13 Dec in Histiry.

. On this day... December 13: Saint Lucy's Day; Republic Day in Malta (1974) 1643 – First English Civil War: Parliamentary forces serving under SirWilliam Waller led a successful surprise attack on a winter garrison of Royalist infantry and cavalry. 1809 – American physician Ephraim McDowell performed the world's first removal of an ovarian tumor. 1937 – Second Sino-Japanese War: Japanese forces captured Nanjing in China and then began to commit numerous atrocities over the next several weeks, such as looting, rape and the execution of prisoners of war and civilians. 1960 – With Emperor of Ethiopia Haile Selassie out of the country, four conspirators staged a coup attempt and installed Crown Prince Asfaw Wossen as the new Emperor. Haile Selassie I Haile Selassie I Amha Selassie Amha Selassie I Emperor-in-exile of Ethiopia Spouse Medferiashwork Abebe Issue Princess Ijigayehu Princess Maryam Senna Princess Sehin Azebe Princess Sifrash Bizu Crown Prince Zera Yacob House House of Solomon Father Haile Selassie I Mother Menen Asfaw Born 27 July 1916 Governors Palace, Harrar Died 17 February 1997 (aged 80) McLean, Virginia, US Religion Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo 1981 – Polish Prime Minister Wojciech Jaruzelski (pictured) declared martial law, suspended Solidarity and imprisoned many union leaders.

Stalin Begins Collectivizing Agriculture in the U.S.S.R.

Stalin, pronounced STAH lihn, Joseph, was dictator of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (U.S.S.R.) from 1929 until 1953. He rose from bitter poverty to become ruler of a country that covered about a sixth of the world's land area. Stalin was born on Dec. 21, 1879, in Gori, a town near Tbilisi in Georgia, a mountainous area in what was the southwestern part of the Russian empire. His real name was Iosif Vissarionovich Djugashvili. In 1913, he adopted the name Stalin from a Russian word that means man of steel. The five-year plan. In 1928, Stalin started the first of the Soviet Union's five-year plans for economic development. The government began to eliminate private businesses. Production of industrial machinery and farm equipment became more important, and production of clothing and household goods was neglected. In 1929, Stalin began to collectivize Soviet agriculture. He ended private farming and transferred the control of farms, farm equipment, and livestock to the government. But the farmers resisted his order and destroyed about half of the U.S.S.R.'s livestock and much of its produce. As punishment, Stalin sent about a million families into exile. The destruction of livestock and grain caused widespread starvation. The economy moved forward, but at the cost of millions of lives. Workers construct a grain-storage hanger near Tambov. Before the Russian Revolution in 1917, Russia was the world's largest grain exporter. If the country were to regain that status, says Samir Suleymanov of the World Bank, it would significantly relieve strained commodity markets, reduce prices and potentially reduce malnutrition and starvation. Photo: James Hill for The New York Times Mr. Orloff says that many people scoffed at his plans to consolidate collective farms into even larger enterprises. "They said I was crazy for going into agriculture," he said. "Now, they all envy us." Photo: James Hill for The New York Times RELATED

Much of the reform in Russia is being led by private companies, like Agro-Invest, which owns this 50,000 acre farm outside of Stanovoye, a town near Russia's border with Ukraine.

Photo: James Hill for The New York Times