Today in Cold War History
1950 – U.N. forces crossed into North Korea from South Korea.
1955 – World’s most powerful aircraft carrier, USS Saratoga, launched
1957 – Soviet spy Jack Sobel sentenced to 7 years (NYC)
1962 – Spiegel scandal: Der Spiegel publishes the article “Bedingt abwehrbereit” (“Conditionally prepared for defense”) about a NATO manoeuvre called “Fallex 62”, which uncovered the sorry state of the Bundeswehr (Germany’s army) facing the communist threat from the east at the time. The magazine is soon accused of treason.
1967 – Guerrilla leader Che Guevara and his men are captured in Bolivia.
1968 – Vietnam War: Operation Sealords – United States and South Vietnamese forces launch a new operation in the Mekong Delta.
1969 – The opening rally of the Days of Rage occurs, organized by the Weather Underground in Chicago.
1970 – Vietnam War: In Paris, a Communist delegation rejects US President Richard Nixon’s October 7 peace proposal as “a manoeuvre to deceive world opinion”.
1973 – Yom Kippur War: Gabi Amir’s armored brigade attacks Egyptian occupied positions on the Israeli side of the Suez Canal, in hope of driving them away. The attack fails, and over 150 Israeli tanks are destroyed.
1974 – Franklin National Bank collapses due to fraud and mismanagement; at the time it is the largest bank failure in the history of the United States.
1982 – Poland bans Solidarity and all trade unions.
1990 – Israeli–Palestinian conflict: In Jerusalem, Israeli police kill 17 Palestinians and wound over 100 near the Dome of the Rock mosque on the Temple Mount.
1991 – Croatia votes to sever constitutional relations with Yugoslavia, rendering the country fully independent.