Today in History - April 28
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Workers Memorial
Day, to remember those killed or injured on the job.
(WSJ, 11/2/98, p.B1)
357AD
Apr 28, Constantius II visited Rome for the first
time.
(HN, 4/28/98)
1109 Apr 28, Hugo van Cluny, 6th
abbot of Cluny, saint, died.
(MC, 4/28/02)
1202 Apr 28, King Philip II threw
out John-without-Country, from France.
(MC, 4/28/02)
1282 Apr 28, Villagers in Palermo
led a revolt against French rule in Sicily.
(HN, 4/28/98)
1376 Apr 28, English parliament
demanded the supervision on royal outlay.
(MC, 4/28/02)
1442 Apr 28, Edward IV was born.
He became king of England (1461-1470) and first king of the House of
York (1471-1483). [see Apr 20]
(HN, 4/28/02)
1550 Apr 28, Powers of Dutch
inquisition were extended.
(MC, 4/28/02)
1592 Apr 28, George Villiers, 1st
duke of Buckingham, English admiral, was born.
(MC, 4/28/02)
1635 Apr 28, Virginia Governor
John Harvey was accused of treason and removed from office.
(HN, 4/28/98)
1655 Apr 28, English admiral Blake
beat a Tunisian pirate fleet.
(MC, 4/28/02)
1686 Apr 28, The first volume of
Isaac Newton's "Principia Mathamatica" (“Mathematical Principles of
Natural Philosophy”) was published in Latin. His invention of
differential and integral calculus is here presented. Here also are
stated Newton’s laws of motion, that obliterated the Aristotelian
concept of inertia.
1) Every physical body continues in its state of
rest , unless it is compelled to change that state by a force or forces
impressed upon it.
2) A change of motion is proportional to the force
impressed upon the body and is made in the direction of the straight
line in which the force is impressed.
3) To every action there is always opposed an equal
reaction.
Book Three of the Principia opens with two pages
headed “Rules of Reasoning in Philosophy.” There are four rules as
follows:
1) We are to admit no more causes of natural things
than such as are both true and sufficient to explain the appearances.
(A restatement of Ockham’s Razor: “What can be done with fewer is done
in vain with more.”)
2) Therefore to the same natural effects we must, as
far as possible, assign the same causes.
3) The qualities of bodies which are found to belong
to all bodies within the reach of our experiments, are to be esteemed
the universal qualities of bodies whatsoever.
4) In experimental philosophy we are to look upon
propositions inferred by general induction from phenomena as accurately
or very nearly true notwithstanding any contrary hypothesis that may be
imagined, till such time as other phenomena occur, by which they may
either be made more accurate, or liable to exceptions.
(V.D.-H.K.p.207-10)(HN, 4/28/98)
1748 Apr 28, Lorenz Justinian Ott,
composer, was born.
(MC, 4/28/02)
1753 Apr 28, Franz K. Achard,
German physicist, was born.
(MC, 4/28/02)
1758 Apr 28, James Monroe
(d.1831), later secretary of state and the fifth president of the
United States (1817-1825), was born in Westmoreland County, Va. He
created the Monroe Doctrine, warning Europe not to interfere in the
Western Hemisphere.
(HFA, ‘96, p.28)(HNQ, 7/27/99)(HN, 4/28/02)
1760 Apr 28, French forces
besieging Quebec defeated the British in the second battle on the
Plains of Abraham.
(HN, 4/28/98)
1770 Apr 28, Marie AC de Camargo
(60), Spanish-Italian-Belgian dancer, died.
(MC, 4/28/02)
1788 Apr 28, Maryland became the
seventh state to ratify the US constitution, but on condition that a
Bill of Rights be added.
(AP, 4/28/07)(WSJ, 9/20/08, p.A21)
1789 Apr 28, Fletcher Christian
lead a mutiny on the Bounty as the crew of the British ship set Captain
William Bligh and 18 sailors adrift in a launch in the South Pacific.
Richard Hough later authored: "Captain Bligh and Mr. Christian."
http://www.visi.com/~pjlareau//bounty1.html
(AP, 4/28/97)(HN, 4/28/98)(SFC, 10/9/99, p.A20)(MC,
4/28/02)
1795 Apr 28, Charles Sturt
(d.1869), explorer of Australia, was born in India. British explorer
Charles Sturt is known as the "father of Australian exploration." He
was the first to penetrate deep into Australia's interior from 1828 to
1845 during three hazardous expeditions. In 1828 he discovered the
Darling River and in January 1830 the Murray River, which he followed
until he reached present day Goolwa. His last expedition came to an end
when his eyesight was impaired by exposure and illness. Scotsman John
McDouall Stuart was part of Stuart's final expedition and went on to
become a major explorer, crossing the continent from Adelaide to Port
Darwin in 1862. (http://members.ozemail.com.au/~fliranre/home.htm)
(HN, 4/28/98)(HNQ, 5/26/98)
1799 Apr 28, Francois Giroust
(62), composer, died.
(MC, 4/28/02)
1815 Apr 28, Andrew Jackson Smith
(d.1897), Major General (Union volunteers), was born.
(MC, 4/28/02)
1818 Apr 28, President Monroe
proclaimed naval disarmament on the Great Lakes and Lake Champlain.
(HN, 4/28/98)
1826 Apr 28, Alexander Stadtfeld,
composer, was born.
(MC, 4/28/02)
1848 Apr 28, The last slaves in
French colonies were freed.
(MC, 4/28/02)
1856 Apr 28, Yokut Indians
repelled an attack on their land by 100 would-be Indian fighters in
California.
(HN, 4/28/00)
1865 Apr 28, Giacomo Meyerbeer's
opera "L'Africaine," premiered in Paris.
(MC, 4/28/02)
1873 Apr 28, A. Manzoni (88),
writer, died. Giuseppi Verdi dedicated his "Requiem" to his memory.
(MC, 4/28/02)
1878 Apr 28, Lionel Barrymore,
American stage, screen and radio actor, was born. He won an Oscar for
his role in "A Free Soul."
(HN, 4/28/99)
1881 Apr 28, Billy the Kid was
held in Lincoln County Courthouse jail, near Carrizozo N.M. for the
shooting of Sheriff William Brady, but escaped and killed two guards.
He used an 1876 single-action army revolver made by Samuel Colt. The
gun sold for $46,000 in 1998.
(SFEC, 2/23/96, p.T8,9)(AP internet 7/14/97)(WSJ,
5/22/98, p.W12)(SFC, 2/2/01, p.A14)
1881 Apr 28, Robert W. Ollinger,
US warden, last victim of Billy the Kid, died.
(MC, 4/28/02)
1882 Apr 28, Alberto Pirelli,
Italian industrialist, was born.
(MC, 4/28/02)
1886 Apr 28, Erich Salomon, German
photographer, was born.
(MC, 4/28/02)
1887 Apr 28, Carl Ferdinand Pohl
(67), composer, died.
(MC, 4/28/02)
1889 Apr 28, Antonio de Oliveira
Salazar, premier, dictator of Portugal (1932-68), was born.
(MC, 4/28/02)
1892 Apr 28, John Jacob Niles,
American folk singer and folklorist, was born.
(HN, 4/28/01)
1892 Apr 28, The 1st performance
of Antonin Dvorak's overture "Carneval."
(MC, 4/28/02)
1896 Apr 28, Heinrich von
Treitschke, German historian, died.
(MC, 4/28/02)
1898 Apr 28, William Soutar,
Scottish poet, was born.
(HN, 4/28/01)
1902 Apr 28, Johan Borgen,
Norwegian novelist, was born.
(HN, 4/28/01)
1902 Apr 28, A revolution broke
out in the Dominican Republic.
(HN, 4/28/98)
1906 Apr 28, Bartholomeus J "Bart"
Bok, Dutch-US astronomer (Milky Way), was born.
(MC, 4/28/02)
1906 Apr 28, Kurt Gödel
(d.1978), Austrian mathematician, was born in the Moravian city of
Brno. Godel later developed his incompleteness theorem showing that
within any logical system, no matter how rigidly structured, there are
always questions that cannot be answered with certainty, contradictions
that may be discovered, and errors that may lurk.
(V.D.-H.K.p.340)(SFC, 6/14/05, p.D2)
1906 Aug 28, John Betjeman
(d.1984), poet laureate of England (1972-1984), was born.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Betjeman)
1908 Apr 28, In SF a fire began
just before midnight at a stable at 475 11th St. 48 horses belonging to
F.M. Barrett, a lumber drayman, were killed.
(SSFC, 4/27/08, DB p.58)
1910 Apr 28, The first night air
flight was performed by Claude Grahame-White in England.
(HN, 4/28/98)
1912 Apr 28, Odette Hallowes,
British secret agent in France, was born. She was later captured and
tortured by the Gestapo.
(HN, 4/28/99)
1914 Apr 28, W.H. Carrier was
issued a patent for a method of “dew point control,” crucial to the
development of automatic air cooling systems. In 1923 he invented an
air-conditioning system powerful enough for installation at movie
theaters.
(http://dealscape.thedealblogs.com/2006/04/this_date_in_deal_history_firs.php)(ON,
8/07, p.11)
1914 Apr 28, At Eccles, WV,
181 died in coal mine collapse.
(MC, 4/28/02)
1916 Apr 28, The British declared
martial law throughout Ireland.
(HN, 4/28/98)
1917 Apr 28, Robert Anderson,
writer (Tea & Sympathy, Never Sang for My Father), was born in NY.
(MC, 4/28/02)
1918 Apr 28, Gavrilo Princip (22),
Bosnian murderer of arch duke Ferdinand, died in prison of tuberculosis.
(http://concise.britannica.com)(AP, 4/28/07)
1919 Apr 28, The first jump with
an Army Air Corp (rip-cord type) parachute was made by Les Irvin.
(HN, 4/28/98)(MC, 4/28/02)
1920 Apr 28, Azerbaijan joined the
USSR. The Red Army invaded Azerbaijan and turned the country into a
Soviet Republic.
(HN, 4/28/98)(CO, Grolier’s Amer. Acad. Enc./
Azerbaijan)
1925 Apr 28, Kurd rebels
surrendered to Turkish army.
(MC, 4/28/02)
1926 Apr 28, Harper Lee, American
novelist, was born. Her 1960 book, "To Kill a Mockingbird" won a
Pulitzer.
(HN, 4/28/99)(SSFC, 6/25/06, p.M3)
1930 Apr 28, James Baker III was
born. He became Secretary of Treasury (1985-88) for President Ronald
Reagan, and Secretary of State (1989-1992) for President George Bush.
(HN, 4/28/99)
1930 Apr 28, The first night
organized baseball game was played in Independence, Kansas.
(HN, 4/28/98)
1932 Apr 28, A yellow fever
vaccine for humans was announced.
(HN, 4/28/98)
1934 Apr 28, FDR signed a Home
Owners Loan Act.
(MC, 4/28/02)
1935 Apr 28, The Moscow 81-km
underground opened.
(MC, 4/28/02)
1935 Apr 28, Alexander Campbell
Mackenzie (87), Scottish composer, died.
(MC, 4/28/02)
1936 Apr 28, Kenneth White, poet
and essayist, was born.
(HN, 4/28/01)
1937 Apr 28, Saddam Hussein,
future president of Iraq, was born in the village of al-Oja near the
desert town of Tikrit. His invasion of Kuwait prompted the Persian Gulf
War. This became a state holiday under Hussein's rule and was abolished
in 2003. He was executed in Dec 2006.
(SFEC, 3/29/98, p.A12)(HN, 4/28/99)(WSJ, 1/20/02,
p.A13)(AP, 7/13/07)
1937 Apr 28, Jean Redpath,
Scottish folk singer, was born.
(HN, 4/28/01)
1937 Apr 28, The 1st animated
cartoon electric sign was displayed in NYC.
(MC, 4/28/02)
1939 Apr 28, Hitler claimed the
German-Polish non-attack treaty to be still in effect.
(MC, 4/28/02)
1940 Apr 28, Glenn Miller and his
orchestra recorded "Pennsylvania 6-5000" for RCA Victor.
(AP, 4/28/97)
1940 Apr 28, Rudolf Hoess became
commandant of concentration camp Auschwitz.
(MC, 4/28/02)
1941 Apr 28, Ann-Margret, actress
(Bye Bye Birdie, Tommy), was born in Valsjobya, Sweden.
(MC, 4/28/02)
1941 Apr 28, Last British troops
in Greece surrendered.
(MC, 4/28/02)
1942 Apr 28, Nightly "dim-out"
began along the East Coast.
(MC, 4/28/02)
1943 Apr 28, German-Italian forces
launched a counter offensive in North-Africa.
(MC, 4/28/02)
1944 April 28, Exercise "Tiger"
ended with 749 U.S. soldiers and sailors killed, when their D-Day
landing practice was attacked by German torpedo boats off the south
coast of England. The casualties were not announced until nearly two
months after the Normandy invasion. Full details were not known until
1974.
(MC, 4/28/02)(AP, 4/27/04)
1945 Apr 28, John F. Kennedy,
correspondent for the Hearst Newspapers, filed his 1st dispatch on the
founding of the UN in San Francisco.
(SSFC, 6/26/05, p.F1)
1945 Apr 28, US 5th army reached
the Swiss border.
(MC, 4/28/02)
1945 Apr 28, British commands
attacked Elbe and occupied Lauenburg.
(MC, 4/28/02)
1945 Apr 28, Italian dictator
Benito Mussolini and his mistress, Clara Petacci, were executed by
Italian partisans as they attempted to flee the country. In 1961
Charles F. Delzell, a historian at Vanderbilt Univ., wrote "Mussolini's
Enemies: The Italian Anti-Fascist Resistance.” In 2005 R.J.B. Bosworth
authored ”Mussolini’s Italy.” In 2007 Philip Morgan authored “The Fall
of Mussolini.
(AP, 4/28/97)(SFC, 9/21/99, p.E4)(Econ, 10/8/05,
p.92)(Econ, 7/14/07, p.89)
1946 Apr 28, Allies indicted
Hideki Tojo, former premier and war minister of Japan, with 55 counts
of war crimes. The International Military Tribunal for the Far East
meted out justice to Japanese war criminals at locations throughout
Asia.
(AP, 11/12/97)(HN, 4/28/98)
1946 Apr 28, Kazue Katz became the
1st Japanese woman to marry an American following WW II. Her marriage
to Sgt. Frederick Katz in Tokyo required 29 endorsements.
(SFC, 12/9/05, p.F6)
1946 Apr 28, Domenico Leccisi
(d.2008 at 88) and 2 other Italians marked the first anniversary of the
death of Mussolini by digging up his body in a Milan cemetery. They
passed the body to 2 monks, who buried it in a nearby monastery. The
theft sparked a nationwide manhunt for the group. The body was later
returned for burial in Predappio, Mussolini’s birthplace.
(SFC, 11/5/08, p.B15)
1947 Apr 28, Norwegian
anthropologist Thor Heyerdahl (d.2002) and five others sailed from Peru
aboard a balsa wood raft named the Kon-Tiki on a 101-day, 4,300
nautical mile journey across the Pacific Ocean to Polynesia. They
wanted to prove that Peruvian Indians could have settled in Polynesia.
Heyerdahl published “Kon-Tiki” in 1950.
(AP, 4/28/97)(WSJ, 5/22/97, p.A13)(HN, 4/28/99)(SFC,
4/19/02, p.A2)
1952 Apr 28, War with Japan
officially ended as a treaty that had been signed by the United States
and 47 other countries took effect. Japan regained independence. The
government immediately revoked Japanese nationality from ethnic
Koreans, called zainichi. Those loyal to north Korea were called Soren
and those loyal to South Korea were called Mindan.
(AP, 4/28/00)(Jap. Enc., BLDM, p. 216)(Econ, 6/3/06,
p.40)
1952 Apr 28, Gen. Dwight D.
Eisenhower stepped down to run for President.
(MC, 4/28/02)
1953 Apr 28, French troops
evacuated northern Laos.
(HN, 4/28/98)
1956 Apr 28, Last French troops
left Vietnam.
(MC, 4/28/02)
1958 Apr 28, Vice President
Richard Nixon and his wife, Pat, began a goodwill tour of Latin America
that was marred by hostile mobs in Lima, Peru, and Caracas, Venezuela.
(AP, 4/28/99)
1958 Apr 28, The United States
conducted the first of 35 nuclear test explosions in the Pacific
Proving Ground as part of Operation Hardtack I.
(AP, 4/28/08)
1959 Apr 28, Organization of
American States voted unanimously to send a commission to Panama.
(DBD, p.824)
1959 Apr 28, Charles de Gaulle
resigned as president of France.
(MC, 4/28/02)
1963 Apr 28, In the 17th Tony
Awards: Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? and A Funny Thing Happened on
the Way to the Forum won.
(MC, 4/28/02)
1965 Apr 28, Barbra Streisand
starred on "My Name is Barbra" special on CBS.
(MC, 4/28/02)
1965 Apr 28, U.S. Army and Marines
under US Pres. Lyndon Johnson invaded the Dominican Republic to stop a
civil war. Johnson sent 22,800 troops at the urging of Thomas Mann
(d.1999 at 87), a high state department official. The troops stayed
until stay until Oct 1966.
(SFC, 5/17/96, p.A-14)(HN, 4/28/98)(MC, 4/28/02)
1967 Apr 28, Heavyweight boxing
champion Muhammad Ali refused to be inducted into the Army and was
stripped of his boxing title.
(AP, 4/28/97) (HN, 4/28/98)
1967 Apr 28, Gen. William C.
Westmoreland told Congress the United States "would prevail in Vietnam."
(AP, 4/28/97)
1967 Apr 28, Lt. Col. Leo
Thorsness and “backseater” Harry Johnson ejected over North Vietnam
following an attack by an enemy MiG fighter. They were released along
with other POWs in 1973. In Oct, 1973, Thorsness received a Medal of
Honor. In 2008 he authored “Surviving Hell: A POWs Journey.”
(WSJ, 12/30/08, p.A9)
1969 Apr 28, French President
Charles de Gaulle resigned his office. Alain Pohrer (1909-1996) as
president of the Senate then served as interim president for 7 weeks.
(SFC, 12/12/96, p.C8)(AP, 4/28/97)
1971 Apr 28, The US Occupational
Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) was established within the
Dept. of Labor under the Occupational Safety and Health Act, which was
passed on Dec 29, 1970. It was formed to protect workers from
on-the-job injuries and illnesses.
(www.archives.gov/research/guide-fed-records/groups/100.html#100.1)
1974 Apr 28, A federal jury in New
York acquitted former Attorney General John Mitchell and former
Commerce Secretary Maurice H. Stans of charges in connection with a
secret $200,000 contribution to President Nixon's re-election campaign
from financier Robert Vesco. Vesco had gained control of IOS, a mutual
fund firm, and looted hundreds of millions. In 1971 he fled to the
Bahamas, then Costa Rica and finally to Cuba where he was convicted in
1996 for economic crimes against the state and sentenced to 13 years in
prison.
(AP, 4/28/99)(WSJ, 7/10/02, p.A8)
1975 Apr 28, Gen. Duong Van Minh
was named the interim President of South Vietnam and promised to seek
reconciliation with North Vietnam. Saigon fell 2 days later.
(SFC, 8/8/01, p.A20)
1977 Apr 28, US regulations
implementing Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act were signed.
Americans with physical disabilities had begun staging protests at
federal buildings in San Francisco, LA and Washington DC. The SF
protest grew to 150 people and lasted 25 days.
(SFC, 5/1/97, p.A20)(http://tinyurl.com/3xje8f)
1977 Apr 28, Andreas Baader and
members of Baader-Meinhof gang, also known as the "Red Army Faction,"
were jailed for life after a trial lasting nearly 2 years in Stuttgart,
Germany.
(http://www.baader-meinhof.com/timeline/1977.html)
1977 Apr 28, In Italy the Red
Brigades assassinated Fulvio Croce, the president of the Turin Bar
Association.
(http://tinyurl.com/ywxupv)
1979 Apr 28, Carlos Muniz Varela,
a Cuban travel agent and an activist for Puerto Rico's independence,
was killed in Puerto Rico.
(AP, 3/29/06)(www.rocla.org/Actions/MunizVarela.html)
1980 Apr 28, President Carter
accepted the resignation of Secretary of State Cyrus Vance (1917-2002),
who had opposed the failed rescue mission aimed at freeing American
hostages in Iran. The decision to proceed had been spearheaded by
Zbigniev Brzeninski.
(AP, 4/28/97)(SSFC, 1/13/02, p.A27)(SFC, 3/16/03,
p.AD3)
1983 Apr 28, The nuclear powered
aircraft carrier Enterprise ran aground in SF Bay and was stick for
over 5 hours yards from her berth at the Alameda Naval air Station.
(SSFC, 4/27/08, DB p.58)
1983 Apr 28, Argentine government
declared all 15-30,000 "missing persons" dead from "Dirty War."
(www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB85/)
1984 Apr 28, "La Tragedie de
Carmen" closed at Beaumont Theater in NYC after 187 performances.
(MC, 4/28/02)
1984 Apr 28, Silvia A. Warner
(b.1908), New Zealand-born writer, died. Her 1958 novel “Spinster” was
made into the 1961 film “Two Loves” (also known as The Spinster)
starring Shirley MacLaine.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sylvia_Ashton-Warner)
1986 Apr 28, The Soviet Union
informed the world of the Apr 26 nuclear disaster at Chernobyl, saying
the accident damaged a reactor and that aid was being rendered to
"those affected."
(AP, 4/28/02)
1987 Apr 28, Contra rebels in
Nicaragua killed Benjamin Ernest Linder, an American engineer working
on a hydroelectric project for the Sandinista government.
(AP, 4/28/97)
1988 Apr 28, A flight attendant
was killed and 61 persons injured when part of the roof of an Aloha
Airlines Boeing 737 peeled back during a flight from Hilo to Honolulu.
(AP, 4/28/98)
1989 Apr 28, President Bush
announced the U.S. and Japan had concluded a deal on joint development
of a new Japanese jet fighter, the FSX, despite concerns that U.S.
technology secrets would be given away.
(AP, 4/28/99)
1990 Apr 28, Anti-abortion
demonstrators marched in Washington D.C.; authorities put the number of
protesters at 200,000, but organizers claimed a turnout of about
700,000.
(AP, 4/28/00)
1991 Apr 28, Anti-abortion
demonstrators marched in Washington DC; authorities put the number of
protesters at 200,000, but organizers claimed a turnout of about
700,000.
(AP, 4/28/01)
1991 Apr 28, The musical “A Chorus
Line” closed after 6,137 performances on Broadway.
(AP, 4/28/01)
1992 Apr 28, President Bush and
Bill Clinton won the Pennsylvania presidential primary.
(AP, 4/28/97)
1992 Apr 28, The US Agriculture
Department unveiled its pyramid-shaped recommended-diet chart that had
cost nearly $1 million to develop.
(AP, 4/28/97)
1993 Apr 28, The first "Take Our
Daughters to Work Day," promoted by the New York City-based Ms.
Foundation, was held to boost self-esteem of girls with invitations to
a parent's workplace.
(AP, 4/28/98)
1994 Apr 28, Former CIA official
Aldrich Ames, who had betrayed U.S. secrets to the Soviet Union and
then Russia, pleaded guilty to espionage and tax evasion, and was
sentenced to life in prison without parole. His wife Rosario also
pleaded guilty.
(AP, 4/28/99)(MC, 4/28/02)
1995 Apr 28, In Taegu, South
Korea, a gas line exploded in the middle of an intersection crowded
with morning traffic, killing 101 people.
(AP, 4/28/00)
1995 Apr 28-1995 Apr 29, In Sri
Lanka Tigers used anti-aircraft missiles for the first time and downed
2 air force transport planes that killed 90 people.
(SFC, 7/24/96, p.A9)
1996 Apr 28, President Clinton
gave 4 1/2 hours of videotaped testimony as a defense witness in the
criminal trial of his former Whitewater business partners.
(AP, 4/28/97)
1996 Apr 28, A lone gunman, Martin
Bryant, 28, killed 35 tourists visiting a colonial prison on the
Australian island of Tasmania; he was captured by police after a
12-hour standoff. He was later sentenced to 35 life terms in prison.
(WSJ, 4/29/96, p.A-1)(SFC, 4/30/96, p. A-8)(SFC,
11/22/96, p.A22)(AP, 4/28/97)
1996 Apr 28, In Pakistan a bomb
killed 40 people aboard a bus traveling home for a Muslim festival in a
town southeast of Lahore. They were going home to celebrate the most
sacred holiday in Islam, Eid al-Adha, the Feast of Sacrifice.
(SFC, 5/5/96, p.T-9)
1996 Apr 28, In Taegu, South
Korea, a gas line exploded in the middle of an intersection crowded
with morning traffic, killing 101 people.
(AP, 4/28/01)
1997 Apr 28, "Jekyll & Hyde"
opened at Plymouth Theater NYC.
(www.mtishows.com/show_home.asp?id=000181)
1997 Apr 28, In Philadelphia,
President Clinton and three predecessors -- George Bush, Jimmy Carter
and Gerald Ford -- began drafting a national army of community service
volunteers during the Presidents' Summit for America's Future.
(AP, 4/28/98)
1997 Apr 28, It was reported that
a type of Mad Cow Disease was killing deer and elk in the Fort Collins
region of Colorado and Wyoming. The “spongiform encephalopathies”
riddled the brain with holes and it was wondered if the disease might
be transmitted to humans as the fatal Creutzfeldt-Jacob disease.
(SFC, 4/28/97, p.A5)
1997 Apr 28, It was reported that
millions of tons of smog-causing pollution were being spewed from
coal-burning power plants from Atlanta to Boston.
(SFC, 4/28/97, p.A5)
1997 Apr 28, A bomb in southern
Russia killed one person and injured 17 at a train station in
Pyatigorsk. It was the 2nd bombing in a week and Chechen rebels were
blamed.
(WSJ, 4/29/97, p.A1)
1998 Apr 28, The US Senate opened
a new round of hearings on alleged abuse and mismanagement at the
Internal Revenue Service.
(AP, 4/28/99)
1998 Apr 28, US Social Security's
trustees in their annual report predicted three extra years of full
pension benefits for retiring baby boomers before a potential cash
shortfall in 2032.
(AP, 4/28/08)
1998 Apr 28, A new group, the
Historical Society, was announced as a back-to-basics professional
organization. The American Historical Association had 15,000 members.
The Organization of American Historians had 9,000 members.
(SFC, 4/29/98, p.A6)
1998 Apr 28, Public Radio Inc. of
SF received a NEA grant for $185,000 to create “Lost and Found Sound:
An American Record.” The project will produce a series of radio
programs for NPR to chronicle, reflect and celebrate the 20th century.
(SFC, 4/29/98, p.E1)
1998 Apr 28, In a breakthrough for
the government's tobacco investigation, cigarette maker Liggett &
Myers agreed to tell prosecutors whether the industry had hidden
evidence of health damage from smoking.
(AP, 4/28/99)
1998 Apr 28, The Arizona Supreme
Court struck down as unconstitutional a voter-approved law requiring
English be used in official state and local business.
(SFC, 4/29/98, p.A4)
1998 Apr 28, In SF Supervisor
Mabel Tang announced that the Boy Scouts of America will be barred from
taking part in a city charity drive due to the groups stance against
admitting gays.
(SFC, 4/29/98, p.A15)
1998 Apr 28, In Algeria 40 people
were killed in a massacre at a village in Medea province.
(SFC, 4/29/98, p.A11)
1998 Apr 28, In Iraq Americares, a
US relief organization, flew in $2 million in medical supplies for 22
centers throughout the country.
(SFC, 4/30/98, p.A10)
1998 Apr 28, In Nigeria a military
tribunal sentenced 6 men to death for plotting a 1997 coup against
Gen’l. Abacha. Gen’l. Oladipo Diya, former deputy head of state,
maintained that he was framed by officers close to Abacha who
fabricated the plot.
(SFC, 4/29/98, p.A10)
1999 Apr 28, The US House voted
249-180 that congressional approval would be required to send troops to
Yugoslavia. A Democratic resolution supporting NATO air strikes tied
213-213.
(SFC, 4/29/99, p.A1)(WSJ, 4/29/99, p.A1)
1999 Apr 28, The US announced that
it would allow US firms to sell food and medicine to Iran, Sudan and
Libya.
(SFC, 4/29/99, p.A3)
1999 Apr 28, Rory Calhoun
(76), Western film star, died in Burbank, Calif., from emphysema and
diabetes. He starred in the 1950s TV series "The Texan."
(SFC, 4/29/99, p.D6)(www.imdb.com/name/nm0001983/)
1999 Apr 28, In Canada a
14-year-old boy shot 2 17-year-olds and killed one at W.R. Myers High
School in Taber, Alberta. Jason Lang was killed and Shane Christmas was
seriously wounded.
(SFC, 4/29/99, p.A16)(SFC, 4/29/99, p.D4)
1999 Apr 28, The IMF reached a
preliminary agreement with Russia for a $4.5 billion, that would not go
to Russia but work as an accounting measure to prevent default on money
already owed.
(SFC, 4/29/99, p.C5)
1999 Apr 28, The 124-member
Palestine Central Council decided not to declare a Palestinian state on
May 4, and that deliberations would continue till after Israel's May 17
elections. In exchange Arafat won EU backing for a state within a year
and the support of Pres. Clinton for self-determination.
(SFC, 4/29/99, p.C2)(WSJ, 4/30/99, p.A1)
1999 Apr 28, In Peru labor unions
staged a nation-wide strike to protest stagnant living standards.
(WSJ, 4/29/99, p.A1)
1999 Apr 28, Yugoslav Pres.
Milosevic fired Deputy Prime Minister Vuk Draskovic.
(SFC, 4/29/99, p.A14)
1999 Apr 28, In Korenica, Kosovo,
Serb forces retaliated for an ambush and executed every man over 16
that they could find. 155 unarmed men, women and children were killed.
(SFC, 6/16/99, p.A12)
1999 Apr 28, In eastern Congo Gov.
Kanyamuhanga Gafunzi ordered 100,000 Rwandan refugees in Kivu province
to go home within 15 days for supporting Hutu rebels.
(SFC, 4/29/99, p.D8)
1999 Apr 28, The UN Human Rights
Commission voted in favor of a worldwide moratorium on executions over
the objections of fewer than a dozen countries that included the US,
China, Rwanda and Sudan.
(SFC, 4/29/99, p.C16)
2000 Apr 28, In a sharp
repudiation of President Clinton’s policies, the House rejected, on a
tie vote of 213-to-213, a measure expressing support for NATO’s
five-week-old air campaign against Yugoslavia; the House also voted
249-to-180 to limit the president’s authority to use ground forces in
Yugoslavia.
(AP, 4/28/01)
2000 Apr 28, The US Justice Dept.
and 17 states filed to split Microsoft Corp. into 2 corporations.
(SFC, 4/29/00, p.A1)
2000 Apr 28, In Florida William
O’Brien, the Miami police chief, resigned after Mayor Joe Carollo fired
Donald Warshaw, the city manager, who refused to fire O’Brien. O’Brien
did not alert the mayor to the federal action in the Elian Gonzalez
seizure.
(SFC, 4/29/00, p.A1)
2000 Apr 28, In Pennsylvania
Richard Baumhammers (34) shot and killed 5 people in a racially
motivated shooting spree in McKees Rocks. He was sentenced to death in
2001.
(SFC, 4/29/00, p.A3)(BS, 5/12/01, p.3A)
2000 Apr 28, In southern Lebanon
guerrillas attacked the Aramta outpost with a car bomb and killed 3-4
Israeli-allied militiamen.
(SFC, 4/28/00, p.A19)(SFC, 4/29/00, p.A14)
2000 Apr 28, In the Philippines
government troops on Basilan Island gained control of the rebel
stronghold after week of fighting that left 6 soldiers were dead and 32
wounded. No hostages were recovered.
(SFC, 4/29/00, p.A12)
2001 Apr 28, It was reported that
the CIA had released some 10,000 pages of documents on 20 Nazis that
included Hitler, Eichmann, Mengele, Barbie, Mueller, Waldheim and
Hoettl.
(SFC, 4/28/01, p.A10)
2001 Apr 28, It was reported that
researchers at the Univ. of Pennsylvania had used gene therapy to
reverse a form of congenital blindness in dogs.
(SFC, 4/28/01, p.A3)
2001 Apr 28, A young girl’s
decapitated body was found near an intersection in Kansas City, Mo. In
2005 “Precious Doe” was identified as Erica Michelle Marie Green. Her
mother and stepfather were charged with murder. In 2009 a park was
dedicated in her honor.
(SFC, 5/6/05, p.A7)(SSFC, 4/26/09, p.A7)
2001 Apr 28, In Argentina a plane
crash killed 10 people near Roque Perez.
(WSJ, 4/30/01, p.A1)
2001 Apr 28, Shimon Peres,
Israel’s foreign minister, traveled to Cairo to discuss objections to
the Jordanian-Egyptian Middle East peace initiative.
(SFC, 4/28/01, p.A12)
2001 Apr 28, In Gaza mortar shells
hit a Jewish settlement and 5 teenagers were injured.
(SSFC, 4/29/01, p.A16)
2001 Apr 28, In Macedonia 8
government soldiers and police were killed by rebels near the Kosovo
border.
(SFC, 4/30/01, p.A8)
2001 Apr 28, In Mexico the
Congress approved broad constitutional reforms granting autonomy and
other rights to millions of indigenous people.
(SSFC, 4/29/01, p.A16)
2001 Apr 28, A Russian Soyuz
rocket lifted off for the Int’l. Space Station with two cosmonauts and
California businessman Dennis Tito (60), who paid some $20 million, for
the experience. Tito was the founder of the Wilshire Associates
investment firm.
(SSFC, 4/29/01, p.A15)(AP, 4/28/02)
2001 Apr 28, In Senegal
legislative elections were held and a soldier and 4 others were killed
in the Casamance region.
(WSJ, 4/30/01, p.A1)
2002 Apr 28, US Sec. of Defense
Rumsfeld visited Pres. Niyazov in Turkmenistan and Pres. Nazarbayev in
Kazakhstan.
(SFC, 4/29/02, p.A9)
2002 Apr 28, Bernard J. Ebbers
(60), CEO of WorldCom Inc., resigned as the stock dropped to 2.35 from
a high of 64.5 in June 1999.
(WSJ, 4/30/02, p.A1)
2002 Apr 28, Storms hit the Ohio
and Tennessee valleys with tornadoes in Missouri and Maryland. At least
6 people were killed.
(SFC, 4/29/02, p.A3)(WSJ, 4/30/02, p.A1)(AP,
4/28/07)
2002 Apr 28, China’s VP Hu Jintao
(59), heir apparent, rang the bell at the NY Stock Exchange and viewed
ground zero.
(WSJ, 4/30/02, p.A1)
2002 Apr 28, In Indonesia a mob
stabbed and burned to death 14 Christians in the village of Soya on the
outskirts of Ambon. The Muslim militia Laskar Jihad was blamed.
(SSFC, 4/28/02, p.A19)(SFC, 4/29/02, p.A5)
2002 Apr 28, General Murat
Zyazikov was elected president of Ingushetia, replacing military
commander Ruslan Aushev.
(www.nupi.no/cgi-win/Russland/krono.exe?5105)(Econ,
11/29/08, SR p.16)
2002 Apr 28, The Israeli Cabinet
approved a deal to lift the siege of Arafat’s compound in Ramallah
after promises that US and British jailers would guard the terrorist
suspects held there. The Cabinet refused to allow a UN team to
investigate charges of a massacre at Jenin. Israeli troops had
surrounded the compound in Ramallah demanding Arafat turn over the six
men who had sought refuge inside. Five of the men, including Ahmad
Saadat, leader of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine,
were implicated in the 2001 assassination of Israeli Tourism Minister
Rehavam Zeevi. The sixth, Fuad Shobaki, masterminded an illegal weapons
shipment to the Palestinian Authority on a ship called the Karine A.
President Bush brokered a deal with Israeli PM Ariel Sharon that sent
the six men to a Palestinian prison in Jericho, where they were guarded
by US and British monitors. In return, Israeli troops pulled back from
Arafat's West Bank compound.
(SFC, 4/29/02, p.A1)(AP, 3/15/06)
2002 Apr 28, In Russia Alexander
I. Lebed (52), governor of Krasnoyarsk, was killed in a helicopter
crash with 6 others at Abakan, 200 miles from Mongolia. Gen. Lebed was
instrumental in helping Yeltsin retain power in 1991.
(SFC, 4/29/02, p.B8)
2002 Apr 28, A bomb killed 7
people in a Russian provincial town near Chechnya.
(WSJ, 4/29/02, p.A1)
2003 Apr 28, US soldiers opened
fire on Iraqis at a nighttime demonstration against the American
presence here after people shot at them with automatic rifles. The
director of the local hospital said 13 people were killed and 75
injured. Amer Mohammed Rashid (6 of spades), known to UN weapons
inspectors as the "Missile Man" and ranked 47th on the US most-wanted
list of 55 members of Saddam's inner circle, surrendered.
(AP, 4/29/03)
2003 Apr 28, The US moved an air
operation center from Saudi Arabia to Qatar.
(AP, 4/29/03)
2003 Apr 28, The United States
pledged $4 million to help keep peacekeepers in the Ivory Coast in
addition to the $5 million it has already given to ECOWAS.
(AP, 4/30/03)
2003 Apr 28, Ten of the largest US
Wall Street firms agreed to pay $1.4 billion to settle government
charges involving abuse of investors during the late 1990s. Details of
the settlement, which called for one of the largest penalties ever
levied by securities regulators, will change the way major investment
firms do business.
(SFC, 4/29/03, A1)
2003 Apr 28, An environmental
group reported that chemical perchlorate, the explosive ingredient in
rocket fuel, was found in samples of lettuce traced to growers in
southern California or Arizona. The Bush administration had already
imposed a gag order on the EPA from publicly discussing perchlorate
pollution.
(SFC, 4/28/03, A1)(WSJ, 4/28/03, A3)
2003 Apr 28, Scientists reported
the discovery of a type of mouse that appears to the have a genetic
resistance to cancer.
(Reuters, 4/29/03)
2003 Apr 28, In Colombia Rafael
Rojas, a 20-year veteran of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia
(FARC) and the commander of the group's 46th Front, surrendered and
urged his former comrades to do the same.
(AP, 4/28/03)
2003 Apr 28, On Saddam Hussein's
66th birthday, some 300 prominent Iraqis met in Baghdad under US
direction to convene a national conference to create an interim
government.
(SFC, 4/29/03, A1)(AP, 4/28/04)
2003 Apr 28, Japan’s Nikkei 225
stock prices hit bottom more than a decade after they first started
falling.
(Econ, 10/18/08, p.86)(http://tinyurl.com/6d5bz8)
2003 Apr 28, The Soyuz space
capsule carrying a U.S.-Russian space crew docked with the
international space station.
(AP, 4/28/04)
2003 Apr 28, Ukraine's Pres.
Leonid Kuchma signed a bill prohibiting media censorship amid claims by
journalists that his administration is meddling in their work.
(AP, 4/28/03)
2004 Apr 28, The US monetary
policy subcommittee approved a bill to put the faces of US presidents
on new dollar coins.
(SFC, 4/29/04, p.C3)
2004 Apr 28, CBS broadcast photos
on “60 Minutes” showing US abuse of prisoners at Abu Ghraib prison.
(SFC, 5/6/04, p.A17)
2004 Apr 28, In Colombia a
construction crew's backhoe tumbled down a hillside onto a school bus
on the highway below, killing 21 children and two adults and injuring
36 others.
(AP, 4/29/04)
2004 Apr 28, The Dian Fossey fund
reported that the lowland gorilla population in eastern Congo has
dropped over 70% since 1994 due to human warfare.
(WSJ, 4/29/04, p.A1)
2004 Apr 28, Masked demonstrators
stormed the main cathedral in El Salvador's capital and demanded the
country's new president withdraw troops from Iraq and rehire dozens of
fired government employees.
(AP, 4/29/04)
2004 Apr 28, Iran's Ayatollah
Mahmoud Hashemi Shahroudi ordered a ban on the use of torture for
obtaining confessions.
(SFC, 4/29/04, p.A3)
2004 Apr 28, In Iraq a series of
explosions and gunfire rocked Fallujah in new fighting the day after a
heavy battle in which U.S. warplanes and artillery pounded the city in
a show of force against Sunni insurgents. Elsewhere 1 US and 2
Ukrainian soldiers were killed.
(AP, 4/28/04)(WSJ, 4/29/04, p.A1)
2004 Apr 28, Macedonians chose
between a liberal prime minister and a nationalist candidate in
presidential elections. Front-runner Branko Crvenkovski, the current
PM, and right-wing opposition politician Sasko Kedev, a U.S.-educated
doctor with little political background, competed in the runoff
election for the mostly ceremonial post. Oremier Crvenkovski claimed
victory and Kedev claimed fraud.
(AP, 4/28/04)(WSJ, 4/29/04, p.A1)
2004 Apr 28, The six nations
involved in resolving the North Korea nuclear arsenal dispute — the
United States, China, the two Koreas, Russia and Japan —scheduled to
begin working level talks May 12 in Beijing, China.
(AP, 4/29/04)
2004 Apr 28, Pakistan said it will
reduce the size of its army by 50,000, but military officials said this
1st reduction in its 57-year history men will not hurt fighting
strength.
(AP, 4/28/04)
2004 Apr 28, A Spanish judge
indicted Amer Azizi, a Moroccan fugitive, on charges of helping to plan
the Sept. 11 hijackings.
(AP, 4/28/05)
2004 Apr 28, In Thailand police
gunned down machete-wielding militants who stormed security outposts in
Thailand's Muslim-dominated south, killing at least 112 people. The
16th century Krue-sae Mosque was damaged by soldiers who fired
automatic weapons, tear gas and grenades at it and killed 32 suspected
Islamic insurgents.
(AP, 4/28/04)
2004 Apr 28, The UN Security
Council unanimously approved Resolution 1540 requiring all 191 UN
states to pass laws to keep weapons of mass destruction out of the
hands of terrorists.
(AP, 4/29/04)(www.nti.org/f_WMD411/f2n.html)
2005 Apr 28, Pres. Bush endorsed
changes to Social Security that would cut benefits for future
middle-class and wealthy retirees, while raising retirement checks for
the poor.
(SFC, 4/29/05, p.A1)
2005 Apr 28, A military jury at
Fort Bragg, N.C., sentenced Sgt. Hasan Akbar to death for the 2003
murders of two officers in Kuwait.
(AP, 4/28/06)
2005 Apr 28, More than 100
volunteers joined police in Duluth, Ga., in searching for Jennifer
Wilbanks, a bride-to-be who had vanished two days earlier. Wilbanks
turned up in Albuquerque, N.M., having run away on her own.
(AP, 4/28/06)
2005 Apr 28, Steve Wynn opened the
new $2.7 billion Wynn Las Vegas casino-resort.
(SFC, 4/29/05, p.A3)
2005 Apr 28, Scientists reported
that deep ocean readings promised a steadily warming world and
attributed global warming to human activity.
(SFC, 4/29/05, p.A1)
2005 Apr 28, Percy Heath (81),
bassist and last surviving member of the Modern Jazz Quartet (MJQ),
died in Southampton, NY.
(SFC, 4/30/05, p.B4)
2005 Apr 28, India’s central bank
raised its key interest rate to 5% to stem inflation.
(WSJ, 4/29/05, p.A15)
2005 Apr 28, Indian troops shot
dead four Muslim rebels who infiltrated into Indian Kashmir from the
Pakistani-zone of the divided state.
(AP, 4/29/05)
2005 Apr 28, Premier Silvio
Berlusconi's new government won approval from the Italian Senate,
ending a government crisis that followed an embarrassing defeat in
regional elections.
(AP, 4/28/05)
2005 Apr 28, In Iraq Ahmad Chalabi
captured a key position in the new government, a deputy prime
minister's spot and temporary control of the lucrative oil ministry.
(AP, 4/28/05)
2005 Apr 28, Lt. Col. Ala'a Khalil
Ibrahim, who worked in the visa section of the Interior Ministry, was
shot dead on the way to work by gunmen in Baghdad's eastern section of
al-Shaab. A suicide car bomb exploded near an Iraqi army checkpoint,
wounding four Iraqi soldiers, three U.S. soldiers and seven Iraqi
civilians.
(AP, 4/28/05)
2005 Apr 28, Four US soldiers were
killed and two wounded when a Task Force Freedom convoy was hit by a
roadside bomb in Tal Afar city, 90 miles east of the Syrian border.
(AP, 4/30/05)
2005 Apr 28, Islamic militant
group Army of Ansar al-Sunna said it shot dead six abducted Sudanese
drivers working for U.S. forces in Iraq, according to a video posted on
the Internet.
(AP, 4/28/05)
2005 Apr 28, A twin-engine army
plane slammed nose-first into Peru's southern desert coast, killing all
13 people aboard.
(AP, 4/29/05)
2005 Apr 28, A military helicopter
crashed into a wooded ravine on a northern Philippine mountain, killing
all nine people on board.
(AP, 4/29/05)
2005 Apr 28, Dharmeratnam Sivaram
(46), a top Tamil journalist whose articles favored the mainstream
Tamil rebels over a breakaway faction, was fatally shot hours after
being seized by attackers at a restaurant in Colombo.
(AP, 4/29/05)
2005 Apr 28, The African Union
agreed to more than triple the size of its peacekeeping force in
Sudan's western Darfur region.
(AP, 4/29/05)
2005 Apr 28, Swiss engineers
blasted through the final four yards of rock to complete the bore of
the first of two deep rail tunnels under the Swiss Alps linking north
and south Europe. The 21-mile Loetschberg tunnel, part of a massive
construction project to move heavy European Union trucks off
Switzerland's narrow highways and onto transport trains, will shorten
the travel time between Germany and Milan, Italy, by an hour.
(AP, 4/28/05)
2006 Apr 28, President George W.
Bush approved Dubai's $1.24 billion takeover of Doncasters, a British
engineering company with US plants that supply the Pentagon.
(AP, 4/28/06)
2006 Apr 28, Five member of US
Congress were willingly arrested and led away from the Sudanese Embassy
in plastic handcuffs after protesting the Sudanese government's alleged
role in atrocities in the Darfur region.
(AP, 4/28/06)
2006 Apr 28, The US government
adopted a federal advisory council’s recommendations for deep cuts to
the 2006 salmon season for California and Oregon.
(SFC, 4/29/06, p.B1)
2006 Apr 28, Attorneys for Rush
Limbaugh, who had been accused by Florida prosecutors of "doctor
shopping" for painkillers, announced a deal under which a single
prescription fraud charge against the talk show host would be dismissed
after 18 months provided he stayed drug-free and did not violate any
laws.
(AP, 4/28/07)
2006 Apr 28, Storms battered
eastern Texas with wind up to 100 mph and hail the size of baseballs.
(AP, 4/28/07)
2006 Apr 28, Rhode Island,
America's smallest state, was reported to be seeking to become the
first state to offer a wireless broadband network from border to
border. The Rhode Island Wireless Innovation Networks (RI-WINs) was
expected to be fully in place by 2007, providing wireless connectivity
throughout the state, whose land mass of about 1,045 square miles is
only slightly more than double the size of metropolitan Los Angeles.
(Reuters, 4/28/06)
2006 Apr 28, Ellen DeGeneres swept
the Daytime Emmy awards, winning best talk show host for the second
time and earning talk show honors for the third consecutive year.
(AP, 4/28/07)
2006 Apr 28, It was reported that
a research team at UC Berkeley had created microscopic versions of
compound eyes as used by insects.
(SFC, 4/28/06, p.B1)
2006 Apr 28, NASA launched 2
weather satellites designed to provide the 1st 3-D views of Earth’s
clouds and help predict how cloud cover contributes to global warming.
(SFC, 4/29/06, p.A10)
2006 Apr 28, Afghan President
Hamid Karzai urged Taliban militants to end the violence raging across
the country and join forces with the new government to help
Afghanistan's reconstruction. NATO foreign ministers reaffirmed the
alliance's readiness to nearly double its peacekeeping operations in
Afghanistan, where violence is increasing.
(AP, 4/28/06)
2006 Apr 28, In Brazil police
charged Antonio Palocci, a former finance minister, with four crimes,
including money laundering. He was viewed as the architect of Brazil's
economic recovery.
(AP, 4/28/06)
2006 Apr 28, Prince Harry, third
in line to the British throne, launched a charity in memory of his late
mother Princess Diana to help AIDS orphans in Lesotho.
(AP, 4/28/06)
2006 Apr 28, In Bulgaria Secretary
Rice signed a Defense Cooperation Agreement, which included a US lease
of 3 bases in Bulgaria.
(www.state.gov/r/pa/ei/pix/2006/65423.htm)(Econ,
6/24/06, p.62)
2006 Apr 28, Canadian currency
topped out at C$1.1162 to the US dollar, or 89.59 US cents, its highest
level since June 1978, rising for the sixth straight session.
(Reuters, 4/28/06)
2006 Apr 28, Chinese President Hu
Jintao signed an oil exploration contract with Kenya, the latest in a
series of deals designed to keep Africa's natural resources flowing to
China's booming economy.
(AP, 4/28/06)
2006 Apr 28, It was reported
Baiyangdian Lake in northern China's Hebei province was choking for its
life. Large-scale fish deaths have occurred regularly since the 1980s
as excessive amounts of untreated industrial waste water and raw
sewage, coupled with drought and constantly falling water levels, have
left fish farms decimated.
(AFP, 4/28/06)
2006 Apr 28, Representatives of
the Colombian government and that nation's second largest rebel group
wrapped up four days of talks in Cuba without resolution, but agreed to
meet again after their country's May 28 elections.
(AP, 4/28/06)
2006 Apr 28, A cargo plane
carrying telecom equipment crashed in eastern Congo, killing as many as
eight passengers and crew on board. Another aircraft carrying three
people disappeared in the same region.
(AP, 4/28/06)
2006 Apr 28, In East Timor
hundreds of former soldiers burned cars and shops in Dili, sparking
violent clashes with police that left at least two people dead and 27
injured. The soldiers, who were dismissed last month for striking
against "discriminatory" working conditions, have held near-daily
rallies in Dili this week demanding that their grievances be heard.
(AP, 4/28/06)
2006 Apr 28, US forces killed a
local al-Qaida in Iraq leader and two other insurgents in a raid north
of Baghdad. Roadside bombs killed an American soldier and an Iraqi
policeman. The death toll in two days of fighting in Baqouba climbed to
58, including seven Iraqi soldiers.
(AP, 4/28/06)
2006 Apr 28, A senior Israeli
military official said Palestinian militants have smuggled dozens of
Katyusha rockets into the Gaza Strip, potentially threatening towns
well inside Israel.
(AP, 4/28/06)
2006 Apr 28, Mexican lawmakers
approved a bill that would allow people to possess small amounts of
cocaine, heroin, even ecstasy for their personal use.
(AP, 4/29/06)
2006 Apr 28, Mexican police in
Tijuana found the body of a US citizen kidnapped nearly 3 weeks
earlier. They said he had been beaten, strangled, stripped naked and
stashed in the trunk of a car. George Kwok Choi Chu, a seafood
wholesaler, worked in Tijuana but lived across the border in San Diego.
(AP, 4/29/06)
2006 Apr 28, It was reported that
Morocco has just graduated its first team of women preachers to be
deployed as a vanguard in the kingdom's fight against any slide towards
Islamic extremism. A pioneer group of 50 Morchidat, or guides, finished
a 12-month course in early April. They were trained to "accompany and
orient" Muslim faithful, notably in prisons, hospitals and schools.
(AFP, 4/28/06)
2006 Apr 28, Nepal's Parliament
reconvened for the first time in four years, and legislators proposed a
cease-fire with the Himalayan country's Maoist rebels and elections for
a constitutional assembly.
(AP, 4/28/06)
2006 Apr 28, More than 45,000
Puerto Ricans marched through the streets of San Juan demanding
politicians resolve a budget impasse that could lead to a government
shutdown next week.
(AP, 4/28/06)
2006 Apr 28, In South Korea
prosecutors arrested Hyundai Motor Co. Chairman Chung Mong-koo in an
embezzlement and slush fund scandal.
(AP, 4/28/06)
2006 Apr 28, The UN food agency
said it is cutting rations in half for about 3 million refugees in
Sudan's war-ravaged Darfur region because of a shortage of money,
calling it "scandalous" that it has to stretch out supplies while it
pleads for funds.
(AP, 4/28/06)
2006 Apr 28, A powerful group of
developing nations blocked reform proposals that would have given
Secretary-General Kofi Annan more budget power, and rich countries
warned the move could push the world body toward financial crisis.
(AP, 4/28/06)
2006 Apr 28, An official said
Vietnam needs more than $400 million to fight bird flu and prepare for
a potential pandemic over the next five years, and expects about half
to come from international donors.
(AP, 4/28/06)
2007 Apr 28, Actors and musicians
including Elton John, George Clooney, Bob Geldof and Mick Jagger called
on world leaders to take "decisive action" over atrocities in Darfur.
Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi urged African, Arab and Western diplomats
to work with Sudanese rebels to find an immediate solution to the
crisis in Sudan's troubled Darfur region.
(AP, 4/28/07)
2007 Apr 28, Richard Holbrooke,
the former US ambassador to the UN, said Afghanistan's US-backed
government, tarnished by corruption and unable to control large swaths
of its own territory, is rapidly losing the support of ordinary Afghans.
(AP, 4/28/07)
2007 Apr 28, Dabbs Greer,
character actor, died at age 90.
(AP, 4/28/08)
2007 Apr 28, Tommy Newsom,
"Tonight Show" assistant conductor, died at age 78.
(AP, 4/28/08)
2007 Apr 28, Lou Papan (78),
long-time California state assemblyman for San Mateo County, died.
Papan had started his political career as a Daly City councilman.
(SFC, 5/1/07, p.B5)
2007 Apr 28, The Taliban freed a
female French aid worker who was kidnapped more than three weeks ago,
but demanded the withdrawal of French troops or release of prisoners
for the freedom of a French man and three Afghans still being held.
Afghan and coalition forces clashed with Taliban militants in separate
incidents in the east and south, killing 21 insurgents.
(AFP, 4/28/07)(AP, 4/28/07)
2007 Apr 28, Australia's
centre-left Labor Party scrapped its 25-year ban on new uranium mines
in a move miners said would encourage new investment and growth in the
industry.
(AP, 4/28/07)
2007 Apr 28, China's president
called for closer business ties with Taiwan to help squelch the
self-ruled island's pro-independence movement as he met with a former
Taiwanese opposition leader.
(AP, 4/28/07)
2007 Apr 28, China's ZTE signed a
$200 million deal with Ethiopia's state-owned Telecom Corp.
(AFP, 4/30/07)
2007 Apr 28, In Estonia minority
Russian youths angry over the government's decision to remove a Soviet
war memorial from Tallinn rioted for a second night, with unrest
spreading to at least two other towns. 66 people were injured in the
capital, including six policemen. More than 500 people, many of them
adolescents, were detained overnight as vandals prowled the streets,
breaking shop windows and looting stores.
(AP, 4/28/07)
2007 Apr 28, Guyana police found
the remains of a an elderly woman who was lynched by a crowd of
villagers. She had been accused of being an “Old Higue,” an evil spirit
who drinks the blood of human babies.
(AP, 4/30/07)
2007 Apr 28, It was reported that
pro-Indonesian militias had regrouped in the mountainous center of Aceh
as the Communication Forum for Children of the Nation (Forkab).
(Econ, 4/28/07, p.47)
2007 Apr 28, A parked car exploded
near one of Shiite Islam's holiest shrines in the city of Karbala as
people were headed to the area for evening prayers, killing 68 people
and wounding dozens. In Baghdad gunmen opened fire on a vehicle in a
Sunni-Shiite neighborhood, killing 4 of 7 people aboard. In western
Baghdad, two mortar shells hit another residential area of poor,
two-story homes, killing 3 Iraqi children, between the ages of 5 and 7,
and wounding 10 Iraqis, including 3 children. US forces detained 17
suspected insurgents in raids targeting al-Qaida in Iraq. The Danish
military announced that it has sent an unspecified number of special
forces to Iraq to reinforce its 460-strong contingent near the southern
city of Basra. A US soldier was slain by small arms fire during a
patrol in eastern Baghdad.
(AP, 4/28/07)(AP, 4/29/07)(AP, 4/30/07)
2007 Apr 28, Israeli troops killed
at least three Hamas militants who were en route to carrying out an
attack.
(AP, 4/28/07)
2007 Apr 28, In Jamaica the
7-week, 1st Cricket World Cup ended with Australia defeating Sri Lanka.
(Econ, 5/5/07, p.48)
2007 Apr 28, The 1st round of the
Mali presidential election garnered a turnout of around 36%. Incumbent
President Amadou Toumani Toure (59), one of 8 candidates, was widely
expected to win a second term. General Amadou Toumani Toure and
Soumaila Cisse, candidate for the ruling party Adema, faced each other
for the 2nd round.
(AFP,
5/6/07)(http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/1982814.stm)
2007 Apr 28, In Nigeria ballot
papers were stolen and voters intimidated as polls were re-staged for
hundreds of state and federal legislators' seats after elections widely
condemned as fraudulent. Oil officials said Nigeria is currently losing
600,000 barrels of oil per day in the oil rich Niger Delta as a result
of the activities of militants in the region.
(AP, 4/28/07)(AFP, 4/28/07)
2007 Apr 28, In northwest Pakistan
a suicide attacker detonated a bomb as Aftab Khan Sherpao, the interior
minister, finished speaking at a public meeting, killing 28 people and
wounding the official. Saud Memon (44), a suspect in the death of WSJ
reporter Daniel Pearl, was dumped, badly injured and weighing less than
80 pounds, in front of his Karachi home. He had been secretly detained
and interrogated by US and Pakistani intelligence.
(Reuters, 4/28/07)(AP, 4/29/07)(WSJ, 11/12/07, p.A3)
2007 Apr 28, A Philippine air
force helicopter crashed on a busy street in Lapu Lapu City, Cebu
Island, pinning a motorcycle taxi and hitting another with its spinning
rotors. At least 9 people on the ground and one airman were killed.
Norberto Linao Jr., the mayor of Morong town in Bataan province,
escaped injury after assailants sprayed his house with gunfire.
(AFP, 4/28/07)(AP, 4/30/07)
2007 Apr 28, Turkey's
Islamist-rooted government called the army to order, saying it is
answerable to the civilian authority, after the military threatened
action to defend the country's secular system.
(AP, 4/28/07)
2007 Apr 28, President Hugo Chavez
said that Venezuela is ready to become the sole energy supplier to
Cuba, Bolivia, Nicaragua and Haiti, presenting the countries with his
most generous offer yet of oil-funded diplomacy in the region.
(AP, 4/29/07)
2007 Apr 28, Zimbabwe announced
new controls to clamp down on charities and other humanitarian
organizations, including democracy and human rights groups that the
government accuses of campaigning against it. A state daily reported
that Zimbabwe has compensated 800 white farmers for property seized
during controversial land reforms launched by President Robert Mugabe's
government.
(AP, 4/28/07)
2008 Apr 28, The US Supreme Court
upheld Indian’s voter-ID law, passed in 2005. It ruled that states can
require voters to produce photo identification without violating their
constitutional rights, validating Republican-inspired voter ID laws.
(AP, 4/28/08)(WSJ, 4/29/08, p.A1)(Econ, 5/3/08, p.40)
2008 Apr 28, The IRS began
depositing tax-rebate checks in thousands of bank accounts as the US
stimulus program began early.
(WSJ, 4/29/08, p.A1)
2008 Apr 28, In Washington truck
drivers honked horns, waved placards and shouted through bullhorns at
the Capitol to protest rising fuel prices they say are hurting their
livelihood.
(AP, 4/29/08)
2008 Apr 28, In Oakland, Ca., a
jury convicted Hans Reiser, a computer programmer, of 1st degree murder
in the death his wife Nina Reiser, even though her body has not been
found.
(SFC, 4/29/08, p.A1)
2008 Apr 28, In South Carolina the
new 140-acre Hard Rock Park opened for business in Myrtle Beach. The
official opening was set for May 9. The park closed in September. On
Jan 6, 2009, a Delaware court approved a request the company to begin
liquidating. Private investors had put up some $75 million for the them
park and raised another $320 million in debt to fund the operation.
(WSJ, 1/7/09,
p.B1)(www.oceancreek.com/blog/hard-rock-park/2008/04/)
2008 Apr 28, In southeast Virginia
6 destructive tornadoes resulted in much devastation and over 200
injuries but no deaths. Gov. Timothy Kaine declared a state of
emergency in the hardest hit areas.
(AP, 4/29/08)(SFC, 4/30/08, p.A3)
2008 Apr 28, In Australia police
in Perth arrested Robert Agius (58) on charges of running a money
laundering scheme that helped clients avoid taxes by transferring $93
million through offshore bank accounts.
(AP, 4/28/08)
2008 Apr 28, In China a policeman
and a Tibetan activist were killed following a raid against ethnic
Tibetans in Qinghai province.
(WSJ, 5/1/08, p.A11)
2008 Apr 28, A high-speed
passenger train jumped its tracks and slammed into another train in
eastern China, killing at least 70 people and injuring more than 400 in
China's worst train accident in a decade.
(AP, 4/28/08)
2008 Apr 28, Egypt’s official MENA
news agency reported that PM Ahmed Nazif has urged anyone who can
resolve the nationwide problem of price rises to come forward with
ideas.
(AFP, 4/28/08)
2008 Apr 28, In Indonesia hundreds
of protesters in West Java province chanted "Kill, kill" and set fire
to a mosque belonging to the Muslim Ahmadiyah sect they claim is
heretical. Last week, a team of prosecutors, religious scholars and
government officials said the sect "had deviated from Islamic
principles" and recommended it be outlawed.
(AP, 4/28/08)
2008 Apr 28, Iran and Russia
discussed the outlines of "serious proposals" aimed at assuring the
international community that Tehran's nuclear program is peaceful,
state media reported.
(AP, 4/28/08)
2008 Apr 28, Shiite extremists
lobbed more rockets or mortar shells at the US protected Green Zone. A
suicide attacker on a motorcycle struck a checkpoint manned by
US-allied Sunni fighters in eastern Baghdad, killing at least one and
wounding four other members of the awakening council. Gunmen killed a
local commander of al-Sadr, Ali Ghalib, in Basra. US soldiers killed 7
extremists in Sadr City after coming under small arms fire. 4 US
soldiers were killed in Baghdad by rocket or mortar fire.
(AP, 4/28/08)(SFC, 4/29/08, p.A5)
2008 Apr 28, An Israeli tank shell
slammed into a tiny Gaza Strip home during a skirmish with gunmen,
killing a Palestinian woman and four of her children as they prepared
to sit down for breakfast. A militant and an unidentified man were also
killed in fighting in Beit Hanoun, a northern border town frequently
used by militants to fire rockets and mortars at southern Israel.
(AP, 4/28/08)
2008 Apr 28, Residents of Rome
elected Gianni Alemanno, the Italian capital's first right-wing mayor
since World War II. He took 53.6 percent of the vote to 46.3 percent
for Francesco Rutelli, a former two-time center-left Rome mayor.
(AP, 4/29/08)(Econ, 5/3/08, p.61)
2008 Apr 28, In Morocco 3 people
burned to death in a factory fire in Casablanca.
(AFP, 4/29/08)
2008 Apr 28, Baitullah Mehsud, a
Pakistani Taliban commander, pulled out of a peace deal with the
government after it refused to withdraw the army from tribal lands on
the Afghan border.
(Reuters, 4/28/08)
2008 Apr 28, Russia ordered two
American military attaches at the US Embassy in Moscow to leave the
country following the expulsion of a pair of Russian diplomats from
Washington. One Russian military officer was ordered to leave
Washington in November last year. The second was ordered to leave on
April 22.
(AP, 5/8/08)
2008 Apr 28, Sri Lanka hailed
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's visit as an important step in
cementing closer ties between the two nations.
(AP, 4/28/08)
2008 Apr 28, A Ukrainian
helicopter crashed onto an offshore drilling platform in the Black Sea,
killing all 20 people on board.
(Reuters, 4/28/08)
2008 Apr 28, Officials said
Vietnam is ending a child adoption agreement with the United States
after being accused of allowing baby-selling and corruption.
(AP, 4/28/08)
2008 Apr 28, The Olympic torch
arrived in Vietnam from North Korea, where tens of thousands of
citizens were mobilized to celebrate the relay in Pyongyang in the
flame's first visit to the authoritarian nation.
(AP, 4/29/08)
2008 Apr 28, Lawyers in Zimbabwe
appealed for the release of some 200 jailed opposition activists as
officials defied pressure from the West to release the results of last
month's presidential election.
(AP, 4/28/08)
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