Category Archives: History

History

On this day March 26

Today in History

  • 2000 Vladimir Putin is elected President of Russia

    The ex-KGB officer has been lauded for leading Russia out of the 1990 economic crisis and criticized for building a regime that many have described as authoritarian and undemocratic.

  • 1995 The Schengen Agreement enters into force

    Within the Schengen Area, which encompasses most of Europe, regular border checks have been abolished.

  • 1991 4 South American countries establish Mercosur

    Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay, and Paraguay were the founding members of the Southern Common Market.

  • 1979 The Israel-Egypt Peace Treaty is signed

    Egypt’s President Anwar al-Sadat and Israel’s Prime Minister Menachem Begin signed the treaty, which ended 30 years of war between the 2 countries.

  • 1975 The Biological Weapons Convention comes into effect

    The treaty bans the development, production and stockpiling of biological and toxin weapons. It has now been ratified by most countries worldwide.

History

On this day March 25

 On This Day – March 25

  • 1995 WikiWikiWeb, the world’s first wiki, is launched

    Ward Cunningham introduced the wiki, or user-editable website. Today, Wikipedia is the world’s most well known and widely used wiki.

  • 1988 Thousands of people join the first peaceful demonstrations against the communist regime in Czechoslovakia

    The Candle Demonstration was brutally dispersed by the Police but was the first step towards the Velvet Revolution that resulted in the establishment of democracy in the country.

  • 1975 King Faisal of Saudi Arabia is assassinated by his nephew

    Despite the king’s dying wish that the life of the assassin be spared, Faisal bin Musaid was publicly executed on June 18, 1975.

  • 1957 6 countries found the European Economic Community

    The EEC’s establishment was an important step towards European integration and the creation of the European Union (EU).

  • 1949 The Soviet Union begins deporting some 90,000 Estonians, Latvians, and Lithuanians to some of Russia’s most inhospitable areas

    Operation Priboi, also known as March deportation, was designed to weaken the Baltic nationalist movement. Most of the deportees, labeled “enemies of the people” by the Soviet authorities, were women and children.

History

On this day March 23

Today in History

  • 2001 The Russian space station Mir plunges into the sea

    The legendary station was disposed of in a controlled crash after 15 years in space.

  • 1980 Archbishop Óscar Romero calls on members of the El Salvador armed forces to stop killing their fellow Salvadorians

    A death squad assassinated the archbishop only one day after his famous sermon.

  • 1956 Pakistan becomes the world’s first Islamic republic

    The Dominion of Pakistan also included the area of modern-day Bangladesh or East Pakistan, which seceded in 1971.

  • 1933 The Enabling Act of 1933 grants Adolf Hitler dictatorial powers in Germany

    With the Ermächtigungsgesetz, Hitler was awarded the legal right to issue laws even if in breach of the German constitution.

  • 1888 The Football League meets for the first time

    The league featuring teams from England and Wales was the world’s oldest Association Football league. In 1992, its top 22 teams formed the Premier League.

History

On this day March 20

Today in History

  • 2003 The United States invade Iraq, assisted by the United Kingdom, Australia, and Poland

    The Iraq War, which was termed illegal by then UN Secretary, Kofi Annan, caused hundreds of thousands of Iraqi deaths.

  • 1995 Japanese terrorists release poisonous gas in the Tokyo subway

    12 people died and thousands are wounded after members of the religious cult, Aum Shinrikyo, had places containers leaking sarin on 5 different trains.

  • 1969 John Lennon and Yoko Ono marry

    After the wedding in Gibraltar, the artists spent their honeymoon in Amsterdam with a Bed-In for Peace, which lasted a whole week.

  • 1916 Albert Einstein presents his general theory of relativity

    The revolutionary theory describes the interdependency of matter on the one hand and space and time on the other. It is one of the most influential theories in Physics.

  • 1852 Harriet Beecher Stowe publishes her novel Uncle Tom’s Cabin

    The anti-slavery story played an important role in setting the scene for the American Civil War.