Today in History - March 20
Return to home
43BC Mar 20, Ovid
(d.17or18AD), Publius Ovidius Naso, Roman poet, was born. His writings
included: “The Art of Love.”
(WUD, 1994, p.1032)(SFEC, 12/22/96, Z1 p.2)(HN,
3/20/01)
141 Mar 20, The 6th recorded
perihelion passage of Halley's Comet.
(MC, 3/20/02)
842 Mar 20, Alfonso II the Chaste,
king of Asturia (791-842), died. Asturias was a kingdom in NW Spain.
(MC, 3/20/02)(WUD, 1994 p.92)
1345 Mar 20, A conjunction of
Saturn, Jupiter and Mars was thought to be the "cause of plague
epidemic."
(MC, 3/20/02)
1413 Mar 20, Henry IV (b.1367),
King of England (1399-1413), died in the house of the Abbot of
Westminster. He was succeeded by Henry V (b.1387).
(AP,
3/20/97)(www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/henry_iv_king.shtml)
1501 Mar 20, Jean Carondelet (72),
lawyer, chancellor of Burgundy (1480-96), died.
(MC, 3/20/02)
1525 Mar 20, The Paris parliament
began the pursuit of Protestants (Papists proudly participated).
(MC, 3/20/02)
1549 Mar 20, Thomas Seymour of
Sudely, English Lord Admiral, was beheaded.
(MC, 3/20/02)
1616 Mar 20, Walter Raleigh was
released from Tower of London to seek gold in Guiana. He took along his
son Wat (22), who was killed during an attack on a Spanish outpost.
(MC, 3/20/02)(WSJ, 1/6/04, p.D10)
1727 Mar 20, Sir Isaac Newton
(b.1642), physicist, mathematician and astronomer, died in London.
Michael White wrote the 1998 biography "Isaac Newton" in which he
revealed Newton’s passion for alchemy. In 2003 James Gleick authored
the biography "Isaac Newton."
(AP, 3/20/97)(WSJ, 2/19/98, p.A20)(SSFC, 6/1/03,
p.M1)
1739 Mar 20, Eligio Celestino,
composer, was born.
(MC, 3/20/02)
1739 Mar 20, In India, Nadir Shah
of Persia occupied Delhi and took possession of the Peacock thrown.
King Nadir Shah later took the golden Peacock Throne back to Persia.
(HN, 3/20/99)(SFEC, 5/21/00, p.T8)
1760 Mar 20, The great fire of
Boston destroyed 349 buildings.
(HN, 3/20/98)
1792 Mar 20, In Paris, the
Legislative Assembly approved the use of the guillotine.
(HN, 3/20/99)
1800 Mar 20, French army defeated
Turks at Heliopolis, Turkey, and advanced to Cairo.
(MC, 3/20/02)
1811 Mar 20, George Caleb Bingham
(d.1879), Missouri painter, was born in Virginia. He paintings included
"Fur Traders on the Missouri."
(WUD, 1994,
p.149)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Caleb_Bingham)
1811 Mar 20, Napoleon II, the Duke
of Reichstadt, was born. He was the son of Napoleon Bonaparte.
(HN, 3/20/99)
1815 Mar 20, Napoleon Bonaparte
entered Paris, beginning his "Hundred Days" rule.
(AP, 3/20/97)(HN, 3/20/98)
1816 Mar 20, The U.S. Supreme
Court, in Martin vs. Hunter's Lessee, affirmed its right to review
state court decisions.
(AP, 3/20/97)
1828 Mar 20, Henrik Ibsen
(d.1906), poet and dramatist was born in Skien, Norway. His work
included “Peer Gynt” and “Hedda Gabler.” "The worst enemy of truth and
freedom in our society is the compact majority. Yes, the damned,
compact, liberal majority." In 1971 the 3rd and final volume of “Ibsen:
A Biography” by Michael Meyer (d.2000) was published.
(HFA, '96, p.26)(HN, 3/20/98)(AP, 7/22/98)(SFC,
8/10/00, p.D2)
1833 Mar 20 The
United States and Siam (now Thailand) concluded a commercial treaty in
Bangkok.
(AP, 3/20/97)
1841 Mar 20, Edgar Allen Poe's The
Murders in the Rue Morgue, considered the first detective story, was
published. [see April 14, 20, 1841]
(HN, 3/20/01)
1848 Mar 20, King Ludwig I of
Bavaria abdicated to marry dancer Lola Montez.
(MC, 3/20/02)
1852 Mar 20, Harriet Beecher
Stowe's (1811-1896) "Uncle Tom's Cabin" was first published in book
form after being serialized. It was based on the theme that slavery is
incompatible with Christianity.
(SFC, 3/30/97, Z1. p.6)(HN, 3/20/98)(AP, 3/20/08)
1854 Mar 20, The Republican Party
was founded when former members of the Whig political party met to
establish a new political party that would oppose the spread of slavery
into the western territories. [see Feb 28]
(MC, 3/20/02)
1863 Mar 20, Battle of Pensacola,
Florida- evacuated by Federals.
(MC, 3/20/02)
1865 Mar 20, Battle of
Bentonville, N.C.
(HN, 3/20/98)
1865 Mar 20, Michigan authorized
workers' cooperatives.
(MC, 3/20/02)
1868 Mar 20, The Jesse James Gang
robbed a bank in Russellville, Kentucky, of $14,000.
(MC, 3/20/02)
1873 Mar 20, Sergei V.
Rachmaninov, Russian-US pianist, composer (Aleko), was born. [see Apr 1]
(MC, 3/20/02)
1878 Mar 20, Thomas Fisher, an
alleged member of the Molly McGuires, was hung at the Carbon County
Prison of Mauch Chunk, Pa. He had been convicted of the murder of
Morgan Powell, a supervisor for the Lehigh Coal and Navigation Company.
Fisher insisted up to his death on his innocence.
(HT, 4/97, p.20)
1885 Mar 20, Yiddish theater
opened in NY with Goldfaden operetta.
(MC, 3/20/02)
1885 Mar 20, John Matzeliger of
Suriname patented a shoe lacing machine.
(MC, 3/20/02)
1888 Mar 20, Start of the Sherlock
Holmes Adventure, "A Scandal in Bohemia."
(MC, 3/20/02)
1890 Mar 20, Lauritz Melchior,
baritone, tenor (Met Opera), was born in Copenhagen, Denmark.
(MC, 3/20/02)
1890 Mar 20, Germany’s Kaiser
Wilhelm II fired republic chancellor Otto Von Bismarck.
(MC, 3/20/02)
1894 Mar 20, Lajos Kossuth (91),
Hungarian freedom fighter, president (1849), died.
(www.thenagain.info/WebChron/EastEurope/Kossuth.html)
1896 Mar 20, U.S. Marines landed
in Nicaragua to protect U.S. citizens in the wake of a revolution.
(AP, 3/20/97)
1899 Mar 20, Martha M. Place of
Brooklyn, N.Y., became the first woman to be executed in the electric
chair. She was put to death at Sing Sing for the murder of her
stepdaughter.
(AP, 3/20/99)
1902 Mar 20, France and Russia
acknowledged the Anglo-Japanese alliance, but asserted their right to
protect their interests in China and Korea.
(HN, 3/20/98)
1903 Mar 20, Henri Matisse
exhibited at the Salon des Independants.
(HN, 3/20/98)
1904 Mar 20, B.F. Skinner (Burrhus
Frederic Skinner), American psychologist, was born.
(HN, 3/20/01)
1906 Mar 20, George B. Shaw's
"Captain Brassbound's Conversion," premiered in London.
(MC, 3/20/02)
1906 Mar 20, Army officers in
Russia mutinied at Sevastopol.
(HN, 3/20/98)
1908 Mar 20, Frank Stanton,
broadcasting pioneer and the president of CBS for 26 years, was born in
Muskegon, Mich.
(AP, 3/20/08)
1908 Mar 20, Michael Redgrave
(d.1985), actor (Browning Version, Lady Vanishes), was born in Bristol,
England.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Redgrave)
1911 Mar 20, Winter Garden Theater
opened at 1634 Broadway, NYC.
(MC, 3/20/02)
1911 Mar 20, Russian Premier
Stolypin resigned in St. Petersburg.
(HN, 3/20/98)
1914 Mar 20, Svyatoslav Richter,
pianist (Stalin Prize-1945), was born in Zhitomir, Ukraine.
(MC, 3/20/02)
1915 Mar 20, The French called off
the Champagne offensive on the Western Front.
(HN, 3/20/98)
1917 Mar 20, Dame Vera Lynn,
British songstress, was born. She sang "White Cliffs of Dover" and
"Lily Marlene" during World War II.
(HN, 3/20/99)
1917 Mar 20, Gideon Sundback,
Swedish-born engineer, patented an all-purpose zipper while working for
the Automatic Hook and Eye Co. of Hoboken, New Jersey. The zipper name
was coined by B.F. Goodrich in 1923, who used it to fasten rubber
galoshes. In 1994 Robert Friedel authored “Zipper: An Exploration in
Novelty.”
(ON, 7/04, p.5)(www.inventors.about.com)
1918 Mar 20, The Bolsheviks asked
for American aid to rebuild their army.
(HN, 3/20/98)
1920 Mar 20, Pamela Churchill
Harriman (d.1997) was born. She was later appointed by Pres. Clinton as
ambassador to France. In 1996 Sally Bedell Smith wrote her biography:
"Reflected Glory: The Life of Pamela Churchill Harriman."
(SFC, 10/23/96, p.E6)(SFC, 2/6/97, p.A14)
1920 Mar 20, Britain and its
allies formally occupied Istanbul.
(Econ, 10/21/06, p.95)
1922 Mar 20, Raymond Walter
Goulding, Radio comedian of Bob and Ray fame, was born.
(HN, 3/20/01)
1922 Mar 20, Carl Reiner, comedian
(2000 Year Old Man, Dick Van Dyke Show), was born in the Bronx.
(MC, 3/20/02)
1922 Mar 20, President Harding
ordered U.S. troops back from the Rhineland.
(HN, 3/20/98)
1922 Mar 20, The 11,500-ton
Langley was commissioned into the U.S. Navy as America’s first aircraft
carrier. Langley was not regarded as a beautiful ship. Her flight deck
was 533 feet long and 64 feet wide with an open-sided hanger deck,
inspiring the nickname “the Old Covered Wagon.” Under the leadership of
Commander Kenneth Whiting, Langley served as a base for reconnaissance
aircraft and a laboratory to develop new procedures for launching and
recovering planes, such as the use of cross-deck arresting wires to
brake incoming aircraft.
(HN, 3/20/99)
1923 Mar 20, Bavarian minister of
Interior refused to forbid the Nazi SA. [NOTE: The Sturmabteilung SA,
German for "Assault Division" and sometimes translated stormtroopers,
functioned as a paramilitary organization of the NSDAP – the German
Nazi party. It played a key role in Adolf Hitler’s rise to power in the
1930s. SA men were often known as brown shirts from the color of their
uniform and to distinguish them from the SS who were known as black
shirts.]
(MC, 3/20/02)
1924 Mar 20, The Virginia
Legislature passed two closely related eugenics laws: SB 219, entitled
"The Racial Integrity Act[1]" and SB 281, "An ACT to provide for the
sexual sterilization of inmates of State institutions in certain
cases", henceforth referred to as "The Sterilization Act". The Racial
Integrity Act required that a racial description of every person be
recorded at birth, and felonized marriage between "white persons" and
non-white persons. The law was the most famous ban on miscegenation in
the US, and was overturned by the US Supreme Court in 1967, in Loving
v. Virginia. Virginia repealed the sterilization in 1979. In 2001 the
House of Delegates voted to express regret for the state’s selecting
breeding policies that had forced sterilizations on some 8,000 people.
The Senate soon followed suit.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Racial_Integrity_Act_of_1924)(SSFC,
2/4/01, p.A3)(SFC, 2/15/01, p.C16)
1925 Mar 20, John Ehrlichman,
Watergate conspirator, was born in Tacoma, Wa. He served Pres. Nixon as
White House counsel and then domestic advisor and played a key role in
creating the Environmental Protection Agency, passing the Clean Water
Act, the Clean Air Act, the Endangered Species Act and the National
Environmental Policy Act.
(HN, 3/20/98)(SFC, 2/16/99, p.A18)
1928 Mar 20, Hans Kung, Swiss
religious theologian, was born.
(MC, 3/20/02)
1928 Mar 20, Fred Rogers,
television performer (Mr. Roger's Neighborhood), was born in Latrobe,
Pa.
(HN, 3/20/01)
1929 Mar 20, Ferdinand Foch (77),
Marshal of France (WW I), died.
(MC, 3/20/02)
1930 Mar 20, Clessie Cummins set a
diesel engine speed record of 129.39 kph.
(MC, 3/20/02)
1932 Mar 20, The German dirigible,
Graf Zepplin, made the first flight to South America on regular
schedule.
(HN, 3/20/98)
1933 Mar 20, Giuseppe [Joe]
Zangara was electrocuted for an assassination attempt on FDR. [see Feb
15, Mar 8]
(MC, 3/20/02)
1934 Mar 20, San Francisco Mayor
Willie Brown was born.
(SFEC, 1/5/97, p.A10)
1934 Mar 20, Test of practical
radar apparatus was made by Rudolf Kuhnold in Germany.
(MC, 3/20/02)
1935 Mar 20, "Your Hit
Parade" debuted on radio. [see Apr 12]
(MC, 3/20/02)
1937 Mar 20, Jerry Reed, singer,
actor (Bat 21, Smokey & the Bandit), was born in Atlanta, GA.
(MC, 3/20/02)
1937 Mar 20, A Franco offensive
took place at Guadalajara, Spain.
(MC, 3/20/02)
1939 Mar 20, Franklin D. Roosevelt
named William O. Douglas to the Supreme Court. He replaced Louis D.
Brandeis (1856-1941), appointed in 1916, who retired.
(HN,
3/20/98)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_Brandeis)
1940 Mar 20, The British RAF
conducted an all-night air raid on the Nazi airbase at Sylt, Germany.
(HN, 3/20/98)
1941 Mar 20, Nazi German-Yugoslav
pact was drawn.
(MC, 3/20/02)
1941 Mar 20, D.A. van den Bosch,
anti-Nazi clergyman (Amersfoort Camp), died.
(MC, 3/20/02)
1942 Mar 20-21, There was a major
German assault on Malta.
(MC, 3/20/02)(MC, 3/21/02)
1943 Mar 20, The Allies attacked
Rommel's forces on the Mareth Line in North Africa.
(HN, 3/20/98)
1943 Mar 20, German U-384
was bombed and sank.
(MC, 3/20/02)
1944 Mar 20, A bus fell off bridge
into Passaic River, NJ, killing 16.
(MC, 3/20/02)
1948 Mar 20, "Gentleman's
Agreement" won the Academy Award for best picture of 1947, as well as
best director (Elia Kazan); Ronald Colman won best actor for "A Double
Life," and Loretta Young won best actress for "The Farmer's Daughter."
(AP, 3/20/98)
1948 Mar 20, The 1st live
televised musical Eugene Ormandy on CBS.
(MC, 3/20/02)
1948 Mar 20, A televised concert
by NBC Symphony was conducted by Arturo Toscanini.
(MC, 3/20/02)
1948 Mar 20 A severe tornado moved
through Tinker Air Force Base in Oklahoma City destroying 52 aircraft.
(SFC, 3/20/09, p.D8)
1948 Mar 20, The Communist
administration of Lithuania decided on a plan for the organization of
collective farms.
(LHC, 3/20/03)
1950 Mar 20, The government of
Poland decided to confiscate the property of Polish church.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1950)
1952 Mar 20, At the Academy Awards
"An American in Paris" was named best picture; Humphrey Bogart best
actor for "The African Queen"; Vivien Leigh best actress, Kim Hunter
best supporting actress and Karl Malden best supporting actor for "A
Streetcar Named Desire"; and George Stevens best director for "A Place
in the Sun."
(AP, 3/20/02)
1953 Mar
20, In the Soviet Union Nikita Khrushchev became the head of a five-man
group called the Secretariat, although for all intents and purposes, he
is in a leadership role that will gradually push Malenkov aside. In
September Khrushchev was officially given the title of First Secretary
of the Communist Party.
(www.history.com/this-day-in-history.do?action=Article&id=2612)(WP,
3/21/53, p.3)
1954 Mar 20, "King and I" closed
at St. James Theater in NYC after 1246 performances.
(MC, 3/20/02)
1956 Mar 20, Union workers ended a
156-day strike at Westinghouse Electric Corp.
(AP, 3/20/97)
1956 Mar 20, Tunisia was granted
independence by France. Tunisia became an independent nation under the
leadership of Habib Bourguiba. He launched a campaign advocating birth
control. By 2003 the fertility rate plunged from 7.2 in the 1960s to
2.08.
(WUD, 1994, p.1685)(EWH, 1968, p.1247)(SFEC,
4/12/98, p.T5)(SFC, 4/16/98, p.B4)(WSJ, 8/8/03, p.A1)
1956 Mar 20, Mount Bezymianny on
Kamchatka Peninsula, USSR, exploded.
(MC, 3/20/02)
1957 Mar 20, Shelton 'Spike' Lee,
film director (Do the Right Thing, Malcolm X), was born.
(HN, 3/20/01)
1957 Mar 20, In Washington state
the Dalles Dam pushed back the Columbia River to reap the benefits of
hydroelectric power. In six hours the islands of Celilo Falls were gone
forever beneath a mockingly tranquil reservoir pool.
(AP, 3/3/07)
1957 Mar 20, Britain accepted a
NATO offer to mediate in Cyprus, but Greece rejected it.
(MC, 3/20/02)
1959 Mar 20, In SF Harry Bridges
spoke to a crowd at the Commonwealth Club luncheon regarding his recent
trip to Russia. The Longshore Union president gave his audience the
challenge he received in Russia: Within 10 years the Soviet Union will
give its workers the highest standard of living in the world, the
highest wages, the shortest work week, the best free medical care, the
best education, and no unemployment.
(SSFC, 3/15/09, DB p.50)
1962 Mar 20, C. Wright Mills (45),
US sociologist (Power Elite), died.
(MC, 3/20/02)
1963 Mar 20, The 1st "Pop Art"
exhibition was held in NYC.
(MC, 3/20/02)
1964 Mar 20, Brendan Behan (41),
Irish writer, poet, died.
(MC, 3/20/02)
1965 Mar 20, Lyndon B. Johnson
ordered 4,000 troops to protect the Selma-Montgomery civil rights
marchers.
(HN, 3/20/98)
1968 Mar 20, Pres. Lyndon Johnson
held talks with Paraguay’s Pres.-Gen. Alfredo Stroessner in Washington
DC.
(Econ, 2/14/04,
p.34)(www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=28747)
1969 Mar 20, Senator Edward
Kennedy called on the U.S. to close all bases in Taiwan.
(HN, 3/20/98)
1969 Mar 20, The Chicago 8 were
indicted in aftermath of Chicago Democratic convention.
(www.cnn.com/ALLPOLITICS/1996/conventions/chicago/facts/chicago68/index.shtml)
1969 Mar 20, John Lennon married
Yoko Ono in Gibraltar.
(AP, 3/20/97)(HN, 3/20/98)
1974 Mar 20, Chet Huntley
(b.1911), newscaster (NBC Huntley-Brinkley Report), died of lung cancer.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chet_Huntley)
1976 Mar 20, Newspaper heiress
Patricia Hearst was convicted of armed robbery for her part in a San
Francisco bank holdup.
(AP, 3/20/97)(HN, 3/20/98)
1977 Mar 20, Voters in Paris chose
former French Prime Minister Jacques Chirac to be the French capital's
first mayor in more than a century.
(AP, 3/20/97)
1977 Mar 20, Premier Indira Gandhi
lost her election in India.
(http://openweb.tvnews.vanderbilt.edu/1977-3/1977-03-20-CBS-2.html)
1979 Mar 20, In Rome, Italy, the
Mafia killed Mino Pecorelli, a magazine editor. In 1996 Premier Giulio
Andreotti went on trial for allegedly turning to the Mafia to kill the
troublesome journalist. Andreotti was acquitted by a jury in
1999. 5 others were also acquitted. In 2002 an appeal court in Perugia
sentenced Giulio Andreotti to 24 years imprisonment for ordering the
murder of Pecorelli.
(SFC, 4/12/96, p.A-12)(SFC, 9/25/99,
p.A14)(http://foi.missouri.edu/jouratrisk/italysexpm.html)
1981 Mar 20, Michael Donald
(b.1962), a black teenager in Mobile, Alabama, was abducted, tortured
and killed in what prosecutors charged was a Ku Klux Klan plot. Henry
Hays (d.1997) murdered Michael Donald in a random abduction. Donald was
beaten, cut, strangled and his body was strung up a tree. Hays was
convicted and sentenced to death. He was executed Jun 6, 1997. In 1987
A wrongful death suit filed by Donald’s mother, Beulah Mae Donald, gave
a $7 million verdict against the United Klans of America, led by Robert
Shelton (d.2003 at 73).
(SFC, 6/6/97,
p.A3)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Donald)(SFC, 1/21/02, p.A21)
1981 Mar 20, Jean Harris, former
girls’ school headmistress, was sentenced in White Plains, New York, to
15 years to life in prison for slaying “Scarsdale Diet” author Dr.
Herman Tarnower. Harris ended up serving almost 12 years.
(AP, 3/20/01)
1982 Mar 20, U.S. scientists
returned from Antarctica with the first land mammal fossils found
there.
(HN, 3/20/98)
1984 Mar 20, Denny McLain, former
Detroit Tiger pitching star, was indicted on various charges of
racketeering.
(http://tinyurl.com/35zuwx)
1985 Mar 20, Libby Riddles of
Teller, Alaska, became the first woman to win the Iditarod Trail Dog
Sled Race.
(AP, 3/20/05)
1987 Mar 20, The Food and Drug
Administration approved the sale of AZT, a drug shown to prolong the
lives of some AIDS patients.
(WSJ, 1/30/96, p.A-16)(AP, 3/20/97)(HN, 3/20/98)
1988 Mar 20, David Henry Hwang's
"M. Butterfly" premiered in NYC.
(http://tinyurl.com/pztxh)
1988 Mar 20, Eight-year-old
DeAndra Anrig found herself airborne when the string of her kite was
snagged by an airplane flying over Shoreline Park in Mountain View,
Calif. Not seriously hurt, she was lifted 10 feet off the ground and
carried 100 feet until she let go.
(AP, 3/20/98)
1989 Mar 20, Baseball Commissioner
Peter Ueberroth confirmed that his office was investigating "serious
allegations" involving Cincinnati Reds Manager Pete Rose. Ueberroth's
successor, A. Bartlett Giamatti, later banned Rose from baseball for
betting on games.
(AP, 3/20/99)
1990 Mar 20, Namibia became an
independent nation, marking the end of 75 years of South African rule.
The South African colony gained independence after 25 years of
guerrilla war. Namibians began petitioning the U.N. as early as 1947,
developing political parties, most notably SWAPO (South West Africa
People‘s Organization) to voice opposition to South African rule. Armed
resistance to South African rule began in earnest in the 1970s and
continued into the 1980s, which combined with drought and other
factors, contributed to an overwhelming drain to South Africa‘s
economy. The UN Security Council eventually demanded independence for
Namibia, but transition elections were not agreed to by South Africa
until December 1988 after a military disaster involving Angola. The UN
Transition Assistance Group (UNTAG) started work in April 1989 with
elections giving SWAPO 57% of the vote. On March 21 of the following
year, the South African flag was lowered and the Namibian flag raised
in Namibia‘s National Stadium.
(LVRJ, 11/1/97, p.20A)(SFEC, 3/1/98, p.T4)(AP,
3/20/00)(HNQ, 2/13/01)
1990 Mar 20, The last Indian
peacekeepers left Sri Lanka.
(www.india-seminar.com/1999/479/479%20mehta.htm)
1991 Mar 20, Pres. Bush announced
the US would reduce Poland’s indebtedness by a full 70%. The Paris
Club, an informal grouping of the world's 17 leading industrial
countries, announced a week earlier that it would halve Poland's
enormous debt and reduce accumulated interest by 80 percent. The US
portion of the forgiven debt was approximately $2.4 billion.
(http://dosfan.lib.uic.edu/erc/briefing/dispatch/1991/html/Dispatchv2no12.html)
1991 Mar 20, The US Supreme Court
ruled employers could not adopt “fetal protection” policies barring
women of child-bearing age from certain hazardous jobs.
(AP, 3/20/01)
1991 Mar 20, A US jet fighter shot
down an Iraqi warplane in the first air attack since the Gulf War
cease-fire.
(AP, 3/20/01)
1991 Mar 20, April Glaspie, the US
ambassador to Iraq, told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee Saddam
Hussein had lied to her by denying he would invade Kuwait.
(AP, 3/20/01)
1992 Mar 20, The US Congress
passed, and President Bush immediately vetoed, a Democratic tax cut for
the middle class that would have been funded by a tax hike on the rich.
(AP, 3/20/97)
1993 Mar 20, An Irish Republican
Army bomb exploded in Warrington, England, killing 3-year-old Johnathan
Ball and 12-year-old Tim Parry.
(AP, 3/20/98)
1993 Mar 20, Russian President
Boris Yeltsin declared emergency rule, setting a referendum on whether
the people trusted him or the hard-line Congress to govern.
(AP, 3/20/98)
1993 Mar 20, Pope John Paul II
declared Duns Scotus (1266-1308) a saint.
(www.catholic-forum.com/saints/saintj55.htm)
1994 Mar 20, El Salvador held its
first presidential election following the country's 12-year-old civil
war. Armando Calderon Sol of the ARENA party led the vote, but needed
to win a run-off to achieve the presidency.
(AP, 3/20/99)
1994 Mar 20, Ilaria Alpi (32),
Italian journalist, was shot and killed in Somalia along with her
cameraman, Miran Hrovatin, on the same day that Italian troops left the
country. She had collected evidence of brutality by Italian officers
against Somalis along with evidence of illegal gun-running.
(SFC, 1/26/98, p.A8)
1995 Mar 20, Commentator Pat
Buchanan formally launched his presidential campaign in New Hampshire.
(AP, 3/20/00)
1995 Mar 20, Sidney Kingsley, US
playwright (Pulitzer prize 1934), died.
(MC, 3/20/02)
1995 Mar 20, The Bosnian army,
having gained strength despite an arms embargo, launched a major
offensive in the northeast against Serb positions.
(WSJ, 6/11/96, p.A14)(SFC,10/16/97, p.A12)
1995 Mar 20, A gas attack by the
Aum Shinri Kyo cult on Tokyo's subways killed 12 people. More than
5,500 others sickened when packages containing the poisonous gas sarin
leaked on five separate subway trains. Masato Yokoyama, a cult leader,
was sentenced to death in 1999. In 2000 Robert Jay Lifton authored
"Destroying the World To Save It: Aum Shinrikyo, Apocalyptic Violence,
and the New Global Terrorism." In 2001 Haruki Murakami's "Underground:
The Tokyo Gas Attack and the Japanese Psyche" was published in English.
In 2004 Shoko Asahara was convicted and sentenced to hang for
masterminding the deadly nerve gas attack on the Tokyo subway and other
crimes that killed 27 people.
(SFC, 7/4/96, p.A10)(SFC, 5/27/98, p.A12)(AP,
3/20/97)(SFC, 9/30/99, p.D14)(SFEC, 1/16/00, BR p.9)(SSFC, 4/29/01, DB
p.81)(AP, 2/27/04)
1996 Mar 20, A jury in Los Angeles
convicted Erik and Lyle Menendez of first-degree murder in the shotgun
slayings of their millionaire parents.
(AP, 3/20/97)
1996 Mar 20, The Mt. Zion Baptist
Church in Ruleville, Miss., burned down. Arson was suspected and
investigations by the FBI and ATF were later begun.
(SFC, 6/11/96, p.A16)
1996 Mar 20, The British
government said that a rare brain disease that had killed 10 people was
probably linked to so-called "mad cow disease."
(AP, 3/20/97)
1997 Mar 20, Bill Clinton and
Boris Yeltsin met in Helsinki for talks on arms control and NATO
expansion. They agreed to negotiate a new arms accord to reduce
strategic warheads, and to give Russia a more formal role in the Group
of Seven leading industrialized nations.
(WSJ, 3/21/97, p.A1)(SFC, 3/22/97, p.A1)(AP, 3/20/98)
1997 Mar 20, The Liggett Group, a
tobacco company, agreed to settle claims with 22 state attorneys
general. The settlement included a payment of 25% of pretax earnings
over the next 25 years, a “smoking is addictive” label, access to
documents heretofore claimed to be privileged and admitting the
industry marketed cigarettes to teen-agers.
(WSJ, 3/20/97, p.A3)(WSJ, 3/21/97, p.A3)(AP, 3/20/98)
1997 Mar 20, A Houston jury
awarded the MMAR Group, a bond firm, $222.7 million in a libel verdict
against Dow Jones & Co. based on a 1993 article that
portrayed the firm as reckless and destroyed its business.
(SFC, 3/21/97, p.A3)
1997 Mar 20, In Serbia the state
telecommunications authority cut independent BK TV’s transmission lines
from Belgrade. Hours later a Belgrade court ordered the authority and
state-run TV to carry BK.
(SFC, 3/22/97, p.A10)
1998 Mar 20, President Clinton's
lawyer, appearing before a federal court, declared that Paula Jones'
evidence of sexual harassment was "garbage" unworthy of a trial.
(AP, 3/20/99)
1998 Mar 20, The Wall Street
Journal published its first Friday cultural section, “Weekend Journal.”
(WSJ, 3/20/98, p.W1)
1998 Mar 20, George Tenet,
director of the CIA, disclosed that $26.7 billion was the 1998 budget
secret intelligence activities, one-tenth the overall US military
budget.
(SFC, 3/21/98, p.A4)
1998 Mar 20, An Indiana man, Chris
Dean (35), was arrested for sending the pipe bomb that killed
Christopher Marquis of Vermont. Marquis had defrauded Dean in a $400
trade of Citizens Band radio equipment arranged on the Internet.
(SFC, 3/21/98, p.A3)
1998 Mar 20, A twister killed 11
people in northeast Georgia and 2 people in North Carolina and injured
100.
(SFC, 3/21/98, p.A1)(AP, 3/20/99)
1998 Mar 20, At least 400
firefighters were sent to fight the fires in the northern Amazon.
Firefighters from Argentina and Venezuela were also brought in. A UN
offer of assistance was accepted Mar 23 to combat thousands of fires
raging out of control.
(SFC, 3/21/98, p.A10)(WSJ, 3/23/98, p.A1)(SFC,
3/25/98, p.C14)
1998 Mar 20, In Germany thousands
of protestors attempted to halt a train of atomic waste from southern
Germany from reaching its final destination of Ahaus in northern
Germany.
(SFC, 3/21/98, p.A10)
1998 Mar 20, In Mexico a new law,
the Nationality Act, went into effect that allowed Mexican-born
Americans and their children to hold Mexican nationality and US
citizenship. The law permitted dual nationality but not dual
citizenship.
(SFC, 3/21/98, p.A10)
1999 Mar 20, Balloonists Bertrand
Piccard of Switzerland and Brian Jones of Britain became the first
aviators to fly a hot-air balloon around the world nonstop. They
established an around the world record after floating over Mauritania
at 1:54 a.m. PST and won a $1 million prize from Anheuser-Busch as the
first aviators to fly a hot-air balloon around the world nonstop.
(SFEC, 3/21/99, p.A21)(AP, 3/20/00)
1999 Mar 20, A war crimes tribunal
at the Hague recommended that 3 Croatian generals be indicted for war
crimes for "Operation Storm" in Aug, 1995.
(SFEC, 3/21/99, p.A17)
1999 Mar 20, In Paris thousands of
French teachers marched to demand a greater say in educational reform.
(SFEC, 3/21/99, p.A22)
1999 Mar 20, Serb forces in Kosovo
launched a new offensive along a 20-mile arc west and northwest of
Pristina. The Yugoslav army, taking advantage of the departure of
international monitors from Kosovo, launched a furious offensive
against outgunned ethnic Albanian rebels.
(SFEC, 3/21/99, p.A1)(AP, 3/20/00)
1999 Mar 20, In Spain some 60,000
people marched in Bilbao to protest recent arrests of members and
supporters of the ETA.
(SFEC, 3/21/99, p.A23)
2000 Mar 20, World Citizenship Day.
(SFC, 3/21/00, p.A18)
2000 Mar 20, The Clinton
administration moved to phase out the fuel additive MTBE to avoid
further contamination of groundwater.
(SFC, 3/21/00, p.A1)
2000 Mar 20, Pres. Clinton stopped
in Bangladesh, but only stood for a reception at the US Embassy due to
security reasons. This was the first such visit by an American
president.
(SFC, 3/21/00, p.A14)(AP, 3/20/01)
2000 Mar 20, Former Black Panther
Jamil Abdullah Al-Amin, once known as H. Rap Brown, was captured in
Alabama; he was wanted in the fatal shooting of a Fulton County,
Georgia, sheriff’s deputy. Al-Amin maintains his innocence.
(AP, 3/20/01)
2000 Mar 20, Some 2,000 farmers,
ranchers and rural businessmen converged on Washington DC to lobby for
an overhaul of farm programs and to strengthen antitrust enforcement on
agribusiness.
(WSJ, 3/21/00, p.A1)
2000 Mar 20, In Texas Robert Wayne
Harris (28) shot 5 people to death and critically injured one person at
the Mi-T-Fine Car Wash in Irving. Harris was arrested the next day. He
had recently been fired for exposing himself to 2 women at the
business. Harris was sentenced to death on Sep 29.
(SFC, 3/21/00, p.A5)(SFC, 3/22/00, p.A4)(SFC,
9/30/00, p.A2)
2000 Mar 20, Natalya Estemirova
(1959-2009), Chechen rights activist, went to the village of Aldi and
counted 47 victims.
(Econ, 7/18/09, p.24)
2000 Mar 20, Pope John Paul II
arrived in Jordan for the beginning of his Holy land tour. He prayed at
Mt. Nebo where the bible says Moses first viewed the Promised Land.
(WSJ, 3/20/00, p.A1)(SFC, 3/21/00, p.A1)
2000 Mar 20, In Germany Angela
Merkel (45) became the first woman to head the Christian Democratic
Union.
(SFC, 3/21/00, p.A10)
2000 Mar 20, In Kashmir gunmen
massacred 35 Sikhs in Chati Sionghpura Mattan.
(SFC, 3/21/00, p.A12)
2000 Mar 20, In the Philippines
the Abu Sayyaf Muslim rebel group seized over 50 hostages from 2
schools in Basilan province. Most of the hostages were children.
(SFC, 4/18/00, p.A10)
2000 Mar 20, In Senegal Pres.
Abdou Diouf conceded defeat to rival Abdoulaye Wade. The elections
ended 40 years of Socialist Party rule.
(SFC, 3/21/00, p.A12)
2001 Mar 20, Pres. Bush met with
Israel’s Ariel Sharon and urged him avoid provocative acts.
(SFC, 3/21/01, p.A12)
2001 Mar 20, The skipper of the
USS Greeneville took the stand in a Navy court and accepted sole
responsibility for the Feb. 9 collision of his submarine with a
Japanese trawler off Hawaii that killed nine Japanese.
(AP, 3/20/02)
2001 Mar 20, New York native Lori
Berenson, accused of aiding guerrillas in Peru, received a retrial in
civilian court. She was later convicted of "terrorist collaboration."
(AP, 3/20/02)
2001 Mar 20, The US Federal
Reserve lowered interest rates 0.5% but stocks dropped. The DJIA fell
238 to 9,720; the Nasdaq fell 93 to 1,857.
(SFC, 3/21/01, p.A1)
2001 Mar 20, Power-strapped
California saw a second day of rolling blackouts.
(AP, 3/20/02)
2001 Mar 20, Now-Ruz, the
traditional Afghan New Year, passed without fanfare. The holiday is
also observed in Iran.
(SSFC, 3/18/01, p.A17)
2001 Mar 20, In Buenos Aires
thousands demonstrated against plans to cut government spending.
Domingo Cavallo was named to succeed Ricardo Lopez Murphy as economy
minister.
(SFC, 3/21/01, p.A14)
2001 Mar 20, The damaged Brazilian
P-36 Petrobras oil platform sank 75 miles offshore. 400,000 gallons of
fuel and crude oil began leaking into the sea. An immediate revenue
loss of $50 million per month was expected.
(SFC, 3/21/01, p.A12)(WSJ, 3/21/00, p.A1)
2001 Mar 20, Britain reported 46
new confirmed cases of foot-and-mouth disease, the largest daily number
to date.
(SFC, 3/21/01, p.A14)
2001 Mar 20, In Haiti violence
flared in Port-au-Prince as Aristide supporters attacked an opposition
party office with firebombs.
(SFC, 3/21/01, p.A13)
2001 Mar 20, Liberia ordered its
security forces to seal its border with Sierra Leone.
(SFC, 3/21/01, p.A14)
2001 Mar 20, In Macedonia security
forces began a heavy attack against guerrilla fighters and issued an
ultimatum that weapons be laid down.
(SFC, 3/21/01, p.12)
2001 Mar 20, In Spain Froilan
Elespe, Socialist deputy mayor of Lasarte, was shot and killed. The ETA
was blamed.
(SFC, 3/21/01, p.A14)
2001 Mar 20, In South Africa new
AIDS statistics indicated that 25% of the adult population, one of
every 9 people, was infected with HIV.
(SFC, 3/21/01, p.A13)
2002 Mar 20, The US Senate
approved the bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002. It was better
remembered as the McCain-Feingold bill on campaign finance reform after
its senatorial sponsors. Pres. Bush planned to sign it. In 2003 a
3-judge panel ruled most of the provisions unconstitutional.
(SFC, 3/21/02, p.A1)(SFC, 5/3/03, p.A1)(Econ,
9/12/09, p.40)
2002 Mar 20, US began war games
with South Korea, the biggest ever.
(WSJ, 3/21/02, p.A1)
2002 Mar 20, Arthur Andersen
pleaded innocent to charges it had shredded documents and deleted
computer files related to Enron. Andersen was later found guilty of
obstruction of justice; it received probation and was fined $500,000.
(AP, 3/20/07)
2002 Mar 20, Heavy storms and
severe flooding extended to West Virginia. Kentucky Gov. Paul Patton
declared 12 counties emergencies.
(SFC, 3/21/02, p.A3)
2002 Mar 20, At Fort Drum, NY, a
soldier was killed and 14 were injured when 2 artillery shells fell far
short of their target.
(SFC, 3/21/02, p.A5)
2002 Mar 20, In Bosnia the US
Embassy was shut down to the public due to a possible terrorist threat.
(SSFC, 3/24/02, p.A18)
2002 Mar 20, Steven Harper
(b.1959), an evangelical Christian, was chosen as head of Canada’s
conservative Alliance Party.
(Econ, 10/14/06,
p.42)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canadian_Alliance)
2002 Mar 20, China deployed
military police to at least 2 northeast cities to quell labor protests.
(WSJ, 3/21/02, p.A1)
2002 Mar 20, In Israel a suicide
bomber blew himself up on a crowded bus and 7 people were killed. The
Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility.
(SFC, 3/20/02, p.A1)(SFC, 3/21/02, p.A9)
2002 Mar 20, In Italy 928 illegal
immigrants, mostly ethnic Kurds, arrived on a rusty cargo ship. A state
of emergency was declared to deal with the problem.
(SFC, 3/21/02, p.A10)
2002 Mar 20, In Pakistan Gen.
Musharraf met with members of the Muslim League and planned a
referendum to support his rule for another 5 years. Civilian opposition
leaders condemned the plan.
(SFC, 3/23/02, p.A13)
2002 Mar 20, In Lima, Peru, a car
bomb explosion outside the US Embassy killed 9 people. Pres. Bush was
scheduled to arrive 3 days later.
(SFC, 3/21/02, p.A8)(SFC, 3/22/02, p.A13)
2002 Mar 20, In Zimbabwe
opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai was charged with treason,
fingerprinted and released on bail.
(SFC, 3/21/02, p.A10)
2003 Mar 20, Operation Iraqi
Freedom began with a few 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. US Sec. of State Rumsfeld warned that the attack in Iraq would
be "of a force and scope and scale that is beyond what has been seen
before." A "shock and awe" strategy was planned based on a 1996 "rapid
dominance" strategy. The US seized $1.74 billion in frozen Iraqi assets
and declared it would be used for humanitarian purposes. Saddam Hussein
appeared on state-run television accusing the United States of a
"shameful crime" and urging his people to "draw your sword" against the
invaders. Iraq set fire to at least 10 oil wells.
(SFC, 3/20/03, p.W1)(SFC, 3/21/03, p.W11)(WSJ,
3/21/03, p.A1)(AP, 3/20/04)
2003 Mar 20, Hundreds of thousands
of people marched on American embassies in world capitals to protest
the war against Iraq.
(AP, 3/20/03)
2003 Mar 20, Some 600 US and
Romanian ground troops in Afghanistan began Operation Valiant Strike,
an intensified search for Taliban, al Qaeda and loyalists to Gulbuddin
Hekmatyar.
(SSFC, 3/23/03, p.A1)
2003 Mar 20, Tornadoes hit rural
Georgia and 6 people were killed.
(SFC, 3/21/03, p.A7)
2003 Mar 20, Texas executed its
300th inmate since restoring the death penalty in 1982.
(WSJ, 3/21/03, p.A1)
2003 Mar 20, In the Central
African Republic Gen. Francois Bozizea asked his fighters to hand over
their weapons to troops from neighboring Chad, prompting the insurgents
to accuse their leader of betraying them.
(AP, 3/21/03)
2003 Mar 20, China demanded that
military action against Iraq stop immediately and said the initial
attack was "violating the norms of international behavior."
(AP, 3/20/03)
2003 Mar 20, Fidel Castro's agents
arrested some of the government's leading critics in a crackdown that
has netted at least 65 dissidents accused of working with US diplomats
to undermine Cuba's socialist system.
(AP, 3/21/03)
2003 Mar 20, The Czech Interior
Ministry published a list of some 75,000 people identified as agents of
the former communist secret police, the STB.
(AP, 3/20/03)
2003 Mar 20, Norwegian police
arrested Mullah Krekar, the leader of a Kurdish guerrilla group
suspected of links to al-Qaida, on kidnapping charges.
(AP, 3/20/03)
2003 Mar 20, The Palestinian
Authority broke up a Hamas training session and a firefight followed
that killed one militant.
(SFC, 3/21/03, p.A15)
2003 Mar 20, In Serbia nearly
1,000 people were arrested in a crackdown on criminal groups following
the assassination of Serbian PM Zoran Djindjic.
(AP, 3/20/03)
2003 Mar 20, A suspected Tamil
Tiger rebel boat attacked and sank a vessel carrying Chinese fishermen
off eastern Sri Lanka, killing 17 people on board.
(AP, 3/21/03)
2003 Mar 20, Turkey's parliament
approved a motion allowing over-flights for US warplanes. Turkey
announced plans to send thousands of troops into Kurdish-controlled
northern Iraq.
(AP, 3/20/03)
2003 Mar 20, UN Sec. Gen'l. Kofi
Annan asked to be put in charge of a humanitarian program to aid Iraq.
(SFC, 3/21/03, p.W14)
2003 Mar 20-Apr 9, At least 1,700
Iraqi civilians were killed and over 8,000 injured in the battle for
Baghdad.
(SSFC, 5/18/03, p.A1)
2004 Mar 20, The US military
charged 6 soldiers with abusing inmates at Abu Ghraib prison.
(AP, 3/20/05)
2004 Mar 20, The Rev. Karen
Dammann, a lesbian Methodist pastor, was acquitted of violating church
doctrine in a trial held in Bothell, Wash.
(AP, 3/20/05)
2004 Mar 20, A quickly spreading
Internet worm destroyed or damaged tens of thousands of personal
computers worldwide morning by exploiting a security flaw in a firewall
program designed to protect PCs from online threats. The "Witty" worm
wrote random data onto the hard drives of computers equipped with the
Black Ice and Real Secure Internet firewall products. It spread
automatically to vulnerable computers without any action on the part of
the user.
(WaP, 3/20/04)
2004 Mar 20, Thousands of
protesters marched in Australia to mark the first anniversary of the
Iraq war. Protests extended across Asia with some 30,000 marching in
Japan. Hundreds of thousands of people worldwide rallied against the
U.S.-led war in Iraq on the first anniversary of the start of the
conflict.
(AP, 3/20/04)
2004 Mar 20, The Economist
reported that a Goldman Sachs study found consumers in Australia and
Spain to be the most vulnerable, of 19 countries, to higher interest
rates or recession.
(Econ, 3/20/04, p.85)
2004 Mar 20, In Guyana thousands
marched through Georgetown, demanding the government order an
independent investigation into claims of a state-sponsored hit squad
blamed for more than 40 killings in the past year.
(AP, 3/20/04)
2004 Mar 20, Hundreds of thousands
of people marched in Rome demanding that Italy pull its 2,600 troops
out of Iraq.
(AP, 3/21/04)
2004 Mar 20, In Kashmir a
remote-controlled bomb hidden in a motorbike exploded as an Indian army
convoy passed over a bridge, killing two soldiers and wounding 40
others.
(AP, 3/20/04)
2004 Mar 20, NATO-led forces
surrounded Kosovska Mitrovica in efforts to separate ethnic Albanians
and Serbs and prevent a resurgence of attacks that killed 28 people and
wounded 600. Ethnic Albanians looted villages and apartments abandoned
by Serb civilians. Some 110 homes and at least 16 Serb Orthodox
churches were destroyed by arson.
(AP, 3/20/04)(Econ, 9/11/04, p.47)
2004 Mar 20, Former Netherlands
Queen Juliana (94), who presided over the dismantling of the
centuries-old Dutch empire and witnessed the birth of a social
revolution during her 32-year reign (1948-1980, died.
(AP, 3/20/04)(SSFC, 3/21/04, p.B7)
2004 Mar 20, Nepalese government
forces killed as many as 500 rebels, and at least 18 police and
soldiers died in some of the fiercest fighting since a cease-fire
collapsed last year.
(AP, 3/21/04)
2004 Mar 20, The Pakistani
military commander leading a five-day assault on armed militants holed
up in mud fortresses said a "high-value" terror suspect remained
inside, possibly wounded, but there was no way to know whether it was
al-Qaeda No. 2 Ayman al-Zawahri.
(AP, 3/20/04)
2004 Mar 20, The hunt for
terrorists on Pakistan's frontier appears to be narrowing on an Uzbek
terror group that once trained in Afghanistan.
(AP, 3/20/04)
2004 Mar 20, Taiwan Pres. Chen
Shui-bian narrowly won re-election, a day after being shot in an
assassination attempt, but a referendum he had championed on beefing up
defenses against China failed because not enough voters took part.
(AP, 3/20/04)(SSFC, 3/21/04, p.A1)
2004 Mar 20, Uganda government
troops backed by helicopter gunships fought fierce battles with rebels
in northern Uganda, killing more than 50 insurgents.
(AP, 3/21/04)
2005 Mar 20, Severe flooding
caused by snowmelt and torrential rains across Afghanistan left nearly
20 dead and thousands homeless.
(AFP, 3/20/05)
2005 Mar 20, In Bangladesh about
15,000 people were left homeless after twin tornadoes simultaneously
tore through northern Gaibandha and Rangpur districts, killing 55
people and wounding 1,000 others.
(SFC, 3/26/05, p.D10)
2005 Mar 20, UN forces raided a
police station occupied by armed former soldiers in Petit-Goave, 45
miles west of Port-au-Prince, setting of a gunbattle that killed two
former soldiers and one Sri Lankan peacekeeper.
(AP, 3/21/05)
2005 Mar 20, Insurgents targeted
Iraqi security forces and government buildings with gunfire, suicide
bomb attacks and mortar rounds, leaving at least five people dead. A
bomb blast near Kirkuk killed a U.S. soldier and wounded three. US
troops killed 26 militants following an attack on a convoy SE of
Baghdad.
(AP, 3/20/05)(AP, 3/21/05)
2005 Mar 20, A magnitude 7.0
earthquake struck off the coast of southern Japan, killing one person
and injuring at least 381 others.
(AP, 3/20/05)
2005 Mar 20, In Jordan an appeals
court has overturned the conviction of a Jordanian found guilty of
financing Abu-Musab al-Zarqawi's insurgent group in Iraq. The Court of
Cassation said the Oct. 31 conviction of Bilal Mansur al-Hiyari by the
military State Security Court "fell short of adequate justifications
and causes."
(AP, 6/7/05)
2005 Mar 20, In Kyrgyzstan
protesters stormed a police station in Jalal-Abad forcing officers to
flee, a day after baton-wielding police evicted demonstrators from two
government buildings they had occupied to protest alleged election
fraud. 4 policemen were reported killed.
(AP, 3/20/05)(WSJ, 3/21/05, p.A1)
2005 Mar 20, A visibly frustrated
Pope John Paul made a brief but silent appearance at his Vatican
apartment window after missing his first Palm Sunday Mass in 26 years
as pontiff.
(AP, 3/20/06)
2006 Mar 20, President Bush
defended his Iraq record against skeptical questioning at the City Club
in Cleveland. Protesters marking the third anniversary of the Iraq war
made their voices heard around the world, with the largest marches in
London, Portland and Chicago, though in numbers that were often lower
than in previous years.
(AP, 3/20/06)(AP, 3/20/07)
2006 Mar 20, Paul Tagliabue
announced he would step down as NFL commissioner after 16 years.
(AP, 3/20/07)
2006 Mar 20, In San Diego, Ca.,
Japan’s baseball team beat Cuba 10-6 in the World Baseball Classic. The
US team was embarrassingly knocked out in the second of the four rounds.
(http://edition.cnn.com/2006/SPORT/03/21/baseball.japan.ap/)
2006 Mar 20, The most powerful
storm to hit Australia in three decades laid waste to its northeastern
coast, mowing down sugar and banana plantations with 180 mph winds but
causing no deaths or serious injuries.
(AP, 3/20/06)
2006 Mar 20, Bangladesh PM Begum
Khaleda Zia began her first visit to India in five years. India and
Bangladesh will be trying to rebuild confidence and end distrust that
has crept into their relationship.
(AP, 3/20/06)
2006 Mar 20, European observers
said that Belarus' presidential election did not meet international
standards for a free and fair vote because of widespread detentions and
intimidation.
(AP, 3/20/06)
2006 Mar 20, Save the Children, a
British charity, said some 9 million children in Africa have lost a
mother to AIDS, calling on donors to sharply increase aid to meet their
needs.
(AP, 3/20/06)
2006 Mar 20, A Chinese cargo ship
hit an anchored freighter and sank off South Korea's west coast,
killing at least three Chinese crew members.
(AP, 3/20/06)
2006 Mar 20, In Ecuador police
fired tear gas at dozens of Indian demonstrators trying to reach the
government palace in Quito to protest free-trade talks with Washington.
(AP, 3/20/06)
2006 Mar 20, Chairman Michael
Dell, speaking in Bangalore, India, said Dell Inc. plans to double the
number of its employees in India to 20,000 in three years.
(AP, 3/20/06)
2006 Mar 20, Suspected insurgents
killed least seven policemen with roadside bombs on the third
anniversary of the US-led invasion of Iraq, and authorities reported
finding 10 more bullet-riddled bodies dumped in the capital. One was
that of a 13-year-old girl. Insurgents and sectarian gangs killed at
least 39 people.
(AP, 3/20/06)(SFC, 3/21/06, p.F7)
2006 Mar 20, Millions of Shiite
pilgrims, some of them flogging themselves with chains, surrounded a
shrine in the holy city of Karbala to commemorate the 40th and final
day of symbolic mourning for the Prophet Muhammad's grandson.
(AP, 3/20/06)
2006 Mar 20, Libyan leader Moamer
Kadhafi said Saddam Hussein should still be considered Iraq's legal
president and the current government illegitimate as it was elected
under an occupation regime.
(AFP, 3/20/06)
2006 Mar 20, In Nepal About 1,000
pro-democracy activists marched in Kathmandu demanding King Gyanendra
free political detainees and give up powers he seized last year.
(AP, 3/20/06)
2006 Mar 20, Palestinian gunmen
from the ousted Fatah Party stormed government buildings, briefly took
over a power plant and blocked a vital road in the Gaza Strip,
injecting more chaos into the volatile area as Hamas militants readied
to take power.
(AP, 3/20/06)
2006 Mar 20, Turkmenistan's
President Saparmurat Niyazov told his nation's youth to read his book
Rukhnama three times a day in order to go to heaven.
(AP, 3/20/06)
2006 Mar 20, Venezuela agreed to
sell fuel under preferential terms to an El Salvador association
created by a group of leftist mayors.
(AP, 3/20/06)
2007 Mar 20, Pres. Bush vowed that
his top aides will not testify under oath before congressional
committees on the scandal involving the firing of 8 US attorneys.
(SFC, 3/21/07, p.A1)
2007 Mar 20, In Arizona the
Hualapai Indian tribe invited a select few to the unveiling of the
horseshoe-shaped deck over the Grand Canyon in advance of a public
opening planned for March 28. Tour packages with deck access will range
in price from $49.95 to $199. The deck, which juts 70 feet beyond the
canyon's edge, will accommodate up to 120 guests at a time.
(AP, 3/21/07)
2007 Mar 20, Rescuers found
Michael Auberry, a 12-year-old Boy Scout, who was dehydrated and
disoriented after four days in the wooded mountains of North Carolina.
(AP, 3/20/08)
2007 Mar 20, The second flight of
Space Exploration Technologies' (SpaceX) low-cost Falcon 1 rocket
reached 200 miles altitude but did not make it to orbit due to the
premature shutdown of its second-stage Kestrel engine. SpaceX launched
the two-stage Falcon 1 rocket from its Omelek Island launch site in the
Marshall Islands, but the rocket failed to reach its intended 425-mile
(685-kilometer) orbit due to a roll control glitch.
(http://spaceflightnow.com/falcon/f2/)
2007 Mar 20, The WWF conservation
group said climate change, pollution, over extraction of water and
development are killing some of the world's most famous rivers
including China's Yangtze, India's Ganges and Africa's Nile.
(AP, 3/20/07)
2007 Mar 20, The African Union
urged the UN Security Council to back a peace deal signed between
Ivorian President Laurent Gbagbo and the opposition by gradually
pulling its troops out of the country.
(AP, 3/20/07)
2007 Mar 20, Authorities in
emergency-ruled Bangladesh said they have found "huge" amounts of
undisclosed money in the bank accounts of dozens of prominent figures
caught up in a major anti-graft drive.
(AP, 3/20/07)
2007 Mar 20, The British
government said schools have the right to ban students from wearing
Muslim veils if teachers believe the garments affect safety or pupils'
learning. Britain ordered its military to stop using cluster bombs that
lack self-destruct mechanisms in a decision intended to prevent the
weapons, used as recently as the beginning of the Iraq war, from
harming civilians.
(AP, 3/20/07)
2007 Mar 20, An explosion aboard
the HMS Tireless, a nuclear-powered Royal Navy submarine under an
Arctic ice cap, killed two British sailors and injured a crewmember.
(AP, 3/21/07)
2007 Mar 20, China approved four
foreign banks to begin local currency services to individual Chinese
customers, opening up access to the country's 30 trillion yuan ($4
trillion; 3 euros trillion) in household savings and surging demand for
credit cards and other financial services.
(AP, 3/20/07)
2007 Mar 20, Ecuador's
constitutional crisis took a new twist as alternate lawmakers were
escorted into Congress under the cover of darkness and sworn in to
replace some of the legislators fired by the country's highest
electoral court.
(AP, 3/20/07)
2007 Mar 20, Guatemala police
arrested 4 people on suspicion of being among those who orchestrated
the killings of three Salvadoran politicians and their driver in Feb 19.
(AP, 3/21/07)
2007 Mar 20, Taha Yassin Ramadan
(69), Saddam Hussein's former deputy, was hanged before dawn, the
fourth man to be executed in the killings of 148 Shiites following a
1982 assassination attempt against the former leader in the town of
Dujail. At least 15 people were killed or found dead, most in Baghdad,
as the war entered its fifth year. Iraqi and US troops backed by
American warplanes battled al-Qaida-linked insurgents for more than
five hours in clashes in Amiriyah, near Fallujah, that left eight
killed and five Iraqi policemen wounded.
(AP, 3/20/07)(AP, 3/21/07)
2007 Mar 20, Ali Mussa Dakdouk, a
senior Lebanese Hezbollah operative, was captured in southern Iraq.
(AP, 7/2/07)
2007 Mar 20, Heavy rains triggered
landslides that buried three homes in Pakistan's portion of Kashmir,
leaving 31 people dead.
(AP, 3/21/07)
2007 Mar 20, A US diplomat met
with the Palestinian finance minister, the first American contact with
the new Palestinian government and a sign of a break in policy between
Israel and its closest ally.
(AP, 3/20/07)
2007 Mar 20, In Peru 3 suspected
leftist rebels were shot to death in a clash with troops in the
highland jungle.
(AP, 3/20/07)
2007 Mar 20, Fire swept through a
nursing home in southern Russia after the night watchman ignored two
alarms, killing 62 people in the Azov Sea coast village of
Kamyshevatskaya, where the closest fire station was nearly an hour's
drive away.
(AP, 3/20/07)
2007 Mar 20, The commander of
African Union forces in Somalia pleaded for reinforcements as the AU's
security chief paid a flying visit to volatile Mogadishu.
(AFP, 3/20/07)
2007 Mar 20, The Madrid government
said El Hierro, one of the smallest of Spain's Canary Islands, is to
receive 100 percent of its electricity supply from renewable energy
sources.
(AFP, 3/20/07)
2007 Mar 20, Russia confirmed that
it has begun pulling out experts from the Iranian nuclear power plant
they were helping build and that it is withholding nuclear fuel for
Iran’s reactors.
(SFC, 3/21/07, p.A3)
2007 Mar 20, Nyamko Sabuni (37), a
Congolese immigrant and Sweden's first black minister, said the
oppression of women and girls in the name of family honor has become an
urgent problem in Sweden with the arrival of growing numbers of
immigrants over the past few years.
(AP, 3/20/07)
2007 Mar 20, Zambian President
Levy Mwanawasa urged southern Africa to take a new approach to
Zimbabwe, which he likened to a "sinking Titanic" as millions flee
economic and political turmoil.
(Reuters, 3/21/07)
2008 Mar 20, The X Prize
Foundation and sponsor Progressive Casualty Insurance Co. offered $10
million to the teams that can produce the most production-ready
vehicles that get 100 miles per gallon or more.
(AP, 3/20/08)
2008 Mar 20, North Carolina
lawmakers voted 109-5 to boot Rep. Thomas Wright, a Wilmington
Democrat, from office for mishandling $340,000 in loans and
contributions.
(SFC, 3/21/08, p.A4)
2008 Mar 20, In southern
Afghanistan security forces said an exchange of fire between British
soldiers and police left a policeman dead and two men wounded from each
side. A soldier with the NATO-led force died after being struck by a
bomb.
(AFP, 3/20/08)(AP, 3/21/08)
2008 Mar 20, Flemish Christian
Democrat Yves Leterme took over as Belgian prime minister, ending nine
months of deadlock.
(AP, 3/20/08)
2008 Mar 20, Brazilian officials
said an outbreak of dengue in Rio de Janeiro state has killed at least
47 people this year.
(SFC, 3/21/08, p.A4)
2008 Mar 20, The Bank of England
said it would inject 5.0 billion pounds into short-term money markets
every week until April 9.
(AP, 3/20/08)
2008 Mar 20, China sent additional
troops into restive areas and made more arrests in the Tibetan capital
Lhasa in an effort to suppress anti-government protests even as the
Dalai Lama offered face-to-face negotiations with Chinese leaders.
Tibet authorities said they had arrested dozens of people involved in a
wave of anti-Chinese violence. China forced the last remaining foreign
journalists out of Tibet, and stepped up restrictions on Internet and
radio reports from people within the country.
(AP, 3/20/08)(Reuters, 3/20/08)(AP, 3/21/08)
2008 Mar 20, Cuba issued what
appears to be the first public report on prices and inflation in the
private sector, in an unusually realistic acknowledgment of the key
role the informal economy plays in island life.
(AP, 3/21/08)
2008 Mar 20, Israeli defense
officials announced they've worked out a tentative deal for Egypt to
become the main electricity supplier to the Gaza Strip.
(AP, 3/20/08)
2008 Mar 20, In Mali clashes began
around Tinzaouatene, near the Algerian border, as insurgents attacked
soldiers clearing mines in what the rebels feared was a prelude to a
government offensive. 3 soldiers were killed when their vehicle was
blown up by a mine and four captured in combat by the rebels.
(AFP, 3/23/08)
2008 Mar 20, Mozambican President
Armando Guebuza dismissed the head of the armed forces and his deputy,
barely a week after firing three senior ministers.
(AFP, 3/21/08)
2008 Mar 20, Fidelis Omeni, an
environment ministry official said, Nigeria has been suspended from the
International Convention on Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) for
alleged breaches of its provisions.
(AP, 3/20/08)
2008 Mar 20, Kim Yong-Nam, North
Korea's de facto head of state, arrived in Namibia as part of his
goodwill visit to three African nations, which also includes Angola and
Uganda. Namibia and North Korea hoped to strengthen their economic
ties. Kim Yong-Nam warned against countries plundering resources from
poor African countries.
(AFP, 3/20/08)
2008 Mar 20, A suicide car bomb
killed five Pakistani soldiers and wounded nine others near the Afghan
border.
(AP, 3/20/08)
2008 Mar 20, Palestinian militants
accidentally set off a large blast at a Hamas training base in the
central Gaza Strip, killing 2 members of the violent Islamic group and
wounding another.
(AP, 3/20/08)
2008 Mar 20, A Russian air force
Su-25 fighter jet blew up in flight near the Far East city of
Vladivostok and the pilot was killed.
(AP, 3/20/08)
2008 Mar 20, In Sri Lanka troops,
according to a statement the next day, ambushed ethnic Tamil rebels
with a roadside bomb, overran bunkers and engaged in firefights across
the north, killing 29 insurgents.
(AP, 3/21/08)
2008 Mar 20, Turkish warplanes
bombed Kurdish rebel hideouts in northern Iraq.
(AP, 3/20/08)
2008 Mar 20, Morgan Tsvangirai,
Zimbabwe's main opposition leader and presidential candidate in March
29 general elections, said that the voters' register was filled with
tens of thousands of ghost voters.
(AFP, 3/20/08)
2009 Mar 20, Two US Navy vessels,
a submarine and an amphibious ship, collided during the early morning
hours in the Strait of Hormuz between Iran and the Arabian peninsula.
The USS Hartford, a submarine, and the USS New Orleans, an amphibious
ship, collided. 15 sailors aboard the Hartford were slightly injured
but able to return to duty. No injuries were reported aboard the New
Orleans.
(AP, 3/20/09)
2009 Mar 20, The US Postal Service
said it will reduce management by 15%, offer early retirement to
150,000 workers and close 6 of 80 district offices in response to the
slowing economy and losses last year of $2.8 billion.
(SFC, 3/21/09, p.A4)
2009 Mar 20, Washington Mutual's
holding company sued federal regulators for billions of dollars, saying
the firesale of the bank's assets to JPMorgan Chase violated its rights.
(AP, 3/22/09)
2009 Mar 20, Walter Kuhlman (90),
SF Bay Area artist and teacher, died. He was a noted figure in the
postwar Bay Area abstract expressionist movement.
(SFC, 3/30/09, p.B3)
2009 Mar 20, Afghanistan's top
Muslim clerics urged President Hamid Karzai to push ahead with a
proposal for talks with the Taliban that would be mediated by Saudi
Arabia's King Abdullah. In northern Afghanistan 9 policemen and a
district chief were killed in heavy fighting with Taliban insurgents. 4
Canadian troops and a local interpreter were killed in two separate
explosions. Another NATO soldier was killed in a "hostile incident" in
the south.
(AP, 3/20/09)(AFP, 3/20/09)(Reuters, 3/21/09)
2009 Mar 20, Tens of thousands of
Angolans welcomed Pope Benedict XVI. He urged Angolans to continue on
the path of reconciliation after nearly three decades of civil war,
saying dialogue could overcome all conflict and tension.
(AP, 3/20/09)
2009 Mar 20, China said a new WTO
report rejected the majority of intellectual property complaints made
by the US and broadly backed Beijing's stance against commercial piracy.
(AP, 3/20/09)
2009 Mar 20, The African Union
suspended Madagascar, the strongest condemnation by the international
community since opposition leader Andry Rajoelina took power with the
support of the army.
(Reuters, 3/20/09)
2009 Mar 20, EU leaders pledged a
125 billion euros in support for eastern Europe and the IMF after
rejecting calls to plough more taxpayer cash into their own faltering
economies.
(AFP, 3/20/09)
2009 Mar 20, In France several
teenagers were taken into custody after 11 adults were injured in a
pellet gun shooting near a nursery school in Lyon.
(AP, 3/20/09)
2009 Mar 20, Iranian engineer
Majid Kakavand (37) was taken into custody in Paris as he arrived in
Paris from Moscow as part of a European tour with his wife. He was
arrested at the airport under a US warrant suspected of evading export
controls to buy US technology for Iran's military. He was held in La
Sante prison until Aug. 26, then released on condition he stay in
Paris. He faced a Feb. 17 Paris hearing on whether to be extradited to
the United States.
(AP, 1/22/10)
2009 Mar 20, In Iraq followers of
anti-US Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr protested US presence on the 6th
anniversary of the start of the Iraq war. In Baghdad’s Karrada district
a pair of roadside bombs exploded within 10 minutes of one another
wounding 4 police officers and 3 civilians.
(SFC, 3/21/09, p.A3)
2009 Mar 20, Mexico’s central bank
lowered its overnight lending rate by .75 to 6.75%, in response to the
deepening recession.
(WSJ, 3/20/09, p.A5)
2009 Mar 20, The Mexican army in
Saltillo, Coahuila, arrested Sigifrido Najera Talamantes, an alleged
drug trafficker. He was suspected of organizing an attack on a US
consulate as well as the killing of several soldiers in retaliation for
a government crackdown.
(AP, 3/20/09)
2009 Mar 20, North Korea closed
its southern border for the third time in recent days, even as it told
Seoul it would restore a military communications hot line severed last
week.
(AP, 3/20/09)
2009 Mar 20, In Sudan the Justice
and Equality Movement (JEM), a major rebel group in Darfur, said it had
decided to end peace talks with the Sudanese government until it lets
back aid groups expelled from the troubled region.
(AP, 3/20/09)
2009 Mar 20, The UN Security
Council gave a stamp of approval to Somalia's new unity government and
urged increased international aid to African Union (AU) peacekeepers
trying to contain the violence in the lawless country.
(AP, 3/20/09)
Go to http://www.timelinesdb.com
Go to March 21