Union Carbide agrees to pay $470 million to the Indian government for damages it caused in the 1984 Bhopal disaster.

The Bhopal disaster, which occurred on December 2-3, 1984, is considered one of the world’s worst industrial catastrophes. It took place at a pesticide plant owned by Union Carbide Corporation (UCC) in Bhopal, India. A large amount of methyl isocyanate (MIC), a highly toxic chemical used in the production of pesticides, was released from the plant, exposing over 500,000 people to toxic gases.

The disaster resulted in the immediate deaths of thousands of people and the long-term health effects impacted hundreds of thousands more. The exact death toll remains disputed, with estimates ranging from a few thousand to over 20,000. Additionally, many survivors suffered from chronic health issues, and subsequent generations continue to face health complications due to exposure to the toxic gases.

In the aftermath of the disaster, there were legal battles and demands for compensation. In 1989, Union Carbide reached a settlement with the Indian government for $470 million. This settlement amount was widely criticized as insufficient to cover the immense damages and the ongoing medical needs of the survivors.

The Bhopal disaster prompted discussions worldwide about industrial safety standards, corporate responsibility, and the need for better regulations to prevent similar tragedies in the future. The legal and ethical implications of the disaster and the subsequent handling by Union Carbide and the Indian government continue to be subjects of debate and scrutiny.

Wedding of Princess Elizabeth and Frederick V of the Palatinate at Whitehall Palace, London

Jacob Zuma resigns as President of South Africa.

Voting machines are approved by the U.S. Congress for use in federal elections.

Australian currency is decimalized.

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The Bank of England is nationalized.

The Bank of England Act 1946 c 27 is an Act of Parliament of the United Kingdom which came into force on 14 February 1946. The Act brought all of the stock of the Bank of England into public ownership on the “appointed date” 1 March 1946. This was one of a series of nationalisations by the post-war Labour government led by Clement Attlee.

Britain remained on the gold standard until 1931, when the gold and foreign exchange reserves were transferred to the Treasury; however, they continued to be managed by the Bank.

During the governorship of Montagu Norman, from 1920 to 1944, the Bank made deliberate efforts to move away from commercial banking and become a central bank. In 1946, shortly after the end of Norman’s tenure, the bank was nationalised by the Labour government.

Seven people, six of them gangster rivals of Al Capone’s gang, are murdered in Chicago in what became know as the Saint Valentine’s Day Massacre.

Fourmen dressed as police officers enter gangster Bugs Moran’s headquarters on North Clark Street in Chicago, line seven of Moran’s henchmen against a wall, and shoot them to death. The St. Valentine’s Day Massacre, as it is now called, was the culmination of a gang war between arch rivals Al Capone and Bugs Moran.

George “Bugs” Moran was a career criminal who ran the North Side gang in Chicago during the bootlegging era of the 1920s. He fought bitterly with “Scarface” Al Capone for control of smuggling and trafficking operations in the Windy City. Throughout the 1920s, both survived several attempted murders. On one notorious occasion, Moran and his associates drovesix cars past a hotel in Cicero, Illionis, where Capone and his associates were having lunch and showered the building with more than 1,000 bullets.

A $50,000 bounty on Capone’s head was the final straw for the gangster. He ordered that Moran’s gang be destroyed. On February 14, a delivery of bootleg whiskey was expected at Moran’s headquarters. But Moran was late and happened to see police officers entering his establishment. Moran waited outside, thinking that his gunmen inside were being arrested in a raid. However, the disguised assassins were actually killing the seven men inside.

The murdered men included Moran’s best killers, Frank and Pete Gusenberg. Reportedly Frank was still alive when real officers appeared on the scene. When asked who had shot him, the mortally wounded Gusenberg kept his code of silence, responding, “No one, nobody shot me.”

The St. Valentine’s Day Massacre actually proved to be the last confrontation for both Capone and Moran. Capone was jailed in 1931 and Moran lost so many important men that he could no longer control his territory. On the seventh anniversary of the massacre, Jack McGurn, one of the Valentine’s Day hit men,was killed him in a crowded bowling alley with a burst of machine-gun fire.

McGurn’s killer remains unidentified, but was likely Moran, though hewas never charged with the murder. Moran was relegated to small-time robberies until he was sent to jail in 1946. He died in Leavenworth Federal Prison in 1957 of lung cancer.

YouTube is launched

James Cook is killed near Kealakekua on the Island of Hawaii.