This week in history is full of landmark events and unforgettable moments. In this special series, we take a detailed look at the important developments that have shaped world history from past to present. Who was born, what important agreements were signed, what were the historical discoveries and inventions? All this and more is with you in this week’s history adventure.
ANKARA (AA) – Journalist, writer, politician and scientist Prof. Dr. Ahmet Taner Kışlalı died at the age of 60 on October 21, 1999, as a result of a bomb attack in front of his house.
Kışlalı, who worked as a lecturer at Hacettepe and Ankara Universities and attracted attention with his articles on current politics as well as his academic studies, was elected as an Izmir Deputy from the CHP in 1977. Kışlalı, who became Minister of Culture a year later, continued his writing work during this period.
After the coup of September 12, 1980, Ahmet Taner Kışlalı took political science classes at Ankara University Faculty of Communication, and in 1991 he started writing weekly columns in Cumhuriyet newspaper.
Kışlalı was 60 years old when he died in the attack with a bomb placed in his car on October 21, 1999. Thousands of people bid farewell to Ahmet Taner Kışlalı at the funeral ceremony in Ankara after the heinous attack that left Turkey in mourning.
The first trial regarding the Kışlalı assassination was held at the State Security Court (DGM). The case, which included many incidents, including the murders of Ahmet Taner Kışlalı, Uğur Mumcu, Muammer Aksoy and Bahriye Üçok, went down in history as “Operation Hope”.
– It was accepted that the president would be elected by the people
The constitutional amendment, which stipulates that the president will be elected by the people for a period of 5 years and that parliamentary elections will be held every 4 years, was submitted to a referendum.
In the referendum held on October 21, 2007, the amendment was accepted with 68.95 percent of the “yes” vote.
21 October
1805- The British fleet under Admiral Nelson defeats Napoleon’s combined French-Spanish fleet at Trafalgar in southwestern Spain. Admiral Nelson also died in the battle.
1833- Swedish chemical engineer Alfred Nobel was born.
1860- The first private political newspaper, Tercüman-ı Ahval, started to be published.
1879- Thomas Edison invented the carbon filament electric light bulb.
1935- Germany officially left the League of Nations.
1940- Ernest Hemingway’s book “For Whom the Bell Tolls” was published in New York.
1945- Women in France gained the right to vote for the first time.
1973- Necmettin Erbakan was elected Chairman of the National Salvation Party.
1984- Afşin-Elbistan Thermal Power Plant was opened.
1985- German journalist and writer Günter Wallraff’s book “The Bottoms” (Ganz Unten), in which he tells about his experiences as a Turkish worker, was released.
1987- F-16 “Fighting Falcon”, the first warplane assembled in Turkey, was flown with an official ceremony.
1996- Famous environmentalist Kriton Curi passed away.
1997- Anadolu Agency started its uninterrupted news broadcast via satellite with a meeting attended by Prime Minister Mesut Yılmaz.
1998- The Turkish Grand National Assembly approved the expansion of NATO. Thus, the approval of all 16 alliance member countries was completed and the expansion became certain.
1999- Lecturer and journalist writer Prof. Dr. Ahmet Taner Kışlalı was killed in a bomb attack.
2007- In the attack carried out by terrorists on the infantry battalion stationed in Hakkari Dağlıca, 12 soldiers were martyred, 16 soldiers were injured, and communication with 8 soldiers was lost. 34 terrorists were neutralized during the conflict during the attack and the subsequent operations.
2007- The constitutional amendment, which stipulates that the President will be elected by the people for a period of 5 years and that parliamentary elections will be held every 4 years, was accepted with 68.95 percent of the “yes” votes in the popular vote.
2011- Journalist Hikmet Bila, who was treated for cancer for a while, passed away in Ankara at the age of 57.
2011- Architect Behruz Çinici, who prepared the campuses of universities such as ITU and METU and won the Aga Khan Award, died in Yalova at the age of 79 due to a heart attack.
2013- The Bulgarian government decided to build a 30-kilometer wall on the Turkish border to stop the increasing influx of refugees.
2015 – The family of Furkan Doğan, who was martyred on the Mavi Marmara ship that set out to break the Gaza blockade, filed a civil lawsuit in the USA, demanding the punishment of then-Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak.
2021 – Barbados, an island country in the Caribbean, elected its first president, ending 396 years of British Crown rule.
2022- The Election Commission of Pakistan banned former Prime Minister Imran Khan from politics on the grounds that he did not disclose the details of the gifts he received during his term as prime minister.
October 22
1600- The Ottoman army conquered Hungary’s Kanije Castle.
1909- The first female pilot, Elsie Roche, made her first flight attempt.
1919- “Amasya Protocol” was signed between Mustafa Kemal Pasha and the Istanbul Government’s Naval Minister Salih Pasha in Amasya.
1937- The uprising that started on the night of March 21 in the Dersim region was suppressed. The Law on the Administration of Tunceli, which was enacted for four years, lasted until 1947 with various additions.
1938- Chester Carlson invented the photocopier.
1947- The first batch of US aid arrived at Iskenderun Port. It was announced that the construction of the Istanbul-Ankara highway will begin with the first materials.
1962- US President John F. Kennedy announced that there were Soviet missiles in Cuba. The American navy blockaded Cuba. The missile crisis left the world in danger of nuclear war.
1975- British historian Arnold Toynbee died at the age of 86.
1975- Turkey’s Ambassador to Vienna, Daniş Tunalıgil, was killed by Armenian terrorists.
1976- Turkish Confederation of Hak Trade Unions (Hak-İş) was established.
1980- Director Ömer Kavur’s film “Yusuf and Kenan” received a gold medal in Milan.
1993- Diyarbakır Gendarmerie Regional Commander Brigadier General Bahtiyar Aydın was martyred in the conflict with terrorists attacking the Lice district of Diyarbakır.
2003- Movie actress Derya Arbaş died in the USA at the age of 35.
2013- “The Innocence of Things”, prepared as the catalog of the Museum of Innocence by Nobel Prize-winning author Orhan Pamuk, won the Mary Lynn Kotz Award, given for the first time.
2021 – As part of the measures taken against the spread of Covid-19, the “world’s longest complete lockdown”, which remained in effect for 263 days at various intervals in Melbourne, Australia, ended.
October 23
1853- Crimean War began.
1926- In the Soviet Union, Leon Trotsky and Grigoriy Zinoviev were removed from membership of the Central Committee of the Communist Party.
1946- The United Nations held its first general meeting in New York.
1954- The Treaty of Paris was signed regarding Germany’s entry into NATO.
1956- The uprising against Soviet rule began in Hungary. In demonstrations that spread throughout the country, the rebels demanded the withdrawal of Soviet troops.
1972- 20 workers died and 76 workers were injured in a firedamp explosion in two separate coal mines in Zonguldak.
1981- The Advisory Council held its first meeting.
1993- Karun’s Treasure was brought to Turkey after 28 years.
1999- Cinema actress Neriman Köksal passed away.
2004- Haluk Kırcı, for whom a red notice was issued, was caught in Kiev, the capital of Ukraine.
In 2007- In 1973, after CHP’s Nermin Neftçi and CHP Izmir Deputy Güldal Mumcu, MHP Istanbul Deputy Meral Akşener took the podium and chaired the General Assembly as the third female Deputy Speaker of the Turkish Grand National Assembly.
2011- A 7.2 magnitude earthquake occurred in Van, the epicenter of which was Tabanla village in the central district. 604 people lost their lives in the earthquake, and 222 people were rescued from the rubble.
2013- Erhan Tuncel, one of the defendants for whom an arrest warrant was issued in the Hrant Dink murder case, was caught in Istanbul.
2016- In the case where 255 defendants, 7 of whom were foreign nationals, were tried regarding the Gezi Park protests in Taksim, 244 people were sentenced to prison terms ranging from 2.5 months to 1 year and 2 months.
2017- In the case where 17 people, 5 of whom were civilians, tried to interrupt the broadcasts at the TÜRKSAT campus in Gölbaşı during the coup attempt of FETO, the file of the fugitive defendants was separated, while the other defendants were sentenced to aggravated life imprisonment for the crime of “violating the Constitution”.
2022- Minister of Justice Bekir Bozdağ locked the door of Diyarbakır Prison, whose ownership was transferred from the Ministry of Justice to the Ministry of Culture and Tourism to be turned into a museum, and handed over the key to the Minister of Culture and Tourism Mehmet Nuri Ersoy.
2022- Lawyer Filiz Saraç became the first female president elected to the 144-year-old Istanbul Bar Association.
2023 – President Erdoğan signed Sweden’s NATO Accession Protocol.
24 October
1857- The first football club was founded at Cambridge University in England.
1904- New York Subway opened.
1929- Stocks crashed on the New York Stock Exchange. The depression that followed this collapse caused a serious contraction in world foreign trade. The crisis also affected Turkey.
1935- 1st Municipalities Congress started.
1939- Nylon stockings were offered for sale in Wilmington for the first time.
1945- The United Nations Charter was published and the UN was established.
1956- Journalist Bedii Faik was sentenced to 6 months in prison for insulting the president.
1956- The Soviet Union invaded Hungary.
1964- American civil rights activist Martin Luther King was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.
1966- CHP’s 18th Congress ended with the victory of those advocating the “left of centre” view. Zonguldak Deputy Bülent Ecevit was appointed as the General Secretary.
1969- Poet Behçet Kemal Çağlar passed away at the age of 61.
1975- Turkey’s Paris Ambassador İsmail Erez and his driver were killed by Armenian terrorists.
1976- Voice artist Sevinç Tevs died at the age of 46.
1991- Journalist Uluç Gürkan and Ministry of Foreign Affairs officer Hande Mumcu were acquitted in the crypto case.
1992- Turkey’s first private airport “Hezarfen” was put into service in Büyükçekmece, Istanbul.
1996- Vehbi Koç’s body was stolen from Zincirlikuyu Cemetery.
2005- At the National Security Council meeting, the new National Security Policy Document was approved and it was decided to notify the Council of Ministers of the recommendation on this matter.
2007- The portrait of Sultan Mehmet the Conqueror, painted by the Italian painter Gentile Bellini and recently exhibited at the famous National Gallery in England, was sold for 468 thousand 500 pounds sterling at the auction held at Sotheby’s auction house.
2009- One person died from the H1N1 virus in Ankara. The Ministry of Health announced that this person was the first person to die from the H1N1 virus in Turkey.
2013- Ali Gürbüz, who was entitled to the permanent ownership of the golden belt as the chief wrestler for the third time in a row in the 652nd Historical Kırkpınar Oil Wrestling, but was revealed to be doping, had his belt taken back.
2023-Tens of thousands of women in Iceland, including Prime Minister Katrin Jakobsdottir, stopped working full-time for the first time in 48 years to protest gender-based wage inequality.
25 October
1917- The Bolsheviks, led by Lenin, completely seized power.
1924- Sociologist and writer Ziya Gökalp died at the age of 49.
1937- Prime Minister İsmet İnönü resigned. On the same day, the government formed by Celal Bayar was announced.
1946- National Freestyle Wrestling Team became European Champion in Sweden.
1947- The Soviet Union requested Kars and Ardahan at the United Nations.
1957- School of Applied Fine Arts was opened in Istanbul.
1960- Cuba nationalized all American businesses.
1962- US Ambassador Adlai E. Stevenson presented photographs of Soviet bases in Cuba to the UN Security Council as evidence.
1971- The People’s Republic of China was admitted to the United Nations.
1980- 4 Palestinians who raided the Egyptian Embassy in Ankara on July 13, 1979 were sentenced to death.
1981- Gökberk Ergenekon, the second secretary at the Turkish Embassy in Rome, was attacked by ASALA terrorists and received three bullet wounds.
1984- Hepatitis virus was discovered.
2011- The body of Libya’s slain leader Gaddafi, kept in a cold storage in Misrata, was buried in an undisclosed location.
2015- Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair apologized for the mistakes made during the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003 and for misunderstanding what would happen with the overthrow of the regime.
2017- İYİ Party was established.
2018- World-famous Irish female singer Sinead O’Connor announced that she is a Muslim.
2022- Within the scope of the My First Home, My First Workplace Project, the foundations of 5 thousand 615 houses were laid simultaneously in 17 provinces.
2023 – Scientists announced that the bird flu (H5N1) virus was detected in Antarctica for the first time.
26 October
1461- The Greek Empire of Trabzon surrendered to the armies of the Ottoman Empire under the command of Fatih Sultan Mehmet.
1730- Patrona Halil and his friends, who started an uprising in the Ottoman Empire, were executed.
1863- The International Red Cross organization was founded in Genoa, Italy.
1905- Northern European countries Norway and Sweden separated.
1922- İsmet İnönü was appointed as the Minister of Foreign Affairs before the Lausanne Conference.
1923- Turkish National Football Team drew 2-2 with Romania in its first match.
1924- Kazım Karabekir Pasha announced that he would leave the First Army Inspectorate and work as a deputy.
1933- General Amnesty Law was enacted on the occasion of the 10th anniversary of the Republic.
1936- 16-year-old painter Turgut Cansever opened his first painting exhibition.
1938- Du Pont gave its name to the first synthetic nylon fiber.
1961- Cemal Gürsel was elected president.
1966- The North Atlantic Council decided to move NATO headquarters to Brussels.
1967- Poet and writer Ali Cenap Method passed away at the age of 80.
1974- General Fahrettin Altay, one of the commanders of the War of Independence, passed away in Istanbul at the age of 94.
1975- Anwar Sadat became the first Egyptian President to make an official visit to the United States.
1984- For the first time in the history of the Republic of Türkiye, a minister was dismissed. When Minister of Finance and Customs Vural Arıkan did not resign, he was dismissed by the President upon the suggestion of the Prime Minister.
1994- The historic peace agreement that ended the 46-year war between Israel and Jordan was signed at a spectacular ceremony attended by 5 thousand people on the border between the two countries.
2008- Turkish Airlines restarted its Baghdad flights after 17 years, which it stopped during the 1991 Gulf War, and THY plane landed at Baghdad International Airport.
2013- 14 Iranian soldiers were killed in the conflict on the Pakistan-Iran border.
2015- Ankara 5th Criminal Court of Peace decided to appoint a trustee to Koza İpek Holding and its companies upon the request of the Ankara Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office.
2016- Nail Güreli, a former president of the Turkish Journalists Association (TGC) and the Turkish Journalists Union (TGS), a Press Honor Card holder, passed away.
2017- According to the report published by the World Health Organization, 2 thousand 180 people have died due to cholera in Yemen since the epidemic broke out on April 27.
2018- The request prepared by the Istanbul Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office for the extradition of 18 suspects in the investigation of journalist Jamal Khashoggi was forwarded to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs by the Ministry of Justice to be sent to Saudi Arabia.
2020 – Osman Durmuş, one of the former Ministers of Health, died at the age of 73 in the hospital in Ankara, where he was treated for a brain hemorrhage.
2020 – The US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) announced that they found water on the sun-exposed surface of the Moon for the first time.
2021- President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan opened Fuzuli International Airport, the first airport built by Azerbaijan in the lands liberated from occupation, with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev.
27 October
1492- Christopher Columbus discovered Cuba and seized it on behalf of Spain.
1913- Mustafa Kemal was appointed as Sofia Attachémilitary.
1922- The Allies called on the governments of Ankara and Istanbul to hold a conference in Lausanne.
1960- The National Unity Committee dismissed 147 professors, associate professors and assistants.
1978- Egyptian President Anwar Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin shared the Nobel Peace Prize.
1982- China announced that its population exceeded 1 billion.
1996- The New Traffic Law came into force.
1999- Armenian Prime Minister Vazgen Sargsyan and 8 senior officials died in an attack by automatic weapons during the parliamentary session.
2005- Theater artist Şefik Kıran, at the age of 48, was found dead in the void of the apartment he lived in in Bakırköy.
2006- The age for election to parliament was reduced from 30 to 25.
2006- Cartoonist Semih Balcıoğlu passed away at the age of 78.
2010- Former Argentine President Nestor Kirchner died at the age of 60.
2016- The UN announced that more than 10,500 people were displaced on the tenth day of the operation to liberate Mosul, which was held by the terrorist organization DAESH in Iraq.
2017- The parliament of Spain’s autonomous administration of Catalonia unilaterally declared independence.
2017- In the case where 28 people were tried regarding the actions at the Coast Guard Command during the FETO coup attempt, 25 defendants, two of whom were aggravated, were sentenced to life imprisonment. In the case where 3 of the defendants were acquitted, former Coast Guard Commander Hakan Üstem was sentenced to life imprisonment.
2021- The first passport with X in the gender field was printed in the USA.
2022- The Israeli government approved the agreement on drawing maritime borders with Lebanon.
2022- Turkish Medical Association President Şebnem Korur Fincancı was arrested by the court to which she was referred for the crime of “terrorist organization propaganda”.
