text: Gentileschi painted another painting, "" (1613–14), which shows Judith holding a dagger while her maidservant carries a basket containing a severed head. "Judith and her Maidservant" is displayed in the Palazzo Pitti, in Florence. A further three paintings by Gentileschi, in Naples, Detroit and Cannes, show her maid covering the head of Holofernes, while Judith herself looks out the frame of the picture. Gentileschi's father and fellow painter, Orazio Gentileschi was also very much influenced by Caravaggio's style and painted his own version of the tale, "".


title: Judith Slaying Holofernes (Artemisia Gentileschi, Naples)

text: There have been many different interpretations and viewpoints on "Judith Slaying Holofernes" by art historians and biographers alike. Art historian Mary Garrard believes that "Judith Slaying Holofernes" portrays Judith as a "socially liberated woman who punishes masculine wrongdoing". Although the painting depicts a scene from the Bible, art historians have suggested that Gentileschi drew herself as Judith and her mentor Agostino Tassi, who was tried for and convicted of her rape, as Holofernes. Gentileschi's biographer Mary Garrard famously proposed an autobiographical reading of the painting, stating that it functions as "a cathartic expression of the artist's private, and perhaps repressed, rage". Griselda Pollock suggests that the painting should be "read less in terms of its overt references to Artemisia’s experience than as an encoding of the artist's sublimated responses to events in her life and the historical context in which she worked." More recent discussion of the painting has moved away from too close a relationship to the rape of Gentileschi; rather it has focussed on Gentileschi's determination to paint strong women who are the centre of the action.


text: The Florentine biographer Filippo Baldinucci described "Judith Slaying Holofernes" as "inspiring no little amount of terror." At times the painting was popular, mainly due to the grotesque nature of the biblical scene, but also because of the artist's gender. Yet when the painting was sold by Signora Saveria de Simone in 1827, it was sold as a work of Caravaggio. This confusion shows Gentileschi's dedication as a caravagistta. In recent decades, there has been much art historical interest in this painting, with Eva Straussman-Pflanzer explaining that "the painting has... gained... distinction due to its feminist-inspired inclusion in the history of art".


title: Naturally aspirated engine

text: A naturally aspirated engine, also known as a normally aspirated engine, and abbreviated to N/A or NA, is an internal combustion engine in which air intake depends solely on atmospheric pressure and does not have forced induction through a turbocharger or a supercharger. Many sports cars specifically use naturally aspirated engines to avoid turbo lag.


title: Naturally aspirated engine

text: In a naturally aspirated engine, air for combustion (Diesel cycle in a Diesel engine or specific types of Otto cycle in petrol engines, namely petrol direct injection) or an air/fuel mixture (traditional Otto cycle petrol engines), is drawn into the engine's cylinders by atmospheric pressure acting against a partial vacuum that occurs as the piston travels downwards toward bottom dead centre during the intake stroke. Owing to innate restriction in the engine's inlet tract, which includes the intake manifold, a small pressure drop occurs as air is drawn in, resulting in a volumetric efficiency of less than 100 percent—and a less than complete air charge in the cylinder. The density of the air charge, and therefore the engine's maximum theoretical power output, in addition to being influenced by induction system restriction, is also affected by engine speed and atmospheric pressure, the latter of which decreases as the operating altitude increases.


title: Naturally aspirated engine

text: This is in contrast to a forced-induction engine, in which a mechanically driven supercharger or an exhaust-driven turbocharger is employed to facilitate increasing the mass of intake air beyond what could be produced by atmospheric pressure alone. Nitrous oxide can also be used to artificially increase the mass of oxygen present in the intake air. This is accomplished by injecting liquid nitrous oxide into the intake, which supplies significantly more oxygen in a given volume than is possible with atmospheric air. Nitrous oxide is 36.3% available oxygen by mass after it decomposes as compared with atmospheric air at 20.95%. Nitrous oxide also boils at at atmospheric pressures and offers significant cooling from the latent heat of vaporization, which also aids in increasing the overall air charge density significantly compared to natural aspiration.


title: Naturally aspirated engine

text: As a two-stroke Diesel engine is incapable of this natural aspiration, some method of charging the cylinders with scavenging air must be integrated into the engine design. This is usually achieved with a positive displacement blower driven by the crankshaft. The blower does not act as a supercharger in this application, as it is sized to produce a volume of air flow that is in direct proportion to engine's requirement for combustion, at a given power and speed. By the Society of Automotive Engineer's definition, a mechanically scavenged two-stroke diesel engine is considered to be naturally aspirated.


title: Naturally aspirated engine

text: Most automobile petrol engines, as well as many small engines used for non-automotive purposes, are naturally aspirated. Most modern diesel engines powering highway vehicles are turbocharged to produce a more favourable power-to-weight ratio, a higher torque curve, as well as better fuel efficiency and lower exhaust emissions. Turbocharging is nearly universal on diesel engines that are used in railroad, marine engines, and commercial stationary applications (electrical power generation, for example). Forced induction is also used with reciprocating aircraft engines to negate some of the power loss that occurs as the aircraft climbs to higher altitudes.


title: Naturally aspirated engine

text: The advantages and disadvantages of a naturally aspirated engine in relation to a same-sized engine relying on forced induction include:


title: Bijapur

text: Bijapur, officially known as Vijayapura, is the district headquarters of Bijapur district of the Karnataka state of India. It is also the headquarters for Bijapur Taluk. Bijapur city is well known for its historical monuments of architectural importance built during the rule of the Adil Shahi dynasty. It is also well known for the sports by the popular Karnataka premier league team as Bijapur Bulls. Bijapur is located northwest of the state capital Bangalore and about from Mumbai and west of the city of Hyderabad.


title: Bijapur

text: The city was established in the 10th–11th centuries by the Kalyani Chalukyas and was known as "Vijayapura" (city of victory). The city was passed to Yadavas after Chalukya's demise. In 1347, the area was conquered by the Bahmani Sultanate. After the split of the Bahmani Sultanate, the Bijapur Sultanate ruled from the city. Relics of the Sultanates' rule can be found in the city, including the Bijapur Fort, Bara Kaman, Jama Masjid, and Gol Gumbaz.


title: Bijapur

text: Bijapur, one of the popular heritage city located in the Karnataka state of India, is also one of the top ten populated cities in Karnataka. The Bijapur city has been declared as one of the corporations in the state of Karnataka in 2013. Bijapur urban population as per 2011 census is 326,000, perhaps the 9th biggest city in Karnataka. Vijayapura Mahanagara Palike (VMP) is the newest Municipal Corporation formed under the KMC act along with Shimoga and Tumkur Municipal Corporations. Administratively, Bijapur district comes under Belgaum division along with Bagalkote, Belgaum, Dharwad, Gadag, Haveri and Uttara Kannada (Karwar) districts. The civic administration of the city is managed by the Bijapur City Corporation and office of Deputy Commissioner in Bijapur. The office of Deputy Commissioner has the responsibility of rural areas in Bijapur, while the corporation administrates the city of Bijapur. Effective administration of the heritage city of Bijapur is the main intention behind all the activities of Vijayapura City Corporation.


title: Bijapur

text: The Bijapur district is historically, traditionally and legendarily, one of the richest districts in the state. The evidence found here reveals that it was an inhabited place since the Stone Age. The history of this district is divided into four periods, from the Chalukya acquisition of Badami till the Muslim invasion.


title: Bijapur

text: Early Western Chalukya period lasting from about A.D. 535 to about A.D.757. Rastrakuta period from A.D. 757 to A.D.973. Kalachuri and Hoysala period from A.D. 973 to about A.D.1200. Devagiri Yadava period from A.D.1185 to the Muslim conquest of Devagiri in A.D. 1312.


title: Bijapur

text: Bijapur first came under the influence of Allaudin Khalji, the Sultan of Delhi, towards the end of the 13th century, and then under the Bahamani kings of Bidar in 1347. In 1347, when the Bahamani dynasty was established, it included southern and eastern parts of Bijapur district. The supremacy of the Bahaman's may be said to have ceased by 1489. At that time five Shahi Dynasties were born and one of them was "Bijapur". The Mughal emperor Aurangazeb conquered Bijapur in 1686 and it was under Mughal rule up to 1723. In 1724 the Nizam of Hyderabad State established his independence in the Deccan and included Bijapur within his dominion. However, his acquisition on this portion was of brief duration, in 1760 it went into the hands of Marathas.


title: Bijapur

text: In 1518, the Bahmani Sultanate split into five splinter states known as the Deccan sultanates, one of which was Bijapur, ruled by the kings of the Adil Shahi dynasty (1490–1686). The city of Bijapur owes much of its greatness to Yusuf Adil Shah, the founder of the independent state of Bijapur.


title: Bijapur

text: The rule of this dynasty ended in 1686, when Bijapur was conquered during the reign of Mughal badshah (emperor) Aurangzeb, who had in 1684 turned Bijapur into a subah (imperial top-level province).


title: Bijapur

text: In 1724 the Nizam of Hyderabad established his independence in the Deccan, and included Bijapur within his dominions. In 1760, the Nizam suffered a defeat by the Marathas, and ceded the region of Bijapur to the Maratha Peshwa.


title: Bijapur

text: After the 1818 defeat of the Peshwa by the British in the Third Anglo-Maratha War, Bijapur passed into the hands of the British East India Company, and was assigned to the Maratha princely state Satara.


title: Bijapur

text: In 1817, war broke out between the British and the Marathas. By 1818, the whole of Bijapur was occupied by the British and was included in the territory assigned to the Raja of Satara. In 1848 the territory of Satara was obtained through the failure of heir and the British rule started. Till 1884, the Bijapur district had headquarters at Kaladagi. Bijapur was made headquarters in 1885.


title: Bijapur

text: After Independence, the movement for re-organisation of States gained further momentum and on 1 November 1956 a separate "Mysore State" was formed. By the wish of the people it was renamed as "Karnataka". Thus, the district Bijapur along with other Kannada speaking areas became a part of "Karnataka State" on 1 November 1956.


title: Bijapur

text: Central government had approved the request to rename the city in October 2014 from Bijapur to "Vijayapura" on 1 November 2014.


title: Bijapur

text: Bijapur is located 140 km from Sangli, 212 km from Belagavi and 349 km from Pune. Bijapur has a semi-arid climate. It is located at . It has an average elevation of 606 metres (1988 ft). The district has two types of soil. First one is, "deep black soil" (or yeari bhoomi), which is good for the crops like jawar, wheat, pulses, sunflower, etc. The major portion of the district consists of this kind of soil which has a great moisture-holding capacity. Second one is "red soil‟ (or masari /maddi bhoomi), which is generally poor, good for irrigation and horticulture. Krishna river, which is the most important river of the district. It flows about 125 miles in the district. A dam is built across the river at Almatti, Bhima river flows in northern part of district for about 20 miles. It overflows in the rainy season and spreads over a wider area, which is thereby rendered extremely fertile land. In central part of district Doni river flows.


title: Bijapur

text: The climate of Bijapur district is generally dry and healthy. In summer, especially in April and May, it is too hot; at that time the temperature lays between 40-degrees Celsius to 42-degrees Celsius. In the winter season, from November to January, the temperature is between 15-degrees Celsius to 20-degrees Celsius. Usually the district has dry weather, so the humidity varies from 10% to 30%. The district has 34 rain gauge stations. The average annual rainfall for the whole district is 552.8 mm, with 37.2 rainy days. The monsoon generally reaches the district by June and lasts till October. Though the total rainfall is not high, the district benefits both from the south-west and the north-east monsoons. The annual rainfall varies from place to place within the district.


title: Bijapur

text: The city consists of three distinct portions: the citadel, the fort and the remains of the city. The citadel, built by the Adilshahi Sultans, a mile in circuit, is of great strength, well built of the most massive materials, and encompassed by a ditch wide, formerly supplied with water. The fort, which was completed by the Adilshahi Sultans in 1566, is surrounded by a wall 6 m. in circumference. This wall is from 30 to high, and is strengthened with ninety-six massive bastions of various designs. In addition there are ten others at the various gateways. The width is about ; from bastion to bastion runs a battlement curtained wall about high. The whole is surrounded by a deep moat 30 to broad. Inside these walls the Bijapur kings bade defiance to all comers. Outside the walls are the remains of a vast city, now for the most part in ruins, but the innumerable tombs, mosques, which have resisted the havoc of time, afford abundant evidence of the ancient splendor of the place.


title: Bijapur

text: Badami, Aihole, and Pattadakal, near Bijapur, are noted for their historical temples in the Chalukya architectural style.


title: Bijapur

text: Bijapur is nearly from the state capital Bangalore. It lies between latitude 15.20 and 17.28 north and longitude 74.59 and 76.28 east. It is situated well in the interior of the Deccan Peninsula and is about 130 miles away from the west coast.


title: Bijapur

text: The district is bounded by Solapur district to the north and Sangli district to the north-west, Belgaum district on the west, Bagalkot district to the south, Gulbarga district to the east and Koppal district to the south-east.


title: Bijapur

text: Arrival of Sufis in the Bijapur region was started during the reign of Qutbuddin Aibak. During this period Deccan was under the control of native Hindu rulers and Palegars. Shaikh Haji Roomi was the first to arrive in Bijapur with his companions. Although his other comrades like Shaikh Salahuddin, Shaikh Saiful Mulk and Syed Haji Makki were settled in Pune, Haidra and Tikota respectively.


title: Bijapur

text: According to Tazkiraye Auliyae Dakkan i.e., Biographies of the saints of the Deccan, compiled by Abdul Jabbar Mulkapuri in 1912–1913,


title: Bijapur

text: After this period arrival of Sufis in Bijapur and suburbs was started. Ainuddin Gahjul Ilm Dehelvi narrates that Ibrahim Sangane was one of the early Sufis of Bijapur parish. Sufis of Bijapur can be divided into three categories according to period of their arrival viz., Sufis before Bahmani and / or Adil Shahi Dynasty, Sufis during Adil Shahi Dynasty and Sufis after the fall of Adil Shahi Dynasty. And further it can be classified as Sufis as warriors, Sufis as social reformers, Sufis as scholars, poets and writers.


title: Bijapur

text: Ibrahim Zubairi writes in his book Rouzatul Auliyae Beejapore (compiled during 1895) which describes that more than 30 tombs or Dargahs are there in Bijapur with more than 300 "Khankahs " i.e., Islamic Missionary Schools with notable number of disciples of different lineage like "Hasani Sadat, Husaini Sadat, Razavi Sadat, Kazmi Sadat, Shaikh Siddiquis, Farooquis, Usmanis, Alvis, Abbasees " and other and spiritual chains like "Quadari, Chishti, Suharwardi, Naqshbandi, Shuttari, Haidari " etc.


title: Bijapur

text: Bijapur City had a population of 326,360 population as per census 2011. Males constitute 51% of the population and females 49%. Bijapur has an effective literacy rate of 83.43%, higher than the national average of 74%; with male literacy of 88.92% and female literacy of 77.86%. 12% of the population is under 6 years of age. Kannada is the major language spoken here.


title: Bijapur

text: At the time of the 2011 census, 51.43% of the population spoke Kannada, 34.35% Urdu, 5.38% Marathi, 3.85% Lambadi, 2.01% Hindi and 1.17% Telugu as their first language.


title: Bijapur

text: Roadways: geographically & strategically well connected through major cities by four lane NH-13(Solapur–Mangalore) (now NH50), NH-218 (Hubli–Humnabad) and other state highways. The main stand in Bijapur is near the southwestern side of the citadel, near the city center. Bus services to Badami, Belgaum, Almatti, Gulbarga, Bidar, Hubli and Solapur are frequent.


title: Bijapur

text: Bijapur is geographically & strategically well connected through major cities by four lane NH 13(Solapur–Mangalore) (now NH50), NH-218 (Hubli–Humnabad) and other state highways.


title: Bijapur

text: Bijapur is a big road transport hub and its state run bus transport division has 6 depots/units and comes under Kalyana Karnataka Road Transport Corporation (KKRTC) headquartered at Gulbarga.


title: Bijapur

text: The division plys many premium multi-axle coaches, sleeper coach, sitting push back coach with AC and Non AC with makers like Volvo, Mercedes Benz, Isuzu Tata Motors, Ashok Leyland, Mitsubishi etc. services to Bangalore, Mumbai, Pune, Hyderabad, Mangalore, Mysore, Hubli, Belgaum and other major cities.


title: Bijapur

text: Bijapur is well connected by rail with Bangalore and other major cities of India (Mumbai, Hyderabad, Ahmedabad, Hubli and Solapur). It has its own railhead that is located just from the main town.


title: Bijapur

text: Bijapur railway station is connected by a broad-gauge railway (Gadag–Hotgi railway line) to Hotgi Junction near Solapur railway station and Kurduvadi railway station on Central Railway towards the north and to Bagalkote and Gadag junction on South Western Railway towards the south. Bijapur is connected with direct trains to Solapur, Bagalkote, Gadag, Dharwad, Ballari, Yeswanthpur (Bangalore), Hubli, Mumbai, Hyderabad and Ahmedabad. Bijapur comes under Hubli division of South Western Railway (SWR)


title: Bijapur

text: Bijapur–Shahabad is a proposed new railway line (via Devar Hippargi, Sindgi, Jewargi) and was sanctioned in the state budget of 2010–11.


title: Bijapur

text: Bijapur–Shedbal is a proposed new railway line (via Tikota, Athani, Shedbal) survey has been completed and submitted to South Western Railway Hubli


title: Bijapur

text: GoK's intention is to develop Bijapur - Gulbarga belt as a cement & steel hub, which has created a need for a direct railway line between Bijapur and Shahabad. This would also be able to carry coal from the Jharkhand and Singareni collieries for NTPC's 4000 MW Power Project in Kudagi (Basavana Bagewadi Taluk). The Bijapur–Shahabad line would run and be under the South Western Railway. Partial private sector financing is required; however, state government will contribute two-thirds of the project cost of the railway line, which is estimated at Rs. 12 billion over the first five years, in a role as an investor in return for a share in the profits.


title: Bijapur

text: Similar proposal has been made for sugar belt on the Bijapur Athani Belgaum new line, which will also provide shorter connectivity from Goa to Solapur, Gulbarga, Bidar, Nagpur, Kolkata. The line would run and be under South Western Railway, if project is taken into consideration it will be on 50:50 cost sharing basis on both state and railways


title: Bijapur

text: The nearest airport is at Gulbarga (152 km). Many airlines connect Bijapur to the rest of India via this airport. A greenfield airport which can accommodate ATR 72 & Airbus 320 (expansion afterwards) is currently being built by Karnataka government. Land has already been acquired. Bijapur Airport will be built by the Karnataka State Industrial and Infrastructure Development Corporation (KSIIDC) at a cost of Rs 220 crore. The project site is located 15 km from the city on of land in Madhubavi villages. The construcion has strarted and airport is expected to be ready by early 2022.


title: Bijapur

text: Bijapur is emerging as a hub for professional education. Previously (i.e. before the 1980s) there were very few professional educational institutions. Along with the professional colleges there are many colleges which provide under-graduate and post-graduate degrees in the faculty of applied science, pure science, social-sciences and humanities.


title: Bijapur

text: College of Agriculture, Bijapur, Hittinalli Farm affiliated university of Agricultural Sciences, Dharwad is one of the leading educational and research institutes in the field of agriculture, which is offering undergraduate and postgraduate courses in various disciplines of agriculture.


title: Bijapur

text: Engineering colleges are affiliated to Visvesvaraya Technological University viz, B.L.D.E.A's V.P. Dr. P.G. Halakatti College of Engineering and Technology and SECAB College of Engineering and Technology


title: Bijapur

text: Al Ameen Medical college is affiliated to Rajiv Gandhi University of Health Sciences. BLDEA's B.M.Patil Medical College, Hospital and Research Centre is a deemed university recognised by UGC. Other professional colleges run by BLDE Association are BLDEA's college of pharmacy and college of Nursing sciences affiliated to RGUHS.


title: Bijapur

text: Many of colleges except professional are affiliated to Rani Chennamma University Belgaum viz, B.L.D.E.A'S A.S.PATIL COLLEGE OF COMMERCE(Autonomous)MBA Programme, Bijapur. Rani Chennamma University has a Post-Graduation Centre at Bijapur also.


title: Bijapur

text: First women's university in the state of Karnataka is located at Bijapur. Various post-graduate courses like MBA, MCA are conducted here. Additionally Bijapur has the first Sainik School in the state, the second being in Kodagu. This is a very reputed residential school preparing cadets for the Defence forces and grooming students very well in many fields. And there many private computer training institutes providing computer education.


title: Bijapur

text: The Bijapur district is known for its mosques, structural monuments, art and architectural heritages, archaeological sites and cave temples. With the objective to spread education in this area, Karnatak University opened its Post-Graduate Centre in 1993.


title: Bijapur

text: Karnataka State Women's University, established in 2003 in the city of Bijapur is the only Women's University in Karnataka dedicated exclusively for women's education. It is recognised under 2(f) and 12(B) of the UGC Act. Seventy women's colleges spread in twelve districts of North-Karnataka are affiliated to this University. The University offers various UG programmes leading to bachelor's degree in Arts, Business Administration, Computer Applications, Commerce, Education, Fashion Technology, Home Science, Physical Education, Science and Social Work. It also offers 20 P G Courses, P G Diploma and Certificate Courses in the Faculties of Arts, Commerce and Management, Social Sciences, Science and Technology and Education.


title: Bijapur

text: Bijapur has IGNOU regional center, There are 7 districts under its jurisdiction (Districts Bagalkote, Bijapur, Bidar, Gulbarga, Koppal, Raichur and Yadagiri). The newly created Bijapur Regional Centre would cater to seven northern districts.


title: Bijapur

text: At the inaugural auction of Karnataka Premier League (KPL), Bijapur Bulls was one of the eight teams that were formed. Bijapur Bulls represent the Gulbarga zone of Karnataka State.


title: Bijapur

text: Bijapur is well known for its cycling culture. Cyclists from the city have won numerous accolades including medals in the State Mini Olympics.


title: My Dear Melancholy

text: My Dear Melancholy (stylized as My Dear Melancholy,) is the first extended play by Canadian singer the Weeknd. It was released on March 30, 2018, through XO and Republic Records. Primarily produced by Frank Dukes, who serves as an executive producer alongside the Weeknd, it features contributions from Gesaffelstein, as well as Mike Will Made It, DaHeala, Skrillex and Daft Punk's Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo, among others.


title: My Dear Melancholy

text: "My Dear Melancholy" has been described as a return to the darker style of the Weeknd's earlier work, such as "Trilogy" (2012) and "Kiss Land" (2013). The EP was supported by the lead single, "Call Out My Name". It received generally favourable reviews and debuted at number one on the US "Billboard" 200.


title: My Dear Melancholy

text: On March 3, 2018, American rapper Travis Scott teased a new album by the Weeknd on Twitter, referring to it as "scary", and comparing it to when he "first heard" his music. Later that month, the Weeknd suggested that he was in the finishing stages of completing a new project, sharing multiple silent videos on Instagram of a recording studio, with the caption "mastering". This followed several months of in-studio pictures shared on the platform.


title: My Dear Melancholy

text: On March 28, the Weeknd teased the release of a new project, posting a screenshot of a text-message conversation between creative director La Mar Taylor and himself, concerning whether or not they should "drop [a new project on] Friday". The next day he announced the project to be released that night, sharing its cover art and title. On February 22, he had previously shared an image of the album's title written on a notepad.


title: My Dear Melancholy

text: Following the album's release, vertically-orientated music videos for "Call Out My Name" and "Try Me" were released exclusively through Spotify.


title: My Dear Melancholy

text: The project has been described as "darker" than the Weeknd's previous studio releases "Beauty Behind the Madness" and "Starboy", and has been described as a return to his earlier work though with more electronic music based production with Israel Daramola from "Spin" describing it as him "returning to the darkened drug den sounds of his earlier work". "My Dear Melancholy" is characterized as an alternative R&B, R&B and electropop project with production credits from Skrillex and Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo from Daft Punk. "My Dear Melancholy"s only feature is techno artist Gesaffelstein who produced the tracks "I Was Never There" and "Hurt You".


title: My Dear Melancholy

text: Lyrically, "My Dear Melancholy" focuses on heartbreak and anger related to a breakup. The lyrics focus around the Weeknd's past relationships, mainly his highly publicized romances with model Bella Hadid and singer and actress Selena Gomez. The theme is a complete change from the Weeknd's past two projects which were pop-based and more mainstream. The Weeknd sings in relation to Gomez's kidney transplant operation and her relationship with Justin Bieber with CNN's Lisa Respers France labelling Gomez as the Weeknd's "muse". The Weeknd reworks Gomez's lyrics from the song "Same Old Love" on the song "Wasted Times" in a way that "Billboard" described as "tormenting".


title: My Dear Melancholy

text: "My Dear Melancholy" was met with generally favourable reviews. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from professional publications, the album received an average score of 63, based on 16 reviews. Aggregator AnyDecentMusic? gave it 5.7 out of 10, based on their assessment of the critical consensus.


title: My Dear Melancholy

text: Alex Petridis of "The Guardian" stated that "My Dear Melancholy" "abandons the pick'n'mix and indeed hit-and-miss approach of previous album "Starboy" in favour of something more cohesive: uniformly downbeat and twilit, it flows really well", but criticized its lyrical content. In a positive review, Ryan B. Patrick of "Exclaim!" commented that the project serves "as a soft reset of sorts, a musical palette cleanser that takes stock of what the Weeknd has accomplished thus far". For "NME", Jordan Bassett called the album "thrilling", praising its tight and concise nature and "notable moments of stylistic brilliance" evident in Gesaffelstein's contributions, however criticizing its lack of character, noting that the Weeknd's predictability has led to his "impact [becoming] increasingly scattershot". Online publication "HipHopDX" commented that the EP "doesn't break any new ground, and — as he's done in the past — revisits elements of previous projects. However, without the bloated tracklist of "Starboy", and any attempt to please an audience outside of his core, the lack of innovation doesn't seem take away from the concise, focused, conceptual nature of this well-produced R&B gem".


title: My Dear Melancholy

text: In a mixed review for "Pitchfork", Larry Fitzmaurice wrote that the project "finds him in limbo between the bleary-eyed vibe of his early mixtapes and the bulletproof pop stylings of his last two albums", praising the album's production and "Tesfaye's still-sharp ear for cool, contemporary sounds", but criticizing similarities to his earlier work – specifically between "Call Out My Name" and "Earned It", as well as "Hurt You" and "I Feel It Coming" – and concluding that "it's too early in this stage of Tesfaye's career to so obviously attempt to replicate past glories". Israel Daramola of "Spin" criticized the album's lyrics as "mopey" and "whiny", and its production as "endlessly sludgy and murky", writing that the album "is incredibly self-involved and self-pitying, nothing but surface-level introspection that shows a lot of emotion but none of it in the service of anything but the singer's ego".


title: My Dear Melancholy

text: "My Dear Melancholy" was streamed more than 26 million times on its first day of release on Apple Music, double the amount of streams that were obtained on Spotify according to Republic Records, though Spotify claims that "My Dear Melancholy" was able to rake up 29 million streams in 24 hours. The EP was projected to move between 165,000-180,000 album-equivalent units first week and eventually moved 169,000 album-equivalent units with 68,000 being pure sales, hitting number one on the US "Billboard" 200. "My Dear Melancholy" was also the shortest album, by track count, to top the "Billboard" 200 in eight years, a feat previously done by "". As of July 2018, it has sold 117,000 copies in the US.


title: Shah Waliullah Dehlawi

text: Quṭb-ud-Dīn Aḥmad Walīullāh Ibn ʿAbd-ur-Raḥīm Ibn Wajīh-ud-Dīn Ibn Muʿaẓẓam Ibn Manṣūr Al-ʿUmarī Ad-Dehlawī (; 1703–1762), commonly known as Shāh Walīullāh Dehlawī (also Shah Wali Allah), was an Islamic scholar seen by his followers as a renewer.


title: Shah Waliullah Dehlawi

text: Shah Waliullah was born on 21 February 1703 to Shah Abdur Rahim, a prominent Islamic scholar of Delhi. He was known as Shah Waliullah because of his piety. He memorized the "Qur'an" by the age of seven. Soon thereafter, he mastered Arabic and Persian letters. He was married at fourteen. By sixteen he had completed the standard curriculum of Hanafi law, theology, geometry, arithmetic and logic.


title: Shah Waliullah Dehlawi

text: His father, Shah Abdur Rahim was the founder of the Madrasah-i Rahimiyah. He was on the committee appointed by Aurangzeb for compilation of the code of law, Fatawa-e-Alamgiri.


title: Shah Waliullah Dehlawi

text: He died on Friday the 29th of Muharram 1176 AH/ 20 August 1762 at Zuhr prayer in Old Delhi, aged 59. He was buried beside his father Shah Abdur Rahim at Mehdiyan (a graveyard to the left of Delhi Gate).


title: Shah Waliullah Dehlawi

text: Shah Waliullah defined Sunni Islam in broad terms, rather than confining it to a specific school of theology. According to Shah, "Ahlul Sunna wal Jam'ah" are those who followed the "Qur'an" and "Sunnah" on the way of the "Sahaba" (companions) and "Tabi'un", by holding "fast to the beliefs of the pious ancestors ("al-salaf")." He considered the four legal schools, as well as both the "Ahl al-Ra'y" (Ash'ari and Maturidi) schools of theology to be part of Sunnism. According to Shah, the differences between them are only over secondary issues of valid "Ikhtilaf"; while on fundamental issues they remain united.


title: Shah Waliullah Dehlawi

text: Shah Waliullah criticised those people who downplayed the necessity of following Sharia (Islamic law). "Some people think that there is no usefulness involved in the injunct of Islamic law and that in actions and rewards as prescribed by God there is no beneficial purpose. They think that the commandments of Islamic law are similar to a master ordering his servant to lift a stone or touch a tree in order to test his obedience and that in this there is no purpose except to impose a test so that if the servant obeys, he is rewarded, and if he disobeys, he is punished. This view is completely incorrect. The traditions of the Prophet and consensus of opinion of those ages, contradict this view".


title: Shah Waliullah Dehlawi

text: In his work "Tahfimat al-Ilahiyya", Shah declared his conviction that unification of Hanafi and Shafi'i schools of law was essential for Indian Islamic revival. This was to be achieved through the legal re-evaluation of the "madh'habs" in the light of "Qur'an" and "Hadith". Whatever rules not aligning with the Scriptures were to be discarded. Shah specifically sought the reformation of Hanafi jurisprudence and made its legal rulings confirm to authentic hadiths collected by the early hadith scholars, thus implementing his vision of reducing legal differences between madhabs. Waliullah's re-evaluation efforts led him to declare that Shafi'i school was the closest to the Sunnah. Thus, most of his legal positions aligned with the views of Imam Al-Shafi'i. Shah Waliullah sought the reconciliation of differences of Shafi'i and Hanafi schools of Fiqh as his duty. He was particularly concerned the pervasive Hanafi fanaticism prevalent in his community, which he rebuked, and called for an inclusive synthesis of all of the schools of law.


title: Shah Waliullah Dehlawi

text: Shah Waliullah placed emphasize on a direct understanding of the Qur'an, maintaining that those students with sufficient knowledge must work with the text, rather than previous commentaries. He argued that Qurʾān is clear to any student with sufficient knowledge of Arabic, just like it was understandable to its first recipients and scholars, including those parts that are "mutashābih" (unclear). Shah believed that one should prefer the interpretation that is closest to the literal meaning ("ẓāhir al-maʿnā") of the Qurʾān and the "Sunnah" which fits the Qur'anic context, without clinging to a particular school in exegesis, grammar, or theology.


title: Shah Waliullah Dehlawi

text: Shah Waliullah was heavily critical of the practice of "Taqlid" and Madh'hab fanaticism prevailing in the subcontinent. He emphasized on following Prophetic Traditions (Hadith) over the opinion of previous jurists, even if it contradicts a person's "madh'hab".


title: Shah Waliullah Dehlawi

text: On the nature of Divine Attributes, Shah Waliullah rejected the Ash'ari view and followed the creed of early "Ahl al-Hadith" school. Criticising the extremists amongst the speculative theologians ("Mutakallimoon") and supporting the "Ahl al-Hadith", Shah writes in "Hujjatullah al- Balighah": "Those speculators behaved contemptuously towards the people of Hadith calling them corporealists and anthropomorphists saying that they sought refuge in the formula of 'without asking how ( "bi-la kaif" )... this contempt of theirs is unfounded and .. they err in their sayings both from the viewpoint of tradition and of reason and.. they err in slandering the leaders of the true religion."


title: Shah Waliullah Dehlawi

text: Shah had been a firm defender of the positions of Taqi ad-Din Ibn Taymiyya, the classical theologian who was a fierce critique of speculative theology and medieval clerical institutions. Shah would compose a treatise to defend Ibn Taymiyya, praising him as a great scholar of Sunni Islam.


title: Shah Waliullah Dehlawi

text: Explaining his beliefs, Shah writes in "Hujjat Allah al-Baligha":"Al-Tirmidhi said concerning the Hadith "The hand of God is full," that the religious leaders had said concerning this hadith that they believed it as it was given without interpreting or making conjectures about it. Likewise, more than one Imam, among them Sufyan al-Thauri, Malik ibn Anas, lbn 'Uyayna, and Ibn al-Mubarak, said that these things have been transmitted (in the hadith) and they believed them, and there was no scope for asking "how"... The earlier pious were unanimous in believing in Allah's Attributes according to His Wish and as He obligated it (to the men) to declare Him as dissimilar with the creatures by His verse, " Nothing is like Him."' And whoever obligates the opposite thought he contradicts the way of earlier pious. I say that there is no difference among the hearing, seeing, having power, laughing, speaking and Istiwa (existing upon the 'Arsh)."


title: Shah Waliullah Dehlawi

text: “I saw myself in a dream that I am Qaem al-Zaman (master of the age). Which means that when God Almighty wanted to establish a system of goodness and benevolence, then He made me a tool and medium for the fulfillment of this noble cause. And I saw that the king of the infidels took over the land of the Muslims and looted their property. He enslaved their women and children and in the city of Ajmer he declared the rites of disbelief. He eradicated the rites of Islam. Then after that I saw that the Almighty became angry and very angry with the people of the earth. And I witnessed the embodiment of the wrath of the Almighty in the heavens. And then dripping from there, divine wrath descended on me. Then I found myself angry. And this wrath which was filled in me, was blown into me by Almighty. Then I proceeded towards a city, destroying it and killing its inhabitants. other people followed me. Thus, destroying one city after another, we finally reached Ajmer. And there we killed the disbelievers. Then I saw the king of the infidels walking with the king of Islam, surrounded by a group of Muslims. In the meantime, the king of Islam ordered the king of the infidels to be slaughtered. People grabbed him and slaughtered him with knives. When I saw blood gushing out of the veins of his neck, I said: now blessing has descended”.


title: Shah Waliullah Dehlawi

text: In one of his letters available in manuscripts collection at Rampur, he asks Muslim rulers to put a ban on public religious ceremonies by non-Muslims and to issue strict orders against certain ceremonies by the Shi'a: "Strict orders should be issued in all Islamic towns forbidding religious ceremonies publicly practiced by non-Muslims (such as the performance of Holi and ritual bathing in the Ganges). On the tenth of Muharram, Shi'a should not be allowed to go beyond the bounds of moderation, neither should they say or do things that are considered offensive by other Muslims (that is recite tabarra, or curse the first three successors of the Prophet Muhammad) in the streets or bazars.


title: Shah Waliullah Dehlawi

text: Shah Waliullah strongly advocated against adopting non-Islamic customs, and argued for commitment to Arabic Islamic culture. Shah Waliullah believed that: "“"Muslims, no matter where they live, wherever they spend their youthful days, they should in any case be completely separated from the natives of that country in their culture, traditions and mannerisms. And wherever they are, they must be immersed in their Arabic splendor and Arabic trends"”""." On adherence to Arab culture, he insists: "“"Beware! The rich intend to adopt the ways of strangers and non-Arabs and those who deviate from the right path, and tries to mix and be like them"”".


title: Shah Waliullah Dehlawi

text: Besides these, he is also credited being the first to translate the Quran into Persian in the Indian subcontinent.


title: Shah Waliullah Dehlawi

text: Shah Waliullah worked hard to ensure that he was a role model for other Muslims. His deep understanding of the Qur'an, Hadith, Fiqh, and "Tasawwuf" made him a highly knowledgeable scholar at an early age.


title: Shah Waliullah Dehlawi

text: Since he believed that an emphasis on the Qur'anic teachings was made vital to Muslims, he translated Arabic Qur'an into Persian. Few Muslims spoke Arabic and so the Qur'an had not been widely studied previously. Some "Ulama" criticized Shah Waliullah, but his work proved very popular. In addition to translating the Quran, Shah Waliullah wrote 51 books in Persian and Arabic.{} Amongst the most famous were "Hujjat Allah al-Baligha" and "Izalah al Khifa".


title: Shah Waliullah Dehlawi

text: He felt a debt to the Sufis for spreading Islam throughout India. He also appreciated Sufi spirituality. Waliullah built a bridge between Sufis and the Ulama (Islamic scholars).


title: Key events of the 20th century

text: Following the 19th century, the 20th century changed the world in unprecedented ways. The World Wars sparked tension between countries and led to the creation of atomic bombs, the Cold War led to the Space Race and creation of space-based rockets, and the World Wide Web was created. These advancements have played a significant role in citizens' lives and shaped the 21st century into what it is today.


title: Key events of the 20th century

text: From 1914 to 1918, the First World War, and its aftermath, caused major changes in the power balance of the world, destroying or transforming some of the most powerful empires.


title: Key events of the 20th century

text: The First World War (or simply WWI), termed "The Great War" by contemporaries, started in 1914 and ended in 1918. The war and by extension the century as a whole was ignited by the Assassination in Sarajevo of the Austro-Hungarian Empire's heir to the throne, Erzherzog Franz Ferdinand, by Gavrilo Princip of the organization "Young Bosnia," Bosnian Serbs' liberation movement. Bound by Slavic nationalism to help the small Serbian state, the Russians came to the aid of the Serbs when they were attacked. Interwoven alliances, an increasing arms race, and old hatreds dragged Europe into the war. The Allies, known initially as "The Triple Entente", comprised the British Empire, France, Italy, and Russia. Germany, Austria-Hungary, Bulgaria, and later the Ottoman Empire, were known as "The Central Powers".


title: Key events of the 20th century

text: The assassination of Franz Ferdinand started dramatic changes that would last for several decades into the 20th century, similar to how the 9/11 was the inciting incident of the 21st century.


title: Key events of the 20th century

text: In 1917, Russia ended hostile actions against the Central Powers after the fall of the Tsar. The Bolsheviks negotiated the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk with Germany, although it was a huge cost to Russia. In the treaty, Bolshevik Russia ceded the Baltic states to Germany, and its province of Kars Oblast in the South Caucasus to the Ottoman Empire. It also recognized the independence of Ukraine. Although Germany shifted huge forces from the eastern to the western front after signing the treaty, it was unable to stop the Allied advance, especially with the entrance of American troops in 1918.


title: Key events of the 20th century

text: The war itself was also a chance for the combatant nations to show off their military strength and technological ingenuity. The Germans introduced the machine gun, U-boats and deadly gases. The British first used the tank. Both sides had a chance to test out their new aircraft to see if they could be used in warfare. It was widely believed that the war would be short. Unfortunately, since trench warfare was the best form of defense, advances on both sides were very slow, and came at a terrible cost in lives.


title: Key events of the 20th century

text: When the war was finally over in 1918, the results would set the stage for the next twenty years. First and foremost, the Germans were forced to sign the Treaty of Versailles, forcing them to make exorbitant payments to repair damages caused during the War. Many Germans felt these reparations were unfair because they did not actually "lose" the war nor did they feel they caused the war (see Stab-in-the-back legend). Germany was never occupied by Allied troops, yet it had to accept a liberal democratic government imposed on it by the victors after the abdication of Kaiser Wilhelm.


title: Key events of the 20th century

text: Much of the map of Europe was redrawn by the victors based upon the theory that future wars could be prevented if all ethnic groups had their own "homeland". New states like Yugoslavia and Czechoslovakia were created out of the former Austro-Hungarian Empire to accommodate the nationalist aspirations of these groups. An international body called the League of Nations was formed to mediate disputes and prevent future wars, although its effectiveness was severely limited by, among other things, its reluctance and inability to act.


title: Key events of the 20th century

text: The Russian Revolution of 1917 (ending in the overthrow of the Tsarist regime and the brutal execution of His Imperial Majesty Nicholas II and his family) sparked a wave of communist revolutions across Europe, prompting many to believe that a socialist world revolution could be realized in the near future. However, the European revolutions were defeated, Vladimir Lenin died in 1924, and within a few years, Joseph Stalin displaced Leon Trotsky as the "de facto" leader of the Soviet Union. The idea of worldwide revolution was no longer in the forefront, as Stalin concentrated on "socialism in one country" and embarked on a bold plan of collectivization and industrialization. The majority of socialists and even many communists became disillusioned with Stalin's autocratic rule, his purges and the assassination of his "enemies", as well as the news of famines he imposed on his own people.


title: Key events of the 20th century

text: Communism was strengthened as a force in Western democracies when the global economy crashed in 1929 in what became known as the Great Depression. Many people saw this as the first stage of the end of the capitalist system and were attracted to Communism as a solution to the economic crisis, especially as the Soviet Union's economic development in the 1930s was strong, unaffected by the capitalist world's crisis.


title: Key events of the 20th century

text: After World War I, the global economy remained strong through the 1920s. The war had provided a stimulus for industry and for economic activity in general. There were many warning signs foretelling the collapse of the global economic system in 1929 that were generally not understood by the political leadership of the time. The responses to the crisis often made the situation worse, as millions of people watched their savings become next to worthless and the idea of a steady job with a reasonable income fading away.


title: Key events of the 20th century

text: Many sought answers in alternative ideologies such as communism and fascism. They believed that the capitalist economic system was collapsing, and that new ideas were required to meet the crisis. The early responses to the crisis were based upon the assumption that the free market would correct itself. This, however, did very little to correct the crisis or to alleviate the suffering of many ordinary people. Thus, the idea that the existing system could be reformed by government intervention in the economy, rather than by continuing the "laissez-faire" approach, became prominent as a solution to the crisis. Democratic governments assumed the responsibility to provide needed services in society, and to alleviate poverty. Thus was born the welfare state. These two politico-economic principles, the belief in government intervention and the welfare state, as opposed to the belief in the free market and private institutions, would define many political battles for the rest of the century.


title: Key events of the 20th century

text: Fascism first appeared in Italy with the rise to power of Benito Mussolini in 1922. The ideology was supported by a large proportion of the upper classes as a strong challenge to the threat of communism.


title: Key events of the 20th century

text: When Adolf Hitler came to power in Germany in 1933, a new variant of fascism called Nazism took over Germany and ended the German experiment with democracy. The Nazi Party in Germany was dedicated to the restoration of German honor and prestige, the unification of German-speaking peoples, and the annexation of Central and Eastern Europe as vassal states, with the Slavic population to act as slave labor to serve German economic interests. There was also a strong appeal to a mythical racial purity (the idea that Germans were the "Herrenvolk" or the "master race"), and a vicious anti-semitism which promoted the idea of Jews as subhuman ("Untermensch") and worthy only of extermination.


title: Key events of the 20th century

text: Many people in Western Europe and the United States greeted the rise of Hitler with relief or indifference. They could see nothing wrong with a strong Germany ready to take on the communist menace to the east. Anti-semitism during the Great Depression was widespread as many were content to blame the Jews for causing the economic downturn.


title: Key events of the 20th century

text: Hitler began to put his plan in motion, annexing Austria in the "Anschluss", or reunification of Austria to Germany, in 1938. He then negotiated the annexation of the Sudetenland, a German-speaking mountainous area of Czechoslovakia, in the Munich Conference. The British were eager to avoid war and believed Hitler's assurance to protect the security of the Czech state. Hitler annexed the rest of the Czech state shortly afterwards, indicating that he had ulterior motives.


title: Key events of the 20th century

text: Fascism was not the only form of dictatorship to rise in the post-war period. Almost all of the new democracies in the nations of Eastern Europe collapsed and were replaced by authoritarian regimes. Spain also became a dictatorship under the leadership of General Francisco Franco after the Spanish Civil War. Totalitarian states attempted to achieve total control over their subjects as well as their total loyalty. They held the state above the individual, and were often responsible for some of the worst acts in history, such as the Holocaust Adolf Hitler perpetrated on European Jews, or the Great Purge Stalin perpetrated in the Soviet Union in the 1930s.


title: Key events of the 20th century

text: "This section provides a conversational overview of World War II in Europe. See main article for a fuller discussion."


title: Key events of the 20th century

text: Soon after the events in Czechoslovakia, Britain and France issued assurances of protection to Poland, which seemed to be next on Hitler's list. World War II officially began on September 1, 1939, when Hitler unleashed his Blitzkrieg, or lightning war, against Poland. Britain and France, much to Hitler's surprise, immediately declared war upon Germany, but the help they delivered to Poland was negligible. Sixteen days later, Poland was attacked from the East by Soviet Union, acting in a secret alliance with Nazi Germany. After only a few weeks, the Polish forces were overwhelmed, and its government fled to exile in London (see Polish government in Exile).


title: Key events of the 20th century

text: In starting World War II, the Germans had unleashed a new type of warfare, characterized by highly mobile forces and the use of massed aircraft. The German strategy concentrated upon the devotion of the "Wehrmacht", or German army, to the use of tank groups, called panzer divisions, and groups of mobile infantry, in concert with relentless attacks from the air. Encirclement was also a major part of the strategy. This change smashed any expectations that the Second World War would be fought in the trenches like the first.


title: Key events of the 20th century

text: As Hitler's forces conquered Poland, the Soviet Union, under General Secretary Joseph Stalin, was acting out guarantees of territory under a secret part of a nonaggression pact between the USSR and Germany known as the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact. This treaty gave Stalin free rein to take the Baltic republics of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania, as well as Eastern Poland, all of which would remain in Soviet possession after the war. Stalin also launched an attack on Finland, which he hoped to reduce to little more than a Soviet puppet state, but the Red Army met staunch Finnish resistance in what became known as the Winter War and succeeded in gaining only limited territory from the Finns. This action would later cause the Finns to ally with Germany when its attack on the Soviet Union came in 1941.


title: Key events of the 20th century

text: After the defeat of Poland, a period known as the Phony War ensued during the winter of 1939–1940, which saw only limited military land operation on the Western Front. All of this changed on May 10, 1940, when the Germans launched a massive attack on the Low Countries (Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg), most probably to surmount the Maginot Line of defenses on the Franco-German border. This witnessed the incredible fall of Eben Emael, a Belgian fort considered impregnable and guarded by 600 Belgians, to a force of only 88 German paratroopers. The worst of this was that King Leopold III of Belgium surrendered to the Germans on May 28 without warning his allies, exposing the entire flank of the Allied forces to German panzer groups. Following the conquest of the Low Countries, Hitler occupied Denmark and Norway, beginning on April 9, 1940. Norway was strategically important because of its sea routes which supplied crucial Swedish ore to the Nazi war machine. Norway held on for a few crucial weeks, but Denmark surrendered after only four days. Sweden was the only Scandinavian country to successfully maintain its neutrality throughout the war, with occasional breaches of neutrality in favor of both Germany and the Western Allies.


title: Key events of the 20th century

text: With the disaster in the Low Countries, France, considered at the time to have had the finest army in the world, lasted only four weeks, with Paris being occupied on June 14. Three days later, Marshal Philippe Pétain surrendered to the Germans. The debacle in France also led to one of the war's greatest mysteries, and Hitler's first great blunder, Dunkirk, where a third of a million trapped British and French soldiers were evacuated by not only British war boats, but every craft the army could find, including fishing boats. Hitler refused to "risk" his panzers on an action at Dunkirk, listening to the advice of Air Minister Hermann Göring and allowing the "Luftwaffe", or German Air Force, to handle the job. The irony of this was that the escaped men would form the core of the army that was to invade the beaches of Normandy in 1944. Hitler did not occupy all of France, but about three-quarters, including all of the Atlantic coast, allowing Marshal Pétain to remain as dictator of an area known as Vichy France. However, members of the escaped French Army formed around General Charles de Gaulle to create the Free French forces, which would continue to battle Hitler in the stead of an independent France. At this moment, Italy, under Benito Mussolini, declared war on the Allies on June 10, thinking that the war was almost over, but he managed only to occupy a few hundred yards of French territory. Throughout the war, the Italians would be more of a burden to the Nazis than a boon, and would later cost them precious time in Greece.


title: Key events of the 20th century

text: Hitler now turned his eyes on Great Britain, which stood alone against him. He ordered his generals to draw up plans for an invasion, code named Operation Sea Lion, and ordered the Luftwaffe to launch a massive air war against the British isles, which would come to be known as the Battle of Britain. The British at first suffered steady losses, but eventually managed to turn the air war against Germany, taking down 2,698 German planes throughout the summer of 1940 to only 915 Royal Air Force (RAF) losses. The key turning point came when the Germans discontinued successful attacks against British airplane factories and radar command and coordination stations and turned to civilian bombing known as terror bombing using the distinctive "bomb" sound created by the German dive-bomber, the Stuka. The switch came after a small British bombing force had attacked Berlin. Hitler was infuriated. However, his decision to switch the attacks' focus allowed the British to rebuild the RAF and eventually force the Germans to indefinitely postpone Sea Lion.


title: Key events of the 20th century

text: The importance of the Battle of Britain is that it marked the first of Hitler's defeats, however its overall impact was overshadowed by his later blunders in the east. Secondly, it marked the advent of radar as a major weapon in modern air war. With radar, squadrons of fighters could be quickly assembled to respond to incoming bombers attempting to bomb civilian targets. It also allowed the identification of the type and a guess at the number of incoming enemy aircraft, as well as tracking of friendly airplanes.


title: Key events of the 20th century

text: Hitler, taken aback by his defeat over the skies of Britain, now turned his gaze eastward to the Soviet Union. Despite having signed the non-aggression pact with Stalin, Hitler despised communism and wished to destroy it in the land of its birth. He originally planned to launch the attack in early spring of 1941 to avoid the disastrous Russian winter. However, a pro-allied coup in Yugoslavia and Mussolini's almost utter defeat in his invasion of Greece from occupied Albania prompted Hitler to launch a personal campaign of revenge in Yugoslavia and to occupy Greece at the same time. The Greeks would have a bitter revenge of sorts; the attack caused a delay of several crucial weeks of the invasion of the USSR, potentially hampering it.


title: Key events of the 20th century

text: On June 22, 1941, Hitler attacked Stalin with the largest army the world had ever seen. Over three million men and their weapons were put into service against the Soviet Union. Stalin had been warned about the attack, both by other countries and by his own intelligence network, but he had refused to believe it. Therefore, the Soviet army was largely unprepared and suffered massive setbacks in the early part of the war, despite Stalin's orders to counterattack the Germans. Throughout 1941, German forces, divided into 3 army groups (Army Group A, Army Group B, and Army Group C), occupied the territories of the present day Ukraine and Belarus, laid siege to Leningrad (present day Saint Petersburg), and advanced to within 15 miles of Moscow. At this critical moment, the Soviet people stalled the German "Wehrmacht" to a halt at the gates of Moscow. Stalin had planned to evacuate the city, and had already moved important government functions, but decided to stay and rally the city. Recently arrived troops from the east under the command of Marshal Georgy Zhukov counterattacked the Germans and drove them from Moscow.


title: Key events of the 20th century

text: Mussolini had launched an offensive in North Africa from Italian-controlled Libya into British-controlled Egypt. However, the British smashed the Italians and were on the verge of taking Libya. Hitler decided to help by sending in a few thousand troops, a "Luftwaffe" division, and the first-rate general Erwin Rommel. Rommel managed to use his small force to repeatedly smash massively superior British forces and to recapture the port city of Tobruk and advance into Egypt. However, Hitler, embroiled in his invasion of the Soviet Union, refused to send Rommel any more troops, causing Rommel to retreat and preventing him from seizing the Middle East, where Axis-friendly regimes had taken root in Iraq and Persia (present-day Iran).


title: Key events of the 20th century

text: After the winter, Hitler launched a fresh offensive in the spring of 1942, with the aim of capturing the oil-rich Caucacus and the city of Stalingrad. However, he repeatedly switched his troops to where they were not needed. The offensive bogged down, and the entire 6th Army, considered the best of German troops, was trapped in Stalingrad. Hitler now refused to let 6th Army break out. He insisted that the German army would force its way in. Hermann Göring also assured Hitler that the "Luftwaffe" could supply the 6th Army adequately, when it could in reality only supply a minute fraction of the needed ammunition and rations. Eventually, the starved 6th Army surrendered, dealing a severe blow to the Germans. In the end, the defeat at Stalingrad was the turning point for the war in the east.


title: Key events of the 20th century

text: Meanwhile, the Japanese had attacked the United States at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii on December 7, 1941. This disastrous attack forced the Americans into the war. Parts of the German brass advised against declaring war on the US, arguing that since Japan was the aggressor, the Tripartite Pact didn't bound Germany to do so. However, Hitler hoped that Japan would be able to quickly defeat the US and then turn its attention on helping the effort against Russia. Both Germany and Italy declared war on the United States a few days after the attack.


title: Key events of the 20th century

text: Throughout the rest of 1942 and 1943, the Soviets began to gain ground against the Germans after some victories like the tank battle of Kursk. By this time, Rommel had been forced to abandon North Africa after a defeat by Montgomery at El Alamein in what was the first decisive victory of the Allies over the Germany army, leading Churchill to declare it "the end of the beginning". On several fronts, the "Wehrmacht" had encountered serious casualties that it could not replace. Hitler also insisted on a "hold at all costs" policy which forbade relinquishing any ground. He followed a "fight to the last man" policy that was completely ineffective. By the beginning of 1944, Hitler had lost all initiative in the Soviet Union, and was struggling even to hold back the tide turning against him.


title: Key events of the 20th century

text: From 1942 to 1944, the United States and Britain acted in only a limited manner in the European theater, much to the chagrin of Stalin. They drove out the Germans in Africa, invading Morocco and Algeria on November 8, 1942. Then, on July 10, 1943, the Allies invaded Sicily, in preparation for an advance through Italy, the "soft underbelly" of the Axis, as Winston Churchill called it. On September 9, the invasion of Italy began. By the winter of 1943, the southern half of Italy was in Allied hands. The Italians, most of whom did not really support the war, had already turned against Mussolini. In July, he had been stripped of power and taken prisoner, though the Italians feigned continued support of the Axis. On September 8, the Italians formally surrendered, but most of Italy not in Allied hands was controlled by German troops and those loyal to Mussolini's (Mussolini had been freed by German paratroopers) new Italian Social Republic, which in reality consisted of the shrinking zone of German control. The Germans offered staunch resistance, but by June 4, 1944, Rome had fallen.


title: Key events of the 20th century

text: The Battle of the Atlantic took place from 1942 to 1944 and was described as "longest, largest, and most complex naval battle in history". The Germans hoped to sever the vital supply lines between Britain and America, sinking many tons of shipping with U-boats, German submarines. However, the development of the destroyer and aircraft with a longer patrol range were effective at countering the U-boat threat and by December 1943, the Germans had lost the battle.


title: Key events of the 20th century

text: On June 6, 1944, the Western Allies finally launched the long-awaited assault on "Fortress Europe" so wanted by Stalin. The offensive, codenamed Operation Overlord, began the early morning hours of June 6. The day, known as D-day, was marked by foul weather. Rommel, who was now in charge of defending France against possible Allied attack, thought the Allies would not attack during the stormy weather, and was on holiday in Germany. Besides this, the Germans were expecting an attack, but at the natural harbor of Calais and not the beaches of Normandy; They did not know about the Allies' artificial harbours, and false leads planted by the Allies suggested Calais as the landing site.


title: Key events of the 20th century

text: By this time, the war was looking ever darker for Germany. On July 20, 1944, a group of conspiring German officers attempted to assassinate Hitler. The bomb they used did injure him, but the second was not used, and a table shielded Hitler in a stroke of luck. The plotters still could have launched a coup, but only the head of occupied Paris acted, arresting SS and Gestapo forces in the city. The German propaganda minister, Joseph Goebbels, rallied the Nazis and hunted down the conspirators, arresting up to 7000 people in the wake of the plot, according to some estimates.


title: Key events of the 20th century

text: In France, the Allies took Normandy and finally Paris on August 25. In the east, the Soviets had advanced almost to the former Polish-Soviet border. At this time, Hitler introduced the V-weapons, the V-1 flying bomb and, later, the V-2, the first rockets used in modern warfare. The V-1 was often intercepted by air pilots, but the V-2 was extremely fast and carried a large payload. However, this advance came too late in the war to have any real effect. The Germans were also on the verge of introducing a number of terrifying new weapons, including advanced jet aircraft, which were too fast for ordinary propeller aircraft, and submarine improvements which would allow the Germans to again fight effectively in the Atlantic. All this came too late to save Hitler. Although a September invasion of The Netherlands failed, the Allies made steady advances. In the winter of 1944, Hitler put everything into one last desperate gamble in the West, known as the Battle of the Bulge, which, despite an initial advance, was a failure, because the introduction of new Allied tanks and low troop numbers among the Germans prevented any real action being taken. Nevertheless, it was one of the bloodiest battles of the war and the second costliest battle in the history of the American Army.


title: Key events of the 20th century

text: In early February 1945, the three Allied leaders, Franklin Roosevelt, Winston Churchill, and Joseph Stalin, met at newly liberated Yalta in the Crimea in the Soviet Union in the Yalta Conference. Here, they agreed upon a plan to divide post-war Europe. Most of the east went to Stalin, who agreed to allow free elections in Eastern Europe, which he never did. The west went to Britain, France, and the U.S. Post-war Germany would be split between the four, as would Berlin. This division of spheres of influence would set up international diplomacy for Cold War that would dominate the second half of the century.


title: Key events of the 20th century

text: At the beginning of 1945, Hitler was on his last strings. The Soviets launched a devastating attack from Poland into Germany and Eastern Europe, intending to take Berlin. The Germans collapsed in the West, allowing the Allies to fan out across Germany. However, the Supreme Allied Commander, American general Dwight D. Eisenhower, refused to strike for Berlin, and instead became obsessed with reports of possible guerrilla activity in southern Germany, which in reality existed mainly in the propaganda of Joseph Goebbels. By April 25, the Soviets had besieged Berlin. Hitler remained in the city in a bunker under the Chancellery garden. On April 30, he committed suicide by shooting himself, after a ritual wedding with his longtime mistress Eva Braun. The Germans held out another 7 days under Admiral Doenitz, their new leader, but the Germans surrendered unconditionally on May 7, 1945, ending the war in Europe (see V-E Day).


title: Key events of the 20th century

text: Rivalries that had begun during the war, combined with the sense of strength in the victorious powers, laid the foundations of the Iron Curtain and of the Cold War.


title: Key events of the 20th century

text: The first event that is usually linked to the later Pacific conflict was the Mukden Incident of 18 September 1931, during which the Japanese military staged the bombing of the South Manchuria Railway and pinned the blame on Chinese dissidents. Japan then used this as pretext to invade northeastern China the next day and turn the region of Manchuria into the Japanese puppet state of Manchukuo. After the League of Nations commissioned the 1932 Lytton Report, which exposed the Mukden Incident as a Japanese ruse, Japan was left internationally isolated, withdrawing from the League of Nations in March 1933. In 1934 Manchukuo became a constitutional monarchy and the former Chinese Emperor Pu Yi was placed on the throne, despite the real power being held by Japan.


title: Key events of the 20th century

text: Despite relations between Japan and China suffering because the occupation of Manchuria, the situation did not turn into all-out war until 7 July 1937, when a dispute between Chinese and Japanese soldiers turned into a battle during the Marco Polo Bridge Incident. This, in turn, led to a further escalation of the hostilities, leading to the Second Sino-Japanese War, one of the deadliest conflicts in human history. Japan enjoyed some early major victories, capturing both Shanghai and the Chinese capital of Nanjing in 1937 and forcing the Chinese central government 's relocation to Chongqing. Following Chinese victories in Changsha and Guangxi in 1939, the war reached somewhat of a stalemate, with Japan controlling the large cities, but being unable to rule the vast countryside. On 27 September 1940, Japan became cosignatories of the Tripartite Pact, joining a military alliance with Germany and Italy.


title: Key events of the 20th century

text: On December 7, 1941, Japan launched a surprise attack on the American base at Pearl Harbor as a mean of preventing the U.S. Pacific Fleet from interfering with its planned expansion in the area. The next day, following Roosevelt's Infamy Speech, the United States declared war on Japan, marking the official entry of both nations in World War 2. At the same time, Japan also launched attacks on Thailand, the British colonies of Malaya, Singapore, Hong Kong and American military bases in Guam, Wake Island and the Philippines.


title: Key events of the 20th century

text: The next six months were dominated by Japanese victories against the Allied forces, already war-weary and stretched thin after two years of war in Europe and North Africa. Japan managed to capture British Burma, New Guinea, the Dutch East Indies, the Solomon Islands, Bali and Timor. In March 1942, days before the surrender of the Philippines, general Douglas MacArthur, who came out of retirement to become commander of United States Army Forces in the Far East at the onset of the war, was forced to flee and narrowly escape to Australia. On 19 February 1942, Japan also launched a devastating aerial attack on the Australian city of Darwin, in what was the first attack by a foreign power on Australian soil.


title: Key events of the 20th century

text: The turning of the tide came in early May, during the Battle of the Coral Sea, which proved the first strategic victory of the Allies against Japanese expansion. This was followed one month later by the Battle of Midway, in which the US Navy defeated an attacking Japanese fleet, inflicting devastating damage on the attacking force. The Battle of Midway is widely considered the most important naval battle of the Pacific Campaign and has even been described as "the most stunning and decisive blow in the history of naval warfare" The reasons usually given for the resounding victory are Japanese overconfidence in their own forces, poor planning and the intercepting of Japanese battle plans by the United States. The losses suffered during this Battle of Midway, paired with the campaign of attrition that was taking place in Solomon Islands, left Japan unable to replenish its forces and turned the tides of war against it. By August 1942, the Allied forces were on the offensive, earning victories in the New Guinea campaign at Guadalcanal, Milne Bay and Buna-Gona.


title: Key events of the 20th century

text: Over the next two years the Allies slowly captured one island base after another, trying to get closer to Japan itself, where it planned to launch massive strategic air attacks and, only if absolutely necessary, execute a ground invasion. By July 1944, the US recaptured Guam and captured Tinian, which finally put them in attacking range of mainland Japan using the new Boeing B-29 bombers. Despite the advances of the Allies, massive fighting was still taking place, both in South-East Asia with the Japanese offensive in India and in the Pacific, with the Battle of the Philippine Sea, where Japan suffered major losses and definitively lost the ability to rely on aircraft carriers. In later October, a combined attack of American and Australian forces took on the Imperial Japanese Navy during the Battle of Leyte Gulf in what was to be the largest naval battle of World War II and possibly the largest naval battle of all time. The Allied victory achieved its stated goal of further severing oil supplied to the Japanese army, which was already struggling to fuel the remainder of its naval power. The battle of Leyte Gulf is also notable as the first battle in which Japanese aircraft carried out organized "kamikaze" attacks.


title: Key events of the 20th century

text: By early 1945, the Americans set their eyes on the Japanese island of Iwo Jima, which was of great strategic importance, being situated halfway between Tokyo and the Mariana Islands. Capturing the island meant not only a better launch station for aerial attacks against mainland Japan, but also the prevention of its use as an early-warning station against air raids. The Japanese were expecting an attack and have been heavily fortifying the entire island for over a year. Despite the American troops outnumbering the Japanese to a rate of more than 3 to 1, the USA suffered heavy casualties in the 36 days of fighting, with over 6,800 Marines killed and another 20,000 wounded, leading some historians to question the strategic worth of the action. With Japan struggling to defend the homeland islands, counteroffensives in other parts of the Japanese Empire became more feasible, with important battles taking place in Burma, Borneo and China.


title: Key events of the 20th century

text: Continuing to come nearer the main Japanese islands, on 1 April 1945 the US Marines mounted the largest amphibious assault of the Pacific Theater on the island of Okinawa. After a long campaign of island hopping, the Allies were planning to use Kadena Air Base on the large island of Okinawa as a base for Operation Downfall, the planned invasion of the Japanese home islands which were only 340 miles away. The battle was one of the bloodiest in the Pacific, with approximately 160,000 casualties on both sides: at least 75,000 Allied and 84,166–117,000 Japanese. Around half of the island's population of 300,000 were killed, committed suicide or went missing.


title: Key events of the 20th century

text: The assaults on both Iwo Jima and Okinawa proves incredibly costly in terms of American lives and president Truman was horrified at the prospect of Operation Downfall, a planned boots-on-the-ground invasion of mainland Japan that was estimated to lead to over a million casualties among American soldiers. Despite a devastating campaign of fire-bombing in Tokyo and dozens of other cities, the Japanese showed no sign of planning to surrender. Following the Potsdam Declaration of July 26, where the Allies threatened "prompt and utter destruction" should Japan not surrender, the decision was made to resort to the first use of atomic bombs. On 6 August, the 393d Bombardment Squadron B-29 "Enola Gay", took off from Tinian and dropped the bomb on the city of Hiroshima. Three days later, a second bomb was dropped on Nagasaki. The two bombings killed 129,000–226,000 people, most of them civilians. On 9 August, the Soviet Union also invaded Manchukuo in what was to be the last campaign of the war.


title: Key events of the 20th century

text: On 10 August the "sacred decision" was made by Japanese Cabinet to accept the Potsdam terms and on 15 August Emperor Hirohito broadcast to the nation and to the world at large the rescript of surrender, ending the Second World War. The formal Japanese Instrument of Surrender was signed on 2 September 1945, on the battleship USS "Missouri", in Tokyo Bay. The surrender was accepted by General Douglas MacArthur as Supreme Commander of the Allied Powers.


title: Key events of the 20th century

text: The Holocaust (which roughly means "great fire") was the deliberate, systematic murder of millions of Jews and other minorities during World War II by Hitler's Nazi regime in Europe. Several differing views exist regarding whether it was intended to occur from the war's beginning, or if the plans for it came about later. Regardless, persecution of Jews extended well before the war even started, such as in the "Kristallnacht" (literally "Crystal Night", Night of Broken Glass). The Nazis used propaganda to great effect to stir up anti-Semitic feelings within ordinary Germans. Many people, including politicians and historians, consider the Holocaust to be the worst event in history, and have described Hitler, his followers, and his regime as evil.


title: Key events of the 20th century

text: After the conquest of Poland, the Third Reich, which had previously deported Jews and other "undesirables", suddenly had within its borders the largest concentration of Jews in the world. The solution was to round up Jews and place them in Nazi concentration camps or in ghettos, cordoned off sections of cities where Jews were forced to live in deplorable conditions, often with tens of thousands starving to death, and the bodies decaying in the streets. As appalling as this sounds, they were the lucky ones. After the invasion of the Soviet Union, armed killing squads of SS men known as "Einsatzgruppen" systematically rounded up Jews and murdered an estimated one million Jews within the country. As barbaric and inhuman as this seems, it was too slow and inefficient by Nazi standards.


title: Key events of the 20th century

text: In 1942, the top leadership met in Wannsee, a suburb of Berlin, and began to plan a more efficient way to slaughter the Jews. The Nazis created a system of extermination camps throughout Poland, and began rounding up Jews from the Soviet Union, and from the Ghettos. Not only were Jews shot or gassed to death en masse, but they were forced to provide slave labor and they were used in horrific medical experiments (see Human experimentation in Nazi Germany). Out of the widespread condemnation of the Nazis' medical experiments, the Nuremberg Code of medical ethics was devised.


title: Key events of the 20th century

text: The Nazis took a sadistic pleasure in the death camps; the entrance to the most notorious camp, Auschwitz, stated ""Arbeit Macht Frei""—"Work Sets You Free". In the end, six million Jews and up to 5 million homosexuals, Jehovah's Witnesses, Roma and political prisoners were killed by various means, mainly in the death camps. An additional several million Soviet and other Allied prisoners of war died in camps and holding areas.


title: Key events of the 20th century

text: There is some controversy over whether ordinary Germans knew about the Holocaust. It appears that many Germans knew about the concentration camps; such things were prominently displayed in magazines and newspapers. In many places, Jews had to walk past towns and villages on their way to work as slaves in German industry. In any case, Allied soldiers reported that the smell of the camps carried for miles. A very small number of people deny the Holocaust occurred entirely, though these claims have been routinely discredited by mainstream historians.


title: Key events of the 20th century

text: During the 1930s, innovations in physics made it apparent that it could be possible to develop nuclear weapons of incredible power using nuclear reactions. When World War II broke out, scientists and advisors among the Allies feared that Nazi Germany may have been trying to develop its own atomic weapons, and the United States and the United Kingdom pooled their efforts in what became known as the Manhattan Project to beat them to it. At the secret Los Alamos laboratory in New Mexico, scientist Robert Oppenheimer led a team of the world's top scientists to develop the first nuclear weapons, the first of which was tested at the Trinity site in July 1945. However, Germany had surrendered in May 1945, and it had been discovered that the German atomic bomb program had not been very close to success.


title: Key events of the 20th century

text: The Allied team produced two nuclear weapons for use in the war, one powered by uranium-235 and the other by plutonium as fissionable material, named "Little Boy" and "Fat Man". These were dropped on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki on August 6 and 9, 1945 each. This, in combination with the Soviet invasion of Japanese-controlled territory, convinced the Japanese government to surrender unconditionally. These two weapons remain the only two nuclear weapons ever used against other countries in war.


title: Key events of the 20th century

text: Nuclear weapons brought an entirely new and terrifying possibility to warfare: a nuclear holocaust. While at first the United States held a monopoly on the production of nuclear weapons, the Soviet Union, with some assistance from espionage, managed to detonate its first weapon (dubbed "Joe-1" by the West) in August 1949. The post-war relations between the two, which had already been deteriorating, began to rapidly disintegrate. Soon the two were locked in a massive stockpiling of nuclear weapons. The United States began a crash program to develop the first hydrogen bomb in 1950, and detonated its first thermonuclear weapon in 1952. This new weapon was alone over 400 times as powerful as the weapons used against Japan. The Soviet Union detonated a primitive thermonuclear weapon in 1953 and a full-fledged one in 1955.


title: Key events of the 20th century

text: The conflict continued to escalate, with the major superpowers developing long-range missiles (such as the ICBM) and a nuclear strategy which guaranteed that any use of the nuclear weapons would be suicide for the attacking nation (Mutually Assured Destruction). The creation of early warning systems put the control of these weapons into the hands of newly created computers, and they served as a tense backdrop throughout the Cold War.


title: Key events of the 20th century

text: Since the 1940s there were concerns about the rising proliferation of nuclear weapons to new countries, which was seen as being destabilizing to international relations, spurring regional arms races, and generally increasing the likelihood of some form of nuclear war. Eventually, nine nations would overtly develop nuclear weapons, and still maintain stockpiles today: the United States, the Soviet Union (and later Russia would inherit these), the United Kingdom, France, China, India, Pakistan, Israel and North Korea. South Africa developed six crude weapons in the 1980s (which it later dismantled), and Israel almost certainly developed nuclear weapons though it never confirmed nor denied it. The creation of the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty in 1968 was an attempt to curtail such proliferation, but a number of countries developed nuclear weapons since it was signed (and many did not sign it), and a number of other countries, including Libya and Iran were suspected of having clandestine nuclear weapons programs.


title: Key events of the 20th century

text: Following World War II, the majority of the industrialized world lay in ruins as a result of aerial bombings, naval bombardment, and protracted land campaigns. The United States was a notable exception to this; barring Pearl Harbor and some minor incidents, the U.S. had suffered no attacks upon its territory. The United States and the Soviet Union, which, despite the devastation of its most populated areas, rebuilt quickly, found themselves the world's two dominant superpowers.


title: Key events of the 20th century

text: Much of Western Europe was rebuilt after the war with assistance from the Marshall Plan. Germany, chief instigator of the war, was placed under joint military occupation by the United States, Great Britain, France, and the Soviet Union. Berlin, although in Soviet-controlled territory, was also divided among the four powers. Occupation of Berlin would continue until 1990. Japan was also placed under U.S. occupation, that would last seven years, until 1952. Oddly, these two Axis powers, despite military occupation, soon rose to become the second (Japan) and third (West Germany) most powerful economies in the world.


title: Key events of the 20th century

text: Following the end of the war, the Allies famously prosecuted numerous German officials for war crimes and other offenses in the Nuremberg Trials. Although Adolf Hitler had committed suicide, many of his cronies, including Hermann Göring, were convicted. Less well-known trials of other Axis officials also occurred, including the Tokyo War Crime Trial.


title: Key events of the 20th century

text: The failure of the League of Nations to prevent World War II essentially discredited the organization, and it was dissolved. A new attempt at world peace was begun with the founding of the United Nations on October 24, 1945, in San Francisco. Today, nearly all countries are members, but despite its many successes, the organization's success at achieving its goal of world peace is disputed. The organization was never given enough power to overcome the conflicting interests and priorities of its member nations.


title: Key events of the 20th century

text: Almost all of the major nations that were involved in World War II began shedding their overseas colonies soon after the conflict. The tactics employed by the revolutionaries ranged from non-violent forms of protest to armed rebellions, depending on the nation involved. Immediately after the war, European powers began a decades-long process of withdrawing from their possessions in Africa and Asia.


title: Key events of the 20th century

text: In India, Mahatma Gandhi became a global icon for his non-violent struggle to achieve Indian independence whereas Mohamed Ali Jinnah advocated for the independence of a separate state for Muslims. This was achieved in 1947 with the end of British rule in India and the Partition of the territory into modern day India and Pakistan, which would later also further divide, leading to the creation of the People's Republic of Bangladesh in 1971. Elsewhere in Asia, The United States granted independence to the Philippines, its major Pacific possession in 1946. In French Indochina, armed insurrections forced the French out in the early 1950s, leading to the formation of Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam.


title: Key events of the 20th century

text: In Africa, nationalists such as Jomo Kenyatta of Kenya and Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana led their respective nations to independence from foreign rule. Mere decades before, the British Empire controlled almost half of the continent, but by 1968, the only British possession in Africa was Seychelles (which would also become independent in 1976). Between 1956 and 1962, almost 20 African countries achieved their independence from France. Through the efforts of Amílcar Cabral and others, the Portuguese colonies of Guinea-Bissau, Cape Verde, Angola, Mozambique and São Tomé and Príncipe followed suit and achieved independence during the mid-1970s, in what was to be the last important wave of African decolonization.


title: Key events of the 20th century

text: In 1946, there were 35 member states in the United Nations, but as the newly independent nations joined the organization, by 1970 membership increased to 127.


title: Key events of the 20th century

text: The emergence of newly independent countries in Africa and Asia that used the borders of the imperial partitions later led to further conflict. In many cases this meant that historically antagonistic ethnic or religious groups now needed to share the same country or that several nations held territorial claims over regions which were more or less arbitrarily divided by European powers. Some conflicts which aroused from these tensions, especially the Nigerian Civil War, the Second Congo War, the Second Sudanese Civil War and the Bangladesh Liberation War have been among the bloodiest wars of the 20th century.


title: Key events of the 20th century

text: During the Yalta Conference, where the Western, capitalist powers, and the communist Soviet Union agreed on separate spheres of influence in Europe, they set up the stage for a geopolitical rivalry that would dominate international relations for the next five decades. In March 1946, Winston Churchill gave a now famous speech while visiting Westminster College in the US which is usually credited as the first use of the term iron curtain to refer to the separation of Soviet and Western areas of influence in Europe:From Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic an iron curtain has descended across the Continent. Behind that line lie all the capitals of the ancient states of Central and Eastern Europe. Warsaw, Berlin, Prague, Vienna, Budapest, Belgrade, Bucharest and Sofia; all these famous cities and the populations around them lie in what I must call the Soviet sphere, and all are subject, in one form or another, not only to Soviet influence but to a very high and in some cases increasing measure of control from Moscow.Indeed, the Soviet Union have already annexed several countries as Soviet Socialist Republics during the war. Eastern Poland (incorporated into the Byelorussian SSR and the Ukrainian SSR), Latvia (which became the Latvian SSR), Estonia (which became the Estonian SSR), Lithuania ( which became the Lithuanian SSR), part of eastern Finland (which became the Karelo-Finnish SSR) and eastern Romania (part of which became the Moldavian SSR) were now wholly part of Soviet Union. Furthermore, between 1945 and 1949, Yugoslavia, Albania, Bulgaria, Poland, Romania, Czechoslovakia, Hungary and East Germany saw communist regimes coming to power and their transformation into People's Republics. While they remained independent countries and their relation with the Soviet authorities would fluctuate over the next half century, they were widely seen as Soviet satellite states. Outside of Europe, countries that would see the rise of communism and would ally themselves to the communist bloc include Mongolia, China, North Korea, Cuba and Vietnam.


title: Key events of the 20th century

text: The spread of the communist ideology in general and the Soviet influence in particular made Western leaders nervous and it even lead to Churchill considering a preemptive attack on the USSR even before World War II was formally ended. Fearful of a possible invasion of Western Europe by Soviet forces or, more realistically, Soviet subversion of Western governments, the US set up clandestine "stay-behind" operations of armed resistance in collaboration with Western European leaders, which later evolved into Operation Gladio.


title: Key events of the 20th century

text: The two rival blocks also coalesced into formal mutual defense organizations, with the formation of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) in 1949 and the Warsaw Pact in 1955, each determine to expand its own influence among unaligned countries and limit the influence of their rivals.


title: Key events of the 20th century

text: Two wars and a near-war in the 1950s became the focus for capitalist versus communist struggle. The first war was the Korean War, fought between People's Republic of China-backed North Korea and mainly United States-backed South Korea. The Korean Peninsula was a Japanese colony between 1910 and 1945, when Soviet and American troops invaded and divided it along the 38th parallel. A communist government controlled the territory north of the border and a capitalist one controlled the South, with both authorities considering the other one illegitimate and claiming sovereignty over the entire peninsula. North Korea's invasion of South Korea on June 25, 1950 led to United Nations intervention. General Douglas MacArthur led troops from the United States, Canada, Australia, Great Britain, and other countries in repulsing the Northern invasion. However, the war reached a stalemate after Chinese intervention pushed U.N. forces back, and an ended hostilities in July 1953, leaving the two Koreas divided and tense for the rest of the century.


title: Key events of the 20th century

text: The second war, the Vietnam War, was perhaps the third most visible war of the 20th century, after World War I and World War II. After the French withdrawal from its former colony, on 21 July 1954, Vietnam became partitioned into two halves, much like Korea, along the 17th parallel. Fighting between North and South eventually escalated into a regional war. The United States provided aid to South Vietnam and contributed to propaganda efforts against the North, but was not directly involved until the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, passed in reaction to a supposed North Vietnamese attack upon American destroyers, brought the U.S. into the war as a belligerent. The war was initially viewed as a fight to contain communism (see containment, Truman Doctrine, and Domino Theory), but, as more Americans were drafted and news of events such as the Tet Offensive and My Lai massacre leaked out, American sentiment turned against the war. U.S. President Richard Nixon was elected partially on a promise to end the war. This Nixon Doctrine involved a gradual pullout of American forces; South Vietnamese units were supposed to replace them, backed up by American air power. The plan went awry, with Nixon deliberately sabotaging peace talks for political gain, and the war spilled into neighboring Cambodia while South Vietnamese forces were pushed further back. Eventually, the U.S. and North Vietnam signed the Paris Peace Accords, ending U.S. involvement in the war. With the threat of U.S. retaliation gone, the North proceeded to violate the ceasefire and invaded the South with full military force. Saigon was captured on April 30, 1975, and Vietnam was unified under Communist rule a year later, effectively bringing an end to one of the most unpopular wars of all time.


title: Key events of the 20th century

text: The Cuban Missile Crisis illustrates just how close to the brink of nuclear war the world came during the Cold War. Cuba, under Fidel Castro's socialist government, had formed close ties with the Soviet Union. This was obviously disquieting to the United States, given Cuba's proximity. When Lockheed U-2 spy plane flights over the island revealed that Soviet missile launchers were being installed, U.S. President John F. Kennedy instituted a naval blockade and publicly confronted the Soviet Union. After a tense week, the Soviet Union backed down and ordered the launchers removed, not wanting to risk igniting a new world war.


title: Key events of the 20th century

text: With Cold War tensions running high, the Soviet Union and United States took their rivalry to the stars in 1957 with the Soviet launch of Sputnik. A "space race" between the two powers followed. The USSR reached several important milestones, such as the first craft on the Moon (Luna 2) and the first human in space (Yuri Gagarin). The U.S. pulled ahead eventually with its Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo programs, which culminated in Apollo 11 astronauts landing on the Moon on 20 July 1969. Five more landings with astronauts followed (Apollo 13 was forced to abort its mission). Nevertheless, despite its successes, the U.S. space program could not match many major achievements of the Soviet space program, such as rover-based space exploration and image and video transfer from the surface of another planet, until the early 21st century.


title: Key events of the 20th century

text: In addition, both countries launched numerous probes into space, such as the Venera 7 and "Voyager 2".


title: Key events of the 20th century

text: In later decades, space became a somewhat friendlier place. Regular space flights with astronauts were made possible with the American Space Shuttle, which was the first reusable spacecraft to be successfully used. Mir and Skylab enabled prolonged human habitation in space. In the 1990s, work on the International Space Station began, and by the end of the century, while still incomplete, it was in continual use by astronauts from the United States, Europe, Russia, Japan, and Canada.