On the 15th January 1919, Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht were killed by members of the Freikorps.
17th December 497 BCE: The first Saturnalia festival celebrated in ancient Rome
17th December 2020
On the 7th January 1979 Pol Pot, the Cambodian revolutionary and General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Kampuchea, was overthrown when Vietnamese forces captured the capital city Phnom Penh.
On the 3rd January 1961, the United States of America severed its diplomatic relationship with Cuba and closed the American embassy in Havana.
On the 30th December 1922, the USSR – the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics – was founded.
U.S. President Ronald Reagan and Soviet General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev met for the first time at the Geneva Summit.
On the 30th August 1918, Bolshevik leader Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov – better known as Lenin – was the victim of a failed assassination plot.
On the 14th August 1980, workers at the Lenin Shipyard in the Polish city of Gdańsk led by electrician Lech Wałęsa began a strike that led to the formation of the Solidarity labour movement.
Henry Kissinger, Richard Nixon’s National Security Advisor, made a secret trip to China to meet with Premier Zhou Enlai.
On the 4th July 1950, Radio Free Europe – founded the previous year to transmit uncensored information to audiences behind the Iron Curtain – completed its first broadcast.
US President Harry S. Truman ordered air and naval forces to assist South Korea against an invasion by North Korea.
18th January 1919: The Paris Peace Conference begins
18th January 2021
17th January 1991: Gulf War combat begins with Operation Desert Storm
17th January 2021
11th November 1918: WW1 Armistice of Compiègne is signed
11th November 2020
1st September 1939: Nazi Germany invades Poland
1st September 2018
9th November 1989: East Germany opens the Berlin Wall
9th November 2019