Today in History - February 25
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1308 Feb 25,
Edward II was crowned King of England.
(AP, 2/25/07)
1336 Feb 25, The Knights of
the Cross sieged the Pilenai Castle in Samogitia. The defenders burned
all their goods and committed suicide.
(LHC, 2/25/03)
1418 Feb 25, At the
Constance church synod the Orthodox Metropolitan of Kiev and Lithuania,
Gregory Camblak, proposed a union between the Orthodox and Catholic
church.
(LHC, 2/25/03)
1536 Feb 25, Jacob Hutter
(d.1536), Anabaptist evangelist from South Tyrol, was burned as a
heretic in Austria. He had founded of a "community of love" in 1528,
whose members shared everything.
(TL-MB, 1988,
p.13)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jakob_Hutter)
1570 Feb 25, Pope Pius V issued
the bull Regnans in Excelsis which excommunicated Queen Elizabeth the
First of England. This absolved her subjects from allegiance. Elizabeth
responded by hanging and burning Jesuits.
(TL-MB, p.22)(AP, 2/25/98)(HN, 2/25/99)(MC, 2/25/02)
1601 Feb 25, Robert Devereux
(b.1566), 2nd earl of Essex, was beheaded following a conviction of
treason. His plan to capture London and the Tower had failed.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Devereux,_2nd_Earl_of_Essex)(HN,
2/25/99)
1642 Feb 25, Dutch settlers
slaughtered lower Hudson Valley Indians in New Netherland, North
America, who sought refuge from Mohawk attackers.
(HN, 2/25/99)
1707 Feb 25, Italian playwright
Carlo Goldoni (d.1793) was born in Venice. "He who talks much cannot
always talk well."
(AP, 6/1/98)(AP, 2/25/07)
1713 Feb 25, Frederik I (55), King
of Prussia (1701-13), died.
(MC, 2/25/02)
1728 Feb 25, Peter II Alekseyevich
(1715-1730) was crowned as czar of Russia.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_II_of_Russia)
1751 Feb 25, The 1st performing
monkey exhibited in America was in NYC.
(MC, 2/25/02)
1778 Feb 25, Jose Francisco de San
Martin (d.1850) was born in Argentina. He liberated Argentina, Chile
and Peru. Protector of Peru (1821-1822).
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jos%C3%A9_de_San_Mart%C3%ADn)(ON, 10/09,
p.8)
1779 Feb 25, Fort Sackville,
originally named Fort Vincennes, was captured by Colonel George Rogers
Clark in 1779. Col. Clark led a force of some 170 men from Kaskaskia to
lay siege to Fort Sackville in January, and received Hamilton‘s
surrender on February 25. With the surrender of Fort Sackville,
American forces gained effective control of the Old Northwest, thereby
affecting the outcome of the Revolutionary War. The fort, which Clark
described as “a wretched stockade, surrounded by a dozen wretched
cabins called houses,” was located near present-day Vincennes, Indiana.
(HNQ, 7/24/00)(AP, 2/25/08)
1781 Feb 25, American General
Nathanael Greene crossed the Dan River on his way to his March 15th
confrontation with Lord Charles Cornwallis at Guilford Court House,
N.C.
(HN, 2/25/98)
1791 Feb 25, President George
Washington signed a bill creating the Bank of the United States.
(HN, 2/25/99)
1793 Feb 25, The department heads
of the U.S. government met with President Washington at his Mt.
Vernon home for the first Cabinet meeting on record.
(AP, 2/25/98)(MC, 2/25/02)
1803 Feb 25, The 1,800 sovereign
German states united into 60 states.
(MC, 2/25/02)
1804 Feb 25, Thomas Jefferson was
nominated for president at the Democratic-Republican caucus.
(HN, 2/25/98)
1815 Feb 25, Napoleon left his
exile on the Island of Elba, intending to return to France.
(HN, 2/25/98)
1831 Feb 25, The Polish army
halted the Russian advance into their country at the Battle of Grochow.
(HN, 2/25/99)
1836 Feb 25, Samuel Colt patented
the first revolving barrel multi-shot firearm. This allowed the shooter
to fire 5 or 6 times before reloading.
(AP, 2/25/98)(AH, 2/06, p.15)
1837 Feb 25, Cheyney University
was established in Pennsylvania through the bequest of Richard
Humphreys, and became the oldest institution of higher learning for
African Americans. It was initially named the African Institute.
However, the name was changed several weeks later to the Institute for
Colored Youth (ICY). In subsequent years, the university was renamed
Cheyney Training School for Teachers (July 1914), Cheyney State
Teacher’s College (1951), Cheyney State College (1959), and eventually
Cheyney Univ. of Pennsylvania (1983).
(www.cheyney.edu/pages/index.asp?p=428)
1841 Feb 25, Pierre Auguste Renoir
(d.1919), French painter, was born. He was an Impressionist painter,
father of Jean Renoir, and founder of the French Impressionist
movement. He was the son of a Paris tailor and began his career as a
porcelain painter in the Sevres china factory. His paintings included
“Luncheon of the Boating Party,” “Self-portraits” (1875 & 1899) and
“Sleeping Girl With a Cat” (1880). [see 1894, J. Renoir]
(HFA, '96, p.22)(WSJ, 8/13/96, p.A9)(DPCP 1984)(HN,
2/25/99)
1856 Feb 25, Charles Lang Freer,
U.S. art collector, was born.
(HN, 2/25/98)
1859 Feb 25, The "insanity plea"
was 1st used to prove innocence.
(MC, 2/25/02)
1862 Feb 25, Congress formed the
US Bureau of Engraving & Printing. Greenbacks were introduced.
(MC, 2/25/02)
1862 Feb 25, Confederate troops
abandoned Nashville, Tenn., in the face of Grant's advance.
(HN, 2/25/98)
1862 Feb 25, The ironclad Monitor
was commissioned at the Brooklyn Navy Yard.
(HN, 2/25/98)
1865 Feb 25, General Joseph E.
Johnston replaced John Bell Hood as Commander of the Confederate Army
of Tennessee. Arthur Fremantle made a breathtaking tour of the
Confederacy. Within three months he had met most of the top Confederate
leaders, including Robert E. Lee, James Longstreet, Joseph Johnston and
Jefferson Davis.
(HN, 2/25/98)
1870 Feb 25, Hiram Revels
(Sen-R-MS) was sworn in as the 1st black member of Congress.
(MC, 2/25/02)
1879 Feb 25, Congress passed the
1st Timberland Protection Act.
(MC, 2/25/02)
1885 Feb 25, US Congress condemned
barbed wire around government grounds.
(MC, 2/25/02)
1888 Feb 25, John Foster Dulles
was born. He served as Secretary of State to President Eisenhower
(1953-1959).
(HN, 2/25/98)(MC, 2/25/02)
1894 Feb 25, Meher Baba, spiritual
leader, was born.
(HN, 2/25/01)
1899 Feb 25, Paul Julius Reuter
(b.1816), founder of the British news agency that bears his name, died
in Nice, France. In 2003 Brian Mooney and Barry Simpson authored
"Breaking news: How the Wheels Came off at Reuters."
(AP, 2/25/99)(Econ, 11/1/03, p.81)
1901 Feb 25, [Herbert] Zeppo Marx,
comedian, actor (Marx Brothers), was born in NYC.
(MC, 2/25/02)
1901 Feb 25, United States Steel
Corp. was incorporated by J.P. Morgan Charles Schwab and Andrew
Carnegie. Morgan combined Federal Steel and Carnegie Steel to form US
Steel. It was the biggest corporate merger of the time. As president of
US Steel Schwab acquired the Bethlehem Steel. In 1904 Schwab resigned
his position at US Steel to run Bethlehem Steel.
(AP, 2/25/98)(WSJ, 1/11/99, p.R42)(WSJ, 5/12/03,
p.A6)(WSJ, 10/8/08, p.A15)
1904 Feb 25, J.M. Synge's play
“Riders to the Sea” opened in Dublin. [see Jan 25]
(HN, 2/25/01)
1905 Feb 25, Adele Davis,
nutritionist, was born.
(HN, 2/25/01)
1908 Feb 25, The 1st tunnel under
Hudson River (railway tunnel) opened. The McAdoo Tunnel was completed
March 8, 1904, but only officially opened on this date.
(PCh, 1992, p.655)(MC, 2/25/02)
1910 Feb 25, The Dalai Lama fled
from the Chinese and took refuge in India.
(HN, 2/25/98)
1913 Feb 25, Jim Backus, actor
(Mr. Magoo, Thurston Howell III-Gilligan's Island), was born in
Cleveland.
(MC, 2/25/02)
1913 Feb 25, The 16th Amendment to
the constitution was adopted, setting the legal basis for the income
tax. The amendment, proposed by Congress at the urging of Pres. Taft,
established a corporate tax. Churches and other religious organizations
were exempted from federal taxation. Cordell Hull, author of the
Revenue Act of 1913, said: “Of course any kind of society or
corporation that is not doing business for profit and not acquiring
profit would not come within the meaning of the taxing clause.”
(HN, 2/25/98)(WSJ, 3/11/98, p.A20)(AH, 4/07,
p.31)(http://tinyurl.com/yg2j694)
1914 Feb 25, John Tenniel
(b.1820), English illustrator, died. He is best remembered for his
illustrations in Lewis Carroll's “Alice's Adventures in Wonderland” and
“Through the Looking-Glass.”
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Tenniel)
1917 Feb 25, Anthony Burgess,
English writer (A Clockwork Orange), was born.
(HN, 2/25/01)
1919 Feb 25, Oregon introduced the
first state tax on gasoline at one cent per gallon, to be used for road
construction.
(HN, 2/25/98) (AP, 2/25/98)
1925 Feb 15, Michael de Young
(b.1849), co-founder of the SF Chronicle, died. Son-in-law George T.
Cameron took over as publisher of the paper.
(SFEC, 3/8/98, BR
p.6)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M._H._de_Young)
1926 Feb 25, Francisco Franco
became Generalissimo of Spain.
(MC, 2/25/02)
1926 Feb 25, Poland demanded a
permanent seat on the League Council.
(HN, 2/25/98)
1928 Feb 25, Larry Gelbart,
writer, producer, actor (Oh God!, M*A*S*H), was born.
(MC, 2/25/02)
1928 Feb 25, Bell Labs introduced
a new device to end the fluttering of the television image.
(HN, 2/25/98)
1932 Feb 25, The German state
government of Brunswick, in which the Nazi Party participated,
appointed Adolph Hitler of Austria to a minor administrative post this
month and on this day gave him German citizenship. Hitler was thus able
to stand against Hindenburg in the forthcoming Presidential election.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adolf_Hitler)(www.secondworldwar.co.uk/ahitler.html)
1933 Feb 25, The 1st genuine
aircraft carrier was christened: USS Ranger.
(MC, 2/25/02)
1937 Feb 25, Basia Johnson, maid,
was born. She later inherited the Johnson & Johnson fortune.
(MC, 2/25/02)
1937 Feb 25, Bob Schieffer,
newscaster (CBS Weekend News), was born in Austin, Tx.
(MC, 2/25/02)
1940 Feb 25, A hockey game was
televised for the first time, by New York City station W2XBS, as the
New York Rangers defeated the Montreal Canadiens, 6-2, at Madison
Square Garden.
(AP, 2/25/00)
1943 Feb 25, George Harrison (d.
Nov 29, 2001) of the Beatles was born.
(SFC, 11/30/01, p.A1)(SFC, 12/4/01, p.A2)
1943 Feb 25, U.S. troops retook
the Kasserine Pass in Tunisia, where they had been defeated five days
before.
(HN, 2/25/99)
1944 Feb 25, U.S. forces destroyed
135 Japanese planes in Marianas and Guam.
(HN, 2/25/02)
1948 Feb 25, Communists seized
power in Czechoslovakia in a coup d’etat.
(AP, 2/25/98)(SFC, 3/13/98, p.A6)
1950 Feb 25, The comedy-variety
program "Your Show of Shows," starring Sid Caesar, Imogene Coca, Carl
Reiner and, later, Howard Morris, debuted on NBC-TV. The show’s writers
included Mel Brooks, Neil Simon & Woody Allen.
(AP, 2/25/00)(MC, 2/25/02)
1950 Feb 25, George Richards Minot
(b.1885), physician (Nobel-1934), died.
(WUD, 1994 p.913)(Internet)
1952 Feb 25, French colonial
forces evacuated Hoa Binh in Indochina.
(HN, 2/25/99)
1953 Feb 25, General de Gaulle
condemned the European Defense Community.
(HN, 2/25/98)
1956 Feb 25, Soviet leader Nikita
Khrushchev harshly criticized the late Josef Stalin in a speech before
a Communist Party congress in Moscow. Stalin was secretly disavowed by
Khrushchev at a party congress for promoting the "cult of the
individual." [see Feb 14, 23]
(AP, 2/25/98)(HN, 2/25/01)
1957 Feb 25, Buddy Holly and the
Crickets recorded "That'll Be the Day."
(MC, 2/25/02)
1957 Feb 25, The US Supreme Court,
in Butler v. Michigan, overturned a Michigan statute making it a
misdemeanor to sell books containing obscene language that would tend
to corrupt "the morals of youth."
(AP, 2/25/07)
1957 Feb 25, Supreme Court decided
6-3 that baseball is the only antitrust exempt pro sport.
(MC, 2/25/02)
1961 Feb 25, Paul Bikle climbed to
record 14,100 meters (8.8 miles) in a glider.
(MC, 2/25/02)
1961 Feb 25, John F. Kennedy named
Henry Kissinger national security adviser. Years later, Kissinger was
President Nixon's envoy for secret negotiations with North Vietnam.
About this time Kennedy also named Adlai Stevenson as ambassador to the
UN.
(HN, 2/25/98)(SFEC, 6/6/99, p.A19)
1962 Feb 25, Maria Ludovica De
Angelis (b.1880) died in Argentina. She helped expand hospital services
for children. In 2004 she was beatified by Pope John Paul VI.
(AP, 10/3/04)
1964 Feb 25, Cassius Clay (later
Muhammad Ali) became world heavyweight boxing champion by defeating
Sonny Liston in Miami Beach.
(AP, 2/25/04)
1969 Feb 25, In Vietnam Navy Lt.
Bob Kerry (25) took part in a SEAL raid in the Mekong Delta where over
a dozen women, children and old men were killed in the village of Thanh
Phong. Kerry received a Bronze Star for the raid and later strongly
regretted his actions. Soon after the raid Kerry lost a leg at Hon Tam
Island and was later awarded a Congressional medal of Honor. In 2001
Kerry, former Gov. and Senator from Nebraska, made public his
participation in the raid. In 2001 Bui Thi Luom of Thanh Phong, the
only survivor from her hut of 16, said 20 people were killed "Only
civilians, women and children." Kerry described the event in his 2002
memoir "When I Was a Young Man." In 2002 Gregory L. Vistica authored:
"The Education of Lieutenant Kerry."
(SFC, 4/26/01, p.A1)(SFC, 4/27/01, p.A3)(SSFC,
4/29/01, p.A12)(SFC, 6/1/02, p.A12)(WSJ, 1/23/03, p.D14)
1970 Feb 25, Mark Rothko (b.1903),
painter, committed suicide in NYC. He was born in Dvinsk, Russia, which
is now Daugavpils, Latvia, and his family moved to Portland, Ore., in
1913. His work moved to abstraction in the 1940s. The execution of his
will provoked a long drawn out court case. His daughter charged the
executors and the owner of Rothko’s gallery with conspiracy and
conflict of interest, and won. A 1998 show was accompanied by the book
"Mark Rothko" by Jeffrey Weiss with contributions by John Cage,
Carol-Mancusi-Ungaro, Barbara Novak, Brian O’Doherty, Mark Rosenthal
and Jessica Stewart.
(WSJ, 6/4/98, p.A16)(SFEC, 6/7/98, BR p.4)(AP,
11/11/03)(http://slate.msn.com/?id=2923)
1971 Feb 25, "Oh, Calcutta" opened
at the Belasco Theater.
(www.broadwayworld.com/bwidb/sections/productions/index.php?var=2746)(SFEC,
11/3/96, DB p.38)
1973 Feb 25, The Stephen Sondheim
musical "A Little Night Music" opened at Broadway's Shubert Theater.
(AP, 2/25/98)
1975 Feb 25, Elijah Muhammad
(b.1897 as Elijah Poole), US leader of the Detroit-based Nation of
Islam and Black Muslims, died in Chicago. His son W. Deen Mohammed
(1933-2008) was soon elected supreme minister of the Nation of Islam.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elijah_Muhammad)(USAT,
2/13/97, p.6D)(SFC, 2/28/00, p.A3)(SFC, 9/11/08, p.B5)
1975 Feb 25, In Tennessee Marcia
Trimble (9) disappeared while delivering Girl Scout cookies in her
Nashville neighborhood. Her body was discovered on Easter Sunday and
evidence led police to believe that she had been sexually assaulted and
strangled to death. In 2009 Jerome Barrett (62) was convicted of
2nd-degree murder based on DNA testing. He was already serving a life
sentence for the 1975 rape and murder of a Vanderbilt Univ. student.
(SSFC, 7/19/09,
p.A13)(www.wsmv.com/news/14760190/detail.html)
1976 Feb 25, The U.S. Supreme
Court ruled that states may ban the hiring of illegal aliens.
(HN, 2/25/98)
1980 Feb 25, Robert Hayden,
American poet and educator, died in Ann Arbor, Mich. Hayden had studied
under W.H. Auden at the Univ. of Michigan. In 1976 Pres. Gerald Ford
appointed him the 1st African-American consultant in poetry to the
Library of Congress, a post that later became known as Poet Laureate.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Hayden)(LSA,
Fall/02, p.7)
1980 Feb 25, A military coup took
place in Suriname. Desi Bouterse seized control of Suriname five years
after the country gained independence from the Netherlands. He stepped
down in 1987 under international pressure but briefly seized power
again in 1990.
(www.surinam.net/historical.html)(AP, 7/5/08)
1983 Feb 25, Tennessee Williams
(71), playwright, was found dead in his NYC hotel suite.
(AP, 2/25/08)
1983 Feb 25, A 10-year-old girl,
Jeanine Nicarico of Naperville in DuPage County, Ill., was raped and
murdered. Rolando Cruz was convicted and served 10 years on death row
before a sheriff's officer recanted on his story and exonerated Cruz.
In 1999 7 prosecutors and sheriff's deputies went on trial on charges
of conspiracy to frame an innocent man. Cruz, a small-time criminal,
started out as an informant in the case. Charges against 2 prosecutors
were dismissed and 4 sheriff's officers and a prosecutor were acquitted
in 1999. In 2005 convicted killer Brian Dugan was indicted by a DuPage
County grand jury, a full decade after an expert concluded DNA evidence
linked him to the crime.
(SFC, 3/9/99, p.A6)(SFC, 4/7/99, p.A5)(SFC, 6/5/99,
p.A7)(AP, 2/25/06)
1984 Feb 25, In Cubatao, Sao
Paulo, Brazil, an explosion from a gasoline leak in a pipeline burned a
nearby shantytown with than 500 deaths.
(HSAB, 1994, p.46)
1985 Feb 25, Edwin Meese III was
sworn in as US Attorney General.
(www.reaganfoundation.org/reagan/biography/reagan_revoultion.asp)
1986 Feb 25, President Ferdinand
E. Marcos fled the Philippines after 20 years of rule in the wake of a
tainted election. Corazon Aquino assumed the presidency. Pres.
Ferdinand Marcos was forced from office after 20 years of rule. He was
accused of accumulating billions of dollars during his rule. The
Marcoses fled to Hawaii and Imelda Marcos left behind her 5,400 shoes.
(TMC, 1994, p.1986)(SFC, 8/23/96, p.A26)(AP, 2/25/98)
1987 Feb 25, US Supreme Court
upheld affirmative action with a 5-4 vote.
(www.factmonster.com/spot/affirmativetimeline1.html#1987)
1987 Feb 25, The US Supreme Court
ruled that California cannot bar gambling on Indian tribal land. This
win by the Cabazon tribe opened the door to Indian gambling nationwide.
(SFC, 5/11/04, p.B8)(WSJ, 9/27/05,
p.A1)(http://tinyurl.com/7ub24)
1988 Feb 25, Chicago gave the Cubs
baseball team the right to install lights and play up to 18 night games.
(http://chicago.cubs.mlb.com/NASApp/mlb/chc/history/timeline10.jsp)
1988 Feb 25, Panama's civilian
president, Eric Arturo Delvalle announced the dismissal of Gen. Manuel
Antonio Noriega as commander of the country's Defense Forces. The next
day, Panama's National Assembly voted to oust Delvalle.
(AP, 2/25/98)
1989 Feb 25, President Bush left
Japan, where he had attended the funeral of Emperor Hirohito, and
arrived in China for a three-day visit.
(AP, 2/25/99)
1990 Feb 25, Enver Hadri, a human
rights leader, was allegedly shot in the head by Veselin Vukotic and
two other men while he was stopped at a traffic light in Brussels,
Belgium. Hadri had papers on him incriminating former Yugoslav
President Slobodan Milosevic in assassinations. All three gunmen were
believed to be hitmen working for the Yugoslav secret service. Veselin
was arrested in Spain in 2006.
{Belgium, Murder, Yugoslavia, Serbia}
(AP, 2/27/06)
1990 Feb 25, Nicaraguans voted in
an election that led to an upset victory for opponents of the ruling
Sandinistas. Daniel Ortega, communist president of Nicaragua, lost to
Violeta Chamorro.
(WSJ, 3/12/96, p. A-16)(AP, 2/25/98)
1991 Feb 25, During the Persian
Gulf War, 28 Americans were killed when an Iraqi Scud missile hit a
U.S. barracks in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia.
(AP, 2/25/98)
1992 Feb 25, Natalie Cole won
seven awards at the 34th annual Grammys, including best album for
"Unforgettable."
(AP, 2/25/02)
1992 Feb 25, President Bush won
the South Dakota Republican primary, Bob Kerrey the Democratic primary.
(AP, 2/25/02)
1992 Feb 25, The US Supreme Court
ruled prison guards who use unnecessary force against inmates may be
violating the Constitution's ban on cruel and unusual punishment even
if they inflict no serious injuries.
(AP, 2/25/02)
1993 Feb 25, President Clinton
ordered the Pentagon to mount an airdrop of relief supplies into
Bosnia-Herzegovina.
(AP, 2/25/98)
1994 Feb 25, In the Hebron
massacre, Jewish settler Dr. Baruch Goldstein opened fire on
Palestinians praying in the Tomb of the Patriarchs in Hebron and killed
29 people. Some 100 others were wounded. Surviving Palestinians killed
him before he could reload.
(SFC, 6/18/96, p.A12)(SFC, 6/20/96, p.A8)(MT,
Fall/03, p.15)
1994 Feb 25, At the Winter
Olympics in Norway, Oksana Baiul of Ukraine won the gold medal in
ladies' figure skating while Nancy Kerrigan won the silver and Chen Lu
of China the bronze; Tonya Harding came in eighth.
(AP, 2/25/99)
1994 Feb 25, Jersey Joe Walcott
(80), boxer, died.
(www.infoplease.com/ipsa/A0748619.html)
1995 Feb 25, Former President
Jimmy Carter wound up a 54-hour visit to Haiti, denying he'd been given
a chilly reception by Haitians whom he'd helped save from a potentially
bloody U.S.-led intervention.
(AP, 2/25/00)
1996 Feb 25, A 12-mile tether
connecting a half-ton satellite to the space shuttle “Columbia” broke
loose as it was almost completely unreeled.
(AP, 2/25/01)
1996 Feb 25, In Hanford, Ca.,
Tracy Rene Conrad (11), went to the Galik home to play with the sons of
Duane Galik Sr. Her body was found a month later stuffed in a pottery
kiln and sexually abused. Duane Galik Sr. went on trial for the murder
in 1997.
(SFEC, 7/27/97, p.A18)
1996 Feb 25, Cambodian Dr. Haing
S. Ngor (55), academy award winner for the 1984 film "The Killing
Fields," was shot and killed in front of his home in Los Angeles. In
1998 three Chinatown gang members, Oriental Lazy Boyz gang, were
convicted by separate juries in the murder. Jason Chan (20) was
sentenced to life without parole. Tak Sun Tan (21) was sentenced 56
years to life. Indra Lim was sentenced to 26 years to life. In 2004 a
judge ruled to overturn the convictions. In 2005 a federal appeals
court reinstated the convictions.
(WSJ, 2/27/96, p.A-1)(SFC, 7/7/96, p.B12)(SFC,
4/1/98, p.C2)(SFC, 4/17/98, p.A6)(SFC, 5/20/98, p.A3)(SFC, 7/8/05, p.B2)
1996 Feb 25, In separate attacks 2
Palestinian suicide bombers blew up a bus in Jerusalem and a soldiers
hitchhiking post in the coastal city of Ashkelon. 23 Israelis were
killed, as well as 2 Americans and a Palestinian. More than 80 people
were wounded. Hamas took responsibility.
(WSJ, 3/6/96, p. A-15)(G&M, 7/31/97, p.A8)
1997 Feb 25, A jury in Media, Pa.,
convicted multimillionaire John E. du Pont of third-degree murder,
deciding he was mentally ill when he killed world-class wrestler David
Schultz. Du Pont was sentenced to serve 13- to 30-years in prison.
(AP, 2/25/07)
1997 Feb 25, China's elite bid a
final farewell to Deng Xiaoping, the country's last major revolutionary
leader.
(AP, 2/25/98)
1997 Feb 25, In China in Urumqi,
capital of Xinjiang province, Muslim Uigher separatists set bombs that
killed as many as 5 and wounded 27.
(SFC, 2/26/97, p.A8)(WSJ, 2/26/97, p.A1)
1998 Feb 25, At the Grammy Awards,
Bob Dylan won best album and best contemporary folk album for "Time Out
of Mind" while Shawn Colvin won song and record of the year for "Sunny
Came Home."
(AP, 2/25/99)
1998 Feb 25, The Supreme Court
threw out a 16-year-old government rule that allowed company credit
unions to accept members from other companies.
(AP, 2/25/99)
1998 Feb 25, The US Congress for
the first time reversed Pres. Clinton’s line item veto and restored 38
military projects.
(SFC, 2/26/98, p.A3)
1998 Feb 25, In Georgia the UN
prisoners were freed and the leader of the kidnapping group escaped.
(WSJ, 2/26/98, p.A1)
1998 Feb 25, Harlan H. Hatcher,
President Emeritus of the Univ. of Mich., died at age 99. He wrote
several books on the history of the Great Lakes region.
(MT, Sum. ‘98, p.6)
1998 Feb 25, From Peru it was
reported that the country was abandoning its campaign of sterilizing
women.
(SFC, 2/26/98, p.A8)
1998 Feb 25, In South Korea Pres.
Kim Dae Jung, once South Korea's leading dissident, began his
office. His political opposition blocked his choice for prime minister.
(WSJ, 2/23/98, p.A1)(SFC, 2/26/98, p.A7)(AP, 2/25/99)
1998 Feb 25, In Sierra Leone Bo
was captured by Nigerian-led peacekeeping troops. The city was reported
badly damaged with many dead.
(WSJ, 2/26/98, p.A1)
1998 Feb 25, In Switzerland the
first legal brothel opened in Zurich.
(SFC, 2/26/98, p.A13)
1999 Feb 25, A 100-page summary of
a 3,600 page report by the UN mandated Historical Clarification
Committee was released. It indicated that the US government and US
corporations played a key role in maintaining the right-wing military
governments during most of the 36 years of civil war in Guatemala. The
report documented a genocide against Mayan Indians with a death toll of
some 200,000. The Guatemalan National Revolutionary Unity (UNRG) was
responsible for 3% of the atrocities. The Guatemalan Army was blamed
for 93% of the human rights abuses.
(SFC, 2/26/99, p.A1,17)(WSJ, 2/26/99, p.A1)(SFC,
3/13/99, p.A13)
1999 Feb 25, A jury in Jasper,
Texas, sentenced white supremacist John William King to death for
chaining James Byrd Jr., a black man, to a pickup truck and dragging
him to pieces in 1998.
(SFC, 2/26/99, p.A3)(AP, 2/25/00)
1999 Feb 25, Glenn Seaborg, Nobel
physicist, died at age 86. He and Edwin Mullen discovered plutonium in
1940 and together received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1951. In
2002 Eric Seaborg completed his father’s autobiography: “Adventures in
the Atomic Age.”
(SFC, 2/27/99, p.A1,19)(SSFC, 1/13/02, p.M2)
1999 Feb 25, In Colombia 3
Americans were kidnapped.
(SFC, 3/6/99, p.A10)
1999 Feb 25, Cuba cut phone
service to AT&T and MCI WorldCom for $19 mil in unpaid bills. The
phone companies were withholding payments pending a lawsuit by
relatives of 4 Cuban Americans, whose aircraft were shot down in Feb
1996.
(SFC, 2/26/99, p.A14)(WSJ, 2/26/99, p.A1)
1999 Feb 25, In Ghana Otumfuo Nana
Opoku Ware II, the king of the Ashanti people, died at the palace in
Kumasi. The Asantehene was born Matthew John Kwaku Adusei-Poku and
ascended to the Golden Stool to become the 18th King of Ashanti in 1970.
(SFC, 3/1/99, p.A19)
1999 Feb 25, In Iran Pres. Khatami
supported 50 candidates that hard-liners attempted to disqualify from
local elections.
(SFC, 2/26/99, p.E3)
1999 Feb 25, In a move that
threatened to revive a strain on U.S.-Israeli relations, Israel's
Supreme Court blocked the extradition of American teenager Samuel
Sheinbein to the United States to face charges stemming from a slaying
in Maryland.
(AP, 2/25/00)
1999 Feb 25, South Korea granted
amnesty to 1,508 people including a convicted North Korean spy jailed
for 41 years. Civil rights were also to be restored to 7,304 people out
on parole.
(WSJ, 2/23/99, p.A1)
2000 Feb 25, The US sharply
criticized China for a marked deterioration in human rights.
(SFC, 2/26/00, p.A10)
2000 Feb 25, A jury in Albany, New
York, acquitted four white New York City police officers of all charges
in the shooting death of unarmed African immigrant Amadou Diallo.
(AP, 2/25/01)
2000 Feb 25, It was reported that
the number of HIV infected people in the Caribbean region ranged from
500,000-700,000. Cases in Haiti were estimated to be 330,000 and
150,000 in the Dominican Republic
(SFC, 2/26/00, p.A10)
2000 Feb 25, Journalist Andrei
Babitsky turned up alive. He was held by Russians in a detention center
in Makhachkala, Dagestan.
(SFEC, 2/27/00, p.A20)
2001 Feb 25, The Chinese-language
film “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon” became the most lucrative foreign
movie in US history, but tanked in China.
(SSFC, 12/30/01, p.D2)
2001 Feb 25, US Sec. of State
Colin Powell met separately with Ariel Sharon and Yasser Arafat seeking
to re-establish Middle East cooperation.
(SFC, 2/26/01, p.A1)
2001 Feb 25, The commander of the
U.S. submarine that struck and sank a Japanese trawler off Hawaii
expressed his "most sincere regret." Cmdr. Scott Waddle stopped short
of an apology.
(AP, 2/25/02)
2001 Feb 25, In Indonesia Borneo
Dayaks extended their area of burning and beheading of Madurese across
Central Kalimantan. 118 Madurese were slaughtered near Parenggean when
police bolted in fear of armed Dayaks.
(SFC, 2/26/01, p.A10)(SFC, 2/28/01, p.A10)
2001 Feb 25, In Northumberland,
England, over 800 pigs were destroyed and burned due to foot-and-mouth
disease. New cases appeared at a cattle and sheep ranch in the
southwest.
(SFC, 2/26/01, p.A10)
2001 Feb 25, In Moldova Communists
made strong gains in parliamentary elections. They won 70% of the seats
and would name the next president.
(WSJ, 2/26/01, p.A1)(WSJ, 2/27/01, p.A1)
2001 Feb 25, Russian military
officials promised to investigate a recently discovered grave in
Chechnya that contained 11 to several score Chechens with many of the
bodies mined. 48 bodies of men, women and children were found with gun
shot wounds. They had been dumped over the course of a year.
(SFC, 2/26/01, p.A10)(SFC, 3/3/01, p.A12)
2002 Feb 25, In NYC after a
35-year plot to accept bribes and cheat the city out of tax revenues,
16 tax assessors were arrested and charged with altering values of over
500 properties worth some $8 billion.
(SFC, 2/26/02, p.A5)
2002 Feb 25, Former NBA star
Jayson Williams was charged with manslaughter in the shooting death of
Costas "Gus" Christofi, a limousine driver at Williams' estate in
Alexandria Township, N.J. A jury convicted Williams in 2004 of trying
to cover up the slaying; it acquitted Williams of aggravated
manslaughter but deadlocked on a lesser charge of reckless manslaughter.
(AP, 2/25/07)
2002 Feb 25, Two women, Israeli
(Tamar Lifshitz) and a Palestinian (Maysoun Hayek), gave birth after
being shot in separate incidents. The Palestinian’s woman’s husband was
shot to death as they drove to a hospital in Nablus. The Israeli
woman’s father was killed in an ambush along with another man. 4
Israelis were killed at a bus stop in Jerusalem by a gunmen who was
killed.
(SFC, 2/26/02, p.A11)(WSJ, 2/26/02, p.A1)
2002 Feb 25, NATO offered Russia a
modified membership, with no veto power over political or military
policies.
(SFC, 2/26/02, p.A7)
2002 Feb 25, In Venezuela Gen.
Roman Gomez became the 4th military officer to call for Pres. Chavez to
step down.
(SFC, 2/26/02, p.A7)
2002 Feb 25, In Zimbabwe Morgan
Tsvangirai, presidential candidate, was charged with treason for
allegedly plotting to assassinate Pres. Mugabe.
(SFC, 2/26/02, p.A6)
2003 Feb 25, Chief U.N. weapons
inspector Hans Blix said Iraq was showing new signs of real
cooperation, but President Bush was dismissive, predicting Saddam
Hussein would try to "fool the world one more time."
(AP, 2/25/04)
2003 Feb 25, A US Army
Black Hawk helicopter on night training crashed in the Kuwaiti desert,
killing all four crew members.
(AP, 2/25/03)
2003 Feb 25, In Alabama 4
job seekers were killed at an employment agency following an argument
over a CD player.
(WSJ, 2/25/03, p.A1)
2003 Feb 25, In
southwestern Afghanistan assailants gunned down Habibullah Jan, a
district administrator in Nimroz province, as he left a mosque in
Dilaram.
(AP, 2/26/03)
2003 Feb 25, Striking
government workers brought much of Algeria, but not its lucrative oil
fields, to a halt, with no public transport and few flights. Suspected
Islamic extremists fired machine guns at cars at a roadblock, killing
12 people.
(AP, 2/25/03)(AP, 2/26/03)
2003 Feb 25, In Chile a
judge indicted 2 former commanders of the once feared secret police in
the 1974 assassination in Argentina of a former army commander opposed
to then-Pres. Augusto Pinochet. Gen. Manuel Contreras and Brig. Pedro
Espinoza were charged with homicide. 3 others, Gen'ls. Raul Iturriaga,
Jose Zara, and Iturriaga's brother, Jorge, were also indicted.
(AP, 2/26/03)
2003 Feb 25, China issued
its first group of long-term residency permits to 46 foreigners,
letting them live in the country for up to five years.
(AP, 2/25/03)
2003 Feb 25, Iraq provided
new information about its weapons and reported the discovery of 2
bombs, including one possibly filled with a biological agent.
(AP, 2/25/03)
2003 Feb 25, Israeli
soldiers shot and killed a Palestinian teenager in the Gaza Strip, and
a Hamas activist was critically wounded in an explosion in his home.
(AP, 2/25/03)
2003 Feb 25, In Kenya Pres.
Mwai Kibaki ordered the release of 28 death row inmates and commuted
the death sentences of another 195 inmates to life in prison, following
his campaign pledge to reform Kenya's prison system.
(AP, 2/25/03)
2003 Feb 25, In Malaysia a
summit of 116 developing countries suspicious of US military dominance
united behind calls to give Baghdad more time to disarm.
(AP, 2/25/03)
2003 Feb 25, In Mexico a
court upheld the conviction of an Egyptian man, Abdel Latif
Sharif, for one of the first in a series of murders of women in the
border city of Ciudad Juarez, but lowered the man's prison sentence to
20 years.
(AP, 2/26/03)
2003 Feb 25, In Nigeria
cars and buses ground to a halt in Africa's leading oil-producing
nation, gripped by its worst fuel shortage since military rule ended
four years ago. Nigeria, with a population of 120 million people,
consumes 300,000 barrels of crude oil daily. Panic buying followed a
recent strike.
(AP, 2/25/03)
2003 Feb 25, In South Korea
Roh Moo-hyun took power as president.
(AP, 2/25/03)
2004 Feb 25, The Mel Gibson film
"Passion of Christ" premiered on Ash Wednesday.
(SFC, 2/26/04, p.A1)
2004 Feb 25, Alan Greenspan
proposed that the US government scale back Social Security and Medicare
benefits to avoid future deficit problems.
(SFC, 2/26/04, p.A1)
2004 Feb 25, The US Supreme Court
ruled that states may withhold scholarships from students preparing for
the ministry.
(SFC, 2/26/04, p.A3)
2004 Feb 25, A US State Dept.
report criticized Russia's human rights record in Chechnya citing
reports of government involvement in "politically motivated
disappearances."
(SSFC, 2/29/04, p.A3)
2004 Feb 25, The annual TED
conference, founded in 1984, began in Monterey, Ca. The Sapling
Foundation (b.1996) bought the conference in 2001. TED sprung from an
observation by Richard Saul Wurman of a powerful convergence between
technology, entertainment and design.
(SSFC, 2/07/04, p.E5)
2004 Feb 25, It was reported that
a biologist had confirmed the sighting of a real Michigan wolverine,
about 200 years after the species was last seen in the state that uses
the small but ferocious animal as its unofficial nickname.
(AP, 2/25/04)
2004 Feb 25, In Afghanistan gunmen
opened fire on a vehicle carrying Afghan aid workers east of the
capital, killing five and wounding two others.
(AP, 2/26/04)
2004 Feb 25, Two American soldiers
were killed when their Kiowa helicopter crashed in a river west of
Baghdad. Witnesses indicated that it was shot down. Gunmen assassinated
the deputy police chief in Mosul.
(AP, 2/25/04)(WSJ, 2/26/04, p.A1)
2004 Feb 25, Israeli security
forces raided four branches of Palestinian banks, seizing $6.7 million
they said was sent by Iran, Syria and Lebanese Hezbollah guerrillas to
fund Palestinian militants.
(AP, 2/25/04)(WSJ, 2/26/04, p.A1)
2004 Feb 25, In Peru meat and
produce markets in Lima received smaller shipments during the second
day of a strike by cargo truck and passenger bus companies.
(AP, 2/25/04)
2004 Feb 25, The head of Doe Run
Peru, a US-owned smelter in Oroyo, Peru, admitted that lead poisoning
of children by the facility's emissions was a serious problem, but said
his company would not be able to significantly reduce the contamination
until 2011.
(AP, 2/25/04)(www.doerun.com/)
2004 Feb 25, In northern Uganda
massive street protests after a massacre by rebels turned violent, with
mobs beating rival tribesmen and burning houses and police shooting
into the crowd. At least nine people were killed.
(AP, 2/25/04)
2005 Feb 25, Kansas police
arrested Dennis Rader, a 59-year-old city worker at his suburban home
in Park City. They believe he is the notorious BTK (bind, torture,
kill) serial killer who terrorized Wichita throughout the 1970s. He
resurfaced about a year ago after 25 years of silence. He later pleaded
guilty and was sentenced to 10 life prison terms.
(SSFC, 2/27/05, p.A3)(AP, 2/25/06)
2005 Feb 25, Hall of Fame
basketball coach John Chaney was suspended for the rest of the regular
season by Philadelphia’s Temple Univ. for ordering rough play by one of
his players during a game against Saint Joseph's.
(AP, 2/25/06)
2005 Feb 25, Bank of America
reported the loss of computer tapes containing personal information on
1.2 million federal employees including some US Senate members.
(SFC, 2/26/05, p.A1)
2005 Feb 25, The Walt Disney Co.
agreed to sell the Anaheim Mighty Ducks hockey team to billionaire
Henry Samueli and his wife, Susan, for $75 million.
(AP, 2/25/06)
2005 Feb 25, Peter Benenson (83),
founder of Amnesty International (1961), died in Oxford, England.
Amnesty Int’l. won a Nobel Prize in 1977.
(SFC, 2/28/05, p.B3)(Econ, 3/5/05, p.85)
2005 Feb 25, Argentina’s debt swap
offer, to cover a total debt of $102.6 billion, closed. Argentina
planned to issue $35.2 billion in new bonds to those who accepted the
swap. Owners of 76% of the 2001 defaulted bonds accepted the swap
losing 65% of their investment. In 2008 a proposal was in the works to
settle with the remaining holdouts.
(WSJ, 3/28/05, p.A14)(Econ, 9/27/08, p.49)
2005 Feb 25, Brazil’s government
awarded a disputed patch of Amazon rainforest to a sustainable
development project championed by the slain American nun Dorothy Stang.
(AP, 2/26/05)
2005 Feb 25, President Alvaro
Uribe on authorized the extradition to the US of a female commander
with Colombia's largest rebel group who was allegedly a chief of
finances for the armed organization.
(AP, 2/25/05)
2005 Feb 25, In Congo militiamen
in the volatile Ituri district ambushed UN troops. 9 Bangladeshi
peacekeepers were killed in what was the 4th deadliest attack on UN
troops in Africa.
(AP, 2/25/05)
2005 Feb 25, Atef Sedki (75),
former PM of Egypt (1986-1996), died. He helped steer Egypt toward a
market-oriented economy.
(AP, 2/25/05)
2005 Feb 25, French Finance
Minister Herve Gaymard quit over his handling of a scandal about his
state-paid luxury flat that rocked a conservative government as it
forces unpopular cost-cutting measures on a restive nation.
(AP, 2/25/05)
2005 Feb 25, Sima Bakhar, Mrs.
Israel, won the Mrs. World 2005 pageant at Amby Valley, 140 kilometers
( 87 miles) north of Bombay, India. Forty-one contestants from across
the globe participated in the pageant, held first time in India.
(AP, 2/25/05)
2005 Feb 25, In Iraq a roadside
bomb blast killed three US soldiers and wounded eight others north of
Baghdad. Saboteurs blew up an oil pipeline in northern Iraq. In Mosul
the body of Raiedah Mohammed Wageh Wazan, a female Iraqi television
presenter kidnapped last week, was found dead from 4 gunshots to the
head.
(AP, 2/25/05)(AP, 2/26/05)
2005 Feb 25, A Palestinian suicide
bomber blew himself up in a crowd of young Israelis waiting outside the
Stage nightclub near Tel Aviv's beachfront promenade just before
midnight, killing at least four other people, wounding dozens.
(AP, 2/25/05)(SFC, 2/26/05, p.A1)
2005 Feb 25, In Togo Faure
Gnassingbe, whose predecessor — his father — had been Africa's
longest-serving leader, stepped down as a result of almost
unprecedented African resolve against an old-style coup d'etat.
(AP, 2/26/05)
2005 Feb 25, The Zimbabwe
government accused the independent Weekly Times of violating its
operating license and ordered it to shut down.
(SSFC, 2/27/05, p.A3)
2006 Feb 25, A senior US diplomat
said the US will continue to give humanitarian aid to ease the plight
of the Palestinians despite militant group Hamas's victory in elections.
(AP, 2/25/06)
2006 Feb 25, In Rhode Island Brown
University announced it will stop investing in companies that do
business in Sudan because the country has been accused of genocide.
(AP, 2/25/06)
2006 Feb 25, It was reported that
researchers in SF had discovered a new virus, dubbed XMRV, inside
tumors of some men with prostate cancer.
(SFC, 2/25/06, p.A2)
2006 Feb 25, The population on
Earth was projected to hit 6.5 billion people.
(www.livescience.com/othernews/060224_world_population.html)
2006 Feb 25, It was reported that
there were 691 billionaires worldwide, compared with 423 in 1996.
(Econ, 2/25/06, Survey p.3)
2006 Feb 25, Darren McGavin (83),
TV and film star, died of natural causes at a Los Angeles-area
hospital. His 5 TV series included “Mike Hammer” and “Kolchak: The
Night Stalker.”
(AP, 2/26/06)(SSFC, 2/26/06, p.B8)
2006 Feb 25, An Afghan court found
Asadullah Sarwari (64), a communist-era intelligence chief, guilty of
ordering hundreds of killings and sentenced him to death.
(AP, 2/25/06)
2006 Feb 25, In Afghanistan
hundreds of inmates, including convicted al-Qaida and Taliban
militants, waving knives and wielding clubs made from furniture
overpowered guards and took control of parts of Policharki Prison, a
high-security prison in Kabul.
(AP, 2/26/06)
2006 Feb 25, In Bangladesh a
5-story building undergoing renovations collapsed in the Tejgaon
district of Dhaka, crushing tin-roof homes in a surrounding shantytown.
At least 18 people were killed and more were feared trapped.
(AFP, 2/25/06)(SSFC, 2/26/06, p.A3)
2006 Feb 25, British police said
two men were arrested near Maidstone in Kent in southeast England in
connection with what may be Britain's biggest bank robbery.
(AFP, 2/25/06)
2006 Feb 25, Canada's Clara Hughes
celebrated her Olympic Games 5000m speedskating gold medal by revealing
that she was going to donate every penny she has in her bank account to
charity. Hughes will donate 10,000 dollars to the Right to Play
organization which aims to encourage disadvantaged youngsters to
improve themselves through sport.
(AFP, 2/25/06)
2006 Feb 25, China Xinhua News
reported that an orphanage director and nine other people in Hengyang
had been sentenced to prison for buying and selling scores of infants
who were adopted by foreign parents. Another 22 officials were fired in
the case in Hunan province.
(AP, 2/25/06)
2006 Feb 25, China warned of the
threat of a massive avian flu outbreak among birds in the country as it
reported two new human cases, a girl in eastern Zhejiang province and a
woman farmer in neighboring Anhui province.
(Reuters, 2/26/06)
2006 Feb 25, In southern Colombia
leftist rebels killed 9 people in an attack on a passenger bus that
defied a guerrilla-imposed traffic ban.
(AP, 2/26/06)
2006 Feb 25, India reported an
outbreak of the H5N1 strain of bird flu in a 2nd state. At least two
infected chickens were discovered at a farm in the Utchal area of
Gujarat.
(AP, 2/25/06)
2006 Feb 25, In Indonesia's Papua
province protesters obstructing access to a mine owned by a unit of US
firm Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc. called off their blockade.
(AP, 2/25/06)
2006 Feb 25, Indonesia raised its
death toll due to the H5N1 strain of bird flu to 20 after tests confirm
that a woman (27) had succumbed to H5N1 in Jakarta on Feb 20.
(AP, 2/25/06)
2006 Feb 25, In Iraq leaders of
rival factions held an emergency meeting and agreed to condemn
sectarian violence.
(SSFC, 2/26/06, p.A1)
2006 Feb 25, A car bomb exploded
in Karbala, a Shiite holy city, killing 5 people. In Buhriz 13 members
of one Shiite family were gunned down northeast Baghdad. The surge of
attacks killed at least 30 people despite heightened security aimed at
curbing sectarian violence following the bombing of a revered Shiite
shrine. The government extended the daytime curfew for a second day in
Baghdad and the flashpoint provinces of Babil, Diyala and Salaheddin,
where the shrine bombing took place. The bodies of 14 Iraqi police
commandos were found near a Sunni mosque in southern Baghdad. Gunmen
fired on the funeral procession of correspondent Atwar Bahjat and
bombed an Iraqi military patrol that was escorting mourners. At least
three people were killed and six injured.
(AP, 2/25/06)
2006 Feb 25, In Indian Kashmir
Thousands of Shiite Muslims held noisy demonstrations for a third
straight day to protest the bombing of a revered shrine in Iraq.
(AP, 2/25/06)
2006 Feb 25, Apolo Anton Ohno
upset favored South Korean Ahn Hyun-soo to win the gold in the
500-meter short track speedskating event at the Winter Games in Turin,
Italy.
(AP, 2/25/07)
2006 Feb 25, In Jamaica Portia
Simpson Miller, a Cabinet minister was positioned to become Jamaica's
next prime minister and first female head of government, after narrowly
beating a former Rastafarian in internal elections to head the
country's ruling party.
(AP, 2/26/06)
2006 Feb 25, In Mexico mining
officials said there was little hope of finding any of miners alive
from the Feb 19 gas explosion at the Industrial Minera Mexico mine near
San Juan Sabinas.
(SSFC, 2/26/06, p.A3)
2006 Feb 25, Riots broke out in
Dublin, Northern Ireland, as republican demonstrators mounted a
counter-march to a scheduled loyalist rally. Damages were estimated at
$12 million.
(Econ, 3/4/06,
p.48)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2006_Dublin_Republican_riots)
2006 Feb 25, In northern Nigeria
35 were killed and five were injured when two buses collided head-on
and caught fire at Kwarna-Jagga in Jigawa state.
(Reuters, 2/27/06)
2006 Feb 25, Portugal and the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) signed an accord that could
lead to technology partnerships in the Iberian nation.
(AP, 2/25/06)
2006 Feb 25, Uganda’s election
commission declared that President Yoweri Museveni (62) overwhelmingly
won re-election in the first multiparty elections in 25 years. The
national electoral commission counted ballots at each polling station
and immediately announced the results. Adding up those results, the
opposition and local media also produced a total count starkly
different from the official total. They suggested that fraud was
occurring at a national center where the total vote was tallied.
Museveni and his National Resistance Movement dominated state-run radio
and television and used state resources to campaign.
(AP, 2/25/06)
2006 Feb 25, In Zimbabwe Arthur
Mutambara, a former NASA researcher, was elected as president of a
faction of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC). He vowed to unite
his divided party against the regime of Robert Mugabe which he accused
of creating chaos in the country.
(AFP, 2/26/06)
2007 Feb 25, Martin Scorsese's mob
epic "The Departed" won best picture at the Academy Awards and earned
the filmmaker the directing prize that had eluded him throughout his
illustrious career. Forest Whittaker won for best actor in "The Last
King of Scotland" and Helen Mirren took the best actress trophy
for her portrayal of Queen Elizabeth II in "The Queen." Alan Arkin won
the best supporting actor award for his role in “Little Miss Sunshine.”
Jennifer Hudson won the best supporting actress award for her role in
“Dreamgirls.”
(AP, 2/26/07)(SFC, 2/26/07, p.D1)
2007 Feb 25, In Detroit Nation of
Islam leader Louis Farrakhan stressed religious unity during what was
billed as his final major speech, saying the world was at war because
Christians and Muslims were divided.
(AP, 2/25/08)
2007 Feb 25, In Bangladesh at
least six prominent political figures were arrested as they appeared
before an anti-corruption panel to explain how they amassed wealth far
in excess of their income.
(AP, 2/25/07)
2007 Feb 25, In Brazil gunmen
killed five people in a Sao Paulo slum in what police suspect was a
drug-related crime, bringing to 21 the death toll from attacks this
month in South America's biggest city.
(AP, 2/25/07)
2007 Feb 25, State news media
reported that Cuba has opened an experimental wind farm, hoping
alternative energy sources can one day ease occasional power shortages
while reducing the island's dependence on oil.
(AP, 2/25/07)
2007 Feb 25, PM Jose Ramos-Horta
of East Timor told a cheering crowd in his hometown that he will run in
April's presidential elections, vowing to help return peace and
stability to the troubled nation.
(AP, 2/25/07)
2007 Feb 25, Four imprisoned
Guatemalan policemen were killed in their cells, days after being
arrested in connection with the deaths of three Salvadoran politicians.
Rioting inmates also took the warden and other prison officials hostage.
(AP, 2/26/07)
2007 Feb 25, Guinea's powerful
union chiefs called off a crippling strike after the president agreed
to appoint a new prime minister in an attempt to end simmering unrest
that has killed scores of people this year. Conte later appointed
Lansana Kouyate as prime minister, from a list approved by union
leaders.
(AP, 2/25/07)(AP, 9/29/09)
2007 Feb 25, In India a 6-day
national meeting of Indian sex workers started in the city of Kolkata
to press demands for labor rights and legal recognition as
entertainment workers.
(AP, 2/25/07)
2007 Feb 25, Levina 1, a charred
Indonesian ferry, sank while investigators and journalists were on
board inspecting the damage from a fire last week. At least one
cameraman drowned and three other people were missing. The death toll
from the Feb 22 fire continued to rise.
(AP, 2/25/07)
2007 Feb 25, Iran’s Pres. Mahmoud
Ahmadinejad said his country would proceed with its nuclear program,
comparing its nuclear drive to a train that has no reverse gear or
brakes. Iran said it had successfully launched its first rocket into
space for research purposes. The rocket reached an altitude of 150
kilometers (93 miles) but did not stay in orbit.
(AP, 2/25/07)(AFP, 2/25/07)
2007 Feb 25, A suicide bomber
struck outside a college campus in Baghdad, killing at least 41 people
and injuring dozens. Earlier, two Katyusha rockets hit a Shiite enclave
in southern Baghdad, killing at least 10, and a bomb near the fortified
Green Zone claimed two lives. A separate car bombing in a Shiite
district in central Baghdad killed at least one person and injured
four. In Mosul US troops killed two gunmen in a raid and captured a
suspected local leader of the insurgent group al-Qaida in Iraq. Iraqi
and US troops killed 10 militants and seized six weapons stashes in
raids in Diyala province.
(AP, 2/25/07)(AP, 3/1/07)
2007 Feb 25, Dozens of Israeli
jeeps and armored vehicles poured into Nablus overnight, placing large
areas of the city under curfew and conducting house-to-house arrest
raids in one of the largest West Bank military operations in months.
(AP, 2/25/07)
2007 Feb 25, It was reported that
Libya, 30 years after officially proclaiming itself socialist, is
gradually opening up its banking system with a string of privatizations
in the works and the establishment of foreign banks. In late January,
the Central Bank of Libya announced its intention to sell a minority
stake in one of the north African country's five state-owned commercial
banks, Sahara Bank, to a "leading international financial institution."
(AFP, 2/25/07)
2007 Feb 25, Heavy rains from a
cyclone sparked more flooding in Mozambique, worsening a humanitarian
crisis that has already killed 45 people and forced 140,000 from their
homes.
(Reuters, 2/25/07)
2007 Feb 25, In Nigeria riot
police were deployed to quell communal clashes that have claimed
several lives in the southern oil-rich Ogoniland.
(AP, 2/25/07)
2007 Feb 25, Thieves in Oslo,
Norway, stole a work of art by Jan Christensen called "Relative Value."
It had pasted bills worth $16,300 on a sprawling 7-by-13 foot canvas.
(AP, 2/26/07)
2007 Feb 25, Pakistan PM Shaukat
Aziz told foreign ministers from seven key Muslim states meeting in
Islamabad that a joint push by the Islamic world is needed to end the
turmoil in the Middle East.
(AFP, 2/25/07)
2007 Feb 25, In eastern Pakistan
at least 11 people were killed and more than 100 people injured by
sharpened kite strings, stray bullets and other accidents at the annual
two-day Basant kite-flying festival. Five of those who died were hit by
stray bullets, including a 6-year-old boy who was struck in the head.
(AP, 2/26/07)
2007 Feb 25, Senegal held
elections. President Abdoulaye Wade, seeking another five years in
office, declared he was confident of winning the election outright and
would avoid a runoff in the ballot to decide who will lead one of
Africa's most stable democracies.
(AP, 2/25/07)
2007 Feb 25, Pirates hijacked a
cargo ship delivering UN food aid to northeastern Somalia, at least the
third time since 2005 that a vessel contracted to the United Nations
has been hijacked off the country's dangerous coast.
(AP, 2/25/07)
2007 Feb 25, Vietnamese officials
and state media said police have accused Nguyen Van Ly, a prominent
dissident Catholic priest, of disseminating propaganda intended to
undermine the communist government. Van Ly founded Bloc 8406, which
called for democracy, in 2006.
(AP, 2/25/07)(Econ, 3/31/07, p.49)
2008 Feb 25, In Connecticut 5
former insurance company executives were found guilty of a scheme to
manipulate the financial statements of the world's largest insurance
company, American International Group Inc.
(AP, 2/25/08)
2008 Feb 25, Visa Inc. said its
initial public offering later this year could raise up to $19 billion,
making it the largest in US history. Visa will offer 406 million shares
at $37 to $42 per share.
(AP, 2/25/08)(SFC, 2/26/08, p.A1)
2008 Feb 25, The Taliban
threatened to attack mobile phone facilities in Afghanistan, alleging
that the technology was being used at night to pin-point the Islamic
rebels' hideouts. 7 insurgents were killed in two separate clashes in
Helmand province. A rocket fired by insurgents in the Kajaki region of
Helmand province killed five Afghan civilians.
(AFP, 2/25/08)(AP, 2/27/08)
2008 Feb 25, In Argentina the body
of Paul Alberto Navone, a retired army officer, was found dead of a
gunshot in an apparent suicide. He had been called to testify about the
fate of twins born to a political prisoner in 1978.
(AP, 2/27/08)
2008 Feb 25, Czech PM Mirek
Topolanek said he will complete a deal on missile defense this week in
Washington, and attributed Russian opposition to the project to
lingering frustration over the collapse of the Soviet Union. During his
visit Topolanek signed a memorandum of understanding that will allow
Czechs to apply for a US visa waiver online.
(AP, 2/25/08)(Econ, 3/8/08, p.61)
2008 Feb 25, In Guatemala
President Alvaro Colom announced that a new panel will work to
declassify military documents that should shed light on killings,
torture and other human rights violations during Guatemala's 36-year
civil war.
(AP, 2/25/08)
2008 Feb 25, A roadside bomb
killed four Shiite pilgrims and wounded 15 south of Baghdad in at least
the third fatal attack on people traveling to one of their sect's most
sacred gatherings. A suicide bomber in a wheelchair talked his way into
Samarra’s operations center and blew himself up, killing the deputy
commander, Abdul Jabbar Rabeia. Gunmen opened fire on a police convoy
in Mosul. Four officers were killed in the attack.
(AP, 2/25/08)
2008 Feb 25, The New York
Philharmonic arrived in a snowy Pyongyang to play the symphony "From
the New World" in an overture to thaw still frozen ties from the Cold
War era between the United States and North Korea.
(AP, 2/25/08)
2008 Feb 25, In Pakistan a suicide
bomber hit a car carrying Lt. Gen. Mushtaq Ahmed Baig, the army's
surgeon general, in Rawalpindi, killing him along with at least seven
other people. Gunmen opened fire and hurled grenades at the office of a
British-run aid group in northwest Pakistan, killing at least four
local staff and wounding 10 others.
(AP, 2/25/08)(AFP, 2/25/08)
2008 Feb 25, Thousands of
Filipinos took to the streets and flocked to churches in a fresh wave
of nationwide protests on the anniversary of a 1986 grass-roots revolt,
calling for President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo to resign.
(AP, 2/25/08)
2008 Feb 25, Up to 2,000 Serb
protesters rallied against Kosovo's independence in the new nation's
tense north, a few setting fire to EU flags in what has become a daily
challenge following the country's secession from Serbia.
(AP, 2/25/08)
2008 Feb 25, South Africa
announced that it was reversing a 1995 ban on killing elephants to help
control their booming population, drawing instant outrage from
animal-rights activists.
(AP, 2/25/08)
2008 Feb 25, In South Korea former
businessman Lee Myung-Bak took office as president, promising greater
prosperity both for his own nation and for impoverished North Korea if
it scraps its nuclear drive.
(AP, 2/25/08)
2008 Feb 25, Turkey's military
said it had killed 41 more separatist Kurdish rebels in clashes in
northern Iraq, raising the reported guerrilla death toll in a
cross-border operation to 153.
(AP, 2/25/08)
2009 Feb 25, Attorney General Eric
Holder said US and Mexican authorities have arrested 750 people over 21
months in an anti-drug sweep that included 52 members of Mexico's
Sinaloa drug cartel. The crackdown culminated 50 overnight raids. It
investigated crimes in the United States, Mexico and Canada, netted
some 59 million dollars in cash, 12,000 kilos (12 tons) of cocaine, 544
kilos (1,200 pounds) of methamphetamine and 1.3 million Ecstasy pills.
(AFP, 2/25/09)(WSJ, 2/26/09, p.A6)
2009 Feb 25, A Federal Grand Jury
returned a single count indictment charging Kody Ray Brittingham (20)
of Camp Lejeune, NC, with threatening the President-Elect of the United
States, in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 871,
which has a maximum penalty of 5 years imprisonment followed by up to
three years of supervised release and a fine of up to $250,000. In
August Brittingham pleaded guilty to charges of threatening to kill
Pres. Obama and armed robbery. Brittingham was arrested in mid-December
on an unrelated armed robbery charge and, as a result, separated from
the service on Jan 3. But a search of his barracks also turned up a
journal containing white supremacist material and a plan to kill Obama.
(www.marinecorpstimes.com/news/2009/03/marine_obamathreats_032109w/)(SSFC,
12/6/09, p.A18)
2009 Feb 25, US Interior Sec. Ken
Salazar put the brakes on leases, created under the Bush
administration, on federal land for oil-shale development in Colorado,
Utah and Wyoming. He said the Bush royalty rates would shortchange
taxpayers.
(AP, 2/26/09)(WSJ, 2/26/09, p.A6)
2009 Feb 25, The US Supreme Court
ruled that the Summum group does not have a right to erect the “Seven
aphorism” of its beliefs in Pleasant Gove City, Utah, park just because
the Ten Commandments are displayed there.
(SFC, 2/26/09, p.A6)
2009 Feb 25, The FBI arrested
money managers Paul Greenwood (61) of North Salem, NY, and Stephen
Walsh (64) of Sands Point, NY, on charges of conspiracy, securities
fraud and wire fraud. They ware accused of misappropriating at least
$553 million.
(WSJ, 2/26/09, p.A1)
2009 Feb 25, In Florida Pablo
Josue Amador (53), a Cuban immigrant and piano teacher, shot and killed
wife, Maria (45), and their youngest daughters, Prescilla and Rosa, 14
and 13, before killing himself. A teenage son escaped the shootings and
called police.
(AP, 2/26/09)
2009 Feb 25, In Afghanistan a
remote control bomb planted on a motorcycle exploded in Kandahar city
as a convoy of soldiers was passing. Two Afghan bystanders were killed,
and eight people, including five soldiers, were wounded. A roadside
bomb killed 3 British soldiers in Helmand province. A 4th died from
wounds sustained in a firefight.
(AP, 2/25/09)(WSJ, 2/26/09, p.A1)(AFP, 2/26/09)
2009 Feb 25, Mutinous Bangladeshi
border guards opened fire at their headquarters in the capital and
seized a nearby shopping mall, injuring several people in an
insurrection apparently sparked by pay disputes. They agreed to
surrender after the government said it would grant them amnesty.
(AP, 2/25/09)
2009 Feb 25, Danish and Chinese
warships stopped pirates attacking two different vessels off Somalia's
coast.
(AP, 2/26/09)
2009 Feb 25, An Estonian court
convicted a former top security official of treason for passing
domestic and NATO secrets to Russia, the Baltic country's biggest
espionage scandal since the Cold War. Herman Simm (61), the former head
of security at the Estonian Defense Ministry, pleaded guilty and was
sentenced to 12 years and six months in prison. Russia’s foreign
service (SVR) had recruited Mr. Simm on his holiday in Tunisia in 1995.
(AP, 2/25/09)(Econ, 2/28/09, p.56)
2009 Feb 25, The European Bank for
Reconstruction and Development said that it would invest a record 7.0
billion euros this year in the former Soviet bloc to combat an economic
crisis in eastern Europe.
(AFP, 2/25/09)
2009 Feb 25, In Paris an auction
of art works owned by the late fashion designer Yves Saint Laurent
concluded with dazzling sales of nearly $500 million. Two rare bronze
sculptures that disappeared from China nearly 150 years ago and
demanded back by Beijing, sold for millions. The Chinese businessman,
who bid $15.1 million, later refused payment.
(AP, 2/26/09)(Econ, 3/7/09, p.92)
2009 Feb 25, A 24-hour strike by
Greek civil servants disrupted services across the country, forcing
public hospitals to accept only emergency cases and airlines to cancel
at least 68 flights.
(AP, 2/25/09)
2009 Feb 25, A UN survey said
homicides in Honduras had more than doubled from 2,155 in 2004 to 4,473
in 2008.
(SSFC, 3/1/09, p.A4)
2009 Feb 25, In India police
charged Mohammed Ajmal Kasab, the man they say is the lone surviving
gunman in last year's Mumbai attacks, with "waging war" against India
and included two Pakistani soldiers among 37 others charged.
(Reuters, 2/25/09)
2009 Feb 25, Iranian and Russian
technicians conducted a test run of Iran's first nuclear power plant, a
major step toward launching full operations at the facility.
(AP, 2/25/09)
2009 Feb 25, Iraqi authorities
ordered the mid-flight return of a plane carrying a Sunni lawmaker
accused of directing a private terror cell, forcing him back to Baghdad
hours before parliament lifted his immunity and cleared the way for his
arrest. Mohammed al-Dayni faced allegations he masterminded a string of
attacks that include a 2007 suicide bombing inside the parliament
building and mortar strike on Baghdad's Green Zone. Al-Dayni was picked
up by his personal security contingent before government security
arrived. He was later believed to be in Syria where he appeared on a
cooking show.
(AP, 2/25/09)(SFC, 2/26/09, p.A2)(AP, 5/30/09)
2009 Feb 25, A passenger bus
plunged into a river in the Indian part of Kashmir, killing at least 33
people.
(AP, 2/25/09)
2009 Feb 25, Kenya announced its
first polio infection in 20 years, after a 4-year-old girl was
diagnosed with the disease along the country's remote border with Sudan.
(AP, 2/25/09)
2009 Feb 25, In Lebanon 3 men
jailed for more than three years in the assassination of former PM
Rafik Hariri were set free on bail, days before an international
tribunal was to begin trying the case. Brothers Mahmoud and Ahmed
Abdel-Al, a member of a pro-Syrian Sunni Muslim fundamentalist group,
were detained in 2005. Syrian Ibrahim Jarjoura, was arrested in 2006 on
suspicion he gave false evidence and misled the investigation.
(AP, 2/25/09)
2009 Feb 25, Macao passed its own
version of “Article 23” legislation, which provided sweeping but vague
language banning sedition, but had failed to pass in Hong Kong.
(Econ, 3/21/09, p.43)
2009 Feb 25, In Martinique vandals
burned cars and looted stores overnight, as violence spread to a second
French Caribbean island in protests over high prices, low pay and
alleged neglect by officials in Paris.
(AP, 2/25/09)
2009 Feb 25, Mexico’s government
said it will deploy extra troops and federal police to Ciudad Juarez
across the border from Texas, where the police chief recently bowed to
crime gang demands that he resign.
(AP, 2/26/09)
2009 Feb 25, Nigerian teachers in
the country's southwest launched an indefinite strike to press demands
for better pay.
(AFP, 2/26/09)
2009 Feb 25, Pakistan's Supreme
Court barred main opposition leader and former premier Nawaz Sharif
from holding office and contesting elections, sparking political
turmoil in the nuclear-armed nation. The court also turfed his younger
brother, Shahbaz Sharif, out of Punjab’s provincial parliament and his
post as its chief minister.
(AFP, 2/25/09)(Econ, 2/28/09, p.47)
2009 Feb 25, Militants in Gaza
launched rockets at southern Israel and Israeli planes attacked
smuggling tunnels as a stable truce between the two sides remained
elusive. Palestinian PM Salam Fayyad said he is seeking $2.8 billion in
foreign aid for rebuilding Gaza Strip. The rival Palestinian groups
Hamas and Fatah agreed to release each other's loyalists from
detention, seeking to lower tensions during reconciliation talks.
(AP, 2/25/09)
2009 Feb 25, Russian news agencies
quoted Chief Military Prosecutor Sergei Fridinsky as saying that his
office has exposed an attempt by military officers to smuggle $18
million worth of stolen Russian weapons to China via Tajikistan.
(AP, 2/25/09)
2009 Feb 25, Russia issued a DVD
and a thick book of historical documents to dispute claims that the
Ukrainian famine of the 1930s amounted to genocide. It was argued that
the Stalin-era famine was a common tragedy across Soviet farmlands.
(SFC, 2/26/09, p.A2)
2009 Feb 25, Rwandan troops began
pulling out of eastern Democratic Republic of Congo after a
controversial joint operation with Congolese troops against Rwandan
Hutu rebels.
(AFP, 2/25/09)
2009 Feb 25, Saudi police were
reported to have clashed with Shiite pilgrims over several days near a
cemetery in Islam's second-holiest city, leading Shiite Cleric Sheik
Nimr al-Nimr to appeal to the king to put a stop to the "insults"
of the religious police. Shiites make up a small minority of the
country's 22 million people. Following the incendiary sermon, more than
35 people were arrested in a government crackdown and al-Nimr went into
hiding.
(AP, 2/25/09)(AP, 4/1/09)
2009 Feb 25, In Sierra Leone an
international court modeled after the Nuremberg tribunal convicted 3
top rebel leaders of crimes against humanity. Revolutionary United
Front leader Issa Sesay and one of his battlefield commanders Morris
Kallon were found guilty on 16 of 18 counts, including mutilation,
terrorism, rape, forced marriage, sexual slavery and the enlistment of
child soldiers. Commander, Augustine Gbao, was found guilty on 14 of
the 18 counts. On April 8 Sesay was sentenced to 51 years in prison,
Kallon to 40 years, and Gbao to 25 years.
(AP, 2/25/09)(WSJ, 4/9/09, p.A10)
2009 Feb 25, In Somalia an
artillery shell killed two schoolchildren in Mogadishu during the
second day of fighting between AU peacekeepers and Islamist insurgents.
The death toll in the worst fighting for weeks reached 81.
(AP, 2/25/09)(Reuters, 2/25/09)
2009 Feb 25, Spain’s Foreign
Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos said Spain is open 'in principle' to
accepting prisoners from the US prison camp at Guantanamo Bay.
(AP, 2/25/09)
2009 Feb 25, In Sri Lanka troops
fought on the outskirts of the last town under rebel control. Aid
groups estimated that more than 200,000 people were trapped in a small
strip of rebel-held territory.
(AP, 2/25/09)
2009 Feb 25, A Turkish Airlines
plane with 135 people aboard slammed into a muddy field while
attempting to land at Amsterdam's main airport. Nine people were killed
and more than 50 were injured, many in serious condition.
(AP, 2/25/09)
2009 Feb 25, Standard and Poor's
said on it had cut Ukraine's credit ratings to a level indicating
vulnerability to default, amid worries over whether Kiev will receive
the next slice of a vital IMF loan.
(AP, 2/25/09)
2009 Feb 25, Uzbek President Islam
Karimov said he would allow the US to transport non-military supplies
through his country as part of a new supply route to Afghanistan.
(AP, 2/25/09)
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