Today in History - February 18
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999 Feb 18,
Gregory V, [Bruno] 1st German Pope, died.
(MC, 2/18/02)
1217 Feb 18, Alexander Neckum de
Sancto Albano (59), English encyclopedist, died.
(MC, 2/18/02)
1404 Feb 18, Leon Battista Alberti
(d.1472), Italian humanist, architect (Della Pittura), was born in
Genoa, the illegitimate son of a Florentine merchant.
(WSJ, 11/30/00, p.A20)(MC, 2/18/02)
1478 Feb 18, George, the Duke of
Clarence, who had opposed his brother Edward IV, was murdered in the
Tower of London. George underwent forced drowning in a wine barrel ("A
butt of Malmsey").
(HN, 2/18/99)(MC, 2/18/02)
1493 Feb 18, Columbus landed on
the island of Santa Maria, the southernmost island of the
Portuguese-controlled Azores.
(ON, 8/09, p.3)
1516 Feb 18, Mary Tudor, later
Queen Mary I of England (1553-1558) and popularly known as "Bloody
Mary," was born in Greenwich Palace.
(HN, 2/18/98)(AP, 2/18/98)
1546 Feb 18, Martin Luther
(b.1483), leader of the Protestant Reformation in Germany, died in
Eisleben. In 1989 Harvard professor Heiko A. Oberman (1930-2001)
authored “Luther.”
(V.D.-H.K.p.165)(WSJ, 6/23/07, p.P10)(AP,
2/18/08)
1563 Feb 18, Huguenot Jean Poltrot
de Merde shot French Gen. Francois De Guise (44).
(MC, 2/18/02)
1564 Feb 18, Michelangelo
(b.1475), painter and sculptor, died in Rome. In 1996 George Bull wrote
a biography and in 1999 James H. Beck published "Three Worlds of
Michelangelo." In 2003 Ross King authored "Michelangelo & the
Pope’s Ceiling." In 2005 James Hall authored “Michelangelo and the
Reinvention of the Human Body.”
(AP, 2/18/98)(SFEC, 3/14/99, BR p.6)(SSFC, 1/26/03,
p.M3)(SSFC, 6/26/05, p.C5)
1632 Feb 18, Giovanni Battista
Vitali, composer, was born.
(MC, 2/18/02)
1634 Feb 18, Ferdinand II ordered
General Albrecht von Wallenstein's execution.
(MC, 2/18/02)
1678 Feb 18, John Bunyan's
"Pilgrim's Progress" was published. [see Sep 28]
(MC, 2/18/02)
1688 Feb 18, At a Quaker meeting
in Germantown, Pa, German Mennonites penned a memorandum stating a
profound opposition to Negro slavery. Quakers in Germantown, Pa.,
adopted the fist formal antislavery resolution in America.
(HN,
2/18/99)(www.germanheritage.com/Publications/cronau/cronau4.html)
1735 Feb 18, The 1st opera
performed in America, "Flora," in Charleston, SC.
(MC, 2/18/02)
1745 Feb 18, Count Alessandro
Giuseppe Antonio Anastasio Volta (d.1827), Italian physicist, inventor
(battery), was born.
(AHD, 1971
p.1436)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alessandro_Volta)
1745 Feb 18, Bonnie Prince
Charlie's troops occupied Inverness, Scotland.
(MC, 2/18/02)
1787 Feb 18, Austrian emperor
Josef II banned children under 8 from labor.
(MC, 2/18/02)
1795 Feb 18, George Peabody, U.S.
merchant and philanthropist, was born in South Danvers, Mass.
(HN, 2/18/98)(MC, 2/18/02)
1805 Feb 18, Louis Malesherbes
Goldsborough, Rear Admiral (Union Navy), was born.
(MC, 2/18/02)
1813 Feb 18, Czar Alexander
entered Warsaw at the head of his Army.
(HN, 2/18/99)
1817 Feb 18, Lewis Addison
Armistead (d.1863), Brig General (Confederate Army), was born. He died
leading "Pickett's Charge" on the final day of the Gettysburg battle.
(MC, 2/18/02)
1817 Feb 18, Walter Paye Lane
(d.1892), Brig General (Confederate Army), was born.
(MC, 2/18/02)
1828 Feb 18, More than 100 vessels
were destroyed in a storm at Gibraltar.
(MC, 2/18/02)
1836 Feb 18, Swami Ramakrishna
[Gadadhar Chatterji], Indian mystic, Hindu leader, was born.
(MC, 2/18/02)
1841 Feb 18, The 1st continuous
filibuster in US Senate began and lasting until March 11.
(MC, 2/18/02)
1845 Feb 18, John Chapman, aka
Johnny Appleseed, died in Allen County, Indiana. In 1954 Robert
Price authored Johnny Appleseed: Man and Myth.”
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johnny_Appleseed)(ON,
4/09, p.12)
1848 Feb 18, Louis Comfort Tiffany
(d.1933), American painter, stained-glass artist, and glass
manufacturer, was born. He was the son of Charles Lewis Tiffany
(1812-1902), founder of the Tiffany & Co. jewelry business (1837).
(HFA, ‘96, p.22)(AHD, p.1344)(HN, 2/18/98)(WSJ,
8/4/98, p.A13)
1850 Feb 18, The California state
legislature created the original 18 counties including the city of San
Francisco.
(SFEC, 1/11/98, DB
p.41)(www.sfgov.org/site/visitor_index.asp?id=8091)
1856 Feb 18, The American
(Know-Nothing) Party abolished secrecy.
(MC, 2/18/02)
1857 Feb 18, Max Klinger, German
graphic artist, painter, sculptor, was born.
(MC, 2/18/02)
1859 Feb 18, Shalom Aleichem
(Solomon Rabinowitz, d.1916), Russian-Yiddish playwright, author
and humorist, was born in the Ukraine. "To want to be the cleverest of
all is the biggest folly."
(AP,
1/13/01)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sholem_Aleichem)
1861 Feb 18, Jefferson F. Davis
was inaugurated as the Confederacy’s provisional president at a
ceremony held in Montgomery, Ala., where the Confederate constitutional
convention was held. Davis was sworn in on Feb 22 in Virginia.
(AP, 2/18/98)(HN, 2/18/98)(AH, 10/04, p.60)
1861 Feb 18, Victor Emmanuel II of
Sardinia became the first King of Italy.
(HN, 2/18/98)(MC, 2/18/02)
1862 Feb 18, Charles M. Schwab,
"Boy Wonder" of the steel industry, was born. He became president of
both U.S. Steel and Bethlehem Steel.
(HN, 2/18/99)
1865 Feb 18, Union troops forced
the Confederates to abandon Fort Anderson, N.C.
(HN, 2/18/98)
1865 Feb 18, Battle of Ft.
Moultrie, SC.
(MC, 2/18/02)
1865 Feb 18, Columbia, SC, was
evacuated and Sherman's troops burned the city.
(MC, 2/18/02)
1876 Feb 18, A direct telegraph
link was established between Britain & New Zealand.
(MC, 2/18/02)
1878 Feb 18, The bitter and bloody
Lincoln County War began with the murder of Billy the Kid's mentor,
Englishman rancher John Tunstall. Hired killers of James J. Dolan
gunned down John Tunstall in Lincoln, N.M. Tunstall’s partner Alexander
McSween formed a posse known as the Regulators to get even. Billy the
Kid was part of the posse.
(SFEC, 2/23/96, p.T8,9)(HN, 2/18/99)
1884 Feb 18, Police seized all
copies of Tolstoy's "What I Believe In."
(MC, 2/18/02)
1884 Feb 18, General Charles
Gordon arrived in Khartoum to battle the Mahdi and his terrorists.
(MC, 2/18/02)
1885 Feb 18, Mark Twain's
Adventures of Huckleberry Finn was published and became one of the
writer's most famous works. Samuel Clemens, born in 1835, first used
the pseudonym of Mark Twain when he wrote a humorous travel account in
1863. Books such as Huckleberry Finn and The Adventures of Tom Sawyer
made Mark Twain a popular American author because people could relate
to his stories of boyhood adventures colored with social commentary. As
a satirical, critical voice of the United States, Twain continued to
write and lecture across the country and the world. Mark Twain died in
1910.
(AP, 2/18/98)(HNPD, 2/18/99)
1887 Feb 18, Nikos Kazantzakis,
Greek writer, was born. [see Dec 2, 1885]
(MC, 2/18/02)
1890 Feb 18, Boris L. Pasternak,
Russian poet, writer (Dr. Zhivago), was born. [ NS][see Feb 10]
(MC, 2/18/02)
1892 Feb 18, Wendell Wilke was
born. He was a presidential candidate against President Franklin
Roosevelt.
(HN, 2/18/99)
1895 Feb 18, Semjon Timoshenko,
Russian marshal, inspector-general (WW II), was born.
(MC, 2/18/02)
1896 Feb 18, Andre Breton
(d.1966), French writer, founder and principal provocateur of the
surrealist movement, was born. An exhaustive biography was published in
1995 by Mark Polizzotti titled: Revolution of the Mind: The Life of
Andre Breton.
(WSJ, 8/1/95, p.A-9)(MC, 2/18/02)
1898 Feb 18, Enzo Ferrari
(d.1988), Italian sports car manufacturer, was born.
(www.britannica.com/eb/article-9034085/Enzo-Ferrari)
1899 Feb 18, Sir Arthur Bryant,
English historian, was born.
(HN, 2/18/98)
1899 Feb 18, Marius Sophus Lie
(b.1842), a Norwegian-born mathematician, died. He largely created the
theory of continuous symmetry, and applied it to the study of geometry
and differential equations.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sophus_Lie)
1900 Feb 18, Battle at Paardeberg
(Boer War), 1,270 British killed or injured.
(MC, 2/18/02)
1902 Feb 18, The opera "Hunchback
of Notre Dame" premiered in Monte Carlo.
(MC, 2/18/02)
1907 Feb 18, 600,000 tons of grain
were sent to Russia to relieve the famine there.
(HN, 2/18/98)
1907 Feb 18, In SF according to an
agreement between Mayor Schmidt, Pres. Theodore Roosevelt and the SF
School Board, Japanese children under 16 were to be admitted to the
city’s public schools, skilled and unskilled laborers from Japan were
to be banned from entering the US and American laborers were to be
excluded from Japan.
(SSFC, 2/18/07, DB p.58)
1908 Feb 18, The 1st US postage
stamps in rolls were issued.
(MC, 2/18/02)
1909 Feb 18, Wallace Stegner,
Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist (Angle of Repose), was born.
(AP, 2/18/01)
1913 Feb 18, Artur Axmann, Nazi
youth leader, was born.
(MC, 2/18/02)
1913 Feb 18, Marcel Duchamp’s
painting "Nude Descending a Staircase" was displayed at the Armory Show
in NYC.
(MC, 2/18/02)
1915 Feb 18, Germany began a
blockade of England.
(MC, 2/18/02)
1919 Feb 18, Jack Palance
(d.2006), later film and TV star, was born as Volodymir Ivanovich
Palahniuk in Latimer Mines, Pa.
(SFC, 11/11/06, p.B6)
1920 Feb 18, Vuillemin and Chalus
completed their first flight over the Sahara Desert.
(HN, 2/18/98)
1921 Feb 18, British troops
occupied Dublin.
(MC, 2/18/02)
1922 Feb 18, Helen Gurley Brown,
editor of Cosmopolitan magazine, was born.
(HN, 2/18/99)
1927 Feb 18, The U.S. and Canada
established diplomatic relations independently of Great Britain.
(HN, 2/18/98)
1929 Feb 18, Leonard Cyril
Deighton, English spy author (Ipcress File, Fighter), was born.
(AP, 2/18/01)(MC, 2/18/02)
1930 Feb 18, Luigi Pirandello's
"Come Tu Mi Vuoi," premiered in Milan.
(MC, 2/18/02)
1930 Feb 18, Richard Rodgers'
& Lorenz Hart's "Simple Simon," premiered in NYC.
(MC, 2/18/02)
1930 Feb 18, Planet X (Pluto), the
ninth planet of our solar system, was discovered by Clyde Tombaugh
(1907-1997) at Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, Ariz. It is 2.76
billion miles (5,888 million km.) from the sun at the closest point of
its orbit. Pluto was later designated a "dwarf planet."
(SFEC, 1/19/97, p.B6)(SFC, 10/23/99, p.B7)(AP,
2/18/07)
1931 Feb 18, Toni Morrison, Nobel
laureate and Pulitzer Prize-winning author (The Bluest Eye, Beloved),
was born.
(AP, 2/18/01)
1932 Feb 18, Milos Forman,
Czech-US director (Cuckoos Nest, Amadeus), was born.
(MC, 2/18/02)
1932 Feb 18, Sonja Henie won her
6th straight World Women's figure skating title.
(MC, 2/18/02)
1932 Feb 18, In SF federal
prohibition agents seized the offices and storehouses of two wholesale
liquor setups: The Chicago Specialty Company at 724 Montgomery St. and
J.C. Millet at 241 Clay St. The raids were aimed at breaking up a major
bootlegging ring said to be headed by Johnny Marino.
(SSFC, 2/18/07, DB p.58)
1932 Feb 18, Manchurian
independence was formally declared. In 1928 the Japanese army
unilaterally instigated armed clashes in China's Manchuria region to
justify full-scale intervention. In 1931 the Japanese army invaded
Manchuria without its own government's consent.
(HN, 2/18/98)
1933 Feb 18, James Corbett
(b.1866), American heavyweight boxing champ, died. He is best known as
the man who defeated the great John L. Sullivan in 1892. Corbett’s 1926
memoir was titled “The roar of the Crowd: the True Tale of the Rise and
Fall of a Champion.”
(AH, 2/06,
p.35)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_J._Corbett)
1934 Feb 18, Aldo Ceccato,
conductor (Detroit Symph Orch 1973-77), was born in Milan, Italy.
(MC, 2/18/02)
1934 Feb 18, Audre Lord, poet, was
born.
(AP, 2/18/01)
1935 Feb 18, Rome reported sending
troops to Italian Somalia.
(HN, 2/18/98)
1939 Feb 18, The Golden Gate
International Exposition opened on Treasure Island in the SF Bay.
(HN, 2/18/98)(SFC, 2/18/99, p.D10)
1942 Feb 18, Japanese troop landed
on Bali.
(MC, 2/18/02)
1943 Feb 18, Augusto Pinochet
Ugarte (Chilean gen., dictator) married Lucia Hiriart.
(MC, 2/18/02)
1943 Feb 18, Munich resistance
group "White Rose" was captured by Nazis.
(http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Holocaust/rose.html)
1943 Feb 18, Rommel took three
towns in Tunisia, North Africa. The intercepted communications of an
American in Cairo provided a secret ear for the Desert Fox.
(HN, 2/18/98)
1944 Feb 18, The Army, Navy and
Marines invaded Eniwetok Atoll in the Pacific.
(HN, 2/18/98)
1945 Feb 18-19, U.S. Marines
stormed ashore at Iwo Jima. About 60,000 US marines went ashore at Iwo
Jima, an 8-sq. mile island of rock, volcanic ash and black sand. The
36-day battle took the lives of 7,000 Americans and about 20,000 of
22,000 Japanese defenders.
(SFC, 6/19/96, p.A20)(HN, 2/18/98)
1947 Feb 18, Gian Carlo Menotti's
opera "Telephone," premiered in NYC.
(MC, 2/18/02)
1950 Feb 18, John Hughes, director
(Breakfast Club, 16 Candles, Weird Science), was born in Lansing, Mich.
(http://movies.yahoo.com)
1952 Feb 18, Two tanker ships
broke apart off Cape Cod. 14 men died in the wrecks, 9 of 41 on the
Pendleton and 5 of 43 on the Fort Mercer.
(SSFC, 2/1/09, p.B7)
1953 Feb 18, "Bwana Devil," the
movie that heralded the 3D fad of the 1950s, opened in New York City.
(AP, 2/18/98)
1954 Feb 18, East and West Berlin
dropped thousands of propaganda leaflets on each other after the end of
a month long truce.
(HN, 2/18/98)
1956 Feb 18, The US lifted its
arms ban and shipped tanks to Saudi Arabia.
(EWH, 1968, p.1241)
1956 Feb 18, Gustave Charpentier
(95), French opera composer (Louise), died.
(MC, 2/18/02)
1960 Feb 18, The Eighth Winter
Olympic Games were formally opened in Squaw Valley, Calif., by Vice
President Nixon. A drought of snow ended 2 days before the start of the
games.
(AP, 2/18/98)(SSFC, 1/3/10, p.A13)
1962 Feb 18, Robert F. Kennedy
said that U.S. troops would stay in Vietnam until Communism was
defeated.
(HN, 2/18/98)
1964 Feb 18, Muriel Resnik's "Any
Wednesday," premiered in NYC.
(MC, 2/18/02)
1964 Feb 18, The Beatles visited
Cassius Clay in training for his match with heavyweight champion Sonny
Liston.
(SFC, 3/6/04, p.D17)
1964 Feb 18, The U.S. cut military
aid to five nations in reprisal for having trade relations with Cuba.
(HN, 2/18/98)
1965 Feb 18, Alabama police were
sent to Marion as some 500 people marched from a church toward the city
jail to protest the jailing of a civil rights worker. Street lights
went out and troopers began swinging clubs on the marchers. Jimmie Lee
Jackson (26) was shot while aiding his grandfather (82) and mother.
Jackson died 2 days later. In 2007 trooper James Bonard Fowler was
indicted for the shooting death of Jackson.
(SFC, 5/10/07, p.A3)
1965 Feb 18, Gambia gained
independence from Britain.
(SFC, 7/1/97, p.A9)(www.vdiest.nl/gambia.htm)
1967 Feb 18, The National Art
Gallery in Washington agreed to buy a Da Vinci for a record $5 million.
(HN, 2/18/98)
1967 Feb 18, Robert Oppenheimer
(62), theoretical physicist and leader of atomic bomb development,
died. His work included outlining processes by which old stars of
sufficient mass might collapse beyond the Schwarzschild radius and
become black holes. Physicist John Wheeler named the phenomena black
holes. In 2005 Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin authored “American
Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer,” and
Priscilla J. McMillan authored “The Ruin of J. Robert Oppenheimer.”
(SFC, 12/19/98, p.C3)(SSFC, 4/10/05, p.B1)(SSFC,
7/31/05, p.F2)
1968 Feb 18, Three US pilots, who
had been held by the Vietnamese, arrived in Washington. The Vietnamese
people later pressured Hanoi to account for their own 300,000 MIAs.
(HN, 2/18/98)
1968 Feb 18, British adopted
year-round daylight savings time.
(www.nmm.ac.uk/explore/astronomy-and-time/time-facts/british-summer-time-(bst))
1968 Feb 18, Some 10,000 people in
West Berlin demonstrated against US in Vietnam War.
(MC, 2/18/02)
1969 Feb 18, The PLO (PFLP-GC)
machine-gunned an Israeli El-Al plane in Zurich, Switzerland. One
Palestinian was killed and 4 were arrested.
(SFC, 5/21/02,
p.A16)(www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Terrorism/incidents.html)
1970 Feb 18, The Chicago Seven
defendants were found innocent of conspiring to incite riots at the
1968 Democratic national convention; five were convicted of violating
the Anti-Riot Act of 1968, but those convictions were later reversed.
In January reporter J. Anthony Lukas published "The Barnyard Epithet
and Other Obscenities: Notes on the Chicago Conspiracy Trial."
(AP, 2/18/08)(SFC, 6/7/97, p.A19)
1972 Feb 18, The California
Supreme Court declared the death penalty cruel and unusual punishment
in violation of the state constitution. 107 inmates were taken off
death row and resentenced. A similar decision was rendered in 1976 and
68 inmates were resentenced.
(www.deathpenalty.org/index.php?pid=history)(HN,
2/18/98)(AP, 2/18/98)
1973 Feb 18, Frank Costello
(b.1891), Italian-born US gangster, died in NYC.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Costello)
1974 Feb 18, Randolph Hearst was
to give $2 million in free food for the poor in order to open talks for
his daughter Patty.
(HN, 2/18/98)
1975 Feb 18, Italy broadened its
abortion law.
(www.crlp.org/pub_art_mosaic_conclusion.html)
1975 Feb 18, The Tigray People’s
Liberation Front began a rebellion in northern Ethiopia.
(www.scribd.com/doc/14967/The-Origins-Of-TPLF)
1975 Feb 18, In Italy Renato
Curcio, Red Brigades leader, was freed in a daring prison assault led
by Margherita Cagol. She was later killed while trying to kidnap a
businessman and Curcio was recaptured.
(WSJ, 12/13/07, p.A18)
1976 Feb 18, Pres. Gerald Ford
signed an executive order prohibiting US officials from plotting or
engaging in political assassination. The order was later broadened by
Presidents Carter and Reagan. Ford issued Executive Order 11905
to clarify U.S. foreign-intelligence activities. In a section of the
order labeled "Restrictions on Intelligence Activities," Ford concisely
but explicitly outlawed political assassination. It became effective on
March 1.
(www.ford.utexas.edu/LIBRARY/speeches/760110e.htm#assassination)
1976 Feb 18, The Tigray People’s
Liberation Front (TPLF) issued a manifesto to secede from Ethiopia.
(SFC, 6/24/99,
p.A14)(www.abugidainfo.com/?p=3393)(http://tinyurl.com/2j2pxf)
1977 Feb 18, The space shuttle
Enterprise, sitting atop a Boeing 747, went on its maiden "flight"
above the Mojave Desert.
(AP, 2/18/98)
1977 Feb 18, In Nigeria soldiers
from the army of Gen'l. Obasanjo raided Kalakuta, the communal home of
singer Fela Anikulapo-Kuti. Fela's mother (77) was thrown from a
2nd-story window and later died from her injuries. The compound was
burned and a fire brigade was prevented from reaching the site. Fela
wrote the song "Coffin for Head of State" to describe how he and his
followers carried her coffin to present it to Gen'l. Obasanjo.
(WSJ, 2/24/99, p.A1,10)
1979 Feb 18, The miniseries
"Roots: Next Generations" premiered on ABC TV.
(www.imdb.com/title/tt0078678/)
1979 Feb 18, Snow fell in the
Sahara Desert of southern Algeria.
(www.distant.ca/UselessFacts/fact.asp?ID=103)
1980 Feb 18, Pierre Elliott
Trudeau's Liberal Party won Canada's elections. Trudeau again served as
the 15th Prime Minister of Canada.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canadian_federal_election,_1980)(CFA,
'96, p.81)
1982 Feb 18, Mexico devalued the
peso by 30 percent to fight an economic slide.
(HN, 2/18/98)
1982 Feb 18, Edith Ngaio Marsh
(b.1895), New Zealand detective writer, producer, died.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ngaio_Marsh)
1983 Feb 18, The Venezuelan
bolivar suffered a serious devaluation. Pres. Luis Herrera initiated a
round of currency devaluations. The Herrera government was forced to
devalue the currency, which at 4.3 bolivars to the US dollar had been
underwriting a lifestyle the country could no longer afford. By 2000
the bolivar lost 16,185% to the dollar.
(www.guardian.co.uk/news/2007/nov/13/guardianobituaries.venezuela)(WSJ,
1/05/00, p.A11)
1983 Feb 18-1983 Feb 20, In India
Hindu attacks against Moslems in Assam state left over 1500 dead.
(http://tinyurl.com/cer6x)
1988 Feb 18, Anthony M. Kennedy
was sworn in as the 104th justice of the Supreme Court.
(AP, 2/18/98)
1988 Feb 18, Soviet Communist
Party leaders dropped former Moscow party chief Boris N. Yeltsin from
the ruling Politburo.
(AP, 2/18/98)
1989 Feb 18, Author Salman
Rushdie, under a death sentence from Iran's Ayatollah Khomeini for his
book "The Satanic Verses," expressed regret for any distress he'd
caused Muslims.
(AP, 2/18/99)
1990 Feb 18, In general elections,
Japan's conservative governing party held onto its 34-year-old majority
in the Parliament's lower house.
(AP, 2/18/00)
1991 Feb 18, Iraqi Foreign
Minister Tariq Aziz held talks in Moscow with Soviet President Mikhail
S. Gorbachev, who presented a proposal for ending the Persian Gulf War.
(AP, 2/18/01)
1991 Feb 18, The Irish Republican
Army claimed responsibility for a bomb that exploded in a London rail
station, killing a commuter.
(AP, 2/18/01)
1992 Feb 18, Republican Pres.
George H.W. Bush won the New Hampshire primary over Pat Buchanon, 58.6
to 41.4%. Democrat Paul Tsongas won over Bill Clinton, Bob Kerrey, Tom
Harkin and Jerry Brown 38 to 28.3 to 12.7 to 11.6 to 9.3%.
(SFEM,11/2/97, p.12)(AP, 2/18/02)(SSFC, 1/25/04,
p.A19)
1992 Feb 18, John Frohnmayer
announced his resignation as US chairman of the National Endowment for
the Arts.
(AP, 2/21/02)
1993 Feb 18, President Clinton
hosted a campaign-style rally at St. Louis' Union Station to enlist
citizen support for his economic plan.
(AP, 2/18/98)
1994 Feb 18, President Clinton
notified Congress he was prepared to order bombing by U.S. warplanes in
Bosnia.
(AP, 2/18/99)
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, 2/18/99)
1995 Feb 18, The National
Association for the Advancement of Colored People replaced veteran
chairman William Gibson with Myrlie Evers-Williams, the widow of slain
civil rights leader Medgar Evers, after the rank-and-file declared no
confidence in Gibson's leadership.
(AP, 2/18/00)
1996 Feb 18, A member of the Irish
Republican Army blew himself up and wounded nine other people when the
briefcase bomb he was carrying detonated accidentally on a
double-decker bus in London’s West End. It was the third IRA bombing in
10 days.
(WSJ, 2/20/96, p.A-1)(AP, 2/18/01)
1997 Feb 18, Bill Richardson began
work as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations.
(AP, 2/18/98)
1997 Feb 18, Astronauts on the
space shuttle Discovery completed their tune-up of the Hubble Space
Telescope after 33 hours of spacewalking; the Hubble was then released
using the shuttle's crane.
(AP, 2/18/98)
1997 Feb 18, It was reported that
scientists found evidence that upheld the theory of an asteroid hitting
the Earth 65 million years ago in seabed drill sediments 300 miles off
the coast of northern Florida.
(SFC, 2/18/97, p.A3)
1997 Feb 18, In Algeria Islamic
militants shot, hacked or burned to death 33 people in Blida, south of
Algiers. Meanwhile the government passed a law that banned political
parties based on religion, language and regionalism.
(SFC, 2/19/97, p.A10)
1997 Feb 18, In France it was
reported that the National Front was the fastest growing political
party in the country and was led by Bruno Megret (47), a former student
at UC Berkeley. The party championed a national preference program
where jobs, public housing and university slots would be reserved for
the ethnic French majority.
(SFC, 2/18/97, p.A1)
1997 Feb 18, In Mexico General
Jesus Guitterez Rebollo was dismissed from the armed forces and held
for charges of collaborating with Amado Carillo Fuentes, leader of the
most powerful Mexican drug cartel. He was the head of the National
Institute for Combating Drugs (INCD), which became defunct.
(SFC, 2/19/96, p.A1)(SFC, 7/28/97, p.A11)
1997 Feb 18, In Peru at least 33
people were killed and a hundred were missing after an Andean mountain
collapsed and buried the villages of Choch and Pumaranra near Abancay.
Total killed reached 250-300. Only 50 bodies were recovered.
(SFC, 2/19/97, p.A11)(SFC, 2/25/97, p.a14)
1997 Feb 18, The UN endorsed a
5-point peace plan for Zaire.
(SFC, 2/19/97, p.A10)
1988 Feb 18, The American hockey
team in Nagano lost to the Czechs. Members of the team that night
trashed their quarters in the Olympic Village, drained a fire
extinguisher and tossed it out their 5th story window.
(SFC, 2/20/98, p.A1,16)
1998 Feb 18, President Clinton's
foreign policy team encountered jeers during a town meeting at Ohio
State University while trying to defend the administration's threat to
bomb Iraq into compliance with UN weapons edicts.
(AP, 2/18/99)
1998 Feb 18, A military helicopter
crashed in central California during a training mission and 4 people
were killed.
(SFC, 2/19/98, p.A22)
1998 Feb 18, Harry Caray, baseball
broadcaster for the Chicago Cubs and other teams, died at age 77.
Sportscaster Harry Caray died in Rancho Mirage, Calif., at age 83.
(WSJ, 2/19/98, p.A1)(AP, 2/18/99)
1999 Feb 18, The Clinton
administration warned Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic to choose
peace with ethnic Albanians in Kosovo, or face a devastating military
strike.
(AP, 2/18/00)
1999 Feb 18, Transamerica was
bought by Aegon NV of the Netherlands in a deal valued at $9.7 billion.
The assessed value of the Transamerica Pyramid in SF was set at $190
million.
(SFC, 2/19/99, p.A1)(SFC, 5/29/04, p.C2)
1999 Feb 18, Scientists reported a
way to slow down the speed of light by a factor of 20 million using a
cluster of "Bose-Einstein" atoms chilled to 50 billionths of a degree
above absolute zero.
(SFC, 2/18/99, p.A7)
1999 Feb 18, In Chile Lee Pope of
California and 27 demonstrators against the Ralco Dam project on the
Bio Bio River were arrested.
(SFEC, 3/14/99, p.A3)
1999 Feb 18, Israeli troops seized
the southern Lebanon village of Arnoun to prevent guerrilla attacks
from the Crusader Castle of Beaufort.
(WSJ, 2/19/99, p.A1)
2000 Feb 18, Mariano Faget (54), a
34-year US immigration officer in Miami, was reported to be a Cuban
spy. Faget was found guilty of disclosing government secrets May 30.
(SFC, 2/19/00, p.A3)(SFC, 5/31/00, p.A3)
2000 Feb 18, Ford Motor Co. agreed
to pay $3.8 million in a settlement with the Labor Dept. over charges
of discrimination in hiring against women and minorities at 7 plants.
(SFC, 2/19/00, p.A3)
2000 Feb 18, Announcer Bob Hite
Sr. (86), whose rich voice introduced "The Lone Ranger" on radio, died
in West Palm Beach, Fla.
(AP, 2/18/05)
2000 Feb 18, In Colombia at least
9 villagers were killed over 3 days near Ovejas by suspected right-wing
gunmen.
(SFC, 2/19/00, p.A10)
2000 Feb 18-19, At El Salado,
Colombia, over 300 right-wing paramilitary executed at least 36 people
whom they accused of collaborating with leftist guerrillas. Nearby
military and police made no effort to stop the slaughter.
(SFC, 7/15/00, p.A12,14)
2000 Feb 18, In Chechnya rebels
shot down a Russian helicopter and 15 men were killed.
(SFEC, 2/20/00, p.A32)
2000 Feb 18, Iranians voted in an
election that gave reformers a majority in the parliament, long a
bastion of hard-liners. Voters elected reform candidates to about 72%
of the 290-member Majlis (parliament).
(SFEC, 2/20/00, p.A24)(WSJ, 2/22/00, p.A1)(AP,
2/18/01)
2000 Feb 18, In Kashmir a land
mine killed 10 police officers in Tral. Another 6 were seriously
wounded. Militants for independence or union with Pakistan claimed
responsibility.
(SFC, 2/19/00, p.C1)
2000 Feb 18, In South Africa the
telephone company, Telkom, announced that it would buy and distribute 5
million condoms to its employees in an effort to fight AIDS which had
infected some 13% of the adult population.
(SFC, 2/19/00, p.A12)
2001 Feb 18, Robert Philip Hanssen
(56), senior FBI agent, was arrested for spying. He had allegedly
passed information to the Russians for 15 years. It was believed that
he had betrayed the construction of a tunnel under the Soviet Embassy
in Washington. He pleaded guilty July 3 to avoid execution. His
disclosures were later reported to have played a role in the execution
or jailing of at least 3 Russians and threatened the identity of
another 50 people. In 2002 David A. Wise authored: "The Bureau and the
Mole." Hanssen was sentenced to life in prison on May 10, 2002.
(SFC, 2/21/01, p.A1)(SSFC, 3/4/01, p.A6)(SFC,
7/4/01, p.A3)(WSJ, 1/8/02, p.A16)(AP, 2/18/02)(SSFC, 4/7/02,
p.A14)(SFC, 5/11/02, p.A3)
2001 Feb 18, Balthus (b.1908),
painter aka Count Balthazar Klossowski de Rola, died at age 92 in
Switzerland. In 2002 His memoir "Vanished Splendors," as told by Alain
Vircondolet, was published.
(SFC, 2/21/01, p.A18)(AP, 2/18/02)(SSFC, 1/12/03,
p.M3)
2001 Feb 18, Broadcaster Roger
Caras (72) died.
(AP, 2/18/02)
2001 Feb 18, In Florida Dale
Earnhardt (b.1951), race car driver, was killed on his final turn at
the NASCAR Daytona 500. Later this year Joe Menzer authored "The
Wildest Ride," a history of NASCAR racing.
(SFC, 2/19/01, p.A1)(WSJ, 7/9/01, p.A26)(NW,
12/31/01, p.109)
2001 Feb 18, Frank B. Gilbreth Jr.
(89) co-author of "Cheaper by the Dozen" died.
(AP, 2/18/02)
2001 Feb 18, Eddie Mathews (69),
baseball Hall of Famer, died.
(AP, 2/18/02)
2001 Feb 18, In Brazil some 15,000
convicts held uprisings in 29 prisons that left 16 people dead. It was
coordinated by Idemir Carlos Ambrosio, leader of the PCC prison-based
gang. Ambrosio was killed in prison in July.
(SFC, 2/19/01, p.A9)(SFC, 5/16/06, p.A7)
2001 Feb 18, In Chechnya rebels
blew a Russian troop train of its tracks and 3 people were killed.
(WSJ, 2/21/01, p.A1)
2001 Feb 18, In Indonesia gunmen
shot journalist Oz Rusli Radja and human rights worker Khairuddin to
death in Aceh.
(SFC, 2/20/01, p.A10)
2001 Feb 18, Fresh clashes in
Borneo and separatist violence in Aceh erupted. Fighting between the
Dayaks and immigrants left over 100 people killed.
(WSJ, 2/21/01, p.A1)(WSJ, 2/22/00, p.A1)
2001 Feb 18, The Iraqi press
referred to Pres. Bush as "son of the snake" and "the new dwarf"
following the Feb. 16 bombing attacks.
(SFC, 2/19/01, p.A9)
2001 Feb 18, In Serbia a suspected
mine ripped a police van and 3 Serbian officers were killed just
outside Kosovo.
(SFC, 2/19/01, p.A10)
2002 Feb 18, Addressing Japan's
national legislature, President George Bush said the country's
recession-ravaged economy was "on the path to reform," and he urged the
Diet to help curb the spread of terrorism in the region.
(AP, 2/18/07)
2002 Feb 18, The EU ordered home
from Zimbabwe its 30-member observer team and voted to impose
sanctions, which included cutting off $110 million in aid, a ban on
travel to the EU by Mugabe and 20 Cabinet members and freezing of
assets.
(SFC, 2/19/02, p.A8)
2002 Feb 18, France's Marina
Anissina and Gwendal Peizerat narrowly won the Olympic ice dancing gold
medal.
(AP, 2/18/07)
2002 Feb 18, A Palestinian
militant ambushed a settler’s convoy, shot 3 people dead and blew
himself up. A car bombing outside Jerusalem killed an Israeli policeman
along with the bomber. 2 Palestinian gunmen attacked a settlement in
the Gaza Strip and one was killed.
(SFC, 2/19/02, p.A6)
2003 Feb 18, Declaring that
America's security should not be dictated by protesters, President Bush
said he would not be swayed from compelling Iraqi President Saddam
Hussein to disarm.
(AP, 2/18/04)
2003 Feb 18, Johnny
Paycheck (64), American country singer, died in Nashville, Tenn. In
1977 he had a big hit with the David Allan Coe song "Take This Job and
Shove It."
(SFC, 2/20/03, A18)(AP, 2/18/04)
2003 Feb 18, The Bolivian
Cabinet resigned after violent street protests left 29 dead and the
government of Pres. de Lozada near collapse.
(AP, 2/18/03)
2003 Feb 18, In Colombia
heavy fighting left at least 29 leftist rebels and right-wing
paramilitary dead.
(WSJ, 2/19/03, p.A1)
2003 Feb 18, In India a bus
carrying a wedding party fell into a gorge, killing 23 people and
injuring 31 others in the mountainous northern state of Uttaranchal.
(AP, 2/19/03)
2003 Feb 18, At least 40
Israeli tanks headed for Gaza City, accompanied by bulldozers and
attack helicopters.
(AP, 2/18/03)
2003 Feb 18, In Daegu,
South Korea, a fire raged through two packed subway trains after a man
lit a container of flammable liquid and tossed it, killing 196 people
and injuring 145. In August the perpetrator was sentenced to life in
prison.
(SFC, 2/19/03, A1)(WSJ, 2/19/03, p.A1)(AP,
2/27/03)(WSJ, 8/7/03, p.A1)
2003 Feb 18, Saudi Arabia
said it has referred 90 Saudis to trial for alleged al Qaeda links.
Another 250 were reported under investigation.
(SFC, 2/19/03, A10)
2003 Feb 18, Syria said it
would pull 4,000 of 20,000 troops out of Lebanon.
(WSJ, 2/19/03, p.A1)
2003 Feb 18, Turkey asked
the US to nearly double its multibillion dollar aid package as a
condition for allowing U.S. troops on its soil in a war against
neighboring Iraq.
(AP, 2/18/03)
2003 Feb 18, In Venezuela
police reported that the bodies of 3 soldiers, who had called for
"civic disobedience" against President Hugo Chavez's government, had
been found with their hands tied and faces wrapped with tape.
(AP, 2/18/03)
2004 Feb 18, The US federal debt
passed the $7 trillion mark.
(WSJ, 2/19/04, p.A1)
2004 Feb 18, President Bush
praised social progress in Tunisia and welcomed its leader, Zine El
Abidine Ben Ali, as a partner in the fight against terrorism while also
urging political reforms in the moderate Muslim nation in North African
nation.
(AP, 2/18/04)
2004 Feb 18, The race for the
Democratic nomination narrowed to a two-man contest between
front-runner John Kerry and plucky rival John Edwards after Howard Dean
ended his bid before the campaign spread to the 10 crucial "Super
Tuesday" states.
(AP, 2/18/04)
2004 Feb 18, Scientists reported
that X-rays form galaxy RX J1242-11 indicated a black hole tearing
apart a star and gobbling up a share of its gaseous mass.
(SFC, 2/19/04, p.A9)
2004 Feb 18, In Neyshabur,
northeastern Iran, a 51-car train, carrying fuel, fertilizer and
industrial chemicals, derailed and exploded. It rolled out of a
switchyard and eventually reach a speed of more than 90 mph before it
derailed, caught fire and exploded. The explosions destroyed five
villages killing at least 200 people and injuring hundreds more.
(AP, 2/19/04)(AP, 4/23/04)
2004 Feb 18, In Iraq 2 trucks
packed with explosives blew up outside Hilla, Polish-run base south of
Baghdad, after coalition forces opened fire on the suicide bombers
racing toward them. 11 Iraqi civilians were killed and at least 64
people were wounded.
(AP, 2/18/04)(SFC, 2/19/04, p.A14)
2004 Feb 18, Ireland's government
announced plans to ban smoking in all enclosed workplaces as of March
29.
(SFC, 2/19/04, p.A3)
2004 Feb 18, The armed Basque
separatist group ETA unilaterally declared a cease-fire for the
northeastern region of Catalonia, but the move was immediately
criticized by Spain's prime minister and politicians who refuse to
negotiate with the militant group.
(AP, 2/18/04)
2004 Feb 18, The UN said it would
redeploy 4,000 of its forces to Congo's volatile northeast, where
peacekeepers have come under fire from rival ethnic militias fighting
for control of mineral riches.
(AP, 2/18/04)
2004 Feb 18, In northern Uganda
government soldiers backed by helicopter gunships attacked a group of
rebels in a remote village, killing 36 insurgents.
(AP, 2/19/04)
2005 Feb 18, President Bush
declared American Samoa a major disaster area following Hurricane Olaf,
which wiped out nearly all homes in at least one village in the Manua
Islands.
(Reuters, 2/18/05)
2005 Feb 18, The US envoy
Christopher Hill said the US and China agreed that North Korea must end
its nuclear ambitions and resolve the standoff through six-nation talks.
(AP, 2/18/05)
2005 Feb 18, An advisory panel
said Merck & Co. Inc.'s withdrawn arthritis drug Vioxx is safe
enough to rejoin Pfizer's rival pain relievers Celebrex and Bextra on
the U.S. market, after concluding that all three medicines posed some
level of heart risk.
(Reuters, 2/19/05)
2005 Feb 18, Uli Derickson, the
flight attendant who helped save passengers during the 1985 TWA
hijacking, died in Tucson, Ariz., at age 60.
(AP, 2/18/06)
2005 Feb 18, Britain faced the
threat of mass strikes in the public sector ahead of an upcoming
election as teachers, nurses and civil servants protested against a
plan to raise their retirement age and cut pensions.
(AFP, 2/18/05)
2005 Feb 18, A British ban on
hunting with dogs became effective.
(AP, 2/19/05)
2005 Feb 18, Colombia’s army chief
said troops had killed between 70 and 80 Marxist guerrillas over the
past 3 weeks in a region where the rebels operate cocaine production
factories.
(AP, 2/19/05)
2005 Feb 18, The World Health
Organization (WHO) said an outbreak of plague in northeastern
Democratic Republic of Congo has killed 61 diamond miners and infected
hundreds more.
(AP, 2/18/05)
2005 Feb 18, Indonesia welcomed
efforts by the US to restore full military training ties with Jakarta,
saying the time was ripe to resume links that were downgraded 13 years
ago.
(AFP, 2/18/05)
2005 Feb 18, Explosions ripped
through Baghdad, killing about 3 dozen people and injuring dozens on
the eve of Ashura, Shiite Islam's most important holiday.
(AP, 2/18/05)(SFC, 2/19/05, p.A1)
2005 Feb 18, Israel let 16 of
about 55 Palestinians expelled from the West Bank return home, and it
has concluded that demolishing the homes of Palestinian suicide bombers
and gunmen does not deter attackers and should be stopped.
(AP, 2/18/05)
2005 Feb 18, The Lebanese
opposition stepped up its campaign against the pro-Syrian government,
calling for a peaceful uprising to force the resignation of Prime
Minister Omar Karami and the withdrawal of Syrian troops.
(AP, 2/19/05)
2005 Feb 18, Libya refused to
extend the deadline of the Lockerbie compensation deal in a possible
bid to pressure Washington to drop it from the U.S. list of state
sponsors of terrorism.
(AP, 2/19/05)
2005 Feb 18, The royal government
plunged Nepal into a communications blackout, the country's annual
celebration of democracy, cutting phone service to thwart opposition
activists trying to organize nationwide protests.
(AP, 2/18/05)
2005 Feb 18, Pakistan deployed
specially trained anti-Al-Qaeda commandos to guard against sectarian
violence as two Sunni militants planning to attack parades by rival
Shiites blew themselves up.
(AFP, 2/18/05)
2005 Feb 18, Russian Pres.
Vladimir Putin said that Moscow will continue its nuclear cooperation
with Iran and that he is convinced Tehran does not intend to develop
atomic weapons.
(AP, 2/18/05)
2005 Feb 18, The government of
South Africa said the number of deaths increased by 57 percent in the
five years ending in 2003, with AIDS and related illnesses among the
leading causes in adults. The rate is far lower than that reported by
world health groups.
(AP, 2/19/05)
2006 Feb 18, Eight workers at a
meat processing plant in Nebraska won a record $365 million Powerball
jackpot.
(AP, 2/18/07)
2006 Feb 18, Character actor
Richard Bright ("The Godfather") was struck and killed by a bus in New
York; he was 68.
(AP, 2/18/07)
2006 Feb 18, In the US thousands
of people remained without power after a winter storm packing wind
gusts of up to 77 mph rolled across the Northeast, downing trees and
power lines. Four people were killed.
(AP, 2/18/06)
2006 Feb 18, In Brazil a coalition
of American churches sharply denounced the US-led war in Iraq, accusing
Washington of "raining down terror" and apologizing to other nations
for "the violence, degradation and poverty our nation has sown."
Christian leaders explored the question: Should churches use their
investment portfolios to protest Israeli policies toward Palestinians?
(AP, 2/18/06)
2006 Feb 18, More than 10,000
angry people protested in central London against the Prophet Muhammad
cartoons that have infuriated many in the Muslim world.
(AP, 2/18/06)
2006 Feb 18, The Democratic
Republic of Congo adopted a new constitution aimed at bringing an end
to decades of dictatorship, war and chaos in the vast country, and
paving the way for elections by mid-2006.
(AP, 2/18/06)
2006 Feb 18, India confirmed the
H5N1 bird flu virus in chickens. Iran confirmed the virus in wild
swans. Indonesia confirmed its 19th death from the virus. Germany
France and Austria reported more dead birds. Nigeria claimed to be
bringing the virus under control.
(AP, 2/18/06)
2006 Feb 18, India and Pakistan
restored train service along a line that was severed during their war
40 years ago, establishing a second rail link between the two South
Asian rivals.
(AP, 2/18/06)
2006 Feb 18, A spate of roadside
bombings in Baghdad and north of the capital killed a US soldier and at
least 11 Iraqis.
(AP, 2/18/06)
2006 Feb 18, A German plane from
Azerbaijan went missing in northern Iraq. 5 Germans and an Iraqi on
board were found dead the next day.
(AP, 2/19/06)
2006 Feb 18, Italy's Reforms
Minister Roberto Calderoli resigned following deadly clashes in Libya
over cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad that he had made into T-shirts
and wore on state television.
(AP, 2/18/06)
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 Feb 18, Conservation
officials said a searing drought in Kenya and neighboring Tanzania has
killed dozens of hippopotamuses and other wild animals, and disrupted
the annual migration of wildebeests and zebras between the two East
African nations.
(AP, 2/20/06)
2006 Feb 18, Libya suspended Nasr
al-Mabrouk, its interior minister, citing an "excessive use of force"
in riots the day before that left at least 10 people dead in the
bloodiest protest yet against the Prophet Muhammad cartoons roiling the
Muslim world.
(AFP, 2/18/06)
2006 Feb 18, Nepal's communist
insurgents called for an indefinite nationwide strike to begin Apr 3 as
the country's major political parties prepared for a weekend protest
amid growing anger at the king's autocratic rule.
(AP, 2/18/06)
2006 Feb 18, In Nigeria armed
militants carried out a wave of attacks across the troubled Niger
delta, blowing up oil and gas pipelines and seizing nine foreign oil
workers: 3 Americans, a Briton, 2 Egyptians, 2 Thais and one Filipino.
Royal Dutch Shell suspended exports from the 380,000 barrel-a-day
Forcados terminal after militants bombed the tanker loading platform.
(Reuters, 2/18/06)
2006 Feb 18, Nigerian Muslims
protesting caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad attacked Christians and
burned churches, killing at least 15 people in the deadliest
confrontation yet in the whirlwind of Muslim anger over the drawings.
(AP, 2/19/06)
2006 Feb 18, In southwestern
Pakistan insurgents blew up four gas pipelines and two people were
injured in landmine explosions in Baluchistan province.
(AP, 2/18/06)
2006 Feb 18, Palestinian leader
Mahmoud Abbas asked Hamas to form the next Palestinian government, but
demanded that the Islamic militant group recognize existing peace deals
and fall in line with his moderate policies, including negotiations
with Israel.
(AP, 2/18/06)
2006 Feb 18, Hamas legislator
Abdel Aziz Duaik, a geography professor from the West Bank, was elected
speaker of the new Palestinian parliament.
(AP, 2/18/06)
2006 Feb 18, On the southern
Philippine island of Jolo, janitor for US troops was killed and 13
people wounded in an explosion near an army base. Abu Sayyaf was
suspected.
(AP, 2/18/06)
2006 Feb 18, The WHO said a
cholera outbreak in south Sudan has claimed 52 lives with more than
2,000 cases of the deadly disease.
(AP, 2/18/06)
2007 Feb 18, The United States
sent eight more US F-22 stealth fighter planes to the southern Japanese
island of Okinawa in their first full deployment overseas.
(AP, 2/18/07)
2007 Feb 18, Scientists at a
symposium on the neurobiology of chocolate reported that flavanols, a
chemical found in cocoa beans, could be good for memory. They noted
that chocolate usually looses its flavanols during processing.
(SFC, 2/19/07, p.A1)
2007 Feb 18, A US military
helicopter crashed in southeastern Afghanistan after its pilot reported
engine failure, killing eight American troops and wounding 14. A
roadside bomb killed four officers involved in opium poppy eradication
in Farah province. In western Ghor province a clash between poppy
farmers and police involved in eradication left one civilian dead and
two wounded.
(AP, 2/18/07)(AP, 2/19/07)
2007 Feb 18, Albanians went to the
polls in municipal elections. Allegations of vote-rigging flared within
a few hours of polls opening, as the opposition accused PM Sali
Berisha's Democratic Party of releasing false identity documents to
allow some supporters to vote repeatedly. In Tirana Interior Minister
Sokol Olldashi (34) faced Socialist Party leader and city mayor, Edi
Rama (42).
(AP, 2/18/07)
2007 Feb 18, A Bangladesh
anti-graft body named 50 people for having wealth that did not match
their income. 30 arrests soon included 11 former ministers, lawmakers
and businessmen with party links.
(AP, 2/20/07)
2007 Feb 18, British PM Tony Blair
announced plans to overhaul gun laws after three teenage boys were shot
dead in south London this month, prompting a national debate about guns
and gangs among youths.
(AP, 2/18/07)
2007 Feb 18, The Chinese flocked
to temples, parks and Disneyland to pray, play, eat, and celebrate the
first day of the Lunar New Year, ushering in the Year of the Pig. The
celebrations extended to March 4.
(AP, 2/18/07)(WSJ, 3/3/07, p.A1)
2007 Feb 18, Egyptian authorities
arrested Mohammed Sayed Saber (35), an Egyptian engineer from the
country's nuclear energy agency, for spying for Israel, but the arrest
was not announced until April 17.
(AP, 4/17/07)
2007 Feb 18, Fierce inter-clan
fighting killed at least 43 people in Ethiopia's southeastern Ogaden
region, inhabited mainly by ethnic Somalis.
(AFP, 2/19/07)
2007 Feb 18, India’s federal
minister for women and child development said the government plans to
open centers where people can abandon unwanted daughters in a bid to
tackle the abortion of female fetuses and infanticide.
(AFP, 2/18/07)
2007 Feb 18 In northern India 2
bombs exploded on a train headed from India to Pakistan, sparking a
fire that swept through two coaches and killed at least 68 people. Most
of the dead were Pakistani. Officials said the attack was aimed at
undermining the peace process between the rivals.
(AP, 2/19/07)(Econ, 2/24/07, p.47)
2007 Feb 18, Twin landslides hit
Indonesia's Java island, killing at least 12 people after they were
buried under mounds of earth.
(AP, 2/18/07)
2007 Feb 18, Israel and the US
agreed ahead of a three-way meeting with the Palestinians to shun any
new Palestinian government that does not renounce violence, recognize
Israel and accept existing peace agreements.
(AP, 2/18/07)
2007 Feb 18, Japanese researchers
said they had grown normal-looking teeth from single cells in lab
dishes, and transplanted them into mice.
(Reuters, 2/18/07)
2007 Feb 18, Officials said the
Mexican government will expand its anti-drug raids to two states across
the border from Texas, deploying more than 3,000 soldiers, sailors and
federal police.
(AP, 2/19/07)
2007 Feb 18, In Nigeria gunmen
seized three Croatian workers. The men were abducted in the region's
main city of Port Harcourt.
(AFP, 2/19/07)
2007 Feb 18, In the southern
Philippines an unidentified gunman fatally shot Hernani Pastolero (64),
the editor of a weekly newspaper in front of his home in the village of
Bulalo.
(AP, 2/19/07)
2007 Feb 18, In St. Petersburg,
Russia, an explosion hit a McDonald's restaurant in the city center,
injuring at least six people.
(AP, 2/18/07)
2007 Feb 18, In Thailand 29
bombings and 20 other attacks rocked the country's four southernmost
provinces. Most of the attacks took place in a span of 45 minutes.
(AP, 2/19/07)
2007 Feb 18, A bus and a truck
carrying goods collided head-on in Uganda, killing 7 people and
injuring 20. Police said 2,000 Ugandans die in road accidents on
average each year.
(AP, 2/19/07)
2007 Feb 18, Zimbabwe riot police
crushed an opposition rally amid government fears of a new street
campaign against President Robert Mugabe. Morgan Tsvangirai cancelled a
planned mass rally in Harare after police blocked supporters from
attending the gathering in defiance of a court order.
(AFP, 2/18/07)(Reuters, 2/19/07)
2008 Feb 18, President Bush handed
out hugs and bed nets in Tanzania's rural north, saying the US is part
of a new international effort to provide enough mosquito netting to
protect every child between one and five from contracting malaria in
this east African nation.
(AP, 2/18/08)
2008 Feb 18, President Bush hailed
Kosovo's bold and historic bid for statehood, saying "The Kosovars are
now independent."
(AP, 2/18/08)
2008 Feb 18, Platinum hit a record
high for the 13th successive day on lingering power supply shortages
which have disrupted mining in main producer South Africa.
(AP, 2/18/08)
2008 Feb 18, In Afghanistan a
suicide car bomber targeting a Canadian military convoy killed 37
civilians at a busy market in Spin Boldak in southern Kandahar
province. Afghan and NATO-led troops killed two regional Taliban
commanders in southern Afghanistan
(AP, 2/18/08)(AP, 2/21/08)
2008 Feb 18, The British
government introduced emergency legislation to temporarily nationalize
Northern Rock PLC. British PM Gordon Brown, detailing nationalization
plans, said the stricken mortgage lender will remain nationalized until
adverse market conditions change.
(AP, 2/18/08)
2008 Feb 18, In Colombia a
cashiered army lieutenant colonel and 14 soldiers were convicted of
murdering 10 elite counternarcotics police agents in an ambush that
showed how deeply drug corruption threatens Colombia's security forces.
(AP, 2/18/08)
2008 Feb 18, Egyptian security
sources said police have rounded up some 500 Palestinians in north
Sinai in the past four days and plan to deport them back into Gaza
shortly.
(AP, 2/18/08)
2008 Feb 18, Ethiopia’s
state-media reported that 309 police officers, suspected of links with
separatists rebels, have been arrested in the Ogaden region as part of
a government crackdown.
(AFP, 2/18/08)
2008 Feb 18, More than 1,000
police raided housing projects outside Paris, detaining over 30 people
in a bid to find rioters who led an outburst of violence last year.
(AP, 2/18/08)
2008 Feb 18, Alain Robbe-Grillet
(85), avant-garde French author, died. He dispensed with conventional
storytelling as a pioneer of the postwar "new novel" movement.
(AP, 2/18/08)
2008 Feb 18, At least 13 Maoist
rebels and six paramilitary soldiers were killed in renewed fighting in
eastern India, days after carefully coordinated rebel attacks killed 13
police and two civilians.
(AP, 2/18/08)
2008 Feb 18, In Goa, India, the
bruised body of Scarlette Keeling (15), a British citizen, was found on
a beach with her clothes partially removed. Some of her injuries
indicated sexual assault. In March 3 men were detained in connection
with her murder. On March 13 police confirmed murder charges against
local barman Samson D'Souza (29) and Placido Carvalho, an alleged drugs
dealer working the beaches of the former Portuguese colony.
(AP, 3/9/08)(AFP, 3/13/08)
2008 Feb 18, Italian police
captured Pasquale Condello (57), the top boss of a powerful organized
crime syndicate. The Condello crime clan was one of the most ferocious
'ndrangheta families and Condello had received several life prison
terms for four murders and other crimes.
(AP, 2/18/08)
2008 Feb 18, Kosovo's leaders sent
letters to 192 countries seeking formal recognition of independence,
and suspense gripped the province as its citizens awaited key backing
from the US and key European powers.
(AP, 2/18/08)
2008 Feb 18, Pakistanis voted for
a new parliament in elections shadowed by fears of violence and
questions about the political survival of President Pervez Musharraf.
(AP, 2/18/08)
2008 Feb 18, Callixte Nzabonimana
(55), Rwanda’s former youth and sport minister, was arrested in the
town of Kigoma, Tanzania. He faced trial for participating in the 1994
genocide. The trial of Nzabonimana, described by prosecutors as "the
Butcher of Gitarama," began at the International Criminal Tribunal for
Rwanda (ICTR) in Tanzania on Nov 9, 2009.
(Reuters, 2/19/08)(AFP, 11/9/09)
2008 Feb 18, Sri Lankan soldiers
captured a line of strategic rebel bunkers after a battle that killed
10 rebels and one soldier.
(AP, 2/18/08)
2009 Feb 18, President Barack
Obama unveiled the next step in his multi-pronged efforts to lift the
United States out of recession, pledging up to $275 billion to help
stem a wave of home foreclosures that sparked the US financial
meltdown. Obama advisors said he has settled on Kansas Gov. Kathleen
Sebelius as top choice for secretary of health and human services.
(Reuters, 2/18/09)(SFC, 2/19/09, p.A4)
2009 Feb 18, Fifty-one Democrats
and 2 Republicans, sent a letter to President Barack Obama urging him
to enforce a ban on importing assault weapons, saying many such guns
are later smuggled south to arm Mexico's ruthless drug cartels. The ban
was implemented under the administrations of Pres. George H.W. Bush and
Pres. Bill Clinton, and the US government can enforce it under
provisions of the 1968 Gun Control Act. But the US Bureau of Alcohol,
Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) has quietly abandoned the ban in
recent years.
(AP, 2/18/09)(AP, 2/24/09)
2009 Feb 18, A Florida jury
ordered Philip Morris to pay $8 million in damages to Elaine Hess, the
widow of a smoker who died of lung cancer.
(SFC, 2/19/09, p.A2)
2009 Feb 18, Al Qaeda's
Algeria-based branch (AQMI) claimed it is holding two missing Canadian
diplomats hostage and 4 tourists. UN envoy Robert Fowler and his aide
Louis Guay, went missing in the West African country of Niger last
month.
(SFC, 2/19/09,
p.A2)(www.thestar.com/printArticle/589398)
2009 Feb 18, In Antigua panicky
depositors were turned away from Stanford International Bank and some
of its Latin American affiliates, unable to withdraw their money after
US regulators accused Texas financier R. Allen Stanford of perpetrating
an $8 billion fraud against his companies' investors.
(AP, 2/19/09)
2009 Feb 18, A British judge
discharged the jury in the trial of a group of British Muslims accused
of plotting to blow up trans-Atlantic passenger jets in mid-air, citing
legal reasons. Britain’s high court ruled that Abu Qatada, an extremist
Muslim preacher, can be deported to Jordan despite fears he could
face torture there.
(AP, 2/18/09)(SFC, 2/19/09, p.A2)
2009 Feb 18, A Chinese state news
agency said AIDS was the top killer among infectious diseases in China
for the first time last year, with 6,897 people dying in the nine
months through September.
(AP, 2/18/09)
2009 Feb 18, In Ecuador US
diplomat Mark Sullivan was declared a “persona non grata” and told to
leave. Pres. Correa later said Sullivan had directed CIA operations in
Ecuador.
(SFC, 2/23/09, p.A2)
2009 Feb 18, A leading Egyptian
dissident, Ayman Nour (44), who was jailed after challenging the
country's longtime president in the 2005 elections, was unexpectedly
freed after years of pressure from the United States.
(AP, 2/18/09)
2009 Feb 18, Georgia and Russia
agreed to let monitors visit anywhere they want in Georgia and its 2
breakaway provinces.
(WSJ, 2/19/09, p.A1)
2009 Feb 18, Greek police
destroyed a powerful car bomb left outside the offices of Citibank in a
northern Athens suburb in an escalation of left-wing militant attacks.
(AP, 2/18/09)
2009 Feb 18, In Guadeloupe rioters
manning barricades fatally shot Jacques Bino, tax agent and union
member, in a housing project in Pointe-a-Pitre, as he returned home
from protests. This was the first death in unrest that has convulsed
France's Caribbean islands for weeks.
(AP, 2/18/09)
2009 Feb 18, Iran’s Deputy Defense
Minister Ahmad Vahidi said in published remarks that Iran has built an
unmanned surveillance aircraft with a range of more than 600 miles,
enough to reach Israel. Iran announced two years ago that it had built
an unmanned aircraft, but Vahidi's comments were the first by a top
official revealing its range.
(AP, 2/18/09)
2009 Feb 18, In Iraq a roadside
bomb targeting a police patrol in the northern city of Mosul killed one
policeman. In Baghdad gunmen killed a local official from the Sunni
Iraqi Islamic Party.
(AP, 2/18/09)
2009 Feb 18, Israel set a series
of tough conditions for accepting a proposed cease-fire with Hamas,
saying there would be no deal, and no open borders for Gaza, until the
Islamic militant group releases a captured Israeli soldier. Israeli
planes attacked smuggling tunnels around the Gaza-Egypt border and a
disused Hamas security base near the town of Khan Younis.
(AP, 2/18/09)
2009 Feb 18, Japanese PM Taro Aso
met Russian President Dmitry Medvedev on an island near disputed
resource-rich maritime territory, hoping to make progress toward
resolving a dispute lingering since World war II.
(AP, 2/18/09)
2009 Feb 18, In Morocco Abdelkader
Belliraj (50) was arrested together with a number of other people,
allegedly in possession of a large arsenal of firearms. The
Belgian-Moroccan national was suspected of spearheading a presumed
35-member terrorist ring.
(AFP, 4/3/09)
2009 Feb 18, In Nigeria gunmen in
a midnight raid attacked a compound housing ExxonMobil staff in the
Niger Delta but were repulsed after a fierce battle with Nigerian
troops.
(AFP, 2/18/09)
2009 Feb 18, In Pakistan a
pro-Taliban cleric vowed to restore calm to the troubled Swat valley,
leading thousands of men in a march for peace after securing a
controversial deal to enforce sharia law. Gunmen killed a television
reporter hours after he covered the peace march in the Swat Valley.
(AFP, 2/18/09)(AP, 2/18/09)
2009 Feb 18, Polish police said
they have detained 78 people, including a priest and a doctor,
suspected of possessing child pornography and spreading it on the
Internet.
(AP, 2/18/09)
2009 Feb 18, In Sri Lanka
government artillery attacks and air raids inside the northern war zone
killed at least 38 civilians and wounded 140 others.
(AP, 2/18/09)
2009 Feb 18, Sudanese forces
bombed rebel positions in Darfur, with the ink barely dry on a deal
between Khartoum and the strongest rebel group that was hailed as a
turning point in efforts to end the six-year conflict. The next day the
Sudanese army said that it was an allied armed group that fought Darfur
rebels the previous day, not government troops.
(AP, 2/18/09)(AFP, 2/19/09)
2009 Feb 18, Taiwan’s central bank
cut interest rates to a record low as a government statistician
predicted that its economy will shrink for five consecutive quarters.
(WSJ, 2/19/09, p.A1)
2009 Feb 18, Zimbabwe’s the new
finance minister announced that Zimbabwe has begun paying government
workers in US dollars and will allow more trade in foreign currency in
the first act by a unity government that gave the opposition control of
much of the devastated economy. A court ordered ministerial nominee Roy
Bennett to be kept in custody until March 4, on the grounds there was
"reasonable suspicion" against him in a terrorism case.
(AP, 2/18/09)
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