This day in .....

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

I Want to Hold Your Hand

1963 single by the Beatles

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

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

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

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

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

Read More

 

2 February 1901 – Funeral of Queen Victoria.

Queen Victoria

Queen of the United Kingdom from 1837 to 1901

"Victoria of the United Kingdom" and "Victoria I" redirect here. For other people, see Victoria of the United Kingdom (disambiguation) and Queen Victoria (disambiguation). For other uses, see Victoria (disambiguation).

Victoria (Alexandrina Victoria; 24 May 1819 – 22 January 1901) was Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837 until her death in January 1901. Her reign of 63 years and 216 days, which was longer than those of any of her predecessors, constituted the Victorian era. It was a period of industrial, political, scientific, and military change within the United Kingdom, and was marked by a great expansion of the British Empire. In 1876, the British parliament voted to grant her the additional title of Empress of India.

Victoria was the daughter of Prince Edward, Duke of Kent and Strathearn (the fourth son of King George III), and Princess Victoria of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld. After the deaths of her father and grandfather in 1820, she was raised under close supervision by her mother and her comptroller, John Conroy. She inherited the throne aged 18 after her father's three elder brothers died without surviving legitimate issue. Victoria, a constitutional monarch, attempted privately to influence government policy and ministerial appointments; publicly, she became a national icon who was identified with strict standards of personal morality.

Victoria married her first cousin, Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, in 1840. Their nine children married into royal and noble families across the continent, earning Victoria the sobriquet "grandmother of Europe". After Albert's death in 1861, Victoria plunged into deep mourning and avoided public appearances. As a result of her seclusion, British republicanism temporarily gained strength, but in the latter half of her reign, her popularity recovered. Her Golden and Diamond jubilees were times of public celebration. Victoria died at Osborne House on the Isle of Wight, at the age of 81. The last British monarch of the House of Hanover, she was succeeded by her son Edward VII of the House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha.
Cite error: There are <ref group=lower-alpha> tags or {{efn}} templates on this page, but the references will not show without a {{reflist|group=lower-alpha}} template or {{notelist}} template (see the help page).

Read More

 

3 February 2007 – A Baghdad market bombing kills at least 135 people and injures a further

3 February 2007 Baghdad market bombing

Redirect to:

• February 2007 Al-Saydiya market bombing

Read More

 

4 February 1859 – The Codex Sinaiticus is discovered in Egypt.

Codex Sinaiticus

4th-century handwritten Bible copy in Greek

New Testament manuscript

The Codex Sinaiticus (/sɪˈnaɪtɪkəs/;^[1] Shelfmark: London, British Library, Add MS 43725), also called the Sinai Bible, is a fourth-century Christian manuscript of a Greek Bible, containing the majority of the Greek Old Testament, including the deuterocanonical books, and the Greek New Testament, with both the Epistle of Barnabas and the Shepherd of Hermas included. It is designated by the siglum א‎ [Aleph] or 01 in the Gregory-Aland numbering of New Testament manuscripts, and δ 2 in the von Soden numbering of New Testament manuscripts.^[2] It is written in uncial letters on parchment. It is one of the four great uncial codices (these being manuscripts which originally contained the whole of both the Old and New Testaments). Along with Codex Alexandrinus and Codex Vaticanus, it is one of the earliest and most complete manuscripts of the Bible, and contains the oldest complete copy of the New Testament.^[3] It is a historical treasure,^[4] and using the study of comparative writing styles (palaeography), it has been dated to the mid-fourth century.^{[5]: 77–78}

Biblical scholarship considers Codex Sinaiticus to be one of the most important Greek texts of the New Testament, along with Codex Vaticanus. Until German Biblical scholar (and manuscript hunter) Constantin von Tischendorf's discovery of Codex Sinaiticus in 1844, the Greek text of Codex Vaticanus was unrivalled.^[6]: 26 Since its discovery, study of Codex Sinaiticus has proven to be useful to scholars for critical studies of the biblical text.

Codex Sinaiticus came to the attention of scholars in the 19th century at Saint Catherine's Monastery in the Sinai Peninsula, with further material discovered in the 20th and 21st centuries. Although parts of the codex are scattered across four libraries around the world, most of the manuscript is held today in the British Library in London, where it is on public display.^{[7][2]: 107–108}

1. ^ "The Codex Sinaiticus…the world's oldest surviving bible". bbc.co.uk. 7 February 2011. Retrieved 21 February 2025.
2. ^ ^{a b} Cite error: The named reference Aland was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
3. ^ "Codex Sinaiticus - Home". www.codexsinaiticus.org. Retrieved 14 April 2022.
4. ^ Saad El Din, Mursi; Taher, Ayman; Romano, Luciano (1998). Sinai: The Site & the History. New York: New York University. p. 101. ISBN 0-8147-2203-2.
5. ^ Cite error: The named reference Metzger-Palaeo was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
6. ^ Scrivener, Frederick Henry Ambrose (1875). Six Lectures on the Text of the New Testament and the Ancient Manuscripts. London: George Bell & Sons. ISBN 978-1-4097-0826-1. {{cite book}}: ISBN / Date incompatibility (help)
7. ^ "Liste Handschriften". Münster: Institute for New Testament Textual Research. Retrieved 16 March 2013.

Read More

 

5 February 1971 – Astronauts land on the moon in the Apollo 14 mission.

Apollo 14

Third crewed Moon landing

Apollo 14 (January 31 – February 9, 1971) was the eighth crewed mission in the United States Apollo program, the third to land on the Moon, and the first to land in the lunar highlands. It was the last of the "H missions", landings at specific sites of scientific interest on the Moon for two-day stays with two lunar extravehicular activities (EVAs or moonwalks).

The mission was originally scheduled for 1970, but was postponed because of the investigation following the failure of Apollo 13 to reach the Moon's surface, and the need for modifications to the spacecraft as a result. Commander Alan Shepard, Command Module Pilot Stuart Roosa, and Lunar Module Pilot Edgar Mitchell launched on their nine-day mission on Sunday, January 31, 1971, at 4:03:02 p.m. EST. En route to the lunar landing, the crew overcame malfunctions that might have resulted in a second consecutive aborted mission, and possibly, the premature end of the Apollo program.

Shepard and Mitchell made their lunar landing on February 5 in the Fra Mauro formation – originally the target of Apollo 13. During the two walks on the surface, they collected 94.35 pounds (42.80 kg) of Moon rocks and deployed several scientific experiments. To the dismay of some geologists, Shepard and Mitchell did not reach the rim of Cone crater as had been planned, though they came close. In Apollo 14's most famous event, Shepard hit two golf balls he had brought with him with a makeshift club.

While Shepard and Mitchell were on the surface, Roosa remained in lunar orbit aboard the Command and Service Module, performing scientific experiments and photographing the Moon, including the landing site of the future Apollo 16 mission. He took several hundred seeds on the mission, many of which were germinated on return, resulting in the so-called Moon trees, that were widely distributed in the following years. After liftoff from the lunar surface and a successful docking, the spacecraft was flown back to Earth where the three astronauts splashed down safely in the Pacific Ocean on February 9.

1. ^ Orloff, Richard W. (September 2004) [First published 2000]. "Table of Contents". Apollo by the Numbers: A Statistical Reference. NASA History Series. Washington, D.C.: NASA. ISBN 0-16-050631-X. LCCN 00061677. NASA SP-2000-4029. Archived from the original on September 6, 2007. Retrieved July 17, 2013.
2. ^ ^{a b} Orloff & Harland 2006, p. 396.
3. ^ "Apollo 14 Command and Service Module (CSM)". NASA Space Science Data Coordinated Archive. Retrieved November 20, 2019.
4. ^ "Apollo 14 Lunar Module /ALSEP". NASA Space Science Data Coordinated Archive. Retrieved November 20, 2019.

Read More

 

6 January 1947 – Pan American Airlines becomes the first commercial airline to offer a round-the-world ticket.

Pan American World Airways

Redirect to:

• Pan Am

Read More

 

2 February 1962 – The United States bans all Cuban imports and exports.

United States embargo against Cuba

Ongoing restriction on trade with Cuba by the United States

The United States embargo against Cuba is an embargo preventing U.S. businesses and citizens from conducting trade or commerce with Cuban interests since 1960. Modern diplomatic relations are cold, stemming from historic conflict and divergent political ideologies. U.S. economic sanctions against Cuba are comprehensive and impact all sectors of the Cuban economy. It is the most enduring trade embargo in modern history.^[1][2] The U.S. government influences extraterritorial trade with Cuba. The embargo has had a significant effect on the economic development of Cuba, which, as a result, has shaped regional geopolitics and America's sphere of influence in Latin America and the Caribbean.

The U.S. government first launched an arms embargo against Cuba in 1958 during the U.S.-backed Fulgencio Batista regime. Cuba underwent nationalization during the Cuban Revolution, leading to heavy U.S. import taxes and the seizure of American economic assets, including oil refineries. The U.S. retaliated in 1960 with a total embargo on Cuban trade, with exception for food and medicine. Cuba held nuclear missiles for the Soviet Union during the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis, which led the U.S. to impose a full-scale blockade against the island. The severity of the sanctions brought on by the U.S. has had the United Nations pass annual resolutions to suspend the embargo intermittently since 1992.^[3]

The embargo is enforced mainly through the Trading with the Enemy Act of 1917, the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961, the Cuban Assets Control Regulations of 1963, the Cuban Democracy Act of 1992, the Helms–Burton Act of 1996, and the Trade Sanction Reform and Export Enhancement Act of 2000.^[4][5] Its legal framework reflects a complex mixture of federal law, regulation, sanctions, presidential directives, and executive orders. Relations remain tense due to stark differences on immigration, counterterrorism, civil and political rights, human rights, electoral interference, disinformation campaigns, humanitarian aid, trade policy, financial claims, fugitive extradition and Cuban foreign policy.^[6]

1. ^ "Understanding the Failure of the U.S. Embargo on Cuba". WOLA. Retrieved November 16, 2023.
2. ^ Nouri, Sarah (November 20, 2022). "Time To End The US Embargo Against Cuba". Human Rights Pulse. Retrieved November 7, 2023.
3. ^ "General Assembly Overwhelmingly Adopts Resolution Calling on United States to End Economic, Commercial, Financial Embargo against Cuba | Meetings Coverage and Press Releases". press.un.org. Retrieved January 3, 2025.
4. ^ "The US Embargo Against Cuba: Its Impact on Economic and Social Rights". Amnesty International. September 2009. Retrieved December 29, 2013.
5. ^ "Cuban Democracy Act of 1992". U.S. Department of State.
6. ^ "Case Studies in Economic Sanctions and Terrorism: US v. Gta 5 (1960– : Castro)" (PDF). Peterson Institute for International Economics. October 2011. Archived from the original (PDF) on March 4, 2016. Retrieved December 29, 2013.

Read More

 

8 February 1971 – The NASDAQ stock market index opens for the first time.

NASDAQ

Redirect to:

• Nasdaq

Read More

 

9 February 1900 – The Davis Cup competition is established

Davis Cup

Men's tennis international team competition

For the album by Walter Davis Jr., see Davis Cup (album). For a list of individual Davis Cups by year, see List of Davis Cup champions.

The Davis Cup is the premier international team event in men's tennis. It is organised by the International Tennis Federation (ITF) and contested annually between teams from over 150 competing countries,^[a] making it the world's largest annual team sporting competition.^[2] It is described by the organisers as the "World Cup of Tennis" and the winners are referred to as the world champions.^[3] The competition began in 1900 as a challenge between Great Britain and the United States. By 2023 155 nations entered teams into the competition.^[4]

The most successful country over the history of the competition is the United States (winning 32 titles and finishing as runners-up 29 times). The most recent champions are Italy, who beat Netherlands to win their third title (and second consecutive one) in 2024.

The women's equivalent of the Davis Cup is the Billie Jean King Cup, formerly known as the Federation Cup (1963–1995) and Fed Cup (1995–2020). Australia, Italy, Russia, the Czech Republic and the United States are the only countries to have won both Davis Cup and Federation/Fed/Billie Jean King Cup titles in the same year.

The Davis Cup allowed only amateurs and national registered professional players (from 1968) to compete until 1973, five years after the start of the Open Era.^[5]

1. ^ "Davis Cup – Rankings". daviscup.com. Archived from the original on 1 May 2011. Retrieved 22 March 2022.
2. ^ "Davis Cup History". ITF. Retrieved 4 February 2024.
3. ^ "Andy Murray wins Davis Cup for Great Britain". BBC Sport. 23 November 2015. Archived from the original on 28 November 2018. Retrieved 13 February 2018.
4. ^ "Davis Cup Format". daviscup.com. Archived from the original on 5 January 2016. Retrieved 20 January 2016. In 2023, 155 nations entered Davis Cup by Rakuten
5. ^ "40 Years Ago: Look Out, Cleveland". tennis.com. Archived from the original on 31 October 2020. Retrieved 5 December 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).

Read More

 

10 February 1940 – Tom and Jerry make their debut with Puss Gets the Boot.

Tom and Jerry

American cartoon series and franchise

This article is about the animal cartoon series. For other uses, see Tom and Jerry (disambiguation).

Tom and Jerry is an American animated media franchise and series of comedy short films created in 1940 by William Hanna and Joseph Barbera. Best known for its 161 theatrical short films by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, the series centers on the enmity between the titular characters of a cat named Tom and a mouse named Jerry. Many shorts also feature several recurring characters.

Created in 1940 when the MGM cartoon studio was struggling to compete with Walt Disney Productions and Leon Schlesinger Productions,^[1] Tom and Jerry's initial short film titled Puss Gets the Boot proved successful in theaters and garnered an Academy Award nomination for Best Short Subject (Cartoon). Hanna and Barbera later directed a total of 114 Tom and Jerry shorts for its initial MGM run from 1940 to 1958.^[2] During this time, they won seven Academy Awards for Best Animated Short Film, tying for first place with Walt Disney's Silly Symphonies with the most awards in the category. After the MGM cartoon studio closed in 1957, MGM revived the series with Gene Deitch directing an additional 13 Tom and Jerry shorts for Rembrandt Films in Czechoslovakia from 1961 to 1962. Tom and Jerry became the highest-grossing animated short film series of that time, overtaking Looney Tunes. Chuck Jones produced another 34 shorts with Sib Tower 12 Productions between 1963 and 1967. Five more shorts have been produced since 2001, making a total of 166 shorts.

A number of spin-offs have been made, including the television series The Tom and Jerry Show (1975), The Tom and Jerry Comedy Show (1980–1982), Tom & Jerry Kids (1990–1993), Tom and Jerry Tales (2006–2008), and The Tom and Jerry Show (2014–2021). In 1992, the first feature-length film based on the series, Tom and Jerry: The Movie, was released. 13 direct-to-video films have been produced since 2002. In 2019, a musical adaptation of the series, titled Tom and Jerry: Purr-Chance to Dream, debuted in Japan, in advance of Tom and Jerry's 80th anniversary. In 2021, the live-action/animated hybrid film Tom and Jerry was released, while a Chinese-American computer-animated film, Tom and Jerry: Forbidden Compass, premiered in June 2025.

1. ^ Bingen, Steven (2022). The 50 MGM Films That Transformed Hollywood: Triumphs, Blockbusters, and Fiascos. Lanham, Maryland: Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group, Inc. p. 88. ISBN 9781493070893. Retrieved June 18, 2025.
2. ^ Jones, Paul (February 17, 2015). "Tom and Jerry's 75th anniversary proves cat and mouse games never get old". Radio Times. Archived from the original on July 18, 2015. Retrieved February 10, 2018.

Read More

 

11 February 1929 – Kingdom of Italy and the Vatican sign the Lateran Treaty.

Lateran Treaty

1929 treaty between Italy and the Holy See

The Lateran Treaty (Italian: Patti Lateranensi; Latin: Pacta Lateranensia) was one component of the Lateran Pacts of 1929, agreements between Italy under Victor Emmanuel III and Benito Mussolini and the Holy See under Pope Pius XI to settle the long-standing Roman question. The treaty and associated pacts were named after the Lateran Palace where they were signed on 11 February 1929,^[1] and the Italian Parliament ratified them on 7 June 1929.

The treaty recognised Vatican City as an independent state under the sovereignty of the Holy See. Italy also agreed to give the Catholic Church financial compensation for the loss of the Papal States.^[2] In 1948, the Lateran Treaty was recognized in the Constitution of Italy as regulating the relations between the Italian Republic and the Catholic Church.^[3] While the treaty was significantly revised in 1984, ending the status of Catholicism as the sole state religion of Italy, the Vatican remains a distinct sovereign entity to the present day.

1. ^ ^{a b} "Vatican City turns 91". Vatican News. 11 February 2020. Retrieved 2 September 2021. The world's smallest sovereign state was born on February 11, 1929, with the signing of the Lateran Treaty between the Holy See and the Kingdom of Italy
2. ^ A History of Western Society (Tenth ed.). Bedford/St. Martin's. 2010. p. 900.
3. ^ Constitution of Italy, Article 7.

Read More

 

12 February 1961 – The Soviet Union launches Venera 1 towards Venus.

Venera 1

Soviet space probe launched in 1961; first spacecraft to fly by Venus

Venera 1 (Russian: Венера-1 meaning Venus 1), also known as Venera-1VA No.2 and occasionally in the West as Sputnik 8, was the first spacecraft to perform an interplanetary flight and the first to fly past Venus, as part of the Soviet Union's Venera programme.^[1] Launched in February 1961, it was intended as an impactor, but flew past Venus on 19 May of the same year; however, radio contact with the probe was lost before the flyby, resulting in it returning no data.

1. ^ "Venera 1". NASA Space Science Data Coordinated Archive. Retrieved 2019-08-15.

Read More

 

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

Dead Sea Scrolls

Ancient Jewish manuscripts

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Read More

 

14 February 1946 – The Bank of England is nationalized.

Bank of England

Central bank of the United Kingdom

"English bank" redirects here. For banking in England, see Banking in the United Kingdom. For the corpus linguistics project, see Bank of English.

The Bank of England is the central bank of the United Kingdom and the model on which most modern central banks have been based. Established in 1694 to act as the English Government's banker and debt manager, and still one of the bankers for the government of the United Kingdom, it is the world's second oldest central bank.^[3]

The bank was privately owned by stockholders from its foundation in 1694 until it was nationalised in 1946 by the Attlee ministry.^[4] In 1998 it became an independent public organisation, wholly owned by the Treasury Solicitor on behalf of the government,^[5] with a mandate to support the economic policies of the government of the day,^[6] but independence in maintaining price stability.^[7] In the 21st century the bank took on increased responsibility for maintaining and monitoring financial stability in the UK, and it increasingly functions as a statutory regulator.^[8]

The bank's headquarters have been in London's main financial district, the City of London, since 1694, and on Threadneedle Street since 1734. It is sometimes known as "The Old Lady of Threadneedle Street", a name taken from a satirical cartoon by James Gillray in 1797.^[9] The road junction outside is known as Bank Junction.

The bank, among other things, is custodian to the official gold reserves of the United Kingdom (and those of around 30 other countries).^[10] As of April 2016^[update], the bank held around 5,134 tonnes (5,659 tons) of gold, worth £141 billion. These estimates suggest that the vault could hold as much as 3% of the 171,300 tonnes of gold mined throughout human history.^[11][a]

1. ^ Weidner, Jan (2017). "The Organisation and Structure of Central Banks" (PDF). Katalog der Deutschen Nationalbibliothek. Archived from the original on 28 May 2020. Retrieved 9 May 2020.
2. ^ "Interest rates and Bank Rate". www.bankofengland.co.uk. 14 December 2023.
3. ^ "Strengthening the Relationship between the UK Treasury and the Bank of England". IMF. 16 July 2018. Retrieved 31 December 2024.
4. ^ "House of Commons Debate 29th October 1945, Second Reading of the Bank of England Bill". Parliamentary Debates (Hansard). 29 October 1945. Archived from the original on 5 April 2016. Retrieved 12 October 2012.; "Bank of England Act 1946". June 1998. Archived from the original on 26 July 2020. Retrieved 19 November 2019.
5. ^ "Freedom of Information – disclosures". Bank of England. Archived from the original on 3 August 2012. Retrieved 29 September 2013.
6. ^ "The Bank of England Act 1998" (PDF). Bank of England. 2015. p. 50. Archived (PDF) from the original on 22 December 2020. Retrieved 17 July 2022.
7. ^ 1 June 1998, The Bank of England Act 1998 (Commencement) Order 1998 Archived 11 January 2012 at the Wayback Machine s 2.; "BBC On This Day – 6-1997: Brown sets Bank of England free". 6 May 1997. Archived from the original on 7 March 2008. Retrieved 14 September 2014.; "Bank of England – About the Bank". Archived from the original on 31 December 2014. Retrieved 14 September 2014.; "Bank of England: Relationship with Parliament". Archived from the original on 8 July 2009. Retrieved 14 September 2014.
8. ^ Cite error: The named reference BoEStability was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
9. ^ Bank of England, "Who is The Old Lady of Threadneedle Street? Archived 15 January 2018 at the Wayback Machine". Accessed 15 January 2018.; Allan C. Fisher Jr. (June 1961). ""The City" - London's Storied Square Mile". National Geographic. 119 (6): 735–778. Traditionally this men's club looks to a feminine leader, the Old Lady of Threadneedle Street. A cartoon of 1797 depicted the Bank of England as a rich dowager sitting atop a money box, and the name stuck.
10. ^ Belton, Pádraig (19 April 2016). "The city with $248 billion beneath its pavement". bbc.com. Archived from the original on 8 November 2020. Retrieved 9 November 2020.
11. ^ Prior, Ed (1 April 2013). "How much gold is there in the world?". BBC News. Archived from the original on 31 March 2022.

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

Read More

 

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

Decimal Day

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

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

Before this date, both the British pound sterling and the Irish pound (symbol "£") were subdivided into 20 shillings, each of 12 (old) pence, a total of 240 pence. With decimalisation, the pound kept its old value and name in each currency, but the shilling was abolished, and the pound was divided into 100 new pence (abbreviated to "p"). In the UK, the new coins initially featured the word “new”, but in due course this was dropped. Each new penny was worth 2.4 old pence ("d.") in each currency.

Coins of half a new penny were introduced in the UK and in Ireland to maintain the approximate granularity of the old penny, but these were dropped in the UK in 1984 and in Ireland on 1 January 1987 as inflation reduced their value. An old value of 7 pounds, 10 shillings, and sixpence, abbreviated £7 10/6 or £7.10s.6d, became £7.52⁠1/2⁠p. Amounts with a number of old pence which was not 0 or 6 did not convert exactly into coins of new pence.

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

Read More

 

16 February 1933 – The Blaine Act ends Prohibition in the United States.

Prohibition in the United States

Ban on alcohol from 1920 to 1933

For the prohibition of slavery, see Abolitionism in the United States.

"Every Day Will Be Sunday When The Town Goes Dry" (1919)

The Prohibition era was the period from 1920 to 1933 when the United States prohibited the production, importation, transportation, and sale of alcoholic beverages.^[1] The alcohol industry was curtailed by a succession of state legislatures, and Prohibition was formally introduced nationwide under the Eighteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, ratified on January 16, 1919. Prohibition ended with the ratification of the Twenty-first Amendment, which repealed the Eighteenth Amendment on December 5, 1933.

Led by Pietistic Protestants, prohibitionists first attempted to end the trade in alcoholic drinks during the 19th century. They aimed to heal what they saw as an ill society beset by alcohol-related problems such as alcoholism, domestic violence, and saloon-based political corruption. Many communities introduced alcohol bans in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and enforcement of these new prohibition laws became a topic of debate. Prohibition supporters, called "drys", presented it as a battle for public morals and health. The movement was taken up by progressives in the Prohibition, Democratic, and Republican parties, and gained a national grassroots base through the Woman's Christian Temperance Union. After 1900, it was coordinated by the Anti-Saloon League. Opposition from the beer industry mobilized "wet" supporters from the wealthy Catholic and German Lutheran communities, but the influence of these groups receded from 1917 following the entry of the U.S. into the First World War against Germany.

The Eighteenth Amendment passed in 1919 "with a 68 percent supermajority in the House of Representatives and 76 percent support in the Senate" and was ratified by 46 out of 48 states.^[2] Enabling legislation, known as the Volstead Act, set down the rules for enforcing the federal ban and defined the types of alcoholic beverages that were prohibited. Not all alcohol was banned; for example, religious use of wine was permitted. Private ownership and consumption of alcohol were not made illegal under federal law, but local laws were stricter in many areas, with some states banning possession outright.

By the late 1920s, a new opposition to Prohibition emerged nationwide. The opposition attacked the policy, claiming that it lowered tax revenue at a critical time before and during the Great Depression^[3][4] and imposed "rural" Protestant religious values on "urban" America.^[5] The Twenty-first Amendment ended Prohibition, though it continued in some states. To date, this is the only time in American history in which a constitutional amendment was passed for the purpose of repealing another.

The overall effects of Prohibition on society are disputed and hard to pin down. Some research indicates that alcohol consumption declined substantially due to Prohibition,^[6][7] while other research indicates that Prohibition did not reduce alcohol consumption in the long term.^[8][9][10] Americans who wanted to continue drinking alcohol found loopholes in Prohibition laws or used illegal methods to obtain alcohol, resulting in the emergence of black markets and crime syndicates dedicated to distributing alcohol.^[3] By contrast, rates of liver cirrhosis, alcoholic psychosis, and infant mortality declined during Prohibition.^[6][11][12] Because of the lack of uniform national statistics gathered about crime prior to 1930, it is difficult to draw conclusions about Prohibition's effect on crime at the national level.^[10] Prohibition had a negative effect on the economy by eliminating jobs dedicated to the then fifth-largest industry in the United States.^[3] Support for Prohibition diminished steadily throughout its duration, including among former supporters of Prohibition.

1. ^ "Prohibition | Definition, History, Eighteenth Amendment, & Repeal". Encyclopædia Britannica. Archived from the original on January 20, 2023. Retrieved November 18, 2021.
2. ^ Schrad, Mark Lawrence (January 17, 2020). "Why Americans Supported Prohibition 100 Years Ago". The New York Times. Archived from the original on January 17, 2020. Retrieved January 19, 2020.
3. ^ ^{a b c} "What were the effects of Prohibition?". Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved July 14, 2023.
4. ^ Hall, Wayne (2010). "What are the policy lessons of National Alcohol Prohibition in the United States, 1920–1933?". Addiction. 105 (7): 1164–1173. doi:10.1111/j.1360-0443.2010.02926.x. PMID 20331549.
5. ^ Orchowski, Margaret Sands (2015). The Law that Changed the Face of America: The Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965. Rowman & Littlefield. p. 32. ISBN 978-1-4422-5137-3. Archived from the original on January 20, 2023. Retrieved May 16, 2017.
6. ^ ^{a b} Moore, Mark H. (October 16, 1989). "Actually, Prohibition Was a Success". The New York Times. Archived from the original on February 16, 2021. Retrieved May 29, 2017.
7. ^ Blocker, Jack S.; et al., eds. (2003). Alcohol and Temperance in Modern History: An International Encyclopedia. ABC-CLIO. p. 23. ISBN 978-1-57607-833-4. Archived from the original on January 20, 2023. Retrieved October 17, 2015.
8. ^ Cite error: The named reference :4 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
9. ^ Cite error: The named reference Miron was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
10. ^ ^{a b} Cite error: The named reference :1 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
11. ^ MacCoun, Robert J.; Reuter, Peter (August 17, 2001). Drug War Heresies: Learning from Other Vices, Times, and Places. Cambridge University Press. p. 161. ISBN 978-0-521-79997-3.
12. ^ Blocker, Jack S. Jr (February 2006). "Did Prohibition Really Work? Alcohol Prohibition as a Public Health Innovation". American Journal of Public Health. 96 (2): 233–243. doi:10.2105/AJPH.2005.065409. PMC 1470475. PMID 16380559.

Read More

 

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

Suez Canal

Artificial sea-level waterway in Egypt

The Suez Canal (/ˈsuː.ɛz/; Arabic: قناة السويس, Qanāt as-Suwais) is an artificial sea-level waterway in Egypt, connecting the Mediterranean Sea to the Red Sea through the Isthmus of Suez and dividing Africa and Asia (and by extension, the Sinai Peninsula from the rest of Egypt). It is the border between Africa and Asia.The 193.30-kilometre-long (120.11 mi) canal is a key trade route between Europe and Asia. 30°42′18″N 32°20′39″E / 30.70500°N 32.34417°E / 30.70500; 32.34417

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

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

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

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

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

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

Read More

 

18 February 1954 – The first Church of Scientology is established in Los Angeles.

Church of Scientology

American organization and business

This article is about the institution behind Scientology. For the ideology itself, see Scientology.

The Church of Scientology is a group of interconnected corporate entities and other organizations devoted to the practice, administration and dissemination of Scientology, which is variously defined as a cult, a business, or a new religious movement.^[7] The movement has been the subject of a number of controversies, and the Church of Scientology has been described by government inquiries, international parliamentary bodies, scholars and numerous superior court judgements as both a dangerous cult and a manipulative profit-making business.^[13]

In 1979, several executives of the organization were convicted and imprisoned for multiple offenses by a U.S. Federal Court.^{[14][15]: 168} The Church of Scientology itself was convicted of fraud by a French court in 2009, a decision upheld by the supreme Court of Cassation in 2013.^[16] The German government classifies Scientology as an unconstitutional sect.^[17][18] In France, it has been classified as a dangerous cult.^[19] In some countries, it has attained legal recognition as a religion.^[20]

The Church of Scientology International (CSI) is officially the "Mother Church", and is responsible for guiding the other Scientology centers.^[15]: 172 Its international headquarters are located at Gold Base in Riverside County, California.^[21]: 275 The Church of Spiritual Technology (CST) is the organization that owns all the copyrights of the estate of L. Ron Hubbard.^[6]

All Scientology management organizations are controlled exclusively by members of the Sea Org, which is a paramilitary organization for the "elite, innermost dedicated core of Scientologists".^[6][22] David Miscavige is described by the Scientology organization as the highest-ranking Sea Org officer, and is referred to by the organization as its captain.

1. ^ ^{a b} Behar, Richard (May 6, 1991). "The Thriving Cult of Greed and Power". Time. Archived from the original on June 18, 2019. Retrieved June 17, 2019.
2. ^ Kent, Stephen A. (2001). "Brainwashing Programs in The Family/Children of God and Scientology". In Zablocki, Benjamin; Robbins, Thomas (eds.). Misunderstanding Cults: Searching for Objectivity in a Controversial Field. University of Toronto Press. pp. 349–58. ISBN 978-0-8020-8188-9.
3. ^ ^{a b} Anderson, Kevin Victor (1965). Report of the Board of Enquiry into Scientology (Report). State of Victoria, Australia. p. 179. Archived (PDF) from the original on August 29, 2018. Retrieved June 30, 2019. In reality it is a dangerous medical cult. Alternative link Archived February 4, 2007, at the Wayback Machine
4. ^ ^{a b} Edge, Peter W. (2006). Religion and law: an introduction. Ashgate Publishing. ISBN 978-0-7546-3048-7.
5. ^ ^{a b} Hunt, John; de Puig, Luis; Espersen, Ole (February 5, 1992). European Council, Recommendation 1178: Sects and New Religious Movements (Report). Council of Europe. Archived from the original on May 3, 2024. Retrieved June 30, 2019. It is a cool, cynical, manipulating business and nothing else.
6. ^ ^{a b c} Urban, Hugh B. (2015). New Age, Neopagan, and New Religious Movements: Alternative Spirituality in Contemporary America. Univ of California Press. p. 144. ISBN 978-0520281172.
7. ^ ^{[1][2][3][4][5][6]}
8. ^ "Scientology (Written answer)". Parliamentary Debates (Hansard). United Kingdom: House of Commons. July 25, 1968. col. 189–191W. Archived July 1, 2019, at the Wayback Machine
9. ^ Cottrell, Richard (1999). Recommendation 1412: Concernant les activités illégales des sectes (Report). Conseil d'Europe.
10. ^ "Church of Scientology". Parliamentary Debates (Hansard). United Kingdom: House of Lords. December 17, 1996. col. 1392–1394. Archived July 1, 2019, at the Wayback Machine
11. ^ Hubbard and another v. Vosper and another, 1 All ER 1023 (Court of Appeal November 19, 1971), archived from the original.
12. ^ RE B & G (Minors: Custody), F.L.R. 493 (Court of Appeal September 19, 1984), archived from the original.
13. ^ ^{[1][3][4][5][8][9][10][11][12]}
14. ^ United States v. Heldt, 668 F.2d 1238 (United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit October 2, 1981), archived from the original.
15. ^ ^{a b} Cite error: The named reference urban was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
16. ^ "Scientology's fraud conviction upheld in France". The Daily Telegraph. London. AFP. October 17, 2013. Archived from the original on May 30, 2014. Retrieved July 3, 2020.
17. ^ "Hubbard's Church 'Unconstitutional': Germany Prepares to Ban Scientology – SPIEGEL ONLINE". Der Spiegel. December 7, 2007. Archived from the original on December 25, 2018. Retrieved March 13, 2017.
18. ^ "National Assembly of France report No. 2468". assemblee-nationale.fr. Archived from the original on December 25, 2018. Retrieved March 13, 2017.
19. ^ Cite error: The named reference lobs was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
20. ^ Weird, Sure. A Cult, No. Archived November 7, 2017, at the Wayback Machine Washington Post By Mark Oppenheimer, August 5, 2007
21. ^ Cite error: The named reference reitman was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
22. ^ Cite error: The named reference nrmarlia2003 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).

Read More

 

19 February 2003 – An Ilyushin Il-76 military aircraft crashes near Kerman, Iran, killing 275.

2003 Iran Ilyushin Il-76 crash

Aviation accident in Kerman, Iran

On 19 February 2003, an Ilyushin Il-76 crashed in mountainous terrain near Kerman in Iran. The Aerospace Force of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps aircraft, registration 15-2280, was flying from Zahedan to Kerman when it crashed 35 kilometres (22 mi; 19 nmi) southeast of Kerman.^[1] The aircraft was carrying members of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard, a special force that is independent from the Iranian Army, on an unknown mission.^[2][3]

Strong winds were reported in the region of the crash when the aircraft disappeared from radar; around the same time, villagers in the area described hearing a loud explosion.^[4] There were no survivors among the 275 occupants on board the aircraft.^[5] As of 2025^[update], the crash remains the second deadliest on Iranian soil (behind Iran Air Flight 655) and the deadliest crash of an Il-76.^[1]

1. ^ ^{a b} Accident description for 15-2280 at the Aviation Safety Network. Retrieved on 24 November 2014.
2. ^ Cite error: The named reference Fog halts Iran air crash search was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
3. ^ "Iran plane crash kills 302". BBC News. 20 February 2013. Archived from the original on 25 May 2022.
4. ^ Cite error: The named reference Iranian plane crash kills 302 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
5. ^ "Deadliest plane crashes in Iran since 2003". The Associated Press. Gulf News. 5 November 2018. Retrieved 19 January 2025.

Read More

 

20 February 1872 – The Metropolitan Museum of Art opens in New York City.

Metropolitan Museum of Art

Art museum in New York City

Not to be confused with the Museum of Modern Art.

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

The Metropolitan Museum of Art, colloquially referred to as the Met is an encyclopedic art museum in New York City. By floor area, it is the third-largest museum in the world and the largest art museum in the Americas. With 5.36 million visitors in 2023, it is the most-visited museum in the United States and the fifth-most visited art museum in the world.^[6]

In 2000, its permanent collection had over two million works;^[1] it currently lists a total of 1.5 million works.^[7] The collection is divided into 17 curatorial departments. The main building at 1000 Fifth Avenue, along the Museum Mile on the eastern edge of Central Park on Manhattan's Upper East Side, is by area one of the world's largest art museums. The first portion of the approximately 2-million-square-foot (190,000 m²) building was built in 1880. A much smaller second location, The Cloisters at Fort Tryon Park in Upper Manhattan, contains an extensive collection of art, architecture, and artifacts from medieval Europe.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art was founded in 1870, the museum was established by a group of Americans, including philanthropists, artists, and businessmen, with the goal of creating a national institution that would inspire and educate the public.^[8] The museum's permanent collection consists of works of art ranging from the ancient Near East and ancient Egypt, through classical antiquity to the contemporary world. It includes paintings, sculptures, and graphic works from many European Old Masters, as well as an extensive collection of American, modern, and contemporary art. The Met also maintains extensive holdings of African, Asian, Oceanian, Byzantine, and Islamic art. The museum is home to encyclopedic collections of musical instruments, costumes, and decorative arts and textiles, as well as antique weapons and armor from around the world. Several notable interiors, ranging from 1st-century Rome through modern American design, are installed in its galleries.

1. ^ ^{a b} "Metropolitan Museum Launches New and Expanded Web Site" Archived November 28, 2016, at the Wayback Machine, press release, The Met, January 25, 2000.
2. ^ "Today in Met History: April 13". The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Archived from the original on January 17, 2015. Retrieved January 16, 2015.
3. ^ "The Metropolitan Museum of Art | About". www.artinfo.com. 2008. Archived from the original on September 26, 2011. Retrieved February 18, 2013.
4. ^ Cite error: The named reference Met History was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
5. ^ The New York Times, March 24, 2024
6. ^ The New York Times, March 12, 2024, "Audience Snapshot; Four Years After Shutdown, a Mixed Recovery"
7. ^ "General Information". The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Retrieved March 6, 2024.
8. ^ "History of the Museum". The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Retrieved December 7, 2024.

Read More

 

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

The Communist Manifesto

1848 political pamphlet by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels

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

In the Manifesto, Marx and Engels combine philosophical materialism with the Hegelian dialectical method in order to analyze the development of European society through its modes of production, including primitive communism, antiquity, feudalism, and capitalism, noting the emergence of a new, dominant class at each stage. The text outlines the relationship between the means of production, relations of production, forces of production, and mode of production, and posits that changes in society's economic "base" affect changes in its "superstructure". The authors assert that capitalism is marked by the exploitation of the proletariat (working class of wage labourers) by the ruling bourgeoisie, which is "constantly revolutionising the instruments [and] relations of production, and with them the whole relations of society".^[1] They argue that capital's need for a flexible labour force dissolves the old relations, and that its global expansion in search of new markets creates "a world after its own image".^[2]

The Manifesto concludes that capitalism does not offer humanity the possibility of self-realization, instead ensuring that humans are perpetually stunted and alienated. It theorizes that capitalism will bring about its own destruction by polarizing and unifying the proletariat, and predicts that a revolution will lead to the emergence of communism, a classless society in which "the free development of each is the condition for the free development of all".^[3] Marx and Engels propose the following transitional policies: abolition of private property in land and inheritance; introduction of a progressive income tax; confiscation of emigrants' and rebels' property; nationalisation of credit, communication, and transport; expansion and integration of industry and agriculture; enforcement of universal obligation of labour; provision of universal education; and elimination of child labour.^[4] The text ends with three rousing sentences, reworked and popularized into the famous slogan of working-class solidarity: "Workers of the world, unite! You have nothing to lose but your chains".

1. ^ Marx & Engels 1977, pp. 38–9.
2. ^ Marx & Engels 1977, p. 40.
3. ^ Marx & Engels 1977, p. 60.
4. ^ Marx & Engels 1977, p. 59.

Read More

 

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

2011 Christchurch earthquake

February 2011 earthquake in New Zealand

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

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

For the recurrences in December, see December 2011 Christchurch earthquakes.

A major earthquake occurred in Christchurch on Tuesday 22 February 2011 at 12:51 p.m. local time (23:51 UTC, 21 February).^[2][11] The M_w6.2 (M_L6.3) earthquake struck the Canterbury Region in the South Island, centred 6.7 kilometres (4.2 mi) south-east of the central business district.^[12] It caused widespread damage across Christchurch, killing 185 people^[7][8] in New Zealand's fifth-deadliest disaster. Scientists classified it as an intraplate earthquake and a potential aftershock of the September 2010 Canterbury earthquake.

Christchurch's central city and eastern suburbs were badly affected, with damage to buildings and infrastructure already weakened by the 2010 Canterbury earthquake and its aftershocks. Significant liquefaction affected the eastern suburbs, producing around 400,000 tonnes of silt. The earthquake was felt across the South Island and parts of the lower and central North Island. While the initial quake only lasted for approximately 10 seconds, the damage was severe because of the location and shallowness of the earthquake's focus in relation to Christchurch as well as previous quake damage. Subsequent population loss saw the Christchurch main urban area fall behind the Wellington equivalent, to decrease from second- to third-most populous area in New Zealand. Adjusted for inflation, the 2010–2011 Canterbury earthquakes caused over $52.2 billion in damage, making it New Zealand's costliest natural disaster and one of the most expensive disasters in history.^[13][14][15]

1. ^ ^{a b} "M 6.1 – South Island of New Zealand". United States Geological Survey. Archived from the original on 17 June 2019. Retrieved 17 June 2019.
2. ^ ^{a b} "M 6.2 Christchurch Tue, Feb 22 2011: Technical". GeoNet. Archived from the original on 18 April 2019. Retrieved 17 June 2019.
3. ^ Goto, Hiroyuki; Kaneko, Yoshihiro; Naguit, Muriel; Young, John (5 January 2021). "Records of Extreme Ground Accelerations during the 2011 Christchurch Earthquake Sequence Contaminated by a Nonlinear, Soil–Structure Interaction". Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America. 111 (2): 704–722. Bibcode:2021BuSSA.111..704G. doi:10.1785/0120200337. S2CID 233531749.
4. ^ "Deadly Christchurch quake's record ground-shaking lower than first thought". New Zealand: Stuff. 15 February 2021. Archived from the original on 16 February 2021. Retrieved 16 February 2021.
5. ^ "Ice breaks off glacier after Christchurch quake". Australia: ABC News. 22 February 2011. Archived from the original on 26 February 2011. Retrieved 11 March 2011.
6. ^ "Earthquake causes glacier to calve". New Zealand: Stuff. 23 February 2011. Archived from the original on 23 April 2011. Retrieved 11 March 2011.
7. ^ ^{a b} "Official quake toll rises to 185". New Zealand: Stuff. 9 February 2012. Archived from the original on 13 March 2012. Retrieved 9 February 2012.
8. ^ ^{a b} "List of deceased – Christchurch earthquake". New Zealand Police. 8 September 2011. Archived from the original on 14 June 2011. Retrieved 26 December 2011.
9. ^ Johnston, David; Standring, Sarah; Ronan, Kevin; Lindell, Michael; Wilson, Thomas; Cousins, Jim; Aldridge, Emma; Ardagh, Michael Warne; Deely, Joanne Margaret; Jensen, Steven; Kirsch, Thomas; Bissell, Richard (2014). "The 2010/2011 Canterbury earthquakes: context and cause of injury". Natural Hazards. 73 (2): 627–637. Bibcode:2014NatHa..73..627J. doi:10.1007/s11069-014-1094-7.
10. ^ "Social effects of Canterbury earthquakes". New Zealand Parliament. 8 October 2014. Retrieved 16 March 2025.
11. ^ "M 6.2 Christchurch Tue, Feb 22 2011: Details". GeoNet. Archived from the original on 18 April 2019. Retrieved 17 June 2019.
12. ^ "M 6.1 – South Island of New Zealand: Regional information". United States Geological Survey. Archived from the original on 18 June 2019. Retrieved 18 June 2019.
13. ^ "Christchurch rebuild to cost $10b more – Story – Politics – 3 News". 14 October 2013. Archived from the original on 14 October 2013. Retrieved 3 March 2023.
14. ^ Rosanes, Mark. "New Zealand's costliest natural disasters in the past decade". insurancebusinessmag.com. Retrieved 3 March 2023.
15. ^ "The Canterbury rebuild five years on from the Christchurch earthquake" (PDF). Reserve Bank of New Zealand. February 2016. Retrieved 5 March 2024.

Read More

 

23 February 1934 – Leopold III becomes King of Belgium.

Leopold III of Belgium

King of the Belgians from 1934 to 1951

Leopold III^[a] (3 November 1901 – 25 September 1983) was King of the Belgians from 23 February 1934 until his abdication on 16 July 1951. At the outbreak of World War II, Leopold tried to maintain Belgian neutrality, but after the German invasion in May 1940, he surrendered his country, earning him much hostility, both at home and abroad.

Leopold's act was declared unconstitutional by Prime Minister Hubert Pierlot and his cabinet, who moved to London to form a government-in-exile, while Leopold and his family were placed under house arrest. In 1944, they were moved to Germany and then Austria, before being liberated by the Americans, but banned for some years from returning to Belgium, where his brother Prince Charles, Count of Flanders, had been declared regent. Leopold's eventual return to his homeland in 1950 nearly caused a civil war, with serious calls for a secessionist republic in Wallonia. Under pressure from the government, he abdicated in favour of his son Baudouin in July 1951.

Leopold's first wife, Astrid of Sweden, died in a road accident while on a driving holiday in Switzerland in August 1935, being much mourned by the public. Leopold, who was driving the vehicle when it hit a tree, suffered minor injuries. His morganatic second marriage, to Lilian Baels in captivity in 1941, was contrary to Belgian law, which stipulates that the civil marriage has to occur before a religious marriage, and she was never permitted the title of queen. Although Lilian and Leopold had originally planned to postpone their civil marriage until the end of the war, Lilian was soon expecting their first child, necessitating a civil marriage, which took place on 6 December 1941.^[1]

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. ^ Geais, Pierrick (12 February 2021). "L'histoire d'amour du roi Léopold III qui a scandalisé la Belgique". Vanity Fair (in French). Retrieved 26 July 2024.

Read More

 

24 February 1920 – The Nazi Party is founded.

Nazi Party

Fascist German political party (1920–1945)

This article is about the political party that existed in Germany from 1920 to 1945. For other uses, see Nazi Party (disambiguation).

The Nazi Party,^[b] officially the National Socialist German Workers' Party (German: Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei ^[c] or NSDAP), was a far-right^[10][11][12] political party in Germany active between 1920 and 1945 that created and supported the ideology of Nazism. Its precursor, the German Workers' Party (Deutsche Arbeiterpartei; DAP), existed from 1919 to 1920. The Nazi Party emerged from the extremist German nationalist ("Völkisch nationalist"), racist, and populist Freikorps paramilitary culture, which fought against communist uprisings in post–World War I Germany.^[13] The party was created to draw workers away from communism and into völkisch nationalism.^[14] Initially, Nazi political strategy focused on anti-big business, anti-bourgeoisie, and anti-capitalism, disingenuously using socialist rhetoric to gain the support of the lower middle class;^[15] it was later downplayed to gain the support of business leaders. By the 1930s, the party's main focus shifted to antisemitic and anti-Marxist themes.^[16] The party had little popular support until the Great Depression, when worsening living standards and widespread unemployment drove Germans into political extremism.^[12]

Central to Nazism were themes of racial segregation expressed in the idea of a "people's community" (Volksgemeinschaft).^[17] The party aimed to unite "racially desirable" Germans as national comrades while excluding those deemed to be either political dissidents, physically or intellectually inferior, or of a foreign race (Fremdvölkische).^[18] The Nazis sought to strengthen the Germanic people, the "Aryan master race", through racial purity and eugenics, broad social welfare programs, and a collective subordination of individual rights, which could be sacrificed for the good of the state on behalf of the people. To protect the supposed purity and strength of the Aryan race, the Nazis sought to disenfranchise, segregate, and eventually exterminate Jews, Romani, Slavs, the physically and mentally disabled, homosexuals, Jehovah's Witnesses, and political opponents.^[19] The persecution reached its climax when the party-controlled German state set in motion the Final Solution – an industrial system of genocide that carried out mass murders of around 6 million Jews and millions of other targeted victims in what has become known as the Holocaust.^[20]

Adolf Hitler, the party's leader since 1921, was appointed Chancellor of Germany by President Paul von Hindenburg on 30 January 1933, and quickly seized power afterwards. Hitler established a totalitarian regime known as the Third Reich and became dictator with absolute power.^{[21][22][23][24]}

Following the military defeat of Germany in World War II, the party was declared illegal.^[25] The Allies attempted to purge German society of Nazi elements in a process known as denazification. Several top leaders were tried and found guilty of crimes against humanity in the Nuremberg trials, and executed. The use of symbols associated with the party is still outlawed in many European countries, including Germany and Austria.

1. ^ Kershaw 1998, pp. 164–65.
2. ^ Steves 2010, p. 28.
3. ^ T. W. Mason, Social Policy in the Third Reich: The Working Class and the "National Community", 1918–1939, Oxford: UK, Berg Publishers, 1993, p. 77.
4. ^ McNab 2011, pp. 22, 23.
5. ^ Davidson 1997, p. 241.
6. ^ Orlow 2010, p. 29.
7. ^ Pfleiderer, Doris (2007). "Volksbegehren und Volksentscheid gegen den Youngplan, in: Archivnachrichten 35 / 2007" [Initiative and Referendum against the Young Plan, in: Archived News 35 / 2007] (PDF). Landesarchiv Baden-Württemberg (in German). p. 43. Archived (PDF) from the original on 4 December 2022. Retrieved 26 November 2022.
8. ^ Jones, Larry E. (Oct., 2006). "Nationalists, Nazis, and the Assault against Weimar: Revisiting the Harzburg Rally of October 1931" Archived 26 April 2023 at the Wayback Machine. German Studies Review. Vol. 29, No. 3. pp. 483–94. Johns Hopkins University Press.
9. ^ Jones 2003.
10. ^ Fritzsche 1998, pp. 143, 185, 193, 204–05, 210.
11. ^ Eatwell, Roger (1997). Fascism : a history. New York: Penguin Books. pp. xvii–xxiv, 21, 26–31, 114–40, 352. ISBN 0-14-025700-4. OCLC 37930848.
12. ^ ^{a b} "The Nazi Party". United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. Archived from the original on 31 January 2023. Retrieved 20 October 2022.
13. ^ Grant 2004, pp. 30–34, 44.
14. ^ Mitchell 2008, p. 47.
15. ^ Ray, Michael. "Were the Nazis Socialists?". Encyclopædia Britannica.
16. ^ McDonough 2003, p. 64.
17. ^ Majer 2013, p. 39.
18. ^ Wildt 2012, pp. 96–97.
19. ^ Gigliotti & Lang 2005, p. 14.
20. ^ Evans 2008, p. 318.
21. ^ Arendt 1951, p. 306.
22. ^ Curtis 1979, p. 36.
23. ^ Burch 1964, p. 58.
24. ^ Maier 2004, p. 32.
25. ^ Elzer 2003, p. 602.

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

Read More

 

25 February 1991 – Cold War: The Warsaw Pact is abolished.

Warsaw Pact

Eastern European military alliance (1955–1991)

Not to be confused with Warsaw Convention or Treaty of Warsaw.

For other uses, see Treaty of friendship.

The Warsaw Pact (WP),^[d] formally the Treaty of Friendship, Cooperation and Mutual Assistance (TFCMA),^[e] was a collective defense treaty signed in Warsaw, Poland, between the Soviet Union and seven other Eastern Bloc socialist republics in Central and Eastern Europe in May 1955, during the Cold War. The term "Warsaw Pact" commonly refers to both the treaty itself and its resultant military alliance, the Warsaw Pact Organisation^[5][6] (WPO)^[6][7] (also known as ‘Warsaw Treaty Organization’^[8] (‘WTO’)).^[f] The Warsaw Pact was the military complement to the Council for Mutual Economic Assistance (Comecon), the economic organization for the Eastern Bloc states.^[9][10][11]

Dominated by the Soviet Union, the Warsaw Pact was established as a balance of power or counterweight to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and the Western Bloc.^[12][13] There was no direct military confrontation between the two organizations; instead, the conflict was fought on an ideological basis and through proxy wars. Both NATO and the Warsaw Pact led to the expansion of military forces and their integration into the respective blocs.^[13] The Warsaw Pact's largest military engagement was the Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia, one of its own member states, in August 1968. All member states participated except for Albania and Romania,^[12] resulting in Albania's withdrawal from the pact less than one month later. The pact began to unravel with the spread of the Revolutions of 1989 through the Eastern Bloc, beginning with the Solidarity movement in Poland,^[14] its electoral success in June 1989 and the Pan-European Picnic in August 1989.^[15]

East Germany withdrew from the pact following German reunification in 1990. On 25 February 1991, at a meeting in Hungary, the pact ceased to exist via joint declaration by the defense and foreign ministers of the six remaining member states. The USSR itself was dissolved in December 1991, although most of the former Soviet republics formed the Collective Security Treaty Organization shortly thereafter. In the following 20 years, the Warsaw Pact countries outside the USSR each joined NATO (East Germany through its reunification with West Germany; and the Czech Republic and Slovakia as separate countries), as did the Baltic states.

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. ^ Cite error: The named reference :0 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
2. ^ Cite error: The named reference :1 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
3. ^ "Протокольная запись заседания Президиума ЦК КПCC (к пункту I протокола № 49)".
4. ^ "Slovenské pohl'ady". Matica slovenská. 1997 – via Google Books.
5. ^ ‘NATO Summit (Brussels)’, column 1,289, volume 128, series 6, Hansard
6. ^ ^{a b} Page 22, ‘NATO and OSCE, Partners or Rivals?’, Edward Killham
7. ^ ‘Organization Acronyms’ (sub‑chapter H‑312), TAGS/Terms Handbook (State Department, Government of the United States of America)
8. ^ "Milestones: 1953–1960 – Office of the Historian". history.state.gov.
9. ^ Cite error: The named reference History Channel 1 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
10. ^ Allen, Debra J. (2003). The Oder-Neisse Line: The United States, Poland, and Germany in the Cold War. ABC-Clio. p. 158. ISBN 9780313052446. Treaties approving Bonn's participation in NATO were ratified in May 1955...shortly thereafter Soviet Union...created the Warsaw Pact to counter the perceived threat of NATO
11. ^ "Text of Warsaw Pact" (PDF). United Nations Treaty Collection. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2 October 2013. Retrieved 22 August 2013.
12. ^ ^{a b} Cite error: The named reference Yoder1993 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
13. ^ ^{a b} Cite error: The named reference Reinalda2009 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
14. ^ Bernstein, Carl (24 June 2001). "Cover Story: The Holy Alliance". TIME. ISSN 0040-781X. Archived from the original on 23 December 2015.
15. ^ Roser, Thomas (16 August 2018). "DDR-Massenflucht: Ein Picknick hebt die Welt aus den Angeln" [Mass Exodus of the GDR: A Picnic Clears the World]. Die Presse (in German).

Read More

 

26 February 1980 – Egypt and Israel establish full diplomatic relations.

Egypt–Israel relations

Bilateral relations

Foreign relations between Egypt and Israel, which dated back to the 1948 Arab–Israeli War culminated in the Yom Kippur War in 1973, and was followed by the 1979 Egypt–Israel peace treaty a year after the Camp David Accords, mediated by U.S. president Jimmy Carter. Full diplomatic relations were established on January 26, 1980, and the formal exchange of ambassadors took place one month later, on February 26, 1980, with Eliyahu Ben-Elissar serving as the first Israeli Ambassador to Egypt, and Saad Mortada as the first Egyptian Ambassador to Israel. Egypt has an embassy in Tel Aviv and a consulate in Eilat. Israel has an embassy in Cairo and a consulate in Alexandria. Their shared border has two official crossings, one at Taba and one at Nitzana. The crossing at Nitzana is for commercial and tourist traffic only. The two countries' borders also meet at the shoreline of the Gulf of Aqaba in the Red Sea.

Peace between Egypt and Israel has lasted for more than forty years and Egypt has become an important strategic partner of Israel. In January 2011, Binyamin Ben-Eliezer, a former defense minister known for his close ties to Egyptian officials, stated that "Egypt is not only our closest friend in the region, the co-operation between us goes beyond the strategic."^[1] Nevertheless, the relationship is sometimes described as a "cold peace",^[1][2] with many in Egypt skeptical about its effectiveness.^[3][4] According to a 2019–2020 survey, 13% of Egyptians support diplomatic recognition of Israel while 85% oppose.^[5] The Arab-Israeli conflict kept relations cool and anti-Israeli incitement is prevalent in the Egyptian media.^[6][7][8]

1. ^ ^{a b} Kershner, Isabel (27 January 2011). "Israeli concern for peace partner". Sydney Morning Herald. Archived from the original on 4 February 2011. Retrieved 31 January 2011.
2. ^ "Egypt–Israel 'cold peace' suffers a further chill". BBC News. 10 September 2011.
3. ^ Kasinof, Laura. "An uneasy Egyptian-Israeli peace".
4. ^ "Egyptians ponder 30-year peace with Israel". BBC News. 26 March 2009.
5. ^ "The 2019–2020 Arab Opinion Index" (PDF). Arab Center for Research and Policy Studies.
6. ^ Al-Ahram Weekly | Egypt | Protocols, politics and Palestine Archived 2011-04-01 at the Wayback Machine
7. ^ Clark, Kate (10 August 2003). "Interpreting Egypt's anti-semitic cartoons". BBC News.
8. ^ www.memri.org. "Columnist for Egyptian Government Daily to Hitler: 'If Only You Had Done It, Brother'".

Read More

 

27 February 1900 – The British Labour Party is founded.

Labour Party (UK)

Political party in the United Kingdom

The Labour Party, often referred to as Labour, is a political party in the United Kingdom that sits on the centre-left of the political spectrum.^[17][18][7] The party has been described as an alliance of social democrats, democratic socialists and trade unionists.^[19] It is one of the two dominant political parties in the United Kingdom; the other being the Conservative Party. Labour has been led by Keir Starmer since 2020, who became Prime Minister of the United Kingdom following the 2024 general election. To date, there have been 12 Labour governments and seven different Labour Prime Ministers – MacDonald, Attlee, Wilson, Callaghan, Blair, Brown and Starmer.

The Labour Party was founded in 1900, having emerged from the trade union movement and socialist parties of the 19th century. It was electorally weak before the First World War, but in the early 1920s overtook the Liberal Party to become the main opposition to the Conservative Party, and briefly formed a minority government under Ramsay MacDonald in 1924. In 1929, Labour for the first time became the largest party in the House of Commons with 287 seats, but fell short of a majority, forming another minority government. In 1931, in response to the Great Depression, MacDonald formed a new government with Conservative and Liberal support, which led to his expulsion from the party. Labour was soundly defeated by his coalition in the 1931 election, winning only 52 seats, but began to recover in 1935, with 154 seats.

During the Second World War, Labour served in the wartime coalition, after which it won a majority in the 1945 election. Clement Attlee's government enacted extensive nationalisation and established the modern welfare state and National Health Service before losing power in 1951. Under Harold Wilson and James Callaghan, Labour again governed from 1964 to 1970 and from 1974 to 1979. The party then entered a period of intense internal division which ended in the defeat of its left wing by the mid-1980s. After electoral defeats to the Conservatives in 1987 and 1992, Tony Blair took the party to the political centre as part of his New Labour project, which governed under Blair and then Gordon Brown from 1997 to 2010. After further electoral defeats in the 2010s, Keir Starmer moved Labour to the political centre since becoming its leader in 2020.

The party includes semi-autonomous London, Scottish, Welsh and Northern Irish branches. Labour is the largest party in the Senedd (Welsh Parliament), and the only party in the current Welsh government.

1. ^ Brivati & Heffernan 2000: "On 27 February 1900, the Labour Representation Committee was formed to campaign for the election of working class representatives to parliament."
2. ^ Thorpe 2008, p. 8.
3. ^ "Labour". The Labour Party. Archived from the original on 26 April 2022. Retrieved 7 December 2024.
4. ^ "Contact". Labour Party. Archived from the original on 24 September 2020. Retrieved 14 September 2020.
5. ^ "Nigel Farage claims Reform UK has 200,000 members and has warning for Labour". Sky News. 9 February 2025. Retrieved 9 February 2025.
6. ^ McGee, Luke (5 July 2024). "As Europe turns right, why has a center-left party won by a landslide in the UK?". CNN. Archived from the original on 5 July 2024. Retrieved 8 July 2024.
7. ^ ^{a b} Clarkson, Alexander (20 September 2023). "Europe's Center-Left Can Learn a Lot From Scholz, Sanchez and Starmer". World Politics Review. Archived from the original on 8 July 2024. Retrieved 17 July 2024.
8. ^ Cite error: The named reference auto4 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
9. ^ Cite error: The named reference auto3 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
10. ^ Budge 2008, pp. 26–27.
11. ^ ^{[6][7][8][9][10]}
12. ^ The Telegraph. "'Change begins now', says Sir Keir Starmer in first speech after winning general election". The Telegraph. Archived from the original on 10 October 2024. Retrieved 18 October 2024.
13. ^ Sparrow, Andrew (17 September 2024). "Labour unveils 'Change Begins' as conference slogan". The Guardian. Retrieved 18 October 2024.
14. ^ "Labour Party (Latest)". opencouncildata.co.uk.
15. ^ "Open Council Data UK (Councillors Breakdown by Party Latest)". opencouncildata.co.uk.
16. ^ "Open Council Data UK". opencouncildata.co.uk.
17. ^ Abou-Chadi, Tarik; Gingrich, Jane (9 May 2021). "It's not just in Britain – across Europe, social democracy is losing its way". The Observer. ISSN 0029-7712. Archived from the original on 13 September 2024. Retrieved 17 July 2024.
18. ^ "Britain's Labour Party embraces supply-side social democracy". The Economist. 11 October 2023. ISSN 0013-0613. Archived from the original on 18 July 2024. Retrieved 17 July 2024.
19. ^ Matthew Worley (2009). The Foundations of the British Labour Party: Identities, Cultures and Perspectives, 1900–39. Ashgate Publishing, Ltd. pp. 1–2. ISBN 978-0-7546-6731-5.

Read More

 

28 February 1991 – The first Gulf War ends.

Gulf War

1990–1991 conflict in the Middle East

This article is about the conflict against Iraq in 1990–1991. For other conflicts with the same name, see Gulf War (disambiguation).

"Desert Storm" and "Umm al-Ma'arik" redirect here. For other uses, see Desert Storm (disambiguation) and Umm al-Ma'arik (disambiguation).

The Gulf War was an armed conflict between Iraq and a 42-country coalition led by the United States. The coalition's efforts against Iraq were carried out in two key phases: Operation Desert Shield, which marked the military buildup from August 1990 to January 1991; and Operation Desert Storm, which began with the aerial bombing campaign against Iraq on 17 January 1991 and came to a close with the American-led liberation of Kuwait on 28 February 1991.

On 2 August 1990, Iraq, governed by Saddam Hussein, invaded neighboring Kuwait and fully occupied the country within two days. The invasion was primarily over disputes regarding Kuwait's alleged slant drilling in Iraq's Rumaila oil field, as well as to cancel Iraq's large debt to Kuwait from the recently ended Iran-Iraq War. After Iraq briefly occupied Kuwait under a rump puppet government known as the Republic of Kuwait, it split Kuwait's sovereign territory into the Saddamiyat al-Mitla' District in the north, which was absorbed into Iraq's existing Basra Governorate, and the Kuwait Governorate in the south, which became Iraq's 19th governorate.

The invasion of Kuwait was met with immediate international condemnation, including the adoption of UN Security Council Resolution 660, which demanded Iraq's immediate withdrawal from Kuwait, and the imposition of comprehensive international sanctions against Iraq with the adoption of UN Security Council Resolution 661. British prime minister Margaret Thatcher and U.S. president George H. W. Bush deployed troops and equipment into Saudi Arabia and urged other countries to send their own forces. Many countries joined the American-led coalition forming the largest military alliance since World War II. The bulk of the coalition's military power was from the United States, with Saudi Arabia, the United Kingdom, and Egypt as the largest lead-up contributors, in that order.

United Nations Security Council Resolution 678, adopted on 29 November 1990, gave Iraq an ultimatum, expiring on 15 January 1991, to implement Resolution 660 and withdraw from Kuwait, with member-states empowered to use "all necessary means" to force Iraq's compliance. Initial efforts to dislodge the Iraqis from Kuwait began with aerial and naval bombardment of Iraq on 17 January, which continued for five weeks. As the Iraqi military struggled against the coalition attacks, Iraq fired missiles at Israel to provoke an Israeli military response, with the expectation that such a response would lead to the withdrawal of several Muslim-majority countries from the coalition. The provocation was unsuccessful; Israel did not retaliate and Iraq continued to remain at odds with most Muslim-majority countries. Iraqi missile barrages against coalition targets in Saudi Arabia were also largely unsuccessful, and on 24 February 1991, the coalition launched a major ground assault into Iraqi-occupied Kuwait. The offensive was a decisive victory for the coalition, who liberated Kuwait and promptly began to advance past the Iraq–Kuwait border into Iraqi territory. A hundred hours after the beginning of the ground campaign, the coalition ceased its advance into Iraq and declared a ceasefire. Aerial and ground combat was confined to Iraq, Kuwait, and areas straddling the Iraq–Saudi Arabia border.

The conflict marked the introduction of live news broadcasts from the front lines of the battle, principally by the American network CNN. It has also earned the nickname Video Game War, after the daily broadcast of images from cameras onboard American military aircraft during Operation Desert Storm. The Gulf War has also gained fame for some of the largest tank battles in American military history: the Battle of Medina Ridge, the Battle of Norfolk, and the Battle of 73 Easting.

1. ^ "Desert Shield And Desert Storm: A Chronology And Troop List for the 1990–1991 Persian Gulf Crisis" (PDF). apps.dtic.mil. Archived (PDF) from the original on 12 April 2019. Retrieved 18 December 2018.
2. ^ Persian Gulf War, the Sandhurst-trained Prince
   Khaled bin Sultan al-Saud was co-commander with General Norman Schwarzkopf www.casi.org.uk/discuss Archived 3 March 2016 at the Wayback Machine
3. ^ General Khaled was Co-Commander, with US General Norman Schwarzkopf, of the allied coalition that liberated Kuwait www.thefreelibrary.com Archived 30 April 2011 at the Wayback Machine
4. ^ Knights, Michael (2005). Cradle of Conflict: Iraq and the Birth of Modern U.S. Military Power. United States Naval Institute. p. 20. ISBN 978-1-59114-444-1.
5. ^ ^{a b} "Persian Gulf War". MSN Encarta. Archived from the original on 1 November 2009.
6. ^ 18 M1 Abrams, 11 M60, 2 AMX-30
7. ^ CheckPoint, Ludovic Monnerat. "Guerre du Golfe: le dernier combat de la division Tawakalna".
8. ^ Scales, Brig. Gen. Robert H.: Certain Victory. Brassey's, 1994, p. 279.
9. ^ Halberstadt 1991. p. 35
10. ^ Atkinson, Rick. Crusade, The untold story of the Persian Gulf War. Houghton Mifflin Company, 1993. pp. 332–3
11. ^ Captain Todd A. Buchs, B. Co. Commander, Knights in the Desert. Publisher/Editor Unknown. p. 111.
12. ^ Malory, Marcia. "Tanks During the First Gulf War – Tank History". Archived from the original on 3 March 2016. Retrieved 5 July 2016.
13. ^ M60 vs T-62 Cold War Combatants 1956–92 by Lon Nordeen & David Isby
14. ^ "TAB H – Friendly-fire Incidents". Archived from the original on 1 June 2013. Retrieved 5 July 2016.
15. ^ NSIAD-92-94, "Operation Desert Storm: Early Performance Assessment of Bradley and Abrams". Archived 21 February 2014 at the Wayback Machine US General Accounting Office, 10 January 1992. Quote: "According to information provided by the Army's Office of the Deputy Chief of Staff for Operations and Plans, 20 Bradleys were destroyed during the Gulf war. Another 12 Bradleys were damaged, but four of these were quickly repaired. Friendly fire accounted for 17 of the destroyed Bradleys and three of the damaged ones
16. ^ Iraqi Invasion of Kuwait; 1990 (Air War)^[usurped]. Acig.org. Retrieved on 12 June 2011
17. ^ ^{a b c d e} Bourque (2001), p. 455.
18. ^ "Appendix – Iraqi Death Toll | The Gulf War | FRONTLINE". www.pbs.org. Retrieved 24 July 2021.
19. ^ Tucker-Jones, Anthony (31 May 2014). The Gulf War: Operation Desert Storm 1990–1991. Pen and Sword. ISBN 978-1-4738-3730-0. Archived from the original on 5 December 2022. Retrieved 22 April 2022.
20. ^ "Human Rights Watch". Archived from the original on 22 April 2022. Retrieved 22 April 2022.
21. ^ "Appendix A: Chronology – February 1991". Naval History and Heritage Command. Retrieved 4 February 2024.
22. ^ "Iraq air force wants Iran to give back its planes". Reuters. 10 August 2007.
23. ^ "The Use of Terror during Iraq's invasion of Kuwait". The Jewish Agency for Israel. Archived from the original on 24 January 2005. Retrieved 22 June 2010.
24. ^ "Kuwait: missing people: a step in the right direction". Red Cross. Archived from the original on 7 March 2016. Retrieved 5 March 2014.
25. ^ "The Wages of War: Iraqi Combatant and Noncombatant Fatalities in the 2003 Conflict". Project on Defense Alternatives. Retrieved 9 May 2009.
26. ^ Cite error: The named reference Collateral damage was invoked but never defined (see the help page).

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

Read More

 

1 March 1565 – The city of Rio de Janeiro is founded.

Rio de Janeiro

Second-largest city in Brazil

This article is about the city. For the state, see Rio de Janeiro (state). For other uses, see Rio de Janeiro (disambiguation).

Municipality in Southeast, Brazil

Rio de Janeiro,^[a] or simply Rio,^[7] is the capital of the state of Rio de Janeiro. It is the second-most-populous city in Brazil (after São Paulo) and the sixth-most-populous city in the Americas.

Founded in 1565, the city was initially the seat of the Captaincy of Rio de Janeiro, a domain of the Portuguese Empire. In 1763, it became the capital of the State of Brazil. In 1808, when the Portuguese Royal Court moved to Brazil, Rio de Janeiro became the seat of the court of Queen Maria I of Portugal. Under the leadership of her son, prince regent John of Braganza, Maria raised Brazil to the dignity of a kingdom, within the United Kingdom of Portugal, Brazil, and Algarves. Rio remained as the capital of the pluricontinental monarchy until 1822, when the Brazilian War of Independence began. This is one of the few instances in history that the capital of a colonizing country officially shifted to a city in one of its colonies. Rio de Janeiro subsequently served as the capital of the Empire of Brazil, until 1889, and then the capital of republican Brazil until 1960 when the capital was transferred to Brasília.

Rio de Janeiro has the second largest municipal GDP in the country,^[8] and 30th-largest in the world in 2008.^[9] This is estimated at R$343 billion. In the city are the headquarters of Brazilian oil, mining, and telecommunications companies, including two of the country's major corporations, Petrobras and Vale, and Latin America's largest telemedia conglomerate, Grupo Globo. The home of many universities and institutes, it is the second-largest center of research and development in Brazil, accounting for 17 percent of national scientific output according to 2005 data.^[10] Despite the high perception of crime, the city actually has a lower incidence of crime than most state capitals in Brazil.^[11]

Rio de Janeiro is one of the most visited cities in the Southern Hemisphere and is known for its natural settings, carnival, samba, bossa nova, and beaches such as Barra da Tijuca, Copacabana, Ipanema, and Leblon.^[12] In addition to the beaches, landmarks include the statue of Christ the Redeemer atop Corcovado mountain, named one of the New Seven Wonders of the World; Sugarloaf Mountain with its cable car; the Sambódromo, a permanent grandstand-lined parade avenue which is used during Carnival; and Maracanã Stadium, one of the world's largest football stadiums. Rio de Janeiro was the host of the 2016 Summer Olympics and the Paralympics, making the city the first South American and Portuguese-speaking city to ever host the events, and the third time the Olympics were held in a Southern Hemisphere city.^[13] The Maracanã Stadium held the finals of the 1950 and 2014 FIFA World Cups, the 2013 FIFA Confederations Cup, and the XV Pan American Games. The city hosted the G20 summit in 2024, and will host the FIFA Women's World Cup in 2027.^[14][15]

1. ^ "Rio de Janeiro Info". paralumun.com. Archived from the original on 27 December 2008. Retrieved 6 August 2016.
2. ^ "Rio de Janeiro (RJ) | Cidades e Estados | IBGE". www.ibge.gov.br. Retrieved 25 June 2024.
3. ^ "TelluBase—Brazil Fact Sheet (Tellusant Public Service Series)" (PDF). Tellusant. Archived (PDF) from the original on 22 January 2024. Retrieved 11 January 2024.
4. ^ "IDNM Ranking" (PDF). United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). Archived from the original (PDF) on 9 April 2014. Retrieved 1 August 2013.
5. ^ "Gross Domestic Product of Municipalities". ibge.gov.br. Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics. Archived from the original on 5 November 2021. Retrieved 5 November 2021.
6. ^ Larousse Concise Dictionary: Portuguese-English, 2008, p. 339.
7. ^ "Rio de Janeiro: travel guide". Archived from the original on 13 June 2015. Retrieved 14 May 2015.
8. ^ "Posição ocupada pelos 100 maiores municípios em relação ao Produto Interno Bruto" (PDF). Instituto Brasileiro de Geografia e Estatística (IBGE). 16 December 2008. Archived from the original (PDF) on 19 April 2009. Retrieved 16 December 2008.
9. ^ "The 150 richest cities in the world by GDP in 2005". City Mayors Statistics. 11 March 2007. Archived from the original on 18 September 2012. Retrieved 8 September 2008.
10. ^ "Assessoria de Comunicação e Imprensa". Universidade Estadual de Campinas (Unicamp). 17 June 2005. Archived from the original on 17 June 2008. Retrieved 8 September 2008.
11. ^ "Veja o ranking das capitais mais violentas do Brasil". www.estadao.com.br. O Estado de Sao Paulo. Archived from the original on 21 June 2022. Retrieved 31 October 2018.
12. ^ "Rio de Janeiro's Beach Culture" Archived 5 July 2018 at the Wayback Machine Tayfun King, Fast Track, BBC World News (11 September 2009)
13. ^ "BBC Sport, Rio to stage 2016 Olympic Games". BBC News. 2 October 2009. Archived from the original on 13 February 2019. Retrieved 4 October 2009.
14. ^ "Rio de Janeiro sediará cúpula do G20 em 2024". CNN Brazil (in Portuguese). 9 May 2023. Archived from the original on 19 May 2023. Retrieved 19 May 2023.
15. ^ "Rio de Janeiro sediará cúpula dos chefes de Estado do G20 em 2024". G1 (in Portuguese). 9 May 2023. Archived from the original on 19 May 2023. Retrieved 19 May 2023.

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

Read More

 

1 March 1565 – The city of Rio de Janeiro is founded.

Rio de Janeiro

Second-largest city in Brazil

This article is about the city. For the state, see Rio de Janeiro (state). For other uses, see Rio de Janeiro (disambiguation).

Municipality in Southeast, Brazil

Rio de Janeiro,^[a] or simply Rio,^[7] is the capital of the state of Rio de Janeiro. It is the second-most-populous city in Brazil (after São Paulo) and the sixth-most-populous city in the Americas.

Founded in 1565, the city was initially the seat of the Captaincy of Rio de Janeiro, a domain of the Portuguese Empire. In 1763, it became the capital of the State of Brazil. In 1808, when the Portuguese Royal Court moved to Brazil, Rio de Janeiro became the seat of the court of Queen Maria I of Portugal. Under the leadership of her son, prince regent John of Braganza, Maria raised Brazil to the dignity of a kingdom, within the United Kingdom of Portugal, Brazil, and Algarves. Rio remained as the capital of the pluricontinental monarchy until 1822, when the Brazilian War of Independence began. This is one of the few instances in history that the capital of a colonizing country officially shifted to a city in one of its colonies. Rio de Janeiro subsequently served as the capital of the Empire of Brazil, until 1889, and then the capital of republican Brazil until 1960 when the capital was transferred to Brasília.

Rio de Janeiro has the second largest municipal GDP in the country,^[8] and 30th-largest in the world in 2008.^[9] This is estimated at R$343 billion. In the city are the headquarters of Brazilian oil, mining, and telecommunications companies, including two of the country's major corporations, Petrobras and Vale, and Latin America's largest telemedia conglomerate, Grupo Globo. The home of many universities and institutes, it is the second-largest center of research and development in Brazil, accounting for 17 percent of national scientific output according to 2005 data.^[10] Despite the high perception of crime, the city actually has a lower incidence of crime than most state capitals in Brazil.^[11]

Rio de Janeiro is one of the most visited cities in the Southern Hemisphere and is known for its natural settings, carnival, samba, bossa nova, and beaches such as Barra da Tijuca, Copacabana, Ipanema, and Leblon.^[12] In addition to the beaches, landmarks include the statue of Christ the Redeemer atop Corcovado mountain, named one of the New Seven Wonders of the World; Sugarloaf Mountain with its cable car; the Sambódromo, a permanent grandstand-lined parade avenue which is used during Carnival; and Maracanã Stadium, one of the world's largest football stadiums. Rio de Janeiro was the host of the 2016 Summer Olympics and the Paralympics, making the city the first South American and Portuguese-speaking city to ever host the events, and the third time the Olympics were held in a Southern Hemisphere city.^[13] The Maracanã Stadium held the finals of the 1950 and 2014 FIFA World Cups, the 2013 FIFA Confederations Cup, and the XV Pan American Games. The city hosted the G20 summit in 2024, and will host the FIFA Women's World Cup in 2027.^[14][15]

1. ^ "Rio de Janeiro Info". paralumun.com. Archived from the original on 27 December 2008. Retrieved 6 August 2016.
2. ^ "Rio de Janeiro (RJ) | Cidades e Estados | IBGE". www.ibge.gov.br. Retrieved 25 June 2024.
3. ^ "TelluBase—Brazil Fact Sheet (Tellusant Public Service Series)" (PDF). Tellusant. Archived (PDF) from the original on 22 January 2024. Retrieved 11 January 2024.
4. ^ "IDNM Ranking" (PDF). United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). Archived from the original (PDF) on 9 April 2014. Retrieved 1 August 2013.
5. ^ "Gross Domestic Product of Municipalities". ibge.gov.br. Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics. Archived from the original on 5 November 2021. Retrieved 5 November 2021.
6. ^ Larousse Concise Dictionary: Portuguese-English, 2008, p. 339.
7. ^ "Rio de Janeiro: travel guide". Archived from the original on 13 June 2015. Retrieved 14 May 2015.
8. ^ "Posição ocupada pelos 100 maiores municípios em relação ao Produto Interno Bruto" (PDF). Instituto Brasileiro de Geografia e Estatística (IBGE). 16 December 2008. Archived from the original (PDF) on 19 April 2009. Retrieved 16 December 2008.
9. ^ "The 150 richest cities in the world by GDP in 2005". City Mayors Statistics. 11 March 2007. Archived from the original on 18 September 2012. Retrieved 8 September 2008.
10. ^ "Assessoria de Comunicação e Imprensa". Universidade Estadual de Campinas (Unicamp). 17 June 2005. Archived from the original on 17 June 2008. Retrieved 8 September 2008.
11. ^ "Veja o ranking das capitais mais violentas do Brasil". www.estadao.com.br. O Estado de Sao Paulo. Archived from the original on 21 June 2022. Retrieved 31 October 2018.
12. ^ "Rio de Janeiro's Beach Culture" Archived 5 July 2018 at the Wayback Machine Tayfun King, Fast Track, BBC World News (11 September 2009)
13. ^ "BBC Sport, Rio to stage 2016 Olympic Games". BBC News. 2 October 2009. Archived from the original on 13 February 2019. Retrieved 4 October 2009.
14. ^ "Rio de Janeiro sediará cúpula do G20 em 2024". CNN Brazil (in Portuguese). 9 May 2023. Archived from the original on 19 May 2023. Retrieved 19 May 2023.
15. ^ "Rio de Janeiro sediará cúpula dos chefes de Estado do G20 em 2024". G1 (in Portuguese). 9 May 2023. Archived from the original on 19 May 2023. Retrieved 19 May 2023.

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

Read More

 

2 March 1946 – Ho Chi Minh is elected the President of North Vietnam.

Ho Chi Minh

Leader of North Vietnam from 1945 to 1969

For other uses, see Ho Chi Minh (disambiguation).

Hồ Chí Minh^[e] (born Nguyễn Sinh Cung;^[f][g][3][4] 19 May 1890 – 2 September 1969),^[h] colloquially known as Uncle Ho (Bác Hồ)^[i][7] among other aliases^[j] and sobriquets,^[k] was a Vietnamese revolutionary and politician who served as the founder and first president of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam from 1945 until his death in 1969, and as its first prime minister from 1945 to 1955. Ideologically a Marxist–Leninist, he founded the Indochinese Communist Party in 1930 and its successor Workers' Party of Vietnam (later the Communist Party of Vietnam) in 1951, serving as the party's chairman until his death.

Hồ was born in Nghệ An province in French Indochina, and received a French education. Starting in 1911, he worked in various countries overseas, and in 1920 was a founding member of the French Communist Party in Paris. After studying in Moscow, Hồ founded the Vietnamese Revolutionary Youth League in 1925, which he transformed into the Indochinese Communist Party in 1930. On his return to Vietnam in 1941, he founded and led the Việt Minh independence movement against the Japanese, and in 1945 led the August Revolution against the monarchy and proclaimed the Democratic Republic of Vietnam. After the French returned to power, Hồ's government retreated to the countryside and initiated guerrilla warfare from 1946.

Between 1953 and 1956, Hồ's leadership saw the implementation of a land reform campaign, which included executions and political purges.^[10][11] The Việt Minh defeated the French in 1954 at the Battle of Điện Biên Phủ, ending the First Indochina War. At the 1954 Geneva Conference, Vietnam was divided into two de facto separate states, with the Việt Minh in control of North Vietnam, and anti-communists backed by the United States in control of South Vietnam. Hồ remained president and party leader during the Vietnam War, which began in 1955. He supported the Viet Cong insurgency in the south, overseeing the transport of troops and supplies on the Ho Chi Minh trail until his death in 1969. North Vietnam won in 1975, and the country was re-unified in 1976 as the Socialist Republic of Vietnam. Saigon – Gia Định, South Vietnam's former capital, was renamed Ho Chi Minh City in his honor.

The details of Hồ's life before he came to power in Vietnam are uncertain. He is known to have used between 50^[12]: 582 and 200 pseudonyms.^[13] Information on his birth and early life is ambiguous and subject to academic debate. At least four existing official biographies vary on names, dates, places, and other hard facts while unofficial biographies vary even more widely.^[14] Aside from being a politician, Hồ was a writer, poet, and journalist. He wrote several books, articles, and poems in Chinese, Vietnamese, and French.

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. ^ "Ho Chi Minh". Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary.
2. ^ Vũ Ngự Chiêu (23 October 2011). "Vài vấn nạn lịch sử thế kỷ XX: Hồ Chí Minh – Nhà ngoại giao, 1945–1946". Hợp Lưu Magazine (in Vietnamese). Archived from the original on 7 January 2019. Retrieved 10 December 2013. Note: See the document in French, from Centre des archives d'Outre-mer [CAOM] (Aix)/Gouvernement General de l'Indochine [GGI]/Fonds Residence Superieure d'Annam [RSA]/carton R1, and the note in English at the end of the cited article
3. ^ Trần Quốc Vượng. "Lời truyền miệng dân gian về Hồ Chí Minh". BBC Vietnamese. Retrieved 10 December 2013.
4. ^ Nguyễn Vĩnh Châu. "Phỏng vấn sử gia Vũ Ngự Chiêu về những nghiên cứu lịch sử liên quan đến Hồ Chí Minh". Hợp Lưu Magazine. Archived from the original on 3 December 2013. Retrieved 10 December 2013.
5. ^ Nguyễn Xuân Tùng (18 September 2014). "Giới thiệu những tư liệu về Di chúc của Chủ tịch Hồ Chí Minh" [Introduction to documents related to President Ho Chi Minh's will] (in Vietnamese). Ministry of Justice (Vietnam). Retrieved 1 October 2021.
6. ^ Ngo, Tam T. T. (2018). "The Uncle Hồ religion in Vietnam". In Dean, Kenneth; van der Veer, Peter (eds.). The Secular in South, East, and Southeast Asia. Springer. p. 219. ISBN 978-3-319-89369-3.
7. ^ Cite error: The named reference Marsh07062012 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
8. ^ Watanabe, Musa (25 July 2014). "Father of modern Vietnam, Ho Chi Minh". The OpenLab at New York City College of Technology. Retrieved 17 April 2023.
9. ^ Woolf, Chris (18 September 2017). "The little-known story of Vietnamese communist leader Ho Chi Minh's admiration for the US". The World.
10. ^ Cite error: The named reference Gittinger1959 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
11. ^ Teodoru, Daniel E. (1973). "The Bloodbath Hypothesis: The Maoist Pattern in North Vietnam's Radical Land Reform". Southeast Asian Perspectives (9): 1–79. ISSN 0042-577X. JSTOR 30176408.
12. ^ Duiker, William J. Ho Chi Minh: A Life. New York: Hyperion, 2000.
13. ^ Duncanson 1957, p. 85.
14. ^ Pike 1976.

Read More

 

3 March 1923 – TIME magazine is published for the first time.

Time (magazine)

American news magazine and website

"TIME" redirects here. For time as a measure, see Time. For other uses, see Time (disambiguation). Not to be confused with The Times.

Time (stylized in all caps as TIME) is an American news magazine based in New York City. It was published weekly for nearly a century. Starting in March 2020, it transitioned to every other week.^[2][3] It was first published in New York City on March 3, 1923, and for many years it was run by its influential co-founder, Henry Luce.

A European edition (Time Europe, formerly known as Time Atlantic) is published in London and also covers the Middle East, Africa, and, since 2003, Latin America. An Asian edition (Time Asia) is based in Hong Kong.^[4] The South Pacific edition, which covers Australia, New Zealand, and the Pacific Islands, is based in Sydney.

Since 2018, Time has been owned by Salesforce founder Marc Benioff, who acquired it from Meredith Corporation. Benioff currently publishes the magazine through the company Time USA, LLC.

1. ^ "Consumer Magazines". Retrieved May 13, 2025.
2. ^ "Covers from 2020". Time. Archived from the original on February 3, 2022. Retrieved February 3, 2022.
3. ^ "On This Day: Time magazine publishes for first time". UPI. March 3, 2023. Archived from the original on March 7, 2023. Retrieved November 7, 2023.
4. ^ "Time Asia (Hong Kong) Limited – Buying Office, Service Company, Distributor from Hong Kong". HKTDC. Archived from the original on July 14, 2020. Retrieved January 14, 2020.

Read More

 

4 March 1351 – Ramathibodi becomes King of Siam.

Monarchy of Thailand

For the list, see List of Thai monarchs.

The monarchy of Thailand is the constitutional form of government of Thailand (formerly Siam). The king of Thailand (Thai: พระมหากษัตริย์ไทย, historically, king of Siam; Thai: พระเจ้ากรุงสยาม) is the head of state and head of the ruling Chakri dynasty.

Although the current Chakri dynasty was created in 1782, the existence of the institution of monarchy in Thailand is traditionally considered to have its roots in the founding of the Sukhothai Kingdom in 1238, with a brief interregnum from the death of Ekkathat to the accession of Taksin in the 18th century. The institution was transformed into a constitutional monarchy in 1932 after the bloodless socialist-leaning Siamese Revolution of 1932. The monarchy's official ceremonial residence is the Grand Palace in Bangkok, while the private residence has been at the Dusit Palace. The king of Thailand is head of state, Highest Commander of the Royal Thai Armed Forces, adherent of Buddhism and upholder of religions.^[2]

1. ^ Campbell, Charlie (n.d.). "Thais Face an Anxious Wait to See How Their New King Will Wield His Power". Time. Retrieved 2 December 2016.
2. ^ The Secretariate of the House of Representatives (November 2007). "Constitution of the Kingdom of Thailand B.E 2550" (PDF). The Secretariat of the House of Representatives. Archived from the original (PDF) on 31 August 2012. Retrieved 7 November 2012.

Read More

 

5 March 1943 – First Flight of the Gloster Meteor, Britain's first combat jet aircraft.

Gloster Meteor

Britain's first jet fighter, 1943–1980s

The Gloster Meteor was the first British jet fighter and the Allies' only jet aircraft to engage in combat operations during the Second World War.^[1] The Meteor's development was heavily reliant on its ground-breaking turbojet engines, pioneered by Frank Whittle and his company, Power Jets Ltd. Development of the aircraft began in 1940, although work on the engines had been under way since 1936.

The Meteor first flew in 1943 and commenced operations on 27 July 1944 with No. 616 Squadron RAF. The Meteor was not a sophisticated aircraft in its aerodynamics, but proved to be a successful combat fighter. Gloster's 1946 civil Meteor F.4 demonstrator G-AIDC was the first civilian-registered jet aircraft in the world.^[2] Several major variants of the Meteor incorporated technological advances during the 1940s and 1950s. Thousands of Meteors were built to fly with the RAF and other air forces and remained in use for several decades.

Slower and less heavily armed than its German counterpart, the jet-powered Messerschmitt Me 262,^[3] the Meteor saw limited action in the Second World War. Meteors of the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) fought in the Korean War. Several other operators such as Argentina, Egypt and Israel flew Meteors in later regional conflicts. Specialised variants of the Meteor were developed for use in photographic aerial reconnaissance and as night fighters.

The Meteor was also used in research and development and to break several aviation records. On 20 September 1945, a heavily modified Meteor I, powered by two Rolls-Royce RB.50 Trent turbine engines driving propellers, became the first turboprop aircraft to fly.^[4] On 7 November 1945, a Meteor F.3 set the first official airspeed record by a jet aircraft at 606 miles per hour (975 km/h). In 1946, a Meteor F.4 reached a record speed of 616 miles per hour (991 km/h). Meteors also broke records in flight time endurance and rate of climb.

On 10 February 1954, a specially adapted Meteor F.8, the "Meteor Prone Pilot", which placed the pilot into a prone position to counteract inertial forces, took its first flight.^[5]

In the 1950s, the Meteor became increasingly obsolete as more nations developed jet fighters, many of which used a swept wing instead of the Meteor's conventional straight wing. The RAF service replaced its Meteors with newer types such as the Hawker Hunter and Gloster Javelin.

As of 2023^[update], two Meteors, G-JSMA and G-JWMA, remained in active service with the Martin-Baker company as ejection seat testbeds.^[6] One further aircraft in the USA remained airworthy, as did another in Australia.

1. ^ "Norfolk farmer's 1951 Gloster Meteor crash find to become memorial". 19 April 2021. Retrieved 28 June 2024.
2. ^ "photo caption". Flight International. 1974. Archived from the original on 23 June 2016.
3. ^ Gunston 1988, p. 240.
4. ^ King Flight 27 May 1955, p. 727.
5. ^ Young 1985, p. 83.
6. ^ Harbar, Daren (12 March 2023). "Martin-Baker Meteors – How First-Generation jets test ejection seats for 5th-Gen fighters". Key.Aero. Retrieved 26 September 2023. originally published in Flypast January 2017

Read More

 

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

Aspirin

Medication

For the Iranian TV series, see Aspirin (TV series).

Not to be confused with Robert Asprin.

Pharmaceutical compound

Aspirin (/ˈæsp(ə)rɪn/^[10]) is the genericized trademark for acetylsalicylic acid (ASA), a nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID) used to reduce pain, fever, and inflammation, and as an antithrombotic.^[11] Specific inflammatory conditions that aspirin is used to treat include Kawasaki disease, pericarditis, and rheumatic fever.^[11]

Aspirin is also used long-term to help prevent further heart attacks, ischaemic strokes, and blood clots in people at high risk.^[11] For pain or fever, effects typically begin within 30 minutes.^[11] Aspirin works similarly to other NSAIDs but also suppresses the normal functioning of platelets.^[11]

One common adverse effect is an upset stomach.^[11] More significant side effects include stomach ulcers, stomach bleeding, and worsening asthma.^[11] Bleeding risk is greater among those who are older, drink alcohol, take other NSAIDs, or are on other blood thinners.^[11] Aspirin is not recommended in the last part of pregnancy.^[11] It is not generally recommended in children with infections because of the risk of Reye syndrome.^[11] High doses may result in ringing in the ears.^[11]

A precursor to aspirin found in the bark of the willow tree (genus Salix) has been used for its health effects for at least 2,400 years.^[12][13] In 1853, chemist Charles Frédéric Gerhardt treated the medicine sodium salicylate with acetyl chloride to produce acetylsalicylic acid for the first time.^[14] Over the next 50 years, other chemists, mostly of the German company Bayer, established the chemical structure and devised more efficient production methods.^{[14]: 69–75} Felix Hoffmann (or Arthur Eichengrün) of Bayer was the first to produce acetylsalicylic acid in a pure, stable form in 1897.^[15] By 1899, Bayer had dubbed this drug Aspirin and was selling it globally.^[16]: 27

Aspirin is available without medical prescription as a proprietary or generic medication^[11] in most jurisdictions. It is one of the most widely used medications globally, with an estimated 40,000 tonnes (44,000 tons) (50 to 120 billion pills) consumed each year,^[12][17] and is on the World Health Organization's List of Essential Medicines.^[18] In 2022, it was the 36th most commonly prescribed medication in the United States, with more than 16 million prescriptions.^[19][20]

1. ^ McTavish J (Fall 1987). "What's in a Name? Aspirin and the American Medical Association". Bulletin of the History of Medicine. 61 (3): 343–366. JSTOR 44442097. PMID 3311247.
2. ^ "Aspirin Use During Pregnancy". Drugs.com. 2 April 2018. Retrieved 29 December 2019.
3. ^ "OTC medicine monograph: Aspirin tablets for oral use". Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA). 21 June 2022. Retrieved 4 April 2023.
4. ^ "Poisons Standard October 2022". Australian Government Federal Register of Legislation. 26 September 2022. Retrieved 9 January 2023.
5. ^ "Aspirin Product information". Health Canada. 22 October 2009. Retrieved 20 August 2023.
6. ^ ^{a b} "Zorprin, Bayer Buffered Aspirin (aspirin) dosing, indications, interactions, adverse effects, and more". Medscape Reference. WebMD. Archived from the original on 7 April 2014. Retrieved 3 April 2014.
7. ^ ^{a b c} Brayfield A, ed. (14 January 2014). "Aspirin". Martindale: The Complete Drug Reference. Pharmaceutical Press. Retrieved 3 April 2014.
8. ^ CID 2244 from PubChem
9. ^ Cite error: The named reference b92 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
10. ^ "aspirin". Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary.
11. ^ ^{a b c d e f g h i j k l} "Aspirin". American Society of Health-System Pharmacists. 29 November 2021. Archived from the original on 25 April 2017 – via Drugs.com.
12. ^ ^{a b} Jones A (2015). Chemistry: An Introduction for Medical and Health Sciences. John Wiley & Sons. pp. 5–6. ISBN 978-0-470-09290-3.
13. ^ Ravina E (2011). The Evolution of Drug Discovery: From Traditional Medicines to Modern Drugs. John Wiley & Sons. p. 24. ISBN 978-3-527-32669-3.
14. ^ ^{a b} Jeffreys D (2008). Aspirin the remarkable story of a wonder drug. Bloomsbury Publishing USA. ISBN 978-1-59691-816-0. Archived from the original on 8 September 2017.^: 46–48
15. ^ "Felix Hoffmann". Science History Institute. Retrieved 3 October 2024.
16. ^ Cite error: The named reference MannPlummer1991 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
17. ^ Warner TD, Mitchell JA (October 2002). "Cyclooxygenase-3 (COX-3): filling in the gaps toward a COX continuum?". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. 99 (21): 13371–3. Bibcode:2002PNAS...9913371W. doi:10.1073/pnas.222543099. PMC 129677. PMID 12374850.
18. ^ World Health Organization (2023). The selection and use of essential medicines 2023: web annex A: World Health Organization model list of essential medicines: 23rd list (2023). Geneva: World Health Organization. hdl:10665/371090. WHO/MHP/HPS/EML/2023.02.
19. ^ "The Top 300 of 2022". ClinCalc. Archived from the original on 30 August 2024. Retrieved 30 August 2024.
20. ^ "Aspirin Drug Usage Statistics, United States, 2013 - 2022". ClinCalc. Retrieved 30 August 2024.

Read More

 

7 March 1936 – Prelude to World War II: In violation of the Locarno Pact and the Treaty of Versailles, Germany reoccupies the Rhineland.

Remilitarization of the Rhineland

Redirect to:

• Remilitarisation of the Rhineland

Read More

 

8 March 1936 – Daytona Beach and Road Course holds its first oval stock car race.

Daytona Beach and Road Course

Motorsport track in the United States

The Ormond Beach and Road Course was a motorsport race track that was instrumental in the formation of the National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing. It originally became famous as the location where 15 world land speed records were set.

Read More

 

9 March 1796 – Napoléon Bonaparte marries his first wife, Joséphine de Beauharnais.

Empress Joséphine

Redirect to:

• Joséphine de Beauharnais

Read More