Today in History - March 18
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37 Mar 18, The
Roman Senate annulled Tiberius’ will and proclaims Caligula emperor.
(HN, 3/18/99)
235 Mar 18, Marcus Aurelius
Severus Alexander (b.208), Syrian emperor of Rome (222-235), was
murdered.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Severus)
978 Mar 18, Edward the Martyr
(15), King of Anglo-Saxons (975-78), was murdered.
(MC, 3/18/02)
1190 Mar 18, Crusaders killed 57
Jews in Bury St. Edmonds, England.
(MC, 3/18/02)
1229 Mar 18, German emperor
Frederick II crowned himself king of Jerusalem.
(MC, 3/18/02)
1314 Mar 18, In France Jacques de
Molay (b.1244), Grand Master of the Templars, was burned at the stake
along with his aides. Surviving monks fled, with some absorbed by other
orders.
(AP, 10/12/07)(www.templarhistory.com/demolay.html)
1455 Mar 18, Fra Angelico, Italian
monk and Renaissance painter born around 1387 as Guido di Pietro, died.
Fra Angelico gained a reputation as a painter under that name before
joining the Dominicans in the 1420s. However, much of the influence
found in his work is thought to come from Dominican teachings. He
stayed at Dominican monasteries in Florence for most of his life doing
a variety of religious painting until being called to Rome in 1445 by
Pope Eugene IV, where he completed several chapel frescoes. Returning
to Florence in the early 1450s, he died on a return visit to Rome in
1455 and is entombed at the church of Santa Maria della Minerva. In
1984 Fra Angelico was beatified by Pope John Paul II.
(HNQ,
3/6/01)(http://gallery.euroweb.hu/bio/a/angelico/biograph.html)(WSJ,
11/9/05, p.D16)
1532 Mar 18, English parliament
banned payments by English church to Rome.
(MC, 3/18/02)
1584 Mar 18, Ivan IV (53), the
terrible, Russian tsar (1547-84), died. He was succeeded by his
weak-minded son, Fyodor I. Boris Godunov, Fyodor’s brother-in-law,
assumed general control. During his rule Ivan replaced the sale of beer
and mead with vodka at state-run taverns.
(TL-MB, 1988, p.23)(MC, 3/18/02)(SFC, 9/5/03, p.A8)
1692 Mar 18, William Penn was
deprived of his governing powers.
(HN, 3/18/98)
1745 Mar 18, Robert Walpole (68),
1st British premier (1721-42), died.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Walpole)
1765 Mar 18, David H. Chass, Dutch
baron, general (fought Napoleon at Waterloo), was born.
(MC, 3/18/02)
1766 Mar 18, Britain repealed the
Stamp Act of 1765.
(AP, 3/18/97)(PCh, 1992, p.311)
1782 Mar 18, John C. Calhoun
(d.1850), U.S. statesman, was born. He served as US
vice-president from 1825-1832 under Adams and Jackson.
(HN, 3/18/99)(WUD, 1994, p.210)
1793 Mar 18, The 2nd Battle at
Neerwinden: Austria army beat France.
(MC, 3/18/02)
1835 Mar 18, Charles Darwin
departed Santiago, Chile, on his way to Portillo Pass.
(MC, 3/18/02)
1837 Mar 18, Stephen Grover
Cleveland was born in Caldwell, N.J. He was the 22nd (1885-1889) and
24th (1893-1897) president of the United States, the only President
elected for two nonconsecutive terms.
(AP, 3/18/97)(HN, 3/18/02)
1838 Mar 18, Randal Cremer,
British trade unionist, pacifist (Nobel 1903), was born.
(MC, 3/18/02)
1842 Mar 18, Stephane Mallarme
(d.1898), French essayist and symbolist poet, was born. "Every soul is
a melody which needs renewing."
(AP, 7/17/98)(HN, 3/18/01)
1850 Mar 18, Henry Wells &
William Fargo formed American Express in Buffalo. [see Mar 18, 1852]
(HN, 3/18/98)(MC, 3/18/02)
1852 Mar 18, Henry C. Wells
founded Wells, Fargo & Co. with William C. Fargo in San Francisco
as a Western equivalent to their east coast American Express. It
evolved into Wells Fargo Bank, headquartered in San Francisco and now
one of the largest financial institutions in the U.S. In 2002 Philip L.
Fradkin authored "Stagecoach: Wells Fargo and the American West" for
the company’s 150th anniversary. [see Mar 18, 1850]
(SFEC, 1/4/98, Z1p.4)(SFC, 6/9/98, p.A10)(HNQ,
11/20/98)(SFC, 2/6/02, p.D1)
(SFC, 3/19/02, p.B1,4)
1858 Mar 18, Rudolf Diesel, German
mechanical engineer, was born in Paris. He designed the
compression-ignition engine (1893).
(HN, 3/18/99)(AP, 3/18/08)
1863 Mar 18, Confederate women
rioted in Salisbury, N.C. to protest the lack of flour and salt in the
South.
(HN, 3/18/00)
1864 Mar 18, The Dale Dike on
Humber River, England, crumbled drowning some 240.
(MC, 3/18/02)
1865 Mar 18, The Congress of the
Confederate States of America adjourned for the last time.
(HN, 3/18/98)
1865 Mar 18, Battle of Wilson's
raid to Selma, AL.
(MC, 3/18/02)
1869 Mar 18, Neville Chamberlin,
British Prime Minister (1937-40), was born. He tried to make peace "in
our time" with German Chancellor Adolf Hitler, but instead made it
easier for Hitler to take over continental Europe.
(HN, 3/18/99)
1870 Mar 18, The 1st US National
Wildlife Preserve was Lake Meritt in Oakland, Calif. Lake Merritt,
actually a tidal lagoon, was named after Samuel Merritt, a physician
and one of the 1st mayors of Oakland.
(SFEC, 3/8/98, p.W31)(SFC, 1/5/01, WBb p.8)(MC,
3/18/02)(SFCM, 8/17/03, p.3)
1874 Mar 18, Hawaii signed a
treaty giving exclusive trading rights with the islands to the United
States.
(HN, 3/18/99)
1877 Mar 18, Edgar Cayce (d.1945),
self-proclaimed psychic, was born in Hopkinsville, Ky. In 2000 Sidney
D. Kirkpatrick authored “Edgar Cayce, An American Prophet.”
(SFEC, 7/26/98, BR p.3)(SSFC, 1/14/01, BR p.12)(SFC,
8/7/08, p.E1)
1881 Mar 18, Barnum and Bailey’s
Greatest Show on Earth opened in Madison Square Gardens. [see Mar 16]
(HN, 3/18/98)
1890 Mar 18, The 1st US state
naval militia was organized in Massachusetts.
(MC, 3/18/02)
1893 Mar 18, Wilfred Owen
(d.1918), World War I English poet, was born. He was killed one week
before Armistice Day of WW I. His fellow poet Siegfried Sassoon
published Owen’s single slim volume of poetry.
(NH, 10/98, p.18)(HN, 3/18/01)
1895 Mar 18, Some 200 blacks left
Savannah, Ga., for Liberia.
(MC, 3/18/02)
1899 Mar 18, Lavrenti Beria
(d.1953), chief of Soviet secret police under Stalin, was born.
(MC, 3/18/02)
1899 Mar 18, Phoebe, a moon of
Saturn, was discovered by Pickering.
(MC, 3/18/02)
1906 Mar 18, Roy L. Johnson, US
admiral (WW II-Pacific Ocean), was born.
(MC, 3/18/02)
1909 Mar 18, Einar Dessau of
Denmark used a short-wave transmitter to converse with a government
radio post about six miles away in what is believed to have been the
first broadcast by a "ham" operator.
(AP, 3/18/97)
1911 Mar 18, Theodore Roosevelt
opened the Roosevelt Dam in Phoenix, Ariz., the largest dam in the U.S.
to date.
(HN, 3/18/98)
1911 Mar 18, A vote was held for
the incorporation of Daly City, Ca. The voting place was the upstairs
backroom of Jack Letlos’ Restaurant on Mission Rd. The vote was for
132, against 130. Also passed in the vote was the new official name of
Daly City in honor of John Daly.
(GTP, 1973, p.84)(LaPen, 12/86, p.4)
1913 Mar 18, Greek King George I
was killed by an assassin. Constantine I was to succeed.
(HN, 3/18/98)
1916 Mar 18, On the Eastern Front,
the Russians countered the Verdun assault with an attack at Lake
Naroch. The Russians lost 100,000 men and the Germans lost 20,000.
(HN, 3/18/98)
1917 Mar 18, The Germans sank the
U.S. ships, City of Memphis, Vigilante and the Illinois, without any
type of warning.
(HN, 3/18/98)
1921 Mar 18, Steamer "Hong Koh"
ran aground off Swatow China killing 1,000.
(MC, 3/18/02)
1922 Mar 18, Mohandas K. Gandhi
was sentenced in India to six years' imprisonment for civil
disobedience. He was released after serving two years. [see Mar 22]
(AP, 3/18/97)(HN, 3/18/98)
1925 Mar 18, The great Tri-State
Tornado killed 695 people in Illinois, Indiana and Missouri and injured
some 13,000 people, and causing $17 million in property damage.
(WSJ, 9/13/01, p.B11)(SSFC, 5/11/03, Par p.A11)
1931
Mar 18, Jackie Mitchell became the 2nd female in professional baseball
as she signed with the Chattanooga Lookouts, a Tennessee Class AA minor
league team. In 1898, Lizzie Arlington played one game, pitching for
Reading (PA) against Allentown.
(www.exploratorium.edu/baseball/mitchell.html)
1931 Mar 18, Schick Inc. marketed
the first electric razor.
(AP, 3/18/97)
1932 Mar 18, John Updike, American
poet, novelist, was born. He wrote "Witches of Eastwick."
(HN, 3/18/99)
1933 Mar 18, Unita Blackwell, 1st
black mayor in Mississippi, was born.
(MC, 3/18/02)
1936 Mar 18, Frederik Willem de
Klerk, president of the Republic of South Africa, was born in
Johannesburg. He initiated the abolition of apartheid.
(Hem. 1/95, p. 19)(HN, 3/18/99)
1937 Mar 18, Some 300 people,
mostly children, were killed in a gas explosion at a school in New
London, Texas.
(AP, 3/18/08)
1937 Mar 18, In Missouri Jim the
Wonder Dog died at age 12 at the Lake of the Ozarks. The dog had
uncanny abilities that were verified but never explained.
(SFC, 3/29/99, p.A3)
1938 Mar 18, NY 1st required
serological blood tests of pregnant women.
(MC, 3/18/02)
1938 Mar 18, Mexican President
Lazaro Cardenas nationalized his country's petroleum reserves and took
control of foreign-owned oil facilities.
(WSJ, 3/20/96, p.A-1)(WSJ, 6/14/96, p.A15)(AP,
3/18/08)
1939 Mar 18, The U.S. raised the
duties on German imports by 25 percent.
(HN, 3/18/98)
1939 Mar 18, Georgia finally
ratified the Bill of Rights, 150 years after the birth of the federal
government. Connecticut and Massachusetts, the only other states to
hold out, also accepted the Bill of Rights in this year.
(HN, 3/18/98)
1940 Mar 18, Adolf Hitler and
Benito Mussolini held a meeting at the Brenner Pass across the Alps
during which the Italian dictator agreed to join in Germany's war
against France and Britain.
(AP, 3/18/97)
1942 Mar 18, The third military
draft began in the U.S. because of World War II.
(HN, 3/18/98)
1942 Mar 18, Black players, Jackie
Robinson and Nate Moreland, requested a tryout with the Chicago White
Sox. They were allowed to work out.
(MC, 3/18/02)
1943 Mar 18, American forces took
Gafsa in Tunisia. In the crucible of Operation Torch, the men of
Sub-Task Force Goalpost received their baptism of fire capturing the
Moroccan town of Port Lyautey.
(HN, 3/18/98)
1943 Mar 18, The ships James
Oglethorpe (US) and Terkolei (Neth.), were torpedoed and sank.
(MC, 3/18/02)
1943 Mar 18, The Reich called off
its offensive in Caucasus.
(HN, 3/18/98)
1943 Mar 18, Red Army evacuated
Belgorod.
(MC, 3/18/02)
1944 Mar 18, Nazi Germany occupied
Hungary.
(MC, 3/18/02)
1944 Mar 18, The Russians reached
the Rumanian border in the Balkans.
(HN, 3/18/98)
1945 Mar 18, 1,250 US bombers
attacked Berlin.
(MC, 3/18/02)
1945 Mar 18, US Task Force 58
attacked targets on Kyushu.
(MC, 3/18/02)
1945 Mar 18, Suicide bombs were
introduced.
(HFA, '96, p.26)
1948 Mar 18, France, Great Britain
and Benelux signed the Treaty of Brussels.
(MC, 3/18/02)
1948 Mar 18, Philips began
experimental TV broadcasting.
(MC, 3/18/02)
1950 Mar 18, Nationalist troops
landed on the mainland of China and captured Communist held Sungmen.
(HN, 3/18/98)
1952 Mar 18, The 1st plastic lens
for cataract patients was fitted in Phila.
(MC, 3/18/02)
1952 Mar 18, There was a Communist
offensive in Korea.
(MC, 3/18/02)
1953 Mar 18, Margaret L.
Augustine, project manager for Biosphere 2, was born in Buffalo, NY.
(MC, 3/18/02)
1953 Mar 18, The Braves baseball
team announced that they were moving from Boston to Milwaukee.
(HN, 3/18/98)
1954 Mar 18, Howard Hughes paid
$23.5 million for the RKO motion picture company.
(SFC, 4/18/98, p.C3)
1959 Mar 18, President Eisenhower
signed the Hawaii statehood bill. Hawaii became a state on Aug. 21,
1959.
(AP, 3/18/07)
1961 Mar 18, The "Poppin' Fresh"
Pillsbury Dough Boy was introduced.
(MC, 3/18/02)
1962 Mar 18, France and Algerian
rebels agreed to a truce, which took effect the next day.
(HN, 3/18/98)(AP, 3/18/08)
1963 Mar 18, Vanessa L. Williams,
1st black Miss America (1983), singer, was born in Millwood, NY.
(MC, 3/18/02)
1963 Mar 18, The US Supreme Court
made its Gideon v Wainwright ruling which said poor defendants have a
constitutional right to an attorney. Gideon had been forced to defend
himself in Florida in Jan 1962, and petitioned the Supreme Court to
hear his complaint.
(SFC, 11/21/03, p.D4)(SSFC, 11/30/03, p.A31)(Econ,
4/4/09, p.39)
1965 Mar 18, The first spacewalk
took place as Soviet cosmonaut Aleksei Leonov (30) left his Voskhod 2
capsule and remained outside the spacecraft for 20 minutes, secured by
a tether.
(SFC, 5/27/00, p.A26)(AP, 3/18/97)
1966 Mar 18, Hedda Hopper,
American gossip columnist (1890-1966). died. "Having only friends would
be dull anyway -- like eating eggs without salt."
(AP, 3/18/97)
1968 Mar 18, Pres. Johnson signed
Public Law 90-269 removing gold backing from US paper money.
(www.peterdavidbeter.com/docs/txt/dbal33.txt)
1969 Mar 18, President Richard M.
Nixon authorized Operation Menu, the 'secret' bombing of Cambodia [see
Feb 23].
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Menu)
1970 Mar 18, The US Postal Service
was paralyzed by the first postal strike. A walkout of letter carriers
in Brooklyn and Manhattan set off a strike that involved 210,000 of the
nation’s 750,000 postal employees. Pres. Nixon declared a state of
national emergency and assigned military units to NYC post offices.
(HN, 3/18/98)(SFC, 10/4/02, p.A17)
1970 Mar 18, In Cambodia Prince
Sihanouk was overthrown by Gen’l. Lon Nol. The next 8 years are covered
in the 1988 book "Goodnight Cambodia, Forbidden History" by Vibol Ouk,
who lived through the horrors of Pol Pot.
(SFEC, 1/11/98, BR p.3)
1971 Mar 18, U.S. helicopters
airlifted 1,000 South Vietnamese soldiers out of Laos.
(HN, 3/18/98)
1975 Mar 18, Mulla Mustafa gave
the order to the Kurdish army to abandon the struggle. This time round,
Mulla Mustafa obtained refuge in the United States.
(www.tamilnation.org/intframe/india/kurds.htm#a1)
1975 Mar 18, South Vietnam
abandoned most of the Central Highlands of Vietnam to Hanoi.
(HN, 3/18/02)
1977 Mar 18, In SF Paul Gaer
transformed Al’s Transbay Tavern on Fourth St. into the Hotel Utah
Saloon. The structure dated back to 1908 and in 2007 marked its 30th
anniversary.
(SFC, 3/15/07, 96H p.4)
1977 Mar 18, Marien Ngouabi, the
military president of the Republic of the Congo (Congo-Brazzaville),
was assassinated.
(AP, 3/18/07)
1977 Mar 18, The Vietnamese
"discovered" and returned to the US the remains of Bruce C. Ducat. For
eleven years, Ducat, alive or dead, was a prisoner of war.
(www.pownetwork.org/bios/b/b107.htm)
1978 Mar 18, In Pakistan the
Punjab High Court condemned former pres. Zulfikar Ali Bhutto to death
on charges of a political murder.
(WUD, 1994, p.1691)
1979 Mar 18, Iranian authorities
detained American feminist Kate Millett, a day before deporting her and
a companion for what were termed "provocations."
(AP, 3/18/99)
1980 Mar 18, John Favara struck a
killed Frank Gotti (12), the son of mobster John Gotti, as the boy
darted in front of his car on a minibike in Brooklyn. Favara
disappeared on July 28. In 2009 it was reported that mobster Charles
Carneglia (62) had killed Favara and dissolved his body in acid.
(SFC, 1/9/09, p.A2)
1981 Mar 18, The U.S. disclosed
that there were biological weapons tested in Texas in 1966.
(HN, 3/18/98)
1983 Mar 18, Mexico's financial
crisis was causing a surge of illegal aliens over the border into
Texas.
(HN, 3/18/98)
1985 Mar 18, Baseball commissioner
Peter Ueberroth reinstated Willie Mays and Mickey Mantle.
(http://tinyurl.com/y34t69)
1985 Mar 18, The 1st remote
location for ABC’s "Nightline" news was in South Africa.
(http://openweb.tvnews.vanderbilt.edu/1985-3/1985-03-18-ABC-19.html)
1986 Mar 18, Buckingham Palace
announced the engagement of Prince Andrew to Sarah Ferguson.
(HN, 3/18/98)
1986 Mar 18, Bernard Malamud
(b.1914), writer, died. His work included "Talking Horse: Bernard
Malamud on Life and Work," edited by Alan Cheuse and Nicholas Delbanco
(1997). In 2006 his daughter authored “My Father Is a Book: A Memoir of
Bernard Malamud.” In 2007 Philip Davis authored “Bernard Malamud: A
Writer’s Life.”
(www.nagasaki-gaigo.ac.jp/ishikawa/amlit/m/malamud21.htm)(SSFC,
3/19/06, p.M3)(WSJ, 1/15/08, p.D5)
1987 Mar 18, Susan Butcher won her
second consecutive Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race, covering the distance
from Anchorage to Nome, Alaska, in 11 days, 2 hours, 5 minutes and 13
seconds.
(AP, 3/18/97)
1988 Mar 18, The government of
Panama, controlled by Gen. Manuel Antonio Noriega, declared a "state of
urgency" in a move apparently aimed at forcing the reopening of banks
and other businesses that closed during Panama's economic and political
crisis.
(AP, 3/18/98)
1989 Mar 18, The space shuttle
Discovery landed at Edwards Air Force Base in California, completing a
five-day mission.
(AP, 3/18/99)
1990 Mar 18, There was a theft of
art work from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston. 2 men
dressed as policemen made off with masterworks that included
Rembrandt’s "The Storm on the Sea of Galilee," Vermeer’s "The Concert,"
Manet’s "Chez Tortoni," and 5 paintings and drawings by Edgar Degas and
a 1200 BC Chinese bronze beaker valued at $300 million. The theft led
Sen. Edward Kennedy to sponsor the museum theft provision of the 1994
Omnibus Crime Act. In 2009 Ulrich Boser authored “The Gardner Heist.”
(WSJ, 8/9/96, p.A8)(WSJ, 5/13/97, p.A21)(SFC,
8/26/97, p.A3)(SFC,12/15/97, p.A3)(WSJ, 2/20/09, p.W10)
1990 Mar 18, An alliance of
conservative parties won a surprising victory over the Communists in
East Germany's first free elections.
(AP, 3/18/00)
1992 Mar 18, US National Football
League owners voted to drop the use of instant videotape replays to
settle disputed calls during games. Instant replay was brought back in
1999.
(AP, 3/18/02)
1992 Mar 18, Leona Helmsley was
sentenced to 4 years for tax evasion.
(http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F10611F63B580C718EDDAA0894DA494D81)
1992 Mar 18, South African
President F.W. de Klerk claimed victory for his reforms a day after a
whites-only referendum on whether to end apartheid.
(AP, 3/18/97)
1993 Mar 18, On Capitol Hill, the
House approved President Clinton's deficit-reduction blueprint on a
virtual party-line 243-183 vote.
(AP, 3/18/98)
1994 Mar 18, The space shuttle
Columbia returned from a two-week mission.
(AP, 3/18/99)
1994 Mar 18, Published reports
said first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton had made nearly $100,000 from
the commodities market in the late 1970's on an initial investment of
only $1,000.
(AP, 3/18/99)
1994 Mar 18, Zsa Zsa Gabor,
Hungarian-born actress, filed for bankruptcy.
(www.nndb.com/people/530/000025455/)
1994 Mar 18, Muslim and Croat
leaders signed agreements to create a Bosnian federation.
(AP, 3/18/04)
1994 Mar 18, Lithuania and
Poland signed an agreement in Warsaw on friendship and neighborly
cooperation.
(LHC, 3/18/03)
1994 Mar 18, The South Africa
Goldstone Commission published a report which finally confirmed that
senior South African Police (SAP) officials had been involved in
supplying Inkatha with weapons and financial support.
(www.hrw.org/reports/1995/WR95/AFRICA-09.htm)
1994 Mar 18, The U.N. Security
Council unanimously condemned the Hebron mosque massacre.
(AP, 3/18/04)
1995 Mar 18, The United States
Catholic Conference's administrative board criticized a Republican
welfare reform plan, saying it would hurt poor children and could push
women to have abortions.
(AP, 3/18/00)
1995 Mar 18, Michael Jordan
announced that he was ending his 17 month NBA retirement.
(www.cnn.com/EVENTS/year_in_review/sports/mar.html)
1995 Mar 18, Spain's Princess
Elena married a banker, Jaime de Marichalar y Saenz de Tejada, in
Seville; it was Spain's first royal wedding in 89 years.
(AP, 3/18/00)
1996 Mar 18, Rejecting an insanity
defense, a jury in Dedham, Mass., convicted John C. Salvi III of
murdering two women in a pair of attacks at two Boston-area abortion
clinics in December 1994. Salvi later committed suicide in his cell.
(AP, 3/18/01)
1996 Mar 18, Jacquetta Hawkes
(85), British archaeologist, died.
(www.britarch.ac.uk/ba/ba14/ba14obit.html)
1996 Mar 18, Some 2,000 Chinese
made assault guns were illegally shipped through the port of Oakland in
the US.
(SFC, 5/23/96, p.A17)
1996 Mar 18, Odysseus Elytis,
Greek poet and Nobel Prize winner (1979), died in Athens at age 84.
(WSJ, 3/19/96,
p.A-1)(http://dpsinfo.com/dps/mnames.html)
1997 Mar 18, Labor
Secretary-designate Alexis Herman got a generally favorable reception
from Democrats and Republicans alike at her Senate confirmation
hearing.
(AP, 3/18/98)
1997 Mar 18, Bulldozers began
clearing away rocks and earth for a Jewish housing project in disputed
east Jerusalem, triggering Palestinian protests.
(WSJ, 3/19/97, p.A1)(AP, 3/18/98)
1998 Mar 18, Julie Hiatt Steele, a
former friend of Kathleen Willey's, released a sworn affidavit
undercutting Willey's claim that President Clinton had made an unwanted
sexual advance toward her in 1993. According to Steele, Willey
instructed her to tell Newsweek that Willey had confided the alleged
episode to her immediately after it supposedly happened; Steele said
she first heard about the accusation in 1997.
(AP, 3/18/09)
1998 Mar 18, The NYC Board of
Education voted to require its schoolchildren to wear uniforms. The
dress code would begin in 1999.
(SFC, 3/19/98, p.A5)
1998 Mar 18, A study of Finnish
smokers reported in the Journal of the national Cancer Institute
indicated that vitamin E reduced the risk of prostate cancer.
(WSJ, 3/18/98, p.A1)
1998 Mar 18, In India the
Bharatiya Janata Party agenda was outlined. It included plans to
protect domestic industry from foreign competition and to develop
nuclear weapons for protection against China and Pakistan.
(SFC, 3/19/98, p.A11)
1999 Mar 18, A US federal judge
ordered US telephone companies to pay $6.2 million owed to Cuba to the
families of 3 Cuban Americans killed in 1996.
(SFC, 3/19/99, p.A12)
1999 Mar 18, In Afghanistan
fighting continued for a 2nd day and 12 people were reported killed by
Taliban bombing in Parwan province.
(SFC, 3/19/99, p.A14)
1999 Mar 18, In China the Grand
Hyatt Shanghai opened on the top 35 stories of the new $540 million Jin
Mao Tower, the 3rd tallest in the world.
(WSJ, 3/17/99, p.B1)
1999 Mar 18, In Ecuador Pres.
Mahuad revoked the decree doubling gas prices under protests from taxi
drivers.
(SFC, 3/19/99, p.A14)
1999 Mar 18, In Paris the ethnic
Albanians signed the peace proposal, which the Serbian delegation
rejected. The Kosovar Albanian delegation signed a U.S.-sponsored peace
accord following talks in Paris; the Clinton administration warned NATO
would act against Serb targets if Yugoslav leader Slobodan Milosevic
didn't accept the agreement.
(SFC, 3/19/99, p.A12)(AP, 3/18/00)
1999 Mar 18, In India 35
upper-caste villagers of Senari in Bihar state were killed by members
of the Maoist Communist Center.
(SFC, 3/19/99, p.A14)
1999 Mar 18, In Indonesia at least
59 people were killed on Borneo as ethnic groups clashed for a 3rd day.
(SFC, 3/19/99, p.A14)
1999 Mar 18, In Malaysia an
outbreak of encephalitis caused a order for the extermination of 64,000
pigs and the evacuation of 11,000 people.
(SFC, 3/19/99, p.A14)
2000 Mar 18, In Kenya it was
reported that some 10,000 cattle, 25,000 camels and 20,000 goats had
starved to death over the last 3 months. 2 million people faced famine
and 20 died in the last 2 weeks in the Wajir district.
(SFC, 3/18/00, p.C16)
2000 Mar 18, In Taiwan Chen
Shui-bian was elected as president ending 51 years of Nationalist Party
rule. He won with 39% of the vote over James Soong with 37%. Annette Lu
(55) was elected as vice-president. Chen Shui-bian’s party favored
Taiwan’s formal independence from the rest of China.
(SFEC, 3/19/00, p.A1,23)(AP, 3/18/01)
2001 Mar 18, John Phillips, who
co-founded the Mamas and the Papas and wrote its biggest hits,
including "California Dreamin" and "Monday," died in Los Angeles at age
65.
(SFC, 3/19/01, p.A19)(AP, 3/18/02)
2001 Mar 18, It was reported that
the Bush administration planned to sidestep the American Bar
Association in the screening of federal judges, an "indication that
they want to pick judges of the hard right."
(SSFC, 3/18/01, p.A5)
2001 Mar 18, It was reported that
the US National Reconnaissance Office was planning a $25 billion
project for some 12 satellites to be deployed by 2005.
(SSFC, 3/18/01, p.A3)
2001 Mar 18, An Amtrak train bound
for the Bay Area derailed in Iowa and 1 person was killed with 96
injured.
(SFC, 3/19/01, p.A1)
2001 Mar 18, In Algeria weekend
attacks by suspected Islamic militants left 5 people dead and 23
injured.
(SFC, 3/20/01, p.A11)
2001 Mar 18, Chechen rebels killed
at least 21 Russian troops.
(WSJ, 3/19/01, p.A1)
2001 Mar 18, In France mayoral
elections were held in Paris. Bertrand Delanoe, candidate of the
Socialist, Communists and 2-other left-wing parties, won over Philippe
Seguin. Socialists also won in Lyon. This ended a century of nearly
unbroken rule by the right.
(SFC, 3/8/01, p.A12)(SFC, 3/19/01, p.A8)(AP, 3/18/02)
2001 Mar 18, In Iran the judiciary
banned the nation’s only real opposition group and closed down 4
pro-reform newspapers.
(SFC, 3/19/01, p.A9)
2001 Mar 18, In Macedonia the
government ordered a general mobilization to counter the guerrilla
assault.
(SFC, 3/19/01, p.A8)
2002 Mar 18, The FBI "Operation
Candyman" snared over 90 people following a 14-month investigation of
child pornography over the Internet.
(SFC, 3/19/02, p.A3)
2002 Mar 18, A US federal grand
jury unsealed a Mar 7 indictment against 7 men that included 3
Colombian guerrillas for smuggling planeloads of cocaine. These
included Tomas Molina Caracas, commander of the FARC 16th Front.
(SFC, 3/19/02, p.A6)
2002 Mar 18, Flooding hit
Kentucky, Tennessee and Virginia following a 2nd day of heavy rains.
(SFC, 3/19/02, p.A3)
2002 Mar 18, In Ohio Brittanie
Cecil (13) died 2 days after being hit by a hockey puck while watching
an NHL game between the Columbus Blue Jackets and Calgary Flames. It
was apparently the first such fan fatality in NHL history.
(SFC, 3/20/02, p.A2)(AP, 3/18/07)
2002 Mar 18, Angola’s army and
Unita rebels began cease-fire talks.
(WSJ, 3/18/02, p.A1)
2002 Mar 18, Britain planned to
send 1,700 troops to Afghanistan to join the 6,300 US forces.
(WSJ, 3/19/02, p.A1)
2002 Mar 18, Britain’s House of
Commons again voted to ban fox hunting along with the hunting of stags
and hares with packs of hounds.
(SFC, 3/19/02, p.A7)
2002 Mar 18, Van Leo (80),
Armenian-born Egyptian photographer (Leon Boyadjian), died. His
portraits gave Egypt’s beggars, strippers and the elite the look of
Hollywood film stars.
(SFC, 3/22/02,
p.A27)(http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2002/579/cu6.htm)
2002 Mar 18, In India police shot
and killed 4 people while trying to disperse mobs and stop looting in 2
towns, Bharuch and Modasa, in Gujarat state.
(SFC, 3/20/02, p.A10)
2002 Mar 18, Israel withdrew some
forces from Palestinian-ruled territory as VP Cheney arrived to help
with peace talks.
(SFC, 3/19/02, p.A1)(WSJ, 3/19/02, p.A1)
2002 Mar 18, A UN conference on
aid opened in Mexico.
(WSJ, 3/18/02, p.A1)
2002 Mar 18, In Spain police
discovered at least 19 corpses at the home and car of an ex-funeral
parlor employee in Malaga.
(SFC, 3/20/02, p.A10)
2002 Mar 18, In Zimbabwe Terry
Ford became the 10th white farmer killed by militants in the last 2
years.
(SFC, 3/19/02, p.A8)
2003 Mar 18, The US mounted
"Operation Liberty Shield" to detain asylum seekers from suspect
countries.
(WSJ, 3/19/03, p.A1)
2003 Mar 18, A jury in Corpus
Christi, Texas, cleared Bayer Corp. of liability in a $560 million
lawsuit that accused the pharmaceutical giant of ignoring research
linking the cholesterol-lowering drug Baycol to dozens of deaths.
(AP, 3/18/04)
2003 Mar 18, In Salt Lake City,
Brian Mitchell and Wanda Barzee were charged with aggravated
kidnapping, sexual assault and burglary in the abduction of Elizabeth
Smart, who was found with them six days earlier. Mitchell and Barzee
were later found incompetent to stand trial.
(AP, 3/18/08)
2003 Mar 18, Olympic gold medal
figure skater Sarah Hughes won the Sullivan Award as the nation's top
amateur athlete.
(AP, 3/18/04)
2003 Mar 18, A major snowstorm hit
Colorado and Wyoming with over 3-6 feet of snow. The Denver Airport
closed under the worst storm in 90 years.
(SFC, 3/19/03, p.A3)(WSJ, 3/20/03, p.A1)(SSFC,
3/23/03, p.A3)
2003 Mar 18, In Australia PM
John Howard said his government would commit 2,000 military personnel
to any U.S.-led strike aimed at disarming Iraq.
(AP, 3/19/03)
2003 Mar 18, In Colombia gunmen
killed Luis Eduardo Alfonso Parada (27), print and radio journalist,
outside his office in the eastern state of Arauca. Alfonso had reported
on alleged corruption in Arauca and said he was receiving death
threats. On Dec 30, 2009, prosecutors ordered the preventative
detention of Jose Ruben Pena Tobon, a paramilitary commander of the
right-wing paramilitary bloc that killed Alfonso.
(AP, 3/19/03)(AP, 12/30/09)
2003 Mar 18, Congo leaders signed
a cease-fire with tribal militias and local chiefs in northeastern
Congo.
(AP, 3/18/03)
2003 Mar 18, Some $900 million in
US bills and as much as 100 million in euros was taken from Iraq's
Central Bank by Saddam Hussein and his family. The New York Times
reported on May 5 that Saddam ordered the money taken from the Central
Bank and sent his son Qusai in the middle of the night. This became the
largest cash theft in recent history.
(AP, 5/6/03)(AP, 2/28/06)
2003 Mar 18, Israeli forces killed
2 Hamas militants in West Bank clashes. One Israeli solder was killed.
(SFC, 3/19/03, p.A6)(WSJ, 3/19/03, p.A1)
2003 Mar 18, The Palestinian
parliament established the post of prime minister. It gave Mahmoud
Abbas (Abu Mazen), the new PM, control of domestic affairs and internal
security issues.
(SFC, 3/19/03, p.A3)
2003 Mar 18, In Serbia the
parliament elected Zoran Zivkovic to replace assassinated PM Zoran
Djindjic. Zivkovic promised to continue reforms, fight crime and bring
war crimes suspects to justice.
(SFC, 3/19/03, p.A7)
2003 Mar 18, In Yemen a man shot 4
Hunt Oil company workers. He killed 3 and shot himself dead.
(SFC, 3/19/03, p.A5)
2003 Mar 18-19, In Zimbabwe a
2-day national strike, called to protest the increasingly authoritarian
government, shut down businesses and disrupted transportation services
across the country.
(AP, 3/19/03)
2004 Mar 18, Addressing thousands
of soldiers at Fort Campbell, Ky., President Bush warned that
terrorists could never be appeased and said there was no safety for any
nation that "lives at the mercy of gangsters and mass murderers."
(AP, 3/18/05)
2004 Mar 18, Overruling its staff,
the FCC declared that an expletive (the "F-word") uttered by rock star
Bono on NBC the previous year was indecent and profane.
(AP, 3/18/05)
2004 Mar 18, New Jersey officials
arrested 11 people in a pharmaceutical theft ring and charged them with
stealing some $3 million in drugs for resale.
(WSJ, 3/19/04, p.A1)
2004 Mar 18, A 100-foot diameter
asteroid passed within 26,500 miles of Earth, the closest-ever brush on
record by a space rock.
(AP, 3/18/04)
2004 Mar 18, A rebel group in Chad
captured Amari Saifi, one of North Africa's most notorious terrorists,
along with 9 others. Saifi is and an Algerian extremist suspected in
the hostage-taking of 32 European tourists last year.
(AP, 5/14/04)
2004 Mar 18, Georgia's President
Mikhail Saakashvili met with Aslan Abashidze in Batumi, Ajaria, to
settle misunderstandings.
(Econ, 3/20/04, p.54)
2004 Mar 18, In northeast
Guatemala a bus collided with a tractor-trailer, killing at least 14
people.
(AP, 3/19/04)
2004 Mar 18, Jordan's King
Abdullah and PM Ariel Sharon held a secret meeting at the Israeli
leader's ranch to discuss Sharon's plan to withdraw unilaterally from
Palestinian areas.
(AP, 3/19/04)
2004 Mar 18, In Iraq a car bomb
exploded at a hotel in the southern city of Basra as a British military
patrol passed by, killing five Iraqi bystanders. US Army soldiers shot
2 al-Arabiya television network employees. [see Mar 19]
(AP, 3/18/04)(SFC, 3/30/04, p.A3)
2004 Mar 18, Albanians set fire to
Serb Orthodox churches in Kosovo as NATO scrambled to deploy up to
1,000 more troops to stifle an explosion of ethnic violence. The death
toll reached 31 with hundreds injured in fighting between Serbs and
ethnic Albanians as violence continued for a 2nd day.
(SFC, 3/19/04, p.A13)(Econ, 3/20/04, p.52)
2004 Mar 18, In northwestern
Uganda unidentified gunmen raided and looted a college and killed two
American missionaries and a Ugandan student.
(AP, 3/19/04)
2005 Mar 18, The US State
Department said it had denied a diplomatic visa to the Hindu
nationalist chief minister of Gujarat state, Narendra Modi, and revoked
his existing tourist/business visa under the U.S. Immigration and
Nationality Act due to his role in religious riots in 2002.
(AP, 3/19/05)
2005 Mar 18, Standard & Poor’s
said the public debt in America, Germany and France was about 65% of
GDP.
(Econ, 3/26/05, p.75)
2005 Mar 18, Former Connecticut
3-term Gov. John G. Rowland was sentenced to a year in prison after
pleading guilty to a single federal corruption charge.
(SFC, 3/19/05, p.A4)
2005 Mar 18, Doctors in Florida
removed the feeding tube of Terri Schiavo (41) despite efforts by
congressional Republicans to halt the process. The brain-damaged woman
died on March 31, 2005, at age 41.
(SFC, 3/19/05, p.A1)(AP, 3/18/06)
2005 Mar 18, The S&P 500 index
was revised after the market close to change the weightings of many of
its shares. The SmallCap 600 and MidCap 400 made the same changes.
(SFC, 3/18/05, p.C3)
2005 Mar 18, Wal-Mart agreed to
pay a record $11 million to settle a civil immigration case for using
illegal immigrants to clean floors at stores in 21 states.
(SFC, 3/19/05, p.C1)
2005 Mar 18, Sol Linowitz (91), US
diplomat, died. In 1977 he negotiated the 1999 transfer of the Panama
Canal to Panama.
(WSJ, 3/21/05, p.A1)
2005 Mar 18, A Cambodian-Japanese
joint venture, JC Royal, was awarded a 30-year management lease to
oversee and upgrade the Choeung Ek memorial, site of the killing fields
(1975-1979). Profits were marked for the unregistered Sun Fund charity.
(Econ, 5/14/05, p.45)(http://tinyurl.com/dlpm7)
2005 Mar 18, World donors approved
$1 billion in aid projects for Haiti, promising to repair its roads and
rebuild its battered power grid, in an effort to help the Western
Hemisphere's poorest nation as it prepares for fall elections.
(AP, 3/19/05)
2005 Mar 18, Israel welcomed a
temporary truce declared by Palestinian militants and promised to hold
its fire in return, but demanded that the Palestinian Authority
eventually dismantle the armed groups.
(AP, 3/18/05)
2005 Mar 18, King Abdullah II of
Jordan proposed a new peace strategy that drops traditional Arab
demands that Israel give up all land seized in the 1967 war and offers
the Jewish state normalized relations with Arab countries.
(AP, 3/19/05)
2005 Mar 18, In Kiev prosecutors
said Ukrainian weapons dealers smuggled 18 nuclear-capable cruise
missiles to Iran and China in 2001 during former President Leonid
Kuchma's administration.
(AP, 3/18/05)
2005 Mar 18, In Pakistan’s
Baluchistan province bombs exploded in two trains killing two people
and wounding nine.
(AP, 3/18/05)
2005 Mar 18, Former Solomon
Islands warlord Harold Keke and two other men were sentenced to life in
prison for the 2002 murder of a Catholic priest.
(AFP, 3/18/05)
2006 Mar 18, Anti-war protesters
marched in Australia, Asia, Turkey and Europe in demonstrations that
marked the third anniversary of the US-led invasion of Iraq with a
demand that coalition troops pull out.
(AP, 3/18/06)
2006 Mar 18, Bill Beutel (75), the
longtime television news anchor and host of the show that became ABC's
"Good Morning America" (1975-2001), died in Pinehurst, NC.
(AP, 3/19/06)
2006 Mar 18, In Afghanistan at
least nine policemen, a former governor, his four companions and a
security guard were killed in separate attacks in Afghanistan blamed on
the Taliban.
(AFP, 3/18/06)
2006 Mar 18, In Algeria Farouk
Ksentini, the head of the government human rights body said up to
200,000 Algerians have died in a 15-year Islamic insurgency.
(AFP, 3/18/06)
2006 Mar 18, A mudslide swept down
on a scouting expedition in central Colombia, killing nine young hikers
and leaving two others missing. The scouts had just been bathing and
practicing knots when they were carried away.
(AP, 3/19/06)
2006 Mar 18, In Cuba the wives and
mothers of about two dozen political prisoners marched along several of
the city's main avenues, singing hymns and carrying signs reading
"amnesty" to commemorate the third anniversary of the crackdown that
put their husbands behind bars.
(AP, 3/18/06)
2006 Mar 18, Egypt's health
ministry said a 30-year-old Egyptian woman has died of bird flu, the
country's first human victim of the virus.
(Reuters, 3/18/06)
2006 Mar 18, As many as 1.5
million people took to the streets of French cities in a show of
strength over a contested new labor law, the government's First
Employment Contract (CPE), as police deployed in force in Paris to head
off the risk of violence. An open-ended contract for under 26-year-olds
that can be terminated within the first two years without explanation,
the CPE is supposed to encourage employers to take on young staff by
removing some of the financial risks involved. Police made 170 arrests.
(AP, 3/18/06)(Econ, 3/25/06, p.53)
2006 Mar 18, Indonesian
authorities said they have detained another 11 people in Papua province
after three policemen and a soldier died in clashes with protesters
demanding closure of a giant mine run by US-based Freeport-McMoran
Cooper & Gold Inc. 57 people had already been detained after the
March 16 violence in the provincial capital, Jayapura, on the
northeastern shore of Papua. Shooting into the air, the security forces
pulled people out of their cars, kicking and beating them.
(AP, 3/18/06)
2006 Mar 18, Iraq’s Interior
Ministry said 16 men were found dead with their hands tied and bullets
in their heads.
(SSFC, 3/19/06, p.A14)
2006 Mar 18, The US military
released more than 350 detainees in Iraq. The releases were recommended
by a review committee consisting of US officers and Iraqi officials
from the ministries of human rights, justice and interior, which found
no reason to hold them.
(AP, 3/20/06)
2006 Mar 18, A Maoist-dictated
strike hobbled Nepal for a fifth day.
(AFP, 3/18/06)
2006 Mar 18, Hamas said it has
formed a government two weeks before a deadline but apparently without
coalition partners that might have softened the Islamic militant
group's image.
(AP, 3/18/06)
2006 Mar 18, Slobodan Milosevic
was laid to rest in a makeshift grave dug in the backyard of the family
estate in Pozarevac, eastern Serbia. About 80,000 people attended the
farewell ceremony in Belgrade, while some 20,000 mourned the former
leader in Pozarevac.
(AP, 3/19/06)
2006 Mar 18, Tens of thousands of
slogan-chanting Taiwanese took to the streets to protest rival China's
military threats against the island.
(AFP, 3/18/06)
2006 Mar 18, Two US Navy warships
exchanged gunfire with suspected pirates off the coast of Somalia, and
one suspect was killed and five others were wounded.
(AP, 3/18/06)
2007 Mar 18, An estimated 3,000
protesters marched in SF to mark the 4th anniversary of the US invasion
of Iraq and demanding an end to the war there.
(SFC, 3/19/07, p.A1)
2007 Mar 18, Scientists said that
after four years of intensive collaboration, 18 top mathematicians and
computer scientists from the United States and Europe have successfully
mapped E8, one of the largest and most complicated structures in
mathematics. E8 was discovered over a century ago, in 1887, and until
now, no one thought the structure could ever be understood.
(AFP, 3/19/07)
2007 Mar 18, Afghanistan's Taliban
said it had handed an Italian journalist, whom it captured two weeks
ago and threatened to kill, to tribal elders pending a final deal for
his release.
(AP, 3/18/07)
2007 Mar 18, Bangladeshi police
filed extortion charges against Tarique Rahman, a former prime
minister's son, who had been a powerful political leader in a country
that ranks among the world's most corrupt.
(AP, 3/18/07)
2007 Mar 18, In Bangladesh Cholesh
Ritchil, an activist of the Garos people, was tortured to death while
in army custody. Father Eugene Homrich (79), a native of Muskegon,
Mich., made the news public. Homrich began working with the Garos in
1956 when they numbered about 25,000 in the Modhupur forest. By 2007
illegal logging had reduced the forest to a tenth of its size to 23,000
square miles.
(WSJ, 6/13/07,
p.A1)(www.abc.net.au/pm/content/2007/s1945435.htm)
2007 Mar 18, In northern China a
coal mine explosion killed 19 with two miners still missing and
presumed dead in a mine in the suburbs of Shanxi province's Jincheng
City.
(AP, 3/21/07)
2007 Mar 18, Officials said Cesare
Battisti, a former Italian communist revolutionary who went into hiding
in France two and a half years ago, was arrested in Brazil. In 1993 the
former revolutionary was given a life sentence by an Italian court for
his role in four murders committed in 1978 and 1979.
(AFP, 3/18/07)
2007 Mar 18, Eurostar trains ran
on a normal schedule following a trackside fire the fire, near the
London terminus at Waterloo station, that brought chaos to the service
over the previous two days.
(AFP, 3/18/07)
2007 Mar 18, In Egypt over 100
mainly Islamist lawmakers walked out of parliament to protest
government moves to push through constitutional laws that opponents
fear will entrench the ruling party's grip on power.
(AP, 3/18/07)
2007 Mar 18, Finns voted in a
parliamentary election in a tight race between PM Matti Vanhanen's
Center Party, its left-leaning coalition partner and the Conservative
opposition. The ruling centrist party of PM Matti Vanhanen retained
power. The Center Party won 23.1% of the vote while the Conservatives
had 22.3% and the Social Democrats 21.4%, according to provisional
results.
(AP, 3/18/07)
2007 Mar 18, Iran's justice
ministry said Shahram Jazayeri, a fugitive Iranian businessman, was
arrested outside the country after escaping from authorities last
month. Jazayeri had been sentenced in 2002 to 27 years in prison for
embezzlement in a high-profile conviction.
(AP, 3/18/07)
2007 Mar 18, In Iraq gunmen opened
fire on a minibus carrying civilians, killing seven men and wounding
four others in Hibhib, just east of Baqouba. A car bomb killed seven
Iraqis in a predominantly Shiite district of Baghdad. A roadside bomb
hit an Iraqi police convoy in eastern Baghdad, killing two policemen
and wounding five. In Shorja market, Baghdad's most popular central
shopping district, a man tossed a grenade into a group of workers. One
worker was killed and another was wounded. Eleven bodies were found,
six in Baqouba, in Diwaniyah and four in Mosul, many with signs of
torture and all apparently victims of sectarian killings. US troops
captured 12 suspected militants in raids across Iraq.
(AP, 3/18/07)
2007 Mar 18, In Jamaica Bob
Woolmer (58), Pakistan cricket coach, was found dead in his hotel room,
hours after Pakistan was upset by Ireland and eliminated from advancing
at the Cricket World Cup. A pathologist report found Woolmer's death
was due to "asphyxia as a result of manual strangulation." An inquest
into Woolmer's death ended with the Jamaican jury unable to reach a
ruling.
(AP, 3/21/07)(AP, 3/23/07)(AP, 3/18/08)
2007 Mar 18, In Japan 3 masked men
stole 220-pound block of gold worth more than $2 million from the
Ohashi Collection Kan museum in Takayama. 26 railways and 75 bus
companies in the greater Tokyo area were scheduled to begin sharing a
new stored value system called Pasmo.
(AP, 3/19/07)(Econ, 2/17/07, p.72)
2007 Mar 18, In Nigeria a
senior veterinary official said the deadly H5N1 bird flu virus is
spreading among poultry farms around Kano, northern Nigeria's largest
city.
(AFP, 3/18/07)
2007 Mar 18, In Pakistan the
lawyer for a man convicted of killing Wall Street Journal reporter
Daniel Pearl said he will file an appeal using an al-Qaida lieutenant's
recent confession that he beheaded the reporter.
(AP, 3/18/07)
2007 Mar 18, Panamanian police
working with agents from the US Drug Enforcement Agency seized a
boat off the nation's Pacific coast carrying 21.4 tons of cocaine in
one of the biggest maritime cocaine busts anywhere on record.
(AP, 3/19/07)
2007 Mar 18, In Somalia insurgents
struck the Mogadishu's seaport and former intelligence quarters,
killing two people and injuring at least 16 who were caught in fighting
that drew in Ethiopian and government troops.
(AP, 3/18/07)
2007 Mar 18, The UN said a first
group of Congolese refugees, who escaped a 2004 massacre at a camp in
Burundi, left for the US to start a program to resettle more than 500
people.
(AFP, 3/18/07)
2007 Mar 18, In Zimbabwe Nelson
Chamisa, a spokesman for the opposition Movement for Democratic Change
(MDC), was prevented from leaving the country and suffered serious
injuries after being beaten up at Harare International Airport.
(AFP, 3/18/07)
2008 Mar 18, The US Federal
Reserve approved a .75% cut in the federal funds rate to 2.25%. This
was aimed at shoring up the US financial system shaken by huge losses
in the housing market. The DJIA responded with a gain of 420.41 to
close at 12,392.66.
(SFC, 3/19/08, p.C1)
2008 Mar 18, Barack Obama
addressed his problem with pastor Jeremiah Wright in a speech in
Philadelphia and turned to a broad discussion of race, hitherto
untouched in his campaign.
(Econ, 3/22/08, p.31)
2008 Mar 18, The US FCC ended 261
rounds of bidding in the auction of airwaves and raised almost $20
billion.
(WSJ, 3/19/08, p.B6)
2008 Mar 18, Protesters in
Australia burned Chinese flags, demanding freedom for Tibet, following
similar demonstrations in Europe and the US against Beijing's crackdown
on anti-government riots in the Himalayan region.
(AP, 3/18/08)
2008 Mar 18, Five Belgian parties
sealed a deal for a coalition government under Christian Democrat Yves
Leterme, ending a political limbo which threatened to split the
linguistically divided country.
(AP, 3/18/08)
2008 Mar 18, In Botswana De Beers
and the government set up a Diamond Trading Company (DTC) as a joint
venture.
(Econ, 3/22/08, p.74)
2008 Mar 18, Anthony Minghella
(54), Oscar winning British director, died. He turned such literary
works as "The English Patient," "The Talented Mr. Ripley" and "Cold
Mountain" into acclaimed movies.
(AP, 3/18/08)
2008 Mar 18, A British judge ruled
against Exxon Mobil Corp., tossing out an order to freeze $12 billion
in assets belonging to Venezuela's state oil company in a case that
stemmed from the nationalization of a project last year.
(AP, 3/19/08)
2008 Mar 18, The world's biggest
passenger plane, Airbus's A380, touched down in London on its first
commercial flight to Europe facing questions from green groups over its
eco-friendly billing.
(AP, 3/18/08)
2008 Mar 18, The World Food
Program (WFP) made a six million dollar appeal to feed some 90,000
Burundian refugees in Tanzania who expect to return to the central
African country in 2008.
(AP, 3/18/08)
2008 Mar 18, Canada formally
recognized the breakaway republic of Kosovo, a decision Serbia said was
a major mistake that could encourage separatists in the province of
Quebec.
(Reuters, 3/18/08)
2008 Mar 18, Egypt's President
Hosni Mubarak, amid rising public discontent at sky-rocketing food
prices, said in the official Al-Ahram daily that uncontrolled
population explosion is draining the state's budget. A baby is born
every 23 seconds in Egypt, which is the Arab world's most populous
nation with a population of 78 million.
(AFP, 3/18/08)
2008 Mar 18, Egyptian police
fatally shot a Sudanese woman and arrested a second one who was with an
infant as they tried to cross into Israel.
(AP, 3/18/08)
2008 Mar 18, In India 4 migrant
workers were shot and killed in two separate shootings on the outskirts
of Impala, the capital of Manipur state.
(AP, 3/18/08)
2008 Mar 18, In India the Dalai
Lama vowed he would resign as leader of Tibet's exiles if violence back
home worsened, just hours before his aides said 19 people were killed
in new demonstrations.
(AP, 3/18/08)
2008 Mar 18, Iraq's main Sunni
bloc boycotted a conference aimed at reconciling the nation's sectarian
groups. A roadside bomb near a gas station in northern Baghdad killed
three people, including two police officers. Vice President Dick
Cheney, delving into internal Iraqi politics, pushed a Kurdish leader
to play a helpful role in passing legislation to foster national
reconciliation and forge a new agreement for US-Iraq relations in years
to come.
(AP, 3/18/08)
2008 Mar 18, In Israel Angela
Merkel, chancellor of Germany, addressed Israel’s parliament and
condemned the rocket attacks from Gaza.
(Econ, 3/22/08, p.59)
2008 Mar 18, Kenya's President
Mwai Kibaki signed into law two bills passed by parliament that put in
place a power-sharing deal which halted post-election unrest.
(AFP, 3/18/08)
2008 Mar 22, The population of
Kosovo was about 2 million, with about 90% ethnic Albanian.
(Econ, 3/22/08, p.60)
2008 Mar 18, In Sri Lanka battles,
roadside bombings and artillery attacks across the front lines of Sri
Lanka's civil war killed 35 ethnic Tamil rebels and two soldiers. The
combatants were killed in at least 17 different confrontations.
(AP, 3/19/08)
2008 Mar 18, Darfur rebels said
they had fought off a major assault from Sudanese government forces in
the troubled region, inflicting casualties and pushing troops back to
West Darfur's capital.
(Reuters, 3/18/08)
2008 Mar 18, In the UAR South
Asian workers, striking over pay in the Emirate of Sharjah, torched
offices and vehicles.
(AP, 3/18/08)
2008 Mar 18, An appeals court in
Ho Chi Minh City sentenced an Australian woman to death for heroin
trafficking. Vietnam-born Jasmine Luong (34), of Sydney, was convicted
during a one-day trial of trafficking 3 pounds of heroin.
(AP, 3/19/08)
2008 Mar 18, In Yemen a mortar
shell exploded by a high school next to the American embassy, killing
one Yemeni guard and wounding 13 students and three other guards. Five
suspects were later arrested in the attack, which the US said targeted
its embassy. An Interior Ministry official later said al-Qaida militant
Hamza al-Dayan launched three mortars at the embassy before fleeing the
scene in a vehicle with three accomplices.
(AP, 3/18/08)(WSJ, 3/21/08, p.A1)(AP, 3/22/08)
2009 Mar 18, US Pres. Barack Obama
named retired Air Force general Scott Gration as his special envoy to
Sudan to confront what Washington sees as a "horrendous" situation in
Darfur.
(AFP, 3/18/09)
2009 Mar 18, The White House
endorsed a bill to triple the size of the AmeriCorps program and expand
service opportunities for students and seniors.
(AP, 3/18/09)
2009 Mar 18, The US central bank
said it would pump more than $1 trillion into the economy with plans to
buy up to $300 billion long-term government bonds and some $750 billion
in mortgage-backed securities, which would help revive the country's
sagging housing market.
(AP, 3/19/09)
2009 Mar 18, The US government
sued Union Pacific in San Diego and Houston saying the rail company had
failed to prevent smuggling of illegal drugs by rail into the US from
Mexico. The government cited at least 58 occasions of illegal drug
transport, mostly marijuana, since 2001. At least one case involved
cocaine.
(WSJ, 3/19/09, p.A7)
2009 Mar 18, New Mexico Gov. Bill
Richardson, who has supported capital punishment, decided to sign
legislation to repeal the state’s death penalty. The repeal takes
effect on July 1, and applies only to crimes committed after that date.
(AP, 3/19/09)
2009 Mar 18, Felipe E. Sixto (29)
of Miami, a former White House aide, was sentenced to 2½ years
in federal prison for stealing nearly $600,000 from a federally funded
nonprofit group that promotes democracy in Cuba.
(SFC, 3/19/09, p.A5)
2009 Mar 18, In Alaska lance
Mackey won his 3rd consecutive Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race.
(WSJ, 3/19/09, p.A6)
2009 Mar 18, IBM announced that it
was in talks to acquire Sun Microsystems for at least $6.5 billion in
cash. The deal soon faltered as the companies failed to agree on terms.
(Econ, 3/21/09, p.69)(SFC, 4/6/09, p.A5)
2009 Mar 18, Natasha Richardson
(45). British actress, died in NYC from a severe brain injury in a
skiing accident in Canada earlier this week.
(Reuters, 3/19/09)
2009 Mar 18, The Australian
government said it plans to crack down on excessive executive pay
packages. It will amend the Corporations Act to require shareholder
approval for any termination payments that exceed average annual base
salary, which excludes additional compensation such as shares or stock
options.
(WSJ, 3/19/09, p.C2)
2009 Mar 18, Azerbaijan citizens
overwhelmingly voted to scrap presidential term limits in the oil-rich
country courted by Russia and the West. Opposition leaders claimed the
constitutional referendum was rigged and vowed to dispute the outcome
in court. A small European observer mission said, however, that the
vote was transparent and it had seen no violations.
(AP, 3/19/09)
2009 Mar 18, Sean Hodgson (57), a
British man who spent 27 years in prison, walked free after his murder
conviction was overturned because of new DNA evidence in a case that
may help others who have been wrongly convicted.
(AP, 3/18/09)
2009 Mar 18, The prime ministers
of China and North Korea discussed the nuclear situation on the Korean
peninsula as they met in Beijing amid rising tensions over Pyongyang's
atomic and missile programs.
(AFP, 3/18/09)
2009 Mar 18, Colombia extradited
former Maj. Julio Cesar Parga Rivas to the US on drug trafficking
charges.
(AP, 3/18/09)
2009 Mar 18, Costa Rica said it
will re-establish diplomatic ties with Cuba, and El Salvador's new
president-elect, Mauricio Funes, promised to do the same after he takes
office.
(AP, 3/19/09)
2009 Mar 18, Egypt opened its
border crossing with the Gaza Strip for the second time in two months
to allow medical aid and Palestinians to enter the coastal territory.
(AP, 3/18/09)
2009 Mar 18, Amnesty international
said authorities in Gambia have rounded up about 1,000 people and
forced them to drink hallucinogens in a witch-hunting campaign.
Authorities began inviting "witch doctors," who combat witches, to come
from nearby Guinea soon after the death earlier this year of President
Yahya Jammeh’s aunt.
(AP, 3/18/09)
2009 Mar 18, Mumbai police
arrested an Indian businessman (49) for allegedly raping his daughter
for more than eight years, apparently on the advice of a Hindu mystic
who .said it would make him wealthy. Tantrik Hansmukh Bhai Rathode (54)
was arrested the next day.
(AP, 3/19/09)
2009 Mar 18, In Iran Omid
Mirsayafi (29), a blogger convicted of insulting the country’s ruling
clerics, died in Tehran’s main prison.
(SFC, 3/20/09, p.A2)
2009 Mar 18, In Iraq a bomb killed
a farming couple in Diyala province. A suicide car bomber struck a
patrol, killing a policeman and wounding two others in Mosul.
(AP, 3/18/09)
2009 Mar 18, Gianni Giansanti
(52), an award-winning Italian photographer, died in Rome after
battling bone cancer. He shot the 1978 image that for many captured the
horror of that era — the bullet-riddled body of Aldo Moro, the
kidnapped former Italian Christian Democrat premier, in the truck of a
parked car. He also had snapped candid portraits of Pope John Paul II
during his pilgrimages.
(AP, 3/19/09)
2009 Mar 18, Kuwait's emir, Sheikh
Sabah al Ahmad al Jaber al Sabah, dissolved the 50-member parliament,
to avert parliamentary questioning of his nephew, the prime minister.
He called for new elections within two months, saying some lawmakers
had abused democracy and become a threat to stability.
(AP, 3/18/09)(WSJ, 4/9/09, p.A1)
2009 Mar 18, Kyrgyzstan police
detained several prominent activists as they held a ceremony to mark
the seventh anniversary of shootings that left six protesters dead.
(AP, 3/18/09)
2009 Mar 18, Madagascar's highest
court endorsed the army's move to replace the toppled president with
his rival, but the African Union was considering whether it constituted
a coup.
(AP, 3/18/09)
2009 Mar 18, In Mexico Vicente "El
Vicentillo" Zambada, top figure in the Sinaloa drug cartel, was
arrested before dawn at a home in an elite Mexico City neighborhood.
(AP, 3/20/09)
2009 Mar 18, Mozambique’s interior
ministry said 12 prisoners arrested during a riot over a cholera
epidemic have died in their cell in unclear circumstances. They were
among 29 people arrested when riots broke out last month when Red Cross
volunteers were blamed for causing a cholera epidemic plaguing the
country.
(AFP, 3/18/09)
2009 Mar 18, Russian news agencies
cited a top defense official as confirming that a contract to sell
powerful air-defense missiles to Iran was signed two years ago, but
saying no such weapons have yet been delivered.
(AP, 3/18/09)
2009 Mar 18, Russia said it was
banning the hunting of baby harp seals, weeks after PM Putin reportedly
called the hunt a bloody industry.
(SFC, 3/19/09, p.A2)
2009 Mar 18, Defiant Sudanese
Pres. Omar al-Bashir rallied Arab supporters in Darfur by saying no war
crimes court or the UN Security Council can touch even "an eyelash" on
him despite an international order for his arrest.
(AP, 3/18/09)
2009 Mar 18, In Yemen a suicide
bomber struck a convoy carrying South Korean officials sent to Yemen to
investigate a bombing earlier in the week that killed four South Korean
tourists. No one was hurt.
(AP, 3/18/09)
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