Today in History - March 16
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37 Mar 16,
Tiberius Claudius Nero (78), Roman emperor (14-37), died on a trip to
the Italian mainland from his home on Capreae. He was succeeded by
Caligula.
(PCh, 1992, p.36)(HN, 3/16/99)(AP, 3/15/07)
1190 Mar 16, The Crusades began
with the massacre of Jews in York, England. The Jewish population of
York fled to Clifford’s Tower overlooking the rivers Ouse and Foss
during an anti-Jewish riot. A crazed friar set fire to the tower and
rather than be captured, the inhabitants committed mass suicide,
(SFEC,10/26/97, p.T5)(HN, 3/16/99)
1527 Mar 16, The Emperor Babur
defeated the Rajputs at the Battle of Kanvaha, removing the main Hindu
rivals in Northern India.
(HN, 3/16/99)
1621 Mar 16, The first Indian
appeared in Plymouth, Mass.
(HN, 3/16/98)
1690 Mar 16, French king Louis XIV
sent troops to Ireland.
(MC, 3/16/02)
1736 Mar 16, Giovanni Battista
Pergolesi (b.1710), Italian composer (Il Prigioniero Superbo, Stabat
Mater), died. Marvin Paymer (d.2002), an expert on Pergolesi, later
edited the 26-volume "The New Pergolesi Edition."
(MC, 1/4/02)(SFC, 6/24/02, p.B6)(MC, 3/16/02)
1739 Mar 16, George Clymer, US
merchant (signed Declaration of Independence and Constitution), was
born.
(MC, 3/16/02)
1750 Mar 16, Caroline Lucretia
Herschel, 1st woman astronomer, was born in Hanover, Germany.
(MC, 3/16/02)
1751 Mar 16, James Madison
(d.1836), Jefferson’s successor as secretary of state and fourth
president of the United States (1809-17), was born in Port Conway, Va.
He invented the 1787 electoral college system "to break the tyranny of
the majority." "If men were angels, no government would be necessary."
Pierce Butler of South Carolina first proposed the electoral college
system. [see 1787]
(V.D.-H.K.p.222)(SFEC, 11/24/96, Z1 p.2)(AP,
3/16/97)(AP, 10/27/97)(HN, 3/16/98)(SFC, 11/9/00, p.A14)(WSJ, 11/9/00,
p.A26)
1789 Mar 16, George S. Ohm
(d.1854), German scientist, was born. He gave his name to the ohm
unit of electrical resistance. [WUD says Mar 16, 1787]
(HN, 3/16/99)(WUD, 1994 p.1001)
1792 Mar 16, Sweden's King Gustav
III was shot and mortally wounded during a masquerade party by a former
member of his regiment. He was murdered by Count Ankarstrom at an
opera. It became the inspiration for Giuseppe Verdi's Un Ballo in
Maschera. Gustav died 13 days later.
(AP, 3/16/06)(WSJ, 1/28/07, p.P10)
1802 Mar 16, The US Congress
authorized the establishment of the US Military Academy at West Point,
N.Y. President Jefferson signed a measure authorizing the establishment
of the US Military Academy at West Point, N.Y.
(www.usma.edu/history.asp)(AP, 3/16/97)
1806 Mar 16, Norbert Rillieux,
inventor (sugar refiner), was born.
(MC, 3/16/02)
1822 Mar 16, John Pope, Union
general in the American Civil War, was born.
(HN, 3/16/01)
1822 Mar 16, Rosa Bonheur, French
painter and sculptor, was born.
(HN, 3/16/01)
1827 Mar 16, The first
Afro-American newspaper edited for and by blacks, Freedom's Journal,
was published in New York City.
(HFA, '96, p.26)(AP, 3/16/97)
1830 Mar 16, London reorganized
its police force, Scotland Yard.
(MC, 3/16/02)
1833 Mar 16, Susan Hayhurst became
the first woman to graduate from a pharmacy college.
(HN, 3/16/98)
1836 Mar 16, Andrew S. Hallidie,
inventor (cable car), was born.
(MC, 3/16/02)
1836 Mar 16, The Republic of Texas
approved a constitution.
(AP, 3/16/97)
1838 Mar 16, Nathaniel Bowditch
(b.1773), mathematician, astronomer, polyglot, author (Marine Sextant),
died. In 1802 he published "The New American Practical Navigator."
(SS, 3/26/02)(AH, 12/02, p.22)
1846 Mar 16, Jurgis
Bielinis, Lithuanian publisher and "king of the (underground) book
carriers" was born in Purviskis. He died there Jan 18, 1918. This day
was later declared "Book Carriers Day."
(LHC, 3/16/03)
1850 Mar 16, Nathaniel
Hawthorne's novel "The Scarlet Letter" was first published. It was
about adultery, revenge and redemption in Puritan Massachusetts.
(AP, 3/16/00)
1861 Mar 16, Arizona Territory
voted to leave the Union.
(MC, 3/16/02)
1865 Mar 16, Union troops pushed
past Confederate blockers at the Battle of Averasborough, N.C., and
left 1,500 casualties.
(HN, 3/16/99)(MC, 3/16/02)
1868 Mar 16, Maxim Gorkei
(Aleksvey Maksimovich Pyeshkov [aka Gorky], d.1936], Russian dramatist,
was born. "A good man can be stupid and still be good. But a bad man
must have brains." [see 1861, Mar 28, 1868]
(WUD, 1994 p.611)(HN, 3/16/98)(AP, 2/23/01)
1881 Mar 16, Barnum & Bailey
Circus debuted. [see Mar 18]
(MC, 3/16/02)
1881 Mar 16, Modest P. Mussorgsky
(42), Russian composer (Boris Godunov), died. [see Mar 28]
(MC, 3/16/02)
1882 Mar 16, US Senate ratified a
treaty establishing the Red Cross.
(MC, 3/16/02)
1894 Mar 16, The opera "Thais,"
composed by Jules Massenet, premiered in Paris. The libretto was by
Louis Gallet. It was based on a novel by Anatole France. The heroine is
a 4th century Egyptian courtesan.
(AP, 3/16/00)(WSJ, 11/9/00, p.A24)(WSJ, 12/19/02,
p.D10)
1907 Mar 16, The British cruiser
Invincible, the world's largest, was completed at Glasgow shipyards.
(HN, 3/16/98)
1908 Mar 16, The Chinese released
the Japanese steamship Tatsu Maru.
(HN, 3/16/98)
1911 Mar 16, Josef Mengele, MD,
PhD, SS ("The Angel of Death at Auschwitz"), was born in Gunzburg,
Germany.
(MC, 3/16/02)
1912 Mar 16, Thelma Catherine
Patricia Ryan Nixon, first lady (1968-75) to Richard Nixon, was born in
Ely, Nevada.
(HN, 3/16/01)(MC, 3/16/02)
1913 Mar 16, The 15,000-ton
battleship Pennsylvania was launched at Newport News, Va.
(HN, 3/16/98)
1915 Mar 16, The US Federal Trade
Commission was organized.
(AP, 3/16/97)
1915 Mar 16, British battle
cruisers Inflexible and Irresistible hit mines in Dardanelle (Turkey).
(MC, 3/16/02)
1917 Mar 16, Nicholas II, Czar of
Russia, abdicated in favor of his brother Michael. He was forced to
sign a document of abdication after being brought down by political
unrest and widespread starvation stemming from Russia’s staggering
losses in WWI. The czar, his wife Alexandra, their four daughters and
son Alexis, heir to the throne, were held prisoner by the Bolsheviks
for several months at Tsarskoye Selo palace near Petrograd. In August
1917, the family was transported to distant Siberia to prevent any
attempt to restore them to the throne. In July 1918, the entire royal
family was executed by local Bolsheviks.
(HNPD, 3/16/99)
1920 Mar 16, Leo McKern, actor
(Blue Lagoon, Help, Mouse that Roared, Rumpole of the Bailey), was born
in Sydney, Australia.
(MC, 3/16/02)
1921 Mar 16, Britain signed a
bilateral trade agreement with Russia.
(HN, 3/16/98)
1922 Mar 16, Sultan Fuad I was
crowned king of Egypt. England recognized Egypt.
(MC, 3/16/02)
1926 Mar 16, Jerry Lewis, American
comedian and film actor, was born. He starred in numerous films with
Dean Martin.
(HN, 3/16/99)
1926 Mar 16, Rocket science
pioneer Robert H. Goddard successfully tested the first liquid-fueled
rocket, in Auburn, Mass. It went 184' (56 meters).
(HN, 3/16/98)(AP, 3/15/07)
1927 Mar 16, Daniel Patrick
Moynihan (d.2003), later NY Senator (1976-2000) and scholar, was born
in Tulsa, Okla.
(SFC, 3/27/03, p.A1)
1928 Mar 16, Christa Ludwig,
soprano (Vienna State Opera, Met Opera), was born in Berlin Germany.
(MC, 3/16/02)
1928 Mar 16, The U.S. planned to
send 1,000 more Marines to Nicaragua.
(HN, 3/16/98)
1930 Mar 16, USS Constitution (Old
Ironsides) was floated out to become a national shrine.
(MC, 3/16/02)
1933 Mar 16, Hitler named Hjalmar
Horace Greeley Shacht president of Bank of Germany.
(MC, 3/16/02)
1935 Mar 16, Adolf Hitler ordered
a German rearmament in violation of the Versailles Treaty. He announced
in public Nazi rearmament and the existence of the new German air
force, the Luftwaffe.
(AP, 3/16/97)(HN, 3/16/98)(ON, 11/05, p.2)
1935 Mar 16, John J.R. Macleod
(58), Scottish-Canadian physiologist (Nobel 1923), died.
(MC, 3/16/02)
1939 Mar 16, Germany occupied the
rest Czechoslovakia.
(HN, 3/16/99)
1940 Mar 16, Chuck Woolery, TV
game show host (Love Connection), was born in Kentucky.
(MC, 3/16/02)
1940 Mar 16, Germany launched an
air raid on British fleet base at Scapa Flow.
(MC, 3/16/02)
1941 Mar 16, A blizzard hit North
Dakota and Minnesota killing 60. [see Mar 15]
(MC, 3/16/02)
1944 Mar 16, A US plane named “God
Bless Our Ship” was hit by anti-aircraft fire over Berlin and
crash-landed outside the city. Lt. George Lymburn (1924-2005) was
captured and sent to Stalag Luft 1, where he was liberated by Russian
soldiers in April, 1945.
(SFC, 4/13/05, p.B7)
1945 Mar 16, During World War II,
the island of Iwo Jima in the Pacific Ocean was declared secured by the
Allies. The U.S. defeated Japan at Iwo Jima. Small pockets of Japanese
resistance still exist.
(AP, 3/16/97)(HN, 3/16/99)
1946 Mar 16, Erik Estrada, actor
(CHiPs, Cross & Switchblade, Lightblast), was born in NYC.
(MC, 3/16/02)
1949 Mar 16, Bertha Knox Gilkey,
welfare and tenement rights for urban women, was born.
(MC, 3/16/02)
1950 Mar 16, Acheson called for a
seven-point cooperation plan with the Russians.
(HN, 3/16/98)
1951 Mar 16, Mary Louise Bochnak,
the patron saint of embattled nonprofit committee chairmen, was born.
(MC, 3/16/02)
1951 Mar 16, Hastened by short
winter, all spring flowers opened in Minneapolis.
(MC, 3/16/02)
1955 Mar 16, President Eisenhower
upheld the use of atomic weapons in case of war.
(MC, 3/16/02)
1959 Mar 16, Michael J.
Bloomfield, Major USAF, astronaut (STS 86), was born in Flint, Mich.
(MC, 3/16/02)
1959 Mar 16, John Sailling (111),
last documented Civil War vet, died.
(MC, 3/16/02)
1961 Mar 16, "The Agony and the
Ecstasy" was published by Irving Stone.
(HN, 3/16/98)
1962 Mar 16, US Lockheed
Super-Constellation disappeared above Pacific Ocean and 167 were killed.
(MC, 3/16/02)
1963 Mar 16, Phung Vuong, murderer
(FBI Most Wanted List), was born in Saigon, Vietnam.
(MC, 3/16/02)
1964 Mar 16, LBJ submitted a
$1billion war on poverty program to Congress. [see Mar 15]
(HN, 3/16/98)
1966 Mar 16, Col. Paul Underwood
flew a bombing mission over Lai Chau Province in Vietnam and crashed
after releasing bombs from his F-105 Thunderchief. His remains were
returned to the US in 1998.
(SFEC, 2/1/98, p.A14)
1966 Mar 16, Alfred Rascon, a US
Army medic in South Vietnam, saved the lives of a number of his platoon
members using his own wounded body to cover wounded men while treating
their wounds under fire. He received the Medal of Honor in 2000.
(SFC, 2/9/00, p.A2)
1966 Mar 16-1966 Mar 17, US
astronauts Neil Armstrong and David Scott performed the frist orbital
docking.
(NPub, 2002, p.20)
1968 Mar 16, Robert F. Kennedy
decided to join the presidential race.
(HN, 3/16/98)
1968 Mar 16, LBJ decided to send
35-50,000 more troops to Vietnam.
(HN, 3/16/98)
1968 Mar 16, In Vietnam Lt. Calley
led 105 men of Company C into My Lai and at least 347 of 700 Vietnamese
civilians were killed. Estimates of villagers massacred ranged from
347-504. Other killings by B company occurred nearby. Col. Oran K.
Henderson (d.1998 at 77) was on his first day as commanding officer of
the new 11th Infantry Brigade and watched from a command helicopter.
Hugh Thompson (d.2006), a helicopter pilot, observed the end of the
massacre. He landed between some remaining villagers and his fellow
soldiers and ordered his gunner to fire on American troops if
necessary. With 2 other gunships he airlifted to safety a dozen
villagers. He and his gunner were awarded the Soldier's Medal in 1998.
The atrocity was exposed by Ron Ridenhour (d.1998 at 52), a door gunner
on an observation helicopter, who flew over the village a few days
after the event. He waited several months until he was out of the
service before reporting the event to state and congressional
officials. The Army later charged 25 officers and enlisted men in the
massacre but only Lt. Calley was convicted. Gen. Samuel W. Koster
(d.2006) was charged with covering up the killings, but criminal
charges were eventually dismissed. Koster was censured, stripped of a
medal and demoted one rank to brigadier general. John Sack (d.2004),
war correspondent, later authored "Lieutenant Calley: His Own Story."
In 1999 Trent Angers authored "The Forgotten Hero of My Lai: The Hugh
Thompson Story."
(SFC, 3/5/98, p.A9)(SFC, 3/16/98, p.A8)(SFC,
5/11/98, p.A20)(SFC, 6/6/98, p.A23)(WSJ, 11/2/99, p.A24)(SFC, 3/31/04,
p.B7)(SFC, 1/6/06, p.B5) (SFC, 2/14/06, p.B7)(AP, 3/16/08)
1968 Mar 16, Mario
Castelnuovo-Tedesco (b.1895), Italian composer, died.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mario_Castelnuovo-Tedesco)
1969 Mar 16, "1776," a musical
about the writing of the Declaration of Independence, opened on
Broadway.
(AP, 3/16/99)
1971 Mar 16, Thomas E. Dewey
(b.1902), US president candidate (R 1944, 1948), died of a heart attack.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_E._Dewey)
1976 Mar 16, British PM Harold
Wilson announced his resignation in London. He was succeeded in April
by home secretary James Callaghan (1912-2005).
(HN, 3/16/98)(SFC, 5/4/02, p.A21)(Econ, 3/18/06,
p.11)
1977 Mar 16, US president Carter
pleaded for a Palestinian homeland.
(http://tinyurl.com/39b9fc)
1978 Mar 16, The Amoco-Cadiz oil
tanker spilled a record 1.6 million barrels of crude oil off the coast
of France.
(WSJ, 9/13/99,
p.R4)(www.cedre.fr/uk/spill/amoco/amoco.htm)
1978 Mar 16, Red Brigade
terrorists kidnapped Aldo Moro, Italian politician and 5 time PM, and
killed 5 of his bodyguards. Moro, who was planning to form a government
combining his Christian Democrats and the Communist Party, was later
murdered by the RB. Alessio Casimiri a member of the Red Brigades was
sentenced in absentia to life in prison for his role in the abduction.
Casimiri escaped to Nicaragua and opened a restaurant. It was later
reported that police decided not to rescue Moro.
(WSJ, 4/25/96, p.A-1)(AP, 3/16/97)(SFC, 3/13/98,
p.A12)(WSJ, 12/13/07, p.A18)
1982 Mar 16, Claus Von Bulow was
found guilty in Newport, R.I., of trying to kill his now-comatose wife,
Martha, with insulin. Von Bulow was acquitted in a retrial.
(AP, 3/16/02)
1984 Mar 16, William Buckley, the
CIA station chief in Beirut, was kidnapped by gunmen; he died in
captivity.
(AP, 3/16/97)
1984 Mar 16, Mozambique and South
Africa signed a pact banning support for one another's internal foes.
(HN, 3/16/98)
1985 Mar 16, Terry Anderson, chief
Middle East correspondent for The Associated Press, was abducted in
Beirut; he was released in December 1991.
(AP, 3/16/97) (HN, 3/16/98)
1987 Mar 16, Massachusetts Gov.
Michael Dukakis announced his candidacy for the Democratic presidential
nomination.
(AP, 3/16/97)
1988 Mar 16, The US sent 3000
soldiers to Honduras.
(http://tinyurl.com/emoaj)
1988 Mar 16, Former National
Security Adviser John M. Poindexter, former White House aide Oliver L.
North, retired Air Force Maj. Gen. Richard V. Secord and Secord's
business partner, Albert Hakim, were indicted on charges relating to
the Iran-Contra affair. Poindexter and North had their convictions
thrown out; Secord and Hakim received probation after each pleaded
guilty to a single count.
(AP, 3/16/98)
1988 Mar 16, Mickey Thompson (59),
drag racer, and his wife Trudy (41) were found shot to death at their
Bradbury home 15 miles east of LA. In December, 2001, Michael Goodwin,
Thompson’s former business partner, was charged with the murders of
Mickey and Trudy Thompson. Goodwin’s trial opened in 2006. On Jan 4,
2007, a jury convicted Michael Goodwin on two counts of murder. On Mar
1, 2007, Goodwin was sentenced to 2 consecutive life terms in prison
and continued to claim he was innocent of the murder.
(www.unsolved.com/UD0204-Thompson.html)(SFC, 1/5/07,
p.B10)(SFC, 3/2/07, p.B12)
1988 Mar 16-1988 Mar 17, Iraqi
jets dropped a variety of chemical weapons on the Kurdish town of
Halabja and some 5-7,000 residents were killed immediately. The Kurdish
city of Halabja, held by Iranian troops and Iraqi Kurdish guerrillas
allied with Tehran, was bombed by Iraq. Estimates of casualties varied
from several hundred to several thousand.
(SFC, 7/1/02,
p.A6)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halabja_poison_gas_attack)
1988 Mar 16, Three people were
killed when Michael Stone, a pro British paramilitary member, armed
with guns and grenades attacked an IRA graveside service in Belfast,
Northern Ireland. Stone was also responsible for killing 3
Catholics in the mid 1980s. In 2000 Stone was released from prison as
part of a peace accord.
(AP, 3/17/98)(SFC, 7/25/00, p.A12)
1989 Mar 16, The Soviet Communist
Party's Central Committee approved sweeping agricultural reforms and
elected the party's 100 members to the Congress of People's Deputies, a
new legislative body.
(AP, 3/16/99)
1990 Mar 16, South African
President F.W. de Klerk announced that exiled African National Congress
leaders could return home for talks with the white-led government.
(AP, 3/16/00)
1991 Mar 16, Americans Kristi
Yamaguchi, Tonya Harding and Nancy Kerrigan swept the World Figure
Skating Championships in Munich, Germany.
(AP, 3/16/99)
1991 Mar 16, A plane crash near
San Diego, Ca., killed 10 people including 7 members of Reba McIntire's
band.
(www.answers.com/topic/reba-mcentire)
1992 Mar 16, Robert J. Eaton, head
of General Motors' profitable European operations, joined Chrysler
Corp. as Chairman Lee Iacocca's future successor.
(AP, 3/16/97)
1993 Mar 16, President Clinton met
with ousted Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide; afterward,
Clinton announced he was sending a special envoy to Haiti to seek a
return to democracy.
(AP, 3/16/98)
1993 Mar 16, Mohammed Hussein
Nagdi, Iran diplomat, resistance fighter, was murdered in Rome, Italy.
(http://farrid.20m.com/sr.html)
1993 Mar 16, Canadian soldiers in
Somalia beat to death a local teenager, Shidane Arone, during their
participation in the UN humanitarian efforts. An inquiry led to the
disbanding of Canada's elite Canadian Airborne Regiment, greatly
damaged the morale of the Canadian Forces, and damaged both the
domestic and international reputation of Canadian soldiers.
(www.canadianencyclopedia.ca/index.cfm?PgNm=TCE&Params=M1SEC673906)(www.dnd.ca/somalia/vol0/vol0e.txt)
1994 Mar 16, Figure skater Tonya
Harding pleaded guilty in Portland, Ore., to conspiracy to hinder
prosecution for covering up the attack on rival Nancy Kerrigan,
avoiding jail but drawing a $100,000 fine.
(AP, 3/16/99)
1994 Mar 16, Russia agreed to
phase out production of weapons-grade plutonium.
(AP, 3/16/99)
1995 Mar 16, House Republicans
pushed through $17 billion in spending cuts, prompting a veto threat by
the White House.
(www.concordcoalition.org/issues/scorecard/1995_scorecard/description_house.html)
1995 Mar 16, Mississippi formally
ratified 13th Amendment and abolished slavery.
(www.thehistorymakers.com/timeline/index.asp?string=1995)
1995 Mar 16, NASA astronaut Norman
Thagard was welcomed aboard the Russian space station Mir as the
first American to visit the orbiting outpost.
(AP, 3/16/97)
1996 Mar 16, In his weekly radio
address, President Clinton accused the Republican-controlled House of
bowing to "the back-alley whispers of the gun lobby" by gutting
anti-terrorism legislation he'd submitted in response to the Oklahoma
City bombing.
(AP, 3/16/97)
1996 Mar 16, For the first time,
ordinary citizens were allowed inside the central archives of the
former East German secret police, the hated Stasi security agency.
(AP, 3/16/97)
1997 Mar 16, The last sale day
declared by the US Post Office for buying the Marilyn Monroe, antique
autos, or United Nations commemorative stamps.
(WSJ, 2/21/97, p.B15B)
1997 Mar 16, At the request of a
hobbled President Clinton, Russia's Boris Yeltsin agreed to delay their
upcoming summit by one day to give Clinton an extra day to recuperate
from knee surgery.
(AP, 3/16/98)
1997 Mar 16, In Albania amnesty
was granted to 51 people including former premier Fatos Nano.
(SFC, 3/18/97, p.A11)
1997 Mar 16, Jordan's King Hussein
knelt in mourning with the families of seven Israeli schoolgirls gunned
down by a Jordanian soldier.
(AP, 3/16/98)
1997 Mar 16, Elections for mayors
in 262 El Salvador cities and for the 84-member unicameral Legislative
Assembly was scheduled. The Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front
(FMLN) party was a front-runner. Hector Silva of the Democratic
Convergence Party won the mayoral elections for San Salvador. He ran
under a coalition led by the FMLN.
(SFC, 2/25/97, p.a12)(SFC, 3/17/97, p.A9)
1998 Mar 16, Sgt. Maj. Gene
McKinney, once the Army's top enlisted man, was reprimanded and demoted
one rank by a jury that had convicted him of obstruction of justice in
a sexual misconduct case.
(AP, 3/16/08)
1998 Mar 16, In Armenia elections
for president were held and the voting was marred by fraud. Prime
Minister Robert Kocharian led the vote over former Communist boss Karen
Demirchian, but failed to get a majority and a runoff was planned for
Mar 30.
(SFC, 3/17/98, p.B3)(WSJ, 3/18/98, p.A1)
1998 Mar 16, Zhu Rongji was chosen
by the National People’s Congress as Premier to replace Li Peng, who
served his limit of two 5-year terms. Hu Jintao (55) was appointed
vice-president, the youngest in modern Chinese history to that post.
(SFC, 3/17/98, p.A9)(WSJ, 3/17/98, p.A1)
1998 Mar 16, In Northern Ireland
David Keys (26), one of the jailed suspects in the Mar 3 murders, was
found hanged in his cell at Maze Prison. His death was violent and
considered a murder.
(SFC, 3/17/98, p.B2)
1998 Mar 16, A 2nd negotiating
session between North and South Korea will be held under the guidance
of the US and China.
(SFC,12/11/97, p.A18)
1998 Mar 16, In a long-awaited
document promised by the Vatican on Sep. 1, 1987, that Jewish leaders
immediately criticized, the Vatican expressed remorse for the cowardice
of some Christians during the Holocaust, but defended the actions of
Pope Pius XII.
(SFEC, 3/15/98, p.A24)(AP, 3/16/99)
1999 Mar 16, The Nebraska
Cornhuskers beat Chicago State 50-3 in an NCAA baseball game.
(AP, 3/16/00)
1999 Mar 16, The Dow Jones
industrial average briefly topped the 10,000 level, reaching a high of
10,001.78 before retreating.
(AP, 3/16/00)
1999 cMar 16, Cuban Americans,
whose sons were in custody by the INS, began a hunger strike outside
the gates of the Krome Detention Center at the edge of the Everglades.
(SFC, 4/22/99, p.A11)
1999 Mar 16, Retired Major General
David Hale (53) pleaded guilty to charges of sexual affairs with the
wives of subordinate officers. Hale was ordered to pay $22,000 in
penalties. He was the highest officer to be court-martialed since 1952.
Hale was demoted in Sept. to a one-star brigadier general.
(SFC, 3/17/99, p.A2)(SFC, 3/17/99, p.A8)(SFC,
9/3/99, p.A2)
1999 Mar 16, It was reported that
the world's 300 right whales faced extinction.
(SFC, 3/16/99, p.A2)
1999 Mar 16, The National Marine
Fisheries Service announced the addition to the endangered species list
of 9 salmon species from the Pacific Northwest.
(SFC, 3/16/99, p.A2)
1999 Mar 16, In northern Argentina
a team of archeologists discovered 3 frozen mummies on Mount
Llullaillaco. The mummies were of children sacrificed about 500 years
ago.
(SFC, 4/7/99, p.A11)
1999 Mar 16, In Ecuador former
Pres. Fabian Alarcon was arrested on charges that he loaded the state
payroll with phantom employees while serving as the head of Congress.
(SFC, 3/17/99, p.C3)
1999 Mar 16, The first passenger
bus service between India and Pakistan was scheduled to begin.
(SFEC, 3/14/99, p.A22)
1999 Mar 16, In Kosovo Serbia
moved in heavy tanks and thousands more troops as their negotiators
insisted on major changes in the Paris peace talks.
(SFC, 3/17/99, p.A8)
1999 Mar 16, North Korea agreed to
allow US inspectors to visit a suspected nuclear weapons site in
exchange for assistance to increase potato yields.
(SFC, 3/17/99, p.A8)
1999 Mar 16, In Sri Lanka a
suicide bomber killed 2 people in a Colombo assassination attempt.
(WSJ, 3/17/99, p.A1)
1999 Mar 16, In Turkey 2 people
were killed in a car explosion in Hatay.
(SFC, 3/17/99, p.A8)
2000 Mar 16, Independent Counsel
Robert Ray said he found no credible evidence that Hillary Rodham
Clinton or senior White House officials had sought FBI background files
of Republicans.
(AP, 3/16/05)
2000 Mar 16, The Vermont state
House of Representatives voted 76-69 for a bill to give same-sex
couples all the rights and responsibilities granted to married
heterosexuals.
(SFEC, 4/2/00, p.A6)
2000 Mar 16, The DJIA rose a
record 499.19 points to close at 10,630.6. the previous record of
380.53 was set on Sep 9, 1998. The DJIA reached a high of 10,001.78
before retreating.
(SFC, 3/17/00, p.A1)(AP, 3/16/01)
2000 Mar 16, In Georgia a gunman
shot and wounded 2 sheriff's deputies while being served a warrant in
Atlanta at the home of Jamil Abdullah Al-Amin, formerly known as H. Rap
Brown. The gunman was later identified as Brown. Deputy Ricky Kinchen
(35) died the next day. Al-Amin (56) was arrested in Alabama on Mar 20.
(SFC, 3/17/00, p.A5)(SFC, 3/18/00, p.A3)(SFC,
3/21/00, p.A3)
2000 Mar 16, About a dozen whales
became stranded on 2 Bahama beaches one day after a US Navy exercise
propagated loud noises through the waters of the region. 5 of the
whales died. In 2001 testing confirmed that Navy sonar caused the
whales to beach themselves.
(SFC, 3/22/00, p.A9)(WSJ, 12/21/01, p.A1)
2000 Mar 16, In NYC police killed
Patrick Dorismond, an unarmed Haitian immigrant (26). Some 3,000
protestors marched at Dorismonds funeral on mar 25 and clashed with
police.
(SFEC, 3/26/00, p.A7)
2000 Mar 16, Thomas Wilson Ferebee
(81), the "Enola Gay" bombardier who dropped the atomic bomb on
Hiroshima, died in Windermere, Fla.
(AP, 3/16/05)
2000 Mar 16, The entire 20-member
European Commission resigned following publication of a critical report
on sloppy management and cronyism.
(AP, 3/16/01)
2000 Mar 16, The Islamic holiday
Eid al-adha was celebrated.
(SFC, 4/26/00, p.B8)
2000 Mar 16, In Nicaragua Edmundo
Olivas, former leader of the Andres Castro United Front - a leftists,
ex-Sandinista, paramilitary group, was ambushed and killed near Boaco.
(SFC, 3/17/00, p.D2)
2000 Mar 16, In Pakistan a judge
sentenced Javed Iqbal (42), the killer of 100 children, to die the same
way his victims died, by strangulation, dismemberment and dissolvement
in acid.
(SFC, 3/17/00, p.A14)
2000 Mar 16, In the Philippines at
least 23 people were killed in clashes between rebels and army troops
in Lanao del Norte province.
(SFC, 3/18/00, p.C16)
2000 Mar 16, In Serbia some 1000
people rallied in Pirot to protest the closure of their TV station. It
was the 6th closure of a broadcaster in a week.
(SFC, 3/17/00, p.D2)
2001 Mar 16, Rap impresario Sean
"Puffy" Combs was acquitted in New York of taking an illegal handgun
into a crowded Manhattan hip-hop club where three people were later
wounded; he was also cleared of trying to bribe his way out of trouble.
Combs' bodyguard, Anthony "Wolf" Jones, was acquitted of the same
charges.
(AP, 3/16/02)
2001 Mar 16, In Argentina Ricardo
Lopez Murphy, the Economy Minister, proposed $4.5 billion in budget
cuts over the next 2 years to revive the economy.
(WSJ, 3/20/01, p.A19)
2001 Mar 16, Explosions rocked
residential buildings in Shijiazhuang, a mill town in Hebei province.
At least 18 people were killed. The deaths soon mounted to 108 with 38
injured. Police later arrested Jin Ruchao (41), a deaf man, who
reportedly confessed to the bombings.
(SFC, 3/17/01, p.A10)(SSFC, 3/18/01, p.D1)(SFC,
3/24/01, p.A11)
2001 Mar 16, In Macedonia Albanian
rebel mortar shells exploded in Tetovo.
(SFC, 3/17/01, p.A12)
2001 Mar 16, In Saudi Arabia Saudi
commandos freed over 100 hijacked hostages held by Chechen rebels in a
Russian plane. 3 people were killed including a hijacker, a flight
attendant and a passenger.
(SFC, 3/17/01, p.A10)(AP, 3/16/02)
2002 Mar 16, VP Cheney invited
Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah to visit with Pres. Bush in Texas for talks
on the Middle East.
(SFC, 3/18/02, p.A3)
2002 Mar 16, In Ohio Brittanie
Cecil (13) was struck by a flying hockey puck during a game between the
hometown Columbus Blue Jackets and the Calgary Flames; she died two
days later.
(AP, 3/15/07)
2002 Mar 16, In Cali, Colombia,
gunmen killed Archbishop Isaias Duarte Cancino (63), a critic of
leftist rebels.
(SSFC, 3/17/02, p.A20)(SFC, 3/18/02, p.A3)
2003 Mar 16, Pres. Bush met with
PM Tony Blair and Spain's PM Jose Maria Aznar in the Azores and made it
clear they were ready to go to war with or without UN endorsement. Bush
said "Tomorrow is a moment of truth for the world."
(SFC, 3/17/03, p.A1)
2003 Mar 16, In China Wen Jiaboa
(60) replaced Zhu Rongji as premier.
(SFC, 3/16/03, p.A16)
2003 Mar 16, Iraqi leader Saddam
Hussein warned that if Iraq were attacked, it would take the war
anywhere in the world "wherever there is sky, land or water."
(AP, 3/16/04)
2003 Mar 16, In the Gaza Strip
Rachel Corrie (23) of Washington State was crushed to death by and
Israeli Army bulldozer as she tried to block the demolition of
Palestinian homes.
(SFC, 3/17/03, p.A1)
2004 Mar 16, Mitch Seavey won the
Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race in nine days, 12 hours, 20 minutes and 22
seconds.
(AP, 3/16/05)
2004 Mar 16, China declared
victory in its fight against bird flu, saying it had "stamped out" all
of its known cases, while a factory worker in Thailand became Asia's
23rd victim of the virus.
(AP, 3/16/04)
2004 Mar 16, In Colombia Luis
Hipolito Ospina, a senior member of the leftist Revolutionary Armed
Forces of Colombia, or FARC, was arrested in Bogota.
(AP, 3/17/04)
2004 Mar 16, In Denmark police
raided Copenhagen's famed hippie enclave of Christiania, detaining 53
people in a major crackdown on the open sale of hashish. The enclave
took root in 1971 when dozens of hippies moved into the derelict
18th-century fort on state-owned land.
(AP, 3/16/04)
2004 Mar 16, Two contractors,
German and Dutch, working on a water-supply project south of Baghdad
were shot to death, and their deaths brought to six the number of
foreigners killed in drive-by shootings in the past 24 hours.
(AP, 3/16/04)(WSJ, 4/1/04, p.A10)
2004 Mar 16, Japan's Toshiba Corp
said that Guinness World Records had certified its stamp-sized hard
disk drives (HDDs) as the smallest in the world. The 0.85-inch HDDs,
unveiled in January, have storage capacity of up to four gigabytes and
will be used in products such as cellphones and digital camcorders.
(AP, 3/16/04)
2004 Mar 16, It was announced that
Carlos Slim, owner of Mexico’s Telmex, planned to buy a controlling
interest in Brazil’s biggest long distance operator, Embratel.
(Econ, 3/20/04, p.64)
2004 Mar 16, Hundreds of Pakistani
troops clashed with tribesmen suspected of sheltering al-Qaeda and
Taliban fugitives near the Afghan border. At least 15 paramilitary
soldiers and 24 suspects including some foreigners presumed to be
members of al-Qaeda, were killed in the raid on a mud-brick compound at
Kaloosha.
(AP, 3/16/04)(AP, 3/17/04)
2004 Mar 16, In Russia an apparent
natural gas explosion sheared off part of a nine-story apartment
building in the northern city of Arkhangelsk as residents slept,
killing some 58 people. Police suspected that valve scavenging
triggered the blast.
(AP, 3/16/04)(WSJ, 3/17/04, p.A1)(AP, 3/18/04)
2004 Mar 16, Spanish police
identified five additional Moroccan suspects they think took part in
last week's train bombing that killed 190 and injured 1,647 others.
(AP, 3/16/04)(AP, 3/23/04)
2004 Mar 16, Yemen authorities
said 9 suspects in the 2000 bombing of the USS Cole had been arrested,
including 8 who escaped from jail in 2003.
(SFC, 3/17/04, p.A9)
2005 Mar 16, Pres. Bush said he
plans to nominate Paul Wolfowitz, deputy defense secretary, to become
the next president of the World Bank.
(SFC, 3/17/05, p.A3)(Econ, 3/19/05, p.15)
2005 Mar 16, It was reported that
the US deficit had widened to 6.3% of GDP in the 4th quarter and that
America would have to borrow a net $750 billion to sustain it.
(Econ, 3/19/05, p.78)
2005 Mar 16, The US Senate voted
51-49 to drill for oil in Alaska.
(WSJ, 3/17/05, p.A1)
2005 Mar 16, A jury in Los Angeles
acquitted actor Robert Blake of murder in the shooting death of his
wife, Bonny Lee Bakley, four years earlier. A civil court jury later
ordered Blake to pay $30 million to Bakley's four children; Blake has
since filed for bankruptcy.
(AP, 3/16/06)
2005 Mar 16, In California a judge
sentenced a Scott Peterson (32) to death for the 2002 murder of his
wife and unborn son.
(AP, 3/17/05)(SFC, 3/17/05, p.A1)
2005 Mar 16, Norway's Robert
Sorlie won his second Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race in one of the
closest races in years.
(AP, 3/16/06)
2005 Mar 16, It was reported that
a Texas study found a correlation between the amount of mercury
pollution and the number of autism cases.
(WSJ, 3/17/05, p.A1)
2005 Mar 16, Tropical Cyclone
Ingrid flattened Faraway Resort, a tourist resort built to showcase the
beauty of northern Australia.
(AP, 3/16/05)
2005 Mar 16, China's central bank
tightened mortgage lending rules to raise the cost of borrowing for
home loans in an effort to cool the sizzling property market.
(AP, 3/17/05)(WSJ, 3/31/05, p.A9)
2005 Mar 16, UN peacekeepers
charged that militiamen in northeast Congo grilled bodies on a spit and
boiled two girls alive as their mother watched, adding cannibalism to a
list of atrocities allegedly carried out by Lendu warriors.
(AP, 3/17/05)(Econ, 3/12/05, p.49)
2005 Mar 16, Iraq's first freely
elected parliament in half a century began its opening session after a
series of explosions targeted the gathering.
(AP, 3/16/05)
2005 Mar 16, Israeli troops handed
Jericho to Palestinian security control, dismantling a checkpoint and
easing travel restrictions in what was seen as a message to ordinary
Palestinians that an informal truce is starting to pay off.
(AP, 3/16/05)
2005 Mar 16, Puerto Rico Gov.
Anibal Acevedo Vila unveiled proposals to eliminate more than 23,000
government jobs and close several public agencies, vowing to pull
Puerto Rico out of a cycle of budget deficits and debt.
(AP, 3/16/05)
2005 Mar 16, A Russian turboprop
airliner carrying at least 52 people crashed and caught fire while
trying to land near an oil port along the Arctic coast. At least 29
people, mostly Yukoil workers, were killed.
(AP, 3/16/05)(WSJ, 3/17/05, p.A1)
2006 Mar 16, Pres. Bush named
Idaho Gov. Dirk Kemphorne (54) as the new secretary of the interior to
succeed Gail Norton, who resigned earlier this month.
(SFC, 3/17/06, p.A4)
2006 Mar 16, The White House
issued a 49-page security strategy report that listed Iran as the
single country that may pose the biggest danger to the US and
reaffirmed pre-emptive military actions as a central tenet of US
security policy.
(WSJ, 3/16/06, p.A1)
2006 Mar 16, The US Senate
approved a $781 billion increase in U.S. borrowing authority aimed at
averting a possible government default on debt this month. The Senate
narrowly passed a $2.8 trillion election-year budget blueprint.
(Reuters, 3/16/06)(AP, 3/15/07)
2006 Mar 16, US Federal drug
agents raided several “marijuana candy factories” in Oakland and
Emeryville, Ca., seizing hundreds of sodas and candies with such names
as Trippy, Stoney Rancher, Toka-Cola and Budtela.
(SFC, 3/18/06, p.A1)
2006 Mar 16, The Univ. of
California regents, citing genocide in Darfur, voted to divest UC of
tens of millions of securities from 9 foreign companies doing business
with Sudan.
(SFC, 3/17/06, p.A1)
2006 Mar 16, NASA released data
backing the Big Bang theory that the universe sprang from marble size
to infinity in less than a trillion-trillionth second.
(WSJ, 3/17/06, p.A1)
2006 Mar 16, The Afghanistan
government said lab tests have confirmed the first outbreak of the
deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu.
(AP, 3/16/06)
2006 Mar 16, In Afghanistan the
trial of Abdul Rahman (41) began. He was arrested last month after his
family accused him of becoming a Christian. Judge Ansarullah
Mawlavezada said Rahman was charged with rejecting Islam and could be
sentenced to death for converting from Islam to Christianity, a crime
under the country's Islamic laws.
(AP, 3/19/06)
2006 Mar 16, In Congo a defense
ministry source said Defense Minister Adolphe Onusumba had written to
the head of the army asking him to suspend or arrest General Widi
Mbuilu Divioka, the army commander in Katanga province. The general was
being accused of diverting military food trains for private business
after at least 20 soldiers died from hunger or malnutrition at a
southern camp.
(Reuters, 3/16/06)
2006 Mar 16, Timor-Leste’s PM Mari
Alkatiri sacked almost half the country’s 1,400-strong army for going
on strike effective as of March 1.
(Econ, 6/3/06, p.38)(http://tinyurl.com/egj85)
2006 Mar 16, Ecuador's Supreme
Court released former President Gustavo Noboa from house arrest after
reducing charges against him for allegedly mishandling the country's
foreign debt negotiations during his three-year term.
(AP, 3/16/06)
2006 Mar 16, In northern Honduras
a speeding bus crashed into a small van carrying a group of US
soldiers, killing two and injuring one.
(AP, 3/16/06)
2006 Mar 16, In Indonesia
protesters killed four security officers after clashes broke out during
a rally demanding the closure of a US-owned gold mine in Papua. The
officers were either hacked or burned to death.
(AP, 3/16/06)
2006 Mar 16, In Iran rebels under
Abdolmalek Rigi, posing as security forces, killed 22 people on the
southeastern Zabol-Zahedan road in Sistan-Baluchestan province.
(AP, 3/17/06)(Econ, 6/3/06, p.43)
2006 Mar 16, Iraq's new parliament
was sworn in, with parties still deadlocked over the next government.
Iraqi police found 25 bodies discarded in various parts of Baghdad
overnight. The new parliament met briefly for the first time but did no
business and adjourned after just 40 minutes, unable to agree on a
speaker, let alone a prime minister. US forces, joined by Iraqi troops,
launched “Operation Swarmer,” the largest air assault since the US-led
invasion, targeting insurgent strongholds north of Baghdad.
(AP, 3/16/06)(AP, 3/15/07)
2006 Mar 16, Israeli troops
surrounded two houses in the West Bank town of Jenin, setting off a
fierce gunbattle with Palestinian militants that left one Israeli
soldier dead and forced the surrender of five wanted men.
(AP, 3/16/06)
2006 Mar 16, The 4th World Water
Forum opened in Mexico City.
(AP, 3/16/06)
2006 Mar 16, The PM of Mauritania
asked the West for help in sealing his borders as migrants from
elsewhere in Africa were overwhelming the country as they set out from
there on an often deadly voyage to Europe.
(AP, 3/16/06)
2006 Mar 16, In Nuevo Laredo,
Mexico, 4 plainclothes federal police agents were killed after an
unknown number of gunmen sprayed the unmarked pickup truck they were
riding in with more than 30 bullets. The slayings came a day after 600
new members of the Federal Preventative Police arrived in Nuevo Laredo
as part of extra-security efforts.
(AP, 3/16/06)
2006 Mar 16, In southwestern
Pakistan 7 homemade bombs toppled two high-power electricity
transmission towers and disrupted power to thousands of homes for
several hours.
(AP, 3/16/06)
2006 Mar 16, The World Bank warned
that the Palestinian economy will be devastated if Israel and the
international community follow through on threats to cut off financial
assistance once Hamas assumes power.
(AP, 3/16/06)
2006 Mar 16, G-8 energy ministers
meeting in Moscow called for market-oriented approaches to increasing
supplies and said significant investments would be needed in the
production, transportation and processing of resources.
(AP, 3/16/06)
2006 Mar 16, Queen Elizabeth II
arrived in the former British colony of Singapore for a two-day state
visit.
(AP, 3/16/06)
2006 Mar 16, In Sri Lanka
thousands of civil servants demanding higher salaries marched in
Colombo, part of a daylong nationwide strike that paralyzed the
government.
(AP, 3/16/06)
2006 Mar 16, In eastern Turkey a
helicopter carrying military officers crashed, killing five officers,
and seriously injuring another.
(AP, 3/17/06)
2006 Mar 16, Uganda's army said
the leader of the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) rebels had left a south
Sudanese hideout and joined his deputy in the jungles of neighboring
Congo.
(AP, 3/16/06)
2007 Mar 16, Assistant Secretary
of State Christopher Hill, the top US nuclear envoy, said a dispute on
North Korean funds held in a Macau bank has been resolved, potentially
removing a key stumbling block that has bedeviled progress on
dismantling Pyongyang's nuclear weapons program.
(AP, 3/16/07)
2007 Mar 16, Former CIA operative
Valerie Plame told a House committee that White House and State
Department officials had "carelessly and recklessly" blown her cover in
a politically motivated smear of her husband, former Ambassador Joseph
Wilson, for publicly disputing President Bush's assertion that Saddam
Hussein was on the brink of acquiring a nuclear bomb.
(AP, 3/16/08)
2007 Mar 16, The Inter-American
Development Bank announced it would forgive $4.4 billion in debt owed
by five of the poorest countries in Latin America and the Caribbean.
The bank excused the foreign debts of Bolivia, Honduras, Nicaragua,
Haiti and Guyana in an announcement ahead of its annual meeting.
(AP, 3/16/07)
2007 Mar 16, In Wilmington, Del.,
Rachel L. Holt (35), who had pleaded guilty to second-degree rape, was
sentenced to 10 years in prison for having sex with a 13-year-old
student.
(AP, 3/18/07)
2007 Mar 16, SF Mayor Newsom said
he plans to open a new courthouse to crack down on nuisance crimes such
as public urination, panhandling, graffiti and prostitution. Antwanisha
Morgan (17) was shot and killed outside the Bayview community youth
center. On March 29 a boy (14) was charged in the drive-by murder.
Another suspect (17) was arrested April 2, and 2 more (aged 15 &
16) on April 5. In 2009 a juvenile court judge ruled that all 4
suspects participated in the slaying of Morgan.
(SFC, 3/17/07, p.A1)(SFC, 3/21/07, p.B1)(SFC,
3/30/07, p.B4)(SFC, 4/7/07, p.B2)(SFC, 1/17/09, p.B1)
2007 Mar 16, Menu Foods, a major
manufacturer of dog and cat food sold under Wal-Mart, Safeway, Kroger
and other store brands, recalled 60 million containers of wet pet food
after reports of kidney failure and deaths.
(AP, 3/16/08)
2007 Mar 16, JetBlue canceled 215
flights because of a winter storm on the East Coast. The storm was
blamed for as many as a dozen deaths and forced more than 3,600 flight
cancellations.
(AP, 3/16/07)(WSJ, 3/19/07, p.A1)
2007 Mar 16, African ministers in
Geneva said Washington's proposed farm policy overhaul threatens to
worsen the plight of Africa's cotton farmers by providing fresh
assistance to US producers.
(AP, 3/16/07)
2007 Mar 16, People all over
Britain donned red noses and took part in fundraising events for the
11th annual Red Nose Day, with the money going to help disadvantaged
people in Africa and Britain. The event, launched in 1985, is organized
every two years by Comic Relief.
(AFP, 3/16/07)
2007 Mar 16, Cambodian and foreign
judges reached a key agreement on procedures governing Cambodia's
long-stalled Khmer Rouge tribunal.
(AP, 3/16/07)
2007 Mar 16, China's legislators
passed a law providing the most sweeping protection for private
businesses and property since the nation's move toward a more
capitalist-style economy beginning in the late 1970s. The legislature
approved a law to end three decades of blanket tax breaks for foreign
investors, raising their rates to match those of Chinese companies.
(AP, 3/16/07)
2007 Mar 16, Ethiopia called for
international pressure to be applied on Eritrea, which it accuses of
holding eight Ethiopians still missing after the release of five
European captives.
(AP, 3/16/07)
2007 Mar 16, In eastern India
thousands of activists burned buses and blocked roads to protest the
recent killing of 14 farmers opposed to government plans to build an
industrial park on their land.
(AP, 3/16/07)
2007 Mar 16, In Indonesia an
official said Bird flu has killed a 32-year-old man, taking the death
toll in the nation worst hit by the disease to 65.
(AP, 3/16/07)
2007 Mar 16, Six major powers sent
a strong signal to Iran that they remain united in seeking to rein in
its nuclear ambitions, compromising on a sanctions package to step up
pressure on the Islamic republic to suspend uranium enrichment.
(AP, 3/16/07)
2007 Mar 16, Adel Abdul-Mahdi, the
Iraqi vice president, presented his country's economic and political
reform plan at a UN conference, pledging to adopt a law to the Iraq's
oil riches among its often feuding regions and a program to grant
amnesty for insurgents who renounce violence. Radical Shiite cleric
Muqtada al-Sadr decried US forces as occupiers and called on his
followers to shout “No, No America!" Three suicide bombers driving
chlorine-laden trucks struck in the Sunni insurgent stronghold of Anbar
province, killing two policemen and forcing about 350 Iraqi civilians
and six US troops to seek treatment for exposure to the gas. gunmen
killed a member of the governmental facilities protection service in
Suwayrah. In Kirkuk 2 policemen were killed and three civilians wounded
by a roadside bomb and a following ambush. A mortar attack against a
Sunni mosque in the southeastern Baghdad neighborhood of Zafaraniyah
killed one civilian and wounded two others. 4 US soldiers were killed
in a roadside bombing in mainly Shiite eastern Baghdad. The military
said it found a sophisticated weapon at the site that was not detonated
but was of the type that Washington believes is being supplied by Iran
to Shiite militias.
(AP, 3/16/07)(AP, 3/17/07)
2007 Mar 16, Israeli leaders
criticized the new Palestinian unity government, charging that the
Hamas-Fatah coalition did not meet international conditions, including
recognizing the Jewish state's right to exist. Three masked Palestinian
gunmen opened fire on a vehicle carrying the chief of the UN refugee
mission in Gaza and tried to kidnap him. A Fatah intelligence official
was killed in a nearby ambush.
(AP, 3/16/07)(WSJ, 3/17/07, p.A1)
2007 Mar 16, It was reported that
Italy has banned schoolchildren from using mobile phones in class in an
attempt to stop ringtones disrupting lessons and prevent pupils messing
about with video cameras.
(Reuters, 3/16/07)
2007 Mar 16, Laos confirmed its
second human death from bird flu, a woman who died earlier this month,
after results from a lab used by the World Health Organization (WHO).
(AP, 3/16/07)
2007 Mar 16, In Mexico an
economist and a journalist became the first couple united under Mexico
City's new gay civil union law.
(AP, 3/16/07)
2007 Mar 16, In Nicaragua former
president Arnoldo Aleman, convicted of money laundering and
embezzlement, was freed from the conditions of his parole and allowed
to travel around the country. Critics said was a ploy by President
Daniel Ortega to weaken the opposition.
(AP, 3/17/07)
2007 Mar 16, Frenchman Gerard
Laporal, kidnapped in Nigeria's southern oil capital Port Harcourt more
than a month ago, was released.
(AFP, 3/16/07)
2007 Mar 16, In Pakistan police
fired tear gas at rock-throwing demonstrators and detained scores of
political activists, including an opposition party leader and a former
national president, in a bid to stifle protests at the ouster of the
country’s top judge.
(AP, 3/16/07)
2007 Mar 16, Portugal said it is
closing its embassy in Baghdad because of security concerns.
(AP, 3/16/07)
2007 Mar 16, Government officials
said that Russia will build two nuclear reactors annually through 2015,
and increase to four a year by 2020 in an effort to sharply increase
atomic power generation, according to Russian news agencies.
(AP, 3/16/07)
2008 Mar 16, The US Federal
Reserve, acting urgently over the weekend to stabilize financial
markets, approved a cut in its emergency lending rate to 3.25% from
3.50%. The move will allow big investment firms to quickly secure
short-term loans.
(AP, 3/17/08)
2008 Mar 16, JPMorgan said it
would buy Bear Stearns for $236.2 million, $2 a share, in a stunning
fall for one of the world's largest and most venerable investment
banks. In 2009 William D. Cohan authored “How the Money Vanished: A
Tale of Hubris and Wretched Excess on Wall Street.”
(AP, 3/17/08)(WSJ, 3/6/09, p.A13)
2008 Mar 16, Ivan Dixon (b.1931),
black actor, director and producer best known for his role as Kinchloe
on the 1960s television series "Hogan's Heroes," died.
(AP, 3/19/08)
2008 Mar 16, Ola Brunkert (62), a
former drummer for 1970s Swedish pop group ABBA, was found dead after
an apparent accident in his house in Mallorca. He first played with
ABBA on the group's first single, "People Need Love," and toured with
the band in 1977, 1979 and 1980.
(AP, 3/17/08)
2008 Mar 16, In Afghanistan’s
eastern Nangarhar province four militants were killed in an exchange of
fire after attacking a police post near the border with Pakistan. A
Canadian soldier died in an explosion while on foot patrol in Kandahar
province.
(AFP, 3/16/08)(AP, 3/17/08)
2008 Mar 16, Premier Wen Jiabao
was appointed to a second five-year term as China's top economic
official, leading efforts to cool soaring inflation and showcase the
country to the world at the Beijing Olympics.
(AP, 3/16/08)
2008 Mar 16, The Dalai Lama called
for an international investigation into China's crackdown against
protesters in Tibet, which he said is facing a "cultural genocide" and
where his exiled government said 80 people were killed in the violence.
Internet users in China were blocked from seeing YouTube.com after
dozens of videos about protests in Tibet appeared on the popular US
video Web site.
(AP, 3/16/08)
2008 Mar 16, Comoran soldiers
encountered a "disorganized" resistance from rebel forces in Anjouan
and "the confrontation that followed led to the deaths of dozens of
rebel forces. The next day Lieutenant Colonel Mohamed Amiri Salimou
said the National Development Army (AND) army had carried out two
"successful" operations against forces loyal to Mohamed Bacar's forces
on March 9-10 and March 14-16.
(AFP, 3/18/08)
2008 Mar 16, In Egypt 23 people,
mostly policemen, were killed when their vehicle smashed into a truck
on the highway between Cairo and Alexandria.
(AP, 3/16/08)
2008 Mar 16, In France the
Socialists took an estimated 49% of the vote, against 47.5% for the
Pres. Sarkozy’s UMP. Socialists now control 58% of towns with more than
30,000 inhabitants, after winning 40 from the right including several
bastions.
(AFP, 3/17/08)
2008 Mar 16, In France a pipe
ruptured while a tanker was being loaded at a Total refinery. Some
3,000 barrels of fuel oil leaked in and along the Loire River.
(AP, 3/18/08)
2008 Mar 16, German Chancellor
Angela Merkel acknowledged her country's "historical responsibility" to
Israel as she opened a three-day visit marking the 60th anniversary of
the Jewish state.
(AP, 3/16/08)
2008 Mar 16, In India suspected
insurgents lobbed a hand grenade at thousands of people participating
in a cultural festival in the northeast Jonai, killing three and
wounding another 50.
(AP, 3/16/08)
2008 Mar 16, In northern India 15
poor people were freed from captivity after selling their blood to
private clinics to make money. Five people were arrested and later
charged with illegal confinement of people and attempt to murder.
(AP, 3/18/08)
2008 Mar 16, Iran's Culture
Ministry announced the closure of nine cinema and lifestyle magazines
for publishing pictures and stories about the life of "corrupt" foreign
film stars and promoting "superstitions."
(AP, 3/16/08)
2008 Mar 16, Sen. John McCain, the
Republican Party's presumptive nominee for president who has linked his
political future to US success in Iraq, was in Baghdad for meetings
with Iraqi and US diplomatic and military officials.
(AP, 3/16/08)
2008 Mar 16, Tuareg rebels (MNJ)
in Niger killed a police officer and a republican guard in an attack
200 kilometers north of the capital Niamey.
(AFP, 3/18/08)
2008 Mar 16, In Pakistan a drone
dropped 7 missiles on a compound outside Wana in South Waziristan,
killing at least 20 people.
(AP, 3/16/08)(SFC, 3/17/08, p.A9)
2008 Mar 16, In northern Sri Lanka
suspected separatist Tamil rebels killed a police officer and a soldier
in separate attacks, taking the death toll from two days of violence to
30.
(AP, 3/16/08)
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