THE DAY IN HISTORY · JANUARY 17
January 17 in history
What happened on January 17: 4 moments from the Maps of History atlases, in 1928, 1935, 1945 and 1961, each linked to the map that shows it.
— Trotsky’s exile to Alma-Ata
17 Jan 1928 — OGPU agents carried Leon Trotsky, the founder of the Red Army, onto a train and sent him to Alma-Ata, more than 3,000 km from Moscow. Distance did not silence him: from Kazakhstan he continued to write to his supporters. The regime eventually decided that even this exile was too close.
READ THIS MOMENT → · SEE IT ON THE SOVIET UNION UNDER STALIN MAP → · THE FULL STORY →
— Zunyi Conference
15–17 Jan 1935 — The surviving leadership meets in a merchant’s house in occupied Zunyi and turns against its Comintern-backed commanders. Mao Zedong, sidelined for two years, joins the military triumvirate. The march immediately changes its manner of movement, using feints, reversals and separate columns. The party has found the commander it will keep for forty years.
READ THIS MOMENT → · SEE IT ON THE CHINA IN REVOLUTION MAP → · THE FULL STORY →
The Red Army enters Warsaw — or what remains of it after the crushed uprising. Perhaps nine in ten buildings are rubble.
READ THIS MOMENT → · SEE IT ON THE WW2 MAP →
— Assassination of Patrice Lumumba
17 Jan 1961 — Congo’s first elected premier has been ousted with CIA and Belgian connivance. Now secessionist forces in Katanga execute him. The fate of Lumumba shows what could happen when Africa’s decolonization met the rivalries of the Cold War.
READ THIS MOMENT → · SEE IT ON THE COLD WAR MAP → · THE FULL STORY →
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