1098: In Cîteaux in France, Robert of Molesme, who was later canonized, founded the mother monastery of the Cistercians, who emerged from the Benedictine order as a reform movement.
1418: The Council of Constance (which has been in session since 1414) issues seven reform decrees. Most remain unexecuted.
1793: The newly proclaimed Mainz Republic decides to be annexed to France.
1818: King Friedrich Wilhelm III. of Prussia decides not to keep his constitutional promise.
1848: The Danish King Frederik VII decreed the annexation of the Duchy of Schleswig. It leads to war with the German Confederation.
1913: The Protestant theologian and doctor Albert Schweitzer left his hometown of Günsbach in Alsace and traveled to Gabon (French Equatorial Guinea), where he founded a tropical hospital for the local population in Lambaréné.
1918: Beginning of the German spring offensive in Picardy on a front width of 70 kilometers with the aim of separating the British from the French.
1933: The new German Reichstag is constituted in a state ceremony in the Potsdam Garrison Church. Hitler wants to use this symbolically to build on Prussian traditions in order to win over the military leadership for his regime. The elected communist deputies are excluded.
1943: In the Berlin arsenal, an attempt by Rudolf Christoph von Gersdorff to assassinate Hitler with a time-detonator bomb fails because the dictator devotes only eight minutes to visiting an exhibition on the Eastern Front.
1948: The Arab League decides to oppose the partition of Palestine decided by the UN by all means.
1978: In Southern Rhodesia (Zimbabwe), a white minority-dominated, internationally unrecognized interim government is formed under the black Bishop Abel Muzorewa.
1983: The EC states decide to reorganize the European Monetary System (EMS): the German mark is revalued by 5.5 percent and the French franc is devalued by 2.5 percent.
1993: Parliamentary elections in France: heavy defeat of the governing socialists under Prime Minister Pierre Bérégovoy. The bourgeois opposition led by the neo-Gaullists wins an absolute majority in the National Assembly.
2003: US and British troops occupy several towns on the second day of the Iraq war. They meet with some fierce resistance. At the EU summit in Brussels, France rejects any UN mandate for a post-war administration in Iraq that would subsequently legitimize the invasion.
2003: The South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission set up following the end of apartheid, headed by Nobel Peace Prize winner Archbishop Desmond Tutu, is ending its work.
2008: As the sixth member state of the EU, Bulgaria ratified the EU Reform Treaty with a parliamentary vote. The “Treaty of Lisbon” comes into force on December 1st, 2009.
birthdays: Jean Paul, German writer (1763-1825); Emil Breisach, Austria media expert (1923-2015); Rezsö Nyers, Hungarian politician (1923-2018); Peter Hacks, German playwright (1928-2003); Walter Maria Förderer, Swiss Architect (1928-2006); Klara Koettner-Benigni, Austria Writer, publicist and conservationist (1928-2015); Michael Heseltine, British politician (1933); Fritz Pleitgen, German television journalist (1938-2022); Gary Oldman, British actor (1958); Michael Maier, Austria Journalist (1958).
days of death: Paul Rivet, French ethnologist (1876-1958); Siegfried Weyr, Austria Painter, graphic artist and journalist (1890-1963); Hans Fronius, Austria Graphic artist and painter (1903-1988); Cearbhall Ó Dálaigh (Carroll O’Daly), President of Ireland 1974-76 (1911-1978); Sebastiano Baggio, Italian Cardinal (1913-1993); Martha Wallner, Austria actress (1927-2018); Chinua Achebe, Nigerian. writer (1930-2013); Pietro Mennea, Italian athlete (1952-2013).
name days: Christian, Alexandra, Benedikt, Tancred, Sandra, Axel, Elias, Jakob, Nikolaus (beginning of spring).
