Today in History - November 18
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1177 Nov 18,
Saladin marched north from Egypt with 26,000 light cavalry intent on
capturing the Kingdom of Jerusalem.
(ON, 6/07,
p.5)(www.historyofwar.org/articles/battles_ramleh.html)
1307 Nov 18, William Tell shot an
apple off his son's head.
(MC, 11/18/01)
1421 Nov 18, Southern sea flooded
72 villages, killing 10,000 in Netherlands.
(MC, 11/18/01)
1477 Nov 18, William Claxton
published the first dated book printed in England. “Dictes &
Sayengis of the Phylosophers,” by Earl Rivers. It was a translation
from the French. [see 1473/1474]
(HN, 11/18/99)
1497 Nov 18, Vasco da Gama reached
the Cape of Good Hope.
(MC, 11/18/01)
1527 Nov 18, Luca Cambiaso,
Italian painter and sculptor, was born.
(MC, 11/18/01)
1626 Nov 18, Pope Urban VIII
consecrated St. Peter’s Cathedral in Rome. Construction had begun in
1506.
(HN, 11/18/98)(SSFC, 2/18/07, p.A2)
1678 Nov 18, Giovanni Maria
Bononcini (36), composer, died.
(MC, 11/18/01)
1680 Nov 18, Jean-Baptiste
Loeillet, composer, was born.
(MC, 11/18/01)
1718 Nov 18, Voltaire's "Oedipe"
premiered in Paris.
(MC, 11/18/01)
1736 Nov 18, Carl Friedrich
Christian Fasch, composer, was born.
(MC, 11/18/01)
1745 Nov 18, Bonnie Prince
Charlie's troops occupied Carlisle. [see Nov 29]
(MC, 11/18/01)
1776 Nov 18, Hessians captured Ft
Lee, NJ.
(MC, 11/18/01)
1786 Nov 18, Karl Maria Friedrich
Ernst von Weber, German composer (Der Freischutz), was born.
(MC, 11/18/01)
1787 Nov 18, Louis-Jacques
Daguerre, French painter (daguerreotype), was born.
(MC, 11/18/01)
1787 Nov 18, Sojourner Truth,
abolitionist and feminist, was born. [see Nov 19]
(MC, 11/18/01)
1787 Nov 18, The 1st Unitarian
minister in US was ordained in Boston.
(MC, 11/18/01)
1789 Nov 18, Louis Jacques
Daguerre (d.1851), French painter, physicist and photography pioneer,
was born. He invented the process of setting the impression on a
light-sensitive, silver-coated metallic plate and developed by mercury
vapor. See contrasting info 1765-1833, Nicephore Niepce, French
lithographer.
(AHD, 1971, p.332)(HN, 11/18/00)
1803 Nov 18, The Battle of
Vertieres was fought. Jean-Jacques Dessalines (b.1758), Haitian rebel
leader, led his army to decisive victory over the French with his
slogan "Cut off their heads and burn down their houses."
(HFA, ‘96, p.42)(AP,
4/7/03)(www.hartford-hwp.com/archives/43a/168.html)
1804 Nov 18, Palver Purim (Feast
of Lots) was 1st celebrated to commemorate miraculous escape. The
Jewish festival marked the deliverance of the Jews in Persia from Haman.
(WUD, 1994 p.1167)(MC, 11/18/01)
1805 Nov 18, The Lewis and Clark
expedition reached the Pacific Ocean.
(www.lewisandclarktrail.com/section4/wacities/chinook/1805history1.htm)
1810 Nov 18, Asa Gray (d.1888),
American botanist, was born. He wrote “Gray's Manual.”
(HN, 11/18/00)
1820 Nov 18, U.S. Navy Capt.
Nathaniel B. Palmer discovered the frozen continent of Antarctica.
(AP, 11/18/97)
1824 Nov 18, Franz Sigel (d.1902),
Major General (Union volunteers), was born.
(MC, 11/18/01)
1836 Nov 18, William S. Gilbert
(d.1911), English playwright, librettist and humorist, was born. He was
one half of Gilbert & Sullivan. "Life is a joke that's just
begun."
(HN, 11/18/00)
1841 Nov 18, Georg Chistoph
Grosheim (77), composer, died.
(MC, 11/18/01)
1860 Nov 18, Ignacy Jan Paderewski
(d.1941), composer and 3rd prime minister of Poland (1919), was born.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ignacy_Jan_Paderewski)
1861 Nov 18, The first provisional
meeting of the Confederate Congress was held in Richmond.
(HN, 11/18/98)
1861 Nov 18, Poet and abolitionist
Julia Ward Howe (inset) accompanied her husband, Dr. Samuel Howe, to
Fort Griffin, Virginia, to review Union troops defending the capital.
The ceremony was cut short when the Federals were forced to give chase
to a nearby party of Confederates. Dr. and Mrs. Howe returned to their
Washington hotel, but Mrs. Howe awoke in the early morning hours with
"long lines" of a poem in her mind. She rose in darkness and wrote six
stanzas of The Battle Hymn of the Republic on her husband's stationery
based on chapter 63 of the Old Testament’s Book of Isaiah. In February
1862, The Atlantic Monthly printed the poem for a $5 payment. Soon
troops all over the North were singing the stirring words to the
popular tune of John Brown's Body, which had been composed in 1852.
(HNPD, 11/20/98)(HNQ, 5/21/02)
1865 Nov 18, Mark Twain's first
story "The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County" was published
in the New York Saturday Press. Biologists later thought that the frog
named Dan’l Webster by Twain was a California red-legged frog and
currently endangered.
(SFC, 5/18/96, p.A-6)(HN, 11/18/00)
1870 Nov 18, Dorthea Dix,
pseudonym for Elizabeth Gilman, who wrote syndicated advice, was born.
(HN, 11/18/98)
1874 Nov 18, Clarence Day,
American writer, was born in NYC. His work included “Life with Father.”
(HN, 11/18/00)(MC, 11/18/01)
1882 Nov 18, Amelita Galli-Curci,
Italian operatic soprano, was born.
(MC, 11/18/01)
1882 Nov 18, Jacques Maritain,
French Catholic philosopher (exponent of St Thomas), was born.
(MC, 11/18/01)
1883 Nov 18, Antonin Dvorak's
"Hussite Overture," premiered.
(MC, 11/18/01)
1883 Nov 18, The United States and
Canada adopted a system of Standard Time zones. The railroad companies
got together and established standard railroad time to increase safety
and surmount complex scheduling on local times. This put an end to
“God’s time.”
(HFA, '96, p.18)(NG, March 1990, p.115)(AP,
11/18/97)(WSJ, 3/31/05, p.D8)
1883 Nov 18, Wilhelm Siemens,
German-British physicist (steam engine), died.
(MC, 11/18/01)
1886 Nov 18, Chester A. Arthur
(56), 21st president of the United States (1881-1885), died in
New York.
(AP, 11/18/97)
1894 Nov 18, 1st Sunday newspaper
color comic section published in the NY World.
(MC, 11/18/01)
1899 Nov 18, Music conductor
Eugene Ormandy was born in Budapest, Hungary.
(AP, 11/18/99)
1900 Nov 18, Dr. Howard Thurman,
theologian and first African American to hold a full time position at
Boston University, was born.
(HN, 11/18/98)
1901 Nov 18, George Horatio
Gallup, American journalist and statistician, was born in Jefferson,
Iowa.
(HN, 11/18/98)(MC, 11/18/01)
1901 Nov 18, The 2nd
Hay-Pauncefote Treaty was signed. The U.S. was given extensive rights
by Britain for building and operating a canal through Central America.
(HN, 11/18/98)
1902 Nov 18, Brooklyn toymaker
Morris Michton named the teddy bear after Teddy Roosevelt.
(MC, 11/18/01)
1903 Nov 18, The Hay-Bunau-Varilla
Treaty was signed, granting the United States a strip of land across
the Isthmus of Panama and the right to build and fortify the Panama
Canal. Building an interoceanic canal was not a new idea at the turn of
the 20th century, but U.S. acquisition of California in 1848 and
territories in the Pacific and the Caribbean after the Spanish-American
War made the canal crucial to American foreign policy. In January 1903,
the Hay-Herran Treaty with Columbia--Panama was a part of
Columbia--would have given the United States the land and the right to
build a canal across Panama, but Columbia refused to ratify the treaty.
Subsequently, Panamanian rebels--encouraged by American agents--rose
against Columbia on November 3, 1903. After a one-day coup, in which an
American warship offshore prevented Columbia from quelling the revolt
and the only casualty was a donkey, Panama declared her independence. A
jubilant President Theodore Roosevelt, pictured here at a Panama Canal
construction site, recognized the new republic three days later. The
Panama Canal, a cornerstone of Roosevelt's aggressive foreign policy,
was completed in 10 years.
(HNPD, 11/18/98)
1905 Nov 18, George Bernard Shaw's
"Major Barbara," premiered in London.
(MC, 11/18/01)
1905 Nov 18, The Norwegian
Parliament elected Prince Charles of Denmark to be the next King of
Norway. Prince Charles took the name Haakon VII.
(HN, 11/18/98)
1906 Nov 18, Anarchists bombed
Rome’s St. Peter’s Cathedral.
(HN, 11/18/98)
1908 Nov 18, Imogene Coca d.2001),
later co-star with Sid Caesar of the 1950s "Your Show of Shows" TV
program, was born in Philadelphia.
(SSFC, 6/3/01, p.A29)(AP, 11/18/08)
1909 Nov 18, John Herndon Mercer
[Johnny Mercer] (d.1976), songwriter, was born in Savannah, Ga. John
Herndon Mercer died on Jun 25, 1976, and was buried in Boneventure
Cemetery in Savannah, Ga.
(SFEC,11/30/97, p.T5)(HN, 11/18/00)
1909 Nov 18, US invaded Nicaragua
and later overthrew Pres Zelaya.
(MC, 11/18/01)
1911 Nov 18, Alfred Binet, French
child psychologist, died.
(MC, 11/18/01)
1912 Nov 18, Cholera broke out in
Constantinople.
(HN, 11/18/98)
1916 Nov 18, Gen. Douglas Haig
finally called off 1st Battle of the Somme in Europe.
(MC, 11/18/01)
1919 Nov 18, H. Tierney's and J.
McCarthy's musical "Irene," premiered in NYC.
(MC, 11/18/01)
1921 Nov 18, New York City
considered varying work hours to avoid long traffic jams.
(HN, 11/18/98)
1922 Nov 18, Marcel Proust
(b.1871), French author (Recherche du Temps Perdu), died at 51. His
masterpiece was “Remembrance of Things Past.” In 1998 it was turned
into a comic book series. In 1998 Alain de Botton published the
whimsical "How Proust Can Save Your Life." In 1999 Edmund White wrote
the biography "Marcel Proust." The major biography by John Yves Taddie
was scheduled to appear in English in 1999. In 2000 Roger Shattuck
authored “Proust’s Way.” William C. Carter authored “Marcel Proust: A
Life.”
(SFC, 9/16/98, p.A10)(SFEC, 1/17/99, BR p.3)(SFEC,
9/3/00, BR p.3)(MC, 11/18/01)
1923 Nov 18, Alan Shepard, the
first American astronaut in space, was born in East Derry, NH.
(HN, 11/18/98)(MC, 11/18/01)
1928 Nov 18, Walt Disney’s
"Steamboat Willie," starring Mickey Mouse, premiered at the Colony
Theater in NYC. It was the first successful sound-synchronized animated
cartoon.
(TMC, 1994, p.1928)(AP, 11/18/97)
1929 Nov 18, Dr. Vladimir K.
Zworykin demonstrated the "kinescope."
(MC, 11/18/01)
1929 Nov 18, A large quake in
Atlantic broke the Transatlantic cable in 28 places.
(MC, 11/18/01)
1929 Nov 18, Stalin sent troops to
Manchuria.
(MC, 11/18/01)
1930 Nov 18, The musical "Smiles"
with Bob Hope and Fred Astaire premiered in NYC.
(MC, 11/18/01)
1936 Nov 18, The main span of the
Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco was joined.
(HN, 11/18/98)
1936 Nov 18, Germany and Italy
recognized the Spanish government of Francisco Franco.
(AP, 11/18/97)
1939 Nov 18, Margaret Atwood,
Canadian writer, was born. Her books included “The Edible Woman” and
“The Handmaid's Tale.”
(HN, 11/18/00)
1939 Nov 18, The Irish Republican
Army exploded three bombs in Picadilly Circus.
(HN, 11/18/98)
1939 Nov 18, The Netherland KNSM
passenger ship Simon Bolivar hit a German mine and 86 died.
(MC, 11/18/01)
1941 Nov 18, British troops opened
an attack on Tobruk, North Africa.
(MC, 11/18/01)
1941 Nov 18, Mussolini's forces
left Abyssinia (Ethiopia).
(MC, 11/18/01)
1942 Nov 18, Jeffrey Siegel,
pianist (Chicago Symph), was born in Chicago Ill.
(MC, 11/18/01)
1942 Nov 18, Thornton Wilder's
"Skin of our Teeth," premiered in NYC.
(MC, 11/18/01)
1942 Nov 18, An AT-7 Beechcraft
military training plane crashed in the Mendel Glacier in California’s
Kings Canyon National Park. The 4-member training flight left Mather
Field in Sacramento, Ca., and was never heard from again. On Sep 24,
1947, a hiker discovered wreckage of the plane on a glacier in Kings
Canyon. On Oct 16, 2005, a climber on the Mendel Glacier discovered a
body believed to be one of the crew members. He was later identified as
Leo M. Mustonen (22) of Brainerd, Minn. The others were John M.
Mortenson (25) of Moscow, Idaho, William R. Gamber (23) of Fayette,
Ohio, and Ernest G. Munn of St. Clairsville, Ohio. A 2nd body was found
under receding snow in 2007 and was identified Ernest G. Munn.
(SFC, 10/20/05, p.A14)(SSFC, 10/23/05, p.B2)(SFC,
11/12/05, p.A1)(SFC, 2/9/06, p.A4)(SFC, 8/21/07, p.B2)(SFC, 3/10/08,
p.B2)
1943 Nov 18, 444 British bombers
attacked Berlin.
(MC, 11/18/01)
1943 Nov 18, U-211 sank in the
Atlantic Ocean.
(MC, 11/18/01)
1949 Nov 18, Jackie Robinson of
the Brooklyn Dodgers was named the National League's Most Valuable
Player.
(AP, 11/18/97)
1949 Nov 18, The U.S. Air Force
grounded B-29s after two crashes and 23 deaths in three days.
(HN, 11/18/98)
1950 Nov 18, Bureau of Mines
disclosed its first production of oil from coal in practical amounts.
(HN, 11/18/98)
1950 Nov 18, South Korea Pres.
Syngman Rhee was forced to end mass executions.
(MC, 11/18/01)
1951 Nov 18, "See it Now"
premiered on TV.
(MC, 11/18/01)
1951 Nov 18, Chuck Connors, former
Cubs 1st baseman and future TV star of Rifleman, became the 1st player
to oppose the major league draft.
(MC, 11/18/01)
1951 Nov 18, Two 4-engine Korean
airlift planes collided above Oakland Municipal Airport. One plane
crashed and the crew of 3 were killed. The other made an emergency
landing at SFO.
(SFC, 11/16/01, WB p.G4)
1951 Nov 18, British troops
occupied Ismailiya, Egypt. [see Jan 20, 1952]
(MC, 11/18/01)
1955 Nov 18, Bell X-2 rocket plane
was taken up for its 1st powered flight.
(MC, 11/18/01)
1957 Nov 18, Antonin Novotny
(1904-1975) was appointed president of Czechoslovakia and served to
1968.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anton%C3%ADn_Novotn%C3%BD)
1958 Nov 18, The cargo freighter
SS Carl D. Bradley sank during a storm in Lake Michigan, claiming 33 of
the 35 lives on board.
(AP, 11/18/08)
1958 Nov 18, The 1st true
reservoir in Jerusalem opened.
(MC, 11/18/01)
1959 Nov 18, "Ben-Hur," the
Biblical-era movie spectacle starring Charlton Heston, had its world
premiere in New York.
(AP, 11/18/99)
1961 Nov 18, JFK sent 18,000
military "advisors" to South Vietnam.
(MC, 11/18/01)
1962 Nov 18, Niels Bohr (77),
Danish physicist (atom, Nobel 1922), died.
(MC, 11/18/01)
1964 Nov 18, FBI Director J. Edgar
Hoover described civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. as "the
most notorious liar in the country" for accusing FBI agents in Georgia
of failing to act on complaints filed by blacks.
(AP, 11/18/04)
1965 Nov 18, Henry A. Wallace
(77), VP (1941-45) and founder (Progressive Party), died.
(MC, 11/18/01)
1966 Nov 18, US Roman Catholic
bishops did away with the rule against eating meat on Fridays outside
of Lent.
(AP, 11/18/08)
1966 Nov 18, Jean Peugeot, French
auto manufacturer, died.
(MC, 11/18/01)
1968 Nov 18, Soviets recovered the
Zond 6 spacecraft after a flight around the moon.
(HN, 11/18/98)
1969 Nov 18, Financier-diplomat
Joseph P. Kennedy died in Hyannis Port, Mass., at age 81.
(AP, 11/18/97)
1970 Nov 18, US President Richard
Nixon requested Congress to approve $155 million in supplemental aid
for the Cambodian government. $85 million was later allocated for
military assistance. Cambodia’s PM Lon Nol (1913-1985) had officially
invited the US to extend the war in Vietnam into Cambodia to wreck the
Ho Chi Minh supply trail.
(SFC, 8/14/97,
p.A25)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lon_Nol)
1970 Nov 18, Warren Harding
(d.2002 at 77) and Dean Caldwell scaled a new route up El Capitan in
Yosemite Valley after a 27 days effort. Harding 1st scaled El Capitan
in 1958.
(SFC, 3/9/02, p.A24)
1971 Nov 18, The US federal
Airborne-Hunting Act prohibited shooting animals from planes without
license.
(WSJ, 12/9/03,
p.A1)(www.fws.gov/laws/lawsdigest/AIRBORN.HTML)
1973 Nov 18, The Greek regime
called an emergency crisis due to mass protests.
(www.athensinfoguide.com/history/t9-97-7polytechnic.htm)
1975 Nov 18, Black Panther leader
Eldridge Cleaver (1935-1998) returned to US to face assault charges
from 1958.
(www.pbs.org/hueypnewton/people/people_cleaver.html)
1976 Nov 18, Man Ray (b.1890),
American Dada artist, died. He was born as Emmanuel Radnitsky in
Philadelphia and spent much of his time in France.
(WSJ, 12/2/96,
p.A16)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Man_Ray)
1976 Nov 18, Spain's parliament
approved a bill to establish a democracy after 37 years of
dictatorship.
(AP, 11/18/97)
1978 Nov 18, in Jonestown, Guyana,
California Rep. Leo J. Ryan and four other people, investigating the
Jim Jones cult, were killed by members of the Peoples Temple. Greg
Robinson, a SF Examiner photographer, Don Harris, NBC correspondent,
Bob Brown, NBC cameraman, and Patricia Parks, a temple defector, were
shot dead. Congressional aide Jackie Speier survived 5 bullets. The
killings were followed by a night of mass murder and suicide by 909
cult members led by Rev. Jim Jones. The suicides included 260 children.
In 1982 John Jacobs and Tim Reiterman authored "Raven: The Untold Story
of the Rev. Jim Jones and His People."
(SFEM, 11/17/96, p.22)(AP, 11/18/97)(SFEC, 11/8/98,
p.A18)(SFC, 5/25/00, p.C2)(SSFC, 11/16/03,
p.D1)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jim_Jones)
1979 Nov 18, Ayatollah Khomeini
said the rest of the US hostages may be tried as spies if the Shah is
not released.
(http://openweb.tvnews.vanderbilt.edu/1979-11/1979-11-18-ABC-2.html)
1981 Nov 18, In Los Angeles
Kazuyoshi Miura and his wife (28), visitors from Japan, were shot in a
downtown parking lot. His wife went into a coma and later died in
Japan. In 1985 Miura was arrested on suspicion of assaulting his wife
for insurance money and in 1994 he was convicted of murder. In 1998 a
Japanese high court overturned the sentence. In 2008 Miura was arrested
in Saipan. He was extradited to the US and committed suicide by hanging
on Oct 10, 4 days prior to arraignment on murder conspiracy charges. He
was 61.
(SSFC, 2/24/08, p.B3)(SFC, 10/15/08, p.B4)
1981 Nov 18, Achilles G. Rizzoli
(b.1896), SF architectural visionary, died. He created a 2,600 page
illustrated philosophical tract. The first book on his art by Jo Farb
Hernandez, John Beardsley and Roger Cardinal was published in 1997:
"A.G. Rizzoli: Architect of Magnificent Visions." His apparent
architectural drawings were "symbolizations" of people he knew.
(www.popsubculture.com/pop/bio_project/a_g_rizzoli.html)(SFEC, 3/22/98,
DB p.9)(SFEC, 4/12/98, p.D5)
1983 Nov 18, Argentina announced
its ability to produce enriched uranium for nuclear weapons.
(HN, 11/18/98)
1984 Nov 18, The Soviets helped
deliver U.S. wheat during the Ethiopian famine.
(HN, 11/18/98)
1985 Nov 18, Bill Watterson’s
comic strip Calvin and Hobbes began a 10-year run that ended Dec 31,
1995. In 2005 Watterson published his 3-volume set: The complete Calvin
and Hobbes.”
(SSFC, 10/16/05,
p.M1)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calvin_and_Hobbes)
1987 Nov 18, The congressional
Iran-Contra committees issued their final report, saying President
Reagan bore "ultimate responsibility" for wrongdoing by his aides.
(AP,
11/18/97)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iran-Contra_Affair)
1987 Nov 18, CBS Inc. announced it
had agreed to sell its records division to Sony Corp. for about $2
billion.
(AP, 11/18/97)
1987 Nov 18, Thirty-one people
died in a fire at King's Cross, London's busiest subway station.
(AP, 11/18/97)
1988 Nov 18, President Reagan
signed legislation creating a Cabinet-level drug czar and providing the
death penalty for drug traffickers who kill.
(AP, 11/18/98)
1989 Nov 18, Pennsylvania became
the 1st state to restrict abortions after Supreme Court gave states the
right to do so.
(http://tinyurl.com/fef7u)
1989 Nov 18, Longshoreman Buck
Helm died at a hospital in Oakland, almost a month after he was pulled
from a section of the Nimitz Freeway flattened by the northern
California earthquake.
(AP, 11/18/99)
1990 Nov 18, President Bush began
a series of meetings in Paris with allied leaders aimed at solidifying
support for his Persian Gulf policies.
(AP, 11/18/00)
1990 Nov 18, In Iraq Saddam
offered to free an estimated 2,000 men held in Kuwait.
(MC, 11/18/01)
1990 Nov 18, Soviet President
Mikhail S. Gorbachev met at the Vatican with Pope John Paul the Second,
who said all possible efforts should be made to avoid war in the
Persian Gulf.
(AP, 11/18/00)
1991 Nov 18, Vukovar, capital of
eastern Slavonia, fell to the Serbs. They removed some 260 wounded
Croat patients, hospital staff and political activists sheltered in the
Vukovar hospital and took them to the village of Ovcara where most were
shot and buried. On Mar 26, 1996 Slavko Dokmanovic, the Serb mayor of
Vukovar, was indicted for his role in the incident. Investigators began
uncovering bodies from the mass grave in Sep, 1996. In Oct, 1996, a
mass grave of about 100 bodies was uncovered. When Serbs captured
eastern Slavonia most of its 68,000 Croat residents were displaced to
other parts of Croatia. In 1998 Dokmanovic hanged himself in jail at
the Hague. In 1998 the book "The Graves: Srebrenica and Vukovar" was
published with photographs by Gilles Peress and text by Eric Stover. In
1999 Vukovar returned to Croatian control.
(SFC, 9/12/96, p.A13)(SFC, 10/3/96, p.A14)(SFC,
4/11/97, p.A12)(SFC, 6/28/97, p.A10)(SFC, 6/30/98, p.A8)(SFEC,
12/20/98, BR p.6)(Econ, 11/29/03, p.47)
1991 Nov 18, France deported
Marlon Brando's daughter Cheyenne (21) to Tahiti to face charges of
acting as an accomplice in the killing of her lover last year.
(http://tinyurl.com/p9yhg)
1991 Nov 18, Shiite Muslim
kidnappers in Lebanon freed Anglican Church envoy Terry Waite and
Thomas Sutherland, the American dean of agriculture at the American
University of Beirut.
(AP, 11/18/01)
1992 Nov 18, "Malcolm X" with
Denzel Washington premiered in US.
(www.metacritic.com/video/titles/malcolmx)
1992 Nov 18, President-elect
Clinton began a two-day whirlwind visit to the nation's capital by
meeting with President Bush.
(AP, 11/18/97)
1992 Nov 18, Dorothy Kirsten (82),
US soprano, died in Los Angeles from stroke. Her 1982 autobiography was
titled “A Time to Sing.”
(www.maurice-abravanel.com/kirsten_dorothy.html)
1993 Nov 18, The U.S. House of
Representatives joined the Senate in approving legislation aimed at
protecting abortion facilities, staff and patients.
(AP, 11/18/98)
1993 Nov 18, American Airlines
flight attendants went on strike. They ended their job action four days
later.
(AP, 11/18/98)
1993 Nov 18, Representatives of 21
South African political parties approved a new constitution.
(AP, 11/18/98)
1994 Nov 18, "Star Trek VII
Generations," premiered.
(MC, 11/18/01)
1994 Nov 18, The Commerce
Department reported that America's trade deficit worsened to $10.13
billion in September.
(AP, 11/18/99)
1994 Nov 18, Bandleader Cab
Calloway died in Hockessin, Del., at age 86.
(AP, 11/18/99)
1994 Nov 18, Fifteen people were
killed and more than 150 wounded when Palestinian police opened fire on
rioting worshippers outside a mosque in the Gaza Strip.
(AP, 11/18/99)
1995 Nov 18, With no relief in
sight from a budget impasse that forced a partial federal shutdown, the
House rebelled against Republican leaders during a raucous Saturday
session and voted to oppose formally adjourning the chamber until
Monday. GOP leaders put the chamber into recess anyway.
(AP, 11/18/00)
1996 Nov 18, Harold James
Nicholson, former CIA station chief, was arrested for espionage. He was
said to have started passing information to Russia from Kuala Lumpur,
Malaysia, in June of 1994 and collected [more than $120,000] as much as
$180,000. Nicholson later pleaded guilty to espionage and was sentenced
to 23 1/2 years in prison. He was spared a life sentence for
cooperating with investigators.
(SFC, 11/19/96, p.A1)(SFC, 11/22/96, p.A20)(AP,
11/18/97)
1996 Nov 18, In Belarus Prime
Minister Mikhail Chigir resigned and 75 of 199 lawmakers signed
petitions to impeach president Lukashenko.
(SFC, 11/19/96, p.A13)
1996 Nov 18, In Moldova Pres.
Mircea Snegur and Parliament Speaker Petru Lucinschi went into 2nd
round elections. Voters seemed to seek a diminished relationship with
Russia and closer ties with Romania.
(SFC, 11/19/96, p.A14)
1996 Nov 18, In Thailand Chavalit
Yongchaiyudh, former defense minister, led the New Aspiration Party to
victory in elections and recruited 5 other parties to form a coalition
government.
(SFC, 11/19/96, p.A15)
1997 Nov 18, Charles Frazier won
the National Book Award for his novel “Cold Mountain.” The best-seller
was about a Confederate soldier trying to return to his North Carolina
home.
(USAT, 11/19/97, p.22A)(SFC, 4/9/02, p.D2)
1997 Nov 18, The FBI officially
pulled out of the probe into the TWA Flight 800 disaster, saying the
explosion that destroyed the Boeing 747, killing all 230 people aboard,
was not caused by a criminal act.
(AP, 11/18/98)
1997 Nov 18, In the US First Union
Corp. announced the purchase of CoreStates Financial Corp. for $16.1
billion.
(AP, 11/18/07)
1997 Nov 18, The Willem de Kooning
painting, "Two Standing Women," sold for $4,182,500.
(www.artnet.com/Magazine/news/robinson/robinson11-19-97.asp)
1997 Nov 18, In India a school bus
plunged into the Yamuna River in New Delhi and at least 30 children
were killed and another 20 missing. The driver was reported to be
racing another bus.
(SFC,11/19/97, p.A14)
1997 Nov 18, Holocaust survivors
from Latvia received the first checks from a $200 million fund set up
by Swiss banks. Individual survivors were to each receive $1000.
(SFC,11/19/97, p.C4)
1997 Nov 18, In Russia Tariq Aziz
and Pres. Yeltsin worked on a peaceful resolution to the UN weapons
inspection crises and announced a plan.
(SFC,11/19/97, p.A19)
1997 Nov 18, In Taiwan Chen
Chin-hsing held a South African embassy official and his family hostage
and demanded the release of his wife and brother-in-law.
(SFC,11/19/97, p.C3)
1997 Nov 18, In Tajikistan Karine
Mane of France, a UN worker for the High Commissioner for refugees, was
kidnapped along with Franck Janier-Dubry in Dushanbe.
(SFC, 12/1/97, p.A13)
1998 Nov 18, Alice McDermott won
the National Book Award in fiction for her novel “Charming Billy.” The
non-fiction prize went to Edward Ball for his “slaves in the Family.”
Gerald Stern won in the poetry category.
(SFC, 11/19/98, p.E3)
1998 Nov 18, The GOP nominated Bob
Livingston of Louisiana to replace Newt Gingrich as speaker, and for
the 1st time elected an African-American, Oklahoma’s J.C. Watts, to
their leadership. Livingston, however, resigned from the House before
he could take over the speakership after admitting to marital
infidelities.
(SFC, 11/19/98, p.A1)(AP, 11/18/99)
1998 Nov 18, In Jakarta thousands
marched in continuing protests. It was also reported that students were
killed the previous week with live bullets. The military had insisted
that only plastic and blank ammunition was issued.
(SFC, 11/19/98, p.C3)
1998 Nov 18, Frederick McPhail
(27), a graduate student from NYU, was found dead in a car in Mexico
City. In 1999 13 current and former police officers were arrested as
suspects in a gang that robbed and kidnapped tourists. In 2000 6 former
police officers received sentences as long as 98 years for the death of
McPhail, whom they robbed and forced to drink a bottle of alcohol.
(SFC, 2/1/99, p.A7)
1998 Nov 18, Serbian Pres. Milan
Milutinovic rejected a US blueprint for the future of Kosovo, saying
that it gave too much power to the ethnic Albanians.
(SFC, 11/19/98, p.A12)
1998 Nov 18, The Swedish bank
Skandinavska Enskilda acquired a 32% stake in Esti Uhispank of Estonia,
as well as a 36% stake in Latvia’s Latvijas Unibanka. Skandinavska
Enskilda, controlled by the Wallenberg family, was also negotiating a
deal to acquire interest in Vilniaus Bank of Lithuania.
(WSJ, 11/19/98, p.A16)
1999 Nov 18, Pres. Clinton at a
conference in Turkey of the Organization for Security and Cooperation
in Europe (OSCE) urged Pres. Yeltsin to stop the bombing and rocket
attacks in Chechnya.
(SFC, 11/19/99, p.A1)
1999 Nov 18, US Congress approved
a $385 billion compromise spending bill. It included funds to pay UN
dues and restored $12 billion worth of cuts in the Medicare program.
(SFC, 11/19/99, p.A3)
1999 Nov 18, A jury in Jasper,
Texas, convicted Shawn Allen Berry of murder for his role in the
dragging death of James Byrd Junior, but spared him the death penalty.
(AP, 11/18/00)
1999 Nov 18, The US Sacagawea
"Golden Dollar" coin went into full production.
(WSJ, 11/19/99, p.C15)
1999 Nov 18, In College Station,
Texas, a pyramid of logs for a traditional football bonfire collapsed
and killed 11 students of Texas A&M University. One of 28 injured
died the next day.
(SFC, 11/19/99, p.A1)
1999 Nov 18, Paul Bowles, author
and composer, died in Tangiers at age 88. His written work included the
novel "The Sheltering Sky," which was made into a 1990 film. He also
wrote "Let It Come Down," "The Spider's House" and "Up Above the
World." His music included a "Sonata for Oboe and Clarinet."
(SFC, 11/19/99, p.D8)(WSJ, 11/23/99, p.A22)
1999 Nov 18, In Afghanistan
Taliban fighter planes bombed the opposition held Panjshir Valley and
at least 13 people were killed and 64 wounded.
(SFC, 11/19/99, p.D2)
1999 Nov 18, In Brazil assailants
broke into a house in Sao Vicente and shot 8 people to death, 2 men, 3
boys and 3 women.
(SFC, 11/19/99, p.A21)
1999 Nov 18, The UN high
commissioner for refugees, Sadako Ogata, visited Chechen refugee camps
in Ingushetia. Some 215,000 refugees had fled Russian attacks.
(SFC, 11/19/99, p.A18)
1999 Nov 18, In the southern
Philippines fighting between government troops and separatist rebels
left at least 32 dead.
(SFC, 11/19/99, p.D2)
2000 Nov 18, In Florida the
absentee ballot count raised Gov. Bush’s lead over Al Gore to 930
votes. George W. Bush's campaign fiercely attacked the hand-recounting
of votes in Florida's presidential election, depicting a process
riddled with human error and Democratic bias; Al Gore's lawyers
defended the effort in papers filed with the state Supreme Court.
(SFEC, 11/19/00, p.A1)(AP, 11/18/01)
2000 Nov 18, Some 2000 women from
19 Arab countries met in Cairo to push for improved status in their
male-dominated societies.
(SFEC, 11/19/00, p.C16)
2000 Nov 18, A Palestinian police
officer sneaked into a Jewish settlement in Gaza and shot dead an
Israeli soldier. He wounded 2 others before he was killed.
(SFEC, 11/19/00, p.A14)
2000 Nov 18, Ivan Shchur (34), a
Russian merchant seaman, was rescued from the barge Meridian, after
being adrift in Arctic ice floes for over 3 weeks.
(SFEC, 11/19/00, p.A14)
2001 Nov 18, In Georgia thousands
demonstrated outside Fort Benning during the annual march to the post
to protest the School of the Americas training for Latin America
soldiers.
(SFC, 11/19/01, p.A15)
2001 Nov 18, Phillips Petroleum
and Conoco Inc. announced they were merging in a $35 billion deal that
created the third-largest U.S. oil and gas company.
(SFC, 11/19/01, p.A13)(AP, 11/18/02)
2001 Nov 18, The IMF and World
Bank ended their meeting in Ottawa and made a call for increasing aid
to developing countries.
(SFC, 11/19/01, p.A15)
2001 Nov 18, Northern Alliance
leaders agreed to join UN sponsored talks to form a new government.
Haji Qadir formed a new alliance to govern Jalalabad. US planes
continued strikes around Kunduz and Kandahar. US strikes on a Taliban
convoy were later considered as a marking point for the downfall of the
Taliban.
(SFC, 11/19/01, p.A1,3)(SFC, 1/2/02, p.A6)
2001 Nov 18, In London some 15,000
people of the Stop the War coalition demonstrated against US-led
bombing in Afghanistan.
(SFC, 11/19/01, p.A4)
2001 Nov 18, In Bulgaria Socialist
Georgi Parvanov (44) won 53% of the presidential vote against incumbent
Petar Stoyanov. This signaled discontent with the pace of reforms of PM
Simeon Saxcoburggotski.
(SFC, 11/19/01, p.A14)(WSJ, 11/19/01, p.A1)
2001 Nov 18, Russia dropped all
conditions and opened talks with Chechnya.
(SFC, 11/19/01, p.A15)
2001 Nov 18, In Spain 8 men,
Soldiers of Allah, detained last week were reported to be members of
the al Qaeda network and to have played a role in the Sep 11 attacks.
(SFC, 11/19/01, p.A5)(SFC, 11/20/01, p.A7)
2002 Nov 18, A US federal review
court expanded the government's power to use wiretaps and searches to
prosecute suspected terrorists and spies.
(SFC, 11/19/02, p.A1)
2002 Nov 18, James Coburn (74),
film actor, died. His films included "Our Man Flint" and "The
Magnificent Seven."
(SFC, 11/19/02, p.A2)
2002 Nov 18, It was reported that
Dubai was constructing the $5.5 billion Palm Island resort project,
scheduled for completion in 2006. The $4.9 billion Dubailand tourist
city included 45 theme parks, sports centers and discovery zones.
(WSJ, 11/18/02, p.A1)(Econ, 12/6/03, p.42)
2002 Nov 18, The Greek Cypriot
government said it accepted "as a basis for negotiations" a U.N. plan
for the reunification of the divided eastern Mediterranean island.
(AP, 11/18/02)
2002 Nov 18, In India a rebel land
mine killed at least 20 people in a bus in Andhra Pradesh state. The
leftist People's War Group was blamed.
(SFC, 11/19/02, p.A10)
2002 Nov 18, UN inspectors
returned to Iraq after a 4-year hiatus to resume the search for weapons
of mass destruction.
(AP, 11/18/03)
2002 Nov 18, Zimbabwe banned
citizens from swearing or making offensive gestures during the passage
of Pres. Mugabe's motorcades.
(WSJ, 11/19/02, p.A1)
2003 Nov 18, Pres. Bush brought a
forceful defense of the Iraq invasion to skeptical Britons, arguing
that history proves war is sometimes necessary when certain values are
threatened.
(AP, 11/18/03)
2003 Nov 18, California Gov.
Schwarzenegger laid out a plan for a $15 billion bond issue to ease the
state budget crises.
(WSJ, 11/19/03, p.A1)
2003 Nov 18, A judge in Modesto,
Calif., ordered Scott Peterson to stand trial for the killing of his
wife, Laci, and their unborn son. Peterson was later convicted and
sentenced to death.
(AP, 11/18/08)
2003 Nov 18, Barry Bonds won his
record sixth National League MVP award.
(AP, 11/18/08)
2003 Nov 18, The Massachusetts
Supreme Court ruled 4-3 that a ban on same sex marriage is illegal.
Lawmakers were given 180 days to allow gay marriages.
(SFC, 11/19/03, p.A1)(WSJ, 11/19/03, p.A1)
2003 Nov 18, Some 30 Taliban
guerrillas attacked a road checkpoint in southern Afghanistan, killing
three militiamen and wounding two others. The UN refugee agency began
pulling foreign staff out of Afghanistan after the killing of French
worker.
(AP, 11/19/03)(AP, 11/18/04)
2003 Nov 18, A Palestinian gunman,
his rifle wrapped in a prayer mat, walked to a West Bank checkpoint and
killed two Israeli soldiers at close range.
(AP, 11/18/03)
2003 Nov 18, The UN war crimes
tribunal issued an indictment against former Croatian Serb leader Milan
Babic on five counts of war crimes for a campaign of ethnic cleansing
in the Krajina region of Croatia early in the Balkan wars.
(AP, 11/18/03)(WSJ, 11/19/03, p.A1)
2003 Nov 18, In Zimbabwe police
broke up demonstrations across the country against President Robert
Mugabe's autocratic rule, arresting nearly 90 protesters, including 14
leaders of Zimbabwe's main labor federation.
(AP, 11/18/03)
2004 Nov 18, In Little Rock, Ark.,
an estimated 30,000 guests attended the opening of the Clinton
Presidential Center, a 30-acre, $165 million glass-and-steel home of
artifacts and documents gathered during Clinton's eight years in the
White House.
(AP, 11/18/04)(Econ, 11/13/04, p.36)
2004 Nov 18, The US government
reported a possible case of mad cow disease.
(SFC, 11/19/04, p.A3)
2004 Nov 18, US Army doctors said
some 100 soldiers wounded in the Mideast and Afghanistan had come down
with rare, treatment resistant blood infections.
(WSJ, 11/19/04, p.A1)
2004 Nov 18, FDA officer David
Graham identified 5 drugs with dangerous side effects: Crestor to lower
cholesterol, Meridia for weight loss, Bextra for pain, Accutane for
acne, and Serevent for asthma.
(SFC, 11/19/04, p.A1)
2004 Nov 18, Genentech and its
partners announced FDA approval of the experimental lung cancer drug,
Tarceva.
(SFC, 11/19/04, p.A3)
2004 Nov 18, Former Ku Klux
Klansman Bobby Frank Cherry (74), who was convicted of killing four
black girls in a racially motivated bombing of a Birmingham, Ala.,
church in 1963, died in prison.
(AP, 11/18/05)
2004 Nov 18, Cy Coleman (75),
composer, died in NYC. His Broadway musicals included “wildcat” (1960),
“Sweet Charity” (1966) and “I Love My Wife” (1977).
(SFC, 11/20/04, p.B6)
2004 Nov 18, A UN report said
opium and heroin production in Afghanistan had rocketed to near record
levels. It accounted for over 60% of Afghan GDP and 87% of world supply.
(SFC, 11/19/04, p.A1)(WSJ, 11/19/04, p.A1)
2004 Nov 18, Britain outlawed fox
hunting in England and Wales as elected legislators used the 1949
Parliament Act to win a dramatic standoff with the House of Lords to
ban the popular country sport.
(AP, 11/18/04)(SFC, 11/19/04, p.A2)
2004 Nov 18, A woman (48) became
the first person in Chilean history to file for divorce.
(AP, 11/18/04)
2004 Nov 18, Insurgents detonated
a car bomb near a US military convoy in Baghdad and a roadside bomb
exploded at a job recruiting center in the northern city of Kirkuk, in
attacks that killed four people.
(AP, 11/18/04)
2004 Nov 18, US troops discovered
four decapitated bodies and captured dozens of militants during
operations to purge northern Mosul of insurgents.
(AP, 11/20/04)
2004 Nov 18, Israeli troops killed
three Egyptian policemen mistaken for Palestinian militants along the
Gaza-Egypt border.
(AP, 11/18/04)
2004 Nov 18, The Macedonian
parliament accepted the resignation of PM Hari Kostov and his cabinet,
leaving President Branko Crvenkovski 10 days to select a new premier.
(AFP, 11/18/04)
2004 Nov 18, Myanmar's military
government said it had begun releasing thousands of prisoners who may
have been wrongly imprisoned by a recently disbanded military
intelligence unit.
(AFP, 11/18/04)
2004 Nov 18, A survey said Swiss
teenagers smoke more cannabis than their peers in every other European
country.
(Reuters, 11/19/04)
2004 Nov 18, The UN Security
Council opened an extraordinary two-day session in Nairobi, the first
outside its New York headquarters in 14 years. Sudan topped the agenda.
Great Lakes regional foreign ministers approved a pact for greater
cross-border cooperation and confidence-building. It was due to be
adopted at a summit in Dar es Salaam.
(AP, 11/18/04)(AP, 11/19/04)
2005 Nov 18, The
Republican-controlled House spurned a call for an immediate pullout of
troops from Iraq in a 403-3 vote hastily arranged by the GOP that
Democrats denounced as politically motivated.
(AP, 11/18/06)
2005 Nov 18, The US Senate voted
to extend $60 billion in tax cuts for individuals and businesses but
added a $5 billion tax on big oil companies, drawing a veto threat from
the White House. Congress voted itself a $3,100 pay raise. Pres. Bush
signed the raise into law 2 weeks later.
(Reuters, 11/19/05)(SFC, 12/6/05, p.A3)
2005 Nov 18, US officials said
that US and Canadian police have arrested 291 people in a major drug
bust that was given unprecedented cooperation by Vietnamese agents. The
2-year operation covered ecstasy, which was shipped into Canada in
powder form, turned into pills and then smuggled across the border
along with massive amounts of marijuana.
(AFP, 11/18/05)
2005 Nov 18, In Washington DC
Michael Scanlon (35) was charged with conspiring with former lobbyist
Jack Abramoff to bribe government officials and bilk millions of
dollars from Indian tribes. In March, 2002, Ohio Rep. Robert Ney agreed
to back legislative language to benefit the Tigua tribe of El Paso,
Texas, a client of Abramoff and Scanlon.
(SFC, 11/19/05, p.A3)
2005 Nov 18, A civil jury in
Florida ruled 10-2 that Robert Blake (72), former “Baretta” TV star,
intentionally caused the 2001 death of Bonny Lee Bakley, and ordered
him to pay her children $30 million.
(SFC, 11/19/05, p.A2)
2005 Nov 18, A federal jury in
Tennessee held that Nicolas Carranza (72), a former Salvadoran colonel,
was responsible for murder and torture during the 1980s civil war in El
Salvador and ordered him to pay $6 million in damages to his accusers.
(SFC, 11/19/05, p.A5)
2005 Nov 18, Scott Winfield Davis
(40), was arrested in Palo Alto, Ca., for the 1996 Atlanta shooting
death of David Coffin Jr., heir to a Connecticut family that founded
the Dexter Corp. Initial charges against Davis were dropped in 1998 due
to insufficient evidence. David Coffin Jr. On December 4, 2006, a jury
in Fulton County, Georgia, found Davis guilty on all counts of malice
murder and felony murder.
(SFC, 11/19/05,
p.B3)(www.atlantada.org/featuredarticle/ScottDavis.htm)
2005 Nov 18, In Pennsylvania an
oil painting by Jackson Pollock and a silkscreen by Andy Warhol were
stolen from the Everhart Museum by thieves who shattered a glass door
in the back of the building. The thieves had disappeared by the time
police arrived, four minutes after the alarm sounded at 2:30 a.m.
(AP, 11/19/05)
2005 Nov 18, Ford Motor Co., said
it plans to eliminate 4,000 salaried jobs, or 10% of its North American
white-collar work force, as part of a larger restructuring plan.
(Reuters, 11/18/05)
2005 Nov 18, Cisco Systems Inc.
agreed to acquire the cable TV technology company Scientific-Atlanta
Inc. for about $6.9 billion in a move that would create a one-stop
shop, and market leader, in distributing television to living rooms
over the Internet.
(AP, 11/18/05)
2005 Nov 18, Swiss Reinsurance
Co., the world's second-largest reinsurer, said it will acquire most of
General Electric Co.'s insurance unit for $6.8 billion in cash and
stock.
(AP, 11/18/05)
2005 Nov 18, Tropical Storm Gamma,
the 24th storm of the busiest hurricane season on record, formed off
the coast of Central America, and forecasters said it could threaten
Florida by the beginning of next week.
(AP, 11/18/05)
2005 Nov 18, The relationship of
star anise to bird flu was documented by Peter S. Goodman in an article
for the Washington Post.
(www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/11/17/AR2005111701855.html)
2005 Nov 18, Scientists reported
that a single gene in mice, which controlled the production of a
protein called stathmin, can turn cautious animals into daring ones.
(SFC, 11/18/05, p.A2)
2005 Nov 18, In Afghanistan a
Portuguese soldier was killed and three others were wounded when an
explosion struck their vehicles outside Kabul.
(AP, 11/18/05)
2005 Nov 18, In Bradford, England,
a gang of men shot and killed Sharon Beshenivsky (38), an unarmed
policewoman, and wounded another. Police arrested six people in
connection with the crime. In October 2006 Muzzaker Imtiaz Shah (25),
one of 5 men due to be tried, admitted the killing. In 2007 Mustaf Jama
(27) was arrested in Somalia and flown back to Britain to face charges
related to the murder. Five people were already convicted in connection
with Beshenivsky's death.
(AP, 11/19/05)(AFP, 10/11/06)(AFP, 11/2/07)
2005 Nov 18, In Canada officials
said a strain of H5 bird flu was found in a duck on a commercial farm
in British Columbia's Fraser Valley. Tests soon confirmed that the
strain was nonlethal.
(AP, 11/19/05)(WSJ, 11/21/05, p.A1)
2005 Nov 18, China and Chile
signed a free-trade agreement on behalf of their nations, the first
between China and a Latin American country.
(AP, 11/18/05)
2005 Nov 18, In Colombia Indians
who have seized control of 18 large farms vowed to stage protests
across the country after land reform talks with President Alvaro Uribe
ended without any agreements.
(AP, 11/18/05)
2005 Nov 18, Conservative leader
Angela Merkel took a last step toward becoming Germany's first female
chancellor when she and other party officials signed a hard-won
agreement to form a left-right coalition government.
(AP, 11/19/05)
2005 Nov 18, In Honduras Herlan
Colindres (16), a street gang member implicated in 17 killings
including a U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration agent, escaped from a
juvenile prison for the fifth time in three years, just as he promised.
(AP, 11/20/05)
2005 Nov 18, In eastern Iraq
suicide bombers killed at least 75 worshippers at two mosques including
2 suicide bombers who detonated themselves inside a Shiite mosque in
Khanaqin, a town near the Iranian border, killing at least 35 people.
In Baghdad two car bombs targeted a hotel housing foreign journalists
and killed eight Iraqis.
(AP, 11/18/05)(AP, 11/19/05)(SFC, 11/19/05, p.A1)
2005 Nov 18, An Italian judge who
refuses to hear cases because there are crucifixes in the nation's
courtrooms was convicted of failing to carry out his official duties
and sentenced to seven months in jail.
(AP, 11/18/05)
2005 Nov 18, In Kuwait a bus
carrying US troops overturned, killing one American soldier and
injuring 19 others.
(AP, 11/18/05)
2005 Nov 18, A Dutch television
show claimed to have knocked down a chain of 4,155,476 dominoes in a
new world record, but organizers conceded the event was overshadowed by
the earlier shooting of an errant sparrow. The bird caused some 23,000
dominoes to fall on Nov 14. The record was later adjusted to 4,002,146
after a legal expert ruled that a person had illegally caused 153,340
dominoes to fall.
(AP, 11/18/05)(SFC, 11/23/05, p.A2)(www.dodemus.nl/)
2005 Nov 18, In Gaza 2 rival clans
and Palestinian police exchanged fire in a dispute over land in the
area of a former Israeli settlement, killing Naef Astal (17) and
wounding 5 people.
(AP, 11/19/05)
2005 Nov 18, Peru’s government
renewed a state of emergency in several isolated jungle and highland
provinces amid reports of leftist rebel activity.
(AP, 11/18/05)
2005 Nov 18, A Russian UN official
accused of money laundering was released on $500,000 bail posted by his
government. Vladimir Kuznetsov (48), who chaired the powerful UN budget
oversight committee, had been jailed since Sept. 1 on charges that he
conspired with a UN procurement officer to launder hundreds of
thousands of dollars from foreign companies seeking contracts with the
world body.
(AP, 11/18/05)
2005 Nov 18, An election official
said PM Mahinda Rajapakse, a hard-liner toward Tamil rebels, won Sri
Lanka's presidential election by a narrow margin. Suspected separatist
rebels in Akkaraipattu tossed grenades into a Mosque during morning
prayers, killing at least four Muslim worshippers. Rajapakse later
appointed his 3 brothers to run important ministries.
(AP, 11/18/05)(Econ, 6/9/07, p.26)
2005 Nov 18, South Korean riot
police used high pressure hoses to hold back protesters chanting
anti-Bush slogans from the site of the APEC summit at Busan.
(WSJ, 11/19/05, p.A1)
2005 Nov 18, South Korea announced
plans to pull a third of its troops out of Iraq, a day after President
Bush met with his South Korean counterpart and praised him as a staunch
ally in the Iraq conflict.
(AP, 11/18/05)
2005 Nov 18, Turkey’s energy
minister said oil from a U.S.-backed Caspian pipeline has crossed the
Turkish border from Georgia on its way to a Mediterranean port for
where it will be exported to the West.
(AP, 11/18/05)
2005 Nov 18, In Turkey a bomb
placed in a trash can exploded near a fairground in Istanbul, killing
one person and injuring 12.
(AP, 11/18/05)
2006 Nov 18, President Bush
lobbied world leaders in Vietnam and lined up support for pressuring
North Korea to prove it is serious about dismantling its nuclear
weapons program. Asia-Pacific leaders put their political muscle behind
the drive to free up global trade, but they struggled to find common
ground on how best to tackle the North Korea nuclear crisis.
(AP, 11/18/06)
2006 Nov 18, Tom Cruise and Katie
Holmes exchanged wedding vows in a glowing 15th-century castle in the
medieval lakeside town of Bracciano, Italy.
(AP, 11/18/07)
2006 Nov 18, Algerian President
Abdelaziz Bouteflika appealed for private investment in the North
African country as he opened the 10th congress of Arab businessmen in
Algiers.
(AFP, 11/18/06)
2006 Nov 18, In Australia police
on horseback and wielding batons clashed with rock- and bottle-throwing
demonstrators outside a G-20 meeting of some the world's top financial
officials, turning what had been promised as a peaceful rally against
poverty into running street skirmishes.
(AP, 11/18/06)
2006 Nov 18, Bangladesh's main
opposition announced it would form a grand alliance with other major
political parties to force the ouster of a controversial election chief
and pave the way for "fair" elections.
(AFP, 11/18/06)
2006 Nov 18, British PM Tony Blair
arrived in Pakistan for talks with President Pervez Musharraf on how to
defeat a resurgent Taliban, pool counter-terrorist intelligence and
tackle militancy in Pakistan's religious schools.
(AP, 11/18/06)
2006 Nov 18, In southern China
police in Dongzhou dispersed a crowd and freed 8 hostages held captive
for a week by villagers angry about the detention of a local activist.
In eastern China a stampede on a stairwell killed six children and
injured 11 at Tutang Middle School in Jiangxi province's Duchang County.
(AP, 11/18/06)(AP, 11/19/06)
2006 Nov 18, Jean-Pierre Bemba,
the former rebel who lost Congo's presidential elections, filed a
lawsuit at the Supreme Court to challenge the vote count as dozens of
his supporters marched through downtown Kinshasa.
(AP, 11/18/06)
2006 Nov 18, Gabonese President
Omar Bongo said in a statement that the Central African Economic and
Monetary Community (CEMAC) had "acceded to a request from the Central
African Republic authorities to intervene in securing conflict zones."
CEMAC's members include the Central African Republic, Chad, Gabon,
Congo, Cameroon and Equatorial Guinea.
(AFP, 11/18/06)
2006 Nov 18, Iraqi forces
searching for four American security contractors and an Austrian, who
were kidnapped in southern Iraq, detained about 200 suspected
insurgents. Islamic Companies, a previously unknown group, claimed
responsibility for the kidnapping, according to an Iranian-run
Arabic-language satellite news station. US military killed 11
insurgents and detained 24 suspected ones in raids in and around the
Iraqi cities of Tikrit, Baqouba, Hit, Youssifiyah and Baghdad. Ten
people were killed, including three policemen shot by insurgents in
Diyala province. Police found 23 corpses in Iraq, including 20 in
Baghdad. Britain's Treasury chief Gordon Brown, who is expected to
replace PM Tony Blair as Britain's leader next year, made an
unannounced visit to Iraq to meet with Iraqi officials and British
soldiers.
(AP, 11/18/06)(AP, 11/19/06)
2006 Nov 18, Avigdor Lieberman,
Israel's new deputy prime minister, said Israel should ignore moderate
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, wipe out the Hamas leadership and
walk away from the U.S.-backed "road map" peace plan.
(AP, 11/18/06)
2006 Nov 18, Italian Premier
Romano Prodi won a key confidence vote in the Chamber of Deputies on
the center-left government's planned 2007 budget, which included
heavily protested tax increases and spending cuts.
(AP, 11/18/06)
2006 Nov 18, The Mexican
government released a long-awaited report that for the first time
officially blamed "the highest command levels" of three former
presidencies for the massacres, tortures and slayings of hundreds of
leftists from the 1960s to the 1980s. In Michoacan state at least three
of 10 lawyers being held hostage by inmates were killed after police
raided the Mil Cumbres prison in Morelia to try to rescue them.
(AP, 11/18/06)
2006 Nov 18, Movladi Baisarov, the
former head of one of Chechnya's shadowy security forces, was fatally
shot in Moscow by law enforcement officers who were trying to detain
him on suspicion of abductions and killings in the violence-plagued
southern region.
(AP, 11/18/06)
2006 Nov 18, In Sri Lanka a sea
battle, a bomb blast and gunfire killed at least 23 people, a day after
the rebels denounced a government call to disarm as a joke.
(AP, 11/18/06)
2006 Nov 18, Sudanese Foreign
Minister Lam Akol told reporters "We did not agree to the deployment of
hybrid United Nations-African Union forces in Darfur, as was declared
by UN Secretary General Kofi Annan after the Addis Ababa consultative
meeting." He said the Sudanese delegation agreed only on UN technical
units to back up the AU forces in Darfur.
(AP, 11/18/06)
2006 Nov 18, Soldiers and police
from New Zealand arrived in the Tongan capital to help restore order
after mobs demanding democratic reforms destroyed much of the capital
in unprecedented rioting that left at least eight people dead.
(AP, 11/18/06)
2007 Nov 18, Chris Daughtry's band
won favorite pop-rock album for "Daughtry," as well as breakthrough
artist and adult contemporary artist at the American Music Awards.
(AP, 11/18/08)
2007 Nov 18, Detroit pushed past
St. Louis to become the nation's most dangerous city, according to a
private research group's controversial analysis of annual FBI crime
statistics. Flint, Mich., ranked 3rd and Oakland, Ca., ranked 4th.
(AP, 11/19/07)(SFC, 11/19/07, p.A3)
2007 Nov 18, The Jesuit order of
the Roman Catholic Church in Oregon agreed to pay $50 million to 110
Eskimos to settle claims of sexual abuse in Alaska.
(SFC, 11/19/07, p.A3)(Reuters, 11/19/07)
2007 Nov 18, Greenpeace said an
international commission designed to protect bluefin tuna stocks has
effectively increased the fishing quota for 2008 from what was already
an "unsustainable" level. Greenpeace said the annual meeting of the
International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas
(ICCAT), held in Turkey had approved a nearly 1,000-ton increase in the
2008 catch.
(AFP, 11/18/07)
2007 Nov 18, A new Afghanistan
Human Development Report said Afghanistan is fifth last on a global
index of human development, despite billions of dollars in aid and help
since the fall of the Taliban regime in 2001. Police shot and killed
two suspected Taliban militants as they approached a police checkpoint
on a motorbike. In southern Helmand province, Taliban militants
attacked a police checkpoint, killing two officers and wounding four
others.
(AP, 11/18/07)(AFP, 11/18/07)(AP, 11/19/07)
2007 Nov 18, The death toll from a
cyclone that devastated Bangladesh has surpassed 2,200, as rescuers
struggled through blocked paths to reach hundreds of thousands of
survivors awaiting aid in wrecked homes and flooded fields. The head of
the country's Red Crescent Society said up to 5,000 to 10,000 people
are believed to have died in the cyclone.
(AP, 11/18/07)(AFP, 11/18/07)
2007 Nov 18, British ambassador
Andrew Anderson said Algeria has formally demanded the extradition from
Britain of former Algerian bank chief Rafik Khalifa, sentenced to life
over a massive embezzlement scandal.
(AP, 11/18/07)
2007 Nov 18, MTV Arabia, an Arab
version of the pop-culture channel, began broadcasting from Dubai.
(AP, 11/18/08)(www.freemuse.org/sw29678.asp)
2007 Nov 18, Separatist rebels
said Ethiopia's air force has been "carpet-bombing" villages and
nomadic settlements in its oil- and gas-rich Ogaden region, leaving a
trail of casualties.
(AFP, 11/18/07)
2007 Nov 18, German prosecutors
filed terrorism charges against a Moroccan man, identified as Abdelali
M. (25), was accused of helping recruit foreign fighters for al-Qaida
in Iraq. He was arrested in Sweden in March and handed over to Germany
in May.
(AP, 12/20/07)
2007 Nov 18, Three members of
Iraq's Olympic soccer team and their assistant coach left the team
during a trip to Australia and are seeking asylum in the country.
(AP, 11/19/07)
2007 Nov 18, Bombs planted along
Iraq's roads and in a parked car killed at least four people in
separate attacks. In Baghdad a car bomb targeting an undersecretary
finance minister, killed 10 bystanders. 4 homicide victims were found
in Baghdad. Two Iraqis were killed and four wounded in an incident
involving a US military convoy in southern Muthanna province. Local
officials said the soldiers had opened fire randomly and destroyed a
truckload of sheep. In Baquba 3 US soldiers were killed in a suicide
bombing that also left 3 children dead and 7 wounded.
(AP, 11/18/07)(AP, 11/19/07)(SFC, 11/19/07, p.A13)
2007 Nov 18, In Italy former
Premier Silvio Berlusconi announced the creation of a new political
party, saying the time felt right because his supporters had gathered
so many signatures calling for the ouster of Premier Romano Prodi.
(AP, 11/19/07)
2007 Nov 18, A defiant Japan
embarked on its largest whaling expedition in decades, targeting
protected humpbacks for the first time since the 1960s despite
international opposition. 4 ships headed for the waters off Antarctica,
resuming a hunt that was cut short by a deadly fire last February that
crippled the fleet's mother ship. An anti-whaling protest boat awaited
the fleet offshore.
(AP, 11/18/07)
2007 Nov 18, In Kuwait a US
soldier was killed and another was seriously injured in a road accident.
(AP, 11/18/07)
2007 Nov 18, In Nigeria’s northern
Kano state supporters of rival political parties clashed over the
results of local government elections, leaving six people dead and
dozens behind bars.
(AP, 11/19/07)
2007 Nov 18, President Gen. Pervez
Musharraf's government dismissed a last-ditch US call to end emergency
rule, a day after a visit by Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte.
Security officials and state media reported that fighting between rival
Sunni and Shiite Muslims in the northwestern tribal belt has claimed at
least 90 lives.
(AP, 11/18/07)(AP, 11/18/08)
2007 Nov 18, In eastern Saudi
Arabia an explosion and fire on a gas pipeline killed 40 workers. The
cause of the fire was an accident during maintenance work and Aramco
said it did not expect a disruption in gas supplies.
(AP, 11/18/07)(AP, 11/20/07)
2007 Nov 18, Two Sudanese
journalists from the independent Al-Sudani newspaper were jailed after
refusing to pay a fine for an article about the arrest of other
journalists.
(AP, 11/18/07)
2007 Nov 18, A methane blast
ripped through a coal mine in eastern Ukraine, killing 101 workers. In
2008 the head of an investigative commission said negligence by coal
mine managers eager to ratchet up output led to a methane blast in
Ukraine's deadliest mining disaster since the Soviet breakup.
(AP, 11/18/07)(AP, 11/19/07)(AP, 1/25/08)
2008 Nov 18, The chief executives
of Detroit’s Big Three automakers appeared before the US Senate Banking
Committee along with the head of the UAW union to plea for financial
aid under the current economic crises.
(WSJ, 11/19/08, p.A1)
2008 Nov 18, A judge in Georgia
sentenced 25-year-old Rico Todriquez Wright to spend the next 20 years
in prison after his victim mentioned a hip hop confession to police.
Wright shot a man twice and felt so good about it, the rapper wrote a
song describing the shooting and calling out the victim by name.
(AP, 11/20/08)
2008 Nov 18, George C. Chesbro, US
writer, died. His 27 novels included a detective series featuring
Mongo, a dwarf detective. “Shadow of a Broken Man” (1977) starred Mongo
and proved to be Chesbro’s breakout hit.
(SFC, 11/27/08, p.B8)
2008 Nov 18, In Afghanistan
insurgents in western Farah province ambushed an Afghan army supply
convoy, killing five troops and wounding five others.
(AP, 11/18/08)
2008 Nov 18, Belgian brewing giant
InBev announced it had completed the takeover of Anheuser-Busch to
create the world's biggest brewer. Beijing agreed to Belgium-based
InBev SA's takeover of Anheuser-Busch Cos. Inc.'s Chinese operations as
part of their global merger, but limited future acquisitions on
anti-monopoly grounds.
(AP, 11/18/08)
2008 Nov 18, A Cambodian monk (17)
was arrested for raping a British woman (39) while taking her on a tour
of a cave in the northwestern Sampov mountains near his Buddhist
temple. The monk also allegedly stole $55 and a cell phone from the
woman.
(AP, 11/20/08)
2008 Nov 18, Demoralized Congolese
government troops, retreating before eastern rebels, clashed with their
own local militia allies who tried to make them stand and fight after
the armed forces chief was replaced.
(Reuters, 11/18/08)
2008 Nov 18, Separate bands of
pirates seized a Thai fishing trawler with 16 crew members and an
Iranian cargo vessel with a crew of 25 in the Gulf of Aden. Pirates on
the trawler then apparently fired on the Indian naval frigate Tabar.
The Indians, believing the trawler to be a pirate "mother ship,"
returned fire turning the Ekawat Nava 5 into a massive fireball and
killing 14 of the 15 crew as well as the pirates. The Tabar then chased
two attack boats into the night. A surviving sailor spent six days
adrift in the shark-infested ocean before another ship picked him up.
The Iranian vessel was released on Jan 9, 2009.
(AP, 11/19/08)(AP, 11/26/08)(SFC, 11/26/08,
p.A3)(AP, 1/10/09)(AP, 6/5/09)
2008 Nov 18, Grand Ayatollah Ali
al-Sistani. Iraq's top Shiite cleric, said that the US-Iraqi security
pact would only be viable if the country's main political groups backed
it and it restored the country's full sovereignty. Iraqi lawmakers
loyal to Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr disrupted a parliamentary debate
ahead of a Nov. 24 vote on a US-Iraqi security agreement that would
keep American troops in Iraq for three more years. An alleged senior
member of Iran's elite security forces suspected of funneling arms into
Iraq was detained by Iraqi police at Baghdad International Airport
while he was trying to leave the country. The man was released on Nov
21.
(AP, 11/18/08)(AP, 11/19/08)(AP, 11/23/08)
2008 Nov 18, Israeli tanks forged
into the southern Gaza Strip, drawing mortar fire from Palestinian
militants and intensifying violence that has chipped away at a tenuous
cease-fire. Israeli seamen boarded a Palestinian fishing boat and
arrested one of Gaza's foreign supporters and five Palestinian
fishermen. The foreigner was identified as Andrew Muncie of Scotland.
(AP, 11/18/08)
2008 Nov 18, John Key (47) became
New Zealand's conservative new prime minister and underscored the
economy as his top priority.
(AP, 11/18/08)(Econ, 11/15/08, p.51)
2008 Nov 18, Northern Ireland's
leaders announced a deal allowing power-sharing cabinet meetings to
resume in the British province for the first time in over four months.
(AFP, 11/18/08)
2008 Nov 18, Italian authorities
in Sicily seized assets worth euro700 million ($885 million) from
Giuseppe Grigoli, a supermarket chain owner, suspected of letting the
Mafia use his businesses to launder money.
(AP, 11/18/08)
2008 Nov 18, In Japan Takehiko
Yamaguchi (66) and his wife Michiko (61) were found dead near the
doorway of their home in Saitama, just outside Tokyo. Evidence showed
the pair had been stabbed repeatedly. On Nov 22 Takeshi Koizumi (46)
turned himself in to police saying that he had killed the retired vice
health minister. Authorities later said they suspected the attacks were
connected to the ministry's mishandling of millions of pension records,
a debacle that has drawn intense ire from the public, many of whom lost
their retirement funds as a result. It was later reported that Koizumi
accused the ministry of killing his childhood pet dog.
(AP, 11/23/08)(AP, 11/24/08)
2008 Nov 18, Thousands of
supporters of Nicaragua's leftist ruling party armed with rocks tried
to block an opposition march on the capital to protest alleged vote
fraud, setting off clashes that injured at least five people.
(AP, 11/18/08)
2008 Nov 18, Pakistani security
forces in the Kabal area of the Swat valley killed seven militants. In
another incident in the valley's Kanju area, insurgents ambushed an
army convoy, killing a soldier.
(AP, 11/18/08)
2008 Nov 18, Owners of a Saudi oil
supertanker hijacked by Somali pirates grappled with how to respond, as
navies patrolling the region said they would not intervene to stop or
free the captured vessel.
(AP, 11/18/08)
2008 Nov 18, Spanish artist Miquel
Barcelo unveiled his lavish, $23 million ceiling painting at the
European headquarters of the United Nations in Switzerland, a project
that has evoked controversy over its hefty price tag.
(AP, 11/18/08)
2008 Nov 18, Spain's most famous
judge abandoned a drive for a symbolic indictment of the late Gen.
Francisco Franco and his regime, dropping a probe into atrocities
committed during and after the country's ruinous civil war.
(AP, 11/18/08)
2008 Nov 18, Sri Lankan naval
forces backed by helicopter gunships attacked a group of rebel boats,
sinking two and killing six Tamil Tiger sailors. Sri Lankan air force
jets bombed a rebel training camp in the north as ground forces waged
new battles with Tamil Tiger rebels across the front lines.
(AP, 11/18/08)(AP, 11/19/08)
2008 Nov 18, In Zimbabwe riot
police prevented striking doctors and nurses from protesting against
the collapsing health care system, which lacks even basic drugs amid a
rapid spread of cholera in the country.
(AP, 11/18/08)
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