Scott Allsop's Blog, page 207

17th September 1978: Egypt & Israel sign Camp David Accords

On the 17th September 1978 the Camp David Accords, which led to the first ever peace treaty between Israel and an Arab state, were signed by Egyptian President Anwar El Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin. Brokered by US President Jimmy Carter, the two frameworks that were agreed upon gained their name from the Presidential retreat at Camp David where the negotiations took place. Having accepted Carter’s invitation to attend talks, Begin didn’t expect to leave with anything more t...

16th September 1955: Uprising that topples Juan Perón from power in Argentina begins

The Revolución Libertadora began in Argentina, resulting in the end of Juan Perón’s second term as President. Juan Perón had been elected President of Argentina in 1946 with overwhelming support from the country’s working class thanks in large part to his wife, Evita. Perón went on to win a second term but, before long, the economy began to falter. This coincided with Evita’s death from cancer in July 1952, and Perón soon found his support amongst the working classes declining. By 1955 Perón’...

15th September 1935: ‘Nuremberg Laws’ introduced in Germany

On the 15th September 1935, the German Reichstag passed the Nuremberg Laws that legally discriminated against Jews. The antisemitic legislation consisted of two laws - the Law for the Protection of German Blood and German Honour, and the Reich Citizenship Law. Since coming to power in 1933, the Nazi Party had produced large amounts of propaganda that discriminated against minorities, and which gradually encouraged people in Germany to view Jews in particular as belonging to a separate race to...

14th September 1959: The USSR sends the first man-made object to the Moon’s surface

Shortly after midnight in Moscow, the Soviets became the first to successfully send a human-made object to the Moon. The Luna 2 probe was developed under the supervision of Sergei Korolev. Korolev was the Chief Designer of the Soviet space program, and he had previously created the R-7 Rocket that launched both the Sputnik 1 satellite and Laika the dog in to space. The Soviets had attempted to reach the Moon earlier in 1959 with Luna 1, but this probe missed its target due to a malfunction on...

13th September 1985: Super Mario Bros. video game released

On the 13th September 1985, the Super Mario Bros. video game was released in Japan. Originally only available for the Japanese Family Computer, it took nearly another two years for the game to be available worldwide following the release of the iconic 8-bit Nintendo Entertainment System or NES home video game console. The Italian-American plumber Mario, and his younger brother Luigi, had first appeared in a video game called simply Mario Bros. in 1983. Super Mario Bros. was therefore a pseudo...

12th September 1977: Steve Biko dies of injuries sustained in police custody

South African anti-apartheid activist Steve Biko died in Pretoria prison from injuries inflicted while in police custody. Bantu Stephen Biko established the South African Students' Organisation, and developed the ideology of Black Consciousness to challenge the apartheid system of racial segregation and white-minority rule. Having voted in favour of the Black People’s Convention in 1972, by 1973 Biko’s activities had caught the attention of the authorities. The government were concerned that...

11th September 1978: Last ever death from smallpox

On the 11th September 1978, Janet Parker became the last recorded person in the world to die from smallpox. Parker was a medical photographer working at the University of Birmingham Medical School who was infected with smallpox from a nearby lab that is believed to have been spread by air currents through service ducts within the building. At the time of her infection, the World Health Organisation had almost completed its successful international smallpox eradication programme. Although the...

10th September 1991: Nirvana release ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’

American rock band Nirvana released the critically acclaimed single “Smells Like Teen Spirit”. Kurt Cobain and Krist Novoselic formed Nirvana in 1987. After a succession of drummers they recruited Dave Grohl in 1990, with whom they signed to DGC Records and soon began recording the album Nevermind. Cobain was initially reluctant to include “Smells Like Teen Spirit” as he was reportedly concerned that it sounded too similar to songs by the Pixies, a band whose music he had long admired and att...

9th September 1947: Moth ‘bug’ discovered inside a Harvard computer

On the 9th September 1947, the first computer ‘bug’ was found in the Harvard Mark II  electromechanical computer. In this case, the bug was a moth trapped between the points inside an electromagnetic relay. Its presence led to problems in the functioning of the whole computer which were resolved when the moth was removed. Development of the Harvard Mark II was financed by the United States Navy, which explains the involvement of Grace ‘Amazing Grace’ Hopper. She had previously been assigned t...

8th September 1941: Start of the Siege of Leningrad

The Siege of Leningrad, one of the longest and most destructive sieges in history, began. Nazi Germany’s Lebensraum foreign policy sought to secure living space for future generations of Germans in the ‘Thousand-Year Reich’. Hitler intended the fertile lands of the western USSR to provide food for his new empire, while the native Slavic population would be destroyed and replaced with ethnic Germans. Leningrad, which is now known as Saint Petersburg, was a politically significant Soviet city d...