OCTOBER 23
1885
Jan Czochralski was a Polish chemist who invented the Czochralski process, which is used for growing single crystals and in the production of semiconductor wafers. He is the most cited Polish scholar. He was born on October 23, 1885, in what was then Exin, situated in the Prussian Province of Posen, German Empire (now Kcynia, Poland). He was educated at Charlottenburg Polytechnic in Berlin, where he specialized in metal chemistry. Czochralski began working as an engineer for Allgemeine Elektrizitäts Gesellschaft (AEG) in 1907. In 1917, Czochralski organized the research laboratory "Metallbank und Metallurgische Gesellschaft", which he directed until 1928. In 1919 he was one of the founding members of the German Society for Metals Science (Deutsche Gesellschaft für Metallkunde), of which he was president until 1925. In 1928, at the request of the President of Poland, Ignacy Mościcki, he moved to Poland and became the Professor of Metallurgy and Metal Research at the Chemistry Department of the Warsaw University of Technology. After the war, he was stripped of his professorship by the communist regime due to his involvement with Germany during the war, although he was later cleared of any wrongdoing by a Polish court. He returned to his native town of Kcynia, where he ran a small cosmetics and household chemicals firm until his death in 1953. (source: Wikipedia)
1941
Field Marshal Georgy Zhukov took command of Red Army operations to prevent the further advance into Russia of German forces and to prevent the Wehrmacht from capturing Moscow. He led the 1st Belorussian Front in the Battle of Berlin, which resulted in the defeat of Nazi Germany, and the end of the War in Europe. Zhukov was a highly decorated military leader. In 1956, on his 60th birthday, he received yet a fourth Hero of the Soviet Union title and be became the highest-ranking military professional in Russia, as well as a member of the Presidium of the Central Committee of the Communist Party. Zhukov's prestige far exceeded even that of the police and security agencies, so much so, that Russian political leaders were concerned. Zhukov demanded that the political agencies in the Red Army report to him before the Party. He also supported the political vindication and rehabilitation for M. N. Tukhachevsky, V. K. Blyukher, A. I. Yegorov and many others. In response his opponents accused him of being a Reformist and Bonapartist. These and other excesses eventually led to his downfall, as he provoked the envy and hostility of the Russian government.
1956
Hungarian Revolution: The revolt began on October 23, 1956 as a mass demonstration, in which thousands of students marched through the streets of central Budapest to the Parliament building, shouting demands from loudspeakers. But when a student delegation entered the radio building, they were arrested. This instigated an uproar by demonstrators outside who demanded the release of the students. Shots were fired by the State Security Police (AVH) inside the building killing one student. The body of the student was wrapped in the national flag and carried outside, held up above the crowd. The Revolution erupted and spread throughout the capital city. The revolt spread quickly across Hungary and the government collapsed. Thousands organised into militias, battling the ÁVH and Soviet troops. Pro-Soviet communists and ÁVH members were executed or imprisoned and former political prisoners were released and armed. Radical impromptu workers' councils wrested municipal control from the ruling Hungarian Working People's Party and demanded political changes. A new government formally disbanded the ÁVH, declared its intention to withdraw from the Warsaw Pact, and pledged to re-establish free elections. On November 4 Soviet forces invaded Hungary and quashed the revolution. More than 2,500 Hungarians were killed in the conflict, and 200,000 Hungarians fled as refugees. Mass arrests and denunciations continued for months thereafter. The Revolution lasted until November 10, 1956.
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