JUNE 16 - DAILY CHRONICLES OF HISTORY

JUNE 16

1932

The Lausanne Conference, held from June 16 to July 9, 1932, was a meeting of representatives from Great Britain, Germany, and France to discuss the reparations payments that were imposed on Germany by the Treaty of Versailles in 1919.  Apparently, Joseph Goebbels was in Lausanne during this conference to rally in favor of Germany's interests.  In the midst of the world financial crisis caused by the Great Depression, the conference concluded with an agreement to suspend all reparation payments since Germany could not afford its payments. Germany's rearming program had begun after the Treaty of Versailles. Chancellor of the Weimar Republic, Hermann Müller, had passed cabinet laws that permitted secret and illegal rearmament efforts, in violation of the terms of the Treaty. When the Nazi Party took over power in 1933, Hitler pursued a rapid, and massive increase in re-militarization.

1983

Pope John Paul II visited Poland for the second time to celebrate the 600th Anniversary of the arrival of Our Lady of Jasna Gora in Czestechowa. Beatification of Raphael Kalinowski, Albert Chmielowskiego in Krakow, and Ursula Ledóchowska in Poznan.  The places he visited: Warsaw, Częstochowa, Niepokalanów, Szczecin, Kamień Pomorski, Poznań, Katowice, Wrocław, Kraków. The Black Madonna is attributed with the miracle of saving the Jasna Gora monastery from a Swedish invasion during the Siege of Jasna Gora in the winter of 1655.   As the Swedish army  attempted to capture the monastery, 70 monks and 180 local volunteers held off 4,000 Swedes for 40 days, saving their sacred icon, and changed the course of the war.  This event led King John II Casimir Vasa to "crown" Our Lady of Częstochowa ("the Black Madonna") as Queen and Protector of Poland in the cathedral of Lwow on April 1, 1652.

2012

General Slawomir Petelicki, founder of GROM, found shot dead in the street: Petelicki was found dead Saturday afternoon lying in a pool of his blood, killed by a single gunshot wound to the head - the gun found at the scene. His body was discovered by his wife in the underground parking lot of their apartment building. Preliminary examinations indicated that there were no other injuries to the body and that the bullet had entered the side of the head. Police handled this as a suicide and did not consider foul play. General Petelicki was an iconic figure who was respected and admired by people the world over. He had a long and illustrious career during Poland's communist, and post-communist eras,  and was a specialist in intelligence services. He was the founder of the famous GROM (Grupa Reagowania Operacyjno-Manewrowego), the acronym meaning, Operational Mobile Reaction Group. GROM is the Polish equivalent of the U.S. Navy Seals, and British SAS, and ranks among the worlds top elite special forces. GROM served in special missions in Iraq and Afghanistan.