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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