Sunday, January 31, 2016

1935 General Historical Events

General Historical Events

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January 13

*The League of Nations plebiscite carried out in the Saar region showed that the people of the area would overwhelmingly prefer to be reunited with Germany.

March 1

*The League of Nations returned the Saar, with its coalfield, to Germany.

March 2

*King Rama VII of Siam abdicated and was succeeded by his ten year old nephew Rama VIII.

June 3

*The new French Line passenger linere, the Normandie, arrived in New York Harbor after her maiden voyage, crossing the Atlantic in four days, 11 hours.  The 79,000 ton liner was 340 meters/1,029 feet long.

June 12

*The three year war between Paraguay and Bolivia over the disputed Chaco region ended.

September 2

*A hurricane destroyed the Florida East Coast Railroad line between Key West and Florida City and killed 400 people.

October 3

*Italian troops invaded Ethiopia. 

November 8

*Italian troops captured the Ethiopian provincial capital Makale. 

November 18

*The League of Nations imposed economic sanctions on Italy in retaliation for Italy's invasion of Ethiopia.

December 14

*Thomas Masaryk (age 85), the first President of Czechoslovakia, resigned and was succeeded by Eduard Benes.  

December 18

*President Gomez (age 78) of Venezuela died.  During his twenty-six year dictatorship, Venezuela became a major oil producer.

***** 

*Hitler denounced the Versailles Treaty clauses concerning German disarmament and created the Luftwaffe to give Germany air superiority.  

*Pursuant to an edict of the Shah, Persia was to henceforth be called "Iran".


*President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the United States Social Security Act.



*Huey Long, a United States Senator from Louisiana, was assassinated in the Louisiana Capitol Building.

1935 The Americas

The Americas

Brazil

*Brazil declared a state of siege to fight a leftist uprising in the country's north (November 25).


*The uprising in Brazil was crushed (November 27).

Canada


*Willie Eldon O'Ree, a professional ice hockey player, known best for being the first black player in the National Hockey League, was born in Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada (October 15).  O'Ree played as a winger for the Boston Bruins and is often referred to as the "Jackie Robinson of ice hockey" due to his breaking the black color barrier in the sport.

Cuba

*Cuba's constitution was suspended as the government fought nationwide strikes (March 9).


*Cuba executed 13 soldiers for aiding strikers (March 11).


*The Cuba hurricane made landfall in Camaguey Province (September 28).


*The Jeremie hurricane left three dead and four injured in Santiago de Cuba (October 22).  The USS Houstonbearing President Roosevelt home from a fishing trip, avoided the hurricane.

*Tony Taylor, a professional baseball player, was born in Central Álava, Cuba (December 19).

Antonio Nemesio (Sanchez) Taylor (b. December 19, 1935 in Central Alava, Cuba), a professional baseball player who  spent 19-years in Major League Baseball playing for the Chicago Cubs (1958-60), Philadelphia Phillies (1960-71 and 1974-76), and Detroit Tigers (1971-73) as a second baseman.  He batted and threw right-handed.  He was inducted into the Philadelphia Baseball Wall of Fame in 2002. 

Dominican Republic

*Felipe Alou, a baseball player and manager, was born in Haina, Dominican Republic (May 12). 


Felipe Rojas Alou (b. May 12, 1935, Haina, Dominican Republic), is a former Major League Baseball outfielder, first baseman, and manager. He managed the Montreal Expos (1992–2001) and the San Francisco Giants (2003–06). The first Dominican to play regularly in the major leagues, he is the most prominent member of one of the sport's most notable families of the late 20th century: he was the oldest of the trio of baseball-playing brothers that included Matty and Jesus, who were both primarily outfielders, and his son Moises was also primarily an outfielder. All but Jesús have been named All-Stars at least twice.  The family name in the Dominican Republic is Rojas, but Felipe Alou and his brothers became known by the name Alou when the Giants' scout who signed Felipe mistakenly thought his matronymic was his father's name.

During his 17-year career spent with the Giants, Milwaukee and Atlanta Braves, Oakland Athletics, New York Yankees, Montreal Expos, and Milwaukee Brewers, Alou played all three outfield positions regularly (736 games in right field, 483 in center, 433 in left), and led the National League in hits twice and runs once. Batting regularly in the leadoff spot, Alou hit a home run to begin a game on 20 occasions. He later became the most successful manager in Expos history, leading the team from 1992 to 2001 before rejoining the Giants in 2003. On February 4, 2015, Alou was elected to the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame. 

Grenada


*Slinger Francisco, better known as Mighty Sparrow,  a calypso singer, songwriter, and guitarist of Trinidadian citizenship. Known as the "Calypso King of the World", was born in Grand Roy, Grenada (July 9).   Mighty Sparrow became one of the best-known and most successful calypsonians. He won Trinidad's Carnival Road March competition eight times, Calypso King/Monarch eight times, and twice won the Calypso King of Kings title.

Haiti 

*Francois Legitime, a Haitian general who served as President of Haiti from 1888 to 1889, died in Port-au-Prince, Haiti (July 29). 


François Denys Légitime (b. November 20, 1841, Jeremie, Haiti – d. July 29, 1935, Port-au-Prince, Haiti) was born in Jeremie, Haiti, on November 20, 1841 to Denys Légitime and Tinette Lespérance.  Légitime married Rose-Marie Isaure Marion and had nine children: Cuvier, Edmond, Angèle, Antoinette, Denis Jr., Léon, Clemence, Marie, and Agnès.

He served as adjutant general during the government of Fabre Geffrard, and as aide-de-camp during the government of Sylvain Salnave. He was Secretary of State of the Interior and then Secretary of State of the Interior and of Agriculture during the government of Lysius Salomon.  During this administration, Légitime was accused of aspiring to the presidency, and accordingly went to Kingston, Jamaica,  remaining there for three years. He then returned to Haiti at the invitation of his followers, and on October 7, 1888 was elected president of the provisional government. General Seide Thelemaque denounced the election as fraudulent and attempted to make himself President, but he was killed in the battle which ensued. Légitime was elected President of Haiti on December 16, 1888, but resigned in 1889, owing to the opposition of General Florvil Hyppolite, and again retired to Jamaica.  In 1896 President Tiresias Simon Sam granted a general amnesty, and Légitime returned to Haiti. He died on July 29, 1935 in Port-au-Prince.

*2,500 died in Haiti from floods caused by the Jeremie hurricane (October 25).

Jamaica

Marcus Garvey

In 1935, Garvey left Jamaica for London. He lived and worked in London until his death in 1940. During these last five years, Garvey remained active and in touch with events in war-torn Ethiopia (then known as Abyssinia) and in the West Indies.  In 1937, he wrote the poem Ras Nasibu Of Ogaden in honor of Ethiopian Army Commander (Ras) Nasibu Emmanual.  In 1938, he gave evidence before the West India Royal Commission on conditions there. Also in 1938 he set up the School of African Philosophy in Toronto to train UNIA leaders. He continued to work on the magazine The Black Man.

Puerto Rico


*The Rio Piedras massacre occurred at the University of Puerto Rico in Rio Piedras (October 24).  

Europe

France


*France ordered troops to French Somaliland to guard against any border incidents during the Abyssinia Crisis (February 14).

*The Paris conference broke up with nothing resolved  concerning the Abyssinia Crisis (August 18).


*British Foreign Secretary Samuel Hoare arrived in Paris for talks with French Prime Minister Pierre Laval on the Italo-Abyssinian conflict (December 7).

*The French newspapers L'Ouevre and L'Echo de Paris leaked details of the Hoare–Laval Pact (December 9).

*The Hoare-Laval Plan (Hoare- Laval Pact), which conceded two-thirds of Ethiopia to Italy, was made public (December 9). It was rejected by Ethiopians and caused large political embarrassment in France and Britain.



*In 1935, the three young men published the first issue of the literary review L'Etudiant Noir (The Black Student), which provided the foundation for what is now known as the Negritude Movement, a literary and ideological movement of French-speaking black intellectuals that rejects the political, social and moral domination of the West.


Négritude is a literary and ideological philosophy, developed by francophone African and Caribbean intellectuals, writers, and politicians in France during the 1930s. Its initiators included Martinican poet Aime Cesaire, Leopold Sedar Senghor (a future President of Senegal), and Leon Damas of French Guiana.   Négritude intellectuals disfavored French colonialism and claimed that the best strategy to oppose it was to encourage a common racial identity for black Africans worldwide. They included the Marxist ideas they favored as part of this philosophy. The writers generally used a realist literary style, but later were also influenced somewhat by the Surrealism style, and in 1932 the manifesto "Murderous Humanitarianism" was signed by prominent Surrealists including the Martiniquans Pierre Yovotte and J. M. Monnerot. 

The term negritude was meant to be provocative. It takes its roots from the Latin "niger", which was used exclusively in a racist context within France. It would be used to refer to black people as "art nigre".  Negritude sought to appropriate the word. The term was first used in its present sense by Cesaire, in the third issue of L'Etudiant noir, a magazine which he had started in Paris with fellow students Léopold Senghor and Léon Damas, as well as Gilbert Gratiant, Leonard Sainville, Louis T. Achille, Aristide Maugee, and Paulette Nardal.  L'Étudiant noir also includes Césaire's first published work, "Conscience Raciale et Révolution Sociale" with the heading "Les Idées" and the rubric "Negreries," which is notable for its disavowal of assimilation as a valid strategy for resistance and for its use of the word "negre" as a positive term. The problem with assimilation was that one assimilated into a culture that considered African culture to be barbaric and unworthy of being seen as "civilized". The assimilation into this culture would have been seen as an implicit acceptance of this view. "Nègre" previously had been used mainly in a pejorative sense. Césaire deliberately incorporated this derogatory word into the name of his philosophy.

In 1885, Haitian anthropologist Antenor Firmin published an early work De l'Égalité des Races Humaines (On the Equality of Human Races), which was published as a rebuttal to French writer Count Arthur de Gobineau's publication Essai sur l'inegalite des Races Humaines (An Essay on the Inequality of the Human Races). Firmin influenced Jean Price-Mars, the initiator of Haitian ethnology, and 20th-century American anthropologist Melville Herskovits.  Black intellectuals have historically been proud of Haiti due to its slave revolution commanded by Toussaint L'Ouverture during the 1790s. Césaire spoke, thus, of Haiti as being "where négritude stood up for the first time".

The "Harlem Renaissance", a literary style developed in Harlem in Manhattan during the 1920s and 1930s, influenced the Negritude philosophy. The Harlem Renaissance's writers, including Langston Hughes and Richard Wright,  addressed the themes of "noireism" and race relations.

During the 1920s and 1930s, a group of young black students and scholars, primarily from France's colonies and territories, assembled in Paris. There they were introduced to some writers of the Harlem Renaissance by Paulette Nardal and her sister Jane. The Nardal sisters contributed to the Negritude discussions by their writings and by being the proprietors of the Clamart Salon, a tea-shop venue of the French-Black intelligentsia where Negritude philosophy was often discussed. Paulette Nardal and the Haitian Dr. Leo Sajou initiated La revue du Monde Noir (1931–32), a literary journal published in English and French, which attempted to appeal to African and Caribbean intellectuals in Paris. This Harlem association was shared by the parallel development of negrismo in the Spanish-speaking Caribbean region.

Although each of the initiators had his own ideas about the purpose and styles of la Négritude, the philosophy was characterized generally by opposing colonialism, the denunciation of Europe's alleged lack of humanity, and the rejection of Western domination and ideas. The movement also appears to have had some Heideggerian strands in the sense that the goal of this movement was to achieve blacks "being-in-the-world". This was to emphasize that blacks did have a history and a worthy culture, and that it was capable of standing alongside the cultures of other countries as equals. Also important was the acceptance of and pride in being black and a celebration of African history, traditions, and beliefs. Their literary style was realistic, and they cherished Marxist ideas.

Motivation for the Negritude movement was a result of Aime Cesaire’s, Leopold Senghor’s, and Leon Damas’s dissatisfaction, disgust, and personal conflict over the state of black French assimilation. All three shared a personal sense of revulsion for the racism and colonial injustices that plagued their world. Senghor refused to believe that the purpose of his education was "to build Christianity and civilization in his soul where there was only paganism and barbarism before". Cesaire's disgust came as embarrassment when he was accused by some of the people of the Caribbean as having nothing to do with the people of Africa—whom they saw as savages. They separated themselves from Africa and proclaimed themselves as civilized. He denounced the writers from the Caribbean as "intellectually... corrupt" and literarily nourished with "white decadence". Damas believed this because of the pride these writers would take when a white person could read their whole book and not be able to tell the author's complexion.

Aime Cesaire was a poet, playwright, and politician from Martinique.  He studied in Paris, where he discovered the black community and "rediscovered Africa". He saw la Négritude as the fact of being black, acceptance of this fact, and appreciation of the history and culture, and of black people. It is important to note that for Césaire, this emphasis on the acceptance of the fact of "blackness" was the means by which the "decolonization of the mind" could be achieved. According to him, western imperialism was responsible for the inferiority complex of blacks. He sought to recognize the collective colonial experience of Blacks—the slave trade and plantation system. Césaire's ideology was especially important during the early years of la Négritude.

Neither Césaire — who after returning to Martinique after his studies was elected mayor of Fort de France, the capital, and a representative of Martinique in France's Parliament — nor Senghor in Senegal envisaged political independence from France. Négritude would, according to Senghor, enable Blacks in French lands to have a "seat at the give and take [French] table as equals". However the French eventually presented Senegal and its other African colonies with independence.

Poet and the later first president of Sénégal, Senghor used la Négritude to work toward a universal valuation of African people. He advocated a modern incorporation of the expression and celebration of traditional African customs and ideas. This interpretation of la Négritude tended to be the most common, particularly during later years.

Damas was a French Guyanese poet and National Assembly member. He had a militant style of defending "black qualities" and rejected any kind of reconciliation with Caucasians. Two particular anthologies were pivotal to the movement, which would serve as manifestos for the movement. One was published by Damas in 1946, Poètes d'expression française 1900–1945. Senghor would then go on to publish Anthologie de la nouvelle poésie nègre et malgache de langue française in 1948. Damas’ introduction to the anthology was meant to be a sort of manifesto for the movement, but Senghor's own anthology eventually took that role.  And ultimately, it would be the “Preface” written by French philosopher and public intellectual Jean-Paul Sartre for the anthology that would propel Negritude into the broader intellectual conversation.

As a manifesto for the Negritude movement, Damas’ introduction was more political and cultural in nature. A distinctive feature of Damas’s anthology and beliefs was that Damas felt that his message was one for the colonized in general, and included poets from Indochina and Madagascar. This is sharply in contrast to Senghor’s anthology which would be published two years later. In the introduction Damas proclaimed that now was the age where “the colonized man becomes aware of his rights and of his duties as a writer, as a novelist or a storyteller, an essayist or a poet.” Damas explicitly outlines the themes of the anthology. He says , “Poverty, illiteracy, exploitation of man by man, social and political racism suffered by the black or the yellow, forced labor, inequalities, lies, resignation, swindles, prejudices, complacencies, cowardice, failure, crimes committed in the name of liberty, of equality, of fraternity, that is the theme of this indigenous poetry in French.” Damas’ introduction was indeed a calling and affirmation for a distinct cultural identification.

In 1948, Jean-Paul Sartre analyzed the négritude philosophy in an essay called "Orphée Noir" ("Black Orpheus") which served as the introduction to a volume of francophone poetry named Anthologie de la nouvelle poésie nègre et malgache, compiled by Léopold Senghor. In this essay, Sartre characterizes négritude as the opposite of colonial racism in a Hegelian dialectic and with it he helped to introduce Négritude issues to French intellectuals. In his opinion, négritude was an "anti-racist racism" (racisme antiraciste), a strategy with a final goal of racial unity.

Négritude was criticized by some black writers during the 1960s as insufficiently militant. Keorapetse Kgositsile said that the term Négritude was based too much on blackness according to a caucasian aesthetic, and was unable to define a new kind of perception of African-ness that would free black people and black art from caucasian conceptualizations altogether.
The Nigerian dramatist, poet, and novelist Wole Soyinka opposed Négritude. He believed that by deliberately and outspokenly being proud of their ethnicity, black people were automatically on the defensive: "Un tigre ne proclame pas sa tigritude, il saute sur sa proie" (English: "A tiger doesn't proclaim its tigerness; it jumps on its prey").

*Josephine Baker appeared in the movie, Princesse Tam Tam.   

*Upon a visit to the United States in 1935–36, Josephine Baker was met with lukewarm audiences. Her star turn in the Ziegfeld Follies generated less than impressive box office numbers, and she was replaced by Gypsy Rose Lee later in the run. Time magazine referred to her as a "Negro wench". She returned to Europe heartbroken.


Germany




*Adolf Hitler gave the International Olympic Committee President Henri de Baillet-Latour his personal assurance that there would be no racial discrimination against athletes or visitors at the coming summer's Berlin Olympics (November 6).

*The Nuremberg Laws were expanded to include people of African descent (November 26). 

The Nuremberg Laws (German: Nürnberger Gesetze) were two anti-semitic laws adopted in Nazi Germany.  They were introduced on September 15, 1935 by the Reichstag at a special meeting convened at the annual Nuremberg Rally of the Nazi Party. The two laws were the Law for the Protection of German Blood and German Honor, which forbade marriages and extramarital intercourse between Jews and Germans and the employment of German females under 45 in Jewish households, and the Reich Citizenship Law, which declared that only those of German or related blood were eligible to be Reich citizens; the remainder were classed as state subjects, without citizenship rights. A supplementary decree outlining the definition of who was Jewish was passed on November 14, 1935, and the Reich Citizenship Law officially came into force on that date. The laws were expanded on 26 November 26, 1935 to include Romani people (Gypsies) and Black people (people of African descent).  Out of foreign policy concerns, prosecutions under the two laws did not commence until after the 1936 Summer Olympics that were to be held 1936 in Berlin.


Great Britain



*Winston Churchill warned that Nazi Germany was a greater threat to peace than the war in Abyssinia (October 24). "We cannot afford to see Nazidom in its present phase of cruelty and intolerance, with all its hatreds and all its gleaming weapons, paramount in Europe at the present time", he told the House of Commons.


*The British newspaper The Times published its own report of leaked details of the Hoare–Laval Pact (December 10). As public anger about the proposal grew, Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin responded to a question in the House of Commons by saying it would be "premature to make a statement on the subject at present" because he was not sure if the proposal had been finalized.

*Samuel Hoare resigned as British Foreign Secretary over the unpopular Hoare–Laval Pact (December 18).

*Labour Party leader Clement Attlee brought a motion of censure against the government of Stanley Baldwin, explaining, "If it is right for (Samuel Hoare) to resign, then it is right for the Government to resign." Baldwin stood and took chief responsibility for the Hoare–Laval debacle, and declared that the proposals were "absolutely and completely dead" and that the government would "make no attempt to resurrect them." Attlee's motion was defeated, 397 to 165 (December 19).

*Anthony Eden informed Prime Minister Baldwin that Turkey, Greece, Romania, Yugoslavia and Czechoslovakia would aid Britain in the event of war with Italy (December 21).


*Anthony Eden was named Britain's new Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs (December 22).


Italy

 *Benito Mussolini mobilized 250,000 soldiers and ordered 50 planes to Eritrea (February 11).

*The first Italian troops departed for Africa as Mussolini told Italy to "be ready for any eventuality"  (February 16).

*Italy rejected a proposal from Ethiopia to establish a neutral zone along the borders of Italian Somaliland (February 19).

*Italy and Ethiopia agreed to establish a neutral zone along the border of the Italian Somaliland, although Italy continued to build up its military in the region (March 5).

*Italy mobilized three more divisions (May 7).

*Benito Mussolini made a senate speech warning other nations not to intervene in the Abyssinia Crisis,  saying that only Italy "can be the judge in this most delicate matter" (May 14).


*Italian newspapers began a campaign of words clearly meant to justify an Italian invasion and takeover of Ethiopia (May 15).  Il Giornale d'Italia wrote that Ethiopia had an "incapacity to comprehend and assimilate the elementary values of civilization", making it necessary for the country to undergo "an organization which will deprive it of the possibility of menacing any more neighboring colonies – above all, Italian interests which have been attacked."


*Italy accepted mediation by the League of Nations in the Abyssinia Crisis, although the League Council gave in to Mussolini's refusal to agree to stop massing troops along the border of Italian Somaliland (May 25).

*In a blunt speech in Cagliari on June 8, Benito Mussolini told the British to stay out the Abyssinia Crisis, saying "they never took into consideration world opinion" while creating the British Empire, "we have got old, and we have got new accounts to settle with Ethiopia, and we will settle them", Mussolini declared. "We will pay no attention to what is said in foreign countries. We exclusively are the judges of our own interests and the guarantors of our future."

*The New York Times was banned in Italy for coverage critical of the Fascist regime during the Abyssinia Crisis (June 14)

*Italy ordered the recall of all silver currency in the country due to necessity for the metal in its war preparations against Ethiopia (June 15).

*Anthony Eden left Rome after three days of unproductive discussions with Mussolini (June 26).


*Anthony Eden gave his report to the House of Commons on the failed Rome conference with Mussolini (July 1).  Eden revealed that Mussolini turned down an offer to let Ethiopia have a seaport in the British Somaliland in exchange for territorial and economic concessions from Ethiopia to Italy.

*Ethiopia appealed to the United States to study means of persuading Italy to abandon its warlike actions and respect the Kellogg-Briand Pact (July 4).  American public disapproval of Italy's methods, Ethiopia hoped, would help turn sufficient world opinion against Italy to prevent it from starting a war.

*The United States delivered a curt reply to Ethiopia's request, saying the mediation being conducted by the League of Nations still had a chance to reach a satisfactory conclusion (July 5).

*The wireless antenna of Benito Mussolini's plane was struck by lightning as it landed in Salerno,  but Mussolini was unharmed (July 6). There he made a speech from atop a cannon, declaring, "We have decided on a struggle in which we as a government and a people will not turn back. The decision is irretrievable."

*The American Legion told all United States citizens to leave Ethiopia (July 6).

*The Hague arbitration  discussions fell apart (July 9).

*Haile Selassie made a speech before Ethiopian parliament calling all his people to prepare for war (July 18). "Italy is provided with all the modern methods of warfare", Selassie said. "Ethiopia is a poor country, but we shall show the world how a united people can fight to preserve its independence. Should a peaceful solution not be found, Ethiopia, stretching her hands to God, will struggle to the last man, but – right up to the last minute – we shall persist in our efforts for peace."

*Britain declared an arms embargo on both Italy and Ethiopia (July 25).

British Foreign Secretary Samuel Hoare announced that the government would not allow British manufacturers to export war materiel to either Ethiopia or Italy until all efforts to resolve the Abyssinia Crisis were exhausted. Since Italy had no need to buy foreign weapons, the embargo only affected Ethiopia.


*The League confirmed that no fifth arbitrator had been selected (July 26).

*In response to the Abyssinia Crisis, Italy called 75,000 more men to arms (August 6).

*France and Britain offered Italy large concessions in Ethiopia to avert war (August 16).  Italy again rejected the concessions.

Representatives of France, Great Britain and Italy met in Paris to negotiate a solution to the Abyssinia Crisis.  Haile Selassie offered new economic concessions to Italy, stressing he would not accept a military occupation but would grant facilities for mining, road construction and railway operations.

*The Paris conference broke up with nothing resolved (August 18).

*Britain reaffirmed its embargo on armaments with regards to Italy and Ethiopia (August 22).

*The major Italian newspaper Il Giornale d'Italia ran a front page editorial directed at Britain, warning that British newspapers urging economic sanctions against Italy were "working for war."

*On September 4, the Italian delegation at the League of Nations demanded that Ethiopia be expelled from the organization, claiming it was "a state incapable of controlling itself or the people subject to it." The chief Italian delegate told the international press that the members of the League council would have to decide whether they wanted to expel Ethiopia or Italy.


*Benito Mussolini rejected the League's latest peace offering of Danakil and Ogaden, scoffing that he had been taken for "a collector of deserts" (September 18).


*Unconfirmed reports circulated of a battle between Italians and Ethiopians in the vicinity of Mousa Ali.  Italian officials denied the reports (October 2).

*Benito Mussolini gave a radio address in Rome informing Italians that "A solemn hour is about to sound in the history of the fatherland ... For many months the wheels of destiny have been moving toward their goal under the impulse of our calm determination (October 2). In the latter hours their rhythm has become more swift and by now cannot be stopped. It is not only an army that strives towards its objectives but a whole people of 44 million souls against whom an attempt is being made to consummate the blackest of injustices – that of depriving us of some small place in the sun."


*France informed Britain that it would support the enforcement of sanctions against Italy and pledged military support in the event of any attack that arose from them (October 4).  

*The Italian delegation at the League of Nations maintained that Italy was not waging war, but was only engaged in "military police measures to establish order" (October 4)


*The sanctions committee of the League of Nations approved a British proposal for a complete boycott of Italian goods (October 19).


*During a speech commemorating the 13th anniversary of the March on Rome, Benito Mussolini called international sanctions against Italy "the most odious of injustices" (October 26).

*On October 29, Mussolini proclaimed food restrictions, going into effect November 5, in order to fight the effects of boycotting and sanctions. Butcher shops were to close on Tuesdays and were forbidden from selling beef, veal, mutton, lamb or pork on Wednesdays. Since butcher shops already usually closed on Thursdays and most Italians refrained from eating meat on Fridays, the decree amounted to a half-week ban on meat.

*Pietro Badoglio replaced Emilio De Bono as commander of Italian forces in East Africa (November 17).


*Mussolini declared government control of all the gold in Italy (November 20). All sellers of gold would be required to declare their holdings and record every transaction, and gold could not be sold without first offering it to the government at a five (5) percent interest rate.

*Mussolini granted three months' leave to 100,000 troops and sent them to work in agriculture and industry to combat the effects of sanctions (November 21).


*The Piazza di Spagna in Rome was renamed the Piazza De Bono because of Spain's participation in sanctions against Italy (November 24).


*The Italian Ministry of Propaganda announced a ban on performances of music by any countries who had voted in the League of Nations for the sanctions against Italy (November 28).



*The British cabinet decided to support a motion at the League of Nations that sanctions against Italy be expanded to include an oil embargo (December 2).

*Italian children had a three-hour school day (10 a.m. to 1 p.m.) in order to save coal (December 4).

*Mussolini defiantly told his parliament that sanctions would not deter Italy from its path and that only "full recognition of our rights and the safeguarding of our East African interests" could solve the crisis (December 7).


*The Hoare-Laval Pact  which called for the partition (dismemberment) of Ethiopia was proposed (December 8).

The Anglo-French proposal known as the Hoare-Laval Pact was agreed upon, in which Abyssinia would be partitioned and much of its territory given to Italy. The two delegations informed the media that they had come up with a plan, but withheld the details so the interested governments could review them.


*The French newspapers L'Ouevre and L'Echo de Paris leaked details of the Hoare–Laval Pact (December 9).

*The Hoare-Laval Plan (Hoare- Laval Pact), which conceded two-thirds of Ethiopia to Italy, was made public (December 9). It was rejected by Ethiopians and caused large political embarrassment in France and Britain.

*Referring to the leaked details of the Hoare-Laval Pact, Ethiopia announced that it strongly rejected any proposal that would "reward Italian aggression" (December 11).

*The full text of the Hoare-Laval Pact was revealed to the public, causing a huge split at the League of Nations (December 13). Haile Selassie told the League that the plan violated the spirit of the League Covenant.

*Italy sent a protest to the League accusing Ethiopia of abusing the Red Cross emblem by placing it in militarized areas (December 13).

*The Christmas Offensive began when Ethiopians launched a counterattack against the Italians at Dembeguina Pass (December 15).

*Rodolfo Graziani sent Mussolini a telegram requesting "maximum freedom of action for use of asphyxiating gases" (December 15).


*Haile Selassie held a conference for reporters on the porch of his headquarters to formally reject the Hoare–Laval Pact (December 16).  Selassie declared that acceptance of the proposal "would not only be cowardice toward our people, but a betrayal of the League of Nations and of all states that have thought up to now that they could have confidence in the system of collective security."

*Mussolini authorized the use of chemical weapons in Ethiopia (December 16).

*De Bono was replaced by Marshal Pietro Badoglio as Commander in Chief of the entire operation and as the commander in the north (December 17). Soon after, Haile Selassie launched his "Christmas Offensive" to test the new Italian commander.

*While inaugurating the new municipality of Pontinia, Mussolini introduced "Faith Day", in which Italians were to donate their wedding rings so the material could be melted down for use by the state (December 18). Queen Elena inaugurated the day in Rome by donating the King and Queen's own rings and receiving steel substitutes in return.

*The Italians first used chemical weapons in Ethiopia, spraying mustard gas and dropping bombs with mustard agent on Ethiopian soldiers and civilians (December 23).

*Aviator Tito Minniti was killed (December 26). Badoglio received permission to use mustard gas to speed up the invasion. This was in direct violation of the 1899 and 1907 Hague Conventions, which outlawed the use of chemical weapons. The alleged torture and mutilation of Minniti was claimed as justification for the use of mustard gas.

Tito Minniti (b. 1909, Reggio, Calabria, Italy – d. December 26, 1935, near Degehabur, Ethiopia) was an Italian pilot who was killed after he was captured by Ethiopians during the Second Italo-Abyssinian War in 1935 near Degehabur. His death and alleged torture became an atrocity story justifying the use of mustard gas against the Ethiopians. Minniti was posthumously decorated with the Italian Gold Medal of Valor.


*Mussolini renounced the Stresa Front and Four-Power Pact due to hostile relations with Britain and France (December 28).

*Italian warplanes bombed a Swedish Red Cross field hospital in southern Ethiopia, killing 42 (December 29). The bombing greatly angered Sweden and led to a diplomatic row with Italy.


*Ethiopia protested to the League of Nations that Italy had used chemical weapons in violation of the Geneva Convention (December 29).

The  Netherlands


*Italian and Ethiopian officials met in the Hague to discuss arbitration (June 25).

Africa

*****

Eritrea

 *Benito Mussolini mobilized 250,000 soldiers and ordered 50 planes to Eritrea (February 11).


Ethiopia
(Abyssinia)

*Emperor Haile Selassie of Ethiopia created a military school at Holeta (January).

*Ethiopia appealed to the League of Nations for arbitration into the Walwal incident (January 3).


 Ethiopia asked the League of Nations to act in accordance with Article XI of the League Covenant, which stated that "Any war or threat of war, whether immediately affecting any of the Members of the League or not, is hereby declared a matter of concern to the whole League, and the League shall take any action that may be deemed wise and effectual to safeguard the peace of nations." The League, however, postponed action on Ethiopia's request.

*On Pierre Laval's visit to Rome, the French and Italians signed a pact which, among other conditions, allowed Italy a free hand in dealing with Ethiopia in exchange for Italian support against German aggression (January 7).


France and Italy issued an official communique upon the conclusion of the Mussolini-Laval talks. The statement vaguely reported "agreements relating to the interests of the two countries in Africa and documents registering the community of views on European subjects." It was understood that France had agreed to allow Italy a free hand in dealing with Ethiopia in exchange for help containing Hitler.


*Benito Mussolini dispatched Emilio De Bono to Eritrea and Rodolfo Graziani to Italian Somaliland along with 100,000 Italian troops to prepare for an invasion (February 23).

*Ethiopia again requested arbitration and noted the Italian military build-up (March 8).


*Italy and Ethiopia agreed on a neutral zone in the Ogaden (March 13).



*Getatchew Mekurya, an Ethiopian saxophonist, was born in Yifat, Ethiopia (March 14).

Gétatchèw Mèkurya, a leading Ethiopian saxophonist, was born March 14, 1935, in Yifat, Ethiopia. Mèkurya began in music playing native Ethiopian instruments before switching to saxophone and clarinet. His professional career launched in 1949, as a member of the Municipality Band in Addis Ababa. He spent the next couple of decades largely performing Ethiopian folkloric music with several of his country’s most prominent orchestras.

An album recorded by Mèkurya in the early 1970s, Negus of Ethiopian Sax, representative of a style called Ethio-jazz, was reissued in 2003 as part of the popular world-music series Éthiopiques, leading to new popularity outside of Ethiopia.

Mekurya died April 4, 2016, in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. He was 81 and the cause was an infection in his legs as a result of diabetes. 
*Ethiopia again appealed to the League due to Italian build-up (March 17).


*Haile Selassie said that Ethiopia would never apologize to Italy for wrongs not committed (March 18).  "We will not be coerced or intimidated by the military preparations recently announced into according the satisfaction which Italy demands", he said. 

*The Italians yielded to pressure from the League of Nations for arbitration of the Walwal dispute (March 22).

*Ethiopia broke off direct talks with Italy over their border disputes and sent a new note to the League of Nations (March 30).


*Ethiopia introduced compulsory military service for both men and women (April 14).

*Ethiopia again protested the Italian mobilization (May 11).

*Serfdom was abolished in Ethiopia (May 18).

*The League of Nations held a special session to discuss the crisis in Ethiopia (May 20-21).

*Haile Selassie sent his most strongly-worded telegram yet to the League of Nations, saying "It is patent that Italy is illegally occupying an important part of Ethiopian territory (May 20). She has recently initiated a campaign of propaganda to endeavor to justify her occupation of Ethiopian territory as a mission of civilization, and her aggression and rapacity against our people as the treatment due a barbarous nation. No agreement will be possible by diplomatic means to arrange for a genuinely impartial examination in Italy's present state of mind."


*League council resolved to meet if no fifth arbitrator was selected by June 25, or if a settlement was not reached by August 25 (May 25).


*Ethiopia requested neutral observers (June 19).

*Britain dispatched Anthony Eden to offer concessions about Ethiopia (June 23-24).  The concessions were rejected by Italy .


*Italian and Ethiopian officials met in the Hague to discuss arbitration (June 25).


*Anthony Eden left Rome after three days of unproductive discussions with Mussolini (June 26).

*Anthony Eden gave his report to the House of Commons on the failed Rome conference with Mussolini (July 1).  Eden revealed that Mussolini turned down an offer to let Ethiopia have a seaport in the British Somaliland in exchange for territorial and economic concessions from Ethiopia to Italy.

*Ethiopia appealed to the United States to study means of persuading Italy to abandon its warlike actions and respect the Kellogg-Briand Pact (July 4).  American public disapproval of Italy's methods, Ethiopia hoped, would help turn sufficient world opinion against Italy to prevent it from starting a war.

*The United States delivered a curt reply to Ethiopia's request, saying the mediation being conducted by the League of Nations still had a chance to reach a satisfactory conclusion (July 5).

*The wireless antenna of Benito Mussolini's plane was struck by lightning as it landed in Salerno,  but Mussolini was unharmed (July 6). There he made a speech from atop a cannon, declaring, "We have decided on a struggle in which we as a government and a people will not turn back. The decision is irretrievable."

*The American Legion told all United States citizens to leave Ethiopia (July 6).

*The Hague arbitration  discussions fell apart (July 9).


*Haile Selassie made a speech before Ethiopian parliament calling all his people to prepare for war (July 18). "Italy is provided with all the modern methods of warfare", Selassie said. "Ethiopia is a poor country, but we shall show the world how a united people can fight to preserve its independence. Should a peaceful solution not be found, Ethiopia, stretching her hands to God, will struggle to the last man, but – right up to the last minute – we shall persist in our efforts for peace."

*Britain declared an arms embargo on both Italy and Ethiopia (July 25).

British Foreign Secretary Samuel Hoare announced that the government would not allow British manufacturers to export war materiel to either Ethiopia or Italy until all efforts to resolve the Abyssinia Crisis were exhausted. Since Italy had no need to buy foreign weapons, the embargo only affected Ethiopia.

*The League confirmed that no fifth arbitrator had been selected (July 26).


*The League limited arbitration talks to matters except for the sovereignty of Walwal (August 3). They were to meet again on September 4 to examine relations between the two countries.


*In response to the Abyssinia Crisis, Italy called 75,000 more men to arms (August 6).

*Ethiopian Crown Prince Asfaw Wossen reviewed 100,000 tribal warriors near Gondar (August 7). 

*Abyssinia pleaded for the arms embargo to be lifted (August 12).


*France and Britain offered Italy large concessions in Ethiopia to avert war (August 16).  Italy again rejected the concessions.


Representatives of France, Great Britain and Italy met in Paris to negotiate a solution to the Abyssinia Crisis.  Haile Selassie offered new economic concessions to Italy, stressing he would not accept a military occupation but would grant facilities for mining, road construction and railway operations.

*The Paris conference broke up with nothing resolved (August 18).

*Britain reaffirmed its embargo on armaments with regards to Italy and Ethiopia (August 22).

    *The major Italian newspaper Il Giornale d'Italia ran a front page editorial directed at Britain, warning that British newspapers urging economic sanctions against Italy were "working for war."

    *Ethiopian Emperor Haile Selassie ordered civilians to leave Addis Ababa and disperse across the country in order to reduce casualties from the anticipated aerial bombardment by Italian planes (August 24).


    *In an August 28 address to 2,000 Catholic nurses, Pope Pius XI commented on the Abyssinia Crisis by saying, "A war of sheer conquest and nothing else would certainly be an unjust war. It ought, therefore, to be unimaginable – a thing sad and horrible beyond expression. An unjust war is unthinkable. We cannot admit its possibility, and we deliberately reject it ... if it be true that the need for expansion and the need for frontier defence do exist, then we cannot forbid ourselves from hoping that the need will be met by means other than war."

     *Emperor Haile Selassie began issuing gas masks to his people in anticipation of a possible chemical attack by Italian forces (September 2).

    *The League exonerated both Italy and Ethiopia of the Walwal incident since both powers believed it was within their border (September 3).


    *On September 4, the Italian delegation at the League of Nations demanded that Ethiopia be expelled from the organization, claiming it was "a state incapable of controlling itself or the people subject to it." The chief Italian delegate told the international press that the members of the League council would have to decide whether they wanted to expel Ethiopia or Italy.


    *Italy accepted the appointment of a five-power committee (consisting of France, Britain, Spain, Turkey and Poland) to arbitrate in the Abyssinia Crisis (September 6).

    *Pierre Laval, Anthony Eden and Samuel Hoare agreed on limitations to Italian sanctions (September 10).


    *The five-power abritration committee in the Abyssinia Crisis concluded that any further negotiations were pointless (September 10).


    *British Foreign Secretary Samuel Hoare spoke before the League of Nations Assembly, affirming Britain's dedication to the League but asserting that it was conditional on its fellow members doing their share (September 11).


    *On September 12, Viscount Cecil called Hoare's speech "the best made by a British foreign minister at Geneva since the creation of the League." Haile Selassie called the speech "a wonderful New Year's present", saying "The tide seems to have turned."

    Pierre Laval spoke before the League of Nations, echoing many of Hoare's statements by proclaiming France's commitment to the League Covenant (September 13). Separately, French government officials said they would implement economic sanctions against Italy the moment it invaded Ethiopia.

    Haile Selassie made a plea for peace in a radio address transmitted around the world (September 13).

    *Italy declared that no compromise in the Abyssinia Crisis was possible and announced it was considering withdrawal from the League of Nations if the organization interfered with its objective (September 14).

    *Britain amassed fifteen warships at Gibraltar as a precaution against Italy (September 17).

    *Benito Mussolini rejected the League's latest peace offering of Danakil and Ogaden, scoffing that he had been taken for "a collector of deserts" (September 18).

    *Mussolini named his terms for settlement of the Abyssinia Crisis, demanding a huge eastern swath of Ethiopia's territory and for its army to be reduced by half, with the other half put under control of Italian officers (September 22).

    *British delegates told the five-power committee at the League of Nations that Italy's conditions were unacceptable (September 23).

    *200,000 Italian soldiers born between 1911 and 1914 were mobilized, bringing Italy's total army to the 1 million Mussolini had promised by October 1 (September 23).

    *The five-power committee drafted a report admitting its efforts at mediation in the Abyssinia Crisis had failed and turned the matter back over to the League (September 24).

    *Ethiopia again asked for neutral observers (September 25).


    *The League of Nations informed Italy and Ethiopia that they could not start war before December 4 without violating the League Covenant and becoming subject to punishment by its other members (September 26)..

    *Ethiopia began to mobilize its large, but poorly-equipped, army (September 28).


    *Unconfirmed reports circulated of a battle between Italians and Ethiopians in the vicinity of Mousa Ali.  Italian officials denied the reports (October 2).


    *The first phase of the Second Italo-Ethiopian War began with De Bono's invasion of Abyssinia in the north (October 3).

    Italian troops invaded Ethiopia. Italian forces under De Bono advanced from Eritrea into northern Ethiopia.  Italian forces under Graziani stood ready to advance from Italian Somaliland into southern Ethiopia. Italy was condemned by the League for attacking without a formal declaration of war.

    *League of Nations officials announced that they had received a communication from Ethiopia asserting that Adwa had been bombed by Italian warplanes (October 3). Emperor Haile Selassie informed a Reuters  correspondent: "I have just received the news that the first bombs dropped by Italian planes on Adwa fell on the Red Cross Hospital there, killing and wounding nurses." The Second Italo-Ethiopian War had begun.

    *Haile Selassie ordered a general mobilization (October 3).

    *Nazi Germany declared neutrality in the Ethiopian conflict (October 3).


    *France informed Britain that it would support the enforcement of sanctions against Italy and pledged military support in the event of any attack that arose from them (October 4).  

    *Italian forces captured Enticho (October 4).

    *The northern Italian army captured Adigrat (October 5). 

    *The northern Italian army captured Adowa (October 6).  


    Haile Selassie made another public statement to the world through the Associated Press, saying, "Mr. Mussolini charges us with being barbarians and says he wishes to civilize us. Is the wanton slaughter of women and children by air bombs and machine guns the kind of civilization he wishes to give us? ... Despite the fact that our empire is faced with the gravest crisis of its long and glorious history – a crisis with which we have always striven to live in peace and amity – we still place all our faith in the League of Nations, which is pledged to defend its members, the small as well as the great, from unjustifiable aggression."

      *The League of Nations declared Italy the aggressor and prepared to set sanctions against it (October 7).

      By unanimous vote, the League of Nations declared Italy guilty of committing an act of war against all members of the organization by invading Abyssinia. The vote laid the basis for economic sanctions. 

      *The French dockworker's union called on its members to boycott the loading and unloading of Italian ships (October 7).

      *Austria and Hungary announced that they would not co-operate with the League of Nations in applying any sanctions against Italy (October 9).

      *League members voted to impose sanctions unless Italy withdrew (October 11).


      The League of Nations applied its first round of sanctions against Italy, imposing a general arms embargo against the country. Members were asked to take steps to prevent arms from passing indirectly to Italy through any third party such as Austria.

      *De Bono issued a proclamation ordering the suppression of slavery in Ethiopia (October 14).

      *The northern Italian army captured Axum (October 15). 


      *Britain assured Italy that it would not take independent action in the Mediterranean (October 18).


      *Civilians in Mek'ele (Ethiopia) were ordered to evacuate in anticipation of an Italian offensive (October 28).

      *The Italian offensive in northern Abyssinia was halted for two days because of heavy rains (November 5).

      *Due to the cautious approach of General De Bono, Mussolini threatened to replace him (November 6).


      *The northern Italian army captured Mekele (November 8). 



      *The Ethiopian government reported a victory over Italian forces in Ogaden (November 12).


      *Sanctions went into effect against Italy (November 18). However, they did not include oil or steel.

      *Iyasu V, the emperor-designate of Ethiopia, died in the Ethiopian Empire (November 25).


      Iyasu V (the Ethiopian version of Joshua), also known as Lij Iyasu (b. February 4, 1895, Dessie, Wollo – d. November 25, 1935, Ethiopian Empire), was the designated but uncrowned Emperor of Ethiopia (1913–16). His baptismal name was Kifle Yaqob. Because he was never crowned emperor, he is usually referred to as Lij Iyasu, "Lij" meaning child, especially one born of royal blood.

      *Italian planes bombed Emperor Haile Selassie's headquarters at Dessie (December 6).  The American Seventh-day Adventist Hospital and a Red Cross tent were also hit by the indiscriminately dropped bombs, though the hospital was evacuated minutes before the attack. The emperor sent a vigorously worded protest to the League of Nations over the incident.


      *Dessie was heavily bombarded again (December 7). International Red Cross representatives sent a formal protest of the bombings to the League of Nations.

      *The Hoare-Laval Pact  which called for the partition (dismemberment) of Ethiopia, was executed (December 8).

      The Anglo-French proposal known as the Hoare-Laval Pact was agreed upon, in which Abyssinia would be partitioned and much of its territory given to Italy. The two delegations informed the media that they had come up with a plan, but withheld the details so the interested governments could review them.

      *The French newspapers L'Ouevre and L'Echo de Paris leaked details of the Hoare–Laval Pact (December 9).

      The Hoare-Laval Plan (Hoare- Laval Pact), which conceded two-thirds of Ethiopia to Italy, was made public. It was rejected by Ethiopians and caused large political embarrassment in France and Britain.

      *The Hoare-Laval Plan was made public (December 9). It was rejected by Ethiopians and caused large political embarrassment in France and Britain.

      The Hoare–Laval Pact was a December 1935 proposal by British Foreign Secretary Samuel Hoare and French Prime Minister Pierre Laval for ending the Second Italo-Abysinian War. Italy had wanted to seize the independent nation of Abyssinia (Ethiopia) as part of its empire and also to avenge an 1896 humiliating defeat.  The Pact offered to partition Abyssinia, and thus achieve Italian dictator Benito Mussolini's goal of making the independent nation of Abyssinia into an Italian colony. The proposal ignited a firestorm of hostile reaction in Britain and France, and never went into effect. 



      *The British newspaper The Times published its own report of leaked details of the Hoare–Laval Pact (December 10). As public anger about the proposal grew, Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin responded to a question in the House of Commons by saying it would be "premature to make a statement on the subject  at present" because he was not sure if the proposal had been finalized.


      *Referring to the leaked details of the Hoare-Laval Pact, Ethiopia announced that it strongly rejected any proposal that would "reward Italian aggression" (December 11).

      *The full text of the Hoare-Laval Pact was revealed to the public, causing a huge split at the League of Nations (December 13). Haile Selassie told the League that the plan violated the spirit of the League Covenant.

      *Italy sent a protest to the League accusing Ethiopia of abusing the Red Cross emblem by placing it in militarized areas (December 13).

      *The Christmas Offensive began when Ethiopians launched a counterattack against the Italians at Dembeguina Pass (December 15).

      *Rodolfo Graziani sent Mussolini a telegram requesting "maximum freedom of action for use of asphyxiating gases" (December 15).

      *Haile Selassie held a conference for reporters on the porch of his headquarters to formally reject the Hoare–Laval Pact (December 16).  Selassie declared that acceptance of the proposal "would not only be cowardice toward our people, but a betrayal of the League of Nations and of all states that have thought up to now that they could have confidence in the system of collective security."


      *Mussolini authorized the use of chemical weapons in Ethiopia (December 16).

      *De Bono was replaced by Marshal Pietro Badoglio as Commander in Chief of the entire operation and as the commander in the north (December 17). Soon after, Haile Selassie launched his "Christmas Offensive" to test the new Italian commander.

      *Samuel Hoare resigned as British Foreign Secretary over the unpopular Hoare–Laval Pact (December 18).


      *While inaugurating the new municipality of Pontinia, Mussolini introduced "Faith Day", in which Italians were to donate their wedding rings so the material could be melted down for use by the state (December 18). Queen Elena inaugurated the day in Rome by donating the King and Queen's own rings and receiving steel substitutes in return.

      *The Italians first used chemical weapons in Ethiopia, spraying mustard gas and dropping bombs with mustard agent on Ethiopian soldiers and civilians (December 23).

      *Haile Selassie gave a Christmas message asking all Christian nations to pray for peace (December 24).

      *Italian colonial authorities sentenced three Eritreans to be shot in the back as spies for Ethiopia (December 25).

      *Aviator Tito Minniti was killed (December 26). Badoglio received permission to use mustard gas to speed up the invasion. This was in direct violation of the 1899 and 1907 Hague Conventions, which outlawed the use of chemical weapons. The alleged torture and mutilation of Minniti was claimed as justification for the use of mustard gas.


      Tito Minniti (b. 1909, Reggio, Calabria, Italy – d. December 26, 1935, near Degehabur, Ethiopia) was an Italian pilot who was killed after he was captured by Ethiopians during the Second Italo-Abyssinian War in 1935 near Degehabur. His death and alleged torture became an atrocity story justifying the use of mustard gas against the Ethiopians. Minniti was posthumously decorated with the Italian Gold Medal of Valor.

      *Italian warplanes bombed a Swedish Red Cross field hospital in southern Ethiopia, killing 42 (December 29). The bombing greatly angered Sweden and led to a diplomatic row with Italy.

      *Ethiopia protested to the League of Nations that Italy had used chemical weapons in violation of the Geneva Convention (December 29).


      Gabon

      (French Equatorial Africa)

      *El Hadj Omar Bongo Ondimba (b. Albert-Bernard Bongo; December 30,1935, Lewai (since renamed Bongoville), French Equatorial Africa (now known as Gabon) –  d. June 8, 2009, Barcelona, Spain), a Gabonese politician who was President of Gabon from 1967 to 2009, was born in Lewai (since renamed Bongoville) French Equatorial Africa (December 30).

      Omar Bongo was promoted to key positions as a young official under Gabon's first President Leon M'ba in the 1960s, before being elected Vice-President in his own right in 1966. In 1967, he succeeded M'ba to become the second Gabon President, upon the latter's death.

      Bongo headed the single-party regime of the Gabonese Democratic Party (PDG) until 1990, when, faced with public pressure, he was forced to introduce multi-party politics into Gabon. His political survival despite intense opposition to his rule in the early 1990s seemed to stem once again from consolidating power by bringing most of the major opposition leaders at the time to his side. The 1993 presidential election was extremely controversial but ended with his re-election then and the subsequent elections of 1998 and 2005. His respective parliamentary majorities increased and the opposition becoming more subdued with each succeeding election. After Cuban President Fidel Castro stepped down in February 2008, Bongo became the world's longest-serving non-monarch ruler. He was one of the longest serving rulers in history.

      Bongo was criticized for in effect having worked for himself, his family and local elites and not for Gabon and its people. For instance, French green politician Eva Joly claimed that during Bongo's long reign, despite an oil-led GDP per capita growth to one of the highest levels in Africa, Gabon built only 5 kilometers of freeway a year and still had one of the world's highest infant mortality rates by the time of his death in 2009.


      After Bongo's death in June 2009, his son Ali Bongo — who had long been assigned key ministerial responsibilities by his father—was elected to succeed him in August 2009.

      Liberia


      *Liberia had a constitutional referendum alongside general elections (May 7).  The referendum confirmed special legislation approving a term extension for the President.


      Mali 
      (French Sudan)

      *Malick Sidibe, a Malian photographer who was the first African photographer to receive the Hasselblad Award, was born in Soloba, French Sudan.

      Malick Sidibé (b. c. 1935, Soloba, French Sudan [now Mali]—d. April 14, 2016, Bamako, Mali) was a Malian photographer whose images captured the essence of the newly independent youth of Bamako, Mali.
      Sidibé’s first home was a Peul (Fulani) village. After finishing school in 1952, he trained as a jewelry maker and then studied painting at the École des Artisans Soudanais (now the Institut National des Arts) in Bamako, graduating in 1955. In 1956, he was apprenticed to French photographer Gérard Guillat and began to photograph the street life of Bamako, capturing the spirit of the city’s inhabitants as Mali made the transition from colony to independent country. In particular, Sidibé chronicled the carefree youth culture at dance clubs and parties, at sporting events, and on the banks of (or in) the Niger River. His remarkably intimate shots show exuberant young Africans intoxicated with Western styles in music and fashion.
      Although he continued his street work and close association with young Malians for another 20 years, in 1958 Sidibé opened his own commercial studio and camera-repair shop. There he took thousands of portraits, of both individuals and groups, creating dramatic images of subjects eager to assert their post-colonial middle-class identity, often with exaggerated idealized versions of themselves. After 1978, he worked exclusively in his studio.
      Sidibé’s work was unknown outside his own country until the early 1990s, when European art critic André Magnin, who was in Bamako to visit another Malian photographer, Seydou Keita, was taken to Sidibé’s studio by mistake. Magnin began to publicize the photographs of Sidibé, and he published a monograph on the photographer in 1998. There followed an impressive number of group and solo exhibitions in Europe, the United States, and Japan. In 2003 Sidibé received the Hasselblad Foundation International Award in Photography. He was also awarded the Venice Biennale art exhibition’s Golden Lion Award for lifetime achievement; he was the first photographer and the first African to ever receive the honor.



      Mozambique



      *The Lower Zambezi Railroad Bridge, the longest bridge in Africa at more than 2 miles, opened in Mozambique (January 14).


      Namibia
      (German South-West Africa)
      (South-West Africa)

      *Hifikepunye Pohamba, a Namibian politician who served as the second President of Namibia from 2005 to 2015, was born in Okanghudi, South-West Africa (August 18). 

      Hifikepunye Lucas Pohamba (b. August 18, 1935, Okanghudi, South-West Africa) is a Namibian politician who served as the second President of Namibia from March 21, 2005 to March 21, 2015. He won the 2004 election overwhelmingly as the candidate of SWAPO, the ruling party, and he was re-elected in the 2009 election. Pohamba was the President of SWAPO from 2007 until his retirement in 2015. Pohamba is a recipient of the Mo Ibrahim Prize for Achievement in African Leadership.
      Prior to his Presidency, Pohamba served in various ministerial positions, beginning at Namibia's independence in 1990: he was Minister of Home Affairs from 1990 to 1995, Minister of Fisheries from 1995 to 1997, Minister without Portfolio from 1997 to 2000, and Minister of Lands from 2001 to 2005. He was also Secretary-General of SWAPO from 1997 to 2002 and Vice-President of SWAPO from 2002 to 2007.


      Nigeria

      *Bernard Bourdillon was appointed Governor of Nigeria.


      Bernard Henry Bourdillon (1883–1948) was a British colonial administrator who was Governor of Uganda (1932–1935) and of Nigeria (1935–1943).

      Bourdillon was born on December 3,1883 at Emu Bay, Tasmania (now Burnie). He grew up in England and South Africa, and was educated at Tonbridge School in Tonbridge, Kent. He attended St. John's College, Oxford, graduating in 1906. In 1908 he entered the Indian Civil Service. He married Violet Grace Billinghurst in November 1909. In 1935 Violet was described as "the perfect Governor's wife".

      In 1913 Bourdillon was appointed Under-Secretary to the Government of the United Provinces. In 1915 he was made Registrar of the High Court of Allahabad. While in India he earned a reputation as a linguist. During the First World War, Bourdillon joined the army as a temporary Second Lieutenant in 1917, and was posted to Iraq in 1918. He rose to the rank of Major, and during the Iraq insurrection of 1919 he was mentioned in dispatches. Bourdillon left the army in 1919 to join the Iraq civil administration, and was appointed Political Secretary to the High Commissioner of Iraq in 1921. From 1924 to 1929 he was Counsellor. Between 1925 and 1926 he was High Commissioner with Plenipotentiary Powers in the negotiations over the 1926 Anglo-Iraq treaty.

      Bourdillon transferred to the Colonial Civil Service in 1929 to take the post of Colonial Secretary of Ceylon, serving in this role until 1932 and twice acting as governor of Ceylon. In 1932 he was appointed Governor and Commander-in-Chief of Uganda. He was made Governor and Commander-in-Chief of Nigeria in 1935, holding this post until he retired in 1943.

      Senegal
      (French West Africa)



      *Abdou Diouf, a Senegalese politician who served as the second President of Senegal from 1981 to 2000, was born in Louga, French West Africa (September 7). 

      Abdou Diouf (b. September 7, 1935, Louga, French West Africa) served as the second President of Senegal from 1981 to 2000. Diouf is notable both for coming to power by peaceful succession, and leaving willingly after losing the 2000 presidential election to Abdoulaye Wade.  He was the second Secretary-General of the Organisation Internationale de la Francophonie from January 2003 to December 2014.

      South Africa



      *Jan Smuts warned that a war between Italy and Ethiopia could spark a wider ethnic conflict between blacks and whites all throughout the continent of Africa (August 12).

      *The All-African Convention was founded (December 16).

      The All-African Convention (AAC) sought to unite all non-European opposition to the segregationist measures of the South African government.

      In May 1935, two bills supported by South African Prime Minister Barry Hertzog were tabled in parliament.  The Natives' Trust and Land Bill made provision for the extension of Reserves (African reservations) from 7.5 percent to 13 percent of the area of the Union.  However, this bill also barred rural Africans from acquiring land outside their stipulated areas -- outside their reservations.  The Representation of Natives Bill dealt with the question of the African vote.  Foremost among its provisions were the election of four Senators to represent Africans throughout the Union, the gradual elimination of the Cape African vote by refusing any further applications for registration and the establishment of a Natives' Representative Council.  Both bills, Hertzog announced, were to be considered at a special sitting of parliament to be held in 1936.


      The newspaper Bantu World, echoing widespread concern among middle-class Africans, called for a national convention of Africans to fight the attack on their rights.  Backing the proposal, the ANC's Z. R. Mahabane described the bills as "a direct challenge to the African community".


      The threat to the Cape vote provoked a broad revival of African political activity, and on December 16, 1935 (the day on which Afrikaners celebrated their Blood River victory over the Zulu), more than 400 delegates from every corner of South Africa -- from the major political groups, local organizations, trade unions, the churches, student movements and study groups in the protectorates -- gathered at Bloemfontein for the founding conference of the All-African Convention (AAC).


      The leading lights of the AAC were Professor Davidson Jabavu and Dr. Alfred Xuma, who were elected president and vice-president respectively.  In his address, 45 year old Jabavu, one of the country's leading intellectuals, described the Cape vote as a "key experiment in the worldwide problem of race relations".  And the 38 year old, widely travelled Xuma called on white South Africa to "invite and welcome to its institutions all those who are capable of rising to its standards and are able to make it richer by their different cultural and temperamental origin".


      Calls by communist and other radical delegates for militant action to reinforce opposition to the bills were firmly rejected by the main African leaders -- and so, except for agreeing to arranged protest meetings throughout the country, the AAC's plan of action was based mainly on the failed ANC model of prayer meetings, appeals, petitions and meetings with government authorities.   

      *Malan broke away to form the "Purified" National Party.
      The Purified National Party (Afrikaans Gesuiwerde Nasionale Party) was a break away from Hertzog's National Party which lasted from 1935 to 1948.

      In 1935, the main portion of the National Party, led by J. B. M. (Barry) Hertzog, merged with the South African Party of Jan Smuts to form the United Party. A hardline faction of Afrikaner nationalists, led by Daniel Francois Malan, strongly opposed the merger. Malan and 19 other Members of Parliament defected to form the Purified National Party, which he led for the next fourteen years in opposition.

      In 1939, the question of South African participation in World War II caused a split in the United Party. Hertzog's Nationalist wing broke away and merged with the Purified National Party to form the Reunited (Herenigde) National Party. This party went on to defeat the United Party in the election of 1948. 

      *Andre Philippus, a South African novelist, was born (May 29).

      André Philippus Brink, (May 29, 1935 – February 6, 2015) was a South African novelist. He wrote in both Afrikaans and English and was a Professor of English at the University of Cape Town.  
      In the 1960s he, Ingrid Jonker and Breyten Breytenbach were key figures in the significant Afrikaans literary movement known as Die Sestigers ("The Sixty-ers"). These writers sought to use Afrikaans as a language to speak against the apartheid government, and also to bring into Afrikaans literature the influence of contemporary English and French trends.
      His novel Kennis van die aand (1973) was the first Afrikaans book to be banned by the South African government.  André Brink translated Kennis van die aand into English and published it abroad as Looking on Darkness. This was his first self-translation.  After that, André Brink wrote his works simultaneously in English and Afrikaans.
      While Brink's early novels were especially concerned with apartheid, his later work engaged the new range of issues posed by life in a democratic South Africa.

      *****
      Sudan

      *Sadiq al-Mahdi (Arabicالصادق المهدي‎) (also known as Sadiq Al Siddiq), a Sudanese political and religious figure who was Prime Minister of Sudan from 1966 to 1967 and again from 1986 to 1989, was born in Al-Abasya, Omdurman, Sudan (December 25). He became head of the National Umma Party and Imam of the Ansar, a Sufi sect that pledges allegiance to Muhammad Ahmad, who claimed to be Islam's messianic saviour, or the Mahdi. 

      Togo


      *Gnassingbé Eyadéma (b. Étienne Eyadéma, December 26, 1935, Pya, Togo – d. February 5, 2005, Tunis, Tunisia),  the President of Togo from 1967 until his death in 2005, was born in Pya, Togo (December 26).  Eyadema participated in two successful military coups, in January 1963 and January 1967, and became President on April 14, 1967. As President, he created a political party, the Rally of the Togolese People (RPT), and headed an anti-communist single-party regime until the early 1990s, when reforms leading to multiparty elections began. Although his rule was seriously challenged by the events of the early 1990s, he ultimately consolidated power again and won multi-party presidential elections in 1993, 1998, and 2003.  The opposition boycotted the 1993 election and denounced the 1998 and 2003 election results as fraudulent. At the time of his death, Eyadéma was the longest-serving ruler in Africa.

      Zimbabwe


      *Rioting occurred in Northern Rhodesia between police and some of the 9,000 native workers on strike. Six natives were killed in the Copperbelt Province near Luanshya (May 29).