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125 years since birth of Mae West
August 17th
Mary Jane "Mae" West was an American actress, singer, playwright, screenwriter, comedian, and sex symbol whose entertainment career spanned seven decades, known for her lighthearted bawdy double entendres and breezy sexual independence.
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60 years since birth of Michael Jackson
August 29th
Michael Joseph Jackson was an American singer, songwriter, and dancer. Dubbed the "King of Pop", he was one of the most popular entertainers in the world and one of the best-selling music artists of all time
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90 years since King Zog declared Albania a monarchy
Spetember 1st
Zog I, King of the Albanians, born Ahmet Muhtar Zogolli, taking the surname Zogu in 1922, was the leader of Albania from 1922 to 1939. He first served as Prime Minister of Albania, then as President, and finally as the first and only King
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70 years since Kim Il Sung established Democratic People’s Republic of Korea in 1948
Spetember 9th
Kim Il-sung was the first Supreme Leader of North Korea, from its establishment in 1948 until his death in 1994. He held the posts of Premier from 1948 to 1972 and President from 1972 to 1994. He was also the leader of the Workers' Party of Korea from 1949 to 1994.
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45 years since Chile coup in 1973
September 11th
The 1973 Chilean coup d'état was a watershed moment in both the history of Chile and the Cold War. Following an extended period of social unrest and political tension between the opposition-controlled Congress of Chile and the socialist President Salvador Allende, as well as economic warfare ordered by US President Richard Nixon, Allende was overthrown by the armed forces and national police.
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40 years since Camp David Accords signed in 1978
September 17th
The Camp David Accords were signed by Egyptian President Anwar Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin on 17 September 1978, following twelve days of secret negotiations at Camp David. The two framework agreements were signed at the White House, and were witnessed by United States President Jimmy Carter.
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80 years since German troops crossed into the Sudetenland in 1938
October 1st
In October 1938 the Czech Sudetenland was ceded to Hitler after the Munich Agreement in a move now regarded as one of the worst cases of appeasement. The Czechs were not invited to the meetings and they refer to them as the Munich betrayal.
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25 years since Boris Yeltsin crushed a hardline Communist rebellion in 1993
October 4th
Boris Nikolayevich Yeltsin was a Soviet and Russian politician and the first President of the Russian Federation, serving from 1991 to 1999. Originally a supporter of Mikhail Gorbachev, Yeltsin emerged under the perestroika reforms as one of Gorbachev's most powerful political opponents.
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45 years since the start of the Yom Kippur war (October War) in 1973
October 6th
The Yom Kippur War, Ramadan War, or October War, also known as the 1973 Arab–Israeli War, was a war fought from October 6 to 25, 1973, by a coalition of Arab states led by Egypt and Syria against Israel.
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90 years since Chiang Kai-Shek became chairman of Republic of China in 1928
October 10th
Chiang Kai-shek, also romanized as Chiang Chieh-shih or Jiang Jieshi and known as Chiang Chungcheng, was a political and military leader who served as the leader of the Republic of China between 1928 and 1975, first in mainland China until 1949 and then in exile in Taiwan.
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40 years since Cardinal Karol Wojtyla was elected Pope and took the name John Paul II in 1978
October 16th
Pope John Paul II served as Pope and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 1978 to 2005. He is called Saint John Paul the Great by some Catholics
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95 years since Republic of Turkey established in 1923
October 29th
The Republic of Turkey was created after the overthrow of Sultan Mehmet VI Vahdettin by the new Republican Parliament in 1922. This new regime delivered the coup de grâce to the Ottoman state which had been practically wiped away from the world stage following the First World War.
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80 years since Orson Welles’ radio broadcast of 'The War of the Worlds', in 1938
October 30th
It was performed as a Halloween episode of the series on Sunday, October 30, 1938, and aired over the Columbia Broadcasting System radio network. Directed and narrated by actor and future filmmaker Orson Welles, the episode was an adaptation of H. G. Wells' novel The War of the Worlds.
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25 years since the Maastricht Treaty came into effect in 1993
November 1st
The Maastricht Treaty was signed on 7 February 1992 by the members of the European Community in Maastricht, Netherlands to further European integration. On 9–10 December 1991, the same city hosted the European Council which drafted the treaty
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80 years since 'Kristallnacht' or 'Reichskristallnacht', anti-Jewish riots, took place in much of Germany in 1938
November 9th
Kristallnacht or Reichskristallnacht, also referred to as the Night of Broken Glass, Reichspogromnacht or simply Pogromnacht, and Novemberpogrome, was a pogrom against Jews throughout Nazi Germany on 9–10 November 1938, carried out by SA paramilitary forces and German civilians.
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100 years since the signing of the Armistice of World War I
November 11th
The Armistice of 11 November 1918 was the armistice that ended fighting on land, sea and air in World War I between the Allies and their opponent, Germany. Previous armistices had eliminated Bulgaria, the Ottoman Empire and the Austro-Hungarian Empire.
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55 years since a new island called Surtsey was discovered off the Icelandic coast, created by an undersea volcanic eruption in 1963.
November 14th
Surtsey is a volcanic island located in the Vestmannaeyjar archipelago off the southern coast of Iceland. At 63.303°N 20.605°W, Surtsey is the southernmost point of Iceland. It was formed in a volcanic eruption which began 130 metres below sea level, and reached the surface on 14 November 1963.
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30 years since Benazir Bhutto elected PM of Pakistan in 1988
December 1st
Benazir Bhutto was a Pakistani politician who served as Prime Minister of Pakistan from 1988 to 1990 and again from 1993 to 1996. She was the first woman to head a democratic government in a Muslim majority nation.
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25 years since the death of Pablo Escobar, boss of the Medellin cocaine cartel in Colombia
December 2nd
Pablo Emilio Escobar Gaviria was a Colombian drug lord and narcoterrorist. His cartel supplied an estimated 80% of the cocaine smuggled into the United States at the height of his career, turning over US$21.9 billion a year in personal income.
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100 years since the birth of Alexander Solzhenitsyn in 1918
December 11th
Aleksandr Isayevich Solzhenitsyn was a Russian novelist, historian, and short story writer. He was an outspoken critic of the Soviet Union and communism and helped to raise global awareness of its Gulag forced labor camp system.
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125 years since the birth of Mao Zedong in 1893
December 26th
Mao Zedong, commonly known as Chairman Mao, was a Chinese communist revolutionary who became the founding father of the People's Republic of China, which he ruled as the Chairman of the Communist Party of China from its establishment in 1949 until his death in 1976.
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60 years since Cuban revolution in 1959
January 1st
he Cuban Revolution was an armed revolt conducted by Fidel Castro's revolutionary 26th of July Movement and its allies against the authoritarian government of Cuban President Fulgencio Batista.
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40 years since the Shah of Iran left the country after being forced into exile in 1979
January 16th
Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, also known as Mohammad Reza Shah, was the last Shah of Iran from 16 September 1941 until his overthrow by the Iranian Revolution on 11 February 1979. Mohammad Reza Shah took the title Shahanshah on 26 October 1967. He was the second and last monarch of the House of Pahlavi.
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40 years since Ayatollah Khomeini returned to Iran in 1979
February 1st
Sayyid Ruhollah Mūsavi Khomeini, known in the Western world as Ayatollah Khomeini, was an Iranian Shia Islam religious leader and politician.
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40 years since the signing of peace treaty between Israel and Egypt
March 26th
The Egypt–Israel Peace Treaty was signed in Washington, D.C., United States on 26 March 1979, following the 1978 Camp David Accords. The Egypt–Israel treaty was signed by Egyptian president Anwar Sadat and Israeli prime minister Menachem Begin, and witnessed by United States president Jimmy Carter.
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60 years since the Dalai Lama left Tibet in 1959
March 31st
The 14th Dalai Lama is the current Dalai Lama. Dalai Lamas are important monks of the Gelug school, the newest school of Tibetan Buddhism which was formally headed by the Ganden Tripas.
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70 years since the foundation of NATO
April 4th
The North Atlantic Treaty Organization was created in 1949 by the United States, Canada, and several Western European nations to provide collective security against the Soviet Union. NATO was the first peacetime military alliance the United States entered into outside of the Western Hemisphere.
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25 years since events which let to the Rwandan Genocide in 1994
April 6th
The Rwandan genocide, also known as the genocide against the Tutsi, was a mass slaughter of Tutsi in Rwanda during the Rwandan Civil War, which had started in 1990. It was directed by members of the Hutu majority government during the 100-day period from 7 April to mid-July 1994.
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30 years since the start of student protests in Tiananmen Square in 1989
April 21st
The Tiananmen Square protests of 1989, commonly known in mainland China as the June Fourth Incident, were student-led demonstrations in Beijing, the capital of the People's Republic of China, in 1989.
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25 years since Nelson Mandela was elected president in 1994
April 27th
Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela was a South African anti-apartheid revolutionary, political leader, and philanthropist who served as President of South Africa from 1994 to 1999. He was the country's first black head of state and the first elected in a fully representative democratic election.
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40 years since Margaret Thatcher became Britain's first woman prime minister in 1979
May 4th
Margaret Hilda Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher, LG, OM, DStJ, PC, FRS, HonFRSC was a British stateswoman who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990 and Leader of the Conservative Party from 1975 to 1990.
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25 years since Channel Tunnel opened in 1994
May 6th
The Channel Tunnel is a 50.45Km rail tunnel linking Folkestone, Kent, in the United Kingdom, with Coquelles, Pas-de-Calais, near Calais in northern France, beneath the English Channel at the Strait of Dover. At its lowest point, it is 75m deep below the sea bed and 115m below sea level. At 37.9km, the tunnel has the longest undersea portion of any tunnel in the world.
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75 years since D-Day Landings in 1944
June 6th
The Normandy landings were the landing operations on Tuesday, 6 June 1944 of the Allied invasion of Normandy in Operation Overlord during World War II. Codenamed Operation Neptune and often referred to as D-Day, it was the largest seaborne invasion in history.
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100 years since Versailles Treaty signed in 1919
June 28th
The Treaty of Versailles was the most important of the peace treaties that brought World War I to an end. The Treaty ended the state of war between Germany and the Allied Powers.
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50 years since Moon Landing in 1969
July 20th
Apollo 11 was the spaceflight that landed the first two people on the Moon. Mission commander Neil Armstrong and pilot Buzz Aldrin, both American, landed the lunar module Eagle on July 20, 1969, at 20:17 UTC.
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80 years since German invasion of Poland in 1939
September 1st
The Invasion of Poland, known in Poland as the September Campaign or the 1939 Defensive War, and in Germany as the Poland Campaign or Fall Weiss, was a joint invasion of Poland by Germany, the Soviet Union, the Free City of Danzig, and a small Slovak contingent that marked the beginning of World War II.
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45 years since Emperor Haile Selassie of Ethiopia was deposed in an army coup in 1974
September 12th
Haile Selassie I, born Ras Tafari Makonnen, was Ethiopia's regent from 1916 to 1930 and emperor from 1930 to 1974. He is a defining figure in Ethiopian history.
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70 years since the end of the Berlin Airlift in 1949
September 30th
The Berlin Blockade was one of the first major international crises of the Cold War. During the multinational occupation of post–World War II Germany, the Soviet Union blocked the Western Allies' railway, road, and canal access to the sectors of Berlin under Western control.
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70 years since The People's Republic of China was formed with Mao Zedong as its head in 1949
October 1st
Mao Zedong, commonly known as Chairman Mao, was a Chinese communist revolutionary who became the founding father of the People's Republic of China, which he ruled as the Chairman of the Communist Party of China from its establishment in 1949 until his death in 1976.
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40 years since Iranian militants seized the U.S. embassy and took hostages in Tehran in 1979
November 4th
The Iran hostage crisis was a diplomatic standoff between Iran and the United States of America. Fifty-two American diplomats and citizens were held hostage for 444 days from November 4, 1979, to January 20, 1981, after a group of Iranian college students, who supported the Iranian Revolution, took over the U.S. Embassy in Tehran. It stands as the longest hostage crisis in recorded history.
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30 years since fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989
November 9th
The Berlin Wall: The Fall of the Wall. On November 9, 1989, as the Cold War began to thaw across Eastern Europe, the spokesman for East Berlin's Communist Party announced a change in his city's relations with the West. Starting at midnight that day, he said, citizens of the GDR were free to cross the country's borders.
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40 years since Soviet troops invaded Afghanistan in 1979
December 25th
The Soviet–Afghan War lasted over nine years, from December 1979 to February 1989. Insurgent groups known collectively as the mujahideen, as well as smaller Maoist groups, fought a guerrilla war against the Soviet Army and the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan government, mostly in the rural countryside.
