#p <nat>Jordanian<o>king<n>Talal bin Abdullah<sur>Talal<b>1909<ac>1951 Oct(1)<ab>1952 Aug 11<d>1972<fa>Abdullah ibn Hussein<info>Talal's father Abdullah was assassinated in 1951, leaving him the throne of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan. Less than a year later, due to health reasons, he abdicated in favour of his son Hussein.<ref>www.kinghussein.gov.jo
#p <nat>Chilean<o>general<o>ruler<n>Augusto Pinochet<b>1915 Nov 25<ac>1973 Aug<ret>1990 Mar 11<c>Chile<info>Pinochet was named commander-in-chief of Chilean army in August, 1973, by President Salvador Allende. As leader of the ruling junta, he instituted conservative economic policies and presided over massive violations of human and civil rights in efforts to suppress dissent. During his 17-year reign, about 3,000 people are "dissapeared." On October 21, 1980, he issues a new constitution allowing him to continue in power for at least eight more years. In 1981, Pinochet was sworn in as president under a new constitution. On September 7, 1986, he survived an assassination attempt by leftist rebels, but six of his bodyguards are killed. On October 5, 1988, he lost a referendum which would have allowed him to stay in power until at least 2000, and he was forced to call an election. On March 11, 1990, he stepped down, replaced by newly-elected Patricio Aylwin. On March 10, 1998, he stepped down as army commander; the next day he was sworn in as senator for life, amid protest, but as permitted by the constitution drafted by his regime. On October 16, 1998, while recovering from back surgery in London, he was arrested by British police on a Spanish warrant.
#p <nat>Jordanian<o>king<n>Hussein ibn Talal<sur>Hussein<b>1935 Nov 14<ac>1953<d>1999 Feb 7<fa>Talal<info>Hussein was 42nd in a line descended from Mohammed. He attended Sandhurst. In 1967 he decided to join Egypt and Syria in against Israel. In the ensuing Six-Day War in June, Jordan's forces were routed by the Israelis, who then occupied the West Bank territories and East Jerusalem. As a result Jordan, which already had many Palestinian refugees, received a new influx. Guerrilla groups among the refugees challenged Hussein's authority and made Jordan a target for Israeli attacks. In 1970 civil war erupted between government and guerrilla forces; in 1971, Hussein succeeded in destroying the guerrilla bases in Jordan. Jordan, like other Arab states, condemned the 1979 Egyptian-Israeli peace treaty, breaking diplomatic ties with Egypt from 1979 to 1984. In 1988, Hussein formally severed all links between Jordan and the West Bank in favour of the PLO. Martial law (imposed in 1967) was virtually abolished in 1991, when a new national charter lifted a 1957 ban on political parties. Multiparty legislative elections were held on November 8, 1993. Many Jordanians supported the August 1990 Iraqi invasion of Kuwait, and Jordan refused to join the U.S.-led anti-Iraq alliance in the 1991 Persian Gulf War, although Hussein openly broke with Iraq in 1993. Hussein supported the September 1993 Israeli-PLO accord on Palestinian self-rule, and Jordan ended its state of war with Israel on July 25, 1994. The two nations signed a formal peace treaty on October 26, 1994. He was succeeded by his son, Abdullah.<ref>Grolier; www.kinghussein.gov.jo
#e <t>battle<n>French & Norwegian troops capture Narvik<d>1940 May 28<c>Narvik<vic>Norway
#e <t>battle<n>Germans capture Narvik<d>1940 Jun 8<c>Narvik<vic>German
#e <t>massacre<d>1940 Apr 30(10)<c>Smolensk<n>Katyn massacre<info>The Katyn Forest, west of the Russian city of Smolensk, was the site of the extermination in late April or early May 1940 of more than 4,000 Polish army officers by Soviet security forces. After the signing of the Nazi-Soviet Pact on August 23, 1939, German forces occupied western Poland while Soviet troops simultaneously occupied the eastern half. Soviet forces captured and interned approximately 250,000 Polish soldiers and officers. After Hitler abrogated the pact and invaded the Soviet Union in May 1941, the Polish government-in-exile in London made an agreement with the USSR to form a Polish army in the Soviet Union to fight the Nazis. After Polish prisoners were released from detention and mustered into military units, however, it was found that there were few officers among them. An estimated 15,000 officers were missing. German troops advancing into the Smolensk region in April 1943 discovered mass graves of 4,443 victims in the Katyn Forest. When the discoveries were publicized internationally, the Soviet government declared that the Polish victims had been murdered by the Nazis. As evidence mounted, however, that the massacre had been carried out by Soviet rather than German units, the Polish government-in-exile broke relations with the USSR. The fate of the remaining 10,000 Polish officers is still unclear, though it is believed that many of them perished in Siberian labor camps during and after World War II. The facts about the Katyn massacre were a source of continuing bitterness after World War II, although the Communist government in Warsaw gave its official acceptance to the Soviet version of events. In 1987, however, Mikhail Gorbachev agreed to the establishment of a joint Soviet-Polish commission to investigate the matter. In March 1989 the new non-Communist government of Poland announced that the NKVD, the Soviet secret police, had been responsible for the massacre. In April 1990 the Soviet Union finally acknowledged that its own security forces had indeed been responsible.<ref>Grolier
#e <t>bombardment<d>1940 May<n>Rotterdam bombed<c>Rotterdam<info>The city of Rotterdam was bombed by the Germans during their invasion of the Netherlands.
#e <t>battle<n>Battle of Britain<d>1941 Jun 20<e>1941 Oct 31<c>Britain
#e <t>battle<n>Pearl Harbor<d>1941 Dec 7<c>Honolulu
#e <t>battle<d>1942 Jun 4<n>Midway<c>Midway<info>A U.S. naval force under Adm. Chester W. Nimitz defeated a Japanese force under Adm. Yamamoto Isoroku off Midway. Four Japanese aircraft carriers were sunk, and the U.S. lost one carrier, the Yorktown.
#e <t>battle<n>First Battle of El Alamein<d>1942 Jul<c>El Alamein
#e <t>battle<n>Final Battle of El Alamein<d>1942 Oct<c>El Alamein
#e <t>battle<d>1944 Jan 22<n>Anzio<c>Anzio
#e <t>battle<n>D-Day<d>1944 Jun 6<c>Normandy
#e <t>bombardment<d>1945 Mar 10<n>Tokyo firebombed<c>Tokyo
#e <t>bombardment<d>1945 Aug 6<n>Hiroshima<c>Hiroshima<info>
#e <t>bombardment<d>1945 Aug 9<n>Nagasaki<c>Nagasaki<info>
#e <t>surrender<d>1945 Sep 2<n>Japanese surrender<c>Tokyo<info>The surrender ceremony took place on the USS Missouri in Tokyo bay.
#e <t>treaty<d>1963 Aug 5<n>Limited Test Ban Treaty<info>This treaty was signed by the U.S. and the U.S.S.R. It bans tests of nuclear weapons in the atmosphere or in space.
#e <t>treaty<d>1968 Jul 1<n>Non-Proliferation Treaty<info>signed by U.S., U.K. and U.S.S.R.
//1970s
#e <t>coup<d>1973 Sep 11<n>Pinochet topples Allende<c>Chile<info>Pinochet topples Allende in a bloody military coup.
#e <t><d>1974 May 18<n>India detonates its first atomic bomb<c>India<info>India became the sixth nuclear nation.
#e <t>crash<d>1977 Mar 27<n>Tenerife crash<c>Canary Islands<info>This was the worst airline disaster in history. 583 were killed.
#e <d>1979 Nov 4<e>1981 Jan 20<n>American hostages held in Iran<c>Tehran<info>52 American hostages were held captive in the U.S. embassy for 444 days by militant students. After one failed attempt to rescue them, they were released in the end.
#e <t>battle<d>1979 Dec 25<n>Soviet forces enter Afghanistan<c>Afghanistan
// 1980s
#e <t>crash<d>1980 Apr 24<n>U.S. attempt to rescue hostages fails<c>Iran
#e <t>crash<d>1983 Sep 1<n>KAL Flight 007 shot down<c>Sea of Japan<info>Korean Air Lines flight 007 is shot down after crossing into Soviet airspace.
#e <t>disaster<d>1984<n>Bhopal poisoning<c>Bhopal
#e <t>explosion<d>1986<n>Chernobyl accident<c>Ukraine<info>An explosion at a reactor in Chernobyl releases radiation into the atmosphere.
// 1990s
#e <t>war<d>1994<n>Rwandan civil war<c>Rwanda
#e <t>bombardment<d>1996 Apr 18<n>Qana massacre<c>Qana<info>100 die in artillery barrage.
#e <t><d>1998 May 11<n>India tests 3 nuclear bombs<c>India
#e <t>bombing<d>1998 Aug 15<n>Omagh bombing<c>Omagh<info>This bomb was set off by a splinter group who called themselves the "Real IRA."
