August 9 in History

Caesar's civil war (49–45 BC) occurred during the late Roman Republic between two factions led by Julius Caesar and Pompey. The main cause of the war was political tensions relating to Caesar's place in the Republic on his expected return to Rome on the expiration of his governorship in Gaul. Before the war, Caesar had led an invasion of Gaul for almost ten years. A build-up of tensions starting in late 50 BC, with both Caesar and Pompey refusing to back down, led to the outbreak of civil war. Pompey and his allies induced the Senate to demand Caesar give up his provinces and armies in the opening days of 49 BC. Caesar refused and instead marched on Rome. The war was fought in Italy, Illyria, Greece, Egypt, Africa, and Hispania. The decisive events occurred in 48 BC: Pompey defeated Caesar at the Battle of Dyrrhachium in modern Albania, but the subsequent larger Battle of Pharsalus in Greece was won by Caesar, and Pompey's army disintegrated. Many prominent supporters of Pompey (termed Pompeians) surrendered after the battle, such as Marcus Junius Brutus and Cicero. Others fought on, including Cato the Younger and Metellus Scipio. Pompey fled to Egypt, where he was assassinated upon arrival. Caesar led a military expedition to Asia Minor before attacking North Africa, where he defeated Metellus Scipio in 46 BC at the Battle of Thapsus. Cato the Younger and Metellus Scipio committed suicide shortly after Caesar's victory. In the following year, Caesar defeated the last of the Pompeians, in the Battle of Munda in Spain, who were led by his former lieutenant Titus Labienus. Caesar was then made dictator perpetuo ("dictator in perpetuity" or "dictator for life") by the Senate in 44 BC. He was assassinated by a group of senators (including Brutus) shortly thereafter. The civil war is one of the commonly recognised endpoints of Rome's republican government. Some scholars view the war as the proximate cause of the republic's fall, due to its polarising interruption of normal republican government. Caesar's comprehensive victory followed by his immediate death left a power vacuum; over the following years his heir Octavian was eventually able to take complete control, forming the Roman Empire as Augustus.

The Gothic War of 376–382 was one of several Gothic Wars in Roman history in which the Goths fought against the Roman Empire. This particular conflict included the catastrophic Roman defeat at the Battle of Adrianople, which is commonly seen as a cause of the decline of the Western Roman Empire, although its significance is widely debated.

A bell tower is a tower that contains one or more bells, or that is designed to hold bells even if it has none. Such a tower commonly serves as part of a Christian church, and will contain church bells, but there are also many secular bell towers, often part of a municipal building, an educational establishment, or a tower built specifically to house a carillon. Church bell towers often incorporate clocks, and secular towers usually do, as a public service.

The Diocese of Quilon is a Latin Church diocese of the Catholic Church based in the southern Indian city of Kollam. The diocese was created in 1329 but the Bishop did not take canonical possession and then Gregory XVI made Quilon as the new diocese suffragan of Verapoly on 1 September 1886. Then diocese was made as a suffragan in the ecclesiastical province of the metropolitan Archdiocese of Trivandrum. The Diocese of Quilon covers an area of 1,950 km2 (753 square miles) that contains a population of some 4.8 million. At least 4.8% of the people in the area are Catholic. The history of the Roman Catholic Church in Quilon begins with the erection of a diocese on 9 August 1329. This diocese was later suppressed. The present day Diocese of Quilon was established as an apostolic vicariate on 15 March 1853 by bifurcating the Apostolic Vicariate of Verapoly. It was elevated to a diocese on 1 September 1886. As of 18 April 2018, Paul Antony Mullassery is the bishop of the Diocese of Quilon.

The Second Ottoman–Venetian War was fought from 1499 to 1503 between the Ottoman Empire and the Republic of Venice for control of contested lands in the Aegean Sea, the Ionian Sea, and the Adriatic Sea. The Ottomans, under the command of Admiral Kemal Reis, were victorious and forced the Venetians to recognize their gains at the end of the war.

The Anglo–Powhatan Wars were three wars fought between settlers of the Colony of Virginia and the Powhatan Confederacy of Tsenacommacah in the early 17th century. The first war started in 1609 and ended in a peace settlement in 1614. The second war lasted from 1622 to 1632. The third war lasted from 1644 until 1646 and ended when Opechancanough was captured and killed. That war resulted in a defined boundary between the Native Americans and colonial lands that could only be crossed for official business with a special pass. This situation lasted until 1677 and the Treaty of Middle Plantation which established Indian reservations following Bacon's Rebellion.

Bernard of Saxe-Weimar (German: Bernhard von Sachsen-Weimar; 16 August 1604 – 18 July 1639) was a duke of Saxe-Weimar and a politically active Protestant general during the Thirty Years' War (1618–48). Known as one of the most capable field commanders of his age, he secured several notable victories against the forces of the Austrian Habsburgs, which strengthened both his reputation and the strategic position of the Protestant armies. Having first served in the armies of the Rhenish Palatinate, Baden, and Denmark, Bernard joined the Swedish king Gustavus II Adolphus in 1631 and rose from colonel of the royal guards to general. After Gustavus was killed at the Battle of Lützen (1632), Bernard took command and helped secure a Protestant victory, earning the duchy of Franconia for his later successes against Wallenstein. Following a crushing defeat at Nördlingen (1634) and the loss of his territories, he entered French service in 1635 in return for lands in Alsace, and his capture of Rheinfelden, Freiburg, and Breisach (1638) broke the Habsburg–Spanish grip on France. He died suddenly in 1639, and Cardinal Richelieu absorbed his army and territories into the French crown.

The American Indian Wars, also known as the American Frontier Wars, and the Indian Wars, were initially fought by European colonial empires, the United States, and briefly the Confederate States of America and Republic of Texas against various American Indian tribes in North America. These conflicts occurred from the time of the earliest colonial settlements in the 17th century until the end of the 19th century. The various conflicts resulted from a wide variety of factors, the most common being the desire of settlers and governments for tribal lands. The European powers and their colonies enlisted allied Indian tribes to help them conduct warfare against each other's colonial settlements. After the American Revolution, many conflicts were local to specific states or regions and frequently involved disputes over land use; many involved retaliatory violence. As American settlement expanded westward after the American Revolution, conflicts between the United States and Native American nations increased in scale and frequency. A major turning point came during the War of 1812, when Native confederacies in the Old Northwest and the Southern United States allied with the British against the United States. Following the war, armed resistance continued in some regions, but relations between the United States and Native nations were increasingly governed through treaties that transferred large areas of Indigenous land to the United States. Historians have noted that the United States frequently failed to uphold treaty obligations, contributing to recurring disputes and further conflict. The Indian Removal Act of 1830 authorized the president to negotiate treaties exchanging Native American lands east of the Mississippi River for lands in the west. Although the act itself provided for negotiated removals, federal and state authorities subsequently used a combination of treaties, political pressure, and coercion to relocate many Native nations from the southeastern United States to Indian Territory. The resulting removals, including the Trail of Tears, transferred millions of acres of Indigenous land to the United States and opened much of the Southeast to American settlement. As American settlement expanded across the Great Plains and the Western United States, the federal government increasingly confined Native peoples to Indian reservations through treaties, military campaigns, and congressional legislation. Native American tribes and confederacies often achieved significant military victories against American settlers and soldiers, but generally lacked the population, resources, and logistical capacity to sustain prolonged resistance against the expanding United States. Some scholars have characterized aspects of United States policies toward Native Americans, including forced removals, warfare, and reservation policies, as constituting genocide against Native Americans. Other scholars dispute the application of the term genocide to the American Indian Wars as a whole, arguing that the conflicts varied significantly across time and place.

Louis Philippe I (6 October 1773 – 26 August 1850), nicknamed the Citizen King, was King of the French from 1830 to 1848, the penultimate monarch of France, the last French monarch to bear the title "King", and the only French monarch to descend from the Orléans branch of the Bourbon family. He abdicated from his throne during the French Revolution of 1848, which led to the foundation of the French Second Republic. Louis Philippe was the eldest son of Louis Philippe II, Duke of Orléans (later known as Philippe Égalité). As Duke of Chartres, the younger Louis Philippe distinguished himself commanding troops during the French Revolutionary Wars and was promoted to lieutenant general by the age of 19, but broke with the First French Republic over its decision to execute King Louis XVI. He fled to Switzerland in 1793 after being connected with a plot to restore France's monarchy. His father fell under suspicion and was executed during the Reign of Terror. Louis Philippe remained in exile for 21 years until the Bourbon Restoration. He was proclaimed king in 1830 after his distant cousin Charles X was forced to abdicate by the July Revolution. The reign of Louis Philippe is known as the July Monarchy and was dominated by wealthy industrialists and bankers. During the 1840–1848 period, he followed conservative policies, especially under the influence of French statesman François Guizot. He also promoted friendship with the United Kingdom and sponsored colonial expansion, notably the French conquest of Algeria. His popularity faded as economic conditions in France deteriorated in 1847, and he was forced to abdicate after the outbreak of the French Revolution of 1848. Louis Philippe lived for the remainder of his life in exile in the United Kingdom. Among supporters of royalism in France, his supporters are known as Orléanists. Among his grandchildren were King Leopold II of Belgium, Empress Carlota of Mexico, Tsar Ferdinand I of Bulgaria, and Queen Mercedes of Spain.

The Webster–Ashburton Treaty was a treaty that resolved several border issues between the United States and the British North American colonies (the region that later became the Dominion of Canada). Negotiated in the US federal capital city of Washington, DC, it was signed August 9, 1842, under the new administration of US president John Tyler, who as the former vice president, had just recently succeeded and became chief executive upon the unexpected death of his running mate and predecessor, William Henry Harrison, who had only served a single month in office. The Daniel Webster–Lord Ashburton negotiations and the newly drawn-up 1842 treaty resolved many of the issues arising from the recent border conflicts and skirmishes between Americans and New Brunswickers in the Aroostook War of 1838–1839. It arose from disputes and controversies over the vague indefinite terms and text of the old peace agreement of the Treaty of Paris of 1783, which ended the American Revolutionary War. The provisions of the 1842 treaty between Britain and the United States included: The settlement of the location of the Maine–New Brunswick international border, which was the primary cause of the Aroostook War. Establishment of the international border between Lake Superior and the Lake of the Woods, originally defined in the Treaty of Paris in 1783. Reaffirmation of the location of the border (at the 49th parallel) in the westward frontier up to the far western Rocky Mountains defined in the previous Treaty of 1818. Definition of seven crimes subject to extradition. Agreement that the two parties would share use of the Great Lakes. Agreement that there should be an end to the slave trade on the high seas. The treaty also retroactively confirmed the southern boundary of the Province of Quebec that land surveyors John Collins and Thomas Valentine had marked with stone monuments in 1771–1773. The treaty intended that the international border be fixed at the 45 degrees north parallel of latitude. Still, the border is in some places nearly 0.8 km (1⁄2 mi) north of the 45th parallel. The treaty was signed by US secretary of state Daniel Webster, and British diplomat Alexander Baring, 1st Baron Ashburton.

The Åland War was the operations of an Anglo-French naval force against military and civilian facilities on the coast of the Grand Duchy of Finland in 1854–1856, during the Crimean War between Russia and the allied France and Britain. The war is named after the Battle of Bomarsund in Åland. Although the name of the war refers to Åland, skirmishes were also fought in other coastal towns of Finland in the Gulf of Bothnia and the Gulf of Finland.

The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), which was formed in 1861 by states that had seceded from the Union to preserve slavery in the United States. The South saw slavery as threatened because of the election of Abraham Lincoln and the growing abolitionist movement in the North. The war ended with Union victory, the dissolution of the Confederacy and the abolition of slavery, freeing four million African Americans. Decades of controversy over slavery came to a head when Abraham Lincoln, a Republican who opposed slavery's expansion, won the 1860 presidential election. Seven slave states in the South responded to Lincoln's victory by seceding from the United States and forming the Confederate States of America. The Confederacy seized US forts and other federal assets in the South. The war began on April 12, 1861, when the Confederacy bombarded Fort Sumter in South Carolina. A wave of enthusiasm for war swept over the North and South, as military recruitment soared. Four more Southern states seceded after the war began and, led by its president, Jefferson Davis, the Confederacy comprised eleven states, containing a third of the US population. Four years of intense combat, mostly in the South, ensued. During 1861–1862 in the western theater, the Union made permanent gains, though in the eastern theater the conflict was inconclusive. The abolition of slavery became a Union war goal on January 1, 1863, when Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, which declared all slaves in rebel states to be free, applying to more than 3.5 million of the 4 million enslaved people in the country. To the west, the Union first destroyed the Confederacy's river navy by the summer of 1862, then much of its western armies, and seized New Orleans. The successful 1863 Union siege of Vicksburg split the Confederacy in two at the Mississippi River, while Confederate general Robert E. Lee's incursion north failed at the Battle of Gettysburg. General Ulysses S. Grant's western successes led Lincoln to promote him to command of all Union armies in 1864. Inflicting an ever-tightening naval blockade of Confederate ports, the Union marshaled resources and manpower to attack the Confederacy from all directions. This led to the fall of Atlanta in 1864 to Union general William Tecumseh Sherman, followed by his March to the Sea, which culminated in his taking Savannah. The last significant battles raged around the ten-month siege of Petersburg, gateway to the Confederate capital of Richmond. The Confederates abandoned Richmond, and on April 9, 1865, Lee surrendered to Grant following the Battle of Appomattox Court House, setting in motion the end of the war. Lincoln lived to see this victory but was shot by an assassin on April 14, dying the next day. By the end of the war, much of the South's infrastructure had been destroyed. The Confederacy collapsed, the Thirteenth Amendment abolished slavery, and four million enslaved black people were freed. The war-torn nation then entered the Reconstruction era in an attempt to rebuild the country, bring the former Confederate states back into the United States, and grant civil rights to freed slaves. The war is one of the most extensively studied and written about episodes in the history of the United States. It remains the subject of cultural and historiographical debate. Of continuing interest is the myth of the Lost Cause of the Confederacy. The war was among the first to use industrial warfare. Railroads, the electrical telegraph, steamships, the ironclad warship, and mass-produced weapons were widely used. The war left an estimated 700,000 soldiers dead, along with an undetermined number of civilian deaths, making it the deadliest in American history. The technology and brutality of the Civil War foreshadowed the coming world wars.

The American Indian Wars, also known as the American Frontier Wars, and the Indian Wars, were initially fought by European colonial empires, the United States, and briefly the Confederate States of America and Republic of Texas against various American Indian tribes in North America. These conflicts occurred from the time of the earliest colonial settlements in the 17th century until the end of the 19th century. The various conflicts resulted from a wide variety of factors, the most common being the desire of settlers and governments for tribal lands. The European powers and their colonies enlisted allied Indian tribes to help them conduct warfare against each other's colonial settlements. After the American Revolution, many conflicts were local to specific states or regions and frequently involved disputes over land use; many involved retaliatory violence. As American settlement expanded westward after the American Revolution, conflicts between the United States and Native American nations increased in scale and frequency. A major turning point came during the War of 1812, when Native confederacies in the Old Northwest and the Southern United States allied with the British against the United States. Following the war, armed resistance continued in some regions, but relations between the United States and Native nations were increasingly governed through treaties that transferred large areas of Indigenous land to the United States. Historians have noted that the United States frequently failed to uphold treaty obligations, contributing to recurring disputes and further conflict. The Indian Removal Act of 1830 authorized the president to negotiate treaties exchanging Native American lands east of the Mississippi River for lands in the west. Although the act itself provided for negotiated removals, federal and state authorities subsequently used a combination of treaties, political pressure, and coercion to relocate many Native nations from the southeastern United States to Indian Territory. The resulting removals, including the Trail of Tears, transferred millions of acres of Indigenous land to the United States and opened much of the Southeast to American settlement. As American settlement expanded across the Great Plains and the Western United States, the federal government increasingly confined Native peoples to Indian reservations through treaties, military campaigns, and congressional legislation. Native American tribes and confederacies often achieved significant military victories against American settlers and soldiers, but generally lacked the population, resources, and logistical capacity to sustain prolonged resistance against the expanding United States. Some scholars have characterized aspects of United States policies toward Native Americans, including forced removals, warfare, and reservation policies, as constituting genocide against Native Americans. Other scholars dispute the application of the term genocide to the American Indian Wars as a whole, arguing that the conflicts varied significantly across time and place.

Thomas Alva Edison (February 11, 1847 – October 18, 1931) was an American inventor and businessman known for his work on the incandescent light bulb, the phonograph, electric power distribution and early motion pictures. The merger of the Edison General Electric Company and the competitor Thomson-Houston Electric Company resulted in the formation of General Electric. Edison registered 1,093 patents in the United States. Edison was born in Milan, Ohio, but grew up in Michigan with little formal schooling. He became deaf as a child and learned through books and tinkering. Edison began working at a young age; as a railroad telegrapher, he spent much of his time inventing improvements to telegraph systems. By the age of 22, he had sold a few of his early inventions and moved to New York City to focus on engineering. He had three children with his first wife, Mary, but Edison was neglectful. She died at 29 years old. Edison had troubled relationships with his children for the rest of his life. With the help of friends, the inventor attracted investment and grew his company. By the age of 29, he owned a telegraph recorder factory in Newark with over one hundred employees. Edison expanded, developing Menlo Park, now considered the first industrial research laboratory. Edison, known as "The Wizard of Menlo Park", drove his staff extremely hard and constantly worked himself and his associates to exhaustion. The inventor also drove up investment and publicity. He rose to international fame with the invention of the phonograph which took many years to turn into a commercial success. He later built a larger research lab in West Orange, New Jersey. In 1878, Edison began working on an electrical lighting system which he hoped would replace the common gas lamp. Going from electrical light bulb to the modern electric grid took decades of invention, investment, and influence. Edison and his colleagues had the opportunity to get enormously wealthy as they designed and built a nation of light bulbs, generators, and electric distribution systems. Competition with Westinghouse's AC system forced Edison to yield and resulted in the creation of General Electric. Edison simultaneously created a mining company, which was never profitable, and he nearly went bankrupt. As his role in the illumination business declined, he established a cement company and began work on a motion picture camera. The motion picture camera went from an invention to the first movie production studio. He traveled around the United States and Europe promoting his many innovations, during which he met Mina, his second wife. They had three children together, and Edison was again neglectful. During their adulthood, he began to take more interest in his sons and they eventually worked for him. Charles Edison took over his father's business when he died. In addition to acute health issues from handling toxic and radioactive chemicals during his various experiments, Thomas faced a lifelong battle against diabetes. He worked vigorously until his death. Following the success of the illumination business, he ran several companies which produced batteries, movies, musical records, and phenol. His last obsession was the search for domestic rubber production.

Edward VII (Albert Edward; 9 November 1841 – 6 May 1910) was King of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions, and Emperor of India, from 22 January 1901 until his death in 1910. The second child and eldest son of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, Edward, nicknamed "Bertie", was Prince of Wales and heir apparent to the British throne for almost 60 years. During his mother's long reign, he was largely excluded from political influence and came to personify the leisured elite. He married Princess Alexandra of Denmark in 1863; the couple had six children. As Prince of Wales, Edward travelled throughout Britain performing ceremonial public duties and represented Britain on visits abroad. His tours of North America in 1860 and of the Indian subcontinent in 1875 proved popular successes. Despite this public approval, his reputation as a playboy prince soured his relationship with his mother. Edward inherited the throne on his mother's death in 1901. He proved to be an effective constitutional monarch whose reign strengthened the popularity of the British monarchy. He played a role in the modernisation of the British Home Fleet and the reorganisation of the British Army after the Second Boer War of 1899 to 1902. He re-instituted traditional ceremonies as public displays and broadened the range of people with whom royalty socialised. He fostered good relations between Britain and other European countries, especially France, for which he was popularly called "Peacemaker", but his relationship with his nephew, German Emperor Wilhelm II, was poor. The Edwardian era, which covered Edward's reign and was named after him, coincided with the start of a new century and heralded significant changes in technology and society, including steam turbine propulsion and the rise of socialism. Edward died in the midst of a constitutional crisis that was resolved by the Parliament Act 1911, which restricted the power of the unelected House of Lords. Edward was succeeded as king by his only surviving son, George V.

Scouting or the Scout Movement is a youth movement which became popularly established in the first decade of the 20th century.

The Kakori Train Action was a train robbery that took place at Kakori, a village near Lucknow, on 9 August 1925, during the Indian independence movement against the British Raj in India. It was organised by the Indian revolutionaries of the Hindustan Socialist Republican Association (HSRA). The action was conceived by Ram Prasad Bismil and Ashfaqulla Khan who were members of the Hindustan Republican Association (HRA), which later became the Hindustan Socialist Republican Association. The HRA was established to carry out revolutionary activities against the British Raj with the objective of achieving independence. Since the organisation needed money for the purchase of weaponry, Bismil and his party made a plan to rob a train on the Saharanpur railway lines. The robbery plan was executed by Bismil, Khan, Rajendra Lahiri, Chandra Shekhar Azad, Sachindra Bakshi, Keshab Chakravarthy, Manmath Nath Gupta, Mukundi Lal, Murari Lal Khanna, Vishnu Sharan Dublish and Banwari Lal. One passenger was killed.

The 1936 Summer Olympics (German: Olympische Sommerspiele 1936), officially the Games of the XI Olympiad (Spiele der XI. Olympiade) and branded as Berlin 1936, were an international multi-sport event held from 1 to 16 August 1936 in Berlin, Germany. Berlin won the right to host the Games over Barcelona at the 29th IOC Session in 1931. The 1936 Games were the second and last occasion on which the International Olympic Committee (IOC) chose a host by a ballot in which the bidding cities themselves could vote; later rules barred cities that voted from being selected. The Games had been awarded to Germany during the Weimar Republic, but by 1936 the country was governed by the Nazi regime, and Adolf Hitler's government treated the Olympics as an opportunity for propaganda. To project an image of a peaceful, tolerant Germany, the authorities temporarily removed antisemitic signage and softened the most visible forms of persecution for the duration of the Games. At the same time, the German Olympic authorities barred nearly all Jewish and Romani athletes from the national team; the fencer Helene Mayer, who had one Jewish parent, was the only such athlete to represent Germany. A movement to boycott or relocate the Games developed in several countries—Czechoslovakia, France, the Netherlands, Sweden, the United Kingdom, and the United States—but it ultimately failed. Forty-nine nations competed, the largest number at any Olympics to that point. These were the first Games to be televised and the first to feature a torch relay carrying the Olympic flame from Olympia to the host city—a ceremony devised for Berlin that became a permanent Olympic tradition. The filmmaker Leni Riefenstahl recorded the Games for her two-part film Olympia, which pioneered techniques still used in sports cinematography. Jesse Owens of the United States won four gold medals in the sprint and long jump events, and became the most successful athlete to compete in Berlin, while Germany was the most successful country overall with 101 medals (38 of them gold); the United States placed a distant second with 57 medals. These were the final Olympic Games under the IOC presidency of Henri de Baillet-Latour. For the next 12 years, no Olympic Games were held due to the immense world disruption caused by the Second World War. The next Olympic Games were held in 1948 (the Winter Games in St. Moritz, Switzerland, and then the Summer Games in London, England).

World War II, or the Second World War, was a global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies and the Axis powers. Nearly all of the world's countries participated, with many engaging in total war on an unprecedented scale. World War II was the deadliest conflict in history, causing the deaths of 60 to 75 million people, a majority of whom were civilians. Millions died as a result of massacres, starvation, disease, and genocides including the Holocaust. After the Allied victory, Germany, Austria, Japan, and Korea were occupied, and German and Japanese leaders were tried for war crimes.

Dmitri Dmitriyevich Shostakovich (25 September [O.S. 12 September] 1906 – 9 August 1975) was a Soviet-era Russian composer and pianist who became internationally known after the premiere of his First Symphony in 1926 and thereafter was regarded as a major composer. Shostakovich achieved early fame in the Soviet Union, but had a complex relationship with its government. His 1934 opera Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk was initially a success but later condemned by the Soviet government, putting his career at risk. In 1948, his work was denounced under the Zhdanov Doctrine, with professional consequences lasting several years. Even after his censure was rescinded in 1956, performances of his music were occasionally subject to state interventions, as with his Thirteenth Symphony (1962). Nevertheless, Shostakovich was a member of the Supreme Soviet of the RSFSR (1947) and the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union (from 1962 until his death), as well as chairman of the RSFSR Union of Composers (1960–1968). Over the course of his career, he earned several important awards, including the Order of Lenin, from the Soviet government. Shostakovich combined various musical techniques in his works. His music is characterized by sharp contrasts, elements of the grotesque, and ambivalent tonality; he was also heavily influenced by neoclassicism and by the music of Gustav Mahler. His orchestral works include 15 symphonies and six concerti (two each for piano, violin, and cello). His chamber works include 15 string quartets, a piano quintet, and two piano trios. His solo piano works include two sonatas, an early set of 24 preludes, and a later set of 24 preludes and fugues. Stage works include three completed operas and three ballets. Shostakovich also wrote several song cycles and a substantial quantity of music for theatre and film. Shostakovich's reputation has continued to grow after his death. Scholarly interest has increased significantly since the late 20th century, including considerable debate about the relationship between his music and his attitudes toward the Soviet government.

The United States Forest Service (USFS) is an agency within the United States Department of Agriculture. It administers the nation's 154 national forests and 20 national grasslands covering 193 million acres (780,000 km2) of land. The major divisions of the agency are the Chief's Office, National Forest System, State and Private Forestry, Business Operations, as well as Research and Development. The agency manages about 25% of federal lands and is the sole major national land management agency not part of the U.S. Department of the Interior.

The Continuation War, also known as the Second Soviet–Finnish War, was a conflict fought by Finland and Nazi Germany against the Soviet Union during World War II. It began with a Finnish declaration of war on 25 June 1941 and ended on 19 September 1944 with the Moscow Armistice. The Soviet Union and Finland had previously fought the Winter War from 1939 to 1940, which ended with the Soviet failure to conquer Finland and the Moscow Peace Treaty. Numerous reasons have been proposed for the Finnish decision to invade, with regaining territory lost during the Winter War regarded as the most common. Other justifications for the conflict include Finnish President Risto Ryti's vision of a Greater Finland and Commander-in-Chief Carl Gustaf Emil Mannerheim's desire to annex East Karelia. On 22 June 1941, the Axis Powers invaded the Soviet Union. Three days later, the Soviet Union conducted an air raid on Finnish cities which prompted Finland to declare war and allow German troops in Finland to begin offensive warfare. By September 1941, Finland had regained its post–Winter War concessions to the Soviet Union in Karelia. The Finnish Army continued its offensive past the 1939 border during the invasion of East Karelia and halted it only around 30–32 km (19–20 mi) from the centre of Leningrad. It participated in besieging the city by cutting the northern supply routes and by digging in until 1944. In Lapland, joint German–Finnish forces failed to capture Murmansk or cut the Kirov (Murmansk) Railway. The Soviet Vyborg–Petrozavodsk offensive in June and August 1944 drove the Finns from most of the territories that they had gained during the war, but the Finnish Army halted the offensive in August 1944. Hostilities between Finland and the USSR ceased in September 1944 with the signing of the Moscow Armistice in which Finland restored its borders per the 1940 Moscow Peace Treaty and additionally ceded Petsamo and leased the Porkkala Peninsula to the Soviets. Furthermore, Finland was required to pay war reparations to the Soviet Union, accept partial responsibility for the war, and acknowledge that it had been a German ally. Finland was also required by the agreement to expel German troops from Finnish territory, which led to the Lapland War between Finland and Germany.

Nagasaki , officially Nagasaki City , is the capital and the largest city of Nagasaki Prefecture on the island of Kyushu in Japan.

The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army, often referred by its shortened name as the Red Army, was the army and air force of the Russian Soviet Republic and, from 1922, the Soviet Union. The army was established in January 1918 by a decree of the Council of People's Commissars to oppose the military forces of the new nation's adversaries during the Russian Civil War, especially the various groups collectively known as the White Army. In February 1946, the Red Army was renamed the "Soviet Army". Following the dissolution of the Soviet Union, it was split between the post-Soviet states, with its bulk becoming the Russian Ground Forces, commonly considered to be the successor of the Soviet Army.

South Kasai (French: Sud-Kasaï) was an unrecognised secessionist state within the Republic of the Congo (the modern-day Democratic Republic of the Congo) which was semi-independent between 1960 and 1962. Initially proposed as only a province, South Kasai sought full autonomy in similar circumstances to the much larger neighbouring state of Katanga, to its south, during the political turmoil arising from the independence of the Belgian Congo known as the Congo Crisis. Unlike Katanga, however, South Kasai did not explicitly declare full independence from the Republic of the Congo or reject Congolese sovereignty. The South Kasaian leader and main advocate, Albert Kalonji, who had represented a faction of the nationalist movement (the Mouvement National Congolais-Kalonji or MNC-K) before decolonisation, exploited ethnic tensions between his own ethnic group, the Baluba, and the Bena Lulua to create a Luba-focused state in the group's traditional heartland in the south-eastern parts of the Kasai region. As sectarian violence broke out across the country, the state declared its secession from the Congo on 9 August 1960 and its government and called for the Baluba living in the rest of the Congo to return to their "homeland". Kalonji was appointed president. Although the South Kasaian government claimed to form an autonomous part of a federal Congo-wide state, it exercised a degree of regional autonomy and even produced its own constitution and postage stamps. The state, supported by foreign powers, particularly Belgium, and funded by diamond exports, managed numerous crises, including those caused by the large emigration of Luba refugees, but became increasingly militarist and repressive. Soon after its secession, South Kasaian and Congolese troops clashed after the Congolese central government ordered an offensive against it. The resulting campaign, planned to be the first act of a larger action against Katanga, was accompanied by widespread massacres of Baluba and a refugee crisis termed a genocide by some contemporaries. The state was rapidly overrun by Congolese troops. The violence in the suppression of Kasai provided much legitimacy to Joseph Kasa-Vubu's deposition of Patrice Lumumba from the office of prime minister in late 1960 and Lumumba's later arrest and assassination. As a result, South Kasai remained on relatively good terms with the new Congolese government from 1961. Its leaders, including Kalonji himself, served in both the South Kasaian government and the Congolese parliament. South Kasai continued to exercise quasi-independence while Congolese and United Nations troops were able to move through the territory without conflict with the South Kasaian gendarmerie. In April 1961, Kalonji took the royal title Mulopwe ("King of the Baluba") to tie the state more closely to the pre-colonial Luba Empire. The act divided the South Kasaian authorities and Kalonji was disavowed by the majority of South Kasai's parliamentary representatives in Léopoldville. In December 1961, Kalonji was arrested on a legal pretext in Léopoldville and imprisoned, and Ferdinand Kazadi assumed power as acting head of state. UN and Congolese troops occupied South Kasai. In September 1962, shortly after his escape from prison and return to South Kasai, Kalonji was ousted by a military coup d'état which forced him into exile and brought the secession to an end. The end of South Kasai's secession is usually held to be either December 1961, the date of Kalonji's arrest, or October 1962 with the anti-Kalonji coup d'état and final arrival of government troops.

Singapore, officially the State of Singapore, was one of the 14 states of Malaysia from 16 September 1963 to 9 August 1965. At the time of merger, Singapore was a British colony (having achieved self-governance in 1959) and had previously been part of the Straits Settlements until 1946. As part of Malaysia, Singapore was the smallest state with a land area of 581.5 km2 (224.5 sq mi) but had the largest population of 1.82 million. Malaysia was formed on 16 September 1963 through the merger of the Federation of Malaya with the former British colonies of North Borneo (Sabah), Sarawak and Singapore. The merger was supported by the British, Malayan and Singaporean leaders as a measure to counter communist influence in Southeast Asia. Through the 1962 integration referendum and the Malaysia Agreement, Singapore was given higher autonomy in education and labour, with the Federal Government in Kuala Lumpur overseeing defence and external affairs. Singapore was allocated only 15 seats in the Dewan Rakyat, and a reciprocal arrangement prevented citizens on either side from voting or contesting in the other's elections. These constitutional rules ensured the island's autonomy while limiting the influence of Singapore's Chinese-majority population on national politics. However, political, racial and economic conflicts soon emerged between the governments of Singapore and Malaysia, led by the People's Action Party (PAP) and the Alliance Party respectively. Despite the agreement, both sides contested in each other's arenas: the Singapore branch of the Alliance in 1963, and the PAP in 1964. Furthermore, communal tensions between the Malay and Chinese populations in Singapore led to race riots later that year. The PAP's criticisms of the Federal Government's tax proposals in 1964 and the delay in Sabah development loans led to threats from then Finance Minister for Malaysia Tan Siew Sin to raise Singapore's revenue contribution from 40 to 60 per cent. Despite negotiations at constitutional rearrangements, Malaysian prime minister Tunku Abdul Rahman opted to resolve the disagreements by separating Singapore from the Federation, a decision supported by Singapore's finance minister Goh Keng Swee and a few PAP leaders. The Separation Agreement was signed on 7 August 1965, and Singapore became a sovereign state on 9 August. Following separation, Malaysia supported Singapore's entry into the United Nations and the British Commonwealth. Both nations continued to share a national carrier, Malaysian Airways – renamed Malaysia–Singapore Airlines in 1966 – until the airline's split in 1971. The Singapore dollar and the Malaysian ringgit, along with the Brunei dollar, were also interchangeable with each other under the Currency Interchangeability Agreement until Malaysia withdrew in 1973. The historical narrative, particularly in Singapore due to limited public information, taught that the country had been abruptly expelled from Malaysia. This perception was shaped by a lack of detail regarding the separation talks and the sudden announcement of independence. The public release of the Albatross file in December 2025, containing Goh's records of the negotiations, provides a fuller account.

LANSA Flight 502 was a Lockheed L-188A Electra operated by Líneas Aéreas Nacionales Sociedad Anónima (LANSA) which crashed shortly after takeoff from Quispiquilla Airport near Cusco, Peru, on August 9, 1970, after losing all power from one of its four engines. The turboprop airliner, registered OB-R-939, was bound from Cusco to Lima, carrying 8 crew and 92 passengers. All but one of the occupants died from injuries sustained from impact forces and post-crash fire. Two people on the ground were also killed. There were 49 American high school exchange students on board, all of whom perished. A Peruvian government investigation concluded that the accident was caused by improper execution of engine-out procedures by the flight crew and lack of proper maintenance. LANSA was fined and its operations were suspended for 90 days. At the time, the crash was the deadliest ever in Peruvian history before being surpassed by Faucett Perú Flight 251 in 1996.

The Troubles were an ethno-nationalist conflict in Northern Ireland that lasted from the late 1960s to 1998. Also known internationally as the Northern Ireland conflict, it is usually deemed to have ended with the Good Friday Agreement of 1998. Although centred in Northern Ireland, violence at times spilled into the Republic of Ireland, England, and mainland Europe. The conflict arose from political and nationalistic disputes with a strong ethnic and sectarian dimension. Unionists and loyalists, mostly Ulster Protestants, wanted Northern Ireland to remain in the United Kingdom, while Irish nationalists and republicans, mostly Irish Catholics, wanted it to join a united Ireland. Despite the division between Protestants and Catholics, it was not a religious war.

Mars 7, also known as 3MP No.51P was a Soviet spacecraft launched in 1973 to explore Mars. A 3MP bus spacecraft which comprised the final mission of the Mars programme, it consisted of a lander and a coast stage with instruments to study Mars as it flew past. Due to a malfunction, the lander failed to perform a maneuver necessary to enter the Martian atmosphere, missing the planet and remaining in heliocentric orbit along with the coast stage.

The Watergate scandal, or simply Watergate, was a political scandal in the United States involving the administration of President Richard Nixon. On June 17, 1972, operatives associated with Nixon's 1972 re-election campaign were caught burglarizing and planting listening devices in the Democratic National Committee headquarters at Washington, D.C.'s Watergate complex. Nixon's efforts to conceal his administration's involvement led to an impeachment process and ultimately to his resignation in August 1974.

The Liberal Democratic Party , also known as Jimintō (自民党), is a major conservative and nationalist political party in Japan. Since its foundation in 1955, the LDP has been in power almost continuously—a period known as the 1955 System—except from 1993 to 1996, and again from 2009 to 2012. Sanae Takaichi has served as president of the LDP since 4 October 2025. She heads a coalition government with the Japan Innovation Party (JIP) since 21 October 2025.

Aviateca Flight 901 was a scheduled international passenger flight which crashed into the 7,159-foot (2,182 m) San Vicente volcano in El Salvador of a Boeing 737-200 on approach to the Comalapa International Airport on 9 August 1995. The accident killed all 65 passengers and crew on board and is the deadliest aviation disaster to occur in El Salvador. An investigation by the Civil Aviation Authority determined that pilot error and air traffic control error in bad weather contributed to the accident.

Boris Nikolayevich Yeltsin was a Soviet and Russian politician who served as President of Russia from 1991 to 1999, having previously served as Chairman of the Supreme Soviet of the Russian SFSR from 1990 to 1991. He was a member of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) from 1961 to 1990. He later stood as a political independent, during which time he was viewed as being ideologically aligned with liberalism.

The 2006 transatlantic aircraft plot was a terrorist plot to detonate liquid explosives, carried aboard airliners travelling from the United Kingdom to the United States and Canada, disguised as soft drinks. The plot was discovered by British Metropolitan Police during an extensive surveillance operation. As a result of the plot, unprecedented security measures were initially implemented at airports. The measures were gradually relaxed during the following weeks, but as of 2026, passengers are still not allowed to carry liquid containers larger than 100 ml (3.4 US fl oz) onto commercial aircraft at most airports around the world.

Air Moorea Flight 1121 was a de Havilland Canada DHC-6 Twin Otter which crashed into the ocean shortly after takeoff from Moorea Airport on Moorea Island in French Polynesia on 9 August 2007 killing all 20 people on board.

Ferguson is a city in St. Louis County, Missouri, United States. It is part of the Greater St. Louis metropolitan area. Per the 2020 census, the population was 18,527, and is predominantly Black.

The Tampere light rail, branded as Tampere Tram, is a public transport system in Tampere, Finland. In November 2016, the Tampere city council approved plans to construct a 330-million-euro light rail system on the route from the city centre to Hervanta and to the Tampere University Hospital. Traffic on the first two lines of the route began on 9 August 2021.

Voepass Flight 2283 was a scheduled domestic Brazilian passenger flight from Cascavel to Guarulhos. On August 9, 2024, the ATR 72 serving the flight crashed in Vinhedo, São Paulo State. The aircraft was flying at an altitude of 17,000 ft (5,200 m) prior to stalling and entering a flat spin with a rapid descent at around 13:21 BRT.