On Thursday, October 7th, the book of history records, among other things:
1571: At Lepanto (Naupaktos at the entrance to the Gulf of Corinth), Don Juan d’Austria, illegitimate son of Emperor Charles V and Barbara Blomberg from Regensburg, destroys the Turkish fleet under Ali Pasha with the fleet of the Holy League. Over 80 Turkish warships are sunk.
1806: The Englishman Ralph Wedgwood patented an “apparatus” for duplicating documents “(using sheets of paper soaked in ink) in London. This marked the beginning of the commercial production of carbon paper.
1921: Fritz Lang’s feature film “Der müde Tod” with Lil Dagover in the leading role has its premiere in Berlin.
1926: The “Great Council” of Italian fascists, chaired by Benito Mussolini, decides to bring party and state into line, to exclude all other political directions from power and to abolish freedom of the press. In the fight against “anti-fascist conspiracies”, critics of the regime are banished and imprisoned.
1931: Gertrud von Le Fort publishes the novella “The Last on the Scaffold”.
1946: Under the dictates of the American occupation forces, Japan receives a new constitution. The emperor, previously worshiped as a deity, loses his political powers and remains merely a symbol of the unity of the nation.
1951: In East Berlin, the poet Bert Brecht receives the Grand National Prize of the German Democratic Republic from the hands of President Wilhelm Pieck.
1976: In China, Prime Minister Hua Guofeng, with the help of Marshal Ye Jianying and the army leadership, won the power struggle that broke out after the death of party leader Mao Zedong on September 9th. Mao’s widow Jiang Qing and the other members of the radical so-called “Gang of Four” are arrested.
1986: The first German nuclear power plant since the Chernobyl accident goes into operation in Brokdorf.
1991: In Vienna, Zentralsparkasse and Länderbank merge to form “Bank Austria”.
1996: A sharp controversy flared up around the German spelling reform after prominent writers spoke out against it in the “Frankfurt Declaration”.
2001: Almost a month after the terrorist attacks in the US, American and British forces begin air strikes on suspected terrorist camps in Afghanistan. In a video message, Osama bin Laden assumes responsibility of his organization Al Qaeda for the terrorist attacks for the first time and threatens a “holy war”.
2001: The SPÖ defends its absolute majority in the municipal council elections in the Lower Austrian capital St. Pölten. The FPÖ has to accept severe loss of votes.
2006: The 48-year-old Russian journalist and government critic Anna Politkovskaya is murdered in Moscow. The mother of two children had made a name for herself worldwide through her critical reports on the Chechnya war.
2006: Awarding of the “Golden Lion for a Lifetime Achievement” to the Austrian composer Friedrich Cerha.
2011: Arnold Schwarzenegger opens “his” museum in his birthplace in Thal near Graz. At an improvised celebration, he unveils a larger than life bronze statue showing him as a bodybuilder and recommends the message to the visitors: “For me, the museum is a symbol of the will that everyone has a chance in life.”
Birthdays: Therese Krones, east Actress (1801-1830); Maximilian GM Bamberger, east Chemist (1861-1927); Georg Hermann, German author (1871-1943); Souvanna Phouma, laot. Prince and Politician (1901-1984); Walt Whitman Rostov, US politician and economist. (1916-2003); Fritz Prior, east. Chemists, scientists and politicians; ÖVP (1921-1996); Maria Schaumayer, east Politician, 1990-1995 President of the Oesterreichische Nationalbank and the first woman in the world to hold this position (1931-2013); Desmond Tutu, South Afr. Archbishop (1931); Charles Dutoit, black. Conductor (1936); Mario Rehulka, east Manager; 1993-2001 director of the board of “Austrian Airlines AG” (1941); Georg Danzer, east. Songwriter (1946-2007).
Days of Death: Antoine de Montchrétien, French playwright (1575-1621); Alexander Wielemans from Monteforte, east. Architect (1843-1911); Roland Marwitz, German playwright (1896-1961); Nicolai Lopatnikoff, US composer (1903-1976); Herbert L. Block aka “Herblock”, US cartoonist and multiple Pulitzer Prize winner (1909-2001); Wolf Suschitzky, brit. Photographer and cameraman east. Herk. (1912-2016); Viktor Reimann, east. Journalist, writer and politician (1915-1996); Natalia Ginzburg, Italian writer (1916-1991); Monique Lange, French writer (1926-1996); Anna Politkowskaja, Russian journalist (1958-2006).
Name days: Rosa, Markus, Erwin, Amalia, Gerold, Bacchus, Sergius, Justina, Jörg, Maria.