Today in History - April 1
Return to home
All Fool's Day.
(HFA, '96, p.28)
527 Apr 1, Emp.
Justin named Justinianus co-emperor of Byzantium. [see Apr 4]
(OTD)(PC, 1992 ed, p.54)
1204 Apr 1, Eleanor of Aquitaine
(81), wife of Louis VII and Henry II, died. In 1950 Amy Kelly authored
“Eleanor of Aquitaine and the Four Kings.”
(www.britannica.com/eb/article-9032256/Eleanor-of-Aquitaine)(WSJ,
5/12/07, p.P10)
1504 Apr 1, English guilds went
under state control.
(MC, 4/1/02)
1548 Apr 1, Sigismund I, the Elder
(81), King of Poland, died.
(TL-MB, 1988, p.17)(MC, 4/1/02)
1572 Apr 1, The Sea Beggars under
Guillaume de la Marck landed in Holland and captured the small town of
Briel.
(HN, 4/1/99)(OTD)
1578 Apr 1, William Harvey England
(d.1657), discoverer of blood circulation, was born.
(HN, 4/1/99)(WUD, 1994, p.648)
1611 Apr 1, Gillis van Valkenborch
(~72), Flemish painter, was buried.
(MC, 4/1/02)
1621 Apr 1, The Plymouth,
Massachusetts colonists created the first treaty with Native Americans.
(OTD)
1647 Apr 1, John Wilmot (d.1680)
Second Earl of Rochester, poet (A Satyr Upon Mankinde), scandalous
pornographer and bawdy playwright, was born. He married Elizabeth
Malet, and carried on an affair with the actress Elizabeth Barry. His
friend, playwright George Etherege modeled the character Dorimont after
him in "Man of Mode." A 1994 play by Stephen Jeffrey titled "The
Libertine," is based on Wilmot’s life.
(WSJ, 3/28/96,p.A-12)(WSJ, 1/14/98, p.A17)
1697 Apr 1, Abbe Prevost, French
novelist, journalist (Manon Lescaut), was born.
(MC, 4/1/02)
1724 Apr 1, Jonathan Swift
published Drapier's letters.
(OTD)
1734 Apr 1, Louis Lully (69),
French composer, died.
(MC, 4/1/02)
1748 Apr 1, The ruins of
Pompeii were found.
(OTD)
1755 Apr 1, Jean Anthelme
Brillat-Savarin, French lawyer (Fisiologia del Gusto), was born.
(MC, 4/1/02)
1776 Apr 1, Friedrich von
Klinger's "Sturm und Drang," premiered in Leipzig.
(MC, 4/1/02)
1778 Apr 1, Oliver Pollock, a New
Orleans businessman, created the "$" symbol.
(HN, 4/1/98)(OTD)
1789 Apr 1, The U.S. House of
Representatives held its first full meeting, in New York City.
Frederick Muhlenberg of Pennsylvania was elected the first House
Speaker.
(AP, 4/1/98)
1792 Apr 1, Gronings feminist Etta
Palm demanded women's right to divorce.
(MC, 4/1/02)
1793 Apr 1, The volcano
Unsen on Japan erupted killing about 53,000.
(OTD)
1799 Apr 1, Narciso Casanovas
(52), composer, died.
(MC, 4/1/02)
1815 Apr 1, Otto von Bismarck
(d.1898), German statesman, was born. He founded the German Empire and
was the chancellor of Germany, the Second Reich, from 1866-90
[1971-1990]. The Iron Chancellor created the modern social insurance
state when he introduced transfer payments to appease worker
insecurities. “History is simply a piece of paper covered with print;
the main thing is still to make history, not to write it.” "Every man
had his basic worth - from which must be subtracted his vanity.
(WUD, 1994, p.151)(AP, 11/6/97)(WSJ, 4/24/98,
p.A14)(SFEC, 3/7/99, Z1 p.8)(HN, 4/1/99)
1823 Apr 1, Simon Bolivar Buckner
(d.1914), Lt. Gen. (Confederate Army), was born.
(MC, 4/1/02)
1826 Apr 1, Samuel Mory
patented the internal combustion engine.
(OTD)
1834 Apr 1, Isidore Edouard
Legouix, composer, was born.
(MC, 4/1/02)
1850 Apr 1, The San Francisco
County government was established.
(www.sfgov.org/site/visitor_index.asp?id=8091)
1852 Apr 1, Edward Austin Abbey,
US, painter (Quest of the Holy Grail), was born.
(MC, 4/1/02)
1853 Apr 1, Cincinnati, Ohio,
established a fire department made up of paid city employees.
(AP, 4/1/07)
1862 Apr 1, Shenandoah Valley
campaign, Jackson's Battle of Woodstock, VA.
(MC, 4/1/02)
1863 Apr 1, First wartime
conscription law went into effect in the U.S.
(HN, 4/1/98)
1864 Apr 1, The first travel
accident policy was issued to James Batterson by the Travelers
Insurance Company.
(OTD)
1865 Apr 1, At the Battle of
Five Forks in Petersburg, Va., Gen. Robert E. Lee began his final
offensive.
(HN, 4/1/98)(OTD)
1865 Apr 1-9, Battle at Blakely,
Alabama.
(MC, 4/1/02)
1866 Apr 1, Ferruccio D.M.B.
Busoni, pianist, composer, conductor (Arlecchino), was born in Italy.
(MC, 4/1/02)
1866 Apr 1, US Congress rejected
presidential veto and gave all equal rights.
(MC, 4/1/02)
1867 Apr 1, Blacks voted in
the municipal election in Tuscumbia, Alabama.
(OTD)
1867
Apr 1, The International Exhibition, Exposition Universelle,
opened in Paris.
(OTD)(ON, 9/06, p.11)
1867
Apr 1, Singapore, Penang & Malakka became
British crown colonies.
(OTD)
1868 Apr 1, Edmond Rostand, French
dramatist (Cyrano de Bergerac), was born.
(HN, 4/1/01)
1868 Apr 1, The Hampton Institute
was founded in Hampton, Va.
(HN, 4/1/99)
1872
Apr 1, The first edition of The Standard was published.
(OTD)
1873
Apr 1, M. Namik Kemal’s play " Vatan yahut
Silistre " premiered in Constantinople.
(OTD)
1873 Apr 1, Composer Sergei
Rachmaninoff (d.1943) was born in Novgorod Province, Russia. [see Mar
20]
(AP, 4/1/98)
1873 Apr 1, The British White Star
steamship Atlantic, enroute to NYC from Liverpool with 811 passengers
under Capt. James Agnew Williams (33), sank off Nova Scotia killing 565
people, mostly women and children. A court of inquiry suspended
Williams for 2 years.
(ON, 4/03, p.7)
1875 Apr 1, Edgar Wallace,
novelist, playwright, journalist (Terror), was born in England.
(MC, 4/1/02)
1876 Apr 1, The first official NL
baseball game took place. Boston beat Philadelphia 6-5.
(OTD)
1878 Apr 1, The 1st large-scale
Easter Monday egg roll was held on White House lawn under President
Rutherford B. Hayes and his wife Lucy. The egg roll has been held every
year since except during the war years of WWI and WWII until 1953 when
Pres. Eisenhower re-established the egg roll tradition.
(AH, 4/07, p.14)(http://tinyurl.com/ygrbvwq)
1878 Apr 1, Carl Sternheim, German
playwright (Hyperion, Tabula Rasa), was born.
(MC, 4/1/02)
1878 Apr 1, The city of Berkeley,
home to UC Berkeley, was incorporated.
(SFC, 3/28/03, p.A3)
1878 Apr 1, In Lincoln, N.M., the
Regulators, including Billy the Kid, ambushed and killed Sheriff
William Brady, a James Dolan partisan, along with a deputy.
(SFEC, 2/23/96, p.T8,9)(SFC, 2/2/01, p.A14)
1881
Apr 1, Anti-Jewish riots took place in Jerusalem.
(OTD)
1881
Apr 1, Kingdom post office in Netherlands opened.
(OTD)
1883 Apr 1, Aleksander V.
Aleksandrov, Russian composer, conductor, was born.
(MC, 4/1/02)
1883 Apr 1, Lon Chaney, actor know
as "man of a thousand faces," (High Noon, Phantom of Opera), was born.
(HN, 4/1/98)
1889
Apr 1, The first dishwashing machine was marketed (in Chicago).
(OTD)
1891
Apr 1, The London-Paris telephone connection opened.
(OTD)
1891 Apr 1, Painter Gauguin left
Marseille for Tahiti.
(MC, 4/1/02)
1894 Apr 1, The manufacture and
sale of Kinetoscopes and films were assigned to the Edison
Manufacturing Company, thus moving them out of the experimental
laboratory. The Kinetograph Department, a new division in the Edison
Company, was launched.
(http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/edhtml/edmvhist1.html)
1895 Apr 1, Alberta Hunter, blues
singer, was born.
(HN, 4/1/01)
1905 Apr 1, US Leather was removed
from the Dow Jones. It was succeeded by Central Leather Co. It was one
of the nation’s largest shoemakers in the first decades of this century.
(WSJ, 5/28/96, p.R45)
1905 Apr 1, Berlin and Paris were
linked by telephone.
(HN, 4/1/98)
1905
Apr 1, The British East African Protectorate
became the colony of Kenya.
(OTD)
1909 Apr 1, A US federal opium law
went into effect. In SF Internal Revenue agents prepared for the law by
seizing and destroying all the opium cans they find in the Chinese
quarter.
(SSFC, 3/15/09, DB p.50)
1909 Apr 1, Eddie Duchin, society
pianist, bandleader (Eddie Duchin Orch), was born in Mass.
(MC, 4/1/02)
1909 Apr 1, The ornate Italian
style embassy building at 2600 16th St. in Washington DC was completed.
It was designed by George Oakley Totten Jr. under the direction of Mrs.
Henderson, wife of Sen. John B. Henderson. It was constructed by the
George A. Fuller Co. In 1924 it was sold to the Lithuanians and became
their foreign embassy.
(Dr, 7/96, V1#1, p.3)
1911 Apr 1, Gunther Rennert, opera
director, producer, was born in Essen, Germany.
(MC, 4/1/02)
1916
Apr 1, The first US national women's swimming championships was
held.
(OTD)
1917 Apr 1, In Baltimore some
4,000 pro-war demonstrators stormed a meeting of the American League
Against Militarism and threatened to hang the participants that
included Stanford Univ. Chancellor David Starr Jordan.
(Ind, 4/12/03, 5A)
1917 Apr 1, Scott Joplin (b.1868),
ragtime composer (Sting), died of syphilis in a NY mental hospital. His
work included the opera "Treemonisha."
(MC, 4/1/02)(SFC, 6/21/03, p.D3)
1918 Apr 1, In England the Royal
Flying Corps was replaced by the Royal Air Force.
(AP, 4/1/98)(HN, 4/1/98)(OTD)
1918 Apr 1, Isaac Rosenberg
(b.1890), British WWI war poet, died near Arras, France, during
Ludendorff’s big spring offensive. In 2008 Jean Moorcroft Wilson
authored “Isaac Rosenberg: The Making of a Great War Poet.”
(WSJ, 4/3/09, p.W6)
1919 Apr 1, Joseph E. Murray,
transplant physician, was born.
(HN, 4/1/01)
1920 Apr 1, Toshiro Mifune,
writer, actor (Shogun), was born in Tsing-tao, China.
(MC, 4/1/02)
1920 Apr 1, Germany's Workers
Party changed its name to Nationalist Socialist German Worker's Party
(Nazis).
(HN, 4/1/98)
1922 Apr 1, William Manchester,
historian (Death of a President), was born in Attleboro, Mass.
(MC, 4/1/02)
1922 Apr 1, Karl I (b.1887),
leader of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, died. Also known in the West as
Charles I, he took the throne in 1916 and worked for peace, abdicating
at the end of World War I, a few years before his death. In 2004 he was
beatified by Pope John Paul VI.
(AP, 10/3/04)(www.dhm.de/lemo/html/biografien/KarlI/)
1924 Apr 1, Adolf Hitler was
sentenced to five years in prison for "Beer Hall Putsch." Gen
Ludendorff was acquitted for leading the botched Nazi's "Beer Hall
Putsch" in the German state of Bavaria
(HN, 4/1/98)(MC, 4/1/02)
1924
Apr 1, Imperial Airways was formed in Britain.
(OTD)
1927
Apr 1, The first automatic record changer was introduced by His
Master's Voice.
(OTD)
1928 Apr 1, China's Chiang
Kai-shek began attacks on communists as his army crossed Yang-tse.
(HN, 4/1/98)(MC, 4/1/02)
1929 Apr 1, Milan Kundera, Czech
writer (The Farewell Party), was born. His novel, “The Unbearable
Lightness of Being,” was translated from the Czech in 1984 and was made
into a film in 1988.
(HN, 4/1/01)
1929
Apr 1, Louie Marx introduced the Yo-Yo in the US.
(OTD)(HN, 4/1/01)
1930 Apr 1, The film “Blue Angel”
with Marlene Dietrich and Emil Jannings, premiered in the US. It was
directed by Josef von Sternberg.
(SFEC, 4/23/00, BR p.3)(MC, 4/1/02)
1930
Apr 1, Leo Hartnett (Gabby Hartnett) of the Chicago Cubs broke
the altitude record for a catch by catching a baseball dropped from the
Goodyear blimp 800 feet over Los Angeles, CA. He caught the ball
cleanly, saying, "Eeeeooooww!". His injuries included a broken jaw.
(OTD)(SFC, 10/23/99, p.B7)(MC, 4/1/02)
1930 Apr 1, The US National Census
was taken. Records were made available Apr 1, 2002, according to 1952
regulations.
(SFC, 4/1/02, p.A3)
1930 Apr 1, Cosima Liszt (92),
wife of Austrian composer Richard Wagner, died.
(MC, 4/1/02)
1931 Apr 1, Rolf Hochhuth, German
playwright (Deputy), was born.
(MC, 4/1/02)
1931
Apr 1, Jackie Mitchell became the first female in professional
baseball when she signed with the Chattanooga Baseball Club.
(OTD)
1931 Apr 1, In NYC the Empire
State Building opened a month ahead of schedule. A dirigible mast
established the height at 1,250 feet above street level.
(ON, 12/08, p.12)
1931
Apr 1, An Earthquake devastated Managua,
Nicaragua, killing 2,000.
(OTD)
1933 Apr 1, Nazi Germany began
persecuting Jews with a boycott of Jewish-owned businesses. [see Mar 28]
(AP, 4/1/98)
1933 Apr 1, Heinrich Himmler
became Police Commander of Germany (Reichsfuhrer-SS).
(MC, 4/1/02)
1934 Apr 1, Two Texas Highway
Patrol officers, E.B. Wheeler (26) and H.D. Murphy (24), were killed by
Henry Methvin, a gang member of Bonnie and Clyde, as they approached
the gang’s car near Grapevine, Texas.
(ON, 7/02, p.2)(SFC, 8/13/96, p.A3)(WSJ, 1/26/08,
p.A13)
1935 Apr 1, The first radio tube
to be made of metal was announced in Schenectady, NY.
(OTD)
1937
Apr 1, Aden became a British colony.
(OTD)
1938
Apr 1, The Baseball Hall of Fame opened in Cooperstown, New York.
(OTD)
1939 Apr 1, The United States
recognized the Franco government in Spain following the end of the
Spanish civil war. A Spanish official later said that without American
petroleum and American trucks and American credit we could never have
won the civil war.
(AP, 4/1/98)(Econ, 6/24/06, p.97)
1941 Apr 1, Lillian Hellman's
"Watch on the Rhine," premiered in NYC.
(MC, 4/1/02)
1941 Apr 1, US Navy took over
Treasure Island in SF Bay.
(MC, 4/1/02)
1941
Apr 1, The first contract for advertising on a
commercial FM radio station began on W71NY in New York City.
(OTD)
1941 Apr 1, Nazi's forbade Jews
access to cafes in Paris.
(MC, 4/1/02)
1942 Apr 1, The U.S. Navy began a
partial convoy system in the Atlantic.
(HN, 4/1/99)
1944 Apr 1, Japanese troops
conquered Jessami, East-India.
(MC, 4/1/02)
1945 Apr 1, Easter Sunday, the
American assault on Okinawa began with 150,000 army and marine
soldiers. It was the last campaign of World War II. The island was
defended by 100,000 Japanese troops and auxiliaries. It took three
months of heavy fighting to secure the island. US casualties numbered
68,000 with 8,000 dead. Japanese civilian casualties are estimated at
100-200 thousand killed. A book was published in 1995 by Col. Hiromishi
Yahara, chief Japanese strategist of Okinawa titled “The Battle for
Okinawa.” A counterpoint to the colonel's account is a collection of
first hand accounts from US soldiers in Gerold Astor's “Operation
Iceberg.”
(WSJ, 8/29/95, p.A-12) (AP, 4/1/98)(HN, 4/1/98)
1945 Apr 1, Canadian troop freed
Doetinchem, Enschede, Borculo & Eibergen.
(MC, 4/1/02)
1946
Apr 1, Weight Watchers was formed.
(OTD)
1946 Apr 1, A U.S. mine
worker strike idled 400,000 miners.
(HN, 4/1/98)
1946 Apr 1, Two large earthquakes
shook the Scotch Cap Lighthouse on Unimak Island, Alaska. A resulting
tsunami washed away the lighthouse. The Aleutian Islands earthquake
also triggered a Pacific-wide tsunami that killed 165 people and caused
over $26 million in damages. Tidal waves struck the Hawaiian islands,
resulting in more than 170 deaths. 91 people were killed in Hilo.
(AP, 4/1/98)(Ind, 6/8/02, 5A)(SSFC, 8/25/02,
p.C14)(SFC, 4/1/09, p.D8)
1947 Apr 1, David Eisenhower,
grandson of Pres. Dwight Eisenhower, was born. He later married Julie
Nixon.
(MC, 4/1/02)
1947 Apr 1, The 1st Jewish
immigrants to Israel disembarked at Port of Eilat.
(MC, 4/1/02)
1947 Apr 1, Greece's King George
II died.
(AP, 4/1/98)
1949
Apr 1, "Happy Pappy" premiered. It was the first
all-black-cast variety show.
(OTD)
1950 Apr 1, The SF population was
775,357. The census later said 4 of 10 people in SF owned their own
homes with a median value of $11,930. The average SF adult completed
11.7 years of school and over 19% went on to college.
(SFC, 12/28/01, WB p.G7)(SFC, 1/31/03, p.E4)
1950 Apr 1, Charles R. Drew (45),
surgeon, developer of blood bank concept, died.
(http://wa.essortment.com/whoischarlesr_rkbb.htm)
1951 Apr 1, U.N. forces again
crossed the 38th Parallel in Korea.
(HN, 4/1/98)
1952
Apr 1, The Big Bang theory was proposed in Physical Review by
Alpher, Bethe & Gamow.
(OTD)
1953 Apr 1, Barry Sonnenfeld,
director (When Harry Met Sally, Big), was born.
(MC, 4/1/02)
1954 Apr 1, U.S. Air Force Academy
was founded in Colorado. President Dwight Eisenhower signed a bill
authorizing the establishment of an Air Force Academy, similar to West
Point and Annapolis. On July 11, 1955, the first class was sworn in at
Lowry Air Force Base. The academy moved to a permanent site near
Colorado Springs, Colorado, in 1958.
(HN, 4/1/98)(HNQ, 2/22/99)(MC, 4/1/02)
1955
Apr 1, "One Man’s Family" was seen on TV for the final time after
a six-years on NBC-TV.
(OTD)
1955 Apr 1, EOKA-bomb attacks took
place against British government buildings in Cyprus.
(MC, 4/1/02)
1956 Apr 1, Libby Riddles, dogsled
racer: 1st woman to win Iditarod (1985), was born.
(MC, 4/1/02)
1956 Apr 1, 10th Tony Awards:
Diary of Anne Frank and Damn Yankees won.
(MC, 4/1/02)
1958 Apr 1, President Eisenhower
signed a $1.85 billion emergency housing measure.
(AP, 4/1/08)
1960 Apr 1, The first weather
satellite, TIROS 1, was launched from Cape Canaveral, Fla.
(AP, 4/1/98)
1960 Apr 1, U Nu was elected
premier of Burma.
(MC, 4/1/02)
1960
Apr 1, France exploded 2 atom bombs in the Sahara Desert.
(OTD)
1961 Apr 1, Jim Bakker, TV
evangelist, married Tammy Faye.
(MC, 4/1/02)
1963 Apr 1, The daytime television
drama "General Hospital" and "Doctors" premiered on ABC.
(AP, 4/1/98)(OTD)
1963
Apr 1, Most of New York City's daily newspapers
resumed publishing after settlement was reached in a 114-day
strike. Workers of the International Typographical Union ended
their strike that had closed nine New York City newspapers. The strike
ended 114 days after began on December 8, 1962.
(AP, 4/1/08)(OTD)
1965 Apr 1, King Hussein bin Talal
of Jordanian appointed his younger brother, Prince Hassan bin Talal, as
crown prince and heir to the Hashemite throne. This required a
change to the Jordan constitution to allow for fraternal succession.
(MC, 4/1/02)
1965 Apr 1, Henry D.G. Crerar
(b.1888), Canadian general and the country's "leading field commander"
in World War II, died.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_Crerar)
1965 Apr 1, Helena Rubinstein
(89), US cosmetic manufacturer, died. In 2004 Lindy Woodhead authored
“War Paint: Madame Helena Rubinstein & Miss Elizabeth Arden: Their
Lives, Their times, Their Rivalry.”
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helena_Rubinstein)(SSFC, 3/8/09, p.G1)
1967 Apr 1, Sir Edward Compton,
who had been appointed as Ombudsman-designate in September 1966, began
work as Britain’s Parliamentary Ombudsman.
(www.ombudsman.org.uk/about_us/our_history/timeline.html)
1968 Apr 1, The U.S. Army launched
Operation Pegasus to reopen a land route to the besieged Khe Sanh
Marine base.
(HN, 4/1/99)
1969 Apr 1, Lin Biao (1907-1971)
was named Mao's constitutional successor. Chinese historical accounts
later said Biao showed his true nature two years later as a murderous
opportunist obsessed with seizing power.
(AP, 7/16/07)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lin_Biao)
1970 Apr 1, President Nixon signed
a measure banning cigarette advertising on radio and television, to
take effect after Jan. 1, 1971.
(AP, 4/1/98)
1970 Apr 1, The US Army charged
Captain Ernest Medina in the Vietnam My Lai massacre.
(HN, 4/1/98)
1970 Apr 1, American Motors Corp.
(AMC) introduced the compact Gremlin for $1879. It was designed by
Richard Teague on the back of a Northwest Airlines sickness bag. The
last Gremlin was made in 1978.
(www.allpar.com/amc/gremlin.html)(SFC, 3/14/05,
p.A10)
1971 Apr 1, President Richard M.
Nixon ordered Lt. William Calley transferred from prison to house
arrest at Fort Benning, Georgia, pending appeal.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Calley)
1972 Apr 1, A US baseball strike
began and lasted to April 13.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1972_Major_League_Baseball_strike)
1976 Apr 1, Stephen Wozniak and
Steven Jobs founded Apple Computer. They incorporated Jan 3, 1977.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Computer)
1976 Apr 1, Max Ernst (b.1891),
German-French surrealist painter, sculptor, died in Paris.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Max_Ernst)
1976 Apr 1, Pakistan’s PM Zulfiqar
Ali Bhutto appointed Zia-ul-Haq as Chief of Army Staff, ahead of a
number of more senior officers.
(www.elections.com.pk/candidatedetails.php?id=6887)
1977 Apr 1, The U.S. Senate
followed the example of the House by adopting a stringent code of
ethics requiring full financial disclosure and limits on outside income.
(AP, 4/1/02)
1977 Apr 1, Richard Booth
proclaimed Hay-on-Wye, Wales, an independent kingdom with himself as
king and his horse as prime minister. The Oxford graduate had purchased
the 80-year-old Hay Castle and opened a 2nd hand bookstore in the town
in 1961.
(SSFC, 5/25/03, p.C8)(Econ, 12/24/05, p.84)(SFC,
5/10/07, p.E3)
1979 Apr 1, San Francisco’s first
annual St. Stupid’s Day Parade, founded by Ed Holmes, was held in the
Financial district to mock greed.
(SFEC, 4/2/00, p.B2)(SFC, 4/2/08, p.B1)
1979 Apr 1, Assadullah Sarwari
(b.1941), former air force commander under Pres. Khan, became head of
Afghan secret police (AGSA). He was later arrested for involvement in
the arbitrary arrest, torture and mass killing of hundreds of opponents
and spent 13 years in jail before his trial began on Dec 26, 2005.
(www.trial-ch.org/en/trial-watch/profile/db/facts/assadullah_sarwari_452.html)
1979
Apr 1, Iran proclaimed to be an Islamic
Republic after the fall of the Shah.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iran)
1980
Apr 1, The pro-Iranian Dawah Party claims
responsibility for an attack on Iraq’s Deputy Prime Minister, Tariq
Aziz (b.1936), at Mustansiriyah University, Baghdad.
(http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/737483.stm)
1980 Apr 1, The southern African
Development Coordination Conference was established by 9 countries with
the Lusaka declaration (Angola, Botswana, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique,
Swaziland, Tanzania, Zambia, Zimbabwe). On August 17, 1992, it was
transformed into the Southern African Development Community. By 2008 it
included 15 members.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southern_African_Development_Community)
1981 Apr 1, Jack Welch began his
term as the head of General Electric.
(WSJ, 9/5/01, p.B10)
1982 Apr 1, The U.S. transferred
the Canal Zone to Panama.
(HN, 4/1/98)
1983 Apr 1, Tens of thousands of
anti-nuke demonstrators linked arms in 14-mile human chain spanning
three defense installations in rural England, including the Greenham
Common US Air Base.
(AP, 4/1/03)
1984 Apr 1, Stewart Brand and
Larry Brilliant launched the Well (Whole Earth ‘Lectronic Link) in
Sausalito. In La Jolla, Ca., Larry Brilliant, physician and head of
Network Technologies Int’l. in Michigan, pitched the idea for a public
computer conferencing system to Stewart Brand, publisher of the Whole
Earth Catalog. Their meeting led to the 1985 founding of “The Well”
online service that operated as a collection of conferences. It used
the PicoSpan conferencing software. In 2001 Katie Hafner authored “The
Well: A Story of Love, Death and Real Life in the Seminal Online
Community.”
(Wired, 5/97, p.100)(SSFC, 5/27/01, DB p.69)
1984 Apr 1, Marvin P. Gay Sr.
(d.1998 at 84) shot and killed his son, Motown singer Marvin Gaye
during an argument in Los Angeles. It was one day before the singer’s
45th birthday. Gaye’s hit songs included “I Heard It Through the
Grapevine,” “What’s Going On,” and “Let’s Get It On.” Mr. Gay pleaded
voluntary manslaughter and was sentenced to 5 years probation.
(SFC, 10/27/98, p.B6)
1986 Apr 1, Crude oil prices fell
below $11 a barrel.
(http://tinyurl.com/g94fj)
1987 Apr 1, In his first major
speech on the AIDS epidemic, President Reagan told doctors in
Philadelphia, "We've declared AIDS public health enemy number one."
(AP, 4/1/98)
1987
Apr 1, Steve Newman became the first man to walk around the world.
(www.bluffton.edu/about/news/NewsReleases.asp?Show=120105_01)
1988 Apr 1, Independent US counsel
James C. McKay found insufficient evidence to warrant a criminal
indictment of Attorney General Edwin Meese III in connection with the
Iraq-Jordan pipeline plan or his investment in telephone company stock.
(AP, 4/1/98)
1988 Apr 1, Jim Jordan (91),
old-time radio's "Fibber McGee," died in Beverly Hills, Calif.
(AP, 4/1/98)
1989 Apr 1, Alaska Gov. Steve
Cowper announced that a "strike force" of state officials and local
fishermen were taking over some of the cleanup operations following the
massive Exxon Valdez oil spill.
(AP, 4/1/99)
1989 Apr 1, In Canada the Oka
conflict began when some 200 Mohawks from the Kanesatake reserve
marched though the town of Oka protesting plans to expand the village's
nine-hole golf course to 18 holes, saying expansion encroaches on their
burial ground. A 78-day standoff began on July 11, 1990 and ended Sep
26, 1990. The Oka Crisis cost the Quebec government an estimated $180
million not including the cost of the army.
(http://archives.cbc.ca/IDC-1-71-99-500/conflict_war/oka/clip1)
1989 Apr 1, A Japanese 3 percent
consumption, or sales tax, took effect. It earned Sadanori Yamanaka
(d.2004) the nickname "Mr. Consumption Tax." Yamanaka led the ruling
Liberal Democratic Party's tax commission for eight years, beginning in
1979.
(AP, 2/20/04)
1990 Apr 1, The US Federal Hourly
Minimum Wage was set at $3.80 an hour.
(www.dol.gov/esa/minwage/chart.htm)
1990 Apr 1, CBS fired sportscaster
Brent Musburger (b.1939).
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brent_Musburger)
1990 Apr 1, More Soviet military
vehicles rolled through the Lithuanian capital of Vilnius, a day after
Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev warned the Baltic republic to
annul its declaration of independence.
(AP, 4/1/00)
1991 Apr 1, Duke defeated the
University of Kansas 72-to-65 to win the NCAA college basketball
championship.
(AP, 4/1/01)
1991 Apr 1, The US Supreme Court
ruled, 7-to-2, that trial prosecutors violate the Constitution if they
bar prospective jurors for racial reasons—even when the defendant and
the excluded jurors are of different races.
(AP, 4/1/01)
1991 Apr 1, Martha Graham (96),
modern dance pioneer, died. Her 1st solo concert as a dancer and
choreographer was in 1926.
(AP, 4/1/01)(WSJ, 6/4/02, p.D7)
1991 Apr 1, Chilean Senator Jaime
Guzman was assassinated. Sergio Galvarino Apablaza, head of the
left-wing Manuel Rodrizuez Patriotic Front, was later accused of the
murder. In 2005 an Argentine judge refuse to extradite Apablaza.
(WSJ, 7/8/05, p.A11)(http://tinyurl.com/76olz)
1991 Apr 1, Iran released British
hostage Roger Cooper after 5 years.
(OTD)
1991 Apr 1, The Warsaw Pact was
officially dissolved.
(OTD)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warsaw_Pact)
1992 Apr 1,
President Bush pledged the United States would help finance a $24
billion international aid fund for the former Soviet Union.
(AP, 4/1/97)
1992 Apr 1, The House ethics
committee publicly identified 22 current and former lawmakers as the
worst offenders in the House bank overdraft controversy.
(AP, 4/1/97)
1992 Apr 1, Battleship USS
Missouri (on which, Japan surrendered) was decommissioned.
(MC, 4/1/02)
1992 Apr 1, NHL players began the
first strike in the 75-year history of the NHL.
(OTD)
1993 Apr 1, In an impassioned plea
for Russian aid, President Clinton told newspaper editors in Annapolis,
Md., that America should help "not out of charity" but as a crucial
investment in peace and prosperity.
(AP, 4/1/98)
1994 Apr 1, The US government
reported the nation's unemployment rate for March remained unchanged
from February, at 6.5 percent.
(AP, 4/1/04)
1994 Apr 1, Leon Degrelle
(b.1906), Belgium-born founder of the fascist Rexist party, died in
Malaga, Spain. He was a Walloon Belgian politician, who founded Rexism
and later joined the Nazi German Waffen SS (becoming a leader of its
Walloon contingent). After World War II, he was a prominent figure in
the neo-Nazi and Holocaust denial movements.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L%C3%A9on_Degrelle)
1994 Apr 1, In Guatemala Judge
Gonzalez Dubon was assassinated. He had recently signed an order to
extradite to the US former Army Lt. Col. Carlos Ochoa Ruiz on drug
trafficking charges.
(WSJ, 8/13/99, p.A11)
1995 Apr 1, Aaron, a
computer-driven robot began painting a new 25 sq. ft canvas on a daily
basis. It was designed and programmed by Harold Cohen, a San Diego
computer scientist. The event was scheduled to start in Boston at 300
Congress St. and go to May 29.
(WSJ, 3/28/95, p.A-24)
1995 Apr 1, More than 1,500
mourners attended a vigil for Mexican-American singer Selena in Corpus
Christi, Texas, where she had been shot to death the day before.
(AP, 4/1/00)
1995 Apr 1, U.N. peacekeepers
officially took over from the U.S.-led multinational force in Haiti.
(AP, 4/1/00)
1995 Apr 1, With U.S. Defense
Secretary William Perry looking on, Ukraine began the process of
dismantling its nuclear missiles.
(AP, 4/1/00)
1996 Apr 1, In a case that sparked
an uproar reminiscent of the Rodney King case, two Riverside County,
California, a news helicopter videotaped sheriff’s deputies repeatedly
clubbing a Mexican man and woman after a 70-mile highway chase
involving a pickup truck suspected of sneaking across the border.
(AP, 4/1/01)(WSJ, 4/3/96, p.A-1)
1996 Apr 1, The Mare Island Naval
Shipyard in Vallejo, Ca., was decommissioned.
(SFC, 3/10/08, p.A16)
1996 Apr 1, In Spokane, Wa., a US
Bank branch was robbed and bombed. In 1997 three members of an
anti-government militia were convicted for this and another robbery and
3 bombings.
(SFC, 7/24/97, p.C3)
1996 Apr 1, The average price for
a home in the US was $141,000 in the first quarter of this year.
(SFC, 6/30/96, p.E3)
1996 Apr 1, FBI officials in
Jordan, Montana continued to guard a stronghold of Freemen, an
anti-government group that does not recognize the legitimacy of US laws.
(WSJ, 4/1/96, p.A-12)
1996 Apr 1, Baseball umpire John
McSherry died after collapsing during a season opener between the
Cincinnati Reds and Montreal Expos.
(AP, 4/1/97)
1996 Apr 1, Muslim and Croat
officials signed an accord to jointly collect customs duties and agreed
on a flag.
(WSJ, 4/1/96, p.A-1)
1997 Apr 1, The US Library of
Congress began its Today in History web site @ http://www.loc.gov.
(SFEC, 7/20/97, Par p.8)
1997 Apr 1, Federal authorities
cautioned that thousands of schoolchildren across the nation might have
been exposed to the hepatitis A virus by eating frozen strawberries
imported from Mexico and processed in the U.S.
(AP, 4/1/98)
1997 Apr 1, In Russia Yeltsin
signed an agreement with Belarus for limited economic, military and
political integration.
(WSJ, 4/1/97, p.A1)
1997 Apr 1, In Zaire Etienne
Tshisekedi was appointed prime minister. The next day he annulled the
constitution, dissolved parliament and offered 6 Cabinet seats to the
rebels. He planned a new transitional parliament and new multiparty
elections.
(SFC, 4/4/97, p.A16)
1998 Apr 1, Judge Susan Webber
threw out the sexual harassment suit filed by Paula Jones against Pres.
Clinton saying her claims of sexual harassment fell "far short" of
being worthy of trial. Clinton later settled with Jones without apology
or admission of guilt.
(SFC, 4/2/98, p.A1)(AP, 4/1/08)
1998 Apr 1, The Bolivian Workers’
Confederation called an open-ended strike for wage increases and an end
to the coca eradication program. Violent clashes over 4 days had left 3
dead and dozens injured in Chapare. Pres. Hugo Banzer said his
government would continue to wipe out cocaine trafficking during his
5-year term.
(SFC, 4/798, p.A12)
1998 Apr 1, A boat enroute to
Gabon with 300 passengers sank in the Bight of Bonny off Nigeria’s Akwa
Ibom state. 280 were missing and feared dead.
(SFEC, 4/5/98, p.A23)
1998 Apr 1, In Brazil rains
extinguished more than 95% of the extensive fires in the northern
Amazon.
(WSJ, 4/2/98, p.A1)
1998 Apr 1, In China a new law
requiring motorists in Beijing to install pollution-reduction devices
went into effect.
(SFC, 3/31/98, p.B3)
1998 Apr 1, China agreed to
release and put into exile Wang Dan, the noted dissident and student
leader of Tiananmen Square, for medical reasons.
(SFC, 4/2/98, p.)
1998 Apr 1, Israel accepted the
1978 UN Resolution 425 for withdrawal from the south of Lebanon.
(SFC, 4/2/98, p.A12)
1998 Apr 1, In Japan the 3-year
Big Bang process was begun to create more efficient investment markets.
(SFC, 3/31/98, p.B1)
1998 Apr 1, In Russia Pres.
Yeltsin authorized the publication of classified documents relating to
Josef Stalin.
(SFC, 4/2/98, p.C2)
1998 Apr 1, In Serbia the local
currency was devalued 45%.
(WSJ, 4/2/98, p.A1)
1999 Apr 1, The United States
branded as an illegal abduction the capture of three U.S. Army soldiers
near the Macedonian-Yugoslav border; President Clinton demanded their
immediate release.
(AP, 4/1/00)
1999 Apr 1, A New Jersey man was
arrested and charged with originating the "Melissa" e-mail virus. David
L. Smith later pleaded guilty to various state and federal charges.
(AP, 4/1/00)
1999 Apr 1, A heavy snowstorm hit
the US northern plains.
(SFC, 4/2/99, p.A3)
1999 Apr 1, In Kittrell, N.C.,
William Harvey Bawcum Jr., (46), was shot to death from a .38 caliber
pistol by his 11-year-old twins, who also wounded their mother and
sister in a squabble over a hunting rifle. A trial was avoided after
the boys admitted to the shooting. The brothers were sentenced to 6
years in a state reformatory.
(SFC, 4/7/99, p.A5)(SFC, 8/3/99, p.A3)(SFC,
11/24/99, p.A13)
1999 Apr 1, In Albania Pres.
Rexhep Meidani said NATO should help Kosovo seize independence.
(WSJ, 4/2/99, p.A9)
1999 Apr 1, A oil pipeline from
Baku, Azerbaijan, to the Georgian Black Sea port of Supsa was to begin
operating.
(SFC, 10/27/98, p.B5)
1999 Apr 1, Britain’s pay rate for
workers aged 22 or over was set at ₤3.60 per hour. Workers 18-21
had a lower rate set at ₤3.00. In 2006 the minimum wage rose to ₤5.35
an hour.
(Econ, 10/7/06, p.65)
1999 April 1, In recognition of
Inuit land claims, 770,000 sq. mls. of the Canadian Northwest
Territories' Central Keewatin and Baffin Region became Nunavut
Territory. Nominations for naming the western half were solicited. The
territory would be governed by a 19-member legislature.
(CAM, Nov. Dec. '95, p.28)(WSJ, 10/9/97, p.B1)(SFC,
3/30/99, p.F3)(SFEC, 8/15/99, p.T5)
1999 Apr 1, In Mexico effective on
this day the midday break, siesta, for government was eliminated.
Electricity savings were estimated to be $192 million.
(SFC, 3/17/99, p.C2)
1999 Apr 1, In Montenegro Yugoslav
Gen'l. Radoslav Martinovic was recalled by Pres. Milosevic and replaced
by nationalist Gen'l. Milorad Obradovic. A coup was feared to be
imminent. The Yugoslav military demanded control of Montenegro's
state-run TV, but the demand was rejected.
(SFC, 4/2/99, p.A13)(WSJ, 4/5/99, p.A17)
1999 Apr 1, In Belfast, Northern
Ireland, Bertie Ahern and Tony Blair called for the rival paramilitary
groups to surrender their weapons on a new all-Ireland holiday, a "day
of reconciliation" devoted to peace.
(SFC, 4/2/99, p.D2)
1999 Apr 1, In Mexico Rene Juarez
was sworn into office as governor in Chilpancingo, Guerrero, while
thousands protested that he won by fraud.
(SFC, 4/2/99, p.D2)
1999 Apr 1, In Nigeria the NV
George, a wooden vessel, capsized on the St. Bartholomew River several
dozen people were presumed drowned. The death toll was raised past 100
after 50 bodies were found in a sunken hull.
(SFC, 4/3/99, p.A4)(SFC, 4/8/99, p.C3)
1999 Apr 1, Serbia planned to
start criminal proceedings against the 3 US soldiers captured on the
Macedonian border. Allied planes bombed the Danube bridge at Novi Sad.
(SFC, 4/2/99, p.A1)(WSJ, 4/2/99, p.A1)
1999 Apr 1, Serbian radio and TV
reported that Pres. Milosevic met with Dr. Ibrahim Rugova, leader of
the ethnic Albanians in Kosovo, and "came to a joint stand on resolving
problems… through political means."
(SFC, 4/2/99, p.A1)
1999 Apr 1, In Zhytomyr, Ukraine,
Anatoly Onoprienko was sentenced to death for the deaths of 52 men,
women and children between 1989 and 1996. 43 of the killings occurred
in a 6 month period.
(OTD)
2000 Apr 1, Michelle Kwan won her
third World Figure Skating title.
(AP, 4/1/01)
2000 Apr 1, President Clinton,
speaking at a fund-raiser for his wife’s Senate campaign, accused New
York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani of enlisting a “right-wing venom machine”
against Hillary Rodham Clinton.
(AP, 4/1/01)
2000 Apr 1, Smith & Wesson, a
US gun maker, agreed to introduce a series of safety measures.
(SFEC, 4/2/00, p.A1)
2000 Apr 1, In Chechnya Russian
soldiers found 33 of their missing comrades. 32 were dead and
booby-trapped from the Mar 30 rebel attack.
(SFEC, 4/2/00, p.A20)
2000 Apr 1, In Nanjing, China, 4
unemployed youths broke into the home of Jurgen Hermann Pfrang (50), an
executive for DaimlerChrysler, and stabbed him to death along with his
wife and 2 children. The 4 were found guilty of murder and robbery on
7/14/00 and sentenced to death.
(SFC, 7/15/00, p.A13)
2000 Apr 1, In Colombia leftist
rebels stormed the Modelo jail in Cucuta and freed 74 prisoners.
(SFC, 4/3/00, p.A9)
2001 Apr 1, The Pritzker Prize for
Architecture was awarded to Jacques Herzog and Pierre de Mueron of
Basel, Switzerland.
(SFC, 4/2/01, p.D1)
2001 Apr 1, Notre Dame won its
first national championship in women's basketball, defeating Purdue,
66-64.
(AP, 4/1/02)
2001 Apr 1, A US Navy EP-3
surveillance plane with 24 aboard collided with a Chinese fighter jet
over the South China Sea and was forced to land on China's Hainan
island. The fighter jet crashed. Chinese pilot Wang Wei parachuted out
of his F-8 jet but had not been found. Zhao Yu, a 2nd pilot, later
blamed the US plane banked and hit Wei’s plane. None of the 24 crew
members was hurt, but they were held prisoner by the Chinese for a
tense 11 days.
(SFC, 4/2/01, p.A1)(WSJ, 4/2/01, p.A1)(SFC, 4/4/01,
p.A13)(SFC, 4/7/01, p.A13)(AP, 4/1/02)
2001 Apr 1, In Columbia weekend
fighting between leftist rebels and right-wing paramilitary groups left
at least 35 people dead.
(WSJ, 4/3/01, p.A1)
2001 Apr 1, In Kenya a bus rammed
a vehicle on a bridge and both plunged into the Sabaki River. At least
35 people were killed.
(SFC, 4/14/01, p.A10)
2001 Apr 1, In Serbia Former
Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic was arrested on corruption
charges after a 26-hour armed standoff with the police at his Belgrade
villa.
(SSFC, 4/1/01, p.A1)(AP, 4/1/02)
2001 cApr 1, In Sri Lanka bombings
at a concert set off a stampede that left 11 dead and 150 injured at
Kurunegala.
(WSJ, 4/2/01, p.A1)
2002 Apr 1, Maryland won its first
NCAA men's basketball championship with a 64-52 victory over Indiana.
(SFC, 4/2/02, p.C1)(AP, 4/1/03)
2002 Apr 1, Pres. Bush said he
would sell Governor’s Island in NY Harbor to NY state and NYC for a
nominal charge.
(SFC, 4/2/02, p.A3)
2002 Apr 1, The US National
Archives opened the 1930 census records.
(SFC, 4/1/02, p.A3)
2002 Apr 1, A SF Court of Appeals
ordered the US government to pay out millions of dollars in retroactive
disability benefits to Vietnam veterans with prostate cancer, who were
exposed to Agent Orange.
(SFC, 4/2/02, p.A1)
2002 Apr 1, The 1897 Michigan law
against swearing in front of women and children was declared
unconstitutional.
(SFC, 4/2/02, p.A3)
2002 Apr 1, The American Rivers
environmental group listed the most endangered US rivers and included
the Missouri, Big Sunflower (Mississippi), and Klamath (California) in
the top 11.
(SFC, 4/2/02, p.A3)
2002 Apr 1, In Algeria Islamic
militants killed 21 government soldiers in Moulay Larbi, 280 miles SW
of the capital.
(SFC, 4/3/02, p.A7)
2002 Apr 1, Israeli forces
expanded their hunt for militants and terrorists to included ranking
officials of Arafat’s Palestinian Authority. Israeli tanks and
bulldozers rumbled into more Palestinian towns and massed on the edge
of Bethlehem in an expansion of a West Bank offensive. A sniper killed
an Israeli in Har Homa. A bomber blew up in his car in West Jerusalem
and killed the Israeli police officer who stopped him.
(SFC, 4/2/02, p.A1)(AP, 4/1/07)
2002 Apr 1, The body of Russian
journalist Sergei Kalinovsky was found outside Smolensk. He was known
for his exposes on government corruption and had gone missing in
December, 2001.
(SSFC, 5/12/02, p.A3)
2003 Apr 1, In the 14th day of
Operation Iraqi Freedom American soldiers on the road to Baghdad fought
bloody street-to-street battles with militants loyal to Saddam Hussein.
The US opened the assault on Karbala. US cluster bombs reportedly
killed 11 civilians in Hilla.
(AP, 4/1/03)(WSJ, 4/2/03, p.A1)(SFC, 4/3/03, p.W1)
2003 Apr 1, Pfc. Jessica Lynch
(19), part of the 507th Maintenance Company captured on Mar 23, was
rescued in a U.S. commando raid on an Iraqi hospital in Nasiriyah. 11
bodies were also recovered and 8 were identified as US personnel. It
was later reported that Iraqi troops had already left the hospital.
Later in the year Rick Bragg authored "I Am A Soldier, Too," an account
of the Lynch story. About the same time Mohammed Odeh al-Rehaief and
Jeff Coplon authored "Because Each Life Is Precious." Rehaief, a former
Iraqi lawyer, disclosed Lynch's location to US forces and provided
detailed information prior to her rescue.
(AP, 4/2/03)(SFC, 5/29/03, p.A3)(WSJ, 11/14/03,
p.W8-9)
2003 Apr 1, A Cuban plane hijacked
the day before with 32 people aboard landed at Key West, Fla., where
the hijacker surrendered.
(AP, 4/1/04)
2003 Apr 1, A cloned Javan banteng
was born by a beef cow in Iowa. Only 3-5,000 cattle-like bantengs
remained worldwide.
(SFC, 4/8/03, p.A3)
2003 Apr 1, Air Canada filed for
bankruptcy protection.
(WSJ, 1/2/04, p.R9)
2003 Apr 1, Congo's government
agreed to a power-sharing deal with rebel groups.
(AP, 4/2/03)
2003 Apr 1, Seven EU nations,
Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Austria, Finland, Ireland, Portugal and
Belgium, said they oppose a proposal by larger countries for a new
permanent European Union presidency.
(AP, 4/2/03)
2003 Apr 1, In Hong Kong Leslie
Cheung, Chinese pop singer and movie star, jumped to his death at the
Mandarin Oriental Hotel.
(NW, 3/17/03, p.58)
2003 Apr 1, In India members of
the Hmar Peoples Convention attacked a cluster of villages in southern
Assam state's Cachar district, burning huts and took 28 villagers as
hostages. 22 farmers were later found shot dead.
(AP, 4/4/03)
2003 Apr 1, In Jordan authorities
said they had foiled two recent Iraqi terror plots, including one by
Iraqi diplomats allegedly planning to contaminate water supplies to
Jordanian and US troops on Jordan's desert border with Iraq.
(AP, 4/1/03)
2003 Apr 1, In Nigeria the 12-day
rampage by Ijaw extremists has cut the normal oil output of 2 million
barrels a day by 40 percent. Nigeria is the fifth-biggest supplier of
US oil imports.
(AP, 4/1/03)
2004 Apr 1, Pres. Bush signed the
"Laci Peterson" bill giving new protections for the unborn that for the
first time made it a separate federal crime to harm a fetus during an
assault on the mother.
(WSJ, 4/2/04, p.A1)(AP, 4/1/05)
2004 Apr 1, The DJIA removed
AT&T, Kodak and Int'l. Paper and added American Int'l. Group,
Pfizer and Verizon Comm.
(WSJ, 4/2/04, p.C1)
2004 Apr 1, Scientists reported
that the genetic code of the common laboratory rat has been deciphered.
(SFC, 4/1/04, p.A4)
2004 Apr 1, Google introduce
Gmail, a Web based e-mail service with one gigabyte of free storage per
user. In 2007 the storage was expanded to “free unlimited.” Google’s
index passed 8 billion pages this year.
(WSJ, 6/13/07, p.B1)(SFC, 2/2/08, p.C1)
2004 Apr 1, Paul Atkinson (58),
guitarist in the British group Zombies, died in LA. The group's songs
included "She's Not There" (1964).
(SFC, 4/7/04, p.B6)
2004 Apr 1, Carrie Snodgress (57),
actress, died in Los Angeles.
(AP, 4/1/05)
2004 Apr 1, Afghanistan and its
neighbors agreed to cooperate in stemming the country's drug exports
after donors pledged $8.2 billion in new reconstruction aid.
(AP, 4/1/04)
2004 Apr 1, In Canada the largest
strike in Newfoundland history began as thousands of upbeat workers
took to picket lines while the premier said he has no plans to end the
walkout with legislation.
(AP, 4/1/04)
2004 Apr 1, A Colombian man,
Carlos Gamarra-Murillo (53), was arrested for allegedly trying to buy
$4 million in machine guns, grenade launchers and other weapons for a
leftist rebel group. The suspect wanted to pay in cocaine and cash.
(AP, 4/2/04)
2004 Apr 1, In Colombia gunmen
riding a motorcycle killed Carlos Bernal, a regional leader of
Colombia's main left-leaning political party.
(AP, 4/2/04)
2004 Apr 1, Pres. Oscar Berger
said Guatemala will cut its army in half and slash the military budget
to comply with peace accords that ended a 36-year civil war.
(AP, 4/1/04)
2004 Apr 1, India began
distributing AIDS drugs to 100,000 people. An estimated 4.6 million
were infected.
(SFC, 4/2/04, p.A15)
2004 Apr 1, In Iraq insurgents
attacked a U.S. military convoy and a Humvee was burned near Fallujah,
a day after the grisly killing and mutilation of four American contract
workers in the city.
(AP, 4/1/04)
2004 Apr 1, A gas explosion ripped
through a refinery in Iraq while it was being inspected by Czech
engineers, killing one and injuring two others.
(AP, 4/5/04)
2004 Apr 1, Italy, Turkey,
Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands arrested 41 militants in a
coordinated crackdown on a Turkish Marxist group. Police in Istanbul
arrested 25 suspects of the Marxist Revolutionary People's Liberation
Army/Front, or DHKP-C, while security forces in the other countries
detained 16 others.
(AP, 4/1/04)
2004 Apr 1, In Uzbekistan a woman
blew herself up in the central Bukhara region, killing a man and
critically injuring herself.
(AP, 4/1/04)
2005 Apr 1, President Clinton's
former national security adviser, Sandy Berger, pleaded guilty to
sneaking classified documents out of the National Archives; he was
later sentenced to two years' probation.
(AP, 4/1/06)
2005 Apr 1, Oil prices closed on
Nymex at a record $57.27 per barrel sending the DJIA down 99 points to
10,404.
(SFC, 4/2/05, p.A1)
2005 Apr 1, It was reported that
scientific evidence from Brookhaven National Laboratory indicated the
creation of a quark-gluon plasma, a form of matter that last existed
moments after the big bang.
(WSJ, 4/1/05, p.B1)
2005 Apr 1, Suspected Taliban
gunmen ambushed a convoy of civilian trucks carrying vehicles to the US
military in southern Afghanistan, killing three drivers. A bomb planted
on a tractor trolley killed two people and injured five in the northern
city of Mazar-i-Sharif while a roadside bomb blast in southern Kandahar
province killed two teenagers.
(AP, 4/2/05)
2005 Apr 1, Australia and NATO
signed an agreement to cooperate in the fight against international
terrorism, weapons proliferation and other global military threats.
(AP, 4/1/05)
2005 Apr 1, UN officials said a
cholera epidemic has killed at least 4 and infected dozens in a squalid
camp for displaced people in northeastern Congo, and it threatens to
spread across the entire region.
(AP, 4/1/05)
2005 Apr 1, Influential Sunni
scholars encouraged Iraqis to join the country's security forces and
protect the country, issuing an edict that departed sharply from
earlier warnings against participating in the fledgling police and army.
(AP, 4/1/05)
2005 Apr 1, Nepal's royal
government freed a popular former prime minister and 258 other
detainees, the biggest prisoner release since King Gyanendra seized
full power 2 months ago.
(AP, 4/1/05)
2005 Apr 1, In Pakistan
motorcycle-riding gunmen shot dead a Shiite scholar and injured two
people including his daughter in a suspected sectarian attack in Lahore.
(AP, 4/1/05)
2005 Apr 1, Saudi Arabia’s Tadawul
All-Share Index reached a record 10853, up 28% for the year this far.
(WSJ, 4/4/05, p.C18)
2005 Apr 1, Saudi Arabia beheaded
3 men in public in the northern city of al-Jawf where in 2003 they
killed a deputy governor, a religious court judge and a police
lieutenant.
(AP, 4/3/05)
2005 Apr 1, The Vatican reported
that Pope John Paul II was near death, his breathing shallow and his
heart and kidneys failing.
(AP, 4/1/06)
2005 Apr 1, Zimbabwe opposition
leader Morgan Tsvangirai dismissed the previous day's elections as
"massive fraud" and accused President Robert Mugabe of treating his
country like "his private property."
(AP, 4/1/05)
2006 Apr 1, Former hostage Jill
Carroll arrived in Germany, where she strongly disavowed statements she
had made during captivity in Iraq and shortly after her release, saying
she had been repeatedly threatened.
(AP, 4/1/07)
2006 Apr 1, In eastern Afghanistan
a roadside bomb wounded five US troops when it hit their vehicle. A
suicide attack on a US-led coalition convoy in the country's south
killed the bomber but hurt no one else. In southern Afghanistan a
Taliban rebel posing as a traveler shot dead four policemen at a remote
checkpoint after eating dinner with them and sleeping in their
quarters. A fifth officer shot the rebel dead.
(AP, 4/1/06)(AP, 4/2/06)
2006 Apr 1, Cracking down on
visitors who come to Brazil for sex, police raided clubs in Natal known
for using call girls and strippers, detaining 118 foreigners to
discourage what authorities called "sexual tourism."
(AP, 4/1/06)
2006 Apr 1, Chinese Premier Wen
Jiabao arrived in Australia for a visit aimed at finalizing a uranium
supply deal and speeding up free trade negotiations between the two
nations.
(AFP, 4/1/06)
2006 Apr 1, In eastern China a
blast at an explosives plant killed at least 20 workers and injured
two. Nine workers were missing.
(AP, 4/2/06)
2006 Apr 1, Calls emerged within
the Shiite alliance Saturday for PM Ibrahim al-Jaafari to step aside as
the bloc's nominee for another term as pressure mounted against him
from Sunni Arab and Kurdish politicians.
(AP, 4/1/06)
2006 Apr 1, A US Apache helicopter
crashed southwest of Baghdad. It was believed to have been shot down
and the two crew members were presumed dead. Iraqi police reported that
at least 39 bodies were found in several neighborhoods of Baghdad.
Joint US-Iraqi troops killed four insurgents and wounded another after
two failed attacks near Balad, 50 miles north of Baghdad. Two American
soldiers were killed by a roadside bomb while on patrol in central
Baghdad.
(AP, 4/2/06)
2006 Apr 1, In northwestern
Pakistan suspected Islamic militants attacked a military base in a
tribal region, killing one soldier and injuring four others.
(AP, 4/2/06)
2006 Apr 1, A Soyuz capsule docked
with the international space station (ISS), bringing Brazil's first
astronaut, a new Russian-American crew and a fresh load of supplies,
equipment and experiments.
(AP, 4/1/06)
2006 Apr 1, Three explorers from
Britain and New Zealand claimed to be the first to have traveled the
Nile from its mouth to its "true source" deep in Rwanda's lush Nyungwe
rainforest.
(Reuters, 4/1/06)
2006 Apr 1, Karl Bushby was
briefly detained after walking from Alaska across the icy Bering
Straits into Russian territory, a treacherous crossing for which he was
joined by Dmitri Kieffer, a French-born US citizen who videotaped the
adventure. Authorities confiscated the two men's passports and other
belongings, effectively making it impossible for them to move. Bushby
was on a quest to trek around the world. Bushby set out on foot from
southern Chile on November 1, 1998 with the intention of walking back
to his home in the northern English city of Hull, a 36,000-mile
(58,000-kilometer) odyssey that he was scheduled to complete by 2010.
On April 14 a Russian court ordered the deportation of the British
adventurer for illegally crossing into Russia, dealing a potentially
fatal blow to his dream of walking around the world.
(AFP, 4/6/06)(AFP, 4/14/06)
2006 Apr 1, Tens of thousands of
people gathered at a rally in the northern city of Bilbao to call for
greater Basque self-determination and negotiations between the Spanish
government and separatists.
(AP, 4/1/06)
2006 Apr 1, Fresh clashes between
Kurdish protesters and police in southeast Turkey killed one protester
and injured 10.
(Reuters, 4/1/06)
2007 Apr 1, Tommy Thompson, former
Wisconsin governor (GOP), announced that he is running for president.
(SFC, 4/2/07, p.A4)
2007 Apr 1, Brooklyn's borough
president launched the Coney Island amusement park's last season ahead
of a major redevelopment that will raze much of the lovably seedy
boardwalk area.
(Reuters, 4/1/07)
2007 Apr 1, Morgan Pressel became
the youngest major champion in LPGA Tour history with a game well
beyond her 18 years, closing with a 3-under-par 69 at the Kraft Nabisco
Championship.
(AP, 4/1/08)
2007 Apr 1, In Charlotte, North
Carolina, 2 police officers shot during a struggle with a suspect
outside an apartment complex died, and a suspect was charged with
murder.
(AP, 4/2/07)
2007 Apr 1, In southern
Afghanistan the Taliban executed three men accused of spying for NATO
and government forces. A NATO airstrike targeted a compound housing
Taliban militants in Shahjoy district of Zabul province, killing seven
suspected militants inside. NATO-led troops and police clashed with
suspected Taliban militants in Kandahar's Zhari district, leaving six
militants dead. In eastern Afghanistan flash floods caused by
torrential rains killed at least 16 people and destroyed dozens of
houses near the Hindu Kush mountain range.
(AP, 4/1/07)(AFP, 4/1/07)(AP, 4/2/07)
2007 Apr 1, Cambodia held local
commune elections. The Cambodian People’s Party won control in 1,592 of
1,621 communes amid opposition claims of fraud.
(Econ, 4/7/07, p.38)
2007 Apr 1, In Canada Nelly
Furtado stole the show at the Junos, playing the roles of both host and
big winner at the 2007 edition of the nation's top music awards.
(Reuters, 4/1/07)
2007 Apr 1, A knife-wielding
Chinese tour guide injured 20 people in a stabbing-and-slashing spree
at a southwestern resort following an argument over kickbacks on
souvenir sales. Xu Mingchao (25) from the province of Heilongjiang, was
arrested following the incident.
(AP, 4/3/07)
2007 Apr 1, Danish researchers
reported that they have isolated bacterial enzymes that effectively
remove sugar molecules from red blood cells that provoke an immune
reactions. This would allow conversion of the A, B, and AB blood types
into Type O, the universal donor type that can be given to anyone.
(SFC, 4/2/07, p.A2)
2007 Apr 1, Hans Filbinger (93), a
former governor of Germany's Baden-Wuerttemberg state (1966-1978),
died. He had resigned amid revelations about his past as a Nazi-era
naval judge.
(AP, 4/2/07)
2007 Apr 1, Laurie Baker (90), a
British-born architect, died in India. He spent more than 60 years in
India building homes that were ecologically sound and affordable for
the poor.
(AP, 4/8/07)
2007 Apr 1, In Iran about 200
students threw rocks and firecrackers at the British Embassy, calling
for the expulsion of the country's ambassador because of the standoff
over Iran's capture of 15 British sailors and marines. Britain examined
options for new dialogue with Tehran over the seized crew of 15 sailors
and marines, as a poll suggested most Britons back the government's
goal of resolving the standoff through diplomacy. Iran's state
television aired new video showing two of the 15 captured British
sailors pointing to a spot on a map of the Persian Gulf where they were
seized and saying it was in Iranian territorial waters; Britain's
Foreign Office immediately denounced the video.
(AP, 4/1/07)(AP, 4/1/08)
2007 Apr 1, An Iraqi military
spokesman said that militants fleeing a security crackdown in Baghdad
have made areas outside the capital "breeding grounds for violence,"
spreading deadly bombings and sectarian attacks to areas once
relatively untouched. A bomb struck a popular market in Tuz Khormato,
130 miles north of Baghdad, killing three people and wounding four.
More than 600 Iraqis were killed in sectarian violence last week alone.
6 US soldiers were killed in roadside bombings over the weekend
southwest of Baghdad.
(AP, 4/1/07)(AP, 4/2/07)
2007 Apr 1, Israeli PM Ehud Olmert
invited Arab leaders to attend a peace conference to discuss their
ideas for reaching Mideast peace. The Israeli army sealed off the West
Bank ahead of the weeklong Passover holiday, restricting the movement
of Palestinians into Israel. In her first Mideast trip as EU president,
German Chancellor Angela Merkel offered Europe's help in bringing
Israel and the Palestinians back to the negotiating table, trying to
build on a new burst of international efforts to restart peace talks.
(AP, 4/1/07)(AP, 4/2/07)
2007 Apr 1, In Monterrey, Mexico,
a tractor-trailer lost its brakes and killed nine people as it plowed
through a residential area. The driver of a tractor-trailer was charged
with homicide after testing positive for drugs.
(AP, 4/2/07)(AP, 4/4/07)
2007 Apr 1, Nepal's communist
rebels joined an interim government as part of a landmark peace deal
that ended their decade-long insurgency, pledging to ensure development
in the Himalayan nation and hold credible elections.
(AP, 4/1/07)
2007 Apr 1, Palestinian
journalists announced a three-day strike in protest at what they called
their government's inadequate response to the suspected kidnap of a
British journalist.
(AP, 4/1/07)
2007 Apr 1, Mogadishu's dominant
clan said it has brokered a truce with Ethiopian military officials who
are supporting Somalia's government, even as mortar shells continued
slamming into the capital for a fourth day.
(AP, 4/1/07)
2007 Apr 1, In South Korea taxi
driver Huh Se-uk (53) drove through heavy security into the driveway of
a Seoul hotel where trade talks with the US were taking place. He
sprayed himself with flammable fluid and lit a fire, suffering
third-degree burns. Se-uk died from his wounds on April 15.
(Reuters, 4/15/07)
2007 Apr 1, In Sri Lanka 12 Tamil
Tigers were killed in clashes in the northwestern district of Mannar.
(AFP, 4/3/07)
2007 Apr 1, Unidentified gunmen
killed five African Union soldiers guarding a "water point" near the
Sudan’s border with Chad in the deadliest attack on the peacekeepers
since their deployment in 2004. The attackers fled the scene after AU
troops killed three of them in an exchange of fire.
(AP, 4/2/07)
2007 Apr 1, In Syria US House
members meeting with President Bashar Assad said they believed there
was an opportunity for dialogue.
(AP, 4/1/07)
2008 Apr 1, A top US immigration
official said Washington has started deportation proceedings against
thousands of Vietnamese living illegally in the US under a pact between
the two countries.
(AP, 4/1/08)
2008 Apr 1, The US EPA took over
cleanup of an oil spill in Santa Barbara, Ca., after failed efforts by
Greka Oil & Gas to clean up a spill. 2 spills since last summer had
left some 29,000 gallons of crude oil and toxin-laden water in a creek
in Los Olivos.
(SFC, 4/2/08, p.B6)
2008 Apr 1, Virginia’s Gov.
Timothy Kaine ordered a moratorium on executions until the US Supreme
Court decides whether lethal injections are constitutional.
(SFC, 4/3/08, p.A6)
2008 Apr 1, A California state
Senate committee declined to act on a bill by Senator Leland Yee to
declare the Cow Palace in Daly City to be surplus property.
(SFC, 4/2/08, p.A1)
2008 Apr 1, In southwestern
Afghanistan a suicide bomber hit a police compound, killing two
officers and wounding five others in Nimroz province. A mine struck a
civilian vehicle in southwestern Nimroz province, killing the driver
and wounding two civilians.
(AP, 4/1/08)
2008 Apr 1, Argentina’s President
Cristina Fernandez blasted striking farmers at a rally of 20,000
supporters, comparing their nearly three-week-old protest to a 1976
strike that sowed chaos one month before a military coup.
(AP, 4/2/08)
2008 Apr 1, An Australian court
charged a Vietnam Airlines pilot with smuggling millions of dollars in
drug profits out of the country. Quoc Viet Lai (58,) faced 40 counts of
money laundering after allegedly taking 3.7 million dollars (3.4
million US) out of Australia between June 2005 and June 2006.
(AFP, 4/1/08)
2008 Apr 1, In Bangladesh an
official said Tareque Rahman, the son of detained former Bangladesh
premier Khaleda Zia, has been formally charged with corruption as part
of the military-backed government's anti-graft drive.
(AFP, 4/1/08)
2008 Apr 1, Bolivian officials
said Tristan Jay Amero (26), a California man convicted of hotel
bombings that killed two people in Bolivia's capital, had died in
prison. He was serving a 30-year sentence.
(AP, 4/1/08)
2008 Apr 1, In Botswana Seretse
Ian Khama (b.1953), the half-white son of Botswana’s first
president, was sworn in as president. Festus Mogae retired after
10 years in office.
(www.voanews.com/english/2008-04-01-voa55.cfm?rss=politics)
2008 Apr 1, In Brazil Juan Carlos
Ramirez Abadia, a reputed Colombian drug lord whose cartel is accused
of having shipped hundreds of tons of cocaine, was sentenced to more
than 30 years in prison in Brazil for crimes committed in that country.
(AP, 4/2/08)
2008 Apr 1, In Brazil protesters
burned a bridge after police arrested Paulo Cesar Quartiero, president
of Roraima rice growers association, for blocking a federal highway.
Quartiero was later released on bail. A second bridge was set alight
the next day. Police planned to begin clearing the remaining non-Indian
settlers from the 4.2-million-acre Raposa Serra do Sol Indian
reservation next week.
(AP, 4/3/08)
2008 Apr 1, In France the
stockmarket watchdog Autorite des Marches Financiers (AMF) filed a
formal complaint against the European Aeronautic Defense and Space
Company, the parent company of Airbus, and more than a dozen current
and former executives. It confirmed evidence of massive insider trading
in shares of EADS in late 2005 and early 2006 in the knowledge that the
A380 airbus program was in deep trouble.
(Econ, 6/21/08, p.80)(http://tinyurl.com/3kd8vh)
2008 Apr 1, Hungary’s coalition
partner pulled out of the government leaving the Socialists without a
parliamentary majority.
(WSJ, 4/2/08, p.A1)
2008 Apr 1, India scrapped import
duties on cooking oils and maize and extended a ban on pulse exports,
escalating its fight against surging inflation driven by rises in
global commodity prices.
(AP, 4/1/08)
2008 Apr 1, Iraq’s PM Nouri
al-Maliki said in a statement that his office will recruit 10,000 more
police and army forces and will move to enhance public services Basra.
His comments came after a peace deal between radical Shiite cleric
Muqtada al-Sadr and the Iraqi government brought a tense calm following
a week of clashes. Interior Ministry spokesman, Maj. Gen. Abdul-Karim
Khalaf, said that 200 people had been killed, 600 wounded and 170
suspects detained during operations in Basra. Britain froze plans to
withdraw about 1,500 soldiers from its 4,000-strong military force this
spring and hand over more security responsibility to the Iraqis.
(AP, 4/1/08)(AP, 4/2/08)
2008 Apr 1, In Kenya police tear
gassed about 100 protesters who demonstrated in Nairobi against plans
to increase the number of Cabinet posts.
(AP, 4/1/08)
2008 Apr 1, A woman's severed head
was found on a Scottish beach. She was later identified as Jolanta
Bledaite (35) from Alytus, Lithuania. On April 4 police arrested two
Lithuanian men in connection with the murder.
(AP, 4/4/08)
2008 Apr 1, Strong fighting broke
out in northern Sri Lanka as government troops launched a fresh
offensive against Tiger rebels. The heavy fighting left 42 rebels and a
soldier dead.
(AP, 4/1/08)(AP, 4/2/08)
2008 Apr 1, In Switzerland UBS
AG's chairman abruptly resigned as the Swiss bank reported a
first-quarter loss of $12.1 billion and said it would seek $15.1
billion in new capital.
(AP, 4/1/08)
2008 Apr 1, Poor countries at a UN
conference in Thailand said they won't sign a global warming pact
unless industrialized nations guarantee them billions of dollars needed
to adapt to the impact of climate change.
(AP, 4/1/08)
2008 Apr 1, In Ukraine President
Bush said he is putting his full weight behind the desire by Ukraine
and Georgia to join NATO even though Russia is opposed and the alliance
is split.
(AP, 4/1/08)
2008 Apr 1, Tanks took to the
streets of southern Yemen cities to discourage rioting by disaffected
youths and retired military officers over unfulfilled government
promises to enlist them in the army.
(AP, 4/1/08)
2008 Apr 1, In Zimbabwe an
independent African monitor said top members of President Robert
Mugabe's party worried the government may have lost weekend elections,
even as a tediously slow release of results fueled fears of rigging. A
ruling party projection said opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai will
beat President Robert Mugabe in Zimbabwe's crucial election, but be
forced into a runoff vote in three weeks.
(AP, 4/1/08)(Reuters, 4/1/08)
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