Reagan and Gorbachev Agreed to Pause the Cold War in Case of an Alien Invasion | Smart News | Smithsonian. At one point during the 1985 Geneva Summit, President Ronald Reagan and Soviet Premier Mikhail Gorbachev took a break from negotiations to take a walk. Only their private interpreters were present and for years, the details of what they talked about were kept secret from both the Russian and American public. But during a 2009 interview with Charlie Rose and Reagan’s Secretary of State George Shultz, Gorbachev revealed that Reagan asked him point-blank if they could set aside their differences in case the world was invaded by aliens. As Jimmy Orr reported for the Christian Science Monitor at the time: Shultz was talking about the Lake Geneva summit and mentioned the two leaders ducked out of a meeting to take a walk to a nearby cabin.
"I wasn't there... ," Shultz said before Gorbachev cut him off. As far as we know, aliens never tried to take over the planet during the 1980s, so Reagan and Gorbachev’s informal agreement wasn’t put to the test. Iran Hostage Crisis - Facts & Summary. By the 1970s, many Iranians were fed up with the Shah’s government. In protest, they turned to the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, a radical cleric whose revolutionary Islamist movement seemed to promise a break from the past and a turn toward greater autonomy for the Iranian people.
In July 1979, the revolutionaries forced the Shah to disband his government and flee to Egypt. The Ayatollah installed a militant Islamist government in its place. The United States, fearful of stirring up hostilities in the Middle East, did not come to the defense of its old ally. (For one thing, President Carter, aware of the Shah’s terrible record in that department, was reluctant to defend him.) However, in October 1979 President Carter agreed to allow the exiled leader to enter the U.S. for treatment of an advanced malignant lymphoma. His decision was humanitarian, not political; nevertheless, as one American later noted, it was like throwing “a burning branch into a bucket of kerosene.” Battle of Marathon - Ancient History. To meet the larger invading force, the Athenian commander Militiades weakened his center and reinforced his wings, hoping that his hoplites could hold the middle while his flanks broke through the lighter-clad Persian infantry.
In fact, the Athenian center broke, but it held long enough for the Athenians to rout the Persian wings and meet in the rear, causing a general panic among the invaders. Almost immediately, the victory of “the Marathon men” captured the collective imagination of the Greeks. Ceremonial funeral mounds of the legendary 192 Athenian dead and the loyal Plataeans were erected on the battlefield. Epigrams were composed and panoramic murals were put on display. No wonder: it had been Athens’s finest hour, when its democratic yeomen alone had beaten back the imperial might of Persia (see Persian Wars). The Reader’s Companion to Military History. Paris Peace Accords signed - Jan 27, 1973. Also on this day Lead Story On January 27, 1888, the National Geographic Society is founded in Washington, D.C., for “the increase and diffusion of geographical knowledge.”
The 33 men who originally met and formed the National Geographic Society were a diverse group of geographers, explorers, teachers, lawyers, cartographers, military officers and financiers. All shared an interest... American Revolution On this day in 1785, the Georgia General Assembly incorporates the University of Georgia, the first state-funded institution of higher learning in the new republic. Automotive On this day in 1965, the Shelby GT 350, a version of a Ford Mustang sports car developed by the American auto racer and car designer Carroll Shelby, is launched.
Civil War On this day in 1862, President Abraham Lincoln issues General War Order No. 1, ordering all land and sea forces to advance on February 22, 1862. Cold War Crime Disaster General Interest Hollywood Literary On this day in 2010, J.D. Music Old West Presidential. Indo-Pakistan Wars - 1947, 1965, 1971, And 1999 - WorldAtlas.com. 7. Two Neighbours And Their Tales Of War - India and Pakistan share a long history that dates back to their time under British rule.
For nearly 200 years, India fought for its independence from England, first from the East India Company and later from the British Raj. During the 1940’s, the Muslim-dominated area of British India joined the fight, beginning the Pakistan Movement with the hope of creating a sovereign Muslim state. On August 15, 1947, independence was won, and British India was separated into the Union of India and the Dominion of Pakistan. These new political borders could not be completely established according to religion, leaving many Hindus in Pakistan and Muslims in India. 6. Shortly after gaining independence, the two new countries went to war in what is called the First Kashmir War. Pakistan refused to recognize Jammu and Kashmir as an Indian state. 5. The Indo-Pakistani War of 1965 was instigated by several events. 4. 3. 2. 1. 2016 Uri attack - Boer War begins in South Africa - Oct 11, 1899. Also on this day Lead Story On this day in 2002, former President Jimmy Carter wins the Nobel Peace Prize “for his decades of untiring effort to find peaceful solutions to international conflicts, to advance democracy and human rights, and to promote economic and social development.”
Carter, a peanut farmer from Georgia, served one term as U.S.... American Revolution On this day in 1776, a British fleet under Sir Guy Carleton defeats 15 American gunboats under the command of Brigadier General Benedict Arnold at the Battle of Valcour Island on Lake Champlain, in what is now Clinton County, New York. Although nearly all of Arnold’s ships were destroyed, it took... Automotive On this day in 2008, a man from Belgium named Luc Costermans sets a new world speed record for blind drivers: 192 mph. Civil War Confederate cavalry leader General J.E.B. Cold War Crime Three men blow up the mail car of a Southern Pacific train carrying passengers through southern Oregon in a botched robbery attempt. Disaster. Raja Raja Chola I. Rajaraja Chola I (Tamil: இராஜராஜ சோழன்), considered as the greatest king of the Chola Empire by many, ruled between 985 and 1014 C.E. He laid the foundation for the growth of the Chola kingdom into an empire, by conquering the kingdoms of southern India and the Chola Empire expanded as far as Sri Lanka in the south, and Kalinga (Orissa) in the northeast.
He fought many battles with the Chalukyas in the north and the Pandyas in the south. By conquering Vengi, Rajaraja laid the foundations for the Chalukya Chola dynasty. He invaded Sri Lanka and started a century-long Chola occupation of the island. He streamlined the administrative system with the division of the country into various districts and by standardizing revenue collection through systematic land surveys.
He built the magnificent Brihadisvara Temple in Thanjavur and through it enabled wealth distribution among his subjects. Popular Prince Military Conquests Southern wars Kandalur Salai Malai Nadu Invasion of Lanka Northern wars Notes. Opium Wars | Definition, Summary, Facts, & Causes. Sugar in the Atlantic World | Case 6 Sugar and Slavery. It is impossible to think about sugar production in the West Indies without thinking about slavery. The labor of enslaved Africans was integral to the cultivation of the cane and production of sugar.
Slaves toiled in the fields and the boiling houses, supplying the huge amounts of labor that sugar required. Overall some four million slaves were brought to the Caribbean, and almost all ended up on the sugar plantations. Conditions were harsh, and mortality rates were extremely high through all stages of slaves' lives. In some sugar colonies the slave population was ten times that of Europeans, and slave uprisings were an ever-present fear for the planters. Slave trading was part of a highly profitable triangle of trade that spanned the Atlantic. The abolitionists' humanitarian and religious arguments against slavery found a sympathetic popular audience in England and America. William Beckford A Descriptive Account of the Island of Jamaica: ... Tyler Family Papers On Sugar Undated. Castle Hill Rebellion | National Museum of Australia. Castle Hill Rebellion 1804: Convict uprising known as the Castle Hill Rebellion (or the Battle of Vinegar Hill) put down by New South Wales Corps Our thanks to David Geoffrey for suggesting this as his Defining Moment.
Elizabeth Macarthur, April 1804: Our servant burst into the Parlour pale and violent in agitation … he told us that the croppies had risen … we then learnt that Castle Hill was in flames. The fire was discernible from Parramatta. It was recommended that as many Ladies as chose should go to Sydney, as constant intelligence was brought into the barracks of the near approach of the Irishmen … the number was reported to be 300. Convict uprising at Castle Hill 1804, unknown artist. Transported Transportation to the Australian colonies was initially reserved for convicted criminals, such as thieves and counterfeiters. In 1798 there was a bloody rebellion against British rule in Ireland. ‘Death or liberty’ The Castle Hill Rebellion or ‘Australia’s Vinegar Hill’ began on 4 March 1804. Berlin is divided - Aug 13, 1961. Also on this day American Revolution On this day in 1781, Patriot forces led by Colonel William Harden and Brigadier General Francis Marion, known as the “Swamp Fox,” lure British commander Major Thomas Fraser and his 450 soldiers into an ambush at Parker’s Ferry, 30 miles northwest of Charleston, South Carolina.
Meanwhile, 3,000 soldiers set sail... Automotive The German engineer Felix Wankel, inventor of a rotary engine that will be used in race cars, is born on August 13, 1902, in Lahr, Germany. Civil War Sensing a weakness in the Confederate defenses around Richmond and Petersburg, Virginia, Union General Ulysses S. Cold War Responding to increasing Soviet pressure on western Berlin, U.S. and British planes airlift a record amount of supplies into sections of the city under American and British control.
Crime Cary Stayner, the serial killer convicted in the grisly murders of four women near Yosemite National Park, is born on this day in 1961. Disaster General Interest Hollywood Literary Music. The Restoration of Charles II. The execution of Charles I, was seen, at least by its perpetrators, as a 'necessary sacrifice'. Not all regicides were ideologically republican, nor did all republicans approve the king's demise. They were more concerned to root out the institution of monarchy than to dispose of its latest incumbent. Some regicides could envisage a replacement monarch - a compliant kinsman of Charles, say - rather than going about setting up a republic.
But the circumstances of 1649 - the Rump beset by enemies at home and abroad, including a Prince of Wales, exiled, young, vigorous and likely to enlist foreign aid in coming back, even if it meant wading through blood - made both groups ready for a novel regime, a kingless Commonwealth. Clearly the Commonwealth began as an expedient, but soon through symbols and rituals it was 'invented' into permanence, as old and neo-royalists in Ireland and Scotland worked to deny the Stuart inheritance to the usurping power. ...young man who said, Damn!
General Monck. History - The Troubles. History - Charlemagne. Treaty of Tordesillas - National Geographic Society. Munich Agreement — United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. Treaty of Madrid | European history [1526] European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC) | European organization. History - British History in depth: The Glorious Revolution. Treaty of Paris, 1763 - 1750–1775. The Treaty of Paris of 1763 ended the French and Indian War/Seven Years’ War between Great Britain and France, as well as their respective allies. In the terms of the treaty, France gave up all its territories in mainland North America, effectively ending any foreign military threat to the British colonies there. The Treaty of Paris, 1763 During the war, British forces had scored important overseas victories against France: not only had the British conquered French Canada, they also won victories in India, and captured French island colonies in the Caribbean.
In March of 1762, French King Louis XV issued a formal call for peace talks. The British Government was also interested in ending the war. Initial attempts at negotiating a peace settlement failed, and instead French and Spanish diplomats signed the Family Compact, a treaty that brought Spain into the war against Britain. By the time the formal negotiations began, the situation had changed. History - Catherine de Medici. Reconquista | Iberian history. George Fox | English religious leader. Early life and activities Fox was the son of a weaver in the English village of Drayton-in-the-Clay (now Fenny Drayton), Leicestershire.
Probably apprenticed for a while to a cobbler, he may also have tended sheep, but there is little evidence of any adult business occupation or of much formal education. He always seemed to have a modest amount of money. He read extensively and wrote legibly. At the age of 18 he left home in search of satisfying religious counsel or experience and later reported in his Journal various personal religious experiences or direct revelations, which he called “openings,” that corrected, in his estimation, the traditional concepts of faith and practice in English religious life. His religious background was apparently Puritan rather than strict Anglican, but he himself reacted even further than the Puritans from the formalism and traditionalism of the established church. Missionary work in England and elsewhere Test Your Knowledge Henry J. Treaty of Versailles - World War I. The treaty, negotiated between January and June 1919 in Paris, was written by the Allies with almost no participation by the Germans.
The negotiations revealed a split between the French, who wanted to dismember Germany to make it impossible for it to renew war with France, and the British and Americans, who did not want to create pretexts for a new war. The eventual treaty included fifteen parts and 440 articles. Part I created the Covenant of the New League of Nations, which Germany was not allowed to join until 1926.
Part II specified Germany’s new boundaries, giving Eupen-Malm[eacute]dy to Belgium, Alsace-Lorraine back to France, substantial eastern districts to Poland, Memel to Lithuania, and large portions of Schleswig to Denmark. The German government signed the treaty under protest. For five years the French and the Belgians tried to enforce the treaty quite rigorously, leading in 1922 to their occupation of the Ruhr.
The Reader’s Companion to Military History. Spanish Armada defeated - Jul 29, 1588. Also on this day Lead Story On this day in 1958, the U.S. Congress passes legislation establishing the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), a civilian agency responsible for coordinating America’s activities in space. NASA has since sponsored space expeditions, both human and mechanical, that have yielded vital information about the solar system and universe. It... American Revolution On this day in 1778, French Vice-Admiral Count d’Estaing establishes contact with the Continental Army, which is waiting for his help to retake Rhode Island.
Automotive On July 29, 1909, the newly formed General Motors Corporation (GM) acquires the country’s leading luxury automaker, the Cadillac Automobile Company, for $4.5 million. Civil War Confederate spy Marie Isabella “Belle” Boyd is arrested by Union troops and detained at the Old Capitol Prison in Washington, D.C. Cold War Crime Disaster General Interest Hollywood Literary Music Old West Presidential On this day in 1958, President Dwight D. After 350 Years, Vatican Says Galileo Was Right - It Moves. History - Emmeline Pankhurst. History - British History in depth: Becket, the Church and Henry II. The Break with Rome. Italy - Unification | history - geography. Cromwell and the Execution of Charles I. What was the Congress of Vienna? The Edict of Nantes. Biography. History - Boudicca. Milestones: 1921–1936. Otto von Bismarck - Facts & Summary. Camp David Accords signed - Sep 17, 1978. Compromise of 1877 - U.S. Presidents.
Pullman Strike. Milestones: 1899–1913. The NHL's labour history: A timeline - Winnipeg Free Press. Marshall Plan - World War II. The Perilous Fight . Conscientious Objectors. THE G.M. SETTLEMENT: THE OVERVIEW; GENERAL MOTORS AND U.A.W. AGREE ON END TO STRIKE. Milestones: 1945–1952. Yalta Conference - World War II. Milestones: 1866–1898. Reconstruction - American Civil War. The Free Silver Movement. A Brief History of the Salem Witch Trials | History | Smithsonian. Compromise of 1850: Primary Documents of American History (Virtual Programs & Services, Library of Congress)
Indian Removal Act: Primary Documents in American History (Virtual Programs & Services, Library of Congress) The South Carolina Nullification Controversy. Election of 1800 | Thomas Jefferson's Monticello. New York Draft Riots - American Civil War. Milestones: 1899–1913. Roger Sherman and the Connecticut Compromise - CT Judicial Branch Law Library Services. The Hartford Convention – Today in History: December 15. On The Day: “No taxation without representation!” - National Constitution Center. Rodgers & Hammerstein :: Our History. Nation to Nation. Whiskey Rebellion · George Washington's Mount Vernon. Treaty of Mortefontaine | Encyclopedia of Greater Philadelphia. Religious Transformation and the Second Great Awakening. Who Were the Harlem Hellfighters? | The African Americans: Many Rivers to Cross. Reagan challenges Gorbachev to tear down the Berlin Wall - Jun 12, 1987. The day the Supreme Court killed Hollywood’s studio system - National Constitution Center.
Japanese Relocation During World War II | National Archives. Vietnam War Protests - Vietnam War.