October 29 - Republic Day in Turkey

Message Share Topic Printable Version Google Delicious Digg StumbleUpon Windows Live Yahoo Bookmarks reddit Facebook MySpace Newsvine Furl Topic Search Topic Options Post Reply Create New Topic

   Happy Republic (National) Day to all our Turkish friends, readers and forumers!!!!

1923 Turkey is proclaimed a republic (National Day) following the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire.  After over four hundred years of rule by the Ottoman Turks, Turkey is formally declared a republic with Mustafa Kemal, later known as Kemal Atat�rk, as the first president of the Republic of Turkey. After Turkish defeat in World War II, Turkey's traditional ruling Sultanate was abolished, a revolutionary reform that is echoed when the Caliphate, Turkey's traditional Islamic leadership, is renounced in 1924. Atat�rk, who remains the president of Turkey until his death in 1938, carries out an extensive program of reform, modernization, and industrialization.

For more info on Kemal Ataturk, see:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kemal_Atat%C3%BCrk

Other events:

539 BC- Babylon falls to Cyrus the Great of Persia.  The Neo-Babylonian Empire commences to lose power after Nebuchadenezzar�s demise. It was conquered in  539 BC by Cyrus the Great. Cyrus was king of the Medo-Persian Empire

969 BC-Byzantines troops occupy Antioch Syria.  Antioch was temporarily captured by the Persians in 540 and 611 and was absorbed into the Arab caliphate in 637. Under the Arabs, it shrank to the status of a small town. The Byzantines re-captured the city in 969, and it served as a frontier fortification until taken by the Seljuq Turks in 1084. In 1098 it was captured by the crusaders and was taken by the Mamluks in 1268. It finally fell to the Ottoman Turks in 1517 and remained under Ottoman control until World War I. 

1618  Sir Walter Raleigh executed -  A favorite courtier of Queen Elizabeth I and an established  English writer and adventurer, Sir Walter Raleigh was beheaded in London, under a sentence brought against him 15 years earlier for conspiracy against King James.

For more info, see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sir_Walter_Raleigh

1863 Sixteen countries meet in Geneva to form the International Red Cross 

1929  Great Depression Begins  - Also known as �Black Tuesday�, the New York Stock Exchange crashes, ushering in what will be a world wide economic crisis.

For more info, see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Great_Depression

1956  Suez Crisis begins.  Israel invades the Sinai Peninsula and push Egyptian forces back toward the Suez Canal.  In response to Egypt's nationalization of the Suez Canal and barring of Israeli shipping, Israel launches an attack on Egypt and its Arab allies. In a lightning attack, Israeli forces under General Moshe Dayan seize the Gaza Strip and drive through the Sinai to the east bank of the Suez Canal. Two days later, Britain and France, whose diplomats are expelled from Egypt and ships also barred from the Suez, enter the conflict in a coalition with Israel, demanding the immediate evacuation of Egyptian forces from the Suez Canal Zone.

1998 John Glenn returns to space - At the ripe old age of 77, John Glenn became the oldest person ever to travel in space.  Four decades before, he was the first American to orbit the Earth. 

For more info on John Glenn, see:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Glenn

Discoveries/Inventions/New Technology:

1945 1st ball point pen goes on sale, 57 years after it was patented . It commercially went on sale at Gimbels Department Store in New York at the price of US$12.50 each.

1953  The drug Serpasil,  antipsychotic  (CIBA Pharmaceutical:reserpine) was given approval by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Reserpine was the first major tranquilizer used in the treatment of mental patients. A derivative of rauwolfia, reserpine acts to deplete the neurotransmitters serotin, norepinephrine, and dopamine, in the brain. 

1969  The first computer-to-computer link is established on ARPANET.

1988 China announces an herbal male contraceptive 

Women in History:

1894  Harvard University refused to admit Mary Whiton Calkins to doctoral candidacy, despite Hugo M�nsterberg's testimony that she was the best student he had ever had at Harvard University. Harvard's refusal was solely based on Calkins's gender. 

1908  Louise Bates Ames was born. Ames, a developmental psychologist, was interested in child development, gerontology and child-rearing practices. She was a co-founder of the Gesell Institute of Child Development

1966 National Organization of Women (NOW) was founded 