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 2 December 1845, Manifest destiny: U.S. President James K. Polk announces to Congress that the Monroe Doctrine should be strictly enforced, and that the United States should aggressively expand into the West.
On Sunday, 2 December 1945, General Eurico Gaspar Dutra is elected president of Brazil.
On Sunday, 2 December 1945, French banks (Banque de France, BNCI, CNEP, Crédit Lyonnais, and Société Générale) nationalized.
On Friday, 2 December 1960, The Archbishop of Canterbury, the Most Rev. Geoffrey Francis Fisher, talks with Pope John XXIII for about one hour in Vatican City. This is the first time that any chief of the Anglican Church had ever visited the Pope.
On Friday, 2 December 1960, U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower authorizes the use of $1.0 million for the relief and resettlement of Cuban refugees, who had been arriving in Florida at the rate of about 1,000 per week.
On Wednesday, 2 December 1970, The United States Environmental Protection Agency is established.
On Tuesday, 2 December 1980, The Federal Government lifts controls regulating the interest rates offered by banks on customer deposits.
On Tuesday, 2 December 1980, A missionary (Jean Donovan) and three Roman Catholic nuns (Maura Clarke, Ita Ford, Dorothy Kazel), all Americans, are murdered by a military death squad in El Salvador while doing charity work during that country’s civil war.
On Sunday, 2 December 1990, The German federal election (the first election held since German reunification) is won by Helmut Kohl, who becomes Chancellor of Germany.
On Thursday, 2 December 2010, Australia’s bid to host the 2022 FIFA World Cup is unsuccessful, with Qatar selected as the location for the 2022 event.
On Wednesday, 2 December 2015, The Bureau of Meteorology falls victim to a major cyber attack on its computers and there are suggestions that China may be responsible.
Images Citations in Composite: ID 17208541 © Anhong | Dreamstime.com; ID 35001957 © DiversityStudio1 | Dreamstime.com; ID 156394527 © Gerd Zahn | Dreamstime.com
Neville Buch
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