Today in History - October 16
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1323 Oct 16,
Amadeus V the Great, count of Flanders and Savoy, died at 74.
(MC, 10/16/01)
1492 Oct 16, Columbus' fleet
anchored at "Fernandina" (Long Island, Bahamas).
(http://tinyurl.com/774v3)
1551 Oct 16, Edward Seymour,
Duke of Somerset, was re-arrested.
(MC, 10/16/01)
1553 Oct 16, Lucas Cranach the
elder (b.1472), German painter and graphic artist, died at 81. His work
included "Madonna and Child in a Landscape."
(TL-MB, 1988, p.13)(WUD, 1994,
p.339)(http://tinyurl.com/ykv47h)
1555 Oct 16, Hugh Latimer (80),
Protestant royal chaplain of Anne Boleyn, was burned at stake at Oxford
for heresy under the Catholic rule of Mary, half-sister of Edward VI.
(WSJ, 9/12/96, p.A14)(HN, 10/16/98)(MC, 10/16/01)
1555 Oct 16, Nicholas Ridley,
Protestant English theologian and bishop of Rochester, was burned at
Oxford for heresy under the Catholic rule of Mary, half-sister of
Edward VI.
(WSJ, 9/12/96, p.A14)(HN, 10/16/98)(MC, 10/16/01)
1594 Oct 16, William Allen (62),
English cardinal and founder of the seminary of Douai, died.
(MC, 10/16/01)
1621 Oct 16, Jan Pieterszoon
Sweelinck, organist and composer, died at about 59.
(MC, 10/16/01)
1679 Oct 16, Jan Dismas Zelenka,
composer, was born.
(MC, 10/16/01)
1701 Oct 16, Yale University was
founded as The Collegiate School of Kilingworth, Connecticut by
Congregationalists who considered Harvard too liberal. [see Oct 9]
(HN, 10/16/00)
1708 Oct 16, Albrecht von Haller,
Swiss experimental physiologist, was born.
(MC, 10/16/01)
1710 Oct 16, British troops
occupied Port Royal, Nova Scotia.
(MC, 10/16/01)
1758 Oct 16, Noah Webster
(d.1843), US teacher lexicographer and publisher. He wrote the
“American Dictionary of the English Language,” was born in Hartford,
Conn.
(CFA, '96, p.56)(AHD, 1971, p.1452)(AP, 10/16/08)
1793 Oct 16, During the French
Revolution, Marie Antoinette was beheaded. Prosecutors claimed she had
sexually abused her son and financially abused the French
Monarchy. In mourning for her husband, Louis XVI, who had been
guillotined the previous January, clad in rags, her once-dazzling locks
shorn by the executioner's assistant, she even suffered the indignity
of a crude sketch by the great French painter, Jacques Louis David.
Antoinette bore herself with a regal indifference to her martyrdom.
Madame Tussaud used her severed head as a model for her wax bust death
mask. In 2001 Antonia Fraser authored "Marie Antoinette: The Journey."
(SFEC, 11/17/96, p.T5)(AP, 10/16/97)(WSJ, 10/5/01,
p.W13)
1797 Oct 16, Lord Cardigan, leader
of the famed Light Brigade which was decimated in the Crimean War, who
eventually had a jacket named after him, was born.
(HN, 10/16/98)
1813 Oct 16-19, In the Battle at
Leipzig (aka Battle of the Nations) Napoleon faced Prussia, Austria and
Russia and suffered one of his worst defeats.
(DoW, 1999, p.325)
1821 Oct 16, Albert Franz Doppler,
composer, was born.
(MC, 10/16/01)
1825 Oct 16, Thomas Turpin
Crittenden (d.1905), Brig. Gen. (Union volunteers), was born.
(MC, 10/16/01)
1829 Oct 16, Tremont Hotel, 1st US
modern hotel, opened in Boston.
(MC, 10/16/01)
1834 Oct 16, In London the Houses
of Parliament caught fire and many historic documents were burned.
J.M.W. created two oil paintings of the burning of the Houses of
Parliament.
(www.bluffton.edu/~sullivanm/england/london/parliament/barry.html)(Econ,
9/29/07, p.90)
1846 Oct 16, Sulphurous ether was
first administered in public at the Massachusetts General Hospital in
Boston by dentist Dr. William Thomas Green Morton during an operation
performed by Dr. John Collins Warren. Morton was the 1st to take public
credit for the use of ether in a medical procedure and applied for a
patent on its use, which was later nullified. In 2001 Julie M. Fenster
authored “Ether Day,” an account of Dr. Morton and ether. [see Sep 30]
(HN, 10/16/98)(WSJ, 8/21/01, p.A17)
1847 Oct 16, Charlotte Bronte's
book "Jane Eyre" was published. [see Oct 6]
(MC, 10/16/01)
1848 Oct 16, The 1st US
homeopathic medical college opened in Pennsylvania.
(MC, 10/16/01)
1849 Oct 16, George Washington
Williams, historian, clergyman and politician, was born.
(HN, 10/16/00)
1854 Oct 16, Abraham Lincoln
delivered a speech in Peoria, Ill., part of a series against
legislation proposed by Sen. Stephen Douglas that would allow settlers
to decide the status of slavery in Kansas and Nebraska. In 2008 Lewis
E. Lehrman authored “Lincoln at Peoria: The Turning Point.”
(WSJ, 7/26/08, p.W9)
1854 Oct 16, Oscar Wilde (born as
Fingal O'Flahertie Wills, d.1900), dramatist, poet, novelist and
critic, was born in Dublin. His work included “The Picture of Dorian
Gray.” "Anybody can make history. Only a great man can write it."
[see 1856-1900]
(HN, 10/16/98)(AP, 2/16/99)(MC, 10/16/01)
1859 Oct 16, On Sunday evening
radical abolitionist John Brown and a tiny army of five black and 13
white supporters seized the Federal arsenal at Harper's Ferry, Virginia
(now West Virginia). Convinced that local slaves would rise up behind
him, Brown planned to establish a new republic of fugitives in the
Appalachian Mountains. Brown's plans immediately went awry when the
expected slave rebellion did not happen and the townspeople trapped
Brown's men inside the engine house at the Federal arsenal. Within 24
hours, Brown and his four surviving men were captured by a force of 90
U.S. Marines under the command of Lt. Col. Robert E. Lee, pictured
here. Brown, quickly convicted of criminal conspiracy and treason and
sentenced to death, was hanged on December 2, 1859. As he went to the
gallows, Brown handed a note to one of his guards: "I, John Brown, am
now quite certain that the crimes of this guilty land will never be
purged away but with blood." The incident is the backdrop for George
MacDonald Fraser’s novel “Flashman and the Angel of the Lord.”
(WSJ, 4/10/95, p. A-16)(AP, 10/16/97)(HNPD, 10/16/98)
1861 Oct 16, The Confederacy
started selling postage stamps.
(MC, 10/16/01)
1863 Oct 16, Grant was given
command of Union forces in West. [see Oct 17]
(MC, 10/16/01)
1869 Oct 16, A hotel in Boston
became the 1st to have indoor plumbing.
(MC, 10/16/01)
1880 Oct 16, Edward Wolff,
composer, died at 64.
(MC, 10/16/01)
1886 Oct 16, David Ben-Gurion
(d.1973), Israeli statesman, was born in Plonsk, Poland. He was the 1st
PM of Israel and served from 1948-53 and in 1955.
(HN, 10/16/00)(MC, 10/16/01)
1888 Oct 16, Eugene O'Neill
(d.1953), Nobel Prize-winning playwright (1936), was born in NYC. His
work includes “A Long Day's Journey Into Night” and “The Iceman
Cometh.”
(AP, 11/27/97)(HN, 10/16/00)(MC, 10/16/01)
1890 Oct 16, Michael Collins
(d.1922), Irish revolutionist, was born.
(MC, 10/16/01)
1898 Oct 16, William O. Douglas,
81st U.S. Supreme Court Justice (1939-75), was born.
(HN, 10/16/00)(MC, 10/16/01)
1901 Oct 16, President Theodore
Roosevelt incited controversy by inviting black leader Booker T.
Washington to the White House.
(HN, 10/16/98)
1904 Oct 16, The Russian Baltic
fleet under Rear-Admiral Zinovi Rozhestvensky departed to lift the
Japanese blockade at Port Arthur, Manchuria.
(ON, 5/04, p.6)
1906 Oct 16, Cleanth Brooks,
Kentucky-born writer and educator, was born.
(HN, 10/16/00)
1908 Oct 16, The first airplane
flight in England was made at Farnsborough, by Samuel Cody, a U.S.
citizen.
(HN, 10/16/98)
1914 Oct 16, Christian J. Modeste,
Gypsy king, was born.
(MC, 10/16/01)
1915 Oct 16, Great Britain
declared war on Bulgaria.
(MC, 10/16/01)
1916 Oct 16, Margaret Higgins
Sanger opened the first birth control clinic at 46 Amboy St. in
Brooklyn. She spent 30 days in jail when she opened America's first
birth control clinic. Sanger coined the term "birth control" and made
the cause a worldwide movement. After opening her clinic in Brooklyn,
she was jailed for creating a public nuisance. Born in Corning, New
York, on September 14, 1883, Sanger died in 1966.
(AP, 10/16/97)(HNQ, 9/11/98)
1918 Oct 16, Felix Arndt,
composer, died at 29.
(MC, 10/16/01)
1919 Oct 16, Kathleen Winsor,
writer, was born. Her work includes “Forever Amber.”
(HN, 10/16/00)
1923 Oct 16, Walt Disney and his
brother Roy O. Disney founded The Disney Company.
(MC, 10/16/01)(WSJ, 2/13/04, p.A8)
1923 Oct 16, John Harwood patented
a self-winding watch in Switzerland.
(MC, 10/16/01)
1925 Oct 16, Angela Lansbury,
actress (Jessica-Murder She Wrote), was born in London, England.
(MC, 10/16/01)
1925 Oct 16, The Texas School
Board prohibited the teaching of evolution.
(MC, 10/16/01)
1926 Oct 16, Mohammed Nadir Khan
began a coup in Afghanistan and 1200 were killed.
(MC, 10/16/01)
1926 Oct 16, A troop ship sank in
the Yangtze River killing 1,200.
(MC, 10/16/01)
1927 Oct 16, Günter Grass,
novelist, playwright, painter and sculptor, was born in Danzig,
Germany. He is best known for his first novel “The Tin Drum.”
(HN, 10/1/00)(MC, 10/16/01)
1928 Oct 16, Benjamin Strong
(b.1872), American economist and 14-year head of the US Federal Reserve
of New York, died in NYC.
(Econ, 1/10/09,
p.73)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benjamin_Strong_Jr.)
1930 Oct 16, Dan Pagis,
Romanian-born Israeli poet, was born.
(HN, 10/16/00)
1932 Oct 16, Henry Jay Lewis,
conductor and bass player (LA Philharmonic 1955-59), was born in LA,
Calif.
(MC, 10/16/01)
1934 Oct 16, Mao Tse-tung decided
to abandon his base in Kiangsi due to attacks from Chiang Kai-shek's
Nationalists. With his pregnant wife and about 30,000 Red Army troops,
he set out on the "Long March." In late 1935, with 8,000 survivors, he
reached Hanoi in northwest China, and established Chinese Communist
headquarters. In 2006 Andrew McEwen and Ed Jocelyn authored “The Long
March: The Story Behind the Legendary Journey That Made Mao’s China.”
Also in 2006 Sun Shuyun authored “The Long March.”
(HN, 10/16/98)(www.kimsoft.com/korea/eyewit03.htm)
1938 Oct 16, Billy the Kid, a
ballet by Aaron Copland, opened in Chicago.
(HN, 10/16/98)
1939 Oct 16, The comedy "The Man
Who Came to Dinner," by George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart, opened on
Broadway.
(AP, 10/16/99)(WSJ, 8/2/00, p.A20)
1940 Oct 16, Benjamin O. Davis
became the U.S. Army’s first African American Brigadier General.
(HN, 10/16/98)
1940 Oct 16, The 1st lottery for
US WW II draftees was held; #158 drawn 1st.
(MC, 10/16/01)
1940 Oct 16, The Warsaw Ghetto was
formed by Nazi SS troops.
(MC, 10/16/01)
1941 Oct 16, Germany advanced
within 60 miles of Moscow.
(MC, 10/16/01)
1941 Oct 16, Antanas Gustaitis
(b.1898), Lithuanian aviation engineer, was shot to death in Moscow. He
had designed 9 ANBO airplanes.
(LHC, 3/26/03)
1942 Oct 16, The ballet "Rodeo,"
with music by Aaron Copland and choreography by Agnes de Mille,
premiered at New York's Metropolitan Opera House.
(AP, 10/16/02)
1942 Oct 16, In India a cyclone
devastated Bengal and about 40,000 lives were lost.
. (www.emergency-management.net/cyclone.htm)
1943 Oct 16, Chicago Mayor Edward
J. Kelly officially opened the city’s new subway system during a
ceremony at the State and Madison street station.
(AP, 10/16/00)
1943 Oct 16, In Italy the Nazi SS
police and Waffen SS began rounding up the Jews of Rome. There was an
anti Jewish riot in Rome as the Jewish quarter was surrounded by Nazis,
and Jews were evacuated to Auschwitz. Pope Pius XII made no public
protest, though he did send some messages of disapproval through
intermediaries.
(WSJ, 10/18/99, p.A46)(MC, 10/16/01)
1944 Oct 16, In Hungary the Horthy
government fell and Nazi Count Szalasi became premier.
(MC, 10/16/01)
1946 Oct 16, Ten Nazi war
criminals condemned during the Nuremberg trials were hanged. The
defendants included: Luftwaffe commander Hermann Göring, who was
sentenced to death but committed suicide the morning of the execution;
former deputy Führer Rudolph Hess, sentenced to life imprisonment;
Foreign Minister Joachim von Ribbentrop, hanged; head of the armed
forces high command Wilhelm Keitel, hanged; writer and "philosopher" of
National Socialism Alfred Rosenberg; U-boat Admiral Karl Dönitz,
10-year imprisonment; Grand Admiral Erich Raeder, life imprisonment;
Hitler Youth leader Baldur von Shirach, 20-year imprisonment; procurer
of slave labor Fritz Sauckel, hanged; and Alfred Jodl, chief of staff
of the German high command, hanged. The hanging was badly botched as
most Nazis slowly strangle to death.
(AP, 10/16/97)(HN, 10/16/98)(HNPD, 10/20/99)(MC,
10/16/01)
Also hanged were: Hans Frank, Governor-General of
occupied Poland; Wilhelm Frick, Hitler's Minister of the Interior;
Julius Streicher, rabid anti-Semite editor of Der Sturmer; Alfred
Rosenberg, Nazi philosopher and war criminal; Arthur Seyss-Inquart
(54), Nazi leader of occupied Holland; Ernst Kaltenbrunner, Austrian
Nazi and SS leader.
(MC, 10/16/01)
1948 Oct 16, Moscow Jews held a
demonstration honoring Israeli ambassador Golda Meir.
(MC, 10/16/01)
1951 Oct 16, Pakistan’s PM Liaquat
Ali Khan (b.1896), son of a Punjabi prince, was assassinated in
Rawalpindi, ushering in a period of political instability.
(WSJ, 1/28/08,
p.A12)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liaquat_Ali_Khan)
1953 Oct 16, Fidel Castro in
Havana was sentenced to 15 years.
(MC, 10/16/01)
1957 Oct 16, Britain's Queen
Elizabeth II and Prince Philip began a visit to the United States with
a stopover at the site of the Jamestown settlement in Virginia.
(AP, 10/16/07)
1958 Oct 16, Tim Robbins, West
Covina, Ca., actor (Bull Durham, Shawshank Redemption), was born.
(MC, 10/16/01)
1962 Oct 16, The Cuban missile
crisis began as President Kennedy was informed that reconnaissance
photographs had revealed the presence of missile bases in Cuba.
(AP, 10/16/97)
1964 Oct 16, The New York Yankees
fired manager Yogi Berra one day after their World Series loss to the
St. Louis Cardinals.
(http://www.baseball-almanac.com/ws/yr1964ws.shtml)
1964 Oct 16, Harold Wilson of the
Labor Party assumed office as prime minister of Great Britain,
succeeding Conservative Sir Alec Douglas-Home. Wilson’s Labor
government took over from Harold MacMillan’s Conservatives.
(AP, 10/16/99)(WSJ, 7/26/00, p.A26)
1964 Oct 16, Red China detonated
its first atomic bomb, codenamed "596," on the Lop Nur Test Ground, and
became the world's 4th nuclear power.
(TMC, 1994, p.1964)(AP, 10/16/07)
1965 Oct 16, The world’s first
acid rock dance was held at Longshoreman’s Hall. Top band on the bill
was the Charlatan’s with Dan Hicks, a house band from the Red Dog
Saloon in Virginia City. The Jefferson Airplane also made its first
concert appearance. Alton Kelley (1940-2008) and 3 other people, under
the name Family Dog, staged the dance concert.
(www.chickenonaunicycle.com/FD%20Shows%20Full%20List.htm)(SFC, 6/3/08,
p.B5)
1966 Oct 16, Joan Baez and 123
other anti-draft protestors were arrested in Oakland.
(MC, 10/16/01)
1968 Oct 16, American athletes
Tommie Smith and John Carlos sparked controversy at the Mexico City
Olympics by giving "black power" salutes during a victory ceremony
after they'd won gold and bronze medals in the 200-meter race.
(AP, 10/16/08)
1969 Oct 16, The New York Mets
capped a miraculous season, winning the World Series in Game 5, a 5-3
victory over the Baltimore Orioles.
(AP, 10/16/99)
1971 Oct 16, H. Rap Brown (b.1943)
was captured following a shootout with police in NYC. He was charged
with inciting a riot and carrying a gun across state lines. Brown
converted to Islam in jail and became Jamil Abdullah Al-Amin.
(SSFC, 1/6/02,
p.A13)(http://americanascherrypie.tripod.com/id3.html)
1972 Oct 16, A light plane
carrying House Democratic leader Hale Boggs (b.1914) of Louisiana and
three other men were reported missing in Alaska. Nick Begich, Alaska
congressman, his aide, Russell Brown, and the pilot, Don Jonz were also
on the plane and later presumed dead. The plane was never found.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nick_Begich)(Econ,
9/6/08, p.35)
1973 Oct 16, Henry Kissinger, US
Secretary of State (1973-77), and Le Duc Tho were named winners of the
Nobel Peace Prize; however, the Vietnamese official declined the award.
(AP,
10/16/98)(http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/peace/laureates/1973/press.html)
1973 Oct 16, Maynard Jackson
(1938-2003) was the elected 1st black mayor of Atlanta.
(www.blackpast.org/?q=aah/jackson-jr-maynard-1938-2003)
1973 Oct 16, Gene Krupa (b.1909),
US jazz and big band drummer, died.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gene_Krupa)
1973 Oct 16, OPEC, the Arab
oil-producing nations, announced they would begin cutting back on oil
exports to Western nations and Japan. The next day, the five Arab
members of the OPEC committee were joined in Kuwait by the oil
ministers of Algeria, Bahrain, Egypt, Libya, and Syria. The result was
a total embargo that lasted until March 1974 and caused oil prices to
quadruple.
(www.harvardir.org/articles/1659/)(AP,
10/17/97)(WSJ, 7/28/03, p.A8)
1975 Oct 16, In East Timor five
Australian journalists were killed when Indonesian troops overran the
border town of Balibo. A 6th died weeks later when Jakarta launched a
full-scale assault on Dili. In 2009 the film “Balibo,” by Australian
director Rob Connolly, depicted the killings.
(AP,
7/22/09)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Balibo_Five)
1975 Oct 16, Vittorio Gui
(b.1885), Italian composer (Batture d'aspetto), died.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vittorio_Gui)
1978 Oct 16, The College of
Cardinals of the Roman Catholic Church chose Cardinal Wojtyla (58),
Archbishop of Cracow, to become Pope. He took the name John Paul II.
The first non-Italian since Adrian VI of Utrecht died in 1523.
(AP, 10/16/97)(HN, 10/16/98)
1978 Oct 16, An attempted coup
against President Ali Abdullah Saleh of North Yemen was crushed.
(http://archive.gulfnews.com/indepth/30thyear/onthisday/10160457.html)
1981 Oct 16, Harvey Fierstein's
"Torch Song Trilogy," premiered off-Broadway in NYC.
(www.matthewbroderick.net/credit/stage/torchsong.html)
1981 Oct 16, William Holden
(b.1918), actor (Network), died at 63.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1981)
1981 Oct 16, Israeli war hero
Moshe Dayan died in Tel Aviv at age 66.
(AP, 10/16/01)
1982 Oct 16, Mario del Monaco
(b.1915), Italian opera singer, died of kidney disease.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mario_del_Monaco)
1983 Oct 16, George Liberace
(b.1911), American violinist, died. He was the older brother of
Liberace (1919-1987), the famed pianist.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Liberace)
1984 Oct 16, Desmond Tutu, black
Anglican Archbishop in South Africa, won the Nobel Peace Prize for his
decades of non-violent struggle for racial equality.
(SFC, 6/23/96, BR, p.32)(AP, 10/16/04)
1985 Oct 16, Intel introduced its
32-bit 80386 microcomputer chip.
(www.islandnet.com/~kpolsson/micropro/proc1980.htm)
1986 Oct 16, The US government
closed down due to budget problems.
(www.ssa.gov/legislation/history/99.htm)
1986 Oct 16, Arthur Grumiaux
(b.1921), Belgian violinist, died at 65.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_Grumiaux)
1986 Oct 16, Ron Arad, an Israeli
airman, was the navigator in a plane that was shot down while bombing a
Palestinian refugee camp in southern Lebanon. He was reportedly handed
over to a Lebanese Shiite group led by Mustafa Dirani. In 2004 it was
reported that Arad died in 1996 , sometime after he was handed by
Lebanese fighters to their Iranian sponsors. In 2008 a Hezbollah report
said Arad had escaped from a holding cell in 1988 and probably died
while trying to make his way home through difficult terrain.
(SFEC, 11/17/96, p.A14)(AP,
10/25/04)(http://tinyurl.com/yz3zza)(AP, 10/8/08)
1987 Oct 16, A 58 1/2-hour drama
in Midland, Texas, ended happily as rescuers freed Jessica McClure, an
18-month-old girl trapped in an abandoned well.
(AP, 10/16/97)
1987 Oct 16, 175-kph winds caused
a blackout in London and much of southern England. At least 13 people
died.
(http://tinyurl.com/h29j)
1987 Oct 16, In the Persian Gulf,
an Iranian missile hit a re-flagged Kuwaiti ship in the first direct
attack on the tanker fleet guarded by the U.S.
(AP, 10/16/97)
1988 Oct 16, The Los Angeles
Dodgers shut out the Oakland A's, 6-0, in game two of the World Series.
(AP, 10/16/98)
1988 Oct 16, Rescue workers near
Point Barrow, Alaska, continued their efforts to save three California
gray whales trapped in Arctic Ocean ice [see Oct 26].
(AP, 10/16/98)
1989 Oct 16, President Bush signed
an order cutting federal programs by $16.1 billion under the
Gramm-Rudman budget-reduction law.
(AP, 10/16/99)
1990 Oct 16, The Cincinnati
Reds beat the Oakland A’s 7-to-0 in game one of the World Series.
(AP, 10/16/00)
1990 Oct 16, US forces reached
200,000 in Persian Gulf.
(http://archives.econ.utah.edu/archives/marxism/2004w05/msg00102.htm)
1990 Oct 16, Comedian Steve Martin
and his wife, actress Victoria Tennant, visited American GI’s in Saudi
Arabia.
(AP, 10/16/00)
1990 Oct 16, Soviet President
Mikhail S. Gorbachev submitted to the Soviet legislature a scaled-back
plan to transform the Soviet economy to a free-market system.
(AP, 10/16/00)
1991 Oct 16, In Killeen, Texas,
George Jo Hennard (35) crashed his pickup truck into a Luby's Cafeteria
and opened fire, killing 23 people before taking his own life. Another
20 people were wounded.
(AP, 10/16/97)(SFC, 4/17/07, p.A8)
1992 Oct 16, The Nobel Peace prize
was awarded to Rigoberta Menchu, a Guatemalan Indian who spoke on
behalf of indigenous people and victims of government repression.
(AP, 10/16/97)
1993 Oct 16, The Toronto Blue Jays
defeated the Philadelphia Phillies, 8-5, in game one of the World
Series.
(AP, 10/16/98)
1993 Oct 16, The U.N. Security
Council endorsed the deployment of U.S. warships to block arms and oil
shipments to Haiti in an attempt to increase pressure on Haiti's
military leaders.
(AP, 10/16/98)
1994 Oct 16, Heavy rains began
drenching southeast Texas, resulting in floods that left 20 dead and
forced 14,000 from their homes in 35 counties.
(AP, 10/16/99)
1994 Oct 16, German Chancellor
Helmut Kohl was elected to a fourth term.
(AP, 10/16/99)
1995 Oct 16, A vast throng of
black men gathered in Washington D.C. for the "Million Man March," "A
Day of Atonement," led by Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan.
(AP, 10/16/97)(HN, 10/16/98)
1995 Oct 16, In California the
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory released a $450,000 story that
said leaks from underground gas storage tanks were not as bad as once
believed. The tests did not include the effects of MTBE in leaking into
ground water.
(SFC, 9/15/97, p.A9)
1995 Oct 16, Ethnic riots
continued for a second day in Nairobi, capital of Kenya, between the
Luos and the Nubians.
(WSJ, 10/17/95, A1)
1995 Oct 16, Bosnian Serb leader
Karadzic fired four generals for battlefield losses. Appeals were made
to Serbian leader Milosevic for protection.
(WSJ, 10/17/95, A1)
1995 Oct 16-18, Richard Holbrooke
and other international mediators met in Moscow and traveled to the
main capitals of the former Yugoslavia. The US named the
Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton, Ohio, as the site for the
peace talks.
(SFC,10/16/97, p.A12)
1996 Oct 16, The “Day of
Atonement” rally, a one year commemoration of the million-man-march,
was led by Louis Farrakhan near the UN in New York and about 25
thousand attended.
(SFC, 10/17/96, A3)
1996 Oct 16, Republican Bob Dole
challenged President Clinton's ethics and honesty in their final debate.
(AP, 10/16/97)
1996 Oct 16, In Australia it was
reported that fossilized footprints of a stegosaurus dinosaur were
discovered stolen last week from Aboriginal grounds near Broome.
(SFC, 10/16/96, p.A10)
1996 Oct 16, In Australia the
Senate called for self-determination in East Timor and supported
independence from Jakarta. The government had earlier recognized the
incorporation of East Timor into Indonesia.
(SFC, 10/17/96, A11)
1996 Oct 16, The Council of
Europe, a promoter of democracy and human rights admitted Croatia as
its 40th member.
(SFC, 10/17/96, A11)
1996 Oct 16, In Egypt two girls, 4
& 3, died from bleeding after being circumcised at their homes by a
government doctor.
(SFC, 10/17/96, A11)
1996 Oct 16, Soccer fans at a
World Cup qualifying match trying to squeeze into Mateo Flores National
Stadium in Guatemala City stampeded, killing [83] 84 people. 180 were
injured.
(SFC, 10/17/96, A1)(AP, 10/16/97)
1996 Oct 16, In Somalia an
agreement was reached by faction leaders Hussein Aidid, Ali Mahdi
Mohamed and Ali Hassan Osman Atto, to implement a peace accord.
(SFC, 10/17/96, A11)
1997 Oct 16, Pres. Clinton
designated Argentina a “non-NATO ally” during a speech in Buenos Aires.
(SFC,10/17/97, p.A25)
1997 Oct 16, US doctors reported
that a Georgia woman (39) was first to give birth using a frozen egg in
the US. The egg was supplied by a woman (29) and had been frozen
for 25 months before it was thawed and fertilized.
(SFC,10/17/97, p.A3)(AP, 10/16/98)
1997 Oct 16, In Humboldt County,
Ca., 4 protestors staged a sit-in in the office of Republican
Representative Frank Riggs in Eureka. Sheriff’s deputies applied pepper
spray directly to the eyes of the protestors using cotton swabs and
Q-tips.
(SFC,10/31/97, p.A15)
1997 Oct 16, James A. Michener,
American novelist, died at 90 in Texas. He wrote some 47 books that
began with “Tales of the South Pacific” in 1947.
(SFC,10/17/97, p.A1,17)(AP, 10/16/98)
1997 Oct 16, It was reported that
the US Agency for Int’l. Development donated $1 million to Bosnian Serb
Pres. Biljana Plavsic for reconstruction in Banja Luka.
(SFC,10/16/97, p.A14)
1997 Oct 16, Bosnian Serb
hard-liners launched a guerrilla-style TV broadcast and attacked the
West’s efforts to silence them.
(SFC,10/17/97, p.D2)
1998 Oct 16, The Nobel Peace Prize
was awarded to John Hume, head of the Irish Catholic Social Democratic
and Labor Party, and to David Trimble, leader of the Protestant Ulster
Unionist Party.
(SFEC, 10/18/98, p.D1)(AP, 10/16/99)
1998 Oct 16, Congress passed
legislation to extend copyrights for corporations to 95 years from 75,
and for individuals to 70 years after death, rather than 50. It became
known as the Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act. In 2003 the
Supreme Court upheld the extension.
(SFC, 10/17/98, p.A1)(NW, 10/21/02, p.40)(SFC,
1/16/03, p.A1)
1998 Oct 16, It was reported that
a growing number of lobsters in Maine were being found sick and dying
from undetermined causes.
(SFC, 10/17/98, p.C1)
1998 Oct 16, In Brazil imports
exceeded exports by over 4% of the economy and the inflation rate
exceeded that of the US. This indicated that the real was overpriced
and that devaluation was needed.
(WSJ, 10/16/98, p.A1)
1998 Oct 16, After receiving a
Spanish extradition warrant, British police arrested former Chilean
dictator Augusto Pinochet in London for questioning about allegations
that he had murdered Spanish citizens during his years in power.
Pinochet was held for 16 months as courts decided whether he could be
extradited to Spain; he was allowed in 2000 to return to Chile, where a
court later held that he could not face charges because of his
deteriorating health and mental condition.
(AP, 10/16/03)
1998 Oct 16, In Colombia red ants,
called “crazy ants” by farmers in the Santander and Boyaca provinces,
had destroyed some 10,000 acres of crops and threatened an additional
100,000 acres.
(SFC, 10/17/98, p.C1)
1998 Oct 16, In the Republic of
Congo a court indicted 100 members of the recently ousted government on
charges of assassination, torture, rape, fraud and theft.
(SFC, 10/17/98, p.A14)
1998 Oct 16, It was reported that
Bobi Ladawa Mobutu, wife of Mobutu Sese Seko, and son, Nazanga, had
established a Mobutu Family Foundation to carry out charitable programs
in the US and Africa for young Africans. The former dictator was
believed to have taken $10 billion from the Congo.
(SFC, 10/16/98, p.A14)
1998 Oct 16, Lawmakers in Ecuador
and Peru agreed to let their border dispute be resolved by the US,
Brazil, Chile and Argentina.
(SFC, 10/17/98, p.A14)
1998 Oct 16, In Haiti a former
judge, Luckner Pierrex, was arrested for the 1982 slaying of journalist
Richard Brisson.
(SFC, 10/20/98, p.C12)
1998 Oct 16, In Italy Massimo
D’Alema, head of the Democratic Left Party, was asked by Pres. Scalfaro
to form a new government.
(SFC, 10/17/98, p.A13)
1998 Oct 16, In Japan the Diet
approved laws to pump $517 billion in public money into the country’s
cash-strapped banks.
(SFC, 10/17/98, p.A14)
1998 Oct 16, It was reported that
fires in Russia were burning in the Sikhote-Alin wildlife reserve and
threatened Siberian tigers of which only an estimated 450 remained.
(SFC, 10/17/98, p.C1)
1998 Oct 16, Serbian Pres.
Milosevic was given an additional 10 days to withdraw forces from
Kosovo and comply with UN demands.
(SFC, 10/17/98, p.A1)
1999 Oct 16, A New York Air
National Guard plane rescued Dr. Jerri Nielsen from a South Pole
research center after she’d spent five months isolated by the Antarctic
winter, which forced her to treat herself for a breast lump.
(AP, 10/16/00)
1999 Oct 16, Hurricane Irene
rumbled up the East Coast.
(AP, 10/16/00)
1999 Oct 16, A 7.0 earthquake,
centered near Joshua Tree, Ca., struck in the Mohave Desert. An Amtrak
train was derailed, but there were no deaths.
(SFEC, 10/17/99, p.A1)(WSJ, 10/18/99, p.A1)
1999 Oct 16, Jean Shepherd, radio
personality, died in Sanibel, Florida, at age 78. His syndicated PBS TV
programs included "Jean Shepherd's America" and "Shepherd's Pie."
(SFEC, 10/17/99, p.D10)(AP, 10/16/00)
1999 Oct 16, In Afghanistan the
Taliban rejected the UN ultimatum to surrender Osama bin Laden and
castigated the UN for threatening sanctions.
(SFEC, 10/17/99, p.A22)
1999 Oct 16, The 1st graduate
class of the Kosovo Police Service School was honored in Pristina.
(SFEC, 10/17/99, p.A21)
2000 Oct 16, The New York Mets
beat the St. Louis Cardinals 7-to-0 to win the National League
championship series four games to one.
(AP, 10/16/01)
2000 Oct 16, President Clinton
launched a fresh effort to try to cool Middle East tensions at an
emergency summit in Egypt that included Israeli and Palestinian
leaders, as well as the leaders of Egypt and Jordan and U.N.
Secretary-General Kofi Annan.
(AP, 10/16/01)
2000 Oct 16, Louis Farrakhan
planned a one million family march in Washington to seek spiritual
strength and political empowerment. Thousands gathered in the National
Mall to celebrate the American family.
(SFC, 10/14/00, p.A3)(SFC, 10/17/00, p.A3)
2000 Oct 16, Missouri Gov. Mel
Carnahan, his son, Roger Carnahan, and chief of staff Chris Sifford
were killed in a plane crash near St. Louis. Roger Carnahan piloted the
twin-engine Cessna in stormy weather.
(SFC, 10/17/00, p.A1)(SFC, 10/18/00, p.A3)
2000 Oct 16, The Chinese press
endorsed the building of a $12 billion river project to divert water
from the Yangtze north to the Yellow River.
(SFC, 10/19/00, p.C3)
2000 Oct 16, A Middle East summit
was planned to begin at Sharm el-Sheikh in Egypt. Violent
demonstrations continued in the West Bank and Gaza and 2 Palestinians
were killed.
(SFEC, 10/15/00, p.A1)(SFC, 10/17/00, p.A13)
2000 Oct 16, Israel announced the
kidnapping by Hizbullah of Elchanan Tannenbaum (b.1946), a colonel in
Israel’s reserves. He was kidnapped in Dubai and taken to Lebanon.
Tannenbaum was released in January 2004 as part of a prisoner swap with
Hezbollah. The swap exchanged 435 prisoners held by Israel in return
for Tannenbaum's release and the return of the bodies of 3 soldiers
killed during an ambush along the Israeli-Lebanese border.
(Econ, 9/6/08,
p.99)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elchanan_Tennenbaum)
2000 Oct 16, In Lagos, Nigeria,
over 100 people died in clashes between Hausas and Yorubas. Most of the
dead were believed to be Hausas.
(SFC, 10/17/00, p.A16)(WSJ, 10/18/00, p.A1)(SFC,
10/20/00, p.D8)
2000 Oct 16, Milosevic allies
agreed to share power until elections. A German newspaper reported that
the Milosevic family had $100 million in foreign accounts with some of
the money from drug trafficking. Swiss authorities had already frozen
100 bank accounts worth $57 million linked to Milosevic and his allies.
(WSJ, 10/17/00, p.A1)(SFC, 10/21/00, p.A12)
2000 Oct 16, In Spain Col. Antonio
Munoz Carinanos (58), a military doctor, was killed in Seville by 3
suspected Basque gunmen. 2 suspects were arrested.
(WSJ, 10/17/00, p.A1)(SFC, 10/18/00, p.A26)
2000 Oct 16, Hundreds rampaged in
eastern Harare over food prices. Opposition leaders called for the
resignation of Pres. Mugabe.
(SFC, 10/17/00, p.A16)(SFC, 10/18/00, p.A26)
2001 Oct 16, A wing of the US
Senate building was closed following confirmation that a letter to Sen.
Tom Daschle, D-S.D., carried anthrax. It was later found that the
anthrax contained the additive bentonite to enhance suspension in air.
12 Senate offices were closed as hundreds of staffers underwent anthrax
tests.
(SFC, 10/17/01, p.A1)(SFC, 10/25/01, p.A1)(WSJ,
10/26/01, p.A1)(AP, 10/16/02)
2001 Oct 16, Over 100 aircraft
struck targets in Afghanistan and 2 gunships fired on Taliban and al
Qaeda troops. U.S. bombs struck the Red Cross compound in Afghanistan,
injuring a guard.
(WSJ, 10/17/01, p.A1)(AP, 10/16/02)
2001 Oct 16, It was reported that
the US strategy in the bombing of Afghanistan was failing because it
contradicted a Pashtun code of honor known as Pashtunwali. Central to
the code is nang, where death is taught to be preferable to a life
without honor. A 2nd tenet called badal, revenge, taught that only way
to redeem honor is to avenge it. A 3rd tenet called melmastiya,
hospitality, was exploited by Osama bin Laden as a guest in the country.
(SFC, 10/16/01, p.A17)
2001 Oct 16, US Customs at JFK
found $140,763 in the luggage of Basam Nahshal who was bound for Yemen.
A 2nd man Ali Alfatimi claimed the money was his and was being smuggled
to Yemen as part of his travel business.
(SFC, 10/20/01, p.A5)
2001 Oct 16, Robert Durst failed
to appear for a court hearing in the dismemberment death of Morris
Black (71) in Galveston, Texas. Durst was also a suspect in the Dec,
2000, shooting death of author Susan Berman. In 1982 Kathleen Durst
(29) had disappeared after spending a weekend at the family cottage in
South Salem. Robert Durst, her husband, reported her missing Feb 5.
Durst was arrested Nov 30, 2001, in Bethlehem, Pa., for shoplifting. A
Texas jury acquitted Durst of Black's murder in 2003.
(SFC, 10/13/01, p.A15)(SFC, 12/1/01, p.A3)(SFC,
11/12/03, p.A1)
2001 Oct 16, Enron Corp. reported
a 3rd quarter loss of $618 million and reduced shareholder equity by
$1.2 billion to account for transactions involving limited partnerships.
(SSFC, 1/20/02, p.A18)
2001 Oct 16, Etta Jones (72), jazz
vocalist, died in Manhattan.
(SFC, 10/18/01, p.A21)
2001 Oct 16, In Israel PM Sharon
said he would accept the creation of a Palestinian state if Israeli
security needs were met.
(WSJ, 10/17/01, p.A1)
2001 Oct 16, It was reported that
flooding in North Korea had killed at least 81 people and damaged vast
amounts of cropland over the last week. This portended an 8th year of
food shortages.
(WSJ, 10/16/01, p.A1)
2002 Oct 16, President Bush signed
a congressional resolution authorizing war against Iraq.
(AP, 10/16/07)
2002 Oct 16, A Bush administration
official reported that North Korea had told the United States it has a
secret nuclear weapons program in violation of a 1994 agreement signed
with the Clinton administration.
(AP, 10/16/02)(SFC, 10/17/02, p.A1)
2002 Oct 16, The US offered a
compromise proposal at the UN that called for serious consequences if
Iraq does not comply with weapons inspections.
(SFC, 10/17/02, p.A1)
2002 Oct 16, In Baltimore Angela
Dawson (36) burned to death with 4 of her children after a drug pusher,
Darrell Brooks (21), set fire to her home. Carnell Dawson Sr. (43) died
from his burns Oct 23.
(SFC, 10/18/02, p.A3)(SFC, 10/24/02, p.A6)
2002 Oct 16, In Colombia more than
1,000 police and soldiers backed by helicopter gunships stormed Comuna
13, a violence-plagued neighborhood in Medellin, exchanging heavy fire
with leftist rebels. Authorities said at least nine people were killed,
including a 16-year-old boy. In 2009 Diego Fernando Murillo, a
Colombian warlord awaiting sentencing in New York City after pleading
guilty to drug-trafficking charges, said former army chief Gen. Mario
Montoya mounted the joint operation with his illegal, far-right militia.
(AP, 10/16/02)(SFC, 10/17/02,
p.A16)(www.colombiajournal.org/colombia137.htm)(AP, 3/3/09)
2002 Oct 16, Egypt inaugurated the
new $230 million Bibliotheca Alexandrina, a modern version of the
ancient library known for a freedom of thought and expression lacking
in today's Middle East. It was funded mostly by Iraq, the UAR and Saudi
Arabia. The planned capacity was 4 million books.
(SFC, 5/30/02, p.D11)(AP, 10/16/02)
2002 Oct 16, Rebels controlling
the northern half of Ivory Coast agreed to a truce with the government
they attempted to overthrow.
(AP, 10/16/02)
2002 Oct 16, In Jamaica Prime
Minister P.J. Patterson's party became the country's first leader
elected to three straight terms. Jamaicans turned out in large numbers
to vote despite pelting rains and concerns of violence in an election
they hoped would revive a sagging economy and ease spiraling crime.
(AP, 10/17/02)
2002 Oct 16, The Dutch government
collapsed amid infighting in the List party.
(WSJ, 10/17/02, p.A1)
2002 Oct 16, Paraguay's vice
president Julio Cesar Franco resigned after months of political
feuding, to meet a deadline to run for the presidency.
(AP, 10/16/02)
203 Oct 16, The New York Yankees
won the American League Championship Series, defeating the Boston Red
Sox 6-5 in Game 7.
(AP, 10/16/04)
2003 Oct 16, Pres. Bush met with
Calif. Gov-elect Arnold Schwarzenegger during a stopover at the start
of a weeklong trip to Asia and Australia.
(ST, 10/17/03, p.A5)
2003 Oct 16, The Bridgeport, Conn.
Diocese announced a $21 million settlement with 40 people who said they
had been molested by priests when they were children.
(SFC, 10/17/03, p.A7)
2003 Oct 16, Alan Mulally, CEO of
Boeing, announced that production of the Boeing 757 would end in late
2004.
(ST, 10/17/03, p.A1)
2003 Oct 16, In Azerbaijan rioting
protesters clashed with police in the capital, Baku, after Ilham Aliev
was elected to succeed his father as president. At least 2 people were
reported killed. The vote was marred by fraud. Closest rival Isa Gambar
had 11% of the vote.
(AP, 10/16/03)(SFC, 10/16/03, p.A3)(ST, 10/17/03,
p.A14)
2003 Oct 16, Canada's 2
conservative parties agreed to unite to give the governing Liberal
Party a competitive race in 2004 national elections.
(SFC, 10/17/03, p.A3)
2003 Oct 16, In northern Colombia
suspected paramilitary gunmen shot and killed Esperanza Amaris
(40), a women's rights activist.
(AP, 10/17/03)
2003 Oct 16, Iraqi police backed
by American tanks forced out the renegade Sadr City council.
(WSJ, 10/20/03, p.A9)
22003 Oct 16, In Iraq 3 American
soldiers were killed during a clash at a Shiite Muslim cleric's
headquarters in Karbala.
(AP, 10/16/04)
2003 Oct 16, Laos and Thailand
signed a pact aimed at stamping out border attacks by unknown militants.
(ST, 10/17/03, p.A13)
2003 Oct 16, Malaysian Prime
Minister Mahathir Mohamad told a summit of Islamic leaders that "Jews
rule the world by proxy" and the world's 1.3 billion Muslims should
unite, using nonviolent means for a "final victory."
(AP, 10/16/03)
2003 Oct 16, Palestinian police
arrested 7 suspects in Jebaliya for a deadly attack on US diplomats,
briefly exchanging fire with the militants during a nighttime raid. The
suspects were members of the Popular Resistance Committees, a group of
dozens of armed men from various factions, former members of the
security forces and disgruntled followers of Yasser Arafat.
(AP, 10/16/03)(WSJ, 10/17/03, p.A1)
2003 Oct 16, The UN Security
Council unanimously adopted a resolution aimed at attracting aid to
stabilize Iraq and putting it on the road to independence.
(AP, 10/16/03)
2003 Oct 16, Pope John Paul II
celebrated his 25th anniversary, reaching a milestone matched by only
three of his predecessors.
(AP, 10/16/03)
2004 Oct 16, In Arizona a stolen
truck filled with suspected illegal immigrants sped away from deputies
and rolled over at a busy intersection near an Army post, causing an
11-car crash that killed six people and seriously injured 15.
(AP, 10/17/04)
2004 Oct 16, Pierre Salinger (79),
who served as press secretary to US presidents Kennedy and Johnson,
died of a heart attack near his home in Le Thon, France.
(AP, 10/16/05)
2004 Oct 16, Congo Pres. Joseph
Kabila visited northeastern territory formerly held by rebels. The army
claimed to have retaken a village near Zambia and killed at least 20
militiamen.
(AP, 10/16/04)
2004 Oct 16, In India the ruling
Congress party won power in Maharashtra, a victory that will boost the
fortunes of Italian-born Sonia Gandhi's party and strengthen PM
Manmohan Singh's minority national coalition.
(AP, 10/16/04)
2004 Oct 16, In Iraq a Fallujah
delegation offered to resume peace talks with the government if the US
ceases attacks against the city and releases the chief negotiator. 2 US
Army helicopters crashed in Baghdad and 2 soldiers were killed.
(AP, 10/16/04)(SSFC, 10/17/04, p.A3)
2004 Oct 16, Russia’s Soyuz
spacecraft was forced to manually dock with the international space
station after it closed in on the station at a dangerously high speed.
(AP, 10/16/05)
2004 Oct 16, Saudi security forces
captured four suspected militants in the Khaleej neighborhood of Riyadh.
(AP, 10/17/04)
2005 Oct 16, The Chicago White Sox
beat the Los Angeles Angels 6-3 to win the American League Championship
Series in five games, their first pennant since 1959.
(AP, 10/16/06)
2005 Oct 16, In Wisconsin a bus
carrying Chippewa Falls High School students home from a band
competition collided with a semi truck, killing five passengers near
Osseo.
(AP, 10/16/05)
2005 Oct 16, In SF Andre Daniels
(31) was robbed and his wife was raped at 73 Brookdale Ave, in the
Sunnyside housing project in Visitacion Valley. Daniels identified
Laron Lewis (26) as one of the assailants and a tip led police to
Damien Ramond (23). On May 20, 2007, Daniels was shot and killed
outside his unit at the Alice Griffith project in the Bayview district.
His death doomed the sexual assault case against Lewis and Ramond.
(SSFC, 11/23/08, p.A14)
2005 Oct 16, Elmer "Len" Dresslar
Jr. (80), the booming voice of the Jolly Green Giant, died.
(AP, 10/16/06)
2005 Oct 16, Gordon Lee (b.1933),
child actor who played Porky in the “Our Gang” shorts (Little Rascals),
died in Minneapolis, Min. Porky was the little brother of Spanky
McFarland.
(SFC, 10/22/05, p.B5)
2005 Oct 16, Afghanistan's
election authority announced final results for two of the country's 34
provinces as hundreds of protestors blocked roads in two key cities
alleging fraud in the count. Officials said election authorities have
fired about 50 employees for suspected fraud in last month's
legislative polls. About 3% of votes, have been taken out of the
counting process because of suspicions that they were stuffed.
(AP, 10/16/05)(AFP, 10/16/05)
2005 Oct 16, In Argentina a fire
apparently set by rebellious inmates swept through a prison southeast
of Buenos Aires, killing at least 17 inmates.
(AP, 10/16/05)
2005 Oct 16, Britain’s Sunday
Telegraph said satellite broadcaster BSkyB will muscle in on the
lucrative Internet broadband market by announcing next week the
takeover of Easynet, the London-listed telecoms company.
(AP, 10/16/05)
2005 Oct 16, In China top US
economic officials, led by Treasury Secretary John Snow and Federal
Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan, began talks with their Chinese
counterparts on rancorous economic issues, including Beijing's currency
controls and its huge and growing trade surplus. This is the 17th
meeting of the U.S.-China Joint Economic Commission since the forum was
founded in 1979 to thrash out economic issues.
(AP, 10/16/05)
2005 Oct 16, Iraq's constitution
seemed assured of passage despite strong opposition from Sunni Arabs,
who voted in surprisingly high numbers in an effort to stop it.
(AP, 10/16/05)
2005 Oct 16, Italy held primaries
to select the center-left's candidate to challenge conservative Premier
Silvio Berlusconi in next year's election. Former Italian premier
Romano Prodi made a sweeping victory in a nationwide primary.
(AP, 10/16/05)(AP, 10/17/05)
2005 Oct 16, In Italy center-left
politician Francesco Fortugno was shot as he voted in a nationwide
primary in the small Calabrian town of Locri. In March 2006 police
arrested 5 suspects in Reggio Calabria.
(AP, 10/22/05)(AP, 3/21/06)
2005 Oct 16, A Japanese newspaper
reported that the US and Japan have reached a basic agreement on
relocating two US military bases on the southern island of Okinawa,
where the US presence has frequently provoked protests.
(AP, 10/16/05)
2005 Oct 16, Palestinian gunmen
killed three Israelis and wounded five in drive-by attacks near Jewish
settlements.
(AP, 10/17/05)
2005 Oct 16, Alexander Slesarev, a
Russian businessman believed to be the true owner of Sodbiznesbank, was
shot to death outside Moscow along with his wife and young daughter.
(http://english.pravda.ru/topic/Kozlov-264/)(WSJ,
9/22/06, p.A6)
2005 Oct 16, Rebels and Sudanese
forces clashed in North Darfur with artillery fire killing a number of
civilians.
(AP, 10/17/05)
2005 Oct 16, Polish television
broadcast a recorded interview with Pope Benedict XVI, who said that he
planned to visit Poland, the homeland of his predecessor, John Paul II
(it's believed to be the first TV interview by a pope).
(AP, 10/16/06)
2005 Oct 16, In Syria a
pro-democracy group issued the Damascus Declaration for Democratic
National Change. The group came to be called the Damascus Declaration.
(AP, 10/29/08)(http://tinyurl.com/5jc9vh)
2005 Oct 16, In Tanzania 4 British
tourists and a Canadian pilot who were killed in a weekend plane crash
in the western part of the country.
(AFP, 10/18/05)
2005 Oct 16, In southern Thailand
about 20 suspected Muslim separatists stormed a monastery, hacked an
elderly Buddhist monk to death and fatally shot two temple boys.
(AP, 10/17/05)
2006 Oct 16, President Bush
personally assured Iraqi PM Nouri al-Maliki by phone that he had set no
timetable for pulling troops out of Iraq.
(AP, 10/16/07)
2006 Oct 16, A lawyer said Lester
Crawford, former US Food and Drug Administration Commissioner who
resigned last year, will plead guilty to two counts of misdemeanor over
his ownership of stock in companies regulated by the agency.
(Reuters, 10/16/06)
2006 Oct 16, Lynne Stewart, a
firebrand civil rights lawyer, was sentenced in New York to 28 months
in prison for helping an imprisoned terrorist sheik communicate with
his followers on the outside.
(AP, 10/16/07)
2006 Oct 16, The US Defense Dept.
said that it would resume mandatory anthrax immunizations for military
personnel serving in Iraq, Afghanistan and South Korea.
(SFC, 10/17/06, p.A11)
2006 Oct 16, California’s Gov.
Schwarzenegger announced that he was planning to set up an
emissions-trading scheme between California and other states to try to
curb the output of greenhouse gases.
(Econ, 10/21/06, p.14)
2006 Oct 16, In southeast Texas
heavy rains and a tornado left 3 people dead.
(WSJ, 10/17/06, p.A1)
2006 Oct 16, Suicide bombers
struck in Afghanistan's two main cities, killing three civilians and
wounding six. Elsewhere, seven suspected militants died in fighting
with coalition and NATO forces.
(AP, 10/16/06)
2006 Oct 16, Australia said it
will ban North Korean ships from entering its ports, toughening its
response to the North's reported nuclear test.
(AP, 10/16/06)
2006 Oct 16, Queen Elizabeth II
kicked off her first-ever visit to the Baltic states as Lithuania’s PM
Gediminas Kirkilas welcomed the British monarch to the northern
European region.
(AP, 10/16/06)
2006 Oct 16, The biggest
underwater gas pipeline in the world, transporting gas from Norway 750
miles (1,200 kilometers) under the North Sea to Britain, was officially
opened by PM Tony Blair and PM Jens Stoltenberg. Construction of the
pipeline by Norwegian firm Hydro began in 2004. The Langeled pipeline
is expected to supply one fifth of Britain's total gas requirements in
the coming decades.
(AP, 10/16/06)
2006 Oct 16, In northern China a
fire in a coal mine trapped 28 miners.
(AP, 10/16/06)
2006 Oct 16, A US-based rights
group accused soldiers in Congo's postwar, national-unity army of
abducting civilians and forcing them to serve as personal attendants
and mine workers in the troubled Central African country.
(AP, 10/16/06)
2006 Oct 16, In Costa Rica several
operators of Internet gambling sites known as "sportsbooks" say their
businesses will not be significantly affected by a new US law
prohibiting bank and credit card payments to the sites.
(AP, 10/16/06)
2006 Oct 16, Egypt's President
Hosni Mubarak and Libyan leader Moamer Kadhafi held talks on how to
resolve the Darfur crisis in Sudan without intervention from outside
Africa.
(AFP, 10/16/06)
2006 Oct 16, The UN accused
Eritrea of moving 1,500 troops and 14 tanks into a buffer zone
established after a 2 1/2-year border war with Ethiopia in "a major
breach" of a cease-fire agreement reached in 2000.
(AP, 10/16/06)
2006 Oct 16, Guatemala topped
Venezuela in the first round of voting for a UN Security Council seat,
but it failed to get the necessary two-thirds majority to win a
two-year term on the decision-making body. The 192-nation General
Assembly elected South Africa, Indonesia, Italy and Belgium for the
four other open seats in a secret ballot. 10 rounds of voting failed to
anoint a winner to fill the spot reserved for Latin America.
(AP, 10/16/06)(AP, 10/17/06)
2006 Oct 16, In central Indonesia
an unidentified gunman killed a Christian priest, where religious
tensions have been mounting since the executions last month of three
Roman Catholic militants.
(AP, 10/16/06)
2006 Oct 16, Saddam Hussein issued
an open letter, saying Iraq's "liberation is at hand" and calling for
an end to sectarian killings. The brother of the prosecutor in his
genocide trial was shot to death at home, the latest death linked to
proceedings against the deposed leader. Unidentified gunmen in police
uniforms hijacked 13 civilian cars and abducted their occupants at a
checkpoint outside Balad after the post had shut down for the night.
Sunnis fleeing Balad across the Tigris River to Duluiyah said Shiite
police in the city had teamed up with death squads who killed at least
74 Sunnis. A pair of roadside bombs exploded near a bank in central
Baghdad, killing a policeman, while the bullet-riddled bodies of eight
men were found dumped around the Iraqi capital overnight. Across Iraq
bombings and shootings killed at least 32 people, including 10 who died
in shootings in the predominantly Shiite city of Basra. In Karmah a
roadside bomb killed five Iraqi soldiers as their convoy passed through
the town. Gunmen stormed into the house of a Shiite family in Balad
Ruz, 45 miles northeast of Baghdad before dawn, killing the mother and
four adult sons and injuring the father. 708 Iraqis have been reported
killed in war-related violence this month, or more than 44 a day.
(AP, 10/16/06)(AP, 10/17/06)
2006 Oct 16, Cocoa farmers across
Ivory Coast went on strike, holding back their crops to protest low
retail prices and high export taxes in a move that could affect the
world market.
(AP, 10/16/06)
2006 Oct 16, In Moldova an appeals
court overturned a guilty verdict against the former defense minister,
clearing him of charges he sold 21 fighter planes too cheaply to the
US. Valeriu Pasat, who was defense minister from 1997 to 1999 and head
of the country's spy services from 1999 to 2002, claimed the case
against him was politically motivated because of his support for a
movement opposed to Communist President Vladimir Voronin.
(AP, 10/16/06)
2006 Oct 16, In central Myanmar
Thet Win Aung (34), who had been serving a 59-year sentence since 1998
after protesting for educational reform, died in jail.
(AP, 10/18/06)
2006 Oct 16, In Nigeria
legislators in southwest Ekiti state voted to remove Gov. Ayo Fayose on
after finding him guilty of siphoning state funds into personal bank
accounts and receiving kickbacks.
(AP, 10/19/06)
2006 Oct 16, Eight Pakistanis
released from US detention facilities in Afghanistan and Guantanamo
Bay, Cuba, returned home.
(AP, 10/16/06)
2006 Oct 16, In Peru former
President Valentin Paniagua (69) died. The unassuming former law
professor shepherded Peru back to democracy as interim president
following the 2000 collapse of Alberto Fujimori's autocratic regime.
Paniagua governed Peru from November 2000 to July 2001.
(AP, 10/16/06)
2006 Oct 16, Russia demanded that
the US lift sanctions against two Russian companies accused of making
deals with Iran involving sensitive technology and hinted that a US
refusal could affect negotiations on a U.N. sanctions resolution
against Tehran.
(AP, 10/16/06)
2006 Oct 16, The business chief of
Russian state news agency Itar-Tass was found knifed to death at his
flat in central Moscow. Police in Russia’s North Caucasus region of
Ingushetia arrested rights activists and violently broke up a rally in
memory of slain reporter Anna Politkovskaya.
(AP, 10/16/06)(Reuters, 10/16/06)
2006 Oct 16, In Sri Lanka Tamil
rebels rammed a truck packed with explosives into a convoy of military
buses, killing at least 103 people and wounding 150 more in one of the
deadliest insurgent attacks since the 2002 cease-fire.
(AFP, 10/16/06)
2006 Oct 16, Sweden’s Culture
Minister Cecilia Stego Chilo issued a statement saying she could not
carry out her duties after it was revealed that she evaded taxes by
paying a nanny under the table and failed to pay her mandatory TV
license fee. Surveys showed about one-third of Swedes have bought
"black market services," mostly for cleaning, painting or carpentry
jobs. Hiring a cleaner legally costs around $40 an hour, including
taxes, while a black market hire will do the job for less than $14,
tax-free.
(AP, 10/16/06)(AP, 10/20/06)
2007 Oct 16,
President Bush and the Dalai Lama met with a ceremony planned for
tomorrow to award the spiritual leader the Congressional Gold Medal.
China warned that the events are bad for US-Chinese ties.
(AP, 10/16/07)
2007 Oct 16, In California a
blinding sandstorm north of Los Angeles caused a pileup of some 15
vehicles leaving at least 2 people dead and 16 injured.
(SFC, 10/17/07, p.B4)
2007 Oct 16, The Oakland, Ca., the
City Council adopted an ordnance banning smoking in ATM lines, parks,
bus stops and municipal golf courses.
(SFC, 10/17/07, p.B1)
2007 Oct 16, Oil prices reached
another record high closing at 87.61 per barrel in the NY Mercantile
Exchange.
(SFC, 10/17/07, p.C1)
2007 Oct 16, A Taliban ambush on a
police patrol in southern Afghanistan left one officer dead and four
others wounded.
(AP, 10/17/07)
2007 Oct 16, Barbara West Dainton
(96), believed to be one of the last two survivors from the sinking of
the Titanic in 1912, died in Camborne, England.
(AP, 10/16/08)
2007 Oct 16, British actress
Deborah Kerr (b.1921) died. She shared one of cinema's most famous
kisses with Burt Lancaster in "From Here to Eternity" (1953). Her many
films included “The King and I” with Yul Brynner.
(AP, 10/18/07)(SFC, 10/19/07, p.A11)
2007 Oct 16,
Burundi's last active rebel group said it will shun a weekend
meeting to put the central African nation's derailed peace process back
on track as the South African mediator was biased.
(AP, 10/16/07)
2007 Oct 16,
Chad's government declared a state of emergency along its eastern
border with Sudan's Darfur and in its remote desert north to tackle a
fresh flare-up of ethnic violence that killed at least 20 people.
(AP, 10/16/07)
2007 Oct 16, A boat from Guatemala
with over 20 migrants capsized. Mexican authorities by the end of the
week recovered the bodies of 15 migrants. The vessel was believed to be
carrying more than 20 people. There were 2 survivors.
(AP, 10/21/07)
2007 Oct 16,
A study in Hong Kong reportedly found that Lupeol, a compound in
fruits like mangoes, grapes and strawberries, appears to be effective
in killing and curbing the spread of cancer cells in the head and neck.
(Reuters, 10/16/07)
2007 Oct 16,
India and Nigeria reaffirmed their stance in favor of UN Security
Council reform and signed up to a slew of cooperation agreements on day
two of a state visit to Nigeria by Indian PM Manmohan Singh.
(AP, 10/16/07)
2007 Oct 16, India's PM Manmohan
Singh raised fresh doubts about a landmark nuclear energy accord with
the US, telling President Bush that his government is having "certain
difficulties" finalizing the deal, which has faced mounting domestic
opposition.
(AP, 10/16/07)
2007 Oct 16, In
Iran Russian leader Vladimir Putin met his Iranian
counterpart and implicitly warned the US not to use a former Soviet
republic to stage an attack on Iran. He also said nations should not
pursue oil pipeline projects that are not backed by regional powers.
(AP, 10/16/07)
2007 Oct 16,
A car bomb exploded near an Iraqi army checkpoint in Baghdad,
killing at least six people and wounding 25.
(AP, 10/16/07)
2007 Oct 16, Anne Enright, Irish
author, won the Man Booker prize for her novel “The Gathering.”
(SFC, 10/17/07, p.A2)
2007 Oct 16,
Japan, Myanmar's largest aid donor, said it had canceled a
multimillion dollar grant to protest the military-ruled nation's
crackdown on pro-democracy demonstrators.
(AP, 10/16/07)
2007 Oct 16, Libya, a former
pariah state condemned by the U.S. as a sponsor of terrorism, won a
seat on the UN Security Council without opposition from the Bush
administration.
(AP, 10/16/07)
2007 Oct 16, In Myanmar relatives
said 5 pro-democracy activists had been sentenced to long jail terms.
(WSJ, 10/17/07, p.A1)
2007 Oct 16, A revolt at a Russian
prison for minors, in the Sverdlovsk region in the Ural Mountains,
swelled into a mass uprising that left two people dead and buildings
gutted before guards and riot police restored order.
(AP, 10/17/07)
2007 Oct 16, In Sudan 2 truck
drivers working for the UN's World Food Program were killed in an
ambush near the South Darfur town of Ed Daien. A 3rd was killed on Oct
12.
(AP, 10/17/07)
2008 Oct 16, The US FDA said it
would open its first office in China before the end of the year. Over
60 FDA would be placed world-wide over the next year.
(SFC, 10/17/08, p.A4)
2008 Oct 16, Nasdaq filed with the
SEC to temporarily suspend rules to remove securities trading below a
dollar. The Sec approved the change effective this day.
(SFC, 10/25/08, p.C1)
2008 Oct 16, The annual TED prize
was awarded to Sylvia Earl, Deep ocean explorer; Jill Cornell Tarter,
astronomer; and Jose Antonio Abreu, classical music maestro.
(SFC, 10/17/08, p.C3)
2008 Oct 16, Hawaii state
officials said they will stop giving health coverage to the 2,000
children enrolled by Nov. 1, but private partner Hawaii Medical Service
Association will pay to extend their coverage through the end of the
year without government support. Hawaii lawmakers had approved the
health plan in 2007 as a way to ensure every child can get basic
medical help.
(AP, 10/17/08)
2008 Oct 16, The Hubble Space
Telescope went into the final stages of recovery after NASA
successfully bypassed a faulty computer and resurrected an 18-year-old
spare from orbital hibernation.
(Reuters, 10/16/08)
2008 Oct 16, Edie Adams (b.1927),
actress and singer, died. The blonde beauty had won a Tony Award for
bringing Daisy Mae to life on Broadway and played the television foil
to her husband, comedian Ernie Kovacs.
(AP, 10/17/08)
2008 Oct 16, In southern
Afghanistan an insurgent's rocket hit Lashkar Gah, capital of the
world's largest opium producing region, killing a civilian and wounding
five other people. An Afghan policeman killed a US soldier on foot
patrol in Paktika province and a second international troop was killed
by a mortar in another "possible friendly fire" incident. Air strikes
in the Nad Ali district of Helmand province reportedly killed 17
civilians. 18 insurgents were killed in fighting in Kunar province.
(AP, 10/16/08)(AFP, 10/16/08)(SFC, 10/18/08, p.A9)
2008 Oct 16, Brazil's President
Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva arrived in Mozambique to launch a project to
make anti-AIDS drugs in the southern African country.
(AP, 10/17/08)
2008 Oct 16, Around one million
Burundian children under the age of five suffer chronic malnutrition,
the UN food agency announced as it marked World Food Day in the tiny
central African nation.
(AP, 10/16/08)
2008 Oct 16, Cambodia and Thailand
agreed to joint patrols of disputed border areas after deadly clashes,
but made little progress toward resolving their long-standing
territorial spat.
(AFP, 10/16/08)
2008 Oct 16, Canadian police said
a bomb damaged a natural gas pipeline in British Columbia, describing
the overnight attack as the second of its kind in the same area in a
week.
(Reuters, 10/16/08)
2008 Oct 16, In Dubai a British
couple was sentenced to three months in jail in a case that has caused
controversy because the two were charged in July with having sex on the
beach. The Dubai Court of Appeals upheld the guilty verdict but
dropped the prison sentences for Michelle Palmer and Vince Acors,
though it ruled the couple must still be deported from the United Arab
Emirates and pay a fine of about $272 each.
(AP, 10/15/08)(AP, 11/25/08)
2008 Oct 16, The European
Commission announced 15 million euros (20 million dollars) of emergency
food aid for victims of drought and soaring food prices in five east
African countries. The biggest share will go to Ethiopia and Somalia
and smaller amounts to Kenya, Uganda and Djibouti.
(AFP, 10/16/08)
2008 Oct 16, The European Central
Bank extended emergency loans to Hungary’s central bank. The ECB said
it will lend up to $6.75 billion.
(SFC, 10/17/08, p.A5)
2008 Oct 16, The International
Committee of the Red Cross said Iran and Iraq have signed an agreement
to trace missing persons from the war between the two countries. About
1 million people died in the eight-year war that began when Saddam
Hussein launched an attack on Iran in 1980.
(AP, 10/16/08)
2008 Oct 16, A heavy sandstorm
turned Iraq's capital into a pinkish haze, sending dozens of people to
the hospital with respiratory problems and delaying a number of
international flights. The US military detained 2 more suspected
insurgents in raids targeting al-Qaida in Iraq's leadership in the
northern Iraqi city of Mosul. A US soldier was killed in Diyala
province.
(AP, 10/16/08)(SFC, 10/15/08, p.A9)
2008 Oct 16, Israeli troops shot
and killed a Palestinian man in Kufr Malek, a village near Ramallah. An
army patrol spotted three men carrying firebombs and troops shot one
man after the trio ignored warning shots. The other two escaped. A
Palestinian man died in a Ramallah hospital a day after being shot by
troops in the nearby Jelazoun refugee camp.
(AP, 10/16/08)
2008 Oct 16, Italian police
arrested Antonio Pelle (46), an alleged fugitive mobster, believed to
be the head of an organized crime clan involved in the slaying of six
people in Germany last year. His family was involved in a feud that led
to the Aug. 15, 2007 killing of six Italians outside a restaurant in
Duisburg, Germany.
(AP, 10/16/08)
2008 Oct 16, In Kenya violence
re-started between the Murule and Garre in Mandera town triggered by
need for space for 920 families displaced by flash floods. A security
operation was then set up to intervene following a request by the area
members of parliament when the conflict took a cross-border dimension
with one clan getting support from Al-Shabaab militants from Somalia.
In 2009 Human Rights Watch issued a 51-page report, called "Bring the
Gun or You'll Die," saying Kenyan security forces tortured hundreds of
civilians and raped at least a dozen women during a three-day operation
to disarm militias in the Mandera region.
(www.reliefweb.int/rw/rwb.nsf/db900SID/MYAI-7LQ47Q?OpenDocument)(AP,
6/29/09)
2008 Oct 16, Authorities in
Malaysia and Singapore said they will guarantee all foreign currency
and local currency bank deposits.
(WSJ, 10/17/08, p.A5)
2008 Oct 16, An influential
council of Malaysia's state rulers warned people not to question the
supremacy of Islam or the special privileges enjoyed by the country's
ethnic Malay majority.
(AP, 10/17/08)
2008 Oct 16, In Mexico six people
were lined up and gunned down outside a business in the border city of
Ciudad Juarez.
(AP, 10/17/08)
2008 Oct 16, Pirates in
southern Nigeria seized eight fishing vessels with a total of 96 crew
and later threatened to seriously harm them if ransom is not paid.
(AFP, 10/18/08)
2008 Oct 16, The Pakistani rupee
dropped to more than 82 to the dollar, continuing a slide that has seen
it lose more than 30% of its value this year. A suspected US missile
strike killed a purported foreign militant in South Waziristan, a
tribal area considered a haven for the Taliban and al-Qaida. A suicide
bombing in the Swat Valley left four security personnel dead. In Bajur
7 militants were killed by plane and helicopter gunship attacks.
(AP, 10/16/08)(SFC, 10/17/08, p.A4)
2008 Oct 16, In Somalia at least
23 people were killed in Mogadishu when insurgents attacked camps
housing African Union and Ethiopian troops, triggering heavy clashes.
(AFP, 10/16/08)
2008 Oct 16, Somali pirates
released 22 sailors they kidnapped on Sep 10, after the South Korean
ship owner paid a ransom. Koo Ja-Woo, an executive director of J and J
Trust, which owns the ship, said his company paid an unspecified sum to
the pirates through a foreign middleman with experience in dealing with
the seizure of ships.
(AFP, 10/17/08)
2008 Oct 16, Spain's leading judge
agreed to investigate the disappearances of tens thousands of people
during the 1936-39 civil war and the ensuing Franco dictatorship, many
of whom are believed to be buried in mass graves. Spanish police
arrested 13 men accused of harboring Islamic extremists and helping
them flee the country, including several suspects in the Madrid terror
bombings of 2004.
(AFP, 10/16/08)(AP, 10/16/08)
2008 Oct 16, Sri Lankan troops
captured the rebel-held town of Maniyakkulam, in the island's north
following heavy fighting that killed a large group of guerrillas.
(AFP, 10/17/08)
2008 Oct 16, Sudanese President
Omar al-Beshir launched his "people's initiative" for peace in Darfur
with an elaborate ceremony attended by regional dignitaries but no
rebels involved in fighting.
(AFP, 10/16/08)
2008 Oct 16, Switzerland launched
a massive recapitalization of UBS AG saying it will invest $5.3 billion
in UBS in return for a 9% stake.
(WSJ, 10/17/08, p.A3)
2008 Oct 16, Hurricane Omar passed
the Virgin Islands overnight leaving oil spills in St. Croix as 40
boats sank or washed ashore.
(AP, 10/18/08)
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