December
20
International Human Solidarity Day
The General Assembly, on 22 December 2005, by resolution 60/209
identified solidarity as one of the fundamental and universal
values that should underlie relations between peoples in the
Twenty-first century, and in that regard decided to proclaim
20 December of each year International Human Solidarity Day.
At the World
Summit for Social Development, Governments committed themselves
to the eradication of poverty as an ethical, social, political
and economic imperative of humankind.
By resolution
57/265 the General Assembly, on 20 December 2002, established
the World Solidarity Fund, which was set up in February 2003
as a trust fund of the United Nations Development Programme.
Its objective is to eradicate poverty and promote human and
social development in developing countries, in particular among
the poorest segments of their populations.
Through
initiatives such as the establishment of the World Solidarity
Fund to eradicate poverty and the proclamation of International
Human Solidarity Day, the concept of solidarity was promoted
as crucial in the fight against poverty and in the involvement
of all relevant stakeholders.
International
Human Solidarity Day serves to remind us about the importance
of solidarity for the achievement of the international agreements
on social development, including programmes of action of international
conferences and multilateral accords.
2010
theme: Reaching Out to Our Neighbours
The theme for the 2010 International Human Solidarity Day is:
"Reach out to our neighbours," to highlight the fact
that despite the encouraging signs of progress made towards
the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs),
deep disparities remain, among and within countries.
Events
69 – Vespasian,
formerly a general under Nero, enters Rome to claim the title
of emperor.
217 – The papacy of Zephyrinus ends. Callixtus I is elected
as the sixteenth pope, but is opposed by the theologian Hippolytus
who accuses him of laxity and of being a Modalist, one who denies
any distinction between the three persons of the Trinity.
1192 – Richard the Lion-Heart is captured and imprisoned by
Leopold V of Austria on his way home to England after signing
a treaty with Saladin ending the Third crusade.
1522 – Siege of Rhodes: Suleiman the Magnificent accepts the
surrender of the surviving Knights of Rhodes, who are allowed
to evacuate. They eventually settle on Malta and become known
as the Knights of Malta.
1606 – The Virginia Company loads three ships with settlers
and sets sail to establish Jamestown, Virginia, the first permanent
English settlement in the Americas.
1803 – The Louisiana Purchase is completed at a ceremony in
New Orleans.
1808 – Peninsular War: The Siege of Zaragoza begins.
1860 – South Carolina becomes the first state to attempt to
secede from the United States.
1915 – World War I: Last Australian troops evacuated from Gallipoli.
1917 – Cheka, the first Soviet secret police, is founded.
1924 – Hitler is released from Landsberg Prison
1941 – World War II: First battle of the American Volunteer
Group, better known as the "Flying Tigers" in Kunming,
China.
1942 – World War II: Bombing of Calcutta by the Japanese.
1946 – The popular Christmas film It's a Wonderful Life is first
released in New York City.
1951 – The EBR-1 in Arco, Idaho becomes the first nuclear power
plant to generate electricity. The electricity powered four
light bulbs.
1952 – United States Air Force C-124 crashes and burns in Moses
Lake, Washington killing 87.
1955 – Cardiff is proclaimed the capital city of Wales, United
Kingdom.
1959 – The Walker family murders are committed.
1960 – National Front for the Liberation of Vietnam is formed.
1968 – The Zodiac Killer kills Betty Lou Jenson and David Faraday
in Vallejo, California.
1971 – Zulfikar Ali Bhutto takes over as the fourth President
of Pakistan.
1973 – The Spanish Prime Minister, Admiral Luis Carrero Blanco,
is assassinated by a car bomb attack in Madrid.
1977 – Djibouti and Vietnam join the United Nations.
1984 – The Summit tunnel fire is the largest underground fire
in history, as a freight train carrying over 1 million litres
of petrol derails near the town of Todmorden in the Pennines.
1987 – History's worst peacetime sea disaster, when the passenger
ferry Doña Paz sinks after colliding with the oil tanker Vector
1 in the Tablas Strait in the Philippines, killing an estimated
4,000 people (1,749 official).
1988 – The United Nations Convention Against Illicit Traffic
in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances is signed in Vienna.
1989 – United States invasion of Panama: The United States sends
troops into Panama to overthrow government of Manuel Noriega.
This is also the first combat use of purpose-designed stealth
aircraft.
1991 – A Missouri court sentences the Palestinian militant Zein
Isa and his wife Maria to death for the honor killing of their
daughter Palestina.
1995 – NATO begins peacekeeping in Bosnia.
1995 – American Airlines Flight 965, a Boeing 757, crashes into
a mountain 50 km north of Cali, Colombia killing 160.
1996 – NeXT merges with Apple Computer, starting the path to
Mac OS X.
1999 – Macau is handed over to the People's Republic of China
by Portugal.
2004 – A gang of thieves steal £26.5 million worth of currency
from the Donegall Square West headquarters of Northern Bank
in Belfast, Northern Ireland, one of the largest bank robberies
in UK history.
2005 – In Durrës, Albania was founded Aleksander Moisiu University.
2005 – US District Court Judge John E. Jones III rules against
mandating the teaching of "intelligent design" in
his ruling of Kitzmiller v. Dover Area School District.
2007 – Elizabeth II becomes the oldest ever monarch of the United
Kingdom, surpassing Queen Victoria, who lived for 81 years,
7 months and 29 days.
2007 – The painting Portrait of Suzanne Bloch (1904), by the
Spanish artist Pablo Picasso, is stolen from the São Paulo Museum
of Art, along with O Lavrador de Café by the major Brazilian
modernist painter Candido Portinari.
Holidays
and observances
Abolition
of Slavery Day, also known as Fête des Cafres (Réunion)
Christian Feast Day:
Dominic of Silos
O Clavis
Ursicinus of Saint-Ursanne
Earliest date for Winter solstice's eve:
Yalda (Iran)
International Human Solidarity Day (International)
Macau Special Administrative Region Establishment Day (Macau)
Bo Aung Kyaw Day (Burma)
For details, contact Datacentre
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