Yes it really happened

[Laan Yaa Mo]

On this day 25 years ago, Hong Kong International Airport’s second runway opened
Aircraft landed as Tsuen Wan residents threatened to hold protests over noise

https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/tra ... e=homepage

[Laan Yaa Mo]

On this day

In 1937 200,000 people celebrated the grand opening of the Golden Gate Bridge, in San Francisco, by strolling across it. The US navy had wanted the bridge to be painted black and yellow for high visibility; in 1963 Jomo Kenyatta’s Kenya African National Union party won the country’s general election. The country was granted full independence from British rule on December 12, 1963, and became a republic on December 12, 1964. Kenyatta was president until his death on August 22, 1978, succeeded by Daniel arap Moi until the party’s defeat on December 30, 2002; in 1964 Jawaharlal Nehru, the prime minister of India, died aged 74 after suffering a stroke. He had been in power since independence was granted on August 15, 1947; in 2022 it was revealed that more than a million foreigners had been offered visas to live in the UK over the previous year, the highest figure on record, according to the Home Office. The UK granted 994,951 visas in the 12 months to March 2022. The UK also granted asylum to 15,451 people over the same period, taking the number given long-term residency to the highest since records began in 2005.

The Times

[Laan Yaa Mo]

on this day

In 1453 the city of Constantinople was captured by the Ottoman army of Sultan Mehmed II, and renamed Istanbul. The conquest marked the end of the Byzantine empire; in 1961 the Duke of Edinburgh became the first member of the royal family to give a TV interview. He talked to Richard Dimbleby about Commonwealth Technical Training Week; in 1969 Crosby, Stills & Nash released their eponymous debut album, featuring the singles Marrakesh Express and Suite: Judy Blue Eyes. The folk-rock supergroup was made up of David Crosby, Stephen Stills and Graham Nash; in 1985, 39 football supporters were killed at the European Cup final between Liverpool FC and Juventus at the Heysel Stadium in Brussels, Belgium. A wall collapsed as Juventus fans were trying to escape Liverpool fans who surged into their area an hour before kick-off; in 1999 the South African mountaineer Cathy O’Dowd became the first woman to reach the summit of Mount Everest from the south (May 25, 1996) and north sides.

[Laan Yaa Mo]

on this day

In 1593 Christopher Marlowe, the playwright and poet, was reported to have been (although this was contested) stabbed to death, aged about 29, from “a mortal wound above his right eye” during a quarrel over a bill in Deptford, near London. His reputation was summed up c 1601: “Wit lent from heaven, but vices sent from hell”. Among Marlowe’s works are Tamburlaine the Great, The Jew of Malta and The Tragical History of the Life and Death of Doctor Faustus; in 1757 Henry Addington, the British prime minister who temporarily ended hostilities between the UK and France, was born; in 1967 Jordan and Egypt signed a joint defence agreement. President Nasser of Egypt had declared: “Our basic objective will be the destruction of Israel. The Arab people want to fight”; in 1989 Chinese students built a Goddess of Democracy statue in Tiananmen Square in Beijing. The next week, government tanks and troops started clearing the square of pro-democracy demonstrators who had been gathering since April; in 1990 an import ban on British beef and live cattle was announced by France over fears of mad cow disease (Bovine spongiform encephalopathy, or BSE).

[Doodoo]

World MS Day
MS is a chronic progressive disease where the insulating covers of the nervous system are damaged.

[Laan Yaa Mo]

on this day

In 1731 Philip, Duke of Wharton, credited with founding the first Hellfire Club of high-society hell-raisers, died aged 32 from the effects of alcoholism. The “man of letters” was also described as “a drunkard, a rioter, an infidel and a rake”. He lost most of his fortune in the 1720 South Sea Bubble stock market crash; in 1837 the famous pantomime clown Joseph Grimaldi died. Clowns from all over the world pay their respects at his graveside in Islington, London, on the anniversary of his death; in 1879 Dr Werner von Siemens demonstrated the world’s first electric locomotive at a Berlin trade fair. The train, with three carriages each holding six passengers, carried more than 86,000 passengers in four months; in 1916 the Battle of Jutland began off northwest Denmark’s coast. It was the largest naval battle of the First World War, and although there was no decisive victory the battle secured British control of shipping lanes; in 1996 Timothy Leary, US psychologist and advocate of psychedelic drugs, died, aged 75. He popularised the 1960s counterculture phrase “turn on, tune in, drop out”. Richard Nixon (US president 1969-74) described Leary as “the most dangerous man in America”. Leary took another “trip” on April 21, 1997, when some of his remains were launched into orbit. In 2015, at the Burning Man festival in Nevada, the actress Susan Sarandon placed some of his ashes in an art installation which was later burnt.

[Laan Yaa Mo]

In 597 St Augustine, according to tradition, baptised individual Ethelbert of Kent. He was the first Anglo-Saxon individual to become a Christian; in 1162 Thomas Becket was ordained, to be consecrated as Archbishop of Canterbury the next day; in 1896 Guglielmo Marconi filed a patent for his wireless telegraphy apparatus; in 1959 Allen Ginsberg wrote his poem Lysergic Acid in San Francisco, the day after his 33rd birthday. He had taken LSD for the first time at a conference on LSD therapy; in 1994 an RAF Chinook helicopter crashed in the Mull of Kintyre in Scotland en route from Belfast to Inverness, killing all 29 people on board, including some of Britain’s top intelligence experts.

[Laan Yaa Mo]

JUNE 2

Today in Indian History

Historical Events

1965 2nd of 2 cyclones in less than a month kills 35,000 (Ganges River, India)
2014 Telangana with Hyderabad as its capital becomes India's 29th state after it is separated from Andhra Pradesh

Indian History Timeline
Famous Birthdays

1943 Ilaiyaraaja [R. Gnanathesikan], Indian film and concert composer (Thiruvasagam in Symphony), born in Pannaipuram, Tamil Nadu, British Raj (now India)

1956 Mani Ratnam, Indian film director, screenwriter and producer

Famous Deaths

1988 Raj Kapoor, Indian actor known as "the greatest showman of Hindi cinema" (Awaara, Boot Polish), dies of complications related to asthma at 63

1990 Shriram Sharma, Indian spiritual leader and founder of "All World Gayatri Pariwar", dies at 78

[Laan Yaa Mo]

on this day

In 1657 William Harvey, the English physician who pioneered discoveries on the heart and blood circulation, died aged 79. He concluded that “the blood in the animal body moves around in a circle continuously and that the action or function of the heart is to accomplish this by pumping. This is the only reason for the motion and beat of the heart”; in 1844 the last-known breeding pair of great auk died on Eldey island off the coast of Iceland. In a race by fishermen to catch the flightless birds an incubating egg was stood upon. The last-known sighting of the species was in 1852. In 1785 an explorer noted that if the killing of the birds did not end, “the whole breed will be diminished to almost nothing”; in 1956 third-class travel ceased on Britain’s railways; in 1981 Shergar won the Epsom Derby horse race by a record ten-length margin. On February 8, 1983, the Aga Khan’s stallion was stolen from stables in Co Kildare, held to ransom for £2 million but was never recovered; in 2016 Muhammad Ali, the three-time heavyweight boxing champion, died at the age of 74 (obituary, June 6, 2016).

[Laan Yaa Mo]

on this day

In 1070, according to legend, Roquefort cheese was created when a shepherd-boy came across the cheese and bread lunch he had left in a cave several days before. On the same date in 1411 Charles VI of France granted a monopoly to the people of Roquefort-sur-Soulzon; in 1878 Cyprus was ceded to Britain in return for the promise of military aid for the Turkish against the Russians; in 1920 the Treaty of Trianon was in France by the Allies of the First World War on one side, and Hungary on the other, establishing the borders of Hungary; in 1989 the massacre in Tiananmen Square, Beijing, China, occurred, with troops firing on civilians. Estimates of the death toll range from several hundred to thousands.


https://www.theguardian.com/world/artic ... sanmu-chen

2 Hongkongers taken away as police step up presence on 35th anniversary of Tiananmen Square crackdown

https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/pol ... e=homepage

Tiananmen Square anniversary: Chinese govt aims to 'suppress, censor, erase memory' of 1989 massacre

https://www.france24.com/en/video/20240 ... 9-massacre

[Doodoo]

Tiananmen Square who cares, long gone.

[Laan Yaa Mo]

Tiananmen Square who cares, long gone.

Yes, that is exactly how China wants you, and others, to react. Good on ya, Dodo. Some would call it 'the goldfish effect', and you have embraced it.

[Doodoo]

No being practical about the matter. The people of today just bring up new words to confuse others, such as wok, goldfish, smishing, jorts etc It has been how many years, and nothing has changed

[Laan Yaa Mo]

Is that your well-thought out excuse for ignoring about a historical event that holds significance for many people if not you? You may have not noticed, but a number of things changed in the aftermath of the massacre.

Give credit where credit is due. Papa Farang originated the goldfish tag.

[Doodoo]

Like I said who cares

[jackspratt]

Like I said who cares

That would be you.

If you didn't care, you wouldn't respond....... repeatedly.

[tamada]

No being practical about the matter. The people of today just bring up new words to confuse others, such as wok, goldfish, smishing, jorts etc It has been how many years, and nothing has changed

Yeah, new words like Holocaust, Nakba, etc.. It's all very practical.

[Laan Yaa Mo]

Tiananmen Square who cares, long gone.

However Doodoo, to others, June 4th still holds significance.

Gordon Feeney
10 HOURS AGO

China may have 'forgotten' Tiananmen. The free world hasn't.

Tiananmen crackdown: All mention of massacre blocked in Hong Kong
The performance artist Sanmu Chen was taken away by police when he performed an act of remembrance thirty-five years on

Richard Lloyd Parry
, Asia Editor
Tuesday June 04 2024, 5.00pm BST, The Times

It was over in a moment, and if you had not known what you were looking at, the events that unfolded at a Hong Kong underground station would have made no sense at all. It began when a man with a grey beard and ponytail paused as he crossed the road and performed an obscure charade.

He gestured as if pouring water, then mimed drinking from a cup. He raised an index finger and traced intricate shapes on the air. And then the photographers were all over him, the police took him away and the plain-clothes policemen were snarling at bystanders.

The man was Sanmu Chen, a performance artist, arrested and questioned about “causing a disturbance”. The suspected offence was symbolic, encapsulated in those small gestures and his clothes.

he pouring represented the traditional rite of tipping wine onto the ground to mourn the dead. The shapes traced into the air were the Chinese characters for 8964, representing June 4, 1989, the day of the Tiananmen Square massacre.

Chen’s clothes — white shirt, black trousers, and a white carrier bag — were the same as the most famous figure to emerge in the aftermath — the nameless “Tankman” who stood in front of a line of tanks, after the People’s Liberation Army shot down the students gathered in the square, demanding political reform.

But even these subtle, fleeting allusions were too much for the Hong Kong authorities (although Chen was eventually released without charge). Exactly 35 years after Tiananmen, it is harder than ever for people in the Chinese speaking world event to refer to the massacre, let alone mourn its victims or demand justice and accountability from the government that ordered it.

Chen’s performance was in Causeway Bay, close to Victoria Park, which in the past was the site of the biggest Tiananmen memorial gatherings in the world. In 2019 more than 180,000 people gathered here to light candles, sing songs and pray. The following year thousands of people defied a ban on the event imposed on the grounds of the pandemic.

This week, however, such a gathering is unimaginable. “If a person does anything in private without the intention of inciting hatred of the government, I don’t think an offence is committed,” Regina Ip, a member of Hong Kong’s ruling executive council, said. But other than private acts inside the home, the smallest acts of commemoration are being suppressed.

Instead a festival is being held in Victoria Park by organisations that support the Chinese government. Hundreds of uniformed police, and more in plain clothes, have been positioned around the city, including a counterterrorism unit and a riot squad equipped with a vehicle known as the Sabre-toothed Tiger, which fires tear gas.

There have also been arrests. Since the end of last month officers have detained eight people accused of using an “upcoming sensitive date” to “incite hatred” against the authorities through social media posts. They are the first arrests under Article 23, a Hong Kong law supplementary to the National Security Law imposed on the territory by the mainland Beijing government in 2020.

They included Chow Hang-tung, former head of the now defunct Hong Kong Alliance, which organised the memorial vigils in Victoria Park, who is already serving a prison term for “incitement to subversion”.

“Criminals will use excuses to mislead the public and engage in actions endangering national security,” said Hong Kong’s chief executive, John Lee, who is effectively appointed by the communist government of Beijing. “We must stay vigilant.”

In Beijing, public discussion of the massacre has always been completely suppressed, but the authorities are taking no chances. Chang’an Avenue, which leads to Tiananmen Square, was closed to cyclists and pedestrians on Monday night. The Tiananmen Tower, which overlooks the square, was closed all day on Tuesday, and the online booking system for the square itself was not taking reservations.

Chinese social media platforms, such as WeChat and Douyin, prevented users from changing their profile images, probably to stop anyone replacing them with symbols of commemoration, such as lighted candles and the June 4 date.

Civilians known as “stability maintenance volunteers” have been mobilised to keep an eye out in residential neighbourhoods in central Beijing and guards have also been positioned on pedestrian bridges

Despite the heavy security presence, activists in Hong Kong, such as Chen, have tried to commemorate the massacre within the confines of the law.

The newspaper Christian Times used to publish commemorative prayers to mark June 4. Its latest issue has a blank front page. “In order not to betray history and our readers, we have no choice but to turn the text into blank spaces and a white page to respond to the current situation,” the paper explains.

Others have got around the ban on references to June 4 by referring to the day as “35th May”. Even this has attracted official disapproval — the Hunter bookshop, operated by a former pro-democracy politician, reported that police officers had taken the names of its customers after it placed the number 35/5 in its window.

Within Greater China only in Taiwan are people free to mark the day. President Lai of Taiwan said: “Commemoration of June 4th is not only for June 4th, but also because people around the world who are committed to democracy and freedom share the same belief: Only democracy and freedom can truly protect the people.

“The memories of June 4th will not disappear in the torrent of history, and we will continue to work hard to keep this historical memory alive and touch everyone who cares about Chinese democracy.”

https://www.thetimes.com/world/asia/art ... -tdnt76gsp

[Doodoo]

This is the second time you have replied and again I couldnt care less

It is an old, old issue and I am tired of hearing about OLD ISSUES.

The people of this world havent changed much since WW2 to improve. Infact they continue to find ways to kill each other, maim one another, whine about what others wont have They continue to protest what some have and others dont have
We provide bandage fixes (organizations, treaties Etc) that somehow give people their 15 minute of fame to say to other "See I did something good so lets move on"
Will the Chinese problem go away, NO and why? its because certain factions dont want it to go away. And how come? because it makes money for someone, no matter what their way of thinking is

[Laan Yaa Mo]

Nice to see you still care with another reply on this thread. Keep it coming.