Adlai E. Stevenson

Illinois Wesleyan University is an independent undergraduate university located in Bloomington, Illinois. Founded in 1850, the central portion of the present campus was acquired in 1854 with the first building erected in 1856. It comprises 17 academic departments offering 50 majors and 476 courses.... The University's mission is to foster the traditional liberal arts of creativity, character, and knowledge. Its motto - Scientia et Sapientia, or "Knowledge and Wisdom" - was coined by famed explorer and Wesleyan Professor John Wesley Powell. Illinois Wesleyan University was founded in 1850 by diverse group of 30 civic and religious leaders who came together to establish "an Institution of learning of Collegiate grade." When a sponsor was needed, the founders gained support from the United Methodist Church, which is how "Wesleyan" was added to the original name, "Illinois University." While maintaining its Methodist affiliation, Illinois Wesleyan continues to be a diverse and inclusive community, independent in its governance.
more

Operation Valfajr-4 was an Iranian operation of the Iran-Iraq War launched in 1983. At the end of the operation Iran had captured a small amount of... territory from the Iraqis. Units of Iraq's First Army Corps spent two months in their trenches waiting for the Iranians to attack. The offensive came on 19 October 1983 as the Iranians and guerillas of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan took 250 square miles of territory. This included a number of Kurdish villages and exerted a significant amount of pressure on Penjwin. Saddam Hussein responded with a counterattack, using the Iraqi Republican Guard and poison gas. However, they failed to dislodge the Iranians, who were dug-in and reinforced by Kurdish fighters. The attack was successful but the Iranians suffered high casualties due to Iraqi gas attacks. Unlike other operations and battles of the Iran–Iraq War, environmental conditions and operative restrictions were of high significance for this operation. Also the military medicine organization of the Pasdaran was important in this battle; they used special methods to save the wounded and carried out rescue operations.
more

The Anglo-Zanzibar War was fought between the United Kingdom and Zanzibar on 27 August 1896. The conflict lasted 38 minutes and is the shortest war... in history. The immediate cause of the war was the death of the pro-British Sultan Hamad bin Thuwaini on 25 August 1896 and the subsequent succession of Sultan Khalid bin Barghash. The British authorities preferred Hamud bin Muhammed, who was more favourable to British interests, as sultan. In accordance with a treaty signed in 1886, a condition for accession to the sultanate was that the candidate obtain the permission of the British consul, and Khalid had not fulfilled this requirement. The British considered this a casus belli and sent an ultimatum to Khalid demanding that he order his forces to stand down and leave the palace. In response, Khalid called up his palace guard and barricaded himself inside the palace. The ultimatum expired at 09:00 East Africa Time on 27 August, by which time the British had gathered three cruisers, two gunships, 150 marines and sailors, and 900 Zanzibaris in the harbour area.
more

The Battle of Ferkeh occurred during the Mahdist War when an army of the Mahdist Sudanese was surprised and wiped out by the British and Egyptian... forces under Sir Herbert Kitchener on June 7, 1896. In 1896, as part of the Sudan campaign, Kitchener's Anglo-Egyptian force was advancing on Dongola, in Northern Sudan. Ferkeh was a small fortified village on the banks of the Nile. It was the first important Mahdist position they encountered. At the time, it was occupied by 3,000 Mahdist warriors, led by the Emirs Hammuda and Osman Azrak. Kitchener's force, nominally in service of the Khedive of Egypt, but in fact under direct British control, was composed of Egyptian and Sudanese soldiers, led by British officers. It numbered 9,000 men, accompanied by three batteries of field guns and one battery of Maxim guns. Kitchener divided his force into two columns. One was formed mostly of infantry , and had to march along the Nile to attack Ferkeh from the North. The other consisted of cavalry, camel-mounted infantry and horse artillery units and was sent through the desert to attack from the South-East.
more

The 1896 Defense of Van or Van Rebellion was an act of self-defense by the Armenian population in Van against the armed forces of the Ottoman Empire... in June 1896. The Van region had avoided the earlier stages of the Hamidian massacres in 1895. However, by January 1896 there was increasing violence - a report by the British vice-consul in Van, W. H. Williams, said the many Armenian villages had been looted and "Armenians are everywhere in a state bordering on panic, afraid lest the spring will bring still further disasters". The Ottoman authorities eventually sent an expedition to attack the Armenian population of Van in June 1896. Between the 3 and 11 June some six to seven hundred Armenian men defended the Armenian sections of the Aigestan district of the city. After a week of fighting, the sultan sought assistance from the Western powers to end the violence, promising that he would guarantee the lives and safety of the Armenians of Van. After some negotiations, and making clear they had been acting in self-defense in the face of continual massacre, the Armenian defenders agreed to leave for Persia, escorted by Ottoman troops.
more