Kaala Prayanam

  Lyndon B. Johnson, the then American President, addressed state crises on 4th January 1965. The Vietnam War dominated his Presidency and rapidly diminished his popularity.  Lyndon B. Johnson featured domestic achievements under his "Great Society" agenda. The reforms addressed civil rights, poverty, healthcare, education, and the environment. Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act of 1964, banning discrimination on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin. The Voting Rights Act of 1965 outlawed discriminatory voting practices like literacy tests, enfranchising millions of African Americans. The Social Security Amendments of 1965 created Medicare for the elderly and Medicaid for low-income individuals, providing healthcare access to millions. His "War on Poverty" launched programs like Head Start, food stamps, Legal Services, and Job Corps to combat economic disadvantage. Johnson passed the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, boosting federal aid to schools ...

  Benito Mussolini, on 3rd January 1925, suspended the Italian Parliament and declared himself the Dictator of Italy, taking the title "Il Duce" (the leader). Mussolini founded the Italian Fascist Party and was called 'Il Duce' (the leader). As Il Duce, he ruled Italy from 1922 till his dismissal in 1943 following Italy's collapse in World War II. Mussolini organized the March on Rome in 1922 and was appointed prime minister, the youngest in history until Matteo Renzi's appointment in 2014. Following this, he destroyed the opposition forces. Aspiring to create a totalitarian state, he established dictatorial authority by legal and extraordinary means. In strong alliance with Hitler's Nazi Germany, Mussolini sought to establish his own empire. He annexed Abyssinia (Ethiopia) and joined the war on the side of Germany in 1940, just before the Fall of France. Italy did not have the military capability to conduct a lengthy war with the US and the British Empire...

  Logo of the erstwhile Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. The Soviet Union was formally proclaimed with six republics on 30th September 1922.  The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was established on 30.12.1922 by the representatives of the Russian, Ukrainian, Byelorussian, and Transcaucasian Republics at the First All-Union Congress of Soviets in Moscow. This declaration emphasized voluntary union, equal rights among republics, and the right to secede, with centralized control over foreign policy, defense, finance, and communications. It framed the USSR as a step toward global socialism. The treaty accompanying the declaration outlined federal structures, with the All-Union Congress of Soviets as the highest body. This foundation influenced the 1924 USSR Constitution.

  Dutch colonial authorities arrested the prominent leader of the Indonesian national movement, Sukarno, and other key communist party leaders in Java on 29th December 1929. Sukarno was a leader of Indonesia's nationalist movement. He spent a decade in Dutch detention. Released by the invading Japanese forces, Sukarno and other nationalists supported the Japanese war. On the Japanese surrender, Sukarno and Mohammad Hatta declared Indonesia independent on 17.8.1945. Sukarno was appointed the state's first president. He resisted Dutch re-colonization. The Dutch acknowledged Indonesian independence in 1949. After a chaotic parliamentary democracy, Sukarno established an autocratic system called "Guided Democracy" in 1957. It ended the instability and rebellions. In the early 1960s, Sukarno moved leftwards, supporting the Indonesian Communist Party (PKI). With anti-imperialism, he got aid from the Soviet Union and China. Sukarno lost Western support. The 30 Sept Movement ...

  Thomas Paine in Luxembourg jail, sitting in a dimly lit cell. His face was illuminated by light streaming through a barred window, with scattered papers around him, representing his continued intellectual resistance. Paine, an English American revolutionary author, who influenced many like Jyotirao Phule, was arrested for treason on 28th December 1793.  Thomas Paine was arrested in France on 28.12.1793, charged with treason during the Reign of Terror. Paine, an English-born American revolutionary author of Common Sense, moved to France to support the French Revolution. He was elected to the National Convention. His opposition to the execution (instead of exile) of King Louis XVI and association with the moderate Girondin faction turned radicals like the Montagnards against him. He was tried in absentia on 26.12.1793, by a revolutionary tribunal, then arrested two days later at his Paris home by order of the Committee of General Security's president, Marc-Guillaume Alexis Vad...

  Benazir Bhutto, the first woman Prime Minister of the Muslim dominated nation Pakistan, was assassinated on 27th December 2007. Benazir Bhutto, as Pakistan's PM, advanced women's rights in a Muslim nation. Challenged patriarchal norms and led to greater female participation in politics, public life, and employment. She established the Ministry of Women's Development and reserved 5% quota for women in public sector jobs. Bhutto introduced land reforms, granting ownership to landless women farmers in Sindh, and launched loan schemes for women. She encouraged women to study, work, and in sports, promoted family planning and childcare. Bhutto opened all-female police stations and appointed women judges to family courts, enhancing safety and judicial access despite resistance from conservative laws. Her efforts countered Zia-ul-Haq's Islamization policies that suppressed women, with discriminatory laws like those from the Zari Sarfaraz Commission. She fostered gender equal...

  The Decembrist Square, the symbol of the first Russian Revolution, the Decembrist Revolt of 1825, formerly known as Peter's Senate Square, in St. Petersburg, Russia. The Decembrist uprising was a failed military revolt against Tsar Nicholas I in Russia on December 14, 1825 (Old Style; Dec 26 New Style). Liberal army officers and nobles sought to end autocracy, abolish serfdom, and establish a constitutional government. The revolt stemmed from secret Northern and Southern Societies, formed by veterans of the Napoleonic Wars, influenced by Enlightenment ideas and Western constitutions. Confusion over succession after Alexander I's death in 1825—between brothers Constantine and Nicholas—provided the spark, as rebels initially swore loyalty to Constantine, who renounced the throne. 3,000 troops gathered in St. Petersburg's Senate Square, refusing to oath to Nicholas and demanding reforms, but poor leadership and hesitation doomed them. Loyalist forces under Nicholas used arti...

  The Reichstag building in Berlin, the German Parliament House, was on fire on the night of 27th February 1933, like the Godhra train on fire on 27th February 2002. The German Parliament in Berlin, the Reichstag, was burned on 27.2.1933. This is the most contested and controversial event of Hitler. A day later, Hitler signed the Reichstag Fire Decree, which gave his govt the legal authority to imprison opponents and suspend civil liberties. The Nazis arrested Marinus van der Lubbe, a Dutch Communist, on the charge of setting the fire. He was executed on 10.1.1934, for the arson act. There had been a debate on whether Lubbe burnt or the Nazis set the fire as a false-flag attack. Evidence shows the possibility of a Nazi conspiracy. In June 2019, an affidavit of former investigator Fritz Tobias was discovered. In it, Hans-Martin Lennings, an SA operative, claimed in 1955 that he and his SA group drove Lubbe to the scene of the fire - and that the Reichstag was already on fire. Lennin...

  Dutch communist Marinus van der Lubbe was sentenced to death on 23rd December 1933 on the charge of setting the German Parliament, the Reichstag, on fire. Marinus van der Lubbe was a Dutch communist. He was a scapegoat of the Nazi regime. He joined the Communist Party of Holland at the age of 16. He became a member of the council of the party and believed that revolution should be led by workers, and not the party. Lubbe was charged with setting fire to the German Reichstag on 27.2.1933, an act which was the beginning of the Nazi regime. On 26.2.1933 overnight, he was kept in a police cell. Despite his insistence on his innocence, he was found guilty and was executed at age 24 on 10.1.1934. Lubbe was born on 13.1.1909 in Leiden, South Holland, Netherlands. 

  Presiding over the National Pensioners' Day celebrated by the All India Pensioners' Welfare Association, Guntur District Branch. From left to right, Comrade D. Subba Rao, Circle Vice President, AP Circle, Sri Sridhar, Principal General Manager, BSNL, Guntur Business Area, Dr. T. Ch. Koteswars Rao, Chief Medical Officer, CGHS Wellness Center, Guntur, Comrade Ch. Venkateswarlu CVP, AP Circle, and Comrade Y. Babu Rao, District Secretary, on the dias.   In Nakara's case, the five-judge bench of the Supreme Court, on 17.12.1982, ensured equal pension for all regardless of their retirement date, and made pension a statutory right. Indira Gandhi implemented the judgment without appeal. The Modi Govt appealed the CAT award of pension revision after the expiry of all time limits. It challenged, spending crores of public money, the Army Tribunal's award of pension to the disabled soldiers. In March '25, it passed Validation Act was passed to negate pension benefits to the e...

  Martin Luther King Junior, Ralph Abernathy, and Rosa Parks (not seen in this photo), American Civil Rights activists, in the first seats of the Integrated Bus, started on 21st December 1956, after the end of the Montgomery Bus Boycott.  The Montgomery Bus Boycott started from 5.12.1955. On 21st Dec 1956, the Black citizens in Montgomery, Alabama, rode the newly desegregated buses after the US Supreme Court declared bus segregation unconstitutional. The boycott with organized protests led by Martin Luther King Jr. and the Montgomery Improvement Association ended on 20.12.1956. Triggered by Rosa Parks' arrest on 1.12.1955, for refusing to give her bus seat to a white passenger, the boycott involved Black residents walking, carpooling, and using taxis to avoid segregated public transit. It succeeded through nonviolent resistance, mass meetings at churches, and legal challenges, despite harassment like arrests and bombings.

  "It's a Wonderful Life", a film by Frank Capra, an Italian-American film director, producer, and writer, premiered in New York on December 20, 1946.  "It's a Wonderful Life" is a 1946 American Christmas classic. George Bailey questions the worth of his life until his guardian angel, Clarence, shows him the impact he has had on others. It became a beloved holiday movie. Bailey dreams of adventure but stays in his hometown of Bedford Falls to run the family after his father's death. Facing financial ruin, on Christmas Eve, he contemplates suicide. Clarence revealed reality. The story flashes back to George's selfless acts, like saving his brother from drowning, helping the community against greedy banker Potter, etc. Realising his worth, George begs to live, and Baileys celebrate Christmas. Frank Capra directed, produced, and co-wrote the screenplay based on Philip Van Doren Stern's story "The Greatest Gift." Filmed post-World War II, C...