Today in History - September 16
Return to home
1498 Sep 16,
Tomas de Torquemada, notorious for his role in the Spanish Inquisition,
died in Avila, Spain.
(AP, 9/16/06)
1560 Sep 16, Arnaud du Tilh, who
had confessed to impersonating Martin Guerre, was hanged in front of
Guerre’s house in Artigat, France. In 1941 Janet Lewis (1899-1998)
published "The Wife of Martin Guerre," a historical novel based on
Guerre. The story was turned into an opera in 1961 with music by
William Bergsma. In 1984 a French film version was released "The Return
of Martin Guere." An American version, "Somersby," was made in 1993 set
during the Civil War.
(SFC, 12/5/98,
p.C2)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Guerre)
1620 Sep 16, The Pilgrims sailed
from England on the Mayflower, finally settling at Plymouth, Mass. The
Pilgrims were actually Separatists because they had left the Church of
England. The 4 children of William Brewster, who arrived on the
Mayflower, were named: Love, Wrestling, Patience, and Fear.
(HN, 9/16/98)(SFEM, 11/15/98, p.23)(SFC, 3/20/99,
p.B4)
1638 Sep 16, France's King Louis
XIV, the Sun King, was born. He ruled from 1643-1715 and died in 1715.
(WUD, 1994, p.848)(AP, 9/16/97)
1668 Sep 16, King John Casimer II
of Poland abdicated the throne.
(HN, 9/16/98)(PCh, 1992, p.241)
1736 Sep 16, Gabriel Daniel
Fahrenheit (b.1686), Gdansk-born German physicist, died in the
Netherlands. He discovered that water boils at 212F and freezes at 32F.
(www.britannica.com)
1747 Sep 16, The French captured
Bergen-op-Zoom, consolidating their occupation of Austrian Flanders in
the Netherlands.
(HN, 9/16/98)
1777 Sep 16, Nathan Rothschild
(d.1836), banker, was born in Frankfurt. He was the son of Mayer
Rothschild (1744-1812), who rose from the Frankfurt ghetto to become
the banker to Prince William of Prussia. Nathan worked in London as a
banker and invested Prussian money in the Napoleonic Wars and smuggled
it to Wellington in Spain. He was the first to hear news from Waterloo
and sold stock to convince other investors that the British had lost.
His agents bought the stock at low prices. His 4 brothers established
banks in Vienna, Naples and Paris.
(WSJ, 1/11/98,
p.R18)(www.rothschildarchive.org/ib/?doc=/ib/articles/BW3bNathan)
1789 Sep 16, Jean-Paul Marat set
up a new newspaper in France, L'Ami du Peuple.
(HN, 9/16/98)
1795 Sep 16, The Capitulation of
Rustenburg: A Dutch garrison at the Cape of Good Hope surrendered to a
British fleet under Adm. George Elphinstone.
(EWH, 4th ed, p.884)
1810 Sep 16, Mexico began
its revolt against Spanish rule. Father Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla
delivered the cry for freedom in front of a small crowd of his
parishioners (The Grito de Dolores) in Dolores Hidalgo. This action
stemmed from meetings of the literary and social club of Queretaro (now
a central state of Mexico), which included the priest, the mayor of the
town, and a local military captain named Ignacio Allende. They believed
that New Spain should be governed by the Creoles (criollos) rather than
the Gachupines (peninsulares). Rev. Hidalgo was joined by Rev. Jose
Maria Morelos. Both priests were later executed by firing squads. When
Mexico revolted the Spanish settlements began to fall apart. Under
Mexican rule the missions were secularized and the huge land holdings
were broken up. At age 55, Hidalgo was a tall, gaunt man who carried
his head habitually bent forward, giving him the appearance of a true
contemplative. But looks were deceiving. He had a restless, willful
nature, and his expressive green eyes shot fire when he argued
politics. In his student days, he had won debates and honors; as a
theologian he enjoyed considerable local renown. He was a visionary,
resentful of authority and with a touch of the crusader about him.
(SFC, 5/19/96,CG, p.16)(SCal, Sep, 1995)(WSJ,
8/13/97, p.A12)(AP, 9/16/97)(HNQ, 12/17/00)
1819 Sep 16, Dr. John Jeffries,
who crossed the English Channel (1785) with Frenchman Jean-Pierre
Blanchard for the first time in a hydrogen balloon, died in Boston.
(HN, 5/15/98)(HN, 1/7/99)
1834 Sep 16, The Bank of the US
abandoned its policy of loan curtailment as Nicholas Biddle moved to
secure a new charter from the state of Pennsylvania.
(Panic, p.4)
1838 Sep 16, James J. Hill,
railroad builder, was born.
(HN, 9/16/00)
1859 Sep 16, In San Francisco US
Senator David C. Broderick died at the Leonides Haskell house at Fort
Mason, following his Sep 13 duel with David S. Terry, Chief Justice of
the California Supreme Court, near Lake Merced.
(SFC, 9/7/09, p.C1)
1864 Sep 16, Confederate General
Nathan Bedford Forrest led 4,500 men out of Verona, Miss. to harass
Union outposts in northern Alabama and Tennessee.
(HN, 9/16/98)
1875 Sep 16, James Cash Penny,
founder and owner of the J.C. Penny Company department stores, was born.
(HN, 9/16/98)
1885 Sep 16, Karen Horney,
psychoanalyst who exposed the male bias in the Freudian analysis of
women, was born.
(HN, 9/16/98)
1887 Sep 16, Nadia Boulanger
(d.1979), conductor, was born in Paris, France. She became the 1st
woman to conduct Boston Symphony (1939).
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nadia_Boulanger)(www.glbtq.com/arts/boulanger_n.html)
1889 Sep 16, Robert Younger, in
Minnesota's Stillwater Penitentiary for life, died of tuberculosis.
Brothers Cole and Bob remained in that prison.
(HN, 9/16/98)
1891 Sep 16, Karl Doenitz, German
Admiral who succeeded Hitler in governing Germany, was born.
(HN, 9/16/98)
1893 Sep 16, Albert Szent-Gyorgyi,
biochemist who isolated vitamin C, was born.
(HN, 9/16/98)
1893 Sep 16, More than 100,000
settlers ("Sooners") claimed land in the Cherokee Strip during the
first day of the Oklahoma land rush.
(AP, 9/16/97)(HN, 9/16/98)
1908 Sep 16, General Motors was
formed in Flint, Mich., by William Durant.
(AP, 9/16/08)
1919 Sep 16, The American Legion
was formally chartered by an act of Congress.
(AP, 9/16/07)
1920 Sep 16, A bomb exploded in
front of the Morgan building at 23 Wall St. in NYC at noon on a busy
Thursday. 33 people were killed and over 200 wounded. A 16-foot stretch
of the Tennessee-marble façade with pockmarks of the blast was
retained as a memorial. Ron Chernow described the incident in his book
"The House of Morgan." No one was charged but Prof. Paul Avrich, in his
book "Sacco and Vanzetti: The Anarchist Background," later held that
Mario Buda, an Italian immigrant, was the culprit.
(WSJ, 12/10/98, p.B1)(SFC, 9/22/01, p.A3)(SSFC,
4/16/06, p.E4)(WSJ, 8/18/07, p.P8)
1922 Sep 16, Rev. Edward Wheeler
Hall and his mistress, choir member Eleanor Mills, were found shot to
death in a New Jersey apple orchard. Hall’s wife and her 2 brothers
were indicted for the murder, but they were acquitted at trial. In 1964
William Kunstler authored “The Minister and the Choir Singer, “ an
account of the double murder and trial.
(WSJ, 11/10/07, p.W8)
1925 Sep 16, Charlie Byrd, jazz
guitarist, was born.
(HN, 9/16/00)
1925 Sep 16, Blues musician B.B.
King ("Blues Boy") was born in Mississippi. In the mid-1950s, while
King was performing in Twist, Arkansas, some audience members got into
a fight over a woman named Lucille. They knocked over a kerosene stove
and set the place on fire. Everybody ran outside...but when King
realized he left his guitar inside, he rushed back to retrieve it. From
then on, King named all his guitars "Lucille."
(www.britannica.com)(www.wordiq.com/definition/B._B._King)
1926 Sep 16, John Knowles, writer,
was born. His work included “A Separate Peace.”
(HN, 9/16/00)
1931 Sep 16, Omar Mukhtar
(b.1862), Libyan hero, was hanged by Italian authorities in the
concentration camp of Solluqon. From 1912 he had led an insurrection
against Italian invaders.
(Econ, 11/14/09,
p.101)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Omar_Mukhtar)
1934 Sep 16, Anti-Nazi Lutherans
staged a protest in Munich.
(HN, 9/16/98)
1940 Sep 16, President Roosevelt
signed into law the Selective Training and Service Act, which set up
the first peacetime military draft in U.S. history.
(AP, 9/16/97)(HN, 9/16/98)
1940 Sep 16, Samuel T. Rayburn of
Texas was elected Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives.
(AP, 9/16/97)
1940 Sep 16, The Luftwaffe bombed
the Bristol Aeroplane Company.
(www.fishponds.freeuk.com/nluftbri1.htm)
1942 Sep 16, The Japanese base at
Kiska in the Aleutian Islands was raided by American bombers.
(HN, 9/16/98)
1945 Sep 16, Japan surrendered
Hong Kong to Britain.
(HN, 9/16/98)
1950 Sep 16, Henry Louis Gates
Jr., critic and scholar, was born.
(HN, 9/16/00)
1950 Sep 16, The U.S. 8th Army
broke out of the Pusan Perimeter in South Korea and began heading north
to meet MacArthur's troops heading south from Inchon.
(HN, 9/16/98)
1953 Sep 16, "The Robe," the first
movie filmed in the widescreen process CinemaScope, had its world
premiere at the Roxy Theater in New York.
(AP, 9/16/98)
1963 Sep 16, The science-fiction
anthology series "The Outer Limits" premiered on ABC.
(AP, 9/16/98)
1963 Sep 16, The Federation of
Malaysia was formally established. Sabak and Sarawak, Britain’s
colonies on Borneo, joined the Malayan peninsula to form Malaysia with
Tunku Abdul Rahman (60) as prime minister. The federation formed under
bitter opposition from Indonesia, which refused to recognize the
country and waged a guerrilla war against it. Race riots erupted
between ethnic Malays and the Chinese majority.
(PC, 1992, p.988)(HNQ, 5/14/98)(SSFC, 3/10/02,
p.C10)(Econ, 9/20/08, p.60)
1964 Sep 16-1964 Oct 20, French
Pres. Charles de Gaulle visited South America with stops in Venezuela,
Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, Chile, Argentina, Paraguay, Uruguay
and Brasil. He was the 1st head of state from outside Latin America to
visit Paraguay.
(http://gaullisme.free.fr/GEChronologie.htm)(Econ,
10/1/05, p.36)
1965 Sep 16, "The Dean Martin
Show" premiered on NBC.
(AP, 9/16/05)
1966 Sep 16, The Metropolitan
Opera opened its new opera house at New York's Lincoln Center for the
Performing Arts.
(AP, 9/16/97)
1967 Sep 16, The TV series
"Mannix," starring Mike Connors, premiered on CBS.
(AP, 9/16/07)
1968 Sep 16, Republican
presidential nominee Richard Nixon exclaimed, "Sock it to ME?" in a
taped bit for the NBC-TV comedy program "Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In."
(AP, 9/16/08)
1969 Sep 16, President Nixon
ordered the withdrawal of 35,000 soldiers from Vietnam and a reduces
the number required to be drafted.
(www.vfwpost7591.org/vietnam_war.htm)
1970 Sep 16, The American TV show
"McCloud" was released. It starred Dennis Weaver (1924-2006) and was
written and produced by Leslie Stevens (d.1998). The series continued
to 1977.
(SFC, 4/29/98, p.C2)(www.imdb.com/title/tt0065317/)
1972 Sep 16, "The Bob Newhart
Show" premiered on CBS and ended in 1978. Suzanne Pleshette (1937-2008)
played Bob Newhart’s wife.
(AP, 9/16/97)(SSFC, 1/20/08, p.A2)
1972 Sep 16, Marine sergeant
William Miller was shot and killed near Camp Lejeune, NC. In 2009 three
people faced murder charges after prosecutors alleged that the murder
was the result of a love triangle centered around Miller’s ex-wife,
Vickie Babbitt. Fellow ex-Marine George Hayden (57), who married Babbit
after Miller’s death, was alleged to have shot Miller. Ex-Marine Rodger
Gill (56) was alleged to have witnessed the murder.
(SFC, 12/31/09, p.A7)
1972 Sep 16, South Vietnamese
troops recaptured Quang Tri province in South Vietnam from the North
Vietnamese Army.
(HN, 9/16/98)
1974 Sep 16, President Ford
announced a conditional amnesty program for Vietnam War deserters and
draft-evaders. Limited amnesty was offered to Vietnam-era draft
resisters who would now swear allegiance to the United States and
perform two years of public service.
(AP, 9/16/97)(HN, 9/16/98)
1975 Sep 16, Administrators for
Rhodes Scholarships announced the decision to begin offering
fellowships to women.
(HN, 9/16/98)
1975 Sep 16, Papua New Guinea
(PNG), a former Australian colony, became independent.
(WSJ, 12/20/96, p.B8)(WSJ, 3/18/98, p.A14)
1976 Sep 16, Secretary of state
Henry Kissinger sent a cable canceling a US warning against carrying
out international political assassinations that was to have gone to
Chile and two neighboring nations just days before a former ambassador
was killed by Chilean agents on Washington's Embassy Row. The document
was not made public until 2010.
(AP, 4/10/10)
1976 Sep 16, The Episcopal Church,
at its General Convention in Minneapolis, formally approved the
ordination of women as priests and bishops.
(AP, 9/16/01)
1977 Sep 16, Maria Callas, “our
century’s greatest singer,” the American-born prima donna famed for her
lyric soprano and fiery temperament, died in Paris at age 53.
(SFC, 8/8/97, p.D1)(AP, 9/16/97)
1978 Sep 16, The Grateful Dead
performed at the Great Pyramid of Giza. Hanza El Din (1930-2006),
Nubian oud virtuoso, first played with the Grateful Dead.
(SFC, 5/26/06,
p.B9)(www.archive.org/details/gd78-09-16.sbd.orf.2319.sbeok.shnf)
1978 Sep 16, In northeast Iran a
magnitude 7.7 earthquake killed some 25,000 people.
(WUD, 1994, p.1691)(AP, 6/22/02)
1979 Sep 16, In Wisconsin the
Madison Press Connection published a detailed explanation of how to
build a hydrogen bomb in an article written by Charles Hansen
(1947-2003) of Mountain View, Ca. In 1988 Hansen published "U.S.
Nuclear Weapons: The Secret History."
(SFC, 9/17/04,
p.F4)(www.nuclearweaponarchive.org/News/HansenRetrospective.html)
1979 Sep 16, Hafizullah Amin took
the presidency of Afghanistan following the killing of Nur Muhammad
Taraki. Amin was later executed and replaced with Babrak Karmal.
(www.onwar.com/aced/nation/all/afghan/fafghan1979a.htm)
1980 Sep 16, Jean Piaget, Swiss
psychologist, theorist and educator, died at 84.
(www.helium.com/tm/566048/piaget-august-september-neuchatel)
1981 Sep 16, Pres. Reagan
announced his intention to appoint Edgar Callahan (d.2009 at 80) as
chairman of the National Credit Union Administration, making him the
highest-ranking credit union regulator in the country. Callahan, former
director the Department of Financial Institutions in Illinois, stepped
down in 1987 after guiding the industry into deregulation.
(SFC, 4/3/09,
p.B5)(www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=44264)
1982 Sep 16-1982 Sep 18, The
massacre of some 1,500 Palestinian men, women and children by Lebanese
Christian militiamen began in west Beirut's Sabra and Chatilla
(Shatilla) refugee camps. Elie Hobeika (d.2002), Christian militia
chieftain, led the massacre of Palestinian refugees in the camps.
Israel’s defense minister, Ariel Sharon, was held responsible and lost
his top post. The massacre triggered peace rallies in Israel with some
400,000 demonstrating in Tel Aviv. In 2001 survivors lodged a complaint
in Belgium against Sharon.
(AP, 9/16/97)(SFC, 10/10/98, p.A8)(SFC, 5/24/00,
p.A15)(SFC, 6/19/01, p.A8)(SFC, 1/25/02, p.A10)(WSJ, 8/1/06, p.A10)
1987 Sep 16, In Canada an
international convention met in Montreal and negotiators from 23 of the
world’s major industrial nations signed a treaty to slow down global
chlorofluorocarbon (CFCs) production in order to restore atmospheric
ozone. The Montreal Protocol, a treaty designed to save the Earth's
ozone layer by calling on nations to reduce emissions of harmful
chemicals by the year 2000, was amended in 1990 and 1992. By 1997 156
nations had signed the Montreal Protocol.
(NOHY, W3/90, p.47)(SFC, 5/31/96, A1,17)(SFEC,
6/15/97, BR p.4)(AP, 9/16/97)
1988 Sep 16, Hurricane Gilbert
slammed into the Mexico coast for the second time in three days, its
center sweeping ashore north of La Pesca, 120 miles south of
Brownsville, Texas.
(AP, 9/16/98)
1989 Sep 16, Debbye Turner of
Missouri was crowned Miss America at the pageant in Atlantic City, N.J.
(AP, 9/16/99)
1990 Sep 16, Iraqi television
broadcast an eight-minute videotaped address by President Bush, who
warned the Iraqi people that Saddam Hussein’s brinkmanship could plunge
them into war “against the world.”
(AP, 9/16/00)
1991 Sep 16, A federal judge in
Washington dismissed all Iran-Contra charges against Oliver North.
(AP, 9/16/01)
1991 Sep 16, Confirmation hearings
began on the nomination of Robert Gates to head the CIA.
(AP, 9/16/01)
1991 Sep 16, Supreme Court nominee
Clarence Thomas concluded five days of testimony at his confirmation
hearing.
(AP, 9/16/01)
1992 Sep 16, A proposed debate
between President Bush and Democrat Bill Clinton was canceled after the
Bush campaign's refusal to negotiate with a bipartisan commission.
(AP, 9/16/97)
1992 Sep 16, Former U.S. Rep.
Millicent Fenwick, R-N.J., died at age 82.
(AP, 9/16/97)
1992 Sep 16, Britain under John
Major devalued the pound and the economy soared. The day became known
as “Black Wednesday.” George Soros pocketed $2 billion on his short
sale of $10 billion. The event is documented in Robert Slater's Soros:
"The Life, Times and Trading Secrets of the World's Greatest Investor."
Britain’s Conservative government was forced to withdraw the Pound from
the European Exchange Rate Mechanism (ERM) due to pressure by currency
speculators.
(WSJ, 10/16/98, p.A1)(Econ, 3/25/06,
p.62)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Wednesday)
1993 Sep 16, A judge in Berlin
convicted three elderly former Communist leaders in the shooting deaths
of East Germans who had tried to scale the Berlin Wall.
(AP, 9/16/98)
1994 Sep 16, A federal jury
ordered Exxon Corp. to pay $5.3 billion in punitive damages to
commercial fishermen and others harmed in the 1989 Exxon Valdez spill
in Alaska. A US Court of Appeals threw out the punitive damages in 2001.
(AP, 9/16/99)(SFC, 3/27/99, p.A7)(SFC, 11/8/01,
p.A17)
1994 Sep 16, Two astronauts from
the space shuttle Discovery went on the first untethered spacewalk in
10 years.
(AP, 9/16/99)
1995 Sep 16, Shawntel Smith
of Oklahoma was crowned “Miss America” at the pageant in Atlantic City,
New Jersey.
(AP, 9/16/00)
1995 Sep 16, President Clinton
voiced support for a Senate welfare overhaul plan sponsored by Senate
Majority Leader Bob Dole.
(AP, 9/16/00)
1996 Sep 16, President Clinton
claimed the endorsement of the nation's largest police organization,
the Fraternal Order of Police, in his bid for re-election.
(AP, 9/16/97)
1996 Sep 16, Chicago and Paris
signed a sister-city pact.
(SFC, 9/27/96, p.A17)
1996 Sep 16, Space shuttle
Atlantis blasted off more than six weeks late on a mission to pick up
NASA astronaut Shannon Lucid, aloft since last March, from the Russian
space station Mir.
(SFC, 9/17/96, p.A4)(AP, 9/16/97)
1996 Sep 16, Former US national
security adviser McGeorge Bundy died in Boston at age 77.
(AP, 9/16/97)
1996 Sep 16, Kuwait agreed to
allow the US to send 3,300 troops to its soil over the confrontation
with Iraq.
(SFC, 9/17/96, p.A10)
1997 Sep 16, Attorney General
Janet Reno named Charles La Bella the Justice Department's new lead
prosecutor in the campaign fund-raising investigation.
(AP, 9/16/98)
1997 Sep 16, Two Air national
Guard F-16 fighters collided off Atlantic City, N.J. All the crew
members survived.
(SFC, 9/17/97, p.A2)
1997 Sep 16, In Egypt a
state-owned farm-truck carrying up to 120 boys and girls overturned and
killed 29 of them.
(SFC, 9/17/97, p.C4)
1998 Sep 16, In his first news
conference since the release of Kenneth Starr's graphic report,
President Clinton said he'd told "the essential truth" about his affair
with Monica Lewinsky; as for whether he might resign, Clinton responded
that Americans "want me to go on."
(AP, 9/16/99)
1998 Sep 16, House Judiciary
Committee Chairman Henry Hyde, responding to a report in an Internet
publication, Salon Magazine, admitted to "indiscretions" with a woman
in the 1960s at a time when both were married.
(AP, 9/16/99)
1998 Sep 16, The first photos of
Phobos from the Mars Global Surveyor were reported. Its diameter is 16
miles at the equator and 11 miles pole to pole. Deimos measured 7 miles
in diameter.
(SFC, 9/16/98, p.A9)
1998 Sep 16, Algeria was rebuked
for abuses by its security forces by a UN report. Amnesty Int’l. called
the report a whitewash.
(WSJ, 9/17/98, p.A1)
1998 Sep 16, In Bosnia early
results from weekend elections indicated that hard-line nationalists
led with 60% of the votes counted.
(SFC, 9/17/98, p.A12)
1998 Sep 16, The UN announced that
the treaty to eliminate anti-personnel land mines will take effect in 6
months. Burkino Faso became the 40th country to ratify the pact.
(SFC, 9/17/98, p.C4)
1998 Sep 16, In Germany Mamduh
Mahmud Salim, an alleged terrorist associated with Osama bin Laden, was
arrested.
(SFC, 9/19/98, p.C16)
1998 Sep 16, From Norway it was
reported that Prime Minister Kjell Magne Bondevik (51), too depressed
to work, was on sick leave. Plunging oil prices, surging interest rates
and political bickering forced him to leave almost 2 weeks ago.
(WSJ, 9/16/98, p.A22)
1998 Sep 16, In Russia the ruble
fell to 14-16 to the dollar in street trading. Two more economic
moderates were brought into the new cabinet.
(SFC, 9/17/98, p.A12)
1998 Sep 16, Serb forces in Kosovo
attacked 12 villages between Mitrovica and Podujevo, 20 miles north of
Pristina.
(SFC, 9/17/98, p.A15)
1998 Sep 16, In Spain the Basque
separatist ETA announced an indefinite cease fire to begin Sep 18.
(SFC, 9/17/98, p.C4)
1999 Sep 16, Bill Gates announced
a $1 billion program to fund minority scholarships under a 20-year
Gates Millennium Scholars program.
(USAT, 9/17/99, p.2B)
1999 Sep 16, The White House said
it would allow US firms to export computer encryption technology.
(SFC, 9/17/99, p.A1)
1999 Sep 16, The US Senate
approved legislation to double the salary of the president to $400,000
in 2001 and a 3.4% cost of living to members of Congress.
(USAT, 9/17/99, p.14A)
1999 Sep 16, Missouri passed a
late-term abortion law with an override over Gov. Mel Carnahan's veto.
A Federal judge put the law on hold the next day.
(SFC, 9/18/99, p.A3)
1999 Sep 16, Hurricane “Floyd” hit
the Carolinas and began making its way up the East Coast, damaging
12,000 homes and claiming more than 50 lives even after it weakened to
a tropical storm.
(AP, 9/16/00)
1999 Sep 16, In Hong Kong typhoon
York left one man dead and 466 injured.
(USAT, 9/17/99, p.13A)
1999 Sep 16, In Russia Pres.
Yeltsin ordered the Dagestan border sealed against the 1,500 Chechen
militants massed there. Moscow police reported the discovery of a cache
of 3.5 metric tons of explosive powder hidden among sacks of sugar from
southern Russia. In southern Russia, an explosion described by
authorities as the fourth massive terrorist attack in two weeks
demolished an apartment building, killing at least 18 people.
(WSJ, 9/17/99, p.A1,13)(AP, 9/16/00)
1999 Sep 16, In Venezuela a
Colombian delegation met with the largest guerrilla group to revive
peace talks.
(WSJ, 9/17/99, p.A1)
2000 Sep 16, Campaign aides for
Democrat Al Gore and Republican George W. Bush agreed on a series of
three debates.
(AP, 9/16/01)
2000 Sep 16, American Nancy
Johnson captured the first gold medal of the Sydney Olympics, winning
the women's 10-meter air rifle.
(AP, 9/16/01)
2000 Sep 16, In Peru Pres.
Fujimori, engulfed in a bribery scandal, announced that he would call
an immediate general election and not seek office. He also decided to
deactivate the National Intelligence Service.
(SFEC, 9/17/00, p.A11)
2000 Sep 16, In the Philippines
the military under orders from Pres. Estrada staged a surprise
attack on Abu Sayyaf rebels on Jolo Island.
(SFC, 9/16/00, p.A1)(SFEC, 9/17/00, p.A2)
2000 Sep 16, Hrihori Gongadze
(31), journalist, disappeared in Kiev. He was an outspoken critic of
the government and of high-level corruption. A beheaded body, believed
to be his, was found in Nov. Gongadze was the founder of the Internet
news site Ukrainian Truth. In 2001 the government announced that he was
killed by criminals who were also murdered and that the killings had
nothing to do with politics. Suspects in the murder were arrested in
2005. In 2005 a commission investigating the kidnapping and killing of
Gongadze accused parliament's Speaker Volodymyr Lytvyn of instigating
the slaying. Findings stemmed from recordings in which voices
resembling those of Lytvyn, former President Leonid Kuchma and other
officials are heard allegedly conspiring against Gongadze. The trial of
three former police officers charged with killing Gongadze opened in
2006. In 2008 a court in Kiev jailed three former police officers for
between 12 and 13 years for the murder of Ukrainian journalist Georgy
Gongadze. In 2009 National Security Service agents arrested the fourth
suspect, Olexiy Pukach, who was working as the chief of the Interior
Ministry's surveillance department at the time of the killing.
(SFC, 11/17/00, p.D6)(SFC, 12/14/00, p.C4)(SFC,
5/16/01, p.D14)(SFC, 3/2/05, p.A3)(AP, 9/21/05)(AP, 1/10/06)(AFP,
3/15/08)(AP, 7/22/09)
2001 Sep 16, President George W.
Bush pledged a crusade against terrorists, saying there was "no
question" Osama bin Laden was the "prime suspect" in the Sept. 11
attack. US officials warned that the new war on terrorism will be a
long, often secret and a “dirty” contest.
(SFC, 9/17/01, p.A1)(AP, 9/16/02)
2001 Sep 16, Eight cross-country
runners from the University of Wyoming were killed when their sport
utility vehicle collided head-on with a pickup truck that had swerved
into their lane.
(AP, 9/16/02)
2001 Sep 16, Samuel Z. Arkoff
(83), movie producer died in Burbank, Calif.
(AP, 9/16/02)
2001 Sep 16, Israeli forces
invaded Palestinian territory at Ramallah. One Israeli soldier and 1
Palestinian security officer were killed. Many people were wounded.
(SFC, 9/17/01, p.A18)
2001 Sep 16, Pakistan told
Afghanistan to surrender Osama bin Laden within 3 days or face almost
certain military action.
(SFC, 9/17/01, p.A8)
2001 Sep 16, A Russian module
docked with space station Alpha 2 days after its launch from Kazakstan.
(SFC, 9/17/01, p.A18)
2001 Sep 16, In Sri Lanka Tamil
rebels in about 20 boats attacked a ship with 1,200 Sri Lankan soldiers
and killed at least 11. 12 soldiers were missing and 15 rebels were
reported killed.
(SFC, 9/17/01, p.A18)
2002 Sep 16, In Argentina a bus
filled with Catholic pilgrims fell into a deep gorge some 50 miles from
Catamarca, killing 38 and injuring 27.
(AP, 9/16/02)
2002 Sep 16, In Chechnya a land
mine planted at a busy intersection in the capital Grozny exploded as a
passenger bus drove by, and 19 people were killed and 20 others
wounded. 3 suspects in the blast were detained.
(AP, 9/16/02)(AP, 9/17/02)
2002 Sep 16, European political
and business officials gathered for a two-day summit on the lagging
economy and the last snags to expanding the European Union into eastern
Europe.
(AP, 9/16/02)
2002 Sep 16, Indian-ruled Kashmir
ended the first stage of state assembly elections against a backdrop of
violence and in the shadow of a tense confrontation between nuclear
powers India and Pakistan. Indian troops killed 9 suspected Islamic
rebels in a border sweep hours before the elections. A 44% turnout was
reported.
(Reuters, 9/16/02)(WSJ, 9/16/02, p.A1)(SFC, 9/17/02,
p.A10)
2002 Sep 16, Iraq said it would
allow UN weapons inspectors unconditional access to suspected weapons
sites. Naji Sabri, Iraq's minister of foreign affairs, addressed the
letter to UN Sec. Gen. Kofi Annan. The inspection commission, headed by
Hans Blix, is responsible for overseeing the destruction of Iraq's
chemical and biological weapons and the long-range missiles to deliver
them. Core staff: 63 people from 17 nations.
(SFC, 9/17/02, p.A1)(WSJ, 9/17/02, p.A3)(AP, 9/18/02)
2002 Sep 16, In Lagos, Nigeria, an
accidental factory fire complex fire left at least 15 dead. Thousands
of rioters soon burned and looted the factory. 45 bodies were later
recovered.
(AP, 9/17/02)(WSJ, 9/19/02, p.A1)
2002 Sep 16, In Singapore
authorities announced the arrests of 21 men they identified as members
of an extremist Islamic organization. The men were initially detained
in August and linked to Riduan Isamuddin, an Indonesian militant.
(SFC, 9/17/02, p.A12)(SFC, 9/20/02, p.A14)
2002 Sep 16, Sri Lanka's
government and Tamil Tiger rebels began peace talks brokered by Norway
in Thailand.
(Reuters, 9/16/02)(SFC, 9/16/02, p.A7)(WSJ, 9/17/02,
p.A1)
2002 Sep 16, In Ukraine, some
15,000 demonstrators marched in Kiev and tens of thousands of others
gathered in public squares around the country, demanding that President
Leonid Kuchma resign or call new elections.
(AP, 9/16/02)
2003 Sep 16, The US vetoed a UN
resolution demanding that Israel not harm or expel Arafat.
(WSJ, 9/17/03, p.A1)
2003 Sep 16, North Carolina (D)
Sen. John Edwards (50) entered the US presidential race.
(SFC, 9/17/03, p.A6)
2003 Sep 16, Actor-singer Sheb
Wooley (82) died in Nashville, Tenn.
(AP, 9/16/04)
2003 Sep 16, Mohammed Abdel Qader
and his brother were summoned to a Cairo police station by Captain
Ashraf Safwat. Abdel Qader died five days later and an autopsy gave
torture by electric shock combined with a weak heart as the cause of
death.
(AFP, 2/1/07)
2003 Sep 16, Guinea-Bissau's army
chief of staff who overthrew the West African nation's president has
won an agreement from political leaders to have presidential powers
until new elections are held.
(AP, 9/16/03)
2003 Sep 16, In Indonesia
escalating fighting in resource-rich Aceh province left at least 22
suspected separatist rebels and one Indonesian soldier dead.
(AP, 9/17/03)
2003 Sep 16, Baha Mousa (26), an
Iraqi hotel receptionist, died after being beaten at a British military
camp in Basra. An autopsy said he died of asphyxia, caused by a stress
position that soldiers forced him to maintain. He was arrested, along
with nine other Iraqis, at the Haitham Hotel in Basra 2 days earlier by
members of the 1st Battalion The Queen's Lancashire Regiment (QLR). In
2006 Corp. Donald Payne pleaded guilty to a charge of inhumane
treatment of Iraqi civilians, but denied manslaughter. Payne, who
became Britain's first convicted war criminal, was dismissed by the
army and jailed for a year over the killing. In 2008 the British
Ministry of Defense agreed to pay just under $6 million to the family
of Mousa and 9 others who suffered injuries while in the custody of
British forces. In 2009 Britain opened a public inquiry into the case
and Britain's military apologized for its treatment of Mousa.
(http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/8143982.stm)(Econ, 9/23/06,
p.66)(AP, 7/10/08)(AP, 7/13/09)(AP, 9/21/09)
2003 Sep 16, Italian consumer
groups asked for a to boycott virtually all products and services to
protest price hikes.
(AP, 9/16/03)
2003 Sep 16, In western Japan a
man reportedly involved in a pay dispute set off an explosion that
killed himself, a hostage and a police officer in an office building.
(AP, 9/16/03)
2003 Sep 16, It was reported that
scientists in Japan have transformed mouse stem cells into sperm cells.
(SFC, 9/16/03, p.A6)
2003 Sep 16, The UN turned over
responsibility for security in East Timor's second largest city to the
country's fledgling police force.
(AP, 9/16/03)
2004 Sep 16, The National Hockey
League lockout went into effect.
(AP, 9/16/05)
2004 Sep 16, Hurricane Ivan
slammed ashore in Alabama with winds of 130 mph, packing deadly
tornadoes and powerful waves and rain that threatened to swamp
communities from Louisiana to the Florida Panhandle. Ivan was blamed
for at least 115 deaths, 43 in the US.
(SFC, 9/17/04, p.A1)(AP, 9/16/05)
2004 Sep 16, Gunmen abducted two
Americans and a Briton, Kenneth Bigley (62), in a brazen attack on a
house in an upscale Baghdad neighborhood. The US military said it
killed 60 in Fallujah and Ramadi strikes. The number of foreigners
kidnapped during the Iraq insurgency reached at least 100. All 3 were
beheaded. Bigley’s decapitation was confirmed on Oct 10, 2004.
(AP, 9/16/04)(WSJ, 9/17/04, p.A1)(AP, 9/16/05)(AP,
4/22/06)
2004 Sep 16, In Nigeria an oil
pipeline exploded near Lagos as thieves tried to siphon oil from it,
sparking a fire that killed at least 30 people.
(AP, 9/17/04)
2004 Sep 16, Taiwan celebrated the
opening of what officials called the world's fifth-longest road tunnel.
The 12.9-kilometre Hsueh Mountain tunnel was part of the newly built
55-kilometer Taipei-Ilan Expressway, which runs through mountains and
river valleys in northeastern Taiwan.
(AP, 9/16/04)
2005 Sep 16, President Bush ruled
out raising taxes to pay the massive costs of Gulf Coast reconstruction
in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, saying other government spending had
to be cut to pay for the recovery effort.
(AP, 9/16/06)
2005 Sep 16, The Univ. of
Michigan’s preliminary index of US consumer sentiment fell to 76.9 from
89.1 last month.
(SFC, 9/17/05, p.C1)
2005 Sep 16, Gordon Gould
(d.2005), laser pioneer, died. In 1957 as a Columbia Univ. doctoral
student, Gould came up with a process for concentrating visible light
as opposed to microwaves of a maser. He was the 1st to use the term
laser.
(Econ, 6/11/05, TQ p.28)(WSJ, 9/20/05, p.A1)
2005 Sep 16, In London the
Property Derivatives Interest Group (PDIG) was launched. It aimed to
spread information on using property derivatives to buy and sell
exposure to the property market without having to buy or sell the
actual property.
(Econ, 9/17/05, p.78)
2005 Sep 16, In Brazil federal
prosecutors charged six men accused of stealing $70 million from
Brazil's Central Bank last August in one of the world's biggest bank
robberies. 3 men were arrested shortly after the robbery, and another 3
were still at large.
(AP, 9/17/05)
2005 Sep 16, Mike Tyson arrived in
Chechnya to open a boxing match.
(WSJ, 9/17/05, p.W12)
2005 Sep 16, It was reported that
a mutating strain of stem rust fungus, dubbed Ug99, was spreading
across East Africa and threatened crops worldwide. It was 1st
discovered in Ugandan wheat crops in 1999.
(SFC, 9/17/05, p.B8)
2005 Sep 16, The French civil
aviation authority DGAC said it has banned flights by Cameroon Airlines
for an indefinite period, citing safety concerns.
(AFP, 9/16/05)
2005 Sep 16, The Greek government
said it would give cash bonuses to Greek mothers who have more than two
babies, in an effort to boost the country's birth rate as the
population ages.
(AP, 9/16/05)
2005 Sep 16, In Haiti
investigative Judge Cluny P. Jules decided that former PM Yvon Neptune
and 29 others should stand trial for the February 2004 massacre in the
western town of St. Marc. A list of calls from Neptune's cell phone
showed that he had spoken for at least 350 minutes with the alleged
perpetrators of the killings from Feb. 7 to Feb 13, when the killings
were either being organized or taking place at St. Marc.
(AP, 9/21/05)
2005 Sep 16, India's government
ordered the state railway to accomplish the seemingly impossible:
revamp the network, one of the world's largest, and get rid of the
bugs, rats, filth and surly workers.
(AP, 9/19/05)
2005 Sep 16, Indonesia's ailing
airline PT Garuda Indonesia said it signed a $2 billion deal with
aircraft manufacturer Boeing Co. to upgrade the company's fleet.
(AP, 9/16/05)
2005 Sep 16, A suicide car bomber
struck as worshippers were leaving a Shiite mosque in the northern
Iraqi town of Tuz Khormato killing 11 people. Militants killed at least
14 more people across the country as the Sunni-dominated insurgency
pressed its "all-out war" to destabilize the country.
(AP, 9/16/05)(SFC, 9/17/05, p.A3)
2005 Sep 16, In Iraq 3 US soldiers
were killed near Baghdad.
(SFC, 9/20/05, p.A14)
2005 Sep 16, Israeli PM Ariel
Sharon met with Jordan's King Abdullah II, their first talks in months
and a further sign of warming relations between the Jewish state and
the Arab world after Israel's Gaza withdrawal.
(AP, 9/16/05)
2005 Sep 16, Premier Silvio
Berlusconi declared Italy's mission in Iraq "an absolute and total"
success, and said Italy would continue to reduce its military presence
there.
(AP, 9/16/05)
2005 Sep 16, Italian officials
said they have captured Paolo Di Lauro (52), an alleged top boss of the
Camorra crime syndicate, dealing what they said was a serious blow to
organized crime in the Naples area.
(AP, 9/16/05)
2005 Sep 16, In Osaka Susumu
Kitagawa (58), convicted of robbing, raping and killing two women in
the 1980s, was executed. This was Japan's first hanging of the year.
His execution left 74 people on death row in Japan.
(AP, 9/16/05)
2005 Sep 16, In Lebanon a powerful
bomb exploded in a Christian neighborhood of eastern Beirut, killing at
least one person and wounding 23.
(AP, 9/16/05)
2005 Sep 16, The Lithuanian
government denied Moscow's requests to hand over a Russian pilot whose
fighter jet crashed in the NATO member's territory after violating its
airspace, saying it must first complete an investigation.
(AP, 9/16/05)
2005 Sep 16, The Volcano of Fire
in western Mexico blasted ash and gas three miles high, with an
explosion that was heard in villages 10 miles from the crater.
(AP, 9/16/05)
2005 Sep 16, In Nepal police
arrested 87 journalists as they gathered in Kathmandu to protest media
restrictions while thousands of pro-democracy activists demonstrated
elsewhere in the city to demand an end to absolute royal rule. About
200 of those protesters were also arrested.
(AP, 9/16/05)
2005 Sep 16, North Korea announced
the introduction of the Stalinist country's first credit card, but just
how it would work was unclear.
(AP, 9/16/05)
2005 Sep 16, South Korea and North
and South Korea pledged to work to ensure peace and reduce military
tensions on their divided peninsula.
(AP, 9/16/05)
2005 Sep 16, Thousands of
Palestinians broke through Egyptian and Palestinian Authority lines on
the Gaza border, pouring into Egypt in defiance of government attempts
to secure the frontier.
(AP, 9/16/05)
2005 Sep 16, A cargo steamer
overturned and sank in the Russian far northern river port of Dudinka.
The steamer, licensed for 33 tons, was carrying 92 tons of fruit and
vegetables. It was not licensed to carry passengers, but up to 10
people aside from the 5-man crew could have been aboard.
(AP, 9/16/05)
2005 Sep 16, UN Sec.-Gen. Kofi
Annan announced that a group of six US-based foundations is committing
$200 million over five years to support universities in 7 African
countries (Ghana, Kenya, Mozambique, Nigeria, South Africa, Tanzania
and Uganda) including a project to significantly improve Internet
access. The Rockefeller, Carnegie, Ford and MacArthur foundations were
extending their involvement in an earlier project, while the Andrew W.
Mellon and William and Flora Hewlett Foundations began participating
for the first time.
(AP, 9/16/05)
2005 Sep 16, The UN said the hole
in the ozone layer above Antarctica has grown to near record size this
year, suggesting 20 years of pollution controls have so far had little
effect.
(AP, 9/16/05)
2005 Sep 16, A 3-day UN summit,
billed as the largest gathering of world leaders in history, ended and
achieved far less than U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan had hoped. The
final document represented the lowest common denominator that all 151
member states could agree on after months of negotiations.
(AP, 9/17/05)
2005 Sep 16, Venezuelan President
Hugo Chavez said he has documentary evidence that the United States
plans to invade his country. Chavez, interviewed on ABC's "Nightline,"
said the plan is called "Balboa" and involves aircraft carriers and
planes.
(AP, 9/17/05)
2005 Sep 16, Zimbabwe's Pres.
Mugabe said that his government will take a stake in privately operated
mining enterprises, but he does not intend to nationalize the industry
as he has commercial farmland.
(AP, 9/16/05)
2006 Sep 16, In SF Zachary
Roche-Balsam (19) was killed when he tried to stop a robbery of 2 women
after a party in the Ingleside Heights neighborhood. In 2007 police
arrested and charged Vernon Anderson Jr. (21) with the murder.
(SFC, 4/11/07, p.B2)
2006 Sep 16, Thousands of US-led
coalition and Afghan troops launched Mountain Fury, a large-scale
anti-Taliban operation in five Afghan provinces. A bomb blast south of
Kabul killed three Afghan aid workers and wounded another.
(AP, 9/16/06)(SSFC, 9/17/06, p.A5)
2006 Sep 16, In Cuba
representatives of 118 Nonaligned Movement nations condemned Israel's
attacks on Lebanon and supported a peaceful resolution to the US-Iran
nuclear dispute in the final declaration.
(AP, 9/17/06)
2006 Sep 16, Fouad el-Mohandes
(82), one of Egypt's most beloved comedians, died in Cairo. His plays
and movies made over a half century brought him fans across the Arab
world.
(AP, 9/16/06)
2006 Sep 16, Iraq’s PM Nuri
al-Maliki launched a fresh peace bid and the US pledged more troops to
help restore stability in the Iraqi capital. At least eight people were
killed in rebel attacks. Police recovered 48 bodies from across
Baghdad. Most were those of young men who had been tortured,
blindfolded, handcuffed and shot several times. Iraqi police uncovered
a large munitions cache stored in the southern town of Ad Dayr.
(AP, 9/16/06)(SSFC, 9/17/06, p.A23)(AP, 9/17/06)
2006 Sep 16, Ivory Coast named a
new Cabinet, replacing the ministers of transport and environment but
reappointing most others, after a toxic waste dumping scandal prompted
the resignation of the entire 32-member body last week.
(AP, 9/16/06)
2006 Sep 16, In Mexico hundreds of
thousands of supporters of leftist Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador elected
him the leader of a "parallel government" opposed to President-elect
Felipe Calderon's administration. Mexico extradited accused drug
kingpin Francisco Rafael Arellano Felix to the US, making him the first
major Mexican drug lord to be sent north to face trial on drug charges.
He later pleaded guilty to federal charges of selling cocaine in a San
Diego motel. Hurricane Lane, a Category 3 storm, battered Mazatlan.
(SFC, 9/18/06, p.A7)(AP, 9/17/07)
2006 Sep 16, Pakistani
President Pervez Musharraf and Indian PM Manmohan Singh held "historic"
talks on the disputed Kashmir region, on the sidelines of a
developing-world summit in Havana. They also agreed to restart peace
talks suspended since train bombings killed more than 200 people in
Mumbai in July.
(AFP, 9/16/06)(AP, 9/16/06)
2006 Sep 16, Leaders across the
Muslim world demanded Pope Benedict XVI apologize for his remarks on
Islam and jihad. The Vatican said Pope Benedict XVI "sincerely"
regretted offending Muslims with his reference to an obscure medieval
text characterizing some of the teachings of Islam's founder as "evil
and inhuman," but the statement stopped short of the apology demanded
by Islamic leaders. Two West Bank Christian churches were hit by
firebombs, and a group claiming responsibility said it was protesting
Pope Benedict XVI's remarks about Islam.
(AP, 9/16/06)(AP, 9/16/07)
2006 Sep 16, In Singapore top
finance chiefs stepped up pressure on China to relax its grip on its
currency, warning that trade imbalances threaten a flourishing global
economy. G7 finance ministers and central bank governors also called
for a resumption of global free trade talks and a revamp of the IMF,
saying China should be given a louder voice but must also fulfill its
broader economic responsibilities.
(AFP, 9/16/06)
2006 Sep 16, Sten Andersson
(b.1923), a leading figure in Sweden's governing Social Democratic
Party and one-time mediator in the Middle East peace process, died. As
foreign minister from 1985 to 1991, Andersson helped start a dialogue
between the Palestine Liberation Organization and the US.
(AP, 9/17/06)
2006 Sep 16, In southern Thailand
bomb blasts killed four people including a Canadian (29), who became
the first Westerner to die in the two-year Muslim insurgency. At least
five bombs exploded: two in department stories; two in front of a bar
and a parking lot at the Odean Shopping Mall; and a fifth at a nearby
massage parlor in Songkhla province's Hat Yai city.
(AP, 9/17/06)
2006 Sep 16, Togo's Pres. Faure
Gnassingbe named Yawovi Agboyibo (63), an opposition party leader, as
prime minister, bringing the nation one step closer to long-delayed
parliamentary elections.
(AP, 9/17/06)
2006 Sep 16, In Yemen 4 suspected
al-Qaida members who were plotting attacks in San’a were arrested.
(AP, 9/17/06)
2007 Sep 16, The 59th Primetime
Emmy Awards were held in Los Angeles. NBC won 7 awards, HBO and ABC
both won 6. “The Sopranos” won for the best drama series and “30 Rock”
won for the best comedy series.
(AP, 9/17/07)(SFC, 9/17/07, p.E1)
2007 Sep 16, The Phoenix Mercury
beat the Detroit Shock 108-92 to win their first WNBA title.
(AP, 9/16/08)
2007 Sep 16, Police in Las Vegas
arrested O.J. Simpson saying he was part of an armed group that broke
into a hotel room on Sep 13 and snatched memorabilia that documented
his sports career.
(SFC, 9/17/07, p.A1)
2007 Sep 16, It was reported that
this year’s $150,000 Lasker Prize will go to Dr. Albert Starr of
Portland, Ore., and Dr. Alain Carpentier of Paris, France, for their
work in heart valve replacement. The Lasker Prize for basic research
prize will go to Dr. Ralph Steinman of Rockefeller Univ. for
discovering dendritic cells, which trigger defenses against germs.
(SSFC, 9/16/07, p.A2)
2007 Sep 16, An out-of-control
wildfire raged through the San Bernardino National Forest, keeping
about 5,000 people from their homes in two mountain communities.
(AP, 9/16/07)
2007 Sep 16, In Garmser district
of south Helmand province, Afghan and coalition forces using small-arms
fire and airstrikes killed about 10 insurgents. Four other rebels were
killed overnight in a battle that erupted after they attacked a police
post in the eastern province of Paktia. Afghan and NATO troops came
under fire in Surobi district, about 25 miles east of Kabul, and called
in airstrikes, killing at least one suspected insurgent. The
bombardment destroyed one house in the village of Gazbala, killing two
men and wounding two others. General Dan McNeill, the top NATO
commander, said a convoy of explosives seized last week by NATO troops
in Afghanistan definitely came from Iran but not necessarily from the
government in Tehran.
(AFP, 9/16/07)(AP, 9/17/07)
2007 Sep 16, State media reported
that Chinese authorities had ordered the recall of tainted leukemia
drugs blamed for leg pains and other problems, the latest crisis to
strike the country's embattled food and drug industries.
(AP, 9/16/07)
2007 Sep 16, Bernard Kouchner,
France's foreign minister, warned that the world should prepare for war
if Iran obtains nuclear weapons and said European leaders were
considering their own economic sanctions against the Islamic country.
(AP, 9/16/07)
2007 Sep 16, Greece's Conservative
PM Costas Karamanlis won re-election with a slim majority in parliament
as voters showed dissatisfaction with both major parties in the wake of
a financial scandal and devastating forest fires that killed more than
65 people last month. The governing conservatives won 41.8 percent of
the vote, giving them 152 of parliament's 300 seats, a loss of 13
seats. The Socialists took 38.1 percent, or 102 seats, a loss of 15 and
the party's lowest number of parliament seats in 30 years.
(AP, 9/16/07)(AP, 9/17/07)
2007 Sep 16, The death toll from
Indonesia's massive earthquake rose to 23 as more villagers started
returning home.
(AP, 9/16/07)
2007 Sep 16, In Iraq a
booby-trapped bicycle exploded near a cafe serving tea and food during
Ramadan fasting hours, killing at least five people in Tuz Khormato.
Dozens of fighters linked to the Sunni-dominated al-Qaida in Iraq
streamed into Shiite villages north of Baghdad, torching homes and
killing at least 15 residents in Jichan and Ghizlayat. Blackwater
security contractors opened fire in a predominantly Sunni neighborhood
of western Baghdad, killing 17 civilians. At least 39 people were
killed or found dead nationwide. In 2008 5 Blackwater guards were
indicted for the shootings that left 17 civilians dead. On Dec 31,
2009, a US judge dismissed the case against the Blackwater guards.
(AP, 9/16/07)(Econ, 9/22/07, p.61)(AP, 9/16/08)(SFC,
12/6/08, p.A6)(AP, 1/1/10)
2007 Sep 16, Israeli fire killed
two Palestinians in separate incidents in the West Bank, including a
militant.
(AFP, 9/16/07)
2007 Sep 16, In Jordan the US
Embassy said the US has signed an accord with Jordan on the sidelines
of a nuclear energy summit in Vienna, Austria, aimed at supporting the
peaceful development of the kingdom's nascent nuclear program.
(AP, 9/16/07)
2007 Sep 16, An alliance of
Pakistani opposition parties said they would resign from national and
provincial assemblies if President Pervez Musharraf tried to seek
re-election from the sitting parliament.
(AP, 9/16/07)
2007 Sep 16, In Peru an unofficial
referendum was held in three districts affected by plans for developing
a copper mine at Rio Blanco. Some 95% of the votes were against the 1.4
billion project planned by China’s Zijin Consortium, which had recently
acquired the concession.
(Econ, 9/22/07, p.51)
2007 Sep 16, In Russia former KGB
officer Andrei Lugovoi, the sole suspect in the radiation poisoning
death of former KGB agent Alexander Litvinenko, announced plans to run
for parliament on the ticket of a pro-Kremlin ultranationalist party.
(AP, 9/16/07)
2007 Sep 16, Saudi King Abdullah
oversaw the signing in Jiddah of a reconciliation agreement negotiated
by several Somali factions in an attempt to stabilize their country and
battle the Islamic opposition.
(AP, 9/16/07)
2007 Sep 16, Six South Koreans
died and four were missing in South Korea after typhoon Nari hit the
country's southern coast.
(Reuters, 9/16/07)
2007 Sep 16, In Thailand a
One-Two-Go Airlines passenger plane filled with foreign tourists
crashed as it tried to land in pouring rain on the island of Phuket,
splitting in two and bursting into flames. 89 people were killed.
(AP, 9/17/07)(AP, 9/16/08)
2007 Sep 16, Reports said the
Zimbabwean government has reversed a ban on pay increases put in place
in a bid to curb the world's highest inflation rate.
(AP, 9/16/07)
2008 Sep 16, Urgently trying to
keep cash flowing amid a Wall Street meltdown, the Federal Reserve
pumped another $70 billion into the nation's financial system to help
ease credit stresses. Late in the day the Federal Reserve agreed to a
2-year $85 billion loan to insurance giant American International Group
(AIG) in exchange for a 79.9% equity stake in the form of warrants
called equity participation notes. Central banks in the US, Europe and
Japan pumped tens of billions into their banking systems to keep money
flowing.
(AP, 9/16/08)(SFC, 9/17/08, p.A1)(WSJ, 9/17/08, p.A1)
2008 Sep 16, The United States
pledged 1.8 million dollars to Cambodia's cash-strapped Khmer Rouge
court, making its first donation to the UN-backed genocide tribunal
aimed at trying regime leaders.
(AFP, 9/16/08)
2008 Sep 16, California’s Gov.
Schwarzenegger promised to veto a state budget approved by lawmakers
just hours earlier.
(SFC, 9/17/08, p.A1)
2008 Sep 16, Local media reported
that a Florida judge has deemed unconstitutional a law banning baggy
pants that show off the wearer's underwear.
(AP, 9/17/08)
2008 Sep 16, In Texas the torn
apart body of Brandon McClelland (24), a black man, was found on
a rural road near Paris. He had crossed the border to Oklahoma the
previous evening with friends Finley and Charles Ryan Crostley (27) to
buy beer. In 2009 murder charges were dropped against Finley and
Crostley due to lack of evidence.
(SFC, 10/25/08, p.A5)(SFC, 6/5/09, p.A6)
2008 Sep 16, James Crumley (1939),
American novelist, died in Missoula, Montana. His books included “The
Last Good Kiss” (1978). The opening line of that book has been widely
called the best in crime fiction.
(SFC, 9/20/08,
p.B5)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Crumley)
2008 Sep 16, In Bolivia government
soldiers arrested Pando state Gov. Leopoldo Fernandez on suspicion of
directing the recent massacre of government supporters.
(SFC, 9/17/08, p.A8)
2008 Sep 16, The US declared
Bolivia to be “non-compliant” in the war on drugs, a step that
implicated an end of American aid.
(Econ, 9/20/08, p.52)
2008 Sep 16, Tian Wenhua, the
board chairwoman and general manager of China dairy giant Sanlu Group,
was fired from her posts in the wake of the tainted milk powder scandal.
(http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2008-09/16/content_10041638.htm)
2008 Sep 16, Costa Rica Security
Minister Janina del Vecchio said that a 70-foot (20-meter)
submarine-type vessel was intercepted by the US Navy in international
waters near Costa Rica.
(AP, 9/17/08)
2008 Sep 16, Georgia’s government
said intercepted mobile phone calls show that Russian tanks and troops
invaded before Georgia unleashed its offensive against South Ossetia,
pressing its claim that Russia was the aggressor in the war last month.
(AP, 9/16/08)
2008 Sep 16, Honduras said it will
welcome a new US ambassador after a one-week delay meant to show
support for Bolivia in its diplomatic spat with Washington.
(AP, 9/17/08)
2008 Sep 16, A Japanese researcher
said he has taught a beluga whale to "talk" by using sounds to identify
three different objects, offering hope that humans may one day be able
to hold conversations with sea mammals.
(Reuters, 9/16/08)
2008 Sep 16, In Iraq a bicycle
laden with explosives exploded near a military truck in a market north
of Baghdad, killing 2 civilians and wounding 19. Gen. Ray Odierno took
over as the top American commander of the Iraq conflict.
(AP, 9/16/08)
2008 Sep 16, Malawi withdrew its
recognition of the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR), proclaimed
by the Polisario Front in the disputed territory of Western Sahara.
SADR was declared in 1976 by the Polisario Front, a rebel movement that
wants independence for Western Sahara. Their a guerilla war against
Rabat's forces ended with a ceasefire in 1991.
(AFP, 9/17/08)
2008 Sep 16, In Mexico explosions
at an Independence Day celebration killed 7 people and injured 101 in
the city of Morelia. Michoacan Gov. Leonel Godoy said organized crime
was responsible.
(AP, 9/16/08)
2008 Sep 16, A Buddhist monk
slashed his throat in a suicide attempt at Myanmar's most sacred
temple, the scene of several pro-democracy protests that erupted a year
ago. A trustee of the Shwedagon temple said the monk became desperate
after running out of money to pay for medical care.
(AP, 9/18/08)
2008 Sep 16, In Nigeria militants
destroyed the Orubiri flow station operated by the Shell Petroleum
Development Company in Rivers state. The next day MEND said it killed
all the soldiers on guard at the facility and took their weapons.
(AFP, 9/17/08)
2008 Sep 16, Norwegian PM Jens
Stoltenberg said Norway will give Brazil US$1 billion by 2015 to
preserve the Amazon rain forest, as long as Latin America's largest
nation keeps trying to stop deforestation.
(AP, 9/16/08)
2008 Sep 16, Pakistan's military
has ordered its forces to open fire if U.S. troops launch another air
or ground raid across the Afghan border. Security forces backed by air
support again pounded suspected militant hideouts in a northwest
Pakistan tribal region, killing eight alleged insurgents.
(AP, 9/16/08)
2008 Sep 16, Hamas police
waged a fierce gunbattle against members of a heavily armed Palestinian
clan in a crowded neighborhood. A night of clashes left 11 people dead
including an infant, and at least 40 wounded.
(AP, 9/16/08)(SFC, 9/17/08, p.A11)
2008 Sep 16, Thailand's ruling
People's Power Party announced that it has reconciled with a renegade
faction, clearing a hurdle toward the selection of Somchai Wongsawat as
a consensus candidate for prime minister.
(AP, 9/16/08)
2008 Sep 16, Ukraine's pro-Western
coalition collapsed, paving the way for complicated coalition talks or
yet another early parliamentary election.
(AP, 9/16/08)
Go to http://www.timelinesdb.com
Go to September 17