On this day in ...... 1968 (40 years ago today), in Derry, Northern Ireland's 2d largest city, the political violence known as The Troubles began when police "used batons and water cannon to break up a civil rights march," injuring at least 30 persons. Unrest would cripple the region for 3 decades, ending only with the Good Friday Accords of 1998. (credit for photo © Derry Journal)
... 1988 (20 years ago today), by a margin of 10 percentage points, Chilean voters rejected Augusto Pinochet's bid for another 8 years as President. This rejection by plebiscite would prove a milestone in ending the reign of Pinochet, who, as a military general, had seized power in a bloody coup on September 11, 1973. When he died in 2006 Pinochet -- though he had avoided
extradition from Britain to Spain on international criminal charges -- faced "numerous court cases that had sought to bring him to justice" in Chile. (credit for 1988 photo of Pinochet, at far right)
