Timeline Finland
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The Kalevala, 12,078 verses, is the national
epic.
(SFC, 2/3/99, p.A9)
1475 The
Olavinlinna castle was founded by the governor of Viipuri on the
border between Sweden-Finland and Russia.
(SFEC, 4/11/99, p.T4)
1550 Helsinki was founded by
the Swedes.
(SFEM, 8/8/99, p.44)
1743 Aug 17, By the Treaty of
Abo, Sweden ceded southeast Finland to Russia, ending Sweden's
failed war with Russia.
(HN, 8/17/98)
c1890s In the late 1800s
Rosvo-Ronkainen, a notorious Finnish brigand, recruited only men who
proved their worth by carrying heavy weight on a challenging track.
This practice later developed into the sport of wife carrying.
(WSJ, 7/2/03, p.A1)
1806 May 12, J.V. Snellman,
Finnish journalist, statesman and nationalist, was born. The day is
remembered in Finland as Snellman day.
(SC, internet, 5/12/97)
1809 Finland broke free of
Sweden to become a Grand Duchy of Russia.
(SFEC, 4/11/99, p.T4)
1809-1917 Finland was an autonomous grand duchy
under the Czar of Russia.
(WSJ, 12/17/98, p.A1)
1812-1840 Carl Ludvig Engel, a Prussian architect,
redesigned and rebuilt Helsinki as the capital of the Grand Duchy of
Finland-Russia.
(SFEM, 8/8/99, p.44)
1854 May 5, English pirate
Plumridge robbed along pro-English Finnish coast.
(MC, 5/5/02)
1862 Jul 10, Helene Schjerfbeck
(d.1946), Finnish painter, was born.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helene_Schjerfbeck)
1865 Dec 8, Jean Sibelius
(d.1957), composer (Valse Triste, Finlandia), was born as Johan
Julius Christian in Tavastehus, Finland: “Pay no attention to what
critics say. There has never been set up a statue in honor of a
critic.
(SFC,10/14/97,p.B3)(WUD,1994,
p.1323)(SFEC,11/16/97, Z1 p.5)(MC, 12/8/01)
1865 In Finland the Nokia Co.
began making wood and paper products. Later it diversified to
cellular phones.
(WSJ, 1/11/99, p.R42)(Econ, 12/6/08, p.85)
1867 Jun 4, Carl Gustaf
Mannerheim, president of Finland, was born.
(HN, 6/4/98)
1893 Jean Sibelius composed
“Karelia.”
(SFC, 10/14/97, p.B3)
1898 Feb 3, Alvar Aalto
(d.1979), Finnish architect, was born.
(HN, 2/3/01)
1900 Urho Kekkonen, later
president, was born in a sauna.
(SFCM, 1/14/01, p.6)
1902 Mar 8, The 1st performance
of Jean Sibelius' 2nd Symphony.
(MC, 3/8/02)
1903 Jean Sibelius composed
music for a play called “Death.”
(SFC, 10/14/97, p.B3)
1906 Oct 1, In Finland the
Parliament Act came into force. It replaced the old Diet dating back
to the 17th century with a 200-seat unicameral Parliament and
introduced universal suffrage.
(http://web.eduskunta.fi/Resource.phx/parliament/aboutparliament/presentation/history.htx)
1907 Mar 15-1907 Mar 16,
Finland held elections and Finnish women became the first in the
world to attain full political rights.
(http://electionresources.org/fi/)
1908 At the Olympic games in
England, Russia objected to separate medal totals and flag-flying
for athletes from Finland, die to its control over Finland. The
Finns marched with no flag.
(WSJ, 4/12/08, p.R2)
1910 Aug 20, Eero Saarinen
(d.1961), Finnish-US architect (IBM Building, MIT Chapel), was born
in Rantasalmi, Finland.
(MC, 8/20/02)
1915 Dec 8, Jean Sibelius' 5th
Symphony in E, premiered.
(MC, 12/8/01)
1917 Dec 6, Finland declared
independence from Russia (National Day).
(SFEM, 8/8/99, p.44)(MC, 12/6/01)
1917 Dec 9, New Finnish
Republic demanded the withdrawal of Russian troops.
(HN, 12/9/98)
1917 Dec 18, The Soviet
regiment under Stalin and Lenin declared Finland Independent.
(MC, 12/18/01)
1918 Jan 6, Germany
acknowledged Finland’s independence.
(HN, 1/6/99)
1918 Jan 27, Communists
attempted to seize power in Finland.
(HN, 1/27/99)
1918 Feb 22, Germany claimed
the Baltic states, Finland and Ukraine from Russia.
(MC, 2/22/02)
1918 Mar 7, Finland signed an
alliance treaty with Germany.
(HN, 3/7/98)
1918 Jun 3, The Finnish
Parliament ratified its treaty with Germany.
(HN, 6/3/98)
1918 Gustaf Mannerheim led a
Finnish victory over much larger Bolshevik and Finnish Red Guard
forces.
(DrEE, 10/26/96, p.4)
1918 Idel-Ural (Volga-Ural), a
1917 union of Finno-Ugric people in the middle of Russia, was
crushed by the Bolsheviks. Its foreign minister Sadri Maqsudi Arsal
was welcomed in Finland and then Estonia.
(Econ, 12/24/05, p.73)
1919 Jun 6, Finland declared
war on Bolsheviks.
(MC, 6/6/02)
1920 Oct 14, In the Dorpart
Treaty the Soviet Bolsheviks reaffirmed Finnish independence, gave
Finland the ice-free port of Pechenga towards the Arctic Ocean and
put the Finnish border 18 miles west of Leningrad. The treaty,
signed by Stalin, was precipitated by Gustaf Mannerheim’s victory
over much larger Bolshevik and Finnish Red Guard forces in 1918.
(DrEE, 10/26/96, p.4)
1921 The League of Nations
granted the Aland Island group to the new Finnish Republic. Aland
was populated by native Swedes. Under the accord Aland was given
veto power in international treaties signed by Finland.
(WSJ, 12/5/97, p.A1)
1923 Aug 22, Paavo Nurmi of
Finland ran a world record mile (4:10.4).
(MC, 8/22/02)
1924 The US dominated the
summer Olympics in Paris and Finland ranked a distant 2nd.
(Ind, 2/16/02, 6A)
1926 Apr 3, 1st performance of
Jean Sibelius' 7th Symphony in C.
(MC, 4/3/02)
1926 May 24, Paavo Nurmi ran
world record 3000 meters in 8:25.4.
(MC, 5/24/02)
1930-1955 Finland engaged in a forced
sterilization program that sterilized some 1,460 people over this
period.
(SFC, 8/28/97, p.A12)
1935 Feb 4, Martti Talvela,
operatic basso, was born in Hiitola, Karelia, Finland.
(MC, 2/4/02)
1939 Aug 23, German Foreign
Minister Joachim von Ribbentrop and Soviet Commissar for Foreign
Affairs Vyacheslav M. Molotov signed a Treaty of Non-Aggression, the
Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact freeing Hitler to invade Poland and Stalin
to invade Finland. Secret protocols, made public years later, were
added that assigned Finland, Estonia, Latvia and Bessarabia to be
within the Soviet sphere of influence. Poland was partitioned along
the rivers Narev, Vistula and San. Germany retained Lithuania
enlarged by the inclusion of Vilnius. Just days after the signing,
Germany invaded Poland, and by the end of September, both powers had
claimed sections of Poland.
(WP, 6/29/96, p.A16)(AP, 8/23/97) (HNPD,
8/22/98)(HN, 8/23/98)
1939 Oct 5, Soviet Foreign
Minister Molotov invited the Finnish Foreign Minister, Elias Erkko,
to come to Moscow for political discussions. The Finns delayed the
meeting until Oct 12. Field Marshall Gustaf Mannerheim prepared
Finland for war.
(DrEE, 10/26/96, p.4)
1939 Oct 9, Full scale
mobilization for war was called.
(DrEE, 10/26/96, p.4)
1939 Oct 12-Nov 8, Finnish
special envoy, Juho Paasikivi, began negotiations in Moscow. The
Finns refused to allow the establishment of Soviet military bases.
(DrEE, 10/26/96, p.4)
1939 Nov 10-Mar 13,1940,
Finland began to wage a defensive war against the Soviet Union for
104 days.
(DrEE, 10/26/96, p.4)
1939 Nov 26, Soviets charged
Finland with an artillery attack on border leading to a 105-day
Winter War. Soviet Foreign Minister V.M. Molotov accused Finnish
troops of firing at the Russians across the 800-mile (1,300km)
border near the southeastern village of Mainila.
(AP, 11/26/02)(AP, 11/30/09)
1939 Nov 28, USSR scraped its
non-aggression pact with Finland.
(HN, 11/28/98)
1939 Nov 29, Soviet planes
bombed an airfield at Helsinki, Finland.
(HN, 11/29/98)
1939 Nov 30, The Russo-Finnish
war began when Stalin attacked Finland with 4 armies, 540,000 men,
2485 tanks, and 2000 guns. Finnish troops were led by Field Marshall
Gustaf Mannerheim. Over the next two weeks, a greatly outnumbered
Finnish army resisted the invasion of nearly fifty Red Army
divisions--over one million men. The Finnish used forest combat to
inflict heavy damage on the Russian invaders. The British and French
came to the Finnish defense in mid-December but by March, the "Peace
of Moscow" treaty was signed, and Finland ceded 16,000-square miles
of land to the Soviet Union, including the city of Vyborg and the
Karelian Isthmus.
(DrEE, 10/26/96, p.4)(AP, 11/30/99)(MC, 12/30/01)
1939 Dec 6, Britain agreed to
send arms to Finland.
(HN, 12/6/98)
1939 Dec 9, A Russian air raid
was made on Helsinki.
(MC, 12/9/01)
1939 Dec 25, Finnish troops
entered Soviet territory.
(HN, 12/25/98)
1940 Jan 12, Soviet bombers
raided cities in Finland.
(HN, 1/12/99)
1940 Mar 2, Soviet armies
conquered Tuppura Island, Finland.
(SC, 3/2/02)
1940 Mar 12, Finland
surrendered to Russia. Finland and the Soviet Union concluded an
armistice during World War II. Fighting between the two countries
flared again the following year.
(HN, 3/12/98)(AP, 3/12/98)
1940 Mar 13, The 105-day war
between Russia and Finland ended with the signing of a treaty in
Moscow. Finland capitulated conditionally to Soviet terms, but
maintains its independence. Some 27,000 Finnish soldiers were killed
and 43,000 wounded in a population of 3.7 million. The Soviet Union
put its losses at 217,500 dead or wounded.
(HN, 3/13/01)(AP, 11/30/09)
1941 Jun 22, Finland invaded
Karelia. When Germany attacked the Soviet Union in summer 1941,
Finland joined in and began re-taking the lost territory.
(www.publiscan.fi/cu13e-9.htm)
1941 Jun 25, Finland declared
war on the Soviet Union.
(HN, 6/25/98)
1941 Jun 26, Finland entered WW
II against Russia.
(MC, 6/26/02)
1943 Feb 3, Finland began talks
with the Soviet Union.
(HN, 2/3/99)
1944 Mar 21, Finland rejected a
Soviet armistice.
(HN, 3/21/98)
1944 May 28, Katri Vala (42),
Finnish poet, died.
(MC, 5/28/02)
1944 Retreating German troops
burned Rovaniemi to cinders. The town was redesigned by Alvar Aalto,
Finland's patron saint of modern design.
(SFEC, 1/31/99, p.T8)
1945 Mar 3, Finland declared
war on the Axis.
(HN, 3/3/99)
1945 Jul 7, Matti Salminen,
operatic basso (King Philip-Don Carlos), was born in Turku, Finland.
(MC, 7/7/02)
c1945 Karelia was ceded to the
Soviet Union as part of the peace terms following the 2
Finnish-Soviet wars from 1939-1944.
(SFC, 12/12/00, p.B4)
1946 Jan 28, Helene Schjerfbeck
(b.1862), Finnish painter, died. She did a 5 painting series of
self-portraits that represented herself at various ages.
(Econ, 11/24/07,
p.91)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helene_Schjerfbeck)
1949 Aug-Sep, In Finland a wave
of Communist strikes were defeated by firm government action and the
loyalty of non-Communist workers.
(EWH, 1968, p.1203)
1951 Armi Ratia, Finnish
designer, expanded her husband's printing business into a
fashionable "total work of art" business (Gesamtkunstwerk) that
became "Marimekko."
(WSJ, 1/6/04, p.D10)
1952 Aug 3, The 15th Olympic
Games concluded in Helsinki. US competitors won 40 gold medals.
(SFC, 8/2/02, p.E4)(SC, 8/3/02)
1957 Sep 20, Jean Julius
Christian Sibelius (b.1865), Finnish composer (Finlandia), died.
(SFC, 10/14/97, p.B3)(WUD, 1994, p.1323)(AP,
9/20/07)
1958 Jun 30, Esa-Pekka Salonen,
conductor (Giro), was born in Helsinki, Finland.
(MC, 6/30/02)
1960 Aug 7, Vaino Hannikainen
(60), Finnish composer, died.
(MC, 8/7/02)
1957 Sep 20, Jean Julius
Christian Sibelius (b.1865), Finnish composer (Finlandia), died.
(SFC, 10/14/97, p.B3)(WUD, 1994, p.1323)(AP,
9/20/07)
1960 In Finland 3 teenage
camping companions were found stabbed to death inside a tent by Lake
Bodom. A 4th survived with multiple stab wounds. In 2005 Nils
Gustafsson (63), the survivor, was charged with murdering his 3
companions.
(AP, 8/16/05)
1961 May 29, Uuno Kalervo Klami
(60), composer, died.
(SC, 5/29/02)
1961 Sep 1, Eero Saarinen (51),
Finnish-US architect (Dulles Airport), died.
(MC, 9/1/02)
1964-1966 Johannes Virolainen (d.2000 at 86)
served as prime minister.
(SFC, 12/12/00, p.B4)
1965 Martti Ahtisaari, a
primary school teacher, joined the Foreign Ministry.
(SFC, 6/4/99, p.A10)
1967 Emil Petaja (d.2000 at
85), American science fiction writer, authored “Lord of the Green
Planet.” His 13 novels included a series based on the Kalevala, a
Finnish epic poem. These included “Saga of Lost Earth” and
“Tramontane.”
(SFC, 8/19/00, p.A19)
1972 May 18, Eero Aukusti
Sipila (53), Finnish composer, died.
(http://meteli.net/eerosipila)
1972 Finland introduced
comprehensive schools, a merger of specialist academic and
vocational institutions, in the north and into the rest of the
country over the next 4 years. In 2006 Finland ranked at the top in
OECD Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) tests.
(Econ, 6/28/08, p.66)
1973 Oct 2, Paavo "Flying Finn"
Nurmi (b.1897), Finnish runner, died. He won a total of 9 Olympic
gold medals and 3 silver medals between 1920 and 1928.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paavo_Nurmi)
1975 Jul 30, Representatives of
35 countries convened in Finland for a conference on security and
human rights that resulted in the Helsinki accords.
(AP, 7/30/00)
1975 Aug 1, A 35-nation summit
in Helsinki, Finland, concluded with the signing the Helsinki
Accords, dealing with European security, human rights and East-West
contacts. The Helsinki Final Act, signed by 35 states, was an
attempt to improve the relations between the Communist bloc and the
West.
(AP, 8/1/00)(www.hri.org/docs/Helsinki75.html)
1975 Joonas Kokkonen
(1921-1996), Finnish composer, had his opera "The Last Temptations"
first performed by the Finnish National Opera. He also composed 4
symphonies and numerous chamber and choral pieces.
(http://virtual.finland.fi/netcomm/news/showarticle.asp?intNWSAID=26983)(SFC,
10/3/96, p.C6)
1976 May 11, Alvar Aalto
(b.1898), Finnish architect, died. A show in 1998 featured his work
and an accompanying book was published that covered his Nordic
classicism of the 1920s to the completion of his Finlandia Hall in
Helsinki in 1971.
(WSJ, 7/28/00,
p.W11C)(www.imdb.com/name/nm2043227/bio)
1989 Oct 25, Soviet leader
Mikhail S. Gorbachev began a three-day visit to Finland.
(AP, 10/25/99)
1989 Nov 1, A Scandinavian
Airlines System (SAS) and Finnair ban on smoking took effect for all
Nordic flights.
(http://tc.bmjjournals.com/cgi/content/full/13/suppl_1/i20)
1991 In Finland government
action to rescue banks began with assistance to Skopbank.
(http://tinyurl.com/26dosm)(Econ, 3/22/08, p.88)
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 Mar 18, Finland formally
applies to join the European Communities.
(http://europa.eu.int/abc/history/1992/index_en.htm)
1992 Mar, In Finland the US
signed the Open Skies Treaty with 26 other nations to promote
openness by allowing countries to gather information about each
other through unarmed observation flights.
(SFC, 8/5/97, p.A2)
1992 Apr, A state guarantee
fund was set up in Finland. When this was restructured in February
1993, parliament resolved that the government would guarantee
payments by Finnish banks. At its peak, Finland’s financial
assistance to its banks was equivalent to 10% of GDP, offset by
collection of receivables and proceeds from the sale of assets. The
banks continued to produce operating losses until 1996.
(http://tinyurl.com/26dosm)
1992 The Wife Carrying contest
was initiated to revive a 200 year old tradition from when Ronkainen
the Robber tested aspiring members of his gang by making them carry
huge sacks on their backs through an obstacle course. Cash prizes
and the wife’s weight in beer was awarded to the winners.
(SFEC, 7/5/98, p.A2)
1994 Mar 1, Martti Ahtisaari
was inaugurated as President of Finland.
(SFC, 6/4/99, p.A10)(SC, 3/1/02)
1995 Jan 1, Austria, Finland
and Sweden joined the European Union. Sweden held their elections to
the parliament later that year on 17 September. Austria held its
elections on 13 October, 1996 and Finland on 20 October, 1996.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_European_Union)(Econ,
5/1/04, p.26)
1995 Mar 19, Finnish voters
throw out the center-right coalition government and give the
opposition Social Democratic Party its biggest election victory
since World War II.
(AP, 3/19/02)
1996 Mar, Motorcycle gang
Bandido leader Jarkko Kokko was shot dead on a central Helsinki
street.
(SFEC, 8/11/96, p.A13)
1996 May, The Finnish food
company Raisio Group has invented a new product that blocks the
body’s absorption of cholesterol. The new “pharmafood” is called
benecol and based on a plant extract known as beta sitostanol, a
plant sterol extracted from Nordic pine trees.
(WSJ, 5/31/96, p.B3C)
1996 Jun 9, The latest
unemployment rate was 16.7%.
(SFC, 6/9/96, Parade, p.9)
1997 Mar 20, Bill Clinton and
Boris Yeltsin met in Helsinki for talks on arms control and NATO
expansion. They agreed to negotiate a new arms accord to reduce
strategic warheads, and to give Russia a more formal role in the
Group of Seven leading industrialized nations.
(WSJ, 3/21/97, p.A1)(SFC, 3/22/97, p.A1)(AP,
3/20/98)
1997 Mar 21, President Clinton
and Russian President Boris Yeltsin wrapped up their summit in
Helsinki, Finland, still deadlocked over NATO expansion, but able to
agree on slashing nuclear weapons arsenals.
(AP, 3/21/02)
1998 May, The Kiasma Museum of
Contemporary Art, designed by Steven Holl, opened in Helsinki. The
name was taken after the Greek word for intersection, the x shape of
the letter chi, and meant it to stand for a synthesis of building
and landscape.
(WSJ, 5/14/98, p.A20)
1998 Jul 4, In the annual Wife
Carrying World Championships, 2 Estonian couples won top honors in
the 278 yard course in Sonkajarvi.
(SFEC, 7/5/98, p.A2)
1998 Jun, The Tampere
Convention was negotiated in Finland to end excessive import duties
and minimize barriers across national borders for telecommunications
under emergency situations.
(SFC, 11/18/98, p.C5)
1998 Dec, Martii Ahtisaari
served as president.
(WSJ, 12/17/98, p.A10)
1999 Jan 1, Finland along with
10 other European Union nations made the transition to the new Euro
monetary system.
(SFC, 1/1/99, p.A8)
1999 Feb 12, In Finland the
parliament voted 171 to 4 to reduce the president's influence on
foreign affairs and government formation.
(SFC, 2/13/99, p.A5)
1999 Mar 21, In Finland the
ruling social Democrats under Prime Minister Paavo Lipponen lost 12
seats but kept 51 in the 200-member Eduskunta. The Center Party
gained 4 seats with voter frustration over unemployment.
(SFC, 3/22/99, p.A10)(WSJ, 3/22/99, p.A1)
1999 Mar 27, Maria Butyrskaya
of Russia won the World Figure Skating Championships in Helsinki,
Finland; defending champion Michelle Kwan of the United States
finished second.
(AP, 3/27/00)
1999 May 17, Pres. Martti
Ahtisaari, appointed as the new Balkans mediator, consulted with
German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder.
(SFC, 5/18/99, p.A8)
1999 Aug 7, In Finland the
village of Kutemajarvi planned a sex fair for people over age 45 to
commemorate the UN designation of 1999 as the Int'l. Year of Older
Persons.
(SFC, 1/16/99, p.A12)
1999 Dec 9, European leaders
gathered in Helsinki for an EU summit. On the agenda was the
creation of a defense force, expansion to 28 members and clearing
the path for Turkey to join.
(SFC, 12/10/99, p.D4)
1999 The Finnish film "Juha" by
Aki Kaurismaki was a silent black and white work based on a classic
1911 novel. It starred Sakari Kuosmanen and Kati Outinen.
(SFC, 4/22/99, p.E4)
1999 The government updated
some laws on fines for traffic violations and based fines on net
income rather than gross income.
(WSJ, 1/02/00, p.A1)
2000 Feb 6, In Finland Tarja
Halonen was elected as the 1st woman Prime Minister over Esko Aho
51.5-48.4%.
(SFC, 2/7/00, p.A14)
2000 Mar 1, Tarja Halonen
assumed office as Finland’s first female president.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tarja_Halonen)
2000 Mar, Annikki Luukela, a
light artist, designed and installed 45 moving lamps in the
Washington DC Metro station under a commission by Helsinki Mayor
Eva-Riita Siitonen.
(SFEC, 4/2/00, p.T3)
2000 Martti Ahtisaari founded
the Helsinki-based Crisis Management Initiative, a non-governmental
conflict resolution organization.
(Econ, 7/2/11, p.50)
2001 Jun 27, Tove Jansson,
writer and creator of the Moomin family of trolls, died at age 86.
She began her 1st Moomin book in 1939.
(SFC, 7/17/01, p.A15)
2001 Aug 26, The 6th Annual Air
Guitar World Championship was held in Oulu.
(WSJ, 8/29/01, p.A1)
2002 Oct 11, In Vantaa,
Finland, a blast in the Myyrmanni shopping mall of suburban Helsinki
killed 7 people, including chemistry student Petri Gerdt (19), the
suspected bomber. 80 others were injured.
(AP, 10/12/02)(SSFC, 10/12/02, p.A20)(SFC,
10/16/02, p.A14)
2003 Apr 14, In Finland 3
political parties agreed to form a center-left government led by
Anneli Jaatteenmaki.
(AP, 4/14/03)
2003 Apr 15, Finnish lawmakers
appointed Anneli Jaatteenmaki the country's first female prime
minister, making Finland the only state in Europe with women as
president and premier.
(AP, 4/15/03)
2003 Jun 18, In Finland PM
Anneli Jaatteenki resigned amid accusations that she lied about
sensitive political information during her election campaign.
(SFC, 6/19/03, p.A14)
2003 Jun 24, Finland's
parliament elected Matti Vanhanen as PM.
(SFC, 6/25/03, p.A3)
2003 Jul 6, The annual Wife
Carrying World Championship took place in Sonkajarvi, Finland.
(WSJ, 7/2/03, p.A1)
2003 Finland commissioned a new
nuclear reactor. It was the 1st order in Western Europe in 13 years.
(WSJ, 9/22/05, p.B6)
2004 Jan 16, Kalevi Sorsa (73),
Finland's longest serving prime minister, died. Sorsa headed
four coalition governments from 1972 to 1987 and led the Social
Democrats, Finland's largest party, for 12 years.
(AP, 1/17/04)
2004 Feb 17, Finnish technology
group Setec said it won the first order for passports with new
biometric technology required by international aviation authorities
and the U.S. government.
(AP, 2/17/04)
2004 Feb 28, In Finland
hundreds of trucks prepared to roll onto frozen roads at midnight,
stocked with beer and hard cider for a population that eagerly
awaits a historic government measure that will cut alcohol prices by
nearly 40 percent.
(AP, 2/28/04)
2004 Mar 19, In southern
Finland a bus crashed into a truck in icy conditions, killing 24
people and injuring 15.
(AP, 3/19/04)
2004 Mar 22, The Finnish
Foreign Ministry said two Finnish businessmen were shot and killed
in Baghdad.
(AP, 3/22/04)
2004 Apr 15, Tim Berners-Lee,
inventor of the world wide web, became the 1st recipient of
Finland’s $1.2 million Millennium Technology Prize.
(Econ, 5/14/05,
p.84)(www.infoworld.com/article/04/04/16/HNbernerslee_1.html)
2004 Nov 2, More than 3,000
workers walked out of 22 UPM-Kymmene forest industry plants
throughout Finland, in a 24-hour strike to protest the timber and
paper products company's planned layoffs and closures.
(AP, 11/2/04)
2005 Jan 1, Finland was
forecast for 3% annual GDP growth with a population at 5.3 million
and GDP per head at $37,740.
(Econ, 1/8/05, p.88)
2005 Apr 16, A Finnish mediator
said Aceh rebels and Indonesian government delegates have made a
"breakthrough" at peace talks on the tsunami-ravaged province, and
will continue negotiations in Finland May 26-31.
(AP, 4/16/05)
2005 May 20, The Finnish paper
industry, which accounts for 15% of world production, remained at a
standstill after labor talks between unions and employers ended
without resolution.
(AP, 5/20/05)
2005 Jul 16, In Finland
Indonesia's government and Aceh rebels reached a tentative peace
deal to end a 29-year insurgency in the tsunami-devastated province.
They agreed to sign a peace accord on Aug 15 in exchange for more
autonomy.
(AP, 7/17/05)(WSJ, 7/18/05, p.A1)
2005 Aug 6-2005 Aug 14,
Helsinki, Finland, hosted the 10th IAAF World Championships. The
International Amateur Athletic Federation was founded in 1912 by 17
national athletic federations who saw the need for a governing
authority, for an athletic program, for standardized technical
equipment and world records.
(www.helsinki2005.fi/index.php?&Lang=eng)
2005 Nov 16, Nokia Corp. said
it is paying $430 million to acquire Intellisync Corp., a provider
of wireless e-mail service for cellular carriers, adding to the
mobile phone maker's growing arsenal of products to compete with
BlackBerry.
(AP, 11/16/05)
2005 Dec 2, A Finnish man was
jailed for 11 years for sexually abusing dozens of boys during trips
to Thailand in what the court called the biggest pedophile case in
Finland's history. Jouko Jaatinen (43) was detained in April on
suspicion of molesting at least 445 Thai boys aged 13 or younger
over the last 15 years and creating massive amounts of pornography.
(AP, 12/02/05)
2005 In Olkiluoto, Finland,
construction began on a 1,630-megawatt reactor, the first generation
3 European Pressurized Water Reactor, a joint venture between
France's nuclear plant builder Areva SA and Germany's Siemens AG.
Completion was expected in 2009.
(www.hightechfinland.com/2006/energy/energy/en_GB/tvo/)
2006 Jan 15, Finnish President
Tarja Halonen won the first round of the country's presidential
election, but failed to obtain an absolute majority and will be
forced into a runoff.
(AP, 1/15/06)
2006 Jan 29, Finland's first
female president said she was confident of re-election in a runoff
vote. Polls suggested a close race after a steady surge in support
for her conservative challenger. Pres. Tarja Halonen clinched a
narrow re-election victory over a rival with a pro-alliance agenda.
She won a new six-year term with 51.8 percent of the vote.
(AP, 1/29/06)(AFP, 1/30/06)
2006 Feb 14, Sanyo and Nokia
announced they will set up a joint venture to make advanced cell
phones, underlining the ambitions of the Japanese and Finnish
manufacturers to grow globally in the competitive mobile market.
(AP, 2/14/06)
2006 Mar 25, It was reported
that Finnish 15-year-olds have the highest level of mathematical
skills, scientific knowledge and reading literacy of any rich
industrialized country.
(Econ, 3/25/06, p.58)
2006 May 20, Lordi, a Finnish
metal band with monster masks and apocalyptic lyrics, won the
Eurovision contest in Greece.
(AP, 5/21/06)
2006 Jun 1, Jorma Ollila
stepped down as chief of Finland’s Nokia Corp. He was succeeded by
Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo. The new Nokia Nseries included the N73
camera-phone; the N91 phone, which doubled as an iPod-style music
player; the N92, a mobile TV; and the N93, a mobile video camera.
(Econ, 5/27/06, p.64)
2006 Jul 1, Finland began its
6-month rotating presidency of the EU.
(www.government.fi/eu/suomi-ja-eu/2006/en.jsp)
2006 Sep 9, In Finland leaders
and top officials from 38 Asian and European nations gathered in
Helsinki for the Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM). The agenda included
security issues, trade and global warming.
(AFP, 9/10/06)
2006 Sep 11, In Helsinki,
Finland, European and Asian leaders representing nearly half the
world's population promised to work to reduce global warming, to get
world trade talks back on track and to keep up the battle against
terrorism. They pledged to set new carbon dioxide emissions targets
that go beyond those now set for 2012 under the UN's Kyoto Protocol.
(AP, 9/11/06)
2006 Oct 20, In Lahti, Finland,
25 EU leaders held a one-day summit on energy. Russian President
Vladimir Putin defended his government's tough stance on Georgia and
dodged EU leaders' demands that he commit to a legally binding
energy charter that would guarantee better access to Russia's oil
and gas fields.
(AP, 10/20/06)
2006 Oct 25, In Finland the US
and the EU ended a 2-day meeting on cleaner energy. They agreed on
tighter cooperation on renewable energy and other environmental
policies despite splits over the UN’s Kyoto Protocol on global
warming.
(WSJ, 10/26/06, p.A6)
2006 Nov 6, Transparency
International, a watchdog group, reported that nearly three-quarters
of 163 countries ranked in a new survey suffer from a perception of
serious corruption, while in nearly half it is seen as rampant.
Finland, Iceland and New Zealand ranked as the least corrupt, while
Haiti, Guinea and Myanmar ranked as most corrupt.
(AP, 11/6/06)(Econ, 11/11/06, p.69)
2006 Dec 4, The Estlink cable
connected power grids of the Baltic States with Finland. The cost of
Estlink, which measures 100 kilometers (60 miles), was around 110
million euros (132 million dollars). It was built by Swiss-Swedish
group ABB.
(AP, 12/4/06)
2006 Dec 8, In Finland
officials said alcohol is now the leading killer of Finnish adults,
with consumption reaching an all-time high last year.
(AP, 12/9/06)
2007 Jan 8, In Finland 2
newspaper editors were fined for publishing a letter that said
violence against Jews was justified and that the Holocaust was
acceptable.
(AP, 1/9/07)
2007 Feb 15, Nokia, the world's
leading maker of mobile phones, said it would shed some 700 jobs,
with Finland taking the brunt of the cuts.
(AFP, 2/15/07)
2007 Feb, In Finland "The Prime
Minister's Bride," a book by Susan Kuronen (36), a twice-divorced
mother of three and the former girlfriend of PM Matti Vanhanen, was
released as parliamentary campaigning began. It immediately hit the
country's nonfiction best seller list.
(AP, 3/15/07)
2007 Mar 18, Finns voted in a
parliamentary election in a tight race between PM Matti Vanhanen's
Center Party, its left-leaning coalition partner and the
Conservative opposition. The ruling centrist party of PM Matti
Vanhanen retained power. The Center Party won 23.1% of the vote
while the Conservatives had 22.3% and the Social Democrats 21.4%,
according to provisional results.
(AP, 3/18/07)
2007 May 12, In Finland
Bosnia-Herzegovina opened this year's Eurovision Song Contest.
Marija Serifovic from Serbia won the 2007 Eurovision Song Contest at
the Hartwall Arena in Helsinki, early Sunday May 13, 2007 with a
song entitled 'Prayer.'
(AP, 5/12/07)
2007 May 23, A bomb in northern
Afghanistan killed a Finnish soldier and an Afghan civilian, while a
suicide attacker in Kabul killed two people, including a policeman.
Two operations in southern Afghanistan killed 18 suspected
militants, including seven "foreigners," while six people died when
a stash of ammunition exploded in the east.
(AP, 5/23/07)(AP, 5/24/07)
2007 Jun 2, Iran detained 3
Finns for allegedly straying into its territorial waters during a
fishing trip in the Persian Gulf. In June 6 Iran agreed to release
them.
(AP, 6/6/07)
2007 Aug 31, In Finland
representatives of feuding Sunni and Shiite groups in Iraq began a
2-day meeting at a seminar behind closed doors to discuss ways of
ending the bloodshed.
(AP, 8/31/07)
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 1, Nokia Corp. said it
is buying US navigation-software maker Navteq Corp. for around $8.1
billion as the world's largest mobile phone maker continues to
expand services and content.
(AP, 10/1/07)
2007 Oct 5, Finland’s justice
ministry said PM Matti Vanhanen is suing his ex-girlfriend for
revealing details of their relationship in a tell-all book published
earlier this year.
(AP, 10/5/07)
2007 Nov 7, In southern Finland
8 people were killed and 11 wounded after Pekka-Eric Auvinen (18)
opened fire at Jokela High School in Tuusula. He then shot himself
in the head and died hours later in a hospital.
(AP, 11/7/07)(AP, 11/8/07)
2007 Nov 8, Nordic countries
again dominated the World Economic Forum's ranking of gender-equal
countries. New Zealand squeezed into the top five and the US fell to
31st place. Sweden, Norway, Finland and Iceland retained the top
four spots in the 2007 Gender Gap Index released by the Swiss-based
think tank.
(Reuters, 11/8/07)
2007 Nov 9, Finland said it
will raise the minimum age for buying guns from 15 to 18 in the wake
of the Nov 7 rampage by a teenage student.
(SFC, 11/10/07, p.A3)
2008 Jan 15, Finland's Nokia,
the top global mobile phone manufacturer, said that it planned to
close a factory in Germany by mid-year which employs 2,300 workers.
(AFP, 1/15/08)
2008 Feb 1, Scientists in
Finland said they had replaced a 65-year-old patient's upper jaw
with a bone transplant cultivated from stem cells isolated from his
own fatty tissue and grown inside his abdomen.
(Reuters, 2/1/08)
2008 Apr 8, Chilean police said
Marko Kulju (26), a Finnish tourist who chipped an earlobe off an
ancient Moai on Easter Island, is being allowed to go home after
paying a US$17,000 (euro10,830) fine and agreeing not to return for
three years.
(AP, 4/9/08)
2008 Apr 19, In southern Spain
a crash of a bus filled with Finnish tourists left nine people dead
near the resort town of Benalmadena. Police arrested the driver of
the other vehicle, who was not seriously injured, after he failed a
blood alcohol test.
(AP, 4/20/08)
2008 Jun 15, In northern
Finland an 88-year-old man killed his two disabled adult daughters
and shot his bedridden wife before turning the gun on himself.
(AP, 6/16/08)
2008 Sep 1, Some three weeks
before the Slovenian parliamentary elections, allegations were made
in Finnish TV in a documentary broadcast by the Finnish national
broadcasting company YLE that Slovenia’s PM Jansa had received
bribes from the Finnish defense company Patria (73.2% of which is
the property of the Finnish government) in the so-called Patria
case. Jansa rejected all accusations as a media conspiracy concocted
by left-wing Slovenian journalists, and asked YLE to provide
evidence or to retract the story. Jansa's naming of individual
journalists, including some of those behind the 2007 Petition
Against Political Pressure on Slovenian Journalists, and the
perceived use of diplomatic channels in an attempt to coerce the
Finnish government into interfering with YLE editorial policy, drew
criticism from media freedom organizations such as the International
Press Institute.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Janez_Jan%C5%A1a)
2008 Sep 23, In western Finland
Matti Juhani Saari (22), whose violent YouTube postings made police
bring him in for questioning, opened fire at his trade school,
killing 8 women and 2 men before shooting himself.
(AP, 9/23/08)(AP, 9/24/08)
2008 Oct 10, Finland's
ex-president Martti Ahtisaari won the Nobel Peace Prize for his
efforts to build a lasting peace from Africa and Asia to Europe and
the Middle East. The Norwegian Nobel Committee said it honored
Ahtisaari for important efforts over more than three decades to
resolve international conflicts.
(AP, 10/10/08)
2008 Oct 21, Top US and Russian
military officers held an unannounced meeting in Helsinki in an
effort to maintain dialogue after Moscow's crushing defeat of
American ally Georgia.
(Reuters, 10/21/08)
2008 Nov 20, Finland's Finance
Ministry said four Nordic countries will lend Iceland $2.5 billion
(euro1.98 billion) to help the country recover from its economic
meltdown.
(AP, 11/20/08)
2009 Mar 4, The Finnish
Parliament approved controversial legislation that allows employers
to track workers' e-mails.
(AP, 3/4/09)
2009 Jul, Slovenian prosecutors
charged a Finnish journalist who had quoted unnamed sources alleging
that former PM Janez Jansa (2004-2008) had taken bribes.
(Econ, 10/24/09,
p.62)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Janez_Jan%C5%A1a)
2009 Sep 8, Deutsche Telekom AG
and France Telecom SA said they intend to combine their British
mobile phone units, shaking up the country's intensely competitive
market and forming the country's biggest mobile operator. Analysts
said Nokia Siemens Networks, the key equipment vendor to British
operations of Deutsche Telekom and France Telecom, had most to lose
in the merger.
(AP, 9/8/09)(Reuters, 9/8/09)
2009 Oct 30, The 16-deck Oasis
of the Seas, the world's largest cruise liner, began its maiden
voyage to Florida, gliding out from a shipyard in Finland with an
amphitheater, basketball courts and an ice rink on board. The ship
cost euro1 billion ($1.5 billion) and took two and a half years to
build at the STX Finland Oy shipyard in Turku.
(AP, 10/30/09)
2009 Nov 3, Nokia Siemens
Networks, a joint venture between Finland's Nokia Corp. and Siemens
AG of Germany, said it will lay off up to 5,700 workers globally as
part of a move to cut annual costs by euro500 million ($740
million).
(AP, 11/3/09)
2009 Nov 5, Finland and Sweden
approved a Baltic Sea pipeline project that would ship Russian
natural gas to Germany, clearing two key obstacles for construction
to begin next year.
(AP, 11/5/09)
2009 Dec 31, In Finland Ibrahim
Shkupolli (43) shot himself at his home in Espoo after going on a
rampage that killed his ex-girlfriend, then four other people at a
local shopping mall where she also worked.
(AP, 12/31/09)
2010 Jan 21, Finland’s Nokia
Corp. said it will offer free navigation services globally for users
of its smart phones, in a drive to counter a similar move by Google
Inc.
(AP, 1/21/10)
2010 Feb 15, Nokia, the world's
biggest maker of mobile handsets, said it would merge its Linux
Maemo software platform, used in its flagship N900 phone, with
Intel's Moblin, which is also based on Linux open-sourced software,
to create a new platform, MeeGo. The software deal was set to boost
Intel's chances of getting its chips into the cellphones of the
Finnish company, which controls around 40% of the global phone
market.
(Reuters, 2/15/10)
2010 Mar 26, In Finland Juha
Turunen, a corporate lawyer, was convicted of kidnapping heiress
Minna Nurminen (26) and holding her captive for two weeks in 2009
until her family paid a multimillion euro (dollar) ransom. He had
admitted during the trial that he had kidnapped Nurminen and held
her captive at an apartment in Turku, western Finland. She was
released unharmed and police recovered the ransom money.
(AP, 3/26/10)
2010 Mar 26, In Finland Juha
Turunen, a corporate lawyer, was convicted of kidnapping heiress
Minna Nurminen (26) and holding her captive for two weeks in 2009
until her family paid a multimillion euro (dollar) ransom. He had
admitted during the trial that he had kidnapped Nurminen and held
her captive at an apartment in Turku, western Finland. She was
released unharmed and police recovered the ransom money.
(AP, 3/26/10)
2010 Jun 9, The Technology
Academy of Finland awarded Michael Graetzel of Switzerland, a
German-born chemist, the international Millennium Technology Prize
for inventing low-cost solar cells used in renewable energy. The
prize included euro800,000 ($960,000).
(AP, 6/9/10)
2010 Jun 11, A Finnish court
sentenced former Rwandan pastor, Francois Bazaramba, to life
imprisonment for committing genocide against the Tutsi minority in
his home country in 1994.
(AP, 6/11/10)
2010 Jun 18, Finnish PM Matti
Vanhanen resigned to allow the ruling Center Party's new leader,
Mari Kiviniemi (41) to succeed him as the head of the country's
coalition government.
(AP, 6/18/10)(SFC, 6/19/10, p.A2)
2010 Jul 13, Divers found
bottles of champagne in a wreck near the Aland Islands between
Finland and Sweden. 5 bottles of dark, foamy beer wee later
recovered while salvaging the champagne. The shipwreck was believed
to be from the early 19th century. In 2011 Finnish scientists said
they hoped to re-brew an old ale after studying the ancient beer
found in the shipwreck.
(http://tinyurl.com/4kawd2n)(AP, 2/8/11)
2010 Sep 3, Finland and Sweden
urged the European Union to create an independent peace institute to
broaden the scope of the bloc's peacekeeping efforts around the
world.
(AP, 9/3/10)
2010 Sep 10, Finland’s Nokia
Corp. said it is replacing CEO Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo with top
Microsoft executive Stephen Elop as the world's top handset maker
aims to regain lost ground in the fiercely competitive smartphone
market.
(AP, 9/10/10)
2010 Sep 11, In Finland Hossein
Alizadeh (45), a senior official at the Iranian embassy, said that
he has resigned from his post to join the political opposition
against President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Alizadeh's mission in Finland
had ended on August 20.
(AP, 9/11/10)(AFP, 9/11/10)
2010 Sep 14, Nokia, the Finnish
phone giant, unveiled of 3 new touchscreen smartphones.
(http://news.yahoo.com/s/ytech_gadg/20100914/tc_ytech_gadg/ytech_gadg_tc3609)
2010 Oct 1, In Finland
tobacco sales were pushed under shop counters as a new law, set to
progress in stages, came into effect. Finland is the first country
to target an end to smoking through legal means.
(AP, 10/2/10)
2010 Oct 21, Finland’s Nokia,
the world's top mobile phone maker, announced 1,800 jobs cuts right
on the heels of stellar third-quarter results and just one month
after a new chief executive took the helm.
(AFP, 10/21/10)
2010 Oct 29, In Finland the
Allure of the Seas, the second in a pair of the largest cruise
liners in the world, set sail for its new home port in Florida.
Sister ship, the Oasis of the Seas, was also delivered to Royal
Caribbean Cruise Lines last year with a price tag of about $1.5
billion.
(AP, 10/29/10)
2011 Feb 11, Finland’s Nokia
corp. announced plans to make Microsoft Windows its primary software
in the competition for smart-phone customers.
(SFC, 2/12/11, p.D1)
2011 Mar 29, Finland’s Nokia
said it is suing Apple in the United States for allegedly infringing
patents in "virtually all" of its mobile phones, portable music
players, tablets and computers.
(AP, 3/29/11)
2011 Apr 17, Finns turned out
in droves for a parliamentary vote marked by the meteoric rise of
the nationalist True Finns party, which could tip the political
scale to the right and even block Finnish approval of EU bailouts.
The pro-EU conservative National Coalition Party topped the vote
with 44 seats but the coalition it previously belonged to no longer
held a parliamentary majority. As a result, the party is expected to
begin difficult negotiations on forming a new government with at
least one euroskeptic party. The nationalist True Finns gained 33
seats to 39 vs 42 for the Social Democrats.
(AFP, 4/17/11)(AP, 4/18/11)(SFC, 4/18/11, p.A2)
2011 Jun 17, In Finland 6
parties across the political spectrum united to form a government,
saving Finland from the embarrassment of having no prime minister at
a key European Union summit next week.
(AP, 6/17/11)
2011 Jul 8, A 225-page
international review showing wide variances of Internet freedom gave
Finland the best marks for making citizens' access to a broadband
connection a legal right. The report was presented at OSCE
headquarters in Vienna.
(AP, 7/8/11)
2011 Aug 18, Four EU countries
(Austria, Netherlands, Slovakia, Slovenia) said they want hundreds
of millions of euros in collateral as security for a bailout of
Greece. Finland had just struck a deal with Greece for cash
collateral on Aug 16.
(SFC, 8/19/11, p.A2)
2011 Sep 7, Finland arrested
two Somali people, a man (34) and a woman (28), on suspicion of
financing terrorism and performing terror recruitment activities.
They had foreign backgrounds and their alleged actions were not
aimed at Finland. The woman, released in October, was ordered not to
leave the country.
(AP, 9/17/11)(AP, 10/7/11)
2011 Finland's population was
about 5.3 million.
(AP, 4/17/11)
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End of file