On this day in ...... 1982, Argentina invaded islands off its coast that it calls the Malvinas but that since 1833 had been in the control of Britain, which calls them the Falklands. (map credit) On this day in 1982, the BCC reported, "[t]he Argentine flag is now flying over Government House in the Falkland Islands' capital, Port Stanley." But by mid-June the Falklands/Malvinas War ended with a ceasefire in which Britain retained control. Although the 2 countries restored diplomatic relations in 1990, this remains a touchy topic, as each continues to lay claim to the islands.
... 1955, U.S. Rep. Chellie Pingree (D-Me.) was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota. A onetime Majority Leader of Maine's Senate, she was elected to Congress in November 2008.
... 1998, a French court imposed on a former Cabinet minister, Maurice Papon, a sentence of 10 years in prison "for his part" in "help[ing] send more than 1,600 Jews to their deaths in Nazi
concentration camps" during World War II. (credit for photo of front page of Paris newspaper day after the verdict) Legal challenges continued, both in France and in the European Court of Human Rights, and in 2003 "France's Court of Appeal freed Papon from prison after accepting two medical reports which said he was virtually incapacitated." As IntLawGrrls noted, Papon died in 2007 at age 96; however, controversy regarding France's role in the Holocaust is still very much alive.
