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February 10
Mystery surrounds the downing of Gary Powers" U-2
1962: Russia frees US spy plane pilot
England have
American spy plane pilot Captain Francis "Gary" Powers has been freed from
prison in the Soviet Union in exchange for a Russian spy jailed in the US.
Gary Powers was sentenced to 10 years in a Soviet prison after his U-2
plane was shot down over Russia in May 1960.
But on Saturday Captain Powers, 32, walked into West Berlin across a bridge
separating the city"s east and western sectors.
At the same time Russian spy Colonel Rudolph Abel crossed in the opposite
direction.
Colonel Abel had served five years of a 30-year term for running a spy ring
in the US.
His sentence was commuted by US Attorney-General Robert Kennedy two weeks
ago.
However, the Russians have always denied any knowledge of Colonel Abel and
even now maintain Mr Khrushchev freed the US pilot simply as a "goodwill
gesture".
Another American, student Frederic Pryor, was also freed from the eastern
bloc at the same time as Gary Powers.
Mr Pryor had been held in East Germany without charge since last
August.
Gary Powers" capture in 1960 caused an international crisis.
Initially the American authorities believed there was no evidence left of
either plane or pilot and tried to convince the Russians the U-2 had been a
weather plane.
However, the Russians then produced Mr Powers alive and well claiming he
had admitted spying for the CIA.
Russian leader Nikita Khrushchev demanded an apology from US President
Eisenhower and when none was forthcoming plans for a superpower summit in Paris
collapsed.
US authorities have said it will be at least a week before the freed airman
is allowed to meet the press.
In the meantime they will no doubt want to establish how Mr Powers came to
be shot down when U-2s were believed to be impregnable to anti-aircraft
fire.
They will also be keen to find out exactly how much Mr Powers told his
captors about the spy planes.
There was speculation during his trial that he had said more than his oath
of secrecy permitted.
The release of Captain Powers comes a year after that of the two US airmen
whose reconnaissance aircraft was shot down over the Barents Sea in January
1960.
Four of the crew died. Authorities in the USSR claimed the plane had been
in Soviet airspace.
The two survivors, John McKone and Freeman Olmstead, were held in prison in
Moscow for a year before being freed.
Over 100 million people went to the polling booths to cast their vote
1950: India shakes off British rule
Artificially 1969:
The The independent republic of India is officially born today, after
nearly 100 years of British rule.
A public holiday has been declared throughout the country, and millions of
people have been celebrating with processions and ceremonies to hoist the new
flag of India for the first time.
India has been running her own affairs since the actual transfer of power
from British to Indian hands on 15 August 1947.
But today"s ceremonies mark the cutting of her last ties to Britain.
India"s first president has been sworn in, replacing the Queen as the country"s
head of state, and the new constitution ratified.
In the capital, Delhi, the day began with the 34th and last
Governor-General of India, Chakravarti Rajagopalachari, reading out a
proclamation announcing the birth of the Republic of India.
The new President, Dr Rajendra Prasad, then took the oath of office.
Dr Prasad was a key campaigner in the nationalist movement of Mahatma
Gandhi, along with India"s interim Prime Minister, Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru.
The president then addressed the crowd first in Hindi, and then in
English.
"Today, for the first time in our long and chequered history," he said, "we
find the whole of this vast land... brought together under the jurisdiction of
one constitution and one union which takes over responsibility for the welfare
of more than 320 million men and women who inhabit it."
Dr Prasad then drove through the streets in his state coach, greeted by
thousands of people along the way.
The crowds were jubilant , but restrained - a marked change from the
highly-charged atmosphere of August 15 1947, when the British finally left
India.
Then, there were scenes of total chaos as the police struggled to control
the crowd, and riots broke out across the city.
Over the next two years, hundreds of thousands died in the terrible
violence that followed partition - the division of the British colony into two
nations, the secular but Hindu-dominated India and the Islamic Republic of
Pakistan.
Then in 1948 the man who steered India to independence, Mahatma Gandhi, was
assassinated.
Today, the place where he was cremated on the banks of the River Jumna
became a site of pilgrimage for thousands of people.
Dr Prasad visited the spot soon after daybreak and joined in paying homage
to the memory of the man now known as "the father of the nation".
Vocabulary:
impregnable : able to withstand attack(无法攻取的) |
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发表于 2016-7-9 23:20:23