1911 : The Mona Lisa, the famous portrait by Leonardo da Vinci also called (La Gioconda) (painted between 1503 - 1506), was stolen today from the Louvre in Paris. The painting was stolen by Vincenzo Peruggia an employee of the Louvre who believed Leonardo's painting should be returned to Italy for display in an Italian gallery. The Mona Lisa was recovered two years later when he tried to sell it to an Italian Gallery.
1924 : An earthquake in the Oah area of Russian Turkestan left 8,000 homeless and killed 41 people. Also, 4,000 houses were destroyed. Turkestan has 5 provinces and an area of 721,277 square miles.
1938 : President Roosevelt publicly pledged to defend Canada should it be invaded by an enemy and in return he expected Canada to come to American aid if the U.S. was attacked. Canada and the U.S. did not have any formal allegiance, but Roosevelt said the two countries had a mutual interests in defending each other. The former Munroe doctrine was stripped of its paternalism and encouraged an allegiance between, “free peoples which geographical proximity strengthens in the case of Canada and the United States.”
1942 : The British attack on Dieppe was a disaster and German radio boasted that there had been, “a complete liquidation of the British landing attempt.” According to a German broadcast from Berlin, “The attitude of the French population showed the fullest confidence in German defenses and considered the British action as a mere nuisance.” Apparently, the stores opened at 6:00 p.m. and the inhabitants of Dieppe went on as normal, the broadcast claimed.
1953 : The President of Japan’s Chamber of Commerce, Aiichiro Fujiyama claimed that Japan would not need to do business with Red China if trade with the United States could be stepped up. Prior to the war, Japan’s business was done mainly with China and Southeast Asia. Fujiyama asserted that Japan’s silk industry and their economy was nearly destroyed by the American production of synthetic fabrics. He recommended that the U.S. buy tuna from Japan and that in turn Japan would develop the light sewing machine industry to trade with America.
August 21st, 1959 : Hawaii becomes the 50th state in the United States.
1961 : Jomo Kenyatta, leader of the Kenyan independence movement, is released by British authorities after nearly nine years of imprisonment and detention. Two years later, when Kenya achieved independence Kenyatta became prime minister.
1961 : In Israel, Adolf Eichmann, a Nazi henchman, was transferred from Jerusalem to a police prison near Haifa where he was to await his trial for war crimes committed during World War II.
