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Operation Cactus: How India Thwarted the 1988 Coup in the Maldives
A small island nation facing the threat of a coup: how would they respond? This is the story of the 1988 Coup in the Maldives and of Operation Cactus, the response that ensued. Before I begin, let us first look into a short history of the Maldives, and how they arrived in this situation. The Maldives, or the Republic of Maldives is located off the coast of India, and is the smallest country in Asia. For centuries, the nation was ruled by ancient dynasties in its capital Malé. In 1887, the Maldives became a British protectorate, a status it maintained until gaining its independence in 1965. Two years later,…
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Terror at the Games: The 1972 Munich Hostage Crisis
Recently, I watched the Oscar-nominated film September 5, which drew my attention to the brutal hostage crisis that unfolded at the 1972 Munich Summer Olympics, an event I had previously known little about. The movie’s dramatic portrayal of the ABC News coverage of the hostage crisis and how it progressed throughout the 24-hour period compelled me to learn more about what happened on this dark day in history. The 1972 summer was the first return of this event to Germany since the 1936 Olympic Games, which had been hosted in Berlin by Adolf Hitler. In an effort to wash over the memory of Hitler’s Olympic Games, the organizing committee of…
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The Football War
A World Cup qualifying match turned into an international crisis. This bloody, four-day conflict between the nations of Honduras and El Salvador has gone down in history as the Football War, or in other areas of the world, the Soccer War. But what correlation did the soccer match and the conflict really have? This is the story of the 100-hour war between two neighboring nations. To understand the beginning of this conflict, some necessary demographic issues must be discussed. Honduras and El Salvador are neighboring nations in Latin America. In 1969, when the Football War broke out, the population of El Salvador was around 3 million people, while the population…
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On this day in history – February 24th, 1917
On this day, February 24th, 1917, the United Kingdom first showed an encoded telegram, written by the German Foreign Secretary, to the United States. This telegram that the British had intercepted, now infamously known as the Zimmerman Telegram, contained details proposing an alliance between Mexico and Germany, against the United States and its possible entry into the war. In the telegram, the Germans offered Mexico some territory in the United States in exchange for the alliance and support. This telegram, once released to the public, was one of the ultimate push factors in shifting public opinion in America toward entering World War I.
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On this day – November 9th, 1938
On this day, November 9th, 1938, Kristallnacht, or the Night of Broken Glass, began. This violent event, orchestrated by the Nazi party, targeted Jewish businesses and synagogues for a period of about 48 hours. The result was the complete destruction of many of these businesses and synagogues, and even 91 deaths.
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On this day – September 26th, 1960
On September 26th, 1960, Richard Nixon and John F. Kennedy faced off in the first televised presidential debate in United States’ history. The debate attracted about 60-70 million total viewers. It was also followed by a series of further debates, which are now known as “the Great Debates.”
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The Rangoon Bombing
How did a secret plan to overthrow a government and incite revolution backfire? This is exactly what happened in 1983 during the Rangoon bombing, when North Korea attempted to assassinate Chun Doo-hwan, the 5th president of South Korea. In 1983, South Korea was a struggling nation. The country was not only recovering from the heartbreak of a civilian airplane being shot down by communist forces, killing all on the flight, but was also plagued by widespread discontent with the repressive, military-style government employed by Chun Doo-hwan. North Korea saw this chaos and dissatisfaction as their chance to incite revolution and overthrow the government in South Korea. President Chun Doo-hwan was…
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The War of the Stray Dog
Can you imagine a world in which a dog caused the outbreak of a war? This may seem unlikely, but it did happen in the 1925 War of the Stray Dog between Bulgaria and Greece. Before we get to how a dog started a war, let’s go back to Bulgaria and Greece’s complex, intertwined history of conflict. After both countries had fought for their independence from the Ottoman Empire in the early 1900s, they joined together with two other nations, Montenegro and Serbia, to form the Balkan League. These nations had all gained their independence from the Ottoman Empire, but because large numbers of their populations remained under Ottoman rule,…
