A century of turbulent Snake Years
Doom, gloom and steps towards the moon – a lot has been seen during the Year of the Snake.
History suggests that every time the Year of the Snake comes round, we can expect something extraordinary.
Unfortunately, during the last century, the Year of the Snake has mostly brought along some of the darkest events in human history, with only a few bright notes from the world of science and outer space.
Revolution and miracles
The first Snake year of the 20th century kicked off in 1905, with the Russo-Japanese war on February 19, which has since become known as the first of the many great wars of the 20th century. Russia’s defeat in that war was a huge shock to the whole of Europe, and it was the first victory of an Asian country over any European power.
1905 was considered a "Miracle Year".
Consequences? The rise of Japan, and Russia lost almost its whole fleet and much of its prestige in the world, and probably in the eyes of their own people as well, as in the same year the 1905 Russian Revolution took place. Thus the prelude to World War One was set, as many countries in Europe started to doubt Russia´s military capabilities.
The positive side from that year was that a certain Albert Einstein gave explanation to Browne´s movement and developed an revolutionary argument for the equation E=mc2, which most of us have heard but few of us understand. Nonetheless, the year is thus far regarded as Einstein’s “miracle year”.
Depression and war
The Snake visited earth again in 1917 and again he had some unfinished business in Russia. A series of protests and events, which are mostly known as the 1917 Russian Revolution, led to abdicating Czar Nikolai II and the establishment of a Soviet Russia. It also paved the way for the Russian Civil War, which claimed the lives of millions.
Fast forward twelve years, and it was time for the US to suffer. 1929 marked the year of the Wall Street Crash and the beginning of the Great Depression. However, the worst was yet to come.
As all the tensions caused by previous wars and the economic downfall bubbled beneath, the Year of the Snake arrived again in the middle of World War Two. 1941 was one of the fiercest wartime years, as Hitler launched a total attack on Soviet Russia called “Operation Barbarossa” and the Japanese attacked the US Navy in Pearl Harbor.
After a public call from British PM Winston Churchill "Give us the tools, and we will finish the job," the US finally entered the war against Nazi Germany and Japan.
LSD to the people!
It could easily be that the bloody events of World War Two and everything that followed was too much even for the Snake, as the next time he appeared in historical scenery he was in a totally different mood, emphasizing a more playful and sophisticated approach to life.
It was in 1953 when the CIA decided that it was perfectly fine to test the effects of LSD on its own citizen - without them even knowing they were participating in the experiment - and something that remotely resembled modern computers, UNIVAC 1103, started to use random access memory.
1953 also saw the first color TV sets appear on the market, and the world got to see Marilyn Monroe nude when Hugh Hefner published the first issue of Playboy magazine.
The Snake briefly showed its uglier facer again in 1965 by witnessing the assassination of human rights activist Malcolm X in the US, but thankfully continued on much more pleasant notes.
1965 was a significant year for achievements in outer space as Russian astronaut Aleksei Leonov became the first man to walk in space after leaving his spacecraft for a few minutes. His heroics were soon repeated by his American colleague Edward Higgins.
As attention was already set for events in outer space, it was also the same year when the US spacecraft Mariner 4 flew to Mars and provided the first photographs of the Red Planet.
Unlike in previous Snake years, this one turned out to be in rather acquiescent mood, because in 1965 Pope Paul VI announced to the world that Jews should not be collectively held responsible for killing Christ.
The generosity did not stop there, as in the same year US President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act of 1965 into law, meaning that from now on every state of US should allow their citizens to vote regardless of the color of their skin.
Friends from outer space?
The Snake clearly enjoys himself in outer space, because after reoccurring in 1977 it left a headache which still puzzles scientist around the world.
On August 15, 1977, a radio telescope called Big Ear in Ohio State University and operating as part of the SETI project received a radio signal from outer space, which seemed to be of extraterrestrial origin. The event is now known as the “WOW” signal.
It was not to be the last similar phenomena, as just over month later something very strange happened in outer space and was observed in Northern Europe, which is now called the Petrozavodsk phenomenon.
Turning the tide?
Just when it seemed that Year of the Snake makes people turn their attention more towards the matters outside this planet, the controversial and cruel face of the Snake Year appeared once more.
1989 witnessed the Tiananmen Square incident and Ürümqi unrest, but it was also a year of great changes. Soviet Russia witnessed its first major labor strike when more than 300,000 Siberian coal miners stopped working until they were provided with better working and living conditions.
Almost two million people formed a 600 km long Baltic chain, standing hand-in-hand from the capital of Estonia Tallinn to Vilnius in Lithuania, and demanded independence from Soviet Russia.
The Velvet Revolution took place in the former Czechoslovakia, which saw the communist party lose its grip over the country, and a much more violent revolution took place in Romania and its dictator Nicolae Ceauşescu was eventually overthrown and sentenced to death.
One of the last major news events of this year also came from the Soviet Union, where according to official news agencies, a UFO landed in the city of Voronezh.
War on Terror
The latest Snake Year really shook the world, and some say it has never been the same since. This is still open for debate, but the fact is that the tragic events of 9/11 have cast their shadow over almost everything that has happened in world politics since.
Over 3,000 people died in the September 11 attacks and the events consequently led to a war in Afghanistan, which also began in 2001.
A lot can be expected from the Year of the Snake and, as history proves, the Chinese have every right not to be overexcited when this year turns up in the calendar.
Fortunately there is always a chance that this time Snake has more interests outside the earth rather than on our own planet.