Subscribe | UPI Odd Newsletter Subscribe Today is June 24 The Berlin Airlift began on this date in 1948. The Soviet Union, challenging the West's right to access to Berlin, blockaded the western zones of the divided German city. The West had to airlift supplies to the 2 million people living there. The Berlin Airlift lasted 321 days - until Joseph Stalin finally backed down and the airlift ended May 12, 1949. Advertisement It was on this date in 1812 that Napoleon's army entered Russia. The attempt by the French emperor to add to his territory ended badly. Kurdish militants, seeking to call attention to their nine-year struggle to form an independent Kurdish state, attacked Turkish diplomatic missions and businesses in more than two-dozen European cities on this date in 1993. Hostages were taken and later released in Munich, Germany, and also in Marseille, France. One Kurdish demonstrator was shot to death in Bern, Switzerland. And on this date in 1986, a jury ruled in favor of actress Raquel Welch, ordering MGM to pay her $10.8 million. Welch had sued the studio, which she claimed ruined her career by firing her from the 1980 movie "Cannery Row." Advertisement We now return you to the present, already in progress.
