16 August:
1930 The very first British Empire games begins in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. The Games, now known as the Commonwealth Games, featured 11 nations (Australia Bermuda, British Guiana, Canada, England, Ireland , Newfoundland, New Zealand Scotland, South Africa, Wales) competing in 59 events across 7 sports (athletics, boxing, diving, lawn bowls, rowing, swimming, wrestling). Host Canada come second in the medal table with 20 golds, 16 silvers and 18 bronze, behind England who top the table with 25 gold, 22 silver and 13 bronze. England's Cecelia Wolstenholme sets a new World Record in the 200 yard breastroke with a time of 2 minutes 54 seconds. Her younger sister Beatrice would win a gold in the 4x110 yards freestyle relay in the 1934 Games, held in London.
Today more than 70 nations take part in the Games, in 261 events from 18 sports. Almost 5,000 athletes took part in the 2014 Glasgow Games, making the Commonwealth second only to the Olympics in terms of largest (and most prestigious) multi-discipline international sporting events.
1945 The last Chinese Emperor, Puyi, is captured by Soviet troops. Puyi had been ruler of Manchukuo under Japanese rule and would be held in a Soviet detention centre until being turned over to Chinese custody following the 1949 victory for the Chinese communists. Puyi would spend 10 years in a detention center before being declared 'reformed' and moved into the general society.
Puyi became a vocal supporter of the Communists, publishing a memoir in which he denounced himself, and worked 1964 until his death he worked as an editor for the literary department of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference. Following the start of the Cultural Revolution in 1966, Puyi was targeted by the Red Guards, but the intervention of the local public security bureau kept him relatively safe (although he lost his food rations, salary, and various luxuries, including his sofa and desk).
Puyi died in Beijing in 1967.
1966 The House of Representatives Un-American Activities Committee starts investigations into Americans it alleges have helped the Vietcong. Anti-War Protesters would attempt to break up the meeting but failed with over 50 arrests made by police. Like Senator Joseph McCarthy's Senate committee, the HUAC engaged in what has been described as witchhunts and by the time the 1966 hearings had taken place had declined from its height in the late 40s (especially during the Hollywood Ten hearings) and the 50s.
Whilst the Committee did - in its early days - catch a few Soviet or former Soviet spies such as Whittaker Chambers, by the 60s it was in terminal decline and had been described as 'the most un-American thing in the country today' by former President Harry S. Truman. In 1960 William Mandel famously blasted the Committee in a hearing in Berkeley, California, as police fought protesters outside the building. Replying to the question "Are you now or have you ever been a member of the Communist Party?" from Lead Counsel Richard Arens, Mandel said:
"Honorable beaters of children, sadists, uniformed and in plain clothes, distinguished Dixiecrat wearing the clothing of a gentleman, eminent Republican who opposes an accommodation with the one country with which we must live at peace in order for us and all our children to survive. My boy of fifteen left this room a few minutes ago in sound health and not jailed, solely because I asked him to be in here to learn something about the procedures of the United States government and one of its committees. Had he been outside where a son of a friend of mine had his head split by these goons operating under your orders, my boy today might have paid the penalty of permanent injury or a police record for desiring to come here and hear how this committee operates. If you think that I am going to cooperate with this collection of Judases, of men who sit there in violation of the United States Constitution, if you think I will cooperate with you in any way, you are insane!"
The statement was the only one Mandel made to the Committee, responding to every other question with polite variations of "Go to hell." It was a turning point for the Committee.
In 1967 and 68 it called Youth International members (also known as Yippies), Jerry Rubin and Abbie Hoffman. On both occasions, Rubin and Hoffman made a mockery of proceedings. Rubin came to one session dressed as a United States Revolutionary War soldier and passed out copies of the United States Declaration of Independence to people in attendance. Hoffman attended a session dressed as Santa Claus. On another occasion, police stopped Hoffman at the building entrance and arrested him for wearing the United States flag. Hoffman quipped to the press, "I regret that I have but one shirt to give for my country," paraphrasing the last words of revolutionary patriot Nathan Hale; Rubin, who was wearing a matching Viet Cong flag, shouted that the police were communists for not arresting him also.
In 1969 the Committee changed its name to the Internal Security Committee and limped on until it was disbanded in 1975.