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 Thursday, 16 December 1920, Finland joins the League of Nations.
On Thursday, 16 December 1920, An 8.6 Richter scale Haiyuan earthquake causes a landslide in Gansu Province, China, killing 180,000.
On Friday, 16 December 1960, Secretary of State Christian Herter announces that the United States will commit five nuclear submarines and eighty Polaris missiles to the defense of the NATO countries by the end of 1963.
On Friday, 16 December 1960, New York mid-air collision: A United Airlines DC-8 collides in mid-air with a TWA Lockheed Constellation over Staten Island in New York City. All 128 passengers and crewmembers on the two airliners, and six people on the ground, are killed.
On Wednesday, 16 December 1970, The Ethiopian government declares a state of emergency in the county of Eritrea over the activities of the Eritrean Liberation Front.
On Tuesday, 16 December 1980, During a summit on the island of Bali, OPEC decides to raise the price of petroleum by 10%.
On Sunday, 16 December 1990, Jean-Bertrand Aristide is elected president of Haiti, ending 3 decades of military rule.
On Saturday, 16 December 1995, Iraq disarmament crisis: Iraqi scuba divers, under the direction of the United Nations Special Commission, dredge the Tigris near Baghdad. The divers find over 200 prohibited Russian-made missile instruments and components.
On Thursday, 16 December 2010, The Gascoyne River in Western Australia was affected by major flooding, inundating houses in Carnarvon.
On Wednesday, 16 December 2015, A tornado with record wind speeds of up to 213 km/hr. sweeps through Sydney’s south-east, destroying dozens of houses.
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Neville Buch