Timeline 1997 January - March
Return to home
1997 Jan 1,
The new members of the UN security council, Japan, Kenya, Sweden,
Costa Rica and Portugal, took their seats.
(SFC, 1/1/97, p.C1)
1997 Jan 1, Kofi Annan assumed
the title of United Nations secretary-general.
(AP, 1/1/98)
1997 Jan 1, As of this date the
US withdrew completely from the UN Industrial Development
Organization.
(SFC, 2/17/97, p.A14)
1997 Jan 1, The line-item veto
became officially available to Pres. Clinton.
(SFC, 1/2/97, p.A20)
1997 Jan 1, Townes Van Zandt
(1944-1997) Texas songwriter, died. His work included the 1983 song
"Pancho and Lefty," sung by Merle Haggard and Willie Nelson.
(SFC, 1/3/97, p.A26)(SFC, 1/4/97, p.E1)(WSJ,
6/25/03, p.D8)
1997 Jan 1, The EU introduced
the Pan-European Cumulation System (PECS) to turn a latticework of
bilateral trade rules into a single multilateral umbrella. It
extended the system to include Turkey in 1999.
(Econ, 8/5/06,
p.68)(www.foreigntrade.gov.tr/ab/ingilizce/panavrup.htm)
1997 Jan 1, An off-duty Israeli
soldier, Noam Friedman, with a history of mental problems opened
fire on a crowded vegetable market in Hebron, wounding 5 [7] people
and touching off a stone-throwing demonstration by angry
Palestinians.
(SFC, 1/1/97, p.A1)(AP, 1/1/98)
1997 Jan 1, In Mexico
long-distance telephone competition began and ended a 49-year
monopoly.
(SFC, 1/1/97, p.B3)
1997 Jan 2, In Las Vegas the
New York New York casino-hotel hosted a private party prior to
opening to the public at 12:35 a.m.
(WSJ, 1/21/97, p.A18)
1997 Jan 2, In the US Northwest
a week of heavy rain and melting snow caused many rivers to
overflow. Downtown Reno was under water and casinos closed and
visitors were trapped in Yosemite National Park. Highway 50 to lake
Tahoe was closed and expected to be out for a month. The Feather
River between Marysville and Yuba City crested at just over 78 feet
and 50,000 Californians were forced to evacuate the area.
(WSJ, 1/3/97, p.A1)(SFEC, 1/5/97, p.A1)(SFC,
1/6/97, p.A13)(AP, 1/2/98)
1997 Jan 2, Letter bombs began
arriving into the US from Egypt. Four were addressed to the
Washington bureau of Al-Hayat, an Arab language daily. Others went
to Leavenworth, Kansas. They contained the plastic explosive semtex.
(SFC, 1/4/97, p.A3)
1997 Jan 2, In India movie
theaters in Bombay closed in protest of a state doubling of the
ticket tax. Some 120 films are produced annually and theaters
provide about half the funding.
(WSJ, 1/3/97, p.A6)
1997 Jan 2, 90 miles off the
coast of Japan the Russian oil tanker Nakhodka broke in two. It
carried 5 million gallons of fuel oil. The bow of the ship ran
aground 5 days later, 110 miles northwest of Tokyo, and much oil was
spilled.
(SFC, 1/8/97, p.C1)
1997 Jan 2, In Kazakstan
President Nusultan Nazarbayev was building a new capital 600 miles
north of Almaty in swampy Akmola with transfer due to begin in 1998.
(SFC, 1/2/97, p.A10)
1997 Jan 2, In Libya 6 military
officers and 2 civilians were executed on charges of spying. Experts
believed they case was related to the 1993 coup attempt.
(SFC, 1/3/97, p.A17)
1997 Jan 2, In Peru Pres.
Fujimori replaced the president of the Supreme Court and six police
generals, who were among the hostages held by Tupac Amaru rebels.
The hostage count was down to 74.
(SFC, 1/3/97, p.A16)
1997 Jan 2, The Serbian
Orthodox Church issued a criticism of Pres. Milosevic and accused
his government of stealing elections and provoking bloodshed.
(SFC, 1/3/97, p.A16)
1997 Jan 2, In Singapore the
ruling party captured all but 2 seats in parliamentary elections.
More than 85% of the country’s 3 million live in government-built
apartments.
(SFC, 1/4/97, p.A9)
1997 Jan 2, In Zaire rebel
troops captured Pres. Seko’s 32,000 sq. mile Kilomoto gold mining
region and the town of Mangbwalu.
(SFC, 1/3/97, p.A18)
1997 Jan 3, Bryant Gumbel ended
his 15-year career as host of the NBC morning show "Today."
(SFC, 1/4/97, p.E1)(AP, 1/3/98)
1997 Jan 3, Pres. Clinton
waived indefinitely the part of the Helms-Burton law that would
punish foreign companies that used American property confiscated in
Cuba 40 years ago.
(SFC, 1/4/97, p.A3)
1997 Jan 3, President Clinton
declared northern Nevada a major disaster area following days of
rain that sent rivers over their banks in the Reno and Carson City
area.
(AP, 1/3/98)
1997 Jan 3, Gilead Sciences
Inc. announced that board member Donald H. Rumsfeld will assume the
position of Chairman, effective immediately. Mr. Rumsfeld succeeds
Michael L. Riordan, M.D., who founded Gilead in 1987 and has served
as Chairman since 1993. Dr. Riordan will continue to serve as a
director on the board.
(www.gilead.com/wt/sec/pr_933190157/)
1997 Jan 3, Las Vegas had a
total of 101,106 hotel rooms as of this date.
(SFEC, 5/10/98, DB p.64)
1997 Jan 3, In NY in
Centereach, Long Island, William Sodders (21) shot and killed, James
Halverson, a firefighter out on a jog, in a random murder. Sodders
was later turned in to police by his father after admitting to him
the murder. Sodders was said to be influenced by the film "Natural
Born Killers." Halverson left a wife pregnant with twins and a
4-year-old daughter.
(SFC, 8/15/97, p.A7)
1997 Jan 3, In Washington a
diplomat from Georgia, Gueorgui Makharadze, was in a car crash that
killed a 16-year-old girl. Police said he was drinking, but he
refused a breath test.
(SFC, 1/8/97, p.A17)
1997 Jan 3, In Europe the 11th
day of a cold front has left some 206 dead.
(SFC, 1/4/97, p.A8)
1997 Jan 3, In Mexico a Jalisco
state judge dismissed drug trafficking charges against Hector Luis
Palma, leader of the Sinaloa drug cartel. He was sentenced to 6
years on lesser charges.
(SFC, 1/9/97, p.A12)
1997 Jan 3, In Rwanda two Hutu
men were sentenced to death for their role in the 1994 genocide.
(SFC, 1/4/97, p.A10)
1997 Jan 4, President Clinton,
in his weekly radio address, took credit for policies reducing
teen-age pregnancy and said he would work for even greater
reductions over the next four years.
(AP, 1/4/98)
1997 Jan 4, Harry Helmsley
(87), self-made billionaire and husband to Leona, died in
Scottsdale, Ariz. His vast real estate holdings included the Empire
State Building. His entire $1.7 billion estate was left to his wife
except for $25k left to a longtime secretary.
(SFC,1/6/97, p.A17)(WSJ, 1/3/97, p.A1)(SFC,
1/10/97, p.A3)(AP, 1/4/98)
1997 Jan 4, In Argentina
thieves tunneled into a Buenos Aires bank and robbed as much as $25
million.
(SFC, 1/16/97, p.A12)
1997 Jan 4, In Brazil some 54
people were killed during 4 days of torrential rain in the
southeastern state of Minas Gerais.
(SFEC, 1/5/97, p.A13)
1997 Jan 4, Czech Rep. Pres.
Vaclav Havel married his girlfriend Dagmar Veskrnova, less than a
year after the death of his first wife Olga Havlova. Dagmar was an
actress and had starred as a topless vampire in the film "The
Vampire from Nosferat."
(SFEC, 7/6/97, p.B4)(WSJ, 2/18/99, p.A1)
1997 Jan 4, In New Zealand
during the week Cyclone Fergus, the worst to hit in 8 years,
produced heavy rains and wind damage along the northern coast.
(SFC, 1/4/97, p.A19)
1997 Jan 5, In Afghanistan an
air raid killed 4 and wounded 32. A bomb in central Kabul killed 3
and wounded 37.
(WSJ, 1/6/97, p.A1)
1997 Jan 5, In Algeria Muslim
guerrillas massacred 16 in Ben Achour village.
(SFC, 1/6/97, p.A9)
1997 Jan 5, In Burundi the
Tutsi-led army attacked and killed hundreds of Hutus in a dispute
over land at Bukeye in central Burundi.
(SFC, 1/25/97, p.A10)
1997 Jan 5, In the CAR district
of Petevo, French troops killed 10 CAR army mutineers, after 2
French soldiers were killed on a mediation mission.
(SFC, 1/6/97, p.A9)
1997 Jan 5, Israeli Prime
Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat
held a secret, predawn summit, but fell short of agreement on the
issues delaying an Israeli troop withdrawal from Hebron.
(AP, 1/5/98)
1997 Jan 5, Jewish leaders
blasted the remark of former Swiss Pres. Jean-Pascal Delamuraz, who
called Jewish demands for the compensation of Holocaust victims
"blackmail."
(SFC, 1/6/97, p.A9)
1997 Jan 5, In Kenya the Daily
Nation reported that a man stole $1 million by impersonating a
Citibank bank employee. The money had been shipped from NY to a
Kenyan airport freight terminal at the Nairobi Int’l. Airport.
(SFC, 1/9/97, p.A12)
1997 Jan 5, In Mexico at least
26 people were arrested in Sinaloa state, many of them police
officers, at the wedding party for the sister of Amado Carrillo, the
reputed top drug trafficker in Mexico.
(SFC, 1/8/97, p.A7)
1997 Jan 5, In Rwanda a mother
and father and 7 children were murdered. The mother had testified
against the former mayor of Taba, Jean-Paul Akayesu, for the murder
of some 2,000 villagers.
(SFC, 1/17/97, p.A13)
1997 Jan 5, In South Africa
police arrested 2 white men in connection with 3 bomb blasts near
Johannesburg.
(SFC, 1/6/97, p.A9)
1997 Jan 6, US House Speaker
Newt Gingrich met behind closed doors with Republican lawmakers,
answering questions about admitted ethics violations and appealing
for support in the upcoming speaker's election.
(AP, 1/6/98)
1997 Jan 6, The Sun erupted
with a "coronal mass ejection." The blast reached Earth on Jan 10,
and may have played a role in the Jan 11 failure of the $200 million
Telstar 401 communications satellite.
(SFC, 1/23/97, p.A5)
1997 Jan 6, In Guatemala three
officers, accused of ordering the 1990 assassination of sociologist
Myrna Mack, sought amnesty under terms of the new treaty.
(SFC, 1/7/97, p.A10)
1997 Jan 6, In Pakistan rulers
established a security council to give the army an official role in
running the country.
(SFC, 1/7/97, p.A9)
1997 Jan 6, In Serbia on the
Orthodox Christmas Eve the Yugoslav army announced that it would not
interfere in the daily protests against Pres. Milosevic.
(SFC, 1/7/97, p.A9)
1997 Jan 6, In Zaire at least
100 lawmakers quit Pres. Seko’s parliamentary alliance to join a new
nationalist group. Their goal appeared to be to topple Prime
Minister Kengo wa Dondo.
(SFC, 1/7/97, p.A9)
1997 Jan 6, It was reported
that Vietnam’s national Post and Telecommunications "108"
information service responded to citizens questions. Operators
handled about 250 calls per day and the service costs about 2.7 US
cents.
(WSJ, 1/6/97, p.B1)
1997 Jan 7, Newt Gingrich
overcame dissension in GOP ranks to become the first Republican
re-elected US House speaker in 68 years with 216 of 227 Republicans
in support.
(SFC, 1/8/97, p.A5)(AP, 1/7/98)
1997 Jan 7, Serial killer Henry
Louis Wallace was convicted in Charlotte, N.C., of raping and
murdering 9 women over a 20 month period.
(SFC, 1/8/97, p.A3)
1997 Jan 7, A 2 day Santa Ana
windstorm subsided in Southern California after causing power
blackouts that affected over a million Edison customers.
(SFC, 1/8/97, p.A3)
1997 Jan 7, In Algiers a car
bomb killed 13 and wounded 10.
(SFC, 1/8/97, p.A7)
1997 Jan 7, It was announced
that the government’s plan to privatize its 51% of Companhia Vale do
Rio Doce (CVRD) was opposed by former Presidents Jose Sarney and
Itamar Franco, as well as Workers’ Party leader Luiz Inacio Lula da
Silva, all candidates in the 1998 elections. Vale’s Carajas mine in
Para produced 25% of the world’s iron ore and held reserves for some
400 years.
(SFC, 1/7/97, p.A10)(Econ, 4/24/10, p.35)
1997 Jan 7, Beryl Brainbridge
won the British Whitbread award for best novel of 1996 for "Every
Man for Himself," a tale of the Titanic disaster. Seamus Heaney won
poetry award for "The Spirit Level."
(SFC, 1/8/97, p.B5)
1997 Jan 7, The Hebron Protocol
or Hebron Agreement began and was concluded from January 15 to
January 17, 1997 between Israel, represented by PM Benjamin
Netanyahu, and the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO),
represented by PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat, under the supervision of
US Secretary of State Warren Christopher, for redeployment of
Israeli military forces in Hebron. Palestinian authorities gained
control of 80% of Hebron.
(SFC, 12/4/08, p.A27)
1997 Jan 7, The Jerusalem Prize
for literature was awarded to Spanish author Jorge Semprun (b.1923).
His works include "The Long Voyage," "Literature for Life," and the
screenplays for the Costas Gavras films "Z" and "The Confession."
(SFC, 1/9/97, p.E3)
1997 Jan 7, In France it was
announced that a 20.6% value-added tax would be placed on telephone
services offered by phone companies outside the European Union. The
charge was directed at "call-back" services mainly in the US.
(WSJ, 1/7/97, p.A14)
1997 Jan 7, In Honduras it was
reported that Chagas disease, a parasitical illness, has infected an
estimated 300,000 out of a population of 5.8 mil. Some 65,000 were
in the late stages.
(SFC, 1/7/97, p.A9)
1997 Jan 7, In South Korea
broadcasting and hospital unions joined the nationwide strike.
(SFC, 1/8/97, p.A6)
1997 Jan 7, Russia’s inflation
rate for 1996 was announced to have fallen to 21.8%, down from 133%
in 1995.
(WSJ, 1/7/97, p.A14)
1997 Jan 8, Anne Galjour, San
Francisco writer and performer, received the 13th annual Will
Glickman Playwright Award for the best new play, "Mauvais Temps,"
produced in the Bay Area in 1996.
(SFC, 1/9/97, p.E2)
1997 Jan 8, The US Supreme
Court heard arguments on whether to allow physician-assisted
suicide.
(AP, 1/8/98)
1997 Jan 8, The state of
Arkansas put three men to death in the second triple execution since
capital punishment was reinstated in 1976.
(AP, 1/8/98)
1997 Jan 8, Russian President
Boris Yeltsin was hospitalized with early signs of pneumonia.
(AP, 1/8/98)
1997 Jan 8, In Bulgaria the
ruling party backed Nikolai Dobrev for premier.
(WSJ, 1/9/97, p.A1)
1997 Jan 8, From Israel
warplanes were sent on 2 raids to Lebanon after a Katyusha rocket
hit northern Israel.
(WSJ, 1/9/97, p.A1)
1997 Jan 8, In Pakistan gas
cylinders aboard a truck leaked in Lahore and killed at least 30
people with 900 taken to hospitals. The gas was identified as either
ammonia or chlorine.
(WSJ, 1/10/97, p.A1)
1997 Jan 9, The sliver of a new
moon rose over the Muslim world and began the fast of Ramadan for
the world’s 1 billion Muslims.
(SFC, 1/10/97, p.A19)
1997 Jan 9, A Brink’s truck
overturned in the Overtown neighborhood of Miami and spilled cash
and foodstamps. $400,000 in cash and $300,000 in food stamps was
quickly gathered up by residents and pocketed.
(SFC, 1/10/97, p.A1)
1997 Jan 9, Ronald Small (20),
a Tamalpais High School football star, was shot and killed during a
birthday party at 59 Cole Drive in Marin City, Ca. Darrell Hunter
was arrested a week later and in 1998 Iman Kennedy (20) and Rodwell
Cutkelvin (25) were arrested. An Int’l. search went into effect for
Joseph Michel (26), aka Jo Jo Koulibaly, who was suspected of
pulling the trigger on Small. Hunter was found guilty of 1st degree
murder in 2000. Charges against Kennedy and Cutkelvin were dropped
due to lack of evidence. In 2005 Michel was extradited from Germany.
In 2008 Darrell Hunter was cleared of all charges and released from
prison.
(SFC, 11/19/98, p.A22)(SFC, 11/21/98, p.A20)(SFC,
2/22/99, p.A15)(SFC, 2/3/00, p.A18)(SFC, 2/9/00, p.A18)(SFC,
8/24/05, p.B1)(SFC, 5/2/08, p.B7)
1997 Jan 9, A Comair Brazilian
made Embraer 120 commuter plane crashed 18 miles southwest of
Detroit and killed all 29 onboard. Icing was blamed for the crash.
(SFC, 8/28/98, p.A7)(AP, 1/9/99)
1997 Jan 9, The government of
the Republic of Georgia informed the US that diplomat Gueorgui
Makharadze would be recalled following his Jan 3 involvement in a
car crash that left a 16-year-old Washington girl dead. Police
evidence strongly suggested that he had been drinking. He was later
sentenced to 7-21 years in US prison.
(SFC, 1/10/97, p.A2)(SFC,12/20/97, p.A12)
1997 Jan 9, In Haiti former
Pres. Jean-Bertrand Aristide began forming a new political party
called the Lavalas Family. Lavalas means flash flood and is
synonymous with democracy.
(SFC, 1/10/97, p.A15)
1997 Jan 9, In Israel a pair of
pipe bombs were exploded in Tel Aviv and 13 people were injured.
(SFC, 1/10/97, p.A14)
1997 Jan 9, In Sri Lanka Tamil
rebels attacked 2 northern military bases and killed at least 60
soldiers with 232 wounded. A later count had 223 soldiers and 350
guerrillas dead.
(WSJ, 1/10/97, p.A1)(SFC, 3/7/97, p.A17)
1997 Jan 9, In South Korea
workers clashed with riot police. The Federation of Korean Trade
Unions with 1.2 million members said it will begin a 2-day strike on
Jan 14.
(SFC, 1/10/97, p.A14)
1997 Jan 9, Christoph Meili,
night watchman at the Union Bank of Switzerland, salvaged an armful
of books and papers that contained bank records from the Nazi era
that were about to be shredded. His dismissal from the security
company for which he worked, effective at the end of April, was
announced Feb 24.
(SFC, 1/17/97, p.E1)(SFC, 2/24/97, p.A14)
1997 Jan 9, From Zaire Pres.
Seko returned to France, apparently for cancer treatments.
(SFC, 1/10/97, p.A15)
1997 Jan 10, Dallas police
ended their investigation into Dallas Cowboys stars Erik Williams
and Michael Irvin, saying a woman's claim that Williams raped her
while Irvin held a gun to her head was false.
(AP, 1/10/98)
1997 Jan 10, The NASA Near
Earth Tracking Program detected an asteroid, AC11, that was about
600 feet across with a sun orbit of 9.5 months. It was the 24th Aten
asteroid, a group whose orbits all lie within that of the Earth.
(SFC, 2/1/97, p.A8)
1997 Jan 10, Floodwaters from a
week of heavy rain inundated thousands of acres in Yuba County, Ca.
[see Jan 2].
(SFC, 10/9/06, p.A10)
1997 Jan 10, Sheldon Leonard
(b.1907), film actor, producer and TV director (Dick Van Dyke),
died.
(www.imdb.com/name/nm0502766/)
1997 Jan 10, In Bulgaria
protestors trapped legislators of the ruling Socialist Party inside
parliament. The economy was still 90% state-owned and inflation last
year topped 300%.
(SFC, 1/11/97, p.A8)
1997 Jan 10, From Tokyo it was
reported that scientists had successfully implanted micro-robotic
backpacks onto cockroaches in experiments to control their
movements.
(SFC, 1/10/97, p.B2)
1997 Jan 10, In Japan the
Nikkei had fallen more than 16% over the last five weeks due to
gloomy economic news and the government’s recent vow to reduce its
role in the economy.
(WSJ, 1/10/97, p.A1)
1997 Jan 10, In Nicaragua
Arnoldo Aleman began a 5-year term as president.
(SFC, 1/11/97, p.C1)
1997 Jan 11, President Clinton
summoned top administration officials to a daylong planning session
for his second term.
(AP, 1/11/98)
1997 Jan 11, In Burundi
soldiers shot and killed 126 Burundian Hutu refugees trying to break
out of a holding camp in the northeast. Seven soldiers were arrested
for the slayings.
(SFEC, 1/12/97, p.A12)
1997 Jan 11, An earthquake of
magnitude 7.3 shook Mexico City, the western and central areas, and
the southern part of Mexico, but no deaths were reported.
(SFEC, 1/12/97, p.A2)(AP, 1/11/98)
1997 Jan 12, Two recently
enrolled female cadets at South Carolina’s Citadel Academy announced
they were not returning for the spring semester, citing harassment
by male cadets.
(AP, 1/12/98)
1997 Jan 12, The Green Bay
Packers defeated the Carolina Panthers, 30-13, to win the NFC
Championship, while the New England Patriots beat the Jacksonville
Jaguars 20-6 to claim the AFC Championship.
(AP, 1/12/98)
1997 Jan 12, The Atlantis space
shuttle went up for a rendezvous with the MIR space station.
Jerry Linenger, physician, was to replace astronaut Jim [John]
Blaha.
(USAT, 1/13/97, p.3A)(AP, 1/12/98)
1997 Jan 12, In Mexico four
generals and a colonel met with Mr. Gonzalez Quirarte, the
right-hand man of drug lord, Carillo Fuentes, to arrange protection
according to later statements made by Gen. Jesus Gutierrez Rebollo.
(WSJ, 10/2/97, p.A12)
1997 Jan 13, US Supreme Court
justices aggressively questioned both sides in a battle over whether
a sexual-harassment lawsuit should be allowed to proceed against
President Clinton while he was in office. The following May, the
justices ruled unanimously that it could.
(AP, 1/13/98)
1997 Jan 13, Seven black
soldiers received the Medal of Honor for World War II valor; the
lone survivor, former Lt. Vernon Baker, received his medal from
President Clinton at the White House.
(AP, 1/13/98)
1997 Jan 14, The US House
Ethics Committee's ranking Democrat, Jim McDermott of Washington
state, removed himself from the investigation of Speaker Newt
Gingrich, bowing to pressure concerning his role in the handling of
an illegally taped phone call involving the House leader.
(AP, 1/14/98)
1997 Jan 14, The US mediated an
agreement was reached on Hebron. Palestinian police would be allowed
to carry limited-range weapons in buffer zones between them and
Jewish settlers. Israel committed to reopening a central road and
Palestinian market.
(USAT, 1/15/97, p.9A)(SFEC, 10/25/98, p.A17)
1997 Jan 15, Boeing agreed to
make rudder changes to its 737 airplanes at an estimated cost of
$120 million.
(WSJ, 1/16/97, p.A1)
1997 Jan 15, The crews of the
shuttle Atlantis and the Russian space station Mir had a raucously
joyful meeting, hours after their spacecraft had docked.
(AP, 1/15/98)
1997 Jan 15, The Israeli
cabinet approved the Hebron accord 11-7. The Palestinian cabinet
approved the accord by a wide margin. A bitterly divided Israeli
Cabinet agreed to withdraw troops from most of Hebron and rural West
Bank areas, approving an accord wrapped up hours earlier by Prime
Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat.
(WSJ, 1/16/97, p.A1)(AP, 1/15/98)
1997 Jan 15, Mexico announced
the final $3.5 billion payment on its Feb, 1995, $13.5 billion US
loan.
(SFC, 1/16/97, p.A1)
1997 Jan 15, In Peru
intelligence officers took Leonor LaRosa, a fellow intelligence
agent, into custody and began torturing her on accusations that she
informed newspapers of military plans to intimidate and assassinate
opposition activists and journalists. La Rosa named 4 intelligence
agents as directly responsible. Ricardo Anderson was named as one of
the 4 agents.
(SFC, 6/28/97, p.A10)(SFC, 3/11/00, p.A9)(WSJ,
5/30/00, p.A1)
1997 Jan 16, GM announced the
sale of the defense business of its Hughes Electronics Division to
Raytheon for $9.5 billion.
(WSJ, 1/17/97, p.A3)
1997 Jan 16, Enis Cosby (27),
son of Bill Cosby, was murdered in Los Angeles while changing a tire
in an apparent roadside robbery. A Ukrainian émigré
teenager, Mikail Markhasev, was picked up and charged for the murder
in March. Eli Zakaria and girlfriend Sara Peters were in a car with
Markhasev. Markhasev was convicted and sentenced to life in prison.
Markhasev admitted his guilt in 2001 and made a public apology.
(SFC, 2/1/97, p.E4)(WSJ, 3/14/97, p.A1)(SFC,
3/15/97, p.A3)(AP, 1/16/98)(SFC, 6/27/98, p.A5)(WSJ, 8/12/98,
p.A1)(WSJ, 2/12/00, p.A1)
1997 Jan 16, There was a
drive-by shooting in LA where 3 members of the Crips shot at a
public bus where members of the rival Bloods were riding. Corrie
Williams (17) was accidentally killed. In 1998 Wilbert Pugh (21),
Randall Amado (18) and Robert Johnson (17) were convicted of murder,
attempted murder and assault. In another murder Concepcion Madrid
(50) was found killed in her San Fernando apartment.
(SFC, 12/2/98, p.A19)
1997 Jan 16, In Atlanta, two
bomb blasts an hour apart rocked a building containing an abortion
clinic, injuring six people.
(SFC, 1/17/97, p.A1)(AP, 1/16/98)
1997 Jan 16, In the SF Bay Area
Peninsula Open Space Trust negotiated an agreement to purchase 1,626
acres of Bair Island for $15 million from Redwood Shores Properties.
The land would be restored to marshland with no billboards. The
Peninsula Open Space Trust was formed in this year to purchase and
set aside land for open space.
(SFC, 1/16/96, p.A1)(SFC, 4/8/99, p.A19)(SFC,
3/15/07, p.A11)
1997 Jan 16, Maurice Strong,
Canadian millionaire businessman and environmentalist, was appointed
by Kofi Annan to coordinated UN reform for a salary of $1 per year.
(SFC, 1/17/97, p.A14)
1997 Jan 16, In Haiti strikes
swept the country and protestors demanded the resignation of premier
Rosny Smarth and an end to IMF-backed austerity measures..
(WSJ, 1/17/97, p.A1)
1997 Jan 16, Israeli soldiers
dismantled their military headquarters in Hebron, marking the
beginning of the end of Israel's 30-year-old rule in the West Bank
city. A 5th of the city where 500 militant settlers live will
maintain a force of some 2,500.
(SFC, 1/17/97, p.A12)(AP, 1/16/98)
1997 Jan 16, Panama's Law No. 5
was passed and confirmed a deal in which Hutchison Whampoa, a
Chinese Hong Kong corporation, agreed to pay $22.5 million a year
plus what one Panamanian called "bucket loads of money" under the
table.
(www.eagleforum.org/psr/1999/nov99/psrnov99.html)
1997 Jan 17, The US House
ethics committee approved a $300,000 penalty against Speaker Newt
Gingrich for ethics violations. Speaker Newt Gingrich agreed to
submit to the reprimand.
(SFC, 1/18/97, p.A1)(AP, 1/17/98)
1997 Jan 17, A $40 million
navigation satellite for the US Air Force blew up on takeoff at Cape
Canaveral.
(SFC, 1/18/97, p.A3)
1997 Jan 17, Clyde Tombaugh,
the astronomer who discovered Pluto in 1930, died in New Mexico.
(SFEC, 1/19/97, p.B6)
1997 Jan 17, In Colombia Cali
cartel bosses Gilberto and Miguel Rodriguez drew prison terms of
10.5 and 9 years for cocaine trafficking.
(SFC, 1/18/97, p.C1)
1997 Jan 17, A French medical
team removed 10 bullets from Uday Hussein, son of Saddam Hussein of
Iraq. One bullet was still left lodged in his spine.
(SFC, 1/20/97, p.A13)
1997 Jan 17, A court in Ireland
granted the first divorce in the Roman Catholic country's history.
(AP, 1/17/98)
1997 Jan 17, Israel handed over
its military headquarters in Hebron to the Palestinians, ending 30
years of Israeli occupation of the West Bank city.
(AP, 1/17/98)
1997 Jan 17, South Korean
workers announced a reduction in work stoppages. All out strikes
were to be scaled back to once a week.
(SFC, 1/18/97, p.A10)
1997 Jan 18, Former
Massachusetts Sen. Paul Tsongas, who rebounded from cancer to
briefly become the Democratic front-runner for president in 1992,
died in Boston of pneumonia at age 55.
(SFEC, 1/19/97, p.B6)(AP, 1/18/98)
1997 Jan 18, Norwegian Boerge
Ousland completed a solo crossing of Antarctica that began Nov 15.
He used a parachute and skies to help pull himself across the 1695
miles from Berkner Island to Scott Base.
(SFC, 1/18/97, p.C1)
1997 Jan 18, In Tanzania it was
reported that the lion population had fallen by about a third in the
Serengeti National park due to distemper in dogs that transmitted up
the food chain. More than 1,000 lions had died over the last 2
years.
(SFC, 1/18/97, p.A16)
1997 Jan 19, "The English
Patient" won best picture and "Evita" won in the category of best
movie musical or comedy at the Golden Globes.
(AP, 1/19/98)
1997 Jan 19, A consortium led
by Motorola (Iridium) planned to launch a rocket with the first 3
satellites for a global mobile-telephone network based on 66
satellites. It had already been twice delayed.
(WSJ, 1/13/97, p.B6)
1997 Jan 19, Balloonist Steve
Foster ended his attempt to circle the globe and landed in India as
he ran out of gas in his Solo Spirit balloon. He had covered 9,000
miles and floated for 6 days, 2 hours and 54 minutes.
(SFC, 1/20/97, p.A12)
1997 Jan 19, James Dickey (84),
poet and novelist, died. In 1998 his son published "Summer of
Deliverance," an account of his relations with his father.
(WSJ, 8/19/98, p.A16)(MC, 1/19/02)
1997 Jan 19, In Albania, riot
police beat demonstrators demanding restitution for money lost in
pyramid schemes. Some 20 deposit-collecting companies had come to
dominate the economy under Berisha's rule. Some $1.2 billion in
Albanians' savings was wiped out.
(AP, 1/19/98)(WSJ, 4/2/99, p.A9)
1997 Jan 19, In Algeria a car
bomb killed 21 and wounded dozens in Algiers just hours after
attackers massacred 36 villagers south of the capital.
(SFC, 1/20/97, p.A12)
1997 Jan 19, In Austria
Chancellor Franz Vranitzky announced his resignation after 10 years
in office.
(SFC, 1/20/97, p.A13)
1997 Jan 19, In Bulgaria Pres.
Peter Stoyanov was sworn into office and he immediately called for
new parliamentary elections.
(SFC, 1/20/97, p.A13)
1997 Jan 19, Yasser Arafat
returned to Hebron for the first time in more than 30 years, joining
60,000 Palestinians in celebrating the handover of the last West
Bank city in Israeli control.
(AP, 1/19/98)
1997 Jan 20, President Clinton
and Vice President Gore were sworn in for second terms of office. In
his inaugural address, Clinton called for an end to "the politics of
petty bickering and extreme partisanship." Poet Miller Williams
delivered the inaugural poem.
(WSJ, 1/22/97, p.A12)(AP, 1/20/98)
1997 Jan 20, Edith Haisman
(100), the oldest survivor of Titanic, died.
(www.encyclopedia-titanica.org/biography/357/)
1997 Jan 20, In Scotland an
1800-year-old sculpture of a lioness devouring a man was found in
the mud of the Almond River near Edinburgh.
(SFC, 1/22/97, p.A9)
1997 Jan 21, Speaker Newt
Gingrich was fined as the House voted for first time in history to
discipline its leader for ethical misconduct.
(AP, 1/21/98)
1997 Jan 21, The Democratic
National Committee announced it would no longer accept money from
people or companies with foreign ties and would limit contributions
from labor unions and wealthy benefactors.
(AP, 1/21/98)
1997 Jan 21, Irwin Levine (58),
composer (Tie a Yellow Ribbon), died in New Jersey.
(http://tinyurl.com/afxk9)
1997 Jan 21, Colonel Tom Parker
(87), manager for Elvis Presley, died.
(MC, 1/21/02)
1997 Jan 21, In Algeria two car
bombs in the capital killed as a many as 18 people.
(SFC, 1/22/97, p.A8)
1997 Jan 21, In Chechnya
elections for president were planned and Aslan Maskhadov and Shamil
Basayev led the 16 candidates. Ichkeria was name given to free
Chechnya by the Muslim separatists.
(SFC, 1/22/97, p.A9)
1997 Jan 21, In China 2
earthquakes struck within a minute in Xinjiang province and killed
at least 12 people.
(WSJ, 1/22/97, p.A1)
1997 Jan 21, In Egypt the
al-Ahram newspaper reported that a 30-member family of beggars was
arrested. They had managed to save $294,000 from illegal begging on
the streets of Suez.
(SFC, 1/22/97, p.C1)
1997 Jan 21, In South Korea the
president agreed to allow the full parliament to consider a revise a
new labor law. Arrest warrants against union officials were
suspended.
(WSJ, 1/22/97, p.A1)
1997 Jan 22, The US Senate
confirmed Madeleine Albright as secretary of state, the first woman
to hold that office. William Cohen, a Republican, was ratified as
secretary of defense. She replaced Warren Christopher.
(SFC, 1/23/97, p.A3)(AP, 1/22/98)
1997 Jan 22, A jury in Florida
ruled that Owens-Corning Fiberglass Co. must pay $31 million to a
Mississippi man dying of cancer from exposure to asbestos.
(SFC, 1/23/97, p.A3)
1997 Jan 22, Canada and Cuba
announced a 14-point agreement. They pledged cooperation on human
rights and sought to shield foreign investors targeted for
punishment by Washington.
(SFC, 1/23/97, p.A8)
1997 Jan 22, In Rwanda gunmen
killed at least 20 civilians. In Kigali a special court sentenced 2
Hutu men to be executed for their roles in the 1994 mass killings.
(WSJ, 1/23/97, p.A12)
1997 Jan 23, The Age of
Aquarius dawned at 12:56 p.m.
(SFC, 1/24/97, p.A20)
1997 Jan 23, Cancer experts,
who were supposed to settle a furious controversy over whether women
should start having mammograms at age 40 or 50, decided instead to
leave the decision up to patients. The recommendation outraged the
American Cancer Society.
(AP, 1/23/98)
1997 Jan 23, A new species of a
carnivorous dinosaur from 120 million years ago was found in
southern England. At 26-feet it was larger than a velociraptor but
smaller than a tyrannosaurus rex.
(SFC, 1/24/97, p.A15)
1997 Jan 23, The Rwandan army
struck at Hutu insurgents and killed at least 310 in the northwest
area. Hutu rebels were suspected of killing more than 50 people
including 3 Spanish aid workers.
(SFC, 1/24/97, p.A14)
1997 Jan 23, In Kragujevac,
Serbia, opposition representatives tried to take over the TV
station, but were blocked by the regime of Pres. Milosevic.
(SFC, 1/24/97, p.A13)
1997 Jan 24, The White House
released guest lists showing that in the year and a-half before his
re-election, President Clinton invited more than 400 of his party's
top financial supporters to coffee klatches for informal policy
chats.
(AP, 1/24/98)
1997 Jan 24, Publix Super
Markets, accused of relegating women to dead-end, low-paying jobs,
agreed to pay $81.5 million to settle a class-action lawsuit.
(AP, 1/24/98)
1997 Jan 24, In Zagreb,
Croatia, Radio 101 was awarded a broadcast license after a long
battle with the nationalist government.
(SFC, 1/25/97, p.C1)
1997 Jan 24, In South Korea the
Hanbo Steel Group announced that it would file for bankruptcy. It
was charged that there were irregularities in large government loans
to the company.
(WSJ, 1/27/97, p.A1)
1997 Jan 24, In Madagascar a
cyclone struck and that some 200 were killed. It was later reported
that 520,000 people were affected.
(WSJ, 1/27/97, p.A1)(SFC, 2/8/97, p.A11)
1997 Jan 24, The Red Cross
issued an appeal for aid to North Korea where it was reported that
tens of thousands of people were on starvation rations after 2 years
of heavy rains.
(SFC, 1/25/97, p.C1)
1997 Jan 24, A Zairean
counteroffensive was supported by some 300 foreign mercenaries.
About 400,000 Hutu refugees were trapped near regions of fighting
and UN officials raised pleas for a truce to allow the refugees to
move.
(SFC, 1/25/97, p.A8)
1997 Jan 25, Responding to
recent cases of deadly food poisoning, President Clinton promised to
seek $43 million dollars to implement an early warning system for
food contamination.
(AP, 1/25/98)
1997 Jan 25, Astrologer Jeane
Dixon died in Washington, D.C., at age 79.
(AP, 1/25/98)
1997 Jan 25, In Lushnja,
Albania, thousands of people lost money in pyramid investment
schemes and took to the streets in protest. Some one million
Kalashnikov rifles were stolen from government depots.
(SFEC, 1/26/97, p.A14)(SFC, 7/26/97, p.A12)
1997 Jan 25, In Argentina
Noticias photojournalist Jose Luis Cabezas was found murdered in the
Atlantic resort of Pinamar. He had been handcuffed, tortured and
burned alive near a meeting place of the Justicialist Party. It was
later revealed that police officers carried out the murder under
orders from Alfredo Yabran. In 2000 a tribunal found 3 former
provincial police officers guilty in the murder along with a former
security guard and 4 civilians.
(SFC, 3/27/97, p.A15)(SFC, 10/2/97,
p.A13)(SFC,12/9/97, p.B10)(SFC, 2/28/98, p.A7)(SFC, 2/3/00, p.A13)
1997 Jan 25, In China it was
reported that winter storms had stranded some 320,000 people in
Xinjiang province and that many were close to starvation.
(SFC, 1/25/97, p.A18)
1997 Jan 25, In Colombia gunmen
of the FARC (Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia) kidnapped
Fernando Caballero Argaez, president of the Bogota Stock Exchange,
in Granada.
(SFC, 1/28/97, p.A8)
1997 Jan 25, In Kenya it was
reported that mass starvation was threatening after a widespread
draught this season.
(SFC, 1/25/97, p.A18)
1997 Jan 25, In Somaliland it
was reported that many wells and bore holes had dried up and that
cattle and goats were dying in large numbers.
(SFC, 1/25/97, p.A18)
1997 Jan 26, The Green Bay
Packers beat the New England Patriots 35-21 to win Super Bowl XXXI,
their first Super Bowl in 29 years.
(SFC, 1/27/97, p.C1)(AP, 1/26/98)
1997 Jan 27, Little Richard was
scheduled to receive the Award of Merit at the 24th annual American
Music Awards. His hits included "Tutti Frutti," "Good Golly Miss
Molly," and "Long Tall Sally."
(SFC, 1/3/97, p.C7)
1997 Jan 27, Israeli soldiers
removed 45 Bedouin families of the Jahalin Bedouin tribe from land
east of Jerusalem that they had occupied for decades due to the
expansion of the Maale Adumim Jewish settlement.
(SFC, 1/28/97, p.A8)
1997 Jan 27, In Mexico police
arrested Benigno Guzman, president of the Peasant Organization of
the Southern Sierra, an anti-government alliance of poor farmers
near Acapulco on charges of belonging to the EPR guerrilla group.
(SFC, 1/28/97, p.A8)
1997 Jan 27, The Swiss
ambassador to the US, Carlo Jagmetti, resigned after remarks against
groups that represented Holocaust victims seeking recompense from
Swiss banks by likening his country's Nazi gold crisis to a war that
had to be won.
(SFC, 1/28/97, p.A6)(AP, 1/27/98)
1997 Jan 28, O.J. Simpson's
fate was placed in the hands of a civil court jury that was charged
with deciding whether Simpson should be held liable for the slayings
of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman. The jury found that
Simpson was liable, and ordered him to pay $33.5 million.
(AP, 1/28/98)
1997 Jan 28, In Algeria union
leader Abdelhak Benhamouda was killed by an assassin. Separately a
bomb in the marketplace at Blida killed 15 people.
(USAT, 1/29/97, p.8A)
1997 Jan 28, PepsiCo Inc. said
it was ending business in Myanmar due to human rights problems. It
joined Eddie Bauer, Levi Strauss and Liz Claiborne.
(USAT, 1/29/97, p.8A)
1997 Jan 28, In Chechnya Aslan
Maskhadov claim victory in the elections.
(SFC, 1/29/97, p.A6)
1997 Jan 28, Five former police
officers in South Africa admitted to killing anti-apartheid activist
Stephen Biko, who died in police custody in 1977. His death had been
officially listed as an accident.
(MC, 1/28/02)
1997 Jan 28, In Sudan the
government faced a new rebel offensive.
(SFC, 1/28/97, p.A8)
1997 Jan 29, Threatened with
lawsuits across the country, America Online agreed to give refunds
to frustrated customers unable to log on after AOL offered a flat
$19.95-a-month rate.
(AP, 1/29/98)
1997 Jan 29, Thomas Daniel
Young, professor of English at Vanderbilt and leading authority on
literature of the American South, died. His work included: "The
Literature of the South," "Conversations With Malcolm Cowley,"
"Tennessee Writers," and "Gentleman in a Dustcoat: A Biography of
John Crowe Ransom."
(SFC, 2/10/97, p.A20)
1997 Jan 29, In China the
Supreme People’s Court upheld the death sentence for businesswoman
Han Yuji, the former president of the Jilin province Yuquan
Industrial and Trade Co., for fraud that involved as much as $43
million. She was immediately executed.
(SFC, 2/1/97, p.C1)
1997 Jan 29, In Japan Tatsuo
Tomobe, member of the upper house of parliament, was arrested and
accused of fraud. He had raised $75 million by offering high yields
on deposits and using it to finance political ambitions.
(SFEC, 2/2/97, p.A17)
1997 Jan 29, Mongolia joined
the World Trade Organization (WTO).
(www.wto.org/English/thewto_e/countries_e/mongolia_e.htm)
1997 Jan 29, In Pakistan the
Supreme Court upheld Bhutto’s dismissal and ordered new elections to
proceed.
(SFC, 1/30/97, p.A9)
1997 Jan 29, In Sierra Leone
the UN World Food Program announced a 6-month $19.4 million food aid
operation.
(SFC, 1/30/97, p.A10)
1997 Jan 29, In South Africa
Wouter Basson, retired brigadier general, was arrested for selling
1,000 tablets of the drug Ecstasy to undercover police.
(SFC, 2/1/97, p.C1)
1997 Jan 30, The US Marine
Corps opened an investigation of two videotaped hazing incidents in
1991 and 1993 known as "blood pinings" in which elite paratroopers
had golden jump pins beaten into their chests. The 1993 incident led
to a recommended discharge for a sergeant.
(AP, 1/30/98)
1997 Jan 30, The GPS (Global
Positioning System) satellites detected unusual crustal movements of
the Kilauea volcano in Hawaii.
(SFC, 2/17/97, p.A4)
1997 Jan 30, In Colombia police
seized 8 tons of cocaine and shut down a large cocaine processing
plant in the state of Guaviare.
(SFC, 1/31/97, p.A15)
1997 Jan 30, In Guatemala more
than 1,000 military police seized their own headquarters and
demanded at least $7,000 severance pay each when the 4,000 member
military police is dissolved later in the year.
(SFC, 1/31/97, p.A12)
1997 Jan 30, In Jamaica it was
reported that NAFTA has had devastating effects on the economy.
Garment exports were down 7% and 7,000 jobs were lost.
(SFC, 1/30/97, p.A10)
1997 Jan 30, In southern
Lebanon a roadside bomb killed 3 Israeli soldiers.
(SFC, 1/31/97, p.A15)
1997 Jan 31, Three days of
deliberations in the O.J. Simpson civil trial in Santa Monica,
Calif., were scrapped after the only black woman on the panel was
replaced because of misconduct. The jury started over.
(AP, 1/31/98)
1997 Jan 31, A US federal judge
sentenced cocaine lord Juan Garcia Abrega to serve 11 life terms and
to pay fines totaling more than $128 million. The penalties also
allowed the US government to seize $350 million in Abrega’s assets.
(SFC, 2/1/97, p.A3)
1997 Jan 31, In Liberia this
was the deadline for some 14,000 rebels to hand in their weapons.
(SFC, 1/30/97, p.A9)
1997 Jan 31, In Madagascar a
constitutional court said that Didier Ratsiraka edged out Albert
Zafy in last year’s elections.
(SFC, 2/1/97, p.C1)
1997 Jan 31, In Vietnam a
Communist Party member and three associates were sentenced to death
after being convicted of bribery, embezzlement and gambling. They
were responsible for losses of $27 million at the state-run Tamexco
import-export company.
(SFC, 2/1/97, p.A13)
1997 Jan, A jury awarded Food
Lion $5.5 million against ABC. The jury held that ABC was guilty of
fraud, trespass and breach of loyalty in its pursuit of the news
story on food handling practices by Food Lion.
(WSJ, 2/11/97, p.A20)
1997 Jan, In France the Paris
Music Museum, Musee de la Musique, opened as part of the Cite de la
Musique complex at 221 avenue Jean-Jaures.
(SFEC, 9/14/97, p.T7)
1997 Jan, In Guatemala
Bonifassi de Botran, the heir to a liquor distillery fortune, was
kidnapped in Guatemala City. A ransom was paid but she was found
dead. Two members of the kidnapping ring, Los Pasaco, escaped from
prison but Luis Amilcar Cetino Perez and Tomas Cerrate Hernandez
were scheduled for execution in 2000.
(SFC, 6/22/00, p.A12)
1997 Jan, In India the Madhya
Pradesh state government inaugurated its Education Guarantee Scheme
(EGS), whereby any community could have a school if it had 40 or
more children living over half a mile from an existing school.
(SFC, 3/4/99, p.A12)
1997 Jan, Prime Minister
Mahathir Mohamad of Malaysia went to Silicon Valley to describe a
new "multimedia supercorridor" which would include a new airport and
two new cities with high technology centers.
(Hem., 4/97, p.42)
1997 Jan, In Papua New Guinea
the government of Prime Minister Sir Julius Chan decided to hire
foreign mercenaries for $36 million to crush the revolt in
Bougainville.
(WSJ, 3/18/98, p.A1)
1997 cJan, In South Korea the
Assembly met and agreed to delay the implementation of the new labor
laws until 1999.
(SFC, 1/22/98, p.B3)
1997 Jan-1997 Jun, In Germany
neo-Nazis committed 4,829 recorded crimes and 353 of them involved
violent attacks.
(SFEC, 2/8/98, p.A20)
1997 Feb 1, Pulitzer
Prize-winning columnist Herb Caen died in San Francisco at age 80.
(SFEC, 2/2/97, p.A12)(AP, 2/1/97)
1997 Feb 1, In Hong Kong a
Beijing-appointed committee voted to repeal several key civil
liberties laws.
(SFEC, 6/22/97, p.A14)
1997 Feb 1, In Iran 5 people
were killed and 44 injured when worshipers stampeded at the entrance
to a mosque in Kermanshah.
(SFC, 2/3/97, p.C3)
1997 Feb 1, Peruvian President
Alberto Fujimori promised to open "preliminary dialogue" with rebels
holding 72 hostages in Lima, but again rejected their demand to
release jailed comrades.
(AP, 2/1/97)
1997 Feb 1, An Air Senegal
plane crashed and at least 23 people died after liftoff from a
wildlife refuge at Tambacounda.
(SFC, 2/3/97, p.C3)
1997 Feb 1, In Turkey A
movement began demanding an investigation in the car accident, the
Susurluk scandal, that linked government officials and gangster
groups. People in cities began making noise outside their windows at
9 PM every night.
(WSJ, 3/14/97, p.A1)
1997 Feb 2, Authorities in
Vallejo, Calif., recovered 500 pounds of stolen dynamite and
arrested two men in bombings that destroyed three bank teller
machines and blasted a courthouse wall. Six men wound up receiving
long prison terms for their roles in the case.
(SFC, 2/3/97, p.A1)(AP, 2/2/07)
1997 Feb 2, In Algeria Islamic
guerrillas killed 31 people. The dead were all believed to be
related to a dissident member of the GIA, the Armed Islamic Group.
After their throats were cut a dwarf hacked off their heads with an
ax and a knife.
(SFC, 2/3/97, p.C2)
1997 Feb 2, In Belgium some 20
thousand demonstrators joined workers of bankrupt Forges de Clabecq,
a steel firm, to protest job losses and social injustice.
(SFC, 2/3/97, p.C3)
1997 Feb 2, In Colombia at
least 25 soldiers were killed and scores wounded in fighting with
leftist guerrillas east of Bogota.
(SFC, 2/3/97, p.C3)
1997 Feb 2, In Serbia riot
police beat pro-democracy protestors in the biggest show of force in
75 days of anti-government protests.
(SFC, 2/3/97, p.A1)
1997 Feb 3, The US Army
announced that a retired female sergeant major had accused Sgt. Maj.
Gene McKinney of sexual assault and harassment. McKinney, who was
accused of sexual misconduct by six women, faced court-martial, but
was acquitted of 18 charges of pressuring enlisted women for sex. He
received a reprimand and reduction in rank.
(AP, 2/3/02)
1997 Feb 3, The US stock market
initiated new "circuit breakers." The first stop would kick in after
a 350-point drop in the DJ industrial average.
(WSJ, 2/3/97, p.A12)
1997 Feb 3, In Bulgaria prime
minister designate Nikolai Dobrev was selected by the ruling
Socialists to lead a new government. Thousands hit the streets with
students and transport workers in protest.
(SFC, 2/4/97, p.A9)
1997 Feb 3, In the Philippines
Roman Catholic Bishop Benjamin de Jesus was shot to death in the
city of Cotaboto on Jolo Island.
(SFC, 2/4/97, p.A9)
1997 Feb 3, In Serbia Belgrade
police beat up protestors and representatives of Kosovo’s Albanian
majority said 5 people were killed in a police sweep.
(SFC, 2/4/97, p.A8)
1997 Feb 4, Pres. Clinton in
his State of the Union speech that education was his No. 1 priority
for his 2nd term.
(SFC, 2/5/97, p.A1)(AP, 2/4/97)
1997 Feb 4, A civil jury in
Santa Monica, Calif., found O.J. Simpson liable for the deaths of
his ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend, Ronald Goldman,
awarding $8.5 million in compensatory damages to Goldman's parents.
Six days later, the jury added $25 million in punitive damages to go
to Nicole Brown Simpson's estate and Goldman's father.
(SFC, 2/5/97, p.A1)(AP, 2/4/97)
1997 Feb 4, It was reported
that $68 million in gold bars, looted by the Nazis from European
central banks and stored in the vaults of the Federal Reserve Bank
in New York and the Bank of England, would be frozen. Switzerland,
Sweden and other nations turned them over to the allies after WW II.
The disbursement of the gold was to be administered by the
Tripartite Commission but claims have been made that part of the
gold came from private citizens who died in the Holocaust.
(SFC, 2/4/97, p.A12)
1997 Feb 4, Investment bank
Morgan Stanley and Dean Witter announced a plan to merge for a
combined capitalization of over $20 billion. Phillip J. Purcell,
chairman and CEO of Dean Witter, became chairman and CEO of the new
company. In 2005 Purcell, faced with employee defections, announced
his retirement.
(WSJ, 2/5/97, p.A1)
1997 Feb 4, In Australia the
parliament voted to begin the process of becoming a republic. A
constitutional convention was planned for the fall and delegates
would decide on how to put the issue to the electorate.
(WSJ, 2/5/97, p.A1)
1997 Feb 4, In Bulgaria the
ex-Communists backed down and agreed to new elections in April.
(WSJ, 2/5/97, p.A1)
1997 Feb 4, From China it was
reported that the government was cracking down on the arts while
attempting to promote Pres. Jiang Zemin’s "spiritual civilization."
Writer Mo Yan, author of "Ample Breasts, Fat Buttocks" was singled
out for criticism.
(SFC, 2/4/97, p.A10)
1997 Feb 4, In Colombia the
U’wa tribe blocked Occidental Petroleum from developing an oil field
on their land worth billions.
(SFC, 2/5/97, p.A9)
1997 Feb 4, In northeastern
Iran 2 earthquakes with aftershocks killed at least 72 people. Some
43 villages were damaged. Another quake followed the next day.
(SFC, 2/5/97, p.A9)(SFC, 2/6/97, p.A1)
1997 Feb 4, Two Israeli
helicopters collided at the Shaar Yeshuv kibbutz and 73 soldiers
were killed.
(WSJ, 2/5/97, p.A1)(AP, 2/4/97)
1997 Feb 4, In Pakistan the
Muslim League won elections with 140 of 217 parliament seats. Nawaz
Sharif was re-elected as prime minister.
(SFC, 2/5/97, p.A9)(WSJ, 9/5/07, p.A4)
1997 Feb 4, In Rwanda gunmen
killed 2 human-rights monitors 180 miles southeast of Kigali. Five
UN employees were killed.
(WSJ, 2/5/97, p.A1)(SFC, 2/5/97, p.A9)
1997 Feb 4, In Serbia Milosevic
said that he would recognized the opposition victories in 14 towns.
(WSJ, 2/5/97, p.A1)
1997 Feb 5, U.S. Ambassador to
France, Pamela Harriman, died in Paris at age 76. Christopher Ogden
wrote an unauthorized biography that was used for a 1998 TV show:
"Life of the Party" The Pamela Harriman Story."
(SFC, 2/6/97, p.A1)(AP, 2/5/97)(WSJ, 10/12/98,
p.A17)
1997 Feb 5, In Algeria rebels
killed a family of 9 by hacking off their heads in Benchikao. The
government in Algiers began banning parked cars in the city to
thwart car bomb attacks.
(SFC, 2/6/97, p.C2)
1997 Feb 5, In Ecuador hundreds
of thousands began a 48-hour general strike against Pres. Abdala
Bucaram to protests economic austerity, nepotism and corruption.
(SFC, 2/6/97, p.C2)
1997 Feb 5, Three Swiss banks
announced that they had put about $70-71 million into an account
with the Swiss National Bank to establish a "Humanitarian Fund" for
the victims of the Holocaust.
(SFC, 2/6/97, p.C2)(AP, 2/5/97)
1997 Feb 5-1997 Feb 6, In China
the Uighers rioted in the province of Xinjiang and reports of deaths
varied from 4-300. The fighting was said to have begun after the
public execution of 30 young Muslims. Residents said Muslims
attacked and killed ethnic Chinese before police quashed the revolt.
Authorities said 10 people died and 140 were injured. 12 people were
later executed for the uprising.
(USAT, 2/11/97, p.5A)(USAT, 2/12/97, p.8A) (WSJ,
2/11/97, p.A1)(SFC, 7/29/97, p.A10)
1997 Feb 6, President Clinton
sent Congress a $1.69 trillion budget for fiscal 1998, saying it
would erase deficits by 2002 and for 20 years beyond. Though citing
costly new programs and phantom savings, Republicans said they were
ready to bargain.
(AP, 2/6/97)
1997 Feb 6, Miami strip club
owner of "Porky’s," Ludwig "Tarzan" Fainberg, was charged with
trying to broker the sale of a Russian nuclear submarine to
Colombian drug barons. He had already purchased 6 Russian
helicopters for drug traffickers.
(SFC, 2/7/97, p.A13)
1997 Feb 6, The Congress of
Ecuador voted to remove Pres. Abdala Bucaram from office on the
grounds of "mental incapacity." Fabian Alarcon was chosen by
Congress to replace him. Bucaram’s vice-president, Rosalia Arteaga,
said she was assuming the presidency.
(SFC, 2/7/97, p.A1,19)
1997 Feb 6, In South Africa
mixed race rioters protested in Eldorado Park. One died and more
than 100 were injured.
(SFC, 2/7/97, p.A17)
1997 Feb 7, Mindful of Boris
Yeltsin's ailments, President Clinton agreed to shift their March
summit meeting from the United States to Helsinki, Finland.
(AP, 2/7/97)
1997 Feb 7, The US Air Force
suspended all its flights in restricted training areas on the East
Coast after two close calls between National Guard jets and civilian
airliners.
(AP, 2/7/97)
1997 Feb 7, The first day of
the Chinese New Year. The year of the rat ended and the year of the
ox, 4695, began.
(SFEC, 2/2/97, DB. p.7)(SFC, 2/8/97, p.A17)
1997 Feb 8, President Clinton
announced in his weekly radio address that he was releasing the
first of a $200 million program of grants to provide schools with
computers and Internet training.
(AP, 2/8/02)
1997 Feb 8, In Serbia it was
reported that a new book by former journalist Slavoljub Djukic: "He,
She and Us," was flying off the shelves. The book is about Slobodan
Milosevic and his wife Mirjana Markovic.
(SFC, 2/8/97)
1997 Feb 9, Fox cartoon series
"Simpsons" aired its 167th episode, the longest running animated
series in cartoon history.
(MC, 2/9/02)
1997 Feb 9, The East beat the
West in the NBA All-Star game, 132-to-120.
(AP, 2/9/02)
1997 Feb 9, Best Products
closed the last of its stores, a victim of the diminishing allure of
the catalog showroom concept of retailing.
(AP, 2/9/02)
1997 Feb 9, In Newton, Mass.,
an 8-month old baby died while under the care of a 19-year-old
British nanny. Louisa Woodward, pleaded innocent, but was tried and
convicted on 2nd-degree murder charges in Oct.
(SFC,10/31/97,
p.A1)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louise_Woodward)
1997 Feb 9, In Ecuador an
agreement was reached to have Rosalia Arteaga serve as interim
president until the passing of a constitutional amendment to elect a
successor.
(SFC, 2/10/97, p.A8)
1997 Feb 10, The 5th annual
ESPY Awards were held at Radio City Music Hall, NYC. The Awards were
created by ESPN in 1993 and are given for Excellence in Sports
Performance.
(http://espn.go.com/espy2004/s/espyfacts.html)
1997 Feb 10, A civil jury in
Santa Monica heaped $25 million in punitive damages on O.J. Simpson
for the slayings of his ex-wife and her friend, on top of $8.5
million in compensatory damages awarded earlier.
(USAT, 2/11/97, p.A1)(AP, 2/10/97)
1997 Feb 10, The US Air Force
suspended all training flights over the Gulf of Mexico and the East
Coast after two new reports of close encounters between F-16s and
commercial aircraft over New Mexico and Texas.
(AP, 2/10/07)
1997 Feb 10, The US Army
suspended its top-ranking enlisted soldier, Army Sgt. Major Gene
McKinney, following sexual misconduct allegations.
(AP, 2/10/97)
1997 Feb 10, The US National
Park Service took over a small section of Santa Cruz Island, one of
the Channel Islands off of Ventura, Ca. Most of the 60,800 acre
island is owned by the Nature Conservancy.
(SFEC, 7/13/97, p.A15)
1997 Feb 10, The city of
Cincinnati revealed plans for a new $80-million museum for its role
in the Underground Railroad during the Civil War. The museum and
freedom center were scheduled to open in 2002.
(USAT, 2/11/97, p.D1)
1997 Feb 10, From Bolivia it
was reported that heavy rains have destroyed the homes and crops of
tens of thousands of farmers. The rains were the heaviest in 3
decades.
(SFC, 2/10/97, p.A8)
1997 Feb 10, Bosnian Croat
gunmen killed a Bosnian Muslim man and wounded 22 others who were
among a crowd of some 200 trying to visit a cemetery in the divided
city of Mostar.
(WSJ, 2/11/97, p.A1)
1997 Feb 10, In Spain a Supreme
Court Justice, Rafael Martinez Emperador, was shot dead in Madrid.
In Grenada a car bomb exploded and killed one person and wounded 7.
Guerrillas of the ETA, Basque Homeland and Liberty, were blamed.
(USAT, 2/11/97, p.5A)
1997 Feb 11, Bosnian Croats
evicted 26 Muslim families from the Croat half of the city of
Mostar.
(WSJ, 2/12/97, p.A1)
1997 Feb 12, The Clinton
administration gave permission to 10 U.S. news organizations to open
bureaus in Cuba.
(AP, 2/12/98)
1997 Feb 12, In Maine Philip
Berrigan was arrested at an anti-nuclear protest. He was one of 6
activists later convicted for vandalizing a Navy guided missile
destroyer at the Bath Iron Works.
(SFC,10/28/97, p.A10)
1997 Feb 12, NBC sportscaster
Marv Albert bit his paramour, Vanessa Perhach, as many as 15 times
and forced her to perform oral sex in an Arlington, Va., hotel. At
trial, Albert ended up pleading guilty to assault and battery. [see
May 19]
(www.eonline.com/News/Court/0597.albert.html)
1997 Feb 12, The Discovery
space shuttle lifted off and work was planned on the Hubble Space
Telescope.
(SFC, 2/17/97, p.A2)
1997 Feb 12, Hwang Jang Yop, a
Central Committee member of North Korea and the highest-ranking
official to flee, defected to South Korea. He sought asylum at the
South Korean embassy in Beijing, China.
(SFEC, 2/16/97, p.A19)(AP, 2/12/98)
1997 Feb 13, On Wall Street,
the Dow Jones industrial average broke through the 7,000 barrier for
the first time, ending the day at 7,022.44.
(WSJ, 2/14/97, p.C1)(AP, 2/13/98)
1997 Feb 13, Discovery's
astronauts hauled the Hubble Space Telescope aboard the shuttle for
a one billion mile tune up to allow it to peer even deeper into the
far reaches of the universe.
(AP, 2/13/98)
1997 Feb 14, Monica Lewinsky
posted a love note in the Washington Post to Handsome [Pres.
Clinton] that quoted from Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet 2:2.
(SFC, 9/12/98, p.A13)
1997 Feb 14, American Airlines
and its pilots union continued contract talks as the clock ticked
down to a midnight strike deadline. The pilots did strike, but
President Clinton immediately intervened, ordering a 60-day "cooling
off" period.
(AP, 2/14/98)
1997 Feb 14, In Burma some
3,000 Karen refugees have fled into Thailand to escape fighting. The
Karen National Union has been fighting for autonomy since 1948.
Thailand said 16,000 Karens were crossing over its border.
(SFC, 2/15/97, p.A10)(WSJ, 2/14/97, p.A1)
1997 Feb 14, In Cambodia Khmer
Rouge guerrillas killed all but three government officials sent to
make peace.
(SFC, 4/12/97, p.A12)
1997 Jan 14, In China the China
Agribusiness Development Trust and Investment Corp. (CADTIC), set up
in 1988 to channel domestic and foreign funds into the agricultural
sector, was closed with reports of being involved in smuggling, tax
evasion and ruinous real estate speculation.
(SFC, 2/17/97, p.B3)
1997 Feb 14, In Egypt Muslim
militants slew 9 Copts.
(SFC, 3/31/97, p.A9)
1997 Feb 15, Tara Lipinski
upset Michelle Kwan at the U.S. Figure Skating Championships in
Nashville, Tenn., becoming the youngest gold medalist at the
nationals.
(AP, 2/15/98)
1997 Feb 15, North Korean
defector Lee Han-young was shot and mortally wounded in South Korea
by North Korean agents, three days after another North Korean
defected in Beijing. He was the nephew of the first wife of Kim Jon
Il, who defected in 1982. Doctors pronounced him brain dead.
(SFC, 2/17/97, p.A1,9)(AP, 2/15/98)
1997 Feb 15, In Zaire Rwandan
soldiers killed about 200 refugees near the town of Kigulube.
(AP, 10/1/10)
1997 Feb 16, U.S. Rep. Dan
Burton, R-Ind., the chairman of a House committee investigating
campaign fund-raising activities, told NBC's "Meet the Press" that
his probe would be far broader than originally anticipated.
(AP, 2/16/98)
1997 Feb 17, In a surprising
development, Pepperdine University said that Whitewater prosecutor
Kenneth Starr would step down from the probe to take a full-time job
at the school. [see Feb 21]
(SFC, 2/18/97, p.A1)(AP, 2/17/98)
1997 Feb 17, The Virginia House
of Delegates voted to retire the state song "Carry Me Back to Old
Virginia," and make it the state song emeritus.
(SFC, 2/18/97, p.A3)
1997 Feb 17, In Austin, Texas,
Angela Peck was stabbed in the back and the neck by Carl Wayne
Thomas (21), a security guard. She pleaded for mercy and promised to
blame the attack on a fictitious character. Thomas agreed and
summoned aid. She later told the truth and Thomas confessed. He
agreed to a 42-year prison sentence for attempted murder.
(SFC, 10/13/97, p.A9)
1997 Feb 17, Adrian Jacobs,
British businessman and writer, died penniless in London. His work
included a children’s book titled “The Adventures of Willy the
Wizard – No. 1 Livid Land” (1987). In 2009 his estate charged that
J.K. Rawlings, author of the popular Harry Potter books, plagiarized
his book.
(SFC, 6/17/09,
p.E12)(www.imdb.com/name/nm0414310/bio)
1997 Feb 17, In France striking
bus and tram drivers in Lille returned to work after an agreement
was reached to reduce their workweek to 35 hours from 38, without a
pay reduction, along with an extra 2 weeks annual vacation.
(SFC, 2/18/97, p.A10)
1997 Feb 17, In Peru Leonor La
Rosa was taken to a military hospital following her torture and
beatings.
(SFC, 6/28/97, p.A10)
1997 Feb 17, In Zaire
government forces used 3 fighter aircraft to bomb the rebel-held
city of Bukavu. At least 6 civilians were killed and 20 injured.
(SFC, 2/18/97, p.A10)
1997 Feb 18, Bill Richardson
began work as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations.
(AP, 2/18/98)
1997 Feb 18, Astronauts on the
space shuttle Discovery completed their tune-up of the Hubble Space
Telescope after 33 hours of spacewalking; the Hubble was then
released using the shuttle's crane. The astronauts installed
the Near Infrared Camera and Multi-Object Spectrometer (NICMOS) on
the Hubble Space Telescope.
(AP, 2/18/98)(USAT, 10/9/98, p.10A)
1997 Feb 18, It was reported
that scientists found evidence that upheld the theory of an asteroid
hitting the Earth 65 million years ago in seabed drill sediments 300
miles off the coast of northern Florida.
(SFC, 2/18/97, p.A3)
1997 Feb 18, In Algeria Islamic
militants shot, hacked or burned to death 33 people in Blida, south
of Algiers. Meanwhile the government passed a law that banned
political parties based on religion, language and regionalism.
(SFC, 2/19/97, p.A10)
1997 Feb 18, In France it was
reported that the National Front was the fastest growing political
party in the country and was led by Bruno Megret (47), a former
student at UC Berkeley. The party championed a national preference
program where jobs, public housing and univ. slots would be reserved
for the ethnic French majority.
(SFC, 2/18/97, p.A1)
1997 Feb 18, In Mexico General
Jesus Guitterez Rebollo was dismissed from the armed forces and held
for charges of collaborating with Amado Carillo Fuentes, leader of
the most powerful Mexican drug cartel. He was the head of the
National Institute for Combating Drugs (INCD), which became defunct.
(SFC, 2/19/96, p.A1)(SFC, 7/28/97, p.A11)
1997 Feb 18, In Peru at least
33 people were killed and a hundred were missing after an Andean
mountain collapsed and buried the villages of Choch and Pumaranra
near Abancay. Total killed reached 250-300. Only 50 bodies were
recovered.
(SFC, 2/19/97, p.A11)(SFC, 2/25/97, p.a14)
1997 Feb 18, The UN endorsed a
5-point peace plan for Zaire.
(SFC, 2/19/97, p.A10)
1997 Feb 19, The US FCC made
available 311 for non-emergency calls & 711 for hearing or
speech-impaired emergency calls.
(http://tinyurl.com/8xhja)
1997 Feb 19, Detroit's daily
newspapers accepted a back-to-work offer from employees who'd been
on strike for 19 months, but the strikers charged the conditions for
return amounted to a lockout.
(AP, 2/19/98)
1997 Feb 19, In southwestern
Alaska Evan Ramsey (16) opened fire with a 12-gauge shotgun as
students assembled in a high school lobby, killing a principal and
16-year-old classmate in Bethel, a town of 6,000. Ramsey was
sentenced to a 198-year prison term.
(AP,
4/25/06)(www.crimelibrary.com/serial_killers/weird/kids1/index_1.html)
1997 Feb 19, Larry Singleton
murdered Roxanne Hayes, a prostitute, in Tampa, Fla. He had served 8
years of a 14-year sentence for the 1978 rape and maiming of
15-year-old Mary Vincent in Ca. A trial in Dec ended in a mistrial
and another was set for 1998. He was sentenced to death in 1998 but
died of cancer in a prison hospital in 2001.
(SFC,12/11/97, p.A3)(SFC, 4/15/98, p.A3)(SFC,
1/1/02, p.A13)
1997 Feb 19, Prof. James J.
Parsons, authority on the historical geography of Latin America,
died. He authored 5 books and 150 articles.
(SFC, 2/27/97, p.A16)
1997 Feb 19, Leo Rosten (88),
writer, humorist (Joys of Yiddish), died.
(www.nndb.com/people/842/000048698/)
1997 Feb 19, Deng Xiaoping
(92), the last of China's major Communist revolutionaries, died from
Parkinson’s disease. He smoked heavily and Panda was his brand. In
2011 Ezra Vogel authored “Deng Xiaoping and the Transformation of
China.”
(AP, 2/19/98)(WSJ, 5/26/04, p.A1)(Econ,
10/22/11, p.103)
1997 Feb 20, The US National
Transportation Safety Board called for a speedup in the redesign of
the rudder controls on Boeing 737s, citing potential problems in a
pair of deadly crashes.
(AP, 2/20/98)
1997 Feb 21, Whitewater
prosecutor Kenneth Starr reversed his decision to quit and said he
would complete the investigation.
(SFC, 2/22/97, p.A1)(AP, 2/21/98)
1997 Feb 21, The space shuttle
Discovery returned to earth after a mission to upgrade the Hubble
Space Telescope.
(AP, 2/21/98)
1997 Feb 21, There was a
bombing at an Atlanta lesbian nightclub that injured five people. It
was similar to the previous recent bombings at an abortion clinic
and at the Olympics. Eric Rudolph was later charged with the
bombing. He was arrested May 31, 2003.
(WSJ, 2/21/97, p.A12)(SSFC, 6/1/03, p.A1)
1997 Feb 21, It was reported
that Burundi troops killed more than 150 civilians in reprisals for
rebel attacks. 100 people were killed at Mugara and fifty near
Maramvya.
(SFC, 2/22/97, p.A12)
1997 Feb 21, In Serbia the
opposition coalition took control of the Belgrade City Council with
Zoran Djindjic as mayor.
(SFC, 2/22/97, p.A1)
1997 Feb 22, The new welfare
law in the US put tens of thousands of people off of food stamps as
of today. The new law stated that adults under age 50 without
children or jobs could only receive food stamps for 3 months in any
3-year period. The law authorized states to contract with private
companies to provide welfare services.
(SFC, 2/22/97, p.A12)(WSJ, 3/19/97, p.A1)(AP,
2/22/02)
1997 Feb 22, It was reported
that the Clinton administration was seeking to have the former El
Salvador rebel, Pedro Antonio Andrade, deported as a terrorist.
(SFC, 2/22/97, p.A7)
1997 Feb 22, Albert Shanker,
the leader of the American Federation of Teachers who championed
public school reforms, died in New York at age 68.
(AP, 2/22/02)
1997 Feb 23, NBC TV showed
"Schindler's List," completely uncensored and 65M watched.
(www.answers.com/topic/schindler-s-list)
1997 Feb 23, Former NAACP
leader Benjamin Chavis announced that he had joined the Nation of
Islam led by ailing Louis Farrakhan.
(SFC, 2/25/97, p.A10)
1997 Feb 23, In Philadelphia a
group of white men attacked a black family in the Grays Ferry
section. Nine men were tried in 1998 and 6 were convicted on a
variety of felony accounts.
(SFC, 2/10/98, p.A3)
1997 Feb 23, Ali Hassan Abu
Kamal (69), a Palestinian teacher, opened fire on the 86th-floor
observation deck of New York City's Empire State Building, killing
one person and wounding six others before shooting himself to death.
He was said to have acted on personal motives not associated to any
political group.
(SFC, 2/24/97, p.A1)(AP, 2/23/98)
1997 Feb 23, China’s
legislature voted to dilute Hong Kong’s civil liberties laws.
(SFEC, 6/22/97, p.A14)
1997 Feb 23, There was a flash
fire aboard the 11-year-old Russian space station Mir. New fire
extinguishers were brought up on Apr 8 along with oxygen generators
and carbon-dioxide removal canisters and other provisions by the
crewless Progress-34 ship.
(SFE, 4/9/97, p.A15)
1997 Feb 23, In eastern India a
fire in Baripada killed 190 worshippers at the 46th annual festival
in honor of the late Swami Nigamananda.
(SFC, 2/24/97, p.A10)(SFC, 2/25/97, p.a14)(AP,
2/23/98)
1997 Feb 23, In Israel PM
Netanyahu hired a lawyer as he faced charges of participating in a
deal to quash corruption charges against Aryeh Deri, the leader of
the religious Shas party, in order to get the party’s support for
the Hebron agreement.
(WSJ, 2/24/97, p.A1)(SFC, 2/25/97, p.a12)
1997 Feb 23, It was announced
that researchers under Dr. Ian Wilmut at Edinburgh, Scotland,
created a clone lamb from adult sheep DNA. The lamb was born in Jul,
1996, and named Dolly after Dolly Pardon. Dolly was put down Feb.
14, 2003, after a short life marred by premature aging and disease.
(SFEC, 2/23/97, p.C1)(AP, 2/23/98)
1997 Feb 23, Tony Williams
(51), jazz drummer, died in Daly City, Ca. He had worked with Miles
Davis and helped form the jazz-rock fusion trio Lifetime. His latest
recording was "Wilderness."
(SFC, 2/25/97, p.B2)
1997 Feb 24, Secretary of State
Madeleine Albright met in Beijing with Chinese officials, telling
them to improve their country's record on human rights or face
condemnation by the United States and its allies.
(AP, 2/24/98)
1997 Feb 24, The US Food and
Drug Administration named six brands of birth control as safe and
effective "morning-after" pills for preventing pregnancy.
(AP, 2/24/98)
1997 Feb 24, In Romania a new
economic package, introduced last week, planned to reduce state
subsidies, deregulate food and energy prices, close unprofitable
state enterprises and private others.
(SFC, 2/24/97, p.A10)
1997 Feb 24, In unrecognized
Somaliland Mohammed Ibrahim Egal was re-elected by clan leaders as
president.
(SFC, 2/25/97, p.a14)
1997 Feb 25, A jury in Media,
Pa., convicted multimillionaire John E. du Pont of third-degree
murder, deciding he was mentally ill when he killed world-class
wrestler David Schultz. Du Pont was sentenced to serve 13- to
30-years in prison.
(AP, 2/25/07)
1997 Feb 25, China's elite bid
a final farewell to Deng Xiaoping, the country's last major
revolutionary leader.
(AP, 2/25/98)
1997 Feb 25, In China in
Urumqi, capital of Xinjiang province, Muslim Uigher separatists set
bombs that killed as many as 5 and wounded 27.
(SFC, 2/26/97, p.A8)(WSJ, 2/26/97, p.A1)
1997 Feb 26, In the 39th Grammy
Awards "Change the World" won four awards, including record of the
year; Celine Dion's "Falling Into You" won album of the year and
best pop album.
(AP, 2/26/98)(SC, 2/26/02)
1997 Feb 26, President Clinton
defended White House fund-raising tactics as "entirely appropriate,"
a day after the disclosure of documents putting Clinton at the
center of all-out fund-raising efforts.
(AP, 2/26/98)
1997 Feb 26, US smokers were
required proof of age over 18 to purchase cigarettes.
(www.no-smoking.org/feb97/2-26-97-01.html)
1997 Feb 26, Israel's Netanyahu
cabinet approved the construction of 6,500 homes for Israelis in
Arab East Jerusalem.
(WSJ, 2/27/97, p.A1)(AP, 2/26/98)
1997 Feb 26, Thai soldiers
pushed Karen refugees back across the border into Burma as Burmese
troops massed for an offensive.
(WSJ, 2/27/97, p.A1)
1997 Feb 27, A jury in
Fayetteville, N.C., convicted former Army paratrooper James N.
Burmeister of murdering a black couple so he could get a skinhead
tattoo. He was later sentenced to life in prison.
(AP, 2/27/98)
1997 Feb 27, Kingsley Davis
(88), Hoover Institution demographer, died. He had coined the term
"zero population growth." He was the first sociologist to be named
to the National Academy of Sciences.
(SFC, 3/5/96, p.A16)
1997 Feb 27, Legislation
banning most handguns in Britain went into effect.
(AP, 2/27/98)
1997 Feb 27, Divorce became
legal in Ireland. [see Jan 17]
(AP,
2/27/98)(www.divorceuk.com/pages/keyissues/diveire.php)
1997 Feb 28, Brushing aside
congressional calls for a tougher stance against Mexico, President
Clinton recertified the country as a fully cooperating ally in the
struggle against drug smuggling.
(AP, 2/28/98)
1997 Feb 28, Pres. Clinton and
Monica Lewinsky had another sexual encounter [after nearly 11
months] following the taping of his weekly radio address.
(SFC, 9/12/98, p.A13)
1997 Feb 28, US Navy medium
attack aircraft were retired by order of Pres. Clinton. Any
deep-strike mission would be in the hands of the Air Force.
(WSJ, 2/28/97, p.A14)
1998 Feb 28, In North
Hollywood, Calif., two heavily armed masked robbers bungled a B of A
bank heist and came out firing, unleashing their arsenal on police,
bystanders, cars and TV choppers before they were killed. Police
borrowed high powered semiautomatic rifles from a local gun store to
match the fire power of the robbers.
(SFC, 3/1/97, p.A1,17)(AP, 2/28/98)
1997 Feb 28, Del Monte
announced that it would be sold to the Texas Pacific Group for about
$800 million.
(SFC, 3/1/97, p.B1)
1997 Feb 28, Ford announced
that it planned to phase out production of the Thunderbird (b.1955)
until a new generation model in 2000.
(WSJ, 2/28/97, p.A3)
1997 Feb 28, A 6.1 earthquake
at Ardebil in northwest Iran struck at 4:27 p.m. local time. The
quake damaged 110 villages and killed some 3,000 people. A second
5.1 quake followed in 2 days.
(SFC, 3/1/97, p.C1)(SFEC, 3/2/97, p.A15)(SFEC,
3/3/97, p.A12)
1997 Feb 28, From Malaysia it
was reported that the Dayaks were killing the Madurans in the rain
forest of West Kalimantan, Borneo. The indigenous Dayaks had killed
as many as 300 Madurans in fierce hand combat after a peace treaty
was broken. The Madurans were moved in by the government from an
overpopulated area.
(SFC, 2/28/97, p.A16)(WSJ, 4/2/99, p.A9)
1997 Feb 28, In Pakistan at
2:10 a.m. a 7.3 earthquake struck in the province of Baluchistan. At
least 8 people were killed and many injured. Reports the next day
indicated that the 7.3 quake in Pakistan killed at least 80.
(WSJ, 2/28/97, p.A1)(SFC, 3/1/97, p.C1)
1997 Feb, Orrin Keepnews
accepted the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences
Governors Award for Outstanding Achievement at the Bay Area GRAMMY
Nominees Celebration.
(SFEM, 10/5/97, p.28)
1997 Feb, Tattooing was
re-legalized in NYC after a 36-year ban caused by fears of
hepatitis.
(Econ, 5/24/08,
p.48)(http://nymag.com/guides/everything/tattoos/37978/)
1997 Feb, Lipitor, a
cholesterol reducing drug from Warner-Lambert, became available. It
was developed by Bruce D. Roth. In 2003 sales of Lipitor, marketed
by Pfizer, reached $9.2 billion.
(WSJ, 1/24/00, p.B1)(WSJ, 3/904, p.A1)
1997 Feb, In Wilmington, Ohio,
2 members of the Aryan Nations were involved in a shootout with
police, the day before the group had scheduled a rally to protest
Black History Month.
(SFC, 2/20/98, p.A9)
1997 Feb, Ahmed Zayat, an
Egyptian American, took over the Al Ahram Beverages Co. and began to
build a state-of-the-art brewery to produce Egyptian Stella and
Danish Carlsberg Beer.
(WSJ, 4/10/97, p.A12)
1997 Feb, Lebanon detained 5
members of the Japanese Red Army.
(SFC, 11/9/00, p.C2)
1997 Feb, In Lesotho soldiers
put down a police mutiny in Maseru after 2 hours of shooting.
(LVRJ, 11/1/97, p.14A)
1997 Feb, In Papua, New Guinea,
the government under Prime Minister Sir Julius Chan hired Sandline
Int’l., a company that provides military training and support, to
help put an end to the bloody secessionist movement on Bougainville
Island. Sandline in turn subcontracted much of the work to the South
African mercenary firm Executive Outcomes, known for its effective
work in Angola and Sierra Leone.
(WSJ, 3/4/97, p.A15)(SFC, 3/21/97, p.A20)
1997 Feb, Some 3,000 sea lions
died from a 200-ton oil spill off the Uruguayan coast from the
Panamanian ship San Jorge, which ran aground near the island of
Lobos.
(SFC, 3/8/96, p.A8)
1997 Mar 1, At Spring Lake near
Santa Rosa, Ca., Paul Duclos caught a 24-pound largemouth bass,
photographed it, weighed it and released it. The official record was
a 22-pound, 4-ounce bass caught in Montgomery Lake, Ga. To be
official the fish has to be killed, properly weighed and certified
by the Int’l. Gamefish Assoc.
(SFEC, 4/20/97, p.C3)
1997 Mar 1, Severe storms hit
Ohio, Kentucky, Tennessee and Mississippi, and spawned tornadoes in
Arkansas blamed for two dozen deaths.
(AP, 3/1/98)
1997 Mar 1, In Albania Pres.
Sali Berisha said that his cabinet ministers would resign and be
replaced by leaders acceptable to the opposition .
(SFEC, 3/2/97, p.A14)
1997 Mar 1, In Austria it was
announced that the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra would allow Ann
Lelkes, a harpist who had played with the orchestra for 26 years, to
become an official member. There still existed an unofficial but
firm policy against admitting members of racial or ethnic
minorities.
(SFC, 3/1/97, p.E1)
1997 Mar 1, Rescue teams fought
snow, high winds and wild dogs as they tried to bring help to an
earthquake-devastated region in northwest Iran, where the death toll
was estimated at 3,000.
(AP, 3/1/98)
1997 Mar 1, In Papua New Guinea
Sir Julius Chan announced that the government would buy the 54%
stake in Bougainville Copper held by RTZ-CRA Ltd.
(WSJ, 3/4/97, p.A15)
1997 Mar 1, In Sudan the
government signed an agreement to build a 900-mile pipeline from the
southern oilfields to Port Sudan on the Red Sea. Chinese National
Petroleum would control 40% and Malaysia would own 30% through its
state owned oil company.
(WSJ, 3/11/97, p.A22)
1997 Mar 2, It was revealed
that Vice President Gore had raised millions of dollars for the 1996
campaign through direct telephone solicitations, and that some of
the calls were made on special phones installed in government
buildings for that purpose.
(AP, 3/2/98)
1997 Mar 2, Saudi Arab
billionaire Prince al-Waleed bin Talal acquired 5% of Apple.
(SC, 3/2/02)
1997 Mar 2, A storm hit
Arkansas with as many as 20 tornadoes and caused major flooding in
the Ohio Valley. At least 41 people were killed.
(SFEC, 3/3/97, p.A3)
1997 Mar 2, A state of
emergency was declared in Albania and at least 4 demonstrators were
killed in Vlora in clashes with police. The Adriatic town of Sarande
was sacked by rioters.
(SFEC, 3/3/97, p.A12)(WSJ, 3/3/97, p.A1)
1997 Mar 2, In China Premier Li
Peng asked the National People’s Congress for a 12.7% increase in
the defense budget for a total of $9.68 billion.
(WSJ, 3/3/97, p.A1)
1997 Mar 2, The Russian Soyuz
TM-24 returned to Earth.
(http://space.kursknet.ru/cosmos/english/machines/stm24.sht)
1997 Mar 2, In Spain matadors
across the country went on strike as the bullfighting season opened.
They favored a policy of shaving bull’s horns that was opposed by
the government.
(SFEC, 3/3/97, p.A12)
1997 cMar 2, In Turkey the
military submitted a 20-measure package to Prime Minister Erbakan
that called for some new laws and stricter application of existing
laws to protect secular principles.
(SFC, 3/5/97, p.A8)
1997 Mar 3, Vice President Al
Gore, under fire for his aggressive role in campaign fund raising,
acknowledged he'd solicited donations from his White House office
but insisted he did not do "anything wrong, much less illegal." But
he said he would never do it again.
(AP, 3/3/98)
1997 Mar 3, It was announced
that scientists had discovered why some people get fat, while others
do not. They identified a gene that produces the UCP2 protein which
tends to convert fat to energy rather than leaving it stored as fat.
(SFEC, 3/3/97, p.A3)
1997 Mar 3, It was reported
that the US FCC was prepared to set aside a portion of the airwaves
for national transmission of CD-quality sound, digital audio radio.
It was thought that it might lead to the first form of pay radio.
(SFEC, 3/3/97, p.A6)
1997 Mar 3, Marine
archaeologists announced the discovery of Blackbeard's
flagship--Queen Anne's Revenge. Reportedly born Edward Drummond in
Bristol, England, around 1680, he later changed his name to Thatch
or Teach and became a privateer--in essence a licensed pirate.
(HNQ, 4/8/01)
1997 Mar 3, In Brazil a hidden
camera revealed severe police brutality over three nights at the
intersection of Naval and Jose Francisco Braz streets in Sao Paulo.
The videotape showed 15 people abused by the police and one man shot
dead in a car as it pulled away by officer Octavio Lorenco Gambra,
aka Rambo.
(SFC, 4/29/97, p.A10)
1997 Mar 3, In Pakistan a train
derailed in eastern Punjab just outside Khaniwal and at least 136
people were killed and 450 injured.
(SFC, 3/4/97, p.A9)
1997 Mar 3, In Rwanda dozens of
bodies were found in Ruhengeri, the day after unidentified men
killed three people including a tax collector. The UN accused
Rwandan troops of killing at least 137 villagers in reprisal for the
slaying of the official.
(SFC, 5/2/97, p.A17)
1997 Mar 4, Calling creation of
life "a miracle that reaches beyond laboratory science," President
Clinton barred spending federal money on human cloning.
(AP, 3/4/98)
1997 Mar 4, President Clinton
surveyed tornado destruction in his home state of Arkansas and also
declared Ohio and Kentucky disaster areas because of floods.
(AP, 3/4/98)
1997 Mar 4, Comet Hale-Bopp
directly above the Sun (1.04 AU).
(SC, 3/4/02)
1997 Mar 4, Two Albanian air
force pilots diverted their MiG-15 fighter to southern Italy after
being ordered to fire on civilians. Tanks were reported in
Gjirokastra and in Vlore, the hotel complex owned by Vefa, the
biggest investment scheme still officially intact, was destroyed
along with 6 factories.
(SFC, 3/5/97, p.A8)
1997 Mar 4, Brazil’s Senate
allowed women to wear slacks.
(SC, 3/4/02)
1997 Mar 4, In Chile the prison
population was reported to be 25,000 people. They were encouraged to
participate as employees in a joint government-business program.
(SFC, 3/4/97, p.A5)
1997 Mar 4, It was announced
that the US was providing as much as $20 million in military
supplies to Eritrea.
(WSJ, 3/4/97, p.A14)
1997 Mar 4, Russia launched
Zeya Start-1, a test satellite, aboard a modified SS-25 ballistic
missile from the new Svobodny cosmodrome in the Amur region of
eastern Siberia.
(WSJ, 3/5/97, p.A1)(SC, 3/4/02)
1997 Mar 4, In Spain the
matadors agreed to go back to work but the bull horn issue remained
unsettled.
(SFC, 3/5/97, p.A9)
1997 Mar 5, Tommy Lasorda,
Nellie Fox and Willie Wells Sr. were elected to baseball's Hall of
Fame.
(AP, 3/5/98)
1997 Mar 5, Brain researchers
announced that some instinctual behavior was successfully
transferred between chicken and quail embryos. The young birds did
not live past 14 days.
(SFC, 3/5/97, p.A4)
1997 Mar 5, The Ohio River rose
to its highest level in a generation, flooding the area near
Louisville, Ky.
(AP, 3/5/98)
1997 Mar 5, North Korea and
South Korea met for first time in 25 years to talk peace.
(AP, 3/5/98)
1997 Mar 6, The first ever
Webby Awards ceremony was held in SF at Bimbo’s 365 Club in North
Beach.
(SFC, 3/7/96, p.A1)
1997 Mar 6, A gunman stole
"Tete de Femme," a million-dollar Picasso portrait, from a London
gallery. A week later, the painting was recovered and two suspects
arrested.
(AP, 3/6/98)
1997 Mar 6, A new "on the spot"
litmus test for the toxins of the E. coli bacteria was announced.
(WSJ, 3/6/97, p.A1)
1997 Mar 6, In Angola an armed
group killed 30 people at a Roman Catholic mission in southern
Angola and held 6 missionaries hostage.
(SFC, 3/13/97, p.A13)
1997 Mar 6, Britain's Queen
Elizabeth II launched the first official royal Web site.
(AP, 3/6/98)
1997 Mar 6, China introduced
new laws to bolster its campaigns against dissent, ethnic separatism
and subversive Western ideals.
(AP, 3/6/98)
1997 Mar 6, Dr. Cheddi Jagan
(78), president of Guyana, died.
(SFC, 3/7/97, p.A24)
1997 Mar 6, In Jamaica former
Prime Minister Michael Manley (b.Dec 10, 1924) died.
(SFC, 3/8/96, p.A21)
1997 Mar 6, In Nepal the
17-month coalition of Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba was defeated
and Deuba resigned. King Birendra asked Deuba’s centrist Nepali
Congress Party to continue until the formation of a new council of
ministers.
(SFC, 3/7/97, p.A17)
1997 Mar 6, In Sri Lanka Tamil
Tiger rebels overran the army base at Vavunativu and left more than
200 dead.
(SFC, 3/7/97, p.A24)
1997 Mar 6, In Turkey Prime
Minister Erbakan signed on to the list of 18 measures submitted by
the military to curb ultra religious schools, publications and
organizations.
(WSJ, 3/7/97, p.A10)
1997 Mar 7, The first
cross-adoption by 2 lesbians whose children were half-sisters took
place in New York. The women had used the same sperm donor for their
children.
(SFC, 3/8/96, p.A4)
1997 Mar 7, After a week of
embarrassing disclosures about White House fund raising, President
Clinton told a news conference, "I'm not sure, frankly" if he also
had made calls for campaign cash. But he insisted that nothing had
undercut his pledge to have the highest ethical standards ever.
(AP, 3/7/98)
1997 Mar 7, In Australia it was
disclosed that the reputed Aboriginal painter Eddie Burrup was
actually 82-year-old Elizabeth Durack.
(SFC, 3/8/96, p.A11)
1997 Mar 7, Oxford Univ.
scientists established a blood tie between the 9,000 year-old
skeleton known as Cheddar Man and an English teacher who lived just
half-a-mile from the cave where the bones were found.
(SFC, 3/8/96, p.A8)
1997 Mar 7, The former Haiti
police chief, Lt. Col. Michel Francois, was arrested in Honduras for
helping to smuggle 33 tons of Colombian drugs through Haiti into the
US. Francois had fled to the Dominican Republic in 1994.
(SFC, 3/8/96, p.A10)
1997 Mar 7, Japanese PM Ryutaro
Hashimoto was sued by 5 people, because his smoking had violated the
constitution guaranteeing a wholesome life.
(MC, 3/7/02)
1997 Mar 7, In Peru foreign
officials and local journalists confirmed that the police were
digging tunnels to the residence of the Japanese ambassador where
hostages were being held by the Tupac Amaru rebels.
(SFC, 3/8/96, p.A1)
1997 Mar 7, In Belgrade,
Serbia, students ended 106 days of daily protests after their
rector, Dragutin Velickovic -A Milosevic supporter, resigned.
(SFC, 3/8/96, p.A12)
1997 Mar 7, In Ecuador the
Supreme Court charged Bucaram with corruption, embezzlement,
nepotism and influence peddling. When ousted Pres. Abdala Bucaram
abandoned the presidential palace in Feb., he walked out with 11
burlap bags allegedly stuffed with $3 million.
(SFC, 3/10/97, p.A9)
1997 Mar 8, President Clinton,
in keeping with his push for private businesses and churches to hire
off welfare rolls, ordered federal agencies to do the same.
(AP, 3/8/07)
1997 Mar 9, In Los Angeles
black Gangsta rapper Christopher G. Wallace (24), The Notorious
B.I.G. or aka Biggie Smalls, was shot and killed in a drive-by
shooting. He had been accused of being involved in a 1994 robbery in
which Tupac Shakur was shot and robbed of $40,000. In 1999 Amir
Muhammad, aka Harry Billups, was named as the suspected gunman.
Muhammad was suspected to have been hired by former LAPD officer
David A. Mack. In 2005 a judge declared a mistrial when large
numbers of LAPD documents were found that hadn’t been turned over to
the court.
(SFC, 3/10/97, p.A8)(SFC, 12/9/99, p.A11)(SFC,
7/7/05, p.A3)(AP, 3/9/07)
1997 Mar 9, In Albania Pres.
Sali Berisha proposed a new government of reconciliation to
represent all political parties and offered to set new elections.
(SFC, 3/10/97, p.A8)
1997 Mar 9, French journalist
Jean-Dominique Bauby died in Paris. He had been completely paralyzed
in Dec 1995 and had recently finished dictating the book: “Le
Scaphandre et le Papillon” (The Diving Suit and the Butterfly) by
blinking his left eyelid, the only moveable part of his body. The
book was published 2 days before he died. The film “The Diving Bell
and the Butterfly,” based on the book, was directed by Julian
Schnabel and opened in the US in 2007.
(SFC, 3/11/97, p.A20)(Econ, 12/1/07, p.100)
1997 Mar 9, In the Sudan the
national Democratic Alliance (NDA) began an offensive in the
southern state of Equatoria.
(SFC, 4/3/97, p.A10)
1997 Mar 10, The TV series
“Buffy The Vampire Slayer” featured Sarah Michelle Gellar as Buffy.
The show continued to 2003.
(LSA, Spring, 2009,
p.45)(http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0118276/)
1997 Mar 10, The White House
and the FBI clashed in a rare public quarrel after President Clinton
said he should have been alerted when the bureau told national
security officials that the Chinese government might be trying to
influence U.S. elections.
(AP, 3/10/98)
1997 Mar 10, LaVern Baker (67),
rhythm and blues singer, died. She had been discovered as a teenager
by Fletcher Henderson in Chicago singing as "Little Miss
Sharecropper." Her hits included "Tweedle Dee," "Go Jim Dandy" and
"See See Rider."
(SFC, 3/12/97, p.A9)
1997 Mar 10, In Ethiopia the
800-year-old cross of Lalibela was reported lost.
(SDUT, 6/6/97, p.E2)
1997 Mar 10, The first Laos
Int’l. Juggling Festival was held in Vientiane before a crowd of
40,000 as part of the annual That Luang Festival.
(WSJ, 3/11/97, p.A20)
1997 Mar 10, Mexico named a new
drug czar, lawyer Mariano Federico Herran Salvatti.
(SFC, 3/11/97, p.A11)
1997 Mar 10, In Nepal King
Birendra named Lokendra Bahadur Chand as prime minister and gave him
30 days to form a majority in the 205-seat House of Representatives.
The Communists held 90 seats and backed Chand to form a coalition.
(SFC, 3/11/97, p.A11)
1997 Mar 10, The Vatican
established diplomatic relations with Libya.
(SFC, 3/11/97, p.A11)
1997 Mar 10, Vietnam agreed to
repay the US millions of dollars in debts incurred by the former
South Vietnam. The debts were currently worth $140 mil.
(SFC, 3/11/97, p.A11)
1997 Mar 11, In a startling
turnaround, US Senate Republicans agreed to a broader investigation
of campaign financing that would include a look at huge "soft money"
donations.
(AP, 3/11/98)
1997 Mar 11, Senate
confirmation hearings for CIA Director-designate Anthony Lake began.
(AP, 3/11/98)
1997 Mar 11, Scientists from
observatories in Chile and Australia were to announce the discovery
of a star in the Southern Hemisphere constellation of Dorado that
measured some 370 times the size of the Sun. Stars of this size are
believed to be doomed to collapse and explode as supernovas.
(SFC, 3/11/97, p.A3)
1997 Mar 11, Rock star Paul
McCartney was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II.
(AP, 3/11/98)
1997 Mar 11, A gunman, Allen
Griffin, in Detroit killed 3 and wounded 2 before being killed by
police after staging an robbery at the Comerica Bank on the East
Side.
(SFC, 3/12/97, p.A3)
1997 Mar 11, A nuclear fuel
reprocessing plant experienced 2 fires and an explosion 70 miles
northeast of Tokyo. There were no injuries. The chief investigator
destroyed photographs of the accident. Debris was also removed and
then replaced.
(SFC, 3/13/97, p.A12)(SFC, 5/1/97, p.A13)
1997 Mar 11, In Russia Pres.
Yeltsin reorganized the government and only kept Prime Minister
Chernomyrdin and top economic deputy Chubais.
(WSJ, 3/12/97, p.A16)
1997 Mar 12, Authorities in Los
Angeles arrested Mikail Markhasev as a suspect in the shooting death
of Bill Cosby's son, Ennis, almost two months earlier. Markhasev,
who later admitted his guilt, is serving a life sentence without
possibility of parole.
(AP, 3/12/02)
1997 Mar 12, Edward DeBartolo
Jr. handed over $400,000 to former Louisiana Gov. Edwin Edwards at
the SF Airport in order to clinch a riverboat gambling license.
(SFC, 3/28/00, p.A3)(SFC, 4/12/00, p.A5)
1997 Mar 12, In Nigeria Wole
Soyinka, exiled Nobel Prize winning author, was charged with treason
along with 11 others.
(SFC, 3/13/97, p.A12)
1997 Mar 13, Eddie DeBartolo,
owner of the SF 49ers, was awarded a Louisiana casino license one
day after paying former Gov. Edwin Edwards $400,000 in cash.
(SFC, 4/12/00, p.A5)
1997 Mar 13, The UN General
Assembly voted 130 to 2 for Israel to abandon its plan to build new
Jewish housing on Arab land.
(SFC, 3/14/97, p.A12)
1997 Mar 13, In Australia it
was revealed that the 1995 award-winning autobiography of an
Aboriginal woman, "My Own Sweet Time, " was actually written by a
47-year-old white man in Sidney named Leon Carmen.
(SFC, 3/14/97, p.A16)
1997 Mar 13, Four masked,
suspected Islamic gunmen opened fire in a Christian village in
southern Egypt and killed 14 men before escaping.
(SFC, 3/14/97, p.A16)(AP, 3/13/98)
1997 Mar 13, A Jordanian
soldier fired on Israeli junior high school girls on a field trip,
killing seven of them. The soldier, Cpl. Ahmed Daqamseh, was later
sentenced by a military court to life in prison.
(SFC, 3/14/97, p.A13)(AP, 3/13/98)
1997 Mar 14, Surgeons at
Bethesda Naval Medical Center repaired a painful torn knee tendon in
President Clinton's right leg. The injury had been caused by a freak
middle-of-the-night stumble at golfer Greg Norman's Florida home.
(AP, 3/14/98)
1997 Mar 14, The Dow Jones
Industrial Average was updated with 4 new companies. Bethlehem
Steel, Texaco, Westinghouse Electric and Woolworth were taken off
the list and replaced by Hewlett-Packard, Wal-Mart Stores, Johnson
& Johnson, and the Travelers Group.
(SFC, 3/13/97, p.A1,15)
1997 Mar 14, Fred Zinnemann
(89), film director, died of heart attack in London, England.
(www.nndb.com/people/538/000032442/)
1997 Mar 14, In Albania chaos
and anarchy spread and some 23 people were reported killed across
the country. The US and Italy were airlifting citizens out of the
country. Near the Macedonian border a $10 million cigarette plant
was burned down.
(SFC, 3/15/97, p.A10)
1997 Mar 14, In northeastern
Iran a C-130 military cargo plane crashed near Mashad and all 86
people aboard were believed killed.
(SFC, 3/15/97, p.A19)
1997 Mar 14, In Mexico five
Zapatista guerrillas were killed in a clash with the police in
Chiapas. Four were injured and 27 wounded when police dislodged
hundreds who had been squatting on a farm near San Pedro Nixtalucum.
(SFC, 3/17/97, p.A8)
1997 Mar 14, In Zaire after a 3
week siege of Kisangani, rebels attacked the city, the 3rd largest
in the country.
(SFC, 3/15/97, p.A10)
1997 Mar 15, An art show that
featured 13 oil paintings by Dr. Kevorkian opened in Royal Oak,
Mich. They depicted severed heads, moldering skulls and rotting
corpses.
(SFC, 3/17/97, p.A2)
1997 Mar 15, President Clinton
spent a second day at Bethesda Naval Medical Center, recuperating
from surgery for a partially torn knee tendon.
(AP, 3/15/98)
1997 Mar 15, Greek frogmen and
U.S. Marines evacuated hundreds of foreigners trapped in Albania
after that country's descent into anarchy.
(AP, 3/15/98)
1997 Mar 15, German soldiers,
while rescuing foreigners, opened fire under hostile conditions in
Albania. This was their first active combat since WW II.
(SFC, 3/17/97, p.C1)
1997 Mar 15, The Moscow paper
Komsomolskaya Pravda reported in an article by Robert Bykov, retired
Russian colonel, that an accidental nuclear launch could happen at
any time due to the aged and unreliability of the command-an-control
equipment.
(WSJ, 3/28/97, p.A16)
1997 Mar 15, In Zaire rebel
soldiers occupied Kisangani.
(SFC, 3/17/97, p.A8)
1997 Mar 16, The last sale day
declared by the US Post Office for buying the Marilyn Monroe,
antique autos, or United Nations commemorative stamps.
(WSJ, 2/21/97, p.B15B)
1997 Mar 16, At the request of
a hobbled President Clinton, Russia's Boris Yeltsin agreed to delay
their upcoming summit by one day to give Clinton an extra day to
recuperate from knee surgery.
(AP, 3/16/98)
1997 Mar 16, In Albania amnesty
was granted to 51 people including former premier Fatos Nano.
(SFC, 3/18/97, p.A11)
1997 Mar 16, In Beit Shemesh,
Israel, Jordan's King Hussein knelt in mourning with the families of
seven Israeli schoolgirls gunned down by a Jordanian soldier.
(AP, 3/16/98)(SFC, 2/6/99, p.A10)
1997 Mar 16, Elections for
mayors in 262 El Salvador cities and for the 84-member unicameral
Legislative Assembly was scheduled. The Farabundo Marti National
Liberation Front (FMLN) party was a front-runner. Hector Silva of
the Democratic Convergence Party won the mayoral elections for San
Salvador. He ran under a coalition led by the FMLN.
(SFC, 2/25/97, p.a12)(SFC, 3/17/97, p.A9)
1997 Mar 17, Anthony Lake asked
President Clinton to withdraw his nomination to be CIA director,
saying the partisan confirmation process had "gone haywire."
(AP, 3/17/98)
1997 Mar 17, It was reported
that China was upgrading the city of Chongqing in Sichuan to the
status of province. It would be directly controlled by the central
government but operate as a province.
(WSJ, 3/17/97, p.B9D)
1997 Mar 17, In Germany ten
drunk soldiers beat up 2 Turks and an Italian during a rampage in
Detmold.
(SFC, 3/19/97, p.A12,14)
1997 Mar 17, In Mexico army
Brigadier Gen’l. Alfredo Navarro Lara was arrested for trying to buy
off authorities in Baha. He offered payments of $1 million a month
to Gen’l. Jose Luis Chavez Garcia to allow cocaine to pass into the
US.
(SFC, 3/18/97, p.A10)
1997 Mar 17, In Papua New
Guinea the government fired army commander Brigadier Gen’l. Jerry
Singirok. He refused to accept the hiring of the British mercenary
firm Sandline Int’l.
(SFC, 3/18/97, p.A12)
1997 Mar 17, In southern Russia
a Stavropol Airlines AN-24 airplane crashed and all 50 aboard were
presumed dead.
(SFC, 3/19/97, p.A14)
1997 Mar 18, Labor
Secretary-designate Alexis Herman got a generally favorable
reception from Democrats and Republicans alike at her Senate
confirmation hearing.
(AP, 3/18/98)
1997 Mar 18, Bulldozers began
clearing away rocks and earth for a Jewish housing project in
disputed east Jerusalem, triggering Palestinian protests.
(WSJ, 3/19/97, p.A1)(AP, 3/18/98)
1997 Mar 19, Following the
withdrawal of Anthony Lake, President Clinton nominated acting CIA
Director George Tenet to head the nation's spy agency. President
Clinton departed Washington for a summit in Helsinki, Finland, with
Russian President Boris Yeltsin.
(AP, 3/19/98)
1997 Mar 19, The US Supreme
Court heard arguments on Internet indecency.
(www.ciec.org/SC_appeal/970319_pr.html)
1997 Mar 19, Willem de Kooning
(b.1904), Dutch-born abstract painter, considered to be one of the
20th century's greatest painters, died in East Hampton, N.Y. He had
arrived in America as a stowaway in 1926. In 2004 Mark Stevens and
Annalyn Swan authored “de Kooning: An American Master.”
(SFC, 3/20/97, p.A1,6,E1)(AP, 3/19/98)(WSJ,
11/23/04, p.D11)
1997 Mar 19, "Utopia Parkway:
The Life and Work of Joseph Cornell" by Deborah Solomon was
reviewed. The artist was known for his surreal boxes and as a
forerunner of the junk-into-art aesthetic.
(WSJ, 3/19/97, p.A16)
1997 Mar 19, It was reported
that purple grape juice slows the activity of blood platelets by
about 75% and thus reduces the risk of heart attacks. Red wine and
aspirin slowed platelet activity by about 45%.
(SFC, 3/19/97, p.A10)
1997 Mar 19, Bre-X geologist
Michael de Guzman, husband to four wives, was reported to have
jumped to his death from a helicopter enroute to Busang, Indonesia,
the site of a major gold discovery. Bre-X held a 45% stake in the
Busang site.
(WSJ, 4/9/97, p.A10)
1997 Mar 19, In Port Moresby,
Papua New Guinea, police fired tear gas and warning shots at more
than 2,000 civilians protesting the government’s $27 million
contract with Sandline Int’l. to quell rebels on Bougainville.
(SFC, 3/20/97, p.A12)(AP, 3/29/03)
1997 Mar 20, Bill Clinton and
Boris Yeltsin met in Helsinki for talks on arms control and NATO
expansion. They agreed to negotiate a new arms accord to reduce
strategic warheads, and to give Russia a more formal role in the
Group of Seven leading industrialized nations.
(WSJ, 3/21/97, p.A1)(SFC, 3/22/97, p.A1)(AP,
3/20/98)
1997 Mar 20, The Liggett Group,
a tobacco company, agreed to settle claims with 22 state attorneys
general. The settlement included a payment of 25% of pretax earnings
over the next 25 years, a "smoking is addictive" label, access to
documents heretofore claimed to be privileged and admitting the
industry marketed cigarettes to teen-agers.
(WSJ, 3/20/97, p.A3)(WSJ, 3/21/97, p.A3)(AP,
3/20/98)
1997 Mar 20, A Houston jury
awarded the MMAR Group, a bond firm, $222.7 million in a libel
verdict against Dow Jones & Co. based on a 1993 article
that portrayed the firm as reckless and destroyed its business.
(SFC, 3/21/97, p.A3)
1997 Mar 20, In Serbia the
state telecommunications authority cut independent BK TV’s
transmission lines from Belgrade. Hours later a Belgrade court
ordered the authority and state-run TV to carry BK.
(SFC, 3/22/97, p.A10)
1997 Mar 21, President Clinton
and Russian President Boris Yeltsin wrapped up their summit in
Helsinki, Finland, still deadlocked over NATO expansion, but able to
agree on slashing nuclear weapons arsenals.
(AP, 3/21/02)
1997 Mar 21, In Chicago 3
white teenagers attacked and severely injured a 13-year-old black
boy. Lenard Clark (13) was left brain damaged. The suspects, Frank
Caruso (18), Victor Jasas (17), and Michael Kwidzinski (19) were
released on bonds of $150,000 with charges of attempted murder,
aggravated battery and a hate crime. Caruso was convicted in 1998
and was sentenced to 8 years in prison. The other 2 pleaded guilty
to reduced charges and were let off with probation and community
service.
(SFC, 3/25/97, p.A7)(SFC, 10/20/98, p.A6)
1997 Mar 21, In Colombia
Gerardo Bedoya, executive editor of El Pais, was assassinated in
Cali. He was a former congressman and Colombian representative to
the EU.
(SFC, 3/22/97, p.A11)
1997 Mar 21, In Tel Aviv,
Israel, a Palestinian suicide bomber blew himself up on a
terrace of an outdoor restaurant and killed 3 Israelis and injured
46.
(SFC, 3/22/97, p.A1)
1997 Mar 21, Rebel leader John
Garang prepared to attack Juba and claimed that the entire southern
Sudan was under their control. Government information minister Tayeb
Ibrahim Mohamed Kheir claimed that Ugandan forces were involved with
the rebels.
(SFC, 3/22/97, p.C1)
1997 Mar 22, The show "Sunset
Boulevard" closed at Minskoff in NYC after 977 performances.
(http://www.ibdb.com/production.asp?id=4275)
1997 Mar 22, In Lausanne,
Switz., Tara Lipinski, at age 14 years and 10 months, became the
youngest women's world figure skating champion.
(AP, 3/22/97)
1997 Mar 22, The Hale-Bopp
comet made its closest approach to Earth at 122 million miles. On
Apr 1 it will make its closest approach to the sun, perihelion, at
some 85 miles distance.
(SFC, 3/28/97, p.A12)
1997 Mar 22, In Canada five
Solar Temple cult members died in an apparent mass suicide in
Quebec. Devotees believed that suicide transports them to a new life
in a place called Sirius.
(WSJ, 3/24/97, p.A1)(SFC, 3/27/97, p.A19)
1997 Mar 22, In France Etienne
Bacrat, "the Mozart of Chess," became a grand master at the age of
14.
(SFEC, 3/23/97, p.A13)
1997 Mar 22, A day after a
suicide bomber killed three women in Tel Aviv, Israeli troops
clashed with hundreds of Palestinians in Hebron.
(AP, 3/22/97)
1997 Mar 22, In Tanzania the
worst drought in 40 years was reported.
(SFC, 3/22/97, p.A4)
1997 Mar 23, "Mandy Patinkin in
Concert" closed at Lyceum Theater NYC.
(SS, 3/23/02)
1997 Mar 23, In the 17th Golden
Raspberry Awards: Striptease won. The Golden Raspberries or Razzies
were created by John Wilson in 1980, intended to complement the
Academy Awards by dishonoring the worst acting, screenwriting,
songwriting, directing, and films that the film industry had to
offer.
(http://tinyurl.com/cotd8)
1997 Mar 23, The American
Cancer Society recommended that women begin annual mammograms at age
40.
(AP, 3/23/98)
1997 Mar 23, In Belarus
American diplomat Serge Alexandrov, first secretary at the US
embassy in Minsk, was ordered to leave the country for participating
in an anti-government march. The Foreign Ministry accused him of
being a CIA agent.
(SFC, 3/25/97, p.A14)
1997 May 23, Presidential
elections put conservative speaker Ali Akbar Nateq Nouri against
left-leaning cleric Mohammad Khatami. Iranians elected a moderate
president, Mohammad Khatami, over hard-liners with a 70% landslide.
(WSJ, 3/20/97, p.A12)(AP, 5/23/98)(SFC, 10/24/98,
p.A14)
1997 Mar 23, Amid renewed
violence, Israel's Cabinet called on the Palestinian Authority to
crack down on Islamic militant groups, but stopped short of
suspending peace talks.
(AP, 3/23/98)
1997 Mar 24, Pres. Clinton and
Monica Lewinsky engaged in their final sexual encounter. [see Mar
29]
(SFC, 9/12/98, p.A13)
1997 Mar 24, At the 69th Annual
Hollywood Academy Awards, "The English Patient" won best picture and
director (Anthony Minghella) and 7 other Oscars; Geoffrey Rush won
best actor for "Shine," and Frances McDormand best actress for
"Fargo."
(SFC, 3/25/97, p.A1)(AP, 3/24/98)
1997 Mar 24, Vice President
Gore arrived in China for the highest-level U.S. visit in eight
years. He witnessed the Beijing signing of trade deals with GM and
Boeing.
(SFC, 3/25/97, p.A12)(AP, 3/24/98)
1997 Mar 24, In Nashville 3
employees at a McDonalds's Restaurant died of wounds from a robbery.
A 4th was in critical condition from stab wounds.
(SFC, 3/25/97, p.A5)
1997 Mar 24, The Australian
Senate struck down the law passed by the Northern Territory’s
Parliament that allowed doctor-assisted suicide for the terminally
ill. The law might be reinstated in 2000 if the territory is granted
proposed statehood because under the constitution the national
Parliament cannot override state laws. A growing interest soon
developed in travel to Mexico to buy liquid pentobarbital
(Nembutol), which causes a painless death. The Australian government
later banned Philip Nitschke's book, "The Peaceful Pill Handbook"
(2006) which gives tips on everything from carbon monoxide to buying
pentobarbital in Mexico.
(SFC, 3/25/97, p.A12)(SFC, 1/14/98,
p.C3)(Reuters, 6/3/08)
1997 Mar 24, In Zaire Mobutu
accepted the parliamentary vote of censure of prime minister Kengo
wa Dondo.
(SFC, 3/25/97, p.A12)
1997 Mar 25, The US Federal
Reserve nudged interest rates higher for the first time in two
years, hoping to stifle any threat of rising inflation.
(AP, 3/24/98)
1997 Mar 25, Georgia Gov. Zell
Miller signed into law a ban on a controversial form of late-term
abortion.
(AP, 3/24/98)
1997 Mar 25, Former President
George Bush, 73, parachuted from a plane over the Arizona desert.
(AP, 3/24/98)
1997 Mar 25, In Montenegro
Prime Minister Milo Djukanovic was given a vote of no confidence by
his party of hardline supporters of Serbian Pres. Milosevic.
(SFC, 3/26/97, p.C2)
1997 Mar 25, In the Netherlands
an arson attack left a Turkish woman and 5 children dead in the
Hague.
(SFC, 3/29/97, p.A9)
1997 Mar 26, "Annie" opened at
Martin Beck Theater NYC.
(SS, 3/26/02)
1997 Mar 26, Former drug
counselor John G. Bennett Jr. pleaded no contest in Philadelphia to
charges stemming from a $100 million charity fraud. Bennett was
sentenced to 12 years in prison for fraud, tax violations and money
laundering.
(AP, 3/25/07)
1997 Mar 26, The united Farm
Workers Union announced that it would petition the US Environmental
Agency to reinstate a 4-day period when farmworkers would stay out
of strawberry fields after the application of capstan, a cancer
causing fungicide. Its use has increased 7-fold in the last 6 years.
80% of the nation’s strawberry crop is grown in California.
(SFC, 3/27/97, p.A21)
1997 Mar 26, The bodies 39
young men and women (26-72) of the Heaven’s Gate cult were found in
a mansion at Rancho Santa Fe, near San Diego. The techno-religious
group, led by an older man named "Do," (aka Marshall Herff
Applewhite), had committed mass suicide as the Hale-Bopp comet
approached. They had run a business under the name WW Higher Source
that engaged in WWW page development.
(SFC, 3/27/97, p.A1)(SFC, 3/28/97, p.A1,12)(AP,
3/25/98)
1997 Mar 26, In Belarus Pres.
Lukashenko announced the revival of the Soviet tradition of
"subbotniks," weekend unpaid mandatory labor.
(SFC, 3/27/97, p.A15)
1997 Mar 26, Bre-X and Freeport
Mining announced that due-diligence testing by Freeport found much
less gold than estimated in the Busang, Indonesia, discovery by the
team of Michael de Guzman (d.3/19/97). The penny stock had been
pumped to $4.5 billion in market value before the hoax crashed.
(WSJ, 4/9/97, p.A10)(WSJ, 6/19/01, p.A18)
1997 Mar 26, Irish terrorists
set off 2 bombs in Wilmslow, England, at a railroad crossing.
(SFC, 3/27/97, p.A14)
1997 Mar 26, In Northern
Ireland a bomb exploded at a police station in Coalisland, 30 miles
west of Belfast.
(SFC, 3/27/97, p.A14)
1997 Mar 26, In Papua New
Guinea Prime Minister Julius Chan resigned due to the public uproar
over plans to use mercenaries in Bougainville.
(SFC, 3/26/97, p.A14)
1997 Mar 26, Manfred Nowak
resigned the job of envoy of the UN for missing persons in the
former Yugoslavia and said that he failed to receive support to
account for the 20,000 missing people of the Bosnian war. He had
begun the job in 1994.
(SFC, 3/27/97, p.A18)
1997 Mar 27, Ella Maillart
(b.1903), Swiss sportswoman and travel writer, died. She chronicled
the savage collectivisation of Karakalpak agriculture in Uzbekistan,
Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan in the 1930s.
(Econ, 5/16/09,
p.91)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ella_Maillart)
1997 Mar 27, In Afghanistan an
avalanche buried at least 100 people near the Salang tunnel north of
Kabul.
(WSJ, 3/28/97, p.A1)
1997 Mar 27, In Argentina it
was reported that former economy minister Domingo Cavallo claimed
that Alfredo Yabran, the country’s most successful businessman, led
an all-powerful mafia of businessmen, politicians and judges.
(SFC, 3/27/97, p.A14)
1997 Mar 27, In Nigeria
villagers occupied a 7th oil installation on the Niger Delta in
protests over local government elections. Tribesmen last week seized
6 Shell sites. This shut down 10% of Nigeria’s oil production.
(WSJ, 3/28/97, p.A12)
1997 Mar 27, In Russia the
Federation of Independent Trade Unions called for a nationwide
strike on this date to protest unpaid wages. Nearly 2 million
workers marched.
(SFC, 3/14/97, p.A16)(SFC, 3/28/97, p.A8)
1997 Mar 27, Ella Maillart
(b.1903), Swiss sportswoman and travel writer, died. She chronicled
the savage collectivisation of Karakalpak agriculture in Uzbekistan,
Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan in the 1930s.
(Econ, 5/16/09,
p.91)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ella_Maillart)
1997 Mar 28, Robert Pinsky (56)
of Boston Univ. was named poet laureate of the United States by the
Library of Congress. A $35,000 allowance from private funds
accompanied the position.
(SFC, 3/28/97, p.A7)(SFC, 4/6/99, p.E5)
1997 Mar 28, A medical examiner
revealed that some members of the Heaven's Gate cult who'd committed
suicide in a California mansion had also been castrated in apparent
pursuit of the group's ideal of androgynous immortality.
(AP, 3/28/98)
1997 Mar 28, The UN Security
Council agreed to send a multinational force to Albania to protect
the delivery of humanitarian aid.
(SFC, 3/29/97, p.A10)
1997 Mar 29, According to
Monica Lewinsky she and Pres. Clinton had their last sexual
encounter.
(SFC, 9/12/98, p.A13)
1997 Mar 29, Vice President
Gore concluded his tour of Asia, saying that talks in Beijing had
created "new momentum" in relations between the U.S. and China.
(AP, 3/29/98)
1997 Mar 29, In Jacksonville,
Fla., Philip N. Johnson staged a Loomis, Fargo & Co. armored car
robbery for $22 million. He was arrested Aug 30 at a border crossing
in Texas.
(SFEC, 8/31/97, p.A11)
1997 Mar 29, In France over
25,000 people demonstrated against the convention of the
racist National Front Party led by Jean-Pierre Le Pen.
(SFEC, 3/30/97, p.A18)
1997 Mar 29, Italian rescue
workers searched the waters for survivors of a collision of an
Albanian patrol boat packed with Albanians and an Italian Navy ship.
Arguments raged as to who was at fault and there were 4 confirmed
deaths. Albanian prime minister Bashkim Fino demanded an
investigation. 87 were later feared drowned.
(SFEC, 3/30/97, p.A18)(SFC, 4/1/97, p.A17)(WSJ,
4/1/97, p.A1)
1997 Mar 30, In Cambodia a
grenade attack at a political rally killed 10 and wounded over 100
as opposition leader Sam Rainsy led some 200 members of his Khmer
Nation Party in front of the National Assembly.
(SFEC, 3/30/97, p.A18)
1997 Mar 30, The reigning
champion Lady Vols of Tennessee won their fifth NCAA women's
basketball title by defeating Old Dominion, 68-59.
(AP, 3/30/98)
1997 Mar 31, In the US men’s
NCAA Basketball finals Arizona beat Kentucky 84-79 in overtime.
(SFC, 4/1/97, p.A1)
1997 Mar 31, Jury selection
began in Denver in the trial of accused Oklahoma City bomber Timothy
McVeigh.
(AP, 3/31/98)
1997 Mar 31, The US Supreme
Court ruled that the government can force cable television systems
to carry local broadcast stations.
(AP, 3/31/98)
1997 Mar 31, It was reported
from Los Angeles that Yasuyoshi Kato was caught after having
embezzled 85-95 [$62 mil] million from Day-Lee Foods, a Japanese
firm for which he worked as an accountant [chief financial officer].
He was sentenced to 5 years in prison.
(SFC, 3/31/97, p.A15)(SFC, 10/7/97, p.A14)
1997 Mar 31, Scientists
announced the first artificial human chromosomes that work properly
inside living cells.
(SFC, 4/1/97, p.A1)
1997 Mar 31, In Spain a
passenger train north of Pamplona derailed and killed at least 22
and injured some 87 people.
(WSJ, 4/1/97, p.A1)
1997 Mar, Apple Corp. announced
it would lay off 4,100 workers.
(SFC, 1/24/04, p.A12)
1997 Mar, In Brazil Pres.
Cardoso announced a $150 million credit line from the World Bank for
infrastructure and the purchase of land for settlements in
northeastern Brazil.
(SFC, 6/28/97, p.A12)
1997 Mar, In the Czech Republic
the national currency, the koruna, was devalued 12%.
(SFC, 12/1/97, p.A13)
1997 Mar, In India 10
lower-caste villagers were gunned down in Haibaspur by higher-class
gunmen.
(SFC, 12/3/97, p.A11)
1997 Mar, Lebanon granted Kozo
Okamoto, Japanese Red Army member, political asylum and deported 4
others to Japan. [see Jun 9]
(SFC, 11/9/00, p.C2)
1997 Mar, In Peru the body of
Mariela Barreto, an intelligence officer, was found with her head
and hands hacked off and her spine snapped in half.
(SFC, 6/28/97, p.A10)(WSJ, 5/30/00, p.A1)
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