JANUARY 5 - DAILY CHRONICLES OF HISTORY

JANUARY 5

1818

Ernest Adam Malinowski (dob) was a famous Polish engineer. He designed the worlds first highest railway, the Ferrocarril Central Andino in the Peruvian Andes in 1871–1876.   In 1868, the Peruvian Congress issued a new decree and announced a tender for the construction of a railway line.  A few days later, Henry Meiggs , an American entrepreneur was allowed to conduct preliminary studies of the railway line. He chose Ernest Malinowski to control the project and select his co-workers. On April 3, 1869, Malinowski gave Henry Meiggs a detailed report of the site studies and preliminary calculation of construction costs. Work began on January 1, 1870 and continued for four arduous years in very difficult terrain. In 1874 the financial collapse of the Peruvian economy put a temporary halt to funding, but construction continued through private funding, including Malinkowski's own contributions.  Upon completion the railway line was raised to almost 5000 m above sea level, which was a phenomenon of technology. It attracted interest from professional engineers around the world and Malinowski's accomplishment was written by all major technical magazines around the world.

1925

Gdansk Post Office:  Under Polish control, three post offices were established in the Port of Gdansk: the Maritime (Port), the Railway and the main Polish Post and Telegraph Office. ( Decreed by the Treaty of Versailles 1919)

1938

Nazi Nuremberg Law: The Nazis passed the Law on the Alteration of Family and Personal Names forbidding Jews from changing their names.

1942

The communist Polish Workers Party was founded in Warsaw by Marceli Nowotko, Pawel Finder and Boleslaw Molojec. The old Communist Party of Poland had been liquidated at Stalin's order in 1938-39.

1945

The Soviet Government officially recognized the Polish Committee of National Liberation, also called Lublin Committe (PKWN).  The PKWN was created by Stalin as the foundation of a puppet regime in Poland, under his full control. His objective was to discredit and remove power from the legitimate Polish Government in Exile in London. The allies were greatly disturbed by the outcome, since Stalin had accepted the Atlantic charter and promised to hold democratic elections in countries controlled by the Red Army.  Stalin appointed Nikolai Bulganin to provide support for the PKWN's administration and security apparatus. Bulganin was responsible for destroying any political and military associations representing the Polish Government in Exile. The PKWN claimed to be leftist and represent a broad democratic coalition, but it did not include any of the major Polish political parties.