History Today: How Brexit became a reality on January 31, 2020

So long, farewell, it’s hard to say goodbye’ sang the children of the Von Trapp family in the movie The Sound of Music. However, on January 31, 2020, the United Kingdom wasn’t humming the same song when it officially quit the European Union (EU), marking a watershed moment for both the UK and the EU.

It’s this event and other such memorable moments that make January 31 a significant day in history.

In our ongoing series History Today, we revisit UK’s exit from the EU and other events that shaped the world.

Goodbye EU, says UK

After three-and-a-half years — UK had voted yes in the Brexit referendum conducted on June 23, 2016 — Britain finally became the first ever country to leave the European Union at 11:01 pm GMT on January 31, 2020.

In a televised address, Britain’s Prime Minister Boris Johnson said: “The most important thing to say tonight is that this is not an end but a beginning. This is the moment when the dawn breaks and the curtain goes up on a new act.”

The announcement saw muted celebrations and protests. It was a time of excitement and concern. Excitement because the UK was entering a new era; concern because the future was uncertain and no one knew what would happen to the country after choosing to leave the umbrella of a giant trading power.

But how did UK get here? It dates back to June 2016 when the British people went to the polls in a vote on whether the UK should remain a member of the EU. To much of the country’s shock, 51.9 per cent of Brits voted to leave the EU with 48.1 per cent voting to remain in the economic and political union. What followed was political turmoil; then Prime Minister David Cameron resigned.

Finally after many deliberations, delays and discussions, an exit was decided upon and Brexit was finally triggered. However, it also set the stage for how Britain would negotiate its future relationship with Europe.

Whether Brexit has been a success or not is still to be decided. But one thing is certain — it is one of the biggest political and economic shifts in modern European history.

US President Truman announces development of H-Bomb

On this day, back in 1950, US President Harry S Truman publicly announced his decision to support the development of the hydrogen bomb, a weapon believed to be hundreds of times more powerful than the atomic bombs dropped on Japan during World War II.

This moment in history came after the United States lost its nuclear supremacy when the Soviet Union successfully detonated an atomic bomb five months earlier. This led to Truman to approve massive funding to complete the world’s first “superbomb,” as he described it in his public announcement on January 31.

In his speech, Truman said, “It is part of my responsibility as commander in chief of the Armed Forces to see to it that our country is able to defend itself against any possible aggressor.
“Accordingly, I have directed the Atomic Energy Commission to continue its work on all forms of atomic weapons, including the so-called hydrogen or superbomb. Like all other work in the field of atomic weapons, it is being and will be carried forward on a basis consistent with the overall objectives of our program for peace and security.”

Two years later, on November 1, 1952, the United States successfully detonated “Mike,” the world’s first hydrogen bomb, on the Eniwetok Atoll in the Pacific Marshall Islands. The explosive instantly vaporised an entire island and left behind a crater more than a mile wide.

The rest, as they say, is history.

Chimp goes where no chimp has gone before

Long before Neil Armstrong and Apollo 11 won the space race for the United States, it was Ham, an astro-chimp that went to space, paving the way for Armstrong.

As the Russians moved closer to sending a human into orbit, the Americans decided to use three-year-old Ham to find out whether humans would be able to survive in space. After 18 months of training, Ham was selected as the chimpanzee whose life would be risked to test the safety of space flight on the ape body. On January 31, 1961, after several hours of waiting on the launch pad at Cape Canaveral, Florida, three-and-a-half-year old Ham was propelled into space, strapped into a container called a “couch.”

Ham’s flight lasted approximately 16.5 minutes. After the flight, Ham’s capsule splashed down, following which he was retrieved. When he was finally released from the “couch” however, his face bore an enormous grin. Although interpreted as a happy smile by many people, Ham’s expression was one of extreme fear and anxiety.

Two years after his historic space journey, Ham was transferred to The National Zoo, where he lived alone for 17 years, before finally being sent to the North Carolina Zoo where he could live with other chimps. He died 22 years after his historic flight into space, on January 18, 1983, at the estimated age of 26.

This Day, That Year

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