Anniversaries and commemorations come and go daily. Most of us, even the best historians, miss most occasions. If we think of history as events then we are faced with a continually showering in the grains of sand. Nevertheless, we do pick out certain patterns in the remembrance of historical dates. The blog here reminds us of some dates where the local, state, national, and global perspectives entwine.
What Time is It? It is flow of a sandstorm that will on each day compress somewhere into a structure – sandstone, selected and only remembered in the longue durée.
On 23 February 1870, Military control of Mississippi ends, and it is readmitted to the Union.
On Friday, 23 February 1945, WWII: Battle of Iwo Jima: A group of United States Marines reach the top of Mount Suribachi on the island and are photographed raising the American flag. The photo, Raising the Flag on Iwo Jima (taken by Joe Rosenthal), later wins a Pulitzer Prize.
On Friday, 23 February 1945, The 11th Airborne Division, with Filipino guerrillas, freed the captives of the Los Baños internment camp.
On Friday, 23 February 1945, The capital of the Philippines, Manila, is liberated by combined American and Filipino ground troops.
On Friday, 23 February 1945, American and Filipino troops enter Intramuros, Manila.
On Friday, 23 February 1945, The German garrison in Poznań capitulates to Red Army and Polish troops.
On Friday, 23 February 1945, Bombing of Pforzheim: Heaviest of a series of bombing raids on Pforzheim in Germany by Allied aircraft is carried out by the British Royal Air Force. As many as 17,600 people, or 31.4% of the town’s population, are killed in the raid and about 83% of the town’s buildings destroyed, two-thirds of its complete area and between 80 and 100% of the inner city.
On Friday, 23 February 1945, Turkey joins the war on the Allies’ side.
On Saturday, 23 February 1980, The Western Australian state election, 1980 takes place and the Liberal/National coalition government of Sir Charles Court is re-elected.
On Saturday, 23 February 1980, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini states that Iran’s parliament will decide the fate of the American embassy hostages.
On Tuesday, 23 February 2010, Police are called to Rose Bay in Sydney’s eastern suburbs in the early morning hours of 23 February to remove an illuminated street sign which had been tampered with earlier in the evening so it would display to passing motorists that “Kevin Rudd Sucks”.
On Monday, 23 February 2015, Prime Minister Tony Abbott delivers a statement on national security outlining proposals to strip Australian citizenship from dual nationals found to be involved in terrorist acts and suspending some citizenship rights for others.
On Monday, 23 February 2015, Disgraced entertainer Rolf Harris is stripped of his Australian honours.
Images Citations in Composite: ID 17208541 © Anhong | Dreamstime.com; ID 35001957 © DiversityStudio1 | Dreamstime.com; ID 156394527 © Gerd Zahn | Dreamstime.com
Neville Buch