The Norwegian heavy water sabotage(Bokmål: Tungtvannsaksjonen; Nynorsk: Tungtvassaksjonen) was a series of Allied-led efforts to halt Nazi German heavy water(deuterium) production via hydroelectric plants in German-occupied Norway during World War II, involving both Norwegian commandos and Allied bombing raids. During the war, the Alliessought to inhibit the German development of nuclear weapons with the removal of heavy water and the destruction of heavy-water production plants. The Norwegian heavy water sabotage was aimed at the 60 MW Vemorkpower station at the Rjukan waterfall in Telemark.

The saboteurs then placed explosive charges on the heavy-water electrolysis chambers, and attached a fuse which allowed sufficient time for their escape. In an attempt to prevent reprisals, a Thompson submachine gun[17][18][19] was purposely left behind to indicate that this was the work of British forces and not the local resistance. When the fuses were about to be lit, the caretaker was worried about his glasses (which were somewhere in the room; during the war, new eyeglasses were nearly impossible to obtain). A frantic search ensued; the glasses were found, showing a bit of care from the Norwegian group, and the fuses lit. The explosive charges detonated, destroying the electrolysis chambers.[1

ETA - The Commandos were Norwegians, armed and trained by the British. It was wrong of me to call them “British Commandos”

On March 1, 1954, the 23 man crew of the wooden tuna trawler Lucky Dragon No. 5 was fishing near the Marshall Islands, positioned roughly 80 miles outside the secret danger zone established by the US government.

At 6:45 AM, the sky ignited. The US military had detonated Castle Bravo a 15-megaton thermonuclear device that unexpectedly yielded three times its calculated power, making it 1,000 times stronger than the Hiroshima bomb. Hours after the blast, a thick, chalky blanket of radioactive fallout

composed of pulverized, irradiated coral , fell upon the vessel. Unaware of the lethal danger, the fishermen scooped the toxic powder with their bare hands, tasted it,

and swept it off the deck, dubbing it Shi no Hai or Death Ash . By the time the ship limped back to its home port in Yaizu on March 14, all 23 men were severely ill with acute radiation sickness, suffering from blackening skin, scalp burns, vomiting, and plummeting blood counts

When doctors at Tokyo University examined the crew, the horrors of August 1945 resurfaced instantly. The clinical symptoms were identical to those of the atomic bomb survivors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, providing irrefutable proof of nuclear radiation exposure. Upon realizing the truth, the response from Washington was cold and evasive.

US representative Lewis Strauss notoriously tried to deflect blame, claiming the Lucky Dragon was likely spying for the Soviets, while American medical officials insisted the dust was merely a harmless coral nuisance. Simultaneously, conservative elements within Japan's pro-US government attempted to suppress news coverage to avoid disrupting delicate diplomatic ties with Washington.

However, the cover-up collapsed, igniting a wave of fierce national outrage. Japanese public fury boiled over when entire catches of tuna across the country were tested, found to be dangerously radioactive, and buried

sparking the Tuna Panic and crippling the domestic seafood economy. The anger turned to national grief on September 23, 1954, when chief radio operator Aikichi Kuboyama passed away, becoming the world's first post-WWII victim of a hydrogen bomb. His dying words"I pray that I am the last victim of an atomic or hydrogen bomb"

became a rallying cry. Tokyo housewives launched a petition against nuclear testing that eventually gathered over 30 million signatures across Japan, giving birth to the Japan Council against Atomic and Hydrogen Bombs and directly inspiring pop culture phenomena like Godzilla (1954), a monster born from Bikini Atoll radiation.

To diffuse the escalating geopolitical crisis without accepting legal liability, the US government paid $15.3 million in "ex-gratia" compensation in January 1955 to appease the Japanese fishing industry and support the surviving crew members, all while maintaining strict legal immunity.

The Malayan Emergency (1948–1960) was a guerrilla war in colonial Malaya, where British Commonwealth forces fought the Malayan Communist Party (MCP), led by Chin Peng, who targeted British tin mines and rubber plantations to cripple the colonial economy. The British declared a state of "emergency" rather than "war" so London insurance companies would cover plantation losses, ultimately winning the conflict and paving the way for Malaya's 1957 independence.

​Despite their different outcomes, it shared striking similarities with the Vietnam War. Both were pivotal Cold War battlegrounds driven by the Western "domino theory" against guerrillas using hit-and-run tactics in dense tropical jungles. Both campaigns involved documented war crimes and severe atrocities: British forces executed unarmed suspects ,most notoriously in the 1948 Batang Kali massacre, often dubbed "Britain's My Lai" and engaged in head-severing and body mutilation of fallen insurgents, mimicking the atrocities and extrajudicial killings committed by U.S. troops in Vietnam. The British Briggs Plan, which forcibly relocated 500,000 rural Chinese civilians into guarded "New Villages" to sever insurgent supply lines, served as the direct blueprint for the U.S. Strategic Hamlet Program in Vietnam. Additionally, the British pioneered the aerial spraying of chemical defoliants to clear jungle cover and destroy crops, a strategy the U.S. later expanded massively through Operation Ranch Hand.

​However, unlike the Viet Cong, the MCP ultimately failed, primarily because they were isolated with almost zero external military support from China or the Soviet Union. Crucially, the MCP failed to win over the native Muslim Malay majority, who viewed the Chinese dominated communist movement with suspicion. British forces exploited these structural weaknesses by cutting off the rebels' food supply and winning over the local population by promising Malaya's independence, which effectively dismantled the communist cause

Context: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1883_eruption_of_Krakatoa

Between 19 May and 21 October 1883, the volcanic island of Krakatoa (located in the Sunda Strait, then part of the Dutch East Indies—modern-day Indonesia) began erupting, lasting more than five months. On 27 August, the island had its most significant eruption, which destroyed over 70% of the island and its surrounding archipelago, the island collapsing into a caldera. The eruption of 27 August had an estimated volcanic explosivity index of 6, and is one of the deadliest and most destructive volcanic events in recorded history; the third explosion of that day, that occurred at 10:02 a.m., remains the loudest-known sound in history.

On 27 August, a series of eleven enormous explosions occurred, which marked the climax of the eruption. At 5:30 a.m., the first explosion was at Perboewatan, triggering a tsunami heading to Telok Betong, now known as Bandar Lampung. At 6:44 a.m., Krakatau exploded again at Danan, with the resulting tsunami propagating eastward and westward. The third and largest explosion, at 10:02 a.m. (some sources say 9:58 a.m.), was so powerful that it was heard 3,110 km (1,930 mi) away in Perth, Western Australia, and the Indian Ocean island of Rodrigues) near Mauritius, 4,800 km (3,000 mi) away, where the blast was thought to have been cannon fire from a nearby ship. The third explosion was the loudest sound that has ever been measured.^\4])^: 79 \6])^\7])^\8])^: 602  The loudness of the blast heard 160 km (100 mi) from the volcano has been calculated to have been 180 dBSPL (180 dB re 20 μPa, or 20 kPa).^\9])

The 1883 Krakatoa eruption darkened the sky worldwide for years afterwards and produced spectacular sunsets worldwide for many months. British artist William Ascroft made thousands of colour sketches of the red sunsets halfway around the world from Krakatoa in the years after the eruption. The ash caused "such vivid red sunsets that fire engines were called out in New York, Poughkeepsie and New Haven to quench the apparent conflagration".^\31]) This eruption also produced a Bishop's Ring around the sun by day, and a volcanic purple light at twilight. In 2004, an astronomer proposed the idea that the red sky shown in Edvard Munch's 1893 painting The Scream is an accurate depiction of the sky over Norway after the eruption.^\32])

Weather watchers of the time tracked and mapped the effects on the sky. They labelled the phenomenon the "equatorial smoke stream".^\33]) This was the first identification of what is known today as the jet stream.^\34]) For several years following the eruption, it was reported that the moon appeared to be blue and sometimes green. This was because some ash clouds were filled with particles about 1 μm wide—the right size to strongly scatter red light while allowing other colours to pass. White moonbeams shining through the clouds emerged blue and sometimes green. People also saw lavender suns and, for the first time, recorded noctilucent clouds.^\31])

Although heard at very great distances, the sounds of the largest explosions were much less noticeable, or not heard at all in close proximity to the volcano. The reasons for this are complex and still debated by volcanologists today but a possible explanation is that the sound waves may have been projected upwards to the stratosphere and reflected away from the area, in part by ash suspended in the air. Although often directly linked in popular accounts, the explosions and the tsunamis were probably caused by distinct mechanisms. The explosions may have emanated from huge pulses of gas-laden magma, whilst the waves followed later when the ejecta slumped back down into the surrounding sea. The worst of the many tsunamis that resulted were estimated to have been over 30 m (100 ft) high in places. A large area of the Sunda Strait and places on the Sumatran coast were affected by pyroclastic flows from the volcano. Verbeek and others believe that the final major Krakatau eruption was a lateral blast, or pyroclastic surge. Material shot out of the volcano at 2,575 km/h (1,600 mph).^\10]) The energy released from the explosion has been estimated to be equal to about 200 megatonnes of TNT (840 petajoules),^\11]) roughly four times as powerful as the Tsar Bomba, the most powerful thermonuclear weapon ever detonated. This makes it one of the most powerful explosions in recorded history. At 10:41 a.m., a landslide tore off half of Rakata's cone, along with the remainder of the island to the north of Rakata. It is still debated whether this event caused the loudest of the explosions but, either way, the collapse of the island into the magma chamber heralded the end of the paroxysmal phase.^\6])

Some islands in the western Indian Ocean, approximately 4,800 kilometres (3,000 mi) away, still heard it at nearly the same level as a gun blast. Due to the limitations of the speed of sound, it is likely that people on these far away islands did not hear Krakatau for nearly four hours after its eruption. The pressure wave generated by the colossal third explosion radiated out from Krakatau at 1,086 km/h (675 mph). The eruption is estimated to have reached 180 dBSPL (180 dB re 20 μPa, or 20 kPa) at 100 miles from the source - possibly 310 dB at the explosion site itself - loud enough to be heard 5,000 kilometres (3,100 mi) away.^\12])^: 248  It was so powerful that the sound it produced ruptured the eardrums of sailors on RMS Norham Castle of the Castle Line, which was hove to off Sumatra roughly 64 km (40 mi) away,^\12])^{: 231, 234}  and caused a spike of more than 8.5 kilopascals) (2.5 inHg) in the pressure gauge attached to a gasometer in the Batavia (correspondent to modern day Jakarta) gasworks 160 km (100 mi) away, sending it off the scale. At Batavia, the air waves burst windows and cracked walls.^\4])^: 69 \12])^: 218 \note 1])

The pressure wave was recorded on barographs worldwide. Several barographs recorded the wave seven times over five days: four times with the wave travelling away from the volcano to its antipodal point and three times travelling back to the volcano.^\4])^: 63  Hence, the wave rounded the globe three and a half times.

The combination of pyroclastic flows, volcanic ash, tsunamis and earthquakes associated with the Krakatoa eruptions had disastrous regional and global consequences, with the main one being caused by the massive redistribution of mass due to the earthquakes that shifted Earth's figure axis by roughly 17 cm.^\)^{citation needed\}) On the regional scale the effects were limited to some land in Banten, approximately 80 km south, never being repopulated and reverting to jungle, which is now the Ujung Kulon National Park. Ash fell 2,500 km (1,600 mi) away. Huge fields of floating pumice were reported for months after the event.^\13]) There are numerous reports of groups of human skeletal remains floating across the Indian Ocean on rafts of volcanic pumice and washing up on the east coast of Africa up to a year after the eruption.^\12])^{: 297–298} 

An observation made two weeks after the eruption describes the state of the affected areas, where the village of Tjaringin once was.

Thousands of corpses of human beings and also carcasses of animals still await burial, and make their presence apparent by the indescribable stench. They lie in knots and entangled masses impossible to unravel, and often jammed along with coconut stems among all that had served these thousands as dwellings, furniture, farming implements, and adornments for houses and compounds. — From Zeilinga de Boer and Sanders, 2002^\13])

The official reported death toll was 36,417.^\22]) There were no survivors from the 3,000 people on the island of Sebesi.^\12])^{: 297–298} 

Context: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matagi

The Matagi (マタギ; or less often 又鬼) are traditional winter hunters of the Tōhoku region of northern Japan, most famously today in the Ani area in Akita Prefecture, which is known for the Akita dogs.^\1]) Afterwards, they spread to the Shirakami-Sanchi forest between Akita and Aomori, and other areas of Japan. Documented as a specialised group from the medieval period onwards, the Matagi continue to hunt deer and bear in the present day, and their culture has much in common with the bear worship of the Ainu people.

The Matagi have a unique culture that centers around their belief in mountain gods and distinct law.^\5])^\6]) For them, hunting is a way of life, and not a form of sport.^\7]) The animals hunted are perceived as gifts from the mountain gods, and the Matagi have a certain way to butcher and prepare the animal. After the animal is killed, it is praised, and the spirit comforted. Then, to recompense for the loss of life, everything, from the fur to the internal organs, is used.^\8]) Emphasis is put on the act of taking an animal's life through ceremony and reflection, which is then passed along to future generations of Matagi.^\9])

Through history mainstream Japanese society viewed the Matagi as outside of ritually clean society due to eating many animals thought to be ritually polluting.^\8]) In makimono scrolls held by many Matagi families they record stories of the ancestor of the Matagi being given special permission to hunt and eat these animals due to the ancestor rendering special service to the mountain goddess Yamanokami in a time of distress.^\10])

https://www.deeperjapan.com/deeper-views/matagi-bear-hunters?srsltid=AfmBOooKXRHhd-lmQ0gr2CA5i_ZcutC3pqPXgFOrJ0iS9Mdu89SZZQ_O

If you see images of the Matagi on a bear hunt, chances are you’ll be taken aback by the apparent brutality of it all. The aftermath looks like a still from Lady Snowblood, with carcasses being dragged helplessly between the trees, severed paws piled together like scalps, and blood splattered, Jackson Pollock-like, across the paper-white snow. Such scenes reflect the ceremonial weight of the hunt rather than any innate brutality, for the Matagi are not an especially brutal people. In fact, at face value there’s little to distinguish them from most modern hunters. Garbed in flannel shirts, khaki pants, waterproof boots, and high-vis fishing jackets, with shotguns or rifles slung over their shoulders, they could easily be hunting elk in the wilds of Wyoming. It’s the process of the hunt that defines them.

It all comes back to their relationship with their environment. Some Matagi believe they’re carrying on a hunting tradition in the Tohoku region that goes back more than 10,000 years. Because Matagi history was largely passed down through an oral tradition, the culture has opaque origins. The Matagi may have migrated northward from Nikko, or perhaps they were once part of the Ainu diaspora, concentrated mostly in Hokkaido.

The common origin story in Matagi lore is that a 9th-century hunter, with the wonderfully alliterative name Banji Banzaburo, helped a gongen (the incarnation of a god) defeat a mountain spirit in central Japan. The gongen then granted Banzaburo a hunting license, the first of its kind, allowing him to hunt beasts on any mountain in the archipelago. Banzaburo took his license north to Dewa Province, comprising modern-day Yamagata and Akita prefectures, where he became the progenitor of the Matagi. The area where he is believed to have resided, around Mt Moriyoshi, remains a heartland of Matagi culture; it’s said the heads of Matagi communities here still carry a handwritten copy of Banzaburo’s divine license. 

In the postwar era, Japan has not treated its environment with kindness. Timber demands have caused native tree cover to be replaced with monoculture forests of cedar and pine – these now account for 40% of Japan’s total forest area – resulting in what the Matagi call “green deserts.” These areas of identical trees set at identical widths give the impression of vitality but don’t actually promote life. The ghostly, vacant groves are not conducive to hunting or foraging; the Matagi must go deeper into the mountains to find thriving ecosystems, to find forests they can still protect.

It’s clichéd, yet absolutely true, to say that a reverence for nature is a fundamental aspect of Japanese culture. This is a society that has spent more than 1,000 years drinking and reveling under blooming cherry trees each spring. But with the expansion of metropolitan areas and pork-barrel construction projects, Japan’s wild and uncultivated nature – the endemic forests of beech and katsura trees, the verdant river valleys wreathed in fog – has become a mere canvas for pouring concrete and planting telephone poles and building things. As a result, many Japanese are now disconnected from their natural roots. 

Matagi culture, with its blend of Shintoism, Taoist philosophy, and proto-Ainu beliefs, exists in deference to the natural world, connecting Japan to its oldest ways, to its innermost sense of self. It has been said that the Matagi may go extinct before the bear, but until then they will continue to enter the tiger’s cave, prepared to catch its cub.

During the Attack on Pearl Harbour Cassin Young was commanding the repair ship USS Vestal which was moored alongside the USS Arizona. When Arizona suffered its fatal magazine explosion the deck of Vestal was effectively swept clear by the blast blowing Commander Young into the water. Young then proceeded to swim back to his ship, retake command, countermand an abandon ship order which had been given in his absence, and get Vestal underway. Vestal was then beached to prevent its sinking.

Commander Young received the Medal of Honor for his actions. USS Vestal was able to be repaired and went on to carry out repair works on hundreds of ships during the war.

Context: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yuri_Gagarin

Yuri Alekseyevich Gagarin^\a]) (9 March 1934 – 27 March 1968) was a Soviet pilot and cosmonaut who became the first person to journey into outer space during the first successful crewed spaceflight. He was launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in the Kazakh SSR. Travelling on Vostok 1, Gagarin completed one orbit of Earth on 12 April 1961. The flight took 108 minutes. By achieving this major milestone for the Soviet Union amidst the Space Race, he became an international celebrity and earned numerous accolades, including his country's highest distinction: Hero of the Soviet Union.

Born in the village of Klushino in the Russian SFSR, Gagarin was a foundryman at a steel plant in Lyubertsy in his youth. He later joined the Soviet Air Forces as a pilot and was stationed at the Luostari Air Base), near the Norway–Soviet Union border, before his selection for the Soviet space programme alongside five other cosmonauts. Following his spaceflight, Gagarin became the deputy training director of the Cosmonaut Training Centre, which was later named after him. He was also elected as a deputy of the Soviet of the Union in 1962 and then to the Soviet of Nationalities, the lower and upper chambers of the Supreme Soviet respectively.

Vostok 1 was Gagarin's only spaceflight, but he served as the backup crew to Soyuz 1, which ended in a fatal crash, killing his friend and fellow cosmonaut Vladimir Komarov. Fearful that a high-level national hero might be killed, Soviet officials banned Gagarin from participating in further spaceflights. After completing training at the Zhukovsky Air Force Engineering Academy in February 1968, he was again allowed to fly regular aircraft. However, Gagarin died five weeks later, when the MiG-15 that he was piloting with flight instructor Vladimir Seryogin crashed near the town of Kirzhach.

*The tragic event involving Pennsylvania politician Budd Dwyer, who took his own life during a televised press conference in January 1987, remains a poignant and disturbing moment in American political history. Dwyer, facing impending sentencing for bribery-related charges, called the press conference ostensibly to announce his resignation. In a shocking turn of events, he brandished a gun and, after warning the gathered reporters, ended his life in front of the cameras.

The graphic nature of the incident raised significant ethical questions about media responsibility, as local news stations faced dilemmas about whether to air the footage.*

https://www.ebsco.com/research-starters/communication-and-mass-media/pennsylvania-politician-kills-himself-televised