This Day in History – 20 Tammuz/June 28

20 Tammuz

In 5654/1894, many Jews of Vilna were killed during the Polish uprising. Jews of Vilna held a fast day to commemorate this event.

In 5701/1941, the Jews of Telz (Telsia, Lithuania), including the Roshei Yeshivah, were killed by the Nazis. Hy”d.

In 5704/1944, the Nazis destroyed the Kovno ghetto.

Yahrtzeiten

5583/1823, Harav Yisrael of Rikel, Hy”d

5697/1937, Harav Moshe Yehudah Twersky, zt”l, of Trisk-Chelm, mechaber of Imrei Mi

5714/1954, Harav Avraham Chaim Na’eh, zt”l, mechaber of Ketzos Hashulchan

5739/1979, Harav Hillel Lichtenstein, zt”l, the Krasne Rav

5761/2001, Harav Chaim Shaul Karelitz, zt”l, Mashgiach of Yeshivas Beis Meir and Gaavad of Badatz Sheiris Yisrael

5763/2003, Harav Betzalel Rakow, zt”l, Rav of Gateshead

5443/1683

Harav Nosson Nota Hanover, Hy”d, mechaber of Yeven Metzulah

Harav Nosson Nota Hanover was the son of Harav Moshe. It is unknown exactly when he was born, but it is known that he was born in Ostroha, in Ukraine, circa the late 5380s/1620s.

According to some sources, Reb Nosson Nota learned under the Maharsha, but this is not confirmed, especially in view of the fact that the Maharsha was niftar in 5482/1631.

In 5406/1646, he traveled to Cracow, where he delivered a spellbinding drashah (the basis of his sefer Taamei Sukkah). Later that year he married and settled in Zaslov, Volhynia, near his father-in-law.

During the Chmielnicki uprising, in 5408–9/1648–9, known by the Jewish years as Tach V’Tat, he fled from Poland.

He later wrote a historic work on the horrors the Jews faced during these years, describing the course of the uprising in the Polish- Lithuanian Commonwealth from a Jewish perspective. He named this sefer Yeven Metzulah.

In this work, he gives a brief description of the Polish government of the time and of the relations between the Poles, Jews and Cossacks, and the causes that led to the uprising. He also gives a very vivid picture of Jewish life in Poland and the yeshivos during those years.

He settled in Prague, and then moved to Venice. Some sources say that Reb Nosson Nota also served as Rav in Livorno, Italy. Later he was appointed Rav of Yasi, Moldavia. In 5430/1670, Reb Nosson Nota was appointed Rav of Ungarisch-Brod, Moravia — a post he held until his tragic death.

When the Turks placed Vienna under siege, the Hungarians rebelled against the Austrians and destroyed the city Ungarisch-Brod, killing all the Jews in the city’s shul, among them Reb Nosson Nota, on 20 Tammuz 5443/1683.

Hashem yinkom damam.

June 28

In 1778, the Revolutionary War Battle of Monmouth took place in New Jersey; it was from this battle that the legend of “Molly Pitcher” arose.

In 1836, the fourth president of the United States, James Madison, died in Montpelier, Va.

In 1838, Britain’s Queen Victoria was crowned in Westminster Abbey.

In 1863, during the Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln appointed Maj. Gen. George G. Meade the new commander of the Army of the Potomac, following the resignation of Maj. Gen. Joseph Hooker.

In 1914, Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria and his wife, Sophie, were assassinated in Sarajevo by Serb nationalist Gavrilo Princip. This event sparked World War I.

In 1919, the Treaty of Versailles was signed in France, ending the First World War.

In 1922, the Irish Civil War began between rival nationalists over the Anglo-Irish Treaty establishing the Irish Free State. (The conflict lasted nearly a year, resulting in defeat for anti-treaty forces.)

In 1939, Pan American Airways began regular trans-Atlantic air service with a flight that departed New York for Marseilles, France.

In 1944, the Republican National Convention in Chicago nominated New York Gov. Thomas E. Dewey for president and Ohio Gov. John W. Bricker for vice president.

In 1950, North Korean forces captured Seoul, the capital of South Korea.

In 1978, the Supreme Court ordered the University of California-Davis Medical School to admit Allan Bakke, a white man who argued he’d been a victim of reverse racial discrimination.

In 2000, seven months after he was cast adrift in the Florida Straits, Elian Gonzalez was returned to his native Cuba.