Today in History - September 18
Return to home
31CE Sep 18,
Sejanus, Roman head of praetorian guard, was executed.
(MC, 9/18/01)
53CE Sep 18, Marcus Trajanus
(d.117), 13th Roman emperor (Trajan's Arch) (98-117), was born at
Italica near Seville, Spain.
(http://www.wordiq.com/definition/Trajan)
96CE Sep 18, Domitian, Roman
emperor, died. He was murdered and was succeeded by Nerva.
(V.D.-H.K.p.83)(MC, 9/18/01)
1426 Sep 18, Hubert [Huybrecht]
van Eyck, painter, died.
(MC, 9/18/01)
1437 Sep 18, Farmers revolted in
Transylvania (later Rumania).
(MC, 9/18/01)
1502 Sep 18, Christopher Columbus
landed at Costa Rica during his 4th and last voyage. Columbus
left 52 Jewish families in Costa Rica.
(MC, 9/18/01)(WSJ, 6/15/00, p.A1)
1544 Sep 18, English King Henry
VIII's troops occupied Boulogne, France. [see Sep 14]
(MC, 9/18/01)
1598 Sep 18, Toyotomi Hideyoshi
(b.1536), Japan’s unifier and folk hero, died. His death left two main
rivals for power, Ishida Mitsunari and Tokugawa Ieyasu.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toyotomi_Hideyoshi)
1634 Sep 18, Anne Hutchinson, the
first female religious leader in American colonies, arrived at the
Massachusetts Bay Colony with her family. She preached that faith alone
was sufficient for salvation. As her following grew, she was brought to
trial and found guilty of heresy against Puritan orthodoxy and banished
from Massachusetts. She left with 70 followers to Providence, Rhode
Island, Roger Williams's colony based on religious freedom.
(MC, 9/18/01)
1636 Sep 18, Pietro Sanmartini,
composer, was born.
(MC, 9/18/01)
1679 Sep 18, New Hampshire became
a county Massachusetts Bay Colony.
(MC, 9/18/01)
1709 Sep 18, Samuel Johnson,
English lexicographer, essayist, poet and moralist best known for "The
Dictionary of the English Language," was born.
(HN, 9/18/98)
1739 Sep 18, Turkey and Austria
signed peace treaty-Austria ceding Belgrade to Turks.
(MC, 9/18/01)
1752 Sep 18, Adrien-Marie
Lagendre, mathematician, worked on elliptic integrals, was born.
(MC, 9/18/01)
1755 Sep 18, Ft. Ticonderoga
opened in NY.
(MC, 9/18/01)
1758 Sep 18, James Abercromby was
replaced as supreme commander of British forces after his defeat by
French commander, the Marquis of Montcalm, at Fort Ticonderoga during
the French and Indian War.
(HN, 9/18/98)
1759 Sep 18, Quebec surrendered to
the British and the Battle of Quebec ended. The French surrendered to
the British after their defeat on the Plains of Abraham.
(AP, 9/18/97)(HN, 9/18/98)
1759 Sep 18, British commander
James Wolfe died at the Battle of Quebec.
(MC, 9/18/01)
1769 Sep 18, John Harris built the
1st spinet piano in the US.
(MC, 9/18/01)
1789 Sep 18, The 1st loan was made
to pay salaries of the US president & Congress. [see Sep 13]
(MC, 9/18/01)
1793 Sep 18, President George
Washington laid the foundation stone for the U.S. Capitol on Jenkins
Hill.
(AP, 9/18/97)(SFC, 7/18/98, p.A15)(HN, 9/18/98)
1809 Sep 18, The London Royal
Opera House opened.
(MC, 9/18/01)
1810 Sep 18, Chile declared its
independence from Spain (National Day). Bernardo O’Higgins helped lead
Chile to independence.
(AP, 9/18/97)(SFEC, 10/27/96, p.T9)
1812 Sep 18, A fire in Moscow (set
by Napoleon's troops) destroyed 90% of houses and 1,000 churches. [see
Sep 14]
(MC, 9/18/01)
1819 Sep 18, Leon Foucault, French
physicist, was born. [see Sep 17]
(HN, 9/18/00)
1827 Sep 18, John Towsend
Trowbridge, poet and author of books for boys, who wrote the Jack
Hazzard and Toby Trafford series, was born.
(HN, 9/18/98)
1830 Sep 18, Tom Thumb" the first
locomotive built in the United States, lost a nine-mile race in
Maryland to a horse. [see Aug 25]
(HN, 9/18/98)
1830 Sep 18, William Hazlitt
(b.1778), in his time England’s finest essayist, died. "A nickname is
the heaviest stone that the devil can throw at a man." In 2008 Duncan
Wu authored “William Hazlitt: The First Modern Man.”
(AP, 11/10/99)(WSJ, 1/16/09,
p.W10)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Hazlitt)
1839 Sep 18, John Aitken,
physician and meteorologist, was born.
(HN, 9/18/00)
1850 Sep 18, The US Congress
passed the second Fugitive Slave Bill into law (the first was enacted
in 1793) as part of Compromise of 1850. It allowed slave owners to
reclaim slaves who had escaped to other states. The Fugitive Slave Act
of 1850 set fines up to $1,000 for facilitating a slave’s flight. The
act authorized federal commissioners to receive a $10 fee if they
decided for a slaveholder, but only a $5 fee for deciding for a
fugitive.
(AP, 9/18/97)(HN, 9/18/98)(WSJ, 1/30/03, p.D8)(AH,
10/02, p.53)
1851 Sep 18, The first edition of
The New York Times was published as the New-York Daily Times. It was
founded by Henry J. Raymond, Republican Speaker of the NY State
Assembly, and banker George Jones as a conservative counterpoint to
Horace Greeley's Tribune.
(AP, 9/18/97)(SFEM, 1/16/00,
p.17)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_York_Times)
1858 Sep 18, Abraham Lincoln and
Stephen A. Douglas held the fourth of their senatorial debates, this
one in Charleston, Ill.
(AP, 9/18/08)
1862 Sep 18, After waiting all day
for a Union attack which never came at Antietam, Confederate General
Robert E. Lee began a retreat out of Maryland and back to Virginia. At
Antietam, George McClellan and his 'bodyguard' dawdled throughout a
long 'Fatal Thursday.'
(HN, 9/18/98)
1863 Sep 18, Union cavalry troops
clashed with a group of Confederates at Chickamauga Creek.
(HN, 9/18/99)
1864 Sep 18, Battle of Martinsburg
WV.
(MC, 9/18/01)
1881 Sep 18, The Chicago Tribune
reported on a televideo experiment.
(MC, 9/18/01)
1874 Sep 18, The Nebraska Relief
and Aid Society was formed to help farmers whose crops were destroyed
by grasshoppers swarming throughout the American West. [see 1875]
(HN, 9/18/98)
1888 Sep 18, Start of Sherlock
Holmes adventure "Sign of Four."
(MC, 9/18/01)
1891 Sep 18, Harriet Maxwell
Converse was 1st white woman to become an Indian chief (her Indian name
was Ga-is-wa-noh: the Watcher). She devoted herself to the study and
preservation of Native American culture, was a staunch defender of
Indian property rights during the 1880s.
(MC, 9/18/01)
1892 Sep 18, At Spithaead,
England, verdicts and sentences were announced for the 10 prisoners
from the mutiny on the Bounty. 4 men were acquitted, and 6 were found
guilty and condemned to death. 2 of the condemned were pardoned and
another was freed on a technicality. 3 were later hanged.
(ON, 3/04, p.9)
1895 Sep 18, John G. Diefenbaker,
conservative prime minister (13th) of Canada from 1957 to 1963, was
born in Neustadt, Ontario.
(HN, 9/18/98)(MC, 9/18/01)
1895 Sep 18, D.D. Palmer of
Davenport, Iowa, founded the 1st "college" of chiropractic near a duck
farm in Iowa.
(MC, 9/18/01)
1895 Sep 18, The Montana State
Capital Site Commission received the four property deeds from developer
Peter Winne for the new seat of government in Helena.
(HIR, 9/11/97, p.5A)
1897 Sep 18, Alberto Santos-Dumont
crashed his 1st dirigible into trees at the Zoological Gardens in Paris.
(ON, 3/03, p.10)
1905 Sep 18, Eddie "Rochester"
Anderson, Oakland California, actor (Jack Benny Show), was born.
(MC, 9/18/01)
1905 Sep 18, Greta Garbo (d.1990),
actress nominated for Oscars for her roles in "Anna Christie" and
"Ninotchka," was born in Stockholm.
(HN, 9/18/98)(MC, 9/18/01)
1911 Sep 18, Russian Premier Piotr
Stolypin (b.1862) died four days after being shot at the Kiev opera
house by socialist lawyer Dimitri Bogroff. As governor of the Saratov
province, Stolypin ruthlessly suppressed local peasant uprisings, and
helped to squelch the revolutionary upheavals of 1905.
(HN,
9/18/98)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pyotr_Stolypin)
1914 Sep 18, Battle of Aisne ended
with Germans beating the French during WW I.
(MC, 9/18/01)
1914 Sep 18, Gen. von Hindenburg
was named commander of German armies on the Eastern Front.
(MC, 9/18/01)
1914 Sep 18, The Irish Home Rule
Bill became law, but was delayed until after World War I. The
Government of Ireland Act became law. It was an act by the British
government to take effect at the end of World War I.
(WSJ,3/13/95, p.A-15)(HN, 9/18/98)
1918 Sep 18, Nelson Mandela, later
pres. of South Africa, was born. [see Jun 11, Jul 18]
(MC, 9/18/01)
1921 Sep 18, John Glenn,
astronaut, was born. [see Jul 18]
(MC, 9/18/01)
1927 Sep 18, The Columbia
Phonograph Broadcasting System (later CBS) made its debut with a basic
network of 16 radio stations.
(AP, 9/18/97)
1929 Sep 18, Preston Sturges'
"Strictly Dishonorable," premiered in NYC.
(MC, 9/18/01)
1929 Sep 18, Charles Lindbergh
took off on a 10,000 mile air tour of South America. B.F. Mahoney was
the 'mystery man' behind the Ryan company that built Lindbergh's Spirit
of St. Louis.
(HN, 9/18/98)
1931 Sep 18-1931 Sep 19, The
Mukden Incident was initiated by the Japanese Kwangtung Army in Mukden.
It involved an explosion along the Japanese-controlled South Manchurian
Railway. It was soon followed by the Japanese invasion of Manchuria and
the eventual establishment of the Japanese-dominated state of
Manchukuo. The neutrality of the area, and the ability of Japan to
defend its colony in Korea, was threatened in the 1920s by efforts at
unification of China. Within three months Japanese troops had spread
out throughout Manchuria. The occupation ended at the conclusion of the
Second World War in 1945.
(HNQ, 11/27/98)
1934 Sep 18, The League of Nations
admitted the Soviet Union. Joseph Avenol, secretary-general of the
League of Nations, sold out the organization he had sworn to uphold.
(WUD, 1994, p.424,1682)(HN, 9/18/98)
1940 Sep 18, Harper and Brothers
published "You Can't Go Home Again" by Thomas Wolfe.
(AP, 9/18/98)
1940 Sep 18, 19 German aircraft
were shot down above England.
(MC, 9/18/01)
1943 Sep 18, Hitler ordered the
deportation of Danish Jews (unsuccessful).
(MC, 9/18/01)
1944 Sep 18, British submarine
Tradewind torpedoed Junyo Maru: 5,600 killed. Tradewind, a twin-screw
Triton-class boat of the Royal Navy, attacked the Japanese merchant
ship Junyo Maru, killing an estimated 4,320 people--around 1,700
Western POWs, 500 Indonesian prisoners and thousands of Japanese slave
laborers. Tradewind’s captain, Lt. Cmdr. S.L.C. Maydon, wasn’t aware
until many years later that the ship he had sunk had been carrying
human cargo, including thousands of his own, and Allied, troops.
(MC, 9/18/01)(HNQ, 3/7/02)
1945 Sep 18, 1000 white children
walked out of Gary, Indiana, schools to protest integration.
(MC, 9/18/01)
1946 Sep 18, Dr. Robert Shiurba,
renowned scientist and Cafe Babar denizen, was born in Sacramento.
(AR, 9/20/98)
1947 Sep 18, The National Security
Act went into effect. It created a Cabinet secretary of defense and
unified the Army, Navy and newly formed Air Force into a National
Military Establishment. The US Air Force was carved out of the old Army
Air Corps. The act established the National Security Council and the
Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).
(HFA, ‘96, p.38)(AP, 9/18/97)(SFC, 9/17/97,
p.A3)(SSFC, 6/9/02, p.A4)
1948 Sep 18, Margaret Chase Smith
became the first woman elected to the Senate without completing another
senator's term when she defeated Democratic opponent Adrian Scolten.
Smith was also the only woman to be elected to and serve in both houses
of Congress.
(HN, 9/18/98)
1948 Sep 18, Ralph J. Bunche was
confirmed as acting UN mediator in Palestine.
(MC, 9/18/01)
1949 Sep 18, Frank Morgan, actor
(Annie Get Your Gun, Wizard of Oz), died at 59.
(MC, 9/18/01)
1951 Sep 18, Dr. Benjamin Solomon
Carson, Sr., African-American neurosurgeon, was born.
(HN, 9/18/98)
1957 Sep 18, "Wagon Train"
premiered.
(MC, 9/18/01)
1960 Sep 18, Two thousand cheered
Castro's arrival in New York for the United Nations session.
(HN, 9/18/98)
1961 Sep 18, Dag Hammarskjold,
Secretary-General of the UN, was killed in a plane crash in Northern
Rhodesia (now Zambia). He was flying to negotiate a cease-fire in the
Congo. Hammarskjold was the son of a former Swedish prime minister. In
1953, he was elected to the top UN post and in 1957 was reelected.
During his second term, he initiated and directed the United Nation's
vigorous role in the Belgian Congo. Hammarskjold had sent Conor O’Brien
(1919-2008), an Irish diplomat, to the Congo where a rebellion was
openly being backed by Belgium and secretly by Britain and France.
O’Brien ordered in UN troops, but the mission ended in disarray and the
UN repudiated the mission. O’Brien recounted his version of the events
in his book “To Katanga and Back” (1962).
(TMC, 1994, p.1961)(WUD, 1994, p.1684)(AP,
9/18/97)(SSFC, 12/21/08, p.B6)
1963 Sep 18, "The Patty Duke Show"
premiered on ABC television.
(AP, 9/18/03)
1963 Sep 18, The USSR ordered 58.5
million barrels of cereal from Australia.
(MC, 9/18/01)
1964 Sep 18, U.S. destroyers fired
on hostile targets in Vietnam.
(HN, 9/18/98)
1964 Sep 18, Sean O'Casey, Irish
playwright (Playboy of Western World), died at 84.
(MC, 9/18/01)
1965 Sep 18, The NBC situation
comedies "I Dream of Jeannie" and "Get Smart" premiered.
(AP, 9/18/05)
1968 Sep 18, The film "Funny Girl"
with Barbra Streisand premiered in NYC.
(http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0062994/releaseinfo)
1970 Sep 18, Jimi Hendrix (27),
rock star guitarist, died in London of drug overdose. Hendrix had
performed briefly as an opening act for the Monkeys as well as behind
the Isley Brothers and Little Richard. In 1978 David Henderson authored
the biography “Scuse me While I Kiss the Sky.” In 2005 Charles R. Cross
authored “Room Full of Mirrors: A Biography of Jimi Hendrix.”
(WSJ, 1/9/97, p.A8)(AP, 9/18/97)(WSJ, 4/16/99,
p.W13C)(SSFC, 8/21/05, p.F1)
1972 Sep 18, Thousands of Gujarati
Indians began arriving in Britain following their expulsion from Uganda
by Dictator Idi Amin. Deprived of its business class the nation soon
plummeted into economic chaos.
(http://tinyurl.com/2lm7n5)(SFC, 8/16/03, p.A21)
1973 Sep 18, Sondheim’s "A Little
Night Music" moved to the Majestic Theater on Broadway.
(www.sondheimguide.com/night.html)
1973 Sep 18, Australia abolished
the death penalty.
(SFC, 1/9/02, p.A8)(http://tinyurl.com/6bbah5)
1974 Sep 18, Hurricane Fifi struck
Honduras with 110 mph winds and killed about 8,000. The hurricane made
landfall as a Category 2 storm in Belize on the next day, and continued
through Guatemala and Mexico as a tropical system. After weakening to a
depression, Fifi emerged into the Pacific Ocean, becoming the first
crossover storm since Hurricane Irene-Olivia in 1971.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hurricane_Fifi-Orlene)
1975 Sep 18, Police and FBI
arrested SLA members Patty Hearst, William and Emily Harris, Steven
Soliah and Wendy Yoshimura in SF. James Kilgore disappeared and later
surfaced a Univ. of Cape Town Prof. Charles William Pape. He was
arrested in 2002. Hearst was convicted of bank robbery and served over
22 months in federal prison. Pres. Carter commuted her sentence in
1979. Kathleen Ann Soliah remained a fugitive until 1999 when she was
picked up in St. Paul, Minn., under the name of Sara Jane Olson. She
was wanted for placing 2 pipe bombs under police cars in LA.
(SFEC, 3/1/98, p.W23)(SFC, 2/4/99, p.A8)(SFC,
6/17/99, p.A1)(SFC, 5/11/09, p.B2)
1975 Sep 18, Fairfield Porter
(b.1907), American artist, died. Much of his work was done along the
Maine coastline.
(WSJ, 9/4/03,
p.D8)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fairfield_Porter)
1976 Sep 18, Rev. Sun Myung Moon
(b.1920) held a "God Bless America" convention.
(www.reverendsunmyungmoon.org/life_biography.html)
1977 Sep 18, Cosmos, a Soviet
nuclear-powered satellite, was launched. It fell onto Northern Canada
on Jan. 24, 1978.
(SSFC, 3/18/01, p.A1)
1979 Sep 18, The Who played the
5th of their 5 concerts at Madison Square Garden.
(www.thewholive.de/konzerte/zeige_konzert.php?GroupID=1&Status=0&Jahr=1979)
1979 Sep 18, Bolshoi Ballet
dancers Leonid & Valentina Kozlov defected to the US.
(http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1083/is_9_73/ai_55739021)
1980 Sep 18, Cosmonaut Arnoldo
Tamayo, a Cuban, became the first black to be sent on a mission in
space.
(HN, 9/18/98)
1980 Sep 18, Katherine A. Porter
(b.1890), US author (Ship of Fools) and Pulitzer Prize winner (1966),
died.
(www.millikin.edu/aci/crow/chronology/porterbio.html)
1981 Sep 18, The $11 million
Gerald R. Ford Presidential Museum was dedicated in Grand Rapids, Mich.
(SFEC, 5/11/97, p.T8)(AP, 9/18/01)
1981 Sep 18, The French National
Assembly voted to abolish the death penalty. This in effect outlawed
execution by the guillotine.
(SFEC, 2/9/97, Z1
p.6)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capital_punishment_in_France)
1987 Sep 18, US President Reagan
announced that he and Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev would meet
later in the year to sign a treaty banning medium and shorter-range
nuclear missiles.
(AP, 9/18/97)
1987 Sep 18, The movie "Fatal
Attraction," starring Michael Douglas and Glenn Close, opened in US
theaters.
(AP, 9/18/07)
1988 Sep 18, The Soviet Union won
the first gold medal of the Summer Olympics in Seoul, South Korea, in
the women's air rifle event, while U.S. divers picked up silver and
bronze medals in women's platform.
(AP, 9/18/98)
1988 Sep 18, In Burma Gen’l.
Saw Maung (d.1997 at 69) became chairman of a military junta, called
The State Law and Order Restoration Council (SLORC). He had been the
army chief of staff and defense minister before leading the coup. The
junta took power and put under house arrest Aung San Suu Kyi, the
elected president. After years of economic distress the junta released
Aung San in 1995 in hopes of gaining foreign economic aid. The junta
announced that Burma would henceforth be called Myanmar, and the
capital, Rangoon, Yangon.
(SFC, 6/30/96, A11)(SFC, 7/25/97,
p.A18)(www.burmawatch.org/aboutburma.html)
1989 Sep 18, Hurricane Hugo
reached Puerto Rico, causing extensive damage as it continued to barrel
toward the U.S. mainland.
(AP, 9/18/97)
1990 Sep 18, The city of Atlanta
was named the site of the 1996 Summer Olympics.
(AP, 9/18/97)
1990 Sep 18, Former
savings-and-loan chief executive Charles H. Keating was jailed in
Los Angeles in lieu of $5 million bail after he was indicted on
criminal fraud charges.
(AP, 9/18/00)
1991 Sep 18, Saying he was "pretty
fed up," President Bush said he would send warplanes to escort U.N.
helicopters searching for hidden Iraqi weapons if Iraqi President
Saddam Hussein continued to impede weapons inspectors.
(AP, 9/18/01)
1991 Sep 18, The Upper Atmosphere
Research Satellite was deployed from the space shuttle Discovery. It
measured the ozone hole for the next decade. Operations of the
satellite ceased in 2001 due to NASA economics. The space shuttle
Discovery landed in California, ending a five-day mission.
(SFC, 8/24/01, p.A13)(AP, 9/18/01)
1992 Sep 18, Ross Perot's name was
submitted for the 50th state ballot -- Arizona -- on the same day that
Perot hinted on NBC's "Today" show that he might throw his hat into the
presidential ring, after all.
(AP, 9/18/97)
1993 Sep 18, Kimberly Clarice
Aiken of South Carolina was crowned Miss America at the pageant in
Atlantic City, N.J.
(AP, 9/18/98)
1994 Sep 18, Ken Burn's "Baseball"
premiered on PBS.
(www.npr.org/programs/npc/2002/020918.kburns.html)
1994 Sep 18, Tennis star Vitas
Gerulaitis, 40, was found dead in the guest cottage of a friend's home
in Southampton, N.Y., of accidental carbon monoxide poisoning.
(AP, 9/18/04)
1994 Sep 18, Haiti's military
leaders agreed to an Oct. 15 departure deadline, thereby averting a
U.S.-led invasion to force them from power.
(AP, 9/18/04)
1995 Sep 18, President Clinton
began a five-day re-election campaign fund-raising tour that got off to
a rocky start after a deal to convert the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard
to civilian use collapsed at the last minute.
(AP, 9/18/00)
1995 Sep 18, In Hong Kong
pro-democracy candidates won a sweeping victory in the last legislative
election under British rule. Democrats took 70% of the direct vote.
China vowed to disband the legislature.
(SFEC, 6/22/97, p.A14)(SFC, 7/1/97, p.A8)
1996 Sep 18, Republican
presidential nominee Bob Dole fell off a stage during a campaign rally
in Chico, Calif., after a railing gave way; he was not seriously hurt.
(AP, 9/18/97)
1996 Sep 18, The O.J. Simpson
civil trial opened in Santa Monica, Calif.
(AP, 9/18/97)
1996 Sep 18, The Food and Drug
Administration declared the French abortion pill RU-486 safe and
effective, but withheld final approval until later. The pill would be
taken with the drug misoprostol, which was already approved for other
purposes.
(SFC, 9/19/96, p.A1)(AP, 9/18/97)
1996 Sep 18, In France Maurice
Papon, a member of the Vichy government of WW II, was declared eligible
for trial for his role in arresting and deporting 1,690 Jews during WW
II.
(SFC, 9/19/96, p.A10)
1996 Sep 18, In Guatemala 2
generals and 16 officials were fired in a probe of black-market
corruption.
(SFC, 9/19/96, p.A10)
1996 Sep 18, A North Korean
submarine went aground off the coast of South Korea. The bodies of 11
crewmen were found dead nearby. Another 8-9 men were still at large.
Seven more were found the next day and shot to death.
(SFC, 9/19/96, p.A8)(SFC, 9/20/96, p.A14)
1996 Sep 18, Photos taken of Mars
that indicated a huge dust storm near the north pole that was active
for months.
(SFC, 11/5/96, p.A4)
1997 Sep 18, Coopers & Lybrand
and Price Waterhouse agreed to merge to create the world's biggest
accounting firm.
(AP, 9/18/98)
1997 Sep 18, Media mogul Ted
Turner pledged to give the United Nations $1 billion over the next ten
years.
(SFC, 9/19/97, p.A1)(AP, 9/18/98)
1997 Sep 18, In Albania a
Socialist lawmaker shot and wounded a rival from the opposition
Democrats inside the parliament building.
(WSJ, 9/19/97, p.A1)
1997 Sep 18, In Bosnia a car bomb
in Mostar injured about 50 people and destroyed 56, apartments, 9
businesses and 44 cars.
(SFC, 9/20/97, p.A10)
1997 Sep 18, In Egypt two gunmen
killed 10 people in Cairo’s Tahrir Square in front of the Egyptian
Museum. Of the dead were nine German tourists and a bus driver and a
dozen more were wounded as the tour bus was set afire. Saber and
Mahmoud Abu el-Ulla, a former inmate of a mental hospital and his
brother, were caught, convicted and sentenced to death.
(SFC, 9/19/97, p.A12)(SFC,10/31/97, p.D3)(AP,
9/18/98)
1997 Sep 18, In Norway an
explosion at a Russian-operated coal mine in the Svalbard islands
killed 23 Russian and Ukrainian workers.
(SFC, 9/19/97, p.A14)
1997 Sep 18, In Wales voters
narrowly approved a referendum for partial self-government with 50.3%
of the vote in which only 50% of the voters took part.
(SFC, 9/19/97, p.A12)(AP, 9/18/98)
1998 Sep 18, The House Judiciary
Committee voted to release the video tape of Pres. Clinton’s grand jury
testimony along with 2,800 pages of sexually explicit testimony.
(SFC, 9/19/98, p.A1)
1998 Sep 18, A Clinton advisory
board on race relations issued its $4.8 million, 121 page report: "One
America in the 21st Century: Forging a new Future." Its recommendations
included a call for a permanent White House panel on race relations.
(SFC, 9/19/98, p.A3)
1998 Sep 18, A federal judge in
San Jose awarded the Church of Scientology a $3 million settlement
against Grady Ward for publishing secret scriptures on the Internet.
Grady would not have to pay the full fine if he refrains from
publishing church secrets and pays the church $200 per month for the
rest of his life.
(SFC, 9/19/98, p.A23)
1998 Sep 18, Mark McGwire hit his
64th home run of the season, pulling out of a tie with Sammy Sosa.
(AP, 9/18/03)
1998 Sep 18, In Algeria a bomb
exploded in a market in Tiaret and killed 22. Another 30 people were
wounded in the blast.
(SFC, 9/19/98, p.C16)
1998 Sep 18, In Bangladesh Muslim
militants called for the death of Taslima Nasrin, a writer who
suggested that the Koran be rewritten. Her novel "Lajja" (Shame)
criticized Muslims for attacking minority Hindus after the 1992 mosque
destruction in India.
(SFC, 9/19/98, p.C16)
1998 Sep 18, The ozone hole over
Antarctica reached 10.5 million sq. miles, its largest size ever. It
opened to 2 1/2 times the size of Europe. It was feared that
ultraviolet radiation would impact the marine food chain.
(SFC, 10/2/98, p.B3)(SFC, 11/23/98, p.A10)
1998 Sep 18, The worst storm in a
century hit the Netherlands and Belgium over the past week.
(SFC, 9/19/98, p.A5)
1998 Sep 18, In Israel Hamas
supporters clashed with Israeli police during a rally for the Awadallah
brothers. 32 Palestinians were injured and the borders with the West
Bank and Gaza were again sealed.
(SFC, 9/19/98, p.A12)
1998 Sep 18, In Italy the TV
dubbers agreed to end their 2-month strike.
(SFC, 9/19/98, p.C16)
1998 Sep 18, Japanese leaders
agreed to a plan to take over some of the biggest and weakest banks and
to use taxpayer money to dispose of some $606 billion in bad loans.
(SFC, 9/19/98, p.A12)
1998 Sep 18, In Nigeria
authorities dropped charges against Nobel Prize winner Wole Soyinka and
14 others. Gen’l. Abubakar had asked that the charges be dropped and
said that he was seeking a national reconciliation.
(SFC, 9/19/98, p.C16)
1998 Sep 18, In the Philippines
the Princess of the Orient passenger ship sank south of Manila near
Fortune Island with 443 people on board. There were 311 confirmed
survivors. The sinking was blamed on a shift in cargo in heavy seas.
Rescue efforts continued off the Philippines for the Princess of the
Orient, a ferry which had sunk in a storm, leaving at least 70 people
dead and 80 others missing.
(SFC, 9/19/98, p.A14)(SFEC, 9/20/98, p.A19)(WSJ,
9/21/98, p.A1)(AP, 9/18/08)
1998 Sep 18, Russia began using
bank reserves to help pay bank debts and pump new money into the
economy. Inflation was already running at 40% for the month.
(SFC, 9/19/98, p.C16)
1998 Sep 18, A secret, 269 page
Swiss report asserted that Raul Salinas assumed control of practically
all drug shipments in Mexico in 1988 when his brother became president.
(SFC, 9/19/98, p.A12)
1998 Sep 18, Uganda’s government
closed the Int’l. Credit Bank due to activities "detrimental to the
interests of depositors."
(WSJ, 9/21/98, p.A22)
1999 Sep 18, The 79th annual Miss
America Pageant was held in Atlantic City. Heather Renee French (24), a
graduated design student from Maysville, Ky., was the winner.
(SFC, 9/17/99, p.D3)(SFC, 9/20/99, p.A7)
1999 Sep 18, Sammy Sosa of the
Chicago Cubs hit his 60th homerun and became the 1st major leaguer to
hit 60 in 2 different seasons.
(WSJ, 9/20/99, p.A1)
1999 Sep 18, A multinational fleet
sailed toward East Timor, the vanguard of a U-N-approved force assigned
to bring order to the bloodied Indonesian province.
(AP, 9/18/00)
1999 Sep 18, In India poll
violence left 44 people dead.
(WSJ, 9/20/99, p.A1)
1999 Sep 18, Indonesian troops
prepared to leave East Timor as a multinational force steamed in.
(SFEC, 9/19/99, p.A17)
1999 Sep 18, In Kosovo the KLA
rejected a NATO plan to transform it into a small civil defense groups
one day before the deadline for demobilization.
(SFEC, 9/19/99, p.A20)
1999 Sep 18, Russian forces
attacked rebel targets in Chechnya to prevent guerrilla raids in
Dagestan.
(SFEC, 9/19/99, p.A1)
1999 Sep 18, In Sri Lanka over 50
Sinhalese villagers were massacred by female-led Tamil rebels.
(SFC, 9/29/99, p.A10)(SFC, 3/11/00, p.A10)
2000 Sep 18, The first working day
of a transit strike that began over the weekend forced nearly a
half-million Southern California commuters to scrounge for rides or get
behind the wheel themselves.
(AP, 9/18/01)
2000 Sep 18, It was reported that
scientists at Lawrence Berkeley National Lab had fashioned the smallest
transistor using a buckyball, single molecule of carbon-60.
(SFC, 9/18/00, p.A6)
2000 Sep 18, In Argentina 2 men,
suspected in the assassination of Paraguayan Vice Pres. Luis Maria
Argana, escaped from jail.
(SFC, 9/19/00, p.A10)
2000 Sep 18, In Colombia gunmen
released 23 captives from as many as 80 in the highlands outside Cali.
(SFC, 9/19/00, p.A9)
2000 Sep 18, In Indonesia Gen.
Rusdihardjo, the national police chief, was fired by Pres. Wahid for
not arresting Tommy Suharto.
(SFC, 9/19/00, p.A9)
2000 Sep 18, In the Ivory Coast
loyalist soldiers drove back attackers in an assassination attempt on
Gen. Guei. 2 bodyguards were killed.
(SFC, 9/19/00, p.A10)
2000 Sep 18, In Jordan a military
tribunal sentenced 6 Muslim militants to death for planned terrorist
attacks against US and Israeli targets in Jordan. 4 of the 6 were at
large and tried in absentia.
(SFC, 9/19/00, p.A12)
2000 Sep 18, It was reported that
Kenya was losing 50,000 ebony trees annually due to the thriving
wood-carving industry. An estimated 80,000 carvers used the wood.
(SFC, 9/18/00, p.A8)
2000 Sep 18, Workers began
rebuilding a railway line between the capitals of North and South Korea.
(AP, 9/18/01)
2000 Sep 18, Somali gunmen freed 2
European aid workers.
(SFC, 9/19/00, p.A10)
2001 Sep 18, A week after the
Sept. 11 attacks, President George W. Bush said he hoped to "rally the
world" in the battle against terrorism and predicted that all "people
who love freedom" would join. Pres. Bush won a strong commitment from
French Pres. Jacques Chirac to fight terrorism.
(SFC, 9/19/01, p.A1)(AP, 9/18/02)
2001 Sep 18, The US asked Lebanon
and Syria to extradite Palestinian and Lebanese Shiites suspected of
terrorism in the past 20 years.
(WSJ, 9/19/01, p.A12)
2001 Sep 18, It was reported that
more than 4 planes may have been targeted by hijackers on Sep 11.
(SFC, 9/19/01, p.A1)
2001 Sep 18, James Ziegler, US
Immigration commissioner (INS), signed an order extending the time
detainees could be held in terrorist probes.
(SFC, 9/19/01, p.A7)
2001 Sep 18, Letters postmarked in
Trenton, N.J., and later tested positive for anthrax, were sent to the
New York Post and NBC anchorman Tom Brokaw.
(AP, 9/18/02)
2001 Sep 18, Analysts said the
terrorist attacks will trigger a full-blown recession and that the
economy would rebound in 2002.
(SFC, 9/19/01, p.D9)
2001 Sep 18, The new computer
worm, W32.Nimda, struck the Internet.
(SFC, 9/19/01, p.D1)
2001 Sep 18, The US airline
industry won assurances of billions of dollars in financial help from
the government. Charitable donations to victims of the terrorist
attacks topped $200 million. Boeing estimated that it would cut as many
as 30,000 workers by the end of the year.
(SFC, 9/19/01, p.A1)(WSJ, 9/19/01, p.A3)
2001 Sep 18, Boeing announced
plans to lay off up to 30,000 commercial airplane employees by the end
of 2002.
(AP, 9/18/06)
2001 Sep 18, The number of dead in
NYC was estimated at a probable 5,422 due to the Sep 11 terrorist
attack.
(WSJ, 9/19/01, p.A1)
2001 Sep 18, In Eritrea
authorities ordered all independent newspapers closed and arrested 6
former generals and Cabinet ministers in an apparent crackdown on
dissent.
(SFC, 9/19/01, p.B4)
2001 Sep 18, Pres. Yasser Arafat
declared "a cease-fire on all fronts" and Israel responded by
suspending military operations against Palestinian targets and
withdrawing from Palestinian-ruled areas.
(SFC, 9/19/01, p.B2)
2001 Sep 18, In Serbia a court
reported that 269 bodies had been removed from a mass grave at
Batajnica, 6 miles north of Belgrade. The bodies were suspected to be
ethnic Albanians killed in the 1998-1999 war in Kosovo.
(SFC, 9/19/01, p.B4)
2002 Sep 18, The Bush
administration pressed Congress to take the lead in authorizing force
against Iraq, with Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld asserting, "It
serves no U.S. or U.N. purpose to give Saddam Hussein excuses for
further delay."
(AP, 9/18/03)
2002 Sep 18, Bob Hayes (59),
former Olympic gold medal sprinter (1964) and Dallas Cowboy, died.
(WSJ, 9/20/02, p.A1)(NW, 9/30/02, p.15)
2002 Sep 18, A French appeals
court ordered wartime collaborator Maurice Papon freed, accepting his
lawyers' arguments that the 92-year-old is too sick to finish his
10-year sentence for helping send Jews to Nazi death camps.
(AP, 9/18/07)
2002 Sep 18, In Srinagar, Kashmir,
2 ruling party workers were gunned down and a ruling lawmaker was
attacked ahead of the second round of voting in a state election dogged
by anti-poll violence that left 13 people dead.
(Reuters, 9/18/02)(SFC, 9/19/02, p.A10)
2002 Sep 18, A Palestinian suicide
bomber blew himself up at a bus stop in the Arab-Israeli village of Umm
al-Fahm in northern Israel, wounding several people.
(AP, 9/18/02)
2002 Sep 18, Abu Salem, alleged
terrorist mastermind, Mafia boss and one of India's most wanted men,
was arrested in Portugal. Salem is accused by Indian police of being
involved in the country's worst bombing attack, which killed 257 people
in Bombay in 1993, as well as a string of murder and extortion cases.
(AP, 9/20/02)
2002 Sep 18, The World Bank
reported that the Vietnamese natural environment, which supports one of
the world's most biologically diverse ecosystems, has deteriorated
rapidly over the past 10 years.
(AP, 9/18/02)
2003 Sep 18, Hurricane Isabel
plowed into North Carolina's Outer Banks with 100 mile-an-hour winds
and pushed its way up the Eastern Seaboard; the storm was later blamed
for 30 deaths.
(AP, 9/18/08)
2003 Sep 18, Anti-virus companies
warned of a new computer worm circulating through e-mail that purports
to be security software from Microsoft Corp.
(Reuters, 9/18/03)
2003 Sep 18, In Afghanistan US
forces killed at least 11 Taliban in fighting over the last 3 days as
part of operation "Mountain Viper," which has been going on for more
than two weeks. US helicopters attacked a tent in southern Afghanistan,
killing two Taliban militants and 10 nomadic tribesmen after the
Taliban sought shelter there. Local Taliban commander, Mullah Mohammed
Gul Niazi, was among the dead.
(AP, 9/18/03)(AP, 9/20/03)
2003 Sep 18, In Afghanistan US
helicopter fire left 5 women and four children dead and six people
wounded in the Nuabahar district.
(AP, 9/25/03)
2003 Sep 18, A law against
"promotion" of homosexuality was removed from the British statute
books, after more than a decade of gay-rights protests.
(AP, 9/18/03)
2003 Sep 18, A human rights group
estimated that 11,000 children are fighting in Colombia's civil war.
(SFC, 9/19/03, p.A15)
2003 Sep 18, Iraqi guerrillas
ambushed an American patrol in Al Auja, Saddam Hussein's native
village, killing 3 US soldiers. The number of US killed since the start
of war in March reached 297.
(SFC, 9/19/03, p.A1)
2003 Sep 18, Genshin Fujinami
(44), a Japanese Buddhist monk of the Tendai sect, completed a 7-year,
24,800-mile spiritual journey to the Hiei mountains. 46 other marathon
monks have completed the journey since 1885. The ritual, believed to be
a path to enlightenment, dates to the 8th century.
(SFC, 9/20/03, p.A2)
2003 Sep 18, Nepal was shut down
in a 3-day strike imposed by Maoist rebels.
(WSJ, 9/19/03, p.A1)
2003 Sep 18, A Russian military
jet crashed in central Russia during a test flight and four crew
members are missing.
(AP, 9/18/03)
2003 Sep 18, Syria's new prime
minister formed a 31-member Cabinet, touted as a new effort to carry
out economic and bureaucratic reforms.
(AP, 9/18/03)
2003 Sep 18, Zimbabwe's high court
ordered the nation's only independent newspaper reopened. Police had
shut it down because it refused to get a government license.
(WSJ, 9/19/03, p.A1)
2004 Sep 18, Miss Alabama Deidre
Downs, an aspiring medical student, won the Miss America contest.
(AP, 9/19/04)
2004 Sep 17, Pop singer Britney
Spears married her fiance, dancer Kevin Federline, in a surprise
ceremony.
(AP, 9/18/05)
2004 Sep 18, Louisiana voters
overwhelmingly approved a state constitutional amendment banning
same-sex marriages and civil unions.
(AP, 9/19/04)
2004 Sep 18, The Economist
announced its annual prizes for technology innovators. Winners in 6
categories included: David Goeddel for gene cloning; Vic Hayes for
standardizing Wi-Fi networks; Linus Torvalds for the development of
Linux; Takeshi Uchiyamada for developing the Prius hybrid car; Gerd
Binnig, Heinrich Rohrer and Christoph Gerber for developing the
scanning-tunneling microscope (1981); and Muhammad Yunus for the
development of micro-credit.
(Econ, 9/18/04, TQ p.17)
2004 Sep 18, Russ Meyer (82),
producer-director who helped spawn the "skin flick" with such films as
"Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill!" (1966) and later gained a measure of
critical respect, died. In 2005 Jimmy McDonough authored “Big Bosoms,
Square Jaws: The Biography of Russ Meyer, King of Sex Films.
(AP, 9/22/04)(SFC, 9/22/04, p.A2)(SSFC, 7/10/05,
p.E1)
2004 Sep 17, Marvin Mitchelson
(76), Hollywood divorce lawyer, died in Beverly Hills, Calif.
(AP, 9/18/05)
2004 Sep 18, In Afghanistan 4
gunmen riding two motorcycles ambushed the car of a militia commander
in Helmand province, killing him and wounding two of his guards.
(AP, 9/18/04)
2004 Sep 18, Munich's mayor opened
the southern city's 171st Oktoberfest festival for a crowd of some
500,000.
(AP, 9/18/04)
2004 Sep 18, India said the US had
lifted export restrictions on equipment for India's commercial space
program and nuclear power facilities.
(AP, 9/18/04)
2004 Sep 18, Indian troops shot
dead 14 Islamic militants in clashes across Indian-administered
Kashmir, while suspected rebels killed four civilians.
(AP, 9/18/04)
2004 Sep 18, The UN atomic
watchdog agency demanded Iran suspend all uranium enrichment activities
and set a November timetable for compliance.
(AP, 9/18/04)
2004 Sep 18, Militants threatened
to decapitate two Americans and a Briton being held hostage unless
their demands were met within 48 hours. In Kirkuk a car bomb near a
crowd of recruits killed 19 people and wounded 67.
(AP, 9/18/04)(SSFC, 9/19/04, p.A1)
2004 Sep 18, Northern Ireland's
rival Protestant and Roman Catholic parties are being left to find
common ground on their own, after three days of intensive high-level
talks failed to come up with a deal to revive power-sharing government
in the province.
(AFP, 9/19/04)
2004 Sep 18, Moscow police
arrested Alexander Pumane, a former submarine officer, on suspicious
behaviour and found mines and explosives in his car. Pumane soon died
under interrogation.
(Econ, 10/23/04, p.52)
2004 Sep 18, A divided UN Security
Council approved a resolution threatening oil sanctions against Sudan
unless the government reins in Arab militias blamed for a killing spree
in Darfur and ordered an investigation of whether the attacks
constitute genocide.
(AP, 9/19/04)
2004 Sep 18, Ugandan helicopter
gunships and ground troops attacked a rebel hideout in southern Sudan,
killing at least 25 insurgents and capturing seven others.
(AP, 9/19/04)
2005 Sep 18, "Everybody Loves
Raymond" won the Emmy for best comedy in its final season; first-year
hit "Lost" was named best drama.
(AP, 9/18/06)
2005 Sep 18, Former US president
Bill Clinton sharply criticized George W. Bush for the Iraq War and the
handling of Hurricane Katrina, and voiced alarm at the swelling US
budget deficit.
(AP, 9/19/05)
2005 Sep 18, Tropical Storm Rita
formed southeast of the Florida Keys.
(AP, 9/18/06)
2005 Sep 18, Joel Hirschhorn (67),
songwriter, died. He shared 2 best theme Oscars with Al Kasha: one for
“The Morning After” from The Poseidon Adventure (1972); the other for
“We May Never Love Like This Again,” from the film “The Towering
Inferno” (1974).
(SFC, 9/21/05, p.B6)(www.imdb.com/title/tt0072308/)
2005 Sep 18, Afghans chose a
legislature for the first time in decades, embracing their newly
recovered democratic rights and braving threats of Taliban attacks to
cast votes in schools, tents and mosques. The turnout was reported to
be a disappointing 50%. 19 polling stations were attacked by Taliban
insurgents and a dozen people were killed. Women won seats in 13 of the
34 provinces.
(AP, 9/18/05)(WSJ, 9/23/05, p.A1)(Econ, 9/24/05,
p.17)(Econ, 10/22/05, p.46)
2005 Sep 18, Exit polls showed
conservative challenger Angela Merkel's party leading in German
parliamentary elections but falling short of the majority she needed to
form a center-right coalition as the nation's first female chancellor.
Merkel's bloc won the most votes in elections, but fell short of a
clear mandate to govern.
(AP, 9/18/05)(AP, 9/18/06)
2005 Sep 18, in Indonesia the main
zoo Jakarta was shut down after 19 of its birds died of the avian
influenza that has killed four people in the sprawling country.
(AP, 9/18/05)
2005 Sep 18, Iran said that it has
no plans to resume uranium enrichment soon but warned that it might
change its mind if the International Atomic Energy Agency asks the UN
Security Council to consider sanctions against the Islamic Republic.
(AP, 9/18/05)
2005 Sep 18, Iraq's parliament
signed off on revisions to the country's draft constitution as a
leading lawmaker declared that acceptance of the new charter was a
matter for the people.
(AP, 9/18/05)
2005 Sep 18, In Iraq police found
20 bodies shot to death and dumped in the Tigris River north of the
capital, where there was no major violence for the first time in five
days. 4 more were found handcuffed and shot in east Baghdad.
(AP, 9/18/05)
2005 Sep 18, Armed Shiite
militiamen from the outlawed Mahdi Army demonstrated in central Basra
after British soldiers arrested their local leader on charges of
terrorism. British forces confirmed they had arrested "three prominent
individuals".
(AP, 9/19/05)(Econ, 9/24/05, p.55)
2005 Sep 18, Fakher Haider (38),
an Iraqi journalist working for The New York Times, was abducted him
from his home in the southern city of Basra by men claiming to be
police officers. His body was found the next day.
(AP, 9/19/05)
2005 Sep 18, Yegor Yakovlev (75),
a journalist whose weekly Soviet newspaper became a flagship of
openness during the glasnost era of Mikhail Gorbachev, died.
(AP, 9/23/05)
2005 Sep 18, At least 2.2 million
people die of work-related accidents and diseases around the world each
year, the UN International Labour Organization said in a report, adding
that the estimate was 10 percent higher than in 2002. The report was to
be released at the 17th World Congress on Safety and Health at Work in
Orlando, Florida, which runs to Sep 22.
(AP, 9/18/05)
2005 Sep 18, Leaders from
developing nations took the speaker's platform on the second day of the
annual UN General Assembly debate to criticize rich countries for not
doing enough to ease the plight of the world's poorest people.
(AP, 9/19/05)
2006 Sep 18, The US Commerce
Department said the current account deficit had widened more than
expected in the second quarter to $218.4 billion, as surging oil prices
pushed goods imports higher.
(AP, 9/18/06)
2006 Sep 18, A jury in Santa
Clara, Ca., convicted Dean Schwartzmiller (64) of molesting 2 San Jose
boys. Authorities said he had molested over 100 boys and chronicled his
exploits in a manuscript.
(SFC, 9/19/06, p.A1)
2006 Sep 18, Researchers at Intel
and UC Santa Barbara announced new technology using lasers on silicon
chips for optical computing. Practical use was thought to be 5-7 years
away.
(SFC, 9/19/06, p.A1)
2006 Sep 18, The body of Luz Maria
Franco-Fierros (49) was found dragged to death in Castle Rock,
Colorado, leaving a trail of blood more than mile long. Police the next
day arrested Jose Luis Rubi-Nava (36) as suspect in the murder.
(SFC, 9/21/06, p.A20)(SFC, 9/22/06, p.A3)
2006 Sep 18, Anousheh Ansari (40),
an Iranian-American telecommunications entrepreneur, took off on a
Russian rocket bound for the international space station, becoming the
world's first paying female space tourist. Aboard the space station, an
oxygen generator overheated and spilled a toxic irritant, forcing the
crew to don masks and gloves in the first emergency ever declared
aboard the 8-year-old orbiting outpost.
(AP, 9/18/07)
2006 Sep 18, The 184-nation IMF
approved reforms to increase the voice of China, South Korea, Turkey,
and Mexico to reflect their growing economic sway.
(SFC, 9/19/06, p.D2)
2006 Sep 18, In southern
Afghanistan a suicide bomber on a bicycle killed four Canadian troops
handing out candy to children and wounded 27 civilians. A suicide car
bombing in Kabul killed at least four policemen and wounded one officer
and 10 civilians. In Heart a bombing killed 12 people and wounded 17
including the deputy police chief. An outdoor wedding celebration north
of Kabul was attacked by assailants who threw a grenade, killing five
women and wounding 18. Four suspects were detained after the blast in
the village of Sayadan.
(AP, 9/18/06)(AP, 9/19/06)(AP, 9/20/06)
2006 Sep 18, In Bangladesh at
least 100,000 opposition supporters rallied in Dhaka demanding
electoral reforms ahead of national elections and using strident
rhetoric against the ruling coalition.
(AFP, 9/18/06)
2006 Sep 18, A court in Belgium
ordered Google to remove all links to French and German language
newspaper reports published in Belgium due to copyright laws.
(SFC, 9/19/06, p.D7)
2006 Sep 18, Britain and Spain
reached a historic deal to resolve side issues stemming from their
300-year-old dispute over Gibraltar, but sidestepped the main one,
their claims to the Rock's sovereignty.
(AP, 9/19/06)
2006 Sep 18, Premier Wen Jiabao
said China will increase its peacekeeping force in Lebanon to 1,000 and
double the humanitarian aid it has pledged.
(AP, 9/18/06)
2006 Sep 18, In Colombia federal
prosecutor Mario Iguaran delivered a televised apology for a scandal
surrounding psychic Armando Marti. In 2005 he had hired Marti, a
self-described clairvoyant, to help his staff deal with a crushing
caseload and to improve relations. The operation was code-named
“Mission Perseus of Zeus” and it granted Marti unfettered access to the
institution, as much as $1,800 a month, and a government-issued armored
car.
(SFC, 9/20/06, p.A8)
2006 Sep 18, In Germany Jacqueline
Battles, the German wife of an American contractor accused of cheating
the US government in Iraq, was arrested on suspicion of money
laundering. In March a US jury ordered contractors Mike Battles and
Scott Custer to pay $10 million for swindling the US government over
Iraqi rebuilding projects in connection with their Middletown,
R.I.-based company, Custer Battles LLC.
(AP, 9/18/06)
2006 Sep 18, The Iraqi army's 4th
division took over operational control of central Salahuddin province
from the US-led coalition. Sheik Fassal al-Guood, a prominent Sunni
tribal leader, said 15 of Ramadi's 18 tribes "have sworn to fight those
who are killing Sunnis and Shiites," and said they had an armed force
of about 20,000 men. Bombers and gunmen killed 8 people in Baqouba as
security forces prepared to further tighten security ahead of the holy
month of Ramadan. In southern Basra police found the body of Lt. Col.
Fawzi Abdul Karim al-Mousawi, chief of the city's anti-terrorism
department. Gunmen killed a former member of the defunct Ba'th Party in
Hillah. Police in Baghdad found the bodies of 3 men, bound, blindfolded
and shot in the head. Six bombs killed 24 people and wounded 84 in
Kirkuk. The tortured bodies of 15 people were found elsewhere. In total
bombers and gunmen killed at least 41 people and wounded dozens across
Iraq, while parliament leaders again put off debate on legislation that
some Iraqis fear could threaten the country's unity and bring even more
violence. 3 US soldiers died, including one killed by a roadside bomb
explosion and another after being shot. A third soldier died from
non-battle-related injuries.
(AP, 9/18/06)(AP, 9/19/06)
2006 Sep 18, Israel said it will
consider freeing Palestinian prisoners and releasing millions of
dollars in tax rebates to Palestinians if their government moderates
its hardline views. Israel charged three Hezbollah members arrested in
Lebanon during the recent war with murder for involvement in deadly
attacks on soldiers.
(AP, 9/18/06)
2006 Sep 18, Palestine’s PM Ismail
Haniyeh's bodyguards opened fire outside the parliament building to
disperse a crowd of protesters angry over the government's failure to
end a growing economic crisis in the Gaza Strip.
(AP, 9/18/06)
2006 Sep 18, Russia’s Ministry of
Natural Resources said it would cancel an environmental permit for a
$20 billion oil and natural gas project led by Royal Dutch Shell on the
Far East island of Sakhalin.
(WSJ, 9/19/06, p.A17)
2006 Sep 18, In Somalia a massive
car bomb exploded outside the makeshift parliament building in Baidoa,
killing 11 people, including the president's brother, in an apparent
assassination attempt. As Pres. Yusuf fled, a gunbattle broke out
between his bodyguards and eight suspected accomplices of an apparent
suicide bomber. Six were killed and two were captured.
(AP, 9/18/06)(AP, 9/19/06)
2006 Sep 18, In eastern Sri Lanka
the bodies of 11 Muslim men were found hacked to death. Tamil Tiger
rebels and government forces blamed each other for the massacre.
(AFP, 9/18/06)
2006 Sep 18, The Vatican opened
part of its secret archives to let historians review millions of
diplomatic letters, private correspondence and other church documents
to gain insight into how the Holy See dealt with the growing
persecution of Jews before World War II.
(AP, 9/18/06)
2007 Sep 18, President Bush,
cheered on by Iraq war veterans and their families on the White House's
South Lawn, urged lawmakers to back his plan to withdraw some troops
from Iraq but keep at least 130,000 through the summer of 2008 or
longer.
(AP, 9/18/08)
2007 Sep 18, The US Federal
Reserve lowered interest rates by half a point triggering a rise in the
DJIA of 336 points. The Dow close at 13,739.39. The federal funds rate
was lowered to 4.75% and the discount rate was lowered to 5.25%.
(SFC, 9/19/07, p.C1)(WSJ, 9/19/07, p.A1)
2007 Sep 18, O.J. Simpson was
charged with seven felonies, including kidnapping, in the alleged armed
robbery of sports memorabilia collectors in a Las Vegas casino-hotel
room.
(AP, 9/18/08)
2007 Sep 18, Maryland’s highest
court, in a 4-3 decision, upheld a law defining marriage as a union
between a man and a woman and said the 1973 ban on gay marriage does
not discriminate on the basis of gender and does not deny any
fundamental rights.
(SFC, 9/19/07, p.A3)
2007 Sep 18, New research said
nearly half of an estimated 7,000 languages, spoken in the world today,
are in danger of extinction.
(SFC, 9/19/07, p.A16)
2007 Sep 18, It was reported that
cranberry juice combats a wide range of bacteria, including those that
cause stomach ulcers, gum disease and food-borne illnesses as well as
urinary tract infections. Recent research suggested that astringent
compounds in the berry, called proanthocyanidins, may work to prevent
infection-causing bacteria from adhering to cells in the urinary tract.
(WSJ, 9/18/07, p.D6)
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 18, Afghan Mullah
Abdullah Jan, the Taliban commander of Qara Bagh district in Ghazni
province, was among 12 killed in the strike on a mud-brick housing
compound overnight in neighboring Giro district.
(AP, 9/18/07)
2007 Sep 18, In London shares in
troubled mortgage lender Northern Rock rose on a promise by the central
bank to back its deposits, but worried customers continued to line up
to withdraw their savings.
(AP, 9/18/07)
2007 Sep 18, Typhoon Wipha
targeted China's booming eastern province of Zhejiang and the nation's
financial capital, Shanghai, prompting evacuation of over 1.6 million
people as ships were recalled to port.
(Reuters, 9/18/07)
2007 Sep 18, Parnaz Azima, an
Iranian-American reporter who was trapped in Iran for months on
suspicion of trying to stir up a revolution, was allowed to leave the
country and return to the United States. Azima was one of the one of
Radio Azadi’s, a US-funded service later renamed Radio Farda, original
broadcasters in Prague. In March, 2008, an Iranian revolutionary court
sentenced her to a one-year prison term in absentia for her
“antirevolutionary” work.
(AP, 9/18/07)(WSJ, 6/13/08, p.A10)
2007 Sep 18, The Iraqi government
rolled back against Blackwater, suggesting the firm's operations were
only suspended pending completion of a joint US-Iraqi investigation.
The Ministry of Defense said 20 Iraqis were killed, considerably higher
than the 11 dead reported before. The Iraqi Cabinet decided to review
the status of all foreign security companies. Radical Shiite
cleric Muqtada al-Sadr called for all contracts of foreign securities
firms to be annulled and blamed the government for failing to protect
Iraqis. A car bombing occurred in a parking lot near the Health
Ministry and a medical complex in central Baghdad, killing seven people
and wounding 23. Another parked car bomb targeted a police patrol in
Palestine Street, killing two civilians and wounding six. A parked car
bomb also struck a busy market in northern Baghdad, killing six people
and wounding 26. Two roadside bombs also killed a policeman and two
civilians and wounded eight other people in separate attacks in
predominantly Shiite areas of eastern Baghdad. A bomb exploded under an
oil pipeline near the northern city of Beiji, causing huge quantities
of crude oil to spill into the Tigris River. The US military blamed
al-Qaida insurgents. An American soldier was killed in an attack in
southern Baghdad. In Anbar province a US soldier died in a non-combat
incident.
(AP, 9/18/07)(AP, 9/19/07)(AP, 9/20/07)
2007 Sep 18, In Italy local
authorities said Milan central railway station's notorious Platform 21,
which witnessed the deportation of hundreds of Jews in 1943-45, will
host the city's first Holocaust memorial. The museum will open in two
years' time and occupy 6,000 square meters of the underground rail
network.
(Reuters, 9/18/07)
2007 Sep 18, Maoists stormed out
of Nepal's government and vowed to disrupt upcoming elections after
other parties refused to bow to the ex-rebels' demand for the monarchy
to be immediately abolished.
(AFP, 9/18/07)
2007 Sep 18, The Nigerian navy
said that over the past 3 years it had seized 236 ships, tugboats and
barges used for smuggling crude oil and petroleum products in the high
seas and Niger delta.
(AFP, 9/18/07)
2007 Sep 18, A government lawyer
announced that President Gen. Pervez Musharraf will step down as army
chief and restore civilian rule to Pakistan, but only after he is
re-elected president.
(AP, 9/18/07)
2007 Sep 18, UN Secretary-General
Ban Ki-moon said that Taiwan's application to join the UN wasn't
accepted for legal reasons linked to the 1971 UN resolution that gave
China's seat to the Beijing-based People's Republic of China.
(AP, 9/18/07)
2007 Sep 18, Zimbabwe's main
opposition party reached an agreement with the government on the
adoption of a bill which paves the way for joint presidential and
legislative elections next year. Police said 17 police officers have
been arrested on charges of corruption and trading in diamonds while
guarding a mine in the country's eastern district.
(AFP, 9/18/07)(AFP, 9/19/07)
2008 Sep 18, Central banks around
the world poured in $180 billion in extra liquidity to calm markets
made jittery by the mayhem on Wall Street. An SEC measure took effect
making short sellers and their broker dealers deliver securities by the
close of business on the settlement date, three days after the sale.
The Bush administration asked lawmakers for the power to rescue banks
by buying distressed assets. Pres. Bush said “markets are adjusting” as
he defended the government’s recent moves.
(AP, 9/18/08)(Reuters, 9/18/08)(SFC, 9/19/08,
p.A14)(WSJ, 9/19/08, p.A1)
2008 Sep 18, A non-profit Internet
rights group filed a lawsuit against President George W. Bush and
others in his administration for the "massively illegal" surveillance
of emails and telephone calls without court warrants.
(AFP, 9/19/08)
2008 Sep 18, California’s budget
standoff ended as Gov. Schwarzenegger and legislative leaders struck a
deal on a $104 billion budget after 80 days of stalemate.
(SFC, 9/19/08, p.A1)
2008 Sep 18, Chicago Mayor Richard
Daly unveiled an aggressive plan to reduce heat-trapping gases. The
plan included changing building codes to promote energy efficiency and
solar panels at municipal properties as well as alternative fueling
stations.
(SFC, 9/19/08, p.A4)
2008 Sep 18, In Minnesota the new
Interstate 35W bridge opened. The old span over the Mississippi River
had collapsed on August 1, 2007. The new $234 million St. Anthony Falls
Bridge was embedded with an early warning system consisting of hundreds
of sensors.
(SFC, 9/18/08, p.A8)(Econ, 9/5/09, TQ p.6)
2008 Sep 18, In southern
Afghanistan NATO-led troops killed an ally of President Hamid Karzai
during an overnight gunbattle. The Afghan president said the death
resulted from a "misunderstanding between foreign and local forces."
Ruzi Khan Barakzai, the former police chief of Uruzgan province and a
tribal leader and militia commander, were killed outside the provincial
capital of Tirin Kot. Taliban militants killed two policemen and
wounded three others after attacking their checkpoint in the eastern
Paktika province.
(AP, 9/18/08)
2008 Sep 18, Australia’s PM Kevin
Rudd said the west's relations with Russia are at a turning point after
its intervention in Georgia and a pact to sell Australian uranium to
Moscow is in the balance.
(AP, 9/18/08)
2008 Sep 18, HBOS, Britain’s
biggest mortgage lender, agreed under government pressure to be taken
over by Lloyds TSB.
(Econ, 9/20/08, p.90)
2008 Sep 18, China announced plans
to buy shares and take other measures to support the nation’s
plummeting stock market.
(WSJ, 9/19/08, p.A8)
2008 Sep 18, The Bank of China
announced that it would take a 20% stake in the French arm of LCF
Rothschild, its first investment in a euro-zone bank.
(Econ, 9/27/08, p.77)
2008 Sep 18, In Iraq an
explosives-laden car parked at a bus station in the southern city of
Nasiriyah killed two people and wounded one. 7 American soldiers were
killed in southern Iraq when their helicopter crashed as it was flying
into the country from Kuwait.
(AP, 9/18/08)
2008 Sep 18, Tzipi Livni (50),
Israel's foreign minister, eked out a victory in a surprisingly tight
race to replace PM Ehud Olmert as the head of the governing party,
putting her in a strong position to become the country's first female
leader in 34 years.
(AP, 9/18/08)
2008 Sep 18, In Italy 6 immigrants
from Ghana, Togo and Liberia were slain by automatic gunfire as they
stood outside a store that sold ethnic goods in Castel Volturno, a town
north of Naples.
(AP, 9/20/08)
2008 Sep 18, MEND militants in
southern Nigeria, as part of their "oil war," claimed to have destroyed
a major oil pipeline belonging to Royal Dutch Shell in the fifth attack
on the company in less than a week.
(AP, 9/19/08)
2008 Sep 18, In northwest Pakistan
militants briefly seized 300 boys at a school. The incident ended with
the deaths of 2 suicide bombers. No children were harmed.
(SFC, 9/19/08, p.A6)
2008 Sep 18, Peru’s Pres. Alan
Garcia led a deputation of half his cabinet and over 200 business
leaders to see Brazil’s Pres. da Silva.
(Econ, 9/13/08, p.44)
2008 Sep 18, Russia ordered its
main stock exchanges closed for a second day as President Dmitry
Medvedev unveiled an expanded $120 billion rescue package and called
for pouring 500 billion rubles ($20 billion) into blue-chip shares in
an effort to stabilize them.
(AP, 9/18/08)(WSJ, 9/19/08, p.A8)
2008 Sep 18, Rwanda became the
first country in the world where women outnumber men in parliament,
according to provisional results announced at the close of a four-day
legislative vote.
(AP, 9/19/08)
2008 Sep 18, Armed pirates
hijacked a Greek ship with 25 crew members off Somalia, bringing to 55
the number of reported attacks in the lawless sea lane of the African
region.
(AP, 9/18/08)
2008 Sep 18, Sri Lanka's military
said it was moving closer to the headquarters of the Tamil Tigers.
Naval forces fought a ferocious sea battle with Tamil Tiger separatists
off Sri Lanka's northwestern coast, sinking 10 boats. Tamil Tiger
separatists and government forces fought intense battles across the
embattled northern region, killing at least 62 rebels and eight
soldiers according to military officials. The Tamil Tigers, meanwhile,
said they repelled a government offensive in Kilinochchi, killing 25
soldiers.
(AFP, 9/18/08)(AP, 9/18/08)(AP, 9/19/08)
2008 Sep 18, Rebels said Sudanese
aircraft bombed Darfur rebel positions in the latest offensive in the
war-torn region, with the UN reporting wounded government troops in the
area.
(AP, 9/18/08)
2008 Sep 18, A senior Yemen
security official said at least 25 militants with suspected links to
al-Qaida have been arrested in the last 24 hours in connection with the
deadly attack on the US Embassy in San’a.
(AP, 9/18/08)
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