20 years ago: Thousands of Ethiopian Jews are airlifted to Israel

That then the LORD thy God will turn thy captivity, and have compassion upon thee, and will return and gather thee from all the nations, whither the LORD thy God hath scattered thee.
If any of thine be driven out unto the outmost parts of heaven, from thence will the LORD thy God gather thee, and from thence will he fetch thee:
And the LORD thy God will bring thee into the land which thy fathers possessed, and thou shalt possess it; and he will do thee good, and multiply thee above thy fathers. Deuteronomy 30:3-5

On May 24-25 1991, three days after Ethiopian president Lt. Col. Mengistu Haile Mariam had resigned as rebel forces were closing in on Addis Ababa, 14,087 Ethiopian Jews were airlifted to Tel Aviv in a 22-hour operation called Operation Solomon. 35 planes made a total of 40 flights, and the Israeli government paid the Ethiopian government--now under acting President Lt. Gen. Tesfaye Gebre-Kidan--US$35 million to free the Jews.