This Day In History:

December 29

1845 - Texas is admitted as the 28th state of the Union (to become the 28th state officially the next year).
1890 - Wounded Knee Massacre and mass killing of Native Americans.
1911 - Sun Zhongshan becomes the provisional President of the Republic of China (to assume office officially next year). Also, Mongolia declares independence from the crumbling Qing Dynasty-ruled imperial China (though it would not become de facto independent until 1921).
1997 - Hong Kong begins mass slaughter of chickens in an attempt to stop the spread of an influenza strain.

1899 - Chinese Communist and military leader Nie Rongzhen was born.
1916 - Rasputin was killed. Maybe.

December 30

1922 – The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics is formed.

1947 – King Michael of Romania is forced to abdicate by the Soviet Union-backed Communist government of Romania.

1958 - Thousands die in the bloodiest fighting in Cuba's history as rebels threaten to overthrow the military regime of President Batista.

1972 – Vietnam War: The United States halts heavy bombing of North Vietnam.

2006 – Deposed President of Iraq Saddam Hussein, convicted of the executions of 148 Iraqi Shiites, is executed by hanging.

January 1

1804 - French rule in Haiti is ended, as Haiti becomes the first black republic and second independent country in the Americas.
1912 - Republic of China is established. A new huge fragging shitstorm begins to brew.
1920 – The Belorussian Communist Organisation is founded as a separate party.
1959 – Batista is overthrown in the Cuban Revolution, meaning the revolutionaries seized the state, while unfortunately the dirty son of a bitch fled the country instead of facing justice like he should have. Speaking of which, I'm going to go watch Che.

January 2

1900 – John Hay announces the Open Door Policy to promote trade with China. AKA unofficial foreign occupation in which they use economic and military might to screw China over. Opening up China to trade = even more foreign exploitation and oppression of the Chinese people, while a pathetic, weak, corrupt monarchy watches, until it is overthrown 11 years later.
1905 – Russo-Japanese War: The Russian garrison surrenders at Port Arthur, China. This is one of the contributing factors to why tsarist Russia would eventually lose the war, which would only provoke greater discontent within the country by adding on to Russia's internal, especially economic problems, and thus leading to the Bloody Sunday 1905 and the 1905 Revolution.
1920 – Second Palmer Raid, in which 6,000 suspected communists and anarchists were arrested and held without trial in raids that took place across the US. The first was in November 1919.
1959 – Luna 1, the first spacecraft to reach the vicinity of the Moon and to orbit the Sun, is launched by the U.S.S.R.

1896 - Birth of Russian filmmaker and Soviet movie pioneer Dziga Vertov (née David Kaufman).

January 11
630 – Prophet of Islam Muhammad leads an army of 10,000 Muslims to conquer Mecca.
1055 – Theodora is crowned Empress of the Byzantine Empire.
1158 – Vladislav II becomes King of Bohemia.
1693 – Mt. Etna erupts in Sicily, Italy. A powerful earthquake destroys parts of Sicily and Malta.
1759 – In Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the first American life insurance company is incorporated.
1863 – American Civil War: Battle of Arkansas Post – General John McClernand and Admiral David Dixon Porter capture the Arkansas River for the Union.
1879 – The Anglo-Zulu War begins.
1908 – Grand Canyon National Monument is created.
1919 – Romania annexes Transylvania.
1922 – First use of insulin to treat diabetes in a human patient.
1923 – Occupation of the Ruhr: Troops from France and Belgium occupy the Ruhr area to force Germany to make its World War I reparation payments.
1942 – World War II: Japan declares war on the Netherlands and invades the Netherlands East Indies.
1942 – World War II: The Japanese capture Kuala Lumpur.
1943 – World War II: The United States and United Kingdom give up territorial rights in China.
1943 – Italian-American Anarchist Carlo Tresca is assassinated in New York
1946 – Enver Hoxha declares the People's Republic of Albania with himself as president.
1964 – United States Surgeon General Dr. Luther Leonidas Terry, M.D., publishes a landmark report saying that smoking may be hazardous to health, sparking nation- and worldwide anti-smoking efforts.
1972 – East Pakistan renames itself Bangladesh.
1990 – 300,000 march in favor of Lithuanian independence.
1994 – The Irish Government announces the end of a 15-year broadcasting ban on the IRA and its political arm Sinn Féin.
2007 – China conducts the first successful anti-satellite missile test of any nation since 1985.

January 18

1871 - Deutsche Einigung. Wilhelm I of Germany is proclaimed the first German Emperor in the Hall of Mirrors of the Palace of Versailles ( France ) towards the end of the Franco-Prussian War. The empire is known as the Second Reich to Germans.

All of Germany rejoices. Except Nietzsche. Nietzsche frowns.

Oh hey we haven't done one of these in a while...

January 31

1606 – Guy Fawkes is executed. Nobody seems to remember this day...
1865 – The United States Congress passes the Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States, abolishing slavery. Formal adoption would come in December of the same year.
1929 – The Soviet Union exiles Leon Trotsky. Shistorm is about to get real...
1943 – German Field Marshall Friedrich Paulus surrenders to the Soviets at Stalingrad.
1971 – The Winter Soldier Investigation, organized by the Vietnam Veterans Against the War to publicize war crimes and atrocities by Americans and allies in Vietnam, begin in Detroit, Michigan. See? Detroit isn't all bad...!
1990 – The first McDonald's in the Soviet Union opens in Moscow. Funny how we were just talking about this...

Komissar_KW wrote:

1606 – Guy Fawkes is executed. Nobody seems to remember this day...

Yeah I didn't know that.

Indigo wrote:

Who am I to criticize when the British burn someone in effigy?

We should make a list of candidates for the British to burn in effigy. It could become a whole new pasttime!

Indigo wrote:

You'd think today would be Guy Fawkes Day rather than the day he tried to blow up parliment.

I think the poem has a lot to do with it.

04/02/1992

Civic-military rebellion of Hugo Chávez

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VBUo-pYeVfQ

February 19 Events

-1998 Soyuz TM-26 lands
-1970 U.S.S.R. launches Sputnik 52 and Molniya 1-13 communications satellite
-1959 Britain, Turkey and Greece sign agreement granting Cyprus independence
-1983 Vladimir Salnikov (U.S.S.R.) sets 400 m free style swimming record
-1986 U.S.S.R. launches Mir space station into Earth orbit
-1952 French offensive at Hanoi

March 1st:
1944-Roger Daltrey is born
1954-Ron Howard is born
1992–Bosnia and Herzegovina declares its independence from Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia

March 2

1855 – Alexander II becomes Tsar of Russia.

1861 – Emancipation reform of 1861 in Russia: Tsar Alexander II signs the emancipation reform into law, abolishing Russian serfdom.

1919 – The first Communist International meets in Moscow.

1931 – Mikhail Gorbachev, Soviet Nobel laureate and statesman, is born.

1956 – Morocco gains its independence from France.

1962 – In Burma, the army led by General Ne Win seizes power in a coup d'état.

1965 – The US and South Vietnamese Air Force begin Operation Rolling Thunder, a sustained bombing campaign against North Vietnam.

1969 – Soviet and Chinese forces clash at a border outpost on the Ussuri River.

1990 – Nelson Mandela is elected deputy President of the African National Congress.

1992 – Armenia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, San Marino, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan join the United Nations.

March 5th 1953-Joseph Stalin dies

March 8

Syria - Revolution Day

International Womens Day