There is no PRESENT without PAST and no FUTURE without PRESENT
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September 15, 1960 — The Day Lumumba Was Nearly Killed, a Preview of What Was Coming
This is probably the most important "hidden" event tied to this date, and it's directly connected to the Congo's fate.
On 14 September 1960, Colonel Joseph Mobutu (later Mobutu Sese Seko) carried out a coup against Prime Minister Patrice Lumumba, sidelining both Lumumba and President Kasa-Vubu and installing a "College of Commissioners" — a move that had quiet backing from the CIA, which was already funding Mobutu's faction through untraceable channels. The very next day, 15 September 1960, a group of Baluba fighters attacked Lumumba; he was only saved because Ghanaian UN peacekeepers intervened to protect him.
What makes this genuinely buried is the context around it: CIA director Allen Dulles had already cabled Léopoldville in August 1960 that Lumumba's removal was an "urgent and prime objective," and by that same September, CIA scientists were en route to the Congo with biological materials intended for an assassination designed to look natural. Mobutu's coup temporarily interrupted that specific plan — but it set the stage for what came next: Lumumba's house arrest, his failed escape in late November, his capture by Mobutu's forces on 1 December (with UN peacekeepers from Ghana explicitly ordered not to protect him this time), and his execution by firing squad in Katanga on 17 January 1961, with Belgian officers present. Documents that surfaced decades later confirmed Belgian and covert Western involvement in his death. September 15, 1960 is the pivot point most people skip past on the way to the more famous assassination date.
#Todayinhistorye
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In 1917 the people of Okeho finished leaving the hill settlement of Okeho Ahoro. Captain William Alston Ross, Resident of Oyo Province, had required the move to a more accessible site after the disturbances of the previous autumn. Onjo Olayiwola Obatumo led the return to the location that became the present town.
📜 FORGOTTEN STORY
THE ISEYIN–OKEHO RISING 🔥⚔️
1916 Oyo Province, Western Nigeria
In October 1916, people in Iseyin and Okeho rose against British colonial rule. The conflict was not simply about taxation: British attempts to centralise authority, expand Native Courts, impose forced labour and strengthen selected traditional rulers disrupted existing political arrangements.
On 19 October 1916, violence erupted in Okeho, where colonial officials and representatives of the new system were attacked and the Native Court was burned. British forces were subsequently sent to suppress the uprising, and its leaders faced severe punishment.
🔥 They were not simply protesting a tax they were resisting a new political order being forced upon their communities.
#ForgottenHistory #NigerianHistory #YorubaHistory #Iseyin #Okeho #ColonialHistory #AfricanHistory #History
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Adolf Eichmann (1906–1962) was an SS-Obersturmbannführer who ran the Reich Security Main Office section that organised the deportation of Jews to the killing centres. From 1942 he coordinated transports from across German-controlled Europe, including the mass deportations from Hungary in 1944.
In 1945 he escaped Allied custody. In 1950 he reached Argentina on false papers and lived near Buenos Aires as Ricardo Klement, a Mercedes-Benz plant worker.
On 11 May 1960 Israeli agents seized him on Garibaldi Street in San Fernando. On 20–21 May he was flown out on an El Al aircraft; he landed in Israel on 22 May. David Ben-Gurion announced the capture on 23 May.
His trial opened in Jerusalem on 11 April 1961. On 15 December he was convicted of crimes against the Jewish people, crimes against humanity, and war crimes. He was hanged at Ramla on the night of 31 May–1 June 1962. His ashes were scattered at sea.
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On 3 July 1944 a reconnaissance group from the 419th Separate Reconnaissance Company of the 360th Nevel Rifle Division moved behind German lines near the village of Borovukha, Polotsk District, Vitebsk Region. Their object was a German battalion headquarters. In the fighting the company commander was hit. Sanitary instructor Lidiya Mikhailovna Myakisheva treated him under fire and dragged him clear of the position. The action was later cited in the award sheet that brought her the Order of Glory, Second Class.
Lydia Myakisheva of 419th Separate Reconnaissance Company of Soviet 1st Front, 1944 with her PPSh-41 MG.
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In Oyo the living king still takes the crown at Koso.
On 29 March 2025, Oba Abimbola Owoade I received the traditional crown at the Sàngó-Kòso shrine. Samuel Johnson, in The History of the Yorubas, recorded the same station a century earlier: after the visit to the Bàrà, the king-elect proceeds to Koso for the actual crowning, attended by the Òtún-Ìwèfá, who has charge of the shrine.
The ground that marks Sàngó’s departure remains the place where the Alaafin’s office is confirmed.
The Yoruba divinity of thunder and lightning. Devotees gather around the ancient Koso Temple, wearing red and white, eating new yam and palm oil, while chants, drumming, dancing and storytelling fill the celebrations. The knowledge is passed from elders to younger generations through observation and apprenticeship. For ten days, Oyo doesn't just remember Sàngó the ancient tradition comes alive again. #YorubaHistory #Sango #OyoHistory #YorubaCulture #AfricanHeritage #NigeriaHistory #Traditions #AfricanHistory #History
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Today In History retweeted
📜 FORGOTTEN STORY
THE HUNTERS WHO SHOOK ILORIN ⚔️🔥
December 1906–January 1907 — Ilorin Emirate
When British colonial rule tightened its grip on Ilorin, a new licensing system imposed fees on local hunters. Their anger soon turned into an uprising, beginning in the rural districts in late December 1906. More than 600 armed hunters eventually gathered in Ilorin in January 1907, threatening the colonial Residency and challenging both the Resident and Emir.
On 16 January 1907, colonial troops arrived and brought the immediate crisis under control. Several hunters were later tried, while three prominent chiefs accused of helping organise the revolt were arrested and deported. Recent scholarship argues that the hunters' grievances over licence fees were only part of the story—the revolt was also connected to a deeper struggle over political power in colonial Ilorin.
For a few tense days, hundreds of armed hunters made the colonial authorities fear that Ilorin could explode.
#ForgottenHistory #NigerianHistory #IlorinHistory #YorubaHistory #ColonialHistory #MilitaryHistory #AfricanHistory #History
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On the night of 3–4 February 1943 a volunteer detachment of 275 Soviet naval infantrymen under Major Tsezar Lvovich Kunikov landed at Stanichka, immediately south of Novorossiysk. They seized a narrow rocky strip of shore that became known as Malaya Zemlya. Kunikov, previously a factory engineer from Rostov-on-Don, was wounded by a mine on 12 February while supervising the arrival of reinforcements. Evacuated to Gelendzhik, he died of his wounds two days later, aged 33. He was named Hero of the Soviet Union posthumously on 17 April 1943. The ground his men first occupied remained in Soviet hands for 225 days.
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Today In History retweeted
God bless the infantry sir🥺💚
Lt. Col. Otobrise Umusu
Was a Nigerian Army Infantry officer for nearly 25 years in uniform. Killed in action, 12 December 2016.
He started young at the Nigerian Military School, Zaria (1991–1996), moved through Intelligence, then the Nigerian Defence Academy. Commissioned into Infantry as a 2nd Lieutenant in 2002.
The years that followed took him from Takum to Sierra Leone, Ibadan, the Niger Delta, Army Headquarters and Maiduguri. By 2016 he was Commanding Officer of 118 Task Force Battalion, fighting Boko Haram in Borno.
On 12 December his convoy was hit on the road to Baga. An IED tore through the group. He was fatally wounded. Members of his security detail died with him.
He did not arrive at that ambush as a late-career officer. He was a soldier formed in the institutions, tested across theatres, and still at the front when the war took him.
May Almighty continue to rest his soul.
We Remember.
And today we thank him for his service 🫡
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“Spend your money on the things money can buy. Spend your time on the things money can't buy.”
— Haruki Murakami
A reminder that money is useful for comfort and convenience, but time is finite and should go to relationships, experiences and the parts of life that cannot be purchased. The version circulating here is a condensed form of a line from The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle.
“Spend your money on the things money can buy. Spend your time on the things money can't buy.”
- Haruki Murakami
Haruki Murakami draws an important distinction between money and personal fulfillment, reminding us that wealth should serve as a practical tool rather than define how we spend our lives. Money can purchase possessions, comfort, and necessities, but it cannot replace the value of our limited time.
Time is something we can never earn back, making it far more precious than material wealth. It is best spent building meaningful relationships, pursuing passions, creating memories, and finding inner peace. Real balance comes from recognizing when financial gain is no longer worth sacrificing the irreplaceable hours of our lives.
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Today In History retweeted
A Japanese young man publishes a secret kept hidden for 23 years
when he thought the video tapes would be destroyed.
The events of September 11, 2001 filmed by that young man
from the rooftop of a building 3 kilometers away from the Trade Tower, and when he gave it to the police, they refused to take it or publish it, and that he would face punishment if he published it. What is the reason behind that....
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The E-4B “Nightwatch” (NAOC) taking off from Andrews shortly after the Pentagon was hit is well documented. Callsigns mixed up in the chaos (ADDIS77 / VENUS77) is typical of that morning’s ATC recordings. It was an airborne command post being launched as part of continuity-of-government procedures, not a mystery.
September 11th, 2001 - Boeing E-4B NAOC callsign ADDIS77 scrambled from Andrews AFB. While ATC was calling them “VENUS” which is a typical callsign used at Andrews, you can hear the urgency of the pilot wanting to get airborne. The E-4 orbited over Washington DC for a while…
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Plato’s warning still holds: a culture that treats honesty, self-restraint and duty as punchlines is already dismantling the trust it needs to last.
“A society that mocks virtue prepares its own collapse.”
- Plato
When a society begins to ridicule virtue, it weakens the moral foundation that allows it to endure. In The Republic, Plato emphasized that justice, honesty, and self-discipline are more than admirable qualities—they are essential principles that create trust and hold communities together.
When integrity becomes something to mock rather than respect, cynicism can take its place and social trust begins to disappear. As corruption and self-interest grow, the common good becomes secondary, leaving a society increasingly divided and vulnerable to decline from within.
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On 22 October 1938 the NKVD arrested Marshal Vasily Blyukher in the Far East. Two months earlier he had held command of the Soviet Far Eastern Front while fighting ran along the Tumen frontier near Lake Khasan. On 9 November he died in Lefortovo Prison in Moscow. In March 1939 a court sentenced the already dead marshal on charges of espionage for Japan. He was rehabilitated in 1956.
A captured Soviet soldier, Prisoner of War standing next to an officer of the Japanese Kenpeitai, Military Police...
The photograph was taken during the Battle of Lake Khasan, also known as the Changkufeng Incident, a border clash fought in 1938 between the Soviet Union and the Empire of Japan. The battle took place between July 29 and August 11, 1938. It occurred along a fiercely disputed border zone where Korea, Soviet Siberia, and Japanese-controlled Manchuria (Manchukuo) converged.
The skirmish at Lake Khasan, along with the larger Battle of Khalkhin Gol the following year, resulted in decisive Soviet victories. These defeats ultimately deterred the Japanese high command from executing a major invasion of Siberia, shifting their strategic focus toward expansion into Southeast Asia and the Pacific.
#drthehistories
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At the Abeokuta garrison, a few minutes after midnight on 28 July 1966, soldiers entered the officers’ mess and shot Lieutenant-Colonel Gabriel Okonweze, the garrison commander, Major John Obienu of the 2nd Reconnaissance Squadron, and Lieutenant E. B. Orok. The three deaths began a mutiny that moved through other barracks over the next two days
⚔️ THE COUNTER-COUP THAT SHOOK NIGERIA 🇳🇬💥
29 July 1966
Just six months after Nigeria's first military coup, another uprising erupted within the army. On 29 July 1966, northern soldiers launched what became known as the July Counter-Coup, overthrowing Major-General Johnson Aguiyi-Ironsi. Ironsi and Western Region Military Governor Lt. Col. Adekunle Fajuyi were killed in Ibadan, where Ironsi was visiting.
Lt. Col. Yakubu Gowon subsequently emerged as Head of State. The violence also deepened ethnic tensions within the military and across the country, helping create the conditions that would lead toward the Nigerian Civil War the following year.
🔥 Nigeria had experienced two military coups in less than seven months. The next chapter would be war.
#NigerianHistory #MilitaryHistory #Nigeria1966 #NigerianArmy #AfricanHistory #History
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Roman finest 🔥
Julius Caesar rips off his own helmet in the middle of the fighting so his men can see his face and know he has not run. He has led legions across Gaul and through Italy's civil wars without ever doubting the outcome, but at Munda in 45 BC he is not sure he will live to see sunset.
The battle is the last stand of the Pompeian faction, and its soldiers know a loss here ends everything, so they fight like men with nothing left to lose.
Caesar's own veterans start to waver on ground that forces them uphill into a dug-in enemy, and for a moment the whole war teeters.
He grabs a shield from a retreating soldier and wades into the front rank himself, personally rallying the Tenth Legion, the unit he trusted above all others.
Eight hours of brutal, close fighting grind on before the Pompeian line finally breaks and the battle turns into a slaughter on the retreat.
Roughly thirty thousand men die on the losing side that day, a staggering toll for an afternoon's fighting in a dry Spanish valley.
Caesar later says plainly that he had fought many times before for victory, but at Munda, for the first time, he fought simply to stay alive.
When he returns to Rome he celebrates a triumph for the win, an honor Romans usually reserved for defeating foreign enemies, not fellow citizens.
Munda closes the civil war that made Caesar master of Rome, and within a year the men he spared and the men he crushed will both have a hand in what comes next.
Munda ended the civil war that had convulsed the Roman world for years, leaving Caesar the unchallenged master of Rome and its empire. He returned to a city eager to celebrate, yet uneasy watching him parade a triumph for a victory over other citizens rather than a foreign enemy, a discomfort that lingered in how people spoke about him afterward. Within months Caesar was named dictator for life, concentrating power in a way the old Republic had never allowed any single man to hold. That concentration, and the resentment it bred among men who still believed in the old system, fed directly into the conspiracy that killed him little more than a year later. The battle he barely survived did not just end a war, it set the terms for his own death and for the empire that would rise from the Republic's ashes.
#drthehistories
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On 18 May 1924, Nadezhda Krupskaya handed Lev Kamenev the sealed notes Vladimir Lenin had dictated from 23 December 1922 to 23 January 1923. She stated they were meant for the party congress. The next day a Central Committee commission—Zinoviev, Smirnov, Kalinin, Bukharin, Stalin and Kamenev—resolved to send the papers to the Thirteenth Congress “for its information.”The congress opened in Moscow on 23 May. The notes were not laid before the full hall. They were read, delegation by delegation, to senior representatives only. Note-taking was forbidden. No speaker was permitted to cite the text from the floor.Krupskaya had kept the copies until after Lenin’s funeral. Once they left her hands, their circulation was fixed by those rules.
Las críticas de Vladímir Lenin hacia Iósif Stalin se concentraron en los últimos meses de su vida, entre finales de 1922 y principios de 1923, debido al creciente autoritarismo y la acumulación de poder de este último.
El testimonio más claro de esta ruptura quedó registrado en el documento conocido como el "Testamento de Lenin", un memorándum en el que Lenin analizaba el futuro del Partido Comunista. En una adenda de enero de 1923, Lenin describió a Stalin como un hombre «demasiado rudo» y sugirió formalmente a los camaradas que buscaran la manera de removerlo de su cargo como Secretario General para sustituirlo por alguien más tolerante, leal y atento.
Esta hostilidad política se agravó por la gestión de Stalin en la "Cuestión Georgiana", donde utilizó métodos brutales para someter a los comunistas locales y forzar la centralización de la Unión Soviética. Lenin repudió profundamente esta actitud, acusando a Stalin de comportarse como un «chovinista de gran ruso» y un burócrata implacable que dañaba las relaciones con las minorías étnicas.
La ruptura definitiva adquirió tintes personales cuando Stalin insultó verbalmente a la esposa de Lenin, Nadezhda Krúpskaya, por haber permitido que su esposo dictara notas políticas a pesar de su frágil salud. Al enterarse, un indignado Lenin envió una carta a Stalin exigiéndole disculpas bajo la amenaza de romper toda relación personal y política.
A pesar de la gravedad de estas advertencias, Stalin logró maniobrar con éxito tras la muerte de Lenin en 1924, consiguiendo que el testamento fuera ocultado al público general y limitando su lectura a pequeños comités cerrados, lo que le permitió mantener su puesto y consolidar su dictadura.
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A Hero
In 2018 engineers and civil-affairs teams working with local authorities in northern Syria brought the Tishreen hydroelectric dam on the Euphrates back toward service after years of wartime damage. The repair restored electricity to an estimated 450,000 people in Syria and neighbouring districts. Captain Jonathan Turnbull’s Cross-Functional Team Manbij logged that work beside the reopening of schools for girls who had been barred from classrooms under ISIS rule.
Retired U.S. Army Major Jonathan Turnbull is a renowned special operations officer and American war veteran, widely recognized for his extraordinary story of survival, resilience, and community service.
On January 16, 2019, while conducting a routine inspection at a school in Manbij, Syria, an ISIS suicide bomber detonated an explosive vest next to their special operations team. The attack claimed the lives of 23 people, including four Americans.
Turnbull miraculously survived the direct impact, even though doctors initially gave him a 0% chance of survival and estimated he had barely 12 hours to live. The blast caused catastrophic injuries, severe brain trauma, and total vision loss (enucleation of the right eye and permanent damage to the left). After spending two years hospitalized and undergoing more than 22 reconstructive surgeries, Turnbull managed to walk again, defying all medical odds. He formally retired from active duty in 2021. 🫡
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