May 8 & 9 : Time of Remembrance and Reconciliation for Those Who Lost Their Lives during the Second World War

By resolution 59/26 of 22 November 2004, the UN General Assembly declared 8–9 May as a time of remembrance and reconciliation and, while recognizing that Member States may have individual days of victory, liberation and commemoration, invited all Member States, organizations of the United Nations system, non-governmental organizations and individuals to observe annually either one or both of these days in an appropriate manner to pay tribute to all victims of the Second World War.

The Assembly stressed that this historic event established the conditions for the creation of the United Nations, designed to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war, and called upon the Member States of the United Nations to unite their efforts in dealing with new challenges and threats, with the United Nations playing a central role, and to make every effort to settle all disputes by peaceful means in conformity with the Charter of the United Nations and in such a manner that international peace and security are not endangered.

On 2 March 2010, by resolution 64/257, the General Assembly invited all Member States, organizations of the United Nations system, non-governmental organizations and individuals to observe these days in an appropriate manner to pay tribute to all victims of the Second World War. A special solemn meeting of the General Assembly in commemoration of all victims of the war was held in the second week of May 2010, marking the sixty-fifth anniversary of the end of the Second World War.

May 9
Alderney, Guensey British Islands
Liberation Day, the end of the German Occupation of the Channel Islands during World War II 1945
Europe day

Events

328 – Athanasius is elected Patriarch bishop of Alexandria.
1092 – Lincoln Cathedral is consecrated.
1450 – 'Abd al-Latif (Timurid monarch) is assassinated.
1662 – The figure who later became Mr. Punch made his first recorded appearance in England.
1671 – Thomas Blood, disguised as a clergyman, attempts to steal England's Crown Jewels from the Tower of London.
1726 – Five men arrested during a raid on Mother Clap's molly house in London are executed at Tyburn.
1763 – The Siege of Fort Detroit begins during Pontiac's War against British forces.
1864 – Second War of Schleswig: The Danish navy defeats the Austrian and Prussian fleets in the Battle of Heligoland.
1873 – Der Krach: Vienna stock market crash heralds the Long Depression.
1874 – The first horse-drawn bus makes its début in the city of Mumbai, traveling two routes.
1877 – Mihail Kogălniceanu reads, in the Chamber of Deputies, the Declaration of Independence of Romania. This day became the Independence Day of Romania.
1877 – A magnitude 8.8 earthquake off the coast of Peru kills 2,541, including some as far away as Hawaii and Japan.
1887 – Buffalo Bill Cody's Wild West Show opens in London.
1901 – Australia opens its first parliament in Melbourne.
1904 – The steam locomotive City of Truro becomes the first steam engine in Europe to exceed 100 mph (160 km/h).
1911 – The works of Gabriele D'Annunzio placed by the Vatican in the Index of Forbidden Books.
1915 – World War I: Second Battle of Artois between German and French forces.
1918 – World War I: Germans repel the British's second attempt to blockade the port of Ostend, Belgium.
1920 – Polish-Soviet War: The Polish army under General Edward Rydz-Śmigły celebrates its capture of Kiev with a victory parade on Khreschatyk.
1926 – Admiral Richard E. Byrd and Floyd Bennett claim to have flown over the North Pole (later discovery of Byrd's diary seems to indicate that this did not happen).
1927 – The Australian Parliament first convenes in Canberra.
1936 – Italy formally annexes Ethiopia after taking the capital Addis Ababa on May 5.
1940 – World War II: The German submarine U-9 sinks the French coastal submarine Doris near Den Helder.
1941 – World War II: The German submarine U-110 is captured by the Royal Navy. On board is the latest Enigma cryptography machine which Allied cryptographers later use to break coded German messages.
1942 – Holocaust: The SS murders 588 Jewish residents of the Podolian town of Zinkiv (Khmelnytska oblast, Ukraine). The Zoludek Ghetto (in Belarus) is destroyed and all its inhabitants murdered or deported.
1945 – World War II: Ratification in Berlin-Karlshorst of the German unconditional surrender of May 8 in Rheims, France, with the signatures of Marshal Georgy Zhukov for the Soviet Union, and for the Western Headquarters Sir Arthur Tedder, British Air Marshal and Eisenhower's deputy, and for the German side of Colonel-General Hans-Jürgen Stumpff as the representative of the Luftwaffe, Field Marshal Wilhelm Keitel as the Chief of Staff of OKW, and Admiral Hans-Georg von Friedeburg as Commander-in-Chief of the Kriegsmarine.
1945 – World War II: The Channel Islands are liberated by the British after five years of German occupation.
1946 – King Victor Emmanuel III of Italy abdicates and is succeeded by Humbert II.
1948 – Czechoslovakia's Ninth-of-May Constitution comes into effect.
1949 – Rainier III of Monaco becomes Prince of Monaco.
1950 – Robert Schuman presents his proposal on the creation of an organized Europe, which according to him was indispensable to the maintenance of peaceful relations. This proposal, known as the "Schuman declaration", is considered by some people to be the beginning of the creation of what is now the European Union.
1955 – Cold War: West Germany joins NATO.
1960 – The Food and Drug Administration announces it will approve birth control as an additional indication for Searle's Enovid, making Enovid the world's first approved oral contraceptive pill.
1961 – Jim Gentile of the Baltimore Orioles becomes the first player in baseball history to hit grand slams in consecutive innings.
1960 – FCC Chairman Newton N. Minow gives his Wasteland Speech.
1964 – Ngo Dinh Can, de facto ruler of central Vietnam under his brother President Ngo Dinh Diem before the family's toppling, is executed.
1969 – Carlos Lamarca leads the first urban guerrilla action against the military dictatorship of Brazil in São Paulo, by robbing two banks.
1970 – Vietnam War: In Washington, D.C., 75,000 to 100,000 war protesters demonstrate in front of the White House.
1974 – Watergate Scandal: The United States House of Representatives Judiciary Committee opens formal and public impeachment hearings against President Richard Nixon.
1977 – Hotel Polen fire: A disastrous fire burns down the Hotel Polen in Amsterdam causing 33 deaths and 21 severe injuries.
1979 – Iranian Jewish businessman Habib Elghanian is executed by firing squad in Tehran, prompting the mass exodus of the once 100,000 member strong Jewish community of Iran.
1980 – In Florida, Liberian freighter MV Summit Venture collides with the Sunshine Skyway Bridge over Tampa Bay, making a 1,400-ft. section of the southbound span collapse. 35 people in six cars and a Greyhound bus fall 150 ft. into the water and die.
1980 – In Norco, California, five masked gunman hold up a Security Pacific bank, leading to a violent shoot-out and one of the largest pursuits in California history. Two of the gunmen and one police officer are killed and thirty-three police and civilian vehicles are destroyed in the chase.
1987 – A Polish LOT Ilyushin IL-62M "Tadeusz Kościuszko" (SP-LBG) crashes after takeoff in Warsaw, Poland, killing 183 people.
1992 – Armenian forces capture Shusha, marking a major turning point in the Karabakh War.
2001 – In Ghana 129 football fans die in what became known as the Accra Sports Stadium Disaster. The deaths are caused by a stampede (caused by the firing of teargas by police personnel at the stadium) that followed a controversial decision by the referee.
2002 – The 38-day stand-off in the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem comes to an end when the Palestinians inside agree to have 13 suspected terrorists among them deported to several different countries.
2002 – In Kaspiysk, Russia, a remote-controlled bomb explodes during a holiday parade killing 43 and injuring at least 130.
2004 – Chechen president Akhmad Kadyrov is killed by a land mine under a VIP stage during a World War II memorial victory parade in Grozny, Chechnya.
2012 – Mount Salak Sukhoi Superjet 100 crash occurred when a Sukhoi Superjet 100 aircraft crashed into Mount Salak in West Java, Indonesia, killing 45 people.

Anniversary of Dianetics (Church of Scientology)
Christian Feast Day
Beatus of Lungern
Beatus of Vendome
Christopher (Αγιος Χριστόφορος) (Eastern Orthodox Church)
George Preca
Gerontius of Cervia
Gregory of Nazianzus, Doctor, Bishop of Constantinople, 389 CE (commemoration, Anglican Communion)
Pachomius
Tudy of Landevennec
May 9 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
Europe Day, commemorating the Schuman Declaration. (European Union)
Independence Day, celebrating the declaration of independence of Romania from the Ottoman Empire in 1877. (Romania)
Liberation Day, commemorating the end of the German Occupation of the Channel Islands during World War II). (Guernsey, Liberation Day (Jersey))
One of the three days of the Feast of the Lemures. (Roman Empire)
Victory Day observances, celebration of the Soviet Union victory over Nazi Germany (Soviet Union, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Georgia, Israel, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Russia, Serbia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Ukraine, Uzbekistan)
Victory and Peace Day, mark the capture of Shusha in the Karabakh War and the end of World War II. (Armenia)

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