Controversial Events in History

2014 Event - Sony Pictures will release its controversial comedy, 'The Interview', about an attempted assassination of North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un; the film was canceled after hacking attacks and threats, but Sony now seeks a wide audience for the movie

2013 Event - A controversial bill passes in Brazil's Chamber of Deputies; the bill regulates the distribution of royalties generated from oil exploration, with 75% of funds directed to education only 25% of the funds going to health

2012 Event - Following controversial elections, Ukraine's Prime Minister, Mykola Azarov and his government, resign en masse

2012 Event - Viktor Yanukovych, Ukraine's President, signs a controversial law concerning the status of 18 languages as regional and minority languages; the law allows officials in Russian-speaking regions of the country to use Russian in documents and at public events

2012 Event - After thousands protest Brett Murray's controversial painting 'The Spear', the gallery that exhibited his painting agrees to take the image of the artwork down from its website

2012 Event - A South African newspaper removes the controversial painting titled 'The Spear' by Brett Murray from its website

2012 Event - Following some controversial remarks, Christine Lagarde, head of the International Monetary Fund, is accused of 'insulting the Greek people'

2011 Event - After a rare public outcry, President Thein Sein of Burma decides to halt the controversial Myitsone Dam project

2010 Event - General Stanley McChrystal, leader of the U.S. war Afghanistan announces his retirement after making controversial statements in 'Rolling Stone' magazine

2004 Death - Theo van Gogh, controversial Dutch director murdered by terrorists, Submission

1970 Event - Jim Bouton's controversial "Ball Four" is published

1968 Event - 1st date in controversial Jim Bouton baseball diary "Ball Four"

1966 Birthday - Zola Budd, born in Bloemfontein, South Africa, track and field long distance runner, trained and raced barefoot, politically controversial figure, two-time Women's 5000 meters world record holder, two-time World Cross Country Championships winner

1958 Birthday - Werner Schwab, born in Austria, writer, playwright, visual artist, studied sculpture at Vienna's Akademie der bildenden Kunste in 1990, wrote sixteen plays, produced eight, controversial works in the Austrian Black comedy tradition

1957 Birthday - Theo van Gogh, controversial Dutch director, Submission

1941 Birthday - Jeremiah Wright, born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Pastor Emeritus, former Pastor, Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago, 8,500 member megachurch, former pastor of President Obama, known for politically charged, controversial sermons

1934 Event - U.S. Court of Appeals upheld lower court ruling striking down government's attempt to ban controversial James Joyce novel "Ulysses"

1886 Event - Painter Thomas Eakins resigns from Philadelphia Academy of Art after controversial over use of male nudes in a coed art class