Timeline Denmark
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Greenland, the
world’s largest island, is an autonomous territory of Denmark. Denmark
has 483 islands.
(SFC, 5/9/97, p.A4)(SSFC, 12/17/00, WB p.2)
9000BC-4000BC
The finest record of Mesolithic and Neolithic peoples exists in
Denmark, due to the country’s numerous bogs.
(PacDis, Winter/’97, p.9)
c7,000BC Early Danish Mesolithic: In the Maglemose
culture large amber pendants were hardly changed.
(PacDis, Winter/’97, p.8)
2400BC-1500BC Late Danish Neolithic: In the Ertebolle
Culture amber pendants were shaped as animals. This includes the Dagger
Period of Northern Europe.
(PacDis, Winter/’97, p.8)(http://tinyurl.com/9usqn)
400-500 During this period the Jutes of Jutland, at
the northern tip of the Danish peninsula, migrated to Britain as part
of a Germanic invasion. The notion that they settled in what is now
Kent and the Isle of Wight, as is recorded by Anglo-Saxon chronicler
Bede the Venerable, has been confirmed by archaeological evidence.
(HNQ, 10/7/00)
700-800 Vikings settled the Faeroe Islands in the 8th
century replacing Irish settlers. In 1948 the group of 18 islands,
located between Britain and Iceland, became an autonomous region of
Denmark.
(SSFC, 7/29/07,
p.G8)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Faroe_Islands)
800-900 In Scandinavia Futhark evolved around the 9th
century. Instead of 24 letters, the Scandinavian "Younger" Futhark had
16 letters. In England, Anglo-Saxon Futhorc started to be replaced by
the Latin alphabet by the 9th century, and did not survive much more
past the Norman Conquest. Futhark continued to be used in Scandinavia
for centuries longer, but by 1600 CE, it had become nothing more than
curiosities among scholars and antiquarians.
(www.ancientscripts.com/futhark.html)
870 Dec 31, Skirmish at
Englefield. Ethelred of Wessex beat back a Danish invasion army.
(MC, 12/31/01)
871 Jan 4, Ethelred of Wessex was
defeated by Danish forces at Reading.
(PCh, 1992, p.72)
871 Jan 8, Ethelred of Wessex
defeated the Danish forces at Ashdown.
(PCh, 1992, p.72)
871 Mar 2, Battle at Marton:
Ethelred van Wessex (d.871) beat the Danish invasion army. Ethelred
died in April and his brother Alfred (22) took over. Alfred became
Alfred the Great and ruled until 899.
(PCh, 1992, p.72)(SC, 3/2/02)
878 King Alfred faced the invading
Danes. In 1911 G.K. Chesterton authored the historical novel “The
Ballad of the White Horse” set in England during this time.
(SSFC, 4/22/07, p.P10)
959 The Viking (Danish) ruler Gorm
the Old, the father of Harald Bluetooth, died.
(AM, 11/00, p.21)
959-987 Harald Bluetooth, or Harald Blatand,
10th-century king of Denmark, attributed to himself the unification of
Denmark and the Christianization of the Danes. He also conquered Norway
and raided Normandy. He was later invaded and defeated by German
emperor Otto II.
(HNQ, 9/3/98)(AM, 11/00, p.21)
960 Denmark's King Harald
Bluetooth was baptized.
(Econ, 6/28/03, p.55)
979-1016 Aethelred II, the Unrede (Unready), ruled
over England. He attempted to buy peace from Scandinavian invaders and
called for England’s 1st general tax, the Danegeld. Some 140,000 pounds
of silver was paid in tribute.
(WSJ, 5/24/01, p.A20)
991 Aug 11, Danes under Olaf
Tryggvason killed Ealdorman Brihtnoth and defeated the Saxons at Maldon.
(HN, 8/10/98)
1002 Nov 13, English king Ethelred
II launched a massacre of Danish settlers.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethelred_the_Unready)
1014 Feb 3, Sweyn Forkbeard
(b.960), Danish-born Viking king of England (1013-14), died.
(www.nndb.com/people/718/000093439/)
1014 Apr 23, The Battle of Contarf
ended Danish rule in Ireland but a Dane killed Irish King Brian Boru
(87).
(PCh, 1992, p.80)(MC, 4/23/02)
1016 Oct 18, Danes defeated the
Saxons at Battle of Assandun (Ashingdon).
(MC, 10/18/01)
1016-1035 Canute the Great of Denmark became King of
England.
(AHD, 1971, p.198)
1018-1035 Canute the Great became King of Denmark as
well as King of England.
(AHD, 1971, p.198)
1035 Nov 12, King Canute (b.994)
died at age 39. He was king of Denmark, England and Norway (1014-1035).
(HN, 11/12/98)(MC, 11/12/01)
1047 Oct 25, Magnus I Godhi, king
of Norway and Denmark (1035-47), died.
(MC, 10/25/01)
1076AD The Danish King Svein Estrithson died.
(DrEE, 1/4/97, p.3)
1086 Jul 10, Knut IV, the Saint,
king of Denmark (1080-86), was murdered.
(MC, 7/10/02)
1200-1300 The Danes built a castle at Narva, Estonia.
(WSJ, 1/25/99, p.A1)
1380 Iceland fell under Danish
control.
(HNQ, 4/28/00)
1387-1412 Denmark’s Queen Margrete I ruled.
(SFC, 11/8/00, p.B7)
1397 Jun 20, The Union of Kalmar
united Denmark, Sweden, and Norway under one monarch. The alliance grew
out of the dynastic ties of the Scandinavian countries of Denmark,
Norway and Sweden in response to rising German influence in the Baltic.
The union lasted from 1397 to 1523.
(HN, 6/20/98)(HNQ, 7/22/00)
1494 Feb 20, Johan Friis (d.1570),
chancellor of Denmark (1532-1570), was born in Sweden. He helped formed
Lutheranism.
(http://tinyurl.com/7vnad)
1513 Christian II became King of
Denmark and Norway. He later asserted his right to the Swedish throne
by force of arms.
(TL-MB, p.10)
1520 Nov 4, Danish-Norwegian king
Christian II was crowned king of Sweden.
(MC, 11/4/01)
1523 Christian II was deposed in
Denmark after a civil war and was exiled. His uncle became King
Frederick I of Denmark and Norway.
(TL-MB, p.12)
1524 Denmark confirmed Swedish
independence under Gustavus Vasa in the Treaty of Malmo.
(TL-MB, p.12)
1546 Dec 14, Tycho Brahe (d.1601),
astronomer, was born in Knudstrup, Denmark. He constructed the most
precise astronomical instruments of his time.
(SCTS, p.136)(HN, 12/14/00)(MC, 12/14/01)
1560 Aug 21, Tycho Brahe
(1546-1601) became interested in astronomy.
(SC, 8/21/02)
1561 Poland-Lithuania gaining
control over Livonia. In response Sweden seized the territory of
Estonia with the major port of Reval. Denmark, also invested in
the war, seized the Livonian Islands.
(http://tinyurl.com/bngyy)
1562 Aug, Denmark under Frederick
II declared war against Sweden beginning the First Northern War
(1563-1570). The war ended with the Treaty of Stettin (1570).
(http://tinyurl.com/9jgkk)
1570 Dec 5, Johan Friis,
chancellor of Denmark (b.1532), died. his share of spoliated Church
property had made him one of the wealthiest men in Denmark. Under King
Frederick II (1559-1588), who understood but little of state affairs,
Friis was well-nigh omnipotent. He was largely responsible for the
Scandinavian Seven Years' War (1562-1570), which did so much to
exacerbate the relations between Denmark and Sweden.
(http://tinyurl.com/7vnad)
1570 Dec 15, The Peace of Stettin
was concluded in Livonia. Denmark recognized the independence of Sweden
in the Peace of Stettin. Sweden gave up her claim to Norway.
(TL-MB,
p.22)(http://depts.washington.edu/baltic/papers/livonianwar.htm)
1572 Nov 11, A supernova was
observed in constellation known as Cassiopeia. Tycho Brahe, Danish
astronomer, discovered a nova in the constellation of Cassiopeia. It is
described in detail in his book "De Nova Stella." The light eventually
became as bright as Venus and could be seen for two weeks in broad
daylight. After 16 months, it disappeared.
(V.D.-H.K.p.197)(www.seds.org/~spider/spider/Vars/sn1572.html)(AP,
12/4/08)
1587 Jan 8, Johannes Fabricius,
astronomer who discovered sunspots, was born in Denmark.
(HN, 1/8/99)(MC, 1/8/02)
1588 Frederick II of Denmark died
and was succeeded by his 10 year-old son, Christian IV.
(TL-MB, p.24)
1588 Tycho Brahe, Danish
astronomer, had his financial support cut by a new Danish king and
moved to Prague where his student, Johannes Kepler, aided him and to
whom he left all his astronomical data.
(V.D.-H.K.p.197)
1602 Denmark imposed a strict
trade monopoly and cut off Iceland's products from lucrative markets.
(SFEC, 9/19/99, p.A18)
1626 Aug 27, The Danes were
crushed by the Catholic League in Germany, marking the end of Danish
intervention in European wars.
(HN, 8/27/98)
1644 Sep 25, Olaus Rímer,
1st to accurately measured speed of light, was born in Denmark.
(MC, 9/25/01)
1676 Ole Christensen Romer
(Roemer), Danish astronomer, derived a speed of light of 130,000 miles
per second based on his observations of Io, the innermost moon of
Jupiter.
(http://inkido.indiana.edu/a100/timeline2.html)(NH,
2/05, p.19)
1679 May 14, Peder [Nielsen]
Horrebow, Danish astronomer, was born.
(MC, 5/14/02)
1684 Dec 3, Ludvig Baron Holberg,
founder of Danish & Norwegian literature, was born.
(MC, 12/3/01)
1698 Aug 18, After invading
Denmark and capturing Sweden, Charles XII of Sweden forced Frederick IV
of Denmark to sign the Peace of Travendal.
(HN, 8/18/98)
1725 Czar Peter the Great chose
Vitus Bering (44), a Danish seaman in the Russian navy, to lead an
expedition to discover whether or not Asia was connected to America.
(ON, 2/06, p.1)
1728 Vitus Bering (47), Danish
explorer in the Russian navy, discovered the Bering Strait between Asia
and North America.
(PCh, 1992, p.286)(ON, 2/06, p.1)
1729-1801 The Danish East India Company was chartered
to carry on trade in the East Indies.
(WUD, 1994, p.449)
1732 Apr 17, The 2nd Kamchatka
Expedition was announced in the Russian Senate and Vitus Bering was
named as captain commander. I.K. Kirilov, chief secretary of the
senate, expanded Bering’s mandate to include astronomical and
scientific observations, to explore the seas between Siberia and Japan
and to establish trade relations with peoples encountered.
(ON, 2/06, p.1)
1741 Jul 15, George Steller, an
observer with Vitus Bering (1680-1741), claimed to see the American
mainland (Alaska). Bering, a Danish-born mariner, was on an exploratory
mission on behalf of Russia.
(WSJ, 9/12/00, p.A24)(SFEC, 3/23/97, p.T5)(ON, 2/06,
p.2)
1741 Jul 16, Vitus Bering
(1680-1741) first sighted Mt. St. Elias, the second highest peak in
Alaska at 18,008 feet.
(AAM, 3/96, p.84)(WUD, 1994 p.140)
1741 Dec 8, Vitus Bering,
Danish-born explorer and commander in the Russian navy, died on an
island off the Kamchatka Peninsula, later named Bering Island.
(ON, 2/06, p.4)
1748 The Danish Royal Theater was
inaugurated.
(SFEC, 11/1/98, p.T3)
1750 Germany returned the island
of Aero, which measures 22 by 6 miles, to Denmark.
(SSFC, 7/29/07, p.G3)
1768 Johan Friedrich Struensee, a
German doctor, was appointed as personal physician to the insane young
King Christian VII of Denmark. The doctor became lover to the queen,
Caroline Mathilde, the younger sister of George III of England.
Struensee was arrested and executed after 2 years.
(WSJ, 12/7/01, p.W16)
1770 Nov 19, Albert Bertel
Thorvaldsen, sculptor (Dying Lion), was born in Copenhagen, Denmark.
(MC, 11/19/01)
1775 The Danish Royal Copenhagen
Porcelain Manufactory began operations.
(SFC, 3/10/99, Z1 p.6)
1777 Aug 14, Hans Christian
Oersted, Danish scientist, was born. He discovered electromagnetism.
(HN, 8/14/00)
1790s Denmark became the 1st
country to abolish slavery.
(WSJ, 2/26/02, p.A22)
1792 May 16, Denmark abolished
slave trade.
(MC, 5/16/02)
1799 Nov 5, The Danish ship
Oldenborg was wrecked on her outward passage by being beached in the
roadstead at Cape Town, South Africa, during a north-westerly gale,
thus becoming one of the 127 ships that have been lost on this
minuscule portion of the South African coast.
(www.milhist.dk/weapons/oldenbur/oldenbur.htm)
1800 The Althing of Iceland was
abolished by the Danish king.
(HNQ, 4/28/00)
1801 Apr 2, The British navy
defeated the Danish at the Battle of Copenhagen.
(AP, 4/2/99)
1803 Denmark became the first
country to ban slave trade.
(WSJ, 1/11/99, p.R25)
1805 Apr 2, Hans Christian
Andersen (d.1875), author of 150 fairy tales, was born in Odense,
Denmark.
(CFA, '96, p.44)(HN, 4/2/98)(AP, 4/2/99)
1807 Sep 2, British forces began
bombarding Copenhagen for several days, until the Danes agreed to
surrender their naval fleet.
(AP, 9/2/07)
1807 Sep 7, Denmark surrendered to
British forces that had bombarded the city of Copenhagen for four days.
(AP, 9/7/07)
1813 May 5, Soren Kierkegaard
(d.1855), Danish philosopher and theologian, was born. He founded
Existentialism and believed that man's relation to God must be an
agonizing experience. “Truth is not introduced into the individual from
without, but was within him all the time.” His books included the
philosophical novel “Diary of a Seducer.”
(WUD, 1994, p.786)(AP, 10/23/97)(SFC, 9/4/98,
p.C5)(HN, 5/5/99)
1814 May 17, Norway's constitution
was signed, providing for a limited monarchy. Denmark ceded Norway to
Sweden.
(AP, 5/17/97)(HN, 5/17/98)
1828 The Danish government decreed
that all persons should have a surname which was inherited from the
preceding generation.
(http://share-hodgson.org/patronym.html)(NYT,
10/8/04, p.A4)
1829 Hans Christian Andersen
(1805-1875) published his first literary work: “A Walking Tour from
Holmen’s Canal to the Eastern Point of Amager.”
(ON, 7/06, p.7)
1830 August Bournonville
(1805-1879) founded the Danish ballet tradition, the world's oldest
living ballet heritage. At the age of 25 he became principal dancer and
artistic director for the Royal Danish Ballet and continued to work
there for 47 years.
(www.bournonville.com/mainpage_frame.asp?page=26)
1835 Apr, Hans Christian Andersen
(1805-1875) published novel “Improvisatore,” an alternative version of
his own life based on his travel experiences in Italy.
(ON, 7/06, p.7)
1843 Aug 15, The Tivoli Gardens
opened in Copenhagen.
(SFEC, 2/20/00, p.T8)(MC, 8/15/02)
1844 Nov 23, Duchies of Schleswig
and Holstein were declared independent from Denmark.
(AP, 11/23/02)
1847 Carlsberg began beer
production in Denmark.
(WSJ, 10/7/03, p.B1)
1848 Jul 3, Gen. Peter Von
Scholten, faced with the likely destruction of towns and plantations by
a slave revolt, declared the slaves of the Danish West Indies (later US
Virgin Islands) to be freed.
(SSFC, 7/5/09, p.A3)
1849 May 3, Jacob Riis (d.1914),
American reporter and reformer (How the Other Half Lives), was born in
Denmark.
(HN,
5/3/01)(www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/USAriis.htm)
1855 Nov 11, Soren A. Kierkegaard
(b.1813), Danish philosopher and theologian, died. In 2005 Joakim Garff
authored “Søren A. Kierkegaard: A Biography.”
(www.connect.net/ron/kierkegaard.html)(WSJ, 2/3/05,
p.D8)
1857 Jun 2, Karl Gjellerup, poet,
novelist (Nobel 1917), was born in Denmark.
(SC, 6/2/02)
1859 Hans Christian Anderson gave
his story "The Philosopher's Stone" to a family during his trip to the
Jutland region. The 13-page script was sold at auction in 1999 for
$75,400.
(SFC, 4/16/99, p.C8)
1864 May 9, Austria and Denmark
held a ship battle at Helgoland.
(MC, 5/9/02)
1865 May 21, C.J. Thomsen,
archaeologist who named the Stone, Iron and Bronze Ages, was born in
Denmark.
(MC, 5/21/02)
1865 Jun 9, Carl Nielsen, Danish
composer, was born.
(HN, 6/9/01)
1871 In Denmark the Jutland-based
Jyllands-Posten newspaper was founded.
(AP, 2/8/06)
1872 Aug 3, Haakon VII, King of
Norway, was born in Charlottenlund, Denmark.
(SC, 8/3/02)
1875 Aug 4, Hans Christian
Andersen (b.1805), Danish fairy tale writer, died. Over his life he
wrote 156 fairy tales as well as numerous novels and travel books. His
biography was later written by Elias Bredsdorff (d.2002 at 90).
(SFC, 8/23/02, p.A27)(ON, 7/06, p.8)
1885 Apr 17, Karen Blixen-Finecke
(Isak Dinesen, d.1962), Danish writer (Out of Africa), was born. “God
made the world round so we would never be able to see too far down the
road.”
(AP, 9/15/00)(HN, 4/17/01)(MC, 4/17/02)
1885 Oct 7, Nils Bohr, Danish
physicist who won the 1992 Nobel Prize for physics and later worked on
the first atom bomb, was born.
(HN, 10/7/98)(MC, 10/7/01)
1889 May 29, August Strindberg's
"Hemsoborna" premiered in Copenhagen.
(SC, 5/29/02)
1890 Mar 20, Lauritz Melchior,
baritone, tenor (Met Opera), was born in Copenhagen, Denmark.
(MC, 3/20/02)
1899 Mar 11, Frederick IX, King of
Denmark, was born.
(HN, 3/11/98)
1902 Apr 18, Denmark became the
1st country to adopt fingerprinting to identify criminals.
(MC, 4/18/02)
1904 A new Danish law forced the
people to stick with the names they had, as opposed to the previous
system where people where named after their fathers first name.
(WSJ, 3/17/98, p.A1)
1904 Denmark and Sweden issued the
first Christmas seals to raise money to fight tuberculosis.
(SFEC, 12/13/98, Z1 p.10)
1905 Nov 18, The Norwegian
Parliament elected Prince Charles of Denmark to be the next King of
Norway. Prince Charles took the name Haakon VII.
(HN, 11/18/98)
1909 Jan 3, Victor Borge (d.2000
at 91), musical humorist, was born as Borge Rosenbaum in Copenhagen. In
1953 he opened his “Comedy in Music” at the Golden Theater on Broadway
and played for 849 performances .
(SSFC, 12/24/00, p.B5)(440 Int'l. 1/3/99)
1909 Wilhelm Johanssen, Danish
botanist, coined the word “gene.”
(NH, 6/01, p.30)
1911 Mar 24, Penal code reform
abolished corporal punishment in Denmark.
(HN, 3/24/98)
1913 The bronze statue of the
Little Mermaid, a character from a Hans Christian Anderson story, was
installed in the Copenhagen harbor. It was commissioned by Carl
Jacobsen, founder of the Carlsberg Beer Co., and created by Edvard
Eriksen. [see 1964]
(SFC,11/5/97, p.C2)
1914 A wooden roller coaster was
added to the Tivoli Gardens, Denmark.
(SFEC, 2/20/00, p.T8)
1914-1931 Karen Blixen, Danish author, lived on a
farm near Nairobi, Kenya. Her lover was Denys Finch-Hatton. She wrote
under the name Isak Dinesen. The two were featured in the 1985 film
“Out of Africa” that starred Robert Redford and Meryl Streep. The
country was then called British East Africa.
(SFC, 6/17/98, p.E1)(SFEC, 7/26/98, p.T10)
1916 Feb 13, Vilhelm Hammershoi
(b.1864), Danish painter, died. He is most celebrated for his
interiors, many of which he painted at his residence in Copenhagen.
(Econ, 7/5/08, p.94)
1916 May 31, During World War I,
British and German fleets fought the Battle of Skagerrak at Jutland off
Denmark and 10,000 were left dead. There was no clear-cut victor,
although the British suffered heavier losses.
(HN, 5/31/98)(AP, 5/31/06)
1916 Aug 4, The United States
purchased the Danish Virgin Islands for $25 million. [see 1917]
(AP, 8/4/97)
1916 Aug 4, The United States
signed a treaty to purchase the Danish Virgin Islands for $25 million.
The US purchased the southern Virgin Islands including St. Thomas, St.
John, St. Croix and about 50 other small Caribbean islets and cays from
Denmark. They were then known as the Danish West Indies. The Act of
March 3, 1917, authorized payment by the US of $25 million for the
Virgin Islands.
(WUD, 1994, p.1595)(AP, 8/4/97)(HNQ, 11/20/99)
1916 Dec 14, People of Denmark
voted to sell Danish West Indies to United States for $25 million. [see
Aug 4]
(AP, 12/14/02)
1917 Jan 17, The United States
paid Denmark $25 million for the Virgin Islands.
(AP, 1/17/07)
1917 Mar 31, The United States
took possession of the Virgin Islands, which it had purchased from
Denmark for $25 million in 1916.
(HFA, '96, p.26)(AP, 3/30/97) (HN, 3/31/98)
1918 Dec 1, Danish parliament
passed an act to grant Iceland independence.
(HFA, ‘96, p.20)(MC, 12/1/01)
1922 Jun 19, Aage Nills Bohr,
physicist, study atomic nucleus (Nobel 1975), was born in Denmark.
(MC, 6/19/02)
1924 Jul 10, Denmark took
Greenland as Norway ended its claim.
(MC, 7/10/02)
1926 The bumper car rides opened
at the Tivoli Gardens, Denmark.
(SFEC, 2/20/00, p.T8)
1928 The silent film classic
"Passion of Joan of Arc" was directed by Carl Theodore Dreyer of
Denmark. It later led to a 70 minute oratorio for solo singers, chorus,
and chamber orchestra by Richard Einhorn.
(SFC, 10/11/96, p.C6)(WSJ, 10/8/98, p.W5)
1928 Maria Feodorovna (b.1847),
the daughter of Denmark's King Christian IX and Queen Louise, died in
Denmark. Princess Dagmar had married Russia’s Czar Alexander II and
their six children included Nicholas II, who became czar in 1894. She
fled St. Petersburg in 1917. Her casket rested alongside Danish kings
and queens until 2006 when it was sent to Russia.
(AP, 9/23/06)
1931 Einar Weigener, a Danish
painter, had his sex altered in the first surgical procedure of its
kind.
(SFEC, 2/27/00, BR p.5)
1932 Apr, In Denmark 6 of the
world’s leading quantum physicists gathered at Niels Bohr’s Institute
for Theoretical Physics to discuss the latest developments in the
field. In 2007 Gino Segre authored “Faust in Copenhagen: A Struggle for
the Soul of Physics.” The book is organized around a short comedy
performed at the end of the meeting.
(SSFC, 6/24/07, p.M3)(Econ, 7/14/07, p.87)
1932 The Danish LEGO Group was
founded by Ole Kirk Christiansen.
(www.lego.com/eng/info/default.asp?page=group)
1935 Mar 16, Aron Nimzowitsch
(b.1886), a Latvian-born Danish chess player, died. In 1925 he authored
“My System,” which he described as a chess manual based on entirely new
principles.
(WSJ, 3/22/08,
p.W10)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aron_Nimzowitsch)
1935-1970 Denmark gave sex offenders a choice between
prison or surgical castration. The practice was banned due to criticism
that it was inhumane and irreversible.
(SFC, 8/31/96, p.A12)
1938 Karen Blixen (Isak Dinesen)
wrote her novel: “Out of Africa.”
(SFEC, 11/3/96, BR p.5)
1940 Apr 9, The Nazi army invaded
and occupied Denmark and Norway. After the Nazi invasion most of
Denmark’s police were killed. [see Nov 9]
(WSJ, 4/29/96, p.C-1)(DrEE, 1/4/97, p.4) (SFEC,
1/26/97, p.A14)(AP, 4/9/97)
1940 Apr 9, The Nazi army invaded
and occupied Denmark and Norway. German forces landed along the
Norwegian coast and made a paratrooper assault on Oslo and Stavanger.
After the Nazi invasion most of Denmark’s police were killed.
(WSJ, 4/29/96, p.C-1)(SFEC, 1/26/97, p.A14)(AP,
4/9/97)(ON, 11/05, p.3)
1940 The term "genetic
engineering" was coined in Poland, by Danish microbiologist A. Jost
while giving a lecture on the sex life of yeast at the Technical
Institute in Lwow, Poland.
(Internet)
1941 Mar 30, The U.S. seized
Italian, German and Danish ships in 16 ports.
(HN, 3/30/98)
1941 Physicist Neils Bohr met with
Werner Heisenberg in Copenhagen. In 2000 the meeting was portrayed in a
play by Michael Frayn: “Copenhagen.’
(WSJ, 4/12/00, p.A24)
1943 Aug 28, Denmark declared a
universal strike against Nazi occupiers.
(MC, 8/28/01)
1943 Aug 29, Responding to a
clampdown by Nazi occupiers, Denmark managed to scuttle most of its
naval ships.
(AP, 8/29/97)
1943 Sep 18, Hitler ordered the
deportation of Danish Jews (unsuccessful).
(MC, 9/18/01)
1943 Oct 1, Germans attacked Jews
in Denmark.
(MC, 10/1/01)
1943 Over 7,000 Danish Jews
crossed to Sweden to escape the Nazis.
(Econ, 7/10/04, p.46)
1944 May 24, Icelandic voters
severed all ties with Denmark.
(MC, 5/24/02)
1944 Jun 17, Iceland declared full
independence from Denmark and became a republic.
(DrEE, 1/4/97, p.4)(AP, 6/17/97)
1945 Mar 21, A British bombing
raid was made on Gestapo Headquarters in Denmark to thwart a planned
German arrest of the leadership of the banned Freedom Council. A 2nd
wave of bombers hit a school by mistake killing 86 students and 13
adults.
(SFC, 9/23/02, p.B5)
1945 May 5, Netherlands and
Denmark were liberated from Nazi control.
(HN, 5/5/98)
1947-1972 King Frederik IX ruled with Queen Ingrid.
(SFC, 11/8/00, p.B7)
1949 Mar 6, Robert Storm Petersen
(b.1882), Danish cartoonist, writer, animator, illustrator, painter and
humorist, died. He is known almost exclusively by his pen name Storm P.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Storm_Petersen)
1949 Oct 28, Eugenie Anderson
became the 1st woman US ambassador. She was posted to Denmark.
(HFA, ‘96, p.40)(MC, 10/28/01)
1950 Denmark founded the Sirius
Patrol, a unit of the Danish navy, to patrol Greenland.
(SFC, 6/15/00, p.C4)
1954 May 1, Legos, founded by
Danish carpenter Ole Kirk Christiansen, became a registered trademark
in Denmark.
(http://inventors.about.com/library/inventors/bllego.htm)
1958 Legos, the toy Lego building
block kit with simple red bricks, was introduced with 8-stud bricks
that could be combined 24 ways. The company was founded by Danish
carpenter Ole Kirk Christiansen in 1932. Legos became a registered
trademark in 1954. The name was derived from “les godt,” Danish for
play well.
(SFC, 1/9/99, p.B8)(Econ, 10/28/06, p.76)
1958 Monkeypox was first described
in Denmark when several monkey imports developed lesions. The disease
emerged in the Congo in 1970 with sporadic outbreaks over the years,
primarily in Central and West Africa. Ten percent of those infected can
die, and there is evidence of person-to-person transmission.
(AP, 11/29/06)
1959 Nov 20, Seven European
nations (Austria, Britain, Denmark, Norway, Portugal, Sweden,
Switzerland) signed the Stockholm Convention to form the European Free
Trade Association (EFTA). The organization becoming operative on May 3
1960.
(www.iceland.org/efta/the-mission/int-organizations/efta/)
1960 Aug 26, Knud Jensen (23),
Danish cyclist, collapsed while riding in a 100-km team trial at the
Olympics in Rome. He fractured his skull and died. An autopsy revealed
amphetamines in his blood. His death would led the International
Olympic Committee to begin a program of drug testing beginning with the
1968 Games held in Grenoble, France and Mexico City, Mexico.
(WSJ, 8/7/06,
p.B1)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knud_Enemark_Jensen)
1961 Jan 4, The Danish barbers'
assistants strike ended after 33 yrs. It was the longest strike on
record.
(MC, 1/4/02)
1961 Aug 10, Denmark formally
applied for membership in the European Community.
(http://europa.eu.int/abc/history/1961/index_en.htm)
1962 Nov 18, Niels Bohr (77),
Danish physicist (atom, Nobel 1922), died.
(MC, 11/18/01)
1964 The bronze statue of the
Little Mermaid in the Copenhagen harbor was decapitated. In 1997
friends of the late painter Henrik Bruun told newspapers that Bruun was
responsible.
(SFC,11/5/97, p.C2)
1965 Prof. Fredric J. Mosher
(d.1999 at 85) of UC Berkeley published "A Guide to Danish
Bibliography."
(SFC, 6/17/99, p.C4)
1966 Danish motorcycle gangs have
been around for about 30 years, when local clubs like the Avengers,
Heathens, Hogriders, Pirates, and Pagans began forming.
(WSJ, 5/24/96, p.A-4)
1967 May 11, The United Kingdom
re-applied to join the European Community. It is followed by Ireland
and Denmark and, a little later, by Norway. General de Gaulle is still
reluctant to accept British accession.
(http://europa.eu.int/abc/history/1967/index_en.htm)
1967 Olafur Eliasson, artist, was
born in Denmark to Icelandic parents. He later created 121ethiopia.org,
a charitable organization to finance orphanages in Ethiopia.
(Econ, 10/6/07,
p.100)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%93lafur_El%C3%ADasson)
1968 Jan 21, An American B-52
bomber carrying four hydrogen bombs crashed at North Star Bay,
Greenland, killing one crew member and scattering radioactive material.
Reports began to surface later and in 1995 the Danish government paid a
$15.5 million settlement to some 1,700 exposed workers.
(www.ens-newswire.com/ens/aug2004/2004-08-09-02.asp)(AP, 1/21/08)
1968 The original Legoland was
built in Billund, Denmark.
(SFEC, 2/7/99, p.T3)
1968 A Danish geologist published
a paper on the Greenland Ice Cap that included melting threats to it.
The study used core samples that drilled down to bedrock.
(WSJ, 6/8/06, p.D8)
1969 Peter V. Glob (1911-1985),
Danish archeologist, authored "The Bog People: Iron Age Man Preserved."
(AM, 7/97,
p.62)(www.nationmaster.com/encyclopedia/Peter-Glob)
1971 The Roskilde rock festival,
inspired by Woodstock, was first held in Denmark.
(SFC, 7/1/00, p.A12)
1971 Denmark became the first
European country to create a Cabinet-level ministry dealing exclusively
with the environment.
(SFC, 12/15/99, p.AA6)
1971 In Denmark the Christiana
enclave took root in Copenhagen when dozens of hippies moved into the
derelict 18th-century navy fort on 600 acres of state-owned land.
(AP, 3/16/04)(SSFC, 10/31/04, p.A3)
1971 In Denmark the
Jyllands-Posten newspaper declared itself politically independent.
(AP, 2/8/06)
1972 Jan 14, Denmark’s King
Frederik IX (b.1899) died.
(SFC, 11/8/00,
p.B7)(www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=9422986)
1972 Jan 22, Britain, Denmark,
Ireland and Norway joined the European Economic Community.
(AP, 1/22/02)
1973 Jan 1, The European Union
(EU) admitted Britain, Ireland and Denmark even though they made
chocolate containing a small percentage of vegetable fat.
(WSJ, 12/4/97,
p.A22)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_European_Union)
1973 Sep 1, In Copenhagen,
Denmark, the 74-year-old Hafnia Hotel burned, killing 35.
(www.youtube.com/watch?v=44yFsCt3z7Q)
1973 Oct 20, Queen Elizabeth II
opened the Sydney Opera House. It was designed by Danish architect
Joern Utzon and cost 102 million Australian dollars, 14 times the
original estimate. Utzon left the project in 1966. In 2000 Utzon was
named consulting architect and in 2003 was called back to redo the
interiors.
(SFEC, 1/4/98, p.T4)(SFEC, 9/10/00, p.T12)(WSJ,
10/2/03, p.D10)
1973 Denmark instituted a
procedure of chemical castration for sex offenders.
(SFC, 8/31/96, p.A12)
1975 Oct, Aage Nills Bohr
(b.1922), Denmark-born physicist, won the Nobel Prize in Physics for
his study of the atomic nucleus. Ben Mottelson (b.1926),
Danish-American physicist and James Rainwater (1917-1986), American
physicist, also shared the prize.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Nobel_laureates)
1977 Dec 12, Dr. Grethe Rask
(b.1930) from Denmark died of Pneumocystis carinii. She had done
research in Africa. Her symptoms had been manifesting in Dec 1976 and
she was hospitalized in Africa. In November 1977 after a brief
recovery, she decided it was time to go home to die. A colleague saw
the wasting, and did an autopsy, where P. carinii was found. She is
believed to be one of the first documented cases of probable AIDS
infection.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grethe_Rask)
1979 May 1, Denmark gave home rule
to Greenland, but continued to make key decisions on law and order. The
legislative basis for the Home Rule Administration is Act no 56 of 21
February 1979 which came into force on 1 May 1979 following a
referendum in Greenland.
(WSJ, 1/13/04,
p.A4)(www.gh.gl/uk/govern/organiza.htm)
1982 Feb 23, In a consultative
referendum, Greenland, which became a member of the European Community
as part of Denmark, opted for withdrawal from the Community.
(http://europa.eu.int/abc/history/1982/index_en.htm)
1982 Denmark’s monetary policy was
tied to the German mark.
(WSJ, 2/6/98, p.A1)
1982 The Stichting Ingka
Foundation, a Dutch-registered, tax-exempt, non-profit legal entity,
was given the shares of Ingvar Kamprad (b.1926), the Swedish founder of
IKEA. In 2006 Ingka Holding, a private Dutch-registered company, was
the parent of 207 of 235 worldwide IKEA companies, and it belonged to
the Stichting Ingka Foundation.
(Econ, 5/13/06, p.69)(SFC, 4/6/04, p.C3)
1985 A bombing in Copenhagen
killed one person and injured 16. Mohammed Abu Talb was arrested in
Sweden in1989 for the bombing.
(SFC, 11/25/99, p.A14)
1985 P.V. Glob (b.1911), Danish
archeologist, died. His books included “The Bog People: Iron-Age Man
Preserved” (1964).
(www.isle-of-skye.org.uk/celtic-encyclopaedia/celt_bio.htm)
1986 The Hell’s Angels began
renting a building in Copenhagen from the city.
(SFEC, 8/11/96, p.A13)
1987 Denmark recognized
Copenhagen’s Christiana enclave, founded in 1971, as a social
experiment. In 1991 the government gave residents the right to use the
land. In 2006 the government proposed a plan to regularize housing in
the enclave.
(SSFC, 10/22/06, p.G3)
1989 May 26, Danish parliament
allowed legal marriage among homosexuals.
(www.wayoflife.org/fbns/pushing.htm)
1989 Oct 1, In Copenhagen,
Denmark, 11 homosexual couples were married. It was the first time any
country allowed such marriages.
(SFC, 5/26/96, Z1 p.6)(SFC, 12/12/98, p.B3)
1992 Mar 5, In Copenhagen the
Ministers for Foreign Affairs of Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany,
Latvia, Lithuania, Norway, Poland, Russia and Sweden, in the presence
of the representative from the European Commission, opened a 2-day
meeting and decided to establish a Council of the Baltic Sea States to
serve as a forum for guidance and overall coordination among the
participating states. Iceland joined the CBSS in 1995
(Econ, 6/7/08,
p.63)(www.bmwi.de/English/Navigation/European-policy/baltic-market.html)
1992 Jun 2, Danish voters rejected
the Maastricht union treaty.
(AP, 6/2/97)
1993 May 18, Voters in Denmark
ratified the European Community's Maastricht Treaty on closer economic
and political union.
(AP, 5/18/98)(SC, 5/18/02)
1993 Jun, EU membership criteria
were laid down at the European Council in Copenhagen, Denmark. Under
the “Copenhagen criteria” would-be EU members were required to show
that they meet the political and institutional standards of membership.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copenhagen_criteria)(Econ, 12/2/06, p.55)
1993 The Danish chapter of the
Bandidos motorcycle gang started out as the 666 club, changed its name
to the Morticians, then the Undertakers, and then affiliated in 1993
with the Texas-based Bandidos.
(WSJ, 5/24/96, p.A-4)
1994-1997 A Danish nurse and doctor killed 22
nursing-home residents with injections. They were charged in 1997 for
the killings and the nurse was also charged with embezzlement.
(SFC,10/22/97, p.1)
1995 Lars Von Trier, a Danish film
director, launched the Dogma 95 concept of minimalist rules to return
the focus of filmmaking to story and plot. The rules forbade sound
editing and any equipment beyond handheld cameras.
(SFC, 8/10/02, p.D4)
1995 Niels Helveg Petersen, Danish
Foreign Minister, told reporters that no nuclear weapons were deployed
in Greenland. 2 weeks later US Sec. of Defense William Perry wrote in a
confidential letter that warheads and surface to air missiles had been
stored at the Thule air base without Greenland’s knowledge. The crisis
became known as “Thulegate” in Denmark.
(SFC, 11/3/01, p.C3)
1995 Denmark’s population was
about 5 million
(SFC, 5/9/97, p.A4)
1996 Mar 10, Bandido motorcycle
gang leader Uffe Larson was shot to death in Copenhagen.
(SFEC, 8/11/96, p.A13)
1996 Apr 18, Piet Hein (80),
Danish architect, poet, mathematician, inventor, died.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piet_Hein_(Denmark))
1996 May, It was reported that
Danish motorcycle gangs, engaged in a 2-year feud, had left 4 people
slain and 20 wounded in a rivalry between the local chapters and
supporters of Hells Angels and the Bandidos.
(SFC, 5/22/96, p.A11)
1996 Jul 7, The average cost of a
Big Mac in Denmark was $4.40.
(SFC, 7/7/96, Parade, p.17)
1996 Jul 21, Thirteen pounds of
explosives were hurled at the Hell’s Angel’s headquarters in
Copenhagen. Their compound consists of 5 buildings surrounded by a
10-foot fence.
(SFEC, 8/11/96, p.A13)
1996 Jul 21, Danish cyclist Bjarne
Riis won the Tour de France. In 2007 he admitted to using performance
enhancing drugs to win the race.
(WSJ, 5/26/07,
p.A1)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1996_Tour_de_France)
1996 Aug 3, In Denmark a
Gulfstream jet crashed and killed Copenhagen’s top military officer and
8 others as it approached a Faroe Islands airstrip.
(WSJ, 8/5/96, p.A1)
1996 Oct 6, An explosion at the
Copenhagen headquarters of the Hells Angels killed 2 and injured 16.
(SFEC, 10/6/96, A9)
1996 Nov 20, The Danish film
“Breaking the Waves” by Lars von Trier opened in SF. His other films
include “Zentropa” and “The Kingdom.”
(SFC, 11/20/96, p.E3)
1997 Jun 9, Danish violinist
Nikolai Znaider won the Queen Elizabeth int’l. music prize.
(SFC, 6/10/97, p.D4)
1997 Jul 12, In Copenhagen, the
last stop of an eight-day European tour, President Clinton said
political divisions in Europe were closing.
(AP, 7/12/98)
1997 Jul 31, Denmark was named the
least corrupt country in the world by business people in a report
released by the German-based Transparency Int’l.
(SFC, 8/1/97, p.B3)
1997 Denmark staged a
contest to crown one of its islands as a “renewable energy”
island. Samsoe Island’s entry, led by engineer Aage Johnson, won the
contest.
(WSJ, 2/9/06, p.A11)
1998 Jan 5, The bronze head of the
Little Mermaid was again sawed off in Copenhagen harbor.
(SFC, 1/7/98, p.A9)(MC, 1/5/02)
1998 Jan 9, The decapitated head
of Danish Little Mermaid was returned.
(MC, 1/9/02)
1998 Feb 1, The head of the Little
Mermaid reattached in Copenhagen.
(SFC, 2/3/98, p.A7)
1998 Apr 27, Some 550,000 Danish
workers walked of their jobs after unions turned down a compromise
contract. The unions called for a 6th week of paid vacation.
(SFC, 4/30/98, p.A10)
1998 May 6, The Danish government
intervened to end a ten day strike by 500,000 workers. It was planned
to make strikes illegal until March, 2000, and offered 2 extra vacation
days and an additional 3 days of family leave for working parents with
children under 14.
(WSJ, 5/7/98, p.A16)
1998 May 21, Jack Lynd (71), San
Francisco cab driver, news writer, jazz aficionado (Café Babar),
died of cancer in Denmark. His work included the book “Leo’s Place.”
(CB, 5/31/98)
1998 The Danish film "The Kingdom
II" was the 2nd of a series by director Lars von Trier. It starred
Ernst-Hugo Jaregard and Kristen Riolffes. It was about some bizarre and
horrifying occurrences at a city hospital in Copenhagen
(SFC, 5/25/98, p.E3)
1999 Mar 5, Denmark's parliament
voted 81-27 to legalize prostitution, effective Jul 1.
(SFC, 3/6/99, p.A14)
1999 May 30, Kirsten Ralov (77),
one of the Denmark's greatest ballerinas, died in Copenhagen of cancer.
(SFC, 6/5/99, p.A22)
1999 The new Royal Library in
Copenhagen opened with the nickname "The Black Diamond." It included a
600-seat concert hall.
(SFEC, 2/20/00, p.T8)
1999 The Danish film "Pusher"
starred Kim Bodnia and was written and directed by Nicolas Winding
Refn. It was the portrait of a small-time drug dealer in Copenhagen.
(SFC, 11/1/99, p.E3)
2000 Mar 17, Denmark informed the
18 Faeroe Islands that they would have to give up subsidies in 4 years
if they wanted independence.
(SFC, 3/18/00, p.C1)
2000 Jul 1, The Oeresund Fixed
Link (Oresund Bridge), the centerpiece of a $3.5 billion, 10-mile rail,
motorway, bridge and tunnel project between Copenhagen and southern
Sweden was scheduled for completion. Danish Queen Margrethe II met with
Swedish King Carl Gustaf XVI on the artificial isle of Peberholm, half
way across.
(WSJ, 5/26/00, p.A20)(SFEC, 6/25/00, p.T3)
2000 Jun 30, In Denmark at least 8
people were crushed to death at the Roskilde rock festival during a
Pearl Jam concert.
(SFC, 7/1/00, p.A12)
2000 Sep 28, Danes voted 53-47%
not to join the European Monetary Union.
(SFC, 9/28/00, p.A12)(SFC, 9/29/00, p.A18)
2000 Nov 7, Denmark’s Queen Mother
Ingrid (90) died. She was born Ingrid Victoria Sofie Louise Margaretha
at the royal castle in Stockholm as the daughter of King Gustaf VI
Adolf.
(SFC, 11/8/00, p.B7)
2000 Dec, Denmark’s Middelgrunden
Wind Farm offshore wind power facility was completed. The 20 turbines
generated power for 32,000 households.
(SFC, 4/23/01, p.A1)
2000 Denmark exported $191 million
worth of pork to the US. Ribs accounted for $100 million.
(WSJ, 3/19/00, p.A1)
2000 Genmab, a biotech company
based in Denmark, went public with Dr. Lisa Drakeman of the US as CEO.
Drakeman, with a doctorate in the history of religion, had gained
biotech experience in Medarex, a firm created by her husband. In 2006
GlaxoSmithKline paid $357 million for a 10% stake in the company.
(Econ, 6/14/08, p.84)
2001 Mar 29, An oil tanker
collided with a freighter in the Baltic Sea and some 550,000 gallons of
oil were spilled and drifted toward Denmark.
(SFC, 3/30/01, p.D4)
2001 Nov 20, The Liberal (Venstre)
Party under Anders Fogh Rasmussen (1953) won elections in Denmark. It
formed a minority government with the Conservative People’s Party.
(www.andersfogh.dk/807.0.html)
2001 KaZaA, an internet
file-sharing program, was founded in Amsterdam by Niklas Zennstrom of
Sweden and Janus Friis of Denmark.
(Econ, 7/3/04, p.54)
2002 Mar 3, Denmark generated 13%
of its electricity from wind and planned to raise the figure to 50% by
2030.
(SSFC, 3/3/02, p.A3)
2002 Mar 6, In Kabul, Afghanistan,
3 Danish and 2 German peacekeeping soldiers were killed while defusing
a soviet era missile.
(WSJ, 3/7/02, p.A1)
2002 May 31, Denmark’s Parliament
voted to stiffen rules on immigration.
(SFC, 6/1/02, p.A9)
2002 Jul 6, Asian and European
finance ministers meeting in Copenhagen were presented a study that
called for the creation of a currency basket system and ultimately a
single Asian currency. The study was part of the Kobe Research Project,
an initiative launched by ASEM in 2001.
(Reuters, 7/7/02)(http://tinyurl.com/79d6f)
2002 Sep 24, The Danish government
announced that the US will return to Denmark a section of the U.S. air
base at Thule in northern Greenland that was created in 1953.
(AP, 9/24/02)
2002 Oct 30, Danish police
arrested Akhmed Zakayev (43), a top aide to Aslan Maskhadov, former
Chechen president.
(SFC, 10/31/02, p.A31)
2003 Mar 17, In Soro, Denmark,
Nizar Al-Khazraji (65), former Iraqi general, disappeared.
(WSJ, 4/9/03, p.A1)(SFC, 4/16/03, p.A11)
2003 Jun 2, In Denmark Thorkild
Grosboel, a Lutheran minister, was suspended for saying that God
doesn't exist and there is no eternal life. Lutheran pastors in Denmark
are employed by the state and bishops cannot fire them.
(AP, 6/3/03)(Econ, 6/28/03, p.55)
2003 Aug 7, Denmark's unemployment
rate rose in June to 6.2 percent, the highest level in almost five
years.
(AP, 8/7/03)
2003 Sep 23, A power outage struck
the capital of Denmark and southern Sweden, leaving nearly 4 million
people without electricity.
(AP, 9/23/03)
2003 Oct, Denmark cut taxes on
spirits by 45%.
(Econ, 11/15/03, p.49)
2003 Dec 16, A fire broke out at
Denmark's North Sea Museum, destroying much of the building housing
Europe's largest aquarium.
(AP, 12/17/03)
2003 Denmark became the first
country in the world to introduce restrictions on the use of
industrially produced trans fatty acids. Oils and fats were forbidden
on the Danish market if they contain trans fatty acids exceeding 2%.
(www.bakeryandsnacks.com/news/ng.asp?id=58838-adm-ramps-up)
2003 Denmark, population 5.4
million, stood as the world's biggest exporter of pork as some 13,000
farmers raised 24 million pigs.
(Econ, 8/9/03, p.44)
2004 Jan 4, In Denmark residents
who openly bought and sold hashish at a famous hippie enclave in
Copenhagen abruptly demolished their booths, trying to head off a
Danish government crackdown on illegal drug sales.
(AP, 1/4/04)
2004 Jan 11, Danish and Icelandic
troops reported a cache of 36 shells buried in the Iraqi desert, and
preliminary tests showed they contained a liquid blister agent. The
120mm mortar shells are thought to be left over from the eight-year war
between Iraq and neighboring Iran, which ended in 1988.
(AP, 1/11/04)
2004 Feb 24, The 1st charges were
filed against 2 detainees in Guantanamo. Slimane Hadj Abderrahmane, a
Danish citizen, was released from Guantanamo after being held for 747
days. In 2007 he was arrested in Denmark on suspicion of withdrawing
$18,900 from other people's accounts using stolen debit cards and PIN
codes.
(WSJ, 2/25/04, p.A1)(AP, 8/17/07)
2004 Mar 16, In Denmark police
raided Copenhagen's famed hippie enclave of Christiania, detaining 53
people in a major crackdown on the open sale of hashish. The enclave
took root in 1971 when dozens of hippies moved into the derelict
18th-century fort on state-owned land.
(AP, 3/16/04)
2004 Apr 11, Henrik Frandsen, a
35-year-old plumber from Copenhagen, was reported missing in Iraq.
Iraqi police found his body the next day.
(AP, 4/21/04)
2004 Apr, Bjorn Lomborg (b.1965),
Danish environmentalist, was named one of the 100 globally most
influential people by Time magazine. In May he organized the Copenhagen
Consensus, a list of priorities to make the world a better place. In
2006 he authored “Global Crises, Global Solutions.”
(Econ, 6/24/06, p.38)(www.lomborg.com/biograph.htm)
2004 May 14, In Copenhagen,
Denmark, Australian Mary Donaldson married Danish Crown Prince
Frederik, becoming Crown Princess Mary.
(AP, 5/14/04)
2004 Jun, The Danish government
raised the fine for smoking hash in public to $90 and ordered clubs
where it was smoked to be shut down.
(SSFC, 10/31/04, p.A3)
2004 Jul 1, Law 205 took effect in
Denmark and required residents to register themselves and their homes
with the government.
(SSFC, 10/31/04, p.A3)
2004 Jul 12, The Danish government
upheld the clerical suspension of a Lutheran minister who proclaimed
last year that there was no God or afterlife, and he now could be fired
or fined for declaring his beliefs in the pulpit.
(AP, 7/12/04)
2004 Oct 4, The Denmark Science
Ministry said it aims to show the North Pole belongs to Denmark and is
sending an expedition to try to prove that the seabed there is a
natural continuation of Danish territory.
(AP, 10/4/04)
2004 Oct, Some 10,000 people
marched on Denmark’s parliament to protest Law 205.
(SSFC, 10/31/04, p.A3)
2005 Jan 1, Denmark was forecast
for 2.5% GDP growth with a population at 5.4 million and GDP per head
at $48,920.
(Econ, 1/8/05, p.87)
2005 Jan 1, Denmark’s PM Anders
Fogh Rasmussen, in response to cartoons published by Jyllands-Posten
depicting the prophet Muhammad, condemned in his new year’s speech any
attempt to demonize groups of people on the basis of religion or ethnic
background.
(Econ, 1/7/06, p.44)
2005 Jan 8, Hurricane-force winds
swept across northern Europe, leaving at least 13 dead including 3 in
Carlisle, England, 4 in Denmark and 6 in Sweden.
(AP, 1/9/05)
2005 Feb 8, Danes voted in
parliamentary elections dominated by competing strategies for
strengthening the country's cradle-to-grave welfare state and
tightening immigration. Danes re-elected center-right PM Rasmussen for
a 2nd term.
(AP, 2/8/05)(WSJ, 2/9/05, p.A1)
2005 May 4, The Danish government
said that the mission of Denmark's 530 troops in southern Iraq would be
extended until Feb 1.
(AP, 5/4/05)
2005 Jul 5, President Bush thanked
Iraq war ally Denmark during a stopover in Copenhagen while en route to
an international economic summit in Scotland.
(AP, 7/5/06)
2005 Aug 19, The Danish
pump-making company Grundfos said that two of its employees accepted
bribes from Iraqi officials under the United Nations' tainted
oil-for-food program.
(AP, 8/20/05)
2005 Sep 30, The Danish newspaper
Jyllands-Posten published cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad. Death
threats against the artists soon followed with protest strikes in
Kashmir, condemnation from Muslim leaders worldwide and even criticism
from the UN. The paper refused to apologize for publishing the
drawings, citing freedom of speech, a right cherished in this northern
European country of 5.4 million, that also refused to prosecute an
artist who depicted a crucified Jesus Christ with an erection. Kurt
Westergaard created one of the cartoons, which featured the Prophet
Muhammad with a bomb in his turban. In 2008 Westergaard offered to sell
the cartoon.
(AP, 12/9/05)(WSJ, 2/29/08, p.A1)
2005 Oct 27, In Denmark 4 young
Muslims were arrested for helping to supply weapons and explosives for
a planned terror attack in Europe. They helped two main suspects in
Bosnia get hold of weapons and explosives with the aim of committing a
terror act. In 2007 a Danish court convicted Abdul Basit Abu-Lifa (17)
and sentenced him to 7 years in jail. In 2008 Elias Ibn Hsain was
acquitted on charges that he took part.
(AP, 8/24/06)(AP, 2/16/07)
2005 Denmark’s budget surplus hit
3.9% of GDP this year.
(Econ, 9/9/06, p.29)
2006 Jan 26, Saudi Arabia recalled
its ambassador in Denmark to protest a published series of caricatures
of the prophet Muhammad. Protests spread across the Muslim world for
weeks, and dozens of people were killed.
(AP, 1/26/07)
2006 Jan 29, Denmark's PM said his
government could not act against satirical cartoons of the Prophet
Mohammed after Libya closed its embassy in Copenhagen amid growing
Muslim anger over the dispute.
(Reuters, 1/29/06)
2006 Jan 30, The controversy over
Danish caricatures of Prophet Muhammad escalated as gunmen seized an EU
office in Gaza and Muslims appealed for a trade boycott of Danish
products. Denmark called for its citizens in the Middle East to
exercise vigilance. A roadside bomb targeted a joint Danish-Iraqi
military patrol near the southern city of Basra.
(AP, 1/30/06)
2006 Feb 5, Thousands of Muslims
rampaged in Beirut, setting fire to the Danish Embassy, burning Danish
flags and lobbing stones at a Maronite Catholic church as violent
protests spread over caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad.
(AP, 2/5/06)
2006 Feb 6, Analysts and companies
said the boycott of Danish goods called by Islamic countries to protest
the publication of Prophet Muhammad caricatures was costing Danish
businesses more than $1 million a day.
(AP, 2/6/06)
2006 Feb 11, Denmark said it has
temporarily withdrawn its ambassadors from Syria, Iran and Indonesia
because their safety was at risk in the wake of a Danish newspaper's
publication of drawings of the Prophet Muhammad.
(AP, 2/11/06)
2006 Feb 19, Almost five months
after publishing 12 cartoons of the prophet to highlight what it
described as self-censorship, Denmark’s Jyllands-Posten newspaper
printed a full-page apology in a Saudi-owned pan-Arab newspaper.
(AFP, 2/19/06)
2006 Mar 23, A Danish soldier was
killed by a roadside bomb in southern Iraq. He was the third Danish
soldier to die in the conflict.
(AP, 3/23/06)
2006 Mar 29, A group of 27 Danish
Muslim organizations have filed a defamation lawsuit against the
newspaper that first published the caricatures of Islam's Prophet
Muhammad.
(AP, 3/30/06)
2006 Apr 6, Cheese and butter from
the Danish company Arla were back on supermarket shelves in Saudi
Arabia after an Islamic group ended a boycott of the dairy producer
sparked by Denmark's publication of drawings of the Prophet Muhammad.
(AP, 4/6/06)
2006 Aug 24, A Danish prosecutor
charged four young Muslims with helping to supply weapons and
explosives for a planned terror attack in Europe. The four men,
arrested in Denmark last October 27, helped the two main suspects in
Bosnia get hold of weapons and explosives with the aim of committing a
terror act.
(AP, 8/24/06)
2006 Sep 5, Danish authorities
said they foiled a serious terror plot with the arrest of nine men
accused of preparing explosives for a planned attack in Denmark. The
suspects were Danish citizens between the ages of 18 and 33. Eight of
them had immigrant backgrounds. In 2007 a jury in Copenhagen handed
down guilty verdicts to Mohammad Zaher (34), Ahmad Khaldhadi (22), and
Abdallah Andersen (32). Riad Anwer Daabas (19) was acquitted. Zaher and
Khaldhadi, described as the two most active, were each sentenced to 11
years in prison, while Andersen was given a four-year sentence.
(AP, 9/5/06)(AP, 11/24/07)
2006 Sep 24, In Copenhagen,
Denmark, youths angered at a court decision to evict squatters from a
downtown building hurled stones, bottles and eggs at police during a
protest. More than 200 were detained.
(AP, 9/25/06)
2006 Oct 4, Professor Eugene
Polzik and his team at the Niels Bohr Institute at Copenhagen
University in Denmark reported a breakthrough in teleportation by using
both light and matter.
(Reuters, 10/4/06)
2006 Dec 16, In Copenhagen,
Denmark, police fired tear gas and detained up to 300 people after
protesters attacked them with cobblestones and fireworks during a
demonstration against the planned eviction of squatters from a downtown
building.
(AP, 12/16/06)
2007 Feb 1, Ahmed Abu Laban (60),
Denmark's most prominent Muslim leader and a central figure in last
year's uproar over the Prophet Muhammad cartoons, died from cancer.
(AP, 2/3/07)
2007 Feb 5, A Cold War-era Soviet
submarine that was being towed to Thailand sank off northwestern
Denmark. The Soviet Union built more than 200 Whiskey-class submarines
during the Cold War, many of which are now being offered for sale by
private companies.
(AP, 2/6/07)
2007 Feb 21, Denmark’s PM
Rasmussen said that his country will withdraw its 460-member contingent
from southern Iraq by August and transfer security responsibilities to
Iraqi forces.
(AP, 2/21/07)
2007 Mar 1, In Denmark dozens of
people were arrested after angry protesters threw cobblestones at
police when an anti-terror squad started a disputed eviction of
squatters from a building in downtown Copenhagen.
(AP, 3/1/07)
2007 Mar 4, Copenhagen police
arrested dozens of people in a third straight day of unrest triggered
by the eviction of squatters from a disputed youth center.
(AP, 3/4/07)
2007 Mar 5, In Copenhagen,
Denmark, demolition crews started tearing down a graffiti-sprayed brick
building, prompting tears and cries of protest from youths whose
eviction from the makeshift cultural center led to three nights of
rioting. The Youth House served since 1982 as a popular cultural center
for anarchists, punk rockers and left-wing groups. The squatters
considered it free public housing, but courts ordered them out after
the city sold the building to a Christian congregation. Ruth Evensen,
leader of the small congregation that bought the Youth House in 2001,
said the four-story structure had to be torn down because it was "a
total wreck" and posed a fire hazard.
(AP, 3/5/07)(Econ, 3/10/07, p.48)
2007 Mar 14, In Denmark 7 people
who raised money for Colombian guerrillas and Palestinian militants
through T-shirt sales were charged under Denmark's anti-terror law.
(AP, 3/15/07)
2007 Apr 1, Danish researchers
reported that they have isolated bacterial enzymes that effectively
remove sugar molecules from red blood cells that provoke an immune
reactions. This would allow conversion of the A, B, and AB blood types
into Type O, the universal donor type that can be given to anyone.
(SFC, 4/2/07, p.A2)
2007 Apr 10, Peter Brixtofte (57),
the free-spending Danish mayor of Hilleroed (1986-2002), was convicted
of abusing his office and sentenced to two years in prison. He had
became hugely popular for offering free vacations to retirees and
computers to school children.
(AP, 4/10/07)
2007 May 15, In Denmark hundreds
of black-clad youths clashed with police in Copenhagen, barricading
streets and setting fire to cars to protest the demolition of a
building in the free-wheeling Christiania district.
(AP, 5/15/07)
2007 Jun 23, Authorities said an
outbreak of distemper has been killing seal pups off the coast of
Denmark, warning that thousands of seals could die if the disease
spreads to other northern European countries.
(AP, 6/23/07)
2007 Jun 29, Germany and Denmark
agreed to build an 11-mile bridge spanning the waters between the two
nations and cut travel times between Scandinavia and central Europe.
(AP, 6/29/07)
2007 Jul 27, Victor Frunza (72), a
Romanian anti-communist dissident and writer, died in Denmark of a
heart attack. He was forced to leave Romania in 1980 after writing a
letter critical of the communist regime led by dictator Nicolae
Ceausescu. While in Romania, Frunza secretly wrote a history of
communism in the country that was published in Denmark in 1984. He also
wrote essays championing human rights and published a political
magazine.
(AP, 7/30/07)
2007 Aug 1, Denmark, France and
Indonesia offered to contribute to a joint UN-African Union mission for
Darfur, a 26,000-strong force expected to be made up mostly of
peacekeepers from Africa with backup from Asian troops. Sudan accepted
a UN resolution approving a joint African Union-UN peacekeeping force
in Darfur.
(AP, 8/1/07)(AFP, 8/1/07)
2007 Aug 5, The last men of a
Danish battalion of 450 ground troops left Iraq.
(AFP, 8/7/07)
2007 Aug 10, Denmark was reported
to be planning a monthlong expedition, to begin Aug 12, to seek
evidence that the Lomonosov Ridge, a 1,240-mile underwater mountain
range, is attached to the Danish territory of Greenland, making it a
geological extension of the Arctic island.
(AP, 8/10/07)
2007 Aug 22, Denmark's government
said Somali pirates released the crew of a hijacked Danish cargo ship
after receiving a ransom payment.
(AP, 8/22/07)
2007 Sep 2, In Copenhagen,
Denmark, a protest by hundreds of youth activists turned violent, with
protesters setting fire to street barricades and cars and smashing shop
windows. Officers used tear gas to disperse the crowd. The unrest
started after a demonstration the previous day commemorating the Youth
House, a makeshift cultural center for the city's anarchists and
disaffected youth that was demolished in March.
(AP, 9/2/07)
2007 Sep 4, Denmark's intelligence
service arrested eight Islamic militants linked to leading al-Qaida
figures, and said the suspects were plotting an attack involving
explosives.
(AP, 9/4/07)
2007 Sep 26, Transparency
International's 2007 index ranked Myanmar and Somalia as the most
corrupt nations. Both received the lowest score of 1.4 out of 10.
Denmark, Finland and New Zealand were ranked the least corrupt, each
scoring 9.4.
(AP, 9/26/07)
2007 Oct 5, Chinese medical
officials agreed not to transplant organs from prisoners or others in
custody, except into members of their immediate families. The agreement
was reached at a meeting of the World Medical Association in Copenhagen.
(AP, 10/6/07)
2007 Nov 13, Voting began in
Denmark's national election, with polls showing that the center-right
government needs a new ally to stay in power despite a strong economy
and low unemployment. Danes re-elected the governing coalition to a
third term, endorsing its economic and tough immigration policies. Fogh
Rasmussen’s blue block won 90 seats, just enough for a majority. The
New Alliance Party of Naser Khader won just 5 seats. Pia Kjaersgaard’s
far-right Danish People’s party won 25 seats.
(AP, 11/13/07)(Econ, 11/17/07, p.59)
2007 Nov 29, In Afghanistan 2
Danish soldiers were killed in a gunbattle with the Taliban. They were
part of a Danish reconnaissance unit that came under fire in Gereshk
Valley in Helmand Province. Denmark has some 600 troops in Helmand
province that are part of NATO's 40,000-member force in Afghanistan.
(AP, 11/30/07)
2008 Feb 12, Danish police said
they have arrested three people suspected of plotting to kill one of
the 12 cartoonists behind the Prophet Muhammad drawings that sparked a
deadly uproar in the Muslim world two years ago.
(AP, 2/12/08)
2007 Global wind power amounted to
about 1,200 megawatts with Denmark accounting for about a third and
Britain in 2nd place with 400 megawatts.
(WSJ, 11/29/07, p.B2)
2008 Feb 15, In northern
Copenhagen gangs of rioters set fire to cars and garbage trucks, the
sixth night of rioting and vandalism that has spread from the capital
to other Danish cities.
(Reuters, 2/16/08)
2008 Mar 31, A clash in southern
Afghanistan killed a Danish soldier and wounded two others. A separate
attack on a NATO patrol killed two British troops. an airstrike killed
three men irrigating land close to a road in Kandahar province. The men
may have been mistaken for militants planting roadside bombs. In
Helmand province police arrested Mullah Naqibullah, a senior Taliban
commander who has escaped twice from Afghan prisons. Naqibullah was
nabbed during a clash that left three insurgents dead.
(AP, 3/31/08)(AP, 4/1/08)
2008 Jun 2, In Pakistan a huge car
bomb exploded outside the Danish Embassy in Islamabad, killing at least
six people and wounding dozens more. Danish security said that al-Qaida
or an al-Qaida-related group likely was behind the attack.
(AP, 6/2/08)
2008 Jul 25, In southern
Afghanistan a Danish soldier died in a roadside bomb attack. The death
brings the number of Danish troops killed in Afghanistan since 2001 to
15. 3 Taliban militants died in a fight with police in the Gereshk
district of Helmand province.
(AP, 7/25/08)
2008 Aug 25, The Danish central
bank said it has taken over Roskilde Bank, the nation's 10th largest
bank. The 124-year-old institution had been struggling amid global
financial turmoil and mounting losses on mortgage loans as housing
prices fell in Denmark.
(AP, 8/25/08)
2008 Oct 6, European governments
struggled to find a coordinated approach to the crisis sweeping
financial markets, as Denmark became the latest country to guarantee
bank deposits, putting more pressure on Britain and other countries to
follow.
(AP, 10/6/08)
2008 Oct 21, In Denmark Hammad
Khuershid, a Danish citizen of Pakistani origin, and Abdoulghani Tokhi,
an Afghan, were convicted of preparing a terrorist attack. They were
secretly filmed mixing the type of explosive used in the 2005 London
transit bombing. They were arrested in the Copenhagen area in September
2007. Khuershid and Tokhi were sentenced to 12 and seven years in
prison, respectively.
(AP, 10/21/08)
2008 Nov 7, Pirates near Somalia
hijacked a Danish cargo ship with 13 crew members, which consisted of
Russians and Ukrainians. The CEC Future was released on January
16 following a ransom payment by Clipper Projects.
(AP, 11/8/08)(AP, 1/16/09)
2008 Nov 29, Joern Utzon (b.1918),
the Danish architect who designed the iconic Sydney Opera House (1957),
died. In 2003 Utzon won the Pritzker prize.
(AP, 11/29/08)(Econ, 12/13/08, p.104)
2008 Dec 4, The Danish navy
intercepted and sunk a suspected pirate vessel drifting off Somalia. 7
men were handed over to authorities in Yemen but were not immediately
suspected of any crime.
(AP, 12/5/08)
2008 Dec 4, In Afghanistan 2
Danish soldiers serving with NATO's force were killed in southern
Helmand province. The governor of Afghanistan's key southern Kandahar
province said he was sacked by the central government and complained
that powerful people in his region had been sabotaging his work. US-led
troops killed four militants in Helmand province, after the insurgents
fired on a joint US-Afghan patrol.
(AFP, 12/4/08)(AP, 12/4/08)(AP, 12/5/08)
2008 Dec 6, In Denmark "Gomorra,"
a movie by Italian director Matteo Garrone about Naples' criminal
underworld, won the best film prize at the 21st annual European Film
Awards.
(AP, 12/6/08)
2008 Dec 11, As Greece suffered
through its sixth day of violence, there were troubling signs of unrest
spreading across Europe. Angry youths smashed shop windows, attacked
banks and hurled bottles at police in small but violent protests in
Spain and Denmark, while cars were set alight outside a consulate in
France.
(AP, 12/11/08)
2008 Dec 16, The central banks of
Sweden and Denmark came to the aid of Latvia with currency swap
agreements. This enabled the Bank of Latvia, to borrow as much as €500
million.
(WSJ, 12/17/08, p.C2)
2008 Dec 16, Stein Bagger, Danish
business executive, was sent back to Denmark from the US, where he had
surrendered following the exposure of an estimated $185 swindle in his
firm, IT Factory.
(WSJ, 12/17/08, p.A1)
2008 Dec 19, Three Danish soldiers
and one from the Netherlands were killed in separate incidents in
Afghanistan, losing their lives just as the commitment of some
countries to the fight in Afghanistan begins to wane.
(AP, 12/19/08)
2008 Dec 31, In Denmark a gunman
shot and wounded two Israelis working at the Rosengaard mall in Odense.
Police son arrested a 27-year-old Dane born in Lebanon of Palestinian
parents.
(AP, 1/1/09)(AP, 1/2/09)
2009 Jan 15, Denmark's central
bank lowered its key interest rate by 0.75 to 3 percent.
(AP, 1/15/09)
2009 Jan 18, Denmark said it is
expanding its financial rescue package by lending the country’s banks
and mortgage $17.8 billion.
(SFC, 1/19/09, p.D1)
2009 Feb 23, Denmark seized
control of Fionia Bank A/S by injecting about $172 million in a deal
that will take away shareholder control and split the bank into two
parts until a sale can be realized. The bank was hit by mounting losses
on bad loans to property developers.
(WSJ, 2/24/09, p.C2)
2009 Feb 25, Danish and Chinese
warships stopped pirates attacking two different vessels off Somalia's
coast.
(AP, 2/26/09)
2009 Apr 5, In Denmark Lars Lokke
Rasmussen (b.1964) began serving as prime minister.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lars_L%C3%B8kke_Rasmussen)
2009 May 26, In Denmark business
leaders attending the World Business Summit on Climate Change urged
governments to order steep and mandatory cuts in greenhouse gases,
favoring a cap-and-trade system instead of a tax to set a market price
for carbon waste.
(AP, 5/26/09)
2009 May 26, A Danish court ruled
that residents of Copenhagen's counterculture Christiania neighborhood
have no right to use the former navy base they took over in 1971. The
residents planned to appeal.
(AP, 5/26/09)
2009 Jun 17, In southern
Afghanistan 3 Danish soldiers were when a bomb exploded as their
vehicle passed down Highway 1 heading toward the town of Barakhzai in
Helmand province.
(AFP, 6/17/09)
2009 Jun 21, In China the
Danish-Swedish comedy “Original,” about mental illness, won the best
picture at the 12th Shanghai International Film Festival. It also took
the best actor award for lead Sverrir Gudnason.
(AFP, 6/22/09)
Go to http://www.timelinesdb.com
Subject = Denmark
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