This Day in History-December 1

Dec 11, 2022 News

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United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF) is established  

UNICEF, originally called the United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund in full, now officially United Nations Children’s Fund, is an agency of the United Nations responsible for providing humanitarian and developmental aid to children worldwide. The agency is among the most widespread and recognizable social welfare organizations in the world, with a presence in 192 countries and territories. UNICEF’s activities include providing immunizations and disease prevention, administering treatment for children and mothers with HIV, enhancing childhood and maternal nutrition, improving sanitation, promoting education, and providing emergency relief in response to disasters.

UNICEF is the successor of the United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund, created on 11 December 1946, in New York, by the U.N. Relief Rehabilitation Administration to provide immediate relief to children and mothers affected by World War II. The same year, the U.N. General Assembly established UNICEF to further institutionalize post-war relief work. In 1950, its mandate was extended to address the long-term needs of children and women, particularly in developing countries. In 1953, the organization became a permanent part of the United Nations System, and its name was subsequently changed to its current form, though it retains the original acronym.

Apollo 17 becomes the sixth and final Apollo mission to land on the moon

Apollo 17 (December 7–19, 1972) was the final mission of United States’ NASA Apollo programme, the most recent time humans have set foot on the Moon or traveled beyond low Earth orbit. Commander Gene Cernan and Lunar Module Pilot Harrison Schmitt, walked on the Moon, while Command Module Pilot Ronald Evans orbited above. Schmitt was the only professional geologist to land on the Moon, selected in place of Joe Engle with NASA under pressure to send a scientist to the Moon. The mission’s heavy emphasis on science meant the inclusion of a number of new experiments, including a biological experiment containing five mice carried in the command module.

Apollo 17 was launched at 12:33 a.m. Eastern Standard Time (EST) on December 7, 1972, after the only launch-pad delay in the Apollo programme caused by a hardware problem. It was a “J-type” mission that included three days on the lunar surface, extended scientific capability, and the use of the third Lunar Roving Vehicle (LRV). Cernan and Schmitt landed in the Taurus–Littrow valley and completed three moonwalks, taking lunar samples and deploying scientific instruments.

Armed forces kill hundreds of people in El Salvador’s El Mozote massacre

The El Mozote massacre took place both in and around the village of El Mozote, in the Morazán Department, El Salvador, on December 11 and 12, 1981, when the Salvadoran Army killed more than 811 civilians during the Salvadoran Civil War. The army had arrived in the village on the 10th, following clashes with guerrillas in the area. The Salvadoran Army’s Atlácatl Battalion was responsible for the massacre.

Early the morning of December 11, the soldiers assembled the entire village in the community square. They separated the men from the women and children, divided them into separate groups and locked them in the church, the convent, and various houses. They commenced interrogations about the guerrillas in the area, torturing, and executing the men in several locations. Around noon, they began taking the women and older girls in groups, separating them from their children and murdering them with machine guns after raping them. Girls as young as 10 were raped, and soldiers were reportedly heard bragging about how they especially liked the 12-year-old girls. Finally, they killed the children, at first by slitting their throats, and later by hanging them from trees; one child killed in this manner was reportedly two years old. After killing the entire population, the soldiers set fire to the buildings.

The soldiers remained in El Mozote that night, but the next day went to the village of Los Toriles and carried out a further massacre. Men, women, and children were taken from their homes, lined up, robbed, and shot, and their homes then set ablaze. In December 2011, the Government of El Salvador apologized for the massacre, the largest in the Americas in modern times.

Man, who ran the world’s largest securities fraud in US$60 billion Ponzi scheme arrested

Bernard Lawrence Madoff (April 29, 1938 – April 14, 2021) was an American fraudster and financier who ran the largest Ponzi scheme in history, worth about $64.8 billion. He was at one time Chairman of the NASDAQ stock exchange.

He advanced the proliferation of electronic trading platforms and the concept of payment for order flow, which has been described as a “legal kickback.” Madoff founded a penny stock brokerage in 1960, which eventually grew into Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities. He served as the company’s Chairman until his arrest on December 11, 2008.

That year, the firm was the 6th-largest market maker in S&P 500 stocks. Madoff employed his brother Peter Madoff as Senior Managing Director and Chief Compliance Officer, Peter’s daughter Shana Madoff as the firm’s Rules and Compliance Officer and Attorney, and his now deceased sons Mark Madoff and Andrew Madoff. Peter was sentenced to 10 years in prison in 2012, and Mark hanged himself in 2010, exactly two years after his father’s arrest. Andrew died of lymphoma on September 3, 2014.

On December 10, 2008, Madoff’s sons Mark and Andrew told authorities that their father had confessed to them that the asset management unit of his firm was a massive Ponzi scheme and quoted him as saying that it was “one big lie”. The following day, agents from the Federal Bureau of Investigation arrested Madoff and charged him with one count of securities fraud. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) had previously conducted multiple investigations into his business practices but had not uncovered the massive fraud. On March 12, 2009, Madoff pleaded guilty to 11 federal felonies and admitted to turning his wealth management business into a massive Ponzi scheme. The Madoff investment scandal defrauded thousands of investors of billions of dollars. Madoff said that he began the Ponzi scheme in the early 1990s, but an ex-trader admitted in court to faking records for Madoff since the early 1970s.

Pfizer–BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine is first approved in the Western Hemisphere

On December 11, 2020, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration issued the first emergency use authorization (EUA) for a vaccine for the prevention of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) in individuals 16 years of age and older. The emergency use authorization allowed the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 Vaccine to be distributed in the U.S. In a statement, the FDA said it authorization for emergency use, the first COVID-19 vaccine, is a significant milestone in battling the devastating pandemic that has affected so many families in the United States and around the world.” FDA Commissioner, Stephen M. Hahn, M.D. had said that the action followed an open and transparent review process that included input from independent scientific and public health experts and a thorough evaluation by the agency’s career scientists to ensure the vaccine met FDA’s rigorous, scientific standards for safety, effectiveness, and manufacturing quality needed to support emergency use authorization.

The FDA determined that Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 Vaccine had met the statutory criteria for issuance of an EUA. “The totality of the available data provides clear evidence that Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 Vaccine may be effective in preventing COVID-19. The data also support that the known and potential benefits outweigh the known and potential risks, supporting the vaccine’s use in millions of people 16 years of age and older, including healthy individuals. In making this determination, the FDA can assure the public and medical community that it has conducted a thorough evaluation of the available safety, effectiveness and manufacturing quality information.”

 

 

 

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