1919 – Officially opens, Paris Peace Conference, France. The Paris Peace Conference, also known as the Versailles Peace Conference, was the meeting in 1919 and 1920 of the victorious Allied Powers after the end of World War I to establish the conditions of peace for the defeated Central Powers. At this conference, US President Wilson defended the existence of the Albanian nation.
1935 – Born in Durrës, Pjetër Arbnori, politically persecuted during the communist regime, writer, MP and Speaker of the Albanian Parliament. He has been dubbed the “Mandela of the Balkans” because of his long time in the prisons of the communist dictatorship for 28 years. In 1962 he was arrested on charges of wanting to form a Social Democratic party, for which he was sentenced to 25 years in prison. After eighteen years in prison, he was re-sentenced to another 10 years in prison. In the most difficult conditions in prison he wrote a large part of his literary work. By the time his sentence was coming to an end, he was again sentenced to ten years in prison. In August 1989 Peter Arbnori was released from prison. Arbnor spent 28 years in Burrell Prison. He was arrested at the age of 26 and released when he was 54 years old. In January 1990 he took part in a demonstration in Shkodra against the communist government that toppled Stalin. In the same year he was co-founder of the Democratic Party branch in Shkodra. From 1991 to 2001 he was a member of the Albanian Parliament, and from 1992 to 1997 he was the Speaker of the Assembly. With his help, the repatriation of the remains of the Cham writer Bilal Xhaferri became possible. For Pjetër Arbnori it quickly became clear that, there was a risk that the censorship that was common under the old regime could be reinstated. Thus, when the state television station refused to broadcast the statements and initiatives of the opposition party, he went on a hunger strike. The fame of “Mandela of the Balkans” attracted the attention of many governments of the Western world, whose support forced the left-wing coalition coalition in Parliament to reconsider its position and adopt a formal guarantee of press independence from state intervention. The change in the law was known as the “Arbnori Amendment”.
1936 – Died in London, aged 70. Rudyard Kipling. Kipling, was a short story writer, writer, storyteller, English poet and novelist. He was born in India, a country that inspired many of his works. Kipling’s fiction works include Jungle Book, Kim, and many short stories, including The Man Who Would Be King.
1941 – During World War II, British troops launch a general counterattack against Italian East Africa. During this counterattack, British troops aided by their colonies managed to recapture the region, forcing Italian troops to withdraw eventually. The British had 75,000 dead, and the Italians nearly 65,000.
1967 – Albert DeSalvo, nicknamed the “Boston Strangler”, charged with multiple crimes, is sentenced to life in prison. DeSalvo was a serial killer who he claimed to be, the killer of 13 women in the Boston area from 1962 to 1964. However, his confession to the murder has been debated and debate continues as to what crimes he actually committed.
1971 – Born in Santpedor, Joseph “Pep” Guardiola. Guardiola, is a professional Spanish football coach and former player who is the current manager of the Manchester City club. He is considered to be one of the greatest coaches of all time. In his first season as coach, he led Barcelona to victory in La Liga, the Copa del Rey and the UEFA Champions League.
1977 – The Prime Minister of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, Dzemal Bijedic, his wife and six others are killed in a plane crash in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The aircraft took off from Batajnica Air Base and was traveling to Sarajevo when it crashed, apparently due to poor weather conditions. But conspirators point out that he was eliminated by his Serbian rivals.
2005 – Airbus A380, the world’s largest civilian aircraft, is inaugurated at a ceremony in Toulouse, France. The Airbus A380 is the largest passenger aircraft in the world, an Airbus wide-body aircraft. Airbus studies began in 1988 and the project was announced in 1990 to challenge the dominance of the Boeing 747 in the airline market.
