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Imants Lešinskis
Imants Lešinskis (17 December 1931 – 23 December 1985) was a Latvian KGB agent and a double agent for the CIA who defected from the Soviet Union to the United States with his wife and daughter in 1978 while working for the United Nations in New York City. His daughter, Ieva Lešinska, made a film about her relationship with her father called ''My Father the Spy''. His work in the KGB mainly consisted of denouncing and defaming, both domestically and abroad, those Latvians perceived as anti-Soviet. Biography Lešinskis was born in 1931, in Riga, Latvia. In 1956, Lešinskis was blackmailed into joining the KGB as an informant. In 1960, during the 1960 Summer Olympics, under the cover of working for a newspaper called the ''Homeland Voice'', he was tasked with contacting Latvian athletes on the Australian Olympic Team, but he instead approached the American embassy in Rome seeking political asylum. His request was turned down, but he was offered a job working as a CIA info ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Riga
Riga ( ) is the capital, Primate city, primate, and List of cities and towns in Latvia, largest city of Latvia. Home to 591,882 inhabitants (as of 2025), the city accounts for a third of Latvia's total population. The population of Riga Planning Region, Riga metropolitan area, which stretches beyond the city limits, is estimated at 847,162 (as of 2025). The city lies on the Gulf of Riga at the mouth of the Daugava (river), Daugava river where it meets the Baltic Sea. Riga's territory covers and lies above sea level on a flat and sandy plain. Riga was founded in 1201, and is a former Hanseatic League member. Riga's historical centre is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, noted for its Art Nouveau/Jugendstil architecture and 19th century wooden architecture. Riga was the European Capital of Culture in 2014, along with Umeå in Sweden. Riga hosted the 2006 Riga summit, 2006 NATO Summit, the Eurovision Song Contest 2003, the 2013 World Women's Curling Championship, and the 2006 IIHF Wo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Diplomatic Mission
A diplomatic mission or foreign mission is a group of people from a state or organization present in another state to represent the sending state or organization officially in the receiving or host state. In practice, the phrase usually denotes an embassy or high commission, which is the main office of a country's diplomatic representatives to another country; it is usually, but not necessarily, based in the receiving state's capital city. Consulates, on the other hand, are smaller diplomatic missions that are normally located in major cities of the receiving state (but can be located in the capital, typically when the sending country has no embassy in the receiving state). In addition to being a diplomatic mission to the country in which it is located, an embassy may also be a non-resident permanent mission to one or more other countries. The term embassy is sometimes used interchangeably with chancery, the physical office or site of a diplomatic mission. Consequently, the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
1935 Births
Events January * January 7 – Italian premier Benito Mussolini and French Foreign Minister Pierre Laval conclude Franco-Italian Agreement of 1935, an agreement, in which each power agrees not to oppose the other's Colonial empire, colonial claims. * January 12 – Amelia Earhart becomes the first person to successfully complete a solo flight from Hawaii to California, a distance of . * January 13 – A plebiscite in the Saar (League of Nations), Territory of the Saar Basin shows that 90.3% of those voting wish to join Germany. * January 24 – The first canned beer is sold in Richmond, Virginia, United States, by Gottfried Krueger Brewing Company. February * February 6 – Parker Brothers begins selling the board game Monopoly (game), Monopoly in the United States. * February 13 – Richard Hauptmann is convicted and sentenced to death for the kidnapping and murder of Charles Lindbergh Jr. in the United States. * February 15 – The discovery and clinical developme ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Schutzstaffel
The ''Schutzstaffel'' (; ; SS; also stylised with SS runes as ''ᛋᛋ'') was a major paramilitary organisation under Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party in Nazi Germany, and later throughout German-occupied Europe during World War II. It began with a small guard unit known as the ''Saal-Schutz'' ("Hall Security") made up of party volunteers to provide security for party meetings in Munich. In 1925, Heinrich Himmler joined the unit, which had by then been reformed and given its final name. Under his direction (1929–1945) it grew from a small paramilitary formation during the Weimar Republic to one of the most powerful organisations in Nazi Germany. From the time of the Nazi Party's rise to power until the regime's collapse in 1945, the SS was the foremost agency of security, mass surveillance, and state terrorism within Germany and German-occupied Europe. The two main constituent groups were the '' Allgemeine SS'' (General SS) and ''Waffen-SS'' (Armed SS). The ''Allgemeine ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
World War II
World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the world's countries participated, with many nations mobilising all resources in pursuit of total war. Tanks in World War II, Tanks and Air warfare of World War II, aircraft played major roles, enabling the strategic bombing of cities and delivery of the Atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, first and only nuclear weapons ever used in war. World War II is the List of wars by death toll, deadliest conflict in history, causing World War II casualties, the death of 70 to 85 million people, more than half of whom were civilians. Millions died in genocides, including the Holocaust, and by massacres, starvation, and disease. After the Allied victory, Allied-occupied Germany, Germany, Allied-occupied Austria, Austria, Occupation of Japan, Japan, a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Treblinka Extermination Camp
Treblinka () was the second-deadliest extermination camp to be built and operated by Nazi Germany in occupied Poland during World War II. It was in a forest north-east of Warsaw, south of the village of Treblinka in what is now the Masovian Voivodeship. The camp operated between 23 July 1942 and 19 October 1943 as part of Operation Reinhard, the deadliest phase of the Final Solution. During this time, it is estimated that between 700,000 and 900,000 Jews were murdered in its gas chambers, along with 2,000 Romani people. More Jews were murdered at Treblinka than at any other Nazi extermination camp apart from Auschwitz-Birkenau. Managed by the German SS with assistance from Trawniki guards – recruited from among Soviet POWs to serve with the Germans – the camp consisted of two separate units. Treblinka I was a forced-labour camp ('' Arbeitslager'') whose prisoners worked in the gravel pit or irrigation area and in the forest, where they cut wood to fuel the crema ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Secretary-General Of The United Nations
The secretary-general of the United Nations (UNSG or UNSECGEN) is the chief administrative officer of the United Nations and head of the United Nations Secretariat, one of the United Nations System#Six principal organs, six principal organs of the United Nations. The role of the secretary-general and of the secretariat is laid out by Chapter XV of the United Nations Charter, Chapter XV (Articles 97 to 101) of the United Nations Charter. However, the office's qualifications, selection process and tenure are open to interpretation; they have been established by custom. Selection and term of office The secretary-general is appointed by the United Nations General Assembly, General Assembly upon the recommendation of the United Nations Security Council, Security Council. As the recommendation must come from the Security Council, any of the five United Nations Security Council veto power, permanent members of the council can veto a nomination. Most secretaries-general are compromi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kofi Annan
Kofi Atta Annan (8 April 193818 August 2018) was a Ghanaian diplomat who served as the seventh secretary-general of the United Nations from 1997 to 2006. Annan and the UN were the co-recipients of the 2001 Nobel Peace Prize. He was the founder and chairman of the Kofi Annan Foundation, as well as chairman of The Elders (organization), The Elders, an international organisation founded by Nelson Mandela. Annan joined the United Nations in 1962, working for the World Health Organization's Geneva office. He went on to work in several capacities at the UN Headquarters, including serving as the Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations, under-secretary-general for United Nations peacekeeping, peacekeeping between March 1992 and December 1996. He was appointed secretary-general on 13 December 1996 by the United Nations Security Council, Security Council and later confirmed by the United Nations General Assembly, General Assembly, making him the first officeholder to be elected from ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Casper Star-Tribune
The ''Casper Star-Tribune'' is a newspaper published in Casper, Wyoming, with statewide influence and readership. It is Wyoming's largest print newspaper, with a daily circulation of 23,760 and a Sunday circulation of 21,041. The ''Star-Tribune'' covers local and state news. Its website, Trib.com, includes articles from the print paper, online updates, video and other multimedia content. In 2002, the newspaper was acquired by Lee Enterprises. History The origins of the ''Casper Star-Tribune'' date to 1891, when the weekly ''Natrona Tribune'' began publishing under the ownership of 20 men organized as the Republican Publishing Co. In 1897, A.J. Mokler acquired the newspaper and changed its name to the ''Natrona County Tribune''. Mokler sold the Tribune in 1914 to J.E. Hanway and Associates and two years later Hanway produced the first edition of the ''Casper Daily Tribune'', which quickly grew to become the largest newspaper in Wyoming by circulation. The weekly ''Natrona Coun ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Montreal Gazette
''The Gazette'', also known as the ''Montreal Gazette'', is a Canadian English-language broadsheet daily newspaper which is owned by Postmedia Network. It is published in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. It is the only English-language daily newspaper currently published in Montreal. Three other daily English-language newspapers shuttered at various times during the second half of the 20th century. It is one of the French-speaking province's last two English-language dailies; the other is the ''Sherbrooke Record'', which serves the anglophone community in Sherbrooke and the Eastern Townships southeast of Montreal. Founded in 1778 by Fleury Mesplet, ''The Gazette'' is Quebec's oldest daily newspaper and the oldest continuously published newspaper in Canada. The oldest newspaper overall is the English-language ''Quebec Chronicle-Telegraph'', which was established in 1764 and is published weekly. History Fleury Mesplet founded a French-language weekly newspaper called ''La Gazette du c ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
United States Department Of State
The United States Department of State (DOS), or simply the State Department, is an United States federal executive departments, executive department of the U.S. federal government responsible for the country's foreign policy of the United States, foreign policy and foreign relations of the United States, relations. Equivalent to the ministry of foreign affairs of other nations, its primary duties are advising the U.S. president on international relations, administering List of diplomatic missions of the United States, diplomatic missions, negotiating international treaties and agreements, protecting citizens abroad and representing the U.S. at the United Nations. The department is headquartered in the Harry S Truman Building, a few blocks from the White House, in the Foggy Bottom, Washington, D.C., Foggy Bottom neighborhood of Washington, D.C.; "Foggy Bottom" is thus sometimes used as a metonym. Established in 1789 as the first administrative arm of the U.S. executive branch, th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
