This Week in Argentina - Isabel Perón

 

This Week’s Historical Theme: Argentina

 

29 June 1974

 

A significant event throughout the history of Argentina is Isabel Perón taking office as Argentine President following her husband’s death. Isabel Perón was a former dancer and Juan Perón's third wife. Juan Perón was an army officer who joined a military coup in 1943 against Argentina's civilian government, establishing a military dictatorship. He continued to grow in influence becoming vice-president in 1944. Though he was ousted in 1945 by a subsequent coup and imprisoned, he was soon released due to mass worker organizations, which his mistress, Eva Duarte, helped organize. Following his release on 17 October, he married Eva, later known as Evita, much to his advantage as her immense popularity with the working class became a valuable political resource.

 

Juan Perón became president in 1946, winning widespread support with his vision of social justice and economic independence but became increasingly authoritarian, jailing his political opponents and censoring the press. Despite this, their immense popularity as a couple won him his 2nd term as president. However, when Evita died of cancer in 1952, support for him dwindled. Three years later he was ousted by yet another military coup. After 18 years in exile, he returned to Argentina in 1973 and won the presidency alongside his third wife, Isabel Peron, who was elected as vice president. In 1974, Juan died of heart disease, and she assumed the position as president, becoming the first female president in the world. Unfortunately, she was only president from 1974-76 as she inherited a nation suffering from serious economic and political strife and was not able to keep hold of power. Following a sharp rise in political terrorism, she was deposed by a right-wing coup d'état on 24 March 1976 and was imprisoned for 5 years on a charge of abuse of property. Upon her release in 1981, she settled in Madrid, Spain where she still lives to this day.

 

Want to find out more about Isabel Perón? Click here for more information, or here for more about Evita Perón.

 

This Week in Canada - Kim Campbell

This Week’s Historical Theme: Canada 

25 June 1993 

A significant event throughout the history of Canada is Kim Campbell being sworn in as Canada's first and only female prime minister. Born in British Columbia in 1947, Avril Phaedra Douglas "Kim" Campbell studied law and political science. She entered Canadian politics in 1986 when elected to the British Columbia legislature as a Conservative. In 1988 she was appointed minister of Indian affairs by Conservative Prime Minister Brian Mulroney (PM from 1984-1993), and in the same year she became Canada's first female attorney general. In this role she most notably aided the increase in gun control across the country. In 1993 she was appointed minister of national defence and veteran's affairs. Later that year, PM Brian Mulroney reigned due to the unpopularity of his economic reforms, giving Campbell the chance to run for Conservative Party leadership.

In a close contest, she was elected at a national conference on 13 June and took office on 25 June 1993 as the 19th prime minister and 1st female prime minister of Canada. Despite winning widespread public approval, she was forced to hold a general election in October the same year. Voters had become fed up with the Conservative Party due to the higher taxes and constitutional crisis under Mulroney. On 25 October, the Conservative Party's 9-year rule came to an end as they were reduced to 2 seats in the House of Commons. Campbell was discharged from office on 4 November 1993. Also having lost her seat, she retired from politics after her short 4-month tenure as the final Progressive Conservative prime minister.

Want to find out more about Kim Campbell? Click here for more information, or here for more about women leaders around the world.

 

 

This Week in The United States - Juneteenth

 This Week’s Historical Theme: The United States 

19 June 1865 

A significant event throughout the history of the United States that occurred in June is Juneteenth. This marked the day that Union soldiers arrived in Texas with the news that the American Civil War was over, and slavery was abolished. As a mixture of the words “June” and “nineteenth”, Juneteenth was coined as the day of commemoration for the end of slavery in America. Despite Abraham Lincoln issuing the Emancipation Proclamation two years prior in 1863, a lack of Union troops in the rebel states made it difficult to enforce. While some historians argue this delay was caused by poor communication in the time period, other historians believe the Texan slave owners purposely continued their practices.

On this day, 250,000 enslaved people were freed, many of whom left the state immediately in search of family members they had been separated from. For many African Americans, Juneteenth is considered an Independence Day. In 1979 Texas became the first state to make Juneteenth an official holiday, followed by many others. On 17 June 2021, President Joe Biden signed legislation officially declaring it a federal holiday.  

Want to find out more about Juneteenth? Click here for more information, or here for more about Biden's new legislation.

 

This Week in Word War II - Italy Declares War on France and Britain

This Week’s Historical Theme: World War II 

10 June 1940 

A significant event throughout the history of World War II that occurred in June was Italy's declaration of war against France and Great Britain. After withholding formal allegiance to either Germany or the Allies, Benito Mussolini, dictator of Italy, allied with the former, perhaps due to German occupation in Paris. While Hitler was sceptical of this sudden break from neutrality, stating “First they were too cowardly to take part. Now they are in a hurry so that they can share in the spoils,” Mussolini claims he wanted in before the German occupation in Paris. In actuality, Mussolini was wary of waging an all-out war against Britain and France due to Italy's limited supply of raw materials.

 

While this was a hindrance for the Allies who had been attempting to ensure Italy's neutrality with promises of land in Africa, the Italian troops, who were mobilized in France on 20 June 1940, were easily held at bay by French forces. All Italians between the ages of 16 and 70 who had lived in Britain less than 20 years were immediately interned and President Roosevelt publicly promised his support for France and Britain. By September 1943, Italy had surrendered to the Allies and Mussolini was deposed from power.

Want to find out more about the role of Italy in WWII? Click here for more information, or here for more about Benito Mussolini’s motives. 

 

This Week in the United States - The American Civil War

This Week's Historical Theme: The United States

2 June 1865

A significant event throughout the history of the United States is the end of the American Civil War. The American Civil War (1861-65) was a war between the United States, and the 11 Southern states that seceded from the Union and formed the Confederate States of America. The conflict started because of the uncompromising differences between the free states and the slave states concerning their views on what power the government should have to prohibit slavery. When Republican Abraham Lincoln became president in 1860, he pledged to keep slavery out of the territories. Subsequently, 7 slave states in the deep South seceded from the Union forming the Confederate States of America. The Lincoln administration refused to recognise the legitimacy of secession fearing it would discredit democracy and fragment the United States into several small, conflicting countries.

On 12 April 1861, at Fort Sumter in Charleston Bay, the Confederate army open fired on the federal garrison, claiming the fort as their own, and triggering the start of the Civil War. In response, Abraham Lincoln issued a proclamation calling for 75,000 volunteer soldiers to quell the Southern "insurrection", and 4 more slave states seceded and joined the Confederacy. Four years later, on 2 June 1865, Confederate General Edmund Kirby Smith, commander of Confederate forces west of the Mississippi, signed the surrender terms offered by Union negotiators. Smith's surrender is generally regarded as the formal end to the American Civil War as the last Confederate army ceased to exist.

Want to find out more about how the American Civil War ended? Click here for more information, or here for more about the after effects.

This Week in Space Exploration - Mariner 9

 

This Week's Historical Theme: Space Exploration

30 May 1971

A significant event throughout the history of space exploration is the Mariner 9 departing for Mars. The U.S. unmanned space probe was launched to gather scientific information on Mars, the fourth planet from the sun. It is one of the greatest technological achievements in human history. The space craft was launched on 30 May 1971 and entered the planets obit on 13 November the same year. As the first spacecraft to orbit a planet other than Earth, Mariner 9 sent back more than 7,000 pictures of the "Red Planet" and succeeded in photographing Mars in its entirety.

It circled Mars twice each day for almost a year gathering data on the atmospheric and surface composition, density, pressure, and temperature. When Mariner 9 first arrived, Mars was completely obscured by dust storms which persisted for a month. Once these cleared, the space probe revealed the enormous volcanos and a gigantic canyon stretching 3,000 miles across the planet's surface. The probe also recorded what appeared to be dried riverbeds, suggesting the ancient presence of water and perhaps life on the planet. It also sent back the first close-up images of the Martian Moon. Its transmission ended on 27 October 1972.

Want to find out more about Mariner 9? Click here for more information, or here to find out more about the history of space exploration.