1918 – The US Congress establishes time zones and adopts daylight saving time. Daylight saving time is the practice of advancing the clocks during the warmer months so that darkness falls later each day. The United States of America itself has 6 time zones, each one an hour off the clock. This process is still applied today in all countries of the world.
1921 – During the Irish War of Independence, one of its largest events takes place in Crossbarry, County Cork. About 100 Irish Republican Army (IRA) volunteers escape an attempt by over 1,300 British forces to surround them. During this siege, the Irish had 3 dead, while the British had 10 dead, and several wounded.
1930 – Arthur Balfour dies at the age of 81. Balfour was a British Conservative who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1902 to 1905. As Foreign Secretary in the Lloyd George ministry, he made the Balfour Declaration in 1917 on behalf of the cabinet. This declaration concerned the right that the British Empire granted to the Jews to establish their own state.
1945 – During World War II, Adolf Hitler issues his “Decree” ordering the destruction of all industries, military installations, shops, transport facilities and communication facilities in Germany. This order contributed to a severe blow to the German economy. The decree in question was called the “Nero Decree” in honor of the Roman emperor who was famous for destroying Rome itself.
1949 – Died in Durres Vincens Prennushi was an Albanian folklorist, poet, publicist, translator, cleric and martyr. Prennushi – like his brothers, shot by the communist regime – was beatified on November 5, 2016 in a celebration led by Cardinal Angelo Amato. In 1924 he published the 16-page booklet Between the Leaves of True Democracy, in which he expressed his thoughts on a dreamy democratic state of the Western type. On March 19, 1936, the Holy See appointed him bishop of Sapa, a position he held until 1940, when he was appointed metropolitan archbishop of the Diocese of Durrës, having under his administration the capital of Albania, Tirana. On May 19, 1947, Bishop Prennushi was arrested and began to undergo an ordeal of physical and psychological suffering, created by the Albanian communist regime. Prennushi declared that his fight was against the communists and the Communist Party so that they would not exist, when the power we thought of with the landing of the Americans was formed. On March 19, 1949, suffering from a heart condition, he died of inhuman torture in the Durrës prison. He was declared a “Martyr of Democracy” on May 8, 1993 in Durrës.
1955 – Bruce Willis is born in Idar-Oberstein. Willis is an American actor, producer, and director. His career began on the Off-Broadway stage in the 1970s. He later achieved fame with his leading role in the television series Moonlighting. Willis has appeared in over 70 films and is widely regarded as an “action hero”, due to his portrayal of John McClane in the Die Hard franchise, among other such roles.
1962 – The Algerian War of Independence officially ends. This war, which lasted from 1954 to 1962, led to the country’s independence from France. It was a complex conflict characterized by guerrilla warfare, asymmetric warfare, and the use of torture. The conflict also became a civil war between and within different communities. The war was fought primarily on the territory of Algeria, with repercussions in metropolitan France.
1989 – The Egyptian flag is raised in Taba, marking the end of Israeli occupation since the Six-Day War in 1967, and the Egypt-Israel Peace Treaty in 1979. The city had been a bone of contention between Egypt and Israel for many years. The two countries resumed talks that ended in February 1989. As a result, Taba was divided and most of it was given to Egypt. Israel retained a 250-meter-long stretch of beach.
1990 – The Târgu Mureș ethnic clashes, Romania, begin four days after the anniversary of the 1848 Revolutions in the Austrian Empire. These clashes refer to incidents that occurred between the Romanian and Hungarian ethnic groups in Transylvania, Romania in March 1990. The clashes were the bloodiest interethnic incidents of the post-communist era in Transylvania.
