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Chiang Kai-shek

Chiang Kai-shek

Chiang Kai-shek (October 31, 1887 – April 5, 1975) was a Chinese military and political leader who assumed the leadership of the Kuomintang (KMT) after the death of Sun Yat-sen in 1925. He commanded the Northern Expedition to unify China against the warlords and emerged victorious in 1928 as the overall leader of the Republic of China (ROC). Chiang led China in the Second Sino-Japanese War, during which Chiang's stature within China weakened but his international prominence grew. During the Chinese Civil War (1926–1949), Chiang attempted to eradicate the Chinese Communists but ultimately failed, forcing his government to retreat to Taiwan, where he continued serving as the President of the Republic of China and Director-General of the KMT for the remainder of his life.

Early life

Chiang Kai-shek was born in the town of Xikou, approximately 33 km (20.5 miles) southwest of downtown Ningbo, in Fenghua County, Ningbo Prefecture, Zhejiang Province. However, the ancestral home (祖籍) of Chiang Kai-shek, a concept important in Chinese society, was the town of Heqiao (和橋鎮), in Yixing County, Wuxi Prefecture, Jiangsu Province (approximately 38 km. (24 miles) southwest of downtown Wuxi, and 10 km. (6 miles) from the shores of famous Lake Taihu). His parents were Chiang Zhaocong (蔣肇聰) and Wang Caiyu (王采玉), part of a upper-middle class family of salt merchants. His father died when he was only three and Chiang wrote of his mother as the "embodiment of Confucian virtues." In an arranged marriage, Chiang was married to fellow villager Mao Fumei1 (毛福梅, 1882–1939). Chiang and Mao had a son, Ching-Kuo, and a daughter, Chien-hua (建華). Chiang grew up in an era where military defeats had left China destabilized and in debt, and he decided to join the military. He began his military education at the Paoting Military Academy in 1906. He left for the Military State Academy in Japan in 1907. There, he was influenced by his compatriots to support the revolutionary movement to overthrow the Qing Dynasty and set up a Chinese republic. He befriended fellow Zhejiang native Chen Qimei and in 1908, Chen brought Chiang to the Revolutionary Alliance. Chiang served in the Imperial Japanese Army from 1909 to 1911.

Rise to power

With the outbreak of the Wuchang Uprising in 1911, Chiang Kai-shek returned to China to fight in the revolution as an artillery officer. He served in the revolutionary forces, leading a regiment in Shanghai under his friend and mentor Chen Qimei. The revolution was ultimately successful in overthrowing the Qing Dynasty and Chiang became a founding member of the Kuomintang. After takeover of the Republican government by Yuan Shikai and the failed Second Revolution, Chiang, like his Kuomintang comrades, divided his time between exile in Japan and haven in Shanghai's foreign concession areas. In Shanghai, Chiang also cultivated ties with the criminal underworld dominated by the notorious Green Gang and its leader Du Yuesheng. Chiang had numerous brushes with the law during this period and the International Concession police records show an arrest warrant for him for armed robbery. On February 15, 1912, Chiang Kai-shek shot and killed Tao Chengzhang, the leader of the Restoration Society, at point-blank range as Tao lay sick in a Shanghai French Concession hospital, thus ridding Chen Qimei of his chief rival. In 1915, Chen Qimei was assasinated by agents of Yuan Shikai and Chiang succeeded him as the leader of the Chinese Revolutionary Party in Shanghai. This was during a low point in Sun Yat-sen's career, with most of his old Revolutionary Alliance comrades refusing to join him in the exiled Chinese Revolutionary Party, and Chen Qimei had been Sun's chief lieutentant in the party. Chinese Revolutionary Party In 1917 Sun Yat-sen moved his base of operations to Guangzhou and Chiang joined him in 1918. Sun, at the time was largely sidelined and without arms or money, was soon expelled from Guangzhou in 1918 and exiled again to Shanghai, but restored again with mercernary help in 1920. However, a rift had developed between Sun, who sought to militarily unify China under the KMT, and Guangdong Governor Chen Jiongming, who wanted to implement a federalist system with Guangdong as a model province. On June 16, 1923, Chen attempted to expel Sun from Guangzhou and had his residence shelled. Sun and his wife Song Qingling narrowly escaped under heavy machine gun fire, only to be rescued by gunboats under the direction of Chiang Kai-shek. The incident earned in Chiang Kai-shek the trust of Sun Yat-sen. Sun regained control in Guangzhou in early 1924 with the help of mercernaries from Yunnan, and accepted aid from the Comintern. He then undertook a reform of the Kuomintang and established a revolutionary government aimed at unifying China under the KMT. That same year, Sun sent Chiang Kai-shek to spend three months in Moscow studying the Soviet political and military system. Chiang left his eldest son Ching-kuo in Russia, who would not return until 1937. Chiang Kai-shek returned to Guangzhou and in 1924 was made Commandant of the Whampoa Military Academy. The early years at Whampoa allowed Chiang to cultivate a cadre of young officers loyal to him and by 1925 Chiang's proto-army was scoring victories against local rivals in Guangdong province. Here he also first met and worked with a young Zhou Enlai, who was selected to be Whampoa's Political Commissar. However, Chiang was deeply critical of the Kuomintang-Communist Party United Front, suspicious that the Communists would take over the KMT from within. With Sun Yat-sen's death in 1925 a power vacuum developed in the KMT. A power struggle ensued between Chiang, who leaned towards the right wing of the KMT, and Sun Yat-sen's close comrade-in-arms Wang Jingwei, who leaned towards the left wing of the party. Though Chiang ranked relatively low in the civilian hierarchy, and Wang had succeeded Sun to power as Chairman of the National Government, Chiang's deft political maneuvering eventually allowed him to emerge victorious. Chiang, who became Commander-in-Chief of the National Revolutionary Forces in 1925, launched in July 1926 the Northern Expedition, a military campaign to defeat the warlords controlling northern China and unify the country under the KMT. The National Revolutionary Army branched into three divisions—to the west, Wang Jingwei led a column to take Wuhan, to the east, Pai Ch'ung-hsi led another column to take Shanghai, while Chiang led in the middle to take Nanjing—before they were to press ahead to take Beijing. However, in January 1927, allied with the Chinese Communists and Soviet Agent Mikhail Borodin, Wang Jingwei and his KMT leftist allies (including Hu Hanmin and Song Qingling), having taken the city of Wuhan amid much popular mobilization and fanfare, declared the National Government to have moved to Wuhan. After taking Nanjing in March (and with Shanghai under the control of his close ally General Pai), Chiang momentarily halted his campaign and decided to break with the leftists. On April 12, Chiang began a swift and brutal attack on thousands of suspected Communists. He then established his own National Government in Nanjing, supported by his conservative allies. The communists were purged from the KMT and the Soviet advisers were expelled. This earned Chiang the support (and financial backing) of the Shanghai business community, and maintained him the loyalty of his Whampoa officers (many of whom hailed from Hunan elites were discontented by the land redistribution Wang Jingwei was enacting in the area), but led to the beginning of the Chinese Civil War. Wang Jingwei's National Government, though popular with the masses, was weak militarily and was soon overtaken by a local warlord, forcing Wang and his leftist government into joining him in Nanjing. Finally, the warlord capital of Beijing was taken in June 1928 and in December, the Manchurian warlord Chang Hsueh-liang pleged allegiance to Chiang's government. Chiang made gestures to cement himself as the successor of Sun Yat-sen. In a pairing of much political significance, Chiang married on December 1, 1927 Soong May-ling, the younger sister of Soong Ching-ling (Sun Yat-sen's widow, whom he had proposed to beforehand but was swiftly rejected) in Japan and thus positioned himself as Sun Yat-sen's brother-in-law. (To please Soong's parents, Chiang had to first divorce his first wife and concubines and promise to eventually convert to Christianity. He was baptized in 1929.) Upon reaching Beijing, Chiang paid homage to Sun Yat-sen and had his body moved to the capital Nanjing to be enshrined in an grand mausoleum.

"Tutelage" over China

Chiang Kai-shek gained nominal control of China, but his party was "too weak to lead and too strong to overthrow". In 1928, Chiang was named Generalissimo of all Chinese forces and Chairman of the National Government, a post he held until 1932 and later from 1943 until 1948. According to KMT political orthodoxy, this period thus began the period of "political tutelage" under the dictatorship of the Kuomintang. The decade of 1928 to 1937 was one of consolidation and accomplishment for Chiang's government. Some of the harsh aspects of foreign concessions and privileges in China were moderated through diplomacy. The government acted energetically to modernize the legal and penal systems, stabilize prices, amortize debts, reform the banking and currency systems, build railroads and highways, improve public health facilities, legislate against traffic in narcotics, and augment industrial and agricultural production. Great strides also were made in education and, in an effort to help unify Chinese society—the New Life Movement was launched to stress Confucian moral values and personal discipline. Mandarin was promoted as a standard tongue. The widespread establishment of communications facilities further encouraged a sense of unity and pride among the people. These successes, however, were met with constant upheavals with need of further political and military consolidation. Though much of the urban areas were now under the control of his party, the countryside still lay under the influence of severely weakened yet undefeated warlords and communists. Chiang fought with most of his warlord allies, with one northern rebellion—against the warlords Yen Hsi-shan and Feng Yuxiang—in 1930 almost bankrupting the government and costing almost 250,000 casualties. When Hu Han-min established a rival government in Guangzhou in 1931, Chiang's government was nearly toppled. A complete eradication of the Communist Party of China eluded Chiang. The Communists regrouped in Jiangxi and established the Chinese Soviet Republic. Chiang's anti-communist stance attracted the aid of German military advisers, and in Chiang's fifth campaign to defeat the Communists in 1934, he surrounded the Red Army only to see the Communists escape through the epic Long March to Yan'an. Yan'an

Wartime leader of China

With Japan's invasion of Manchuria in 1931, Chiang adopted a slogan "first internal pacification, then external resistance" which meant that the government would first defeat the Communists before challenging Japan directly. In December 1936, Chiang flew to Xi'an to coordinate the final assualt on Red Army forces holed up in Yan'an. However, Chiang's allied commander Chang Hsueh-liang, whose forces were to be used in his attack and whose homeland of Manchuria had been invaded by the Japanese, had other plans. On December 12, Chang Hsueh-liang kidnapped Chiang Kai-shek for two weeks in what is known as the Xi'an Incident and forced Chiang into making an "Second United Front" with the Communists against Japan. Though he lost his chance to finish off the communists, Chiang refused to make a formal public annoucement of this "United Front" as the Communists had hoped and his troops continued fighting the Communists throughout the war. All-out war with Japan broke out in July 1937. In August of the same year, Chiang sent 500,000 of his best trained and equipped soldiers to defend Shanghai. With about 250,000 Chinese casualties, Chiang lost his political base of Whampoa-trained officers. Although Chiang lost militarily, the battle disspelled Japanese claims that it could conquer China in three months and demonstrated to the Western powers (which occupied parts of the city and invested heavily in it) that the Chinese would not surrender under intense Japanese fire. This was skillful diplomatic maneuvering on the part of Chiang, who knew the city would eventually fall, but wanted to make a strong gesture in order to secure Western military aid for China. By December, the capital city of Nanjing had fallen to the Japanese and Chiang moved the government inland to Chongqing. Devoid of economic and industrial resources, Chiang could not counter-attack and held off the rest of the war preserving whatever territory he still controlled, though his strategy succeeded in stretching Japanese supply lines and bogging down Japanese soldiers in the vast Chinese interior who would otherwise have been sent to conquer southeast Asia and the Pacific islands. With the Attack on Pearl Harbor and the opening of the Pacific War, China became one of the Allied Powers. During and after World War II, Chiang and his American-educated wife Soong May-ling, commonly referred to as "Madame Chiang Kai-shek", held the unwavering support of the United States China Lobby which saw in them the hope of a Christian and democratic China. Chiang Kai-shek's policies were far from Christian or democratic, but this remained unknown to the U.S. public due to strong state-imposed censorship in China and self-imposed censorship in the U.S. during the war years and after. This was especially fomented by the Chiangs' close friendship with TIME magazine publisher Henry Luce. Henry Luce Chiang's strategy during the War opposed the strategies of both Mao Zedong and the United States. The U.S. regarded Chiang as an important ally able to help shorten the war by engaging the Japanese occupiers in China. Chiang, in contrast, used powerful associates such as H. H. Kung in Hong Kong to build the ROC army for certain conflict with the communist forces after the end of WWII. This fact was not understood well in the United States. The U.S. liaison officer, General Joseph Stilwell, correctly deduced that Chiang's strategy was to accumulate munitions for future civil war rather than fight the Japanese, but Stilwell was unable to convince Franklin D. Roosevelt of this and precious Lend-Lease armaments continued to be allocated to the Kuomintang. Chiang was recognized as one of the "Big Four" Allied leaders along with Roosevelt, Churchill, and Stalin and travelled to attend the Cairo Conference in November 1943. His wife acted as his translator and adviser.

"Losing China"

1943 Following the World War, the United States encouraged peace talks between Chiang and Communist leader Mao Zedong in Chongqing, but each side, both distrustful of each other and the United States' professed neutrality, soon resorted to all-out war. The U.S. suspended aid to Chiang Kai-shek for much of the period of 1946 to 1948, in the midst of fighting against the People's Liberation Army led by Mao Zedong. Though Chiang achieved great status internationally, his government was deteriorating with corruption and inflation. The war had severely weakened the Nationalists both in terms of resources and popularity while the Communists were strengthened by aid from Stalin, and guerrilla organizations extending throughout rural areas. The Nationalists initially had superiority in arms and men, but their lack of popularity and morale, and apparent disorganization soon allowed the Communists to gain the upper hand. Meanwhile a new Constitution promulgated in 1947, and Chiang was elected by the National Assembly to be President. This marked the beginning of the democratic constitutional government period in KMT political orthodoxy, but the Communists refused to recognize the new Constitution and its government as legitimate. Chiang resigned as President on January 21, 1949, as KMT forces suffered massive losses against the communists. Vice President Li Tsung-jen took over as Acting President, but his relationship with Chiang soon deteriorated, as Chiang still acted as if he were in power, and Li was forced into exile in the United States under a medical excuse (under Chiang's direction, Li was later formally impeached by the Control Yuan). In the early morning of December 10, 1949, Communist troops laid siege to Chengdu, the last KMT occupied city in mainland China, where Chiang Kai-shek and his son Chiang Ching-kuo directed the defense at the Chengdu Central Military Academy. The aircraft May-ling evacuated them to Taiwan on the same day, forever removing them from the Chinese mainland.

Presidency in Taiwan

Chiang moved his government to Taipei, Taiwan, where he formally resumed his duties as president on March 1, 1950. Chiang was reelected by the National Assembly to be the President of the ROC on May 20, 1954 and later on in 1960, 1966, and 1972. In this position he continued to claim sovereignty over all of China. In the context of the Cold War, most of the Western world recognized this position and the ROC represented China in the United Nations and other international organizations until the 1970s. Despite the democratic constitution, the government under Chiang was a repressive and authoritarian single-party state consisting almost completely of non-Taiwanese mainlanders; the "Temporary Provisions Effective During the Period of Communist Rebellion" greatly enhanced executive power and the goal of "retaking the mainland" allowed the KMT to maintain its monopoly on power and to outlaw opposition parties. The government's official line for these provisions stemmed from the claim that emergency provisions were necessary, since the Communists and KMT were still technically under a state of war, without any cease-fire signed, after Chiang retreated to Taiwan. His government sought to impose Chinese nationalism and repressed the local culture, such as by forbidding the use of Taiwanese in mass media broadcasts or in schools. The government permitted free debate within the confines of the legislature, but jailed dissidents who were either labelled as supporters of Chinese communism or Taiwan independence. His son Chiang Ching-kuo and Chiang Ching-kuo's successor Lee Teng-hui would in the 1980s and 1990s increase native Taiwanese representation in the government and loosen the many authoritarian controls of the Chiang Kai-shek era. Since new elections could not be held in their Communist-occupied constituencies, the members of the KMT-dominated National Assembly, Legislative Yuan, and Control Yuan held their posts indefinitely. It was under the Temporary Provisions that Chiang was able to bypass term limits to remain as president. He was reelected (unopposed) by the National Assembly as president four times in 1954, 1960, 1966, and 1972. Defeated by the Communists, Chiang purged members of the KMT previously accused of corruption, and major figures in the previous mainland government such as H.H. Kung and T.V. Soong exiled themselves to the United States. Though the government was politically authoritarian and controlled key industries, it encouraged economic development, especially in the export sector. A sweeping Land Reform Act, as well as American foreign aid during the 1950's laid the foundation for Taiwan's economic success, becoming one of the East Asian Tigers. During this time Chiang received an honorary degree from Bob Jones University.

Death and legacy

Bob Jones University In 1975, 26 years after Chiang fled to Taiwan, he died in Taipei at the age of 87. He had suffered a major heart attack and pneumonia in the months before and died from renal failure aggravated with advanced cardial malfunction at 11 p.m. on April 5. A month of mourning was declared during which the Taiwanese people were asked to put on black armbands. Televisions ran in black-and-white while all banquets or celebrations were forbidden. On the mainland, however, Chiang's death was met with little apparent mourning and news papers gave the brief headline "Chiang Kai-shek has died." Chiang's corpse was put in a copper coffin and temporarily interred at his favorite residence in Cihhu, Dasi, Taoyuan County. When his son Chiang Ching-kuo died in 1988, he was also entombed in a separate mausoleum in nearby Touliao. The hope was to have both buried at their birthplace in Fenghua once the mainland was recovered. In 2004, Chiang Fang-liang, the widow of Chiang Ching-kuo, asked that both father and son be buried at Wuchih Mountain Military Cemetery in Sijhih, Taipei County. The state funeral ceremony is planned for late 2005. Chiang Fang-liang and Soong May-ling had agreed in 1997 that the former leaders be first buried but still be moved to mainland China in the event of reunification. 2005 2005 Chiang was succeeded as President by Vice President Yen Chia-kan and as KMT party leader by his son Chiang Ching-kuo, who retired Chiang Kai-shek's title of Director-General and instead assumed the position of Chairman.Yen Chia-kan's presidency was mainly symbolic, with real power held by Premier Chiang Ching-kuo, who became President after Yen's term ended three years later. Though one of the major figures in Chinese history, Chiang Kai-shek failed to cultivate in the Chinese people the affection of Sun Yat-sen or the regard of Mao Zedong. As Mao's number-one nemesis, he was vilified in mainland China as "China's number one fascist": a leader who did not serve China's best national interest in not putting an all-out effort against Japan and in trying to crack down on the Communists. Although numbers are uncertain, many estimates place the number of deaths during Chiang Kai-shek's rule on the mainland at around ten million (the lowest estimates provide a figure of about four million, while higher figures suggest as many as 18 million). Many deaths were the result of war and famine, but according to the controversial historian R.J. Rummel approximately four million were killed directly. According to Rummel, even the lower figures would suggest that Chiang Kai-shek has been responsible for more deaths than all but a handful of 20th-century dictators. Chiang Kai-shek's current popularity in Taiwan is sharply divided among political lines, enjoying greater support among KMT voters and the mainlander population. However, he is largely unpopular among DPP supporters and voters. Since the democratization of the 1990s, his picture began to be removed from public buildings and the currency, while many of his statues have been taken down; in sharp contrast to his son Ching-kuo and to Sun Yat-sen, his memory is rarely invoked by current political parties, including the Kuomintang.

Names

Like many other Chinese historical figures, Chiang Kai-shek used several names throughout his life, and he is known under several of these names. The name inscribed in the genealogical records of his family, is Jiang Zhoutai (蔣周泰). This "register name" (譜名) is the name under which his extended relatives of the family knew him, this is a name that was used in formal occasions, such as when he got married. Traditionally, this name was not used in intercourse with people outside of the family, and inside mainland China or Taiwan few people know that his "real" name (the concept of real or original name is not as clear-cut in China as it is in the Western world) was Jiang Zhoutai (although other historical figures such as Mao Zedong are known by their "register name"). This name, however, was not the name that he received when he was born. Traditionally, Chinese families would wait a certain number of years before officially naming their offspring. In the meantime, they used so-called "milk names" (乳名) which were given to the infant shortly after his birth, and which were known only by the close family. Thus, the actual name that Chiang Kai-shek received at birth was Jiang Ruiyuan (蔣瑞元), but again this is a fact rarely known in mainland China or Taiwan, and only his parents would have used the given name Ruiyuan when calling him. In 1903, 16-year-old Chiang Kai-shek went to Ningbo to be a student, and he chose a so-called "school name" (學名). The "school name" was actually the formal name of a person, the name used by older people to call the person, so it was the name that the person would use the most in the first decades of his life (as the person grew older, younger generations would have to use one of the courtesy names instead). Colloquially, the "school name" is called "big name" (大名), whereas the "milk name" is known as the "small name" (小名). The "school name" that Chiang Kai-shek chose for himself was Zhiqing (志清 - meaning "purity of intentions"). For the next fifteen years or so, Chiang Kai-shek was known as Jiang Zhiqing. This is the name under which Sun Yat-sen knew him when Chiang joined the republicans in Guangzhou in the 1910s. In 1912, when Chiang Kai-shek was in Japan, he started to use the name Jiang Jieshi (蔣介石) as a pen name for the articles that he published in a Chinese magazine he founded (Voice of the Army - 軍聲). This name Jieshi soon became his courtesy name (字). Many interpretations of this name circulate. Some think the name was chosen from the classic Chinese book the Book of Changes, other note that jie (介), the first character of his courtesy name, is also the first character of the courtesy name of his brother and other male relatives on the same generation line, while the second character of his courtesy name shi (石 - meaning "stone") reminds of the second character of his "register name" tai (泰 - the famous Mount Tai of China). Courtesy names in China often tried to bear a connection with the personal name of the person. As the courtesy name is the name used by people of the same generation to call the person, Chiang Kai-shek soon became known under this new name. (Jieshi is the pinyin romanization of the name, which is based on Mandarin, but the common romanized rendering of this name is Kai-shek which is in Cantonese romanization. As the republicans were based in Guangzhou (a Cantonese speaking area), Chiang Kai-shek became known by Westerners under the Cantonese romanization of his courtesy name, but the family name known in English seems to be the Mandarin pronunciation of his Chinese family name, transliterated in Wade-Giles; the Cantonese pronunciation of his family name is "Cheung"). In mainland China, the name Jiang Jieshi is the name under which he is commonly known today. Sometime in 1917 or 1918, as Chiang was coming to the forefront among the republicans and became close to Sun Yat-sen, he changed his name from Jiang Zhiqing to Jiang Zhongzheng (蔣中正). By adopting the name Zhongzheng ("central uprightness"), he was choosing a name very similar to the name of Sun Yat-sen, who was (and still is) known among Chinese as Zhongshan (中山 - meaning "central mountain"), establishing a close link between the two. The meaning of uprightness, rectitude, or orthodoxy, implied by his name, also positioned him as the legitimate heir of Sun Yat-sen and his ideas. Not surprisingly, the Chinese Communists always rejected the use of this name, and the name is not very well known in mainland China. However, this name was easily accepted by members of the Nationalist Party, and this is the name under which Chiang Kai-shek is still officially known in Taiwan. Often, the name is shortened to Zhongzheng only (Chung-cheng in Wade-Giles) in the style of typical courtesy names (out of respect). Visitors who arrive at the Chiang Kai-shek International Airport in Taipei are greeted by signs in Chinese welcoming them to the "Zhongzheng International Airport." Similarly, the largest monument in Taipei, the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall is officially in Chinese called the "Zhongzheng Memorial Hall." His name also used to be officially written in Taiwan as "The Late President (space) Lord Chiang" (先總統　蔣公), where the one-character-wide space showed respect; this practice lost its popularity after Taiwan's democratization in the 1990s. However, he is still known as Lord Chiang (without the title or space), along with the similarly positive name Jiang Zhongzheng, in Taiwan. Chiang was also nicknamed "the Gimo" (short for "Generalissimo") by some English-speaking foreigners, especially by Americans during the Second World War.

See also


- History of the Republic of China
- Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Song

Notes

#While married to Mao, Chiang adopted two concubines: he married Yao Yecheng (姚冶誠, 1889-1972) in 1912 and Chen Jieru (陳潔如, 1906-71) in December 1921. Yao raised the adopted Wei-kuo. Chen had a daughter in 1924, named Yaoguang (瑤光), who later adopted her mother's surname. (It should be noted that Chen's autobiography disclaimed the idea that she was a concubine and claimed that by the time she married Chiang, he had already been divorced from Mao, and that therefore she was a wife.) Wei-kuo Wei-kuo Wei-kuo

Further reading


- Crozier, Brian. The Man Who Lost China: ISBN 068414686X
- Fenby, Jonathan. Generalissimo Chiang Kai-Shek and the China he lost: 2003, The Free Press, ISBN 0-7432-3144-9
- Seagrave, Sterling. The Soong Dynasty: 1996, Corgi Books, ISBN 0-552-14108-9

External links


- [http://www.president.gov.tw/1_roc_intro/e_xpresident/e_b_cha.html ROC Government Biography ]
- [http://www.asiawind.com/forums/read.php?f=3&i=138515&t=138515 Adoption of Chiang Kai-Shek (originally surnamed Zheng) into the Chiang Family]
- [http://www.taiwandocuments.org/surrender03.htm Order of Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek supplementing the Act of Surrender] by Japan on September 9 1945
- [http://www.time.com/time/poy2000/archive/1937.html?cnn=yes 1937 Man and Wife of the Year]
- [http://www.xikou114.com/jjs/js1.asp Family tree of his descendants] (in Simplified Chinese)
- [http://www.gio.gov.tw/taiwan-website/av/sou_sig/sight01_2.htm 1966 GIO Biographical video]
- [http://www.cksmh.gov.tw/english/index.htm Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall]
- [http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/2WWchaing.htm Chiang Kai-shek Biography] From Spartacus Educational
- [http://www.warbirdforum.com/avg.htm Annals of the Flying Tigers] Chiang Kai-shek Chiang Kai-shek Category:ROC politicians Category:Chinese politicians Category:Chinese World War II people Category:Field Marshals Chiang Kai-shek Category:Revolutionaries zh-min-nan:Chiúⁿ Kài-se̍k ko:장제스 ja:蒋介石

October 31

October 31 is the 304th day of the year (305th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 61 days remaining, as the final day of October.

Events


- 475 - Romulus Augustus was proclaimed Roman Emperor.
- 1517 - Protestant Reformation: Martin Luther posts his 95 theses on the door of the Wittenberg Castle Church.
- 1587 - Leiden University Library opens its doors after its founding in 1575.
- 1822 - Emperor Agustín de Iturbide attempted to dissolve the Mexican Empire.
- 1861 - American Civil War: Citing failing health, Union General Winfield Scott resigns as Commander of the United States Army.
- 1863 - The Maori Wars resumed as British forces in New Zealand led by General Duncan Cameron began their Invasion of the Waikato.
- 1864 - Nevada is admitted as the 36th U.S. state.
- 1892 - Arthur Conan Doyle publishes The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes.
- 1912 - The Musketeers of Pig Alley, directed by D.W. Griffith, debuts as the first gangster film.
- 1912 - Dominican Republic becomes a signatory to the Buenos Aires copyright treaty.
- 1917 - World War I: Battle of Beersheba - "last successful cavalry charge in history"
- 1922 - Benito Mussolini becomes the youngest Premier in the history of Italy.
- 1923 - 160 consecutive days of 100 degrees at Marble Bar, Australia begins.
- 1926 - Magician Harry Houdini dies of gangrene and peritonitis that developed after his appendix ruptured.
- 1936 - The Boy Scouts of the Philippines was formed.
- 1938 - Great Depression: In an effort to try restore investor confidence, the New York Stock Exchange unveils a fifteen-point program aimed to upgrade protection for the investing public.
- 1940 - World War II: Battle of Britain ends - The United Kingdom prevents Germany from invading Great Britain.
- 1941 - After 14 years of work, drilling is completed on Mount Rushmore.
- 1941 - World War II: The destroyer USS Reuben James is torpedoed by a German U-boat near Iceland, killing more than 100 United States Navy sailors.
- 1941 - American photographer Ansel Adams takes a picture of a moonrise over the town of Hernandez, New Mexico that would become one of the most famous images in the history of photography.
- 1954 - Algerian War of Independence: The Algerian National Liberation Front begins a revolt against French rule.
- 1956 - Suez Crisis: The United Kingdom and France begin bombing Egypt to force the reopening of the Suez Canal.
- 1961 - In the Soviet Union, Joseph Stalin's body is removed from Lenin's Tomb.
- 1968 - Vietnam War October surprise:Citing progress with the Paris peace talks, US President Lyndon B. Johnson announces to the nation that he has ordered a complete cessation of "all air, naval, and artillery bombardment of North Vietnam" effective November 1.
- 1981 - Lily and James Potter from the Harry Potter novels were killed by Lord Voldemort.
- 1984 - Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi is assassinated by two Sikh security guards (riots soon broke out in New Delhi and nearly 2,000 innocent Sikhs were killed).
- 1986 - The 5th congress of the Communist Party of Sweden is inaugurated. During the course of the congress the party name is changed to the Solidarity Party and the party ceases to be a communist party.
- 1994 - An American Eagle ATR-72 crashes in Roselawn, Indiana, after circling in icy weather, killing all 68 on board.
- 1996 - A Brazilian TAM Fokker-100 crashes into several houses in São Paulo, Brazil killing 98 including 2 on the ground.
- 1996 - Jean Chrétien becomes UN special envoy to the African Great Lakes.
- 1997 - 19-year-old British au pair Louise Woodward, convicted by a Cambridge, Massachusetts, jury of second-degree murder the day before, is sentenced to life in prison.
- 1998 - Iraq disarmament crisis begins: Iraq announces it would no longer cooperate with United Nations weapons inspectors.
- 1999 - EgyptAir Flight 990 traveling from New York City to Cairo crashes off the coast of Nantucket, Massachusetts, killing all 217 on-board.
- 1999 - Roman Catholic Church and Lutheran Church leaders sign the Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification, ending a centuries-old doctrinal dispute over the nature of faith and salvation.
- 2000 - A Singapore Airlines Boeing 747-400 operating as Flight 006 collides with construction equipment upon takeoff in Taipei, Taiwan killing 79 passengers and 4 crew members
- 2000 - A chartered Antonov AN-26 explodes after takeoff in Northern Angola killing 50
- 2000 - The last Multics machine was shut down.
- 2002 - A federal grand jury in Houston formally indicted former Enron Corp. chief financial officer Andrew Fastow on 78 counts of wire fraud, money laundering, conspiracy and obstruction of justice related to the collapse of his ex-employer.
- 2003 - A bankruptcy court approves MCI's reorganization plans, essentially clearing the telecommunications company to exit bankruptcy.
- 2003 - Mahathir bin Mohamad resigns as Prime Minister of Malaysia after 22 years in power.
- 2005 - President George W. Bush nominates Appeals court judge Samuel Alito to join the Supreme Court of the United States.
- 2005 - BSkyB starts broadcasting Sky Three on Sky, ntl and Freeview throughout the United Kingdom.
- 2005 - Theo Epstein, the general manager of the Boston Red Sox who helped the team win its first World Series in 86 years, unexpectedly quit during contract negotiations.
- 2005 After 40 years Britanina Airwyas ceases to exist, It is integrated into Tohmsonfly

Births


- 1291 - Philippe de Vitry, French composer (d. 1361)
- 1345 - King Fernando I of Portugal (d. 1383)
- 1391 - King Duarte of Portugal (d. 1438)
- 1424 - King Wladislaus III of Poland (d. 1444)
- 1538 - Caesar Baronius, Italian cardinal and historian (d. 1607)
- 1599 - Denzil Holles, 1st Baron Holles, English statesman and writer (d. 1680)
- 1620 - John Evelyn, English diarist (d. 1706)
- 1622 - Pierre Paul Puget, French artist (d. 1694)
- 1632 - (baptism) Johannes Vermeer, Flemish painter (d. 1675)
- 1636 - Ferdinand Maria, Elector of Bavaria (d. 1679)
- 1705 - Pope Clement XIV (d. 1774)
- 1711 - Laura Bassi, Italian scholar (d. 1778)
- 1724 - Christopher Anstey, English writer (d. 1805)
- 1795 - John Keats, British poet (d. 1821)
- 1815 - Karl Weierstraß, German mathematician (d. 1897)
- 1831 - Paolo Mantegazza, Italian neurologist (d. 1910)
- 1835 - Adolf von Baeyer, German chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1917)
- 1860 - Juliette Low, American founder of the Girl Scouts
- 1875 - Eugene Meyer, American businessman and newspaper publisher (d. 1954)
- 1887 - Chiang Kai-shek, Nationalist Chinese leader (d. 1975)
- 1892 - Alexander Alekhine, Russian chess player (d. 1946)
- 1895 - Basil Liddell Hart, British military historian (d. 1970)
- 1896 - Ethel Waters, American singer and actress (d. 1977)
- 1912 - Dale Evans, American singer and actress (d. 2001)
- 1917 - Thomas Hill, Canadian actor
- 1918 - Ian Stevenson, American parapsychologist
- 1920 - Dick Francis, Welsh novelist
- 1920 - Helmut Newton, German photographer (d. 2004)
- 1920 - Fritz Walter, German footballer
- 1922 - Barbara Bel Geddes, American actress (d. 2005)
- 1922 - Illinois Jacquet, American saxophonist (d. 2004)
- 1922 - King Norodom Sihanouk of Cambodia
- 1925 - John Anthony Pople, English chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 2004)
- 1927 - Lee Grant, American actress
- 1928 - Cleo Moore, American actress (d. 1973)
- 1929 - Eddie Charlton, Australian snooker player (d. 1994)
- 1930 - Michael Collins, astronaut
- 1931 - Dan Rather, American television journalist
- 1936 - Michael Landon, American actor (d. 1991)
- 1937 - Tom Paxton, American singer
- 1939 - Ron Rifkin, American actor
- 1944 - Kinky Friedman, American musician and novelist
- 1945 - Brian Doyle-Murray, American comedian and actor
- 1946 - Stephen Rea, Irish actor
- 1946 - Norman Lovett, British actor
- 1947 - Deidre Hall, American actress
- 1947 - Frank Shorter, American runner
- 1950 - John Candy, Canadian comedian and actor (d. 1994)
- 1950 - Jane Pauley, American news anchor
- 1953 - Michael J. Anderson, American actor
- 1958 - Jeannie Longo, French cyclist
- 1959 - Neal Stephenson, American author
- 1961 - Peter Jackson, New Zealand film director
- 1961 - Larry Mullen, Irish drummer (U2)
- 1961 - Alonzo Babers, American runner
- 1961 - Kate Campbell, American musician
- 1963 - Dunga, Brazilian footballer
- 1963 - Fred McGriff, baseball player
- 1963 - Rob Schneider, American actor
- 1964 - Marco van Basten, Dutch football player
- 1965 - Annabella Lwin, British singer (Bow Wow Wow)
- 1966 - Adam Horovitz, American singer (Beastie Boys)
- 1968 - Antonio Davis, American basketball player
- 1968 - Vanilla Ice, American rapper
- 1970 - Linn Berggren, Swedish singer (Ace of Base)
- 1970 - Rogers Stevens, American guitarist (Blind Melon)
- 1971 - Alphonso Ford, American basketball player (d. 2004)
- 1971 - Ian Walker, English footballer
- 1972 - Shaun Bartlett, South African footballer
- 1974 - Muzzy Izzet, Turkish footballer
- 1980 - Eddie Kaye Thomas, American actor
- 1981 - Irina Denezhkina, Russian writer
- 1981 - Frank Iero, American guitarist (My Chemical Romance)
- 1986 - Christie Hayes, Australian actress

Deaths


- 1147 - Robert, 1st Earl of Gloucester, English politician
- 1214 - Leonora of England, queen of Alfonso VIII of Castile (b. 1162)
- 1448 - John VIII Palaeologus, Byzantine Emperor (b. 1390)
- 1517 - Fra Bartolommeo, Italian artist (b. 1472)
- 1659 - John Bradshaw, English judge (b. 1602)
- 1723 - Cosimo III de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany (b. 1642)
- 1732 - Victor Amadeus II of Savoy (b. 1666)
- 1733 - Eberhard IV Ludwig, Duke of Württemberg (b. 1676)
- 1744 - Leonardo Leo, Italian composer (b. 1694)
- 1765 - Prince William Augustus, Duke of Cumberland, English military leader (b. 1721)
- 1768 - Francesco Maria Veracini, Italian composer (b. 1690)
- 1860 - Thomas Cochrane, 10th Earl of Dundonald, British admiral (b. 1775)
- 1879 - Jacob Abbott, American author (b. 1803)
- 1916 - Charles Taze Russell, American founder of the Jehovah's Witnesses (b. 1852)
- 1926 - Harry Houdini, Hungarian-born magician (b. 1874)
- 1939 - Otto Rank, Austrian psychologist (b. 1884)
- 1943 - Max Reinhardt, German film director (b. 1873)
- 1983 - George Halas, American football player, coach, and team owner (b. 1895)
- 1984 - Indira Gandhi, Prime Minister of India (b. 1917)
- 1985 - Poul Reichhardt, Danish actor (b. 1913)
- 1986 - Robert S. Mulliken, American physicist and chemist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry (b. 1896)
- 1987 - Joseph Campbell, American author and expert on mythology (b. 1904)
- 1988 - John Houseman, Romanian-born actor and director (b. 1902)
- 1991 - Joseph Papp, American theatrical producer (b. 1921)
- 1993 - Federico Fellini, Italian director (b. 1920)
- 1993 - River Phoenix, American actor (drug overdose) (b. 1970)
- 1995 - Rosalind Cash, American actress (b. 1938)
- 1999 - Greg Moore, Canadian race car driver (b. 1975)
- 2000 - Ring Lardner, Jr., American screenwriter (b. 1915)
- 2002 - Lionel Poilâne, French baker and entrepreneur (b. 1945)
- 2003 - Semmangudi Srinivasa Iyer, Indian singer (b. 1908)
- 2003 - Dharmsamrat Paramhans Swami Madhavananda, Indian guru (b. 1923)
- 2003 - Richard Neustadt, American political historian (b. 1919)
- 2005 - Mary Wimbush, English actress (b. 1924)
- 2005 - John "Beatz" Holohan, American drummer (Bayside) (b. 1974)

Holidays and observances


- R.C. Saints - October 31 is the feast day of the following Roman Catholic Saints:
  - St. Antoninus
  - St. Arnulf
  - St. Bega
  - St. Notburga
  - St. Quentin
  - St Urban
  - St. Wolfgang
- Also see October 31 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
- Protestant Church - Reformation Day: Martin Luther nailed his 95 theses on the Wittenberg church on this day in 1517
- October 31st is Halloween; also see Samhain (an approximate date)
- Cornwall - Allantide
- Wikipedia - Wikipedia:Tim Starling Day
- Paganism and Celts - Samhain
- October 31st is Nevada Day

External links


- [http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/october/31 BBC: On This Day] ---- October 30 - November 1 - September 30 - November 30 -- listing of all days ko:10월 31일 ms:31 Oktober ja:10月31日 simple:October 31 th:31 ตุลาคม

April 5

April 5 is the 95th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (96th in leap years). There are 270 days remaining.

Events


- 1242 - During a battle on the ice of Chudskoye Lake, Russian forces rebuff an invasion attempt by the Teutonic Knights.
- 1614 - In Virginia, Native American Pocahontas marries English colonist John Rolfe.
- 1621 - The Mayflower sets sail from Plymouth on a return trip to Great Britain.
- 1654 - The Treaty of Westminster, ending the First Anglo-Dutch War, is signed.
- 1690 - Patrizio Cardinal Ficca is eleceted pope and takes the name Patricius I
- 1792 - U.S. President George Washington vetos a bill designed to apportion representatives among U.S. states. This is the first time the presidential veto has been used in the United States.
- 1804 - The first recorded meteorite falls in Possil, Scotland (High Possil Meteorite).
- 1862 - American Civil War: Battle of Yorktown. The battle begins when Union forces under General George McClellan close in on the Confederate capital Richmond, Virginia.
- 1923 - Firestone Tire and Rubber Company starts production of balloon-tires.
- 1930 - In an act of civil disobedience, Mohandas Gandhi breaks British law after marching to the sea and making salt.
- 1936 - Tupelo-Gainesville Outbreak: A F5 tornado slams into the north side of Tupelo, Mississippi, killing 233. It is the 4th deadliest tornado in U.S. history.
- 1942 - Second World War: Japanese Navy attacks Colombo in Ceylon (Sri Lanka). Royal Navy Cruisers HMS Cornwall and HMS Dorsetshire are sunk southwest of the island.
- 1945 - Cold War: Yugoslav leader Josip "Tito" Broz signs an agreement with the USSR allowing "temporary entry of Soviet troops into Yugoslav territory."
- 1949 - Fireside Theatre debuts on television.
- 1949 - A fire in a hospital in Effingham, Illinois, United States, kills 77 people.
- 1951 - Ethel and Julius Rosenberg are sentenced to death for performing espionage for the Soviet Union.
- 1955 - Winston Churchill resigns as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom amid indications of failing health.
- 1956 - In Sri Lanka, the Mahajana Eksath Peramuna won the general elections in a lanslide and S.W.R.D. Bandaranaike sworn in as the Prime Minister.
- 1957 - In India, Communists won the first elections in united Kerala and E. M. S. Namboodiripad sworn in as the first chief minister.
- 1969 - Vietnam War: Massive antiwar demonstrations are held in New York City, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Washington, D.C., and other cities around the United States.
- 1971 - In Sri Lanka, Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna launches insurrection against the United Front government of Mrs Sirimavo Bandaranaike.
- 1972 - Vietnam War: North Vietnamese forces invade Binh Long Province, launching a second front of the Nguyen Hue Offensive.
- 1973 - Pierre Messmer becomes Prime Minister of France
- 1976 - In the People's Republic of China, the April Fifth Movement leads to the Tiananmen incident.
- 1986 - Bombing of the La Belle Discotheque in West Berlin, Germany, kills three.
- 1991 - ASA Embraer EMB 120 crashes in Brunswick, Georgia, United States, killing all 23 aboard.
- 1992 - Several hundred-thousand abortion rights demonstrators march in Washington, D.C.
- 1992 - Siege of Sarajevo begins when Serb paramilitaries murder peace protestor Suada Dilberovic on the Skenderija Bridge.
- 1993 - The Child Support Act 1991, administered by the Child Support Agency, comes into effect in the United Kingdom.
- 1998 - In Japan, the Akashi-Kaikyo Bridge linking Shikoku with Honshu and costing about US$3.8 billion, opens to traffic, becoming the largest suspension bridge in the world.
- 1999 - Two Libyans suspected of bringing down Pan Am flight 103 in 1988 are handed over for eventual trial in the Netherlands.
- 1999 - In Laramie, Wyoming, United States, Russell Henderson pleads guilty to kidnapping and felony murder in order to avoid a possible death penalty conviction for the hate crime killing of Matthew Shepard.
- 2005 - ABC News anchor Peter Jennings announces on World News Tonight that he has been diagnosed with lung cancer. It would be his last on-air appearance.

Births


- 1288 - Emperor Go-Fushimi of Japan (d. 1336)
- 1472 - Bianca Maria Sforza, wife of Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor (d. 1510)
- 1479 - Guru Amar Das, third Sikh Guru (d. 1574)
- 1523 - Blaise de Vigenère, French diplomat and cryptographer (d. 1596)
- 1588 - Thomas Hobbes, English philosopher (d. 1679)
- 1604 - Charles III, Duke of Lorraine (d. 1675)
- 1622 - Vincenzo Viviani, Italian mathematician and scientist (d. 1703)
- 1649 - Elihu Yale, American benefactor of Yale University (d. 1721)
- 1692 - Adrienne Lecouvreur, French actress (d. 1730)
- 1732 - Jean-Honoré Fragonard, French artist (d. 1806)
- 1784 - Louis Spohr, German violinist and composer (d. 1859)
- 1816 - Samuel Freeman Miller, U.S. Supreme Court Justice (d. 1890)
- 1827 - Joseph Lister English surgeon (d. 1912)
- 1832 - Jules Ferry, French statesman (d. 1893)
- 1837 - Algernon Charles Swinburne, English poet (d. 1909)
- 1856 - Booker T. Washington, American educator (d. 1915)
- 1871 - Mirko Seljan, Croatian explorer
- 1875 - Mistinguett, French vaudeville performer (d. 1956)
- 1893 - Clas Thunberg, Finnish speed skater (d. 1973)
- 1900 - Spencer Tracy, American actor (d. 1967)
- 1901 - Melvyn Douglas, American actor (d. 1981)
- 1908 - Bette Davis, American actress (d. 1989)
- 1908 - Herbert von Karajan, Austrian conductor (d. 1989)
- 1908 - Jagjivan Ram, Indian politician (d.1986)
- 1909 - Albert R. Broccoli, American film producer (d. 1996)
- 1911 - Jussi Björling, Swedish tenor (d. 1960)
- 1912 - John Le Mesurier, British actor (d. 1983)
- 1916 - Gregory Peck, American actor (d. 2003)
- 1917 - Robert Bloch, American author (d. 1994)
- 1920 - Arthur Hailey, American writer (d. 2004)
- 1920 - Rafique Zakaria, Indian author and legal expert (d. 2005)
- 1922 - Christopher Hewett, British actor (d. 2001)
- 1922 - Gale Storm, American singer and actress
- 1923 - Michael Gazzo, American actor (d. 1995)
- 1923 - Nguyen Van Thieu, President of South Vietnam (d. 2001)
- 1926 - Roger Corman, American film director, producer, and writer
- 1929 - Ivar Giaever, Norwegian physicist, Nobel Prize laureate
- 1929 - Nigel Hawthorne, British actor (d. 2001)
- 1929 - Hugo Claus, Belgian writer
- 1931 - Boris Strugatsky, Russian author (d. 1991)
- 1933 - Larry Felser, American sports columnist and writer
- 1934 - Frank Gorshin, American actor (d. 2005)
- 1934 - Roman Herzog, German politician
- 1935 - Peter Grant, British rock manager, actor (Led Zeppelin,Bad Company) (d. 1995)
- 1937 - Colin Powell, U.S. Secretary of State (2000-2004)
- 1941 - Michael Moriarty, American actor and political activist
- 1942 - Peter Greenaway, Welsh film director
- 1943 - Max Gail, American actor
- 1945 - Tommy Smith, English footballer
- 1946 - Jane Asher, British actress, writer
- 1947 - Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, 14th President of the Philippines
- 1949 - Judith Resnik, astronaut (d. 1986)
- 1950 - Agnetha Fältskog, Swedish singer (ABBA)
- 1955 - Janice Long, English broadcaster
- 1961 - Lisa Zane, American actress
- 1962 - Lana Clarkson, American actress (d. 2003)
- 1965 - Mike McCready, American musician (Pearl Jam)
- 1973 - Pharrell Williams, American musician and producer (The Neptunes)
- 1976 - Fernando Morientes, Spanish footballer
- 1978 - Stephen Jackson, American basketball player
- 1978 - Franziska van Almsick, German swimmer

Deaths

1168 to 1899


- 1168 - Robert de Beaumont, 2nd Earl of Leicester (b. 1104)
- 1288 - Emperor Go-Fushimi of Japan (d. 1336)
- 1419 - Vincent Ferrer, Spanish missionary and saint (b. 1350)
- 1605 - Adam Loftus, English Catholic archbishop
- 1617 - Alonso Lobo, Spanish composer
- 1676 - John Winthrop, the Younger, Governor of Connecticut (b. 1606)
- 1693 - Anne, Duchess of Montpensier, French writer (b. 1627)
- 1695 - George Savile, 1st Marquess of Halifax, English writer and statesman (b. 1633)
- 1697 - King Charles XI of Sweden (b. 1655)
- 1717 - Jean Jouvenet, French painter (b. 1647)
- 1735 - William Derham, English minister and writer (b. 1657)
- 1735 - Samuel Wesley, English poet and religious leader (b. 1662)
- 1765 - Edward Young, English poet (b. 1683)
- 1794 - Georges Danton, French Revolutionary leader (b. 1759)

1900 to 1999


- 1923 - George Herbert, 5th Earl of Carnarvon, English financier of Egyptian excavations (b. 1866)
- 1928 - Roy Kilner, English cricketer (b. 1890)
- 1964 - General Douglas MacArthur, U.S. general (b. 1880)
- 1967 - Hermann Joseph Muller, American geneticist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (b. 1890)
- 1967 - Mischa Elman, Ukrainian-born violinist (b. 1891)
- 1969 - Rómulo Gallegos, President of Venezuela (b. 1884)
- 1970 - Alfred Henry Sturtevant, American geneticist (b. 1891)
- 1972 - Brian Donlevy, American actor (b. 1901)
- 1975 - Chiang Kai-shek, Chinese nationalist leader (b. 1887)
- 1976 - Howard Hughes, American aviation pioneer, film director, and eccentric (b. 1905)
- 1976 - Wilder Penfield, Canadian surgeon (b. 1891)
- 1982 - Abe Fortas, U.S. Supreme Court Justice (b. 1910)
- 1983 - Danny Rapp, American musician (Danny & the Juniors) (b. 1941)
- 1991 - John Tower, U.S. Senator from Texas (b. 1925)
- 1991 - Sonny Carter, astronaut (b. 1947)
- 1992 - Molly Picon, French actress (b. 1898)
- 1992 - Sam Walton, American retailer (b. 1918)
- 1994 - Kurt Cobain, American musician (b. 1967)
- 1997 - Allen Ginsberg, American poet (b. 1926)
- 1998 - Cozy Powell, British musician (b. 1947)

2000 onwards


- 2000 - Lee Petty, American race car driver (b. 1914)
- 2001 - Brother Theodore, German-born comedian (b. 1906)
- 2002 - Layne Staley, American musician (Alice in Chains) (b. 1967)
- 2005 - Saul Bellow, Canadian-born writer, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1915)
- 2005 - Dale Messick, American comic strip artist (b. 1906)
- 2005 - Debralee Scott, American actress (b. 1953)

Holidays and observances


- Mauritius: Ougadi
- Qingming Festival in the Chinese calendar
- Arbor Day in South Korea

External links


- [http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/april/5 BBC: On This Day]
- [http://www.tnl.net/when/4/5 Today in History: April 5] ----- April 4 - April 6 - March 5 - May 5 – listing of all days ko:4월 5일 ms:5 April ja:4月5日 simple:April 5 th:5 เมษายน

1975

1975 (MCMLXXV) was a common year starting on Wednesday (the link is to a full 1975 calendar).

Events

January


- January 1 - Watergate scandal: John N. Mitchell, H. R. Haldeman, John D. Ehrlichman are found guilty of the Watergate cover-up
- January 2 - The Federal Rules of Evidence are approved by Congress
- January 5 - The Tasman Bridge in Tasmania, Australia, is struck by the bulk ore carrier Lake Illawarra, killing twelve people.
- January 7 - OPEC agrees to raise crude oil prices by 10%.
- January 8 - Ella Grasso becomes Governor of Connecticut, becoming the first woman to serve as a Governor in the United States who did not succeed her husband
- January 10 - Japanese soldier Teruo Nakamura surrenders on the Indonesian Island of Morota
- January 14 - 17 year old heiress Lesley Whittle is kidnapped from her home in Shropshire, England by the Black Panther.
- January 20 - Michael Ovitz founds Creative Artists Agency
- January 29 - Weather Underground bombs US State Department main office in Washington D.C.
- January - Altair 8800 is released, sparking the era of the microcomputer

February


- February 4 - The first successfully predicted earthquake occurred in Haicheng, Liaoning, China.
- February 9 - The Soyuz 17 Soviet spacecraft returns to Earth.
- February 11 - Margaret Thatcher defeats Edward Heath for the leadership of the UK Conservative Party in the United Kingdom.
- February 21 - Watergate scandal: Former United States Attorney General John N. Mitchell and former White House aides H. R. Haldeman and John Ehrlichman are sentenced to between 30 months and 8 years in prison
- February 23 - In response to the energy crisis, daylight saving time commences nearly two months early in the United States.
- February 26 - a fleeing IRA terrorist shoots dead off-duty London police officer Stephen Tibble, 22, as he gives chase
- February 27 - Movement 2 June kidnaps West German politician Peter Lorenz. He is released on March 4 after most of the kidnappers' demands are met
- February 28 - A major tube train crash at Moorgate station, London kills 43 people.
- February 28 - In Lomé, the capital of Togo, the European Economic Community and 46 African, Caribbean and Pacific countries sign a financial and economic treaty, known as the first Lomé Convention.

March


- March 1 - Color television transmissions begin in Australia
- March 4 - Charlie Chaplin is knighted by Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom
- March 6 - Algiers Accord - Iran and Iraq announce a settlement over their border dispute.
- March 6 - A bomb explodes in the Paris offices of the Springer Press. The "6 March Group" (connected to the Red Army Faction) demands amnesty for the "Baader-Meinhof Group"
- March 7 - The body of teenage heiress Lesley Whittle, kidnapped seven weeks earlier by the Black Panther is discovered in