In the anniversaries of April 19 These events that occurred on a day like today in Argentina and the world stand out:
1943. Warsaw Ghetto Rebellion
The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising begins, one of the most moving episodes of the Second War. Knowing the fate that awaits them when they are taken to the camps, the Jews of the ghetto organize to confront the Nazis. The leftist Jewish Struggle Organization, led by Mordechai Anielewicz, joins a right-wing group, the Jewish Military Union. When on April 19, Passover Day, German troops want to deport Jews from the ghetto, they confront them with rifles, grenades and Molotov cocktails. On the fourth day of the revolt, the Nazis call for reinforcements. About 3,000 soldiers arrive and surround the ghetto, within which the resistance moves through the sewers. The fight lasts until May 16: 7 thousand Jews die, including Anielewicz, who commits suicide with his girlfriend. Another similar number dies in the improvised bunkers, asphyxiated or burned. 40 thousand Jews from the ghetto were taken to the Treblinka extermination camp. Jürgen Stroop, commander of the repression who demolished a synagogue as a symbol of his victory, will be executed in 1952 by the Polish communist government in the place where the ghetto operated.
[1945Pieroisborn
In Gallipoli, in the south of Italy, is born Piero Antonio Franco De Benedictis. He arrived in Argentina with his family when he was three years old. With your first name He became one of the most popular singer-songwriters in the country in the late 60s and early 70s, with songs like “Juan Boliche”, “Mi Viejo” and “Para el pueblo lo que es del pueblo”. Piero He had to go into exile in Spain during the last military dictatorship. He returned in 1981 and has continued with his musical career ever since.
1987. The Easter uprising ends
Completes the Easter crisis. On Easter Sunday, given the refusal of the Campo de Mayo rebel group to lay down their arms, President Raúl Alfonsín announced that he would go in person to intimate Lieutenant Colonel Aldo Rico. Upon his return, before a crowd that had expressed their support for him in Plaza de Mayo, Alfonsín announces the end of the rebellion, but the taste is bittersweet: he softens his criticism of the rebels, whom he defines as “heroes of the Falklands War” and speaks in a composed tone. He says goodbye with the phrase “The house is in order and there is no blood in Argentina”. A few days later, Congress begins to debate the Due Obedience law, which expands the scope of the Final Point. If the first law had extinguished criminal action for crimes against humanity in February 1987, the new law directly leaves all officers unpunished considering that they followed orders. Only the theft of babies is considered a crime. The resolution of the military crisis marks the beginning of the decline of Alfonsinista.
1991. The murder of Walter Bulacio
An emblematic event of institutional violence occurs in the country. Walter Bulacio, A 17-year-old boy is taken away by members of the Federal Police. He had gone to the Obras Sanitarias stadium to watch a show of Patricio Rey and his Ricotta Rounds. Officers from the 35th Police Station took him away for background checks. From the section he went to Pirovano Hospital with head trauma. He lay dying until April 26 and even said that he had been beaten by the uniformed officers. The autopsy confirmed blows with blunt objects. Due to the inaction of the Argentine State, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights took action on the matter, which in 2003 urged reparations to Bulacio’s relatives. Commissioner Miguel Ángel Espósito was sentenced in 2013 to three years of suspended prison for unlawful deprivation of liberty.. He was not tried for torture followed by death.
1993. The tragic end of the Davidians
Tragic ending for the Davidian sect in WacoTexas. On February 28, the police had wanted to raid the ranch where members of the sect led by David Koresh were located, following allegations of sexual abuse. A shootout occurs in which five members of the sect and four police officers are killed. The FBI took action on the matter. The ranch was surrounded by security forces for almost two months, until on April 19 it was decided to attack the property with tear gas. A fire breaks out and 76 members of the sect die. Dozens of charred bodies were found, including that of Koresh, who had been shot in the head..
1995. Attack in Oklahoma
The Alfred Murath building explodes in Oklahoma, where there are FBI and DE officesA. 168 people die, in the largest terrorist attack on North American soil until September 11, 2001. The attack was perpetrated with a car bomb loaded with 2,300 kilos of explosives. That day Timothy McVeigh, a Gulf War veteran, who confesses to being the author, is arrested.. McVeigh alleges that he wanted to avenge the Waco Davidians; In fact, the Oklahoma attack coincides with the second anniversary of the terrible end of the siege of the sect. The 26-year-old former soldier was executed in 2001. An accomplice, Terry Nichols, is serving 161 life sentences.
1998. Octavio Paz dies
At 84 years old, Octavio Paz dies in Mexico City. He was one of the most important poets in the Spanish language of the 20th century. His poetic work began with the publication of wild moon in 1933. Then came, among other titles, Parole and Touchstone. As an essayist, he stood out with The Labyrinth of Solitude and Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz or the traps of faith. He won the Cervantes Prize in 1981 and, in 1990, the Nobel Prize for Literature..
2005. The German Pope
Joseph Ratzinger becomes the first pope of the 21st century. Three days after turning 78, the German cardinal prevailed in the conclave called for the death of John Paul II and took the name Benedict XVI. With orthodox positions, and with a time in the Hitler Youth, the new pontiff had just been Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the old Holy Office. With the election of Benedict XVI, the Church deepens the conservative turn marked by the Polish pontiff. Ratzinger will remain pope until his historic resignation in 2013. He passed away in 2022.
2005. Scilingo is sentenced
First conviction by a foreign court against an Argentine repressor for crimes of state terrorism. Adolfo Scilingo receives a sentence of 640 years in prison in Madrid. The sailor had confirmed in March 1995 the existence of death flights, with which ESMA sailors murdered their prisoners. His responsibility was proven in the death of 21 people and the illegal detention followed by torture of another victim. The Supreme Court of Spain increased the sentence to 1,084 years in 2007 when his responsibility in 255 disappearances was proven. Since 2020 he can go out during the day to collaborate in a parish and returns to sleep in prison.
2009. JG Ballard dies
One of the great dystopian authors of the 20th century dies in London: James Graham Ballard. He was 78 years old and had been born to English parents in Shanghai, in 1930. He spent his childhood in a prison camp, after the Japanese occupation of China, the subject of his novel The Sun’s empirewhich Steven Spielberg would make into a film. In the 60s she began her literary career with works such as The world submerged, The drought and crash.
2018. Díaz-Canel takes office in Cuba
Miguel Díaz-Canel takes office as President of the Councils of State and Ministers of Cuba. He thus becomes Raúl Castro’s successor. Born in 1960, the new Cuban leader is the third head of state after Fidel and Raúl Castro, and the first born after the 1959 Revolution. Since October 2019, he has been president of Cuba, elected by Parliament, for a re-electable term of five years..
Furthermore, it is the American Indian Day and the Bicycle Day.
