February 10th 1962:
Exchange of Spies occurs between US and USSR During the Cold War, There was an incident referred to as the U2 Incident. It involved a Lockheed U2 Spy plane, Flown By US pilot Francis Gary Powers that took off from Pakistan and was Headed for Norway. The goal of the mission was to photograph ICBM development sites in and around Sverdlovsk and Plesetsk in the Soviet Union. Quote From Wiki: Quote: The US Claimed it was a weather tracking Vehicle that accidently strayed over Soviet Airspace when having difficulty with his oxygen equiment whist flying over Turkey. The Soviet Union didn't buy into this. Held a Trial and Powers was found Guilty of espionage on August 19th of 1960. Powers was sentenced to 3 years imprisonment and 7 years of hard labor. The sentace was cut short as he was exchanged for Vilyam Genrikhovich Fisher on this date in 1962. The exchange occurred on the Glienicke Bridge connecting Potsdam, East Germany to West Berlin. Fisher was captured by the FBI in New York on June 21, 1957, partially as the result of the defection of his assistant Reino Häyhänen, in what became known as the Hollow Nickel Case Which was referring to Fisher's transporting of microfilm inside a hollow piece of metal which looked like a nickel. Fisher Had been serving a 30 Year sentance for Espianage in the US when he was exchanged. Last edited by chaz171 on 17 Feb 2008, 23:18, edited 5 times in total.
The whole point of the U2 was that it was supposed to be able to fly higher and faster than Soviet missiles could reach...
Suckers Not only that, but Powers apparently was supposed to swallow a poison pill in order to avoid capture, and obviously he failed to do that. His capture was a major propaganda boost (as his trial and confession were widely publicized), and it looks like it allowed to Soviets to get one of their own spies back. "Shake your chains to earth, like dew / Which in sleep had fall'n on you: / YE ARE MANY-THEY ARE FEW." - Percy Bysshe Shelley, 'The Masque of Anarchy'
More importantly, it's the incident which gave the band U2 its name. (That's a Bono smiley, btw).
"Comrade Lenin left us a great legacy, and we fucкed it up." - Josef Stalin
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February 11, 1953:
The Soviet Union officially breaks off diplomatic ties with Israel. Stalin adopted a pro-Zionist foreign policy, apparently believing that the new country would be socialist and would speed the decline of British influence in the Middle East. The USSR began to support Zionism at the UN during the 1947 UN Partition Plan debate. It preferred a Jewish-Arab binational state. But if this proved impossible, as did happen, it indicated that it would support partition and a Jewish state. The USSR gradually switched sides in the Arab-Israeli conflict. It tried to maintain a policy of friendship with Israel at first, abstaining from and allowing the passage of Security Council Resolution 95 in September 1951, that supported Israel against Egyptian restrictions from using the Suez Canal. After the mid-50's and throughout the remainder of the Cold War the Soviets unequivocally supported various Arab regimes over Israel.
I think that Stalin was supporting the creation of Israel for real-politik. It wasn't difficult to forsee the decades of conflict that would result. All of his support is far more political then actually economic or military.
February 12, 1961:
The first planetary probe was launched to Venus by the Soviet Union. Venera-1 carried the world's first staged-combustion-cycle rocket engine, and also the first engine to allow a liquid-fuel rocket to start under weightlessness.. Venera-1 provided the first verification that this plasma was uniformly present in deep space. Seven days later, the next scheduled telemetry session failed to occur. On May 19 and 20, 1961, Venera 1 passed within 100,000 km of Venus and entered a heliocentric orbit. Soviet engineers believe that Venera-1 failed due to the overheating of a solar-direction sensor. Venera-1 was an important milestone in spacecraft design-the first truly modern planetary probe. During most of its flight, it was spin stabilized. It was the first spacecraft designed to perform mid-course corrections fixing on the Sun and the stars. http://www.mentallandscape.com/V_Venus.htm
Soviet cogitations: 1533
Defected to the U.S.S.R.: 10 Oct 2007, 15:55 Ideology: Marxism-Leninism Party Member
I remember learning about that in school. The U.S. countered the USSR by focusing on Mars. They did land a probe and try to get a sample of soil from Venus but all they got was a melted piece of the probe.
We have beaten you to the moon, but you have beaten us in sausage making.- Nikita Khrushchev
To this day the only photographs of the surface of Venus were taken by Soviet probes.
"Shake your chains to earth, like dew / Which in sleep had fall'n on you: / YE ARE MANY-THEY ARE FEW." - Percy Bysshe Shelley, 'The Masque of Anarchy'
The Soviet program of observing Venus marked the most in depth study of any other planet to date..
February 13, 1934:
Soviet Steamship Chelyuskin sinks in the Arctic: Quote: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cheliuskin_%28ship%29
Soviet cogitations: 1533
Defected to the U.S.S.R.: 10 Oct 2007, 15:55 Ideology: Marxism-Leninism Party Member
Uelen isn't that like only a couple houses instead of a town?
We have beaten you to the moon, but you have beaten us in sausage making.- Nikita Khrushchev
Uelen has a population of about 500. Which is bigger than most towns in Nebraska.
Soviet cogitations: 1533
Defected to the U.S.S.R.: 10 Oct 2007, 15:55 Ideology: Marxism-Leninism Party Member
It looks like an airport strip peninsula with houses from what I've seen on geographical photos. That part of Russia has always interested me. I'd like to visit it someday...
We have beaten you to the moon, but you have beaten us in sausage making.- Nikita Khrushchev
February 14, 1919
Polish-Soviet War begins: Quote: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polish-Soviet_War
February 15, 1950
The USSR and PRC sign amutual defence treaty. February 15, 1989 The Soviet Union *officially* announce that all soviet troops have pulled out of Afghanistan.
16 February 1959
Castro sworn in as Cuban PM Cuba's revolutionary leader Fidel Castro has become the country's youngest ever premier. At the age of 32, he has been sworn in as Prime Minister in the Cabinet Room of the Presidential Palace in Havana. Dr Castro led the resistance against the seven-year military rule of President Fulgeneio Batista and commanded the 26 July Army, a guerrilla force that drove the old regime into exile on New Year's Day. But this is the first time he has assumed administrative responsibilities within the new, provisional government. Cuban newspaper 'Revolution' - regarded as the voice-piece of the 26 July Army - explained his appointment is to solve the problem of "a dispersal of power", as many workers and industries have observed Castro's pronouncements and not the government's since the revolution. According to the newspaper, "now the government, the revolution and the people will take the same path." Dr Castro was on leave from his previous post as Commander-in-Chief of the armed forces when Dr Jose Miro Cordoba - prime minister since 5 January - and his cabinet resigned, without explanation, two days ago. As well as his supporters, a hoard of Cuban and foreign media witnessed Fidel Castro being sworn into office wearing his olive-green rebel army fatigues and sporting his trademark square cap and beard. He told them: "We have great plans and we suffer when we cannot put these into effect rapidly, but technical preparations take time." He also denied he had any interest in taking over as president, saying legal moves to lower the age of eligibility for the post last week were the initiative of the incumbent president Manuel Urrutia Lleo. President Urrutia and Prime Minister Castro are old allies and are expected to work together to achieve revolutionary aims of economic reform and improved living standards for all Cubans. ![]() "By what standard of morality can the violence used by a slave to break his chains be considered the same as the violence of a slave master?" - Walter Rodney
Thanks RR, This was the same story I was going to mention.
February 17, 1979
The Sino–Vietnamese War Begins": The Sino–Vietnamese War, also known as the Third Indochina War, was a brief but bloody border war fought in 1979 between the People's Republic of China (PRC) and the Socialist Republic of Vietnam. The PRC launched the offensive in response to Vietnam's invasion and occupation of Cambodia, which ended the reign of the PRC-backed Khmer Rouge. After a brief incursion into Northern Vietnam, PRC troops withdrew about a month later. Both sides claimed victory in the last of the wars of Indochina. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sino-Vietnamese_War
February 19, 1986
The Soviet Union Launches Mir: Mir was humanity's first consistently inhabited long-term research station in space. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mir
21st April, 1967
Greek Military Junta of 1967-1974 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greek_military_junta_of_1967-1974 |
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