Timeline Netherlands
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Maastricht's name derives from Mosae
Trajectum, which in Latin means the crossing on the Mosa (Meuse,
Maas) River.
(SFEM, 10/12/97, p.40)
Holland's official second language is Frisian. The country was once
called Zeeland.
(WSJ, 5/13/98, p.A20)(SFEC, 3/28/99, Z1 p.8)
160BC–220CE The Weerdinge Couple,
2 men dating to this period, were found in a Holland bog in 1904.
(AM, 7/97, p.66)
53BC Caesar claimed to have
wiped out the Celtic Eburones after they conspired with other groups
in an attack that killed 6,000 Roman soldiers. The Eburones lived in
an area that later came be known as part of Belgium, Germany and the
Netherlands.
(AP,
11/14/08)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eburones)
50BCE Maastricht, Netherlands, began as a Roman
settlement.
(SSFC, 2/20/05, p.F2)
1-100AD A Teutonic tribe known as the Frisians (or
Friesians) settled in what is now the Netherlands in the first
century A.D.
(HNQ, 3/5/00)
180CE A Roman military transport ship was built
about this time, as Marcus Aurelius passed the throne to the emperor
Commodus. It later sank in the Rhine. In 2003 archeologists in the
Netherlands unveiled the preserved ship.
(AP, 5/15/03)
600-700 In the seventh century the Frisians
clashed with the Franks and resisted Christianity, but succumbed to
Frankish rule and accepted Christianity a century later. Citizens of
the Netherlands’s province of Friesland are still called Frisians
and the Frisian language is still spoken there.
(HNQ, 3/5/00)
727 May 30, Hubertus (72),
bishop of Tongeren-Maastricht, saint, died.
(MC, 5/30/02)
739 Nov 7, Willibrord (81),
[Clemens], 1st bishop of Utrecht (695-739) and saint , died.
(MC, 11/7/01)
830 The Utrecht Psalter was
produced in the Netherlands. Its 166 ink drawings illustrated
passages in the psalms. In the eleventh century an English copy was
made that became known as the Harley Psalter.
(Econ, 6/13/09,
p.86)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Utrecht_Psalter)
918 Mar 1, Balderik became
bishop of Utrecht.
(SC, 3/1/02)
953 Apr 21, Otto I, the Great,
granted Utrecht fishing rights.
(MC, 4/21/02)
988 May 6, Dirk II, West
Frisian count of Holland, died.
(MC, 5/6/02)
1010 May 3, Ansfried (~69), 9th
bishop of Utrecht (995-1010), saint, died.
(MC, 5/3/02)
1076 Feb 22, Godfried III, with
the Hump, duke of Lower Lorraine, was murdered. [see Feb 26]
(MC, 2/22/02)
1076 Feb 26, Godfried III with
the Hump, duke of Netherlands-Lutheran, was murdered. [see Feb 24]
(SC, 2/26/02)
1099 Apr 14, Conrad, bishop of
Utrecht, was stabbed to death.
(MC, 4/14/02)
1100 Wittem Castle in Limburg
dates to this time.
(SFEC, 1/31/99, p.T13)
1121 Mar 2, Dirk VI became
count of Holland.
(SC, 3/2/02)
1122 Mar 2, Floris II, the fat
one, count of Holland, died.
(SC, 3/2/02)
1190 Emo of Friesland entered
Oxford and was later remembered as Oxford’s first recorded foreign
student.
(Econ, 8/7/10, p.13)
1219 Jan 16, Floods followed a
storm in Northern Netherlands and thousands were killed.
(MC, 1/16/02)
1235 Sep 5, Henry I, duke of
Brabant, died. Brabant was a duchy later divided between Netherlands
and Belgium.
(WUD, 1994 p.177)(MC, 9/5/01)
1258 Mar 26, Floris the
Guardian, count-regent of Holland, died.
(SS, 3/26/02)
1280 Muiden Castle, 10 miles
east of Amsterdam, dates to this time.
(SFEC, 1/31/99, p.T13)
1287 Dec 14, The Zuider Zee
seawall collapsed with the loss of 50,000 lives.
(MC, 12/14/01)
1294 May 3, Jan I, duke of
Brabant (Belgium-Netherlands), Limburg, poet, died.
(MC, 5/3/02)
1299 The Count of Holland
gained control of the County of Zeeland, which had been under
contention between Holland and Flanders.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zeeland)
1300 The Oude Kerk church in
Amsterdam dates to this time.
(SSFC, 1/7/01, p.T9)
1301 Jul 4, Battle at
Breukelen: Holland vs. Lichtenberg.
(Maggio)
1345 The Frisian victory over
the Dutch on the beach at Warns was their last before the Dutch took
over.
(WSJ, 5/13/98, p.A20)
1366 Records indicate that
cheese was weighed in Alkmaar at this time.
(SFEC, 6/7/98, p.T10)
1400 Roger Van Der Weyden
(d.1464), Flemish painter, was born.
(AAP, 1964)(WUD, 1994, p.1624)(Econ, 10/3/09,
p.107)
1404 Netherlands experienced a
severe flood.
1421 Nov 18-1421 Nov 19, In the
St. Elizabeth flood the Southern sea flooded 72 villages
killing some 10,000 in Netherlands.
(www.rijksmuseum.nl/aria/aria_assets/SK-A-3147-B?lang=en)
1432 Zeeland became part of the
Low Countries possession of Phillip the Good (1396-1467) of
Burgundy.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zeeland)
1433 Apr 14, Liduina van
Schiedam (53), Dutch mystic (Christ's Bride), saint, died.
(MC, 4/14/02)
c1450-1516 Hieronymus Bosch, painter was born.
Hieronymus van Aken was born in the small Dutch Brabant city of
‘s-Hertogenbosch in Flanders.
(AAP, 1964)(WUD, 1994, p.172)(WSJ, 8/25/98,
p.A12)(WSJ, 10/11/01, p.A19)
1451 Sep 21, Cardinal Nicholas
of Cusa ordered the Jews of Holland to wear a badge.
(MC, 9/21/01)
1459 Mar 2, Adrian VI [Adriaan
F Boeyens], Pope (1522-23), was born in the Netherlands.
(SC, 3/2/02)
1460 May 9, In the Netherlands
the courtyard Episcopal palace at Atrecht had witch burnings.
(MC, 5/9/02)
1464 Jun 18, Roger Van Der
Weyden (b.1400), Flemish painter, died. He had mastered the new
technique of oil painting and served as the official painter to the
city of Brussels.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rogier_van_der_Weyden)(Econ, 10/3/09,
p.107)
1466 Oct 26, Desiderius Erasmus
(d.1536), scholar and author (In Praise of Folly), was born in
Rotterdam. He was of illegitimate birth, but became a priest and a
monk. He excelled in philology, the study of ancient languages,
namely Latin and Greek and worked on a new translation of the New
Testament. The more he studied it, the more he came to doubt the
accuracy of the Vulgate, St. Jerome's translation into Latin, dating
from around 400. "In Praise of Folly" is his most famous work... In
it Erasmus had the freedom to discourse, in the ironic style of
Lucian (the Greek author whose works he translated), concerning all
the foolishness and misguided pompousness of the world.
(V.D.-H.K.p.159-160)(MC, 10/26/01)
1477 Future Holy Roman Emperor
Maximilian I, a member of the Habsburg family of Austria, married
Mary of Burgundy, heiress of all the Netherlands. Maximilian had
given Mary a diamond engagement ring, a practice that soon spread.
In 1996 Andrew Wheatcroft wrote a history of the Habsburgs: "The
Habsburgs."
(WSJ, 1/19/96, p.A-12)(SFEM, 6/28/98, p.6)(SFC,
5/28/08, p.G2)
1477 The Seventeen Provinces, a
personal union of states in the Low Countries in the 16th century,
became the property of the Habsburgs. They roughly covered the
current Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, a good part of the North
of France (Artois, Nord) and a small part of Germany.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zeeland)
1483 Apr 6, Raphael (Raffaello
Sanzio, d.1520), Dutch painter (Sistine Madonna) , was born to an
unremarkable painter in the Duchy of Urbino. He went on to paint
famous works in the Vatican. After an apprenticeship in Perugia, he
went to Florence, having heard of the work da Vinci and Michelangelo
were doing. His last 12 years were spent on numerous commissions in
Rome. He died on his 37th birthday, his funeral mass being
celebrated in the Vatican. .
(HN, 4/6/98)(HNQ, 11/17/00)
1487 Hans Memling
(c.1440-1494), Flemish painter, painted the diptych “Virgin and
Child” and “Maarten van Nieuwenhove” (1463-1500), who was his
patron.
(SFC, 10/18/05, p.D2)(SFC, 12/23/06, p.E12)
1489-1490 The plague ravaged the Netherlands.
(WSJ, 10/12/98, p.A17)
1492 May 15, Cheese and Bread
rebellion: German mercenaries killed 232 Alkmaarse.
(MC, 5/15/02)
1496 Oct 20, Spain’s Juana of
Castile (1479-1555) married Philip the Handsome, the Duke of
Burgundy, in Lier (later a part of Belgium). Philip's parents were
Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor and his first wife, Duchess Mary of
Burgundy. Juana had sailed from Spain with 15,000 men to the
Habsburg Netherlands. Between 1498 and 1507, she gave birth to six
children: two emperors and four queens.
(Econ, 4/13/13,
p.55)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joanna_of_Castile)
1500s Holland and Saxony began
to protect the rights of inventors to their creations.
(WSJ, 1/11/99, p.R14)
1507 Margaret of Austria was
appointed Regent by the States-General (parliament) of the
Netherlands until the Archduke Charles came of age.
(TL-MB, p.9)
1510 Jun 9, Nicolaas van
Nieuwland, corrupt 1st bishop of Harlem, was born.
(MC, 6/9/02)
1511 Portuguese traders reached
the Banda Islands, including Run, and broke the Venetian monopoly
over nutmeg. Over the next century the Dutch muscled in an almost
cornered the nutmeg market. The history of the nutmeg trade was
documented in 1999 by Giles Milton in his: "Nathaniel's Nutmeg."
(WSJ, 5/21/99, p.W7)
1512 Nov 16, Jemme Herjuwsma,
Fries rebel, was beheaded.
(MC, 11/16/01)
1512 Nov 17, Kempo Roeper,
Frisian rebel, was quartered.
(MC, 11/17/01)
1517 Jul 1, The 1st burning of
Protestants at stake in Netherlands.
(MC, 7/1/02)
1517 Archduke Charles left the
Netherlands for Spain and entered Valladolid in triumph.
(TL-MB, p.11)
1519 Jul 6, Charles of Spain
was elected Holy Roman emperor in Barcelona. The Catholic heir to
the Hapsburg dynasty, Charles V, was elected Holy Roman Emperor,
combining the crowns of Spain, Burgundy (with the Netherlands),
Austria and Germany. He was the grandson of Ferdnand and Isabella of
Spain.
(V.D.-H.K.p.162)(NH, 9/96, p.18)(HN, 7/6/98)
1520 Oct 7, The 1st public
burning of books took place in Louvain, Netherlands.
(MC, 10/7/01)
1521 May 28, Willem van Croij
(~62), duke of Soria, died.
(MC, 5/28/02)
1521 Oct 25, Emperor Charles V
banned wooden buildings in Amsterdam.
(MC, 10/25/01)
1522 Apr 29, Emperor Charles V
named Frans van Holly inquisitor-gen of Netherlands.
(MC, 4/29/02)
1523 Nov 30, Amsterdam banned
the assembly of heretics.
(MC, 11/30/01)
1523 Hans Holbein completed the
first of several portraits of Erasmus. He also began the design of
51 plates on the "Dance of Death," which reflected ideas of the
Reformation.
(TL-MB, p.12)
1524 Apr 19, Pope Clemens VII
fired the Netherlands inquisitor-general French Van de Holly.
(MC, 4/19/02)
1524 Dec 11, Henry Van Zutphen,
Dutch Protestant martyr, was burned at stake.
(MC, 12/11/01)
1525 May 10, Church reformer
John Pistorius was caught in the Hague.
(MC, 5/10/02)
1525 Sep 15, Jan de Bakker
(26), Roman Catholic priest also known under the name Pistorius, was
burned during the Reformation in the Netherlands.
(http://www.bautz.de/bbkl/p/pistorius_joh.shtml)
1527 Nov 20, Wendelmoet
"Weyntjen" Claesdochter, became the 1st Dutch woman to be burned as
heretic.
(MC, 11/20/01)
1528 Nov 30, Great Wierd, Dutch
Gelderland army commander, was beheaded.
(MC, 11/30/01)
1530 In Antwerp William Tyndale
published his translation into English of the Pentateuch, the first
five books of the Old Testament, and shipped copies to England.
(WSJ, 12/22/94, A-20)(ON, 11/04, p.2)
1530 Erasmus (1469-1536), Dutch
Renaissance humanist, authored “On Good Manners for Boys” (De
civilitate morum puerorum).
(Econ, 10/8/11, p.102)
1531 May 31, "Women's Revolt"
in Amsterdam: wool house in churchyard.
(MC, 5/31/02)
1531 Dec 6, John Volkertsz
Trimaker, Dutch Anabaptist leader, was beheaded.
(MC, 12/6/01)
1534 Feb 26, Pope Paul III was
affirmed George van Egmond as bishop of Utrecht.
(PTA, 1980, p.440)(SC, 2/26/02)
1534 Mar 26, Lübeck, Hanseatic
League port in the Baltic, accepted free Dutch ships into East Sea.
(SS, 3/26/02)(WUD, 1994 p.851)
1535 Feb 10, 12 nude
Anabaptists ran through the streets of Amsterdam. [see 1534]
(MC, 2/10/02)
1535 May 21, Imperial
authorities in Antwerp captured and imprisoned William Tyndale for
heresy over his translation of the Bible into English.
(WSJ, 12/22/94,
A-20)(www.hyperhistory.net/apwh/bios/b2tyndalew.htm)
1535 Jun 24, Francis of Waldeck
overcame the Anabaptists of Munster. Fanatic leader John of Leyden
and others were tortured and executed in Jan 1536.
(MC, 6/24/02)(PC, 1992, p.179)
1535 Jul 10, Jacob Van Campen,
Anabaptist bishop of Amsterdam, was beheaded.
(MC, 7/10/02)
1536 Jul 12, Desiderius Erasmus
(b.1469 in Rotterdam) died, humanist, priest (Novum instrumentum
omne), died. His most famous works included "In Praise of Folly" and
a Greek text of the New Testament. In 1999 Prof. Charles Trinkaus
published "Collected Works of Erasmus: Controversies," an
examination of the religious conflict between humanism and the
Reformation.
(V.D.-H.K.p.159-160)(SFC, 9/27/99, p.A26)(WSJ,
1/31/03, p.W13)(MC, 7/12/02)
1540 Feb 14, Emperor Charles V
entered Ghent without resistance and executed the rebels. He
brutally beat down an uprising against taxes for an expansionist
war. Nine leaders were beheaded and another hanged. City burgers
were forced to walk the streets barefoot with rope hanging round
their necks. The "Gentse Feesten" annual festival re-enacts this
event every mid-July.
(SFEC, 11/21/99, p.T10)(MC, 2/14/02)
1550 Apr 28, Powers of Dutch
inquisition were extended.
(MC, 4/28/02)
1550 Apr 29, Emperor Charles V
gave inquisitors additional authority.
(MC, 4/29/02)
1555 Oct 25, Emperor Charles V
put his son Philip II in charge of Netherlands, Naples, and Milan.
(MC, 10/25/01)
1556-1620 Adriaen de Vries, sculptor. He was born
in The Hague and worked in Florence under the sculptor Giovanni
Bologna. His work included "Juggling Man" (c1610-1615), a bust of
Emp. Rudolf II (1603), and the Neptune Fountain (1615-1618).
(WSJ, 1/6/98, p.A20)(WSJ, 12/7/99, p.A24)
1557 Pieter Breughel the Elder
created his painting "The Drunkard Pushed Into the Pigsty." [see
Flanders]
(WSJ, 9/6/02, p.W14)
1558 Hendrick Goltzius
(d.1617), Dutch Master painter, was born.
(WSJ, 8/14/03, p.D8)
1564 Dec 31, Willem of Orange
demanded freedom of conscience and religion.
(MC, 12/31/01)
1564-1651 Abraham Bloemaert, artist and teacher of
Hendrick ter Brugghen.
(SFEM, 8/31/97, p.13)
1566 Aug 25, Iconoclastic fury
began in the Dutch province of Utrecht. Fanatical Calvinists
instigated religious riots in the Netherlands.
(chblue.com, 8/25/01)(TL-MB, 1988, p.21)
1566-1638 Joachim Wytawael (Wtewael), Dutch
mannerist painter.
(SFEM, 8/31/97, p.13)(SFEM, 9/17/00, p.96)
1566-1640 Hendrick Cornelisz Vroom, Dutch painter.
(SFC, 4/4/01, p.C1)
1567 Apr 11, Dutch Prince
William of Orange fled from Antwerp to Breda.
(MC, 4/11/02)
1567 May 1, Michiel Jansz van
Mierevelt, Dutch royal painter, was born.
(MC, 5/1/02)
1567 Oct 6, The Duke of Alba
became guardian of the Netherlands. Spain’s Duke of Alba arrived in
Brussels at the head of a 10,000 troops to quell the iconoclastic
riots.
(MC, 10/6/01)(WSJ, 7/1/04, p.D8)
1568 Jan 24, In Netherlands
Duke of Alba declared (future King) William of Orange an outlaw.
(MC, 1/24/02)
1568 Feb 16, A sentence of the
Holy Office condemned all the inhabitants of the Netherlands to
death as heretics. From this universal doom only a few persons,
especially named, were acquitted.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eighty_Years%27_War)
1568 Oct 5, Willem of Orange's
army occupied Brabant.
(MC, 10/5/01)
1568-1648 The Eighty Years' War, or Dutch Revolt
was the secession war in which the proto-Netherlands first became an
independent country and in which the region now known as Belgium
became established. It was carried on by the Calvinist and
predominantly mercantile Dutch provinces.
(TL-MB, 1988,
p.21)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eighty_Years%27_War)
1569 Sep 5, Pieter Breughel,
South Netherlands (Flemish) painter, died at about 44.
(MC, 9/5/01)
1570 Mar 4, Spain’s King Philip
II banned foreign Dutch students.
(SC, 3/4/02)
1570 Nov 2, A tidal wave in the
North Sea destroyed the sea walls from Holland to Jutland. Over a
thousand people are killed.
(HN,
11/2/98)(www.metoffice.com/education/secondary/students/flood.html)
1572 Apr 1, The Sea Beggars
under Guillaume de la Marck landed in Holland and captured the small
town of Briel.
(HN, 4/1/99)
1572 Jun 9, Willem van Orange's
army occupied Gelderland.
(MC, 6/9/02)
1572 Jun 24, Adrianus van
Gouda, lay brother, was hanged along with Cornelis van Diedt,
Daniell van Arendonck (clergyman), Joannes van Naarden (priest) and
Ludovicus Voets (priest).
(MC, 6/24/02)
1572 Jul 9, In Gorinchem,
Netherlands, 19 Catholics were executed during the Dutch war for
independence. They became known as “The Martyrs of Gorkum.”
(SFC, 3/5/11,
p.E2)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martyrs_of_Gorkum)
1572 Jul 18, William of Orange
was recognized as viceroy of Holland, Friesland and Utrecht.
(MC, 7/18/02)
1572 Dec, The Dutch town of
Naarden surrendered to Imperial Spanish troops under the Duke of
Alba (1507-1582). The town was then burned and the entire population
massacred. Alba’s attempt to impose a 10% sales tax on commodities
stirred resistance that led to the Dutch independence. In 2004 Henry
Kamen authored ”The Duke of Alba.”
(WSJ, 7/1/04, p.D8)
1572 Dutch warships, Beggars of
the Sea, effectively harried Spanish shipping in the English Channel
and fueled the Dutch War of Independence.
(TL-MB, 1988, p.22)
1572 The Dutch used carrier
pigeons during the Spanish siege of Haarlem.
(WSJ, 1/11/99, p.R14)
1573 Jul 20, Lancelot of
Brederode (Netherlands), water beggar, was beheaded.
(MC, 7/20/02)
1574 Oct 1-2 A storm broke a
Leiden dike and 20,000 Spanish soldiers drowned. Spanish forces in
the Netherlands besieged Leyden, but William the Silent (Willem of
Orange) breached the dykes to flood the land. This allowed his ships
to sail up to the walls and lift the siege.
(TL-MB, 1988, p.22)(PCh, 1992, p.198)(MC,
10/1/01)
1575 The Bols family arrived in
Amsterdam to open ‘het Lootsje’ where they would distill liqueurs.
This was the starting point of what would become the world’s oldest
distillery. Bols began producing Genever, a Dutch style of gin, in
1664. In 2007 it opened a House of Bols museum in the museum quarter
in the Dutch capital. It was dedicated to the history of Jenever
(also known as genever or jeniever), the juniper-flavored alcoholic
liquor from which gin evolved. The museum is housed on two floors of
the Bols headquarters at 14 Paulus Potterstraat. Originally sold as
a remedy for lumbago muscular pain, the traditional Dutch and
Flemish drink was allegedly invented at the end of the 16th century
by Sylvius de Bouve, a chemist, alchemist, renowned scholar and
professor at the university of Leyden.
(http://amsterdam.wantedineurope.com/news/news.php?id_n=2999)(www.lucasbols.com/index.asp)(WSJ,
5/31/08, p.A12)
1576 Nov 8, All 17 provinces of
the Netherlands united in the Pacification of Ghent in the face of
Spanish occupation. The 17 provinces of the Netherlands formed a
federation to maintain peace.
(TL-MB, 1988, p.22)(HN, 11/6/98)
1576 Mutinous Spanish forces
sacked Antwerp in "the Spanish Fury."
(TL-MB, 1988, p.22)
1577 Jun 28, Pietro Paul Rubens
(d.1640), Flemish painter, was born in Germany, the child of
protestants exiled from Antwerp. His work included "Helene Fourment"
and "The Abduction of the Daughters of Leucippus."
(AAP, 1964)(WUD, 1994, p.1250)(HN, 6/28/01)
(Econ, 5/15/04, p.81)
1577 Sep 23, William of Orange
made his triumphant entry into Brussels, Belgium.
(HN, 9/23/98)
1578 Jan 28, Cornelis Haga,
Dutch lawyer, ambassador to Constantinople (1611-39), was born.
(MC, 1/28/02)
1578 Don John of Austria died
of fever. He was succeeded as Governor of the Netherlands by
Alessandro Farnese, Duke of Parma.
(TL-MB, 1988, p.22)
1579 Jan 6, The Union of
Atrecht (French: Arras) was an accord signed in Atrecht (Arras),
under which the southern states of the Spanish Netherlands, today in
Wallonia and the Nord-Pas-de-Calais (and Picardy) regions in France,
expressed their loyalty to the Spanish king Philip II and recognized
the landlord, Don Juan de Austria. It is to be distinguished from
the Union of Utrecht, signed later in the same month. The Peace of
Arras ensured that the southern provinces of The Netherlands were
reconciled to Philip II. It joined the Low Country Walloons
(Catholics) with those of Hainaut and Artois.
(http://en.allexperts.com/e/u/un/union_of_atrecht.htm)(PCh, 1992,
p.200)
1579 Jan 25, The Union of
Utrecht brought together seven northern, Protestant provinces of the
Netherlands against the Catholics. Known as the United Provinces,
they become the foundation of the Dutch Republic. The Treaty of
Utrecht was signed, marking the beginning of the Dutch Republic.
(TL-MB, 1988, p.22)(AP, 1/25/98)
1579 Mar 23, Friesland joined
the Union of Utrecht.
(SS, 3/23/02)
1580 Jun 18, States of Utrecht
outlawed Catholic worship.
(MC, 6/18/02)
c1581 Franz Hals (d.1666),
painter, was born.
(WUD, 1994 p.640)(SFEC, 9/3/00, p.T7)
1581 The seven northern
provinces of the Netherlands renounced their allegiance to Philip II
of Spain.
(TL-MB, p.23)
1582 Nov 1, Maurice of Nassau,
the son of William of Orange, became the governor of Holland,
Zeeland and Utrecht.
(HN, 11/1/98)
1583 Apr 10, Hugo Grotius
(d.1645) of Holland, father of international law, was born. Huig de
Groot (Latinized as Hugo Grotius), Dutch jurist and statesman, is
generally regarded as the founder of international law because of
his influential work "On the Law of War and Peace" published in
1625. He became a member of a diplomatic mission to France at age 15
and began practicing law at 16. A liberal Protestant, de Groot
became involved in religious disputes in the Netherlands and was
arrested in 1618 and sentenced to life imprisonment. He escaped in
1621 and fled to Paris. He served the Swedish government as
ambassador to France from 1634-1644.
(HN, 4/10/98)(HNQ, 3/15/00)
1584 Jan 7, This was the last
day of the Julian calendar in Bohemia & Holy Roman empire. The
1582 Gregorian (or New World) calendar was adopted by this time in
Belgium, most of the German Roman Catholic states and the
Netherlands.
(SFEC, 10/3/99, Par p.27)(MC, 1/7/02)
1584 Jul 10, William of Orange
(1533-1584), Prince of Orange (1544-1584), Count of Nassau
(1559-1584), and first stadholder of the United Provinces of the
Netherlands, was assassinated by Burgundian Balthasar Gerard (25)
with a handgun. Philip II of Spain had called for a volunteer
assassin due to William’s reluctance take a public stand on
religious issues. William was succeeded by his 17-year-old son,
Maurice of Nassau. In 2006 Lisa Jardine authored “The Awful End of
Prince William the Silent.”
(TL-MB, 1988, p.23)(WSJ, 4/5/06, p.D8)
1584 A Dutch trading post was
established at the Russian port of Archangel.
(TL-MB, p.23)
1585 Apr 5, Clemens Crabbeels
became bishop of Hertogenbosch.
(MC, 4/5/02)
1585 Antwerp was sacked by the
Duke of Parma, resulting in long-lasting loss of trade for that
port.
(TL-MB, p.24)
1585 Simon Stevin, Dutch
mathematician and military and civil engineer, introduces decimals
into the mathematical calculations of his physics in Die Thiende.
(TL-MB, p.24)
1585 The Dutch used the first
time-bombs in floating mines actuated by clockwork at the siege of
Antwerp.
(TL-MB, p.24)
1587 Giles Everard, a Dutch
doctor, authored “Panacea,” extolling the virtues of tobacco. The
Latin version was made available in English in 1659.
(WSJ, 11/22/08, p.W11)
1588-1629 Hendrick ter Brugghen was an artist of
the Utrecht School. His paintings included: "St. Sebastian Tended by
Irene." He traveled to Rome and was influenced by the work of
Caravaggio.
(SFEM, 8/31/97, p.8)
1590 Mar 4, Mauritius of
Nassau's ship reached Breda, Netherlands.
(SC, 3/4/02)
1592-1656 Gerard van Honthorst was an artist of
the Utrecht School. His paintings included "The Denial of St. Peter"
(1620-1626), and "Saint Sebastian" from (c1620/1623). He traveled to
Rome and was influenced by the work of Caravaggio.
(SFEM, 8/31/97, p.8,12)
1595 Apr 2, Cornelis de
Houtman's ships departed to Asia around Cape of Good Hope.
(MC, 4/2/02)
c1595-1624 Dirck van Baburen was an artist of the
Utrecht School. He traveled to Rome and was influenced by the work
of Caravaggio.
(SFEM, 8/31/97, p.8)
1596 May 18, Willem Barents
left Amsterdam for Novaya Zemlya.
(SC, 5/18/02)
1597 Jun 20, Willem Barents,
Dutch explorer who discovered Spitsbergen & Bereneil, died. In
1995 Rayner Unwin authored "A Winter Away from Home," an account of
Barents’ Arctic voyages.
(WUD, 1994 p.120)(SSFC, 12/10/00, p.C17)(MC,
6/20/02)
1597 In Amsterdam the Spinhuis
(spinning house) was opened as a workhouse for fallen women.
(SSFC, 1/7/01, p.T9)
1597-1665 Pieter Saenredam, Haarlem painter of
architectural motifs.
(WSJ, 7/2/02, p.D7)
1597/8-1671 Jan van Bijlert, painter. He traveled
to Rome and was influenced by the work of Caravaggio.
(SFEM, 8/31/97, p.13)
1598 Jun, A 5-ship Dutch
expedition to Japan departed Rotterdam with Will Adams, English ship
pilot, as chief navigator.
(ON, 11/02, p.8)
1599 The Dutch East India
Company dates to this time. [see 1602]
(WSJ, 1/11/99, p.R42)
1600 Apr 19, The Dutch ship
Liefde, piloted by Will Adams, reached Japan with a crew of 24 men.
6 of the crew soon died. 4 other ships in the expedition were lost.
(ON, 11/02, p.8)
1600 Dec 31, The British East
India Company (d.1874) was chartered by Queen Elizabeth I in London
to carry on trade in the East Indies in competition with the Dutch,
who controlled nutmeg from the Banda Islands.
(WUD, 1994, p.449)(WSJ, 1/11/99,
p.R49)(www.theeastindiacompany.com/history.html)
1600-1700 Britain waged wars against the Dutch.
The English fleet sailed in three segments, the 3rd of which was
commanded by a Rear Admiral. [see 1780-1783]
(SFEC, 8/3/97, Z1 p.2)
1600-1700 Cognac 1st appeared when Dutch sea
merchants found that they could better preserve white wine shipped
from France to northern Europe by distilling it. They then learned
the wine got better as it aged in wooden barrels.
(WSJ, 7/14/03, p.A1)
1600-1700 West Timor was seized by the
Netherlands.
(SFC, 3/3/98, p.A6)
1600-1800 A mass migration of nearly 1 million
people in the 17th and 18th century led to the decline of this small
nation.
(SFC, 3/31/98, p.F4)
1601 Joachim Wtewael painted
"Mars and Venus Discovered by Vulcan."
(SFEM, 8/31/97, p.8)
1602 Mar 20, The Dutch East
India Company (Vereenigde Oost-Indische Compagnie) was chartered to
carry on trade in the East Indies. The VOC traded to 1798 whereupon
its possessions were dissolved into the Dutch empire. In 2010 a
student found a share in the company issued to an official named
Pieter Harmenz dating to Sep 9, 1606. As a result, continuous trade
in company stock emerged on the Amsterdam Exchange.
(SFC, 9/10/10,
p.A2)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stock_market)(Econ, 2/25/12,
SRp.4)
1602 Japan’s Shogun Ieyasu
seized the Dutch ship Liefde and granted its crew allowances to live
in Japan.
(ON, 11/02, p.9)
1603 The Dutch East India
Company seized a Portuguese ship laden with raw silk and gold near
the straight of Malacca and hired Dutch jurist Hugo Grotius
(1583-1645) to defend its action. In 1625 Grotius authored “Mare
Liberum” (The Free Sea) arguing that the seas were international
territory and should be open to all.
(Econ, 11/15/14, SR p.11)
1604 Sep 20, After a two-year
siege, the Spanish retook Ostend [NW Belgium], the Netherlands, from
the Dutch.
(WUD, 1994, p.1019)(HN, 9/20/98)
1604-1667 Christiaen van Couwenbergh, Dutch
painter.
(SFC, 4/4/01, p.C1)
1605 Japan’s Shogun Ieyasu
allowed some of the Dutch crew of the ship Liefde to return home,
but kept Will Adams in Japan. Adams soon married Magoma Oyuki, a
young noblewoman.
(ON, 11/02, p.10)
1606 Jul 15, The painter
Rembrandt (d.1669) Harmenszoom van Rizn (Rijn), was born in Leiden,
Netherlands. His paintings included "Old Woman Cutting Her Nails,"
"Night Watch," "Self Portrait Leaning Forward" (1628), "Two Studies
of Saskia Asleep" (1635-1637), "Jupiter and Antiope" (1659) and
"Aristotle Contemplating the Bust of Homer." He started making
etchings in the 1620s when the medium was barely a 100 years old.
(WSJ, 10/1/96, p.A20)(SFC, 10/12/96, p.E3)(SFC,
5/17/97, p.E1)(AP, 7/15/97)
1608 Oct 2, Jan Lippershey,
spectacle maker, formally offered to the Estates of Holland his new
spyglass for warfare. He was the 1st to file a patent claim for a
spyglass.
(www.britannica.com/eb/article?tocId=9048449)(CW,
Spring ‘99, p.33)
1608 The Oudemannenhuis
almshouse was built in Haarlem.
(SFEC, 9/3/00, p.T7)
1609 Mar 25, Henry Hudson
embarked on an exploration for Dutch East India Co.
(MC, 3/25/02)
1609 Sep 12, English
explorer Henry Hudson sailed into the river that now bears his name.
Hudson sailed for the Dutch East India Company in search of the
Northwest Passage, a water route linking the Atlantic and Pacific
Oceans, when he sailed up the present-day Hudson River.
(AP, 9/12/97)(HNQ, 7/23/00)
1609 Dutchman Huig de Groot
authored a treatise titled “Mare Liberum” (The Open Sea) in which he
argued that seas were open to anyone.
(Econ, 1/18/14, p.80)
1610 The Dutch ousted the
Portuguese from Indonesia by this time, but the Portuguese retained
the eastern half of Timor.
(SFC, 9/8/99, p.A17)
1610 The first cargo of Asian
tea arrived in Amsterdam
(WSJ, 1/11/99, p.R49)
1610-1650 Painters from Utrecht worked in the
style of Caravaggio.
(WSJ, 10/20/97, p.A19)
1611 Joachim Wtewael painted
"Andromeda." He and Bloemaert helped transmit the Italian mannerist
influence and a preference for figure painting over landscape
(SFC, 9/12/97, p.C8)
1613 Apr 7, Gerard Dou, Dutch
painter (Night School), was born.
(MC, 4/7/02)
1613-1675 Gerrit Dou, Dutch artist. He was a
student of Rembrandt.
(SFC, 5/25/00, p.A24)
1614 Crispijn de Passe the
Younger published "Hortus Floridus" in Holland.
(WSJ, 7/7/98, p.A14)
1615 Joachim Wtewael painted
the "Judgement of Paris."
(SFC, 9/12/97, p.C8)
1616 Dec 25, Nathaniel
Courthope, a British merchant-adventurer under direct orders from
James I, landed his ship Swan at the Banda Island of Run. He
persuaded the islanders to enter an alliance with the British for
nutmeg. He fortified the 1 by 2 mile island and with 30 men
proceeded to hold off a Dutch siege for 1,540 days.
(WSJ, 5/21/99, p.W7)
1616 The Dutch became the first
to establish colonies in Guyana with Essequibo. Berbice followed in
1627, and then Demerara in 1752.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guyana)
1616-1691/92 Emanuel de Witte, Dutch painter.
(SFC, 4/4/01, p.C1)
1617 Feb 4, Louis Elsevier
(~76), Dutch publisher, died.
(MC, 2/4/02)
1617 The Pilgrims decided to
leave the Netherlands. They formed a partnership in a joint-stock
company with a group of London merchants in a company called John
Pierce & Assoc. They received a grant for a plantation in the
Virginia colony but ended up landing in Massachusetts. Each adult
was to receive a share in the company but earnings would not be
divided for 7 years.
(WSJ, 11/26/97, p.A14)
1618 Aug, Hugo Grotius,
attorney general of Holland, was arrested on the orders of Prince
Maurice of Nassau, ruler of the United Provinces of the Netherlands,
for conspiring to undermine the authority of the government.
(ON, 10/04, p.1)
1618 Hendrick Goltzius
(b.1558), Dutch Master painter, died. His work included "Danaë."
(WSJ, 8/14/03, p.D8)
1619 May 13, Johan van
Oldenbarnevelt (b.1547), Dutch lands advocate, was beheaded.
(MC, 5/13/02)
1619 May 18, Hugo the Great
(1582-1645), Hugo de Groot or Grotius, Dutch scholar, the "Father of
Int’l. Law" and author of the 1st treatise on the law of the sea,
Mare liberum," was sentenced to life in prison.
(SC, 5/18/02)(Internet)
1619 Jun 5, Hugo Grotius was
taken to Loevestein Castle to begin his life sentence. His wife and
5 children were allowed to stay with him.
(ON, 10/04, p.1)
1619 Amsterdam opened a stock
exchange.
(WSJ, 1/11/99, p.R42)
1620 Jul 22, The Pilgrims set
out from Holland destined for the New World. The Speedwell sailed to
England from the Netherlands with members of the English Separatist
congregation that had been living in Leiden, Holland. Joining the
larger Mayflower at Southampton, the two ships set sail together in
August, but the Speedwell soon proved unseaworthy and was abandoned
at Plymouth, England. The entire company then crowded aboard the
Mayflower, setting sail for North America on September 16, 1620.
(HNQ, 3/4/00)(MC, 7/22/02)
1621 Jun 3, The Dutch West
India Company received a charter for New Netherlands, now known as
New York. The Dutch West India Co. was formed to trade with America
and West Africa.
(AP, 6/3/97)(WSJ, 1/11/99, p.R42)
1621-1622 Dutch artist Dirck van Baburen painted
"The Mocking of Christ."
(SFC, 9/12/97, p.C8)
1622 Feb 27, Rembrandt Carel
Fabritius (d.1654), Dutch painter, was born.
(SFC, 4/4/01, p.C1)(MC, 2/27/02)
1622 Mar 22, Hugo Grotius
escaped from Loevestein Castle.
(ON, 10/04, p.2)
1622 Dirck van Baburen painted:
"The Procuress."
(SFEM, 8/31/97, p.8)
1622 In Aklmaar the cheese
market officially opened. [see 1366]
(SFEC, 6/7/98, p.T10)
1623 Apr 29, 11 Dutch ships
departed for the conquest of Peru.
(MC, 4/29/02)
1623 Dirck van Baburen painted
"Prometheus Chained."
(SFC, 9/12/97, p.C1)
1624 Cafe Chris opened in
Amsterdam and served the construction workers of the nearby
Westerkerk.
(SFEC, 3/2/97, p.T5)
1624 The Dutch conquered
Salvador, Brazil.
(SFEC, 8/8/99, p.T8)
1624 Dutchman Cornelius Drebbel
encased a wooden frame in a greased leather sheath and pushed it
underwater to create what’s claimed to be the world’s 1st submarine.
(SFC, 7/15/00, p.B3)
1625 Sep 24, Dutch Gen’l.
Bowdoin Hendrik and his fleet of 17 ships sailed into San Juan,
Puerto Rico, and attacked El Morro. He held the garrison under siege
for 3 weeks and then set the town to flames. This infuriated the
Spanish who attacked and sent the Dutch fleeing.
(HT, 4/97, p.31-33)(MC, 9/24/01)
1625 Hendrick ter Brugghen
painted "Saint Sebastian Attended by Saint Irene."
(SFC, 9/12/97, p.C8)
1625 Rembrandt depicted himself
as a bit player in his painting "The Stoning of St. Stephen."
(WSJ, 8/11/99, p.A16)
1625 Hugo Grotius (1583-1645)
of Holland published his influential work "On the Law of War and
Peace." Huig de Groot (Latinized as Hugo Grotius), Dutch jurist and
statesman, is generally regarded as the founder of international
law. "It is lawful to kill who is preparing to kill."
(HN, 4/10/98)(HNQ, 3/15/00)(Econ, 11/22/03, p.25)
1626 May 4, Dutch explorer
Peter Minuit (~1594-1638), director-general of New Netherlands,
bought Manhattan Island for 60 guilders (about $24 in 1839 dollars)
worth of cloth and buttons. Minuit conducted the transaction with
Seyseys, chief of the Canarsees, who were only too happy to accept
valuable merchandise in exchange for an island that was actually
mostly controlled by the Weckquaesgeeks. The Sixty guilders were
valued at approximately $1,060 in 2013. The site of the deal was
later marked by Peter Minuit Plaza at South Street and Whitehall
Street.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Minuit)(AP,
5/4/97)(HN, 5/4/98)(WSJ, 11/19/99, p.W10)
1626 Nov 7, Peter Schager of
Amsterdam informed the States General that the ship "The Arms of
Amsterdam" had arrived with a cargo of furs and timber from New
Netherlands and that the settlers there had bought the Island of
Manhattan for 60 guilders.
(WSJ, 11/19/99, p.W10)
1626 Rembrandt depicted part of
himself in his painting "History Piece."
(WSJ, 8/11/99, p.A16)
c1626-1627 Hendrick ter Brugghen painted "The
Concert."
(SFEM, 8/31/97, p.12)
1626-1679 Jan Steen, Dutch painter.
(SFC, 4/4/01, p.C1)
1627 Mar 3, Piet Heyn conquered
22 ships in Bay of Salvador, Brazil.
(SC, 3/3/02)
c1627-1628 Hendrick ter Brugghen painted
"Melancholia."
(SFC, 9/12/97, p.C1)
1628 Mar 10, Constantine
Huygens Jr., Dutch poet, painter, cartoonist, was born.
(MC, 3/10/02)
1628 Abraham Bloemaert painted
his "Virgin and Child."
(SFEM, 8/31/97, p.13)
1628 Rembrandt Harmenszoom van
Rizn (Rijn) (1606-1669), Dutch painter, painted "Self Portrait
Leaning Forward."
(AAP, 1964)(WUD, 1994, p.1213)(WSJ, 10/1/96,
p.A20)
1628 Peter Paul Rubens, Flemish
painter, was called upon to broker a peace between Catholic Spain
and Protestant England.
(Econ, 5/15/04, p.81)
1629 Apr 14, Christian Huygens
(d.1695), Dutch astronomer, discoverer of Saturn's rings, was born.
He invented the pendulum and along with Newton showed that any body
revolving around a center is actually accelerating constantly toward
that center, even though the rate of rotation remains constant.
(TNG, Klein,
p.30)(http://inventors.about.com/library/inventors/bl_huygens.htm)
1629 Jun 18, Piet Heyn (51),
lt.-admiral (Spanish silver fleet), died in battle.
(MC, 6/18/02)
1629 Oct 13, Dutch West Indies
Co. granted religious freedom in West Indies.
(MC, 10/13/01)
1629 The Batavia, a Dutch East
India ship, struck a reef off the western coast of Australia. Some
300 survivors made it to a tiny island in the Houtman Abrolhos
archipelago, where Jeronimus Cornelisz, a junior officer, took power
after a vicous struggle. He ran a regime of murder, rape and torture
for 3 months when helped arrived from the Dutch colony on Java. 70
of the 300 initial survivors were still alive. Cornelisz was quickly
tried and executed. In 2005 Simon Leys authored “The Wreck of the
Batavia.”
(WSJ, 1/10/06, p.D8)
1629-1684 Pieter de Hooch, Dutch painter of
contemplative scenes of everyday life.
(WSJ, 2/2/99, p.A20)
1632 Oct 24, Antoni van
Leeuwenhoek, Dutch naturalist, was born.
(HN, 10/24/00)
1632 Oct 31, [Johannes] Jan
Vermeer (d.1675), tavern keeper and Dutch painter (Procuress,
Astronomer), was born in Delft. Only 35 of his pictures are known to
survive. These include: "Girl With a Pearl Earring" (1665-1666),
"The Little Street" (1657), "Saint Praxedis" (1655), "Allegory of
Faith" (1671) and "The Artist in His Studio." His wife was Catharina
Bolnes.
(WSJ, 11/15/95, p.A-20)(AAP, 1964)(WUD, 1994,
p.1587)(MC, 10/31/01)
1632 Nov 24, Baruch (Benedict)
de Spinoza (d.1677), Dutch rationalist philosopher, was born in
Amsterdam. "Fear cannot be without hope nor hope without fear."
(AP, 9/24/99)(MC, 11/24/01)
1632 Rembrandt painted his work
"Europa" and "Portrait of a Lady Aged 62." The portrait sold for
$28.7 million in 2000.
(WSJ, 3/9/98, p.A16)(SFC, 12/15/00, p.C15)
1633 Dec 18, Willem van de
Velde the Younger, Dutch marine painter, was baptized.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Willem_van_de_Velde_the_Younger)
1633 Rembrandt van Rijn painted
the "Portrait of a Bearded Man in a Red Coat." It sold for $9.1
million in 1998.
(SFC, 2/3/98, p.E3)
1634 Rembrandt van Rijn painted
"Portrait of a Woman." It hangs in the Speed Museum of Louisville,
Ky.
(WSJ, 12/18/97, p.A20)
1634-1637 The Dutch tulip craze was known as the
"tulipomania." A futures market was created for tulip bulbs in Dutch
taverns and prices crashed 95% in the end. In 2000 Peter M. Garber
authored "Famous First Bubbles," and restored a sense of proportion
to the inflated notions of the mania.
(WSJ, 7/7/98, p.A14)(WSJ, 1/11/99, p.R42)(WSJ,
1/18/00, p.C14)(WSJ, 8/2/00, p.A20)
1635 Apr 16, Frans van Mieris,
the Elder, Dutch painter, was born.
(MC, 4/16/02)
1635-1637 Rembrandt Harmenszoom van Rizn (Rijn)
(1606-1669), Dutch painter, painted "Two Studies of Saskia Asleep."
(AAP, 1964)(WUD, 1994, p.1213)(WSJ, 10/1/96,
p.A20)
1636 Mar 26, University of
Utrecht held its opening ceremony.
(SS, 3/26/02)
1636 Nov 17, Henrique Dias,
Brazilian general, won a decisive battle against the Dutch in
Brazil.
(HN, 11/17/98)
1636 Rembrandt made his etching
"Self-portrait with Saskia."
(HT, 5/97, p.60)
1636 Pieter Saenredam, Haarlem
painter of architectural motifs, spent 3 months in Utrecht where he
drew the interiors of the gothic churches.
(WSJ, 7/2/02, p.D7)
1637 Mar 5, John van der
Heyden, Dutch painter, inventor (fire extinguisher), was born.
(MC, 3/5/02)
1637 Nov 20, Peter Minuit &
1st Dutch and Swedish immigrants to Delaware sailed from Sweden.
Peter later purchased Manhattan Island for 60 guilders.
(MC, 11/20/01)
1637 The Dutch tulip bulb craze
crashed as futures prices became too high for speculators to pay off
and take delivery.
(WSJ, 7/7/98, p.A14)(WSJ, 1/11/99, p.R42)(WSJ,
1/18/00, p.C14)
1637 The Dutch attacked and
captured Elmina (Ghana), which up to that point was the centre of
Portuguese activity in West Africa.
(www.moxon.net/ghana/cape_coast.html)
1638 Mar 23, Frederik Ruysch,
Dutch anatomist, was born.
(SS, 3/23/02)
1638 Aug 9, Jonas Bronck of
Holland became the 1st European settler in the Bronx.
(MC, 8/9/02)
1638 Rembrandt painted the
"Portrait of Willem Bartolsz Ruyter," a Dutch actor.
(SFC, 10/12/96, p.E3)
1638 Joachim Wytawael (Wtewael,
b.1566) , Dutch mannerist painter, died. His work included "The
Adoration of the Shepherds."
(SFEM, 8/31/97, p.13)(SFEM, 9/17/00, p.96)
1640 Rembrandt painted his
"Portrait of a Man Seated in an Armchair" about this time.
(WSJ, 11/3/95, p.A-12)
1641 Sep 23, Adrian "Aart" van
Wijck, theologian, was born. He fought Jansenism.
(MC, 9/23/01)
1641 The Dutch pushed the
Portuguese out of Malacca and renamed Our Lady of the Hill church to
St. Paul’s.
(Econ, 11/15/14, SR p.5)
1642 Aug 13, Christian Huygens
discovered the Martian south polar cap.
(MC, 8/13/02)
1642 Dec 13, Dutch navigator
and explorer Abel Janszoon sighted present-day New Zealand. He fled
after Maori cannibals feasted on the “friendship party” he sent
ashore.
(NG, Aug., 1974, p.196)(SFEC, 10/4/98, p.T4)(AP,
12/13/07)
1642 Rembrandt van Rijn painted
"Night Watch."
(WSJ, 3/904, p.D8)
1642 Curacao became a colony of
the Netherlands.
(Econ, 6/19/04, p.72)
1645 Aug 28, Hugo Grotius,
Dutch jurist and politician, died. In 1917 Hamilton Vreeland
authored “Hugo Grotius: The Father of Modern Science and
International Law.”
(RTH, 8/28/99)(ON, 10/04, p.4)
1647 May 11, Peter Stuyvesant
(37) arrived in New Amsterdam to become governor of New Netherland.
The one-legged professional soldier was sent from the Netherlands to
head the Dutch trading colony at the southern end of Manhattan
Island. Stuyvesant lost a leg in a minor skirmish in the Caribbean
in 1644.
(ON, 4/00, p.1)(AH, 10/04, p.74)(AP, 5/11/08)
1647 Nov 8, Pierre Bayle
(d.1706), French-Dutch theologian, philosopher, and writer, was
born. He authored the "Historical and Critical Dictionary." "If an
historian were to relate truthfully all the crimes, weaknesses and
disorders of mankind, his readers would take his work for satire
rather than for history."
(WUD, 1994, p.128)(AP, 11/19/97)(WSJ, 12/2/97,
p.A20)(MC, 11/8/01)
1647 Nov 10, The all Dutch-held
area of New York was returned to English control by the treaty of
Westminster.
(HN, 11/10/98)
1648 May 15, The independence
of the Netherlands was finally recognized with the Dutch and Spanish
ratification of the Treaty of Munster, initially signed on January
30.
(www.oldandsold.com/articles36/netherlands-18.shtml)
1648 Van Ruisdael painted
"Dunes at Haarlem." His work this year also included his print
"Christ Preaching (The Hundred Guilder Print).
(SFEC, 9/3/00, p.T7)(WSJ, 3/904, p.D8)
1649 Salomon van Ruysdael
(1602-1670), Dutch landscape artist, created his painting “Ferry on
a River.”
(WSJ, 7/2/08,
p.D7)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ruisdael)
1649 The Prins Willem was built
in Middelburg, Netherlands, as the flagship of the Dutch East India
Company. The 3-masted ship, launched on Jan 1, 1650, sank in 1662
off Madagascar.
(AP, 7/30/09)(http://tinyurl.com/mteqbf)
1650 Nov 4, William III, Prince
of Orange and King of England, was born. [see Nov 14]
(HN, 11/4/98)
1650 Nov 14, William III, King
of England (1689-1702), was born. [see Nov 4]
(HN, 11/14/98)
c1650 Jan Baptist Weenix
painted "Mother and Child in an Italian Landscape."
(SFEM, 8/31/97, p.12)
1652 Apr 7, The Dutch
established settlement at Cape Town, South Africa.
(HN, 4/7/97)
1652 May 29, English Admiral
Robert Blake drove out the Dutch fleet under Lieutenant-Admiral
Tromp.
(SC, 5/29/02)
1652 Michael Sweerts, Flemish
artist, painted "Plague in an Ancient City" in Rome. In 1998 it held
by the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA).
(SFEC, 1/11/98, p.D7)
1652 War broke out between the
Netherlands and England.
(ON, 4/00, p.2)
1653 May 18, Carel Reyniersz
(48), Governor-General of Netherlands and East Indies, died.
(SC, 5/18/02)
1653 Rembrandt painted his
"Aristotle With a Bust of Homer."
(WSJ, 11/3/95, p.A-12)
1654 Oct 12, Carel Fabritius
(b.1622), Dutch painter, died in a gunpowder explosion in Delft. He
was one of Rembrandt’s most gifted pupils.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carel_Fabritius)(WSJ, 7/20/01,
p.W11)(Econ, 10/26/13, p.93)
1654 Rembrandt van Rijn painted
a portrait of poet-businessman Jan Six, one of the richest
Amsterdammers of his time. His work this year also included "A Woman
Bathing in a Stream" and "Flora." His work this year also included
the etching and drypoint “The Descent From the Cross by Torchlight.”
(WSJ, 6/19/00, p.A42)(WSJ, 3/904, p.D8)(SFC,
1/28/06, p.E4)(Econ, 6/23/07, p.96)
1654-1656 Rembrandt van Rijn painted a medallion
portrait of Muhammed Adil Shah of Bijapur.
(SFEM, 2/1/98, p.16)(SFC, 2/7/98, p.E8)
1655 Apr 26, Dutch West Indies
Co. denied Peter Stuyvesant's desire to exclude Jews from New
Amsterdam.
(MC, 4/26/02)
1655 Sep 26, Peter Stuyvesant
recaptured Dutch Ft. Casimir from Swedish in Delaware.
(MC, 9/26/01)
1655 Rembrandt painted "Polish
Rider."
(WSJ, 12/5/96, p.A16)
1655 Jan Steen painted "A
Burgher of Delft and His Daughter." In 2004 it sold for $14.6
million to the Dutch National Museum.
(SFC, 4/4/01, p.C1)(SFC, 8/21/04, p.E12)
1655 Vermeer painted his Saint
Praxedis. [see Vermeer, 1632-1675]
(WSJ, 11/15/95, p.A-20)
1655 Pieter de Hooch moved to
Delft and painted there for 5 years.
(WSJ, 7/20/01, p.W11)
1655 Mar 25, Christiaan
Huygens, Dutch inventor and astronomer, discovered Titan, Saturn's
largest satellite.
(www.xs4all.nl/~carlkop/huyglens.html)
1655-1660 Rembrandt painted his picture called
"The Auctioneer."
(WSJ, 11/3/95, p.A-12)
1656 Jan 8, Oldest surviving
commercial newspaper began in Haarlem, Netherlands.
(MC, 1/8/02)
1656 Jul 26, Rembrandt declared
he is insolvent.
(MC, 7/26/02)
1656 Christian Huygens
invented the first pendulum clock, as described in his 1658 article
"Horologium". It was built by Solomon Coster and was later put on
exhibit at the Time Museum in Rockford, Ill. The time-pieces
previously in use had been balance-clocks, Chris Huygens' pendulum
clock was regulated by a mechanism with a "natural" period of
oscillation and had an error of less than 1 minute a day.
(http://inventors.about.com/library/inventors/bl_huygens.htm)(SF
E&C, 1/15/1995, T-10)
1657 Vermeer painted his "The
Little Street" about this time (1658-1660).
(WSJ, 11/15/95, p.A-20)(SFC, 4/4/01, p.C1)
1658 Vermeer (1632-1675), Dutch
artist, completed his painting “The Milkmaid” about this time.
(Econ, 9/19/09, p.98)
1659 Rembrandt Harmenszoom van
Rizn (Rijn) (1606-1669), Dutch painter, made "Jupiter and Antiope"
(1659).
(AAP, 1964)(WUD, 1994, p.1213)(WSJ, 10/1/96,
p.A20)
1659 Christian Huygens of
Holland used a 2-inch telescope lens and discovered that the Martian
day is nearly the same as an Earth day.
(SFC, 11/29/96, p.A16)
1660 May 7, Isaack B. Fubine of
Savoy, in The Hague, patented macaroni.
(MC, 5/7/02)
1660 Rembrandt painted "The Old
Woman Cutting Her Nails" about this time.
(WSJ, 11/3/95, p.A-12)
c1660 The Dutch crafted an
early version of a boat they called a "yacht."
(SFC, 7/18/98, p.E3)
1660 Pieter Claesz (b.ca.1597),
Dutch still-life painter, died.
(WSJ, 11/22/05, p.D8)
1661 Aug 6, Holland sold Brazil
to Portugal for 8 million guilders.
(MC, 8/6/02)
1661 Rembrandt depicted himself
in the painting "Self-Portrait as St. Paul." His work this year also
included "James the Apostle."
(WSJ, 8/11/99, p.A16)(SFEC, 1/16/00, BR p.5)(WSJ,
3/904, p.D8)
1662 Feb 11, The Prins Willem,
built in 1643 as flagship of the Dutch East India Company, sank off
Madagascar. A replica, built in the 1980s, burned down at Den Helder
in 2009.
(AP, 7/30/09)(http://tinyurl.com/mteqbf)
1662 Apr 27, Netherlands and
France signed a treaty of alliance in Paris.
(http://nla.gov.au/nla.cat-vn1767012)
1662 Rembrandt depicted himself
in a painting as the fifth-century Greek painter Zeuxis. His work
this year also included “The Syndics of the Clothmakers' Guild.”
(WSJ, 8/11/99, p.A16)(Econ, 6/23/07, p.96)
1662 Dutch fortune seekers
killed over 400 members of the Nayar warrior caste in Kerala, India.
(SFEM, 7/18/99, p.12)
1663 Rembrandt depicted himself
as a bit player in his painting "The Raising of the Cross."
(WSJ, 8/11/99, p.A16)
1663 The Amsterdam attic
church, later known as the Museum Amstelkring, was built after the
monarchy banned the public practice of Catholicism.
(SFEC, 6/18/00, p.T11)
1663 Abraham Blauvelt, Dutch
pirate, died about this time. In the early 1630's He explored the
coasts of Honduras and Nicaragua. Afterwards, he went to England and
with a proposal for a settlement at site in Nicaragua, which is near
the town and river of Bluefields, Nicaragua.
(www.thepirateking.com/bios/blauvelt_abraham.htm)
1664 Apr 4, Adam Willaerts,
Dutch seascape painter, died.
(MC, 4/4/02)
1664 Aug 29, Adriaen
Pieck/Gerrit de Ferry patented a wooden fire spout in Amsterdam.
(MC, 8/29/01)
1664 Sep 5, After days of
negotiation, the Dutch settlement of New Amsterdam surrendered to
the British, who would rename it New York. The citizens of New
Amsterdam petitioned Peter Stuyvesant to surrender to the English.
The "Articles of Capitulation" guaranteed free trade, religious
liberty and a form of local representation. In 2004 Russell Shorto
authored "The Island At the Center of the World," a history of New
York's Dutch period.
(HN, 9/5/98)(ON, 4/00, p.3)(WSJ, 3/16/04, p.D6)
1664 Sep 8, The Dutch formally
surrendered New Amsterdam to 300 English soldiers. The British soon
renamed it New York.
(AP, 9/8/97)(ON, 4/00, p.3)
1664-1667 The Second Anglo-Dutch War.
(HN, 6/21/98)
1665 Mar 4, English King
Charles II declared war on Netherlands.
(SC, 3/4/02)
c1665 Gerrit Dou painted "Woman at the Clavichord"
and a "Self-Portrait" in which he resembled Rembrandt.
(WSJ, 5/24/00, p.A24)
1665 Jacob van Ochtervelt
(1634-1682), Dutch artist, painted his “Street Musicians in the
Doorway of a House.”
(WSJ, 1/30/09,
p.W2)(http://wwar.com/masters/o/ochtervelt-jacob.html)
1665 The British briefly
recaptured the Banda Island of Run from the Dutch.
(WSJ, 5/21/99, p.W7)
1665 Dutch artist Johannes
Vermeer painted his "Girl With a Pearl Earring" about this time.
[see Vermeer, 1632-1675] In 1999 Tracy Chevalier authored the novel
"Girl With a Pearl Earring," a fictionalization based on one of
Vermeer's models.
(WSJ, 11/15/95, p.A-20)(SFEC, 1/2/00, BR
p.3)(SFC, 1/24/13, p.E1)
1666 Franz Hals (b.1581?),
painter, died in the Oudemannenhuis almshouse in Haarlem. The
almshouse later became the Frans Hals Museum.
(SFEC, 9/3/00, p.T7)
1667 Jun 18, The Dutch fleet
sailed up the Thames and threatened London. They burned 3 ships and
captured the English flagship in what came to be called the Glorious
Revolution, in which William of Orange replaced James Stuart.
(HN, 6/18/98)(WSJ, 3/14/00, p.A28)
1667 Jul 21, The Peace of Breda
ended the Second Anglo-Dutch War and ceded Dutch New Amsterdam to
the English. The South American country of Surinam, formerly Dutch
Guiana, including the nutmeg island of Run was ceded by
England to the Dutch in exchange for New York in 1667 after the
second Anglo-Dutch War.
(WUD, 1994, p.961)(HN, 7/21/98)(HNQ,
8/21/98)(WSJ, 5/21/99, p.W7)
1668 Feb 7, The Netherlands,
England and Sweden concluded an alliance directed against Louis XIV
of France.
(HN, 2/7/99)
1669 Oct 4, Rembrandt H. van
Rijn (b.1606), painter and etcher (Steel Masters, Night Watch),
died. In 1999 Simon Schama published the biography "Rembrandt's
Eyes."
(WSJ, 11/24/99, p.A16)(MC, 10/4/01)
1669 Vermeer painted "The Art
of Painting." The 3' by 4' work was larger than most of his
paintings.
(SFC, 11/24/99, p.E8)
1670 Vermeer painted his "A
Young Woman Standing at a Virginal" and "A Young Woman Seated at a
Virginal." Estimates for auction in 2004 for the seated one reached
$5.4 million.
(WSJ, 6/19/00, p.a42)(SFC, 4/1/04, p.E7)
1670 Spinoza (1632-1677), Dutch
philosopher, authored "Tractatus Theologico-Politicus" an
enlightened assessment of the Old Testament and a plea for religious
toleration.
(WSJ, 12/15/05, p.D8)
1671 Vermeer painted his
"Allegory of Faith." [see Vermeer, 1632-1675]
(WSJ, 11/15/95, p.A-20)
1672 Apr 29, King Louis XIV of
France invaded the Netherlands.
(HN, 4/29/99)
1672 Jun 15, The Sluices were
opened in Holland to save Amsterdam from the French.
(HT, 6/15/00)
1672 Jul 4, States of Holland
declared "Eternal Edict" void.
(Maggio)
1672 Aug 20, Jan de Witt, Dutch
politician and mathematician, was assassinated by a carefully
organized lynch "mob" after visiting his brother Cornelis de Witt in
prison. He was killed by a shot in the neck; his naked body was
hanged and mutilated and the heart was carved out to be exhibited.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johan_de_Witt)
1672 Christian Huygens of
Holland discovered the southern polar caps on Mars.
(http://chapters.marssociety.org/toronto/Education/TL1500.shtml)
1673 Mar 28, Adam Pijnacker
(51), Dutch landscape painter, etcher, was buried.
(MC, 3/28/02)
1673 May 29, Cornelis van
Bijnkershoek, lawyer, president of High Council, was born.
(SC, 5/29/02)
1673 Jun 25, French commander
Charles de Batz (b.1611), known as D’Artagnan, was slain in the
service of Louis XIV. He died at the Siege of Maastricht in the
Franco-Dutch War and was one of the musketeers who inspired Dumas’
fiction.
(SSFC, 4/13/08,
p.E4)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/D'Artagnan)
1673 Aug 9, Dutch recapture NY
from English. It was regained by English in 1674.
(MC, 8/9/02)
1673 Dec 28, Joan Blaeu (77),
Dutch cartographer, publisher (Atlas Major), died.
(MC, 12/28/01)
1673 The most important of
Christian Huygens' written works, the "Horologium Oscillatorium,"
was published in Paris. It discussed the mathematics surrounding
pendulum motion and the law of centrifugal force for uniform
circular motion.
(http://inventors.about.com/library/inventors/bl_huygens.htm)
1674 Feb 9, English reconquered
NY from Netherlands.
(MC, 2/9/02)
1674 Feb 19, Netherlands and
England signed the Peace of Westminster. NYC became English.
(MC, 2/19/02)
1674 Nov 10, Dutch formally
ceded New Netherlands (NY) to English. [see 1664]
(MC, 11/10/01)
1675 Jan 20, Christian Huygens,
Dutch scientist, transformed a theoretical insight on springs into a
practical mechanism with the 1st sketch of a watch balance regulated
by a coiled spring.
(www.princeton.edu/~mike/articles/huygens/timelong/timelong.html)(Econ,
2/4/06, p.73)
1675 Mar 2, Prince William III
was installed as Governor of Overijssel.
(SC, 3/2/02)
1675 Johannes Vermeer (b.1632),
Dutch painter, died in poverty. In 2001 Anthony Bailey authored
"Vermeer: A View of Delft."
(WSJ, 11/15/95, p.A-20)(SSFC, 3/25/01, BR p.5)
1676 Apr 29, Michiel A. de
Ruyter (69), Dutch rear-admiral, (Newport), was killed.
(MC, 4/29/02)
1676 Jun 1, The Swedish ship
Svardet, armed with 86 bronze canons and under command of Claes
Uggla, went under when Sweden was defeated by a Danish-Dutch fleet
in the Battle of Öland. In 2011 Deep Sea Productions said it
believed it had found the ship off the island of Oland.
(AP,
11/16/11)(www.ocean-discovery.org/thesword.htm)
1677 Feb 15, King Charles II
reported an anti-French covenant with Netherlands.
(MC, 2/15/02)
1677 Feb 21, [Benedictus]
Baruch Spinoza (b.1632), Dutch philosopher, died. In 2003 Antonio
Damasio authored "Looking for Spinoza," a look at contemporary
neurological research in contrast with the opposing philosophical
views of Spinoza and Descartes. In 2005 Matthew Stewart authored
“The Courtier and the Heretic: Leibniz, Spinoza, and the Fate of God
in the Modern World.
(WUD, 1994 p.1371)(SSFC, 2/2/03, p.M4)(WSJ,
12/15/05, p.D8)
1677 Nov 4, William and Mary
were married in England. William of Orange married his cousin Mary
(daughter to James, Duke of York and the same James II who fled in
1688).
(HN, 11/4/98)(HNQ, 12/28/00)
1683 Sep 17, Antonie van
Leeuwenhoek reported the existence of bacteria.
(MC, 9/17/01)
1683-1707 Adriaen Coorte (b.1665), a Dutch Golden
Age painter of still lifes, signed his work during this period. His
work included “Still Life With Sea Shells” (1698).
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adriaen_Coorte)
1688 Nov 1, William of Orange
set sail for England at the head of a fleet of 500 ships and 30,000
men. He intended too oust his father-in-law King James II. The Dutch
parliament, the States General, funded William with 4 million
guilders. Amsterdam financiers provided another 2 million. Some of
this was used to print 60,000 copies of his “Declaration” (of the
reasons inducing him to appear in arms in the Kingdom of England),
which were distributed in England. In 2008 Lisa Jardine authored
“Going Dutch: How England Plundered Holland’s Glory.”
(WSJ, 8/28/08, p.A13)
1688 Nov 5, William of Orange
landed in southern England and marched with his army nearly
unopposed to London.
(WSJ, 8/28/08, p.A13)
1688 Nov 26, Louis XIV declared
war on the Netherlands.
(HN, 11/26/98)
1688 Dec 10, King James II fled
London as "Glorious Revolution" replaced him with King William (of
Orange) and Queen Mary. [see Dec 11]
(MC, 12/10/01)
1688 Dec 11, James II abdicated
the throne because of William of Orange landing in England.
(HN, 12/11/98)
1688 Dec 28, William of Orange
made a triumphant march into London as James II fled in the
"Glorious Revolution." William of Orange—son of William II, Prince
of Orange and Mary, daughter of Charles I of England—was fourth in
line to the English throne.
(HN, 12/28/98)(HNQ, 12/28/00)(WSJ, 2/6/02, p.A16)
1689 May 12, England’s King
William III joined the League of Augsburg and the Netherlands. The
"Grand Alliance" was formed to counter the war of aggression
launched by Louis XIV against the Palatinate states in Germany. This
is known as The War of the League of Augsburg (1689-97) also The
Nine Years' War, and the War of the Grand Alliance.
(www.globalsecurity.org/military/ops/king_william.htm)
1690 Jul 1, Led by Marshall
Luxembourg, the French defeated the forces of the Grand Alliance at
Fleurus in the Netherlands.
(HN, 7/1/98)
1690 Oct 23, There was a revolt
in Haarlem, Holland, after a public ban on smoking.
(MC, 10/23/01)
1691 Aug 20, The 1st African
slaves arrived to North America on a Dutch ship. It docked in
Jamestown, Virginia, with twenty human captives among its cargo.
(MC, 8/20/02)
1691 Oct 3, English and Dutch
armies occupied Limerick, Ireland.
(MC, 10/3/01)
1692 Mar 14, Peter
Musschenbroek, Dutch physician, physicist (Leyden jar), was born.
(MC, 3/14/02)
1692 Mar 26, King Maximilian
was installed as land guardian of South Netherlands.
(SS, 3/26/02)
1692 May 29, Battle at La
Hogue: An English & Dutch fleet beat France.
(SC, 5/29/02)
1692 Aug 3, French forces under
Marshal Luxembourg defeated the English at the Battle of Steenkerke
in the Netherlands.
(HN, 8/3/98)
1693 Jul 4, Battle at
Boussu-lez-Walcourt: French-English vs. Dutch army.
(Maggio)
1693 Jul 29, The Army of the
Grand Alliance was destroyed by the French at the Battle of
Neerwinden in the Netherlands.
(HN, 7/29/98)
1695 Jul 8, Christian Huygens
(66), Dutch inventor, astronomer, died. He generally wrote his name
as Christiaan Hugens, and it is also sometimes written as Huyghens.
In his book “Cosmotheros,” published in 1698, he speculated on life
on other planets.
(http://inventors.about.com/library/inventors/bl_huygens.htm)
1695 Portugal established
colonial rule in the eastern half of Timor Island. The western side
was incorporated into the Dutch East Indies.
(SFC, 5/18/02, p.A15)
1696 Jan 31, An uprising of
undertakers took place after funeral reforms in Amsterdam.
(MC, 1/31/02)
1696 Mar 7, English King
William III departed Netherlands.
(MC, 3/7/02)
1697 Sep 20, The Treaty of
Ryswick was signed in Holland. It ended the War of the Grand
Alliance (aka War of the League of Augsburg,1688-1697) between
France and the Grand Alliance. Under the Treaty France’s King Louis
XIV (1638-1715) recognized William III (1650-1702) as King of
England. The Dutch received trade concessions, and France and the
Grand Alliance members (Holland and the Austrian Hapsburgs) gave up
most of the land they had conquered since 1679. The signees included
France, England, Spain and Holland. By the Treaty of Ryswick, a
portion of Hispaniola was formally ceded to France and became known
as Saint-Domingue. The remaining Spanish section was called Santo
Domingo.
(www.caribbeanguides.net/hispaniola.htm)(www.jacobite.ca/documents/1697ryswick.htm)
1700 May 7, Gerard van Swieten,
Dutch botanist, was born.
(MC, 5/7/02)
1701 Sep 7, England, Austria,
and the Netherlands formed an Alliance against France.
(HN, 9/7/98)
1702 Mar 8, William III of
Orange (51), Dutch King of England (1689-1702), died after falling
from his horse and catching a chill. Anne Stuart (37), his
sister-in-law, succeeded to the throne of England, Scotland and
Ireland and reigned until 1714.
(PCh, 1992, p.272)(MC, 3/8/02)(AP, 3/8/98)
1703 May 18, Dutch and English
troops occupied Cologne.
(SC, 5/18/02)
1704 Aug 4, In the War of
Spanish Succession, an Anglo-Dutch fleet captured Gibraltar.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Gibraltar)(AP, 9/19/06)
1707 Apr 6, Willem Van de Velde
(b.1633) the Younger, Dutch marine painter, died. His work included
“fishing Boats by the Shore in a Calm” (1660-1605).
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Willem_van_de_Velde_the_Younger)(SFC,
7/9/11, p.E1)
1708 Jul 11, The French were
defeated at Oudenarde, Malplaquet, in the Netherlands by the Duke of
Marlborough and Eugene of Savoy.
(HN, 7/11/98)
1709 Oct 20, Marlborough and
Eugene of Savoy took Mons in the Netherlands.
(HN, 10/20/98)
1712 Oct 4, Utrecht banished
poor Jews.
(MC, 10/4/01)
1714 Mar 6, the Treaty of
Rastatt ended the war between Austria and Spain. It complemented the
Treaty of Utrecht, which had, the previous year, ended hostilities
with Britain and the Dutch Republic. The Spanish Netherlands became
the Austrian Netherlands, and Spain gave up her possession in Italy,
Luxembourg and Flanders. A third treaty, the Treaty of Baden (Sep 7,
1714), was required to end the hostilities between France and the
Holy Roman Empire.
(PCh, ed. 1992,
p.279)(http://tinyurl.com/b8uxbje)
1714 Bernard de Mandeville,
Dutch philosopher, achieved widespread fame with his lengthy poem
"The Fable of the Bees: Private Vice, Publick Benefits."
(NH, 7/02, p.74)
1718 Dutch planters introduced
coffee to their Suriname colony.
(ON, 10/2010, p.12)
1722 Apr 5, On Easter Sunday
Dutch explorer Jacob Roggeveen discovered a Polynesian Island 1400
miles from the coast of South America and named it Easter Island. He
noted that the island was treeless and wondered how its massive
statues were erected. Much of the population was later wiped out and
the island became a possession of Chile. An indigenous script called
rongorongo survived but by 2002 was still not deciphered. In 2005
Steven Roger Fischer authored “Island at the End of the World: The
Turbulent History of Easter Island.”
(WSJ, 1/7/05,
p.W1)(http://islandheritage.org/eihistory.html)(Econ, 7/23/05, p.77)
1723 Aug 26, Anton van
Leeuwenhoek (b.1632), Dutch biologist, inventor (microscope), died
in Delft, Netherlands. [some sources say Aug 30]
(http://es.rice.edu/ES/humsoc/Galileo/Catalog/Files/leewnhok.html)
1724 May 18, Johann K. Amman
(54), Swiss-Dutch doctor for deaf-mutes, died.
(SC, 5/18/02)
1726 Feb 26, Maximilian II, M.
Emanuel, elector of Bavaria, governor of Netherlands, died.
(SC, 2/26/02)
1729 May 25, Jean de Neufville,
Dutch-US merchant (started 4th English war), was born.
(SC, 5/25/02)
1730 Jul 21, States of Holland
put a death penalty on "sodomy."
(MC, 7/21/02)
1731 Luis Berrueco, Mexican
painter, painted “The Martyrs of Gorkum,” a detailed work depicting
the 1572 martyrdom of 19 Catholics in Gorinchem, Netherlands, during
the Dutch war for independence.
(SFC, 3/5/11, p.E2)(http://tinyurl.com/5s8wnz2)
1732 Jun 3, Pieter Vuyst, Dutch
gov-gen. of Ceylon, was executed.
(MC, 6/3/02)
1736 Mar 23, Iman Willem Falck,
Dutch Governor of Ceylon (1765-83), was born.
(SS, 3/23/02)
1736 Sep 16, Gabriel Daniel
Fahrenheit (b.1686), Gdansk-born German physicist, died in the
Netherlands. He discovered that water boils at 212F and freezes at
32F.
(www.britannica.com)
1741 Apr 13, Dutch people
protested the bad quality of bread.
(MC, 4/13/02)
1744-1828 Eisa Eisinga, knitting-wool processor.
He devoted his spare time to astronomy and mathematics and built a
small planetarium in Franeker (1781).
(NH, 6/00, p.10)
1745 Jan 8, England, Austria,
Saxony and the Netherlands formed an alliance against Russia.
(HN, 1/8/99)
1745 May 11, French forces
defeated an Anglo-Dutch-Hanoverian army at Fontenoy.
(HN, 5/11/98)
1745 Oct 11, The Leyden jar,
capable of storing static electricity, was invented by German cleric
Ewald Georg von Kleist. Also about this time Dutch scientist Pieter
van Musschenbroek of Leiden (Leyden) independently came up with the
same idea.
(ON, 2/12,
p.11)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leyden_jar)
1747 Jul 2, Marshall Saxe led
the French forces to victory over an Anglo-Dutch force under the
Duke of Cumberland at the Battle of Lauffeld.
(HN, 7/2/98)
1747 Sep 16, The French
captured Bergen-op-Zoom, consolidating their occupation of Austrian
Flanders in the Netherlands.
(HN, 9/16/98)
1747 Dec 9, England and
Netherlands signed a military treaty.
(MC, 12/9/01)
1748 Jun 28, A riot followed a
public execution in Amsterdam and over 200 were killed.
(MC, 6/28/02)
1749 Feb 8, Jan van Huysum
(66), Dutch still life painter, died.
(MC, 2/8/02)
1751 Sep 12, Amsterdam refused
to establish a Jewish ghetto.
(MC, 9/12/01)
1751 Sep 13, Henry Kobell,
Dutch painter and cartoonist, was born.
(MC, 9/13/01)
1756 Nov 4, Anthony van
Hoboken, Rotterdam merchant-ship owner, was born.
(MC, 11/4/01)
1757 Feb 13, John C. Hespe,
Dutch journalist, politician, was born.
(MC, 2/13/02)
1761 Mar 23, John W. de Winter,
Dutch Vice-Admiral (Battle at Kamperduin), was born.
(SS, 3/23/02)
1761 May 13, Adrian Loosjes Pzn
(1818, Dutch publisher, writer (Mauritius Lijnslager), was born.
(MC, 5/13/02)
1765 Mar 18, David H. Chass,
Dutch baron, general (fought Napoleon at Waterloo), was born.
(MC, 3/18/02)
1772 May 11, Joseph Kerckhoff,
Limburg surgeon, robber captain, was hanged.
(MC, 5/11/02)
1774 A Dutch merchant cobbled
together the earliest mutual-style fund, Eendragt Maakt Magt (Unity
creates Strength). The first modern mutual fund was launched in
Boston in 1924.
(Econ, 4/21/07, p.83)
1776 Apr 26, Joan M. Kemper,
Dutch lawyer (designed civil code law book), was born.
(MC, 4/26/02)
1776 The Dutch built a slave
house on Goree Island off the coast of Senegal.
(SFC, 7/9/03, p.A10)
1779 May 25, Henry M. Baron de
Kock, Dutch officer, politician, was born.
(SC, 5/25/02)
1780-1783 A 4-year war with England was fought.
(SFC, 3/31/98, p.F4)
1781 Eisa Eisinga (1744-1828),
knitting-wool processor, built a small planetarium in Franeker.
(NH, 6/00, p.10)
1782 Apr 19, Netherlands
recognized the United States.
(HN, 4/19/97)
1783 Apr 10, Hortense E. de
Beauharnais, French queen of Netherlands (1806-10), was born.
(MC, 4/10/02)
1784 May 20, Peace of
Versailles ended the war between France, England, and Holland.
(HN, 5/20/98)
1784 Jun 16, Holland forbade
orange clothes.
(MC, 6/16/02)
1784 The Teyler Museum opened
as the country’s first public collection.
(SFEC, 9/3/00, p.T7)
1786 Capt. Francis Light landed
in Penang (Malaysia) and built Fort Cornwallis. Light, acting on
behalf of the East India Company, swindled the island from the
ruling sultan with a promise of protection. The British usurped the
land to break the Dutch monopoly on the spice trade.
(SFEC, 8/3/97, p.T8)(SFEM, 12/19/99, p.8)(SFC,
12/8/05, p.E7)
1788 Sep 15, An alliance
between Britain, Prussia and the Netherlands was ratified at the
Hague.
(HN, 9/15/99)
1791 Mar 23, Etta Palm, a Dutch
champion of woman's rights, set up a group of women's clubs called
the Confederation of the Friends of Truth.
(HN, 3/23/99)
1793 Feb 1, France declared war
on Britain and the Netherlands.
(HN, 2/1/99)
1793 Mar 4, French troops
conquered Geertruidenberg, Netherlands.
(SC, 3/4/02)
1795 Sep 16, The Capitulation
of Rustenburg: A Dutch garrison at the Cape of Good Hope surrendered
to a British fleet under Adm. George Elphinstone.
(EWH, 4th ed, p.884)
1796 Mar 1, The 1st National
Meeting was held in the Hague.
(SC, 3/1/02)
1799 The Dutch East India
Company liquidated and the Dutch government took control over the
islands of Indonesia.
(SFC, 9/8/99, p.A17)
1801 Oct 6, Napoleon Bonaparte
imposed a new constitution on Holland.
(HN, 10/6/98)
1803 Feb 21, The British return
the Cape of Good Hope to the Dutch (Batavian Republic) under the
Treaty of Amiens.
(EWH, 4th ed, p.884)
1803 Barend Cornelis Koekkoek,
artist, came from a renowned family of artists. He considered the
painting of nature the only true calling of an artist.
(WSJ, 12/10/99, p.W16)
1806 Jan 10, The Capitulation
of Papendorp: The Dutch in Cape Town surrendered to a British fleet.
(EWH, 4th ed, p.884)
1814 May 30, The First Treaty
of Paris was declared, after Napoleon's first abdication. It
returned France to its 1792 borders and secured for the British
definite possession of the Cape of Good Hope. [see Aug 13]
(HN, 5/30/98)(HN, 5/30/99)(EWH, 4th ed, p.884)
1814 Aug 13, Treaty of
London-Netherland was signed to stop the transport of slaves. By
agreement Britain paid the Dutch £6 million in compensation for the
Cape of Good Hope. [see May 30]
(EWH, 4th ed, p.884)(MC, 8/13/02)
1815 Mar 1, Sunday observance
in Netherlands was regulated by law.
(SC, 3/1/02)
1815 Mar 16, William I
(1772-1843), prince of Orange-Nassau, proclaimed the Netherlands a
kingdom at the urging of the powers gathered at the Congress of
Vienna. In 1813 he had proclaimed himself 'Sovereign Prince' of the
"United Netherlands."
(Econ, 4/13/13, p.55)
1815 Apr, British General
Arthur Wellesley, duke of Wellington, began assembling troops at
Brussels, Belgium. 73,000 British troops were joined by 33,000
German, Dutch and Belgian troops preparing to face Napoleon.
Prussian Gen. Gebhard Leberecht von Blucher gathered an army of
120,000 southeast of Brussels.
{Belgium, Britain, France, Prussia, Netherlands}
(ON, 4/06, p.1)
1815 May 29, Cornelis de
Gijselaar (64), politician, patriot, died.
(SC, 5/29/02)
1817 Feb 19, William III, King
of the Netherlands, was born.
(HN, 2/19/98)
1817 The Dutch and French
agreed on a final pact to divide the control of St. Martin Island.
The southern Dutch half comprises the Eilandgebied Sint Maarten
(Island Territory of St. Maarten) and is part of the Netherlands
Antilles. The northern French half comprises the Collectivité de
Saint-Martin (Collectivity of St. Martin) and is an overseas
collectivity of France.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Martin)
1819 Oct 6, Willem A. Scholten,
Dutch potato flour manufacturer, was born.
(MC, 10/6/01)
1819 The British claimed
Malacca from the Dutch. They used St. Paul’s church as an ammunition
dump and put a lighthouse in front.
(Econ, 11/15/14, SR p.5)
1820 Mar 5, Dutch city of
Leeuwarden forbade Jews to go to synagogues on Sundays.
(MC, 3/5/02)
1824 Mar 29, ABN AMRO
incorporated in the Hague. Nederlandsche Handel-Maatschappij
(Netherlands Trading Society, NTS) was established by Royal Decree
of King Willem I. With effect from 3 October 1964 after the merger
with Twentsche Bank, NTS changed her name to Algemene Bank Nederland
(ABN Bank). After the merger with Amro Bank in 1991, ABN changed its
name to ABN AMRO.
(www.abnamro.com/about/history/historyfaq.cfm)
1825 A disastrous breach of
Dutch coastal defenses occurred.
(www.metoffice.com/education/secondary/students/flood.html)
1828 Apr 4, Casparus van Wooden
patented chocolate milk powder (Amsterdam).
(MC, 4/4/02)
1830 Aug 25, Belgium rebelled
against Netherlands. Among the reasons for rebelling were heavy
taxes on beer.
(chblue.com, 8/25/01)(Econ, 12/17/11, p.125)
1831 Jan 20, Protocols were
signed in London that recognized Belgium as an independent nation.
Belgium became a nation and combined French and Flemish-speaking
lands. The Rothschild banking empire financed the founding of
Belgium.
(SFC, 7/12/96, p.A11)(SSFC, 2/24/02,
p.C5)(http://tinyurl.com/3335jt)
1831 Aug 2, The Dutch army,
headed by the Dutch princes, invaded Belgium, in the so-called "Ten
Days Campaign", and defeated Belgian forces near Hasselt and Leuven.
Only the appearance of a French army under Marchal Gerard caused the
Dutch to stop their advance.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Belgian_Revolution)
1836 A Dutch regiment entered
the kingdom of the Ashanti tribe (later Ghana). Holland had taken
this land as a colony to mine gold and sell slaves. Slavery was
outlawed but African men were enlisted as troops in a form of
indentured servitude. The Ashanti king sent his son and nephew,
Kwasi and Kwame Boachi, to Holland for a European education in
exchange for providing troops. In 2001 Arthur Japin authored the
novel "The Two Hearts of Kwasi Boachi."
(SSFC, 1/21/01, BR p.5)
1837 May 29, Alexander F. de
Savornin Lohmann, Dutch minister, party leader (CHU), was born.
(SC, 5/29/02)
1838 In Ghana Asante King Nana
Badu Bonsu II had his head cut off by Maj. Gen. Jan Verveer in
retaliation for Bonsu's killing of two Dutch emissaries, whose heads
were then displayed as trophies. In 2008 Dutch author Arthur Japin
discovered Bonsu’s head in a jar of formaldehyde at Leiden Univ.
Medical Center. In 2009 the Dutch government returned the head of
Bonsu’s descendants.
(SFC, 3/21/09, p.A2)(SFC, 7/24/09, p.A2)
1839 In the Netherlands the
locomotive named "De Arend" was the first and pulled a train from
Amsterdam to Haarlem with a top speed of 23 mph.
(SFC, 6/18/99, p.D4)
1840 Oct 8, King William I of
Holland abdicated.
(HN, 10/8/98)
1840 Niels Gade, Dutch
composer, wrote the overture "Echoes of Ossian."
(SFC, 3/24/00, p.B1)
1841 Barend Cornelis Koekkoek
authored "Thoughts and Recollections of a Landscape Artist."
(WSJ, 12/10/99, p.W16)
1844 Jul 25, Louis Napoleon
(b.1779), French king of the Netherlands (1806-10), died.
(www.nationmaster.com/encyclopedia/Louis-Napoleon-Bonaparte)
1846 Barend Cornelis Koekkoek
painted his "Portrait of a Young Lady."
(WSJ, 12/10/99, p.W16)
1849 May 25, Andreas Michiels
(52), Dutch Military Governor of West Sumatra, died in battle.
(SC, 5/25/02)
1850 In the Netherlands Zwarte
Piet (Black Pete), a Dutch version of St. Nicholas, made his debut
as an African servant in a book. By 2012 he was being described as a
racist caricature of a black person. In 2013 Amsterdam officials
were asked to revoke a permit for a children’s festival that
featured the caricature.
(AP, 12/4/12)(SFC, 10/18/12, p.A2)
1851 May 18, The
Amsterdam-Nieuwediep telegraph connection linked.
(SC, 5/18/02)
1853 Mar 4, Pope Pius IX
recovered Catholic hierarchy in Netherlands.
(SC, 3/4/02)
1853 Mar 30, Vincent Van Gogh
(d.1890), Dutch artist, was born in Zundert, Neth. His work included
"The Drawbridge and Sunflowers in a Vase," and "Harvest in
Prevance," which was done both in oil and as a watercolor. The
watercolor sold in 1997 for $14.7 mil. He produced an estimated 900
paintings and 1200 drawings but sold virtually none of them. In 1997
it was reported that more than 100 of his paintings and drawings
might be fakes. 300 of his canvasses were painted in the last 15
months of his life.
(AAP,1964)(WUD,1994, p.606)(SFC, 6/26/97,
p.A21)(SFC, 7/5/97, p.A8)(SFEC, 1/4/98, Z1p.8)(HN, 3/30/98)
1853-1890 Theo Van Gogh, the younger brother of
Vincent Van Gogh. Theo's widow Johanna Van Gogh-Bonger inherited the
paintings of Vincent that had been in Theo's hands.
(SFC, 1/18/99, p.B2)
1857 May 10, Hendrik
Zwaardemaker, Dutch physiologist (olefactometer), was born.
(MC, 5/10/02)
1858 Oct 9, Gerard L.F.
Philips, Dutch engineer and manufacturer, was born.
(MC, 10/9/01)
1863 Jul 1, The Dutch abolished
slavery in Suriname. The Dutch were among the last Europeans to
abolish slavery.
(AP, 7/2/03)
1864 May 18, Jan P. Veth
Bayern, Dutch painter, etcher, lithographer, art historian, was
born.
(SC, 5/18/02)
1860 May 21, Willem Einthoven,
Dutch physiologist, inventor of the electro-cardiogram, was born.
(HN, 5/21/01)(MC, 5/21/02)
1864 May 18, Jan P. Veth
Bayern, Dutch painter, etcher, lithographer, art historian, was
born.
(SC, 5/18/02)
1864 May 29, A.H. Borgesius,
Dutch amateur astronomer, was born.
(SC, 5/29/02)
1864 Sep 5, British, French
& Dutch fleets attacked Japan in Shimonoseki Straits.
(MC, 9/5/01)
1864 Gerard Adriaan Heineken
founded a beer brewery. In 2002 it was the world’s 3rd largest
brewery.
(SFC, 1/5/02, p.A22)
1865 May 25, Pieter Zeeman,
Dutch physicist (Zeeman effect, Nobel 1902), was born.
(SC, 5/25/02)
1870 Jul 11(Jun 11), 1st-stone
Amstel Brewery opened in Amsterdam.
(MC, 7/11/02)
1871 Mar 28, Willem Mengelberg,
conductor (NY Philharmonic 1922-30), was born in Utrecht, Neth.
(MC, 3/28/02)
1872 Mar 7, Piet Mondrian
(d.1944), Dutch abstract painter, was born. He was born in
Amersfoort, near Amsterdam. His two principal styles date from
before and after 1907. His Red Tree in 1908 reflects the stance of a
Van Gogh. In 1911 he went to Paris and quickly changed his
style in response to Cubism. He emigrated to New York in 1940. His
Broadway Boogie Woogie was done in 1942-1943. He was labeled as a
degenerate by the Nazis and was sent to New York to continue
working. He went through a number of styles i.e. fauvist,
neoimpressionist Dutch landscapes, to total abstractions in a manner
of his own that he called neoplasticism. He was a pioneer of
abstract painting.
(WSJ, 6/6/95, p.A-14)(WSJ, 10/3/95, p.A-18)(SFC,
10/4/97, p.E1)(HN, 3/7/98)
1873 From the Netherlands the
Holland America cruise line began operations.
(SFEC, 1/18/98, p.T5)
1873 The Dutch began
colonization efforts in Aceh province (Indonesia), which led to a
decades-long war.
(SFEC, 11/7/99, p.A30)(SFCM, 11/2/03, p.8)
1876 Aug 7, Margaretha Zelle
(aka Mata Hari) was born in the Netherlands. Mata Hari, otherwise
known as Margaretha G. Macleod, passed secrets to the Germans in
World War I.
(WSJ, 1/16/97, p.A16)(HN, 8/7/98)
1877 Feb 26, Carel S. Adama van
Scheltema, Dutch poet, writer (socialism), was born.
(SC, 2/26/02)
1877 May 29, John Lothrop
Motley (63), (History of United Netherlands), died.
(SC, 5/29/02)
1880 Vincent Van Gogh ended his
career as a theology student and began painting.
(WSJ, 3/14/00, p.A28)
1880-1962 Queen Wilhelmina Of Netherlands (b.Aug
31, d.Nov 28 at 82), reigned 1890-1947.
(DT internet 11/28/97)
1881
Apr 1, Kingdom post office in Netherlands opened.
(OTD)
1882 Vincent Van Gogh painted
"The Wounded Veteran.'
(WSJ, 3/14/00, p.A28)
1883 May 29, WFLC Marianne
princess of Orange-Nassau, died.
(SC, 5/29/02)
1885 Vincent Van Gogh painted
"The Potato Eaters" and "A Pair of Shoes."
(SFC, 1/14/98, p.D3)(WSJ, 8/14/01, p.A12)
1885 The façade of the
Rijksmuseum was completed.
(WSJ, 1/8/99, p.C13)
1886-1888 Vincent Van Gogh made his Paris sojourn.
(WSJ, 3/14/00, p.A28)
1887 Van Gogh painted "The
Courtesan." It was inspired by an 1820 work by the Japanese artist
Keisai Eisen who pictured an intricately coifed woman that later
appeared on the cover of a French magazine
(SFC, 11/16/98, p.E3)(WSJ, 12/1/98, p.A20)
1887-1888 Van Gogh painted "Self-Portrait with
Felt Hat" and "Self-Portrait as an Artist."
(WSJ, 10/30/98, p.W11)(SFC, 1/18/99, p.B2)
1888 Vincent van Gogh painted
the "Portrait of a Young Man in a Cap." The painting is up for
auction and may fetch as much as $8 mil. In 1990 Robert Altman
directed a film titled "Vincent and Theo" about Van Gogh and his
brother. Van Gogh also painted his "Boats at Saintes-Maries," "The
Bedroom" and "Self Portrait as an Artist" in this year. He cut his
ear in this year with a razor during a quarrel with painter Paul
Gauguin.
(WSJ, 4/27/95, p.C-18)(WSJ, 11/10/95, p.
A-10)(SFC, 4/13/96, p.E3)(SFC, 1/14/98, p.D3)(SFEC, 10/25/98, Z1
p.12)
1889 Van Gogh painted "The
Gardener," while a patient in St. Remy. He also did "Wheatfield with
a Reaper" and "Crab on Its Back" in this year.
(SFC, 5/21/98, p.A14)(SFC, 1/18/99, p.B1)(WSJ,
8/14/01, p.A12)
1890 Apr 6, Anthony Herman
Gerard Fokker (d.1939), aircraft pioneer, was born in Java.
(www.britannica.com)
1890 Jul 29, Artist Vincent van
Gogh died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound in Auvers, France, while
painting "Wheatfield with Crows." Earlier in the year he painted his
"Garden at Auvers" and "Portrait of Dr. Gachet," which sold to a
Japanese tycoon in 1990 for $82.5 mil. In 1939 Irving Stone wrote a
novel about Van Gogh titled "Lust for Life," which spawned a 1956
movie.
(WSJ, 2/8/96, p.A-12)(SFC, 5/26/96, Zone 1
p.2)(AP, 7/29/97)(SFEC, 6/14/98, BR p.9)
1890 Nov 23, Grand Duchy of
Luxembourg separated from the Netherlands.
(AP, 11/23/02)
1890 The Royal Dutch Petroleum
Co. was founded.
(WSJ, 11/2/04, p.A14)
1891 May 15, Gerard and Anton
Philips began their Philips & Co. operations in Eindhoven,
Holland, with the production of light bulbs.
(www.vedpuriswar.org/book/PHILIPS.htm)(WSJ,
1/7/04, p.A1)
1891 May 25, Robert W.P.
Peereboom, Dutch editor in chief (Haarlem Newspaper), was born.
(SC, 5/25/02)
1894 Ferdinand Hodler
(1853-1918), Swiss painter, created a painting 10 meters high for
the Exposition in Antwerp. It depicted the story of the 1865 descent
of Edward Whymper (1840-1911) after he became the first man to climb
the Matterhorn. Four of his party died. Hodler allowed the painting
to be cut up and it’s now in a museum in Berne.
(Econ, 2/18/12,
ILp.26)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Whymper)
1894 A disastrous breach of
Dutch coastal defenses occurred.
(www.metoffice.com/education/secondary/students/flood.html)
1896 Numico was founded by
Martinus van der Hagen, a Dutch inventor, after he won the exclusive
right to make infant formula out of cow’s milk.
(Econ, 9/2/06, p.59)
1897 Wolves disappeared from
the Netherlands. In 2011 a wolf was again spotted in the country.
(Econ, 12/22/12, p.125)
1898 Jun 17, Maurits C. Escher,
Dutch graphic artist, was born.
(MC, 6/17/02)
1898 A painting titled "Golden
Carriage," by Nicolaas van der Waay, was given to Queen Wilhelmina
from the people of Amsterdam as a gift. The painting was
intended to recreate the style of the country's 17th-century "Golden
Age," in which Amsterdam became wealthy as the hub of a naval
empire. The work depicts half-naked, brown-skinned women and men in
servile poses bearing gifts to an enthroned white woman.
(AP, 9/16/11)
1899 May 18, The First Hague
Peace Conference opened in the Netherlands as 26 nations met on
World Goodwill Day. The destruction or seizure of enemy property
with no military value was banned at the convention. The czar of
Russia had called for a disarmament conference that, for reasons of
diplomatic niceties and international rivalries, ended up in The
Hague.
(AP, 5/18/99)(SFC, 8/11/00, p.A15)(AP, 4/17/06)
1902 Mar 3, Isaac D. France van
de Putte (79), Dutch premier (1866), died.
(SC, 3/3/02)
1902 May 29, Dutch State Mine
law formed.
(SC, 5/29/02)
1902 Jul 18, Charles W.J.
Mengelberg, Dutch composer, conductor, was born.
(MC, 7/18/02)
1903 Jan 21, Harry Houdini
escaped from police station Halvemaansteeg in Amsterdam.
(MC, 1/21/02)
1903 Mar 26, American Hotel
opened in Amsterdam.
(SS, 3/26/02)
1904 Apr 24, Willem de Kooning
(d.1997), abstract impressionist artist, was born in Rotterdam.
(SFC, 3/20/97, p.A1,6,E1)(HN, 4/24/01)
1904 Aug 10, Dutch newspaper
Volk fired gay journalist Jacob de Cock.
(MC, 8/10/02)
1904 The Weerdinge Couple, 2
men, were found in a Holland bog and dated from 160BC - 220AD.
(AM, 7/97, p.66)
1905 May 29, Jan [Johannes]
Teulings, Dutch actor, director (That Joyous Eve), was born.
(SC, 5/29/02)
1905 Dec 7, Gerard Kuiper,
Dutch-US astronomer (moons of Uranus, Neptune), was born.
(MC, 12/7/01)
1906 Apr 28, Bartholomeus J
"Bart" Bok, Dutch-US astronomer (Milky Way), was born.
(MC, 4/28/02)
1907 The Hague Convention of
this year prohibited the taking of war booty and instituted what
some considered the first wartime environmental protections.
(WSJ, 5/29/96, p.A6)(SFC, 8/11/00, p.A15)
1907 Royal Dutch combines its
oil operations with Shell Transport & Trading Co.
(WSJ, 11/2/04, p.A14)
1908 Dec 13, The Dutch took two
Venezuelan Coast Guard ships.
(HN, 12/13/98)
1908 The first bus line to link
the Jordaan section with the rest of Amsterdam opened.
(SFEC, 3/2/97, p.T5)
1908 Heike Kamerlingh-Onnes,
Dutch physicist, was the first to liquefy helium. He cooled helium
gas to below its boiling point of -269°C, just 4 degrees above
absolute zero. Three years later he observed the resistance of
mercury vanished when it was cooled by liquid helium, thus
discovering superconductivity.
(SFC, 10/10/96, p.A15)(Econ, 12/3/11, TQ p.20)
1909 Apr 30, Juliana, queen of
the Netherlands, was born. She fled during the Nazi occupation and
abdicated in favor of her daughter Beatrix.
(HN, 4/30/99)
1909 The Elfstedentocht, a
125-mile ice skating race, officially began.
(SFEC, 1/5/97, p.A1,11)
1911 Jun 10, Queen Wilhelmina
opened the Rembrandt house in Amsterdam.
(MC, 6/10/02)
1912 May 18, Maurits Binger
established 2 Dutch movie companies.
(SC, 5/18/02)
1912 May 29, John Hanlo, Dutch
poet (Go to the Mosque), was born.
(SC, 5/29/02)
1912 Aug 13, Jan Peeters, Dutch
water colors painter, monumental artist, was born.
(MC, 8/13/02)
1912 Nov 25, Johannes D. De
Jong, Frisian poet and photographer (Kar £t twa), was born.
(MC, 11/25/01)
1912 A ban on brothels was
enacted. It was overturned in 1999.
(SFC, 10/27/99, p.A13)
1913 May 14, Franz Hals museum
opened in Haarlem, Netherlands.
(MC, 5/14/02)
1913 The Peace Palace was built
at the Hague, Netherlands, by the Carnegie Foundation. It is often
called the seat of international law because it houses the
International Court of Justice (which is the principal judicial body
of the United Nations), the Permanent Court of Arbitration, the
Hague Academy of International Law, and the extensive Peace Palace
Library.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peace_Palace)
1913 Kamerlingh Onnes of
Holland won the Nobel Prize for liquefying helium. His major
discovery was superconductivity, the elimination of electrical
resistance at very cold temperatures. In 1999 Tom Shachtman
described the event in his book "Absolute Zero and the Conquest of
Cold."
(WSJ, 12/10/99, p.W12)
1914 Mar 1, H. Colijn, Dutch
Minister of war, was named director of British Petroleum.
(SC, 3/1/02)
1914 Aug 24, German Zeppelins
bombed Antwerp.
(AH, 1/97)
1914 Sep 2, German Zeppelins
again bombed Antwerp.
(AH, 1/97)
1915 Mar 4, Petrus de Jong,
Dutch premier (KVP, 1967-71), was born.
(SC, 3/4/02)
1915 Aug 26, Gre [Gerarda D]
Brouwenstijn, Dutch opera soprano, was born.
(MC, 8/26/02)
1916 A disastrous breach of
Dutch coastal defenses occurred.
(www.metoffice.com/education/secondary/students/flood.html)
1917 Jan 6, Hendrik P.G. Quack
(82), lawyer and economist (Bank of Netherlands), died.
(MC, 1/6/02)
1917 Feb 26, Utrecht Harbor,
Netherlands, held its 1st Annual fair.
(SC, 2/26/02)
1917 Mar 8, Ferdinand von
Zeppelin (78), Dutch count, air pioneer, died.
(MC, 3/8/02)
1917 Oct 15, Mata Hari, a Dutch
dancer who had spied for the Germans, was executed by a firing squad
outside Paris.
(WSJ, 1/16/97, p.A16)(AP, 10/15/97)
1917 Piet Mondrian and three
other painters founded the movement known as De Stijl, which became
synonymous with Mondrian.
(HNQ, 7/16/01)
1918 May 18, The Netherlands
Indian Volksraad was installed in Batavia (later Djakarta).
(SC, 5/18/02)
1918 Nov 10, Retired German
Kaiser Wilhelm II fled to the Netherlands.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wilhelm_II,_German_Emperor)
1919 Jul 21, Anthony Fokker
established an airplane factory at Hamburg and Amsterdam.
(MC, 7/21/02)
1919 Sep 6, Pier Pander
(b.1864), Dutch sculptor, died.
(http://home.wxs.nl/~bekke412/pier.html)
1919 Oct 11, KLM Royal Dutch
Airlines made its debut and served a pre-packaged dinner, believed
to be the 1st in-flight meal, on a flight between London and Paris.
(SSFC, 12/14/03, p.D2)(WSJ, 5/31/08, p.A12)
1920 Jan 23, The Dutch
government refused demands from the victorious Allies to hand over
Kaiser Wilhelm II, the dethroned German monarch who had fled to the
Netherlands.
(AP, 1/23/00)
1920 Dec 13, League of nations
established the Int’l. Court of Justice in The Hague.
(MC, 12/13/01)
1920 The plane maker NV Fokker
firm was founded. By 1996 it was in trouble and seeking protection
from its creditors.
(WSJ, 1/24/96, p.A-12)
1921 Apr 5, Alphons Diepenbrock
(b.1862), Dutch composer, died in Amsterdam. His work included
“Wandering Through the Woods” (1910).
(SFC, 9/1/04, p.B7)
1922 May 18, Dutch 2nd Chamber
agreed to a 48 hour work week over the previous 45 hours.
(SC, 5/18/02)
1923 Mar 3, US Senate rejected
membership in International Court of Justice, The Hague.
(SC, 3/3/02)
1923 Dutch physicist Dirk
Coster (1889-1950) and Hungarian chemist George Charles de Hevesy
(1889-1966) found element 72, Hafnium. It was identified in zircon
(a zirconium ore) from Norway, by means of X-ray spectroscopic
analysis. It was named in honor of the city in which the discovery
was made, from the Latin name "Hafnia" meaning
"Copenhagen."
(www.chemistryexplained.com/elements/C-K/Hafnium.html)(http://tinyurl.com/kj24t)
1924 Apr 20, Nina Foch
(d.2008), film, theater and TV actress, was born in Leyden,
Netherlands. Her films later included “An American in Paris”
(1951).
(SFC, 12/13/08, p.A5)
1924 H. Pander & Son, a
Netherlands’ furniture company, bought an aircraft manufacturing
firm and started making small airplanes. They continued to make
furniture through the mid 1930s.
(SFC, 11/7/07, p.G6)
1925 Mar 2, SDAP-Second-Faction
(Dutch Socialists) of parliament demanded drastic disarmament.
(SC, 3/2/02)
1926 Mar 4, De Geer government
in Netherlands took office.
(SC, 3/4/02)
1926 Mar 26, ACD de Graeff was
appointed Governor-General of Dutch East-Indies.
(SS, 3/26/02)
1927 Apr 30, Princess Juliana
got a seat in Dutch Council of State.
(MC, 4/30/02)
1927 May 29, Dick Hillenius,
Dutch biologist, writer, was born.
(SC, 5/29/02)
1928 Jul 28, The Olympics
opened at Amsterdam. Track and field events opened for women for the
1st time despite objections from Pope Pius IX. Germany was allowed
to participate for the 1st time since WWI.
(SC, 7/28/02)(NG, 8/04, Geographica)(WSJ,
4/12/08, p.R2)
1928 Aug 3, Ray Barbuti saved
the US team from defeat in Amsterdam Olympics track events by
winning 400 m (47.8 sec).
(SC, 8/3/02)
1928 Aug 10, The Univ. of
California crew won the rowing championship at the Olympics in
Holland.
(SFC, 8/8/03, p.E6)
1928 Aug 12, The 9th Olympic
Games closed in Amsterdam. During the games several women collapsed
at the end of the 800-meter run. This led to a 32-year ban on women
running in Olympic races over 200 meters.
(SC, 8/12/02)(SSFC, 4/13/03, p.F1)
1929 Jun 12, Anne Frank,
German-Jewish diarist and Holocaust victim, was born in Holland. She
with her family hid from the Nazis in Holland during World War II.
Her diary is world famous
(HN, 6/12/98)(MC, 6/12/02)
1930 Jan 3, The second
conference on war reparations began in the Hague.
(HN, 1/3/99)
1930 British detergent maker
Lever Bros. merged with Margarine Unie of the Netherlands to form
Unilever. William Hulme Lever (1888-1949), 2nd Viscount Leverhulme,
co-founded Unilever. Lever brothers had operated from the Belgian
Congo from 1911.
(www.ubffoodsolutions.com/company/history)(Econ,
6/3012, p.20)
1932 Apr 5, A Dutch textile
strike was broken by trade unions.
(MC, 4/5/02)
1932 May 10, Government of
Netherland declared "Wilhelmus" the national anthem.
(MC, 5/10/02)
1932 Netherlands passed a
blasphemy law that mandated a maximum sentence of three months in
prison for a convicted "scornful blasphemer."
(AP, 5/24/11)
1932 Han van Meegeren sold his
Vermeer forgery “Lady and Gentleman at the Spinnet” for 40 thousand
guilders. In 2007 this would represent about $225,000.
(ON, 12/07, p.10)
1932 The Afsluitdijk dam was
completed. It sealed the Zuider Zee from the ocean and formed the
freshwater Lake IJssel.
(SSFC, 3/25/01, p.C1)
1933 Feb 8, Elly Ameling,
soprano (Ilya-Idomeneo), was born in Rotterdam, Holland.
(MC, 2/8/02)
1933 Apr 22, Dutch government
forbade a left-wing radio address.
(MC, 4/22/02)
1933 Dec 3, Paul Crutzen, Dutch
chemist, was born.
(HN, 12/3/00)
1934 Jan 10, Marinus van der
Lubbe (24), Dutch communist, was guillotined in Berlin.
(MC, 1/10/02)
1934 Jul 4, Jordanians revolted
in Amsterdam after reduction in employment.
(Maggio, 98)
1934 Aug 12, Hendrik Petrus
Berlage (b.1856), the father of modern Dutch architecture,
died at The Hague.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hendrik_Petrus_Berlage)(Econ, 9/27/14,
IL p.11)
1935 Mar 3, Dutch Revolutionary
Socialist Worker's party (RSAP) was formed.
(SC, 3/3/02)
1935 In the Netherlands the
Gemeentemuseum Den Haag, the Art Deco final masterwork of H.P.
Berlage (1856-1934), was completed.
(Econ, 9/27/14, IL p.11)
1935 May 29, Hague local museum
opened.
(SC, 5/29/02)
1936 Oct, Dutch-born Peter
Debye (1884-1966), won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his studies
on the structure of molecules. In 1938, as Chairman of the German
Physical Society, he had a letter sent out under his name requesting
that the domestic Jewish members voluntarily resign. In 1940 he
moved to the US. In 2006 he emerged in a book, "Albert Einstein in
the Netherlands." which contained evidence of pro-Nazi actions. In
2008 the Terlouw Committee, appointed by the Dutch Ministry of
Education, reviewed the allegations and issued its report clearly
stating that Debye was neither a Nazi collaborator nor a Nazi
sympathizer.
(AP, 3/3/06)(http://piurl.com/5F)
1936 The Dutch film "The
Trouble With Money" was directed by Max Ophuls.
(SFEC, 9/5/99, DB p.50)
1938 Jan 10, Eduard van Beinum
became the 1st conductor of Amsterdam Concert orchestra.
(MC, 1/10/02)
1938 May 12, In Holland, the
4-day convention at Utrecht ended. A Provisional Constitution for
the World Council of Churches was adopted.
(SC, internet, 5/12/97)
1938 May 6, Dutch writer
Maurits Dekker was sentenced to 50 days for "offending a friendly
head of state" (Hitler).
(MC, 5/6/02)
1938 Alfred Flatow (1869-1942),
Jewish gymnast and three-time, first-place medalist in the 1896
Olympics, fled to the Netherlands. He was later arrested by the
Nazis for possession of guns following their occupation of the
Netherlands. Flatow was deported to the Theresienstadt concentration
camp in 1942 where he was starved to death.
(SFC, 7/17/14,
p.A10)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfred_Flatow)
1939 Mar 28, Dutch hunter shot
English bombers down.
(MC, 3/28/02)
1939 Nov 18, The Netherland
KNSM passenger ship Simon Bolivar hit a German mine and 86 died.
(MC, 11/18/01)
1939 Dec 23, Anthony H.G.
Fokker (49), Dutch airplane builder (Spider), died in America.
(www.obituariestoday.com)
1940 May 8, German commandos in
Dutch uniforms crossed the Dutch border to hold bridges for the
advancing German army.
(HN, 5/8/99)
1940 May 10, German forces
began a blitzkrieg of the Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg,
skirting France's "impenetrable" Maginot Line. Belgium was invaded
by Germany and maintained resistance for 18 days.
(WSJ, 8/1/95, p.A-8)(WSJ, 4/29/96, p.C-1)(HN,
5/10/02)
1940 May 13, British bombed a
factory at Breda, Netherlands.
(MC, 5/13/02)
1940 May 13, Dutch Queen
Wilhelmina fled to England.
(MC, 5/13/02)
1940 May 14, The Netherlands
(Holland) surrendered to Nazi Germany after the bombing of Rotterdam
that left 600-900 dead.
(HN, 5/14/98)(MC, 5/14/02)
1940 May 15, German troops
occupied Amsterdam. Gen Winkelman surrendered.
(MC, 5/15/02)
1940 May 16, Jacques
Goudstikker, Dutch art dealer, fell on a staircase of the SS
Bodegraven as the ship was refused entry at Dover. He died from a
broken neck. His inventory in Amsterdam totaled some 1,400 works,
which Reichsmarschall Herman Goring, Hitler’s 2nd in command, soon
snapped up.
(WSJ, 7/2/08, p.D7)
1940 May 18, German forces
under Field Marshal Georg von Kuchler (1881-1968) occupied Antwerp,
Netherlands.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georg_von_K%C3%BCchler)
1940 May 19, Amsterdam time
became MET (Middle European Time).
(DTnet, 5/19/97)
1940 May 29, Arthur
Seyss-Inquart was installed as Reich Commissioner of Hague,
Netherlands.
(SC, 5/29/02)
1940 Jun 11, Princess Juliana
of the Netherlands arrived in Canada as an exile.
(AP, 6/11/03)
1940 Jun 21, German occupiers
disbanded the Dutch States-General, Council of State.
(MC, 6/21/02)
1940
Jul, Jan Zwartendijk, a Dutch diplomat, and Chiune Sugihara, a
Japanese diplomat, worked together to save some 2,000 thousand
Polish Jews, who had fled to Lithuania by issuing them visas for
Japan, China and the Dutch colonies in South America. Zwartendijk
wrote out the so called Curacao visas, while Sugihara issued the
transit visas. The Sugihara family was later captured by the
Russians and placed in a concentration camp for 1 1/2 years.
(SFC, 9/7/96, p.A13)(SFC, 9/9/96,
p.A16)(www.remember.org/witness/righteous.html)
1941 Feb 9, Nazi collaborators
destroyed the pro-Jewish cafe Alcazar Amsterdam. Alcazar had refused
to hang "No Entry for Jews" signs in front.
(MC, 2/9/02)
1941 Feb 19, Nazi police were
attacked and driven away from Koco, Amsterdam by young Jews. Nazis
raided Amsterdam and rounded up 429 young Jews for deportation.
(MC, 2/19/02)
1941 Feb 26, Utrecht and
Zaandam struck against raid on Jews.
(SC, 2/26/02)
1941 Mar 3, Netherlands
NSB-leader Mussert visited Göring in Berlin.
(SC, 3/3/02)
1941 Mar 4, 18 Geuzen
resistance fighters were sentenced to death in The Hague.
(SC, 3/4/02)
1941 Mar 8, Martial law was
proclaimed in Holland in order to extinguish any anti-Nazi protests.
(HN, 3/8/98)
1941 Mar 20, D.A. van den
Bosch, anti-Nazi clergyman (Amersfoort Camp), died.
(MC, 3/20/02)
1941 Apr 24, Dutch Prince
Bernhard became an RAF pilot.
(MC, 4/24/02)
1941 May 15, Nazi occupiers in
Netherlands forbade Jewish music.
(MC, 5/15/02)
1941 May 19, German occupiers
in Holland forbade bicycle taxis.
(MC, 5/19/02)
1941 Jun 4, Wilhelm II von
Hohenzollern (b.1859), the last German emperor (1888-1918), died in
the Netherlands.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wilhelm_II,_German_Emperor)
1941 Jul 11(Jun 11), The 2nd
great roundup of Jews of Amsterdam took place.
(MC, 7/11/02)
1941 Aug 18, The concentration
camp at Amersfoort, Netherlands, opened.
(MC, 8/18/02)
1941 Nov 25, German Jews in
Netherlands were declared stateless.
(MC, 11/25/01)
1942 Jan 11, Japan declared war
against the Netherlands, the same day that Japanese forces invaded
the Dutch East Indies (later Indonesia).
(AP, 1/11/98)(HN, 1/11/99)
1942 Feb 16, German submarines
attacked an Aruba oil refinery and sank the tanker Pedernales.
(MC, 2/16/02)(SSFC, 11/10/02, p.C11)
1942 May 3, Nazis executed 72
in reprisal in Sachsenhausen, Netherlands. Johan H. Westerveld,
lt.-Col, leader Order Service, was among the executed.
(MC, 5/3/02)
1942 May 17, Dutch SS vowed
loyalty to Hitler.
(MC, 5/17/02)
1942 Jun 9, German-Neth press
reported that 3 million Dutch were sent to East-Europe.
(MC, 6/9/02)
1942 Jun 12, Anne Frank
received her diary as a birthday present in Amsterdam.
(MC, 6/12/02)
1942 Jun 14, Anne Frank began
her diary.
(MC, 6/14/02)
1942 Jun 20, Adolf Eichmann
proclaimed the deportation of Dutch Jews.
(MC, 6/20/02)
1942 Jul 6, Anne Frank's family
went into hiding in After House, Amsterdam.
(MC, 7/6/02)
1942 Jul 9, Anne Frank (13),
her family and 4 other Jews went into hiding in the attic above her
father's office in an Amsterdam warehouse.
(HN, 7/9/01)(MC, 7/9/02)
1942 Jul 16, Jews were
transported from Holland to an extermination camp.
(MC, 7/16/02)
1942 Jul 26, Roman Catholic
churches protested the Dutch bishops’ stand against the spread of
Judaism.
(MC, 7/26/02)
1942 Aug 25, German SS
began transporting Jews of Maastricht, Neth.
(chblue.com, 8/25/01)
1942 Oct 15, Dirk Bannink,
nurse and local councilor Deventer, Netherlands, was executed.
(MC, 10/15/01)
1942 The Catholic hierarchy of
Amsterdam spoke against the Nazi treatment of Jews. This led to a
redoubling of roundups and deportations.
(WSJ, 4/25/97, p.A18)
1943 Feb 17, Dutch churches
protested to Artur Seyss-Inquart against persecution of Jews.
(MC, 2/17/02)
1943 Mar 1, In Amsterdam a
Jewish old age home for disabled was raided.
(SC, 3/1/02)
1943 Mar 2, 1st transport of
Jews from Westerbork, Netherlands, to Sobibor concentration camp.
(SC, 3/2/02)
1943 Mar 18, The ships James
Oglethorpe (US) and Terkolei (Neth.), were torpedoed and sank.
(MC, 3/18/02)
1943 Mar 31, US Army Air Force
bombers attacked harbor facilities in the west of Rotterdam. A
combination of strong wind and overcast conditions also caused great
damage to the nearby residential areas, especially in the
Bospolder-Tussendijken District. The death toll rose to 401
casualties and around 16,500 people lost their homes.
(http://tinyurl.com/6rmgrp6)
1944 Feb 1, Piet Mondrian
(b.1872), Dutch artist, died in NYC of pneumonia. To create an art
of harmony and order he used straight lines exclusively. "His
trademark paintings of black lines forming a grid and primary colors
are a calculated, mathematical blueprint for an organized life." A
leading abstract artist in the early half of the 20th century, Dutch
painter Piet Mondrian was also a leading proponent of De Stijl ("The
Style"). Born to an educator and amateur artist in 1872, Mondrian
pursued a career as a painter from an early age. He was influenced
by the Post-Impressionists, but gravitated towards Cubism after
seeing an exhibition of works by Picasso and others.
(Hem, Dec. 94, p.131)(WSJ, 5/25/01,
p.W10)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piet_Mondrian)
1944 Apr 30, The 8th and 9th US
Army Air Forces and Royal Air Force Bomber Command began to fly
sorties into France and the Low Countries in preparation for the
Allied Expeditionary Force landing on Jun 6.
(SDUT, 6/6/97, p.B9)
1943 Apr 30, Dutch struck
against forced labor in Nazi Germany's war industry.
(MC, 4/30/02)
1943 Apr 30, Etty Hillesum,
Dutch diarist, died in Auschwitz.
(MC, 4/30/02)
1944 May 19, 240 gypsies were
transported to Auschwitz from Westerbork Neth.
(MC, 5/19/02)
1943 May 26, Jews rioted
against Germans in Amsterdam.
(MC, 5/26/02)
1943 Jun 25, Arthur
Seyss-Inquart ordered a mass arrest of Dutch physicians.
(MC, 6/25/02)
1943 Oct 20, A US B-17 bomber
crashed in the Netherlands near the small town of de Bilt. Of the 10
men on board 5 died and 5 were captured. Robert Surdez, co-pilot,
died in 2004.
(SFC, 3/30/04, p.B1)(SFC, 8/11/04, p.B7)
1943 Willem Kolff invented the
1st dialysis machine in Holland.
(WSJ, 10/2/03, p.A2)
1944 Jun 6, Gerrit John van de
Peat (41), artist, resistance fighter, was executed.
(MC, 6/6/02)
1944 Jun 6, Nazi troops
executed 96 prisoners by firing squad.
(MC, 6/6/02)
1944 Jun 9, 99 inhabitants of
Tulle were hanged by the SS.
(MC, 6/9/02)
1944 Jul 14, SS men Heinrich
Boere and Jacobus Petrus Besteman shot and killed Dutch pharmacist
Fritz Hubert Ernst Bicknese at his home in Breda for suspected
activity in Nazi resistance. Boere was sentenced to death in
absentia by a Dutch court in 1949. This was later commuted to life
imprisonment. In 2009 Boere (88) was slated to stand trial for
murder in Germany for the execution-style killings of three Dutch
civilians during World War II. In 2010 a German court convicted
Boere (88) of murdering the three Dutch civilians. He was given the
maximum sentence of life in prison for the killings.
(www.wsws.org/articles/2009/nov2009/germ-n02.shtml)(AP, 7/7/09)(AP,
3/23/10)
1944 Jul 15, Anne Frank
(1929-1945) entered this in her diary: "In spite of everything I
still believe that people are really good at heart." In 1998 5
additional pages to her diary were reported. She died of typhoid in
the spring of 1945 at the Bergen-Belson concentration camp.
(AP, 8/4/98)(SFC, 8/19/98, p.A16)
1944 Jul 19, Carl Bock, Danish
Gestapo agent, was liquidated.
(MC, 7/19/02)
1944 Aug 1, Anne Frank's last
diary entry; 3 days later she was arrested.
(MC, 8/1/02)
1944 Aug 4, Nazi police
raided the secret annex of a building in Amsterdam and arrested
eight people, including 15-year-old Anne Frank, whose diary became a
famous account of the Holocaust. She died at the Bergen-Belsen
concentration camp in the spring of 1945, just weeks before the camp
was liberated. Miep Gies (1909-2010), secretary to Anne’s father
Otto, collected the scattered pages of Anne’s diary and returned
them to Otto Frank after the war.
(AP, 8/4/02)(Econ, 1/30/10, p.95)
1944 Sep 3, The 68th & last
transport of Dutch Jews, which included Anne Frank, left for
Auschwitz.
(MC, 9/3/01)
1944 Sep 5, "Mad Tuesday"
65,000 Dutch Nazi collaborators fled to Germany.
(MC, 9/5/01)
1944 Sep 8, Germany's V-2
offensive against England began. The 1st V-2 rockets landed in
London & Antwerp.
(HN, 9/8/98)(MC, 9/8/01)
1944 Sep 17, Infantry glider
troops of the 82nd Airborne Division entered Holland. British and
American airborne troops parachuted into Holland to capture the
Arnhem bridge as part of Operation Market Garden. The plan called
for the airborne troops to be relieved by British troops, but they
were left stranded and eventually surrendered to the Germans. The
1974 book by Cornelius Ryan, "A Bridge Too Far," was based on this
operation and was made into the 1977 film.
(HN, 9/17/98)(HC, 12/12/01)(AP, 9/17/06)
1944 Sep 21, The last British
paratroopers at bridge of Arnhem surrendered.
(MC, 9/21/01)
1944 Sep 22, Aldert Klaas
Dijkema, a Dutch resistance fighter, was executed by the Nazi Waffen
SS shortly after he was captured. In 2012 Dutch-born Siert Bruins
(91) was charged with Dijkema’s murder. In 2014 a German court
dropped the case against Bruins ruling that there are too many gaps
in the evidence to deliver a verdict.
(www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4312068,00.html)(SFC, 11/27/12,
p.A2)(SFC, 9/3/13, p.A2)(AP, 1/8/14)
1944 Sep 27, Thousands of
British troops were killed as German forces rebuffed their massive
effort to capture the Arnhem Bridge across the Rhine River in
Holland.
(HN, 9/27/98)
1944 Sep 28, At the Battle of
Arnhem the Germans defeated the British airborne in Netherlands.
(MC, 9/28/01)
1944 Sep, SS men Heinrich Boere
and an accomplice named Hendrik Kromhout shot Dutch bicycle-shop
owner Teun de Groot when he answered the doorbell at his home in the
town of Voorschoten. They then continued to the apartment of F.W.
Kusters, and forced him into their car. They drove him to another
town, stopped on the pretense of having a flat tire and shot him.
(AP, 3/7/08)
1944 Nov 28, The first Allied
supplies reached Antwerp by convoy.
(HN, 11/28/98)
1944 Piet Mondrian (b.1872),
Dutch artist, died of pneumonia. To create an art of harmony and
order he used straight lines exclusively. "His trademark paintings
of black lines forming a grid and primary colors are a calculated,
mathematical blueprint for an organized life." A leading abstract
artist in the early half of the 20th century, Dutch painter Piet
Mondrian was also a leading proponent of De Stijl ("The Style").
Born to an educator and amateur artist in 1872, Mondrian pursued a
career as a painter from an early age. He was influenced by the
Post-Impressionists, but gravitated towards Cubism after seeing an
exhibition of works by Picasso and others.
(Hem, Dec. 94, p.131)(WSJ, 5/25/01, p.W10)(HNQ,
7/16/01)
1945 Mar 3, Roermond-Venlo,
Netherlands, was freed.
(SC, 3/3/02)
1945 Mar 3, RAF bombing error
hit The Hague and killed 511.
(SC, 3/3/02)
1945 Mar 5, Allies bombed The
Hague, Netherlands.
(MC, 3/5/02)
1945 Mar 6, In Holland SS
General Hans Albin Rauter, was ambushed, and his driver and orderly
were killed. Rauter was seriously wounded. SS Brigadefuhrer Dr.
Eberhardt Schongarth immediately ordered reprisals and a total of
263 people were shot. A Special Court of Justice in the Hague
sentenced Rauter to death and he was executed March 25, 1949.
Schongarth was tried by a British Military Court, found guilty on
another war crime charge, sentenced to death and was hanged in 1946.
http://members.iinet.net.au/~gduncan/massacres.html
(WW2D, p.610)
1945 Mar 8, 53 Amsterdammers
were executed by Nazi occupiers.
(MC, 3/8/02)
1945 Mar 11, Flemish Nazi
collaborator Maria Huygens was sentenced to death.
(MC, 3/12/02)
1945 Mar 12, In Amsterdam 30
people were executed by Nazi occupiers.
(MC, 3/12/02)
1945 Mar 13, Queen Wilhelmina
returned to Netherlands.
(MC, 3/13/02)
1945 Apr 8, Nazi occupiers were
executed. Nazi general Christiansen fled the Netherlands.
(MC, 4/8/02)
1945 Apr 12, Canadian troops
liberated the Nazi concentration camp at Westerbork, Neth.
(MC, 4/12/02)
1945 Apr 14, Arnhem and Zwolle
were freed from Nazis.
(MC, 4/14/02)
1945 Apr 17, Canadian lead
tanks roll into Apeldoorn, Netherlands, loudly cheered by relieved
residents.
(www.bouwman.com/netherlands/Liberation.html)
1945 Apr 17, Hannie Schaft
(24), Dutch resistance fighter who lived in Haarlem, known as the
"Girl with red hair," was executed by the Germans just one month
before the war ended. She was a student who joined the resistance
early in the war. On her bicycle she delivered ration coupons,
newspapers, secret information and weapons. She was shot and buried
in a shallow grave in the Dunes around Bloemendaal.
(MC, 4/17/02)(Internet)
1945 May 1, Arthur
Seys-Inquart, Nazi overlord of Netherlands, fled to Flensburg.
(MC, 5/1/02)
1945 May 4, German forces in
the Netherlands, Denmark and northwest Germany agreed to surrender.
(AP, 5/4/00)
1945 May 5, Netherlands and
Denmark were liberated from Nazi control. The Liberation of the
Netherlands was completed by the First Canadian Army.
(HN,
5/5/98)(www.bouwman.com/netherlands/Liberation.html)
1945 May 7, SS opened fire on a
crowd in Amsterdam and killed 22.
(MC, 5/7/02)
1945 May 29, Dutch police
arrested and imprisoned Hans van Meegeren (1889-1947) for
collaborating with the enemy. His name had been traced to a sale
made during the second world war of what was then believed to be an
authentic Vermeer to Nazi Field-Marshal Hermann Goering. On July 12,
in order to prove his innocence, Meegeren revealed that he had
forged the painting.
(WSJ, 10/14/06, p.P10)(ON, 12/07, p.12)
1945 Jun 6, Meinoud M. Rost van
Tonningen, anti Semite, NSB (1937-41), committed suicide.
(MC, 6/6/02)
1945 Aug 17, Indonesian
nationalists declared independence from the Netherlands.
(SFC, 10/12/96, p.A13)(AP, 8/17/99)
1945 Oct 6, Gen Eisenhower was
welcomed in Hague on Hitler's train.
(MC, 10/6/01)
1945 Dec 27, The Dutch formally
relinquished sovereignty to Indonesia.
(WSJ, 7/24/01, p.B4)
1946 Mar 2, Dutch troops landed
on East Bali.
(SC, 3/2/02)
1946 May 29, KVP won the
Provincial National elections in Netherlands.
(SC, 5/29/02)
1946 Mar 1, In the Netherlands
Felix Gulje, head of a construction company, was murdered at his
door front. Rumors had circled that Gulje worked with
occupation authorities during the war. After his death it emerged
that Gulje had sheltered Jews and given money to hide others. In
2011 Atie Ridder-Visser (96), former resistance member, confessed to
the killing.
(SFC, 6/9/11, p.A3)
1947 Nov 12, Hans van Meegeren
(1889-12947), Dutch painter and forger, was tried for forgery and
convicted of “obtaining money by deception” and “appending false
names and signatures with the intent to deceive.” He was given the
minimum sentence of one year and then the court petitioned Queen
Wilhelmina that he be pardoned, but he died 6 weeks later.
(ON, 12/07, p.12)
1947 Dec 9, In western Java up
to 430 men were rounded up and shot by Dutch troops in the village
of Rawagedeh. The Dutch called the incident a "police action" to
quell an uprising. The Dutch government conceded in 1995 that
summary executions had taken place in Rawagedeh, now known as
Balongsari, but said prosecutions were no longer possible. In
September, 2011, a Dutch court ordered the government to compensate
the widows of Indonesian villagers, to apologize for the killings
and to give each of the 10 plaintiffs $27,000. Old friends and
neighbors cajoled, bullied and intimidated the plaintiffs and their
families until local officials jumped in, forcing them to part with
half their cash.
(AP, 9/14/11)(http://tinyurl.com/5sp5psn)(AP,
11/23/11)(AP, 1/16/12)
1947 Dec 29, Hans van Meegeren
(b.1889), Dutch painter and forger, died. In 2006 Frank Wynne
authored “I Was Vermeer.”
(WSJ, 10/14/06,
p.P10)(http://denisdutton.com/van_meegeren.htm)
1947 “The Diary of Anne Frank”
was first published. In her diary Anne Frank (1929-1945) chronicled
the details of her teenage life hiding from the Nazis in Amsterdam
from 1942 to 1944, when the Nazi secret police discovered her and
her family's hiding place. Miep Gies (1909-2010), had guarded Anne's
memoirs and presented it to the girl's father, Otto, when he
returned from the Auschwitz concentration camp at the end of World
War II, the only one of his family to survive.
(AFP, 1/12/10)
1947 Klaas Carel Faber
(1922-2012) was convicted of murder and aiding the enemy in time of
war for helping the Netherlands' Nazi occupiers during World War II.
He had worked for the death squad code named "Silbertanne," or
"Silver Fir," which carried out killings of resistance members, Nazi
opponents, and people who hid Jews. He was given a death sentence
that was later commuted to life in prison, but he escaped and fled
to Germany in 1952, where he was granted citizenship. In 2010 the
Dutch government issued a European arrest warrant for Faber (88). In
2011 a German court ruled that the Dutch request cannot be granted
as Faber’s consent was mandatory due to his German citizenship.
Klaas Faber died in Germany in 2012.
(AP, 11/25/10)(AP, 5/11/11)(AP, 5/26/12)
1947 Gerard Kuiper of Holland
and Texas discovered carbon dioxide in the atmosphere of Mars.
(SFC, 11/29/96, p.A17)
1948 Mar 18, France, Great
Britain and Benelux signed the Treaty of Brussels.
(MC, 3/18/02)
1948 Apr 18, International
Court of Justice opened at Hague, Netherlands.
(MC, 4/18/02)
1948 May 4, The Hague Court of
Justice convicted Hans Rauter (SS) of war crimes.
(MC, 5/4/02)
1948 May 12, Queen Wilhelmina
resigned. [see Sep 4]
(MC, 5/12/02)
1948 Aug 23, The World Council
of Churches (WCC) was formed in Amsterdam to help reconcile
differences among Christians. Delegates of 147 churches assembled to
merge the Faith and Order Movement and Life and Work Movement.
Church leaders had agreed in 1937 to establish a World Council of
Churches, based on a merger of the Faith and Order Movement and Life
and Work Movement organizations. Headquarters were later established
in Geneva.
(Econ, 2/23/08,
p.79)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Council_of_Churches)
1948 Sep 4, Queen Wilhelmina
abdicated the Dutch throne for health reasons.
(AP, 9/4/97)
1948 Sep 6, Queen Juliana
(1909-2004) of the Netherlands was crowned, two days after the
abdication of her mother, Queen Wilhelmina. Juliana abdicated in
1980.
(AP, 9/6/98)(SSFC, 3/21/04, p.B7)
1948 Auke Bert Pattist, a Nazi
collaborator, was convicted for helping Nazis and persecuting Jews.
He escaped from prison and later settled in France and Spain where
he died in 2001 at age 80.
(SFC, 3/27/01, p.A18)
1948 Dutch economist Petrus
Johannes Verdoorn (1911-1982), developed what came to known as
Verdoorn's law. It relates to the long-term dynamic relationship
between the rate of growth in output and the growth of productivity
due to increasing returns.
(www.economyprofessor.com/economictheories/verdoorns-law.php)
1948 H.B.G. Casimir, Dutch
physicist, deduced the necessity of a quantum-mechanical effect
arising from the zero-point energy of the harmonic oscillators that
are the normal modes of the electromagnetic field. The Casimir force
was first measured in 1997 and can be seen in a gecko's ability to
stick to a surface with just one toe.
(AFP,
8/6/07)(www.du.edu/~jcalvert/phys/casimir.htm)
1949 Apr 4, The (NATO) North
Atlantic Treaty Organization pact was signed by the US, Great
Britain, France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Italy,
Portugal, Denmark, Iceland, Norway and Canada. It provided for
mutual defense against aggression and for close military
cooperation.
(www.nato.int/cps/en/natolive/official_texts_17120.htm)(TOH, 1982,
p.1949)
1949 Dec 27, Queen Juliana of
the Netherlands granted sovereignty to the United States Indonesia
after more than 300 years of Dutch rule. The Netherlands retained
control of Irian Jaya, inhabited by Melanesians, until 1963.
(EWH, 1968, p.1168)(SFC, 9/8/99, p.A17)(AP,
12/27/99)
1949 Heinrich Boere (b.1922),
part of a Waffen SS death squad of mostly Dutch volunteers, was
sentenced to death in the Netherlands. The squad had been tasked
with killing fellow countrymen in reprisal for attacks by the
anti-Nazi resistance. His sentence was later commuted to life
imprisonment and Boere managed to escape to Germany. A German court
has refused to extradite him because he might have German
nationality as well as Dutch. In 2008 Dortmund prosecutor Ulrich
Maass charged Heinrich Boere (86) with the 1944 murders of three men
as a member of the Waffen SS death squad code-named Silbertanne, or
Silver Pine.
(AP, 3/8/08)(AP, 4/16/08)
1950 West Timor (Dutch Timor),
part of the former Dutch East Indies, became Indonesian territory
when Holland transferred sovereignty.
(SFC, 10/12/96, p.A13)(TOH, 1982, p.1949)(SFC,
9/8/99, p.A17)
1952 Feb 26, A
Netherlands-Indonesian Unity conference took place.
(SC, 2/26/02)
1952 Apr 3, Dutch Queen Juliana
spoke to the US Congress.
(MC, 4/3/02)
1952 May 6, Maria Montessori
(b.1870), Italian physician, educationist, died In Holland. She
opened her 1st school in San Lorenzo, Italy, in 1907.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maria_Montessori)(SFC, 1/6/07, p.B1)
1952 May 29, A 2nd Round
Conference between Dutch Antilles and Suriname ended.
(SC, 5/29/02)
1952 KLM Royal Dutch Airlines
began offering first class passengers ceramic houses filled with
liquor. Industry rules capped handouts at 75 cents, but there was no
limit on booze. In 2008 the 89th house in the series made it debut
on Oct 7, the airline’s 89th birthday.
(WSJ, 5/31/08, p.A1)
1952-1954 In the Netherlands 34 boys under 18
during this period died in a Catholic institute for the mentally
disabled in the Roermond Diocese. A Dutch Catholic institute for
disabled girls in the same town of Heel experienced 40 deaths during
the same period. In 2011 prosecutors opened an investigation on the
unusually high death rate. In 2012 Dutch prosecutors said
Brother Andreas, now dead, may have been involved in the suspicious
deaths of 37 patients. The deaths sharply declined after he was
transferred to another institution.
(AP, 8/16/11)(AP, 8/18/11)(AP, 6/28/12)
1953 Jan 31-1953 Feb 1, A
powerful storm breached sea dikes in the south of the Netherlands,
killing more than 1,800 people and cementing a deep resolve among
the Dutch that their ancient enemy, water, would never kill again.
307 people died in eastern England.
(SSFC, 3/25/01,
p.C3)(www.metoffice.com/education/secondary/students/flood.html)
1954 Dec 15, With the
proclamation of the Charter for the Kingdom of the Netherlands, the
Netherlands Antilles attained equal status with the Netherlands
proper and Suriname in the overarching Kingdom of the Netherlands.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cura%C3%A7ao_and_Dependencies)(SSFC,
10/9/11, p.C3)
1954 The Bilderberg Group was
set up in to support military and economic co-operation between
Europe and North America during the Cold War. Its first meeting was
at the Bilderberg Hotel in Oosterbeek, Holland.
(AP, 6/7/13)
1954 The Hague Convention of
this year forbade the taking of war booty. The Hague cultural
Property Convention recognized the protection of cultural, religious
and historical monuments including national parks.
(WSJ, 5/29/96, p.A6)(SFC, 8/11/00, p.A15)
1954 The 5 islands of the
Netherlands Antilles were federated. These included Bonaire,
Curacao, St. Maarten, Saba and St. Eustatius.
(Econ, 5/26/07, p.38)
1955 May 18, Queen Juliana
opened the E55 fair in Amsterdam.
(SC, 5/18/02)
1956 Apr 10, Philips
broadcasted the 1st Dutch color TV programs.
(MC, 4/10/02)
1956 May 18, Queen Juliana
opened the Rembrandt fairs in Amsterdam.
(SC, 5/18/02)
1956 Nov 6, Holland and Spain
withdrew from Olympics, to protest Soviets in Hungary.
(MC, 11/6/01)
1957 May 4, The Anne Frank
Foundation formed in Amsterdam.
(MC, 5/4/02)
1957 May 9, Heinrich Campendonk
(b.1889), German-born Dutch artist and a member of the Der Blaue
Reiter group (1911-1912), died.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heinrich_Campendonk)
1957 Jul 4, Dutch 2nd Chamber
accepted temporary tax increase.
(Maggio)
1958 Jun 23, In the Netherlands
the Praemium Erasmianum Foundation was founded by Prince Bernhard.
It awarded the annual Erasmus Prize to individuals or institutions
that have made notable contributions to European culture, society,
or social science.
(www.123exp-culture.com/t/03604490053/)
1958 Aug 14, KLM Flight 607-E,
a Lockheed Super Constellation, crashed west of Ireland, killing 99.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KLM_Flight_607-E)
1959 Apr 13, Eduard A van
Beinum (57), Dutch musician, conductor, died.
(MC, 4/13/02)
1959 Oct 13, K. Rudolf
Mengelberg, Dutch composer (Amsterdam Concertgebouw), died at
67.
(MC, 10/13/01)
1959 Aldo van Eyck (d.1999 at
80) designed the State Orphanage in Amsterdam.
(SFC, 1/16/99, p.A18)
1959 The massive Groningen gas
field was discovered in the Netherlands.
(WSJ, 6/26/08, p.B1)
1961 Dec 1, The Territory of
New Guinea declared independence from the Netherlands.
(WUD, 1994, p.962)(SFC, 6/5/00, p.A8)
1962 Mar 21, Dutch RC Bishop
Willem Bekkers declared himself in favor of birth control. The
church in the Netherlands tried to promote a more liberal view of
birth control. But their view did not prevail.
(http://tinyurl.com/lpxof8)
1962 Jun 3, Lee Harvey Oswald
arrived by train in Oldenzaal, Netherlands.
(MC, 6/3/02)
1962 Jun 4, Lee Harvey Oswald
departed Rotterdam on SS Maasdam to US.
(MC, 6/4/02)
1962 Jun 28, Thalidomide was
banned in Netherlands.
(MC, 6/28/02)
1963 The western part of the
island of New Guinea, Irian Jaya, became a province of Indonesia. It
was formerly a Dutch territory called West New Guinea, Dutch New
Guinea or Netherlands New Guinea. A West Papua pro-independence
movement began and by 2004 an estimated 100,000 civilians had died
in the struggle.
(WUD, 1994, p.1623)(SFC, 9/8/99, p.A17)
1964 Aug 25, Singapore
limited imports from Netherlands due to Indonesian aggression.
(chblue.com, 8/25/01)
1965 May 25, Remco Prins, Dutch
rock guitarist/vocalist (Burma Shave-Stash), was born.
(SC, 5/25/02)
1965 May 25, Roef-Ragas, Dutch
actor (Missing Link, Red Rain, Juju, Mykosch), was born.
(SC, 5/25/02)
1966 Dutch courts prosecuted a
blasphemy case putting a novelist on trial for a story about wanting
to have sex with God, who had taken the form of a donkey. Gerard
Reve was acquitted. The 1932 blasphemy law barred scorn against any
religion.
(AP, 5/24/11)
1968 Mar 3, Greece, Portugal
and Spain's embassies were bombed in the Hague.
(SC, 3/3/02)
1968 Apr 27, In the Netherlands
part of a group of Catholic radicals left their own party and formed
the Political Party of Radicals (PPR). The party dissolved in 1991.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_Party_Radicals)
1968 Sep 1, Pirate Radio Marina
in the Netherlands began transmitting.
(www.historyorb.com/entertainment/radio/pirate-radio)
1968 The Rembrandt Research
Project was formed and funded by the government to act as the
gatekeepers of Rembrandt’s work.
(WSJ, 8/7/98, p.W12)
1968 In the Netherlands the 56
square km of Oostvaardersplassen was reclaimed from the sea and was
intended for industrial use. It lay vacant and became a nature
reserve.
(Econ, 9/14/13, SR p.8)
1969 Mar 25, John and Yoko Ono
staged a bed-in for peace in Amsterdam.
(HN, 3/24/98)
1969 Mar 26, The Nuclear
reactor in Dodewaard, Netherlands, went into use.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dodewaard_nuclear_power_plant)
1969 May 30, Refinery workers
on Curacao set fires in Willemstad. Marines from the Netherlands
restored order.
(Econ, 5/26/07, p.38)
1969 Oct, Economists Jan
Timbergen (1903-1994) of the Netherlands and Ragnar Frisch of Norway
were awarded the first Nobel Prize in Economics for having developed
and applied dynamic models for the analysis of economic processes.
Tinbergen was a founding trustee of Economists for Peace and
Security.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jan_Tinbergen)
1970 Jul 15, Frederik Lugt
(b.1884), Dutch founder of the Fondation Custodia (1947), died in
Paris. The foundation, which he founded with his wife, kept intact
his collection of Old Master drawings at the Institut Neederlandais,
the Dutch cultural center in Paris.
(Econ, 2/13/10,
p.86)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frits_Lugt)
1971 Oct 1, As of this day
divorce in the Netherlands could only be granted on the ground of
the irretrievable breakdown of the marriage (Article 1:151 of the
Dutch Civil Code).
(http://www2.law.uu.nl/priv/cefl/Reports/pdf/Netherlands02.pdf)
1971 Cornelis van Houten
(1920-2002), Dutch astronomer, discovered an asteroid and named it
Asteroid 1877 Marsden after British astronomer Brian Marsden.
(Econ, 12/4/10, p.111)
1973 Jul 20, The Japanese Red
Army and Lebanese guerrillas hijacked a Japan Airlines plane over
the Netherlands. The passengers and crew were released in Libya
where the hijackers blew up the plane.
(SFC, 11/9/00,
p.C2)(www.cdi.org/friendlyversion/printversion.cfm?documentID=1771)
1973 The Dutch government built
the Van Gogh Museum.
(Econ, 1/21/06, p.81)
1974 Apr 6, Willem Dudok
(b.1884), Dutch architect (Hilversum Town Hall), died.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Willem_Marinus_Dudok)
1974 Sep 1, In the Netherlands
laws prohibiting pirate radio came into effect.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radio_Caroline)
1974 Sep 13, In the Netherlands
the French embassy at the Hague was taken over by Haruo Wako and 2
other Japanese Red Army militants. A 4-day standoff ended with the
release of comrade Yutaka Suyaka from a French jail. The attack was
linked to Carlos the Jackal, aka Ilich Ramirez Sanchez. In 2005 a
Tokyo District Court sentenced Wako to life imprisonment.
(http://my-my-miyuki.blogspot.com/)(SFC,12/11/97,
p.C2)(SFC, 11/9/00, p.C2)
1975 Sep 14, Rembrandt's
"Nightwatch" was slashed and damaged in Amsterdam.
(http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1248/is_n7_v86/ai_21113228)
1975 Dec 14, Six South Moluccan
extremists surrendered after holding 23 hostages for 12 days on a
train near the Dutch town of Beilen.
(AP, 12/14/00)
1975 The Dutch film "Keetje
Tippel" (Cathy Tippel or Katie's Passion, or Hot Sweat) starred Jan
De Bont and was directed by Paul Verhoeven.
(WSJ, 7/23/99, p.W4)
1975 Suriname gained
Independence from the Netherlands.
(SFC, 9/6/96, p.A14)
1976 Aug 26, Prince Bernhard,
husband of Queen Juliana of the Netherlands, agreed to resign his
positions with the Dutch armed forces and industry following severe
criticism of his behavior by a commission of enquiry into a Lockheed
bribery scandal. Bernhard had allegedly received $1.1 million as a
gift from Lockheed.
(RTH, 8/26/99)(SFC, 12/24/08, p.B7)
1976 Dec 6, Dutch War criminal
Pieter Menten (1899-1987) was arrested in Switzerland after fleeing
there in November.
(http://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pieter_Menten)
1976 Claes Oldenburg (b.1929),
Swedish-born American artist, constructed a 41-foot "Trowel I"
for the Kroller-Muller Museum in the Netherlands by. He also made
"Typewriter Eraser."
(Smith., Aug. 1995, p.82)(SFC, 10/26/96, p.B1)
1976 Amnesty International
received Netherlands’ Erasmus-prize.
(www.nndb.com/honors/622/000165127/)
1977 May 8, The trial of Pieter
Menten (b.1899), a former Dutch SS officer and art collector, began
in Amsterdam. He was convicted and sentenced to 15 years, but the
sentence was reduced to 10 years in 1980.
(www.cnn.com/almanac/9805/08/)(http://tinyurl.com/2n79xl)
1977 May 23, Moluccan
extremists held 105 schoolchildren and 50 others hostage on a
hijacked train in Netherlands. The children were released May 27.
The siege ended June 11.
(MC, 5/23/02)
1977 May 25, Dutch social
democratic party won parliamentary election.
(SC, 5/25/02)
1977 Jun 11, A 20-day hostage
drama in the Netherlands ended as Dutch marines stormed a train and
a school held by South Moluccan extremists. Six gunmen and two
hostages on the train were killed.
(AP, 6/11/97)
1977 The Economist coined the
term “Dutch disease” to describe how the exploitation of natural
resources can cause a decline in other forms of economic activity,
particularly manufacturing. This briefly happened in the Netherlands
when natural gas was discovered (1959).
(Econ, 10/11/08, p.36)
1978 Jun 25, Argentina, host to
the World Cup, beat Netherlands in the soccer World Cup championship
in Buenos Aires. It was later alleged that the ruling military junta
bribed an opposing team to ensure Argentina’s progress and eventual
victory.
(SFC, 2/4/97,
p.A12)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1978_FIFA_World_Cup)(Econ,
8/15/09, p.32)
1980 Apr 30, Juliana
Z(1909-2004), Queen of the Netherlands, abdicated. Beatrix
Wilhelmina Armgard, was crowned queen of Netherlands.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juliana_of_the_Netherlands)
1980 Jul 9, Pieter Menten (81),
Dutch war criminal and art collector, was sentenced to 10 years in
prison.
(http://tinyurl.com/369gbh)(http://tinyurl.com/3xjlqp)
1980 Sep 5, The opera
“Satyagraha” by Philip Glass, commissioned by the city of Rotterdam,
was first performed by the Netherlands Opera.
(WSJ, 4/19/08,
p.W14)(www.philipglass.com/html/recordings/satyagraha.html)
1980 Oct 4, Some 520 people
were forced to abandon the cruise ship “Prisendam” in the Gulf of
Alaska after the Dutch luxury liner caught fire—no deaths or serious
injury resulted. The ship capsized and sank a week later.
(AP, 10/4/08)
1980 Oct 25, The US ratified
the Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child
Abduction. Countries following Islamic law did not sign. The treaty
required countries to send abducted children back to the
jurisdiction where they have previously lived.
(SFC, 12/6/03,
p.A14)(www.international-divorce.com/icara.htm)(Econ, 2/7/09, p.22)
1981 Apr 12, Hendrik F.
Andriessen (b.1892), Dutch organist, composer (Te Deum), died.
(http://www2.rnw.nl/mu/en/behind/biographies/hendrikandriessen)
1981 Antoine W. van Agtmael of
the International Finance Corporation of the World Bank coined the
term “emerging market.” He coined the term to attract investors in a
“Third World Equity Fund.” The emerging, or developing, market
economy (EME) is defined as an economy with low-to-middle per capita
income. Emerging markets constitute approximately 80% of the global
population, representing about 20% of the world's economies.
(www.investopedia.com/articles/03/073003.asp)(Econ, 9/20/08, SR
p.10)
1983 Jan 25, The Infrared
Astronomical Satellite (IRAS) space probe, sponsored by the United
Kingdom, the US, and the Netherlands, was launched. It studied
infrared radiation from across the cosmos and exposed stars as they
were born from clouds of gas and dust.
(SFEC, 9/28/97, p.A14)
1983 Mar, Compact Disc
recordings, introduced by Phillips and Sony in Europe in 1982, were
introduced to the US.
(www.iconnect.net/home/bsnpubs/cdhist.html)
1983 Nov 1, Anthony van Hoboken
(b.1887), Dutch musicologist, died in Zurich. He is best known for
his Haydn Catalog (1957).
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthony_van_Hoboken)
1983 Nov 9, Alfred Heineken,
beer brewer from Amsterdam, was kidnapped and held for a ransom of
more than $10 million. Heineken was freed Nov 30. Cor van Houton,
the kidnapper, was shot to death in 2003.
(HN, 11/9/98)(AP, 1/24/03)
1983 Nov 30, Police freed
kidnapped beer magnate Alfred Heineken in Amsterdam.
(www.cedmagic.com/museum/press/ced-timeline-1983.html#11-1983)
1983 The Dapper Foundation of
Amsterdam was founded with a private gift donation of African art.
It was brought to Paris in 1986 and housed in an elegant private
museum at 50 Avenue Victor Hugo.
(SFEC, 1/4/98, p.T7)
1984 May 25, Piet Ketting
(b.1904), Dutch pianist, conductor, composer, died.
(http://tinyurl.com/2tpeyt)
1985 Jul 10, French security
forces sank the Rainbow Warrior, a ship operated by Greenpeace near
NZ. Fernando Pereira, a Dutch photographer, was killed in the
sinking.
(SFC, 5/7/99,
p.A14)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rainbow_Warrior)
1986 Oct 4, In the Netherlands
Queen Beatrix officially opened the Oosterscheldekering for use by
saying the well-known words: De stormvloedkering is gesloten. De
Deltawerken zijn voltooid. Zeeland is veilig. (The flood barrier is
closed. The Delta Works are completed. Zealand is safe.) It was the
world's largest movable flood barrier.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oosterscheldekering)
1987
Nov 14, Pieter Menten (b.1899), Dutch war criminal, died at an old
people's home in Loosbroek, southern Netherlands.
(www.jbwan.com/roblog/archives/000615.html)
1987 In the Netherlands
the first campaign to alter social norms of condom use focused on a
number of Dutch celebrities who use condoms themselves.
(http://www2.hu-berlin.de/sexology/IES/netherlands.html)
1987 In the Netherlands art
works by David Teniers, Willem van de Velde, Jan Brueghel the
Younger, Eva Gonzales, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Camille Pissarro and
Paul Desire Trouillebert were stolen from the Noortman gallery in
Maastricht. In 2009 police recovered eight of the paintings and
arrested 3 suspects.
(AP, 3/8/09)
1987 Heavy floods inundated the
town of Valkenburg as the Geul River overflowed.
(SFC, 9/19/98, p.A5)
1988 Mar 2, Dutch Liberal Party
merged with SDP.
(SC, 3/2/02)
1988 Apr 11, In Amsterdam the
Royal Concert building (Concertgebouw) reopened.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Concertgebouw_Orchestra)
1988 Dec, Thieves stole three
paintings by van Gogh, with an estimated value of $72 million to $90
million, from the Kroeller-Mueller Museum in a remote section of the
Netherlands. Police later recover all three paintings.
(AP, 2/11/08)
1988 The Dutch film "The
Vanishing" was directed by George Sluizer. An American remake was
also directed by Sluizer.
(SFEC, 8/1/99, DB p.48)
1989 Ter Beek (d.2008 at 64)
became defense minister in a centrist coalition led by PM Ruud
Lubbers and served until 1994. He worked to streamline the Dutch
military in the aftermath of the Cold War, including scrapping the
draft.
(AP, 9/30/08)
1990 Toy company FAO Schwartz
sold out to Dutch Company Koninklijke Bijenkorf Beheer.
(WSJ, 11/21/03, p.B1)
1991 Apr, Two masked armed men
stole 20 paintings, worth at least $10 million each at the time,
from Amsterdam's van Gogh Museum. The paintings are found in the
getaway car less than an hour later.
(AP, 2/11/08)
1991 Dec 9, European Community
leaders meeting in the Dutch city of Maastricht tentatively agreed
to begin using a single currency by 1999.
(AP, 12/9/01)
1991 Dec 11, European Community
leaders meeting in the Dutch city of Maastricht hammered out a
compromise for a loose federation of their countries. The Maastricht
treaty was signed on February 7, 1992, and entered into force on
November 1, 1993. It set entry terms for joining a European monetary
union.
(WSJ, 11/18/96, p.A10)(WSJ, 3/3/97, p.A1)(AP,
12/11/01)
1991 Klaas Bruinsma, gangster
and drug baron, was gunned down near an Amsterdam hotel.
(SSFC, 10/11/03, p.A2)
1992 Feb 7, The Treaty on the
European Union was signed in Maastricht by the Foreign and Finance
Ministers of the Member States.
(http://europa.eu.int/abc/history/1992/index_en.htm)
1992 Apr 13, The opera "Life
With an Idiot" by Alfred Schnittke had its world premier at the
Netherlands Music Theater in Amsterdam.
(SFC, 8/5/98, p.A17)
1992 Apr 13, An earthquake
rocked Germany and the Netherlands.
(http://neic.usgs.gov/neis/eqlists/sig_1992.html)
1992 Jul 11, In Bosnia it was
later alleged on Dutch TV that Dutch troops deliberately drove an
armored vehicle into a Muslim blockade on this day and killed as
many as 30 people.
(SFC, 8/21/98, p.A14)
1992 Oct 4, In the Netherlands
an Israeli El Al Jumbo Jet transport, enroute from New York to Tel
Aviv, crashed into an Amsterdam apartment complex and killed 43
people. Since then scores of people complained of unidentified
health problems. In 1998 it was revealed that the jet carried 50
gallons of dimethyl methylphosphonate, a non-poisonous ingredient of
sarin nerve gas, destined for Israel. A report on the crash was
released in 1999 and said that the plane's ballast included
carcinogenic depleted uranium.
{Netherlands, Air Crash, Israel, Medical}
(AP, 10/4/97)(WSJ, 4/22/99,
A1)(www.pacificnews.org/jinn/stories/5.03/990211-cargo.html)
1992 Dec 15, The Netherlands
ratifies the Treaty on the European Union.
(http://europa.eu.int/abc/history/1992/index_en.htm)
1992 Dec 21, A Dutch DC-10
burst into fire at landing on Faro, Portugal, and 56 died.
(http://aviation-safety.net/database/record.php?id=19921221-0)
1993 Dutch novelist Cees
Nooteboom won the European Literary Prize for best novel for his
work: "The Following Story."
(SFC, 4/25/97, p.A3)
1993 Prosecution stopped
against physicians giving lethal drugs to patients to help them
commit suicide. In 2000 euthanasia was legalized.
(SFC, 11/29/00, p.A17)
1993 A family in the
Netherlands was found to have an abnormally high number of violent
criminals. The criminal members were found to have a faulty gene
that caused the absence of the enzyme monoamine oxidase A, an enzyme
that regulates a group of neurotransmitters including serotonin and
dopamine. Both of these were important for emotional responses.
(Econ, 12/23/06, Survey p.6)
1994 May 21, John Henry Weidner
(81), Dutch-US resistance fighter, died.
(MC, 5/21/02)
1995 Apr 27, Willem Frederik
Hermans (b.1921), Dutch author, died. His 1966 novel “Beyond Sleep”
was considered to be one of the founding works of modern Dutch
literature. In 2007 an English translation became available.
(WSJ, 1/7/07,
p.P8)(http://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Willem_Frederik_Hermans)
1995 Jun 3, In Bosnia Mladic
forces seized a Dutch observation post.
(SFC, 6/4/96, p.A12)
1995 Jul 6, 3:15AM The UN safe
area at Srebrenica came under attack by Bosnian Serbs, and thousands
of male residents were killed. The acquisition and delivery of arms
was organized by Yugoslav army officer Mirko Krajisnik, brother to
Momcilo Krajisnik, president of the Bosnian Serb assembly. In 1998
Chuck Sudetic published "Blood and Vengeance: One Family’s Story of
the War in Bosnia." The book focused on the Srebrenica killings. 300
Dutch troops were later accused of not preventing the Serbs from
overrunning the town.
(SFC, 5/30/96, p.A8)(SFC, 6/4/96, p.A12)(SFC,
8/12/98, p.A14)
1995 Jul 8, Shelling resumed
and the Dutch abandoned 3 posts under direct fire. 30 Dutch troops
were taken by the Serbs to Bratunac.
(SFC, 6/4/96, p.A12)
1995 Jul 9, The Dutch again
asked for air support but it was refused.
(SFC, 6/4/96, p.A12)
1995 Jul 16, Early reports of
massacres in Bosnia emerged as the first survivors of the long march
from Srebrenica began to arrive in Muslim-held territory. Following
negotiations between the UN and the Bosnian Serbs, the Dutch were at
last permitted to leave Srebrenica, leaving behind weapons, food and
medical supplies.
(http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/675945.stm)
1995 A river flood forced the
evacuation of 200,000 people and millions of animals.
(SSFC, 3/25/01, p.C3)
1996 Jan 26, The Dutch
government provided 365 mil in short-term funds to keep Fokker going
for a few weeks to allow the search for a foreign partner.
(WSJ, 1/30/96, p.A-11)
1996 Feb, The last Dutch draft
notices were sent out.
(SFC, 6/11/96, p.A15)
1996 May 7, The first
international war crimes proceeding since Nuremberg opened at The
Hague in the Netherlands, with a Serbian police officer, Dusan
Tadic, facing trial on murder-torture charges. Tadic was convicted
of crimes against humanity but acquitted of murder on May 7, 1997.
In Jul, 1997 he was sentenced to 20 years in prison.
(AP, 5/7/97)(SFC, 5/8/97, p.C2)(SFC, 7/15/97,
p.A12)
1996 May 18, A 40 year
agreement was signed between Royal Dutch/Shell and Perupetro, Peru’s
state oil company. Royal Dutch will spend $2.7 bil to develop a
natural gas field.
(SFC, 5/18/96, p.D-6)
1996 Jun 9, The latest
unemployment rate was 7%.
(SFC, 6/9/96, Parade, p.9)
1996 Jul 7, The average cost of
a Big Mac in the Netherlands was $3.21.
(SFC, 7/7/96, Parade, p.17)
1996 Sep 25, A DC-3 aircraft
went into the North Sea near Den Helder and killed all 32 people on
board.
(SFC, 9/26/96, p.A11)
1996 Dec 2, It was reported
that a Dutch rubber company had produced and shipped to England a
100 water-filled rubber mats (water beds) for cows. The product
seemed to enhance milk production.
(SFC, 12/3/96, p.A12)
1996 Dec, Wim Duisenberg of the
Netherlands was approved to run the European Monetary Institute in
Frankfurt, Germany.
(SFC, 5/1/98, p.D6)
1996 Wijnand van der Sanden,
curator of the Drents Museum in Holland, authored "Through Nature to
Eternity: The Bog Bodies of Northwest Europe."
(AM, 7/97, p.62)
1996 Fokker went
bankrupt, and the last new Fokker-50 was delivered to Ethiopian
Airlines in May, 1997. Stork, another Dutch company, bought a large
part of Fokker's assets, and continued to be a main provider of
parts and service for Fokker planes.
(AP, 2/10/04)
1997 Mar 19, Willem de Kooning
(92), Dutch-born abstract painter, considered to be one of the 20th
century's greatest painters, died in East Hampton, N.Y.
(SFC, 3/20/97, p.A1,6,E1)(AP, 3/19/98)
1997 Mar 25, An arson attack
left a Turkish woman and 5 children dead in the Hague.
(SFC, 3/29/97, p.A9)
1997 Oct 2, The EU formally set
up a common foreign and security policy in the Amsterdam Treaty. It
set to adopt key asylum and immigration measures within five years
of the treaty's entry into force, expected in 1999. A protocol to
the 1997 Treaty of Amsterdam reclassified animals as sentient
beings.
(Econ, 8/26/06,
p.42)(http://hrw.org/worldreport/Helsinki-28.htm)(Econ, 12/2/06,
p.88)
1997 Oct 22, A 64-year-old
woman, dubbed the "furniture terrorist," received an 8-month
sentence for causing an estimated $500,000 damage to furniture over
a six-year period. She wandered through showrooms and slashed sofas
with a razor often in a Zorro-like "Z" style.
(SFC,10/23/97, p.A17)
1997 The Dutch film "Character"
was set in Rotterdam in the 1920s. It won an Oscar for best foreign
film.
(SFC, 3/24/98, p.A6)
1997 ING Direct, an online
banking service under Dutch parent ING Groep NV, was launched in
Canada. In 2000 it began operations in the US from Wilmington, Del.
By the end of 2007 it had over 7 million customers and $62 billion
in deposits. In 2008 Arkadi Kuhlman, ING’s US chief, and Bruce
Philp, chairman of ING Direct’s marketing partner, authored “The
Orange Code: How ING direct Succeeded by Being a Rebel with a
Cause.”
(WSJ, 12/10/08, p.A17)
1997-2001 In the Netherlands Lucia de Berk
murdered 7 people in her care by giving them lethal doses of drugs.
In 2004 a court sentenced her to life in jail and compulsory
psychiatric treatment for killing. A high court ordered a review,
ruling that the woman could not be sentenced to both life in jail
and psychiatric care. In 2006 de Berk was sentenced to life in
prison.
(Reuters, 7/13/06)
1998 May 3, European leaders
meeting in Brussels, Belgium, agreed on Wim Duisenberg of the
Netherlands as the chief of the new European Central Bank (ECB), but
with the proviso that he step down in 2002 to make way for Frenchman
Jean-Claude Trichet.
(BS, 5/3/98, p.21A)(AP, 5/3/99)
1998 Aug 1, The 5th quadrennial
Gay Games began in Amsterdam with some 15,000 competitors. The games
closed Aug 8.
(SFEC, 8/2/98, p.A2)
1998 Aug 24, The United States
and Britain agreed to allow two Libyan suspects in the bombing of
Pan Am flight 103 to be tried by a Scottish court sitting in the
Netherlands. A former Libyan intelligence agent was later convicted
of murder; the other suspect was acquitted.
(AP, 8/24/08)
1998 Sep 10, The Rotterdam
Convention was adopted at a diplomatic conference in Rotterdam. It
is a multilateral agreement to promote shared responsibilities in
relation to importation of hazardous chemicals, became legally
binding to its parties. It officially entered into force on Feb 24,
2004. As of 2008, 73 countries were signatories and 126 were
parties.
(www.ec.gc.ca/international/multilat/rotterdam_e.htm)
1998 Sep 19, The worst storm in
a century hit the Netherlands and Belgium over the past week.
(SFC, 9/19/98, p.A5)
1998 Oct 13, It was reported
that Dutch auditors chastised the prime minister and other officials
for spending $40 million to acquire the Piet Mondrian painting:
"Victory Boogie Woogie."
(WSJ, 10/13/98, p.A1)
1998 Nov 13, The cabinet
approved a plan to let homosexuals adopt Dutch children by Jan 1,
2000.
(SFEC, 11/15/98, p.A20)
1998 Dec 1, Dutch and Flemish
lexicographers unveiled a 40-tome dictionary with 45,000 pages that
documented words back to 1500. It took 147 years to complete and
compilers stopped at 1976.
(SFC, 12/2/98, p.C2)
1998 The 245 minute film
"Amsterdam Global Village" was directed by Johan van der Keuken and
showed at the SF Film Fest.
(SFEC, 4/12/98, DB p.55)
1998 The Dutch film "The Dress"
starred Hanri Garcin and Ariane Schluter. It was written and
directed by Alex van Warmerdam.
(SFC, 11/27/98, p.C8)
1998 The documentary film "Sex,
Drugs and Democracy" was produced.
(SSFC, 1/7/01, p.T9)
1998 Ernst Langhout, a
singer-songwriter, increased his sales when he began singing in his
native Frisian language.
(WSJ, 5/13/98, p.A20)
1999 Jan 1, The Maastricht
Treaty specified that a monetary union will be established by this
date, and laid down several criteria that EU nations must fulfill in
order to join. Some of the criteria included: maximum budget
deficits of 3% of GDP, a cap on government debt of 60% of GDP. The
European economic and monetary union (EMU) was scheduled to start
with a new "Euro" currency. Austria, Belgium, Finland, France,
Germany, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Portugal and
Spain made the transition. Public use was set for Jan 1, 2002.
(WSJ, 9/25/95, p.A-12)(WSJ, 12/5/95, p.A-14)(SFC,
11/16/96, p.A1)(SFC, 1/1/99, p.A8)
1999 Feb 18, Transamerica was
bought by Aegon NV of the Netherlands in a deal valued at $9.7
billion. The assessed value of the Transamerica Pyramid in SF was
set at $190 million.
(SFC, 2/19/99, p.A1)(SFC, 5/29/04, p.C2)
1999 Apr 5, Libya handed over
to UN officials 2 men accused in the 1988 bombing of Pan Am flight
103. They were then flown to the Hague to be tried under Scottish
law. UN Sec. Gen'l. Kofi Annan immediately suspended economic
sanctions on Libya.
(SFC, 3/20/99, p.A8)(SFC, 4/6/99, p.A1)
1999 May 16, The 1956 Picasso
painting, "Woman Nude Before Garden," was slashed by a mental
patient in Amsterdam's Stedelijk Museum.
(WSJ, 2/16/99, p.A20)
1999 May 19, The Dutch Cabinet
of Prime Minister Wim Kok resigned following a split over whether to
give citizens the right to vote in referendums.
(SFC, 5/20/99, p.A13)
1999 Oct 12, Professors
Gerardus 't Hooft and Martinus J.G. Veltman of the Netherlands won
the Nobel Prize in Physics for the invention of mathematical tools
to calculate properties of fundamental particles. From 1981 to his
retirement in 1997, Veltman was an active member of the Univ. of
Michigan physics department.
(SFC, 10/13/99, p.A2)(MT, Fall/99, p.7)
1999 Oct 26, The Parliament
overturned a 1912 ban on brothels.
(SFC, 10/27/99, p.A13)
1999 Dec 7, In Holland a
student (17) in Veghel shot and wounded a teacher and 4 fellow
students in the 1st school shooting in Dutch history. The student
was reported to have been upset over a romance. The student's father
(35) and sister (15) were arrested 2 days later as accessories.
(SFC, 12/8/99, p.A15)(SFC, 12/10/99, p.D8)
1999 The Netherlands
documentary film "I Love Money" (the title used symbols for "love"
and "money") was directed by Johan van der Keuken.
(SFEC, 4/11/99, DB p.36)
1999 A leftist coalition
toppled the long-ruling Christian Democrats.
(SFC, 8/17/01, p.A16)
2000 Mar 21, Holland announced
that it would give the Jewish community $180 million for injustices
suffered after returning from Nazi death camps. Another $114 million
was set for Dutch victims of Japanese WW II prison camps in
Indonesia and $14 million for Dutch Gypsies persecuted by the Nazis.
(SFC, 3/22/00, p.A12)
2000 Apr 3, In Bosnia NATO
troops arrested Momcilo Krajisnik, former speaker of the Bosnian
Serb assembly, for war crimes and flew him to the Netherlands to
stand trial. In 2006 Momcilo Krajisnik was convicted by the Yugoslav
war crimes tribunal in The Hague for persecuting and forcibly
expelling non-Serbs during the 1992-95 war in Bosnia. He was
released in 2013 after serving two-thirds of a reduced 20-year
sentence.
(SFC, 4/4/00, p.A10)(SFC, 8/31/13, p.A6)
2000 Apr 6, Two Russian
cosmonauts docked with Mir. The destruction of the space station was
delayed after MirCorp. of Amsterdam agreed in Feb. to pay $10-20
million to lease commercial rights.
(SFC, 4/7/00, p.D2)(SFEC, 6/11/00, p.T12)
2000 Apr 15, Rem Koolhaas (56),
Dutch architect, won the annual $100,000 Pritzker Architecture
Prize.
(SFEC, 4/16/00, p.A4)
2000 May 4, Hendrik Casimir
(b.1909), Dutch physicist, died. He was best known for his research
on the two-fluid model of superconductors (together with C. J.
Gorter) in 1934 and the Casimir effect (together with D. Polder) in
1946.
(Econ, 5/24/08,
p.105)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hendrik_Casimir)
2000 May 13, In the Netherlands
a fireworks depot exploded in Enschede and 20 people were killed
with 589 injured. An estimated 100 tons of fireworks exploded and
flattened some 400 houses.
(SFEC, 5/14/00, p.A12)(SFC, 5/15/00, p.A13)
2000 Jun 7, It was reported
that Patrick Atoon of Nigmegen had spent 8 years building his web
site dedicated to the meanings of words in rap music:
www.rapdict.org.
(WSJ, 6/7/00, p.A1)
2000 Jun 18, In England
officials found 58 bodies in the back of a truck at Dover. The truck
had arrived from Zeebrugge under 86-degree heat and 54 male and 4
female Chinese immigrants from Fujian province appeared to have
suffocated. There were 2 survivors. The chief suspect was arrested
in Rotterdam in 2001. In 2001 Dutch driver Perry Wacker (32) was
convicted and sentenced to 14 years in prison. Ying Guo (30) was
convicted of conspiracy and was sentenced to 6 years in prison.
(SFC, 6/19/00, p.A1)(WSJ, 6/20/00, p.A1)(SFC,
6/21/00, p.A12)(SFC, 1/23/01, p.C14)(SFC, 4/6/01, p.D6)
2000 Sep 12, A bill was passed
that converted same-sex partnerships into full-fledged marriages.
(SFC, 9/13/00, p.A12)
2000 Oct, Brothels were
legalized. The $1 billion sex industry was estimated as 5% of the
Dutch economy.
(SSFC, 8/12/01, p.A15)
2000 Nov 28, In the Netherlands
lawmakers of the lower house voted 104 to 40 to legalize euthanasia
with strict guidelines.
(SFC, 11/29/00, p.A17)
2001 Jan 1, In the Netherlands
a fire in a Volendam café killed at least 5 people and injured over
130.
(SFC, 1/1/01, p.A12)
2001 Jan 31, In the Netherlands
a Scottish court sentenced Abdel Basset Ali al-Megrahi, a Libyan
intelligence officer, to life in a Scottish prison for the 1998
bombing of Pan Am Flight 103. A second Libyan was acquitted.
(SFC, 1/31/01, p.A11)(SFC, 2/1/01, p.A1)(WSJ,
2/1/01, p.A1)(AP, 12/19/03)
2001 Mar 31, In the Netherlands
legislation enacted in 2000 to legalize gay marriages went into
effect at midnight. This made Netherlands the first country to
legalize same-sex marriages.
(SFC, 3/31/01, p.A10)(SSFC, 8/4/13, p.A2)
2001 Apr 5, Dutch driver Perry
Wacker was convicted of manslaughter and sentenced to 14 years in
prison in the deaths of 58 Chinese immigrants who suffocated in his
truck in Dover, England.
(AP, 4/5/02)
2001 Apr 10, The Dutch Senate
legalized euthanasia gave doctors immunity from prosecution for
assisting in the deaths of terminally ill patients.
(SFC, 4/11/01, p.C2)
2001 Jul 5, Scientists at Delft
Univ. of Tech. in the Netherlands reported the creation of
nanotechnology transistors built from a single molecule.
(SFC, 7/6/01, p.B3)
2001 Jul 12, Herman Brood (55),
musician, jumped to his death from the roof of an Amsterdam hotel.
He had recorded nearly 20 albums and had acted in Dutch films. In
1978 he made a hit with his single "Saturday Night."
(SFC, 7/13/01, p.D5)
2001 Aug 16, Col. Vidoje
Blagojevic, former commander of Bratunac, pleaded innocent at the
Hague war crimes tribunal for 1995 war crimes in Srebrenica. On
January 17, 2005, Col. Vidoje Blagojevic became the second indictee
to be convicted on Srebrenica Genocide charges and other human
rights violations. He was sentenced to 18 years in prison. On May 9,
2007, the Appeals Chamber of the International Criminal Tribunal for
the former Yugoslavia ruled that Col Blagojevic had not been
complicit in the genocide at Srebrenica because he had not known his
troops intended to commit it. Blagojevic’s sentence was reduced to
15 years.
(SFC, 8/17/01,
p.A14)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Srebrenica_massacre)
2001 A charge of 7 guilders was
planned for motorists entering major cities in order to reduce
traffic congestion.
(SFC, 12/1/97, p.B8)
2001 KaZaA, an internet
file-sharing program, was founded in Amsterdam by Niklas Zennstrom
of Sweden and Janus Friis of Denmark. In 2004 they launched Skype
software for internet telephony.
(Econ, 7/3/04, p.54)
2001-2005 Ruud Lubbers (b.1939), former Dutch
prime minister (1982-1994), served as the head of the UNHCR.
(Econ, 9/6/08,
p.67)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ruud_Lubbers)
2002 Jan 3, Alfred Henry
Heineken (78), builder of a global beer brand, died in the
Noordwijk. Freddie designed the green bottle and logo. In 1983 he
was abducted for weeks and released unharmed.
(WSJ, 1/4/02, p.A1)(SFC, 1/5/02, p.A22)
2004 Jan 13, The European
Commission proposed an initiative aimed at creating a single market
for services within the European Union (EU), similar to the single
market for goods act of 1986. It came to be known as
Bolkestein Directive after the Dutch Commissioner Frits Bolkestein
(b.1933), who launched it. Trade unions opposed it. On 16 February
2006, the European Parliament in plenary session in Strasbourg voted
in favor of a compromise proposal that went a long way towards
meeting the trade union demands.
(www.etuc.org/a/499)
2002 Feb 9, At the Winter
Olympics in Salt Lake City, Jochem Uytdehaage of the Netherlands won
the gold medal in the men's 5,000-meter speedskating race in world
record time of 6:14.66.
(AP, 2/9/03)
2002 Mar, In the Netherlands
the Liveable Rotterdam Party catapulted Pim Fortuyn, its chief
figurehead, onto the national stage. Fortuyn rode a wave of
dissatisfaction over immigration, Islam and the elitism of the
ruling Labor Party. He was shot to death May 6.
(Econ, 3/11/06, p.46)
2002 May 6, In the Netherlands
Pim Fortuyn (54), a right-wing populist with an anti-immigrant
platform, was shot to death in Hilversum. Volkert van der Graaf
(32), an environmental activist, was arrested May 7 for the murder.
(SFC, 5/7/02, p.A1)(WSJ, 5/7/02, p.A1)(SFC,
5/8/02, p.A17)
2002 May 15, Election results
in the Netherlands showed the opposition Christian Democrats with a
sizeable victory with 43 seats. List, the party of recently slain
Pim Fortuyn, took 2nd place with 26 seats and named Mat Herben as
leader. Jan Peter Balkenende, head of the Christian Democrats, was
set to be PM. The ruling Labor Party won 23 of the 150 seats.
(WSJ, 5/16/02, p.A14)(SFC, 5/16/02, p.A8)(WSJ,
5/17/02, p.A1)
2002 May, Uganda began to fear
that too much Western assistance might damage its economy by pushing
up the value of its shilling. The phenomenon is called Dutch Disease
because decades ago massive oil revenues in the Netherlands
unsettled the exchange rates and left exports less competitive.
(WSJ, 5/29/02, p.A4)
2002 Jul 1, In the Hague the
world's first permanent war crimes tribunal officially came into
existence. It was vehemently opposed by the United States.
(AP, 7/1/02)
2002 Jul 17, Joseph Luns (90),
foreign minister for 19 years, died. He had also served for 13 years
as NATO sec. gen.
(SFC, 7/18/02, p.A26)
2002 Aug 30, In the Netherlands
8 men were detained for providing financial and logistical services
to al Qaeda and for recruiting fighters.
(SFC, 9/3/02, p.A6)
2002 Oct 6, Prince Claus (76),
the German-born husband of Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands, died in
Amsterdam.
(AP, 10/6/03)
2002 Oct 16, The Dutch
government collapsed amid infighting in the List party.
(WSJ, 10/17/02, p.A1)
2002 Dec, Two thieves broke in
through the roof of the Vincent van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam and
stole two paintings by van Gogh valued at $30 million. The men were
convicted a year later, but the paintings were not recovered.
(AP, 2/11/08)
2003 Jan 13, Dutch Foreign
Minister Jaap de Hoop Scheffer took over as head of the 55-nation
Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe for 2003. He
said the Vienna-based OSCE would sharpen its efforts to improve
border security and police cooperation and cut off the flow of cash
to terrorist groups.
(AP, 1/13/03)
2003 Jan 22, In the Netherlands
voters rejected an anti-immigration party and gave 44 seats to the
Christian Democrats and 42 to the Labor party.
(SFC, 1/23/03, p.A10)
2003 Mar 2, Netherlands,
the world’s 4th largest poultry exporter, discovered a bird flu in
some its poultry for the 1st time in 30 years.
(WSJ, 3/6/03, p.A11)
2003 Mar 11, The
18-judge world court was inaugurated at the Hague. It had been
approved Jul 17, 1998, by the Rome Treaty.
(SFC, 3/12/03, p.A1)
2003 Mar 17, In the Netherlands
a law went into effect that allowed pharmacies to fill prescriptions
for marijuana.
(SFC, 3/18/03, p.A8)
2003 Apr 15, In the
Netherlands, Volkert van der Graaf, the killer of politician Pim
Fortuyn, was sentenced to 18 years in prison.
(AP, 4/15/08)
2003 Apr 17, A Dutch
veterinarian (57) died from avian influenza 2 days after working on
a farm where animals were infected with the bird flu. He was
believed to be the 1st victim of the current epidemic.
(WSJ, 4/21/03, p.A10)
2003 May, Heineken paid $2.2
billion for BBAG, Austria's leading beer maker.
(Econ, 6/28/03, p.63)
2003 Jun 6, The Netherlands
said it will send 1,100 peacekeepers to southern Iraq to join the
British-led multinational stabilization force.
(AP, 6/7/03)
2003 Aug 29, The board of Air
France approved a deal to combine with Dutch KLM under a holding
company to form the world's #3 airline.
(WSJ, 1/2/04, p.R12)
2003 Sep 1, Marijuana went on
sale Monday at Dutch pharmacies to help bring relief to thousands of
patients suffering from cancer, AIDS or multiple sclerosis.
(AP, 9/1/03)
2003 Sep 22, NATO selected
Dutch Foreign Minister Jaap de Hoop Scheffer as the alliance's new
secretary general.
(AP, 9/22/03)
2003 Oct 27, Prosecutors in the
Netherlands said Momir Nikolic (48), a Bosnian Serb captain who
admitted participating in the mass killing of more than 7,000 Muslim
boys and men in Srebrenica, should serve up to 20 years in
prison. Nikolic accepted that he was on duty when 80-100
prisoners were decapitated and their corpses loaded onto trucks on
July 12, 1995. In 2006 a UN appeals court reduced his 27-year
sentence to 20 years.
(AP, 10/28/03)(AP, 3/8/06)
2003 Dec 12, Three Dutch
Protestant churches formally agreed to put aside their ideological
differences and merge, the culmination of a process that began more
than 40 years ago.
(AP, 12/12/03)
2003 Dec 23, The Dutch National
Flu Center said more than 15 of every 10,000 Dutch citizens have flu
symptoms, enough to qualify the current outbreak as an epidemic.
(AP, 12/23/03)
2003 The Groningen Academic
Hospital in Amsterdam, Netherlands, carried out 4 mercy killings of
terminally ill newborn children in this year. In 2004 the hospital
proposed guidelines for such procedures.
(SFC, 12/1/04, p.A17)
2004 Jan 5, Dutchman Jaap de
Hoop Scheffer took over as NATO's top official.
(AP, 1/5/04)
2004 Jan 13, A Dutch high
school student walked into his school's crowded cafeteria and shot
Hans van Wieren (49), an economics teacher, point-blank in the head,
fatally wounding him.
(AP, 1/13/04)
2004 Feb 17, The Dutch
parliament approved a measure to expel 26,000 people seeking
political asylum, despite objections from left-leaning political
parties and human rights groups.
(AP, 2/17/04)
2004 Mar 20, Former Netherlands
Queen Juliana (94), who presided over the dismantling of the
centuries-old Dutch empire and witnessed the birth of a social
revolution during her 32-year reign (1948-1980, died.
(AP, 3/20/04)(SSFC, 3/21/04, p.B7)
2004 Apr 11, Arjan Erkel, A
Dutch aid worker who headed the North Caucasus mission of Medecins
Sans Frontieres and was kidnapped in Russia nearly two years ago,
was freed in a police operation in Dagestan.
(AP, 4/11/04)
2004 Jul 2, The Dutch
government backed plans for "seals of quality" for well-run brothels
and standard contracts for prostitutes, as well as more support for
those who want to leave the world's oldest profession.
(Reuters, 7/2/04)
2004 Aug 29, Hans Vonk (63),
Dutch conductor, died in Amsterdam.
(SFC, 9/1/04, p.B7)
2004 Oct, Some 200,000 people
demonstrated in Amsterdam against government reforms planned by the
Christian-Democrat coalition under PM Jan Peter Balkenende.
(Econ, 10/9/04, p.47)
2004 Nov 2, Dutch filmmaker
Theo van Gogh (47), the great-grandnephew of the painter Vincent,
was shot and stabbed to death on an Amsterdam street after receiving
death threats over “Submission,” a movie he made criticizing the
treatment of women under Islam. A death threat to a Dutch politician
was found pinned with a knife to Gogh’s body by his Islamic
attacker. Somali-born Ayaan Hirsi Ali collaborated with Van Gogh on
the film. In January prosecutors said Mohammed Bouyeri (26), the
alleged killer of Dutch filmmaker Theo van Gogh, ignored his
victim's pleas for mercy and calmly shot him at close range before
slitting his throat. In his trial in July, 2005, Bouyeri said he
killed van Gogh for insulting God. In 2006 Ian Buruma authored
“Murder in Amsterdam: The Death of Theo van Gogh and the Limits of
Tolerance,” an account of the van Gogh murder.
(AP, 1/26/05)(SFC, 7/13/05, p.A10)(WSJ, 9/9/06,
p.P8)(Econ, 9/2/06, p.74)
2004 Nov 10, Dutch police
mounted a major anti-terror raid against suspects holed up in an
apartment in The Hague. 2 men were arrested following a daylong
siege. Jason Walters (b.1985) was arrested along with Ismail Akhnikh
after a massive 14 hour siege in The Hague. In 2010 Walters, while
serving a 15-year sentence said he has renounced Islamic radicalism.
(AP, 11/10/04)(SFC, 11/11/04,
p.A12)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jason_Walters)
2004 Nov 12, Dutch police
raided a suspected Kurdish separatist training camp in a small
village in the southern Netherlands, arresting 29 people. 38 members
of the group were arrested nationwide. Jason Walters threw a hand
grenade and injured several police officers in a standoff at a
barricaded house in The Hague. Walters was one of 7 men later
convicted for belonging to a terrorist group associated with
Mohammed Bouyeri, who killed filmmaker Theo van Gogh on Nov 2. In
2008 Their conviction was overturned, but a 15-year sentence against
Walters was upheld. The court also reduced the sentence for Ismail
Aknikh, who was with Walters during the standoff, from 13 years to
15 months.
(AFP, 11/12/04)(SFC, 11/13/04, p.A18)(AP,
1/23/08)
2004 Dec 1, Prince Bernhard
(93), father of Queen Beatrix, died in Utrecht. It was soon reported
that he had acknowledged in a series of secret interviews 2
illegitimate children and the acceptance of bribes in 1976 from
Lockheed to persuade the Dutch government to purchase its planes.
The money was reportedly passed to charities.
(SFC, 12/15/04, p.A12)
2004 Frits Hoekstra, a former
Dutch security official authored “In the Service of the BVD” (In
Dienst van de BVD), a book on Dutch secret service operations. It
included an account of “Project Mongol,” the use of a mock Maoist
movement to gather intelligence during the cold war, which the CIA
called “Operation Red herring.”
(WSJ, 12/3/04, p.A1)
2004 Geert Mak (b.1946), Dutch
journalist, authored “In Europe: Travels through the Twentieth
Century.” An updated version in English was published in 2007.
(Econ, 2/24/07, p.96)
2005 Jan 1, Netherlands was
forecast for 2% annual GDP growth with a population at 16.4 million
and GDP per head at $38,950.
(Econ, 1/1/05, p.89)
2006 Jan, In the Hague Col.
Vidoje Blagojevic (56), Bosnian Serb wartime commander of the
Bratunac brigade, was convicted of war crimes and complicity in
genocide by the Yugoslav War Crimes Tribunal. In 2007 an appeals
panel overturned the charge of complicity in genocide.
(AP, 5/9/07)
2005 Mar 30, Dutch bank ABN
Amro announced a 6.3 billion euros ($8.1 billion) bid for the 87
percent of Italian bank Antonveneta it does not already own, the
second foreign offer for an Italian bank in as many days.
(AP, 3/30/05)
2005 Apr 19, Dutch authorities
arrested a Chechen citizen in the Netherlands in connection with the
November 2 slaying of Dutch filmmaker Theo van Gogh. A 2nd suspect
was arrested May 18 in Tours, France. Both were believed to have
ties to a group of Islamic fundamentalists which prosecutors dubbed
the Hofstad network.
(AP, 5/27/05)
2005 May 8, President Bush paid
homage in the Netherlands to the "terrible price" paid by World War
II soldiers who never came home from their fight against tyranny.
(AP, 5/8/05)
2005 Jun 1, Dutch voters
worried about social benefits and immigration overwhelmingly
rejected the European Union constitution in what could be a knockout
blow for a charter meant to create a power rivaling the United
States. Slow economic growth in the Netherlands was seen as a key
reason for the massive rejection of the EU constitution
(AP, 6/1/05)
2005 Jun 6, The International
Criminal Court at the Hague formally announced the opening of a war
crimes investigation in Sudan's Darfur region after receiving a list
of 51 potential suspects from UN.
(AP, 6/6/05)
2005 Jun 9, In the Netherlands
thousands of civil servants went on strike to protest declining
social benefits and low wages.
(WSJ, 6/10/05, p.A6)
2005 Jun, In the Netherlands
Nouriddin el Fahtni, an Islamic radical, was arrested with a loaded
machine. His group was linked with the so-called "Hofstad." In 2011
a court found that Fahtni's 8-year sentence was longer than allowed
by law and reduced it to 7 years and four months. His ex-wife,
Soumaya Sahla, tried to get her sister, who worked at a pharmacy, to
give her the home addresses of Dutch politicians. Allegedly she
intended to supply the addresses to other group members who planned
attacks.
(AP, 11/15/11)
2005 Jul 11, The Dutch market
research firm, VNU, announced its acquisition of IMS Health, the
leading supplier of research to pharmaceutical firms, for $7
billion.
(Econ, 7/16/05, p.60)
2005 Jul 12, Mohammed Bouyeri,
a Muslim extremist on trial in the slaying of Dutch filmmaker Theo
van Gogh, unexpectedly confessed in court, saying he was driven by
religious conviction. Bouyeri was convicted and sentenced to life in
prison.
(AP, 7/12/06)
2005 Jul 26, A Dutch court
sentenced Mohammed Bouyeri (27), the killer of filmmaker Theo Van
Gogh, to life in prison. He was linked to the “Hofstad Group,” some
of whom were accused of wild plans to blow up Schiphol airport, the
Dutch parliament and a nuclear reactor.
(AP, 7/26/05)(Econ, 7/16/05, p.13)
2005 Jul 27, The US charged
Iraqi-born Wasem al Delaema (32), a Dutch citizen, with conspiring
to kill Americans in Iraq and asked the Dutch government to
extradite him for prosecution. Authorities alleged al Delaema was
one of several men calling themselves the Fighters of Fallujah who
plotted attacks near that Iraqi city in October 2003. In 2010 a
Dutch court reduced his sentenced to 8 years and released him.
(AP, 7/30/05)(AP, 10/13/10)
2005 Jul 30, Wim Duisenberg
(b.1935), Dutch-born first chief of the European Central Bank who
helped create the euro currency, was found dead at a home in
southeastern France.
(AP, 7/31/05)
2005 Aug 3, Dutch authorities
seized 5 tons of cocaine, valued at $275 million, hidden in reels of
steel cable in the Port of Rotterdam in what was described as one of
the country's biggest drug busts. 13 suspects (aged 15-50) from the
Netherlands, Colombia, Venezuela, Mexico, Greece and the US, were
arrested later.
(AP, 9/5/05)
2005 Sep 12, Armed men broke
into an upscale Amsterdam home and kidnapped Claudia Melchers (37),
the daughter of a millionaire whose fortune came from selling
chemicals, including to Iraq in the 1980s. Her children were left
unharmed. The kidnappers demanded 660 pounds of cocaine. Melchers
was released 2 days later. It was not clear whether any ransom was
paid.
(AP, 9/13/05)(AP, 9/15/05)
2005 Sep 13, The Dutch
government said it plans to open an electronic file, effective Jan
1, 2007, on every child at birth as a tool to spot and protect the
troubled kids of the future.
(AP, 9/13/05)
2005 Sep 26, Dutch bank ABN
Amro said it had signed a contract with Banca Popolare Italiana and
its allies to buy their 39.37 percent stake in Banca Antonveneta for
a total outlay of 3.2 billion euros (3.85 billion dollars).
(AP, 9/26/05)
2005 Sep 27, Andre Rieu
introduced violinist, Akim Camara (b.10/27/2001), during his 'Flying
Dutchman Concert' at Parkstad Stadium in the Netherlands. Akim
played Concerto G Major op.11 with the Johan Strauss Orchestra.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Akim_Camara)
2005 Sep 28, In Australia a
team from Holland, known more for its windmills than its sunshine,
won a four-day, 1,860 mile, international solar-powered car race
across deserts, notching up their third straight victory. The
"Challenge," to design and build a car capable of crossing Australia
on the power of daylight, was launched in 1987 and teams and
individuals from corporations and universities throughout the world
take part.
(AP, 9/29/05)
2005 Sep, Philips Corp.
unveiled new LED technology for consumer lighting in Paris.
(Econ, 10/1/05, p.58)
2005 Oct 6, A UN official said
the International Criminal Court in The Hague has issued arrest
warrants for Joseph Kony and 5 henchmen of the Lord's Resistance
Army (LRA), a Ugandan cult notorious for raping, maiming and killing
children.
(Reuters, 10/6/05)(Econ, 10/22/05, p.48)
2005 Oct 12, A Dutch court
blocked the extradition of a Dutch terror suspect to the United
States, saying his legal rights in U.S. custody could not be
guaranteed.
(AP, 10/12/05)
2005 Oct 14, Dutch police
detained seven suspects in an anti-terrorism operation in three
cities, including the capital, aimed at thwarting a suspected plot
to attack politicians and a government building.
(AP, 10/14/05)
2005 Oct 17, Dutch police
arrested 45 members of the Hell's Angels motorcycle gang and seized
an assortment of weapons during nationwide raids on the group's
clubhouses. Prosecutors said those arrested face charges of murder,
extortion, intimidation and weapons and drug trafficking.
(AP, 10/17/05)
2005 Oct 27, In the Netherlands
a fire roared through a prison complex at Amsterdam's Schiphol
Airport, killing 11 illegal immigrants awaiting deportation and
injuring 15 other people.
(AP, 10/27/05)
2005 Nov 1, A trade union said
a strike at the Dutch operations of Royal Dutch Shell PLC over
pensions will be broadened to include the company's natural-gas
production in the north of the Netherlands.
(AP, 11/1/05)
2005 Nov 14, It was reported
that India's top oil exploration firm Oil & Natural Gas Corp.
and the world's largest steel maker, the Netherlands-based Mittal
Group, plan to build an oil refinery in Nigeria. They offered to
invest another $6 billion in building a power plant and railroads
there.
(AP, 11/14/05)
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 Dec 2, In the Netherlands
a broad coalition of political parties unveiled a pilot program to
regulate marijuana farming on the model of tobacco, which opponents
say would be tantamount to legalizing growing the drug.
(AP, 12/02/05)
2005 Dec 5, Frits Philips
(100), Dutch businessman, grandson of the founder of Philips, died.
He turned a family business into Philips Electronics in 40 years of
leadership.
(WSJ, 12/7/05, p.A1)(http://tinyurl.com/dfnu4)
2005 Dec 7, The Hague war
crimes tribunal sentenced Miroslav Bralo (aka Cicko), a former
Bosnian Croat soldier, to 20 years in jail on eight counts of war
crimes and human rights abuses committed during the 1993
Muslim-Croat war in central Bosnia.
(Reuters, 12/07/05)
2005 Dec 16, A Dutch court
sentenced Henk Slebos, a Dutch businessman who oversaw the sale of
dual-use nuclear technology to Pakistan (1999-2002), to a year
prison.
(AP, 12/16/05)
2005 Dec 19, US federal
authorities fined Dutch bank ABN Amro Holding NV $80 million for
violating US money-laundering laws and sanctions against Iran and
Libya. Nearly a decade of violations involved billions in
transactions passing through bank offices in NY and Dubai, UAR.
(WSJ, 12/20/05, p.A3)
2005 Dec 22, The Dutch
government said it planned to send up to 1,400 additional troops to
Afghanistan for expanded NATO peacekeeping.
(AP, 12/22/05)
2005 Dec 23, In the Netherlands
a court jailed Frans van Anraat (63), a Dutch businessman, for 15
years after finding him guilty of complicity in war crimes for
selling chemicals to Iraq used to carry out gas attacks, but
acquitted him of genocide charges.
(Reuters, 12/23/05)
2005 In the Netherlands the
fiercely anti-immigrant Freedom Party (PVV) was founded.
(Econ, 8/11/12, p.45)
2006 Jan 19, Lifeline Systems
Inc. announced that it has signed a definitive merger agreement with
Royal Philips Electronics under which Philips will acquire Lifeline,
a leader in personal emergency response services. Royal Philips
Electronics NV paid $750 million for Massachusetts based Lifeline.
(WSJ, 1/11/07, p.A1)(http://tinyurl.com/334w4c)
2006 Feb 1, In Amsterdam an
experimental ban on smoking marijuana went into effect intended to
reduce loitering and petty crime. “No toking” signs appeared as part
of the ban on the street in "De Baarsjes," one of the city's poorer
neighborhoods. Amsterdam soon began selling the "no toking" signs to
prevent the official ones from being stolen as collector's items.
(AP, 2/4/06)
2006 Feb 3, Foreign Minister
Ben Bot said Netherlands will send 1,200 additional troops to
Afghanistan, the day after parliament gave the green light to the
deployment.
(AP, 2/3/06)
2006 Feb 9, Some 58 containers
were swept from the P&O Nedlloyd ship Mondriaan, which got
caught in a storm about 9 miles off the coast of the island of
Terschelling, in the North Sea. The next day thousands of tennis
shoes, aluminum briefcases and children's toys washed onto the beach
of a Dutch island, drawing crowds of treasure-hunting residents.
(AP, 2/10/06)
2006 Feb 14, Bilal Lamrani
(21), a Dutch Muslim, was sentenced to three years in prison for
plotting murder and attempting to recruit prison inmates to carry
out terrorist attacks.
(AP, 2/14/06)
2006 Feb 24, Japan suspended
all French poultry imports and threatened a similar ban on the
Netherlands following reported cases of H5N1 bird flu.
(Reuters, 2/25/06)
2006 Feb 27, In the Netherlands
the International Court of Justice heard arguments by Bosnia
accusing Serbia of genocide, the first time a state has faced trial
for humanity's worst crime.
(AP, 2/27/06)
2006 Mar 5, Milan Babic (50),
the Serb leader of a rebel republic in Croatia and one of the key
figures in the Balkan wars of the 1990s, committed suicide in prison
in the Netherlands.
(AP, 3/6/06)
2006 Mar 10, A Netherlands
court convicted 9 Muslims of belonging to a terrorist group because
they incited hatred for non-Muslims. Among the defendants was
Mohammed Bouyeri, the convicted killer of filmmaker Theo van Gogh.
(AP, 3/10/06)
2006 Mar 11, In the Netherlands
former Yugoslav leader Slobodan Milosevic (b.1941), the so-called
"butcher of the Balkans" being tried for war crimes after
orchestrating a decade of bloodshed during his country's breakup,
was found dead in his prison cell. Milosevic spent nearly five years
at a UN detention facility in Scheveningen, a suburb of The Hague.
An autopsy showed that he died of a heart attack. A Dutch
toxicologist said he took unprescribed pills that neutralized heart
medication.
(SFC, 3/13/06, p.A3)(WSJ, 3/14/06, p.A1)(Econ,
3/18/06, p.83)
2006 Mar 15, In the Netherlands
2 Bosnian Muslim army commanders were convicted of war crimes for
failing to rein in foreign Muslim volunteers who murdered and
tortured Bosnian Croats and Serbs in a 1990s "holy war."
(AP, 3/16/06)
2006 Mar 17, Thomas Lubanga
Dyilo, a Congolese militia leader accused of conscripting and
enlisting children aged under 15 for warfare (1998-2002), became the
first suspect sent for trial at the International Criminal Court
(ICC) in the Netherlands.
(Reuters, 3/17/06)(WSJ, 3/18/06, p.A1)
2006 Mar 21, Royal Dutch Shell
said it paid $465 million Canadian dollars for the rights to explore
219,000 acres in Alberta’s oil sands.
(WSJ, 3/22/06, p.A14)
2006 Mar 22, In the Netherlands
an appeals chamber of the UN war crimes court dropped the life
sentence of Bosnian Serb Milomir Stakic and instead sentenced him to
40 years for overseeing detention camps in Bosnia.
(AFP, 3/22/06)
2006 Mar 27, The Dutch Equal
Treatment Commission ruled that a Muslim woman who refuses to shake
men's hands for religious reasons cannot be barred from a Dutch
teacher-training program.
(AP, 3/28/06)
2006 Apr 19, US Immigration
agents arrested 7 executives and 1,187 illegal immigrants employed
by IFCO Systems, a Netherlands-based manufacturer of crates and
pallets, as part of a crackdown on employers of illegal workers.
(AP, 4/19/06)(SFC, 4/21/06, p.A3)
2006 Apr 27, A Dutch agency
said the number of reported cases of legal euthanasia and
doctor-assisted suicide in the Netherlands increased in 2005 for the
third year in a row. Doctors reported 1,933 cases in 2005, up from
1,886 in 2004 and 1,815 in 2003.
(AP, 4/27/06)
2006 May 8, In the Hague the UN
war crimes court sentenced Ivica Rajic, a Bosnian Croat former
militia leader, to 12 years in prison. Rajic admitted that forces
under his command operating in the Muslim village of Stupni Do in
central Bosnia in October 1993 "forced Bosnian Muslim civilians out
of their homes and hiding places, robbed them of their valuables,
willfully killed Muslim men, women and children and sexually
assaulted Muslim women".
(AFP, 5/8/06)
2006 May 16, Ayaan Hirsi Ali, a
Somali-born member of Parliament, said she will resign and leave
Holland after the government said she was improperly granted
citizenship. She became an internationally known opponent of some
violent types of Islam.
(AP, 5/16/06)
2006 May 17, Under withering
criticism, the Dutch immigration minister Rita Verdonk agreed to
rethink her threat to revoke the citizenship of a Somali-born former
lawmaker known for her opposition to fundamentalist Islam.
(AP, 5/17/06)
2006 May 22, A court found the
former chief executive and chief financial officer of Dutch retailer
Royal Ahold NV guilty of fraud, but ruled the pair will not have to
serve prison time.
(AP, 5/22/06)
2006 May 23, The Dutch
parliament approved new anti-terrorism measures that make it easier
to arrest suspects without strong evidence and hold them longer
without charge.
(AP, 5/23/06)
2006 May 31, Dutch pedophiles
registered a political party to push for a cut in the legal age for
sexual relations to 12 from 16 and the legalization of child
pornography and sex with animals, sparking widespread outrage.
(Reuters, 5/31/06)
2006 Jun 6, The Spanish
interior ministry said that 67 suspects had been arrested for
accessing child porn on the Internet over the past five days. The
international police operation arrested 38 in France, 10 in Spain, 9
in Slovakia, 7 in Belgium and 3 in the Netherlands.
(AP, 6/6/06)
2006 Jun 7, A Dutch court
convicted Guus Kouwenhoven (64) of violating a UN arms embargo
imposed on the regime of former Liberian President Charles Taylor
and sentenced him to eight years in prison. The court found that he
had traded guns for timber rights and used his lumber company to
smuggle weapons that were later used by militias to commit
atrocities against civilians in West Africa.
(AP, 6/7/06)
2006 Jun 16, A Russian state
vodka company won Stolichnaya brand rights back from a Dutch firm.
(WSJ, 6/17/06, p.A1)
2006 Jun 27, Netherlands’
Immigration Minister Rita Verdonk reversed a politically divisive
decision of six weeks earlier, when she announced Hirsi Ali's 1997
naturalization was invalid because she lied on her asylum
application.
(AP, 6/28/06)
2006 Jun 30, The Dutch PM Jan
Peter Balkenende and his Cabinet resigned after a split in its ranks
over the citizenship case of Ayaan Hirsi Ali, a prominent
Somali-born critic of Islam.
(AP, 6/30/07)
2006 Jul 21, The Netherlands’
military chief said Dutch commandos had killed 18 enemy fighters who
set up positions in rugged hills overlooking a Dutch camp in
southern Afghanistan.
(AP, 7/21/06)
2006 Jul 28, Dutch retail giant
Ahold has announced that its 1.1 billion-dollar (941,000-euro)
settlement with US and Dutch investors over the company's accounting
scandal that broke in 2003 and sent share prices plummeting, is now
final.
(AFP, 7/29/06)
2006 Aug 1, Dutch Cardinal
Johannes Willebrands (96), a key figure in the Roman Catholic
Church's efforts to improve relations with other Christians and
Jews, died.
(AP, 8/2/06)
2006 Aug 7, Dutch police
arrested a Rwandan immigrant, identified as Joseph M. (38), and
charged him with war crimes and torture for his alleged role in the
1994 genocide that tore apart his home country.
(AP, 8/10/06)
2006 Aug 17, An outbreak of
strain of bluetongue, a disease transmitted to sheep by insects but
which is not contagious nor known to affect humans, was detected in
the southern Netherlands. Belgium and Germany soon reported cases.
(AFP, 8/28/06)
2006 Aug 19, In Ivory Coast
waste, which contained hydrogen sulphide, was unloaded from a
Panamanian-registered ship, the Probo Koala, at Abidjan port and
then dumped in at least eight open air sites, including the city's
main rubbish dump. By mid-September 6 people had died and 16,000 had
sought treatment. Dutch-based Trafigura Beheer BV, one of the
world's leading commodities traders, said it had chartered the ship
and said the material was a "mixture of gasoline, water and caustic
washings" following the unloading of a cargo of gasoline in Nigeria.
The sludge was later blamed for killing 15 people and sickening
100,000 more. In 2009 Greenpeace said it had obtained internal
e-mails and other documents that show Trafigura Beheer BV executives
were aware the sludge was hazardous.
(Reuters, 9/7/06)(Econ, 9/16/06, p.58)(AP,
9/17/09)
2006 Aug 28, In the Netherlands
prosecutors at the International Criminal Court filed their first
indictment, charging Thomas Lubanga, a former Congolese warlord, for
allegedly abducting and recruiting children as young as 10 to fight
in Congo's brutal civil war.
(AP, 8/29/06)
2006 Sep 27, At the Hague,
Netherlands, a UN tribunal sentenced Momcilio Krajisnik (61), the
former speaker of the Bosnian Serb parliament, to 27 years in prison
for war crimes, but acquitted him of the harsher charge of genocide.
(AP, 9/27/06)
2006 Oct 20, Corus, an
Anglo-Dutch steel-maker, accepted an $8.1 billion buyout bid from
Tata Steel, a smaller Indian firm.
(Econ, 10/28/06, p.74)
2006 Nov 4, Swathes of Austria,
Belgium, Croatia, France, Italy, Spain, Portugal, and the
Netherlands and went dark for up to an hour in the late evening as
cold Germans rushing to switch on heaters sucked up electricity from
Europe's interconnected networks.
(AP, 11/5/06)
2006 Nov 6, In the Netherlands
6 people were arrested on suspicion of recruiting volunteers for
jihad, or Islamic holy war, prosecutors said after a year-long
investigation.
(AFP, 11/7/06)
2006 Nov 22, Dutch voters
picked a new parliament in an election that could determine whether
the country's tight immigration rules get even tougher or follow
what the opposition calls a more humane path. Dutch PM Jan Peter
Balkenende’s center-right Christian Democrats won the most seats in
elections, but nearly complete returns showed a sharply splintered
parliament with no alliance winning a clear mandate to govern.
(AP, 11/22/06)(AP, 11/23/06)(Econ, 11/25/06,
p.50)
2006 Nov 30, Amsterdam city
officials said they are shutting down nearly a third of the 350
prostitution "windows" in the famed Red Light District as part of a
crackdown on crime.
(AP, 11/30/06)
2006 Dec 1, In the Netherlands
a court convicted four Dutch Muslims of plotting terrorist attacks
against political leaders and government buildings and sentenced
them to up to eight years in prison. A man in a hooded coat killed
an 8-year-old boy in the corridor of a Dutch grade school. Police
said they arrested a 22-year-old suspect.
(AP, 12/1/06)
2006 Dec 4, Against a backdrop
of protests, the defense minister gave citations to Dutch troops who
served in the UN peacekeeping force that failed to prevent the
slaughter of Muslims in the Srebrenica enclave during the Bosnian
war.
(AP, 12/4/06)
2006 Dec 11, The Netherlands
ended transmission of "free to air" analog television, becoming the
first nation to switch completely to digital signals.
(AP, 12/11/06)
2006 Daniel Estulin,
Lithuanian-born writer, authored "The Secrets of the Bilderberg
Club," in which he argues that the international Bilderberg group
largely runs the world. It has held a secretive annual forum of
prominent politicians, thinkers and businessmen since it was founded
in 1954 at the Bilderberg Hotel in Holland. Estulin published a
second book, Los secretos del club Bilderberg, released in September
2006. The English version, The Secrets of the Bilderberg Club, was
released in the US on September 22, 2007.
(AP,
8/19/10)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel_Estulin)
2006 Some 2,000 Netherlands’
forces took control of Afghanistan’s Uruzgan province.
(Econ, 3/14/09, p.48)
2000 Rembrandt’s “Portrait of a
Lady” (1632) was sold in London to Dutch art dealer Robert Noortman
(1946-2007) for $28.6 million.
(WSJ, 1/27/06, p.A6)
2006 The $100-million Betuwe
Line, a high-speed freight line from Rotterdam to Germany, was
expected to be completed at a cost of some $5.87 billion.
(WSJ, 11/3/04, p.A12)
2007 Jan 27, The Netherlands'
government extradited Iraqi-born Wesam al Delaema (32), a
naturalized Dutch citizen, to the US. He was charged with
involvement in terror attacks on US troops in Iraq. In 2009 Delaema
was sentenced in Washington DC to 25 years in prison. His actual
term was up to the Netherlands. In 2010 a court in Rotterdam slashed
the sentence to eight years and released him for time served.
(AP, 1/28/07)(SFC, 4/17/09, p.A6)(AP, 10/13/10)
2007 Feb 6, Dutch media
reported that the parties of the incoming centre-left Dutch
government agreed to grant amnesty for some 30,000 failed asylum
seekers who came to the Netherlands before April 2001.
(AP, 2/6/07)
2007 Feb 13, Officials in the
Ivory Coast said that Trafigura, a Dutch-based oil trading company,
agreed to pay $197 million to secure the release of three executives
from an Ivory Coast prison and settle claims that it dumped toxic
waste that killed at least 10 people in the West African nation.
(AP, 2/14/07)
2007 Feb 27, The International
Criminal Court's prosecutor in Netherlands named Ahmed Muhammed
Harun, a former Sudanese junior minister, and Ali Mohammed Ali
Abd-al-Rahmann (aka Ali Kushayb), a janjaweed leader, as suspects in
war crimes and crimes against humanity in the Darfur region. Sudan
rejected the legitimacy of the ICC, insisting it would try Darfur
war criminals.
(Reuters, 2/27/07)(AFP, 2/27/07)(Econ, 7/19/08,
p.55)
2007 Mar 5, Kosovo's former PM
Ramush Haradinaj went on trial in the Netherlands at the UN tribunal
on war crimes charges related to his time as a guerrilla leader in
the war against Serb forces between 1998-99. Haradinaj, a former
regional commander of the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA), resigned as
prime minister in 2005 after being indicted for murder, rape and
torture allegedly committed by forces under his command.
(Reuters, 3/5/07)
2007 Mar 6, Dutch judges ruled
that a chapter of the Hells Angels motorcycle gang is not a criminal
organization, rejecting prosecutors' attempts to have the group
outlawed.
(AP, 3/6/07)
2007 Mar 8, The Netherlands
said it has ratified an accord to open to a long-secret archive of
Nazi death camp records in Germany, another step toward giving
scholars access to a vast collection of historically invaluable
Holocaust documents.
(AP, 3/8/07)
2007 Mar 12, New Jersey based
Schering-Plough Corp. said it will buy the pharmaceuticals division
of Akzo Nobel NV for 11 billion euros ($14.5 billion) in cash,
acquiring the Organon brand of birth control and strengthening its
drug pipeline with an anti-schizophrenia medication.
(AP, 3/12/07)
2007 Mar 21, In Afghanistan
Dutch ministers urged the Afghan government to step up its presence
and development in the troubled south, where Taliban insurgents are
most entrenched, saying NATO cannot do it alone.
(AFP, 3/21/07)
2007 Apr 13, In Tanzania the
International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) ordered that
Michel Bagaragaza, the former head of Rwanda's national tea industry
who is accused of involvement in the mass slaughter, be tried by a
court in the Netherlands.
(AFP, 4/13/07)
2007 Apr 18, Scientists in the
Netherlands said they have discovered a fungus in elephant dung that
will help them break down fibers and wood into biofuel.
(Reuters, 4/18/07)
2007 Apr 20, In southern
Afghanistan separate explosions killed two NATO soldiers. A Dutch
soldier was killed in one explosion, the first fatality from hostile
action among Dutch troops serving with NATO forces in the country.
(AP, 4/20/07)
2007 Apr 23, British bank
Barclays Plc has agreed to buy Dutch rival ABN AMRO for about 67
billion euros ($91 billion) in shares as it attempts to fight off
rivals to clinch the world's biggest bank takeover.
(Reuters, 4/23/07)
2007 Apr 25, Royal Bank of
Scotland, Fortis, a Belgian-Dutch lender and Santander of Spain
launched a blockbuster 72-billion-euro takeover battle for Dutch
group ABN Amro, outgunning by far an agreed offer by Barclays.
(AFP, 4/25/07)(Econ, 4/28/07, p.85)(Econ,
7/19/08, p.84)
2007 May 1, Thirty people were
arrested in raids across Belgium, England, and the Netherlands
targeting suspected animal rights extremists.
(AP, 5/1/07)
2007 May 2, The International
Criminal Court in the Hague said it has issued arrest warrants
for the Sudanese government's humanitarian affairs minister and a
janjaweed militia leader suspected of committing war crimes in
Darfur.
(AP, 5/2/07)
2007 May 18, In the Netherlands
a 400-pound gorilla escaped from his enclosure and ran amok in a
Rotterdam zoo, biting one woman, dragging her around, and causing
panic among dozens of visitors before he was finally subdued.
(AP, 5/18/07)
2007 May 26, The newly
installed Dutch government said some 25,000 asylum-seekers whose
applications for refuge were rejected will be allowed to stay,
reversing the previous administration's hardline immigration policy.
The amnesty will apply to asylum-seekers who arrived before April 1,
2001 and were found not to qualify but who remained in the country
anyway.
(AP, 5/26/07)
2007 May 30, It was reported
that coffee shops licensed to sell marijuana in the southern
Dutch city of Maastricht will begin fingerprinting customers and
scanning their IDs this summer to help prove they're following rules
governing such sales.
(AP, 5/30/07)
2007 May 31, The Dutch news
agency ANP reported that almost half of Rotterdam's coffee shops
will be forced to stop selling cannabis because they are too close
to secondary schools.
(AP, 5/31/07)
2007 Jun 3, Some 2,000 men and
women participated in a series of four nude group photos in
Amsterdam in the early hours of the morning as part of the latest
project of US photographer Spencer Tunick.
(AP, 6/3/07)
2007 Jun 3, Pope Benedict XVI
named four new saints from France, Malta, the Netherlands and Poland
at a ceremony in St. Peter's Square. Among those honored was Sister
Marie Eugenie de Jesus Milleret, a French nun who in 1839 founded
the Religious of the Assumption to educate young girls; the Rev.
George Preca of Malta, who founded the Society of Christian Doctrine
in 1932 as a group of lay people who teach the faith to others; the
Rev. Szymon z Lipnicy of Poland, a Franciscan monk who comforted
Poles afflicted by the plague that broke out in Krakow from 1482-83
and died of it himself; and the Rev. Charles of St. Andrew (Dublin),
who was born Karel Van Sint Andries Houben in the Netherlands in
1821.
(AP, 6/3/07)
2007 Jun 4, Thousands of
survivors of Europe's worst massacre since World War II filed a
lawsuit against the UN and the Dutch government for their failure to
protect civilians in the Srebrenica safe haven when Bosnian Serb
forces overran it in 1995 and slaughtered some 8,000 men.
(AP, 6/4/07)
2007 Jun 6, It was reported
that Dutch students have developed powdered alcohol which they say
can be sold legally to minors. The latest innovation in inebriation,
called Booz2Go, is available in 20-gramme packets that cost 1-1.5
euros ($1.35-$2). Alcohol powder, classified as a flavoring, was
sold in the United States three years ago.
(Reuters, 6/6/07)
2007 Jun 11, In the Netherlands
an international conference on endangered species banned almost all
trade in sawfish, large shark-like rays, whose long snouts bristling
with teeth are in high demand among collectors.
(AP, 6/11/07)
2007 Jun 12, In the Netherlands
the Yugoslav war crimes tribunal convicted Milan Martic (52), a
wartime leader of Croatia's rebel Serbs, of murder, torture and
persecution and sentenced him to 35 years in prison for the
1991-1995 brutal ethnic cleansing campaign of non-Serbs in Croatia.
(AP, 6/12/07)(WSJ, 6/13/07, p.A1)
2007 Jun 14, In the Netherlands
four African states (South Africa, Namibia, Botswana and Zimbabwe),
after an 18-year ban, were allowed to put their ivory stocks on the
market in a one-time sale as part of a hard-fought compromise
reached with other Africans who tried to block the sale. The
171-member Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species,
or CITES, approved the deal by consensus.
(AP, 6/14/07)
2007 Jun 20, A Dutch
government-funded agency said China has overtaken the United States
as the top emitter of carbon dioxide, the main greenhouse gas,
because of surging energy use amid an economic boom. However
consumption and emission levels per head remained a mere fraction of
America’s.
(AP, 6/20/07)(Econ, 6/13/09, p.45)
2007 Jun 25, In the Netherlands
former Liberian president Charles Taylor boycotted the resumption of
his war crimes trial.
(AP, 6/25/07)
2007 Jul 12, Authorities
announced a major crackdown on organized crime in Amsterdam's Red
Light District, for the first time bringing national police
investigators and tax authorities to bear on what had long been seen
as a local problem.
(AP, 7/13/07)
2007 Aug 2, In the Netherlands
Unilever, the Anglo-Dutch maker of consumer goods and food products,
announced that it would cut 20,000 jobs worldwide, 11 percent of its
total workforce, over the next four years.
(AP, 8/2/07)
2007 Aug 10, A Dutch cruise
ship rescued 14 African migrants after their boat capsized in rough
Mediterranean waters as they tried to reach Europe, while
authorities searched for 11 other passengers who were feared
drowned.
(AP, 8/11/07)
2007 Aug 13, AkzoNobel, a Dutch
chemicals group under Hans Wijers, made a cash offer for the British
firm ICI (Imperial Chemical Industries) under John McAdam for $16
billion. The deal turned Akzo into the world’s biggest maker of
paints.
(Econ, 10/04/08,
p.72)(www.ici.com/main/cms/cmRender.asp?i=2162)
2007 Aug 17, The UN announced
that the Netherlands has agreed to host the tribunal that will
prosecute suspects in the assassination of former Lebanese PM Rafik
Hariri.
(AP, 8/17/07)
2007 Aug 27, An official said
the Dutch government will spend $38 million over the next four years
to prevent both the growth of Islamic fundamentalism and right-wing
nationalism.
(AP, 8/27/07)
2007 Aug 28, Jose Maria Sison
(68), a Philippine communist leader, accused of commanding a rebel
uprising from exile for more than 20 years was arrested by Dutch
police in Utrecht on suspicion of ordering the murder of two former
allies in his home country. He was accused of ordering the killings
in 2003 and 2004 of Romulo Kintanar and Arturo Tabara, who were
gunned down in the Philippines.
(AP, 8/29/07)
2007 Aug, Dutch schools were
forced to offer afternoon child-care following a government effort
to get house-bound Dutch mothers to work.
(Econ, 9/8/07, p.55)
2007 Sep 8, In the Netherlands
Carlos Hartmann (41), of Tecumseh, Mich., killed Thijs Geers (22), a
Dutch student, on a train platform in the southern city of
Roosendaal. Hartmann hoped to punish the Netherlands for its
government's support of the war in Iraq and confessed to axing the
student to death after failing to find a soldier to kill.
(AP, 9/11/07)
2007 Sep 26, Erik Hazelhoff
Roelfzema (b.1917), the Dutch World War II resistance hero better
known as the "Soldier of Orange," died at his home in Hawaii. His
fame in the Netherlands leaped after he published his book, "Soldaat
van Oranje" (Soldier of Orange) in 1971. He became known outside the
country after the book was made into a film of the same name by
director Paul Verhoeven in 1977, starring Rutger Hauer in the title
role.
(AP, 9/29/07)(SFC, 10/9/07, p.B4)
2007 Oct 3, A Dutch court
rejected a prosecution appeal against the release of Philippine
communist leader Jose Maria Sison, accused of being involved in
murders in the Philippines.
(AFP, 10/3/07)
2007 Oct 4, Dutch authorities
said their customs officers had found 100 dead beetles stuffed with
cocaine whilst examining a parcel from Peru.
(Reuters, 10/4/07)
2007 Oct 12, The Netherlands
said it will ban the sale of hallucinogenic mushrooms, rolling back
one element of the country's permissive drug policy after a teenager
on a school visit jumped to her death after taking the narcotic.
(AP, 10/12/07)
2007 Oct 13, Dutch police
arrested 11 Greenpeace activists who boarded a cargo ship to stop it
unloading newsprint paper they suspected was made from ancient trees
felled in Canadian forests.
(AP, 10/13/07)
2007 Oct 8, A consortium of
Belgian, Scotch and Spanish banks announced that shareholders of ABN
AMRO, a Dutch bank, had accepted a $101 billion offer in the world’s
biggest banking transaction ever.
(Econ, 10/13/07, p.17)
2007 Oct 30, Nordin Benallal
(27), a Belgian gangster dubbed "The Eel" for his skill at slipping
away from Belgian prison authorities, was caught in the Netherlands
two days after his latest jailbreak.
(AP, 10/31/07)
2007 Nov 26, High school
students clashed with riot police in Amsterdam and demonstrated in
cities across the Netherlands to protest a national increase in
classroom hours.
(AP, 11/26/07)
2007 Nov 26, Amsterdam based
Royal Philips Electronics announced the purchase of Genlyte Group,
based in Louisville, Kentucky, for $2.7 billion. The deal made
Philips the biggest lighting firm in the American market.
(www.newscenter.philips.com/about/news/press/20071126.page)
2007 Nov, Geert Wilders, Dutch
member of Parliament, revealed plans to air on television an expose
of the wickedness of the Koran.
(Econ, 2/9/08, p.57)
2007 Dec 12, The UN Yugoslav
war crimes tribunal at The Hague sentenced former Bosnian Serb
general Dragomir Milosevic (b.1942) to 33 years imprisonment for the
shelling of Sarajevo during the Bosnian war, one of the court's
toughest sentences. In 2009 UN judges trimmed the sentence from 33
to 29 years but upheld his convictions for leading troops who
terrorized Sarajevo with a deadly rain of shells and sniper bullets.
(AP, 12/12/07)(AP, 11/12/09)
2007 Ayaan Hirsi Ali (b.1969),
Somalia born writer and resident at the American Enterprise
Institute in Washington DC, authored her autobiography “Infidel.” In
the Netherlands it was published under the title “My Freedom.”
(WSJ, 2/3/07, p.P12)(Econ, 2/10/07, p.87)
2007 The Netherlands launched
its €2.3 billion “Room for the River” project in an effort to make
the country more resilient to flooding.
(Econ, 1/14/12, p.62)
2008 Jan 12, In southern
Afghanistan Dutch troops killed two of their own men during a
nighttime battle in Uruzgan province, and separately two allied
Afghan soldiers they mistook for enemies. About 1,650 Dutch troops
were deployed in Uruzgan as part of the NATO mission there. 14 Dutch
troops have died since their mission began last year.
(AP, 1/13/08)
2008 Feb 5, Maharishi Mahesh
Yogi, a guru to the Beatles who introduced the West to
transcendental meditation, died at his home in the Dutch town of
Vlodrop.
(AP, 2/6/08)(Econ, 2/16/08, p.95)
2008 Mar 11, Three generals
regarded as national heroes in Croatia went on trial at the Hague,
accused of orchestrating the killing of at least 150 Serbs in a 1995
military campaign that unleashed widespread murder and pillage.
(AP, 3/11/08)
2008 Mar 13, The Dutch
parliament voted unanimously to outlaw bestiality and pornography
involving animals.
(AP, 3/14/08)
2008 Mar 15, Alitalia, Italy’s
state-owned national airline, accepted a takeover offer worth $217
made by air France-KLM, a French-Dutch airline group. The Italian
government accepted the offer on March 17.
(Econ, 3/22/08, p.73)
2008 Mar 20, In the Netherlands
a new attraction officially opened in Oegstgeest called Corpus. The
$31 million project organized led by businessman Henri Remmers
featured a 115-foot seated human shape on the outside and
large-scale exhibits of the human anatomy inside.
(SSFC, 4/6/08, p.E7)
2008 Mar 23, Network Solutions,
an American network provider, said it had suspended a website that
Dutch MP Geert Wilders had reserved to post his anti-Islamic film,
which has sparked wide condemnation and fears of a backlash.
(AP, 3/23/08)
2008 Mar 27, Geert Wilders, a
Dutch lawmaker, released his 15-minute film “Fitna,” which linked
verses of the Koran to violent images from terrorist attacks.
(SFC, 3/28/08, p.A4)
2008 Mar 31, Malaysia's Islamic
opposition party delivered a protest note to the Netherlands'
embassy over the release of an anti-Islam movie by a maverick Dutch
lawmaker, while hard-line Muslims in neighboring Indonesia demanded
the death of the filmmaker.
(AP, 3/31/08)
2008 Apr 3, Alitalia edged
closer to bankruptcy protection after Air France-KLM abruptly broke
off talks to buy the struggling national airline and Alitalia's
chairman of seven months resigned in frustration.
(AP, 4/3/08)
2008 Apr 3, The UN tribunal in
The Hague, Netherlands, ruled that there was not enough evidence to
convict former Kosovo PM Ramush Haradinaj of murder, torture and
rape of Serbs and non-Albanians during the Kosovo war.
(AP, 4/4/08)
2008 Apr 18, In Afghanistan the
son of the Netherlands' top military officer was killed by a
roadside bomb, the day after his father assumed command of the Dutch
armed forces.
(AP, 4/18/08)
2008 Apr 29, The International
Criminal Court in The Hague published an arrest warrant for Bosco
Ntaganda (35), known as "the Terminator," a Congo militia leader
wanted for allegedly using child soldiers.
(Reuters, 4/29/08)
2008 May 23, The International
Court of Justice awarded Singapore sovereignty over a disputed
island at the eastern entrance of the Singapore Straits. The ICJ
ruled in favor of Singapore in the 28-year dispute with Malaysia
over a tiny but strategic uninhabited island the size of half a
football field. The court, however, gave Malaysia ownership of a
smaller uninhabited outcropping. Sovereignty over a third disputed
cluster of rocks was left to be determined later between the
countries when they sort our their territorial waters.
(AP, 5/23/08)
2008 May 25, The Amiya Scan, a
Dutch freighter, was hijacked by pirates off the coast of Somalia.
The ship and its crew of 4 Russians and 5 Filipinos were freed on
June 25.
(AP, 6/26/08)
2008 May 26, Dutch scientists
claimed they have completed the first sequencing of an individual
woman's DNA.
(AP, 5/26/08)
2008 Jun 5, Dutch police
arrested Aqueel Ur Rehman Abbasi, a 26-year-old Pakistani man,
sought in Spain on terrorism charges. He was arrested in his prison
cell in Vught where he was being held by the immigration and
naturalization services.
(AFP, 6/6/08)
2008 Jul 1, A smoking ban went
into effect in cafes, restaurants and bars across the Netherlands,
as the country joins a growing list of European countries to tighten
rules on tobacco use in public places. Smoking marijuana in the
Netherlands' infamous "coffee shops" is still permitted under the
new law, as long the drug is not mixed with tobacco.
(AFP, 7/1/08)
2008 Jul 2, Deutsche Bank
acquired the Dutch corporate banking arm of ABN AMRO from Fortis, a
Benelux bank, for $1.1 billion in cash.
(Econ, 7/12/08, p.83)
2008 Jul 3, Former Congolese
rebel leader Jean-Pierre Bemba arrived in the Netherlands to face
war crimes charges before the International Criminal Court.
(AP, 7/3/08)
2008 Jul 11, In the Netherlands
health authorities announced a Dutch woman, infected during a
holiday to Uganda by the contagious Marburg virus, had died
overnight. The Marburg virus is similar to Ebola and causes heavy
bleeding. About 100 people who may have had contact with the woman
were under surveillance.
(AFP, 7/11/08)
2008 Jul 30, Former Bosnian
Serb leader Radovan Karadzic sat in a UN jail cell after being flown
to the Netherlands in the dead of night to face charges of genocide
against Muslims and Croats during the Balkan wars of the 1990s.
(AP, 7/30/08)
2008 Aug 12, Georgia's Pres.
Mikhail Saakashvili said his government will declare that its
breakaway regions are occupied territories and will designate
Russian peacekeepers as occupying forces. Russia ordered a halt to
military action in Georgia, after five days of air and land attacks
sent Georgia's army into headlong retreat and left towns and
military bases destroyed. More than 2,000 people were reported
killed. A Dutch television journalist was killed overnight when
Russian warplanes bombed the central Georgian city of Gori. Russia
later counted 133 civilian deaths in South Ossetia. Rights activists
later said fewer than 100 civilians were killed in South Ossetia.
(AP, 8/12/08)(Econ, 8/23/08, p.43)(WSJ, 9/12/08,
p.A1)
2008 Aug 19, The Dutch Navy and
a squad of US Coast Guard raiders seized 4.6 tons (4,200 kilograms)
of cocaine from a Panamanian-flagged freighter that had set sail
from Venezuela. The freighter was boarded on Aug 17 and it took 36
hours of searching to find the drugs.
(AP, 8/23/08)
2008 Aug 23, Italian police
said a gang of men badly beat a Dutch couple and raped the woman
while they camped in an isolated field outside Rome during a cycling
tour of Europe. The attackers also stole some US$2,200.
(AP, 8/23/08)
2008 Sep 9, The Iraqi oil
ministry said Anglo-Dutch energy giant Royal Dutch Shell has agreed
to a gas joint venture with Iraq worth up to four billion dollars,
becoming the first Western oil major to gain access to the
violence-wracked country's vast energy reserves.
(AP, 9/9/08)
2008 Sep 10, A Dutch court
dismissed a bid by Bosnian Muslim survivors of the 1995 Srebrenica
massacre to hold the Netherlands liable for its troops' failure to
protect the so-called safe haven.
(AP, 9/10/08)
2008 Mar 26, TimeRime BV was
founded by Marijn Bom, Jaap Joziasse, Gerard Pastwa and Pico
Wilbrenninck, as a spin-off of the Dutch webdevelopment company
Hoppinger.com.
(www.timerime.com/)
2008 Sep 28, The governments of
Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg took partial control of
struggling bank Fortis NV.
(AP, 9/29/08)
2008 Oct 15, The Shell
Anglo-Dutch group said a Nigerian court has ordered it to hand over
land around its giant Bonny oil terminal to the local population, a
key demand of armed rebels in the volatile region. Shell said ruling
was given some months ago but we have appealed.
(AFP, 10/15/08)
2008 Nov 1, In southern
Afghanistan Dutch Major General Mart de Kruif replaced Canadian
Major General Marc Lessard as head of 19,000 mostly British,
Canadian, Dutch and US NATO-led soldiers of the International
Security Assistance Force (ISAF).
(AP, 11/1/08)
2008 Nov 7, An environmentalist
group and four Nigerians filed suit against Royal Dutch Shell PLC in
the Netherlands, claiming the company was negligent in cleaning up
oil spills in Nigeria.
(AP, 11/7/08)
2008 Nov 21, Amsterdam said it
will order the closure of dozens of coffee shops that sell cannabis
near schools in accordance with new legislation.
(AP, 11/21/08)
2008 Nov 22, Dutch electronics
giant Philips said it will cut "about five percent" of its 32,000
strong workforce in the medical division worldwide, affecting 1,600
workers.
(AP, 11/22/08)
2008 Dec 6, Amsterdam unveiled
plans to close brothels, sex shops and marijuana cafes in its
ancient city center as part of a major effort to drive organized
crime out of the tourist haven.
(AP, 12/6/08)
2008 Dec 19, Three Danish
soldiers and one from the Netherlands were killed in separate
incidents in Afghanistan, losing their lives just as the commitment
of some countries to the fight in Afghanistan begins to wane.
(AP, 12/19/08)
2008 In the Netherlands Saban
Baran (38) was convicted of leading a gang notorious for forcing
more than 100 women into prostitution, tattooing some of them to
mark them as the gang's property. Prosecutors also say some women
who came from Germany and eastern Europe were forced to have breast
implants and illegal abortions while working in brothels in
Amsterdam and other Dutch cities. In 2009 he fled while on a
temporarily release from prison, where he was serving a 7½ year
term, to visit his wife and newborn baby.
(AP, 9/17/09)
2009 Jan 5, Ahmed Aboutaleb
(47), a Moroccan immigrant, was installed as mayor of Rotterdam, the
Netherlands' second largest city, in a move hailed as a significant
step for the integration of minorities in the European Union nation.
(AP, 1/5/09)
2009 Jan 19, The International
Court of Justice at The Hague ruled that the United States defied
its order when authorities in Texas on Aug 5, 2008, executed a
Mexican convicted of rape and murder.
(AP, 1/19/09)
2009 Jan 21, Germany banned the
production, sale or possession of a synthetic marijuana-like drug
known as "Spice," effective as of Jan 22, becoming the 4th nation to
ban the substance, marketed as an herbal room-freshener, after
Austria, the Netherlands and Switzerland.
(AP, 1/21/09)
2009 Jan 26, In the Netherlands
the first-ever trial of the International Criminal Court began at
The Hague with Thomas Lubanga, a Congolese militia commander,
denying he committed war crimes by recruiting hundreds of child
soldiers to kill and rape.
(AP, 1/26/09)
2009 Feb 10, The British
government banned Dutch right-wing lawmaker Geert Wilders from
visiting the country to show his anti-Islam film "Fitna" at the
Houses of Parliament. In a telephone interview Wilders called the
government's decision "cowardly" and vowed to defy it.
(AP, 2/10/09)
2009 Feb 11, Judges at the
Yugoslav war crimes tribunal voted to suspend the trial of
ultranationalist Serb leader Vojislav Seselj after the prosecution
said its case was being undermined by witness intimidation. The
decision came after 71 prosecution witnesses had already been heard
and with only a handful still to testify.
(AP, 2/11/09)
2009 Feb 23, Swedish power
company Vattenfall said it had made a friendly 8.5-billion-euro
(10.9-billion-dollar) offer for Nuon of the Netherlands in a
takeover aimed at creating one of Europe's biggest energy groups.
(AP, 2/23/09)
2009 Feb 25, A Turkish Airlines
plane with 135 people aboard slammed into a muddy field while
attempting to land at Amsterdam's main airport. Nine people were
killed and more than 50 were injured, many in serious condition.
(AP, 2/25/09)
2009 Feb 26, At The Hague
UN judges in the Yugoslav war crimes tribunal acquitted former Serb
President Milan Milutinovic of ordering a deadly campaign of terror
by Serb forces against Kosovo Albanians in 1999. The court convicted
five other senior Serbs and gave them prison sentences of between 15
and 22 years. The marathon trial started July 10, 2006.
(AP, 2/26/09)
2009 Mar 4, The International
Criminal Court at The Hague issued an arrest warrant for Sudanese
President Omar al-Bashir on charges of war crimes and crimes against
humanity in Darfur. He is the first sitting head of state the court
has ordered arrested. The French medical aid organization Doctors
Without Borders (MSF) said it was pulling staff out of Darfur after
the Sudanese government ordered them to leave. Sudan ordered at
least 10 humanitarian groups expelled from Darfur.
(AP, 3/4/09)(AFP, 3/4/09)
2009 Mar 12, Dutch police
arrested Giovanni Strangio (30), an Italian man wanted for the
August 15, 2007, mob killings of six people in the western German
city of Duisburg.
(AP, 3/13/09)
2009 Mar 17, In the Netherlands
the UN criminal tribunal for the former Yugoslavia reduced the jail
sentence of Bosnian Serb leader Momcilo Krajisnik from 27 to 20
years, quashing some convictions from a 2006 judgment.
(AP, 3/17/09)
2009 Mar 23, In the Netherlands
Joseph Mpambara (40), a Hutu man, was convicted and sentenced to 20
years in prison for the slaying of two Tutsi mothers and at least
four of their children during Rwanda's 1994 genocide. The Hague
District Court acquitted Mpambara of involvement in the massacre of
hundreds of other Tutsis who had sought shelter in a church. He was
also acquitted of raping four women and killing one of them in a
separate incident.
(AP, 3/23/09)
2009 Mar 30, Malaysia's
national car maker Proton and Detroit Electric, a Dutch-based
company, signed a $555 million deal to make zero emission electric
cars that they said would be more powerful that any existing model.
(AP, 3/30/09)
2009 Mar 31, At the Hague
Afghan President Hamid Karzai and US Secretary of State Hillary
Rodham Clinton offered an olive branch to Taliban fighters who
reject al-Qaida and pressed an international conference for help in
strengthening Afghanistan's security forces.
(AP, 3/31/09)
2009 Mar 31, In Yemen Jan and
Heleen Janszen, a Dutch couple, were kidnapped in a suburb of Sanaa
and taken to a mountainous area near the capital. They were released
on April 14 after Yemen's government paid more than a quarter
million dollars in ransom.
(AFP, 3/31/09)(SFC, 4/1/09, p.A2)(AP, 4/14/09)
2009 Apr 6, German Chancellor
Angela Merkel made an unannounced visit to northern Afghanistan to
meet with her country's troops and view rebuilding efforts. She
pressed President Karzai to review carefully a new law that critics
say legalizes marital rape. In southern Afghanistan an insurgent
rocket attack hit the Netherlands' main military base, killing one
Dutch soldier and wounding 5 of his colleagues and 2 Afghan
soldiers.
(AP, 4/6/09)
2009 Apr 10, In the Netherlands
a man (44) pulled a gun in Rotterdam’s Laurenshof cafe after an
argument and shot a patron inside, then rushed outside where he shot
three more people. Several people chased the gunman when he ran
outside, overpowered and disarmed him, and wrestled him to the
ground until police arrived.
(AP, 4/11/09)
2009 Apr 18, Somali pirates
attacked two ships off the Horn of Africa, seizing the
Belgian-flagged Pompei carrying 10 crew. NATO forces intervened in
the other assault, chasing the pirates down. Dutch commandos then
freed 20 fishermen on a Yemeni dhow hijacked earlier. Seven pirates
attempted to attack the Norwegian-flagged MV Front Ardenne but fled
after crew took evasive maneuvers and alerted warships in the area.
NATO warships and helicopters pursued the Somali pirates for seven
hours after they attacked the tanker, and the high-speed chase only
ended when warning shots were fired at the pirates' skiff. NATO
forces boarded the skiff, where they found a rocket-propelled
grenade, and interrogated, disarmed and released the pirates. The
Pompei and its crew were released on June 28.
(AP, 4/18/09)(AP, 4/19/09)(AP, 6/28/09)
2009 Apr 29, Lebanon released
four generals held for nearly four years in the 2005 truck-bomb
assassination of former PM Rafik Hariri after a UN-backed tribunal
in the Netherlands ordered them freed, setting off celebrations with
fireworks and dancing.
(AP, 4/29/09)
2009 Apr 30, In the Netherlands
5 people died when a car slammed into a crowd at the Queen's Day
festival attended by members of the royal family in the western city
of Apeldoorn. A policeman as well as the assailant died the next day
from their injuries. The suspect was identified by Dutch media as
Karst Tates (38). Neighbors said Tates recently was fired from his
job as a security guard and was to be evicted from his home in the
small eastern town of Huissen because he could no longer afford the
rent. An injured woman died a week later bringing the total to 7
victims.
(AFP, 4/30/09)(AP, 5/1/09)(AP, 5/9/09)
2009 May 1, In the Netherlands
robbers at the Scheringa Museum for Realism in Spanbroek stole
"Adolescence," a 1941 gouache by Salvadore Dali and "La Musicienne,"
an oil painting from 1929 by Polish-born art deco painter Tamara de
Lempicka. The museum houses the art collection of wealthy Dutch
banker Dirk Scheringa and his wife.
(AP, 5/2/09)
2009 May 7, Somali pirates
captured the Netherlands Antilles-flagged MV Marathon in the Gulf of
Aden. The ship listed 19 Ukrainian crew members. One of the crew
members died from a gun shot wound. On June 23 the Dutch Defense
Ministry reported that the ship was released.
(AP, 5/7/09)(AP, 6/23/09)
2009 May 11, In the Netherlands
thieves pried open the emergency door of the IJsselstein City Museum
near Utrecht. They made off with six 17th- and 19th-century
landscape paintings, the second major art heist in 10 days in the
Netherlands.
(AP, 5/12/09)
2009 May 15, Hugh Van Es (67),
a Dutch photojournalist, died in Hong Kong. He covered the Vietnam
War and recorded the most famous image of the fall of Saigon in
1975, a group of people scaling a ladder to a CIA helicopter on a
rooftop.
(AP, 5/15/09)
2009 May 17, The International
Criminal Court said Bahr Idriss Abu Garda, a Sudanese rebel leader,
has turned himself in to face war crimes charges for an attack that
killed 12 African Union peacekeepers in Darfur in September 2007.
(AP, 5/17/09)
2009 Jun 4, About 375 million
voters across the 27-nation European Union began 4 days of voting,
to appoint candidates to 736 seats on the assembly in the
second-largest election in the world after India's. Voting began in
Britain and the Netherlands.
(AP, 6/4/09)
2009 Jun 7, Zimbabwe PM Morgan
Tsvangirai launched a three-week trip to the West. He spoke at The
Hague saying he is seeking re-engagement, not touring with a
"begging bowl" asking for aid. Pres. Robert Mugabe launched a new
pact aimed at tearing down trade barriers across 19 African nations
with appeals for external investors and an end to domestic
conflicts.
(AP, 6/7/09)(AFP, 6/7/09)
2009 Jun 15, The Hague-based
International Criminal Court ordered former Congolese rebel warlord
Jean-Pierre Bemba to stand trial on charges of crimes against
humanity and war crimes, including murder, rape and pillaging.
(Reuters, 6/16/09)
2009 Jun 30, The Dutch Supreme
Court upheld the war crimes conviction of businessman Frans van
Anraat for selling chemicals to Iraq, which were turned into poison
gas and unleashed in 1988 by the regime of Saddam Hussein on Kurds
and Iranians. The court shaved six months off Anraat’s 17-year
sentence because his case took so long.
(AP, 6/30/09)
2009 Jul 20, A UN war crimes
court in the Hague convicted Milan Lukic and Sredoje Lukic, two
Bosnian Serb cousins, for a "callous" 1992 killing spree that
included locking scores of Muslims in two houses and burning them
alive in Visegrad. He sentenced Milan to life in prison and Sredoje
to 30 years.
(AP, 7/20/09)
2009 Aug 28, Iceland's
parliament approved a controversial deal to pay back billions of
euros (dollars) lost by British and Dutch savers in the collapse of
the online Icesave bank. The deal provided for the payment of 3.8
billion euros by 2023 to the British and Dutch governments for the
compensation they forked out to disgruntled savers.
(AFP, 8/28/09)
2009 Sep 2, Dutch prosecutors
said they will charge an Arab cultural group under hate speech laws
for publishing a cartoon that suggests the death of 6 million Jews
during World War II is a fabrication.
(AP, 9/2/09)
2009 Sep 15, In the Netherlands
the Yugoslav war crimes tribunal announced it has approved the early
release from prison of former Bosnian Serb President Biljana Plavsic
(79) after she served two-thirds of her 11-year sentence for
persecution.
(AP, 9/15/09)
2009 Sep 20, Trafigura, a
Netherlands-based oil trading company, said it has agreed to a
settlement with people who claim they fell ill after a tanker dumped
hundreds of tons of waste around the Ivory Coast's main city of
Abidjan in 2006. Trafigura paid Ivory Coast's government euro152
million (US$197 million) in 2007 to assist in cleaning up the waste
without admitting responsibility.
(AP, 9/20/09)
2009 Oct 14, A hot air balloon
crashed in a southern Chinese resort town with dramatic limestone
formations, killing four Dutch tourists.
(AP, 10/14/09)
2009 Oct 27, At The Hague
Radovan Karadzic boycotted his UN trial for a second day while
prosecutors began outlining their genocide case against the former
Bosnian Serb leader.
(AP, 10/27/09)
2009 Oct 30, ING, the biggest
bank in the Netherlands, said that it would dismember itself by
splitting its banking and insurance business and selling its
American online banking arm.
(Econ, 10/31/09, p.85)
2009 Nov 1, Mohamud Said Omar
(43) was arrested at the request of US authorities in an asylum
seeker's center in Dronten, Netherlands. US authorities suspected
Omar of bankrolling the purchase of weapons for Islamic extremists
and helping other Somalis travel to Somalia in 2007 and 2008. He had
a US green card and was also suspected of recruiting youth in
Minneapolis for Islamic terrorism in Somalia.
(AP, 11/13/09)
2009 Nov 5, In the Netherlands
the UN war crimes tribunal decided that former Bosnian Serb leader
Radovan Karadzic will be appointed a lawyer to represent him
whenever he fails to appear in court.
(AP, 11/5/09)
2009 Nov 5, A consortium
grouping US and European oil giants Exxon Mobil Corp. and Royal
Dutch Shell PLC signed a $50 billion deal to develop one of Iraq's
most prized oil fields, as the OPEC nation looks to revamp its
battered energy sector. The deal to develop the 8.6 billion West
Qurna Stage 1 field is the third such agreement in less than a week
between a foreign oil consortium and Iraq, which sorely needs
foreign company expertise and funding to revive an oil sector
hammered by years of neglect, sanctions and, most recently sabotage.
(AP, 11/5/09)
2009 Nov 13, The Dutch
government announced to bring the polluter-pays principle into the
home garage. As of 2012 rather than an annual road tax for their
cars, drivers will pay a few cents for every kilometer on the road,
in a plan aimed at breaking chronic traffic jams and cutting carbon
emissions.
(AP, 11/14/09)
2009 Nov 18, The United States
attended a meeting of the International Criminal Court's management
board at The Hague for the first time in a sign it has stopped
shunning the world's only permanent war crimes tribunal.
(AP, 11/18/09)
2009 Nov 23, UOP LLC, a
Honeywell company, announced today that its renewable jet fuel
process technology was used to convert second-generation, renewable
feedstocks to green jet fuel for a biofuel demonstration flight by
KLM Royal Dutch Airlines.
(http://tinyurl.com/yb877n3)(SFC, 11/24/09, p.A2)
2009 Dec 2, Turkish diplomat
Ahmet Uzumcu was elected to be director of the 188-nation
Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, based in The
Hague. He takes over next July. He said that he will pursue the last
seven holdouts (Angola, Egypt, Israel, North Korean, Myanmar,
Somalia and Syria) to get them to sign a disarmament treaty and
submit weapons stockpiles for inspection.
(AP, 12/3/09)
2009 Dec 2, Somali pirates on
speedboats tried to board the Antigua and Barbuda-flagged BBC Togo,
but were repelled after firing on the vessel. 13 pirates then fled
to a larger fishing boat 150 nautical miles (280km) south of Salalah
where a Dutch frigate captured them.
(AP, 12/3/09)
2009 Dec 4, Amsterdam City
councilwoman Marijke Vos planted a sapling, in the Amsterdamse Bos
park. It was derived from a 150-year-old chestnut tree that once
cheered Anne Frank as her family hid from the Nazis. 149 Others will
be planted around the world.
(AP, 12/4/09)
2009 Dec 20, Dutch sports
carmaker Spyker said it has made a new bid for Sweden's Saab
Automobile, two days after General Motors said it would close the
loss-making unit.
(AFP, 12/20/09)
2009 Dec 30, The Netherlands
announced it will immediately begin using full body scanners for
flights heading to the United States, issuing a report that called
the failed Christmas Day airline bombing a "professional" terror
attack.
(AP, 12/30/09)
2009 Luuk van Middelaar, Dutch
political philosopher, authored “The Passage to Europe: How a
Continent Became a Union.” In 2012 it won the European Book Prize.
In 2013 it came out in English.
(Econ, 5/25/13, p.86)
2009 In the Netherlands actor
and comedian Herman Koch authored his novel “The Dinner.” It went on
to sell over 1 million copies in 24 countries and in 2012 became
available in English.
(Econ, 8/11/12, p.72)
2009 In the Netherlands 6
people died this year from Q-fever. Some 2,300 had become infected
by Coxiella burnetti, the infectious bug responsible for the
disease. The bug is released into the air during birthing or
miscarriages by infected goats. 40,000 pregnant goats were slated to
be destroyed in early 2010.
(Econ, 1/9/10, p.52)
2010 Jan 11, Dutch brewer
Heineken said it will buy the beer-making operations of Mexico’s
Femsa, the maker of Dos Equis and Sol beers, in an all-share deal
valued at $5.5 billion, excluding debt.
(SFC, 1/12/10, p.D3)
2010 Jan 13, Edgar Vos (78),
"the emperor of Dutch fashion," died of a heart attack while on
vacation in Florida. Vos built a chain of 15 stores across the
Netherlands, where he sold designer clothes cut to bring out the
best from all figures and tailored to most budgets.
(AP, 1/14/10)
2010 Jan 21, A Dutch airlift
brought 106 children from quake-ravaged Haiti to new lives in the
Netherlands and Luxembourg, as anxious families waited to hug
children they had been in the process of adopting for months.
(AP, 1/21/10)
2010 Jan 26, General Motors
agreed to sell Saab, its Swedish subsidiary, to Spyker Cars, a Dutch
maker of sports cars, for $74 million in cash and preference shares
worth $326 million.
(Econ, 1/30/10, p.76)
2010 Feb 3, At The Hague
appeals judges said the International Criminal Court was wrong when
it decided that Sudan's Pres. Omar al-Bashir can't be charged with
genocide in Darfur. The unprecedented ruling could lead al-Bashir's
indictment with humanity's worst crime.
(AP, 2/3/10)
2010 Feb 16, Royal Dutch Shell
PLC said it was freezing executive pay and revamping bonus policy in
the wake of a shareholder rebellion at its annual meeting last year.
(AP, 2/16/10)
2010 Feb 20, The Dutch
coalition government collapsed over whether to extend the country's
military mission in Afghanistan, leaving the future of its 1,600
soldiers fighting there uncertain. An early election is now
expected.
(AP, 2/20/10)
2010 Mar 1, Daniel Houghton
(25), a former MI6 spy, was arrested after British intelligence
posed as the potential buyer of top secret files on intelligence
gathering techniques. Prosecutor Piers Arnold later said Houghton,
who is a dual Dutch and British national, is accused of copying top
secret files from the domestic agency MI5 to CD and DVDs while
working for the MI6 overseas intelligence service between September
2007 and May 2009. On Sep 3, 2010, Houghton was sentenced to one
year in prison. He was expected to walk free as he has already spent
184 days in custody.
(AP, 3/3/10)(AFP, 9/3/10)
2010 Mar 5, Dutch anti-Islam
maverick Geert Wilders (46) took his cinematic assault on the Quran
to Britain's House of Lords, sparking heated debate inside the
building and angry protests outside. Wilders screened his 15-minute
film "Fitna" to about 60 people, including a half-dozen peers, in a
wood-paneled committee room in Parliament. The film associates the
Quran with terrorism, homophobia and repression of women.
(AP, 3/5/10)
2010 Mar 8, In Australia Royal
Dutch Shell and PetroChina joined forces for a 2.96 billion US
dollar bid for Australia's Arrow Energy, hoping for a bigger slice
of the country's booming liquefied natural gas (LNG) sector.
(AP, 3/8/10)
2010 Mar 12, A union
representing Dutch nurses launched a national campaign against
demands for sexual services by patients who claim it should be part
of their standard care.
(Reuters, 3/11/10)
2010 Mar 25, A Netherlands
court fined the owner of what was the biggest marijuana-selling
"coffee shop" in the country almost euro10 million ($13.34 million)
for violating liberal Dutch drug laws, in what is seen as a test for
authorities seeking to rein in the growth of such cafes.
(AP, 3/25/10)
2010 Apr 4, Somali pirates in
the Indian Ocean seized the Taipan, a Germany-flagged freighter. The
Dutch navy captured 10 Somalis hours after the seizure. In 2012 the
Somalis were convicted on piracy charges and sentenced to prison
terms of 2-7 years.
(SFC, 10/20/12, p.A2)
2010 Apr 9, In the Netherlands
the Political Reformed Party, known by its Dutch acronym SGP, a
fundamentalist Christian political party led entirely by men, was
told by the Netherlands' Supreme Court that it must accept women in
leadership roles.
(AP, 4/9/10)
2010 Apr 20, The Dutch Supreme
Court overturned the acquittal of Guus Kouwenhoven, a businessman
accused of supplying arms to former Liberian strongman Charles
Taylor, and ordered a new appeals hearing in the case. He had been
convicted in 2006 of breaching a UN arms embargo by trading weapons
for timber in Liberia and sentenced to eight years imprisonment, but
the conviction was overturned in 2008.
(AP, 4/20/10)
2010 May 4, Royal Dutch Shell
said it spilled nearly 14,000 tons of oil into the creeks of the
Niger Delta in 2009 and blamed thieves and militants for the
environmental damage.
(SFC, 5/5/10, p.A2)
2010 May 6, Julio Alberto Poch
(57), a pilot who allegedly flew death flights for Argentina's
military dictatorship, was extradited from Spain. Spain acted on
Argentina's request, arresting him in front of his passengers and
family during a stop in Valencia on what was supposed to be his
final flight back to the Netherlands before retiring from Transavia.
(AP, 5/6/10)
2010 May 12, A Libyan Afriqiyah
Airways Airbus A330-200 carrying 104 people crashed on approach to
Tripoli's airport. Ruben van Assouw, a Dutch boy (9), was the only
known survivor. The Royal Dutch Tourism Board said 61 of the dead
came from the Netherlands.
(AP, 5/12/10)(AFP, 5/14/10)
2010 May 19, Royal Dutch Shell
PLC announced it will spend more than $2 billion to sharply reduce
the burning off of natural gas at its oil wells in Nigeria, gases
that when burned contribute to global warming and sicken people
living nearby.
(AP, 5/19/10)
2010 Jun 4, A Dutch court
ordered 10 suspected Somali pirates to be extradited to Germany,
where Hamburg prosecutors want to charge them with hijacking a
German container ship.
(AP, 6/4/10)
2010 Jun 9, The Netherlands
held parliamentary elections. Voters appeared likely to shift the
Netherlands to the right in national elections dominated by concerns
over the rising national debt and discontent over immigration. Dutch
politicians scrambled the next day to sort out who will form the
country's next government, after polarized voters backed parties on
both the right and the left with very different ideas on budget cuts
and Muslim immigration. With 99.5 percent of votes counted, the
pro-business VVD led Labor 31 seats to 30 in the 150-seat
parliament.
(AP, 6/9/10)(AP, 6/10/10)
2010 Jun 17, A Dutch court
sentenced five Somali pirates, the first to stand trial in Europe,
to five years in prison for attacking a Dutch Antilles-flagged ship
in 2009.
(AP, 6/17/10)
2010 Jun 17, Royal Dutch Shell
PLC warned Nigeria that $40 billion of planned investments in the
oil-rich nation could be in jeopardy if lawmakers pass a proposed
bill to overhaul the petroleum industry. Government officials say
the bill would allow more oil money to return to Nigeria's
people. The bill also would require the government-run Nigerian
National Petroleum Corp., which partners with all foreign oil firms,
to seek profits like a private business and not rely on government
subsidies.
(AP, 6/17/10)
2010 Jul 6, Britain's Queen
Elizabeth (84) addressed the UN for the first time since1957. The
queen's 10-minute speech to a special session of the General
Assembly was finished before Netherlands and Uruguay returned to
their soccer match in Cape Town. Netherlands moved to the finals
after beating Uruguay 3-2.
(Reuters, 7/6/10)
2010 Jul 9, Prosecutors at the
Yugoslav war crimes tribunal in The Hague cited Ratko Mladic's
diaries, seized in a raid on his wife's Belgrade home in February,
in a motion to reopen the trial of former Bosnian Croat political
leader Jadranko Prlic and five other political and military Croat
officials that ended two months ago.
(AP, 7/9/10)
2010 Jul 11, In South Africa
Spain beat Holland for soccer’s World Cup.
(AP, 7/12/10)
2010 Jul 23, A Dutch court
slapped a one million euro fine on Trafigura, a Swiss-based company
whose chartered ship dumped hazardous waste the Ivory Coast says
killed 17 people on its soil. It was also found guilty of concealing
what the charge sheet referred to as the "harmful nature" of the
waste on board the Probo Koala ship that arrived at the port of
Amsterdam on July 2, 2006, but was redirected to the Ivory Coast.
(AFP, 7/23/10)
2010 Jul 27, Dutch judges gave
the green light for a teenage girl's bid to become the youngest
person to sail around the world solo, thwarting a bid to have Laura
Dekker (14) kept in child care.
(AFP, 7/27/10)
2010 Aug 1, Dutch troops ended
their mission in Afghanistan after four "proud" years, in a
departure experts say signals the beginning of a drawdown of foreign
forces that will leave a worrying void. Troops held a "change of
command" ceremony at the main military base in central Uruzgan
province where most of the country's 1,950 soldiers have been
deployed. About 150 Dutch fighting forces were left in country, and
they are set to leave next week.
(AFP, 8/1/10)(AP, 8/1/10)
2010 Aug 1, UNESCO added five
cultural sites to its World Heritage List, including the Imperial
Citadel of Thang Long-Hanoi in Vietnam. The other new sites include
the historic monuments of Dengfeng in China, the archaeological site
Sarazm in Tajikistan, the Episcopal city of Albi in France and a
17th-century canal ring in Amsterdam.
(AP, 8/1/10)
2010 Aug 5, In the Netherlands
Naomi Campbell testified before a war crimes tribunal that she had
received some "dirty-looking stones" after a 1997 dinner party with
former Liberian ruler Charles Taylor. Still, the supermodel said she
didn't know if the stones were actually diamonds or if the gift came
from Taylor himself. Campbell said that she gave the stones to a
friend, Jeremy Ratcliffe, who was the director of the Nelson Mandela
Children's Fund, intending he use them for charity.
(AP, 8/5/10)
2010 Aug 17, Amsterdam police
found 7,000 kg of marijuana and hashish in a warehouse near Schiphol
Airport in the Netherlands, after arresting a 35-year-old man on
suspicion of selling narcotics. The estimated street value was 40
million euros (32.8 million pounds).
(Reuters, 8/24/10)
2010 Aug 20, Conny Mus (59), a
veteran Dutch correspondent in the Middle East who covered conflicts
from Romania's revolution to the wars in Iraq, died while on
vacation in his home country.
(AP, 8/20/10)
2010 Aug 21, Laura Dekker, a
14-year-old Dutch sailor, departed in secrecy from Gibraltar on her
quest to become the youngest person to sail solo around the world,
avoiding the media because her manager said she didn't want the
attention.
(AP, 8/21/10)
2010 Aug 23, In the Netherlands
the monumental chestnut tree that cheered Anne Frank while she was
in hiding from the Nazis in Amsterdam was toppled by wind and heavy
rain.
(AP, 8/23/10)
2010 Aug 25, Cosan, Brazil’s
biggest sugar and ethanol producer, signed a $12 billion joint
venture with Royal Dutch Shell.
(Econ, 9/4/10, p.41)
2010 Sep, The FBI and its
counterparts in Ukraine, the Netherlands and Britain took down a
cyber-theft ring they first got wind of in May 2009 when a financial
services firm tipped the bureau's Omaha, Neb., office to suspicious
transactions. Since then, the FBI's Operation Trident Breach has
uncovered losses of $14 million and counting.
(AP, 11/22/10)
2010 Oct 1, In the Netherlands
more than 100 people protesting the outlawing of squatting at unused
buildings clashed with police in Amsterdam's historic center,
throwing stones, setting fires and erecting barricades.
(AP, 10/2/10)
2010 Oct 10, Curacao, St
Maarten, Bonaire, Saba and St Eustatius were scheduled to go their
own ways. The former Dutch Caribbean colonies of Curacao and St.
Maarten became autonomous countries within the Kingdom of the
Netherlands in a change of constitutional status dissolving the
Netherlands Antilles.
(Econ, 5/1/10, p.38)(Reuters, 10/10/10)
2010 Oct 14, Dutch Queen
Beatrix swore in her country's new right-wing minority Cabinet,
ushering in a new era of budgetary austerity and tighter immigration
rules.
(AP, 10/14/10)
2010 Oct 22, In the central
Netherlands a collision between the German cargo ship Duisburg
Ruhror and a small Dutch passenger ferry on a canal took the life of
ferry skipper Hendrik Plomp (56). Divers soon recovered his body.
(AP, 10/23/10)
2010 Nov 23, Police in Belgium,
Germany and the Netherlands arrested at least 10 people on suspicion
of planning an Islamist militant attack in Belgium.
(Reuters, 11/23/10)
2010 Nov 26, The Dutch navy
said it has captured 20 suspected pirates off the Somali coast in
two operations in the last week and is holding them on a warship on
suspicion of involvement in hijacking a South African yacht.
(AP, 11/26/10)
2010 Nov 28, More than 250,000
classified US State Department documents were released by online
whistleblower WikiLeaks. Among the leaked memos was information that
Iranian Red Crescent ambulances were used to smuggle weapons to
Lebanon's militant Hezbollah group during its 2006 war with Israel.
Memos said the "IRC shipments of medical supplies served also to
facilitate weapons shipments." Documents also detailed concerns by
US officials in Baghdad about Iran’s influence on Iraq. Memos also
said King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia had repeatedly urged the United
States to attack Iran to destroy its nuclear program to stop Tehran
from developing a nuclear weapon. One cable revealed that the US
kept nuclear weapons in Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany and
Turkey.
(AP, 11/28/10)(Econ, 12/4/10, p.35)
2010 Nov 29, A Sierra
Leone-flagged cargo ship, Karam 1, sank after colliding with the
Dutch tanker Alessandro DP, 10 miles (16 km) off Cape Emine in the
Black Sea. 5 sailors were rescued and 5 were missing.
(AP, 11/30/10)
2010 Dec 3, The Netherlands'
justice minister and five southern Dutch cities said they will
implement new restrictions on marijuana cafes after a wave of
drug-related gangland violence.
(AP, 12/3/10)
2010 Dec 7, In the Netherlands
a teacher (27) was arrested on suspicion of molesting dozens of very
young children. The man's computers containing child pornography
were seized and he later confessed to dozens of sex crimes allegedly
committed over the past year and a half.
(AP, 12/13/10)
2010 Dec 9, Netherlands
arrested a young hacker who confessed to participating in attacks by
WikiLeaks sympathizers on websites, including MasterCard, PayPal and
Visa.
(AP, 12/10/10)
2010 Dec 21, Netherlands-based
Royal DSM NV, the world’s largest maker of vitamins, agreed to buy
Martek Biosciences, a US maker of nutritional ingredients for baby
food, for $1.09 billion.
(SFC, 12/22/10, p.D3)
2010 Dec 24, Dutch police
arrested 12 Somali men in the key port city of Rotterdam on
suspicion of preparing a terrorist attack. Dutch authorities on Dec
26 cleared five of the 12 Somali men who were detained Christmas Eve
on suspicion of preparing a terrorist attack. By Dec 30 the
remaining Somalis were released but 3 were still considered suspect.
(AP, 12/25/10)(AP, 12/27/10)(AP, 12/30/10)
2011 Jan 2, In Iran Sahra
Bahrami, a Dutch-Iranian woman, was sentenced to death for drug
smuggling. Bahrami reportedly was arrested in Dec 2009 after taking
part in anti-government demonstrations. She also faced trial and the
possibility of another death sentence, likely within two months, for
allegedly belonging to an armed opposition group.
(AP, 1/5/11)
2011 Jan 6, In the Netherlands
the daily Het Parool reported that prostitutes in Amsterdam will be
required to pay taxes this year. Over 3,000 sex workers were
affected by the move.
(SFC, 1/7/11, p.A2)
2011 Jan 26, Environmental
groups accused Anglo-Dutch oil giant Shell of destroying lives and
the environment in the Niger Delta, and urged Dutch MPs to intervene
as the company defended its record.
(AFP, 1/26/11)
2011 Jan 29, In Iran Zahram
Bahrami, an Iranian-Dutch woman detained after participating in
protests against Iran's disputed presidential election in 2009, was
hanged. She was allegedly hanged for possessing and selling drugs.
The Dutch government froze official contacts with Iran to protest
the hanging.
(AP, 1/29/11)(SSFC, 1/30/11, p.A4)
2011 Feb 27, In Libya hundreds
of armed anti-government forces backed by rebel troops who control
the city closest to the capital Tripoli prepared to repel an
expected offensive by forces loyal to Moammar Gadhafi surrounding
Zawiya, a city of 200,000. Armed forces loyal to Moammar Gadhafi
captured 3 Dutch marines and their helicopter during a botched
evacuation mission after landing near Sirte in a Lynx helicopter
from the navy ship HMS Tromp.
(AP, 2/27/11)(AP, 3/3/11)
2011 Mar 2, In the Netherlands
prosecutors at the International Criminal Court said they will open
a formal investigation into possible crimes against humanity in
Libya.
(AP, 3/2/11)
2011 Mar 11, In the Netherlands
the war crimes trial of former Liberian President Charles Taylor,
once among West Africa's most powerful figures, ended with judges
expected to take months to reach a verdict on whether he can be
linked to murders and amputations during Sierra Leone's civil war.
(AP, 3/11/11)
2011 Apr 3, Dutch marines
killed 2 pirates and captured 16 others during an operation to free
a hijacked Iranian fishing boat of Somalia.
(www.dailybulletin.com/ci_17767176)
2011 Apr 8, Netherlands’
officials said the government will cut 12,000 military jobs as part
of spending cuts to balance the budget by 2015.
(SFC, 4/9/11, p.A2)
2011 Apr 9, In the Netherlands
Tristan van der Vlis (24), opened fire at the Ridderhof mall in
Alphen aan den Rijn with an automatic rifle killing 6 people and
wounded least 17 others. He fired more than 100 rounds in a few
minutes and ended the rampage by shooting himself fatally in the
head.
(AP, 4/10/11)(AP, 4/11/11)
2011 Apr 15, In the Netherlands
Gen. Ante Gotovina (55), a commander hailed by Croats as a hero of
the Balkan conflict, was convicted of war crimes by a UN court and
sentenced to 24 years in prison for a campaign of shelling,
shootings and expulsions aimed at driving Serbs out of a Croatian
border region in 1995.
(AP, 4/15/11)
2011 Apr 23, Max van der Stoel
(86), former Dutch human rights watchdog for Iraq and the first High
Commissioner on National Minorities at the 54-nation Organization
for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), died.
(AP, 4/24/11)
2011 May 21, In the Netherlands
the Salesian order's top official, Delegate Herman Spronck,
confirmed in a statement that a priest, identified by RTL Nieuws as
73-year-old "Father Van B.," had served on the board of "Martijn," a
group that campaigns to end the Dutch ban on adult-child sex.
(AP, 5/21/11)
2011 May 27, The Dutch
government said it would start banning tourists from buying cannabis
from "coffee shops" and impose restrictions on Dutch buyers by the
end of the year.
(Reuters, 5/27/11)
2011 Jun 16, Capital One
Financial agreed to pay $9 billion in cash and stock for ING Direct
USA, the US subsidiary of ING Group, a Dutch banking and insurance
giant.
(SFC, 12/29/11, p.D6)(http://tinyurl.com/3v6mthz)
2011 Jun 23, A Dutch court
acquitted right-wing politician Geert Wilders of hate speech charges
finding that his inflammatory comments about Muslims were protected
by rules governing discourse in a free society.
(SFC, 6/24/11, p.A5)
2011 Jun 27, The International
Criminal Court in the Netherlands issued arrest warrants for Moammar
Gadhafi, his son Seif, and his intelligence chief for crimes against
humanity in the Libyan leader's four-month battle to cling to power.
(AP, 6/27/11)
2011 Jun 28, The Dutch
parliament agreed with the Dutch Party for the Animals (pvdD) and
passed a bill banning the slaughter of livestock without stunning it
first, removing an exemption that has allowed Jews and Muslims to
butcher animals according to centuries old dietary rules.
(SFC, 6/28/11, p.A2)(Econ, 12/21/13, p.80)
2011 Jul 5, An appeals judges
ruled that the Netherlands was responsible for the deaths of three
Bosnian Muslim men slain by Serbs during the 1995 Srebrenica
massacre, ordering the Dutch government to compensate the men's
relatives.
(AP, 7/5/11)
2011 Jul 7, In the Netherlands
a large section of the roof of a soccer stadium collapsed during
off-season construction work in Enschede, killing one person and
leaving 10 hospitalized.
(AP, 7/7/11)
2011 Jul 9, Interpol, at the
request of the Netherlands-based Special Tribunal for Lebanon,
issued its highest-level international alerts against four Hezbollah
men indicted in the 2005 slaying of Lebanon's former prime minister.
(AP, 7/9/11)
2011 Jul 20, The Dutch
government announced plans to equip 125 police officers with mobile
devices that can scan detainees' fingerprints to check whether they
are illegal immigrants.
(AP, 7/20/11)
2011 Jul 20, Dutch prosecutors
released some details about four Dutch citizens arrested on
suspicion of involvement in cyber attacks as part of the
loosely-knit hackers group known as "Anonymous." They said the
suspects are thought to have belonged to a splinter group called
AntiSec NL, which hacked the sites of dating service Pepper.nl and
communications software maker Nimbuzz, among others.
(AP, 7/20/11)
2011 Aug 3, British officials
said they have seized about 300 million pounds ($492 million) worth
of cocaine in a record-setting drug bust on a pleasure boat. 1.2
tons of cocaine were found hidden in a specially-designed
compartment on a boat docked in southern England in June and it took
six days of searching the Louise to find the drugs. Six men arrested
were all Dutch nationals.
(AP, 8/3/11)
2011 Aug 12, A Dutch court sent
two Somalis to jail for up to seven years for hijacking a South
African yacht last year and seizing a South African couple who are
still missing. Three others also were convicted of piracy. The five
men were caught by the Dutch navy in the Gulf of Aden in November,
heavily armed with machine guns and bazookas.
(AP, 8/12/11)
2011 Aug 22, Royal Dutch shell
said sabotage in Nigeria has led to six oil spills from one Shell
pipeline since the start of the month, while damage to another line
has caused a temporary production halt.
(AFP, 8/22/11)
2011 Sep 6, At the Hague,
Netherlands, the Yugoslav war crimes tribunal sentenced Gen. Momcilo
Perisic, the former chief of the Yugoslav army, to 27 years
imprisonment for providing crucial military aid to Bosnian Serb
forces responsible for the 1995 Srebrenica massacre and for a deadly
four-year campaign of shelling and sniping in Sarajevo.
(AP, 9/6/11)
2011 Sep 29, In the Netherlands
author Hella Haasse (93), an award-winning author best known for
chronicling colonial life in the Dutch East Indies, died. Haasse's
first novel, "Oeroeg" (1948), was an instant hit and has been read
at school by generations of Dutch children.
(AP, 9/30/11)
2011 Oct 7, The Dutch
government said it would move to reclassify high-potency marijuana
alongside hard drugs such as cocaine and ecstasy.
(SFC, 10/8/11, p.A2)
2011 Dec 2, Royal Bank of
Scotland said it has sold its 918 tenanted pubs in Britain to Dutch
brewer Heineken for 422 million pounds, another step in its exit
from non-core businesses following a government bailout.
(Reuters, 12/2/11)
2011 Dec 20, American
authorities said they had asked the world’s leading scientific
journals to withhold research on bird flu after researcher teams in
Madison and Rotterdam engineered the virus so that it could be
transmitted through the air from ferret to ferret. In January
scientists agreed to suspend their research for 60 days. On April
20, 2012, the US reversed its stance. On April 27 the Dutch
government gave Ron Fouchier permission to publish his paper. A 2nd
paper by Yoshihiro Kawaoka of the Univ. of Wisconsin-Madison was
published in May.
(www.economist.com/node/21542156)(SFC, 1/21/12,
p.A4)(Econ, 5/5/12, p.78)(Econ, 6/23/12, p.81)
2011 Dec 23, The International
Criminal Court (ICC) at The Hague freed Rwandan rebel Callixte
Mbarushimana and returned him to France after dismissing murder and
rape charges against him. He spent 11 months in detention and was
the first war crimes suspect to be arrested and freed without trial
since the court began work in 2002.
(AP, 12/23/11)
2011 In the Netherlands
Charlotte van den Berg (20), a student working part-time in
Amsterdam’s city archives, discovered letters from Jewish Holocaust
survivors complaining that the city was forcing them to pay back
taxes and late fines on property seized after they were deported to
Nazi death camps. By 2014 a review found 217 cases in which the city
had demanded that returning Jews pay the taxes and penalty fees.
(SSFC, 4/20/14, p.A9)
2012 Jan 6, In Peru Dutch
citizen Joran Van der Sloot said he would "sincerely confess" to
killing a Peruvian woman in 2010 in a plea strategy that aimed to
reduce his eventual prison sentence, prompting judges to suspend the
trial until Jan 11.
(Reuters, 1/6/12)
2012 Jan 11, In Peru Joran van
der Sloot (24) pleaded guilty to the 2010 murder of a Peruvian woman
he met at a Lima casino who was killed five years to the day after
the unsolved disappearance in Aruba of an American teen in which he
remains the main suspect. On Jan 13 he was sentenced to 28 years in
prison. Due to time already served, his sentence would end in June
2038.
(AP, 1/11/12)(AP, 1/13/12)
2012 Jan 16, Gustav Leonhardt
(b.1928), Dutch keyboard player and father of the early-music
movement, died in Amsterdam.
(Econ, 1/28/12, p.90)
2012 Jan 21, Dutch sailor Laura
Dekker (16) set foot aboard a dock in St. Maarten, ending a yearlong
voyage aboard a sailboat named "Guppy" that apparently made her the
youngest person ever to sail alone around the globe. She had set out
from St. Maarten on Jan. 20, 2011.
(AP, 1/21/12)
2012 Feb 8, In the Netherlands
organizers of the legendary Eleven Cities Tour skating marathon
ruled the ice is to thin for it to go ahead.
(AP, 2/9/12)
2012 Mar 14, The International
Criminal Court at The Hague convicted Congolese warlord Thomas
Lubanga of using child soldiers, a verdict hailed as a legal
landmark in the fight against impunity for the world's most serious
crimes.
(AP, 3/14/12)
2012 Mar 19, UPS under Scott
Davis announced that it would buy TNT Express, a Dutch company, for
$6.8 billion.
(Econ, 3/24/12, p.67)
2012 Apr 5, Dutch PM Mark Rutte
denounced Suriname's decision to grant amnesty to President Desi
Bouterse for crimes committed under his earlier military
dictatorship as "totally unacceptable" and recalled the country's
ambassador from its former colony in protest.
(AP, 4/5/12)
2012 Apr 21, In the Netherlands
two trains in Amsterdam were involved in a head-on collision that
seriously wounded 42 people. One passenger died the next day.
(AFP, 4/22/12)
2012 Apr 22, A prize-winning,
super-energy-saving 10-watt LED bulb from Dutch electronics giant
Philips, went on sale to coincide with Earth Day. The bulb, said to
last over 20 years, has won the US Department of Energy's "Bright
Tomorrow Lighting Prize" and was now available from retailers for
$50, down from an initial $60 price tag.
(AFP, 4/22/12)
2012 Apr 23, Dutch PM Mark
Rutte and his Cabinet resigned after failing to reach agreement on
reducing the country's budget to meet European guidelines.
(AP, 4/23/12)
2012 Apr 26, In the Netherlands
an international court convicted former Liberian President Charles
Taylor (64) of aiding and abetting war crimes and crimes against
humanity for supporting notoriously brutal rebels in neighboring
Sierra Leone in return for "blood diamonds." Taylor became the first
head of state convicted by an international court since the
post-World War II Nuremberg military tribunal.
(AP, 4/26/12)
2012 Apr 27, A Dutch judge
upheld the government's plan to introduce a "weed pass" to prevent
foreigners from buying marijuana in coffee shops in the Netherlands.
(AP, 4/27/12)
2012 May 30, In the Netherlands
international judges sentenced former Liberian President Charles
Taylor to 50 years in prison for atrocities in Sierra Leone during
the 1990s.
(AP, 5/30/12)(SFC, 5/31/12, p.A2)
2012 Jul 1, A Russian Soyuz
space capsule landed in Kazakhstan bringing an end to a 193-day
mission for American astronaut Donald Petit, Dutchman Andre Kuipers
and Russian Oleg Kononenko.
(SFC, 7/2/12, p.A2)
2012 Jul 10, In the Netherlands
the International Criminal Court sentenced Congolese warlord Thomas
Lubanga to 14 years in prison, a potential landmark in the struggle
to protect children during wartime. Lubanga was found guilty in
March of recruiting and using children in his Union of Congolese
Patriots militia. An appeal in 2014 upheld his conviction.
(AP, 7/10/12)(SFC, 12/2/14, p.A2)
2012 Jul 15, Sewing needles
were found in 5 sandwiches on flights originating in Amsterdam. One
passenger on a flight to Minneapolis was injured. The other needles
were on two flights to Atlanta and one to Seattle. The sandwiches
were made in the Amsterdam kitchen of catering company Gate Gourmet.
(AP, 7/17/12)
2012 Jul 27, The Netherlands
said it has suspended part of its development aid to Rwanda because
of Kigali's alleged support for rebels in neighboring Democratic
Republic of Congo.
(AFP, 7/27/12)
2012 Aug 13, Dutch sailors
taking part in NATO's pirate-busting operation Ocean Shield helped
rescue the crew of a Somali dhow hijacked by pirates in the Gulf of
Aden.
(AFP, 8/14/12)
2012 Sep 11, Netherlands-based
Royal Philips Electronics NV, the largest maker of lights, said it
plans to cut another 2,200 jobs by 2014 to save €300 million ($383
million) a year.
(AP, 9/11/12)
2012 Sep 12, The Netherlands
held national elections. Dutch caretaker PM Mark Rutte led his
conservative VVD party to victory. The VVD was forecast to take 41
seats in the 150-member Dutch parliament, compared to Labor's 39
seats.
(AP, 9/12/12)(AP, 9/13/12)
2012 Sep 28, Shareholders of
Singapore-based conglomerate Fraser & Neave agreed to sell their
39.7 percent stake in Asian Pacific Breweries, the owner of Tiger
and other popular Asian brands, to Heineken. Heineken NV is spending
another €3.2 billion ($4.0 billion) to gain control over the Tiger
beer brand as part of a strategy to significantly expand its
operations in Asia.
(AP, 9/28/12)
2012 Oct 2, The US National
Institute for Public Health and the Environment said a salmonella
outbreak traced to smoked salmon has sickened hundreds of people in
the Netherlands and the United States. It has been traced to Dutch
company Foppen, which sells fish to many major Dutch supermarkets
and to stores around the world.
(AP, 10/2/12)(http://tinyurl.com/m3wv4tr)
2012 Oct 11, Nigerian farmers
asked a Dutch court to rule that oil company Shell is liable for
poisoning their fish ponds and farmland with leaking pipelines.
Royal Dutch Shell PLC long argued that the case, which was launched
in 2008, should be heard in Nigeria.
(AP, 10/11/12)
2012 Oct 16, In Rotterdam,
Netherlands, thieves grabbed seven paintings from the Kunsthal
gallery of works by celebrated artists including Pablo Picasso,
Claude Monet and Henri Matisse and vanished into the night. The
paintings were estimated to be worth roughly $100 million if sold at
auction.
(AP, 10/17/12)(AP, 10/18/12)
2012 Oct 18, Sylvia Kristal
(b.1952), Dutch film star, died in Amsterdam. She was best known for
her role in 4 of 7 “Emmannuelle” films.
(Econ, 11/3/12,
p.94)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sylvia_Kristel)
2012 Nov 5, In the Netherlands
Queen Beatrix swore in the new center-left coaltion of PM Mark
Rutte. The new government brought togethere the liberal VVD party
and the center-left Labor Party.
(SFC, 11/6/12, p.A2)
2012 Nov 28, A majority of
Dutch parties said the Netherlands no longer needs a law making it a
crime to insult God, which hasn't been invoked in the past
half-century.
(AP, 11/28/12)
2012 Dec 3, In the Netherlands
volunteer soccer linesman Richard Nieuwenhuizen (42) died a day
after he was beaten by players from Osdorp following a match against
his club Buitenboys in the city of Almere. The offenders, aged
14-17, were all ethnic Moroccans.
(Econ, 1/12/13, p.46)(http://tinyurl.com/cdpsf42)
2012 Dec 5, The 148m (485-foot)
Baltic Ace sank after colliding with the 134m (440-foot) container
ship Corvus J in darkness near busy shipping lanes some 65
kilometers (40 miles) off the coast of the southern Netherlands. 5
bodies were recovered and 6 others remained missing.
(AP, 12/6/12)(SFC, 12/7/12, p.A2)
2012 Dec 7, The Dutch
government approved a NATO request to send two batteries of Patriot
missile defense systems to Turkey, following in Germany's footsteps.
(AP, 12/7/12)
2012 Dec 12, Amsterdam Mayor
Eberhard van der Laan said he would formally ban students from
smoking marijuana at school, making the Dutch capital the first city
in the Netherlands to do so.
(AP, 12/12/12)
2013 Jan 7, The Dutch military
shipped Patriot missiles to Turkey, a fellow NATO member, after the
alliance agreed in December to deploy the anti-missile systems along
Turkey's southern border with Syria. Fighting in Syria continued
unabated.
(AP, 1/7/13)
2013 Jan 16, In the Netherlands
Alexander Dolmatov (36), a rocket engineer who feared arrest in
Russia after an opposition protest turned violent in May, was taken
to the prison-like deportation center in Rotterdam. The next morning
he was found dead in his cell. Dutch authorities had denied his
asylum request on Dec 14.
(AP, 2/7/13)
2013 Jan 28, The Netherlands'
Queen Beatrix announced that she is ending her reign after 33 years
and passing the crown to her eldest son, Willem-Alexander (45), who
has long been groomed to be king.
(AP, 1/28/13)
2013 Feb 1, The Netherlands
nationalized SNS Reaal bank and expropriated its bonds in a $14
billion rescue. Investors in the subordinated bonds were wiped out.
(Econ, 3/16/13, p.72)(http://tinyurl.com/bllbeqf)
2013 Feb 26, The Hague Appeals
Court ruled that a 2005 law, which makes it mandatory for all people
older than 14 to carry ID cards and show them to police upon
request, does not have a religious exemption.
(AP, 2/26/13)
2013 Mar 1, A Dutch court
convicted Yvonne Basebya (66), a Rwandan-born Dutch woman, of
inciting genocide in Rwanda's 1994 mass murders of ethnic Tutsis by
members of the Hutu tribe — the first conviction of a Dutch citizen
for the crime. She was sentenced to six years and eight months in
prison for her role.
(AP, 3/1/13)
2013 Mar 11, The Clinton
Foundation announced that grants for over $700,000 will go toward
efforts in Haiti to plant trees, build a coffee farm and train
farmers. Heineken NV announced that it would invest $40 million to
expand a brewery and help farmers who supply it with sorghum.
(AP, 3/12/13)
2013 Mar 25, TNT Express NV, a
Dutch-based package delivery company, said it will restructure
operations, taking €150 million ($195 million) in charges and
cutting 4,000 jobs, or 6 percent of its work force, by the end of
2015. A takeover by UPS was blocked by European regulators in
January.
(AP, 3/25/13)
2013 Apr 8, In Amsterdam
President Vladimir Putin defended Russia's treatment of homosexuals,
as 1,000 gay rights activists waved pink and orange balloons and
blasted out dance music to press home their protest.
(Reuters, 4/8/13)
2013 Apr 8, In Egypt Dutch
journalist Rena Netjes was arrested by Egyptian citizens while
reporting in Cairo, accused of being a spy and handed to authorities
who detained her overnight.
(AP, 4/9/13)
2013 Apr 11,
Netherlands-based Royal Philips NV said it has developed a
working prototype of an LED lamp that will confine the fluorescent
bulb to the recycling bin of history.
(AP, 4/11/13)
2013 Apr 11, The Dutch Cabinet
brokered a deal with unions that scraps planned salary freezes for
government and healthcare workers.
(AP, 4/12/13)
2013 Apr 13, Netherlands' Queen
Beatrix officially reopened the Rijksmuseum, the country's national
museum, after a 10-year, 375 million euro ($480 million) renovation.
(AP, 4/13/13)
2013 Apr 23, A Dutch court
sentenced diplomat Raymond Poeteray (61) to 12 years in prison for
delivering confidential NATO and European Union documents to Russian
agents. He was arrested in March 2012 in connection with a German
investigation.
(AP, 4/23/13)
2013 Apr 24, A Dutch court
ordered Hans van Anraat, convicted of selling Saddam Hussein raw
materials for mustard gas, to pay compensation to victims of
chemical weapon attacks by the late Iraqi dictator's regime. The
landmark ruling was largely symbolic for the 16 survivors as the
businessman is serving a prison sentence for selling the chemicals
and is believed to be destitute.
(AP, 4/24/13)
2013 Apr 25, Spanish agents
arrested a Dutch citizen, identified as S.K. (35), for using a
vehicle to hack into networks. He was accused of attacking the
Swiss-British antispam watchdog group Spanhaus.
(SFC, 4/29/13, p.A3)
2013 Apr 30, In the Netherlands
Beatrix ended her 33-year reign as queen. Willem-Alexander became
the first Dutch king in more than a century and pledged to use his
ceremonial position as head of state to help steer his country
through uncertain economic times.
(AP, 4/30/13)
2013 Apr 30, UAE state news
agency WAM said that Abu Dhabi National Oil Co. (ADNOC) would own
60% of the Bab joint venture's equity and Royal Dutch Shell would
hold the rest.
(AP, 4/30/13)
2013 May 15, Dutch sociologist
Saskia Sassen was awarded Spain's Prince of Asturias social sciences
prize for her work in the field of globalization and urban
sociology. The jury said that one of her greatest scientific
contributions was "her concept of the 'global city', now accepted
and used worldwide."
(AP, 5/15/13)
2013 May 29, The EU granted
France, Spain, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal and Slovenia more time
to bring their budget deficits under control to support the bloc's
shrinking economy. The European Commission approved France’s request
to postpone by 2 years the target of cutting its budget deficit to
3% of GDP.
(AP, 5/29/13)(Econ, 6/1/13, p.55)
2013 May 29, A UN court in the
Netherlands convicted six Bosnian Croat political and military
leaders of persecuting, expelling and murdering Muslims during
Bosnia's war and said leaders in neighboring Croatia helped hatch
and execute their plan to carve out a Croat state in Bosnia.
(AP, 5/29/13)
2013 Jun 8, In Yemen Judith
Spiegel, a Dutch journalist, was kidnapped along with her partner
Boudewijn Berendsen. Both were reported released on Dec 10.
(AFP, 12/10/13)
2013 Jun 15, Yemeni police
confirmed the kidnapping of Judith Spiegel, a Dutch journalist,
along with her partner Boudewijn Berendsen, earlier this month. In
July the couple appealed for help, saying their captors have
threatened to kill them in days unless the Dutch government meets
unspecified demands.
(Reuters, 7/16/13)(http://tinyurl.com/n4zl2pj)
2013 Jul 17, A Romanian museum
official said that ash from the oven of a woman whose son is charged
with stealing 7 multi-million-dollar paintings from Rotterdam’s
Kunsthal Musum (Nov 16, 2012) contains paint, canvas and nails. Olga
Dogaru has claimed to have burned the stolen paintings last February
after police began searching the village of Caracliu, where she
lived. On July 22 Olga Dogaru told a Bucharest court that she did
not burn the paintings in her stove.
(SFC, 7/18/13, p.A2)(AP, 7/22/13)
2013 Jul 23, Dutch judges
blocked the extradition of a terror suspect, identified as Sabir K.,
to the United States, saying he was tortured in Pakistan after his
2010 arrest and it is unclear whether American authorities had any
involvement. US authorities have accused him of working with
al-Qaida from 2004 to 2010, and of plotting a suicide attack on an
American military base in Afghanistan.
(AP, 7/23/13)
2013 Aug 5, In Britain Dutch
scientists served hamburgers made from cow stem cells at a public
tasting in London. Sergey Brin, co-founder of Google, underwrote the
250,000-euro ($330,000) project, which began in 2006.
(AP, 8/5/13)
2013 Aug 13, In Romania a trial
opened on artwork stolen last october in the Netherlands. Lawyers
for the defendents said the paintings have not been burned and that
the gang responsible would like to cut a deal so the artwork can be
returned.
(SFC, 8/14/13, p.A2)
2013 Aug 23, The Belgian
prosecutor's office said a three-nation investigation (Belgium,
Netherlands, Poland) has led to one of the biggest seizures of
synthetic drugs in Europe, a haul of core products to create Ecstasy
pills with a street value of 1.3 billion euros ($1.75 billion).
(AP, 8/23/13)
2013 Sep 6, The Netherlands
supreme court ruled that the Dutch state is liable for the deaths of
three Bosnian Muslims who were expelled from a UN compound at
Srebrenica in 1995.
(AFP, 9/6/13)
2013 Sep 12, The Netherlands
sought to "close a difficult chapter" with its former colony
Indonesia by publicly apologising for mass killings carried out by
the Dutch army in the 1940s war of independence.
(AFP, 9/12/13)
2013 Sep 16, Representatives
from 15 Caribbean nations gathered in St. Vincent to seek slavery
reparations from Britain, France and the Netherlands.
(SFC, 9/17/13, p.A2)
2013 Sep 21, The Italian
government announced that police in The Netherlands have arrested
Francesco Nirta, a senior mafia boss and one of Italy's 10 most
wanted men.
(AP, 9/21/13)
2013 Sep 24, In the Netherlands
the commission that vets cases of euthanasia said cases rose by 13%
in 2012 from 2011, the sixth consecutive year of increases. 4,188
cases were recorded in 2012.
(AP, 9/24/13)
2013 Sep 26, A Russian court
ordered two Greenpeace activists to be detained for two months over
a protest on an Arctic oil platform, as the Netherlands called for
the activists' immediate release and threatened legal action against
Moscow.
(AFP, 9/26/13)
2013 Oct 4, The Netherlands
launched legal proceedings against Russia, saying it had unlawfully
detained activists and others on the Dutch-registered ship last
month as it protested against drilling in the Arctic.
(Reuters, 10/5/13)
2013 Oct 5, Russia shrugged off
Dutch legal action over its detention and prosecution of Greenpeace
activists for piracy, saying the group's protest at an Arctic oil
platform had been "pure provocation."
(Reuters, 10/5/13)
2013 Oct 7, Dutch coastguards
scrambled helicopters and divers to search for three sailors missing
in the North Sea after their ship sank following a collision with a
fishing trawler.
(AFP, 10/7/13)
2013 Oct 9, The Dutch foreign
minister apologized to Moscow for the detention of a Russian
diplomat in The Hague, saying his right to diplomatic immunity had
been violated. Dutch child protection services said earlier they
were investigating a complaint from neighbors of diplomat Dmitry
Borodin about his treatment of his children.
(Reuters, 10/9/13)
2013 Oct 15, Dutch police said
a total of 15 people have been arrested since July, related to
cocaine packages stashed aboard planes arriving from Latin America.
Seven of them employed by the same company at Schiphol.
(AFP, 10/15/13)
2013 Oct 15, In Russia unknown
attackers posing as electricians broke into the apartment of a Dutch
diplomat, forced him to the ground, hit him and drew a heart
containing the letters LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, and
transgender) on a mirror in pink lipstick.
(Reuters, 10/16/13)
2013 Oct 18, The Netherlands
Supreme Court said municipalities are entitled to to tax dog
ownership because they have to pick up the bill for keeping public
parks and streets clean.
(SFC, 10/18/13, p.A2)
2013 Oct 23, Russia said it
will boycott maritime court hearings sought by the Netherlands in a
bid to free 30 crew members of a Greenpeace ship who were detained
during a protest against Arctic oil drilling. Russia dropped piracy
charges against 30 people involved in a Greenpeace protest against
Arctic oil drilling, replacing them with lesser offences and cutting
the maximum jail sentence they face to seven years from 15.
(AFP, 10/23/13)(Reuters, 10/23/13)
2013 Oct 28, A major storm,
dubbed the St Jude storm, lashed southern Britain, the Netherlands
and parts of France, knocking down trees, flooding low areas and
causing travel chaos. 5 deaths were reported.
(AP, 10/28/13)
2013 Nov 1, Dutch PM Mark Rutte
said the Netherlands will send 380 soldiers and four Apache attack
helicopters to war-torn Mali following an appeal for more UN
peacekeepers.
(AFP, 11/1/13)
2013 Nov 5, Lyon-based Interpol
said it was waiting for information from Dutch authorities after a
rights group said it had identified 1,000 paedophiles by offering
online sex with a computer-generated girl (10).
(AFP, 11/5/13)
2013 Nov 20, The International
Criminal Court's vexed relationship with Africa took center stage on
the opening day of the annual summit of its 122 member states at The
Hague.
(AP, 11/20/13)
2013 Nov 29, Standard &
Poor's stripped the Netherlands of its triple-A credit rating,
saying that the country's growth prospects have deteriorated and it
is not performing as well as peers.
(AP, 11/29/13)
2013 Dec 1, In Germany Heinrich
Boere (92), who murdered Dutch civilians as part of a Nazi Waffen SS
hit squad during World War II but avoided justice for six decades,
died in a prison hospital while serving a life sentence.
(AP, 12/2/13)
2013 Dec 3, Netherlands-based
Royal Dutch Shell PLC said it has completed building the hull of the
world's largest floating facility, which has been constructed to
process natural gas off the coast of western Australia.
(AP, 12/3/13)
2013 Dec 6, Romania's Interior
Ministry said Adrian Procop (21), a Romanian man accused of stealing
seven masterpieces from a Dutch museum, was arrested in Britain
after months on the run. Procop entered the Kunsthal museum at night
in Oct 2012 with a friend, Radu Dogaru, and stole artworks worth 18
million euros ($24 million).
(AFP, 12/6/13)
2013 Russell Shorto authored
“Amsterdam: A History of the World’s Most Liberal City.”
(Econ, 10/26/13, p.95)
2014 Jan 8, Dutch pension asset
manager PGGM, one of the largest in the country, said it was
divesting from five Israeli banks because they finance Jewish
settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories.
(AFP, 1/8/14)
2014 Jan 23, Dutch authorities
said they have detained Jean Baptiste M. (54), a former Rwandan
politician suspected of compiling death lists during the country's
1994 genocide, and would send him home for court hearings.
(Reuters, 1/23/14)
2014 Jan 30, Royal Dutch Shell
said it will suspend drilling in offshore Alaska after a US court
decision and as the oil major streamlines operations following a
slump in annual profits.
(AFP, 1/30/14)
2014 Feb 10, In the Netherlands
former health minister Els Borst (81), a woman who drafted the
nation's landmark 2002 law permitting euthanasia, was found dead in
her garage. Police ruled out natural causes.
(AP, 2/11/14)
2014 Feb 11, German and Dutch
authorities arrested five men in a sting operation against a website
allegedly used to sell illegal drugs and weapons.
(AP, 2/13/14)
2014 Feb 27, Uganda shrugged
off foreign aid cuts and int’l criticism of its tough new anti-gay
law, saying it could do without Western aid. Denmark, Norway and the
Netherlands cut aid over Uganda’s anti-gay law.
(AFP, 2/27/14)(SFC, 2/28/14, p.A4)
2014 Feb, In the Netherlands
the Allard Pierson museum opened the "Crimea — Gold and secrets of
the Black Sea" exhibition. In April curators said they are not sure
where to return the objects on display when it ends in August due to
Russia’s takeover of Crimea.
(AP, 4/4/14)
2014 Mar 7, Congolese warlord
Germain Katanga was convicted of being an accessory to war crimes
including murder and pillage - only the second conviction in the
12-year history of the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The
Hague.
(Reuters, 3/7/14)
2014 Mar 22, The
Netherlands-based ICC said Charles Ble Goude, wanted by the
International Criminal Court in connection with a wave of violence
after Ivory Coast's 2010 elections, is in its court's custody and is
on his way to its jail in The Hague.
(Reuters, 3/22/14)
2014 Mar 23, China and the
Netherlands signed a trade pact pledging Dutch dairy expertise to
help Chinese producers boost the quality and quantity of their milk.
It was part of a raft of deals and memoranda of understanding inked
on the 2nd day of a state visit by Chinese President Xi Jinping, who
is in the Netherlands with a large trade delegation.
(AP, 3/23/14)
2014 Mar 24, Belgium and Italy
said they had moved excess nuclear materials to the United States
for disposal or downgrading under the terms of past agreements, at
the start of a nuclear summit in the Netherlands.
(Reuters, 3/24/14)
2014 Mar 24, Japanese and US
leaders said Japan will turn over hundreds of kilograms of sensitive
atomic material of potential use in bombs to the United States to be
downgraded and disposed. This was shortly before leaders from 53
countries, including Obama and Abe, were due to hold a two-day
summit at The Hague aimed at preventing al Qaeda-style militant
groups from acquiring nuclear bombs.
(Reuters, 3/24/14)
2014 Mar 25, In the Netherlands
35 countries pledged to turn international guidelines on nuclear
security into national laws, a move aimed at preventing terrorists
from getting their hands on nuclear material.
(AP, 3/25/14)
2014 Mar 25, Dutch police
detained 28 anti-nuclear demonstrators at a reactor ahead of a visit
by a delegation of energy sector bosses.
(Reuters, 3/25/14)
2014 Mar 25, In the Netherlands
US President Barack Obama, Japanese PM Shinzo Abe and South Korean
President Park Geun-hye met to discuss North Korea's security
threat.
(AP, 3/26/14)
2014 Mar 28, Netherlands’
public prosecutor said Milutin Graic (41), wanted in Croatia on
suspicion of war crimes during the violent breakup of Yugoslavia in
the 1990s, has been arrested in Roosendaal.
(Reuters, 3/28/14)
2014 Apr 9, The Dutch
government scrapped a trade mission to Russia that was intended to
forge closer ties between the two countries' energy sectors, blaming
developments in eastern Ukraine.
(AP, 4/9/14)
2014 Apr 10, The Dutch
government announced that relatives of three men killed during the
1995 Srebrenica massacre will each receive 20,000 euros ($28,000) in
compensation. Seven months earlier the Dutch Supreme Court ruled
that the Netherlands was liable in the deaths of the three Bosnian
Muslims because Dutch troops serving in a UN peacekeeping force
should not have turned the men over to Bosnian Serb forces.
(AP, 4/10/14)
2014 Apr 13, In the Netherlands
Eliud Kipchoge of Kenya won the Rotterdam Marathon, but failed in
his bid to break the course record on a windy day in the port city.
(AP, 4/13/14)
2014 Apr 26, The Dutch donned
crazy orange-colored outfits and celebrated their first ever "King's
Day" — a national holiday held in honor of the newly installed
monarch, King Willem Alexander. King's Day replaced the traditional
"Queens' Day" festival held this time of year.
(AP, 4/26/14)
2014 May 1, Dutch police
stormed a Greenpeace ship and ended environmentalists' attempts to
block a Russian tanker carrying oil from the Arctic Ocean from
mooring at Rotterdam Port. 31 activists were detained.
(AP, 5/1/14)
2014 May 22, EU parliamentary
elections began in Britain and the Netherlands at the start of 4
days of balloting across the 28 members.
(SFC, 5/23/14, p.A5)
2014 May 23, The Int’l.
Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague sentenced Germain Katanga, a
Congolese militia leader, to 12 years in prison for his role in a
2003 attack where more than 200 civilians were killed.
(SFC, 5/24/14, p.A3)
2014 Jul 3, In the Netherlands
an Amsterdam court ruled that the traditional figure known as Black
Pete, the sidekick to the Dutch equivalent of Santa Claus, is a
negative stereotype of black people and the city must rethink its
involvement in holiday celebrations involving him.
(AP, 7/3/14)
2014 Jul 11, Aruba's PM Mike
Eman and several legislators launched a hunger strike to protest
what they say is meddling by the Dutch government in local financial
affairs. This came after the Dutch government asked Aruba's governor
to hold off on signing the 2014 budget into law pending an
evaluation of it.
(AP, 7/13/14)
2014 Jul 16, A civil court in
The Hague court cleared the Netherlands of liability in the deaths
of the most of the 8,000 Bosnian Muslims slain in the July, 1995,
Srebrenica massacre, but did order the nation to compensate the
families of more than 300 men turned over to Bosnian Serb forces and
later killed.
(AP, 7/16/14)
2014 Jul 17, Malaysia Airlines
flight MH17 with 298 people on board was shot down over eastern
Ukraine. Officials strongly suspected the Boeing 777 was downed by a
missile fired by Ukrainian separatists backed by Moscow. More than
half of the dead passengers, 189 people, were Dutch. Twenty-nine
were Malaysian, 27 Australian, 12 Indonesian, 9 British, 4 German, 4
Belgian, 3 Filipino, one Canadian, one New Zealand and 4 as yet
unidentified. All 15 crew were Malaysian.
(Reuters, 7/18/14)
2014 Aug 14, In the Netherlands
Amsterdam Mayor Eberhard van der Laan said the controversial winter
holiday character Black Pete would change in appearance over the
next four years to make him less of an offensive racial figure and
eventually just resemble someone who has climbed through a chimney.
(SFC, 8/15/14, p.A5)
2014 Aug 19, Statistics
Netherlands said sanctions Russia has imposed on agricultural
products from the EU will cut Dutch exports by "at least 300 million
euros" ($400 million), based on 2013 figures.
(Reuters, 8/19/14)
2014 Sep 28, In the Netherlands
a tricked-out truck, sporting outsized tires and a powerful engine,
surged off the track after driving over a line of prop cars,
crashing through a barricade and into the audience in the eastern
town of Haaksbergen. 3 people died in the accident.
(AFP, 9/29/14)
2014 Nov 12, Netherlands
authorities announced the arrest of 12 people with suspected links
to militant Islamists.
(Reuters, 11/13/14)
2014 Nov 16, Authorities in the
Netherlands said they have identified a "highly pathogenic" strain
of bird flu at a farm in the central area of the Netherlands and
announced a temporary ban on all transport to and from poultry farms
across the country. They said it was the highly contagious H5N8
strain first detected in Europe less than two weeks ago.
(Reuters, 11/16/14)
2014 Nov 20, Dutch authorities
said a case of bird flu has been confirmed at a chicken farm, the
second infection identified in the country this week.
(AP, 11/20/14)
2014 Nov 21, Dutch authorities
said they will slaughter poultry at a cluster of three farms after
new cases of bird flu were found in Kamperveen, in the 3rd outbreak
this week.
(SFC, 11/22/14, p.A2)
2014 Nov 26, Dutch researchers
sought to add a new, largely untapped renewable energy source to the
world's energy mix with the opening of a "Blue Energy" test
facility. Blue energy takes advantage of the difference in salt
concentration between sea water and fresh water to produce
electricity.
(AP, 11/26/14)
2014 Nov 30, The Netherlands
Economic Affairs Ministry said in a statement that poultry at the
farm in the town of Zoeterwoude were suffering from an H5 strain of
bird flu and that all 28,000 birds there were being slaughtered.
(AP, 11/30/14)
2014 Dec 5, Prosecutors at the
International Criminal Court withdrew their crimes against humanity
charges against Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta. Kenyatta said he
was "vindicated" after the ICC's decision.
(Reuters, 12/5/14)(SFC, 12/6/14, p.A4)
2014 Dec 8, A Dutch court ruled
in a preliminary judgment that Uber, a California-based ride-sharing
service, must stop working with drivers who charge fares but do not
possess a taxi license.
(AP, 12/8/14)
2014 Dec 11, In Vienna,
Austria, several states (Britain, Norway, Netherlands and the US)
pledged to back a UN nuclear agency (IAEA) request for 4.6 million
euros ($5.7 million) as soon as possible to pay for its monitoring
of an extended, interim nuclear deal between Iran and world powers.
(AP, 12/11/14)
2014 Dec 15, A Dutch privacy
watchdog ordered Google to make changes to the way it handles users'
personal data or face fines of up to 15 million euros ($18.7
million).
(AP, 12/15/14)
2014 Dec 17, The United States
slapped sanctions on Dutch and Swiss oil trading firms for their
dealings with the Syrian government. This put Netherlands-based
Staroil B.V. as well as two Swiss-based firms, Rixo International
Trading Ltd and Bluemarine SA, on its list of sanctioned entities,
which effectively cuts them off from the US financial system.
(AP, 12/17/14)
2015 Jan 7, It was announced
that Royal Dutch Shell will pay more than $80 million to people in
Bodo, a Nigerian fishing community "devastated" by two serious oil
spills in 2008. The clean-up could take years.
(AFP, 1/7/15)
2015 Jan 27, A Netherlands
judge approved the extradition of Vladimir Drinkman to the US. He
was one of four russians and a Ukrainian charged in a data breach
that netted at least 160 million credit and debit card numbers
resulting in losses of hundreds of millions over seven years.
(SFC, 1/28/15, p.A2)
2015 Feb 10, In the Netherlands
a "distributed denial of service" attack was responsible for taking
down several of government websites for hours.
(AP, 2/11/15)
2015 Feb 13, The Netherlands
extradited Vladimir Drinkman to the US. The Russian was suspected of
involvement in a huge data breach that racked up hundreds of
millions of dollars in losses over seven years for US companies.
Drinkman was arrested in the Netherlands in June 2012.
(AP, 2/13/15)
2015 Feb 18, The Dutch Safety
Board said Royal Dutch Shell, Exxon Mobil Corp and the Dutch
government ignored the danger of earthquakes caused by gas
extraction at the massive Groningen gas field for decades.
(Reuters, 2/18/15)
2015 Mar 11, In the Netherlands
a court ruled that the Dutch government must pay compensation to
nine widows and children of Indonesian men summarily executed in
their country's war for independence, a ruling that could open the
door to many more claims.
(AP, 3/11/15)
2015 Mar 27, In The Netherlands
trains, trams and planes ground to a temporary halt in and around
Amsterdam as a huge power outage hit the Dutch capital and
surrounding towns. Power was soon restored.
(AFP, 3/27/15)
2015 Apr 7, Dutch businessman
Willy Selten was sentenced to two and a half years in prison. He was
at the center of a Europe-wide fraud in which falsely labeled
horsemeat led to thousands of tons of meat being recalled.
(Reuters, 4/7/15)
2015 Apr 7, FedEx said it has
agreed to take over TNT Express, a Dutch delivery firm, for $4.8
billion in an all cash offer of $8.75 per TNT share.
(SFC, 4/8/15, p.C3)
2015 Apr 8, Royal Dutch Shell
said it will pay the equivalent of 13.67 pounds in cash and stock
for each share of British rival BG Group, 50 percent more than the
April 7 closing price.
(AP, 4/8/15)
2015 Apr 27, The Netherlands
turned out in orange as King Willem-Alexander turned 48 and the
whole country celebrated King's Day.
(AP, 4/27/15)
2015 May 13, In the Netherlands
an appeals court cleared Albert Heringa of any criminal
responsibility for helping his mother (90) take her life in 2008.
(SFC, 5/14/15, p.A2)
2015 May 27, Dutch police
detained 20 people, 14 of them members of the Bandidos motorcycle
gang, and seized weapons including five rocket-propelled grenade
launchers and six automatic handguns. The 19 men and one woman were
suspected of crimes including drug trafficking, extortion and money
laundering.
(AP, 5/27/15)
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