History Today: How Japan’s Tabei Junko became first woman to conquer Mount Everest

On May 16, 1975, Tabei Junko from Japan, along with Ang Tsering from Nepal, became the first woman to reach the top of Mount Everest.

A few days before the achievement, Tabei and four other climbers were caught in an avalanche and buried in snow. No one died, but Tabei fainted and had to be pulled out by sherpas.

Also on this day in 1966, the Chinese Communist Party released the May 16 Notification, a note that criticised “counterrevolutionary revisionists” within the party. This event marked the start of the Cultural Revolution.

In 1929, the first Oscar Awards were given out during a dinner attended by about 250 guests in the Blossom Room of the Roosevelt Hotel in Hollywood, California.

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Tabei Junko becomes first woman to climb Mount Everest

It took five years of effort for the group, the first all-women team, to prepare for their Everest climb. There was huge pressure on them to succeed, especially with the Nepalese government granting only a few international permits each year to scale the mountain.

If they failed, they might have had to wait several more years for another chance.

At the same time, on the Tibetan side, a large Chinese team of 200 members was also attempting to send a woman to the summit.

But on this day in 1975, Junko Tabei of Japan became the first woman to reach the top of Mount Everest, the world’s highest peak.

She became the 36th person to reach the summit, and the first woman to do so.

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On May 4, an avalanche hit the team’s camp at 20,700 feet (6,300 metres). Tabei and four others were buried in snow. Though no one died, Tabei lost consciousness and had to be pulled out by sherpas. She rested for two days to recover from her injuries before continuing the climb.

Tabei and Yuriko Watanabe had been chosen to attempt the final ascent. But when some teammates became unwell from altitude sickness, Watanabe helped them return to camp two, leaving Tabei to go on.

Eleven days later, the Chinese team made a second attempt. With little oxygen, Pan Duo also reached the summit, becoming the second woman to do so, and the first from the harder northern route.

Before these two climbs, all 38 people who had summited Everest were men. News of Tabei’s success spread quickly across Asia, leading to celebrations in Japan, Nepal and India.

Cultural Revolution begins in China

On this day in 1966, Chinese Communist Party Chairman Mao Zedong began what became known as the Cultural Revolution – a major push during his final decade in power to revive the revolutionary spirit in China.

Worried that China was becoming like the Soviet Union and unsure of his own legacy, Mao launched a massive campaign, calling on people to challenge the party’s leadership and “cleanse” it.

The Cultural Revolution caused serious damage to the country. It hurt the economy, destroyed millions of lives and pushed China into a decade of chaos, violence, starvation and economic decline.

Historians believe that between 500,000 and two million people died during this time.

One of the worst-hit areas was the southern province of Guangxi, where there were reports of mass killings and even acts of cannibalism.

The events were so complex and shocking that historians still struggle to understand all that happened during that period.

First Academy Awards ceremony

On this day in 1929, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences held its first-ever awards ceremony. It took place at a dinner for about 250 guests in the Blossom Room of the Roosevelt Hotel in Hollywood, California.

The Academy had been set up two years earlier, in May 1927, by Louis B. Mayer, head of the MGM studio. It was formed as a non-profit group to support and improve the film industry.

Actor Douglas Fairbanks, Sr., the Academy’s first president, hosted the event. Unlike today, the winners had already been announced before the ceremony began.

The first Best Picture award went to Wings, directed by William Wellman. It was the most costly film of its time, made with a budget of $2 million, and followed the story of two World War I pilots in love with the same woman.

German actor Emil Jannings received the Best Actor award for The Last Command and The Way of All Flesh. The only woman to win an Oscar that year was 22-year-old Janet Gaynor. She won Best Actress for her roles in Seventh Heaven, Street Angel, and Sunrise, having been nominated for all three.

The gold-plated statuette later became widely known as the “Oscar”. The Academy officially adopted the name in 1939, though a common but unconfirmed tale suggests the name came from Academy executive Margaret Herrick, who thought it looked like her Uncle Oscar.

This Day, That Year

1770: Fourteen-year-old Marie Antoinette married the future King Louis XVI of France, who was 15.

1943: The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising ended after German troops crushed the Jewish resistance and destroyed the city’s Great Synagogue.

1985: British scientists reported unusually low ozone levels above the South Pole. The finding later became known as the Ozone Hole.

1986: The action film Top Gun was released in American cinemas. It turned Tom Cruise into a global star.

1996: Atal Bihari Vajpayee was sworn in as Prime Minister of India for a second term.

2007: Nicolas Sarkozy took office as president of France.