Today in History - May 20
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325 May 20, An
ecumenical council was inaugurated by Emperor Constantine in Nicea,
Asia Minor. The Church Council of Nicaea (aka Iznik) in Asia Minor
condemned the teaching of Arius, a Christian priest at Alexandria
(d.336), who held that Christ was not divine in the same sense as God
the Father. The council fixed Orthodox Easter as the first Sunday after
the first full moon following the vernal equinox unless the date falls
on the 1st day of Passover, in which case it moves to the next Sunday.
(WUD, 1994, p.80,81)(Sky, 4/97, p.56)(SFC, 4/25/97,
p.A21)(HN, 5/20/98)
526 May 20, An earthquake killed
250,000 in Antioch, Turkey. This was the capital of Syria from
300-64BCE. [see May 29]
(MC, 5/20/02)
1303 May 20, France returned
Gascony to England’s Edward I.
(HN, 5/20/98)(PC, 1992 ed, p121)
1310 May 20, Shoes began to be
made for both right and left feet.
(MC, 5/20/02)
1347 May 20, Cola di Rienzo took
the title of tribune in Rome.
(HN, 5/20/98)
1364 May 20, Sir Henry Percy
(d.1403), [Harry Hotspur], British soldier, politician, and rebel
leader, was born.
(WUD, 1994, p.1069)(MC, 5/20/02)
1444 May 20, Bernardinus van Siena
(63), Italian saint, died.
(MC, 5/20/02)
1498 May 20, Portuguese explorer
Vasco da Gama arrived at Calicut (Kozhikkode) in Kerala, India.
(www.indhistory.com/vasco-da-gama.html)
1501 May 20, Joao da Nova Castell
discovered the Ascension Islands.
(MC, 5/20/02)
1506 May 20, Christopher Columbus
(55) died in poverty in Spain, still believing he discovered the coast
of Asia. Columbus died in the Spanish city of Valladolid, and was
initially interred in a monastery there. Three years later, his remains
were moved to a monastery on La Cartuja. In 1537, Maria de Rojas y
Toledo, widow of Columbus' son Diego, was allowed to send the bones of
her husband and his father to the cathedral in Santo Domingo for
burial. There they lay until 1795, when Spain ceded the island of
Hispaniola to France and decided Columbus' remains should not fall into
foreigners' hands. A set of remains that the Spaniards thought were
Columbus' were then dug up from behind the main altar in the newly
built cathedral and shipped to a cathedral in Havana, where they
remained until the Spanish-American War broke out in 1898 and Spain
brought them to Seville. But in 1877, workers digging inside the Santo
Domingo cathedral unearthed a leaden box containing 13 large bone
fragments and 28 small ones. It was inscribed "Illustrious and
distinguished male, don Cristobal Colon." The Dominicans said these
were the real remains of Columbus and that the Spaniards must have
taken the wrong remains in 1795.
(AP, 5/20/97)(HN, 5/20/99)(AP, 10/13/02)(SFC,
1/18/05, p.A8)
1509 May 20, Catharina Sforza
(45), "La Sforza del Destino", Italian duchess of Forli, died.
(MC, 5/20/02)
1520 May 20, Hernando Cortes
defeated Spanish troops sent to punish him in Mexico.
(HN, 5/20/98)
1521 May 20, Ignatius Loyola was
seriously wounded by a cannon ball.
(MC, 5/20/02)
1537 May 20, Hieronymus Fabricius
Ab, physician (De Formato Foetu), was born in Aquapend, Italy.
(MC, 5/20/02)
1547 May 20, Melchior Bischoff,
composer, was born.
(MC, 5/20/02)
1571 May 20, Venice, Spain &
Pope Pius formed an anti-Turkish Saint League.
(MC, 5/20/02)
1631 May 20, A German army under
earl Johann Tilly conquered Magdeburg.
(MC, 5/20/02)
1639 May 20, Dorchester, Mass.,
formed the 1st school funded by local taxes.
(MC, 5/20/02)
1648 May 20, In Poland King
Ladislas IV died at age 55. His Jesuit brother (39) took rule as John
Casimir II.
(PCh, 1992, p.241)
1663 May 20, William Bradford,
printer, was born.
(HN, 5/20/01)
1674 May 20, John Sobieski became
Poland’s first King. [see 1573]
(HN, 5/20/98)
1690 May 20, England passed the
Act of Grace, forgiving followers of James II.
(HN, 5/20/98)
1704 May 20, Elias Neau formed a
school for slaves in NY.
(MC, 5/20/02)
1743 May 20, [Francois D]
Toussaint L'Ouverture, Haitian leader, was born on the Breda plantation
in Santo Domingo.
(MC, 5/20/02)(AP, 4/7/03)
1750 May 20, Stephen Girard,
rescued U.S. bonds during War of 1812, actor, was born.
(HN, 5/20/98)
1759 May 20, William Thornton,
architect of the U.S. Capitol, actor, was born.
(HN, 5/20/98)
1768 May 20, Dolley Madison, first
lady of President James Madison, was born. She was famous as a
Washington hostess while her husband was secretary of state and
president.
(HN, 5/20/99)
1772 May 20, William Congreve
(d.1828), English officer (design fire rocket), was born.
(MC, 5/20/02)
1774 May 20, The British
Parliament passed the Coercive Acts to punish the colonists for their
increasingly anti-British behavior. The acts closed the port of Boston.
[see Mar 28]
(HN, 5/20/99)
1775 May 20, North Carolina became
the first colony to declare its independence. Citizens of Mecklenburg
County, NC, declared independence from Britain.
(HN, 5/20/98)(MC, 5/20/02)
1784 May 20, Peace of Versailles
ended the war between France, England, and Holland.
(HN, 5/20/98)
1795 May 20, Ignac Martinovics,
Hungarian physicist, revolutionary, was beheaded.
(MC, 5/20/02)
1799 May 20, Honore de Balzac,
French novelist, was born in Tours, France. He is considered the
founder of the realistic school and wrote "The Human Comedy" and "Lost
Illusions."
(AP, 5/20/99)(HN, 5/20/99)
1799 May 20, Napoleon Bonaparte
ordered a withdrawal from his siege of St. Jean d'Acre in Egypt. Plague
had run through his besieging French forces, forcing a retreat.
(HN, 5/20/00)
1806 May 20, John Stuart Mill
(d.1873), British philosopher and economist, was born. He promoted
utilitarianism and is known as the last great economist of the
classical school. He authored "Principles of Political Economy" wherein
in theorized that production was the real basis for economic law. He
felt that the market was capable of allocating resources but not of
distributing income. "If all mankind minus one, were of one opinion,
and only one person were of the contrary opinion, mankind would be no
more justified in silencing that one person, than he, if he had the
power, would be justified in silencing mankind."
(V.D.-H.K.p.253)(WSJ, 1/11/99, p.R20)(AP,
1/13/00)(HN, 5/20/01)
1818 May 20, William George Fargo,
one of the founders of Wells, Fargo & Co., actor, was born.
(HN, 5/20/98)
1825 May 20, Charles X became King
of France.
(MC, 5/20/02)
1830 May 20, The 1st railroad
timetable was published in the newspaper Baltimore American.
(MC, 5/20/02)
1830 May 20, Dr. Hyde patented a
fountain pen.
(MC, 5/20/02)
1834 May 20, The Marquis de
Lafayette (78), US Revolutionary War hero (Marie Joseph Paul Yves Roche
Gilbert du Motier), died in Paris, France. He was the 1st foreigner to
address Congress. In 2002 Congress moved to make him an honorary US
citizen. In 1983 Olivier Bernier authored “Lafayette, Hero of Two
Worlds.” In 200 Harlow Giles Unger authored “Lafayette.”
(WSJ, 1/15/97, p.A12)(SFC, 7/23/02, p.A2)(ON, 2/09,
p.5)(www.marquisdelafayette.net/)
1847 May 20, Mary Lamb, writer,
died.
(MC, 5/20/02)
1851 May 20, Emile Berliner,
inventor of the flat phonograph record, was born in Germany.
(MC, 5/20/02)
1851 May 20, Rose Hawthorne
Lathrop, US nun, daughter of Nathaniel Hawthorne, was born.
(MC, 5/20/02)
1856 May 20, Henri E. Cross
(d.1910), French painter, was born. His real surname was Delacroix but
was changed in 1881.
(MC, 5/20/02)
1856 May 20, Massachusetts Senator
Charles Sumner (1811-1874), an outspoken antagonist against slavery,
gave the "Crime Against Kansas" speech. [see May 22] Sumner helped form
the Republican Party.
(HNQ, 7/7/99)
1856 May 20, James King, editor of
the Evening Bulletin, died from wounds suffered on May 14. His death
brought about the rising of vigilantes and the take over of the SF
government.
(PI, 8/8/98,
p.5)(http://elane.stanford.edu/wilson/Text/11b.html)
1859 May 20, A force of Austrians
collide with Piedmontese cavalry at the village of Montebello, in
northern Italy.
(HN, 5/20/00)
1861 May 20, Kentucky proclaimed
its neutrality in Civil War. [see May 16]
(MC, 5/20/02)
1861 May 20, North Carolina voted
to secede from the Union and became the 11th and last state to do so.
(AP, 5/20/97)(HN, 5/20/98)
1861 May 20, The capital of the
Confederacy was moved from Montgomery, Ala., to Richmond, Va.
(AP, 5/20/97)
1861 May 20, US marshals
appropriated the previous year's telegraph dispatches, to reveal
pro-secessionist evidence.
(MC, 5/20/02)
1862 May 20, President Lincoln
signed the Homestead Act, providing 250 million acres of free land to
settlers in the West. It officially opened the Nebraska territory for
settlement, leading to statehood in 1867. The US government passed the
Homestead Act to stop the spread of slavery to the Western territories.
Public land was awarded to any head of a family on condition that the
settlers improve the land and live there for 5 years.
(Hem., 5/97, p.20)(HNQ, 12/3/00)(HN, 5/20/01)
1864 May 20, Battle at Ware Bottom
Church, Virginia, killed or injured 1,400.
(MC, 5/20/02)
1864 May 20, Spotsylvania-campaign
ended after 10,920 were killed or injured person.
(MC, 5/20/02)
1867 May 20, British parliament
rejected John Stuart Mill’s law on women suffrage.
(MC, 5/20/02)
1868 May 20, The Republican
National Convention met in Chicago and nominated Grant.
(MC, 5/20/02)
1873 May 20, Levi Strauss of San
Francisco and Jacob Davis of Reno, Nevada, received a patent for
miners’ work pants that included rivets to reinforce the pockets.
(SFC, 4/29/03, B1)(SFC, 1/23/04, p.A10)(ON, 4/05,
p.12)
1874 May 20, Levi Strauss began
marketing blue jeans with copper rivets at $13.50 per doz. [see 1872]
(HN, 5/20/98)(SFC, 8/28/98, p.B4)(MC, 5/20/02)
1882 May 20, Sigrid Undset,
Norwegian novelist (Kristin Lavransdatter), was born.
(HN, 5/20/01)
1882 May 20, Henrik Ibsen's
"Ghosts" (Gengangere) premiered in Chicago.
(MC, 5/20/02)
1882 May 20, The St.
Gotthard-railroad tunnel opened between Switzerland & Italy.
(MC, 5/20/02)
1883 May 20, Faisal ibn Husayn
(d.1933), the 3rd son of the grand sherif of Mecca, was born in Mecca.
He later became 1st king of Syria (1920) and Iraq (1921).
(www.wordiq.com/definition/Faisal_I_of_Iraq)
1889 May 20, Felix Arndt,
composer, was born.
(MC, 5/20/02)
1890 May 20, Beniamino Gigli,
tenor (Enzo-La Gioconda), was born in Italy.
(MC, 5/20/02)
1892 May 20, George Sampson
patented a clothes dryer.
(MC, 5/20/02)
1895 May 20, The 1st commercial
movie performance was at 153 Broadway in NYC.
(MC, 5/20/02)
1896 May 20, Clara Josephine Wieck
Schumann (76), composer, died.
(BLW, 1963 p.191)
1899 May 20, John M. Harlan, the
91st Supreme Court justice (1955-71), was born in Chicago.
(MC, 5/20/02)
1902 May 20, The United States
ended its three-year military presence in Cuba as the Republic of Cuba
was established under its first elected president, Tomas Estrada Palma.
Theodore Roosevelt had criticized the government’s sluggish withdrawal
of disease-stricken US troops from Cuba.
(HN, 5/20/98)(WSJ, 11/13/98, p.A1)(AP, 5/20/02)
1908 May 20, Jimmy Stewart, actor,
was born in Indiana, Pa. He is best remembered for his roles in "It's a
Wonderful Life" and "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington."
(WSJ, 5/20/97, p.A18)(HN, 5/20/99)(AP, 5/20/08)
1912 May 20, Joseph Proce, 3rd
victim of NYC's Zodiac killer, was born.
(MC, 5/20/02)
1913 May 20, William Hewlett,
co-founder of Hewlett-Packard Co., was born.
(MC, 5/20/02)
1915 May 20, Moshe Dayan, Israeli
general, minister of Defense, was born.
(MC, 5/20/02)
1916 May 20, The Saturday Evening
Post cover featured a Norman Rockwell painting.
(MC, 5/20/02)
1916 May 20, Sir Ernest Shackleton
with 2 men crew reached a whaling station on St. Georgia Island after
their ship sank in the ice of Antarctica. Shackleton’s own account of
the venture was titled: "South." In 1959 Alfred Lansing wrote
“Endurance: Shackleton’s Incredible Voyage.” A biography of Shackleton
was written in 1985 by Roland Huntford.
(WSJ, 4/2/98, p.B1)(SFEC, 1/24/99, BR p.6)
1916 May 20, A tornado hit Codell,
Kansas. More hit on the same date in 1917 and 1918.
(www.islandnet.com/~see/weather/almanac/arc2006/alm06may.htm)
1917 May 20, Turkish government
authorized Jews to return to Tel Aviv and Jaffa.
(MC, 5/20/02)
1918 May 20, The 1st electrically
propelled warship (New Mexico).
(MC, 5/20/02)
1919 May 20, Volcano Keluit on
Java erupted killing 550.
(MC, 5/20/02)
1926 May 20, Thomas Edison said
Americans prefer silent movies over talkies.
(MC, 5/20/02)
1927 May 20, Charles Lindbergh
(25) took off from Roosevelt Field in Long Island, N.Y., at 7:40 AM
aboard the Spirit of St. Louis on his historic solo flight to France.
The Minnesota native had decided to compete for the $25,000 prize,
offered in 1919 by a NY hotel owner to the first pilot to complete the
feat. The Spirit of St. Louis, was capable of flying 4,000 miles on 425
gallons of fuel. His greatest problems on the 33-hour, 30-minute flight
were staying awake and keeping ice from forming on the airplane’s
wings.
(AP, 5/20/97)(HN, 5/20/98)(HNPD, 5/21/00)(USAW,
5/19/02, p.26)
1927 May 20, Saudi Arabia became
independent of Great Britain with the Treaty of Jedda.
(MC, 5/20/02)
1930 May 20, University of
California dedicated $1,500 to research on the prevention and cure of
athlete's foot.
(MC, 5/20/02)
1930 May 20, The first airplane,
piloted by Charles Nicholson, was catapulted from a dirigible.
(HN, 5/20/98)(MC, 5/20/02)
1932 May 20, Amelia Earhart took
off from Newfoundland to become the first woman to fly solo across the
Atlantic. Because of weather and equipment problems, Earhart set down
in Northern Ireland after 13 ½ hours instead of her intended
destination, France.
(HFA, '96, p.30)(HN, 5/20/01)(AP, 5/20/07)(ON,
12/07, p.9)
1933 May 20, Danny Aiello, actor
(Moonstruck, Do the Right Thing), was born in NYC.
(MC, 5/20/02)
1939 May 20, Regular
trans-Atlantic air service began as a Pan American Airways plane, the
Yankee Clipper, took off from Port Washington, N.Y., bound for
Marseilles, France.
(AP, 5/20/97)(MC, 5/20/02)
1940 May 20, Igor Sikorsky
unveiled his helicopter invention.
(MC, 5/20/02)
1940 May 20, Gen Guderian's
British expeditionary army tanks reached The Channel.
(MC, 5/20/02)
1941 May 20, Germany invaded Crete
by air.
(HN, 5/20/98)
1942 May 20, Glenn Miller and His
Orchestra recorded "(I've Got a Gal in) Kalamazoo" at Victor Studios in
Hollywood.
(AP, 5/20/02)
1942 May 20, US Navy 1st permitted
black recruits to serve.
(MC, 5/20/02)
1942 May 20, Japan completed the
conquest of Burma.
(HN, 5/20/98)
1943 May 20, French, British and
US held a victory parade in Tunis, Tunisia.
(MC, 5/20/02)
1944 May 20, US Communist Party
dissolved.
(MC, 5/20/02)
1948 May 20, Israel made the 1st
use of its Air Force and claimed its 1st war victory with the defeat of
the Syrian army.
(MC, 5/20/02)
1951 May 20, During the Korean
War, U.S. Air Force Captain James Jabara, flying an F-28 Saberjet,
became the first jet air ace in history.
(HN, 5/20/99)
1954 May 20, Generalissimo Chiang
Kai-shek became president of Nationalist China.
(MC, 5/20/02)
1955 May 20, Argentine parliament
accepted the separation of church & state.
(MC, 5/20/02)
1956 May 20, The US dropped a
thermonuclear bomb from a plane onto Bikini Atoll. [see May 21]
(HN, 5/20/98)
1956 May 20, Max Beerbohm,
caricaturist, writer (Yet Again), died.
(MC, 5/20/02)
1959 May 20, Ford won a battle
with Chrysler to call its new car "Falcon."
(MC, 5/20/02)
1959 May 20, Japanese-Americans
regained their citizenship.
(MC, 5/20/02)
1961 May 20, A white mob attacked
a busload of "Freedom Riders" in Montgomery, Ala., prompting the
federal government to send in U.S. marshals to restore order.
(AP, 5/20/97)(HN, 5/20/98)
1963 May 20, A fire in New Jersey
burned out of control and killed 7 people. Nearly 1,000 were left
homeless as the fire moved 9 miles in 6 hours on what was called Black
Saturday.
(SFC, 5/20/09, p.D8)
1963 May 20, Sukarno was appointed
president of Indonesia.
(MC, 5/20/02)
1963 May 20-23, In East Pakistan a
cyclone killed about 22,000 along coast of the Bay of Bengal.
(www.emergency-management.net/cyclone.htm)
1967 May 20, 10,000 demonstrated
against the war in Vietnam.
(MC, 5/20/02)
1967 May 20, BBC banned Beatle's
"A Day in the Life" due to drug references.
(MC, 5/20/02)
1968 May 20, The US Supreme Court
(United States v. United Shoe Machinery Corp., 391 U.S. 244) ruled for
the breakup of United Shoe Machinery Company in Mass.
(http://supreme.justia.com/us/391/244/)(WSJ,
10/2/97, p.A16)
1969 May 20, In Connecticut Warren
Kimbro (d.2009 at 74), a member of the Black Panthers, fatally shot
Alex Rackley (19), another member of the Black Panthers, who was
believed to be an FBI informant. The shooting was ordered by George
Sams, a local Black Panther leader. Prosecutors later alleged that
Bobby Seale had ordered the murder.
(AP, 2/11/09)
1969 May 20, U.S. troops of the
101st Airborne Division and South Vietnamese forces captured Ap Bia
Mountain, Hill 937, after nine days of fighting entrenched North
Vietnamese forces. Ap Bia was referred to as Hamburger Hill by the
Americans, following one of the bloodiest battles of the Vietnam War.
(HN, 5/20/02)(AP, 5/20/08)
1970 May 20, Some 100,000 people
demonstrated in New York's Wall Street district in support of U.S.
policy in Vietnam and Cambodia.
(AP, 5/20/97)(HN, 5/20/98)
1971 May 20, The US Congress
cancelled the supersonic SST airplane program.
(WSJ, 7/26/00,
p.A26)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boeing_2707)
1971 May 20, In Turkey the
National Order Party was shut down by Constitutional Court for being
anti-secular. Erbakan went to Switzerland in self-exile.
(AP, 11/4/02)(http://tinyurl.com/5vabve)
1973 May 20, "The Two Gentlemen of
Verona" closed at St. James Theater in NYC after 613 performances.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Two_Gentlemen_of_Verona)
1973 May 20, In the 25th Emmy
Awards the winners included The Waltons, All in the Family & Mary
Tyler Moore.
(www.imdb.com/Sections/Awards/Emmy_Awards/1973)
1974 May 20, Judge John Sirica
ordered President Nixon to turn over tapes and records of 64 White
House conversations regarding Watergate.
(http://law.jrank.org/pages/13513/United-States-v-Nixon.html)
1974 May 20, Ian Fairweather
(b.1891), Scotland-born Australian artist, died. He lived for much of
his life as a recluse on Bribie Island, north of Brisbane. In Murray
Bail authored “Fairweather,” a biography with color reproductions. The
book was expanded in 2009.
(Econ, 4/18/09,
p.91)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ian_Fairweather)
1975 May 20, The European Economic
Community adopted a trade agreement with Israel.
(http://ec.europa.eu/comm/competition/international/3a15en.html)
1978 May 20, The Tokyo
International Airport at Narita opened on a 2,632 acre site on Chiba
Peninsula. The opening was 8 years after it was built due to opposition
by local farmers and univ. students.
(Hem, 8/95,
p.53)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Narita_International_Airport)
1980 May 20, In Canada a
referendum of 59.5% of Quebec voters rejected separatism.
(http://torontosun.com/Anniversary/25th/2006/07/24/1700461.html)
1980 May 20, A fire in nursing
home in Kingston, Jamaica, killed some 153 old women.
(http://www.jnht.com/disndat/eventide.php)
1984 May 20, "On Your Toes" closed
at the Virginia Theater in NYC after 505 performances.
(www.ibdb.com/production.asp?ID=4208)
1984 May 20, Peter Bull (72),
British actor (Dr Doolittle), died of a heart attack.
(www.imdb.com/name/nm0119988/)
1985 May 20, US began broadcasts
to Cuba on Radio Marti.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radio_Mart%C3%AD)
1985 May 20, FBI arrested John A.
Walker. US Navy Chief Petty Officer Walker began spying for the Soviet
Union in 1968 for $1,000 per week. Walker’s ex-wife turned him into the
FBI.
(www.dss.mil/training/espionage/1985.htm)
1985 May 20, Israel exchanged
1,150 Palestinian prisoners for 3 Israeli soldiers. The exchange was
later referred to as the Jibril deal after the leader of the PFLP-GC,
Ahmad Jibril.
(www.passia.org/palestine_facts/chronology/19631988.htm)(http://tinyurl.com/6qrln3)
1986 May 20, The Flintstones 25th
Anniversary Celebration aired on CBS-TV.
(www.topthat.net/webrock/specials/25thAnniversary.htm)
1986 May 20, In China a tornado
picked up 12 children and deposited them on a sand dune 12 miles away
unharmed.
(SFEC, 7/6/97, Z1 p.6)
1987 May 20, Captain Glenn
Brindel, commander of the US frigate Stark, broke his silence regarding
the May 17 loss of 37 sailors in an Iraqi missile attack. Brindel said
he was warned only seconds before missiles struck, and that he'd had no
time to activate the ship's defense system.
(AP, 5/20/97)
1988 May 20, 30-year-old Laurie
Dann walked into a Winnetka, Ill., elementary school classroom, where
she shot to death 8-year-old Nicholas Corwin and wounded several other
children. After wounding a young man at his home, Dann took her own
life.
(AP, 5/20/98)
1989 May 20, Comedian Gilda Radner
died in Los Angeles at age 42.
(AP, 5/20/99)
1989 May 20, China declared
martial law in Beijing. During the pro-democracy protests, Beijing
officials ordered CBS and CNN to end their live on-scene reports.
(AP, 5/20/99)
1990 May 20, The Hubble Space
Telescope sent back its first photographs.
(AP, 5/20/00)
1990 May 20, An Israeli opened
fire on a group of Palestinian laborers south of Tel Aviv, killing
seven; the gunman was sentenced to life in prison.
(AP, 5/20/00)
1990 May 20, Romania's ruling
National Salvation Front scored victories in the country's first free
elections in more than 50 years.
(AP, 5/20/00)
1991 May 20, The movie “Barton
Fink” won the top prizes at the 44th annual Cannes Film Festival.
(AP, 5/20/01)
1991 May 20, Lawmakers in the
Soviet Union voted to liberalize foreign travel and emigration.
(AP, 5/20/01)
1991 May 20, The American Red
Cross announced measures aimed at screening blood more carefully for
the AIDS virus.
(AP, 5/20/97)
1992 May 20, Proclaiming his
innocence to the end, Roger Keith Coleman was executed in Virginia's
electric chair for the 1981 rape-murder of his sister-in-law, Wanda
McCoy. In 2006 DNA evidence confirmed that Coleman was guilty.
(AP, 5/20/97)(AP, 1/13/06)
1992 May 20, Thailand's
much-revered monarch (King Bhumibol Adulyadej) called for an end to
violent clashes between troops and pro-democracy protesters.
(AP, 5/20/02)
1993 May 20, An estimated 93
million people tuned in for the 274th & final episode of "Cheers"
on NBC-TV.
(AP, 5/20/98)
1993 May 20, Max Klein (77),
inventor of paint by numbers, died.
(www.inthe90s.com/generated/obit1993.shtml)
1994 May 20, Tributes poured in
following the death of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis. President Clinton
said of the former first lady: "She captivated our nation and the world
with her intelligence, her elegance and her grace."
(AP, 5/20/99)
1995 May 20, Timber Country won
the Preakness at Pimlico.
(AP, 5/20/00)
1995 May 20, President Clinton
announced that the two-block stretch of Pennsylvania Avenue in front of
the White House would be permanently closed to motor vehicles as a
security measure.
(AP, 5/20/00)
1995 May 20, CBS News fired
co-anchor Connie Chung.
(http://tv.groups.yahoo.com/group/tvbarn/message/148)
1996 May 20, The song Blue
composed by Bill Mack in 1963 for Patsy Cline was finally recorded by
14-year-old LeAnn Rimes.
(WSJ, 8/29/96, p.B1)
1996 May 20, The Supreme Court
struck down, 6-3, a Colorado constitutional amendment banning laws that
protect homosexuals from discrimination. In another decision, the court
curtailed, 5-4, huge jury awards aimed at punishing or deterring
misconduct.
(WSJ, 5/21/96, p.A-1)(AP, 5/20/97)
1996 May 20, The US paid North
Korea $2 million to help recover the remains of US soldiers killed
during the Korean War.
(SFC, 5/21/96, p.A-11)
1996 May 20, John Pertwee (76),
English actor (Dr Who), died.
(http://us.imdb.com/name/nm0675727/)
1996 May 20, Iraq and the UN
reached an agreement for oil sales in exchange for use of the revenue
in humanitarian aid.
(WSJ, 5/21/96, p.A-1)
1996 May 20, Dr. Eyyad Sarraj, a
Palestinian human rights advocate, was arrested after accusing the
Palestinian Authority of dictatorial rule and torturing prisoners in
the Gaza Strip.
(SFC, 5/20/96, p.A-9)
1996 May 20, In Malaysia timber
exports have reached $1.5 billion from the state of Sarawak in
north-central Borneo Island. The lives of the local Penans and other
forest peoples have been forever fractured. Half of Sarawak is zoned
for logging, 8% is to be permanently protected, and 42% is to be
stripped away for development.
(SFC, 5/20/96, p.A-8)
1996 May 20, Public workers in
many cities of Germany staged warning strikes against the governments
proposed decrease in public spending.
(SFC, 5/21/96, p.A-10)
1996 May 20, Giovanni Brusca (36),
believed by many to be the leader of the Italian Mafia, was arrested in
Sicily. He is charged with masterminding the murder of Giovanni
Falcone, his wife and three bodyguards in 1992 and of leading teams
that damaged the Uffizi museum in Florence with car bombs in 1993.
(SFC, 5/21/96, p.A-11)(SFC, 8/24/96, p.A12)
1996 May 20, Two French soldiers
were shot and wounded as they assisted French citizens to evacuate from
Bangui in the Central African Republic. Its the second uprising by the
army in two months and seven people have been killed since fighting
started.
(SFC, 5/21/96, p.A-11)
1997 May 20, The Senate approved
legislation to ban certain late-term abortions, but fell three votes
shy of the total needed to override President Clinton's threatened
veto.
(AP, 5/20/98)
1997 May 20, Marine Corporal
Clemente Banuelos shot and killed the goat herder Esequiel Hernandez on
the Mexican border at El Paso while on border patrol. The marine
claimed self-defense after Hernandez fired 2 shots from a .22-caliber
rifle. A grand jury later declined to indict Banuelos.
(SFC, 8/15/97, p.A8)
1997 May 20, In Venezuela it was
reported that a plan was approved to allow the country’s 4,000 jaguars
to be legally hunted. Proceeds of hunting licenses would be used to
move remaining jaguars to protected areas.
(SFC, 5/20/97, p.A14)
1998 May 20, Pres. Clinton vetoed
a school voucher plan that would have provided tax funds for poor
children in Washington D.C. to attend private or religious schools.
(WSJ, 5/21/98, p.A1)
1998 May 20, The House voted
overwhelmingly to block future satellite exports to China. [see May 10,
1999]
(AP, 5/20/99)
1998 May 20, The government
unveiled the design for the new $20 bill, featuring a larger and
slightly off-center portrait of Andrew Jackson.
(AP, 5/20/99)
1998 May 20, In another part of
Operation Casablanca, a US federal indictment in LA charged 5
Venezuelans with laundering millions of dollars from drug cartels.
Bankers Esperanza de Saad and Marco Tulio Henriquez were included.
(SFC, 5/21/98, p.A5)
1998 May 20, In Wisconsin abortion
clinics resumed first-trimester abortions after being assured that the
new state law did not impact the first trimester operations.
(SFC, 5/21/98, p.A6)
1998 May 20, In Streamwood Ill.,
Frank Capaci, a retired electrician, won the record $195 mil Powerball
lottery of Wisconsin. He chose to take a $104.23 mil lump sum payment.
(SFC, 5/22/98, p.A3)
1998 May 20, In Beverly Hills,
Calif., Hollywood royalty bid farewell to Frank Sinatra, who had died
almost a week earlier at age 82, in a private, invitation-only funeral.
(AP, 5/20/99)
1998 May 20, In Argentina Alfredo
Yabran, a businessman wanted in connection with a 1997 murder,
committed suicide in Entre Rios province.
(SFC, 5/21/98, p.A14)
1998 May 20, In Bangladesh a
cyclone pounded the southeastern coast and killed at least 14 people.
Nearly 100 fisherman were missing.
(SFC, 5/22/98, p.D4)
1998 May 20, In Cambodia Prince
Ranariddh quit as head of an opposition alliance against Hun Sen and
chose to support Son Soubert.
(WSJ, 5/21/98, p.A1)
1998 May 20, The EU approved a
rescue package to save the French Credit Lyonnais banking group. In
exchange the state bank would be privatized and assets would have to be
sold.
(SFC, 5/22/98, p.D4)
1998 May 20, In Kyrgyzstan a truck
spilled 20 tons of cyanide and forced 600 people to seek medical
treatment. 3,876 pounds of cyanide leached out of the truck but did not
seem to hurt any local residents. Some fish died in the river and the
water flowed into the 113-mile-long Lake Ysyk Kol. The Cameco Corp. of
Canada ran the Kumtor gold mine and contributed some 15% of the
country’s GNP.
(WSJ, 5/28/98, p.A1)(WSJ, 11/18/98, p.A18)
1999 May 20, Robbie Knievel (37)
jumped a 200-foot-wide chasm over the Grand Canyon with his motorcycle.
His old world record was 223 feet.
(SFC, 5/21/99, p.A3)
1999 May 20, The US Senate passed
a bill imposing new gun control measures that included background
checks on all firearm transactions at gun shows and pawn shops.
(SFC, 5/21/99, p.A1)
1999 May 20, The US Justice Dept.
settled charges against Roche Holding AG and BASF AG, two of the
largest vitamin makers, for price fixing. Roche agreed to pay $500
million with a guilty plea, and BASF agreed to pay $225 million with a
guilty plea.
(SFC, 5/21/99, p.A3)
1999 May 20, The US FDA approved
the painkiller Vioxx made by Merck. The clinical trial of Vioxx®
included more than 5000 patients and approved for diminishing pain in
patients with acute and chronic osteoarthritis, adult pain relief and
primary dysmenorrheal.
(www.weitzlux.com/vioxxrecallhistory_94.html)
1999 May 20, In Conyers, Ga., a
15-year-old boy shot and wounded 6 fellow students at Heritage High
School.
(SFC, 5/21/99, p.A1)
1999 May 20, NATO bombs struck a
hospital in Belgrade and its suburbs leaving a hospital in smoldering
ruins, three patients dead and the nearby homes of three European
ambassadors damaged.
(SFC, 5/21/99, p.A12)(AP, 5/20/00)
1999 May 20, In Canada the Supreme
Court struck down a heterosexual definition of "spouse" as
unconstitutional.
(SFC, 5/21/99, p.A12)
1999 May 20, In Italy Massimo
D'Antona, a univ. professor of labor law and the architect of labor
reforms, was shot to death as he walked to work in Rome. The Red
Brigade claimed responsibility in a 28-page manifesto left in a trash
bin. In 2005 Nadia Desdemona Lioce, Marco Mezzasalma and Roberto
Morandi were convicted and sentenced to life terms. Paolo Broccatelli
received a nine-year term.
(SFC, 5/22/99, p.A13)(AP, 7/9/05)
1999 May 20, Off the western coast
of Malaysia over 1,100 people escaped from the Bahamian-registered Sun
Vista cruise ship, which caught fire and sank. The 547-cabin ship under
Captain Sven Hartzell was in the Strait of Malacca when the fire began.
(SFC, 5/21/99, p.D2)(SFC, 5/24/99, p.A12)
1999 May 20, In Pakistan a cyclone
struck the Arabian Sea coast and left an estimated 700 people missing,
many of whom were presumed dead. Residents said that as many as 3,500
people were missing. Some 92 bodies of Indians were recovered from the
cyclone that hit the Pakistani coast by May 27. The number of bodies of
Indian fisherman found reached 278 on Jun 2.
(SFC, 5/21/99, p.A13)(SFC, 5/22/99, p.A16)(SFC,
6/3/99, p.C4)
1999 May 20, In Turkey Semdik
Sakik, a Kurdish guerrilla commander was sentenced to death along with
his brother Arif Sakik.
(SFC, 5/21/99, p.D2)
1999 May 20, The Yugoslav army
took control of the borders of Montenegro to prevent men escaping into
Bosnia and to halt the flow of recruits and weapons to the KLA.
(WSJ, 5/21/99, p.A9)
2000 May 20, “Red Bullet” won the
Preakness Stakes, outpacing Kentucky Derby winner “Fusaichi Pegasus.”
(AP, 5/20/01)
2000 May 20, In North Carolina a
bridge collapsed at the Winston NASCAR stock car race in Concord. 107
people were treated and 53 were hospitalized.
(SFC, 5/22/00, p.A2)
2000 May 20, Jean-Pierre Rampal,
classical flutist, died in Paris at age 78.
(SFEC, 5/21/00, p.B11)
2000 May 20, Israeli warplanes
attacked Palestinian targets in Lebanon and destroyed 10 tanks. Israeli
soldiers clashed with Palestinian demonstrators for the 9th day in
Palestinian territories within Israel.
(SFEC, 5/21/00, p.A10)
2000 May 20, The 5 nuclear powers
of the UN Security Council agreed to eliminate their nuclear arsenals
over time as part of a new disarmament agenda approved by 187 countries.
(SFEC, 5/21/00, p.A8)
2001 May 20, President Bush, in an
address to graduating Notre Dame students, urged a new generation of
American voters to "revive the spirit of citizenship" and carry on the
work of two Democratic presidents: Lyndon Johnson's war on poverty and
welfare reforms under Bill Clinton.
(AP, 5/20/02)
2001 May 20, In China 20 miners
were feared dead in a gypsum mine in the Guangxi region and another
38-39 were trapped in a coal mine in Sichuan. The miners in Sichuan
were working a prison-run mine.
(SFC, 5/21/01, p.A10)(SFC, 5/22/01, p.A11)
2001 May 20, In China 14 people
were executed in 2 cities for robbery and murder.
(SFC, 5/21/01, p.A10)
2001 May 20, The Italian film "The
Son's Room" won the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival.
(AP, 5/20/02)
2001 May 20, In Iran a power
failure by Tavanir, the state-owned utility, left almost the whole
country without electricity for several hours.
(SFC, 5/21/01, p.A10)
2001 May 20, In Iran a woman was
stoned to death after her conviction for acting in pornographic films
was upheld by the Supreme Court.
(SFC, 5/22/01, p.A11)
2001 May 20, In Macedonia
government troops shelled ethnic Albanian positions in response to
machine gun and sniper fire.
(SFC, 5/22/01, p.A11)
2001 May 20, In Mongolia the 3rd
presidential elections were scheduled. Pres. Bagabandi was re-elected
with 58% of the vote.
(SFC, 5/17/01, p.C4)(SFC, 5/22/01, p.A11)
2002 May 20, Pres. Bush marked
Cuban Independence Day with a speech that offered Cuba greater economic
and political ties in exchange for free and transparent elections and
an open economy.
(WSJ, 5/20/02, p.A3)(SFC, 5/21/02, p.A3)
2002 May 20, FBI Chief Mueller
said the US may soon be confronted with human bombs like those in the
Mideast.
(WSJ, 5/21/02, p.A1)
2002 May 20, Steven Jay Gould
(60), polymath, paleontologist and writer, died of cancer in NYC. He
and Niles Eldredge were proponents of the theory of punctuated
evolution, an update on Darwin's theory of evolution. His books
included “The Mismeasure of Man” (1988). His book “The Hedgehog, the
Fox and the Magister's Pox: Mending the Gap Between Science and the
Humanities” was published posthumously in 2003.
(SFC, 5/21/02, p.A6)(SSFC, 4/13/03, p.M1)
2002 May 20, Veteran Los Angeles
TV newscaster Jerry Dunphy died at age 80.
(AP, 5/20/03)
2002 May 20, East Timor, with a
population at about 800,000, celebrated independence. A legal battle
loomed with Australia over the disputed Greater Sunrise natural gas
field in the Timor Sea. The filed lay 95 miles south of East Timor and
250 miles north of Australia.
(SFC, 5/20/02, p.A6)(WSJ, 5/20/02, p.A19)(WSJ,
6/10/04, p.A1)
2002 May 20, East Timor was
renamed Timor-Leste upon independence.
(www.mindef.gov.sg/armynews/display0.asp?articleId=57)
2002 May 20, In Israel a
Palestinian suicide bomber killed himself and Israeli troops in
Tulkarem arrested a women who planned a suicide attack. It was also
reported that a Palestinian plan to bomb the twin 50-story towers in
Tel Aviv had been thwarted 3 weeks earlier. PM Sharon fired 4 Cabinet
members of Shas who helped defeat his emergency economic plan.
(SFC, 5/21/02, p.A1)
2002 May 20, In Japan the Int'l.
Whaling Commission rejected Iceland's bid for full membership for a 2nd
year in a row.
(SFC, 5/21/02, p.A16)
2002 May 20, In Lebanon a car bomb
killed Jihad Jibril (38), head of local military operations for the
PFLP-GC. He was the son of Palestinian guerrilla leader Ahmed Jibril
who headed the Syrian-based Popular Front for the Liberation of
Palestine-General Command, founded in 1968. In 2008 a retired Lebanese
police officer and a Palestinian were indicted for allegedly working
with Israeli intelligence to assassinate Jibril.
(SFC, 5/21/02, p.A16)(AP, 6/18/08)
2002 May 20, Liberia rejected a
cease-fire appeal by neighboring West African nations and ordered its
forces to look for a missing British priest and 60-blind Liberian
civilians last seen May 13.
(SFC, 5/21/02, p.A16)
2002 May 20, Palestine called for
int'l. monitors for the Kashmir border. 2 Indian soldiers were killed
in fighting.
(SFC, 5/21/02, p.A9)
2003 May 20, The TV show "Buffy
the Vampire Slayer" had its finale. Set in the fictional California
town of Sunnydale, "Buffy" depicted high school as a literal Hell. The
TV series began in 1997 based on a 1992 movie.
(AP, 5/20/03)
2003 May 20, The Bush
administration raised the terrorism alert level to orange on and called
for increased security nationwide.
(AP, 5/20/03)
2003 May 20, The United States
banned all beef imports from Canada after a lone case of mad cow
disease was discovered in the heart of Canada's cattle country.
(AP, 5/20/04)
2003 May 20, Afghan governors
signed an agreement with President Hamid Karzai to pay vital customs
revenues to the central government. Karzai had threatened to resign due
to lack of revenue payments.
(AP, 5/20/03)(WSJ, 5/20/03, p.A1)
2003 May 20, Canadian agriculture
officials said that it took 15 weeks -- from Jan. 31 to May 16 --
before a battery of tests ordered on a sickly, underweight cow that had
been deemed unfit for human consumption proved it had mad cow disease.
In 2004 investigators identified 68 British cattle as the probable
source of Canada's mad cow cases.
(AP, 5/20/03)(WSJ, 3/22/04, p.A1)
2003 May 20, In northern China a
powerful gas explosion at the Yongtai mine, an unlicensed coal mine,
killed 25 miners. On May 23 flooding in a coal mine in central China
trapped 15 miners,
(AP, 5/26/03)
2003 May 20, Indonesian troops
killed or captured dozens of insurgents in its northwestern province of
Aceh, the 2nd day of a major offensive aimed at destroying a separatist
rebellion.
(AP, 5/20/03)
2003 May 20, The first of more
than 12,000 Somali Bantus awaiting resettlement set out for the US,
leaving at long last the refugee camps where most have lived for a
decade.
(AP, 5/20/03)
2004 May 20, President Bush made a
rare visit to Capitol Hill, where he sought to ease Republican
lawmakers' concerns over the Iraq campaign.
(AP, 5/20/05)
2004 May 20, Detroit Zoo officials
said they will stop exhibiting elephants on ethical grounds because
elephants can develop arthritis and stress-related ailments in
captivity.
(Reuters, 5/20/04)
2004 May 20, In Afghanistan 3
suspected militants were killed and 23 people detained after 4 U.S.
soldiers were shot and wounded during raids against militia forces in
Tani district. Residents claimed a case of mistaken identities.
(AP, 5/21/04)
2004 May 20, In Colombia 3 bombs
exploded in 2 parts of Medellin, killing at least four people and
wounding 15. A wave of attacks marked the 40th anniversary of FARC.
(AP, 5/21/04)(AP, 5/22/04)
2004 May 20, Iraqi police backed
by American soldiers raided the home and offices of Ahmad Chalabi, a
prominent Iraqi politician.
(AP, 5/20/04)
2004 May 20, Taketo Hatakeyama
(41), a member of Japan’s Sumiyoshi Kai crime group, killed himself as
police stormed his apartment building in Utsunomiya. This followed a
2-day standoff. A woman was found dead inside.
(AP, 5/20/04)
2004 May 20, Voters in Malawi, one
of the world's poorest nations, flocked to the polls for their third
multiparty elections in a decade. Bingu wa Mutharika, Pres. Muluzi’s
handpicked successor, was declared the winner. The ruling party lost
its parliamentary majority.
(AP, 5/20/04)(SFC, 5/24/04, p.A3)
2004 May 20, Palestinian uprising
leader Marwan Barghouti, widely seen as a potential successor to Yasser
Arafat, was convicted of ordering shootings that killed four Israelis
and a Greek monk and supplying funds and arms for other attacks.
Israeli troops pressed their offensive in a Gaza Strip refugee camp for
a third day, killing 8 Palestinians, most of them armed, and
demolishing several buildings. In the West Bank, 3 Palestinians were
killed by army fire.
(AP, 5/20/04)
2004 May 20, Four suspected Saudi
militants and a policeman were killed in a shootout the Saudi city of
Buraida.
(Reuters, 5/21/04)
2004 May 20, In Uganda rebels
raided the northern village of Gulu, hacking and burning to death at
least 25 people, including eight children.
(AP, 5/22/04)
2005 May 20, The US military
condemned the publication of photographs showing an imprisoned Saddam
Hussein naked except for his white underwear, and ordered an
investigation of how the pictures were leaked to a British tabloid.
(AP, 5/20/06)
2005 May 20, A federal judge in SF
tossed out half of the convictions against former Ukrainian Prime
Minister Pavlo Lazarenko in a multi-count money-laundering and fraud
verdict, but refused to grant a new trial.
(AP, 5/21/05)
2005 May 20, Illinois lawmakers
voted to have the state sell off about $1 billion worth of investments
in companies doing business with Sudan, part of a nationwide campaign
to protest genocide in the African nation.
(AP, 5/20/05)
2005 May 20, US Airways and
America West merged in a $1.5 billion deal.
(SFC, 5/20/05, p.C1)
2005 May 20-2005 May 23, In
Arizona 12 illegal immigrants were reported dead while crossing the
border under triple digit heat.
(SFC, 5/23/05, p.A3)
2005 May 20, Australia stepped up
diplomatic efforts to stop Japan from increasing its whale hunt, saying
up to 35 countries were opposed to the plan.
(Reuters, 5/20/05)
2005 May 20, Officials said 3
ferry accidents in Bangladesh in the past week left at least 133 people
dead as hope faded for 187 people still missing.
(AP, 5/20/05)
2005 May 20, British scientists
reported the discovery of a new species of monkey in Tanzania, the
Lophocebus kipunji.
(SFC, 5/21/05, p.A1)
2005 May 20, A bus crash north of
Edmonton killed 6 people. RCMP later charged truck driver Inderjit
Singh Virk (32), of Brampton, Ontario, with dangerous driving.
(CP, 11/28/05)
2005 May 20, Young Chilean
soldiers who made it out of a blizzard alive said they had to leave
behind comrades who collapsed from exhaustion and cold. The soldiers
were on a training march in the Andes Mountains May 18, when hit by the
worst snowstorm in the area in decades. As many as 41 soldiers, 40
draftees and one officer, were believed to have died.
(AP, 5/21/05)
2005 May 20, Chinese state media
reported China is to lift a decades-old ban on mainland tourists
visiting political rival Taiwan. Ultimately, however, it was up to the
Taiwan government to decide whether the floodgates should be opened.
(Reuters, 5/20/05)
2005 May 20, In northern China 20
people died in mine explosions in two neighboring mines in Shanxi
province.
(AP, 5/22/05)
2005 May 20, Ashraf Saeed Youssef
(27), ringleader of 3 recent attacks that targeted Western tourists in
Egypt, died in the Cairo hospital he'd been transferred to a week ago
for treatment after hitting his head several times against the wall of
his prison cell.
(AP, 5/21/05)
2005 May 20, Hurricane Adrian
slammed into El Salvador, unleashing torrential rains in an area prone
to devastating floods and forcing some 14,000 people to seek higher
ground.
(AP, 5/20/05)
2005 May 20, The EU and NATO
called for an int’l. investigation into the May 13 suppression of
protestors at Andijan, Uzbekistan.
(WSJ, 9/2/05, p.A13)
2005 May 20, The Finnish paper
industry, which accounts for 15% of world production, remained at a
standstill after labor talks between unions and employers ended without
resolution.
(AP, 5/20/05)
2005 May 20, Paul Ricoeur (92), a
French philosopher whose broad interests included biblical
interpretation and the study of human perception, died.
(AP, 5/21/05)
2005 May 20, In Guatemala an angry
mob in the remote settlement of Cruz Chich set fire to 6 people accused
of forming a band of robbers, killing 4 as authorities tried to stop
the violence.
(AP, 5/23/05)
2005 May 20, Thousands of Shiites,
many waving Islam's holy book over their heads, protested the US
presence in Iraq. Sunnis shut down places of worship elsewhere in a
show of anger over alleged sectarian violence against the minority.
(AP, 5/20/05)
2005 May 20, Palestinian militants
fired six anti-tank missiles and a mortar round and opened up with
light arms at a Jewish settlement in the Gaza Strip.
(AP, 5/20/05)
2005 May 20, A bomb exploded in an
apartment building in southern Russia's Dagestan region, killing the
area's minister for ethnic relations and his bodyguard.
(AP, 5/21/05)
2005 May 20, Syrian Ambassador
Imad Moustapha said Syria has cut off military and intelligence
cooperation with the US over the last 10 days amid strains in relations
between the two countries over the insurgency in Iraq.
(AP, 5/24/05)
2006 May 20, Federal agents
searched the Capitol Hill office of Rep. William Jefferson of Louisiana
as part of a bribery investigation.
(AP, 5/20/07)
2006 May 20, In Maryland Barbaro,
winner of the Kentucky Derby, fractured an ankle at the start of the
Preakness; Bernardini won the race. Barbaro was euthanized Jan 29,
2007, due to medical complications.
(SSFC, 5/21/06, p.A1)(AP, 1/29/07)
2006 May 20, New Orleans Voters
re-elected Mayor Ray Nagin, whose blunt style endeared him to some but
outraged others after Hurricane Katrina, giving him four more years to
oversee one of the largest rebuilding projects in U.S. history.
(AP, 5/21/06)
2006 May 20, Barry Bonds tied Babe
Ruth for second place on the career list with his 714th home run.
(AP, 5/20/07)
2006 May 20, An explosion in the
Darby Mine No. 1 coal mine in Harlan County, eastern Kentucky, killed
five miners while one other miner was able to get out alive.
(AP, 5/20/06)
2006 May 20, In southern
Afghanistan one French and 16 Afghan soldiers were killed and about 40
other troops were wounded in two firefights as rebels ambushed two
Afghan army convoys and US forces. At least 9 Taliban militants were
killed in the battle in Sangin district. 2 French special forces troops
were killed in neighboring Kandahar province.
(AP, 5/21/06)
2006 May 20, Australian Aborigines
rejected calls for military peacekeepers to protect indigenous women
and children from violence, as a new report revealed high levels of
sexual abuse of young indigenous males.
(AFP, 5/20/06)
2006 May 20, In Brazil Sao Paulo's
government refused to release the names of 109 people killed by police
during a week of gangland violence, despite increased pressure from
activists who said public confidence in law enforcement had been shaken.
(AP, 5/21/06)
2006 May 20, China held a
ceremonial pouring of a final slab of cement for its Three Gorges Dam
in Hubei province. The 600-foot dam cost at least $22 billion.
(SFC, 5/18/06, p.A10)(WSJ, 8/29/07, p.A12)
2006 May 20, President Hosni
Mubarak opened the World Economic Forum in a booming Red Sea resort
with a surprisingly tough speech that signaled deepening strains in the
once-ironclad links with Egypt's American allies and benefactors. PM
Ahmed Nazif said the Egyptian government is not in a hurry to change
the country's political system.
(Reuters, 5/20/06)(AP, 5/20/06)
2006 May 20, Lordi, a Finnish
metal band with monster masks and apocalyptic lyrics, won the
Eurovision contest in Greece.
(AP, 5/21/06)
2006 May 20, India announced a one
billion dollar package to revive its tea industry blighted by
plummeting prices and a downturn in exports.
(AP, 5/20/06)
2006 May 20, Iraq's parliament
approved a national unity government, achieving a goal Washington hopes
will reduce violence so U.S. forces can eventually go home. But as the
legislators met, a series of attacks killed at least 27 people and
wounded dozens.
(AP, 5/20/06)
2006 May 20, Irish police removed
Afghan hunger-strikers from a Dublin cathedral, where some 40
protesters gathered on May 15 demanding asylum and warning they would
kill themselves if officers came near.
(AP, 5/21/06)
2006 May 20, Chanchu, the most
powerful storm to strike the South China Sea this early in the typhoon
season, killed nearly 90 people in Asia over the past week. It was now
weakened to a tropical storm and hovering off southern Japan. 198
Vietnamese fishermen remained missing.
(AP, 5/20/06)
2006 May 20, Lithuanian
police arrested Vidmantas Sungaila (41) for driving his truck down the
center of a two-lane highway 60 miles from Vilnius. Sungaila (41)
registered 7.27 grams per liter of alcohol in his blood repeatedly on
different devices. Medical experts say anything above 3.5 grams per
liter of alcohol in the blood is lethal for most people. Lithuania has
one of the worst road safety records in the EU. Last year 760 people
died in traffic accidents in this country of 3.5 million residents.
Most were alcohol-related.
(AP, 5/23/06)
2006 May 20, A bomb blast
seriously wounded Tareq Abu Rajab, the Palestinian intelligence chief,
at his headquarters in what security officials called an assassination
attempt against a key ally of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. One
bodyguard was killed.
(AP, 5/20/06)
2006 May 20, In Gaza City an
Israeli missile killed Mohammed Dadouh, the top military commander of
the militant group Islamic Jihad. A 2nd missile killed civilians: 3
generations of the Amen family, a grandmother, mother and son were
killed, and a 4-year-old daughter and uncle were paralyzed. The Israeli
Defense Ministry later decided to pay the Amen family’s medical
expenses as "special humanitarian treatment."
(AP, 6/8/06)
2006 May 20, South Korean media
reported that 4 North Koreans had overpowered a security guard and
scaled the wall of a US consulate in China in hopes of gaining asylum
from their impoverished, communist country.
(AP, 5/20/06)
2006 May 20, A man wielding a box
cutter attacked Park Geun-hye (54), the leader of South Korea's main
opposition party, slashing her face during a campaign rally. Park's
mother, Yook Young-soo, was fatally shot in 1974. Five years later,
Park's father was assassinated by the then-chief of the state
intelligence agency.
(AP, 5/21/06)
2007 May 20, President Bush
welcomed NATO Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer to his Crawford,
Texas, ranch, to review strategy on a flurry of issues.
(AP, 5/20/08)
2007 May 20, It was reported that
the US continued to pay Pakistan some $1 billion a year in
reimbursements for military counterterrorism efforts along the Afghan
border. Over the last 5 years Pakistan has received $5.6 billion.
Payments averaged $80 million a month.
(SSFC, 5/20/07, p.A6)
2007 May 20, In Idaho law
enforcement officers stormed a church in Moscow where Jason Hamilton
(36) went after wounding three in a courthouse ambush where he faced
mental evaluation. Hamilton killed his wife at home and sexton Paul
Bauer at the church before taking his own life. An officer who was shot
responding to a gunman spraying bullets at a courthouse died of his
injuries.
(AP, 5/20/07)(SFC, 5/21/07, p.A5)(SFC, 5/22/07, p.A3)
2007 May 20, San Francisco’s 96th
annual Bay to Breakers race drew some 60,000 runners. Joe Spinale (53)
died of a heart attack after crossing the finish line.
(SFC, 5/21/07, p.B1)(SFC, 5/22/07, p.B2)
2007 May 20, Alltel Corp., the
fifth-biggest US wireless company and owner of the nation's largest
geographic network, announced that it had signed an agreement to be
acquired by TPG Capital, formerly Texas Pacific Group, and GS Capital
Partners, a subsidiary of Goldman Sachs in a deal worth $27.5 billion.
(AP, 5/21/07)
2007 May 20, In eastern
Afghanistan a suicide bomber on foot detonated himself in a crowded
market just after a US convoy drove by, killing at least 14 people and
wounding 31. Suspected insurgents ambushed a US-led coalition and
Afghan patrol, sparking a battle and airstrikes that killed 25
suspected insurgents in Helmand province. A suicide bomber walked into
a crowded market in the eastern city of Gardez and blew himself up,
killing 14 people and wounding 31. In eastern Nangarhar province, a
roadside bomb hit a police vehicle in the district of Dara-I-Nur,
killing two policemen and wounding seven others. A British soldier died
of wounds from an accident at a British military base in Sangin.
(AP, 5/20/07)(AP, 5/21/07)
2007 May 20, Confessed Australian
al-Qaida supporter David Hicks was transferred to a maximum security
prison in his hometown after spending more than five years at the US
military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
(AP, 5/20/07)
2007 May 20, Fiona Dawson,
managing director of the Mars snack food business in Britain,
apologized for a widely mocked decision to use animal products in
chocolate bars and said in future its candy would be suitable for
vegetarians.
(AP, 5/20/07)
2007 May 20, An exit poll showed
that Bulgaria's ruling Socialist party won the country's first
elections for the European Parliament with 23.9% of votes, despite
voter frustration with rampant corruption and poverty.
(AP, 5/20/07)
2007 May 20, China’s state press
said that pollution and the excessive use of chemicals in foodstuffs
are sending national cancer rates soaring. 20 Chinese women were killed
and 4 injured when a 3-wheeled tractor overturned on a mountain road in
northern Liaoning province.
(AP, 5/20/07)
2007 May 20, Jose Ramos-Horta was
sworn in as East Timor's president as violence erupted in the capital
between rival groups, leaving one person dead.
(AFP, 5/20/07)
2007 May 20, Guram Sharadze (67),
the leader of a Georgian opposition movement, was gunned down on a
street in a central part of the capital, Tbilisi.
(AP, 5/20/07)
2007 May 20, In Germany
engineering concern Siemens said Peter Loescher, from US pharmaceutical
giant Merck, will take over as chief executive from July 1.
(AP, 5/20/07)
2007 May 20, Hungary’s PM Ferenc
Gyurcsany said that the justice minister resigned and the national and
Budapest police chiefs were dismissed in an effort to restore public
confidence in the force after cases accusing officers of rape,
corruption and theft.
(AP, 5/21/07)(Econ, 6/2/07, p.51)
2007 May 20, A suicide bomber
exploded a tanker truck near an Iraqi police checkpoint outside a
market west of Baghdad, killing at least two officers and injuring nine
people. A bomb planted under a parked car exploded in the central
Baghdad neighborhood of Bab al-Sharji, near the Zahraa Shiite mosque.
The blast killed two civilians, wounded 10. A mortar shell landed in a
commercial area in central Baghdad, killing one person and wounding
three.
(AP, 5/20/07)
2007 May 20, Israeli Vice Premier
Shimon Peres said his government would offer a counterproposal to an
Arab peace initiative to resolve the conflict with Palestinians.
Israeli warplanes fired missiles into a car carrying Hamas militants
and a load of weapons, killing 3 people, and also demolished arms
factories of 2 Palestinian militant groups.
(AP, 5/20/07)
2007 May 20, In Kenya 6 men were
beheaded over the weekend in villages on the outskirts of Nairobi. This
came weeks after members of the Mungiki sect fought with the police
over control of minibus terminals, where they have been extorting money
from drivers. 7 people were soon arrested in connection with the
beheadings.
(AP, 5/23/07)
2007 May 20, Kuwait broke ranks
with the US dollar and decided to track a basket of currencies. It was
estimated that the dollar still accounted for 70% of the basket.
(Econ, 11/24/07, p.75)(http://tinyurl.com/2wojz3)
2007 May 20, Lebanese tanks
pounded a militant group's headquarters in the Nahr al-Bared
Palestinian refugee camp near Tripoli after the northern city's worst
clashes in two decades killed 13 soldiers and 17 militants. The raid
that triggered the clashes was part of a police search for suspects in
a bank robbery a day earlier in Amyoun, a town southeast of Tripoli.
Gunmen of the radical jihadist faction known as Fatah al-Islam made off
with $125,000 in cash in the robbery. The siege lasted 106 days leaving
47 civilians, 167 Lebanese soldiers and some 287 guerrillas dead.
(AP, 5/20/07)(Econ, 5/26/07, p.47)(Econ, 5/10/08,
p.57)
2007 May 20, Police in
Moroccan-occupied Western Sahara arrested three leading human rights
campaigners following weeks of crackdowns against students and
activists in the territory.
(AP, 5/21/07)
2007 May 20, Officials said
Nigeria's largest state has sued US drug firm Pfizer for allegedly
using 200 children as "guinea pigs" for a drug test in 1996 that led to
multiple deaths and deformities.
(AFP, 5/20/07)
2007 May 20, In Pakistan hardline
clerics said that they had released two policemen held hostage at an
Islamabad mosque, after a deal was struck with authorities to free 4
extremists.
(AFP, 5/20/07)
2007 May 20, Hundreds of
demonstrators gathered outside the Moscow’s main broadcast facility to
protest what they called lies and censorship on TV stations that are
either controlled by the state or under its influence.
(AP, 5/20/07)
2007 May 20, A bomb detonated in
Mogadishu near the mayor's vehicle convoy, leaving at least two
civilians dead. His bodyguards shot and killed a suspected insurgent
who had been in a tree near the explosion.
(AP, 5/20/07)
2007 May 20, Sri Lanka's
government claimed to have killed more than 500 rebels in the past four
months and lost 44 of its own soldiers in fierce fighting that has
completely shattered the island nation's peace process.
(AP, 5/20/07)
2007 May 20, In southern Thailand
suspected Muslim insurgents shot and killed two Buddhist civilians and
wounded a third, while a bomb wounded 11 people, including five
policemen.
(AP, 5/20/07)
2007 May 20, Thousands of
flag-waving Turks demonstrated in the Black Sea port city of Samsun
against the Islamic-rooted government, which they fear is undermining
Turkey's secular system.
(AP, 5/20/07)
2007 May 20, Vietnam elected a new
National Assembly. Vietnam's communist party won more than 91% of seats
in elections for the new national assembly, which will consist of 493
members.
(Econ, 5/19/07, p.45)(AP, 5/29/07)
2008 May 20, Sen. Barack Obama won
the Oregon primary 58% to 42% for Hillary Clinton. In Kentucky Clinton
won 65% to 30% for Obama. Obama’s delegate count rose to 1,956 with
1,776 for Clinton. 2,026 delegates were needed to win the Democratic
nomination.
(SFC, 5/21/08, p.A1)
2008 May 20, Massachusetts Sen.
Edward Kennedy (76) was diagnosed with a malignant bran tumor.
(WSJ, 5/21/08, p.A1)
2008 May 20, Merck & Co.
announced that it had agreed to pay $58 million as part of a
multi-state settlement of allegations that its ads played down the
health risks for the painkiller Vioxx.
(SFC, 5/21/08, p.C3)
2008 May 20, Scientists delivered
a warning about nanotechnology after tests on lab rodents found that
microscopic, needle-like fibers that are already in commercial use led
to lesions similar to those caused by asbestos.
(AFP, 5/20/08)
2008 May 20, Hamilton Jordan
(b.1944), former strategist and chief of staff for Pres. Jimmy Carter,
died in Atlanta, Georgia.
(SFC, 5/21/08, p.A5)
2008 May 20, In Afghanistan
airstrikes and a 3-hour gun battle in Zabul province killed an Afghan
army soldier and 14 insurgents. 6 of the dead insurgents appeared to be
Arabs.
(AP, 5/21/08)(WSJ, 5/22/08, p.A9)
2008 May 20, Painted and feathered
Indians waving machetes and clubs slashed Eletrobras engineer Paulo
Fernando Rezende, an official of Brazil's national electric company
during a protest over a proposed hydroelectric dam on the Xingu River.
Environmentalists warned it could destroy the traditional fishing
grounds of Indians living nearby and displace as many as 15,000 people.
The government said the proposed US$6.7 billion (euro4.3 billion) dam
would supply Brazil with an estimated 11,000 megawatts of power and is
essential to meet growing energy demand.
(AP, 5/20/08)
2008 May 20, British PM Gordon
Brown urged rich countries to end agricultural subsidies, and said he
will press for a global trade agreement to help the world's poorest
farmers escape poverty.
(AP, 5/20/08)
2008 May 20, The Dalai Lama began
an 11-day visit to Britain, including talks with PM Gordon Brown who
faces a delicate balancing act between supporting Tibetan rights while
not offending China.
(AP, 5/20/08)
2008 May 20, Howard Dill
(b.1934)), Canadian pumpkin grower, died in Nova Scotia. In 1979 he
grew a 438-pound pumpkin, the largest in the world and proceeded to win
the pumpkin growers world championship 4 years in a row using his new
seed variety, Dill’s Atlantic Giant.
(WSJ, 6/7/08, p.A12)
2008 May 20, In China the
confirmed death toll rose to more than 40,000 as authorities struggled
to find shelter for many of the 5 million people whose homes were
destroyed in last week's earthquake.
(AP, 5/20/08)
2008 May 20, In Ethiopia 3 people
were killed and four wounded when a bomb exploded near the foreign
ministry in central Addis Ababa.
(AFP, 5/20/08)
2008 May 20, The UN children's
agency warned that a severe drought in Ethiopia threatens up to six
million children.
(AP, 5/20/08)
2008 May 20, The European
Parliament censured Italy for its treatment of Gypsies.
(Econ, 5/24/08, p.71)
2008 May 20, Xavier Lopez Pena
(49), the suspected leader of the Basque separatist group ETA, was
detained along with three other suspected ETA members in a sweep on an
apartment in the French city of Bordeaux just before midnight.
(AP, 5/21/08)
2008 May 20, Whale hunting season
began in Iceland as the country's first whaling ship of the year set
sail in defiance of a worldwide moratorium on the practice.
(AP, 5/20/08)
2008 May 20, West Bengal, India,
completed 2 weeks of local elections, which left 37 people killed in
fighting by rival parties.
(Econ, 5/24/08, p.59)
2008 May 20, Thousands of Iraqi
troops moved unchallenged into Baghdad's Sadr City to seize the Shiite
militia stronghold. Four anti-al-Qaida fighters were killed by gunmen
in an ambush near Duluiyah, north of Baghdad. A boy (7) was killed when
a suicide bomber blew himself up near the house of the head of the
so-called awakening council in Mandali, east of the capital. Shells
slammed into the center of Balad Ruz, 45 miles northeast of Baghdad,
killing three civilians and wounding nine others.
(AP, 5/20/08)
2008 May 20, Israeli aircraft
launched at least three strikes on Palestinians, killing a boy (13), a
Hamas fighter and an unidentified man. The first raid aircraft fired on
the northeastern Gaza Strip at a group of Palestinians launching
rockets. The 2nd aircraft fired at Palestinians who were planting
explosives along the fence in central Gaza.
(AP, 5/20/08)
2008 May 20, In Mexico’s Durango
state two rival groups opened fire at each other with pistols and
assault rifles on a highway, killing eight people. Officials said the
Mexican military took over the police department of Villa Ahumada this
week because all 20 officers on the force have either been killed, run
out of town or quit. The body of Victor Enrique Payan, 2nd in command
of police in Morelos, was found with a second, unidentified Morelos
state police officer in the trunk of a car south of Mexico City.
(AP, 5/20/08)(AP, 5/22/08)
2008 May 20, The UN's top
humanitarian official made fresh pleas to Myanmar's military government
to allow in more foreign aid for cyclone survivors, as the country
began three days of mourning for the 134,000 dead and missing.
(AP, 5/20/08)
2008 May 20, In Russia Pres.
Medvedev convened top officials and lawyers to set up a task force
aimed at cleaning up the weak and often corrupt court system.
(WSJ, 5/21/08, p.A13)
2008 May 20, The International
Organization for Migration (IOM) said a wave of violence against
foreigners in South Africa has forced 13,000 people to flee their homes
and seek shelter in churches and other social centers. Violence against
foreigners had killed at least 24 people and unnerved investors.
(AFP, 5/20/08)(Reuters, 5/20/08)
2008 May 20, In Sri Lanka ground
battles in the Welioya, Vavuniya and Mannar areas bordering the rebels'
de facto state in the north killed 25 rebels. Tamil leader Balasegaram
Kandiah (43), known by his nom de guerre, Brig. Balraj, died of a heart
attack. He reportedly led a number of battles against government forces.
(AP, 5/21/08)
2008 May 20, In Sudan deadly
fighting raged between rival forces in Abyei, a flashpoint oil district
between north and south whose status remains contested three years
after the end of civil war. 22 government troops died in fighting that
threatened the peace process.
(AP, 5/20/08)(AFP, 5/21/08)
2008 May 20, Taiwanese prosecutors
launched a corruption probe against outgoing President Chen Shui-bian,
hours after he completed eight combative years in office. Ma Ying-jeou
(57) took office and exhorted Beijing to build a better future for
people on both sides of the 100-mile-wide Taiwan Strait.
(AP, 5/20/08)
2008 May 20, Ian Shuttleworth
(42), a former British police officer, was arrested in Bangkok in an
international crackdown on a sex trafficking ring that saw nine Thais
detained last month in London. He was arrested at his apartment in
downtown Bangkok, where he had set up a security company providing
bodyguards to Thailand's elite. He is accused of luring Thai women into
prostitution by promising them well-paid restaurant jobs in London, and
then selling them to a madam.
(AFP, 5/21/08)
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