Today in History - March 24
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809 Mar 24, Harun
al-Rashid (Arabic for The Rightly Guided), caliph of the Abbasid empire
(786-809), died at age 44. His reign is immortalized in The Book of One
Thousand and One Nights. His work included the construction of a House
of Wisdom in Baghdad.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harun_al-Rashid)(WSJ,
2/8/06, p.D12)
1208 Mar 24, King John of England
opposed Innocent III on his nomination for archbishop of Canterbury.
(HN, 3/24/99)
1285 Mar 24, Lithuanian Grand Duke
Daumantas (1281-1285) died.
(LHC, 3/24/03)
1550 Mar 24, France and England
signed the Peace of Boulogne. It ended the war of England with Scotland
and France. France bought back Boulogne for 400,000 crowns.
(TL-MB, 1988, p.18)(MC, 3/24/02)
1603 Mar 24, Tudor Queen Elizabeth
I (69), the "Virgin Queen," died. She had reigned from 1558-1603.
Scottish King James VI, son of Mary, became King James I of England in
the union of the crowns. In 2006 Leanda de Lisle authored “After
Elizabeth.”
(WSJ, 4/16/97, p.A13)(HN, 3/24/99)(WSJ, 2/4/06, p.P9)
1661 Mar 24, William Leddra became
the last Quaker to be hanged in Boston. Quakers were last hanged on
Boston Common. Charles II ordered the executions stopped.
(WSJ, 4/4/01, p.A18)(MC, 3/24/02)
1663 Mar 24, Charles II of England
awarded lands known as Carolina in America to eight members of the
nobility who assisted in his restoration. [see Apr 6]
(HN, 3/24/99)
1720 Mar 24, In Paris, banking
houses closed in the wake of financial crisis. The "Mississippi Bubble"
burst as panicked investors withdrew their money from John Law's bank
and Mississippi Company [see South Sea Bubble, Jan, 1720].
(WSJ, 1/11/99, p.R8)(HN, 3/24/99)(WSJ, 7/19/00, p.B4)
1721 Mar 24, In Germany, the
supremely talented Johann Sebastian Bach published the Six Brandenburg
Concertos.
(HN, 3/24/99)
1755 Mar 24, Rufus King, framer of
the U.S. Constitution, was born.
(HN, 3/24/98)
1765 Mar 24, Britain enacted the
Quartering Act, requiring American colonists to provide temporary
housing to 10,000 British soldiers in public and private buildings.
(AP, 3/23/97) (HN, 3/24/98)
1765 Mar 24, Austrian Empress
Maria Theresa issued a decree to establish a School for Healing Animal
Diseases.
(StuAus, April '95, p.23)
1794 Mar 24, In Cracow a
revolutionary manifesto was proclaimed. The Lithuanian and Polish
nobility under the leadership of Tadas Kasciuska revolted against
Russian control.
(H of L, 1931, p. 81-82)(LHC, 3/23/03)
1801 Mar 24, Aleksandr P. Romanov
became emperor of Russia.
(MC, 3/24/02)
1802 Mar 24, Richard Trevithick
was granted a patent in London for his steam locomotive.
(ON, 4/04, p.5)
1832 Mar 24, Mormon founder,
martyr Joseph Smith was beaten, tarred and feathered in Ohio.
(MC, 3/24/02)
1832 Mar 24, The British Reform
Act passed the House of Commons under the Whig government. It
introduced the first changes to electoral franchise legislation in
almost one hundred and fifty years. On June 4 it passed the House of
Lords and on June 7 received Royal Assent.
(www.historyhome.co.uk/peel/refact/campaign.htm)(Econ, 6/30/07, p.93)
1834 Mar 24, John Wesley Powell,
US, geologist, explorer, ethnologist, was born.
(HFA, '96, p.26)(MC, 3/24/02)
1834 Mar 24, William Morris,
English craftsman, poet, socialist, was born.
(HN, 3/24/98)
1837 Mar 24, Canada gave blacks
the right to vote.
(MC, 3/24/02)
1855 Mar 24, Andrew Mellon, U.S.
financier and philanthropist, was born. He developed interests in coal,
railroads, steel and water power. He also donated his entire collection
of paintings to the National Gallery of Art.
(HN, 3/24/00)
1855 Mar 24, Manhattan, Kansas,
was founded as New Boston, Kansas.
(MC, 3/24/02)
1862 Mar 24, Abolitionist Wendell
Phillips spoke to a crowd about emancipation in Cincinnati, Ohio and
was pelted by eggs.
(HN, 3/24/00)
1874 Mar 24, Harry Houdini
(d.1926), magician, escape artist, was born as Erik Weisz (Ehrich
Weiss) in Budapest. Young Ehrich Weiss emigrated with his parents to
New York and then to Wisconsin (1878). Sometime around 1891 he and a
partner in a magic act billed themselves as the Brothers Houdini, in
homage to French magician Eugène Robert-Houdin. As Harry
Houdini, Weiss became world-famous for his mind-boggling escapes. At
age 43 he had a volcanic love affair with the widow of Jack London,
Charmian. In 1996 Kenneth Silverman wrote the biography: "Houdini!!!
The Career of Ehrich Weiss."
(WSJ, 10/29/96, p.A21)(HN, 3/24/98)(SFC, 7/7/98,
p.B3)(WSJ, 4/22/99, A10)(HNQ, 5/16/99)
1877 Mar 24, Walter Bagehot
(b.1826), British economist and author of “The English Constitution”
(1867), died. He edited the Economist Magazine from 1861 until his
death.
(WSJ, 11/7/02,
p.D8)(http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Walter_Bagehot)
1882 Mar 24, German scientist
Robert Koch announced in Berlin that he had discovered the bacillus
responsible for tuberculosis.
(AP, 3/23/97)
1882 Mar 24, Henry Wadsworth
Longfellow (b.1807), US poet (Song of Hiawatha), died. He is the sole
American honored with a bust in the Poet’s Corner of Westminster Abbey.
In 2000 J.D. McClatchy edited "Longfellow: Poems and Other Writings."
(WSJ, 10/31/00,
p.A24)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Wadsworth_Longfellow)
1883 Mar 24, Long-distance
telephone service was inaugurated between Chicago and New York. [see
Mar 27, 1884]
(AP, 3/23/97)
1886 Mar 24, Edward Weston,
photographer, was born.
(HN, 3/24/01)
1893 Mar 24, George Sisler,
baseball player, was born.
(HN, 3/24/01)
1895 Mar 24, Arthur Murray,
American dancer, was born.
(HN, 3/24/98)
1897 Mar 24, Wilhelm Reich
(d.1957), Austrian-US psychoanalyst (character analysis), was born. In
1999 Farrar, Straus & Giroux published: "American Odyssey: Letters
and Journals 1940-1947."
(WUD, 1994, p.1209)(MC, 3/24/02)
1898 Mar 24, The 1st automobile
was sold.
(MC, 3/24/02)
1900 Mar 24, Mayor Van Wyck of New
York broke ground for the New York subway tunnel that would link
Manhattan and Brooklyn.
(HN, 3/24/98)
1902 Mar 24, Thomas E. Dewey, a
governor of New York (1943-1955) and two-time Republican presidential
nominee, was born in Owosso, Mich.
(HN, 3/24/01)(AP, 3/24/02)
1903 Mar 24, Adolf Butenandt,
biochemist (Nobel 1939), was born.
(HN, 3/24/01)(MC, 3/24/02)
1904 Mar 24, Vice Adm. Tojo sank
seven Russian ships as the Japanese strengthened their blockade of Port
Arthur.
(HN, 3/24/98)
1905 Mar 24, Jules Verne (b.1828),
French sci-fi author (Around the World in 80 Days), died in Amiens.
(www.kirjasto.sci.fi/verne.htm)
1906 Mar 24, "Census of the
British Empire" showed England ruled 1/5 of the world.
(MC, 3/24/02)
1911 Mar 24, Penal code reform
abolished corporal punishment in Denmark.
(HN, 3/24/98)
1912 Mar 24, The “Bread and Roses”
textile workers strike in Lawrence, Mass., ended. Mill owners, fearing
that government intervention and investigation would jeopardize the
high tariff on woolens, had finally agreed to bargain. Offers of pay
increases from five to twenty-five percent, time-and-a-quarter for
overtime, and no discrimination against strikers led to the end of the
strike.
(www.fortunecity.com/tinpan/parton/2/johngold.html)
1919 Mar 24, Lawrence
Ferlinghetti, 'beat' poet, was born. [see Mar 1]
(HN, 3/24/01)
1922 Mar 24, The Polish parliament
endorsed the transfer of the Vilnius area to Lithuania.
(LHC, 3/23/03)
1923 Mar 24, Edna Jo Hunter,
expert on military families and prisoners of war, was born.
(MC, 3/24/02)
1924 Mar 24, Greece became a
republic.
(HN, 3/24/98)
1926 Mar 24, Dario Fo, Italian
actor and playwright, was born in Leggiuno Sangiano on the banks of
Lake Maggiore. He won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1997.
(SFC, 10/10/97, p.A15)(HN, 3/24/01)
1927 Mar 24, Chinese Communists
seized Nanking and broke with Chiang Kai-shek over the Nationalist
goals.
(HN, 3/24/98)
1930 Mar 24, Steve McQueen, actor
(Wanted, Dead or Alive, Blob, Bullitt), was born in Slater, Mo.
(MC, 3/24/02)
1930 Mar 24, The U.S. Senate
passed a bill increasing tariffs.
(HN, 3/24/98)
1932 Mar 24, A New York radio
station (WABC) broadcast a variety program from a moving train in
Maryland.
(AP, 3/23/97)
1934 Mar 24, President Roosevelt
signed a bill granting future independence to the Philippines.
(AP, 3/23/97)
1937 Mar 24, A bus blew a tire,
went out of control and 18 people were killed in Salem, Illinois.
(MC, 3/24/02)
1938 Mar 24, The U.S. asked that
all powers help refugees fleeing from the Nazis.
(HN, 3/24/98)
1941 Mar 24, Joseph H. Taylor,
Jr., radio astronomer and physicist, was born.
(HN, 3/24/01)
1941 Mar 24, German troops
occupied El Agheila, Libya.
(MC, 3/24/02)
1944 Mar 24, 76 Allied officers
escaped Stalag Luft 3. In 1949 Paul Brickall authored "The Great
Escape." The story of Jackson Barrett Mahon (d.1999 at 78), an American
fighter pilot, and the Allied POW escape from Stalag Luft III in
Germany during WW II. The 1963 film "The Great Escape" starred Steve
McQueen, was directed by John Sturges and was based on the true story.
In 1999 Arthur A. Durand published Stalag Luft III: The Secret Story."
When the Russian Army closed in tens of thousands of POWs were marched
240 miles south to a new camp and thousands died in the "Black March."
(TVM, 1975, p.222)(SFC, 8/11/99, p.C5)(SFC,
12/23/99, p.A27)(SFEC, 1/2/00, BR p.1)(SFC, 1/22/03,
p.A19)(www.b24.net/pow/greatescape.htm)
1944 Mar 24, 811 British bombers
attacked Berlin.
(MC, 3/24/02)
1944 Mar 24, In occupied Rome, the
Nazis executed more than 300 civilians in reprisal for an attack by
Italian partisans, who the day before killed 32 [33] German soldiers
[policemen]. The Ardeatine Cave massacre near Rome, Italy, took place.
In retaliation to the systematic murder of Nazi officers by the Italian
underground, an SS officer ordered that 10 Italian civilian men be shot
for every Nazi officer killed. The age of the civilians did not matter
and so many teenagers and boys were among the dead found in the caves.
Argentina extradited former Nazi officer, Erich Priebke, to Rome in
1995 to face trial for his role in the Ardeatine Caves massacre.
(AP, 3/23/97)(WSJ, 10/3/95, p.A-21) (WSJ, 11/21/95,
p.A-1)(HN, 3/24/98)
1945 Mar 24, Gens. Eisenhower,
Montgomery and Bradley discussed advance in Germany.
(MC, 3/24/02)
1945 Mar 24, Largest one-day
airborne drop: 600 transports and 1300 gliders.
(MC, 3/24/02)
1945 Mar 24, Operation Varsity:
British, US and Canadian airborne landings east of Rhine.
(MC, 3/24/02)
1945 Mar 24, Egypt declared war on
Germany.
(HN, 3/24/98)
1947 Mar 24, Congress proposed the
limitation of the presidency to two terms.
(HN, 3/24/98)
1947 Mar 24, John D. Rockefeller
Jr. donated a NYC East River site to the UN.
(MC, 3/24/02)
1948 Mar 24, Israel Galili, chief
of the Haganah, sent orders reminding commanders of the policy to
protect the “full rights, needs, and freedoms of the Arabs in the
Hebrew state without discrimination.”
(Econ, 11/4/06, p.93)
1949 Mar 24, At the Academy
Awards, "Hamlet" won best picture of 1948 and its star, Laurence
Olivier, best actor; Jane Wyman won best actress for "Johnny Belinda";
"Treasure of Sierra Madre" won best director for John Huston and best
supporting actor for the director's father, Walter Huston.
(AP, 3/24/99)
1951 Mar 24, MacArthur threatened
the Chinese with an extension of the Korean War if the proposed truce
was not accepted.
(HN, 3/24/98)
1952 Mar 24, Great demonstrations
took place against apartheid in South Africa.
(MC, 3/24/02)
1953 Mar 24, Mary (85), queen of
Great Britain and North Ireland, died.
(MC, 3/24/02)
1954 Mar 24, Britain opened trade
talks with Hungary.
(HN, 3/24/98)
1955 Mar 24, The Tennessee
Williams play "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof" opened on Broadway with Barbara
Bel Geddes as Maggie, Ben Gazzara as Brick and Burl Ives as Big Daddy.
Paul Newman won Gazzara’s role for the 1958 film.
(AP, 3/23/97)(SSFC, 1/23/05, Par p.2)
1955 Mar 24, The 1st seagoing oil
drill rig was placed in service.
(MC, 3/24/02)
1958 Mar 24, Rock 'n' roll singer
Elvis Presley was inducted into the Army in Memphis, Tenn. After nearly
six months of basic training at Fort Hood, Texas, Presley was posted to
Friedberg, West Germany; he was honorably discharged in 1960.
(AP, 3/23/08)
1959 Mar 24, Gen. Qasim pulled
Iraq out of the Baghdad Pact after the United States signed bilateral
cooperation agreements with Turkey, Iran and Pakistan. A number of
assassination attempts on Qasim failed including an attempt that
included Baath Socialist Party activist Saddam Hussein.
(HNQ, 7/28/98)(SFC, 9/24/02, p.A10)(MC, 3/24/02)
1960 Mar 24, US appeals court
ruled the novel, "Lady Chatterly's Lover" by D.H. Lawrence, to be not
obscene.
(WSJ, 5/15/95, p. A-16)(MC, 3/24/02)
1962 Mar 24, Emile Griffith
knocked out Benny Paret (b.1937) in the 12th round at Madison Square
Garden. 10 days later on April 3 Paret died from the beating. Referee
Ruby Goldstein was blamed by many for not stopping the fight soon
enough.
(www.ringsidereport.com/vitotrabucco972004.htm)(SFC,
4/20/05, p.E1)
1964 Mar 24, Kennedy half-dollar
was issued.
(MC, 3/24/02)
1965 Mar 24, The Univ. of Michigan
held the 1st "Teach-in" on the Vietnam war.
(http://library.thinkquest.org/C0129380/events/antiwar.html)
1965 Mar 24, US Ranger 9 struck
the Moon, 10 miles (16 km) NE of crater Alphonsus.
(MC, 3/24/02)
1966 Mar 24, Selective Service
announced college deferments based on performance.
(MC, 3/24/02)
1967 Mar 24, In Vietnam B Battery
was replaced at Gio Linh and returned to base camp at JJ Carroll. The
entire battalion had been involved in Operation High Rise, the first
Operation involving heavy artillery firing at targets in North Vietnam.
The firing into North Vietnam proceeded with an intense rate in an
effort to stifle the enemy supply channels from the North.
(www.willpete.com/history2nd94th.htm)
1972 Mar 24, The US announces a
boycott of the Paris peace talks as President Nixon accuses Hanoi of
refusing to "negotiate seriously."
(www.historyplace.com/unitedstates/vietnam/index-1969.html)
1972 Mar 24, Great Britain imposed
direct rule over Northern Ireland. The province’s parliament was
suspended at the height of sectarian violence.
(HN, 3/24/98)(SFC, 4/11/98, p.A1)
1976 Mar 24, In Argentina the
military overthrew the government of Isabel Peron. Gen. Jorge Rafael
Videla led the military coup. Jose Siderman, a Jewish businessman, was
forced with death threats to leave the country. He filed suit in the US
in 1982 in the first trial of a foreign government for human-rights
abuses and won a default settlement. Argentina won a reversal in an
appeals court but in 1996 Argentina dropped opposition to the suit.
(SFC, 9/14/96, p.A9)(AP, 3/23/97)(SFC,
6/10/98, p.A10)
1976 Mar 24, Argentine Sen.
Guillermo Vargas Aignasse disappeared on the day of a military coup. In
2008 an Argentine court convicted retired Gens. Antonio Bussi and
Luciano Menendez for the murder of the senator and sentenced them to
life in prison. They were found guilty of kidnapping, torturing and
murdering.
(AP, 8/29/08)
1976 Mar 24, Bernard Law
Montgomery (b.1887), British general, defeated Rommel, died.
(HC,
10/10/98)(www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/montgomery_bernard.shtml)
1977 Mar 24, Morarji Desai, head
of the Janata Party, became prime minister of India.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prime_Minister_of_India)
1980 Mar 24, ABC's nightly Iran
Hostage crisis program was renamed "Nightline."
(www.imdb.com/title/tt0154053/)
1980 Mar 24, Archbishop Oscar
Arnulfo Romero, one of El Salvador's most respected Roman Catholic
Church leaders, was shot to death by gunmen as he celebrated Mass in
San Salvador. Roberto D’Aubuisson (d.1992), leader of the ARENA party,
was credited with masterminding the assassination as well as founding
the national death squads. In 2004 a California federal judge found
Alvaro Rafael Saravia, a retired Salvadoran air force captain living in
Modesto, Ca., liable in the slaying of archbishop Romero and ordered
him to pay $10 million in damages.
(AP, 3/23/97)(SFC, 1/18/96, p.C1)(SFEM,11/16/97,
p.17)(SFC, 9/4/04, p.B7)
1982 Mar 24, In Bangladesh Hussein
Mohammed Ershad overthrew Justice Abdus Sattar and seized power in a
bloodless coup.
(SFC,11/27/97,
p.B5)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Begum_Khaleda_Zia)
1982 Mar 24, In Mexico a fire
burned down the National Film Archive.
(www.ejumpcut.org/archive/onlinessays/JC29folder/MexFilmBook.html)
1985 Mar 24, Thousands
demonstrated in Madrid against the NATO presence in Spain.
(HN, 3/24/98)
1987 Mar 24, French Premier
Jacques Chirac signed a contract with Walt Disney Productions for the
creation of a Disneyland amusement park, the first in Europe.
(AP, 3/23/97)
1988 Mar 24, Former national
security aides Oliver L. North and John M. Poindexter and businessmen
Richard V. Secord and Albert Hakim pleaded innocent to Iran-Contra
charges. North and Poindexter were convicted, but had their convictions
thrown out; Secord and Hakim received probation after each pleaded
guilty to a single count under a plea bargain.
(AP, 3/24/98)
1989 Mar 24, Good Friday. The
nation's worst oil spill occurred as the supertanker Exxon Valdez ran
aground on a reef in Alaska's Prince William Sound and began leaking 11
million gallons of crude. The Exxon Valdez struck ground in Alaska’s
Prince William Sound and spilled 10.6 million gallons of oil. It was
later renamed the Mediterranean and operated between Europe and the
Middle East. Exxon then spent some $2.5 billion to clean up the spill
and filed suit against Lloyd’s of London for reimbursement under a $210
million insurance policy. In 1996 a jury in Houston voted that Lloyd’s
and some 250 other underwriters should compensate Exxon $250 million.
The Exxon Valdez oil spill fouled approximately 1,000 miles of Alaska
shoreline. The oil tanker ran aground in Prince William Sound, spilling
some 11 million gallons of crude oil. An estimated 250,000 seabirds
were killed. The Exxon Valdez spilled 240,000 barrels of oil in
Alaska's Prince William Sound.
(AP, 3/23/97)(TMC, 1994, p.1989)(SFC, 5/5/96,
p.A-11)(SFC, 6/11/96, p.A10)(SFEC, 2/8/98, p.T5)(HNQ, 8/14/99)
1990 Mar 24, Soviet military
vehicles rumbled through the heart of the Lithuanian capital of Vilnius
as lawmakers in the breakaway Baltic republic voted to transfer their
power to foreign soil if they were attacked or arrested.
(AP, 3/24/00)
1991 Mar 24, General H. Norman
Schwarzkopf, the American commander of Operation Desert Storm, told
reporters in Saudi Arabia the United States was closer to establishing
a permanent military headquarters on Arab soil.
(AP, 3/24/01)
1991 Mar 24, In liberated Kuwait,
banks reopened for the first time since Iraqi troops had shut them down
the previous December.
(AP, 3/24/01)
1992 Mar 24, Democrat Jerry Brown
upset front-runner Bill Clinton in the Connecticut presidential primary.
(AP, 3/24/97)
1992 Mar 24, The space shuttle
Atlantis blasted off with seven astronauts on the first shuttle mission
devoted to the environment.
(AP, 3/24/97)
1993 Mar 24, Mahmoud Abouhalima, a
cab driver implicated in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, was flown
back to the United States from Egypt. Abouhalima was later convicted of
conspiracy and sentenced to life in prison.
(AP, 3/24/03)
1993 Mar 24, Ezer Weizman was
elected Israel's seventh president.
(AP, 3/24/98)
1993 Mar 24, South African Pres
F.W. de Klerk admitted for the 1st time that his country had built 6
nuclear bombs, but that the weapons had been dismantled.
(AP, 3/24/03)
1994 Mar 24, President Clinton
held a news conference in which he acknowledged he had significantly
overstated the loss in his Whitewater land investment and promised to
release late 1970's tax returns to answer questions on the land deal.
(AP, 3/24/99)
1995 Mar 24, The House of
Representatives passed, 234-to-199, a welfare reform package calling
for the most profound changes in social programs since the New Deal;
President Clinton criticized the bill, saying it was "weak on work and
tough on children."
(AP, 3/24/00)
1995 Mar 24, For the first time in
20 years, no British soldiers were patrolling the streets of Belfast,
Northern Ireland.
(AP, 3/24/00)
1995 Mar 24, Joseph Needham
(b.1900), British biochemist and writer, died. His work included the
24-volume “Science and Civilization in China.” In 2008 Simon Winchester
authored “The Man Who Loved China: The Fantastic Story of the Eccentric
Scientist Who Unlocked the Mysteries of the Middle Kingdom.”
(WSJ, 5/6/08,
p.D7)(www.iias.nl/iiasn/iiasn5/eastasia/needham.html)
1996 Mar 24, NASA astronaut
Shannon Lucid transferred from the space shuttle Atlantis to the
Russian space station Mir, beginning a five-month stay.
(AP, 3/23/97)
1996 Mar 24, Stargazers across the
country scanned the skies in hopes of seeing Hyakutake, the brightest
comet to pass by the Earth in two decades.
(AP, 3/23/97)
1997 Mar 24, At the 69th Annual
Hollywood Academy Awards, "The English Patient" won best picture and
director (Anthony Minghella) and 7 other Oscars; Geoffrey Rush won best
actor for "Shine," and Frances McDormand best actress for "Fargo."
(SFC, 3/25/97, p.A1)(AP, 3/24/98)
1997 Mar 24, Vice President Gore
arrived in China for the highest-level U.S. visit in eight years. He
witnessed the Beijing signing of trade deals with GM and Boeing.
(SFC, 3/25/97, p.A12)(AP, 3/24/98)
1997 Mar 24, In Nashville 3
employees at a McDonalds's Restaurant died of wounds from a robbery. A
4th was in critical condition from stab wounds.
(SFC, 3/25/97, p.A5)
1997 Mar 24, The Australian Senate
struck down the law passed by the Northern Territory’s Parliament that
allowed doctor-assisted suicide for the terminally ill. The law might
be reinstated in 2000 if the territory is granted proposed statehood
because under the constitution the national Parliament cannot override
state laws. A growing interest soon developed in travel to Mexico to
buy liquid pentobarbital (Nembutol), which causes a painless death. The
Australian government later banned Philip Nitschke's book, "The
Peaceful Pill Handbook" (2006) which gives tips on everything from
carbon monoxide to buying pentobarbital in Mexico.
(SFC, 3/25/97, p.A12)(SFC, 1/14/98, p.C3)(Reuters,
6/3/08)
1997 Mar 24, In Zaire Mobutu
accepted the parliamentary vote of censure of prime minister Kengo wa
Dondo.
(SFC, 3/25/97, p.A12)
1998 Mar 24, The Clinton
administration announced a $56 million food and medical supply donation
to Indonesia.
(SFC, 3/25/98, p.C14)
1998 Mar 24, In Jonesboro, Ark., 2
boys, Mitchell Johnson (13) and Andrew Golden (11), opened fire on a
group of schoolchildren and killed four girls and one teacher and
wounded 11 others. The older boy was angry at a girl who had broken up
with him. Golden had stolen 7 guns from his grandfather. The boys were
remanded to the Division of Youth Services until their 18th birthdays.
Federal prosecutors used weapons laws to keep the boys locked up until
age 21. Mitchell Johnson was due to be released in 2005.
(SFC, 3/25/98, p.A1)(SFC, 3/26/98, p.A1)(SFC,
8/12/98, p.A3)(AP, 8/12/05)
1998 Mar 24, In California the
Oakland City Council voted to adopt a Jobs and Living Wage Ordnance
that mandated businesses contracting with the city to pay workers at
least $8 an hour with benefits or $9.25 without benefits. It was the
17th city nationwide to adopt such an ordnance.
(SFC, 3/26/98, p.A21)
1998 Mar 24, The UN announced a
pullout from Afghanistan after the governor of Kandahar slapped the
face of a UN employee.
(SFC, 3/25/98, p.C14)
1998 Mar 24, In Columbia leftist
guerrillas killed at least 9 people, wounded 14 and took 20 hostages
when they blocked a major highway 30 miles south of Bogota.
(WSJ, 3/25/98, p.A1)
1998 Mar 24, In India a tornado
killed 105 people and some 500 were missing. At least 80 died in the
Midnapore district of West Bengal state and some 1,100 were injured. At
least 200 people were killed and thousands injured from a tornado in
West Bengal and Orissa states.
(SFC, 3/25/98, p.C3)(SFC, 3/28/98, p.A5)
1998 Mar 24, In Indonesia a plan
to service its $74 billion foreign debt was being modeled on the
Mexican debt program of the 1980s. Some 4 million construction and
manufacturing jobs were already lost due to the crises.
(WSJ, 3/25/98, p.A18)
1998 Mar 24, In Kosovo Albanian
separatists ambushed a police patrol and one policeman was killed.
(SFC, 3/25/98, p.A10)
1998 Mar 24, In Kyrgyzstan Prime
Minister Apas Dzhumagulov (63) resigned due to age and said new forces
were needed for reform. He was expected to be appointed as an
ambassador.
(SFC, 3/25/98, p.C14)
1998 Mar 24, In South Korea the
government fired two-thirds of the senior officials at its spy agency
in a move to get the agency out of domestic politics.
(WSJ, 3/25/98, p.A1)
1998 Mar 24, In Ukraine Vasyl
Koryak, mayor of Lubny in central Poltava, was badly wounded when
gunmen opened fire on his car.
(SFC, 3/25/98, p.A11)
1999 Mar 24, The US Supreme Court
ruled to uphold an 1837 treaty with the Chippewa Indians for hunting
and fishing on 13 million acres of public land in Minnesota.
(SFC, 3/25/99, p.A8)
1999 Mar 24, The National
Transportation Safety Board concluded that Boeing 737 rudder problems
caused two fatal airline crashes and nearly triggered a third.
(AP, 3/24/00)
1999 Mar 24, The US Operations
Allied Force, Noble Anvil, Shining Hope and Falcon began in Kosovo.
About $5 billion was appropriated and left 4 US casualties.
(WSJ, 9/22/99, p.A8)
1999 Mar 24, In California a
robber managed to steal $2.3 million from a Loomis armored truck as it
traveled on I-80 between SF and Sacramento. The heist was not reported
until May 6.
(SFC, 5/7/99, p.A21)(SSFC, 7/15/01, p.A19)
1999 Mar 24, The EU leaders in
Berlin chose Romano Prodi, former prime minister of Italy, as the new
chief executive.
(SFC, 3/25/99, p.A5)
1999 Mar 24, In Algeria Muslim
rebels slashed the throats of 9 people and kidnapped 2 women near
Blida. The victims included a mother and her 2 children.
(SFC, 3/25/99, p.A10)
1999 Mar 24, In Britain the high
court rejected the claim of Pinochet for immunity from prosecution, but
reduced the charges that could be brought against him to offenses after
Sep 29, 1988. 27 of the 30 charges in the Spanish warrant were thrown
out.
(SFC, 3/25/99, p.A3)
1999 Mar 24, In Congo a massacre
of 250 people in the Kivu region was reported. The slayings by Rwandan
troops appeared to be in retaliation for earlier attacks by Congolese
Mai Mai tribesmen.
(SFC, 3/25/99, p.A10)
1999 Mar 24, In the 7-mile Mt.
Blanc tunnel between France and Italy a fire erupted from a truck
transporting flour. The death toll was raised to 9 with 24 injured. The
fire was extinguished after 3 days and the death toll rose to 35.
Identification of the remains of at least 40 people began Mar 28.
Thirty-nine people were killed when fire erupted in the Mont Blanc
tunnel in France and burned for two days. It re-opened in 2002. In 2005
a French court convicted 10 people and 3 companies for safety lapses in
the 2-day fire.
(SFC, 3/26/99, p.A14)(SFC, 3/27/99, p.A10)(SFC,
3/29/99, p.A8)(AP, 3/24/00)(SSFC, 3/17/02, p.C4)(AP, 3/24/04)(WSJ,
7/28/05, p.A1)
1999 Mar 24, In Kenya a train
enroute to Mombasa derailed at high speed in Tsavo East National Park
and at least 32 people were killed.
(SFC, 3/25/99, p.A9)
1999 Mar 24, In Paraguay
legislators began impeachment proceedings against Pres. Raul Cubas, a
bitter rival of slain vice president Argana. Meanwhile the 3rd day of a
labor strike continued.
(SFC, 3/25/99, p.A4)(SFC, 3/26/99, p.A12)
1999 Mar 24, In Romania tens of
thousands of workers in Bucharest and other cities protested for lower
taxes and a cut in utility rates.
(SFC, 3/25/99, p.A10)
1999 Mar 24, Russia denounced the
NATO attack on Serbia.
(SFC, 3/25/99, p.A1)
1999 Mar 24, In Serbia NATO forces
sent a broad wave of air attacks against Yugoslav forces in an attempt
to halt the Serbian offensive in Kosovo. Cruise missiles and planes
targeted military sites near Belgrade and some 40 sites in total.
Initial reports said 10 people were killed and 38 wounded in the
bombing. The airstrikes marked the first time in its 50-year existence
that NATO had ever attacked a sovereign country. NATO’s 78-day bombing
ended on June 10.
(SFC, 3/25/99, p.A1)(WSJ, 3/25/99, p.A1)(SFC,
3/26/99, p.A6)(AP, 3/24/00)(Econ, 5/23/09, p.51)
2000 Mar 24, The US agreed to
double the amount of money Iraq was allowed to spend to repair its oil
industry and lifted holds on over $100 million in equipment.
(SFC, 3/25/00, p.A10)
2000 Mar 24, A US federal judge
awarded former hostage Terry Anderson $341 million from Iran, holding
Iranian agents responsible for Anderson’s nearly seven years of
captivity in Lebanon.
(SFC, 3/25/00, p.A3)(AP, 3/24/01)
2000 Mar 24, Sig Mickelson, the
first president of CBS News, died in San Diego at age 86.
(AP, 3/24/01)
2000 Mar 24, In Israel Pope John
Paul II delivered a sermon from the Mount of Beatitudes before some
100,000 people.
(SFC, 3/25/00, p.A10)
2000 Mar 24, In Uganda authorities
found a mass burial site in Rukungiri in a building once frequented by
the Movement for the Restoration of Ten Commandments of God. At least
153 bodies were found hacked to death or strangled including 59
children.
(SFC, 3/25/00, p.A1)
2001 Mar 24, U.S. skater Michelle
Kwan won her fourth World Figure Skating title; Irina Slutskaya of
Russia was second, and American Sarah Hughes earned the bronze.
(AP, 3/24/02)
2001 Mar 24, EU leaders ended a 2
day meeting in Stockholm announced that they would dispatch a team of
mediators to help the peace process between North and South Korea.
(SSFC, 3/25/01, p.C6)
2001 Mar 24, In Japan a 6.4
earthquake near Hiroshima killed 2 people and injured at least 160.
(SSFC, 3/25/01, p.C1)
2001 Mar 24, Macedonia began using
attack helicopters against ethnic Albanian rebels.
(SSFC, 3/25/01, p.C2)
2001 Mar 24, In southern Russia
near Chechnya three car bombs exploded almost simultaneously, killing
23 people and wounded over 140 in the worst act of terror to hit Russia
outside warring Chechnya in months. Chechen separatists were blamed.
(SSFC, 3/25/01, p.C1)(AP, 3/24/02)
2001 Mar 24, An Air Caraibes Twin
Otter plane with mostly French tourists from St. Maarten crashed on the
Caribbean island of St. Barthelemy and killed all 19 aboard and one
person in the house.
(WSJ, 3/26/01, p.A1)(AP, 3/24/02)
2002 Mar 24, Pres. Bush, during a
6-hour visit to El Salvador, held out the promise of expanded trade to
Central American nations.
(AP, 3/24/03)
2002 Mar 24, The 74th annual
Academy Awards were held at the Kodak theater in LA. Halle Berry for
“Monster’s Ball” became the 1st black woman to be named best actress;
Denzel Washington became the second black actor, after Sidney Poitier,
to win in the best actor category, for “Training Day,” “A Beautiful
Mind” won for best picture and gathered 4 awards as did “Lord of the
Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring.”
(SFC, 3/25/02, p.A1,11)(AP, 3/24/03)
2002 Mar 24, Israeli troops and
tanks entered the Rafah refugee camp and 3 residents were killed. 2
more Palestinians were killed as they tried to throw a grenade at a
military post near Dugit. Clashes between Israelis and Palestinians
left at least 9 Palestinians dead along with 2 Israelis. US envoy Zinni
presented a cease-fire proposal to Israeli and Palestinian negotiators.
(SSFC, 3/24/02, p.A14)(SFC, 3/25/02, p.A8)
2002 Mar 24, It was reported that
Russia had launched a new nuclear-powered submarine called Gepard
(Cheetah).
(SSFC, 3/24/02, Par p.22)
2003 Mar 24, In the 6th day of
Operation Iraqi Freedom US forces began strikes against the Medina
Division of the Republican Guard guarding Baghdad. Hussein appeared on
Iraqi TV as coalition forces held over 3,000 prisoners. 10 Marines were
killed in combat around Nasiriya.
(WSJ, 3/25/03, p.A1)(SSFC, 3/30/03, p.W12)(SSFC,
5/4/03, p.C2)
2003 Mar 24, The National
Transportation Safety Board concluded that Boeing 737 rudder problems
caused two fatal airline crashes and nearly triggered a third.
(AP, 3/24/04)
2003 Mar 24, In Texas a fire in a
sugar-cane field killed 5 illegal Mexican immigrants hiding there.
(WSJ, 3/25/03, p.A1)
2003 Mar 24, Philip Yordan (88),
Oscar-winning writer, died in San Diego.
(SSFC, 4/6/03, p.A23)
2003 Mar 24, Al-Jazeera went live
with its English-based web site, for an alternative perspective from
Western media: http://english.aljazeera.net
(WSJ, 3/25/03, p.A12)
2003 Mar 24, Arab League foreign
ministers adopted a resolution that called for the US and Britain to
withdraw their troops from Iraq immediately and without conditions.
(AP, 3/25/03)
2003 Mar 24, In Brazil gunmen
killed Alexandre Martins de Castro Filho , a judge who focused on
organized crime, 10 days after another prominent judge was gunned down
in a similar slaying.
(AP, 3/25/03)
2003 Mar 24, British police
arrested Russian tycoon Boris Berezovsky at the request of Russian
authorities. A charge alleged that between Jan. 1, 1994, and Dec. 31,
1995, he defrauded the Administration of Samara Region of 60 billion
rubles whilst being director of Logovaz.
(AP, 3/25/03)
2003 Mar 24, In Georgia Pres.
Shevardnadze confirmed that the US was flying U-2 spy planes over the
Pankisi Gorge area to help fight Chechen rebel infiltration.
(WSJ, 3/25/03, p.A1)
2003 Mar 24, Saddam Hussein
appeared on Iraqi TV telling his nation that "victory is soon."
(SFC, 3/24/03, p.W1)
2003 Mar 24, Iraqi state
television showed two men said to have been the U.S. crew of an Apache
helicopter forced down during heavy fighting in central Iraq. Chief
Warrant Officer David Williams and Chief Warrant Officer Ronald D.
Young Junior spent three weeks in captivity before they were released
along with five other POWs.
(AP, 3/24/04)
2003 Mar 24, Israeli forces near
Hebron shot dead Ahmed Abahreh (14), who was throwing stones at an
Israeli armored vehicle.
(SFC, 3/25/03, p.A6)
2003 Mar 24, Suspected Islamic
militants in Indian army uniforms dragged 24 Hindus from their homes,
lined them up outside a temple and shot them to death in a remote
village in Indian-controlled Kashmir.
(AP, 3/24/03)
2003 Mar 24, Mexico City police
chief Marcelo Ebrard said that Leoluca Orlando, former mayor of
Palermo, Italy, will be hired to combat crime. His work will complement
Rudolph Giuliani's who hired on for $4.3 million.
(AP, 3/25/03)
2003 Mar 24, Russian officials
declared that the approval of a new constitution by Chechnya's voters
completely discredited the separatist cause, further dimming hopes that
the Kremlin would negotiate an end to the 3 1/2-year war.
(AP, 3/24/03)
2003 Mar 24, In Serbia Zvezdan
Jovanovic, a deputy commander of the Unit for Special Operations used
by the former Yugoslav president during the 1990s wars in Bosnia and
Croatia, was arrested for the murder of PM Zoran Djindjic.
(AP, 3/25/03)
2003 Mar 24, In Zimbabwe the
Zwakwana human rights said forces loyal to President Robert Mugabe
hunted down government opponents after a national strike, beating them
with iron bars and whips. At least 1 person was killed.
(AP, 3/24/03)
2004 Mar 24, Former top terrorism
adviser Richard Clarke, testifying before the federal 9-11 Commission,
accused the Bush administration of scaling back the campaign against
Osama bin Laden before the attacks and undermining the fight against
terrorism by invading Iraq.
(AP, 3/24/05)
2004 Mar 24, The Bush
administration, under pressure from farmers, petitioned to postpone the
global phase-out of methyl bromide, a pesticide that has been shown to
destroy ozone.
(SFC, 3/24/04, p.A5)
2004 Mar 24, World TB Day. TB
killed and estimated 2-3 million people per year.
(SFC, 3/24/04, p.B9)
2004 Mar 24, A group of large
employers proposed "scorecards" for doctors in an effort help employees
choose doctors based on quality care.
(WSJ, 3/25/04, p.A1)
2004 Mar 24, A NASA unpiloted
X-43A jet, part of its Hyper-X program, reached a record speed of 5,200
mph, Mach 6.83, after a rocket boosted it to 3,500 mph. It used a new
engine called a supersonic-combustion ramjet, or scramjet.
(SSFC, 3/28/04, p.A3)(Econ, 3/27/04, p.80)(SFC,
11/10/04, p.A2)
2004 Mar 24, EU regulators slapped
a $613 million anti-trust fine against Microsoft.
(WSJ, 3/23/04, p.A3)(SFC, 3/25/04, p.C1)
2004 Mar 24, Antigua PM Lester
Bird (66) conceded defeat to labor activist Baldwin Spencer in general
elections marked by corruption charges, ending a family dynasty that
has dominated Antigua and Barbuda for more than half a century. Spencer
soon found the coffers empty.
(AP, 3/24/04)(Econ, 12/4/04, p.38)
2004 Mar 24, Argentine Pres.
Nestor Kirchner rallied thousands of supporters on the grounds of a
Dirty War torture camp, announcing it would become a memorial to
victims of the past dictatorship. The "Museum of Memory" on the grounds
of the Navy School of Mechanics, the most infamous detention center of
the 1976-83 military dictatorship, marked a new step toward reconciling
the legacy of the repression.
(AP, 3/25/04)
2004 Mar 24, Australia's
parliament passed a law making the Great Barrier Reef the most
protected reef system on earth. A fishing ban on a third of the World
Heritage site would begin in July.
(AP, 3/24/04)
2004 Mar 24, In Colombia warplanes
preparing to bomb a paramilitary camp abandoned their mission after
members of the outlawed Central Bolivar Bloc (BCB) used villagers as
human shields. A soldier and 14 paramilitary gunmen were killed in
subsequent firefights.
(AP, 3/26/04)
2004 Mar 24, In India's northeast
Assam state heavily armed separatist militants killed 21 villagers from
a rival ethnic group in three attacks.
(AP, 3/24/04)
2004 Mar 24, In Iraq a gun battle
with insurgents killed one American soldier and three rebels.
(AP, 3/25/04)
2004 Mar 24, Insurgents bombed an
oil well in northern Iraq, sparking a fire that raged for 24 hours
before being extinguished.
(AP, 3/26/04)
2004 Mar 24, In the Ivory Coast
about a dozen people were killed during a massive protest march.
(AP, 3/25/04)
2005 Mar 24, Defense Secretary
Donald H. Rumsfeld announced the US will release $3.2 million in
aid to Guatemala for its progress in overhauling a military once blamed
for human rights abuses.
(AP, 3/24/05)
2005 Mar 24, The U.S. Supreme
Court denied an appeal from the parents of Terri Schiavo to have a
feeding tube reinserted into the severely brain-damaged woman.
(AP, 3/24/06)
2005 Mar 24, US 30-year mortgages
climbed just above 6% reflecting concerns in the financial markets
about the threat of inflation.
(SFC, 3/25/05, p.C1)
2005 Mar 24, The IRS said it has
collected $3.2 billion for 1,165 participants in a tax shelter called
“Son of BOSS.”
(WSJ, 3/25/05, p.A1)
2005 Mar 24, The US FDA approved
Boniva, a monthly pill to help women fight osteoporosis.
(SFC, 3/26/05, p.A4)
2005 Mar 24, A California jury
ordered Toshiba Corp. to pay an additional $84 million in punitive
damages to Lexar Media, Inc. one day after a 381 million award for
breach of fiduciary duty. The total damages of $465 million was the
largest IP verdict in California history.
(SSFC, 4/3/05, p.B1)
2005 Mar 24, Canada denied a US
deserter’s bid for asylum.
(WSJ, 3/25/05, p.A1)
2005 Mar 24, Chile’s Supreme Court
refused to strip Gen. Augusto Pinochet of his immunity from prosecution.
(SFC, 3/25/05, p.A3)
2005 Mar 24, In a move to further
strengthen Cuba's national currency, Cuban President Fidel Castro
announced that one of two types of money accepted on the island will no
longer be automatically traded 1-1 to the US dollar. Beginning April 9,
the exchange rate for the Cuban convertible peso will no longer be on
par with the American dollar and instead will be tied to several
foreign currencies, initially marking an 8 percent revaluation. The
move will also help raise the value of the regular peso.
(AP, 3/24/05)
2005 Mar 24, A Human Rights Watch
investigator said Ethiopian troops have committed widespread killings,
rapes and torture of the tribal Anuak population in the southwestern
corner of the country since late 2003.
(AP, 3/24/05)
2005 Mar 24, A French appeals
court upheld the conviction of George Soros (74) for insider trading.
Soros, whose Quantum Fund is worth about $8.3 billion, emigrated to the
US in 1956 and set up Soros Fund Management in 1973. He later made a
fortune on foreign exchange markets and was criticized in some quarters
for speculating on, and arguably encouraging, the collapse of Asian
currencies in the late 1990s.
(AP, 3/24/05)
2005 Mar 24, Iraqi police mistook
a group of Iraqi soldiers for insurgents and opened fire, sparking a
10-minute gunbattle that killed five in the northern town of Rabia.
(AP, 3/24/05)
2005 Mar 24, A suicide bomber
detonated an explosives-laden vehicle near the central city of Ramadi,
killing 11 Iraqi police commandos and injuring 14 other people
including 2 US soldiers. In an eastern Baghdad neighborhood, attackers
killed 5 female translators working for the US military. Police found 2
decapitated bodies clad in Iraqi army uniforms west of Baghdad.
(AP, 3/25/05)
2005 Mar 24, Chess legend Bobby
Fischer walked free from a Japanese detention center and immediately
headed to the airport to fly to his new home in Iceland.
(AP, 3/24/05)
2005 Mar 24, Istat reported that
Italy’s economy contracted 0.4% in the previous quarter due in part to
a fall in exports.
(WSJ, 3/25/05, p.A7)
2005 Mar 24, Suspected Muslim
insurgents shot dead the brother of Kashmir's junior home minister
while he was walking to a market.
(Reuters, 3/24/05)
2005 Mar 24, In Kyrgyzstan
protesters stormed the presidential compound, seizing control of the
seat of state power after clashing with riot police during a large
opposition rally. President Askar Akayev reportedly flew to Russia. The
ITAR-Tass news agency said President Askar Akayev has resigned. This
came to be called Kyrgyzstan’s “Tulip revolution.”
(AP, 3/24/05)(SFC, 3/25/05, p.A1)(Econ, 8/1/09, p.38)
2005 Mar 24, In the southern
Philippines, Marlene Garcia Esperat (45), a columnist for a weekly
newspaper, was shot dead in her home in front of her children. Her
husband told a radio station that his wife had "many enemies because of
her exposes," mostly on corruption and other issues of governance.
(AP, 3/26/05)
2006 Mar 24, Thousands of people
across the US protested against legislation cracking down on illegal
immigrants.
(AP, 3/24/07)
2006 Mar 24, It was reported that
Iraqi documents captured by US forces in 2003 say Russian intelligence
had sources inside the American military that enabled it to feed
information about U.S. troop movements and battle plans to Saddam
Hussein. Russia quickly denied that it provided information on US
troops movements and plans to Baghdad during the 2003 invasion.
(AP, 3/25/06)
2006 Mar 24, In Selmer, Tenn.,
Mary Winkler was charged with shooting to death her minister husband,
Matthew Winkler, in the parsonage of their church. In 2007 Mary
Winkler was convicted of voluntary manslaughter.
(AP,
3/24/07)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Winkler)
2006 Mar 24, A partly reusable
commercial rocket developed by a California entrepreneur failed during
its maiden launch from a Pacific island. Space Exploration Technology's
Falcon 1, designed to carry payloads to orbit at low cost, lifted off
from Kwajalein Atoll about 2:35 p.m. PST, but a Webcast provided by the
company immediately lost its picture.
(AP, 3/24/06)
2006 Mar 24, Google stock traded
up 7% to $365.80 following news that it would be added to the S&P
500 index on March 31.
(SFC, 3/24/06, p.C1)
2006 Mar 24, Wendy’s Int’l. spun
off Tim Hortons, a coffee-and-doughnut chain dominant in Canada. It was
co-founded in 1964 by hockey player Tim Horton. Wendy’s, which acquired
it in 1995, retained an 82.7% stake.
(Econ, 4/1/06, p.56)
2006 Mar 24, Scientists reported
glaciers and ice sheets were melting faster than previously thought and
could raise sea levels by 13-20 feet by the end of the century.
(SFC, 3/24/06, p.A1)
2006 Mar 24, In Belarus police
stormed the opposition tent camp in Minsk and rounded up hundreds of
demonstrators who had spent a fourth night protesting President
Alexander Lukashenko's victory in a disputed election. The US joined
European nations in imposing sanctions on Belarus in retaliation for
the crackdown on political protesters.
(AP, 3/24/06)
2006 Mar 24, Officials said
Bulgaria and the US have reached an agreement allowing the US military
to use several military bases in Bulgaria.
(AP, 3/24/06)
2006 Mar 24, The $24 million
musical production of "Lord of the Rings" at Toronto's Princess of
Wales Theatre met mixed reviews as critics applauded its leaping orcs
and menacing dark riders, but got lost in the tangled plots of Middle
Earth.
(Reuters, 3/27/06)
2006 Mar 24, A group of Cuban
migrants who reached an abandoned bridge in the Florida Keys only to be
sent back to Cuba received official confirmation from American
officials that they can return to the US for good on humanitarian visas.
(AP, 3/24/06)
2006 Mar 24, In southern Ecuador a
plane crashed into the side of a tire factory in Cuenca, killing five
of the 14 people aboard.
(AP, 3/24/06)
2006 Mar 24, In eastern France a
large explosion rocked a chemistry school, killing a professor and
injuring another person. About 10 people were unaccounted for.
(AP, 3/24/06)
2006 Mar 24, Bayer AG's 16.3
billion euro ($19.6 billion) offer for drugmaker Schering AG was
embraced by its target as German rival Merck abandoned its own takeover
offer.
(AP, 3/24/06)
2006 Mar 24, German scientists
reported that they had isolated sperm-producing stem cells from mice
that have similar properties to embryonic stem cells.
(WSJ, 3/25/06, p.A1)
2006 Mar 24, India's PM invited
Pakistan to join his country in a "treaty of peace, security and
friendship" to end nearly six decades of tension between the
nuclear-armed nations.
(AP, 3/24/06)
2006 Mar 24, Indonesia recalled
its ambassador in Australia in response to the granting of temporary
asylum to 42 of 43 Papuans who landed in northern Australia by boat in
January. The asylum request from the 43rd Papuan is still being
considered.
(AFP, 3/26/06)
2006 Mar 24, American and Iraqi
troops swept the oil-rich region of Kirkuk for suspected insurgents and
captured dozens. Across Iraq drive-by shootings, roadside bombings and
sectarian violence killed at least 51 people including 2 US soldiers.
(AP, 3/24/06)(WSJ, 3/25/06, p.A1)
2006 Mar 24, In Italy the film “Il
caimano” (The Cayman), directed by Nanni Moretti, was released. It was
loosely about PM Silvio Berlusconi, but not the anti-Berlusconi
diatribe that had been expected.
(Econ, 4/1/06, p.42)
2006 Mar 24, A Japanese court
ordered the shutdown of Japan's second-largest nuclear reactor in
response to a lawsuit by residents who feared it could leak dangerous
radiation during a powerful earthquake.
(AP, 3/24/06)
2006 Mar 24, In Japan Naha
District Court official Tatsuhiko Toguchi said a US military civilian
employee was sentenced to nine years in prison for two rapes on
Okinawa. Dag A. Thompson (36) was sentenced for the rapes which took
place in 1998 and 2004.
(AP, 3/24/06)
2006 Mar 24, The Mexican
government said a US-owned hotel that expelled Cuban guests under
pressure from the Treasury Department must pay $112,000 in fines for
violating Mexican commerce law.
(AP, 3/24/06)
2006 Mar 24, Pope Benedict XVI
installed his first group of cardinals, promoting 15 prelates,
including two Americans, to the elite club that chooses his successor.
(AP, 3/24/06)
2006 Mar 24, Pakistani security
forces backed by helicopter gunships killed at least 15 suspected
Taliban sympathizers in the latest flare-up of violence near the Afghan
border.
(AP, 3/24/06)
2006 Mar 24, In Mogadishu,
Somalia, 13 people were killed as fighting continued between Islamic
militia fighters and forces opposed to fundamentalist clerics. 3 days
of clashes left at least 73 people dead.
(SFC, 3/25/06, p.A3)
2006 Mar 24, The UN Security
Council voted keep UN peacekeepers in Sudan to monitor an accord ending
a 21-year civil war and authorized planning for the expected extension
of the UN force's operations to Darfur.
(AP, 3/24/06)
2006 Mar 24-2006 Mar 25, In
southeastern Turkey government troops killed 14 Kurdish guerrillas near
the hamlet of Senyayla.
(AP, 3/26/06)
2007 Mar 24, It was reported that
the total number of books in existence was estimated to be about 65
million.
(Econ, 3/24/07, p.93)
2007 Mar 24, Marshall Rogers,
artist, died in Freemont, Ca. He drew the Batman comics in the 1970s
with a mix of new detail and noirish fantasy.
(SSFC, 4/1/07, p.D1)
2007 Mar 24, In Afghanistan
militants attacked a police checkpoint near Tirin Kot in Uruzgan
province in a clash that left two police and six militants dead. Afghan
and US-led coalition troops repelled an attack by insurgents in eastern
Paktika province, leaving 12 militants dead. A joint force of Afghan
army, police and intelligence killed 11 Taliban militants in Lashkar
Gah, the capital of Helmand province. Separately, suspected Taliban
insurgents clashed with villagers in western Afghanistan, leaving three
militants killed and one villager wounded.
(AP, 3/24/07)(AP, 3/25/07)(AFP, 3/25/07)
2007 Mar 24, Thieves in Cambodia
poisoned a 62-year-old domesticated elephant and sawed off its tusks to
sell on the black market. In 2008 2 men were arrested for the killing
and faced up to 3 years in prison for the intentional destruction of
private property.
(AP, 3/27/07)(AP, 3/26/08)
2007 Mar 24, Uttar Pradesh, one of
India’s poorest states, numbered some 170 million
people.
(Econ, 3/24/07, p.48)
2007 Mar 24, The UN Security
Council unanimously voted to impose additional sanctions against Iran
for its refusal to stop enriching uranium, a move intended to show
Tehran that defiance will leave it increasingly isolated.
(AP, 3/25/07)
2007 Mar 24, At least 74 people
were killed or found dead in Iraq. A suicide truck bomber struck a
police station in Dora, a mainly Sunni area in Baghdad, killing 20
people. 2 mortar shells landed on a Shiite enclave elsewhere in Dora,
killing three people and wounding seven. Gunmen ambushed an Iraqi army
checkpoint in Baghdad's western Sunni neighborhood of Jami'a, killing a
soldier and wounding two others. A militant also was killed in
subsequent clashes. At least 11 other people were killed or found dead,
including a civilian who died after a parked truck packed with
explosives struck a Shiite mosque in Haswa, and the bullet-riddled
bodies of 8 men showing signs of torture in Fallujah. The Islamic State
in Iraq, an insurgent umbrella group that includes al-Qaida in Iraq,
purportedly claimed responsibility for three suicide bombings near the
Anbar province city of Qaim, near the Syrian border, saying in an
Internet statement that 45 policemen were killed and 48 were wounded.
police said only six people had been killed, including five policemen,
and 19 other people wounded. A US Marine was killed during combat in
Anbar province.
(AP, 3/24/07)(AP, 3/25/07)(AP, 3/27/07)
2007 Mar 24, Japan's Miki Ando won
the women's title at the World Figure Skating Championship in Tokyo,
leading a 1-2 finish for the host country with Mao Asada second.
(AP, 3/24/08)
2007 Mar 24, A senior judge from
Pakistan's tiny Hindu minority was sworn in as acting chief justice
amid a judicial crisis embroiling the government of President Gen.
Pervez Musharraf.
(AP, 3/24/07)
2007 Mar 24, Russian authorities
broke up a demonstration against the government in Nizhny Novgorod,
detaining hundreds of activists.
(AP, 3/24/07)
2007 Mar 24, Sri Lankan troops and
Tamil Tiger rebels were locked in intense battles in the island's
northeast, for a second straight day, as both sides reported heavy
casualties.
(AP, 3/24/07)
2007 Mar 24, In Sudan 11 people
were killed including 2 policemen and eight members of Darfur's former
rebel Sudanese Liberation Movement (SLM) in Omdurman, Khartoum’s twin
city. Abdel Shafee Jomaa Arabi, a senior rebel commander, was killed in
an ambush in Darfur.
(AFP, 3/24/07)(AFP, 3/26/07)
2007 Mar 24, Swedish truck maker
Volvo said it has successfully acquired Japan's Nissan Diesel, the
latest merger in the industry as companies prepare for more stringent
emissions rules.
(AP, 3/24/07)
2007 Mar 24, In southwestern
Zimbabwe a British woman and her 10-year-old daughter were killed by a
rogue elephant while her husband escaped unhurt during a walking safari
at Hwange National Park.
(AFP, 3/27/07)(SSFC, 4/1/07, p.G2)
2008 Mar 24, The US National
Association of Realtors said sales of previously occupied homes rose
2.9% in February with a median price drop of 8.2%. Foreclosed
properties represented about one in nine or currently listed homes for
sale.
(WSJ, 3/25/08, p.A1)
2008 Mar 24, JPMorgan Chase &
Co., under threat by angry shareholders, raised its bid for Bear
Stearns to $10 per share from an earlier $2 per share offer.
(SFC, 3/25/08, p.D3)
2008 Mar 24, In Detroit, Mich.,
Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick (37) was charged with 8 felonies in an
obstruction of justice case that involved a romantic affair with a
chief of staff.
(SFC, 3/25/08, p.A3)
2008 Mar 24, In Iowa City, Iowa, a
woman and her 4 children were found dead. The burned body of Steven
Sueppel (42), the husband and father, was found soon after in a wrecked
van. Sueppel had been indicted last month on charges of stealing some
$560,000 from Hills Bank and Trust, where he was vice president and
controller.
(SFC, 3/25/08, p.A2)
2008 Mar 24, Richard Widmark
(b.1914), film star, died at his home in Connecticut. His 65 films over
5 decades included “Kiss of Death” (1947), for which he received his
sole Academy Award nomination, for best supporting actor.
(SFC, 3/26/08, p.A2)
2008 Mar 24, Al-Qaida deputy
leader Ayman al-Zawahri called on Muslims in a new audiotape to strike
Jewish and American targets in revenge for Israel's recent offensive in
the Gaza Strip.
(AP, 3/24/08)
2008 Mar 24, In Afghanistan gunmen
fatally shot 2 Afghan members of a mine-clearing team. Afghan and
allied forces killed 12 Taliban fighters.
(SFC, 3/25/08, p.A3)(WSJ, 3/25/08, p.A1)
2008 Mar 24, Bhutan held its first
democratic elections. A new parliament and new constitution diluted the
powers of its popular monarch. The Druk Phuensum Tshogpa (DPT) or
Bhutan United Party, led by ex-premier Jigmi Thinley (55), won 44 of 47
seats. Thinley has pledged to boost development and happiness in the
Himalayan nation.
(AP, 3/25/08)(Econ, 3/29/08, p.58)
2008 Mar 24, Neil Aspinall
(b.1941)), Beatle associate and boss of Apple Corps, died in NYC.
(Econ, 4/5/08,
p.90)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neil_Aspinall)
2008 Mar 24, An American cargo
ship under contract to the US Navy opened fire on a small Egyptian boat
while moving through the Suez Canal. Egyptian authorities said at least
one man was killed. On Aug 28 the US ambassador met with the family
Mohammed Fouad, the man killed, and offered an apology and 750,000
Egyptian pounds, or about US$140,000. In return, the family agreed not
to sue the US government.
(AP, 3/25/08)(AP, 8/29/08)
2008 Mar 24, In Greece 3 men from
a free-press group ran onto the field of the stadium in Ancient Olympia
during a flame-lighting ceremony for the Beijing Olympics, evading
massive security aimed at preventing such disruptions in the wake of
China's crackdown in Tibet.
(AP, 3/24/08)
2008 Mar 24, In Iraq Pres. Maliki
announced that Operation Charge of the Knights would begin the next day
in Basra. He sent over 30,000 Iraqi troops into Basra, mentored by US
Marines, to clean out the Shia militias.
(www.prospect-magazine.co.uk/article_details.php?id=10635)(Econ,
5/2/09, p.47)
2008 Mar 24, Pakistan's National
Assembly elected as prime minister Yousaf Raza Gilani, a top official
in assassinated former PM Benazir Bhutto's party. Gilani ordered the
release of all judges detained after President Pervez Musharraf imposed
emergency rule last year.
(Reuters, 3/24/08)(AFP, 3/24/08)
2008 Mar 24, Portugal's President
Anibal Cavaco Silva began a 3-day official visit to Mozambique, where
members of his government have signed four bilateral accords.
(AFP, 3/25/08)
2008 Mar 24, A car bomb exploded
outside a bank in southern Russia's violence-plagued Ingushetia region,
wounding at least five people.
(AP, 3/24/08)
2008 Mar 24, Saudi Arabia said its
king would send a lower level diplomat to the March 29 Arab League
summit in Syria, which hoped to help solve the stalemate in Lebanon.
(WSJ, 3/25/08, p.A1)
2008 Mar 24, The WHO said polio
transmission has been stopped in Somalia.
(WSJ, 3/25/08, p.A1)
2008 Mar 24, South Korea's
president asked North Korea to consider sending home prisoners of war
and captured civilians in return for receiving humanitarian aid from
Seoul.
(AP, 3/24/08)
2008 Mar 24, Rafael Azcona
(b.1926), Spanish novelist and scriptwriter, died. He was known for
films such as the Oscar-winning comedy "Belle Epoque" and Luis Garcia
Berlanga's "The Executioner."
(AP,
5/21/08)(http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rafael_Azcona)
2008 Mar 24, An exiled Tibetan
leader said 2 weeks of protests against China's rule of Tibet have left
about 130 people dead.
(AP, 3/24/08)
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