Today in History - June 20
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451
Jun 20, Roman and Barbarian warriors halted Attila’s
army at the Catalaunian Plains (Catalarinische Fields) in eastern
France. Attila the Hun was defeated by a combined Roman and Visigoth
army. The Huns moved south into Italy but were defeated again.
(V.D.-H.K.p.88)(HN, 6/20/98)(MC, 6/20/02)
1397 Jun 20, The Union of Kalmar
united Denmark, Sweden, and Norway under one monarch. The alliance grew
out of the dynastic ties of the Scandinavian countries of Denmark,
Norway and Sweden in response to rising German influence in the Baltic.
The union lasted from 1397 to 1523.
(HN, 6/20/98)(HNQ, 7/22/00)
1567 Jun
20, Jews were expelled from Brazil by order of regent Don Henrique.
(MC, 6/20/02)
1597 Jun
20, Willem Barents, Dutch explorer who discovered Spitsbergen &
Bereneil, died. In 1995 Rayner Unwin authored “A Winter Away from
Home,” an account of Barents’ Arctic voyages.
(WUD, 1994 p.120)(SSFC, 12/10/00, p.C17)(MC, 6/20/02)
1632 Jun
20, Britain granted 2nd Lord Baltimore rights to Chesapeake Bay area.
(MC, 6/20/02)
1674 Jun
20, Nicholas Rowe, poet laureate of England, was born.
(HN, 6/20/98)
1675 Jun 20, King Philip’s War
began when Indians--retaliating for the execution of three of their
people who had been charged with murder by the English--massacred
colonists at Swansea, Plymouth colony. Abenaki, Massachusetts, Mohegan
& Wampanoag Indians formed an anti English front. Wampanoag
warriors attacked livestock and looted farms.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/King_Philip%27s_War)(AH, 6/02, p.46)
1723 Jun
20, Adam Ferguson, Scottish man of letters, philosopher, historian, and
patriot, was born. He wrote "Principals of Moral and Political
Science."
(HN, 6/20/99)
1743 Jun
20, The British warship Centurion under Commodore George Anson engaged
and overcame the Spanish treasure galleon, Nuestra Senora de Covadonga,
near the Philippines. 58 Spaniards were killed and 83 wounded. Anson
captured over 1 million Spanish silver dollars and 500 pounds of native
silver.
(ON, 4/01, p.7)
1756 Jun
20, In India rebels defeated the British army at Calcutta. British
soldiers were imprisoned in a suffocating cell that gained notoriety as
the "Black Hole of Calcutta." Most of them died. The exact
circumstances of this incident, such as the number of prisoners,
originally put at 146, are disputed.
(HN, 6/20/98)(AP, 6/20/07)
1763 Jun
20, Theobald Wolfe Tone (d.1798), Irish nationalist, was born.
(MC, 6/20/02)
1782 Jun
20, Congress approved the Great Seal of the United States and the eagle
as its symbol.
(AP, 6/20/97)(SFC, 6/2/04, G9)
1789 Jun
20, Oath on the Tennis Court in Versailles, France, bonded members of
the Third Estate to resist eviction until they have a new constitution.
(MC, 6/20/02)
1791 Jun
20, King Louis XVI of France attempted to flee the country in the
so-called Flight to Varennes, but was caught.
(AP, 6/20/97)
1819 Jun
20, Jacques Offenbach (d.1880), French composer (Tales of Hoffmann),
was born in Cologne. His work included the comedy opera "Barbe-Bleue"
(Blue Beard).
(MC, 6/20/02)(WSJ, 2/20/98, p.A16)
1819 Jun
20, The paddle-wheel steamship Savannah arrives in Liverpool, England,
after a voyage of 27 days and 11 hours--the first steamship to
successfully cross the Atlantic.
(HN, 6/20/01)
1825 Jun
20, Coronation of French king Charles X, the surviving brother of
guillotined Louis XVI.
(MC, 6/20/02)
1837 Jun
20, Queen Victoria (18) ascended the British throne following the death
of her uncle, King William IV (b.1765). She ruled for 63 years to 1901.
(AP, 6/20/97)(WSJ, 4/27/00, p.A24)(HN, 6/20/01)
1840 Jun
20, Samuel F.B. Morse, a popular artist, patented his telegraph.
(MC, 6/20/02)
1858 Jun
20, Charles Chesnutt, African-American novelist, was born in Cleveland.
In 2002 Werner Sollors edited “Chesnutt: Stories, Novels, and Essays.”
(HN, 6/20/01)(WSJ, 1/22/02, p.A11)
1863 Jun
20, West Virginia became the 35th state.
(AP, 6/20/97)
1864 Jun
20, Battle of Petersburg, VA, in trenches.
(MC, 6/20/02)
1866 Jun
20, Lord George ESMH Carnarvon, Egyptologist (Tutankhamen), was born in
England.
(MC, 6/20/02)
1867 Jun
20, Pres. Andrew Johnson announced the purchase of Alaska.
(MC, 6/20/02)
1876 Jun
20, Antonio L de Santa Ana, president of Mexico and victor at Alamo,
died.
(MC, 6/20/02)
1887 Jun
20, Kurt Schwitters (d.1948), German artist, was born. He spent a year
and a half in an internment camp on the Isle of Man during WW II where
he managed to create some 200 works of art from salvaged scraps.
(WSJ, 8/19/97, p.A17)(HN, 6/20/01)
1893 Jun
20, A jury in New Bedford, Mass., found Lizzie Borden innocent of the
ax murders of her father, wealthy Fall River, Massachusetts,
businessman Andrew Borden and his wife, Abby Borden. Lizzie Borden,
defended by a team of skilled lawyers, was acquitted—some say on the
strength of her lawyers’ portrayal of Lizzie as a respectable woman who
could not have committed such brutal acts. Local townspeople were
unconvinced, however, and Lizzie Borden was ostracized for the rest of
her life.
(AP, 6/20/97)(HNPD, 8/4/98)
1894 Jun
20, George Delacorte, philanthropist, publisher (Dell Books), was born
in NYC.
(MC, 6/20/02)
1898 Jun
20, During the Spanish-American War on the way to the Philippines to
fight the Spanish, the U.S. Navy cruiser Charleston seized the island
of Guam.
(AP, 6/20/98)(HN, 6/20/98)
1899 Jun
20, Jean Moulin, French Resistance fighter against Nazi Germany, was
born.
(HN, 6/20/98)
1901 Jun
20, Charlotte M. Manye of South Africa became the first native African
to graduate from
American University.
(HN, 6/20/00)
1907 Jun
20, Lillian Hellman (d.1984), American author and playwright (The
Little Foxes, Toys in the Attic), was born. “Success and failure are
not true opposites and they’re not even in the same class; they’re not
even a couch and a chair.”
(AP, 1/28/01)(HN, 6/20/01)
1909 Jun
20, Errol Flynn, actor who starred in “The Adventures of Robin Hood”
and “Captain Blood” among many other movies, was born.
(HN, 6/20/98)
1909 Jun
20, The first honeymoon in a balloon.
(HFA, '96, p.32)
1910 Jun
20, Chester Arthur Burnett (d.1976) was born in West Point,
Mississippi. He later became known as the blues singer Howlin’ Wolf.
(SSFC, 7/4/04, p.M6)(www.britannica.com)
1910 Jun
20, Josephine Johnson, Pulitzer Prize-winning author (Jordanstown,
Wildwood), was born.
(HN, 6/20/01)
1910 Jun
20, Mexican President Porfirio Diaz proclaimed martial law and arrested
hundreds.
(HN, 6/20/98)
1915 Jun
20, There was a German offensive in Argonne.
(MC, 6/20/02)
1919 Jun
20, Treaty of Versailles: Germany ended the incorporation of Austria.
[see Jun 28]
(MC, 6/20/02)
1920 Jun
20, Race riots in Chicago, Illinois left two dead and many wounded.
(HN, 6/20/98)
1923 Jun
20, Pres. Harding set out on a 7,500-mile “Voyage of Understanding”
through the northwest. The 57-year-old Harding, who suffered from heart
disease, was so shaken by breaking reports of corruption in his
administration that he went on a cross-country speaking tour to
strengthen his position.
(SFC, 8/1/98, p.A19)(HN, 8/2/98)
1923 Jun
20, France announced it would seize the Rhineland to assist Germany in
paying her war debts.
(HN, 6/20/98)
1924 Jun
20, Chet Atkins, guitarist, was born.
(HN, 6/20/01)
1924 Jun
20, Audie Murphy was born in Kingston, Tx. He became the most decorated
American soldier of World War II who went on to make movies and write a
book about his war experiences called “To Hell and Back.”
(HN, 6/20/98)(MC, 6/20/02)
1928 Jun
20, Jean-Marie Le-Pen, leader of the National Front party in France,
was born.
(HN, 6/20/98)
1931 Jun
20, Olympia Dukakis, actress (Moonstruck, Cemetery Club), was born in
Lowell, Mass.
(MC, 6/20/02)
1936 Jun
20, Jesse Owens of US set a 100 meter record at 10.2 sec.
(MC, 6/20/02)
1941 Jun
20, U.S. Army Air Forces was established, replacing the Army Air Corps.
(HN, 6/20/98)
1942 Jun
20, Brian Wilson (Beach Boys), was born.
(MC, 6/20/02)
1942 Jun
20, Adolf Eichmann proclaimed the deportation of Dutch Jews.
(MC, 6/20/02)
1943 Jun
20, Race-related rioting erupted in Detroit; federal troops were sent
in two days later to quell the violence that resulted in 34 deaths and
600 wounded.
(AP, 6/20/97)(SSFC, 12/17/00, Par p.5)
1944 Jun
20, The US Congress chartered the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).
(MC, 6/20/02)
1944 Jun
20, Vice Admiral Marc Mitchner, commander of the U.S. Task Force 58,
ordered all lights on his ships turned on to help guide his
carrier-based pilots back from the Battle of the Philippine Sea.
(HN, 6/20/99)
1944 Jun
20, Nazis began mass extermination of Jews at Auschwitz.
(MC, 6/20/02)
1946 Jun
20, Andre Watts, pianist, was born.
(HN, 6/20/01)
1947 Jun
20, President Truman vetoed the Taft-Hartley Act, but had his veto
overridden by Congress. The act declared the closed shop illegal and
permitted the union shop only following a majority employee vote. [see
Jun 4]
(WSJ, 6/19/96, Adv. Supl)(SFC, 9/26/96, p.C2)(AP,
6/20/97)(SFC, 10/4/02, p.A17)
1947 Jun
20, Benjamin "Bugsy" Siegel was shot dead at the Beverly Hills, Calif.,
mansion of his girlfriend, Virginia Hill, at the order of mob
associates angered over the soaring costs of Siegel's pet project, the
Flamingo resort in Las Vegas, Nev.
(AP, 6/20/97)
1948 Jun
20, The variety series "Toast of the Town," hosted by Ed Sullivan,
debuted on CBS-TV. Guests included Dean Martin, Jerry Lewis, concert
pianist Eugene List, and Broadway songwriters Rodgers and Hammerstein.
The program became "The Ed Sullivan Show" in 1955.
(AP, 6/20/98)
1952 Jun
20, John Goodman (actor: Roseanne, The Flintstones, The Babe), was born.
(MC, 6/20/02)
1954 Jun
20, Ilan Ramon, Israeli pilot and astronaut, was born in Tel Aviv. He
was among the 7 astronauts killed in the US Columbia space shuttle
tragedy Feb 1, 2003.
(SSFC, 2/2/03, p.A8)
1955 Jun
20, Michael Anthony, (bassist for Van Halen), was born.
(MC, 6/20/02)
1955 Jun
20, The 10th commemorative session of the UN opened in SF with
delegates from 60 nations. Pres. Eisenhower pledged a US policy of
“peaceful and reasonable negotiations” with all other powers.
(SFC, 6/17/05, p.F3)
1955
Jun 20, The AFL and CIO agreed to combine names for a merged group.
(HN, 6/20/98)
1958
Jun 20, FBI headquarters learned of Ronald Reagan’s desire to star in
the film “The FBI Story.” The bureau rejected the idea because of
Reagan’s association with Communist front organizations in the 1940s.
(SSFC, 6/9/02, p.F3)
1963
Jun 20, The United States and Soviet Union signed an agreement to set
up a hot line communications link between the two superpowers and a
treaty was signed limiting nuclear testing.
(TMC, 1994, p.1963)(AP, 6/20/97)(HN, 6/20/98)
1964
Jun 20, General William Westmoreland succeeded General Paul Harkins as
head of the U.S. forces in Vietnam.
(HN, 6/20/98)
1967 Jun 20, Boxer Muhammad Ali
was convicted in Houston of violating Selective Service laws by
refusing to be drafted. He was soon sentenced to five years in prison
but was released on appeal. His conviction was overturned three years
later by the US Supreme Court.
(AP,
6/20/97)(www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1G2-3404700148.html)
1971
Jun 20, A 5-day Glastonbury Fair opened at Worthy Farm near
Glastonbury, England. Arabella Spencer-Churchill (1949-2007),
granddaughter of former PM Winston Churchill, helped found the fair. It
featured Hawkwind, Traffic, Melanie, David Bowie, Joan Baez and
Fairport Convention, and attracted some 12,000 people. Revived as a
three-day festival in 1979, it had grown by 2007 to draw 153,000 people
to hear acts including Coldplay, Brian Wilson, Kaiser Chiefs and Elvis
Costello.
(AP,
12/21/07)(www.efestivals.co.uk/festivals/glastonbury/1971/)
1972
Jun 20, President Richard Nixon named General Creigton Abrams as
Commander-in-Chief of the U.S. armed forces.
(HN, 6/20/98)
1972
Jun 20, Pres. Nixon recorded on tape information relating to the Jun 16
Watergate break-in. Sections of the tape were later erased, allegedly
accidentally by sec. Rose Mary Woods. A panel of experts examined the
tape to see if the 18-minute gap was intentional. Richard H. Bolt
(d.2002 at 90), acoustic expert at Bolt, Beranek and Newman, later said
that if it was an accident than it was committed at least 5 times in
the 18 minutes.
(SFC, 2/4/02, p.B5)
1973
Jun 20, Juan Peron (1895-1974) returned to Argentina.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juan_Peron)(SFC,
12/24/96, p.A8)
1975
Jun 20, The Steven Spielberg shark thriller "Jaws" was first released.
(AP, 6/20/05)
1977
Jun 20, The 1st oil of the Alaska pipeline began to flow south 799
miles from Prudhoe Bay to the port of Valdez. It reached Valdez on Jul
28.
(www.alyeska-pipe.com/pipelinefacts.html)
1979
Jun 20, Robin Samsoe (12) was kidnapped in Huntington Beach, Ca. Her
dismembered and decomposing body was found 12 days later in the Angeles
National Forest. Rodney Alcala was arrested and convicted of the
slaying in 1980, but the sentence was overturned. He was convicted
again in 1986 but a judge faulted the ruling in 2005 and a retrial was
scheduled. Alcala pleaded innocent to 4 other sex-torture killings that
dated back to 1977.
(SFC, 11/23/05, p.B3)(www.kleph.com/story/ruling.htm)
1979
Jun 20, Nikola Kavaja (d.2008 at 77) hijacked a US passenger jet with
the intention of crashing it into Yugoslav Communist Party headquarters
in Belgrade. He abandoned his hijack mission in Ireland, saying at the
time he was not sure of the exact location of the downtown party office
and did not want innocent civilians to die if the jet missed the target.
(AP,
11/12/08)(www.nytimes.com/2008/11/12/world/europe/12kavaja.html)
1979
Jun 20, ABC News correspondent Bill Stewart was shot to death in
Managua, Nicaragua, by a member of President Anastasio Somoza's
national guard.
(AP, 6/20/99)
1980
Jun 20, Lake Powell, straddling the Arizona-Utah border behind the Glen
Canyon Dam, completed its fill, which began in 1963.
(SFEC, 8/24/97,
p.A1)(www.lakepowell.com/travel/glen-canyon-dam.cfm)
1983
Jun 20, The crew of the space shuttle Challenger, including America's
first woman in space, Sally K. Ride, launched the Indonesian-owned
Palapa B communications satellite into orbit.
(http://tinyurl.com/2uu2fj)
1987
Jun 20, Tens of thousands of riot police in South Korea clashed with
demonstrators.
(AP, 6/20/97)
1988
Jun 20, The US Supreme Court unanimously upheld a New York City law
making it illegal for private clubs to generally exclude women and
minorities.
(AP, 6/20/98)
1989
Jun 20, Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev greeted the speaker of
Iran's parliament, Hashemi Rafsanjani, who was visiting Moscow.
(AP, 6/20/99)
1990
Jun 20, South African black nationalist Nelson Mandela and his wife,
Winnie, arrived in New York City for a ticker-tape parade in their
honor as they began an eight-city US tour.
(AP, 6/20/00)
1990
Jun 20, In Russia the Communist Initiative created its neoconservative
Russian Communist Party. Among the founders were Gennady Zyuganov,
Valentin Kuptsov, and Alexander Rutskoi. Gorbachev still ran the
country.
(SFC, 6/10/96, p.A16)
1991
Jun 20, Boris Yeltsin, the newly elected president of the Russian
republic, was welcomed to the White House by President Bush.
(AP, 6/20/01)
1991
Jun 20, German lawmakers voted to move the seat of the national
government from Bonn back to Berlin.
(SFEC, 6/27/99, p.A24)(AP, 6/20/01)
1992
Jun 20, An enraged mob forced South African President F.W. de Klerk to
cut short a visit to the black township of Boipatong, the scene of a
massacre three days earlier.
(AP, 6/20/97)
1993
Jun 20, The Chicago Bulls won their third NBA title in a row as they
defeated the Phoenix Suns in Game 6 of their championship series, 99-98.
(AP, 6/20/98)
1994
Jun 20, O.J. Simpson pleaded innocent in Los Angeles to the killing of
his ex-wife, Nicole, and her friend, Ronald Goldman.
(AP, 6/20/99)
1994
Jun 20, Former airman Dean Allen Mellberg went on a shooting rampage at
Fairchild Air Force Base near Spokane, Wash., killing four people and
wounding 22 others before being killed by a military police
sharpshooter.
(AP, 6/20/04)
1995
Jun 20, US Air Force Captain Jim Wang, a radar officer, was cleared of
wrongdoing in a friendly fire attack on two US
helicopters over northern Iraq in 1994 that resulted in 26 deaths.
(AP, 6/20/00)
1995 Jun 20-1995 Jun 21, The Mount
Zion AME Church in Greeleyville, S.C., was destroyed by fire. On the
next day the Macedonia Baptist Church in Bloomville was burned. In 1996
two KKK members, Gary Cox and Timothy Welch, were charged in federal
court for setting the fires. They pleaded guilty on 8/14/96. Former
Klansmen Hubert Rowell and Arthur Haley pleaded guilty to 4 counts of
conspiracy in the fires in Dec 1996. In 1998 the Christian Knights of
KKK and Horace King, Grand Dragon of South Carolina, were ordered to
pay $37.8 million in damages for the burning of the Macedonia Baptist
church.
(SFC, 7/9/96, p.A6)(SFC, 8/15/96, p.A4)(SFC,
12/10/96, p.A3)(SFC, 7/25/98, p.A3)
1996
Jun 20, The Clinton administration announced it would veto the
re-election of U.N. Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali.
(AP, 6/20/97)
1996
Jun 20, Westinghouse Electric agreed to buy Infinity Broadcasting for
$3.9 billion.
(AP, 6/20/97)
1996
Jun 20, Scientists announced the identification of the co-factor
involved in human AIDS viral reproduction. Chemokin receptor-5, CKR5,
is the name of the HIV co-factor.
(SFC, 6/20/96, p.A3)
1996
Jun 20, The recent issue of Nature reported that fossil bones from
130-120 million ago were found in a jungle streambed in northeastern
Thailand of a 21 foot tyrannosaur. It was named Siamotyrannus
isanensis. The finding added to evidence that tyrannosaurs evolved in
Asia.
(SFC, 6/20/96, p.C12)
1996
Jun 20, In 1996 there were allegations of kickbacks from a 1988
European Airbus jets sale to Canada. Swiss Bank records were sought in
a corruption probe. Former Prime Minister Mulroney filed suit for being
named in the scandal.
(WSJ, 6/20/96, p.A14)
1996
Jun 20, "Revolt Against Modernity: Leo Strauss, Eric Voegelin, and the
search for a Postliberal Order" by Ted v. McAllister was reviewed by
Robert Devigne. It discusses the modern political thinking wherein the
search for knowledge is directed by humanity to master its environment.
(WSJ, 6/20/96, p.A16)
1996
Jun 20, In Albania a court convicted 3 top ex-Communist officials for
deporting more than 70 dissidents when they headed regional Communist
administrations. The European Parliament urged Albania to hold another
vote due to balloting irregularities in the May 26 and June 2 elections.
(SFC, 6/21/96, p.A14)(SFC, 6/22/96, p.A13)
1996
Jun 20, China was to announce the convertibility of its currency, the
yuan, for trade, services, debt payment and profit repatriation by
foreign companies.
(WSJ, 6/20/96, p.A14)
1996
Jun 20, In Indonesia fighting broke out when the army backed dissidents
who wanted to oust Megawati Sukarnoputri as leader of the opposition
Indonesian Democratic Party. Party members fought with troops in
Jakarta in support of Megawati who is seen as a threat to Pres. Suharto.
(SFC, 6/21/96, p.A14)
1996
Jun 20, In northern Nicaragua mediators began negotiations for the
release of a group of about 30 election workers recently kidnapped by
15 re-armed contras and taken to Honduras.
(SFC, 6/21/96, p.A14)
1996
Jun 20, In Russia Yeltsin fired 3 aides. Alexander Korzhakov, head of
his personal security force; Deputy Prime Minister Oleg Soskovets; and
Mikhail Barshukov, head of a KGB successor agency.
(WSJ, 6/21/96, p.A1)
1997
Jun 20, US tobacco negotiators announced a settlement that would
require cigarette companies to pay $368.5 billion over the next 25
years to compensate states for smoking-related illnesses, to finance
anti-smoking programs, and to underwrite health care for millions of
uninsured children in exchange for major relief from mounting lawsuits
and legal bills.
(SFC, 6/21/97, p.A1)(AP, 6/20/98)
1997
Jun 20, The summit of industrialized nations opened in Denver, with
Russia taking its place as the new eighth partner.
(AP, 6/20/98)
1997
Jun 20, A jury in Trenton, N.J., ordered the death penalty for Jesse K.
Timmendequas, whose rape and strangling of his 7-year-old neighbor,
Megan Kanka, led to the creation of "Megan's Laws" requiring that
communities be notified of sex offenders in their midst.
(AP, 6/20/07)
1997
Jun 20, In Cambodia government sources announced that former Khmer
Rouge troops had captured Pol Pot.
(SFC, 6/21/97, p.A10)
1997
Jun 20, In Mexico authorities announced the discovery of 53 properties,
36 bank accounts and 4 aliases for Raul Salinas.
(SFC, 6/21/97, p.A11)
1997
Jun 20, In Spain former prime minister Felipe Gonzalez quit as the
leader of the Spanish Socialist Party. He was succeeded by Joaquin
Almunia.
(WSJ, 6/23/97, p.A1)
1997
Jun 20, In Turkey Pres. Demirel asked Mesut Yilmaz, leader of the
Motherland Party, to form a new government.
(SFC, 6/21/97, p.A10)
1998
Jun 20, On the eve of Father's Day, President Clinton used his weekly
radio address to announce the release of the first wave of almost $60
million in prostate cancer research grants.
(AP, 6/20/08)
1998
Jun 20, Seven people were killed on the Pennsylvania Turnpike when a
Greyhound bus crashed into a tractor-trailer parked on the shoulder. At
least 18 people were hurt. The driver was on his last run before
retirement. he was among the dead with his wife and boy that they took
care of.
(SFEC, 6/21/98, p.A10)(WSJ, 6/22/98, p.A1)
1998
Jun 20, In Belarus ambassadors of the EU nations announced that they
would leave the country to protest a government move barring them from
their homes.
(SFEC, 6/21/98, p.A17)
1998
Jun 20, Iran reversed its opposition to a UN plan, passed the previous
day, permitting Iraq to spend $300 million of revenues from the
oil-for-food program to buy spare parts to rebuild its oil industry.
(SFEC, 6/21/98, p.A25)
Jun 20,
Suekiku Miyanaga (107), Japan’s oldest person, died in Osumi.
(SFEC, 6/21/98, p.A25)
1998
Jun 20, In Kosovo 3 Serbian police were killed and four were held by
the Kosovo separatist army during fighting in the Decani area.
(SFEC, 6/21/98, p.A25)
1999
Jun 20, Golfer Payne Stewart won his second US Open title, by one
stroke over Phil Mickelson.
(AP, 6/20/00)
1999
Jun 20, Pres. Clinton met with Pres. Yeltsin in Germany and they agreed
to rekindle efforts to reduce their nuclear arsenals.
(SFC, 6/21/99, p.A1)
1999
Jun 20, The Cuban Evangelical Celebration, billed as the first
Protestant gathering of its kind, was held in Havana's Plaza of the
Revolution with Castro present.
(SFC, 6/21/99, p.A10)
1999
Jun 20, The last Serbian officer left Kosovo. Pres. Milosevic urged the
Serbs of Kosovo to stay in Kosovo under NATO protection. As the last of
40-thousand Yugoslav troops rolled out of Kosovo, NATO declared a
formal end to its bombing campaign against Yugoslavia.
(SFC, 6/21/99, p.A1,7)(AP, 6/20/00)
2000
Jun 20, After a furious last-minute lobbying blitz by the Clinton
administration, the Senate voted 57-to-42 to approve legislation making
it easier for federal prosecutors to try hate crimes, attaching the
measure to a defense authorization bill. However, the House stripped
the hate crimes provision from the defense bill the following October.
(AP, 6/20/01)
2000
Jun 20, Vivendi agreed to acquire Seagram’s Corp. for $30 billion.
(SFC, 6/21/00, p.C16)
2000
Jun 20, Brazil decreed an immediate ban on the sale of firearms as part
of a broad $1.7 billion national security plan.
(SFC, 6/21/00, p.A14)
2000
Jun 20, In Northern Ireland Ulster Freedom Fighters threatened break
their cease-fire and accused Catholic groups of attacking protestant
homes.
(SFC, 6/21/00, p.A12)
2000
Jun 20, In South Korea some 50 thousand members of the medical
association went on strike to protest a new system that bans them from
selling most drugs.
(SFC, 6/21/00, p.A16)
2000
Jun 20, In Russia the prosecutor’s office filed to reverse the
privatization of Norilsk Nickel, the largest metal company, controlled
by oligarch Vladimir Potanin.
(SFC, 6/21/00, p.A14)
2001
Jun 20, Billy Collins was named the 11th U.S. poet laureate.
(AP, 6/20/02)
Jun 20, Andrea Yates (36) of Houston, Texas, drowned her 5 children,
ages 6 months to 7 years, at her home near the Johnson Space Center.
Yates had been under medication for post-partum depression. In 2002 a
jury found Yates guilty of capital murder and sentenced her to life in
prison. Her conviction was overturned in 2005 by an appeals court which
ruled a prosecution expert witness gave false testimony at her trial.
In 2006 a jury found her not guilty by reason of insanity.
(SFC, 6/21/01, p.A6)(SFC, 3/13/02, p.A1)(SFC,
3/16/02, p.A1)(AP, 1/6/05)(SFC, 7/27/06, p.A3)
2001
Jun 20, In Brazil the Central Bank raised the key interest rate 1.5% to
18.25%.
(WSJ, 6/22/01, p.A11)
2001
Jun 20, In Belfast, Northern Ireland, police battled sectarian mobs in
the worst rioting since 1998.
(WSJ, 6/21/01, p.A1)
2001
Jun 20, In Pakistan Gen'l. Pervez Musharraf dismissed the president and
named himself to the post. He also dissolved the national Assembly and
4 provisional assemblies.
(WSJ, 6/21/01, p.A1)(SFC, 6/21/01, p.A10)
Jun 20, In Peru American Lori Berenson (31) was
convicted by a civilian court of collaborating with rebels and was
sentenced to 20 years in prison. She already had served 5 years.
(WSJ, 6/21/01, p.A1)(SFC, 6/21/01, p.A10)
2002
Jun 20, The US Supreme Court ruled that the constitution bans the death
penalty for mentally retarded convicted killers.
(SFC, 6/21/02, p.A1)
Jun 20, Paul Shanley (71), a retired priest, was
indicted in Cambridge, Mass., on charges of raping 4 children from
1979-1989. Shanley was convicted on 4 charges in 2005 and sentenced
12-15 years in prison.
(SFC, 6/21/02, p.A3)(SFC, 6/8/04, p.A3)(SFC,
2/16/05, p.A4)
2002
Jun 20, Colombian President-elect Alvaro Uribe pressed President Bush
for more help in fighting drugs, while Bush cautioned him to respect
human rights as he combats leftist rebels who rely largely on drug
trafficking for their income.
(AP, 6/21/02)
2002
Jun 20, A gas explosion ripped through the Chengzihe coal mine in Jixi
in northeast China and killed 111 miners.
(Reuters, 6/20/02)
2002
Jun 20, Liberian rebels attacked a refugee camp near the border with
Sierra Leone, seizing five nurses and sending thousands fleeing as they
battled government troops. Four people died in the fighting.
(AP, 6/21/02)
2002
Jun 20, Thousands of Italians, from prosecutors and judges to
metalworkers, walked off their jobs to protest government plans to
reform the judiciary system and labor law.
(AP, 6/20/02)
2002
Jun 20, Palestinian gunmen killed 5 Jewish settlers at the Itamar
settlement in the West Bank. The 2 assailants were killed.
(SFC, 6/21/02, p.A1)
2002
Jun 20, In Saudi Arabia John Veness, a British employee at Al Bank al
Saudi al Fransi, was killed in a car bomb explosion in Riyadh.
(WSJ, 6/21/02, p.A7)
2002
Jun 20, In Spain pickets clashed with police, many shops closed and
hundreds of flights were canceled as workers staged Spain's first
general strike in eight years.
(AP, 6/20/02)
2002
Jun 20, Turkey took over control of the 19-member peacekeeping force in
Afghanistan.
(SFC, 6/21/02, p.A10)
2002
Jun 20, In northern Tanzania more than 30 people may have suffocated
deep inside a tanzanite mine in northern Tanzania after an oxygen pump
failed.
(AP, 6/20/02)
2002
Jun 20-2002 Jun 22, A European Union Summit was scheduled for Seville.
(SSFC, 5/26/02, p.C2)
2003
Jun 20, President Bush named Scott McClellan his new press secretary,
succeeding Ari Fleischer.
(AP, 6/20/04)
2003
Jun 20, Pres. Bush and Brazil's Pres. Lula da Silva said that relations
between the two nations remain on track despite sharp disagreements
over Iraq and some trade issues.
(AP, 6/21/03)
2003
Jun 20, Secretary of State Colin Powell met separately with the leaders
of Israel and the Palestinian Authority, praising the Israelis for
efforts toward an eventual peace settlement and urging speed on the
Palestinians.
(AP, 6/20/04)
2003
Jun 20, Gov. Davis announced that car license fees would triple as of
Oct. 1 and Finance Director Steve Peace said California was now
operating off of borrowed money.
(SFC, 6/21/03, p.A1)
2003
Jun 20, General Motors Corp. said it will sell about $13 billion of
bonds, one of the largest corporate debt offerings ever, to help shore
up its U.S. pension plan which ended last year under funded by $19.3
billion. Standard & Poor's 500 companies had a combined deficit of
about $239 billion and growing, an all-time high.
(Reuters, 6/20/03)
2003
Jun 20, In Los Angeles County 31 train cars broke loose and rolled over
30 miles before workers forced a derailing at Commerce.
(SFC, 6/21/03, p.A3)
2003
Jun 20, Wildfires fueled by high winds burned 250 homes in southern
Arizona.
(AP, 6/20/04)
2003
Jun 20, In China Guangdong health officials reported 211 encephalitis
cases with 18 children killed. 100,000 children were vaccinated as a
precaution.
(SFC, 6/21/03, p.A5)
2003
Jun 20, China said it will move 42,000 soldiers to civilian jobs this
year as part of efforts to shrink the world's largest military.
(AP, 6/20/03)
2003 Jun 20, A 31-nation
conference in Germany agreed to expand efforts to combat terrorist
financing and money laundering. The Financial Action Task Force issued
a 40-point program to keep international law enforcement abreast of
criminals' increasingly sophisticated efforts to conceal illegal money
flows.
(AP, 6/20/03)
2003 Jun 20, In Iran student
protests against Ayatollah Ali Khamenei spread to at least 8 other
cities.
(SFC, 6/21/03, p.A8)
2003 Jun 20, Kazakhstan's
parliament passed a bill allowing private ownership of land for the
first time in this vast former Soviet republic.
(AP, 6/20/03)
2003 Jun 20, In Latvia Vaira
Vike-Freiberga easily won a second term as president.
(AP, 6/20/03)
2003 Jun
20, In Liberia Pres. Charles Taylor renounced his peace pledge to cede
power and announced that he will serve to the January 2004 end of his
term — and might run again.
(AP, 6/20/03)
2003 Jun 20, Singapore launched an
automated commuter train system, filling a gap in the city's subway
network.
(AP, 6/20/03)
2003 Jun 20, A boat carrying some
250 people toward Italy sank off the Tunisian coast, killing at least
50 people. The boat's occupants were all thought to be illegal
immigrants.
(AP, 6/20/03)(AP, 6/22/03)
2003 Jun 20, In central Turkey a
student dormitory at an Islamic school exploded and collapsed, killing
10 students.
(AP, 6/20/03)
2003 Jun 20, Morgan Tsvangirai
(51), Zimbabwe's opposition leader, was released on bail after two
weeks in jail on treason charges. He said he will not stop putting
pressure on Pres. Robert Mugabe (79).
(AP, 6/21/03)
2004
Jun 20, Bermuda-based Bacardi Limited agreed to purchase Grey Goose
vodka, distilled and bottled in France, from Sidney Frank Importing Co.
for roughly $2 billion.
(AP, 6/21/04)
2004
Jun 20, India and Pakistan announced they would establish a new hot
line to alert each other of potential nuclear accidents or threats.
(AP, 6/20/04)
2004
Jun 20, In Iraq a roadside bomb exploded along a highway leading to
Baghdad's airport, killing two Iraqi soldiers and wounding 11 others.
(AP, 6/20/04)
2004
Jun 20, Iraq resumed oil exports of about 1 million barrels a day
through its southern Basra terminal after completing repairs to
pipelines sabotaged by insurgents.
(AP, 6/21/04)
2004
Jun 20, The Arab satellite TV network Al-Jazeera aired a videotape
purportedly from al-Qaida-linked militants showing Kim Sun Il (33), a
South Korean hostage, begging for his life and pleading with his
government to withdraw troops from Iraq.
(AP, 6/21/04)(SFC, 6/21/04, p.A7)
2004
Jun 20, A Philippine congressional committee announced, six weeks after
the election, that President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo has won another
term in office. In 2005 an audio file, allegedly wiretapped by military
intelligence, became available with Arroyo speaking to election’s
official Virgilio Garcillano. The “Hello Garci? file became popular as
a cell phone ring tone.
(AP, 6/20/04)(SFC, 6/22/05, p.A2)
2004
Jun 20, Zimbabwe’s government said it would honor ownership rights to
land bought on the property market, backtracking on previous
announcements it would nationalize all farmland.
(AP, 6/20/04)
2005
Jun 20, During a joint news conference with European leaders, President
Bush said he was determined to complete the mission of establishing
democracy in Iraq because the world would be a better place for it.
(AP, 6/20/06)
2005
Jun 20, A US federal judge threw out evidence against four men charged
with laundering more than $60 million through their chain of US Virgin
Islands grocery stores, ruling that FBI agents acted in "reckless
disregard for the truth."
(AP, 6/21/05)
2005
Jun 20, John Rigas (80), founder of Adelphia Corp., was sentenced to 15
years in prison for looting the firm and lying about finances. His son,
Timothy Rigas, his ex-finance chief, received a 20-year sentence.
(SFC, 6/21/05, p.D1)
2005
Jun 20, California state and federal officials set aside $2 million to
determine why smelt and other species in the San Joaquin and Sacramento
River Delta has dropped sharply. Numerous causes were suspect including
nonnative predators and increasing herbicide and pesticide runoff as
well as water draw down to supply Southern California and the Central
Valley.
(SFC, 6/21/05, p.B3)
2005
Jun 20, H.J. Heinz Co., the largest ketchup maker in the US, said it
has agreed to buy the HP Foods and Lea & Perrins sauce divisions
from France's Groupe Danone for $852 mil.
(AP, 6/20/05)
2005
Jun 20, Charles D. Keeling (b.1928), American atmospheric chemist, died
in Montana. His monitoring of the pure air at Mauna Loa, Hawaii, and
the South Pole, begun in 1958, provided CO2 readings that climbed
steadily and became known as the Keeling Curve.
(WSJ, 6/24/05,
p.A1)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_David_Keeling)
2005
Jun 20, Jack Kilby (b.1923), Nobel Prize winner and co-inventor of the
integrated circuit (1958), died in Dallas.
(SFC, 6/22/05, p.A5)(Econ, 7/25/05, p.75)
2005
Jun 20, Fierce fighting between Taliban rebels and Afghan security
forces left 18 insurgents and three others dead.
(AP, 6/20/05)
2005
Jun 20, Dutch scientists reported that folic acid improved the memory
of older adults.
(SFC, 6/21/05, p.A3)
2005
Jun 20, European Union agriculture ministers agreed to share out an
annual 12.7 billion-euro ($15.51 billion) package to support rural
development.
(AP, 6/21/05)
2005
Jun 20, India raised retail petrol and diesel prices by about 7
percent, the first increase since November.
(AP, 6/20/05)
2005
Jun 20, India approved a free-trade agreement with Singapore.
(WSJ, 6/21/05, p.A14)
2005
Jun 20, In Iraq a suicide car bomber killed at least 15 traffic police
and wounded about 100 more outside the unit's headquarters in the
northern Kurdish city of Irbil. Suicide attacks left 37 dead.
(AP, 6/20/05)(WSJ, 6/21/05, p.A1)
2005
Jun 20, Japan said it would dramatically expand its research whaling,
doubling the number of minke whales it kills annually for scientific
study.
(AP, 6/20/05)
2005
Jun 20, The leaders of Japan and South Korea failed to make progress on
mending ties damaged by a territorial dispute over islands in the Sea
of Japan and a flap over Tokyo's militaristic past during a tense
summit.
(AP, 6/20/05)
2005
Jun 20, Massouma al-Mubarak, Kuwait's first female Cabinet member, took
the oath of office over the shouts of Muslim fundamentalist and tribal
lawmakers opposed to women in politics.
(AP, 6/20/06)
2005
Jun 20, Palestinian gunmen ambushed an Israeli minivan driving through
the northern West Bank, riddling the vehicle with bullets, killing one
passenger and wounding a second.
(AP, 6/20/05)
2005
Jun 20, In Thailand 3 Muslim men were shop dead in Pattani.
(Econ, 7/23/05, p.40)
2005
Jun 20, In Vietnam officials said 2 more people from northern Vietnam
have been sickened with bird flu, and thousands of chickens have
dropped dead in the south.
(AP, 6/20/05)
2006
Jun 20, One of the largest US military exercises in decades got
underway off Guam island in the western Pacific.
(AP, 6/20/06)
2006
Jun 20, The US Mint at West Point, NY, staged a promotion for the
nation’s first 24-karat, pure gold one-ounce coin, the American
Buffalo. The $50 gold piece design was based on the 1913 buffalo nickel
designed by James Earle Fraser. Orders for the bullion version began
June 19, and orders for the proof coin would begin June 22 at $875 per
proof coin.
(WSJ, 6/16/06, p.C3)(SFC, 6/21/06, p.C1)
2006 Jun 20, A Washington DC jury
found former Bush administration official David Safavian guilty of
covering up his dealings with Republican influence-peddler Jack
Abramoff. Safavian was sentenced to 18 months in prison, but the
underlying conviction was thrown out by an appeals court in 2008. In
Dec, 2008, Safavian was convicted of obstructing justice and lying. In
Oct 2009 he was sentenced to a year and a day in federal prison.
(AP, 6/20/06)(SFC, 10/17/09, p.A6)
2006
Jun 20, A US defense official said the United States has moved its
ground-based interceptor missile defense system from test mode to
operational amid concerns over an expected North Korean missile launch.
(AP, 6/20/06)
2006
Jun 20, National Guardsmen rolled into New Orleans to reinforce a
depleted police department and battle a surge in violence.
(AP, 6/20/07)
2006
Jun 20, CBS announced that Dan Rather, the anchorman who dominated CBS
News for more than two decades, is leaving the network after 44 years.
(AP, 6/20/06)
2006
Jun 20, The Miami Heat won their first NBA title, beating the Dallas
Mavericks 95-92 in Game 6.
(AP, 6/20/07)
2006
Jun 20, Georgia Tech and IBM announced a microchip speed record of 500
billion cycles per second (500 gigahertz) by applying liquid helium to
cool a chip to 451 degrees below zero.
(SFC, 6/20/06, p.C3)
2006
Jun 20, In southern Afghanistan an explosion tore apart a coalition
tank, killing one Romanian soldier and wounding four others. Afghan and
coalition forces clashed with Taliban fighters in southern Helmand
province, leaving 20 militants dead. Coalition soldiers accidentally
fired on an unmarked police car in eastern Kunar province, killing 3
Afghan policemen and wounding 3.
(AP, 6/20/06)(AP, 6/21/06)
2006
Jun 20, British media reported that PM Tony Blair and Queen Elizabeth
II are to get two new dedicated aircraft, dubbed "Blair Force One" and
"Blair Force Two."
(AP, 6/20/06)
2006
Jun 20, Chad accused Sudan of cross-border attacks and urged the
Security Council to meet over its neighbor's alleged "aggression and
destabilization."
(AP, 6/20/06)
2006
Jun 20, The UN said production of the coca plant used to make cocaine
had increased by 8% in Colombia, to 330 square miles.
(AP, 6/20/06)
2006
Jun 20, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan said in a report that Congo's
armed forces and police are responsible for the majority of documented
abuses against children in the chaotic country, sometimes abducting
kids to carry equipment or for sex.
(AP, 6/20/06)
2006
Jun 20, East Timor prosecutors ordered the arrest of Rogerio Lobato,
the former interior minister, for supplying weapons to a hit squad
tasked with eliminating the prime minister's political opponents.
International troops tightened security across the capital as hundreds
of protesters gathered to demand PM Mari Alkatiri's ouster.
(AP, 6/20/06)
2006
Jun 20, US-led forces killed 15 terror suspects and detained three
others during raids in a village northeast of Baghdad. Residents said
13 civilians also were killed. 4 Marines were killed in
insurgency-ridden Anbar province, three of them in a roadside bombing
and a fourth in a separate operation. The US military recovered the
booby-trapped bodies of two missing soldiers in Iraq.
(AP, 6/20/06)(AP, 6/22/06)(AP, 6/20/07)
2006
Jun 20, Indonesian officials said a 14-year-year-old boy died of bird
flu last week, raising the country's death toll to at least 39 people.
(AP, 6/20/06)
2006
Jun 20, Italian police arrested at least 45 people in an anti-Mafia
crackdown in Sicily, including top bosses who had allegedly been in
touch with Bernardo Provenzano, the reputed No. 1 boss picked up
earlier this year.
(AP, 6/20/06)
2006
Jun 20, Japan ordered the withdrawal of its ground troops from Iraq,
declaring the humanitarian mission a success and ending a
groundbreaking dispatch that tested the limits of its pacifist postwar
constitution.
(AP, 6/20/06)
2006
Jun 20, A second bus service rolled between the Indian and Pakistani
zones of disputed Kashmir, a move hailed as a boost for the peace
process between the nuclear-armed rivals.
(AP, 6/20/06)
2006
Jun 20, A senior UN official marked World Refugee Day by welcoming home
125 Liberians from Sierra Leone where they lived for years seeking
haven from Liberia's civil war. Former Liberian President Charles
Taylor was taken to a Dutch prison to await a UN war crimes trial for
the killing, rape or mutilation of hundreds of thousands in West Africa.
(AP, 6/20/06)
2006
Jun 20, Lithuania plunged deeper into political crisis after lawmakers
rejected their president's choice for prime minister, edging the Baltic
country toward early elections and its 14th government in 15 years. 52
lawmakers voted in favor of and 48 against Social Democrat Zigmantas
Balcytis, who was nominated last week to the premiership by President
Valdas Adamkus. There were 32 abstentions.
(AFP, 6/20/06)
2006 Jun 20, Two Filipino oil
workers were kidnapped near the Nigerian oil city of Port Harcourt in
the southern Niger Delta.
(AFP, 6/20/06)
2006
Jun 20, Pakistani authorities negotiated a temporary truce after at
least 14 people died and 35 were wounded in a gunbattle near Parachinar
between two tribes over access to water.
(AP, 6/20/06)
2006
Jun 20, In Gaza City Mohammed Roka (5), Samia el-Sharif (5), and Bilal
Al-hassi (16) were killed by an Israeli missile that hit a group of
children, but didn't kill the militants in the targeted car. After the
air attack went awry, Israel defended its pursuit of militants, but
said it would "continue to take every precaution to keep civilians out
of harm's way."
(AP, 6/21/06)
2006
Jun 20, In Spain and France 12 people, including one of the founders of
the Basque separatists ETA, were arrested in pre-dawn raids in a
crackdown on illegal financing of the armed group.
(AFP, 6/20/06)
2006
Jun 20, Sudanese state news said President Omar Hassan al-Bashir ruled
out letting UN troops into the Darfur region, saying he would not
permit such a deployment as long as he was in power.
(AP, 6/20/06)
2006
Jun 20, A US Embassy spokesman said the United States has asked
Suriname to extradite a Guyanese man wanted on drug charges in New
York. Shaheed Khan was arrested June 15 by authorities in Suriname.
(AP, 6/21/06)
2006
Jun 20, Turkey's PM Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced plans to build three
nuclear power plants by 2015 to meet the country's growing energy needs.
(AP, 6/20/06)
2007
Jun 20, For the second time, President Bush vetoed an embryonic stem
cell bill as he urged scientists toward what he termed "ethically
responsible" research.
(AP, 6/20/08)
2007
Jun 20, Sammy Sosa, playing for the Texas Rangers after a year out of
baseball, hit his 600th home run, making him the fifth player to reach
the milestone.
(AP, 6/20/08)
2007
Jun 20, Isaac Kamali, who appears on Rwanda's most wanted list
submitted to Interpol, was detained at Philadelphia airport.
(Reuters, 6/22/07)
2007
Jun 20, In eastern Afghanistan gunmen opened fire on people praying in
a mosque, killing three and wounding four others. A series of roadside
bombings in Afghanistan killed eight people, including three Canadian
NATO soldiers. One bomb blew up a police vehicle in the eastern
province of Khost, killing Qalandar district police chief Ali Mohammad
and one of his men. An ambush on a convoy belonging to UN's Office for
Project Services on the main Kabul-Kandahar highway, killed two Afghan
guards. Another bomb exploded on a road in Ghazni province and killed a
man who was cycling home after buying groceries. Fighting in Paktika
province between US-led troops and suspected Taliban left 8 militants
and a policeman dead.
(AP, 6/20/07)(AFP, 6/20/07)(AP, 6/21/07)
2007
Jun 20, Australia announced that it will spend 9.3 billion US dollars
on five Spanish-designed warships to boost its capacity to face
military threats in the region.
(AP, 6/20/07)
2007
Jun 20, In Chechnya a gunbattle broke out between traffic police and a
Defense Ministry unit in Grozny, leaving at least five people dead and
six wounded.
(AP, 6/20/07)
2007
Jun 20, China announced a nationwide crackdown on enslavement and child
labor. China's regulatory standards chief pledged to update and boost
enforcement of food safety rules as the country faces intense
international pressure for exporting unsafe products from toothpaste to
pet food ingredients. State media said floods and landslides triggered
by heavy rain have killed 36 more people and left 13 missing in
southwest and central China. A knife-wielding man slashed four
students, wounding one seriously at a high school in Fuzhou, capital of
southeastern Fujian province.
(AP, 6/20/07)(Reuters, 6/20/07)(AP, 6/21/07)
2007
Jun 20, Otto Roberto Herrera Garcia, a man accused of turning Guatemala
into a corridor for US-bound cocaine, was arrested in Bogota, two years
after escaping from a Mexican prison. He offered agents $700,000 each
in bribes to let him go when he was seized.
(AP, 6/22/07)
2007 Jun 20, A Dutch
government-funded agency said China has overtaken the United States as
the top emitter of carbon dioxide, the main greenhouse gas, because of
surging energy use amid an economic boom. However consumption and
emission levels per head remained a mere fraction of America’s.
P, 6/20/07)(Econ, 6/13/09, p.45)
2007 un
20, Starbucks signed a deal to credit Ethiopia's unique bean varieties
on its coffee labels, ending a long-brewing trademark dispute.
(AFP, 6/21/07)
2007
Jun 20, In Athens, Greece, 7 police officers were charged with torture
and other offenses in the alleged beating of two Albanian immigrants
that was recorded on a cell phone camera and posted on the Internet.
(AP, 6/20/07)
2007
Jun 20, Gunmen blew up two Sunni mosques south of Baghdad, causing
heavy damage but no casualties, in an apparent retaliatory attack a day
after a suicide truck bombing devastated a revered Shiite mosque in the
heart of the capital. The US military said at least 30 al-Qaida
fighters were killed and several bombs and weapons caches destroyed as
soldiers fought their way through the streets of Baqouba. 4 US soldiers
were killed and one was wounded when their convoy was struck by a
roadside bomb in a western neighborhood in Baghdad. Southwest of
Baghdad. Two US soldiers were killed and 4 were wounded when explosions
struck near their vehicle. Two Marines also were killed while
conducting combat operations in Anbar province.
(AP, 6/20/07)(AP, 6/21/07)
7
Jun 20, Nazek al-Malaika (85), a renowned Iraqi
poet, died. She was famous as the first to write Arabic poetry in free
verse rather than classical rhyme.
(AP, 6/20/07)
2007
Jun 20, Israeli tanks entered southern Gaza, and four people, including
at least two militants, were killed in an exchange of fire. Israel
fired missiles at two rocket launchers in northern Gaza in the first
attack since Hamas militants took control. Israel also let in a few
seriously ill Palestinians who had been holed up for days at a fetid
border crossing. In the West Bank, two Palestinian militants were
killed in a shootout with Israeli troops during an arrest raid near
Jenin.
(AP, 6/20/07)
2007
Jun 20, Japanese lawmakers approved a two-year extension of the
country's air force transport mission in Iraq, despite criticism of
Tokyo's involvement in the unpopular war.
(AP, 6/20/07)
2007
Jun 20, Nigerian stocks dipped 1.74% as a general strike called by the
country's two main labor movements over a 15-percent hike in petrol
prices took its toll. Nigerian health officials said an outbreak of
measles in a village in the northern state of Borno had killed 20
children and caused a further 100 children to be hospitalized.
(AFP, 6/20/07)
2007
Jun 20, In Sierra Leone 3 former military leaders were found guilty of
war crimes by a UN-backed court, the first verdicts from the country's
civil war and the first convictions in an international court for using
child soldiers. Alex Tamba Brima, Brima Bazzy Kamara and Santigie
Borbor Kanu were indicted in 2003 as the alleged leaders of a junta,
called the Armed Forces Revolutionary Council, which toppled the
government in 1997 and then teamed up with rebels to control the
country until 1998.
(AP, 6/20/07)
2007
Jun 20, In Switzerland 2 people accused of running al-Qaida-linked Web
sites that showed the slaying of hostages and gave details of how to
make bombs and carry out attacks went on trial. Moez Garsallaoui (39),
a Tunisian based in Switzerland, and Malika El Aroud 948), the
Belgian-born widow of an al-Qaida suicide bomber, appeared in court on
charges that included providing support for terrorists.
(AP, 6/20/07)
2007
Jun 20, Thailand’s legislature approved an anti-rape law that widens
the definition of the crime and makes it illegal for a husband to have
sex with his wife without her consent.
(AP, 6/21/07)
2007
Jun 20, Adm. William Fallon, a top US military commander, met with
Turkmenistan's new President Berdymukhamedov for talks on regional
security, counterterrorism operations and drug trafficking.
(AP, 6/21/07)
2008 Jun 20, The US Federal
Appeals Court in Washington, DC, ruled that Huzaifa Parhat, an ethnic
Chinese Uighur captured in the early stage of the US war in
Afghanistan, was inappropriately designated an enemy combatant.
(SFC, 6/24/08, p.A5)
2008 Jun 20, Zinc prices closed at
$0.9157 per pound, down 3 cents. September copper added 5 cents to
$3.83 per pound in New York. Silver closed at $17.38 per ounce.
(www.adn.com/money/industries/oil/story/427858.html)(http://tinyurl.com/6xgaby)
2008 Jun 20, The widening
Salmonella outbreak sickened more than 550 people. US food safety
inspectors planned trips to Florida and Mexico this weekend to examine
tomato farms and distribution chains, hoping to pinpoint the source of
the outbreak.
(Reuters, 6/20/08)
2008 Jun 20, A rocket carrying a
US-French satellite for monitoring ocean surface height was launched
from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. The data will be used to
monitor climate change effects on sea level.
(SFC, 6/21/08, p.A3)
2008 Jun 20, NASA scientists
reported that the Mars Phoenix spacecraft had uncovered chunks of ice.
(SFC, 6/21/08, p.A2)
2008 Jun 20, Wilbur Hardee
(b.1917), founder of the Hardee’s restaurant chain (1960), died in
Greenville, NC.
(SFC, 6/24/08, p.B5)
2008 Jun 20, In southern
Afghanistan a suicide bomber attacked a military convoy as it drove
through a town, killing five civilians and one soldier from the US-led
coalition.
(AP, 6/20/08)
2008 Jun 20, Brazil’s Pres. Luiz
Inacio Lula da Silva decreed a new 3.8 million acre (1.5 million
hectare) Indian reservation in the heart of the Amazon rain forest's
logging frontier.
(AP, 6/21/08)
2008 Jun 20, Cambodian officials
said authorities working with Australian police had destroyed an
enormous stockpile of 33 tons of safrole-rich oil, a key ingredient
used in producing the synthetic drug Ecstasy. Cambodian authorities
have been working since 2002 to stem the distillation of the oil and
since then have succeeded in detecting and dismantling more than 50
clandestine laboratories capable of producing up to 15 gallons of oil a
day. Cambodian officials are trying to preserve the sassafras tree,
which is classified as a rare species that grows mainly in Cambodia's
Cardamom Mountains.
(AP, 6/20/08)
2008 Jun 20, Maftuh Fauzi 27) a
student at Indonesia’s National University, died in hospital. He had
been among 100 fuel price protesters arrested May 24, but there were
conflicting reports about the cause of death.
(AP, 6/24/08)
2008 Jun 20, In Iraq hundreds of
followers of anti-US cleric Muqtada al-Sadr took to the streets after
prayers in Shiite areas to protest plans for a long term security pact
between Iraq and the US. An American soldier was killed and five others
wounded by roadside bombs northeast of Baghdad.
(AP, 6/20/08)(AP, 6/21/08)
2008 Jun 20, Panicked youths
rushed for the exits during a police raid on a Mexico City nightclub,
leaving 12 people dead in the crush of bodies. The dead included 3
underage teens and 3 police officers. Prosecutors later charged the
police commander who led a botched raid with 12 counts of homicide.
(AP, 6/21/08)(SSFC, 6/22/08, p.A11)(AP, 6/25/08)
2008 Jun 20, Nigerian militants
blew up a key oil supply pipeline operated by Chevron, in the latest
attack targeting the country's multi-billion-dollar oil industry. The
breached pipeline prompted Chevron to shut down its onshore oil
production.
(AFP, 6/21/08)
2008 Jun 20, Paraguayan prisoners
rioted to press a list of demands including more sex. Inmates seized
the Esperanza prison's director and other administrators, demanding
nighttime conjugal visits and an end to mistreatment by guards.
(AP, 6/20/08)
2008 Jun 20, Typhoon Fengshen
smashed into the Philippines' third largest island packing winds of 140
kilometers (87 miles) an hour as residents braced for flooding,
landslides and big waves. Flash floods and landslides triggered by
Typhoon Fengshen left more than 700 dead or missing in various parts of
the country.
(AFP, 6/20/08)(AFP, 6/21/08)(Econ, 6/28/08, p.49)
2008 Jun 20, In Saudi Arabia
religious police arrested 21 allegedly homosexual men and confiscated
large amounts of alcohol at a large gathering of young men at a rest
house in Qatif.
(AP, 6/21/08)
2008 Jun 20, The UN reported that
over 40 civilians had been killed this week in Mogadishu, Somalia.
(SFC, 6/21/08, p.A3)
2008 Jun 20, South Korea's
embattled President Lee Myung-Bak Friday replaced seven top aides to
give his government a fresh start after weeks of mass protests against
a US beef import deal.
(AFP, 6/20/08)
2008 Jun 20, In Thailand several
thousand protesters pushed through a heavy police cordon around the
seat of government, vowing to besiege the compound until PM Samak
Sundaravej resigns. They accused Samak's government of interfering with
corruption charges against former PM Thaksin and trying to change the
constitution for its own self-interest. A Thai army helicopter crashed
in southern Thailand, killing all 10 people on board.
(AP, 6/20/08)
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