Today in History - March 31
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1084 Mar 31,
Anti-pope Clemens crowned German emperor Hendrik IV.
(MC, 3/31/02)
1282 Mar 31, The great massacre of
the French in Sicily, "The Sicilian Vespers," came to an end. [see Aug
31,1303]
(HN, 3/31/99)
1389 Mar 31, Everhard Tserclaes,
sheriff of Brussels, was murdered.
(MC, 3/31/02)
1492 Mar 31, King Ferdinand and
Queen Isabella of Spain issued an edict expelling Jews from Spanish
soil, except those willing to convert to Christianity. In 2002 Claudia
Roden authored “The Ornament of the World,” a collection of stories of
Sephardic Jews in Spain from 750 to 1492. A Jewish text later known as
the Sarajevo Haggadah was carried by a refugee to Italy and later to
Bosnia. [see Mar 30]
(AP, 3/30/97)(WSJ, 4/26/02, p.W12)(SSFC, 12/8/02,
p.F9)
1499 Mar 31, Pius IV (Gianangelo
de' Medici), Italian lawyer, pope (1559-65), was born.
(MC, 3/31/02)
1547 Mar 31, Francis I, King of
France (1515-1547), died and was succeeded by his son Henry II, who was
dominated by his mistress, Diane de Poitiers, during his 12 year reign.
(TL-MB, 1988, p.17)(HN, 3/31/99)
1578 Mar 31, Juan de Escobedo,
secretary of Spanish land guardian Don Juan, was murdered.
(MC, 3/31/02)
1596 Mar 31, Rene Descartes
(d.1650), French philosopher, was born in La Haye, France. He proposed
a numerical index that represented fundamental notions. He made
consciousness the defining feature of the self. Descartes died in
Sweden. In 1997 Paul Strathern published: “Descartes in 90 Minutes,”
and Keith Devlin published “Goodbye Descartes: The End of Logic and the
Search for a New Cosmology of the Mind.” In 1998 the French biography
by Genevieve Rodis-Lewis was translated to English: “Descartes: His
Life and Thought.”
(V.D.-H.K.p.203)(Wired, 8/96, p.86)(WSJ, 3/18/97,
p.A20)(AP, 3/30/97) (WSJ, 7/23/98, p.A14)(WSJ, 8/21/98, p.W13)
1621 Mar 31, Andrew Marvell,
English poet and politician, was born.
(HN, 3/31/01)
1631 Mar 31, John Donne (b.1572),
British metaphysical poet, died in London. In 2006 John Stubbs authored
“Donne: The Reformed Soul.”
(www.luminarium.org/sevenlit/donne/donnebio.htm)(Econ, 9/9/06, p.79)
1657 Mar 31, English Humble
Petition offered Lord Protector Cromwell the crown.
(MC, 3/31/02)
1693 Mar 31, John Harrison,
Englishman who invented the chronometer, was born.
(HN, 3/31/99)
1732 Mar 31, Joseph Haydn
(d.1809), Austrian composer who helped develop the classical style, was
born. In his career he composed 104 symphonies, 82 string quartets and
60 piano sonatas. He also wrote some 175 baritone pieces for his
patron, the Hungarian prince Nickolaus Esterhazy, who played the
complex stringed instrument. The Canadian scholar David Schroeder
wrote: "Haydn and the Enlightenment."
(CFA, '96,Vol 179, p.42)(WUD, 1994, p.651)(WSJ,
8/26/97, p.A14)(HN, 3/31/98)
1745 Mar 31, Jews were expelled
from Prague.
(MC, 3/31/02)
1747 Mar 31, Johann Abraham Peter
Schulz, German composer (Moon has Risen), was born.
(MC, 3/31/02)
1776 Mar 31, Abigail Adams wrote
to her husband John that women were "determined to foment a rebellion"
if the new Declaration of Independence failed to guarantee their rights.
(HN, 3/31/98)
1777 Mar 31, A young Abigail Adams
encouraged her husband John to give women voting privileges in the new
American government. She wrote to her husband on March 31, 1777, while
he was a delegate to the Constitutional Convention: “I desire you would
remember the ladies and be more generous to them than were your
ancestors. Do not put such unlimited power into the hands of
husbands. Remember all men would be tyrants if they could. If
particular care and attention are not paid to the ladies we are
determined to foment a rebellion, and will not hold ourselves bound to
obey any laws in which we have no voice or representation.” Twenty
years later her husband was a candidate in America’s first real
election.
(HNPD, 3/30/00)
1779 Mar 31, Russia and Turkey
signed a treaty by which they promised to take no military action in
the Crimea.
(HN, 3/31/99)
1790 Mar 31, In Paris, France,
Maximilien Robespierre was elected president of the Jacobin Club.
(HN, 3/31/99)
1796 Mar 31, Johann Wolfgang von
Goethe's "Egmont," premiered in Weimar.
(MC, 3/31/02)
1808 Mar 31, French created the
Kingdom of Westphalia and ordered Jews to adopt family names.
(MC, 3/31/02)
1809 Mar 31, Edward Fitzgerald,
American writer, was born. He is famous for writing "Rubaiyat of Omar
Khayyam."
(HN, 3/31/99)
1809 Mar 31, Nikolai V. Gogol
(d.1852), Ukrainian-born Russian writer, was born (NS) in Sorochyntsi,
Poltava Governorate (later Ukraine). Some sources give April 1 as his
birthday. His work included the play “The Inspector General” (1836) and
the novels “Taras Bulba” (1835) and “Dead Souls” (1842).
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikolai_Gogol)(WSJ,
4/14/09, p.D7)
1809 Mar 31, Otto Jonas Lindblad,
composer, was born.
(MC, 3/31/02)
1809 May 31, Composer Franz Joseph
Haydn died in Vienna, Austria on his 77th birthday. When Napoleon’s
armies marched into Vienna, the commanding general posted guards in
front of Haydn’s house to protect Haydn from trouble, and a young
officer was sent to sing for the old man.
(AP, 5/31/97)(WSJ, 1/8/98, p.A7)
1811 Mar 31, Robert Wilhelm
Eberhard von Bunsen, German inventor of the Bunsen burner, was born.
(HN, 3/31/99)
1814 Mar 31, Forces allied against
Napoleon captured Paris.
(MC, 3/31/02)
1831 Mar 31, Archibald Scott,
Scottish chemist, was born.
(MC, 3/31/02)
1831 Mar 31, Quebec and Montreal
were incorporated.
(HN, 3/31/98)
1836 Mar 31, The first monthly
installment of The Pickwick Papers by Charles Dickens was published in
London.
(HN, 3/31/01)
1837 Mar 31, John Constable (60),
English painter, water colors painter, died. His work included some 100
studies of the sky done between 1821-1822. In 2009 Martin Gayford
authored “Constable in Love: Love, Landscape, Money and the Making of a
Great Painter.”
(WSJ, 6/9/04, p.D8)(Econ, 3/21/09,
p.92)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Constable)
1841 Mar 31, 1st performance of
Robert Schumann's 1st Symphony in B.
(MC, 3/31/02)
1847 Mar 31, Jarolslaw Zielinski,
composer, was born.
(MC, 3/31/02)
1850 Mar 31, The US population hit
23,191,876, with the Black population at 3,638,808 (15.7%).
(MC, 3/31/02)
1850 Mar 31, John Calhoun
(b.1782), US vice-president (1825-1832), died while a senator from
South Carolina. He was elected vice president under two presidents,
John Quincy Adams in 1824 and Andrew Jackson in 1828.
(WUD, 1994 p.210)(HNQ, 8/19/99)(MC, 3/31/02)
1854 Mar 31, Sir Dugald Clerk,
inventor of the two-stroke motorcycle engine, was born.
(HN, 3/31/98)
1854 Mar 31, Chief Shogun Iyesada,
following negotiations with Commodore Perry, approved the Treaty of
Kanagawa on behalf of Emperor Osahito. This forced Japan to open its
ports to foreign trade.
(Jap. Enc., BLDM, p. 215)(ON, 11/04, p.12)
1855 Mar 31, Charlotte Bronte
(b.1816), English author (Jane Eyre), died.
(MC, 3/31/02)
1858 Mar 31, Norddeutscher Lloyd
Bremen launched the SS New York, a passenger cargo vessel. It was sold
to Edward Bates of Liverpool in 1874 and later wrecked near Staten
Island. In 1994 Edwin Drechsel (1914-2006) later authored a 2-volume
history of the North German shipping line.
(www.clydesite.co.uk/clydebuilt/viewship.asp?id=15185)
1862 Mar 31, Skirmishing between
Rebels and Union forces took place at Island 10 on the Mississippi
River.
(HN, 3/31/98)
1863 Mar 31, Battle of Grand
Gulf, MS & Dinwiddie Court House, VA.
(MC, 3/31/02)
1865 Mar 31, Battle of Boydton, VA
(White Oaks Roads, Dinwiddie Court House).
(MC, 3/31/02)
1865 Mar 31, Gen. Pickett moved to
5 Forks, abandoning the defense of Petersburg.
(MC, 3/31/02)
1872 Mar 31, Sergei Pavlovich
Diaghilev, dance master (Imperial Ballet), was born in Russia. [see Mar
19]
(MC, 3/31/02)
1878 Mar 31, Jack Johnson, first
Africa-American boxer to become the world heavyweight champion
(1908-1915), was born.
(HN, 3/31/99)(MC, 3/31/02)
1880 Mar 31, Wabash, Ind., became
the first town completely illuminated by electrical lighting.
(AP, 3/31/97)(HN, 3/31/98)
1880 Mar 31, Henryk Wieniawski
(44), Polish violist, composer, died.
(MC, 3/31/02)
1883 Mar 31, 1st performance of
Cesar Franck's "Le Chasseur Maudit."
(MC, 3/31/02)
1885 Mar 31, Madame Blavatsky was
hoisted in an invalid chair onto a steamer in the Madras harbor of
India and departed for London. In England she wrote “The Secret
Doctrine” and had as guests to her salon William Butler Yeats, Annie
Besant and the young Mohandas K. Gandhi.
(Smith., 5/95, p.127)
1885 Mar 31, Franz Wilhelm Abt
(65), German composer, choir conductor, died.
(MC, 3/31/02)
1886 Mar 31, Giovanni Rossi (57),
composer, died.
(MC, 3/31/02)
1889 Mar 31, French engineer
Gustave Eiffel unfurled the French tricolor from atop the Eiffel Tower,
officially marking its completion. Constructed of 7,000 tons of iron
and steel, the 984-foot structure was designed by Alexandre Gustave
Eiffel for the Paris Exhibition of 1889, commemorating the centennial
of the French Revolution. The price for the Eiffel Tower was more than
$1 million, but fees for the year 1889 alone nearly recouped the cost.
Fifty-five years later, plans by Hitler to leave the tower and much of
Paris a smoking ruin were foiled by an unlikely hero. After the Paris
World Fair a church designed by Alexandre Gustave Eiffel was dismantled
and shipped to Santa Rosalia in Baja, Mexico.
(SFEC, 10/20/96, Par, p.23)(SFEC, 11/10/96,
p.T11)(HNPD, 3/31/99)(AP, 3/31/08)
1891 Mar 31, Erich Walter
Sternberg, composer, was born.
(MC, 3/31/02)
1893 Mar 31, Clemens Krauss,
conductor (Berlin State Orch-1937), was born in Vienna.
(MC, 3/31/02)
1895 Mar 31, Vardis A. Fisher, US
author (Darkness & Deep), was born.
(MC, 3/31/02)
1895 Mar 31, John Jay McCloy,
lawyer, banker (Sec of War 1941-45, High Commissioner for Germany, pres
Chase Manhattan), was born.
(MC, 3/31/02)
1903 Mar 31, New Zealand aviator
Richard Pearse flew a self-made, bamboo-framed, mono-winged airplane in
Waitohi.
(NW, 3/17/03, p.20)
1906 Mar 31, G.B. Shaw's German
version of "Caesar and Cleopatra," premiered in Berlin.
(MC, 3/31/02)
1907 Mar 31, Romanian Army put
down a Moldavian farmers' revolt.
(MC, 3/31/02)
1909 Mar 31, Gustav Mahler
conducted the NY Philharmonic for 1st time.
(MC, 3/31/02)
1913 Mar 31, John Pierpont Morgan
(b.1837), US banker, CEO (US Steel Corp), died in Rome, Italy. His art
collection was valued at $60m. In 1999 Jean Strouse authored “Morgan.”
(www.netstate.com/states/peop/people/ct_jpm.htm)(Econ, 11/20/04,
p.86)(WSJ, 8/4/07, p.P9)
1914 Mar 31, Octavio Paz, Mexican
diplomat and Nobel Prize-winning writer, was born.
(HN, 3/31/01)
1915 Mar 31, Henry Morgan,
comedian, radio performer, was born.
(HN, 3/31/01)
1916 Mar 31, General Pershing and
his army routed Pancho Villa's army in Mexico.
(HN, 3/31/98)
1917 Mar 31, The United States
took possession of the Virgin Islands, which it had purchased from
Denmark for $25 million in 1916.
(HFA, '96, p.26)(AP, 3/30/97) (HN, 3/31/98)
1918 Mar 31, Daylight Savings Time
went into effect throughout the U.S. for the first time.
(HN, 3/31/98)
1920 Mar 31, British parliament
accepted Irish "Home Rule" law.
(MC, 3/31/02)
1921 Mar 31, Great Britain
declared a state of emergency because of the thousands of coal miners
on strike.
(HN, 3/31/98)
1922 Mar 31, Richard Kiley, actor
(Man of La Mancha, Endless Love), was born in Chicago.
(MC, 3/31/02)
1923 Mar 31, The first U.S. dance
marathon, held in New York City, ended. Alma Cummings (32) set a world
record of 27 hours on her feet. 6 younger male partners helped her.
(AP, 3/31/98)(WSJ, 6/1/05, p.B1)
1923 Mar 31, French soldiers fired
on workers at Krupp factory in Essen; 13 died.
(MC, 3/31/02)
1924 Mar 31, Leo Buscaglia, "Dr.
Hug", psychologist (Love), was born in LA, Calif.
(MC, 3/31/02)
1926 Mar 31, Sydney Chaplin, son
of Charlie, actor (Adding Machine, Psycho Sisters), was born.
(MC, 3/31/02)
1926 Mar 31, John Fowles (d.2005),
English novelist, was born. His work included “The Collector” (1963)
and “The French Lieutenant's Woman” (1969).
(HN, 3/31/01)(SFC, 11/8/05, p.B5)
1927 Mar 31, Cesar Chavez
(d.1993), California union leader of agricultural workers (United Farm
Workers), was born in Yuma, Az.
(SFEC,10/19/97, p.C3)(SFC, 3/29/00, p.A3)(MC,
3/31/02)
1927 Mar 31, William Daniels,
actor (Dr Mark Craig-St Elsewhere, 1776), was born in Brooklyn, NY.
(MC, 3/31/02)
1928 Mar 31, Gordie Howe, NHL
right wing (Detroit Redwings), was born in Floral, Sask., Canada.
(MC, 3/31/02)
1931 Mar 31, Knute Rockne (43),
football player, coach, died in a plane crash.
(MC, 3/31/02)
1932 Mar 31, Ford Motor Co.
publicly unveiled its V-8 engine.
(AP, 3/31/97)
1932 Mar 31, 150 wild swans died
in Niagara waterfall.
(MC, 3/31/02)
1933 Mar 31, Shirley Jones,
actress (Partridge Family, Elmer Gantry), was born in Smithton, Pa.
(MC, 3/31/02)
1933 Mar 31, Congress approved,
and President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed, the Emergency Conservation
Work Act (Reforestation Relief Act), which created the Civilian
Conservation Corps. The US unemployment rate reached 25%. In its nine
years of existence, the New Deal’s Civilian Conservation Corps had a
total of 2.9 million men aged 18 to 25 enrolled. The program was
designed to provide jobs for young men in the national forests,
conservation programs and national road construction. Enacted as one of
President Franklin Roosevelt’s first New Deal programs, it lasted until
World War II. At its high point in September 1935, the CCC had 2,514
work camps across the U.S. with 502,000 men enrolled.
(SFEC, 5/2/99, Z1 p.1)(HNQ, 7/23/99)(AP,
3/31/08)(SSFC, 1/18/09, p.D6)
1933 Mar 31, German Republic gave
dictatorial power to Hitler.
(MC, 3/31/02)
1935 Mar 31, Herb Alpert,
bandleader, trumpeter (Tijuana Brass), CEO (A & M), was born.
(MC, 3/31/02)
1936 Mar 31, Marge Piercy, poet
and novelist, was born.
(HN, 3/31/01)
1939 Mar 31, Britain and France
agreed to support Poland if Germany threatened to invade. Seven French
islands were annexed by Japan.
(HN, 3/31/98)
1940 Mar 31, The New York
Municipal Airport, opened in October, 1939, was renamed La Guardia
airport, after the mayor, who had been a bomber pilot in World War I
and whose interest in aviation lasted throughout his lifetime, barely a
month after it opened.
(www.arcadiapublishing.com/news_article.html?id=1816)
1941 Mar 31, Germany began a
counter offensive in North Africa.
(HN, 3/31/98)
1943 Mar 31, The Rodgers and
Hammerstein musical “Oklahoma!” opened on Broadway. Richard Rodgers and
Oscar Hammerstein hired Agnes de Mille for the choreography. The
original is only on documentary videotape and the 1954 film was a
“bloated mess.” [see Mar 30]
(TMC, 1994, p.1943)(WSJ, 2/5/96, p.A-16)(AP, 3/30/97)
1943 Mar 31, US errantly bombed
Rotterdam, killed 326.
(MC, 3/31/02)
1944 Mar 31, Hungary ordered all
Jews to wear yellow stars.
(MC, 3/31/02)
1945 Mar 31, The Tennessee
Williams play "The Glass Menagerie" premiered on Broadway.
(AP, 3/31/97)
1945 Mar 31, The U.S. and Britain
barred a Soviet supported provisional regime in Warsaw from entering
the U.N. meeting in San Francisco.
(HN, 3/31/98)
1945 Mar 31, US artillery landed
on Keise Shima and began firing on Okinawa.
(MC, 3/31/02)
1945 Mar 31, Sicherheitsdienst
murdered 10 political prisoners in Zutphen.
(MC, 3/31/02)
1948 Mar 31, David Eisenhower,
Eisenhower's grandson (married Julie Nixon), was born.
(MC, 3/31/02)
1948 Mar 31, Al Gore, Vice
President to President William J. Clinton (1993-2001), was born.
(HN, 3/31/99)
1948 Mar 31, Rhea Perlman, actress
(Zena-Taxi, Carla-Cheers), was born in Brooklyn.
(MC, 3/31/02)
1948 Mar 31, Congress passed a
$6.2 billion foreign aid bill, the Marshall Aid Act, to rehabilitate
war-torn Europe.
(HN, 3/31/98)(MC, 3/31/02)
1948 Mar 31, The Soviet Union in
Germany began controlling the Western trains headed toward Berlin.
(HN, 3/31/98)
1949 Mar 31, Newfoundland, later
called Newfoundland and Labrador, entered confederation as Canada's
10th province. In 1999 Wayne Johnston authored “The Colony of
Unrequited Dreams,” a novel about postconfederation Newfoundland and
its 1st premier, Joe Smallwood. In 2000 Johnston authored “Baltimore’s
Mansion,” a personal memoir of Newfoundland.
(SFEC, 6/25/00, BR p.6)(AP, 3/31/08)
1949 Mar 31, Churchill declared
that the A-bomb was the only thing that kept the USSR from taking over
Europe.
(HN, 3/31/98)
1953 Mar 31, Stanley Kubrick's
first feature film, a war drama titled "Fear and Desire," premiered in
New York.
(AP, 3/31/03)
1953 Mar 31, Department of Health,
Education and Welfare was established.
(MC, 3/31/02)
1953 Mar 31, UN Security Council
nominated Dag Hammarskjold secretary-general.
(MC, 3/31/02)
1954 Mar 31, Moscow offered to
join NATO on the condition that the West join the Soviet European
security treaty.
(HN, 3/31/98)
1954 Mar 31, The siege of Dien
Bien Phu, the last French outpost in Vietnam, began after the Viet Minh
realized it could not be taken by direct assault.
(HN, 3/31/99)
1955 Mar 31, US Assay Office in
Seattle, Washington, closed.
(MC, 3/31/02)
1955 Mar 31, Chase National (3rd
largest bank) and Bank of the Manhattan Company (15th largest bank)
merged to form Chase Manhattan.
(MC, 3/31/02)
1957 Mar 31, The original version
of Rodgers and Hammerstein's "Cinderella," starring Julie Andrews,
aired live in color on CBS.
(AP, 3/31/07)
1958 Mar 31, US Navy formed the
atomic sub division.
(MC, 3/31/02)
1958 Mar 31, Moscow declared a
halt on all atomic tests and asked other nations to follow.
(HN, 3/31/98)
1959 Mar 31, Dalai Lama fled the
Chinese suppression of a national uprising in Tibet and crossed the
border into India. India granted him political asylum.
(MC, 3/31/02)
1960 Mar 31, The South African
government declared a state of emergency after demonstrations led to
the deaths of more than 50 Africans.
(HN, 3/31/98)
1960 Mar 31, Joseph Haas (81),
German opera composer (Totenmesse), died.
(MC, 3/31/02)
1962 Mar 31, Cesar Chavez (d.1993)
founded the United Farm Workers Union on his birthday.
(SSFC, 4/7/02, p.A14)
1963 Mar 31, LA ended streetcar
service after 90 years.
(MC, 3/31/02)
1966 Mar 31, An estimated 200,000
anti-war demonstrators marched in New York City. 25,000 anti war
demonstrators marched in NYC.
(HN, 3/31/98)(SFEC, 11/28/99, p.A28)(MC, 3/31/02)
1966 Mar 31, Labour Party won
British parliamentary election.
(MC, 3/31/02)
1967 Mar 31, President Lyndon
Johnson signed the Consular Treaty, the first bi-lateral pact with the
Soviet Union since the Bolshevik Revolution.
(http://travel.state.gov/law/legal/treaty/treaty_1508.html)
1968 Mar 31, Pres. Johnson
announced that he would not run for re-election and declared a partial
bombing halt in Vietnam. The stock market soared. Citing national
divisions over the war in Vietnam, Johnson declares that "I shall not
seek, and I will not accept, the nomination of my party for another
term as your president."
(WUD, 1994, p.1687)(TMC, 1994, p.1968)(SFC, 8/18/96,
Z1 p.4)(AP, 3/31/97)(MC, 3/31/02)
1970 Mar 31, The U.S. forces in
Vietnam downed a MIG-21, the first since September 1968.
(HN, 3/31/98)
1970 Mar 31, Semjon Timoshenko
(75), Russian marshal, inspector-general (WW II), died.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Semyon_Timoshenko)\
1971 Mar 31, US Lt. William Calley
(b.1943) was sentenced to life for the My Lai Massacre.
(www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1808937/posts)
1975 Mar 31, The TV show Gunsmoke,
which premiered in 1955, aired its last episode.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gunsmoke)
1976 Mar 31, The New Jersey
Supreme Court allowed the removal of the respirator that assisted Karen
Ann Quinlan, who had been comatose since Apr 15, 1975. Quinlan, who
remained comatose, died Jul 11, 1985.
(SFC, 12/12/96, p.C8)(AP, 3/30/97)
1979 Mar 31, The Arab League
suspended Egypt following its treaty with Israel.
(www.safarix.com/0131900048/ch08)
1980 Mar 31, Pres. Carter signed
the Depository Institutions Deregulation And Monetary Control Act,
which deregulated interest rates.
(WSJ, 11/19/04,
p.A8)(www.bos.frb.org/about/pubs/deposito.pdf)
1980 Mar 31, In Spain the first
session of the Basque parliament was held in Guernica.
(Econ, 3/7/09,
p.60)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basque_Parliament)
1981 Mar 31, In the 1st Golden
Raspberry Awards the film “Can't Stop the Music” won as worst film of
1980.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1980_Golden_Raspberry_Awards)
1981 Mar 31, In the 53rd Academy
Awards "Ordinary People," R. De Niro and Sissy Spacek won, one day
after the attempted assassination of Pres. Reagan. The Awards were held
at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion.
(SFC, 3/21/02,
p.D1)(www.ropeofsilicon.com/awards/oscarhistory.php?y=1981)
1982 Mar 31, In California an
avalanche at the Alpine Meadows ski resort killed 7 people. In 2009
Jennifer Woodlief authored “A Wall of White: The True Story of Heroism
and Survival in the Face of a Deadly Avalanche.”
(http://tinyurl.com/7gjkf)(SFC, 2/27/09, p.F4)
1982 Mar 31, In South Africa
Nelson Mandela and 3 others were transferred from Robben Island to
Pollsmoor Prison on the mainland. Mandela had spent 18 years on Robben
Island.
(www.sabcnews.com/features/walter_sisulu/timeline.html)
1983 Mar 31, A 5.4 earthquake hit
the region of Popoyan, Colombia. It killed about 250 people and left
some 1,500 injured.
(SFEC, 11/10/96, p.T10)(http://tinyurl.com/2pmrpn)
1986 Mar 31, English Hampton Court
palace was destroyed by fire and 1 person died.
(http://tinyurl.com/l6fxl)
1986 Mar 31, 167 people died when
a Mexicana Airlines Boeing 727 crashed in a remote mountainous region
of Mexico.
(AP, 3/31/97)
1987 Mar 31, Indiana Univ. won the
NCAA basketball finals with a last-second, corner shot by Keith Smart.
(WSJ, 4/4/03, p.B2)(http://tinyurl.com/rcskk)
1987 Mar 31, The judge in the
"Baby M" case in Hackensack, N.J., awarded custody of the girl born
under a surrogate-motherhood contract to her father, William Stern,
instead of the surrogate, Mary Beth Whitehead.
(AP, 3/31/97)
1988 Mar 31, The novel "Beloved"
by Toni Morrison was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for fiction, while the
Charlotte (N.C) Observer won the prize for public service for its
coverage of the Praise The Lord scandal.
(AP, 3/31/98)
1989 Mar 31, The FBI announced it
would conduct a criminal investigation into the massive oil spill in
Alaska's Prince William Sound.
(AP, 3/31/99)
1990 Mar 31, Soviet President
Mikhail S. Gorbachev warned the defiant Baltic republic of Lithuania to
annul its declaration of independence or face "grave consequences."
(AP, 3/31/00)
1990 Mar 31, Hundreds of people
were injured in rioting in London over Britain's so-called "poll tax."
The poll-tax disturbances helped to bring down PM Margaret Thatcher.
(AP, 3/31/00)(Econ, 3/8/08, p.66)
1991 Mar 31, Albania offered a
multi-party election for the first time in 50 years. The Labor Party
won over 67 percent of votes, while the Democratic Party won around 30
percent. Communists won Albania’s first multiparty elections, but
democratic opponents scored victories in major cities.
(HN, 3/31/98)(www, Albania, 1998)(AP, 3/31/01)
1991 Mar 31, Voters in the Soviet
republic of Georgia overwhelmingly endorsed independence.
(AP, 3/31/01)
1991 Mar 31, The Warsaw Pact spent
the last day of its existence as a military alliance.
(AP, 3/31/01)
1992 Mar 31, The Battleship USS
Missouri was decommissioned. This was the ship on which Japan signed
its WWII surrender. In 1996 Paul Stillwell authored “Battleship
Missouri: An Illustrated History.”
(www.battleship.org/html/Articles/Features/stillwell.htm)
1992 Mar 31, The U.N. Security
Council voted to ban flights and arms sales to Libya, branding it a
terrorist state for shielding six men accused of blowing up Pan Am
Flight 103 and a French airliner.
(AP, 3/31/97)
1993 Mar 31, Actor Brandon Lee
(28) was killed during the filming of a movie in Wilmington, N.C., by a
prop gun that fired part of a dummy bullet instead of a blank.
(MC, 3/31/02)
1993 Mar 31, "Star Dust" lyricist
Mitchell Parish died in New York City at age 92.
(AP, 3/31/98)
1993 Mar 31, The U.N. Security
Council increased international pressure on Bosnian Serbs, authorizing
NATO warplanes to shoot down aircraft that violated a ban on flights
over Bosnia.
(AP, 3/31/98)
1994 Mar 31, The PLO and Israel
agreed to resume talks on Palestinian autonomy, more than a month after
the Hebron mosque massacre.
(AP, 3/31/99)
1995 Mar 31, US baseball players
agreed to end their 232-day strike after a judge granted a preliminary
injunction against club owners.
(AP, 3/31/00)
1995 Mar 31, President Clinton
briefly visited Haiti, where he declared the U.S. mission to restore
democracy there a "remarkable success."
(AP, 3/31/00)
1995 Mar 31, Mexican-American
singer Selena, 23, was shot to death in Corpus Christi, Texas, by the
founder of her fan club. Yolanda Saldivar was convicted of murder and
sentenced to life in prison.
(AP, 3/31/97)
1995 Mar 31, Fred Cuny (b.1944),
American disaster relief specialist, disappeared in Chechnya and was
never found. He used his training in engineering to do humanitarian
work and worked in countries such as Biafra, Guatemala, Ethiopia, Iraq,
Somalia, and Bosnia. Cuny (50), an envoy for George Soros' Open Society
Institute, was shot and killed by Chechen gunmen. In 1999 Scott
Anderson published "The Man Who Tried to Save the World: The Dangerous
Life and Mysterious Disappearance of Fred Cuny."
(http://www.onlineethics.org/cms/14193.aspx)(SFEC,
6/6/99, BR p.1)
1996 Mar 31, Pres. Clinton and
Monica Lewinsky resumed their sexual relationship.
(SFC, 9/12/98, p.A13)
1996 Mar 31 Russian President
Boris Yeltsin announced a halt to combat operations in Chechnya,
limited troop withdrawals and a willingness to hold indirect talks with
the rebels' leader.
(AP, 3/31/97)
1997 Mar 31, In the US men’s NCAA
Basketball finals Arizona beat Kentucky 84-79 in overtime.
(SFC, 4/1/97, p.A1)
1997 Mar 31, The Supreme Court
ruled that the government can force cable television systems to carry
local broadcast stations.
(AP, 3/31/98)
1997 Mar 31, Jury selection began
in Denver in the trial of accused Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh.
(AP, 3/31/98)
1997 Mar 31, It was reported from
Los Angeles that Yasuyoshi Kato was caught after having embezzled 85-95
[$62 mil] million from Day-Lee Foods, a Japanese firm for which he
worked as an accountant [chief financial officer]. He was sentenced to
5 years in prison.
(SFC, 3/31/97, p.A15)(SFC, 10/7/97, p.A14)
1997 Mar 31, Scientists announced
the first artificial human chromosomes that work properly inside living
cells.
(SFC, 4/1/97, p.A1)
1997 Mar 31, In Spain a passenger
train north of Pamplona derailed and killed at least 22 and injured
some 87 people.
(WSJ, 4/1/97, p.A1)
1998 Mar 31, For the first time in
history, the Clinton administration released a detailed financial
statement for the federal government showing its assets and liabilities.
(AP, 3/31/99)
1998 Mar 31, Hon-Ming Chen,
Taiwanese leader of a spiritual sect in Garland, Texas, was to meet God
at 10 AM.
(SFC, 3/23/98, p.A3)
1998 Mar 31, Former New York
Congresswoman Bella Abzug died at age 77.
(AP, 3/31/99)
1998 Mar 31, In Egypt a sweeping
press ban forbade publishing houses from printing in tax-free zones.
This amounted to a temporary de facto ban for over 50 publications that
printed in the Nasser City tax-free zone outside of Cairo.
(SFC, 5/9/98, p.A10)
1998 Mar 31, The EU set this date
for membership talks with Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic,
Slovenia, Estonia and Cyprus. Preliminary talks were also set with
Lithuania, Latvia, Slovakia, Romania and Bulgaria.
(SFC,12/13/97, p.A12)
1998 Mar 31, In Lille, France, an
18-year-old boy was shot dead by a fellow student in front of his
classmates and teacher.
(SFC, 4/22/98, p.A10)
1998 Mar 31, The UN Security
Council imposed a new arms embargo on Yugoslavia to press Milosevic to
grant ethnic Albanians concessions in Kosovo.
(SFC, 4/1/98, p.A8)(AP, 3/31/99)
1998 Mar 31, In Cambodia
government soldiers made a major offensive to destroy the remnants of
the Khmer Rouge guerrillas, which was disintegrating due to defections
and internal fighting.
(SFC, 4/1/98, p.A8)
1998 Mar 31, In Lebanon a roadside
bomb in the Israeli security zone killed 6 construction workers in
their pickup truck near Kaoukaba.
(SFC, 4/1/98, p.A10)
1998 Mar 31, It was reported that
in Thailand’s Mae Hong Son province, women of the Padaung tribe of
Burma were attracting tourists with their necks elongated by wearing
brass coils. They began fleeing Burma’s Kayah state over a decade ago
(SFC, 3/31/98, p.B4)
1999 Mar 31, A federal judge was
expected to approve a settlement by black United Parcel Service (UPS)
workers for over $8 million for racial discrimination.
(SFEC, 3/7/99, p.D2)
1999 Mar 31, Four New York City
police officers were charged with murder for killing Amadou Diallo, an
unarmed African immigrant, in a hail of bullets. They were acquitted in
Feb 2000.
(AP, 3/31/04)
1999 Mar 31, Three peacekeeping US
soldiers were captured by Serb forces near the Yugoslav-Macedonia
border. Sgt. James Stone (25), Spec. Steven Gonzales (21) and Sgt.
Andrew Ramirez (24) were shown on Serbian TV and were released more
than a month later. Azen Syla, founder of the KLA, said that his
guerrilla supply lines from Albania were cut off when the bombing
began. Yugoslav soldiers herded ethnic Albanians onto trains bound for
the Macedonian border as NATO bombing continued for the 8th day.
(SFC, 4/1/99, p.A1,12)(SFC, 4/2/99, p.A1)(AP,
3/31/00)
1999 Mar 31, NATO bombs destroyed
the Sloboda household utilities plant in Cacak, Serbia. It had employed
some 5,000 people. Allied leaders said they would bomb government
buildings in Belgrade.
(SFC, 4/1/99, p.A14)(WSJ, 4/1/99, p.A1)
1999 Mar 31, In the village of
Dzakovo, Kosovo, a witness reported the Serbian paramilitary forces
invade a mosque during morning prayers and killed some 80 people.
(SFC, 4/6/99, p.A8)
1999 Mar 31, On Serbian TV Ibrahim
Rugova appealed for an end to NATO bombings. He had recently been
quoted by a German magazine that chaos would result if NATO does not
send in ground troops immediately. Serbs put Rugova under house arrest
and ordered him to appear on TV.
(SFC, 4/2/99, p.A15)(SFC, 4/17/99, p.A9)
1999 Mar 31, In England the House
of Lords passed a bill that stripped aristocrats with inherited seats
from voting in the upper chamber of Parliament.
(SFC, 4/1/99, p.C2)
1999 Mar 31, In Zambia the high
court declared former leader Kenneth Kaunda, born to Malawian
missionaries, a non-citizen.
(WSJ, 4/1/99, p.A1)
2000 Mar 31, The UN Security
Council decided to let Iraq spend more money to repair its oil
industry, an investment intended to boost the amount of food and
medicine Baghdad could buy through the UN humanitarian program.
(SFC, 4/1/00, p.A12)(AP, 3/31/01)
2000 Mar 31, In Russia Pres. Putin
called for a quick ratification of the START II nuclear arms reduction
treaty and deeper cuts in nuclear missiles.
(SFC, 4/1/00, p.A12)
2000 Mar 31, In Uganda police
revised the number of deaths linked to the doomsday cult to 924.
(SFC, 4/1/00, p.A1)
2001 Mar 31, Pres. Blaise Compaore
asked for forgiveness for abuses over his 13-year rule as part of
Burkina Faso’s 1st “National Pardon Day.”
(SSFC, 4/1/01, p.C10)
2001 Mar 31, In Macedonia rebels
engaged government troops in a firefight.
(SSFC, 4/1/01, p.C5)
2001 Mar 31, In the Netherlands
legislation enacted in 2000 to legalize gay marriages went into effect
at midnight.
(SFC, 3/31/01, p.A10)
2001 Mar 31, In Pakistan a
stampede at a shrine in Pakbattan Sharif left 40 dead as thousands
rushed for the “paradise door.”
(WSJ, 4/2/01, p.A1)
2001 Mar 31, In Russia some 20,000
people gathered in Pushkin Square to defend the NTV network from the
government’s 10-month financial and legal campaign against it.
(SSFC, 4/1/01, p.C2)
2001 Mar 31, In Serbia commandos
stormed the residence of Slobodan Milosevic and attempted to arrest him
as the US deadline for cooperation with the UN War Crimes tribunal
approached. But a defiant Milosevic rejected a warrant, reportedly
telling police he wouldn't "go to jail alive." He was taken into
custody the next day.
(SFC, 3/31/01, p.A1)(AP, 3/31/02)
2001 Mar 31, In Taiwan the Dalai
Lama arrived for a spiritual visit.
(SFC, 4/2/01, p.A9)
2001 Mar 31, In Turkey thousands
rallied in major cities to protest a government economic recovery plan
backed by the IMF.
(SSFC, 4/1/01, p.C10)
2002 Mar 31, Connecticut beat
Oklahoma 82-70 to conclude its second unbeaten season with a third
women's national championship.
(AP, 3/31/03)
2002 Mar 31, Barry Took (73),
British comedian and comic writer, died. He helped produce “Monty
Python’s Flying Circus.” His autobiography was titled “A Point of View.”
(SFC, 4/1/02, p.B5)
2002 Mar 31, On Australia’s
Norfolk Island Glenn McNeill (24) of New Zealand hit Janelle Patton
(29) with his car and later stabbed her "just to make sure she was
dead." McNeill was arrested in 2006 based on DNA evidence. Patton
suffered 64 separate injuries including a fractured skull and numerous
stab wounds in the attack In 2007 McNeill told police he had been
smoking cannabis when he hit Patton. On Mar 9 a jury convicted McNeill
of murder. On July 25 he was sentenced to 24 years in jail.
(AP, 8/12/02)(Econ, 7/10/04, p.38)(Reuters,
3/9/07)(AFP, 7/25/07)
2002 Mar 31, Men in the Czech
Republic chased female relatives and friends for the traditional Easter
leg thwacking.
(WSJ, 3/28/02, p.A1)
2002 Mar 31, In France an arson
attacked destroyed Marseille’s Or Aviv temple. It was the 3rd synagogue
attack over the Passover weekend.
(SFC, 4/2/02, p.A8)
2002 Mar 31, Israeli forces
entered Qalqilya and Bethlehem. 2 Palestinians were killed after they
fired on Israeli soldiers. Some 40 European and American peace
activists joined Yasser Arafat. Israeli PM Ariel Sharon vowed to smash
Palestinian militants in a broadcast speech that came the same day as a
suicide bombing in Haifa that killed 15 Israelis. In 2009 Shimon Shiran
died of wounds suffered in the bombing that also killed his daughter
Adi (17).
(SFC, 4/1/02, p.A1,10)(AP, 3/31/07)(AP, 4/12/09)
2002 cMar 31, In Madagascar a
bridge linking the capital to a southern port was blown up.
(WSJ, 4/1/02, p.A1)
2002 Mar 31, Serbia’s government,
faced with a midnight suspension of US aid, issued arrest warrants
against 4 former Milosevic associates.
(SFC, 4/1/02, p.A6)
2002 Mar 31, In Taiwan a 6.8-7.1
earthquake hit and 5 construction workers were killed in Taipei when 2
construction cranes fell from the 60th floor of a new building
projected to be the tallest in the city. Taipei 101 reached 1,679 feet
on completion and claimed to be have the highest structural top,
tallest roof and highest occupied floor.
(SFC, 4/1/02, p.A7)(WSJ, 4/1/02, p.A1)(SSFC, 8/8/04,
p.A22)
2002 Mar 31, In Ukraine elections
the pro-Western Our Ukraine led by former PM Viktor Yuschenko led with
23%. The Communist Party had 20%. Pres. Kuchma’s United Ukraine
had 13% and expected 119 seats in parliament. The parties provide half
the 450 sets of the parliament, known as the Verkhovna Rada. Direct
elections decide the other half.
(SFC, 4/1/02, p.A6)(SFC, 4/2/02, p.A6)(SFC, 4/3/02,
p.A7)
2002 Mar 31, Pope John Paul II
used his Easter message to call for an end to violence in the Holy Land.
(AP, 3/31/03)
2003 Mar 31, In the 13th day of
Operation Iraqi Freedom US-led troops fought pitched battles with
Saddam Hussein's Republican Guard within 50 miles of the capital. B-1,
B-2 and B-52 bombers struck communication and command centers in
Baghdad, and cruise missiles set Iraq's Information Ministry ablaze.
Casualties from the war to date US total: 40 dead, 7 captured, 18
missing; British total: 25 dead. Of 8,000 precision bombs dropped since
the war began, 3,000 fell in the last 3 days. Port operations at Umm
Qasr looked to be delayed for weeks.
(AP, 3/31/03)(WSJ, 4/1/03, p.A1)
2003 Mar 31, US troops between
Karbala and Najaf shot and killed 10 Iraqi civilians including women
and children, when the driver of a van failed to stop at a checkpoint.
The Pentagon reported 7 killed.
(AP, 4/1/03)(SFC, 4/1/03, p.A1)
2003 Mar 31, NBC said it severed
its relations with reporter Peter Arnett after he told Iraqi television
that the US war plan against Saddam Hussein had failed. Arnett was
quickly hired by London's Daily Mirror.
(AP, 3/31/03)(WSJ, 4/1/03, p.B1)
2003 Mar 31, The DJIA fell 153 to
7992.
(SFC, 4/1/03, p.C1)
2003 Mar 31, Harold Scott
MacDonald Coxeter (b.1907), British-born mathematician, died. He
pioneered the study of higher-dimensional shapes called polytopes. In
2006 Siobhan Roberts authored “King of Infinite Space.”
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harold_Scott_MacDonald_Coxeter)
2003 Mar 31, Britain and the US
signed a new Extradition Treaty.
(http://tinyurl.com/hbdpj)(http://eurealitshome.com/blog/?p=1086)
2003 Mar 31, In Bolivia rescue
officials struggled to reach victims buried by a landslide that roared
through Chima, a gold-mining town in Bolivia's tropical lowlands,
killing an estimated 300-400 people.
(AP, 4/1/03)(SFC, 4/1/03, p.A8)(AP, 4/2/03)
2003 Mar 31, Hong Kong authorities
quarantined more than 200 other residents in an apartment block in an
effort to contain the SARS virus.
(AP, 3/31/03)
2003 Mar 31, In eastern Indonesia
mudslides triggered by flash floods on Flores Island killed 48 people
with 28 reported missing.
(AP, 4/2/03)(AP, 4/5/03)
2003 Mar 31, In Tehran, Iran, a
pickup truck with extra fuel crashed into the British Embassy in an
apparent suicide attack. Police called it an accident.
(SFC, 4/1/03, p.A3)
2003 Mar 31, In Macedonia the EU
began its first military operation by taking over peacekeeping duties
from NATO.
(AP, 3/31/03)
2003 Mar 31, In southern Pakistan
gunmen in paramilitary uniforms shot dead 12 people and wounded 26
others in an attack linked to a tribal feud.
(AP, 3/31/03)
2004 Mar 31, Air America Radio
went live in 3 of largest US markets with a left-leaning,
round-the-clock, talk format featuring Al Franken and Janeane Garofalo.
Air America was conceived by Anita and Sheldon Drobny of Chicago. The
idea was purchased by Guam entrepreneurs Evan M. Cohen and Rex
Sorensen, who resigned May 5.
(SFC, 3/31/04, p.C1)(WSJ, 6/21/04, p.A1)
2004 Mar 31, The US Navy closed
Naval Station Roosevelt Roads, its last base in Puerto Rico. It was
transferred to a special naval agency that will coordinate the closing
process. The base had been used for 6 decades to keep watch over the
Caribbean.
(AP, 1/6/04)(AP, 4/2/04)
2004 Mar 31, In Fallujah, Iraq,
jubilant residents dragged the charred corpses of 4 American private
security guards, from Blackwater Security Consulting, through the
streets and hanged them from a bridge spanning the Euphrates River. 5
American soldiers died in a roadside bombing nearby.
(AP, 3/31/04)(SFC, 4/1/04, p.A1)(SFC, 4/2/04, p.A16)
2004 Mar 31, Lithuania's highest
court ruled that President Rolandas Paksas violated the constitution by
arranging citizenship for a businessman with alleged mob ties, a
verdict that will likely set the stage for an impeachment vote.
(AP, 3/31/04)
2004 Mar 31, The International
Court of Justice ruled that the United States violated the rights of 51
Mexicans on death row and ordered their cases be reviewed.
(AP, 3/31/04)
2004 Mar 31, OPEC voted to cut oil
production by 4.1%.
(SFC, 4/1/04, p.C1)
2004 Mar 31, The US suspended $26
million in aid to Serbia for refusal to give up war crimes fugitives.
(WSJ, 4/1/04, p.A1)
2004 Mar 31, In Sudan security
police detained Hassan Turabi, the leading Islamic opposition leader, 3
days after members of his party were accused of conspiring to topple
the government.
(AP, 3/31/04)
2005 Mar 31, A US presidential
commission reported that US intelligence agencies were dead wrong in
their prewar assessment of Iraq’s nuclear, biological and chemical
weapons.
(SFC, 4/1/05, p.A1)
2005 Mar 31, A US Commerce Dept.
study on Internet traffic, ordered in 1998, was published under the
title “Signposts in Cyberspace.”
(SFC, 4/1/05, p.C3)
2005 Mar 31, The World Bank
confirmed Paul Wolfowitz as its new president.
(WSJ, 4/1/05, p.A1)
2005 Mar 31, South Carolina
defeated Saint Joseph's, 60-57, in the NIT championship game.
(AP, 3/31/06)
2005 Mar 31, Terri Schiavo (41),
the severely brain-damaged woman who spent 15 years connected to a
feeding tube in an epic legal and medical battle that went all the way
to the White House and Congress, died in Florida, 13 days after the
tube was removed.
(AP, 3/31/05)(SFC, 4/1/05, p.A1)
2005 Mar 31, Frank Perdue,
businessman, died in Salisbury, Maryland. He transformed his father’s
backyard egg business into one of the nation's largest poultry
processors using the folksy slogan, "It takes a tough man to make a
tender chicken."
(AP, 4/1/05)(SFC, 4/2/05, p.B5)
2005 Mar 31, A US C-130 airplane
crashed near the remote village of Rovie and all 9 Americans onboard
were killed in mountainous southern Albania during a joint exercise.
(AP, 4/1/05)
2005 Mar 31, It was reported that
Shirin Gul (39), an Afghan housewife, stood accused with her lover and
son (18) of murdering 27 men over the last 4 years in order to sell
their cars across the border in Pakistan.
(SFC, 3/31/05, p.A3)
2005 Mar 31, In Brazil a massacre
in Nova Iguacu, outside of Rio, left 29 people dead. The next day state
officials said they might have been carried out by police incensed by
investigations of brutality and corruption by "bad" cops. In 2006 a
court convicted Carlos Jorge Carvalho (32) a state police officer, of
taking part in the Baixada massacre. In 2009 ex-officer Julio Cesar de
Paula was sentenced to 480 years in prison and ex-officer Marcos
Siqueira Costa to 543 years for homicide and belonging to a criminal
organization. The length of the sentences was largely symbolic because
under Brazilian law no one can serve more than 30 years in prison.
(AP, 4/1/05)(SFC, 6/24/05, p.A16)(AP, 8/23/06)(AP,
9/16/09)
2005 Mar 31, Alberta repaid the
last of its debt and became Canada’s only borrowing-free province.
(www.gov.ab.ca/home/index.cfm?Page=852)(www.td.com/economics/budgets/ab05.jsp)
2005 Mar 31, The president of
Ecuador's Supreme Court annulled corruption charges against former
President Abdala Bucaram, paving the way for his possible return from
political asylum in Panama.
(AP, 4/1/05)
2005 Mar 31, The EU head office
said it will seek to impose additional sanctions of up to 15 percent on
US products to punish Washington for failing to repeal an antidumping
law ruled illegal by the World Trade Organization.
(AP, 3/31/05)
2005 Mar 31, Guyana police found
American missionaries Richard Hicks (42) and his wife Charlene Hicks
(58) slain at a farm they rented in southwestern Guyana near the border
with Brazil. In 2008 Guyana police issued arrest warrants for two
Brazilians accused of the killings. Peter Marare and Aleiman Cassiano
Eligenio, who were ranch hands on the couple's farm, faced one count of
murder each.
(AP, 4/1/05)(AP, 8/6/08)
2005 Mar 31, India's PM said India
and Mauritius are moving toward a free trade agreement to boost the
island's threatened trade portfolio and help India tap into African
markets.
(AP, 3/31/05)
2005 Mar 31, A suicide bomber blew
up his car south of Kirkuk, killing two Iraqi army soldiers and three
bystanders. A second car bomber attacked a joint U.S.-Iraqi patrol in
the center of Samarra, killing three people and injuring more than a
dozen others. Bombings and ambushes across Iraq left at least a dozen
Iraqis and one US soldier dead.
(AP, 3/31/05)(SFC, 4/1/05, p.A3)
2005 Mar 31, Rho on the outskirts
of Milan, Italy, inaugurated a trade fair over the site of a polluted
refinery closed in 1992. The site featured a new structure by
Massimilian Fuksas.
(Econ, 4/2/05, p.61)
2005 Mar 31, The World Bank
approved financing support for the controversial $1.2 billion Nam Theun
2 dam in Laos.
(WSJ, 4/1/05, p.A8)
2005 Mar 31, Two Lithuanian
illusionists have begun an attempt to break the record for staying
inside a giant ice cube, set by US magician David Blaine in 2000 when
he spent nearly 62 hours inside a block of ice.
(AFP, 4/1/05)
2005 Mar 31, In Palestine Mahmoud
Abbas ordered a crackdown on Ramallah militants after a group of gunmen
fired at his compound in a sign of escalating tensions.
(AP, 3/31/05)
2005 Mar 31, A Rwandan Hutu
militia group, the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda,
denounced the Hutu-orchestrated 1994 genocide in the African country
and announced it was stopping its fighting in the region.
(AP, 3/31/05)
2005 Mar 31, Zimbabweans waited in
long lines to vote in parliamentary elections that President Robert
Mugabe hopes will prove the legitimacy of a regime.
(AP, 3/31/05)
2005 Mar 31, After weeks of often
bitter negotiations, the UN Security Council approved a resolution to
refer Sudanese war crimes suspects to the International Criminal Court,
agreeing to major concessions demanded by United States.
(AP, 4/1/05)
2006 Mar 31, President Bush,
closing a three-nation NAFTA summit, defended requiring secure
documents from border-crossing Canadians and pushed Mexico to prevent
more of its people from illegally entering America.
(AP, 3/31/06)
2006 Mar 31, Auto parts maker
Delphi Corp. moved to void its U.S. labor contracts, cut up to 8,500
salaried workers and close or sell a third of its plants globally as it
attempts to slash costs and restructure in order to exit bankruptcy.
(Reuters, 3/31/06)
2006 Mar 31, A provincial governor
said Afghan authorities have detained a border police commander from
the Achakzai tribe accused in the killings of 17 Pakistanis on March
21. Taliban insurgents raided several police posts in Helmand province
and six of the attackers were killed. A suicide car-bomber was killed
when he blew himself up as he tried to ram his vehicle into an Afghan
army convoy in Kandahar province.
(AP, 3/31/06)(Reuters, 3/31/06)(SSFC, 7/30/06, p.A18)
2006 Mar 31, Australian police
arrested and charged three men with alleged links with a terrorist
organization after counter-terrorism teams swooped on Melbourne's
northern suburbs.
(Reuters, 3/31/06)
2006 Mar 31, In Austria Gertraud
Arzberger (33), who stuffed the bodies of two of her four newborn
infants in a freezer and entombed two others in plastic buckets filled
with cement, was convicted of three counts of murder and sentenced to
life imprisonment. Her live-in companion, Johannes Genser (39), was
convicted as an accessory and was sentenced to 15 years.
(AP, 3/31/06)
2006 Mar 31, A lucky Belgian won
the jackpot of 75,753,123 euros (53 million pounds) in the European
lottery EuroMillions.
(Reuters, 4/1/06)
2006 Mar 31, Military and police
forces took control of Bolivia's major airports, one day after hundreds
of striking airline workers blocked runways and disrupted flights to
three airports.
(AP, 3/31/06)
2006 Mar 31, A plane carrying 19
people crashed in a mountainous region outside Rio de Janeiro, killing
all aboard. A small LET 410 twin-engine plane belonging to the local
Team airline went missing about 20 minutes after leaving the city of
Macae.
(AP, 4/1/06)
2006 Mar 31, In China Hu Jia, a
prominent AIDS activist, said he would sue the government for
improperly detaining him. Jia, released on March 28, accused Chinese
security forces of abducting and holding him for 41 days.
(AP, 4/1/06)
2006 Mar 31, French President
Jacques Chirac offered to soften a labor law that makes it easier to
fire young workers, but the student and labor leaders who have
organized nationwide strikes rejected his compromise and repeated calls
for the measure's repeal.
(AP, 3/31/06)
2006 Mar 31, Indonesia said it has
confirmed its 23rd bird flu fatality by tests carried out by the World
Health Organization (WHO). Local tests showed another patient is
infected.
(AP, 3/31/06)
2006 Mar 31, The air force chief
of the elite Revolutionary Guards said Iran successfully test-fired a
new missile, the Fajir-3, with the ability to avoid radar and hit
several targets simultaneously.
(AP, 3/31/06)(SFC, 4/3/06, p.A3)
2006 Mar 31, In western Iran 3
strong earthquakes and several aftershocks reduced villages to rubble,
killing 70 people and injuring about 1,200 others.
(AP, 3/31/06)(AP, 3/31/07)
2006 Mar 31, In Iraq a mortar
round slammed into a street in northeastern Baghdad, killing three
women when shrapnel hit their home, and soldiers discovered the
bullet-riddled bodies of six men wearing handcuffs in western Baghdad.
Gunmen attacked a minibus carrying Shiites northeast of Baghdad,
killing six men and wounding one woman. At least 18 other people were
killed elsewhere, including three ice cream vendors and a butcher, many
in drive-by shootings.
(AP, 3/31/06)(AP, 4/1/06)
2006 Mar 31, Japan's opposition
party suffered a fresh humiliation when its leadership resigned en
masse over a fake e-mail scandal, handing PM Junichiro Koizumi an
uncontested grip on power in his last six months in office.
(AP, 3/31/06)
2006 Mar 31, Jordanian health
officials announced the kingdom's first human case of the bird flu in a
worker (31) believed to have contracted the deadly strain in his home
village in Egypt.
(AP, 3/31/06)
2006 Mar 31, Abu Yousef Abu Quka,
a top commander of a small militant Palestinian group, was killed when
his car mysteriously exploded in flames. A shootout between rival
Palestinian factions erupted shortly after the blast.
(AP, 3/31/06)
2006 Mar 31, A Portuguese court
convicted 96 people, including 81 police officers, in a corruption case
involving bribes for dismissed traffic fines.
(AP, 3/31/06)
2006 Mar 31, Prosecutors in Warsaw
filed charges against Poland's last communist leader, Gen. Wojciech
Jaruzelski, in connection with his imposition of martial law in 1981 as
the Soviet-backed regime tried to crush the Solidarity pro-democracy
movement.
(AP, 3/31/06)
2006 Mar 31, The EU gave Serbia an
extra month to hand over genocide suspect Ratko Mladic or face
suspension of its talks on closer EU ties, after being reassured of
progress in the manhunt.
(AFP, 3/31/06)
2006 Mar 31, In Sri Lanka the
ruling coalition won an overwhelming victory in local elections,
according to results released by the government, a result seen as an
endorsement of the president's negotiations with Tamil Tiger rebels.
(AP, 3/31/06)
2006 Mar 31, Swiss prosecutors
said they have filed charges against 19 former top executives and board
members of the defunct Swissair for their part in the national
airline's 2001 bankruptcy.
(AP, 3/31/06)
2006 Mar 31, In Tonga Dr. Fred
Sevele agreed to serve as PM, making him the first commoner to lead the
government in living memory.
(www.taimiotonga.com/Taimi/News.asp?db=1&N_ID=448)(Econ, 3/17/07,
p.47)
2006 Mar 31, In Turkey a bomb
hidden in a garbage can exploded near an Istanbul bus stop, killing a
street vendor and injuring 13 people. Fighting between Turkish soldiers
and Kurdish guerrillas killed a 3-year-old boy and brought to 7 the
number of fatalities in the 4th day of clashes.
(AP, 3/31/06)(SFC, 4/1/06, p.A5)
2007 Mar 31, President Bush again
came to the defense of Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, under
criticism for his role in the firing of federal prosecutors, calling
him "honorable and honest."
(AP, 3/31/08)
2007 Mar 31, President Bush called
for the release of 15 British sailors and marines held by Iran, calling
their capture by Tehran "inexcusable behavior." The crew members were
released on April 4.
(AP, 3/31/08)
2007 Mar 31, Nestle Purina PetCare
Co. said it was recalling all sizes and varieties of its Alpo Prime
Cuts in Gravy wet dog food with specific date codes. Purina said a
limited amount of the food contained a contaminated wheat gluten from
China.
(AP, 3/31/07)
2007 Mar 31, Berkeley Iceland
closed in Berkeley, Ca., after 66 years of operation.
(SSFC, 4/1/07, p.D1)
2007 Mar 31, Paul Watzlawick
(b.1921), Austrian-born pioneering psychotherapist, died in Palo Alto,
Ca. He held that people created their own misery by trying to force
self-defeating solutions to trivial problems of the ego. His 22 books
included “The Situation Is Hopeless but not Serious: The Pursuit of
Unhappiness” (1993).
(SFC, 4/4/07, p.B7)
2007 Mar 31, Luanda, Angola, built
for half a million people was now home for at least 4 million, many of
whom fled there during the civil war.
(Econ, 3/31/07, p.58)
2007 Mar 31, It was reported that
Antarctica held about 90% of the world’s ice.
(Econ, 3/31/07, p.85)
2007 Mar 31, In Argentina
authorities said rising rivers due to 5 days of rain in three provinces
have forced some 38,000 people to flee their homes. The floodwaters
have claimed 7 lives.
(AP, 4/1/07)
2007 Mar 31, At least 22 Islamists
were arrested in overnight raids as Bangladesh strengthened security
nationwide.
(AFP, 3/31/07)
2007 Mar 31, In Brazil air traffic
controllers protesting working conditions ended their one-day strike
after the government agreed to their demands.
(AP, 4/1/07)
2007 Mar 31, Janjaweed militiamen
killed up to 400 people in the volatile eastern border region near
Sudan, leaving an "apocalyptic" scene of mass graves and destruction.
Chadian officials initially said 65 people had died, but added that the
toll was sure to rise.
(AP, 4/10/07)
2007 Mar 31, In Eritrea a ban on
female circumcision went into effect. A health survey by Eritrea's
government in 2002 found 62 percent of circumcised women in the Red Sea
state had the procedure done before their first birthday. Less than one
percent had been performed by trained health professionals.
(Reuters, 4/5/07)
2007 Mar 31, EU foreign ministers
backed an Arab peace initiative and agreed to engage with ministers of
the new Palestinian national unity government who are not members of
the Islamist Hamas movement.
(AP, 3/31/07)
2007 Mar 31, A parked car exploded
near a hospital in Baghdad's main Shiite district, the deadliest in a
series of bombings that killed at least nine people and wounded dozens
in Iraq.
(AP, 3/31/07)
2007 Mar 31, A report said
Malaysia's top anti-corruption official, who is facing a police
investigation into graft allegations against him, will not have his
contract renewed.
(AP, 3/31/07)
2007 Mar 31, In southern Nigeria
gunmen kidnapped a British oil worker from an offshore oil rig.
(AP, 3/31/07)
2007 Mar 31, Pakistan successfully
tested a short-range, nuclear-capable missile. Avalanches struck two
villages in a remote part of northwest Pakistan, killing at least 29
people and leaving 14 others missing.
(AP, 3/31/07)(AP, 4/1/07)
2007 Mar 31, In Somalia artillery
fire and mortar shells rained down on Mogadishu as government troops
and their Ethiopian allies continued a major offensive to quash a
growing insurgency by Islamic militants. A Ugandan soldier was killed
by artillery fire in Mogadishu, marking the first death among African
Union peacekeepers deployed here.
(AP, 3/31/07)(AFP, 4/1/07)
2007 Mar 31, In western Sudan at
least 62 people were killed and 21 wounded in an attack on an Arab
tribe in the Darfur region.
(AFP, 4/1/07)
2008 Mar 31, The Bush
administration proposed the most far-ranging overhaul of the financial
regulatory system since the stock market crash of 1929 and the ensuing
Great Depression. Alphonso Jackson, the Bush administration's top
housing official, under criminal investigation and intense pressure
from Democratic critics, announced he is quitting.
(AP, 3/31/08)
2008 Mar 31, Gregg Bergersen (51),
a Pentagon weapons analyst, pleaded guilty to giving classified
information about US and Taiwanese military communications systems to
Tai Kuo, a New Orleans furniture salesman working with the Chinese
government.
(WSJ, 4/1/08, p.A2)
2008 Mar 31, The US investment
banking company Lehman Brothers sued the Japanese trading company
Marubeni, seeking to recover $350 million in financing it says was
obtained fraudulently.
(AP, 3/31/08)
2008 Mar 31, American director
Jules Dassin (96), whose Greek wife Melina Mercouri starred in his hit
movie "Never on Sunday" and six more of his films, died at an Athens
hospital.
(AP, 3/31/08)
2008 Mar 31, A clash in southern
Afghanistan killed a Danish soldier and wounded two others. A separate
attack on a NATO patrol killed two British troops. an airstrike killed
three men irrigating land close to a road in Kandahar province. The men
may have been mistaken for militants planting roadside bombs. In
Helmand province police arrested Mullah Naqibullah, a senior Taliban
commander who has escaped twice from Afghan prisons. Naqibullah was
nabbed during a clash that left three insurgents dead.
(AP, 3/31/08)(AP, 4/1/08)
2008 Mar 31, Some of England's
most sacred soil was disturbed for the first time in more than four
decades as archaeologists worked to solve the enduring riddle of
Stonehenge: When and why was the prehistoric monument built?
(AP, 3/31/08)
2008 Mar 31, Chad's state radio
announced that the president has pardoned six French aid workers
convicted of kidnapping 103 children.
(AP, 3/31/08)
2008 Mar 31, Chinese President Hu
Jintao presided over the re-lighting of the Olympic torch in Beijing,
signaling the start of an around-the-world torch relay that already has
become a magnet for protesters.
(AP, 3/31/08)
2008 Mar 31, Chinese authorities
arrested suspects in four arson and murder cases stemming from
anti-government riots that engulfed the Tibetan capital in mid-March.
(AP, 3/31/08)
2008 Mar 31, New President Raul
Castro's government has lifted a ban on Cubans staying at hotels
previously reserved for foreigners, ending another restriction that had
been especially irksome to citizens.
(AP, 3/31/08)
2008 Mar 31, In Iraq the fortified
Green Zone came under fresh attack, less than 24 hours after
anti-American Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr told his fighters to stand
down following a week of clashes with government forces. Near Buhriz
unknown gunmen in a car attacked a checkpoint manned by US-backed Sunni
fighters. Four of the fighters were killed.
(AP, 3/31/08)
2008 Mar 31, Jerusalem's city hall
has announced a plan to construct 600 new apartments in the Pisgat Zeev
neighborhood of east Jerusalem.
(AP, 3/31/08)
2008 Mar 31, Scientists in Japan
reported that they have designed artificial molecules that when used
with rats successfully reversed liver cirrhosis, a serious chronic
disease in humans that until now can only be cured by transplants.
(Reuters, 3/31/08)
2008 Mar 31, Malaysia's Islamic
opposition party delivered a protest note to the Netherlands' embassy
over the release of an anti-Islam movie by a maverick Dutch lawmaker,
while hard-line Muslims in neighboring Indonesia demanded the death of
the filmmaker.
(AP, 3/31/08)
2008 Mar 31, In Mexico Juana
Barraza (50), a former female wrestler who terrorized Mexico City as
the "Little Old Lady Killer," was sentenced to 759 years in jail for
killing 16 elderly women.
(AP, 3/31/08)
2008 Mar 31, Turkey's top court
decided to put the Islamist-rooted ruling party on trial for alleged
anti-secular activity, in a case that could threaten national stability
and Ankara's bid to join the EU. Clashes between Turkish troops and
Kurdish rebels left nine rebels and three soldiers dead in Turkey's
southeast.
(AFP, 3/31/08)(AP, 4/1/08)
2008 Mar 31, Zimbabwe's opposition
Movement for Democratic Change and President Robert Mugabe's ruling
ZANU-PF were on level-pegging, as the results trickled in from a
weekend general election. The MDC's own tally of votes in 128 of the
210 parliamentary seats showed that its leader Tsvangirai had secured
60 percent of votes against 30 for Mugabe in the presidential race.
(AFP, 3/31/08)
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