday Magazine publishes Martin Luther King Jr.'s Letter from Birmingham Jail.

Letter from Birmingham Jail

Open letter written by Martin Luther King, Jr

The "Letter from Birmingham Jail", also known as the "Letter from Birmingham City Jail" and "The Negro Is Your Brother", is an open letter written on April 16, 1963, by Martin Luther King Jr. It says that people have a moral responsibility to break unjust laws and to take direct action rather than waiting potentially forever for justice to come through the courts. Responding to being referred to as an "outsider", King writes: "Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere."

The letter, written in response to "A Call for Unity" during the 1963 Birmingham campaign, was widely published, and became an important text for the civil rights movement in the United States. The letter has been described as "one of the most important historical documents penned by a modern political prisoner",^[1] and is considered a classic document of civil disobedience.^[2][3][4][5]

1. ^ Greene, Helen Taylor; Gabbidon, Shaun L. (April 14, 2009). "Political Prisoners". Encyclopedia of Race and Crime. SAGE Publications. pp. 636–639. ISBN 978-1-4522-6609-1.
2. ^ Smith, Robert C. (2003). Encyclopedia of African American Politics. Facts On File. p. 43. ISBN 978-1-4381-3019-4.
3. ^ Tiefenbrun, Susan (1992). "Semiotics and Martin Luther King's "Letter from Birmingham Jail"". Cardozo Studies in Law and Literature. 4 (2). Taylor & Francis: 255–287. doi:10.2307/743322. JSTOR 743322.
4. ^ Henretta, James A.; Edwards, Rebecca; Self, Robert O. (January 5, 2011). America's History, Combined Volume. Bedford/St. Martin's. p. 867. ISBN 978-0-312-38789-1.
5. ^ Christenson, Ron (December 2, 2017). Political Trials: Gordian Knots in the Law. Routledge. ISBN 978-1-351-49857-9.

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20 May 1875 – Signing of the Metre Convention by 17 nations leading to the establishment of the International System of Units.

Metre Convention

1875 international standardization treaty

The Metre Convention (French: Convention du Mètre), also known as the Treaty of the Metre,^[1] is an international treaty that was signed in Paris on 20 May 1875 by representatives of 17 nations: Argentina, Austria-Hungary, Belgium, Brazil, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, Peru, Portugal, Russia, Spain, Sweden and Norway, Switzerland, Ottoman Empire, United States of America, and Venezuela.

The treaty created the International Bureau of Weights and Measures (BIPM), an intergovernmental organization, under the authority of the General Conference on Weights and Measures (CGPM) and the supervision of the International Committee for Weights and Measures (CIPM). These organizations coordinate international metrology and the development of internationally recognized systems of measurement.

The Metre Convention established a permanent organizational structure for member governments to act in common accord on all matters relating to units of measurement. The governing organs of the BIPM are:

• The General Conference on Weights and Measures (Conférence générale des poids et mesures or CGPM)—the plenary organ of the BIPM which consists of the delegates of all the contracting governments, and
• The International Committee for Weights and Measures (Comité international des poids et mesures or CIPM)—the direction and supervision organ composed of 18 prominent metrologists from 18 different member states

The headquarters or secretariat of the BIPM is at Saint-Cloud, France. It employs around 70 people and hosts BIPM's formal meetings.

Initially the scope of the Metre Convention covered only units of mass and length. In 1921, at the sixth meeting of the CGPM, convention was amended to its scope to other fields in physics. In 1960, at the eleventh meeting of the CGPM, its system of units was named the International System of Units (Système international d'unités, abbreviated SI).^[2]

The Metre Convention provides that only nations can be members of the BIPM. In 1999, the CGPM created in the status of associate, to allow non-member states and economic entities to participate in some activities of the BIPM through their national metrology institutes (NMIs).

As of 16 October 2024^[update], the CGPM had 64 members and 37 associates.

Membership in the CGPM requires payment of substantial fees. Being in arrears with these payments over a span of years has led to expulsion of some former members.

1. ^ "Treaty of the Metre". Encyclopædia Britannica. 2013. Archived from the original on 11 May 2013. Retrieved 28 March 2013.
2. ^ "BIPM – history". bipm.org. Archived from the original on 7 October 2014. Retrieved 27 April 2018.

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