This Week In History
Sept 19, 1996
The Arctic Council, a high-level intergovernmental forum to improve sustainable development and environmental protection in the Arctic, was founded in Canada 1982: The emoticons :-) and :-( were first used to distinguish jokes from serious posts on a college notice board
1991: Cave paintings discovered in southern France were found to be over 27,000 years old
2006: A military coup in Thailand ousted Premier Thaksin Shinawatra while he was at the UN in New York 2009: The first western commercial vessels travelled between Asia and Europe via the Russian Arctic
Sept 20, 1946
The Cannes Film Festival was held for the first time. It soon gained an international reputation thanks to the appearance of major stars from around the world
1859: The first electric stove was patented in the United States
1952: Alfred Herschey and Martha Chase demonstrated that DNA rather than protein held hereditary data 2011: Burhanuddin Rabbani, chairman of the Afghan High Peace Council, was assassinated at his home in Kabul by a suicide attacker with a bomb concealed in his turban 2012: Arctic sea ice melted to its lowest ever level since records began
Sept 21, 1942
The Boeing B-29 bomber made its maiden flight. The plane, known as the Superfortress, carried out the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945
19 BC: The Roman poet Virgil died before making final corrections to his epic poem, the Aeneid
1992: The Vatican and Mexico established full diplomatic relations after Mexico repealed restrictions on religious organisations 2003: The Galileo space probe ended its mission by crashing into Jupiter to avoid contaminating the planet’s moons
2011: Two US hikers jailed in Iran for spying were freed after two years
Sept 22, 2013
Former high-flying Chinese politician Bo Xilai was sentenced to life in prison after being found guilty of embezzlement and various abuses of power
2003: The Ward Hunt Ice Shelf, the biggest in the Arctic, was reported to have broken up after 3,000 years 2008: China revealed that over 50,000 children had been affected by baby milk adulterated with melamine
2013: Angela Merkel won a historic third term as Chancellor of Germany 2016: Yahoo confirmed that “state sponsored” hackers stole data from 500 million users’ accounts in one of the world’s largest security breaches
Sept 23, 1846
German astronomer Johann Galle first observed the planet Neptune, alerted by French mathematician Urbain Le Verrier who had predicted its position
1913: French aviator Roland Garros made the first non-stop flight across the Mediterranean Sea
1953: WD-40, an oil that displaced water to prevent rust, was invented 2019: Thomas Cook, the world’s oldest travel agency, entered compulsory liquidation
2020: Harold Evans, Britishamerican editor whose 70-year career set the gold standard for investigative journalism, died at 92
Sept 24, 1971
Britain expelled 90 Soviet diplomats for spying following revelations by a top KGB officer who defected from the Soviet Embassy in London 1776: The St Leger, the world’s oldest classic horse race, was first run 1996 :T he five nucle ar powers signed the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, banning all nuclear testing 2006: Nasa recorded the largest ozone hole in the atmosphere to that date, some 10.6 million square miles 2019: The House of Representatives launched an impeachment inquiry against President Donald Trump, accusin g him of abusing his office
Sept 25, 2019
Beijing Daxing International Airport, boasting the world’s biggest single-building airport terminal and nicknamed the “starfish”, was opened in China
1991: Former WWII pilot Jackie Mann was released after over two years in solitary as a hostage in Beirut
2001: Saudi Arabia severed relations with Afghanistan’s Taliban regime 2011: King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia granted women the right to vote and run for office in future elections 2012: China’s first aircraft carrier, the Liaoning, officially entered service, increasing regional tensions over Beijing’s growing territorial ambitions