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Thread: This day in history |
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KLiK
Master Cruncher Croatia Joined: Nov 13, 2006 Post Count: 3108 Status: Offline Project Badges: 
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Thank you for this account which comes across as fairly balanced in spite of much ethnicity and many nationality emotions - albeit awfully complicated for the way my brain is twisted. Denmark was one of the countries supplying socalled peacekeeping forces. How do you and people in your echo chamber look at that effort from the UN? We needed them in the beginning, to organize troops & army. As we didn't had any & YNA was supporting rebel Serbs. Most of the times, UN was a base for secure exchange of "captured troops". Some of it was my friends, so I'm personally grateful for them & their help. The war ended with liberation actions of Flash & Storm. Both of which liberated the occupied areas, as we defined the boarders as they were in ex-republic of Yugoslavia. By then Croatian army was a formidable force, one that very soon entered NATO alliance. |
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Former Member
Cruncher Joined: May 22, 2018 Post Count: 0 Status: Offline |
 1912 - RMS Titanic hits iceberg Just before midnight in the North Atlantic, the RMS Titanic fails to divert its course from an iceberg, ruptures its hull, and begins to sink. Four days earlier, the Titanic, one of the largest and most luxurious ocean liners ever built, departed Southampton, England, on its maiden voyage across the Atlantic Ocean. While leaving port, the massive ship came within a couple of feet of the steamer New York but passed safely by, causing a general sigh of relief from the passengers massed on the ship’s decks. The Titanic was designed by the Irish shipbuilder William Pirrie and spanned 883 feet from stern to bow. Its hull was divided into 16 compartments that were presumed to be watertight. Because four of these compartments could be flooded without causing a critical loss of buoyancy, the Titanic was considered unsinkable. On its first journey across the highly competitive Atlantic ferry route, the ship carried some 2,200 passengers and crew. After stopping at Cherbourg, France, and Queenstown, Ireland, to pick up some final passengers, the massive vessel set out at full speed for New York City. However, just before midnight on April 14, the ship hit an iceberg, and five of the Titanic‘s compartments were ruptured along its starboard side. At about 2:20 a.m. on the morning of April 15, the massive vessel sank into the North Atlantic. Because of a shortage of lifeboats and the lack of satisfactory emergency procedures, more than 1,500 people went down in the sinking ship or froze to death in the icy North Atlantic waters. Most of the approximately 700 survivors were women and children. A number of notable American and British citizens died in the tragedy, including the noted British journalist William Thomas Stead and heirs to the Straus, Astor, and Guggenheim fortunes. The announcement of details of the disaster led to outrage on both sides of the Atlantic. The sinking of the Titanic did have some positive effects, however, as more stringent safety regulations were adopted on public ships, and regular patrols were initiated to trace the locations of deadly Atlantic icebergs. It may not have been your choice for today, GeraldRube. After all, President Abraham Lincoln was shot on this day in 1865 - but it gives me the chance to listen to 'My Heart Will Go On' and hear Leonardo di Caprio say 'Trust me!'  |
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GeraldRube
Master Cruncher United States Joined: Nov 20, 2004 Post Count: 2153 Status: Offline Project Badges: 
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1790
----------------------------------------Benjamin Franklin dies On April 17, 1790, American statesman, printer, scientist, and writer Benjamin Franklin dies in Philadelphia at age 84. Born in Boston in 1706, Franklin became at 12 years old an apprentice to his half brother James, a printer and publisher. He learned the printing trade and in 1723 went to Philadelphia to work after a dispute with his brother. After a sojourn in London, he started a printing and publishing press with a friend in 1728. In 1729, the company won a contract to publish Pennsylvania’s paper currency and also began publishing the Pennsylvania Gazette, which was regarded as one of the better colonial newspapers. From 1732 to 1757, he wrote and published Poor Richard’s Almanack, an instructive and humorous periodical in which Franklin coined such practical American proverbs as “God helps those who help themselves” and “Early to bed and early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise.” As his own wealth and prestige grew, Franklin took on greater civic responsibilities in Philadelphia and helped establish the city’s first circulating library, police force, volunteer fire company, and an academy that became the University of Pennsylvania. From 1737 to 1753, he was postmaster of Philadelphia and during this time also served as a clerk of the Pennsylvania legislature. In 1753, he became deputy postmaster general, in charge of mail in all the northern colonies. Deeply interested in science and technology, he invented the Franklin stove, which is still manufactured today, and bifocal eyeglasses, among other practical inventions. In 1748, he turned his printing business over to his partner so he would have more time for his experiments. The phenomenon of electricity fascinated him, and in a dramatic experiment he flew a kite in a thunderstorm to prove that lightning is an electrical discharge. He later invented the lightning rod. Many terms used in discussing electricity, including positive, negative, battery, and conductor, were coined by Franklin in his scientific papers. He was the first American scientist to be highly regarded in European scientific circles. Franklin was active in colonial affairs and in 1754 proposed the union of the colonies, which was rejected by Britain. In 1757, he went to London to argue for the right to tax the massive estates of the Penn family in Pennsylvania, and in 1764 went again to ask for a new charter for Pennsylvania. He was in England when Parliament passed the Stamp Act, a taxation measure to raise revenues for a standing British army in America. His initial failure to actively oppose the controversial act drew wide criticism in the colonies, but he soon redeemed himself by stoutly defending American rights before the House of Commons. With tensions between the American colonies and Britain rising, he stayed on in London and served as agent for several colonies. In 1775, he returned to America as the American Revolution approached and was a delegate at the Continental Congress. In 1776, he helped draft the Declaration of Independence and in July signed the final document. Ironically, Franklin’s illegitimate son, William Franklin, whom Franklin and his wife had raised, had at the same time emerged as a leader of the Loyalists. In 1776, Congress sent Benjamin Franklin, one of the embattled United States’ most prominent statesmen, to France as a diplomat. Warmly embraced, he succeeded in 1778 in securing two treaties that provided the Americans with significant military and economic aid. In 1781, with French help, the British were defeated. With John Jay and John Adams, Franklin then negotiated the Treaty of Paris with Britain, which was signed in 1783. In 1785, Franklin returned to the United States. In his last great public service, he was a delegate to the Constitutional Convention of 1787 and worked hard for the document’s ratification. After his death in 1790, Philadelphia gave him the largest funeral the city had ever seen.  |
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Former Member
Cruncher Joined: May 22, 2018 Post Count: 0 Status: Offline |
Thank you for choosing Benjamin Franklin - one of those amazing personalities I tend to confuse with each other - GeraldRube.
What a life this man led! One more renaissance man in the Thomas Jefferson class. His proverb "Early to bed and early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise" has crossed the Atlantic and live in Denmark in this form: "Tidligt op og tidligt i seng det er sundt for en lille dreng" - it rhymes and means: "Early up and early to bed that is healthy for a little boy" whereas the other one "God helps those who help themselves" reminds me of the works of the genial painter who decorated the great hall at our parliament. He put little satirical motifs and bon mots into his work of art, and the most quoted is "God tempers the wind to the shorn lamb" - which to us tax payers in Denmark is a clear reference to the level of taxation ...  |
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KLiK
Master Cruncher Croatia Joined: Nov 13, 2006 Post Count: 3108 Status: Offline Project Badges:
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On 1st of May 1995. in Croatia:
----------------------------------------Operation Flash (Croatian: Operacija Bljesak) was a brief Croatian Army (HV) offensive conducted against forces of the self-declared Republic of Serbian Krajina (RSK) from 1–3 May 1995. The offensive occurred in the later stages of the Croatian War of Independence and was the first major confrontation after ceasefire and economic cooperation agreements were signed between Croatia and the RSK in 1994. The last organised RSK resistance formally ceased on 3 May, with the majority of troops surrendering the next day near Pakrac, although mop-up operations continued for another two weeks. Operation Flash was a strategic victory for Croatia resulting in the capture of a 558-square-kilometre (215 sq mi) salient held by RSK forces centred in and around the town of Okučani. The town, which sat astride the Zagreb–Belgrade motorway and railroad, had presented Croatia with significant transport problems between the nation's capital Zagreb and the eastern region of Slavonia as well as between non-contiguous territories held by the RSK. The area was a part of United Nations Confidence Restoration Operation (UNCRO) Sector West under the United Nations Security Council peacekeeping mandate in Croatia. The attacking force consisted of 7,200 HV troops, supported by the Croatian special police, arrayed against approximately 3,500 RSK soldiers. In response to the operation, the RSK military bombarded Zagreb and other civilian centres, causing seven fatalities and injuries to 205. Forty-two HV soldiers and Croatian policemen were killed in the attack and 162 wounded. RSK casualties are disputed—Croatian authorities cited the deaths of 188 Serb soldiers and civilians with an estimated 1,000–1,200 wounded. Serbian sources, on the other hand, claimed that 283 Serb civilians were killed, contrary to the 83 reported by the Croatian Helsinki Committee. It is estimated that out of 14,000 Serbs living in the region, two-thirds fled immediately with more following in subsequent weeks. By the end of June, it is estimated that only 1,500 Serbs remained. Subsequently, the personal representative of the Secretary-General of the United Nations Yasushi Akashi criticised Croatia for "mass violations" of human rights, but his statements were refuted by the Human Rights Watch and to some extent by the United Nations Commission on Human Rights rapporteur Tadeusz Mazowiecki. It was beginning of liberating all occupied of Croatia's territory by rebel Serbs, which were militarized & heavily helped out by Yugoslav National Army, which commanded everything from Belgrade (Serbia). & bringing war in Croatia to the end. More here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Flash |
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KLiK
Master Cruncher Croatia Joined: Nov 13, 2006 Post Count: 3108 Status: Offline Project Badges:
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On 2nd & 3rd of May 1995. in Croatia:
----------------------------------------The Zagreb rocket attacks were a series of two rocket attacks conducted by the Army of the Republic of Serbian Krajina that used multiple rocket launchers to strike the Croatian capital of Zagreb during the Croatian War of Independence. The attack killed seven and wounded over 200 Croatian civilians and was carried out on 2 May and 3 May 1995 as retaliation for the Croatian army's offensive in Operation Flash. The rocket attacks deliberately targeted civilian locations. Zagreb was the largest of several cities hit by the attack. It was the only instance in the entire war in Croatia that cluster bombs were used in combat. The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) characterized the attack as a crime against humanity and convicted Croatian Serb leader Milan Martić of ordering the attack. The first attack occurred on 2 May, at 10:25 in the morning. At the time, many civilians were in the streets. The targets hit included the Strossmayer promenade, Petrinjska street and Vlaška street where a tram full of passengers was hit. The Classical Gymnasium in Zagreb located in the city centre was also hit, as were Pleso and its airport. In total, five civilians were killed and 146 injured. The second attack occurred the following day, at 12:10 in the afternoon. The children's hospital in Klaićeva street, the Croatian National Theatre building (which housed Russian, Ukrainian and British ballet dancers at the time, some of whom were wounded) and the Courthouse at Nikola Šubić Zrinski Square were among those hit. Two civilians were killed that day and 48 injured, which were less than the day before due to many people avoiding public areas following the first attack. Most of the missiles targeted the city center and surrounding streets, which were most likely to be filled with civilians in the morning. In total, seven people were killed and about 200 injured (of which about 100 seriously) from these attacks. On October 10, 2013, a cluster bomb which failed to detonate was discovered on the roof of the Klaićeva children's hospital, 18 years after the attacks. After surgery on several patients had been completed, the Zagreb police bomb disposal squad was given clearance to detonate the ordnance. No one was injured in the detonation. More here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zagreb_rocket_attacks |
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Former Member
Cruncher Joined: May 22, 2018 Post Count: 0 Status: Offline |
Just one of the coincidences that I find so interesting, KLiK:
Radovan Karadžić was a psychiatrist at the hospital in my city. During the summer of 1970 he got part of his education here. Specializing in paranoia. |
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KLiK
Master Cruncher Croatia Joined: Nov 13, 2006 Post Count: 3108 Status: Offline Project Badges:
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Just one of the coincidences that I find so interesting, KLiK: Radovan Karadžić was a psychiatrist at the hospital in my city. During the summer of 1970 he got part of his education here. Specializing in paranoia. That puts some things in "perspective". |
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GeraldRube
Master Cruncher United States Joined: Nov 20, 2004 Post Count: 2153 Status: Offline Project Badges:
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Saturday, 05 May 2018
----------------------------------------Please Don’t Celebrate Karl Marx’s 200th Birthday Written by Steve Byas Please Don’t Celebrate Karl Marx’s 200th Birthday Karl Marx was anti-religion, anti-private property, and anti-family. His philosophy led to misery for untold millions. Karl Marx was born in Trier, in the German Confederation, on May 5, 1818, 200 years ago today. His was not a “working-class” family, as both his mother and father were descended from scholars, professionals and rabbis. While Marx is certainly a central figure in the history of communism, he was by no means the lone originator of communism. And his background demonstrates that communism did not spring from the toiling masses of the working class. The reality is that Marx, like almost all socialist revolutionaries, was a product of academia and self-proclaimed intellectual secret societies, not the grim factories found in the early days of the Industrial Revolution. His father, Heinrich, defected from the Jewish faith, and joined the Lutherans, largely to maintain his lucrative law practice. When Karl was placed in a university-preparatory school in 1830, it was a privilege open only to about a quarter of the town’s population. Marx was sent off to the University of Bonn to follow in his father’s profession of law, but he spent far too much time in local taverns, drinking too much and getting into fights. The next year, Marx went to the University of Berlin, switched from law to philosophy, and became a much more serious student. It was here that he became immersed in a host of radical leftist ideas. He soon became a devotee of Georg Wilhelm Hegel’s philosophy of “dialectics.” Simply put, this theory postulated that repeated interaction with a new framework of perception would lead to a new framework, and that the process would repeat itself over and over. It was not the only radical influence upon Marx. His professor of legal history, Edward Gans, was an advocate of the Saint Simonians, early French socialists. Another Hegel disciple, Bruno Bauer, was a lecturer at Berlin who became a mentor to young Marx. He wrote Historical Criticism of the Synoptic Gospels. Bauer argued that the gospel accounts were pious forgeries, and that Jesus had not even existed. While Marx obtained a doctorate in 1841, his hopes of becoming a university professor were dashed, largely because of his association with Bauer. Marx dabbled in journalism off and on for the next several years — never earning a great amount for his articles, though he did raise his name identification throughout Europe, and even in America. Probably the only real friend Marx ever had was Friedrich Engels, the son of a textile manufacturer. Engels was a convert to atheism and radicalism, and the two traveled to England in 1845 to research English political economists at the Manchester Public Library. On their way back to Brussels, where he was now living, they stopped in London to meet some English and German radicals that Engels had met the previous year — a secret society known as The League of the Just. The group’s goal was to unite all the socialist movements across Europe. By 1847, Marx had become increasingly involved with the League. With its emergence from a host of secret societies in Europe, the exact origins of “communism,” a variant of revolutionary socialism, will probably never be known. However, it should be quite clear that communism did not originate in the mind of one frustrated academic named Marx. His importance in the history of communism is that the League of the Just decided to change its name to the Communist League, and they hired Marx and Engels to write the platform — The Communist Manifesto — of the new political party they were forming. Marx’s sources for this work were many, including the French radicals such Jean-Paul Marat, a prominent atheist and Jacobin, who wrote, “The proletarians have nothing to lose but their chains.” Among the planks found in the Manifesto are abolition of private property, a heavy and graduated progressive income tax, abolition of the rights of inheritance, centralization of credit in the hands of the state, and free education for all children in public schools. Even a cursory reading of these planks reveals that Marxism is not just an abstract 19th century philosophy. Perhaps the greatest fallacy of communism is its atheism. Marx called religion “the opiate of the people,” a phrase he borrowed from Bauer. He believed that religion kept the workers sedated, causing them to not rise up and throw off their chains. The rejection of private property is another fallacy, rooted in the rejection of biblical morality. And so is his rejection of the family. “The closing years for Karl Marx were sterile, lonely ones,” Cleon Skousen wrote in The Naked Communist. Two daughters committed suicide. His own health declined rapidly, particularly after his long-suffering wife died in 1881. That was followed by the unexpected death of another daughter, then two months later his own death on March 18, 1883. He was just 64 years old. Marx was buried at Highgate Cemetery in London, where his friend Engels read a funeral oration. At the time of his death, it appeared the socialist tide had ebbed. Yet, within a generation, the first communist state was established in Russia. Other communist states followed, and by the end of the 20th century communist rulers had killed some 100 million people. It is uncertain how the world would be different today had Marx never been born, or if his life had taken a different path. But we can safely say that the world is much different today because of him, and that this difference was not for the good. https://www.thenewamerican.com/culture/histor...arl-marx-s-200th-birthday |
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KLiK
Master Cruncher Croatia Joined: Nov 13, 2006 Post Count: 3108 Status: Offline Project Badges:
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1st Croatian parliamentary election, 1990
----------------------------------------Parliamentary elections were held in the Socialist Republic of Croatia between 22 and 23 April 1990; the second round of voting occurred on 6–7 May. These were the first free, multi-party elections held in Croatia since 1938, and the first such elections for the Croatian Parliament since 1913. Voters elected candidates for 356 seats in the tri-cameral parliament; the turnout in the first round ranged between 76.56% and 84.54% for various parliamentary chambers. In the second round, the turnout was 74.82%. The Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) won 205 seats, ousted the League of Communists of Croatia – Party of Democratic Reform (SKH-SDP) from power and ended 45 years of communist rule in Croatia. The new parliament convened for the first time on 30 May, elected Franjo Tuđman as President of the Croatian Presidency and soon after renamed the office to President of Croatia. The election took place during a political crisis in the Balkans, the disintegration of the League of Communists of Yugoslavia, and growing ethnic tensions between Croats and Serbs. Though the SKH-SDP was widely expected to win the elections, the HDZ took advantage of questions of nationality and political reform becoming the dominant issues of concern, and won by a wide margin. After the election, SKH-SDP lost a large proportion of its membership, many of whom crossed the party lines and joined the HDZ. The electoral campaign exacerbated ethnic rivalries, and mutually provocative actions led to deep mistrust. Fear was further fomented by authorities in the neighbouring Socialist Republic of Serbia. In the months following the elections, the Croatian parliament amended the Constitution of Croatia to remove the term "Socialist" from the republic's official name, and to remove communist symbols from the flag and coat of arms of Croatia. Political partie The first opposition groups in Croatia were set up as civic associations in 1989. The first among them was the Croatian Social Liberal Union (Croatian: Hrvatski socijalno-liberalni savez—HSLS), which was founded on 20 May 1989 and was later renamed the Croatian Social Liberal Party. The Croatian Democratic Union (Croatian: Hrvatska demokratska zajednica—HDZ), which would later become the main opposition to the SKH, was founded on 17 June 1989 but was registered on 25 January 1990. The HDZ held its first convention on 24–25 February 1990, when Franjo Tuđman was elected its president. On 1 March 1990, the Coalition of People's Accord (Croatian: Koalicija narodnog sporazuma—KNS) was formed as an alliance of the Croatian Christian Democratic Party (Croatian: Hrvatska kršćanska demokratska stranka—HKDS), the Social Democratic Party of Croatia (Croatian: Socijaldemokratska stranka Hrvatske—SDSH), the Croatian Democratic Party (Croatian: Hrvatska demokratska stranka—HDS), the HSLS and five independent candidates; Savka Dabčević-Kučar, Ivan Supek, Miko Tripalo, Dragutin Haramija and Srećko Bijelić, who were prominent figures of the 1971 Croatian Spring political movement. On 17 February 1990, the Serb Democratic Party was founded,[17] but failed to spread its organization significantly beyond Knin. Generally, organizational skills of the parties varied significantly; only SKH candidates stood for election in every constituency. The HDZ did not field candidates in 82 constituencies (25 for the Council of Municipalities and 57 for the Council of Associated Labour). On 5 February, Croatian authorities registered the first seven political parties, including the SKH, HDZ, HSLS and several other members of the KNS. Eighteen political parties and many independent candidates took part in the election. 1,609 candidates ran for seats in the parliament. On 20 March, the SKH decided to change its name to League of Communists of Croatia – Party of Democratic Reform (Croatian: Savez komunista Hrvatske – Stranka demokratskih promjena—SKH-SDP). Serbs rallying in campaign Petrova Gora rally A rally held at Petrova Gora on 4 March had a significant impact upon ethnic homogenization. It was not formally associated with any party standing in the election; it was organized by the municipalities of Vojnić and Vrginmost, and the Yugoslav Independent Democratic Party. According to the then-mayor of Vrginmost, the two municipalities had organized the rally to show their support for brotherhood and unity—a Titoist concept whereby all of Yugoslavia's ethnic groups would live in harmony—instead of letting it become a Serb nationalist event. The rally was attended by tens of thousand Serbs who heard mainly pro-Yugoslav speeches about the threat posed by the HDZ and the unfavourable position of Serbs in Croatian society. The SKH-SDP condemned the rally in advance as being harmful to inter-ethnic relations and potentially capable of increasing Croatian nationalism. Croatian media linked the rally to the anti-bureaucratic revolution in neighbouring Serbia and depicted it as a protest demanding the overthrow of the Croatian government. Conversely, Serbian media equated the SKH-SDP with the HDZ, declared the entire Croatian political spectrum nationalist and said Serbs should not take part in Croatia's electoral process. Benkovac rally A HDZ rally in Benkovac, held on 18 March, also led to substantial media coverage in Croatia and Serbia, and significantly influenced the general atmosphere surrounding the election campaign. The event drew several thousand HDZ supporters and several hundred Serbs who booed speakers and threw missiles at them. During Tuđman's address, a 62-year-old Serbian man, Boško Čubrilović, approached the podium. When he was stopped by security, Čubrilović drew a gas pistol. He was thrown to the ground; the gun was confiscated and shown to the crowd and described as the gun meant to kill Tuđman. The rally disintegrated into a mass brawl that was stopped by police. Croatian media described the incident as an assassination attempt. Čubrilović was charged with threatening the security staff, for which he was tried and convicted in late 1990. The incident increased ethnic tensions and firmly positioned ethnic issues as an important theme of the election campaign. Croatian media described the incident as an attempt to destabilize Croatia, while Serbian media said the events in Benkovac embodied the legitimate fears of Croatian Serbs brought on by the rise of Croatian nationalism embodied by Tuđman and the HDZ. Aftermath The elections were the first free and multiparty elections held in Croatia since 11 December 1938 elections for the National Assembly of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, and were the first such elections for the Croatian parliament since 16 December 1913. SKH-SDP graciously accepted HDZ's electoral victory, but the defeat led to substantial losses of party members. Those who left SKH-SDP included traditionalist communists and Croatian Serb party members who followed the lead of Borislav Mikelić. 97,000 members of SKH-SDP switched their political allegiances and joined HDZ. By June, SKH-SDP membership dropped from 298,000 to 46,000. Following a plan designed to coincide with the change of regime in Croatia, and in neighbouring Slovenia, the General Staff of the Yugoslav People's Army (Croatian: Jugoslavenska Narodna Armija—JNA) moved in to confiscate Croatia's and Slovenia's Territorial Defence (Croatian: Teritorijalna obrana—TO) weapons to minimize the possibility of armed resistance from the two republics. The plan was executed on 14 May before the newly elected parliament convened. Unlike Slovene authorities—which salvaged nearly a third of the TO stockpile—Croatia was caught unprepared and the JNA seized all Croatian TO weapons, effectively disarming the republic's security forces. An exception was made in cases of Serb-populated areas, where local TO depots were left intact or even augmented by the JNA. The weapons would only be recaptured in late 1991 in the Battle of the Barracks, or returned in its aftermath by the JNA. Croatian Serb response Serbian nationalism in Croatia was well developed long before HDZ took power, but legislation and especially nationalist rhetoric used by HDZ fed that nationalism. An association of Serb municipalities was already established in Knin ahead of the elections. Civilians armed by the authorities of Serbia patrolled the area as Croatian control waned in the region. The Serbian government responded to HDZ's electoral victory by stating that Croatian authorities intended only to harm Croatian Serbs, exacerbating the already tense situation and supporting extremists among the SDS ranks. Provocative actions of extremists among HDZ further served SDS hardliners' goals to instill fear among Serbs. On 25 July, hours after the parliament adopted the amendments, Serb National Council (SNC) was set up at a political rally in Srb and the Declaration on sovereignty and autonomy of Serbian nation was adopted. On 1 August, the SNC met in Knin, elected Milan Babić as its president and announced a referendum on Serb autonomy in parts of Croatia with Serb-majority populations. It was scheduled for the period from 19 August to 2 September. Croatian authorities declared the plan illegal on 3 August. On 17 August, Croatian authorities planned to restore their control of Knin and deployed police via Benkovac and Obrovac towards the town. The Airborne Unit of the special police was ferried by helicopters from Zagreb as reinforcements. Knin police inspector Milan Martić deployed Knin police against the Croatian forces, and mobilized police reservists in the area to fell trees and block road access to the town, earning the event the moniker Log Revolution. The JNA deployed Yugoslav Air Force jets to intercept the helicopters and Croatian authorities backed down. The SNC referendum went ahead and produced support for an "independent status" of Croatian Serbs. Babić consolidated power over the region, which soon became the Serbian Autonomous Oblast Krajina (SAO Krajina). As SAO Krajina gradually consolidated and expanded areas under its control, armed clashes in Pakrac and Plitvice Lakes ensued by March and April 1991, sparking the Croatian War of Independence. By that time, 28 of the 37 ethnic Serb members of the Croatian parliament, including all five SDS representatives, had left the parliament. Link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Croatian_parliamentary_election,_1990 |
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