A Brief History On August 18, 1945, Indonesia, now the world’s 4th most populous country (and the largest island nation) inaugurated Sukarno as the nation’s first president. Indonesia had just received their independence the day before this historic event. Digging Deeper Indonesia had been a colony of the Netherlands since 1800, after a two hundred year period of gradual hegemony. A source of natural resources such as oil, nutmeg, cloves, tin, copper and gold, Indonesia was a prize highly valued by industrialized nations, a fact that led the Japanese to invade and conquer the islands during World War II. The…
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A Brief History On August 17, 1498, Cesare Borgia, the son of reigning Pope Alexander VI, resigned his office as Cardinal of the Catholic Church, becoming the first cardinal to do so. Digging Deeper The incredible intrigues, corruption and machinations of the Holy Father and his family were portrayed in graphic detail in the Showtime premium cable television series The Borgias which ran from 2011 to 2013. The patriarch of the family, the power-hungry Pope Alexander VI, born Rodrigo Borgia, was anything but saintly and engaged in murder, war, political maneuvering and adultery. With a former wife whom he ditched in order…
A Brief History On August 16, 1945, the last Emperor in China, Puyi of Manchuria, was captured by the Soviet Army. Puyi, also known as Henry Puyi, was the last Qing Emperor of China from 1908 to 1912, deposed while still a child (born 1906) by the Xinhai Revolution of 1912. The former Xuantong Emperor lived quietly until the Japanese occupation of Manchuria (Manchukuo) in 1932. Digging Deeper The Japanese made Puyi their puppet ruler of Manchukuo, and in 1934 declared him Emperor Datong, the Kangde Emperor of Manchukuo. This regime lasted only until the end of Japanese occupation in…
A Brief History On August 16, 1942, while on routine anti-submarine patrol, the 2 man crew of US Navy Blimp L-8 disappeared without a trace. The unmanned blimp drifted about aimlessly until crash landing in Daly City, California. No trace of the crew or reason for their disappearance has ever been found. Digging Deeper (Note: An unrelated disaster, the 1964 Republican National Convention was held in the modern city limits of Daly City, although History usually refers to the convention as being held in San Francisco. Barry Goldwater was nominated for President, and went on to lose by a record…
A Brief History On August 14, 1947, the independent country of Pakistan came about, a mostly Muslim country consisting of the Northeast and Northwest portions of the Indian sub-continent carved out of the British colony of India. The next day, India also gained her long awaited independence, a fitting thing for the world’s second most populous country. Digging Deeper India had been the target of British colonialism since the 1600’s, and by 1820 the entire subcontinent was basically under British rule. Indians chafed under this rule, a situation not helped by religious and ethnic differences in a giant country of…