Today in History - March 19
Return to home
Swallows' Day. The swallows return to
Capistrano
California.
(HFA, '96, p.26)(HT, 3/97, p.58)
1524 Mar 19,
Giovanni de Verrazano of France sighted land around area of Carolinas.
(MC, 3/19/02)
1563 Mar 19, The Peace of Amboise
granted Rights for Huguenots.
(MC, 3/19/02)
1571 Mar 19, Spanish troops
occupied Manila. [see May 19]
(MC, 3/19/02)
1589 Mar 19, William Bradford,
governor of Plymouth colony for 30 years, was born (baptized).
(HN, 3/19/98)(MC, 3/19/02)
1593 Mar 19, Georges de la Tour
(d.1652), French painter, was born. His night painting "The Penitent
Magdelene" features a seated woman contemplating a flame with one hand
resting on a skull.
(NH, 10/96, p.39)(MC, 3/19/02)
1601 Mar 19, Alonzo Cano, Spanish
painter, sculptor (Cathedral Granada), was born.
(MC, 3/19/02)
1628 Mar 19, Massachusetts colony
was founded by Englishmen.
(MC, 3/19/02)
1629 Mar 19, Aleksei M. Romanov,
1st Romanov tsar of Russia, was born.
(MC, 3/19/02)
1661 Mar 19, English occupied St.
Andrew Island and other Courlander possessions in Gambia. They renamed
the island James Island with administration by the Royal Adventurers in
Africa Company.
(http://www.vdiest.nl/gambia.htm)
1687 Mar 19, French explorer
Robert Cavelier (43), Sieur de La Salle, the first European to navigate
the length of the Mississippi River, was murdered by mutineers while
searching for the mouth of the Mississippi, along the coast of the Gulf
of Mexico in present-day Texas.
(SFC, 11/9/96, p.A12)(AP, 3/19/97)(HN, 3/19/99)(MC,
3/19/02)
1711 Mar 19, War was declared
between Russia and Turkey.
(AP, 3/19/03)
1721 Mar 19, Tobias George
Smollett, Scottish satirical author and physician (Roderick Random,
Humphrey Clinker), was born (baptized).
(HN, 3/19/01)(MC, 3/19/02)
1748 Mar 19, English
Naturalization Act was passed granting Jews right to colonize US.
(MC, 3/19/02)
1775 Mar 19, In Italy 4 people
were buried by avalanche for 37 days and 3 survived. [not clear if this
was the date of the avalanche or the recovery date.]
(MC, 3/19/02)
1775 Mar 19, Portuguese fleet was
repulsed in attack on Montevideo, Uruguay.
(AP, 3/19/03)
1785 Mar 19,
Pierre-Joseph-Guillaume Zimmermann, composer, was born.
(MC, 3/19/02)
1796 Mar 19, Stephen Storace (33),
composer, died.
(MC, 3/19/02)
1799 Mar 19, Joseph Haydn’s "Die
Schopfung," premiered in Vienna.
(MC, 3/19/02)
1799 Mar 19, Napoleon Bonaparte
began the siege of Acre ( later Akko, Israel), which was defended by
Turks.
(AP, 3/19/03)
1803 Mar 19, Johann von Schiller's
"Die Braut von Messina," premiered in Weimar.
(MC, 3/19/02)
1808 Mar 19, Spain's King Charles
IV abdicated.
(AP, 3/19/03)
1812 Mar 19, Spanish Cortes passed
a liberal constitution under a hereditary monarch.
(AP, 3/19/03)
1813 Mar 19, David Livingston,
explorer found by Stanley in Africa, was born in Scotland.
(HN, 3/19/98)
1821 Mar 19, Sir Richard Burton
(d.1890), English explorer, was born.
(HN, 3/19/01)
1822 Mar 19, Boston was
incorporated as a city.
(HN, 3/19/98)
1831 Mar 19, The first recorded US
bank robbery occurred at the City Bank, in New York. Some $245,000 is
stolen.
(HN, 3/19/98)
1848 Mar 19, Wyatt Earp (Wyatt
Berry Stapp Earp), later U.S. Marshal, was born the son of a Sheriff in
Illinois. He fought at the Gunfight at the OK Corral and Paula Mitchell
Marks later wrote "And Die in the West," an account of the incident.
(HN, 3/19/98)(SFEC, 4/12/98, BR p.7)(CHA, 1/2001)
1849 Mar 19, Alfred von Tirpitz,
Prussian admiral, was born. He commanded the German fleet in early
World War I.
(HN, 3/19/99)
1859 Mar 19, The opera "Faust" by
Charles Gounod premiered in Paris.
(AP, 3/19/97)
1860 Mar 19, William Jennings
Bryan, orator, statesman, known as "The Great Communicator," was born.
(HN, 3/19/98)
1861 Mar 19, Maori War in New
Zealand ended.
(AP, 3/19/03)
1862 Mar 19, F. Wilhelm von
Schadow (73), German painter (Modern Vasari), died.
(MC, 3/19/02)
1864 Mar 19, Montana vigilantes
lynched Jack Slade (33), a hell-raising freight hauler. Mark Twain had
encountered Slade in 1861 and included him in his book “Roughing It”
(1872). In 2008 Dan Rottenberg authored “Death of a Gunfighter: The
Quest for Jack Slade, the West’s Most Elusive Legend.”
(WSJ, 11/11/08,
p.A15)(www.twainquotes.com/Slade.html)
1864 Mar 19, Charles Gounod's
opera "Mireille" premiered in Paris.
(MC, 3/19/02)
1865 Mar 19, Battle of
Bentonville: Confederates retreated from Greenville, NC. [see Mar 20-21]
(MC, 3/19/02)
1866 Mar 19, The immigrant ship
Monarch of the Seas sank in Liverpool; 738 died.
(MC, 3/19/02)
1870 Mar 19, The opera "Guarany,"
premiered in Milan.
(MC, 3/19/02)
1872 Mar 19, Sergei Diaghilev,
ballet director, was born in Gruzino Novgorod, Russia. [see Mar 31]
(MC, 3/19/02)
1873 Mar 19, Max Reger, composer,
pianist, prof. (Leipzig Univ), was born in Brand, Bavaria.
(MC, 3/19/02)
1879 Mar 19, Jim Currie opened
fire on the actors Maurice Barrymore and Ben Porter near Marshall,
Texas. His shots wounded Barrymore and killed Porter.
(HN, 3/19/99)
1882 Mar 19, Gaston Lachaise
(d.1935), Franco-American sculptor (Standing Woman), was born.
(SFC, 2/2/02, p.D1)(MC, 3/19/02)
1883 Mar 19, Joseph W. Stilwell,
US general (China), was born.
(MC, 3/19/02)
1883 Mar 19, Jan Matzeliger
invented the 1st machine to manufacture entire shoes.
(MC, 3/19/02)
1884 Mar 19, Alfonse Charles
Renaud de Vilback (54), composer, died.
(MC, 3/19/02)
1889 Mar 19, Sarah Gertrude
Millina, South African writer (The Dark River, God's Stepchildren), was
born.
(HN, 3/19/01)
1891 Mar 19, Earl Warren, governor
of California, was born. He was appointed 14th Supreme Court Chief
Justice (1953-1969) and led the commission that investigated the
assassination of President John F. Kennedy. "I always turn to the
sports page first. The sports page records people’s accomplishments;
the front page nothing but man’s failure."
(HN, 3/19/99)(AP, 7/19/00)
1894 Mar 19, Jackie "Moms" Mabley,
comedienne (Merv Griffin Show), was born in Brevard, SC.
(MC, 3/19/02)
1895 Mar 19, Los Angeles Railway
was established to provide streetcar service.
(MC, 3/19/02)
1900 Mar 19, [Jean] Frederic
Joliot-Curie, French physicist (Nobel 1935), was born.
(MC, 3/19/02)
1900 Mar 19, President McKinley
asserted the need for free trade with Puerto Rico.
(HN, 3/19/98)
1901 Mar 19, Jo Mielziner, set
designer (Carousel, Death of a Salesman), was born in Paris.
(MC, 3/19/02)
1903 Mar 19, The U.S. Senate
ratified the Cuban treaty, gaining naval bases in Guantanamo and Bahia
Honda.
(HN, 3/19/98)
1904 Mar 19, John J. Sirica, U.S.
Federal Judge, ruled on Watergate issues, was born.
(HN, 3/19/98)
1905 Mar 19, Albert Speer, German
architect, minister of Armament (NSDAP), was born.
(MC, 3/19/02)
1906 Mar 19, Adolf Eichman, Nazi
Gestapo officer, was born. He was captured in Argentina and put on
trial in Israel.
(HN, 3/19/99)
1906 Mar 19, Ermanno
Wolf-Ferrari's "Quattro Rusteghi," premiered in Munich.
(MC, 3/19/02)
1908 Mar 19, Maryland banned
Christian Scientists from practicing medicine unless they had a medical
diploma.
(HN, 3/19/98)
1912 Mar 19, Adolf Galland, German
Luftwaffe pilot and youngest German General at the age of 33, was born.
(HN, 3/19/99)
1916 Mar 19, Irving Wallace,
author (People's Almanac, The Man), was born.
(MC, 3/19/02)
1916 Mar 19, The First
Aerosquadron took off from Columbus, NM, to join Gen. John J. Pershing
and his Punitive Expedition for Pancho Villa in Mexico.
(HN, 3/19/99)
1917 Mar 19, Dino Lipatti,
composer, pianist, was born.
(MC, 3/19/02)
1917 Mar 19, The U.S. Supreme
Court, in Wilson v. New, upheld the Adamson Act, the eight hour work
day for railroad workers.
(HN, 3/19/98)(AP, 3/19/08)
1917 Mar 19, A German submarine in
the Mediterranean Sea sunk the French battleship Danton. In 2009 the
Danton was discovered on the seabed southwest of Sardinia.
(SFC, 2/21/09,
p.A2)(www.wrecksite.eu/wreck.aspx?16848)
1918 Mar 19, US Congress
authorized time zones and approved Daylight Saving Time.
(AP, 3/19/97)(HN, 3/19/98)(SSFC, 3/27/05, Par p.15)
1919 Mar 19, A typhoid epidemic
raged in Petrograd, Russia, killing 200 daily.
(HN, 3/19/98)
1920 Mar 19, The U.S. Senate
rejected for the second time the Treaty of Versailles by a vote of
49-35, falling short of the two-thirds majority needed for approval.
(AP, 3/19/97)(HN, 3/19/98)
1924 Mar 19, U.S. troops were
rushed to Tegucigalpa as the Honduran capital was taken by rebel
forces.
(HN, 3/19/98)
1924 Mar 19, Charles Villiers
Stanford (71), Irish composer, author, died.
(MC, 3/19/02)
1925 Mar 19, Brent Scrowcroft, Lt.
Gen. (USAF), National Security Advisor to President George Bush, was
born.
(HN, 3/19/99)
1925 Mar 19, Angelo G. Roncalli
(Pope John XXIII) became a bishop.
(MC, 3/19/02)
1927 Mar 19, Bloody battles
between Communists & Nazis took place in Berlin.
(MC, 3/19/02)
1928 Mar 19, Patrick McGoohan,
actor (#6-Prisoner, Secret Agent), was born in Astoria, NY.
(MC, 3/19/02)
1928 Mar 19, "Amos & Andy"
debuted on radio with the NBC Blue Network, WMAQ Chicago.
(MC, 3/19/02)
1930 Mar 19, Ornette Coleman was
born in Fort Worth, Texas, and was an early proponent of ‘free form
jazz.‘ Having taught himself to play the saxophone and read music by
age 14, Coleman moved to Los Angeles and met like-minded musicians in
the early ‘50s. His debut album in 1959, Something Else! introduced his
atonal interpretation of jazz, one free of traditional tonal structure,
which he terms ‘harmolodic.‘ Many listeners and critics have termed it
‘anarchy.‘ Coleman has continued to be an influential if controversial
figure in jazz, now producing albums under his own label (Harmolodic,
Inc.) as well as soundtracks for films. [see Mar 9]
(HNQ, 10/19/00)
1930 Mar 19, Arthur J. Balfour
(81), British theologist, premier (1902-05), died.
(MC, 3/19/02)
1931 Mar 19, Nevada legalized
gambling a 2nd time to raise tax revenues and stabilize the state’s
economy. Gov. Fred B. Balzar signed a measure legalizing casino
gambling. The Northern Club on 15 E. Fremont was soon issued the 1st
gaming license.
(HN, 3/19/98)(SFEC, 5/10/98, DB p.64)(SFEC, 7/9/00,
DB p.67)(AP, 3/19/07)
1932 Mar 19, Sydney Harbor Bridge,
Australia, officially opened.
(AP, 3/19/03)
1933 Mar 19, Phillip Roth,
American novelist and short-story writer (Portnoy's Complaint), was
born.
(HN, 3/19/01)
1933 Mar 19, Italy's dictator
Benito Mussolini proposed a pact with Britain, France and Germany.
(AP, 3/19/03)
1935 Mar 19, Renee Taylor, actress
(Jack Paar Show, Mary Hartman, Nanny), was born in NYC.
(MC, 3/19/02)
1935 Mar 19, The British fired on
20,000 Moslems in India, killing 23.
(HN, 3/19/98)
1936 Mar 19, The USSR signed a
pact of assistance with Mongolia against Japan.
(HN, 3/19/98)
1938 Mar 19, Lithuania
accepted a Polish peace ultimatum and established diplomatic ties.
(HN, 3/19/98)(LHC, 3/19/03)
1941 Mar 19, Jimmy Dorsey and
Orchestra recorded "Green Eyes" and "Maria Elena" for Decca Records.
(AP, 3/19/01)
1942 Mar 19, FDR ordered men
between 45 and 64 to register for non military duty.
(MC, 3/19/02)
1943 Mar 19, Airship Canadian Star
was torpedoed and sank.
(MC, 3/19/02)
1944 Mar 19, The German 352nd
Infantry Division deployed along the coast of France.
(HN, 3/19/01)
1944 Mar 19, Nazi German soldiers
occupied Hungary.
(AP, 3/19/03)
1944 Mar 19, At Cisterna, Italy,
Germans, increasingly worried about resistance, rounded up the entire
town and marched them north. Many ended in labor camps and farms as far
north as Tuscany.
(AP, 3/20/10)
1945 Mar 19, US Task Force 58
attacked ships near Kobe and Kure.
(MC, 3/19/02)
1945 Mar 19, Kamikaze planes
attacked the US carrier Franklin off Japan killing 724 people; the
ship, however, was saved.
(AP, 3/19/97)
1945 Mar 19, Adolf Hitler issued
his so-called "Nero Decree," ordering the destruction of German
facilities that could fall into Allied hands. Hitler ordered a
scorched-earth policy. Hitler had decreed that Paris should be left a
smoking ruin, but Dietrich von Choltitz thought better of his Fuhrer's
order.
(AP, 3/19/97)(HN, 3/19/98)
1947 Mar 19, Glenn Close, actress
(The Big Chill, Fatal Attraction), was born in Greenwich, Ct.
(MC, 3/19/02)
1947 Mar 19, Chiang Kai-shek's
government forces took control of Yenan, the former headquarters of the
Chinese Communist Party.
(HN, 3/19/98)
1949 Mar 19, The 1st museum
devoted exclusively to atomic energy opened at Oak Ridge, Ten.
(MC, 3/19/02)
1949 Mar 19, The Soviet People's
Council signed the constitution of the German Democratic Republic, and
declared that the North Atlantic Treaty was merely a war weapon.
(HN, 3/19/98)
1950 Mar 19, Edgar Rice Burroughs
(74), sci-fi author and the creator of Tarzan, died. He wrote 24 Tarzan
novels and 50 other thrillers. In 1999 John Taliaferro authored the
biography "Tarzan Forever."
(SFEC, 5/9/99, Par
p.8)(http://deadpool.rotten.com/occupations/author.html)
1951 Mar 19, Herman Wouk’s war
novel "The Caine Mutiny" was first published.
(AP, 3/19/01)
1953 Mar 19, Tennessee Williams'
"Camino Real," premiered in NYC.
(MC, 3/19/02)
1953 Mar 19, The Academy Awards
ceremony was televised for the first time; "The Greatest Show on Earth"
was named best picture of 1952. Gary Cooper & Shirley Booth won for
best actor and actress.
(AP, 3/19/99)
1954 Mar 19, The 1st rocket-driven
sled on rails was tested in Alamogordo, NM.
(MC, 3/19/02)
1957 Mar 19, Pete Seibert
(1924-2002) climbed to a summit in the Colorado Rockies with Earl
Eaton, a uranium prospector, and beheld the area that he later turned
into the Vail ski resort.
(SFC, 7/29/02, p.B5)
1958 Mar 19, The film "South
Pacific," adapted from the Rodgers and Hammerstein stage musical, was
released.
(AP, 3/19/08)
1960 Mar 19, "Redhead" closed at
46th St Theater in NYC after 455 performances.
(MC, 3/19/02)
1962 Mar 19, Relative calm
returned to Algeria after cease-fire, ending 7 years of warfare between
French and Algerian Nationalists.
(AP, 3/19/03)
1963 Mar 19, In Costa Rica,
President John F. Kennedy and six Latin American presidents pledged to
fight Communism.
(HN, 3/19/98)
1963 Mar 19, Algeria demanded that
France negotiate on ending nuclear testing in Algerian Sahara.
(AP, 3/19/03)
1965 Mar 19, Indonesia
nationalized all foreign oil companies.
(MC, 3/19/02)
1965 Mar 19, In Romania State
Council Pres. Gheorghiu-Dej (b.1901) died. Gheorghe Apostol was
defeated in a contest for Communist Party leader by Ceausescu, who
ended up ruling Romania with an iron fist for 25 years.
(AP, 8/25/10)(http://tinyurl.com/37bdv5x)
1966 Mar 19, Texas Western College
under coach Don Haskins won the NCAA basketball tournament becoming the
1st team to win with an all African American team. In 2006 the film
“Glory Road” depicted the story of the winning team.
(SFC, 1/24/06, p.B1)
1968 Mar 19, Howard University
students in Washington DC staged rallies, protests and a 5-day sit-in,
laying siege to the administration building, shutting down the
university in protest over its ROTC program, and demanding a more
Afrocentric curriculum.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1968)
1970 Mar 19, Willy Brandt and
Willi Stoph met for the first East-West Germany summit in Berlin.
(HN, 3/19/98)
1971 Mar 19, At least 160 people
perished in landslides north of Sao Paulo, Brazil.
(AP, 3/19/03)
1972 Mar 19, India and Bangladesh
signed a friendship treaty.
(http://banglapedia.search.com.bd/HT/I_0040.htm)
1972 Mar 19, The illegal
Soviet-era journal "Chronicle of the Lithuanian Catholic Church" was
1st published. 5 issues were published up to 1987.
(LHC, 3/19/03)
1976 Mar 19, Buckingham Palace
announced the separation of Princess Margaret and her husband, the Earl
of Snowdon, after 16 years of marriage.
(AP, 3/19/97)
1978 Mar 19, Israeli army took
control of almost all of Lebanon south of Litani River.
(AP, 3/19/03)
1978 Mar 19, The UN Security
Council adopted Resolution 425 demanding that Israel withdraw from
Lebanon.
(SFC, 5/24/00, p.A15)
1979 Mar 19, The U.S. House of
Representatives began televising its day-to-day business. Brian Lamb
launched C-Span, a TV public service broadcasting medium that focused
on public affairs without comment or analysis.
(AP, 3/19/97)(SSFC, 3/27/05, Par p.14)
1980 Mar 19, The US appealed to
the International Court of Justice on hostages in Iran.
(http://tinyurl.com/3xp87b)
1981 Mar 19, One technician was
killed and two others were injured during a routine test on space
shuttle Columbia.
(HN, 3/19/98)
1984 Mar 19, The TV show "Kate
& Allie" premiered.
(http://imdb.com/title/tt0086742/)
1984 Mar 19, The SS Mobil Oil
spilled 200,000 gallons of oil into the Columbia River near Longview.
(http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/96596_timeline21.shtml)
1985 Mar 19, In a legislative
victory for President Reagan, the Senate voted, 55-45, to authorize
production of the MX missile.
(AP, 3/19/97)
1985 Mar 19, "Spin Magazine" began
publishing.
(MC, 3/19/02)
1987 Mar 19, President
Reagan, in a news conference, repudiated his policy of selling arms to
Iran, saying, "I would not go down that road again."
(AP, 3/19/97)
1987 Mar 19, Televangelist Jim
Bakker resigned as chairman of his PTL ministry organization amid a sex
and money scandal involving Jessica Hahn, a former church secretary
from Oklahoma. Some $265,000 in ministry funds had been used to keep
Hahn quiet about a one-time sexual encounter in 1980.
(AP, 3/19/97)(SSFC, 7/22/07, p.B7)
1988 Mar 19, Two British soldiers
were shot to death after they were dragged from a car and beaten by
mourners attending an Irish Republican Army funeral in Belfast,
Northern Ireland.
(AP, 3/19/98)
1989 Mar 19, Alfredo Cristiani of
the right-wing ARENA party was elected president of El Salvador,
defeating Fidel Chavez Mena of the Christian Democratic Party.
(AP, 3/19/99)
1989 Mar 19, Muslim gunners fire
rockets into Christian areas of Lebanon.
(AP, 3/19/03)
1990 Mar 19, Latvia's political
opposition claimed victory in the republic's first free elections in 50
years, and reformers also claimed victories in crucial runoffs held in
Russia, Byelorussia and Ukraine.
(AP, 3/19/00)
1990 Mar 19, Kremlin warned
Lithuania against taking over factories, putting up border posts.
(AP, 3/19/03)
1991 Mar 19, The US Labor
Department reported that consumer prices, benefiting from a big monthly
decline in gasoline prices, had edged upward only two-tenths of a
percentage point the previous month.
(AP, 3/19/01)
1991 Mar 19, Ending several days
of ominous silence, the Yugoslav army declares it will not permit
Yugoslavia to dissolve into civil war.
(AP, 3/19/03)
1992 Mar 19, Democrat Paul Tsongas
pulled out of the presidential race, leaving Arkansas Gov. Bill Clinton
the favorite to capture their party's nomination. Tsongas had won the
New Hampshire Democratic presidential primary.
(AP, 3/19/97)(SFEM,11/2/97, p.12)
1992 Mar 19, British Prince Andrew
and Princess Sarah Ferguson announced separation.
(http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/march/19/newsid_2543000/2543667.stm)
1992 Mar 19, Soviet Commonwealth
leaders open their 4th summit with hopes of solving military disputes
and stopping ethnic fighting.
(AP, 3/19/03)
1993 Mar 19, US Supreme Court
Justice Byron R. White announced plans to retire. His departure paved
the way for Ruth Bader Ginsburg to become the court's second female
justice.
(AP, 3/19/98)
1993 Mar 19, Georgia shot down a
Russian warplane over the separatist Abkhazia region, killing its pilot
and heightening tensions.
(AP, 3/19/03)
1994 Mar 19, In his weekly radio
address, President Clinton promised to tell people "all across America
about our health reform plan and what it really means."
(AP, 3/19/99)
1994 Mar 19, Cambodian government
seizes control of Pailin, the Khmer Rouge main stronghold.
(AP, 3/19/02)
1994 Mar 19, Giuseppe Diana,
Italian anti-mafia priest, was murdered.
(http://tinyurl.com/7plc8)
1994 Mar 19, Talks between North
Korea and South Korea collapsed, imperiling a U.S.-brokered deal to
resolve the North Korean nuclear dispute.
(AP, 3/19/99)
1995 Mar 19, After giving up an
attempt to become a major league baseball player, Michael Jordan
returned to pro basketball with his former team, the Chicago Bulls.
(AP, 3/19/02)
1995 Mar 19, Finnish voters throw
out the center-right coalition government and give the opposition
Social Democratic Party its biggest election victory since World War II.
(AP, 3/19/02)
1995 Mar 19, Palestinian gunmen
opened fire on a bus carrying Jewish settlers, killing two people.
(AP, 3/19/00)
1996 Mar 19, President Clinton
rolled out a $1.64 trillion election-year budget, promising it would
invigorate the economy, erase federal deficits and cut taxes.
(AP, 3/19/97)
1996 Mar 19, Senate Majority
Leader Bob Dole wrapped up the Republican presidential nomination with
solid primary victories in four Midwestern states.
(AP, 3/19/97)
1996 Mar 19, William Hutchinson
Murray (83), mountaineer, author, died.
(MC, 3/19/02)
1996 Mar 19, A fire at a Quezon
City nightclub in the Philippines killed at least 149 young people
celebrating the end of their school year.
(WSJ, 3/19/96, p.A-1)
1996 Mar 19, In El Salvador an
Emergency Anti-Crime Law was approved by President Armando Calderon.
Its language called for all Salvadorans charged with crimes abroad to
be locked up and re-educated.
(SFC, 5/8/96, p.A-18)
1996 Mar 19, Nelson Mandela
divorced Winnie Mandela after 38 years of marriage.
(http://africanhistory.about.com/od/march/a/td0319.htm)
1996 Mar 19, Riots in Indonesia
killed five people during demonstrations protesting the death of a
jailed rebel leader.
(WSJ, 3/19/96, p.A-1)
1997 Mar 19, Following the
withdrawal of Anthony Lake, President Clinton nominated acting CIA
Director George Tenet to head the nation's spy agency. President
Clinton departed Washington for a summit in Helsinki, Finland, with
Russian President Boris Yeltsin.
(AP, 3/19/98)
1997 Mar 19, The US Supreme Court
heard arguments on Internet indecency.
(www.ciec.org/SC_appeal/970319_pr.html)
1997 Mar 19, Willem de Kooning
(b.1904), Dutch-born abstract painter, considered to be one of the 20th
century's greatest painters, died in East Hampton, N.Y. He had arrived
in America as a stowaway in 1926. In 2004 Mark Stevens and Annalyn Swan
authored “de Kooning: An American Master.”
(SFC, 3/20/97, p.A1,6,E1)(AP, 3/19/98)(WSJ,
11/23/04, p.D11)
1997 Mar 19, "Utopia Parkway: The
Life and Work of Joseph Cornell" by Deborah Solomon was reviewed. The
artist was known for his surreal boxes and as a forerunner of the
junk-into-art aesthetic.
(WSJ, 3/19/97, p.A16)
1997 Mar 19, It was reported that
purple grape juice slows the activity of blood platelets by about 75%
and thus reduces the risk of heart attacks. Red wine and aspirin slowed
platelet activity by about 45%.
(SFC, 3/19/97, p.A10)
1997 Mar 19, Bre-X geologist
Michael de Guzman, husband to four wives, was reported to have jumped
to his death from a helicopter enroute to Busang, Indonesia, the site
of a major gold discovery. Bre-X held a 45% stake in the Busang site.
(WSJ, 4/9/97, p.A10)
1997 Mar 19, In Port Moresby,
Papua New Guinea, police fired tear gas and warning shots at more than
2,000 civilians protesting the government’s $27 million contract with
Sandline Int’l. to quell rebels on Bougainville.
(SFC, 3/20/97, p.A12)(AP, 3/29/03)
1998 Mar 19, Pres. Clinton eased
US restrictions on humanitarian aid and travel to Cuba. Cuban-American
households would be allowed to send back $1,200 a year.
(WSJ, 3/20/98, p.A1)
1998 Mar 19, Completing baseball's
transformation from family ownership to corporate control, Rupert
Murdoch's Fox Group won approval to buy the Los Angeles Dodgers for a
record $350 million. News Corporation later sold the Dodgers to Boston
real estate developer Frank McCourt.
(AP, 3/19/08)
1998 Mar 19, A new product was
approved by the FDA to reduce salmonella in chickens. Preempt or CF-3
was a mixture of beneficial microbes that would be sprayed onto newly
hatched chicks, and then ingested by the chicks to prevent salmonella
growth.
(SFC, 3/20/98, p.A4)
1998 Mar 19, In Vermont a bomb
exploded in a teenager’s bedroom. Christopher Marquis (17) was killed
and his mother was injured. A package bomb was suspected.
(SFC, 3/20/98, p.A3)
1998 Mar 19, Two small planes
collided over Riverside Ct. in California and 3 people were killed.
(SFC, 3/20/98, p.A3)
1998 Mar 19, In Afghanistan a
Boeing 727 operated by Ariana state airline crashed 12 miles south of
Kabul and killed all 22 people on board.
(SFC, 3/20/98, p.A16)
1998 Mar 19, Russian security
officials reported that 2 young US Mormon missionaries were kidnapped
in the Volga region of Saratov. The missionaries were released after 3
days with no ransom paid.
(SFC, 3/21/98, p.A12)(SFC, 3/23/98, p.A9)
1998 Mar 19, In Serbia Pres.
Milosevic agreed to pull back special police in Kosovo under a deadline
by world powers.
(SFC, 3/20/98, p.A12)
1998 Mar 19, In South Africa
hundreds of black demonstrators clashed with police as they marched on
the Vryburg High School. Some 2,500 residents of Huhudi township
marched in support of the students who said they no longer feel safe at
school. A later investigation revealed that the 140 black students were
isolated from the 750 white students in classrooms and facilities.
(SFC, 3/20/98, p.A18)(SFC, 3/26/98, p.B3)
1999 Mar 19, At a White House news
conference, President Clinton prepared the nation for airstrikes
against Serbian targets following the collapse of Kosovo peace talks in
Paris.
(AP, 3/19/00)
1999 Mar 19, Balloonists Bertrand
Piccard and Brian Jones were expected to complete their
circumnavigation of the globe and planned to land in Egypt.
(SFC, 3/20/99, p.A3)
1999 Mar 19, In Colombia Marxist
rebels were reported to have abducted over 90 people in 3 provinces. 25
people were taken in Hormiga, over 50 were taken in northern Cesar
province, and 19 were seized in Cauca.
(SFC, 3/20/99, p.A11)
1999 Mar 19, In Russia at least 56
people were killed in an explosion in Vladikavkaz, North Ossetia, at an
outdoor bazaar. This was 2 days following a blast in neighboring
Ingushetia that destroyed 2 homes. The Federal Security Service put the
death toll at 63 with 104 injured.
(SFC, 3/20/99, p.A3)(SFEC, 3/21/99, p.A20)(AP,
3/19/02)
1999 Mar 19, Saudi Arabia
permitted some 18,000 destitute Iraqis to cross the border for the
annual pilgrimage to Mecca.
(SFC, 3/20/99, p.A8)
2000 Mar 19, President Clinton
arrived near New Delhi on the first presidential visit to India in 22
years as he opened a six-day trip through troubled South Asia.
(WSJ, 3/20/00, p.A1)(AP, 3/19/01)
2000 Mar 19, In Nevada 5 youths on
a juvenile offenders cleanup crew were killed by a speeding minivan on
I-15 in Las Vegas.
(SFC, 3/20/00, p.A11)
2000 Mar 19, A mob stormed
Nationalist Party's headquarters in Taiwan, forcing Taiwanese President
Lee Teng-hui to quit as party leader.
(AP, 3/19/03)
2001 Mar 19, Pres. Bush met with
Japanese Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori. They did not come up with any
specific measures to revive economic growth.
(SFC, 3/20/01, p.A10)
2001 Mar 18, An accident that
injured 17 shut down several heavily traveled highways around
Washington DC for several hours. The Virginia crash involved a Quebec
tour bus, a truck and two cars.
(AP, 3/19/02)
2001 Mar 19, California officials
declared a power alert, ordering the first of two days of rolling
blackouts, alternative power generators shut down due to nonpayment by
PG&E and Southern California Edison.
(SFC, 3/20/01, p.A1)(AP, 3/19/02)
2001 Mar 19, In Guyana elections
were held for the presidency and 65-seat National Assembly. Bharrat
Jagdeo (37) and the People’s Progressive Party won a 3rd consecutive
term against Desmond Hoyte (72) of the People’s National Congress. Some
black voters raised accusation of fraud.
(SFC, 3/19/01, p.A8)(SFC, 3/20/01, p.A11)(SFC,
3/24/01, p.A12)
2001 Mar 19, In Japan Masaru
Hayami, the Gov. of the Bank of Japan, said that a key interest rate
will fall virtually to zero and stay there until consumer prices stop
falling.
(WSJ, 3/20/01, p.A1)
2001 Mar 19, Nato asked for
additional troops in Kosovo to help stop Albanian guerrillas from
crossing into Macedonia. Macedonia moved tanks and troops into Tetovo.
(SFC, 3/20/01, p.A10)(WSJ, 3/20/01, p.A1)
2001 Mar 19, In Turkey the Cabinet
approved a detailed program of political, economic and legal reforms to
secure entry to the EU.
(SFC, 3/20/01, p.A12)
2001 Mar 19, A Zimbabwe delegation
wrapped up 2 days of meetings with South Africa to find ways to restore
the economy. South Africa feared a flood of Zimbabweans due to fuel and
food shortages there.
(WSJ, 3/21/00, p.A1)
2002 Mar 19, US intelligence
analyst Ana Belen Montes pleaded guilty in federal court to spying for
Cuba; she was later sentenced to 25 years in prison.
(AP, 3/19/07)
2002 Mar 19, Former
Panamanian dictator Manuel Noriega's appeal for parole was turned down,
despite his attorney's argument that he should be released because of
his longtime service to the U.S. government while in power and as a
paid CIA source.
(AP, 3/19/03)
2002 Mar 19, Carly Fiorina, head
of Hewlett-Packard, claimed victory by a slim margin in a proxy battle
to buy Compaq Computer. Some $180 million was reportedly spent in
the effort to win votes.
(SFC, 3/20/02, p.A1,21)
2002 Mar 19, Scientists reported
that the Larsen B ice shelf in Antarctica, covering some 1,250 square
miles, had collapsed into small icebergs over the last 35 days.
(SFC, 3/20/02, p.A1)
2002 Mar 19, A 5th body was found
in New Melones Lake near Sonora, Ca. Meyer Muscatel (58), a Sherman
Oaks contractor, was found last October. A Russian crime gang was
suspected. Alexander Umansky (35) and George Safiev (37), found Mar 17,
were suspected to be among the 4 dead. The body of Nick Kharabadze
(29), was found Mar 18. 4 men were already indicted in connection with
their disappearance: Iouri Mikhel, Jurijus Kadamovas, Petro Krylov and
Ainar Altmanis. Altmanis, a Latvian citizen, later admitted
orchestrating the plot to kidnap wealthy businessmen. In 2004 Aleksejus
Markovskis pleaded guilty to conspiracy and was later sentenced to 15
years in prison. In 2007 Jurijus Kadamovas and Iouri Mikhel were
convicted of orchestrating the kidnapping-for-ransom scheme and
sentenced to death. Petro Krylov was convicted April 26 and sentenced
to life in prison.
(SFC, 3/21/02, p.A3)(SFC, 3/22/02, p.A3)(SFC,
6/7/02, p.A9)(SFC, 1/18/07, p.B10)(SFC, 4/27/07, p.B5)(SFC, 1/18/08,
p.B4)
2002 Mar 19, In Britain the House
of Lords voted for restrictions on hunting with hounds (366-59).
(SFC, 3/20/02, p.A10)
2002 Mar 19, In Burundi fighting
between the Tutsi dominated army and Hutu rebels forced over 16,000
people from their homes over the last 2 days.
(SFC, 3/20/02, p.A10)
2002 Mar 19, In Bologna, Italy,
Claudio Scajola, a labor adviser to the government, was assassinated.
The Red Brigades claimed responsibility.
(SFC, 3/21/02, p.A8)
2002 Mar 19, Zimbabwe was
suspended by the 54-nation Commonwealth for one year as punishment for
Pres. Mugabe’s conduct during the elections.
(SFC, 3/20/02, p.A11)
2003 Mar 19, President Bush
ordered the start of war against Iraq. Because of the time difference,
it was early March 20 in Iraq. Operation Iraqi Freedom began with a few
US targeted strikes in Baghdad against Saddam Hussein, targeting him
personally with a barrage of cruise missiles and bombs as a prelude to
invasion. Iraq responded hours later, firing missiles toward American
troops positioned just across its border with Kuwait. The codename for
the invasion of Iraq was Cobra II. In 2006 Michael Gordon and Bernard
Trainor authored “Cobra II: The Inside Story of the Invasion and
Occupation of Iraq.
(SSFC, 3/30/03, p.W12)(AP, 3/19/04)(Econ, 4/8/06,
p.82)
2003 Mar 19, Tobacco farmer Dwight
Ware Watson, who'd claimed to be carrying bombs in a tractor and
trailer that he'd driven into a pond on Washington's National Mall,
surrendered after disrupting traffic for two days; there were no
explosives.
(AP, 3/19/04)
2003 Mar 19, Holmes Rolston III
(70), philosopher, clergyman and scientist, was awarded the Templeton
Prize for his work on faith-based environmental ethics.
(SFC, 3/20/03, p.A11)
2003 Mar 19, The SEC filed a civil
suit claiming that HealthSouth Corp. and its chairman Richard M.
Scrushy had committed massive accounting fraud to overstate earnings by
some $1.4 billion since 1999. Weston Smith, the former finance chief,
later pleaded guilty to 4 charges. HealthSouth fired Scrushy as
chairman and CEO. He was indicted in November.
(WSJ, 5/20/03, p.A1)(WSJ, 1/2/04, p.R8)(WSJ,
6/29/05, p.A8)
2003 Mar 19, A Cuban airliner was
hijacked to Key West. 6 hijackers took control of the plane without
telling the 25 passengers and six crew members about their asylum
plans. The six were later convicted of federal hijacking charges.
(SFC, 3/20/03, p.A15)(AP, 3/19/04)
2003 Mar 19, Mudslides in a city
in Colombia's mountainous coffee-growing region left at least 11 people
dead and destroyed dozens of houses.
(AP, 3/20/03)
2003 Mar 19, In northeastern Congo
22 people were hacked to death.
(AP, 3/21/03)
2003 Mar 19, Doctors in Hong Kong
reportedly identified the deadly pneumonia virus as belonging to the
paramyxoviridae family. The severe acute respiratory illness (SARS) had
killed at least 11 people and left hundreds ill. The outbreak is
believed to have began in southern China in November. Later reports
held that it could be a coronavirus, part of a group that cause the
common cold. Many people treated with corticosteroids later developed
an irreversible bone disease called avascular necrosis. By July 12,
2003, SARS killed 812 people worldwide.
(SFC, 3/15/03, p.A8)(SFC, 1/19/02, p.A4)(WSJ,
4/3/03, p.B1)(WSJ, 12/23/03, p.A1)
2003 Mar 19, It was reported that
Iraq had some 10 million land mines.
(WSJ, 3/19/03, p.A1)
2003 Mar 19, Boatloads of Nigerian
troops headed into the oil-rich Niger Delta on to put down days of
ethnic violence that has left dozens dead and disrupted multinational
oil operations.
(AP, 3/20/03)(SFC, 3/21/03, p.A9)
2003 Mar 19, EU officials found
electronic bugs in a building in Brussels where a summit was set to
open the next day. Belgian police suspected the US.
(WSJ, 3/20/03, p.A1)
2003 Mar 19, In Palestine Mahmoud
Abbas accepted the new post of prime minister.
(SFC, 3/20/03, p.A13)
2003 Mar 19, Serbian lawmakers
forced 35 judges into retirement for failing to prosecute underworld
bosses.
(SFC, 3/20/03, p.A15)
2003 Mar 19, PM Tayyip Erdogan
said Turkey was preparing to open its airspace to US warplanes but
would not allow them access to airbases.
(AP, 3/19/03)
2004 Mar 19, President Bush, on
the first anniversary of the Iraq war, urged unity in the war against
terrorism.
(AP, 3/19/05)
2004 Mar 19, The US Justice Dept.
issued a draft opinion that authorized the agency to transfer detainees
out of Iraq for interrogation.
(SSFC, 10/24/04, p.A1)
2004 Mar 19, The Army dropped all
charges against Capt. James Yee, a military chaplain at Guantanamo Bay,
Cuba, who had been accused of mishandling classified information.
(AP, 3/19/05)
2004 Mar 19, Scientists reported
that Earth may be in the middle its 6th big extinction event, which
began some 50,000 years ago. A recent survey indicated population
extinctions in all the main ecosystems of Britain.
(SFC, 3/19/04, p.A5)
2004 Mar 19, Harrison McCain (76),
a New Brunswick farm boy who became a world-scale industrialist and the
king of the frozen french fry, died in a Boston hospital after a long
period of failing health. McCain Foods (f.1956) is the world's
undisputed french fry king. The company, which is still based in
Florenceville, NB, produces one-third of the planet's frozen french
fries.
(AP, 3/19/04)
2004 Mar 19, Edward G. Zubler
(79), GE research chemist and developer of the halogen lamp (1959),
died in Cleveland.
(SFC, 3/24/04, p.B7)
2004 Mar 19, In central
Afghanistan U.S. warplanes and ground forces killed five suspected
Taliban fighters at a compound in Uruzgan province.
(AP, 3/21/04)
2004 Mar 19, An Argentine federal
judge declared unconstitutional a presidential decree that pardoned
several high-ranking military officers accused of human rights abuses
during Argentina's Dirty War.
(AP, 3/19/04)
2004 Mar 19, In southwest Colombia
soldiers searching for rebels accidentally ambushed a police unit,
killing seven police officers and four civilian prisoners.
Investigators looked into all possibilities, including whether the
platoon, the police unit, or both, were involved in criminal activities
(AP, 3/21/04)(AP, 4/9/04)
2004 Mar 19, In southern Finland a
bus crashed into a truck in icy conditions, killing 24 people and
injuring 15.
(AP, 3/19/04)
2004 Mar 19, Georgia's authorities
lifted sanctions against the defiant Adzharia region, carrying out a
new agreement aimed to avert tensions.
(AP, 3/19/04)
2004 Mar 19, In Iraq a reporter
for Arab satellite television station Al-Arabiya died from his wounds
after U.S. soldiers shot him hours earlier along with a cameraman, who
died at the scene.
(AP, 3/19/04)(SFC, 3/30/04, p.A1)
2004 Mar 19, A Mexican police raid
led to the arrests of 42 immigration agents and other government
employees accused of running a network that smuggled migrants into the
US.
(AP, 3/23/04)(SFC, 3/24/04, p.A1)
2004 Mar 19, In Nicaragua police
officers kicked down the door and led convicted former Pres. Arnoldo
Aleman (58) from house arrest at his ranch to a special cell at a
federal prison. Aleman was sentenced to 20 years in prison and fined
$10 million for illegally diverting some $100 million in government
funds to his party's election campaigns during his tenure in office,
which ended in January 2002.
(AP, 3/20/04)
2004 Mar 19, Thousands of
Pakistani army reinforcements joined a major offensive in tribal border
villages where al-Qaeda's No. 2 leader, Ayman al-Zawahri and hundreds
of other militants are believed surrounded.
(AP, 3/19/04)
2004 Mar 19, A senior U.N.
official said that fighting in western Sudan has intensified in recent
weeks, accusing Arab militia of systematically attacking villages and
raping women.
(AP, 3/19/04)
2004 Mar 19, Taiwan President Chen
Shui-bian and his vice president were shot and slightly wounded in an
assassination attempt as they rode in an open vehicle while campaigning
a day before an election.
(AP, 3/19/04)
2004 Mar 19, Yemen security forces
captured the nation's most wanted man and another militant who escaped
from prison last year after being detained for the 2000 bombing of the
USS Cole. Jamal Badawi and Fahd al-Quso were arrested in the mountains
of southern Abyan province.
(AP, 3/19/04)
2005 Mar 19, In Florida the body
of missing Jessica Lunsford (9) was found, a day after officials said
John Evander Couey (46), a registered sex offender, confessed to
kidnapping and killing the girl. [see Feb 23] On June 30, 2006, a judge
ruled that John Couey's taped confession is inadmissible in court and
will not be heard by members of the jury. The decision was based on the
fact that, at the time the confession was recorded, police had not
granted Couey's repeated requests for access to a lawyer. It was ruled
that all evidence collected after Couey's confession, including the
recovery of Lunsford's body, will be allowed in court, as will
incriminating statements made by Couey to investigators and a jail
guard. The Jessica Lunsford Act was named after her. It requires
tighter restrictions on sex offenders (such as wearing electronic
tracking devices) and increases prison sentences for some convicted sex
offenders. Jessica's Law refers to similar reform acts initiated by the
states. In 2007 a jury decided that Couey should get the death penalty.
On Aug 24 a judge sentenced Couey to death.
(AP,
3/19/05)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jessica_Lunsford)(SFC, 8/25/07,
p.A3)
2005 Mar 19, The 42-room Redstone
Castle in the mountains near Aspen was auctioned for $4 million, two
years after the IRS seized the century-old mansion in a fraud
investigation. It was completed in 1902 by coal baron John Cleveland
Osgood, who died in the castle he named Cleveholm Manor.
(AP, 3/19/05)
2005 Mar 19, In Colorado an
explosion at the Electric Mountain Lodge, 230 miles SW of Denver, left
3 children dead. Propane gas was suspected.
(SFC, 3/21/05, p.A3)
2005 Mar 19, It was reported that
Agence France-Presse has sued Google Inc. for copyright infringement,
alleging that the Internet search engine included AFP headlines, news
summaries and photographs published without permission.
(AFP, 3/19/05)
2005 Mar 19, John Z. DeLorean
(80), developer of the gull-winged sports car, died in Michigan. He
quit GM in 1973 to launch the DeLorean Motor Car Co. in Northern
Ireland. Eight years later, the DeLorean DMC-12 hit the streets. 8,900
cars were built.
(AP, 3/21/05)(SFC, 3/21/05, p.A2)
2005 Mar 19, A blast at the Xishui
Colliery in Shuozhou, in a major coal-mining area in Shanxi province,
left at least 60 miners dead.
(AP, 3/20/05)
2005 Mar 19, Congo soldiers
arrested Thomas Lubanga, a warlord accused of years of atrocities in
eastern Congo, where UN officials say rival militias have created the
world's worst ongoing humanitarian crisis.
(AP, 3/22/05)
2005 Mar 19, Tens of thousands of
anti-war protesters demonstrated across Europe to mark the second
anniversary of the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, with 45,000 marching from
London's Hyde Park past the American Embassy.
(AP, 3/19/05)
2005 Mar 19, Hindu nationalists
set fire to a PepsiCo warehouse in western India to protest the US
denial of a visa for a top state official due to his role in religious
riots in 2002.
(AP, 3/19/05)
2005 Mar 19, In Iraq attackers
gunned down a police officer in Kirkuk, then bombed a funeral
procession carrying his corpse, killing three other policemen and
wounding two.
(AP, 3/19/05)
2005 Mar 19, In Iraq a previously
unknown militant group posted a video on the Internet on purporting to
show 2 Egyptian engineers kidnapped for allegedly supporting US forces.
(AP, 3/19/05)
2005 Mar 19, Jordan, under
pressure from other Arab countries, accepted amendments to its
contentious proposal that was designed to revise Arab demands on Israel
in return for normal relations.
(AP, 3/19/05)
2005 Mar 19, In Pakistan’s
Baluchistan province a bomb exploded as minority Shiite Muslims
congregated at a shrine in a remote town, killing at least 39 people
and wounding 16.
(AFP, 3/19/05)
2005 Mar 19, In Qatar a suicide
car bomb attack on a Doha theater killed one Briton. The next day Qatar
blamed an Egyptian for the attack.
(AP, 3/20/05)
2005 Mar 19, Irina Slutskaya won
the gold medal for the second time at the World Figure Skating
Championships, held in Moscow; Sasha Cohen of the United States won the
silver medal for the second straight year.
(AP, 3/19/06)
2006 Mar 19, President Bush marked
the anniversary of the Iraq war by touting efforts to build democracy
there, without ever mentioning the word "war." Thousands of anti-war
protesters around the world demanded coalition troops leave Iraq, but
demonstrations in many countries were far smaller than anticipated on
the third anniversary of the US-led invasion.
(AP, 3/19/06)(AP, 3/19/07)
2006 Mar 19, Tennessee's Candace
Parker became the first woman to dunk in an NCAA tournament game,
jamming one-handed on a breakaway just 6:12 into the Lady Vols' 102-54
victory against Army.
(AP, 3/19/07)
2006 Mar 19, Boxer Kevin Payne,
34, died one day after winning an eight-round welterweight bout in
Evansville, Ind.
(AP, 3/19/07)
2006 Mar 19, Australian Prime
Minister John Howard's Liberal Party was defeated at the weekend in two
state elections where Labor governments held on to power.
(AP, 3/19/06)
2006 Mar 19, In southern
Afghanistan a suicide car bomber was killed when he rammed his vehicle
into a coalition convoy.
(AP, 3/19/06)
2006 Mar 19, In Belarus exit poll
results gave hard-line incumbent Alexander Lukashenko an overwhelming
lead in the presidential vote. The opposition candidate said he would
not recognize the results. In 2009 Lukashenko said in an interview that
he took 93% of the vote in the polls, but had the number reduced for
"psychological" reasons.
(AP, 3/19/06)(AFP, 8/27/09)
2006 Mar 19, Newmont Mining
suspended exploration on Indonesia's Sumbawa Island after unidentified
people torched a camp for its workers. A local subsidiary said the
"unlawful and violent action" by around 50 people had forced it close
the Elang camp and suspend exploration activities in the area.
(AP, 3/20/06)
2006 Mar 19, In northwestern
Pakistan suspected Islamic militants detonated a roadside bomb near a
police van, killing seven people and wounding four others.
(AP, 3/19/06)
2006 Mar 19, In Seville, Spain,
Muslim and Jewish leaders met in a rare face-to-face forum and appealed
to their faithful not to view each other as enemies and keep religion
from being hijacked by extremists. The 4-day meeting, called the Second
World Congress of Imams and Rabbis for Peace, was sponsored by Hommes
de Parole, a peace foundation based in Paris.
(AP, 3/19/06)
2007 Mar 19, President Bush marked
the fourth anniversary of the start of the Iraq war with a plea for
patience to let his revised battle plan work; Congress' new Democratic
leaders retorted that no patience remained.
(AP, 3/19/08)
2007 Mar 19, US officials said
that the United States and North Korea have resolved a dispute over $25
million in frozen North Korean funds, clearing the way for progress in
dismantling the North's nuclear programs.
(AP, 3/19/07)
2007 Mar 19, The Airbus A380 made
its first flight to North America to show off the superjumbo to
potential US buyers and to the airports they hope will be flight bases
for the double-decker jet. As a test a day earlier, Frankfurt air show
organizers boarded more than 500 people onto the aircraft using two
jetways with an impressive time of less than 20 minutes.
(AP, 3/19/07)
2007 Mar 19, Calvert DeForest
(85), American TV character actor, died. He played Larry “Bud” Melman
on the “Late Night With David Letterman” in the 1980s.
(SFC, 3/21/07, p.B6)
2007 Mar 19, Luther Ingram (69),
rhythm-and-blues singer-songwriter, died.
(AP, 3/19/08)
2007 Mar 19, In Afghanistan
Italian reporter Daniele Mastrogiacomo (52), kidnapped on March 5, was
freed by the Taliban. His translator also was kidnapped and officials
hope he will be released. However, their driver, Sayed Agha, was
beheaded by the captors. The next day the Afghan government admitted to
exchanging 5 Taliban prisoners for the Italian hostage as the UN and US
led criticism of any negotiations with "terrorists." A suicide car
bomber attacked a three-vehicle US Embassy convoy on a dangerous road
in Kabul, killing an Afghan teenager and wounding 5 security personnel.
(AP, 3/19/07)(AP, 3/20/07)(AFP, 3/22/07)
2007 Mar 19, In Azerbaijan 2
journalists accused of inciting religious hatred with an article that
criticized Islam went on trial, both accusing authorities of waging a
politically motivated prosecution.
(AP, 3/19/07)
2007 Mar 19, Brazil's airlines
were trying to make up for lengthy flight delays after its troubled air
traffic control system failed over the weekend.
(AP, 3/19/07)
2007 Mar 19, A Cambodian court
official said that Prince Norodom Ranariddh has been charged with
adultery for having a mistress while still being legally married to his
wife.
(AP, 3/19/07)
2007 Mar 19, Jim Flaherty,
Canada’s finance minister, announced the 10th successive annual fiscal
surplus.
(Econ, 3/24/07, p.44)
2007 Mar 19, Egypt's parliament
approved a controversial set of amendments to the constitution that the
opposition has denounced as a blow to democracy. Critics said the
amendments are meant to ease his son’s succession.
(AP, 3/19/07)(WSJ, 3/21/07, p.A1)
2007 Mar 19, In Guinea a bridge
collapsed under the weight of a lorry overloaded with passengers and
goods leaving 65 people dead.
(Reuters, 3/20/07, p.A1)
2007 Mar 19, In Indonesia an
official announced that bird flu has killed a 21-year-old man, taking
the death toll in the nation worst hit by the disease to 66. In Bali
the Hindu majority marked the start of the Muslim year 1386 with the
new year holiday called Nyepi, a day of silence, rest and reflection.
(AP, 3/19/07)(Econ, 3/24/07, p.49)
2007 Mar 19, An explosion at a
Shiite mosque in Baghdad killed at least eight worshippers, the fourth
anniversary of the start of the war. About an hour later, four blasts
occurred in a 35-minute period in different areas of Kirkuk killing at
least 15 people and wounding more than 30. Khalaf Ghargan, the mayor of
the small Shiite village of Dijelah was kidnapped on his way to work,
and his bullet-riddled body was later found along a highway. Gunmen
also attacked a police checkpoint northwest of Samarra killing one
policeman and wounding three others. Iraqi and US troops engaged in a
major operation as part of a security crackdown in the volatile
Hurriyah neighborhood in northern Baghdad. The state-run Iraqiya
network said six civilians were killed.
(AP, 3/19/07)(AP, 3/20/07)
2007 Mar 19, The Macau Monetary
Authority said it would release 25 million dollars in North Korean
funds frozen at a bank under US financial sanctions.
(AP, 3/19/07)
2007 Mar 19, In northwestern
Pakistan pro-government tribesman and Uzbek militants clashed, leaving
about 30 dead in fighting that began after an Arab was found shot to
death in the area.
(AP, 3/20/07)
2007 Mar 19, In northern Lebanon
rival Palestinian factions clashed in a refugee camp, shaking the camp
with explosions and wounding at least two gunmen.
(AP, 3/20/07)
2007 Mar 19, Hamas militants
claimed responsibility for a shooting that wounded an Israeli civilian
near the border with the Gaza Strip.
(AP, 3/19/07)
2007 Mar 19, A methane gas
explosion ripped through a Siberian coal mine, killing 110 miners in
the country's worst mining disaster in more than a decade.
(WSJ, 3/21/07, p.A1)(AP, 3/19/08)
2007 Mar 19, In South Africa waves
reaching up to eight meters (26 feet) high pounded Durban, smashing
windows and flooding businesses.
(AFP, 3/20/07)
2007 Mar 19, Sudan's Pres. Bashir
denied his government was involved in widespread human rights abuses in
Darfur, where an estimated 200,000 people have been killed in what the
US says is the first genocide of this century. Amnesty International
said 2 Sudanese women have been sentenced to death by stoning for
adultery after a trial in which they had no lawyer and which used
Arabic, not their first language. Sadia Idriss Fadul was sentenced on
Feb 13 and Amouna Abdallah Daldoum on March 6 and their sentences could
be carried out at any time.
(Reuters, 3/19/07)(Reuters, 3/20/07)
2007 Mar 19, In Thailand suspected
Muslim separatists shot and killed three Buddhist women involved with a
project for victims of the insurgency.
(AP, 3/19/07)
2007 Mar 19, A Yemen military
official said government forces seized a number of bases belonging to
Shiite rebels in northern Yemen following fighting that drove some
2,500 civilians from their homes. Military officials said that 144
Yemeni troops have been killed since January.
(AP, 3/19/07)
2008 Mar 19, Antiwar protests were
held in cities across the US on the 5th anniversary of the war in Iraq.
In SF some 150 people were arrested.
(SFC, 3/20/08, p.A1)(WSJ, 3/20/08, p.A1)
2008 Mar 19, In Oakland, Ca.,
police shot and killed Jose Luis Buenrostro (15) who allegedly aimed a
sawed-off shotgun at them.
(SFC, 3/20/08, p.B2)
2008 Mar 19, VISA opened for
trading on the NYSE after setting an IPO price of $44 per share, the
largest public offering in US history. Visa shares closed at $56.60.
(SFC, 3/19/08, p.C1)(SFC, 3/20/08, p.C1)
2008 Mar 19, Flooding forced
hundreds of people to flee their homes and closed scores of roads
across a wide swath of the US midsection as a huge storm system poured
as much as 10 inches of rain on the region. Flooding was reported in
parts of Arkansas, southern Illinois, southern Indiana, Missouri and
Kentucky with over a dozen deaths.
(AP, 3/19/08)(AP, 3/20/08)
2008 Mar 19, Colorado health
officials told residents of Alamosa to stop drinking and cooking with
tap water, after tap water samples tested positive for salmonella
contamination. By March 22 over 200 cases were reported.
(AP, 3/24/08)
2008 Mar 19, Osama bin Laden
accused Pope Benedict XVI of helping in a "new Crusade" against Islam
and warned of a "severe" reaction to European publications of cartoons
of the Prophet Muhammad that insulted many Muslims.
(AP, 3/20/08)
2008 Mar 19, US forces searching
for bomb makers raided Afghan homes near the border with Pakistan,
exchanging gunfire with militants. Six people were killed, including
two children and a woman.
(AP, 3/19/08)
2008 Mar 19, Philip Jones
Griffiths (72), Welsh-born photojournalist, died. He spent years
traveling across Vietnam to capture the effects of the war on its
people.
(AP, 3/19/08)
2008 Mar 19, Paul Scofield
(b.1922), towering British stage actor, died. He won international fame
and an Academy Award for the film "A Man for All Seasons," in which he
played Sir Thomas More.
(AP, 3/20/08)
2008 Mar 19, Arthur C. Clarke
(b.1917), English-born science fiction writer, died in Sri Lanka.
Clarke wrote or collaborated on close to 100 books and had moved to Sri
Lanka in 1956. He had just finished his last novel, co-authored with
Frederik Pohl, titled “The Last Theorem.”
(AP, 3/19/08)(SFC, 3/19/08, p.A2)(SSFC, 8/10/08,
Books p.7)
2008 Mar 19, China called the
Dalai Lama a "wolf in monk's robes" and said it was locked in a
"life-and-death battle" with his supporters after protests marking the
biggest challenge to Chinese rule in Tibet in almost two decades. Lhasa
prosecutors announced the arrest of 24 suspects on charges of
endangering state security.
(AP, 3/19/08)(WSJ, 3/20/08, p.A1)
2008 Mar 19, Conservationists said
Honore Mashagiro, a ranger in Congo's Virunga National Park, has been
arrested for allegedly masterminding the massacre last summer of 10
endangered mountain gorillas.
(AP, 3/20/08)
2008 Mar 19, Chantal Sebire (52),
who suffered from a painful facial tumor and had drawn headlines across
France with her quest for doctor-assisted suicide, was found dead. On
Mar 17 a court in the city of Dijon rejected her request to be allowed
to receive a lethal dose of barbiturates under a doctor's supervision.
(AP, 3/20/08)
2008 Mar 19, In Iraq a female
suicide bomber detonated an explosives vest packed with ball bearings
near a bus terminal northeast of Baghdad, killing at least three
people. US troops accidentally killed three Iraqi policemen and wounded
another, the latest in a series of friendly fire incidents.
(AP, 3/19/08)
2008 Mar 19, In Japan Masaaki
Takahashi (61) of Tokyo was found fatally stabbed in his cab in
Yokosuka, about a half-mile from a US naval base. US and Japanese
authorities soon began searching for a US sailor for questioning in the
killing of the Japanese taxi driver. On April 2 US sailor
Olatunbosun Ugbogu (22), a Nigerian national, admitted during police
questioning that he had killed the man. On July 30, 2009, Ugbogu was
sentenced to life in prison.
(AP, 3/21/08)(AFP, 4/2/08)(AP, 7/30/09)
2008 Mar 19, Kosovo independence
was recognized by Bulgaria, Croatia and Hungary.
(WSJ, 3/20/08, p.A1)
2008 Mar 19, Kuwait’s ruled
dissolved Parliament and set elections for May 17 after a political
standoff delayed reforms.
(WSJ, 3/20/08, p.A1)
2008 Mar 19, In southern Nepal
masked gunmen shot and killed Kamal Prasad Adhikari, a candidate from a
small communist party contesting upcoming elections.
(AP, 3/19/08)
2008 Mar 19, Legislators elected
Pakistan's first female speaker of parliament, seating Fehmida Mirza, a
follower and lookalike of assassinated former PM Benazir Bhutto.
(AP, 3/19/08)
2008 Mar 19, In the Russian region
of Chechnya 9 people were been killed in an hour-long clash between
police and unidentified gunmen.
(AP, 3/20/08)
2008 Mar 19, Uganda said that
Lord's Resistance Army rebel leader Joseph Kony has left his base in
the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and moved to the Central African
Republic.
(AP, 3/19/08)
2009 Mar 19, Pres. Obama appeared
on The Tonight Show With Jay Leno” and captured some 11.2% of TV
households in 56 US markets.
(WSJ, 3/20/09, p.A4)
2009 Mar 19, A report issued by
the US Interior Department said one-third of the nation's endangered
birds are in Hawaii. 31 Hawaiian bird species were listed as
endangered, more than anywhere else in the country. The native birds
were threatened by the destruction of their habitats by invasive plant
species and feral animals like pigs, goats and sheep, habitat loss and
insect born diseases. The report also said energy production of all
types — wind, ethanol and mountaintop coal mining — was contributing to
steep drops in bird populations.
(AP, 3/20/09)
2009 Mar 19, In New York Hank
Morris, a political advisor, and David J. Loglisci were indicted on
allegations of extracting improper fees in exchange for investments
from New York state’s pension fund.
(WSJ, 4/18/09, p.C1)(http://tinyurl.com/crt5kx)
2009 Mar 19, In NYC Henry Morris
(55), political adviser to former New York comptroller Alan Hevesi, and
David J. Loglisci (38), former New York Deputy Comptroller, were
arrested on charged in a 123-count indictment that included money
laundering, corruption and bribery charges. Some $30 million was
allegedly paid to Mr. Morris in a pay-to-play scheme.
(WSJ, 3/20/09, p.C1)
2009 Mar 19, Josias Kumpf (83), a
former Nazi concentration-camp guard, was deported from Wisconsin to
Austria, despite objections from his lawyer that the guard was simply
present at the Trawniki Labor Camp in Poland but committed no acts of
persecution [see Nov 3, 1943].
(AP, 3/20/09)
2009 Mar 19, South Dakota Gov.
Mike rounds signed legislation banning smoking from all indoor public
places.
(SFC, 3/20/09, p.A8)
2009 Mar 19, Howard Feldman (67),
an American psychiatrist, was arrested in the Philippines on charges of
tricking an upstate New York couple into wiring him $70,000 for a bogus
liver transplant, that the husband died waiting for. Feldman has been
on the run since 2001.
(SFC, 3/20/09, p.A8)
2009 Mar 19, Cisco Systems said it
will pay around $590 million to acquire Pure Digital Technology, a
maker of pocket sized camcorders.
(WSJ, 3/20/09, p.B5)
2009 Mar 19, In Afghanistan
Helmand MP Dad Mohammad Khan, a key anti-Taliban lawmaker, was killed
with four other men when a bomb tore through their vehicle. Australia’s
defense chief said a bomb disposal expert was killed trying to defuse a
device in Afghanistan, announcing the country's 10th combat death there.
(AFP, 3/19/09)(AP, 3/19/09)
2009 Mar 19, Al-Qaida's chief
Osama bin Laden urged Somali militants to overthrow the country's new
president in a new Web audiotape, trying to torpedo a new push for
peace in a lawless African nation where many fear al-Qaida is gaining a
foothold.
(AP, 3/19/09)
2009 Mar 19, Brazil's Supreme
Court sided with Amazonian Indians in a land dispute that some have
called critical for determining the future of the rainforest that
sprawls the size of Western Europe. The court ruling upheld the Raposa
Serra do Sol reservation for 18,000 Indians who lay claim to their
ancestral land, despite a handful of large-scale farmers who also
occupy the territory in the northernmost reaches of Amazon jungle
bordering Venezuela.
(AP, 3/19/09)
2009 Mar 19, In Quito, Ecuador, a
small army plane crashed into an apartment building, killing seven
people and sending a fireball into the evening sky. The dead included 3
soldiers, the pilot’s wife and son and 2 people on the ground.
(AP, 3/20/09)
2009 Mar 19, In France hundreds of
thousands of people began protests expected to draw at least a million
demonstrators to the streets to denounce President Nicolas Sarkozy's
handling of the economic crisis.
(Reuters, 3/19/09)
2009 Mar 19, A US airstrike on a
militant hideout south of Balad Ruz in Diyala province killed at least
11 insurgents. A US soldier died from non-combat causes.
(AP, 3/20/09)
2009 Mar 19, Former Israeli
President Moshe Katsav was indicted on rape and other sexual offense
charges, after calling off a plea deal that would have allowed him to
escape jail time.
(AP, 3/19/09)
2009 Mar 19, Southern African
nations declared they will not recognize Madagascar's new leader, an
army-backed politician who ousted an elected president. The US said it
would reconsider aid to the island nation.
(AP, 3/19/09)
2009 Mar 19, In Mexico new tariffs
on 89 products took effect in retaliation for a US decision last week
to cancel a cross-border program that gave Mexican truckers access to
their northern neighbor's highways.
(AP, 3/19/09)
2009 Mar 19, In Pakistan suspected
Taliban militants fired a rocket that killed 8 people on a supply rout
to Afghanistan.
(WSJ, 3/20/09, p.A1)
2009 Mar 19, Pirates off the coast
of Somalia seized the St. Vincent-flagged Titan, with 24 crew members
on board, including a Greek captain and 3 Greek crew members. A Turkish
warship foiled a pirate attack on a Turkish commercial ship in the Gulf
of Aden.
(AP, 3/20/09)
2009 Mar 19, A Thailand army
spokesman said a roadside bomb had killed four paramilitary rangers on
an intelligence-gathering operation in southern Pattani province.
(AP, 3/19/09)
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