#Russian Battleship Novorossiysk

[lonestarbattleship]

Russian Dreadnoughts: Novorossiysk, Part II

"On the evening of October 28, 1955, Novorossiysk dropped anchor in Sevastopol. Following dinner, some 240 crewmen departed for shore, her captain and numerous senior officers included. Additional trainees and civilian workers came aboard, to prepare for the next cruise. All seemed normal. But, at 01:30 in the morning on the 29th, an explosion ripped through the water beneath the ship, blowing a hole directly up through the bow forward of Turret I. Sailors reported two distinct, back-to-back detonations from under the water's surface. The result was a tunnel of force that tore through every deck and vented out through the topside of the ship, bending the entire bow upwards and tearing a 68' long by 12' wide gash. Between 150-175 men were instantly killed.

The ship began to settle immediately. A slight list developed to starboard while the city and harbor came alive with emergency response efforts. Tugs began pushing the wounded ship towards shore, swinging her about by the stern. Other ships sent boats as well. But the situation seemed well in hand at first. Pumping oil to port had helped to correct the list by 02:00, and the ship was in marginally more shallow water. Evacuation was not ordered, and the majority of the roughly 1,600 men aboard were left to mill about on the main deck. The list continued to increase, though it was assumed the ship would settle upright due to the shallow water. This proved to be false; the list increased more and more rapidly until, at 04:14, the ship passed 18°, lost stability, and capsized into the soft mud of the harbor bottom. She had taken on 7,000 tons of water in the 2 hours and 43 minutes since the initial damage occurred. Devoid of reserve stability and overloaded by her 1953 refit, she took an estimated 621 men with her, including rescuers stuck aboard when the rolled over. The ship floated upside down until 22:00 that evening, allowing for the rescue of seven men from a hole cut in the stern. Rescue divers continued to work for another two days, pulling two men from an air bubble in the stern. No more knocking was heard past November 1.

The disaster continues to confound. An immediate Soviet official inquiry determined that an old German sea mine had exploded as a result of the ship's magnetic field. This theory remains the official cause, supported by an immediate dredging effort that turned up additional German mines from the area. However, a variety of factors have prompted questions: the presence of multiple explosions, the ability of a mine to produce such a directed blast, the irregular timing interval between mooring and explosion, and damage that is inconsistent with other mine-damaged large ships. In addition, a missing barge and some suspiciously clean metal debris found in the two shallow craters in the harbor floor sparked serious discussion of sabotage.

Though rather incredulous claims of Italian retribution including the admissions of aging ex combat divers within the past decade - have been mostly dismissed, there remains sufficient question about the cause of the disaster to leave the matter in dispute. Perhaps most relevant is the dismissal of the navy's commander-in-chief, at that point sick for five months, due to falling out of political favor. Nevertheless, since naval history is rife with situations of extreme misfortune based on miraculously slim odds, it also remains possible that mines were the cause.

Novorossiysk herself was salvaged using compressed air. Preparatory work for the salvage operation began in April 1956, and took over a year. On the morning of May 4, 1957, twenty-four compressors worked for four hours to push the sea out of the wreck and the ship finally broke the surface bow first; she is seen here in roughly that state, with the gaping damage to the bow clearly visible. After the installation of a pre-fabricated salvage facility on top of the wreck, she was towed out to Cossack Bay on 28 May. She was cut open to rid her magazines of their explosive contents, and then cut up for scrap, though there is some dispute about the details. X turret, which fell out during the refloating, was salvaged separately. Its guns were retained at the Naval School until the 1970s, when they were cut up as well."

Caption is exclusive to Haze Grey History Facebook page (link) and was shared with the permission of Evan Dwyer. Click this link to read more of his works. Photo is from the public domain.

[ultrajaphunter]

Ukraine acts alone, destroys Russian ships one by one

In this situation, which NATO countries chose to ignore, Ukraine saw no other option than to act alone and destroy Russian ships one by one to unblock its ports, according to Former Defense Minister Andriy Zagorodnyuk.

This strategy has led to success. Kyrylo Danylchenko, BBC’s military reviewer for Ukraine, believes that the realization that they can end physically led the Black Sea Fleet to clear routes near occupied Crimea’s Sevastopol of mines and decide to relocate ships to Russia’s Novorossiysk, leading to logistical hurdles for its missile attacks on Ukraine’s infrastructure and breaking Russia’s naval blockade of Odesa.

While the threat of landings seems reduced by Neptunes and Harpoons, the main issue for Ukraine at sea is the blockade of Black Sea ports, Danylchenko said. The temporary grain corridor that Ukraine is promoting despite Russia’s wirthdrawal from a deal to allow exports of Ukrainian grain eased the fire. However, shipping insurance, war risk premiums, and “demurrage” endured by shipowners still make maritime logistics to Ukrainian ports much more expensive.

Further control of sea lanes, expanding transshipment through the Danube, preventing inspection of merchant vessels far from shore, receiving more patrol boats and mine hunters will be key for Ukraine.

Legend: 

Destroyed or seriously damaged

Damaged

March 2022

The small missile corvette Velikiy Ustyug was disabled, likely damaged during an attack on 7 March 2022.

The P-342 patrol boat Oleg Shipitsin was hit by an anti-tank missile system in the Sea of Azov on 20 March.

On 24 March, the large landing ship Saratov was destroyed by the Ukrainian armed forces in the occupied city of Berdiansk, Zaporizhzhia Oblast with a Tochka-U missile.

The same strike damaged the large landing ship Novocherkassk in Berdiansk. Three crew members were reported dead.

As well, it damaged the large landing ship Caesar Kunikov. The ship’s captain was reported dead.

April 2022

On 14 April, the Ukrainian military struck the Russian frigate Admiral Essen near the shore of Odesa using Grad missiles.

Russia lost its third-largest naval vessel, the Russian flagship missile cruiser Moskva, on 13 April when Ukraine struck it with Neptune missiles. A fire broke out and the ship began to sink. The Russian Defense Ministry officially acknowledged 27 missing and 17 dead crew members.

May 2022

On 2 May, patrol corvette P-342 Yunarmeets Baltiki was sunk by a Bayraktar combat drone near Zmiinyi Island.

In the next five days, Bayraktars also hit:

landing boat D-310

landing boat D-144

patrol boats P-275

patrol boat P-276

patrol boat P-281 “Maksym Panin.”

On 12 May, Ukraine hit the multi-purpose auxiliary vessel Vsevolod Bobrov with a Neptune missile, after which a fire erupted. According to media reports, the ship was carrying reinforcements to Zmiinyi Island, including anti-aircraft missile systems. The damaged ship was towed to Sevastopol.

June 2022

Ukrainian defenders sunk the Russian SB-739 rescue tug Vasiliy Bekh with Harpoon missiles in the Black Sea. Although small, the tug was crucial: it brought reinforcements to Zmiinyi Island and had an anti-aircraft missile system on deck.

According to maritime expert Andriy Klymenko, this enabled Ukraine’s fire control and eventually led to the liberation of Zmiinyi Island. It from this small yet crucial island in the Black Sea that the Russians controlled shipping routes in the Black Sea. It was Zmiinyi Island’s liberation that enabled the functioning of the grain corridor, a UN-brokered deal for Ukrainian grain exports to the Global South via the Black Sea ports, Klymenko says. “There would have been no grain corridor if the Russians had stayed on Zmiinyi,”

October 2022

On 29 October 2022, Ukraine carried out a surface and aeriadrone attack on the Russian Black Sea fleet in Sevastopol Bay. As a result, two ships were put out of service:

The Admiral Makarov guard frigate fleet flagship

The Ivan Golubets marine minesweeper

Analysts considered the attack to be of great importance, on par with the sinkage of flagship Moskva. The drone attack in October 2022 reportedly led to a decrease in the activity of the Russian Black Sea Fleet.

May 2023

The Ivan Khurs medium reconnaissance ship was severely damaged in the Black Sea after a naval drone attack on 25 May 140 km away from the Bosphorous strait.

August 2023

On 4 August, the large landing ship Olenegorskiy Gornyak was hit by naval drones in Novorossiysk Bay (Russia). It was reportedly the result of a joint operation by Ukraine’s Security Service and the Navy.

The next day, a drone attacked the Russian oil tanker SIG in the Black Sea, which carried fuel for the Syrian group of Russian Navy ships.

September 2023

On 3 September, Ukraine destroyed a Russian KS-701 “Tunets“ type patrol boat in the Black Sea with a Bayraktar combat drone.

On 13 September, the large landing ship Minsk was destroyed by an attack on a ship repair plant in Sevastopol, the OSINT project Oryx confirmed analyzing visual data. The attack was presumably carried out by Ukrainian aircraft with Storm Shadow missiles.

The B-237 submarine Rostov-on-Don was severely damaged in the same attack.

Also on 13 September, Ukraine destroyed a Russian KS-701 “Tunets“ type patrol boat in the Black Sea.

On 14 September, the Samum small missile hovercraft was hit by the Ukrainian drone Sea Baby.

Also on 14 September, Ukraine’s defense forces targeted two Russian patrol ships in the southwestern part of the Black Sea. At least one of the ships, Sergey Kotov patrol corvette, suffered damage from maritime drones.

October 2023

On 11 and 13 October, the Pavel Derzhavin patrol corvette was damaged in the Black Sea near occupied Sevastopol.

Also on 13 October, the SB-565 rescue tug Professor Nikolai Muru was attacked by a marine drone with experimental weapons.

November 2023

The Askold small missile corvette was hit on 5 November in a Ukrainian missile strike on the Zaliv shipyard in Kerch, reportedly with SCALP missiles. The central part of the Askold corvette’s hull, where 8 vertical launch installations were located to launch Kalibr and/or P-800 Oniks cruise missiles, was hit. This destroyed the main weapon system of this ship.

On 9-10 November, Ukrainian forces hit minimum two Serna-class amphibious assault ships, with the Russian Navy’s designation Project 11770, in occupied Crimea.

December 2023

The Novocherkassk large landing ship was destroyed in the night before December 26. The Air Force reported that the Novocherkassk large landing ship was attacked with cruise missiles from tactical aviation around 02:30 with Storm Shadow/SCALP missiles. The Novocherkassk is designed to land amphibious assaults on unequipped coastlines and transport troops and cargo by sea. It is capable of transporting various types of armored vehicles, including tanks.

Related: 

Ukraine’s innovative naval tactics shifted balance of power despite lack of warships

Official: Russian ships pushed back 185 km from Ukrainian coast

How Ukraine’s scrappy marine drones are revolutionizing naval warfare

Drone developer: “Even if only one out of ten marine drones reaches the target, this is a very successful case”

[brookstonalmanac]

Events 10.29

312 – Constantine the Great enters Rome after his victory at the Battle of the Milvian Bridge, stages a grand adventus in the city, and is met with popular jubilation. Maxentius' body is fished out of the Tiber and beheaded. 437 – Valentinian III, Western Roman Emperor, marries Licinia Eudoxia, daughter of his cousin Theodosius II, Eastern Roman Emperor in Constantinople unifying the two branches of the House of Theodosius. 1268 – Conradin is executed along with his companion Frederick I, Margrave of Baden by Charles I of Sicily. 1390 – First trial for witchcraft in Paris leading to the death of three people. 1467 – Battle of Brustem: Charles the Bold defeats Prince-Bishopric of Liège. 1591 – Pope Innocent IX is elected. 1611 – Russian homage to the King of Poland, Sigismund III Vasa. 1618 – English adventurer, writer, and courtier Sir Walter Raleigh is beheaded for allegedly conspiring against James I of England. 1621 – The London Pageant of 1621 celebrates the inauguration of Edward Barkham (Lord Mayor). 1658 – Second Northern War: Naval forces of the Dutch Republic defeat the Swedes in the Battle of the Sound. 1665 – Portuguese forces defeat the Kingdom of Kongo and decapitate King António I of Kongo, also known as Nvita a Nkanga. 1675 – Leibniz makes the first use of the long s (∫) as a symbol of the integral in calculus. 1787 – Mozart's opera Don Giovanni receives its first performance in Prague. 1792 – Mount Hood (Oregon) is named after Samuel Hood, 1st Viscount Hood by Lt. William E. Broughton who sighted the mountain near the mouth of the Willamette River. 1863 – Eighteen countries meet in Geneva and agree to form the International Red Cross. 1863 – American Civil War: Battle of Wauhatchie: Forces under Union General Ulysses S. Grant repel a Confederate attack led by General James Longstreet. Union forces thus open a supply line into Chattanooga, Tennessee. 1888 – The Convention of Constantinople is signed, guaranteeing free maritime passage through the Suez Canal during war and peace. 1901 – In Amherst, Massachusetts, nurse Jane Toppan is arrested for murdering the Davis family of Boston with an overdose of morphine. 1901 – Leon Czolgosz, the assassin of U.S. President William McKinley, is executed by electrocution. 1914 – Ottoman entry into World War I. 1918 – The German High Seas Fleet is incapacitated when sailors mutiny, an action which would trigger the German Revolution of 1918–19. 1921 – United States: Second trial of Sacco and Vanzetti in Boston, Massachusetts. 1921 – The Harvard University football team loses to Centre College, ending a 25-game winning streak. This is considered one of the biggest upsets in college football. 1923 – Turkey becomes a republic following the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire. 1929 – The New York Stock Exchange crashes in what will be called the Crash of '29 or "Black Tuesday", ending the Great Bull Market of the 1920s and beginning the Great Depression. 1941 – The Holocaust: In the Kaunas Ghetto, over 10,000 Jews are shot by German occupiers at the Ninth Fort, a massacre known as the "Great Action". 1942 – The Holocaust: In the United Kingdom, leading clergymen and political figures hold a public meeting to register outrage over Nazi Germany's persecution of Jews. 1944 – The Dutch city of Breda is liberated by 1st Polish Armoured Division. 1944 – World War II: The Soviet Red Army enters Hungary. 1948 – Israeli-Palestinian conflict: Safsaf massacre: Israeli soldiers capture the Palestinian village of Safsaf in the Galilee; afterwards, between 52 and 64 villagers are massacred by the IDF. 1953 – BCPA Flight 304 DC-6 crashes near San Francisco. 1955 – The Soviet battleship Novorossiysk strikes a World War II mine in the harbor at Sevastopol. 1956 – Suez Crisis begins: Israeli forces invade the Sinai Peninsula and push Egyptian forces back toward the Suez Canal. 1957 – Israel's prime minister David Ben-Gurion and five of his ministers are injured when Moshe Dwek throws a grenade into the Knesset. 1960 – An airplane carrying the Cal Poly football team crashes on takeoff in Toledo, Ohio. 1964 – The United Republic of Tanganyika and Zanzibar is renamed to the United Republic of Tanzania. 1964 – Biggest jewel heist; involving the Star of India (gem) in the American Museum of Natural History in New York City by Murph the Surf and gang. 1967 – Montreal's World Fair, Expo 67, closes with over 50 million visitors. 1969 – The first-ever computer-to-computer link is established on ARPANET, the precursor to the Internet. 1972 – The three surviving perpetrators of the Munich massacre are released from prison in exchange for the hostages of the hijacked Lufthansa Flight 615. 1980 – Demonstration flight of a secretly modified C-130 for an Iran hostage crisis rescue attempt ends in a crash landing at Eglin Air Force Base's Duke Field, Florida, leading to the cancellation of Operation Credible Sport. 1985 – Major General Samuel K. Doe is announced as the winner of the first multi-party election in Liberia. 1986 – British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher opens the last stretch of the M25 motorway. 1991 – The American Galileo spacecraft makes its closest approach to 951 Gaspra, becoming the first probe to visit an asteroid. 1994 – Francisco Martin Duran fires over two dozen shots at the White House; he is later convicted of trying to kill U.S. President Bill Clinton. 1998 – In South Africa, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission presents its report, which condemns both sides for committing atrocities. 1998 – Space Shuttle Discovery blasts off on STS-95 with 77-year-old John Glenn on board, making him the oldest person to go into space at that time. 1998 – ATSC HDTV broadcasting in the United States is inaugurated with the launch of the STS-95 space shuttle mission. 1998 – While en route from Adana to Ankara, a Turkish Airlines flight with a crew of six and 33 passengers is hijacked by a Kurdish militant who orders the pilot to fly to Switzerland. The plane instead lands in Ankara after the pilot tricked the hijacker into thinking that he is landing in the Bulgarian capital of Sofia to refuel. 1998 – Hurricane Mitch, the second deadliest Atlantic hurricane in history, makes landfall in Honduras. 1998 – The Gothenburg discothèque fire in Sweden kills 63 and injures 200. 1999 – A large cyclone devastates Odisha, India. 2002 – A fire destroys a luxurious department store in Ho Chi Minh City, where 1,500 people are shopping. More than 60 people die and over 100 are unaccounted for in the deadliest peacetime disaster in Vietnam. 2004 – The Arabic-language news network Al Jazeera broadcasts an excerpt from a 2004 Osama bin Laden video in which the terrorist leader first admits direct responsibility for the September 11, 2001 attacks and references the 2004 U.S. presidential election. 2005 – Bombings in Delhi, India kill more than 60. 2008 – Delta Air Lines merges with Northwest Airlines, creating the world's largest airline and reducing the number of US legacy carriers to five. 2008 – A pair of deadly earthquakes hits Baluchistan, Pakistan, killing 215. 2012 – Hurricane Sandy hits the east coast of the United States, killing 148 directly and 138 indirectly, while leaving nearly $70 billion in damages and causing major power outages. 2014 – A mud slide; the 2014 Badulla landslide, in south-central Sri Lanka, kills at least 16 people, and leaves hundreds of people missing. 2015 – China announces the end of its one-child policy after 35 years. 2018 – A Boeing 737 MAX plane crashes after taking off from Jakarta, Indonesia killing 189 people on board. 2020 – Jeremy Corbyn, Leader of the Labour Party and of the Opposition in the United Kingdom is suspended from the Labour Party following his response to findings from the EHRC on the issue of antisemitism within the party.

[lonestarbattleship]

Russian Dreadnoughts: Novorossiysk, Part I

"The Battleship Stalin had demanded from Italy came to fruition in 1949. Following WWII, the Allies had drawn 'lots' - groups of Italian ships - in 1948 to determine who got what. Either by design or extremely poor luck, the Soviets drew the lot that contained the aged, but rebuilt, dreadnought Giulio Cesare instead of a Littorio-class. Regardless, the Soviets stood poised to welcome a powerful addition to their Black Sea Fleet post-war.

Obstacles, however, remained. The Soviets wanted Italy to fund a complete refit of the battleship, which had been sitting in Taranto since June 1944. The Soviets also wanted a grandiose handover in Soviet waters. They would get neither. Italy refused to sail the ship to the Black Sea, and in December 1948 Turkey forbade it anyways by invoking a 1936 ban on non-Black Sea power warships greater than 15,000 tons in the Turkish Straits. Instead, Italy moved Cesare to Valona, Albania, in February 1949 after a hasty partial refit in Augusta. On February 6, 1949, the Italians handed her over in a tense exchange.

The Soviets steamed out of Albania on the 20th. The voyage to the Black Sea showed her flaws: none of the gauges had been translated, and many systems barely worked. Worse, the damage control post contained limited documentation, insufficient to actually keep the ship from sinking in case of disaster this last insult would come back to haunt the USSR six years later. The ship reached Sevastopol on the 26th, and in a ceremony on March 5 received the name Novorossiysk.

Novorossiysk's tribulations had just begun. It took the majority of the year to get the ship ready for service, and supply chains had to be built using reverse engineering. The ship had a recurring issue with mold, and no built-in mess space for meals, so habitability was abysmal. By the end of 1950, she was determined to be of more use as a training platform than as a primary combatant, and between exercises was constantly undergoing some sort of work; in six years, she would see the shipyard eight times, including a substantial and expensive modernization in 1953. The work done in 1953 was notable, as it installed radar, replaced the diesel generators, swapped the boilers out for domestic models, and replaced all Italian anti-aircraft guns with Soviet 37mm and 25mm types. That same year, Stalin died, and additional plans for the ship died with him - including a proposed domestic replacement of her main battery.

Two years later, on October 28, 1955, the battleship returned from gunnery exercises and moored at buoy no. 3 in Sevastopol. She had moored there ten times prior, beginning in 1954; the battleship Sevastopol had similarly dropped anchor and shackled to that same mooring buoy no fewer than 130 times in the past decade. But this time would be different."

Caption is exclusive to Haze Grey History Facebook page (link) and was shared with the permission of Evan Dwyer. Click this link to read more of his works. Photo is from the public domain, and depicts Novorossiysk ca. 1953.

[brookstonalmanac]

Events 10.29

312 – Constantine the Great enters Rome after his victory at the Battle of the Milvian Bridge, stages a grand adventus in the city, and is met with popular jubilation. Maxentius' body is fished out of the Tiber and beheaded. 437 – Valentinian III, Western Roman Emperor, marries Licinia Eudoxia, daughter of his cousin Theodosius II, Eastern Roman Emperor in Constantinople unifying the two branches of the House of Theodosius. 1268 – Conradin is executed along with his companion Frederick I, Margrave of Baden by Charles I of Sicily. 1390 – First trial for witchcraft in Paris leading to the death of three people. 1467 – Battle of Brustem: Charles the Bold defeats Prince-Bishopric of Liège. 1591 – Pope Innocent IX is elected. 1611 – Russian homage to the King of Poland, Sigismund III Vasa. 1618 – English adventurer, writer, and courtier Sir Walter Raleigh is beheaded for allegedly conspiring against James I of England. 1621 – The London Pageant of 1621 celebrates the inauguration of Edward Barkham (Lord Mayor). 1658 – Second Northern War: Naval forces of the Dutch Republic defeat the Swedes in the Battle of the Sound. 1665 – Portuguese forces defeat the Kingdom of Kongo and decapitate King António I of Kongo, also known as Nvita a Nkanga. 1675 – Leibniz makes the first use of the long s (∫) as a symbol of the integral in calculus. 1787 – Mozart's opera Don Giovanni receives its first performance in Prague. 1792 – Mount Hood (Oregon) is named after Samuel Hood, 1st Viscount Hood by Lt. William E. Broughton who sighted the mountain near the mouth of the Willamette River. 1863 – Eighteen countries meet in Geneva and agree to form the International Red Cross. 1863 – American Civil War: Battle of Wauhatchie: Forces under Union General Ulysses S. Grant repel a Confederate attack led by General James Longstreet. Union forces thus open a supply line into Chattanooga, Tennessee. 1888 – The Convention of Constantinople is signed, guaranteeing free maritime passage through the Suez Canal during war and peace. 1901 – In Amherst, Massachusetts, nurse Jane Toppan is arrested for murdering the Davis family of Boston with an overdose of morphine. 1901 – Leon Czolgosz, the assassin of U.S. President William McKinley, is executed by electrocution. 1914 – Ottoman entry into World War I. 1918 – The German High Seas Fleet is incapacitated when sailors mutiny, an action which would trigger the German Revolution of 1918–19. 1921 – United States: Second trial of Sacco and Vanzetti in Boston, Massachusetts. 1921 – The Harvard University football team loses to Centre College, ending a 25-game winning streak. This is considered one of the biggest upsets in college football. 1923 – Turkey becomes a republic following the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire. 1929 – The New York Stock Exchange crashes in what will be called the Crash of '29 or "Black Tuesday", ending the Great Bull Market of the 1920s and beginning the Great Depression. 1941 – The Holocaust: In the Kaunas Ghetto, over 10,000 Jews are shot by German occupiers at the Ninth Fort, a massacre known as the "Great Action". 1942 – The Holocaust: In the United Kingdom, leading clergymen and political figures hold a public meeting to register outrage over Nazi Germany's persecution of Jews. 1944 – The Dutch city of Breda is liberated by 1st Polish Armoured Division. 1944 – World War II: The Soviet Red Army enters Hungary. 1948 – Israeli-Palestinian conflict: Safsaf massacre: Israeli soldiers capture the Palestinian village of Safsaf in the Galilee; afterwards, between 52 and 64 villagers are massacred by the IDF. 1953 – BCPA Flight 304 DC-6 crashes near San Francisco. 1955 – The Soviet battleship Novorossiysk strikes a World War II mine in the harbor at Sevastopol. 1956 – Suez Crisis begins: Israeli forces invade the Sinai Peninsula and push Egyptian forces back toward the Suez Canal. 1957 – Israel's prime minister David Ben-Gurion and five of his ministers are injured when Moshe Dwek throws a grenade into the Knesset. 1960 – An airplane carrying the Cal Poly football team crashes on takeoff in Toledo, Ohio. 1964 – The United Republic of Tanganyika and Zanzibar is renamed to the United Republic of Tanzania. 1967 – Montreal's World Fair, Expo 67, closes with over 50 million visitors. 1969 – The first-ever computer-to-computer link is established on ARPANET, the precursor to the Internet. 1972 – The three surviving perpetrators of the Munich massacre are released from prison in exchange for the hostages of the hijacked Lufthansa Flight 615. 1980 – Demonstration flight of a secretly modified C-130 for an Iran hostage crisis rescue attempt ends in a crash landing at Eglin Air Force Base's Duke Field, Florida, leading to the cancellation of Operation Credible Sport. 1985 – Major General Samuel K. Doe is announced as the winner of the first multi-party election in Liberia. 1986 – British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher opens the last stretch of the M25 motorway. 1991 – The American Galileo spacecraft makes its closest approach to 951 Gaspra, becoming the first probe to visit an asteroid. 1994 – Francisco Martin Duran fires over two dozen shots at the White House; he is later convicted of trying to kill U.S. President Bill Clinton. 1998 – In South Africa, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission presents its report, which condemns both sides for committing atrocities. 1998 – Space Shuttle Discovery blasts off on STS-95 with 77-year-old John Glenn on board, making him the oldest person to go into space at that time. 1998 – ATSC HDTV broadcasting in the United States is inaugurated with the launch of the STS-95 space shuttle mission. 1998 – While en route from Adana to Ankara, a Turkish Airlines flight with a crew of six and 33 passengers is hijacked by a Kurdish militant who orders the pilot to fly to Switzerland. The plane instead lands in Ankara after the pilot tricked the hijacker into thinking that he is landing in the Bulgarian capital of Sofia to refuel. 1998 – Hurricane Mitch, the second deadliest Atlantic hurricane in history, makes landfall in Honduras. 1998 – The Gothenburg discothèque fire in Sweden kills 63 and injures 200. 1999 – A large cyclone devastates Odisha, India. 2002 – A fire destroys a luxurious department store where 1500 people are shopping. Over 60 people die and over 100 are unaccounted for. It becomes the deadliest peacetime disaster in Vietnam. 2004 – The Arabic-language news network Al Jazeera broadcasts an excerpt from a 2004 Osama bin Laden video in which the terrorist leader first admits direct responsibility for the September 11, 2001 attacks and references the 2004 U.S. presidential election. 2005 – Bombings in Delhi, India kill more than 60. 2008 – Delta Air Lines merges with Northwest Airlines, creating the world's largest airline and reducing the number of US legacy carriers to five. 2012 – Hurricane Sandy hits the east coast of the United States, killing 148 directly and 138 indirectly, while leaving nearly $70 billion in damages and causing major power outages. 2015 – China announces the end of its one-child policy after 35 years. 2018 – A Boeing 737 MAX plane crashes after taking off from Jakarta, Indonesia killing 189 people on board. 2020 – Jeremy Corbyn, Leader of the Labour Party and of the Opposition in the United Kingdom is suspended from the Labour Party following his response to findings from the EHRC on the issue of antisemitism within the party.

[brookstonalmanac]

Events 10.29

312 – Constantine the Great enters Rome after his victory at the Battle of the Milvian Bridge, stages a grand adventus in the city, and is met with popular jubilation. Maxentius' body is fished out of the Tiber and beheaded. 437 – Valentinian III, Western Roman Emperor, marries Licinia Eudoxia, daughter of his cousin Theodosius II, Eastern Roman Emperor in Constantinople unifying the two branches of the House of Theodosius. 1268 – Conradin is executed along with his companion Frederick I, Margrave of Baden by Charles I of Sicily. 1390 – First trial for witchcraft in Paris leading to the death of three people. 1467 – Battle of Brustem: Charles the Bold defeats Prince-Bishopric of Liège. 1591 – Pope Innocent IX is elected. 1611 – Russian homage to the King of Poland, Sigismund III Vasa. 1618 – English adventurer, writer, and courtier Sir Walter Raleigh is beheaded for allegedly conspiring against James I of England. 1658 – Second Northern War: Naval forces of the Dutch Republic defeat the Swedes in the Battle of the Sound. 1665 – Portuguese forces defeat the Kingdom of Kongo and decapitate King António I of Kongo, also known as Nvita a Nkanga. 1675 – Leibniz makes the first use of the long s (∫) as a symbol of the integral in calculus. 1787 – Mozart's opera Don Giovanni receives its first performance in Prague. 1792 – Mount Hood (Oregon) is named after Samuel Hood, 1st Viscount Hood by Lt. William E. Broughton who sighted the mountain near the mouth of the Willamette River. 1863 – Eighteen countries meet in Geneva and agree to form the International Red Cross. 1863 – American Civil War: Battle of Wauhatchie: Forces under Union General Ulysses S. Grant repel a Confederate attack led by General James Longstreet. Union forces thus open a supply line into Chattanooga, Tennessee. 1888 – The Convention of Constantinople is signed, guaranteeing free maritime passage through the Suez Canal during war and peace. 1901 – In Amherst, Massachusetts, nurse Jane Toppan is arrested for murdering the Davis family of Boston with an overdose of morphine. 1901 – Leon Czolgosz, the assassin of U.S. President William McKinley, is executed by electrocution. 1914 – Ottoman entry into World War I. 1918 – The German High Seas Fleet is incapacitated when sailors mutiny on the night of the 29th-30th, an action which would trigger the German Revolution of 1918–19. 1921 – United States: Second trial of Sacco and Vanzetti in Boston, Massachusetts. 1921 – The Harvard University football team loses to Centre College, ending a 25-game winning streak. This is considered one of the biggest upsets in college football. 1922 – King Victor Emmanuel III of Italy appoints Benito Mussolini as Prime Minister. 1923 – Turkey becomes a republic following the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire. 1929 – The New York Stock Exchange crashes in what will be called the Crash of '29 or "Black Tuesday", ending the Great Bull Market of the 1920s and beginning the Great Depression. 1941 – The Holocaust: In the Kaunas Ghetto, over 10,000 Jews are shot by German occupiers at the Ninth Fort, a massacre known as the "Great Action". 1942 – The Holocaust: In the United Kingdom, leading clergymen and political figures hold a public meeting to register outrage over Nazi Germany's persecution of Jews. 1944 – The Dutch city of Breda is liberated by 1st Polish Armoured Division. 1944 – World War II: The Soviet Red Army enters Hungary. 1948 – Israeli-Palestinian conflict: Safsaf massacre: Israeli soldiers capture the Palestinian village of Safsaf in the Galilee; afterwards, between 52 and 64 villagers are massacred by the IDF. 1953 – BCPA Flight 304 DC-6 crashes near San Francisco. 1955 – The Soviet battleship Novorossiysk strikes a World War II mine in the harbor at Sevastopol. 1956 – Suez Crisis begins: Israeli forces invade the Sinai Peninsula and push Egyptian forces back toward the Suez Canal. 1957 – Israel's prime minister David Ben-Gurion and five of his ministers are injured when Moshe Dwek throws a grenade into Israel's Knesset. 1960 – An airplane carrying the Cal Poly football team crashes on takeoff in Toledo, Ohio. 1964 – The United Republic of Tanganyika and Zanzibar is renamed the United Republic of Tanzania. 1967 – Montreal's World Fair, Expo 67, closes with over 50 million visitors. 1969 – The first-ever computer-to-computer link is established on ARPANET, the precursor to the Internet. 1972 – The three surviving perpetrators of the Munich massacre are released from prison in exchange for the hostages of hijacked Lufthansa Flight 615. 1980 – Demonstration flight of a secretly modified C-130 for an Iran hostage crisis rescue attempt ends in crash landing at Eglin Air Force Base's Duke Field, Florida leading to cancellation of Operation Credible Sport. 1985 – Major General Samuel K. Doe is announced the winner of the first multi-party election in Liberia. 1986 – British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher opens the last stretch of the M25 motorway. 1991 – The American Galileo spacecraft makes its closest approach to 951 Gaspra, becoming the first probe to visit an asteroid. 1994 – Francisco Martin Duran fires over two dozen shots at the White House; he is later convicted of trying to kill US President Bill Clinton. 1998 – In South Africa, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission presents its report, which condemns both sides for committing atrocities. 1998 – Space Shuttle Discovery blasts off on STS-95 with 77-year-old John Glenn on board, making him the oldest person to go into space. 1998 – ATSC HDTV broadcasting in the United States is inaugurated with the launch of the STS-95 space shuttle mission. 1998 – While en route from Adana to Ankara, a Turkish Airlines flight with a crew of six and 33 passengers is hijacked by a Kurdish militant who orders the pilot to fly to Switzerland. The plane instead lands in Ankara after the pilot tricked the hijacker into thinking that he is landing in the Bulgarian capital of Sofia to refuel. 1998 – Hurricane Mitch, the second deadliest Atlantic hurricane in history, makes landfall in Honduras. 1998 – The Gothenburg discothèque fire in Sweden kills 63 and injures 200. 1999 – A large cyclone devastates Odisha, India. 2002 – Ho Chi Minh City ITC fire, a fire destroys a luxurious department store where 1500 people are shopping. Over 60 people die and over 100 are unaccounted for. It is the deadliest disaster in Vietnam during peacetime. 2004 – The Arabic-language news network Al Jazeera broadcasts an excerpt from a 2004 Osama bin Laden video in which the terrorist leader first admits direct responsibility for the September 11, 2001 attacks and references the 2004 U.S. presidential election. 2005 – Bombings in Delhi, India kill more than 60. 2008 – Delta Air Lines merges with Northwest Airlines, creating the world's largest airline and reducing the number of US legacy carriers to five. 2012 – Hurricane Sandy hits the east coast of the United States, killing 148 directly and 138 indirectly, while leaving nearly $70 billion in damages and causing major power outages. 2015 – China announces the end of One-child policy after 35 years. 2018 – Lion Air Flight 610 of a Boeing 737 MAX crashes after taking off from Jakarta, Indonesia killing 189 people on board. 2020 - Jeremy Corbyn, Leader of the Labour Party and of the Opposition (2015-2020) is suspended from the Labour Party following his response to findings from the EHRC on the issue of antisemitism within the party.

[brookstonalmanac]

Events 10.29

539 BC – Cyrus the Great (founder of Persian Empire) entered the capital of Babylon and allowed the Jews to return to their land. 312 – Constantine the Great enters Rome after his victory at the Battle of the Milvian Bridge, stages a grand adventus in the city, and is met with popular jubilation. Maxentius' body is fished out of the Tiber and beheaded. 437 – Valentinian III, Western Roman Emperor, marries Licinia Eudoxia, daughter of his cousin Theodosius II, Eastern Roman Emperor in Constantinople unifying the two branches of the House of Theodosius. 969 – Byzantine troops occupy Antioch, Syria. 1268 – Conradin is executed along with his companion Frederick I, Margrave of Baden by Charles I of Sicily. 1390 – First trial for witchcraft in Paris leading to the death of three people. 1467 – Battle of Brustem: Charles the Bold defeats Prince-Bishopric of Liège. 1591 – Pope Innocent IX is elected. 1611 – Russian homage to the King of Poland, Sigismund III Vasa. 1618 – English adventurer, writer, and courtier Sir Walter Raleigh is beheaded for allegedly conspiring against James I of England. 1658 – Second Northern War: Naval forces of the Dutch Republic defeat the Swedes in the Battle of the Sound. 1665 – Portuguese forces defeat the Kingdom of Kongo and decapitate King António I of Kongo, also known as Nvita a Nkanga. 1675 – Leibniz makes the first use of the long s (∫) as a symbol of the integral in calculus. 1787 – Mozart's opera Don Giovanni receives its first performance in Prague. 1792 – Mount Hood (Oregon) is named after Samuel Hood, 1st Viscount Hood by Lt. William E. Broughton who sighted the mountain near the mouth of the Willamette River. 1863 – Eighteen countries meet in Geneva and agree to form the International Red Cross. 1863 – American Civil War: Battle of Wauhatchie: Forces under Union General Ulysses S. Grant repel a Confederate attack led by General James Longstreet. Union forces thus open a supply line into Chattanooga, Tennessee. 1888 – The Convention of Constantinople is signed, guaranteeing free maritime passage through the Suez Canal during war and peace. 1901 – In Amherst, Massachusetts, nurse Jane Toppan is arrested for murdering the Davis family of Boston with an overdose of morphine. 1901 – Leon Czolgosz, the assassin of U.S. President William McKinley, is executed by electrocution. 1914 – Ottoman entry into World War I. 1918 – The German High Seas Fleet is incapacitated when sailors mutiny on the night of the 29th-30th, an action which would trigger the German Revolution of 1918–19. 1921 – The Link River Dam, a part of the Klamath Reclamation Project, is completed. 1921 – United States: Second trial of Sacco and Vanzetti in Boston, Massachusetts. 1921 – The Harvard University football team loses to Centre College, ending a 25-game winning streak. This is considered one of the biggest upsets in college football. 1922 – King Victor Emmanuel III of Italy appoints Benito Mussolini as Prime Minister. 1923 – Turkey becomes a republic following the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire. 1929 – The New York Stock Exchange crashes in what will be called the Crash of '29 or "Black Tuesday", ending the Great Bull Market of the 1920s and beginning the Great Depression. 1941 – The Holocaust: In the Kaunas Ghetto, over 10,000 Jews are shot by German occupiers at the Ninth Fort, a massacre known as the "Great Action". 1942 – The Holocaust: In the United Kingdom, leading clergymen and political figures hold a public meeting to register outrage over Nazi Germany's persecution of Jews. 1944 – The Dutch city of Breda is liberated by 1st Polish Armoured Division. 1944 – World War II: The Soviet Red Army enters Hungary. 1948 – Israeli-Palestinian conflict: Safsaf massacre: Israeli soldiers capture the Palestinian village of Safsaf in the Galilee; after, between 52 and 64 villagers are massacred by the IDF. 1948 – Israeli-Palestinian conflict: The Israeli army kills at least 70 Palestinian villagers during the Al-Dawayima massacre. 1953 – BCPA Flight 304 DC-6 crashes near San Francisco. 1955 – The Soviet battleship Novorossiysk strikes a World War II mine in the harbor at Sevastopol. 1956 – Suez Crisis begins: Israeli forces invade the Sinai Peninsula and push Egyptian forces back toward the Suez Canal. 1957 – Israel's prime minister David Ben-Gurion and five of his ministers are injured when Moshe Dwek throws a grenade into Israel's Knesset. 1960 – In Louisville, Kentucky, Cassius Clay (who later takes the name Muhammad Ali) wins his first professional fight. 1960 – An airplane carrying the Cal Poly football team crashes on takeoff in Toledo, Ohio. 1961 – Syria exits from the United Arab Republic. 1964 – The United Republic of Tanganyika and Zanzibar is renamed the United Republic of Tanzania. 1964 – A collection of irreplaceable gems, including the 565 carat (113 g) Star of India, is stolen by a group of thieves (among them is "Murph the surf") from the American Museum of Natural History in New York City. 1967 – Montreal's World Fair, Expo 67, closes with over 50 million visitors. 1969 – The first-ever computer-to-computer link is established on ARPANET, the precursor to the Internet. 1971 – In Macon, Georgia, guitarist Duane Allman is killed in a motorcycle accident. 1972 – The three surviving perpetrators of the Munich massacre are released from prison in exchange for the hostages of hijacked Lufthansa Flight 615. 1980 – Demonstration flight of a secretly modified C-130 for an Iran hostage crisis rescue attempt ends in crash landing at Eglin Air Force Base's Duke Field, Florida leading to cancellation of Operation Credible Sport. 1985 – Major General Samuel K. Doe is announced the winner of the first multi-party election in Liberia. 1986 – British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher opens the last stretch of the M25 motorway. 1991 – The American Galileo spacecraft makes its closest approach to 951 Gaspra, becoming the first probe to visit an asteroid. 1994 – Francisco Martin Duran fires over two dozen shots at the White House; he is later convicted of trying to kill US President Bill Clinton. 1998 – In South Africa, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission presents its report, which condemns both sides for committing atrocities. 1998 – Space Shuttle Discovery blasts off on STS-95 with 77-year-old John Glenn on board, making him the oldest person to go into space. 1998 – ATSC HDTV broadcasting in the United States is inaugurated with the launch of the STS-95 space shuttle mission. 1998 – While en route from Adana to Ankara, a Turkish Airlines flight with a crew of six and 33 passengers is hijacked by a Kurdish militant who orders the pilot to fly to Switzerland. The plane instead lands in Ankara after the pilot tricked the hijacker into thinking that he is landing in the Bulgarian capital of Sofia to refuel. 1998 – Hurricane Mitch, the second deadliest Atlantic hurricane in history, makes landfall in Honduras. 1998 – The Gothenburg discothèque fire in Sweden kills 63 and injures 200. 1999 – A large cyclone devastates Odisha, India. 2002 – Ho Chi Minh City ITC fire, a fire destroys a luxurious department store where 1500 people are shopping. Over 60 people die and over 100 are unaccounted for. It is the deadliest disaster in Vietnam during peacetime. 2004 – The Arabic-language news network Al Jazeera broadcasts an excerpt from a 2004 Osama bin Laden video in which the terrorist leader first admits direct responsibility for the September 11, 2001 attacks and references the 2004 U.S. presidential election. 2005 – Bombings in Delhi, India kill more than 60. 2008 – Delta Air Lines merges with Northwest Airlines, creating the world's largest airline and reducing the number of US legacy carriers to five. 2012 – Hurricane Sandy hits the east coast of the United States, killing 148 directly and 138 indirectly, while leaving nearly $70 billion in damages and causing major power outages. 2015 – China announces the end of One-child policy after 35 years. 2018 – Lion Air Flight 610 of a Boeing 737 MAX crashes after taking off from Jakarta, Indonesia killing 189 people on board.

[brookstonalmanac]

Events 10.29

539 BC – Cyrus the Great (founder of Persian Empire) entered the capital of Babylon and allowed the Jews to return to their land. 312 – Constantine the Great enters Rome after his victory at the Battle of the Milvian Bridge, stages a grand adventus in the city, and is met with popular jubilation. Maxentius' body is fished out of the Tiber and beheaded. 437 – Valentinian III, Western Roman Emperor, marries Licinia Eudoxia, daughter of his cousin Theodosius II, Eastern Roman Emperor in Constantinople unifying the two branches of the House of Theodosius. 969 – Byzantine troops occupy Antioch, Syria. 1268 – Conradin is executed along with his companion Frederick I, Margrave of Baden by Charles I of Sicily. 1390 – First trial for witchcraft in Paris leading to the death of three people. 1467 – Charles the Bold defeats Liège. 1591 – Pope Innocent IX is elected. 1611 – Russian homage to the King of Poland, Sigismund III Vasa. 1618 – English adventurer, writer, and courtier Sir Walter Raleigh is beheaded for allegedly conspiring against James I of England. 1658 – Second Northern War: Naval forces of the Dutch Republic defeat the Swedes in the Battle of the Sound. 1665 – Portuguese forces defeat the Kingdom of Kongo and decapitate King António I of Kongo, also known as Nvita a Nkanga. 1675 – Leibniz makes the first use of the long s (∫) as a symbol of the integral in calculus. 1787 – Mozart's opera Don Giovanni receives its first performance in Prague. 1792 – Mount Hood (Oregon) is named after Samuel Hood, 1st Viscount Hood by Lt. William E. Broughton who sighted the mountain near the mouth of the Willamette River. 1863 – Eighteen countries meet in Geneva and agree to form the International Red Cross. 1863 – American Civil War: Battle of Wauhatchie: Forces under Union General Ulysses S. Grant repel a Confederate attack led by General James Longstreet. Union forces thus open a supply line into Chattanooga, Tennessee. 1888 – The Convention of Constantinople is signed, guaranteeing free maritime passage through the Suez Canal during war and peace. 1901 – In Amherst, Massachusetts, nurse Jane Toppan is arrested for murdering the Davis family of Boston with an overdose of morphine. 1901 – Leon Czolgosz, the assassin of U.S. President William McKinley, is executed by electrocution. 1918 – The German High Seas Fleet is incapacitated when sailors mutiny on the night of the 29th-30th, an action which would trigger the German Revolution of 1918–19. 1921 – The Link River Dam, a part of the Klamath Reclamation Project, is completed. 1921 – United States: Second trial of Sacco and Vanzetti in Boston, Massachusetts. 1921 – The Harvard University football team loses to Centre College, ending a 25-game winning streak. This is considered one of the biggest upsets in college football. 1922 – King Victor Emmanuel III of Italy appoints Benito Mussolini as Prime Minister. 1923 – Turkey becomes a republic following the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire. 1929 – The New York Stock Exchange crashes in what will be called the Crash of '29 or "Black Tuesday", ending the Great Bull Market of the 1920s and beginning the Great Depression. 1941 – The Holocaust: In the Kaunas Ghetto over 10,000 Jews are shot by German occupiers at the Ninth Fort, a massacre known as the "Great Action". 1942 – The Holocaust: In the United Kingdom, leading clergymen and political figures hold a public meeting to register outrage over Nazi Germany's persecution of Jews. 1944 – The Dutch city of Breda is liberated by 1st Polish Armoured Division. 1944 – World War II: The Soviet Red Army enters Hungary. 1948 – Safsaf massacre: Israeli soldiers capture the Palestinian village of Safsaf in the Galilee; after, between 52 and 64 villagers are massacred by the IDF. 1953 – BCPA Flight 304 DC-6 crashes near San Francisco. 1955 – The Soviet battleship Novorossiysk strikes a World War II mine in the harbor at Sevastopol. 1956 – Suez Crisis begins: Israeli forces invade the Sinai Peninsula and push Egyptian forces back toward the Suez Canal. 1957 – Israel's prime minister David Ben-Gurion and five of his ministers are injured when Moshe Dwek throws a grenade into Israel's Knesset. 1960 – In Louisville, Kentucky, Cassius Clay (who later takes the name Muhammad Ali) wins his first professional fight. 1960 – An airplane carrying the Cal Poly football team crashes on takeoff in Toledo, Ohio. 1961 – Syria exits from the United Arab Republic. 1964 – The United Republic of Tanganyika and Zanzibar is renamed the United Republic of Tanzania. 1964 – A collection of irreplaceable gems, including the 565 carat (113 g) Star of India, is stolen by a group of thieves (among them is "Murph the surf") from the American Museum of Natural History in New York City. 1967 – Montreal's World Fair, Expo 67, closes with over 50 million visitors. 1969 – The first-ever computer-to-computer link is established on ARPANET, the precursor to the Internet. 1971 – In Macon, Georgia, guitarist Duane Allman is killed in a motorcycle accident. 1972 – The three surviving perpetrators of the Munich massacre are released from prison in exchange for the hostages of hijacked Lufthansa Flight 615. 1980 – Demonstration flight of a secretly modified C-130 for an Iran hostage crisis rescue attempt ends in crash landing at Eglin Air Force Base's Duke Field, Florida leading to cancellation of Operation Credible Sport. 1985 – Major General Samuel K. Doe is announced the winner of the first multi-party election in Liberia. 1986 – British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher opens the last stretch of the M25 motorway. 1991 – The American Galileo spacecraft makes its closest approach to 951 Gaspra, becoming the first probe to visit an asteroid. 1994 – Francisco Martin Duran fires over two dozen shots at the White House; he is later convicted of trying to kill US President Bill Clinton. 1998 – In South Africa, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission presents its report, which condemns both sides for committing atrocities. 1998 – Space Shuttle Discovery blasts off on STS-95 with 77-year-old John Glenn on board, making him the oldest person to go into space. 1998 – ATSC HDTV broadcasting in the United States is inaugurated with the launch of the STS-95 space shuttle mission. 1998 – While en route from Adana to Ankara, a Turkish Airlines flight with a crew of six and 33 passengers is hijacked by a Kurdish militant who orders the pilot to fly to Switzerland. The plane instead lands in Ankara after the pilot tricked the hijacker into thinking that he is landing in the Bulgarian capital of Sofia to refuel. 1998 – Hurricane Mitch, the second deadliest Atlantic hurricane in history, makes landfall in Honduras. 1998 – The Gothenburg discothèque fire in Sweden kills 63 and injures 200. 1999 – A large cyclone devastates Odisha, India. 2002 – Ho Chi Minh City ITC fire, a fire destroys a luxurious department store where 1500 people are shopping. Over 60 people die and over 100 are unaccounted for. It is the deadliest disaster in Vietnam during peacetime. 2004 – The Arabic-language news network Al Jazeera broadcasts an excerpt from a 2004 Osama bin Laden video in which the terrorist leader first admits direct responsibility for the September 11, 2001 attacks and references the 2004 U.S. presidential election. 2005 – Bombings in Delhi, India kill more than 60. 2008 – Delta Air Lines merges with Northwest Airlines, creating the world's largest airline and reducing the number of US legacy carriers to five. 2012 – Hurricane Sandy hits the east coast of the United States, killing 148 directly and 138 indirectly, while leaving nearly $70 billion in damages and causing major power outages. 2015 – China announces the end of One-child policy after 35 years.