August
9
Independence
Day
Singapore : August 9 1965
August
9 : Quit India Movement Day
The Quit
India Movement (Bharat Chhodo Andolan) or the August Movement
was a civil disobedience movement in India launched in August
1942 in response to Gandhi's call for immediate independence
of India and against sending Indians to World War II.
The aim
of the movement was to bring the British Government to the negotiating
table by holding the Allied War Effort hostage. The call for
determined but passive resistance that signified the certitude
that Gandhi foresaw for the movement is best described by his
call to Do or Die, issued on 8 August at the Gowalia Tank Maidan
in Bombay, since re-named August Kranti Maidan (August Revolution
Ground). However, almost the entire Congress leadership, and
not merely at the national level, was put into confinement less
than twenty-four hours after Gandhi's speech, and the greater
number of the Congress khiland were to spend the rest of the
war in jail.
On 8 August
1942, the Quit India resolution was passed at the Bombay session
of the All India Congress Committee (AICC). The draft proposed
that if the British did not accede to the demands, a massive
Civil Disobedience would be launched. However, it was an extremely
controversial decision. At Gowalia Tank, Mumbai, Gandhi urged
Indians to follow a non-violent civil disobedience. Gandhi told
the masses to act as an independent nation and not to follow
the orders of the British. The British, already alarmed by the
advance of the Japanese army to the India–Burma border, responded
the next day by imprisoning Gandhi at the Aga Khan Palace in
Pune. The Congress Party's Working Committee, or national leadership
was arrested all together and imprisoned at the Ahmednagar Fort.
They also banned the party altogether. Large-scale protests
and demonstrations were held all over the country. Workers remained
absent en masse and strikes were called. The movement also saw
widespread acts of sabotage, Indian under-ground organisation
carried out bomb attacks on allied supply convoys, government
buildings were set on fire, electricity lines were disconnected
and transport and communication lines were severed. The Congress
had lesser success in rallying other political forces, including
the Muslim League under a single mast and movement. It did however,
obtain passive support from a substantial Muslim population
at the peak of the movement.The movement soon became a leaderless
act of defiance, with a number of acts that deviated from Gandhi's
principle of non-violence. In large parts of the country, the
local underground organisations took over the movement. However,
by 1943, Quit India had petered out.
August
9 : International Day of the World’s Indigenous People
The United Nations’ (UN) International Day of the World’s Indigenous
People is observed on August 9 each year to promote and protect
the rights of the world’s indigenous population. This event
also recognizes the achievements and contributions that indigenous
people make to improve world issues such as environmental protection.
Events
48 BC – Caesar's civil war: Battle of Pharsalus – Julius Caesar
decisively defeats Pompey at Pharsalus and Pompey flees to Egypt.
378 – Gothic War: Battle of Adrianople – A large Roman army
led by Emperor Valens is defeated by the Visigoths in present-day
Turkey. Valens is killed along with over half of his army.
681 – Bulgaria is founded as a Khanate on the south bank of
the Danube after defeating the Byzantine armies of Emperor Constantine
IV south of the Danube delta.
1173 – Construction of the campanile of the cathedral of Pisa
(now known as the Leaning Tower of Pisa) begins; it will take
two centuries to complete.
1329 – Quilon, the first Indian Christian Diocese, is erected
by Pope John XXII; the French-born Jordanus is appointed the
first Bishop.
1483 – Opening of the Sistine Chapel in Rome with the celebration
of a Mass.
1810 – Napoleon annexes Westphalia as part of the First French
Empire.
1814 – Indian Wars: the Creek sign the Treaty of Fort Jackson,
giving up huge parts of Alabama and Georgia.
1842 – The Webster-Ashburton Treaty is signed, establishing
the United States-Canada border east of the Rocky Mountains.
1854 – Henry David Thoreau published Walden.
1862 – American Civil War: Battle of Cedar Mountain – At Cedar
Mountain, Virginia, Confederate General Stonewall Jackson narrowly
defeats Union forces under General John Pope.
1877 – Indian Wars: Battle of Big Hole – A small band of Nez
Percé Indians clash with the United States Army
1892 – Thomas Edison receives a patent for a two-way telegraph.
1902 – Edward VII and Alexandra of Denmark are crowned King
and Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland.
1907 – The first Boy Scout encampment concludes at Brownsea
Island in southern England.
1925 – A train robbery takes place in Kakori, near Lucknow,
India
1930 – Betty Boop made her cartoon debut in Dizzy Dishes.
1936 – Summer Olympic Games: Games of the XI Olympiad – Jesse
Owens wins his fourth gold medal at the games becoming the first
American to win four medals in one Olympiad.
1942 – Indian leader Mahatma Gandhi is arrested in Bombay by
British forces, launching the Quit India Movement.
1942 – World War II: Battle of Savo Island – Allied naval forces
protecting their amphibious forces during the initial stages
of the Battle of Guadalcanal are surprised and defeated by an
Imperial Japanese Navy cruiser force.
1944 – The United States Forest Service and the Wartime Advertising
Council release posters featuring Smokey Bear for the first
time.
1944 – Continuation war: The Vyborg–Petrozavodsk Offensive,
the largest offensive launched by Soviet Union against Finland
during the Second World War, ends to a strategic stalemate.
Both Finnish and Soviet troops at the Finnish front dug to defensive
positions, and the front remains stable until the end of the
war.
1945 – World War II: Nagasaki is devastated when an atomic bomb,
Fat Man, is dropped by the United States B-29 Bockscar. 39,000
people are killed outright.
1965 – Singapore is expelled from Malaysia and becomes the first
and only country to date to gain independence unwillingly.
1965 – A fire at a Titan missile base near Searcy, Arkansas
kills 53 construction workers.
1969 – Followers led by Charles Manson murder pregnant actress
Sharon Tate (wife of Roman Polanski), coffee heiress Abigail
Folger, Polish actor Wojciech Frykowski, men's hairstylist Jay
Sebring and recent high-school graduate Steven Parent.
1971 – The Troubles: The British security forces in Northern
Ireland launch Operation Demetrius. Hundreds of people are arrested
and interned, thousands are displaced, and twenty are killed
in the violence that followed.
1974 – As a direct result of the Watergate scandal, Richard
Nixon becomes the first President of the United States to resign
from office. His Vice President, Gerald Ford, becomes president.
1988 – Wayne Gretzky is traded from the Edmonton Oilers to the
Los Angeles Kings in one of the most controversial player transactions
in hockey history, upsetting many Canadians.
1993 – The Liberal Democratic Party of Japan loses a 38-year
hold on national leadership.
1999 – Russian President Boris Yeltsin fires his Prime Minister,
Sergei Stepashin, and for the fourth time fires his entire cabinet.
On the same day, Chris Jericho makes his WWF debut by interrupting
The Rock with a millennium clock.
2006 – At least 21 suspected terrorists were arrested in the
2006 transatlantic aircraft plot that happened in the United
Kingdom. The arrests were made in London, Birmingham, and High
Wycombe, Buckinghamshire, in an overnight operation.
Holidays
and observances
Christian
Feast Day:
Edith Stein
Firmus and Rusticus
Herman of Alaska (Russian Orthodox Church and related congregations)
Jean Vianney
Nath Í of Achonry
Romanus Ostiarius
Secundian, Marcellian and Verian
August 9 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
International Day of the World's Indigenous People (International)
National Day, celebrates the independence of Singapore from
Malaysia in 1965.
National Peacekeepers' Day, celebrated on Sunday closest to
the day (Canada)
National Women's Day (South Africa)
For details, contact Datacentre
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