FROM WIKIPEDIA COMMONS

Chiang Kai-shek (31 October 1887 – 5 April 1975), also known as Chiang Chung-cheng and Jiang Jieshi, was a Chinese Nationalist politician, revolutionary and military leader, who served as the leader of the Republic of China (ROC) from 1928 to his death in 1975 – until 1949 in mainland China and from then on in Taiwan. After his rule was confined to Taiwan following his defeat by Mao Zedong in the Chinese Civil War, he continued claiming to head the legitimate Chinese government in exile.

Born in Chekiang (Zhejiang) Province, Chiang was a member of the Kuomintang (KMT), and a lieutenant of Sun Yat-sen in the revolution to overthrow the Beiyang government and reunify China. With help from the Soviets and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), Chiang organized the military for Sun’s Canton Nationalist Government and headed the Whampoa Military Academy. Commander-in-chief of the National Revolutionary Army (from which he came to be known as a Generalissimo), he led the Northern Expedition from 1926 to 1928, before defeating a coalition of warlords and nominally reunifying China under a new Nationalist government. Midway through the Northern Expedition, the KMT–CCP alliance broke down and Chiang massacred communists inside the party, triggering a civil war with the CCP (Chinese Communist Party), which he eventually lost in 1949.

As the leader of the Republic of China in the Nanjing decade, Chiang sought to strike a difficult balance between modernizing China, while also devoting resources to defending the nation against the CCP, warlords, and the impending Japanese threat. Trying to avoid a war with Japan while hostilities with the CCP continued, he was kidnapped in the Xi’an Incident, and obliged to form an Anti-Japanese United Front with the CCP. Following the Marco Polo Bridge Incident in 1937, he mobilized China for the Second Sino-Japanese War. For eight years, he led the war of resistance against a vastly superior enemy, mostly from the wartime capital Chongqing. As the leader of a major Allied power, Chiang met with British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt in the Cairo Conference to discuss terms for the Japanese surrender. When the Second World War ended, the Civil War with the communists (by then led by Mao Zedong) resumed. Chiang’s nationalists were mostly defeated in a few decisive battles in 1948. In 1949, Chiang’s government and army retreated to Taiwan, where Chiang imposed martial law and persecuted critics during the White Terror. Presiding over a period of social reforms and economic prosperity, Chiang won five elections to six-year terms as President of the Republic of China, and was Director-General of the Kuomintang until his death in 1975, three years into his fifth term as president, and one year before Mao’s death.

One of the longest-serving non-royal heads of state in the 20th century, Chiang was the longest-serving non-royal ruler of China, having held the post for 46 years. Like Mao, he is regarded as a controversial figure. Supporters credit him with playing a major part in unifying the nation and leading the Chinese resistance against Japan, as well as with countering communist influence. Detractors and critics denounce him as a fascist dictator at the front of a corrupt authoritarian and fascist regime that suppressed civilians and political dissents, as well as flooding the Yellow River that subsequently caused the Henan Famine during the Second Sino-Japanese War. Historian Jay Taylor argued that despite his many faults, Chiang’s ideology differs from other fascist dictators of the 20th century. He argued that Chiang made genuine efforts to improve the economic and social conditions of mainland China and Taiwan such as improving women’s rights and land reform. Chiang was also credited with transforming China from a semi-colony of various imperialist powers to an independent country by amending the unequal treaties signed by previous governments, as well as moving various Chinese national treasures and traditional Chinese artworks to the National Palace Museum in Taipei during the 1949 retreat.

TODAY’S ALMANAC

Question of the Day

What is a gandy dancer?

Some railroad workers of the past were called this because of tools they used made by the Gandy Manufacturing Company of Chicago.

Advice of the Day

Harvest and tie up small bundles of dried, woody-stemmed herbs like bay, lavendar, or rosemary to scent your evening fires.

Home Hint of the Day

It can take years for new cedar shingles to weather to match the color of old ones. To make them blend in at once, mix up a solution of 1 pound of baking soda and 1/2 gallon of water. Brush onto the new shingles, and they’ll turn gray in a few hours.

Word of the Day

Furlong

1 furlong=1/8 mile=660 feet=220 yards

Puzzle of the Day

My first is found in an oyster; my second is possessed by the nobility; every house contains my third; my whole no one applies to himself.(What’s the word? Each clue is a letter!)

Y-O-U

Born

• Oliver Evans (inventor) – 1755
• Clara Schumann (pianist & composer) – 1819
• Milton Hershey (founder of Hershey Chocolate Company) – 1857
• Adolf Meyer (psychiatrist) – 1866
• Sherwood Anderson (writer) – 1876
• Leland Hayward (producer) – 1902
• Claudette Colbert (actress) – 1903
• Horace Babcock (astronomer) – 1912
• Roald Dahl (author) – 1916
• Else Holmelund Minarik (children’s author; Little Bear” series”) – 1920
• Mel Torme (singer) – 1925
• Jacqueline Bisset (actress) – 1944
• Peter Cetera (musician) – 1944
• Nell Carter (actress & singer) – 1948
• Anne Geddes (photographer) – 1956
• Michael Johnson (Olympic athlete) – 1967
• Tyler Perry (actor and screenwriter) – 1969
• Stella McCartney (fashion designer) – 1971
• Fiona Apple (singer) – 1977
• Ben Savage (actor) – 1980

Died

• John Barry (commodore, father of the American navy) – 1803
• Richard Merrell (television writer & actor) – 1998
• George Wallace (politician) – 1998
• Dorothy McGuire (actress) – 2001
• Dilhan Eryurt (Turkish astrophysicist) – 2012
• Frank Vincent (actor) – 2017
• Eddie Money (singer) – 2019

Events

• Halford Mackinder’s team became the first Europeans to summit Mount Kenya– 1899
• Henry Bliss walked off a trolley and was hit by a speeding driver. The following day when he died from his injuries, he became the first pedestrian to be killed by an automobile– 1899
• The Chocolate Soldier opened in N.Y.C.– 1909
• Chiang Kai-shek became president of China– 1943
• Margaret Chase Smith became the first woman to serve in both houses of Congress– 1948
• IBM introduced the first computer with a disk storage system– 1956
• A protester dressed as Batman scaled the front wall of Buckingham Palace– 2004

Weather

• Frost hit Albany, New York, ending the shortest growing season ever– 1963

COURTESY www.almanac.com