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Benazir Bhutto , daughter of former President and Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto was elected in 1988 as the 11th Prime Minister of Pakistan.

Born in Karachi in 1953 , Bhutto was educated overseas at Harvard and Oxford before returning to Pakistan in 1977 where her father was leader of the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP). Later that year her father was ousted in a military coup and later tried and executed in 1979 after being found guilty by the Supreme Court of Pakistan for authorising the murder of a political opponent.

Benazir and her mother Nusrat took control of the PPP and started the Movement for the Restoration of Democracy. This lead to Benazir being repeatedly imprisoned by the military government and in 1984 she self-exiled to Britain. However , she returned in 1986 influenced by Thatcher`s UK government and transformed the PPP from a socialist to a liberal agenda.

Two years later in 1988 Benazir`s party won 94 of the 207 seats in the National Assembly and being the biggest seat holder formed a new government. Benazir became the first ever female Prime Minister in a Muslim country. Her attempts to reform the country met strong opposition from the conservatives and islamists - including the President Ghulam Ishaq Khan and the military. Accusations of corruption and nepotism - she appointed her mother and brother-in-law to government positions - were placed against her administration and subsequently Khan dismissed her office in 1990.

Following the dismissal of the government of Nawaz Sharif on corruption charges Benazir returned to power as head of the PPP by winning the 1993 election on a platform of privatisation and women`s rights. Controversy ensued when she ordered the arrest of her brother Murtaza on his return from exile. Murtaza had claimed responsibility for the murder of a conservative politician and the hijacking of a Pakistan airplane. He was later released on bail but was shot dead in a police encounter at his home.

Benazir and her husband Zardari were subsequently involved in a bribery scandal and her government was dismissed again by the President. Benazir again went into exile in 1988. She returned again in 2007 to contest the 2008 election but was assassinated on 27th December 2007.


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Julie Andrews , born Julia Elizabeth Wells , is an English actress who won an Oscar for best Actress for her part in Walt Disney`s Mary Poppins. It was her film debut and this lead her to getting the role of Maria von Trapp in The Sound of Music for which she won the Golden Globe Best Actress award.


                                          


The Sound of Music is an American musical drama produced and directed by Robert Wise and released in 1965. The film starred Julie Andrews and Christopher Plummer and is based upon the true memoir written by Maria von Trapp of the Story of the Trapp Family Singers in 1949. The story was later adapted into a stage musical - The Sound of Music - by Richard Rodgers and lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II.

The story is about a young postulant in Salzburg , Austria who takes up the role of governess of the seven young children of a retired naval officer and widower in 1938. After becoming accepted by the family and introducing music into their lives she marries the officer and together the family find a way to survive the loss of their homeland to the Nazis.


                                          



The film was released in the US on 2nd March 1965 and became the biggest box office film of that year. One year later the movie achieved the status of the biggest selling film of all time - surpassing Gone With The Wind - and held this accolade for 5 years. Subsequently , the film went on to break box office records in 29 countries.



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Facts From 1939 - World War II Begins

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The Fall of the Berlin Wall on 9th November 1989 foreshadowed the fall of the Iron Curtain - a division between east and west - set up by the Soviet Union following World War II. This was a pivotal moment in the history of the world and lead to the fall of communism in central and eastern Europe. The Wall itself was erected in 1961 by the German Democratic Republic (GDR) to divide Berlin and establish a border between East and West Germany. The GDR referred to it as the Anti-Fascist Protection Rampart whereas the West Berlin city government called it the "Wall of Shame".

The construction of the wall started in August 1961 and the design included guard towers and a wide area - later referred to as the "death strip" - which featured anti-vehicle trenches and beds of nails. In reality , the Wall prevented the movement of citizens from East Germany into West Germany and in particular divided families. Thousands of people attempted to cross the border from East to West - not the other way and many were shot in the process. Many attempts were made 

The end was first preceded by the Solidarity Movement in Poland and the removing of the border fence between Hungary and Austria. In addition the build up of political pressure by the people via demonstrations and particularly the anti-government 4th November 1989  Alexanderplatz Demonstration lead to the announcement to allow refugees to exit East Germany freely. 


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Facts From 1939 - World War II Begins

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American long distance swimmer Florence May Chadwick broke the then world record held by American swimmer Gertrude Ederie. On 8th August 1950 , at the age of 32 , Chadwick swam from France to England in a record time of 13 hours and 23 minutes. Approximately one year later Chadwick swam the Channel again , only this time in the opposite direction - from England to France. Again , she set a new record in 16 hours and 22 minutes and became the first woman to swim the Channel in both directions. Ultimately , she swam the Channel four times and broke her record once more. Further career swims included the Straits of Gibraltar , the Bosporus , the Catalina Channel and the Dardanelles.

Florence Chadwick died in San Diego , California - the place of her birth - on 15th March 1995 aged 76.


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An accounting scandal of epic proportions took place in 2001. The Enron Corporation was a USA energy company that was formed by Kenneth Lay in 1985 when InterNorth and Houston Gas merged. Lay later recruited Jeffrey Skilling who oversaw a system of "mark-to-market" pricing - a system whereby future profits from deals could be accounted for by estimating their present value rather than historical cost. When deals went bad executives sought to hide losses using complex accounting methods as mentioned above. As billions of Dollars of debt built up after entering into dodgy deals , Chief Financial Office , Andrew Fastow mislead Enron`s Board and convinced the auditors Arthur Anderson that all was ok.

When the scandal broke in October 2001 , Enron was forced to declare bankruptcy and the auditors - Arthur Anderson - then the 5th largest accountancy firms in the world - was dissolved. The company`s share price fell from $90 in mid 2000 to less than $1 in late 2001. Shareholders filed a $40 Billion lawsuit seeking recompense. The SEC filed an investigation and subsequently Enron filed for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy making it the largest bankruptcy in US history at that time.
Many executives were indicted and Lay , Skilling and Fastow all received prison terms but Lay died of a heart attack prior to sentencing.

Finally , Enron`s employees and shareholders received scant rewards from the lawsuit and suffered huge pension and share losses. New legislation in the guise of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act was later introduced to try to prevent such false accounting ever happening again.


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