Timeline Norway
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Atlapedia: http://www.atlapedia.com/online/countries/norway.htm
Norway is about the same size
as New Mexico.
(SSFC, 10/9/05, Par p.27)
Bergen is the 2nd largest city. Trondheim was Norway’s first
capital.
(SFEC, 1/18/98, p.T12)
May 17 is national day.
(Econ, 5/29/04, p.54)
150Mil BC In 2006 researchers in
Norway announced the discovery of the remains of a short-necked
plesiosaur, a prehistoric marine reptile the size of a bus, that
they believe is the first complete skeleton ever found. The 150
million year old remains of the 33-foot ocean going predator were
found on the remote Svalbard Islands of the Arctic. Researchers in
2008 said it was the biggest of its kind known to science with
dagger-like teeth in a mouth large enough to bite a small car.
(AP, 10/5/06)(Reuters, 2/27/08)
700-800 Vikings began arriving to the Orkney
Islands.
(SFEC, 3/23/97, p.T3)
793 Jun 8, Vikings raided the
Northumbrian coast in England. Corfe served as a center of West
Saxon resistance to Viking invaders. Vikings plundered the monastery
and St. Cuthbert convent at Lindsfarne
(HN, 6/8/98)(AM, 7/00, p.64)(PC, 1992, p.68)
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)
834 In southeastern Norway's
Vestfold County a 65-foot vessel was buried in an enormous mound as
the grave ship for a rich and powerful Viking woman. In 1904 the
mound surrendered the Oseberg Viking longboat.
(AP, 9/11/07)
843 Jun 24, Vikings destroyed
Nantes.
(MC, 6/24/02)
850-933 Harold the Fairhaired. Princess Gyda is
said to have incited Harold to gather the whole of Norway under his
scepter. The name Gyda was later corrupted to Gjøe, the name
of Amdunsen’s Northwest Passage sloop (1903-1905).
(Ind, 4/27/02, 5A)
891 Sep 1, Norse defeated near
Louvain, France.
(MC, 9/1/02)
c900-1000 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)
969-1000 Olaf Tryggvesson, Olav I, King of Norway
from 995-1000.
(WUD, 1994, p.1002)
986 Bjarni Herjolfsson sailed
from Norway to Iceland with cargo for his father, who had moved on
to Greenland. Herjjolfsson was blown off course and reached
Labrador, which he described as "worthless country."
(NG, V184, No. 4, Oct. 1993, p.4)(WSJ, 7/6/04,
p.D5)
995-1000 Olaf I was king.
(WUD, 1994, p.1002)
995-1030 Olaf Haraldsson, aka Saint Olaf, the
patron saint of Norway. He was king from 1016-1029. He and a crew of
Vikings attacked London and pulled down the London Bridge with
ropes. This is remembered in the nursery rhyme "London Bridge is
falling down..."
(WUD, 1994, p.1002)(SFC, 8/23/97, p.E3)
1002 Thorer Eastman (d.1002), a
Norwegian sea captain, was blown off course on a trading voyage from
Iceland to Greenland. He and his wife, Gudrid, along with a crew of
13 became stranded on a rock near the coast of Newfoundland for
weeks until they were rescued by Leif Eriksson, who was on his way
home to Greenland from North America with a cargo of timber. That
fall an epidemic swept Greenland and Eastman died.
(ON, 12/07, p.4)
c1004 In 2004 archaeologists in
western Norway found the remains of a harbor complex built by the
Vikings about this time, at the ancient harbor complex at
Faanestangen, near the west coast city of Trondheim, some 250 miles
north of Oslo.
(AP, 3/6/04)
1015 After converting to
Christianity in France, Olaf Haraldsson returned to Norway and
promptly conquered land held by Denmark, Sweden and Norwegian lords.
(HNQ, 11/30/00)
1016-1029 In Norway Olaf Haraldsson served as
king. He later became Saint Olaf, the patron saint of Norway.
(WUD, 1994, p.1002)
1024 Olaf Haraldsson
introduced a religious code in his efforts to convert the Norwegians
to Christianity.
(HNQ, 11/30/00)
1028 Olaf Haraldsson was forced
to flee Norway by Canute, king of England and Denmark, Olaf returned
to reconquer Norway, but was defeated and killed at the Battle of
Stiklestad in 1030.
(HNQ, 11/30/00)
1028-1035 Canute the Great became King of Norway.
(AHD, 1971, p.198)
1030 Jul 29, The patron saint
of Norway, King Olaf the Second, was killed in the Battle of
Stiklestad. Olaf Haraldsson was born a pagan and lived as a warrior
for most of his years going on to become the patron saint of Norway.
The son of Harald I, Oaf's early career was spent outside Norway
fighting the Danes and English among others.
(HNQ, 11/30/00)(AP, 7/29/01)
1031 Olaf II, aka Olaf
Haraldsson, was named a saint.
(HNQ, 11/30/00)
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)
1045-1066 King Harold Hardready reigned. During
this time Snorre Sturleson wrote the "Heimskringla." In his
Ynglingasaga he said that in 1049 under King Svein and in 1051 under
King Magnus, a special sermon against Curonian pirates was
introduced in the Danish churches.
(DrEE, 11/23/96, p.3)
1047 Oct 25, Magnus I Godhi,
king of Norway and Denmark (1035-47), died.
(MC, 10/25/01)
1066 Sep 21, At the Battle at
Fulford Norway king Harald III Hardrada beat the British militia.
(MC, 9/21/01)
1066 Sep 25, King Harold
Godwinson II marched north and attacked the Vikings at the Battle of
Stampford Bridge in Yorkshire. The King of Norway was killed and
Harold’s forces destroyed the Vikings who returned to Norway in 24
of their 300 ships. Marching north to face a Norwegian invasion
force commanded by King Harald Sigurdsson, aka Hardraade, and by his
usurper brother, Tostig, Harold Godwinson defended his crown at
Stamford Bridge, resulting in a Saxon victory and the deaths of both
Harald and Tostig. Soon afterward, however, Harold had to march
south to face another invading contender for his throne, Duke
William the Bastard of Normandy, who defeated and killed Harold at
Hastings on October 14, and took the English crown as William the
Conqueror.
(TLC, 6/25/95)
1066 Sep 25, Harald III
Hardrada (51), king of Norway and England (1047-66), died in battle.
(MC, 9/25/01)
1066 Sep, Harold Hardrata, King
of Norway, sailed south with 10,000 men in 300 ships to attack
England.
(TLC, Battles That Changed the World, 6/25/95)
1070 Bergen was founded on the
southwest coast of Norway.
(SSFC, 6/5/05, p.F7)
1100-1200 Chronicles mentioned stave church in the
village of Vaga.
(WSJ, 8/27/96, p.A12)
1100-1400 The official stave churches were mostly
built during this period.
(WSJ, 8/27/96, p.A12)
1103 Aug 24, Magnus III
Berbein, [Blootbeen], King of Norway (1093-1103), died.
(MC, 8/24/02)
1184 Jun 15, King Magnus of
Norway was defeated by his rival, Sverre.
(HN, 6/15/98)
1262 After a long and bloody
conflict between the various families and clans, the Icelanders
accepted the rule of the Norwegian kingdom.
(DrEE, 1/4/97, p.4)
1263 Oct 2, At Largs, King
Alexander III of Scotland repelled an amphibious invasion by King
Haakon IV of Norway.
(HN, 10/2/98)
1319 May 8, Haakon V, King of
Norway (1299-1319), died.
(MC, 5/8/02)
1360-1754 Hanseatic traders brought prosperity to
Bergen, Norway.
(SSFC, 6/5/05, p.F7)
1375-1412 Queen Margaret I (b.1353) ruled over
Denmark. In 1388 her rule extended over Norway and in 1389 extended
to include Sweden.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Margaret_I_of_Denmark)
1397 Jun 17, 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 Kalmar Union is a historiographical term meaning
a series of personal unions (1397–1523) that united the three
kingdoms of Denmark, Norway (with Iceland, Greenland, the Faroe
Islands and, prior to their annexation by Scotland in 1471, Shetland
and Orkney), and Sweden (including Finland) under a single monarch.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kalmar_Union)
c1440 Leif Eriksson drew a map
of America about this time. The "Vinland Map" was introduced in 1965
by Yale University as being the 1st known map of America, drawn
about 1440 by Norse explorer Leif Eriksson.
(MC, 10/10/01)
1472 The Orkney Islands were
part of Norway until this year.
(SFEC, 3/23/97, p.T3)
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)
1523 Sweden became independent
and dropped out of the Kalmar Union, formed in 1397 with Denmark and
Norway.
(www.emersonkent.com/historic_documents/kalmar_union.htm)
1537 The Reformation came to
Norway.
(WSJ, 8/27/96, p.A12)
1540 Renaissance artist Lucas
Cranach the Elder (1472-1553) created his painting "Suffer the
Little Children to Come Unto Me" about this time In 2009 it was
stolen from a Lutheran church in the southern Norway town of Larvik.
It’s value was estimated at 15-20 million kroner ($2.1-$2.8
million).
(AP, 3/8/09)
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)
c1600-1700 A local commander in Varda burned over
70 women alive as witches.
(WSJ, 6/6/00, p.A1)
1627 The stave church at Vaga
was rebuilt by architect Werner Olsen. His design included a few
fragments of the original building.
(WSJ, 8/27/96, p.A12)
1684 Dec 3, Ludvig Baron
Holberg, founder of Danish & Norwegian literature, was born.
(MC, 12/3/01)
1802 Aug 5, Niels Henrik Abel
(d.1829), mathematician, was born in Frindoe, Norway.
(Internet)(SFC, 3/26/04, p.A15)
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)
1824 Niels Henrik Abel
(1802-1829), Norwegian mathematician, proved that equations of the
5th order cannot generally be solved.
(Econ, 5/15/04, p.80)
1825 Oct 9, The first Norwegian
immigrants to America arrived on the sloop Restaurationen.
(HN, 10/9/98)
1828 Mar 20, Henrik Ibsen
(d.1906), poet and dramatist was born in Skien, Norway. His work
included “Peer Gynt” and “Hedda Gabler.” "The worst enemy of truth
and freedom in our society is the compact majority. Yes, the damned,
compact, liberal majority." In 1971 the 3rd and final volume of
“Ibsen: A Biography” by Michael Meyer (d.2000) was published.
(HFA, '96, p.26)(HN, 3/20/98)(AP, 7/22/98)(SFC,
8/10/00, p.D2)
1829 Apr 6, Niels Henrik Abel
(b.1802), Norwegian mathematician, died of tuberculosis. After him
comes the term Abelian group, an algebraic commutative group. In
2004 Peter Pesic authored “Abel’s Proof: An Essay on the Sources and
Meaning of Mathematical Unsolvability.”
(AHD, 1971, p.2)(SFC, 3/26/04, p.A15)(Econ,
5/15/04, p.80)
1838 The Norwegian violinist
Ole Bull visited Memphis but the local whites preferred the fiddling
of the slave musicians.
(WSJ, 8/14/97, p.A16)
1841 Aker ASA was founded. By
2007 the industrial holding company was Norway’s largest private
employer with some 35,000 employees.
(WSJ, 12/10/07, p.B1)
1841-1912 Gerard H. Hansen, Norwegian physician.
He discovered the leprosy-causing Mycobacterium leprae (aka Hansen’s
disease).
(WUD, 1994, p.644)
1843 Jun 15, Edvard Grieg
(d.1907), Norwegian composer, was born. He was best known for his
"Peer Gynt" suite. In 1999 over 40 unknown pieces from 1858-1862
were found in Bergen, Germany. Grieg studied at Leipzig during this
period.
(WUD, 1994, p.622)(SFC, 2/23/99, p.B3)(HT,
6/15/00)
1853 The Kvaerner ASA
conglomerate dated back to this time. It developed into a
hydropower, shipping and pulp and paper giant.
(WSJ, 10/26/01, p.A16)
1856 Christian Schibsted
purchased a hand operated printing press to print a newspaper for
somebody else. When the contract moved elsewhere he began his own
newspaper and in 2006 the original press could be seen in the Oslo
headquarters of the Schibsted newspaper firm.
(Econ, 8/26/06, p.52)
1859 Apr 4, Knut Hamsun
(d.1952), Norwegian writer, was born. He won the Nobel Prize in
literature in 1920.
(SFEC, 4/20/97, DB p.47-49)
1863 Dec 12, Edvard Munch
(d.1944), Norwegian artist (The Scream), was born.
(WUD, 1994 p.941)(NH, 6/00, p.20)(HN, 12/12/00)
1867 Henrik Ibsen, Norwegian
writer, wrote his poetic drama "Peer Gynt." He took his main figure
from a character in Norwegian folklore who flees from his difficult
mother, Ase, gets swept up in a world of trolls, grows up, gets
engaged in a variety of nefarious enterprises, and returns home
where he is redeemed by a woman who always loved him.
(WSJ, 1/28/98, p.A16)
1868 Edvard Hagerup Grieg
(1843-1907), Norwegian composer, completed his “Piano Concerto in A
Minor.”
(Econ, 8/13/11, p.81)
1870 Sophus Lie (1842-1899),
Norwegian mathematician, became a media sensation after he was found
outside Paris with a backpack filled with undecipherable
mathematical notes and arrested as a spy.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sophus_Lie)
1872 May, George C. Johnson,
former sea captain and Consul-General for Norway and Sweden in San
Francisco, died.
(Ind, 8/11/01, 5A)
1872 Jul 16, Roald Amundsen
(d.1928), Norwegian explorer, discoverer of the South Pole, was
born.
(Ind, 4/27/02, 5A)(MC, 7/16/02)
1872 Aug 3, Haakon VII, King of
Norway, was born in Charlottenlund, Denmark.
(SC, 8/3/02)
1876 Feb 24, Henrik Ibsen's
"Peer Gynt," premiered in Oslo.
(MC, 2/24/02)
1879 Henrik Ibsen wrote his
play "A Doll’s House." Much of the dialogue was written to move
characters on and off stage.
(WSJ, 4/4/97, p.A7)(SFC, 1/7/99, p.A8)
1882 May 20, Henrik Ibsen's
"Ghosts" (Gengangere, 1881) premiered in Chicago.
(MC, 5/20/02)
1882 Henrik Ibsen wrote his
moral melodrama "An Enemy of the People."
(WSJ, 8/11/98, p.A16)
1887 Feb 5, Peder Balke
(b.1804), Norwegian painter, died. He was known for portraying the
nature of Norway in a positive manner and influenced a dramatic and
romantic view of Norwegian landscape.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peder_Balke)
1887 Jul 18, Vidkum Quisling,
Norwegian minister of Defense, premier (1942-45), was born. He was
considered a traitor to his country for allowing an easy takeover by
Nazi Germany.
(HN, 7/18/98)(MC, 7/18/02)
1887 Sophus Lie (1842-1899),
Norwegian mathematician, recognized a mathematical structure called
E8, which contained 248 dimensions. It took 120 years to solve. In
2007 Dr. Garrett Lisi proposed that this structure could be used to
describe fully the laws of physics.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sophus_Lie)(Econ,
11/24/07, p.87)
1888 Mar 4, Knute Rockne,
Norwegian-US football player, coach for Notre Dame, was born.
(HN, 3/4/98)(SC, 3/4/02)
1888 Fridtjof Nansen of Norway
led a 5-man team across Greenland on skis.
(ON, 7/05, p.1)
1891 Feb 26, Henrik Ibsen’s
"Hedda Gabler" premiered in Oslo.
(SFC, 4/14/01, p.B1)(SC, 2/26/02)
1882 May 20, Sigrid Undset,
Norwegian novelist (Kristin Lavransdatter), was born.
(HN, 5/20/01)
1893 Jun, Fridtjof Nansen left
Norway for the North Pole aboard the Fram. He theorized that the
ship would become ice-bound and cross the Arctic and the North Pole
in 3 years.
(ON, 7/05, p.1)
1893 Edvard Munch (1863-1944),
Norwegian artist, painted "The Scream." The red sky in the painting
was later said to have resulted from his views of the red skies over
Norway during the 1883 volcano explosion at Krakatoa.
(AP, 12/10/03)
1894-1895 Edvard Munch (1863-1944), Norwegian
artist, painted "Madonna." In 2004 it was stolen from the Oslo Munch
Museum.
(WSJ, 8/24/04, p.D8)
1895 Mar 3, Ragnar Frisch,
economist (1st Nobel prize in economy-1969), was born in Norway.
(SC, 3/3/02)
1895 Mar 15, Fridtjof Nansen
and Hjalmar Johansen left their ship Fram in an attempt to reach the
North Pole by dogsled. [see Jun 17, 1896]
(ON, 7/05, p.5)
1895 Jul 12, Kirsten Flagstad,
Norwegian opera singer, was born.
(HN, 7/12/01)
1896 Jun 17, Fridtjof Nansen
and Hjalmar Johansen met up with English explorer Frederick Jackson
at Franz Joseph Land in the Arctic.
(ON, 7/05, p.5)
1896 Aug 20, Fridtjof Nansen
and Hjalmar Johansen arrived back in Norway following a 3 year
Arctic venture. In 1898 Nansen published “Farthest North,” a
best-selling account of his adventure. In 1922 Nansen was awarded
the Nobel Prize for Peace.
(ON, 7/05, p.5)
1896 Jul 16, Trygve Lie, first
secretary-general of the United Nations (1946-52), was born in
Norway.
(HN, 7/16/98)(MC, 7/16/02)
1896 Dec 10, Alfred Nobel (63),
Swedish Nobel Prize ceremony on this date, died. By the time of his
death Nobel had acquired a massive fortune. In his will, he left
instructions that the bulk of his estate should endow the annual
Nobel prizes for those who had most contributed to the areas of
physics, chemistry, medicine, literature and peace. In 1968, a sixth
award for economics was established [see Nov 27, 1895]. The
Nobel Peace Prize is therefore awarded on December 10. The first of
the Nobel Prizes was presented in 1901 according to instructions in
his will. At his death he was one of the richest men in the world,
he also felt it would be wrong to leave his fortune to relatives.
"Inherited wealth is a misfortune which merely serves to dull man's
faculties." Nobel wished the Peace Prize to be administered in
Norway.
(HNPD, 10/21/98)(AP,
12/10/06)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nobel_Peace_Prize)
1896 Henrik Ibsen, Norwegian
playwright, authored “John Gabriel Borkman.” This was Ibsen’s
penultimate play.
(Econ, 1/22/11,
p.100)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Gabriel_Borkman)
1899 Feb 18, Sophus Lie
(b.1842), Norwegian mathematician, died.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sophus_Lie)
1902 Apr 28, Johan Borgen,
Norwegian novelist, was born.
(HN, 4/28/01)
1902 Nov 1, Nordahl Brun Greig,
Norwegian writer, was born. He was a wartime hero during WWII.
(HN, 11/1/00)
1903 Jun 16, Roald Amundsen
(31) departed Christiana (later Oslo), Norway, aboard Gjøa
with a crew of 6 to search for the Northwest Passage. They reached
California in the fall of 1905.
(NG, 6/1988, p.765)(Ind, 4/27/02, 5A)
1903 Jul 2, Olav V, King of
Norway (1957), was born in England.
(SC, 7/2/02)
1903 Dec 9, The Norwegian
parliament voted unanimously for female suffrage.
(MC, 12/9/01)
1903 Dec 15, The British
Parliament placed a 15-year ban on whale fishing in Norway.
(HN, 12/15/98)
1905 Jun 7, Norway declared
independence from Sweden. Their union had been in effect in since
1814.
(SC, 6/7/02)(SSFC, 6/5/05, p.F7)
1905 Aug 19, Roald Amundsen and
his crew of 6 aboard Gjøe, a converted herring boat, made
contact with the US Coast Guard cutter Bear, which confirmed their
crossing the Northwest Passage following a 26-month journey.
Amundsen continued by dogsled to the Yukon while his crew completed
their journey at Point Bonita, California, just outside the Golden
Gate.
(SFC, 4/17/00, p.D8)(WSJ, 4/18/00, p.A16)(Ind,
4/27/02, 5A)
1905 Oct 26, Norway signed a
treaty of separation with Sweden and chose Prince Charles of Denmark
as the new king; he became King Haakon VII.
(HN, 10/26/98)
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)
1906 May 23, Henrik Ibsen (78),
Norwegian playwright and poet died in Christiania, Norway.
(AP, 5/23/06)
1906 Oct 19, The crew of Roald
Amundsen aboard Gjoe, a converted herring boat, arrived off the
coast of San Francisco following their crossing of the Northwest
Passage in a 26-month journey. The Gjoe was returned to Norway in
1972 and a commemorative sculpture was left next to the Beach Chalet
at Ocean Beach.
(SFC, 10/19/06, p.B1)(Ind, 4/27/02, 5A)
1907 Mar 7, Rolf Jacobsen,
Norwegian poet, was born.
(HN, 3/7/01)
1907 Jun 14, Women in Norway
won the right to vote.
(HN, 6/14/98)
1907 Sep 4, Edvard Hagerup
Grieg (64), Norwegian composer (Peer Gynt Suite), died.
(WUD, 1994, p.622)(MC, 9/4/01)
1909 Jun 16, In San Francisco
the Gjoe, explorer Roald Amundsen’s converted herring boat, was
passed as a gift to the people of San Francisco. He had used the
vessel to cross the Northwest Passage in 1905 and had arrived in SF
in 1906. In 1972 the Gjoe was returned to Norway and a commemorative
sculpture was left next to the Beach Chalet at Ocean Beach.
(Ind, 4/27/02, 5A)(SSFC, 6/14/09, DB p.50)
1911 Oct 19, A team, consisting
of Olav Bjaaland, Helmer Hanssen, Sverre Hassel, Oscar Wisting, and
Roald Amundsen set out to reach the South Pole.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roald_Amundsen)
1911 Dec 14, Norwegian explorer
Roald Amundsen became the first man to reach the South Pole, beating
an expedition led by Robert F. Scott. The best book on Scott and
Amundsen is by Roland Huntford "Scott and Amundsen."
(AP, 12/14/97)(SFEC, 1/24/99, BR p.1,6)
1912 Apr 8, Sonja Henie
(d.1969), ice skater, actress (Olympic-gold-1928,32,36), was born in
Oslo, Norway. Henie won 10 consecutive world championships.
(MC, 4/8/02)(SSFC, 10/5/03, Par p.2)
1914 May 29, The Canadian ship
Empress of Ireland sank while enroute to Quebec City to Liverpool
after colliding with the Norwegian coal freighter Storstad. 1,012
(1,024) of the 1,500 passengers and crew were killed. The site of
the tragedy was proclaimed a protected historic and archeological
site by Quebec in 1999.
(SFC, 4/23/99, p.D3)(SC, 5/29/02)
1914 Jun 6, The 1st air flight
out of sight of land was made from Scotland to Norway.
(MC, 6/6/02)
1914 Oct 6, Thor Heyerdahl,
Norwegian entomologist and adventurer whose 1947 Kon-Tiki expedition
established the possibility that Polynesians may have originated in
South America, was born.
(HN, 10/6/98)
1915 Feb 23, Germany sank US
ships Carib & Evelyn and torpedoed the Norwegian ship Regin.
(MC, 2/23/02)
1916 Apr 16,
In Norway Lars Korvald (d.2006), later prime minister
(1972-1973) was born on a farm near the southeastern village of
Nedre Eiker. He graduated from the Norwegian Agricultural College in
1943, and became an agriculture teacher.
(AP, 7/4/06)
1916 Sep 13, Roald Dahl
(d.1990), son of Norwegian immigrants, was born in Llandaff, Wales.
He is best known for his children’s books such as "James and the
Giant Peach."
(www.bbc.co.uk/arts/books/author/dahl)
1917 Jan, In Norway a piece of
sugar containing anthrax bacilli was found in the luggage of Baron
Otto Karl von Rosen, when he was apprehended in Karasjok for
suspected espionage and sabotage.
(NH, 10/98, p.18)
1917 Dec 6, In Nova Scotia some
2000 people were killed and thousands wounded following an explosion
in Halifax harbor. The Imo, a Norwegian freighter ship, had collided
with the French munitions ship Mont Blanc and a fire soon caused a
massive explosion. A local court found Captain Le Medec of the Mont
Blanc and other defendants guilty of the collision. Canada’s Supreme
Court ruled that the captains of both ships were equally to blame. A
Privy Council in London ruled that Le Medec had done nothing
illegal.
(EWH, 4th ed, p.1054)(ON, 7/05, p.7)(AP, 12/6/07)
1919 The Versailles conference
gave Norway sovereignty over the island of Svalbard, but allowed
other countries to establish settlements there.
(Econ, 10/2/04, p.52)
1920 Knut Hamsun (1859-1952),
Norwegian writer, won the Nobel Prize in literature for his work
"The Growth of the Soil."
(Econ, 11/7/09, p.79)
1920 A treaty between Norway
and Russia allowed Russia to pursue mining in the Svalbard islands
at Spitsbergen.
(WSJ, 9/19/97, p.A1)(Econ, 10/11/08, p.70)
1922 Fridtjof Nansen, Norwegian
Arctic explorer (1893-1896), was awarded the Nobel Prize for Peace.
(ON, 7/05, p.5)
1924 Jul 10, Denmark took
Greenland as Norway ended its claim.
(MC, 7/10/02)
1926 Erik Rotheim of Norway
invented the aerosol can.
(SFEC, 1/17/99, Z1 p.1)
1828 Mar 20, Henrik Ibsen
(d.1906), Norwegian dramatist (Peer Gynt, Hedda Gabler), was born.
(HFA, '96, p.26)(HN, 3/20/98)
1928 Jun 18, Norwegian explorer
Roald Amundsen (b.1872) flew to the North Pole with a crew of
rescuers to search for the survivors of the dirigible Italia. They
were never seen again.
(ON, 10/00, p.8)(Ind, 4/27/02,
5A)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roald_Amundsen)
1930 Feb 5, Sonja Henie (17),
Norwegian figure skating star, won her fourth consecutive world's
amateur singles championship.
(NY Times, 2/6/1930, p.30)
1930 May 13, Fridtjof Nansen
(68), Norwegian Arctic explorer (1893-1896), died in Oslo.
(ON, 7/05, p.5)
1931 Nov 30, The submarine
Nautilus was sunk near Bergen, Norway. Hubert Wilkins, Australian
explorer, had used the ship in a failed attempt to sail beneath the
North Pole.
(ON, 1/02, p.8)
1940 Apr 8, British troops
landed at Narwik to mine Norway’s territorial waters.
(ON, 11/05, p.3)
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. [see Nov 9]
(WSJ, 4/29/96, p.C-1)(SFEC, 1/26/97, p.A14)(AP,
4/9/97)(ON, 11/05, p.3)
1940 Apr 10, Vidkun Quisling
formed a Norwegian pro-Nazi "national government."
(MC, 4/10/02)
1940 Apr 10, The HMS Hunter, a
British destroyer, went down with 110 men in the fist Battle of
Narvik as the Royal Navy tried to keep German forces from
overrunning a strategic Norwegian port. Germany lost 4 destroyers in
the battle. In 2008 a Norwegian minehunter found the wreck
(AP, 3/9/08)
1940 Apr 14, Allied troops
landed in Norway.
(MC, 4/14/02)
1940 Apr 15, French and British
troops landed at Narvik, Norway.
(HN, 4/15/98)
1940 Apr 29, Norwegian King
Haakon and government fled to England.
(MC, 4/29/02)
1940 May 5, Norwegian
government in exile formed in London.
(MC, 5/5/02)
1940 May 7-1940 May 8, The
British House of Commons debated the disastrous Norwegian campaign.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norway_Debate)
1940 May 10, Winston Churchill
took office as PM. Churchill formed a new government and served as
the Conservative head of a coalition government with the opposition
Labor Party. The debate over the Norway campaign led directly to
Churchill replacing Chamberlain.
(WSJ, 9/3/98, p.A6)(PCh, 1992, p.864)(Econ,
11/4/06, p.67)
1940 Jun 9, Norway surrendered
to the Nazis during World War II, effective at midnight.
(AP, 6/9/07)
1940 Sep 25, German High
Commissioner in Norway set up the Vidikun Quisling government.
(SFC, 6/25/97, p.A10)(MC, 9/25/01)
1940 Nov 9, Germany invaded
Norway and Denmark. [see Apr 9, 1940]
(MC, 11/9/01)
1941 Jun 26, In Norway an
adviser to collaborationist leader Vidkun Quisling suggested in a
letter, four days after Hitler invaded the Soviet Union, that
northern Russia would be better used by Germanic peoples because
Slavic peoples "don't know how to make use of the land." The
document was not made public until 2010.
(AP, 4/9/10)
1941 Jul 16, Dag Solstad,
Norwegian novelist and playwright, was born.
(HN, 7/16/01)
1942 Oct, An advance team of 4
Norwegian commandos parachuted into Norway as part of Operation
Grouse to destroy the German-operated heavy-water Vemork plant on
the Mane River near Rjukan.
(ON, 4/07, p.2)
1942 Nov 26, The German ship SS
Donau prepared to leave the Oslo wharf with 332 Norwegian Jews bound
for death camps.
(AP, 8/24/06)
1942 Nov, A Royal Air Force
bomber and 2 gliders, carrying 34 British commandos, crash landed in
Norway. This was part of Operation Freshman, which planned a raid on
the heavy-water plant at Vemork. The survivors were captured by
German soldiers and executed by the Gestapo.
(ON, 4/07, p.2)
1942-43 Under the Quisling government 767 Jews
were deported to Auschwitz. An estimated 1,100 Jews fled to Sweden
and bureaucrats looted the possessions of 1,179 Jewish families and
71 Jewish companies.
(SFC, 6/25/97, p.A10)
1943 Feb 28, In Operation
Gunnerside Norwegian commandos flown in from Britain bombed the Nazi
heavy water plant near Rjukan. The raid was later depicted in the
1965 film "The Heroes of Telemark." The 9 commandos included Claus
Helberg (d.2003) and Knut Haukelid (d.1994).
(SFC, 3/14/03, p.A27)(ON, 4/07, p.4)
1943 Nov 16, One hundred and
forty American bombers flew from British bases to Vemork, Norway, to
destroy the Nazi heavy water facility near Rjukan, where production
had resumed despite a commando raid in February. Only 14 of some 700
bombs hit the plant killing 24 civilians. The bombing did not harm
the basement level where the heavy water was collected and stored.
(ON, 4/07, p.5)
1943 Gustav Vigeland (b.1869),
Norwegian sculptor, died. His major life's work was the creation of
212 sculptures of 600 figures in an Oslo park named Vigeland Park.
(SSFC, 6/22/03, p.A1)
1944 Jan 23, Edvard Munch
(b.1863), Norwegian painter and hopeless alcoholic, died. His work
included “Kiss by the Window” (1892), “The Scream” (1893) and “Self
Portrait With Cigarette” (1895). He had a breakdown in 1908 and
retreated to Ekely, where he painted for his remaining years. He
left behind a collection 1,008 paintings at his estate outside Oslo.
In 2005 Sue Prideaux authored “Edvard Munch: Behind the Scream.”
(WSJ, 4/16/02, p.D7)(SSFC, 12/18/05, p.M2)(Sm,
3/06, p.60)(WSJ, 2/25/09, p.D7)
1944 Feb 20, A time-bomb
planted by Norwegian commando Knut Haukelid sank the Lake Tinn ferry
Hydro, which carried heavy water canisters from the Vemork plant
destined for Germany. 12 German soldiers and 14 civilian passengers
drowned. Rescuers saved 23 Norwegians and 4 Germans.
(ON, 4/07, p.5)
1944 Nov 12, The RAF sank the
German battleship Tirpitz at Troms Fjord, Norway. Great Britain so
feared the Tripitz, that any hint of its use caused escort ships to
flee their convoys.
(HN, 11/12/98)(MC, 11/12/01)
1944 Odd Nerdrum, Norwegian
figurative artist, was born. He made haunting oils of eerily
incandescent nudes.
(WSJ, 3/19/97, p.A16)(www.oddnerdrum.com)
1945 Feb 9, The German
submarine U-864 with a crew of 73 sank about 2 1/2 miles off Fedje,
Norway. It was on a desperate mission to supply Japan with advanced
weapons technology and carried a poisonous cargo of 70 tons of
mercury. Leakage of the mercury posed a severe threat in 2006 and
plans were made to encase the wreck. In 2007 Norway’s government
said it would be buried in special sand to protect the coastline.
(AP, 12/20/06)(AP, 2/13/07)
1945 May 9, Norwegian Nazi
collaborator Vidkun Quisling was arrested.
(MC, 5/9/02)
1945 Sep 10, Vidkun Quisling
was sentenced to death in Norway for collaborating with the Nazis.
He was executed by firing squad in October 1945.
(AP, 9/10/07)
1945 Oct 24, Vidkun Quisling,
Norway's wartime minister president, was executed by firing squad
for collaboration with the Nazis.
(HN, 10/24/00)
1946-1953 Trygve Lie of Norway served as the
Secretary-General of the UN.
(SFC, 12/14/96, p.A1)
1947 Apr 28, Norwegian
anthropologist Thor Heyerdahl (d.2002) and five others sailed from
Peru aboard a balsa wood raft named the Kon-Tiki on a 101-day, 4,300
nautical mile journey across the Pacific Ocean to Polynesia. They
wanted to prove that Peruvian Indians could have settled in
Polynesia. Heyerdahl published "Kon-Tiki" in 1950.
(AP, 4/28/97)(WSJ, 5/22/97, p.A13)(HN,
4/28/99)(SFC, 4/19/02, p.A2)
1947 "Kon Tiki" by Thor
Heyerdahl of Norway was published by Rand McNally.
(SSFC, 11/18/01, p.A28)
1949 Apr 4, The (NATO) North
Atlantic Treaty Organization pact was signed by the US, Great
Britain, France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Italy,
Portugal, Denmark, Iceland, Norway and Canada. It provided for
mutual defense against aggression and for close military
cooperation.
(www.nato.int/cps/en/natolive/official_texts_17120.htm)(TOH, 1982,
p.1949) y
1952 Feb 19, Knut Hamsun
(b.1859), Norwegian writer, died. He won the Nobel Prize in
literature in 1920. His work included "From the Cultural Life in
Modern America" (1889), "Hunger," "The Growth of the Soil,"
"Victoria," and "An Overgrown Path." A film portrait of his life was
produced in 1997. In 2009 Ingar Sletten Kolloen authored “Knut
Hamsun: Dreamer and Dissenter.”
(SFEC, 4/20/97, DB p.47-49)(Econ, 11/7/09, p.79)
1952 Dec 11, The outbound
Norwegian ship Fernstream was sliced open by the inbound SS Hawaiian
Rancher under heavy fog inside the Golden Gate. The Fernstream sank
in 30 minutes but all passengers escaped.
(SFC, 12/6/02, p.E16)
1957 Sep 21, Norway's King
Haakon VII died in Oslo at age 85.
(AP, 9/21/07)
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/)
1959 Norway’s Stolt-Nielsen
shipping group was founded and grew to become one of the biggest
players in Norway's large shipping industry.
(AP, 2/16/11)
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)
1968 In San Francisco Mayor
Alioto greeted King Olav V of Norway with a grand reception at City
Hall.
(SFEC, 2/1/98, p.A10)
1969 May 25, Thor Heyerdahl
(1914-2002), Norwegian ethnographer and adventurer, departed with
his crew on the reed raft Ra for from Morocco. They abandoned their
trip 1 week shy of Barbados. Heyerdahl sailed across the Atlantic in
his Egyptian reed boat, Ra, and reported on garbage floating
everywhere in the sea. On 16 July the crew was saved by the American
yacht Shenandoah. In just 56 days they had sailed a distance of
2,700 nautical miles.
(V.D.-H.K.p.343)(www.shipsonstamps.org/Topics/html/kontiki.htm)
1969 Oct 12, Sonja Henie
(b.1912), Norwegian ice skater (Olympic-gold-1928,32,36) and
film star, died of leukemia on a flight from Paris to Oslo. Henie's
career included a record 10 consecutive world championships.
(SSFC, 10/5/03, Par
p.2)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sonja_Henie)
1969 Oct, Economists Jan
Timbergen (1903-1994) of the Netherlands and Ragnar Frisch of Norway
were awarded the first Nobel Prize in Economics for having developed
and applied dynamic models for the analysis of economic processes.
Tinbergen was a founding trustee of Economists for Peace and
Security.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jan_Tinbergen)
1970 May 17, Thor Heyerdahl
(1914-2002), Norwegian anthropologist, left Morocco aboard Ra II, a
papyrus reed boat, and sailed 3,270 nautical miles across the
Atlantic to Barbados in 57 days [see Jul 12].
(SFC, 4/19/02,
p.A2)(www.spiritus-temporis.com/thor-heyerdahl/)
1970 Jul 12, Thor Heyerdahl,
Norwegian ethnographer, crossed the Atlantic Ocean in "Ra" and
docked in Barbados.
(www.shipsonstamps.org/Topics/html/kontiki.htm)
1972 Jan 22, Britain, Denmark,
Ireland and Norway joined the European Economic Community.
(AP, 1/22/02)
1972 May 4, The remains of the
ship Gjoe, a converted herring boat used by Roald Amundsen to cross
the Northwest Passage (1903-1905), departed San Francisco for Oslo,
Norway. A commemorative sculpture was left next to the Beach Chalet
at Ocean Beach.
(SFC, 4/17/00, p.D8)(WSJ, 4/18/00, p.A16)(Ind,
4/27/02, 5A)
1972 Oct 18,
In Norway Lars Korvald (1916-2006) became the first Christian
Democrat to serve as prime minister.
(AP, 7/4/06)
1973 Jul 21, Israeli
intelligence mistakenly assassinated Ahmed Bouchiki, a Moroccan
living in Lillehammer, Norway, as part of its retribution for the
Sep 5, 1972, terrorist attack in Munich. He was mistaken for Ali
Hassan Salameh (d.1979).
(WSJ, 12/21/05,
p.D10)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ahmed_Bouchiki)
1973 Oct 16,
In Norway the Christian Democrat government of Lars Korvald
(1916-2006) resigned as the socialists won a majority in
parliamentary elections.
(AP, 7/4/06)
1980 Mar 27, The Alexander L.
Kielland, a North Sea Norwegian floating oil field platform,
capsized during a storm killing 123 workers. It was owned by the
Stavanger Drilling Company of Norway and was on hire to the US
company Phillips Petroleum at the time of the disaster.
(AP,
3/27/02)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_L._Kielland_%28platform%29)
1980 The 2,032 passenger SS
France became the SS Norway, flagship of the Norwegian Cruise Lines.
(www.oceanlinermuseum.co.uk/France%20index.htm)
1981 Gro Harlem Brundtland
became prime minister of Norway.
(SFC, 6/21/96, p.A12)
1982 In 2005 Karin Linstad, a
leading Norwegian pro-Palestinian activist, said she infiltrated the
Israeli intelligence agency Mossad as a double agent in the 1980s.
The Oslo newspaper Aftenposten said Mossad had been skeptical of
Linstad's offer to act as an agent but was drawn in by her claims of
tight contact with leading Palestinians. The newspaper, without
citing sources, said she provided information about Palestinians in
Beirut, Lebanon, ahead of Israel's 1982 invasion.
(AP, 10/6/05)
1986 May 9, In Norway the
Conservative-led coalition resigned and Gro Harlem Brundtland
(b.1939) returned to power. She immediately appointed 8 women to her
18-member cabinet.
(SFC, 10/24/96,
p.C3)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gro_Harlem_Brundtland)
1989 Oct, The Nobel Prize in
Economics was awarded to Trygve Haavelmo of Norway, for
clarification of the probability theory foundation of econometrics.
(SFC, 10/15/98, p.A2)(AP, 10/11/09)
1989-1990 Jan P. Syse (d.1997 at 66) served as
prime minister of a conservative-led coalition government. He led
the conservative party from 1988-1991.
(SFC, 9/18/97, p.C2)
1990 Apr 7, An arson fire
aboard a ferry enroute from Norway to Denmark killed 159 people.
(AP, 4/7/00)(AP, 1/14/12)
1990 Norwegian church groups
brought the government of Guatemala and rebels together for peace
talks in Oslo.
(SFC, 12/5/96, p.C1)
1991 Jun 5, Soviet President
Mikhail S. Gorbachev delivered his delayed Nobel Peace lecture in
Oslo, Norway, warning that Western failure to heed his call for
economic aid could dash hopes for a peaceful new world order.
(AP, 6/5/01)
1991 Norway became one of the
first countries to adopt a carbon tax in an attempt to slow global
warming.
(Econ, 1/24/09, p.28)
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 Nov 25, Norway formally
applies to join the European Communities.
(http://europa.eu.int/abc/history/1992/index_en.htm)
1992 In Norway the 1993 Oslo I
peace accord was begun in 1992 following a research project on
Palestinian living conditions by Terje Roed Larsen. Larsen arranged
discussions between Uri Savir of Israel and Ahmed Qureia (Abu Ala)
for Palestine.
(SFEC, 10/31/99, p.A21)
1992 Norway introduced a carbon
tax in an effort to fight global warming.
(Econ, 6/2/07, p.22)
1992 Norway dramatically cut
top tax rates on both labor and capital income, from a 58% top
income tax rate to 28%.
(Econ, 9/24/11, p.84)
1992 Norway’s 19th cent.
Holmenkollen Chapel, often attended by the royal family, fell victim
to arson.
(WSJ, 8/27/96, p.A12)
1992 Varg "the Count" Vikernes
murdered a rival Satanist leader and was sentenced to 21 years in
prison. He was also involved in at least four cases of church arson.
(WSJ, 8/27/96, p.A12)
1993 Aug, Norwegian academic
Terje Roed-Larsen and other Norwegian mediators helped broker a
secret peace accord in which the Palestinians formally recognized
Israel's right to exist and Israel agreed to establish self-rule in
the West Bank and Gaza. The accord allowed thousands of PLO
guerrillas to return to Palestine without Israeli interference.
(SFC, 6/19/96, p.A8)(SFC, 6/4/98, p.C3)(AP,
11/12/04)
1993 Dec 19, Israeli Foreign
Minister Shimon Peres and senior PLO officials ended two days of
closed-door talks in Oslo, Norway, in which they sought to break a
deadlock over Palestinian self-rule in the occupied territories.
(AP, 12/19/98)
1993 In Norway Labor's Gro
Harlem Brundtland won re-election.
(AP, 9/15/09)
1993 Gay marriages were
legalized.
(SFC, 6/28/96, p.A14)
1993 The hunting of minke
whales was resumed after a six-year self-imposed moratorium.
(SFC, 5/9/98, p.A7)
1994 Feb 12, The XVII Winter
Olympic Games opened in Lillehammer, Norway. The official song was
"Fire in Your Heart."
(SFEC, 10/5/97, p.A17)(WSJ, 3/12/98, p.A16)(AP,
2/12/99)
1994 Feb 13, At the Winter
Olympic Games in Lillehammer, Norway, American Tommy Moe won the
men's downhill, defeating local hero Kjetil Andre Aamodt by 0.004
seconds.
(AP, Internet, 2/13/99)
1994 Feb 14, At the Winter
Olympics in Norway, speedskater Dan Jansen slipped and fell during
the 500 meters race.
(AP, Internet, 2/14/99)
1994 Feb 18, At the Winter
Olympic Games in Norway, speedskater Dan Jansen finally won a gold
medal, breaking the world record in the 1,000 meters.
(AP, Internet, 2/18/99)
1994 Feb 19, American
speedskater Bonnie Blair won the fourth Olympic gold medal of her
career as she won the 500-meter race in Lillehammer, Norway.
(AP, Internet, 2/19/99)
1994 Feb 25, At the Winter
Olympics in Norway, Oksana Baiul of Ukraine won the gold medal in
ladies' figure skating while Nancy Kerrigan won the silver and Chen
Lu of China the bronze; Tonya Harding came in eighth.
(AP, Internet, 2/25/99)
1994 Feb 27, The Winter Olympic
Games ended in Lillehammer, Norway.
(AP, Internet, 2/27/99)
1994 May 7, Norway's most
famous painting, "The Scream," by Edvard Munch, was recovered almost
three months after it was stolen from an Oslo museum. Another
version was stolen in 2004.
(AP, 5/7/99)(WSJ, 8/24/04, p.A1)
1994 Nov 28, Norwegian voters
narrowly rejected European Union membership.
(WSJ, 4/8/96, p.A-14)(DT internet 11/28/97)
1994 Olav Koss announced that
he would donate Olympic awards from the Norwegian government,
totaling over $100,000, to an organization called Olympic Aid,
dedicated to helping children worldwide.
(SFC, 2/14/06, p.A11)
1996 Mar 10, A Norwegian member
of the Bandidos motorcycle gang was shot and wounded at the Oslo
airport.
(SFEC, 8/11/96, p.A13)
1996 Aug 29, A Russian Tu-154
plane with 141 passengers crashed on a desolate arctic island 6
miles from Spitsbergen where they were returning to jobs in a
Russian-run coal mine. It was the worst crash in Norway’s history.
(SFC, 8/30/96, p.A14)(SFC, 7/4/01, p.A10)
1996 The prime minister of
Norway is Gro Harlem Brundtland.
(WSJ, 5/16/96, p.A-14)
1996 Aug 27, The 29 stave
churches left were under government protection and threatened by
arsonists of a Satanic movement.
(WSJ, 8/27/96, p.A12)
1996 Oct 23, Gro Harlem
Brundtland announced her resignation as prime minister. Thoerbjorn
Jagland, leader of the Labor Party, was expected to replace her.
(SFC, 10/24/96, p.C3)
1996 Nov 1, Norway announced a
$24 million donation to educate girls in 19 African countries. The
gift went to UNICEF’s African Education for All program.
(SFC, 11/2/96, p.C1)
1997 Jan 18, Norwegian Boerge
Ousland completed a solo crossing of Antarctica that began Nov 15.
He used a parachute and skies to help pull himself across the 1695
miles from Berkner Island to Scott Base.
(SFC, 1/18/96, p.C1)
1997 Jun 4, In Drammen a car
bomb destroyed the headquarters of the Bandido motorcycle gang. One
passerby was killed and 4 people were injured.
(SDUT, 6/6/97, p.A26)
1997 Sep 2, The US demanded
exemptions to a proposed global ban on land mines at an int’l
meeting in Oslo, Norway. The exemptions were for mines on the Korean
peninsula and for certain types of mines.
(SFC, 9/3/97, p.C2)
1997 Sep 14, It was reported
that Norway is the world’s 2nd largest oil exporter and that the
government sets aside nearly $8.3 billion into a fund for the
future.
(SFEC, 9/14/97, p.A24)
1997 Sep 15, Prime Minister
Thorbjoern Jagland said he would step down after support in national
elections reached only about 35%.
(SFC, 9/16/97, p.A12)
1997 Sep 18, In Norway an
explosion at a Russian-operated coal mine in the Svalbard islands
killed 23 Russian and Ukrainian workers.
(SFC, 9/19/97, p.A14)
1997 Sep 23, The Gilmore Artist
Award, a $300,000 prize given every 4 years to a classical pianist,
was awarded to Norwegian pianist Leif Ove Andsnes at the Irving S.
Gilmore Int’l. Keyboard Festival in Kalamazoo, Mich.
(SFC, 9/24/97, p.E5)
1997 Feb, It was first noticed
that lake water near Oslo was subsiding in association with the
construction of an 8-mile tunnel.
(SFC,10/24/97, p.A11)
1997 Jun, Terms of the Baltnet
Group, an Air Surveillance System for Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia,
were established in Oslo, Norway.
(http://tinyurl.com/a6o2n)
1997 Oct 25, In Norway it was
reported that a new 8-mile tunnel outside of Oslo was draining water
from nearby lakes at the rate of 10,000 gallons a minute. The
sealing compound Rhoca-Gil was supposed to stop the leaks, but its
use in Sweden had already caused water to be contaminated with
acrylamide, an agent that causes nerve damage. In Sweden
construction of a controversial tunnel was halted when water
draining from the tunnel was found to be contaminated by the sealing
compound, Rhoca-Gil.
(SFC,10/24/97, p.A11)
1997 Dec 3, Dr. Christian
Sandsdalen was convicted for the mercy killing in Jun 1996 of Bodil
Bjerkmann (45), who suffered from multiple schlerosis. He was the
first Norwegian tried for mercy killing.
(SFC, 12/4/97, p.C4)
1998 Jan 27, The UN named Gro
Harlem Brundtland, the former prime minister of Norway as the head
of the World Health Organization (WHO).
(SFC, 1/28/98, p.A6)
1998 cApr 3, A 2-day meeting
called by the Norwegian Initiative on Small Arms Transfers was
attended by 18 African nations, over a dozen European countries and
Japan, Canada and Argentina. They endorsed measures to control the
spread of light weapons.
(SFC, 4/6/98, p.A13)
1998 cMay 8, Norway authorized
another season of hunting minke whales with a 30% allotment increase
to 671.
(SFC, 5/9/98, p.A7)
1998 May 26, In Russia Pres.
Yeltsin signed an accord with King Harold V of Norway for the
dismantling and disposal of 90 nuclear submarines decaying in the
Barents Sea. Russia expected Norway to provide $30 million for the
project, which was expected to cost billions and take over a decade.
(SFC, 5/27/98, p.C2)
1998 Jun 26, A draft law was
passed to set aside $58 million for Jewish survivors of Nazi death
camps.
(SFC, 6/27/98, p.A14)
1998 Jul 13, In Oslo delegates
from 21 countries met to draft strategy to keep small arms out of
the hands of terrorists.
(SFC, 7/13/98, p.A8)
1998 Aug 15, A 4 day conference
by religious leaders ended. The group pledged to form an int’l.
alliance to wipe out prejudice linked to religion and belief.
(SFEC, 8/16/98, p.A21)
1998 Sep 16, It was reported
that Prime Minister Kjell Magne Bondevik (51), too depressed to
work, was on sick leave. Plunging oil prices, surging interest rates
and political bickering forced him to leave almost 2 weeks ago.
(WSJ, 9/16/98, p.A22)
1998 Oct 12, Canada planned to
begin discussion with Norway, Sweden, Iceland and Liechtenstein for
the first trans-Atlantic free-trade pact.
(WSJ, 10/12/98, p.A1)
1998 Oct 15, Up to 1 1/2
million workers were expected to strike for 2 hours to protest a
government proposal to cut the annual vacation allowance by one day
to 4 weeks.
(SFC, 10/15/98, p.A17)
1998 The Norwegian film "Junk
Mail" was directed by Pal Sletaune.
(SFC, 5/1/98, p.C5)
1999 Jan, Norway and Sweden
announced a plan to merge their state-owned phone carriers.
(WSJ, 3/29/99, p.A21)
1999 Mar 11, Norway approved a
$57.7 million package to compensate the nation's Jews for suffering
during WW II.
(SFC, 3/12/99, p.A15)
1999 Jul 6, Thor Alex Kappfjell
(32) was killed during a miscalculated jump in Norway. He had
earlier parachuted from the World Trade Center, Empire State
Building and the Chrysler Building in NYC, after which he pleaded
guilty to 3 counts of reckless endangerment and was sentenced to 7
days of community service.
(SFC, 4/2/99, p.A3)(SFC, 7/9/99, p.D6)
1999 Aug 27, In Norway the
Supreme Court declared that it was legal to use discriminatory
statements in real estate listings.
(SFC, 8/28/99, p.A14)
1999 Nov 2, Pres. Clinton met
with Ehud Barak and Yasser Arafat in Oslo to revitalize the
Middle East peace process.
(SFC, 11/3/99, p.A12)
1999 Oct 6, Jon Lech Johansen
(15) of Norway released DeCSS, a program that allows users to copy
DVDs onto computer hard disks.
(WSJ, 10/13/05,
p.A8)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DeCSS)
1999 Nov 26, A Norwegian
passenger ferry, the catamaran Sleipner, sank at the mouth of the
Boemla Fjord. There were 16 people killed.
(SFC, 11/27/99, p.A14)(AP, 11/26/02)
2000 Jan 4, In Norway 2
passenger trains collided 110 miles north of Oslo. At least 20
people were believed to have died.
(WSJ, 1/5/00, p.A1)(SFC, 1/6/00, p.A10)
2000 Feb 16, In Sri Lanka 57
soldiers and guerrillas were killed in renewed fighting as Knut
Vollebaek, the foreign minister of Norway, met with Pres. Chandrika
Kumaratunga to help broker peace talks.
(SFC, 2/17/00, p.D3)
2000 Mar 9, In Norway Prime
Minister Kjell Magne Bondevik announced that his minority government
would resign following a failed vote of confidence in an
environmental dispute. He opposed new power plants to burn gas
supplies.
(SFC, 3/10/00, p.D6)
2000 Dec 6, The 15-mile Laerdal
Tunnel between Aurland and Laerdal was scheduled to open after 5
years of construction.
(SSFC, 12/3/00, p.T3)
2000 Fred Kavli, a
Norwegian-born entrepreneur, sold his California-based Kavlico
enterprise, a global supplier of sensors for industrial application,
for $340 million. He then established the Kavli Foundation to
support basic scientific research.
(SFC, 4/12/08, p.C2)
2000-2001 Jens Stoltenberg, head of the Labor
Party, served as prime minister of Norway.
(AP, 9/13/05)
2001 Jan 17, It was reported
that Norway was lifting its ban on exports of whale meat and
byproducts.
(WSJ, 1/17/01, p.A1)
2001 Jan 26, Benjamin Hermansen
(15), a black teenager, was stabbed to death in Holmlia near Oslo. 5
Neo-Nazi Bootboys were soon arrested. In 2002 Joe Erling Jahr (20)
was sentenced to 16 years in prison and Ole Nicolai Kvisler (22) was
sentenced to 15 years. Veronica Andreasen (18) received 3 years as
an accomplice.
(SFC, 1/30/01, p.A11)(SFC, 1/18/02, p.A6)
2001 Apr 3, Sri Lanka agreed to
open peace talks with Tamil rebels following diplomatic initiative
by Norway.
(WSJ, 4/4/01, p.A1)
2001 Jul 9, The UN ranked
Norway as the country with the world’s highest standard of living.
PM Jens Stolenberg credited the nation’s welfare system.
(SFC, 7/10/01, p.A8)
2001 Aug 23, The Norwegian
government established the Abel Prize in mathematics in honor of the
Niels Henrik Abel (1802-1829).
(www.abelprisen.no/en/abelprisen/historie.html)
2001 Aug 25, In Oslo, Norway,
Crown Prince Haakon (28) married Mette-Marit (28), a single mother
and former waitress.
(SSFC, 8/26/01, p.A16)(AP, 8/25/02)
2001 Sep 10, In parliamentary
elections no party received a majority. The ruling Labor Party had
its worst showing in decades. Labor won 24% of the vote, its worst
showing since 1924 as voters rejected the high-tax funded social
welfare system.
(WSJ, 9/11/01, p.A1)(SFC, 9/11/01, p.B2)
2001 Dec, Vebjorn Sand,
Norwegian artist, completed a 330-foot bridge linking Norway and
Sweden at Aas, 16 miles south of Oslo. The design was based on plans
drawn up by Leonardo da Vinci in 1502.
(SSFC, 12/9/01, p.C2)(WSJ, 11/5/05, p.P12)
2001 Ansar al-Islam, blamed for
attacks in Iraq and supported by a network of members in Europe, was
founded in late 2001 in Kurdish part of northern Iraq by Mullah
Krekar, who had lived as refugee in Norway since 1991.
(AP, 1/8/05)
2002 Jan, Per-Kristian Foss,
the Conservative finance minister, married Jan Erik Knarbakk. This
was the 1st legal gay partnership by a member of the Norwegian
government.
(SFC, 1/16/02, p.A7)
2002 Feb 21, Sri Lanka approved
a Norwegian long-term cease-fire plan already approved by Tamil
Tiger rebels.
(SFC, 2/22/02, p.A13)
2002 Mar, The condo-resort
ship, The World, first set sail from Oslo, Norway. The $280 million,
12-deck cruise ship ran into financing problems and was sold Oct 31,
2003, for $71 million to a residents' partnership.
(WSJ, 2/20/04, p.A1)
2002 Apr 18, Thor Heyerdahl
(87), Norwegian head of the 1947 Kon-Tiki voyage, died in northern
Italy.
(SFC, 4/19/02, p.A2)
2002 Dec 14, The Norwegian
Tricolor, a cargo ship carrying nearly 2,900 luxury cars capsized
and sank after colliding with the Bahamas-registered Kariba cargo
ship in the English Channel. Tricolor carried 2,862 cars, high-end
BMWs, Volvos and Saabs, and 77 other items, mainly tractors and
large crane parts.
(AP, 12/14/02)
2003 Jan 28, US and Afghan
forces battled rebels aligned with renegade leader Gulbuddin
Hekmatyar in the largest-scale fighting in 10 months. 18 enemy
fighters were killed in 2 days of fighting. Norwegian F-16s
participated in bombing enemy targets.
(AP, 1/28/03)(WSJ, 1/29/03, p.A1)(SFC, 1/29/03,
p.A8)
2003 Mar 20, Norwegian police
arrested Mullah Krekar, the leader of a Kurdish guerrilla group
suspected of links to al-Qaida, on kidnapping charges. After
settling in Norway in 1991, Krekar founded the Kurdish Ansar
al-Islam during visits to Iraq.
(AP, 3/20/03)(AP, 2/14/12)
2003 Aug 22, Oslo, Norway, was
ranked the world's most expensive city by Swiss banking giant UBS.
It was followed by New York, Zurich, Switzerland; Copenhagen,
Denmark; London; Basel, Switzerland; Chicago; and Geneva.
(AP, 8/22/03)
2003 Sep 30, Norway's national
film board lifted a ban on hundreds of films that were deemed too
sexually explicit or violent, including 1994's "On Deadly Ground"
starring Steven Seagal and the 1990 gangster epic "Miller's
Crossing."
(AP, 10/1/03)
2003 Dec 10, The Nobel Prize
awards ceremony were held in Sweden and Norway. Iranian democracy
activist Shirin Ebadi, the first Muslim woman to win the Nobel Peace
Prize, accepted the award in Oslo, Norway.
(AP, 12/10/03)(AP, 12/10/08)
2003 Dec 12, Keiko the killer
whale (27), whose early life inspired the film "Free Willy," died in
Norway of apparent pneumonia.
(SFC, 12/13/03, p.A1)
2004 Jan 1, In Norway a new law
went into effect to allow foreign hunters to hunt seals. The
legislation raised the seal kill quota to 2,000.
(SFC, 11/27/04, p.A10)
2004 Jan 2, Norwegian police
arrested Mullah Krekar, Muslim Kurd leader of Ansar al-Islam, on
charges connected to 2 suicide bombings in Iraq 2 years ago. Norway
ordered Krekar deported in 2005 after declaring him a national
security threat, but postponed the move because of worries he could
face execution or torture in Iraq.
(SFC, 1/2/04, p.A3)(AP, 2/14/12)
2004 Jan 19, The freighter MS
Rocknes capsized in a narrow inlet between the island of Bjoroey and
Norway's western coast, less than 200 yards from land after it put
out a distress call. The 30 crew members included 24 Filipinos,
three Dutch, two Norwegians and one German. 12 crew members were
rescued. The death toll was put at 18.
(AP, 1/20/04)(WSJ, 1/21/04, p.A1)
2004 Mar 25, A Norwegian
Academy awarded the Abel Prize in Mathematics to Isadore M. Singer
of MIT and Sir Michael F. Atiyah of the Univ. of Edinburgh for
discovering and proving the mathematical concept called the "index
theorem."
(SFC, 3/26/04, p.A15)
2004 Jul 2, A Norwegian strike
began targeting the oil exploration sector. It incidentally affected
two mobile production units, the Petrojarl I, which ceased
operations in early September, and the Petrojarl Varg.
(AP, 10/13/04)
2004 Aug 22, In Oslo, Norway,
armed men stormed into the Munch Museum, threatened staff at
gunpoint and stole 2 of Edvard Munch's famous paintings, "The
Scream" and "Madonna" before the eyes of stunned museum-goers.
Another of 4 versions of “The Scream” was stolen in 1994. Police
recovered both paintings in 2006. In 2007 3 men were sentenced to
prison for their roles in the heist. The 3 were ordered to pay a
total of $262 million in compensation.
(AP, 8/22/04)(WSJ, 8/24/04, p.A1)(SFC, 9/1/06,
p.A2)(SFC, 4/24/07, p.D6)
2004 Sep 29, An Algerian asylum
seeker on a commuter plane in northern Norway attacked both pilots
and a passenger with an ax as the aircraft was landing.
(AP, 9/29/04)
2004 Oct 11, Edward C. Prescott
(63), an American, and Finn E. Kydland (60), a Norwegian, won the
2004 Nobel Memorial Prize in economics for shedding light on how
government policies and actions affect economies around the world.
(AP, 10/11/04)
2004 Oct 25, The Norwegian
Shipowners Association threatened to lock out more oil and gas rig
workers, a move analysts said could result in a near shutdown of the
third-largest petroleum exporter's production and drive world oil
prices even higher.
(AP, 10/25/04)
2004 Nov, Norway adopted new
rules that barred investments in its national Petroleum Fund “which
constitute an unacceptable risk that the Fund may contribute to
unethical acts or omissions.”
(WSJ, 12/1/05, p.A11)
2004 Dec 5, It was reported
that the Norwegian firm Hydro and Qatar's state energy company
signed a deal to build one of world's largest aluminium plants in
the gas-rich Gulf state at a cost of three billion dollars.
(AFP, 12/5/04)
2005 Jan 1, Norway was forecast
for 3% annual GDP growth with a population at 4.6 million and GDP
per head at $55,290.
(Econ, 1/1/05, p.89)
2005 Feb 22, It was reported
that Norway finished 2004 with the world’s best performing equities
market, based on nominal return on equity investment in dollar
terms.
(WSJ, 2/22/05, p.C20)
2005 Mar 6, In Norway 3 works
by Edvard Munch were stolen from a hotel, the second theft of the
renowned Norwegian's art in less than seven months.
(AP, 3/7/05)
2005 Apr 13, Norway’s Statoil
ASA announced oil exploration drilling from the offshore rig Eirik
Raude has been shut down after its 3rd spill into ecologically
fragile Arctic waters in just over two months.
(AP, 4/13/05)
2005 May 23, The Norwegian
Petroleum Directorate announced a wildcat exploration well drilled
in the Norwegian Sea has made a promising natural gas strike,
although it was too early to say how large.
(AP, 5/23/05)
2005 May, Norway announced a
new biennial prize for science, the Kavli prize, funded by
philanthropist Fred Kavli to begin in 2008. Only the fields of
astrophysics, nanoscience and neuroscience would be considered for
the $1 million prize.
(Econ, 5/14/05, p.84)
2005 Jun 8, In Norway US
Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld and his Norwegian counterpart
on signed an agreement allowing the US military to continue storing
equipment there.
(AP, 6/8/05)
2005 Jun 10, King Harald V of
Norway and King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden met in the middle of the
Svinesund bridge and opened the span over a fjord south of Oslo.
(AP, 6/10/05)
2005 Jun 24, A Norwegian court
sentenced the pilot of a British Airways jet to six months in prison
for preparing to fly even though members of his crew were drunk.
(AP, 6/24/05)
2005 Aug 17, Norwegian
officials said 3 unarmed Polish researchers stranded on a remote
Arctic island were rescued by helicopter as polar bears were closing
in on them. The escape took place on an island in Norway's Svalbard
archipelago, about 650 miles from the North Pole.
(AP, 8/17/05)
2005 Sep 12, Norwegians lined
up at polling stations in what promised to be a close race between a
governing center-right coalition advocating lower taxes and a
left-leaning opposition that wants to spend more of the Nordic
nation's oil wealth on the welfare system. Jens Stoltenberg, head of
the Labor Party, and 2 allied parties won 87 of the parliament’s 169
seats.
(AP, 9/12/05)(Econ, 9/17/05, p.51)
2005 Sep 13, Norway's PM Kjell
Magne Bondevik, who presided over four years of unprecedented
prosperity fueled by high oil prices, said he will resign after a
left-wing opposition bloc won parliamentary elections.
(AP, 9/13/05)
2005 Sep, Henrik Syse (39),
professor of philosophy, began work as in-house ethicist for
Norway’s Petroleum Fund. His books included “Paths to a Good Life:
Philosophical Reflections on Everyday Ethics.”
(WSJ, 12/1/05, p.A1)
2005 Dec 10, In Norway Chief UN
nuclear inspector Mohamed ElBaradei accepted the 2005 Nobel Peace
Prize, sharing the award with his International Atomic Energy Agency
for efforts to control the spread of nuclear weapons. The other
Nobel Prizes were awarded in Sweden.
(AP, 12/10/05)
2006 Jan 1, Norway passed
legislation requiring every publicly traded company in Norway to
have 40% women on its board by Jan 1 2008.
(www.nytimes.com/2006/01/12/international/europe/12oslo.html)
2006 Jan 11, The British weekly
New Scientist said Norway is to build a "doomsday vault" in a
mountain close to the North Pole that will house a vast seed bank to
ensure food supplies in the event of catastrophic climate change,
nuclear war or rising sea levels.
(AFP, 1/11/06)
2006 Jan 31, In the Economist
Intelligence Unit's biannual survey Oslo was reported to have
overtaken Tokyo as the world's most expensive city. Tokyo had held
the top spot for 14 years. Of 17 US cities featured in the survey,
the most expensive were New York (27th), Chicago and Los Angeles
(tied for 35th), and San Francisco (40th).
(AP, 2/1/06)
2006 Feb 6, Royal Caribbean
Intl. announced that it has ordered the world’s largest and most
expense cruise ship. The $1.24 billion ship, capable of holding
6,400 passengers, will be built by Norway’s Aker Yards.
(SFC, 2/7/06, p.C1)
2006 Feb 10, The editor of a
small Christian newspaper in Norway apologized for offending Muslims
by reprinting caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad in January.
(AP, 2/10/06)
2006 Feb 18, In Italy Kjetil
Andre Aamodt of Norway outwaited the weather and outran the field to
successfully defend the men's super-G title for his record eighth
Olympic Alpine medal. American Shani Davis won the men's 1,000-meter
speedskating in Turin, becoming the first black athlete to win an
individual gold medal in Winter Olympic history.
(AP, 2/18/06)(AP, 2/18/07)
2006 Mar 9, A fuel oil spill
from a chemical plant in southeastern Norway threatened hundreds of
birds in a salt water nature preserve, while snow and ice hampered a
cleanup operation. Nearly 200 barrels leaked during the transfer of
fuel oil from a ship on March 4, but because of ice in the harbor
area the oil was not visible and was not discovered before the ice
broke up on March 8.
(AP, 3/9/06)
2006 May 2, In Norway 3 key
suspects were convicted in the theft of the Edvard Munch
masterpieces "The Scream" and "Madonna" and sentenced to between
four and eight years in prison. The works were snatched by masked
gunmen from the Munch Museum in Oslo in August 2004. They are still
missing.
(AP, 5/2/06)
2006 Jun 2, Norwegian rig owner
Fred. Olsen Energy ASA said 8 foreign workers on an oil rig
operating off Nigeria were kidnapped overnight. The workers, six
British, one American and one Canadian, were aboard the drilling rig
Bulford Dolphin when it was attacked during the night.
(AP, 6/2/06)
2006 Jun 19, In Norway the
prime ministers of 5 nations gathered at the northern island of
Svalbard to lay the cornerstone for the Svalbard Int’l. Seed Vault.
The site will hold millions of seed varieties to restock the planet
in the case of a global catastrophe.
(SFC, 6/19/06, p.A3)
2006 Jul 4, Lars Korvald (90),
the first Christian Democrat to serve as prime minister of Norway
(1972-1973), died.
(AP, 7/4/06)
2006 Aug 23, In Oslo Villa
Grande, a sprawling mansion used by Norwegian Nazi collaborator
Vidkun Quisling during World War II, opened as a center to oppose
the intolerance, hatred and treachery he represented.
(AP, 8/23/06)
2006 Sep 22, In Norway police
accused four men suspected in an attack on Oslo's main synagogue of
also plotting to blow up the US and Israeli embassies. The men were
arrested Sep 19 in connection with an attack on the Mosaic Religious
Community synagogue, which was hit with at least 10 bullets on Sep
17.
(AP, 9/22/06)
2006 Oct 5, Researchers in
Norway announced the discovery of the remains of a short-necked
plesiosaur, a prehistoric marine reptile the size of a bus, that
they believe is the first complete skeleton ever found. The 150
million year old remains of the 33-foot ocean going predator were
found in August on the remote Svalbard Islands of the Arctic.
(AP, 10/5/06)
2006 Oct 10, In Norway a
charter plane caught fire and skidded off the runway while landing
at Stord Airport.
(AP, 10/10/06)
2006 Oct 16, The biggest
underwater gas pipeline in the world, transporting gas from Norway
750 miles (1,200 kilometers) under the North Sea to Britain, was
officially opened by PM Tony Blair and PM Jens Stoltenberg.
Construction of the pipeline by Norwegian firm Hydro began in 2004.
The Langeled pipeline is expected to supply one fifth of Britain's
total gas requirements in the coming decades.
(AP, 10/16/06)
2006 Nov 9, The UN ranked
Norway as the best country to live in for a sixth consecutive year,
prompting the country's aid minister to tell Norwegians to stop
whining about wanting more.
(AP, 11/9/06)
2006 Nov 10, A Norwegian
refugee group said it is closing down its humanitarian operations
for nearly 300,000 people in Darfur because it is impossible to work
in the Sudanese region.
(AP, 11/10/06)
2006 Nov 13, Norwegian
government and industry officials said Norwegian hunters killed 546
minke whales this year, falling far short of their commercial
whaling quota because bad weather spoiled much of the season.
(AP, 11/13/06)
2006 Nov 22, In Norway a court
rejected an appeal by the founder of Ansar al-Islam, a suspected
Islamic terror group in Iraq, and upheld a government order to expel
him as a threat to national security.
(AP, 11/22/06)
2006 Dec 18, Norwegian oil
companies Statoil ASA and Norsk Hydro ASA announced plans to merge
their offshore oil and natural gas units in a nearly $30 billion (23
billion euro) deal they said would create the world's largest
offshore oil operator.
(AP, 12/18/06)
2007 Jan 5, The Norwegian
Directorate of Fisheries warned that some 790,000 salmon and trout
escaped from Norwegian fish farms in 2006, up 10% on the previous
year and a trend that poses a serious threat to wild salmon.
(AFP, 1/5/07)
2007 Feb 23, In Norway 46 of 49
nations adopted a declaration calling for a 2008 treaty banning
cluster bombs, saying the weapons kill and maim long after conflicts
end and inflict "unacceptable harm" on civilians, particularly
children. Some key arms makers including the US, Russia, Israel and
China, snubbed the conference of 49 nations. Of those attending,
Poland, Romania and Japan did not approve the final text.
(AP, 2/23/07)
2007 Feb 25, Thieves in Oslo,
Norway, stole a work of art by Jan Christensen called "Relative
Value." It had pasted bills worth $16,300 on a sprawling 7-by-13
foot canvas.
(AP, 2/26/07)
2007 Apr 12, A Norwegian oil
rig support vessel carrying 15 people capsized off northern Scotland
and five crew members were missing.
(AP, 4/13/07)
2007 May 9, Police in Brazil
and Norway detained at least 25 people in simultaneous raids on
suspected criminal gangs, seeking evidence of money laundering.
(AP, 5/9/07)
2007 May 21, Norway said it
would make its first transfer of direct aid to the Palestinians' new
government, more than two months after the Nordic country broke with
most Western nations by recognizing the Hamas-led coalition.
(AP, 5/21/07)
2007 Jun 1, The Norwegian
environmental group Bellona warned that a nuclear waste dump in the
Russia Arctic may be in danger of exploding because of corrosion
caused by salt water in enormous storage tanks.
(AP, 6/1/07)
2007 Aug 27, Ethiopia ordered
six Norwegian diplomats to leave the country by Sept. 15, expressing
"dissatisfaction" with Norway's conduct in the Horn of Africa
region.
(AP, 8/27/07)
2007 Aug 28, Ethiopia justified
its decision to expel Norwegian diplomats arguing that Oslo was
interfering in its internal affairs and destabilizing the Horn of
Africa.
(AFP, 8/28/07)
2007 Sep 20, Borse Dubai and
Nasdaq, rivals to take over Nordic market operator OMX, said they
had joined forces to acquire it together in a deal that gives Borse
Dubai 19.99 percent of US-based Nasdaq and 28 percent of the London
Stock Exchange.
(AP, 9/20/07)
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)
2008 Jan 9, Norway and Sweden
dropped plans to send some 400 troops to the UN peacekeeping force
in Darfur because of opposition by Sudan.
(WSJ, 1/10/07, p.A1)
2008 Feb 10, Norway closed its
embassy in the Afghan capital because of terror threats.
(AP, 2/11/08)
2008 Feb 21, A magnitude-6.2
earthquake, the largest ever recorded on Norwegian territory, hit
off the Arctic Svalbard islands, the national seismic monitoring
center said. No casualties or damage were reported.
(AP, 2/21/08)
2008 Feb 26, A "doomsday" seed
vault built to protect millions of food crops from climate change,
wars and natural disasters opened deep within an Arctic mountain in
the remote Norwegian archipelago of Svalbard.
(AP, 2/26/08)
2008 Feb 28, Swedish and
Norwegian authorities cracked down on terror financing, arresting
six people in what Swedish investigators said were coordinated raids
in Stockholm and Oslo.
(AP, 2/28/08)
2008 Mar 26, In Norway a
six-story apartment building collapsed in the west coast city of
Aalesund after it was hit by a rock slide, injuring 15 people and
leaving five missing.
(AP, 3/26/08)
2008 Apr 12, King Harald V
opened Norway's $840 million national opera house on the shores of
the Oslo Fjord, kicking off a gala performance. The parliament's
decision to approve construction and funding of a national opera
house belatedly confirmed an overly optimistic 1881 report in an
Oslo newspaper that the capital was about to get a new opera house.
(AP, 4/13/08)
2008 Apr 23, Norway raised its
main interest rate a quarter point to 5.5%.
(WSJ, 4/24/08, p.A8)
2008 May 28, The first winners
of the new Kavli Prizes for outstanding research in nanoscience,
neuroscience, and astrophysics were to be announced in Oslo, Norway.
(SFC, 4/12/08, p.C1)
2008 Jun 9, Russia and Norway
met for 2-days talks in the hope of making progress in a decades-old
dispute over their maritime border in the Barents Sea, a part of the
Arctic that could hold large oil and gas reserves. After visiting
the Norwegian town of Kirkenes, the ministers will go to Murmansk in
northwest Russia.
(AP, 6/9/08)
2008 Jun 13, Norway said it may
seek foreign help to extinguish its biggest forest fire since World
War Two, which has been raging for five days.
(Reuters, 6/13/08)
2008 Jun 17, Norway passed a
new equality law granting gay couples the same rights as
heterosexuals to marry, adopt and undergo artificial insemination.
(AP, 6/17/08)
2008 Jul 24, In southern Norway
a group of men armed with bats and iron bars attacked a center for
political asylum-seekers, leaving more than 20 people injured.
(AP, 7/25/08)
2008 Jul, Religious leaders
meeting in Norway unveiled a plan for a code of conduct for holy
sites on which all governments could agree.
(Econ, 8/30/08,
p.60)(www.arcworld.org/news.asp?pageID=254)
2008 Aug 20, A top Russian
general said 64 of the country's soldiers were killed and 323
wounded in this month's fighting with Georgia. Russia informed
Norway that it plans to suspend all military ties with NATO, a day
after the military alliance urged Moscow to withdraw its forces from
Georgia.
(AP, 8/20/08)(AP, 8/21/08)
2008 Sep 16, Norwegian PM Jens
Stoltenberg said Norway will give Brazil US$1 billion by 2015 to
preserve the Amazon rain forest, as long as Latin America's largest
nation keeps trying to stop deforestation.
(AP, 9/16/08)
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 Nov 20, The Norwegian
government said it has picked the US developed F-35 Joint Strike
Fighter to replace its aging US-made F-16 aircraft in a roughly 60
billion kroner ($8.5 billion) deal.
(AP, 11/20/08)
2008 Dec 3-2008 Dec 4, In
Norway 94 nations signed a treaty banning cluster bombs in a move
that supporters hope will shame the US, Russia and China and other
non-signers into abandoning weapons blamed for maiming and killing
civilians. Norway, which began the drive to ban cluster bombs 18
months ago, was the first to sign, followed by Laos and Lebanon,
both hard-hit by the weapons.
(AP, 12/3/08)(Econ, 12/13/08, p.70)
2008 Dec 10, The Nobel Prizes
were awarded in twin ceremonies in Stockholm and Oslo.
(AP, 12/10/08)
2008 Dec, In Norway Think
Global AS, a front runner in the plug-in car market, filed for
Bankruptcy after its failure to get capital financing under the
current credit crunch.
(WSJ, 1/24/09, p.B2)
2009 Jan 11, Arne Naess
(b.1912), Norwegian philosopher, writer and mountaineer, died. He
was best known for launching the concept of "deep ecology,"
promoting the idea that Earth as a planet has as much right as its
inhabitants, such as humans, to survive and flourish.
(AP, 1/13/09)
2009 Jan 23, In northern Norway
an off-duty police officer shot and killed his ex-girlfriend with
another officer's service pistol, then critically wounded himself
outside the elementary school where she was a student teacher.
(AP, 1/23/09)
2009 Jan 26, Norway announced a
20 billion kroner ($2.89 billion) stimulus package to boost growth
and employment.
(WSJ, 1/27/09, p.A8)
2009 Feb 23, Norwegian
architect Sverre Fehn (b.1924) died in Oslo. His unique style of
blending modern forms with Scandinavian traditions earned him the
prestigious Pritzker Architecture Prize (1997). His white concrete
Glacier Museum (1991), which has been hailed as a landmark within
contemporary architecture. It stands on a plain carved by Norway's
Jostedal Glacier at Fjaerland Fjord.
(AP, 2/28/09)
2009 Mar 26, The MT Bow Asir, a
Norwegian tanker with a crew of 27, was hijacked 250 miles east of
the south coast of Somalia.
(AP, 3/27/09)(WSJ, 3/27/09, p.A8)
2009 Apr 17, In Norway a $225
million fund to provide low-price anti-malaria medicine around the
world was launched in Oslo to fight a disease that kills 2,000
children a day.
(AP, 4/18/09)
2009 Apr 17, In Afghanistan two
earthquakes shook eastern Nangarhar province, collapsing mud-brick
homes on top of villagers while they slept and killing at least 21
people. Two suicide bombers on foot tried to attack the office of
the minister of refugees in southern Nimroz province. Guards shot
and killed one bomber at the scene of the attempted attack. While
fleeing the 2nd bomber detonated his explosives, killing 3
civilians. A Norwegian intelligence officer serving with the
nation's peacekeeping force was killed by a roadside bomb near the
northern city of Maymana.
(AP, 4/17/09)
2009 Apr 22, A group of
Norwegian lawyers filed a complaint accusing 10 Israelis of war
crimes in Gaza under the country's new universal jurisdiction law.
(AP, 4/22/09)
2009 May 16, Norway’s
fiddle-wielding Alexander Rybak (23), dubbed 'Alexander the Great'
by Norwegian media, won a landslide victory in the Eurovision Song
Contest in Moscow for his song "Fairytale," gaining the most points
in Eurovision's 53-year history.
(AP, 5/17/09)
2009 May 25, Haakon Lie
(b.1905), a pioneer of Norway's welfare state and one of the
country's most influential politicians, died in Oslo. His several
books included "Slik jeg ser det naa" ("As I See it Now"), which was
published last year.
(AP, 5/26/09)
2009 May, In CongoDRC 2 former
Norwegian soldiers allegedly murdered their driver and attempted to
murder a witness. The alleged motive behind the killing was unknown.
On Sep 8 they were convicted of espionage and murder. In 2010
a military judge threw out the ruling and ordered a new case.
(AP, 12/4/09)(AFP, 9/8/09)(AP, 4/22/10)
2009 Jun 8, In Norway Georg
Mueller (58) stepped down as bishop in the western city of
Trondheim. On April 7, 2010, Norway’s Catholic Church said he did so
after admitting he had molested a child years earlier, when he was a
priest.
(AP, 4/7/10)
2009 Jun 16, The Norwegian firm
Opera Software unveiled new technology that allows it Opera 10 Web
browser to also function as a file server. A feature called Opera
Unite enables users to push content and establish communications
without the need for a 3rd party.
(SFC, 6/17/09, p.C1)
2009 Jul 19, Warren Titus (94),
founder of the Royal Viking and Seabourn cruise ship lines, died at
a hospice in Marin County, Ca. He helped father the modern cruise
concept as president of Peninsular and Oriental Navigation Co.,
which later morphed into Princess Cruises. He left P.&O. to
start the Royal Viking Line in 1972. After the SF-based Royal Viking
went out of business in 1987, he was called by Atle Brynestad, a
Norwegian millionaire, to start Seabourn Cruise Lines.
(SFC, 7/31/09, p.D5)
2009 Jul 24, A senior Chechen
official held talks in Norway with prominent separatist figure
Akhmed Zakayev, who said they had agreed to seek a political
settlement of rebellion in the south Russian region.
(Reuters, 7/24/09)
2009 Sep 8, In the Democratic
Republic of Congo two Norwegians were sentenced to death by a court
for murdering a Congolese man in the northeast of the country in
May.
(AFP, 9/8/09)
2009 Sep 14, Norway's
left-leaning government faced a splintered opposition in an election
focused on how to manage the Nordic nation's soaring oil wealth and
seal cracks in its welfare system. Jens Stoltenberg's Labor-led
coalition won 86 seats to keep a slim majority in the 169-seat
Parliament after using oil money to shield the welfare state from
the global recession.
(AP, 9/14/09)(AP, 9/15/09)
2009 Sep 15, Norway's PM Jens
Stoltenberg (50) said fighting climate change would be a priority in
his 2nd term after his left-leaning government beat a splintered
opposition to win re-election.
(AP, 9/15/09)
2009 Oct 4, Grameenphone,
Bangladesh’s largest mobile phone firm, opened the largest IPO in
Bangladesh history. It aimed to raise $70 million. It was owned by
Telenor, a Norwegian telephone company, and Grameen Telecom, a
non-profit founded by Muhammad Yunus, a pioneer of microfinance.
(Econ, 10/17/09, p.88)
2009 Oct 5, A UN agency said
Norway enjoys the world's highest quality of life, while Niger
suffers the lowest, as it released Human Development Index, a
ranking that highlights the wide disparities in well-being between
rich and poor countries.
(AP, 10/5/09)(http://hdr.undp.org/en/statistics/)
2009 Nov 12, In Norway thieves
stole a valuable artwork by Edvard Munch from an Oslo art dealer in
downtown Oslo. One or more thieves stole "Historien" (History) from
Nyborgs Kunst.
(AP, 11/13/09)
2009 Nov 12, A Norwegian
freelance journalist kidnapped on Nov 5 in eastern Afghanistan was
released along with his Afghan interpreter. Paal Refsdal was in
Afghanistan filming a documentary for the Norwegian production
company Novemberfilm.
(AP, 11/12/09)(SFC, 11/13/09, p.A2)
2009 Nov 14, In Moscow Magnus
Carlsen (18) of Norway became the new No. 1 chess player in the
world with a tournament victory over Peter Leko of Hungary.
(SSFC, 11/15/09, p.A6)
2009 Oct 28, Norway’s central
bank became the first in Europe to tighten, raising its policy rate
to 1.5% from 1.25%.
(Econ, 11/7/09, p.70)
2009 Nov 26, Shirin Ebadi, 2003
Nobel Peace Prize, said that Iranian authorities took her medal
about three weeks ago from a safe-deposit box, claiming she owed
taxes on the $1.3 million she was awarded. Ebadi said that such
prizes are exempt from tax under Iranian law. In Norway, where the
peace prize is awarded, the government said the confiscation of the
gold medal was a shocking first in the history of the 108-year-old
prize.
(AP, 11/27/09)
2009 Dec 3, A Congolese court
upheld death sentences for two Norwegians convicted of espionage and
murder, prompting condemnation from Norwegian officials. They had
been convicted in Sep of murdering their driver and attempting to
murder a witness in May 2009.
(AP, 12/3/09)
2009 Dec 10, In Oslo, Norway,
President Barack Obama accepted the Nobel Peace Prize, acknowledging
his own few accomplishments while delivering a robust defense of war
and promising to use the prestigious award to "reach for the world
that ought to be."
(AP, 12/10/09)
2009 Dec 12, Iraq sold Russian
firm Lukoil rights to the West Qurna-2 oil field, one of the world's
biggest untapped oil fields, on the 2nd day of an auction. Lukoil
will work with junior partner StatoilHydro of Norway.
(AP, 12/12/09)
2009 Dec 25, In Norway Knut
Magne Haugland (92), the last of six crew members who crossed the
Pacific Ocean in 1947 on board the balsa wood raft Kon-Tiki, died in
Oslo.
(AP, 12/26/09)
2009 Dec 31, In Myanmar
Freelance reporter Hla Hla Win (25) was sentenced by a court in
Pakokku for an alleged violation of the country's Electronics Act.
She was arrested in September after visiting a Buddhist monastery in
the northern town of Pakokku. The jailed reporter had worked with
the Myanmar exile broadcaster Democratic Voice of Burma (DVB), based
in Oslo, Norway. A man accompanying her was sentenced to 26 years in
jail.
(AFP, 1/6/10)
2010 Jan 4, The Norwegian Chess
Federation said Magnus Carlsen (19) is the youngest person to hold
the title since ratings were introduced in 1971.
(AP, 1/4/10)
2010 Jan 6, A diplomat at the
Iranian embassy in Norway told Norwegian television that he had
resigned in protest over a crackdown on demonstrators in Iran. The
government in Tehran denied the report. In mid-February the
Norwegian Immigration Directorate gave Mohammed Reza Heydari and his
family permission to remain in Norway as political refugees after
going through "all necessary information pertaining to the case."
(AP, 1/6/10)(AP, 2/18/10)
2010 Jan 25, In Afghanistan a
Norwegian soldier died when his vehicle hit a roadside bomb in
Faryab province in the north.
(AP, 1/25/10)
2010 Feb 15, Yara, a Norwegian
fertilizer maker, agreed to pay $4.1 billion for Terra, an American
company. This would extend Yara’s lead as the world’s biggest maker
of nitrogen-based fertilizer.
(Econ, 2/20/10, p.62)
2010 Mar 24, Norway announced
that John Tate, an American professor at the University of Texas,
Austin, has won the 6 million kroner ($1 million) Abel Prize for
mathematics. The prize jury praised Tate as "a prime architect" of
number theory, a branch of mathematics that has played a key role in
the development of modern computers.
(AP, 3/24/10)
2010 Mar 24, In Norway 16 empty
cargo train cars careened downhill for 3 miles (5 km) on the
outskirts of Oslo before slamming into a port and killing three dock
workers. Faulty brakes were blamed for the accident.
(AP, 3/25/10)
2010 Apr 13, Norway’s Nokia
Corp. launched three less-expensive smart phones, including its
first model expected to sell for under euro100 ($135), in a strong
move to grab new customers in emerging markets.
(AP, 4/13/10)
2010 May 2, Norsk Hydro
announced that it was acquiring the aluminium assets of Vale,
a Brazilian mining giant, in a deal valued at $4.9 billion.
(Econ, 5/8/10, p.65)
2010 May 21, Norwegian browser
developer Opera Software said it is moving its data processing
capacity to a newly-built center in Iceland, one of the first
foreign investment deals for the crisis-hit island as it tries to
rebuild its economy.
(AP, 5/21/10)
2010 May 28, Indonesia said it
will impose a 2-year moratorium on large-scale clearance of
rainforests, effective as off January 2011, in return for $1 billion
grant from Norway to fund projects as part of the REDD plan (Reduced
Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation).
(http://news.mongabay.com/2010/0527-hance_moratorium.html)(Econ,
10/30/10, p.44)
2010 Jun 27, In Afghanistan 4
Norwegian soldiers died after a roadside bomb exploded near their
vehicle in Faryab province. NATO forces killing a local leader of
the Haqqani group, a Taliban faction with close ties to al-Qaida, in
an airstrike in Khost province. The leader, known only as Satar, was
responsible for planting roadside bombs in the area. The US-led
operation, began in the region around Kunar province. 2 US troops
were killed in the operation. Pp to 150 Taliban insurgents were
killed in battles along the Kunar border.
(AP, 6/27/10)(AP, 6/28/10)(AP, 6/29/10)
2010 Jul 8, In Norway 2
suspected al-Qaida members were arrested for what Norwegian and US
officials said was a terrorist plot linked to similar plans to bomb
New York's subway and blow up a shopping mall in England. A 3rd
suspect was arrested in Germany. Authorities later said the
ringleader of the plot is Mikael Davud (39), an Uighur who came to
Norway in 1999 as part of a UN refugee program and then became a
Norwegian citizen eight years later. Davud was arrested along with
suspected accomplices Shawan Sadek Saeed Bujak Bujak, an Iraqi Kurd
(37), and Uzbek national, David Jakobsen (31). Norwegian and Danish
police later said the 3 were likely planning an attack against a
Danish newspaper that caricatured the Prophet Muhammad. Jakobsen was
released on Oct 15 after prosecutors revealed that he had been a
police informant in the case. Jakobsen still faced terrorism charges
because the allegations against the group rely partly on events that
took place before he approached police last year.
(AP, 7/8/10)(AP, 8/29/10)(AP, 9/28/10)(AP,
10/15/10)
2010 Aug 11, Norway pledged to
work for democracy in Swaziland, Africa's last absolute monarchy
during a Norwegian-sponsored meeting held in South Africa and
featuring diplomats and Swazi pro-democracy groups.
(AP, 8/11/10)
2010 Sep 8, Belgian police say
10 people have been arrested in raids across Europe against hackers
who put illegal copies of movies and television series on the
Internet. Police said 5 arrests were in Belgium and the other
arrests were made in Poland, Norway and Sweden, where the alleged
leaders of four computer piracy networks were being held.
(AP, 9/8/10)
2010 Sep 15, Russia and Norway
ended a 40-year dispute in signing an Arctic border treaty which
opens the door to offshore oil and gas exploration. President Dmitry
Medvedev and Norway's PM Jens Stoltenberg presided over the signing
in Murmansk.
(AP, 9/15/10)
2010 Oct 10, Norwegian oil firm
Statoil is expanding further its shale gas operations in the United
States, saying it has created a joint venture with Canada's Talisman
to acquire acreage on the Eagle Ford prospect in Texas for $1.325
billion.
(Reuters, 10/10/10)
2010 Nov 4, The UN named
oil-rich Norway as the country with the best quality of life, while
Asia has made the biggest strides in recent decades. Australia, New
Zealand, the United States and Ireland followed at the top of the
standings. Zimbabwe came in last among the 169 nations ranked,
behind Mozambique, Burundi, Niger and Democratic Republic of Congo.
(AFP, 11/5/10)
2010 Nov 18, The Norwegian
Nobel Committee Russia, Kazakhstan, Cuba, Morocco, Iraq and China
have declined to attend the December 10 Nobel Peace Prize ceremony
for jailed Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo. 16 more countries had not
replied by the committee's extended deadline. An award spokesman
said the Nobel Peace Prize may not be handed out this year because
no one from imprisoned Liu Xiaobo's family is likely to attend the
ceremony.
(AP, 11/18/10)
2010 Dec 7, In Norway Nobel
officials said China and 18 other countries have declined to attend
this year's Nobel Peace Prize ceremony honoring imprisoned Chinese
dissident Liu Xiaobo, as China unleashed a new barrage deriding the
decision.
(AP, 12/7/10)
2010 Dec 10, Dignitaries in
Norway celebrated this year's Nobel Peace Prize winner, imprisoned
Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo, with an empty chair. Xiaobo,
derided by Beijing as a political farce, dedicated it from his
prison cell to the "lost souls" of the 1989 Tiananmen Square
crackdown.
(AP, 12/10/10)(Reuters, 12/10/10)
2010 Dec 10, Serbia reversed
its boycott of the Nobel Peace Prize ceremony honoring imprisoned
Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo after facing sharp criticism from the
EU and human rights activists at home.
(AP, 12/10/10)
2011 Jan 18, Negotiators from
the Philippines government and communist rebels agreed to resume
peace talks after informal meetings in Norway.
(AP, 1/18/11)
2011 Feb 15, In Norway
Stolt-Nielsen, founder of the Stolt-Nielsen shipping group, wrote
the following in the financial newspaper Dagens Naeringsliv: "When
(piracy) implies a great risk of being caught and hanged, and the
cost of losing ships and weapons becomes too big, it will decrease
and eventually disappear."
(AP, 2/16/11)
2011 Mar 11, Norway rejected
oil drilling in ecologically sensitive waters just above the Arctic
circle, partly because of worries over a disaster like the Gulf of
Mexico oil spill.
(AP, 3/11/11)
2011 Apr 1, Norway announced an
oil find some 120 miles north of its mainland in the Barents Sea.
The Skrugard find was believed to contain some 500 million barrels
of oil.
(SFC, 5/2/11, p.D2)(http://tinyurl.com/44ljesw)
2011 Apr 25, In Libya Norwegian
F-16s flattened a building inside Muammar Gaddafi's Bab al-Aziziyah
compound, in what a press official from Gaddafi's government said
was a NATO attempt on the Libyan leader's life. Refugees fleeing the
Western Mountains told of heavy bombardment by Muammar Gaddafi's
forces as they try to dislodge rebels in remote Berber towns.
(AP, 4/25/11)(Reuters, 4/25/11)(Econ, 4/30/11,
p.52)
2011 May 4, The Chinese Embassy
in Oslo said Sino-Norwegian relations are "in difficulty" because
the peace prize was given to "a Chinese criminal ... and the
Norwegian government supported this wrong decision." Norwegian
salmon exporters were having their fish held up for days or even
weeks by Chinese food safety inspectors, devastating its freshness.
(AP, 5/6/11)
2011 Jul 22, In Norway a
powerful bomb tore open several Oslo buildings, including the prime
minister's office. Police confirmed the explosion was caused by a
bomb. A suspect in police custody, a blonde blue-eyed Norwegian with
reported Christian fundamentalist, anti-Muslim views, was suspected
in both the shootings at Utoya island and the massive explosion.
Anders Behring Breivik (32), suspected in the bomb and shooting
attacks that killed 77 people, including 69 on Utoya, had bought six
tons of fertilizer weeks before the massacres. A manifesto he
published online ranted against Muslim immigration to Europe and
vowed revenge on "indigenous Europeans," whom he accused of
betraying their heritage.
(AP, 7/23/11)(AP, 7/24/11)(AP, 7/26/11)(AP,
7/30/11)
2011 Jul 26, In Norway the
defense lawyer for Anders Behring Breivik says the terror suspect
claims he is part of an organization with several cells in Western
countries and his attacks in Norway were necessary because he's in a
state of war.
(AP, 7/26/11)
2011 Aug 5, In the Norwegian
Arctic archipelago of Svalbard a polar bear mauled one person to
death and left four other members of a British youth expeditions
group seriously injured.
(AFP, 8/5/11)
2011 Aug 16, Norway’s Statoil
said that the North SEa Aldous and Avaldsnes oil discoveries
together contain between 500 million and 1.2 billion barrels of oil,
significantly more than previously thought.
(SFC, 8/31/11, p.A4)(http://tinyurl.com/3u5v3zp)
2011 Sep 11, Norway began 2-day
local elections. The ruling Labor Party won its best local election
result in more than two decades and the anti-immigrant Progress
Party plummeted in support two months after attacks by a right-wing
fanatic killed 77 people.
(AP, 9/13/11)
2011 Sep 15, Passengers on the
MS Nordlys were forced to evacuate a popular cruise off Norway's
craggy western coast when a fire in the engine room killed two crew
members and sent heavy smoke billowing through the ship.
(AP, 9/15/11)
2011 Oct 7, The Nobel Peace
Prize was awarded to Tawakkul Karman (32) of Yemen. She shared the
prize with Liberian President Ellen Sirleaf Johnson and Liberian
peace activist Leymah Gbowee, as the Nobel committee gave a nod to
the Arab Spring.
(AP, 10/7/11)
2011 Nov 29, Norwegian
prosecutors said confessed mass killer Anders Behring Breivik was
insane when he killed 77 people in a July 22 bomb and shooting
rampage, and should be sent to a psychiatric ward instead of prison.
(AP, 11/29/11)
2011 Nov 30, Norway said it has
temporarily closed its embassy in Tehran due to security concerns
after the British mission in the Iranian capital was attacked by an
angry mob.
(AFP, 11/30/11)
2012 Jan 25, Boeing won its
largest ever order from Europe as Norwegian Air Shuttle ordered 122
planes. The deal was worth $11.4 billion at list prices.
(Econ, 1/28/12, p.65)
2012 Jan 30, In Norway 2 men
were found guilty Monday of involvement in an al-Qaida plot to
attack a Danish newspaper that caricatured the Prophet Muhammad. A
third defendant, David Jakobsen, who assisted police in the
investigation, was convicted on an explosives charge and sentenced
to four months in prison. The Oslo district court sentenced alleged
ringleader Mikael Davud, to seven years in prison and co-defendant
Shawan Sadek Saeed Bujak to three and a half years. The three men
were arrested in July 2010.
(AP, 1/30/12)
2012 Feb 15, Norway's state
railroads suspended testing of a new Swiss-made train after five
people were injured when it derailed and slammed into a mountainside
during a test run.
(AP, 2/15/12)
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End of file.