1903

Today in History 12/30 (Marcos is President)

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Imelda and Ferdinand Marcos in 1965 (© AP)(1965) Ferdinand Marcos is inaugurated president of Philippines
The leader of the Philippine Senate is sworn in as president. During his campaign, Marcos touted his decorated war record, which will later be found to be largely untrue. He will impose martial law in 1972 and his 20 years in power will be known for corruption and brutality.
Ferdinand Emmanuel Edralin Marcos Sr. was a Filipino politician and kleptocrat who was the tenth President of the Philippines from 1965 to 1986. A leading member of the far-right New Society Movement, he ruled as a dictator under martial law from 1972 until 1981. His regime was infamous for its corruption, extravagance, and brutality.
Lived: Sep 11, 1917 – Sep 28, 1989 (age 72)
Height: 5′ 7″
Spouse: Imelda Marcos (m. 1954 – 1989)
Children: Bongbong Marcos (Son) · Imee Marcos (Daughter) · Irene Marcos-Araneta (Daughter) · Aimee Marcos (Daughter)
Buried: Ferdinand E. Marcos Presidential Center
Parents: Mariano Marcos (Father) · Josefa Edralin (Mother)
Highlights
  • 1954: Ferdinand Marcos married Imelda Marcos on May 01, 1954.

  • 1965: Marcos won the presidency in 1965.

  • 1972: Marcos placed the Philippines under martial law on September 23, 1972, during which he revamped the constitution, silenced the media, and used violence and oppression against the political opposition, Muslims, communist rebels, and ordinary citizens.

  • 1978: In 1978, the position returned when Ferdinand Marcos became Prime Minister.

  • 1984: By 1984, U.S. President Ronald Reagan started distancing himself from the Marcos regime that he and previous American presidents had strongly supported even after Marcos declared martial law.

  • 1989: Marcos and his wife, Imelda, were jointly credited in 1989 by Guinness World Records with the largest-ever theft from a government: an estimated 5 to 10 billion dollars.

The second inauguration of President Ferdinand Marcos on December 30, 1969
Ferdinand Marcos takes the Oath of Office for a second term before Chief Justice Roberto Concepcion on December 30, 1969
wiki/Ferdinand_Marcos
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(1965) Ferdinand Marcos is inaugurated president of Philippines.
Also on this day,

1816 | Mary Godwin now Shelley as Percy Shelley and Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin marry
Two years after poet Percy Shelley and then-17-year-old Godwin eloped to France, the couple marries in England after Shelley’s first wife, whom he never divorced, dies. Later, the couple and their friend Lord Byron will challenge each other to write a ghost story. Only Mary Shelley will finish hers.
1903 | Deadly fire kills 600 at Chicago’s Iroquois Theatre
The “most beautiful” stage in Chicago, the Iroquois Theatre, turns into a death trap for over 600 people when a fire erupts backstage. Most of the victims die on the balcony level, which lacks fire escapes or ladders to safety. The tragedy will lead to new safety standards for public buildings that will be adopted nationwide.
1922 | USSR established as the Soviet Union is founded
The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, or Soviet Union, becomes the first Marxist country in the world, following the October Revolution and the grueling Civil War that ended the Russian Empire. The USSR comprises a federation of Russia, Belorussia, Ukraine, and the Transcaucasian Federation, but will grow larger still.

Today in History 12/30/17

Flag of the Soviet Union (© David Mdzinarishvili/Reuters)(1922) The Soviet Union is founded
The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, or Soviet Union, becomes the first Marxist country in the world, following the October Revolution and the grueling Civil War that ended the Russian Empire. The USSR comprises a federation of Russia, Belorussia, Ukraine, and the Transcaucasian Federation, but will grow larger still.
The Soviet Union, officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, abbreviated as USSR, was a socialist state in Eurasia that existed from 1922 to 1991. Nominally a union of multiple national Soviet republics, its government and economy were highly centralized. The country was a one-party state, governed by the Communist Party with Moscow as its capital in its largest republic, the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic. The Russian nation had constitutionally equal status among the many nations of the union but exerted de facto dominance in various respects. Other major urban centres were Leningrad, Kiev, Minsk, Alma-Ata and Novosibirsk. The Soviet Union was one of the five recognized nuclear weapons states and possessed the largest stockpile of weapons of mass destruction. It was a founding permanent member of the United Nations Security Council, as well as a member of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe and the leading member of the Council for Mutual Economic Assistance and the Warsaw Pact.
Dissolved: Dec 26, 1991
Population: 293.05 million (1991)
Official language: Russian
Area: 8.65 million sq miles (22.40 million km²)
Calling code: 7
Capital: Moscow

Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (orthographic projection)
Location of the Soviet Union

wiki/Soviet_Union
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Today in History 12/17 (Wright Brothers)

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Orville Wright at the controls, making the first powered, controlled, sustained flight, with Wilbur Wright running alongside (Orville Wright and John T. Daniels via LOC)(1903) Wright brothers fly plane for first time
After years of working in secrecy, Orville and Wilbur Wright successfully test a self-propelled, heavier-than-air aircraft, which stays aloft for 12 seconds and covers 120 feet, near Kitty Hawk, NC. They’ll send their father a telegram of their achievement, telling him to alert the press, but newspapers will pass and few people will learn of the feat until they invite reporters to later test flights.
The Wright brothers, Orville and Wilbur, were two American aviators, engineers, inventors, and aviation pioneers who are generally credited with inventing, building, and flying the world’s first successful airplane. They made the first controlled, sustained flight of a powered, heavier-than-air aircraft on December 17, 1903, four miles south of Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. In 1904–05 the brothers developed their flying machine into the first practical fixed-wing aircraft. Although not the first to build experimental aircraft, the Wright brothers were the first to invent aircraft controls that made fixed-wing powered flight possible.
Buried: Woodland Cemetery and Arboretum
Founder: Wilbur Wright

First successful flight of the Wright Flyer, by the Wright brothers. The machine traveled 120 ft (36.6 m) in 12 seconds at 10:35 a.m. at Kill Devil Hills, North Carolina. Orville Wright was at the controls of the machine, lying prone on the lower wing with his hips in the cradle which operated the wing-warping mechanism. Wilbur Wright ran alongside to balance the machine, and just released his hold on the forward upright of the right wing in the photo. The starting rail, the wing-rest, a coil box, and other items needed for flight preparation are visible behind the machine. This is described as
First flight of the Wright Flyer I, December 17, 1903, Orville piloting, Wilbur running at wingtip.
wiki/Wright_brothers
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(1903) Wright brothers fly plane for first time.
Also on this day,

1967 | Australia prime minister disappears out on a swim
Prime Minister Harold Holt vanishes near Portsea, Victoria, while swimming in the ocean with several friends. A search fails to find any trace of Holt and two days later he will be presumed drowned and declared dead. Speculation, never proved, will rise that Holt killed himself.
1989 | Middle America skewered as ‘The Simpsons’ premieres
The new Fox animated series, created by cartoonist Matt Groening, satirizes the American middle class via the Simpson family — Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa, and little Maggie. The show will become the longest running scripted prime-time TV show of all time.
1991 | End date for USSR as Yeltsin administration says Soviet Union will cease to exist
A spokesman for Russian Federation President Boris Yeltsin announces that the Soviet Union will dissolve on or before New Year’s Eve. Yeltsin himself puts it more bluntly: “There will be no more red flag.” The public greets this with a shrug, as most former Soviet republics had already declared independence from the USSR.

Today in History 12/17/17

Boris Yeltsin gestures on December 30, 1991 in Minsk, Belarus (© Wojtek Laski/Laski Diffusion/Getty Image)(1991) Yeltsin administration says Soviet Union will cease to exist
A spokesman for Russian Federation President Boris Yeltsin announces that the Soviet Union will dissolve on or before New Year's Eve. Yeltsin himself puts it more bluntly: "There will be no more red flag." The public greets this with a shrug, as most former Soviet republics had already declared independence from the USSR.
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. During the late 1980s, Yeltsin had been a member of the Politburo, and in late 1987 tendered a letter of resignation in protest. No one had resigned from the Politburo before. This act branded Yeltsin as a rebel and led to his rise in popularity as an anti-establishment figure.
Lived: Feb 01, 1931 - Apr 23, 2007 (age 76)
Height: 6' 2" (1.87 m)
Spouse: Naina Yeltsina (m. 1956 - 2007)
Party: Communist Party of the Soviet Union
Buried: Novodevichy Cemetery
Previous offices: President of Russia (1991 - 1999) · Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (1990 - 1991)
Highlights
  • 1956: Boris Yeltsin married Naina Yeltsina on September 28, 1956.

  • 1990: On 4 March 1990, Yeltsin was elected to the Congress of People's Deputies of Russia representing Sverdlovsk with 72% of the vote.

  • 1991: On 12 June 1991 he was elected by popular vote to the newly created post of President of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (RSFSR), at that time one of the 15 constituent republics of the Soviet Union.

  • 1993: Ongoing confrontations with the Supreme Soviet climaxed in the 1993 Russian constitutional crisis in which Yeltsin illegally ordered the dissolution of the Supreme Soviet parliament, which as a result attempted to remove him from office.

  • 1996: In mid-1996, Chubais and Yeltsin recruited a team of a handful of financial and media oligarchs to bankroll the Yeltsin campaign and guaranteed favorable media coverage the president on national television and in leading newspapers.

  • 2007: Boris Yeltsin died of congestive heart failure on 23 April 2007, aged 76.


RIAN archive 859348 US President George H. W. Bush and Russian President Boris Yeltsin
President Yeltsin with US President George H. W. Bush, 1 June 1992. Russian-US summit. Russian President Boris Yeltsin paying a state visit to the United States. From left: US President George H. W. Bush and Russian President Boris Yeltsin attending lunch at the Russian Embassy in the United States.

wiki/Boris_Yeltsin
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