1919 – Ismail Qemal bey of Vlora dies in Perugia, who was invited by the Italian Government to reach a cooperation on the future of Albania. Accompanied by his three sons: Et’hemi, Qazimi and Qamili and by representatives of the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, on February 8, 1919, the body of Ismail Qemali was sent by train to Brindisi, from where, aboard the torpedo boat “Alpino”, was escorted to Vlora. On February 12, under a magnificent ceremony, his body, placed on the ball bed and wrapped in the National Flag, was escorted to Kanina, where he was buried in the courtyard of the Tekke, in the Vlora family cemetery. “… If we measure the greatness of a political personality with the love of the common people,” wrote Safa Vlora in ‘Family Memories’, we must affirm that no one approaches Ismail Qemal Vlora. In the day-to-day ceremony … neither villager nor citizen stayed at home. The whole face of the mountains and the shores, which stood during the voyage, were filled with people. It was a great apotheosis of all the people, without distinction, and a crown which He won by his great work in the service of his country, until he gave up the ghost. French researcher Nathalie Clayer has found that the figure of Ismail Qemali became the “father of the nation” after the declaration of independence. According to her, his Albanianism has taken on a completely different color from that of other Albanianists, and his image as the leader of the Albanian movement is quite mythical.
1939 – The deadliest earthquake in Chile’s history hits the city of Chillan, killing nearly 28,000 people. This earthquake was of magnitude 8.3 on the Mercalli scale, and will be remembered as the most devastating earthquake in the history of this country. Another earthquake calculated to be the most powerful in history would hit Chile 21 years later, but would cause fewer casualties than the first.
1949 – Born in Chicago, Jim Belushi. Belushi, was a comedian, actor, singer and one of the seven original cast members of the NBC Saturday Night Live sketch comedy show. His origin was Albanian, from the town of Devoll. Throughout his career, Belushi had an artistic partnership with one of SNL actors Dan Aykroyd, with whom he collaborated on the film Blues Brothers.
1965 – Died in London, aged 90, Winston Churchill. Churchill, was a British politician, army officer, and writer. He was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1940 to 1945, when he led Britain to victory in World War II, and again from 1951 to 1955. Churchill represented five electoral terms during his career as a Member of Parliament.
1972 – Japanese Sergeant Shoichi Yokoi is found hiding in a Guam jungle where he has been staying since the end of World War II. Yokoi was the third missing Japanese soldier found after the war, preceding Second Lieutenant Hiroo Onoda (discharged from his former commanding officer on March 9, 1974) and Lieutenant Teruo Nakamura (arrested on December 18, 1974).
1989 – The infamous serial killer Ted Bundy, who killed over 30 known victims, is executed by electric chairs at Florida State Prison. Bundy was an American serial killer who kidnapped, raped and killed many young women and girls during the 1970s.
1990 – Japan releases Hiten, the country’s first lunar capsule, and also the first robotic lunar device since the Soviet Union’s Luna 24 in 1976. Simultaneously, Hiten was the first lunar probe launched from a country other than the Soviet Union and the United States of America. She weighed 200 kg and stayed in space for 3 years, 3 months. It described a distance of 480 thousand km.
2003 – The US Department of Homeland Security officially begins its operation. The United States Department of Homeland Security is a cabinet department of the US federal government with responsibility for public safety, roughly comparable to other countries’ interior ministries. The department was created after the 9/11 attacks.
