Today in History - March 12
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604 Mar 12,
Gregory I the Great (64), Pope (590-604), died. In 1997 R.A. Markus
authored “Gregory the Great and His World.”
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pope_Gregory_I)(WSJ,
4/12/08, p.W8)
1054 Mar 12, Pope Leo IX escaped
captivity and returned to Rome.
(MC, 3/12/02)
1254 Mar 12, Mindaugas
granted Christian, Lithuania’s 1st Bishop, lands in Samogitia.
(LHC, 3/12/03)
1388 Mar 12, Pope Urban VI
authorized Poznan’s Bishop Dobrogost to establish a Vilnius archdiocese.
(LHC, 3/12/03)
1496 Mar 12, Jews were expelled
from Syria.
(HN, 3/12/98)
1507 Mar 12, Cesare Borgia (31),
cardinal, soldier, politician, died while fighting alongside his
brother, the king of Navarre, in Spain.
(HN, 3/12/99)(MC, 3/12/02)
1554 Mar 12, Richard Hooker,
English theologian, was born. He authored "Laws of Ecclesiastical
Polity."
(HN, 3/12/99)
1569 Mar 12, Zigmantas
Augustas broke away from Lithuania and attached Volinija and Palenki to
Poland.
(LHC, 3/12/03)
1587 Mar 12, Peter Wentworth,
English parliament leader, was confined in London Tower. [see Mar 1]
(MC, 3/12/02)
1622 Mar 12, Ignatius of Loyola
(founder of the Jesuits) was declared a saint.
(MC, 3/12/02)
1642 Mar 12, Abel Tasman became
the 1st European to land in New Zealand. [see Nov 24, Dec 13]
(MC, 3/12/02)
1664 Mar 12, England’s King
Charles II granted land in the New World, known as New Netherland
(later New Jersey), to his brother James, the Duke of York.
(HN, 3/12/98)(AP, 3/12/08)
1689 Mar 12, Former English King
James II landed in Ireland.
(MC, 3/12/02)
1737 Mar 12, Galileo's body was
moved to Church of Santa Croce in Florence, Italy.
(MC, 3/12/02)
1755 Mar 12, The 1st steam engine
in America was installed to pump water from a mine.
(MC, 3/12/02)
1773 Mar 12, Jeanne Baptiste
Pointe de Sable settled what is now known as Chicago.
(MC, 3/12/02)
1799 Mar 12, Austria declared war
on France.
(MC, 3/12/02)
1809 Mar 12, Great Britain signed
a treaty with Persia forcing the French out of the country.
(HN, 3/12/99)
1824 Mar 12, Gustav Robert
Kirchoff, physicist, was born in Prussia.
(HN, 3/12/98)(MC, 3/12/02)
1831 Mar 12, Clement Studebaker,
auto maker, was born.
(HN, 3/12/98)
1832 Mar 12, Charles Boycott,
estate manager who caused boycotts, was born in Ireland.
(MC, 3/12/02)
1835 Mar 12, Simon Newcomb, US
scientist, mathematician, astronomer, was born.
(MC, 3/12/02)
1857 Mar 12, The opera "Simon
Boccanegra," by Giuseppe Verdi, premiered in Venice, Italy.
(AP, 3/12/07)
1858 Mar 12, Adolph Simon Ochs,
publisher of The New York Times, was born.
(HN, 3/12/01)
1860 Mar 12, US Congress accepted
the Pre-emption Bill. It provided free land in West for colonists.
(MC, 3/12/02)
1862 Mar 12, Jane Delano (d.1919),
nurse, teacher and founder of the American Red Cross, was born in
Montour Falls, New York. She helped the American Red Cross Nursing
Service to be recognized as the nursing reserve for the Army and Navy.
(www.wordiq.com/definition/Jane_Delano)
1863 Mar 12, President Jefferson
Davis delivered his State of the Confederacy address.
(HN, 3/12/98)
1863 May 12, The Battle of
Raymond, Miss., was fought.
(SC, internet, 5/12/97)
1864 Mar 12, Ulysses S. Grant
became commander in chief of the Union armies in the American Civil War.
(AP, 3/12/07)
1877 Mar 12, In Philadelphia the
first department store, The Grand Depot, opened. John Wanamaker turned
an abandoned railway depot into one of the world’s 1st department
stores.
(HN, 3/12/98)(Econ, 4/2/05, p.11)(ON, 12/05, p.5)
1879 Mar 12, The British Zulu War
began. Colonel Henry Evelyn Wood had expected little trouble as his
cavalry ascended Holbane Mountain. What he got was a Zulu army, 22,000
men strong.
(HN, 3/12/98)
1884 Mar 12, Mississippi
established the first U.S. state college for women.
(HN, 3/12/98)
1890 Mar 12, Vasav Nijinsky
(d.1950), Russian dancer, was born. He was considered the world's
greatest ballet dancer. [see Feb 28]
(HN, 3/12/99)
1890 May 12, Louisiana legalized
prize fighting.
(SC, internet, 5/12/97)
1894 Mar 12, Coca-Cola was sold in
bottles for the first time.
(HN, 3/12/98)
1903 Mar 12, The Czar of Russia
issued a decree providing for nominal freedom of religion throughout
his territory.
(HN, 3/12/98)
1909 Mar 12, British Parliament
increased naval appropriations for Britain.
(HN, 3/12/98)
1911 Mar 12, Dr. Fletcher of
Rockefeller Institute discovered the cause of infantile paralysis.
(HN, 3/12/98)
1911 Mar 12, Gustavo Diaz Ordaz,
president of Mexico, was born.
(HN, 3/12/98)
1912 Mar 12, Juliette Gordon Low
organized the Girl Guides, which later became the Girl Scouts of
America, at the 1848 Andrew Low House in Savannah, Ga. The US Congress
chartered the Girl Scouts in 1950.
(SFEC,11/30/97, p.T5)(USAT, 3/23/04, p.1D)(AP,
3/12/08)
1912 Mar 12, Capt. Albert Berry
performed the 1st parachute jump from an airplane.
(MC, 3/12/02)
1914 Mar 12, George Westinghouse
(67), US engineer (Westinghouse Electric), died.
(MC, 3/12/02)
1917 Mar 12, Russian troops
mutinied in the "February Revolution." [see Mar 8]
(HN, 3/12/99)
1918 Mar 12, Vladimir I. Lenin
published his reasons for moving the capital from St. Petersburg to
Moscow.
(WSJ, 9/20/04, p.A20)
1922 Mar 12, Jack Kerouac,
American novelist, was born. He wrote "On the Road."
(HN, 3/12/99)
1925 Mar 12, Leo Esaki, [Esaki
Reona], physicist (Tunnel effect-Nobel 1973), was born in Japan.
(MC, 3/12/02)
1925 Mar 12, Chinese revolutionary
leader Sun Yat-sen died. Morris Abraham Cohen (d.1970 at 83) had been
the right-hand man to Dr. Sen and the story was told in 1998 by Daniel
S. Levy in his book "Two-Gun Cohen."
(AP, 3/12/98)(SFEC, 4/12/98, Par p.20)
1928 Mar 12, Edward Albee,
American dramatist who wrote "Who's Afraid of Virginia Wolf," was born.
(HN, 3/12/00)
1928 Mar 12, In Santa Paula,
Ventura County, Ca., the 3-year-old St. Francis dam collapsed just
before midnight. By the next day some 450 people were killed.
(SFC, 9/22/01, p.A3)(PCh, 1992, p.791)
1930 Mar 12, Indian political and
spiritual leader Mohandas K. Gandhi began a 200-mile march to the sea
to protest a British tax on salt. The march symbolized his defiance of
British Rule over India.
(HN, 3/12/98)(AP, 3/12/98)
1932 Mar 12, Ivar Kreuger
(b.1880), the so-called "Swedish Match King," committed suicide in
Paris, leaving behind a financial empire that turned out to be
worthless. The “Kreuger crash’ shook Wall Street and led to a 1933
Securities Act, which strengthened disclosure requirements for all
companies selling stock. In 1961 Robert Shaplen authored “Kreuger,
Genius and Swindler.” In 2009 Frank Partnoy authored “The Match King.”
(AP, 3/12/99)(Econ, 12/22/07, p.115)(WSJ, 4/17/09,
p.A11)
1933 Mar 12, President Roosevelt
delivered the first of his radio "fireside chats," telling Americans
what was being done to deal with the nation's economic crisis.
(AP, 3/12/98)
1933 Mar 12, Hindenburg dropped
the flag of the German Republic and ordered that the swastika and
empire banner be flown side by side.
(HN, 3/12/98)
1934 Mar 12, Josip Broz (Tito of
Yugoslavia) was freed from jail.
(MC, 3/12/02)
1935 Mar 12-1935 Mar 25, Colorado
dust storms killed 6 people, suffocated livestock and covered the
ground with up to 6 feet of dust.
(SFC, 3/19/09, p.D8)
1938 Mar 12, John Ross, poet,
historian and author, was born. He celebrated his 60th birthday in SF
with friends at the Cafe Babar with much gusto and brouhaha.
(EW)
1938 Mar 12, Germany invaded
Austria after the Austrian Nazi Party invited German troops. The union
came to be know as the Anschluss. Hitler took over Austria, as his
mission to restore his homeland to the Third Reich, and a chunk of
Czechoslovakia. The Nazis took over Austria and expelled all Jews and
other political opponents from the universities.
(WUD, 1994, p.1682)(TL, 1988, p.111)(TMC, 1994,
p.1938)(StuAus, April '95, p.18)(HN, 3/12/98)(AP, 3/12/98)
1939 Mar 12, Pope Pius XII was
formally crowned in ceremonies at the Vatican.
(HN, 3/12/98)(AP, 3/12/98)
1940 Mar 12, Finland surrendered
to Russia. Finland and the Soviet Union concluded an armistice during
World War II. Fighting between the two countries flared again the
following year.
(HN, 3/12/98)(AP, 3/12/98)
1942 Mar 12, Salvatore "the Bull"
Gravano, mobster (testified against John Gotti), was born.
(MC, 3/12/02)
1944 Mar 12, Great Britain barred
all travel to neutral Ireland, which was suspected of collaborating
with Nazi Germany.
(HN, 3/12/99)
1945 Mar 12, NY became the 1st
state to prohibit discrimination by race and creed in employment.
(MC, 3/12/02)
1945 Mar 12, Italy's Communist
Party (CPI) called for armed uprising in Italy.
(MC, 3/12/02)
1945 Mar 12, In Amsterdam 30
people were executed by Nazi occupiers.
(MC, 3/12/02)
1945 Mar 12, USSR returned
Transylvania to Romania.
(MC, 3/12/02)
1945 Mar 12, Anne Frank, author of
"The Diary of Anne Frank," died at Bergen-Belsen concentration camp a
month before it was liberated. When the British arrived in April, they
found more than 10,000 unburied corpses. Some 14,000 of the prisoners
found at the camp died within a few days.
(SFEC, 1/5/97, p.B8)(HNQ, 4/13/00)(HN, 3/12/01)
1946 Mar 12, Patricia Hampl, poet
and memoirist (A Romantic Education, Virgin Time), was born.
(HN, 3/12/01)
1946 Mar 12, Liza Minnelli,
actress and singer, was born. She was the daughter of actress Judy
Garland and director Vincente Minnelli.
(SFEC, 1/26/97 Par, p.22)
1947 Mar 12, Pres. Truman outlined
the Truman Doctrine of economic and military aid to nations threatened
by Communism. The doctrine was intended to speed recovery of
Mediterranean countries He specifically requested aid for Greece and
Turkey to resist Communism.
(EWH, 1968, p.1207)(AP, 3/12/98)(MC, 3/12/02)
1948 Mar 12, In Alaska 24 merchant
marines and six crewmen were flying from China to New York City, when
their DC-4 slammed into Mount Sanford killing all 30. Pilots Kevin
McGregor and Marc Millican discovered some mummified remains in 1999
while recovering artifacts to identify the wreckage they had found two
years earlier.
(AP, 8/17/08)
1951 Mar 12, "Dennis the Menace,"
created by cartoonist Hank Ketcham, made its syndicated debut in 16
newspapers.
(AP, 3/12/01)
1951 Mar 12, Communist troops were
driven out of Seoul.
(MC, 3/12/02)
1957 Mar 12, German DR accepted 22
Russian armed divisions.
(MC, 3/12/02)
1957 Mar 12, In Israel Rudolf
Kasztner, hailed by admirers as a Holocaust hero for saving thousands
of Jews, was assassinated by Jewish extremists. Critics had reviled him
as a collaborator who "sold his soul." Kasztner, a Zionist leader in
Hungary during World War II, headed the Relief and Rescue Committee, a
small Jewish group that negotiated with Nazi officials to rescue
Hungarian Jews in exchange for money, goods and military equipment.
(AP,
7/23/07)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rudolf_Kastner)
1959 Mar 12, The US House joined
the Senate in approving the statehood of Hawaii.
(http://modern-us-history.suite101.com/article.cfm/hawaii_becomes_the_50th_state)
1963 Mar 12, US House granted
former British Prime Minister Winston Churchill honorary U.S.
citizenship.
(MC, 3/12/02)
1964 Mar 12, Malcolm X resigned
from Nation of Islam. [see Mar 8]
(MC, 3/12/02)
1965 Mar 12, Edward "Teddy" Deegan
was found dead in an alley in Chelsea, Mass. A week later an FBI memo
named 6 men, including Vincent J. Flemmi and Joseph "The Animal"
Barboza, as the killers. Barboza became a star witness and provided
false testimony to convict 4 innocent men. The New England Mafia
shotgunned Barboza in SF in 1976. Over the next 3 decades FBI
informants in Boston murdered over 20 people.
(SSFC, 7/28/02, p.A5)(SFC, 11/21/03, p.A3)
1968 Mar 12, President Lyndon
Johnson won the New Hampshire Democratic primary, but a strong
second-place showing by anti-war Senator Eugene McCarthy of Minnesota
played a role in Johnson's decision not to seek re-election. Johnson
won over Eugene McCarthy 49.6 to 41.9%. Republican Richard Nixon won
the New Hampshire primary over Nelson Rockefeller 77.6 to 10.8%.
(SSFC, 1/25/04, p.A19)(AP, 3/12/08)
1968 Mar 12, A Miami-bound flight
was commandeered to Cuba.
(SFC, 3/14/03, p.E8)
1968 Mar 12, The British-ruled
African island of Mauritius became an independent country within the
Commonwealth of Nations and many Europeans left the country. GDP per
person was about $200. By 2008 it rose to $7,000 per person.
(SFC, 6/24/96, p.A8)(SFC, 7/1/97, p.A9)(SSFC,
12/9/01, p.C9)(AP, 3/12/08)(Econ, 10/18/08, p.58)
1969 Mar 12, Paul McCartney
married Linda Eastman in London.
(AP, 3/12/98)
1972 Mar 12, “The Limits to
Growth: A Report for the Club of Rome’s Project on the Predicament of
Mankind." was presented publicly at the Smithsonian Institute in
Washington. It was translated into 30 languages and 10 million copies
of the book were sold, helping the Club of Rome gain the world stage.
Donella Meadows (1941-2001) Dennis L. Meadows, Jorgen Randers, and
William W. Behrens III co-authored the report.
(SFC, 2/21/01,
p.A22)(www.clubofrome.at/peccei/limits.html)
1972 Mar 12, The U.K. and China
agreed to establish a full diplomatic relationship. China, newly
admitted to the UN, said it wanted Hong Kong back.
(SFEC, 6/22/97, p.A14)(SFC, 7/1/97, p.A8)(HN,
3/12/98)
1973 Mar 12, Argentina held
elections. Pres. Gen’l. Lanusse (1918-1996) called elections and the
Peronists led by Hector Campora (1909-1980) and Vicente Solano Lima
returned to power.
(http://openweb.tvnews.vanderbilt.edu/1973-3/1973-03-12-CBS-8.html)(SFC,
8/27/96, p.A17)(WSJ, 11/14/96, p.A20)
1974 Mar 12, Bundy victim
Donna Manson (b.1954) disappeared from Evergreen State College in
Olympia, Wa.
(www.doenetwork.org/cases/565dfwa.html)
1974 Mar 12, Billy Fox, Protestant
Dublin MP, was assassinated.
(MC, 3/12/02)
1974 Mar 12, The Russian Mars 6
went into orbit and the lander transmitted atmospheric data during
descent before failing.
(SFC, 11/19/96, p.B1)
1975 Mar 12, Maurice Stans, former
Nixon Cabinet member, pleaded guilty to three counts of violating the
reporting sections of the Federal Election Campaign Act and two counts
of accepting illegal campaign contributions. He was fined $5,000.
(SFC, 11/6/98, p.D5)(http://tinyurl.com/45uwm3)
1977 Mar 12, The Commission on
Judicial Appointments confirmed Rose Elizabeth Bird (40) as
California’s 25th chief justice and the 1st woman to sit on the state’s
Supreme Court. She was sworn in on March 26.
(SFC, 3/8/02, p.G8)
1977 Mar 12, Egypt's Anwar Sadat
pledged to regain Arab territory from Israel.
(http://tinyurl.com/37jrq9)
1980 Mar 12, A Chicago jury found
John Wayne Gacy Jr. guilty of the murders of 33 men and boys. The next
day, Gacy was sentenced to death; he was executed in 1994.
(AP, 3/12/00)
1984 Mar 12, Lebanese President
Gemayel opened the second meeting in five years calling for the end to
nine-years of war.
(HN, 3/12/98)
1985 Mar 12, The US and the USSR
began arms control talks in Geneva.
(HN, 3/12/98)
1985 Mar 12, Conductor Eugene
Ormandy (85), director of the Philadelphia Philharmonic for more than
four decades, died.
(AP, 3/12/05)
1986 Mar 12, Susan Butcher won the
1,158 mile Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race in Alaska.
(www.newmorningtv.tv/dailyalmanac_031204.jsp)
1987 Mar 12, "Les Miserables"
opened on Broadway. It was written by Alain Boublil and Claude-Michel
Schonberg.
(AP,
3/12/98)(www.jimsdeli.com/theater/1997-before/les-miserables.htm)
1988 Mar 12, Rev. Jesse Jackson
won the Democratic precinct caucuses in his native South Carolina.
(AP, 3/12/98)
1988 Mar 12, Romare Bearden
(b.1911), North Carolina-born African American artist, died in NY. He
depicted black culture and history and transferred his collages to
prints using a variety of techniques. In 2004 Jan Greenberg authored
"Romare Bearden: Collage of Memories."
(SFC, 3/24/04,
p.E1)(www.courses.vcu.edu/ENG-mam/bio5.htm)
1989 Mar 12, Some 2,500 veterans
and supporters marched at the Art Institute of Chicago to demand that
officials remove an American flag placed on the floor as part of a
student's exhibit.
(AP, 3/12/99)
1989 Mar 12, In India the National
Liberation Front of Tripura (NLFT) was formed with Dhananjoy Reang
(former Vice-President of the Tripura National Volunteers) as its
"chairman."
(www.crwflags.com/fotw/Flags/in-tri.html)
1990 Mar 12, Vice President Quayle
met in Santiago, Chile, with Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega, who
promised to peacefully relinquish power to Violeta Chamorro, the
U.S.-backed candidate who had won Nicaragua's presidential election.
(AP, 3/12/00)
1991 Mar 12, Secretary of State
James A. Baker met with Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir and a
Palestinian delegation as he continued a fact-finding mission.
(AP, 3/12/01)
1991 Mar 12, General H. Norman
Schwarzkopf, the victorious commander of allied forces in the Gulf War,
visited Kuwait.
(AP, 3/12/01)
1992 Mar 12, The U.N. Security
Council stood firm in its demand that Iraq comply totally with Gulf War
cease-fire resolutions, rebuffing an appeal for leniency from Saddam
Hussein's special envoy, deputy prime minister Tariq Aziz.
(AP, 3/12/02)
1992 Mar 12, This issue of Rolling
Stone magazine contained an article by Tom Curtis that outlined a
theory for the origin of AIDS based on the Wister vaccine developed by
Hilary Koprowski and given to some 300,000 people in the Belgian Congo
between 1957-1960.
(SSFC, 1/14/01, p.A14)
1992 Mar 12, Efraim Banaca
Velasquez, a guerilla leader in Guatemala married to an American lawyer
(Jennifer Harbury), disappeared and was later murdered. Secret US
government files later disclosed that the Guatemalan colonel, Julio
Roberto Alpirez, oversaw the interrogation and debriefing and that he
was on CIA payroll. A suit filed by Harbury in 1995 against a list of
US officials was dismissed in 1999 and reinstated in 2000 on appeal.
(SFC, 5/4/96, p.A-6)(SFEC, 11/17/96, p.C13)(SFC,
3/18/97, p.A10)(SFC, 3/19/02, p.A4)
1993 Mar 12, Janet Reno was sworn
in as the first US female attorney general.
(AP, 3/12/98)
1993 Mar 12, In Bombay (Mumbai),
India, 13 bombs exploded killing 257 people. Abu Salem, alleged
terrorist mastermind, Mafia boss and one of India's most wanted men,
was arrested in Portugal in 2002. Salem was accused by Indian police of
being involved in the country's worst bombing attack, as well as a
string of murder and extortion cases. More than 100 people, most of
them Muslims, were accused of involvement in the attacks. In 2006 4
family members were found guilty in the first verdict in the
prosecution of India's deadliest terror attack. Asgar Yusuf Mukadam and
Shahnawaz Qureshi were convicted for murdering 10 people in one of the
bombings. Abdul Turk (40) was convicted of leaving an explosives-laden
jeep in a crowded shopping and residential area of Mumbai, killing 113
people and injuring scores. In 2007 Parvez Shaikh, Mushtaq Tarani and
Abdul Ghani Turk were sentenced to death for planting explosives in
Mumbai. Also sentenced to death were Asgar Muqadam and Shahnawaz
Qureshi for involvement in placing bombs at a cinema in Mumbai
and Shoaib Ghansar for involvement in the bombing at the Zaveri Bazaar.
Yakub Memon was sentenced to death for playing a key role in procuring
the weapons and explosives used in the serial attacks.
(AP, 3/12/98)(AP, 9/20/02)(AP, 9/12/06)(AP,
9/18/06)(AP, 9/19/06)(AP, 7/18/07)(AP, 7/19/07)
(AP, 7/27/07)
1994 Mar 12, Secretary of State
Warren Christopher held discussions with Chinese leaders in Beijing
that were marked by blunt exchanges on human rights.
(AP, 3/12/99)
1994 Mar 12, The Anglican Church
of England ordained its first (33) women priests.
(AP, 3/12/98)(SFC, 5/19/00, p.D7)
1995 Mar 12, President Clinton
declared 39 California counties disaster areas after storms and floods
battered two-thirds of the state.
(AP, 3/12/00)
1995 Mar 12, Gordon B. Hinckley
(1910-2008), a grandson of Mormon pioneers, took over as president and
prophet of the Mormon church.
(AP, 1/28/08)
1995 Mar 12, World leaders wound
up a weeklong summit in Copenhagen, Denmark, committing themselves to
fighting poverty, but differing on how to do so.
(AP, 3/12/00)
1996 Mar 12, Pres. Clinton signed
the Cuban Liberty and Democratic Solidarity Act, better known as the
Helms-Burton Act. It shut off visas to executives and shareholders of
firms doing business in Cuba on property confiscated from Americans.
(SFC, 8/22/96, p.E4)(http://tinyurl.com/lgpgt)
1996 Mar 12, Republican Bob Dole
swept the seven "Super Tuesday" primaries, gaining a virtual lock on
the GOP presidential nomination.
(AP, 3/12/01)
1996 Mar 12, Rioting forced the
closure of a US copper mine (82% owned by Freeport-McMoRan Copper &
Gold) in Trimika, Indonesia. At least three people were killed and
dozens injured as the army restored order.
(WSJ, 3/14/96, p.A-15)
1997 Mar 12, Authorities in Los
Angeles arrested Mikail Markhasev as a suspect in the shooting death of
Bill Cosby's son, Ennis, almost two months earlier. Markhasev, who
later admitted his guilt, is serving a life sentence without
possibility of parole.
(AP, 3/12/02)
1997 Mar 12, Edward DeBartolo Jr.
handed over $400,000 to former Louisiana Gov. Edwin Edwards at the SF
Airport in order to clinch a riverboat gambling license.
(SFC, 3/28/00, p.A3)(SFC, 4/12/00, p.A5)
1998 Mar 12, The Senate passed the
ISTEA legislation, a $214 billion, 6-year bill called the Intermodal
Surface Transportation Efficiency Act.
(SFC, 3/12/98, p.A1)
1998 Mar 12, The government
reported the rate of new cancer cases among Americans had inched down
for the first time; so 70,000 fewer people than expected were diagnosed
between 1992 and 1995.
(AP, 3/12/99)
1998 Mar 12, Beatrice Wood,
ceramist, died at age 105. She was called "Mama of Dada" for her
liaisons with Marcel Duchamp, Henri-Pierre Roche and others associated
with the Dada movement of the early 20th century. A 1993 documentary
was made titled: "Beatrice Wood: The Mama of Dada."
(SFC, 3/14/98, p.A19)
1998 Mar 12, Manuel Pineiro
(b.1934), the leader of Cuba’s intelligence apparatus, died in a car
crash at age 63.
(SFC, 3/14/98, p.A19)
1998 Mar 12, China agree to sign a
UN pact on civil and political rights.
(WSJ, 3/13/98, p.A1)
1998 Mar 12, In Indonesia students
continued protests against Suharto and violent clashes with police
broke out in Surabaya.
(WSJ, 3/13/98, p.A1)
1998 Mar 12, A 22-part documentary
on Israel’s 50-year history was being shown by state television.
Rightwing politicians complained that it was too sympathetic to the
Palestinians.
(SFC, 3/13/98, p.A13)
1998 Mar 12, In Japan Yoshio
Sugiyama (46), a Finance Ministry official, hanged himself following a
widening investigation in corruption.
(SFC, 3/13/98, p.A12)
1998 Mar 12, Serbian leaders
proposed talks for autonomy in Kosovo, but residents dismissed the
offer.
(SFC, 3/13/98, p.A12)
1999 Mar 12, It was reported that
scientists had developed a device to shoot streams of atoms in any
direction. Atoms from a Bose-Einstein condensate were propelled with
pulsating lasers.
(SFC, 3/12/99, p.A6)
1999 Mar 12, Yehudi Menuhin,
violinist, died at age 82 in Berlin.
(SFC, 3/13/99, p.A1)
1999 Mar 12, Poland, Hungary and
the Czech Republic formally joined NATO in a ceremony at Independence,
Mo., where Pres. Truman announced in 1949 the formation of the Atlantic
alliance for defense against the Soviet bloc.
(SFC, 3/11/99, p.C14)
2000 Mar 12, A $100 million ICO
Global Communications satellite fell into the Pacific following a sea
launch aboard a Russian-Ukrainian rocket.
(SFC, 3/13/00, p.A11)
2000 Mar 12, Elections were held
in El Salvador. The FMLN won 31 of the 84 assembly seats in Congress.
ARENA was left with only 29 seats. 78 of 262 city elections were also
won by the FMLN along with 8 of 14 provincial capitals.
(SFC, 3/14/00, p.A8)
2000 Mar 12, In Iran Saeed
Hajjarian, a member of the municipal council of Tehran and a supporter
of Pres. Khatami, was shot and wounded by gunmen on a motorcycle.
(SFC, 3/13/00, p.A10)
2000 Mar 12, In Mexico police
captured Jesus Labra, leader of the Arellano Felix drug organization at
a soccer game in Tijuana.
(SFC, 3/13/00, p.11)
2000 Mar 12, In Morocco some
500,000 Muslim fundamentalist marched in Casablanca in opposition to
the government's plan to extend women's rights. In Rabat another
200-300,000 people marched in support of the plan.
(SFC, 3/13/00, p.A11)
2000 Mar 12, In Mozambique the
death toll from flooding reached 492 and urgent shipments of seeds were
being organized.
(SFC, 3/13/00, p.A11)
2000 Mar 12, In Rome Pope John
Paul II begged for God's forgiveness for sins committed or condoned by
Roman Catholics over the last 2,000 years, including wrongs inflicted
on Jews, women and minorities.
(SFC, 3/13/00, p.A1)(AP, 3/12/01)
2000 Mar 12, In Russia agents
captured Salman Raduyev, a Chechen warlord.
(SFC, 3/14/00, p.A8)
2000 Mar 12, In Spain the
conservative Popular Party under Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar won
the general election with 44.7% of the vote. The party won 183 of the
350 seats in Congress of Deputies.
(SFC, 3/13/00, p.A10)
2001 Mar 12, A US Navy fighter
dropped an errant 500-pound bomb in Kuwait that hit an observation post
and killed five Americans and one New Zealander. Cmdr. David Zimmerman
was later reprimanded and relieved of command.
(SFC, 3/13/01, p.A1)(SFC, 5/23/01, p.C4)(AP, 3/12/02)
2001 Mar 12, The DJIA fell 436 to
10,208. The Nasdaq fell 129 to 1923. The 61% Nasdaq drop since Mar 10,
2000, was the largest in its 30 year history.
(SFC, 3/13/01, p.A1)
2001 Mar 12, An anonymous donor
pledged a no-strings-attached $360 million to Rensselaer Polytechnic
Institute (RPI) of Troy, NY, the largest donation to a university in US
history.
(SFC, 3/13/01, p.A4)
2001 Mar 12, Morton Downey Jr.
(68), abrasive, chain-smoking, pioneer host of "Trash TV" talk shows,
died. "The Morton Downey Show" premiered in NYC in 1987.
(SFC, 3/14/01, p.A20)(AP, 3/12/02)
2001 Mar 12, Robert Ludlum (73),
suspense novelist, died in Naples, Fla. His books included "The
Scarlatti Inheritance," "The Chancellor Manuscript," the Bourne
trilogy, "The Matlock Paper," "Trevayne" and others.
(SFC, 3/13/01, p.A25)(AP, 3/12/02)
2001 Mar 12, In Guatemala Judge
Hugo Martinez of Senahu was hacked to death and burned by a mob after
he ruled that there was not sufficient evidence to hold 2 rape
suspects.
(SFC, 3/14/01, p.C12)
2001 Mar 12, In India Bangaru
Laxman, president of the Bharatiya Janata Party, resigned following
video taped images of bribery.
(SFC, 3/14/01, p.C12)
2001 Mar 12, In Indonesia Pres.
Wahid insisted he would not step down and warned that his ouster would
lead to the disintegration of the country as over 10,000 demonstrated
in Jakarta for his ouster. The main stock index fell 5% and the rupiah
fell 12%.
(SFC, 3/13/01, p.A15)
2001 Mar 12, Israel sealed off the
city of Ramallah, the unofficial seat of the Palestinian Authority.
(SFC, 3/13/01, p.A15)
2001 Mar 12, In Mexico the Fox
administration announced its " Plan Puebla-Panama," an effort to close
the economic gap between the north and poorer south.
(SFC, 3/13/01, p.A16)
2001 Mar 12, In Mexico Zapatista
rebels invaded the Naha nature preserve in southern Chiapas, home of
Lacandon Indians, and took over some 250 acres of the 7,500-acre
preserve.
(SFC, 3/13/01, p.A16)
2001 Mar 12, Russia and Iran
signed agreements to increase their military and economic cooperation.
(SFC, 3/13/01, p.A16)
2001 Mar 12, In Uganda elections
were held. Pres. Museveni (56) was challenged by Kizza Besigye (44), a
retired army colonel. Vote-rigging charges marred the elections.
Museveni won with 69.3% to Besigye’s 27.8%. Reports were made that 12
million ballots were counted with only 10.6 million registered to vote.
(SSFC, 3/11/01, p.D4)(WSJ, 3/13/01, p.A1)(SFC,
3/14/01, p.C12)(SFC, 3/15/01, p.A13)
2001 Mar 12, Yugoslavia and Nato
agreed to use their forces to squeeze Albanian rebels from separate
flanks as the rebels signed a cease-fire.
(SFC, 3/13/01, p.A15)
2002 Mar 12, The Bush
administration announced a 5-color code system to alert Americans on
the danger level posed by terrorists. Homeland security chief Tom Ridge
announced that America was at yellow alert as he unveiled a color-coded
system for terror warnings.
(SFC, 3/13/02, p.A1)(AP, 3/12/07)
2002 Mar 12, In Houston a jury
found Andrea Pia Yates (37) guilty of capital murder for drowning her 5
children. On Mar 15 she was sentenced to life in prison. Her conviction
was overturned in 2005 by an appeals court which ruled a prosecution
expert witness gave false testimony at her trial. In 2006 a jury found
her not guilty by reason of insanity.
(SFC, 3/13/02, p.A1)(SFC, 3/16/02, p.A1)(SFC,
7/27/06, p.A3)
2002 Mar 12, Martin Buser captured
his fourth victory in the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race.
(AP, 3/12/07)
2002 Mar 12, The space shuttle
Columbia returned to Earth, ending the Hubble Space Telescope repair
mission.
(AP, 3/12/07)
2002 Mar 12, In Lynbrook, NY, Rev.
Lawrence Penzes (50) was shot dead at Our Lady of Peace Church on Long
Island along with Mrs. Eileen Tosner (73) sitting in a pew. Penzes
(b.1952), ordained in 1978, was shot in the back as he turned to sit
just after finishing the homily next to the altar. Long Island police
soon captured mentally-deranged Peter J. Troy (34), who had fired at
least six shots from a.22-caliber rifle.
(SFC, 3/13/02,
p.A7)(www.safran-arts.com/42day/history/h4mar/h4mar12.html#deaths)
2002 Mar 12, Spyros Kyprianou
(69), former Cyprus president (1977-1988), died of pelvic cancer.
(SFC, 3/13/02, p.A26)
2002 Mar 12, In Jordan US VP
Cheney met with King Abdullah II, who expressed concern over any
possible strike against Iraq.
(SFC, 3/13/02, p.A11)
2002 Mar 12, Israeli forces took
control of Ramallah. 35 Palestinians were killed in the last 24 hours
along with 7 Israelis.
(SFC, 3/13/02, p.A1)(WSJ, 3/13/02, p.A1)
2002 Mar 12, The UN Security
Council endorsed a Palestinian state for the 1st time and called for an
immediate cease-fire.
(SFC, 3/13/02, p.A1)
2003 Mar 12, Elizabeth Smart, the
15-year-old girl who'd vanished from her bedroom nine months earlier,
was found alive in a Salt Lake City suburb with two drifters.
(AP, 3/12/04)
2003 Mar 12, In Iowa David
England, president of Des Moines Area Community College, was arrested
along with his wife, son and daughter for conspiracy to manufacture and
deliver marijuana.
(SSFC, 3/23/03, p.C4)
2003 Mar 12, Howard Fast (b.1914),
historical fiction author, died in Old. Greenwich, Conn. His books
included "Citizen Tom Paine" (1943), "Freedom Road" (1944), "Spartacus"
(1953) and "The Naked God" (1957).
(SFC, 3/13/03, p.A21)
2003 Mar 12, Lynne Thigpen (54),
actress, died in Los Angeles.
(AP, 3/12/04)
2003 Mar 12, In Afghanistan an
ambush on a US convoy prompted aircraft fire that killed 5 enemy
fighters.
(SFC, 3/14/03, p.A9)
2003 Mar 12, Britain proposed
compromise language giving Saddam Hussein until Mar 17 to take 6
concrete disarmament steps.
(WSJ, 3/13/03, p.A1)
2003 Mar 12, It was reported that
the Congo Ebola outbreak was decimating the gorilla population with up
to 800 lost at the Lossi sanctuary. The ape population of west
equatorial Africa had fallen 50% since 1983 due to hunting and Ebola.
(WSJ, 3/12/03, p.A1)(WSJ, 4/7/03, p.A1)
2003 Mar 12, In Nigeria tribal
fighting began between the Ijaw and Itsekiri.
(SFC, 3/21/03, p.A9)
2003 Mar 12, Serbia's PM Zoran
Djindjic was assassinated in Belgrade. A group called "The Hague
Brotherhood" was later implicated along with the paramilitary
group Unit for Special Operations. [see Mar 24].
(SFC, 4/9/03, p.A7)
2004 Mar 12, An FBI proposal was
made public to require all broadband Internet providers to support easy
wiretapping.
(SFC, 3/13/04, p.C2)
2004 Mar 12, In Fresno, Ca.,
Marcus Wesson (57) was arrested on suspicion of killing 9 family
members, aged 1-24. He lived a bizarre life of polygamy and incest,
even fathering two of his victims with his own daughters. In 2005
Wesson was convicted on 9 counts of murder and sentenced to death. In
2009 reporter Alysia Sofios authored “Where Hope Begins: One Family's
Journey Out of Tragedy-and the Reporter Who Helped Them Make It.”
(AP, 3/14/04)(SSFC, 3/14/04, p.A1)(SFC, 6/18/05,
p.B7)(SFC, 7/28/05, p.B4)(SFC, 9/14/09, p.A1)
2004 Mar 12, Chinese state media
reported that a 1,930-mile railway project to link China and Europe was
announced by Kanat Zhangaskin, vice president of the Kazakhstan
National Railway Co.
(AP, 3/12/04)
2004 Mar 12, Haiti's new prime
minister, Gerard Latortue, was sworn into office. US Marines killed two
men during a patrol in Haiti and said they were gunmen who had
previously fired on the Marines, although their weapons were never
recovered. Witnesses said the dead were bystanders.
(AP, 3/14/04)(AP, 3/12/05)
2004 Mar 12, Ivory Coast's ruling
party accused opposition groups of plotting with rebels to overthrow
the government, and it called on militant youth supporters to
"mobilize" in defense.
(AP, 3/12/04)
2004 Mar 12, South Korean markets
plunged and finance officials scrambled to emergency policy meetings
after President Roh Moo-hyun was stripped of his executive powers in an
unprecedented impeachment for illegal electioneering. Roh's powers were
reinstated by South Korea's Constitutional Court the following May.
(WSJ, 3/12/04, p.A1)(AP, 3/12/05)
2004 Mar 12, Millions of Spaniards
marched to protest train bombings the day before that killed 191 people.
(AP, 3/12/05)
2004 Mar 12, In Qamishli, Syria,
spectators inside the stadium were crushed in a stampede to escape an
attack by rival fans and at least 5 people were killed. A riot broke
out the next day during funeral services for 3 of the dead. The soccer
riots spread to 3 other towns over the next few days and left 25 people
dead and more than 100 injured in Kurdish areas of northern Syria.
(AP, 3/13/04)(AP, 3/19/04)
2004 Mar 12, Somchai Neelapaichit,
Thailand human rights lawyer, was kidnapped in Bangkok and never heard
from again. 2 days before he vanished he had formally accused the
police of torturing 5 Muslim men in custody.
(Econ, 3/14/09, p.46)
2005 Mar 12, Brian Nichols,
suspected in the slayings of a judge and three other people,
surrendered to authorities in suburban Atlanta after allegedly holding
Ashley Smith hostage in her own apartment.
(AP, 3/12/06)
2005 Mar 12, It was reported that
Bernardo Huberman, researcher at Hewlett-Packard, had described
software called Tycoon for directing computons on computing grids. He
used the term “computon” to describe a packet of electromagnetic energy.
(Econ, 3/12/05, TQ p.6)
2005 Mar 12, In Brookfield,
Wisconsin, Terry Ratzmann (44) opened fire with a handgun during an
evangelical church service at a suburban Milwaukee hotel, killing 7
people before taking his own life.
(AP, 3/13/05)(SFC, 3/14/05, p.A1)
2005 Mar 12, Algeria's minister
for energy and mines said OPEC has reached its production limit, and
trying to stretch output by one million barrels per day isn't likely to
lower oil prices.
(AP, 3/12/05)
2005 Mar 12, Britain's governing
Labour Party claimed victory for pushing through its contentious
anti-terrorism law after an acrimonious two-day debate in Parliament.
(AP, 3/12/05)
2005 Mar 12, Ayman Nour, Egyptian
opposition leader and presidential hopeful, walked out of Cairo's
central security headquarters and was whisked to the shoulders of his
supporters after posting bail.
(AP, 3/12/05)
2005 Mar 12, Customers of the
German Edeka supermarket chain will soon be able to pay for their
shopping by placing their finger on a scanner at the check-out, saving
up to 40 seconds spent scrabbling for coins or cards.
(Reuters, 3/12/05)
2005 Mar 12, In Greece Karolos
Papoulias (75), a former foreign minister, was sworn as the nation’s
6th president.
(AP, 3/12/05)
2005 Mar 12, Donald Tsang, career
bureaucrat, took office as interim leader of Hong Kong.
(SSFC, 3/13/05, p.A16)
2005 Mar 12, In India 16 people
were drowned and nine were feared dead in Gujarat when a bus fell into
a canal after the driver lost control.
(AP, 3/13/05)
2005 Mar 12, In Iraq gunmen shot
to death three policemen and wounded a 4th at a funeral procession in
the northern city of Mosul. 2 US security contractors were killed by a
roadside bomb south of Baghdad.
(AP, 3/12/05)(WSJ, 3/14/05, p.A1)
2005 Mar 12, It was reported that
Lebanese have been switching their savings from Lebanese pounds to the
safety of the dollar for fear the local currency will collapse, as it
did during the war. The Central Bank has unloaded hundreds of millions
of dollars to shore up the pound.
(AP, 3/12/05)
2005 Mar 12, The Hamas militant
group announced it will participate in Palestinian parliamentary
elections.
(AP, 3/12/05)
2005 Mar 12, In Portugal Jose
Socrates was sworn in as PM vowing to keep friendly ties with the US
despite naming a foreign minister who has compared Pres. Bush to Adolf
Hitler.
(AP, 3/12/05)
2005 Mar 12, Spanish police said
they had cracked a money-laundering operation worth up to 250 million
euros ($335.8 million) which might have links to YUKOS, but had not
specified what those links might be.
(AP, 3/13/05)
2005 Mar 12, In Lenzerheide,
Switzerland, Bode Miller became the first American in 22 years to win
skiing's overall World Cup title.
(AP, 3/12/06)
2005 Mar 12, Turkish authorities
closed the Bosporus Strait to maritime traffic after a roll-on-roll-off
(ro-ro) vessel carrying 7 tanker trucks loaded with 138 tons of
liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) sank in the narrow waterway, which
separates the European and Asian sides of Istanbul.
(AP, 3/13/05)
2005 Mar 12, Ukraine withdrew 150
servicemen from Iraq, starting a gradual pullout that officials have
said will be completed by October.
(AP, 3/12/05)
2005 Mar 12, In central Vietnam an
express passenger train derailed, killing at least 11 people and
injuring some 200.
(Reuters, 3/12/05)
2006 Mar 12, Capital One said it
was buying North Fork, a NY bank, for $14.6 billion in cash and shares.
Capital One was spun off from Virginia’s Signet Bank in 1994 as a pure
credit-card company.
(Econ, 3/18/06, p.69)
2006 Mar 12-2006 Mar 13, Swarms of
tornadoes killed at least 10 people across the Midwest states of
Indiana, Missouri, Oklahoma, Arkansas, South Dakota, Minnesota and
Wisconsin. It caused so much damage in Springfield, Ill., that the
mayor compared it to the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.
(AP, 3/13/06)
2006 Mar 12, In eastern
Afghanistan a roadside bomb exploded as a US armored vehicle drove by,
killing four American service members. In Kabul a suicide car bomb
exploded into the convoy of an Afghan politician leading reconciliation
efforts with the Taliban militia, injuring him and killing four other
people.
(AP, 3/12/06)
2006 Mar 12, Queen Elizabeth II
arrived in Australia for a five-day state visit that has reignited the
simmering debate over whether she should remain the country's head of
state.
(AP, 3/12/06)
2006 Mar 12, The Cameroon
government announced its first case of bird flu, becoming the fourth
African country to be struck by the virus. New cases were also reported
in Poland and Greece.
(AP, 3/13/06)
2006 Mar 12, In Colombia
supporters of President Alvaro Uribe dominated the congressional
elections in which candidates defined themselves by their views of the
Colombian leader. Voters in Sucre re-elected Alvaro Garcia to the
Senate and Erik Morris to the chamber of Representatives. Both men and
another senator from Sucre were later charged with financing right-wing
paramilitary groups.
(AP, 3/13/06)(Econ, 11/18/06, p.40)
2006 Mar 12, El Salvador held
elections. The next day the conservative ruling party claimed several
victories over former leftist rebels in elections for congressional
seats and mayorships across the country.
(AP, 3/13/06)
2006 Mar 12, Iran said it had
ruled out a proposal to move its uranium enrichment program to Russia,
further complicating the international dispute over the country's
nuclear program.
(AP, 3/12/06)
2006 Mar 12, The Iraqi Defense and
Interior ministries signed an agreement requiring them to conduct all
raids jointly, in a bid to stop the operations of alleged death squads
masquerading as police commandos. Bomb blasts, rocket and gunfire
killed over 50 people in eastern Baghdad’s Sadr City and injured over
200. Gunmen and explosions left 12 Iraqis dead elsewhere in Baghdad.
(AP, 3/12/06)(AP, 3/13/06)(SFC, 3/13/06,
p.A10)(Econ, 3/18/06, p.47)
2006 Mar 12, In Iraq a family of 4
in the Khasir Abyad area, about 6 miles north of Mahmoudiya, were found
killed. They included Abeer Qassim al-Janabi, who had been raped and
shot in the face, her sister and her parents. A neighbor said the Abeer
was 14 years old and her sister 10. In June up to 5 US soldiers of the
502nd Infantry Regiment were placed under investigation for the
murders. On June 3 federal prosecutors charged former Army Pfc. Steven
Green with the rape and killing of Abeer and her family. In 2007 Sgt.
Paul Cortez (24) was sentenced to 100 years in prison for the gang rape
and murder. Pfc. Jesse Spielman was sentenced to 110 years in prison. 3
other soldiers who pleaded guilty received sentences of 5 to 100 years.
In 2009 Pfc. Steven Green was convicted of rape and murder. On
September 4 a Kentucky court sentenced him to 5 consecutive life
sentences.
(SFC, 7/3/06, p.A6)(AP, 7/3/06)(SFC, 2/23/07,
p.A3)(SSFC, 8/5/07, p.A16)(AP, 5/22/09)(SFC, 9/5/09, p.A2)
2006 Mar 12, Residents of Iwakuni,
a southern Japanese city, voted no in an unprecedented non-binding
referendum on whether to host the relocation of an additional US naval
air wing.
(AFP, 3/12/06)
2006 Mar 12, In Jordan 5 Islamic
militants were convicted of plotting terrorist attacks on Jordanian
intelligence agents, foreign tourists and upscale hotels and sentenced
to prison terms ranging from 10 years to life.
(AP, 3/12/06)
2006 Mar 12, In northwestern
Pakistan villagers found the bodies two tribesmen shot dead by
suspected Islamic militants, with a note on one of the bodies warning
that anyone who spied for the US would meet the same fate.
(AP, 3/12/06)
2006 Mar 12, In Lahore, Pakistan,
skies normally alive with colorful kites to mark a spring festival were
largely empty after police arrested 1,400 people over three days to
enforce a ban imposed because of a series of fatal accidents.
(AP, 3/12/06)
2006 Mar 12, African Union
mediators presented cease-fire proposals for the conflict in Sudan's
Darfur region, asking rebels and the Sudanese government to work
together to end military activity against relief supply routes and
refugee camps.
(AP, 3/12/06)
2006 Mar 12, Tens of thousands of
opposition supporters marched in Taipei to protest the Taiwanese
president's decision to abolish a committee responsible for unification
with rival China.
(AP, 3/12/06)
2007 Mar 12, President Bush's
message of goodwill in Latin America ran into a wall in Guatemala as he
defended his efforts to establish a temporary worker program but gave
no ground on the deportation of illegal workers.
(AP, 3/12/07)
2007 Mar 12, US lawmakers
responded angrily over a weekend announcement by Texas-based
Halliburton, a US oil services giant, that it is shifting its corporate
headquarters to Dubai.
(AP, 3/12/07)
2007 Mar 12, Peter Smith, the
highest-ranking American at UNESCO, sent a letter to director Koichiro
Matsuura saying that fierce opposition to his reforms and the "negative
climate" forced him to quit. Smith had served as associate director
general for education. French business magazine Capital recently
reported that Smith, a former Republican congressman from Vermont, had
awarded seven contracts worth a total of $2 million to Washington-based
Navigant Consulting without proper oversight from UNESCO's Executive
Board.
(AP, 3/16/07)
2007 Mar 12, A New Jersey a jury
reversed an earlier verdict and hit Merck with a total of $47.5 million
in damages in a Vioxx case of an Idaho postal worker. To date Merck had
won 9 cases lost 5 over its former arthritis pill.
(SFC, 3/13/07, p.A9)
2007 Mar 12, In California a
federal district court issued a preliminary injunction on the sale and
planting of genetically modified alfalfa, Roundup Ready alfalfa,
marketed by Monsanto.
(WSJ, 3/13/07, p.B5)
2007 Mar 12, New Mexico’s Gov.
Bill Richardson signed a bill that outlawed cockfighting. This left
Louisiana as the only state to allow organized cockfighting.
(WSJ, 3/13/07, p.A4)
2007 Mar 12, New Century Financial
Corp. , the largest independent U.S. subprime mortgage lender, said its
lenders plan to halt financing, pushing the company closer to
bankruptcy amid dwindling cash and $8.4 billion in obligations that
could come due immediately.
(Reuters, 3/12/07)
2007 Mar 12, New Jersey based
Schering-Plough Corp. said it will buy the pharmaceuticals division of
Akzo Nobel NV for 11 billion euros ($14.5 billion) in cash, acquiring
the Organon brand of birth control and strengthening its drug pipeline
with an anti-schizophrenia medication.
(AP, 3/12/07)
2007 Mar 12, R.E.M. and Van Halen
were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
(AP, 3/12/08)
2007 Mar 12, Firefighters in
Southern California faced another day of scorching heat and dry weather
as they tried to corral a wind-whipped blaze that had already damaged
two homes amid what is shaping up to be one of the driest years yet.
(AP, 3/12/07)
2007 Mar 12, In southern
Afghanistan NATO and Afghan troops clashed with suspected insurgents,
shortly before calling in an airstrike on a compound that left two
militants dead.
(AP, 3/12/07)
2007 Mar 12, Australia's Muslims
announced plans to form a political party to fight what they call
growing Islamophobia spawned by the so-called war on terror.
(AP, 3/12/07)
2007 Mar 12, In outback Australia
floodwaters flowed into the world's largest ephemeral lake, triggering
a once-in-a-decade explosion of bird and fish life in place of arid
salt flats. The Lake Eyre basin itself covers an area bigger than
France, Germany and Italy. The basin last topped its maximum five meter
depth in 1974.
(Reuters, 3/12/07)
2007 Mar 12, In Belgium officials
said a man last week stole $28 million worth of diamonds from an
Antwerp bank. He had been a trusted customer there for a year using a
stolen Argentine passport. The bank discovered the theft on March 5,
believing that someone took the stones that morning or the previous
Friday from a vault used by pawnbrokers and diamond cutters.
(AP, 3/12/07)
2007 Mar 12, Preah Maha Ghosananda
(78), Buddhist spiritual leader of Cambodia, died.
(Econ, 3/24/07, p.98)
2007 Mar 12, In central China
villagers armed with bricks and rocks continued to clash with
baton-wielding police over rising bus fares and at least 60 people were
injured. A student died from wounds incurred a day earlier.
(AP, 3/13/07)
2007 Mar 12, Interpol launched an
international call for the arrest of Alvaro Araujo Noguera (74), former
Colombian congressman and father of Colombia’s former Foreign Minister
Maria Consuelo Araujo. He was believed to have fled to Venezuela after
being accused of colluding with right-wing paramilitaries to kidnap a
political rival.
(AP, 3/12/07)
2007 Mar 12, In mountainous
northern India a bus carrying a wedding party plunged into a gorge,
killing at least 18 people and injuring another 27.
(AP, 3/13/07)
2007 Mar 12, Iran issued a bank
note with a nuclear symbol in a move seen as an assertion of its
national will in the face of international sanctions over its
insistence on enriching uranium.
(AP, 3/12/07)
2007 Mar 12, Gen. David Petraeus,
the top US commander in Iraq, said in a newly released interview that
it's "indisputable" Iran is training and arming militants to fight
against US-led troops in Iraq. Police found only nine bullet-riddled
bodies in Baghdad, apparent victims of Sunni-Shiite reprisal killings.
(AP, 3/13/07)
2007 Mar 12, Israel confirmed that
it has recalled Tsuriel Raphael, its ambassador to El Salvador,
after he was found naked, bound and drunk two weeks earlier.
(AP, 3/13/07)
2007 Mar 12, In Kuwait a US
military contractor was killed and three others injured in an accident
that may have involved unexploded ordnance at the largest American
military base.
(AP, 3/12/07)
2007 Mar 12, In Nigeria’s oil
region hostage takers released 3 European captives. 2 Croatians and one
Montenegrin seized Feb. 18 in Port Harcourt were in good health after
their release to state officials.
(AP, 3/12/07)
2007 Mar 12, In Pakistan lawyers
boycotted court proceedings, clashed with riot police, and burned an
image of President Gen. Pervez Musharraf in a countrywide protest
against the ouster of the country's top judge.
(AP, 3/12/07)
2007 Mar 12, In Gaza four masked
gunmen abducted Alan Johnston, a BBC journalist. He was later reported
to be held by the Dughmush clan and was released after several months.
(AP, 3/13/07)(WSJ, 1/3/07, p.A14)(AP, 3/12/08)
2007 Mar 12, In Puerto Rico union
leader Wallis Rivera Rodriguez (51) was allegedly killed because he was
going to reveal financial wrongdoing at an apartment complex. In 2009
Jose Juan Viera Morales was extradited from New Jersey to face murder
charges and for conspiring to distribute drugs.
(AP, 12/10/09)(http://tinyurl.com/ycq2d93)
2007 Mar 12, A new party, Just
Russia, that promotes itself as an opposition group but supports
Vladimir Putin took a prominent place on Russia's political stage after
regional elections that further consolidated the president's hold on
power.
(AP, 3/12/07)
2007 Mar 12, Authorities said
Spanish police have arrested Brian David Anderson (61), a Canadian man
suspected of helping finance Islamist terrorist activities. The
Interior Ministry said Anderson is thought to be linked to a New York
businessman, Abdul Tawala Ibn Ali Alishtari, 53, who was charged last
month with terrorism financing, material support of terrorism and money
laundering.
(AP, 3/12/07)
2007 Mar 12, The Sri Lanka air
force bombed a strategic Tamil Tiger jungle base in Thoppigala, killing
at least eight rebels, including two senior guerrillas.
(AP, 3/13/07)
2007 Mar 12, In Suriname Desi
Bouterse, a former military dictator, offered his first public apology
for the 1982 killings of 15 critics of his military regime, saying he
accepted political responsibility for the deaths but denied involvement.
(AP, 3/12/07)
2007 Mar 12, Venezuelan President
Hugo Chavez shadowed his political foil President Bush on a tour of
Western Hemisphere nations, stopping in Haiti after passing through
Jamaica to promote aid packages and discuss development projects.
(AP, 3/12/07)
2008 Mar 12, The United States
signed agreements with EU members Latvia and Estonia that will enable
the tiny Baltic nations to join the U.S. visa waiver program this year.
(AP, 3/12/08)
2008 Mar 12, The US Treasury said
the government turned in a $175.56 billion budget deficit for February,
a record for any month. The federal deficit swelled to $263.3 billion
in the first five months of this budget year.
(Reuters, 3/13/08)
2008 Mar 12, The US Treasury said
it blacklisted Future Bank of Bahrain because it is controlled by Bank
Melli of Iran, which plays a role in financing Tehran’s nuclear and
missile programs.
(WSJ, 3/13/08, p.A3)
2008 Mar 12, NY Gov. Eliot Spitzer
announced his resignation effective March 17, completing a stunning
fall from power after he was nationally disgraced by links to a
high-priced prostitution ring. This put Lt. Gov. David Peterson in
place as the nation’s first legally blind governor.
(AP, 3/12/08)(SFC, 3/12/08, p.A12)
2008 Mar 12, In Alaska Lance
Mackey won his second consecutive Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race,
completing the 1,100-mile journey in just under 9 1/2 days.
(AP, 3/12/08)
2008 Mar 12, Howard Metzenbaum
(b.1917), self-made millionaire and former Ohio Senator (1976-1995),
died in Florida.
(SFC, 3/13/08, p.A10)
2008 Mar 12, Afghan and
international forces attacked Taliban militants as they traveled by
motorcycle toward the Pakistan border. The troops employed airstrikes
during a four-hour battle and killed 41 militants, including 17 from
Nimroz. In southern Afghanistan a suicide car bomber attacked a convoy
of Canadian troops, killing a passing civilian and wounding one
soldier. In Zabul province, Afghan security forces and NATO troops
launched an operation against Chechen fighters meeting in Daychopan
district. The ensuing two-hour gun battle left three Chechens dead and
six wounded. in Farah province, authorities recovered the dead body of
the Pusht Rod district police chief, a day after he was kidnapped along
with five other policemen.
(AP, 3/12/08)(AP, 3/13/08)
2008 Mar 12, US-led forces in
Afghanistan fired a missile into Pakistan that killed 4 women and 2
boys. Pakistan lodged a protest the next day with coalition forces in
Afghanistan.
(AP, 3/13/08)(SFC, 3/14/08, p.A17)
2008 Mar 12, In Australia police
said a quarter-ton of cocaine with a street value of more than 80
million US dollars has been seized after being shipped in from
Southeast Asia.
(AFP, 3/12/08)
2008 Mar 12, In Austria a dispute
began with the opening of "Religion, Flesh and Power," a collection of
about 50 paintings, drawings and sculptures, some with homo-erotic
themes, by Austrian artist Alfred Hrdlicka (80). Among them is
Hrdlicka's rendition of the Last Supper: a large, loosely rendered
black and white etching that shows Jesus and his disciples engaging in
sex acts on the table where they shared their final meal before
Christ's crucifixion.
(AP, 4/12/08)
2008 Mar 12, Human Rights Watch
said in a report that the armies of migrant workers building Beijing's
skyscrapers and Olympic venues are being bilked of wages and placed in
dangerous conditions. China's foreign minister said Human rights groups
that cite the Beijing Games in their criticisms of the Chinese
government are violating the Olympic charter.
(AP, 3/12/08)
2008 Mar 12, In Iraq coalition
soldiers killed a young Iraqi girl after firing a warning shot at a
woman who "appeared to be signaling to someone" along a road where
several bombs had recently been found. Chaldean Catholic Archbishop
Paulos Faraj Rahho was found dead near the city of Mosul, where he was
kidnapped last month. 3 US soldiers died in a rocket attack on Combat
Outpost Adder near Nasiriyah.
(AP, 3/13/08)
2008 Mar 12, Gaza's Hamas prime
minister publicly set his conditions for a cease-fire with Israel to
end the fighting that has killed dozens in recent weeks. Ismail Haniyeh
demanded an end to Israeli military activity in the Hamas-ruled Gaza
Strip, a lifting of Israeli economic sanctions and the opening of
Gaza's borders. Hours later Israeli forces killed 4 Palestinian
militants in the West Bank. Israeli troops riding in a taxi van pulled
up behind the militants' parked Daihatsu and began shooting immediately.
(AP, 3/12/08)(WSJ, 3/13/08, p.A1)(AP, 4/1/08)
2008 Mar 12, A UN tribunal
extended the sentence of Rwandan Roman Catholic priest Athanase
Serombawar to life in prison after upholding his war crimes conviction
for ordering militiamen to burn and bulldoze a church with 1,500 people
inside during the 1994 Rwandan genocide. He was originally sentenced to
15 years in prison.
(AP, 3/13/08)
2008 Mar 12, Sri Lanka’s defense
ministry said at least another 28 Tamil Tiger rebels were killed by
security forces in overnight fighting across Sri Lanka's embattled
north. Air force fighter jets pounded three suspected rebel bases in
Mannar.
(AFP, 3/12/08)
2008 Mar 12, Turkish troops killed
11 Kurdish rebels during clashes near the border with Iraq.
(WSJ, 3/13/08, p.A1)
2009 Mar 12, Bernard Madoff
pleaded guilty to charges that he carried out an epic fraud that robbed
investors around the world of billions of dollars, turning a revered
money man into an overnight global disgrace whose name became
synonymous with the economic meltdown.
(AP, 3/12/09)
2009 Mar 12, Texas Gov. Rick Perry
announced that he turned down $555 million of federal stimulus funding
that would expand the state's unemployment benefits, saying the money
would have required the state to keep paying for the expanded benefits
after the stimulus money ran out.
(AP, 3/12/09)
2009 Mar 12, Anthony Doyle, former
Chicago police officer, was sentenced to 12 years in prison for
racketeering. He was accused of providing information on gangland
investigations to reputed mob boss Joseph Lombardo.
(SFC, 3/13/09, p.A6)
2009 Mar 12, Swiss pharmaceutical
giant Roche agreed to pay $46.8 billion to buy the 44 percent of
biotech pioneer Genentech that it doesn't already own, ending a long
corporate struggle with its US-based cancer drug partner.
(AP, 3/12/09)
2009 Mar 12, The Pacific Fishery
Management Council agreed to extend for a 2nd year the fishing ban of
chinook salmon in California and Oregon.
(SFC, 3/13/09, p.B1)
2009 Mar 12, Leonore Annenberg
(b.1918), the widow of billionaire publisher Walter Annenberg (d.2002),
died in southern California. She had continued directing the
philanthropy of the Annenberg Foundation based in Radnor, a suburb of
Philadelphia, Pa.
(SFC, 3/13/09, p.B8)
2009 Mar 12, The UN refugee agency
said Angola is launching a fresh effort to bring back refugees still
displaced in neighboring African countries, seven years after the end
of the civil war in 2002.
(AFP, 3/12/09)
2009 Mar 12, Antiguan voters,
worried by the fallout from an alleged $8 billion fraud scheme
involving R. Allen Stanford, decided between the ruling party and the
one that welcomed the Texas financier to the Caribbean nation nearly
two decades ago. Preliminary results indicated that Antigua's ruling
party will stay in power, but with a narrower margin in parliament.
(AP, 3/12/09)(AP, 3/13/09)
2009 Mar 12, In Canada 17 people
died in the frigid waters off Canada's Atlantic coast after a Sikorsky
S-92 helicopter crashed while ferrying workers to an offshore oil
platform. It went down about 47 nautical miles southeast of the
Newfoundland and Labrador capital of St. John's. One person was rescued.
(Reuters, 3/12/09)(Reuters, 3/13/09)
2009 Mar 12, China announced plans
to assist millions of unemployed migrant workers with increases in
grain subsidies and rural infrastructure projects.
(AP, 3/12/09)
2009 Mar 12, In Germany a
scientist accidentally pricked her finger with a needle used to inject
the deadly Ebola virus into lab mice. Within 48 hours of the accident,
the at-risk scientist, a woman (45) whose identity has not been
revealed, was injected with an experimental vaccine from Canada.
After 2 weeks the woman appeared to be healthy. At the time of the
accident, she was wearing three layers of protective gloves, and though
the needle stuck her, the plunger of the syringe was not pushed so it's
not certain the virus entered her bloodstream.
(AP, 3/27/09)
2009 Mar 12, The leaders of two of
Indonesia's biggest political parties signed an agreement on shared
goals amid speculation they could join forces against President
Yudhoyono.
(AFP, 3/12/09)
2009 Mar 12, Latvia's parliament
approved a new center-right government with Europe's youngest premier
as the economic crisis in this Baltic state deepened. A 67-21 vote made
PM Valdis Dombrovskis (37) and his 5-party coalition Latvia’s third
government in 15 months.
(AP, 3/12/09)
2009 Mar 12, Liberia’s agriculture
ministry said the country has been hit by a 2nd invasion of
crop-destroying caterpillars. Over a hundred villages have so far been
affected by the plague.
(AFP, 3/12/09)
2009 Mar 12, Mexico extradited two
former US Border Patrol agents accused of taking bribes from migrant
smugglers. The US Embassy said Raul Villarreal and Fidel Villarreal
allegedly fled to Mexico after they learned US authorities were
investigating them in 2006. Two suspected migrant smugglers were also
extradited.
(AP, 3/12/09)
2009 Mar 12, Dutch police arrested
Giovanni Strangio (30), an Italian man wanted for the August 15, 2007,
mob killings of six people in the western German city of Duisburg.
(AP, 3/13/09)
2009 Mar 12, Pakistani police
clashed with black-suited lawyers and opposition activists after the
launch of a cross-country protest rally in defiance of government
attempts to stop it. Paramilitary forces backed by jets and helicopter
gunships killed 18 militants in a restive Pakistani tribal region
bordering Afghanistan. A suspected US missile strike in northwest
Pakistan killed at least 24 people, most of them Taliban militants.
(Reuters, 3/12/09)(AFP, 3/12/09)(AFP, 3/13/09)
2009 Mar 12, The Islamic militant
group Hamas made a rare criticism of Palestinian rocket fire on Israel,
saying now is the wrong time as truce talks continue.
(AP, 3/12/09)
2009 Mar 12, Serbia’s war crimes
court convicted 13 Serbs of war crimes for the execution style killings
of some 200 Croats in 1991 during the Balkan conflicts. 7 former
soldiers received the maximum 20-year sentence.
(SFC, 3/13/09, p.A2)
2009 Mar 12, The Sri Lankan army
seized the last remaining medical facility held by separatist Tamil
Tiger rebels in the north of the island. The army estimated that fewer
than 500 Tigers were still fighting, although they had also forced some
civilians to fight as well.
(AP, 3/12/09)
2009 Mar 12, Thailand's opposition
filed a censure motion against PM Abhisit Vejjajiva and five government
ministers, accusing them of corruption.
(AP, 3/12/09)
2009 Mar 12, Turkish warplanes
carried out new bombing raids against Kurdish rebel positions in
northern Iraq. The strike targeted hideouts of the Kurdistan Workers'
Party (PKK) in the Zap-Avashin region of the Kurdish-held autonomous
north of Iraq.
(AFP, 3/13/09)
2009 Mar 12, In Zimbabwe Roy
Bennett, a top aide to PM Morgan Tsvangirai, was released on bail after
a legal battle that has raised doubts about Zimbabwe's new unity
government.
(AP, 3/12/09)
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