May
8 & 9
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.
Holidays
and observances 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)
For details, contact Datacentre
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