On a June 29:
2001 The Tourism Authority of Thailand announces plans to erect
four billboards with the full name of the country's capital: Krungthep
Mahanakhon Amon Rattanakosin Mahinthara Ayutthaya Mahadilokphop Noppharat
Ratchathani Burirom Udomratchaniwet Mahasathan Amon Piman Awatan Sathit
Sakkathatthiya Witsanukam Prasit (meaning City of Angels, Great City
of Immortals, Magnificent City of the Nine Gems, Seat of the King, City
of Royal Palaces, Home of the Gods Incarnate, Erected by Visvakarman
at Indra's Behest). It is usually just called Krungthep by locals, and
Bangkok ("City of Wild Plums") in the rest of the world. It was founded
in 1782 by King Rama I,
2000 US President Clinton nominates former Congressman Norman
Mineta to lead the Commerce Department and become the first Asian-American
Cabinet Secretary.
1998 AOL upgrades CompuServe
Nine months after agreeing to
purchase CompuServe's online business, America Online launches
an overhauled version of the service. AOL chose to revise CompuServe
rather than fold it into its existing online service, because
the CompuServe brand was more appealing to business and technical
users than AOL, which was largely known for its chat rooms and
celebrity forums. |
1998 Macy's online
Federated Department Stores,
the owner of Macy's, says it will expand Macy's existing Web
site into an electronic catalog site. The expanded site, slated
to launch in October 1998, will include 250'000 products and
an online bridal registry |
1996 US allies back US President Clinton's demand that Bosnian
Serb leaders indicted for war crimes be forced "out of power and out
of influence."
1995 Microsoft pays IBM patent
fee ^top^
Microsoft agrees to pay IBM a
multimillion-dollar licensing fee for many basic software functions.
The one-time fee covers more than one thousand patents IBM holds
on software basics, such as the movement of a cursor based on
the tab key. Industry observers compare the agreement to a divorce
settlement: The two companies had worked together for twelve
years, with Microsoft providing the operating system for IBM
computers, but the two companies had been at war since launching
competing operating systems-Windows and OS/2. This was the first
time IBM had demanded fees its software patents. |
1994 El socialista Tomiichi Murayama es elegido primer ministro
de Japón.
1994 El transbordador estadounidense Atlantis y la estación rusa
Mir se unen en el espacio, 20 años después del primer acoplamiento orbital
ruso-norteamericano.
1992 The US Supreme Court rules in PLANNED
PARENTHOOD of SOUTHEASTERN PENNSYLVANIA, ET AL. v. CASEY, GOVERNOR OF
PENNSYLVANIA, ET AL
1989 US
Congress votes new sanctions against China
^top^
In yet another reaction to the
Chinese government's brutal massacre of protesters in Tiananmen
Square in Beijing earlier in the month, the House of Representatives
unanimously passes a package of sanctions against the People's
Republic of China. American indignation, however, was relatively
short-lived and most of the sanctions died out after a brief
period. On June 4, 1989, Chinese troops and police smashed into
hundreds of thousands of protesters who had gathered in Tiananmen
Square in central Beijing to protest for greater democracy and
freedom. Thousands were killed and tens of thousands arrested.
In the United States, the public and government reacted with
horror. President George Bush immediately ordered sanctions
against the Chinese government, including a ban on arms shipments,
the cessation of high-level talks with Chinese officials, and
a suspension of talks about nuclear cooperation.
Bush hoped that these sanctions
would be enough to indicate the US government's displeasure
and anger over the events in Tiananmen Square, but many members
of Congress felt that the president had not gone far enough
in punishing China for its egregious human rights violations.
Over Bush's objections, the House of Representatives unanimously
passed a new package of sanctions on 29 June. The new package
included the proviso that the previous sanctions enacted by
Bush could not be lifted until there were assurances that China
was making progress in the area of human rights. The new sanctions
focused on economic and trade relations with China. They suspended
talks and funds for the expansion of US-Chinese trade, and also
banned the shipment of police equipment to China.
In the face of these sanctions,
China remained largely unrepentant. It was not until May 1990
that the Chinese government began to release some of the thousands
of protesters arrested the year before. However, diplomacy and
economics eventually won out over moral indignation. The United
States government had spent nearly 20 years trying to cultivate
better relations with China, which it saw as a growing power
and one that might be profitably used to balance against the
Soviet Union. In addition, US businesspeople were filled with
anticipation about the economic possibilities of the Chinese
market. Finally, in 1991 the collapse of the Soviet Union meant
the end of the Cold War, and all talk of "evil empires." In
the face of these pressures and events, most of the sanctions
fell by the wayside over the next few years. |
1982 Voting Rights Act of 1965 extended
1981 Hu Yaobang, a protege of Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping, was
elected Communist Party chairman, replacing Mao Tse-tung's handpicked
successor, Hua Guofeng.
1977 Supreme Court ruled out death penalty for rapists of adults
1976 Proclamation de l’Indépendance
des Seychelles
^top^
Le pays adopte une Constitution
libérale, démocratique, de type occidental. Elles sont membres
du Commonwealth, mais pratique une politique de " non-alignement
" assez idéaliste. Cet état de l’Océan Indien, au nord-est de
Madagascar, est constitué d’un archipel volcanique de moins
de 500 km². Il compte près de 70'000 autochtones, mais de nombreuses
sociétés et de riches hommes d’affaires ou vedettes étrangers
choisissent d’y habiter pour des raisons fiscales (Paradis !).
Sa capitale est "Victoria" sur la petite île de Mahé. On y parle
le créole, ainsi que le français et l’anglais, suite aux occupations
coloniales. Occupée par les Français dès 1756, les Seychelles
passèrent sous contrôle britannique après la défaite de Napoléon.
|
1974 Isabela
de Perón takes office as Argentine President
^top^
With Argentine President Juan
Perón on his deathbed, vice president Isabela Martínez
de Perón, 43, his third wife, is sworn in as the leader
of the South American country. President Isabel Perón,
a former dancer and Perón's third wife, is the Western
Hemisphere's first female head of government. Two days later,
Juan dies from heart disease, and Isabel is left alone as leader
of a nation suffering from serious economic and political strife.
Juan Domingo Perón was
first elected president of Argentina in 1946, thanks in part
to the efforts of his charismatic second wife, Eva Duarte de
Perón and to the support of the underprivileged laborers
(the descamisados), After becoming president, Perón constructed
an impressive populist alliance that included workers, the military,
nationalists, clerics, and industrialists. Perón's vision
of self-sufficiency for his country won wide support from the
Argentine people, but over the next decade he became increasingly
authoritarian, jailing political opponents, restricting freedom
of the press, and organizing trade unions into militant groups
along Fascist lines. In 1952, the president's greatest political
resource, "Evita" Perón, died, and his unusual social
coalition collapsed, leading to a military coup in 1955 that
forced him to flee the country.
In exile in Madrid, in 1961 Juan
Perón married for the third time (his first wife had
died of cancer, as had Evita); his new wife was the former María
Estela (called Isabel) Martínez, an Argentine dancer. In Spain,
Perón worked to ensure, if not his return to Argentina, at least
the eventual assumption of power by the millions of Peronist
followers, whose memory of his regime improved with time and
with the incapacity of the Argentine governments following Perón's
decade of power.
Perón's economic reforms
remained popular with the majority of Argentineans long after
his departure.In election after election the Peronists emerged
as a large, indigestible mass in the Argentine body politic.
Neither the civilian nor the military regimes that precariously
ruled in Argentina after 1955 were able to solve the relatively
rich nation's condition of “dynamic stagnation,” in part because
they refused to give political office to the Peronists.
The military regime of General
Alejandro Lanusse, which took power in March 1971, proclaimed
its intention to restore constitutional democracy by the end
of 1973 and allowed the reestablishment of political parties,
including the Peronist party. Upon invitation from the military
government, Perón returned to Argentina for a short time in
November 1972. In the elections of March 1973, Peronist candidates
captured the presidency and majorities in the legislature, and,
in June 1973 , Perón was welcomed back to Argentina with wild
excitement. In October, in a special election, he was elected
president and, at his insistence, his wife “Isabelita”
— whom the Argentines disliked and resented — became vice president.
After his sudden illness and impending death in the following
year, his wife assumes the presidency.
President Isabel Perón
would prove unable to command the support of any powerful group,
let alone construct a necessary coalition, and the political
and economic situation in Argentina worsened. On 24 March 1976,
following a sharp rise in political terrorism and guerrilla
activity, the military deposed Isabela de Perón, and
instituted one of the bloodiest regimes in South American history.
Isabel de Perón was imprisoned for five years on a charge
of abuse of property, and upon her release in 1981 settled in
Madrid |
1972 US Supreme Court kills
death penalty
^top^
In Furman
v. Georgia (69-5003), the US Supreme Court rules by
a vote of five to four that capital punishment, as it then employed
on the state and federal level, is unconstitutional. The majority
holds that, in violation of the Eighth Amendment to the Constitution,
the death penalty qualifies as "cruel and unusual punishment"
primarily because states employ execution in "arbitrary and
capricious ways," especially in regard to race.
It is the first time that the
nation's highest court had ruled against capital punishment.
However, because the Supreme Court suggests new legislation
that could make death sentences constitutional again, such as
the development of standardized guidelines for sentencing juries,
it is not an outright victory for opponents of the death penalty.
In 1976, with 66% of the US population
still supporting capital punishment, the Supreme Court would
acknowledged progress made in jury guidelines and revive the
death penalty under a "model of guided discretion." In 1977,
Gary Gilmore, a career criminal who had murdered an elderly
couple because they would not lend him their car, was the first
person to be executed since the end of the ban. Defiantly facing
a firing squad in Utah, Gilmore's last words to his executioners
before they shot him through the heart were "Let's do it." |
1970 España y la Comunidad Económica Europea firman en Luxemburgo
un acuerdo comercial preferente.
1970 US ground troops leave
Cambodia ^top^
US ground combat troops end two
months of operations in Cambodia and return to South Vietnam.
Military officials reported that 354 US soldiers had been killed
and 1689 were wounded in the operation. The South Vietnamese
reported 866 killed and 3724 wounded. About 34'000 South Vietnamese
troops remained in Cambodia. US and South Vietnamese forces
had launched a limited "incursion" into Cambodia to clear North
Vietnamese sanctuaries 30 km inside the Cambodian border. Some
50'000 South Vietnamese soldiers and 30'000 US soldiers were
involved, making it the largest operation of the war since Operation
Junction City in 1967.
The incursion into Cambodia had
given the antiwar movement in the United States a new rallying
point. News of the crossing into Cambodia set off a wave of
antiwar demonstrations, including one at Kent State University
that resulted in the killing of four students by Army National
Guard troops, and another at Jackson State in Mississippi resulting
in the shooting of two students when police opened fire on a
women's dormitory. The incursion also angered many in Congress,
who felt that Nixon was illegally widening the scope of the
war; this resulted in a series of congressional resolutions
and legislative initiatives that would severely limit the executive
power of the president. |
1967 Jerusalem is re-unified as Israel removed barricades separating
the Arab Old City from the Israeli sector.
1966 Vietnam air war escalates
^top^
During the Vietnam War, US
aircraft bombed the major North Vietnamese population centers
of Hanoi and Haiphong for the first time, destroying oil depots
located near the two cities. The US military hoped that by
bombing Hanoi, the capital of North Vietnam, and Haiphong, North
Vietnam's largest port, Communist forces would be deprived of
essential military supplies and thus the ability to wage war.
In 1961, US President John
F. Kennedy had sent the first large force of US military personnel
to Vietnam to bolster the ineffectual autocratic regime of South
Vietnam against Communist forces. Three years later, with the
South Vietnamese government crumbling, President Lyndon B. Johnson
ordered limited-bombing raids on North Vietnam and Congress
authorized the use of US troops. By 1965, Vietcong and North
Vietnamese offensives left President Johnson with two choices:
escalate US involvement or withdraw. Johnson ordered the former,
and troop levels soon jumped to over 300'000 as US air forces
commenced the largest bombing campaign in history.
However, as the Vietcong were
able to fight with an average daily flow of only twenty tons
of supplies from North Vietnam, and US forces in Vietnam required
one thousand times as much, the bombing of Communist industry
and supply routes had little impact on the course of the war.
Nevertheless, North Vietnamese leader Ho Chi Minh placed the
destruction of US bombers in the forefront of his war effort,
and by 1969, over 5000 US planes had been lost.
In addition, the extended length
of the war, the high number of US casualties, and the exposure
of US involvement in war crimes such as the massacre at My
Lai had turned many in the United States against the Vietnam
War. In 1970, President Richard M. Nixon began withdrawing US
troops, but intensified bombing across Indochina in an effort
to salvage the embattled war effort. Large US troop withdrawals
continued in the early 1970s, but Nixon expanded air and ground
operations into Cambodia and Laos in attempts to block enemy
supply routes along Vietnam's borders. This expansion of the
war, which accomplished few positive results, led to new waves
of protests in the United States and elsewhere.
Finally, in 1973, representatives
of the United States, North and South Vietnam, and the Vietcong
signed a peace agreement in Paris, ending the US military involvement
in the Vietnam War. By the end of 1973, the US contingent in
Vietnam had shrunk to only fifty military advisors. On 30 April
1975, the last of these and other US persons were airlifted
out of Vietnam as Communist forces launched their final triumphant
offensive into South Vietnam. The Vietnam War was the longest
and most unpopular foreign war in US history, and cost fifty-eight
thousand US lives. |
1964 Civil Rights Act of 1964 passed after 83-day filibuster
in Senate
1964 First
New Zealand troops arrive in Vietnam
^top^
Twenty-four New Zealand Army
engineers arrive in Saigon as a token of that country's support
for the American effort in South Vietnam. The contingent was
part of the Free World Military Forces, an effort by President
Lyndon B. Johnson to enlist other nations to support the American
cause in South Vietnam by sending military aid and troops. The
level of support was not the primary issue; Johnson wanted to
portray international solidarity and consensus for US policies
in Southeast Asia and he believed that participation by a number
of countries would achieve that end. The effort was also known
as the "many flags" program. In June 1965, New Zealand increased
their commitment to the war with the arrival of the Royal New
Zealand Artillery's 161st Battery. Two rifle companies from
the Royal New Zealand Infantry Regiment arrived in South Vietnam
in 1967 along with a platoon from New Zealand's commando force,
the Special Air Service. These New Zealand forces were integrated
with the forces of the Australian Task Force and operated with
them in Phuoc Tuy Province, southeast of Saigon along the coast.
In 1971, New Zealand withdrew its military forces from South
Vietnam. |
1959 Pope John
XXIII encyclical Ad
Petri Cathedram, on Truth, Unity and Peace
1956 US Federal interstate highway system act signed
1954 US Atomic Energy Commission votes against reinstating Dr
J Robert Oppenheimer's access to classified information.
1951 The United States invites the Soviet Union to the
Korean peace talks on a ship in Wonson Harbor. A
fresh perspective on the Korean War.
1950 President Harry S. Truman authorizes a sea blockade of Korea.
He relied heavily on Dean Acheson for his most significant foreign policy
achievements.
1949 Las tropas holandesas abandonan Indonesia.
1949 South Africa begins implementing apartheid; enacting a
ban against racially-mixed marriages.
1949 US troops withdraw from Korea after WW II (it would not
be for long)
1946 British arrest 2700 Jews in Palestine as alleged terrorists
1945 Ruthenia, formerly in Czechoslovakia, becomes part of Ukrainian
SSR
1941
Overwhelming follow-through to German invasion of USSR.
^top^
Soon after their surprise assault
on Russia, Nazi divisions make staggering advances on Leningrad,
Moscow, and Kiev. Joseph Stalin had ignored warnings that Hitler
would betray the 1939 Nazi-Soviet non-aggression pact, and the
Germans seized over 1'300'000 square kilometers of Russian territory
in the first two months of the invasion. However, the tenacity
of the Red Army and the severity of the Russian winter had yet
to be experienced by the Germans.
One week after launching a massive
invasion of the USSR, German divisions make staggering advances
on Leningrad, Moscow, and Kiev. Despite his signing of the Nazi-Soviet
Pact of 1939, Soviet leader Joseph Stalin knew that war with
Nazi Germany--the USSR's natural ideological enemy--was inevitable.
In 1941, he received reports that German forces were massing
along the USSR's eastern border. He ordered a partial mobilization,
unwisely believing that Nazi leader Adolf Hitler would never
open another front until Britain was subdued. Stalin was thus
surprised by the invasion that came on 22 June 1941. On that
day, 150 German divisions poured across the Soviet Union's 2900-km-long
eastern frontier in one of the largest and most powerful military
operations in history. Aided by its far superior air force,
the Wehrmacht, the Germans raced across the USSR in three great
army groups, inflicting terrible casualties on the Red Army
and Soviet civilians. On June 29, the cities of Riga and Ventspils
in Latvia fell, 200 Soviet aircraft were shot down, and the
encirclement of three Russian armies was nearly complete at
Minsk in Belarus. Assisted by their Romanian and Finnish allies,
the Germans conquered vast territory in the opening months of
the invasion, and by mid-October the great Russian cities of
Leningrad and Moscow were under siege.
However, like Napoleon Bonaparte
in 1812, Hitler failed to take into account the Russian people's
historic determination in resisting invaders. Although millions
of Soviet soldiers and citizens perished in 1941, and to the
rest of the world it seemed certain that the USSR would fall,
the defiant Red Army and bitter Russian populace were steadily
crushing Hitler's hopes for a quick victory. Stalin had far
greater reserves of Red Army divisions than German intelligence
had anticipated, and the Soviet government did not collapse
from lack of popular support as expected.
Confronted with the harsh reality
of Nazi occupation, Soviets chose Stalin's regime as the lesser
of two evils and willingly sacrificed themselves in what became
known as the "Great Patriotic War." The German offensive against
Moscow stalled only 30 km from the Kremlin, Leningrad's spirit
of resistance remained strong, and the Soviet armament industry--transported
by train to the safety of the east--carried on, safe from the
fighting. Finally, what the Russians call "General Winter" rallied
again to their cause, crippling the Germans' ability to maneuver
and thinning the ranks of the divisions ordered to hold their
positions until the next summer offensive.
The winter of 1941 came early
and was the worst in decades, and German troops without winter
coats were decimated by the major Soviet counteroffensives that
began in December. In May 1942, the Germans, who had held their
line at great cost, launched their summer offensive. They captured
the Caucasus and pushed to the city of Stalingrad, where one
of the greatest battles of World War II began. In November 1942,
a massive Soviet counteroffensive was launched out of the rubble
of Stalingrad, and at the end of January 1943 German Field Marshal
Friedrich Paulus surrendered his encircled army. It was the
turning point in the war, and the Soviets subsequently recaptured
all the territory taken by the Germans in their 1942 offensive.
In July 1943, the Germans launched
their last major attack, at Kursk; after two months of fierce
battle involving thousands of tanks it ended in failure. From
thereon, the Red Army steadily pushed the Germans back in a
series of Soviet offensives. In January 1944, Leningrad was
relieved, and a giant offensive to sweep the USSR clean of its
invaders began in May. In January 1945, the Red Army launched
its final offensive, driving into Czechoslovakia and Austria
and, in late April, Berlin. The German capital was captured
on 02 May, and five days later Germany surrendered in World
War II. More than 18 million Soviet soldiers and civilians lost
their lives in the Great Patriotic War. Germany lost more than
three million men as a result of its disastrous invasion of
the USSR. |
1940 II Guerra Mundial: los alemanes llegan a la frontera franco-española
y ocupan las islas anglonormandas.
1940 US passes Alien Registration Act requiring Aliens to register
1939 Dixie Clipper completes first commercial plane flight to
Europe
1936 Pope Pius XI encyclical to US bishops "On motion pictures"
1932 Siam’s army seizes Bangkok and announces an end to the absolute
monarchy.
1931 Pope
Pius XI publishes his Non
Abbiamo Bisogno, on Catholic Action in Italy
1931 43ºC, Monticello, Florida (state record)
1930 Canonisation par le Pape
Pie XI de Jean de Brébeuf.
^top^
Le missionnaire Jésuite Français
"en Huronie" est né en 1593, mort en 1649, il a participé à
l’évangélisation et à la " civilisation " de ces vastes régions
du Québec. Jean de Brébeuf a vécu pendant quinze années au milieu
des Hurons. Nul ne les connaissait mieux que lui : il leur a
consacré des pages qui comptent parmi les plus précieuses de
l’ethnographie amérindienne.
Né à Condé-sur-Vire, en Normandie,
il entre chez les Jésuites en 1617 : il est ordonné prêtre en
1622. Désigné pour la nouvelle mission jésuite du Canada, il
débarque à Québec en 1625. Pendant cinq mois, il suit les Algonquins
dans leurs courses vagabondes. Mais c’est à la nation huronne,
à 800 milles de Québec, que son supérieur le destine. Il s’y
rend en 1626, y séjourne trois ans, étudiant la langue et les
mœurs huronnes, mais ne fait aucun progrès dans l’évangélisation.
Rappelé à Québec en 1629, il
est forcé de rentrer en France et ne retourne dans la colonie
qu’en 1633, après l’occupation anglaise. Dès 1634, il remonte
en Huronie, comme supérieur, avec l’ordre de fonder et d’organiser
une mission permanente. Le travail missionnaire semble, cette
fois, devoir donner des résultats. Mais, coup sur coup, en 1634,
1636 et 1639, des épidémies d’une rare violence déciment les
Hurons. De 30'000, la population tombe à 12'000. Il n’en fallait
pas tant pour que les Jésuites fussent accusés de sorcellerie,
et la religion nouvelle décriée. Une lutte ouverte s’engage
entre les Indiens courroucés et apeurés et les missionnaires
résignés à mourir assassinés. Plusieurs de ceux-ci se voient
à la dernière extrémité, mais la crainte que les Hurons ont
des Français de Québec les retient toujours de massacrer les
Jésuites.
Brébeuf, qui a fondé trois postes
avant de céder le supériorat en 1638, est victime d’un accident
et doit regagner Québec en 1641. Il exercera pendant trois ans
les fonctions de procureur de la mission. Quand Brébeuf retourne
en Huronie, en 1644, la guerre atteint son point culminant.
Décimés par les maladies, divisés et désorientés par l’introduction
d’une religion et de coutumes nouvelles, démoralisés, les Hurons
sont désormais une proie facile pour leur puissant ennemi. Incapables
de résistance, ils se convertissent par milliers.
Mais la fin est proche. À partir
de 1647, les Iroquois détruisent systématiquement la Huronie,
bourg après bourg, et massacrent les missionnaires. Le 16 mars
1649, Brébeuf est capturé. Les Iroquois le martyrisent longuement,
atrocement, avec les raffinements d’une cruauté inouïe. |
1926 Fascists in Rome add an hour to the work day in an economic
efficiency measure.
1917 The Ukraine proclaims independence from Russia — Se
proclama la República Autónoma de Ucrania.
1916 Boeing aircraft flies for first time
1916 British diplomat convicted
of treason
^top^
Sir Roger David Casement, the
Irish-born diplomat who in 1911 was knighted by King George
V, is convicted of treason for his role in Ireland's Easter
Rebellion, and sentenced to death. Casement, an Irish Protestant
who served as a British diplomat during the early part of the
twentieth century, won international acclaim after exposing
the illegal practice of slavery in the Congo and parts of South
America. Despite his Ulster Protestant roots, he became an ardent
supporter of the Irish independence movement, and after the
outbreak of World War I, traveled to the United States and then
to Germany to secure aid for an Irish uprising against the British.
Germany, which was at war with Great Britain, promised limited
aid, and Casement was transported back to Ireland in a German
submarine.
On 21 April 1916, just a few
days before the outbreak of the Easter Rebellion in Dublin,
he landed in Kerry, and was picked up by British authorities
almost immediately. By the end of the month, the Easter Rebellion
had been suppressed, and the majority of its leaders were executed.
Casement was tried separately because of his illustrious past,
but nevertheless was found guilty of treason on 29 June. On
03 August, he was hanged in London. |
| 1914 Monday: in the aftermath of the previous
day's assassination in Sarajevo of Archduke Francis Ferdinand
of Austria-Hungary and his wife, Sophia:
^top^
Belgrade wires its condolences to Vienna.
Serbian
Prime Minister Nikola Pasic renounces the Black Hand and
orders all public meeting places closed.
The week long Serb festival celebrating St. Vitus Day is
cancelled.
Widespread rioting and looting by Croats and Moslems in
Sarajevo directed towards the Serbian population. Good deal
of property damage with injuries.
Austrian
Foreign Minister Count
Leopold von Berchtold's initial stance is one of moderation;
dismiss Belgrade's minister of police, jail all suspected
terrorists, and dissolve extremist groups. Austrian army
Chief of Staff General Conrad von
Hotzendorff wants invasion but needs sixteen days to
mobilize his troops.
The Austrians are aware of a trip by French
President Raymond Poincare and Prime Minister Rene Viviani
to Russia
that will end 23-Jul-1914. It was agreed that no action should
take place until then. It would not do to have French and
Russians in such close contact during the crisis to follow.
Hungarian Prime Minister, Count Istvan Tisza, does not want
any action that could bring war with Russia. He is in direct
conflict with Austrian counterpart, Count Berchtold.
London newspaper runs headline: "To Hell with Serbia".
However, King
George V decrees seven days of mourning.
Not to be outdone, Czar
Nicholas II orders twelve days of mourning.
|
1913 Beginning of the 2nd Balkan War
1913 El Parlamento noruego concede a las mujeres todos los derechos
electorales.
1906 Hepburn Act controls US
railroads ^top^
Overwhelmingly elected to the
presidency in 1904, Theodore Roosevelt immediately asked Congress
for substantial powers to regulate interstate railroad rates.
Public demand for effective national regulation of interstate
railroad rates had been growing since the Supreme Court had
emasculated the Interstate Commerce Commission's (ICC) rate-making
authority in the 1890s. Determined to bring the railroads--the
country's single greatest private economic interest--under effective
national control, Roosevelt waged an unrelenting battle with
an uncooperative Congress in 1905 and 1906.
The outcome--the Hepburn Act
of 1906--was his own personal triumph, giving teeth to the previously
flaccid ICC, despite Congress dragging its heels and tacking
on several self-serving "amendments" before agreeing to pass
the bill. The Hepburn Act greatly enlarged the ICC's jurisdiction
and forbade railroads to increase rates without its approval.
By giving the ICC the authority to set maximum rates, Roosevelt
effectively created the first of the government's regulatory
commissions and thus cleared a milestone on the long road to
the modern social-service state.
By using the same tactics of
aggressive leadership, Roosevelt in 1906 also obtained passage
of a Meat Inspection Act and a Pure Food and Drug Act. Passage
of the former was aided by the publication of Upton Sinclair's
famous novel, The Jungle (1906), which revealed in ghastly
detail the unsanitary conditions of the Chicago stockyards and
meat-packing plants. |
1905 Russian troops intervene as riots erupt in ports all over
the country, leaving many ships looted
1903 The British government officially protests Belgian atrocities
in the Congo.
1900 Comienza a regir la Fundación Nobel que otorga los premios
de este mismo nombre.
1897 Conventions entre l’Etat
Italien et la République libre de Saint-Marin (San-Marino).
^top^
Comme Monaco pour la France,
le Liechtenstein pour la Suisse, Saint-Marin, à l’est de Florence,
est une enclave indépendante. Elle est sous "protectorat", comme
les deux exemples précités. Elle ne compte que 61 km² et 5000
habitants, qui vivent essentiellement dans la capitale, Saint-Marin.
San-Marino est indépendante depuis
le XIème siècle. A cette époque, en Europe Occidentale, beaucoup
de villes se sont développées (suite à la croissance démographique
et à l’évolution vers le commerce et l’artisanat semi-industriel
consécutif aux Croisades) et se sont détachées du Pouvoir Seigneurial.
Elles ont racheté leurs libertés au Seigneur qui avait besoin
d’argent. Elles se sont dotés de lois propres, d’un Conseil
législatif, d’un exécutif propre et d’armées (ainsi que de murailles)
pour garantir leurs droits.
Actuellement, le Grand Conseil
(60 membres élus " directement) forment le législatif ; lequel
élit deux "capitaines-régents" pour 6 mois. La république de
San-Marino applique la loi italienne dans son ensemble, utilise
la lire (bientôt l’Euro) mais possède des lois propres (fiscalité,
commerce, taxation etc) régies depuis 1935 par une nouvelle
Convention avec l’Italie de Mussolini. Ces accords n’ont pas
encore été revus. Parce que cette situation relève d’un folklore
qui attire beaucoup de touristes. |
1890 Tratado franco-español por el que se reconoció a España un
territorio en el Golfo de Guinea, actual Guinea Ecuatorial.
1880 Tahiti becomes a French colony, from the. French protectorate
it was since 1842.
1868 Pío IX convoca el Concilio Vaticano I, que debía inaugurarse
en Roma el 8 de diciembre del año siguiente.
1863 Siege of Port Hudson, Louisiana continues
1863 Siege of Vicksburg, Mississippi continues
1863 Lee orders his forces to concentrate near Gettysburg, PN
1862 Day 5 of the 7 Days Campaign--Union forces continue to
fall back from Richmond, but put up a fight at the Battle of Savage’s
Station, Virginia. Tall
Tales of the Civil War.
1862 Battle of Savage's Station
^top^
Confederate General Robert E.
Lee attacks Union General George McClellan as he is pulling
his army away from Richmond, Virginia, in retreat during the
Seven Days' Battles. Although the Yankees lost 1,000 men—twice
as many as the Rebels—they were able to successfully protect
the retreat. George McClellan spent the spring of 1862 preparing
the Army of the Potomac for a campaign up the James Peninsula
toward Richmond. For nearly three months, McClellan landed his
troops at Fort Monroe, at the end of the peninsula, and worked
northwest to Richmond. The Seven Days' Battles were the climax
of this attempt to take the Confederate capital. Although he
had an advantage in numbers, McClellan squandered it and surrendered
the initiative to Lee, who attacked the Yankees and began driving
them away from Richmond. As McClelland retreated, Lee hounded
his army. When the Union army moved past Savage's Station—a
stop on the Richmond and York River Railroad and the site of
a Union hospital—Lee ordered an assault on the troops screening
the retreat. This was a chance to break McClellan's flank and
deal a shattering defeat to the Yankees. But although Lee's
strategy was sound, it was complicated, requiring precise timing
on the part of several generals. The Confederates inflicted
serious damage on the Northerners but were not able to break
the rear guard. Fighting continued until nightfall, when a torrential
rainstorm ended the battle. |
1858 China cedes north bank of Amur River to Russia in compliance
with the "unequal treaty" of Algun of May 16, 1858.
1835
Texan William Travis prepares for war with Mexico
^top^
Determined to win independence
for the Mexican State of Texas, William Travis raises a volunteer
army of 25 soldiers and prepares to liberate the city of Anahuac.
Born in South Carolina and raised in Alabama, William Travis
moved to Mexican-controlled Texas in 1831 at the age of 22.
He established a legal practice in Anahuac, a small frontier
town about 40 miles east of Houston. From the start, Travis
disliked Mexicans personally and resented Mexican rule of Texas
politically. In 1832, he clashed with local Mexican officials
and was jailed for a month.
When he was released, the growing
Texan independence movement hailed him as a hero, strengthening
his resolve to break away from Mexico by whatever means necessary.
Early in 1835, the Mexican President Antonio López de Santa
Anna overthrew the republican government and proclaimed himself
dictator. Rightly fearing that some Texans would rebel as a
result, Santa Anna quickly moved to reinforce Mexican control
and dispatched troops to Anahuac, among other areas. Accustomed
to enjoying a large degree of autonomy, some Texans resented
the presence of Santa Anna's troops, and they turned to Travis
for leadership.
On 29 June 1835, Travis raises
a company of 25 volunteer soldiers. The next day, the small
army easily captured Captain Antonio Tenorio, the leader of
Santa Anna's forces in Anahuac, and forced the troops to surrender.
More radical Texans again proclaimed Travis a hero, but others
condemned him for trying to foment war and maintained that Santa
Anna could still be dealt with short of revolution. By the fall
of 1835, however, conflict had become inevitable, and Texans
prepared to fight a war of independence. As soon as the rebels
had formed an army, Travis was made a lieutenant colonel in
command of the regular troops at San Antonio.
On 23 February 1836 Travis joined
forces with Jim Bowie's army of volunteers to occupy an old
Spanish mission known as the Alamo. The following day, Santa
Anna and about 4000 of his men laid siege to the Alamo. With
less than 200 soldiers, Travis and Bowie were able to hold off
the Mexicans for 13 days. On 06 March Santa Anna's soldiers
stormed the Alamo and killed nearly every Texan defender, including
Travis. In the months that followed, "Remember the Alamo" became
a rallying cry as the Texans successfully drove the Mexican
forces from their borders. By April, Texas had won its independence.
Travis, who first hastened the war of independence and then
became a martyr to the cause, became an enduring symbol of Texan
courage and defiance. |
1776 Virginia state constitution adopted and Patrick Henry made
governor
1767 The British Parliament approves the Townshend Revenue
Acts, which imposed import duties on glass, lead, paint, paper and
tea shipped to America. Colonists bitterly protested the Acts, which
were repealed in 1770.
1707 Felipe V de España abole los fueros de Aragón e implanta
los primeros Decretos de Nueva Planta.
1706 Guerra de Sucesión. Una columna de caballería, a las órdenes
del marqués de Villaverde, toma posesión de Madrid en nombre del archiduque
Carlos.
1694 Le corsaire Jean Bart (1650
- 1702) est anobli.
^top^
Corsaire et chef d’escadre dunkerquois,
issu d’une famille de marins, Jean Bart sert d’abord dans la
flotte des Provinces-Unies (Les Pays Bas, la Hollande) sous
les ordres de l’amiral De Ruyter (1666). Quand éclate la guerre
franco-hollandaise (1672), il rentre à Dunkerque, s’embarque
sur un navire corsaire et est rapidement promu au commandement
d’un bâtiment (1674). À la fin de la guerre en 1678, il est
un des plus célèbres "capres" (corsaires) de sa ville natale,
avec quatre-vingt-une prises à son actif.
La guerre de la Ligue d’Augsbourg
porte sa réputation à son zénith. Fait prisonnier en 1689 avec
son lieutenant Claude de Forbin, tous deux s’évadent de Plymouth
à bord d’une barque et rejoignent la côte française à force
de rames. Capitaine de vaisseau, il se voit confier par le roi
une escadre légère avec laquelle il multiplie les croisières
en mer du Nord contre le commerce anglais et hollandais, à qui
il fait subir des dommages considérables. Et c’est en vain que
les escadres ennemies font le blocus de Dunkerque et bombardent
la ville à deux reprises (1694-1695) dans l’espoir déçu de lui
interdire la haute mer, ainsi qu’aux autres corsaires.
En 1694, alors que la France
souffre de la disette, il protège les arrivages de blé russe,
notamment le 29 juin, quand il reprend aux Hollandais, qui venaient
de s’en emparer, un énorme convoi qu’il amène à bon port, exploit
pour lequel il est anobli. Promu chef d’escadre en 1697, il
est commandant de la marine de Dunkerque, quand il meurt à la
veille d’entrer en campagne dans la guerre de la Succession
d’Espagne.
Le succès de Jean Bart résulte
de la conjonction de trois éléments : d’une part, ses qualités
personnelles d’homme de mer, audace et sens tactique (croisières
foudroyantes sur de légères frégates, rapides et bonnes manœuvrières,
combat au plus près, terminé à l’abordage) ; d’autre part, le
milieu dunkerquois avec sa nombreuse population de marins qui
lui fournit officiers et équipages d’un courage héroïque ; et
enfin la politique navale du secrétaire d’État, Louis de Ponchartrain,
qui encourage systématiquement la guerre de course. |
1652 Massachusetts declares itself an independent commonwealth
1613 Shakespeare's theater burns
down ^top^
The Globe Theater, where most
of Shakespeare's plays debuted, burns down on this day in 1613.
The Globe was built by Shakespeare's acting company, the Lord
Chamberlain's Men, in 1599 from the timbers of London's very
first permanent theater, Burbage's Theater, built in 1576. Before
James Burbage built his theater, plays and dramatic performances
were ad hoc affairs, performed on street corners and in the
yards of inns.
However, the Common Council of
London, in 1574, started licensing theatrical pieces performed
in inn yards within the city limits. To escape the restriction,
actor James Burbage built his own theater on land he leased
outside the city limits. When Burbage's lease ran out, the Lord
Chamberlain's Men moved the timbers to a new location and created
the Globe.
Like other theaters of its time,
the Globe was a round wooden structure with a stage at one end,
and covered balconies for the gentry. The galleries could seat
about 1000 people, with room for another 2000 "groundlings,"
who could stand on the ground around the stage. The Lord Chamberlain's
men built Blackfriars theater in 1608, a smaller theater that
seated about 700 people, to use in winter when the open-air
Globe wasn't practical. |
1529 Se firma el tratado de Barcelona, que restablece
la paz entre el papa Clemente VII y el emperador Carlos I de España y
V de Alemania.
1236 Saint
Ferdinand III of Castile and León takes Córdoba in Spain
from the Moors.
|
site safe for children 