Today in history, November 15: Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus declared a state

The Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus was declared a state by Turkish Cypriot Leader President Rauf Denktaş on November 15, 1983, an estimated two million people in the US took part in the Vietnam War Moratorium Demonstration on this day in 1969. 

Highlights in history on this date: 

1492: Christopher Columbus notes in journal use of tobacco among Indians: the first recorded reference to tobacco.
1928: Fascist Grand Council becomes part of Italian constitution.
1942: After three days of sea battles around the Solomon Islands in World War II, the Japanese suffer heavy losses at Guadalcanal.
1969: An estimated two million people take part in the Vietnam War Moratorium Demonstration across the United States.
1971: Delegation from the People’s Republic of China is seated at the UN General Assembly for the first time.
1972: Miloslav Hrabinec shoots himself dead after a shootout with police after failing in an attempt to hijack an Ansett aircraft at Alice Springs.

1976: Syrian army takes full control of Beirut, effectively ending 18-month civil war in Lebanon.
1977: Israel sends formal invitation to Egypt’s President Anwar Sadat to visit Jerusalem and address Israeli parliament.
1979: British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher names Sir Anthony Blunt as a spy for the Russians and the “fourth man” in the Burgess-Philby-MacLean spy ring.
1983: The Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus was declared a state by Turkish Cypriot Leader President Rauf Denktaş on November 15, 1983 eight years after the Turkish Federated State of North Cyprus was proclaimed (in 1975).
1985: British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and Irish Prime Minister Garret FitzGerald sign the Anglo-Irish agreement that gives the Republic a consultative role in the running of Northern Ireland for the first time.

1998: US President Bill Clinton announces Iraq has “backed down” and promised to co-operate unconditionally with UN weapons inspectors.
2001: US President George W Bush and Russian President Vladimir Putin fail to resolve their dispute over US missile shield plans but pledge to fight terrorism and deepen US-Russian ties as their summit, which began at the White House then shifted to Bush’s Texas ranch, comes to a close.
2006: Pakistan’s parliament approves amendments to an Islamic-based law on rape, dropping the death penalty and flogging for people convicted of having consensual sex outside marriage.
2007: Cyclone Sidr roars across the southwestern coast of Bangladesh with 240km/h winds, killing at least 3100 people.
2009: Kosovo holds its first local election since declaring independence from Serbia.
2010: Scientists exhume the remains of 16th-century astronomer Tycho Brahe in Prague in an effort to solve the mystery of his sudden death.
2012: Oil giant BP agrees to plead guilty to a raft of criminal charges and pay a record $US4.5 billion in a settlement with the US Government over the deadly 2010 disaster in the Gulf of Mexico.
2013: China’s leaders announce the first significant easing of its one-child policy in 30 years and move to abolish its labour camp system.
2018: British Prime Minister Theresa May vows to see Brexit despite two of her Cabinet ministers resigning and more than a dozen backbenchers submitting letters of no confidence.

THOUGHT FOR TODAY:
“In a time of war … the task of news-writers is easy; they have nothing to do but to tell that the battle is expected and afterward that a battle has been fought in which we and our friends, whether conquering or conquered, did all, and our enemies did nothing.” – Samuel Johnson, English critic (1709-1784).