History events
-574 — (15th of Av, 3187) On this day, Oshea ben Elah, king of Israel, removed the guard on the border with Judea that had existed since the time of Jeroboam (from 796 BCE) and had prevented residents of the Northern Kingdom from going to Jerusalem for the festivals.
70 — (8th of Av, 3830) The Jewish War. The decisive assault on the Temple. «When both legions had completed their ramparts on the 8th day of the month of Loos (Av), Titus ordered the gates to be set on fire.»
1475 — (30th of Av, 5235) Pope Sixtus IV, fearing that the breaches of law committed in Trent would damage the prestige of the Catholic Church, ordered the investigation into the murder of Simon to be suspended again (it had first been suspended by decree of the Duke of Tyrol on April 21st but was soon resumed) and sent his commissioner, Bishop G. dei Sindici, to the city. Finding that evidence against the Jews, upon whom a blood libel had been fabricated and eight of whom had already been executed (see June 21st), was lacking, dei Sindici demanded the release of all prisoners, after which he was attacked by a mob and forced to flee the city. Settling in nearby Rovereto, he summoned Bishop Hinderbach and the podestà of Trent to provide explanations; however, the former refused to appear and sent a circular letter to all Catholic clergy, describing Simon’s «martyrdom,» justifying his involvement in the investigation of the Trent affair, and attacking dei Sindici.
1492 — (10th of Av, 5252) The last Jews left Spain.
1492 — (10th of Av, 5252) Columbus’s voyage began
1797 — (11th of Av, 5557) Franz II, King of Hungary and Bohemia, declared that any Jew who voluntarily enlisted in military service would be permitted to marry, regardless of the strict matrimonial restrictions imposed on less wealthy individuals of this nationality
1819 — (12th of Av, 5579) Residents of Würzburg demanded that the city magistrate immediately expel the Jews from the capital of Bavaria, and 400 Jews had to leave the city because public peace had been disturbed there due to their fault. As soon as the news of the expulsion of the Jews from Würzburg reached Bamberg, the same cry «Hep, hep!» arose there, accompanied by attacks on the Jews; from Bamberg, the anti-Jewish riots spread throughout Franconia
1857 — (13th of Av, 5617) Handbills were posted in Goldsboro ordering all Germans and Jews to leave Goldsboro, NC by August 4, 1857
1882 — (18th of Av, 5642) As the Tisza-Eszlar affair came to a climax, a Hungarian jury acquitted the Jewish defendants of murder charges touching off anti-Jewish riots in Budapest
1906 — (12th of Av, 5666) A meeting of the Jewish community of Jaffa was held in the «Yeshurun» club, at which it was decided to build a new Jewish city, later named Tel Aviv.
1911 — (9th of Av, 5671) M. Beilis was charged in Kiev with the murder of a Russian boy.
1937 — (26th of Av, 5697) The 20th Zionist Congress began in Zurich under the chairmanship of Ussishkin.
1937 — (26th of Av, 5697) The religious-nationalist newspaper «HaTzofe» (The Observer) was founded. Initially, it was published three times a week in Jerusalem. Starting December 17th, it became a daily. It moved to Tel Aviv. On April 25, 2007, it merged with the daily newspaper «Makor Rishon.» It continued to be published until December 26, 2008, and was then closed.
1941 — (10th of Av, 5701) Shoah. The Security Police began the liquidation of the Jewish intelligentsia in Ivano-Frankivsk. On the same day, in Peschanka (Vinnytsia region), Sonderkommando 10a shot 10 Jews for sabotaging the harvest. Probably on the same day, in Zhytomyr, Sonderkommando 4a shot about 400 Jews, and in the village of Drachyntsi (Chernivtsi region), 46 Jews were killed.
1942 — (20th of Av, 5702) 1,900 Jews were shot in Pochaiv (Ternopil region)
1947 — As tensions mounted in Great Britain following the killing of two British sergeants ….. by the Irgun in retaliation for the execution of three of its fighters, violence broke out today in Manchester where “groups of men began breaking the windows of shops in Cheetham Hill…which had home to a Jewish community since the early 19th century” while others tore “down the canopy of the Great Synagogue on Cheetham Hill Road” and surrounded “a Jewish wedding party at the Assembly Hall” shouting “abuse at the terrified guests until one in the morning.”
1958 — (17th of Av, 5717) The oil pipeline from Eilat to Haifa was completed. Since Israeli ships and ships that stopped at Israeli ports were barred from using the Suez this joining of Israel’s two major seaports was of great economic importance
1960 — (10th of Av, 5720) «Hadassah Ein Kerem» — the largest medical center in the Middle East — opened in the Ein Kerem district on the Jerusalem hills.
1969 — (19th of Av, 5729) The Labor Party (Avoda) published a declaration calling for connecting the southeastern shore of the Sinai Peninsula (the Merhav-Shlomo area) to the Land. In that historical period, most Israelis believed that the security of the state directly depended on holding onto the recently conquered territories.
1970 — (1st of Av, 5730) War of Attrition. Soviet missile crews shot down 5 Israeli aircraft: four Phantoms and one Mirage. Soviet military specialists — about one and a half thousand anti-aircraft gunners and 150-200 pilots — began arriving in Egypt in March 1970. Their participation in combat operations came as a surprise to Israel, which had resumed intense air raids in the summer. From July 1969 to August 1970, the Israeli Air Force lost 94 aircraft — nearly half of its entire air fleet. These losses led to a three-month ceasefire being concluded on August 7th. Soviet military personnel took no further part in combat operations after August 4th.
1972 — (23rd of Av, 5732) The USSR introduced a payment for diplomas of higher education for those emigrating to Israel. A medical doctor’s diploma cost 14,000 rubles, a lawyer’s 5,000, a foreign passport 400.
1976 — (7th of Av, 5736) Hundreds of Arab students broke into the Cave of the Patriarchs in Hebron, desecrating a Torah scroll and other Jewish relics.
1993 — (16th of Av, 5753) An earthquake in the Eilat region, measuring 5.8 on the Richter scale
2005 — (27th of Tammuz, 5765) In a triumph for Israeli scientific and engineering capabilities a “new $250 million desalination plant in Ashkelon began pumping potable water filtered from the Mediterranean Sea” today
2006 — (9th of Av, 5766) Jews all over the world observe the Fast Day of Tisha B’Av ….. as the IDF battles against Hezbollah and Hamas. A barrage of Hezbollah rockets slammed into northern Israel today, killing at least eight Israelis. Four people were killed when a rocket crashed directly into a house near the northern town of Ma’alot, and another four were killed when a rocket exploded near their vehicle in Acre. Four people were seriously wounded and two others sustained moderate wounds in rocket strikes in Acre, Hurfeish and Kiryat Shmona. Another 31 people were also lightly wounded in the attacks
2025 — (9th of Av, 5785) Minister of National Security Itamar Ben-Gvir ascended the Temple Mount to recite a prayer in observance of the 9th of Av fast day. This was the first instance of a cabinet member openly praying on the Temple Mount. According to the long-standing agreement with the Arabs existing until that day, Jews were permitted to ascend the Temple Mount only as tourists during specific hours, but were categorically forbidden to pray there. In the autumn of 2000, A. Sharon ascended the Temple Mount, which provoked the Second Intifada. However, Sharon did not pray
People
1829 — (4th of Av, 5589) In the Cape Colony, Sir Anthony Oliphant and his wife Maria gave birth to Laurence Oliphant who supported the building of a railway between Jaffa and Jerusalem, who starting in 1879 began working to “settle large number of Jews” especially those from Eastern Europe in Palestine and who himself lived for a time “in the Germany colony in Haifa.”
1836 — (20th of Av, 5596) Carel Asser, Dutch jurist, died
1860 — (15th of Av, 5620) Today, in Boston, Louis Goldenberg, ….. a jeweler by trade, informed his neighbors that he was lonely and he was to visit his wife who had gone to the country. Louis Goldenberg aged 55, was a German Jew, born in Russia, who had lived in the United States for the last ten year and had been employed by Currier & Trott as a watch repairer for the last six years. For the last several months Mr. Goldenberg had been engaged in a series of swindles in which at least six prominent jewelers were victimized to the tune of $5,000 in losses. Mr. Goldenberg’s “visit to his wife in the country” was actually his getaway
1923 — Anne Klein — a renowned fashion designer in the USA, was born in Brooklyn. Died March 19, 1974.
1924 — (3th of Av, 5684) Birthdate of author Leon Uris. Died June 23, 2003
1924 — A. Aleksin, writer, was born. Died May 1, 2017.
1929 — (26th of Tammuz, 5689) Inventor and scientist, Emil Berliner, passed away. ….. Born in German in 1851, Berliner worked in a number of fields. He developed a microphone for the telephone. He developed the prototype for the modern phonograph record which replaced Edison’s original recording cylinders. Until the advent of tape and CDs, his phonograph record was the backbone of the recording and music industries. He also developed a revolutionary lightweight engine which he then put into a experimental helicopter he developed
1934 — Drora Havkin, Israeli singer, composer, and musical figure, was born. Died in 1995
1948 — (27th of Tammuz, 5708) Emanuel Rothstein died today while flying his Auster for the IAF
1970 — (1th of Av, 5730) Igal Shohat and Moshe Goldwasser were taken prisoner when their F4-E Phantom was shot down during the War of Attrition. Tragically, Goldwasswer reportedly died while in captivity and Shohat lost his leg
1970 — (1st of Av, 5730) During an attack by an Egyptian SAM battery in the Suez Canal area during the War of Attrition, an Israeli Phantom was damaged by an SA-3 missile. Shrapnel pierced the cockpit and shattered the hand of the pilot, Lieutenant Ranaan Neeman. Neeman, unable to control the aircraft, decided not to abandon the damaged plane but to try to return to his own lines. The navigator, Lieutenant Yoram Romem, took over control of the aircraft and got it out of the line of fire. Controlling the plane with one hand, Lieutenant Neeman managed to land it at the Rafidim Air Force Base. For preventing the capture of the aircraft’s crew and for saving the plane, Lieutenant Neeman was awarded the «Medal of Distinction» (Itur ha-Mofet). Navigator Romem was awarded the IDF Chief of Staff’s Decoration of Honor («Tzalash haRamatkal»).
1984 — (5th of Av, 5744) A. Even-Shoshan, the compiler of one of the best Hebrew dictionaries, died.
2010 — (23rd of Av, 5770) Lieutenant Colonel Dov Arari (45) was killed in a shootout with Lebanese soldiers on the northern border