1972 Atari release video game Pong
1898 C.S. Lewis born – read the Narnia books. Readalouddad recommends this version. They’re probably good to read from age 8.
Yugoslavia Republic Day (no longer observed because it doesn’t exist!)
Yugoslavia means Southern Slavs; it was founded in 1918 after WWI. At first it was called the Kingdom of Slavs, Croats and Slovenes but nobody really bothered calling it that – we called it the Versailles State as that was the treaty which founded it.
The prince regent of Serbia became king of Yugoslavia, King Alexander I. There was a shoot-out in his parliament in 1928; to help pull everyone together he suspended parliament, renamed the country Yugoslavia and redid the constitution. He resigned as dictator in 1931 and was assassinated three years later.
Supported by Italy and Germany, the Croats’ part of Yugoslavia declared itself ‘Croatia’.
In 1941 German, Italian and Hungarian forces invaded Yugoslavia. They split it up into Croatia, Bosnia, Herzegovina, Serbia and Slovenia.
The resistance was divided between pro-royalist, pro-Serb Chetniks and pan-Yugoslav Partisans led by Joseph Broz Tito. Of course, the problem with two resistance groups is that they wasted a lot of time fighting each other, and the Chetniks actually ended up being supported by the Axis Powers. Tsk.
The Partisans because the greatest guerilla resistance in occupied Western/Central Europe, and freed Yugoslavia by 1945.Tito became the head of Yugoslavia as an independent communist state.
When Tito died in 1980, all the different ethic groups wanted their own country. In 1990 the all-Yugoslav Communist party was dissolved and the republics of Macedonia, Serbia, Montenegro, Kosovo, Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina eventually emerged, after obviously lots of horrendous fighting, especially Kosovo. Serbia and Montenegro wanted to stay together as Yugoslavia, and weren’t officially named Serbia and Montenegro until 2003.
Also today:
Around the World with the Kids 