Today in History - February 20
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1194 Feb 20,
Tancredo of Lecce, King of Sicily, died.
(MC, 2/20/02)
1494 Feb 20, Johan Friis,
chancellor (Denmark, helped formed Lutheranism), was born.
(MC, 2/20/02)
1513 Feb 20, Pope Julius II died.
He was laid in rest in a huge tomb sculptured by Michelangelo.
(HN, 2/20/99)
1547 Feb 20, King Edward VI of
England was enthroned following the death of Henry VIII (Jan 28).
(MC, 2/20/02)
1626 Feb 20, John Dowland,
composer, died.
(MC, 2/20/02)
1632 Feb 20, Thomas Osborne, Duke
of Leeds, English PM (1690-94)/founder (Tories), was born.
(MC, 2/20/02)
1656 Feb 20, James Ussher (76),
Irish bible scholar, Anglican archbishop, died. [see Mar 21]
(MC, 2/20/02)
1667 Feb 20, David ben Samuel
Halevi, rabbi, author (Shulchan Aruch), died.
(MC, 2/20/02)
1673 Feb 20, The 1st recorded wine
auction was held in London.
(MC, 2/20/02)
1683 Feb 20, Philip V, first
Bourbon King of Spain, was born. [see Dec 19]
(HN, 2/20/01)
1725 Feb 20, New Hampshire
militiamen partook in the first recorded scalping of Indians by whites
in North America. 10 sleeping Indians were scalped by whites for scalp
bounty.
(HN, 2/20/99)(MC, 2/20/02)
1726 Feb 20, William
Prescott, U.S. Revolutionary War hero, was born.
(HN, 2/19/98)
1737 Feb 20, French minister of
Finance, Chauvelin, resigned.
(MC, 2/20/02)
1745 Feb 20, Johann Peter Salomon,
composer, was born.
(MC, 2/20/02)
1745 Feb 20, Bonnie Prince
Charlie's troops occupied Fort August, Scotland.
(MC, 2/20/02)
1746 Feb 20, Bonnie Prince Charlie
occupied the Castle of Inverness.
(MC, 2/20/02)
1755 Feb 20, General Edward
Braddock arrived from Great Britain to assume command of British forces
in America and to lead the Virginia troops against the French and
Indians in the Ohio Valley.
(PCh, 1992, p.303)
1790 Feb 20, Holy Roman Emperor
Joseph II (48) died.
(AP, 2/20/98)(MC, 2/20/02)
1791 Feb 20, Carl Czerny, pianist,
composer (Schule der Virtuosen), was born in Vienna, Austria.
(MC, 2/20/02)
1792 Feb 20, President Washington
signed an act creating the U.S. Post Office. [see Feb 20, 1789, May 8,
1794]
(HN, 2/20/98)(AP, 2/20/98)
1798 Feb 20, Pope Pius VI fled
Rome to Siena following an invasion of French forces. He was later
arrested and deported 1st to Florence and then to France.
(www.zum.de/whkmla/region/italy/papalstate17891799.html)(WSJ, 4/14/06,
p.W5)
1808 Feb 20, Honoré Daumier
(d.1879), French painter, sculptor, caricaturist and lithographer, was
born in Marseilles. He painted Crispin and Scapin.
(AAP, 1964)(WUD, 1994, p.369)(WSJ, 3/10/00,
p.W16)(HN, 2/20/01)
1809 Feb 20, The Supreme Court
ruled the power of the federal government is greater than that of any
individual state.
(AP, 2/19/98)
1810 Feb 20, Andreas Hofer (42),
military leader (fought Napoleon's France), was executed.
(MC, 2/20/02)
1831 Feb 20, Polish
revolutionaries defeated the Russians in the Battle of Growchow.
(HN, 2/19/98)
1832 Feb 20, Charles Darwin
visited Fernando Noronha in Atlantic Ocean.
(MC, 2/20/02)
1835 Feb 20, Concepcion, Chile,
was destroyed by earthquake and some 5,000 died.
(MC, 2/20/02)
1838 Feb 20, Ludwig Boltzmann,
atomic physics engineer, was born.
(HN, 2/19/98)
1839 Feb 20, Congress prohibited
dueling in the District of Columbia.
(AP, 2/19/98)
1861 Feb 20, The Confederacy Dept.
of Navy formed.
(MC, 2/20/02)
1861 Feb 20, Steeple of Chichester
Cathedral was blown down during a storm.
(MC, 2/20/02)
1862 Feb 20, Willie Lincoln
(b.1850), son of Pres. Lincoln, died in Washington DC. Typhoid fever
was the suspected cause.
(SSFC, 3/20/05, Par
p.4)(www.nps.gov/liho/lincoln.htm)
1864 Feb 20, Confederate troops
defeated a Union army sent to bring Florida into the union at the
Battle of Olustee, Fla.
(HN, 2/20/99)
1865 Feb 20, MIT was formed as the
1st US collegiate architectural school.
(MC, 2/20/02)
1869 Feb 20, Tenn. Gov. W.C.
Brownlow declared martial law in Ku Klux Klan crisis.
(MC, 2/20/02)
1872 Feb 20, Metropolitan Museum
of Art, incorporated in 1870, opened in NYC.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metropolitan_Museum_of_Art)
1872 Feb 20, A hydraulic electric
elevator was patented by Cyrus Baldwin.
(MC, 2/20/02)
1872 Feb 20, Luther Crowell
patented a machine for manufacturing paper bags.
(MC, 2/20/02)
1872 Feb 20, Silas Noble and JP
Cooley patented a toothpick manufacturing machine.
(MC, 2/20/02)
1874 Feb 20, Mary Garden, opera
star, was born in Aberdeen, Scotland.
(MC, 2/20/02)
1877 Feb 20, The 1st cantilever
bridge in US was completed at Harrodsburg, Kentucky.
(MC, 2/20/02)
1888 Feb 20, Marie Rambert, ballet
dancer and director, was born.
(HN, 2/20/01)
1893 Feb 20, Russel Crouse,
journalist, novelist, playwright (Life with Father), was born.
(MC, 2/20/02)
1894 Feb 20, Curt Richter,
biologist, was born.
(HN, 2/20/01)
1895 Feb 20, Frederick Douglass
(77), Abolitionist and escaped slave, died in Washington, D.C. In 1881
Douglass authored “The Life and Times of Frederick Douglass.”
(AP, 2/19/98)(MC, 2/20/02)(ON, 7/02, p.8)
1898 Feb 20, Jimmy Yancey,
American blues pianist, was born.
(HN, 2/20/01)
1899 Feb 20, Illinois Tel &
Tel was granted a franchise for a Chicago freight tunnel system.
(MC, 2/20/02)
1900 Feb 20, J.F. Pickering
patented his airship.
(HN, 2/20/99)
1901 Feb 20, Rene Dubos, French-US
microbiologist who developed the first commercial antibiotic, was born
in France. He authored “Health & Disease.”
(HN, 2/20/01)(MC, 2/20/02)
1901 Feb 20, Louis I. Kahn,
architect, was born.
(HN, 2/20/01)
1902 Feb 20, Ansel Adams, American
photographer, was born in San Francisco. He was an American landscape
photographer, especially of western wilderness and mountain panoramas.
In 1996 Mary Street Alinder released her biography “Ansel Adams.”
Jonathon Spaulding released his “Ansel Adams and the American
Landscape.”
(SFEC, 9/15/96, BR p.4)(HN, 2/20/99)
1903 Feb 20, Pope Leo XIII
celebrated 25 years as the Pope.
(HN, 2/19/98)
1904 Feb 20, Alexei Kosygin
(Aleksey Nikolayevich Kosygin), Soviet Premier (1964-1980), was born.
(HN, 2/19/01)
1906 Feb 20, Russian troops seized
large portions of Mongolia.
(HN, 2/19/98)
1907 Feb 20, Pres. Theodore
Roosevelt signed an immigration act which excluded "idiots, imbeciles,
feebleminded persons, epileptics, insane persons" from being admitted
to the US.
(AP, 2/20/07)
1909 Feb 20, F.T. Marinetti
(1876-1944), Italian poet, published the 1st Futurist Manifesto in the
Paris newspaper Le Figaro. It included the statement: “We want to
glorify war - the only cure for the world…”
(SFEC, 1/3/99, DB p.27)(WSJ, 10/23/08,
p.A15)(www.unknown.nu/futurism/)
1910 Feb 20, Julian Trevelyan,
English Surrealist painter, collage maker, was born.
(MC, 2/20/02)
1915 Feb 20, President Wilson
opened the Panama-Pacific Expo in San Francisco to celebrate the
opening of the Panama Canal. The Panama-Pacific Int’l. Exhibition was
held on what became the Marina and 300,000 people attended opening day.
60,000 pavilions with exhibits from 41 nations, 43 states and 3 US
territories were featured. Herb Caen claimed to have been conceived in
this year during the expo. A 40-ton organ with 7,000 pipes played the
“Hallelujah Chorus.” It was made by the Austin Organs Co. of Hartford,
Conn. After the fair it was moved to the Civic Auditorium and used for
7 decades until the 1989 earthquake damaged it.
(SFC, 6/14/96, p.A1)(HN, 2/20/98)(SFC, 4/27/98,
p.A20)(SFEC, 12/26/99, p.W4)
1917 Feb 20, Kern, Bolton &
Wodehouse's musical "Oh, Boy!," premiered in NYC.
(MC, 2/20/02)
1917 Feb 20, Ammunitions ship
exploded in Archangel harbor and about 1,500 died.
(MC, 2/20/02)
1918 Feb 20, The Soviet Red Army
seized Kiev, the capital of the Ukraine.
(HN, 2/19/98)
1920 Feb 20, Robert E. Peary (63),
US pole explorer (North Pole, 6/4/1909), died.
(MC, 2/20/02)
1921 Feb 20, Riza Khan Pahlevi
seized control of Iran. Pahlevi marched into Tehran with 2,500 soldiers
and took over the government. Britain helped topple the Qajar dynasty
and replaced it with Reza Shah Pahlavi, a former military officer. Five
years later he was crowned Shah and placed the crown upon his head with
his own hands, as did Napoleon.
(NG, Sept. 1939, p.330)(WSJ, 4/2/07, p.A6)
1922 Feb 20, Vilnius, Lithuania,
agreed to separate from Poland.
(MC, 2/20/02)
1924 Feb 20, Gloria Vanderbilt,
fashion designer, was born. In 2004 she published her memoir “It Seemed
Important At the Time.”
(HN, 2/20/98)(WSJ, 10/1/04, p.W7)
1925 Feb 20, Robert Altman, film
director (Nashville, The Player, M*A*S*H), was born.
(HN, 2/20/01)
1927 Feb 20, Sidney Poitier,
American actor, was born. He became the first African American to win
an Oscar for his role in "Lilies in the Field."
(HN, 2/20/99)
1927 Feb 20, Roy Cohn, lawyer,
"grand inquisitor" (for Sen Joseph McCarthy), was born.
(MC, 2/20/02)
1927 Feb 20, Golfers in SC were
arrested for violating Sabbath.
(MC, 2/20/02)
1931 Feb 20, Congress allowed
California to build the Oakland Bay Bridge.
(MC, 2/20/02)
1932 Feb 20, Japanese troops
occupied Tunhua, China.
(MC, 2/20/02)
1933 Feb 20, The House of
Representatives completed congressional action on an amendment to
repeal Prohibition. [see Apr 7]
(AP, 2/20/98)
1934 Feb 20, The opera “Four
Saints in Three Acts” by Gertrude Stein and Virgil Thomson premiered
and became the longest running opera in Broadway history. It was
centered on St. Teresa of Avila and St. Ignatius and ran to 4 acts that
included 30 saints. It has been called “a surrealist American folk
opera.” In 1997 Anthony Tommasini wrote Virgil’s biography: “Virgil
Thompson: Composer on the Aisle.” In 1999 Steven Watson authored
"Prepare for Saints: Gertrude Stein, Virgil Thomson, and the
Mainstreaming of American Modernism.
(WSJ, 2/1/96, p.A-16)(WSJ, 7/16/96, p.A9)(BS,
5/3/98, p.13E)(WSJ, 3/10/99, p.A20)(SFEC, 3/28/99, BR p.2)(MC, 2/20/02)
1934 Feb 20, In San Francisco a
fire destroyed the recently opened Anchor Brewing Co. at 1610 Harrison
St. The plant specialized in steam beer for which SF was once
famous.
(SSFC, 2/15/09, DB p.50)
1936 Feb 20, Switzerland bared all
Nazis from entering the country.
(HN, 2/19/98)
1938 Feb 20, Anthony Eden
(1897-1977) resigned as British foreign secretary in a dispute with PM
Neville Chamberlain. He said Chamberlain was appeasing Germany.
(www.bartleby.com/67/1852.html)
1938 Feb 20, Hitler demanded
self-determination for Germans in Austria and Czechoslovakia. As
Hitler's quest for Lebensraum ("living space") expanded into
Czechoslovakia, thousands of Czechoslovakian soldiers and airmen
escaped to participate in the liberation of their country.
(HN, 2/19/98)
1940 Feb 20, Christoph Eschenbach,
pianist, conductor, was born in Breslau, Germany.
(MC, 2/20/02)
1941 Feb 20, The U.S. sent war
planes to the Pacific. General George C. Kenney pioneered aerial
warfare strategy and tactics in the Pacific theater.
(HN, 2/19/98)
1941 Feb 20, The 1st transport of
Jews to concentration camps left Plotsk, Poland.
(MC, 2/20/02)
1941 Feb 20, Nazis ordered Polish
Jews barred from using public transportation.
(MC, 2/20/02)
1942 Feb 20, Franklin D. Roosevelt
authorized the internment of Japanese Americans on the West Coast. [see
Feb 19]
(HN, 2/19/98)
1942 Feb 20, Lt. Edward O’Hare
downed five out of nine Japanese bombers that were attacking the
carrier Lexington, which earned him the Congressional Medal of Honor.
(HN, 2/19/98)
1943 Feb 20, German troops of the
Afrika Korps broke through the Kasserine Pass, defeating U.S. forces.
(HN, 2/20/99)
1944 Feb 20, The Batman &
Robin comic strip premiered in newspapers.
(MC, 2/20/02)
1944 Feb 20, US took Eniwetok
Island.
(MC, 2/20/02)
1944 Feb 20, During World War II,
U.S. bombers began raiding German aircraft manufacturing centers in a
series of attacks that became known as "Big Week."
(AP, 2/19/98)
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)
1947 Feb 20, A chemical mixing
error caused an explosion that destroyed 42 blocks in LA.
(MC, 2/20/02)
1947 Feb 20, Lord Louis
Mountbatten was appointed the last viceroy of India.
(MC, 2/20/02)
1947 Feb 20, The British pledged
to leave India by June 1948.
(HN, 2/19/98)
1948 Feb 20, Czechoslovakia's
non-communist minister resigned.
(MC, 2/20/02)
1950 Feb 20, Welsh author-poet
Dylan Thomas arrived in NYC for his 1st US poetry reading tour.
(www.swansea.gov.uk/index.cfm?articleid=2488&articleaction=print)
1952 Feb 20, "African Queen"
opened at Capitol Theater in NYC.
(MC, 2/20/02)
1953 Feb 20, Riccardo Chailly,
conductor (West Berlin Symph Orch), was born in Milan, Italy.
(MC, 2/20/02)
1953 Feb 20, US Court of Appeals
ruled that Organized Baseball is a sport & not a business,
affirming the 25-year-old Supreme Court ruling.
(MC, 2/20/02)
1954 Feb 20, Patty Hearst, famous
kidnap hostage (Tanya), was born in SF.
(MC, 2/20/02)
1954 Feb 20, The Ford Foundation
gave a $25 million grant to the Fund for Advancement of Education.
(HN, 2/19/98)
1955 Feb 20, Kelsey Grammer, actor
(Fraiser), was born in the Virgin Islands.
(MC, 2/20/02)
1958 Feb 20, The Broadway play
“The Day the Money Stopped” opened at the Belasco Theater. It featured
the debut of actress Collin Wilcox-Paxton (d.2009 at 74).
(SFC, 10/23/09, p.D5)
1959 Feb 20, Joel Rifkind, NY
serial killer, was born.
(MC, 2/20/02)
1959 Feb 20, The FCC applied the
equal time rule to TV newscasts of political candidates.
(HN, 2/19/98)
1961 Feb 20, Percy Aldridge
Grainger (78), Australian-US composer, pianist, died.
(MC, 2/20/02)
1962 Feb 20, U.S. Marine
Lieutenant Colonel John H. Glenn, Jr., became the first American to
orbit the earth. Launched from Cape Canaveral, Fla., Glenn made three
90-minute orbits of the earth in Friendship 7, radioing down to Earth,
"Oh, that view is tremendous!" The mission also provided important
information about what it was like for an astronaut to be weightless
for a long period of time. When the ship's automatic altitude control
system began to fail, Glenn, a decorated World War II pilot, took
manual control for the rest of the flight. During Friendship 7's
approach to Earth, Glenn saw some flaming material breaking off the
capsule, but the parachute opened and the capsule landed safely in the
Atlantic Ocean. It was some time later that NASA mission control
determined that the sparks were crystallized water vapor released by
Friendship 7's air-conditioning system. Friendship 7's flight lasted
four hours and 56 minutes.
(AP, 2/19/98)(HNPD, 2/20/99)(MC, 2/20/02)
1963 Feb 20, Rolf Hochhuth's "Der
Stellvertreter" (The Representative) premiered in Berlin. The Catholic
Church was outraged at portrayal of Pius XII as war criminal. An
English translation by Richard and Clara Winston of the complete text
was published as “The Deputy: A Play,” by Grove Press in 1964.
(SS,
3/23/02)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Deputy)(Econ, 10/25/08, p.73)
1963 Feb 20, Moscow offered to
allow on-site inspection of nuclear testing.
(HN, 2/19/98)
1965 Feb 20, The Ranger 8
spacecraft crashed on the moon after sending back 7,000 photos of the
lunar surface.
(HN, 2/19/98)(AP, 2/19/98)
1966 Feb 20, Chester W. Nimitz
(80), US admiral (WW II), died at home on Yerba Buena Island (Treasure
Island) in SF Bay.
(MC, 2/20/02)(Ind, 11/9/02, 5A)
1967 Feb 20, Kurt Cobain, Nirvana
grunge band musician, was born in Aberdeen, Washington. He was found
dead at his Lake Washington home on April 8, 1994, of suicide committed
about April 5.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kurt_Cobain)
1967 Feb 20, Elvis Presley
released his album "How Great Thou Art." The song “How Great Thou Art”
is a Christian hymn based on a Swedish poem written by Carl Gustav
Boberg (1859-1940) in Sweden in 1885.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/How_Great_Thou_Art_(album))
1968 Feb 20, A North Vietnamese
army chief in Hue ordered all looters to be shot on sight.
(HN, 2/20/99)
1969 Feb 20, Ernest Ansermet
(b.1883), Swiss conductor and composer, died.
(www.bach-cantatas.com/Bio/Ansermet-Ernest.htm)
1970 Feb 20, Cheyenne Brando
(d.1995), daughter of Marlon, was born in Papeete, Tahiti.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cheyenne_Brando)
1971 Feb 20, The National
Emergency Warning Center in Colorado erroneously ordered radio and TV
stations across the US to go off the air; some stations heeded the
alert, which was not lifted for about 40 minutes.
(AP, 2/20/01)
1971 Feb 20, Young people
protested having to cut their long hair in Athens, Greece.
(HN, 2/19/98)
1972 Feb 20, Walter Winchell
(b.1897),newspaper and radio commentator, died.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walter_Winchell)
1972 Feb 20, El Salvador held
presidential elections. The blatancy of fraud employed to maintain the
PCN in power outraged and disillusioned many Salvadorans, including
members of the armed forces. Leftists protested the election fraud.
(http://countrystudies.us/el-salvador/11.htm)(WSJ,
1/10/05, p.A10)
1976 Feb 20, Kathryn Kuhlman
(b.1907), American religious leader and faith healer, died in Tulsa,
Oklahoma.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kathryn_Kuhlman)
1978 Feb 20, The cover of Time
magazine was titled “The Computer Society” and featured a graphic of
human bodies with heads of electronic gizmos.
(www.time.com/time/covers/0,16641,19780220,00.html)
1980 Feb 20, Alice Longworth
Roosevelt (b.1884), youngest daughter of Pres. Theodore Roosevelt, died.
(www.theodore-roosevelt.com/alice.html)
1981 Feb 20, Space shuttle
Columbia cleared the final major hurdle to its maiden launch by firing
fired its three engines in a 20-second test.
(AP, 2/20/00)
1982 Feb 20, Carnegie Hall in New
York began $20 million renovations.
(HN, 2/19/98)
1985 Feb 20, Clarence Nash (80),
voice of Donald Duck, died of leukemia, in Calif.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clarence_Nash)
1987 Feb 20, The Unabomber placed
a bomb in a parking lot behind CAAMS computer store in Salt Lake City.
CAAMS vice president, Gary Wright was seriously injured.
(WP, 6/29/96, p.A3)(AP, 2/19/98)
1987 Feb 20, Soviet authorities
released Jewish activist Josef Begun.
(AP, 2/19/98)
1988 Feb 20, U.S. figure skater
Brian Boitano won the gold medal in the men's competition at the Winter
Olympic Games in Calgary, Canada, with Brian Orser of Canada placing
second.
(AP, 2/19/98)
1988 Feb 20, Peter Kalikow
purchased the NY Post from Rupert Murdoch for $37.6 million.
(http://tinyurl.com/qjxa2)
1989 Feb 20, US agents and NYC
police arrested 12 people and confiscated 100 lbs heroin at 3 homes in
Queens.
(http://tinyurl.com/h637t)
1989 Feb 20, Members of the
European Economic Community decided to withdraw their top diplomats
from Iran to protest Ayatollah Khomeini's order for Muslims to kill
author Salman Rushdie.
(AP, 2/20/99)
1990 Feb 20, President Bush
welcomed Czechoslovak President Vaclav Havel to the White House,
promising trade rewards for Prague's moves toward democracy.
(AP, 2/20/00)
1991 Feb 20, Quincy Jones’ “Back
on the Block” was named album of the year at the 33rd Annual Grammy
Awards.
(AP, 2/20/01)
1991 Feb 20, In the Persian Gulf
War, Baghdad radio said President Saddam Hussein would be sending
Foreign Minister Tariq Aziz back to Moscow with a reply to a Soviet
peace plan.
(AP, 2/20/01)
1992 Feb 20, Texas billionaire
Ross Perot told CNN's “Larry King Live” he would run for president if
his name were placed on the ballot in all 50 states.
(AP, 2/20/02)
1992 Feb 20, Dick York (b.1928),
actor (Bewitched), died of emphysema.
(www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=3135)
1993 Feb 20, Police in Liverpool,
England, charged two 10-year-old boys with the abduction and slaying of
toddler James Bulger, a crime that shocked the country and terrified
parents. Jon Venables and Robert Thompson were later convicted.
(AP, 2/19/98)
1993 Feb 20, Ferrucio Lamborghini
(76), Italian auto-designer (Lamborghini, Miura), died.
(www.conceptcarz.com/view/makeHistory/88,8843/makeHistory.aspx)
1994 Feb 20, Pope John Paul II
demanded juristic discrimination of homosexuals.
(www.fordham.edu/halsall/pwh/lgbcathbib11.html)
1994 Feb 20, Three armed Afghans
seized a school bus in Islamabad with some 70 passengers including
Pakistani children.
(http://lists.asu.edu/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind9402c&L=pakistan&T=0&F=&S=&P=452)
1994 Feb 20, Bosnian Serbs, faced
with the threat of air strikes, pulled back most of their heavy guns
from around Sarajevo as a NATO deadline approached.
(AP, 2/20/99)
1995 Feb 20, An American Marine,
Sgt. Justin A. Harris, died in a helicopter crash during the evacuation
of United Nations forces from Somalia.
(AP, 2/20/00)
1996 Feb 20, Republican Pat
Buchanon won the New Hampshire primary over Bob Dole, Lamar Alexander
and Steve Forbes 30.8 to 29.7 to 25.6 to 13.8%.
(AP, 2/20/01)(SSFC, 1/25/04, p.A19)
1996 Feb 20, Gangsta rapper Snoop
Doggy Dogg and his former bodyguard were acquitted of murder in the
1993 shooting death of an alleged gang member.
(AP, 2/20/01)
1996 Feb 20, Kweisi Mfume began
his job as President and CEO of the NAACP.
(SFEC, 1/5/97, Z1 p.3)
1996 Feb 20, Senior Iraqi defector
Al-Majid returned home after spending 6 months in Jordan. He was soon
arrested and executed by government troops.
(WSJ, 2/21/96, p.A-1)(SFC, 9/4/96, p.A8)(SFEC,
3/7/99, p.A18)
1997 Feb 20, The National
Transportation Safety Board called for a speedup in the redesign of the
rudder controls on Boeing 737s, citing potential problems in a pair of
deadly crashes.
(AP, 2/19/98)
1998 Feb 20, The book “The Dream
Palace of the Arabs” by Fouad Ajami (b.1945 in Lebanon) describes the
emergence and collapse of the Arab enlightenment following WW I.
(WSJ, 2/20/98, p.A16)1
1998 Feb 20, UN Ambassador Bill
Richardson was shouted down by protestors against the invasion of Iraq
at the Univ. of Minnesota. He abandoned his speech.
(SFC, 2/21/98, p.A8)
1998 Feb 20, The UN Security
Council voted to more than double the amount of oil Iraq may sell to
buy food and medicine. The increase was from $2 bil to $5.256 bil,
although Iraq has said it was only capable of producing $4 billion
worth of oil over six months. With the US military poised to attack
Iraq, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan began a final campaign to end the
crisis over weapons inspections without bloodshed.
(SFC, 2/21/98, p.A8)(AP, 2/21/08)
1998 Feb 20, In New York an FBI
sting led to the arrest of 2 Chinese conspiring to arrange transplants
of organs taken from the bodies of executed Chinese inmates.
(SFC, 2/24/98, p.A3)
1998 Feb 20, In Columbia Army
Major Eduardo Santos Vergara and 3 local police commanders were
arrested for allegedly collaborating with paramilitary death squads in
the north. They were accused of being responsible for the Nov. murder
of Carlos Arturo Quiroz in San Jacinto.
(SFC, 2/21/98, p.A9)
1998 Feb 20, In the Congo troops
of Pres. Kabila were sent to quell a rebellion by Mai-Mai tribal
warriors. A human rights group, Azadho, later charged the troops in a
massacre of over 300 civilians in Butembo.
(SFC, 3/7/98, p.A10)
1998 Feb 20, Tens of thousands of
Croats protested in Zagreb against high unemployment and falling living
standards.
(SFC, 2/21/98, p.A10)
1998 Feb 20, In Israel hundreds
of Israeli Arabs protested the threatened US strike against Iraq.
(SFC, 2/21/98, p.A8)
1998 Feb 20, Tara Lipinski of the
U.S. won the ladies' figure skating title at Nagano, becoming at age 15
the youngest gold medalist in Winter Olympics history; Michelle Kwan
won the silver.
(AP, 2/20/99)
1998 Feb 20, In Jordan a pro-Iraq
march turned violent and one person was killed.
(SFC, 2/21/98, p.A8)
1998 Feb 20, In Northern Ireland
Sinn Fein was suspended from peace talks for 17 days on condition that
it not engage in violence.
(SFC, 2/21/98, p.A8)
1998 Feb 20, In Northern Ireland a
500-pound bomb in Moira left 11 people injured and wrecked a police
station. It was blamed on the Continuity Army Council, an IRA splinter
group.
(SFEC, 2/22/98, p.A21)
1998 Feb 20, In New Zealand a 4th
power cable failed in Auckland and the city was left without power.
Full service was not expected until Mar 9.
(SFC, 2/26/98, p.A7)
1998 Feb 20, In Sierra Leone
former pres. Joseph Momoh was caught while trying to escape the capital
under disguise as a woman. He was alleged to be a close advisor to the
junta that ousted Pres. Kabbah.
(SFC, 2/21/98, p.A9)
1999 Feb 20, The United States and
five other nations agreed to extend by three days the deadline for a
Kosovo peace agreement. NATO had threatened airstrikes against the
Serbs if they did not reach an agreement with Albanian insurgents.
(AP, 2/20/00)
1999 Feb 20, Gene Siskel (53),
movie critic, died in Evanston, Ill., of complications from brain
surgery.
{film, usa}
(SFEC, 2/20/99, p.D8)(SFC, 7/16/03, p.A19)(AP,
2/20/00)
1999 Feb 20, In France the peace
talks between Serbs and ethnic Albanians of Kosovo were extended for 2
days.
(SFEC, 2/20/99, p.A1)
1999 Feb 20, Prime Minister Atal
Behari Vajpayee of India rode to Pakistan by bus to meet with Prime
Minister Nawaz Sharif for 2 days of talks.
(SFEC, 2/20/99, p.A17)
1999 Feb 20, In Nigeria National
Assembly elections were scheduled. 469 seats in a bicameral legislature
were vied for by 3 parties. 360 members were for the House of
Representatives and 109 were for senators.
(WSJ, 2/19/99, p.A1)(SFEC, 2/20/99, p.A20)
2000 Feb 20, The Fox TV network
canceled the scheduled rebroadcast of its highly rated special “Who
Wants to Marry a Multimillionaire?” after learning that the groom, Rick
Rockwell, once was accused of hitting and threatening to kill an
ex-girlfriend, accusations Rockwell denied.
(AP, 2/20/01)
2000 Feb 20, In Mitrovica, Kosovo,
angry Serbs pelted US troops in the northern district during a citywide
search for weapons.
(SFC, 2/21/00, p.A10)
2000 Feb 20, In the Philippines
2nd round talks between the government and Moro Islamic Liberation
Front (MILF) separatists were cancelled. Government troops had earlier
begun a major offensive and captured a section of Camp Omar in
Maguindanao. Sporadic clashes ensued and dozens of people were killed.
(SFC, 2/21/00, p.A14)
2000 Feb 20, In Senegal guerrillas
ambushed 2 tour buses and killed 2 soldiers and 2 tour guides and
injured about 20 European tourists at Kaliane village near Ziguinchor
in the Casamance region.
(SFC, 2/22/00, p.A10)
2000 Feb 20, In Turkey 3 Kurdish
mayors, the leaders of over 35 Kurdish mayors, were arrested on charges
that they maintained contacts with terrorists.
(SFC, 2/21/00, p.A10)
2001 Feb 20, The government
announced the arrest two days earlier of veteran FBI agent Robert
Philip Hanssen, accused of spying for Russia for more than 15 years.
(AP, 2/20/02)
2001 Feb 20, Space Shuttle
Atlantis landed at Edwards air Force Base following a 13-day mission to
the Int’l. Space Station. Three straight days of bad weather prevented
the ship from returning to its Florida home port.
(SFC, 2/21/01, p.A5)(AP, 2/20/02)
2001 Feb 20, In Israel Prime
Minister Ehud Barak withdrew from a proposed position as Defense
Minister under Ariel Sharon.
(SFC, 2/21/01, p.A1)
2001 Feb 20, Hassan Turabi,
Sudan’s top Islamic theologian and former parliamentary speaker, called
for the Sudanese to rise against the government of Omar el-Bashir. He
was arrested the next day.
(SFC, 2/23/01, p.A20)
2002 Feb 20, President Bush, on
the final leg of his Asian trip, arrived in China, where he urged
President Jiang Zemin to respect religious freedoms.
(AP, 2/20/07)
2002 Feb 20, At the Salt Lake City
Winter Olympics, Jim Shea won the men's skeleton race, finishing the
two runs at Utah Olympic Park in one minute, 41.96 seconds. The victory
was the culmination of an emotional two months for Shea, whose
91-year-old grandfather, Olympic gold medal speedskater Jack Shea, died
four weeks earlier. American speedskater Apolo Anton Ohno won the 1,500
meters after South Korean Kim Dong-sung, who had crossed the finish
line ahead of him, was disqualified.
(SFC, 2/21/02, p.A1)(AP, 2/20/07)
2002 Feb 20, The Pentagon said its
new Office of Strategic Influence would not spread falsehoods in the
media to advance US war goals. The office was closed down Feb 26.
(WSJ, 2/21/02, p.A1)(SFC, 2/27/02, p.A9)
2002 Feb 20, In Colombia Pres.
Pastrana ended peace talks with the FARC and ordered his military to
retake the southern rebel haven.
(SFC, 2/21/02, p.A10)
2002 Feb 20, The Israeli Supreme
Court ruled that the state must recognized as Jews people converted by
Reform and Conservative rabbis in Israel.
(SFC, 2/21/02, p.A15)
2002 Feb 20, Israeli forces fired
on Palestinian police compounds and killed 12 security officials
including 4 guards at Gaza police compounds and 6 policemen in Nablus.
(SFC, 2/20/02, p.A8)
2002 Feb 20, In Nepal 12 Maoist
guerrillas were killed in fighting at Kalikot and other locations.
(SFC, 2/21/02, p.A13)
2002 Feb 20, In Sudan a government
helicopter gunship attacked civilians waiting for food at a UN site and
at least 17 people were killed. The US suspended peace efforts
following the attack.
(SFC, 2/22/02, p.A13)
2003 Feb 20, Pentagon
officials said they will send over 1,700 US troops to the Philippines
over the next few weeks to fight Muslim extremists.
(SFC, 2/21/03, A1)
2003 Feb 20, Sami Al-Arian, a
University of South Florida engineering professor, and seven other men
were charged with financing a Palestinian terrorist group. Four of the
men face trial; the other four have yet to be arrested. In 2005 a
Florida jury cleared Al-Arian and 3 co-defendants of terror charges.
(AP, 2/20/04)(SFC, 12/6/05, p.A5)
2003 Feb 20, Former Air Force
Master Sgt. Brian Patrick Regan was convicted in Alexandria, Va., of
offering to sell U.S. intelligence to Iraq and China but acquitted of
attempted spying for Libya. Regan was later sentenced to life without
parole.
(AP, 2/20/04)
2003 Feb 20, A 17-year-old Mexican
girl mistakenly given a heart and lungs with the wrong blood type
received a second set of organs at Duke University Medical Center in
North Carolina; however, Jesica Santillan suffered brain damage and
died Feb 22.
(AP, 2/20/04)
2003 Feb 20, The Station, a
Warwick, Rhode Island, nightclub erupted in a raging fire during a
pyrotechnics display at a rock concert, 98 people were killed and 200
others injured. Flammable soundproofing was later blamed. In Feb, 2006,
Dan Biechele, manager of the band, pleaded guilty to 100 counts of
manslaughter in exchange for up to 10 years in prison. He was sentenced
to 4 years in prison. In 2008 Anheuser-Busch and a Rhode Island beer
distributor agreed to pay $21 million to settle lawsuits brought by
survivors of the fire.
(SFC, 2/22/03, A1)(WSJ, 3/3/03, p.A1)(SFC, 2/1/06,
p.A3)(SFC, 5/11/06, p.A7)(SFC, 5/24/08, p.A3)
2003 Feb 20, Orville L.
Freeman (1919-2003) former governor of Minnesota (1955-1960) and US
agriculture secretary under Pres. Kennedy and Johnson, died at age 84.
(SFC, 2/22/03, A16)
2003 Feb 20, Maurice
Blanchot (95), French postmodern novelist, died. His novels included
"Thomas the Obscure" (1973).
(SFC, 3/3/03, p.B6)
2003 Feb 20, Israeli
soldiers killed a Palestinian and carried out house-to-house searches
in the West Bank and divided the Gaza Strip into three parts,
restricting the movement of more than 1 million Palestinians.
(AP, 2/20/03)
2003 Feb 20, In
Indian-controlled Kashmir explosives hidden in snow near a town market
of Baramula killed six civilians.
(AP, 2/20/03)
2003 Feb 20, In Pakistan a
military plane crashed into a mountainside in a remote northwestern
region, killing all 17 people on board, including the chief of the air
force, Mushaf Ali Mir (57).
(AP, 2/20/03)
2003 Feb 20, Peru replaced
harsh anti-terrorism laws put in place by former Pres. Alberto
Fujimori, and will review the sentences of at least 1,800 people.
(AP, 2/21/03)
2003 Feb 20, In Saudi
Arabia a British defense worker was killed by Saud bin Ali bin Nasser,
a Saudi citizen.
(SFC, 2/21/03, A1)
2003 Feb 20, In Spain
police shut down the daily Egunkaria, a Basque-language newspaper, and
arrested its editor-in-chief and 10 other executives on suspicion of
aiding the armed separatist group ETA.
(AP, 2/20/03)
2004 Feb 20, Pres. Bush bypassed
the Senate and seated William H. Pryor Jr., Alabama attorney and
abortion opponent, as an appeals court judge through 2005.
(SFC, 2/21/04, p.A1)
2004 Feb 20, Gov. Arnold
Schwarzenegger directed the California state attorney general to take
immediate legal steps to stop SF from granting marriage licenses to gay
couples.
(AP, 2/21/04)(SFC, 2/21/04, p.A1)
2004 Feb 20, In Virginia 1 person
won at least $230 million in the Mega Millions lottery, becoming the
biggest winner in the game's history.
(AP, 2/21/04)
2004 Feb 20, In Texas a strain of
avian flu was reported in Gonzales County. Further checks revealed that
it was highly pathogenic, but posed little risk to humans.
(SFC, 2/24/04, p.A3)
2004 Feb 20, The US and a
host of other countries urged Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide
and opposition leaders to form a broad-based government as a move
toward ending weeks of bloody conflict. Haiti's poorly trained and
equipped police put up little resistance as rebels moved against the
government.
(AP, 2/20/04)
2004 Feb 20, In Iran Islamic
hard-liners and reformers dueled during parliamentary elections.
(AP, 2/20/04)
2004 Feb 20, Lithuania expelled
three Russian diplomats for trying to gather information related to the
impeachment of Lithuanian President Rolandas Paksas "in an improper and
illegal way."
(AP, 2/27/04)
2005 Feb 20, In Florida Jeff
Gordon won his third Daytona 500. Gordon was born in Vallejo,
California, and raised in Pittsboro, Indiana.
(AP,
2/20/06)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeff_Gordon)
2005 Feb 20, Allen Iverson was
selected MVP of the NBA All-Star game, helping the Eastern Conference
to a 125-115 victory.
(AP, 2/20/06)
2005 Feb 20, President Bush landed
in Belgium to begin a five-day European trip aimed at fostering a
friendly atmosphere early in his second term.
(AP, 2/20/05)
2005 Feb 20, An estimate of the
total US debt, public and private, amounted to $37 trillion.
(SSFC, 2/20/05, p.C3)
2005 Feb 20, Sandra Dee (62), film
actress born as Alexandra Zuck, died. She was arguably the biggest
female teen idol of her time. Her films included "Gidget" and "Tammy
and the Doctor." Her 1960 marriage to singer Bobby Darin ended in
divorce in 1967.
(AP, 2/21/05)
2005 Feb 20, John Raitt (88),
singer Bonnie Raitt's father, died. He was famous in his own right as
the robust baritone who livened musicals such as "Carousel" and "The
Pajama Game." He also starred in the 1957 Pajama Game film with Doris
Day.
(AP, 2/21/05)
2005 Feb 20, Hunter S. Thompson
(b.1937), gonzo journalist, committed suicide in Aspen, Colo. Thompson
inserted himself into his accounts of America's underbelly and
popularized a first-person form of journalism in books such as “The Rum
Diary” (1998) and "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas" (1972). His ashes
were blown into the Colorado sky on Aug 20.
(AP, 2/21/05)(SFC, 2/21/05, p.A8)(Econ, 2/26/05,
p.86)(SSFC, 8/21/05, p.A6)
2005 Feb 20, Nearly 150,000
Turkish Cypriots and illegal mainland settlers voted in a parliamentary
election for a government only recognized by Turkey but which is seen
as a barometer of prospects for reunification of the war-divided
island. The pro-reunification governing party of Mehmet Ali Talat won.
(AP, 2/21/05)
2005 Feb 20, Former Presidents
George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton visited Indonesia's tsunami-ravaged
Aceh province, flying over a vast wasteland of destruction.
(AP, 2/20/05)
2005 Feb 20, Iraqi and US security
forces surrounded the city of Ramadi in an effort to confront a
simmering insurgency there.
(SFC, 2/21/05, p.A8)
2005 Feb 20, Iraqi forces captured
Talib Mikhlif Arsan Walman al-Dulaymi (aka Abu Qutaybah), a key aide to
Jordanian-born terrorist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, who leads an insurgency
affiliated with Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida network.
(AP, 2/25/05)
2005 Feb 20, The Irish government
identified 3 top Sinn Fein figures, including Gerry Adams, as members
of the IRA command.
(SFC, 2/21/05, p.A3)
2005 Feb 20, Israel's Cabinet gave
final approval to the government's planned withdrawal from the Gaza
Strip and four West Bank settlements.
(AP, 2/20/05)
2005 Feb 20, In Peru Maoist
Shining Path insurgents ambushed and killed three policemen in Huallaga
Valley, a remote jungle area known for guerrilla activity.
(AP, 2/22/05)
2005 Feb 20, Portugal voted in an
early general election. Socialists led by Jose Socrates swept PM Pedro
Santana Lopes' centre-right Social Democrats from office on the back of
rising unemployment.
(AFP, 2/20/05)(Econ, 2/26/05, p.49)
2005 Feb 20, Spanish voters
endorsed the EU constitution in a nonbinding referendum.
(SFC, 2/21/05, p.A3)
2005 Feb 20, In southern Russian
security forces stormed an apartment building in Nalchik,
Kabardino-Balkariya, where a small group of suspected Islamic militants
had barricaded themselves, killing all the rebels.
(AP, 2/20/05)
2005 Feb 20, In Sudan Sheik
Abdul-Rahim al-Buraei (82), a top Sufi Islamic cleric who wrote
mystical poems and helped peace efforts, died.
(AP, 2/21/05)
2006 Feb 20, President George
Bush, visiting Milwaukee, outlined his energy proposals to help wean
the country off foreign oil.
(AP, 2/20/07)
2006 Feb 20, A senior US official
said Vietnam and the US have resumed their human rights dialogue after
a three-year suspension, renewing links with "productive" talks.
(AP, 2/20/06)
2006 Feb 20, Louisiana Gov.
Kathleen Blanco outlined a $7.5 billion rebuilding, relocation and
buyout plan for residents whose homes were damaged by last year’s
hurricanes.
(SFC, 2/21/06, p.A4)
2006 Feb 20, Scientists feared
that leaping, hyperactive Asian carp, silver and bighead carp, will
reach the US Great Lakes, devour the base of the food chain and spoil
drinking water for 40 million people. The carp, which escaped lagoons
in Arkansas during late 1990s flooding, could set off an ecological
collapse in the lakes.
(Reuters, 2/20/06)
2006 Feb 20, Curt Gowdy (1919),
Montana-born sports announcer, died in Fla.
(SFC, 2/21/06, p.B5)
2006 Feb 20, Archbishop Paul C.
Marcinkus (84), a former Vatican bank chief linked to a huge Italian
banking scandal in the 1980s, was found dead in his home in Sun City,
Ariz.
(AP, 2/20/07)
2006 Feb 20, In Austria right-wing
British historian David Irving (67) pleaded guilty to charges of
denying the Holocaust and conceded that he was wrong to say there were
no Nazi gas chambers at the Auschwitz concentration camp.
(AP, 2/20/06)
2006 Feb 20, Milan Lukic, a
Bosnian Serb war crimes suspect who had been indicted by a UN tribunal
in connection with atrocities during the former war in Bosnia, was
extradited from Argentina to The Hague.
(AP, 2/20/06)
2006 Feb 20, In Congo Reuters
obtained a copy of a 2005 report of a parliamentary investigation,
established to probe business deals signed during Congo's 1996-1997 and
1998-2003 wars. The report said dozens of government contracts struck
during Congo's wars must be renegotiated, some companies closed and
leading individuals brought to justice.
(Reuters, 2/20/06)
2006 Feb 20, Farmers clashed on
the island of Crete with striking seamen who kept Greece's ports closed
for a fifth day. The protest has caused food and gasoline supply
problems for some Greek islands, and forced farmers to dump perishable
goods.
(AP, 2/20/06)
2006 Feb 20, Zalmay Khalilzad, US
ambassador to Iraq, warned Iraqi politicians they risk a loss of
American support if they do not establish a genuine national unity
government, saying the US will not invest its resources in institutions
run by sectarians. At least 24 people, including an American soldier,
were killed by bombings in Baghdad and elsewhere. Two Macedonian
contractors were freed by kidnappers four days after they were abducted
in Basra.
(AP, 2/20/06)
2006 Feb 20, In Iraq the governing
council of Karbala province said it was suspending contact with US
forces over the behavior of soldiers during a visit to the governor's
office two days ago.
(AP, 2/20/06)
2006 Feb 20, At the Turin
Olympics, Tanith Belbin and partner Ben Agosto snapped the US medals
drought in figure skating with a silver; Russians Tatiana Navka and
Roman Kostomarov won the gold.
(AP, 2/20/07)
2006 Feb 20, Liberia's president
inaugurated a truth commission to investigate crimes and human rights
abuses committed in the war-battered country over the last quarter
century.
(AP, 2/20/06)
2006 Feb 20, In Nigeria militants
in southern Nigeria destroyed an oil pipeline and blew up a boat in
violence that has cut about 20 percent of crude production in Africa's
oil giant.
(AP, 2/20/06)
2006 Feb 20, Hamas began coalition
talks to form the Palestinians' first government led by Islamic
militants after winning the nod from moderate Palestinian leader
Mahmoud Abbas.
(AP, 2/20/06)
2006 Feb 20, Russian and Iranian
negotiators concluded a day of talks on Moscow's offer to enrich
uranium for Iran and agreed to continue.
(AP, 2/20/06)
2006 Feb 20, UN mediated talks on
the future status of Kosovo opened in Vienna as Serbs and ethnic
Albanians staked out tough positions. The talks produced no agreement
and were scheduled to resume in a month.
(AP, 2/21/06)
2007 Feb 20, In a victory for
President Bush, a divided federal appeals court ruled that Guantanamo
Bay detainees could not use the U.S. court system to challenge their
indefinite imprisonment.
(AP, 2/20/08)
2007 Feb 20, In New Orleans,
thousands of hurricane-weary residents joined with rowdy visitors to
celebrate the second Mardi Gras since Katrina.
(AP, 2/20/08)
2007 Feb 20, Vice President Dick
Cheney arrived in Japan for a meeting with the emperor, dinner with the
PM and a pep rally for US troops aboard the aircraft carrier Kitty Hawk.
(AP, 2/20/07)
2007 Feb 20, It was reported that
Jerry Yang (38), co-founder of Yahoo, will donate $75 million to
Stanford Univ. Yang and David Filo founded Yahoo in March, 1995.
(WSJ, 2/20/07, p.B5)
2007 Feb 20, Three men from
Canada, Taiwan and the United States completed a 4,000 mile run across
the Sahara Desert over 111 days to draw attention to the lack of access
to water in many countries they crossed.
(AP, 2/21/07)
2007 Feb 20, In eastern
Afghanistan a suicide attacker disguised as a health worker blew
himself up at a hospital opening ceremony, wounding at least 6 US
soldiers. An official said Afghan authorities raided dozens of
guesthouses suspected of illegally serving alcohol and arrested 14
people, including five foreigners, in a crackdown on vice in this
Islamic country.
(AP, 2/20/07)(WSJ, 2/21/07, p.A1)
2007 Feb 20, Claiming a world
first for a national government, Australia’s Environment Minister
Malcolm Turnbull said incandescent lightbulbs would be phased out by
2010 in favor of the more fuel-efficient compact fluorescent bulbs.
(AFP, 2/20/07)
2007 Feb 20, Britain’s PM Tony
Blair said its 7,100 man force in Iraq would be cut to 5,500 over the
next few months.
(Econ, 2/24/07, p.68)
2007 Feb 20, In Britain Ken
Livingstone, London's socialist mayor, signed an agreement with
Venezuela's state-owned oil company to provide discounted oil for the
city's iconic red buses.
(AP, 2/21/07)
2007 Feb 20, The Canadian
government and Bill Gates announced an initiative to establish a
research institute to develop an AIDS vaccine, committing a total of
$119 million to the project.
(AP, 2/21/07)
2007 Feb 20, Congo’s army and UN
officials said days of clashes between the army and Rwandan and
Congolese militias in eastern Congo have killed at least 23 combatants
and forced thousands to flee.
(AP, 2/21/07)
2007 Feb 20, EU ministers agreed
to cut greenhouse gas emissions to 20% below their 1990 level by 2020.
(SFC, 2/21/07, p.C5)
2007 Feb 20, In southern India a
river boat carrying children on a school trip capsized, and at least 18
children and four teachers drowned, a local official said. Sixteen
children were missing.
(AP, 2/20/07)
2007 Feb 20, A car bomb and a
suicide attacker killed at least 11 people across Baghdad. Later in the
day a suicide bomber in Baghdad had struck a funeral procession and
killed at least seven people. Outside Baghdad nearly 150 people were
hospitalized complaining of breathing problems, vomiting and other
ailments after a truck carrying a chlorine-based substance was hit by a
roadside bomb north of Baghdad. The attack left 7 dead. A government
statement said 3 officers of the Shiite-dominated police force have
been cleared of allegations that they raped a Sunni woman in their
custody. A raid on the car bomb factory near Karmah, in Anbar,
uncovered a pickup truck and three other vehicles that were being
prepared as car bombs.
(AP, 2/20/07)(AFP, 2/22/07)(AP, 2/23/07)
2007 Feb 20, Nigeria's court of
appeal ruled that President Olusegun Obasanjo had no legal power to
sack of his deputy president for having joined an opposition party.
(AFP, 2/20/07)
2007 Feb 20, Pakistani authorities
shut down a zoo in Islamabad and slaughtered dozens of birds after the
deadly H5N1 flu virus was found in peacocks and geese. This marked the
fourth case of the virus detected in Pakistan this month.
(AFP, 2/20/07)
2007 Feb 20, Mohammad Sarwar, a
suspected Islamist zealot, shot dead Zil-e-Huma (37), social welfare
minister of the Punjab government, because he believed women should not
be in politics. Sarwar was immediately arrested.
(Reuters, 2/20/07)
2007 Feb 20, In Somalia mortar
rounds and rockets hit Mogadishu in a series of attacks that killed 15
people, including a 4-year-old boy, and wounded more than 40 others.
The UN Security Council voted unanimously to authorize an African Union
force to help stabilize Somalia.
(AP, 2/20/07)(AFP, 2/20/07)
2007 Feb 20, Sri Lankan military
aircraft bombed rebel-held territory, killing at least two villagers,
as the military reported four more deaths.
(AFP, 2/20/07)
2007 Feb 20, South Africa's
environment minister announced long-awaited restrictions on hunting,
declaring he was sickened by wealthy tourists shooting tame lions from
the back of a truck and felling rhinos with a bow and arrow.
(AP, 2/20/07)
2008 Feb 20, A US Navy SM-3
missile knocked out a dying US spy satellite. Officials said the intent
was to destroy an onboard tank of toxic fuel.
(SFC, 2/21/08, p.A3)
2008 Feb 20, In Afghanistan an
explosion in Helmand province claimed the life of a British soldier. 30
Taliban militants were killed in a joint Afghan and foreign special
forces operation backed by air support in southern Helmand province.
(AP, 2/21/08)(AFP, 2/21/08)
2008 Feb 20, In Armenia thousands
of opposition supporters marched through the capital after an election
official said complete results showed that the prime minister had won
the presidential election. On Jan 19, 2010, a court sentenced Nikola
Pashinian, editor of the Armenian Times opposition newspaper, to seven
years in prison for organizing mass unrest in the wake of the 2008
presidential elections.
(AP, 2/20/08)(AP, 1/19/10)
2008 Feb 20, The US FDA inspected
a heparin production facility in China. 19 deaths and some 350 allergic
reactions had taken place among patients who received heparin sold in
the US by Baxter Int’l. In March officials identified oversulfated
condroitin sulfate, a chemical that does not occur naturally, as a
contaminant in the drug. In April the death toll linked to contaminated
heparin was raised to 62.
(WS, 2/21/08, p.A1)(SFC, 3/20/08, p.C3)(SFC, 4/9/08,
p.A5)
2008 Feb 20, Quebec provincial
police conducted raids, breaking up a hacking ring that police said was
responsible for an estimated CDN$45 million (US$44.3 million) in damage
to computer systems.
(www.pcworld.com/article/id,142711-c,hackers/article.html)
2008 Feb 20, Ecuador's government
declared a national state of emergency police to help with aid in
flooded regions. 12 people had died and thousands were displaced as
severe rains and floods battered the small Andean nation.
(AP, 2/21/08)
2008 Feb 20, German Chancellor
Angela Merkel attacked Liechtenstein’s traditional banking secrecy and
demanded a US-style deal giving Berlin insight into German investments
in the Alpine tax haven.
(AP, 2/20/08)
2008 Feb 20, In Ghana President
Bush sought to soothe African fears about American interests on the
continent. He said the US isn’t aiming to make Africa into a base for
greater military power or a proxy battleground with China.
(AP, 2/20/08)
2008 Feb 20, A powerful earthquake
struck western Indonesia, killing three people and injuring 25 others.
(AP, 2/20/08)
2008 Feb 20, Yevgeny Adamov, the
former atomic energy minister whom Washington accused of stealing
millions in U.S. government funds earmarked for bolstering security at
Russian nuclear plants, was sentenced Wednesday to 5 ½ years in
prison.
(AP, 2/20/08)
2009 Feb 20, US Defense Secretary
Robert Gates said up to 20 nations have offered to boost their civilian
or military commitments to Afghanistan.
(AP, 2/20/09)
2009 Feb 20, A US Army medic was
convicted of murder for his involvement in the execution-style slayings
of four bound and blindfolded Iraqi detainees shot in the back of the
head in the spring of 2007. The court sentenced him to life in prison.
(AP, 2/21/09)
2009 Feb 20, California’s Gov.
Schwarzenegger made nearly $1 billion in line-item trims and signed the
new budget bill. The 33 bills in the budget plan included $15 billion
in spending cuts, $11.4 billion in borrowing, $12.8 billion in taxes
and about $2 billion in funds from the new federal stimulus package.
(SFC, 2/20/09, p.A12)(SFC, 2/21/09, p.A1)
2009 Feb 20, In California
Ahmadullah Sais Niazi (34), the Afghan-born brother-in-law of Osama bin
Laden’s former bodyguard, was arrested in Orange County on charges that
he lied about ties to terrorist groups on citizenship and passport
papers.
(SFC, 2/21/09, p.A4)
2009 Feb 20, Louisiana Gov. Bobby
Jindal announced that he will decline stimulus money specifically
targeted at expanding state unemployment insurance coverage, becoming
the first state executive to officially refuse any part of the federal
government’s payout to states.
(http://news.yahoo.com/s/politico/19092;_ylt=AlTYJh.MxX8VcaG8HASlBbYDW7oF)
2009 Feb 20, In Homer, La., police
officers Tim Cox and Joey Henry were involved in the fatal shooting of
Bernard Monroe Sr. (73). The shooting sparked protests and at least 2
investigations. In July both officers resigned from the police force.
(SFC, 7/29/09, p.A4)
2009 Feb 20, General Motors
Corp.'s Swedish-based subsidiary Saab went into bankruptcy protection
so the unit can be spun off or sold by its struggling US parent.
(AP, 2/20/09)
2009 Feb 20, In Wampum,
Pennsylvania, Jordan Brown (11) shot his father's pregnant fiancee,
Kenzie Marie Houk (26), in the back of the head as she lay in bed. He
then put his youth model 20-gauge shotgun back in his room before going
out to catch his school bus.
(AP, 2/22/09)
2009 Feb 20, Australian Federal
Police agents with search warrants boarded an anti-whaling group's
ship, the Steve Irwin, as it docked in the southern Australian city of
Hobart. They seized videotapes of violent clashes between the activists
and Japanese whalers.
(AP, 2/21/09)
2009 Feb 20, The Canadian units of
General Motors Corp and Chrysler sought as much as C$10 billion ($8
billion) in aid from the Canadian and Ontario governments as they
fought to survive an industry wide crisis.
(AP, 2/21/09)
2009 Feb 20, US Secretary of State
Hillary Clinton arrived in Beijing for talks with Chinese leaders after
vowing not to let human rights block progress on the global economic
crisis, climate change and security.
(AP, 2/20/09)
2009 Feb 20, Chinese authorities
closed a chemical plant being investigated for contaminating water
supplies to 1.5 million people in the country's east. Water supplies
were restored after a five-hour shutdown. Biaoxin Chemical Company
caused "massive" tap water pollution in Yancheng, a city in east
Jiangsu province. Investigators identified the pollutant as a phenol
compound used to make products including air fresheners, medical
ointments, cosmetics and sunscreens.
(AP, 2/21/09)
2009 Feb 20, In Egypt 5 crew
members died when a Ukrainian cargo plane crashed during takeoff, burst
into flames and slid down the runway in the city of Luxor.
(AP, 2/20/09)
2009 Feb 20, Christopher Nolan
(43), an Irish poet and novelist, died in Dublin. He had refused to let
cerebral palsy get in the way of his writing. Using a "unicorn stick"
strapped to his forehead to tap the keys of a typewriter, Nolan
laboriously wrote out messages and, eventually, poems and books as
well. His autobiography, "Under the Eye of the Clock: The Life Story of
Christopher Nolan," won the prestigious Whitbread Award in 1988.
(AP, 2/22/09)(Econ, 2/28/09, p.91)
2009 Feb 20, In Israel Benjamin
Netanyahu appealed to his moderate rivals to join him after the
hard-liner was formally tapped to put together Israel's next ruling
coalition, an alliance that would dilute the power of nationalists bent
on derailing Mideast peace talks.
(AP, 2/20/09)
2009 Feb 20, Kyrgyzstan ordered US
forces to depart within six months from an air base key to military
operations in Afghanistan, complicating plans to send more troops to
battle rising Taliban and al-Qaida violence. A US military official
said Uzbekistan will allow non-lethal US military cargo heading to
Afghanistan to transit through the country.
(AP, 2/20/09)
2009 Feb 20, Latvia's center-right
coalition government resigned after weeks of instability brought on by
the Baltic country's economic collapse. President Valdis Zatlers said
he accepted the resignation of PM Ivars Godmanis and his
administration, which had been in power since December 2007.
(AP, 2/20/09)
2009 Feb 20, Madagascar security
forces regained control of four government ministries overnight from
opposition activists. Police arrested 50 people and no injuries were
reported.
(AP, 2/20/09)
2009 Feb 20, In Mexico criminal
gangs in Ciudad Juarez followed up on threats and killed police officer
Cesar Ivan Portillo and city jail guard Juan Pablo Ruiz as they left
their homes before dawn to head to work. Public Safety Secretary
Roberto Orduna, the police chief of Ciudad Juarez, stepped down
hours later.
(AP, 2/20/09)
2009 Feb 20, In Myanmar the
government announced an amnesty for 6,300 prisoners. Only a handful of
political detainees were among those released.
(SFC, 2/21/09, p.A2)(AFP, 2/22/09)
2009 Feb 20, Nigeria ordered its
customs service and security and environmental agencies to clamp down
on illegal imports of potentially toxic electronic waste.
(AP, 2/20/09)
2009 Feb 20, In northwestern
Pakistan a suicide bomber attacked the funeral of a slain Shiite Muslim
leader, killing 28 people and triggering deadly rioting.
(AP, 2/20/09)
2009 Feb 20, A Swaziland
government report said about 42 percent of pregnant women in the
country are infected with the virus that causes AIDS, a 3 percent jump
in a single year. An estimated 185,000 of Swaziland's 1 million people
are HIV positive, and about 30,000 are receiving antiretrovirals.
(AP, 2/20/09)
2009 Feb 20, In Somalia hardline
Islamist militia attacked African Union forces in Mogadishu, killing
one civilian and wounding two others.
(AP, 2/20/09)
2009 Feb 20, Tamil Tiger rebel
pilots on a kamikaze mission crashed their planes in the Sri Lankan
capital, killing two people.
(AP, 2/21/09)
2009 Feb 20, Banking details of
eight American clients of Switzerland's largest bank were sent to US
authorities along with the names of more than 240 other American
clients of UBS. A Swiss court order blocking the move came too late to
stop the action.
(AP, 2/21/09)
2009 Feb 20, In southern Thailand
suspected Muslim insurgents ambushed a military convoy and beheaded two
soldiers in the second such attack this month.
(AP, 2/20/09)
2009 Feb 20, Six African migrants
drowned and 11 more are presumed dead after smugglers in the Gulf of
Aden forced their passengers overboard in deep water off Yemen. The
smuggling boat was carrying 40 Somalis and 12 Ethiopians when it
approached Yemen's coast.
(AP, 2/24/09)
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