What Happened Today

The General Framework Agreement for Peace in Bosnia and Herzegovina, better known as the Dayton Agreement for its signing in Dayton, Ohio, effectively ended the Bosnian War. The Bosnian War was a smaller part of the much larger Yugoslav Wars, which sprung from the dissolution of the former Communist state of Yugoslavia. Yugoslavia was a collection of six separate republics, divided along religious and ethnic lines. When Communism fell apart in the late 1980s, the separate republics wished to be more separate. Croatia went first, beginning a War of Independence in 1992 against Yugoslavia. Bosnia quickly followed suit, and "Yugoslavia" was really just Serbia. Yet all were at war, and Serbian populations in Croatia and Bosnia wished to have their own Republics. In Bosnia, the fighting was much worse. The Army of Republika Srpska, led by Ratko Mladic under the political leadership of Republika Srpska President Radovan Karadzic, carried out genocidal acts at Srebrenica in June of 1995 with the tacit consent of Yugoslavian President Slabodan Milosevic. At that moment, things looked hopeless. Then, in August, the Croatian Army undertook Operation Storm, pushing back Serbian troops from Croatian lines and threatening Serbians in Bosnia. With that, Croatia, Serbia, and Bosnia agreed to a framework for governing Bosnia and Herzegovina as a single nation divided along regional, ethnic lines, ending the Bosnian War.

Jose Antonio Primo de Rivera was the son of the Prime Minister of Spain under King Alfonso XIII, Miguel Primo de Rivera. The younger Primo de Rivera took a different approach than his father by creating a brand new political party after becoming a lawyer called the Falange de Espanola. The Falange was heavily influenced by the Italian Fascists and also admired the German National Socialists. In 1930s Spain this gained him some followers, but it also made him allied with the various monarchists, conservative Catholics, and military leadership that opposed the Spanish Republic's left leaning government. This gave Primo de Rivera a special influence on Spanish politics by being allied with General Francisco Franco's Confederación Española de Derechas Autónomas, or CEDA. This right-wing umbrella organization elevated Primo de Rivera, although Franco held real power. Yet when Primo de Rivera was held captive by the Republicans on illegal firearms charges, Franco and his fellow Nationalists did not do much to free him. Primo de Rivera would be executed by the Republicans, but his memory and legacy would be coopted by Franco and his ultimately successful effort in the Spanish Civil War.

Going into the 2004-2005 National Basketball Association, the two best teams in the Eastern Conference were the Indiana Pacers and the Detroit Pistons. Their first game at the Pistons' home arena The Palace of Auburn Hills would become famous, but not for the basketball. The Pacers controlled the game for most of the contest, and held a 97-82 lead with 45.9 seconds. At that point, Indiana's Ron Artest fouled Detroit's Ben Wallace by hitting him in the back of the head. Wallace responded by shoving Artest, which led to the benches clearing and a tussle happening. This was an unexceptional event in many ways. Then Ron Artest went to lay down on the scorers' table, in front of the radio broadcasters for the Pacers. While laying there, Artest was hit by a flying cup of Diet Coke. Immediately, Artest leapt into the stands, attacking the fan he thought had thrown the cup. He was actually mistaken. Artest would be joined by teammate Stephen Jackson. Jackson would then be followed my multiple players, although they were trying to pull back Artest and Jackson. As fans stormed the court and chaos ensued, the game was cancelled. Multiple players would be suspended in the aftermath, including Ron Artest being banned for the season, and security at NBA arenas was drastically changed.

By 1928, Walt Disney was a mildly successful cartoonist and animator. He also had lost his one popular character, Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, and was struggling to break through with his new character, Mickey Mouse. When he saw the movie The Jazz Singer, the Al Jolson vehicle that first had significant synchronized sound, he decided he needed to make a fully synchronized sound short animated cartoon starring Mickey Mouse. Rather than remaking his previous, non-distributed shorts starring Mickey Mouse into sound films, Disney created a brand new shortfilm, Steamboat Willie. Steamboat Willie featured Mickey Mouse tormenting the character of Pete, a large dog, on Pete's own steamboat, accompanied by his girlfriend Minnie Mouse. Most of the dialogue, which was entirely performed by Walt Disney himself, was essentially grunts and squeaks. More strikingly, there was an extended gag featuring the traditional song, "Turkey in the Straw," meaning the soundtrack was key to the entire film. When Steamboat Willie premiered, it became a sensation, introducing Mickey Mouse to the world and setting Walt Disney on his way to massive success.

Few monarchs have had a greater impact on a nation than Queen Elizabeth I did on England. When she took the throne, the truly remarkable thing was that she had even made it to 1558 and the age of 25. Elizabeth was the second child of Henry VIII, and the first child with his second wife Anne Boleyn. Henry's marriage to Anne Boleyn was the catalyst for the English Reformation, as he divorced his first wife Catherine of Aragon and bastardized his elder daughter Mary. Quickly, Henry had Anne executed, making Elizabeth a bastard at two years old. Eventually, Elizabeth's half brother Edward took the throne, furthering his father's Reformation by making England more Protestant. Then Edward died young, and Mary took the throne, returning England to Catholicism. Throughout her early life, Elizabeth was simultaneously a remarkably devoted servant to her siblings and a looming threat to the monarch. Yet when Mary passed away, Elizabeth turned out to be the best option for an heir. This made England Protestant once again, and allowed the Kingdom to enter into the Elizabethan age.

Peter Whatling was a farmer who had lost a hammer near his farm in Hoxne, Suffolk, so he asked his friend Eric Lawes to help him find it with his metal detector. Lawes ended up finding old coins, jewelry, and some tableware. Whatling and Lawes immediately reached out to authorities, and the Suffolk Archaeological Council came and excavated the site. What they found was a massive trove of Roman era coins, jewelry, and silver tableware that reframed the end of Roman Britain. The coins dated from 408 CE at the latest, meaning the Hoxne Hoard had to be buried around the time of the fall of the Roman Empire. The jewelry and tableware also showed some of the way wealthy people in Roman Britain might have lived. Additionally, Christian symbols such as the Chi-Ro were present, indicating a presence of Christianity in Britain at that time. Yet many of the key questions about the Hoxne Hoard remain unanswered. Precisely why someone would bury such a treasure is unclear, and the treasure contained in the Hoard would indicate that someone would have more extensive treasure elsewhere. Even so, none of that would be known without the efforts of Eric Lawes.

The Inca Empire was perhaps the greatest empire in the world in the early sixteenth century. Without the wheel, large beasts of burden, or a system of writing, the Inca united vast swaths of land up and down the Andes Mountains. Then a small group of Spanish soldiers led by Francisco Pizarro arrived and took them over. Pizarro was a soldier from the Extremadura region who, like many other Extremadurans, decided to find his fortune in the New World. After being part of the voyage that found the Pacific Ocean in Panama, Pizarro began hearing of a mighty city to the South where great stores of gold and silver lay. For almost a decade, Pizarro made a series of voyages down the coast, often accompanied by his half-brothers. Finally, in 1532, Pizarro encountered Atahualpa, the Sapa Inca, or ruler of the Inca Empire. At Cajamarca, he managed to take Atahualpa prisoner despite being vastly outnumbered. Then Pizarro regrouped, and, exactly one year later, marched on the Inca capital at Cuzco and easily took it. By entering Cuzco, Pizarro effectively conquered all the Incas and ruled the former greatest empire in the world.

When first graders Leona Tate, Gail Etienne, Tessie Prevost, and Ruby Bridges attended school on November 14, 1960, the schools in the city of New Orleans were officially no longer segregated. Yet it wasn't quite that simple. This was six years after the decision in Brown v. Board of Education that required school desegregation across the nation, and politicians in Louisiana were hoping to go even longer before integration. Most importantly, integration was contested even after the official moment of desegregation. Leona Tate, Gail Etienne, and Tessie Prevost went to McDonogh No. 19 Elementary School, causing many white students to be pulled out rather than attending with African-American children. Ruby Bridges had it worse as she went to William Frantz Elementary School; she was the only black student, meaning she was accompanied by US Marshals and taught by just one teacher that was willing to teach her the whole year. Outside the school, a group of white parents known as the "New Orleans Cheerleaders" protested Bridges walking to school. New Orleans would not have fully integrated schools for over a decade.

Boxing has always had its share of violent injuries, and even deaths. But when Korean fighter Kim Duk-Koo collapsed after losing by technical knockout to Ray "Boom Boom" Mancini in a WBA Lightweight title match, his death four days later would trigger serious changes. Mancini was a second generation boxer who was a 21 year old champion and future star in 1982. His opponent at Ceasars Palace in November of 1982 was a lightly regarded and barely known Korean fighter who had grown up extremely poor and found a way to success through boxing. The match was closer than many commentators believed it would be, with Kim closing Mancini's eye early in the match. After the 10th round, however, the champion took the upper hand, and Mancini began to land flurries of punches on Kim. In the 14th, Mancini landed a hard right, missed with a left, and then knocked Kim down with another right. Kim would pull himself up on the ropes, but referee Richard Green stopped the match. Kim instantly collapsed and died four days later. His mother would commit suicide three months later, while Richard Green would also kill himself the following June. Ray Mancini would seem forever haunted by Kim's death. Boxing overall decided to make a wide range of changes that protected boxers' health.

The surrender of Japan to Allied forces occasioned many questions about what to do with the leaders of Japan. Following the model of the Nuremberg trials against Nazi German war criminals, which had begun in late 1945, the International Military Tribunal for the Far East sought to bring charges of war crimes against the leaders of Imperial Japan during their expansion into China and through World War II. Yet the Japanese trials were much more difficult, because the Nurenberg trials relied on the Nazis brutal efficiency and meticulous record keeping in commitring a genocide. In Tokyo, prosecutors instead argued that men like General Hideki Tojo, who led Japan as Prime Minister from 1941-1944, were so involved in a campaign for aggressive war that they were guilty under the notion of "command responsibility." There were also a number of actual war crimes committed by specific soldiers under specific generals. The prosecutors still had to argue that they were able to bring war crimes against the former leaders of Japan in such a scenario. In the end, seven men were sentenced to death, while a further sixteen were given life sentences when the trial finally adjourned.