1916 – Jusuf or Isuf Vrioni, Albanian translator and diplomat, is born. On September 13, 1947, he was arrested by the dictatorial regime and charged with espionage, agitation and propaganda. From February 1949 until April 1950 he was imprisoned in one of the seventeen infamous cells of Koçi Xoxa. In July 1950 he was sentenced to fifteen years in prison and forced labor, serving part of his sentence in Burrell Prison. He was released at the end of 1958 and interned in Fier for a period of several months. In 1960, for the needs of the international propaganda of the dictatorial regime, he was appointed in Tirana as a translator. In the first years of post-dictatorial Albania, Jusuf Vrioni, thanks to his multidimensional post as an intellectual, engaged in civil society circles and for a time served as Chairman of the Helsinki Committee for Human Rights. The infamous 1997 crisis forced him to leave his homeland again and return to Paris. In 1998 he was appointed Ambassador of the Republic of Albania to UNESCO and on May 22 of this year, for his rich contribution to the French language, he was decorated by the French Republic with the order Chevalier de la Légion d’Honneur, just like his former father, Ilias Bey Vrioni, formerly decorated in the late 1920s by order of the Grand Officier de la Légion d’Honneur from the French Republic.
1930 – Died at age 60, Miguel Primo de Rivera. De Rivera, was a dictator, aristocrat and military officer who served as Prime Minister of Spain from 1923-1930 during the Spanish Restoration era. He deeply believed that it was the politicians who had destroyed Spain and that by ruling without them he could restore the nation. Its slogan was “Country, Religion, Monarchy”.
1940 – First civilian (James Isbister) killed in a German bombing raid in the United Kingdom in World War II during an attack on the Scapa River in the Orkney Islands. This attack would, officially, be the start of the German aviation bombing campaign on Great Britain. After a long period of time, British forces would win this battle, and the opportunity to conquer the island nation would fade away.
1964 – Born in Oak Ridge, Gore Verbinski. Verbinski, is an American film director, screenwriter, producer, and musician. He is best known for directing the first three films of the Pirates of the Caribbean saga, The Ring, and Rango. Verbinski is a graduate of UCLA School of Theater, Film, and Television. His latest film, A Cure for Wellness, was recently released.
1966 – Launches, the Gemini 8 flight, which is the 12th U.S.-administered space flight and the first launch space with an Agena target vehicle. The mission carried out the first repair of the two spacecraft but suffered the first critical system failure in the spacecraft of a US ship that threatened the lives of astronauts and demanded an immediate mission outage. The crew returned to Earth for sure.
1984 – William Buckley, chief of the CIA station in Beirut, Lebanon, is kidnapped by Islamic fundamentalists. Buckley was held hostage and tortured by psychiatrist Aziz al-Abu. Hezbollah later claimed they executed the pledge in October 1985, but another US hostage objected, believing he died five months before, in June. Buckley is one of the deadliest CIA officials on duty.
1988 – The city of Halabja in Iraq is attacked with a mixture of poison gas and nerve agents at Saddam Hussein’s command, killing 5,000 people and injuring some 10,000. The attack was part of the Al-Anfal Campaign in northern Iraq, as well as part of Iraq’s attempt to repel Operation Zafar 7. It took place 48 hours after the fall of the city at the hands of the Iranian army.
1995 – Mississippi formally ratifies the Thirteenth Amendment, becoming the last federal state in the US to approve the abolition of slavery. The Thirteenth Amendment was formally ratified in 1865. In Congress, it was approved by the Senate on April 8, 1864, and by the House on January 31, 1865. The amendment was ratified by the required number of states on December 6, 1865. On December 18, 1865.
2014 – Crimea votes in a controversial referendum to break away from Ukraine to join Russia. The referendum asked the local population if they wanted to join Russia as a federal entity, or if they wanted to re-establish the Crimean constitution of 1992. The official result of this referendum was a 97 percent vote for the region’s integration into the Russian Federation with one vote. of voters 83 percent.
