Timeline 1997 C May-June
Return to home
1997 May 1, The
TV show Ellen captured 42 million viewers to hear the Ellen character,
played by Ellen DeGeneres, announce that she was a lesbian.
(SFC, 5/2/97, p.C1)
1997 May 1, John and Patsy Ramsey,
the Colorado parents of slain child beauty queen JonBenet, declared
their innocence, and asked for the public's help in finding her killer.
(AP, 5/1/98)
1997 May 1, In Oakland, Ca., an
armored car flipped in an accident and released some 27 bags of money
claimed to be substantially less than $500,000. People in the vicinity
grabbed much of the cash though some 20% was returned within 2 days. A
total of $106,000 was recovered and $445,000 was still missing when an
amnesty for returning cash ended on May 5.
(SFC, 5/3/97, p.A1)
1997 May 1, In Colorado Ron Cole
was arrested by the FBI at the Aurora House of Pancakes on charges of
possession of illegal firearms and bomb materials.
(Wired, 2/99, p.93)
1997 May 1, Virtual Pets began to
be marketed by Tiger Electronics and Bandai Ltd. of Japan. The
egg-sized gadgets played out the lives of various animals on a liquid
crystal display.
(WSJ, 5/2/97, p.B1)
1997 May 1, An Int’l. committee
agreed to create 7 new (WWW) World Wide Web domains. The new suffixes
would be: .firm, .store, .web, .arts, .rec, .info and .nom for
individuals.
(SFC, 5/2/97, p.A1)
1997 May 1, In Belarus the
government imposed a $3 million tax fine on the Soros Foundation for
alleged currency exchange violations. Soros called it a blatant attempt
to suppress the independent sector.
(SFC, 5/2/97, p.A16)
1997 May 1, Britain’s Labor Party
led by Tony Blair won a landslide victory with 423 seats over ruling
Conservatives in a national election.
(SFC, 5/2/97, p.A1)(AP, 5/1/98)
1997 May 1, Romania apologized for
deporting tens of thousands of ethnic Germans to labor camps during
Communist rule or "selling" them by demanding cash from the Bonn
government for emigration permits.
(SFC, 5/2/97, p.A17)
1997 May 2, President Clinton and
congressional Republicans came to terms on a plan to balance the budget
over five years.
(SFC, 5/3/97, p.A1)(AP, 5/2/98)
1997 May 2, A new national
memorial honoring Pres. Franklin D. Roosevelt was officially opened in
Washington, D.C., and was dedicated by Pres. Clinton.
(SFC, 5/3/97, p.A3)(AP, 5/2/98)
1997 May 2, In Texas Robert
Scheidt surrendered to police and left behind 7 people of the Republic
of Texas under the leadership of Richard McLaren. The number of
separatists was reduced to 7 from an earlier estimate of 13.
(SFC, 5/3/97, p.A3)
1997 May 2, In Bulgaria the
average salary was reported as $30 a month and the average pension $4 a
month.
(SFC, 5/2/97, p.A18)
1997 May 2, Tony Blair, whose new
Labor Party crushed John Major's long-reigning Conservatives, became at
age 44 Britain's youngest prime minister in 185 years.
(AP, 5/2/98)
1997 May 2, In Zaire the Tenke
Mining Corp. of Vancouver, Canada, signed a $250 million contract with
the rebels to develop copper and cobalt deposits.
(SFC, 5/10/97, p.A10)
1997 May 3, California state
prepared to file charges against the Bank of America for mismanaging
tens of billions of dollars of municipal bond funds.
(SFC, 5/3/97, p.A1)
1997 May 3, The Kentucky Derby was
won by Silver Charm ridden by Gary Stevens.
(WSJ, 5/5/97, p.A16)
1997 May 3, The standoff in Texas
with the Republic of Texas ended. Two militia members fled into the
Davis mountains while 5 surrendered peacefully.
(SFEC, 5/4/97, p.A1)
1997 May 3, Narciso Yepes, Spanish
classical guitarist, died at age 69. His interpretation of Rodrigo’s
"Concert of Aranjuez" was one of his greatest achievements. He designed
a 10-string guitar suited to Baroque music.
(SFC, 5/5/97, p.A20)
1997 May 4, IBM's Deep Blue
computer defeated world chess champion Garry Kasparov, evening their
six-game series at one game apiece.
(AP, 5/4/98)
1997 May 4, Pope John Paul
beatified the first Gypsy Jimenez Malla, killed by Republican forces in
the 1936 Spanish Civil War. Also beatified were Florentino Asensio
Barroso, bishop of Barbastro, Spain, where Malla died; Enrico
Rebuschini, a northern Italian priest who died in 1938; and Maria
Encarnacion Rosal, a 19th century Guatemalan nun.
(SFC, 5/5/97, p.A8)(AP, 5/4/98)
1997 May 4, In Zaire more than 100
[91] Rwandan refugees died on an overcrowded train after rebel troops
packed them aboard for delivery to an airstrip for flights to Rwanda.
Peace talks onboard the South African naval vessel Outeniqua between
Pres. Mobutu and Laurent Kabila failed to produce anticipated results.
(WSJ, 5/5/97, p.A1)(SFC, 5/6/97, p.A10)
1997 May 5, President Clinton
arrived in Mexico for his first Latin American trip while in office.
(AP, 5/5/98)
1997 May 5, A jury in
Jacksonville, Fla., found R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. was not responsible
for the death of lifelong smoker Jean Connor.
(AP, 5/5/98)
1997 May 5, American Airlines'
pilots ratified a contract, ending nearly three years of negotiations.
(AP, 5/5/98)
1997 May 5, Police in Texas
killed, Michael Matson, one of the escaped secessionists. [He was
reported on TV to have fired on a police helicopter and police dogs.
Richard Keyes was still being sought.
(WSJ, 5/6/97, p.A1)(SFC, 5/7/97, p.A3)
1997 May 5, In Cuba farmers in
Loma del Gato founded a work cooperative named Transicion and announced
that they would no longer do business with the government. The
government responded with harassing tactics.
(SFC, 1/5/99, p.A10)
1997 May 5, In Palestine Arafat’s
justice minister said he would impose the death penalty on Palestinians
who sell land to Israelis to prevent Israel’s expansion.
(WSJ, 5/6/97, p.A1)
1997 May 5, In Peru the 24 miners
who dug tunnels for the commandos in Lima had still not returned
home and their families feared for their lives. Two men were killed or
injured in the digging operation.
(SFC, 5/6/97, p.A12)
1997 May 5, In Zaire the rebels
nationalized the Sizarail rail system, a consortium that belonged to
South African, Belgian and Zairean interests.
(WSJ, 5/6/97, p.A18)
1997 May 6, The New York Drama
Critics’ Circle picked "How I Learned to Drive" as the best play for
the ‘96-’97 season. "Violet" was selected as the best musical, and
"Skylight" by David Hare was the best foreign play.
(SFC, 5/8/97, p.A20)
1997 May 6, World chess champion
Garry Kasparov and IBM's Deep Blue computer played to a draw in game
three of their six-game match.
(AP, 5/6/98)
1997 May 6, Pres. Clinton made a
state visit to Mexico and spent some time meeting with the leaders of
Mexico’s main opposition parties. Clinton and Mexican President Ernesto
Zedillo pledged closer cooperation on immigration and drug smuggling.
(SFC, 5/7/97, p.c3)(AP, 5/6/98)
1997 May 6, Sergeant Delmar
Simpson received a 25 year sentence for raping 6 female trainees at the
Aberdeen (Md.) Proving Ground Army base.
(SFC, 5/7/97, p.A3)(AP, 5/6/98)
1997 May 6, A car bomb in Algiers
killed 4 students and injured 25 people.
(SFC, 5/7/97, p.C3)
1997 May 6, British PM Tony Blair,
on the first full working day of the new Labor government, gave the
Bank of England the right to set interest rates. Labor had won power
pledging that it would by the party of welfare reform. In October the
Bank of England lost its supervisory powers over banks to the new
Financial Services Authority.
(SFC, 5/7/97, p.C2)(Econ, 3/25/06, p.63)(Econ,
3/10/07, p.52)(Econ, 6/14/08, p.70)
1997 May 6, It was reported that
Syrian missiles were tipped with VX, a lethal chemical that kills on
contact with the skin. The Syrian chemical weapons program was assisted
by Anatoly Kuntsevich, former head of the Russian Army’s Chemical
Troops. The existing stockpile of Sarin, the nerve gas used by the
terrorists in Tokyo, was hoped to be upgraded to VX.
(WSJ, 5/6/97, p.A22)
1997 May 6, In Zaire Pres. Mobutu
Sese Seko left Zaire for a 3-day visit to Gabon. He was not expected to
return.
(SFC, 5/7/97, p.C2)
1997 May 7, This date was
established as the cut off day for sales and exchanges in a planned US
capital gains tax cut.
(WSJ, 5/8/97, p.C1)
1997 May 7, The US Army accused
its top enlisted man, Army Sgt. Maj. Gene McKinney, of sexual
misconduct. At his court-martial, McKinney was acquitted of sexual
misconduct, but found guilty of obstruction of justice.
(AP, 5/7/98)
1997 May 7, Chrysler Corp. and
United Auto Workers agreed to a new contract, ending a damaging 28-day
engine-plant strike.
(AP, 5/7/98)
1997 May 7, Brazil’s state mining
Companhia Vale do Rio Doce (CVRD), incorporated in 1942, was
privatized. In 2006 it acquired Inco, a Canadian nickel producer, and
became the world’s 2nd largest mining company.
(Econ, 4/14/07, SR p.9)(http://tinyurl.com/2ay9h5)
1997 May 7, Chadrel Rinpoche, a
senior Tibetan monk, was sentenced to 6 years in prison for plotting to
split China and leaking state secrets. He led the Beijing approved
search for the 11th reincarnation of the Panchen Lama and was suspected
to have leaked the information to the Dalai Lama.
(SFC, 5/8/97, p.C3)
1997 May 8, President Clinton
assured Central American leaders during a summit in Costa Rica that
they need not fear mass deportations of immigrants who had sought
refuge in the United States during U.S.-backed conflicts.
(AP, 5/8/98)
1997 May 8, After months of
railing against US Democrats for taking foreign money, the Republican
Party announced it had returned $122,400 in contributions from a Hong
Kong company.
(AP, 5/8/98)
1997 May 8, In Washington DC
Jacqueline Thompson (32) gave birth to sextuplets. One was stillborn.
No fertility drugs were used but both she and her husband Linden had a
family history of multiple births.
(SFEC,11/23/97, p.A7)
1997 May 8, In Japan a law was
passed to preserve the culture of the aboriginal Ainu people who have
inhabited northern Japan since prehistoric times.
(SFC, 5/9/97, p.E3)
1997 May 8, In Zaire rebels were
meeting increased resistance from French mercenaries and Angolan UNITA
forces. A shortage of cash was also hindering their advance on Kinshasa.
(WSJ, 5/9/97, p.A1)
1997 May 9, During a visit to a
rain forest in Costa Rica, President Clinton urged nations not to
sacrifice their environment in pursuit of economic gain.
(AP, 5/9/98)
1997 May 9, HUD announced a suit
against A. Bruce Rozet, a prominent SF property owner, for kickbacks on
inflated management fees. Rozet and partner Deane Earl Ross had
holdings that included 21,851 housing units that received annual
federal subsidies of $71.6 million.
(SFC, 5/10/97, p.A3)
1997 May 9, The California state
Environmental protection Agency issued a report that linked lung cancer
to diesel exhaust fumes.
(SFC, 5/10/97, p.A17)
1997 May 9, A pesticide plant
burned after an explosion in West Helena, Ark. The chemical
Azinphosmethyl was not supposed to have exploded unless it was heated
and decomposed. A levee was built to keep poison-laden rainwater from
entering the Mississippi River. Three firefighters were killed.
(SFC, 5/10/97, p.A8)
1997 May 9, Australian scientists
reported in the journal Radiation Research that prolonged exposure of
cellular phone radiation in the 900 megahertz range increased the risk
of lymphoma cancer in mice.
(SFC, 5/9/97, p.A1,11)
1997 May 9, In Hong Kong a
3-year-old boy became ill with the flu. He died May 21 and the flu was
identified as subtype H5N1, a bird flu.
(SFC, 2/26/01, p.A9)
1997 May 9, In Italy 8 Venetian
separatists took over the bell tower at St. Mark’s Square. They were
overpowered by police after 7 1/2 hours.
(SFC, 5/10/97, p.A10)
1997 May 9, Marco Ferreri
(b.1928), Italian film director, died. His work included "The
Wheelchair" (El Cochecit 1960), "Le Lit Conjugal" (The Conjugal Bed
1963), "Dillinger Is Dead" (1969), "La Grande Bouffe" (1973), "La
Derniere Femme" (1976), and "Bye Bye Monkey’ (1978).
(SFC, 5/10/97, p.A20)
1997 May 9, In Russia Pres.
Yeltsin approved a new security doctrine that stipulated that right to
use nuclear weapons if it was attacked.
(SFC, 5/10/97, p.A12)
1997 May 10, President Clinton
signed modest drug-fighting and trade agreements with Caribbean leaders
in Barbados.
(AP, 5/10/98)
1997 May 10, Physicists at UC
Berkeley first listened to the sound from superfluid helium atoms
oscillating between overlapping quantum states.
(SFC, 7/31/97, p.A2)
1997 May 10, From Bolivia it was
reported that more than one-fifth of the population was infected with
Chagas disease. The ailment is transmitted by triatomine insects that
carry the Trypanosoma cruzi parasite. T. Cruzi can enter the
bloodstream through scratched skin and causes nerve damage and swelling
of the heart and colon that can lead to death after years of infection.
(SFC, 5/10/97, p.A10)
1997 May 10, In Britain Jennifer
Murray and co-pilot Quentin smith began a round-the-world helicopter
trip in an effort to become the first woman to pilot the globe in a
helicopter. She completed her flight on Aug 15.
(SFC, 7/23/97, p.A3)(SFC, 8/16/97, p.A11)
1997 May 10, A 7.1 earthquake hit
in northeastern Iraq centered on the town of Qaen. More than 2,400
people were reported killed. The death toll was reduced to 1,560 with
60,000 left homeless.
(SFEC, 5/11/97, p.A1)(WSJ, 5/12/97, p.A1)(SFC,
5/14/97, p.A10)
1997 May 10, It was reported that
Iceland would resume whaling. Whaling had stopped there in 1989.
(SFC, 5/10/97, p.A8)
1997 May 10, Lebanese of all
faiths welcomed Pope John Paul II on his first visit to their country.
(AP, 5/10/98)
1997 May 10, From Niger it was
reported that recent sandstorms caused the death of some 36 people when
the driver of a truck lost his way.
(SFC, 5/10/97, p.A8)
1997 May 10, In Zaire Pres. Mobutu
returned to Kinshasa from Gabon.
(SFEC, 5/11/97, p.A7)
1997 May 11, The IBM Deep Blue
computer defeated Garry Kasparov in the 6th and deciding chess match in
19 moves that took just 88 minutes in New York.
(SFC, 5/12/97, p.A1)(AP, 5/11/98)
1997 May 11, In South Africa some
8,000 people filed for amnesty to meet the deadline of the commission
for the investigation of apartheid-era crimes.
(WSJ, 5/12/97, p.A1)
1997 May 12, At the Oklahoma City
bombing trial of Timothy McVeigh, star prosecution witness Michael
Fortier testified that McVeigh had been bent on triggering a "general
uprising in America."
(AP, 5/12/98)
1997 May 12, Susie Maroney,
Australian swimmer, became the first woman to swim the 105 mile swim
from Cuba to Key West, Fla., in 24 hours and 31 min. AP says 118-mile
distance in 24 1/2 hours.
(SFC, 5/13/97, p.A3)(AP, 5/12/98)
1997 May 12, Russia and Chechnya
signed a peace treaty. The treaty refers to Chechnya as the "Chechen
Republic of Ichkeria," and says that it is subject to international law.
(SFC, 5/13/97, p.A12)
1997 May 13, At the Oklahoma City
bombing trial, prosecutors showed jurors the key to the Ryder truck
used to blow up the Alfred P. Murrah federal building, alleging Timothy
McVeigh left it behind in the same alley he picked to stash his getaway
car.
(AP, 5/13/98)
1997 May 13, Baseball's Exec
Council suspended NY Yankee owner George Steinbrenner.
(http://tinyurl.com/bjbgt)
1997 May 13, In Burundi an
outbreak of Typhus was reported. Some 20,000 cases in 3 northwest
provinces were reported by March, mostly in Hutu regroupment camps set
up by the Tutsi-led military.
(WSJ, 5/13/97, p.A1)
1997 May 13, In the Congo rebel
troops reached Wendji and Mbandaka and proceeded to kill Hutu refugees.
Estimates of deaths varied from 550-2000.
(WSJ, 6/6/97, p.A11)(SFC, 9/23/97, p.A11)
1997 May 13, From Ethiopia it was
reported that 6 teenage girls had committed suicide over the last 9
months in order to avoid traditional marriages to elderly cousins as
old as 80.
(SFC, 5/13/97, p.A13)
1997 May 13, The pension crises in
Poland was described. One-fifth of the GDP was being used for pensions
and the state social security office, ZUS, was feared to be facing
bankruptcy without quick reforms.
(SFC, 5/13/97, p.A13)
1997 May 14, Jurors at the Timothy
McVeigh trial in Denver saw chilling black-and-white surveillance
pictures of a Ryder truck moving toward the Oklahoma City federal
building minutes before a bomb blew the place apart.
(AP, 5/14/98)
1997 May 14, Negotiators agreed on
a pact to create a Russia-NATO advisory council. NATO agreed not to
base nuclear weapons or substantial combat forces in countries that
were recently under Moscow’s control.
(SFC, 5/15/97, p.A1)
1997 May 14, There was an
explosion at the Hanford Nuclear Reservation in Wash. state. Plutonium
and other hazardous chemicals were released and emergency response
procedures broke down almost completely.
(SFC, 7/26/97, p.A8)
1997 May 14, Margaret Lesher (64),
inheritor of the Lesher media empire, was reported missing by her new
husband, T.C. Thorstenson (39), at Bartlett Lake near Phoenix. She was
found drowned.
(SFEM, 9/14/97, p.12,33)
1997 May 14, Harry Blackstone Jr.
(62), magician, died of cancer.
(http://psychcentral.com/psypsych/Harry_Blackstone_Jr.)
1997 May 14, In Vietnam the
Supreme People’s Court sentenced 8 state police officials to death
after convicting them of drug smuggling.
(SFC, 5/15/97, p.A13)
1997 May 14, Princess
Caradja-Kretzulesco (76), descendant of Prince Dracula, died. Prior to
hear death Princess Kretzulesco stepped inside the second-hand
book-shop of Ottomar Berbig in Berlin to look for rare books, and ever
since the two because inseparable. On her deathbed the princess
rewarded Ottomar Berbig’s various services with a title: Ottomar -
Prince Kretzulesco.
(http://dpsinfo.com/dps/cnames.html)(www.cesnur.org/2002/dracula/01.htm)
1997 May 15, Attorney General
Janet Reno requested the death penalty for Unabomber suspect Theodore
Kaczynski. However, under an arrangement in which he admitted his
guilt, Kaczynski later agreed to be sentenced to life in prison without
possibility of parole.
(AP, 5/15/02)
1997 May 15, In Louisiana Hayes
Williams (49) was released after 30 years from the State Penitentiary
at Angola after new evidence confirmed his innocence in the 1967 murder
of a white service station owner. He had filed a lawsuit against the
state (Williams vs. Governor John McKeithen) that led to a 25-year
overhaul of Louisiana’s prison system along with federal oversight.
(SFC, 12/1/97, p.A3)
1997 May 15, Space shuttle
Atlantis blasted off on a mission to deliver urgently needed repair
equipment and a fresh American astronaut to Russia's orbiting Mir
station.
(AP, 5/15/98)
1997 May 15, It was reported that
scientists at Cal Tech identified the source of mysterious gamma rays
as coming from behind a large intergalactic cloud some 2 billion
light-years from Earth.
(SFC, 5/15/97, p.A6)
1997 May 15, In Algeria armed men
massacred 30 villagers, 17 of them children, in Chebli, 15 miles south
of the capital.
(SFC, 5/16/97, p.A8)
1997 cMay 15, In the Congo in mid
May Kabila’s soldiers were reported to have killed as many as 275
people in Uvira on Lake Tanganyika.
(SFC, 7/26/97, p.A14)
1997 May 15, In Hungary the
government approved the payment of $553.8 million to the Roman Catholic
Church for assets lost under Communist rule. Negotiations on a
concordat with the Vatican were in the final stages. Physical assets
would be gradually returned through 2011.
(WSJ, 5/16/97, p.A14)
1997 May 15, Pres. Fidel Ramos of
the Philippines visited California and planned to announce a pact with
Oracle Corp. to wire the country for long-distance phone service.
(SFC, 5/15/97, p.A21)
1997 May 15, Saadallah Wannous,
Syrian playwright, died in Damascus. His plays included "A Night Party
for July 5," "Rituals of Signs and Changes," "The King Is the King,"
and "The Rape," an adoption of a Spanish play that was banned.
(SFC, 5/19/97, p.A24)
1997 May 16, Pres. Clinton spoke
an apology for the government’s Tuskegee syphilis study from 1932-1972,
in which 399 black men were kept untreated by government scientists in
order to study the progression of the disease.
(WSJ, 5/16/97, p.A1)(AP, 5/16/98)
1997 May 16, The space shuttle
Atlantis docked with Russia's Mir station.
(AP, 5/16/98)
1997 May 16, It was reported that
researchers have found the gene that controls the sleep/wake cycles in
mammals.
(USAT, 5/16/97, p.1A)
1997 May 16, Some 2,500 barrels of
oil leaked near a coastal marsh in Louisiana at lake Barre in
Terrebonne Parish.
(SFC, 5/20/97, p.A3)
1997 May 16, In Croatia southwest
of Zagreb mobs of Croat refugees rampaged through at least 4 Serbian
villages during the week and forced dozens of Serbs to flee. A campaign
was growing to drive out of the country some 100,000 Serbs who have
remained since the end of the Balkan war and to block returning Serbs
from re-settling.
(SFC, 5/17/97, p.A13)
1997 May 16, The new 60-story,
Commerzbank in Frankfurt, Germany, by English architect Sir Norman
Foster opened.
(WSJ, 5/14/97, p.B1)
1997 May 16, From Hong Kong Fei
Long (Fat Dragon) was described as a local celebrity for his articles
on prostitution on Portland St., the heart of the red-light district.
His columns have been compiled as the "Fat Dragon Handbook."
(WSJ, 5/16/97, p.A1)
1997 May 16, In Italy Giuseppe De
Santis, film director, died at 80. His films included "Bitter Rice"
(1949), "Obsession," "Tragic Hunt," "Under the Olive Tree," and "Rome
11 O’Clock."
(SFC, 5/19/97, p.A24)
1997 May 16, In Zaire, President
Mobutu Sese Seko ended 32 years of autocratic rule, giving control of
the country to rebel forces.
(SFC, 5/17/97, p.A1)(AP, 5/16/98)
1997 May 17, Silver Charm won the
Preakness, two weeks after winning the Kentucky Derby. However, he
failed to win the Belmont Stakes.
(AP, 5/17/98)
1997 May 17, The first flight of
NASA’s subscale remotely piloted X-36 Tailless Fighter Agility Research
Aircraft took place.
(www.dfrc.nasa.gov/gallery/Photo/X-36/index.html)
1997 May 17, Russia's Mir space
station received a new oxygen generator and a fresh American astronaut,
courtesy of space shuttle Atlantis.
(AP, 5/17/98)
1997 May 17, From Gabon it was
reported that controlled logging in the tropical forests has led to
savage territorial wars among the native chimpanzees. The population
was estimated to have dropped from 50,000 to 30,000.
(SFC, 5/17/97, p.A4)
1997 May 17, In Zaire rebel forces
entered Kinshasa and Laurent Kabila declared himself president of the
Democratic Republic of the Congo. Kabila requested Swiss authorities to
block Mobuto Sese Seko’s access to his Swiss villa. The house was
seized and searched and documents were found that related to his
wealth. The seizure was declared legal Aug 7.
(SFEC, 5/18/97, Z1 p.6)(SFC, 8/8/97, p.E3)(AP,
5/17/98)
1997 May 18, "King David" opened
at New Amsterdam Theater in NYC.
(SC, 5/18/02)
1997 May 18, The 50th Cannes Film
Festival awarded Golden Palms to Japanese director Shohei Imamura for
"The Eel" and Iranian filmmaker Abbas Kiarostami for "The Taste of
Cherry."
(AP, 5/18/98)
1997 May 18, President Clinton
announced creation of a research center at the National Institutes of
Health devoted to the goal of developing an AIDS vaccine within the
next decade, but offered no new federal spending.
(WSJ, 5/19/97, p.A1)(AP, 5/18/98)
1997 May 18-1997 May 19, In
Bangladesh a cyclone pounded the country and 50,000 people were
evacuated from the flat coastal region. As many as 350 people were
reported killed.
(SFC, 5/19/97, p.A13)(SFC, 5/20/97, p.A12)(SFC,
5/21/97, p.A8)(SFC, 5/22/97, p.A3)
1997 May 18, From London it was
reported that new self-cooling cans would soon hit the soft-drink
market. The cans would use HFC 134a as the coolant and scientist and
environmentalists feared the impact on global warming. The coolant was
developed to replace CFCs and there was no int’l. control on its use.
(SFEC, 5/18/97, p.A2)
1997 May 18, In Indonesia as
elections approached thousands of anti-government partisans have
crowded the streets of Jakarta to reflect their disillusionment in the
government.
(SFC, 5/19/97, p.A13)
1997 May 18, In Mongolia Natsagiin
Bagabandi of the (MPRP) People’s Revolutionary Party, the former
Communist Party, won elections with 60% support.
(SFC, 5/19/97, p.A14)
1997 May 18, In Sri Lanka security
forces claimed to have killed some 250 separatist Tamil Tigers and to
have captured the northern town of Nedunkeni.
(SFC, 5/19/97, p.A14)
1997 May 18, In Tajikistan
Rakhmonov’s neo-Communist government agreed to legalize major Islamist
opposition parties. Pres. Rakhmonov signed with opposition leader Sayid
Abdullo Nuri.
(SFC, 5/19/97, p.A14)(SSFC, 9/23/01, p.A12)
1997 May 18, In Turkey on the 5th
day of a military offensive, the military reported 1,081 guerillas
killed as 25-50 thousand Turkish troops crossed the Iraqi border to
attack rebels of the Kurdistan workers Party (PKK).
(SFC, 5/19/97, p.A14)
1997 May 19, An indictment was
filed against NBC sportscaster Marv Albert for biting a woman in an
Arlington, Va., hotel on Feb 12 as many as 15 times and forcing her to
perform oral sex. At trial, Albert ended up pleading guilty to assault
and battery; he served no jail time.
(AP,
5/19/07)(www.eonline.com/News/Court/0597.albert.html)
1997 May 19, The Univ. of Calif.
at Berkeley created the first professorship dedicated to the study of
how knowledge is created within businesses. Japanese scholar Ikujiro
Nonaka was named as head of the post with a grant from Xerox and Fuji
Xerox Co.
(SFC, 5/20/97, p.C2)
1997 May 19, In China’s Inner
Mongolia a gas explosion in Wuhai city killed at least 28 miners.
(SFEC, 5/25/97, p.C16)
1997 May 20, Marine Corporal
Clemente Banuelos shot and killed the goat herder Esequiel Hernandez on
the Mexican border at El Paso while on border patrol. The marine
claimed self-defense after Hernandez fired 2 shots from a .22-caliber
rifle. A grand jury later declined to indict Banuelos. In 1998 the US
government agreed to pay the family of Hernandez $1.9 million with no
admission of wrongdoing.
(SFC, 8/15/97, p.A8)(SFC, 8/12/98, p.A4)
1997 May 20, In Venezuela it was
reported that a plan was approved to allow the country’s 4,000 jaguars
to be legally hunted. Proceeds of hunting licenses would be used to
move remaining jaguars to protected areas.
(SFC, 5/20/97, p.A14)
1997 May 21, Prosecutors at the
Oklahoma City bombing trial of Timothy McVeigh rested their case.
(AP, 5/21/98)
1997 May 21, The space shuttle
Atlantis undocked from the Russian Mir space station.
(AP, 5/21/98)
1997 May 21, The UN approved an
agreement for equitable use of waters that flow through more than one
country.
(SFC, 5/22/97, p.C2)
1997 May 21, In Afghanistan
faction leader Gen. Abdurrashid Dostum, an ethnic-Uzbek, was up against
mutineers in 6 of his 8 northern provinces.
(SFC, 5/22/97, p.C2)(SFC, 10/10/01, p.A3)
1997 May 21, In Bulgaria Ivan
Kostov was elected the new premiere by the parliament. He planned
reforms for the economy, cleanup of corruption, and gaining admission
to the EU and NATO.
(SFC, 5/22/97, p.C3)
1997 May 21, In India an
earthquake killed at least 27. Its epicenter was near Jabalpur City,
about 400 miles southeast of New Delhi.
(SFC, 5/22/97, p.C4)
1997 May 21, In Mexico a half-ton
of cocaine was stolen from a police station in Sonora. Seven government
employees were later charged with the theft.
(SDUT, 6/6/97, p.A1)
1997 May 22, The US Postal Service
released a Bugs Bunny commemorative stamp, the first animated character
on a US stamp.
(SFC, 5/22/97, p.A3)
1997 May 22, Kelly Flinn, the US
Air Force's first female bomber pilot certified for combat, accepted a
general discharge, thereby avoiding court-martial on charges of lying,
adultery and disobeying an order.
(AP, 5/22/98)
1997 May 22, The defense began
presenting its case in the Oklahoma City bombing trial of Timothy
McVeigh.
(AP, 5/22/98)
1997 May 22, The Christian
Coalition began a campaign for a proposed "religious liberty"
constitutional amendment.
(SFC, 5/23/97, p.A5)
1997 May 22, In Algeria a car bomb
killed 15 people in Boufarik south of the capital.
(SFC, 5/23/97, p.A18)
1997 May 22, In Italy the Grand
Princess was launched at the Fincantieri Monfalcone shipyard. It was
the world’s largest passenger cruise ship at 109,000 gross tons and was
scheduled for interior completion in the spring of 1998.
(SFEC, 5/26/97, p.A11)
1997 May 22, In Russia Pres.
Yeltsin fired defense minister Gen’l. Igor Rodionov and Viktor
Samsanov, head of the general staff, for lack of military reforms.
(SFC, 5/23/97, p.A1)
1997 May 23, The defense at the
Oklahoma City bombing trial suffered an embarrassing setback when one
of its own witnesses provided testimony damaging to defendant Timothy
McVeigh.
(AP, 5/23/98)
1997 May 23, The US Senate
decisively approved a carefully constructed deal to balance the budget
and cut taxes.
(AP, 5/23/98)
1997 May 23, In Algiers 2 car
bombs exploded and killed 7 people and wounded 12 in the town of
Tlemcen.
(SFC, 5/24/97, p.C1)
1997 May 23, In Indonesia
thousands rampaged the streets of Jakarta after a confrontation between
the rival United Development Party and the ruling Golkar Party. A 5-day
cooling off period was declared. On Borneo as many as 130 people died
in a shopping complex fire set by rioters during a political clash.
(SFEC, 5/26/97, p.A10)(SFC, 5/24/97, p.A8)
1997 May 23, In Iran presidential
elections put conservative speaker Ali Akbar Nateq Nouri against
left-leaning cleric Mohammad Khatami (54). Former Culture Minister
Mohammad Khatemi won in a landslide over hard-liners in the ruling
Muslim clergy.
(WSJ, 3/20/97, p.A12)(AP, 5/23/98)(SFEC,
5/25/97, p.1)
1997 May 23, Russia and Belarus
signed a union charter for economic, military and political cooperation.
(SFC, 5/24/97, p.A8)
1997 May 23, From Russia it was
reported that huge forest fires near Lake Baikal had consumed more than
400,000 acres of Siberian woodland and killed 20 people over the last 2
months.
(SFC, 5/23/97, p.A18)
1997 May 24, Amid indications that
Monica Lewinsky was indiscreet, Pres. Clinton terminated their
relationship.
(SFC, 9/12/98, p.A13)
1997 May 24, The space shuttle
Atlantis returned to Earth, bringing with it NASA astronaut Jerry
Linenger, who had spent four months aboard the Russian Mir space
station.
(AP, 5/24/98)
1997 May 24, Edward Mulhare (74),
Irish-born actor (Ghost & Mrs. Muir), died of lung cancer.
(www.imdb.com/name/nm0611811/)
1997 May 24, In Afghanistan forces
of the Taliban swept into Mazar-E-Sharif, the last opposition
stronghold.
(SFEC, 5/25/97, p.A10)
1997 May 24, In the Ukraine the
first McDonald’s restaurant opened.
(SFEC, 5/25/97, p.A10)
1997 May 25, Sen. Strom Thurmond,
R-S.C., became the longest-serving senator in U.S. history, marking 41
years and 10 months of service.
(AP, 5/25/98)
1997 May 25, In Las Vegas Jeremy
Strohmeyer (20) raped and killed 7-year-old Sherrice Iverson in the
Primadonna Casino. Strohmeyer’s friend, David Cash, saw the initial
struggle, but failed to stop it. Cash was later plagued by fellow
students in Berkeley for his non-action. Strohmeyer admitted his guilt
in 1998 in exchange for life in prison. He was sentenced to life in
prison in Oct, 1998.
(SFC, 8/26/98, p.A14)(SFC, 8/27/98, p.A17)(SFC,
9/9/98, p.A1)(SFC, 10/15/98, p.A3)
1997 May 25, In the first round of
parliamentary elections, French voters gave the leftist opposition the
biggest share of votes in a surprising setback for President Jacques
Chirac's conservatives. The Socialist Party and allies claimed 42.8% of
the popular vote in elections.
(SFC, 5/26/97, p.A10)(AP, 5/25/98)
1997 May 25, Muhammad Fadhel, PM
of Iraq (1953-54), died.
(SC, 5/25/02)
1997 May 25, The Palestinian
Center for the Protection of Human Rights and the Environment issued a
report that claimed the government lost $326 million to corruption and
mismanagement last year.
(SFEC, 5/26/97, p.A8)
1997 May 25, Poland adopted a new
constitution to replace the 1952 communist-era charter. It was
committed a market economy, private ownership, personal freedoms and
civilian control of the military.
(SFEC, 5/26/97, p.A10)
1997 May 25, In Sierra Leone
rebellious soldiers seized power. Pres. Ahmed Tejan Kabbah fled to
Guinea. Exiled rebel leader Foday Sankoh, leader of the Revolutionary
Unite Front and held in a Nigerian jail, was invited by Major Johnny
Paul Koroma to join a new government. Some 15 people were killed and 40
injured in the coup.
(SFEC, 5/26/97, p.A8)(SFC, 5/27/97, p.A12)
1997 May 26, President Clinton
left for Paris to sign a new agreement between NATO and Russia.
(AP, 5/26/98)
1997 May 26, In Ferryville,
Wisconsin the 8th annual Weedstock Festival, a pro-marijuana event, had
3,500 people with 60 arrests.
(SFC, 5/27/97, p.A3)
1997 May 26, It was reported that
the Hearst Corp. planned to develop some 400 of its 83,000 acres in the
California San Simeon-Cambria coastline. It was opposed by
environmentalists.
(SFEC, 5/26/97, p.A13)
1997 May 26, France's deeply
unpopular prime minister, Alain Juppe, announced he would resign, a day
after the country's governing center-right coalition suffered major
losses in first-round parliamentary elections.
(SFC, 5/27/97, p.A1)(AP, 5/26/98)
1997 May 26, It was reported that
Galway, Ireland, had become Europe’s fastest growing city with a rate
of 12.3%.
(SFEC, 5/26/97, p.A8)
1997 May 26, In Venezuela the
jaguar hunting plan was dropped.
(SFC, 5/27/97, p.A16)
1997 May 26, In Yemen it was
announced that 21 children died after being injected with insulin
rather than inoculations against fatal diseases.
(SFC, 5/27/97, p.A16)
1997 May 27, Arie Luyendyk won the
Indianapolis 500 for the second time.
(AP, 5/27/98)
1997 May 27, The Cathedral and the
Bazaar, an essay by Eric S. Raymond on software engineering methods,
was first presented by the author at the Linux Kongress and was
published as part of a book of the same name in 1999. It was based on
his observations of the Linux kernel development process and his
experiences managing an open source project, fetchmail.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Cathedral_and_the_Bazaar)
1997 May 27, The Supreme Court
ruled that Paula Jones may pursue her sexual harassment lawsuit against
Pres. Clinton while he is in office. The suit was based on an incident
in 1991 when Clinton was governor of Arkansas.
(SFC, 5/28/97, p.A1)(AP, 5/27/98)
1997 May 27, Marv Albert, NBC
sportscaster, was arrested on charges of sexual assault [see May 19].
(www.rotten.com/library/bio/sports/marv-albert/)
1997 May 27, A tornado hit
Jarrell, Texas, and left 27 people dead. It cut a swath from Austin to
Waco.
(SFC, 5/28/97, p.A1)(SFC, 5/29/97, p.A3)(AP, 5/27/07)
1997 May 27, In Paris, Russian
President Boris Yeltsin joined 16 NATO leaders, including President
Clinton, to sign a historic agreement giving Moscow a voice in NATO
affairs.
(AP, 5/27/98)
1997 May 27, In Kobe, Japan,
11-year-old Jun Hase was beheaded by a killer who left the note: "So,
this is the beginning of the game. I desperately want to see people
die. Nothing makes me more excited than killing." [see Jun 28]
(SFC, 6/5/97, p.C2)
1997 May 27, In Mbabane,
Swaziland, health authorities were shocked by chief Jameson
Ndznatabantfu Maseko who banned the use of condoms on the basis of
biblical law.
(SFC, 5/28/97, p.A12)
1997 May 28, President Clinton
paid tribute to the 50th anniversary of the Marshall Plan with a speech
in the Netherlands in which he urged today's leaders to revive
economies in the former Soviet bloc.
(AP, 5/28/98)
1997 May 28, In Denver, Timothy
McVeigh's attorneys rested their case in the Oklahoma City bombing
trial.
(AP, 5/28/98)
1997 May 28, Kurt Adler (b.1905),
therapist, writer, died.
(http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/hstein/kurt-90.htm)
1997 May 28, John Sengstacke (84),
publisher of the Chicago Defender, died.
(http://tinyurl.com/cgwbf)
1997 May 28, The Taliban was
forced out of Mazar-e-Sharif by Uzbek forces. Many Taliban fighters
were killed as they were forced out of Mazar-e-Sharif. Rashid Dostum
later was reported to have witnessed the graves of some 700 Taliban
fighters and another 1,300 dead at other sites. Later reports put the
Taliban dead at 2-3,000. Uzbek Gen. Malik Pahlawan killed some 1,250
Taliban by leaving them in closed container trucks in the desert sun.
(SFC, 5/29/97, p.A10)(SFC,11/18/97, p.B2)(SFC,
11/6/98, p.A16)(NW, 8/26/02, p.26)
1997 May 28, From Burundi it was
reported that the Tutsi-led army killed more than 40 Hutu rebels that
included Hutu students kicked out of Bujumburu Univ. in 1995.
(SFC, 5/29/97, p.A10)
1997 May 28, In Piraeus, Greece,
Constantine Peratikos (42), ship-owner, was killed by armed men. His
family owned the Aran Shipping and Trading Co. and Pegasus Ocean
Services. The left-wing November 17 group were linked to the killing.
(SFC, 5/29/97, p.A12)(SFC, 7/5/02, p.A9)
1997 May 28, Francisca Cervantes
(b.1879), the oldest lady in Mexico, died in Chiapas at age 118.
(SFC, 5/30/97, p.A26)
1997 May 29, In closing arguments,
Timothy McVeigh's attorney urged jurors not to be swayed by sympathy
for the Oklahoma City bombing victims, after a prosecutor delivered a
wrenching summation that portrayed McVeigh as a terrorist who killed
children in the warped belief he was a patriot.
(AP, 5/29/98)
1997 May 29, George Fenneman (77),
announcer (You Bet Your Life), died.
(www.factmonster.com/ipka/A0762997.html)
1997 May 29, In Algeria armed men
attacked a home in Djebabra and slit the throats of 6 men and 2 women.
(SFC, 5/30/97, p.A16)
1997 May 29, In Angola troops
overran the northern part of the country held by the former Unita
movement.
(WSJ, 5/30/97, p.A1)
1997 May 29, In China authorities
executed 8 Muslim separatists in Xinjiang.
(SFC, 5/30/97, p.16)
1997 May 29, In Peru the
congressional majority of Pres. Fujimori fired 3 constitutional court
judges who had ruled against his bid for a 3rd consecutive term.
(SFC, 6/17/97, p.D1)
1997 May 29, Spanish scientists
announced a new human species in 780,000 year old fossil.
(www.anomalous-images.com/news/news049.html)
1997 May 30, Child molester Jesse
K. Timmendequas was convicted in Trenton, N.J., of raping and
strangling a 7-year-old neighbor, Megan Kanka. The 1994 murder inspired
"Megan's Law," requiring that communities be notified when sex
offenders move in. Timmendequas was later sentenced to death.
(AP, 5/30/98)
1997 May 30, Jonathan Levin,
31-year-old Bronx high-school teacher, was killed by a former student,
Corey Arthur (19). Arthur and Montoun Hart had withdrawn $800 withdrawn
from an ATM on Mr. Levin’s card. In 1998 Arthur was sentenced 25 years
to life.
(WSJ, 6/25/97, p.A22)(SFC, 12/11/98,
p.D6)(www.cnn.com/US/9810/20/levin.trial/)
1997 May 30, Canada's 8-mile long
Confederation Bridge, connecting New Brunswick to Prince Edward Island,
was scheduled to be opened. It cost C$1 billion.
(WSJ, 2/14/97, p.A1)(Econ, 11/29/03, p.34)
1997 May 30, The Swiss based World
Fund for Nature said that the few thousand remaining tigers in the
world were dying off at a rate of one per day.
(SFC, 5/31/97, p.A13)
1997 May 31, Rosie Will Monroe
(77), aka Rosie the Riveter, died in Indiana. During WW II she worked
as a riveter at the Willow Run Aircraft Factory in Ypsilanti, Michigan,
building B-29 and B-24 bombers for the Air Force. She appeared in films
and poster used by the U.S. government to encourage women to go to work
in support of the war effort.
(www.yvonnesplace.net/news/rosemonroe.htm)
1997 May 31, Pope John Paul II
began an 11-day tour of his native Poland, his seventh visit since
assuming the papacy.
(AP, 5/31/98)
1997 May 31, It was reported that
more than 60 monk seals were killed from eating fish that had ingested
a toxic algae off of Mauritania’s Atlantic coast. It was estimated that
only some 350 of the monk seals were left worldwide.
(SFC, 5/31/97, p.A17)
1997 May 31, From Argentina it was
reported that high joblessness (17.3%) was causing riots in various
provinces outside the capital. Neuquin, Jujuy, Salta and Santa Fe had
all experienced riots.
(SFC, 5/31/97, p.A13)
1997 May 31, The 7-member ASEAN
alliance, Association of Southeast Asian Nations, met in Kuala Lumpur
and agreed to allow Burma to become a member in July. Laos and Cambodia
were also admitted. The members were Thailand, Singapore, the
Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia, Brunei and Vietnam.
(SFEC, 6/1/97, p.D3)
1997 May 31, From the Philippines
it was reported that torrential rains from Tropical Storm Levi killed
at least 53 people.
(SFC, 5/31/97, p.A17)
1997 May 31, Russia and the
Ukraine signed a friendship treaty. Boris Yeltsin traveled to Kiev to
sign the treaty.
(SFEC, 6/1/97, p.A8)
1997 May 31, In Spain thousands of
olive oil workers protested in Madrid against the EU plan to force a
cut in olive oil production and to lower subsidies.
(SFEC, 6/1/97, p.D1)
1997 May, In California the
Berkeley Regional Exchange and Development (BREAD), an alternative,
local currency and barter system, was begun.
(SFEC, 9/20/98, p.C1)
1997 May, The El Nino weather
pattern was noticed to have begun earlier that usual. It was later
reported that trade winds on the equator had turned around as a result.
(SFC, 10/7/97, p.A5)
1997 May, In Afghanistan many
Taliban fighters were killed as they were forced out of Mazar-e-Sharif.
Rashid Dostum later was reported to have witnessed the graves of some
700 Taliban fighters and another 1,300 dead at other sites.
(SFC,11/18/97, p.B2)
1997 May, In Australia the Cadbury
Schweppes company launched Yowies. They were miniature plastic bush
animals covered in chocolate with names such as Boof, Rumble and Ditty
that quickly became the champion in pester power.
(WSJ, 8/21/98, p.B1)
1997 May, In Indonesia Ahmad
Suradji was arrested following the discovery of a body in a field close
to this house in Lubukpakan, a village in North Sumatra province.
Forty-one other corpses were later found nearby. Suradji was later
convicted of murder and executed in 2008.
(AP, 7/11/08)
1997 May, In Japan Shioro
Takashima, head of the Japan Harbor Transportation Association and
known as "The Emperor," died. He was succeeded by Mitsuo Masunaga.
(WSJ, 10/21/97, p.A13)
1997 May, In Peru a military court
sentenced 4 army officers to 8 years in prison for the torture of
Leonor LaRosa.
(SFC, 6/28/97, p.A10)
1997 May, Michael Jackson, pop
star, returned to Poland and signed a letter of intent to build a $500
million World of Childhood amusement park under the direction of US
entrepreneur Jacques Tourel.
(SFEC, 3/22/98, p.A18)
1997 May, In Sri Lanka the
government army began its "Sure of Victory" campaign and moved to open
the Kandy-Jaffna Road.
(SFC, 8/8/98, p.B1)
1997 May, In Sudan in the village
of Marial Bai, raiders killed 23 people and stole livestock. 67 women
and children were missing and believed to have been abducted.
(SFC, 7/31/97, p.A10)
1997 May, Turkish commando units
took control of the Bikhayr mountains used by Kurdish rebels as an
escape route into Syria.
(SFC, 10/4/97, p.A10)
1997 May-Jun, Some 2,300 Rwanda
civilians, mostly refugees from the former Zaire, were killed in
operations by the Tutsi-led army against Hutu rebels.
(WSJ, 8/8/97, p.A1)
1997 Jun 1, The "General Hospital"
soap opera spin-off "Port Charles" debuted as a movie on ABC, then
joined the ABC daytime lineup the following day.
(www.answers.com/topic/port-charles)
1997 Jun 1, At the Tony Awards in
New York "Titanic," "Chicago" and "A Doll’s House" won 15 of the 21
awards. "Titanic" won five Tony Awards, including best musical.
(SFC, 6/2/97, p.D1)(AP, 6/1/98)
1997 Jun 1, The Chicago Tribune
published a column by Mary Schmich which urged the graduating class of
1997, among other things, to "wear sunscreen." The tongue-in-cheek
essay ended up being wrongly attributed to author Kurt Vonnegut on the
Internet.
(AP, 6/1/07)
1997 Jun 1, Betty Shabazz (61),
the widow of Malcolm X, was severely burned in a fire set by her
grandson (12) in her Yonkers, N.Y., apartment. She died of the burn
wounds on Jun 23.
(SFC, 6/24/97, p.A3)(SFC, 6/26/97, p.A15)(AP, 6/1/98)
1997 Jun 1, In Bolivia, the former
right-wing gen’l. and president, Hugo Banzer won the popular vote in
elections with 25% [22%] but failed to get a majority. Former Pres.
Jaime Paz Zamora was 2nd with 17.5%. Congress will choose from among
the 2 top contenders on Aug 4.
(SFC, 6/2/97, p.A6)(WSJ, 6/19/98, p.A15)
1997 Jun 1, China banned leaded
gasoline in 8 of 18 districts and counties.
(SFC, 1/1/98, p.A17)
1997 Jun 1, In France the
Socialists won control of the government and party leader Lionel Jospin
was expected to become prime minister. New conditions for creating the
new European Union and new common currency were expected. Value added
taxes on common purchases were expected to be slashed; plans to
privatize France Telecom were expected to be abolished and the legal
workweek was expected to be reduced to 35 hours without paycuts to
provide more jobs.
(SFC, 6/2/97, p.A1,9)
1997 Jun 2, Timothy McVeigh was
convicted on 11 counts in the Apr 19, 1995 bombing of the Alfred P.
Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City. McVeigh was executed in June
2001.
(SFC, 6/3/97, p.A1)(SFC,12/24/97, p.A4)(AP, 6/2/07)
1997 Jun 2, The NASDAQ Stock
Exchange began trading in 1/16th-point increments.
(WSJ, 5/30/97, p.C1)
1997 Jun 2, A federal election on
this date was called by Prime Minister Jean Chretien. He called for a
mandate to decide Canada’s priorities now that the federal deficit was
tamed. Voters returned Chretien and his centrist Liberal Party to power
with a slight parliamentary majority.
(SFC, 4/28/97, p.10)(SFC, 6/3/97, p.A8)
1997 Jun 2, Conservative President
Jacques Chirac of France, forced to share power with Socialists who had
routed his party in national elections, handed the premiership to
former opposition leader Lionel Jospin.
(SFC, 6/3/97, p.A12)(AP, 6/2/98)
1997 Jun 2, Nigerian naval vessels
opened fire on Sierra Leone. Ships, planes and troops went action
against the rebels in Freetown.
(SFC, 6/2/97, p.A8)(SFC, 6/3/97, p.A8)
1997 Jun 3, The United States
banned most slaughtered-animal parts from livestock feed because of
concerns over "mad cow disease."
(AP, 6/3/98)
1997 Jun 3, Harvey Johnson became
the first black mayor of Jackson, Miss., the state capital. He took his
oath of office on Jul 7.
(SFC, 6/4/97, p.A3)(SFC, 7/8/97, p.A4)
1997 Jun 3, The "Pillar of Shame,"
a sculpture symbolizing oppression by Jans Galschiot of Denmark was
erected in Victoria Park, Honk Kong.
(SFC, 6/4/97, p.A11)
1997 Jun 3, Reinforcements from a
peace-keeping force in Liberia were sent in to help Nigerian troops
against the insurrectionist troops of Sierra Leone. After a bloody
coup, 1,200 foreigners fled Sierra Leone aboard an American warship.
(SFC, 6/4/97, p.A10)(AP, 6/3/98)
1997 Jun 4, At the Oklahoma City
bombing trial, prosecutors urged the jury to sentence Timothy McVeigh
to death, calling relatives of victims to testify about agonizing
losses.
(AP, 6/4/98)
1997 Jun 4, In Lubbock, Texas,
Michael Rosales, a parole violator, beat and used kitchen tools to kill
Mary Felder (67) during a robbery at her apartment. Rosales (35) was
executed on April 16, 2009.
(SFC, 4/16/09,
p.A6)(www.oag.state.tx.us/oagnews/release.php?id=2917)
1997 Jun 4, The 53-nation
Organization of African Unity unanimously condemned the coup in Sierra
Leone. The 16-member Nigerian-led Economic Community of West African
states pledged not to tolerate military coups on the continent a day
after it approved the use of force to restore the government of Sierra
Leone.
(SFC, 6/5/97, p.C3)
1997 Jun 4, Brazil’s Senate
approved a constitutional revision to allow office-holders to run for
re-election. this will allow Pres. Cardoso to seek a 2nd term.
(WSJ, 6/5/97, p.A1)
1997 Jun 4, China signed a $660
million deal to develop an Iraqi oil field.
(WSJ, 6/5/97, p.A1)
1997 Jun 4, In France PM Lionel
Jospin appointed women to 6 of 16 ministerial positions.
(SFC, 6/5/97, p.C2)
1997 Jun 4, In Germany some
600,000 chemical union workers agreed to allow wage cuts by up to 10%
by financially strapped companies. Record unemployment stood at 11% and
the government asked unions for some flexibility.
(SFC, 6/6/97, p.E2)
1997 Jun 4, In Drammen, Norway, a
car bomb destroyed the headquarters of the Bandido motorcycle gang. One
passerby was killed and 4 people were injured.
(SDUT, 6/6/97, p.A26)
1997 Jun 5, Harold J. Nicholson,
the highest-ranking CIA officer ever caught spying against his own
country, was sentenced to 23 1/2 years in prison for selling defense
secrets to Russia after the Cold War. Officials later claimed that he
and his son continued to make contact with Russian operatives. In 2009
Nicholson and his son were arraigned on charges of money laundering and
acting as agents of a foreign government.
(AP, 6/5/98)(WSJ, 1/30/08, p.A3)
1997 Jun 5, The cremated remains
of some 2,000 people were found in a California Discovery Bay storage
facility. They were stored by a flying service that was supposed to
have disposed the remains at sea or over the Sierras for mortuaries.
(SFC, 6/6/97, p.A23)
1997 Jun 5, Astronomers reported a
miniplanet beyond Pluto that is about 300 miles across, with a surface
area about the size of Texas. Jane Luu with colleagues discovered the
object named 1996TL66. It was considered an extension of the Kuiper
Belt, a body of objects that circle the sun from beyond Neptune.
(SFC, 6/5/97, p.A16)
1997 Jun 5, The New York Stock
Exchange voted to report stock prices in decimals rather than fractions.
(SDUT, 6/6/97, p.A1)
1997 Jun 5, Reporter J. Anthony
Lukas (64), winner of 2 Pulitzer prizes, committed suicide.
(SFC, 6/7/97, p.A19)(MC, 6/5/02)
1997 Jun 5, An accord was signed
to protect the 620-mile Caribbean coral reef system by Mexico,
Guatemala, Belize and Honduras.
(SFC, 6/6/97, p.E3)
1997 Jun 5, In Algeria
parliamentary elections were scheduled. In a 65% turnout pro-government
forces took the largest share of votes. Two Islamist parties picked up
1/4th of the parliament seats. Monitors were not allowed to inspect
some 5,000 portable voting booths.
(SFC, 5/16/97, p.A8)(SFC, 6/10/97, p.A16)
1997 Jun 5, China announced that
diplomat Ma Yuzhen would be its top civilian representative in Hong
Kong beginning July 1. Domestic affairs will be run by Hong Kong
residents but foreign affairs will be under the central government.
(SFC, 6/6/97, p.E2)
1997 Jun 5, In the Republic of the
Congo government troops began an attack on the residence of former
leader Denis Sassou-Nguesso. He was able to flee and rally his forces
for a counterattack.
(SFC, 6/10/97, p.A12)
1997 Jun 5, In Spain the
parliament approved a labor reform pact to reduce the 22% unemployment.
(SFC, 6/6/97, p.E2)
1997 Jun 5, In Turkey
parliamentary elections were scheduled. In a 65% turnout pro-government
forces took the largest share of votes. Two Islamist parties picked up
1/4th of the parliament seats.
(SFC, 5/16/97, p.A8)
1997 Jun 6, Timothy McVeigh's
lawyer pleaded with a jury to spare the life of the convicted Oklahoma
City bomber, holding up his dress uniform and portraying him as a model
soldier deeply disturbed by his government's role in the disaster at
Waco, Texas.
(AP, 6/6/98)
1997 Jun 6, Eric Lyons and Eric
Gullichsen went live with an automated web site that allowed people to
register Web sites with the .to domain, the country-code letters of
Tonga.
(WSJ, 12/8/97, p.B21E)
1997 Jun 7, Kentucky Derby and
Preakness winner Silver Charm failed to win horse racing's Triple
Crown, losing the Belmont Stakes to Touch Gold.
(AP, 6/7/98)
1997 Jun 7, An 18-member US
presidential commission approved a report saying that cloning a human
being was "morally unacceptable," but adding that research using cells
of humans and animals should be allowed.
(AP, 6/7/98)
1997 Jun 7, The last US Mail
special delivery letter was sent. The service cost was $9.95. It was
phased out and replaced by Express Mail for $10.75.
(SFC, 6/7/97, p.A6)
1997 Jun 7, In southern India
dozens died and 90 were injured in a fire during a religious festival
at Thanjavur.
(WSJ, 6/9/97, p.A1)
1997 Jun 8, Jon Nakamatsu of San
Jose, Ca., won the Van Cliburn Int’l. Piano Competition in Texas.
(SFC, 6/10/97, p.D1)
1997 Jun 8, Reid Shelton (71),
actor (Daddy Warbucks-Annie), died of stroke.
(http://movies.yahoo.com/shop?d=hc&id=1800041047&cf=gen&intl=us)
1997 Jun 8, Prime Minister John
Bruton was defeated in elections. Opposition leader Bertie Ahern of
Fiana Fail, a populist Dubliner, was expected to be asked to form a new
government. Fiana Fail was Ireland’s largest and traditionally most
anti-British party.
(SFC, 6/9/97, p.A10)(SFC, 4/11/98, p.A8)(AP, 6/8/98)
1997 Jun 8, In Nigeria Amos
Tutuola, folk writer, died at age 77. Born in Abeokuta his novels
included "The Palmwine Drinkard" and "My Life in the Bush of Ghosts."
(SFC, 6/14/97, p.C2)
1997 Jun 8, In the Republic of
Congo a private militia of 5,000 loyal to former leader Denis
Sassou-Nguesso fought to gain control of Brazzaville. Soldiers loyal to
Pres. Pascal Lissoubax were arming the citizens and looting homes.
(SFC, 6/9/97, p.A10)
1997 Jun 9, US Air Force Gen.
Joseph Ralston gave up his fight to become chairman of the Joint Chiefs
of Staff, his candidacy doomed by the clamor over his admission that
he'd had an adulterous affair years ago.
(AP, 6/9/98)
1997 Jun 9, BankAmerica Corp.
announced that it would acquire the investment banking firm Robertson
Stephens & Co. for $540 million in cash.
(SFC, 6/9/97, p.A1)
1997 Jun 9, A California state
commission decided to raise the salary of Gov. Wilson to $131,040. It
would make him the highest paid governor in the nation.
(SFC, 6/10/97, p.A19)
1997 Jun 9, The 1898 British lease
of Hong Kong's New Territories from China for 99 years expired.
(www.info.gov.hk/yearbook/2003/english/chapter21/21_03.html)
1997 Jun 9, In Chechnya Pres.
Aslan Maskhadov dissolved secular courts and left only Islamic
tribunals in charge of the legal system. Islamic banks were scheduled
as well as a conversion from a Latin to Arabic letters.
(SFC, 6/10/97, p.A16)
1997 Jun 9, The Chinese film "The
Opium War" premiered in Beijing.
(SFC, 6/10/97, p.D4)
1997 Jun 9, Danish violinist
Nikolai Znaider won the Queen Elizabeth int’l. music prize.
(SFC, 6/10/97, p.D4)
1997 Jun 9, In Haiti Premier Rosny
Smarth resigned over differences in the legislative voting of Apr 6
that many observers say was rigged. At stake was an int’l. austerity
plan supported by Smarth and opposed by Aristide.
(SFC, 6/10/97, p.A16)
1997 Jun 9, In Lebanon five
Japanese Red Army guerillas went on trial on charges of passport
forgery and illegal entry. The light charges prevented their
extradition to Japan.
(SFC, 6/10/97, p.A16)
1997 Jun 10, In California former
Black Panther Geronimo Pratt was released on bail after 27 years behind
bars on what he says were trumped-up murder charges. Authorities
decided against retrying him.
(AP, 6/10/02)(www.cnn.com/US/9706/10/pratt.release/)
1997 Jun 10, Pope John Paul II
bade farewell to his native Poland as he ended an 11-day pilgrimage.
(AP, 6/10/98)
1997 Jun 10, The US endorsed a $13
million loan to Croatia.
(SFC, 6/11/97, p.C2)
1997 Jun 10, From the Commonwealth
of Northern Mariana Islands it was reported that Gov. Froilan Tenorio
and Rep. Heinz Hofschneider had proposed a Parental Choice Scholarship
Program that would be implemented in the fall. Every student would get
a $1500 scholarship for the school of their choice.
(WSJ, 6/10/97, p.A16)
1997 Jun 11, Pres. Clinton
announced that the US would only support Poland, Hungary and the Czech
Republic for NATO membership for now.
(SFC, 6/12/97, p.A14)
1997 Jun 11, The parents of
Timothy McVeigh pleaded for their son's life during the penalty phase
of the Oklahoma City bombing trial.
(AP, 6/11/98)
1997 Jun 11, In Cambodia Pol Pot
ordered the killing of the former Khmer Rouge defense minister Son Sen
(67) and his powerful wife, Yun Yat (63), and 9 relatives.
(SFC, 6/14/97, p.A1)
1997 Jun 11, The leaders of the
militias ravaging Brazzaville, Congo, called for a cease-fire, but
fighting continued unabated.
(AP, 6/11/03)
1997 Jun 11, In Nepal Prakash
Chandra Lohani, the foreign minister, resigned and accused the ruling
coalition of Communists of cheating in last month’s elections.
(SFC, 6/12/97, p.A14)
1997 Jun 11, From Russia it was
reported the Pres. Yeltsin planned to remove Yevgeny Nazdratenko,
governor of the far-eastern Primorsky region, due to extensive crime
and corruption.
(SFC, 6/11/97, p.C3)
1997 Jun 11, In Sri Lanka a Tamil
Tiger rebel raid claimed 300 soldiers dead vs. 50 guerrillas. The
government said 97 soldiers were killed at Thandikulam and
Nochchimoddai.
(SFC, 6/12/97, p.A14)
1997 Jun 12, Baseball began
interleague play, ending a 126-year tradition of separating the major
leagues until the World Series.
(AP, 6/12/98)
1997 Jun 12, A US administration
accord adopted a UN payment schedule. The US would pay $819 million
over 3 years conditioned on a UN cut in spending, job reduction, and a
lowering of US costs from 25% to 20%.
(WSJ, 6/12/97, p.1)
1997 Jun 12, The Republicans
removed riders and Clinton signed the emergency aid bill for the April
Red River flood victims.
(SFC, 6/12/97, p.A1)
1997 Jun 12, Timothy McVeigh was
sentenced to death for the Apr 19, 1995 bombing of the federal office
building in Oklahoma.
(SFC, 6/14/97, p.A1)
1997 Jun 12, The US Treasury Dept.
unveiled its new $50 bill. It was meant to be more
counterfeit-resistant and to replace the old bill design in use since
1929.
(SFC, 6/13/97, p.B2)(AP, 6/12/98)
1997 Jun 12, A new computer,
speech-recognition program by dragon Systems was touted. It used a
30,000 word vocabulary and cost $695.
(WSJ, 6/12/97, p.B1)
1997 Jun 12, It was reported that
a gene may be responsible for advanced social skills in girls. The
results were derived from a study of Turner’s syndrome, related an
abnormal x chromosome.
(SFC, 6/12/97, p.A7)
1997 Jun 12, Mary Robinson, Pres.
of Ireland, was named the top human rights official for the United
Nations.
(SFC, 6/12/97, p.A16)
1997 Jun 13, The Chicago Bulls
captured their fifth professional basketball championship in seven
years with a 90-86 victory over the Utah Jazz in Game 6 of the NBA
finals.
(SFC, 6/14/97, p.B1)(AP, 6/13/98)
1997 Jun 13, A jury voted
unanimously to give Timothy McVeigh the death penalty for his role in
the Oklahoma City bombing.
(AP, 6/13/98)
1997 Jun 13, In Bangladesh a ferry
on the Dhanu River northeast of Dhaka capsized in a whirlpool and at
least 50 people were drowned.
(SFEC, 6/15/97, p.D3)
1997 Jun 13, The leaders of
France, Germany and Canada insisted that Romania and Slovenia be
allowed to join NATO next month.
(SFC, 6/14/97, p.A12)
1997 Jun 13, In India a fire in a
New Delhi theater killed 60 and injured over 200 people.
(SFC, 6/14/97, p.A12)
1997 Jun 13, Under pressure it was
announced that Turkey’s PM Erbakan, leader of the Welfare Party, would
turn his post over to Tansu Ciller, who would lead until elections Jun
18. Turkey’s first Islamist-led government was ejected after it began
investigating links between the army and organized crime.
(SFC, 6/14/97, p.A12)(SFC, 11/26/98, p.B2)(Econ,
3/22/08, p.61)
1997 Jun 14, President Clinton
opened a year-long campaign against racism with a commencement address
at the University of California at San Diego, in which he defended
affirmative action and pleaded with Americans to confront deeply held
prejudices.
(AP, 6/14/98)
1997 Jun 14, A 1939 comic book
featuring the first appearance by Batman was auctioned off for $68,500
at Sotheby's in New York City.
(AP, 6/14/98)
1997 Jun 14, In Hong Kong the
provisional legislature voted to give police broad powers to ban even
peaceful demonstrations and to outlaw foreign donations to political
parties.
(SFEC, 6/22/97, p.A14)
1997 Jun 14, From Russia it was
announced that there were over 9,000 organized crime groups employing
some 100,000 people.
(SFC, 6/14/97, p.A12)
1997 Jun 14, In the Ukraine it was
reported that flash flooding and an underground river caused a huge
sinkhole in Dnepropetrovsk that swallowed houses, schools and a 9-story
apartment.
(SFC, 6/14/97, p.A11)
1997 Jun 15, In Colombia FARQ
released 70 soldiers held as prisoners. FARQ regional commander Gen’l.
Manuel Jose Bonett read a communiqué that set preconditions for
the start of peace talks to end 30 years of civil war.
(SFC, 6/16/97, p.A9)
1997 Jun 15, In Croatia voting
irregularities occurred as Franjo Tudjman led low-turnout elections
with 59%.
(SFC, 6/16/97, p.A8)
1997 Jun 15, Israel's Supreme
Court rejected an appeal to charge Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu
with fraud in an influence-peddling scandal that had threatened to
topple his government.
(AP, 6/15/98)
1997 Jun 15, Kim Casali, English
cartoonist, died.
(HT, 6/15/00)
1997 Jun 16, The Dow Jones
Industrial Average climbed above 8,000 for the 1st time.
(SSFC, 2/2/03, p.I4)
1997 Jun 16, Intel introduced its
Net PC.
(SFC, 6/17/97, p.A1)
1997 Jun 16, Motorola planned a
new satellite system called Celestri to deliver data and video to
int’l. organizations. This system would run in addition to the iridium
project (66 satellites) and M-Star (72 satellites). It will compete
with Teledesic, a 288-satellite plan, and an Alcatel-Loral venture
called SkyBridge with 64 satellites. Service was planned to begin in
2002.
(WSJ, 6/17/97, p.A3)
1997 Jun 16, In Algeria in
post-election violence more than 50 people were slain in recent days.
Blame was place on the Armed Islamic Group.
(SFC, 6/17/97, p.D2)
1997 Jun 16, The British
government broke off contacts it had just renewed with Sinn Fein after
the Irish Republican Army killed two Protestant policemen in Lurgan,
Northern Ireland.
(AP, 6/16/98)
1997 Jun 16, The IRA killed 2
police officers in Lurgan, a small town in County Armagh near Belfast.
(SFC, 6/17/97, p.A1)
1997 Jun 16, Israeli soldiers
wounded 38 Palestinians in the 3rd day of protests at Hebron.
(WSJ, 6/17/97, p.A1)
1997 Jun 16, In Japan Sue Sumii
died at age 95 working on the 8th volume of her novel "The River With
No Bridge." It was about the plight of the burakumin (the untouchables)
of Japan. She published the first volume in 1958.
(SFC, 6/24/97, p.A19)
1997 Jun 17, Mir Aimal Kasi,
suspected in the shooting deaths of two CIA employees outside agency
headquarters in January 1993, was brought to Fairfax, Va., to face
trial after being arrested in Pakistan. He was later convicted and
sentenced to death.
(AP, 6/17/98)
1997 Jun 17, In Cambodia fighting
broke out in Phnom Penh between the 2 competing prime ministers.
Security troops of Prince Ranariddh faced troops of the national police
under Hok Lundy, a supporter of Hun Sen.
(SFC, 6/18/97, p.A8)
1997 Jun 17, The Corsican National
Liberation Front announced a truce in their 22-year bombing campaign.
Negotiations with France were to follow.
(SFC, 6/18/97, p.A10)
1997 Jun 17, In Japan lawmakers
rewrote the definition of death to allow life-saving transplants of
body parts. Brain death rather than heart death would be the new
criteria and would take effect in 3 months.
(SFC, 6/18/97, p.A9)
1997 Jun 17, In Sierra Leone Major
Johnny Paul Koroma was sworn in as head of state and pledged to work to
restore democracy.
(SFC, 6/18/97, p.A10)
1997 Jun 18, The Southern Baptist
Convention called for a boycott of the Walt Disney Co., protesting what
the convention called "gay-friendly" policies.
(AP, 6/18/98)
1997 Jun 18, Sirhan Sirhan failed
in his 10th bid for parole in the assassination of Sen. Robert F.
Kennedy.
(AP, 6/17/98)
1997 Jun 18, Irineo Montoya, a
Mexican laborer, was executed by the state of Texas for a 1985 killing
despite protests by the Mexican government.
(AP, 6/17/98)
1997 Jun 18, In Cambodia Pol Pot
surrendered with 15 followers.
(SFC, 6/19/97, p.A1)
1997 Jun 18, In China in Yunnan
province 27 drug traffickers were executed.
(SFC, 6/20/97, p.A22)
1997 Jun 18, It was reported that
Japan was paying 5 Caribbean nations extensive aid and investment in
order to gain support to block protections for endangered species.
Grenada, St. Kitts and Nevis, St. Vincent, St. Lucia and Dominica were
all reported to have been bribed.
(SFC, 6/18/97, p.A8)
1997 Jun 19, President Clinton
welcomed world leaders to Denver on the eve of an economic summit.
(AP, 6/19/98)
1997 Jun 19, McDonald's won a
libel case in London against two vegetarian activists, even though the
judge said he agreed with some of the defendants' sharpest criticisms
of the fast-food giant.
(AP, 6/19/98)
1997 Jun 19, In Michigan three
teenagers from Highland Township and Davisburg hopped a train and got
off in Flint. They ran into some strangers who shot, raped and robbed
them. One boy (15) was killed. Six people were later arrested.
(SFC, 6/24/97, p.A2)
1997 Jun 19, In New Orleans 2 men,
identified as the "Assault Poetry Unit," delivered unmarked boxes of
manifestos, poems and innocuous objects to 14 prominent people. The
targets feared for bombs and the 2 men were arrested for terrorizing.
(SFC, 8/18/97, p.A3)
1997 Jun 19, In Algeria a bomb in
an Algiers movie theater killed 2 and wounded 20.
(WSJ, 6/20/97, p.A1)
1997 Jun 19, From Cambodia the
report of Pol Pot’s surrender was rescinded.
(SFC, 6/20/97, p.A19)
1997 Jun 19, China executed 38
people. In Sichuan 24 died for drug dealing and 14 were executed in
Beijing.
(SFC, 6/20/97, p.A22)
1997 Jun 19, In Russia the
legislature gave a preliminary nod to a new tax code.
(SFC, 6/20/97, p.A20)
1997 Jun 19, In the Ukraine Pres.
Kuchma removed prime minister Pavlo Lazarenko under pressure from
Western donors who saw him as an opponent to free-market policies.
(SFC, 6/20/97, p.A22)
1997 Jun 19, In Zimbabwe delegates
to the UN Convention on Int’l. Trade in Endangered Species (CITES)
approved the applications by Zimbabwe, Namibia and Botswana to sell an
annual quota of their collective 55 tons of ivory stockpile, but only
to Japan. Trade in ivory was shut down in 1989 due to extensive
poaching.
(SFC, 6/20/97, p.A20)(SFC, 4/18/00, p.A9)
1997 Jun 20, US tobacco
negotiators announced a settlement that would require cigarette
companies to pay $368.5 billion over the next 25 years to compensate
states for smoking-related illnesses, to finance anti-smoking programs,
and to underwrite health care for millions of uninsured children in
exchange for major relief from mounting lawsuits and legal bills.
(SFC, 6/21/97, p.A1)(AP, 6/20/98)
1997 Jun 20, The summit of
industrialized nations opened in Denver, with Russia taking its place
as the new eighth partner.
(AP, 6/20/98)
1997 Jun 20, A jury in Trenton,
N.J., ordered the death penalty for Jesse K. Timmendequas, whose rape
and strangling of his 7-year-old neighbor, Megan Kanka, led to the
creation of "Megan's Laws" requiring that communities be notified of
sex offenders in their midst.
(AP, 6/20/07)
1997 Jun 20, In Cambodia
government sources announced that former Khmer Rouge troops had
captured Pol Pot.
(SFC, 6/21/97, p.A10)
1997 Jun 20, In Mexico authorities
announced the discovery of 53 properties, 36 bank accounts and 4
aliases for Raul Salinas.
(SFC, 6/21/97, p.A11)
1997 Jun 20, In Spain former prime
minister Felipe Gonzalez quit as the leader of the Spanish Socialist
Party. He was succeeded by Joaquin Almunia.
(WSJ, 6/23/97, p.A1)
1997 Jun 20, In Turkey Pres.
Demirel asked Mesut Yilmaz, leader of the Motherland Party, to form a
new government.
(SFC, 6/21/97, p.A10)
1997 Jun 21, The WNBA made its
debut as the New York Liberty defeated the Los Angeles Sparks 67-57.
(AP, 6/21/98)
1997 Jun 21, The G-7 Summit became
the G-8 with the addition of Russia at its meeting in Denver. Moscow
was admitted to the Paris Club of creditors. Summit leaders meeting in
Denver wrestled with a list of global challenges.
(SFC, 6/20/97, p.A16)(WSJ, 6/23/97, p.A1)(AP,
6/21/98)
1997 Jun 21, A terrorist bomb
rocked Belfast. Three people were slightly injured and pro-British
loyalist forces were suspected to be responsible.
(SFEC, 6/22/97, p.D1)
1997 Jun 21, Palestinian riots
spread to Nablus on the West Bank protesting Jewish settlements.
(SFEC, 6/22/97, p.D3)
1997 Jun 21, From Thailand it was
reported that operators of illegal logging ventures in northern
Thailand were feeding their elephants amphetamine-laced bananas to
speed up work before the rainy season. The practice began a few years
ago and 10 animals have died of overwork and exhaustion.
(SFC, 6/21/97, p.A11)
1997 Jun 22, Dr. Nancy W. Dickey
was named the first female president of the American Medical
Association.
(AP, 6/22/98)
1997 Jun 22, It was reported that
34 million acres of forest are lost each year around the world due to
cutting and burning.
(SFEC, 6/22/97, p.D3)
1997 Jun 22, World leaders
concluded a historic summit in Denver with Russia's full participation
for the first time.
(AP, 6/22/98)
1997 Jun 22, Iran and Iraq opened
their border after 17 years and asked the UN for an inspection post
there, giving Iraq a 4th exit point for its goods.
(WSJ, 6/27/97, p.A11)
1997 Jun 22, In Russia it was
reported that the newspaper Top Secret published a story that exposed
Valentin Kovalev, justice minister, cavorting with nude women in a
sauna in a secret Sep 1995 video. The video was shot at the nightclub
hangout of the Solntsevo crime gang in Sep. 1995. The video was
acquired from the vault of banker Arkady Angelevich, arrested Apr 17 on
suspicion of embezzlement.
(SFEC, 6/22/97, p.D8)(SFC, 6/23/97, p.A8)
1997 Jun 23, Three brand new
Municipal Railway cars crashed in San Francisco. Three MUNI employees
were injured.
(SFC, 6/24/97, p.A15)
1997 Jun 23, Two freight trains
collided in Texas near San Antonio and 4 people were killed.
(SFC, 6/24/97, p.A2)
1997 Jun 23, Betty Shabazz (61),
the widow of Malcolm X, died in New York of burn wounds inflicted by a
fire set on Jun 1 by her 12-year-old grandson. Malcolm Shabazz pleaded
guilty and was sentenced to 18 months at a Massachusetts facility
specializing in young arsonists.
(SFC, 6/24/97, p.A3)(SFC, 6/26/97, p.A15)(AP,
6/23/02)
1997 Jun 23, From Vietnam it was
reported that worker strikes were increasing in factories controlled by
foreign investors. The minimum wage in shoe factories that produce
Adidas, Fila, Nike and All-Star shoes was about .20 cents an hour.
(SFC, 6/23/97, p.A10)
1997 Jun 24, In Freehold, N.J.,
18-year-old Melissa Drexler, who gave birth during her prom, was
charged with murder in the death of her baby. In 1998 she was sentenced
to 15 years in prison in a plea bargain with parole possible in less
than 3 years. Drexler later pleaded guilty to aggravated manslaughter,
and served three years in prison.
(SFC, 10/30/98, p.A3)(AP, 6/24/07)
1997 Jun 24, The Air Force
released a report on the so-called "Roswell Incident," suggesting the
alien bodies witnesses reported seeing in 1947 were actually life-sized
dummies.
1997 Jun 24, Actor Brian Keith
(75) committed suicide in his Malibu, Calif., home.
(www.franksreelreviews.com/shorttakes/briankeith/briankeith.htm)
1997 Jun 24, A federal judge in
Miami gave 40,000 Nicaraguans and other immigrants a 7-month reprieve
from deportation.
(SFC, 6/25/97, p.A3)
1997 Jun 24, It was reported that
a defective gene that makes leptin, a hormone that helps in the body’s
weight-control system, caused obesity. A 2nd gene was also identified
as a weight-control agent.
(SFC, 6/24/97, p.A9)
1997 Jun 24, In Ireland David
Trible of the main Protestant party said he would accept an Anglo-Irish
recommendation to set up an int’l. commission to oversee the gradual
disarmament of the IRA and pro-British paramilitary gangs as wider
negotiations progress.
(SFC, 6/25/97, p.A8)
1997 Jun 24, In Israel Prime
Minister Netanyahu survived a no-confidence vote in parliament through
some last minute deals.
(SFC, 6/25/97, p.A8)
1997 Jun 24, At the UN Pres. Abdul
Gayoom of the Republic of the Maldives said that the survival of the
island nation was dependent on halting the process of global warming.
The 42-member Alliance of Small Island States called on the industrial
nations to cut emissions 20% from 1990 levels by the year 2010.
(SFC, 6/25/97, p.A2)
1997 Jun 25, It was reported that
a man from Rio Vista, Ca., was doing a good business selling the moon’s
real estate. Dennis Hope was charging $15.99 for 1,777 acres of lunar
land plus tax and shipping.
(SFC, 6/25/97, p.A15)
1997 Jun 25, The US Supreme Court
struck down the 1993 Religious Freedom Restoration Act. It said
Congress had intruded on the authority of local officials. The
legislation had instructed government officials to bend the rules for
persons whose actions are based on their religion.
(SFC, 6/26/97, p.A3)(AP, 6/25/98)
1997 Jun 25, An unmanned cargo
vessel crashed in the Russian Mir space station during a docking
practice knocking out half of the station's power and rupturing a
pressurized laboratory. The area was sealed off and the situation was
considered serious for the 3 astronauts onboard. Commander Vasily
Tsibliev later faced a risky repair mission and complained of heart
irregularities.
(SFC, 6/26/97, p.A1)(SFC, 7/15/97, p.A10)(AP,
6/25/98)
1997 Jun 25, An auction of
Princess Diana’s 79 cocktail and evening dresses brought in $3.26
million.
(SFC, 6/26/97, p.A1)
1997 Jun 25, Oceanographer
Jacques-Yves Cousteau (b.1910) died in Paris. In 2009 Brad Matsen
authored “Jacques Cousteau: The Sea King.”
(AP, 6/25/98)(Econ, 10/31/09, p.97)
1997 Jun 25, In the Republic of
the Congo the truce ended in a ferocious battle for the Brazzaville
airport. Former president Nguesso appeared to have begun an assault on
the airport.
(SFC, 6/26/97, p.A7)
1997 Jun 25, In Indonesia East
Timor rebel leader, Alex, died of gunshot wounds in Dili. Rebels
charged that he was only slightly wounded and died under interrogation.
(SFC, 6/28/97, p.A11)
1997 Jun 25, On the island of
Montserrat the Soufriere Hills volcano spewed rock and hot ash and
killed 9 people while 17 were reported missing.
(SFC, 6/28/97, p.A11,12)
1997 Jun 26, The US Supreme Court
struck down a congressional attempt to keep pornography off the
Internet, saying it violated the First Amendment; the court also let
stand the president's line-item veto authority without addressing its
constitutionality.
(AP, 6/26/98)
1997 Jun 26, The US Supreme Court
ruled that terminally ill Americans had no constitutional right to
doctor-assisted suicide, but did nothing to bar states from legalizing
the process.
(SFC, 6/27/97, p.A1)(AP, 6/26/98)
1997 Jun 26, It was reported that
there was a sharp decline of Antarctic krill, the basic food of many
fish, whales and penguins. An explosion of tiny marine animals called
salps that love warmer waters was also observed.
(SFC, 6/26/97, p.A3)
1997 Jun 26, In Albania gunmen
fired at the presidential motorcade of Pres. Berisha, who was on a
campaign rally. Three guards were wounded. Nearly 1500 people have been
killed since March when protests over the failed pyramid schemes turned
into armed rebellion.
(SFC, 6/27/97, p.A12)
1997 Jun 26, In the Congo soldiers
seized Etienne Tshisekedi after he gave a speech accusing the Kabila
regime of establishing a new dictatorship.
(WSJ, 6/27/97, p.A1)
1997 Jun 26, In Ireland Bertie
Ahern became the prime minister and appointed Mary Harney, leader of
the right-wing Progressive Democrats, as his assistant.
(SFC, 6/27/97, p.A3)
1997 Jun 26, Turkey announced the
end of the 10-week Operation Hammer, its cross-border operation against
the Kurds. The Turks reported to have lost 113 men and it was estimated
that 3,000 guerrillas of the PKK were killed.
(WSJ, 6/27/97, p.A13)
1997 Jun 27, The US announced
agreements with Vietnam to expand ties.
(SFC, 6/28/97, p.A11)
1997 Jun 27, The US Supreme Court
threw out a key part of the Brady gun-control law, saying the federal
government could not make local police decide whether people are fit to
buy handguns. However, the court left intact the five-day waiting
period for gun purchases.
(SFC, 6/28/97, p.A1)(AP, 6/27/98)
1997 Jun 27, It was reported that
researchers have discovered the first defective gene that causes
Parkinson’s disease. The mutated gene produces a defective version of
the brain protein alpha synuclein.
(WSJ, 6/27/97, p.B6)
1997 Jun 27, It was reported that
some 42 dead seals were washed ashore at Point Reyes National Seashore
in California in a ten day window in late May and early June. Cause of
death was unknown but new deaths seemed to have stopped.
(SFC, 6/27/97, p.A24)
1997 Jun 27, China announced that
it would send 4,000 troops into Hong Kong six hours after the former
colony is handed over to Chinese control.
(SFC, 6/28/97, p.A1)
1997 Jun 27, In China a major fire
at a petrochemical plant outside Beijing caused many deaths and
injuries. News of the fire was restricted to maintain an official tone
of celebration for the Hong Kong transfer.
(SFC, 6/28/97, p.A13)
1997 Jun 27, In the Congo Etienne
Tshisekedi was released.
(WSJ, 6/30/97, p.A1)
1997 Jun 27, In Russia an
explosive device was set off on a train as it approached Torbino, 140
miles southeast of St. Petersburg, and 3 people were killed.
(SFC, 6/28/97, p.A11)
1997 Jun 27, A Tajikistan formal
peace accord was signed in Moscow that was brokered by Russia and Iran.
A power sharing arrangement was foreseen between Pres. Emomali
Rakhmanov and opposition leader Said Abdullo. Up to 150,000 people were
killed in the 5-year civil war.
(WSJ, 6/30/97, p.A11)(SFC, 11/3/00, p.D2)(Econ,
11/11/06, p.50)
1997 Jun 28, In a wild rematch,
Mike Tyson was disqualified in the 3rd round in the boxing heavyweight
title for biting Evander Holyfield's ear in Las Vegas. Tyson complained
of head buts by Holyfield. His $30 million purse was withheld pending a
hearing. Tyson was suspended and his purse withheld pending a decision
on his punishment. His Nevada state boxing license was taken away and
he was fined $3 million. The state license could be re-applied for in a
year.
(SFEC, 6/29/97, p.C1)(WSJ, 7/2/97, p.A1)(SFC,
7/10/97, p.A7)(AP, 6/28/98)
1997 Jun 28, President Clinton,
unable to meet his own July 4 deadline for campaign finance reform,
blamed the inaction on Congress in his weekly radio address.
(AP, 6/28/98)
1997 Jun 28, Robert Schuller, TV
evangelist, attacked a flight attendant.
(www.rapidnet.com/~jbeard/bdm/exposes/schuller/general.htm)
1967 Jun 28, The body of Che
Guevara was found in a common grave in Vallegrande, Bolivia.
(SFEC, 7/13/97, p.A10)
1997 Jun 28, In Japan police
announced the arrest of a 14-year-old boy for the murder and beheading
of an 11-year-old on May 27. The 15-year-old boy was convicted and
sentenced to a juvenile prison, where he would be treated for mental
illness. He could be kept there until age 26. [see May 27]
(SFEC, 6/29/97, p.D1)(SFC,10/18/97, p.A11)
1997 Jun 29, William Hickey (68),
acting teacher, actor (Prizzi's Honor), died of emphysema.
(www.factmonster.com/ipka/A0763413.html)
1997 Jun 29, In Albania the rival
ex-Communists claimed to have beaten Pres. Berisha in the elections.
Gunmen menaced voters, burned ballots and pressured polling officials,
marring parliamentary elections meant to steer the country toward
recovery after months of chaos. Socialist Party leader Fatos Nano
claimed his leftist coalition had won 73 of 115 contested seats. Early
returns on a referendum showed voters favoring the return of
would-be-king Leka Zogu. Later results showed that the referendum was
defeated by a 2:1 margin.
(WSJ, 6/30/97, p.A1)(SFC, 7/1/97, p.A10)(SFC,
7/4/97, p.A12)(AP, 6/29/98)
1997 Jun 29, In Iraq in the Asian
Group 9 World Cup soccer qualifying competition the Iraqi team was
beaten a 2nd time by Kazakstan. This inflamed Odai Hussein, son of
Saddam and head of the Iraqi soccer federation. He had the team
imprisoned and tortured. It was also reported that Odai had killed
woman after an abortive attempt at having sex.
(SFC, 7/26/97, p.A13)
1997 Jun 30, In Hong Kong, the
Union Jack was lowered for the last time over Government House as
Britain prepared to hand the colony back to China after ruling it for
156 years. The 1st Battalion, The Black Watch (Royal Highland Regiment)
became the last British unit to leave Hong Kong.
(AP,
6/30/98)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_the_British_Army#1990-present)
1997 Jun 30, North Korea agreed to
hold talks with South Korea in NYC beginning Aug 5.
(SFC, 7/1/97, p.A8)
1997 Jun 30, This day marked the
deadline on passage of a new law that withdraws recognition of
non-Orthodox conversions performed in Israel. Orthodox parties
threatened to withdraw from the government if the law was not passed.
(SFEC, 6/1/97, p.D1)
1997 Jun, The Detroit Red Wings
won the hockey Stanley Cup in 4 games against the Philadelphia Flyers.
(WSJ, 6/12/97, p.A16)
1997 Jun, Earth Summit Two met at
the UN in New York.
(SFC, 5/9/97, p.A4)
1997 Jun, At a UN meeting Pres.
Clinton announced an effort to install photovoltaic panels on 1 million
rooftops in the US by 2010.
(SFEC, 9/28/97, p.B1)
1997 Jun, In California the Lake
Tahoe Regional Planning Agency adopted a plan to ban jet skis,
specifically 2-stroke engines that propel personal watercraft,
effective in June 1999. The jet ski industry filed a suit against the
ban in Oct.
(SFC,10/31/97, p.A18)
1997 Jun, Danny Pang (b.1966), a
Taiwan born entrepreneur, was fired from a US venture capital firm for
stealing $3 million from an escrow account. He later helped form the
Private Equity Management Group (PEMGroup) in California to buy life
insurance from the elderly collect money as they died. In 2007 the
enterprise became engaged in a Ponzi scheme.
(WSJ, 4/15/09, p.A1)
1997 Jun, In Washington State
voters narrowly approved a huge public subsidy for Paul Allen,
co-founder of Microsoft, for a new $425 million football stadium. Mr.
Allen would pay 25% and the rest would come from taxpayers.
(WSJ, 6/25/97, p.A22)
1997 Jun, In Brazil police strikes
began in the southeastern state of Minas Gerais over low pay. Though
the strikes were illegal they spread by July to 15 of Brazil’s 27
states.
(SFC, 7/23/97, p.A10)
1997 Jun, In Canada the Supreme
Court ruled that lap dancing violates standards of decency.
(SFC, 6/28/97, p.E5)
1997 Jun, In Chile storms killed
at least 19 people and left 51,000 homeless.
(SFC, 6/28/97, p.A12)
1997 Jun, In El Salvador a Credi
Club bank scandal involved the disappearance of $11 million in
depositor’s savings.
(SFEC, 7/20/97, p.A18)
1997 Jun, In Guatemala a feud
erupted between neighboring Maya villages near Totonicapan and 10
people were massacred and 10 homes were burned down.
(SFC, 9/8/97, p.A8)
1997 Jun, In Kenya the IMF froze
$30 million in direct aid after the Moi administration dropped charges
against a group of KANU businessmen accused of defrauding the state of
about $500 million.
(SFC, 7/12/97, p.A11)
1997 Jun, In Lesotho protestors in
Maseru marched against the formation of a new ruling party by Prime
Minister Ntsu Mokhehle.
(LVRJ, 11/1/97, p.14A)
1997 Jun, Terms of the Baltnet
Group, an Air Surveillance System for Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia,
were established in Oslo, Norway.
(http://tinyurl.com/a6o2n)
1997 Jun, In Papua New Guinea
elections the government of Sir Julius Chan was swept out of office.
(WSJ, 3/18/98, p.A1)
1997 Jun, Papua New Guinea PM Bill
Skate formed a shaky coalition government: “...if I tell my gang
members to kill, they kill... there’s no other godfather. I’m the
godfather...” He later claimed to be drunk using the described “Johnny
Walker defense.” Skate resigned in 1999 after serving 18 months as
prime minister.
(WSJ, 4/14/98,
p.A19)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Skate)
1997 Jun-Nov, In Kenya a cholera
epidemic in Kisumu and other towns around Lake Victoria killed 200
people over this period due to contaminated drinking water. The disease
peaked in January after some 3,000 deaths across East Africa.
(SFEC,11/2/97, p.T14)(SFC, 1/22/98, p.E4)
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