November 12

This Day in History

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Lead Story
Ellis Island closes, 1954
American Revolution
Abigail Adams leads rhetorical charge against Britain, 1775
Automotive
Goldenrod sets the land-speed record, 1965
Civil War
The destruction of Atlanta begins, 1864
Cold War
Yuri Andropov assumes power in the Soviet Union, 1982
Crime
High school sweethearts murder their newborn child, 1996
Scott Peterson convicted, 2004
Disaster
Plane crashes in Rockaway, New York, 2001
General Interest
First meteor shower on record, 1799
Japanese war criminals sentenced, 1948
Voyager I flies near Saturn, 1980
Akihito enthroned as emperor of Japan, 1990
Hollywood
William Holden, star of Sunset Boulevard and Network, dies, 1981
Literary
DeWitt Wallace, founder of Reader's Digest, is born, 1889
Music
Toby Keith has his third straight #1 country album with Shock'n Y'all, 2003
Old West
U.S. reconsiders war with Plains Indians, 1867
Presidential
Carter shuts down oil imports from Iran, 1979
Sports
Pudge Heffelfinger becomes first pro football player, 1892
Vietnam War
Seymour Hersh breaks My Lai story, 1969
Nixon sets new deadline for next troop withdrawal, 1971
World War I
Allied fleet enters Dardanelles, 1918
World War II
Brits sink the battleship Tirpitz, 1944

Cold War

Nov 12, 1982:

Yuri Andropov assumes power in the Soviet Union

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Following the death of long-time Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev two days earlier, Yuri Andropov is selected as the new general secretary of the Communist Party in the Soviet Union. It was the culmination of a long, but steady march up the Communist Party hierarchy for Andropov.
Born in Russia in 1914, by the 1930s Andropov was an active participant in the Communist Youth League. During World War II, he led a group of guerilla fighters who operated behind Nazi lines. His work led to various positions in Moscow, and in 1954, he was named as Soviet ambassador to Hungary. During the Hungarian crisis of 1956, Andropov proved his reliability. He lied to Hungarian Prime Minister Imre Nagy about Soviet military intentions, and later assured Nagy that he was safe from Soviet reprisals. Soviet tanks rolled into Budapest in November 1956 and Nagy was captured and executed in 1958.

Andropov's work in Hungary brought him back to Moscow, where he continued to rise through the ranks of the Communist Party. In 1967, he was named head of the KGB, Russia's secret police force. A hard-liner, he supported the 1968 invasion of Czechoslovakia and oversaw the crackdown on dissidents such as Andrei Sakharov and Aleksandr Solzhenitzyn. In 1982, with Brezhnev deathly ill and fading fast, Andropov left the KGB and began jockeying for power. When Brezhnev died on November 10, 1982, Andropov was poised to assume power. He was named general secretary on November 12.

His rule was short-lived, but eventful. At home, he tried to reinvigorate the flagging Russian economy and attacked corruption and rising alcoholism among the Soviet people. In his foreign policy, Andropov faced off against the adamantly anticommunist diplomacy of President Ronald Reagan. Relations between the United States and the Soviet Union were severely strained when Soviet pilots shot down a Korean airliner in September 1983. Later that year, Soviet diplomats broke off negotiations concerning reductions in Intermediate Range Nuclear Forces and the Strategic Arms Reduction Talks (START). Andropov had suffered from nearly debilitating illnesses since early 1983, and died on February 9, 1984. He was succeeded by Konstantin Chernenko .

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This Week in History, Nov 12 - Nov 18

Nov 12, 1982
Yuri Andropov assumes power in the Soviet Union
Nov 13, 1953
Indiana Textbook Commission member charges that Robin Hood is communistic
Nov 14, 1951
United States gives military and economic aid to communist Yugoslavia
Nov 15, 1957
Nikita Khrushchev challenges United States to a missile "shooting match"
Nov 16, 1945
German scientists brought to United States to work on rocket technology
Nov 17, 1969
SALT I negotiations begin
Nov 18, 1987
Congress issues final report on Iran-Contra scandal

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