Today in History - February 15
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The ancient Roman feast of Lupercalia. This
was
a fertility festival in honor of the pastoral god Lupercus.
(HFA, '96, p.24)(AHD, p.776)
Nirvana Day, the day Buddha died and achieved bliss.
(WSJ, 11/2/98, p.B1)
399BC Feb 15,
Socrates was condemned to death on charges of corrupting the youth
and introducing new gods into Greek thought. A tribunal of 501
citizens found Socrates guilty of the charge of impiety and
corruption of youth. Socrates b.(469BC) had been the teacher of two
leaders who were held responsible for the Greek‘s loss to Sparta in
the Peloponnesian War (431-404 BC). Plato‘s Apology, Crito, and
Phaedo describe Socrates‘ trial, imprisonment and death.
(eawc, p.11)(HNQ, 3/21/00)
37CE Feb 15, Claudius Drusus
Germanicus Caesar Nero (d.68CE), emperor of Rome (54-68), was born.
[see Dec 15]
(MC, 2/15/02)
360 Feb 15, The first Hagia
Sophia was inaugurated by Constantius II. It was built next to the
smaller church Hagia Eirene in Constantinople. Both churches acted
together as the principal churches of the Byzantine Empire.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hagia_Sophia)
1368 Feb 14-1368 Feb 15,
Sigismund (d.1437), son of Charles IV, was born in Nuremberg,
Germany. He served as Holy Roman Emperor from 1433-1437.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sigismund%2C_Holy_Roman_Emperor)
1386 Feb 15, Duke Philip the
Stout formed the Council of Flanders.
(MC, 2/15/02)
1386 Feb 15, Christianity was
introduced to Lithuania when Grand Duke Jogaila and Vytautas
underwent a token Baptism at the cathedral in Cracow. Jogaila had
married Queen Jadvyga (12) and was crowned King in Poland. Together
they began to rule from Cracow over Lithuania and Poland. Jogaila
submitted to restrictions that no major decisions could be made
without the authorization of the Polish nobility.
(Dr, 7/96, V1#1, p.5)(Ist. L.H., 1948, p.
69)(DrEE, 11/9/96, p.6)
1495 Feb 15, Lithuanian Grand
Duke Alexander wed Duchess Elena of Moscow.
(LHC, 2/15/03)
1519 Feb 15, Pedro Menendez de
Aviles, explorer (found St. Augustine, Florida), was born.
(MC, 2/15/02)
1563 Feb 15, Ivan IV led
Russian forces in the takeover of Polocka, defended under the
leadership of Stanislav Davaina.
(LHC, 2/15/03)
1564 Feb 15, Italian astronomer
Galileo Galilei (d.1642) was born in Pisa. He was the first modern
man to understand that mathematics can truly describe the physical
world. He said: “The Book of Nature is written in mathematics.”
[V.D.-H.K. dated his death to 1646] He ran afoul of the Catholic
Church for defending the Copernican system, which maintained that
the earth revolves around the sun. He died in Acetri, near Florence.
(V.D.-H.K.p.1200) (TNG,Klein,p.22) (AHD,p.539)
(CFA, '96,Vol 179, p.40) (AP, 2/15/98)(HN, 2/15/99)
1571 Feb 15, Michael
Praetorius, composer (Syntagma music), was born in Kreuzberg,
Germany.
(MC, 2/15/02)
1620 Feb 15, Francois
Charpentier, French scholar, archaeologist, was born.
(MC, 2/15/02)
1637 Feb 15, Ferdinand II (58),
King of Bohemia, Hun, German Emperor (1619-37), died. Ferdinand III
succeeded him as Holy Roman Emperor.
(440 Int’l., 2/15/99)(MC, 2/15/02)
1666 Feb 15, Antonio M.
Valsalva, Italian anatomist (eardrums, glottis), was born.
(MC, 2/15/02)
1677 Feb 15, King Charles II
reported an anti-French covenant with Netherlands.
(MC, 2/15/02)
1686 Feb 15, Jean Baptiste
Lully's opera "Armide," premiered in Paris.
(MC, 2/15/02)
1705 Feb 15, Charles A. Vanloo,
French painter, was born.
(MC, 2/15/02)
1710 Feb 15, Louis XV (d.1774),
King of France, was born. He ruled from 1715-1774.
(HN, 2/15/98) (WUD, 1994, p.848)
1726 Feb 15, Abraham Clark,
Declaration of Independence signer, was born.
(HN, 2/15/98)
1744 Feb 15, John Hadley,
inventor (sextant), died.
(MC, 2/15/02)
1745 Feb 15, Colley Cibber's
"Papal Tyranny," premiered in London.
(MC, 2/15/02)
1748 Feb 15, Jeremy Bentham
(d.1832), philosopher, originator (Utilitarian), was born in London,
England.
(www.britannica.com)
1758 Feb 15, The 1st mustard
manufactured in America was advertised in Philadelphia.
(440 Int’l., 2/15/99)(HCB, 2003, p. 94)
1764 Feb 15, The city of St.
Louis was established as a French trading post. Pierre Laclede Ligue
and stepson Auguste Chouteau notched a couple of trees that marked
the site for Laclede’s Landing that became St. Louis.
(SFC, 5/12/97, p.T5)(AP, 2/15/98)(440 Int’l.,
2/15/99)
1797 Feb 15, Henry Steinway
(d.1871), German-American piano maker, was born in Germany as
Heinrich Steinweg. He move to the US in 1851. The name was
anglicized in 1864.
(WSJ, 7/15/06, p.P8)(http://tinyurl.com/qn6dy)
1798 Feb 15, The first serious
fist fight occurred in Congress.
(HN, 2/15/98)
1799 Feb 15, The 1st US printed
ballots were authorized in Pennsylvania.
(440 Int’l., 2/15/99)
1803 Feb 15, John Augustus
Sutter (d.1880), Swiss-US colonist (New Helvetia, Ca., Sutter Mill),
was born.
(MC, 2/15/02)
1804 Feb 15, New Jersey became
the last northern state to abolish slavery.
(HN, 2/15/98)
1809 Feb 15, Cyrus Hall
McCormick (d.1884), inventor of the mechanical reaper, was born.
(MC, 2/15/02)(WUD, 1994 p.887)
1820 Feb 15, American
suffragist Susan Brownell Anthony (d.1906) was born in Adams, Mass.
Her biography by Lynn Sherr was titled: “Failure Is Impossible.”
(SFEC, 9/21/97, Par p.4)(AP, 2/15/98)(HN,
2/15/98)
1820 Feb 15, Pierre-Joseph
Cambon (63), member of Committee of Public Safety (French
Revolution), died.
(MC, 2/15/02)
1842 Feb 15, The 1st adhesive
postage stamps in US were made available by a private delivery
company in NYC.
(440 Int’l., 2/15/99)
1845 Feb 15, William Parsons,
Earl of Rosse, 1st used a 72" (183 cm) reflector.
(440 Int’l., 2/15/99)
1848 Feb 15, Sarah Roberts was
barred from a white school in Boston.
(440 Int’l., 2/15/99)
1851 Feb 15, Black
abolitionists invaded a Boston courtroom to rescue a fugitive slave.
(440 Int’l., 2/15/99)
1857 Feb 15, Mikhail Ivanovich
Glinka (53), Russian composer (Russlan & Ludmilla), died.
(MC, 2/15/02)
1861 Feb 15, Alfred North
Whitehead (d.1947), English philosopher (Adv of Ideas) and
mathematician, was born. “We think in generalities, but we live in
detail.” “I have always noticed that deeply and truly religious
persons are fond of a joke, and I am suspicious of those who
aren’t.” “It is more important that a proposition be interesting
than that it be true.”
(AP, 4/11/97)(AP, 10/5/97)(AP, 9/8/98)(MC,
2/15/02)
1861 Feb 15, Ft. Point was
completed & garrisoned. It never fired cannon in anger.
(440 Int’l., 2/15/99)
1862 Feb 15, Grant [on his 3rd
day there] launched a major assault on Fort Donelson, Tenn.
(HN, 2/15/98)
1863 Feb 15, Samuel and
Florence Baker encountered John Speke and James Grant at the
frontier village of Gondokoro (southern Sudan). Speke and Grant said
they had found the Nile’s headwaters at a lake they named Victoria
(Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda).
(ON, 10/01, p.9)
1869 Feb 15, Charges of treason
against Jefferson Davis were dropped.
(HN, 2/15/98)
1870 Feb 15, Ground was broken
for Northern Pacific Railway near Duluth, Minn.
(440 Int’l., 2/15/99)
1876 Feb 15, A historic Elm at
Boston was blown down.
(440 Int’l., 2/15/99)
1879 Feb 15, President Hayes
signed a bill allowing female attorneys to argue cases before the
Supreme Court.
(AP, 2/15/98)(440 Int’l., 2/15/99)
1882 Feb 15, John Barrymore,
actor, was born in Philadelphia. He was sibling to actors Lionel
Barrymore & Ethel Barrymore, father of actors John Drew
Barrymore & Diana Barrymore and grandfather of actor Drew
Barrymore.
(HN, 2/15/01)(MC, 2/15/02)
1882 Feb 15, SS Dunedin left
New Zealand with 1st frozen meat for England.
(MC, 2/15/02)
1885 Feb 15, Leopold Damrosch
(52), composer, died.
(MC, 2/15/02)
1886 Feb 15, Sax Rohmer, author
(Dr. Fu Manchu), was born in England.
(MC, 2/15/02)
1887 Feb 15, Alexander Borodin
(b.1833), Russian composer, died. He had worked on his epic opera
“Prince Igor” for 18 years. It was completed in 1888 by Glazunov and
Rimsky-Korsakov. [see Feb 27]
(WSJ, 9/19/96, p.A18)(WSJ, 5/7/98, p.A21)(WSJ,
2/6/00, p.A16)(MC, 2/15/02)
1890 Feb 15, Robert Ley, German
chemist, MP (NSDAP), was born.
(MC, 2/15/02)
1895 Feb 15, 23 cm (9") of snow
fell on New Orleans.
(440 Int’l., 2/15/99)
1898 Feb 15, The U.S.
battleship Maine blew up in Havana Harbor, killing 266-268 sailors
and bringing hordes of Western cowboys and gunfighters rushing to
enlist in the Spanish-American. On the night of February 15, 1898,
as she lay at anchor in Havana Harbor, an explosion--possibly caused
by sabotage--ripped through the ship, killing 267 officers and men.
It had been sent there to menace Imperial Spain and its sinking
helped to precipitate the Spanish-American War. Inconclusive
investigations by the Spanish government and U.S. Navy became
irrelevant as popular American sentiment outpaced diplomacy. On
April 25, the U.S. Congress declared war on Spain to the shouts of
"Remember the Maine and to Hell with Spain!" The true cause of the
explosion that sank the battleship Maine remains a mystery.
(Civilization, July-Aug, 1995, p.14)(NH, 4/97,
p.38)(HT, 5/97, p.64) (AP, 2/15/98)(HN, 2/15/99)(HNPD, 2/15/99)
1899 Feb 15, M Wolf & A
Schwassmann discovered asteroid #442 Eichsfeldia.
(440 Int’l., 2/15/99)
1900 Feb 15, The British
threatened to use natives in the Boer War fight.
(HN, 2/15/98)
1903 Feb 15, The 1st Teddy Bear
was introduced in America by Morris & Rose Michtom.
(440 Int’l., 2/15/99)
1905 Feb 15, Harold Arlen
(d.1986), composer, arranger and pianist, was born as Hyman Arluck.
His work included “Stormy Weather” and “It’s Only a Paper Moon.” He
was born Hyman Arluck, the son of a Jewish cantor. In 1996 Edward
Jablonski wrote his second biography titled: “Harold Arlen: Rhythm.
Rainbows, and Blues.”
(WSJ, 6/28/96, p.A7)(HN, 2/15/01)(MC, 2/15/02)
1905 Feb 15, The 1st race meet
at Oaklawn Park in Hot Springs, Ark. was run.
(440 Int’l., 2/15/99)
1905 Feb 15, Lewis Wallace
(77), US politician, general, writer (Ben Hur), artist and inventor,
died. His paintings included “The Conspirators,” a depiction of
those accused in the assassination of Pres. Lincoln. He had 8
registered US patents and was accomplished at playing and making
violins. His home in Crawfordsville, Indiana, is now a museum.
(HT, 3/97, p.66)(MC, 2/15/02)
1906 Feb 15, British Labour
Party organized.
(MC, 2/15/02)
1909 Feb 15, In San Francisco
anarchist Emma Goldman spoke to large audiences in Lyric Hall, at
Turk and Larkin streets. She gave 2 lectures: “The Devil Exonerated”
and “The Psychology of Violence.”
(SSFC, 2/15/09, DB p.50)
1912 Feb 15, The Fram reached
latitude 78ø 41' S, farthest south ever by ship.
(440 Int’l., 2/15/99)
1913 Feb 15, The 1st
avant-garde art show in America opened in NYC. [see Feb 17]
(440 Int’l., 2/15/99)
1916 Feb 15, Ian Ballantine,
publisher (Ballantine Books), was born.
(MC, 2/15/02)
1917 Feb 15, The Main Branch of
the SF Public Library at the Civic center was dedicated.
(440 Int’l., 2/15/99)
1917 Feb 15, M Wolf discovered
asteroid #865 Zubaida.
(440 Int’l., 2/15/99)
1918 Feb 15, The 1st WW I US
army troopship was torpedoed & sunk off Ireland by Germany.
(440 Int’l., 2/15/99)
1918 Feb 15, Estonia, Latvia
& Lithuania adopted the Gregorian calendar.
(440 Int’l., 2/15/99)
1919 Feb 15, The American
Legion was organized in Paris.
(440 Int’l., 2/15/99)
1920 Feb 15, K Reinmuth
discovered asteroid #926 Imhilde.
(440 Int’l., 2/15/99)
1922 Feb 15, Marconi began
regular broadcasting transmissions from Essex.
(MC, 2/15/02)
1923 Feb 15, Yelena Bonner,
soviet dissident, wife of Andre Sakharov, was born in Moscow.
(MC, 2/15/02)
1925 Feb 15, Michael de Young
(b.1849), co-founder of the SF Chronicle, died. Son-in-law George T.
Cameron took over as publisher of the paper.
(SFEC, 3/8/98, BR
p.6)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M._H._de_Young)
1925 Feb 15, The London Zoo
announced it would install lights to cheer up fogged in animals.
(HN, 2/15/98)
1926 Feb 15, Contract air mail
service began in the US.
(440 Int’l., 2/15/99)
1928 Feb 15, H.H. Asquith
(b.1852), former British prime minister (1908-1916), died.
(www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/39056/HH-Asquith-1st-earl-of-Oxford-and-Asquith)
1930 Feb 15, Wenona beat Toluca
in an Illinois Basketball Tournament in 10 overtimes.
(440 Int’l.,
2/15/99)(www.illinoishsglorydays.com/id36.html)
1931 Feb 15, [Patricia] Claire
Bloom, actress (Charly, Look Back in Anger), was born in London.
(MC, 2/15/02)
1931 Feb 15, The 1st Dracula
movie released.
(MC, 2/15/02)
1932 Feb 15, George Burns and
Gracie Allen debuted as regulars on "Guy Lombardo Show."
(MC, 2/15/02)
1932 Feb 15, US bobsled team
member Eddie Eagan became the only athlete to win gold in both
Summer & Winter Olympics (1920 boxing gold)
(440 Int’l., 2/15/99)
1933 Feb 15, President-elect
Roosevelt escaped an assassination attempt in Miami. Giuseppa
Zangara, an unemployed New Jersey bricklayer from Italy, fired five
pistol shots at the back of President-elect Franklin Roosevelt's
head from only twenty-five feet away. While all five rounds missed
their target, each bullet found a separate victim. One of these was
Mayor Anton Cermak of Chicago. Gunman Giuseppe Zangara was executed
more than four weeks later, on March 20. [see Mar 6, 20]
(WSJ, 5/24/00, p.A24)(AP, 2/15/07)
1934 Feb 15, U.S. Congress
passed the Civil Works Emergency Relief Act, allotting new funds for
Federal Emergency Relief Administration.
(HN, 2/15/98)
1936 Feb 15, Sonja Henie,
Norway, won her 3rd consecutive Olympic figure skating gold.
(440 Int’l., 2/15/99)
1936 Feb 15, The temp hit
-60ø F (-51ø C) in Parshall, North Dakota for a state
record.
(440 Int’l., 2/15/99)
1939 Feb 15, Lillian Hellman's
"Little Foxes," premiered in NYC.
(MC, 2/15/02)
1940 Feb 15, Hitler ordered
that all British merchant ships would be considered warships.
(HN, 2/15/98)
1941 Feb 15, Duke Ellington 1st
recorded "Take the A Train."
(440 Int’l., 2/15/99)
1941 Feb 15, K Reinmuth
discovered asteroids #1561 Fricke & #1785 Wurm.
(440 Int’l., 2/15/99)
1942 Feb 15, British forces in
Singapore surrendered to Japanese General Tomoyuki Yamashita.
Yamashita prevailed, when British Lt. Gen. Sir Arthur Percival and
130,000 Empire troops surrendered. It was the largest surrender in
British history.
(HN, 2/15/98)(AP, 2/15/98)
1943 Feb 15, Women's camp
Tamtui on Ambon (Moluccas) was hit by allied air raid.
(MC, 2/15/02)
1943 Feb 15, The Germans broke
the U.S. lines at the Fanid-Sened Sector in Tunisia.
(HN, 2/15/98)
1944 Feb 15, American bombers
attacked the Abbey of Monte Cassino in central Italy in an effort to
neutralize it as a German observation post. In 2003 Matthew Parker
authored "Monte Cassino: The Hardest Fought Battle of World War II."
(HN, 2/15/99)(Econ, 9/20/03, p.80)
1944 Feb 15, Nathan Gordon
(1916-2008), US Navy pilot from Arkansas, and his crew made 4
separate flying boat landings to rescue a number of aviators from
B-52 bombers, which had been shot down while attacking Japanese
positions near Kavieng harbor on New Ireland Island, Papua New
Guinea. Gordon later became the longest-serving lieutenant governor
of Arkansas.
(SFC, 9/15/08, p.B8)
1944 Feb 15, 891 British
bombers attacked Berlin.
(MC, 2/15/02)
1946 Feb 15, The ENIAC,
Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer, had its official
unveiling. It was created by John Mauchly and Presper Eckert. The
first test problem it solved was concerned with the trajectory of a
155-millimeter shell. The problem was programmed by Jean Bartik and
Betty Holberton who were part of an all-woman team that had
performed the calculations by hand. The US Army had chosen 6 women,
including Frances Holberton (d.2001 at 84), to program Eniac. Ms.
Holberton later created the C-10 instruction code for the Univac
using keyboard commands rather than dials and switches.
(WSJ, 11/15/96,
p.B1)(www.thocp.net/hardware/eniac.htm)(SFC, 12/12/01, p.A27)
1946 Feb 15, Royal Canadian
mounted police arrested 22 as Soviet spies.
(HN, 2/15/98)
1947 Feb 15, John Adams,
composer (Nixon in China), was born in Worcester Mass.
(MC, 2/15/02)
1948 Feb 15, Mao Zedong's army
occupied Yenan.
(MC, 2/15/02)
1950 Feb 15, WM Inge's "Come
Back, Little Sheba," premiered in NYC.
(www.ibdb.com/production.asp?ID=1867)
1950 Feb 15, Walt Disney's
animated "Cinderella" was released.
(www.imdb.com/title/tt0042332/)(WSJ, 6/28/08,
p.W6)
1950 Feb 15, Joseph Stalin and
Mao Tse-tung signed a mutual defense treaty in Moscow.
(HN, 2/15/98)
1953 Feb 15, Tenley Albright
(b. June 18, 1935) became the first American to win the women’s
world figure skating championship at a competition in Davos,
Switzerland.
(Internet)
1954 Feb 15, Matt Groening,
cartoonist (The Simpsons), was born.
(HN, 2/15/01)
1954 Feb 15, The 1st bevatron
went into operation in Berkeley, California.
(440 Int’l., 2/15/99)
1955 Feb 15, The 1st pilot
plant to produce man-made diamonds announced.
(440 Int’l., 2/15/99)
1957 Feb 15, Andrei Gromyko
replaced Dmitri T. Shepilov as the Soviet Foreign Minister.
(HN, 2/15/98)
1958 Feb 15, Sjafroeddin
Prawiranegara formed the anti-government of Middle Sumatra.
(MC, 2/15/02)
1961 Feb 15, 73 people,
including 18 figure skaters from the United States, were killed in
the crash of a Sabena Airlines Boeing 707 in Belgium. The skaters
were en route to a world meet in Czechoslovakia.
(HN, 2/15/98)(AP, 2/15/99)
1963 Feb 15, Ken Lynch recorded
"Misery." It was the 1st Lennon-McCartney song recorded by someone
else.
(440 Int’l., 2/15/99)
1964 Feb 15, Beatles' "Meet the
Beatles!," album went #1 & stayed #1 for 11 weeks.
(440 Int’l., 2/15/99)
1964 Feb 15, Bill Bradley
scored 51 points for Princeton.
(440 Int’l., 2/15/99)
1964 Feb 15, Goethe Link
Observatory discovered asteroid #2417 McVittie & #3717.
(440 Int’l., 2/15/99)
1965 Feb 15, Raymond Kurzweil,
a diffident but self-possessed high school student, appeared as a
guest on a game show called I've Got a Secret. He was introduced by
the host, Steve Allen, and then played a short musical composition
on a piano that was composed by a computer that he had built. By
2011 Kurzweil believed that we're approaching a moment when
computers will become intelligent, and not just intelligent but more
intelligent than humans. He believed that this moment was not only
inevitable but imminent. According to his calculations, the end of
human civilization as we know it would take place about 2045.
(AP, 2/11/11)
1965 Jan 15, Sir Winston
Churchill suffered a severe stroke.
(HN, 1/15/99)
1965 Feb 15, John Lennon passed
his driving test.
(440 Int’l., 2/15/99)
1965 Feb 15, Canada replaced
the Union Jack flag with the Maple Leaf in ceremonies in Ottawa.
(CFA, '96, p.40)(HN, 2/15/98)(AP, 2/15/98)(440
Int’l., 2/15/99)
1965 Feb 15, Nat King Cole
(b.1919), singer (Unforgettable, Mona Lisa), died.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nat_King_Cole)
1967 Feb 15, Thirteen US
helicopters were shot down in one day in Vietnam.
(HN, 2/15/98)
1967 Feb 15, The 1st
anti-bootleg recording laws were enacted.
(www.historyorb.com/events/date/1967)
1967 Feb 15, France launched
its Diademe-D satellite into Earth orbit. This followed the launch
of Diademe-C on Feb 8. These satellites were magnetically stabilized
which limited their trackability in the southern hemisphere.
(http://ilrs.gsfc.nasa.gov/satellite_missions/list_of_satellites/di1c_general.html)
1968 Feb 15, Anaheim's Les
Salvage scored 10, 3-pt baskets in an ABA game vs. Denver.
(440 Int’l., 2/15/99)
1969 Feb 15, Charles Ellsworth
Russell (b.1906), aka Pee Wee Russell, jazz clarinet player, died in
Alexandria, Va. His albums included “Portrait of Pee Wee” (1958).
(www.britannica.com/eb/article-9064474)(WSJ,
5/17/06, p.D14)
1970 Feb 15, William Kunstler,
Chicago defense attorney, got a four-year sentence on contempt
charges for his conduct during the Chicago Seven trial.
(www.accessmylibrary.com/coms2/summary_0286-28417105_ITM)
1970 Feb 15, A Dominican DC-9
crashed into sea at Santo Domingo and 102 people were killed.
(http://aviation-safety.net/database/record.php?id=19700215-0)
1971 Feb 15, Britain abandoned
the unit of the penny on Decimal Day, February 15, 1971, replacing
the shilling with five new pence, so that one pound sterling became
divided into 100 new pence.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C2%A3sd)
1972 Feb 15, A left-leaning
military coup in Ecuador, led by Guillermo Rodríguez Lara,
removed, Pres. Velasco Ibarra from office for the fifth time.
Military rule continued to 1979.
(www.yachana.org/indmovs/chronology.php)(WSJ,
12/6/95, p.A-1)(USAT, 2/11/97, p.5A)
1972 Feb 15, Edgar P. Snow
(b.1905), US journalist and author (Battle for Asia, Red Star Over
China), died in Switzerland.
(http://en.wikipedia.org)
1973 Feb 15, Friendsville
Academy in Tenn. ended a 138-game basketball losing streak.
(http://community.foxsports.com/blogs/jmoriello/2008/02/12/This_Week_in_History_Feb)
1973 Feb 15, The US and Cuba
reached an anti-hijacking agreement.
(SFC, 7/9/96,
p.A8)(www.historyofcuba.com/history/time/timetbl4.htm)
1973 Feb 15, The USSR launched
Prognoz 3 at Baikonur, Kazakhstan, to study solar flares.
(www.astronautix.com/craft/prognoz.htm)
1974 Feb 15, US gasoline
stations threatened to close because of federal fuel policies.
(HN, 2/15/98)
1975 Feb 15, In local elections
78.8% of the residents approved a covenant under which the Northern
Marianas would become a US Commonwealth. In 1976 the US Congress
approved a covenant whereby Saipan became the capital of the
Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands. The 34,000 permanent
residents became US citizens but could not vote in US presidential
elections. The CNMI was allowed to set its own tax, immigration and
labor policies. A new government and constitution went into effect
in 1978.
(SFEC, 3/7/99,Z1
p.4)(http://macmeekin.com/Library/NMIchron/1971.htm)(WSJ, 2/20/97,
p.A20)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northern_Mariana_Islands)
1976 Feb 15, In Los Angeles
Elizabeth McKeown (67) was beaten, raped and strangled. A young
homicide detective found her body 3 days later in a car trunk. In
2009 John Floyd Thomas Jr. (72), an insurance claims adjuster, was
arrested based on DNA evidence. A series of attacks stopped in 1978,
the year Thomas went to prison for the rape of a Pasadena woman.
(AP, 5/1/09)(SFC, 9/24/09, p.D3)
1977 Feb 15, W. Sebok
discovered asteroid #2491.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_asteroids/2401%E2%80%932500)
1978 Feb 15, Leon Spinks beat
Muhammad Ali for the world heavyweight crown.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leon_Spinks)
1978 Feb 15, Ted Bundy
(1946-1989), American escaped serial killed, was recaptured in
Pensacola, Fla. Bundy eventually confessed to 29 murders.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ted_Bundy)
1979 Feb 15, The Temple City
Kazoo Orchestra appeared on the Mike Douglas Show.
(http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=T75MC69N2IU)
1980 Feb 15, Eric Heiden
(b.1958) skated to an Olympic record of 500m in 38.03 sec.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Speed_skating_at_the_1980_Winter_Olympics)
1980 Feb 15, Zdenka Vavrova,
Czech astronomer discovered asteroid #3592.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zde%C5%88ka_V%C3%A1vrov%C3%A1)
1981 Feb 15, A rocket-powered
ice sled attained 399 kph on Lake George, NY.
(440 Int’l., 2/15/99)
1982 Feb 15, The Ocean Ranger
oil-drilling platform sank off the coast of Newfoundland during a
fierce storm and 84 men were killed.
(AP, 2/15/98)(WSJ, 10/3/01, p.A20)
1983 Feb 15, Norman Thomas
discovered asteroid 3367 Alex, 3413 Andriana, 3525 Paul & 3580.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_asteroids/3301%E2%80%933400)
1984 Feb 15, Ethel Merman (76),
singer, actress (Kid Million), died in her sleep.
(http://imdb.com/name/nm0581062/)
1985 Feb 15, The STS 51-E
vehicle was moved to the launch pad. Deployment of the vehicle
aboard the Challenger was cancelled in March.
(440 Int’l.,
2/15/99)(www.astronautix.com/flights/sts51e.htm)
1985 Feb 15, The World Chess
Championship match in Moscow between Anatoly Karpov and Garry
Kasparov was abandoned due to psychological strain. The match was
resumed in September.
(http://tinyurl.com/y9d9nd)
1986 Feb 15, The Philippines
National Assembly proclaimed Ferdinand E. Marcos president for
another six years, following an election marked by allegations of
fraud. Marcos was later ousted.
(AP, 2/15/06)
1987 Feb 15, ABC-TV began
broadcasting "Amerika" mini-series.
(www.museum.tv/archives/etv/A/htmlA/amerika/amerika.htm)
1988 Feb 15, Frederick [Fritz]
Loewe (b.1901), German-born composer (Brigadoon, My Fair Lady,
Camelot), died in California.
(www.imdb.com/name/nm0517350/)
1988 Feb 15, Austrian President
Kurt Waldheim vowed in a televised address not to "retreat in the
face of slanders" concerning his service for the German Army during
World War II.
(AP, 2/15/98)
1988 Feb 15, The Soviet Union
was defeated by Afghanistan, and a total withdrawal by the Soviets
occurred. In 2003 George Crile authored "Charlie Wilson's War: The
Extraordinary Story of the largest Covert Operation in History."
(www.afghan, 5/25/98)(SSFC, 5/25/03, p.M1)
1989 Feb 15, The Soviet Union
announced that the last of its troops had left Afghanistan, after
more than nine years of military intervention.
(SFC, 9/28/96, p.A8)(AP, 2/15/98)
1990 Feb 15, Professional
baseball owners locked out their players.
(440 Int’l., 2/15/99)
1990 Feb 15, President Bush and
the leaders of Colombia, Bolivia and Peru met in Cartagena, Colombia
for a drug-fighting summit.
(AP, 2/15/00)
1991 Feb 15, In Visegrad,
Hungary, a declaration of co-operation was signed by Poland,
Hungary, the Czech Republic and Slovakia. The 4 became known as the
Visegrad countries.
(Econ, 11/22/03,
p.10S)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Visegr%C3%A1d_Group)
1991 Feb 15, Iraq proposed a
conditional withdrawal from Kuwait, an offer dismissed by President
Bush as a “cruel hoax.”
(AP, 2/15/01)
1991 Feb 15, Milo Djukanovic
began serving as prime minister of Montenegro. He served until 1998
and held a 2nd term from 2003-2006.
(Econ, 2/9/08,
p.56)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milo_%C4%90ukanovi%C4%87)
1991 Feb 15, The government of
South Africa and the African National Congress announced an
agreement on terms of the ANC’s decision to suspend its armed
struggle against apartheid.
(AP, 2/15/01)
1992 Feb 15, 100th episode of
"Cops" aired on the Fox network.
(440 Int’l., 2/15/99)
1992 Feb 15, A Milwaukee jury
found that Jeffrey Dahmer was sane when he killed and mutilated 15
men and boys.
(440 Int’l., 2/15/99)(AP, 2/15/02)
1992 Feb 15, Benjamin L. Hooks
announced plans to retire as executive director of the National
Association for the Advancement of Colored People.
(AP, 2/15/98)
1992 Feb 15, Pulitzer
Prize-winning composer William Schuman died in New York at age 81.
(AP, 2/15/02)
1993 Feb 15, President Clinton
issued an economic "call to arms," asking Americans to accept a
painful package of tax increases and spending cuts.
(AP, 2/15/98)
1994 Feb 15, US asked Aristide
to adopt a peace plan for Haiti.
(http://tinyurl.com/bwfuh)
1994 Feb 15, US Navy chief Adm.
Frank Kelso II agreed to early retirement because of criticism over
the Tailhook sex abuse scandal.
(AP, 2/15/99)
1994 Feb 15, Drifter Danny
Harold Rolling entered a surprise guilty plea to the 1990 murders of
five college students in Gainesville, Fla. In all, Rolling confessed
to killing eight people, though there may have been more. As a
result of his murder convictions, Rolling was executed by lethal
injection on October 25, 2006.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Danny_Rolling#Execution)(AP, 2/15/04)
1994 Feb 15, Viacom won a
hard-fought victory to acquire Paramount Communications.
(AP, 2/15/99)
1995 Feb 15, The FBI arrested
Kevin Mitnick, its "most wanted hacker," and charged him with
cracking security in some of the nation's most protected computers.
Mitnick was released Jan. 21, 2000, after serving five years behind
bars.
(AP, 2/15/00)
1995 Feb 15, A fire roared
through a three-story nightclub in Taichung, Taiwan, killing at
least 64 people.
(AP, 2/15/00)
1995 Feb 15, Population of
People's Republic of China hit 1.2 billion.
(www.china.org.cn/e-white/familypanning/13-2.htm)
1996 Feb 15, A federal judge
temporarily blocked the Communications Decency Act, saying the
government had to explain what material it considered indecent
before it could enforce the law, designed to protect children from
sexually explicit material on computer networks.
(AP, 2/15/01)
1996 Feb 15, In the Toronto
Globe and Star there was a report by Peter Whelan that “pesticides
sprayed on fields in Argentina were killing tens of thousands of
wintering Swainson’s hawks that nest on the Canadian prairies and
the adjacent US Great Plains.”
(NH, 10/96, p.51)
1996 Feb 15, The Sea Empress
grounded off of Wales and spilled 18 million gallons (72,000 tons)
of oil.
(SFC, 11/20/02,
p.A14)(http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/low/uk_news/55393.stm)
1996 Feb 15, Russian President
Boris N. Yeltsin announced he would run for re-election.
(AP, 2/15/01)
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)
1998 Feb 15, Monica Lewinsky's
attorney, William Ginsburg, continued his harsh criticism of
Independent Counsel Kenneth Starr for alleged leaks of information
to the news media, charging on CNN that his client's constitutional
rights were being trampled.
(AP, 2/15/03)
1998 Feb 15, Two Japanese ski
jumpers, Kazuyoshi Funaki and Masahiko Harada, leapt to gold and
bronze medals in the 120-meter event at the Nagano Olympics.
(AP, 2/15/99)
1998 Feb 15, Armed men killed
32 people in 3 weekend attacks. 17 people had their throats slit in
Saida, Algeria.
(SFC, 2/16/98, p.A11)
1998 Feb 15, In Cyprus Pres.
Glafcos Clerides won the elections with a 50.8% margin.
(SFC, 2/16/98, p.A11)
1998 Feb 15, In the Czech
Republic a young Gypsy woman was pushed into the Elbe River by 3
skinheads. Her body was recovered 2 days later. It was the 3rd
attack on Gypsies in 4 weeks. 3 suspects were detained.
(SFC, 2/18/98, p.C3)
1999 Feb 15, President Clinton
continued his whirlwind visit to Mexico, where he conferred with
President Ernesto Zedillo. Clinton and Pres. Zedillo signed several
accords on economic measures and the drug war.
(AP, 2/15/04)(WSJ, 2/16/99, p.A1)
1999 Feb 15, Scientists
announced that a new vaccine against malaria would be tested in
monkeys.
(SFC, 2/16/99, p.A3)
1999 Feb 15, Carole Sund (42),
Julie Sund (15) and Silvina Pelosso were last seen at the Cedar
Lodge motel in Portal, Ca. The trio were visiting the area from
Eureka. Carole Sund's wallet and credit cards were found in Modesto
on Feb 19. The FBI acknowledged Feb 21 that the disappearance was
being treated as a kidnapping and a $250,000 reward was offered.
Their rented Pontiac was found burned near Long Barn in Tuolemne
County on Mar 18 and 2 burned bodies were found in the trunk. Cary
Stayner, motel maintenance man, later admitted to the murders and
faced trial in 2002. Stayner was convicted on Aug 26 and was
sentenced to death Dec 12.
(SFC, 2/23/99, p.A1)(SFC, 3/18/99, p.A1)(SFC,
3/20/99, p.A1)(SFC, 7/25/02, p.A17)(WSJ, 8/27/02, p.A1)(SFC,
12/13/02, p.A1)
1999 Feb 15, The body of Amadou
Diallo, an unarmed West African gunned down by New York City police,
was returned to his native Guinea.
(AP, 2/15/00)
1999 Feb 15, In Colombia a
right-wing paramilitary group kidnapped 9 officials sent to
investigate reports of a mass grave near Ceja.
(WSJ, 2/16/99, p.A1)
1999 Feb 15, Eritrea reported
that Ethiopia had begun a new round of shelling southwest of Assab.
(SFC, 2/16/99, p.C2)
1999 Feb 15, In Nigeria Gen'l.
Olusegun Obasanjo (61) won the nomination for president by the
People's Democratic Party.
(SFC, 2/16/99, p.A8)
1999 Feb 15, In Romania the
Supreme Court sentenced in absentia Miron Cozma, leader of the coal
miners, to an 18 year prison term.
(SFC, 2/16/99, p.A8)
1999 Feb 15, It was reported
that cholera in Bandera, Somalia, has killed at least 60 people and
infected over 250.
(WSJ, 2/16/99, p.A1)
2000 Feb 15, Fox aired “Who
Wants to Marry a Multimillionaire?,” a TV special which drew huge
ratings and much notoriety.
(AP, 2/15/01)
2000 Feb 15, Republican
presidential rivals George W. Bush and John McCain fought over
campaign financing and the tenor of their nomination contest in a
testy debate in Columbia, South Carolina, that included Alan Keyes.
(AP, 2/15/01)
2000 Feb 15, In Argentina it
was reported that a Pres. Fernando de la Rua had ordered a purge of
the military and civilian intelligence apparatus and that over 1,500
agents had been fired or retired. Fernando de Santibanes, the new
head of the Secretariat of State Intelligence (SIDE), fired a third
of his 3,100 member staff a week earlier due to budget cuts.
(SFC, 2/16/00, p.A8)
2000 Feb 15, In Germany the
Christian Democrats were ordered to return over $20 million in state
campaign funds for breaking campaign finance laws.
(SFC, 2/16/00, p.A8)
2000 Feb 15, In Iraq a 2nd UN
official quit in protest that sanctions were undermining
humanitarian efforts.
(WSJ, 2/16/00, p.A1)
2000 Feb 15, In Northern
Ireland the IRA quit talks on disarmament in reprisal for Britain's
suspension of the power-sharing government.
(SFC, 2/16/00, p.A8)
2001 Feb 15, President Bush
said the Pentagon should review its policy on civilian participation
in military exercises like the emergency ascent drill a Navy
submarine was performing when it sank a Japanese fishing vessel off
Hawaii.
(AP, 2/15/02)
2001 Feb 15, A UN team
confirmed that the Taliban had nearly wiped out opium production in
Afghanistan.
(SFC, 2/16/01, p.A17)
2001 Feb 15, In Congo the
warring parties met and Joseph Kabila agreed to initiate talks with
rebel groups. The rebel Movement for the Liberation of Congo agreed
to endorse a details withdrawal plan.
(SFC, 2/16/01, p.A16)
2001 Feb 15, Hans-Joachim
Klein, a former German terrorist, was sentenced to nine years in
prison by a German court for killing three people in a 1975 attack
on an OPEC meeting in Vienna, Austria.
(AP, 2/15/02)
2001 Feb 15, In Israel Ehud
Barak agreed to become the defense minister under Ariel Sharon.
(SFC, 2/16/01, p.A1)
2001 Feb 15, In Mexico gunmen
shot and killed 12 villagers in the village of Limoncito de Ayala in
Sinaloa state.
(SFC, 2/16/01, p.D2)
2002 Feb 15, Pres. Bush
approved the Nevada Yucca Mountain site for nuclear waste. Nevada
filed suit to block the decision.
(SFC, 2/16/02, p.A7)
2002 Feb 15, Skating and
Olympics officials awarded Canadian pairs figure skaters Jamie Sale
and David Pelletier a gold medal, while letting the Russian pair,
Elena Berezhnaya and Anton Sikharulidze, keep their gold medal, as a
way to resolve a judging controversy that had dominated the Winter
Games in Salt Lake City.
(AP, 2/15/03)
2002 Feb 15, American and
Belgian officials said Sanjivan Ruprah, a Kenyan diamond mine owner,
offered details between al Qaeda and the arms-trading operations of
Victor Bout, a Russian broker described as the head of the world’s
largest arms-trafficking organization.
(SFC, 2/16/02, p.A4)
2002 Feb 15, Globalstar, a
satellite telephone company, filed for bankruptcy. The company had
spent $4 billion to launch a network of 48 communications
satellites.
(SFC, 2/16/02, p.B1)
2002 Feb 15, Howard K. Smith
(87), war correspondent and news analyst (ABC co-anchor), died in
Bethesda, Md.
(SFC, 2/19/02, p.A14)
2002 Feb 15, In Britain asylum
seekers rioted at the Yarl’s Wood institution near Bedford and 20
escaped. 10 were soon captured.
(SFC, 2/16/02, p.A13)
2002 Feb 15, An Israeli
commando leader was killed by a falling wall as his troops
demolished a Palestinian militant’s home in the West Bank. Israel
fired rockets at PLO offices in the Jabalija refugee camp and one
security officer was killed. Israeli Sgt. Lee Nahman Akunis (20) was
killed by Fatah gunmen outside the West Bank village of Skurda.
(SFC, 2/16/02, p.A9)
2003 Feb 15, Millions of
protesters, many of them marching in the capitals of America's
allies, demonstrated against possible US plans to attack Iraq.
(AP, 2/16/03)
2003 Feb 15, Tens of
thousands of people gathered in downtown Sydney and around Australia
to protest possible war with Iraq and their country's involvement.
(AP, 2/16/03)
2003 Feb 15, Tens of
thousands of New Zealanders demonstrated against a war in Iraq.
(AP, 2/16/03)
2003 Feb 15, Rattled by
an outpouring of anti-war sentiment, the US and Britain began
reworking a draft resolution to authorize force against Saddam
Hussein.
(AP, 2/15/03)
2003 Feb 15, American
warplanes bombed two anti-aircraft missile sites in southern Iraq.
(AP, 2/15/03)
2003 Feb 15, Anti-war
protests drew hundreds of thousands of people in cities around the
world.
(AP, 2/15/03)
2003 Feb 15, It was
reported that 11 million Ethiopians face famine due to drought
affecting 15% of the nation's harvest.
(SFC, 2/15/03, p.A12)
2003 Feb 15, A roadside
bomb exploded next to an Israeli tank in the Gaza Strip, killing all
four soldiers inside. Hamas claimed responsibility.
(AP, 2/15/03)(SSFC, 2/16/03, p.A10)
2003 Feb 15, In India 7
men from Hindu upper castes were killed at a roadside restaurant the
crime-prone Bihar state. The upper-caste men were apparently killed
to avenge the killings 2 days earlier of 7 lower-caste Dalits.
(AP, 2/16/03)
2003 Feb 15, Nigerian
oil workers launched an indefinite strike that could shut down crude
exports in the world's 6th largest oil exporter.
(AP, 2/15/03)
2004 Feb 15, Dale Earnhardt Jr.
won the Daytona 500 on the same track where his father was killed
three years earlier.
(AP, 2/15/05)
2004 Feb 15, John Kerry won the
DC and Nevada presidential caucuses.
(SSFC, 2/15/04, p.A3)
2004 Feb 15, Actress Jan Miner
(86), best known as "Madge the manicurist" in Palmolive TV ads, died
in Bethel, Conn.
(AP, 2/15/05)
2004 Feb 15, In Brazil gunmen
ambushed a busload of police in Rio and killed 3 officers.
(WSJ, 2/17/04, p.A1)
2004 Feb 15, In northeastern
China a fire swept through a shopping center, killing 51 people and
injuring dozens more. Hours later, a fire in a temple in the
country's southeast killed 39 people. The 2 blazes killed at least
93 people.
(AP, 2/15/04)(AP, 2/15/05)
2004 Feb 15, In India a boat
carrying villagers returning from a picnic capsized in the Ganges
River. 17 people were missing and believed drowned.
(AP, 2/15/04)
2004 Feb 15, Iraqi police
arrested No. 41 on the American military's most-wanted list, Baath
Party official Mohammed Zimam Abdul-Razaq.
(AP, 2/15/04)
2004 Feb 15, In Peru the
government of embattled President Alejandro Toledo appointed a new
lineup of Cabinet ministers as he tries to survive a deepening
political crisis. It was Toledo's fifth shake-up in 30 months.
(AP, 2/16/04)
2005 Feb 15, Defrocked priest
Paul Shanley was sentenced in Boston to 12 to 15 years in prison on
child rape charges.
(AP, 2/15/06)
2005 Feb 15, Christopher
Pittman, a teen who claimed the antidepressant Zoloft had driven him
to kill his grandparents at age 12, was found guilty in Charleston,
S.C., of murder and sentenced to 30 years in prison.
(AP, 2/15/06)
2005 Feb 15, The Gates
Foundation granted $32 million for 35 new small schools in NYC.
Mayor Bloomberg had recently announced the closure of a number of
large, troubled schools to be replaced by 200 new small schools with
pupils capped at 500-600.
(Econ, 3/5/05, p.33)
2005 Feb 15, Brazil’s Chamber
of Deputies chose Severino Cavalcanti, a leader of Congress’s “low
clergy,” as president. The position determines the agenda of
Congress and his selection was seen as a setback to Pres. da Silva
(Econ, 2/19/05, p.36)
2005 Feb 15, The Falcon 7X, a
business jet designed and built by the French aviation company
Dassault, was displayed for the first time. It was the first plane
to be digitally modeled in 3-dimensions and required no prototype.
(Econ, 6/18/05, p.78)(http://tinyurl.com/lxlgt2)
2005 Feb 15, In southern
Lebanon an angry mob attacked Syrian workers and another group threw
stones and set fires outside a Syrian government office in Beirut,
blaming Damascus for the bomb that killed former PM Rafik Hariri.
(AP, 2/15/05)
2005 Feb 15, The Guam-based
Citizens Security Bank (CSB) ended credit card and other services to
the Bank of Marshall Islands. Residents of the Marshall Islands will
be unable to use their credit cards after the central Pacific
nation's leading bank was cut off from a US partner by the
anti-terrorist Patriot Act.
(AFP, 2/10/05)
2005 Feb 15, In Mexico the
bodies of 12 men killed by hitmen believed linked to drug gangs were
found in the northern state of Sinaloa, in what appears to be one of
the deadliest one-day tolls in violent drug battles in recent years.
(AP, 2/15/05)
2005 Feb 15, In eastern Nepal
an overnight clash between government troops and communist rebels
left at least 12 rebels and 3 soldiers dead.
(AP, 2/15/05)
2005 Feb 15, It was reported
that major energy firms had committed $20 billion to build a new
gas-to-liquids (GTL) plant in Qatar to develop the huge natural gas
reserves there.
(WSJ, 2/15/05, p.A1)
2005 Feb 15, In Pakistan gunmen
opened fire on mourners returning from a funeral near a Muslim
shrine on the outskirts of Islamabad, killing at least 2 people and
injuring several others.
(AP, 2/15/05)
2005 Feb 15, The Thailand
Cabinet approved establishing a new infantry division of 12,000
troops to be based permanently in southern Thailand, where violence
blamed on Muslim insurgents has claimed more than 650 lives in the
past year.
(AP, 2/15/05)
2006 Feb 15, Vice President
Dick Cheney accepted blame for accidentally shooting a hunting
companion, calling it “one of the worst days of my life,” but was
defiantly unapologetic in a Fox News Channel interview about not
publicly disclosing the accident until the next day.
(AP, 2/15/07)
2006 Feb 15, A US
Republican-led House committee report, “A Failure of Initiative,”
cited major failures at all levels of government in the handling of
Hurricane Katrina. Several top Bush administration officials were
singled out for criticism. Testifying before the Senate, Homeland
Security Secretary Michael Chertoff acknowledged delayed aid and
fumbled coordination in the federal response to Hurricane Katrina.
(SFC, 2/16/06, p.A1)(AP, 2/15/07)
2006 Feb 15, Members of
Congress blasted four US tech giants (Microsoft Corp., Yahoo Inc.,
Cisco Systems Inc. and Google Inc.) accusing the companies of
willingly helping China oppress internal dissent in return for
access to a booming Internet market.
(AP, 2/15/06)
2006 Feb 15, Ben Bernanke made
his debut before the US Congress as Federal Reserve chairman. He
said inflation is still a risk and suggested that interest rate
increases are not over.
(WSJ, 2/16/06, p.A1)
2006 Feb 15, Merril Lynch
handed its $544 million fund operation to Black Rock in exchange for
just under half of the combined firm. Black Hawk financed the $9.8
billion transaction with its own stock.
(Econ, 2/18/06, p.73)
2006 Feb 15, Police in Los
Angeles, Ca., busted 8 people connected to an int’l. car theft ring.
The racket, disguised as a charity group, was linked to Chechnya and
police believed proceeds from the stolen cars was used to finance
Chechen terrorist operations.
(WSJ, 12/29/06, p.A1)
2006 Feb 15, Robert Rich (92),
inventor of frozen non-dairy topping, died. In 1990 he was among the
1st 4 people inducted into the Frozen Food Hall of Fame.
(Econ, 2/25/06, p.89)
2006 Feb 15, Afghan President
Hamid Karzai pressed his Pakistani counterpart on to root out
militants Afghanistan claims have launched a spate of recent
cross-border suicide bombings.
(AP, 2/15/06)
2006 Feb 15, The beheaded
bodies of two Afghan intelligence agents were found dumped in
western Afghanistan as the first of thousands of British troop
reinforcements arrived in the south. The intelligence agents had
been captured in Farah province two days ago by suspected remnants
of the Taliban.
(AFP, 2/15/06)
2006 Feb 15, An Australian
television network broadcast photographs and video clips Wednesday
that it said were previously unpublished images of the abuse of
Iraqis held in US military custody at Abu Ghraib prison in 2003.
Many of the images broadcast were more graphic than those previously
published, showing what appear to be dead bodies, as well as wounded
people and prisoners performing sex acts.
(AP, 2/15/06)
2006 Feb 15, British lawmakers
voted to ban glorifying terrorism, giving PM Tony Blair a badly
needed victory on a measure he said was key to preventing future
attacks.
(AP, 2/15/06)
2006 Feb 15, A Chilean
environmental agency approved ambitious plans for an open-pit mine
high in the Andes mountains were unanimously, but the project's
future remained unclear because the agency rejected its most
controversial aspect, relocating three glaciers to reach the gold
underneath.
(AP, 2/15/06)
2006 Feb 15, China announced a
plan to combat widespread pollution and leave a better environment
for future generations, citing the need to stave off possible social
instability.
(AP, 2/15/06)
2006 Feb 15, In southern
Colombia hundreds of paramilitary fighters handed in their weapons
and renounced violence in a ceremony. Rebels attacked a crew that
was removing coca plants from one of Colombia's national parks and
killed at least six police guards.
(AP, 2/15/06)
2006 Feb 15, President Jacques
Chirac ordered the Clemenceau, a decommissioned aircraft carrier, to
return to France after a top administrative court suspended its
transfer to India.
(AP, 2/15/06)
2006 Feb 15, Germany said
further tests had confirmed H5N1 bird flu in two swans, prompting
other European countries to step up efforts to prevent the virus
infecting domestic livestock.
(AP, 2/15/06)
2006 Feb 15, Rene Preval was
declared the winner of Haiti's presidential election under an
agreement between the interim government and electoral council.
(AP, 2/16/06)(Econ, 2/18/06, p.35)
2006 Feb 15, Nermine Othman,
Iraq's human rights minister, said that some 170 Iraqis were
tortured last year in a secret prison in Baghdad and she would
recommend prosecutions of officials, including judges who did not
report the abuses. The torture occurred in Interior Ministry
buildings, including one in Baghdad's Jadriyah district.
(AP, 2/15/06)
2006 Feb 15, A bomb exploded on
a central Baghdad street, killing three girls and a boy walking to
school. The dead included two sisters and their brother. At least 14
other people, including six policemen, died in car bombings and
shootings across the Iraqi capital. In July, 2006, Spc. Nathan Lynn
(21) of South Williamsport, Penn., was acquitted of voluntary
manslaughter and conspiracy to obstruct justice over the death of
Gani Ahmed Zaben during a Feb. 15 raid on a suspect's house.
(AP, 2/15/06)(AP, 7/23/06)
2006 Feb 15, A Jordanian
military court sentenced to death nine men, including al-Qaida in
Iraq leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, for a plot to carry out a chemical
attack against the kingdom. Al-Zarqawi and three others received the
death penalty in absentia.
(AP, 2/15/06)
2006 Feb 15, In central Mexico
a bus careened off a windy highway and into a ravine in the Sierra
Gorda mountains, killing 23 people and injuring 14.
(AP, 2/16/06)
2006 Feb 15, In Nepal
insurgents ambushed an army patrol near the village of Bibeke, about
150 miles west of Kathmandu, killing at least three soldiers and
injuring two others.
(AP, 2/15/06)
2006 Feb 15, More than 70,000
people joined Pakistan's biggest protest yet against Prophet
Muhammad cartoons, burning movie theaters, a KFC restaurant and a
South Korean-run bus station. Three people died and dozens were
injured in two cities.
(AP, 2/15/06)
2006 Feb 15, Pakistan deported
nearly 600 Afghans who had been jailed in the southern city of
Karachi for up to six months on charges of illegal immigration.
(AP, 2/15/06)
2006 Feb 15, Gunmen on a
motorcycle killed three Chinese engineers and their Pakistani driver
in a remote tribal region of southwestern Pakistan.
(AP, 2/15/06)
2006 Feb 15, In Peru Arndt
Hubert Kupper (36) and Eva Noruzka la Torre (22), a German man and
his Peruvian wife, were arrested for trafficking Peruvian babies to
adoptive parents in Europe through an Internet site.
(AP, 2/18/06)
2006 Feb 15, Russia's foreign
minister said that Iran must eliminate international concerns it
could use its nuclear program to make weapons before Moscow will
support Tehran's right to domestically enrich uranium.
(AP, 2/15/06)
2006 Feb 15, Kurdish protesters
armed with firebombs and stones battled with Turkish police to mark
the seventh anniversary of guerrilla leader Abdullah Ocalan's
capture.
(AP, 2/15/06)
2007 Feb 15, Top US auditors
told Congress that over $10 billion paid to military contractors for
Iraq reconstruction and troop support was either excessive or
unsupported by documents.
(SFC, 2/16/07, p.A13)
2007 Feb 15, A US federal judge
ordered a trial for a suit seeking $105 million from Sudan for aid
to al-Qaeda in the USS Cole bombing that killed 17 in 2000.
(WSJ, 2/16/07, p.A1)
2007 Feb 15, Jim Black (72), US
House speaker from North Carolina, pleaded guilty to illegally
taking thousands of dollars from chiropractors while pushing their
legislative agenda. Black was sentenced to 5 years in prison for
political corruption.
(SFC, 7/31/07,
p.A3)(http://preview.tinyurl.com/369jo9)
2007 Feb 15, A new version of
the US $1 coin, paying tribute to American presidents, went into
general circulation. A unknown number were mistakenly struck without
their edge inscription “In God We Trust.” George Washington appeared
on the first coin.
(AP, 2/15/07)(SFC, 3/8/07, p.A2)(AH, 4/07, p.10)
2007 Feb 15, Hundreds of
drivers became stranded on a stretch of eastern Pennsylvania that
had been hit by a monster storm. The National Guard was called in to
deliver food and other necessities to a 50-mile line of vehicles
trapped on I-78.
(WSJ, 2/16/07, p.A1)(AP, 2/16/08)
2007 Feb 15, Hershey Co. said
it would cut about 11 percent of its workforce and reduce the number
of production lines it operates by more than a third as it spends as
much as $575 million to overhaul its manufacturing. The
Chicago-based US chocolate maker also said it will build a new,
cost-efficient manufacturing plant in Monterrey, Mexico.
(Reuters, 2/15/07)
2007 Feb 15, JetBlue Airways
Corp. tried to calm a maelstrom of criticism, after passengers were
left waiting on planes at a NY airport for as long as 11 hours
during a snow and ice storm.
(AP, 2/15/07)
2007 Feb 15, Government
scientists struggled to pinpoint the source of the first US
salmonella outbreak linked to peanut butter. Nearly 300 people in 39
states have fallen ill since August, and federal health
investigators said they strongly suspect Peter Pan peanut butter and
certain batches of Wal-Mart's Great Value house brand, both
manufactured by ConAgra Foods. By June the number of cases grew to
over 600 in 47 states.
(AP, 2/16/07)(AP, 6/1/07)
2007 Feb 15, Scientists
gathered in Atlanta, Ga., to find a way to stop a fungus killing the
world’s frogs. Up to 170 species have gone extinct in the past
decade.
(WSJ, 2/16/07, p.A1)
2007 Feb 15, Robert Adler (93),
co-inventor of the TV remote control, died in Boise, Idaho. He and
Eugene Polley invented the Zenith Space Command remote control in
1956.
(SFC, 2/17/07, p.A2)
2007 Feb 15, Ray Evans
(b.1915), songwriter and longtime partner with Jay Livingston
(d.2001), died. Their songs included “Whatever Will be, Will Be (Que
Sera, Sera)” and “Mona Lisa,” as well as the themes for the TV
series “Bonanza” and “Mr. Ed.”
(SSFC, 2/18/07, p.D7)
2007 Feb 15, A summit of
African leaders opened in Cannes on the French Riviera. The crisis
in Darfur and violence in Guinea overshadowed the summit, as well as
perennial issues of poverty, development and AIDS. France won
agreement from three involved African nations (Sudan, Chad and
Central African Republic) that they would not support armed rebel
movements on each other's territories.
(AP, 2/15/07)(AP, 2/15/07)
2007 Feb 15, Officials warned
of a potential environmental disaster in Antarctica after fire
erupted on a Japanese whaling ship, as the search continued for a
missing crewmen from the crippled ship. The next day Japanese
officials said the ship posed no environmental threat.
(AP, 2/15/07)(AP, 2/16/07)
2007 Feb 15, The Australian
government said it was negotiating with the US on a plan to build a
military satellite communications facility in Perth. Defense
Minister Brendan Nelson said the two nations had negotiated for two
years to build a number of ground-based communications systems
around Australia.
(AP, 2/15/07)
2007 Feb 15, It was reported
that shooting ranges continued to operate in Cambodia despite
government cancellation of licenses in 1997. Tourists were
able to fire 30 rounds with an AK-47 for $30. Other offers included
tossing grenades at chickens for $200 and killing a cow with a
rocket-propelled grenade for $555.
(SFC, 2/15/07, p.14)
2007 Feb 15, A fast-thinking
pilot with passengers in cahoots fooled hijacker Mohamed Abderraman,
a 32-year-old Mauritanian, by braking hard upon landing in Gran
Canaria, then accelerating to knock the man down. When he fell,
flight attendants threw boiling water in his face, and about 10
people pounced on him.
(AP, 2/16/07)
2007 Feb 15, Five Colombian
congressmen, including the brother of the foreign minister, were
arrested in a widening scandal linking the country's political class
and far-right militias drew closer to the president.
(AP, 2/16/07)
2007 Feb 15, The Security
Council voted unanimously to extend the nearly 18,000-strong UN
peacekeeping force in Congo for two months to give the
secretary-general time to recommend possible changes in its mandate
following last year's successful elections.
(AP, 2/15/07)
2007 Feb 15, In Egypt police
arrested 80 members of the Muslim Brotherhood, in what appeared to
be a pre-emptive strike against the country's largest Islamic group
ahead of elections and a key parliamentary debate.
(Reuters, 2/15/07)
2007 Feb 15, Nadia Abdel Hafez,
an Egyptian woman (37), died of bird flu in a Cairo hospital and a
boy, 5, became the 22nd Egyptian to test positive for the deadly
disease.
(Reuters, 2/16/07)
2007 Feb 15, Estonian lawmakers
narrowly approved a bill calling for the removal of a Soviet war
memorial from their capital, ignoring Moscow's warning of
"irreversible consequences" for relations between the two countries.
(AP, 2/15/07)
2007 Feb 15, Nokia, the world's
leading maker of mobile phones, said it would shed some 700 jobs,
with Finland taking the brunt of the cuts.
(AFP, 2/15/07)
2007 Feb 15, In Germany Ernst
Zundel (b.1939), a far-right activist, was convicted of incitement
and sentenced to the maximum five years in prison for anti-Semitic
activities, including contributing to a Web site dedicated to
Holocaust denial.
(AP, 2/15/07)
2007 Feb 15, An adviser to
Iraq's prime minister said that radical Shiite cleric Muqtada
al-Sadr is in Iran, but denied he fled due to fear of arrest during
an escalating security crackdown.
(AP, 2/15/07)
2007 Feb 15, Iraqi and US
troops moved into a Sunni neighborhood in southern Baghdad, while
insurgents struck back with car bombs that killed seven people. In
southern Iraq, British troops sealed off the border with Iran to
prevent weapons smuggling. Terror leader Abu Hamza al-Muhajir, also
known as Abu Ayyub al-Masri, was wounded and an aide killed in a
clash with Iraqi forces near Balad, north of Baghdad.
(AP, 2/15/07)(AP, 2/16/07)
2007 Feb 15, Assailants shot
dead four police officers in the western Mexican city of
Aguascalientes, the latest in a wave of slayings of law enforcement
officers across Mexico.
(AP, 2/15/07)
2007 Feb 15, Palestine’s PM
Ismail Haniyeh and his government resigned and President Mahmoud
Abbas of Fatah appointed him to form the new team, based on last
week's agreement in the Muslim holy city of Mecca to split power
between the two rivals.
(AP, 2/16/07)
2007 Feb 15, A leftist student
leader was murdered in the central Philippines, amid plans to set up
special tribunals to try people suspected of carrying out
extrajudicial killings. Farly Alcantara (22) was head of the League
of Filipino Students at Camarines Norte State College.
(AFP, 2/16/07)
2007 Feb 15, Russia’s President
Vladimir Putin dismissed Alu Alkhanov, the president of the republic
of Chechnya, and named its widely feared PM Ramzan Kadyrov as acting
president.
(AP, 2/16/07)(Econ, 2/24/07, p.62)
2007 Feb 15, Russia’s Pres.
Vladimir Putin named Anatoly Serdyukov as defense minister, the
country’s first civilian defense minister in 90 years.
(AP,
11/5/10)(http://newstopics.jpost.com/topic/Anatoliy_Serdyukov)
2007 Feb 15, President Paul
Kagame said in an interview published in The Times that Rwanda wants
to join the Commonwealth, the 53-nation grouping of former British
colonies, in what will be seen as a rebuke to France.
(AFP, 2/15/07)
2008 Feb 15, A leading US
doctor’s group endorsed the medical use of marijuana and urged the
government to life a ban.
(WSJ, 2/16/08, p.A1)
2008 Feb 15, It was reported
that a new computer virus called Mocmex, identified as a Trojan
Horse from China, had been discovered in digital photo frames. It
recognized and blocked antivirus software from over 100 security
vendors and collected passwords for online games.
(SFC, 2/15/08, p.C1)
2008 Feb 15, In Afghanistan
bitter cold, snowstorms and avalanches were reported to have killed
926 people, half of them in the hard hit west, as the country
suffered one of the most brutal winters in decades.
(AP, 2/15/08)
2008 Feb 15, Representatives
for Australian Aborigines confirmed plans to launch the first
compensation lawsuits since a landmark government apology earlier
this week for past abuses.
(AP, 2/15/08)
2008 Feb 15, A group of
Canadian sex trade workers hoping to set up a legal "co-op" brothel
in time for the 2010 Olympics in Vancouver said they have won
approval to incorporate themselves.
(Reuters, 2/15/08)
2008 Feb 15, A restaurant fire
in eastern China killed 11 people and injured at least 4 others.
(AP, 2/15/08)
2008 Feb 15, Czech President
Vaclav Klaus won a second five-year term. Lawmakers chose him over a
University of Michigan economics professor.
(AP, 2/16/08)
2008 Feb 15, In northern
Copenhagen gangs of rioters set fire to cars and garbage trucks, the
sixth night of rioting and vandalism that has spread from the
capital to other Danish cities.
(Reuters, 2/16/08)
2008 Feb 15, Two international
rights groups said Egyptian police have stepped up arrests of
persons suspected of having HIV, detaining four men this month in a
crackdown that violates basic human rights.
(AP, 2/15/08)
2008 Feb 15, In eastern India
hundreds of Maoist militants stormed six police compounds in
carefully coordinated attacks, killing 13 police personnel and one
civilian. 11 policemen were injured.
(AP, 2/16/08)
2008 Feb 15, A 3-year-old
Indonesian boy died of bird flu, the country's second death from the
illness in one day. The two cases, which were apparently unrelated,
brought Indonesia's bird flu death toll to 105.
(AP, 2/16/08)
2008 Feb 15, In Iraq 2 suicide
bombers, one apparently armed with a grenade as well as an explosive
vest, killed at least three people and wounded 17 as worshippers
left a Shiite mosque after prayers in the northwestern city of Tal
Afar. 3 neighborhood security guards were killed and 2 others
injured when US attack helicopters fired at their checkpoint south
of Baghdad.
(AP, 2/15/08)(SFC, 2/16/08, p.A6)
2008 Feb 15, In Mexico City a
bomb exploded near the police headquarters killing one man. A singer
and two members of his staff were tortured and killed just south of
the California border, apparently the latest victims in a string of
slayings of Mexican musicians. The border killings were not reported
until Feb 20.
(WSJ, 2/16/08, p.A1)(AP, 2/20/08)
2008 Feb 15, In Gaza City a
powerful blast went off in the house of Ayman Atallah Fayed, a
senior Islamic Jihad activist, killing him, his wife, three sons and
three neighbors.
(AP, 2/16/08)
2008 Feb 15, In the Philippines
thousands of protesters massed in Jakarta with some hurling tomatoes
at images of President Gloria Arroyo and her husband, demanding
their ouster for alleged corruption.
(AP, 2/15/08)
2008 Feb 15, Sova, a Russian
human rights group, said hate crimes in Russia have killed 17 people
and injured more than 50 others since the beginning of the year.
(AP, 2/15/08)
2008 Feb 15, Serbia's newly
re-elected president Boris Tadic pledged at his inauguration that he
would never stop fighting against independence for Kosovo.
(AP, 2/15/08)
2008 Feb 15, In southeast
Turkey hundreds of Kurdish protesters battled police, leaving a
young demonstrator dead and dozens injured on the ninth anniversary
of guerrilla leader Abdullah Ocalan's capture.
(AP, 2/16/08)
2009 Feb 15, In Washington
state a 16-year-old girl was found dead and another teenage girl was
discovered unconscious in a barracks at Fort Lewis Army base south
of Tacoma. In March Army authorities charged Pvt. Timothy E. Bennitt
(19) if the drug overdose of his girlfriend.
(AP, 2/16/09)(SFC, 3/11/09, p.A8)
2009 Feb 15, Illinois
Republicans called for the resignation of Democratic Sen. Roland
Burris following reports of contradicting statements regarding
conversations with close associates of former Gov. Rod Blagojevich.
The next day Burris admitted that he tried to raise money for Gov.
Blagojevich before being appointed to the US Senate.
(SFC, 2/16/09, p.A5)(WSJ, 2/17/09, p.A3)
2009 Feb 15, Afghan President
Hamid Karzai said his government will take part in a US strategic
review of the war there in a sign of increased cooperation at a time
of strained relations. An appeals court upheld 20-year prison
sentences for two men who published a translation of the Quran that
drove religious leaders to call for their execution. The
controversial text is a translation of Islam's holy book into an
Afghan language without the original Arabic verses alongside. A host
of Muslim clerics have condemned the translation, which was
published in 2007 and handed out for free, as blasphemous and
accused its publishers of setting themselves up as false prophets. A
coalition airstrike killed Ghulam Dastagir and eight other militants
in the village of Darya-ye-Morghab. Dastagir was a powerful Taliban
commander who broke a promise to renounce violence after village
elders persuaded President Hamid Karzai to free him from prison.
(AP, 2/15/09)(AP, 2/16/09)
2009 Feb 15, A series of
attacks in Algeria left seven soldiers and a suspected militant
dead, as authorities ratcheted up efforts to secure the country
before presidential elections. An Algerian newspaper reported that
security forces killed a senior member of Al Qaeda's north African
wing after a tip-off from a former militant led them to his hideout.
The daily Ennahar reported that Mourad Bouzid (65), also known as
Ami Slimane, was a charismatic figure instrumental in recruiting and
motivating younger Al Qaeda fighters.
(AP, 2/16/09)(Reuters, 2/15/09)
2009 Feb 15, Britain's Sunday
Times reported that Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe has bought a
4 million pound ($5.6 million) home in Hong Kong. It was bought last
year, as Mugabe's 20-year-old daughter began studying at the
University of Hong Kong. The paper said it was one of several
properties the Mugabes own in Asia but the first to be documented.
(AP, 2/16/09)
2009 Feb 15, China and Tanzania
signed cooperation agreements worth millions of dollars during a
visit by President Hu Jintao to this east African country aimed to
reinforce ties.
(AFP, 2/15/09)
2009 Feb 15, French specialists
unveiled a new weapon against cancer, a molecular "decoy" that
mimics DNA damage and prompts cancerous cells to kill themselves.
(AFP, 2/16/09)
2009 Feb 15, Iraqi officials
nullified election results in more than 30 polling stations across
the country due to fraud in last month's provincial balloting, but
the cases were not significant enough to require a new vote in any
province. A bomb hidden in a garbage pile killed one person and
injured 18 others in Sadr City. In Mosul one civilian and one police
officer were killed in two separate attacks on police patrols.
Police arrested a would-be suicide bomber south of Baghdad who had
explosives under his clothes and said he was also planning to target
pilgrims headed to Karbala. US Staff Sgt. Dean D. diamond (41) was
killed after an improvised explosive device detonated near his
vehicle.
(AP, 2/15/09)(SFC, 2/18/09, p.B5)
2009 Feb 15, Authorities in
Malaysia arrested 26 unmarried Muslim couples in hotel rooms during
Operation Valentine, aimed at curbing illegal premarital sex in this
conservative country.
(AP, 2/16/09)
2009 Feb 15, A rickety boat
carrying illegal migrants from Morocco capsized in rough seas just
off Spain's Canary Islands and 19 of them drowned. At least three
were missing.
(AP, 2/16/09)
2009 Feb 15, The Taliban
announced a 10-day cease-fire in Pakistan's Swat Valley after
freeing a Chinese hostage during peace talks with the government,
while an abducted American threatened with imminent death by his
kidnappers remained missing.
(AP, 2/15/09)
2009 Feb 15, In southern Russia
a fire ripped through a wooden apartment building, killing 16 people
in Molodyozhny, a village in the Astrakhan region.
(AP, 2/15/09)
2009 Feb 15, Shots from a
Russian naval vessel sank the Chinese-owned cargo ship the New Star
off Russia's east coast. 8 the 16 crew members on board were killed.
The Sierra Leone-flagged, Chinese-owned vessel New Star had earlier
fled the Russian port of Nakhodka where it had been impounded for
alleged smuggling.
(AFP, 2/20/09)
2009 Feb 15, In Turkey police
clashed with stone-throwing demonstrators across the country's
predominantly Kurdish southeast during protests marking the 10th
anniversary of a separatist rebel leader's capture.
(AP, 2/15/09)
2009 Feb 15, Venezuela’s
President Hugo Chavez tried for a second time to win the right to
seek re-election far into the future with a referendum widely
regarded as a way to cement socialism. Some 55% percent of the
voters approved the amendment.
(AP, 2/15/09)(AP, 2/16/09)(Econ, 2/21/09, p.39)
2010 Feb 15, The US Federal
Housing Administration adopted home-valuation reforms, the Home
Valuation Code of Conduct” (HVCC) that were implemented last year by
Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, despite complaints by real estate
agents, home buyers and sellers, mortgage brokers and appraisers.
(SSFC, 2/21/10, p.A1)(http://tinyurl.com/yesbts6)
2010 Feb 15, Astronauts
successfully attached a fancy new observation deck to the
International Space Station after a long, frustrating night spent
dealing with stuck bolts and wayward wiring.
(AP, 2/15/10)
2010 Feb 15, In New Jersey a
small plane crashed at Monmouth Executive airport killing 5 people
aboard.
(SFC, 2/16/10, p.A6)
2010 Feb 15, Art Van Damme
(b.1920), jazz accordionist, died. From 1945 to 1960 he worked for
NBC, performing on The Dinah Shore Show, Tonight, The Dave Garroway
Show and other radio and TV shows with Garroway. He recorded 130
episodes of the 15-minute The Art Van Damme Show for NBC Radio.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Art_Van_Damme)
2010 Feb 15, Jeanne M. Holm,
the first woman to rise to the rank of general in the US Air Force
and the first woman to become a two-star general in any US armed
service, died in Annapolis, Md.
(SFC, 3/3/10, p.C5)
2010 Feb 15, In Afghanistan
sniper teams attacked US Marines and Afghan troops across the
Taliban haven of Marjah, as several gun battles erupted on the third
day of a major offensive to seize the extremists' southern
heartland.
(AP, 2/15/10)
2010 Feb 15, In Antarctic
waters Peter Bethune, a member of the US-based Sea Shepherd activist
group, jumped aboard the Shonan Maru 2 from a Jet Ski with the
stated goal of making a citizen's arrest of the ship's captain and
presenting him with a $3 million bill for the destruction of a
protest ship last month. The Japanese government said Bethune will
be charged with trespassing and assault and tried under Japanese
law.
(AP, 2/16/10)
2010 Feb 15, In Belgium two
commuter trains collided head-on after one ran a stop light at rush
hour in a Brussels suburb, killing at least 18 people and injuring
55.
(AP, 2/15/10)
2010 Feb 15, In Brazil Julia
Lira, Rio's 7-year-old Carnival drum corps queen, danced at the
front of the samba parade. She didn't like the cameras that homed in
on her, and reacted as any child might, by having a good cry.
(AP, 2/15/10)
2010 Feb 15, In London,
England, a 33-year-old man was arrested after the body of a Saudi
man (32) was discovered at the prestigious Landmark Hotel in the
Marylebone area. The suspect claimed to be a member of the Saudi
royal family. Prince Saud Bin Abdulaziz Bin Nasir Bin Abdulaziz Al
Saud was soon charged for the killing of Bandar Abdullah Abdulaziz.
On Oct 19 the prince was convicted of murder. Photographs of
Abdulaziz stored on a mobile phone had shown that there was a
"sexual element" to the abuse.
(AFP, 2/17/10)(AP, 2/19/10)(AP, 10/19/10)
2010 Feb 15, British Airways
said it would use low-carbon fuel to power part of its fleet from
2014 once Europe's first sustainable jet-fuel plant was built by US
biofuels specialist Solena Group. A plant to be built in London will
convert 500,000 tons of waste into 16 million gallons of green jet
fuel annually.
(AFP, 2/15/10)
2010 Feb 15, Canada PM Harper
began a 2-day visit to Haiti and said his country will build the
Haitian government a temporary base.
(AP, 2/15/10)
2010 Feb 15, A Montreal
financial adviser convicted of running a Ponzi scheme, like the one
that landed Bernard Madoff in jail for life, was sentenced to 11
years in prison. Bertram Earl Jones was accused of swindling
investors out of as much as C$50 million ($46.7 million).
(Reuters, 2/15/10)
2010 Feb 15, Congo’s Radio
Okapi, a UN-run station, said Rwandan Hutu rebels have killed at
least 27 people in eastern Congo already this month.
(AP, 2/15/10)
2010 Feb 15, Dubai police held
a stunning news conference and blamed the Jan 19 slaying of Mahmoud
al-Mabhouh on a team of 10 men and one woman carrying passports from
Britain, Ireland, France and Germany.
(AP, 2/16/10)
2010 Feb 15, In Spain, at the
Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Apple announced its new Windows
Phone 7 software. Nokia, the world's biggest maker of mobile
handsets, said it would merge its Linux Maemo software platform,
used in its flagship N900 phone, with Intel's Moblin, which is also
based on Linux open-sourced software, to create a new platform,
MeeGo. The software deal was set to boost Intel's chances of getting
its chips into the cellphones of the Finnish company, which controls
around 40% of the global phone market.
(Reuters, 2/15/10)(SFC, 2/16/10, p.D1)
2010 Feb 15, In eastern India
suspected armed Maoist rebels riding motorcycles killed at least 24
policemen in a daring gun and bomb attack on a security camp. Two
Maoist guerrillas were also killed in the raid in West Bengal
state's Midnapore district.
(AFP, 2/15/10)(AP, 2/16/10)
2010 Feb 15, In Iraq
greengrocer Fatukhi Munir was gunned down inside his Mosul shop in a
drive-by shooting.
(AFP, 2/20/10)
2010 Feb 15, Israel's PM
Netanyahu called for "crippling sanctions" against Iran over its
nuclear program after a meeting in Moscow with Russia's top
officials, whom he praised for showing "an understanding" over the
issue.
(AP, 2/15/10)
2010 Feb 15, Libya suspended
the issuing of entry visas to European citizens apart from British
nationals. Italy's foreign ministry confirmed the measure and said
it was in retaliation for Switzerland's recent decision to publish a
blacklist of 180 Libyans banned from entering the country.
(Reuters, 2/15/10)
2010 Feb 15, Myanmar sentenced
four activists to prison terms with hard labor as special UN envoy
Tomas Ojea Quintana arrived to assess progress on human rights in
the country. The four women were arrested last October after being
accused of offering Buddhist monks alms that included religious
literature.
(AP, 2/16/10)
2010 Feb 15, Yara, a Norwegian
fertilizer maker, agreed to pay $4.1 billion for Terra, an American
company. This would extend Yara’s lead as the world’s biggest maker
of nitrogen-based fertilizer.
(Econ, 2/20/10, p.62)
2010 Feb 15, In Pakistan a
suspected US drone fired a missile at a vehicle in the northwest,
killing three people in the second such strike in as many days.
(AP, 2/15/10)
2010 Feb 15, Spain said it is
willing to take in five inmates from the US prison in Guantanamo
Bay, not just the two it had announced last month.
(AP, 2/15/10)
2010 Feb 15, Cyclone Rene
battered Tonga with powerful winds, cutting phone links, ripping off
roofs and downing power lines in the South Pacific island nation.
(AP, 2/15/10)
2010 Feb 15, Yemeni Shiite
rebels handed over the first of five Saudi soldiers held captive
since their border war.
(AFP, 2/15/10)
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