1892 – American astronomer Edward Emerson Barnard becomes the first person in human history to photograph a comet up close. Also known as Barnard 3 this comet, after its localization through the camera, was considered lost. But in 2008 scientist Andrea Boattini re-located this comet from the Lemmon Mountain Observatory. This would be one of the few comets ever photographed by human hands.
1923 – Ankara is proclaimed the capital of the Republic of Turkey. After more than 6 centuries of being the capital of the Byzantine Empire and then the Ottoman Empire, Istanbul would cease to be such. By special parliamentary decree, leader Mustafa Kemal Ataturk decided to declare Ankara in northern Anatolia as the capital of the new Turkey. Another reason for removing Istanbul as the capital was the water communication it had with the peninsula as it could be easily invaded by foreign armies.
1931– Born in Menkulas of Devoll District near Korça, Dritëro Agolli was an Albanian poet, prose writer, publicist and politician. Since 1973 he was the president of the League of Writers and Artists of Albania. After receiving his first lessons in his hometown, he continued the gymnasium of Gjirokastra, a school with a lot of tradition. He continued his studies at the Faculty of Arts in St. Petersburg. He worked as a journalist for a long time in the daily newspaper “Zeri i Popullit”, and for many years he was the President of the League of Writers and Artists of Albania. For thirty years in a row, Dritëro Agolli was elected MP. His literary creativity is quite rich in different genres and types: poetry, poems, stories, novels, novels, dramas, film scripts, etc. He is the winner of several awards and other honors. Some of his most important works have been translated into the West and the East. Dritëro Agolli entered the Albanian literature (60s) from the very beginning as a protagonist, changing the dimension of the future. In Agoll’s work he saw himself as the protagonist, the farmer and the shepherd, the peasant and the student, the highlander and the farmer. Agolli became the poet of the earth and of love for it, the writer of philosophy and human pain. The literary work of Dritëro Agolli created the new tradition of Albanian literature.
1943 – A new Italian government, led by Marshal Pietro Badoglio, declares war on Nazi Germany, eventually joining the Allies. Following the armistice signed in September 1943, Italian troops would be evacuated from all its occupied territories in Europe and Africa, joining the Anglo-American allies. Consequently, the Nazi Wermacht troops begin the invasion of Italy from the north.
1944 – Soviet Red Army troops launch an offensive on the Latvian capital, Riga. During this offensive, the Soviets, led by Marshals Bagramyan, Yeremenko, and Maslenikov, would liberate the city from Nazi invaders led by General Schoerner. As a result, both sides would have had hundreds dead and injured. This would be one of the most important Russian offensives in the Baltic Region.
1967 – Famous Cuban athlete and record holder Javier Sotomayor is born in Limonar. He would excel in the discipline of high jump at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics, and Sidney 2000. Sotomayor would set his Spanish Salamanca record in 1988 by jumping 2 m by 43 cm. He would repeat the same record 1 year later in Budapest, thus becoming the undisputed world champion in this sport.
1972 – A Uruguayan Air Force Flight 571 carrying the Uruguayan rugby team to a match in Santiago, Chile crashes in the Andes. From this collision 17 people out of 45 who were on board, would lose their lives. The rest of the 28 people would stay isolated on the icy peaks of the Andes for 72 hours. The condition was so bad that some of them, due to lack of food, reached cannibalism. After 72 hours only 16 of them who survived would survive.
2010 – At a Copiapo mine in Chile, 33 of its miners are trapped in a gallery during a technical accident. The operation to search for and rescue them would be one of the most complex in the history of this country. They would remain trapped at depths above 650 m for 69 days and nights. Eventually they would be released safe and sound on October 13th. The operation would cost the Chilean government $ 2 million.
2016 – Famous Italian Nobel laureate Dario Fo dies at the age of 90 in Milan. Criticisms of the system of corruption, murder, politics, racism, and Catholic theology will be clearly seen in Fo’s works. Some of his most prominent works are, Comical mystery, The Rape, The Tale of a Tiger, The Open Couple, etc. In 1997 he would win the Nobel Prize in Literature. In 2010 he became one of the founders of the Five Stars political movement.
