20th Century: 100 Years - 100 Events - 100 Films

On Monday, January 1st, the 20th century begins. Cancan rhythms dominate Paris, the avant-garde capital of the world. There are terrible beliefs all over the world. Rivalry among the great powers drives Europe to despair.

Humanity"s first powered flight takes place on December 17th, 1903 as the American Orville Wright takes to the skies in his self-made engine-powered airplane. Alhough the flight does not last long - only 12 seconds - it nonetheless represents one of the greatest achievements in the modern history of mankind.

Rasputin was a Russian mystic with an influence in the latter days of the Romanov dynasty in Russia. At the time he was believed to be faith healer and psychic.  While he is considered to be one of the more controversial characters in 20th century history, Rasputin is viewed by most historians today as a scapegoat of the times. He played a small but extremely pivotal role in the downfall of the Romanov dynasty which eventually led to a Bolshevik victory and the establishment of the Soviet Union. Rasputin played an important role in the lives of the Czar Nicholas II, his wife Alexandra and their only son, the Czarevitch Alexei, who was a haemophiliac. Czarina Alexandra thought that their son was kept from death by Rasputin.

The Geographic South Pole is the point where the earth's axis of rotation intersects the surface. This is the point usually meant when an unspecified south pole is mentioned. The first humans to reach the Geographic South Pole were Roald Amundsen and his party on December 14, 1911. Amundsen named his camp Polheim. Amundsens main competitor, Robert Falcon Scott, reached the Pole a month later. On the return trip, Scott and his party of four all died of hunger and extreme cold. There have been many expeditions to arrive at the South Pole by surface transportation. The leaders of some of the first of these are, in order: Amundsen, Scott, Hillary, Fuchs, Havola, Crary, and Fiennes. US Admiral Richard Byrd became, on November 29, 1929, the first person to fly over the South Pole. He was assisted by his first pilot Bernt Balchen, 

The Battle of Verdun was a major action in World War I. The battle was fought between February 21 and December 19, 1916, and resulted in nearly one million casualties and an additional 450,000 wounded or missing. It is one of the longest and bloodiest battles in history.

On November 9th, 1918, a man leans out of a window in the Reichstag and proclaims the Republic. Philipp Scheidemann was a German Social Democratic politican and the first who became Chancellor of the Weimar Republic.

On midnight of the evening of January 16th, 1920, one of the personal habits and customs of most Americans suddenly came to a halt. Prohibition was meant to reduce the consumption of alcohol, seen by some as the work of the devil.  This, in turn, was supposed to reduce crime, poverty, the mortality rate, and also improve the economy and quality of life. National prohibition of alcohol  was undertaken to reduce crime and corruption, solve social problems, reduce the tax burden created by prisons and poorhouses and improve health and hygiene in America. Things didn't turn out as planned, however. The Prohibition amendment of the 1920s was ineffective because it was unenforceable, it caused the explosive growth of crime, and it increased the amount of alcohol consumption rather than decreased it.

On November 26th, 1922, archaeologists Howard Carter and Lord Carnarvon discovered the tomb of the boy Pharaoh Tutankhamen in the Valley of the Kings. This proved to be one of the most valuable finds of historical importance, uncovering a veritable treasure-trove of relics and artifacts from ancient Egypt.

January 21, 1924 - Vladimir Lenin dies and Joseph Stalin begins to purge his rivals in order to clear the way for his leadership. Stalin had become the General Secretary of the Soviet Communist Party in 1922; following the death of Vladimir Lenin, he prevailed over Leon Trotsky in a power struggle during the 1920s and fully consolidated his authority with the Great Purge, a period of severe repression which reached its peak in 1937. He remained in power through World War II and until his death in 1953. Stalin moulded the features that characterized the new Soviet regime. His policies, based on Marxist-Leninist ideology, are often considered to represent a political and economic system called Stalinism.

Josephine endured a breach-of-contract lawsuit about her abandoning Le Revue Nègre for a star billing at the Folies-Bergère in 1926 - the legal case was just one of many in her life.

She was 20 when she was a sensation in the "jungle" banana dance: naked but for a string of rubber bananas around her waist. Soon banana-clad Josephine dolls were selling like hot cakes! Feet stomping, elbows flapping, knees bent, she would bump and grind a Charleston, puffing out her cheeks and crossing her eyes and always having a perpetual grin on her face (as stated by American Heritage).

She was likened to a snake, a giraffe, and a hummingbird. Also, in 1926, she recorded her throaty voice for the first time. Magazine covers and posters only added to her fame.

Sir Alexander Fleming (August 6, 1881 – March 11, 1955) discovered the antibiotic substance lysozyme and also isolated the antibiotic substance penicillin from the fungus Penicillium notatum. It happened almost by accident - in September 1928, Fleming was sorting through the many idle experiments strewn about his lab. He inspected each specimen before discarding it and noticed an interesting fungal colony had grown as a contaminant on one of the agar plates streaked with the bacterium Staphylococcus aureus. Fleming inspected the Petri dish further and found that the bacterial colonies around the fungus were transparent because their cells were undergoing the process of lysis. Lysis is the breakdown of cells, and in this case, of potentially harmful bacteria. The importance was immediately recognized.  However, his discovery was still underestimated.

Fleming issued a publication about penicillin in the British Journal of Experimental Pathology in 1929, and worked with the mould for some time, but refining and growing it was a difficult process better suited to chemists. Fleming”s impression was that, because of the problem of producing the drug in quantity and because its action seemed slow, it would not be an important resource for treating infection. Furthermore, his initial paper was not well received in the medical community. Fleming, therefore, did not pursue the subject further.

It was left to two other scientists, Howard Florey and Ernst Boris Chain, to develop a method of purifying penicillin into an effective form. Through their work, the drug was available for mass distribution during World War II. For his achievements, Fleming was knighted in 1944. Fleming, Florey, and Chain were the joint recipients of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1945. Florey was later given the honor of a peerage for his monumental work in making penicillin available to the public and saving millions of lives in World War II.

On March 12, 1930, Mahatma Gandhi set off with 78 followers on a 200-mile protest march towards the sea to protest the British monopoly on salt.  More joined them during the Salt March that ended on April 5. He gained worldwide publicity through his policies of civil disobedience, non-cooperation, and the use of fasting as a form of protest. The British authorities repeatedly imprisoned him. His longest term of imprisonment began on March 18th, 1922 when he was sentenced to six years for civil disobedience.  However, he only served 2 years of that sentence.

Gandhi spent a total of 2,338 days in prison during his lifetime. His philosophy of non-violence, for which he coined the term satyagraha, has influenced both national and international movements for peaceful change.

On January 30, 1933, Adolf Hitler was officially sworn in as Chancellor in the Reichstag chamber with thousands of Nazi supporters looking on and cheering. In the March, 1933 elections the Nazis received 44 % of the vote. The party gained control of a majority of seats in the Reichstag through a formal coalition with the DNVP. After the Reichtag was set on fire (and the communists blamed for it) the Enabling Act gave Hitler dictatorial authority, passed by the Reichstag after the Nazis expelled the Communist deputies. Under the Enabling Act, the Nazi cabinet had the power to pass legislation just as the Reichstag did. The Act further specified that the cabinet could only approve measures submitted by the Chancellor (Hitler) and that it would lapse after four years time or upon the installation of a new government. The Enabling Act was dutifully renewed every four years, even during World War II.

While Germany dominated the games, the many triumphs by citizens of other nations was seen as a rebuke to racist Nazi philosophies. In particular, the black sprinter and long jumper Jesse Owens won 4 gold medals. The tale of Hitler snubbing Owens at the ensuing medal ceremony is, however, apocryphal.

Joseph Stalin was a Bolshevik revolutionary and a political leader in the Soviet Union. Stalin became general secretary of the Soviet Communist Party in 1922; following the death of Vladimir Lenin, he prevailed over Leon Trotsky in a power struggle during the 1920s and fully consolidated his authority with the Great Purge, a period of severe repression which reached its peak in 1937, remaining in power through World War II and until his death. Stalin molded the features that characterized the new Soviet regime; his policies, based on Marxist-Leninist ideology, are often considered to represent a political and economic system called Stalinism.

The Munich Agreement was an agreement regarding the Munich Crisis between the major powers of Europe after a conference held in Munich in Germany in 1938 and concluded on September 29. The purpose of the conference was to discuss the future of Czechoslovakia and it ended up surrendering much of that state to Nazi Germany. It stands as a major example of appeasement. Because Czechoslovakia was not invited to the conference, the Munich Agreement is commonly called the Munich Dictate by the Czechs. The phrase Munich betrayal is also frequently used, especially because of the military alliances between Czechoslovakia and France and between France and Britain, that were not taken into account.

The Polish September Campaign (alternatively referred to as the German plan Fall Weiss) refers to the conquest of Poland by the armies of Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union and a small contingent of Slovak forces. The campaign began on 1 September 1939 and ended on 6 October 1939 with Germany and the Soviet Union occupying Poland. This military operation marks the start of the Second World War within the European theatre. It was one of the first campaigns featuring the use of blitzkrieg tactics. Polish government and remaining forces evacuated to Romania and later, France and United Kingdom. Polish territories were completely occupied by Germany and the Soviet Union. Soviet territories were later captured by Germany as well. Poland managed to create a strong resistance movement and to contribute military forces to the Allies through the remainder of World War II.

On the morning of December 7, 1941, planes and midget submarines of the Imperial Japanese Navy commanded by Vice Admiral Chuichi Nagumo, carried out a surprise assault on the United States Navy base at Pearl Harbor, and against the Army Air Corps and Marine air fields nearby on Oahu, Territory of Hawaii, now the State of Hawaii. USS Arizona burned for two days after being hit by a Japanese bomb. Parts of the ship were salvaged, but the wreck remains at Pearl Harbor to this day. This attack has been called the Bombing of Pearl Harbor and the Battle of Pearl Harbor but, most commonly, the Attack on Pearl Harbor or simply Pearl Harbor.

Auschwitz is the name loosely used to identify three main Nazi German concentration camps and 39 sub-camps. The name is derived from the Germanized form of the nearby Polish town of Oświęcim, situated about 60 km southwest of Krakow. Beginning in 1940, Nazi Germany built several concentration camps and an extermination camp in the area, which at the time had been annexed by Nazi Germany. The camps were a major constituent of the Holocaust. The total number of casualties is still under debate, but most modern estimates are around 1-1.5 million.

The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, sometimes called the Warsaw Uprising 1943, was an insurrection in Polands Warsaw Ghetto against Nazi Germany during World War II. The rebellion lasted from January 18, 1943 to May 16 that year and was crushed by SS-Gruppenführer Jürgen Stroop.

On 18th of January in 1943, the first instance of armed resistance occurred when the Germans started the second expulsion of the Jews. The Jewish fighters had some success: the expulsion stopped after four days and the ZOB and ZZW took control of the Ghetto, building dozens of fighting posts and operating against Jewish collaborators.

On 6th August in 1945 the United States detonated an atomic bomb nicknamed "Little Boy" on Hiroshima, Japan at 8:16 AM (local time). Nagasaki was the second city on which an atomic bomb was dropped by the US during World War II.

On 29th November the United Nations General Assembly votes to partition Palestine between Arabs and Jews. Israel was established as an independent democratic state on May 14, 1948. Of the 120 members in its parliament, the Knesset, about ten members are Israeli Arabs who are not Jews. At the time of its independence, approximately 600,000 Jews lived there. Since then, its Jewish population has increased by about one million over each decade as more immigrants arrive, and more Israelis are born, in one of the most significant global Jewish population shifts in over 2,000 years.

On May 23rd, 1949, the Federal Republic of Germany was established. In 1949, during the Berlin Blockade, Western forces airlifted food and supplies into West Berlin after it had been cut off from Soviet-controlled East Berlin . West Germany benefited from the American Marshall Plan for the reconstruction of Europe after the war and was a founding state of the European Union. The reconstructed West Germany once again became one of the world"s major economies and the democracy was reconstructed.

Everest is the highest mountain on Earth (as measured from sea level). The summit ridge of the mountain marks the border between Nepal and Tibet. In 1953, a ninth British expedition, led by John Hunt, returned to Nepal. Hunt selected two climbing pairs to attempt to reach the summit. The first pair turned back after becoming exhausted high on the mountain. The next day, the expedition made its second and final assault on the summit with its fittest and most determined climbing pair. The summit was eventually reached at 11:30 am local time on May 29, 1953 by the New Zealander Edmund Hillary and Sherpa Tenzing Norgay from Nepal climbing the South Col Route. At the time, both acknowledged it as a team effort by the whole expedition, but after interminable pestering, Tenzing revealed a few years later that Hillary had put his foot on the summit first. They paused at the summit to take photographs and bury a few sweets and a small cross in the snow before descending.

The Polish September Campaign (alternatively referred to as the German plan Fall Weiss) refers to the conquest of Poland by the armies of Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union and a small contingent of Slovak forces. The campaign began on 1 September 1939 and ended on 6 October 1939 with Germany and the Soviet Union occupying Poland. This military operation marks the start of the Second World War within the European theatre. It was one of the first campaigns featuring the use of blitzkrieg tactics. Polish government and remaining forces evacuated to Romania and later, France and United Kingdom. Polish territories were completely occupied by Germany and the Soviet Union. Soviet territories were later captured by Germany as well. Poland managed to create a strong resistance movement and to contribute military forces to the Allies through the remainder of World War II.

Description :

The Berlin Wall was a long barrier separating West Berlin from East Berlin and the surrounding territory of East Germany. Its intent was to restrict access between West Berlin and East Germany. It was built in 1961 and fortified over the years, but was opened to unrestricted transit on November 9, 1989 and subsequently almost entirely demolished. Construction of the barrier around the three western sectors began on August 13th, 1961, in East Berlin. It was undertaken by East German troops and workers, not directly involving the Soviets. It was built a little way inside East German territory to ensure that it did not encroach on West Berlin at any point; if one stood next to the West Berlin side of the barrier (and later the Wall), one was actually standing on East Berlin soil. The streets along which the barrier ran were torn up to make them impassable to most vehicles and a barbed-wire fence was erected, which was later built up into the full-scale Wall. It physically divided the city and it completely surrounded West Berlin, effectively turning the western sectors into an enclave in East Germany. During the construction of the Wall, NVA (National People’s Army) and KdA (Combat Groups of the Working Class) soldiers stood in front of it with orders to shoot anyone who attempted to defect.

The Prague Spring was a period of political liberalization in Czechoslovakia starting January 5th, 1968, and running until August 20th of that same year when the USSR and its Warsaw Pact allies (except for Romania ) invaded the country. The Czechs and Slovaks showed increasing signs of independence under the leadership of Alexander Dubček. Dubček"s reforms of the political process inside Czechoslovakia, which he referred to as "Socialism with a human face," did not represent a complete overthrow of the old regime, as was the case in Hungary in 1956. However, it was still seen by the Soviet leadership as a threat to their hegemony over other Eastern Bloc states and to the very safety of the Soviet Union. Czechoslovakia was in the middle of the defensive line of the Warsaw Pact and its possible defection to the enemy was unacceptable during the cold war. Furthermore, the role of Czechoslovakia in allowing Hitler to conquer Europe by refusing Soviet military help 30 years earlier and surrendering to Nazi Germany without resistance was still fresh in everyone"s memory.

The Munich Massacre occurred at the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich, Germany, when members of the Israeli Olympic team were taken hostage by the Palestinian group PLO in cooperation with Black September, an group designated as a terrorist organization by the United States and Israel. The attack directly led to the deaths of 11 Israeli athletes, five of the eight kidnappers, and one German police officer. The Olympic competition was suspended on September 5th for one full day. The next day, a memorial service attended by 80,000 spectators and 3,000 athletes was held in the Olympic Stadium. IOC President Avery Brundage made no reference to the athletes during a speech praising the strength of the Olympic movement. According to CBS News, the Israelis and many others who listened were outraged. Many of the 80,000 people who filled the Olympic Stadium for West Germany"s soccer match with Hungary carried noisemakers and waved flags, but when several spectators unfurled a banner reading "17 dead, already forgotten?" security officers removed the sign and expelled the offenders from the grounds. Willi Daume, president of the Munich organizing committee, at first wanted the remainder of the Games called off, but in the afternoon International Olympic Committee (IOC) president Avery Brundage and others prevailed, stating that they could not let terrorism halt the games. Brundage stated "the Games must go on" which was a decision that was endorsed by the Israeli government. On September 5th, the Israeli team announced they would leave Munich. All Jewish athletes were placed under guard. The Egyptian team left the games on September 7th, stating they feared reprisals. The families of some victims have asked the IOC to establish a permanent memorial to the athletes, but the IOC has declined, saying that to introduce a specific reference to the victims could "alienate other members of the Olympic community," according to the BBC Alex Gilady. An Israeli IOC official told the BBC: "We must consider what this could do to other members of the delegations that are hostile to Israel."

By April, the weakened South Vietnamese Army had collapsed on all fronts. The powerful NVA offensive forced South Vietnamese troops on a bloody retreat that ended up as a hopeless siege at Xuan-loc, a city 40 miles from Saigon, and the last South Vietnamese defense line before Saigon. On April 21st, the defense of Xuan-loc collapsed and NVA troops and tanks rapidly advanced to Saigon. On April 27th, 100,000 NVA troops encircled Saigon which was to be defended by 30,000 ARVN troops. On April 29th, the US launched Option IV, the largest helicopter evacuation in history. Chaos, unrest, and panic ensured as hectic Vietnamese scrambled to leave Saigon before it was too late. Helicopters began evacuating from the US embassy and the airport. Evacuations were held to the last minute because US Ambassador Martin thought Saigon could be held and defended. The operation began in an atmosphere of desperation as hysterical mobs of South Vietnamese raced to takeoff spots designated for evacuation, many yelling to be saved. Martin had pleaded to the US government to send $700 million dollars in emergency to South Vietnam in order to bolster the Saigon regimes ability to fight and to mobilize fresh South Vietnamese units. But the plea was rejected. Many Americans felt the Saigon regime would meet certain collapse. President Ford gave a speech on April 23, declaring the end of the Vietnam War and the end of all American aid to the Saigon regime. The helicopter evacuation continued all day and night while NVA tanks reached the outskirts of Saigon. In the early hours of April 30th, the last US Marines left the embassy as hectic Vietnamese breached the embassy perimeter and raided the place. NVA T-54 tanks moved into Saigon. The South Vietnamese resistance was light. Tank skirmishes began as ARVN M-41 tanks attacked the heavily armored Soviet T-34 tanks. NVA troops soon dashed to capture the US embassy, the government army garrison, the police headquarters, radio station, presidential palace, and other vital targets. The NVA encountered greater-than expected resistance as small pockets of ARVN resistance continued. By now, the helicopter evacuations that had saved 7,000 American and Vietnamese had ended. The presidential palace was captured and the Vietcong flag waved victoriously over it. President Minh surrendered Saigon to the NVA colonel Bui Tin. The surrender came over the radio as Minh ordered South Vietnamese forces to lay down their weapons. Columns of South Vietnamese troops came out of defensive positions and surrendered. Saigon fell on April 30th, 1975. As for the Americans, many stayed in South Vietnam but by May 1st, 1975 most Americans had fled, leaving the city of Saigon forever. The Vietnam War was America’s most humiliating defeat, with over 58,000 dead and many left severely injured. As for the people of South Vietnam, over a million ARVN soldiers died in the 30-year conflict.

Hanns Martin Schleyer was a german manager and employer representative. Schleyer was abducted on September 5, 1977 by the Red Army Faction (RAF) in Cologne. The purpose of this was to blackmail the German government to release imprisoned members of the RAF. Three police officers and Schleyer"s driver Heinz Marcicz were killed in the act of the abduction. Schleyer was hidden in a highrise in Erftstadt (Liblar) near Cologne. Later he was brought over the border to the Netherlands. The failure to find Schleyer was one of the biggest blunders in the history of the German police. Several local police officers were convinced that Schleyer was held in the mentioned highrise close to the Autobahn. One investigator had even rang the bell of the apartment in question, but nobody had conveyed this information to the crisis center of the federal police. After 43 days, the kidnapping ended with the execution of Schleyer. The German government had not given in regarding the demands of the kidnappers. T he day after the hijacking of the Lufthansa airplane was ended by the German anti-terror unit GSG 9, the imprisoned RAF terrorists Andreas Baader, Gudrun Ensslin and Jan-Carl Raspe were found dead in their prison cells. Irmgard Möller was found seriously injured. After Schleyer"s kidnappers got the news of the death of their imprisoned comrades, Schleyer was found shot in Mulhouse, France on October 19, 1977.

His Holiness Pope John Paul II, officially in Latin Ioannes Paulus PP. II, born Karol Józef Wojtyła (May 18, 1920 – April 2, 2005), was Pope of the Roman Catholic Church for almost 27 years, from 16 October 1978 until his death. As such, he was Bishop of Rome, ruled Vatican City and led the Roman Catholic Church including the Eastern Rite Churches in communion with the Holy See. He had the third-longest pontificate following St Peter and Pope Pius IX. (According to Catholic tradition, St Peter was the first Pope, although this was not a title used by St Peter himself). He was the first non-Italian to serve in office since the Dutch-German Pope Adrian VI assumed the papacy in 1522. His reign experienced a rapid decline of Catholicism in industrialized nations and expansion in the third world. On 13 May 1981, John Paul II was shot and critically wounded by Mehmet Ali Ağca, a Turkish gunman, as he entered St Peters Square to address an audience. Ağca was eventually sentenced to life imprisonment. Two days after the Christmas of 1983, John Paul visited the prison where his would-be assassin was being held. The two spoke privately for some time. John Paul II said "What we talked about will have to remain a secret between him and me. I spoke to him as a brother whom I have pardoned and who has my complete trust." Pope John Paul II died on 2 April 2005 after a long fight against Parkinsons disease and other illnesses. The public viewing of his body in St. Peters Basilica drew over four million people to Vatican City and was one of the largest pilgrimages in the history of Christianity.

STS-51-L was the 25th launch of a Space Shuttle and the tenth launch of the Challenger. The vehicle exploded 73 seconds after launch on January 28th, 1986 as a result of the failure of an O-ring seal in the right solid rocket booster (SRB): this caused a leak with a flame that caused another leak in the hydrogen tank. Among the crew was Christa McAuliffe, scheduled to be the first teacher in space. Students worldwide watched the shuttle launch and subsequent explosion on live television.

CDU-politician, Uwe Barschel, was, according to ex-Mossad agent Victor Ostrovsky, murdered in 1987 by a Mossad hit team in a Swiss Hotel. According to Ostrovsky, Barschel had to die because he disturbed Israeli arms trade with the Iranian regime and an Israeli training programmes for Iranian fighter pilots on the soil of "Schleswig-Hostein" (German state of which Uwe Barschel was Prime Minster, comparable with a US-governor). The murder of Uwe Barschel, despite Ostrovsky”s revelations in his book "The Secret Mossad-File", is still today called "suicide".

On August 23, 1989, Hungary removed its border restrictions with Austria, and in September more than 13,000 East Germans escaped through Hungary . Mass demonstrations against the government in East Germany began in the fall of 1989. The leader of East Germany , Erich Honecker, resigned on October 18, 1989. He was replaced by a short-lived successor, Egon Krenz, a few days later. The travel restrictions for East Germans were lifted somewhat by the new government on November 9, 1989. After a misunderstanding, Günter Schabowski announced in a press conference, televised live on East German state TV, that all restrictions had been abandoned. Upon this news spreading, tens of thousands of people immediately went to the Wall, where they quickly became a major crowd control problem for the surprised and overwhelmed border guards. Many hectic telephone calls and much to and fro with the guards superiors ensued while still more people kept converging on the major crossing points. It eventually became clear that there was little way to hold back these huge numbers of East German citizens as the vastly outnumbered border guards had only been equipped for another day of regular duty. The masses could also not be convinced to turn back or calm down — they had heard of Mr. Schabowskis statement and they wanted it to be acted upon. Probably the only way to hold the crowds back would have been use of lethal force, but this would have meant massacring the countrys own citizens in huge numbers — which at that point the guards and authorities were simply not willing to do. In face of the escalating crowd safety situation the guards eventually just yielded, opening the access points and allowing people through with (at most) minimal identity verification checks. The ecstatic East Berliners were soon greeted by jubilant West Berliners on the other side in an all-out party atmosphere. November 9 is thus considered the date the Wall fell.

The Persian Gulf War was a conflict between Iraq and a coalition force of 34 nations mandated by the United Nations and led by the United States . The lead up to the war began with the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait in August 1990 which was met with immediate economic sanctions by the United Nations against Iraq . Hostilities commenced in January 1991, resulting in a decisive victory for the coalition forces, which drove Iraqi forces out of Kuwait with minimal coalition deaths. The main battles were aerial and ground combat within Iraq, Kuwait and bordering areas of Saudi Arabia . The war did not expand outside of the immediate Iraq/Kuwait/Saudi border region, although Iraq fired missiles on Israeli cities.

Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela, (born 18 July 1918) before becoming President of South Africa, was one of its chief anti-apartheid activists, and was also an anti-apartheid saboteur. He is now almost universally considered to be a heroic freedom fighter. He spent his childhood in the Thembu chiefdom before embarking on a career in law. The name Madiba is an honorary title adopted by older male members of Mandelas clan, however in South Africa the title is synonymous with Nelson Mandela.