Post by Salem6 on Dec 17, 2003 18:53:56 GMT
Today is Wednesday, December 17, the 351st day of 2003. There are 14 days left in the year.
Highlights in history on this date:
· 1531 - Pope Clement VII introduces the Inquisition to Portugal.
· 1538 - Pope Paul III excommunicates England's King Henry VIII.
· 1718 - England declares war on Spain.
· 1777 - France recognises United States' independence.
· 1788 - The Russian army under Gregory Potemkin takes Ochakov on the Black Sea.
· 1885 - France acquires control of Madagascar's foreign relations.
· 1903 - Orville and Wilbur Wright take the first successful man-powered airplane flights, near Kitty Hawk, North Carolina
· 1908 - The Ottoman parliament holds first meeting.
· 1914 - Abbas II is deposed, and Prince Hussein Kemel becomes Khedive of Egypt, over which Britain proclaims a protectorate.
· 1920 - South West Africa is mandated to South Africa by the League of Nations.
· 1922 - The last British troops leave Irish Free State.
· 1939 - German battleship Graf Spee is scuttled off Uruguay to prevent it from falling into British hands in World War II.
· 1941 - Japanese troops begin invasion of North Borneo in World War II.
· 1944 - The US Army announces the end of its policy of excluding Japanese-Americans from the West Coast.
· 1948 - The Dutch attack Indonesia, invade the republic's capital of Yogyakarta, and arrest President Sukarno and other leaders.
· 1957 - The United States successfully test-fires the Atlas intercontinental ballistic missile for the first time.
· 1961 - A fire sweeps through a circus tent at Niteroi, a suburb of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, killing 323 people, mostly children and injuring 800. A disgruntled ex-employee admits to starting the fire.
· 1967 - Australian Prime Minister Harold Holt disappears while swimming at Portsea, Victoria.
· 1969 - The US Air Force closes its Project "Blue Book" by concluding there was no evidence of extraterrestrial spaceships behind thousands of UFO sightings.
· 1971 - India and Pakistan end a two-week war in East Pakistan - now Bangladesh.
· 1975 - Lynette Fromme is sentenced to life in prison for her attempt on the life of US President Gerald Ford.
· 1979 - In a case that aggravated racial tensions, Arthur McDuffie, a black insurance executive, is fatally beaten after a police chase in Miami. Four white police officers are later acquitted of charges stemming from McDuffie's death.
· 1985 - Uganda's military government and its guerrilla rivals sign peace treaty dividing power and ending almost five years of civil war.
· 1987 - Austrian Vice-Chancellor and Federal Minister for Foreign Affairs, Dr Alois Mock, appeals to State President P W Botha to commute the death sentences of the "Sharpeville Six".
· 1988 - Five SADF members staking out a Soweto house suspected of being an ANC hideout kill two policemen and an informer whom they mistake for the ANC suspects.
· 1988 - Israeli soldiers shoot and wound at least 18 Palestinians during a protest strike in occupied lands.
· 1989 - A number of people are killed by Romanian security forces as a pro-democracy demonstration turns violent.
· 1990 - Tens of thousands of students and workers strike across Romania, calling for government's resignation as they commemorate the first anniversary of the uprising that ousted Communist dictator Nicolae Ceausescu.
· 1991 - Boris Yeltsin and Mikhail Gorbachev agree to dissolve the Soviet Union and proclaim a new commonwealth on New Year's Day.
· 1992 - Officials fight to save one of Cairo's picturesque and historic quarters, the early Christian mecca at Babylon that was rattled by an October earthquake.
· 1993 - Former Italian Prime Minister Bettino Craxi testifies on behalf of the defendant in a corruption case in Rome. Craxi is himself later convicted of taking bribes.
· 1994 - Chechen separatists refuse to comply with a Russian ultimatum to lay down their arms, or face attacks.
· 1995 - Elections in Russia give the parliamentary majority to communists and their allies.
· 1996 - About 20 Tupac Amaru guerrillas seize the Japanese ambassador's residence in Lima, Peru, take hundreds of diplomats and government officials hostage and demand the release of 300 imprisoned comrades.
· 1997 - Thirty-four countries sign a treaty aimed at eradicating bribery in international business.
· 1998 - For the second day, a wave of US and British cruise missiles and warplanes strike targets in Iraq. Authorities report more than 25 dead.
· 1999 - The United Nations approves a resolution creating a new arms-monitoring regime for Iraq. The resolution, a major step toward sending weapons inspectors back to Iraq, provides for the suspension of economic sanctions on Iraq's compliance with the inspectors
· 2000 - Delegates from some 90 countries meet in Geneva to discuss raising the curtain on a new global treaty to protect actors' rights relating to their work in cinema, television, music videos and on the internet.
· 2001 - Armed commandos storm the National Palace in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, killing at least two policemen and two passers-by before police recapture the building.
· 2002 - The Congolese government and the country's main rebel groups sign a peace accord in Pretoria in hopes of ending Congo's four-year-old civil war.
Today's Birthdays
Domenico Cimarosa, Italian composer (1749-1801); Ludwig van Beethoven, German composer (1770-1827); Ford Madox Ford, English author (1873-1939); Arthur Fielder, US conductor (1894-1979); Erskine Caldwell, US author (1903-1987); William Safire, US newspaper columnist (1929--); Kerry Packer, Australian media magnate (1937--).
Thought For Today:
You have no idea how big the other fellow's troubles are ... Bertie Charles Forbes, Scottish journalist (1880-1954). - Sapa-AP
Highlights in history on this date:
· 1531 - Pope Clement VII introduces the Inquisition to Portugal.
· 1538 - Pope Paul III excommunicates England's King Henry VIII.
· 1718 - England declares war on Spain.
· 1777 - France recognises United States' independence.
· 1788 - The Russian army under Gregory Potemkin takes Ochakov on the Black Sea.
· 1885 - France acquires control of Madagascar's foreign relations.
· 1903 - Orville and Wilbur Wright take the first successful man-powered airplane flights, near Kitty Hawk, North Carolina
· 1908 - The Ottoman parliament holds first meeting.
· 1914 - Abbas II is deposed, and Prince Hussein Kemel becomes Khedive of Egypt, over which Britain proclaims a protectorate.
· 1920 - South West Africa is mandated to South Africa by the League of Nations.
· 1922 - The last British troops leave Irish Free State.
· 1939 - German battleship Graf Spee is scuttled off Uruguay to prevent it from falling into British hands in World War II.
· 1941 - Japanese troops begin invasion of North Borneo in World War II.
· 1944 - The US Army announces the end of its policy of excluding Japanese-Americans from the West Coast.
· 1948 - The Dutch attack Indonesia, invade the republic's capital of Yogyakarta, and arrest President Sukarno and other leaders.
· 1957 - The United States successfully test-fires the Atlas intercontinental ballistic missile for the first time.
· 1961 - A fire sweeps through a circus tent at Niteroi, a suburb of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, killing 323 people, mostly children and injuring 800. A disgruntled ex-employee admits to starting the fire.
· 1967 - Australian Prime Minister Harold Holt disappears while swimming at Portsea, Victoria.
· 1969 - The US Air Force closes its Project "Blue Book" by concluding there was no evidence of extraterrestrial spaceships behind thousands of UFO sightings.
· 1971 - India and Pakistan end a two-week war in East Pakistan - now Bangladesh.
· 1975 - Lynette Fromme is sentenced to life in prison for her attempt on the life of US President Gerald Ford.
· 1979 - In a case that aggravated racial tensions, Arthur McDuffie, a black insurance executive, is fatally beaten after a police chase in Miami. Four white police officers are later acquitted of charges stemming from McDuffie's death.
· 1985 - Uganda's military government and its guerrilla rivals sign peace treaty dividing power and ending almost five years of civil war.
· 1987 - Austrian Vice-Chancellor and Federal Minister for Foreign Affairs, Dr Alois Mock, appeals to State President P W Botha to commute the death sentences of the "Sharpeville Six".
· 1988 - Five SADF members staking out a Soweto house suspected of being an ANC hideout kill two policemen and an informer whom they mistake for the ANC suspects.
· 1988 - Israeli soldiers shoot and wound at least 18 Palestinians during a protest strike in occupied lands.
· 1989 - A number of people are killed by Romanian security forces as a pro-democracy demonstration turns violent.
· 1990 - Tens of thousands of students and workers strike across Romania, calling for government's resignation as they commemorate the first anniversary of the uprising that ousted Communist dictator Nicolae Ceausescu.
· 1991 - Boris Yeltsin and Mikhail Gorbachev agree to dissolve the Soviet Union and proclaim a new commonwealth on New Year's Day.
· 1992 - Officials fight to save one of Cairo's picturesque and historic quarters, the early Christian mecca at Babylon that was rattled by an October earthquake.
· 1993 - Former Italian Prime Minister Bettino Craxi testifies on behalf of the defendant in a corruption case in Rome. Craxi is himself later convicted of taking bribes.
· 1994 - Chechen separatists refuse to comply with a Russian ultimatum to lay down their arms, or face attacks.
· 1995 - Elections in Russia give the parliamentary majority to communists and their allies.
· 1996 - About 20 Tupac Amaru guerrillas seize the Japanese ambassador's residence in Lima, Peru, take hundreds of diplomats and government officials hostage and demand the release of 300 imprisoned comrades.
· 1997 - Thirty-four countries sign a treaty aimed at eradicating bribery in international business.
· 1998 - For the second day, a wave of US and British cruise missiles and warplanes strike targets in Iraq. Authorities report more than 25 dead.
· 1999 - The United Nations approves a resolution creating a new arms-monitoring regime for Iraq. The resolution, a major step toward sending weapons inspectors back to Iraq, provides for the suspension of economic sanctions on Iraq's compliance with the inspectors
· 2000 - Delegates from some 90 countries meet in Geneva to discuss raising the curtain on a new global treaty to protect actors' rights relating to their work in cinema, television, music videos and on the internet.
· 2001 - Armed commandos storm the National Palace in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, killing at least two policemen and two passers-by before police recapture the building.
· 2002 - The Congolese government and the country's main rebel groups sign a peace accord in Pretoria in hopes of ending Congo's four-year-old civil war.
Today's Birthdays
Domenico Cimarosa, Italian composer (1749-1801); Ludwig van Beethoven, German composer (1770-1827); Ford Madox Ford, English author (1873-1939); Arthur Fielder, US conductor (1894-1979); Erskine Caldwell, US author (1903-1987); William Safire, US newspaper columnist (1929--); Kerry Packer, Australian media magnate (1937--).
Thought For Today:
You have no idea how big the other fellow's troubles are ... Bertie Charles Forbes, Scottish journalist (1880-1954). - Sapa-AP