Historical Drops # 54: Your weekly dose of History here at Mega

There is no peace without negotiations. If countries and rulers cannot agree, chaos ensues; and the inability to govern with diplomacy has already led the world to witness wars throughout human history.

Sometimes, however, attempting to negotiate peace through diplomatic exit may lead to the agents of the cause dying. This is what happened to Abraham Lincoln, president of the United States, in 1965. Responsible for the abolition of slavery in a country marked by slave culture, he ended up being a victim of his own militancy - even though it is said that Lincoln himself had slaves.

In other cases, diplomacy happens in the form of a business negotiation. Before the great world wars, the United States and the Soviet Union were able to get right to the point where one nation sold Alaska to another. Almost a century later, this relationship became far less friendly, when the space race intensified the conflict between the two countries with two facts that, coincidentally or not, are anniversary this week.

Check out some of the events that marked the next 7 days in history:

April 8th

1820: Discovery of Venus de Milo

One of the oldest surviving sculptures in the world, Venus de Milo is on display at the Louvre Museum, but was created in Ancient Greece. It is not known exactly by whom it was carved, and its authorship has already been attributed to artists such as Praxiteles and Alexander of Antioch - it is for the latter, from the Hellenistic period, that it is currently believed to have been made.

The Venus de Milo is named after it was discovered on Milo Island in 1820, when the place still belonged to the Ottoman Empire. Although its history is surrounded by controversy, the most widely accepted version is that it was found by a peasant named Yorgos Kentrotas as he searched for stones to build a wall. The statue was eventually bought by France, where it is today.

9th April

1867: United States buys Alaska

On March 30, 1867, $ 7.2 million was the price Russia charged for Alaska when it sold it to the United States. Just over a week later, the agreement was ratified by the US Senate with 37 votes to 2.

The negotiation was made by then-Secretary of State William H. Seward and Russian Minister for the United States Eduard de Stoeckl.

April 10th

1919: death of Emiliano Zapata

Photo: Public Domain

Emiliano Zapata Salazar was one of the great leaders of the Mexican Revolution, which began in 1910 as a social response to the dictatorship imposed by Porfirio Díaz. Head of the San Miguel Anenecuilco village in the state of Morelos, where he grew up, Zapata became involved in the struggle of indigenous and small local farmers who wanted to keep their land, which was being handed over by the Diaz government to large landowners.

When the revolution came, Zapata took part and helped bring down the politician from power, but on April 9, 1919, exactly 100 years ago, he lost his life because of his struggle at the age of 39. In a time of conflict, he was invited by a general, Jesús Guajardo, to a meeting where they should discuss the situation of the country; mercilessly, the general shot Zapata without giving him time to react. To this day, the Zapatista movement is a reference in the struggle for land reform and the rights of landless groups.

11th of April

1970: release of Apollo 13

Many thought that after Apollo 11 finally drove man to the moon, the urge to travel to Earth's natural satellite would stop there. That was not the case, and NASA continued to send its astronauts on missions to this end.

On April 11, 1970, at 7:13 pm, a Saturn V SA-508 rocket operated by the space agency took off from Cape Canaveral, Florida. On board were Commander Jim Lovell; lunar module pilot Fred Haise; the command module pilot, John Swigert; the reserve commander, John Young; and the lunar module reserve pilot, Charles Duke.

The mission was eventually aborted after an accident caused by an explosion in the service module prevented the satellite from descending. Nevertheless, the crew managed to return safely to Earth less than a week later.

April 12th

1961: Yuri Gagarin makes first manned orbital flight

For those who paid attention in school science classes, Yuri Gagarin's name is no stranger. That's because, on April 12, 1961, he was the first man to man an orbital flight in a space capsule. At the age of 27, the cosmonaut made a 108-minute orbit of Earth aboard the Vostok 1 spacecraft, leaving Kazakhstan's Baikonur base. Gagarin passed away 7 years later, in 1968, during space training.

April 13th

1953: CIA starts project MKULTRA

There are a number of US government conspiracy theories developed over the various periods since the US began its drive to become the great international power it is today. Between manipulations and big blows, why not a mind control program?

Pink and Brain as it sounds, there is a rumor based on a number of facts suggesting that the US Intelligence Agency (CIA) would have started such a program, called MKULTRA, under the command of its then director, Allen Dulles. . Although the government denies that experiments that violated human rights took place, it admits that the project involved behavior modification.

Hypnosis, shock, confusion induction, alcohol intoxication were some of the techniques studied by MKULTRA, which had the idea of ​​protecting soldiers against brainwashing. The study, part of the Stargate program, was one of the inspirations for the "Stranger Things" series!

April 14th

1865: assassination of Abraham Lincoln

The history of power struggles around the world is marked by murders, and one of the most emblematic is that of former US President Abraham Lincoln. Sworn in March 4, 1861, he was the 16th to hold the position, at 52, well into the Civil War period. Known for being the US president responsible for the abolition of slavery, Lincoln was hated by the slavocrats, and that was what led to his death.

Shortly after 10 pm, on April 14, 1865, actor John Wilkes Booth entered the presidential booth of Ford's Theater in Washington DC and shot the president. As Lincoln leaned forward in his seat, Booth leaped onto the stage and escaped through the back door. A doctor in the audience rushed to examine the paralyzed president, who was taken down the street to the Petersen Pension, where he died the next morning.