Scott Allsop's Blog, page 26

28th August 1973: Norrmalmstorg robbery in Stockholm ends, prompting the term ‘Stockholm Syndrome’

During a bank robbery in Stockholm, Jan-Erik Olsson took four bank workers hostage. They later began to exhibit sympathy towards their captors while becoming fearful of the police’s ...

27th August 1896: Shortest recorded war in history fought between Britain and the Sultanate of Zanzibar

The British bombardment was swift and devastating, setting Zanzibar's palace and its buildings ablaze and killing or wounding approximately 500 men and women. The war lasted for barely 40 ...

26th August 1895: The world’s first major AC power plant began producing electricity at Niagara Falls

The world’s first large-scale, alternating current power plant began producing electricity at Niagara ...

25th August 1916: The U.S. National Park Service signed into law by President Woodrow Wilson

Forty-four years after the establishment of Yellowstone, the service was created when President Wilson signed the National Park Service Organic Act on 25 August, ...

24th August 1938: The Kweilin incident sees the first ever civilian aircraft to be shot down when Japanese fighters attack

As the Kweilin Douglas DC-2 aircraft neared the city of Namyung in Guangdong province, it was intercepted by three Japanese Mitsubishi A5M fighters that opened fire on the unarmed civilian ...

23rd August 1970: Start of the Salad Bowl Strike, the largest farm worker walkout in U.S. history

The Salad Bowl Strike, the largest farm worker strike in U.S. history, began in California’s Salinas ...

22nd August 1864: Adoption of the first Geneva Convention governing sick and wounded members of armed forces

The First Geneva Convention mandated protection and care for wounded and sick military personnel, regardless of nationality, as well as recognising the neutrality of medical personnel, field hospitals, and ...

21st August 1957: USSR conducts first successful test of an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM)

After flying 6,000 kilometres, the R-7 Semyorka rocket successfully hit its target in what is now the Kura Missile Test Range in the Russian Far ...

20th August 1968: Warsaw Pact troops invade to end the Prague Spring

At around 11pm on the 20th August 1968, troops from the USSR, Bulgaria, Poland and Hungary entered Czechoslovakia in an invasion that brought the Prague Spring to an ...

19th August 1991: August Coup places Gorbachev under house arrest

On the 19th August 1991 Mikhail Gorbachev, the President of the Soviet Union, was placed under house arrest in what is known as the August ...