Sergo Ordzhonikidze (1886–1937) was a Bolshevik and Soviet politician
from Georgia. Joining the Bolsheviks at a young age, he became an
important figure and was arrested repeatedly. After the Bolsheviks came
to power in 1917, he oversaw the invasions of Azerbaijan, of Armenia,
and of Georgia. He backed their union into the Transcaucasian Socialist
Federative Soviet Republic in 1922, one of the original Soviet
republics, and served as its first secretary until 1926. He then oversaw
Soviet economic production and led a massive overhaul; he implemented
five-year plans, helped create the Stakhanovite movement and was named
to the Politburo. He was reluctant to join the campaign against so-
called wreckers and saboteurs in the early 1930s, causing friction with
Joseph Stalin. Before a meeting where he was expected to denounce
workers, Ordzhonikidze shot himself. He was posthumously honoured, and
several towns and cities in the Soviet Union were named after him.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sergo_Ordzhonikidze>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1872:
HMS Challenger departed Portsmouth on a scientific expedition
that laid the foundations of oceanography.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Challenger_%281858%29>
1937:
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, the first full-length cel-
animated feature in film history, premiered at the Carthay Circle
Theatre in Los Angeles.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snow_White_and_the_Seven_Dwarfs_%281937_film%29>
1970:
The Grumman F-14 Tomcat (example pictured), the primary fighter
aircraft of the U.S. Navy for nearly 30 years, made its first flight.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grumman_F-14_Tomcat>
1995:
In accordance with the Oslo II Accord, Israeli troops withdrew
from Bethlehem in preparation for the transfer of control to the
Palestinian National Authority.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bethlehem>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
Sherman necktie:
(US, rail transport, historical, chiefly in the plural) A segment of
rail that has been heated and twisted into a loop, as a means of
destroying a railway.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Sherman_necktie>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
The tide has turned! The light will come again! In a new dawn,
in a new day, The sun is rising! Io! Evohe! Blessed Be!
--Starhawk
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Starhawk>
Show replies by date