Today in History - May 19
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715 May 19, St.
Gregory II began his reign as Catholic Pope.
(HN, 5/19/98)
988 May 19, Dunstanus, English
archbishop of Canterbury, died.
(MC, 5/19/02)
1218 May 19, Otto IV (36), Holy
Roman Emperor, died.
(PC, 1992, p.106)
1296 May 19, Pietro di Murrone,
former Pope Celestine V, died in the castle of Fumone, where he was
imprisoned by his successor, Boniface VIII.
(SFEC, 10/22/00,
p.A20)(www.newadvent.org/cathen/03479b.htm)
1469 May 19, Giovanni della
Robbia, Italian sculptor, was born.
(MC, 5/19/02)
1506 May 19, Columbus selected his
son Diego as sole heir.
(MC, 5/19/02)
1535 May 19, French explorer
Jacques Cartier set sail for North America.
(HN, 5/19/98)
1536 May 19, Anne Boleyn, the
second wife of England's King Henry VIII, was beheaded on Tower Green
after she was convicted of adultery and incest with her brother, Lord
Rochford, who was executed two days before. It was the day before Henry
VIII's marriage to Jane Seymour.
(AP, 5/19/97)(DTnet, 5/19/97)(HN, 5/19/99)
1568 May 19, Defeated by the
Protestants, Mary, Queen of Scots, fled to England where Queen
Elizabeth imprisoned her.
(HN, 5/19/99)
1571 May 19, Miguel Lopez de
Lagazpi founded the city of Manila in the Philippines and encountered
Chinese settlements. [see Mar 19]
(DTnet, 5/19/97)(WSJ, 12/26/02, p.A1)
1588 May 19, The Spanish Armada
set sail to Lisbon bound for England; it was soundly defeated by the
English fleet the following August. [see May 11]
(AP, 5/19/97)(DTnet, 5/19/97)
1608 May 19, The Protestant states
formed the Evangelical Union of Lutherans and Calvinists under the
direction of the elector of Brandenburg.
(HN, 5/19/99)
1635 May 19, Cardinal Richelieu of
France intervened in the great conflict in Europe by declaring war on
the Hapsburgs in Spain.
(DTnet, 5/19/97)(HN, 5/19/99)
1643 May 19, Delegates from four
New England colonies, Massachusetts Bay, Plymouth, Connecticut and New
Harbor, met in Boston to form a confederation: the United Colonies of
New England.
(AP, 5/19/97)
1643 May 19, A French army
destroyed Spanish army at the Battle at Rocroi /Allersheim in France
(DTnet, 5/19/97)(HN, 5/19/98)
1749 May 19, George II granted a
charter to the Ohio Company to settle Ohio Valley.
(DTnet, 5/19/97)
1762 May 19, Johann Gottlieb
Fichte, German philosopher, was born. He developed ethical idealism out
of Immanuel Kant's work.
(HN, 5/19/99)
1774 May 19, Ann Lee and eight
Shakers sailed from Liverpool to New York. The religious group
originated in Quakerism and fled England due to religious persecution.
They become the first conscientious objectors on religious grounds and
were jailed during the American Revolution in 1776. In 1998 Suzanne
Skees published “god Among the Shakers.” The United Society of
Believers in Christ's Second Appearing is the full, proper name for the
19th-century religious group better known as the Shakers. Although they
were the largest and best-known communal society a century ago, the
Shakers were rarely referred to by their proper name. Outsiders dubbed
them "Shakers" for the movements in their ritualistic dance.
(DT internet 5/19/97)(WSJ, 3/27/98, p.W10)(HNQ,
7/2/98)
1780 May 19, A mysterious darkness
enveloped much of New England and part of Canada in the early
afternoon; the cause has never been determined.
(HFA, '96, p.30)(DTnet, 5/19/97)
1786 May 19, John Stanley (74),
composer, died.
(MC, 5/19/02)
1792 May 19, Russian army entered
Poland.
(DTnet, 5/19/97)
1795 May 19, Johns Hopkins,
founder of Johns Hopkins University, was born.
(HN, 5/19/98)
1796 May 19, A game protection law
was passed by Congress to restrict encroachment by whites on Indian
hunting grounds.
(DTnet, 5/19/97)
1798 May 19, A French armada of
335 ships carrying nearly 40,000 men set sail for Alexandria, Egypt,
which Napoleon planned to conquer. In 2008 Paul Strathern authored
“Napoleon in Egypt.”
(WSJ, 11/17/08, p.A17)
1800 May 19, French Bosbeeck,
veterinarian, robber, was hanged.
(MC, 5/19/02)
1802 May 19 Napoleon established
the French Order of Legion d'Honneur award (Legion of Honor). It was a
general military and civil order of merit conferred without regard to
birth or religion, provided that anyone admitted swore to uphold
liberty and equality.
(DrEE, 9/28/96, p.5)(SFC, 10/19/96, A7)
1845 May 19, The HMS Erebus and
Terror sailed from England under Sir John Franklin to navigate through
the Arctic and find the elusive Northwest passage. All 133 men in the
expedition perished. By 1847 the British Admiralty had received no
reports of Franklin. [see Franklin Jun 11, 1847]
(WSJ, 2/10/95, p.A-7)(www.coolantarctica.com)
1848 May 19, Texas was awarded to
the U.S.A. by Mexico thus ending the war.
(DTnet, 5/19/97)
1856 May 19, Senator Charles
Sumner spoke out against slavery.
(HN, 5/19/98)
1857 May 19, William Francis
Channing and Moses G. Farmer were granted the first patent for an
electric fire alarm system.
(DTnet, 5/19/97)
1858 May 19, A pro-slavery band
led by Charles Hameton executed unarmed Free State men near Marais des
Cygnes on the Kansas-Missouri border.
(HN, 5/19/99)
1862 May 19, Homestead Act became
law and provided cheap land for settlement of West.
(MC, 5/19/02)
1863 May 19, Union General Ulysses
S. Grant's first attack on Vicksburg, Miss., was repulsed.
(HN, 5/19/99)
1864 May 19, The last engagement
in a series of battles of Spotsylvania was fought. Following the
American Civil War Battle of Spotsylvania in 1864, General Ulysses S.
Grant said, "The world has never seen so bloody and so protracted a
battle as the one being fought and I hope never will again."
(HN, 5/19/98)(HNQ, 2/12/99)
1864 May 19, Battle of Port
Walthall Junction, VA (Bermuda Hundred).
(MC, 5/19/02)
1864 May 19, Nathaniel Hawthorne
(b.1804), US writer (Scarlet Letter), died in Plymouth, New Hampshire.
Friend and former US Pres. Franklin Pierce was at his bedside. In 2003
Brenda Wineapple authored "Hawthorne: A Life."
(MC, 5/19/02)(http://www.gradesaver.com/)(SSFC,
10/5/03, p.M1)
1879 May 19, Lord Waldorf Astor,
British publisher, was born.
(HN, 5/19/98)
1879 May 19, Lady Nancy Astor,
Nancy Witcher Langhorne, was born. She was the first woman to sit in
the British House of Commons.
(HN, 5/19/99)
1885 May 19, Jan Matzeliger began
the 1st mass production of shoes in Lynn,
Massachusetts.
(DTnet, 5/19/97)
1885 May 19, German chancellor
Bismarck took possession of Cameroon & Togoland.
(MC, 5/19/02)
1886 May 19, Camille Saint-Saens'
3rd Symphony in C ("Organ"), premiered.
(MC, 5/19/02)
1890 May 19, Ho Chi Minh,
revolutionist and leader of North Vietnam (1946-1969), was born. He
fought the Japanese, French and United States to gain independence for
his country.
(HN, 5/19/99)(MC, 5/19/02)
1891 May 19, Rice Institute
Chartered, Building, now Rice University.
(DTnet, 5/19/97)
1892 May 19, Charles Brady King of
Detroit invented the pneumatic hammer. [see Jan 30, 1894]
(DTnet, 5/19/97)
1895 May 19, Johns Hopkins,
merchant and philanthropist, was born.
(HN, 5/19/01)
1898 May 19, US Congress passed
the Private Mailing Card Act which allowed private publishers and
printers to produce postcards.
(www.si.edu/archives/postcard/chronology.htm)
1900 May 19, Simplon Tunnel opened
as the world's longest railroad tunnel at 12 miles; it linked Italy
& Switzerland through the Alps.
(DTnet, 5/19/97)
1906 May 19, The Federated Boys'
Clubs, the forerunner of the Boys' Clubs of America,
were organized.
(AP, 5/19/97)(DTnet, 5/19/97)
1911 May 19, Maurice Ravel’s opera
"L'Heure Espagnole," premiered in Paris.
(MC, 5/19/02)
1913 May 19, The Webb Alien
Land-Holding Bill was signed in California, excluding Japanese from
owning land.
(DTnet, 5/19/97)
1916 May 19, The Sykes-Picot
Agreement was a secret understanding between the governments of Britain
and France defining their respective spheres of post-World War I
influence and control in the Middle East. The boundaries of this
agreement still remains in much of the common border between Syria and
Iraq. Britain and France carved up the Levant into an assortment of
monarchies, mandates and emirates. The agreement enshrined Anglo-French
imperialist ambitions at the end of WW II. Syria and Lebanon were put
into the French orbit, while Britain claimed Jordan, Iraq, the Gulf
states and the Palestinian Mandate. Sir Mark Sykes (d.1919 at age 39)
and Francois Picot made the deal.
(WSJ, 2/27/00,
p.A17)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sykes-Picot_Agreement)
1918 May 19, Florence Chadwick,
the 1st to swim English Channel both ways, was born.
(MC, 5/19/02)
1919 May 19, Mustafa Kemal arrived
in Samsun, Anatolia, to start the National Struggle.
http://www.osmanli700.gen.tr/english/sultans.html
1921 May 19, Congress passed the
Emergency Quota Act, which established national quotas for immigrants
entering the United States.
(AP, 5/19/97)(DTnet, 5/19/97)
1925 May 19, Malcolm X, (Malcolm
Little) militant black Muslim leader, was born in Omaha, Neb. He spoke
of racial pride and black nationalism and was assassinated in 1965.
"You can't separate peace from freedom because no one can be at peace
unless he has his freedom."
(AP, 2/21/99)(HN, 5/19/99)(SFC, 9/8/99, p.A7)
1925 May 19, Pol Pot (d.1998),
Cambodian dictator and mass murderer, was born in Prek Sbauv, Cambodia.
(www.time.com/time/asia/asia/magazine/1999/990823/pol_pot1.html)
1926 May 19, French air force
bombed Damascus, Syria.
(MC, 5/19/02)
1928 May 19, The 1st annual "Frog
Jumping Jubilee" at Angel's Camp, Ca., drew 51 frogs.
(MC, 5/19/02)
1928 May 19, "Firedamp" exploded
in a Mather, Pennsylvania, coal mine killing 195 of 273 miners.
(DTnet, 5/19/97)
1929 May 19, Harvey Cox, US
theologist (Secular City), was born.
(MC, 5/19/02)
1934 May 19, James Lehrer,
broadcast journalist, was born in Wichita, Ks.
(HN, 5/19/01)
1935 May 19, National Football
League adopted an annual college draft to begin in 1936.
(HN, 5/19/98)
1935 May 19, Colonel Thomas E.
Lawrence, better known as Lawrence of Arabia, died 6 days after
sustaining head injuries in a motorcycle accident on a Dorset, England,
country road. Lawrence served the British Foreign Office as liaison
officer during the Arab revolt against the Turks in World War I. His
leadership and sympathetic understanding of the Arabs were instrumental
in Allied General Edmund Allenby's conquest of Palestine in 1917.
Bitterly disappointed by the 1919 Paris Peace Conference's refusal to
mandate Arab independence, Lawrence resigned from the Foreign Office in
1922 to write books about his Middle East experiences.
(HNPD, 5/19/99)(AP, 5/19/08)
1939 May 19, Churchill signed
British-Russian anti-Nazi pact.
(DTnet, 5/19/97)
1940 May 19, Amsterdam time became
MET (Middle European Time).
(DTnet, 5/19/97)
1941 May 19, Jane Brody, food and
health writer, was born.
(HN, 5/19/01)
1941 May 19, Nora Ephron,
screenwriter and director, was born.
(HN, 5/19/01)
1941 May 19, German occupiers in
Holland forbade bicycle taxis.
(MC, 5/19/02)
1941 May 19, New Nazi battleship
Bismarck left Gdynia, Poland.
(MC, 5/19/02)
1942 May 19, Sir Joseph Larmor
(b.1857), professor of mathematics, died in Ireland. His contributions
bridged the old and the new physics. He published three papers all
entitled “A dynamical theory of the electric and luminiferous medium”
between 1894 and 1897. These papers presented his theory of the
electron, which gained further weight in 1897 when J J Thomson
experimentally identified the electron.
(http://tinyurl.com/y9y5wg)(WSJ, 10/13/06, p.A13)
1943 May 19, In an address to the
U.S. Congress, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill pledged his
country's full support in the war against Japan.
(AP, 5/19/97)
1943 May 19, Berlin was declared
"Judenrien" (free of Jews).
(MC, 5/19/02)
1944 May 19, The Gustav line, the
German defense line in Italy, collapsed under heavy assault by Allied
troops.
(DTnet, 5/19/97)
1944 May 19, 240 gypsies were
transported to Auschwitz from Westerbork Neth.
(MC, 5/19/02)
1944 May 19, Friedrich Engel
(1909-2006), a Nazi SS officer, oversaw the massacre of 59 Italian
prisoners near Genoa. An Italian military court convicted Engel in
absentia in 1999 and sentenced him to life for war crimes connected to
a total of 246 deaths. In 2002 a German court convicted Engel of 59
counts of murder and handed him a suspended seven-year term.
(AP, 2/14/06)
1945 May 19, Peter Townshend,
England, rock guitarist, vocalist, composer (Who-Tommy), was born.
(MC, 5/19/02)
1945 May 19, The UN Charter
committee met in Muir Woods. The meeting was planned by Roosevelt on a
suggestion by Sec. of the Interior Ickes: one of the sessions “might be
held among the giant redwoods in Muir Woods. Not only would this focus
attention upon the nation’s interest in preserving these mighty trees
for posterity, but in such a “temple of peace” the delegates would gain
a perspective and sense of time that could be obtained nowhere better
than in such a forest.”
(Park, Spring/95, p.2)
1951 May 19, UN began a counter
offensive in Korea.
(MC, 5/19/02)
1952 May 19, John Garfield (39),
blacklisted film actor, died. His films included "The Postman Always
Rings Twice" (1946).
(SFC, 1/27/04, p.A16)
1954 May 19, Postmaster General
Summerfield approved a CIA mail-opening project.
(MC, 5/19/02)
1954 May 19, American composer
Charles Ives died in New York.
(AP, 5/19/04)
1955 May 19, In Vietnam Maj. Vo
Bam, a defense supply specialist, was instructed to find a supply route
south. Bam's route became the Ho Chi Minh Trail.
(SFC, 8/18/00, p.D2)
1956 May 19, R.C., "(You've Got)
The Magic Touch" by The Platters peaked at #4 on the pop singles chart.
(DTnet, 5/19/97)
1958 May 19, The movie "Attack of
the 50 Foot Woman" was released in the movie theaters in USA.
(DTnet, 5/19/97)
1958 May 19, The United States and
Canada formally established the North American Air Defense Command
(NORAD).
(AP, 5/19/97)(Econ, 3/5/05, p.38)
1958 May 19, British actor Ronald
Colman died in Santa Barbara, Calif., at age 67.
(AP, 5/19/08)
1959 May 19, Nicole Brown Simpson,
Mrs. OJ Simpson (murdered), was born in Frankfurt, Germany.
(MC, 5/19/02)
1959 May 19, The Peoples’ Army of
Vietnam’s Military Transportation Group 559 formed on the 69th birthday
of Vietnamese revolutionary leader Ho Chi Minh. It ultimately resulted
in the creation of the Ho Chi Minh Trail. The trail was intended to
facilitate the infiltrating of troops and transporting supplies from
North Vietnam to support the revolution in South Vietnam.
(HNQ, 6/1/99)
1960 May 19, Walt Disney's movie
"Pollyanna" was released in movie theaters.
(DTnet, 5/19/97)
1960 May 19, The Drifters recorded
"Save the Last Dance For Me".
(DTnet, 5/19/97)
1960 May 19, DJ Alan Freed was
accused of bribery in radio payola scandal.
(MC, 5/19/02)
1960 May 19, USAF Maj. Robert M
White took the X-15 to 33,222 m.
(DTnet, 5/19/97)
1960 May 19, Belgian parliament
required a rest day for self employed.
(MC, 5/19/02)
1962 May 19, R.C., "Shout! Shout!
(Knock Yourself Out)" by Ernie Maresca peaked at #6 on the pop singles
chart.
(DTnet, 5/19/97)
1962 May 19, Marilyn Monroe sang
"Happy Birthday" to Pres. Kennedy at Madison Square Garden while
wearing a dress described as "skin and beads." In 1999 the dress sold
for $1.15 million at Christie's auction house.
(SFC, 10/28/99, p.A3)
1962 May 19, Stan Musial broke
Honus Wagner's NL baseball hit record with 3,431.
(MC, 5/19/02)
1962 May 19, Indonesian
paratroopers landed in New Guinea.
(MC, 5/19/02)
1964 May 19, The State Department
announced the U.S. embassy in Moscow had been bugged. A network of more
than 40 microphones embedded in the walls had been found.
(AP, 5/19/97)(DTnet, 5/19/97)
1966 May 19, A tortoise,
reportedly given to Tonga's King by Capt. Cook in 1773), died.
(MC, 5/19/02)
1967 May 19, The first U.S. air
strike on central Hanoi in North Vietnam was launched.
(HN, 5/19/98)
1967 May 19, The Soviet Union
ratified a treaty with the United States and Britain banning nuclear
weapons from outer space: “Treaty on Principles Governing the
Activities of States in the Exploration and Use of Outer Space,
including the Moon and Other Celestial Bodies.” The Int’l. Outer Space
Treaty barred nations from appropriating celestial bodies but did not
mention individuals.
(AP, 5/19/97)(SFC, 6/25/97, p.A15)(SFEC, 7/13/97,
Par p.8)
1971 May 19, The Russian Mars 2
Orbiter and Lander made it to Mars but the Lander crashed when braking
rockets failed. The orbiter returned late until 1972.
(SFC, 11/19/96, p.B1)
1972 May 19, Kathy Boudin and
Bernardine Dohrn, members of the Weathermen, set explosives in bathroom
of the US Pentagon. [See Oct 20,1981]
(WSJ, 11/26/03,
p.A1)(http://hnn.us/articles/1155.html)
1974 May 19, Valeri Giscard
d'Estaing won French presidential elections.
(SFEC, 11/12/00,
p.D4)(www.loc.gov/today/pr/2003/03-008.html)
1976 May 19, The US Senate
established congressional oversight over the CIA with the permanent
Select Committee on Intelligence.
(SFC, 9/17/97, p.A3)(MC, 5/19/02)
1977 May 19, 20 years ago, "Smokey
and the Bandit" opened in movie theaters.
(DTnet, 5/19/97)
1979 May 19, The recording "Shake
Your Body (Down To The Ground)" by The Jacksons peaked at #5 on the pop
singles chart.
(www.1050chum.com/index_chumcharts.aspx?artist=8900)
1979 May 19, The Regents of the
Univ. of California asked General Motors to stop doing business with
the police and military forces in South Africa.
(SFC, 5/14/04, p.F5)
1982 May 19, Sophia Loren (b.1934)
began serving 18 days in an Italian prison for failing to pay her
taxes.
(www.answers.com/topic/sophia-loren?cat=entertainment)
1984 May 19, Michael Larson
(1949-1999) won $110,000 on the "Press Your Luck" Game Show. He had
memorized the generated game patterns.
(http://gscentral.net/larsen.htm)
1984 May 19, John Betjeman
(b.1906), British poet, died. In 2004 Bevis Hillier authored a 3-volume
biography of Betjeman. In 2006 A.N. Wilson authored a single volume
biography.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Betjeman)(WSJ,
12/2/06, p.P8)
1986 May 19, South African
commandos struck alleged ANC "operational centers" in Zimbabwe,
Botswana, Zambia.
(www.iie.com/research/topics/sanctions/southafrica.cfm)
1987 May 19, President Reagan
defended America's presence in the Persian Gulf, two days after 37
American sailors were killed when an Iraqi warplane attacked the U.S.
frigate Stark.
(AP, 5/19/97)
1988 May 19, Carlos Lehder Rivas,
co-founder of Colombia's Medellin drug cartel, was convicted in
Jacksonville, Fla., of smuggling more than 3 tons of cocaine into the
US.
(AP, 5/19/98)
1989 May 19, The NCAA announced
sanctions against the University of Kentucky's basketball program for
recruiting and academic violations.
(AP,, 5/19/99)
1989 May 19, On Wall Street, the
Dow Jones Industrial Average passed the 2500 mark, ending the day at
2,501.10.
(AP, 5/19/99)
1990 May 19, The tune "Vogue" by
Madonna peaked at #1 on the pop singles chart.
(www.onmc.iinet.net.au/top/1990.htm)
1990 May 19, Summer Squall won the
Preakness Stakes.
(www.lanesendstakes.com/milestones.html)
1990 May 19, Secretary of State
James A. Baker III concluded an agreement with the Soviet Union to
destroy chemical weapons and settle longstanding disputes over limits
on nuclear-tipped cruise missiles.
(AP, 5/19/00)
1991 May 19, Martial-law courts in
Kuwait began trying people accused of collaborating with Iraqi
occupation forces, sentencing one man to life in prison for wearing a
Saddam Hussein T-shirt. The trials came under international criticism,
and were halted.
(AP, 5/19/01)
1992 May 19, The 27th Amendment to
the Constitution, which prohibited Congress from giving itself mid-term
pay raises, went into effect as it was certified by the archivist of
the United States, two centuries after it was first proposed by James
Madison. It actually became part of the constitution on May 7, 1992,
when Michigan became the 38th state to ratify the amendment.
(AP, 5/19/97)
1992 May 19, In San Francisco,
Vice President Dan Quayle denounced what he called the "poverty of
values" in America's inner cities, and criticized the TV show "Murphy
Brown" for having its title character decide to bear a child out of
wedlock.
(AP, 5/19/97)
1992 May 19, In Massapequa, New
York, Mary Jo Buttafuoco was shot and seriously wounded by teen-ager
Amy Fisher (17), who claimed to be having an affair
with Mrs. Buttafuoco's husband, Joey, an allegation the
Buttafuoco's denied. Joey later pleaded guilty to 3rd
degree rape and admitted to the affair. In 1998 Mr. Buttafuoco planned
to premier a TV show on public cable access for “people jammed up in
the media.” Fisher was later dubbed "the Long Island Lolita" and served
7 years of a 15 year sentence.
(SFC, 3/31/98, p.A6)(SFC, 5/11/99, p.A9)
1993 May 19, The US White House
set off a political storm by abruptly firing the entire staff of its
travel office; five of seven staffers were later reinstated and
assigned other duties.
(AP, 5/19/98)
1993 May 19, Dow Jones closed
above 3,500 for the first Time (3,500.03).
(www.finfacts.com/Private/curency/djones.htm)
1993 May 19, A Boeing 727 of
Columbian SAM regional airline crashed into a jungle mountain near
Medellin and killed all 132 on board.
(SFC, 11/1/96, p.A18)
1994 May 19, The final episode of
LA Law (b.1986) showed on TV after 8 year run.
(http://epguides.com/LALaw/)
1994 May 19, President Clinton
held a news conference in which he defended his foreign policy against
suggestions he improvises it from crisis to crisis, saying, "I continue
to look for new solutions."
(AP, 5/19/99)
1994 May 19, The US FDA approved
of the first genetically engineered tomato.
(www.bioline.org.br/request?nl94033)
1994 May 19, Former first lady
Jacqueline Lee Bouvier Kennedy Onassis died of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma
cancer in New York City at age 64.
(SFEC, 11/10/96, Par p.2)(SFEC, 5/4/97, p.A3)(AP,
5/19/97)
1995 May 19, The movie "Die Hard:
With a Vengeance" was released in the movie theaters in USA.
(DTnet, 5/19/97)
1995 May 19, The Senate voted 99-0
to reject President Clinton's spending blueprint.
(AP, 5/19/00)
1995 May 19, NASA's administrator
unveiled plans to slash thousands of aerospace jobs and to overhaul
virtually every part of the agency.
(AP, 5/19/00)
1995 May 19, AMC Entertainment
Inc. opened the 1st multi-theater film megaplex, the Grand 24, in
Dallas, Texas.
(SFC, 5/19/05, p.C3)(WSJ, 5/13/97, p.B1)
1995 May 19, The world's youngest
doctor in the world came to be as India-born Balamurali Ambati at 17
graduated from Mount Sinai Medical School.
(www.hindunet.org/alt_hindu/1995_May_2/msg00038.html)
1996 May 19, In an astronomical
near hit, a large asteroid approached Earth within 279,000 miles, a
distance just greater than the moon, in a surprise to astronomers who
discovered it in midweek.
(SFC, 5/19/96, p.A-2)
1996 May 19, The Endeavour Shuttle
rocketed into orbit with six astronauts. One task was to deploy an
experimental antennae that would inflate and swell to the size of a
tennis court.
(SFC, 5/20/96, p.A-2)
1996 May 19, French troops moved
into Bangui of the Central African Republic to help quell an army
uprising and protect French citizens.
(SFC, 5/20/96, p.A-9)
1997 May 19, An indictment was
filed against NBC sportscaster Marv Albert for biting a woman in an
Arlington, Va., hotel on Feb 12 as many as 15 times and forcing her to
perform oral sex. At trial, Albert ended up pleading guilty to assault
and battery; he served no jail time.
(AP,
5/19/07)(www.eonline.com/News/Court/0597.albert.html)
1997 May 19, The Univ. of Calif.
at Berkeley created the first professorship dedicated to the study of
how knowledge is created within businesses. Japanese scholar Ikujiro
Nonaka was named as head of the post with a grant from Xerox and Fuji
Xerox Co.
(SFC, 5/20/97, p.C2)
1997 May 19, In China’s Inner
Mongolia a gas explosion in Wuhai city killed at least 28 miners.
(SFEC, 5/25/97, p.C16)
1998 May 19, The PanAmSat Corp.
Galaxy 4 communications satellite malfunctioned and disrupted pager
services for some 40 million customers.
(SFC, 5/20/98, p.A1)(WSJ, 5/20/98, p.A1)
1998 May 19, In Florida Hank Carr
freed himself from handcuffs and killed 2 officers and a state trooper
after he was picked up for questioning in the shooting death of his
4-year-old stepson. He later shot himself during a standoff with 170
police officers at a gas station.
(SFC, 5/20/98, p.A3)
1998 May 19, In Fayetteville,
Tenn., an honor student (18) killed a classmate, who was dating his
ex-girlfriend.
(SFC, 4/21/99, p.A6)
1998 May 19, In Afghanistan
Taliban officials withdrew from the peace plan citing the refusal of
the opposition to cooperate.
(SFC, 5/20/98, p.C2)
1998 May 19, In Colombia Pres.
Samper disbanded the 20th Intelligence Brigade under US pressure
because of evidence that the unit was responsible for a series of
murders of civilian politicians and human rights activists.
(SFC, 5/25/98, p.A12)
1998 May 19, A Congo military
court sentenced Masasu Nindanga and Joseph Olenghankoy, opponents of
Pres. Kabila, to jail terms of 20 and 15 years with no right of appeal.
(SFC, 5/20/98, p.C2)
1998 May 19, In Indonesia a
threatened anti-Suharto demonstration was called off to avoid bloodshed
after the army mounted a big show of force in the capital.
(WSJ, 5/20/98, p.A1)
1998 May 19-1998 May 20, Bandits
stole three of Rome's most important paintings, two by Van Gogh and one
by Cezanne, from the National Gallery of Modern Art.
(SFC, 5/21/98, p.A14)(AP, 5/19/99)
1998 May 19, In Russia strikes by
coal miners, scientists and other workers spread across the country in
a demand for unpaid wages.
(SFC, 5/20/98, p.A12)
1998 May 19, In Serbia Pres.
Milosevic named Momir Bulatovic as federal prime minister. Montenegro’s
parliament said it did not recognize the ouster of Radoje Kontic and
that it would no recognize any laws of the federal government.
(SFC, 5/20/98, p.A12)
1999 May 19, The much-anticipated
movie prequel "Star Wars: Episode One -- The Phantom Menace" opened.
The film brought in a record $28,543,549.
(SFC, 5/21/99, p.C1)(AP, 5/19/00)
1999 May 19, The US Justice Dept.
moved to revoke the citizenship of John Demjanjuk (79), a retired
Cleveland autoworker, and said it had new evidence that he was a death
camp guard, known as "Ivan the Terrible," at Treblinka during WW II.
(SFC, 5/20/99, p.A4)(AP, 5/19/00)
1999 May 19, Ali A. Mohamed, a
former US Army sergeant, was indicted for conspiring with Osama bin
Laden to kill Americans abroad.
(SFC, 5/20/99, p.A2)
1999 May 19, Researchers reported
that pollen from corn infused with genes from the Bacillus
thuringiensis (Bt) is toxic to monarch butterfly larvae when sprinkled
on milkweed, a natural food source for the caterpillars. The
genetically manipulated corn comprised about 20% of the US crop.
(SFC, 5/20/99, p.A1,15)
1999 May 19, A bull market began
in China after the people’s Daily exhorted the masses to buy stocks.
(SFC, 6/13/00, p.D1)
1999 May 19, In Congo the rebel
Congolese Democratic Coalition named Emile Ilunga as their new leader.
(SFC, 5/20/99, p.A13)
1999 May 19, In France employees
of the Culture Ministry went on strike and shut down the
government-owned museums and historic chateaus.
(SFEC, 5/23/99, p.A26)
1999 May 19, As NATO's Operation
Allied Force entered its ninth week, Russia's special envoy to the
Balkans called on both NATO and Yugoslavia to suspend hostilities.
(AP, 5/19/00)
1999 May 19, In Russia Sergei
Stepashin was approved as the new prime minister by the Duma 301 to 55.
(SFC, 5/20/99, p.A12)
1999 May 19, Ukrainian authorities
on 19 May 1999 arrested four Russian citizens who were attempting to
smuggle 20kg of “enriched uranium ore” to Western Europe.
(http://tinyurl.com/3cydhn)
1999 May 19, As many as 1000
Yugoslav Army soldiers were reported to have returned home from Kosovo
after hearing of the suppression of anti-war demonstrations in Cacak,
Krusevac and Alexandrovac.
(SFC, 5/20/99, p.A1)
2000 May 19, NYC Mayor Giuliani
dropped out of the race for a US senate seat due to prostate cancer. He
was also beleaguered by a personal scandal.
(SFC, 5/20/00, p.A1)
2000 May 19, Scientists led by
Robert Gallo announced plans for an oral AIDS vaccine to be tested in
Uganda for less than $1 per dose. Trials might begin within 18 months.
(SFC, 5/20/00, p.A1)
2000 May 19, The shuttle Atlantis
lifted off with 7 astronauts on a mission to fix the Int’l. Space
Station.
(SFC, 5/20/00, p.A7)
2000 May 19, China and the
European Union reached a market-opening trade deal, clearing Beijing’s
largest remaining hurdle to joining the World Trade Organization.
(SFC, 5/20/00, p.A8)(AP, 5/19/01)
2000 May 19, Masked gunmen
launched a coup in Fiji that toppled Prime Minister Mahendra Chaudhry,
the country’s first ethnic Indian premier.
(AP, 5/19/01)
2000 May 19, In France an 11-day
strike by armored truck guards left the country short of cash.
(SFC, 5/20/00, p.A9)
2000 May 19, Nine countries banded
together to petition entry into NATO in 2002. They included Albania,
Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Macedonia, Romania, Slovakia and
Slovenia.
(SFC, 5/20/00, p.A9)
2000 May 19, In Paraguay Pres.
Luis Gonzalez Macchi announced that an attempted coup by soldiers and
police was stopped.
(SFC, 5/20/00, p.A8)
2001 May 19, "Point Given" won the
Preakness as Derby winner "Monarchos" finished out of the money.
(AP, 5/19/02)
2001 May 19, The Arab League
called on Arab governments to sever political contacts with Israel
until the Jewish state ended military action against Palestinians.
(AP, 5/19/02)
2001 May 19, It was reported that
China’s “Strike Hard” anti-crime campaign had resulted in at least 801
executions in the last 3 weeks of April.
(SFC, 5/19/01, p.A8)
2001 May 19, In Croatian local
elections nationalists won 14 of 21 counties.
(WSJ, 5/22/01, p.A1)
2001 May 19, In Somalia luggage in
a bus exploded near Halgan and 26 passengers were killed. Gunpowder in
a suitcase was placed near the engine.
(SSFC, 5/20/01, p.A16)
2001 May 19, In Yemen an explosion
in the weapons market of al-Suwaida killed at least 14 people and
injured 15.
(SSFC, 5/20/01, p.A16)
2002 May 19, Boston Cardinal
Bernard Law said in a letter distributed to parishes that he did not
become aware until 1993 of sexual abuse allegations against the Rev.
Paul Shanley.
(AP, 5/19/03)
2002 May 19, Sgt. Gene Arden Vance
(38), an American special forces soldier, was killed in Afghanistan,
when his unit came into contact with enemy forces. Operation Mountain
Lion began in an attempt to seal off the border.
(SFC, 5/20/02, p.A14)(NW, 8/26/02, p.39)
2002 May 19, A team of 50 US Green
Berets landed in Tbilisi for a 2-year training program for Georgia's
army.
(SFC, 5/20/02, p.A14)
2002 May 19, Walter Lord (84),
author of "A Night To Remember," a minute-by-minute retelling of the
"Titanic" tragedy, died in New York.
(AP, 5/19/03)
2002 May 19, Weekend fighting in
Kashmir between India and Pakistan left at least 15 people killed.
(SFC, 5/20/02, p.A8)
2002 May 19, In Israel a suicide
bomber killed himself, 3 Israelis and wounded over 50 in a market in
Netanya.
(SFC, 5/20/02, p.A1)
2002 May 19, Sanabel Al-Fararja
(15) and Kayan Al-Saify (16), West Bank teenagers, ended an 8-week trip
in the US where they crossed the country and spoke on behalf of peace
in Palestine.
(SFC, 5/16/02, p.A13)
2002 May 19, The Sierra Leone
National Election Committee declared Pres. Kabbah the winner in the May
14 elections with 70.6% of the votes.
(SFC, 5/20/02, p.A6)
2002 May 19, Vietnam claimed
almost 100% turnout in the mandatory single party national elections.
All 759 candidates were approved by the Fatherland Front.
(SFC, 5/20/02, p.A7)
2003 May 19, The US Supreme Court
dealt a defeat to the drug industry, ruling 6-3 that a state may try to
force companies to lower prices on prescription medications for the
poor and uninsured.
(AP, 5/19/04)
2003 May 19, It was reported that
a loose affiliation of people worked to coordinate Internet attacks on
span generators. E-mail marketer Optinrealbig.com was one of those
targeted.
(WSJ, 5/19/03, p.A1)
2003 May 19, MCI agreed to pay
investors $500 million to settle fraud charges that it acquired in its
merger with WorldCom.
(WSJ, 5/20/03, p.A1)
2003 May 19, In France more than
300,000 protesters marched in anger over government pension reforms and
striking teachers prevented students from taking part of their
high-school graduation exams.
(AP, 5/20/03)
2003 May 19, Indonesian war planes
attacked a rebel base and troops parachuted into restive Aceh province
as the military launched a major offensive just hours after peace talks
broke down and the president imposed martial law.
(AP, 5/19/03)
2003 May 19, In central Iraq 4 US
Marines on a resupply mission were killed when their Ch-46 Sea-Knight
helicopter crashed into a canal and a fifth drowned trying to save them.
(AP, 5/20/03)
2003 May 19, A Palestinian riding
a bicycle blew himself up near an Israeli army jeep. A female suicide
bomber detonated at the entrance to a shopping mall in Afula and killed
3 others in the 5th suicide bombing in 48 hours.
(SFC, 5/20/03, p.A1)(AP, 5/19/04)
2004 May 19, Specialist Jeremy C.
Sivits wept and apologized after receiving a year in prison and a bad
conduct discharge in the first court-martial stemming from abuse of
Iraqis at the Abu Ghraib prison.
(AP, 5/19/05)
2004 May 19, Jack Eckerd (91),
founder of the Eckerd drug store chain, died in Florida.
(WSJ, 5/20/04, p.A1)
2004 May 19, Melvin J. Lasky (84),
an American writer and editor who shaped opinions against communism in
Cold War Europe, died at his home in Berlin.
(AP, 5/27/04)
2004 May 19, In Afghanistan
clashes left at least 4 Taliban dead.
(WSJ, 5/20/04, p.A1)
2004 May 19, Britain opened the
world’s 1st stem cell bank.
(WSJ, 5/20/04, p.A1)
2004 May 19, The European Union
lifted its 6-year-old ban on biotech products by approving imports of
an insect-resistant strain of sweet corn for human consumption.
(AP, 5/19/04)
2004 May 19, Sonia Gandhi
announced that her Congress party had elected economist Manmohan Singh
(71) as the next prime minister of India.
(AP, 5/19/04)
2004 May 19, US Army Spc. Jeremy
C. Sivits received the maximum penalty, one year in prison, reduction
in rank and a bad conduct discharge, in the first court-martial
stemming from mistreatment of Iraqi prisoners at the Abu Ghraib prison.
(AP, 5/19/04)
2004 May 19, In Iraq US bombing
killed up to 45 people, mostly women and children from the Bou Fahad
tribe, at Mogr el-Deeb near the Syrian border. Witnesses said the site
was a wedding celebration while US officials called it a way station
for infiltrators.
(AP, 5/20/04)(SFC, 5/20/04, p.A1)
2004 May 19, Israeli forces fired
a missile and a tank shell into a large crowd of Palestinians
demonstrating against the invasion of a neighboring refugee camp,
witnesses said. At least 10 Palestinians were killed, all children and
teenagers.
(AP, 5/19/04)
2004 May 19, Ivory Coast's
president fired 3 rebel and opposition ministers from a national unity
government, including the leader of insurgents holding the northern
half of the country.
(AP, 5/20/04)
2004 May 19, A cyclone that swept
through western Myanmar and left more than 140 people dead or missing,
and about 18,000 people homeless.
(AP, 5/28/04)
2004 May 19, In the Philippines
Typhoon Nida left 31 people dead.
(SFC, 5/21/04, p.B10)
2004 May 19, A Moscow court
sentenced Mikhail Trepashkin, a former intelligence agent, to 4 years
in prison, on a charge of revealing state secrets. The charge was
related to Trepashkin’s investigations of 4 bombings in apartments
across Russia in 1999 that were blamed on Chechen separatists.
(SFC, 5/20/04, p.A10)
2004 May 19, Antonina Presnyakova,
Russian Ebola researcher, died following an accidental needle stick
containing the deadly virus. She worked at the Vektor State Research
Center of Virology and Biotechnology outside Novosibirsk in central
Siberia.
(AP, 5/25/04)
2005 May 19, The film “Star Wars:
Episode III – Revenge of the Sith,” premiered.
(WSJ, 5/19/05, p.A1)
2005 May 19, Republicans and
Democrats tangled over President Bush's judicial nominees and the
Senate's filibuster rules, with Democrats accusing Bush of trying to
"rewrite the Constitution" and Republicans accusing Democrats of
"unprecedented obstruction."
(AP, 5/19/06)
2005 May 19, J.P. Morgan Chase
introduced a no-swipe plastic credit card that used an embedded chip
and RFID technology as well as the usual magnetic strip.
(SFC, 5/20/05, p.C1)
2005 May 19, The US FCC voted to
require internet phone companies to offer 911 service.
(Econ, 5/28/05, p.67)
2005 May 19, UN health officials
said death from the Angola Marburg fever outbreak had exceeded 300.
(WSJ, 5/20/05, p.A1)
2005 May 19, British researchers
reported the creation of the country's first, and the world's second
(South Korea), cloned human embryo.
(AP, 5/20/05)
2005 May 19, The Canada House of
Commons split 152-152 on a confidence motion and it took a vote by the
parliament speaker to give Martin's minority government its one-vote
victory.
(AP, 5/20/05)
2005 May 19, Five Chilean soldiers
froze to death and 65 were missing after a fierce snowstorm pounded the
Andes mountains.
(AP, 5/20/05)
2005 May 19, In northern China a
large gas explosion in a coal mine left at least 51 workers trapped. 40
bodies were later found and 10 remained missing.
(AP, 5/19/05)(AP, 5/22/05)
2005 May 19, Colombian rebels
ambushed a police convoy and fought government forces along the border
with Ecuador in separate attacks, killing at least 13 police.
(AP, 5/20/05)
2005 May 19, In Egypt authorities
detained 14 members of the opposition Muslim Brotherhood in the south
in a crackdown on the large Islamist movement. The number of detained
rose to more than 780.
(Reuters, 5/20/05)
2005 May 19, Indonesia lifted 2
years of emergency rule in Aceh.
(WSJ, 5/19/05, p.A1)
2005 May 19, Iraq's prime minister
called on Syria to block the infiltration of foreign fighters trying to
start a civil war. 25 Iraqis, including an Oil Ministry engineer, and 4
US soldiers were reported killed in the ongoing daily bloodshed. Oil
Ministry employee Ali Hamid Alwan al-Dulaimy (31) walked out of his
house toward his car when three men firing pistols from a minivan
killed him.
(AP, 5/19/05)(WSJ, 5/20/05, p.A1)
2005 May 19, South Korea
scientists announced the creation of 11 different stem cell lines
matching the DNA of human patients with a variety of diseases. The work
was later discredited.
(SSFC, 5/29/05, p.A17)(AP, 12/23/05)
2005 May 19, The leaders of Togo's
bitterly divided ruling and opposition parties, meeting in Nigeria,
failed to agree on a power-sharing deal to end a bloody post-election
crisis.
(AFP, 5/20/05)
2005 May 19, Uzbekistan troops
retook an eastern Uzbek town from rebels who said they would build an
Islamic state, arresting the group's leaders. Uzbekistan said it
opposes an int’l. investigation into Andijan.
(AP, 5/19/05)(WSJ, 9/2/05, p.A13)
2006 May 19, Sony Corp.’s film
“The Da Vinci Code,” opened. It was directed by Ron Howard and based on
Dan Brown’s best-selling 2003 novel. The weekend global debut produced
$224 million, Hollywood’s 2nd highest behind “Star Wars: Episode III,”
which took in $253 million.
(WSJ, 5/22/06, p.B4)
2006 May 19, The UN panel that
monitors compliance with the world's anti-torture treaty said the
United States should close its prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and
avoid using secret detention facilities in the war on terror. The
report by the Committee Against Torture came as the US military
disclosed that prisoners wielding improvised weapons had clashed with
guards trying to save a detainee who was pretending to commit suicide.
(AP, 5/19/06)(AP, 5/19/07)
2006 May 19, In Detroit 12 people
died over the last 2 days from an overdose of a drug called fentanyl
that was considered 80 times more powerful than morphine. Some fentanyl
was being mixed with heroine. Officials reported over 100 confirmed
overdose cases from the drug since last fall.
(SSFC, 5/27/06, p.A21)
2006 May 19, The NRA opened its
annual convention in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Wayne LaPierre, executive
VP, signed copies of his new book: “the Global War on Your Guns: Inside
the UN Plan to destroy the Bill of Rights.”
(Econ, 5/27/06, p.28)
2006 May 19, Freddie Garrity (69),
lead singer of the 1960s British pop band Freddie and the Dreamers,
died in Wales.
(AP, 5/19/07)
2006 May 19, Gunbattles in Helmand
province killed at least 6 militants and one Afghan soldier. A US
soldier was killed in Uruzgan province.
(AP, 5/20/06)
2006 May 19, Roadside bombs and
other attacks killed 10 Iraqis and wounded 26 people, including a US
soldier riding through Baghdad in a minesweeper.
(AP, 5/19/06)
2006 May 19, In Morocco the prime
ministers of Morocco and Pakistan expressed hopes for closer bilateral
ties, especially economically, after inking several agreements during a
visit by Pakistan's Shaukat Aziz.
(AP, 5/19/06)
2006 May 19, Nepal's new
government declared a public holiday after parliament passed a
proclamation stripping King Gyanendra of his powers and thousands of
people staged a celebration rally.
(AFP, 5/19/06)
2006 May 19, Nigeria sold to a
state-owned Chinese group licenses to explore four oil blocks,
underlining Beijing's increasing drive for energy resources. In
exchange for the drilling rights, China agreed to invest two billion
dollars in northern Nigeria's Kaduna refinery. The Movement for the
Emancipation of Niger Delta (MEND), rejected the claim and described
the allocation as a "bribe".
(AFP, 5/19/06)
2006 May 19, A gun battle erupted
between the new Hamas security force and rival Fatah forces in Gaza
City, police officials said. Two police officers were wounded.
(AP, 5/19/06)
2006 May 19, Officials said Russia
stands to lose tens of millions of dollars in international AIDS
funding because the World Bank has reclassified it as an upper
middle-income country.
(AP, 5/19/06)
2006 May 19, In South Africa
Noziphu Bhengu (32), a victim of AIDS and quackery, died.
(Econ, 6/10/06, p.89)
2006 May 19, In Sudan's Darfur
region dozens were killed in a major attack by government-backed
militias on Shearia town, the latest in a wave of raids since a peace
deal was signed earlier this month.
(AP, 5/20/06)
2006 May 19, In southern Turkey a
truck carrying illegal immigrants from Afghanistan and Bangladesh
crashed into a parked transport truck, killing at least 40 people.
(AP, 5/19/06)
2006 May 19, Ukraine cultural
figures and celebrities criticized efforts to grant the Russian
language special status, calling it an act of war against the Ukrainian
language. Council officials said their decision is based on a European
charter, which was ratified by the Ukrainian parliament in 2003, that
protects regional and minority languages.
(AP, 5/19/06)
2006 May 19, The Vatican said it
had asked Rev. Marcial Maciel, the Mexican founder of the conservative
order Legionaries of Christ (1941), to renounce celebrating public
Masses and live a life of "prayer and repentance" following its
investigation into allegations he sexually abused seminarians.
(AP, 5/19/06)
2006 May 19, In Vietnam 5 people
convicted of heroin dealing were executed by firing squad. About 100
people were executed in Vietnam each year for drug-related offenses.
(AP, 5/20/06)
2006 May 19, An official said at
least 150 Vietnamese fishermen were missing at sea and another 28 were
found dead after getting caught in Typhoon Chanchu.
(AP, 5/19/06)
2007 May 19, Curlin nipped
Kentucky Derby winner Street Sense to win the Preakness Stakes.
(AP, 5/19/08)
2007 May 19, In northern
Afghanistan a suicide attacker detonated himself next to German
soldiers shopping in a crowded market in Kunduz, killing 3 German
soldiers and 6 Afghan civilians with 16 people wounded. A district
police chief and a bodyguard were killed in a bomb blast in the eastern
province of Nangarhar.
(AFP, 5/19/07)
2007 May 19, Algerian official
news reported that security forces had dismantled a suspected support
network linked to twin terror bombings last month in the capital that
killed 30 people.
(AP, 5/20/07)
2007 May 19, Two local health
workers were kidnapped for ransom in the Central African Republic
(CAR), prompting UN concerns that worsening security was hampering aid
work there.
(AFP, 5/23/07)
2007 May 19, China’s state media
said an outbreak of a viral disease common in children has sickened
almost 900 people in eastern China but the outbreak has been contained.
The outbreak of hand, foot and mouth disease began in late April in the
city of Linyi in Shandong province. In southern China thousands of
farmers rioted at a government office in Shabi township, Guangxi
region, after authorities imposed heavy fines on families that had more
children than allowed under the country's family planning policy.
(AP, 5/19/07)(AP, 5/21/07)
2007 May 19, The ruler of Dubai
launched a $10 billion foundation to provide scholarships and promote
research in the Middle East, saying the region has neglected education
despite its oil wealth.
(AP, 5/20/07)
2007 May 19, Police arrested 14
members of the banned Muslim Brotherhood as part of Egypt's ongoing
campaign against the country's strongest opposition group.
(AP, 5/20/07)
2007 May 19, In Germany G8 finance
ministers from the world's richest nations sought ways to improve
financial management in Africa and were asked to scold China for
lending too freely to African countries.
(AP, 5/19/07)
2007 May 19, Gunmen wearing Iraqi
army uniforms entered a village east of Baghdad, rousted families from
their homes and opened fire on the men, killing 15 men and one woman.
Shiite militiamen from the Mahdi Army traded gunfire with Iraqi
soldiers in southwestern Baghdad's Baiyaa district, killing one of the
soldiers. In Tikrit police received the bodies of seven men killed in
clashes the night before in Samarra. Outgoing British PM Tony Blair
arrived in Baghdad on a farewell visit, and three mortar shells or
rockets slammed into the Green Zone where he met with Iraq's leaders.
One US soldier died from a roadside bomb south of Baghdad. Six American
soldiers and their translator died in a bombing in western Baghdad.
Another US soldier was killed and two were wounded when a blast struck
their vehicle near Diwaniyah. At least one US soldier was killed and
four wounded as insurgents attacked the searchers for 3 missing
comrades with guns, mortars and bombs.
(AP, 5/19/07)(AFP, 5/19/07)(AP, 5/20/07)
2007 May 19, Japan's state and
navy police raided a Japanese naval academy over an alleged leak of
sensitive warship technology data shared between Japan and the US.
(AP, 5/19/07)
2007 May 19, Assailants shot dead
a police commander in a wealthy Monterrey suburb, the latest in a wave
of killings of law enforcement officials across Mexico.
(AP, 5/19/07)
2007 May 19, In southern Nigeria
gunmen dynamited the front gate of a residential compound and kidnapped
three Indians in an attack that left one Nigerian dead.
(AP, 5/19/07)
2007 May 19, In Islamabad hardline
clerics holding four Pakistani police at a mosque won the release of
four extremists after a tense day-long stand-off between armed police
and baton-wielding students.
(AP, 5/19/07)
2007 May 19, In Gaza negotiators
from the rival Hamas and Fatah movements reached a new cease-fire deal.
(AP, 5/19/07)
2007 May 19, Romanians voted on
whether to impeach President Traian Basescu, who has been accused of
violating the constitution but remains popular among the public.
Basescu, suspended on grounds he abused power, easily survived a
referendum on his impeachment, with partial results indicating about
three-fourths of the votes supporting the leader.
(AP, 5/19/07)(AP, 5/20/07)
2007 May 19, German Gref, Russia’s
Economy Minister, told reporters that Russia will not allow indebted
state companies to default. It was reported that more than a half-dozen
journalists with the Russian News Service, have resigned to protest the
new pro-Kremlin management's policy that at least 50 percent of
coverage must be positive.
(Reuters, 5/19/07)(AP, 5/19/07)
2007 May 19, Miroslav Deronjic
(52), Bosnian Serb war criminal, died in a hospital in Sweden.
Deronjic, the top authority in the eastern Bosnian city of Bratunac
during the 1992-1995 Bosnian War, was convicted of ordering a 1992
attack on a Bosnian village in which 65 civilians were killed. He had
been serving a 10-year sentence for war crimes.
(AP, 5/20/07)
2007 May 19, Tens of thousands of
Venezuelans marched to support a TV station aligned with opponents of
President Hugo Chavez, whose government plans to kick the channel off
the air next week by not renewing its license.
(AP, 5/19/07)
2008 May 19, The US Justice
Department said international investigators have busted a vast Internet
fraud network and charged 38 suspects, most of them Romanians living in
the US.
(AFP, 5/19/08)
2008 May 19, Federal regulators
said eight former AOL Time Warner Inc. executives fraudulently inflated
the company's online advertising revenues by more than $1 billion
between 2000 and 2002.
(AP, 5/19/08)
2008 May 19, Al Gore received a $1
million prize on Monday for his environmental work from an Israeli
fund. The Dan David Foundation awarded the former vice president its
annual "present" prize for alerting the world to the crisis from the
overuse of fossil fuels.
(AP, 5/19/08)
2008 May 19, Google made available
a free service allowing customers to manage their medical records
online at www.google.com/health.
(SFC, 5/20/08, p.D1)
2008 May 19, Huntington Hartford
(b.1911), the deep-pocketed A&P grocery heir who burned through
most of a $100 million fortune in a series of fruitless business and
cultural endeavors before his life unraveled, died at his home in
Lyford Cay, Nassau, in the Bahamas.
(AP, 5/19/08)
2008 May 19, In eastern
Afghanistan a suicide attacker blew himself up near Afghan troops in a
bazaar near the Pakistani border, wounding four soldiers and a civilian
translator. 8 Taliban were killed in a military raid elsewhere. The
decapitated body of a policeman was found in the southwestern province
of Farah, a day after he had been captured by Taliban fighters. In
eastern Afghanistan militants fired mortars at an aid agency's water
tanker, killed the driver and stole his tanker. In southwestern Nimroz
province, a mine blew up a truck transporting sheep and killed five men
and several of the animals. In Wardak, near Kabul, a mine apparently
intended for police exploded under a civilian car and killed two
people. Two soldiers with NATO's International Security Assistance
Force were killed in separate insurgency-related incidents in southern
Afghanistan.
(AFP, 5/19/08)(AFP, 5/20/08)
2008 May 19, Argentine farmers
announced plans to suspend a 13-day strike and resume grain sales,
paving the way for talks with the government to end contentious export
restrictions.
(AP, 5/20/08)
2008 May 19, In Australia the
Tasmania state government said the Tasmanian devil will be listed as an
endangered species this week as a result of a deadly and disfiguring
cancer outbreak. Animal rights activists said Australian authorities
have started the controversial killing of about 400 kangaroos on the
outskirts of Australia's capital of Canberra.
(AFP, 5/19/08)(AP, 5/19/08)
2008 May 19, British lawmakers
voted to approve controversial plans to allow the use of animal-human
embryos for research.
(AP, 5/19/08)
2008 May 19, China stood still to
begin 3 days of mourning over tens of thousands of earthquake victims,
and the government appealed for more international aid to cope with the
country's deadliest disaster in a generation. The confirmed death toll
from the May 12 quake rose to 34,073.
(AP, 5/19/08)(Econ, 5/24/08, p.57)
2008 May 19, In southern India
police said locally brewed liquor apparently tainted with lethal
chemicals killed at least 59 people over the weekend. By May 21 the
death toll rose to 156.
(AP, 5/19/08)(AP, 5/21/08)
2008 May 19, The Iraqi Interior
Ministry reported the arrest of Abdul-Khaliq al-Sabawi, a top al-Qaida
in Iraq figure in the northern city of Mosul, where security forces
have been carrying out an intensified crackdown to root out the terror
network. Lt. Col. Farhan Qassim, the police chief of the southern town
of Suq al-Shiyoukh, was killed by a bomb that exploded in his office.
Suspected Sunni insurgents near the Syrian border ambushed a minibus
carrying Iraqi recruits killing all 11 passengers.
(AP, 5/19/08)(SFC, 5/20/08, p.A8)
2008 May 19, In Ireland UN chief
Ban Ki-Moon called for a "visionary" global deal to ban cluster bombs,
as delegates from over 100 countries opened a conference aimed at
outlawing the lethal weapons.
(AFP, 5/19/08)
2008 May 19, Japan’s tourism
ministry named Hello Kitty as its choice to represent the country in
China and Hong Kong, two places where she is wildly popular among kids
and young women.
(AP, 5/19/08)
2008 May 19, Nissan Motor Co. and
NEC corp. announced plans to begin mass-producing lithium-ion batteries
for electric cars. Nissan and Renault planned to have an all-electric
car in the US and Japan by 2010.
(WSJ, 5/20/08, p.B1)
2008 May 19, In Mexico the
military took over the town of Zirandaro near Texas after all 20 of its
police officers were either killed, run out of town or quit.
(AP, 5/23/08)
2008 May 19, Myanmar declared
three days of mourning for cyclone victims after agreeing to an
international aid effort led by its Southeast Asian neighbors to help
two million survivors in dire need.
(AFP, 5/19/08)
2008 May 19, In western Nepal 36
people were killed when an overcrowded bus careened off a mountain
highway into a river. Another 10 were presumed dead.
(AFP, 5/20/08)
2008 May 19, In the Philippines a
man strafed several houses during a shooting spree in a town south of
Manila, killing eight people and wounding six others. Five of the dead
were children aged 4-12 years who were sleeping inside their homes in
Calamba town. The lone suspect escaped.
(AP, 5/19/08)
2008 May 19, Matrook al-Faleh was
arrested at King Saud University in the Saudi capital Riyadh, where he
teaches political science. A rights group said it came after al-Faleh
publicly criticized conditions in a prison where two other human rights
activists are serving jail terms. Faleh was released in January, 2009.
(AP, 5/25/08)(AP, 1/11/09)
2008 May 19, In South Africa
police fired rubber bullets and made arrests to try to quell outbursts
of anti-foreigner violence in and around Johannesburg, as the death
toll reached 22.
(AP, 5/19/08)
2008 May 19, Suspected members of
a Basque separatist group allegedly exploded a car bomb in a northern
Basque town, causing considerable damage but no injuries.
(AP, 5/19/08)
2008 May 19, In Turkey a law
extending a smoking ban to most enclosed areas — including taxis,
ferries and shopping malls — came into effect in the nicotine-addicted
nation.
(AP, 5/19/08)
2008 May 19, Zimbabwe's opposition
party accused the country's military of plotting to assassinate the
group's presidential candidate using snipers.
(AP, 5/19/08)
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