On this day, 59 years ago, on May 16, 1966 (March 26, 1966, the enlarged meeting of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China adopted the "May and 16th Notice." On May 16, 1966, the enlarged meeting of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee adopted the "Notice of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China", a programmatic document drafted by Mao Zedong to guide the "Cultural Revolution"(i.e., the "May and 16th Notice") in Beijing. The "Notice" is divided into three parts. The first is the preface, announcing the abolition of the "February Outline" and the "Cultural Revolution Five-Member Group" and its offices, and proposing the re-establishment of the "Cultural Revolution Group", which is subordinate to the Political Bureau Party Committee. This is an organizational measure taken to carry out the "Cultural Revolution"; the second is to list the 10 counts of the "February Outline", criticize them one by one, and propose a set of "Left" theories, lines, principles, and policies; the third is the conclusion, requiring party committees at all levels to immediately stop implementing the "February Outline", seize leadership in the cultural field, and call for fierce fire on "bourgeois representatives" from all walks of life of life in the party, government, military, and culture. The "Cultural Revolution Five-Member Group" was established in 1964. According to the instructions of the Party Central Committee and Mao Zedong, it was composed of Peng Zhen as the group leader and Lu Dingyi, Kang Sheng, Zhou Yang and Wu Lengxi. In February 1966, the "Cultural Revolution Five-Member Group" wrote the "Outline of the Report on Current Academic Discussions"(i.e.,"February Steel Promotion"), which elaborated on some fundamental issues about conducting academic criticism. On June 1, 1966, the People's Daily published an editorial "Sweeping All Bulls, Ghosts, Snakes and Gods", and then successively published editorials to expose the contents of the "May 16th Notice" to the whole country. From then on, a national and lasting 10 years The "Cultural Revolution" was launched. From August 1 to 12, 1966, the 11th Plenary Session of the Eighth Central Committee of the Communist Party of China was held in Beijing. After the meeting, according to Mao Zedong's instructions, a letter dated August 1, 1966 to the Red Guards Affiliated to Tsinghua University and the "Artillery Command (One of My Big-Character Posters" written on August 5 were published as meeting documents and distributed to comrades present for discussion. The plenary session discussed and adopted the "Decision on the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution"(i.e."Sixteen Articles"). This "Decision" and the "May 16th Notice" are signs of the full launch of the "Cultural Revolution". On August 10, Mao Zedong went to the mass reception station where the central government is located and said to everyone: "You must care about national affairs and carry out the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution to the end!" On August 18, he received the Red Guards for the first time in Tiananmen Square. Until November 26, he received more than 11 million school teachers, students and Red Guards from all over the country eight times. From August 22 to 29, 1966, Xinhua Agency continuously reported that Red Guards in the capital and various places took to the streets to sweep away the "four old"(old ideas, old culture, old customs, and old habits). In January 1967, Shanghai set off a counter-revolutionary "January Storm", and the wave of "all-out power grab" spread to the whole country. On January 22, the People's Daily published an editorial: "The proletarian revolutionaries unite and take away the power of those in power on the capitalist road!" On the 31st, Heilongjiang Province first established a revolutionary committee. As of September 5, 1968, revolutionary committees in all provinces, cities and autonomous regions across the country except Taiwan were established. In January 1967, the work of "three branches and two armies" began. Around February, the older generation of proletarian revolutionaries strongly criticized the "erroneous practices of the Cultural Revolution" at different meetings. Lin Biao, Jiang Qing and others slandered this as "February countercurrent". On April 8, the People's Daily editorial pointed the finger of the struggle at Liu Shaoqi. On May 16, the "May 16th Notice" was publicly released, and large-scale fighting began. On August 25, the central government issued the "Notice on Sending Workers 'Propaganda Teams to Schools." In April 1969, at the Ninth National Congress of the Communist Party of China, the erroneous theory and practice of the "Cultural Revolution" were fully affirmed. On September 13, 1971, Lin Biao and his close friends betrayed the country and fled, and the plane crashed. In August 1973, the Tenth National Congress of the Communist Party of China continued the left-leaning mistake of the Ninth National Congress of the Communist Party of China and encouraged the power of the Jiang Qing counter-revolutionary clique. At the beginning of 1974, Jiang Qing, Wang Hongwen and others launched the "Criticize Forests and Confucius" campaign. In January 1975, before the first session of the Fourth National People's Congress, Mao Zedong criticized Wang Hongwen, Zhang Chunqiao, Jiang Qing, and Yao Wenyuan for being the "Gang of Four." The Fourth National People's Congress identified candidates for the State Council with Zhou Enlai and Deng Xiaoping as the leadership core, thwarting the plot of the Gang of Four to form a cabinet. In 1975, Zhou Enlai was seriously ill and Deng Xiaoping was in charge of the daily work of the central government. The situation improved significantly. However, Mao Zedong could not tolerate Deng Xiaoping's systematic correction of the mistakes of the "Cultural Revolution" and launched the so-called campaign to "criticize Deng and counter the trend of rightist overturning the verdict", which plunged the country into chaos again. In April 1976, a strong protest movement was launched across the country to commemorate Zhou Enlai and oppose the Gang of Four, represented by the Tiananmen Incident. This movement essentially supported the correct leadership of the party represented by Deng Xiaoping and laid a great mass foundation for crushing the Jiang Qing counter-revolutionary clique. On October 6, 1976, the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee implemented the will of the party and the people, resolutely smashed the Jiang Qing counter-revolutionary clique and ended the disaster of the "Cultural Revolution". On August 12, 1977, Hua Guofeng announced at the 11th National Congress of the Central Committee that the 11-year-old "Cultural Revolution" came to an end marked by the crushing of the "Gang of Four".