Timeline Belgium
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Belgium
is about the same size as New Jersey or Israel
or Switzerland.
(SFEC, 2/14/99, Z1 p.8)(SSFC, 10/9/05, Par p.27)
54BC The Eburons,
A Belgian tribe under the command of their King Ambiorix, won a victory
against the Roman Legion.
(http://www.trabel.com/tongeren-history.htm)
53BC Caesar claimed to have wiped
out the Celtic Eburones after they conspired with other groups in an
attack that killed 6,000 Roman soldiers. The Eburones lived in an area
that later came be known as part of Belgium, Germany and the
Netherlands.
(AP, 11/14/08)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eburones)
43AD British Celts battled the
Roman invaders in 2-wheeled chariots. The Belgae from northern Gaul had
settled in Britain and ushered in the concept of towns and the art of
enameling.
(NGM, 5/77)
c100 Spa began as a Roman bathing
center about this time.
(WSJ, 8/7/01, p.A1)
384 May 13, Servatius (Aravatius),
bishop of Tongeren (Belgium), died at age 65.
(MC, 5/13/02)
1200-1300 In Bruges the Belfry in the Grote Merkt,
main square, was built.
(SFEC, 8/28/98, p.T12)
1235 Sep 5, Henry I, duke of
Brabant, died. Brabant was a duchy later divided between Netherlands
and Belgium.
(WUD, 1994 p.177)(MC, 9/5/01)
1288 Sep 29, Maud de Brabant
(b.1224) died in Belgium.
(www.peterwestern.f9.co.uk/maximilia/pafg60.htm)
1294 May 3, Jan I, The duke of
Brabant (Belgium-Netherlands), Limburg, poet, died.
(MC, 5/3/02)
1302 Jul 11, An army of French
knights, led by the Count of Artois, was routed by Flemish pikemen.
(HN, 7/11/98)
1349 Nov 1, Duke of Brabant
ordered the execution of all Jews in Brussels. He accused them of
poisoning the wells.
(MC, 11/1/01)
1352 The gothic Cathedral of Our
Lady was begun in Antwerp, Belgium. It was completed in the 16th
century.
(Hem., 7/95, p.27)
1370 May 22, Jews were expelled
(massacred) from Brussels, Belgium.
(MC, 5/22/02)
1382 May 5, In the Battle of
Beverhoutsveld, Belgium, the population beat a drunken army.
(MC, 5/5/02)
1387 Jul 22, French Ackerman
(c57), Ghent rebel, leader of Reisers, was murdered.
(MC, 7/22/02)
1389 Mar 31, Everhard Tserclaes,
sheriff of Brussels, was murdered.
(MC, 3/31/02)
1416 May 7, Monk Nicolaas
Serrurier was arrested for heresy at Tournay, Belgium.
(MC, 5/7/02)
1500 Feb 24, Charles V, king of
Spain, was born in Ghent, Belgium. He was the last Holy Roman Emperor
to be crowned by the Pope.
(HN, 2/24/99)(SFEC, 11/21/99, p.T10)
1505 Dec 18, John IX van Horne,
prince-bishop of Lieges, Belgium, was executed.
(MC, 12/18/01)
1512 Mar 5, Gerardus Mercator
(d.1594), Flemish philosopher and cartographer, was born in Rupelmonde,
Flanders (later Belgium).
(www.navis.gr/men/mercator.htm)
1514 Dec 31, Andreas Vesalius
(d.1564), anatomist, author of "De Humani Corporis Fabrica," was born
in Brussels, Belgium
(NH, 10/96, p.34)(TL-MB, 1988, p.15)(MC, 12/31/01)
1522 Feb 7, Treaty of Brussels:
Habsburgers split into Spanish and Austrian Branches.
(MC, 2/7/02)
c1525 Joos van Cleve, Belgian
painter, painted "St. John the Evangelist on Patmos."
(MT, Spg. ‘97, p.20)
1530-1531 The Antwerp exchange was founded for
brokers to trade shares and commodities.
(TL-MB, p.14)(WSJ, 1/11/99, p.R42)
c1535 Tapestries called the "The
Triumph of the Seven Virtues" were produced in Brussels. The Triumph of
Fortitude and the Triumph of Prudence were later conserved and
exhibited in San Francisco.
(SFC, 2/7/01, p.E1)
1535 Imperial authorities in
Antwerp captured and imprisoned William Tyndale for heresy over his
translation of the Bible into English.
(WSJ, 12/22/94, A-20)
1536 Oct 6, William Tyndale
(b.1494), the English translator of the New and Old Testament, was
burned at the stake at Vilvoorde Castle (Belgium) as a heretic by the
Holy Roman Empire.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Tyndale)
1540 King Charles V returned to
Ghent and brutally beat down an uprising against taxes for an
expansionist war. Nine leaders were beheaded and another hanged. City
burgers were forced to walk the streets barefoot with rope hanging
round their necks. The "Gentse Feesten" annual festival re-enacts this
event every mid-July.
(SFEC, 11/21/99, p.T10)
1543 Andreas Vesalius, Belgian
physician, published his "De humani corporis fabrica" (Concerning the
Fabric of the Human Body), which contained the first complete
description of the human body.
(TL-MB, 1988, p.15)(WSJ, 10/19/99, p.A24)
1544 May 29, Jacobus Latomus
[Jasques Masson] (~68), Belgian inquisitor, died.
(SC, 5/29/02)
1550 By this time the canals of
Bruges had filled with silt.
(SSFC, 2/24/02, p.C5)
1559 Mar 14, Jacques d'Auchy,
Walloon Baptist merchant, was executed.
(MC, 3/14/02)
1567 Aug 8, Duke of Alba's army
entered Brussels, Belgium.
(MC, 8/8/02)
1568 Jun 1, Duke of Alba beheaded
18 nobles in Brussels. (MC, 6/1/02)
1568 Jun 4, Lamoraal, Count
Egmont, prince of Gavere, was beheaded in Brussels for opposition to
the Spanish Inquisition. He became a heroic figure in Goethe's play and
Beethoven's musical setting. Philips van Montmorency comte d'Horn,
admiral, statesman, was also beheaded along with 18 other leaders of
the Flemish opposition.
(PCh, 1992, p.195)(MC, 6/5/02)
1568 Jun 5, Ferdinand, the Duke of
Alba, crushed the Calvinist insurrection in Ghent (Belgium).
(HN, 6/5/98)
1577 Sep 23, William of Orange
made his triumphant entry into Brussels, Belgium.
(HN, 9/23/98)
1584 Jan 7, This was the last day
of the Julian calendar in Bohemia & Holy Roman empire. The 1582
Gregorian (or New World) calendar was adopted by this time in Belgium,
most of the German Roman Catholic states and the Netherlands.
(SFEC, 10/3/99, Par p.27)(MC, 1/7/02)
1599 Feb 22, Anthony Van Dyck,
painter, was born in Antwerp, Belgium. [See Mar 22]
(MC, 2/22/02)
1599 Mar 13, Johannes Berchmans,
Jesuit, saint, was born in Belgium.
(MC, 3/13/02)(de Winkler Prins encyclopedia)
1599 Mar 22, Sir Anthony Van Dyck,
Flemish artist, was born. He gave his name to the Vandyke beard. [See
Feb 22]
(AP, 3/22/99)
1604 Sep 20, After a two-year
siege, the Spanish retook Ostend [NW Belgium], the Netherlands, from
the Dutch.
(WUD, 1994, p.1019)(HN, 9/20/98)
1618 Michael Sweerts (d.1664),
artist, was born in Brussels, Belgium. He did much of his important
work in Rome, moved to the Netherlands, traveled in Asia with a band of
missionaries and died in Goa.
(WSJ, 7/2/02, p.D7)
1716 Jul 18, A decree ordered all
Jews expelled from Brussels.
(MC, 7/18/02)
1760 A Belgian created roller
skates by replacing the blades of ice skates with wheels.
(WSJ, 1/11/99, p.R14)
1793 Sep 6, French General Jean
Houchard and his 40,000 men began a three-day battle against an
Anglo-Hanoverian army at Hondschoote, southwest Belgium, in the wars of
the French Revolution.
(HN, 9/6/98)
1794 Jul 8, French troops captured
Brussels, Belgium.
(HN, 7/8/98)
1800 Lieven Bauwens stole a
spinning "mule jenny" machine from Britain. He had it dismantled and
smuggled out in a cargo of coffee. This enabled the textile industry in
Ghent to greatly expand. Britain sentenced Bauwens to death in absentia
and Ghent made him a hero.
(SFEC, 11/21/99, p.T11)
c1807 Englishmen William and John
Cockerill brought the Industrial Revolution to continental Europe
around 1807 by developing machine shops in Liege, Belgium, transforming
the country’s coal, iron and textile industries much as it had done in
Britain. From roughly 1760 to about 1830, the Industrial Revolution
largely occurred in Britain. Realizing the economic advantages, Britain
did not allow the export of any machinery, methods or skilled men that
might blunt its technological edge. Eventually, the lure of new
opportunities convinced continental entrepreneurs and British
businessmen to evade England’s official edict.
(HNQ, 5/16/01)
1814 Dec 24, The Treaty of Ghent
between the United States and Great Britain, terminating the War of
1812, was signed at Ghent, Belgium. The news did not reach the United
States until two weeks later (after the decisive American victory at
New Orleans). The treaty, signed by John Quincy Adams for the US,
committed the US and Britain "to use their best endeavors" to end the
Atlantic slave trade.
(AP, 12/24/97)(WSJ, 12/31/97, p.A11)(HN,
12/24/98)(SFEC, 11/21/99, p.T10)
1815 Apr, British General Arthur
Wellesley, duke of Wellington, began assembling troops at Brussels,
Belgium. 73,000 British troops were joined by 33,000 German, Dutch and
Belgian troops preparing to face Napoleon. Prussian Gen. Gebhard
Leberecht von Blucher gathered an army of 120,000 southeast of Brussels.
(ON, 4/06, p.1)
1815 Jun 16, Napoleon defeated the
Prussians at the Battle of Ligny, Belgium.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Ligny)
1815 Jun 16, Emperor Napoleon
Bonaparte marched into Belgium to find himself confronted by two allied
armies, which he tried to split apart. The June 16 French attack at the
crossroads called Quatre Bras, depicted in a painting by W.B. Wollen,
badly mauled the British army, but failed to rout it or to take the
crossroads. Although similarly battered at Ligny that day, the Prussian
army also retired intact. Both armies would face Napoleon again two
days later at Waterloo.
(HNQ, 6/16/98)
1815 Jun 17, A heavy rainstorm
prevented French forces from catching up with Wellington’s army as they
retreated to Waterloo.
(Econ, 7/16/05, p.15)(ON, 4/06, p.3)
1815 Jun 18, British and Prussian
troops under the Duke of Wellington defeated Napoleon Bonaparte and his
forces at the Battle of Waterloo in Belgium. The French elite troops of
the Imperial Guard wore bearskins to appear more intimidating.
Afterwards Britain established towering bear skin hats for soldiers in
ceremonial duties and to guard royal residencies and the Tower of
London. Field Marshal Gebhard Leberecht von Blucher made a short speech
to his troops saying that he was pregnant and about to give birth to an
elephant. He was taken from the front in protective custody and missed
the battle. Napoleon lost over 40,000 men at Waterloo; the British and
Belgians lost 15,000; the Prussians lost 7,000. The total losses in 3
days of fighting was later estimated at 91,800. In 2002 Andrew Roberts
authored "Napoleon and Wellington." In 2005 Andrew Roberts authored
“Waterloo: Napoleon’s Last Gamble.”
(SFEC, 2/28/99, Z1p.10)(WSJ, 9/13/02, p.W10)(Econ,
2/12/05, p.81)(ON, 4/06, p.5)
1820 Feb 17, Henri Vieuxtemps,
composer, teacher (Brussels Cons), was born in Verviers, Belgium.
(MC, 2/17/02)
1829 Feb 16, Francois-Joseph
Gossec (95), Belgian-French composer (Messe de Morts), died.
(MC, 2/16/02)
1830 May 25, Jules de Geyter,
Belgian poet (International), was born.
(SC, 5/25/02)
1830 Aug 25, Belgium rebelled
against Netherlands.
(chblue.com, 8/25/01)
1830 Dec 20, An international
conference declared the dissolution of the Kingdom of the Netherlands
effectively recognizing the independence of Belgium.
(http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~noemeetjesland/1830/1830.htm)
1831 Jan 20, Protocols were signed
in London that recognized Belgium as an independent nation. Belgium
became a nation and combined French and Flemish-speaking lands. The
Rothschild banking empire financed the founding of Belgium.
(SFC, 7/12/96, p.A11)(SSFC, 2/24/02,
p.C5)(http://tinyurl.com/3335jt)
1831 Jan 23, The Belgian
Provisional Government decreed: The flag of Belgium is red, yellow and
black. These colors are arranged vertically.
(www.fotw.us/flags/be.html)
1831 Feb 7, The first Belgian
Constitution was ratified.
(http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~noemeetjesland/1830/1830.htm)
1831 Feb 24, Belgium’s Provisional
Government dissolved itself in favor of a Regent, Baron Surlet de
Chokier.
(http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~noemeetjesland/1830/1830.htm)
1831 Jul 21, Belgium became
independent as Leopold I was proclaimed King of the Belgians.
(AP, 7/21/97)
1831 Aug 2, The Dutch army, headed
by the Dutch princes, invaded Belgium, in the so-called "Ten Days
Campaign", and defeated Belgian forces near Hasselt and Leuven. Only
the appearance of a French army under Marchal Gerard caused the Dutch
to stop their advance.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Belgian_Revolution)
1834 May 5, The first mainland
railway line opened in Belgium.
(HN, 5/5/98)
1839 Oct, The London Treaty, in
which all the European powers guaranteed Belgian neutrality, was
signed. The final Dutch-Belgian separation treaty divided Luxembourg
and Limburg between the Dutch and Belgian crowns, settled debt
arrangements and guaranteed the neutrality of Belgium.
(HNQ, 7/24/98)(http://tinyurl.com/3335jt)
1839 Trappists monks at St. Sixtus
in Belgium began brewing Westvleteren beer in order to finance
construction of a new monastery.
(WSJ, 11/29/07, p.A1)
1840-1889 Father Demien, a Belgian priest, worked
with lepers on Molokai, Hawaii.
(SFEC, 7/6/97, Par p.2)
1840s A Belgium gardener planted
some chicory root in his dark basement and produced a leafy vegetable
that became known as Belgium endive, Cichorium intybus.
(SFEM, 4/25/99, p.21)
1843 Belgian police were the 1st
to take mug shots of criminals.
(SFEC, 10/22/00, Z1 p.2)
1846 In Brussels the Galleries St.
Hubert were built.
(SFEC, 9/24/00, p.T5)
1846 In Brussels the tavern La
Fleur en Papier was founded by the religious order, les Soeurs de
Charite. It became a meeting place for painters in the 1920s.
(SFEC, 9/24/00, p.T5)
1847 In Belgium Europe's oldest
shopping center, the St. Hubertus Royal Galleries, opened in Brussels.
(SFEC, 1/23/00, p.T14)
1847 Marx and Engels founded the
Communist League in Brussels. An archive of international worker’s
organizations from this year on is located at the link.
(HNQ,
1/26/00)(http://marxists.architexturez.net/history/index.htm)
1873 Belgian Father Demien (born
Joseph de Veuster) arrived on Molokai, Hawaii, to tend the spiritual
needs of the lepers. He built homes, churches and moved the whole
colony to a more sheltered area. The settlement peaked at about 1200.
(SFEC, 9/8/96, p.T3)
1857 Neuhaus began making
chocolate in Belgium.
(SFC, 9/15/96, p.T9)
1858 Jul 16, Eugene Ysaye,
violinist, conductor and composer (Pierill Houou), was born in Belgium.
(MC, 7/16/02)
1860-1949 James Ensor, Belgian painter. He was a
master at dredging disturbing, uncensored images from the depths of the
unconscious.
(WUD, 1994 p.475)(WSJ, 6/5/01, p.A23)
1862 Aug 29, P.M.B. Maurice
Maeterlinck, Belgium, poet (Blue Bird, Nobel 1911), was born.
(MC, 8/29/01)
1863 Nov 14, Leo H.A. Baekeland
(d.1944), Belgian-born US chemist (bakelite), was born in Ghent.
(www.zephyrus.co.uk/galen.html)
1865 King Leopold II ascended to
the throne.
(SFEC, 9/27/98, BR p.1)
1874 Feb 17, Adolphe Quetelet
(b.1796), Belgian astronomer and mathematician, died. He founded and
directed the Brussels Observatory and was influential in introducing
statistical methods to the social sciences.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adolphe_Quetelet)
1875 Apr 8, Albert I LCMM von
Saksen-Coburg, king of Belgium (1909-34), was born.
(MC, 4/8/02)
1880-1920 The population of Congo was halved due to
murder, starvation, exhaustion, exposure, disease, and a lowered birth
rate due to the exploitation by King Leopold II.
(SFEC, 9/27/98, BR p.1)
1884 Feb 26, Leopold II of Belgium
signed in Congo a British and Portuguese treaty.
(SC, 2/26/02)
1885 Feb 26, The Congress of
Berlin gave Congo to Belgium and Nigeria to England.
(SC, 2/26/02)
1885 May 2, The Congo Free State
was established by King Leopold II of Belgium.
(HN, 5/2/98)
1865 A Latin Monetary Union was
established amongst France, Belgium, Italy, Switzerland and Greece, but
quickly weakened as members pursued their own economic policies.
(WSJ, 1/13/98, p.A1)
1888 James Ensor, Belgian artist,
painted "Christ's Entry into Brussels in 1889." It was later acquired
by the Getty Museum.
(WSJ, 4/9/99, p.W16)(SFEM, 10/17/99, p.11)
1888 The Lejeune Law was passed
that allowed criminals to be released for good behavior after serving a
third of their sentence.
(SFC, 8/20/96, p.A10)
1888 In Belgium the first beauty
contest was held.
(WSJ, 1/11/99, p.R34)
1889 Hendrik Baekeland (b.1863),
Belgian professor of natural science, sailed for America.
(ON, 9/05, p.10)
1890 Nov 8, Cesar-Auguste Franck
(67), Belgian organist and composer (Symphony in D), died.
(MC, 11/8/01)
1890 Leon Frederic, Belgian
painter, began his work "The Stream," a vast triptych of thousands of
naked babies frolicking in water. He completed it in 1899.
(WSJ, 2/16/00, p.A14)
1893 Mar 9, Edgar Scauflaire,
Belgian muralist, decorator, was born.
(MC, 3/9/02)
1894 Jul 17, Georges Lemaitre,
Belgian astronomer, was born.
(HN, 7/17/01)
1895 Paul Otlet (1868-1944),
Belgian librarian, met future Nobel Prize winner Henri La Fontaine, who
joined him in planning to create the Mundaneum, a master bibliography
of all the world’s published knowledge. Otlet and LaFontaine eventually
persuaded the Belgian government to support their project, proposing to
build a “city of knowledge” that would bolster the government’s bid to
become host of the League of Nations.
(www.nytimes.com/2008/06/17/science/17mund.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1&emc=eta1)
1895 Prof. Emile Pierre van
Ermengem of Belgium identified the bacterium Bacillus botulinus.
(NW, 5/13/02, p.54)
1895-1905 The Central Station of Antwerp, Belgium,
was built. It looks like a Baroque church and is often referred to as
the Railway Cathedral.
(www.aviewoncities.com/antwerp/centralstation.htm)
1897 Belgium established the
Tervuren Royal Museum for Central Africa following the World Fair of
this year. It was a result of the country’s colonial venture in the
Belgian Congo, later Zaire, later Democratic Republic of Congo. The
museum was founded as a showcase for business opportunities on the
Congo.
(SFC, 2/21/98,
p.E1)(www.africamuseum.be/museum/about)
c1898 Edmund Dene Morel, a London
employee of the shipping line Elder Dempster, came to realize that a
wealth of rubber and ivory cargo was arriving from Congo in exchange
for military officers, firearms and ammunition. He deduced that forced
labor was being used by King Leopold II of Belgium to extract native
wealth.
(SFEM, 8/16/98, p.4)
1898 Nov 21, Rene Magritte
(d.1967), Belgian surrealist painter, was born. His work includes
"Golconda." In 1998 a collection of his work was edited by Giselle
Ollinger-Zinque and Frederik Leen. It included his Surrealist paintings
as well as his wallpaper designs, illustrated music scores, advertising
posters, and photographs from his amateur films.
(WUD, 1994, p.863)(WSJ, 12/3/98, p.W4)(HN, 11/21/00)
1899 Aug 23, Albert Claude
(d.1983), biologist, was born in Belgium. He never graduated from high
school and won the 1974 Nobel for his work on the sub-structure of the
cell.
(www.belgium.be)
1900 Apr 5, An assassination
attempt of Prince of Wales in Brussels failed.
(MC, 4/5/02)
1901 Nov 3, Leopold III, King of
Belgium, was born.
(HN, 11/3/98)
1901 P.M.B. Maurice Maeterlinck
(1862-1949), Belgian playwright and essayist, authored “The Life of the
Bee.”
(SSFC, 12/16/07, p.M2)
1902 Feb 11, Police beat up
universal suffrage demonstrators in Brussels.
(MC, 2/11/02)
1902 Feb 13, Georges Simenon,
novelist, was born in Belgium.
(HN, 2/13/01)(MC, 2/13/02)
1903 Jun 29, The British
government officially protested Belgian atrocities in the Congo.
Missionaries, such as William Sheppard of Virginia, had provided
information that soldiers of Leopold’s private army turned over the
right hand of villagers they had killed in order to account for their
used bullets. Leopold’s 19,000 man private army held hostage the wives
of workers to force men to work.
(HN, 6/29/98)(SFEM, 8/16/98, p.7,8)
1905 Baron Edouard Empain of
Belgium built the model city of Heliopolis near Cairo, Egypt, with his
own elaborate, Indian-inspired palace as its main attraction.
(AP, 5/4/05)
1906 Apr 23, The Belgian training
ship Count de Smet de Naey foundered off Prawle Point, England. The
captain and 33 on board were drowned.
(SFC, 4/24/06, p.A9)
1907 P.M.B. Maurice Maeterlinck
(1862-1949), Belgian playwright and essayist, authored “The
Intelligence of Flowers.”
(SSFC, 12/16/07, p.M2)
1908 King Leopold II (d.1909)
turned the Congo over to Belgium for a large sum of money. It was later
estimated that the population of Congo dropped by 10 million people
during the period of Leopold’s rule and its immediate aftermath. In
1998 Adam Hochschild published "King Leopold’s Ghost: A Story of Greed,
Terror and Heroism in Colonial Africa.
(SFEM, 8/16/98, p.12)
1909 Louis Dollo (1857-1931),
Belgian paleontologist, wrote "La Paleontologie Ethologique." Dollo’s
law: complex physical features lost during evolution are seldom
regained.
(NH, 6/96, p.24)(NH, 4/1/04, p.12)
1910 Feb 10, Dominique Georges
Pire, Belgian cleric and educator, was born.
(HN, 2/10/01)
1911 Maurice Maeterlinck
(1862-1949), Belgian poet, dramatist, and essayist, won the Nobel Prize
in Literature.
(WUD, 1994, p.861)
1912 Jun 30, Belgian workers
struck to demand universal suffrage.
(HN, 6/30/98)
1912 In Belgium Jean Neuhaus Jr.
took an empty chocolate shell and filled it with rich creations
developed by his pharmacist granddad and perfected by his father. Thus
was born the praline.
(SFC, 9/15/96, p.T9)
1914 Mar 27, 1st successful blood
transfusion took place in Brussels.
(MC, 3/27/02)
1914 Jul 16, A Socialist
conference in Brussels was attended by Kautsky, Trotsky & Rosa
Luxemburg.
(MC, 7/16/02)
1914 July 27, Germany informed
Belgium and Luxembourg of its intention to pass its troops through
their countries. German Chancellor Theobald von Bethmann-Hollweg
reportedly called the 1839 London Treaty, in which all the European
powers had guaranteed Belgian neutrality, "a scrap of paper" not worth
fighting over. Bethmann-Hollweg was trying to persuade Britain not to
declare war based on the treaty. Unsuccessful in his efforts, Britain
and Belgium declared war when German troops entered Belgium on August 4.
(HNQ, 7/24/98)
1914 Aug 3, Germany invaded
Belgium and declared war on France at the onset of World War I. The
German plan for victory in France was known as the Schlieffen Plan, and
was based on a quick strike and the capture of Paris.
(HN, 8/3/98)(AP, 8/3/08)(ON, 8/08, p.5)
1914 Aug 4, Britain and Belgium
declared war after German troops entered Belgium. The United States
proclaimed its neutrality.
(HNQ, 7/24/98)(AP, 8/4/97)
1914 Aug 6, A German Zeppelin
bombed Liege City and killed 9 people.
(MC, 8/6/02)
1914 Aug 10, At Luik, German
12"/16.5" guns reached Belgian boundary.
(MC, 8/10/02)
1914 Aug 16, Liege, Belgium, fell
to the German army.
(HN, 8/16/98)
1914 Aug 20, German forces
occupied Brussels, Belgium, during World War I.
(AP, 8/20/07)
1914 Aug 23, Gen. von Hausen
executed 612 inhabitants of Dinant, Belgium. Felix Fivet (3 weeks old),
Belgian baby, was among those executed by German troops.
(MC, 8/23/02)
1914 Aug 25, German army began 6
week plundering of Leuven, Belgium. German Zeppelins bombed Antwerp,
Belgium, and 10 died.
(MC, 8/25/02)
1914 Oct 9, German troops took
Antwerp after a 12-day siege in WW I crushing the resistance of over
100,000 Belgian troops and violating Belgian neutrality.
(HN, 10/9/98)(MC, 10/9/01)
1914 Oct 30, The Allied offensive
at Ypres, Belgium, began.
(MC, 10/30/01)
1914 Dec 29, The production of
Belgian newspapers was halted to protest German censorship.
(HN, 12/29/98)
1915 May 25, 2nd Battle of Ypres
ended with 105,000 casualties.
(SC, 5/25/02)
1915 Oct 12, British nurse Edith
Cavell was shot as a spy by a German firing squad in Brussels, Belgium.
Cavell, the 47-year-old matron of a Brussels training school for
nurses, was known for her compassion and sense of duty. As World War I
broke out in Europe, Cavell helped 60 British student nurses return
home but she remained in Belgium. Even though she knew that helping
soldiers escape from German-occupied territory meant the death penalty,
Cavell agreed when asked to participate in an escape ring that helped
more than 200 fugitive Allied soldiers return home after the British
Expeditionary Force's retreat from Mons. Such a large conspiracy could
not long remain a secret and in August 1915, Cavell and 35 other
members of her organization were arrested. At her hasty trial, she was
condemned to death for "conducting soldiers to the enemy." Although
their action may have been justified under the rules of war, the
Germans seriously blundered when they shot Edith Cavell. Within days of
her death, the selfless nurse was elevated to martyr status and the
Germans were internationally condemned as "murdering monsters." [see
Oct 11]
(AP, 10/12/97)(HNPD, 10/13/98)
1916 Belgians took over Rwanda.
(SSFC, 4/7/02, p.A19)
1917 Jun 7, British Field Marshal
Sir Douglas Haig launched his assault in Flanders to take German
pressure off his French allies. For months, troops of the British
Expeditionary Force fought a series of pointless battles in a
nightmarish landscape of knee-deep shell holes filled with mud and
blasted, skeletal trees.
(HN, 6/7/98)
1917 Jul 11, The Allied assault on
Flanders, Belgium, began and lasted to Nov 10, for a total gain of four
miles and the occupation of Passchendaele. 9 major battles took place
during this period in the Allied attempt to capture Passchendaele. In
preparation for the attack the Allies fired some 4.2 million shells. In
2006 military teams around Flanders still retrieved 2-3 dozen shells
per day.
(AM, 7/04, p.9)(WSJ, 5/24/06, p.A1)
1917 Nov 10, The assault on
Flanders, begun July 11, finally ground to a halt. The British
Expeditionary Force (BEF) had suffered losses of 300,000 men and German
losses were around 200,000--for a total gain of four miles and the
occupation of Passchendaele.
(HN, 6/7/98)(HNQ, 11/2/98)
1918 May 10, The HMS Vindictive
was sunk to block the entrance of Ostend Harbor.
(MC, 5/10/02)
1918 Nov 17, German troops
evacuated Brussels.
(HN, 11/17/98)
1918 Nov 21, Two German ammunition
trains exploded in Hamont, Belgium and 1,750 died.
(MC, 11/21/01)
1919 Mar 22, The first
international airline service was inaugurated on a weekly schedule
between Paris and Brussels.
(AP, 3/22/99)
1919 The Belgian government
collected about 330 US tons of German shells and buried them near
Poelkapelle under a layer of concrete. Cleaning of the site began in
2006.
(WSJ, 5/24/06, p.A12)
1920 Apr 20, The VII Olympiad
opened in Belgium. The Olympic oath and flag showing 5 interlocking
rings as a symbol of the 5 continents made their first appearance at
the Antwerp Olympics. Germany, Austria, Bulgaria, Turkey and Hungary
were not invited and the new Soviet Union decided not to attend.
(WSJ, 4/12/08,
p.R2)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1920_Summer_Olympics)
1920 May 1, Belgian-Luxembourg
toll tunnel opened.
(MC, 5/1/02)
1920 Suzanne Lenglen of France,
wearing a shockingly short skirt, won 2 gold medals in tennis at the
Olympic games in Antwerp, Belgium.
(NG, 8/04, Geographica)
1920 Oscar Swahn (72) of Sweden
won a silver medal for shooting in the Antwerp Olympics.
(WSJ, 3/31/08, p.A1)
1920 Godiva Chocolates, founded by
Joseph Draps, began as a family business.
(SFC, 9/15/96, p.T9)
1921 Mar 21, Arthur Grumiaux,
Belgian violinist, was born.
(MC, 3/21/02)
c1921 The Belgian monument to its
unknown soldier is at the base of the Colonnade of the Congress in
Brussels.
(SFC, 5/27/96, p.B8)
1924 Nov 29, Italian composer
Giacomo Puccini (b.1858) died in Brussels before he could complete his
opera "Turandot." Franco Alfano finished it. His death marked the end
of a 300-year tradition of Italian opera. In 2003 Mary Jane
Phillips-Matz authored "Puccini."
(AP, 11/29/97)(SFC, 12/28/99, p.C1)(WSJ, 4/11/03,
p.W7)
1924 The permanent committee of
the National Colonial Congress of Belgium declared (regarding Congo):
"We run the risk of someday seeing our native population collapse and
disappear… So that we will see ourselves confronted with a kind of
desert."
(SFEM, 5/7/00, p.9)
1925 Aug 25, Last Belgian
troops vacated Duisburg.
(chblue.com, 8/25/01)
1925 Franz Colruyt, Belgian baker,
set up a wholesale business importing coffee and spices from overseas.
In 2002 the 160th Colruyt store opened in Belgium.
(WSJ, 9/22/03, p.R3)
1926 Dec 14, Theo van Rysselberghe
(64), Belgian painter (pointillism), died.
(MC, 12/14/01)
1928 UCB, a Belgian drug firm, was
founded by Emmanuel Janssen.
(Econ, 9/30/06, p.71)
1929 Apr 8, Jacques Brel (d.1978),
singer, actor, was born in Belgium.
(MC, 4/8/02)
1929 Georges Remi (1907-1983),
Belgian author and illustrator, created the cartoon character Tintin
under the pseudonym Herge for the children’s supplement, Le Petit
Vingtieme. Herge wanted to draw cartoons about the Wild West of
America, but his publisher ordered that the new fictional reporter be
sent to the soviet Union and then to Belgium’s colony in the Congo.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herg%C3%A9)(Econ,
6/24/06, p.98)(Econ, 12/20/08, p.82)
1929 Rene Magritte created his "La
Trahison des images" (The Treachery of Images), an example of his
"script paintings." He wrote "An object is never so closely attached to
its name that another cannot be found which suits it better.’
(SFEM, 4/23/00, p.17)
1929 Rene Magritte painted "Le
Sens propre IV" (The Literal Meaning IV).
(SFEM, 4/23/00, p.4)
1930-1993 King Baudouin I of Belgium: "America has
been called a melting pot, but it seems better to call it a mosaic, for
in it each nation, people or race which has come to its shores has been
privileged to keep its individuality, contributing at the same time its
share to the unified pattern of a new nation."
(AP, 9/14/97)
1933 Henri Storch (d.1999 at 92,
film pioneer, co-wrote and directed the documentary "Misery in the
Borinage," about the grim conditions of mine workers near Mons. His
career spanned 70 movies.
(SFC, 9/18/99, p.A21)
1934 Rene Magritte painted "Le
Viol" (The Rape).
(SFEM, 4/23/00, p.4)
1934 The panel of the Ten Just
Judges on their way to venerate the Mystic Lamb by Jan and Hubert Van
Eyck was stolen from St. Baaf's Cathedral in Ghent.
(SFEC, 11/21/99, p.T11)
1934 Paul Otlet (1868-1944), head
of the Mundaneum in Belgium, sketched out plans for a global network of
computers (or “electric telescopes,” as he called them) that would
allow people to search and browse through millions of interlinked
documents, images, audio and video files. In his 1934 book “Monde” he
laid out his vision of a “mechanical, collective brain” that would
house all the world’s information, made readily accessible over a
global telecommunications network.
(www.nytimes.com/2008/06/17/science/17mund.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1&emc=eta1)
1935 Jan 20, Belgium arrested some
Nazi agitators who were urging for a return to the Reich.
(HN, 1/20/99)
1935 Rene Magritte painted "Le
Palais de Rideaux" (The Palace of Curtains).
(SFEM, 4/23/00, p.17)
1936 Nov 27, Great Britain’s
Anthony Eden warned Hitler that Britain would fight to protect Belgium.
(HN, 11/27/98)
1938 Magritte wrote his statement
of principles: "Le Ligne de Vie" (Lifeline), and said: "Surrealism is
revolutionary because it is relentlessly hostile to all those bourgeois
ideological values which keep the world in the appalling condition in
which it is today."
(SFEM, 4/23/00, p.6)
c1939 Belgium feared a Nazi
invasion and shipped $2.5 billion of gold to France, which in turn
shipped it to the port city of Dakar, its West African colony now known
as Senegal. The Nazis discovered the shipment after their occupation of
France and had the gold transferred to their account in Switzerland.
(WSJ, 4/28/97, p.A17)
1940 May 10, German forces began a
blitzkrieg of the Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg, skirting
France's "impenetrable" Maginot Line. Belgium was invaded by Germany
and maintained resistance for 18 days.
(WSJ, 8/1/95, p.A-8)(WSJ, 4/29/96, p.C-1)(HN,
5/10/02)
1940 May 17, Germany occupied
Brussels, Belgium, and began the invasion of France. [See May 12]
(AP, 5/17/97)(HN, 5/17/98)
1940 May 26, Operation Dynamo was
launched for the evacuation of British, French and Belgian soldiers
from the beaches of Dunkirk in northern France. The new British
Spitfire fighters helped provide air cover. The operation continued to
June 4.
(ON, 3/07, p.2)(AP, 5/26/97)
1940 May 28, During World War II,
the Belgian army surrendered to invading German forces.
(AP, 5/28/97)(HN, 5/28/98)
1940 May 29, Germans captured
Ostend and Ypres in Belgium and Lille in France.
(SC, 5/29/02)
1940 Aug 25, Jose Van Dam,
bass-baritone, was born in Brussels, Belgium.
(MC, 8/25/02)
1940 The Belgian colonial
government in Leopoldville (later Kinshasa), Congo, ordered private
mining companies to turn over their records to help the Allies find
resources to help the war effort against Germany. Millions of tons of
copper and tin, as well as some uranium, were shipped to the US. After
the war records were shipped to Belgium’s Royal Museum for Central
Africa in Brussels.
(WSJ, 3/20/07, p.A13)
1942 Apr 27, Belgium Jews were
forced to wear stars.
(MC, 4/27/02)
1942 Aug 4, The 1st train with
Jews departed Mechelen, Belgium, to Auschwitz.
(MC, 8/4/02)
1942 Aug 11, Some 999 Jews were
taken from Mechelen transit camp in Belgium.
(MC, 8/11/02)
1942 Sep 12, Free-Poland &
Belgium asked Pope to condemn Nazi-war crimes. He did not.
(MC, 9/12/01)
1943 May 10, Andre Bertulot,
Arnaud/Armand Fraiteur and Maurice-Albert Raskin, Belgian resistance
fighters, were hanged.
(MC, 5/10/02)
1943 Aug 19, Belgian church
excommunicated Nazi Leon Degrelle.
(MC, 8/19/02)
1944 Sep 2, Troops of the U.S.
First Army entered Belgium.
(HN, 9/2/98)
1944 Sep 3, US forces entered
Belgium at Peruwelz led by reconnaissance scout James W. Carroll on his
Harley-Davidson motorcycle.
(WSJ, 12/18/97, p.A1)
1944 Sep 3, A tank division of
British Guards freed Brussels.
(MC, 9/3/01)
1944 Sep 4, British troops
liberated Antwerp, Belgium.
(HN, 9/4/98)
1944 Sep 7, Nazi SS-General Kurt
("Panzer") Meyer took Durnal, Belgium.
(MC, 9/7/01)
1944 Sep 19, The 3-month battle at
Huertgen Forest on the Belgian-German border began. A 1998 HBO film
made a rough portrayal: "When Trumpets Fade."
(WSJ, 7/24/98,
p.A15)(www.angelfire.com/ak5/combat/HuertgenForest.html)
1944 Dec 10, The US 394th
Regiment’s Intelligence and Reconnaissance platoon was ordered into the
village of Lanzareth, Belgium, to fill a gap between allied divisions
along the Western front. A German counteroffensive, launched on Dec 16,
sent through Lanzareth. The platoon surrendered after running out of
ammunition. All members survived imprisonment. In 2004 Alex Kershaw
authored “The Longest Winter: The Battle of the Bulge and the Epic
Story of World War II’s Most Decorated Platoon.”
(WSJ, 12/7/04, p.D11)(SSFC, 1/2/05, p.E1)
1944 Dec 16, The Germans mounted a
major surprise counterattack in the Ardennes Forest in Belgium. As the
center of the Allied line fell back, it created a bulge, leading to the
name--the Battle of the Bulge. Hitler hoped to cripple the advance
Allies by breaking through their lines to destroy fuel supplies and
lines of communication. The striking force (the Fifth and Sixth Panzer
Armies) amounted to 24 divisions, 10 of them armored. The German attack
achieved total surprise, but slowed by the end of December due to
German supply problems and Allied resistance. Between January 8-16, in
the face of a fierce Allied counteroffensive, the Germans finally
withdrew. By January 21, the Germans had been pushed back to their
original line, having lost some 120,000 men in the offensive. The
Allies suffered 81,000 casualties including some 19,000 Americans
killed. In 1997 Charles B. MacDonald authored “A Time for Trumpets: The
Untold Story of the Battle of the Bulge.”
(AP, 12/16/97)(HN, 12/16/98)(HNQ, 7/11/01)(WSJ,
12/7/04, p.D11)
1944 Dec 17, The Germans renewed
their attack on the Belgian town of Losheimergraben against the
American Army during the Battle of the Bulge.
(HN, 12/17/98)
1944 Dec 19, American troops began
pulling back from the twin Belgian cities of Krinkelt and Rocherath in
front of the advancing German Army.
(HN, 12/19/98)
1944 Dec 20, In the Battle of
Bastogne the Nazis surrounded 101st Airborne. [see Dec 21]
(MC, 12/20/01)
1944 Dec 21, German troops
surrounded the 101st Airborne Division at the Bastogne in Belgium. [see
Dec 20]
(HN, 12/21/98)
1944 Dec 22, During the Battle of
the Bulge, the Germans demanded the surrender of American troops at
Bastogne, Belgium; Brigadier Gen. Anthony C. McAuliffe (1898-1975)
reportedly replied: "Nuts!"
(AP, 12/22/97)(HN, 12/22/98)
1944 Dec 26, In the World War II
Battle of the Bulge, the embattled U.S. 101st Airborne Division was
relieved by units of the 4th Armored Division. The Battle of the Bulge
was the final major German counter-offensive of the war and thrust deep
into allied territory in N & E Belgium and Luxembourg. US Gen
Patton's tanks repulsed the Germans. Jimmy Hendrix (19) captured 13
Germans in two 88-mm gun batteries and rescued 3 Americans under enemy
fire. Hendrix (d.2002) later awarded the Medal of Honor.
(WUD, 1994, p.195)(SFC, 9/1/96, T3)(AP,
12/26/97)(MC, 12/26/01)(SFC, 11/21/02, p.A25)
1944 Dec 27, General Patton’s
Third Army, spearheaded by the 4th Armored Division, relieved the
surrounded city of Bastogne in Belgium.
(HN, 12/27/00)
1944 Camille Gutt launched the
unpopular “Gutt operation,” which drastically cut the money supply and
brought stability to the Belgian economy.
(Econ, 6/19/04, p.18)
1942 Andree Geulen-Herscovici was
a teacher in Brussels when she witnessed a Gestapo raid on a school.
That prompted her to join a rescue organization and for more than two
years she took in over 300 Jewish children and hid them in Christian
homes and monasteries under assumed identities. In 2007
Geulen-Herscovici (86) was granted honorary Israeli citizenship.
(AP, 4/18/07)
1945 Jan 4, The last German
offensive in Bastogne, Belgium, failed.
(HN, 1/4/99)
1945 Jan 12, German forces in
Belgium retreated in Battle of Bulge.
(MC, 1/12/02)
1945 Jan 16, The U.S. First and
Third armies linked up at Houffalize, effectively ending the Battle of
the Bulge. In 1997 Charles B. MacDonald authored “A Time for Trumpets:
The Untold Story of the Battle of the Bulge.”
(HN, 1/16/99)(WSJ, 12/7/04, p.D11)
1947 Nov 16, Some 15,000
demonstrated in Brussels against mild sentences of Nazis.
(MC, 11/16/01)
1948 Mar 18, France, Great Britain
and Benelux signed the Treaty of Brussels.
(MC, 3/18/02)
1949 May 6, P.M.B. Maurice
Maeterlinck (b.1862), Belgian philosopher, playwright (Grand Fairie)
and essayist, died in Nice, France. He won the 1911 Nobel Prize in
Literature.
(WUD, 1994,
p.861)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maurice_Maeterlinck)
1949 James Ensor (b.1860), Belgian
painter, died. His paintings included "Ensor and General Leman
Discussing Painting" (1890).
(WUD, 1994 p.475)(WSJ, 6/5/01, p.A23)
1949-1964 Magritte produced 26 versions of "The
Dominion of Light."
(SFEM, 4/23/00, p.4)
1952 Rene Magritte painted his
work "Personal Values." It was sold to the SF MOMA in 1998 for $6.5
million. The title was recommended by his friend, Paul Nouge,
surrealist, biochemist and founder of the Belgian Communist Party.
Magritte also did "La chambre d’ ecote" (The Listening Room) and
"L’empire des lumieres" (The Dominion of Light)
(SFC, 11/20/98, p.C1)(SFEM, 4/23/00, p.4)
1958 Apr 17, A World Fair opened
in Brussels, Belgium. The 335-foot Atomium, representing a large-scale
metal molecule, was built to celebrate the 1958 World's Fair in
Brussels. It became one of Belgium's most famous landmarks and in 2005
was restored to its shiny splendor, the faded aluminum sheets on the
nine balls fully replaced with hardy stainless steel.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Expo_'58)(AP, 9/16/05)
1958 Pierre Culliford (Peyo),
Belgian cartoonist, created the gnomelike Smurfs for publisher Charles
Dupuis (d.2002 at 84). Hanna-Barbera turned it into a US cartoon
program in 1981.
(SFC, 12/3/02, p.A24)
1959 Rene Magritte painted "La
clef de verre" (The Glass Key).
(SFEM, 4/23/00, p.4)
1960 May 19, Belgian parliament
required a rest day for self employed.
(MC, 5/19/02)
1960 May 25, Benoît van
Innis, Belgian cartoonist, painter, (New York Post), was born.
(SC, 5/25/02)
1960 A rebel movement freed Zaire,
then known as the Belgian Congo, from Belgium.
(SFC, 11/26/96, p.B3)
1961 Jan 17, Patrice Lumumba (34),
the 1st premier Congo, was murdered. President Eisenhower allegedly
approved the assassination of Congo's Patrice Lumumba. The US and
Joseph Mobutu were implicated but no conclusive proof has emerged.
Sidney Gottlieb (d.1999 at 80), a CIA deputy, carried a deadly bacteria
to the Congo that was used to kill Lamumba. In 2000 the Belgium
Parliament opened an inquiry into possible government involvement in
the killing of Congo’s Premier Patrice Lumumba. This followed
allegations in the new book "The Murder of Lumumba" by Ludo De Witte.
In 2001 the inquiry found that King Baudouin knew of the plot but did
nothing to stop it. The Katanga government did not announce the death
until Feb 13. Moscow charged that UN Sec. Gen. Dag Hammarskjold was
involved.
(TMC, 1994, p.1961)(PCh, 1992, p.979)(SFC, 5/17/97,
p.A14)(SFC, 5/3/00, p.A14)(WSJ, 11/9/01, p.A1)
1961 Feb 15, 73 people, including
18 figure skaters from the United States, were killed in the crash of a
Sabena Airlines Boeing 707 in Belgium. The skaters were en route to a
world meet in Czechoslovakia.
(HN, 2/15/98)(AP, 2/15/99)
1968 Jan 22, The off Broadway show
"Jacques Brel Is Alive and Well and Living in Paris" premiered at the
Village Gate Theater. A film version was produced in 1975. Brel
(1929-1978), a Belgian singer, was later buried in the Marquesas Island
of Hiva Oa, in the same cemetery as Paul Gauguin.
(www.talkinbroadway.com/regional/sfla/sfla176.html)
1971 Belgium banned the practice
of selling products at a loss in order to attract customers. Also
banned was the practice of selling below cost or selling at “extremely
reduced” profit margins. This led to numerous court cases and limited
special seasonal sales.
(Econ, 1/5/08, p.46)
1972 May 8, A Belgian Sabena
aircraft, bound for Tel Aviv, was hijacked by 4 Palestinians. At Lod
Intl. 2 hijackers were shot and killed by Israeli military personnel,
dressed as ground engineers. One passenger died 8 days later as a
result of her wounds. The two women hijackers were subsequently
sentenced to life imprisonment.
(www.prophetofdoom.net/Islamic_Terrorism_Timeline_1972.Islam)
1972 Jul 22, Eddy Merckx
(b.1945)), Belgian professional cyclist, won his 4th consecutive Tour
de France.
(WSJ, 10/22/04,
p.A1)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1972_Tour_de_France)
1973 The Society for Worldwide
Interbank Financial Telecommunications (SWIFT) was founded in Brussels.
After September 11, 2001, it was used by the US to track terrorist
financing.
(WSJ, 6/23/06,
p.A1)(www.swift.com/index.cfm?item_id=1243)
1973 Jeff Schell (1935-2003),
Belgian microbiologist, succeeded in altering the genetic structure of
the Agrobacterium. He deleted the genes that governed tumor production.
(SFC, 5/3/03, p.A20)
1974 Albert Claude (1899-1983),
Belgium-born biologist, won the Nobel for his work on the sub-structure
of the cell.
(www.belgium.be)
1974-1976 Leonard K. Firestone, son of Harvey -
founder of the Firestone Tire & Rubber Co., served as US ambassador
to Belgium.
(SFC, 12/25/96, p.A22)
1978 Oct 9, Jacques Brel (b.1929),
Belgian-born French cabaret singer, died. He was buried at Atuona on
the Marquesas Island of Hiva Oa. An American musical revue of his
songs, “Jacques Brel Is Alive and Well and Living in Paris,” debuted in
1968 and has played around the world since.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacques_Brel)(SSFC,
10/11/03, p.C9)
1978 Plastic Bertrand, Belgian
musician, made a hit with "Ca Plane Pour Moi."
(SFC, 11/30/02,
p.D1)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plastic_Bertrand)
1979 Apr 3, In Belgium Wilfried
Achiel Emma Martens (b.1936) became prime minister for the 1st of 9
times.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wilfried_Martens)
1979 The Belgium government
decided to nationalize its steel companies. Half of them were owned by
Albert Frere (b.1926).
(Econ, 4/22/06, p.64)
1980 The Hague Convention on
international child abductions was established. Countries following
Islamic law did not sign.
(SFC, 12/6/03, p.A14)
1983 Mar 3, Georges Remi (b.1907),
Belgian author and illustrator, died. In 1929 Remi, under the pseudonym
Herge, created the cartoon character Tintin. Remi is known as the
father of the modern European comic book. In 2006 Tom McCarthy authored
“Tintin and the Secret of Literature.” In 2007 Philippe Goddin authored
“Herge: Lignes de vie,” a biography of Herge.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herg%C3%A9)(Econ,
6/24/06, p.98)(Econ, 12/20/08, p.84)
1984 Oct 9, A cooperation
agreement between the European Community and the Yemen Republic was
signed in Brussels.
(http://europa.eu.int/abc/history/1984/index_en.htm)
1984 Oct 18, Henri Michaux
(b.1899), Belgian poet and painter, died. In 1954 he became a citizen
of France, and he lived the rest of his life there along with his
family. In 1965 he won the National Prize of Literature, which he
refused to accept. His books included “Miserable Miracle” and “The
Major Ordeals of the Mind and the Countless Minor Ones.”
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henri_Michaux)
1985 May 29, At Heysel Stadium
rioting erupted between British and Italian spectators at the European
Cup soccer final in Brussels, Belgium. 39 people were killed when
rioting broke out and a wall separating British and Italian soccer fans
collapsed. This led to a 5-year ban on English clubs playing on the
Continent.
(SFEC, 6/11/00, p.A28)(AP, 5/29/08)
1986 Oct 16, Arthur Grumiaux
(b.1921), Belgian violinist, died at 65.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_Grumiaux)
1987 Mar 6, The British ferry
Herald of Free Enterprise capsized in the Channel off the coast of
Belgium after water rushed through the open bow doors. 189 people died
when the ferry capsized off the Belgian port of Zeebrugge.
(HN, 3/6/98)(AP, 3/6/98)
1988 Mar 1, President Reagan
arrived in Brussels, Belgium, for the first NATO summit in six years.
(AP, 3/1/98)
1988 Belgium passed a law that
forbade the ritual execution of animals at home.
(WSJ, 1/4/07, p.A1)
1989 Jul 4, Unmanned Russian
Mig-23 crashed in Bellegem-Kooigem, Belgium, and 1 person died. The
pilot had ejected over Poland.
(http://tinyurl.com/ftljd)
1989 Sep 4, Georges Simenon (86),
Belgian/French writer and director (Maigret), died. The Belgian born
writer, authored some 200 novels. Many featured the crime-busting hero
Inspector Maigret.
(SFC, 6/9/00, p.D5)(www.kirjasto.sci.fi/simenon.htm)
1989 In Belgium Marc Dutroux
(b.1956) was sent to prison for 13 years for abducting and raping 5
girls. He was released after serving 3 years and quickly reverted to
his former self. He was again arrested in 1996 for kidnappings in 1995.
(SFC, 8/20/96, p.A10)
1990 Feb 25, Enver Hadri, a human
rights leader, was allegedly shot in the head by Veselin Vukotic and
two other men while he was stopped at a traffic light in Brussels,
Belgium. Hadri had papers on him incriminating former Yugoslav
President Slobodan Milosevic in assassinations. All three gunmen were
believed to be hitmen working for the Yugoslav secret service. Veselin
was arrested in Spain in 2006.
(AP, 2/27/06)
1991 Jul 18, Socialist Party
leader Andre Cools was murdered. Cools had worked for more regional
autonomy for Wallonia, the French-speaking southern half of Belgium,
and the Dutch-speaking Flanders. The murder was believed to be done by
hit men after Cools threatened to reveal certain underworld activities.
6 men were convicted for the murder in 2004.
(SFC, 9/9/96, p.A11)(AP, 1/7/04)
1991 "The Hard Nut" ballet was
created for the Theatre Royal de la Monnaie in Brussels on a subplot of
the E.T.A. Hoffman tale of the "Nutcracker." The score is completely
faithful to Tchaikovsky.
(SFC, 12/16/96, p.D1)
1991 In Belgium the far-right
Vlaams Blok party broke into the mainstream. In 2004 it was renamed
Vlaams Belang (Flemish Interest).
(Econ, 10/14/06, p.59)
1992 Aug, Loubna Benaissa (9)
disappeared after going to buy some yogurt at a nearby store. In 1997
her body was found hidden in the basement of a gas station and Patrick
Derochette was arrested after reportedly confessing to the killing. He
had been accused of assaulting youngsters in 1984.
(SFC, 3/7/96, p.A12)
1992 Nov 4, Belgium ratifies the
Treaty on the European Union.
(http://europa.eu.int/abc/history/1992/index_en.htm)
1992 Dec 20, U.S. Marines and
Belgian paratroopers in Somalia took control of Kismayu's port and
airport; the first truck convoy in more than a month reached the
starving inland town of Baidoa.
(AP, 12/20/97)
1992 Dec 31, Belgium suspended
conscription as of this day under the so-called Delacroix Bill of July
3, 1992.
{Belgium}
(www.wri-irg.org/co/rtba/archive/belgium.htm)
1993 Mar, Belgian PM Jean-Luc
Dehaene tendered his resignation, but the king refused to accept it.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean-Luc_Dehaene)
1993 Jul 31, Belgium's King
Baudouin I died at age 62; he was succeeded by his brother, Prince
Albert.
(AP, 7/31/03)
1993 Belgium adopted a law that
empowered judges to hear war crimes and genocide cases regardless of
where the alleged crimes occurred or who committed them. In 2002 the
Int’l. Court of Justice cited diplomatic immunity and ruled that
Belgium cannot try former and current world leaders. In 2003 an
amendment to invalidate high profile cases was passed.
(SFC, 2/15/02, p.A8)(AP, 4/5/03)
1994 Jan 10, On the first day of a
two-day NATO summit in Belgium, leaders signed a document inviting
nations of the former Warsaw Pact to join in a "partnership for peace."
(AP, 1/10/99)
1994 Jan 11, NATO leaders
concluded a summit in Belgium by warning Bosnian Serbs of their
willingness to order bombing raids in former Yugoslavia to relieve
embattled Muslim enclaves. President Clinton, who attended the summit,
then traveled to the Czech Republic for a short visit.
(AP, 1/11/99)
1994 Mar 3, "Philoktetes
Variations", with Ron Vawter, premiered in Brussels.
(SC, 3/3/02)
1994 Apr 1, Leon Degrelle
(b.1906), Belgium-born founder of the fascist Rexist party, died in
Malaga, Spain. He was a Walloon Belgian politician, who founded Rexism
and later joined the Nazi German Waffen SS (becoming a leader of its
Walloon contingent). After World War II, he was a prominent figure in
the neo-Nazi and Holocaust denial movements.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L%C3%A9on_Degrelle)
1994 Belgium’s King Albert II made
businessman Albert Frere (b.1926) a baron.
(Econ, 4/22/06, p.64)
1994 Belgian peacekeepers in
Rwanda retreated during the massacre.
(SFC, 6/15/99, p.C4)
1995 Mar 1, As of this day Belgian
armed forces consisted of professional volunteers only.
(www.wri-irg.org/co/rtba/archive/belgium.htm)
1995 Jun, Two 8-year-old girls
were kidnapped. Their bodies were found in 1996, the victims of sexual
assault.
(SFC, 8/19/96, p.A8)
1995 Oct, A bribery scandal
devastated the Socialist Party. NATO Sec.-Gen’l. Willy Claes and 4
other federal ministers were forced to resign. The Italian helicopter
maker Augusta paid bribes for a contract to supply the military.
(SFC, 9/9/96, p.A11)
1996 Jun 9, The latest
unemployment rate was 10%.
(SFC, 6/9/96, Parade, p.9)
1996 Jul 7, The average cost of a
Big Mac in Belgium was $3.50.
(SFC, 7/7/96, Parade, p.17)
1996 Aug 13, In Belgium Marc
Dutroux, on parole following rape charges, was arrested for kidnapping
and the murder of 2 girls. In 2004 he was convicted of kidnapping and
murder. His wife and 2 accomplices were also convicted.
(AP, 6/17/04)
1996 Aug 15, In Belgium two
kidnapped girls were rescued by police just days following the arrest
of Marc Doutroux. [see Aug 13]
(SFC, 8/19/96, p.A8)(SFC, 4/24/98, p.A14)
1996 Aug 17, In Brussels, Belgium,
police led by Marc Dutroux unearthed the remains of two 8-year-old
girls kidnapped in June of 1995. [see Aug 13]
(SFC, 8/19/96, p.A8)(SFC, 4/24/98, p.A14)
1996 Sep 8, Police arrested former
Cabinet minister, Alain Van der Biest, in relation to the 1991 unsolved
slaying of Andre Cools.
(SFC, 9/9/96, p.A11)
1996 Sep 18, Prime Minister
Jean-Luc Dehaene need to push through tax increase and spending cuts so
the country could quality to join the EEU.
(WSJ, 9/18/96, p.A15)
1996 Oct, Some 250,000 people
staged the "White March" through Brussels to demand changes in the
police and justice system.
(SFC, 4/24/98, p.A14)
1997 Feb 2, Some 20 thousand
demonstrators joined workers of bankrupt Forges de Clabecq, a steel
firm, to protest job losses and social injustice.
(SFC, 2/3/97, p.C3)
1997 Jul 26, In Belgium at the
Ostend Air Show a Jordanian aerobatics airplane crashed and killed 9
people.
(WSJ, 7/28/97, p.A1)
1997 Oct, The Belgian company
Interbrew acquired a 60% stake in the Trebjesa Brewery for $14 million
and a 2 year commitment to invest $8.3 million.
(SFC, 7/2/98, p.A16)
c1997 A man who identified himself
as, Lt. Col. Lamar Reed or Lt. Col. A. West, a US Air Force
officer attached to NATO, began a 3-year scam in which some 90
companies sent tens of millions of dollars worth of equipment to his
"Materials Test Unit."
(SFC, 3/29/00, p.A1)
1998 Feb 17, In Belgium a
parliamentary panel found no police complicity in the killings of 4
girls in Charleroi that sparked demonstrations in 1996.
(WSJ, 2/18/98, p.A1)
1998 Feb, Noeel Godin inspired a
group of followers to cast a cream tart onto the face of Bill Gates,
the chairman of Microsoft Corp.
(SFC, 4/25/98, p.A10)
1998 Apr 23, Marc Doutroux (40)
escaped from police custody but was soon recaptured.
(SFC, 4/24/98, p.A14)
1998 May 3, European leaders
meeting in Brussels, Belgium, agreed on Wim Duisenberg of the
Netherlands as the chief of the new European Central Bank (ECB), but
with the proviso that he step down in 2002 to make way for Frenchman
Jean-Claude Trichet.
(BS, 5/3/98, p.21A)(AP, 5/3/99)
1998 Sep 19, The worst storm in a
century hit the Netherlands and Belgium over the past week.
(SFC, 9/19/98, p.A5)
1998 Dec 23, In Belgium the top
court convicted former NATO chief Willy Claes, French aerospace tycoon
Serge Dessault and 2 ex-aides of corruption. All got suspended
sentences.
(WSJ, 12/24/98, p.A1)
1999 Jan 1, The Maastricht Treaty
specified that a monetary union will be established by this date, and
laid down several criteria that EU nations must fulfill in order to
join. Some of the criteria included: maximum budget deficits of 3% of
GDP, a cap on government debt of 60% of GDP. The European economic and
monetary union (EMU) was scheduled to start with a new "Euro" currency.
Austria, Belgium, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg,
the Netherlands, Portugal and Spain made the transition. Public use was
set for Jan 1, 2002. [see Jan 4]
(WSJ, 9/25/95, p.A-12)(WSJ, 12/5/95, p.A-14)(SFC,
11/16/96, p.A1)(SFC, 1/1/99, p.A8)
1999 Jan 4, The euro, the new
money of 11 European nations, got off to a strong start on its first
trading day, rising against the dollar on world currency markets and
closed in New York at $1.181. A founding principal of the euro area
held that national central banks be independent of their governments.
(SFC, 1/5/99, p.C2)(AP, 1/4/00)(HN, 1/4/01)(Econ,
2/25/06, p.77)
1999 Feb 22, In Brussels some
30,000 farmers rallied to demand that EU agricultural ministers shield
them from farm subsidy cuts.
(SFC, 2/23/99, p.A14)
1999 Apr, Dioxin was discovered in
Belgian animal feed. It was estimated to be some 4 months after the
contamination began. Verkest, a firm that sold animal fats to feed
mills, was implicated, but the dioxin source was not yet pinpointed.
(WSJ, 6/7/99, p.A19)
1999 May 26, The public was
informed that animal feed contaminated with dioxin was fed to chickens
and pigs.
(WSJ, 6/7/99, p.A19)
1999 Jun 2, The EU ordered that a
vast array of Belgian products be withdrawn from sale and destroyed due
to a fear of dioxin-poisoning in chickens and eggs.
(SFC, 6/3/99, p.A13)
1999 Jun 2, Dr. Ann S. Fletcher
(51), author of "Belgium: A Study of the Educational System of
Belgium," died in Palo Alto, Ca.
(SFC, 6/12/99, p.A23)
1999 Jun 8, In Belgium 31
schoolchildren began reporting illnesses from drinking Coca Cola and
prompted the removal of Coca Cola drinks from shelves on June 15. The
problems were traced to defective carbon dioxide in an Antwerp bottling
plant and a chemical contaminant from transport palettes. 14 million
cases of Coke were eventually recalled in 5 European countries.
(SFC, 6/16/99, p.B3)(WSJ, 6/29/99, p.A1)
1999 Jun 13, The center-left
coalition of Prime Minister Jean-Luc Dehaene suffered a major defeat in
national elections to the Conservatives. The coalition looked to keep
66 of the legislature's 150 seats.
(SFC, 6/14/99, p.a14)(WSJ, 6/14/99, p.A1)
1999 Jun 15, In Europe Coca Cola
drinks were pulled from shelves after 31 Belgian schoolchildren began
reporting illnesses on June 8. Bad carbon dioxide was traced to a
fungicide on the surface of the cans.
(SFC, 6/16/99, p.B3)(SFC, 6/17/99, p.C3)
1999 Jul 12, In Belgium a new
coalition government under Guy Verhofstadt took office.
(SFC, 7/13/99, p.A10)
1999 Jul 29, Belgium announced
that it had quarantined 175 more farms and that it would destroy all
115,000 tons of dioxin suspect beef, pork and poultry. Testing for all
pork and poultry products for export was extended to Aug 31.
(SFC, 7/30/99, p.A13)
1999 Aug 12, In Belgium a
McDonald's Restaurant was destroyed by fire. The Animal Liberation
Front was suspected.
(WSJ, 8/13/99, p.B8)
1999 Dec 4, In Belgium Prince
Philippe married Mathilde d'Udekem.
(SFEC, 12/5/99, p.A2)
1999 Mario Danneels published an
unauthorized biography of Queen Paola: "Paola: From La Dolce Vita' to
Queen." It included a claim that King Albert II had an illegitimate
child.
(SFC, 10/27/99, p.C16)
1999 The Flemish film "Rosie"
starred Aranka Coppens and was directed by Patrice Toye.
(SFC, 9/17/99, p.C3)
2000 May 2, 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 Jun 17, English and German
soccer fans clashed in Charleroi prior to a game in the European Soccer
Championship.
(SFEC, 6/18/00, p.A14)
2000 Jul 19, In Belgium the World
Diamond Congress approved measures to track diamonds and penalties for
dealers who break rules and buy or sell "blood diamonds," those sold to
support civil wars.
(SFC, 7/20/00, p.A12)
2000 Aug 29, The government
announced a package of tax reductions worth $2.9 billion.
(SFC, 9/1/00, p.D2)
2000 Sep 14, Truck drivers agreed
to lift a blockade of highways and fuel depots after 5 days of fuel
cost protests.
(SFC, 9/15/00, p.A14)
2000 Oct 8, In Belgium municipal
and provincial elections showed the far right Flemish Bloc gaining
popular support.
(SFC, 10/9/00, p.A11)
2001 Jan 19, The Belgian
government agreed to decriminalize the use of marijuana.
(SFC, 1/20/01, p.A11)
2001 Mar 27, A train crash at
Pecrot killed 8 people.
(SFC, 3/28/01, p.D4)
2001 Apr 17, In Brussels a jury
was selected for the trial of 4 Rwandans charged with the 1994 massacre
of Tutsis.
(SFC, 4/18/01, p.A12)
2001 Apr 19, Police raided 80
homes of pigeon breeders across the country and confiscated large
quantities of suspicious products. Belgium, the world’s center for
pigeon racing, suspected that pigeons were being doped.
(SFC, 4/20/01, p.D3)
2001 Jul 16, The IOC in Moscow
elected Jacques Rogge (59), a Belgian surgeon, to succeed Juan Antonio
Samaranch.
(SFC, 7/17/01, p.A1)
2001 Nov 23, In Belgium the UN war
crimes tribunal announced that Slobodan Milosevic, former Yugoslav
president, would stand trial on charges of genocide in the 1992-1995
war in Bosnia. Milosevic died in March 2006 while his trial was in
progress.
(SFC, 11/24/01, p.A11)(AP, 11/23/06)
2001 Nov 26, French and Belgian
police arrested 14 people suspected of organizing the Sep 9
assassination of Northern Alliance leader Ahmed Shah Masood. Belgium
released 12 of its suspects the next day.
(WSJ, 11/27/01, p.A1)(WSJ, 11/28/01, p.A1,12)
2001 Dec 13, Some 80,000
antiglobalization protesters rallied in Brussels against an EU
summit set to start the next day.
(WSJ, 12/14/01, p.A1)
2001 Dec 15, EU leaders concluded
a 2-day Council at Laeken, Belgium. The adoption of the Laeken
Declaration on the Future of Europe, established the European
Convention. A constitutional convention was planned. This process was
supposed to simplify the EU’s legal architecture. The admittance of 10
new members over the next 2 years was also planned. The EU declared
their nascent joint military force operational.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_European_Councils)(WSJ, 12/17/01,
p.A14)(Econ, 10/27/07, p.16)
2001 In Belgium a 3-block
tolerance zone for prostitution was established in Antwerp as a test
case for national legalization of prostitution.
(WSJ, 5/26/05, p.A1)
2002 Feb, Bruge 2002 opened. It
had been named as one of two Cultural Capitals of Europe for this year.
The other was Salamanca, Spain.
(SSFC, 2/24/02, p.C5)
2002 May 16, The parliament
approved a euthanasia bill that would give terminally ill patients the
right to die under limited conditions.
(SFC, 5/17/02, p.A20)
2002 Jun 7, Princess Lilian (83),
the 2nd wife of King Leopold III, died.
(SFC, 6/15/02, p.A19)
2002 Jun 26, A Belgian appeals
court tossed out the war crimes case against Israeli PM Sharon, for his
role in the 1982 massacre at the Lebanon Shatila refugee camp, and said
subjects had to be on Belgian soil in order to be investigated and
tried.
(SFC, 6/27/02, p.A8)
2002 Jun 27, Belgian authorities
signed agreements to pay about $55 million to the country's Jewish
community for property lost during the Nazi occupation.
(AP, 6/27/02)
2002 Jul 16, Belgian banks signed
agreements to pay some $54 million to the country’s Jewish community
for property lost during the Nazi occupation.
(SFC, 7/17/02, p.A9)
2002 Jul, Customs inspectors in
Belgium noted irregularities in medical shipments from Senegal. It was
determined that some 3 million doses of Glaxo HIV drugs worth $18
million had been diverted from Africa back to Europe for sale.
(SFC, 10/3/02, p.A10)
2003 Jan 29, Belgium said oil
leaking from the sunken cargo ship Tricolor (Dec 14) is washing up on
the Belgian coastline, damaging wildlife and beaches.
(AP, 1/30/03)
2003 Jan 30, Belgium officially
recognized gay marriages.
(SFC, 1/31/03, p.A9)
2003 Feb 16, In Belgium
thieves over the weekend emptied more than 100 vaults at a diamond
trading center in what officials said might be the largest theft ever
in Antwerp.
(AP, 2/18/03)
2003 Mar 19, EU officials found
electronic bugs in a building in Brussels where a summit was set to
open the next day. Belgian police suspected the US.
(WSJ, 3/20/03, p.A1)
2003 Apr 5, The Belgian Senate
approved a measure gutting a 1993 war crimes law.
(AP, 4/6/03)
2003 Apr 12, Belgium's Prince
Laurent married English-born commoner Claire Coombs in an elaborate
state ceremony.
(AP, 4/12/03)
2003 Apr 29, The leaders of
France, Germany, Belgium and Luxembourg, all critics of the U.S.-led
war on Iraq, agreed to beef up their military cooperation in an effort
to make Europe's defense less reliant on the US.
(AP, 4/29/03)
2003 May 14, A Belgian attorney
filed suit against US Gen. Tommy Franks and Col. Brian P. McCoy for war
crimes in the war in Iraq. The use of some 1,500 cluster bombs in Iraq
was part of the suit.
(SFC, 5/15/03, p.A6)
2003 May 18, Belgium held
parliamentary elections. PM Guy Verhofstadt and his center-left
coalition of free-market liberals and socialists won the elections. The
Greens suffered a huge defeat in both Dutch-speaking Flanders and
Wallonia. The socialists scored even stronger gains than their liberal
coalition partners.
(AP, 5/19/03)
2003 Jun 13, Belgium's foreign
minister said the country has already amended its war crimes laws to
avoid politically inspired lawsuits against US officials.
(AP, 6/13/03)
2003 Jun 22, The Belgian
government agreed on changes to narrow a war crimes law and prevent
complaints against foreign leaders that have provoked vehement
criticism from the US.
(AP, 6/22/03)
2003 Jul 12, In Belgium PM Guy
Verhofstadt took office as head of a new center-left government and
immediately agreed to replace a war crimes law that has soured
Belgium's relations with the United States.
(AP, 7/13/03)
2003 Jul, Vincent Van Quickenborne
was named Belgium’s 1st sec. of state for administrative simplification.
(WSJ, 5/20/04, p.A11)
2003 Aug 1, The Belgian Senate
gave final approval to a scaled-down war crimes law that the government
hopes will repair relations with Washington and preserve Belgium's role
as NATO headquarters.
(AP, 8/1/03)
2003 Sep 30, Eighteen
accused al-Qaida sympathizers were convicted in Belgium's biggest
terrorism trial. Nizar Trabelsi of Tunisia, who once played
professional soccer in Germany, received the maximum sentence of 10
years in prison from a court that also convicted 17 other men and
acquitted five others.
(AP, 9/30/03)(AP, 9/30/08)
2003 Dec 20, A German bus swerved
off a Belgian highway, crashed against a concrete divider and caught
fire, killing 12 people and injuring dozens more.
(AP, 12/20/03)
2004 Mar, Interbrew SA, based in
Belgium, was set to become the world's largest brewer by volume
following the acquisition of Brazil's AmBev.
(WSJ, 3/10/04, p.A1)
2004 Apr 2, In Brussels an
official ceremony welcomed Bulgaria, Estonia, Lithuania, Latvia,
Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia into the NATO alliance.
(SFC, 4/3/04, p.A11)
2004 Apr 27, Libyan leader Moammar
Gadhafi arrived in Brussels, his first trip to Europe in 15 years.
Gadhafi sought "full normalization" of relations and entry to the aid
and trade program the EU runs with countries around the Mediterranean,
including Israel.
(AP, 4/27/04)
2004 Jun 17, A jury in Brussels,
Belgium, convicted Marc Dutroux (47), an ex-convict, of abducting 6
girls in 1995-96. It also found him guilty of murdering 2 of the girls
and an accomplice.
(AP, 6/17/04)
2004 Jun 21, Ephrem Nkezabera
(52), a former Rwandan banker, was arrested in Brussels and held on
charges of genocide and crimes against humanity in the 1994 Rwandan
massacre.
(AP, 7/30/04)
2004 Jul 30, In Belgium a major
natural gas pipeline exploded in Ath, killing 16 people and injuring
120, including firefighters and police responding to a report of a leak.
(AP, 7/30/04)(WSJ, 8/2/04, p.A1)
2004 Aug, An $11 billion merger
between Belgium’s Interbrew and Brazil’s largest brewer AmBev formed
InBev.
(Econ, 10/29/05, p.66)
2004 Sep 23, In Belgium a woman
gave birth to a healthy baby after doctors had transplanted ovarian
tissue, frozen since 1997, back into her abdomen.
(SFC, 9/24/04, p.A1)
2005 Jan 1, Belgium was forecast
for 2.5% GDP growth with a population at 10.4 million and GDP per head
at $36,430.
(Econ, 1/8/05, p.87)
2005 Feb 20, President Bush land
in Belgium to begin a five-day European trip aimed at fostering a
friendly atmosphere early in his second term.
(AP, 2/20/05)
2005 Feb 21, In Brussels President
Bush appealed to Europe to move beyond animosities over Iraq and join
forces in encouraging democratic reforms across the Middle East. He
also prodded Russia to reverse a crackdown on political dissent,
demanded that Iran end its nuclear ambitions and told Syria to get out
of Lebanon.
(AP, 2/21/05)(SFC, 2/22/05, p.A1)
2005 Feb 22, In Belgium a Nato
summit announced a 12-year program to destroy Soviet-era weapons in
Ukraine.
(WSJ, 2/22/05, p.A1)
2005 May 21, The Belgian film “The
Child,” by Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne, won the Palme d’Or at the
Cannes Film Festival.
(SSFC, 5/22/05, p.A2)
2005 Jul 17, Egypt demanded that
institutions in Britain and Belgium return two pharaonic reliefs it
says were chipped off tombs and stolen 30 years ago, threatening to end
their archaeological work here if they refuse.
(AP, 7/17/05)
2005 Aug 9, Suez, a French water
and power company, announced a $14 billion purchase of 49.9% of the
shares of Electrabel, a Belgian electricity firm.
(Econ, 8/13/05, p.52)
2005 Sep 6, Father Guy Theunis, a
Belgian priest, was arrested in Rwanda on suspicion of involvement in
the 1994 genocide. Judicial sources said Theunis was accused of
republishing extracts of items from an extremist magazine known as
"Kangura" which they said incited hatred and violence.
(AP, 9/8/05)
2005 Sep 11, A Rwandan community
court charged Guy Theunis (60), a Belgian missionary, with inciting and
planning the 1994 genocide that left more than half a million people
dead.
(AP, 9/12/05)
2005 Sep 19, Belgium issued an
international arrest warrant for Chad's former leader Hissene Habre,
charging him with atrocities during his 1982-90 rule. Habre, who lives
in exile in Senegal, is being pursued under Belgium's "universal
jurisdiction" laws, which allow for prosecutions for crimes against
humanity wherever they were committed.
(AP, 9/29/05)
2005 Nov 9, In Belgium over half a
dozen fires were reported in several cities, including the capital of
Brussels, in the 4th day of vandal attacks, most of which remained
minor. No injuries were reported, and several people were taken into
custody for questioning by police.
(AP, 11/10/05)
2005 Nov 9, Muriel Degauque, a
Belgian national married to a Moroccan man, detonated explosives
strapped to her body in a failed attack against US troops.
(AP, 12/01/05)
2005 Nov 13, Belgium said it
registered its worst night in a week of attacks on vehicles apparently
inspired by French events, with 29 cars, trucks and buses torched
around the country.
(AP, 11/13/05)
2005 Nov 25, In Belgium a one-day
strike interrupted production at the Volkswagen AG plant in the
outskirts of Brussels as trade unions protested planned government
changes to retirement policy.
(AP, 11/25/05)
2005 Nov 30, Belgian police
arrested 14 people in raids on several homes as part of a probe into a
woman thought to be the first European female suicide bomber in Iraq.
(AFP, 11/30/05)
2005 Dec 22, A decomposed body
discovered in a Brussels canal a week ago was reported to be that of
Juvenal Uwilingiyimana, a Rwandan former minister indicted by a UN
tribunal on charges of genocide.
(AFP, 12/23/05)
2005 Dec 28, Officials said UN
Secretary-General Kofi Annan has nominated Serge Brammertz, a Belgian
prosecutor, to lead the next stage of a probe into the assassination of
former Lebanese PM Rafik Hariri.
(AP, 12/28/05)
2005 In Belgium deaths from
traffic accidents reached 11.2 per 100,000 inhabitants. Blame was put
on the lack of stop signs at most intersections.
(WSJ, 9/25/06, p.A1)
2006 Jan 23, Belgian brewer InBev
NV, the world's largest brewery by volume, said it has agreed to buy
the largest brewer in China's Fujian province for 614 million euros
($740 million).
(AP, 1/23/06)
2006 Jan 27, Belgium’s food safety
agency closed 96 pig and chicken farms as it traced the source of
dioxins found by a Dutch firm last week back to a vat of Belgian pork
fat.
(AP, 1/30/06)
2006 Feb 16, A Belgian court found
three men guilty of belonging to an Islamic group linked to terrorist
attacks in Madrid and Casablanca and sentenced them to at least six
years in jail.
(AP, 2/17/06)
2006 Mar 17, Exiled Syrian
opposition figures in Belgium formed a united front, calling for a
transitional government to prepare for the overthrow of President
Bashar Assad's regime.
(AP, 3/17/06)
2006 Mar 31, A lucky Belgian won
the jackpot of 75,753,123 euros (53 million pounds) in the European
lottery EuroMillions.
(Reuters, 4/1/06)
2006 Apr 12, Joe Van Holsbeeck
(17) was stabbed to death at the Brussels Central train station in a
robbery by 2 men for his MP3 player. On August 2 a Polish teen,
suspected in the murder, was extradited to Belgium and taken into
police custody.
(AP,
8/2/06)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe_Van_Holsbeeck)
2006 Apr 20, The Belgian
parliament narrowly approved a bill to grant same-sex couples equal
rights in adoption. Belgium became the fourth European Union member
state to allow same-sex couples equal rights in adoption, after Spain,
the Netherlands and Sweden.
(AP, 4/21/06)
2006 May 11, In Antwerp, Belgium,
a gunman (18) shot and wounded a woman of Turkish descent, then he
turned his rifle on a black woman from Mali and the 2-year-old white
girl in her care, killing both. In 2007 Hans Van Themsche was sentenced
to life in prison for the killings.
(AP, 5/12/06)(AP, 10/11/07)
2006 Jun 6, The Spanish interior
ministry said that 67 suspects had been arrested for accessing child
porn on the Internet over the past five days. The international police
operation arrested 38 in France, 10 in Spain, 9 in Slovakia, 7 in
Belgium and 3 in the Netherlands.
(AP, 6/6/06)
2006 Jun 28, Belgian authorities
confirmed the discovery of a second body in their search for two
missing schoolgirls. Stepsisters, Stacy Lemmens (7) and Nathalie Mahy
(10), had disappeared from a street party on June 10.
(AP, 6/28/06)
2006 Aug 7, Belgian officials said
thefts of drain covers in Charleroi have soared in recent days as
skyrocketing metal prices have made them lucrative.
(Reuters, 8/8/06)
2006 Sep 2, In Nevada’s Black Rock
Desert the Burning Man art festival culminated with the burning of a
40-foot wooden man. It included a Belgian art installation titled
“Uchronia” (aka the Belgian Waffle), a 250,000, 15-story wooden cavern
funded by Jan Kriekels and constructed by 90 Belgium artists.
(SSFC, 9/3/06, p.B1)
2006 Sep 18, A court in Belgium
ordered Google to remove all links to French and German language
newspaper reports published in Belgium due to copyright laws.
(SFC, 9/19/06, p.D7)
2006 Sep 25, UCB, a Belgian drug
firm, announced a takeover of Germany’s Schwarz Pharma for €4.4 billion.
(Econ, 9/30/06, p.71)
2006 Sep 28, Belgian government
officials said the transfer of confidential banking records by a
Belgium-based company to US authorities for use in anti-terrorism
investigations breached Belgian and likely European Union data privacy
rules.
(AP, 9/28/06)
2006 Oct 8, Early results showed
the party of Belgium's PM Guy Verhofstadt giving ground to a far-right,
anti-immigrant party in bellwether local elections.
(AP, 10/8/06)
2006 Nov 4, Swathes of Austria,
Belgium, Croatia, France, Italy, Spain, Portugal, and the Netherlands
and went dark for up to an hour in the late evening as cold Germans
rushing to switch on heaters sucked up electricity from Europe's
interconnected networks.
(AP, 11/5/06)
2006 Dec 2, At least 15,000
demonstrators marched through Brussels in protest at planned job cuts
at the Belgian factory of German car maker Volkswagen.
(AP, 12/2/06)
2006 Dec 13, A fictional TV
program in Belgium incited viewers as it depicted a faux active revolt
in Flanders.
(SFC, 12/15/06, p.A23)
2007 Jan 19, Belgian lawyers
confirmed that a group of Belgian newspapers had asked Yahoo! Inc. to
remove links to their archived stories from its Web search service,
claiming they infringe copyright laws.
(AP, 1/19/07)
2007 Feb 13, A Belgian court ruled
that Google may not reproduce extracts from a variety of Belgian
newspapers, imperiling one of the web search leader's most popular
services if other courts follow suit.
(Reuters, 2/13/07)
2007 Feb 13, In Belgium a
government-backed report blamed Belgian authorities and the ruling
elite for collaborating with the Nazi persecution of Jews during World
War II.
(AP, 2/13/07)
2007 Feb 28, In Belgium a mother
killed her five children, then tried to commit suicide at the family's
home. The four girls and a boy, aged between 4 and 14, were stabbed
with a knife. The woman called emergency services, then tried to kill
herself.
(AP, 2/28/07)
2007 Mar 1, Belgian firefighters
clashed with police, trading barrages from water cannons during a
chaotic demonstration near the nation's parliament, injuring six
people. The firefighters sought better working conditions, earlier
retirement and better compensation when they are injured.
(AP, 3/1/07)
2007 Mar 12, In Belgium officials
said a man last week stole $28 million worth of diamonds from an
Antwerp bank. He had been a trusted customer there for a year using a
stolen Argentine passport. The bank discovered the theft on March 5,
believing that someone took the stones that morning or the previous
Friday from a vault used by pawnbrokers and diamond cutters.
(AP, 3/12/07)
2007 Apr 2, A UN conference on
climate change opened in Belgium with the EU's top environment official
calling on the US to join efforts to curb global warming.
(AP, 4/2/07)
2007 Apr 15, In Belgium 2 men
hijacked a helicopter and forced the pilot to land in a prison
courtyard, where they picked up an inmate in a dramatic jailbreak.
RTL-TVI identified the fugitive as a Frenchman who was in pretrial
detention on charges of fraud and theft.
(AP, 4/15/07)
2007 Apr 19, Former Rwandan army
major Bernard Ntuyahaga went on trial in Brussels, charged with the
murder of 10 Belgian peacekeepers and the Rwandan prime minister in
1994.
(AP, 4/19/07)
2007 May 1, Thirty people were
arrested in raids across Belgium, England, and the Netherlands
targeting suspected animal rights extremists.
(AP, 5/1/07)
2007 May 5, Belgium’s daily La
Derniere Heure reported that prosecutors in Brussels, overwhelmed by
the number of speeding fines imposed since fixed radar traps were
installed, have asked police to let off all but the worst offenders,
angering local mayors.
(Reuters, 5/7/07)
2007 May 10, Talks in Brussels
between NATO's top generals and their Russian counterpart failed to
narrow the gap between Moscow and the West over missile defense and
arms control in Europe.
(AP, 5/10/07)
2007 Jun 10, Belgians voted in
legislative elections widely expected to hand defeat to PM Guy
Verhofstadt, dashing his hopes for a third term after eight years in
office.
(AFP, 6/10/07)
2007 Jun 11, Belgian PM Guy
Verhofstadt's Liberal-Socialist coalition government resigned, a day
after conservatives, led by Christian Democrats, posted big gains in
general elections.
(AP, 6/11/07)
2007 Jun 16, Planes remained
grounded at Brussels south Charleroi airport as a strike by security
officers entered a second day.
(AFP, 6/16/07)
2007 Jun 23, A Belgian teenager
was arrested for hacking and temporarily shutting down the federal
police website, leaving a mocking on-line note which helped identify
him.
(AFP, 6/26/07)
2007 Jul 5, A Belgian court
sentenced Bernard Ntuyahaga (55), a former Rwandan army major, to 20
years in prison on for the murder of 10 Belgian peacekeepers and an
undetermined number of Rwandan civilians at the start of the 1994
genocide.
(Reuters, 7/5/07)
2007 Aug 8, Researchers from
Belgium and China said a simple blood test can detect early stage liver
cancer and more accurately diagnose the disease that is a major killer
in Asia and Africa.
(Reuters, 8/9/07)
2007 Sep 5, The Belgian-based
International Polar Foundation unveiled what it claimed to be the
world's first zero-emissions polar science station in Antarctica to
conduct research on climate change.
(AP, 9/5/07)
2007 Oct 13, Belgian Countess
Andree De Jongh (90), who set up an escape route that helped hundreds
of British airmen flee the Nazi occupation of Belgium during World War
II, died. De Jongh, a female nurse in a men's world of war resistance,
helped found the Comet Line escape route while still in 1940. By the
time she was arrested in 1943, she had already brought 118 people,
including 80 downed pilots to safety.
(AP, 10/14/07)
2007 Oct 23, It was reported that
police patrolling the red-light district of the Belgian capital have
been ordered to stop visiting brothels and drinking in bars when on
duty.
(Reuters, 10/23/07)
2007 Oct 28,
Nordin Benallal, a Belgian inmate, made a dramatic escape from
jail for the fourth time after his armed accomplices landed in the
prison grounds in a hijacked helicopter. On landing, the helicopter was
crowded by other prisoners, making takeoff impossible and causing it to
crash. Benallal and his cohorts then briefly seized two prison warders
as hostages and fled in a car parked nearby.
(Reuters, 10/29/07)
2007 Oct 30, Nordin Benallal (27),
a Belgian gangster dubbed "The Eel" for his skill at slipping away from
Belgian prison authorities, was caught in the Netherlands two days
after his latest jailbreak.
(AP, 10/31/07)
2007 Nov 5, Authorities said
police from across Europe have arrested 92 suspects linked to an
alleged network that produced and sold child abuse videos to 2,500
customers around the world. The 15-month investigation was triggered by
an Australian police discovery in July 2006 of a video depicting a
Belgian father raping his daughters, aged 9 and 11.
(AP, 11/5/07)
2007 Nov 7, In Belgium politicians
of the Flemish majority, 60% of the population, made a bid to abolish
the bilingual rights of 150,000 French speakers living in suburbs near
Brussels. This broke the decades-old “Belgian Pact” under which the 2
language groups avoided holding a straight sectarian vote.
(Econ, 11/10/07, p.65)
2007 Nov 16, Belgium researchers
studying the collective behavior of insects said tiny robots programmed
to act like roaches were able to blend into cockroach society.
Cockroaches tend to self-organize into leaderless groups, seeming to
reach consensus on where to rest together.
(AP, 11/17/07)
2007 Nov 27, In Brussels Valdas
Adamkus, President of Lithuania, was declared ”European of the Year‘ at
the annual EV50 gala awards ceremony hosted by European Voice.
President Adamkus was nominated as one of 50 ”Europeans of the Year‘.
The 2007 winners of the EV50 awards were chosen by European Voice
readers from among 50 nominees, selected by a distinguished panel of
leading opinion-formers.
(http://tinyurl.com/2phf99)
2007 Dec 1, The head of Belgium's
Flemish Christian Democrats abandoned efforts to form a coalition
government, after more than five months of fruitless talks, plunging
the country further into crisis.
(AP, 12/1/07)
2007 Dec 15, Some 20,000 Belgians
demonstrated in Brussels against the erosion of their spending power as
the country's months-old political crisis begins to hit people's
pockets.
(AP, 12/15/07)
2007 Dec 19, Leaders of Belgium's
feuding Dutch- and French-speaking parties agreed to form an interim
government to run the country in the short term, while a more permanent
solution to the political crisis is sought.
(AP, 12/19/07)
2007 Dec 20, Radio Rwanda reported
that the Belgian government has this month given Rwanda 39.5 million
euros (56.6 million dollars), mainly to help its small former colony
with power supplies, health and education.
(AP, 12/20/07)
2007 Dec 21, Belgian police
arrested 14 Muslim extremists suspected of planning the jailbreak of an
al-Qaida prisoner convicted of plotting a terrorist attack on US air
base personnel. They were released the next day after a court decided
there was insufficient evidence to hold them for more than 24 hours.
(AP, 12/21/07)(AP, 12/22/07)
2007 Dec 30, Belgian officials
said traditional New Year's Eve fireworks in central Brussels have been
canceled due to a continuing terror threat in the capital.
(AP, 12/30/07)
2008 Jan 11, Belgium, France and
Poland pledged to provide the resources needed to launch a European
Union peacekeeping force for Chad and the Central African Republic.
(AP, 1/11/08)
2008 Jan 18, In Yemen gunmen
believed to be al-Qaida militants opened fire on a tourist convoy near
the ancestral home of Osama bin Laden, killing two Belgian women and
their Yemeni driver.
(AP, 1/18/08)
2008 Jan, Belgium began sending
out inspectors to daily check on 150 randomly selected sick and not so
sick civil servants. Some government departments were averaging 35 days
of sick leave per year.
(WSJ, 1/9/08, p.A1)
2008 Feb 29, In Belgium lawyers
said Belgian writer Misha Defonseca (71) has admitted that she made up
her best-selling memoir, "Misha: A Memoire of the Holocaust Years,"
depicting how, as a Jewish child, she lived with a pack of wolves in
the woods during the Holocaust.
(AP, 2/29/08)
2008 Mar 11, The Belgian
government and banks agreed to pay $170 million to Holocaust survivors,
families of victims and the Jewish community for their material losses
during Word War II.
(AP, 3/11/08)
2008 Mar 17, Hannaford Bros., a
grocery store chain in the Northeast US and Florida owned by Belgium’s
Delhaize Group SA, disclosed that as many as 4.2 million customer
account numbers had been stolen between Dec 7 and Mar 10. The intrusion
was not discovered until Feb 27 and occurred over a network system that
experts had believed to be secure.
(WSJ, 3/31/08, p.B4)
2008 Mar 18, Five Belgian parties
sealed a deal for a coalition government under Christian Democrat Yves
Leterme, ending a political limbo which threatened to split the
linguistically divided country.
(AP, 3/18/08)
2008 Mar 20, Flemish Christian
Democrat Yves Leterme took over as Belgian prime minister, ending nine
months of deadlock.
(AP, 3/20/08)
2008 Apr 13, The winners of this
year’s Goldman Awards were reported to be: Feliciano dos Santos (43) of
Mozambique, the director of Estamos, an environmental group promoting
sanitation, sustainable development and reforestation; Marina
Rikhvanova (46), founder of Baikal Environmental Wave, which forced the
rerouting of an oil pipeline in the Baikal basin; Pablo Fajardo (35)
and Luis Yanza (48) of Ecuador, co-founders of the Amazon Defense
Front, which accused Texaco (now Chevron) of dumping oil and wastewater
into local streams; Rosa Hilda Ramos (63) of Puerto Rico, head of a
movement to protect the Las Cicharillas Marsh; Ignace Schops (43) of
Belgium, head of a movement to establish Belgium’s 1st and only
national park; Jesus Leon (42) of Mexico, co-founder of the Center for
Integral Small Farmer Development of the Mixtec (CEDICAM).
(SSFC, 4/13/08, p.A4)
2008 May 24, Belgian police in
Brussels arrested Jean-Pierre Bemba (45), a Congolese warlord and
ex-presidential candidate, after he was secretly charged with rape and
torture. Bemba was accused of war crimes and crimes against humanity as
head of a militia that allegedly committed atrocities in Central
African Republic's conflict in 2002-2003.
(AP, 5/25/08)
2008 Jun 4, In Belgium riot police
armed with shields and batons charged hundreds of protesting fishermen
outside EU headquarters after a demonstration over high fuel prices
turned violent.
(AP, 6/4/08)
2008 Jun 11, InBev, the
Belgian-Brazilian brewing giant, offered $46 billion, or 65 dollars a
share, in cash for Anheuser-Busch in a bid to create an unrivaled
global brewing giant.
(AFP, 6/12/08)(Econ, 6/21/08, p.77)
2008 Jun 18, In Belgium hundreds
of farmers, truckers and taxi drivers blocked roads in and around
Brussels on the eve of an EU summit to push leaders for help coping
with skyrocketing fuel prices.
(AP, 6/18/08)
2008 Jul 13, Belgian-based brewer
InBev announced it will buy Anheuser-Busch for $52 billion.
(http://www.kansascity.com/382/story/703682.html)
2008 Jul 15, Belgium PM Yves
Leterme offered King Albert the resignation of his government after he
acknowledged he would not make a deadline for a constitutional reform
deal despite months of talks. He offered to resign after realizing it
would be impossible to resolve deep divisions over increased autonomy
for French- and Dutch-speaking Belgians.
(AP, 7/15/08)
2008 Jul 17, Belgium's King Albert
II refused to accept the resignation of the prime minister and his
government, calling on key officials to redouble efforts to resolve an
longtime disagreement over more self-rule for the country's Dutch and
French speakers.
(AP, 7/18/08)
2008 Sep 28, The governments of
Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg took partial control of
struggling bank Fortis NV.
(AP, 9/29/08)
2008 Oct 31, In southern Egypt
tourist bus overturned, killing six Belgian tourists and injuring 26
other Belgian passengers.
(AP, 10/31/08)
2008 Nov 17, Guy Peellaert
(b.1934), Belgian painter and collagist, died. His work included the
book “Rock Dreams” (1974), published in collaboration with British rock
journalist Nik Cohn.
(SSFC, 11/23/08, p.B8)
2008 Nov 18, Belgian brewing giant
InBev announced it had completed the takeover of Anheuser-Busch to
create the world's biggest brewer. Beijing agreed to Belgium-based
InBev SA's takeover of Anheuser-Busch Cos. Inc.'s Chinese operations as
part of their global merger, but limited future acquisitions on
anti-monopoly grounds.
(AP, 11/18/08)
2008 Nov 27, In China assailants
allegedly pulled members of a Belgian television crew from their
vehicle, beat them and took their notes and money. VRT asked for
compensation for damaged equipment, an apology to the journalists and a
guarantee that the journalists will be able to work safely.
(AP, 12/2/08)
2008 Dec 11, Police in Brussels
and eastern Belgium detained 14 suspected al-Qaida-linked extremists in
raids, including one militant who allegedly was plotting a suicide
attack.
(AP, 12/11/08)
2008 Dec 12, Belgian authorities
charged six suspected al-Qaida-linked extremists with membership in a
terrorist group. They including a woman whose husband was involved in
the assassination of Afghanistan's top anti-Taliban warlord shortly
before the Sept. 11 attacks in 2001.
(AP, 12/12/08)
2008 Dec 20, Belgium's King Albert
consulted political leaders after the government collapsed for the
third time in a year following its botched attempt to bail out
financial group Fortis.
(AP, 12/20/08)
2008 Dec 30, Belgium's Flemish
Christian Democrat Herman Van Rompuy reached agreement on a new
coalition government of five parties, opening the way for his
nomination as prime minister by King Albert II. A new government took
office that is nearly a replica of the quarrelsome alliance of
Christian Democrats, Liberals and Socialists that quit earlier this
month in a bank bailout scandal.
(AP, 12/30/08)
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End of file.