Important Events 24

• Townsville, Queensland, Australia


  July 3, 1971
• WikiLeaks leaked majority documents

  2006
• Chelsea Manning helped WikiLeaks leak documents


  July 25, 2010
• Julian Assange fled into Ecuadorian Embassy in London, UK


  2012
• Julian Assange was kicked out of Ecuadorian Embassy


  2019
• Julian Assange was prosecuted by the USA over "espionage act"
• Espionage Act


  A United States law that makes it illegal to gather, transmit, or lose information related to national defense with the intention of harming the United States or benefiting a foreign nation. It was passed in 1917 during World War I to prevent espionage and protect national security.
• Julian Assange, an Australian national, was indicted in 2019 by a federal grand jury in Virginia with more than a dozen charges that alleged he illegally obtained and disseminated classified information about America's wars in Afghanistan and Iraq on his WikiLeaks site
• Leaks by WikiLeaks

  • Collateral Murder (2010): A video showing a US Apache helicopter attack in Baghdad that killed 12 civilians, including two Reuters journalists, and two children
  • Afghan War Logs (2010): Over 90,000 classified US military documents revealing widespread human rights abuses, civilian casualties, and corruption in Afghanistan
  • Iraq War Logs (2010): Over 400,000 classified US military documents detailing human rights abuses, civilian casualties, and corruption in Iraq
  • US Diplomatic Cables (2010-2011): Over 250,000 classified US diplomatic cables revealing sensitive information about international relations, including diplomatic cables from US embassies around the world
• After pleading guilty to a single count of conspiracy to obtain and disseminate U.S. national defense information, Assange was sentenced to time already served in Britain as part of a plea agreement with the U.S. Justice Department. He was then released from prison and returned to his home country of Australia on June 26, 2024.