Today in History - March 15
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The Ides of March. In the ancient Roman calendar the
15th day of March,
May, July and Oct. or the 13th day of the other months.
(HFA, '96, p.26)(AHD, p.654)
44BC Mar 15,
Roman Emperor Julius Caesar (b.100BC) was murdered by Brutus, Cassius
and other conspirators on the Ides of March. Caesar had defeated Pompey
in battle and had Pompey murdered in 48BCE. He was perceived as a big
threat to the Roman Aristocracy and so his murder was supported by
Cicero and most Romans. In 2006 Adrian Goldsworthy authored “Caesar:
Life of a Colossus.”
(ATC, p.24)(AP, 3/15/97)(WSJ, 10/24/06, p.D6)
493 Mar 15, Theodoric the Great
beat Odoacer of Italy. Odoacer, German army leader, King of Italy
(476-93), died. [see Mar 3]
(MC, 3/15/02)
933 Mar 15, Henry the Fowler
routed the raiding Magyars at Merseburg, Germany.
(HN, 3/15/99)
963 Mar 15, Romanus II (25),
Byzantine emperor (959-63), died.
(MC, 3/15/02)
1360 Mar 15, French invasion army
landed on English south coast and conquered Winchel.
(MC, 3/15/02)
1382 Mar 15, Conservative "Popolo
Grasso" regained power in Florence, Italy.
(MC, 3/15/02)
1391 Mar 15, A Jew-hating monk in
Seville, Spain, stirred up a mob to attack Jews.
(MC, 3/15/02)
1493 Mar 15, Christopher Columbus
returned to Spain, concluding his first voyage to the Western
Hemisphere.
(AP, 3/15/97)(HN, 3/15/98)
1521 Mar 15, Ferdinand Magellan
discovered the Philippine Islands, where he was killed by natives the
following month. [see Apr 26]
(PCh, 1992, p.172)(MC, 3/17/02)(AP, 3/16/97)
1580 Mar 15, Spanish king Philip
II put 25,000 gold coins on head of Prince William of Orange.
(MC, 3/15/02)
1672 Mar 15, England’s King
Charles II enacted a 2nd Declaration of Indulgence.
(http://www.everything2.com/index.pl?node_id=1327117)
1713 Mar 15, Nicolas Louis de
Lacaille, astronomer who mapped the Southern Hemisphere, was born.
(MC, 3/15/02)
1767 Mar 15, Andrew Jackson
(d.1845), seventh President of the United States known as "Old
Hickory," was born in Waxhaw, South Carolina. The first American
president to be born in a log cabin, Jackson was a hero of the War of
1812, an Indian fighter and a Tennessee lawyer. Neither a particularly
intelligent man nor a wise one, Jackson became the symbol of his age by
being the right man believing in the right things at the right time.
Success was a race, Jackson believed, and the government’s primary
responsibility was to guarantee that every man got a fair chance at
winning. Jackson’s administration (1829-37) saw the development of
modern-style political parties and changes in the voting laws that
nearly tripled the electorate. He died June 8, 1845. In 1997 Max Byrd
wrote “Jackson,” a biographical novel.
(AP, 3/15/97)(WSJ, 5/14/97, p.A20) (HNPD, 3/15/99)
1778 Mar 15, In command of two
frigates, the Frenchman la Perouse sailed east from Botany Bay for the
last lap of his voyage around the world.
(HN, 3/15/99)
1778 Mar 15, Nootka Sound,
Vancouver Island, was discovered by Captain Cook.
(HN, 3/15/98)(MC, 3/15/02)
1781 Mar 15, Gen. Nathanael Greene
engaged British forces under Cornwallis at Guilford Court-House, North
Carolina. Greene retreated after inflicting severe casualties on
Cornwallis’ army.
(ON, 12/01, p.10)
1808 Mar 15, Gaetano Gaspari,
composer, was born.
(MC, 3/15/02)
1809 Mar 15, Joseph Jenkins
Roberts, first president of Liberia, was born.
(HN, 3/15/98)
1813 Mar 15, John Snow (d.1858),
obstetrician, was born in York, England. He worked on the epidemiology
of cholera.
(ON, 5/05,
p.8)(www.johnsnowsociety.org/johnsnow/facts.html)
1820 Mar 15, Maine, a province of
Massachusetts since 1647, became the 23rd state. Maine entered the
Union as a free state and helped maintain the balance in the US Senate,
that would have been disrupted by the entrance of Missouri Territory
into the Union as a slave state.
(AP, 3/15/97)
1821 Mar 15, Josef Loschmidt
(d.1895), a pioneer of 19th-century physics and chemistry, was born in
Putschim (Pocerny), Bohemia. In his first publication (1861) Loschmidt
proposed the first structural chemical formulae for many important
molecules, introducing markings for double and triple carbon bonds. In
1865 he became the first person to use the kinetic theory of gases to
obtain a reasonably good value for the diameter of a molecule. What we
call "Avogadro's number" is, in German-speaking countries, called
"Loschmidt's number."
(www.physicstoday.org/pt/vol-54/iss-3/p45.html)
1842 Mar 15, Maria Luigi Cherubini
(81), Italian composer (Dies Irae), died.
(MC, 3/15/02)
1848 Mar 15, In Hungary an
uprising against Habsburg rule began in front of the national museum in
Budapest.
(Reuters, 3/15/07)
1854 Mar 15, Emil von Behring,
first recipient of the Nobel Prize for medicine in 1901, was born.
(HN, 3/15/99)
1855 Mar 15, Louisiana established
the 1st health board to regulate quarantine.
(MC, 3/15/02)
1862 Mar 15, General John Hunt
Morgan began four days of raids near the city of Gallatin, Tenn. "The
Yankees will never take me a prisoner again," vowed Confederate General
John Hunt Morgan.
(HN, 3/15/98)
1864 Mar 15, Red River Campaign
began as the Union forces reached Alexandria, La.
(HN, 3/15/98)
1865 Mar 15, Lincoln delivered his
Second Inaugural Address. In 2002 Ronald C. White Jr. authored
“Lincoln’s Greatest Speech: The Second Inaugural.”
(HFA, ‘96, p.28)(WSJ, 2/8/02, p.W9)
1869 Mar 15, Cincinnati Red
Stockings became the 1st pro baseball team.
(MC, 3/15/02)
1874 Mar 15, Harold L. Ickes, New
Deal politician, was born.
(HN, 3/15/98)
1875 Mar 15, John McCloskey, Roman
Catholic archbishop of New York, was named the first American cardinal
by Pope Pius IX.
(AP, 3/15/97)
1892 Mar 15, New York State
unveiled the new automatic ballot voting machine.
(HN, 3/15/98)
1892 Mar 15, Jesse W. Reno,
inventor, patented the 1st escalator in NYC.
(MC, 3/15/02)
1895 Mar 15, Bone Mizell, the
famed cowboy of Florida, appeared before a judge for altering cattle
brands.
(HN, 3/15/00)
1895 Mar 15, Fridtjof Nansen and
Hjalmar Johansen left their ship Fram in an attempt to reach the North
Pole by dogsled. [see Jun 17, 1896]
(ON, 7/05, p.5)
1903 Mar 15, The British completed
the conquest of Nigeria, 500,000 square miles are now controlled by the
United Kingdom.
(HN, 3/15/99)
1904 Mar 15, Three hundred
Russians were killed as the Japanese shelled Port Arthur in Korea.
(HN, 3/15/98)
1905 Mar 15, Berthold Schenck von
Stauffenberg was born. He later attempted to assassinate Hitler.
(MC, 3/15/02)
1907 Mar 15, Finland became the
1st European country to give women the right to vote. [see Mar 7, 1906]
(MC, 3/15/02)
1908 Mar 15, 1st performance of
Maurice Ravel's "Rhapsodie Espagnole."
(MC, 3/15/02)
1909 Mar 15, Italy proposed a
European conference on the Balkans.
(HN, 3/15/98)
1912 Mar 15, Yuan Shih-kai
succeeded Sun Yat-sen as President of the Republic of China.
(HN, 3/15/98)
1909 Mar 15, Jonas Zemaitis
was born in Palanga. He was a founder of the Lithuanian independence
movement and served as presidium head. He was shot to death in Moscow
Nov 26, 1954.
(LHC, 3/15/03)
1913 Mar 15, President Wilson met
with reporters for what's been described as the first presidential
press conference. Some sources say Wilson's first actual press
conference was a week later.
(AP, 3/15/97)
1915 Mar 15, Thomas Robert Bard
(b.1841), US Republican Senator from Ventura, California (1900-1905),
died. In 1871 he laid out the town of Hueneme and built a wharf there.
Bard was born in Chambersburg, Pa., and came to California in 1864.
(www.bioguide.congress)
1916 Mar 15, Harry James (d.1983),
American band leader and trumpet player, was born, He is best
remembered for his hit "You Made Me Love You." He married Betty Grable
(HN,
3/15/99)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_James)
1916 Mar 15, General Pershing and
his 15,000 troops chased Pancho Villa into Mexico. US troops pursued
the guerillas, killing 50 on US soil and 70 more in Mexico. General
Pershing failed to capture the Villa dead or alive. Villa was
assassinated at Parral in 1923.
(HN, 3/15/98)(MC, 3/15/02)
1917 Mar 15, Nicholas II, last
Russian tsar, said he will abdicate.
(MC, 3/15/02)
1918 Mar 15, Richard Ellmann, US
literary scholar, writer (Oscar Wilde), was born.
(MC, 3/15/02)
1919 Mar 15-17, The American
Legion was founded in Paris by members of the American Expeditionary
Force.
(AP, 3/15/97)(www.legion.org/)
1922 Mar 15, France was willing to
accept raw material instead of currency for German reparations.
(HN, 3/15/98)
1923 Mar 15, An
ambassador's conference set the demarcation line between Lithuania and
Poland as a national border, which Lithuania did not recognize.
(LHC, 3/15/03)
1923 Mar 15, Lenin was felled by
his 3rd stroke.
(MC, 3/15/02)
1924 Mar 15, Sweden recognized the
USSR
(HN, 3/15/98)
1928 Mar 15, Nicolas Flagello,
composer, was born.
(MC, 3/15/02)
1928 Mar 15, Mussolini modified
the Italy electoral system. [see May 12]
(MC, 3/15/02)
1930 Mar 15, The USS Nautilus, the
1st streamlined submarine of US Navy, was launched.
(MC, 3/15/02)
1933 Mar 15, Ruth Bader Ginsberg,
U.S. Supreme Court Justice, was born.
(HN, 3/16/01)
1933 Mar 15, The NAACP began a
coordinated attack on segregation and discrimination.
(MC, 3/15/02)
1934 Mar 15, Henry Ford restored
the $5 a day wage.
(HN, 3/15/98)
1935 Mar 15, Joseph Goebbels,
German Minister of Propaganda banned four Berlin newspapers.
(HN, 3/15/98)
1937 Mar 15, The 1st state
contraceptive clinic opened in Raleigh, NC.
(MC, 3/15/02)
1937 Mar 15, H.P. Lovecraft
(b.1890), author of horror tales whose works included "The Color out of
Space," died in Providence, RI.
(HN, 8/20/98)(SSFC, 2/27/05, p.B1)
1939 Mar 15, Germany occupied
Bohemia and Moravia, Czechoslovakia. Slovakia became
independent
(Voruta #27-28, Jul 1996, p.2)(WSJ, 12/12/96,
p.A13)(HN, 3/15/98)(MC, 3/15/02)
1940 Mar 15, Reichsmarshal Herman
Goering said 100-200 church bells are enough for Germany and smelted
the rest.
(MC, 3/15/02)
1941 Mar 15, A blizzard in North
Dakota killed 151. [see Mar 16]
(MC, 3/15/02)
1941 Mar 15, Philippine Airlines
maid its maiden flight from Manila to Baguio.
(SFC, 9/24/98, p.A19)
1942 Mar 15, Alexander van
Zemlinsky (70), Austrian-US composer (African Dance), died.
(MC, 3/15/02)
1944 March 15, In Algiers, the
provisional government merged the Office Français d'Information
and France-Afrique, thus forming Agence Française de Presse
(AFP).
(www.afp.com)
1944 Mar 15, Allied bombers again
raided German-held Monte Cassino, Italy.
(AP, 3/15/07)
1944 Mar 15, Otto von Below (86),
German commandant (WW I), died.
(MC, 3/15/02)
1945 Mar 15, Bing Cosby and Ingrid
Bergman were winners in the 17th Academy Awards along with the film
"Going my Way."
(MC, 3/15/02)
1946 Mar 15, British premier
Attlee agreed with India's right to independence.
(MC, 3/15/02)
1949 Mar 15, Almost four years
after the end of World War II, clothes rationing in Great Britain ends.
(HN, 3/15/99)
1950 Mar 15, "Consul" opened at
Barrymore Theater in NYC.
(www.ibdb.com/venue.asp?ID=1147)
1951 Mar 15, General de Lattre
demanded that Paris send him more troops for the fight in Indochina
(Vietnam).
(HN, 3/15/98)
1951 Mar 15, Persia nationalized
the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company.
(MC, 3/15/02)
1954 Mar
15, The "CBS Morning Show" premiered with Walter Cronkite (1916-2009)
and Jack Paar (1918-2004).
(NYT, 3/14/54,
p.x15)(www.imdb.com/title/tt0046627/episodes)
1955 Mar 15, The U.S. Air Force
unveiled a self-guided missile.
(HN, 3/15/98)
1956 Mar 15, The Lerner and Loewe
musical "My Fair Lady" opened starring Julie Andrews and Rex Harrison
at the Mark Hellinger Theater in NYC for 2,715 performances.
(AP, 3/15/97)(HN, 3/15/02)
1957 Mar 15, Burton Abbot was
executed for the 1955 abduction and killing of 14-year-old Stephanie
Bryan.
(SFEC, 11/17/96, p.C17)
1960 Mar 15, Ten nations met in
Geneva to discuss disarmament.
(HN, 3/15/98)
1961 Mar 15, South Africa withdrew
from British Commonwealth.
(MC, 3/15/02)
1962 Mar 15, Richard Rodger's
musical "No Strings," premiered in NYC for 580 performances.
(MC, 3/15/02)
1964 Mar 15, Actress Elizabeth
Taylor married actor Richard Burton in Montreal; it was her fifth
marriage, his second.
(AP, 3/15/97)
1964 Mar 15, LBJ asked for a War
on Poverty and for Congress to ensure everybody's right to vote. [see
Mar 16]
(MC, 3/15/02)
1964 Mar 15, Cambodia was
receiving military aid from Communist China.
(HN, 3/15/98)
1965 Mar 15, Addressing a joint
session of Congress, President Johnson called for new legislation to
guarantee every American's right to vote. His speech was written by
Richard Goodwin. In 2007 Garth E. Pauley authored “LBJ’s American
Promise: the 1965 Voting Rights Address.”
(AP, 3/15/97)(WSJ, 4/12/08, p.W8)(AH, 10/07, p.65)
1965 Mar 15, T.G.I. Friday's 1st
restaurant opened in NYC.
(MC, 3/15/02)
1965 Mar 15, Gamal Abdel Nasser
was re-elected Egyptian President.
(HN, 3/15/99)
1966 Mar 15, Abe Saperstein,
founder of the Harlem Globetrotters, died.
(MC, 3/15/02)
1967 Mar 15, LBJ named Ellsworth
Bunker as the new ambassador to Saigon, South Vietnam. Bunker replaced
Lodge.
(HN, 3/15/98)
1968 Mar 15, The U.S. mint halted
the practice of buying and selling gold.
(HN, 3/15/98)
1968 Mar 15, American intelligence
noted withdrawal of major NVA units from the Khe Sanh area.
(www.geocities.com/Pentagon/4867/timeline.html)
1969 Mar 15, A violent
Chinese-Russian border dispute left 100s dead.
(www.jstor.org/pss/1957173)
1970 Mar 15, "Purlie" opened at
Broadway Theater in NYC. In December it moved to the Winter Garden
Theater and in March 1971 to the ANTA Playhouse where it closed in
November after a total of 688 performances.
(www.ibdb.com/production.php?id=3514)
1970 Mar 15, Expo '70, promoting
"Progress and Harmony for Mankind," opened in Osaka, Japan. The ‘70
Expo featured the Multiscreen Corporation production of the film Tiger
Child.
(Jap. Enc., BLDM, p. 216)(Hem., 3/97, p.81)(AP,
3/15/08)
1974 Mar 15, In Brazil General
Ernesto Geisel (1907-1996) became president and ruled for 5 years. He
gradually ended political repression, lifted press censorship and
allowed political exiles to return. Under his rule the foreign debt
doubled to $43 billion.
(SFC, 9/13/96,
p.E2)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ernesto_Geisel)
1975 Mar 15, Ted Bundy victim
Julie Cunningham (26) disappeared from Vail, Colo.
(www.crimenews2000.com/memorial/00052902pg8.htm)
1975 Mar 15, Aristotle Onassis
(69) Greek shipping magnate died near Paris.
(AP, 3/15/97)
1977 Mar 15, The U.S. House of
Representatives began a 90-day test to determine the feasibility of
showing its sessions on television.
(AP, 3/15/97)
1979 Mar 15, In Brazil Gen. Joao
Baptista Figueiredo (d.1999 at 81) began serving as president and
continued to 1985. Aureliano Chaves (d.2003 at 74) served as VP.
Figueiredo was the last of 5 generals to rule during the 1964-1985
dictatorship. He oversaw the transition to democracy begun by his
predecessor Ernesto Geisel. Inflation during his rule rose from 43% a
year to 230% a year when he left office.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jo%C3%A3o_Baptista_de_Oliveira_Figueiredo)(SFC,
12/25/99, p.B4)(SFC, 5/2/03, p.A26)
1981 Mar 15, Fernando Belmontes
(19) killed Steacy McConnell (19) during a robbery in Victor, just east
of Lodi, Ca. He hit her 15-20 times with an iron dumbbell. In 2006 the
US Supreme Court reinstated his death sentence.
{California, Murder, USA}
(SFC, 11/14/06,
p.B3)(www.cjlf.org/releases/06-18.htm)
1981 Mar 15, Rene Clair (b.1898),
French director (It Happened Tomorrow), died.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ren%C3%A9_Clair)
1982 Mar 15, Actress Theresa
Saldana (b.1954) was stalked and stabbed by Arthur Jackson. She had
starred in Martin Scorsese’s 1980 film "Raging Bull." Jackson was
convicted of 2nd degree attempted murder and served 12 years. He was
then extradited to England for wounding 2 tellers and killing a man who
tried to stop a bank robbery in the Chelsea section of London in 1966.
In 1994 Ronald Markman and Ron Labrecque authored “Obsessed: The
Stalking of Theresa Soldana.”
(SFC, 6/22/96, p.E3)(http://tinyurl.com/2sz4cq)
1983 Mar 15, Rebecca West (born in
1892 as Cicily Fairfield), British writer, died. Her books included
"The Return of the Soldier" (1918) and "Black Lamb and Grey Falcon,"
which was written following a trip through Yugoslavia. She had a
relationship with H.G. Wells that led to the birth of a son, Anthony.
In 1996 Carl Rollyson wrote her biography: "Rebecca West: A Life." Her
pen name came from a character in Ibsen’s play "Rosmersholm." In 2000
the "Selected Letters of Rebecca West" was edited by Bonnie Kime Scott.
In 2003 Bernard Schweitzer edited and introduced her work "Survivors in
Mexico."
(WSJ, 3/6/00, p.A28)(SSFC, 6/8/03,
p.M3)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rebecca_West)
1984 Mar 15, The acquittal of a
Miami police officer on charges of negligently killing a ghetto youth
sparked a rampage by angry blacks in Miami; 550 people were arrested.
(http://tinyurl.com/39ow9d)
1986 Mar 15, The AMA ruled that
euthanasia was ethical on coma patients.
(HN, 3/15/98)
1987 Mar 15, "Starlight Express"
by Andrew Lloyd Weber, opened at Gershwin Theater in NYC for 761
performances. The initial production had opened at the Apollo Victoria
Theatre in London on March 27 1984.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Starlight_Express)
1987 Mar 15, Peggy Say, the sister
of Terry Anderson, the Associated Press correspondent held hostage in
Lebanon, said President Reagan was being "unjustly castigated" for his
arms-for-hostages deal.
(AP, 3/15/97)
1988 Mar 15, Paul Simon defeated
Jesse Jackson in the Illinois Democratic primary, while George Bush won
a ringing victory over Bob Dole in the Republican contest.
(AP, 3/15/98)
1988 Mar 15, NFL owners approved
the move of the St Louis Cardinals to Phoenix.
(www.sportsecyclopedia.com/nfl/az/cardsarizona.html)
1989 Mar 15, Soviet President
Mikhail S. Gorbachev convened a two-day meeting of the Communist
Party's Central Committee to decide on agricultural reforms.
(AP, 3/15/99)
1990 Mar 15, Iraq executed
London-based journalist Farzad Bazoft, claiming he was a spy.
(AP, 3/15/00)
1990 Mar 15, The Israeli
government of Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir lost a vote of confidence
in the Knesset after Shamir refused to accept a U.S. plan for
Israeli-Palestinian peace talks.
(AP, 3/15/00)
1991 Mar 15, An indictment was
unsealed in Los Angeles, charging four police officers with beating
black motorist Rodney King.
(HN, 3/15/98)(AP, 3/15/01)
1991 Mar 15, Soviet pole vaulter
Sergei Bubka cleared a record 20 feet during an international meet in
San Sebastian, Spain.
(AP, 3/15/01)
1992 Mar 15, Democratic
presidential candidates debated in Chicago, criticizing President
George H.W. Bush's handling of the Persian Gulf War and its aftermath,
and clashing over economic issues.
(AP, 3/15/97)
1992 Mar 15, The United Nations
officially embarked on its largest peacekeeping operation with the
arrival of a diplomat in Cambodia.
(AP, 3/15/97)
1993 Mar 15, Searchers found the
body of the sixth and last missing victim of the World Trade Center
bombing in New York.
(AP, 3/15/98)
1993 Mar 15, Israeli Prime
Minister Yitzhak Rabin met at the White House with President Clinton,
after which Rabin offered to negotiate the return of part of the Golan
Heights to Syria.
(AP, 3/15/98)
1994 Mar 15, Illinois Congressman
Dan Rostenkowski, chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee,
defeated four Democratic primary challengers in his bid for
re-election.
(AP, 3/15/99)
1995 Mar 15, President Clinton
issued an executive order formally blocking a $1 billion contract
between Conoco and Iran to develop a huge offshore oil tract in the
Persian Gulf.
(AP, 3/15/00)
1996 Mar 15, The Liggett Group
agreed to repay more than $10 million in Medicaid bills for treatment
of smokers, settling lawsuits with five states. The settlement came two
days after Liggett, the nation's fifth-largest tobacco company, made
history by settling a private class-action lawsuit alleging cigarette
makers manipulated nicotine to hook smokers.
(AP, 3/15/97)
1996 Mar 15, Helen Chadwick (42),
British artist, died.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helen_Chadwick)
1997 Mar 15, An art show that
featured 13 oil paintings by Dr. Kevorkian opened in Royal Oak, Mich.
They depicted severed heads, moldering skulls and rotting corpses.
(SFC, 3/17/97, p.A2)
1997 Mar 15, President Clinton
spent a second day at Bethesda Naval Medical Center, recuperating from
surgery for a partially torn knee tendon.
(AP, 3/15/98)
1997 Mar 15, Greek frogmen and
U.S. Marines evacuated hundreds of foreigners trapped in Albania after
that country's descent into anarchy.
(AP, 3/15/98)
1997 Mar 15, German soldiers,
while rescuing foreigners, opened fire under hostile conditions in
Albania. This was their first active combat since WW II.
(SFC, 3/17/97, p.C1)
1997 Mar 15, The Moscow paper
Komsomolskaya Pravda reported in an article by Robert Bykov, retired
Russian colonel, that an accidental nuclear launch could happen at any
time due to the aged and unreliability of the command-an-control
equipment.
(WSJ, 3/28/97, p.A16)
1997 Mar 15, In Zaire rebel
soldiers occupied Kisangani.
(SFC, 3/17/97, p.A8)
1998 Mar 15, CBS' "60 Minutes"
aired an interview with former White House employee Kathleen Willey,
who said President Clinton had made unwelcome sexual advances toward
her in the Oval Office in 1993, a charge denied by the president.
(AP, 3/15/99)
1998 Mar 15, Dr. Benjamin Spock
(b.1903), whose child care guidance spanned half a century, died in San
Diego at 94. He was the author of the 1946 “Common Sense Book of Baby
and Child Care.”
(SFC, 3/17/98, p.A5)(AP, 3/15/99)
1998 Mar 15, Random drug testing
at all Malaysian schools was to be instituted with urine testing
equipment.
(SFC, 3/16/98, p.A9)
1999 Mar 15, Bruce Springsteen,
Paul McCartney, Billy Joel and Dusty Springfield were inducted into the
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
(AP, 3/15/00)
1999 Mar 15, The US prison
population was reported at 1.8 million with 668 inmates per 100,000
residents.
(SFC, 3/15/99, p.A2)
1999 Mar 15, In Bourbonnais, Ill.,
the "City of New Orleans" Amtrak train derailed after hitting a truck
loaded with steel. The truck was driven by John Stokes and 11 people
were killed and 119 injured. A witness testified that Stokes tried to
go around the crossing gates to beat the train, but the testimony was
later reported as mistaken.
(SFC, 3/16/99, p.A3)(SFC, 3/17/99, p.A1)(WSJ,
3/17/99, p.A1)(SFC, 3/17/99, p.A3)(SFC, 3/18/99, p.A3)(SFC, 3/20/99,
p.A10)
1999 Mar 15, In Ecuador the banks
reopened as taxi drivers protested the doubling of gas prices.
(SFC, 3/16/99, p.A9)
1999 Mar 15, Eritrea claimed to
have shot down an Ethiopian MiG-23 and to have destroyed 19 tanks.
Ethiopia denied the claims.
(SFC, 3/16/99, p.A9)
1999 Mar 15, All 20 members of the
EU executive body, the European Commission also called "the college,"
resigned in the wake of charges of fraud, corruption and mismanagement.
(SFC, 3/16/99, p.A1)(Econ, 9/13/03, p.50)
1999 Mar 15, In Haiti a UN
helicopter crashed in the mountains and 13 people were killed. They
included 6 Argentines, 6 Russians and 1 American.
(SFC, 3/16/99, p.A9)
1999 Mar 15, In Indonesia the
government closed 38 banks, took over 7, and agreed to bail out 9 in an
attempt to revitalize the financial system.
(WSJ, 3/15/99, p.A13)
1999 Mar 15, The Kosovar Albanian
delegation to peace talks in Paris said it was ready to sign an
international accord for Kosovo. In Kosovo the ethnic Albanians gave a
written pledge to sign a peace proposal.
(SFC, 3/16/99, p.A8)(AP, 3/15/00)
1999 Mar 15, In Northern Ireland
Rosemary Nelson (40), a Catholic human rights lawyer, was killed by a
car bomb in Lurgan.
(SFC, 3/16/99, p.A8)
1999 Mar 15, Pluto again became
the outermost planet.
(MC, 3/15/02)
2000 Mar 15, Their presidential
nominations secured, Al Gore and George W. Bush dug in for the
eight-month battle to Election Day, with Bush saying he was braced for
Gore’s “politics of personal destruction and distortions,” and Gore
arguing that Bush’s “risky tax scheme” would hurt the economy.
(AP, 3/15/01)
2000 Mar 15, Paleontologist Daniel
Gebo announced the discovery of bones from 2 tiny primates, the size of
a human thumb, that lived 42 million years ago in Shanghuang, China.
(SFC, 3/16/00, p.A1)
2000 Mar 15, In Michigan 4 teens
beat to death and robbed Willie Jones (66) as he left the Michigan
Lanes Bowling Alley in Grand Rapids. The teens then stuffed Jones into
their car trunk and drove around town to show him off.
(SFC, 3/20/00, p.A11)
2000 Mar 15, Darrell Keith Rich
(45), serial killer, was executed at San Quentin, Ca. His was the 8th
execution in the state since the reinstitution of the death penalty.
(SFC, 3/15/00, p.A1)(SFC, 12/13/05, p.A13)
2000 Mar 15, Durward Kirby
(b.1912), TV funnyman ("Candid Camera" and "The Garry Moore Show") died
at age 87 in Fort Myers, Florida.
(AP, 3/15/01)
2000 Mar 15, A UN Security Council
panel accused governments of Africa and Europe of violating sanctions
against the UNITA rebels in Angola.
(SFC, 3/16/00, p.A14)
2000 Mar 15, Canada passed the
Clarity Act, which set out a procedure for the government to negotiate
with any province that votes for independence by a clear majority.
(www.cric.ca/en_html/guide/clarity/clarity_act.html)(Econ, 1/14/06,
p.18)
2000 Mar 16, Emergency food aid
was planned for Ethiopia after it was learned that 53 children
under age 5 had died of malnutrition in one town.
(SFC, 3/16/00, p.A16)
2000 Mar 15, In Iraq US and
British warplanes hit southern targets and Iraq reported that one
civilian was killed and 6 injured.
(SFC, 3/16/00, p.A15)
2000 Mar 15, In Israel the
security cabinet approved a troop pullout from 6.1% of the West Bank as
Hezbollah fired rockets at Israeli positions in southern Lebanon and
northern Israel. The areas to be ceded included several Palestinian
villages and towns near Ramallah, Bethlehem and Hebron.
(WSJ, 3/16/00, p.A1)(SFC, 3/16/00, p.A14)
2000 Mar 15, In Kosovo US troops
raided 5 locations in southeastern Kosovo and seized large quantities
of arms and ammunition from militant Albanians.
(SFC, 3/16/00, p.A16)
2000 Mar 15, In Liberia the
government closed 2 leading independent radio stations saying they
posed a security risk.
(SFC, 3/16/00, p.A15)
2000 Mar 15, The IMF announced
that Ukraine had provided false data on its currency reserves between
1996 and 1998 in order to get 3 loans approved.
(SFC, 3/16/00, p.A15)
2001 Mar 15, Federal authorities
confirmed that remains found on a Texas ranch were those of missing
atheist leader Madalyn Murray O'Hair and two of her relatives. David
Waters, the key suspect in the slayings, was sentenced to 20 years in
prison on a federal extortion charge in connection with the case.
(AP, 3/15/06)
2001 Mar 15, Ann Sothern (92),
film and TV actress, died in Ketchum, Idaho. Her work included 64
movies and over 175 TV episodes.
(SFC, 3/17/01, p.A23)(AP, 3/15/02)
2001 Mar 15, In Brazil a Petrobras
oil-platform explosion killed 1 worker and left 9 missing at the
40-story offshore facility. The platform was in danger of sinking.
(WSJ, 3/16/01, p.A1)(SFC, 3/17/01, p.A11)
2001 Mar 15, Britain announced
plans to slaughter up to 100,000 more animals due to possible contacts
with foot-and-mouth disease virus.
(SFC, 3/16/01, p.A15)
2001 Mar 15, Chechen men, wielding
knives and claiming to have a bomb, hijacked a Russian plane carrying
174 people after it left Turkey and forced it to land in the holy Saudi
city of Medina. Saudi special forces stormed the plane the following
day; a flight attendant, a passenger and a hijacker were killed.
(SFC, 3/16/01, p.A14)(AP, 3/15/02)
2001 Mar 15, In India defense
minister George Fernandes resigned in a corruption scandal.
(SFC, 3/16/01, p.A16)
2001 Mar 15, Israel arrested 3
members of an elite Palestinian security force who allegedly planned a
bomb attack on Israeli West Bank military headquarters.
(SFC, 3/16/01, p.A14)
2001 Mar 15, In Macedonia Prime
Minister Ljubco Georgievski said that a direct involvement of Nato
troops might be required to stem rebel attacks.
(SFC, 3/16/01, p.A14)
2001 Mar 15, In the Philippines 10
police officers were sentenced to death for accepting $13,265 in bribes
from alleged drug dealers in 1999.
(SFC, 3/16/01, p.A16)
2001 Mar 15, A St. Maarten
registered boat carrying illegal migrants sank near St. Martin and at
least 20 people were killed.
(SFC, 3/16/01, p.A16)
2002 Mar 15, Disney opened
its new $532.9 million movie-themed park adjacent to Disneyland Paris.
(WSJ, 3/12/02, p.B1)
2002 Mar 15, Adm. Zinni, US envoy,
met with Yasser Arafat in Ramallah and demanded that he reign in
militants and enforced a cease fire.
(SFC, 3/16/02, p.A7)
2002 Mar 15, China allowed 25
North Korean asylum seekers to leave the Spanish Embassy in Beijing for
South Korea by way of the Philippines.
(WSJ, 3/18/02, p.A1)
2003 Mar 15, Many thousands of
anti-war demonstrators marched in SF, Washington DC and around the
world against plans for a war with Iraq.
(SFC, 3/16/03, p.A1)(AP, 3/15/08)
2002 Mar 15, A Houston jury spared
Andrea Yates’ life after prosecutors stopped short of demanding the
death penalty for the tormented mother who’d drowned her five children
in the bathtub. Yates was sentenced to life in prison; however, she was
later acquitted by reason of insanity in a retrial.
(AP, 3/15/07)
2002 Mar 15, In Lewisville, Texas,
Jackson Carr (6) was killed and buried by his older sister (15) and
brother (10). His body was found the next day.
(SFC, 4/17/02, p.A5)
2002 Mar 15, Sylvester “Pat”
Weaver (93), TV pioneer, died in Santa Barbara, Calif. He had created
NBC’s “Today” and “Tonight” shows.
(AP, 3/15/07)
2003 Mar 15, In Chechnya 6 Russian
soldiers were killed by rebel fire and mines. Attackers destroyed 2
polling stations ahead of the Mar 23 constitutional referendum.
(SFC, 3/17/03, p.A4)
2003 Mar 15, Hu Jintao was chosen
to replace Jiang Zemin as the president of China.
(AP, 3/15/04)
2003 Mar 15, In Pakistan
authorities near Lahore arrested Yassir al-Jaziri, a suspected key
al-Qaeda figure.
(SFC, 3/16/03, p.A1)
2004 Mar 15, The Rock and Roll
Hall of Fame inducted Prince, Bob Seger, Jackson Browne and George
Harrison along with ZZ Top, Traffic and the Dells.
(SFC, 3/16/04, p.A2)
2004 Mar 15, Missouri jurors
agreed that vapors from butter flavoring at the microwave popcorn
factory had permanently ruined the lungs of Eric Peoples. The verdict
was against International Flavors and Fragrances Inc. and its
subsidiary Bush Boake Allen Inc. The flavoring manufacturers were
ordered to pay $18 million to Peoples and $2 million to his wife.
(AP, 3/16/04)
2004 Mar 15, Ohio police
identified Charles A. McCoy Jr. (28) as the gunman in two dozen highway
shootings that have terrorized motorists for months.
(AP, 3/16/04)(SFC, 3/18/04, p.A4)
2004 Mar 15, Bank of America and
FleetBoston Financial agreed to pay $675 million in fines and fee cuts
to settle improper mutual-fund trading. Some 13,000 job cuts were
expected following the merger of the 2 companies.
(WSJ, 3/16/04, p.A1)(WSJ, 3/17/04, p.A1)
2004 Mar 15, The Bill Gates
Foundation donated $47 million to private agencies carrying out AIDS
prevention programs in India.
(SFC, 3/16/04, p.A2)
2004 Mar 15, Martha Stewart
resigned from the board of Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia 10 days
after being convicted in a stock scandal.
(AP, 3/15/05)
2004 Mar 15, A new computer worm,
named "Phatbot," began appearing in the Asia-Pacific region. Most call
it a variation of the longstanding Gaobot or Agobot family, and
sometimes as Polybot. When the worm is run, it sets the system to
autostart the worm at boot time; attempts to terminate security
software running on the computer; and probes network shares in an
attempt to spread itself.
(AP, 3/17/04)
2004 Mar 15, Scientists announced
the discovery of a new planetoid named Sedna. The frozen, shiny red
world is some 8 billion miles from Earth, the most distant known object
in the solar system. Some placed it in the outer periphery of a region
called the Oort Cloud.
(AP, 3/16/04)(SFC, 3/16/04, p.A1)
2004 Mar 15, The WHO reported that
drug-resistant strains of tuberculosis had reached troubling levels in
Eastern Europe and Central Asia.
(WSJ, 3/16/04, p.A1)
2004 Mar 15, The U.S. military
said it released 23 Afghan and three Pakistani citizens from the U.S.
Navy prison for terrorist suspects in Cuba, leaving about 610 still in
detention.
(AP, 3/16/04)
2004 Mar 15, Canadian National
Railway reached a tentative agreement with the Canadian Auto Workers
union that could end a 3½-week-old strike by 5,000 employees.
(AP, 3/15/04)
2004 Mar 15, Georgia's President
Mikhail Saakashvili put trade restrictions on Adzharia after Aslan
Abashidze ignored a deadline to accept federal authority.
(AP, 3/14/04)
2004 Mar 15, Iran relented and
decided to allow a visit at the end of this month, after temporarily
freezing out international nuclear inspectors.
(AP, 3/15/04)
2004 Mar 15, In Iraq 4 American
missionary relief workers were killed in a drive-by shooting in Mosul.
(SFC, 3/16/04, p.A14)(AP, 3/15/05)
2004 Mar 15, Israeli helicopters
attacked two suspected Hamas weapons workshops in Gaza City and Prime
Minister Ariel Sharon called off a summit with his Palestinian
counterpart.
(AP, 3/15/04)
2004 Mar 15, Ousted Haitian
President Jean-Bertrand Aristide left his temporary exile in Africa and
flew to Jamaica despite opposition to his presence in the Caribbean.
(AP, 3/15/04)
2004 Mar 15, Pakistani police
diffused a large bomb inside a van parked in front of the US Consulate
in Karachi.
(SFC, 3/16/04, p.A3)
2004 Mar 15, In Saudi Arabia
authorities killed Khaled Ali Haj, a Yemeni, and Ibrahim bin Abdul-Aziz
bin Mohammed al-Mezeini, a Saudi. Haj, who also uses the name Abu Hazim
al-Sha'ir, was the "most dangerous" al-Qaeda operative in the region.
Haj was third on the government's list of Saudi Arabia's 26 most wanted
militants.
(AP, 3/16/04)
2004 Mar 15, Jose Luis Rodriguez
Zapatero, the leader of Spain's victorious Socialists, said he will
withdraw his nation's support for the U.S.-led occupation of Iraq.
(AP, 3/15/04)
2004 Mar 15, In Venezuela
opponents of President Hugo Chavez celebrated a Supreme Court ruling
that signatures on petitions seeking a presidential recall vote were
valid unless citizens disclaim them.
(AP, 3/16/04)
2005 Mar 15, A US Senate
investigators released a new report that said 9 US banks, including
Citigroup, Bank of America, and Riggs Bank, enabled Augusto Pinochet,
former Chilean dictator, and family members to build a secret network
of accounts to conceal his wealth. DC-based Riggs Bank merged with PNC
Financial following the inquiry, which also revealed that Pinochet and
Obiang Nguema, president of Equatorial Guinea, had stashed millions in
private accounts there.
(WSJ, 3/16/05,
p.A2)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Riggs_Bank)(Econ, 3/14/09, p.63)
2005 Mar 15, The US charged 18
people with a scheme to smuggle shoulder-fired missiles and other
military gear from former Soviet states. One person was still at large.
(WSJ, 3/16/05, p.A1)
2005 Mar 15, A NY federal jury
found Bernard Ebbers (63), former head of WorldCom, guilty on all 9
counts against him, including securities fraud, conspiracy and lying to
regulators. He was later sentenced to 25 years in prison.
(SFC, 3/16/05, p.C1)(AP, 3/15/06)
2005 Mar 15, British and Spanish
scientists reported that they have discovered how green tea helps to
prevent certain types of cancer. They showed that a compound called
EGCG in green tea prevents cancer cells from growing by binding to a
specific enzyme.
(AP, 3/15/05)
2005 Mar 15, It was noted that
Israeli researchers had found that pomegranate juice, 8 ounces a day,
helps lower cholesterol.
(WSJ, 3/15/05, p.D4)(WSJ, 4/5/05, p.D4)
2005 Mar 15, Bolivia's embattled
President Carlos Mesa asked the country's legislature to authorize an
early presidential election this summer, saying he can no longer govern
among growing protests and road blockades.
(AP, 3/16/05)
2005 Mar 15, Hong Kong press
reported that Zhang Enzhou was removed as president of China
Construction Bank (CCB), China’s 3rd largest bank, allegedly for taking
bribes.
(Econ, 3/19/05, p.79)
2005 Mar 15, A French court gave
the maximum 10-year prison sentence to Djamel Beghal (39), the
ringleader of an alleged plot to send a suicide bomber into the US
Embassy in Paris. The court also sentenced 5 other defendants in the
case to 1-9 year prison terms. Beghal testified that his confession of
a plan to send a suicide bomber into the U.S. Embassy was obtained
under torture after his July 2001 arrest in Dubai, United Arab
Emirates. He was extradited to France two months later and retracted
that confession.
(AP, 3/15/05)
2005 Mar 15, Three car bombs
exploded in Baghdad, killing at least 5 people.
(AP, 3/15/05)
2005 Mar 15, Pres. Berlusconi
announced that Italy would begin pulling its 3,300 troops out of Iraq
in September. The next day he said the withdrawal date was merely a
hope.
(AP, 3/16/05)(Econ, 3/19/05, p.56)
2005 Mar 15, Pakistan issued
release orders for 589 Indian prisoners as a gesture of goodwill
towards New Delhi.
(Reuters, 3/15/05)
2005 Mar 15, In the Philippines
some of the country's most hardened terror suspects were killed in a
failed prison uprising that left 28 people dead. The inmates at Camp
Bagong Diwa in suburban Manila had agreed to surrender after their
failed jailbreak a day earlier, but the deal broke down when they
demanded food first.
(AP, 3/15/05)
2006 Mar 15, The US FCC proposed a
record fine of $3.6 million against dozens of CBS stations and
affiliates in a crackdown on indecent television programming.
(SFC, 3/16/06, p.A2)
2006 Mar 15, US federal
authorities announced charges against 27 people in an Int’l. Internet
child-porn scheme.
(SFC, 3/16/06, p.A7)
2006 Mar 15, Veteran musher Jeff
King drove his dog team into the Bering Sea town of Nome, Alaska, to
capture the 1,100-mile Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race, the world's
premier dog-sled event, for the fourth time.
(AP, 3/15/06)
2006 Mar 15, Lawrence Edward Woods
(60), a transient with 2 guns, shot and killed 2 people inside a
Denny’s restaurant in Pismo Beach, Ca. He wounded 2 others and then
killed himself.
(SFC, 3/16/06, p.B5)
2006 Mar 15, Afghan authorities
said preliminary test results from a U.N. lab left them "99 percent
certain" that the country's first bird flu outbreak was the deadly H5N1
strain.
(AP, 3/15/06)
2006 Mar 15, Britain's Queen
Elizabeth II was greeted with protests, as well as pomp, when she
arrived in the southern Australian city Melbourne to open the
Commonwealth Games.
(AP, 3/15/06)
2006 Mar 15, Officials in
Azerbaijan said a dog had died of bird flu in Baku on Mar 9. 3 human
victims, who died over the past few weeks, were thought to have been
infected through contact with birds.
(AP, 3/15/06)
2006 Mar 15, A British serviceman
facing his first day of a court martial contended that the war in Iraq
is illegal. Flight Lt. Malcolm Kendall-Smith, a Royal Air Force medic,
is the first British officer accused of refusing to serve in Iraq.
(AP, 3/15/06)
2006 Mar 15, In China 8 aphorisms
by Pres. Hu Jintao were issued on a $1 poster with plain, black Chinese
characters above a photo of the Great Wall: Love, do not harm the
motherland. Serve, don't disserve the people. Uphold science; don't be
ignorant and unenlightened. Work hard; don't be lazy and hate work. Be
united and help each other; don't gain benefits at the expense of
others. Be honest and trustworthy, not profit-mongering at the expense
of your values. Be disciplined and law-abiding instead of chaotic and
lawless. Know plain living and hard struggle, do not wallow in luxuries
and pleasures.
(AP, 3/16/06)
2006 Mar 15, In southwest China a
boat carrying people home from a fair capsized while crossing a river
leaving at least 27 dead.
(AP, 3/15/06)
2006 Mar 15, It was reported that
the Dominican Republic is looking to Washington for help recovering at
least $80 million in damages from a US utility it accuses of dumping
thousands of tons of coal ash on the country's beaches, sickening
residents and harming the tourism industry. The government says 82,000
tons of coal ash were shipped from an AES plant in Guayama, Puerto
Rico, and left on beaches in Manzanillo and the Samana Bay port town of
Arroyo Barril between October 2003 and March 2004 without proper
government permits.
(AP, 3/15/06)
2006 Mar 15, Alfredo Castillo,
Ecuador's interior minister, resigned as protests over a US free trade
plan spread from the Andean highlands to the oil-producing southeast
jungle, where police clashed with demonstrators. His comments appeared
to support the protesters and showed disloyalty to Pres. Palacio.
(AP, 3/15/06)
2006 Mar 15, In France a suspected
gangland-style car explosion killed one man and injured another on a
highway north of Paris.
(AP, 3/15/06)
2006 Mar 15, In Indonesia
protesters, demanding the closure of a US-owned gold mine in Papua,
clashed with police in the second day of violent protests in the
province.
(AP, 3/15/06)
2006 Mar 15, Saddam Hussein,
testifying for the first time in his trial, called on Iraqis to stop
killing each other and instead fight U.S. troops; the judge reprimanded
him for making a rambling, political speech and ordered the TV cameras
switched off. US forces bombed a house during a raid north of Baghdad,
killing 13 people, mostly women and children, while insurgent attacks
elsewhere left four dead. In Baqouba, a suicide bomber on a bicycle
missed a police patrol and killed at least two civilians. Interior
Ministry officials announced another driving ban, from 8 p.m. Mar 15 to
4 p.m. Mar 16, to protect against car and suicide bombs while the Iraqi
parliament meets for the first session since the Dec. 15 election. On
June 3 the US military said that it had found no wrongdoing by American
troops accused of intentionally killing civilians during a raid in
Ishaqi village north of Baghdad.
(AP, 3/15/06)(AP, 6/3/06)(AP, 3/15/07)
2006 Mar 15, In Ivory Coast
Guillaume Soro, a leader of the rebel New Forces, joined a national
unity government as minister of development.
(SFC, 3/16/06, p.A3)
2006 Mar 15, It was reported that
Japanese scientists had unveiled a robotic fish that could one day be
used to observe fish in the ocean or survey oil platforms for damage.
(Reuters, 3/15/06)
2006 Mar 15, In Japan 4 people
suspected of committing group suicide were found dead inside a parked
car.
(AP, 3/15/06)
2006 Mar 15, In the Netherlands 2
Bosnian Muslim army commanders were convicted of war crimes for failing
to rein in foreign Muslim volunteers who murdered and tortured Bosnian
Croats and Serbs in a 1990s "holy war."
(AP, 3/16/06)
2006 Mar 15, Palestinian militants
released the last four foreigners they had seized a day earlier to
protest an Israeli military raid on a West Bank prison. Meanwhile,
Palestinian PM Mahmoud Abbas called the raid an "unforgivable crime."
(AP, 3/15/06)
2006 Mar 15, South Korea formally
opened new immigration checkpoints for travelers crossing the heavily
fortified border with North Korea, symbolizing Seoul's hopes for
boosting exchanges with its longtime communist foe.
(AP, 3/15/06)
2006 Mar 15, Gunmen attacked a
compound of the UN refugee agency in the town of Yei in southern Sudan,
killing one person and critically wounding two others.
(AP, 3/16/06)
2006 Mar 15, Sweden recorded its
first case of the deadly H5N1 bird flu strain, saying European
laboratory tests confirm two wild birds found dead in the southeast
were infected with the virus.
(AP, 3/15/06)
2007 Mar 15, In the US Senate
Republicans easily turned back Democratic legislation requiring a troop
withdrawal from Iraq to begin within 120 days.
(AP, 3/15/08)
2007 Mar 15, A revised transcript
was released by the US military that said suspected 9/11 mastermind
Khalid Sheikh Mohammed confessed to the beheading of American
journalist Daniel Pearl and a central role in 30 other attacks and
plots in the US and worldwide that killed thousands of victims.
(AP, 3/15/07)
2007 Mar 15, Standard & Poor's
said an increase in US homes for sale as a result of subprime loan
borrowers defaulting on their mortgages, in addition to less
construction of new homes, is likely to depress gross domestic product
growth.
(Reuters, 3/15/07)
2007 Mar 15, Cisco said it has
acquired WebEx Communications for $3.2 billion in cash.
(SFC, 3/16/07, p.C1)
2007 Mar 15, In Sacramento, Ca., a
fire burned hundreds of feet of a railroad trestle at the American
River causing part of the bridge to collapse. This halted passenger and
freight traffic on Amtrak and the Union Pacific lines on the main
east-west route in Northern California.
(SFC, 3/16/07, p.A2)
2007 Mar 15, Scientists said a
spacecraft orbiting Mars has scanned huge deposits of water ice at its
south pole so plentiful they would blanket the planet in 36 feet of
water if they were liquid.
(Reuters, 3/15/07)
2007 Mar 15, Stuart Rosenberg
(79), a prolific director of series television and theatrical films,
died at his home in Beverly Hills. He had partnered with Paul Newman on
the widely popular prison drama "Cool Hand Luke" and several other
movies.
(AP, 3/19/07)
2007 Mar 15, Bowie Kuhn (80),
former baseball commissioner died in Jacksonville, Fla.
(AP, 3/15/08)
2007 Mar 15, US-led coalition
forces mistakenly killed five Afghan police in a clash in a southern
province.
(AP, 3/16/07)
2007 Mar 15, Interpol said it
plans to issue international requests for the arrest of five prominent
Iranians and a Lebanese militant in connection with the 1994 bombing of
a Jewish cultural center in Argentina.
(AP, 3/15/07)
2007 Mar 15, Bulgaria, Russia and
Greece signed a deal in Athens to build a 175-mile pipeline to
transport Russian oil to a port in northern Greece.
(AP, 3/15/07)
2007 Mar 15, Human Rights Watch
released a report that said Children in Burundi suffer serious abuses
in prison, including torture, rape and food shortages, in a criminal
justice system that treats them as adults.
(AP, 3/15/07)
2007 Mar 15, China expressed "deep
regret" over a US decision to punish a Macau bank for allegedly helping
North Korea launder money, foreshadowing the difficulties of enforcing
an international agreement on the North's nuclear disarmament.
(AP, 3/15/07)
2007 Mar 15, A UN report said
Colombian security forces killed civilians in several states last year
and falsely labeled many as leftist rebels slain in combat.
(AP, 3/15/07)
2007 Mar 15, The EU said it would
put pressure on members of the Southeast Asian regional grouping ASEAN
at talks in Germany to urge Myanmar to improve its human rights record.
(AP, 3/15/07)
2007 Mar 15, A French court
convicted a doctor in the poisoning death of a terminally ill cancer
patient, in a trial that has raised the issue of euthanasia in France's
presidential race.
(AP, 3/15/07)
2007 Mar 15, It was reported that
the Pascha brothel in Cologne, Germany, hopes to capitalize on the
growing number of retirees by offering a 50% discount for sex in the
afternoon.
(AP, 3/15/07)
2007 Mar 15, In Hungary thousands
of people protested against Socialist PM Ferenc Gyurcsany at ceremonies
to mark the country's national holiday, demanding his resignation and
shouting "traitor."
(AP, 3/15/07)
2007 Mar 15, Communist rebels
armed with rifles, hand grenades and petrol bombs attacked a police
post in the jungles of eastern India, killing at least 55 officers. In
eastern India farmers angry over plans to build an industrial park on
their land torched a government office in a second day of unrest that
has claimed 14 lives.
(AP, 3/15/07)(AP, 3/16/07)
2007 Mar 15, The six world powers
reached an agreement on a draft resolution for a new package of
sanctions against Iran for its nuclear program. It included an embargo
on arms exports and an asset freeze on more individuals and companies
associated with Tehran's nuclear and missile programs.
(AP, 3/15/07)
2007 Mar 15, A suicide car bomber
apparently targeting a senior city official struck an Iraqi military
checkpoint in a Shiite neighborhood in Baghdad, killing at least eight
people. In Iskandariyah a bomb in a parked car exploded as a bus packed
with workers passed by, killing at least four and wounding 24. The top
official in Baghdad's Sadr City was seriously wounded when gunmen
ambushed his convoy in eastern Baghdad, killing two of his bodyguards.
A US soldier was killed in an explosion in Salahuddin province.
(AP, 3/15/07)(AP, 3/16/07)
2007 Mar 15, Jordan's military
court sentenced to death four Iraqi al-Qaida militants charged with
terror attacks on Jordanians in Iraq. Of the four, only one is in
custody while the other three remain at large and were tried in
absentia.
(AP, 3/15/07)
2007 Mar 15, The European
Commission and the UN Development Program said Malaysia should empower
its forest-dependent indigenous people to alleviate poverty and
safeguard their environment.
(AP, 3/15/07)
2007 Mar 15, Mexican Federal
agents seized the cash, eight luxury vehicles, seven weapons and a
machine to make pills during a raid at a house in Lomas de Chapultepec.
The attorney general later said the $206 million in cash seized was
connected to one of the hemisphere's largest networks for trafficking
pseudoephedrine, the main ingredient in methamphetamines. The ring had
been operating since 2004 and was run by a native of China who had
gained Mexican citizenship. A recount put the cashed seized to over
$207 million.
(AP, 3/17/07)(AP, 3/22/07)
2007 Mar 15, Montenegro signed a
stabilization and association agreement (SAA), usually the first step
toward EU membership.
(Econ, 3/24/07, p.60)
2007 Mar 15, Nigeria’s electoral
commission barred Vice President Atiku Abubakar from crucial elections,
omitting his name from the roster of two dozen approved candidates. In
southern Nigeria militants released two Italian oil workers who were
kidnapped more than three months ago.
(AP, 3/15/07)(AFP, 3/15/07)
2007 Mar 15, The rival Hamas and
Fatah movements formed a long-elusive unity government, hoping to end
bloody infighting and lead the Palestinians out of yearlong
international isolation. Israel immediately said that it would not deal
with the new government.
(AP, 3/15/07)
2007 Mar 15, In St. Petersburg
Nikolai Zavadsky, the husband of a late curator at Russia's most famous
museum, was convicted in the theft of dozens of art objects and
sentenced to five years in prison. He was also ordered to pay $283,000
in damages to the Hermitage.
(AP, 3/15/07)
2007 Mar 15, In Somalia a bomb
blast destroyed two houses near Mogadishu, killing seven people,
including four children.
(AP, 3/16/07)
2007 Mar 15, Spain’s Parliament
passed a gender-equality bill aimed at getting more Spanish women into
elected office and corporate boardrooms, and more men heating baby
bottles and changing diapers.
(AP, 3/15/07)
2007 Mar 15, A rights group said
Mukhammadali Karabayev, an Uzbek opposition activist, has been
sentenced to six years in prison on extortion and fraud charges amid a
sweeping crackdown on dissent in the tightly controlled ex-Soviet
republic.
(AP, 3/15/07)
2007 Mar 15, A defiant Zimbabwean
President Robert Mugabe told his critics of his government to "go hang"
themselves in his first response to the arrest and assault of
opposition chief Morgan Tsvangirai. Tanzanian President Jakaya Kikwete
went into talks with Mugabe following growing international
condemnation of the crackdown on opposition demonstrators.
(AFP, 3/15/07)
2008 Mar 15, In NYC an apartment
building on Manhattan’s East Side was crushed in a giant crane collapse
that killed 7 people and injured 17.
(AP, 3/16/08)(SFC, 3/18/08, p.A2)
2008 Mar 15, It was reported that
spores of Ug99, a wheat killing fungus that emerged in East Africa
nearly 10 years ago, has been spread by winds into the Saudi Peninsula
and South Asia.
(SFC, 3/15/08, p.B6)
2008 Mar 15, In Afghanistan a
suicide car bomb attack near a convoy of international troops killed a
13-year-old Afghan child and wounded a soldier in Khost province. 3
militants were killed in the former Taliban stronghold of Musa Qala in
Helmand province.
(AP, 3/15/08)(AFP, 3/16/08)
2008 Mar 15, In Albania 26 people,
including several children, were killed and over 250 injured by a
series of large explosions at an army base on the outskirts of the
capital Tirana. The explosions began when workers were moving stocks of
old Chinese and Soviet shells stored at the base. Some workers were
repackaging 40-year-old Chinese-made shells to disguise their origin.
In September Kosta Trebicka, a businessman turned whistle-blower, was
killed when his jeep crashed on a remote mountain road.
(Reuters, 3/16/08)(AP, 3/18/08)(Econ, 10/11/08, p.71)
2008 Mar 15, Azerbaijan warned it
would review relations with France, Russia and the US after they voted
against a UN resolution calling on Armenia to pull out of Azerbaijani
territory.
(AFP, 3/15/08)
2008 Mar 15, China's legislature
re-elected Hu Jintao as president, giving him a second five-year term
as leader of the world's most populous country. It also returned Hu as
head of the Central Military Commission, the body overseeing the armed
forces.
(AP, 3/15/08)
2008 Mar 15, China kept government
workers confined to their offices and ordered tourists out of Tibet's
capital while lines of soldiers sealed off streets where riots had
erupted. A Tibetan exile group said at least 30 people were killed in
protests a day earlier. Tibet's government-in-exile demanded the UN
intervene to end what it called "urgent human rights violations" by
China in the region following deadly protests.
(AP, 3/15/08)
2008 Mar 15, Congo’s foreign debt
stood at $12 billion and interest payments consumed a large chunk of
its budget.
(Econ, 3/15/08, SR p.12)
2008 Mar 15, In Iran hard-line
allies of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad pulled ahead in Iran's
parliamentary elections, according to partial results, but the
president's conservative critics were making a strong showing that
could unsettle his domination of the legislature.
(AP, 3/15/08)
2008 Mar 15, Iraqi security forces
clashed with a breakaway faction of Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr's
Mahdi Army in Kut, leaving five dead and 15 wounded.
(AP, 3/15/08)
2008 Mar 15, Thousands of Italians
marched in an anti-mafia protest and called on all citizens to take a
public stand against Italy's powerful crime syndicates.
(Reuters, 3/15/08)
2008 Mar 15, Alitalia, Italy’s
state-owned national airline, accepted a takeover offer worth $217 made
by air France-KLM, a French-Dutch airline group. The Italian government
accepted the offer on March 17.
(Econ, 3/22/08, p.73)
2008 Mar 15, In Japan Tony Blair,
during a meeting of senior officials from the world's top 20 greenhouse
gas emitters, urged the world's heaviest polluters including the United
States, China and India to agree to binding emissions cuts, saying
failure to act on global warming would be "unforgivably irresponsible."
(AP, 3/15/08)
2008 Mar 15, Vytautas Kernagis
(57), popular Lithuanian singer, died of cancer.
(www.lzinios.lt/lt/2008-03-17.html)
2008 Mar 15, Officials said the
main telecom operator in the United Arab Emirates, Etisalat, has
launched mobile services in Nigeria, becoming the fifth operator there.
(AP, 3/15/08)
2008 Mar 15, In Nigeria a Wings
Airline 19-seater aircraft went missing shortly after leaving Lagos for
the Obudu Cattle Ranch in Cross River state. On Aug 30 hunters found
the wreckage of the plane and the bodies of its three crew members.
(AFP, 9/3/08)
2008 Mar 15, In Pakistan a bomb
struck an Italian restaurant crowded with foreigners, killing a Turkish
aid worker and wounding at least 12 other people.
(AP, 3/16/08)
2008 Mar 15, Qatar-based
investment company IAS International said it was undertaking a series
of development projects in Central African Republic worth 1.6 billion
dollars.
(AP, 3/15/08)
2008 Mar 15, In Qatar the
consecration of the Church of Our Lady of the Rosary was held. This
became Qatar’s first Roman Catholic church, ending decades of
clandestine worship for tens of thousands of foreign workers. The $15
million, 2,700-seat church was built on land donated by Qatar's emir,
Sheikh Hamad Bin Khalifa Al-Thani.
(AP, 3/14/08)(AP, 3/15/08)
2008 Mar 15, In southern Thailand
a bomb exploded in the parking lot of an upscale hotel, killing two
people and wounding 14 others.
(AP, 3/15/08)
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