Denmark: History Denmark History Ancient History to 1448 The Danes probably settled Jutland by c.10,000 B.C. and later (2d millennium B.C.) developed a Bronze Age culture there. However, little is known of Danish history before the age of the Vikings (9th–11th cent. A.D.), when the Danes had an important role in the Viking (or Norse) raids on Western Europe and were prominent among the invaders of England who were opposed by King Alfred (reigned 871–99) and his successors. St. Ansgar (801–65) helped convert the Danes to Christianity; Harold Bluetooth (d. c.985) was the first Christian king of Denmark. His son, Sweyn (reigned c.986–1014), conquered England. From 1018 to 1035, Denmark, England, and Norway were united under King Canute (Knut). The southern part of Sweden (Skåne, Halland, and Blekinge) was, with brief interruptions, part of Denmark until 1658.

After Canute's death, Denmark fell into a period of turmoil and civil war. Later, Waldemar I (reigned 1157–82) and Waldemar II (reigned 1202–41) were energetic rulers who established Danish hegemony over N Europe. With the end of the Viking raids and the development of a strong and independent church, the nobles were able to impose their will on the weaker kings. In 1282, Eric V (reigned 1259–86) was forced to submit to the Great Charter, which established annual parliaments and a council of nobles who shared the king's power. This form of government persisted until 1660. Waldemar IV (reigned 1340–75) again brought Danish power to a high point, but he was humiliated by the Hanseatic League in the Treaty of Stralsund (1370). Waldemar's daughter, Queen Margaret , achieved (1397) the union of the Danish, Norwegian, and Swedish crowns in her person (see Kalmar Union ).

Sweden soon escaped effective Danish rule, and with the accession (1523) of Gustavus I of Sweden the union was dissolved. However, the union with Norway lasted until 1814. Denmark and Norway In 1448, Christian I became king and established on the Danish throne the house of Oldenburg, from which the present ruling family (Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg) is descended. He also united (1460) Schleswig and Holstein with the Danish crown. The Reformation (early 16th cent.) gradually gained adherents in Denmark, and during the reign of Christian III (1534–59) Lutheranism became the established religion. In the late 16th and early 17th cent., Denmark had a brilliant court, with a brisk intellectual and cultural life; the astronomer Tycho Brahe (1546–1601) was a major figure, and the Danish Renaissance style of architecture (strongly influenced by that of the Low Countries) was developed. The division of power in Denmark between the king and the nobles seriously handicapped the country's attempt to gain supremacy in the Baltic region.

Denmark was involved in numerous wars with Sweden and other neighbors; the participation of Christian IV (reigned 1588–1648) in the Thirty Years War (1618–48) and the wars of Frederick III (reigned 1648–70) with Sweden caused Denmark to lose its hegemony in the north to Sweden. The Danish-Swedish Treaty of Copenhagen (1660) confirmed most of the Danish losses imposed by the Treaty of Roskilde (1658). The wars weakened the nobility by reducing its numbers and strengthened the monarchy by increasing the power and importance of the royal army. Frederick III and Christian V (reigned 1670–99), aided by their minister Count Griffenfeld , were able to make the kingdom an absolute monarchy with the support of the peasants and townspeople. Denmark maintained an imperial status by continuing to rule over Iceland and by establishing (late 17th cent.) the Danish West Indies (see Virgin Islands ).

In the Northern War (1720–21) against Charles XII of Sweden, Frederick IV (reigned 1699–1730) gained some financial awards and the union of ducal Schleswig with royal Schleswig. The later 18th cent. was marked by important social reforms carried out by the ministers Johann Hartwig Ernst Bernstorff , Andreas Peter Bernstorff , and Johann Friedrich Struensee . Serfdom was abolished (1788), and peasant proprietorship was encouraged. In the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars, Denmark, having sided with Napoleon I, was twice attacked by England (see Copenhagen, battle of ; Copenhagen ). By the Treaty of Kiel (1814), Denmark lost Norway to Sweden and Helgoland to England, but retained possession of Greenland, the Faeroe Islands, and Iceland. 1814 to the Present In the early 19th cent., Denmark's modern system of public education was started, and there was a flowering of literature and philosophy (led by Hans Christian Andersen and Søren Kierkegaard).

As a result of plans for a liberal, centralized constitution, Frederick VII (reigned 1848–63) became involved in a war with Prussia (1848–50) over the status of Schleswig-Holstein . Denmark was defeated and agreed in the London Protocol of 1852 to preserve a special status for the two duchies. In the meantime, a new constitution was promulgated (1849), ending the absolute monarchy and establishing wide suffrage. The new government attempted (1855) to incorporate Schleswig into the Danish constitutional system, and soon after the accession (1863) of Christian IX war broke out again (1864), this time with Prussia and Austria. Denmark was defeated badly and lost Schleswig-Holstein. This loss of about one third of the Danish territory was, however, offset by great economic gains that transformed Denmark, in the second half of the 19th cent., from a land of poor peasants into the nation with the most prosperous small farmers in Europe.

This change was achieved largely by persuading the farmers to specialize in dairy and pork products rather than in grain (which was more expensive to produce than the grain imported from the United States). The folk high schools , originated by N. F. S. Grundtvig (1783–1872), played an important role in reeducating the Danish farmers. At the same time, the cooperative movement flourished in Denmark. Electoral reforms (1914–15) granted suffrage to the lower classes and to women and strengthened the lower chamber of the legislature. Denmark remained neutral in World War I and recovered North Schleswig after a plebiscite in 1920. In the interwar period and after World War II, Denmark adopted much social welfare legislation and a system of progressive taxation. Although the Social Democratic government of Denmark had signed a 10-year nonaggression pact with Germany in 1939, the country was occupied by German forces in Apr., 1940.

Christian X (reigned 1912–47) and his government remained, but in Aug., 1943, the Germans established martial law, arrested the government, and placed the king under house arrest. Most of the Jewish population (including refugees from other countries) escaped, with Danish help, to Sweden. Among the escapees was Neils Bohr , the Danish physicist who went on to the United States and worked on the atomic bomb project at Los Alamos. The Danish minister in Washington, although disavowed by his government, signed an agreement granting the United States military bases in Greenland. Danish merchant vessels served under the Allies, and a Danish resistance force operated (1945) under the supreme Allied command. Denmark was liberated by British troops in May, 1945. After the war, Denmark recovered quickly, and its economy, especially the manufacturing sector, expanded considerably. Denmark became (1945) a charter member of the United Nations and, breaking a long tradition of neutrality, joined the North Atlantic Treaty Organization in 1949. Frederick IX became king in 1947.

In 1960, Denmark became part of the European Free Trade Association, which it left in 1972 in order to join the European Community (now the European Union). Denmark granted independence to Iceland in 1944 and home rule to the Faeroe Islands in 1948 and to Greenland in 1979. Frederick IX died in 1972 and was succeeded by Margaret II . In 1982, the first Conservative-led government since 1894, a center-right coalition headed by Poul Schlüter, came to power. Having initially rejected (June, 1992) the European Community's Maastricht Treaty, an agreement that represented a major step toward European unification, Danish voters approved the treaty with exemptions in May, 1993. In 1993, Schlüter resigned; Poul Nyrup Rasmussen, a Social Democrat, became prime minister, heading a center-left coalition that was returned to office in 1998.

In a blow to Rasmussen, Danish voters rejected adoption of the euro (see European Monetary System ) in a referendum in Sept., 2000. Parliamentary elections in 2001 brought a Liberal party–led conservative coalition to power, and Anders Fogh Rasmussen became prime minister in the minority government. The government remained in office after the 2005 elections. The publication of cartoons with images of the Prophet Muhammad in a Danish newspaper in Sept., 2005, brought protests from Danish Muslims and ambassadors from Muslim nations, because of Islamic prohibitions on any representation of Muhammad. The protests initially drew tepid responses from the newspaper and Danish officials. The subsequent distribution by Muslim clerics of the cartoons combined with even more offensive images, and the republication of the original cartoons in some other Western and non-Western papers, sparked sometimes violent anti-Danish and anti-Western protests and boycotts of Danish goods in many Muslim nations in early 2006, and led to apologies from the newspaper and Denmark. After snap parliamentary elections in Nov., 2007, the Liberal-led government remained in office.

Rasmussen stepped down in Apr., 2009, to become NATO's secretary-general (beginning in August); Lars Løkke Rasmussen, the finance minister, succeeded him as prime minister. Parliamentary elections in Sept., 2011, resulted in a narrow victory for a three-party center-left alliance led by the Social Democrats, and Social Democratic leader Helle Thorning-Schmidt subsequently became prime minister (and the first woman to hold the post). Sections in this article: Christian I | Scandinavian king | Britannica.com Scandinavian king Alternative Titles: Christian of Oldenburg, Christiern I Christian I Anders Rasmussen Christian I, also spelled Christiern (born 1426—died May 21, 1481, Copenhagen , Den.), king of Denmark (1448–81), Norway (1450–81), and Sweden (1457–64, 1465–67), and founder of the Oldenburg dynasty , which ruled Denmark until 1863.

He tried to gain control over Sweden and maintain a union of the Scandinavian nations but was defeated by rebellious Swedish nobles (1471). Christian I, detail of a portrait by an unknown artist; in Frederiksborg Castle, Denmark Courtesy of the Nationalhistoriske Museum paa Frederiksborg, Denmark The son of Count Dietrich the Happy of Oldenburg and Hedvig of Holstein, Christian was elected to succeed Christopher III , king of Denmark and Norway, by the Danish Rigsråd (state council) in 1448. The following year he married his predecessor’s widow, Queen Dorothea of Hohenzollern. The decision of a meeting of the Danish and Swedish councils at Halmstad, Swed. (1450), recognizing Christian as king of Norway and heir in Sweden was disputed by the Swedish king Charles VIII , touching off a Danish-Swedish war (1451–57). After Charles was finally deposed in 1457, Christian held the Swedish throne until 1464, when he was overthrown by a group of the higher Swedish nobility. He held the throne again in 1465–67.

His last full-scale attempt to gain sovereignty over Sweden was ended by his defeat at Brunkeberg, near Stockholm (1471), by forces led by the Swedish nobleman Sten Sture the Elder. Christian gained control over both Schleswig (now split between Denmark and Germany) and Holstein (now in Germany) in 1460, at the time that the Schleswig ducal line died out. He offset the growing opposition of the Danish nobility by calling a meeting of the Danish estates (1468), a precedent followed by his immediate successors. Financially weak because of his wars against Sweden and land purchases in Schleswig and Holstein, Christian became dependent on the Hanseatic League , a north German trading confederation, and granted the league generous commercial privileges. He was drawn into a war with England (1469–74) when the Hanseatic traders challenged English trading rights in Iceland.

In 1469, when Christian’s daughter Margaret was married to James III , king of Scotland, the Norwegian-controlled Orkney and Shetland islands were mortgaged to Scotland to help pay for Margaret’s dowry, and the annual rent Scotland paid for the Hebrides Islands and the Isle of Man was cancelled. Christian concluded a concordat with Pope Sixtus IV , improving his relations with the Danish Church. After visiting Rome (1474) he obtained a papal bull (1475) for a university, which he founded at Copenhagen in 1479. Learn More in these related articles: Royalty.nu - The Kingdom of Denmark - Danish Royalty, Kings and Queens of Denmark Royalty in Denmark The royal house of Denmark was established in the 10th century by a Viking king called Gorm the Old. His son Harald I (Harald Bluetooth), unified Denmark; their successors also came to rule England , Norway , and part of Sweden . This empire split up after the death of King Canute in 1035, but descendants of Gorm the Old continued to reign in Denmark. Today's Danish royal family is descended from the Viking kings.

Seal of Margaret I Photo Source: Wikimedia Commmons In 1397, Denmark, Norway, and Sweden formed the Kalmar Union under Margaret I. Born a Danish princess, Margaret had married King Haakon VI of Norway. Although her young relative Eric of Pomerania was the union's official king, it was Margaret who ruled until her death in 1412. Sweden elected its own king in 1523, but Norway remained united with Denmark until 1814, when Denmark ceded Norway to Sweden. After Norway became independent from Sweden in 1905, its new government offered the crown to Prince Carl, second son of Denmark's future King Frederik VIII. After being approved in a popular vote by the Norwegian people, the prince ascended Norway's throne as King Haakon VII. Iceland , Greenland, and other islands were also part of the Kalmar Union. Iceland did not end its connection with the Danish monarchy until 1944, when it became a republic. Greenland is still part of the Kingdom of Denmark. A Danish prince even became the king of Greece .

The Greeks deposed their first modern king, Otto of Wittelsbach, in 1862, and chose Prince William of Denmark -- second son of Danish king Christian IX -- as their new king. In October 1863 he took the Greek throne as King George I. King Christian X Photo Source: Wikimedia Commmons Denmark was neutral in World War I, but the Germans occupied the country during World War II (1940). The popular King Christian X remained in Denmark during the occupation but remained aloof from the Nazis. According to legend, when Nazis ordered all Jews to wear armbands with yellow stars, Christian X defied them by wearing the armband himself. In fact, most Jews in Denmark were never forced to wear armbands; but as the story shows, King Christian's dislike of the Nazis and support for the Jews was well known. Christian X died in 1947 and was succeeded by his son Frederik IX. After Frederik's death in 1972, the crown passed to his daughter Queen Margrethe II. She still reigns today.

Margrethe married French diplomat Count Henri de Laborde de Monpezat, now known as Prince Henrik, the Prince Consort, in 1967. They have two sons, Crown Prince Frederik and Prince Joachim. The crown prince, who was born in 1968, married an Australian woman, Mary Donaldson, in May 2004. Their first child, Prince Christian, was born in October 2005. Their second child, a daughter named Isabella, was born in April 2007. In January of 2011, Princess Mary gave birth to twins, Vincent and Josephine. Crown Prince Frederik's younger brother, Joachim, married Alexandra Manley, a Hong Kong-born British citizen, in 1995. They have two children, Prince Nikolai and Prince Felix. The couple divorced in 2005. Alexandra, who has remarried, is now known as Alexandra, Countess of Frederiksborg. Prince Joachim married a French woman, Marie Cavallier, in May of 2008. She is now known as Her Royal Highness Princess Marie.

Their first child together, a son, was born in May 2009. A Force More Powerful A Force More Powerful Denmark Resources DENMARK - LIVING WITH THE ENEMY By the summer of 1943, in the midst of World War II, Denmark has been occupied by German forces for more than three years. Resistance to the invaders has been sporadic, mainly limited to displays of Danish cultural identity or scattered acts of sabotage. But now, provoked by German brutality, the Danes act more boldly to resist the Nazi war machine. Mass nonviolent direct action begins first with labor strikes. Then when SS troops arrive to round up Danish Jews for deportation to the death camps, the Danes rescue their fellow citizens, ferrying most to safety in Sweden. The effort galvanizes many Danes, and soon general strikes challenge German control, and the Danish underground emphasizes nonviolent operations. Although Denmark is not liberated until the end of the war, nonviolent resistance has stymied German plans for extracting value from the occupation. Denmark Overview In 1940, during the earliest stages of World War II, Adolf Hitler's army of darkness tightens its grip over most of continental Europe, including Germany's northern neighbor, Denmark.

The Nazis, who seek to exploit other countries' agriculture and industry for the broader war effort, occupy Denmark in a swift and surgical operation. Peter Munch, the minister of foreign affairs, is handed an ultimatum: cooperate with the Third Reich or else. He does. Under a unified government, Munch initiates a "negotiation under protest" strategy with the Germans that is designed to protect Danish lives and salvage cultural identity. Munch reasons that because Denmark has not fought Germany, it cannot therefore be classified as a "conquered" nation. Operating under the assumption that the war will be short, the Dane's goal is to buy time with the Germans while projecting the appearance of cooperation. The challenge lies in creating inventive ways to undermine German objectives without provoking direct confrontation. Subtle tactics such as work slowdowns, for example, hinder the German effort to extract resources. To contest German dominion over Danish life, the country engages in a sudden renaissance of Danish culture and a swelling of national pride, manifesting itself in public songfests and a festival commemorating King Christian's birthday. Not all the resistance is exclusively nonviolent. Sabotage by an aggressive Danish underground invites harsh reprisals from the Germans.

In the spring of 1943, however, Danish workers strike for higher wages, and in August, strikes against German countermeasures take place in 33 Danish cities and towns. This form of resistance outstretches Germany's ability to control the country. When the Danish government refuses direct orders to prohibit public meetings or impose curfews or press censorship on its own people, Germany puts it out of business and quickly places troops at railroad stations, power plants, factories, and other key facilities. In September, word leaks out that the Nazis are about to round up Danish Jews for exportation. This galvanizes Danish citizens into active and potentially life-threatening resistance. To evade their pursuers, most Jews are funneled to neutral Sweden by Danish resisters. In a testament to human determination, only 472 out of roughly 8,000 Danish Jews are lost to Hitler's "final solution." In 1944, a watershed year for the resistance, more than 11 million copies of underground newspapers are published. That June, following a declared state of emergency, the entire city of Copenhagen goes on strike.

Infuriated, Germany floods the city with troops, cuts off water and electricity, and establishes a blockade. By July 2, 23 Danes have been killed and more than 203 are wounded. But the dauntless Danes persevere. Exasperated, the Germans abandon these punitive measures by July. Later that fall, when the Germans try to deport Danish police officials whom they believe are turning a blind eye to sabotage and disorder, Copenhagen goes on strike again, joined this time by 58 other cities and towns. Unintimidated by Gestapo arrests, civilians flock to the resistance movement; enrollment exceeds 45,000 at its highest point. In May 1945, war-ravaged Berlin succumbs to advancing Allied forces, prompting Germany to abandon Denmark altogether. Thanks to civic unity and non-cooperation, the Danes have denied the Germans much of the value of occupation and emerge largely unscathed from the war. Denmark Timeline Anti-German sabotage within occupied Denmark begins. July 1943 Anti-German strikes begin in Odense and spread across Denmark.

August 28, 1943 The Danish government rejects the German ultimatum to crack down on resistance; Danish ministers resign in protest. October 1943 Germans begin the round-up of Jews in Denmark; helped by other Danes, almost all the Jews escape to Sweden. September 16, 1943 The Freedom Council is established. June 26, 1944 Copenhagen workers start leaving work early; a general strike begins. July 3, 1944 German officials give in to the strikers' demands. May 4, 1945 Germany capitulates to Allies. Denmark People HERBERT PUNDIK was 12 years old in 1940 when the Germans entered Copenhagen. He joined the Danish resistance at the age of 15, but participated only briefly for fear of endangering his family. Like many other Danish Jews, Pundik and his family briefly went into hiding, before being smuggled to safety in Sweden. Mr. Pundik has written extensively about the Holocaust, including a book titled, In Denmark It Could Not Happen: The Flight of the Jews to Sweden in 1943.

In 1942, at the age of 18, AXEL LUNDJQUIST joined the Studenternens Skytte Foreing, an outlawed student sport club. Led by officers from the Danish Army, members of the club transformed themselves into a resistance group. Lunjquist also helped to hide Jews and transport them to safety. In 1944, he joined the armed resistance group Holger Danske. BORGE HOFF was 24 in 1940 and was working at Burmeister and Wains shipyard at the measuring and protecting attic. He joined the communists in early 1942. While at the shipyard, Hoff participated in an organized sabotage over the presence of Nazi guards in the shipyard, as well as a worker walkout. He joined a resistance group and assisted in a food relief campaign to victims of the war. Ten Commandments for Danes Arne Sejr was seventeen when the Germans invaded. On the first day of the occupation, he noticed that people in his small town were friendly to the German soldiers, and he was outraged. He went home and typed up twenty-five copies of a list of "commandments" to his fellow Danes: 1.

You must not go to work in Germany and Norway. 2. You shall do a bad job for the Germans. 3. You shall work slowly for the Germans. 4. You shall destroy important machines and tools. 5. You shall destroy everything that may be of benefit to the Germans. 6. You shall delay all transport. 7. You shall boycott German and Italian films and papers. 8. You must not shop at Nazis' stores. 9. You shall treat traitors for what they are worth. 10. You shall protect anyone chased by the Germans. Join the Struggle for the freedom of Denmark! Sejr then stuffed his list into the mailboxes of the most prominent people in his town. The commandments were later recopied and passed from hand to hand to people all over the country. Nonviolent National Defense Most stories of nonviolent action have been about movements to win rights or overthrow authoritarian regimes. In Denmark the challenge was different. The Danes used nonviolent action as a form of national defense against an invader. The resistance was not strong enough to defeat the German war machine – that was left to the military of the allied countries – but it protected Danish society and culture and frustrated Germany's efforts to exploit Danish resources.

The first stirrings of resistance were expressions of Danes' national identity. For example, students refused to speak German in language classes. "Songfests" brought people together to sing traditional Danish songs. In all these ways Danes asserted their autonomy. Strikes effectively challenged German control. In the summer of 1943 workers went on strike in dozens of cities in Denmark to protest curfews, the posting of troops inside factories and shipyards and the killings of civilians by soldiers. A year later a new curfew triggered a general strike in Copenhagen. Despite a military crackdown, the strikers held out until the Germans agreed to lift the curfew. The Germans learned that occupation carried a price in the form of civil disruption and lost production. The most spectacular act of self-defense came in the fall of 1943. Werner Best, the top German official in Denmark, ordered the arrest of all Danish Jews for Friday, October 1. At Rosh Hashanah services the Jewish community learned of the impending raids, and people immediately scattered into hiding.

All kinds of Danish organizations sheltered Jewish families – in private homes, in hospitals – and shuttled them to the coast, where fishing boats carried them across a narrow channel to neutral Sweden. In the end only 472 out of over 7,200 Danish Jews were captured by the Germans. The Danes could not physically expel the German forces, but they did rescue a large majority of the most threatened of their citizens from the jaws of the Holocaust. Denmark Analysis The occupation of a country subjects both the people and the invaders to a strange game of mutual suspicion: The occupier acts like a new owner and wants the tenants to behave and pay the rent on time, but those invaded feel violated – they know the country, by right, belongs to them, and while they cannot physically throw the occupiers out, they may well want to resist the invader's terms. Perhaps, if the invader finds the game is not worth the effort, he will leave. Or perhaps he will start killing uncooperative tenants. But the game gives one major advantage to those occupied: They will define the extent to which they are going to cooperate. And the offender, ironically, will have to defend his ill-gotten gains.

The Danish resisters took the offensive against German occupying forces. Through symbolic and cultural protests, they asserted their right to govern their own lives, and that strengthened public morale – which inspired bolder resistance. Through strikes, defiance at work sites, and damage to physical property, nonviolent resisters attacked the economic interests of the invaders. Through underground publishing, an alternate network of communication was established, to subvert the lies of the occupiers' propaganda. By involving so many civilians in strikes, demonstrations, and other forms of opposition, Danish resisters forced the Germans to stop violent reprisals and suspend curfews. They denied the Nazis their prime goal, on which other objectives depended: making the fact of occupation normal. By definition, a successful military invasion gives the occupier superiority on the ground and in the air, in the ability to use physical force and violence. Despite that, when a military invader loses control of what the people read and believe, of when and if they work, of how they spend their money – when the occupiers are constantly on the defensive, as they try to maintain their position – their ability to command events is detached from their ability to use violence.

War contorts the history of the nations it touches, but it also exhibits the greatness of their peoples. The Danes challenged the most barbaric regime of the modern period and did so not with troops or tanks but with singing, striking, going home to garden, and standing in public squares. Yet the power they brought to bear in resisting the Nazis did not come only from these things. It came first from the essential decision that tens of thousands of them made, to refuse the terms they were offered by their tormentors – and it came from the underground movement they built and the strategy they used, to fling that decision in the face of their enemy and constrict his ability to fight. Thanks to the civic solidarity that had nourished the resistance, Denmark emerged from the war in good condition. Allied authorities found that Denmark could not only feed itself but had surplus food to export to the rest of Europe. The Danes had withstood German occupation without undergoing many of the rigors experienced by other Europeans held down by the Nazis – a dividend of having resisted without violently tearing their society apart in the process.

Some Danes were disappointed that more of their countrymen did not, like many Norwegians, Greeks, or Serbs, pick up guns and fight their occupiers at every depot, pier, and airfield, but the watery lowlands of Denmark were not ideal maneuvering ground for armed partisans, and by the time the Germans were pressed on all fronts in Europe, the Danish resistance had imposed a different but discernible cost on Nazi capabilities. The Danes proved that however dreadful the opponent faced by those using nonviolent action, if resistance is resilient and imaginative, military sanctions are not enough to stamp out a popular movement – and violent reprisals may only harden the opposition. Knowing the Germans wanted normalcy in Denmark, the Danish resistance worked to deny them that, and it refrained from magnifying any disruption to the point of prompting overwhelming repression or endangering the lives of many civilians. If the Nazis, the cruelest killing machine in the century's history, could be kept off balance by Danish schoolboys, amateur saboteurs, and underground clergymen, what other regime should ever be thought invulnerable to nonviolent resistance? from "A Force More Powerful," by Peter Ackerman and Jack DuVall, published by St.

Martin's Press, 2000. Denmark Resources Danstrup, John. A History of Denmark. Copenhagen, Wivel: Copenhagen, 1947. Haestrup, Jorgen. Secret Alliance. Odense: Odense University Press, 1976. Petrow, Richard. The Bitter Years; The Invasion and Occupation of Denmark and Norway. New York: Morrow, 1974. Semelin, Jacques. Unarmed Against Hitler: Civilian Resistance in Europe, 1939-1943. Westport: Praeger, 1993. Thomas, John Orem. The Giant Killers: The Story of the Danish Resistance Movement. New York: Taplinger, 1975. A Brief History of Denmark A SHORT HISTORY OF DENMARK By Tim Lambert ANCIENT DENMARK The first humans in Denmark arrived about 10,000 BC after the end of the last Ice Age. The first Danes were Stone Age hunters and fishermen. However about 4,000 BC farming was introduced into Denmark. The earliest Danish farmers used stone tools and weapons. However about 1,800 BC bronze was introduced into Denmark.

Danish craftsmen soon became expert at making goods from bronze. By 500 BC iron was introduced into Denmark. The Iron Age Danes had contact with the Romans. They sold Roman merchants slaves, furs, skins and amber in return for Mediterranean luxuries. Furthermore by about 200 AD the Danes had started to use Runes (a form of writing) for inscriptions. After the fall of the Roman Empire in the West in the 5th century the Danes continued to trade with the eastern half of the Roman Empire, which became known as the Byzantine Empire. Like the rest of Europe Denmark suffered a terrible outbreak of plague in the 6th century, which killed a large part of the population. Despite this trade flourished and in the 8th century the first trading settlements in Denmark grew up at Hedeby and Ribe. VIKING DENMARK In the 9th century Denmark was divided into different kingdoms. However during the 10th century it became one. In the 9th and 10th centuries the Danes raided other parts of Europe such as England and Ireland. However they were more than just raiders.

The Danes created the first towns in Ireland, Limerick, Cork and Dublin. In the early 9th century the Danes raided English monasteries and took people as slaves. However in the later 9th century they turned from raiding to conquest. In 865 the Danes invaded England (which was then divided into 3 kingdoms). By 874 only the southernmost kingdom remained. However under their leader, Alfred the English defeated the Danes in 878. In 879 Alfred and the Danish leader Guthrum made a treaty. England was divided between them, the Danes taking the eastern part. Guthrum also became a Christian. The Danish part of England was called the Danelaw and over the following decades the English conquered it piece by piece. The English and the Danes settled down and lived together peacefully. However in 1002 Ethelred the Unready, king of England ordered the massacre of Danish settlers. Among the dead were relatives of the Danish king Sweyn Forkbeard. Sweyn became king of Denmark about 985 and in 1000 he conquered Norway.

Enraged by the murder of his relatives he attacked England and demanded money in compensation. Afterwards, for some years, Sweyn demanded money for not attacking England. Nevertheless in 1013 he drove out the English king Ethelred and he became king of England. However he died in 1014. His son Canute fled to Denmark, fearing the revenge of Ethelred. Moreover in 1015 Norway became independent of Denmark. However Ethelred died in 1016. Some of the English were willing to accept Canute as king but some elected a man named Edmund Ironside. The two fought for the crown. Edmund was defeated but Canute allowed him to rule part of England until his death. Conveniently Edmund died the same year (1016). Canute then became king of England as well as Denmark. In 1028 he also conquered Norway and became the ruler of a northern empire. However his empire did not long survive his death. England became independent in 1042 and Norway became independent in 1047.

In 826 a monk named Ansgar went to Hedeby to try and convert the Danes to Christianity, but he had little success. However about 960 King Harald Bluetooth became a Christian and most of his subjects followed. DENMARK IN THE MIDDLE AGES In 1047 Sweyn Estridson became king of Denmark. He increased the power of the crown and during his reign Denmark was divided into 8 bishoprics (areas presided over by a bishop). Sweyn was followed by 5 of his sons in turn. However in 1131 the kings son Magnus the Strong murdered one of his relatives Cnut Lavard, fearing that Cnut might try to claim the throne one-day. The result was civil war which dragged on for 26 years until Valdermar the son of Cnut became king of Denmark in 1157. Valdermar went to war with a people called the Wends who lived between the River Ellbe and the River Oder. In 1169 he captured an island called Rugen. In 1184 his son Absalon conquered Pomerania and Mecklenburg.

His brother Valdermar II, known as the victorious, followed him. Valdermar II was ambitious and he wished to control all the Baltic. By 1215 he controlled all the land between the Elbe and the Oder. In 1219 he invaded Estonia. He crushed the Estonians at the battle of Lydanis and became their ruler. However in 1223 Valdermar was captured by a German Prince. He was released in 1225 on condition he surrender all his conquests except Rugen and Estonia (in 1346 a Danish king, desperate for money sold Estonia). In Viking times land in Denmark was farmed on a 2-field system. One half was sowed with crops and one half was left fallow. In the 12th century a more advanced 3-field system was used. The land was divided into 3 large fields. One was sowed with Spring crops, one with autumn crops while the third was left fallow. Denmark grew steadily richer. Trade in the Baltic region prospered and Danish towns grew larger and more important.

However in 1349-1350 Denmark, like the rest of Europe was devastated by the Black Death, which probably killed 1/3 of the population. Later in the century a lady named Margaret became regent of both Denmark and Norway. In 1388 Swedish nobles rebelled against their king and declared Margaret regent of Sweden. In 1389 her soldiers captured the Swedish king although his supporters held out in Stockholm until 1398. In 1397 Erik, grandson of her sister was crowned king of Denmark, Sweden and Norway at Kalmar. This union of three kingdoms was called the Union of Kalmar. Its capital was Copenhagen. However in 1434 a rebellion broke out in Sweden. It spread and in 1348 Erik was deposed as king of Denmark. In 1439 he was deposed as king of Sweden and in 1442 as king of Norway. In 1440 he was replaced as king of Denmark by his nephew Christopher, who later became king of Sweden and Norway as well. However Christopher died in 1448 and union broke up.

In 1449 the Danes elected Count Christian of Oldenburg king. In 1481 John became king of Denmark. In 1483 he also became king of Norway. The Swedes also recognized him as their king but he was not actually crowned until 1497. Furthermore his reign over Sweden was short lived. In 1501 the Swedes rebelled against him. From 1506 to 1513 John fought against Sweden but failed to regain the Swedish crown. DENMARK IN THE 16th CENTURY Nevertheless his son Christian II was made King of Sweden in 1520. However his reign was short. The Danes rebelled against Christian and imprisoned him in 1523. His uncle was made King Frederick I of Denmark and Norway in his place. Meanwhile the Swedes chose one of their own people as king of Sweden. Afterwards Sweden was separated from Denmark forever. When Frederick I died in 1533 the Reformation was splitting Europe. His oldest son Christian favored Lutheranism, while his younger son, Hans, was brought up a Catholic. After Frederick's death the election of a new king was postponed for a year.

Then in 1534 the people of Lubeck sent an expedition under Count Christopher of Oldenburg to demand that the former king Christian II be released from prison and reinstated. The expedition landed in Zealand and civil war ensued. The people of Copenhagen supported the expedition and the people of Jutland rose in rebellion in support of ex-king Christian. However a man named John Rantzau, a Lutheran noble, crushed the rebellion in Jutland and the Danes defeated Lubeck at sea. In 1536 Copenhagen was starved into submission and the civil war, known as the Counts War ended. Subsequently Lutheranism became the religion of Denmark. Both Denmark and Sweden sought to control the Baltic States. The result was a war in the years 1563-1570. Neither side was able to totally defeat the other and the Peace of Stettin ended the war. The devastation caused by the war was followed by a long period of peace. However the king of Denmark was forced to pay for the war partly by imposing taxes on farmers and partly by charging duties on cargoes carried through the Sound.

DENMARK IN THE 17th CENTURY In 1611-1613 yet another war was fought between Denmark and Sweden. Neither side was able to inflict decisive defeat on the other. Meanwhile Christian IV (1588-1648) founded new towns in Denmark and gained overseas possessions. However Christian insisted on intervening in the Thirty Years War in Germany (1618-1648). However in 1626 the Danish army was severely defeated and was forced to retreat. The enemy army occupied Jutland for 18 months. In 1629 Christian made peace by the treaty of Lubeck. In 1643 Denmark and Sweden fought again. Denmark was defeated and was forced to make peace in 1645. The Danes and the Swedes fought again in 1658-1660. The Treaty of Copenhagen ended the War. For Denmark the terms were humiliating. The Danish king was forced to surrender territory to the Swedish king. The Swedes were also granted exemption from tolls charged on ships passing through the Sound. Nevertheless after the war the king of Denmark greatly increased his power.

In 1660 the Danish assembly, the Rigsdag, granted him autocratic powers. From then on the Danish king was an absolute monarch, at least in theory. in 1675-1679 Denmark and Sweden went to war again. The great Danish admiral Niels Juel defeated the Swedes at sea. Nevertheless after the war the Danes were forced to surrender Skane in Southern Sweden. DENMARK IN THE 18th CENTURY By 1700 the population of Denmark was about 2/3 of a million. During the 18th century Denmark was an overwhelmingly agricultural society. There was little industry. The peasants were not free. Each man had to live in the village he was born in between the ages of 4 and 40 and he had to spend some of his time working on his landlords land rather than his own. Denmark took part in the Great Northern War 1709-1720 against Sweden but at the wars end had little to show for it. However most of the 18th century was a peaceful one for Denmark and quite a large merchant navy was built up.

From 1784 Crown Prince Frederick was Regent of Denmark and he introduced reforms. Peasants were made free and no longer had to work on their lords land. Tenant farmers often became small landowners. Furthermore rich landowners no longer had the right to physically punish their tenants e.g. by whipping them. Trade was also deregulated and tariffs on imported goods were cut. DENMARK IN THE 19th CENTURY During the war the British navy tried to stop France importing war materials so they stopped and searched vessels from neutral countries. In 1794 Denmark and Sweden formed an armed neutrality to stop the British doing this .In 1800 Russia and Prussia joined. Britain decided to take action. In 1801 a British fleet under Nelson attacked a Danish fleet in Copenhagen Harbor and destroyed part of it. In 1805 the French fleet was destroyed at Trafalgar. Britain feared the French might seize the Danish fleet and use it to attack Britain. Therefore the British fleet attacked Copenhagen. The British ships bombarded the city and fired rockets at it. Parts of Copenhagen were burned. Copenhagen was forced to surrender and the British took the Danish fleet. Worse was to come.

In 1813 the Swedes attacked Norway. In 1814 Denmark was forced to surrender Norway to them. On a brighter note in 1814 universal primary education was introduced into Denmark. Moreover during the 19th century the kings power was gradually reduced. In 1834 the king created 4 assemblies called diets for the islands (including Iceland), Jutland, Slesvig and Holstein. Only men who owned a certain amount of property could vote and the diets only had the power to advise the king but it was a start Furthermore between 1837 and 1841 local self-government was created in Denmark. Yet the liberals demanded more reforms. So finally in 1849 King Frederick VII agreed to a new constitution. A new assembly was formed made up of 2 houses, the Folketing and Landsting. Freedom of the press and of religion were also granted in Denmark. Joined to Denmark were two duchies, Holstein and Slesvig. Holstein was German but Slesvig had a mixed German and Danish population. The Danes tried to make Slesvig an integral part of Denmark.

As a result a rebellion began in Slesvig-Holstein. The Prussians and other Germans intervened but the Tsar persuaded them to withdraw. The war against Slesvig-Holstein ended in January 1851. By agreements of 1851 and 1852 the Danes agreed not to try and make Slesvig closer to Denmark than Holstein. However war began again in 1864. Despite the agreement Denmark tried to absorb Slesvig in 1863. On 1 February 1864 Prussian and Austrian forces crossed the Eider. The Danes fought bravely but the Germans occupied Jutland and they captured the island of Als (a Danish stronghold). So on 20 July peace talks began. In October the two duchies were surrendered to Prussia and Austria by the Treaty of Vienna. Despite this disaster the Danish economy grew rapidly in the late 19th century. Land was drained for farming. The brewing and sugar beet industries boomed. Engineering and shipbuilding flourished. Meanwhile Copenhagen grew very rapidly. By 1911 it had a population of 560,000.

In 1870 only about 25% of the population of Denmark was urban but by 1901 it had reached 44%. (Today the figure is about 70%). DENMARK IN THE 20th CENTURY Denmark remained neutral during the First World War and in 1915 the constitution was changed to make it more democratic. Women in Denmark were granted the right to vote. Denmark suffered severely during the depression of the 1930s. Unemployment soared. At the worst point in 1932-1933 it reached 32%. The government responded by creating public works to reduce the numbers of unemployed. At the same time a number of laws were passed to create a generous welfare state. When the Second World War began in 1939 Denmark stayed neutral. However the Germans occupied Denmark in 1940. On 9 April 1940 the German army crossed the border and German troop transports sailed to Copenhagen. The Germans threatened to bomb Copenhagen and so the Danes surrendered. At first the Germans treated the Danes leniently as they wanted the Danish food supply. However Danish resistance gradually increased.

Acts of sabotage took place and on 29 August 1943 the Germans clamped down. They declared a state of emergency. The Danish army was disarmed and the Danish fleet was seized. The Danish cabinet was replaced by a group of civil servants who ran the country. However during the Second World War nearly 7,000 Jewish Danes were smuggled into Sweden. After the German surrender in May 1945 some 46 Danes were executed for collaborating with the enemy. However the country benefited from Marshall Aid, which was given by the USA in the years 1948-1953. It helped Denmark to recover and in 1949 Denmark joined NATO. Then in 1953 the Danish constitution was changed. The 1960s were years of prosperity for Denmark. There was full employment. Danish agriculture became highly mechanized and Danish industry grew rapidly. In 1973 Denmark joined the Common Market (forerunner of the EU). Meanwhile television began in Denmark in 1951. Unfortunately in the late 1970s the Danish economy deteriorated. Unemployment rose.

(It reached 10% in 1983). In the 1980s the government introduced austerity measures to try and curb inflation. Copenhagen by Jonathan Collins DENMARK IN THE 21st CENTURY However in the early 21st century the Danish economy began to flourish and unemployment was low. Like the rest of Europe Denmark suffered a recession in 2009 but soon recovered. Today Denmark is a prosperous country with a high standard of living. Today the population of Denmark is 5.5 million. 1947 - Historical Events - On This Day On This Day Events 1 - 200 of 408 Jan 1 Benelux agress to work related issues Jan 1 Britain nationalizes its coal industry Jan 1 WTTG TV channel 5 in Washington, D.C.

(MET) begins broadcasting Jan 1 33rd Rose Bowl: #5 Illinois beats #4 UCLA, 45-14 Jan 1 13th Sugar Bowl: #3 Georgia beats #9 North Carolina, 20-10 Jan 1 13th Orange Bowl: #10 Rice beats #7 Tennessee, 8-0 Event of Interest Jan 2 Mahatma Gandhi begins march for peace in East-Bengali Pacifist and Spiritual Leader Jan 3 1st opening session of Congress to be televised Jan 3 William Dawson becomes 1st black to head congressional committee Jan 4 "Park Avenue" closes at Shubert Theater NYC after 72 performances Jan 4 "Show Boat" closes at Ziegfeld Theater NYC after 417 performances Event of Interest Jan 4 Emilio G.

Segrè and Carlo Perrier announce technetium, a previously unknown element and the first artificially synthesized chemical element Physicist and Nobel Laureate Jan 6 Ray Lindwall smashes 100 v England in MCG Test Jan 6 Pan American Airlines offers a round-the-world-ticket, the first commercial airline to do so Jan 7 Australia v England at MCG drawn in 6 days, 1st cricket draw in Australia since 1882 Event of Interest Jan 8 Gen George Marshall becomes US Secretary of State Military Leader Jan 8 Toronto Maple Leaf rookie Howie Meeker scores 5 goals in a game Jan 9 "Street Scene" opens at Adelphi Theater NYC for 148 performances Jan 9 Roger Sessions' 2nd Symphony premieres in SF Event of Interest Jan 9 Elizabeth "Betty" Short, the black dahlia , is last seen alive.

Murder victim Jan 10 "Finian's Rainbow" opens at 46th St Theater NYC for 725 performances Jan 10 British stop ships Independence & In-Gathering from landing in Israel Jan 10 Greek steamer "Himara" strikes a wartime mine in Saronic Gulf south of Athens with loss of 392 of 637 aboard Jan 15 The brutalized corpse of Elizabeth Short ("The Black Dahlia") is found in Leimert Park, Los Angeles, California.

Jan 16 Vincent Aurial elected president of France Jan 17 Ammunition factory explodes in Muiden, Netherlands, 16 die Jan 18 "Red Mill" closes at Ziegfeld Theater NYC after 831 performances Event of Interest Jan 18 Detroit Tigers sell Hank Greenberg to Pirates (for $25-35,000) Baseball Player Jan 18 Small river steamer sank on Yangtze River, kills 400 Jan 19 SS Himera runs aground at Athens, kills 392 Jan 20 Brigadier General Edwin K Wright, USA, becomes deputy director of CIA Jan 21 "Sweethearts" opens at Shubert Theater NYC for 288 performances Jan 21 Arthur Honegger's 4th Symphony premieres in Basel Jan 22 1st commercial TV station west of Mississippi opens, Hollywood CA Jan 22 KTLA TV channel 5 in Los Angeles, CA (IND) begins broadcasting Jan 24 NFL adds 5th official (back judge) & allows sudden death in playoffs Jan 26 KLM Dakota crashes near Copenhagen, 22 die Jan 28 "Bay Psalm

" book auctioned for a record $151,000 Event of Interest Jan 29 Arthur Miller 's "All My Sons" premieres in NYC Playwright Jan 29 35th Women's Australian Championships: Nancye Wynne Bolton beats Nell Hall Hopman (6-3, 6-2) Jan 29 35th Men's Australian Championships: Dinny Pails beats John Bromwich (4-6, 6-4, 3-6, 7-5, 8-6) Feb 1 Aleide de Gasperi forms Italian government of christian-dems & communists Feb 1 Dmitri Shostakovitch named professor at conservatoire of Leningrad Feb 1 NV United Dutch Fokker's Aircraft established Feb 3 -81°F (-63°C), Snag Yukon (North American record) Feb 3 1st black reporter in US Congressional press gallery (Percival Prattis) Event of Interest Feb 3 Bradman bowled by Alec Bedser for a duck in 4th Test Cricket Cricket Legend Feb 5 Bolewet Beirut becomes president of Poland Feb 6 Compton & Arthur Morris both complete dual tons in

 same Test Cricket Feb 7 Arabs & Jews reject British proposal to split Palestine Feb 8 Jan van der Hoorn wins 8th Dutch 11-cities skating race (10:51) Feb 8 KSD (now KSDK) TV channel 5 in St Louis, MO (NBC) begins broadcasting Event of Interest Feb 9 Bank robber Willie Sutton escapes jail in Philadelphia Bank Robber Feb 10 Netherlands Radio Union forms Feb 10 Province of Petsamo returned to Soviet Union by Finland Feb 10 WW II peace treaties signed Feb 12 Daytime fireball & meteorite fall seen in eastern Siberia Feb 12 Record 100.5-kg sailfish caught, C W Stewart, Galapagos Islands Event of Interest Feb 12 French fashion designer Christian Dior presents his first influential collection, named the "New Look" Fashion Designer Feb 15 "Toplitzky of Notre Dame" closes at Century Theater NYC after 60 performances Feb 16 Morton Gould's 3rd Symphony, premieres Feb 17 Dutch RC bishops publish manifest against "godless communism" Feb 17 Voice of America begins broadcasting to USSR Feb 18 24 die in a

 train crash in Gallitzin Pa Feb 18 Gian Carlo Menotti's opera "Telephone" premieres in NYC Feb 19 CBS radio premiere of Villa-Lobos' "Bachianas Brasilieras No 3" Feb 20 Chemical mixing error causes explosion that destroys 42 blocks in LA Feb 20 Earl Mountbatten of Burma appointed as last viceroy of India to oversee the move to independence.

Feb 20 State of Prussia ceases to exist. Feb 21 1st broadcast of 1st US TV soap opera "A Woman to Remember" Event of Interest Feb 21 1st instant developing camera demonstrated by Edwin Land in NYC Scientist and Inventor Feb 21 Whipper Billy Watson beats Bill Longson, to become wrestling champ Event of Interest Feb 23 Gen Eisenhower opens drive to raise $170M in aid for European Jews 34th US President & WWII General Feb 26 4th Golden Globes: The Best Years of Our Lives, Gregory Peck , & Rosalind Russell win Actor Feb 27 Paul-Emile Victor French polar expeditions organized Feb 28 Anti Kuomintang demonstration on Taiwan Feb 28 228 Incident: In Taiwan, civil disorder is put down with the loss of 30,000 civilian lives.

Mar 1 International Monetary Fund begins operation Mar 4 WWJ (now WDIV) TV channel 4 in Detroit, MI (NBC) begins broadcasting Mar 6 XB-45, 1st US 4-engine jet bomber, makes 1st test flight, Muroc, CA Mar 7 The Kuomintang and Communist Party of China resume full-fledged Civil War.

Mar 9 US Ladies' Figure Skating championship won by Gretchen Merrill Mar 9 US Men's Figure Skating championship won by Richard Button Mar 12 "Chocolate Soldier" opens at Century Theater NYC for 69 performances Mar 12 Belgian government of Huysmans resigns Event of Interest Mar 12 US President Harry Truman introduces Truman-doctrine to fight communism 33rd US President Mar 13 "Brigadoon" opens at Ziegfeld Theater NYC for 581 performances Mar 13 19th Academy Awards: "Best Years of Our Lives", De Havilland, March win Mar 15 John Lee appointed 1st black commissioned officer in US Navy Mar 16 Convair Liner, 1st US twin-engine pressurized airplane, tested Mar 19 Belgian government of Paul-Henri Spaak (Belgium Socialist Party) forms Victory in Battle Mar 20 180 tonne blue whale (record) caught in South Atlantic Mar 21 Pope Pius XII publishes encyclical Fulgens radiatur Mar 21 US President Harry Truman signs Executive Order 9835 requiring all federal employees to have allegiance to the United States Mar 2

1 Test Cricket debut of Bert Sutcliffe, NZ v England at Christchurch Mar 22 President Harry Truman signs executive order calling for loyalty Mar 24 Congress proposes 2-term limitation on the presidency Event of Interest Mar 24 John D.

Rockefeller Jr donates NYC East River site to the UN Financier and Philanthropist Mar 25 9th NCAA Men's Basketball Championship: Holy Cross beats Oklahoma 58-47 Mar 25 Agreement of Linggadjati ratified in Batavia Mar 25 Coal mine explosion in Centralia, Ill, claims 111 Mar 25 Last day of Test cricket for Walter Hammond (v NZ, Christchurch) Mar 29 "Beggar's Holiday" closes at Broadway Theater NYC after 111 performances Mar 29 101st Grand National: Eddie Dempsey aboard Caughoo wins Apr 1 1st Jewish immigrants to Israel disembark at Port of Eilat Apr 2 Carlo Terron's "Il diamente del profeta" premieres in Rome Apr 3 "Barefoot Boy with Cheek" opens at Martin Beck NYC for 108 performances Apr 4 Convention on International Civil Aviation goes into effect Apr 4 Largest group of sunspots on record Apr 4 UN's International Civil Aviation Organization forms Apr 6 11th Masters Golf Tournament: Jimmy Demaret wins, shooting a 281 Apr 6 1st Tony

 Awards: Arthur Miller , David Wayne & Patricia Neal win for theatrical achievements Apr 8 Largest recorded sunspot (7,000) observed Apr 9 Atomic Energy Commission confirmed Event of Interest Apr 15 Operations begin at Radio Netherlands World radio Apr 16 -17] Explosions & fire on French ship Grandcamp Apr 16 Lens to provide zoom effects demonstrated (NYC) Apr 16 Massive explosion & fire kills 522 in Texas City, Tx Apr 17 Jackie Robinson bunts for his 1st major league hit Apr 19 51st Boston Marathon won by Yun Bok Soh of Korea in 2:25:39 Apr 19 AAU record for a 25-foot rope climb is set in 4.7 seconds Apr 19 French ship explodes in Texas City harbor, kills about 522 Apr 19 Stanley Cup: Toronto Maple Leafs beat Montreal Canadiens, 4 games to 2 Apr 19 Suh Yun Buck wins world record marathon (2:25:39) Event of Interest Apr 30 Boulder Dam renamed in honor of Herbert Hoover May 1 Cleve Indians abandon League Park to play all games at Municipal St

ad May 1 Lt General Hoyt S Vandenberg, USA, ends term as 2nd head of CIA May 1 Radar for commercial & private planes 1st demonstrated May 1 Rear Admiral Roscoe H Hillenkoetter, USN, becomes 3th director of CIA May 2 Eugene O'Neill's "Moon for the Misbegotten" premieres in NYC May 3 73rd Kentucky Derby: Eric Guerin aboard Jet Pilot wins in 2:06.8 May 3 New post-war Japanese constitution goes into effect.

May 5 Mississippi Valley flooding kills 16 & causes $850M in damage May 5 Pulitzer prize awarded to Robert Penn Warren (All the King's Men) May 7 "Kraft Television Theater" premieres on NBC Event of Interest May 17 "Street Scene" closes at Adelphi Theater NYC after 148 performances May 18 A's catcher Warren Rosar catches his 147th game without an error May 22 "Truman Doctrine" goes into effect, aiding Turkey & Greece May 22 1st US ballistic missile fired May 23 PC Hooft prize forms for literature May 25 Coal dust explosion rocks Centralia Coal Co's Mine #5 killing 111 May 30 Indianapolis 500: Mauri Rose wins in 4:17:52.159 (187.228 km/h) May 31 79th Belmont: Ruperto Donoso aboard Phalanx wins in 2:29.6 May 31 Communists seize power in Hungary May 31 Eastern DC-4 crashes between Ft Deposit & Perryville Md, kills 53 May 31

 Italian government of Gasperi forms Jun 1 OPA, which issued WW II rationing coupons, disbands Jun 1 Photosensitive glass developed Jun 2 "Louisiana Lady" opens at Century Theater NYC for 4 performances Jun 2 Hungarian premier Ferenc Nagy resigns Jun 3 British Viceroy of India Lord Mountbatten visits Pakistan Jun 4 "Louisiana Lady" closes at Century Theater NYC after 4 performances Jun 4 US House of Representatives approves Taft-Hartley act Jun 5 US Secretary of State George Marshall outlines "Marshall Plan" Jun 6 Treaty drawn for establishment of Intl Patent Institute Jun 10 Saab produces its first automobile.

Jun 11 WW II sugar rationing finally endd in US (began May 28, 1942) Jun 12 Babe Didrikson is 1st American to win British Women's Amateur Golf Champ Jun 13 1st night game at Fenway Park (Red Sox 5, White Sox 3) Jun 15 1st night game at Detroit Briggs Stadium (Tigers 4, Athletics 1) Jun 15 47th US Golf Open: Lew Worsham shoots a 282 at St Louis CC in MO Jun 16 1st network news-Dumont's "News from Washington" Christian X | king of Denmark | Britannica.com king of Denmark Christian X, (born Sept. 26, 1870, Charlottenlund, Den.—died April 20, 1947, Copenhagen ), king of Denmark (1912–47) who symbolized the nation’s resistance to the German occupation during World War II . Christian X. Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.

The eldest son of the future King Frederick VIII and Louise of Sweden and Norway, Christian became chief of the royal guard in 1898 and married Alexandrine of Mecklenburg-Schwerin. Becoming crown prince in 1906, Christian led the opposition to the sale of the Danish West Indies (now the U.S. Virgin Islands) to the United States , which ultimately took place in 1917. He assumed the throne on his father’s death in 1912. Christian attended the first in a series of meetings of Scandinavian kings during World War I at Malmö in December 1914. In June 1915 he signed the new constitution that provided for a two-chamber parliament with equal suffrage for men and women; he also gave his assent to the federal act of 1918 making Iceland an independent kingdom. In July 1920 he received a warm welcome in North Schleswig, the part of Schleswig-Holstein ceded to Denmark by Germany under the Treaty of Versailles (1919).

Christian X, detail from a portrait by Herman Videl, 1929 Courtesy of the Nationalhistoriske Museum paa Frederiksborg, Denmark During World War II, after the German occupation of Denmark began in 1940, Christian rode frequently on horseback through the streets of Copenhagen, showing that he had not abandoned his claim to national sovereignty . He rejected the Nazi demand for anti-Jewish legislation in September 1942 but was forced in May 1943 to condemn Danish sabotage of munitions works and railways. His speech against the occupation forces in August 1943, after fighting had broken out between the Germans and Danish resistance fighters, led to his imprisonment until the end of the war. He was succeeded on his death by his elder son, who became Frederick IX . Learn More in these related articles: Christianized | Article about Christianized by The Free Dictionary Christianized | Article about Christianized by The Free Dictionary Charlie. 1919--42, US jazz guitarist Christian a. a person who believes in and follows Jesus Christ b. a member of a Christian Church or denomination Christian kings in Denmark, Norway, and Sweden. The most important were: Christian I.

Born 1426; died May 21, 1481, in Copenhagen. King of Denmark from 1448 to 1481, of Norway from 1450 to 1481, and of Sweden from 1457 to 1464. Christian I was the founder of the Oldenburg royal dynasty (from the family of the German counts of Oldenburg). During his reign a personal union of Denmark and Schleswig-Holstein was established in 1460. His defeat at the hands of the Swedes at Brunkeberg in 1471 led to the virtual dissolution of the Danish-Swedish union. Christian II Born July 1,1481, in Nyborg; died Jan. 25,1559, in Kalundborg. King of Denmark and Norway from 1513 to 1523 and of Sweden from 1520 to 1523. Christian II tried to break the domination of the aristocracy by relying on the lower ranks of the nobility and the burghers.

He removed the aristocratic state council from power and granted the burghers a monopoly on foreign trade. He was the last to restore the Danish-Swedish union by force of arms and massacred the opposing Swedish aristocracy and burghers (the Stockholm Blood Bath of 1520). Christian II was overthrown by an uprising of the Danish nobility. Christian III. Born Aug. 12, 1503, in Gottorp; died Jan. 1, 1559, in Koldinghus. King of Denmark and Norway from 1534 to 1559. A protégé of the nobility and the clergy, Christian III ascended the royal throne after the defeat of Christian IPs followers (Count’s War of 1534–36). He implemented the Lutheran reformation in 1536. Christian IV. Born Apr. 12, 1577, in Frederiksborg; died Feb. 28, 1648, in Copenhagen. King of Denmark and Norway from 1588 to 1648 (a council of regents ruled until he came of age in 1596).

Denmark flourished during the reign of Christian IV. He promoted the development of trade and industry and strove to strengthen Danish supremacy in the Baltic and to consolidate Denmark’s influence in northern Germany. His first war with Sweden (Kalmar War, 1611–13) was successful, but his intervention in the Thirty Years’ War (1618–48) in 1625–29 on the side of the anti-Hapsburg coalition ended in failure. The second war with Sweden (1643–45) led to the crushing defeat of Denmark (the Treaty of Brömsebro). S. D. K OVALEVSKII Christian VIII. Born Sept. 18, 1786, in Copenhagen; died there Jan. 20, 1848. King of Denmark from 1839. Christian VIII was the grandson of Frederick V. As viceroy of Norway (from 1813) he refused to recognize the term of the Kiel Peace Treaty of 1814 on the transfer of Norway from Denmark to Sweden.

In May 1814 he was elected king of Norway but was not recognized by the great powers, and in October 1814 he abdicated. Christian did not participate in government affairs from 1818 to 1831. From 1831 to 1839 he was a member of the Privy Council. After he became king of Denmark in 1839, Christian opposed the peasant and liberal bourgeois movement in Denmark and the national liberation movements in Schleswig and Holstein. Christian IX. Born Apr. 8, 1818, in Gottorp; died Jan. 29, 1906, in Copenhagen. King of Denmark from 1863. Christian IX was the first Danish king of the Gliicksborg dynasty; he acquired his right to the throne from his marriage to a niece of Christian VIII. In 1901, under the pressure of the democratic and liberal bourgeois movement in the country, he granted to the parliament the right to form the Danish government.

Christian IX’s daughter, Louise Sophie Frederikke Dagmar, became in 1866 the wife of the Russian emperor Alexander III under the name of Empress Mariia Fedorovna. Christian X. Born Sept. 26, 1870, in Charlottenlund; died Apr. 20, 1947, in Copenhagen. King of Denmark from 1912 and of Iceland 1918 to 1944. Christian X was the son and heir of Frederick VIII. In World War II (1939–45) he gained popularity by his firmly unyielding attitude toward the fascist German occupation authorities. V. V. P

Question: What was the name of ten Kings of Denmark between 1448 and 1947?
Answer: Christian