Today in History - September 17
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0642 Sep 17,
Arabs conquered Alexandria and destroyed the great library. Omar, the
second caliph, successor of Mohammed, conquered Alexandria, then the
capital of world scholarship.
(V.D.-H.K.p.103)(MC, 9/17/01)
0879 Sep 17, Charles III, [The
Simple], king of France (893-923), was born.
(MC, 9/17/01)
1179 Sep 17, Hildegard van Bingen,
mystic and composer (Ordo Virtutum), died at 81. The abbess Hildegard
concocted the Lingua Ignota, an artificial language. Her work included
the morality play "Ordo Virtutum."
(WSJ, 6/20/96, p.A16)(Wired, 8/96, p.84)(WSJ,
7/30/98, p.A16)(MC, 9/17/01)
1271 Sep 17, Wenceslas II, king of
Bohemia & Poland (1278-1305), was born.
(www.nationmaster.com/encyclopedia/Wenceslas-II-of-Bohemia)
1394 Sep 17, In France King
Charles VI decreed as an irrevocable law and statute that thenceforth
no Jew should dwell in his domains. The decree was not immediately
enforced, a respite being granted to the Jews in order that they might
sell their property and pay their debts.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Jews_in_France)
1562 Sep 17, The Council of Trent
took ecclesiastical canon.
(MC, 9/17/01)
1631 Sep 17, At the Battle of
Breitenfeld (Leipzig) Sweden’s King Gustaaf Adolf led a Saxon-Swedish
army and defeated Gen. Tilly.
(MC, 9/17/01)(PCh, 1992, p.231)
1743 Sep 17, Marquis Marie Jean de
Condorcet, French mathematician and philosopher, a leading thinker in
the Enlightenment, was born.
(HN, 9/17/98)
1652 Sep 17, Bonaventura Elsevier,
book publisher and merchant, died at about 69.
(MC, 9/17/01)
1683 Sep 17, Antonie van
Leeuwenhoek reported the existence of bacteria.
(MC, 9/17/01)
1691 Sep 17, The Massachusetts Bay
Colony received a new charter. [see Oct 17]
(MC, 9/17/01)
1709 Sep 17, Samuel Johnson,
lexicographer and writer (Boswell's Tour Guide), was born. [see Sep 18]
(MC, 9/17/01)
1730 Sep 17, Friedrich von
Steuben, Prussian and US inspector-general of Washington's army, was
born.
(MC, 9/17/01)
1745 Sep 17, Edinburgh was
occupied by Jacobites under Young Pretenders.
(MC, 9/17/01)
1762 Sep 17, Francesco Xaverio
Geminiani, composer, died at 74.
(MC, 9/17/01)
1766 Sep 17, Samuel Wilson, the
future Uncle Sam, was born in Menotomy Mass. Menotomy later became
Arlington. Samuel moved to Troy, New York, where he and his brother set
up meat packing plants which later provided food for the US Army during
the War of 1812.
(WC, Summer ‘97, p.3)
1771 Sep 17, Tobias George
Smollett, novelist (Adventures of Roderick Random), died at 50.
(MC, 9/17/01)
1776 Sep 17, The Presidio of SF
formed as a Spanish fort. The Spanish built the Presidio on the hill
where the Golden Gate Bridge now meets San Francisco.
(WSJ, 9/17/96, p.A12)(MC, 9/17/01)
1778 Sep 17, The 1st treaty
between the US and Indian tribes was signed at Fort Pitt.
(MC, 9/17/01)
1787 Sep 17, The Constitution of
the United States was completed and signed by a majority of delegates
(12) attending the constitutional convention in Philadelphia. The US
Constitution went into effect on Mar 4, 1789. Clause 3 of Article I,
Section 8 empowered Congress to "regulate Commerce with foreign
nations, among the several states, and with the Indian Tribes." Two of
the signers went on to become presidents of the United States. George
Washington, the president of the Constitutional Convention, and James
Madison both signed the Constitution. The US Constitution is the
world's oldest working Constitution. James Mason of Virginia refused to
sign the document because he thought it made the federal government too
powerful believed that it should contain a Bill of Rights.
(HFA, '96, p.38)(AP, 9/17/97)(HN, 9/17/98)(WUD,
1994, p.314)(WSJ, 4/9/99, p.W17)(HNQ, 5/19/99)(WSJ, 3/31/06, p.A1)
1787 Sep 17, The US Constitution
included the Connecticut, or "Great," Compromise in which every state
was conceded an equal vote in the Senate irrespective of its size, but
representation in the House was to be on the basis of the "federal
ratio," an enumeration of the free population plus three fifths of the
slaves.
(SSFC, 11/2/03, p.M6)
1787 Sep 17, The "College of
Electors" (electoral college) was established at the Constitutional
Convention with representatives to be chosen by the states. Pierce
Butler of South Carolina first proposed the electoral college system.
[see Sep 13, 1788]
(SFC, 11/9/00, p.A14)(WSJ, 11/9/00, p.A26)
1787 Sep 17, The Electoral
College, proposed by James Wilson, was the compromise that the
Constitutional Convention reached. In 2004 George C. Edwards III
authored “Why the Electoral College Is Bad for America.”
(www.usconstitution.net/consttop_elec.html)(SSFC,
10/17/04, p.M3)
1795 Sep 17, Giuseppi Saverio
Rafaele Mercadante, composer, was born.
(MC, 9/17/01)
1796 Sep 17, President George
Washington delivered his "Farewell Address" to Congress before
concluding his second term in office. Washington counseled the republic
in his farewell address to avoid "entangling alliances" and involvement
in the "ordinary vicissitudes, combinations, and collision of European
politics." Also "we may safely trust to temporary alliances for
extraordinary emergencies."
(WSJ, 5/31/96, p.A10)(WSJ, 6/17/96, p.A15)(HN,
9/17/98)
1803 Sep 17, Franz Xaver Sussmayr,
composer, died.
(MC, 9/17/01)
1819 Sep 17, Jean-Bernard-Leon
Foucault, physicist (pendulum proved Earth rotates), was born. [see Sep
18]
(MC, 9/17/01)
1835 Sep 17, Charles Darwin landed
on Chatham in the Galapagos archipelago.
(MC, 9/17/01)
1849 Sep 17-18, Lt. J.H. Simpson
and R.H. Kern, Philadelphia artist, visited El Morro in New Mexico
during an exploration trip of new US territory. They copied many of the
inscription there.
(SSFC, 4/10/05, p.F9)
1858 Sep 17, Dred Scott, US slave
(REV-decision Supreme court), died.
(MC, 9/17/01)
1859 Sep 17, The San Francisco
Call Bulletin published a notice on an inside page announcing that
Joshua Norton, formerly a prominent SF businessman, had proclaimed
himself Norton I, “Emperor of these United States.” Norton lived at a
rooming house at 624 Commercial St., where he paid 50 cents a night for
a modest room. Norton proclaimed himself Emperor of the United States
and Protector of Mexico with a proclamation delivered to the offices of
the San Francisco Bulletin. He annexed the whole of the US and
suspended the Constitution.
(HFA, ‘96, p.64)(G&M, 7/30/97, p.A24)(SFC,
9/17/09, p.A1)
1862 Sep 17, The Battle of
Antietam at Sharpsburg, Maryland, the bloodiest day in US history,
commenced. Fighting in the corn field, Bloody Lane and Burnside’s
Bridge raged all day as the Union and Confederate armies suffered a
combined 26,293 (23,585) casualties. New York Tribune reporter George
Smalley scooped the world with his vivid account of the Battle of
Antietam, also known as the Battle of Sharpsburg. During the battle an
entire Union corps spent most of the bloodiest single day of the Civil
War waiting to cross the creek over that bridge, opposed by a
contingent of Georgia riflemen. Late in the day Gen. Ambrose
Burnside sent his Union troops across the bridge in a major disaster.
The rest of the Union IX Corps followed, but by day’s end, a
Confederate flank attack sent the corps back across the river. Over
23,000 [23,110] men, both Union and Confederate, were killed or
wounded. The battle resulted in about 10,000 Confederate and 12,000
Union casualties. The next day, Robert E. Lee began his retreat back
across the Potomac River. 2,108 Union troops and 1,512 Confederates
died. In 2002 James M. McPherson authored "Crossroads of Freedom:
Antietam: The Battle that changed the Course of the Civil War."
(HN, 9/17/98)(HNPD, 9/17/98)(SFC, 7/7/96, T6)(AP,
9/17/97)(SFC, 9/22/01, p.A3)(WSJ, 9/12/02, p.D8)(WSJ, 9/17/02, p.D8)
1862 Sep 17, Sgt. William McKinley
and a single volunteer drove a wagon of hot coffee and warm food
through Confederate fire at Antietam to the men of the 23rd Ohio
regiment. Col. Rutherford B. Hayes promoted him to lieutenant for his
bravery and initiative.
(WSJ, 12/12/03, p.W9)
1862 Sep 17, Battle of Cumberland
Gap, Tenn., was evacuated by Federals.
(MC, 9/17/01)
1863 Sep 17, Union cavalry troops
clashed with a group of Confederates at Chickamauga Creek.
(HN, 9/18/99)
1863 Sep 17, The Robinson family
under widow Eliza Sinclair arrived in Honolulu. They had moved to
British Columbia from New Zealand in June, but were advised to relocate
to the Sandwich Islands (Hawaii).
(www.clansinclairusa.org/articles/march2001/elizabeth.php)
1864 Sep 17, Gen. Grant approved
Sheridan's plan for Shenandoah Valley Campaign. "I want it so barren
that a crow, flying down it, would need to pack rations."
(MC, 9/17/01)
1864 Sep 17, Walter Savage Landor,
author, died.
(MC, 9/17/01)
1868 Sep 17, The Battle of
Beecher's Island began, in which Major George "Sandy" Forsyth and 50
volunteers held off 500 Sioux and Cheyenne in eastern Colorado.
(HN, 9/17/98)
1872 Sep 17, Phillip W. Pratt
patented his sprinkler system for extinguishing fires.
(MC, 9/17/01)
1877 Sep 17, William Henry Fox
Talbot (b.1800), British inventor, died. He pioneered instantaneous
photography and invented paper photography with the negative-positive
system now in use. Talbot produced the first book with photographic
illustrations, serialized as "The Pencil of Nature," from 1844-1846. In
1980 Gail Buckland authored "Fox Talbot and the Invention of
Photography."
(AHD, 1971, p. 1312)(WSJ, 3/24/98, p.A20)(ON, 4/00,
p.11)(SFC, 12/26/02, p.E9)
1878 Sep 17, Vincenzo Tommasini,
composer, was born.
(MC, 9/17/01)
1879 Sep 17, Andrew "Rube" Foster,
father of the Negro baseball leagues, was born.
(HN, 9/17/98)
1883 Sep 17, William Carlos
Williams, poet, playwright, essayist and writer who won a Pulitzer
prize for "Pictures from Breughel and Other Poems," was born.
(HN, 9/17/98)
1884 Sep 17, Charles Tomlinson
Griffes, composer (White Peacock), was born in Elmira, NY.
(MC, 9/17/01)
1899 Sep 17, The 1st British
troops left Bombay for South Africa.
(MC, 9/17/01)
1902 Sep 17, U.S. troops were sent
to Panama to keep train lines open over the isthmus as Panamanian
nationals struggled for independence from Colombia.
(HN, 9/17/98)
1902 Sep 17, US protested
anti-Semitism in Romania.
(MC, 9/17/01)
1903 Sep 17, Turks destroyed the
town of Kastoria in Bulgaria, killing 10,000 civilians.
(HN, 9/17/98)
1907 Sep 17, Warren Earl Burger,
the 15th chief justice of the United States (1969-86), was born in St.
Paul, Minn.
(AP, 9/17/07)
1908 Sep 17, Orville Wright’s
passenger on a test flight was Lieutenant Thomas Selfridge. They were
circling the landing field at Fort Myer, Va., when a crack developed in
the blade of the aircraft’s propeller. Wright lost control of the Flyer
and the biplane plunged to the ground. Selfridge became powered
flight’s first fatality, and Wright was seriously injured in the crash.
But despite the tragic mishap, the War Department awarded the contract
for the first military aircraft to Wright.
(HNPD, 9/16/98)
1911 Sep 17, Cigar-smoking
Calbraith Perry Rodgers (1879-1912) set off from Sheepshead Bay, New
York, on the first flight across America. Rodgers, sponsored by the Vin
Fiz grape drink company, flew the fragile Wright B biplane in pursuit
of a $50,000 prize offered to the first person to make a
transcontinental flight in 30 days or less. Rodgers failed to win the
prize because his 4,321-mile flight took 84 days—of which only 3 days,
10 hours and 4 minutes was actual flying time! His average speed was
51.56 miles per hour. By the time he landed at Long Beach, California,
on November 5, Rodgers had made 70 crash landings, suffered numerous
minor injuries and had rebuilt his Vin Fiz so completely that only one
strut and the rudder were its original equipment.
(HNPD, 9/18/98)(ON, 10/06, p.12)
1917 Sep 17, Some 20,000 iron
workers went on strike in SF, Oakland and Alameda in the biggest strike
ever on the Pacific Coast. Marines were sent to guard the Union Iron
Works and 32 men were arrested in street demonstrations.
(SFEC, 12/26/99, p.W5)
1917 Sep 17, The German Army
recaptured the Russian [Latvian] Port of Riga from Russian forces.
(HN, 9/17/98)
1918 Sep 17, Chaim Herzog
(d.1997), president (Israel, 1983-93), was born in Belfast.
(www.pmo.gov.il/PMOEng/Government/Memorial/Presidents/Hertsog.htm)
1919 Sep 17, The US saluted Gen.
John J. Pershing and soldiers returning from WWI in a parade up
Pennsylvania Ave. in Washington DC.
(AH, 10/04, p.14)
1920 Sep 17, The American
Professional Football Association -- a precursor of the NFL -- was
formed in Canton, Ohio. 12 teams paid $100 each to join American Prof
Football Assn. Jim Thorpe was the first president. The name was changed
to the National Football League (NFL) in 1922. The NFL merged with the
AFL in 1970.
(AP, 9/17/97)(SFC, 7/11/98, p.B3)(HNQ, 11/19/00)(MC,
9/17/01)
1923 Sep 17, Hank Williams, Sr.,
singer, songwriter and guitarist known for "Lonesome Blues" and "Your
Cheatin' Heart," was born.
(HN, 9/17/98)
1927 Sep 17, George Blanda, NFL
kicker and quarterback (Bears, Oilers, Raiders), was born in
Pennsylvania.
(MC, 9/17/01)
1928 Sep 17, Actor Roddy McDowall
(d.1998) was born in London. His films included "Lassie Come Home," and
"Cleopatra." His first movie at age 7 was "Murder in the Family."
(SFEC, 10/4/98, p.B10)
1928 Sep 17, A hurricane hit Lake
Okeechobee, Florida. A levee broke and some 1,800 people drowned. In
2003 the number dead was revised to at least 2,500. In 2003 Eliot
Kleinberg authored “Black Cloud: The Great Florida Hurricane of 1928.”
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1928_Okeechobee_Hurricane)(http://tinyurl.com/9z8o6)
1931 Sep 17, The 1st LP record was
demonstrated by RCA Victor in NYC. The venture failed.
(MC, 9/17/01)
1931 Sep 17, Anne Bancroft
(d.2005), film actress, was born as Anna Maria Italiano in NYC.
(www.imdb.com/name/nm0000843/)
1934 Sep 17, RCA Victor released
1st 33 1/3 rpm recording (Beethoven's 5th).
(MC, 9/17/01)
1935 Sep 17, Ken Kesey (d.2001),
author, was born in La Junta, Colo. His novels included "One Flew Over
the Cuckoo's Nest" and "Sometimes a Great Notion."
(HN, 9/17/00)(SSFC, 11/11/01, p.A16)
1938 Sep 17, British premier
Neville Chamberlain left Munich.
(MC, 9/17/01)
1939 Sep 17, The Harry James
Orchestra and Frank Sinatra recorded "All or Nothing at All" for
Columbia Records.
(AP, 9/17/99)
1939 Sep 17, David H Souter, 107th
Supreme Court Justice (1990- ), was born in Weir, NH.
(MC, 9/17/01)
1939 Sep 17, The German U-29 sank
the British aircraft carrier Courageous, 519 died.
(http://www.naval-history.net/WW2CampaignsUboats.htm)
1939 Sep 17, The Soviet Union
attacked Poland, more than two weeks after Nazi Germany launched its
assault. They took 217,000 Poles prisoner and occupied eastern Poland
within a week with losses of 737 dead and 2,000 wounded. The Polish
submarine Orzel escaped from internment and went on to fight the
Germans against long odds.
(AP, 9/17/97)(DrEE, 10/26/96, p.4)(HN, 9/17/98)(MC,
9/17/01)
1940 Sep 17, Nazis deprived Jews
of possessions.
(MC, 9/17/01)
1942 Sep 17, US Army Lt. Gen.
Leslie R. Groves (1896-1970) made a temporary Brigadier General and was
placed in charge of the Manhattan Engineer District, which became known
as the Manhattan Project, the fledgling US atomic bomb program.
(ON, 8/09,
p.7)(http://unjobs.org/authors/leslie-r.-groves)
1942 Sep 17, British Prime
Minister Winston Churchill met with Soviet Premier Josef Stalin in
Moscow as the German Army rammed into Stalingrad.
(HN, 9/17/98)
1944 Sep 17, Infantry glider
troops of the 82nd Airborne Division entered Holland. British and
American airborne troops parachuted into Holland to capture the Arnhem
bridge as part of Operation Market Garden. The plan called for the
airborne troops to be relieved by British troops, but they were left
stranded and eventually surrendered to the Germans. The 1974 book by
Cornelius Ryan, "A Bridge Too Far," was based on this operation and was
made into the 1977 film.
(HN, 9/17/98)(HC, 12/12/01)(AP, 9/17/06)
1947 Sep 17, Jeff MacNelly,
political cartoonist, was born. He created the comic strip "Shoe."
(HN, 9/17/00)
1947 Sep 17, Jackie Robinson was
named Rookie of Year by Sporting News.
(MC, 9/17/01)
1947 Sep 17, James Forestall
(d.1949) was sworn in as first the U.S. Secretary of Defense as a new
National Military Establishment unified America’s armed forces.
(AP, 9/17/97)(HN, 9/17/98)(SSFC, 6/9/02, p.A4)
1948 Sep 17, Count Folke
Bernadotte (b.1895) of Sweden, the UN mediator for Palestine, was
assassinated in Jerusalem by members of the extreme Zionist Stern
Group. Yehoshua Zettler (d.2009 at 91), one of the founding members of
the group, masterminded the assassination.
(AP,
9/17/98)(www.us-israel.org/jsource/biography/Bernadotte.html)(AP,
5/25/09)
1949 Sep 17, The North Atlantic
Treaty Council (NATO) met for the 1st time.
(MC, 9/17/01)
1949 Sep 17, More than 130 people
died when fire gutted the Canadian passenger steamer Noronic at a pier
in Toronto.
(AP, 9/17/99)
1951 Sep 17, Romanian bishop A.
Pacha of Timisoara was sentenced to 18 years.
(MC, 9/17/01)
1953 Sep 17, The 1st successful
separation of Siamese twins was performed.
(MC, 9/17/01)
1954 Sep 17, Rocky Marciano
retained possession of the world heavyweight boxing title. He knocked
out Ezzard Charles in the 8th round of their championship bout.
(MC, 9/17/01)
1956 Sep 17, Black students
entered a Clay, Ky., elementary school.
(MC, 9/17/01)
1957 Sep 17, Two male attorneys
"stood in" as actress Sophia Loren and producer Carlo Ponti were
married by proxy in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico. Legal issues later forced an
annulment; the couple wed in Sevres, France, in 1966.
(AP, 9/17/07)
1957 Sep 17, The Thai army seized
power in Bangkok.
(HN, 9/17/98)
1959 Sep 17, The North American
Aviation X-15 rocket plane, piloted by Scott Crossfield, made its first
powered flight.
(HN, 9/17/98)(SFC, 4/21/06, p.B9)
1959 Sep 17, Typhoon Sara killed
2,000 in Japan & Korea. 840 people were left dead or missing in
South Korea. [see Japan Sep 27]
(MC, 9/17/01)(SFC, 9/3/02, p.A3)
1960 Sep 17, Cuba nationalized US
banks.
(www.uscubacommission.org/history3.html)
1961 Sep 17, The situation comedy
"Car 54, Where Are You?" premiered on NBC. Al Lewis (d.2006) played
Officer Schnauzer opposite Fred Gwynne’s Officer Francis Muldoon. The
series ran to 1963.
(AP, 9/17/01)(SSFC, 2/5/06, p.A2)
1961 Sep 17, In Turkey PM Adnan
Menderes (b.1899) was hanged following the 1960 military coup.
(Econ, 6/14/08,
p.65)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adnan_Menderes)
1962 Sep 17, The first federal
suit to end public school segregation was filed by the U.S. Justice
Department.
(HN, 9/17/98)
1962 Sep 17, U.S. space officials
announced the selection of nine new astronauts, including Neil A.
Armstrong, who became the first man to step onto the moon.
(AP, 9/17/02)
1963 Sep 17, "The Fugitive,"
starring David Janssen, premiered on ABC. Kimble was cleared on the Aug
29, 1967, and narrator William Conrad announced "the day the running
stopped." In 1993 Ed Robertson authored the companion book ""The
Fugitive Recaptured." In 1993 a film was made based on the TV series
with Harrison Ford as Kimble.
(AP, 9/17/98)(WSJ, 10/16/00, p.A32)
1964 Sep 17, The situation comedy
"Bewitched" premiered on ABC-TV.
(AP, 9/17/99)
1965 Sep 17, "The Smothers
Brothers Show", debuted on CBS TV.
(MC, 9/17/01)
1966 Sep 17, "Mission Impossible"
premiered on CBS. Greg Morris (1934-1996) played Barney Collier, the
technical wizard. Its theme music was written by Lalo Schifrin. The
series ran until 1973.
(SFC, 8/28/96, C2)(SI-WPC, 12/6/96)(AP, 9/17/01)
1966 Sep 17, Fritz Wunderlich,
charismatic German tenor (Stuttgart 1955-58), died at 35 from falling
down stairs, two months short of his Met Opera debut.
(MC, 9/17/01)
1967 Sep 17, "Mission Impossible"
premiered on CBS-TV. [see Sep 17, 1966]
(MC, 9/17/01)
1972 Sep 17, "M*A*S*H" (MASH)
premiered on CBS-TV.
(AP, 9/17/97)
1973 Sep 17, Charles Horman, a US
free-lance journalist, was arrested by Chilean security forces. His
body was found months later. In 1999 US intelligence complicity was
reported based on newly declassified material. Horman and Frank Teruggi
worked for a newsletter that reprinted articles and clippings from
American newspapers critical of US policy. Teruggi was also killed. The
1982 film "Missing" was based on their story. In 2003 retired security
officer Rafael Gonzalez (64) became the 1st person formally charged for
the murder.
(SFC, 10/9/99, p.A14)(SFEC, 2/13/00, p.A19)(AP,
12/11/03)
1976 Sep 17, The California
Supreme Court ruled that the Univ. of California’s special admissions
policy giving preference to minority applicants is unconstitutional.
Allan Bakke had claimed he was the victim of reverse discrimination
when he was denied admission to the UC Davis Medical School.
(SFC, 9/14/01, WB p.6)
1976 Sep 17, NASA publicly
unveiled the space shuttle Enterprise at ceremonies in Palmdale, Calif.
(AP, 9/17/97)(HN, 9/17/98)
1978 Sep 17, In the 30th Emmy
Awards winners included “All in the Family,” Ed Asner and Sada Thompson.
(www.imdb.com/title/tt0341210/)
1978 Sep 17, US Pres. Carter,
Menachem Begin of Israel and Anwar Sadat of Egypt signed agreements at
Camp David, Md. Israel promised to withdraw gradually from Sinai and to
establish some form of autonomous Palestinian territory on the West
Bank. Sadat’s astrologer, Hasan al-Tuhami, was the only person Sadat
trusted. In the Camp David Accord "Israel was the winner and Egypt the
Loser." Thus wrote Boutros Boutros-Ghali in his 1997 book: "Egypt’s
Road to Jerusalem: A Diplomat’s Story of the Struggle for Peace in the
Middle East."
(WUD, 1994, p.1691)(TL, 1988, p.119)(SFC, 6/2/97,
p.D5)(SFC, 4/24/98, p.A17)
1978 Sep 17, The International
Banking Act of 1978 was enacted. It permitted a foreign bank to select
its home state from among the US states in which it operated branches
and agencies on the grandfather date. If a foreign bank's office that
was established or applied for prior to June 27, 1978, is a branch as
defined in the International Banking Act, then it is grandfathered as a
branch.
(WSJ, 11/19/04,
p.A8)(www.bankersonline.com/regs/211/211-601.html)
1978 Sep 17, Rolf Gunther, East
German priest, died from self immolation.
(http://stasi-in-zwickau.de/K/Kaebisch/Pfarrer-Rolf-Guenther/index.htm)
1979 Sep 17, Gov. Jerry Brown
appointed Steven Lachs as California's 1st admittedly gay judge.
(www.aaronsgayinfo.com/timeline/time70.html)
1980 Sep 17, The musical Les
Miserables opened at the Palais des Sports in Paris. Boublil &
Schonberg composed the music.
(SI-WPC, 12/6/96)(www.hugo-online.org/070402.htm)
1980 Sep 17, Former Nicaraguan
president Anastasio Somoza was assassinated in Paraguay. Enrique
Gorriaran Merlo, Argentine super-guerilla, claimed responsibility.
Merlo was captured in Mexico in 10/95 and extradited to Argentina where
he had multiple charges against him.
(AP, 9/17/97)(WSJ, 4/25/96, p.A-1)
1980 Sep 17, South Korea
opposition leader Kim Dae-jung was sentenced to death. In 1981 the
sentence was commuted to life imprisonment in Seoul.
(http://tinyurl.com/3a4q4z)
1983 Sep 17, Vanessa Williams of
New York became the first black contestant to be crowned "Miss
America." The following July, she also became the first Miss America to
resign in the wake of her Penthouse magazine scandal.
(AP, 9/17/98)
1984 Sep 17, Oil heir Gordon P.
Getty, with a fortune of $4.1 billion dollars, was named the richest
person in the US. There were a dozen billionaires in the US at the time.
(http://tinyurl.com/33chls)
1984 Sep 17, Progressive
Conservative leader Brian Mulroney took office as Canada's 18th prime
minister.
(AP, 9/17/99)
1986 Sep 17, The Senate confirmed
the nomination of William H. Rehnquist to become the 16th chief justice
of the United States.
(AP, 9/17/97)
1986 Sep 17, A bomb attack in
Paris killed 5 people. This began a 10 month series of bomb attacks in
France attributed to Lebanese and Armenian terrorists.
(http://tinyurl.com/y4fl69)
1987 Sep 17, The city of
Philadelphia, birthplace of the U.S. Constitution, threw a big party to
celebrate the 200th anniversary of the historic document.
(AP, 9/17/97)
1988 Sep 17, South Korea opened
the XXIV Olympiad in Seoul. Closing ceremonies for the summer Olympics
were held on October 2. North Korea refused to participate. Cuba and
Nicaragua stayed away in solidarity.
(WSJ, 4/12/08,
p.R2)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1988_Summer_Olympics)
1988 Sep 17, Haitian President
Henri Hamphy was ousted in a coup; Lt. Gen. Prosper Avril declared
himself president the following day.
(AP, 9/17/98)
1989 Sep 17, In the 41st Emmy
Awards winners included LA Law, Cheers, Dana Delany & Candice
Bergen.
(http://imdb.com/Sections/Awards/Emmy_Awards/1989)
1989 Sep 17, Hurricane Hugo
slammed into several Caribbean islands, including St. Croix, which was
the hardest hit. The 4 day sweep through the Caribbean killed 62.
(AP, 9/17/99)
1990 Sep 17, Defense Secretary
Dick Cheney sacked Air Force chief of staff General Mike Dugan for
openly discussing contingency plans to launch massive air strikes
against Baghdad and target Iraqi President Saddam Hussein personally.
(AP, 9/17/00)
1990 Sep 17, Supreme Court nominee
David H. Souter concluded three days of testimony before the Senate
Judiciary Committee.
(AP, 9/17/00)
1991 Sep 17, The first flight of
the McDonnell Douglas C-17 military cargo transport took place.
(NPub, 2002, p.25)
1991 Sep 17, The U.N. General
Assembly opened its 46th session, welcoming new members Estonia,
Latvia, Lithuania, North and South Korea, the Marshall Islands and
Micronesia.
(AP, 9/17/01)
1992 Sep 17, A federal judge
overturned the impeachment of former U.S. District Judge Alcee
Hastings, saying he did not receive a fair trial by the Senate, which
convicted him in 1989 of perjury and conspiracy.
(AP, 9/17/97)
1992 Sep 17, Special prosecutor
Lawrence Walsh called a halt to his five-and-a-half-year probe of the
Iran-Contra scandal.
(AP, 9/17/97)
1992 Sep 17, Feodor Chaliapin Jr.
(87), actor (King's Whore), died after illness.
(www.imdb.com/name/nm0149923/)
1993 Sep 17, President Clinton
urged China to cancel an underground nuclear test, assuring the Beijing
government it had nothing to fear from the world's other atomic powers.
(AP, 9/17/98)
1994 Sep 17, Heather Whitestone of
Alabama was crowned "Miss America," the first deaf woman to win the
title.
(AP, 9/17/97)
1994 Sep 17, As some 20 warships
sat off the coast of Haiti, former President Jimmy Carter, Sen. Sam
Nunn (D-Ga.) and retired Gen. Colin Powell arrived in the Caribbean
nation in an 11th-hour bid to avert a U.S.-led invasion.
(AP, 9/17/99)
1994 Sep 17, Fifty-six miners
confirmed killed in a gas blast at the Nanshan coal mine, northeastern
Heilongjiang province.
(www.thestandard.com.hk/stdn/std/China/GB16Ad02.html)
1994 Sep 17, Sir Karl Popper
(b.1902), Austrian-born philosopher of science, died.
(http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/popper/)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karl_Popper)
1995 Sep 17, A 3-year old girl,
Stephanie Kuhen, was shot dead in Los Angeles when the car she was
riding in driven by Timothy Stone made a wrong turn into a dead-end
alley in Cypress Park, and happened on a gang setting. Her 2-year old
brother was wounded in the foot. Accused of the murder were Manuel
Rosales Jr., Augustin Lizama, Hugo David Gomez, Marcos Antonio Luna and
Anthony Gabriel Rodriguez. A 6th defendant, Marvin Pech, was expected
to testify for the prosecution.
(SFC, 5/14/96, A-20)
1995 Sep 17, Hong Kong held its
last legislative election before the 1997 takeover by China, with some
of Beijing’s fiercest critics the big winners.
(AP, 9/17/00)
1996 Sep 17, A nonpartisan
commission recommended that Ross Perot be denied a spot in presidential
debates, saying he had no realistic shot at winning the White House;
Perot vowed to sue.
(AP, 9/17/97)
1996 Sep 17, The Clinton
Administration and 15 timber companies struck a deal to protect
old-growth forest in Oregon and Washington. The companies will log
substitute groves less critical to fish and wildlife.
(SFC, 9/18/96, p.A2)
1996 Sep 17, Spiro Agnew (b. Nov
9, 1918), former governor of Maryland and US vice president
(1969-1973), died in Berlin, Md., at age 77.
(SFC, 9/18/96, p.A1)(AP, 9/17/97)
1996 Sep 17, In Montserrat the
Soufriere Hills volcano erupted for 48 minutes.
(SFEC, 10/6/96, T11)
1996 Sep 17, In Bosnia Alija
Izetbegovic led the polls to become chairman of the new 3-member
presidency. Serbian nationalist Momcilo Krajisnik and Croat nationalist
Kresimir Zubak won their respective regions.
(SFC, 9/18/96, p.A1)(WSJ, 9/20/96, p.A10)
1996 Sep 17, In Mexico Razhy
Gonzalez, editor of the small Contrapunto weekly, was abducted in
Oaxaca.
(SFC, 9/19/96, p.A10)
1997 Sep 17, Pres. Clinton
rejected a proposed tobacco deal and planned to outline his own policy.
(SFC, 9/17/97, p.A3)
1997 Sep 17, Pres. Clinton
announced that the US would not sign the int’l. treaty banning
anti-personnel land mines after 89 nations rejected US demands to water
down the accord. 89 nations endorsed the pact.
(SFC, 9/18/97, p.A1) (AP, 9/17/98)
1997 Sep 17, The US House of
Representatives voted themselves a $3,000 pay increase, the equivalent
of a 2.3% raise on $133,600. It was termed a cost-of-living increase
and was opposed by the Senate.
(SFC, 9/18/97, p.A3)(WSJ, 9/25/97, p.A1)
1997 Sep 17, Montana passed a new
law, effective Dec 17, that makes the entire state an offshore banking
center, allowing foreign interests to anonymously stash their cash.
Depositors could not be US citizens and a minimum of $200,000 was
required.
(SFC,12/17/97, p.A1)(SFEC, 1/18/98, p.A18)
1997 Sep 17, Dr. Sam Sheppard's
body (subject of the TV show "The Fugitive") was exhumed in Cleveland,
Ohio, for DNA test.
(www.courttv.com/archive/trials/sheppard/timeline_ctv.html)
1997 Sep 17, Bernard Richard
Skelton (Red Skelton, b.1913), comic clown and actor, died at age 84 in
Rancho Mirage, Calif. He made his debut on radio and Broadway in 1937
and appeared in 43 films. In 1979 Arthur Marx wrote his biography.
(SFC, 9/18/97, p.C2)(AP, 9/17/98)
1997 Sep 17, From Indonesia it was
reported that government spending was slashed and projects for power
plants and roads were put on hold in order to keep the economy on an
even keel.
(WSJ, 9/17/97, p.A17)
1997 Sep 17, The German Red Cross
estimated that the famine in North Korea might be killing 10,000
children every month.
(WSJ, 9/17/97, p.A1)
1997 Sep 17, In Macedonia the
mayor of Gostevar, Rufi Osmani, was sentenced to 13 years in prison on
charges of inciting ethnic hatred in the July riots.
(SFC, 9/18/97, p.A11)
1997 Sep 17, A U.N. helicopter
slammed into a fog-shrouded mountain in central Bosnia and burst into
flames, killing German diplomat Gerd Wagner, five Americans and six
others.
(SFC, 9/18/97, p.A12)(AP, 9/17/98)
1997 Sep 17, In Vietnam Tran Duc
Luong (60) was nominated to be the country’s president. Vice Prime
Minister Phan Van Khai (64) was nominated to be the new prime minister.
A week later Luong was elected by the National Assembly and Khai was
confirmed as premier.
(SFC, 9/18/97, p.A11)(WSJ, 9/25/97, p.A1)
1998 Sep 17, In Apollo,
Pennsylvania, nuclear-processing plant operators were ordered to pay 8
cancer-stricken victims $36.5 million.
(WSJ, 9/18/98, p.A1)
1998 Sep 17, David Chain of Texas
was killed by a falling redwood tree logged by Earl Ammons near the
Headwaters Forest near Eureka, Ca. Chain's family filed suit in 1999
against Pacific Lumber. In 2004 Patrick Beach authored "A Good Forest
for Dying: The Tragic Death of a Young Man on the Front Lines of the
Environmental Wars."
(SFEC, 3/14/99, p.A1)(SFC, 9/13/99, p.A28)(SSFC,
4/11/04, p.M1)
1998 Sep 17, In Burma 10
dissidents voted to annul all laws passed by the junta in the last 10
years after constituting themselves as the elected parliament of 1990.
(WSJ, 9/18/98, p.A1)
1998 Sep 17, In Israel a
Palestinian youth, Iyad Hashem (17), was killed in a drive-by shooting
on the West Bank.
(WSJ, 9/18/98, p.A1)(SFC, 9/18/98, p.A13)
1998 Sep 17, In Kenya the Central
Bank took over the Trust Bank due to insufficient funds, the 2nd
closure in 10 days.
(WSJ, 9/21/98, p.A22)
1998 Sep 17, In Ensenada, Mexico,
20 people were shot and 19 were killed by gunmen. The victims included
8 children. Fermin Castro (38), aka "The Ice Man," was the principal
target and leader of one of 6 gangs linked to the Arellano Felix drug
cartel. Castro, a native Pai Pai Indian, was tortured before being shot
and was in a coma. In Dec. Tijuana police arrested Hector Flores
Esquivias and Cruz Medina Perez, the wife of gang leader Marinez
Gonzalez. In 2008 US immigration officials in Los Angeles arrested
Jesus Ruben Moncada (33), believed to be one of the Ensenada gunmen,
and turned him over to Mexican authorities.
(WSJ, 9/18/98, p.A1)(SFC, 9/18/98, p.A1)(SFC,
10/17/98, p.A12)(SFC, 12/5/98, p.A13)(SFC, 8/25/08, p.A3)
1999 Sep 17, President Clinton
lifted key parts of the US trade embargo against North Korea following
North Korea's pledge to refrain from testing long-range missiles.
(SFC, 9/18/99, p.A1)(AP, 9/17/00)
1999 Sep 17, Jesse Gelsinger (18)
of Tucson died after he participated in a Univ. of Pennsylvania gene
therapy experiment. His liver had been injected with a virus carrying a
corrective gene 4 days earlier. An FDA investigation showed that
Gelsinger should never have participated due to entry criteria. In Jan
the FDA halted all human gene therapy experiments at Penn.
(SFC, 12/9/99, p.A7)(SFC, 12/10/99, p.A14)(SFC,
1/22/00, p.A3)
1999 Sep 17, In Argentina a
botched holdup in Villa Ramallo left 2 hostages dead and a 3rd wounded.
A gunman was also killed and 2 arrested in the 20-hour standoff that
was covered live on TV.
(SFC, 9/18/99, p.A11)
1999 Sep 17, Japan inaugurated its
$400 million Subaru telescope on Mount Mauna Kea, Hawaii. Subaru is the
Japanese word for the constellation Pleiades.
(SFEC, 9/19/99, p.A21)
1999 Sep 17, In Pakistan
opposition politicians and the Christian community accused the
government of colluding with Maulana Ajmal Qadri, leader of the
Jamiat-Ulema-e-Islam, who had called for the killing of legislators who
oppose Islamic law in Pakistan.
(SFC, 9/17/99, p.D6)
2000 Sep 17, In Sydney, Australia,
swimmer Tom Dolan of the United States won the 400-meter individual
medley.
(AP, 9/17/01)
2000 Sep 17, In Brazil gangs of
armed gunmen broke into jails and freed over 200 inmates. 2 breaks
occurred in Sumare and Santa Isabel. A 3rd took place the next day in
Sao Paolo.
(SFC, 9/19/00, p.A10)
2000 Sep 17, In Chechnya attackers
gunned down Col. Shamil Azayev, deputy chief of police in Vedeno.
(SFC, 9/18/00, p.A9)
2000 Sep 17, In Colombia
government troops engaged FARC rebels at Dabeiba. The offensive had
started Sep 13 and high casualties were reported. ELN rebels kidnapped
about 54 people from roadside restaurants near Cali.
(SFC, 9/18/00, p.A9)(SFC, 11/1/00, p.A17)
2000 Sep 17, In Guinea a UN
worker, Mensah Kpognon, was killed in Macenta where attackers also
burned down the military garrison. Gunmen from Liberia were blamed. A
second worker, Sapeu Laurence Djeya, was also kidnapped in the raid,
and later released.
(SFC, 9/18/00, p.A8)(SFC, 9/29/00, p.D2)(AP, 9/17/01)
2000 Sep 17, In India 7 people
were killed after police opened fire in Ahmedabad in Gujarat state
following mob violence during municipal elections.
(SFC, 9/18/00, p.A9)
2000 Sep 17, In Israel Prime
Minister Barak signed orders to privatize El Al. He had recently
pledged public transport on the Sabbath within 2 months and had the
cabinet begin the legal process for removing citizens’ religion from
identity cards.
(SFC, 9/18/00, p.A9)
2000 Sep 17, In Korea a
ground-breaking ceremony was held at Imjingak for a railroad to connect
the capitals of North and South Korea.
(SFC, 9/18/00, p.A9)
2000 Sep 17, In the Philippines
military forces said 6 Abu Sayyaf guerrillas were killed and 20
arrested. The pursuit continued.
(SFC, 9/18/00, p.A8)
2000 Sep 17, In Sri Lanka
government troops captured Chavakachcheri, 6 miles east of Jaffna. 4
soldiers and 1 officer were reported killed.
(SFC, 9/18/00, p.A9)
2001 Sep 17, President Bush said
the United States wanted terrorism suspect Osama bin Laden "dead or
alive." President Bush visited a mosque in Washington as he appealed to
Americans to get back to everyday business and not turn against their
Muslim neighbors.
(AP, 9/17/02)
2001 Sep 17, The US Federal
Reserve cut interest rates by .5% to 3%. The discount rate at 2.5%
reached its lowest point level since 1959.
(WSJ, 9/18/01, p.A1)
2001 Sep 17, Six days after 9/11,
stock prices nose-dived but stopped short of collapse in an emotional,
flag-waving reopening of Wall Street. The DJIA fell 684.81 to 8,920.70.
The Nasdaq fell 115 to 1,579.
(WSJ, 9/18/01, p.A1)(SFC, 9/18/01, p.A1)(AP, 9/17/06)
2001 Sep 17, "The Late Show with
David Letterman" returned to CBS with guests Dan Rather and Regis
Philbin.
(AP, 9/17/02)
2001 Sep 17, In Afghanistan
Islamic clerics demanded proof from the US that Osama bin Laden was
responsible for the Sep 11 terrorist attacks. They also requested that
the Organization of Islamic Conference, a group of over 50 Muslim
countries, make a formal demand for bin Laden’s handover.
(SFC, 9/18/01, p.A1)
2001 Sep 17, In Chechnya rebels
shot down a Russian Mi-8 helicopter. 2 generals and 8 colonels were
killed. An attack at Gudermes left 10 Russian soldiers dead. 15 rebels
were reported killed.
(SFC, 9/18/01, p.B10)
2001 Sep 17, Macedonia approved
the deployment of a modest NATO security force.
(WSJ, 9/18/01, p.A1)
2001 Sep 17, Pakistan virtually
shut down its 1,560-mile border with Afghanistan. Some 1.2 million
Afghan refugees in the North-West Frontier Province were confined to
dozens of camps in the region.
(SFC, 9/18/01, p.A8)
2001 Sep 17, Yasser Arafat ordered
his forces to observe a cease-fire as Israel began to observe its
Jewish New Year, Rosh Hashana. In clashes 1 Palestinian was killed and
15 wounded, while 4 Israelis were wounded.
(SFC, 9/18/01, p.B10)
2001 Sep 17, In South Korea
negotiators for the North and South concluded 2 days of talks and
agreed on an exchange of family visits. The North agreed to soon begin
construction on its side of a railroad to link the 2 sides.
(SFC, 9/18/01, p.B10)
2001 Sep 17, In Taiwan tropical
storm Nari flooded Taipei and other cities. At least 66 people were
killed.
(WSJ, 9/19/01, p.A1)
2002 Sep 17, US Constitution Day:
Article 1, Section 8: "The power to declare war rests with Congress."
(SFC, 9/15/02, p.D4)
2002 Sep 17, The United States and
its key global partners in Middle East peacemaking agreed to try to
establish a provisional Palestinian state next year.
(AP, 9/17/02)
2002 Sep 17, The US "Religious
Congregations & Membership: 2000" study was released. It counted
some 62 million Catholics as the top of 15 faiths and listed the
Mormons as the fastest growing with 4.2 million members.
(SFC, 9/18/02, p.A3)
2003 Sep 17, NBA star Patrick
Ewing announced his retirement as a player.
(AP, 9/17/03)
2002 Sep 17, Elizabeth Coblentz
(66), Amish cooking columnist, died. Her cook books included "The Amish
Cook Cookbook" and "An Amish Christmas."
(SFC, 9/23/02, p.B5)
2002 Sep 17, The foreign
secretaries of Belize and Guatemala announced a proposed border
settlement in their countries. The proposal retains the border between
the two countries established in a 1959 treaty, which Guatemala has
rejected, and suggests a series of measures aimed at sharing resources.
(AP, 9/19/02)
2002 Sep 17, UN Weapons inspectors
and Iraqi officials agreed to meet in Vienna in 10 days to complete
arrangements for the inspectors' return. The UN said Iraq had abandoned
its illegal surcharges in the oil-for-food program.
(AP, 9/17/02)(WSJ, 9/18/02, p.A1)
2002 Sep 17, Kim Jong-il
apologized to Japanese PM Junichiro Koizumi for abductions of Japanese
citizens and offered concessions on security issues of global concern.
Both leaders exchanged apologies. Of 11 Japanese on an official North
Korea list of those who were kidnapped in the 1970s and 1980s, only 4
were still alive. Details of the kidnapped were made public Oct 2.
North Korea announced that it will indefinitely extend its moratorium
on missile testing as part of the North Korea-Japan Pyongyang
Declaration signed during a meeting between Japanese PM Junichiro
Koizumi and North Korean leader Kim Jong Il.
(AP, 9/17/02)(SFC, 10/3/02,
p.A8)(www.armscontrol.org/factsheets/dprkchron.asp)
2002 Sep 17, In Paraguay police
fired tear gas and water cannons to clear thousands of anti-government
demonstrators from the capital's main square, injuring at least 40
protesters.
(AP, 9/17/02)
2002 Sep 17, Rwanda began
withdrawing troops from eastern Congo as part of an agreement signed
with the Congolese government to end the four-year civil war in
Africa's third-largest nation.
(AP, 9/17/02)
2003 Sep 17, Wesley Clark, the
retired general with a four-star military resume but no political
experience, decided to become the 10th Democratic presidential
candidate.
(Reuters, 9/16/03)
2003 Sep 17, Three former
executives of Merrill Lynch & Co. were indicted on fraud charges
related to Enron Corp.
(SFC, 9/18/03, p.B3)
2003 Sep 17, Dick Grasso, Chairman
of the NY Stock Exchange, resigned following a public outcry over his
$139.5 million retirement pay package.
(WSJ, 9/18/03, p.A1)
2003 Sep 17, Microsoft Chairman
Bill Gates said his foundation would donate $51 million to create 67
small high schools in NYC. It was part of a larger plan by the city to
create 200 small high schools to replace struggling large ones.
(SFC, 9/18/03, p.A3)
2003 Sep 17, Iran's leading
dissident cleric, Grand Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri,
criticized the country's hard-line Islamic leaders, saying they should
submit to elections and allow the country's young people to choose
their future.
(AP, 9/17/03)
2003 Sep 17, An audiotape
purporting to carry the voice of Saddam Hussein, broadcast on Arab
television, called on Iraqis to fight the American occupation.
(AP, 9/17/04)
2003 Sep 17, The imprisoned leader
of a Peruvian rebel group said his group has given up armed conflict
and now wants to become a political movement. Victor Polay, in a
published interview, acknowledged that the Tupac Amaru Revolutionary
Movement has been defeated.
(AP, 9/17/03)
2003 Sep 17, Spain's leading
investigating judge, Baltasar Garzon, issued the first known indictment
against Osama bin Laden in the Sept. 11 attacks.
(AP, 9/17/04)
2003 Sep 17, In Sri Lanka 19
million people shared space with about 3,000 wild elephants. As forests
dwindled the huge beasts entered villages to forage in garbage dumps
for food.
(AP, 9/17/03)
2004 Sep 17, In SF Barry Bonds
became the first new member of baseball’s homerun 700 club in 31 years,
joining Babe Ruth and Hank Aaron. Timothy Griffith (21), was stabbed to
death in a fight after the game. Rafael Antonio Cuevas (22) was
arrested Oct 1. On Oct 27 the homerun ball was auctioned for $804,129.
On Oct 10, 2008, Cuevas was sentenced 16 years to life for 2nd degree
murder and ordered to pay a fine of $10,000.
(SFC, 9/18/04, p.A1)(SFC, 10/2/04, p.B4)(SFC,
10/28/04, p.B1)(SFC, 10/11/08, p.B2)
2004 Sep 17, The violent remains
of Hurricane Ivan pounded a large swath of the eastern United States,
drenching an area from Georgia to Ohio. Ivan left 70 dead in the
Caribbean and 40 dead in the US including 4 in Alabama, 16 in Florida,
4 in Georgia, 4 in Louisiana, 3 in Mississippi, and 8 in North Carolina.
(AP, 9/17/04)(SFC, 9/18/04, p.A16)
2004 Sep 17, In Afghanistan
suspected Taliban rebels killed two tribal elders who were encouraging
participation in elections.
(AP, 9/18/04)
2004 Sep 17, Tropical Storm Jeanne
lashed the Dominican Republic with wind and rain that triggered
mudslides and collapsed walls before it weakened to a tropical
depression and headed toward the Bahamas. Eight were killed across the
Caribbean.
(AP, 9/17/04)
2004 Sep 17, The main Chechen
rebel Web site, Kavkaz-Center, posted what it said was an e-mail from
Basayev, claiming his "Riyadus Salikhin Martyrs' Brigade" was
responsible for the bombings of two passenger jets last month, a
suicide bombing outside a Moscow subway station and the school siege in
the southern city of Beslan.
(AP, 9/17/04)
2004 Sep 17, Backed by 4,000
police officers, the Colombian government seized control of the
nation's largest pharmacy chain, saying its creation and expansion had
been funded by cocaine trafficking.
(AP, 9/17/04)
2004 Sep 17, A suicide car bomber
slammed into a line of police cars sealing off a Baghdad neighborhood
as American troops rounded up dozens of suspected militants, capping a
day of violence across Iraq that left at least 53 dead. Sheikh Abu Anas
al-Shami, a spiritual leader of a group of militants, was killed when a
missile hit the car in which he was traveling.
(AP, 9/17/04)(SFC, 9/18/04, p.A1)(SFC, 9/23/04,
p.A18)
2004 Sep 17, Mexico and Japan
signed a free trade agreement that Mexicans hope will ease their
reliance on the United States while encouraging Japan to build more
factories there. PM Junichiro Koizumi wrapped up a four-day Latin
American trip then headed for New York to pitch for a permanent
Japanese seat on the UN Security Council.
(AP, 9/17/04)
2004 Sep 17, President Vladimir
Putin said Russia was "seriously preparing" for pre-emptive strikes
against terrorists, as Chechen warlord Shamil Basayev took
responsibility for a school hostage-taking and other attacks that had
claimed more than 430 lives.
(AP, 9/17/05)
2004 Sep 17, Officials in
Singapore reported that a soil-borne bacterial infection called
melioidosis has killed 24 people there this year, making it more deadly
than SARS or bird flu. The illness, also known as Whitmore's Disease,
is listed by the U.S. government as a potential biological weapon but
Singapore government officials said there was no sign it had been
spread intentionally.
(Reuters, 9/17/04)
2004 Sep 17, Gunmen killed a
Venezuelan oil engineer and six soldiers near the border with Colombia
in an attack that officials suspected was carried out by Colombian
rebels.
(AP, 9/19/04)
2005 Sep 17, US Secretary of State
Condoleezza Rice told Libya the US was committed to closer relations
with its former enemy, which promised to work harder to fight terrorism.
(AP, 9/17/05)
2005 Sep 17, Dow Jones, under
chief executive Peter Kann, launched a new “Weekend” edition of the
Wall Street Journal. Over 30 members of the Bancroft family owned 30%
of Dow Jones shares and 62% of its voting rights.
(Econ, 9/17/05, p.63)
2005 Sep 17, A Chicago commuter
train was going almost 60 mph above the speed limit just before it
derailed, killing two people and injuring dozens.
(AP, 9/18/05)
2005 Sep 17, The UN urged Afghans
to defy rebel violence and turn out in large numbers to vote in
landmark legislative elections. Fierce battles near the capital and
elsewhere killed nine militants and three policemen.
(AP, 9/17/05)
2005 Sep 17, Chile’s Pres. Lagos
signed a reform of the constitution that deleted what he called
“authoritarian enclaves” left in place from the dictatorship.
(Econ, 9/17/05, p.38)(www.americas.org/item_21936)
2005 Sep 17, In China the 13-part
TV series “Wise Man Takes All” premiered. It was backed by Vincent Lo,
a Hong Kong and Chinese property tycoon, who modeled it after rival
Donald Trump’s “The Apprentice.”
(Econ, 9/17/05, p.67)
2005 Sep 17, A French special
forces soldier was killed and one was seriously wounded when their
vehicle struck a mine while patrolling in southern Afghanistan.
(AP, 9/18/05)
2005 Sep 17, Germany’s 172nd
Oktoberfest opened and will run to Oct 3.
(AP, 5/17/05)
2005 Sep 17, The Indonesian
government signed a contract with state oil company Pertamina and US
oil giant Exxon Mobil Corp to develop Cepu block.
(AP, 9/17/05)
2005 Sep 17, The US military said
that coalition forces in Mosul had arrested two alleged leaders of the
al-Qaida in Iraq terrorist group. The military also said that Iraqi
forces and US troops killed two insurgents and captured six in the city
of Tal Afar.
(AP, 9/17/05)
2005 Sep 17, In Iraq a suicide car
bomb wrecked three vehicles in a US convoy near Abu Ghraib prison, and
insurgents fired seven mortar shells at the jail and used grenades to
damage three armored vehicles in another American convoy in the area.
(AP, 9/17/05)
2005 Sep 17, A car bomb near an
outdoor market in a Shiite village east of Baghdad killed at least 30
people. At least 40 people were killed across Iraq.
(SSFC, 9/18/05, p.A14)
2005 Sep 17, In Iraq insurgents
assassinated Faris Nasir Hussein, a Kurdish member of parliament.
(AP, 9/18/05)
2005 Sep 17, In Japan DPJ
(Democratic Party of Japan) members, stunned by the loss of a third of
their 177 seats in the lower house of parliament, chose Seiji Maehara
(43) as their new leader.
(Econ, 9/24/05, p.50)
2005 Sep 17, PM Helen Clark's
ruling Labor Party pulled slightly ahead in New Zealand's general
election, despite a surge in support for the conservative opposition. A
new political party representing New Zealand's Maori won 4 of 7
Parliament seats set aside for indigenous people in elections dominated
by an opposition party's vow to scrap Maori privileges.
(AP, 9/17/05)
2006 Sep 17, In California a fire
in Los Padres National Forest crossed 60,589 acres, or about 93 square
miles, since it began on Labor Day. Containment was estimated at 15%.
(AP, 9/18/06)
2006 Sep 17, Time Warner Inc. said
it is selling AOL Germany's Internet access business to Telecom Italia
SpA for about $870 million.
(AP, 9/18/06)
2006 Sep 17, In South Carolina
Vinson Filyaw (36) was arrested and charged with raping a 14-year-old
girl. Filyaw had abducted the girl on Sep 6 and kept her in an
underground bunker. The girl was rescued Sep 16 after she used Filyaw’s
cell phone to send a text message to her mother.
(SFC, 9/18/06, p.A4)
2006 Sep 17, Elizabeth Blackburn
(57), a biochemist at UCSF, was named winner of the Lasker Award for
Basic Medical Research. She shared $100,000 the award with Carol W.
Greider, a former graduate student, and Jack W. Szostak (53), a Harvard
geneticist and longtime collaborator. Their discoveries included
proteins called telomeres that cap the ends of chromosomes and regulate
the longevity and death of human and animal cells.
(SSFC, 9/17/06, p.B1)
2006 Sep 17, Five Duquesne
basketball players were shot and wounded during an apparent act of
random violence on campus. As of 2007 two alleged gunmen and two women
who allegedly helped facilitate the shooting awaited trial.
(AP, 9/17/07)
2006 Sep 17, Patricia Kennedy
Lawford (82), the sister of President John F. Kennedy and ex-wife of
actor Peter Lawford, died in New York City.
(AP, 9/17/07)
2006 Sep 17, A top NATO general
said Operation Medusa, an offensive aimed at driving Taliban militants
out of their safe havens in southern Afghanistan, has been
"successfully completed." In southern Afghanistan a suicide bomber
plowed his explosive-laden vehicle into a Canadian military convoy,
killing one civilian and wounding five.
(AP, 9/17/06)
2006 Sep 17, In northern Austria a
Czech bus veered off a road and into a ditch, killing 4 people and
injuring 38.
(AP, 9/17/06)
2006 Sep 17, Iran's president made
his first visit to Venezuela, seeking to strengthen ties with a
government that also opposes the US.
(AP, 9/17/06)
2006 Sep 17, In Iraq a series of
attacks, including two suicide car bombings in the northern city of
Kirkuk, killed 24 people and wounded dozens. A series of near
simultaneous mortar and bomb attacks targeting police patrols in
Fallujah killed 4 people, including two policemen, and wounded 10. In
Baghdad a bomb left in plastic bag exploded on the central commercial
Jumhouriyah street, killing two civilians and wounding 8. The
bullet-riddled bodies of 4 unidentified men were found in separate
neighborhoods in east Baghdad. Another two bodies were found in the
Tigris river in central Baghdad. Both had been shot, and one had been
decapitated. Another blindfolded and bound body was found dumped in a
river in the city of Kut. Ahmed Riyadh al-Karbouli (25), an Iraqi
journalist, was killed in Ramadi.
(AP, 9/17/06)(AP, 9/19/06)
2006 Sep 17, The Israeli Cabinet
authorized an inquiry into the government's handling of the recent war
in Lebanon, capping weeks of disagreements over the scope of the
investigation.
(AP, 9/17/06)
2006 Sep 17, A strong typhoon
swept toward southwestern Japan with fierce winds and heavy rains,
leaving at least 8 people dead or missing and injuring dozens more.
(AFP, 9/17/06)
2006 Sep 17, Voters in Moldova's
breakaway Trans-Dniester region overwhelmingly approved a referendum
for the separatist government's bid to eventually join Russia.
(AP, 9/18/06)
2006 Sep 17, A Nigerian military
transport aircraft, traveling from Abuja to the southern town of Obudu,
went down in the southeast with a group of military officers on board.
12 of 17 people were killed and most were senior military personnel.
(AP, 9/18/06)
2006 Sep 17, Sister Leonella
Sgorbati, an Italian nun, was shot dead at a hospital in Mogadishu by
Somali gunmen, hours after a leading Muslim cleric condemned Pope
Benedict XVI for his remarks on Islam and violence. The nun's bodyguard
and a hospital worker were also killed.
(AP, 9/17/06)(AP, 9/21/06)
2006 Sep 17, Sri Lanka's Tamil
Tiger rebels accused government soldiers in concert with paramilitary
units of killing nearly 100 civilians in the island's embattled Jaffna
peninsula this month. Sri Lanka's navy gunboats and war planes bombed a
suspected Tamil Tiger arms ship.
(AFP, 9/17/06)
2006 Sep 17, Peace activists
around the world staged a day of action to highlight the "forgotten
war" in Darfur where tens of thousands of people have been killed and
more than 2 million left homeless.
(AP, 9/17/06)
2006 Sep 17, In Sweden PM Goeran
Persson, head of the minority Social Democrat government for 10 years,
faced Fredrik Reinfeldt (41), who led the four-party Alliance for
Sweden, after a campaign focused on getting Swedes back into the job
market. The center-right opposition, vowing to streamline Sweden's
famed welfare state, ousted the Social Democratic government with 48.1%
of the vote, ending 12 years of leftist rule. Fredrik Reinfeldt (41),
head of the main opposition Moderate Party, became prime minister. He
authored the 1993 book "The Sleeping Nation," in which he criticized
the cradle-to-grave welfare state. Fredrik Reinfeldt renamed his party
the “New Moderates.”
(AP, 9/17/06)(Econ, 9/23/06, p.16)(Econ, 9/23/06,
p.60)
2006 Sep 17, Pope Benedict XVI
said that he was "deeply sorry" about the angry reaction to his recent
remarks about Islam, which he said came from a text that didn't reflect
his personal opinion.
(AP, 9/17/06)
2007 Sep 17, President Bush,
seeking to avert a possible confirmation fight over a more partisan
candidate, chose retired federal judge Michael B. Mukasey to replace
Attorney General Alberto Gonzales.
(AP, 9/17/07)
2007 Sep 17, A US soldier in
Kansas filed a lawsuit alleging a pattern of practices that
discriminate against non-Christians in the military. A superior had
threatened to file military charges against Spec. Jeremy Hall after he
tried to convene a meeting for atheists and non-Christians.
(SFC, 9/19/07, p.A3)
2007 Sep 17, During a forum at the
University of Florida, Andrew Meyer, a student with a history of taping
his own practical jokes, was Tasered by campus police and arrested
after repeatedly trying to question Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry.
(AP, 9/17/08)
2007 Sep 17, Microsoft lost its
appeal of a European antitrust order that obliges the technology giant
to share communications code with rivals, sell a copy of Windows
without Media Player and pay a $613 million fine, the largest ever by
EU regulators.
(AP, 9/17/07)
2007 Sep 17, The Roman Catholic
Diocese of Pittsburgh said it has created a $1.25 million fund to
settle 32 lawsuits alleging abuse or injury by priests.
(AP, 9/17/07)
2007 Sep 18, In the SF Bay area
the East Bay Regional Park District approved a $6.63 million deal to
add the 1,476-acre Tyler Ranch to its holdings.
(SFC, 9/19/07, p.B1)
2007 Sep 17, Volunteers worldwide
collected debris from beaches and waterways in a 22nd annual effort. A
report by Ocean Conservancy in 2008 said 7.2 million items were
gathered weighing 6 million pounds.
(AP, 4/15/08)
2007 Sep 17, In southern
Afghanistan a suicide bomber on foot entered a government office and
blew himself up in the Nad Ali district center in Helmand province,
killing 8 people, including 4 policemen. In Helmand province a
gunbattle in Garmser district killed six suspected Taliban, while 9
others died in an airstrike in Kajaki district. An explosion killed a
NATO soldier and wounded another.
(AP, 9/17/07)(AP, 9/18/07)
2007 Sep 17, In London, England,
panicky depositors converged on Northern Rock branches for a third day
to grab savings from the beleaguered mortgage lender, the latest victim
of a global credit crunch.
(AFP, 9/17/07)
2007 Sep 17, Sotheby's canceled a
London auction Set for Sep 18 after Alisher Usmanov, a Russian tycoon
paid about 25 percent more than the estimated price for the art
collection of the late cellist Mstislav Rostropovich. A government
agency "presented some guarantees to Sotheby's that this transaction
would be in the interest of the Russian Federation."
(AP, 9/18/07)
2007 Sep 17, A new report said
voracious beetles, that have ravaged more than 9 million hectares
(35,000 square miles) of British Columbia's forests, have wiped out
about 40 percent of the infested region's marketable pine trees.
(Reuters, 9/17/07)
2007 Sep 17, China and the
Democratic Republic of Congo signed a draft accord in which China would
lend $5 billion to modernize Congo’s decrepit infrastructure and rich
but deteriorated mining sector. Congo’s government later announced that
Chinese state-owned firms would build or refurbish various railways,
roads and mines at accost of $12 billion.
(Reuters, 9/18/07)(Econ, 3/15/08, SR p.3)
2007 Sep 17, German police
arrested Augustin Ngirabatware, a former Rwandan minister, wanted by
the International Tribunal on genocide charges related to Rwanda’s 1994
conflict. He was charged with genocide and crimes against humanity in
October 2008 and pleaded not guilty. In 2009 prosecutor Wallace Kapaya
said he has proof Ngirabatware stole money donated by the World Bank
and IMF as well as cash from lenders including Austria, Switzerland,
Germany, the US, Belgium and Canada to buy weapons and transport for
the extremist Hutu militia known as the Interahamwe. Ngirabatware is
the son-in-law of Felician Kabuga, Rwanda's most wanted genocide
suspect.
(AP, 9/20/07)(AP, 9/23/09)
2007 Sep 17, The Iraqi government
said that it was revoking the license of an American security firm
accused of involvement in the deaths of eight civilians in a firefight
that followed a car bomb explosion near a State Department motorcade.
Blackwater has an estimated 1,000 employees in Iraq, and at least $800
million in government contracts. A suicide bomber detonated his
explosives-laden car near a busy market in Baghdad, killing three
people and wounding 10 in an attack that apparently targeted a police
patrol.
(AP, 9/17/07)
2007 Sep 17, The Mozambican
government authorized soldiers to gun down wild animals who are seen as
a threat to human beings after a new report highlighted an increase in
the number of deadly attacks.
(AFP, 9/17/07)
2007 Sep 17, Nepal's political
leaders held emergency talks with former rebel Maoists to try to
persuade the ultra-leftists not to storm out of the government and
launch nationwide protests.
(AFP, 9/17/07)
2007 Sep 17, Pakistan’s Election
Commission announced a rule change that would apparently allow
President Gen. Pervez Musharraf to seek a new, five-year term while
still serving as army chief.
(AP, 9/17/07)
2007 Sep 17, Saudi Arabia
announced it has signed a 4.43 billion pound (8.86 billion dollar) deal
to buy 72 Eurofighter planes, after tortuous negotiations on one of the
largest ever British export orders.
(AP, 9/17/07)
2007 Sep 17, In Scotland a jury at
Glasgow's High Court found Mohammed Atif Siddique (21) guilty of four
offenses under British terrorism laws and a separate offense of
breaching the peace, carried out between March 1, 2003, and April 13,
2006. This included causing a disturbance by telling fellow students he
planned to become a suicide bomber.
(AP, 9/18/07)(AP, 2/9/10)
2007 Sep 17, Sierra Leone election
officials declared opposition candidate Ernest Bai Koroma has won the
presidential run-off.
(AP, 9/17/07)
2007 Sep 17, Lars Vilks, a Swedish
cartoonist who depicted Islam's Prophet Muhammad with the body of a
dog, said that police have taken him to a secret location and told him
he cannot return home following a death threat from al-Qaida in Iraq.
(AP, 9/17/07)
2007 Sep 17, Ukrainian officials
signed a $505 million contract with a French-led consortium for
construction of a new shelter for the Chernobyl reactor, the site of
the word's worst nuclear accident.
(AP, 9/17/07)
2007 Sep 17, President Hugo Chavez
threatened to take over any private schools refusing to submit to the
oversight of his socialist government, a move some Venezuelans fear
will impose leftist ideology in the classroom.
(AP, 9/17/07)
2008 Sep 17, The Bush
administration released $100 million in disaster relief to West coast
salmon fisherman, $70 million less that was approved by Congress. About
$63 million will go to California, $25 million to Oregon and $12
million to Washington state.
(SFC, 9/18/08, p.A8)
2008 Sep 17, US federal
prosecutors unsealed charges against alleged members of a global
network procuring potentially sensitive electronic components for Iran.
8 companies and 8 people, including Iranian, Malaysian and British
nationals were charged with violating a US embargo the restricts
certain goods to Iran.
(WSJ, 9/18/08, p.A10)
2008 Sep 17, The US Coast Guard
intercepted a submarine-like vessel carrying 7 tons of cocaine about
400 miles south of the Mexico-Guatemala border. The Coast Guard sank
the vessel after determining it was too unstable to be towed to port.
(AP, 9/20/08)
2008 Sep 17, The US non-profit “Do
Something” group launched an IPO to raise $8 million. The 15-year-old
organization promoted volunteerism among American teenagers.
(Econ, 9/13/08, p.72)
2008 Sep 17, Gold prices rose $70
to close at $850.50, its biggest one-day price jump ever.
(SFC, 9/18/08, p.C3)
2008 Sep 17, In SF the large “Wall
Drawing #935” and “Wall Drawing #936,” conceived by Sol LeWitt
(1928-2007) and painted by his assistants in 1999, were painted over at
the SF Museum of Modern Art. The museum retained the sole right for
their reproduction.
(SFC, 9/19/08, p.E1)
2008 Sep 17, Philip Morris
International said that it succeeded in its tender offer to acquire
Canada's No. 2 cigarette maker Rothmans Inc.
(AP, 9/17/08)
2008 Sep 17, A roadside blast in
eastern Afghanistan killed four US coalition soldiers and an Afghan. In
Kabul US Defense Secretary Robert Gates expressed "personal regret" for
recent US airstrikes that killed Afghan civilians, and pledged more
accurate targeting in future. French Defense Minister Herve Morin said
years of under-investment in defense by European countries was to blame
for a critical shortage of international forces in Afghanistan.
(AFP, 9/17/08)
2008 Sep 17, Barclays PLC said it
may pick up some of Lehman Brothers assets and employees in Europe and
Asia, on top of the British bank's deal to acquire key U.S. operations
from the failed investment bank.
(AP, 9/17/08)
2008 Sep 17, A packed "Bird's
Nest" National stadium witnessed the formal end of the Beijing
Paralympic Games, bringing down the curtain on a glittering 12-day
sports extravaganza.
(AP, 9/17/08)
2008 Sep 17, A German court
convicted 3 Turkish men of siphoning $25 million from the Deniz Feneri
charity, which raised fund to ostensibly help needy Muslims.
(Econ, 9/20/08, p.69)
2008 Sep 17, In northern Lebanon a
gunfight between two rival Christian groups has left two people dead
and three wounded.
(AP, 9/17/08)
2008 Sep 17, A second riot in
three days at an infamous Tijuana prison left close to 2 dozen people
dead and 12 injured. 2 American inmates were among the dead. Inmates at
La Mesa prison rioted again because they have not been given food or
water since Sep 14, when a separate riot led to the deaths of at least
three inmates.
(AP, 9/18/08)(AP, 9/19/08)
2008 Sep 17, Armed Nigerian
militants, who have declared an "oil war" in the restive south of the
country, claimed to have blown up a major pipeline in their latest
attack on oil installations in the region. A spokesman for Nigeria's
state oil company said that militant attacks are now cutting the
country's daily oil production by about 1 million barrels a day, 40
percent of what the country produced before the militant campaign began
three years ago.
(AP, 9/17/08)
2008 Sep 17, A CIA missile
strike in South Waziristan killed 6 people as US Adm. Mike Mullen
assured Pakistan’s leaders that the US respects Pakistan’s sovereignty.
(SFC, 9/19/08, p.A6)
2008 Sep 17, Russian President
Dmitry Medvedev signed friendship treaties with Georgia's breakaway
regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia and promised them the backing of
Russia's armed forces.
(AP, 9/17/08)
2008 Sep 17, Thai lawmakers turned
to Somchai Wongsawat, the brother-in-law of deposed leader Thaksin
Shinawatra, to be the new prime minister, setting up a showdown with
protesters determined to tear down his political legacy.
(AP, 9/17/08)
2008 Sep 17, Ukrainian PM Yulia
Tymoshenko said she would not resign as required following the collapse
of the country's ruling pro-Western coalition.
(AFP, 9/17/08)
2008 Sep 17, Suspected militants
armed with automatic weapons, rocket-propelled grenades and at least
one suicide car bomb assaulted the US Embassy in the Yemeni capital.
The coordinated attack killed 17 people, including six assailants. The
dead included Susan Elbaneh (18), a US citizen from Lackawanna, N.Y.,
who was recently wed in Yemen in an arranged marriage, along with her
Yemeni husband as they stood outside the embassy.
(AP, 9/17/08)(AP, 9/18/08)(AP, 9/19/08)
2008 Sep 17, In Zimbabwe a
government-controlled newspaper said key aspects of the new
power-sharing deal won't go in effect until next month, adding to
concerns that President Robert Mugabe's agreement to cede some power
for the first time in 28 years will founder.
(AP, 9/17/08)
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