War, peace and progress: why 2025 will be a standout year of remembrance

RFI

8 January 2025 at 1:55 pm·1-min read

Then health minister Simone Veil opens the debate on decriminalising abortion in the French National Assembly on 26 November 1974.

From Nazi Germany's surrender to the historic Paris climate accord, 2025 marks a year of pivotal anniversaries that have shaped the world. As France reflects on Simone Veil's groundbreaking fight for abortion rights 50 years ago and mourns a decade since terror struck the heart of Paris, we also commemorate 80 years since the dawn of the nuclear age, 35 years since Nelson Mandela's walk to freedom, and an intrepid Moroccan scholar's transformative journey seven centuries ago.

JANUARY

50 years since France's abortion law passed

In a watershed moment for women's rights in France, parliament passed the Veil Law on 17 January 1975, decriminalising abortion. Coming eight years after the Neuwirth Law legalised contraception, the legislation followed campaigns where 343 women publicly declared having had abortions and 331 doctors admitted performing them. The law, championed by Health Minister Simone Veil, was made permanent in 1979.

80 years since the liberation of Auschwitz

FEBRUARY

80 years since the Yalta Conference

35 years since Mandela's release

MARCH

80 years since Anne Frank's death

60 years since first spacewalk

APRIL

50 years since Lebanon's civil war began

50 years since the Khmer Rouge takeover

MAY

JUNE

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