Today in History - March 23
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752CE Mar 23,
Pope Stephen II was elected to succeed Pope Zacharias; however, Stephen
died 4 days later.
(AP, 3/23/97)(PTA, 1980, p.184)
1026 Mar 23, Koenraad II (Conrad
II) crowned himself king of Italy.
(SS, 3/23/02)
1066 Mar 23, The 18th recorded
perihelion passage of Halley's Comet. Haley’s Comet was seen and soon
after depicted on the Bayeux Tapestry. The 230-foot tapestry was
created by craftsmen working for a Norman Bishop to depict the 1066
Norman invasion. In 2005 Andrew Bridgeford authored “1066: The Hidden
History in the Bayeux Tapestry.”
(SS, 3/23/02)(NH, 7/98, p.78)(WSJ, 4/22/05, p.W6)
1153 Mar 23, Treaty of Konstanz
between Frederik I "Barbarossa" and Pope Eugene III.
(SS, 3/23/02)
1169 Mar 23, Shirkuh, Kurd
General, vizier of Cairo, Saladin's uncle, died.
(SS, 3/23/02)
1237 Mar 23, Jan of Brienne, King
of Jerusalem, Emperor of Constantinople, died.
(SS, 3/23/02)
1330 Mar 23, Riga surrendered to
the Livonian Order.
(LHC, 3/23/03)
1369 Mar 23, Pedro the Cruel, King
and tyrant of Castile and Leon, was murdered. Enrique, the illegitimate
son of Alfonso XI of Castile, killed his half brother Pedro I in the
Castilian civil war and became King Enrique I "the Bastard" of Castile.
(SS, 3/23/02)(Reuters, 12/23/06)
1490 Mar 23, 1st dated edition of
Maimonides "Mishna Torah" was published.
(SS, 3/23/02)
1555 Mar 23, Julius III (67), born
as Giovanni M. del Monte, Pope (1550-55), died. He was succeeded by
Marcellus II and then by Paul IV.
(TL-MB, 1988, p.19)(SS, 3/23/02)
1657 Mar 23, France and England
formed an alliance against Spain.
(HN, 3/23/98)
1568 Mar 23, Treaty of Longjumeau:
French Huguenots went on strike.
(SS, 3/23/02)
1579 Mar 23, Friesland joined the
Union of Utrecht.
(SS, 3/23/02)
1593 Mar 23, English
Congressionalist Henry Barrow was accused of slander.
(SS, 3/23/02)
1599 Mar 23, Thomas Selle,
composer, was born.
(SS, 3/23/02)
1630 Mar 23, French troops
occupied Pinerolo, Piedmont.
(SS, 3/23/02)
1638 Mar 23, Frederik Ruysch,
Dutch anatomist, was born.
(SS, 3/23/02)
1699 Mar 23, John Bartram,
naturalist, explorer, father of American botany, was born.
(SS, 3/23/02)
1708 Mar 23, English pretender to
the throne James III landed at Firth of Forth.
(SS, 3/23/02)
1736 Mar 23, Iman Willem Falck,
Dutch Governor of Ceylon (1765-83), was born.
(SS, 3/23/02)
1743 Mar 23, George Frideric
Handel's oratorio "Messiah" had its London premiere. During the
"Hallelujah Chorus," Britain's King George II, who was in attendance,
stood up — followed by the entire audience.
(AP, 3/23/08)
1749 Mar 23, Hugo Franz Karl
Alexander von Kerpen, composer, was born.
(SS, 3/23/02)
1749 Mar 23, Pierre-Simon Laplace
(d.1827), French mathematician, astronomer, physicist, was born.
(WSJ, 2/19/98,
p.A20)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pierre-Simon_Laplace)
1750 Mar 23, Johannes Matthias
Sperger, composer, was born.
(SS, 3/23/02)
1752 Mar 23, Pope Stephen II was
elected to succeed Zacharias. He died 2 days later.
(MC, 3/23/02)
1761 Mar 23, John W. de Winter,
Dutch Vice-Admiral (Battle at Kamperduin), was born.
(SS, 3/23/02)
1769 Mar 23, William Smith,
geologist (Strata Identified by Organized Fossils), was born.
(SS, 3/23/02)
11775 Mar 23, In a speech to the
Virginia Provincial Convention, assembled at Henrico Church in
Richmond, American revolutionary Patrick Henry made his famous plea for
independence from Britain, saying, "Give me liberty, or give me death!"
(AP, 3/23/97)(AH, 2/06, p.50)
1791 Mar 23, Etta Palm, a Dutch
champion of woman's rights, set up a group of women's clubs called the
Confederation of the Friends of Truth.
(HN, 3/23/99)
1792 Mar 23, Franz Joseph Haydn's
"Symphony No. 94 in G Major," also known as the "Surprise Symphony,"
was performed publicly for the first time, in London.
(AP, 3/23/97)
1794 Mar 23, Josiah Pierson
patented a "cold-header" (rivet) machine.
(SS, 3/23/02)
1794 Mar 23, Lieutenant-General
Tadeusz Kosciusko returned to Poland.
(SS, 3/23/02)
1806 Mar 23, Explorers Lewis and
Clark, having reached the Pacific coast, began their journey back East.
Lewis and Clark reached the Pacific Coast. [see Mar 21]
(AP, 3/23/97)(HN, 3/23/98)
1808 Mar 23, Napoleon's brother
Joseph took the throne of Spain.
(SS, 3/23/02)
1823 Mar 23, Schuyler Colfax, (R)
17th US Vice President (1869-73), was born.
(SS, 3/23/02)
1835 Mar 23, Charles Darwin
reached Los Arenales in the Andes.
(SS, 3/23/02)
1836 Mar 23, Coin Press was
invented by Franklin Beale.
(SS, 3/23/02)
1839 Mar 23, 1st recorded use of
"OK" [oll korrect] was in Boston's Morning Post.
(SS, 3/23/02)
1840 Mar 23, Draper took 1st
successful photo of the Moon (daguerreotype).
(SS, 3/23/02)
1842 Mar 23, Stendhal [Marie-Henri
Beyle], French author (b.1783), died at 59.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stendhal)
1848 Mar 23, Hungary proclaimed
its independence of Austria.
(HN, 3/23/99)
1849 Mar 23, Battle of Novara
(King Charles Albert of Sardinia vs. Italian republic). Austria’s Gen.
Radetzky (83) crushed the Piedmontese forces. Charles Albert abdicated
and was succeeded by his son, Victor Emmanuel II, who reigned until
1861.
(PCh, 1992, p.449)(SS, 3/23/02)
1857 Mar 23, Culinary expert
Fannie Farmer was born in Boston.
(AP, 3/23/07)
1857 Mar 23, Elisha Otis installed
the first modern passenger elevator in the 5-story Haughwout and Co.
building at 488 Broadway in New York City.
(www.theelevatormuseum.org/h/h-2.htm)(ON, 5/05, p.12)
1858 Mar 23, Eleazer A. Gardner of
Philadelphia patented the cable street car, which ran on overhead
cables.
(HN, 3/23/98)
1861 Mar 23, London's 1st
tramcars, designed by Mr. Train of New York, began operating.
(SS, 3/23/02)
1862 Mar 23, Battle of Kernstown,
Va., began. Winchester, Va., was another embattled town. Confederate
General Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson faced his only defeat at the Battle
of Kernstown, Va., as he began his Valley Campaign.
(HN, 3/23/98)(HN, 3/23/99)(SS, 3/23/02)
1864 Mar 23, Encounter at Camden,
AR.
(SS, 3/23/02)
1865 Mar 23, General Sherman and
Cox's troops reached Goldsboro, NC.
(SS, 3/23/02)
1867 Mar 23, Congress passed a 2nd
Reconstruction Act over President Johnson's veto.
(SS, 3/23/02)
1868 Mar 23, Gov. Henry Haight
signed an act that created the Univ. of California and wed the
insolvent College of California to the state with the promised backing
of 150,000 acres of federal land. The line "Westward the course of
empire takes its way" from a 1752 poem by Irish Bishop Berkeley had
earlier inspired the founders of Berkeley, Ca., to name their city and
university after Berkeley.
(SFEC, 4/18/99, Z1 p.2)
1868 Mar 23, University of
California was founded in Oakland, CA. Legislator John W. Dwinelle
helped establish the Univ. of California and Dwinelle Hall was named
for him. The first chancellor was Clark Kerr, for whom the Clark Kerr
campus was named. Its first president was Henry Durant for whom Durant
Hall was named. Its 8th president was Benjamin Ide Wheeler and the 17th
president was Robert Gordon Sproul, for whom Sproul Plaza was named.
Later the Haas family of SF contributed $23.75 million on behalf of
Walter A. Haas Sr., who ran Levi Strauss & Co. for several decades.
The Doreen B. Townsend Center for the Humanities was started with a $5
million pledge from Ms. Townsend, a UC alumna.
(SFC, 12/30/96, p.A15)(SS, 3/23/02)
1880 Mar 23, John Stevens of
Neenah, Wis., patented the grain crushing mill. This mill allowed flour
production to increase by 70 percent.
(HN, 3/23/98)
1881 Mar 23, Hermann Staudinger,
chemist, plastics researcher (Nobel '53), was born in Germany.
(SS, 3/23/02)
1881 Mar 23, Roger Martin du
Guard, French novelist (Les Thibault-Nobel 1937), was born.
(SS, 3/23/02)
1881 Mar 23, Boers and Britain
signed a peace accord. This ended the 1st Boer war.
(SS, 3/23/02)
1881 Mar 23, Gas lamp set fire to
Nice, France, opera house and 70 died.
(SS, 3/23/02)
1887 Mar 23, Juan Gris, cubist
painter (Still Life Before an Open Window), was born in Spain.
(SS, 3/23/02)
1887 Mar 23, Felix Felixovitch
Yussupov (Youssoupoff), Russian prince, murderer of Rasputin, was born.
(SS, 3/23/02)
1888 Mar 23, Morrison R. Waite
(b.1816), US Supreme Court Chief Justice (1874-1888), died after
serving for 14 years. He interpreted constitutional amendments after
the Civil War.
(SFC, 9/6/05,
p.A4)(www.oyez.org/oyez/resource/legal_entity/43/)
1889 Mar 23, President Harrison
opened Oklahoma for white colonization.
(SS, 3/23/02)
1896 Mar 23, Umberto Giordano's
opera "Andrea Chénier" premiered in Milan.
(SS, 3/23/02)
1898 Mar 23, Georgios Grivas,
Greek General, opposition leader on Cyprus, was born.
(SS, 3/23/02)
1900 Mar 23, Erich Fromm (d.1980),
German-American psychologist (Sane Society), was born in Frankfurt,
Germany. He wrote "The Sane Society." “Modern man thinks he loses
something, time, when he does not do things quickly. Yet he does not
know what to do with the time he gains, except kill it.”
(AP, 4/21/97)(HN, 3/23/99)(SS, 3/23/02)
1901 Mar 23, Dame Nellie Melba
revealed the secret of her now famous toast.
(SS, 3/23/02)
1901 Mar 23, The world learned
that Boers were starving to death in British concentration camps.
(HN, 3/23/98)
1901 Mar 23, A group of U.S. Army
soldier led by Brig. Gen. Frederick Funston captured Emilio Aguinaldo,
the leader of the Philippine Insurrection of 1899.
(HN, 3/23/99)
1902 Mar 23, Kálmán
Tisza (71), premier of Hungary (1875-90), died.
(SS, 3/23/02)
1903 Mar 23, The Wright brothers
obtained an airplane patent.
(HN, 3/23/98)
1907 Mar 23, Daniele Bovet,
Swiss-born Italian pharmacologist, was born.
(HN, 3/23/01)
1908 Mar 23, Joan Crawford,
American actress, was born. She is best known for her role in Mildred
Pierce.
(HN, 3/23/99)
1908 Mar 23, In San Francisco
Durham White Stevens (56), Japan’s foreign advisor to Korea, was shot
by a Korean nationalist. Stevens died 2 days later from internal
injuries. Chang In Hwan and Chun Myung Un had attacked Stevens as he
approached the ferry landing. Chun was released from prison in June,
1908, and fled the country. Chang was convicted of 2nd degree
manslaughter and sentenced to 25 years in prison. He was paroled after
10 years.
(AH, 10/07, p.54-58)
1909 Mar 23, Theodore Roosevelt
began an African safari sponsored by the Smithsonian Institution and
National Geographic Society.
(HN, 3/23/98)
1909 Mar 23, British Lt.
Shackleton found the magnetic South Pole.
(HN, 3/23/98)
1910 Mar 23, Akira Kurosawa,
Japanese film director (Living, Rashomon, The Seven Samurai), was born
in Tokyo, Japan.
(HN, 3/23/01)(SS, 3/23/02)
1910 Mar 23, 1st race at Los
Angeles Motordrome (1st US auto speedway).
(SS, 3/23/02)
1912 Mar 23, Werner von Braun,
rocket expert (I Aim at the Stars), was born in Wirsitz, Germany.
He led the development of the V-2 rocket during World War II.
(HN, 3/23/99)(SS, 3/23/02)
1912 Mar 23, Dixie Cup was
invented.
(SS, 3/23/02)
1913 Mar 23, A strong tornado
swept through Omaha, Neb., on Easter Sunday leaving over 100 fatalities
and millions of dollars in damage.
(SFC, 3/23/09, p.D8)
1915 Mar 23, Zion Mule Corp.
formed.
(SS, 3/23/02)
1917 Mar 23, A 4 day series of
tornadoes killed 211 in Midwest US.
(SS, 3/23/02)
1917 Mar 23, Austrian Emperor
Charles I made a peace proposal to French President Poincare.
(HN, 3/23/98)
1918 Mar 23, Alick Wickham dove
200' into Australia's Yarra River.
(SS, 3/23/02)
1918 Mar 23,
Crépy-en-Laonnoise: German artillery shelled Paris France and
256 were killed. The Paris bombs were named "Thick Bertha's Dike"
(nickname for the widow Krupp).
(SS, 3/23/02)
1918 Mar 23, Germany became the
1st country to recognize the independence of Lithuania. This was based
on the Lithuanian legislative act of Dec 11, 1917.
(LHC, 3/23/03)
1919 Mar 23, Benito Mussolini
founded his Fascist political movement in Milan, Italy. [see Feb 23]
(AP, 3/23/97)
1919 Mar 23, Bashkir ASSR (Bashkir
Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic) in the RSFSR (Russian Socialist
Federal Soviet Republic) was constituted.
(SS, 3/23/02)
1919 Mar 23, Moscow's
Politburo-Central Committee formed.
(SS, 3/23/02)
1920 Mar 23, Britain denounced the
U.S. because of their delay in joining the League of Nations.
(HN, 3/23/98)
1920 Mar 23, The Perserikatan
Communist of India (PKI) political party formed.
(SS, 3/23/02)
1921 Mar 23, Arthur G. Hamilton
set a new parachute record, safely jumping 24,400 feet.
(HN, 3/23/98)
1922 Mar 23, 1st airplane landed
at the US Capitol in Washington DC.
(SS, 3/23/02)
1923 Mar 23, Frank Silver and
Irving Conn released "Yes, We Have No Bananas."
(SS, 3/23/02)
1925 Mar 23, Tennessee became the
1st state to outlaw teaching the theory of evolution. Tennessee’s
Governor Austin Peay said, "the very integrity of the Bible in its
statement of man’s divine creation is denied by any theory that man
descended or has ascended from any lower order of animals." [see Mar
13,21]
(SS, 3/23/02)(MC, 3/23/02)
1925 Mar 23, Aleksei Kuropatkin
(76), Russian General, minister of War, died.
(SS, 3/23/02)
1927 Mar 23, Captain Hawthorne
Gray set a new balloon record soaring to 28,510 feet.
(HN, 3/23/98)
1929 Mar 23, Sir Roger Bannister,
the first man to run the mile in less than four minutes (May 6, 1954),
was born in England.
(HN, 3/23/99)(SS, 3/23/02)
1929 Mar 23, The 1st telephone
installed in White House.
(SS, 3/23/02)
1932 Mar 23, The executive
committee of the DAR (Daughters of the American Revolution) ruled to
exclude blacks from appearing at Constitution Hall.
(WSJ, 4/3/97, p.A19)
1932 Mar 23, Britain warned
Ireland that the loyalty oath was mandatory.
(HN, 3/23/98)
1933 Mar 23, Kroll Opera in Berlin
opened.
(SS, 3/23/02)
1933 Mar 23, The German Reichstag
adopted the Enabling Act, which effectively granted Adolf Hitler
dictatorial legislative powers, i.e. the power to rule by decree.
(AP, 3/23/97)(WSJ, 11/26/96,
p.A16)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enabling_act)
1935 Mar 23, France, Italy and
Britain agreed to present a unified front in response to Germany.
(HN, 3/23/98)
1936 Mar 23, Italy, Austria and
Hungary signed Pact of Rome.
(SS, 3/23/02)
1937 Mar 23, Los Angeles Railway
Co. started using PCC streetcars. PCC's are streetcars that were
originally designed under the direction of the Electric Railway
Presidents' Conference Committee, in an attempt by 25 U.S. and Canadian
transit companies to develop a standardized streetcar whose many
improvements would help to reverse the decline in transit use that had
begun in the 1920's. The committee's efforts began in late 1929, and
the first cars were put into service in New York in October 1936.
(SS, 3/23/02)(Internet)
1940 Mar 23, 1st radio broadcast
of "Truth or Consequences" on CBS.
(SS, 3/23/02)
1940 Mar 23, The All-India Muslim
League called for a Muslim homeland.
(SS, 3/23/02)
1942 Mar 23, During World War II,
the U.S. government began moving Japanese-Americans from their West
Coast homes to detention centers.
(AP, 3/23/97)
1942 Mar 23, The Japanese occupied
the Andaman Islands in the Indian Ocean.
(HN, 3/23/98)(SS, 3/23/02)
1942 Mar 23, Some 2,500 Jews of
Lublin were massacred or deported.
(SS, 3/23/02)
1943 Mar 23, Germans counter
attacked US lines in Tunisia.
(SS, 3/23/02)
1944 Mar 23, Nicholas Alkemade
fell 5,500 meter without a parachute and lived. [see Mar 25]
(SS, 3/23/02)
1944 Mar 23, A bomb assassination
against Southern Tirol congregation in Rome killed 33.
(SS, 3/23/02)
1945 Mar 23, Premier Winston
Churchill visited Montgomery's headquarter in Straelen.
(SS, 3/23/02)
1945 Mar 23, British 7th Black
Watch crossed the Rhine.
(SS, 3/23/02)
1945 Mar 23, Largest operation in
Pacific war: 1,500 US Navy ships bombed Okinawa.
(SS, 3/23/02)
1946 Mar 23, W. Averell Harriman
was chosen as the U.S. Ambassador to Britain.
(HN, 3/23/98)
1948 Mar 23, John Cunningham set a
world altitude record at 54,492' (18,133 meters).
(SS, 3/23/02)
1949 Mar 23, Sidney Kingsley's
"Detective Story" premiered in NYC.
(SS, 3/23/02)
1949 Mar 23, Israel signed a
ceasefire agreement with Lebanon.
(www.wikipedia.org)
1950 Mar 23, At the Academy
Awards, "All the King's Men" won best picture of 1949; its star,
Broderick Crawford, won best actor. Olivia de Havilland won best
actress for "The Heiress."
(AP, 3/23/00)
1950 Mar 23, "Great to Be Alive"
opened at Winter Garden Theater in NYC for 52 performances.
(SS, 3/23/02)
1950 Mar 23, UN World
Meteorological Organization was established.
(SS, 3/23/02)
1950 Mar 23, Sophocles Venizelos
formed liberal Greeks government.
(SS, 3/23/02)
1951 Mar 23, U.S. paratroopers
descended from flying boxcars in a surprise attack in Korea.
(HN, 3/23/98)
1951 Mar 23, Wages in France
increased 11%.
(SS, 3/23/02)
1953 Mar 23, Raoul Dufy, French
fauve painter, died.
(WSJ, 5/4/99, p.A20)(MC, 3/23/02)
1956 Mar 23, Pakistan became an
independent republic within the British Commonwealth. Officially the
Islamic Republic of Pakistan. Pakistan became the first Islamic
republic,
(HFA, '96, p.26)(AHD, p.943)(AP, 3/23/97) (HN,
3/23/98)
1956 Mar 23, Soviet students
protested the campaign to desanctify Stalin.
(HN, 3/23/98)
1957 Mar 23, US army sold its last
homing pigeons.
(SS, 3/23/02)
1960 Mar 23, Explorer 8 failed to
reach Earth orbit.
(SS, 3/23/02)
1962 Mar 23, Pres. John F. Kennedy
visited San Francisco and spoke at UC Berkeley on the 100th anniversary
of the Morrill Act. “For this university and so many other universities
across our country owe their birth to the most extraordinary piece of
legislation this country has ever adopted, and that is the Morrill Act,
signed by President Abraham Lincoln in the darkest and most uncertain
days of the Civil War, which set before the country the opportunity to
build the great land grant colleges of which this is so distinguished a
part. Six years later this university obtained its Charter.”
(http://tinyurl.com/6fbdog)
1962 Mar 23, William DeWitt bought
the Cincinnati Reds for $4,625,000.
(SS, 3/23/02)
1964 Mar 23, The UNCTAD 1 world
conference opened in Geneva.
(SS, 3/23/02)
1964 Mar 23, Peter Lorre (59),
actor (Casino Royale), died.
(SS, 3/23/02)
1965 Mar 23, Police in Casablanca,
Morocco, cracked down on students and workers campaigning for social
justice and about 100 were killed. In the 1970s the “March 23 movement”
for social rights was named for this day.
(SFC, 4/13/01, p.A14)(SS, 3/23/02)
1965 Mar 23, America's first
two-person space flight began as Gemini 3 blasted off from Cape Kennedy
with astronauts Virgil I. Grissom and John W. Young aboard for a nearly
five-hour flight. Young sneaked a corned beef sandwich on board, for
which he was later reprimanded.
(AP, 3/23/08)
1966 Mar 23, The 1st official
meeting after 400 years of Catholic and Anglican Church.
(SS, 3/23/02)
1967 Mar 23, Reverend Martin
Luther King Jr. called the Vietnam War the biggest obstacle to the
civil rights movement.
(HN, 3/23/98)
1968 Mar 23, Reverend Walter
Fauntroy became the 1st non-voting congressional delegate from
Washington DC, since Reconstruction.
(www.thehistorymakers.com/timeline/index.asp?string=1968)
1969 Mar 23, The teenage crusade
Rally for Decency in Miami drew some 30,000. Teenagers organized the
rally after Jim Morrison (24), the lead singer of The Doors rock group,
was charged with indecent exposure during a concert in Miami on March 1.
(http://forum.johndensmore.com/lofiversion/index.php/t2673.html)
1970 Mar 23, Mafia "Boss" Carlo
Gambino was arrested for plotting to steal $3 million.
(HN, 3/23/98)
1970 Mar 23, US performed the
Shaper nuclear test in Nevada.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Mandrel)
1971 Mar 23, The US Congress
proposed the 26th Amendment lowering the voting age from 21 to 18. It
was ratified on July 1, 1971. A similar law in 1970 had been challenged
in court.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twenty-sixth_Amendment_to_the_United_States_Constitution)
1971 Mar 23, USSR performed
underground nuclear test.
(www.atomicforum.org/russia/russiantesting.html)
1971 Mar 23, In Argentina General
Alehandro Lanusse seized power in a bloodless coup from General Roberto
Levingston. He proceeded to re-establish ties with China and allowed
Juan Domingo Peron to return to Argentina after 17 years of forced
exile.
(SFC, 8/27/96, p.A17)(WUD, 1994, p. 1688)
1972 Mar 23, Pres. Nixon discussed
his orders to undermine Chilean democracy after the leak of corporate
papers revealing collaboration between ITT and the CIA to rollback the
election of socialist leader Salvador Allende.
(www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB110/index.htm)
1973 Mar 23, US performed a
nuclear test at Nevada Test Site.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Toggle)
1973 Mar 23, After a 5½
year run, soap "Love is a Many Splendored Thing" ended.
(www.tv.com/love-is-a-many-splendored-thing/show/3273/summary.html)
1973 Mar 23, Yoko Ono was granted
permanent residence in US. John Lennon was given a final order to leave
the US within 60 days, while Yoko was allowed to remain indefinitely.
(http://specialsections.absoluteelsewhere.net/LennonLoreLegacy/nutopia.html)
1976 Mar 23, The
International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, adopted in 1948,
went into effect three months after the 35th nation ratified it.
(www.unhchr.ch/html/menu6/2/fs2.htm)
1978 Mar 23, The US performed
nuclear test at Nevada Test Site.
(www.iss.niiit.ru/ksenia/catal_nt/3_8.htm)
1978 Mar 23, UNIFIL forces arrived
in Lebanon setting up headquarters in Naqoura. In response to Israel’s
invasion, the UN Security Council passed Resolution 425 and Resolution
426 calling for the withdrawal of Israeli forces from Lebanon. The UN
Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) was created to enforce this mandate,
and restore peace and sovereignty to Lebanon.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1978_South_Lebanon_conflict)
1979 Mar 23, Paul McCartney and
Wings released "Goodnight Tonight."
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goodnight_Tonight)
1980 Mar 23, The deposed Shah of
Iran arrived in Egypt.
(http://openweb.tvnews.vanderbilt.edu/1980-3/1980-03-23-CBS-2.html)
1981 Mar 23, The U.S. Supreme
Court ruled that states could require, with some exceptions, parental
notification when teen-age girls seek abortions. U.S. Supreme Court
upheld a law making statutory rape a crime for men but not women.
(AP, 3/23/97)(HN, 3/23/98)
1982 Mar 23, Gen’l. Efrain Rios
Montt seized power from Pres. Lucas Garcia. Under his 17-month rule the
army burned Indian villages and killed thousands of suspected leftists.
Montt established the Guatemalan Republican Front (FRG).
(SFC, 7/31/98, p.D3)(SFC, 11/8/99, p.A10)(SFC,
6/14/01, p.A15)
1983 Mar 23, President Reagan
first proposed development of technology to intercept enemy missiles --
a proposal that came to be known as the Strategic Defense Initiative
(SDI), as well as "Star Wars."
(AP, 3/23/97)
1983 Mar 23, Dr. Barney Clark
(62), recipient of a permanent artificial heart, died at the University
of Utah Medical Center after 112 days with the device.
(AP, 3/23/97)
1985 Mar 23, Joshua Silver, Oxford
physicist, began contemplating the development of self adjusting
eyeglasses. By 2009 some 30,000 of Silver's specs had been distributed
to the poor in 15 countries; his eventual target is 100 million pairs.
(SSFC, 1/11/09, p.A6)(http://tinyurl.com/96buv9)
1986 Mar 23, In the 6th Golden
Raspberry Awards the film “Rambo: First Blood Part II” won.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1985_Golden_Raspberry_Awards)
1987 Mar 23, The American soap
opera "Bold and Beautiful" premiered.
(www.tv.com/the-bold-and-the-beautiful/show/1232/summary.html)
1987 Mar 23, Jerry Collins, a
millionaire greyhound racetrack owner, donated $1.3 million to help
evangelist Oral Roberts reach his goal of raising $8 million for
medical scholarships.
(AP, 3/23/97)
1987 Mar 23, US offered military
protection to Kuwaiti ships in the Persian Gulf.
(SS, 3/23/02)
1988 Mar 23, President Reagan
announced he would visit the Soviet Union for the first time, from May
29 until June 2, for his fourth summit meeting with Soviet leader
Mikhail S. Gorbachev.
(AP, 3/23/98)
1989 Mar 23 Fawn Hall, former
secretary to onetime National Security Council aide Oliver North,
completed two days of testimony at North’s Iran-Contra trial.
(AP, 3/23/99)
1989 Mar 23, Joel Steinberg was
sentenced to 25 years for killing his adopted daughter.
(SS, 3/23/02)
1989 Mar 23, Stanley Pons and
Martin Fleischmann, Univ. of Utah scientists, claimed they had produced
atomic fusion at room temperature.
(SS, 3/23/02)(WSJ, 9/5/03, p.B1)
1990 Mar 23, Former Exxon Valdez
Captain Joseph Hazelwood was sentenced by a judge in Anchorage, Alaska,
to help clean up Prince William Sound and pay $50,000 in restitution
for his role in the 1989 oil spill.
(AP, 3/23/00)
1990 Mar 23, Rene Enriquez (56),
actor (Hill St Blues), died of pancreatic cancer.
(www.imdb.com/name/nm0258089/)
1991 Mar 23, In Tennessee 20
tornadoes killed 5 people.
(SS, 3/23/02)
1991 Mar 23, Iraqi President
Saddam Hussein shuffled his Cabinet, but kept in place his hard-line
ministers of interior and defense to direct a crackdown on rebellion
against his rule. A popular uprising had been prompted by Pres. Bush
and 15 of 18 provinces were liberated, but no American help followed
and Hussein’s forces crushed the intifada.
(AP, 3/23/01)(WSJ, 9/10/02, p.A12)
1992 Mar 23, The president of the
U.N. Security Council announced that Libya had offered to surrender two
men suspected in the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 to the Arab League.
Libya reversed itself two days later; however, the suspects surrendered
for trial seven years later. One was subsequently convicted, the other
found innocent.
(AP, 3/23/02)
1992 Mar 23, Friedrich A. von
Hayek (92), British economist, Nobel winner (1974), died. His books
included Road to Serfdom (1944) and “The Constitution of Liberty”
(1960). In 2004 Bruce Caldwell authored “Hayek’s Challenge: An
Intellectual biography of F.A. Hayek.”
(SS, 3/23/02)(Econ, 3/6/04, p.74)
1993 Mar 23, In his first formal
news conference since taking office, President Clinton suggested
restricting the duty assignment of homosexuals in the military as a way
of allowing openly gay personnel; however, the idea was quickly
abandoned.
(AP, 3/23/98)
1993 Mar 23, Scientists announced
they'd found the renegade gene that causes Huntington's disease.
(AP, 3/23/98)
1993 Mar 23, Hans Werner Richter
(b.1908), German writer, founder (Gruppe 47), died.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hans_Werner_Richter)
1994 Mar 23, Wayne Gretzky broke
Gordie Howe’s National Hockey League career record with his 802nd goal.
(AP, 3/23/99)
1994 Mar 23, Amy Fisher's lover,
Joey Buttafuoco, was released from jail after 4 months and 9 days.
(SS, 3/23/02)
1994 Mar 23, Twenty-three
paratroopers were killed when a F-16 fighter jet and C-130 transport
collided while landing at Pope Air Force Base in North Carolina and the
F-16 skidded into another transport on the ground.
(AP, 3/23/99)
1994 Mar 23, In Mexico Luis
Donaldo Colosio (44), the ruling party's pres. candidate, was murdered
while campaigning in Tijuana, Mexico. Mario Aburto later confessed to
shooting Colosio twice and was sentenced to a 45-year sentence. The
events were later examined by Sebastian Rotella in his book: “Twilight
on the Line: Underworlds and Politics at the US-Mexican Border.”
(WSJ, 12/5/95, p.A-14)(SFC, 4/18/96, p.a-13)(SFC,
8/8/96, p.A8)(SFEC, 1/25/98, BR p.9)
1994 Mar 23, Actress Giulietta
Masina (b.1921 ), wife of Federico Felini, died in Rome.
(AP, 3/23/99)(www.imdb.com/name/nm0556399/)
1994 Mar 23, A Russian Airbus
A-310 crashed in Siberia and some 70 people were killed.
(www.nupi.no/cgi-win/Russland/krono.exe?6223)
1995 Mar 23, "How To Succeed in
Business Without Really Trying" opened at the Roy Rodgers NYC for 548
performances.
(SS, 3/23/02)
1995 Mar 23, Secretary of State
Warren Christopher met with Russian Foreign Minister Andrei Kozyrev in
Geneva; afterward, Kozyrev said the U.S.-Russia "honeymoon has come to
an end," referring to disagreements over Chechnya and nuclear sales to
Iran.
(AP, 3/23/00)
1995 Mar 23, Former Mexican deputy
attorney general Mario Ruiz Massieu, brother of slain Francisco, was
arrested in Newark N.J. after failing to declare $46,000 in cash.
(SFC, 3/13/97, p.A14)(SFC, 7/15/98, p.A8)(SFC,
8/28/99, p.A1)
1996 Mar 23, Taiwan held its first
direct presidential elections; incumbent Lee Teng-hui was the landslide
victor.
(AP, 3/23/97)
1997 Mar 23, "Mandy Patinkin in
Concert" closed at Lyceum Theater NYC.
(SS, 3/23/02)
1997 Mar 23, In the 17th Golden
Raspberry Awards: Striptease won. The Golden Raspberries or Razzies
were created by John Wilson in 1980, intended to complement the Academy
Awards by dishonoring the worst acting, screenwriting, songwriting,
directing, and films that the film industry had to offer.
(http://tinyurl.com/cotd8)
1997 Mar 23, The American Cancer
Society recommended that women begin annual mammograms at age 40.
(AP, 3/23/98)
1997 Mar 23, In Belarus American
diplomat Serge Alexandrov, first secretary at the US embassy in Minsk,
was ordered to leave the country for participating in an
anti-government march. The Foreign Ministry accused him of being a CIA
agent.
(SFC, 3/25/97, p.A14)
1997 May 23, In Iran presidential
elections put conservative speaker Ali Akbar Nateq Nouri against
left-leaning cleric Mohammad Khatami.
(WSJ, 3/20/97, p.A12)
1997 Mar 23, Amid renewed
violence, Israel's Cabinet called on the Palestinian Authority to crack
down on Islamic militant groups, but stopped short of suspending peace
talks.
(AP, 3/23/98)
1998 Mar 23, In the 70th Academy
Awards the film Titanic tied the record by winning 11 Oscars including
best picture and best director (James Cameron) and song ("My Heart Will
Go On"). Helen Hunt and Jack Nicholson won the best actor awards and
Kim Bassinger and Robin Williams won the best supporting actors awards.
(SFC, 3/24/98, p.A1)(AP, 3/23/08)
1998 Mar 23, Pres. Clinton visited
Ghana, the first nation where Peace Corps volunteers were sent. He
hailed “the new face of Africa” as he opened a historic six-nation.
(SFC, 3/21/98, p.A13)(AP, 3/23/99)
1998 Mar 23, The U.S. Supreme
Court allowed term limits for state lawmakers.
(AP, 3/23/99)
1998 Mar 23, The California State
Supreme Court ruled that the Boy Scouts were a private organization and
not subject to the state’s anti-discrimination laws.
(SFC, 3/24/98, p.A1)
1998 Mar 23, In California a LA
Fire Dept. helicopter crashed while transporting an injured 12-year-old
girl to a hospital. The girl and 3 others were killed.
(SFC, 3/24/98, p.A3)
1998 Mar 23, In Pakistan rival
groups clashed in Karachi and 17 people were killed.
(SFEC, 4/5/98, p.T14)
1998 Mar 23, Serbian and Albanian
leaders agree to allow ethnic Albanians into the state university
system in Kosovo.
(SFC, 3/24/98, p.A10)
1998 Mar 23, In South Korea the
president ordered the pay of 930,000 public servants cut to raise funds
for the unemployed.
(WSJ, 3/24/98, p.A1)
1998 Mar 23, Pres. Yeltsin fired
his entire cabinet. Some cabinet members were ordered to stay until
replacements were named. He named Sergei Kiriyenko (35), an energy
minister, as acting premier.
(SFC, 3/23/98, p.A1)(WSJ, 3/24/98, p.A1)
1999 Mar 23, The US Senate voted
58-41 to support US participation in a NATO bombing of Serbia.
(WSJ, 3/24/99, p.A1)
1999 Mar 23, NATO
Secretary-General Javier Solana gave the formal go-ahead for airstrikes
against Serbian targets following the failure of Kosovo peace talks.
(AP, 3/23/00)
1999 Mar 23, Japanese navy ships
fired warning shots at 2 suspected North Korean spy vessels that
entered its waters 180 miles northwest of Tokyo.
(WSJ, 3/24/99, p.A1)
1999 Mar 23, In Paraguay vice
president Luis Maria Argana was shot to death in Asuncion. Paraguay
later tried without success to extradite Lino Oviedo from Argentina for
involvement in the assassination.
(WSJ, 3/24/99, p.A1)(SFC, 9/4/99, p.A13)
1999 Mar 23, Russia's Prime
Minister Primakov turned his plane home and cancelled talks in
Washington following the NATO decision to bomb Serbia.
(WSJ, 3/24/99, p.A21)
2000 Mar 23, President Clinton
visited the western Indian village of Nayla.
(AP, 3/23/01)
2000 Mar 23, In a first, Speaker
Dennis Hastert named a Catholic priest, the Reverend Daniel Coughlin,
as the new House chaplain.
(AP, 3/23/01)
2000 Mar 23, Researchers reported
that a blood test for C-reactive protein could serve as a good
indicator for heart attack risk.
(SFC, 3/23/00, p.A4)
2000 Mar 23, Scientists reported
that the genetic code of the fruit fly, Drosophila melanogaster, had
been decoded. 60% of the flies 13,600 genes are identical to human
genes.
(SFC, 3/24/00, p.A2)
2000 Mar 23, A 776-foot Greek
cargo ship, Leader L, sank in the Atlantic 400 miles off of Bermuda. 31
Filipino crew members were forced into life boats. 13 men were rescued
with Canadian Sea King helicopters. 6 bodies were found and 12 were
presumed dead as the ship pulled down one life raft.
(SFC, 3/24/00, p.D3)(SFC, 3/25/00, p.A12)(WSJ,
3/27/00, p.A1)
2000 Mar 23, Horst Koehler (57) of
Germany, president of the European Bank for Reconstruction and
Development, became the new president of the 182-nation IMF following
endorsement by the 24-member board of directors.
(SFC, 3/24/00, p.D4)
2000 Mar 23, Germany completed a
$5 billion agreement on how to allocate funds among surviving forced
laborers and other workers in Hitler's concentration camps.
(SFC, 3/24/00, p.A12)
2000 Mar 23, Pope John Paul the
Second paid his respects at Yad Vashem, Israel’s Holocaust memorial.
(AP, 3/23/01)
2000 Mar 23, Pakistan announced
that local elections would begin in Dec.
(SFC, 3/24/00, p.A12)
2000 Mar 23, Russia's food supply
was threatened with a virulent strain of potato blight and live-stock
feed shortages were forecast.
(WSJ, 3/23/00, p.A1)
2000 Mar 23, In Rwanda Pres.
Pasteur Bizimungu resigned following a month long debate on ethnic
tensions and corruption. In 2004 Bizimungu was sentenced to 15 years
for inciting violence after a falling out with Kagame.
(SFC, 3/24/00, p.D3)(WSJ, 6/8/04, p.A1)
2000 Mar 23, In Taiwan Lee
Teng-hui resigned as leader of the ruling Nationalist Party.
(SFC, 3/24/00, p.D3)
2001 Mar 23, It was reported that
the Bush administration had removed the CIA as a broker between Israeli
and Palestinian security services.
(SFC, 3/23/01, p.D4)
2001 Mar 23, Mississippi Gov.
Ronnie Musgrove signed a law that mandated public schools to display
“In God We Trust” in classrooms, cafeterias and auditoriums.
(SFC, 3/24/01, p.C1)
2001 Mar 23, Newspaper columnist
Rowland Evans died in Washington D.C. at age 79.
(AP, 3/23/02)
2001 Mar 23, David McTaggart (68),
founder of Greenpeace Int’l., was killed in a car crash in Umbria,
Italy.
(SFC, 3/24/01, p.A22)(AP, 3/23/02)
2001 Mar 23, In Britain Prime
Minister Blair ordered the creation of 2-square-mile killing zones
around every farm infected with hoof-and-mouth disease as the number of
daily cases escalated.
(SFC, 3/24/01, p.A10)
2001 Mar 23, It was reported that
22 Guam teenagers had committed suicide over the past 26 months.
Members of a secretive club called Prestigious Angels promised to kill
themselves if their friends would follow.
(SFC, 3/23/01, p.D6)
2001 Mar 23, In Indonesia attacks
by Dayaks in Central Kalimantan left at least 12 people dead.
(SFC, 3/24/01, p.A12)
2001 Mar 23, Moscow expelled 4 US
diplomats for “activities incompatible with their status.” Russia said
it was expelling 50 U.S. diplomats in retaliation for the expulsion of
50 Russians by the U.S.
(SFC, 3/24/01, p.A10)(AP, 3/23/02)
2001 Mar 23, Russia's orbiting
135-ton Mir space station ended its 15-year odyssey with a fiery plunge
into the South Pacific between Chile and New Zealand.
(SFC, 3/23/01, p.A1)(AP, 3/23/02)
2002 Mar 23, The History Channel
hosted it’s 4th annual Harry Awards, named after Herodotus, for the
best historical film of 2001.
(WSJ, 3/18/02, p.A16)
2002 Mar 23, Irina Slutskaya
captured her first world title, defeating four-time champion Michelle
Kwan at the World Figure Skating Championships in Nagano, Japan.
(AP, 3/23/03)
2002 Mar 23, Pres. Bush met with
Pres. Toledo in Lima, Peru, and called for a “war without quarter”
against terrorism and drug trafficking in the region. 18 demonstrators
were arrested.
(SSFC, 3/24/02, p.A17)
2002 Mar 23, It was reported a the
Air Force Academy had implicated 38 cadets in a drug scandal that began
in Dec 2000.
(SFC, 3/23/02, p.A4)
2002 Mar 23, Eileen Farrell (82),
opera and pop soprano, died in New Jersey. In 1999 Brian Kellow
co-wrote her biography “Can’t Help Singing.”
(SFC, 3/25/02, p.B5)
2002 Mar 23, Girls in Afghanistan
celebrated their return to school for the first time in years.
(AP, 3/23/03)
2002 Mar 23, In Pakistan members
of the Alliance for Restoration of Democracy were arrested and a rally
for the ouster of Pres. Musharraf was blocked.
(SSFC, 3/24/02, p.A22)
2003 Mar 23, In the 75th annual
Academy Awards "Chicago" won for Best Picture, Roman Polanski for best
director (The Pianist), Adrien Brody for best actor (The Pianist),
Nicole Kidman for best actress (The Hours), Chris Cooper for
best-supporting actor (Adaptation), and Catherine Zeta-Jones for best
supporting actress (Chicago).
(SFC, 3/24/03, p.C5)
2003 Mar 23, Michael Moore
criticized Pres. Bush and the US-led war in Iraq during his acceptance
speech at the Academy Awards, drawing a partial standing ovation and
some jeers from Hollywood's elite.
(AP, 3/24/03)
2003 Mar 23, A Maryland nurse died
5 days after being vaccinated for smallpox. A 2nd nurse died Mar 27.
(SFC, 3/26/03, p.A6)(SFC, 3/28/03, p.A7)
2003 Mar 23, Adrian O'Neill
Robinson (25) allegedly shot and killed his father (56) in Hamilton,
Georgia. He then kidnapped 2 nuns, one of whom was found 3 days later,
mutilated in a Norfolk, Va., parking lot. The other nun was found ok.
(SFC, 3/27/03, p.A7)
2003 Mar 23, US and allied Afghan
forces clashed with militiamen loyal to a renegade warlord in a battle
that left up to 10 rebels dead. A US Air Force helicopter on a mercy
mission to help 2 injured Afghan children crashed in southeastern
Afghanistan, killing all 6 people on board.
(AP, 3/24/03)
2003 Mar 23, In northern
Afghanistan flooding and heavy rains killed at least 11 people and
damaged hundreds of houses.
(AP, 3/27/03)
2003 Mar 23, In the 5th day of
Operation Iraqi Freedom US-led warplanes and helicopters attacked
Republican Guard units defending Baghdad while ground troops advanced
to within 50 miles of the Iraqi capital. Pres. Bush put a $75 billion
price tag on a down payment for the war. The 507th Maintenance Company
was ambushed after it made a wrong turn into Nasiriya; 11 soldiers were
killed, seven were captured, including Pfc. Jessica Lynch. Lori
Piestewa (23) was killed, with the gruesome distinction of being the
first native American in the US army to be killed in combat. Lynch was
rescued on April 1, 2003.
(AP, 3/24/03)(SFC, 4/14/03,
p.A1)(www.nativeweb.org/weblog/piestewa/)(AP, 3/23/08)
2003 Mar 23, A US bomb struck a
bus at a service area in al-Rutba, Iraq, enroute from Baghdad to Syria.
5 people were killed.
(SFC, 3/25/03, p.W7)
2003 Mar 23, A British Royal Air
Force Tornado jet was shot down by a U.S. Patriot missile in the first
reported incident of "friendly" fire in Iraq.
(AP, 3/23/03)
2003 Mar 23, Arab nations called
for an emergency Security Council meeting to demand an end to the
US-led war against Iraq and the withdrawal of all invading forces.
(AP, 3/24/03)
2003 Mar 23, In the CAR Gen.
Francois Bozize said Abel Goumba (76), a veteran opposition leader,
will oversee daily operations in the government.
(AP, 3/23/03)
2003 Mar 23, A Chechen referendum
strongly approved a new constitution that confirmed Chechnya as part of
Russia and endorsed rules for electing a Chechen president and
parliament.
(AP, 3/23/03)(AP, 3/24/03)(SFC, 3/24/03, p.A11)
2003 Mar 23, Iraqi state
television showed two men said to have been the US crew of an Apache
helicopter forced down during heavy fighting in central Iraq. Iraqi
forces captured at least 5 soldiers of an Army maintenance company. US
Central Command reported 12 missing. About 20 Americans were captured
or killed at Nasiriyah.
(AP, 3/24/03)(SFC, 3/24/03, p.W1)(WSJ, 3/24/03, p.A1)
2003 Mar 23, In Kashmir gunmen
shot to death Abdul Majid Dar, the former leader of Kashmir's largest
Islamic rebel group, in what may have been retribution for talks with
the Indian government.
(AP, 3/23/03)
2003 Mar 23, In Nicaragua the
party of President Enrique Bolanos abandoned him after months of
quarreling over the government's prosecution of his predecessor, a
fellow party member.
(AP, 3/24/03)
2003 Mar 23, Slovenes endorsed
membership in NATO and the European Union.
(AP, 3/23/03)(AP, 3/24/03)
2004 Mar 23, The Bush
administration reported that the Medicare Trust Fund would run out of
money in 2019, 7 years earlier that projected in 2003.
(SFC, 3/24/04, p.A1)
2004 Mar 23, Defense Secretary
Donald H. Rumsfeld and Secretary of State Colin Powell offered a strong
defense of the administration's pre-Sept. 11 actions as they testified
before a federal commission reviewing the 2001 attacks.
(AP, 3/23/05)
2004 Mar 23, The US Coast Guard
said it had seized over 14.5 tons of cocaine from 3 fishing boats off
Mexico and Ecuador over the last 2 months.
(SFC, 3/24/04, p.B3)
2004 Mar 23, Random House
published "Trump: How To Get Rich," by Donald Trump.
(WSJ, 3/22/04, p.B1)
2004 Mar 23, The Rev. Sun Myung
Moon declared himself the Messiah during a ceremony at the Dirksen
Building in Wash., DC. Over a dozen US lawmakers attended the reception.
(SFC, 6/24/04, p.A2)
2004 Mar 23, A Unocal helicopter
with 10 on board went missing in the Gulf of Mexico. The Coast Guard
found 4 bodies.
(WSJ, 3/25/04, p.A1)
2004 Mar 23, Joseph Iadone
(b.1914), master lute player, died in Connecticut. His few CDs were all
on the Lyrichord label (www.lyrichord.com).
(WSJ, 4/27/04, p.D10)
2004 Mar 23, Chen Zhongwei (74), a
Chinese surgeon credited with pioneering the process of reattaching
severed limbs, died. Chen successfully reattached the severed right
hand of an injured factory worker in 1963, in the first operation of
its kind.
(AP, 3/27/04)
2004 Mar 23, In Iraq gunmen opened
fire on a van filled with police recruits south of Baghdad, killing
nine. Other assailants shot and killed two policemen, twin brothers,
north of the capital.
(AP, 3/23/04)
2004 Mar 23, Israel threatened the
entire Hamas leadership with death as Abdel Aziz Rantisi took command
of the group in Gaza.
(WSJ, 3/24/04, p.A1)
2004 Mar 23, Israeli helicopter
gunships fired on gunmen in southern Lebanon, killing two and wounding
one.
(AP, 3/23/04)
2004 Mar 23, A chamber of
Venezuela's Supreme Court dealt a blow to opponents of President Hugo
Chavez by overruling fellow justices on a petition for recalling him
from office.
(AP, 3/23/04)
2005 Mar 23, Pres. Bush, Pres.
Fox, and PM Paul Martin at a one-day summit in Texas signed a deal that
provides for sweeping co-operation between Canada, Mexico and the US on
security, economic and health issues. There was no sign of progress on
touchy trade disputes. They agreed to boost border security and forge
common approaches on everything from cargo inspection to maritime and
aviation safety.
(AP, 3/24/05)
2005 Mar 23, A federal appeals
court refused to reinsert Terri Schiavo's feeding tube and the Florida
Legislature decided not to intervene in the epic struggle over the
brain-damaged woman; Schiavo's parents then filed a request with the
Supreme Court.
(AP, 3/23/06)
2005 Mar 23, Truck driver Tyrone
Williams was convicted in a federal court in Houston for his role in
the 2003 deaths of 19 illegal immigrants he was smuggling across Texas.
(AP, 3/23/06)
2005 Mar 23, In Texas City, Texas,
an explosion at BP's 1,200-acre plant near Houston killed 15 and
injured more than 100 others. BP later acknowledged faulty equipment at
the plant.
(AP, 3/24/05)(SFC, 3/25/05, p.A4)(WSJ, 7/27/05, p.A1)
2005 Mar 23, Chinese President Hu
Jintao stepped up pressure on North Korea to return to nuclear talks,
telling its visiting premier that dialogue is the only way to settle
the dispute.
(AP, 3/23/05)
2005 Mar 23, Chinese state media
reported that already severe water shortages are worsening due to heavy
pollution of lakes and aquifers and urban development projects with a
big thirst for water, such as lawns and fountains.
(AP, 3/23/05)
2005 Mar 23, In southern Colombia
Communist rebels ambushed a military convoy, killing 10 soldiers in a
hail of gunfire and explosions.
(AP, 3/23/05)
2005 Mar 23, It was reported that
Dubai Holding, controlled by the ruler of Dubai, had reached a deal to
buy 21,000 rental apartments in the US Sunbelt for $1 billion.
(WSJ, 3/23/05, p.B6)
2005 Mar 23, Police fired tear gas
into Ecuador's Congress before dawn to disperse opposition lawmakers
who refused to leave after a legislative session that cut short a
debate on candidates for attorney general.
(AP, 3/23/05)
2005 Mar 23, France presented a
U.N. resolution allowing for the prosecution of Sudanese war crimes
suspects at the International Criminal Court, forcing the US to choose
between accepting a body it opposes or casting a politically damaging
veto.
(AP, 3/23/05)
2005 Mar 23, Iran agreed to extend
nuclear talks with EU nations and maintain a suspension of uranium
enrichment but insisted it won’t scrap the program.
(WSJ, 3/24/05, p.A1)
2005 Mar 23, Iraqi commandos
backed by US forces raided a suspected guerrilla training camp and
reportedly killed 85 fighters. Insurgents said only 11 were killed. 7
Iraqi commandos were killed.
(AP, 3/23/05)(SFC, 3/25/05, p.A3)
2005 Mar 23, In Lebanon a bomb
killed three people in a Christian commercial center, the second attack
in an anti-Syrian stronghold in five days.
(AP, 3/23/05)
2005 Mar 23, In Manila a terror
suspect said the southern Philippines has become a major training
ground for regional terror group Jemaah Islamiyah, graduating 23 bomb
experts just days ago.
(AP, 3/23/05)
2005 Mar 23, In South Africa some
21,000 Harmony Gold Mining Co. Ltd. mineworkers went on strike after
mediation efforts with the union over pay and working conditions failed.
(AP, 3/24/05)
2006 Mar 23, The US Federal
Reserve ceased publication of the M3 monetary aggregate.
(www.federalreserve.gov/releases/h6/discm3.htm)(Econ, 3/25/06, p.78)
2006 Mar 23, The US CDC said a new
form of TB, called Extensively drug resistant TB (XDR-TB), posed
challenges to efforts to bring the disease under control.
(WSJ, 3/24/06, p.B2)
2006 Mar 23, Police took DNA
samples from 46 members of the Duke University lacrosse team after a
woman hired to dance for a party charged she'd been raped.
(AP, 3/23/07)(SFC, 4/12/07, p.A2)
2006 Mar 23, General Motors Corp.
said that it is raising nearly $9 billion in cash by selling a majority
interest in its commercial mortgage division and sprucing up the
finances of the auto loan and insurance business the struggling
automaker is still trying to sell.
(AP, 3/23/06)
2006 Mar 23, Sarah Caldwell (82),
conductor and opera company director died in Portland, Maine.
(AP, 3/23/07)
2006 Mar 23, Desmond T. Doss Sr.
(87), a conscientious objector whose achievements as a noncombatant
earned him a Medal of Honor in World War II, died in Piedmont, Ala.
(AP, 3/23/07)
2006 Mar 23, In southern
Afghanistan a police chief was killed by his own guard. Coalition
forces announced the killing of six Taliban members in Oruzgan province.
(AP, 3/23/06)
2006 Mar 23, In central
Afghanistan a huge explosion ripped through a depot of confiscated
munitions in a depot in the Jabalussaraj district of Parwan province,
killing two people and injuring 45, and damaging scores of houses.
Initial investigations indicated the blast was caused by a spark from
an electric cable.
(AP, 3/24/06)
2006 Mar 23, Mike Horn (39) of
South Africa and Borge Ousland (43) of Norway completed a 620-mile trek
without outside supplies or help from dog sleds to the North Pole after
64 days of walking, skiing, climbing, swimming across ice openings.
(AP, 3/24/06)
2006 Mar 23, The Australian air
force sank a North Korean cargo ship for target practice. It had been
seized in 2003 after being used to smuggle heroin into Australia.
(AP, 3/23/06)
2006 Mar 23, Belarussian
protestors camped out for a fifth day in central Minsk as an opposition
party leader released from prison declared that President Alexander
Lukashenko's regime was at a "dead-end."
(AFP, 3/23/06)
2006 Mar 23, Stephane Lambiel of
Switzerland won his second straight World Figure Skating Championships
title, in Calgary, Alberta.
(AP, 3/23/07)
2006 Mar 23, A Danish soldier was
killed by a roadside bomb in southern Iraq. He was the third Danish
soldier to die in the conflict.
(AP, 3/23/06)
2006 Mar 23, German prosecutors
said 2 former employees of Siemens AG's Power Generation branch have
been charged with offering bribes totaling some 6 million euros ($7.3
million) to secure contracts from Italian gas companies.
(AP, 3/23/06)
2006 Mar 23, In India Sonia
Gandhi, the leader of the governing coalition, stepped down as a member
of Parliament amid inter-party feuding over a once-obscure election law
and a growing controversy about whether she also held another job.
(AP, 3/23/06)
2006 Mar 23, US and British troops
freed three Christian peace activists in rural Iraq without firing a
shot, ending a four-month hostage drama in which an American among the
group was shot to death and dumped on a Baghdad street. At least 56
Iraqis died in violence, including a car bombing that killed 25 people
in the third major attack on a police lockup in three days. A suicide
car bomber detonated his explosives at the entrance to the Interior
Ministry Major Crimes unit in Baghdad's central Karradah district,
killing 10 civilians and 15 policemen employed there.
(AP, 3/23/06)
2006 Mar 23, Human rights
campaigners said Nigerian separatists have attacked census officials
with acid and machetes in a violent campaign for the southeastern
region to boycott the headcount. A violent start to Nigeria’s first
census in 15 years left at least 10 dead and scores of others injured.
(AP, 3/23/06)
2006 Mar 23, President Gen. Pervez
Musharraf ordered all foreign militants to leave Pakistan or be killed.
Pakistan protested the killing by Afghan soldiers of 14 people Pakistan
claims were its citizens, the latest source of tension between the
neighboring countries amid increasing violence along their rugged
border.
(AP, 3/23/06)
2006 Mar 23, Computer-savvy
Philippine protesters took civil disobedience to cyberspace, launching
a "virtual sit-in" campaign that urged online activists to overwhelm
the police Web site with numerous hits.
(AP, 3/23/06)
2006 Mar 23, Pope Benedict XVI
convened the College of Cardinals for the first time since his election
last year, inviting its members to share their concerns about the
challenges facing the Catholic Church before adding 15 new members to
their ranks.
(AP, 3/23/06)
2006 Mar 23, The US ambassador
said that the US and Venezuela had reached a temporary agreement that
will avoid a proposed ban on flights by most US airlines to Venezuela.
(AP, 3/23/06)
2007 Mar 23, The US House voted
for the first time to clamp a cutoff deadline on the Iraq war, agreeing
by a thin margin to pull combat troops out by next year and pushing the
new Democratic-led Congress ever closer to a showdown with President
Bush.
(AP, 3/24/07)
2007 Mar 23, Former Interior
Department official J. Steven Griles pleaded guilty to obstructing
Congress, becoming the highest-ranking Bush administration official
convicted in the Jack Abramoff lobbying scandal.
(Reuters, 3/23/07)
2007 Mar 23, In Florida the
aircraft carrier USS John F. Kennedy was decommissioned after nearly 40
years of service.
(AP, 3/23/07)
2007 Mar 23, Rachel Smith of
Tennessee bested 50 other aspiring beauty queens to win the title of
Miss USA.
(AP, 3/24/07)
2007 Mar 23, In California an
Alameda County judge released a draft report giving the state 60 days
to stop killing fish or shut down pumps that send water to southern
California.
(SFC, 3/24/07, p.A1)
2007 Mar 23, Militants ambushed a
convoy carrying Afghan soldiers. In the ensuing clash, three suspected
Taliban were killed and six were wounded.
(AP, 3/24/07)
2007 Mar 23, Australia called on
South Africa to pressure Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe to quit,
saying the 83-year-old leader was a disaster for his country. South
Africa defended its policy on Zimbabwe as the only way to approach
Mugabe's authoritarian government and said African nations might
convene a summit to deal with the crisis.
(AFP, 3/23/07)(Reuters, 3/23/07)
2007 Mar 23, Brazil's
environmental agency approved a $2 billion project to shift the course
of a major river in Brazil, a plan bitterly opposed by
environmentalists. The Sao Francisco River project is meant to benefit
some 12 million poor people by allowing large sections of the country's
arid northeast to be irrigated.
(AP, 3/22/07)
2007 Mar 23, A Brazilian housewife
was convicted and sentenced to 19 years in prison for killing her
husband, chopping his body into small pieces and frying it. Rosanita
Nery dos Santos (52) drugged her husband in his sleep, then stabbed him
to death two years ago in Salvador, about 900 miles northeast of Sao
Paulo.
(AP, 3/23/07)
2007 Mar 23, In Colombia Jorge
Noguera, Pres. Alvaro Uribe's former spy chief, was freed from jail
after a judge ruled his imprisonment for alleged links to far-right
militias was illegal on procedural grounds.
(AP, 3/23/07)
2007 Mar 23, Congo's chief
prosecutor issued an arrest warrant for Jean-Pierre Bemba, a former
warlord and senator, who took refuge inside a foreign embassy while his
personal army and government troops fought in the capital. The head of
Congo's army said in a nationally televised address that security
forces had regained control of Kinshasa after two days of intense
fighting against the militia of a former warlord who lost last year's
presidential runoff. An aid group working with hospitals and morgues
said more than 100 people died in two days of fighting. EU envoys later
said the fighting left 600 dead.
(AP, 3/23/07)(WSJ, 3/24/07, p.A1)(AP, 3/25/07)(WSJ,
3/28/07, p.A1)
2007 Mar 23, A committee of the
European Commission on plant health met to discuss measures to prevent
further importation of palm trees infested with Rhynchophorus
ferrugineus, an aggressive weevil that has infested palm trees around
the Mediterranean.
(WSJ, 3/24/07, p.A5)
2007 Mar 23, Iranian naval vessels
seized 15 British sailors and marines who had boarded a merchant ship
in Iraqi waters of the Persian Gulf as part of efforts to protect the
Iraqi coastline and its oil terminals; they were held for 13 days.
(AP, 3/23/07)(AP, 3/23/08)
2007 Mar 23, Iraq's deputy prime
minister, a Sunni who crossed the country's sectarian divide to join
the Shiite-led government, was wounded in a suicide bombing at a mosque
in the courtyard of his home. Nine people were killed. A US soldier on
a foot patrol was killed by a roadside bomb south of Baghdad.
(AP, 3/23/07)(AP, 3/24/07)
2007 Mar 23, A Japanese whaling
ship returned to port from Antarctica with a catch of 508 whales,
despite having its annual hunt cut short by a deadly fire.
(AP, 3/23/07)
2007 Mar 23, A human rights group
said Kenya has deported more than 100 people from 19 countries to
Somalia after they crossed the border between the two countries
illegally during fighting earlier this year, and the deportees were
subsequently arrested by Ethiopian troops.
(AP, 3/23/07)
2007 Mar 23, Maoist demonstrators
displayed the bodies of 25 slain activists in open trucks to protest
their killings in Nepal's restive south. Thousands demonstrated on the
streets of the capital Katmandu two days after a fierce battle between
the former communist rebels and supporters of an ethnic rights
organization left 28 dead and more than 30 wounded in the town of Gaur.
(AP, 3/23/07)
2007 Mar 23, In southern Nigeria
gunmen kidnapped three foreign construction workers, including a Dutch
national, in two separate incidents.
(AP, 3/23/07)
2007 Mar 23, In Pakistan Ali
Mohammed Jan Aurakzai, the North West Frontier Province governor, said
clashes between Pakistani tribesmen and foreign militants near the
Afghan border this week have left up to 160 people dead, including
about 130 Uzbek and Chechen fighters. Officials said warring tribesmen
and foreign Al-Qaeda militants have agreed to a ceasefire after four
days of bloodshed in the border region.
(AP, 3/23/07)
2007 Mar 23, In Somalia a cargo
plane was shot down by a missile during takeoff died. Ten of the crew
died in the crash. Rescuers found a wounded crew member and took him to
a Mogadishu hospital where he died while being treated. All crew
members were either Ukrainian or Belarussian. Egi Azarian, acting head
of Belarus-based Transaviaexport, confirmed that the company's plane
was shot down.
(AP, 3/24/07)
2007 Mar 23, A South Korean
presidential panel removed a year-old ban on research into the cloning
of human embryonic stem cells.
(AP, 3/23/07)
2007 Mar 23, Sri Lankan troops
advanced into territory held by Tamil Tiger rebels, shifting the battle
lines to the island's north where the latest death toll on both sides
hit 37.
(AP, 3/23/07)
2007 Mar 23, The United Nations
said nearly 800 people have died after a meningitis epidemic spread
from Burkina Faso to eight other western African countries since the
start of the year. Benin, Chad, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Mali, Niger,
Nigeria and Togo have also been affected to differing degrees.
(AFP, 3/23/07)
2008 Mar 23, It was reported that
1,195 migrating bison had been culled in Montana after leaving
Yellowstone in search of food. The culling was expected to continue
through April.
(SSFC, 3/23/08, p.A4)
2008 Mar 23, Network Solutions, an
American network provider, said it had suspended a website that Dutch
MP Geert Wilders had reserved to post his anti-Islamic film, which has
sparked wide condemnation and fears of a backlash.
(AP, 3/23/08)
2008 Mar 23, The Alaska Ranger, a
189-foot fishing vessel, sank off the Aleutian Islands, killing the
captain and 4 crew members. 42 crew members were rescued. State
environmental regulators were notified that the ship was carrying
145,000 gallons of diesel when it sank in deep seas.
(AP, 3/24/08)(SFC, 10/1/09,
p.A6)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FV_Alaska_Ranger)
2008 Mar 23, In Wisconsin Madeline
Neumann (11) died of complication from diabetes after her parents
prayed in lieu of seeking medical help. Both parents were charged with
reckless homicide.
(SSFC, 7/26/09,
p.A12)(www.religionnewsblog.com/21316/madeline-kara-neuman)
2008 Mar 23, In Afghanistan 5
members of an Afghan mine-clearing team were killed.
(SFC, 3/25/08, p.A3)
2008 Mar 23, China attacked House
Speaker Nancy Pelosi for her recent meeting with the Dalai Lama,
accusing her and other "human rights police" of double standards and
ignoring the truth about the unrest in Tibet. Han residents said some
500 Uighurs protested in Khotan in the northwestern Xinjiang region. A
bombing targeted a government building in the town of Gyanbe. Chinese
authorities later arrested 9 monks for the bombing.
(AP, 3/23/08)(SFC, 4/3/08, p.A8)(AFP, 4/13/08)
2008 Mar 23, In Indian Kashmir 4
policemen and a senior member of a hardline Islamic militant group were
killed in a fierce gun battle near Srinagar.
(AP, 3/23/08)
2008 Mar 23, Iranian artillery
shelled three border towns in northern Iraq where Iranian Kurdish
rebels are believed to be operating.
(AP, 3/23/08)
2008 Mar 23, In Iraq a suicide car
bomber killed at least 13 Iraqi soldiers and wounded dozens more people
in Mosul. At least 10 civilians were killed and 20 more were wounded in
rocket or mortar blasts in scattered areas of eastern Baghdad. The
US-protected Green Zone in Baghdad came under fire from either mortars
or rockets, and a round that fell short injured two bystanders. An
American financial analyst working for the US Embassy in Baghdad was
severely wounded in the rocket attack and died soon after. The overall
US death toll in Iraq rose to 4,000 after four soldiers were killed in
a roadside bombing in Baghdad.
(AP, 3/23/08)(AP, 3/24/08)(AP, 3/26/08)
2008 Mar 23, In eastern Japan a
person was stabbed to death and at least seven others were hurt by a
man who went on a knifing spree at a shopping mall. Police arrested
Masahiro Kanagawa (24), who was also wanted over the earlier slaying of
a 72-year-old man.
(AP, 3/23/08)
2008 Mar 23, In Pakistan 25 trucks
carrying fuel to US-led forces in Afghanistan were destroyed in a
possible bomb attack near the Torkham customs post. At least 50 people
were injured.
(SFC, 3/24/08, p.A12)
2008 Mar 23, Saudi Arabia said
inflation reached a 27-year high of 8.7% in February.
(WSJ, 3/24/08, p.A6)
2008 Mar 23, Serbian PM Vojislav
Kostunica accused NATO peacekeepers and UN police of using "snipers and
banned ammunition" to quell a Serb riot against Kosovo's independence.
(AP, 3/23/08)
2008 Mar 23, South Korea's Hyundai
Motor said it would begin mass producing hybrid cars next year amid
growing demand for fuel-efficient and environmentally friendly vehicles.
(AP, 3/23/08)
2008 Mar 23, In southeast Turkey
Kurdish protesters clashed with police for a 4th day. Two people have
been killed In the clashes and dozens injured.
(WSJ, 3/24/08, p.A1)
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