Timeline Norway
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Norway is about the same size as New Mexico.
(SSFC, 10/9/05, Par p.27)
Bergen is the 2nd largest city. Trondheim was
Norway’s first capital.
(SFEC, 1/18/98, p.T12)
May 17 is national day.
(Econ, 5/29/04, p.54)
150Mil BC In 2006 researchers in
Norway announced the discovery of the remains of a short-necked
plesiosaur, a prehistoric marine reptile the size of a bus, that they
believe is the first complete skeleton ever found. The 150 million year
old remains of the 33-foot ocean going predator were found on the
remote Svalbard Islands of the Arctic. Researchers in 2008 said it was
the biggest of its kind known to science with dagger-like teeth in a
mouth large enough to bite a small car.
(AP, 10/5/06)(Reuters, 2/27/08)
700-800 Vikings began arriving to the Orkney Islands.
(SFEC, 3/23/97, p.T3)
793 Jun 8, Vikings raided the
Northumbrian coast in England. Corfe served as a center of West Saxon
resistance to Viking invaders. Vikings plundered the monastery and St.
Cuthbert convent at Lindsfarne
(HN, 6/8/98)(AM, 7/00, p.64)(PC, 1992, p.68)
800-900 In Scandinavia Futhark evolved around the 9th
century. Instead of 24 letters, the Scandinavian "Younger" Futhark had
16 letters. In England, Anglo-Saxon Futhorc started to be replaced by
the Latin alphabet by the 9th century, and did not survive much more
past the Norman Conquest. Futhark continued to be used in Scandinavia
for centuries longer, but by 1600 CE, it had become nothing more than
curiosities among scholars and antiquarians.
(www.ancientscripts.com/futhark.html)
834 In southeastern Norway's
Vestfold County a 65-foot vessel was buried in an enormous mound as the
grave ship for a rich and powerful Viking woman. In 1904 the mound
surrendered the Oseberg Viking longboat.
(AP, 9/11/07)
843 Jun 24, Vikings destroyed
Nantes.
(MC, 6/24/02)
850-933 Harold the Fairhaired. Princess Gyda is said
to have incited Harold to gather the whole of Norway under his scepter.
The name Gyda was later corrupted to Gjøe, the name of
Amdunsen’s Northwest Passage sloop (1903-1905).
(Ind, 4/27/02, 5A)
891 Sep 1, Norse defeated near
Louvain, France.
(MC, 9/1/02)
c900-1000 Harald Bluetooth, or Harald Blatand,
10th-century king of Denmark, attributed to himself the unification of
Denmark and the Christianization of the Danes. He also conquered Norway
and raided Normandy. He was later invaded and defeated by German
emperor Otto II.
(HNQ, 9/3/98)
969-1000 Olaf Tryggvesson, Olav I, King of Norway
from 995-1000.
(WUD, 1994, p.1002)
986 Bjarni Herjolfsson sailed from
Norway to Iceland with cargo for his father, who had moved on to
Greenland. Herjjolfsson was blown off course and reached Labrador,
which he described as "worthless country."
(NG, V184, No. 4, Oct. 1993, p.4)(WSJ, 7/6/04, p.D5)
995-1000 Olaf I was king.
(WUD, 1994, p.1002)
995-1030 Olaf Haraldsson, aka Saint Olaf, the patron
saint of Norway. He was king from 1016-1029. He and a crew of Vikings
attacked London and pulled down the London Bridge with ropes. This is
remembered in the nursery rhyme "London Bridge is falling down..."
(WUD, 1994, p.1002)(SFC, 8/23/97, p.E3)
1002 Thorer Eastman (d.1002), a
Norwegian sea captain, was blown off course on a trading voyage from
Iceland to Greenland. He and his wife, Gudrid, along with a crew of 13
became stranded on a rock near the coast of Newfoundland for weeks
until they were rescued by Leif Eriksson, who was on his way home to
Greenland from North America with a cargo of timber. That fall an
epidemic swept Greenland and Eastman died.
(ON, 12/07, p.4)
c1004 In 2004 archaeologists in
western Norway found the remains of a harbor complex built by the
Vikings about this time, at the ancient harbor complex at Faanestangen,
near the west coast city of Trondheim, some 250 miles north of Oslo.
(AP, 3/6/04)
1015 After converting to
Christianity in France, Olaf Haraldsson returned to Norway and promptly
conquered land held by Denmark, Sweden and Norwegian lords.
(HNQ, 11/30/00)
1016-1029 In Norway Olaf Haraldsson served as king.
He later became Saint Olaf, the patron saint of Norway.
(WUD, 1994, p.1002)
1024 Olaf Haraldsson
introduced a religious code in his efforts to convert the Norwegians to
Christianity.
(HNQ, 11/30/00)
1028 Olaf Haraldsson was forced to
flee Norway by Canute, king of England and Denmark, Olaf returned to
reconquer Norway, but was defeated and killed at the Battle of
Stiklestad in 1030.
(HNQ, 11/30/00)
1028-1035 Canute the Great became King of Norway.
(AHD, 1971, p.198)
1030 Jul 29, The patron saint of
Norway, King Olaf the Second, was killed in the Battle of Stiklestad.
Olaf Haraldsson was born a pagan and lived as a warrior for most of his
years going on to become the patron saint of Norway. The son of Harald
I, Oaf's early career was spent outside Norway fighting the Danes and
English among others.
(HNQ, 11/30/00)(AP, 7/29/01)
1031 Olaf II, aka Olaf Haraldsson,
was named a saint.
(HNQ, 11/30/00)
1035 Nov 12, King Canute (b.994)
died at age 39. He was king of Denmark, England and Norway (1014-1035).
(HN, 11/12/98)(MC, 11/12/01)
1045-1066 King Harold Hardready reigned. During this
time Snorre Sturleson wrote the "Heimskringla." In his Ynglingasaga he
said that in 1049 under King Svein and in 1051 under King Magnus, a
special sermon against Curonian pirates was introduced in the Danish
churches.
(DrEE, 11/23/96, p.3)
1047 Oct 25, Magnus I Godhi, king
of Norway and Denmark (1035-47), died.
(MC, 10/25/01)
1066 Sep 21, At the Battle at
Fulford Norway king Harald III Hardrada beat the British militia.
(MC, 9/21/01)
1066 Sep 25, King Harold Godwinson
II marched north and attacked the Vikings at the Battle of Stampford
Bridge in Yorkshire. The King of Norway was killed and Harold’s forces
destroyed the Vikings who returned to Norway in 24 of their 300 ships.
Marching north to face a Norwegian invasion force commanded by King
Harald Sigurdsson, aka Hardraade, and by his usurper brother, Tostig,
Harold Godwinson defended his crown at Stamford Bridge, resulting in a
Saxon victory and the deaths of both Harald and Tostig. Soon afterward,
however, Harold had to march south to face another invading contender
for his throne, Duke William the Bastard of Normandy, who defeated and
killed Harold at Hastings on October 14, and took the English crown as
William the Conqueror.
(TLC, 6/25/95)
1066 Sep 25, Harald III Hardrada
(51), king of Norway and England (1047-66), died in battle.
(MC, 9/25/01)
1066 Sep, Harold Hardrata, King of
Norway, sailed south with 10,000 men in 300 ships to attack England.
(TLC, Battles That Changed the World, 6/25/95)
1070 Bergen was founded on the
southwest coast of Norway.
(SSFC, 6/5/05, p.F7)
1100-1200 Chronicles mentioned stave church in the
village of Vaga.
(WSJ, 8/27/96, p.A12)
1100-1400 The official stave churches were mostly
built during this period.
(WSJ, 8/27/96, p.A12)
1103 Aug 24, Magnus III Berbein,
[Blootbeen], King of Norway (1093-1103), died.
(MC, 8/24/02)
1184 Jun 15, King Magnus of Norway
was defeated by his rival, Sverre.
(HN, 6/15/98)
1262 After a long and bloody
conflict between the various families and clans, the Icelanders
accepted the rule of the Norwegian kingdom.
(DrEE, 1/4/97, p.4)
1263 Oct 2, At Largs, King
Alexander III of Scotland repelled an amphibious invasion by King
Haakon IV of Norway.
(HN, 10/2/98)
1319 May 8, Haakon V, King of
Norway (1299-1319), died.
(MC, 5/8/02)
1360-1754 Hanseatic traders brought prosperity to
Bergen, Norway.
(SSFC, 6/5/05, p.F7)
1397 Jun 20, The Union of Kalmar
united Denmark, Sweden, and Norway under one monarch. The alliance grew
out of the dynastic ties of the Scandinavian countries of Denmark,
Norway and Sweden in response to rising German influence in the Baltic.
The union lasted from 1397 to 1523.
(HN, 6/20/98)(HNQ, 7/22/00)
c1440 Leif Eriksson drew a map of
America about this time. The "Vinland Map" was introduced in 1965 by
Yale University as being the 1st known map of America, drawn about 1440
by Norse explorer Leif Eriksson.
(MC, 10/10/01)
1472 The Orkney Islands were part
of Norway until this year.
(SFEC, 3/23/97, p.T3)
1520 Nov 4, Danish-Norwegian king
Christian II was crowned king of Sweden.
(MC, 11/4/01)
1523 Christian II was deposed in
Denmark after a civil war and was exiled. His uncle became King
Frederick I of Denmark and Norway.
(TL-MB, p.12)
1537 The Reformation came to
Norway.
(WSJ, 8/27/96, p.A12)
1540 Renaissance artist Lucas
Cranach the Elder (1472-1553) created his painting "Suffer the Little
Children to Come Unto Me" about this time In 2009 it was stolen from a
Lutheran church in the southern Norway town of Larvik. It’s value was
estimated at 15-20 million kroner ($2.1-$2.8 million).
(AP, 3/8/09)
1570 Dec 15, The Peace of Stettin
was concluded in Livonia. Denmark recognized the independence of Sweden
in the Peace of Stettin. Sweden gave up her claim to Norway.
(TL-MB,
p.22)(http://depts.washington.edu/baltic/papers/livonianwar.htm)
c1600-1700 A local commander in Varda burned over 70
women alive as witches.
(WSJ, 6/6/00, p.A1)
1627 The stave church at Vaga was
rebuilt by architect Werner Olsen. His design included a few fragments
of the original building.
(WSJ, 8/27/96, p.A12)
1684 Dec 3, Ludvig Baron Holberg,
founder of Danish & Norwegian literature, was born.
(MC, 12/3/01)
1802 Aug 5, Niels Henrik Abel
(d.1829), mathematician, was born in Frindoe, Norway.
(Internet)(SFC, 3/26/04, p.A15)
1814 May 17, Norway's constitution
was signed, providing for a limited monarchy. Denmark ceded Norway to
Sweden.
(AP, 5/17/97)(HN, 5/17/98)
1824 Niels Henrik Abel
(1802-1829), Norwegian mathematician, proved that equations of the 5th
order cannot generally be solved.
(Econ, 5/15/04, p.80)
1825 Oct 9, The first Norwegian
immigrants to America arrived on the sloop Restaurationen.
(HN, 10/9/98)
1828 Mar 20, Henrik Ibsen
(d.1906), poet and dramatist was born in Skien, Norway. His work
included “Peer Gynt” and “Hedda Gabler.” "The worst enemy of truth and
freedom in our society is the compact majority. Yes, the damned,
compact, liberal majority." In 1971 the 3rd and final volume of “Ibsen:
A Biography” by Michael Meyer (d.2000) was published.
(HFA, '96, p.26)(HN, 3/20/98)(AP, 7/22/98)(SFC,
8/10/00, p.D2)
1829 Apr 6, Niels Henrik Abel
(b.1802), Norwegian mathematician, died of tuberculosis. After him
comes the term Abelian group, an algebraic commutative group. In 2004
Peter Pesic authored “Abel’s Proof: An Essay on the Sources and Meaning
of Mathematical Unsolvability.”
(AHD, 1971, p.2)(SFC, 3/26/04, p.A15)(Econ, 5/15/04,
p.80)
1838 The Norwegian violinist Ole
Bull visited Memphis but the local whites preferred the fiddling of the
slave musicians.
(WSJ, 8/14/97, p.A16)
1841 Aker ASA was founded. By 2007
the industrial holding company was Norway’s largest private employer
with some 35,000 employees.
(WSJ, 12/10/07, p.B1)
1841-1912 Gerard H. Hansen, Norwegian physician. He
discovered the leprosy-causing Mycobacterium leprae (aka Hansen’s
disease).
(WUD, 1994, p.644)
1843 Jun 15, Edvard Grieg
(d.1907), Norwegian composer, was born. He was best known for his "Peer
Gynt" suite. In 1999 over 40 unknown pieces from 1858-1862 were found
in Bergen, Germany. Grieg studied at Leipzig during this period.
(WUD, 1994, p.622)(SFC, 2/23/99, p.B3)(HT, 6/15/00)
1853 The Kvaerner ASA conglomerate
dated back to this time. It developed into a hydropower, shipping and
pulp and paper giant.
(WSJ, 10/26/01, p.A16)
1856 Christian Schibsted purchased
a hand operated printing press to print a newspaper for somebody else.
When the contract moved elsewhere he began his own newspaper and in
2006 the original press could be seen in the Oslo headquarters of the
Schibsted newspaper firm.
(Econ, 8/26/06, p.52)
1859 Apr 4, Knut Hamsun, Norwegian
writer, was born. He won the Nobel Prize in literature in 1920. His
work included "From the Cultural Life in Modern America" (1889),
"Hunger," "The Growth of the Soil," "Victoria," and "An Overgrown
Path." A film portrait of his life was produced in 1997.
(SFEC, 4/20/97, DB p.47-49)
1863 Dec 12, Edvard Munch
(d.1944), Norwegian artist (The Scream), was born.
(WUD, 1994 p.941)(NH, 6/00, p.20)(HN, 12/12/00)
1867 Henrik Ibsen, Norwegian
writer, wrote his poetic drama "Peer Gynt." He took his main figure
from a character in Norwegian folklore who flees from his difficult
mother, Ase, gets swept up in a world of trolls, grows up, gets engaged
in a variety of nefarious enterprises, and returns home where he is
redeemed by a woman who always loved him.
(WSJ, 1/28/98, p.A16)
1870 Sophus Lie (1842-1899),
Norwegian mathematician, became a media sensation after he was found
outside Paris with a backpack filled with undecipherable mathematical
notes and arrested as a spy.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sophus_Lie)
1872 May, George C. Johnson,
former sea captain and Consul-General for Norway and Sweden in San
Francisco, died.
(Ind, 8/11/01, 5A)
1872 Jul 16, Roald Amundsen
(d.1928), Norwegian explorer, discoverer of the South Pole, was born.
(Ind, 4/27/02, 5A)(MC, 7/16/02)
1872 Aug 3, Haakon VII, King of
Norway, was born in Charlottenlund, Denmark.
(SC, 8/3/02)
1876 Feb 24, Henrik Ibsen's "Peer
Gynt," premiered in Oslo.
(MC, 2/24/02)
1879 Henrik Ibsen wrote his play
"A Doll’s House." Much of the dialogue was written to move characters
on and off stage.
(WSJ, 4/4/97, p.A7)(SFC, 1/7/99, p.A8)
1882 May 20, Henrik Ibsen's
"Ghosts" (Gengangere, 1881) premiered in Chicago.
(MC, 5/20/02)
1882 Henrik Ibsen wrote his moral
melodrama "An Enemy of the People."
(WSJ, 8/11/98, p.A16)
1887 Jul 18, Vidkum Quisling,
Norwegian minister of Defense, premier (1942-45), was born. He was
considered a traitor to his country for allowing an easy takeover by
Nazi Germany.
(HN, 7/18/98)(MC, 7/18/02)
1887 Sophus Lie (1842-1899),
Norwegian mathematician, recognized a mathematical structure called E8,
which contained 248 dimensions. It took 120 years to solve. In 2007 Dr.
Garrett Lisi proposed that this structure could be used to describe
fully the laws of physics.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sophus_Lie)(Econ,
11/24/07, p.87)
1888 Mar 4, Knute Rockne,
Norwegian-US football player, coach for Notre Dame, was born.
(HN, 3/4/98)(SC, 3/4/02)
1888 Fridtjof Nansen of Norway led
a 5-man team across Greenland on skis.
(ON, 7/05, p.1)
1891 Feb 26, Henrik Ibsen’s "Hedda
Gabler" premiered in Oslo.
(SFC, 4/14/01, p.B1)(SC, 2/26/02)
1882 May 20, Sigrid Undset,
Norwegian novelist (Kristin Lavransdatter), was born.
(HN, 5/20/01)
1893 Jun, Fridtjof Nansen left
Norway for the North Pole aboard the Fram. He theorized that the ship
would become ice-bound and cross the Arctic and the North Pole in 3
years.
(ON, 7/05, p.1)
1893 Edvard Munch (1863-1944),
Norwegian artist, painted "The Scream." The red sky in the painting was
later said to have resulted from his views of the red skies over Norway
during the 1883 volcano explosion at Krakatoa.
(AP, 12/10/03)
1894-1895 Edvard Munch (1863-1944), Norwegian artist,
painted "Madonna." In 2004 it was stolen from the Oslo Munch Museum.
(WSJ, 8/24/04, p.D8)
1895 Mar 3, Ragnar Frisch,
economist (1st Nobel prize in economy-1969), was born in Norway.
(SC, 3/3/02)
1895 Mar 15, Fridtjof Nansen and
Hjalmar Johansen left their ship Fram in an attempt to reach the North
Pole by dogsled. [see Jun 17, 1896]
(ON, 7/05, p.5)
1895 Jul 12, Kirsten Flagstad,
Norwegian opera singer, was born.
(HN, 7/12/01)
1896 Jun 17, Fridtjof Nansen and
Hjalmar Johansen met up with English explorer Frederick Jackson at
Franz Joseph Land in the Arctic.
(ON, 7/05, p.5)
1896 Aug 20, Fridtjof Nansen and
Hjalmar Johansen arrived back in Norway following a 3 year Arctic
venture. In 1898 Nansen published “Farthest North,” a best-selling
account of his adventure. In 1922 Nansen was awarded the Nobel Prize
for Peace.
(ON, 7/05, p.5)
1896 Jul 16, Trygve Lie, first
secretary-general of the United Nations (1946-52), was born in Norway.
(HN, 7/16/98)(MC, 7/16/02)
1899 Feb 18, Sophus Lie (b.1842),
Norwegian mathematician, died.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sophus_Lie)
1902 Apr 28, Johan Borgen,
Norwegian novelist, was born.
(HN, 4/28/01)
1902 Nov 1, Nordahl Brun Greig,
Norwegian writer, was born. He was a wartime hero during WWII.
(HN, 11/1/00)
1903 Jun 16, Roald Amundsen (31)
departed Christiana (later Oslo), Norway, aboard Gjøa with a
crew of 6 to search for the Northwest Passage. They reached California
in the fall of 1905.
(NG, 6/1988, p.765)(Ind, 4/27/02, 5A)
1903 Jul 2, Olav V, King of Norway
(1957), was born in England.
(SC, 7/2/02)
1903 Dec 9, The Norwegian
parliament voted unanimously for female suffrage.
(MC, 12/9/01)
1903 Dec 15, The British
Parliament placed a 15-year ban on whale fishing in Norway.
(HN, 12/15/98)
1905 Jun 7, Norway declared
independence from Sweden. Their union had been in effect in since 1814.
(SC, 6/7/02)(SSFC, 6/5/05, p.F7)
1905 Aug 19, Roald Amundsen and
his crew of 6 aboard Gjøe, a converted herring boat, made
contact with the US Coast Guard cutter Bear, which confirmed their
crossing the Northwest Passage following a 26-month journey. Amundsen
continued by dogsled to the Yukon while his crew completed their
journey at Point Bonita, California, just outside the Golden
Gate.
(SFC, 4/17/00, p.D8)(WSJ, 4/18/00, p.A16)(Ind,
4/27/02, 5A)
1905 Oct 26, Norway signed a
treaty of separation with Sweden and chose Prince Charles of Denmark as
the new king; he became King Haakon VII.
(HN, 10/26/98)
1905 Nov 18, The Norwegian
Parliament elected Prince Charles of Denmark to be the next King of
Norway. Prince Charles took the name Haakon VII.
(HN, 11/18/98)
1906 May 23, Henrik Ibsen (78),
Norwegian playwright and poet died in Christiania, Norway.
(AP, 5/23/06)
1906 Oct 19, The crew of Roald
Amundsen aboard Gjoe, a converted herring boat, arrived off the coast
of San Francisco following their crossing of the Northwest Passage in a
26-month journey. The Gjoe was returned to Norway in 1972 and a
commemorative sculpture was left next to the Beach Chalet at Ocean
Beach.
(SFC, 10/19/06, p.B1)(Ind, 4/27/02, 5A)
1907 Mar 7, Rolf Jacobsen,
Norwegian poet, was born.
(HN, 3/7/01)
1907 Jun 14, Women in Norway won
the right to vote.
(HN, 6/14/98)
1907 Sep 4, Edvard Hagerup Grieg
(64), Norwegian composer (Peer Gynt Suite), died.
(WUD, 1994, p.622)(MC, 9/4/01)
1909 Jun 16, In San Francisco the
Gjoe, explorer Roald Amundsen’s converted herring boat, was passed as a
gift to the people of San Francisco. He had used the vessel to cross
the Northwest Passage in 1905 and had arrived in SF in 1906. In 1972
the Gjoe was returned to Norway and a commemorative sculpture was left
next to the Beach Chalet at Ocean Beach.
(Ind, 4/27/02, 5A)(SSFC, 6/14/09, DB p.50)
1911 Dec 14, Norwegian explorer
Roald Amundsen became the first man to reach the South Pole, beating an
expedition led by Robert F. Scott. The best book on Scott and Amundsen
is by Roland Huntford "Scott and Amundsen."
(AP, 12/14/97)(SFEC, 1/24/99, BR p.1,6)
1912 Apr 8, Sonja Henie (d.1969),
ice skater, actress (Olympic-gold-1928,32,36), was born in Oslo,
Norway. Henie won 10 consecutive world championships.
(MC, 4/8/02)(SSFC, 10/5/03, Par p.2)
1914 May 29, The Canadian ship
Empress of Ireland sank while enroute to Quebec City to Liverpool after
colliding with the Norwegian coal freighter Storstad. 1,012 (1,024) of
the 1,500 passengers and crew were killed. The site of the tragedy was
proclaimed a protected historic and archeological site by Quebec in
1999.
(SFC, 4/23/99, p.D3)(SC, 5/29/02)
1914 Jun 6, The 1st air flight out
of sight of land was made from Scotland to Norway.
(MC, 6/6/02)
1914 Oct 6, Thor Heyerdahl,
Norwegian entomologist and adventurer whose 1947 Kon-Tiki expedition
established the possibility that Polynesians may have originated in
South America, was born.
(HN, 10/6/98)
1915 Feb 23, Germany sank US ships
Carib & Evelyn and torpedoed the Norwegian ship Regin.
(MC, 2/23/02)
1916 Apr 16,
In Norway Lars Korvald (d.2006), later prime minister (1972-1973)
was born on a farm near the southeastern village of Nedre Eiker. He
graduated from the Norwegian Agricultural College in 1943, and became
an agriculture teacher.
(AP, 7/4/06)
1916 Sep 13, Roald Dahl (d.1990),
son of Norwegian immigrants, was born in Llandaff, Wales. He is best
known for his children’s books such as "James and the Giant Peach."
(www.bbc.co.uk/arts/books/author/dahl)
1917 Jan, In Norway a piece of
sugar containing anthrax bacilli was found in the luggage of Baron Otto
Karl von Rosen, when he was apprehended in Karasjok for suspected
espionage and sabotage.
(NH, 10/98, p.18)
1917 Dec 6, In Nova Scotia some
2000 people were killed and thousands wounded following an explosion in
Halifax harbor. The Imo, a Norwegian freighter ship, had collided with
the French munitions ship Mont Blanc and a fire soon caused a massive
explosion. A local court found Captain Le Medec of the Mont Blanc and
other defendants guilty of the collision. Canada’s Supreme Court ruled
that the captains of both ships were equally to blame. A Privy Council
in London ruled that Le Medec had done nothing illegal.
(EWH, 4th ed, p.1054)(ON, 7/05, p.7)(AP, 12/6/07)
1919 The Versailles conference
gave Norway sovereignty over the island of Svalbard, but allowed other
countries to establish settlements there.
(Econ, 10/2/04, p.52)
1920 A treaty between Norway and
Russia allowed Russia to pursue mining in the Svalbard islands at
Spitsbergen.
(WSJ, 9/19/97, p.A1)(Econ, 10/11/08, p.70)
1922 Fridtjof Nansen, Norwegian
Arctic explorer (1893-1896), was awarded the Nobel Prize for Peace.
(ON, 7/05, p.5)
1924 Jul 10, Denmark took
Greenland as Norway ended its claim.
(MC, 7/10/02)
1926 Erik Rotheim of Norway
invented the aerosol can.
(SFEC, 1/17/99, Z1 p.1)
1828 Mar 20, Henrik Ibsen
(d.1906), Norwegian dramatist (Peer Gynt, Hedda Gabler), was born.
(HFA, '96, p.26)(HN, 3/20/98)
1928 cJun, Roald Amundsen
(b.1872), Norwegian explorer, flew north with a crew of rescuers to
search for the survivors of the Italian dirigible Italia. They were
never seen again.
(ON, 10/00, p.8)(Ind, 4/27/02, 5A)
1930 May 13, Fridtjof Nansen (68),
Norwegian Arctic explorer (1893-1896), died in Oslo.
(ON, 7/05, p.5)
1931 Nov 30, The submarine
Nautilus was sunk near Bergen, Norway. Hubert Wilkins, Australian
explorer, had used the ship in a failed attempt to sail beneath the
North Pole.
(ON, 1/02, p.8)
1940 Apr 8, British troops landed
at Narwik to mine Norway’s territorial waters.
(ON, 11/05, p.3)
1940 Apr 9, The Nazi army invaded
and occupied Denmark and Norway. German forces landed along the
Norwegian coast and made a paratrooper assault on Oslo and Stavanger.
After the Nazi invasion most of Denmark’s police were killed. [see Nov
9]
(WSJ, 4/29/96, p.C-1)(SFEC, 1/26/97, p.A14)(AP,
4/9/97)(ON, 11/05, p.3)
1940 Apr 10, Vidkun Quisling
formed a Norwegian pro-Nazi "national government."
(MC, 4/10/02)
1940 Apr 10, The HMS Hunter, a
British destroyer, went down with 110 men in the fist Battle of Narvik
as the Royal Navy tried to keep German forces from overrunning a
strategic Norwegian port. Germany lost 4 destroyers in the battle. In
2008 a Norwegian minehunter found the wreck
(AP, 3/9/08)
1940 Apr 14, Allied troops landed
in Norway.
(MC, 4/14/02)
1940 Apr 15, French and British
troops landed at Narvik, Norway.
(HN, 4/15/98)
1940 Apr 29, Norwegian King Haakon
and government fled to England.
(MC, 4/29/02)
1940 May 5, Norwegian government
in exile formed in London.
(MC, 5/5/02)
1940 May 7-1940 May 8, The British
House of Commons debated the disastrous Norwegian campaign.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norway_Debate)
1940 May 10, Winston Churchill
took office as PM. Churchill formed a new government and served as the
Conservative head of a coalition government with the opposition Labor
Party. The debate over the Norway campaign led directly to Churchill
replacing Chamberlain.
(WSJ, 9/3/98, p.A6)(PCh, 1992, p.864)(Econ, 11/4/06,
p.67)
1940 Jun 9, Norway surrendered to
the Nazis during World War II, effective at midnight.
(AP, 6/9/07)
1940 Sep 25, German High
Commissioner in Norway set up the Vidikun Quisling government.
(SFC, 6/25/97, p.A10)(MC, 9/25/01)
1940 Nov 9, Germany invaded Norway
and Denmark. [see Apr 9, 1940]
(MC, 11/9/01)
1941 Jul 16, Dag Solstad,
Norwegian novelist and playwright, was born.
(HN, 7/16/01)
1942 Oct, An advance team of 4
Norwegian commandos parachuted into Norway as part of Operation Grouse
to destroy the German-operated heavy-water Vemork plant on the Mane
River near Rjukan.
(ON, 4/07, p.2)
1942 Nov 26, The German ship SS
Donau prepared to leave the Oslo wharf with 332 Norwegian Jews bound
for death camps.
(AP, 8/24/06)
1942 Nov, A Royal Air Force bomber
and 2 gliders, carrying 34 British commandos, crash landed in Norway.
This was part of Operation Freshman, which planned a raid on the
heavy-water plant at Vemork. The survivors were captured by German
soldiers and executed by the Gestapo.
(ON, 4/07, p.2)
1942-43 Under the Quisling government 767 Jews were
deported to Auschwitz. An estimated 1,100 Jews fled to Sweden and
bureaucrats looted the possessions of 1,179 Jewish families and 71
Jewish companies.
(SFC, 6/25/97, p.A10)
1943 Feb 28, In Operation
Gunnerside Norwegian commandos flown in from Britain bombed the Nazi
heavy water plant near Rjukan. The raid was later depicted in the 1965
film "The Heroes of Telemark." The 9 commandos included Claus Helberg
(d.2003) and Knut Haukelid (d.1994).
(SFC, 3/14/03, p.A27)(ON, 4/07, p.4)
1943 Nov 16, One hundred and forty
American bombers flew from British bases to Vemork, Norway, to destroy
the Nazi heavy water facility near Rjukan, where production had resumed
despite a commando raid in February. Only 14 of some 700 bombs hit the
plant killing 24 civilians. The bombing did not harm the basement level
where the heavy water was collected and stored.
(ON, 4/07, p.5)
1943 Gustav Vigeland (b.1869),
Norwegian sculptor, died. His major life's work was the creation of 212
sculptures of 600 figures in an Oslo park named Vigeland Park.
(SSFC, 6/22/03, p.A1)
1944 Jan 23, Edvard Munch
(b.1863), Norwegian painter and hopeless alcoholic, died. His work
included “Kiss by the Window” (1892), “The Scream” (1893) and “Self
Portrait With Cigarette” (1895). He had a breakdown in 1908 and
retreated to Ekely, where he painted for his remaining years. He left
behind a collection 1,008 paintings at his estate outside Oslo. In 2005
Sue Prideaux authored “Edvard Munch: Behind the Scream.”
(WSJ, 4/16/02, p.D7)(SSFC, 12/18/05, p.M2)(Sm, 3/06,
p.60)(WSJ, 2/25/09, p.D7)
1944 Feb 20, A time-bomb planted
by Norwegian commando Knut Haukelid sank the Lake Tinn ferry Hydro,
which carried heavy water canisters from the Vemork plant destined for
Germany. 12 German soldiers and 14 civilian passengers drowned.
Rescuers saved 23 Norwegians and 4 Germans.
(ON, 4/07, p.5)
1944 Nov 12, The RAF sank the
German battleship Tirpitz at Troms Fjord, Norway. Great Britain so
feared the Tripitz, that any hint of its use caused escort ships to
flee their convoys.
(HN, 11/12/98)(MC, 11/12/01)
1944 Odd Nerdrum, Norwegian
figurative artist, was born. He made haunting oils of eerily
incandescent nudes.
(WSJ, 3/19/97, p.A16)(www.oddnerdrum.com)
1945 Feb 9, The German submarine
U-864 with a crew of 73 sank about 2 1/2 miles off Fedje, Norway. It
was on a desperate mission to supply Japan with advanced weapons
technology and carried a poisonous cargo of 70 tons of mercury. Leakage
of the mercury posed a severe threat in 2006 and plans were made to
encase the wreck. In 2007 Norway’s government said it would be buried
in special sand to protect the coastline.
(AP, 12/20/06)(AP, 2/13/07)
1945 May 9, Norwegian Nazi
collaborator Vidkun Quisling was arrested.
(MC, 5/9/02)
1945 Sep 10, Vidkun Quisling was
sentenced to death in Norway for collaborating with the Nazis. He was
executed by firing squad in October 1945.
(AP, 9/10/07)
1945 Oct 24, Vidkun Quisling,
Norway's wartime minister president, was executed by firing squad for
collaboration with the Nazis.
(HN, 10/24/00)
1946-1953 Trygve Lie of Norway served as the
Secretary-General of the UN.
(SFC, 12/14/96, p.A1)
1947 Apr 28, Norwegian
anthropologist Thor Heyerdahl (d.2002) and five others sailed from Peru
aboard a balsa wood raft named the Kon-Tiki on a 101-day, 4,300
nautical mile journey across the Pacific Ocean to Polynesia. They
wanted to prove that Peruvian Indians could have settled in Polynesia.
Heyerdahl published "Kon-Tiki" in 1950.
(AP, 4/28/97)(WSJ, 5/22/97, p.A13)(HN, 4/28/99)(SFC,
4/19/02, p.A2)
1947 "Kon Tiki" by Thor Heyerdahl
of Norway was published by Rand McNally.
(SSFC, 11/18/01, p.A28)
1952 Dec 11, The outbound
Norwegian ship Fernstream was sliced open by the inbound SS Hawaiian
Rancher under heavy fog inside the Golden Gate. The Fernstream sank in
30 minutes but all passengers escaped.
(SFC, 12/6/02, p.E16)
1957 Sep 21, Norway's King Haakon
VII died in Oslo at age 85.
(AP, 9/21/07)
1959 Nov 20, Seven European
nations (Austria, Britain, Denmark, Norway, Portugal, Sweden,
Switzerland) signed the Stockholm Convention to form the European Free
Trade Association (EFTA). The organization becoming operative on May 3
1960.
(www.iceland.org/efta/the-mission/int-organizations/efta/)
1967 May 11, The United Kingdom
re-applied to join the European Community. It is followed by Ireland
and Denmark and, a little later, by Norway. General de Gaulle is still
reluctant to accept British accession.
(http://europa.eu.int/abc/history/1967/index_en.htm)
1968 In San Francisco Mayor Alioto
greeted King Olav V of Norway with a grand reception at City Hall.
(SFEC, 2/1/98, p.A10)
1969 May 25, Thor Heyerdahl
(1914-2002), Norwegian ethnographer and adventurer, departed with his
crew on the reed raft Ra for from Morocco. They abandoned their trip 1
week shy of Barbados. Heyerdahl sailed across the Atlantic in his
Egyptian reed boat, Ra, and reported on garbage floating everywhere in
the sea. On 16 July the crew was saved by the American yacht
Shenandoah. In just 56 days they had sailed a distance of 2,700
nautical miles.
(V.D.-H.K.p.343)(www.shipsonstamps.org/Topics/html/kontiki.htm)
1969 Oct 12, Sonja Henie (b.1912),
Norwegian ice skater (Olympic-gold-1928,32,36) and film star,
died of leukemia on a flight from Paris to Oslo. Henie's career
included a record 10 consecutive world championships.
(SSFC, 10/5/03, Par
p.2)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sonja_Henie)
1970 May 17, Thor Heyerdahl
(1914-2002), Norwegian anthropologist, left Morocco aboard Ra II, a
papyrus reed boat, and sailed 3,270 nautical miles across the Atlantic
to Barbados in 57 days [see Jul 12].
(SFC, 4/19/02,
p.A2)(www.spiritus-temporis.com/thor-heyerdahl/)
1970 Jul 12, Thor Heyerdahl,
Norwegian ethnographer, crossed the Atlantic Ocean in "Ra" and docked
in Barbados.
(www.shipsonstamps.org/Topics/html/kontiki.htm)
1972 Jan 22, Britain, Denmark,
Ireland and Norway joined the European Economic Community.
(AP, 1/22/02)
1972 May 4, The remains of the
ship Gjoe, a converted herring boat used by Roald Amundsen to cross the
Northwest Passage (1903-1905), departed San Francisco for Oslo, Norway.
A commemorative sculpture was left next to the Beach Chalet at Ocean
Beach.
(SFC, 4/17/00, p.D8)(WSJ, 4/18/00, p.A16)(Ind,
4/27/02, 5A)
1972 Oct 18,
In Norway Lars Korvald (1916-2006) became the first Christian
Democrat to serve as prime minister.
(AP, 7/4/06)
1973 Jul 21, Israeli intelligence
mistakenly assassinated Ahmed Bouchiki, a Moroccan living in
Lillehammer, Norway, as part of its retribution for the Sep 5, 1972,
terrorist attack in Munich. He was mistaken for Ali Hassan Salameh
(d.1979).
(WSJ, 12/21/05,
p.D10)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ahmed_Bouchiki)
1973 Oct 16,
In Norway the Christian Democrat government of Lars Korvald
(1916-2006) resigned as the socialists won a majority in parliamentary
elections.
(AP, 7/4/06)
1980 The 2,032 passenger SS France
became the SS Norway, flagship of the Norwegian Cruise Lines.
(www.oceanlinermuseum.co.uk/France%20index.htm)
1981 Gro Harlem Brundtland became
prime minister of Norway.
(SFC, 6/21/96, p.A12)
1982 In 2005 Karin Linstad, a
leading Norwegian pro-Palestinian activist, said she infiltrated the
Israeli intelligence agency Mossad as a double agent in the 1980s. The
Oslo newspaper Aftenposten said Mossad had been skeptical of Linstad's
offer to act as an agent but was drawn in by her claims of tight
contact with leading Palestinians. The newspaper, without citing
sources, said she provided information about Palestinians in Beirut,
Lebanon, ahead of Israel's 1982 invasion.
(AP, 10/6/05)
1986 May 9, In Norway the
Conservative-led coalition resigned and Gro Harlem Brundtland (b.1939)
returned to power. She immediately appointed 8 women to her 18-member
cabinet.
(SFC, 10/24/96,
p.C3)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gro_Harlem_Brundtland)
1989 Oct, The Nobel Prize in
Economics was awarded to Trygve Haavelmo of Norway.
(SFC, 10/15/98, p.A2)
1989-1990 Jan P. Syse (d.1997 at 66) served as prime
minister of a conservative-led coalition government. He led the
conservative party from 1988-1991.
(SFC, 9/18/97, p.C2)
1990 Apr 7, An arson fire aboard a
ferry en route from Norway to Denmark killed 158 people.
(AP, 4/7/00)
1990 Norwegian church groups
brought the government of Guatemala and rebels together for peace talks
in Oslo.
(SFC, 12/5/96, p.C1)
1991 Jun 5, Soviet President
Mikhail S. Gorbachev delivered his delayed Nobel Peace lecture in Oslo,
Norway, warning that Western failure to heed his call for economic aid
could dash hopes for a peaceful new world order.
(AP, 6/5/01)
1991 Norway became one of the
first countries to adopt a carbon tax in an attempt to slow global
warming.
(Econ, 1/24/09, p.28)
1992 Mar 5, In Copenhagen the
Ministers for Foreign Affairs of Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany,
Latvia, Lithuania, Norway, Poland, Russia and Sweden, in the presence
of the representative from the European Commission, opened a 2-day
meeting and decided to establish a Council of the Baltic Sea States to
serve as a forum for guidance and overall coordination among the
participating states. Iceland joined the CBSS in 1995
(Econ, 6/7/08,
p.63)(www.bmwi.de/English/Navigation/European-policy/baltic-market.html)
1992 Nov 25, Norway formally
applies to join the European Communities.
(http://europa.eu.int/abc/history/1992/index_en.htm)
1992 The 19th cent. Holmenkollen
Chapel, often attended by the royal family, fell victim to arson.
(WSJ, 8/27/96, p.A12)
1992 Varg "the Count" Vikernes
murdered a rival Satanist leader and was sentenced to 21 years in
prison. He was also involved in at least four cases of church arson.
(WSJ, 8/27/96, p.A12)
1992 In Norway the 1993 Oslo I
peace accord was begun in 1992 following a research project on
Palestinian living conditions by Terje Roed Larsen. Larsen arranged
discussions between Uri Savir of Israel and Ahmed Qureia (Abu Ala) for
Palestine.
(SFEC, 10/31/99, p.A21)
1992 Norway introduced a carbon
tax in an effort to fight global warming.
(Econ, 6/2/07, p.22)
1993 Aug, Norwegian academic Terje
Roed-Larsen and other Norwegian mediators helped broker a secret peace
accord in which the Palestinians formally recognized Israel's right to
exist and Israel agreed to establish self-rule in the West Bank and
Gaza. The accord allowed thousands of PLO guerrillas to return to
Palestine without Israeli interference.
(SFC, 6/19/96, p.A8)(SFC, 6/4/98, p.C3)(AP, 11/12/04)
1993 Dec 19, Israeli Foreign
Minister Shimon Peres and senior PLO officials ended two days of
closed-door talks in Oslo, Norway, in which they sought to break a
deadlock over Palestinian self-rule in the occupied territories.
(AP, 12/19/98)
1993 Gay marriages were legalized.
(SFC, 6/28/96, p.A14)
1993 The hunting of minke whales
was resumed after a six-year self-imposed moratorium.
(SFC, 5/9/98, p.A7)
1994 Feb 12, The XVII Winter
Olympic Games opened in Lillehammer, Norway. The official song was
"Fire in Your Heart."
(SFEC, 10/5/97, p.A17)(WSJ, 3/12/98, p.A16)(AP,
2/12/99)
1994 Feb 13, At the Winter Olympic
Games in Lillehammer, Norway, American Tommy Moe won the men's
downhill, defeating local hero Kjetil Andre Aamodt by 0.004 seconds.
(AP, Internet, 2/13/99)
1994 Feb 14, At the Winter
Olympics in Norway, speedskater Dan Jansen slipped and fell during the
500 meters race.
(AP, Internet, 2/14/99)
1994 Feb 18, At the Winter Olympic
Games in Norway, speedskater Dan Jansen finally won a gold medal,
breaking the world record in the 1,000 meters.
(AP, Internet, 2/18/99)
1994 Feb 19, American speedskater
Bonnie Blair won the fourth Olympic gold medal of her career as she won
the 500-meter race in Lillehammer, Norway.
(AP, Internet, 2/19/99)
1994 Feb 25, At the Winter
Olympics in Norway, Oksana Baiul of Ukraine won the gold medal in
ladies' figure skating while Nancy Kerrigan won the silver and Chen Lu
of China the bronze; Tonya Harding came in eighth.
(AP, Internet, 2/25/99)
1994 Feb 27, The Winter Olympic
Games ended in Lillehammer, Norway.
(AP, Internet, 2/27/99)
1994 May 7, Norway's most famous
painting, "The Scream," by Edvard Munch, was recovered almost three
months after it was stolen from an Oslo museum. Another version was
stolen in 2004.
(AP, 5/7/99)(WSJ, 8/24/04, p.A1)
1994 Nov 28, Norwegian voters
narrowly rejected European Union membership.
(WSJ, 4/8/96, p.A-14)(DT internet 11/28/97)
1994 Olav Koss announced that he
would donate Olympic awards from the Norwegian government, totaling
over $100,000, to an organization called Olympic Aid, dedicated to
helping children worldwide.
(SFC, 2/14/06, p.A11)
1996 Mar 10, A Norwegian member of
the Bandidos motorcycle gang was shot and wounded at the Oslo airport.
(SFEC, 8/11/96, p.A13)
1996 Aug 29, A Russian Tu-154
plane with 141 passengers crashed on a desolate arctic island 6 miles
from Spitsbergen where they were returning to jobs in a Russian-run
coal mine. It was the worst crash in Norway’s history.
(SFC, 8/30/96, p.A14)(SFC, 7/4/01, p.A10)
1996 The prime minister of Norway
is Gro Harlem Brundtland.
(WSJ, 5/16/96, p.A-14)
1996 Aug 27, The 29 stave churches
left were under government protection and threatened by arsonists of a
Satanic movement.
(WSJ, 8/27/96, p.A12)
1996 Oct 23, Gro Harlem Brundtland
announced her resignation as prime minister. Thoerbjorn Jagland, leader
of the Labor Party, was expected to replace her.
(SFC, 10/24/96, p.C3)
1996 Nov 1, Norway announced a $24
million donation to educate girls in 19 African countries. The gift
went to UNICEF’s African Education for All program.
(SFC, 11/2/96, p.C1)
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, 1/18/96, p.C1)
1997 Jun 4, In Drammen a car bomb
destroyed the headquarters of the Bandido motorcycle gang. One passerby
was killed and 4 people were injured.
(SDUT, 6/6/97, p.A26)
1997 Sep 2, The US demanded
exemptions to a proposed global ban on land mines at an int’l meeting
in Oslo, Norway. The exemptions were for mines on the Korean peninsula
and for certain types of mines.
(SFC, 9/3/97, p.C2)
1997 Sep 14, It was reported that
Norway is the world’s 2nd largest oil exporter and that the government
sets aside nearly $8.3 billion into a fund for the future.
(SFEC, 9/14/97, p.A24)
1997 Sep 15, Prime Minister
Thorbjoern Jagland said he would step down after support in national
elections reached only about 35%.
(SFC, 9/16/97, p.A12)
1997 Sep 18, In Norway an
explosion at a Russian-operated coal mine in the Svalbard islands
killed 23 Russian and Ukrainian workers.
(SFC, 9/19/97, p.A14)
1997 Sep 23, The Gilmore Artist
Award, a $300,000 prize given every 4 years to a classical pianist, was
awarded to Norwegian pianist Leif Ove Andsnes at the Irving S. Gilmore
Int’l. Keyboard Festival in Kalamazoo, Mich.
(SFC, 9/24/97, p.E5)
1997 Feb, It was first noticed
that lake water near Oslo was subsiding in association with the
construction of an 8-mile tunnel.
(SFC,10/24/97, p.A11)
1997 Jun, Terms of the Baltnet
Group, an Air Surveillance System for Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia,
were established in Oslo, Norway.
(http://tinyurl.com/a6o2n)
1997 Oct 25, In Norway it was
reported that a new 8-mile tunnel outside of Oslo was draining water
from nearby lakes at the rate of 10,000 gallons a minute. The sealing
compound Rhoca-Gil was supposed to stop the leaks, but its use in
Sweden had already caused water to be contaminated with acrylamide, an
agent that causes nerve damage. In Sweden construction of a
controversial tunnel was halted when water draining from the tunnel was
found to be contaminated by the sealing compound, Rhoca-Gil.
(SFC,10/24/97, p.A11)
1997 Dec 3, Dr. Christian
Sandsdalen was convicted for the mercy killing in Jun 1996 of Bodil
Bjerkmann (45), who suffered from multiple schlerosis. He was the first
Norwegian tried for mercy killing.
(SFC, 12/4/97, p.C4)
1998 Jan 27, The UN named Gro
Harlem Brundtland, the former prime minister of Norway as the head of
the World Health Organization (WHO).
(SFC, 1/28/98, p.A6)
1998 cApr 3, A 2-day meeting
called by the Norwegian Initiative on Small Arms Transfers was attended
by 18 African nations, over a dozen European countries and Japan,
Canada and Argentina. They endorsed measures to control the spread of
light weapons.
(SFC, 4/6/98, p.A13)
1998 cMay 8, Norway authorized
another season of hunting minke whales with a 30% allotment increase to
671.
(SFC, 5/9/98, p.A7)
1998 May 26, In Russia Pres.
Yeltsin signed an accord with King Harold V of Norway for the
dismantling and disposal of 90 nuclear submarines decaying in the
Barents Sea. Russia expected Norway to provide $30 million for the
project, which was expected to cost billions and take over a decade.
(SFC, 5/27/98, p.C2)
1998 Jun 26, A draft law was
passed to set aside $58 million for Jewish survivors of Nazi death
camps.
(SFC, 6/27/98, p.A14)
1998 Jul 13, In Oslo delegates
from 21 countries met to draft strategy to keep small arms out of the
hands of terrorists.
(SFC, 7/13/98, p.A8)
1998 Aug 15, A 4 day conference by
religious leaders ended. The group pledged to form an int’l. alliance
to wipe out prejudice linked to religion and belief.
(SFEC, 8/16/98, p.A21)
1998 Sep 16, It was reported that
Prime Minister Kjell Magne Bondevik (51), too depressed to work, was on
sick leave. Plunging oil prices, surging interest rates and political
bickering forced him to leave almost 2 weeks ago.
(WSJ, 9/16/98, p.A22)
1998 Oct 12, Canada planned to
begin discussion with Norway, Sweden, Iceland and Liechtenstein for the
first trans-Atlantic free-trade pact.
(WSJ, 10/12/98, p.A1)
1998 Oct 15, Up to 1 1/2 million
workers were expected to strike for 2 hours to protest a government
proposal to cut the annual vacation allowance by one day to 4 weeks.
(SFC, 10/15/98, p.A17)
1998 The Norwegian film "Junk
Mail" was directed by Pal Sletaune.
(SFC, 5/1/98, p.C5)
1999 Jan, Norway and Sweden
announced a plan to merge their state-owned phone carriers.
(WSJ, 3/29/99, p.A21)
1999 Mar 11, Norway approved a
$57.7 million package to compensate the nation's Jews for suffering
during WW II.
(SFC, 3/12/99, p.A15)
1999 Jul 6, Thor Alex Kappfjell
(32) was killed during a miscalculated jump in Norway. He had earlier
parachuted from the World Trade Center, Empire State Building and the
Chrysler Building in NYC, after which he pleaded guilty to 3 counts of
reckless endangerment and was sentenced to 7 days of community service.
(SFC, 4/2/99, p.A3)(SFC, 7/9/99, p.D6)
1999 Aug 27, In Norway the Supreme
Court declared that it was legal to use discriminatory statements in
real estate listings.
(SFC, 8/28/99, p.A14)
1999 Nov 2, Pres. Clinton met with
Ehud Barak and Yasser Arafat in Oslo to revitalize the Middle
East peace process.
(SFC, 11/3/99, p.A12)
1999 Oct 6, Jon Lech Johansen (15)
of Norway released DeCSS, a program that allows users to copy DVDs onto
computer hard disks.
(WSJ, 10/13/05,
p.A8)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DeCSS)
1999 Nov 26, A Norwegian passenger
ferry, the catamaran Sleipner, sank at the mouth of the Boemla Fjord.
There were 16 people killed.
(SFC, 11/27/99, p.A14)(AP, 11/26/02)
2000 Jan 4, In Norway 2 passenger
trains collided 110 miles north of Oslo. At least 20 people were
believed to have died.
(WSJ, 1/5/00, p.A1)(SFC, 1/6/00, p.A10)
2000 Feb 16, In Sri Lanka 57
soldiers and guerrillas were killed in renewed fighting as Knut
Vollebaek, the foreign minister of Norway, met with Pres. Chandrika
Kumaratunga to help broker peace talks.
(SFC, 2/17/00, p.D3)
2000 Mar 9, In Norway Prime
Minister Kjell Magne Bondevik announced that his minority government
would resign following a failed vote of confidence in an environmental
dispute. He opposed new power plants to burn gas supplies.
(SFC, 3/10/00, p.D6)
2000 Dec 6, The 15-mile Laerdal
Tunnel between Aurland and Laerdal was scheduled to open after 5 years
of construction.
(SSFC, 12/3/00, p.T3)
2000 Fred Kavli, a Norwegian-born
entrepreneur, sold his California-based Kavlico enterprise, a global
supplier of sensors for industrial application, for $340 million. He
then established the Kavli Foundation to support basic scientific
research.
(SFC, 4/12/08, p.C2)
2000-2001 Jens Stoltenberg, head of the Labor Party,
served as prime minister of Norway.
(AP, 9/13/05)
2001 Jan 17, It was reported that
Norway was lifting its ban on exports of whale meat and byproducts.
(WSJ, 1/17/01, p.A1)
2001 Jan 26, Benjamin Hermansen
(15), a black teenager, was stabbed to death in Holmlia near Oslo. 5
Neo-Nazi Bootboys were soon arrested. In 2002 Joe Erling Jahr (20) was
sentenced to 16 years in prison and Ole Nicolai Kvisler (22) was
sentenced to 15 years. Veronica Andreasen (18) received 3 years as an
accomplice.
(SFC, 1/30/01, p.A11)(SFC, 1/18/02, p.A6)
2001 Apr 3, Sri Lanka agreed to
open peace talks with Tamil rebels following diplomatic initiative by
Norway.
(WSJ, 4/4/01, p.A1)
2001 Jul 9, The UN ranked Norway
as the country with the world’s highest standard of living. PM Jens
Stolenberg credited the nation’s welfare system.
(SFC, 7/10/01, p.A8)
2001 Aug 23, The Norwegian
government established the Abel Prize in mathematics in honor of the
Niels Henrik Abel (1802-1829).
(Internet)
2001 Aug 25, In Oslo, Norway,
Crown Prince Haakon (28) married Mette-Marit (28), a single mother and
former waitress.
(SSFC, 8/26/01, p.A16)(AP, 8/25/02)
2001 Sep 10, In parliamentary
elections no party received a majority. The ruling Labor Party had its
worst showing in decades. Labor won 24% of the vote, its worst showing
since 1924 as voters rejected the high-tax funded social welfare
system.
(WSJ, 9/11/01, p.A1)(SFC, 9/11/01, p.B2)
2001 Dec, Vebjorn Sand, Norwegian
artist, completed a 330-foot bridge linking Norway and Sweden at Aas,
16 miles south of Oslo. The design was based on plans drawn up by
Leonardo da Vinci in 1502.
(SSFC, 12/9/01, p.C2)(WSJ, 11/5/05, p.P12)
2002 Jan, Per-Kristian Foss, the
Conservative finance minister, married Jan Erik Knarbakk. This was the
1st legal gay partnership by a member of the Norwegian government.
(SFC, 1/16/02, p.A7)
2002 Feb 21, Sri Lanka approved a
Norwegian long-term cease-fire plan already approved by Tamil Tiger
rebels.
(SFC, 2/22/02, p.A13)
2002 Mar, The condo-resort ship,
The World, first set sail from Oslo, Norway. The $280 million, 12-deck
cruise ship ran into financing problems and was sold Oct 31, 2003, for
$71 million to a residents' partnership.
(WSJ, 2/20/04, p.A1)
2002 Apr 18, Thor Heyerdahl (87),
Norwegian head of the 1947 Kon-Tiki voyage, died in northern Italy.
(SFC, 4/19/02, p.A2)
2002 Dec 14, The Norwegian
Tricolor, a cargo ship carrying nearly 2,900 luxury cars capsized and
sank after colliding with the Bahamas-registered Kariba cargo ship in
the English Channel. Tricolor carried 2,862 cars, high-end BMWs, Volvos
and Saabs, and 77 other items, mainly tractors and large crane parts.
(AP, 12/14/02)
2003 Jan 28, US and Afghan forces
battled rebels aligned with renegade leader Gulbuddin Hekmatyar in the
largest-scale fighting in 10 months. 18 enemy fighters were killed in 2
days of fighting. Norwegian F-16s participated in bombing enemy targets.
(AP, 1/28/03)(WSJ, 1/29/03, p.A1)(SFC, 1/29/03, p.A8)
2003 Mar 20, Norwegian police
arrested Mullah Krekar, the leader of a Kurdish guerrilla group
suspected of links to al-Qaida, on kidnapping charges.
(AP, 3/20/03)
2003 Aug 22, Oslo, Norway, was
ranked the world's most expensive city by Swiss banking giant UBS. It
was followed by New York, Zurich, Switzerland; Copenhagen, Denmark;
London; Basel, Switzerland; Chicago; and Geneva.
(AP, 8/22/03)
2003 Sep 30, Norway's national
film board lifted a ban on hundreds of films that were deemed too
sexually explicit or violent, including 1994's "On Deadly Ground"
starring Steven Seagal and the 1990 gangster epic "Miller's Crossing."
(AP, 10/1/03)
2003 Dec 10, The Nobel Prize
awards ceremony were held in Sweden and Norway. Iranian democracy
activist Shirin Ebadi, the first Muslim woman to win the Nobel Peace
Prize, accepted the award in Oslo, Norway.
(AP, 12/10/03)(AP, 12/10/08)
2003 Dec 12, Keiko the killer
whale (27), whose early life inspired the film "Free Willy," died in
Norway of apparent pneumonia.
(SFC, 12/13/03, p.A1)
2004 Jan 1, In Norway a new law
went into effect to allow foreign hunters to hunt seals. The
legislation raised the seal kill quota to 2,000.
(SFC, 11/27/04, p.A10)
2004 Jan 2, Norwegian police
arrested Mullah Krekar, Muslim Kurd leader of Ansar al-Islam, on
charges connected to 2 suicide bombings in Iraq 2 years ago.
(SFC, 1/2/04, p.A3)
2004 Jan 19, The freighter MS
Rocknes capsized in a narrow inlet between the island of Bjoroey and
Norway's western coast, less than 200 yards from land after it put out
a distress call. The 30 crew members included 24 Filipinos, three
Dutch, two Norwegians and one German. 12 crew members were rescued. The
death toll was put at 18.
(AP, 1/20/04)(WSJ, 1/21/04, p.A1)
2004 Mar 25, A Norwegian Academy
awarded the Abel Prize in Mathematics to Isadore M. Singer of MIT and
Sir Michael F. Atiyah of the Univ. of Edinburgh for discovering and
proving the mathematical concept called the "index theorem."
(SFC, 3/26/04, p.A15)
2004 Jul 2, A Norwegian strike
began targeting the oil exploration sector. It incidentally affected
two mobile production units, the Petrojarl I, which ceased operations
in early September, and the Petrojarl Varg.
(AP, 10/13/04)
2004 Aug 22, In Oslo, Norway,
armed men stormed into the Munch Museum, threatened staff at gunpoint
and stole 2 of Edvard Munch's famous paintings, "The Scream" and
"Madonna" before the eyes of stunned museum-goers. Another of 4
versions of “The Scream” was stolen in 1994. Police recovered both
paintings in 2006. In 2007 3 men were sentenced to prison for their
roles in the heist. The 3 were ordered to pay a total of $262 million
in compensation.
(AP, 8/22/04)(WSJ, 8/24/04, p.A1)(SFC, 9/1/06,
p.A2)(SFC, 4/24/07, p.D6)
2004 Sep 29, An Algerian asylum
seeker on a commuter plane in northern Norway attacked both pilots and
a passenger with an ax as the aircraft was landing.
(AP, 9/29/04)
2004 Oct 11, Edward C. Prescott
(63), an American, and Finn E. Kydland (60), a Norwegian, won the 2004
Nobel Memorial Prize in economics for shedding light on how government
policies and actions affect economies around the world.
(AP, 10/11/04)
2004 Oct 25, The Norwegian
Shipowners Association threatened to lock out more oil and gas rig
workers, a move analysts said could result in a near shutdown of the
third-largest petroleum exporter's production and drive world oil
prices even higher.
(AP, 10/25/04)
2004 Nov, Norway adopted new rules
that barred investments in its national Petroleum Fund “which
constitute an unacceptable risk that the Fund may contribute to
unethical acts or omissions.”
(WSJ, 12/1/05, p.A11)
2004 Dec 5, It was reported that
the Norwegian firm Hydro and Qatar's state energy company signed a deal
to build one of world's largest aluminium plants in the gas-rich Gulf
state at a cost of three billion dollars.
(AFP, 12/5/04)
2005 Jan 1, Norway was forecast
for 3% annual GDP growth with a population at 4.6 million and GDP per
head at $55,290.
(Econ, 1/1/05, p.89)
2005 Feb 22, It was reported that
Norway finished 2004 with the world’s best performing equities market,
based on nominal return on equity investment in dollar terms.
(WSJ, 2/22/05, p.C20)
2005 Mar 6, In Norway 3 works by
Edvard Munch were stolen from a hotel, the second theft of the renowned
Norwegian's art in less than seven months.
(AP, 3/7/05)
2005 Apr 13, Norway’s Statoil ASA
announced oil exploration drilling from the offshore rig Eirik Raude
has been shut down after its 3rd spill into ecologically fragile Arctic
waters in just over two months.
(AP, 4/13/05)
2005 May 23, The Norwegian
Petroleum Directorate announced a wildcat exploration well drilled in
the Norwegian Sea has made a promising natural gas strike, although it
was too early to say how large.
(AP, 5/23/05)
2005 May, Norway announced a new
biennial prize for science, the Kavli prize, funded by philanthropist
Fred Kavli to begin in 2008. Only the fields of astrophysics,
nanoscience and neuroscience would be considered for the $1 million
prize.
(Econ, 5/14/05, p.84)
2005 Jun 8, In Norway US Defense
Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld and his Norwegian counterpart on signed an
agreement allowing the US military to continue storing equipment there.
(AP, 6/8/05)
2005 Jun 10, King Harald V of
Norway and King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden met in the middle of the
Svinesund bridge and opened the span over a fjord south of Oslo.
(AP, 6/10/05)
2005 Jun 24, A Norwegian court
sentenced the pilot of a British Airways jet to six months in prison
for preparing to fly even though members of his crew were drunk.
(AP, 6/24/05)
2005 Aug 17, Norwegian officials
said 3 unarmed Polish researchers stranded on a remote Arctic island
were rescued by helicopter as polar bears were closing in on them. The
escape took place on an island in Norway's Svalbard archipelago, about
650 miles from the North Pole.
(AP, 8/17/05)
2005 Sep 12, Norwegians lined up
at polling stations in what promised to be a close race between a
governing center-right coalition advocating lower taxes and a
left-leaning opposition that wants to spend more of the Nordic nation's
oil wealth on the welfare system. Jens Stoltenberg, head of the Labor
Party, and 2 allied parties won 87 of the parliament’s 169 seats.
(AP, 9/12/05)(Econ, 9/17/05, p.51)
2005 Sep 13, Norway's PM Kjell
Magne Bondevik, who presided over four years of unprecedented
prosperity fueled by high oil prices, said he will resign after a
left-wing opposition bloc won parliamentary elections.
(AP, 9/13/05)
2005 Sep, Henrik Syse (39),
professor of philosophy, began work as in-house ethicist for Norway’s
Petroleum Fund. His books included “Paths to a Good Life: Philosophical
Reflections on Everyday Ethics.”
(WSJ, 12/1/05, p.A1)
2005 Dec 10, In Norway Chief UN
nuclear inspector Mohamed ElBaradei accepted the 2005 Nobel Peace
Prize, sharing the award with his International Atomic Energy Agency
for efforts to control the spread of nuclear weapons. The other Nobel
Prizes were awarded in Sweden.
(AP, 12/10/05)
2006 Jan 1, Norway passed
legislation requiring every publicly traded company in Norway to have
40% women on its board by Jan 1 2008.
(www.nytimes.com/2006/01/12/international/europe/12oslo.html)
2006 Jan 11, The British weekly
New Scientist said Norway is to build a "doomsday vault" in a mountain
close to the North Pole that will house a vast seed bank to ensure food
supplies in the event of catastrophic climate change, nuclear war or
rising sea levels.
(AFP, 1/11/06)
2006 Jan 31, In the Economist
Intelligence Unit's biannual survey Oslo was reported to have overtaken
Tokyo as the world's most expensive city. Tokyo had held the top spot
for 14 years. Of 17 US cities featured in the survey, the most
expensive were New York (27th), Chicago and Los Angeles (tied for
35th), and San Francisco (40th).
(AP, 2/1/06)
2006 Feb 6, Royal Caribbean Intl.
announced that it has ordered the world’s largest and most expense
cruise ship. The $1.24 billion ship, capable of holding 6,400
passengers, will be built by Norway’s Aker Yards.
(SFC, 2/7/06, p.C1)
2006 Feb 10, The editor of a small
Christian newspaper in Norway apologized for offending Muslims by
reprinting caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad in January.
(AP, 2/10/06)
2006 Feb 18, In Italy Kjetil Andre
Aamodt of Norway outwaited the weather and outran the field to
successfully defend the men's super-G title for his record eighth
Olympic Alpine medal. American Shani Davis won the men's 1,000-meter
speedskating in Turin, becoming the first black athlete to win an
individual gold medal in Winter Olympic history.
(AP, 2/18/06)(AP, 2/18/07)
2006 Mar 9, A fuel oil spill from
a chemical plant in southeastern Norway threatened hundreds of birds in
a salt water nature preserve, while snow and ice hampered a cleanup
operation. Nearly 200 barrels leaked during the transfer of fuel oil
from a ship on March 4, but because of ice in the harbor area the oil
was not visible and was not discovered before the ice broke up on March
8.
(AP, 3/9/06)
2006 May 2, In Norway 3 key
suspects were convicted in the theft of the Edvard Munch masterpieces
"The Scream" and "Madonna" and sentenced to between four and eight
years in prison. The works were snatched by masked gunmen from the
Munch Museum in Oslo in August 2004. They are still missing.
(AP, 5/2/06)
2006 Jun 2, Norwegian rig owner
Fred. Olsen Energy ASA said 8 foreign workers on an oil rig operating
off Nigeria were kidnapped overnight. The workers, six British, one
American and one Canadian, were aboard the drilling rig Bulford Dolphin
when it was attacked during the night.
(AP, 6/2/06)
2006 Jun 19, In Norway the prime
ministers of 5 nations gathered at the northern island of Svalbard to
lay the cornerstone for the Svalbard Int’l. Seed Vault. The site will
hold millions of seed varieties to restock the planet in the case of a
global catastrophe.
(SFC, 6/19/06, p.A3)
2006 Jul 4, Lars Korvald (90), the
first Christian Democrat to serve as prime minister of Norway
(1972-1973), died.
(AP, 7/4/06)
2006 Aug 23, In Oslo Villa Grande,
a sprawling mansion used by Norwegian Nazi collaborator Vidkun Quisling
during World War II, opened as a center to oppose the intolerance,
hatred and treachery he represented.
(AP, 8/23/06)
2006 Sep 22, In Norway police
accused four men suspected in an attack on Oslo's main synagogue of
also plotting to blow up the US and Israeli embassies. The men were
arrested Sep 19 in connection with an attack on the Mosaic Religious
Community synagogue, which was hit with at least 10 bullets on Sep 17.
(AP, 9/22/06)
2006 Oct 5, Researchers in Norway
announced the discovery of the remains of a short-necked plesiosaur, a
prehistoric marine reptile the size of a bus, that they believe is the
first complete skeleton ever found. The 150 million year old remains of
the 33-foot ocean going predator were found in August on the remote
Svalbard Islands of the Arctic.
(AP, 10/5/06)
2006 Oct 10, In Norway a charter
plane caught fire and skidded off the runway while landing at Stord
Airport.
(AP, 10/10/06)
2006 Oct 16, The biggest
underwater gas pipeline in the world, transporting gas from Norway 750
miles (1,200 kilometers) under the North Sea to Britain, was officially
opened by PM Tony Blair and PM Jens Stoltenberg. Construction of the
pipeline by Norwegian firm Hydro began in 2004. The Langeled pipeline
is expected to supply one fifth of Britain's total gas requirements in
the coming decades.
(AP, 10/16/06)
2006 Nov 9, The UN ranked Norway
as the best country to live in for a sixth consecutive year, prompting
the country's aid minister to tell Norwegians to stop whining about
wanting more.
(AP, 11/9/06)
2006 Nov 10, A Norwegian refugee
group said it is closing down its humanitarian operations for nearly
300,000 people in Darfur because it is impossible to work in the
Sudanese region.
(AP, 11/10/06)
2006 Nov 13, Norwegian government
and industry officials said Norwegian hunters killed 546 minke whales
this year, falling far short of their commercial whaling quota because
bad weather spoiled much of the season.
(AP, 11/13/06)
2006 Nov 22, In Norway a court
rejected an appeal by the founder of Ansar al-Islam, a suspected
Islamic terror group in Iraq, and upheld a government order to expel
him as a threat to national security.
(AP, 11/22/06)
2006 Dec 18, Norwegian oil
companies Statoil ASA and Norsk Hydro ASA announced plans to merge
their offshore oil and natural gas units in a nearly $30 billion (23
billion euro) deal they said would create the world's largest offshore
oil operator.
(AP, 12/18/06)
2007 Jan 5, The Norwegian
Directorate of Fisheries warned that some 790,000 salmon and trout
escaped from Norwegian fish farms in 2006, up 10% on the previous year
and a trend that poses a serious threat to wild salmon.
(AFP, 1/5/07)
2007 Feb 23, In Norway 46 of 49
nations adopted a declaration calling for a 2008 treaty banning cluster
bombs, saying the weapons kill and maim long after conflicts end and
inflict "unacceptable harm" on civilians, particularly children. Some
key arms makers including the US, Russia, Israel and China, snubbed the
conference of 49 nations. Of those attending, Poland, Romania and Japan
did not approve the final text.
(AP, 2/23/07)
2007 Feb 25, Thieves in Oslo,
Norway, stole a work of art by Jan Christensen called "Relative Value."
It had pasted bills worth $16,300 on a sprawling 7-by-13 foot canvas.
(AP, 2/26/07)
2007 Apr 12, A Norwegian oil rig
support vessel carrying 15 people capsized off northern Scotland and
five crew members were missing.
(AP, 4/13/07)
2007 May 9, Police in Brazil and
Norway detained at least 25 people in simultaneous raids on suspected
criminal gangs, seeking evidence of money laundering.
(AP, 5/9/07)
2007 May 21, Norway said it would
make its first transfer of direct aid to the Palestinians' new
government, more than two months after the Nordic country broke with
most Western nations by recognizing the Hamas-led coalition.
(AP, 5/21/07)
2007 Jun 1, The Norwegian
environmental group Bellona warned that a nuclear waste dump in the
Russia Arctic may be in danger of exploding because of corrosion caused
by salt water in enormous storage tanks.
(AP, 6/1/07)
2007 Aug 27, Ethiopia ordered six
Norwegian diplomats to leave the country by Sept. 15, expressing
"dissatisfaction" with Norway's conduct in the Horn of Africa region.
(AP, 8/27/07)
2007 Aug 28, Ethiopia justified
its decision to expel Norwegian diplomats arguing that Oslo was
interfering in its internal affairs and destabilizing the Horn of
Africa.
(AFP, 8/28/07)
2007 Sep 20, Borse Dubai and
Nasdaq, rivals to take over Nordic market operator OMX, said they had
joined forces to acquire it together in a deal that gives Borse Dubai
19.99 percent of US-based Nasdaq and 28 percent of the London Stock
Exchange.
(AP, 9/20/07)
2007 Nov 8, Nordic countries again
dominated the World Economic Forum's ranking of gender-equal countries.
New Zealand squeezed into the top five and the US fell to 31st place.
Sweden, Norway, Finland and Iceland retained the top four spots in the
2007 Gender Gap Index released by the Swiss-based think tank.
(Reuters, 11/8/07)
2008 Jan 9, Norway and Sweden
dropped plans to send some 400 troops to the UN peacekeeping force in
Darfur because of opposition by Sudan.
(WSJ, 1/10/07, p.A1)
2008 Feb 10, Norway closed its
embassy in the Afghan capital because of terror threats.
(AP, 2/11/08)
2008 Feb 21, A magnitude-6.2
earthquake, the largest ever recorded on Norwegian territory, hit off
the Arctic Svalbard islands, the national seismic monitoring center
said. No casualties or damage were reported.
(AP, 2/21/08)
2008 Feb 26, A "doomsday" seed
vault built to protect millions of food crops from climate change, wars
and natural disasters opened deep within an Arctic mountain in the
remote Norwegian archipelago of Svalbard.
(AP, 2/26/08)
2008 Feb 28, Swedish and Norwegian
authorities cracked down on terror financing, arresting six people in
what Swedish investigators said were coordinated raids in Stockholm and
Oslo.
(AP, 2/28/08)
2008 Mar 26, In Norway a six-story
apartment building collapsed in the west coast city of Aalesund after
it was hit by a rock slide, injuring 15 people and leaving five missing.
(AP, 3/26/08)
2008 Apr 12, King Harald V opened
Norway's $840 million national opera house on the shores of the Oslo
Fjord, kicking off a gala performance. The parliament's decision to
approve construction and funding of a national opera house belatedly
confirmed an overly optimistic 1881 report in an Oslo newspaper that
the capital was about to get a new opera house.
(AP, 4/13/08)
2008 Apr 23, Norway raised its
main interest rate a quarter point to 5.5%.
(WSJ, 4/24/08, p.A8)
2008 May 28, The first winners of
the new Kavli Prizes for outstanding research in nanoscience,
neuroscience, and astrophysics were to be announced in Oslo, Norway.
(SFC, 4/12/08, p.C1)
2008 Jun 9, Russia and Norway met
for 2-days talks in the hope of making progress in a decades-old
dispute over their maritime border in the Barents Sea, a part of the
Arctic that could hold large oil and gas reserves. After visiting the
Norwegian town of Kirkenes, the ministers will go to Murmansk in
northwest Russia.
(AP, 6/9/08)
2008 Jun 13, Norway said it may
seek foreign help to extinguish its biggest forest fire since World War
Two, which has been raging for five days.
(Reuters, 6/13/08)
2008 Jun 17, Norway passed a new
equality law granting gay couples the same rights as heterosexuals to
marry, adopt and undergo artificial insemination.
(AP, 6/17/08)
2008 Jul 24, In southern Norway a
group of men armed with bats and iron bars attacked a center for
political asylum-seekers, leaving more than 20 people injured.
(AP, 7/25/08)
2008 Jul, Religious leaders
meeting in Norway unveiled a plan for a code of conduct for holy sites
on which all governments could agree.
(Econ, 8/30/08,
p.60)(www.arcworld.org/news.asp?pageID=254)
2008 Aug 20, A top Russian general
said 64 of the country's soldiers were killed and 323 wounded in this
month's fighting with Georgia. Russia informed Norway that it plans to
suspend all military ties with NATO, a day after the military alliance
urged Moscow to withdraw its forces from Georgia.
(AP, 8/20/08)(AP, 8/21/08)
2008 Sep 16, Norwegian PM Jens
Stoltenberg said Norway will give Brazil US$1 billion by 2015 to
preserve the Amazon rain forest, as long as Latin America's largest
nation keeps trying to stop deforestation.
(AP, 9/16/08)
2008 Oct 10, Finland's
ex-president Martti Ahtisaari won the Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts
to build a lasting peace from Africa and Asia to Europe and the Middle
East. The Norwegian Nobel Committee said it honored Ahtisaari for
important efforts over more than three decades to resolve international
conflicts.
(AP, 10/10/08)
2008 Nov 20, The Norwegian
government said it has picked the US developed F-35 Joint Strike
Fighter to replace its aging US-made F-16 aircraft in a roughly 60
billion kroner ($8.5 billion) deal.
(AP, 11/20/08)
2008 Dec 3-2008 Dec 4, In Norway
94 nations signed a treaty banning cluster bombs in a move that
supporters hope will shame the US, Russia and China and other
non-signers into abandoning weapons blamed for maiming and killing
civilians. Norway, which began the drive to ban cluster bombs 18 months
ago, was the first to sign, followed by Laos and Lebanon, both hard-hit
by the weapons.
(AP, 12/3/08)(Econ, 12/13/08, p.70)
2008 Dec 10, The Nobel Prizes were
awarded in twin ceremonies in Stockholm and Oslo.
(AP, 12/10/08)
2008 Dec, In Norway Think Global
AS, a front runner in the plug-in car market, filed for Bankruptcy
after its failure to get capital financing under the current credit
crunch.
(WSJ, 1/24/09, p.B2)
2009 Jan 11, Arne Naess
(b.1912), Norwegian philosopher, writer and mountaineer, died. He was
best known for launching the concept of "deep ecology," promoting the
idea that Earth as a planet has as much right as its inhabitants, such
as humans, to survive and flourish.
(AP, 1/13/09)
2009 Jan 23, In northern Norway an
off-duty police officer shot and killed his ex-girlfriend with another
officer's service pistol, then critically wounded himself outside the
elementary school where she was a student teacher.
(AP, 1/23/09)
2009 Jan 26, Norway announced a 20
billion kroner ($2.89 billion) stimulus package to boost growth and
employment.
(WSJ, 1/27/09, p.A8)
2009 Feb 23, Norwegian architect
Sverre Fehn (b.1924) died in Oslo. His unique style of blending modern
forms with Scandinavian traditions earned him the prestigious Pritzker
Architecture Prize (1997). His white concrete Glacier Museum (1991),
which has been hailed as a landmark within contemporary architecture.
It stands on a plain carved by Norway's Jostedal Glacier at Fjaerland
Fjord.
(AP, 2/28/09)
2009 Mar 26, The MT Bow Asir, a
Norwegian tanker with a crew of 27, was hijacked 250 miles east of the
south coast of Somalia.
(AP, 3/27/09)(WSJ, 3/27/09, p.A8)
2009 Apr 17, In Norway a $225
million fund to provide low-price anti-malaria medicine around the
world was launched in Oslo to fight a disease that kills 2,000 children
a day.
(AP, 4/18/09)
2009 Apr 17, In Afghanistan two
earthquakes shook eastern Nangarhar province, collapsing mud-brick
homes on top of villagers while they slept and killing at least 21
people. Two suicide bombers on foot tried to attack the office of the
minister of refugees in southern Nimroz province. Guards shot and
killed one bomber at the scene of the attempted attack. While fleeing
the 2nd bomber detonated his explosives, killing 3 civilians. A
Norwegian intelligence officer serving with the nation's peacekeeping
force was killed by a roadside bomb near the northern city of Maymana.
(AP, 4/17/09)
2009 Apr 22, A group of Norwegian
lawyers filed a complaint accusing 10 Israelis of war crimes in Gaza
under the country's new universal jurisdiction law.
(AP, 4/22/09)
2009 May 16, Norway’s
fiddle-wielding Alexander Rybak (23), dubbed 'Alexander the Great' by
Norwegian media, won a landslide victory in the Eurovision Song Contest
in Moscow for his song "Fairytale," gaining the most points in
Eurovision's 53-year history.
(AP, 5/17/09)
2009 May 25, Haakon Lie (b.1905),
a pioneer of Norway's welfare state and one of the country's most
influential politicians, died in Oslo. His several books included "Slik
jeg ser det naa" ("As I See it Now"), which was published last year.
(AP, 5/26/09)
2009 Jun 16, The Norwegian firm
Opera Software unveiled new technology that allows it Opera 10 Web
browser to also function as a file server. A feature called Opera Unite
enables users to push content and establish communications without the
need for a 3rd party.
(SFC, 6/17/09, p.C1)
Go to http://www.timelinesdb.com
Subject = Norway
End of file.