World History

A spontaneous popular uprising in Petrograd, in response to the wartime decay of Russia's economy and morale, culminated
in the February Revolution and the toppling of Nicholas II and the imperial government in March 1917. The tsarist autocracy
was replaced by the Russian Provisional Government, which intended to conduct elections to the Russian Constituent
Assembly and to continue fighting on the side of the Entente in World War I.

At the same time, workers' councils, known in Russian as "Soviets", sprang up across the country. The Bolsheviks, led by
Vladimir Lenin, pushed for socialist revolution in the Soviets and on the streets. On 7 November 1917, the Red Guards
stormed the Winter Palace in Petrograd, ending the rule of the Provisional Government and leaving all political power to
the Soviets. This event would later be officially known in Soviet bibliographies as the Great October Socialist
Revolution. In December, the Bolsheviks signed an armistice with the Central Powers, though by February 1918, fighting had
resumed. In March, the Soviets ended involvement in the war and signed the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk.

A long and bloody Civil War ensued between the Reds and the Whites, starting in 1917 and ending in 1923 with the Reds'
victory. It included foreign intervention, the ex*****on of the former tsar and his family, and the famine of 1921, which
killed about five million people. In March 1921, during a related conflict with Poland, the Peace of Riga was signed,
splitting disputed territories in Belarus and Ukraine between the Republic of Poland and Soviet Russia. Soviet Russia had
to resolve similar conflicts with the newly established republics of Estonia, Finland, Latvia, and Lithuania.

On 28 December 1922, a conference of plenipotentiary delegations from the Russian SFSR, the Transcaucasian SFSR, the
Ukrainian SSR and the Byelorussian SSR approved the Treaty on the Creation of the USSR and the Declaration of the
Creation of the USSR, forming the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. These two documents were confirmed by the first
Congress of Soviets of the USSR and signed by the heads of the delegations, Mikhail Kalinin, Mikhail Tskhakaya,
Mikhail Frunze, Grigory Petrovsky, and Alexander Chervyakov, on 30 December 1922.

The United States Declaration of Independence is the pronouncement adopted by the Second Continental Congress meeting in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on July 4, 1776. The Declaration explained why the Thirteen Colonies at war with the Kingdom of Great Britain regarded themselves as thirteen independent sovereign states, no longer under British rule.
With the Declaration, these new states took a collective first step toward forming the United States of America. The declaration was signed by representatives from New Hampshire, Massachusetts Bay, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Delaware, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia.

The Lee Resolution for independence was passed by the Second Continental Congress on July 2 with no opposing votes. The Committee of Five had drafted the Declaration to be ready when
Congress voted on independence. John Adams, a leader in pushing for independence, had persuaded the committee to select Thomas Jefferson to compose the original draft of the document, which Congress edited to produce the final version. The Declaration was a formal explanation of why Congress had voted to declare independence from Great Britain, more than a year after the outbreak of the American Revolutionary War. Adams wrote to his wife Abigail, "The Second Day of July 1776, will be the most memorable Epocha, in the History of America"- although Independence Day is actually celebrated on July 4, the date that the wording of the Declaration of Independence was approved.

After ratifying the text on July 4, Congress issued the Declaration of Independence in several forms. It was initially published as the printed Dunlap broadside that was widely distributed and read to the public. The source copy used for this printing has been lost and
may have been a copy in Thomas Jefferson's hand. Jefferson's original draft is preserved at the Library of Congress, complete with changes made by John Adams and Benjamin Franklin, as well as Jefferson's notes of changes made by Congress. The best-known version of the Declaration is a signed copy that is displayed at the National Archives in Washington, D.C., and which is popularly regarded as the official document. This engrossed copy (finalized, calligraphic copy) was ordered by Congress on July 19 and signed primarily on August 2.

The Lonnie Zamora Incident.

On the 24th of April, 1964, at approximately 5pm, Sergeant Lonnie Zamora was pursuing a speeding car south of the small town of Socorro, New Mexico.

Zamora was in the middle of the chase when he "heard a roar and saw a flame in the sky to the southwest some distance away, possibly a 1/2 mile or a mile." He halted his pursuit and went to investigate, as he feared a nearby dynamite warehouse had exploded.

As he approached the site, he saw a silver object and what he first thought was a "overturned white car ... up on radiator or on trunk". Standing near the object, were two humanoid figures in white suits, they resembled "small adults or large kids" in size.

"The object was like aluminum—it was whitish against the mesa background, but not chrome, and shaped like the letter "O", Zamora would later claim.

While he was on his radio to police dispatcher, Nep Lopez, trying to describe what he was seeing, he heard a metallic door closing and realised the two figures had vanished. The object then let off a small rumble before a bright flame propelled the craft about 20 feet off the ground, hovering, then slowly disappeared into the heavens.

Within 90 minutes, U.S Army officials from the nearby White Sands Missile Range came to investigate. No human tracks were seen by anyone, only perfect circles dented into the ground where the craft had been. Government agencies, including Project Blue Book, investigated the incident also and officially labelled it as "unknown". Though, ufologists claim it to be "one of the most credible [extraterrestrial] encounters on record."

The incident sparked immense national and international coverage, and Zamora became so tired of the subject that he eventually avoided both ufologists and the Air Force altogether, and took a job managing a gasoline station. He died on the 2nd of November, 2009, in Socorro from a heart attack. He was 76 years old.

Canada Day! Canada Day (French: Fête du Canada) is the national day of Canada. A federal statutory holiday, it celebrates the anniversary of Canadian Confederation which occurred on July 1, 1867, with the passing of the Constitution Act, 1867 where the three separate colonies of Canada, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick were united into a single Dominion within the British Empire called Canada. Originally called Dominion Day (French: Le Jour de la Confédération), the holiday was renamed in 1982 when the Canadian Constitution was patriated by the Canada
Act 1982. Canada Day celebrations take place throughout the country.

The Maple Leaf Forever — HM Irish Guards This song had great popularity in English Canada from its composition in 1867, partly because it was authorized for use in schools in many provinces. Because...