2000 May-June
Return to home
2000 May 1, A US
State Dept. annual report on efforts to combat terrorism listed Cuba,
Iran, Iraq, Libya, North Korea, Sudan and Syria as state sponsors for
terrorism. The report indicated a shift from the Middle East to South
Asia with Afghanistan and Pakistan listed as threatening.
(SFEC, 4/30/00, p.A6)(SFC, 5/2/00, p.A12)
2000 May 1, The US government
began allowing civilian GPS receivers to pick up more accurate
satellite signals. The sport of geocaching began 2 days later.
(WSJ, 3/19/02, p.A20)
2000 May 1, About three and a-half
million Time Warner cable subscribers temporarily lost access to seven
Disney-owned ABC stations in a quarrel over transmission rights.
(AP, 5/1/01)
2000 May 1, Steve Reeves, actor,
died in Escondido, California, at age 74. He starred in such films as
"Hercules," "The Last Days of Pompeii," and "Duel of the Titans."
(SFC, 5/4/00, p.C4)(AP, 5/1/01)
2000 May 1, May Day marches and
protests took place around the world. In Berlin violence erupted as
some 10,000 anarchists marched against "capitalism and imperialism"
after some 1200 neo-Nazis rallied. In London some 2,000 demonstrators
caused havoc in London. Tens of thousands gathered in Madrid and some
15,000 demonstrated in both Russia and Istanbul. Hundreds of thousands
demonstrated in Sao Paulo, Brazil and some 20,000 marched in Quito,
Ecuador.
(SFC, 5/2/00, p.A10)
2000 May 1, Joerg Haider, leader
of Austria’s far-right Freedom Party, stepped down after 14 years as
party leader.
(AP, 5/1/01)
2000 May 1, In Iran Hamid
Tefileen, one of 13 Jewish men arrested for espionage, was displayed on
TV and admitted to being paid $500 a month by Israeli intelligence,
Mossad.
(SFC, 5/2/00, p.A8)
2000 May 1, In Puerto Rico 2 US
warships arrived off the coast of Vieques and some 50 protestors braced
for the arrival of federal agents.
(SFC, 5/2/00, p.A5)
2000 May 1, In Zimbabwe thousands
opposed to the rule of Pres. Mugabe rallied in Harare.
(WSJ, 5/1/00, p.A1)
2000 May 1-5, In Afghanistan
fighting was halted to allow UN workers to immunize some 4.5 million
children under age 5 against polio.
(SFC, 5/6/00, p.C1)
2000 May 2, An investigating panel
concluded that Texas A&M University students cut corners in
construction and school officials failed to adequately supervise them
before a bonfire collapse in November 1999 that killed 12 people.
(AP, 5/2/01)
2000 May 2, Jockey Julie Krone
became the first female elected to thoroughbred racing’s hall of fame.
(AP, 5/2/01)
2000 May 2, Former nurse Christina
Marie Riggs was executed by injection in Arkansas for smothering her
two young children.
(AP, 5/2/01)
2000 May 2, In Armenia Pres.
Robert Kocharian fired Prime Minister Aram Sarkisian and his government
for allowing the economy to deteriorate and for ignoring discord in the
military. Police security was tightened around government buildings.
(SFC, 5/3/00, p.A14)
2000 May 2, In Belgium the
Parliament opened an inquiry into possible government involvement in
the 1961 killing of Congo’s Premier Patrice Lumumba. This followed
allegations in the new book "The Murder of Lumumba" by Ludo De Witte.
(SFC, 5/3/00, p.A14)
2000 May 2, In Israel the Day of
the Shoah, Holocaust Remembrance Day, was observed. The date was fixed
by Israel to commemorate the Warsaw Jewish ghetto uprising of 1943.
(SFC, 5/3/00, p.A12,13)
2000 May 2, In Indonesia it was
reported that a tribal conflict between the Wampe and Bilaga on West
Papua, formerly Irian Jaya, had left over 100 people dead in the last
year.
(SFC, 5/2/00, p.A10)
2000 May 2, In the Philippines
rebels at Talipao threatened to behead 2 hostages if military troops
were not pulled back.
(SFC, 5/3/00, p.A12)
2000 May 2, In Rwanda health
minister Ezechias Rwabuhihi reported that some 500,000 Rwandans, 6% of
the population, were infected with AIDS.
(SFC, 5/4/00, p.A18)
2000 May 2, In Sierra Leone
Revolutionary United Front rebels seized 50 UN workers over the last 2
days as the West African intervention force completed its pullout. The
seizures took place in Makeni, Kailahun and Magburaka.
(SFC, 5/3/00, p.A13)
2000 May 3, Gen. Wesley Clark left
his post as NATO’s supreme allied commander. He was replaced by Gen.
Joseph Ralston.
(SFC, 5/3/00, p.A11)
2000 May 3, The sport of
geocaching began with a cache hidden outside Portland, Oregon. [see May
1]
(WSJ, 3/19/02, p.A20)
2000 May 3, The US FDA approved
the first device to aid women with sexual dysfunction.
(SFC, 5/4/00, p.A3)
2000 May 3, Cardinal John O’Connor
(80), the archbishop of New York, died.
(SFC, 5/4/00, p.A3)(AP, 5/3/01)
2000 May 3, The Euro fell below 90
cents to the dollar for the first time.
(WSJ, 5/4/00, p.A18)
2000 May 3, In Chechnya Russian
troops ambushed a rebel band and killed at least 18 men.
(WSJ, 5/5/00, p.A1)
2000 May 3, In Iran 2 more Iranian
Jews admitted, while on trial, that they had spied for Israel.
(SFC, 5/4/00, p.A16)
2000 May 3, In Japan a teenager
(17) hijacked a bus and killed a woman before being overcome after a
15-hour, 190-mile chase on Sanyo Expressway.
(SFC, 5/4/00, p.A17)
2000 May 3, In Mexico police
arrested Ismael Higuera Guerrero, a senior member of the Arellano Felix
drug gang, along with his son (15) and 8 others near Ensenada.
(SFC, 5/5/00, p.A15)
2000 May 3, The trial of two
alleged Libyan intelligence agents accused of blowing Pan Am Flight 103
out of the sky over Lockerbie, Scotland, in 1988 opened in the
Netherlands. In January 2001, one of the defendants, Abdel Basset Ali
al-Megrahi, was convicted of murder; the other defendant, Lamen Khalifa
Fhimah, was acquitted.
(AP, 5/3/01)
2000 May 3, In the southern
Philippines 2 hostages died as the military clashed with rebels under
Commander Robot (Ghalib Andang) at Talipao. On Basilan Island 15
hostages, 9 children and 6 teachers, were rescued and 4 were killed
when government troops engaged the rebels. At Zamboanga, Mindanao, the
MILF took some 100 hostages and at least 4 people were killed.
(SFC, 5/3/00, p.A12)(SFC, 5/4/00, p.A16)(SFC,
5/5/00, p.A14)
2000 May 3, Rebels of the
Revolutionary United Front killed 7 UN Kenyan peacekeepers. The number
was later reduced to 4 presumed dead.
(SFC, 5/4/00, p.A1)(WSJ, 5/5/00, p.A1)
2000 May 4, The e-mail virus
"ILOVEYOU" bug hit millions of computers around the world. It was
considered the most virulent, most damaging ($2.6 bil), most costly and
most rapidly spread virus to date. In Manila Onel de Guzman, a
former computing student, was later released with all charges dismissed
due to lack of evidence.
(SFC, 5/5/00, p.A1)(SFC, 5/6/00, p.A1)(SFC, 8/22/00,
p.A11)
2000 May 4, In London Ken
Livingston (54), a socialist member of parliament, was elected mayor.
(SFC, 5/5/00, p.A14)(AP, 5/4/01)
2000 May 4, Congo agreed to
cooperate with UN plans for a 5,500 member observer force to monitor
the cease-fire.
(SFC, 5/5/00, p.A18)
2000 May 4, In Indonesia the
government announced an agreement for a cease-fire with separatists in
Aceh province.
(SFC, 5/5/00, p.A18)
2000 May 4, In Indonesia a 6.5
earthquake was centered in the Maluku Sea off Pelang Island and at
least 17 people were killed.
(SFC, 5/5/00, p.A18)
2000 May 4, It was reported that
Israel planned to deploy a laser shield named THEL, Tactical High
Energy Laser (TRW Inc.), to shoot down rockets fired by guerrillas
following its withdrawal from southern Lebanon.
(SFC, 5/4/00, p.A16)
2000 May 4, Lebanese guerrillas
fired some 20 Katyusha rockets into Kiryat Shemona, a town in northern
Israel. One Israeli soldier was killed and over 24 people were injured.
Israel retaliated with heavy air strikes.
(SFC, 5/5/00, p.A14)(WSJ, 5/5/00, p.A1)
2000 May 4, Hendrik Casimir
(b.1909), Dutch physicist, died. He was best known for his research on
the two-fluid model of superconductors (together with C. J. Gorter) in
1934 and the Casimir effect (together with D. Polder) in 1946.
(Econ, 5/24/08,
p.105)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hendrik_Casimir)
2000 May 4, In Puerto Rico US
federal agents moved and arrested 216 protestors from the bombing range
on Vieques Island.
(SFC, 5/5/00, p.A1)
2000 May 4, In Sierra Leone rebels
seized more UN troops and brought the total of hostages to 90.
(SFC, 5/5/00, p.A18)
2000 May 4, In Sri Lanka the
government imposed censorship on the foreign media and gave wide powers
to the military as rebels poised to recapture Jaffna.
(SFC, 5/5/00, p.A18)
2000 May 5, President Clinton met
at the White House with Japan’s new prime minister, Yoshiro Mori.
(AP, 5/5/01)
2000 May 5, The Labor Department
reported the nation’s unemployment rate had hit a 30-year low of 3.9%
percent in April 2000, with blacks and Hispanics recording the lowest
jobless rates in history.
(SFC, 5/6/00, p.A1)(AP, 5/5/01)
2000 May 5, In Congo Ugandan and
Rwandan troops clashed at Kisangani and at least 10 civilians were
killed and 100 wounded.
(SFC, 5/6/00, p.C1)
2000 May 5, Reformers swept Iran’s
run-off elections, winning control of the legislature from
conservatives for the first time since 1979 Islamic revolution.
(AP, 5/5/01)
2000 May 5, Israel and Hezbollah
guerrillas in Lebanon agreed to a cease-fire.
(SFC, 5/6/00, p.C1)
2000 May 5, In The Philippines the
government and the MILF agreed to a 48-hour cease-fire on Mindanao.
(SFC, 5/6/00, p.A11)
2000 May 5, In Sierra Leone rebels
seized more UN troops and were reported to be holding 300 troops and
observers hostage. Gen. Vijay Kumar Jetley of India scrambled to
consolidate his UN troop positions.
(SFC, 5/6/00, p.A1)
2000 May 5, In Turkey the
parliament elected judge Ahmet Necdet Sezer as the next president.
(SFC, 5/6/00, p.C1)
2000 May 6, Fusaichi Pegasus won
the 126th Kentucky Derby. He was the first favorite to win the Kentucky
Derby since "Spectacular Bid" in 1979.
(SFEC, 5/7/00, p.D1)(AP, 5/6/01)
2000 May 6, The 1st geocaching
cache was found hidden outside Portland, Oregon, by Mike Teague. [see
May 3]
(WSJ, 3/19/02, p.A20)
2000 May 6, Jack Mazzan, who’d
spent 20 years on death row for the murder of a judge’s son, was
released on bail, three months after the Nevada Supreme Court reversed
his conviction. Before he could be tried again, Mazzan pleaded guilty
to killing Richard Minor Jr. and received a life sentence; Mazzan has
since sought parole, unsuccessfully.
(AP, 5/6/05)
2000 May 6, It was reported that
Jin Wenchao, a former soldier and head of a Chinese construction firm
involved in the Three Gorges dam project, had disappeared with over
$120 million.
(SFC, 5/6/00, p.A12)
2000 May 6, In Sierra Leone rebels
clashed with UN peacekeepers and advanced on Freetown. Rebel leader
Foday Sankoh halted the rebel advance.
(SFEC, 5/7/00, p.A1)(SFC, 5/8/00, p.A12)
2000 May 6, In Sudan Pres. Omar
el-Bashir dismissed Hassan Turabi as the secretary-general of the
ruling National Congress Party.
(SFC, 5/8/00, p.A13)
2000 May 7, A second fire was set
to contain an earlier blaze that was begun to clear brush on the
Bandelier National Monument in New Mexico; the second fire blew out of
control, destroying more than 200 homes and damaging part of the Los
Alamos National Laboratory before it was controlled.
(AP, 5/7/01)
2000 May 7, Douglas Fairbanks Jr.,
film actor, died at age 90.
(SFC, 5/8/00, p.A5)
2000 May 7, In the Philippines 13
soldiers and 3 rebels were killed in a clash on Basilan Island.
(SFC, 5/8/00, p.A13)
2000 May 7, In Russia Pres. Putin
was inaugurated. He named Mikhail Kasyanof as the prime minister and
pledged to restore the country to world-power status.
(SFC, 5/8/00, p.A1)
2000 May 7, Pres. Kagami announced
that Rwanda was prepared to quickly implement a phased withdrawal from
Congo.
(SFC, 5/8/00, p.A12)
2000 May 7, In Spain Jose Luis
Lopez de La Calle, a columnist for El Mundo, was shot and killed in
Andoain. The ETA was blamed.
(SFC, 5/8/00, p.A13)
2000 May 7, In Thailand thousands
of protestors besieged the annual meeting of the Asian Development
Bank. The 13 nations agreed to rescue each other’s currencies to fend
off economic crises.
(SFC, 5/8/00, p.A14)
2000 May 7, In Zimbabwe squatter
leader Chenjerai Hunzvi urged people attending a ruling party rally in
Glen Norah to seek out British passport holders and force them out of
the country. Allan Dunn was murdered at his farm by squatters.
(SFC, 5/8/00, p.A13)(WSJ, 6/8/00, p.a24)
2000 May 8, The San Francisco
Board of Supervisors voted to ban discrimination based on weight or
height.
(AP, 5/8/01)
2000 May 8, Scientists announced
that they had mapped chromosome 21 which is associated with Down
syndrome, epilepsy, Lou Gehrig’s disease and Alzheimer’s.
(SFC, 5/9/00, p.A1)
2000 May 8, In New Mexico a
controlled burn Bandolier National Monument near the Los Alamos
National Laboratory blew out of control and 500 people were forced to
evacuate the area.
(SFC, 5/9/00, p.A3)
2000 May 8, The remains of
Cardinal John O’Connor were entombed inside New York’s St. Patrick’s
Cathedral after a funeral Mass that drew thousands of mourners,
including President Clinton.
(AP, 5/8/01)
2000 May 8, In Congo the city of
Kisangani (formerly Stanleyville) was declared a neutral zone as Rwanda
and Uganda agreed to withdraw their troops from the area and allow UN
forces to take over.
(SFC, 5/9/00, p.A12)
2000 May 8, In Iran 2 more Iranian
Jews confessed to spying for Israel.
(WSJ, 5/9/00, p.A1)
2000 May 8, In Japan Hogen
Fukunaga, founder of the Hono Hana Sampogyo, cult was arrested on fraud
charges. Members were told that they would get cancer or die if their
feet were not inspected by Fukunaga.
(SFC, 5/9/00, p.A12)
2000 May 8, In the Philippines
investigators arrested a Manila bank employee, Reomel Ramones,
suspected in the creation of the "Love Bug" computer virus.
(SFC, 5/9/00, p.A1)
2000 May 8, In Puerto Rico the US
Navy resumed practice bombing on Vieques Island with dummy bombs.
(SFC, 5/9/00, p.A3)
2000 May 8, In Sierra Leone
bodyguards of Foday Sankoh fired into a crowd of pro-government
protestors in Freetown and killed 7 people. Sankoh later disappeared.
(SFC, 5/9/00, p.A1)(SFC, 5/10/00, p.A12)
2000 May 9, Senator John McCain
endorsed Texas Governor George W. Bush for president.
(SFC, 5/10/00, p.A1)
2000 May 9, Former four-term
Louisiana Governor Edwin Edwards was convicted of extortion schemes to
manipulate the licensing of riverboat casinos. Edwards was sentenced in
January, 2001, to ten years in prison and fined a quarter of a million
dollars.
(AP, 5/9/01)
2000 May 9, In Kentucky a fire at
the Wild Turkey Distillery caused an alcohol runoff into an 8-mile
stretch of the Kentucky River and a huge fish kill followed within days.
(SFC, 5/20/00, p.D8)
2000 May 9, It was reported that
10% of the world’s 608 primate species and subspecies on 3 continents
were critically imperiled.
(WSJ, 5/9/00, p.A1)
2000 May 9, In the Philippines
Reomel Ramones, suspect in the "Love Bug" computer virus case, was
released due to lack of evidence. His girlfriend, Irene de Guzman,
failed to turn herself in as promised.
(SFC, 5/10/00, p.A12)
2000 May 10, Pres. Clinton issued
an executive order to make drugs for AIDS less expensive in Africa.
(SFC, 5/11/00, p.A1)
2000 May 10, The fire at Los
Alamos, New Mexico, burned 30 homes and forced the evacuation of all
11,000 residents. 3,700 acres were scorched. The fire had been set to
contain an earlier blaze intended to clear brush.
(SFC, 5/11/00, p.A3)(WSJ, 5/11/00, p.A1)(AP, 5/10/01)
2000 May 10, Actor Craig Stevens,
who’d starred in the 1950’s TV series "Peter Gunn," died in Los Angeles
at age 81.
(AP, 5/10/01)
2000 May 10, In Chechnya rebels
claimed to have trapped a Russian unit and killed 30-34 soldiers with 4
rebels dead. Russian officials denied the claim.
(SFC, 5/11/00, p.A24)(WSJ, 5/11/00, p.A1)
2000 May 10, In Sierra Leone the
cease-fire ended as pro-government forces rushed to fight rebels moving
toward Freetown as refugees clogged the roads. The rebels were pushed
back 23 miles to Newton.
(SFC, 5/11/00, p.A18)(WSJ, 5/11/00, p.A1)
2000 May 10, In Sri Lanka Tamil
rebels attacked army posts on three fronts near Jaffna after the
government rejected an offer to allow 40,000 troops to withdraw.
(WSJ, 5/11/00, p.A1)
2000 May 11, Gov. Angus King
signed a bill that made Maine the 1st state to threaten the
pharmaceutical industry with price controls.
(SFC, 5/12/00, p.A9)
2000 May 11, Pope John Paul II
named Bishop Edward M. Egan of Bridgeport, Connecticut, the new head of
the New York archdiocese, succeeding the late Cardinal John O’Connor.
(AP, 5/11/01)
2000 May 11, At Los Alamos 25,000
people were evacuated and the fire destroyed at least 150-260 homes.
Flames scorched parts of the nuclear weapons facility.
(SFC, 5/12/00, p.A1)(WSJ, 5/12/00, p.A1)
2000 May 11, Chechen rebels
ambushed a Russian troop convoy west of Chechnya and killed 18 soldiers.
(SFC, 5/12/00, p.D3)
2000 May 11, In Japan the Aum
Shinri Kyo cult, renamed Aleph, agreed to pay $37.4 million in
compensation to victims of the 1995 gas attack in Tokyo.
(SFC, 5/12/00, p.D2)
2000 May 11, Mexico reached a
free-trade agreement with Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras.
(SFC, 5/12/00, p.D2)
2000 May 11, In Russia masked
police raided the offices of Media Most, the country’s largest private
media company and outspoken critic of Pres. Putin.
(WSJ, 5/12/00, p.A1)
2000 May 12, During visits to Ohio
and Minnesota, President Clinton called for open trade with China,
saying it would help the communist nation move closer to democracy.
(AP, 5/12/01)
2000 May 12, The Los Alamos fire
toll covered 30,000 acres with 191 housing structures burned.
(SFC, 5/13/00, p.A1)
2000 May 12, Adam Petty, 19, the
fourth-generation driver of NASCAR's most famous family, died in a
crash during practice for the Busch 200 at New Hampshire International
Speedway.
(AP, 5/12/01)
2000 May 12, In Argentina at least
23 police and 22 protestors were injured in the province of Salta where
thousands of jobless workers had blocked a federal highway for 10 days
to protest welfare cuts.
(SFC, 5/13/00, p.A9)
2000 May 12, In Chechnya Russian
forces staged two ambush attacks on rebels and claimed 41 killed.
(SFC, 5/13/00, p.A9)
2000 May 12, War erupted between
Eritrea and Ethiopia after Ethiopian troops left their trenches and
attacked Eritrean defenses. 600,000 troops were dug in along the
600-mile border.
(SFC, 5/13/00, p.A8)
2000 May 12, The Indonesian
government and separatist rebels negotiated a cease-fire in
Switzerland, the 1st in 25 years of fighting. The 3 month cease-fire
was set to begin Jun 2.
(SFC, 5/13/00, p.A8)
2000 May 12, Pakistan’s Supreme
Court ruled that the military takeover in October 1999 was justified
under the "doctrine of necessity." Pres. Musharraf had dismissed 13
senior judges and got the remaining judges to decree that his coup was
legal and necessary.
(www.ciaonet.org/olj/sa/sa_jan01kus01.html)(Econ,
7/8/06, Survey p.6)
2000 May 12, Igor Domnikov (42), a
reporter for Russia’s Novaya Gazeta, was found in a pool of blood at
his Moscow apartment building. Domnikov died July 16. In 2007 a court
in the city of Kazan sentenced four men to life in prison, and three
others to prison terms ranging from 18 to 25 years after finding them
guilty of killing 23 men, including Domnikov, and of eight kidnappings.
The convicted gang's leader Eduard Tagiryanov, who was sentenced to
life, told the court that Domnikov's killing had been ordered by former
deputy governor of western Lipetsk region Sergei Dorovsky for a series
of critical articles on his policies.
(www.cpj.org/protests/01ltrs/Russia08jan01pl.html)(WSJ, 12/8/06,
p.A12)(AP, 8/31/07)
2000 May 12, In Sri Lanka some
Tamil Tiger rebels rolled into Jaffna and forced government troops to
retreat.
(SFC, 5/13/00, p.A9)
2000 May 13, In the Netherlands a
fireworks depot exploded in Enschede and 20 people were killed with 589
injured. An estimated 100 tons of fireworks exploded and flattened some
400 houses.
(SFEC, 5/14/00, p.A12)(SFC, 5/15/00, p.A13)
2000 May 13, In Russia Pres. Putin
divided Russia’s 89 regions into 7 federal districts headed by a
Kremlin representative.
(WSJ, 5/15/00, p.A1)
2000 May 13, In Yugoslavia Bosko
Perosevic (43), head of the Vojvodina provincial government, was shot
and killed at a trade fair. Milivoje Gutovic (50), an off-duty security
guard, was arrested for the murder. Pres. Milosevic later blamed the
student organization Otpor and the opposition Serbian Renewal Movement
party.
(SFC, 5/14/00, p.C13)(SFEC, 5/15/00, p.A12)
2000 May 14, In Washington DC tens
of thousands took part in the Million Mom March for tougher gun laws.
(SFC, 5/15/00, p.A1)
2000 May 14, Ethiopia claimed a
major victory against Eritrea and claimed that 8 divisions had been
destroyed over the last 2 days. Eritrea said 25,000 Ethiopian soldiers
were killed or wounded.
(SFC, 5/15/00, p.A14)
2000 May 14, In Ethiopia elections
were held and 7 people were reported killed when government forces
threw a grenade into a crowd of protestors and fired into another in
the southern region of Hadiya.
(SFC, 5/15/00, p.A14)
2000 May 14, Thousands of
Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza demonstrated and violence
erupted with at least one person killed.
(SFC, 5/15/00, p.A1)
2000 May 14, In Japan former prime
minister Keizo Obuchi died at age 62.
(SFC, 5/15/00, p.A12)
2000 May 14, In Sierra Leone
rebels handed over 139 UN peacekeepers to Liberia while officials in
Freetown secured the release of 18 others. Meanwhile fighting continued
for control of Masiaka town 30 miles east of Freetown.
(SFC, 5/15/00, p.A12)
2000 May 14, In Zimbabwe elections
were set for June 24-25, but the opposition objected because voting
districts were not yet established and a May 29 deadline for candidates
was thought too soon.
(SFC, 5/17/00, p.A18)
2000 May 15, By a five-to-four
vote, the US Supreme Court threw out a key provision of the 1994
Violence Against Women Act, saying that rape victims could not sue
their attackers in federal court.
(AP, 5/15/01)
2000 May 15, United Press
International was sold to the parent company of The Washington Times.
(AP, 5/15/01)
2000 May 15, A consortium of
Western oil companies found a large oil reserve in the northern Caspian
Sea off the coast of Kazakhstan. The 480-sq. mile Kashagan field was
estimated at 8 to 50 billion barrels of oil. In 2007 it was reported
that the Kashagan field contained some 12-billion barrels of oil.
(SFC, 5/16/00, p.A14)(Econ, 11/17/07, p.43)
2000 May 15, Near Chiquinquira,
Columbia, Elvia Cortez (53) and Jairo Lopez, a bomb technician, were
killed by explosives placed on her neck by kidnappers who claimed to be
members of FARC and demanded $7,500.
(SFC, 5/16/00, p.A13)(SFC, 5/17/00, p.A14)
2000 May 15, In Ethiopia tens of
thousands marched in Addis Ababa in support of the renewed border war
with Eritrea.
(WSJ, 5/16/00, p.A1)
2000 May 15, In Greece the
government ordered the removal of religious affiliation from state
identity cards.
(SFC, 5/17/00, p.A18)
2000 May 15, Palestinian police
and Israeli soldiers fought gun battles across the West Bank and Gaza
Strip. 4 people were killed and hundreds were wounded.
(SFC, 5/16/00, p.A1)
2000 May 15, In Serbia some 20,000
opposition supporters rallied in Belgrade for free elections and the
resignation of Pres. Milosevic.
(WSJ, 5/16/00, p.A1)
2000 May 16, The Federal Reserve
raised its federal funds rate by one-half point, the biggest increase
in five years.
(SFC, 5/17/00, p.A1)(AP, 5/16/01)
2000 May 16, The New York
Democratic Party, meeting in Albany, nominated first lady Hillary
Rodham Clinton for the US Senate.
(AP, 5/16/01)
2000 May 16, In Oregon ballots
were counted in the nation’s first regular primary election conducted
by mail. Estimated response was 47%.
(SFC, 5/17/00, p.A8)
2000 May 16, Veteran White House
correspondent Helen Thomas resigned from United Press International, a
day after the wire service was sold to the parent firm of The
Washington Times.
(AP, 5/16/01)
2000 May 16, The 3M Co. announced
that it would stop making many Scotchguard stain repellent products.
The company found that the compound perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOA),
one of the ingredients, tended to persist in the environment and in the
bloodstream of people worldwide. The US market was left to DuPont.
(SFC, 5/17/00, p.A7)(SFC, 4/15/03, p.A5)
2000 May 16, In China some 5,000
retired or laid-off workers in Liaoyang clashed with police following
protests over non-payment of pensions and wages.
(SFC, 5/17/00, p.A18)
2000 May 16, In Congo an immediate
pullout from Kisangani of forces from Rwanda and Uganda was agreed to
in a bid to avert a wider war.
(WSJ, 5/17/00, p.A1)
2000 May 16, Ethiopian troops
penetrated into western Eritrea and attempted to cut off retreating
forces.
(WSJ, 5/17/00, p.A1)
2000 May 16, In Iran the Hammihan
daily, a major reformist newspaper, was shut down on 17 counts of press
law violations.
(SFC, 5/17/00, p.A18)
2000 May 16, Palestinian
demonstrators continued to fight Israeli forces for a 5th day but
Palestinian authorities appeared to contain most of the violence.
(SFC, 5/17/00, p.A14)
2000 May 17, Two former Ku Klux
Klansmen were arrested on murder charges in the 1963 church bombing in
Birmingham, Alabama, that killed four black girls. Thomas Blanton
Junior was convicted and sentenced to life in prison May 1, 2001. Bobby
Frank Cherry was indicted in 2000 and later convicted and sentenced to
life in prison.
(AP, 5/17/01)(AP, 5/17/05)
2000 May 17, In the Dominican
Republic Hipolito Mejia, the populist opposition leader, was on the
verge of winning the election with enough votes to avoid a runoff.
Danilo Medina of the incumbent Liberation party had 24.9% and Joaquin
Balaguer had 24.6% for the Social Christian Reformist Party.
(SFC, 5/18/00, p.C16)
2000 May 17, Ethiopian forces
pushed into Eritrean territory and the UN Security council approved an
embargo against both countries.
(SFC, 5/18/00, p.A11)
2000 May 17, In Iraq a US-British
air attack killed Omran Harbi Jawair (13), a shepherd boy, near Toq
al-Ghazalat. 4 other shepherds were injured. Some 300 Iraqis were
killed and 800 wounded over the last 18 months from US and British
bombing.
(SFC, 6/23/00, p.A18)
2000 May 17, In the Philippines
Islamic rebels asked for $2 million for the freedom of ailing German
hostage Renate Wallert. They also issued written conditions that
included the creation of an independent Islamic state and a global
probe into the plight of the Muslim minority.
(SFC, 5/18/00, p.A11)(WSJ, 5/18/00, p.A1)
2000 May 17, In Sierra Leone
pro-government troops captured rebel leader Foday Sankoh.
(SFC, 5/18/00, p.A10)
2000 May 17, In Taiwan a wave of
earthquakes left 3 people dead in Taichung County of the central
mountain region.
(SFC, 5/18/00, p.A14)
2000 May 17, In Yugoslavia Pres.
Milosevic ordered the seizure of independent radio and TV stations and
charging that they were advocating an uprising against the government.
Tens of thousands protested the crackdown.
(SFC, 5/18/00, p.A10)(WSJ, 5/18/00, p.A1)
2000 May 18, Sante Kimes and
Kenneth Kimes, mother-and-son grifters, were convicted in New York of
murdering Irene Silverman in a plot to steal her elegant townhouse
mansion. The body of the 82-year-old millionaire widow has never been
found.
(AP, 5/18/01)
2000 May 18, Former Ukraine prime
minister Pavel Lazarenko was indicted by a San Francisco grand jury for
money laundering and transportation of stolen property. In 2003 he put
up an $86 million bail and was confined to a SF apartment. In 2004 a
federal judge in SF dismissed nearly half the charges against
Lazarenko. On June 3, 2004, Lazarenko was convicted on 29 felony
charges. His money laundering was guessed to be in excess of $40
million.
(SFC, 6/2/00, p.A19)(SSFC, 10/19/03, p.A25)(SFC,
5/8/04, p.B3)(SFC, 6/4/04, A3)
2000 May 18, Another computer
virus, described as a complex polymorph, began to spread around the
world.
(SFC, 5/19/00, p.A1)
2000 May 18, Columbia/HCA
Healthcare agreed to pay $745 million to the US federal government to
resolve Medicare fraud allegations.
(WSJ, 5/19/00, p.A3)
2000 May 18, In the Dominican
Republic Hipolito Mejia was declared the winner in the presidential
race after his opponents withdrew.
(SFC, 5/19/00, p.D4)
2000 May 18, Ethiopian troops
captured Barentu in Eritrea and some 250-550 thousand refugees were
reported displaced by the fighting.
(SFC, 5/19/00, p.A18)
2000 May 18, In Fiji 7 men led by
George Speight, a Fijian businessman, staged a coup. They stormed the
parliament and seized prime minister Chaudhry and 7 cabinet ministers.
At the same time a march in Suva by supporters of the nationalist
Taukei Movement erupted into rioting. Pres. Ratu Sir Kamisese Mara
declared a state of emergency and took command of the military.
(SFC, 5/19/00, p.A20)(SFC, 5/20/00, p.A8)
2000 May 18, The World Bank
approved 2 loans for Iran totaling $232 million.
(SFC, 5/19/00, p.D2)
2000 May 18, In the Ivory Coast
Gen. Robert Guei dissolved the interim government.
(SFC, 5/19/00, p.D4)
2000 May 18, North and South Korea
agreed to an agenda for their 1st summit meeting. In 2003 it was
reported that South Korea's Hyundai business group drew $186 million
from a government-owned bank shortly before the summit and allegedly
spent the money on unspecified projects in the North. In 2006 it was
reported that Hyundai sent some $500 million to Kim Jong Il to secure
the June 13, 2000, summit with Pres. Kim Dae-jung.
(WSJ, 5/19/00, p.A1)(AP, 2/1/03)(Econ, 10/28/06,
p.49)(Econ, 8/29/09, p.76)
2000 May 18, In the Philippines
explosions hit in Jolo and Zamboanga and 5 people were killed with some
58 wounded.
(SFC, 5/19/00, p.A18)
2000 May 18, In East Timor
floodwaters from monsoon rains drowned at least 50 people in refugee
camps.
(SFC, 5/19/00, p.D4)
2000 May 18, The UN called for a
new land reform program in Zimbabwe as 2 more people were killed in
clashes.
(WSJ, 5/19/00, p.A1)
2000 May 19, NYC Mayor Giuliani
dropped out of the race for a US senate seat due to prostate cancer. He
was also beleaguered by a personal scandal.
(SFC, 5/20/00, p.A1)
2000 May 19, Scientists led by
Robert Gallo announced plans for an oral AIDS vaccine to be tested in
Uganda for less than $1 per dose. Trials might begin within 18 months.
(SFC, 5/20/00, p.A1)
2000 May 19, The shuttle Atlantis
lifted off with 7 astronauts on a mission to fix the Int’l. Space
Station.
(SFC, 5/20/00, p.A7)
2000 May 19, China and the
European Union reached a market-opening trade deal, clearing Beijing’s
largest remaining hurdle to joining the World Trade Organization (WTO).
(SFC, 5/20/00, p.A8)(AP, 5/19/01)
2000 May 19, Masked gunmen
launched a coup in Fiji that toppled Prime Minister Mahendra Chaudhry,
the country’s first ethnic Indian premier.
(AP, 5/19/01)
2000 May 19, In France an 11-day
strike by armored truck guards left the country short of cash.
(SFC, 5/20/00, p.A9)
2000 May 19, Nine countries banded
together to petition entry into NATO in 2002. They included Albania,
Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Macedonia, Romania, Slovakia and
Slovenia.
(SFC, 5/20/00, p.A9)
2000 May 19, In Paraguay Pres.
Luis Gonzalez Macchi announced that an attempted coup by soldiers and
police was stopped.
(SFC, 5/20/00, p.A8)
2000 May 20, "Red Bullet" won the
Preakness Stakes, outpacing Kentucky Derby winner "Fusaichi Pegasus."
(AP, 5/20/01)
2000 May 20, In North Carolina a
bridge collapsed at the Winston NASCAR stock car race in Concord. 107
people were treated and 53 were hospitalized.
(SFC, 5/22/00, p.A2)
2000 May 20, Jean-Pierre Rampal,
classical flutist, died in Paris at age 78.
(SFEC, 5/21/00, p.B11)
2000 May 20, Israeli warplanes
attacked Palestinian targets in Lebanon and destroyed 10 tanks. Israeli
soldiers clashed with Palestinian demonstrators for the 9th day in
Palestinian territories within Israel.
(SFEC, 5/21/00, p.A10)
2000 May 20, The 5 nuclear powers
of the UN Security Council agreed to eliminate their nuclear arsenals
over time as part of a new disarmament agenda approved by 187 countries.
(SFEC, 5/21/00, p.A8)
2000 May 21, "Dancer in the Dark"
won the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival; the Grand Prize went to
"Devils on the Doorstep."
(AP, 5/21/01)
2000 May 21, In Pennsylvania a
commuter plane, returning from Atlantic City, NJ, crashed in the Pocono
Mountains near Wilkes-Barre and all 19 people aboard were killed.
(SFC, 5/22/00, p.A1)(AP, 5/21/01)
2000 May 21, Mark Hughes (44), the
late founder of Herbalife International, a maker of nutritional
supplements, died. His son Alex (8) was the sole beneficiary of a $400
million trust.
(AP, 9/13/05)
2000 May 21, Sir John Gielgud
English actor, died in Aylesbury at age 96. In 2004 Richard Mangan
introduced and edited “Sir John Gielgud: A Life in Letters.”
(SFC, 5/23/00, p.A1)(AP, 5/21/01)(WSJ, 6/18/04,
p.W10)
2000 May 21, In Britain Dame
Barbara Cartland (98), author of 723 romance novels, died.
(SFC, 5/22/00, p.A14)
2000 May 21, In Fiji 10 junior MPs
were released after they signed resignation letters. Prime Minister
Chaudhry also agreed to sign a letter of resignation.
(SFEC, 5/21/00, p.B11)
2000 May 21, In Haiti elections
began for 7,625 positions. The Family Lavalas party of former Pres.
Aristide won 14 of 19 senate seats.
(SFC, 5/22/00, p.A11)(SFC, 5/27/00, p.A13)(SFC,
5/31/00, p.A13)
2000 May 21, In the Philippines
soldiers rescued 2 children held by hostages on Basilan. 7 hostages
still remained with Muslim rebels.
(SFC, 5/22/00, p.A11)
2000 May 21, In Sierra Leone
rebels freed 54 more UN workers as government forces advanced on rebel
positions.
(SFC, 5/22/00, p.A10)
2000 May 21, Syria’s former PM
Mahmoud el-Zoubi (al-Zubi) committed suicide rather than answer
questions on corruption.
(SFC, 6/15/00, p.A16)(Econ, 10/15/05, p.50)
2000 May 22, The Supreme Court
struck down, 5-to-4, a federal law that shielded children from
sex-oriented cable TV channels. The US Supreme Court invalidated part
of a 1996 law that relegated pornography on cable TV to late-night
hours.
(AP, 5/22/01)(WSJ, 3/24/04, p.A4)
2000 May 22, A committee of the
Arkansas Supreme Court recommended that President Clinton be disbarred
for giving false testimony about his relationship with Monica Lewinsky
in the Paula Jones sexual harassment case. Clinton later agreed to give
up his Arkansas law license for five years.
(AP, 5/22/01)
2000 May 22, In Israel the Supreme
Court ruled that women may read out load from the Torah and wear a
prayer shawl at the Western Wall. In 2003 the Supreme Court rejected
the rule.
(SFC, 5/23/00, p.A10)(SFC, 4/7/03, p.A12)
2000 May 22, Israel’s 22-year
occupation of southern Lebanon crumbled as Islamic guerrillas and
civilians laid claim to disputed lands.
(SFC, 5/23/00, p.A1)
2000 May 22, In Liberia 29
captured UN peacekeepers were freed while in Sierra Leone a halt dozen
men with UN uniforms and Zambian insignia were found dead.
(SFC, 5/23/00, p.A10)
2000 May 22, In Nigeria fresh
Christian-Muslim clashes left 3 people dead in Kaduna.
(WSJ, 5/23/00, p.A1)
2000 May 22, In Peru election
observers suspended monitoring preparations for elections. Alejandro
Toledo formally pulled out of the race after his demand for an election
postponement was rebuffed.
(WSJ, 5/23/00, p.A1)(SFC, 5/23/00, p.A12)
2000 May 22, Russia asserted that
Afghanistan’s Taliban had signed an agreement with Chechen rebels and
that it might launch air strikes against Afghanistan.
(SFC, 5/23/00, p.A10)
2000 May 22, Pres. Putin abolished
the chief agency for environmental protection and transferred its
powers to a ministry that hands out oil and gas leases.
(SFC, 5/23/00, p.A12)
2000 May 22, In Sri Lanka over 150
Tamil rebels were killed over 2 days of fighting for control in Jaffna.
Norwegian Deputy Foreign Minister met with Foreign Minister Lakshman
Kadirgamar in Colombo in an attempt to broker a peace.
(SFC, 5/23/00, p.A12)
2000 May 22, In Yugoslavia a
Serbian court convicted 143 ethnic Albanians from Djakovica, Kosovo, on
terrorism charges for attacks against Serbian police during 1999 NATO
bombings.
(SFC, 5/23/00, p.A14)
2000 May 23, Two weeks before a
US-Russia arms summit, presidential candidate George W. Bush said he
would slash America’s nuclear arsenal as part of a broad national
security review that would call for a missile-defense system.
(AP, 5/23/01)
2000 May 23, The US Nasdaq market
fell 6% to 3,164.55.
(SFC, 5/24/00, p.A1)
2000 May 23, Ethiopian forces
reclaimed Zalambessa, which was seized by Eritrea 2 years ago.
(WSJ, 5/24/00, p.A1)
2000 May 23, In France the 15-day
strike by armored truck security guards ended after they agreed to a
risk premium of $138 per month.
(SFC, 5/24/00, p.C4)
2000 May 23, The South Lebanon
Army abandoned its positions and Israel’s 22-year occupation of its
"security zone" ended.
(SFC, 5/24/00, p.A1)
2000 May 23, In Nigeria Christians
and Muslims clashed for a 2nd day in Kaduna and the death toll mounted
to 100.
(SFC, 5/24/00, p.C4)
2000 May 24, Isaiah Thomas, Bob
McAdoo and Tennessee women’s coach Pat Summitt were elected to the
Basketball Hall of Fame.
(AP, 5/24/01)
2000 May 24, The US House voted
237 to 197 to grant China permanent normal trade status.
(SFC, 5/25/00, p.A1)
2000 May 24, New US $5 and $10
bills were scheduled to be shipped to banks. The engravings of Lincoln
and Hamilton would be larger and off center.
(WSJ, 4/27/00, p.A1)
2000 May 24, The state of Maryland
dismissed its wiretapping case against Linda Tripp after judge
disallowed most of Monica Lewinsky’s testimony.
(AP, 5/24/01)
2000 May 24, Two gunmen killed 5
workers in a Wendy’s restaurant in the Queens borough of NYC. John
Taylor (36) and Craig Godineaux (31) were arrested 2 days later. Taylor
was sentenced to death in 2002.
(SFC, 5/26/00, p.A2)(SFC, 5/27/00, p.A2)(WSJ,
11/27/02, p.A1)
2000 May 24, In Chile an appeals
court ruled that Gen. Pinochet cannot claim immunity from prosecution.
(SFC, 5/25/00, p.A12)
2000 May 24, Eritrea decided to
withdraw from land it seized in 1998 following a 12-day offensive by
Ethiopia.
(SFC, 5/25/00, p.A12)
2000 May 24, Israeli troops pulled
out unilaterally from south Lebanon, ending 18 years of occupation.
(AP, 5/24/01)
2000 May 24, In Sierra Leone 2
journalists and 4 soldiers were killed by rebel soldiers some 60 miles
northeast of Freetown. Kurt Schork (53) of Reuters was one the
journalists killed.
(SFC, 5/25/00, p.C16)(SFEC, 5/28/00, p.C14)
2000 May 25, The US government
proposed a rating system telling consumers how prone vehicles are to
rolling over.
(AP, 5/25/01)
2000 May 25, Iranian state radio
announced that former President Hashemi Rafsanjani had resigned from
the incoming parliament, depriving hard-liners of a leading figure in
the power struggle between conservatives and reformists.
(AP, 5/25/01)
2000 May 25, In Russia Pres. Putin
unveiled a new plan to revive the economy that included a flat 13%
income tax.
(SFC, 5/26/00, p.A15)
2000 May 25, In Venezuela the high
court postponed general elections due to technical problems.
(SFC, 5/26/00, p.A14)
2000 May 25, Yugoslavia ordered
all universities to close a week early for the spring semester in fear
of a student uprising against the government crackdown on independent
media.
(SFC, 5/26/00, p.A17)
2000 May 26, The "Killer Resume"
computer virus began to circulate.
(SFC, 5/27/00, p.A1)
2000 May 26, In Florida, Nathaniel
Brazill, a 13-year-old student, shot and killed teacher Barry Grunow
(35) on the last day of classes at Lake Worth Community Middle School
after the teacher refused to let him talk with two girls in his
classroom. Brazill, a seventh grader, had been sent home for throwing
water balloons. In 2001 Brazill was tried as an adult, convicted of 2nd
degree murder and sentenced to 28 years in prison.
(SFC, 5/27/00, p.A3)(SFC, 5/10/01, p.C2)(SFC,
5/17/01, p.A3)(AP, 5/26/05)
2000 May 26, In Canada an outbreak
of E. coli in Walkerton, Ontario, left 5 people dead and made over
1,000 very ill. The local water system had become contaminated.
(SFC, 5/27/00, p.A13)
2000 May 26, Eritrea and Ethiopia
agreed to resume peace talks even as Ethiopia continue to push into
Eritrean territory.
(SFC, 5/27/00, p.A12)
2000 May 26, In Fiji Pres. Mara
fired the elected government and said he would probably grant immunity
to coup leaders.
(SFC, 5/27/00, p.A12)
2000 May 26, Haitian rights
activists denounced the arrests of dozens of opposition candidates
following the apparent victory of the Lavalas party. Most of the
arrested opposition candidates were soon released.
(SFC, 5/27/00, p.A13)(SFC, 5/31/00, p.A13)
2000 May 26, In Kyrgyzstan gunmen
opened fire on a visiting Chinese delegation and one official was
killed. The visitors had planned to investigate an arson attack at a
Chinese market.
(SFC, 5/27/00, p.A13)
2000 May 26, In Sierra Leone
rebels released another 180 UN hostages. Pres. Kabbah announced plans
to prosecute rebel leader Foday Sankoh. The government issued a
statement promising not to recruit children under 18.
(SFC, 5/27/00, p.A12,14)
2000 May 26, In Turkey a 6 volume
report by a parliamentary human rights panel was obtained by the
Associated Press. It documented cases of torture in police stations
across the country.
(SFC, 5/27/00, p.C1)
2000 May 27, A freight train
derailed near Eunice, La., and some 3,500 people were evacuated due to
the release of methyl chloride, acrylic acid, toluene diisocyanate, and
dichloropropane.
(SFEC, 5/28/00, p.A2)
2000 May 27, It was reported that
researchers in Canada successfully used transplanted pancreas cells to
help cure Type I diabetes.
(SFC, 5/27/00, p.3)
2000 May 27, The wreck of the
Carpathia, the steamer that rescued passengers of the Titanic in 1912,
was found in 500 feet of water, 120 miles south of Fastnet, Ireland.
(SFC, 9/22/00, p.A12)
2000 May 27, In Australia the
"Declaration of Reconciliation" was presented by prime Minister John
Howard to help heal the history of government racism toward the native
aborigines. Howard removed a phrase of apology in one passage and
substituted regret.
(SFC, 5/26/00, p.A14)
2000 May 27, In Northern Ireland
the Ulster Unionist Party’s ruling council voted to accept an IRA offer
to put its weapons beyond use.
(SFEC, 5/28/00, p.A1)
2000 May 28, Juan Montoya won the
84th Indianapolis 500, becoming the first rookie champion since Graham
Hill in 1966.
(AP, 5/28/01)
2000 May 28, In Eritrea Ethiopian
warplanes bombed a nearly completed power plant in Massawa as thousands
of refugees fled north.
(SFC, 5/29/00, p.A12)
2000 May 28, In Fiji some 200
rebel supporters stormed through Suva and one police officer was
killed. The Fiji Television building was rampaged and knocked off the
air. George Speight called for the resignation of Pres. Mara and for
the constitution to be scrapped.
(SFC, 5/29/00, p.A11)
2000 May 28, In Israel Pres.
Weizman announced that he would resign July 10 due to past financial
misdealings.
(SFC, 5/29/00, p.A10)
2000 May 28, In southern Lebanon 2
children were killed and 7 people were injured when their car drove
over a land mine. In Rmeiche a Hezbollah fighter killed a Christian
man. At Kafr Kila Israeli soldiers fired on Lebanese and Palestinian
civilians throwing stones across the border.
(SFC, 5/29/00, p.A10)
2000 May 28, In Peru Pres.
Fujimori claimed victory with 50.8% of the vote in elections tainted by
alleged fraud and irregularities. The runoff vote was boycotted by his
opponent.
(SFC, 5/29/00, p.A1)(AP, 5/28/01)
2000 May 28, In the Philippines
Muslim guerrillas staged 3 attacks and killed at least 15 people
including 12 civilians. Separately 26 people were arrested on suspicion
of involvement in the recent Manila bombings.
(SFC, 5/29/00, p.A14)
2000 May 28, In Poland the Freedom
Union Party voted to resign from the coalition government of Prime
Minister Jerzy Buzek.
(SFC, 5/29/00, p.A10)
2000 May 28, In Russia Pres. Putin
signed the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty. It would not be
effective until the US and other nations also approve.
(SFC, 5/29/00, p.A14)
2000 May 28, In Sierra Leone the
last 85 UN peacekeepers were released by rebels into Liberia and
returned to Freetown.
(SFC, 5/29/00, p.A1)
2000 May 28, In Kosovo,
Yugoslavia, an attacker shot and killed a 4-year-old Serb boy and 2 men
in Cermica.
(SFC, 5/30/00, p.A14)
2000 May 29, President Clinton
left Washington for a weeklong European tour.
(AP, 5/29/01)
2000 May 29, The US State Dept.
called the vote in Peru invalid.
(SFC, 5/30/00, p.A12)
2000 May 29, The space shuttle
Atlantis landed at Cape Canaveral in the early morning dark after a
successful overhaul of the Int’l. Space Station.
(SFC, 5/30/00, p.A3)
2000 May 29, In Eritrea Ethiopian
planes launched air raids on a military airstrip near Asmara as their
foreign ministers prepared for talks in Algeria.
(SFC, 5/30/00, p.A1)
2000 May 29, In Fiji Commodore
Frank Bainimarama seized power to restore order following the coup.
Pres. Mara stepped down from power and retired to Lau.
(SFC, 5/30/00, p.A12)(Econ, 4/24/04, p.88)
2000 May 29, In Indonesia former
pres. Suharto was put under house arrest pending a trial for corruption
and abuse of power. However, Suharto’s trial on corruption charges was
abandoned because of health concerns. In North Moluku at least 44
people were killed in an armed raid on a mostly Christian village on
Halmahera Island. The attackers were believed to be members of the
Lasker Jihad from a neighboring island.
(SFC, 5/30/00, p.A12)(SFC, 5/31/00, p.A11)(AP,
5/29/01)
2000 May 29-31, North Korean
leader Kim Jong Il visited China and met with Pres. Jiang Zemin and the
ruling Communist Party’s inner circle. He received promises of free
food and other material assistance.
(SFC, 6/2/00, p.A16)
2000 May 29, In Zimbabwe Thadeus
Rukuni, a candidate for the Movement for Democratic Change, was beaten
to death in Bikita.
(SFC, 6/2/00, p.A18)
2000 May 30, Last Monday of the
month. Memorial Day, which began in 1868 as Decoration Day, was set
aside to remember those who have died in the service of their country.
Celebrated on May 30 for the first 100 years, Memorial Day was
officially changed to the last Monday in May in 1968.
(HNPD, 5/31/99)
2000 May 30, Pres. Clinton
traveled to Portugal for talks with the EU and met with Pres. Jorge
Sampaio at the Belem Palace outside of Lisbon. Clinton opened a
week-long visit to Europe.
(SFC, 5/31/00, p.A10)(AP, 5/30/01)
2000 May 30, It was reported that
a US government study indicated a direct link between smoking and gum
disease.
(SFC, 5/30/00, p.A4)
2000 May 30, It was reported that
physicists had conducted experiments in which light beams appeared to
travel faster that the speed of light.
(SFC, 5/30/00, p.A2)
2000 May 30, Former Pennsylvania
Governor Robert P. Casey died in Scranton at age 68.
(AP, 5/30/01)
2000 May 30, Gordon "Tex" Beneke,
a singer and sax player with the Glenn Miller Orchestra, died in Costa
Mesa, California, at age 86.
(AP, 5/30/01)
2000 May 30, Three crew members of
the Maria Estela skiff, enroute from Guatemala to Belize, killed at
least 5 people and threw survivors overboard into the Gulf of Honduras.
3 of 10 passengers survived.
(SFC, 6/1/00, p.A15)
2000 May 30, Ethiopia and Eritrea
opened peace talks in Algeria.
(SFC, 5/31/00, p.A10)
2000 May 30, In Japan it was
reported that the Bandai Corp., a major toy maker, had begun offering
employees $10,000 for every baby after their 2nd child due to low
national birth rate.
(SFC, 5/30/00, p.A14)
2000 May 31, Pres. Clinton
proposed to EU allies in Portugal to share key technology on a US
missile defense program to calm fears of a nuclear arms race that would
leave Europe vulnerable.
(SFC, 6/1/00, p.A16)(AP, 5/31/01)
2000 May 31, Tito Puente, Latin
jazz bandleader, died in New York at age 77. He recorded some 119
albums from 1949 to 2000.
(SFC, 6/2/00, p.D2)
2000 May 31, In Chechnya Sergei
Zveryev, Russia’s 2nd highest official in the area, was killed by a
remote controlled bomb in Grozny. Grozny’s Mayor Supyan Makhchayev was
injured and his assistant was also killed.
(SFC, 6/1/00, p.A16)
2000 May 31, Ethiopia declared
victory over Eritrea as peace talks continued in Algeria.
(SFC, 6/1/00, p.A16)
2000 May 31, In Luxembourg Neji
Bejaoui, an unemployed Tunisian immigrant, took 37 children and 3
teachers hostage in Wasserbillig. Police posing as journalists shot and
wounded the hostage-taker after a 30-hour standoff. No one else was
injured.
(SFC, 6/1/00, p.A17)(SFC, 6/2/00, p.A14)(SFC,
6/3/00, p.A14)
2000 May 31, In Montenegro Goran
Zugic (39), security advisor to Pres. Milo Dzukanovic, was gunned down
as he arrived home.
(SFC, 6/2/00, p.A18)
2000 May, The Iranian embassy in
Vienna granted refuge to Holocaust denier Wolfgang Frohlich.
(www.adl.org/presrele/holocaustdenial_83/3756_83.asp)
2000 May, The Chiang Mai
Initiative (CMI) was set up to help East Asian cash strapped countries
defend their currencies in times of trouble. The initiative came in
response to the 1997 East Asian financial crises.
(WSJ, 5/5/05, p.A12)(http://tinyurl.com/athpv)
2000 May, Pres. Putin declared
direct rule over Chechnya from Moscow. Former Chechen cleric Akhmad
Kadyrov was appointed as administrative head.
(USAT, 9/2/04, p.13A)
2000 May, Russian security
arrested Ruslan Alikhadzhiyev, a Chechen parliamentary speaker in
Shali. In Sept. it was reported that Alikhadzhiyev was missing and had
reportedly been killed following torture.
(SFC, 9/6/00, p.A10)
2000 May, A new island formed by
the Kavachi volcano began to emerge from the Bismarck Sea, 22 miles
north of the Solomon Islands.
(SFC, 5/27/00, p.D10)
2000 May, In Venezuela Ford Motor
Co. began a recall of Ford Explorers due to problems with their
Firestone tires.
(SFC, 9/9/00, p.A10)
2000 Jun 1, In Atlanta 3 federal
appellate judges ruled that immigration officials acted reasonably in
denying Elian Gonzalez an asylum hearing.
(SFC, 6/2/00, p.A1)
2000 Jun 1, With about half an
hour to spare, Texas Governor George W. Bush blocked the scheduled
execution of convicted killer Ricky McGinn so that possibly exculpatory
DNA evidence could be reviewed. The DNA tests failed to establish
McGinn’s innocence, and he was put to death by injection the following
September.
(AP, 6/1/01)
2000 Jun 1, Rick Wagoner, the
president of General Motors, was named CEO of GM.
(WSJ, 3/30/09, p.A5)
2000 Jun 1, The organophosphate
pesticide called chlorpyrifos, sold under names including Dursban, was
reported to pose a risk to children. The EPA announced a ban on its use
for most applications on June 8.
(WSJ, 6/1/00, p.A1)(SFC, 6/9/00, p.A1)
2000 Jun 1, At Los Alamos hard
drives with classified nuclear secrets were discovered missing. They
were found June 16 behind a photocopier.
(WSJ, 6/13/00, p.A1)(SFC, 6/17/00, p.A1)
2000 Jun 1, In Germany the Expo
2000 opened in Hanover and ran to Oct 31.
(WSJ, 6/29/00, p.A24)
2000 Jun 1, Stores across Japan
emptied beer vending machines to comply with a voluntary ban on beer
vending to help reduce alcoholism.
(SFC, 6/2/00, p.B11)
2000 Jun 1, In Kosovo Albanians
killed a woman and wounded 3 men when they opened fire on a group of
Serbs in the US zone.
(WSJ, 6/2/00, p.A1)
2000 Jun 1, In Zimbabwe Pres.
Mugabe announced that the state would begin seizing 804 mostly
white-owned farms and resettle them with landless blacks.
(SFC, 6/3/00, p.A10)
2000 Jun 2, President Clinton,
visiting Germany, was honored with the prestigious International
Charlemagne Prize at Aachen Cathedral.
(AP, 6/2/01)
2000 Jun 2, In Olathe, Kansas,
John Edward Robinson was arrested on sexual assault charges. 2 female
bodies were found on his property in La Cygne, Kansas, the next day and
3 more 2 days later in 55-gallon drums in a storage locker in Missouri.
3 of the women were identified as Beverly Bonner (49), who disappeared
in 1994, Suzette Marie Trouten (28), and Izabela Lewicka (22). Another
6 missing women were linked to Robinson. In July Robinson was charged
in connection with the death of Lisa Stasi, who disappeared in 1985. In
2003 Robinson pleaded guilty to another 5 murders in Missouri.
(SFC, 6/7/00, p.A10)(SFC, 6/16/00, p.A9)(SFC,
7/29/00, p.A7)(ST, 10/17/03, p.A7)
2000 Jun 2, In Kashmir an
explosive device killed at least 11 people in Gundqasim during Shiite
Muslim religious services.
(SFC, 6/3/00, p.A12)
2000 Jun 2, In Kosovo 2 Serb
villagers were killed when their vehicle drove over a land mine near
Pristina. A mother and her 2 children were injured.
(SFC, 6/3/00, p.A12)
2000 Jun 2, In Peru a truck
leaving the Yanacocha gold mine leaked 330 pounds of liquid mercury.
Local residents soon suffered mercury poisoning. A legal suit against
Denver-based Newmont Mining moved forward in 2005.
(SFC, 3/14/05, p.A1)
2000 Jun 2, In the Philippines
over 30 Moro rebels were killed along with one government soldier in
North Cotabato province.
(SFC, 6/3/00, p.A12)
2000 Jun 2, In Turkey
delegates in Istanbul from over 150 nations concluded the latest World
Radiocommunication Conference. They agreed to reserve 3 blocks of
airwaves for advanced services such as wireless Internet access.
(SFC, 6/3/00, p.B1)
2000 Jun 3, Pres. Clinton met with
Russia’s Pres. Putin in Moscow and began discussions on trade, missile
defense and arms control.
(SFEC, 6/4/00, p.A1)(AP, 6/3/01)
2000 Jun 3, William Simon, head of
the US Treasury Dept. from 1974-1977, died at age 72. His published
work included "A Time for Truth" and "A Time for Action." Simon left
Wall Street as a bond trader to serve under Nixon as Deputy Sec. of the
Treasury in 1973. From 1977-1980 he served as treasurer of the US
Olympic Committee.
(SFEC, 6/4/00, p.C15)(WSJ, 6/7/00, p.A26)
2000 Jun 4, The play "Copenhagen"
by Michael Frayn won the best play Tony at the 54th annual Tony Awards
in Manhattan. The dance-play "Contact" won for best new musical. "Kiss
Me, Kate" won for best musical revival.
(SFC, 6/5/00, p.D1)(AP, 6/4/01)
2000 Jun 4, Pres. Clinton and
Pres. Putin agreed to each dispose 34 metric tons of weapons-grade
plutonium and to establish a military center in Moscow for US and
Russian officers to share early warning data on missile and space
launches. Clinton then answered questions from the public at the Ekho
Moskvy radio station.
(SFC, 6/5/00, p.A1,8)
2000 Jun 4, In NYC 150 people
posed face-down flat nude beneath the Williamsburg Bridge for a photo
shoot by Spencer Tunick.
(SFC, 6/5/00, p.A7)
2000 Jun 4, NASA directed the $670
million, 17-ton, crippled Compton Gamma Ray Observatory into a suicide
plunge into the Pacific Ocean in a controlled re-entry to avoid debris
over populated areas.
(SFC, 6/3/00,
p.A6)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compton_Gamma_Ray_Observatory)
2000 Jun 4, It was reported that
IBM planned to build the "Blue Gene" computer over the next five years
to model the way human proteins fold into shapes that give them unique
biological properties.
(SFEC, 6/4/00, p.A12)
2000 Jun 4, A 3-day meeting on
trade of the 34-nation OAS, Organization of American States, began in
Windsor, Canada. Police arrested 41 protesters.
(SFEC, 6/4/00, p.A20)(SFC, 6/5/00, p.A9)
2000 Jun 4, In Indonesia a 7.3
earthquake hit Sumatra and over 100 people were killed with relentless
aftershocks.
(SFC, 6/5/00, p.A8)(SFC, 6/6/00, p.A13)
2000 Jun 4, In West Papua
separatists made a declaration of independence from Indonesia. Thaha
Alhamid read the declaration before thousands gathered in Jayapura. 500
West Papuans had gathered for a "congress" that resulted in the
declaration.
(SFC, 6/5/00, p.A8)(SFC, 7/7/00, p.A12)
2000 Jun 4, In Pakistan a new
government tax caused protests and strikes. In Peshawar police broke up
a rally with tear gas and batons. Small traders refused to open their
shops and transport workers joined the strikes.
(SFEC, 6/11/00, p.T10)
2000 Jun 4, In the Solomon Islands
insurgents of the Malaita Eagle Force militia took Prime Minister
Bartholomew Ulufa’alua hostage in Honiara. The Malaita Force was
fighting the Isatabu force, which was trying to drive thousands of
migrants from Malaita off of Guadalcanal.
(SFC, 6/5/00, p.A9)
2000 Jun 5, Pres. Clinton met with
Pres. Kuchma in Ukraine and Kuchma announced the closure of the
Chernobyl nuclear power plant by Dec 15. Clinton pledged $80 million to
help pay the $750 million cost to stabilize the sarcophagus of the
ruined reactor.
(SFC, 6/6/00, p.A1)
2000 Jun 5, Baltimore Ravens
linebacker Ray Lewis pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor count under an
agreement that dropped murder charges in the stabbing deaths of two men
outside a Super Bowl party in Atlanta. Lewis was sentenced to a year of
probation.
(AP, 6/5/01)
2000 Jun 5, Computer rebels
planned to launch a data haven, an independent colony in cyberspace,
based on the island of Sealand, a WW II military fortress 6 miles off
the coast of England.
(SFEC, 6/4/00, p.A4)
2000 Jun 5, Eritrea claimed that
an Ethiopian attack near Assab was foiled and that 3,755 Ethiopian
troops were "killed, wounded, or taken prisoner."
(SFC, 6/6/00, p.A10)
2000 Jun 5, In Ethiopia 14
children were trampled to death at the Mega Amphitheater in Addis Ababa
when a crowd pushed to get out of the rain.
(SFC, 6/6/00, p.A16)
2000 Jun 5, Ethiopia accused
Eritrea of rounding up 7,529 Ethiopian citizens and putting them under
armed guard for deportation.
(SFC, 6/6/00, p.A10)
2000 Jun 5, Russia’s Pres. Putin
traveled to Italy and met with Prime Minister Giuliano Amato. Putin
then met with Pope John Paul II.
(SFC, 6/6/00, p.A13)
2000 Jun 5, In Sri Lanka the
government claimed that it had killed some 1,000 rebels in recent days.
The censorship over foreign media was lifted.
(WSJ, 6/6/00, p.A1)
2000 Jun 6, In New Orleans the
National D-Day Museum opened on the 56th anniversary of the Allied
landing to liberate Europe from Nazi terror.
(SFC, 6/7/00, p.A3)
2000 Jun 6, Unilever agreed to buy
Bestfoods for $20.3 billion in a deal creating the world’s biggest food
company.
(AP, 6/6/01)
2000 Jun 6, The World Bank
approved a $3.7 billion oil well and pipeline project led by Exxon and
Mobile to link oil fields in Chad across 663 miles to the Atlantic
coast of Cameroon.
(SFC, 6/7/00, p.A12)
2000 Jun 7, US District Judge
Thomas Penfield Jackson ordered the breakup of Microsoft Corporation,
declaring the software giant should be split into two because it had
"proved untrustworthy in the past." Microsoft vowed to appeal. An
appeals court later threw out the breakup order; the Justice
Department, under the Bush administration, said it would no longer seek
a breakup of Microsoft.
(SFC, 6/8/00, p.A1)(AP, 6/7/05)
2000 Jun 7, In Burundi Pres.
Pierre Buyoya made concessions to end the 7-year war. He agreed to
integrate the Tutsi-led army and to close down the regroupment camps by
July 31.
(SFC, 6/8/00, p.C3)
2000 Jun 7, In Chechnya a suicide
attack killed 2 Russian policemen and wounded 5 in Alkhan-Yurt.
(WSJ, 6/8/00, p.A1)
2000 Jun 7, In Congo troops from
Uganda and Rwanda fought an artillery duel in Kisangani that set the
city’s cathedral on fire.
(WSJ, 6/8/00, p.A1)
2000 Jun 7, In the Solomon Islands
Malaita rebels released Prime Minister Bartholomew Ulufa’alu from house
arrest and dropped demands that he resign.
(SFC, 6/8/00, p.C3)
2000 Jun 7, In Sri Lanka C.V.
Gooneratne, Minister for Industrial Development, was killed along with
20 other people on War Heroes Day by a suicide bomber near Colombo.
Gooneratne’s wife died the next day and the toll climbed to 23.
(SFC, 6/8/00, p.A12)(SFC, 6/9/00, p.A18)
2000 Jun 8, Jeff MacNally (52),
Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist, died in Baltimore, Maryland.
(AP, 6/8/01)
2000 Jun 8, In Greece Brigadier
Stephen Saunders (53), a British diplomat, was assassinated in Athens.
The November 17 terrorist group claimed responsibility, saying it
killed Saunders because of his role in NATO airstrikes against
Yugoslavia. In 2002 Iraklis Kostaris was charged with participating in
the murder and Vassilis Xiros confessed to the assassination.
(SFC, 6/9/00, p.A14)(AP, 6/8/01)(SFC, 7/22/02, p.A3)
2000 Jun 8, In Nigeria rioting in
Lagos and a nationwide strike began after a 50% increase in fuel prices.
(SFC, 6/9/00, p.A15)
2000 Jun 8, In Russia Pres. Putin
took personal control over Chechnya. A provisional government was
planned headed by a Kremlin-appointed official.
(SFC, 6/9/00, p.A14)
2000 Jun 8, The UN voted
(Resolution 1302) to extend Iraq’s oil for food program. Over the next
2 years the extensions were repeated every 180 days.
(SFC, 9/24/02, p.A12)
2000 Jun 9, The Justice Department
released a report saying an 18-month investigation had found no
credible evidence that conspirators aided or framed James Earl Ray in
the 1968 assassination of civil rights leader Martin Luther King Junior.
(AP, 6/9/01)
2000 Jun 9, The FBI began
discussions on the "Serbian Badman Trojan" computer virus disguised as
a movie clip and embedded in some 2000 commercial and home computers.
(SFC, 6/9/00, p.A7)
2000 Jun 9, Painter Jacob Lawrence
(b.1917) died in Seattle at age 82. His family moved to Harlem in 1930.
(AP, 6/9/01)(WSJ, 8/3/01, p.W8)
2000 Jun 9, George Segal (b.1924),
sculptor and painter, died at his home in south Brunswick, N.J., at age
75.
(SFC, 6/10/00, p.A23)
2000 Jun 9, In Argentina millions
of workers went on strike to protest the economic austerity policies of
Pres. Fernando de la Rua and the 14% unemployment rate.
(SFC, 6/10/00, p.A14)
2000 Jun 9, In Brazil legal rights
for same-sex couples were extended to include inheritance, pension and
social security benefits.
(SFC, 6/10/00, p.A13)
2000 Jun 9, At least 74 people
were reported killed in Sichuan, China, from floods and mudslides
following torrential rain and hail.
(SFC, 6/10/00, p.A24)
2000 Jun 9, In Congo the 22-month
civil war averaged some 2,600 deaths every day. The total was estimated
at 1.7 million dead.
(SFC, 6/9/00, p.A20)
2000 Jun 9, It was reported that
some 5 dozen intravenous drug users in Scotland, Ireland and England
had died since April from a mysterious illness. Heroin was later found
to be contaminated with Clostridium novyi Type A.
(SFC, 6/9/00, p.D3)(SFC, 6/15/00, p.A19)(WSJ,
6/16/00, p.A1)
2000 Jun 9, Eritrea accepted an
Organization of African Unity plan to end the conflict with Ethiopia.
(SFC, 6/10/00, p.A12)
2000 Jun 10, In Dallas the New
Jersey Devils won their second Stanley Cup in six seasons with a 2-to-1
victory in double overtime over the Dallas Stars in Game Six of the
finals.
(WSJ, 6/12/00, p.A1)(AP, 6/10/01)
2000 Jun 10, "Commendable" won the
Belmont Stakes.
(AP, 6/10/01)
2000 Jun 10, Frenchwoman Mary
Pierce beat Conchita Martinez 6-2, 7-5 to win the French Open women’s
singles title.
(AP, 6/10/01)
2000 Jun 10, A UN Women’s
Conference in NYC approved a new plan to advance the 1995 Beijing
Agenda.
(SFEC, 6/11/00, p.A27)
2000 Jun 10, In London the new $25
million Millennium Bridge, a 1,090 foot pedestrian suspension bridge
over the Thames, opened. It soon closed due to a problem of excessive
swaying. It was designed by Sir Norman Foster, sculptor Anthony Caro
and the Arup engineering company. It reopened in 2002.
(SFEC, 6/11/00, p.A17)(SFC, 6/13/00, p.A11)(SSFC,
3/31/02, p.C2)
2000 Jun 10, Ethiopian troops
stormed Eritrean positions on all 3 fronts of the disputed border in a
break of the cease-fire. The Ethiopian government accepted cease-fire
terms brokered in Algeria but asked for a "brief delay."
(SFEC, 6/11/00, p.A31)
2000 Jun 10, In Germany the 3-day
Rock of the Ring music festival in Neurburg drew some 100,000 people to
see 90 bands.
(SFEC, 6/11/00, p.A31)
2000 Jun 10, In Syria Pres. Hafez
Assad (69), the "Lion of Damascus," died. His son Bashar Assad (34) was
expected to be named his successor. Assad had given Alawites powerful
positions in the army and Baath party while the Sunnis were given a
free rein in trade and industry.
(SFEC, 6/11/00, p.A1)(SFC, 6/15/00, p.A16)
2000 Jun 11, In NYC’s Central Park
young male gangs attacked some 47 women with harassment, molestation
and robbery during the annual Puerto Rico Day parade. Some of the
assaults were captured on home video. 16 of 60 suspects were arrested
over the next week. Some police officers also faced discipline for lack
of response.
(SFC, 6/17/00, p.A6)(SFC, 6/19/00, p.A2)(AP, 6/11/01)
2000 Jun 11, Gustavo Kuerten of
Brazil won his second French Open title, beating Magnus Norman 6-2,
6-3, 2-6, 7-6 (6).
(AP, 6/11/01)
2000 Jun 11, In Congo Rwandan
troops drove Ugandan forces from Kisangani to end a week of
indiscriminate shelling.
(SFC, 6/12/00, p.A13)
2000 Jun 11, In Dessau, Germany,
Alberto Adriano (39), a 20-year German resident from Mozambique, was
kicked to death by 3 men. Enrico Hilprecht (24) was later convicted and
sentenced to life in prison. Two 16-year-old accomplices were sentenced
to 9 years each.
(SFC, 8/31/00, p.A1)
2000 Jun 11, A former hard-liner
who has recently favored democratic reforms was elected as the speaker
of Iran's first reformist-dominated parliament in more than 20 years.
(AP, 6/11/03)
2000 Jun 11, In Montenegro voters
kept the pro-West government in the capital, Podgorica, but elected
allies of Slobodan Milosevic in Herceg Novi.
(WSJ, 6/12/00, p.A1)(SFC, 6/13/00, p.A11)
2000 Jun 11, A day after the death
of Syrian President Hafez Assad, his son, Bashar, was unanimously
nominated by Syria’s ruling Baath Party to succeed his father.
(AP, 6/11/01)
2000 Jun 12, US Supreme Court
Justices in a unanimous ruling curbed patient’s rights and ruled that
HMOs can’t be sued over doctor’s incentives to cut treatment costs.
(WSJ, 6/13/00, p.A1)(AP, 6/12/01)
2000 Jun 12, The US Justice Dept.
agreed to compensate the Nixon estate $18 million for the tapes and
presidential papers seized in 1974.
(SFC, 6/13/00, p.A3)
2000 Jun 12, In St. Louis, Earl
Murray, a drug dealer, and his friend Ronald Beasley were killed by
police during an attempted drug arrest. The two men were unarmed and
police fired 20 bullets into their car.
(SFC, 6/28/00, p.A11)
2000 Jun 12, Akhmad Kadyrov, a
Muslim cleric, was appointed by Pres. Putin to head the administration
in Chechnya.
(SFC, 6/13/00, p.A10)
2000 Jun 12, In Chile the worst
rains in 20 years began and caused flooding in Santiago and a large
portion of the central and southern parts of the country.
(SFC, 6/15/00, p.C4)
2000 Jun 12, In Indonesia at least
8 people were killed in Muslim-Christian fighting in Maluku.
(SFC, 6/13/00, p.A11)
2000 Jun 12, Saudi Arabia and
Yemen signed an agreement to end decades of border disputes.
(SFC, 6/13/00, p.A11)
2000 Jun 12, Rifaat Assad, the
brother of Hafez Assad, claimed himself the rightful heir of power in
Syria. Syrian security forces were ordered to arrest Rifaat if he
entered the country.
(SFC, 6/13/00, p.A10)
2000 Jun 13, The MacArthur
Foundation awarded "genius grants" to 25 people.
(WSJ, 6/14/00, p.A1)
2000 Jun 13, In Argentina Pres.
Fernando de la Rua apologized for his country’s role in providing
sanctuary to Nazis after WW II.
(SFC, 6/14/00, p.A13)
2000 Jun 13, In Chile the military
agreed to search for the remains of the 1,200 dissidents who
disappeared between 1973-1990 under Gen. Pinochet.
(SFC, 6/14/00, p.A16)
2000 Jun 13, In Italy the
government pardoned Mehmet Ali Agca (42), the man who wounded Pope John
Paul II in 1981. Agca was flown to Turkey to finish serving 8 years for
the 1979 murder of a newspaper editor.
(SFC, 6/14/00, p.A12)
2000 Jun 13, Pres. Kim Jong Il of
North Korea met with Pres. Kim Dae Jung of South Korea in the 1st
meeting ever between leaders of the 2 countries. They agreed to try to
satisfy their people’s desire for reconciliation. Border loudspeakers
that blasted insults at South Korea were shut off.
(SFC, 6/13/00, p.A10)(SFC, 6/14/00, p.A1)(SFC,
6/17/00, p.A9)
2000 Jun 13, In Nigeria a national
strike ended after the government agreed to a substantial reduction in
the 50% increase to fuel prices.
(SFC, 6/14/00, p.A13)
2000 Jun 13, In Russia Vladimir
Gusinsky, head of Media-Most, was arrested on charges of swindling and
grand larceny.
(SFC, 6/14/00, p.A12)(WSJ, 6/14/00, p.A1)
2000 Jun 14, The Southern Baptist
Convention declared that women should no longer serve as pastors.
(AP, 6/14/01)
2000 Jun 14, Federal prosecutors
in Manhattan charged a record 120 people that included reputed mafia
members with securities fraud in a yearlong probe code-named "Uptick."
(SFC, 6/15/00, p.A1)
2000 Jun 14, In Florida George
Trofimoff (73) was arrested for spying for the Soviet KGB from
1969-1995. He had served as chief of an Army unit responsible for
interviewing Warsaw pact defectors.
(SFC, 6/15/00, p.A3)
2000 Jun 14, US federal marine
specialists reported that the US Navy induced underwater noise caused
the death of at least a dozen whales in the Bahamas in March.
Hemorrhages were found around the animals’ ears.
(SFC, 6/15/00, p.a7)
2000 Jun 14, In San Francisco
temperatures hit 103 degrees, matching the record high set on July
17,1988. Eugene Kesselman (27) disappeared after he left his Sunset
home to buy a car. His body was found 9 days later in the trunk of his
car in the Excelsior district. In Sept. police arrested Shonte Pratt
(25) and Brandon Ry (20) for suspicion of murder and armed robbery.
(SFC, 9/6/00, p.A23)(SFC, 12/25/08, p.A14)
2000 Jun 14, Chancellor Gerhard
Schroeder agreed with heads of the nuclear power industry to end the
use of atomic energy. With an expected life span of 32 years closure of
all 17 plants would occur by 2020. In 2005 the timetable was confirmed.
In 2007 an expansion of the timetable for closure was up for
consideration.
(SFC, 6/15/00, p.A16)(Econ, 2/10/07, p.50)
2000 Jun 14, Pres. Kim Jong Il of
North Korea and Pres. Kim Dae Jung of South Korea pledged concrete
steps toward unifying their divided peninsula and signed an agreement
to allow visits for some families separated for the last five decades.
(SFC, 6/15/00, p.A1)(AP, 6/14/01)
2000 Jun 14, In Sri Lanka a
suicide bomber killed himself and 2 civilians when he rammed a bus with
25 sick air force soldiers. None of the troops were hurt.
(SFC, 6/15/00, p.A16)
2000 Jun 15, Denis Savard, Joe
Mullen and Walter L. Bush Junior were selected to the Hockey Hall of
Fame.
(AP, 6/15/01)
2000 Jun 15, Al Gore named
Commerce Secretary William Daley to take over his presidential
campaign, replacing Tony Coelho, who had abruptly resigned, citing
health problems.
(AP, 6/15/01)
2000 Jun 15, US federal agents
made over 170 arrests in the breakup of a Mexican heroin ring based in
Nayarit state. The US-based ringleader, Oscar Hernandez (35), and his
wife, Maria Lopez (39), were arrested in Panorama City. Operation Tar
Pit began last October in San Diego.
(SFC, 6/16/00, p.A5)
2000 Jun 15, In Canada
demonstrators in Toronto protested cuts in social programs and clashed
with police.
(SFC, 6/16/00, p.A19)
2000 Jun 15, Ethiopia accepted a
preliminary cease-fire plan and together with Eritrea planned to sign
documents in Algeria.
(SFC, 6/16/00, p.A19)
2000 Jun 15, In Kosovo 2 Serbs
were killed and another wounded when their vehicle ran over a land
mine. NATO peacekeepers raided an ethnic Albanian stronghold in Drenica
and seized a large quantity of weapons and ammunition. Halil Dreshaj, a
member of the Democratic League of Kosovo, was shot and killed by
masked men wearing uniforms of the disbanded KLA.
(SFC, 6/15/00, p.A19)(SFC, 6/17/00, p.A10)
2000 Jun 16, The US Senate passed
a bill to allow e-signatures for online contracts. Pres. Clinton said
he would sign the bill. The E-Sign Act of 2000 defined signature as any
sound, symbol or process that is logically associated with a document,
a person and an intent.
(SFC, 6/17/00, p.A3)(Econ, 6/10/06, p.62)
2000 Jun 16, Federal regulators
approved the merger of Bell Atlantic and GTE Corporation, creating the
nation’s largest local phone company.
(AP, 6/16/01)
2000 Jun 16, Inacom Corp., once
the world’s largest computer dealer, sent most of its 5,100 employees
an e-mail directing them to a toll-free phone number with a recorded
message that fired them.
(WSJ, 11/8/00, p.A1)
2000 Jun 16, Scientists reported
the discovery the sugar molecule, glucoaldehyde, near the center of the
Milky Way at Sagittarius North, 26,000 light-years away.
(SFC, 6/17/00, p.A2)
2000 Jun 16, Raynard Johnson, 17,
was found hanging from a tree in Marion County, Mississippi;
investigators later ruled it a suicide, not a lynching.
(AP, 6/16/01)
2000 Jun 16, In Chechnya Umar
Idrisov, a Muslim leader, was shot and killed by attackers following a
sermon for peace. 2 Chechen police officers working for Russian
authorities were found beheaded.
(SFC, 6/17/00, p.A10)
2000 Jun 16, In Ethiopia the
election board announced that the 4-party Ethiopian People’s
Revolutionary Democratic Front won a landslide victory in 4 key regions
in the may 14 elections.
(SFC, 6/17/00, p.A10)
2000 Jun 16, The Israeli pullout
from Lebanon was finished according to UN Sec.-Gen. Kofi Annan.
Lebanese Prime Minister Salim Hoss claimed that some Israeli outposts
were still present inside their border.
(SFC, 6/17/00, p.A8)(SFEC, 6/18/00, p.A9)
2000 Jun 16, Empress dowager
Nagako, widow of Japan’s Emperor Hirohito, died in Tokyo at age 97.
(SFC, 6/17/00, p.A20)(AP, 6/16/01)
2000 Jun 16, In Mexico American
expatriates Norris (67) and Nancy (62) Price were found shot to death
in Ajijic near Guadalajara. A land dispute was suspected.
(SFC, 6/17/00, p.A10)
2000 Jun 16, Serb opposition
leader Vuk Draskovic was slightly wounded in an assassination attempt
at his vacation home in Budva, Montenegro. Montenegro authorities
reported the arrest of the attackers.
(SFC, 6/16/00, p.A19)(SFC, 6/17/00, p.A8)
2000 Jun 16, In Russia Pres. Putin
proposed a Moscow-based early warning center for missile launches
around the world.
(SFC, 6/17/00, p.A8)
2000 Jun 16, In Russia media mogul
Vladimir Gusinsky was released from jail but swindling and theft
charges were maintained.
(SFC, 6/17/00, p.A8)
2000 Jun 16, South Korea turned
off its anti-Communist broadcasts over border speakers at North Korea.
(SFC, 6/17/00, p.A9)
2000 Jun 17, In Belgium English
and German soccer fans clashed in Charleroi prior to a game in the
European Soccer Championship.
(SFEC, 6/18/00, p.A14)
2000 Jun 17, In Cuba, more than
300,000 people turned out to protest the continued stay of Elian
Gonzalez in the United States; it was the largest such demonstration
since the previous December, when Cuba launched a national campaign of
mass gatherings demanding the boy’s return.
(AP, 6/17/01)
2000 Jun 17, In India upper-class
militia stormed Miapur village in Bihar state and massacred 34 women,
children and old men. The attack was in retribution for the murder of
12 upper-caste farmers five days earlier, which in turn was preceded by
the murder of 5 low-caste Yadavs. Police later arrested 11
landlord-paid militiamen.
(SFEC, 6/18/00, p.A12)(WSJ, 6/19/00, p.A1)
2000 Jun 17, In Iran thousands of
dead fish were reported to be spread over 5,400 acres of the dried up
Arjang Lagoon, near the city of Shiraz, due to a 2-year drought.
(SFC, 6/17/00, p.D8)
2000 Jun 17, In Kenya an ongoing
drought was reported to have caused hungry baboons into villages in
search of food. A crop failure for the 3rd consecutive year placed 22
million Kenyans on the brink of starvation.
(SFC, 6/17/00, p.D8)
2000 Jun 17, Zimbabwe Pres. Mugabe
said that whites may live in Zimbabwe, but they will never have a voice
equal to that of blacks.
(SFEC, 6/18/00, p.A14)
2000 Jun 18, Tiger Woods
won the US Open Golf Championship at Pebble Beach by 12 under par and
15 strokes ahead of his nearest rival.
(SFC, 6/19/00, p.A1)(AP, 6/18/01)
2000 Jun 18, A US F-14 Tomcat
fighter jet crashed during an air show at Willow Grove, Pa. Two naval
aviators were killed.
(SFC, 6/20/00, p.A9)
2000 Jun 18, Nancy Marchand,
Emmy-winning actress (The Sopranos), died in Stratford, Connecticut, a
day before her 72nd birthday.
(AP, 6/18/01)
2000 Jun 18, In Algeria the
Foreign Ministers of Ethiopia and Eritrea signed an accord to cease
hostilities immediately. The agreement called for an int’l.
peacekeeping force in a buffer zone reaching 15 miles into Eritrea.
(SFC, 6/19/00, p.A8)(SFC, 6/20/00, p.A12)
2000 Jun 18, In England officials
found 58 bodies in the back of a truck carrying tomatoes at Dover. The
truck had arrived from Zeebrugge under 86-degree heat and 54 male and 4
female Chinese immigrants from Fujian province appeared to have
suffocated. There were 2 survivors. The chief suspect was arrested in
Rotterdam in 2001. In 2001 Dutch driver Perry Wacker (32) was convicted
and sentenced to 14 years in prison. Ying Guo (30) was convicted of
conspiracy and was sentenced to 6 years in prison.
(SFC, 6/19/00, p.A1)(WSJ, 6/20/00, p.A1)(SFC,
6/21/00, p.A12)(SFC, 1/23/01, p.C14)(SFC, 4/6/01, p.D6)
2004 Jun 18, Ethiopia and Eritrea
agreed to cease hostilities in a two-year-old border war.
(AP, 6/18/05)
2000 Jun 18, In Jordan King
Abdullah II accepted the resignation of Prime Minister Abdur-Ra-‘uf
Rawabdeh and appointed economist Ali Abu Ragheb (54) to form a cabinet.
(SFC, 6/19/00, p.A9)
2000 Jun 18, In Haiti Leon Manus
(78), the top election official, refused to approve the results of the
election and fled to the US.
(SFC, 6/19/00, p.A9)
2000 Jun 18, In Syria Bashar Assad
was elected as sec. gen. of the ruling Baath Party.
(SFC, 6/19/00, p.A9)
2000 Jun 19, The Los Angeles
Lakers won their first championship in 12 years, defeating the Indiana
Pacers 116-to-111 in game six of the NBA Finals. The post-game
celebration, however, was marred by violent fans.
(SFC, 6/21/00, p.A3)(AP, 6/19/01)
2000 Jun 19, The Clinton
administration moved to lift trade sanctions against North Korea.
(SFC, 6/20/00, p.A12)
2000 Jun 19, The US Supreme ruled
that cities and states may not boycott companies that do business with
Burma and that only the president and Congress have the authority to
set foreign policy.
(SFC, 6/20/00, p.A3)
2000 Jun 19, The Supreme Court
reaffirmed, 6-to-3, that praying in public schools had to be private,
barring officials from letting students lead stadium crowds in prayer
before football games.
(AP, 6/19/01)
2000 Jun 19, In Colombia Guillermo
Valencia Cossio, the brother of peace negotiator Fabio Valencia Cossio,
was abducted. Carlos Castano, head of the feared Self-Defenses Forces,
later confirmed that he ordered the kidnapping.
(SFC, 6/22/00, p.A1)
2000 Jun 19, EU leaders in
Portugal approved Greece’s bid to join the EU beginning Jan 1, 2001.
(WSJ, 6/20/00, p.A23)
2000 Jun 19, In Haiti militant
supporters of Pres. Aristide shut down the 3 largest cities and
demanded the release of election results. The Elections Council in
response announced that Aristide’s party won control of the Senate.
(SFC, 6/20/00, p.A12)
2000 Jun 19, In Indonesia
sectarian fighting killed as many as 161 people in the Maluku Islands,
also known as the Moluccas or Spice Islands. Thousands of Muslims
attacked Christians in the village of Duma.
(WSJ, 6/20/00, p.A1)(SFC, 6/21/00, p.A13)
2000 Jun 19, Noboro Takeshita,
former leader of Japan's Liberal Democratic Party and premier from
1987-1989, died at age 76.
(SFC, 6/19/00, p.E2)
2000 Jun 19, Representatives of
Nigeria said they found bank accounts in Liechtenstein with over $150
million held by family members of former dictator Gen Sani Abacha.
(SFC, 6/20/00, p.A13)
2000 Jun 19, In Zimbabwe officials
said elections would not be monitored by foreign nongovernmental
organizations.
(WSJ, 6/20/00, p.A1)
2000 Jun 20, After a furious
last-minute lobbying blitz by the Clinton administration, the Senate
voted 57-to-42 to approve legislation making it easier for federal
prosecutors to try hate crimes, attaching the measure to a defense
authorization bill. However, the House stripped the hate crimes
provision from the defense bill the following October.
(AP, 6/20/01)
2000 Jun 20, Vivendi agreed to
acquire Seagram’s Corp. for $30 billion.
(SFC, 6/21/00, p.C16)
2000 Jun 20, Brazil decreed an
immediate ban on the sale of firearms as part of a broad $1.7 billion
national security plan.
(SFC, 6/21/00, p.A14)
2000 Jun 20, In Northern Ireland
Ulster Freedom Fighters threatened break their cease-fire and accused
Catholic groups of attacking protestant homes.
(SFC, 6/21/00, p.A12)
2000 Jun 20, In South Korea some
50 thousand members of the medical association went on strike to
protest a new system that bans them from selling most drugs.
(SFC, 6/21/00, p.A16)
2000 Jun 20, In Russia the
prosecutor’s office filed to reverse the privatization of Norilsk
Nickel, the largest metal company, controlled by oligarch Vladimir
Potanin.
(SFC, 6/21/00, p.A14)
2000 Jun 21, Some 55 years after
World War Two ended, 22 Asian-American veterans received the Medal of
Honor for bravery on the battlefield during a White House ceremony.
(AP, 6/21/01)
2000 Jun 21, In San Leandro, Ca.,
Stuart Alexander (39), owner of the Santo Linguisa sausage factory,
shot and killed 3 government meat inspectors, Jean Hillery (56), Tom
Quadros (52), and Bill Shaline (57). In 2004 Alexander was convicted of
3 counts of 1st-degree murder. In 2005 Alexander was sentenced to
death. On Dec 27, 2005, Alexander was found dead in his San Quentin
jail cell.
(SFC, 6/22/00, p.A1)(SFC, 6/23/00, p.A6)(SFC,
10/20/04, p.B1)(SFC, 2/16/05, p.B5)(SFC, 12/28/05, p.B1)
2000 Jun 21, In Chechnya 2 Russian
soldiers were killed and 2 wounded in a rebel ambush near Mesker-Yurt.
(SFC, 6/23/00, p.A20)
2000 Jun 21, North Korea extended
its ban on missile flight-testing and the US responded with plans to
renew talks to curb the long-range missile program. North Korea
promised to refrain from long-range missile tests after the United
States lifted some economic sanctions against it.
(SFC, 6/22/00, p.A12)(AP, 6/21/01)
2000 Jun 22, Independent Counsel
Robert Ray ended his investigation of the 1993 firings in the White
House travel office, issuing no indictments but saying he’d found
"substantial evidence" that First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton played a
role in the dismissals.
(AP, 6/22/01)
2000 Jun 22, In Texas Gary Graham
was executed for the 1981 murder of Bobby Lambert in a holdup near a
Houston supermarket. Graham claimed his innocence to the very end.
(SFC, 6/23/00, p.A3)(AP, 6/22/01)
2000 Jun 22, The Int’l. Financial
Action Task Force accused 15 areas of facilitating money laundering.
(SFC, 6/23/00, p.A17)
2000 Jun 22, In Bosnia a new
cabinet proposed by Prime Minister Spasoje Tusevljak won parliamentary
approval. Tusevljak, an economics professor, was approved by parliament
earlier in June.
(SFC, 6/24/00, p.A13)
2000 Jun 22, In China an
overloaded ship capsized on the Yangtze River in Sichuan province and
59 people were either killed or missing. Separately a Yunshuji-7
turboprop was struck by lightning in Hubei province and all 42 people
aboard were killed. 4 people were missing.
(SFC, 6/23/00, p.D3)
2000 Jun 22, In Kazakstan some
11,000 seals were reported found dead on the shores of the Caspian Sea.
Infectious disease linked to weakened immune systems due to oil-related
pollutants were blamed.
(SFC, 6/23/00, p.D3)
2000 Jun 23, Secretary of State
Madeleine Albright, during a visit to South Korea, said American troops
would remain in the country indefinitely to maintain strategic
stability in the Pacific area.
(AP, 6/23/01)
2000 Jun 23, The federal
government pledged over $22 million to help fight the glassy-winged
sharpshooter, a pest threatening the California vineyards.
(SFC, 6/24/00, p.A1)
2000 Jun 23, The new $250 million,
140,000-sq.-foot Experience Music Project opened in Seattle. It was
funded by Paul G. Allen, designed by Frank Gehry and dedicated to the
celebration of creativity in music.
(SFC, 4/15/99, p.E8)(SFC, 6/22/00, p.A1)
2000 Jun 23, Jerome Richardson
(b.1920), SF Bay Area jazz musician, died.
(SFC, 2/19/08,
p.D1)(www.jazzhouse.org/gone/lastpost2.php3?edit=962098717)
2000 Jun 23, In Australia a fire
at a hostel in Childers, 130 miles north of Brisbane, killed at least
15 foreign backpackers.
(SFC, 6/23/00, p.D3)
2000 Jun 23, The Cotonou
Agreement, a treaty between the European Union and the group of
African, Caribbean and Pacific states (ACP countries), was signed in
Cotonou, the largest city in Benin, by 79 ACP countries and the then
fifteen Member States of the EU. It entered into force in 2002 and is
the latest agreement in the history of ACP-EU Development Cooperation.
As of Dec 31, 2007, the Cotonou Agreement ceased to be legal under the
rules of the WTO.
(Econ, 5/28/05, p.78)(Econ, 1/5/08,
p.74)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cotonou_Agreement)
2000 Jun 23, In Colombia Guillermo
Valencia was freed after 4 days. Luisa Cano (5) was also freed by
guerrillas after being kidnapped Apr 15.
(SFC, 6/24/00, p.A13)
2000 Jun 23, In Indonesia street
battles in the Maluku Islands between Christians and Muslims left at
least 18 people dead.
(SFC, 6/24/00, p.A13)
2000 Jun 23, In the Philippines
the military captured Camp Rajamuda, a guerrilla stronghold in
Maguindanao and North Catabato provinces. The weeklong operation left 4
guerrillas and one soldier dead.
(SFC, 6/24/00, p.A13)
2000 Jun 23, A Panamanian
registered tanker sank off Cape Town, South Africa and at least 1,300
tons of seeped out. Oil began to soak the local penguins at Robben
Island.
(SFC, 6/30/00, p.A16)
2000 Jun 24, Revising an earlier
plan, President Clinton proposed using $58 billion from the growing
budget surplus to help senior citizens pay for prescription drugs in
2002.
(AP, 6/24/01)
2000 Jun 24, Vera Atkins (b.1908),
British intelligence officer during WW II, died in Sussex, England. In
2005 Sarah Helm authored “A Life in Secrets: The Story of Vera Atkins
and the Lost Agents of SOE.”
(Econ, 3/17/07,
p.90)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vera_Atkins)
2000 Jun 24, A red tide of algal
bloom over 2,700 square miles was reported over the East China Sea.
China’s environmental protection agency blamed pollutants and weather
conditions.
(SFC, 6/24/00, p.A24)
2000 Jun 24, Israeli police fired
across the Lebanese border at the Fatima gate at Kfar Kila. 3 Jordanian
civilians were wounded.
(SFC, 6/25/00, p.A6)
2000 Jun 24, After months of
political violence, elections began in Zimbabwe.
(SFC, 6/24/00, p.A1)(AP, 6/24/01)
2000 Jun 25, Juli Inkster became
the first player in 16 years to successfully defend the LPGA
Championship.
(AP, 6/25/01)
2000 Jun 25, The Broadway show
"Cats" was scheduled to close after 7397 performances. It was extended
to September.
(SFEC, 5/7/00, Par p.30)(SFC, 9/11/00, p.F4)
2000 Jun 25, The US Green party
nominated Ralph Nader as its presidential candidate with running mate
Winona LaDuke, an Ojibwe activist from Minnesota.
(SFC, 6/26/00, p.A3)
2000 Jun 25, Philip Morris
announced it was buying Nabisco for $14.9 billion.
(AP, 6/25/01)
2000 Jun 25, In Puerto Rico US
Navy bombing in Vieques resumed with nonexplosive dummy bombs after 37
demonstrators were arrested. A fatal accident had prompted a yearlong
occupation by protesters.
(WSJ, 6/26/00, p.A1)(SFC, 6/28/00, p.A3)(AP, 6/25/01)
2000 Jun 25, In Japan Prime
Minister Yoshiro Mori’s LDP lost power to its coalition partners in
parliamentary elections. The coalition won 271 of 480 seats in the
lower house.
(SFC, 6/26/00, p.A1)
2000 Jun 25, South Korea marked
the 50th anniversary of the start of the Korean Conflict.
(AP, 6/25/01)
2000 Jun 25, In Kuwait a refinery
explosion at the Mina al-Ahmedi plant killed 5 people and closed the
largest of the 3 oil processing facilities.
(WSJ, 6/26/00, p.A1)(WSJ, 6/28/00, p.A1)
2000 cJun 25, Montenegro told the
UN that it no longer wants to be represented by Yugoslavia.
(WSJ, 6/26/00, p.A1)
2000 Jun 25, In Poland a 3-day
world Forum on Democracy in Warsaw was sponsored by the NY-based
Freedom House and the Warsaw-based Stefan Batory Foundation.
(SFEC, 6/25/00, p.A9)
2000 Jun 25, In Russia the
military declared that air and artillery attacks in Chechnya had been
suspended. The next day the Kremlin said that attacks would continue.
(SFC, 6/26/00, p.A10)
2000 Jun 25, In Zimbabwe EU
observers said the voting in parliamentary elections was "not free or
fair."
(WSJ, 6/26/00, p.A1)
2000 Jun 26, The Supreme Court
gave new power to its landmark Miranda decision of 1966, ruling police
still must warn the people they arrest of their "right to remain
silent" when questioned.
(AP, 6/26/01)
2000 Jun 26, The Supreme Court
struck down California’s system of "blanket primaries." It ruled that
political parties have the right to exclude nonparty members from
choosing their candidates.
(SFC, 6/27/00, p.A1)
2000 Jun 26, Public and private
gene researchers, Celera Genomics and the National Human Genome
Research Institute, announced at the White House that they had roughly
mapped the human genome. Craig Venter, head of Celera, acquired private
funding in 1998 and began decoding in September 1999. In 2007 Venter
authored “A Life Decoded: My Genome: My Life.”
(WSJ, 6/26/00, p.A1)(SFC, 6/27/00, p.A1)(AP,
6/26/01)(WSJ, 10/27/07, p.W6)
2000 Jun 26, The new United
Religions organization planned a charter signing ceremony at Carnegie
Mellon Univ. in Pittsburgh. Episcopal Bishop William Swing first
announced his dream June, 1995, at Grace Cathedral in SF. A 41-member
Global Council will coordinate activities. 24 members will be chosen by
a worldwide membership in 8 regional elections, with a dozen at-large
trustees and 5 seats from the current board. The basic unit of the
organization will be a group of 7 or more people from a mix of
religious traditions.
(SFC, 6/19/00, p.A1,5)
2000 Jun 26, In Germany a
6-year-old Turkish boy was attacked and killed in a school yard in
Hamburg by a pit bull and a Staffordshire terrier. The attack led
German states to enact new rules on dog ownership.
(SFC, 7/1/00, p.A12)
2000 Jun 26, In Indonesia Pres.
Wahid declared a state of emergency in the eastern Maluku Islands. Over
the last 6 days 60 people were reported killed in Ambon.
(SFC, 6/27/00, p.A14)
2000 Jun 26, In Northern Ireland
the IRA allowed an independent examination of its clandestine arms for
the 1st time in its 81 year history.
(SFC, 6/27/00, p.A12)
2000 Jun 26, In Poland a 2-day
ministerial-level conference, "Toward a Community of Democracies," was
the 1st of a planned biannual series.
(SFEC, 6/25/00, p.A9)
2000 Jun 26, The Vatican unveiled
the 62-line handwritten account of Lucia de Jesus dos Santos from the
Fatima, Portugal, vision of Jul 13, 1917.
(SFC, 6/27/00, p.A12)
2000 Jun 27, US House Republicans
cut a deal to allow direct sales of food to Cuba for the first time in
four decades.
(AP, 6/27/01)
2000 Jun 27, In Chechnya 2 days of
fighting left 12 Russians dead and up to 60 rebels killed according to
Russian officials.
(SFC, 6/29/00, p.C6)
2000 Jun 27, In Poland 107
participants joined to endorse a declaration of the "community of
democracies." France alone excluded itself.
(SFC, 6/28/00, p.B10)
2000 Jun 27, In Zimbabwe Pres.
Mugabe promised to work with the newly elected parliament. The Movement
for Democratic Change made historic gains and won 57 seats vs. 62 for
Mugabe’s ZANU-PF party.
(SFC, 6/28/00, p.A12)(AP, 6/27/01)
2000 Jun 28, The US Supreme Court
ruled that the Boy Scouts can exclude gays from its organization (from
serving as troop leaders). The ruling allowed the organization to set
standards for membership.
(SFC, 6/29/00, p.A1)(AP, 6/28/01)(SSFC, 11/3/02,
p.A5)
2000 Jun 28, The US Supreme Court
also ruled that Nebraska’s ban on "partial-birth abortion" put an
"undue burden" on a woman’s right to terminate a pregnancy.
(SFC, 6/29/00, p.A1)(AP, 6/28/01)
2000 Jun 28, Seven months after he
was cast adrift in the Florida Straits, Elian Gonzalez was returned to
his native Cuba with his father.
(SFC, 6/29/00, p.A1)(AP, 6/28/01)
2000 Jun 28, In China the
government announced a $48 million emergency plan to fight the drought
in the northern provinces of Shanxi, Hebei, Gansu, and Ningxia.
(SFC, 6/29/00, p.C6)
2000 Jun 28, In Iraq 2 UN staffers
were shot and killed in a UN building in Baghdad. Fowad Hussein Haydar
(38) was arrested in the attack which he staged to protest int’l.
sanctions.
(SFC, 6/29/00, p.A10)
2000 Jun 28, In the Philippines
Communist guerrillas killed 12 soldiers and an army brigade commander
in the town of Jones in northern Isabela province.
(SFC, 6/29/00, p.C6)
2000 Jun 28, In Russia The Kremlin
issued a plan to overhaul the economy. Separately the upper house of
parliament, the Federation Council, voted down a proposal by Pres.
Putin to disband it.
(SFC, 6/29/00, p.C6)
2000 Jun 28, In Taiwan Pres. Chen
Shui-bian told visiting Americans that he accepts that there is "one
China."
(SFC, 6/29/00, p.A10)
2000 Jun 29, President Clinton
nominated former Congressman Norman Mineta to lead the Commerce
Department and become the first Asian-American Cabinet secretary.
(AP, 6/29/01)
2000 Jun 29, John Hopkins cancer
researchers reported that the experimental substance C75, a potential
weight-loss drug, suppressed appetite but not metabolism.
(WSJ, 6/30/00, p.A1)
2000 Jun 29, Actor Vittorio
Gassman died in Rome at age 77.
(AP, 6/29/01)
2000 Jun 29, In Indonesia the
ferry Cahaya Bahari was feared to have sunk with 492 passengers killing
all but ten known survivors. The ship left Tobelo on Halmahera in North
Maluku and was bound for Manado in North Sulawesi with many fleeing
sectarian violence.
(SFC, 6/30/00, p.A16)(AP, 6/29/01)
2000 Jun 29, Iraq said US and
British warplanes bombed North Rumeila and killed a woman shepherd and
injured her husband.
(SFC, 6/30/00, p.A18)
2000 Jun 29, The OAS said it would
set up a permanent office in Lima, Peru, to oversee democratic reforms.
(SFC, 6/30/00, p.A18)
2000 Jun 29, In Sierra Leone 21 UN
peacekeepers were freed by rebels and arrived in Liberia.
(SFC, 6/30/00, p.A18)
2000 Jun 30, Pres. Clinton signed
legislation for "digital signatures."
(WSJ, 7/3/00, p.A1)
2000 Jun 30, An Arkansas Supreme
Court committee sued President Clinton to strip him of his law license.
Clinton later agreed to pay a fine and give up his law license for five
years.
(AP, 6/30/01)
2000 Jun 30, In Canada a bill that
erased virtually all legal distinctions between heterosexual marriages
and same-sex unions went into effect.
(SFC, 7/3/00, p.A12)
2000 Jun 30, In Chechnya Russian
Gen. Gennady Troshev said that a 5-day firefight at Serzhen-Yurt was
over and that over 100 rebels were killed.
(SFC, 7/1/00, p.A13)
2000 Jun 30, In Denmark 9 people
were crushed to death at the Roskilde rock festival during a Pearl Jam
concert.
(SFC, 7/1/00, p.A12)(AP, 6/30/01)
2000 Jun 30, North and South Korea
signed an agreement to allow 100 people each to reunite with families
across their border beginning Aug 15.
(SFC, 7/1/00, p.A12)
2000 Jun 30, In Russia the lower
house voted to give pres. Putin the right to fire any of the nation’s
89 governors for cause.
(SFC, 7/1/00, p.A13)
2000 Jun 30, In the Solomon
Islands Mannasseh Sogavare replaced Bartholomew Ulufa’alu as prime
minister.
(SFC, 7/1/00, p.A13)
2000 Jun 30, In Sri Lanka the
Supreme Court threw out the government’s news censorship system.
(SFC, 7/1/00, p.A13)
2000 Jun, The US government passed
the Africa Growth and Opportunity Act. It gave 23 sub-Saharan countries
the opportunity to ship a range of textile products to the US duty-free.
(WSJ, 1/2/02, p.A1)
2000 Jun, In SF Brian Singer, aka
Someguy, launched his 1000 Journals Project from San Francisco. He
began sending out blank notebooks with instructions for users to create
entries, pass the journals on, and return them to him on completion. In
2003 the 1st one returned. In 2003 Andrea Kreuzhage, a German-born Los
Angeles filmmaker, heard of the project and began filming a
documentary, which was completed in 2008. In 2007 Chronicle books of SF
published “The 1000 Journals Project,” a compendium of outstanding
images from several journals.
(SSFC, 10/19/03, p.A1)(www.1000journals.com)(SFC,
7/29/08, p.E1)
2000 Jun, Stephen Pendergrast,
co-founded Fictionwise, a retailer of electronic books, in Chatham, NJ.
In 2009 Barnes & Noble acquired the company for $15.7 million.
(WSJ, 3/6/09, p.B4)
2000 Jun, Jose Manuel Vigoa Perez
robbed the Bellagio Hotel in Las Vegas, continued a string of robberies
that began in 1998. He was soon caught and imprisoned. In 2008 John
Huddy authored “Storming Las Vegas: How a Cuban-Born, Soviet-Trained
Commando Took Down the Strip to the Tune of Five World-Class Hotels,
Three Armored Cars, and Millions of Dollars.”
(WSJ, 8/30/08, p.W7)
2000 Jun, Leonard Baskin, artist,
writer and teacher, died at age 77. His work included paintings,
sculptures, woodcuts and etchings.
(SFEC, 7/23/00, DB p.36)
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