FROM WIKIPEDIA COMMONS

Yugoslavia (/ˌjuːɡoʊˈslɑːviə/; Serbo-Croatian: Jugoslavija / Југославија [juɡǒslaːʋija]; Slovene: Jugoslavija [juɡɔˈslàːʋija]; Macedonian: Југославија [juɡɔˈsɫavija];  lit. ’Land of the South Slavs‘) was a country in Southeast Europe and Central Europe for most of the 20th century. It came into existence after World War I in 1918 under the name of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes by the merger of the provisional State of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs (which was formed from territories of the former Austria-Hungary) with the Kingdom of Serbia, and constituted the first union of the South Slavic people as a sovereign state, following centuries in which the region had been part of the Ottoman Empire and Austria-Hungary. Peter I of Serbia was its first sovereign. The kingdom gained international recognition on 13 July 1922 at the Conference of Ambassadors in Paris. The official name of the state was changed to Kingdom of Yugoslavia on 3 October 1929.

The Kingdom was invaded by the Axis powers on 6 April 1941. In 1943, a Democratic Federal Yugoslavia was proclaimed by the Partisan resistance. In 1944, King Peter II, then living in exile, recognised it as the legitimate government. The monarchy was subsequently abolished in November 1945. Yugoslavia was renamed the Federal People’s Republic of Yugoslavia in 1945, when a communist government was established. It acquired the territories of Istria, Rijeka, and Zadar from Italy. Partisan leader Josip Broz Tito ruled the country as president until his death in 1980. In 1963, the country was renamed again, as the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (SFRY).

The six constituent republics that made up the SFRY were the SR Bosnia and Herzegovina, SR Croatia, SR Macedonia, SR Montenegro, SR Serbia, and SR Slovenia. SR Serbia contained two Socialist Autonomous Provinces, Vojvodina and Kosovo, which after 1974 were largely equal to the other members of the federation. After an economic and political crisis in the 1980s and the rise of nationalism, Yugoslavia broke up along its republics’ borders, at first into five countries, leading to the Yugoslav Wars. From 1993 to 2017, the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia tried political and military leaders from the former Yugoslavia for war crimes, genocide, and other crimes committed during those wars.

After the breakup, the republics of Montenegro and Serbia formed a reduced federative state, the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (FRY), known from 2003 to 2006 as Serbia and Montenegro. This state aspired to the status of sole legal successor to the SFRY, but those claims were opposed by the other former republics. Eventually, it accepted the opinion of the Badinter Arbitration Committee about shared succession and in 2003 its official name was changed to Serbia and Montenegro. This state dissolved when Montenegro and Serbia each became independent states in 2006, with Kosovo having an ongoing dispute over its declaration of independence in 2008.

TODAY’S ALMANAC

Question of the Day

How can I get a chocolate drink stain out of a white T-shirt?

You can try scrubbing the area with a little ammonia, then washing the shirt as you normally would.

Advice of the Day

To cure hiccups eat a spoonful of peanut butter.

Home Hint of the Day

If the winters are hard where you live, try to have an R-value (thermal resistance) of at least R-33 in ceiling insulation and R-19 in wall insulation.

Word of the Day

Climate

The long-term atmospheric conditions of an area; the “average” weather conditions, along with normal variations and extremes.

Puzzle of the Day

Why are teeth like verbs?

Because they are regular, irregular, and defective.

Born

• Franz Peter Schubert (Austrian composer) – 1797
• Zane Grey (novelist) – 1872
• Eddie Cantor (comedian) – 1892
• John Henry O’Hara (author) – 1905
• Jersey Joe Walcott (boxer) – 1914
• Garry Moore (TV personality) – 1915
• Jackie Robinson (first African American baseball player in major leagues) – 1919
• Carol Channing (actress) – 1921
• Mario Lanza (singer & actor) – 1921
• Norman Mailer (author) – 1923
• Jean Simmons (actress) – 1929
• Ernie Banks (baseball player) – 1931
• Phillip Glass (musician) – 1937
• Nolan Ryan (baseball player) – 1947
• Anthony LaPaglia (actor) – 1959
• Portia de Rossi (actress) – 1973
• Justin Timberlake (singer) – 1981
• Tyler Seguin (ice hockey player) – 1992

Died

• Timothy Eaton (retailer) – 1907
• A. A. Milne (author) – 1956
• Sam Goldwyn (movie mogul) – 1974
• Francis Gabreski (retired colonel who recorded 37.5 kills and was known as “America’s Greatest Living Ace” ) – 2002
• Horace Hagedorn (founder of Miracle-Gro plant food) – 2005
• Eunice Sanborn (American supercentenarian) – 2011

Events

• Anton Chekov’s play, Three Sisters, premiered at the Moscow Art Theatre– 1901
• A Napier was the first car to go over 100 mph– 1905
• The German government informed the U.S. that unrestricted submarine warfare would begin on February 1, 1917– 1917
• The Green Hornet made its radio debut– 1936
• Yugoslavia adopted its constitution and officially became a people’s republic– 1946
• The U.S. released 33 former Nazis incarcerated for war crimes, including Alfred Krupp– 1951
• Explorer I, first U.S. satellite, launched– 1958
• Explorer 1, first successful U.S. satellite, was launched – 1958
• Ham, a male chimpanzee, was recovered alive in the Caribbean after being carried to a height of 155 miles in a U.S. space capsule launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida– 1961
• National Traffic Safety Agency issued the first set of U.S. federal safety standards for vehicle safety– 1967
• North Vietnam launched the Tet Offensive, attacking South Vietnamese towns– 1968
• Limited telephone service re-established between East and West Berlin for the first time in 19 years– 1971
• Apollo 14 manned spacecraft launched– 1971
• Paul and Linda McCartney appeared on the cover of Rolling Stone. This made Linda McCartney the first person to have both taken a photo, and to have been photographed, for the front cover of the magazine.– 1974
• The first McDonald’s opened in Moscow, Russia– 1990
• Samuel Alito was sworn in as the 110th U.S. Supreme Court justice– 2006

Weather

• Snowy month left 54 inches of snow on the ground at low levels, Northfield, Vermont– 1888
• Big snow in Oregon set a record: Portland 16 inches; Salem 25 inches– 1937
• A record low of 0 degrees F hit San Antonio, Texas– 1949

COURTESY www.almanac.com