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HIS: 2009 – Michael Jackson, American singer-songwriter, producer, dancer, and actor died.

 HIS: 2009 – Michael Jackson, American singer-songwriter, producer, dancer, and actor died. Michael Joseph Jackson (August 29, 1958 – June 25, 2009) was an American singer, songwriter, and dancer. Dubbed the "King of Pop", he is regarded as one of the most significant cultural figures of the 20th century. Over a four-decade career, his contributions to music, dance, and fashion, along with his publicized personal life, made him a global figure in popular culture. Jackson influenced artists across many music genres; through stage and video performances, he popularized complicated dance moves such as the moonwalk, to which he gave the name, as well as the robot. He is the most awarded individual music artist in history. The eighth child of the Jackson family, Jackson made his professional debut in 1964 with his elder brothers Jackie, Tito, Jermaine, and Marlon as a member of the Jackson 5 (later known as the Jacksons). Jackson began his solo career in 1971 while at Motown Reco...

HIS: The January 15, 1966 Coup.

WAS THE JANUARY 15, 1966 COUP AN IGBO COUP? Some argue that Major Kaduna Nzeogwu's involvement in the January 1966 coup was part of a grand Igbo plan to "dominate" the country. This argument ignores the fact that Nzeogwu was an Igbo only in name. Major Nzeogwu was born in Kaduna, the capital of the Northern Region, to Igbo immigrant parents from Okpanam, present-day Delta State, then in the Mid-West Region of Nigeria as of the time of the coup. His family and military colleagues referred to him as "Kaduna" because of their attachment to the city of Nzeogwu's birth. Kaduna Nzeogwu wore northern mufti when he wasn't in his army uniform and frequently referred to himself as "a northerner." Nzeogwu spoke Hausa, the lingua franca of the Northern Region, like a local. The major's command of the Hausa language was superior and better than his command of the Igbo language. Even though the coup had been largely termed an Igbo coup, it was foiled by ...

HIS: This Day in History: 1960 – Japan and the United States sign the US–Japan Mutual Security Treaty.

 HIS: This Day in History: 1960 – Japan and the United States sign the US–Japan Mutual Security Treaty. The Treaty of Mutual Cooperation and Security between the United States and Japan , more commonly known as the U.S.-Japan Security Treaty in English and as the Anpo jōyaku (安保条約) or just Anpo (安保) in Japanese, is a treaty that permits the presence of U.S. military bases on Japanese soil, and commits the two nations to defend each other if one or the other is attacked. Over time, it has had the effect of establishing a military alliance between the United States and Japan. The current treaty, which took effect on June 23, 1960, revised and replaced an earlier version of the treaty, which had been signed in 1951 in conjunction with the signing of the San Francisco Peace Treaty that terminated World War II in Asia as well as the U.S.-led Occupation of Japan (1945–1952). The revision of the treaty in 1960 was a highly contentious process in Japan, and widespread opposition to its pas...

HIS: This Day in History: 1946 – General Douglas MacArthur establishes the International Military Tribunal for the Far East in Tokyo to try Japanese war criminals.

HIS: This Day in History: 1946 – General Douglas MacArthur establishes the International Military Tribunal for the Far East in Tokyo to try Japanese war criminals. The International Military Tribunal for the Far East (IMTFE) , also known as the Tokyo Trial or the Tokyo War Crimes Tribunal, was a military trial convened on April 29, 1946 to try leaders of the Empire of Japan for crimes against peace and other war crimes leading up to and during the Second World War. It was modeled after the International Military Tribunal (IMT) formed several months earlier in Nuremberg, Germany to prosecute senior officials of Nazi Germany.  Following Japan's defeat and occupation by the Allies, the Supreme Commander of the Allied Powers, United States General Douglas MacArthur, issued a special proclamation establishing the IMTFE. A charter was drafted to establish the court's composition, jurisdiction, procedures; the crimes were defined based on the Nuremberg Charter. The Tokyo War Crimes T...

HIS: This Day in History: 1915 – Japan issues the "Twenty-One Demands" to the Republic of China in a bid to increase its power in East Asia.

 HIS: This Day in History: 1915 – Japan issues the "Twenty-One Demands" to the Republic of China in a bid to increase its power in East Asia. The Twenty-One Demands  was a set of demands made during the First World War by the Empire of Japan under Prime Minister Ōkuma Shigenobu to the government of the Republic of China on 18 January 1915. The secret demands would greatly extend Japanese control of China. It would keep the former German areas it had conquered at the start of World War I in 1914. It would be strong in Manchuria and South Mongolia. It would have an expanded role in railways. The most extreme demands (in section 5) would give Japan a decisive voice in finance, policing, and government affairs. The last part would make China in effect a protectorate of Japan, and thereby reduce Western influence. Japan was in a strong position, as the Western powers were in a stalemated world war with Germany. Britain and Japan had a military alliance since 1902, and in 1914 ...

HIS: This Day in History: 1919 – World War I: The Paris Peace Conference opens in Versailles, France.

 HIS: This Day in History: 1919 – World War I: The Paris Peace Conference opens in Versailles, France. The Paris Peace Conference was the formal meeting in 1919 and 1920 of the victorious Allies after the end of World War I to set the peace terms for the defeated Central Powers. Dominated by the leaders of Britain, France, the United States and Italy, it resulted in five treaties that rearranged the maps of Europe and parts of Asia, Africa and the Pacific Islands, and also imposed financial penalties. Germany and the other losing nations had no voice in the Conference's deliberations; this gave rise to political resentments that lasted for decades. The conference involved diplomats from 32 countries and nationalities. Its major decisions were the creation of the League of Nations and the five peace treaties with the defeated states; the awarding of German and Ottoman overseas possessions as "mandates", chiefly to Britain and France; the imposition of reparations upon Ger...

HIS: This Day in History: 2002 – The Sierra Leone Civil War is declared over.

 HIS: This Day in History: 2002 – The Sierra Leone Civil War is declared over. The Sierra Leone Civil War (1991–2002), or the Sierra Leonean Civil War, was a civil war in Sierra Leone that began on 23 March 1991 when the Revolutionary United Front (RUF), with support from the special forces of Charles Taylor's National Patriotic Front of Liberia (NPFL), intervened in Sierra Leone in an attempt to overthrow the Joseph Momoh government. The resulting civil war lasted 11 years, enveloped the country, and left over 50,000 dead. During the first year of the war, the RUF took control of large swathes of territory in eastern and southern Sierra Leone, which were rich in alluvial diamonds. The government's ineffective response to the RUF, and the disruption in government diamond production, precipitated a military coup d'état in April 1992 by the National Provisional Ruling Council (NPRC). By the end of 1993, the Sierra Leone Army (SLA) had succeeded in pushing the RUF rebels back...