This day in history

Sunday, January 17, 2021

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This day in history

In the world: * French philosopher-materialist and atheist Paul Henri HOLBACH (1723-1789), ideologists of the French bourgeois revolution of the 18th century, died 215 years ago. Works "Natural Politics", "System of Nature", "The Social System", etc. * Azeri writer and enlightener Abbas-Kuli BAKIKHANOV (Kudsi - Saint, 1794-1847) was born 210 years ago. Works on Azerbaijan's history since the ancient times till the beginning of the 19th century, satiric and philosophic books, etc. * German publicist Wilhelm WOLFF (1809-1864), cofounder of the Communist Union, was born 195 years ago. Karl Marx's "Capital" is dedicated to him. * Swedish physicist and astronomer Anders Jonas ANDSTROM (1814-1874), cofounder of spectral analysis, died 130 years ago. * U.S. economist William VICKREY (1914-1996) was born 90 years ago. Works on taxation, pricing, distribution of resources, economic stimuli in the conditions of asymmetric information. He is the author of the Vickrey Auction model and a Nobel Prize winner (1996). * Austrian pacifist writer Bertha von SUTTNER (1843-1914), Nobel Peace Prize winner (1905), died 90 years ago. Novels "Lay Down Your Arms", "Inventory of a Soul", etc. In Russia: * Russian commander Mikhail VOROTYNSKY (1510-1573) died 430 years ago. He distinguished himself in Cossack campaigns of Tsar Ivan the Terrible, and supervised the elaboration of Russia's first guarding regulations, which played an important role in the protection of Russian borders. * Seafarer, admiral Fyodor MATYUSHKIN (1799-1872), Alexander Pushkin's schoolmate, participant in Vasily Golovin and Ferdinand Vrangel's round-the-world expeditions, was born 205 years ago. * Actress Zinaida RAIKH (1894-1939), the wife of Sergei Yesenin and Vsevolod Meyerkhold, was born 110 years ago. She was murdered in her apartment 24 days after Meyerkhold's arrest. * Soviet poet Alexander TVARDOVSKY (1910-1971), editor-in-chief of Novy Mir (New World) journal, was born 94 years ago. Poems "The Land of Muravia", "Vasily Terkin", "A House by the Road", "Distance beyond Distance", etc. * The Council of People's Commissars and the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Bolshevik Party decided to establish the Nakhimov naval school in Leningrad 60 years ago, in 1944. * FBI agents arrested Soviet spy Rudolf ABEL (1903-1971) 47 years ago, in 1957. He illegally entered the U.S. in 1948 and worked as a photographer and artist in Brooklyn. Abel was betrayed by his communication agent. He was sentenced for 30 years of imprisonment. However, in February 1962 in Potsdam (East Germany) Rudolf Abel was exchanged for the American spy plane pilot Francis Gary Powers whose plane had been shot down over Russia on May 1, 1960. * Rock star Viktor TSOI (1962-1990), leader of the Kino rock group, was born 42 years ago. * The White Nights first arts festival took place in Leningrad 40 years ago, in 1964.