Today in History - May 14
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347 May 14,
Pachomius, Egyptian monastery founder, abbot (Coenobieten), died.
(MC, 5/14/02)
649 May 14, Theodore, Greek Pope
(642-49), excommunicated by Paul II, died.
(MC, 5/14/02)
1264 May 14, The Baron's War was
fought in England. King Henry III was captured by his brother in law
Earl of Leicester Simon de Montfort at the Battle of Lewes in England.
(HN, 5/14/99)(PC, 1992, p.113)
1509 May 14, In the Battle of
Agnadello, the French defeat the Venetians in Northern Italy.
(HN, 5/14/98)
1525 May 14, A German army under
Philip of Hesse surrounded and slaughtered 5,000 ending a peasant
revolt led by Thomas Muntzer.
(MC, 5/15/02)(PCh, 1992, p.173)
1533 May 14, Margaret of Valois,
queen consort of Navarre, was born.
(HN, 5/14/01)
1607 May 14, Some 104 men and boys
filed ashore from the small sailing ships Susan Constant, Godspeed, and
Discovery, onto what English adventurers came to call Jamestown Island
in Virginia. Capt. John Smith (27) was among the Englishmen who founded
Jamestown.
(HN, 10/3/00)(AP, 5/14/97)(SFEC, 10/15/00,
p.T12)(ON, 2/07, p.7)
1610 May 14, King Henri IV, Henri
de Navarre (56), Bourbon King of France (1572, 89-1610) was
assassinated by a fanatical monk, François Ravillac. Henri IV
was succeeded by 11-year-old Louis XIII, under the eye of Cardinal
Richelieu. Henry’s legacy included straight roads flanked by arbres
d’alignement on both sides.
(SFEM, 3/15/98, p.17)(HN, 5/14/99)(MC,
5/14/02)(Econ, 2/14/04, p.48)
1643 May 14, Louis XIV became King
of France at age 4 upon the death of his father, Louis XIII.
(AP, 5/14/97)
1679 May 14, Peder [Nielsen]
Horrebow, Danish astronomer, was born.
(MC, 5/14/02)
1686 May 14, Gabriel Daniel
Fahrenheit German physicist and instrument maker, was born. He invented
the thermometer. [see May 24]
(HN, 5/14/98)
1726 May 14, Moshe Darshan, Rabbi,
author (Torat Ahsam), died.
(MC, 5/14/02)
1727 May 14, Thomas Gainsborough
(d.1788), English painter, was born (baptized). His work included “The
Blue Boy.”
(HN, 5/14/01)(AAP, 1964)(WUD, 1994, p.579)(MC,
5/14/02)
1767 May 14, British government
disbanded the import duty on tea in America.
(MC, 5/14/02)
1771 May 14, Robert Owen, English
factory owner, socialist, was born.
(MC, 5/14/02)
1771 May 14, Thomas Wedgwood,
English physicist, was born. He is acknowledged as the first
photographer.
(HN, 5/14/99)
1787 May 14, Delegates began
gathering in Philadelphia for a convention to draw up the U.S.
Constitution.
(AP, 5/14/97)
1791 May 14, In Mexico a time
capsule was placed atop a bell tower at Mexico City's Metropolitan
Cathedral when the building's topmost stone was laid, 218 years after
construction had begun. Workers restoring the church found it in
October, 2007.
(AP, 1/15/08)
1796 May 14, English physician
Edward Jenner administered the first vaccination against smallpox to
his gardener's son, James Phipps (8). A single blister rose up on the
spot, but James later demonstrated immunity to smallpox. Jenner
actually used vaccinia, a close viral relation to smallpox. [see July
21, 1721]
(Econ, 11/22/03, p.77)(AP, 5/14/08)
1800 May 14, Friedrich von
Schiller's "Macbeth," premiered in Weimar
(MC, 5/14/02)
1801 May 14, The Pasha of Tripoli
declared war on the US after learning that Pres. Jefferson had refused
to pay a renewed tribute of $225,000. American warships soon
established a blockade.
(ON, 10/06, p.8)
1804 May 14, The Lewis and Clark
expedition to explore the Louisiana Territory left St. Louis. Explorer
William Clark sets off from St. Louis, Missouri, to travel upriver to
wait for Meriwether Lewis. The two will soon depart together on a
journey to reach the Pacific. The trip was retold in a TV movie by Ken
Burns in 1997. [see May 22]
(AP, 5/14/97)(SFC,11/4/97, p.B1)(HN, 5/14/99)
1805 May 14, Johann Peter Emilius
Hartmann, composer, was born.
(MC, 5/14/02)
1832 May 14, Felix Mendelssohn's
"Hebrides," premiered.
(MC, 5/14/02)
1835 May 14, Charles Darwin
reached Coquimbo in Northern Chile.
(MC, 5/14/02)
1842 May 14, 1st edition of London
Illustrated News.
(MC, 5/14/02)
1847 May 14, Fanny Cacilia
Mendelssohn Hensel (41), German pianist, composer and sister of Felix
Mendelssohn, died of a stroke.
(ON, 6/07, p.8)
1853 May 14, Gail Borden applied
for a patent for condensed milk.
(HN, 5/14/98)
1856 May 14, James P. Casey,
editor of the SF Times, shot James King, proprietor of the rival
Evening Bulletin. King died 6 days later. A “Vigilance Committee” of
2,600 later marched up Sacramento St. and broke into the jail where
Casey was held. On May 22 Casey was lynched with his unfortunate cell
mate, gambler Charles Cora.
(SFEC, 3/8/98, BR p.1)(SFC, 6/12/10, p.C3)
1863 May 14, Union General
Nathanial Banks took his army out of Alexandria, Louisiana, and headed
towards Port Hudson along the Mississippi River. The fort was
considered the second most important strategic location on the river,
after Vicksburg.
(HN, 5/14/99)
1863 May 14, Battle of Jackson, MS.
(MC, 5/14/02)
1867 May 14, Kurt Eisner, German
premier of revolutionary Bavaria (1918-19), was born.
(MC, 5/14/02)
1878 May 14, Vaseline first sold
with the registered trademark for petroleum jelly.
(MC, 5/14/02)
1881 May 14, Rudolph Karstadt
founded his first store in Wismar, Germany. In 1999 Karstadt merged
with Quelle, a mail-order business founded in 1927 by Gustav
Schickedanz.
(WSJ, 7/17/06,
p.C8)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quelle_(company))
1881 May 14, Mary Seacole
(b.1805), Jamaican nurse, died. She is best known for her efforts in
the Crimean War during the 1850s. She borrowed money to make the
4,000-mile (about 6500 km) journey by herself and distinguished herself
treating battlefield wounded, often nursing wounded soldiers from both
sides while under fire.
(AP, 4/19/10)
1885 May 14, Otto Klemperer,
conductor, composer, was born in Breslau, Germany.
(MC, 5/14/02)
1894 May 14, Fire in Boston
bleachers spread to 170 adjoining buildings.
(MC, 5/14/02)
1897 May 14, Sidney Bechet
(d.1951), jazz clarinetist and soprano saxophone player, was born.
(HN, 5/14/01)
1897 May 14, "Stars and Stripes
Forever" by John Phillip Sousa was performed for the first time in
Philadelphia.
(HN, 5/14/01)
1897 May 14, Guglielmo Marconi
made the first communication by wireless telegraph.
(HN, 5/14/98)
1900 May 14, The Olympic games
opened in Paris, held as part of the 1900 World's Fair.
(AP, 5/14/07)
1904 May 14, The first Olympic
games to be held in the United States opened in St. Louis. Some 1,500
athletes competed from 13 countries. The US won 80 of 100 gold medals.
At the Olympics the game of golf was played for the last time due to
lack of general appeal. The 3rd modern Olympics were held at the St.
Louis World’s Fair. A separate competition was held for “uncivilized
tribes” in what was billed as “Anthropology Days.”
(SFC, 7/14/96, Par p.4)(AP, 5/14/97)(WSJ, 7/23/96,
p.A6)(PCh, 1992, p.658)(WSJ, 8/11/04, p.B1)
1908 May 14, 1st passenger flight
in an airplane.
(MC, 5/14/02)
1912 May 14, Johan August
Strindberg (b.1849), Swedish novelist, dramatist and essayist, died. In
1985 Michael Meyer authored a Strindberg biography.
(WUD, 1994 p.1407)(SFC, 8/10/00, p.D2)(MC, 5/14/02)
1913 May 14, Franz Hals museum
opened in Haarlem, Netherlands.
(MC, 5/14/02)
1913 May 14, New York Governor
William Sulzer approved a state charter for the Rockefeller Foundation.
John D. Rockefeller had given $100 million to the Rockefeller
Foundation. This insulated a large part of Rockefeller's fortune from
inheritance taxes. At this time Rockefeller’s net worth approached $900
million, about $13 billion in 1998 dollars.
(WSJ, 5/8/98, p.W10)(Econ, 12/16/06, p.68)
1915 May 14, Harry Joseph Chick
Daugherty, trombonist (Spike Jones & City Slickers), was born.
(MC, 5/14/02)
1918 May 14, Sunday baseball
became legal in Wash, DC.
(MC, 5/14/02)
1925 May 14, Patrice Munsel,
soprano (Met Opera, Patrice Munsel Show), was born in Spokane, Wash.
(MC, 5/14/02)
1925 May 14, Henry Rider Haggard,
English writer (Dawn, She), died.
(MC, 5/14/02)
1928 May 14, Ernesto “Che” Guevara
Serna (d.Oct 9, 1967) was born to an aristocratic family in Misiones
province, Argentina. A biography was written in 1997 by Jon Lee
Anderson: “Che Guevara: A Revolutionary of Life.” Ernesto “Che”
Guevara, chief lieutenant in the Cuban revolution and active in other
Latin American revolutionary movements, was born Ernesto Guevara de la
Serna in Rosario, Argentina. “Che” was a nickname meaning “pal.” He
played a leading role alongside Fidel Castro in the overthrow of Cuban
dictator Fulgencio Batista in 1959, wrote the book Guerrilla Warfare in
1960 and, as Cuban Minister of Industries from 1961-‘65, led the
nationalization of industry and agriculture. He left Cuba in 1965. In
1967 he was tracked down and executed by the Bolivian army.
(SFC, 6/16/97, p.D3)(HNQ, 12/2/98)(HNQ, 2/10/00)
1931 May 14, Denys Finch-Hatton,
British adventurer and lover to writer Isak Dinesen (Karen Blixen),
died when his plane crashed shortly after take-off from Kenya’s Voi
airport. In 2007 Sara Wheeler authored “Too Close to the Sun: The
Audacious Life and Times of Denys Finch Hatton.”
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Denys_Finch_Hatton)(SFC, 5/14/07, p.M4)
1932 May 14, There was a "We Want
Beer!" parade in NY.
(MC, 5/14/02)
1933 May 14, Richard P. Brickner,
novelist (The Broken Year), was born.
(HN, 5/14/01)
1935 May 14, A plebiscite in the
Philippines ratified a independence agreement.
(HN, 5/14/98)
1936 May 14, Bobby Darin (d.1973),
singer (Mack the Knife), was born in the Bronx as Walden Robert
Cassotto.
(www.history-of-rock.com/bobby_darin.htm)
1940 May 14, German breakthrough
at Sedan, France.
(MC, 5/14/02)
1940 May 14, The Netherlands
(Holland) surrendered to Nazi Germany after the bombing of Rotterdam
that left 600-900 dead.
(HN, 5/14/98)(MC, 5/14/02)
1940 May 14, Emma Goldman,
anarchist revolutionary, author (Living My Life), died in Toronto and
was buried in Chicago. In 1974 Carol Bolt wrote a play on the formative
years of Emma titled: “Red Emma: Queen of the Anarchists.” In 1995 Ms.
Bolt wrote a libretto based on the play for an opera with music by Gary
Kulesha. In 1961 Richard Drinnon authored “Rebel In Paradise: A
Biography of Emma Goldman.” In 1971 Alex Shulman authored “To the
Barricades: The Anarchist Life of Emma Goldman.”
(WSJ, 12/11/95, p.A-1)(ON, 4/00, p.5)(MC, 5/14/02)
1941 May 14, French Admiral
Francois Darlan, leader of the armed forces of Vichy France, broadcast
to the citizens that only within the confines of the Third Reich can
France thrive.
(HN, 5/14/99)
1941 May 14, Some 3,600 Parisian
Jews were arrested. [see Apr 14]
(MC, 5/14/02)
1942 May 14, Aaron Copland's
"Lincoln Portrait" was first performed by the Cincinnati Symphony
Orchestra, conducted by Andre Kostelanetz, who had commissioned the
work.
(AP, 5/14/98)
1942 May 14, US Congress voted to
establish the Women's Auxiliary Army Corps (WAAC).
(AP, 5/14/07)
1942 May 14, The British, in
retreat from Burma, reached India.
(HN, 5/14/98)
1943 May 14, Elizabeth Ray,
congressman Wilbur Mills' lover, was born in Marshall, NC.
(MC, 5/14/02)
1943 May 14, Australia’s AHS
Centaur was sunk without warning after it was torpedoed by a Japanese
submarine. Of the 332 people on board, only 64 survived. In 2009
deep-sea searchers found the wreck of the hospital ship off the city of
Brisbane.
(AFP, 12/19/09)
1944 May 14, George Lucas, writer
and director, was born in Modesto, Ca. He is best remembered for his
Star Wars trilogy.
(HN, 5/14/99)(MC, 5/14/02)
1944 May 14, The Latin trio Los
Panchos made its debut at El Teatro Hispano in NYC with Alfredo Gil
(d.1999 at 84), Jesus Navarro (Chucho), and Hernando Aviles.
(SFC, 9/17/99, p.D8)(SFC, 9/30/04, p.E14)
1944 May 14, 91 German bombers
harassed Bristol.
(MC, 5/14/02)
1944 May 14, Gens Rommel, Speidel
and von Stulpnagel plotted to assassinate Hitler.
(MC, 5/14/02)
1945 May 14, A Kamikaze Zero
struck the US aircraft carrier Enterprise.
(MC, 5/14/02)
1945 May 14, US offensive on
Okinawa. Sugar Loaf was conquered.
(MC, 5/14/02)
1948 May 14, US granted Israel de
facto recognition.
(MC, 5/14/02)
1948 May 14, The British evacuated
Israel. The independent state of Israel was proclaimed in Tel Aviv
under Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion as British rule in Palestine came
to an end. Ben-Gurion and 36 fellow members of the Provisional Council
of State signed the Declaration of the Establishment of the State of
Israel. 10 of the member’s signatures were delayed for 10 days because
they were cut off by fighting in Jerusalem.
(SFC, 10/18/96, C8)(AP, 5/14/97) (SFC, 4/24/98,
p.A17)(HN, 5/14/98)(WSJ, 6/1/00, p.A20)(SFC, 10/12/02, p.A21)
1949 May 14, Pres. Truman signed a
bill establishing a rocket test range at Cape Canaveral.
(MC, 5/14/02)
1950 May 14, In Turkey the
Democratic Party won 52% of the votes in its first free elections and
Adnan Menderes (b.1899) became prime minister.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adnan_Menderes)
1951 May 14, The Ernie Kovacs
Show, TV Variety “Ernie in Kovacsland,” debuted on NBC.
(MC, 5/14/02)(SFEC, 5/24/98, DB p.37)
1955 May 14, Representatives from
eight Communist bloc countries: Soviet Union, Albania, Bulgaria,
Czechoslovakia, East Germany, Hungary, Poland & Romania, signed the
Warsaw Pact in Poland. Andras Hegedues signed for Hungary.
(AP, 5/14/97)(SFC, 10/26/99, p.B4)(MC, 5/14/02)
1959 May 14, Sidney Bechet,
clarinetist and pioneer jazz composer, died.
(WSJ, 8/24/00, p.A20)(www.sidneybechet.org/bio.html)
1960 May 14, "At the Drop of a
Hat" closed at John Golden in NYC after 216 performances.
(MC, 5/14/02)
1960 May 14, Some 2-5,000 people
marched against the HUAC proceedings at SF City Hall and the police
actions against protestors.
(SFEC, 5/23/99, Z1 p.1)(SSFC, 6/9/02, p.F3)
1961 May 14, A bus carrying the
1st group of Freedom Riders was bombed and burned in Alabama.
(HN, 5/14/98)(MC, 5/14/02)
1962 May 14, Princess Sophia of
Greece wed Don Juan Carlos of Spain.
(MC, 5/14/02)
1964 May 14, Soviet Premier Nikita
Khrushchev joined United Arab Republic President Gamel Abdel Nasser in
setting off charges, diverting the Nile River from the site of the
Aswan High Dam project.
(AP, 5/14/04)
1965 May 14, Frances Perkins (83),
the first US female cabinet secretary, died. She served as FDR’s
Minister of Labor (1933-45). In 2009 Kirstin Downey authored “The Woman
Behind the New Deal: The Life of Francis Perkins, FDR’s Secretary of
Labor and His Moral Conscience.”
(Econ, 7/25/09,
p.80)(www.gwu.edu/~erpapers/teachinger/glossary/perkins-frances.cfm)
1966 May 14, Ludwig Meidner
(b.1884), German expressionist artist, died.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ludwig_Meidner)
1968 May 14, The Beatles in NYC
announced the formation of their Apple Corp.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Corps)
1968 May 14, Adm. Husband Edward
Kimmel (b.1882), commandant US Ocean fleet WW II, died in Connecticut.
Some historians, such as submariner Captain Edward L. "Ned" Beach,
later believed Admiral Kimmel and Army Lieutenant General Walter Short
became scapegoats for the failures of their superiors prior to the
attack on Pearl Harbor and that their careers were effectively and
unfairly ruined.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Husband_Kimmel)
1969 May 14, Three companies of
the 101st Airborne Division failed to push North Vietnamese forces off
Hill 937 (Hamburger Hill) in South Vietnam.
(HN, 5/14/01)
1969 May 14, Abortion and
contraception was legalized in Canada.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abortion_in_Canada)
1970 May 14, In West Germany
Andreas Baader, a rabid opponent of the Vietnam War, broke out of
prison with the help of gang members including Ulrike Meinhof.
(WSJ, 4/3/09,
p.A15)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ulrike_Meinhof)
1971 May 14, Pope Paul VI
(1897-1978), the 262nd pontiff, delivered his Octagesima Adveniens
apostolic letter on the 80th anniversary of the Rerum Novarum
encyclical by Leo XIII. Paul VI was born in Lombardy, Italy, as
Giovanni Battista Enrico Antonio Maria Montini.
(SFC, 11/20/96, p.C1)(http://tinyurl.com/65jr23)
1973 May 14, Rowan & Martin's
Laugh-In last aired on NBC-TV.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rowan_&_Martin's_Laugh-In)
1973 May 14, US Supreme court
approved equal rights to females in military.
(http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/cgi-bin/getcase.pl?court=US&vol=411&invol=677)
1973 May 14, The United States
launched the 85-ton Skylab 1, its first manned space station with crew
Kerwin, Conrad and Weitz.
(AP,
5/14/97)(www.friends-partners.org/partners/mwade/craft/skylab.htm)
1976 May 14, In Sri Lanka the
Tamil United Liberation Front adopted the Vaddukkoaddai Resolution
declaring the Tamils’ right to statehood.
(Econ, 1/23/10,
p.41)(www.tamilnet.com/art.html?catid=74&artid=8861)
1977 May 14, Capt. Robert Nairac
(29), an underground British soldier, was abducted from a border pub by
an IRA gang, taken across the border into a Republic of Ireland forest,
and shot through the head. In 2008 the Police Service of Northern
Ireland press office confirmed the arrest of Kevin Crilly (57), an IRA
veteran, on suspicion of involvement in Nairac's killing.
(AP, 5/20/08)
1978 May 14, Gerard Barrett of
Australia won the 68th annual San Francisco Bay to Breakers race in a
record 35 min., 17 sec. There were 9,738 official entrants with some
4,000 unofficial runners. 13 members of the UC Davis track team tied
themselves together and became the first centipede to run in the race.
(SFC, 5/9/03, p.E5)(SFC, 5/15/09, p.B4)
1980 May 14, President Carter
inaugurated the Department of Health and Human Services.
(AP, 5/14/97)
1980 May 14, Hugh Griffith
(b.1912), Welsh actor, died. His films included Passover Plot, Ben Hur,
and Tom Jones.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hugh_Griffith)
1983 May 14, Fyodor Abramov
(b.1920), Russian playwright, died in Leningrad. His plays included
“Brothers and Sisters.”
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fyodor_Abramov)(Econ,
10/21/06, p.96)
1983 May 14, In Warsaw, Poland,
Grzegorz Przemyk (19), student and son of Solidarity Grzegorz activist
Barbara Sadowska, died from internal injurious while in police
custody.
(http://files.osa.ceu.hu/holdings/300/8/3/text/47-5-143.shtml)
1987 May 14, The Commerce
Department reported that the U.S. trade deficit had narrowed in March
to $13.6 billion.
(AP, 5/14/97)
1987 May 14, A Colt revolver, the
Peacemaker of 1873, sold at auction for $242,000.
(http://tinyurl.com/ps7vw)
1987 May 14, Actress Rita Hayworth
died in New York at age 68. In 1983 James Hill (d.2001), producer and
former husband (1958-1961), authored “Rita Hayworth: A Memoir.”
(AP, 5/14/97)(SFC, 1/16/01, p.C4)
1988 May 14, Twenty-seven people,
most of them teen-agers, were killed when their church bus collided
with a pickup truck going the wrong way on a highway near Carrollton,
Ky. The driver of the truck, Larry Mahoney, was convicted of
manslaughter and sentenced to 16 years' imprisonment; he was released
in September 1999.
(AP, 5/14/03)
1988 May 14, Peru’s military was
involved in the massacre of at least 26 peasants in the Andean village
of Cayara. A week later the military executed 3 more peasants, before
systematically killing 8 witnesses. In 2005 a Peruvian judge ordered
the arrest of 118 current and retired military officials for the
slayings.
(AP, 7/6/05)
1989 May 14, Moonlighting, TV
Crime Drama, last aired on ABC.
(www.tv.com/moonlighting/show/301/summary.html)
1989 May 14, Peronist candidate
Carlos Saul Menem won Argentina's presidential election. He was a
Muslim who converted to Catholicism, which was previously a requirement
for the presidency. The annual inflation rate was 5000%.
(WSJ, 12/12/95, p.A-15)(Hem., 1/96, p.11)(SFC,
12/24/96, p.A8)(AP, 5/14/99)
1989 May 14, The 2nd day of a
hunger strike for democratic reforms took place in Beijing's Tiananmen
square.
(http://www.tsquare.tv/chronology/)
1990 Apr 14, The hip-hop group
Salt-N-Pepa hit the top #40 on the pop singles chart with "Expression."
(www.rockonthenet.com/archive/1990/04-14.htm)
1990 May 14, In separate decrees,
Soviet President Gorbachev declared that the republics of Estonia and
Latvia had no legal basis for moving toward independence.
(AP, 5/14/00)
1991 May 14, President Bush
announced his selection of Robert M. Gates to head the Central
Intelligence Agency.
(AP, 5/14/01)
1991 May 14, Britain's Queen
Elizabeth the Second arrived in Washington to begin a two-week visit to
the United States.
(AP, 5/14/01)
1991 May 14, Jiang Qing (77),
widow of Chinese leader Mao Tse Tung, committed suicide in prison.
(SFC, 12/25/99, p.B4)(AP, 6/4/01)
1991 May 14, Forty-two people were
killed in a train collision in western Japan.
(AP, 5/14/01)
1991 May 14, In South Africa,
Winnie Mandela was sentenced to six years in prison for her part in the
kidnapping and beating of three black youths and the death of a fourth.
(HN, 5/14/99)
1992 May 14, Former Soviet
President Mikhail S. Gorbachev addressed members of the U.S. Congress,
appealing to them to pass a bill aiding the people of the former Soviet
Union.
(AP, 5/14/97)
1992 May 14, A US press briefing
on Serajevo by State Department spokeswoman Margaret Tutweiler
indicated concerns of ethnic cleansing by Serb forces.
(SFC, 6/11/96, p.A14)
1992 May 14, Lyle Alzado (43),
former football player, died in Portland, Ore.
(AP, 5/14/97)
1993 May 14, President Clinton
told a news conference his threat of military force to halt the war in
the former Yugoslavia was "still on the table" despite opposition from
European allies.
(AP, 5/14/98)
1994 May 14, The West Bank town of
Jericho saw its first full day of Palestinian self-rule following the
withdrawal of Israeli troops, an event celebrated by Palestinians.
(AP, 5/14/99)
1995 May 14, Myrlie Evers-Williams
was sworn in to head the NAACP, pledging to lead the civil rights group
away from its recent troubles and restore it as a political and social
force.
(AP, 5/14/00)
1995 May 14, The 11th
reincarnation of the Panchen Lama, Gedhun Choikyi Nyima, was announced
by the exiled Dalai Lama. China declared Gyaincain Norbu (5) as the
Panchen Lama.
(SFC, 5/8/97, p.C2)(SFC, 6/19/99, p.A11)(MC, 5/14/02)
1996 May 14, A jury in Pontiac,
Mich., acquitted Dr. Jack Kevorkian of assisted-suicide charges, his
third legal victory in two years. The judge dismissed murder charges in
the same case.
(AP, 5/14/97)(SFC, 4/14/99, p.A3)
1996 May 14, The Mt. Pleasant
Baptist Church in Tigrett, Tenn., burned down. Arson was suspected and
investigations by the FBI and ATF were later begun.
(SFC, 6/11/96, p.A16)
1996 May 14, The US Energy Dept.
announced that it would import 20 tons of nuclear waste from research
reactors in 41 nations to prevent the weapons grade material from being
used for bombs.
(WSJ, 5/14/96, p.A-1)
1996 May 14, The Voice of America
turned on its newest radio transmitter in Kuwait. It was 12 times more
powerful than any broadcast station in the US and was directed at Iraq
and Iran.
(WSJ, 5/28/96, p. A-18)
1996 May 14, In France Renault
outlined a plan to become majority owned by private investors after
more than 5 decades of state control.
(WSJ, 1/2/97, p.R2)
1996 May 14, Leftist and regional
Indian political parties formed a powerful coalition and settled on
H.D. Deve Gowda, chief minister of the southern state of Karnataka, as
the candidate for prime minister.
(SFC, 5/15/96, A-10)
1996 May 14, Turkmenistan and Iran
opened a rail link.
(WSJ, 5/14/96, p.A-1)
1997 May 14, Baseball's Exec
Council suspended NY Yankee owner George Steinbrenner.
(MC, 5/14/02)
1997 May 14, Jurors at the Timothy
McVeigh trial in Denver saw chilling black-and-white surveillance
pictures of a Ryder truck moving toward the Oklahoma City federal
building minutes before a bomb blew the place apart.
(AP, 5/14/98)
1997 May 14, Negotiators agreed on
a pact to create a Russia-NATO advisory council. NATO agreed not to
base nuclear weapons or substantial combat forces in countries that
were recently under Moscow’s control.
(SFC, 5/15/97, p.A1)
1997 May 14, There was an
explosion at the Hanford Nuclear Reservation in Wash. state. Plutonium
and other hazardous chemicals were released and emergency response
procedures broke down almost completely.
(SFC, 7/26/97, p.A8)
1997 May 14, Margaret Lesher (64),
inheritor of the Lesher media empire, was reported missing by her new
husband, T.C. Thorstenson (39), at Bartlett Lake near Phoenix and was
found drowned.
(SFEM, 9/14/97, p.12,33)
1997 May 14, Harry Blackstone Jr.
(62), magician, died of cancer.
(http://psychcentral.com/psypsych/Harry_Blackstone_Jr.)
1997 May 14, In Vietnam the
Supreme People’s Court sentenced 8 state police officials to death
after convicting them of drug smuggling.
(SFC, 5/15/97, p.A13)
1997 May 14, Princess
Caradja-Kretzulesco (76), descendant of Prince Dracula, died. Prior to
hear death Princess Kretzulesco stepped inside the second-hand
book-shop of Ottomar Berbig in Berlin to look for rare books, and ever
since the two because inseparable. On her deathbed the princess
rewarded Ottomar Berbig’s various services with a title: Ottomar -
Prince Kretzulesco.
(http://dpsinfo.com/dps/cnames.html)(www.cesnur.org/2002/dracula/01.htm)
1998 May 14, The Associated Press
commemorated its 150th anniversary.
(AP, 5/14/99)
1998 May 14, The last episode of
the hit sitcom “Seinfeld” was shown after nine years on NBC TV.
Commercials paid $2M for 30 seconds.
(SFC, 4/22/98, p.C1)(AP, 5/14/99)(MC, 5/14/02)
1998 May 14, A US district judge
ruled that all California pot clubs were in violation of federal law.
(SFC, 5/15/98, p.A19)
1998 May 14, In Wisconsin abortion
clinics across the state closed as a sweeping ban against “partial
birth” abortions went into effect following last month’s bill signed by
Gov. Tommy Thompson.
(SFC, 5/15/98, p.A3)
1998 May 14, Frank Sinatra, singer
and actor, died of a heart attack in LA at age 82. Shortly thereafter
Brian Gunn published "Rat Pack Confidential: Frank, Dean, Sammy, Peter,
Joey & the Last Great Show Biz Party," a biography of Frank
Sinatra, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr., Peter Lawford and Joey Bishop.
In Dec the FBI released a 1,300 page Sinatra file that had been put
together over a 40-year period. In 2000 Tom and Phil Kuntz edited "The
Sinatra Files." In 2005 Anthony Summers and Robbyn Swan authored
“Sinatra: The Life.”
(SFC, 5/16/98, p.A1)(SFEC, 7/5/98, BR p.5)(WSJ,
6/13/00, p.B1)(Econ, 7/16/05, p.82)
1998 May 14, Australia, Canada,
Denmark, Germany, Japan, the Netherlands, Sweden and the US all imposed
penalties on India for its nuclear testing. Pakistan was pressured to
refrain from testing its own nuclear weapons.
(SFC, 5/15/98, p.A15)
1998 May 14, In Indonesia
widespread rioting, shooting, looting and demonstrations continued for
a 3rd day. At least 230 people were killed in the riots, with over 175
dead from a fire at the 5-story Yogya Plaza shopping center in East
Jakarta.
(SFC, 5/15/98, p.A1)
1998 May 14, Palestinians marked
the 50th anniversary of the creation of Israel with 2 minutes of
silence and several hours of violence that left 9 dead. They refer to
the creation of Israel as the “Nakba” or “Catastrophe.”
(SFC, 5/15/98, p.A14)(SFC, 5/16/98, p.A10)
1999 May 14, His previous calls
rebuffed, President Clinton finally got through to Chinese President
Jiang Zemin; Clinton expressed hope the two countries could repair the
damage to their relations since the U.S. bombing of the Chinese Embassy
in Belgrade.
(AP, 5/14/00)
1999 May 14, The US Senate
approved a Republican plan to require background checks at gunshows
48-47.
(SFC, 5/15/99, p.A3)
1999 May 14, San Francisco and
Oakland vied in the Great Green Sweep, an effort to sweep the cities
clean.
(SFEC, 5/16/99, p.D1)
1999 May 14, In San Francisco
Julie Christine Day (24) of Walnut Creek was last seen leaving the
Bubble Lounge on Montgomery St. Her body was found a week later in a
shallow grave in China Basin. In 2009 Jehad Baqleh, a former taxi
driver convicted of her murder, was determined to be legally insane.
(SFC, 5/21/99, p.A15)
1999 May 14, San Francisco police
arrested Kevin Keating (38), head of the "Yuppie Eradication Project,"
on suspicion of property destruction in the Mission. Keating held
the pre-WW I Ukrainian anarchist Nestor Makhno as his idol.
(SFC, 6/7/99, p.A13)
1999 May 13, NATO bombs struck a
group of some 500 refugees in Korisa and at least 79 people were
killed. Some 700 hundreds refugees had been locked up by the Serbs
inside the grounds of a warehouse in Korisa.
(SFC, 5/15/99, p.A1)(SFC, 5/31/99, p.A8)
1999 May 14, In Burundi 5 soldiers
were sentenced to death for the 1993 murder of Pres. Melchior Ndadaye.
(SFC, 5/15/99, p.A14)
1999 May 14, In Colombia Matthew
Aaron Burtchell, a US helicopter technician, was kidnapped by armed men
by Yopal, provincial capital of Casanare.
(SFC, 5/17/99, p.A10)
1999 May 14, Cuba and Russia
agreed on a joint venture to complete a nuclear reactor at the Juragua
power station in Cuba.
(SFC, 5/15/99, p.A14)
1999 May 14, In Guinea-Bissau
Malan Bacai Sanha (52), former head of parliament, was declared the 3rd
president.
(SFC, 5/15/99, p.A14)
1999 May 14, In Indonesia the
ruling Golkar Party chose Pres. Habibie as its candidate for
presidential elections. Polls showed his support at 7%.
(SFC, 5/15/99, p.A10)
1999 May 14, In Macedonia Hillary
Clinton announced a $21 million aid package to support Kosovo refugees
and the Macedonian people who have helped take them in.
(SFC, 5/15/99, p.A10)
1999 May 14, In South Africa the
ruling African National Congress signed a peace pact with the
arch-rival Inkatha Freedom Party.
(SFC, 5/15/99, p.A14)
1999 May 14, In Uganda Pres.
Museveni offered amnesty to rebel leader Joseph Kony, head of the
Sudanese backed Lord's Resistance Army (LRA). Members of the LRA were
included in the offer.
(SFC, 5/15/99, p.A11)
2000 May 14, In Washington DC tens
of thousands took part in the Million Mom March for tougher gun laws.
(SFC, 5/15/00, p.A1)
2000 May 14, Ethiopia claimed a
major victory against Eritrea and claimed that 8 divisions had been
destroyed over the last 2 days. Eritrea said 25,000 Ethiopian soldiers
were killed or wounded.
(SFC, 5/15/00, p.A14)
2000 May 14, In Ethiopia elections
were held and 7 people were reported killed when government forces
threw a grenade into a crowd of protestors and fired into another in
the southern region of Hadiya.
(SFC, 5/15/00, p.A14)
2000 May 14, Thousands of
Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza demonstrated and violence
erupted with at least one person killed.
(SFC, 5/15/00, p.A1)
2000 May 14, In Tokyo, Japan,
former prime minister Keizo Obuchi (62) died.
(SFC, 5/15/00, p.A12)(AP, 5/14/01)
2000 May 14, In Sierra Leone
rebels handed over 139 UN peacekeepers to Liberia while officials in
Freetown secured the release of 18 others. Meanwhile fighting continued
for control of Masiaka town 30 miles east of Freetown.
(SFC, 5/15/00, p.A12)
2000 May 14, In Zimbabwe elections
were set for June 24-25, but the opposition objected because voting
districts were not yet established and a May 29 deadline for candidates
was thought too soon.
(SFC, 5/17/00, p.A18)
2001 May 14, The Supreme Court
ruled 8-to-0 that there is no exception in federal law for people to
use marijuana to ease their pain from cancer, AIDS or other illnesses.
(SFC, 5/15/01, p.A1)(AP, 5/14/02)
2001 May 14, Promising to be a
"determined adversary" toward gun violence, President Bush announced
plans to mobilize federal and local prosecutors who would focus
exclusively on gun-related crimes.
(AP, 5/14/02)
2001 May 14, The FBI found in
Baltimore another batch of undisclosed records on Timothy McVeigh.
(SFC, 5/15/01, p.A1)
2001 May 14, Tom Green (52), a
bigamist with 5 wives and 29 children, went on trial in SLC for bigamy.
Green was convicted May 18 of 4 counts of bigamy and one count of
failure to pay child support. Green was sentenced to 5 years in prison
and ordered to pay $78,000 to the state for fraudulent welfare checks.
In 2002 Green was convicted of child rape for impregnating one wife at
age 13. Green was released from prison in 2007.
(SFC, 5/14/01, p.A3)(SFC, 5/19/01, p.A7)(SFC,
8/25/01, p.A3)(SFC, 6/25/02, p.A2)(SFC, 8/8/07, p.A5)
2001 May 14, The European
Commission announced that it would establish diplomatic ties with North
Korea.
(WSJ, 5/15/01, p.A1)
2001 May 14, It was reported that
bookstores in Indonesia had pulled leftist titles under vigilante
pressures.
(SFC, 5/14/01, p.A10)
2001 May 14, Israeli forces gunned
down 5 Palestinian police officers (18-29) at a checkpoint in Beitunia,
a suburb of Ramallah. Israel later admitted that the men killed were
mistaken for members of Force 17.
(SFC, 5/15/01, p.A9)(SFC, 5/17/01, p.A10)
2001 May 14, Panama agreed to
suspend a 66% increase in bus fares for 7 months following protests and
riots in which over 100 people were injured.
(WSJ, 5/15/01, p.A1)
2001 May 14, In the Philippines
midterm elections were held for half the Senate and the entire House of
Representatives and 17,600 municipal and provincial posts.
(SFC, 5/14/01, p.A9)
2002 May 14, Former Pres. Carter
addressed the Cuban people and said the US should end its embargo and
that Cuba should become more democratic.
(SFC, 5/15/02, p.A1)
2002 May 14, In Colombia leftist
rebels attacked army-backed right-wing paramilitaries at Alto de Minas
and left at least 80 people dead 180 miles NW of Bogota.
(WSJ, 5/17/02, p.A1)(SFC, 5/18/02, p.A13)
2002 May 14, An uprising in
Kisangani, Congo, left 163 people dead. Three top commanders: Barnard
Biamungu, commander of the RCD's fifth brigade; Laurent Nkunda, seventh
brigade commander; and Gabriel Amisi, assistant chief of staff for
logistics were identified as part of the Rally for Democracy, the
Rwandan-backed rebel group responsible for the massacre.
(SFC, 6/1/02, p.A11)(AP, 8/19/02)
2002 May 14, In Kashmir 3 Islamic
militant attacked an Indian army base and killed 34 civilians and
soldiers in Kaluchak. India held Pakistan responsible.
(SFC, 5/14/02, p.A13)(SFC, 5/15/02, p.A11)(WSJ,
5/16/02, p.A1)
2002 May 14, Nato agreed with
Russia on an new framework that would include Russia on a handful of
agreed-on issues.
(SFC, 5/15/02, p.A1)
2002 May 14, In Sierra Leone UN
sponsored voting for the presidency and parliament took place for the
1st time since the war ended in 2000. Pres. Kabbah posted a strong lead.
(WSJ, 5/14/02, p.A1)(SFC, 5/15/02, p.A14)(WSJ,
5/16/02, p.A1)(SSFC, 5/19/02, p.A18)
2002 May 14, The UN Security
Council revamped its sanctions against Iraq in order to ease the
delivery of civilian goods and tighten controls on military items.
(SFC, 5/15/02, p.A12)
2003 May 14, Pres. Bush met for
the first time with South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun; both leaders
said they were united in seeking a Korean peninsula free of nuclear
weapons.
(AP, 5/14/04)
2003 May 14, In Texas Victoria
County Sheriff's deputies found 17 people dead in and around a
tractor-trailer rig at a South Texas truck stop. Another died at
hospital. The victims were illegal immigrants. In 2006 a Texas jury
convicted 3 US citizens for the suffocation of 19 smuggled immigrants
in an airtight truck. In 2007 truck driver Tyrone Williams (36) was
sentenced to life in prison for his role in the smuggling. In 2008 the
last of 14 people indicted in the smuggling pleaded guilty. In 2010
Octavio Torres-Ortega was sentenced to 14 years in prison for his role
in the smuggling operation.
(WSJ, 5/15/03, p.A1)(WSJ, 2/9/06, p.A1)(SFC,
1/19/07, p.A3)(SFC, 4/15/08, p.A3)(SFC, 6/8/10, p.A5)
2003 May 14, Dave DeBusschere
(62), basketball Hall-of-Famer, died in New York.
(AP, 5/14/04)
2003 May 14, Robert Stack (84),
the tough-guy hero of TV's "Untouchables" (1959-1963), died. His film
debut was in 1939 with "First Love."
(AP, 5/15/03)
2003 May 14, Dame Wendy Hiller
(90), actress, died in Beaconsfield, England.
{Britain}
(AP, 5/14/04)(www.imdb.com/name/nm0384908/)
2003 May 14, In Argentina Carlos
Menem withdrew from the presidential elections making Nestor Kirchner,
governor of Santa Cruz province, the new president-elect.
(SFC, 5/15/03, p.A12)
2003 May 14, A Belgian attorney
filed suit against US Gen. Tommy Franks and Col. Brian P. McCoy for war
crimes in the war in Iraq. The use of some 1,500 cluster bombs in Iraq
was part of the suit.
(SFC, 5/15/03, p.A6)
2003 May 14, In Chechnya a female
suicide attacker killed 18 people at a funeral service in an apparent
attempt on the life of the Moscow-backed chief administrator (Akhmad
Kadyrov).
(AP, 5/14/04)
2003 May 14, In Iraq villagers
pulled body after body from a mass grave in Mahaweel, exhuming the
remains of up to 3,000 people they suspect were killed during the 1991
Shiite revolt against Saddam Hussein's regime.
(AP, 5/14/03)
2003 May 14, An Israeli helicopter
fired a missile into a crowd in a refugee camp in the Gaza Strip,
wounding 30 people and killed three Palestinian policemen, after 10
Israeli soldiers were wounded nearby in a mortar attack.
(AP, 5/13/03)
2003 May 14, In Italy Premier
Silvio Berlusconi inaugurated the ambitious $4 billion "Moses" project
to ease the flooding in Venice. Construction soon began on a breakwater
for Venice to prevent high tides from entering its lagoon.
(AP, 5/15/03)(Econ, 9/27/03, p.80)
2004 May 14, The Pentagon
announced that Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, the top US commander in Iraq,
had banned virtually all coercive interrogation practices on Iraqi
prisoners.
(SFC, 5/15/04, p.A1)
2004 May 14, Anna Lee (91), whose
nearly 70-year acting career in movies and television spanned from her
breakthrough role in "How Green Was My Valley" to an extended run on
"General Hospital," died of pneumonia.
(AP, 5/17/04)
2004 May 14, Algerian officials
reported that 13 of the countries 48 provinces were infested with
swarms of desert locusts.
(ST, 5/14/04, p.A1)
2004 May 14, A Brazilian domestic
airliner crashed near the Amazon city of Manaus, killing all 30
passengers and three crew members.
(AP, 5/15/04)
2004 May 14, Britain's Daily
Mirror newspaper published a front-page apology after photographs
purportedly showing British forces abusing Iraqi prisoners turned out
to be fake.
(AP, 5/14/05)
2004 May 14, In Copenhagen,
Denmark, Australian Mary Donaldson married Danish Crown Prince
Frederik, becoming Crown Princess Mary.
(AP, 5/14/04)
2004 May 14, In Iraq 4 people were
detained in Salaheddin province for the killing of American Nicholas
Berg, whose decapitation was captured on videotape. The informant who
tipped off authorities was killed by unidentified gunmen the day after
the arrests.
(AP, 5/21/04)
2004 May 14, British troops
engaged in a battle near the town of at Al Majar Al Kabir. In 2008
lawyers released evidence that they said shows British soldiers may
have tortured and executed up to 20 Iraqis after the battle.
(AP, 2/22/08)
2004 May 14, Heavy fighting raged
in the Rafah refugee camp, killing two Israeli soldiers and a
Palestinian man.
(AP, 5/14/04)
2004 May 14, It was reported that
drought in Peru had forced water restrictions in Lima.
(ST, 5/14/04, p.A3)
2004 May 14, Poland's new PM Marek
Belka, who had urged patience for free-market reforms and his country's
mission in Iraq, lost a parliamentary confidence vote.
(AP, 5/14/04)
2004 May 14, In South Korea the
Constitutional Court ruled to dismiss the impeachment case against
Pres. Roh. It agreed that Roh violated election rules when he spoke in
favor of the Uri party at a news conference.
(AP, 5/14/04)(SFC, 5/14/04, p.A5)
2005 May 14, The retired aircraft
carrier USS America sank to the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean following
a series of explosions over 25 days.
(AP, 5/21/05)
2005 May 14, In Brazil more than
12,000 landless farmers who have marched nearly 125 miles to protest
the slow pace of land reform reached the outskirts of Brasilia.
(AP, 5/15/05)
2005 May 14, Congo's legislature
adopted a constitution that reduces the required age for presidential
candidates, a change that would allow President Joseph Kabila to stand
in the country's next elections.
(AP, 5/15/05)
2005 May 14, A magnitude 6.9
undersea earthquake rocked Indonesia's Sumatra island.
(AP, 5/14/05)
2005 May 14, In Iraq insurgents
staged a series of attacks, killing at least 9 people. The US military
wrapped up Operation Matador, a major offensive in a remote desert
region near the Syrian border.
(AP, 5/14/05)(AP, 5/14/06)
2005 May 14, In Indian Kashmir
suspected Muslim rebels shot dead the brother of an ex-militant who
became a moderate separatist leader.
(AFP, 5/14/05)
2005 May 14, In western Nepal
government soldiers rescued about 600 students who were abducted from
their classrooms in a series of bold strikes by communist rebels.
(AP, 5/15/05)
2005 May 14, Russian security
forces and police killed six suspected militants, including two female
suicide bombers, who had holed up in an apartment in Cherkessk. Russian
forces in Chechnya killed 4 rebels including former separatist vice
president Vakha Arsanov.
(AP, 5/15/05)
2005 May 14, Warlords began
withdrawing thousands of militia fighters from the Somali capital in a
bid to restore order after more than 15 years of anarchy and civil war.
(AP, 5/15/05)
2005 May 14, A surprise election
victory for Taiwan's ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), marred
by a record-low voter turnout, gave a limited endorsement of President
Chen Shui-bian's policy of standing up to China.
(AP, 5/15/05)
2005 May 13, Turkish soldiers
killed 9 Kurdish rebels in Turkey's predominantly Kurdish southeast.
Automatic weapons, plastic explosives, grenades, and a rocket-propelled
grenade launcher were seized in the operation. A Syrian citizen was
among those killed.
(AP, 5/14/05)
2005 May 14, Thousands of
terrified Uzbeks waiting to flee across the border into Kyrgyzstan
stormed government buildings, torched police cars and attacked border
guards in a 2nd day of violence spawned by an uprising against the
iron-fisted rule of US-allied Pres. Islam Karimov.
(AP, 5/14/05)
2006 May 14, Mexican President
Vicente Fox telephoned President Bush to express his concern about the
border between the two nations, a day before Bush's planned Oval Office
speech on immigration.
(AP, 5/14/07)
2006 May 14, Maine's governor
declared a state of emergency in the southern most county, and the
governors of Massachusetts and New Hampshire also declared states of
emergency as a 3-day deluge turned streets into rivers across New
England, flooding homes up to their door knobs, forcing dozens of
schools to close because the buses couldn't get through, and
threatening dams and communities as rivers rise.
(AP, 5/15/06)
2006 May 14, Aras Baskauskas, a
24-year-old yoga instructor from Santa Monica, Calif., won "Survivor:
Panama, Exile Island," the 12th edition of the CBS reality show.
(AP, 5/14/07)
2006 May 14, Lew Anderson
(b.1922), who captivated young baby boomers as the Howdy Doody Show's
final Clarabell the Clown, died in Hawthorne, NY. Anderson broke the
clown's silence in the show's final episode in 1960. With trembling
lips and a visible tear in his eye, he spoke the show's final words:
"Goodbye, kids."
(AP, 5/17/06)
2006 May 14, Marsha Spicer
(41) was raped and murdered in Lafayette County, Missouri. On July 31,
2008, Richard D. Davis (44) was found guilty of murder in her
videotaped sexual torture and slaying. In June 2008 Davis was
convicted in the kidnapping and rape of Michelle Huff-Ricci (36), whose
body was found in June, 2006. On Oct 10 Davis was sentenced to death.
(http://mylifeofcrime.wordpress.com/2006/05/27/marsha-spicer-murder-51406/)(SFC,
8/1/08, p.A4)(AP, 10/10/08)
2006 May 14, Stanley Kunitz
(b.1905), former US poet laureate (2000), died at his home in Manhattan.
(SFC, 5/16/06, p.B5)(Econ, 5/27/06, p.83)
2006 May 14, A Bangladesh court
sentenced 10 Islamic militants to life imprisonment and three others to
20 years in jail for their roles in deadly blasts across Bangladesh
last year.
(AFP, 5/14/06)
2006 May 14, Rene Preval was sworn
in as Haiti's president for the second time in a decade. Prisoners
rioted at Haiti's main prison, with gunfire heard within its walls and
scores of inmates massing on the roof and holding what appeared to be
two dead bodies.
(AP, 5/14/06)(AP, 5/14/07)
2006 May 14, In Iraq 2 suicide car
bombings killed 14 Iraqis and injured at least six near a main
checkpoint leading to Baghdad's international airport. 5 roadside
bombings in Baghdad killed 12 people with some 55 injured. Six Shiite
shrines were damaged in a series of blasts around the Baqouba area
northeast of the capital. US forces, planes and helicopters attacked an
insurgent haven in Youssifiyah, killing 25 insurgents. Insurgents shot
down a US helicopter south of Baghdad and killed two soldiers, bringing
the weekend death toll of American service members to seven.
(AP, 5/14/06)(AP, 5/15/06)
2006 May 14, Israeli troops raided
a village in the West Bank, killing 5 Palestinians, including a
militant Israel blamed for several suicide bombings that have killed
dozens of Israelis.
(AP, 5/14/06)
2006 May 14, In northwestern
Pakistan suspected Islamic militants stormed a roadside security post
in a tribal region and shot dead an officer.
(AP, 5/14/06)
2006 May 14, Exiled former
Pakistan prime ministers Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif met in London
and agreed to a “charter of democracy” and to join in opposition to the
rule of Pres. Musharraf.
(Econ, 5/20/06, p.46)
2006 May 14, Officials said a
searing heatwave in central Pakistan has killed at least 84 people with
temperatures as high as 50 degrees Celsius (122 Fahrenheit) in the past
week.
(AFP, 5/14/06)
2006 May 14, The armed Basque
group ETA stated publicly for the first time since a ceasefire
declaration in March that it still demands self-determination for the
Basque Country.
(AFP, 5/14/06)
2006 May 14, Syria detained Michel
Kilo (66), a prominent writer and democracy campaigner, who has
long been one of the government's most outspoken critics.
(AP, 5/15/06)
2006 May 14, Vietnam’s state media
said the US had clinched a bilateral market access deal with Vietnam
that will help clear the path to its former wartime enemy joining the
World Trade Organization.
(AFP, 5/14/06)
2007 May 14, Pres. Bush ordered up
new rules aimed at increasing automobile fuel efficiency and the use of
alternative fuels.
(WSJ, 5/15/07, p.A1)
2007 May 14, The trial of
suspected al-Qaida operative Jose Padilla opened in Miami. Padilla and
two co-defendants were convicted in August, 2007, of terrorism
conspiracy; Padilla was sentenced to 17 years in prison.
(AP, 5/14/08)
2007 May 14, The cost of
first-class US letters went up 2 cents to 41 cents.
(AP, 5/14/07)
2007 May 14, Endemol, the brains
behind reality television shows like "Big Brother", fell into the hands
of a consortium led by Italy's Mediaset which is looking to branch out
of the saturated Italian television market.
(AP, 5/14/07)
2007 May 14, Charles Y. Lazarus
(b.1914), the last of four generations to run the iconic Federated
Dept. store in Columbus, Ohio, died in Columbus.
(WSJ, 5/19/07,
p.A6)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simon_Lazarus)
2007 May 14, Algerian troops,
stepping up assaults on al Qaeda's north African wing after suicide
bombings last month, killed 13 Islamist fighters east of Algiers.
(Reuters, 5/15/07)
2007 May 14, An Australian
teenager was awarded record damages including a lifetime income after a
court found that his life had been ruined by bullying at primary
school. Australian authorities said they want to shoot more than 3,000
kangaroos on the fringes of Canberra, noting the animals were growing
in population and eating through the grassy habitats of endangered
species.
(AFP, 5/14/07)(AP, 5/14/07)
2007 May 14, Pope Benedict XVI
returned to Rome after telling Brazilians a growing rich-poor gap is to
be lamented, but that the solution isn’t Marxism.
(WSJ, 5/15/07, p.A1)
2007 May 14, In the Central
African Republic the president's office said several former armed
rebels have surrendered to the authorities over the past few days in
the troubled north.
(AP, 5/14/07)
2007 May 14, A Chinese rocket
blasted a Nigerian communications satellite into orbit, marking an
expansion of China's commercial launching services for foreign space
hardware.
(AP, 5/14/07)
2007 May 14, In Colombia judicial
authorities ordered the arrest of 20 politicians and business leaders,
including five congressmen, on criminal conspiracy charges for signing
a 2001 pact with illegal right-wing militias. In the biggest shake-up
in years of the security forces, Colombia's police chief and the head
of police intelligence were forced to retire as the government alleged
that police illegally tapped calls of opposition political figures,
journalists and members of the government for the past two years.
(AP, 5/15/07)
2007 May 14, Gangs torched houses
and fought in East Timor, injuring around 14 people, as violence broke
out following the nation's presidential elections.
(AP, 5/15/07)
2007 May 14, EU foreign ministers
gave the green light for a 40-million euro aid package to the African
Union peacekeeping force in the troubled Sudanese province of Darfur.
(AP, 5/14/07)
2007 May 14, EU foreign ministers
decided to drop a visa ban against four Uzbek officials, while
extending other sanctions against the Central Asian nation imposed
after a crackdown on an uprising in 2005.
(AP, 5/14/07)
2007 May 14, German-based
DaimlerChrysler said it will sell almost all of money-losing Chrysler
to Cerberus, a private equity firm, for $7.4 billion, backing out of a
troubled 1998 takeover aimed at creating a global automotive
powerhouse. John Snow, former US treasury secretary, served as chairman
of Cerberus.
(AP, 5/14/07)(Econ, 5/19/07, p.67)
2007 May 14, In western India a
gas tanker, truck and bus collided, sparking a fire that engulfed the
three vehicles and killed at least 30 people.
(AP, 5/14/07)
2007 May 14, Iraqi and US forces
also exchanged fire with gunmen near Youssifiyah during the
house-to-house search operation for 3 missing American soldiers,
killing two suspected insurgents and injuring four others. Gunmen
opened fire on a police checkpoint in Baqouba killing three policemen
and two civilians. Mortar rounds struck an outdoor market in Baghdad
killing 3 people. In Suwayrah police dragged two unidentified,
bullet-riddled bodies of a man and a women in their 40s from the Tigris
River. A roadside bomb near the southern city of Basra also killed one
Danish soldier and wounded five. 2 US soldiers on a foot patrol
southeast of Baghdad were shot to death. Five US troops were killed in
attacks in Baghdad and surrounding areas, while another soldier died of
non-combat related causes.
(AP, 5/14/07)(AP, 5/14/07)
2007 May 14, Lebanon's prime
minister asked the UN Security Council to impose an international
tribunal to prosecute suspects in the assassination of former premier
Rafik Hariri.
(AP, 5/14/07)
2007 May 14, Malaysia’s PM Badawi
hosted Singapore’s Premier Lee Hsein Lloong for a 2-day talk on
economic cooperation.
(WSJ, 5/14/07, p.A8)
2007 May 14, In Mexico City gunmen
fatally shot Jose Nemesio Lugo, Mexico’s new federal narcotics
intelligence chief, as he was on his way to work at the Attorney
General's Office.
(AP, 5/14/07)(SFC, 5/25/07, p.A1)
2007 May 14, Nearly 60 former
heads of state, including three ex-American presidents, demanded that
Myanmar's military regime release Nobel peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi
from house arrest.
(AP, 5/14/07)
2007 May 14, In southern Nigeria's
Rivers State unidentified gunmen snatched a Nigerian working for
Italian oil giant Agip.
(AFP, 5/14/07)
2007 May 14, In Pakistan militants
opened fire on a group of US, Afghan and Pakistani military officials
meeting near the Afghan border, killing one American and a Pakistani
soldier. Karachi storefronts were shuttered and the streets of the
commercial hub emptied of cars on as residents angry over a weekend of
deadly political violence honored a general strike called amid growing
discontent over President Gen. Pervez Musharraf's ouster of the chief
justice.
(AP, 5/14/07)
2007 May 14, The Palestinian
interior minister resigned, accusing Hamas and Fatah leaders of
thwarting his efforts to halt new violence that is threatening the
survival of the Palestinian coalition government.
(AP, 5/14/07)
2007 May 14, Filipinos braved the
threat of violence to choose local and congressional representatives in
elections. Wahab Akbar, governor of Basilan, was elected congressman
from Basilan. His 1st wife, Jum, was elected to become governor of
Basilan. His 2nd wife Cherrylyn was already mayor of Isabela City.
(AP, 5/14/07)(SSFC, 9/9/07, p.F1)
2007 May 14, In South Africa
deputies and experts attending the Pan African Parliament called for
Western countries to help reverse the environmental damage to the
continent that they had helped create.
(AP, 5/14/07)
2007 May 14, In Russia 10 people
were found dead after a fire swept through a cafe in Orsk near the
border with Kazakhstan. Prosecutors indicated they suspect arson.
(AP, 5/14/07)
2007 May 14, Taiwanese President
Chen Shui-bian named his sixth premier in seven years amid paralysis in
the island's relations with rival China and gridlock in its deeply
divided legislature. The World Health Organization rejected Taiwan's
bid for membership after Chinese officials accused the island of trying
to strengthen its claim to sovereignty.
(AP, 5/14/07)
2007 May 14, In Tunisia Sfax port
officials said the Tunisian coastguard had rescued 35 African would-be
immigrants who were trying to sail to Italy from the Libyan coast. More
than 1,000 people have landed on Spanish or Italian territory since May
10.
(AFP, 5/14/07)
2008 May 14, A triptych by Francis
Bacon (1909-1992), titled “Triptych 1976,” sold for $86.3 million in
NYC, a record for contemporary art auctions.
(Econ, 5/17/08, p.79)
2008 May 14, The US House passed a
veto-proof, $290 billion farm bill that included $40 billion in
subsidies to commodity farmers. The Senate was also expected to pass
the bill by a veto-proof margin.
(SFC, 5/15/08, p.A1)(WSJ, 5/15/08, p.A1)
2008 May 14, US Interior Sec. Dirk
Kempthorne said the government will list the polar bear as threatened
under the Endangered Species Act, making it the 1st animal to win
protection due to global warming.
(SFC, 5/15/08, p.A1)
2008 May 14, US federal
prosecutors said Willbros Group Inc., a Houston-based oil services
company, agreed to pay $32.3 million in criminal and civil penalties to
settle charges that it bribed officials in Nigeria and Ecuador to get
contracts between 2003-2005.
(WSJ, 5/15/08, p.B2)
2008 May 14, Sen. Obama won the
support of John Edwards, former North Carolina Senator and presidential
candidate.
(WSJ, 5/15/08, p.A1)
2008 May 14, In California UC
regents announced a 7.4% tuition increase and CSU voted for a 10%
increase. These marked the 6th increases in 7 years.
(SFC, 5/15/08, p.A1)
2008 May 14, Marc Dann (46),
Ohio’s attorney general, resigned under threat of impeachment due to an
extramarital affair with an employee.
(SFC, 5/15/08, p.A7)
2008 May 14, In Georgia Gov. Sonny
Perdue signed a new law allowing permitted gun owners to carry
concealed weapons in restaurants that serve alcohol, aboard public
transportation and in parks.
(SFC, 5/15/08, p.A3)
2008 May 14, Plaxo, an online
address book and social networking service, reported it had signed an
agreement to be acquired by Comcast. It was founded by Napster
co-founder Sean Parker, Minh Nguyen and two Stanford engineering
students, Todd Masonis and Cameron Ring and was based in Mountain View,
Ca.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plaxo)
2008 May 14, In Austria
investigators discovered the bodies of five people after a man turned
up at a Vienna police station saying he had killed his wife and
daughter.
(AP, 5/14/08)
2008 May 14, In eastern Bangladesh
8 people died and one person was critically injured when two trains
collided at a station.
(AP, 5/14/08)
2008 May 14, In Brazil a reporter
and photographer for O Dia were abducted with their driver and held for
nearly eight hours in the western Rio de Janeiro shantytown where they
had been working undercover investigating paramilitaries. O Dia said it
contacted state security officials immediately after the incident, but
did not report it publicly until Jun 1 to protect its journalists.
(AP, 6/2/08)
2008 May 14, China’s Xinhua News
Agency said that 2,000 troops had been sent to work on the Zipingku
Dam, upriver from Dujiangyan in Sichuan province as the death toll from
the May 12 earthquake approached 15,000.
(AP, 5/14/08)
2008 May 14, Colombian police
seized US$25 million (euro16 million) in properties from a paramilitary
warlord extradited to the U.S. on drug-trafficking charges.
(AP, 5/15/08)
2008 May 14, In the Dominican
Republic 3 people, including a former congressman, were shot and killed
in Villa Vasquez ahead of May 16 elections.
(WSJ, 5/16/08, p.A8)
2008 May 14, A French court handed
down jail sentences to seven men convicted of running a network that
recruited poor young Muslims in Paris to fight in the Iraqi insurgency.
(AFP, 5/14/08)
2008 May 14, In India a poor
worker and his 4-year-old daughter were crushed to death by a bus after
the conductor pushed them off for not having sufficient fare for the
journey. Angry passengers set the bus on fire near Jharsuguda, Orissa
state. The bus conductor was arrested and charged with unintentional
murder.
(AP, 5/15/08)
2008 May 14, Iran raided the homes
of top Baha’i leaders and threw six of them in the notorious Evin
prison north of Tehran. A seventh leader was detained March 5. A
government spokesman said the arrests aimed to defend Iran's national
security and had "nothing to do with ideological issues."
(AP, 5/22/08)
2008 May 14, Iraq’s PM Nouri
al-Maliki visited the northern city of Mosul to supervise a military
offensive against al-Qaida in Iraq in its last major stronghold. In
Sadr City skirmishes left five dead and 22 wounded. In western Baghdad
a car bomb detonated next to a convoy carrying a lawmaker from the
mostly-Sunni Islamic Party, Ayad al-Samarrie, but he was not hurt. One
civilian was killed and 6 others wounded, including four guards. A
suicide bomber killed 22 people and wounded at least 35 at the funeral
of a Sunni school principal west of Baghdad. A girl strapped with
explosives killed an Iraqi officer. 2 militants were killed and a third
was wounded by an air-to-ground Hellfire missile as they placed a
roadside bomb on a road between Sadr City and the northern Sunni
district of Azamiyah. In Sadr City one person was killed when another
Hellfire missile hit a group of militants also attempting to plant a
bomb.
(AP, 5/14/08)(AP, 5/15/08)(WSJ, 5/15/08, p.A1)
2008 May 14, In Israel President
Bush said that 60 years of Israel's existence is cause for optimism for
democratic change throughout the Middle East, opening a trip divided
between ceremonial duties and a new push for Israeli-Palestinian peace.
A rocket fired from Gaza exploded in a shopping center in Ashkelon,
southern Israeli, wounding at least 14 people.
(AP, 5/14/08)
2008 May 14, In Kenya an
international aid worker said officials backed by armed police are
forcing some 9,000 Kenyans displaced by postelection violence to leave
a refugee camp in Kitale.
(AP, 5/14/08)
2008 May 14, In Mexico 2 police
officers were shot and killed in Torreon, Coahuila state, when they
tried to stop gunmen from kidnapping a family. Assailants opened fire
and threw grenades at a police station in Guamuchil in the northern
state of Sinaloa.
(AP, 5/14/08)
2008 May 14, The annual meeting of
the African Development Bank (AfDB) opened in Mozambique with the
organization’s head warning that rising growth rates are having little
impact on poverty levels.
(AFP, 5/14/08)
2008 May 14, Experts said the 1.5
million people left destitute by Myanmar's cyclone are in increasing
danger of disease and starvation, but the ruling junta said no to a
Thai request to admit more aid workers. The Red Cross said the death
toll could reach nearly 128,000. Another powerful storm headed toward
Myanmar's cyclone-devastated delta and the UN warned that inadequate
relief efforts could lead to a second wave of deaths among the
estimated 2 million survivors.
(AP, 5/14/08)(WSJ, 5/15/08, p.A1)
2008 May 14, In Pakistan a number
of foreign militants were killed when 2 missiles hit a house in the
village of Damadola in the Bajaur tribal region. The US missile strike
killed al-Qaida operative Abu Suleiman al Jaziery and at least 14
others. Some of the dead were civilians. Authorities freed militants
and started to pull troops from a tribal region in a bid to make peace
with Islamic fighters. Suspected Islamic militants soon killed a
Pakistani soldier in revenge for the US missile strike near the Afghan
border.
(Reuters, 5/15/08)(WSJ, 5/15/08, p.A1)(AP,
5/16/08)(WSJ, 5/20/08, p.A14)
2008 May 14, In Spain a
booby-trapped van exploded outside a civil guard barracks in the
restive Basque country, killing one guard and wounding four others. The
government blamed the attack on separatist group ETA.
(AP, 5/14/08)
2008 May 14, In Sudan clashes
erupted in Abyei between the northern-based national army and former
guerrillas from the south. Arab Misseriya nomads, some armed by the
northerners, and the southern Ngok Dinka, protected by the SPLM, held a
historic animosity in the area over land and water. The UN mission
(UNMIS) there did little more than protect the local UN base.
(Econ, 5/24/08, p.66)(Econ, 11/22/08, p.33)
2008 May 14, A Swiss pilot
strapped on a jet-powered wing and leaped from a plane for the first
public demonstration of the homemade device, turning figure eights and
soaring high above the Alps.
(AP, 5/15/08)
2009 May 14, It was disclosed that
the US Treasury Department has agreed to extend billions in bailout
funds to six major life insurers, following a months-long quest by some
in the sector for government help in shoring up capital positions in
the wake of major investment losses.
(AP, 5/15/09)
2009 May 14, Federal authorities
in Detroit charged 74 members and associates of the Highwaymen
Motorcycle Club with attempted murder, cocaine and steroid distribution
and other crimes.
(SFC, 5/15/09, p.A7)
2009 May 14, Chrysler LLC said in
a bankruptcy court filing that it wants to eliminate roughly a quarter
of its 3,200 US dealerships by early next month, because the network is
antiquated and has too many stores competing with each other.
(AP, 5/14/09)
2009 May 14, Scientists reported
that ginger, long used as a folk remedy for stomach aches, limits
nausea caused by chemotherapy used in cancer treatments.
(SFC, 5/15/09, p.A14)
2009 May 14, The World Health
Organization (WHO) said the number of confirmed cases of the new
Influenza A (H1N1) flu has climbed to 6,497, including 65 deaths.
(Reuters, 5/14/09)
2009 May 14, In southern
Afghanistan overnight fighting between Afghan police and insurgents
left 11 militants dead in Kandahar province. A British pilot was
injured after his jet crashed following takeoff in the same region.
French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner pledged increased financial
support for police and health care following a meeting with President
Hamid Karzai. A suicide car bomber struck a police station in Kandahar
province's Spinboldak district, leaving only the bomber dead and 5
others wounded.
(AP, 5/14/09)
2009 May 14, In Australia a court
suspended a government program to kill 7,000 kangaroos on federal land
near the Australian capital, halting efforts to thin a mushrooming
population of the beloved marsupials that authorities say are
threatening endangered species.
(AP, 5/14/09)
2009 May 14, Bangladesh's high
court moved to plug a gaping hole in the country's laws by introducing
a first-ever ban on sexual harassment. Bangladeshi police arrested 250
border guards accused of spreading violence across the country during a
mutiny that started at a military base in Dhaka.
(AFP, 5/14/09)
2009 May 14, Britain’s PM Gordon
Brown suspended former agriculture and environment minister Elliot
Morley over embarrassing expenses claim revelations. It had emerged
that Morley claimed over 16,000 pounds for a home loan 18 months after
it was paid off. Hours earlier the opposition Conservatives announced
that Andrew MacKay, a lawmaker, had resigned as an aide to leader David
Cameron after it emerged he and his wife, also a Conservative MP, had
claimed expenses for two home loans at the same time.
(AFP, 5/14/09)
2009 May 14, A British
parliamentary report into human trafficking said more than 5,000 mostly
women and children have been smuggled into Britain to work as sex
slaves and beggars.
(AFP, 5/14/09)
2009 May 14, The OECD ruled to
keep Britain’s Cayman Islands on its list of un-cooperative tax havens.
(Econ, 5/23/09, p.41)
2009 May 14, Egyptian security
forces arrested 14 members of the banned Muslim Brotherhood in dawn
raids at their homes.
(AFP, 5/14/09)
2009 May 14, A French rocket
carrying the largest space telescope ever was launched into space on a
mission that European scientists hope will help unravel the mystery of
the universe's creation. The Ariane-5 rocket was loaded with the
Herschel space telescope and the Planck spacecraft, carrying a payload
of 5.3 tons (4.81 metric tons) when it launched from the city of Kourou
near the jungles of French Guiana.
(AP, 5/15/09)
2009 May 14, A small plane crashed
into a yard in Guatemala City, reportedly killing six people on board
and setting a home on fire near the airport.
(AP, 5/15/09)
2009 May 14, In India Azharuddin
Mohammed Ismail, the 10-year-old child star of "Slumdog Millionaire,"
was awakened by a policeman wielding a bamboo stick and ordered out of
his home. Minutes later it was bulldozed along with dozens of other
shanties in the Mumbai slum he calls home.
(AP, 5/15/09)
2009 May 14, Iraq's Trade Minister
Falah al-Sudani submitted his resignation following allegations of
widespread corruption in his department. PM Nouri al-Maliki delayed
accepting it to allow parliament to review the allegations. Acceptance
was announced on May 25.
(AP, 5/25/09)
2009 May 14, Pope Benedict XVI
greeted tens of thousands of adoring followers in Nazareth with a
message of reconciliation, urging Christians and Muslims to overcome
recent strife and "reject the destructive power of hatred and
prejudice."
(AP, 5/14/09)
2009 May 14, Japan’s Sony Corp.
reported its first annual net loss in 14 years and forecast a bigger
loss this year, saying the pressure from sliding sales, competition in
gadget prices and a strong yen was expected to continue.
(AP, 5/14/09)
2009 May 14, Jordan's king pressed
Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu to immediately commit to the
establishment of a Palestinian state, as he pursues a sweeping
resolution of the Muslim world's conflicts with Israel.
(AP, 5/14/09)
2009 May 14, Myanmar opposition
leader Aung San Suu Kyi was charged with breaking the terms of her
house arrest and faces up to five years in jail after John Yettaw, an
American intruder, sneaked into her lakeside home.
(AP, 5/14/09)(Econ, 5/23/09, p.44)
2009 May 14, Pakistan said
artillery batteries shelled suspected hideouts in Swat and the
neighboring district of Lower Dir, with the military claiming to have
killed 54 militants in the last 24 hours. Nine soldiers were reported
killed. Residents said that armed Taliban have mined roads and dug
trenches around up to 200,000 civilians encircled by Pakistani troops.
(AFP, 5/14/09)
2009 May 14, Russia said it was
proposing a new version of a key European arms-control treaty it
suspended more than a year ago, and could once again honor the
agreement if the US and its NATO allies accept the changes.
(AP, 5/14/09)
2009 May 14, In Spain a new study
said the air in Madrid and Barcelona is laced with at least five drugs,
including trace amounts of amphetamines, opiates, cannabinoids and
lysergic acid, a relative of LSD. The tests were done in areas where
drugs were likely to be consumed.
(AP, 5/14/09)
2009 May 14, In Sri Lanka doctors
and aides abandoned the only hospital in the war zone amid unrelenting
shell attacks. The military said thousands of civilians braved rebel
gunfire and fled across the front lines.
(AP, 5/14/09)
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