Today in History - February 23
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155CE Feb 23,
Polycarp, disciple of Apostle John, was arrested and burned at
stake.
(MC, 2/23/02)
303CE Feb 23, Emperor
Diocletian ordered the general persecution of Christians in Rome.
(HN, 2/23/98)
1455 Feb 23, Johannes Gutenberg
(Johan Gensfleisch, c1400-1468) printed his 1st book, the Bible.
Gutenberg printed Latin Bibles of which 11 were still extant in
1987. [see 1450]
(SFC, 2/15/97, p.D1)(MC, 2/23/02)
1507 Feb 23, Gentile Bellini,
Venetian artist, died.
(www.boglewood.com/cornaro/xgentilebellini.html)
1516 Feb 23, The Hapsburg
Charles I succeeded Ferdinand in Spain.
(HN, 2/23/99)
1530 Feb 23, Spain's Carlos I
was crowned Holy Roman Emperor Charles V by Pope Clement VII in the
last coronation of a German king by a Pope. Charles restored the
Medici to power after capturing Florence and ceded Malta to the
landless religious order of the Knights of St. John of Jerusalem.
(TL-MB, p.14)(MC, 2/24/02)(PC, 1992, p.176)
1540 Feb 23, Spanish explorer
Francisco Vasquez de Coronado began his unsuccessful search for the
fabled Seven Cities of Gold in the American Southwest. Antonio de
Mendoza, Viceroy of Mexico, sent Francisco Coronado overland to
search for the fabled Seven Cities of Cibola in present day New
Mexico. Coronado, Spanish explorer, introduced horses, mules, pigs,
cattle, and sheep into the American southwest. An Indian guide spoke
of a rich kingdom called Quivira. When no cities were found he
confessed under torture that the story was false.
(NPS-CNM, 4/1/97)(HN, 2/23/99)(TL-MB, 1988,
p.16)(SFC, 1/31/04, p.D1)
1554 Feb 23, Henry Grey, Duke
of Suffolk and Lady Jane Grey's father, was executed.
(MC, 2/23/02)
1574 Feb 23, The 5th War of
Religion, against the Huguenots, broke out in France.
(TL-MB, 1988, p.22)(HN, 2/23/98)(MC, 2/23/02)
1615 Feb 23, The
Estates-General in Paris was dissolved, having been in session since
October 1614.
(HN, 2/23/99)
1633 Feb 23, Samuel Pepys
(d.1703), English diarist, was born. Pepys was an informal and
spontaneous English diarist. In 1999 Ferdinand Mount wrote the novel
"Jem (and Sam)," about Pepys and his drinking partner Jeremiah
Mount. In 1999 Sara George authored "The Journal of Mrs. Pepys," a
novel based on Pepys' young wife Elizabeth.
(WSJ, 6/2/99, p.A24)(HN, 2/23/01)
1649 Feb 23, John Blow,
composer of 1st English opera (Venus and Adonis), was baptized.
(MC, 2/23/02)
1685 Feb 23, Composer and
musician George Frideric Handel (d.1759) was born in Halle, Germany.
(LGC-HCS, p.37)(AP, 2/23/98)(HN, 2/23/98)
1689 Feb 23, Dutch prince
William III was proclaimed King of England.
(MC, 2/23/02)
1743 Feb 23, Meyer Amschel
Rothschild, banker and founder of the Rothschild dynasty in Europe,
was born.
(WUD, 1994 p.1246)(HN, 2/23/98)
1778 Feb 23, Baron von Steuben
joined the Continental Army at Valley Forge.
(HN, 2/23/98)
1787 Feb 23, Emma Hart Willard,
pioneer in higher education for women, was born.
(HN, 2/23/98)
1792 Feb 23, Joseph Haydn’s
94th Symphony in G premiered.
(MC, 2/23/02)
1792 Feb 23, Humane Society of
Massachusetts was incorporated. It erected life-saving stations for
distressed mariners.
(MC, 2/23/02)
1792 Feb 23, Joshua Reynolds
(68), English portrait painter (Simplicity), died.
(MC, 2/23/02)
1797 Feb 23, Antoine d'Auvergne
(83), French opera composer (Coquette), died.
(MC, 2/23/02)
1821 Feb 23, College of
Apothecaries, the 1st US pharmacy college, was organized in
Philadelphia.
(MC, 2/23/02)
1821 Feb 23, John Keats,
English poet, died of tuberculosis at the age of 26. In 1998 the
biography “Keats” by Andrew Motion was published. Earlier
biographies included one by Walter Jackson Bate (1963), and a
novelistic psychological portrait by Aileen Ward (1963). The
standard work on Keats was written by Robert Gittings in 1968.
(WP, 1951, p.11)(WSJ, 1/15/98, p.A17)(SFEC,
3/29/98, BR p.6)
1822 Feb 23, Boston was granted
a charter to incorporate as a city.
(AP, 2/23/98)
1824 Feb 23, Lewis Cass Hunt
(d.1886), Brig General (Union volunteers), was born.
(MC, 2/23/02)
1836 Feb 23, The Alamo was
besieged by Santa Anna. The siege of the Alamo began a 13-day moment
in history that turned a ruined Spanish mission in San Antonio,
Texas, into a shrine known and revered the world over.
(HN, 2/23/98)(AP, 2/23/98)
1838 Feb 23, Gilbert Moxley
Sorrel (d.1901), Brig General (Confederate Army), was born.
(MC, 2/23/02)
1846 Feb 23, The Liberty Bell
in Philadelphia tolled for the last time, to mark George
Washington’s birthday. A hairline fracture had developed since 1817
and a failed attempt to repair it resulted in the crack. In 2010
Tristram Riley-Smith authored “”The Cracked Bell: American and the
Afflictions of Liberty.”
(HN, 2/23/98)(SFEC, 8/16/98, p.T5)(Econ, 1/30/10,
p.93)
1846 Feb 23, Polish
revolutionaries marched on Cracow, but were defeated.
(MC, 2/23/02)
1847 Feb 23, U.S. troops under
Gen. Zachary Taylor defeated Mexican Gen. Santa Anna at the Battle
of Buena Vista in Mexico. The United States and Mexico had been at
war over territorial disputes since May 1846.
(AP, 2/23/98)(HN, 2/23/98)
1848 Feb 23, John Quincy Adams,
the sixth president of the United States (1825-1829), died of a
stroke at age 80. Samuel Flagg Bemis wrote a biography. In
1997 Paul C. Nagel published a biography.
(AP, 2/23/98)(WSJ, 10/22/97, p.A20)(MC, 2/23/02)
1854 Feb 23, Great Britain
officially recognized the independence of the Orange Free State.
(HN, 2/23/99)
1861 Feb 23, President-elect
Lincoln arrived secretly in Washington to take office after a
suspected assassination plot was foiled in Baltimore. Allan
Pinkerton, founder of the Pinkerton Detective Agency, may have saved
Abraham Lincoln’s life by suspecting a plot to assassinate the
president-elect in Baltimore, Md. At the detective’s suggestion,
Lincoln avoided the threat by secretly slipping through the city at
night. A few months later, Pinkerton joined Maj. Gen. George B.
McClellan’s staff as chief intelligence officer. Using the name
"Major Allen," the private detective remained with McClellan until
late 1862, catching southern spies and running an espionage network
in Confederate territory.
(AP,
2/23/98)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baltimore_Plot)
1861 Feb 23, Texas by popular
referendum became the 7th state to secede from the Union.
(HN, 2/23/98)(MC, 2/23/02)
1868 Feb 23, William Edward
Burghardt Du Bois was born in Great Barrington, Massachusetts.
W.E.B. Du Bois was the first African American to earn a doctorate
from Harvard University. As a sociologist, he focused on the problem
of race for blacks in the United States. He became an influential
leader of black Americans, presenting an alternative to Booker T.
Washington, whose policies Du Bois considered too conservative and
too accommodating to whites. Du Bois, believing that blacks could
achieve progress only through protest, encouraged black nationalism
and supported Pan-Africanism. He founded the National Negro
Committee which eventually became the National Association for the
Advancement of Colored People. Du Bois also founded the Niagara
Movement, served as the NAACP's director of research and editor of
its magazine Crisis, and taught and published his philosophy at
Atlanta University from 1896-1910. In 1961 he renounced his American
citizenship and spent his last remaining years in the West African
country of Ghana. W.E.B. Du Bois died in Accra, Ghana at the age of
95 in 1963.
(HNPD, 2/23/99)(HNQ, 5/11/99)
1870 Feb 23, Mississippi was
readmitted to the Union.
(AP, 2/23/98)
1883 Feb 23, Victor Fleming,
director of the movie classics "The Wizard of Oz" and "Gone With the
Wind", was born.
(HN, 2/23/98)
1883 Feb 23, Karl Jaspers,
existentialist philosopher, was born in Oldenburg, Germany.
(MC, 2/23/02)
1883 Feb 23, American
Anti-Vivisection Society was organized in Philadelphia.
(MC, 2/23/02)
1885 Feb 23, John Lee survived
three attempts to hang him in Exeter Prison, as the trap failed to
open.
(HN, 2/23/99)
1886 Feb 23, Tchaikovsky’s
symphonic poem "Manfred" premiered.
(MC, 2/23/02)
1886 Feb 23, An aluminum
manufacturing process was developed.
(MC, 2/23/02)
1886 Feb 23, London Times
published the world's 1st classified ad.
(MC, 2/23/02)
1896 Feb 23, Tootsie Roll was
introduced by Leo Hirschfield.
(MC, 2/23/02)
1898 Feb 23, Writer Emile
Zola was imprisoned in France for his letter J’accuse in which he
accused the French government of anti-Semitism and the wrongful
imprisonment of army captain Alfred Dreyfus.
(HN, 2/23/01)
1899 Feb 23, Erich Kastner
(d.1974), German poet, novelist and children’s author (Emil and the
Detectives), was born. "The only people who attain power are those
who crave it."
(AP, 12/1/98)(HN, 2/23/01)
1900 Feb 23, William
Butterfield, architect of the Gothic revival, died.
(MC, 2/23/02)
1901 Feb 23, Britain and
Germany agreed on a boundary between German East Africa [later
Tanganyika, Rwanda and Burundi] and Nyasaland [later Malawi].
(HN, 2/23/98)(WUD, 1994, p.593,990)
1904 Feb 23, William Shirer,
was born. He was a CBS broadcaster and wrote "The Rise and Fall of
the Third Reich."
(HN, 2/23/99)
1904 Feb 23, US acquired
control of the Panama Canal Zone for $10 million.
(MC, 2/23/02)
1904 Feb 23, Japan guaranteed
Korean sovereignty in exchange for military assistance.
(HN, 2/23/98)
1905 Feb 23, The Rotary Club
was founded in Chicago by lawyer Paul Percy Harris and 3 friends.
Montague M. Bear, an engraver and member of the Rotary Club of
Chicago, sketched a wagon wheel with 13 spokes. When fellow club
members began to complain that the design was static and lifeless,
Bear added flourishes that made the wheel appear to ride on a bed of
clouds. Unfortunately, some members felt the clouds looked like
dust, defying the laws of gravity by being kicked up on both sides
of the wheel. The service club did not admit women until the
1980s.
(http://tinyurl.com/28kd23m)(AP, 2/23/98)(SFC,
9/28/99, p.A27)(Econ, 6/27/09, p.70)
1906 Feb 23, Johann Hoch, US
murderer, was executed.
(MC, 2/23/02)
1909 Feb 23, Shrove Tuesday.
The Zulu Social Aid and Pleasure Society, the 1st African-American
Mardi Gras organization, first marched in the New Orleans Mardi Gras
parade. Members had marched in the Mardi Gras as early as 1901, but
their first appearance as Zulus came in 1909, with William Story as
King.
(www.mardigras.org/Calc.html)(http://tinyurl.com/ylqbwbj)
1910 Feb 23, George Bernard
Shaw's "Misalliance," premiered in London.
(MC, 2/23/02)
1911 Feb 23, G. Mennen
("Soapy") Williams, (Gov-D-Mich, 1949-60), was born in Detroit.
(MC, 2/23/02)
1915 Feb 23, Germany sank US
ships Carib & Evelyn and torpedoed the Norwegian ship Regin.
(MC, 2/23/02)
1916 Feb 23, Secretary of State
Lansing hinted that the U.S. might have to abandon the policy of
avoiding "entangling foreign alliances".
(HN, 2/23/98)
1916 Feb 23, French artillery
killed the entire French 72nd division at Samogneux, Verdun.
(MC, 2/23/02)
1917 Feb 23, The February
revolution began in Russia (OS calendar). [see Mar 8]
(MC, 2/23/02)
1919 Feb 23, Fascist Party was
formed in Italy by Benito Mussolini. [see Mar 23]
(MC, 2/23/02)
1921 Feb 23, The 1st
transcontinental airmail plane set a record of 33 hours and 20
minutes from San Francisco to New York.
(HN, 2/23/98)(MC, 2/23/02)
1924 Feb 23, Allan MacLeod
Cormack, physicist, was born. He later developed the CAT scan.
(HN, 2/23/01)
1926 Feb 23, President Calvin
Coolidge opposed a large air force, believing it would be a menace
to world peace.
(HN, 2/23/98)
1927 Feb 23, President Coolidge
signed the Radio Act, a bill creating the Federal Radio Commission,
forerunner of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). Commerce
Secretary Herbert Hoover established the Federal Radio Commission to
prevent interference among radio signals by allocating broadcast
spectrum.
(WSJ, 11/3/97, p.A20)(AP, 2/23/98)(Econ, 8/14/04,
p.61)
1929 Feb 23, Regine Crespin,
operatic soprano, was born in Marseilles, France.
(MC, 2/23/02)
1929 Feb 23, Elston Howard,
Yankee catcher (1st black NY Yankee/1963 AL MVP), was born.
(MC, 2/23/02)
1929 Feb 23, Chinese rebels
seized Hunan.
(HN, 2/23/98)
1930 Feb 23, Horst Wessel (22),
German Nazi brawler (wrote lyrics for "Die Fahne Hoch," the Horst
Wessel Song), was killed.
(MC, 2/23/02)
1931 Feb 23, Nellie Melba
(Helen Mitchell), Australian soprano, died.
(MC, 2/23/02)
1934 Feb 23, Edward William
Elgar (76), English composer (Coronation Ode), died.
(MC, 2/23/02)
1936 Feb 23, In Russia, an
unmanned balloon rose to a record height of 25 miles.
(HN, 2/23/98)
1938 Feb 23, Twelve Chinese
fighter planes dropped bombs on Japan.
(HN, 2/23/98)
1940 Feb 23, Peter Fonda, actor
(Easy Rider, Lilith, Wild Angels, Trip), was born.
(MC, 2/23/02)
1940 Feb 23, Walt Disney's
animated movie "Pinocchio" was released.
(MC, 2/23/02)
1940 Feb 23, Woody Guthrie
dated his song “this Land Is Your Land” to this day. His original
title was “God Bless America.”
(SFC, 11/27/98, p.c11)
1942 Feb 23, A Japanese
submarine shelled an oil refinery at Ellwood, near Santa Barbara,
Calif., the first Axis bombs to hit American soil.
(HN, 2/23/98)(MC, 2/23/02)
1942 Feb 23, Stefan Zweig
(b.1881), Austrian Jewish writer (Die Welt von Gestern), committed
suicide with his wife in Brazil. Zweig's nostalgic but rather
impersonal memoirs of the "Golden Age of Security", The World of
Yesterday, was published posthumously in 1943. His last novel (The
Ecstasy of Transformation) was published posthumously in Germany in
1982. In 2008 it was translated into English as “The Post-Office
Girl.”
(www.kirjasto.sci.fi/szweig.htm)(WSJ, 6/21/08,
p.W9)(Econ, 5/23/09, p.91)
1943 Feb 23, German troops
pulled back through the Kasserine Pass in Tunisia.
(MC, 2/23/02)
1944 Feb 23, American bombers
struck the Marianas Islands bases, only 1,300 miles from Tokyo.
(HN, 2/23/98)
1944 Feb 23, Stalin ordered the
mass deportation Caucasian Muslim nations. Chechens and Ingush to
Kazakhstan were deported for resisting Soviet rule and abetting the
Germans. "478,479 persons were evicted and loaded onto special
railway cars, including 91,250 Ingush." More than a third of the
population died before the rest were allowed to go home. Also
deported were the Karachays, Balkars, and Meskhetian Turks.
(WSJ, 9/12/02, p.A8)(WSJ, 2/23/04, p.A16)(Econ,
2/12/05, p.22)
1944 Feb 23, Leo Hendrik
Baekeland (b.1863), Belgium-born inventor of Bakelite (1907), died
in Beacon, NY.
(SSFC, 10/24/04, Par p.5)(ON, 9/05,
p.12)(www.yonkershistory.org/bake.html)
1945 Feb 23, Eisenhower opened
a large offensive in the Rhineland.
(HN, 2/23/98)
1945 Feb 23, During World War
II, U.S. Marines on Iwo Jima captured Mount Suribachi, where they
raised the American flag. Actually, there were two flag-raisings
that day, the second was the one captured in the famous Associated
Press photograph taken by Joe Rosenthal. John Bradley (d.1994), was
one of the soldiers who raised the US flag at Iwo Jima. The carnage
on the 8-sq.-mile island continued for another 31 days. One flag
raising was captured by AP photographer Joseph Rosenthal (1911-2006)
and inspired the 1954 sculpture by Felix de Weldon (d.2003) erected
in Washington DC. Sgt. Bill Genaust filmed the event with a 16mm
camera and died in combat 9 days later.
(SFC, 9/21/00, p.C6)(SFC, 6/14/03, p.A21)(SFC,
8/21/06, p.A1)(AP, 2/23/07)
1945 Feb 23, Turkey declared
war on Germany and Japan.
(HN, 2/23/98)
1946 Feb 23, Anti-British
demonstration in India drew a crowd of 300,000.
(HN, 2/23/98)
1946 Feb 23, Japanese General
Tomoyuki Yamashita was hanged in Manila, the Philippines, after
being found guilty by a US military commission of war crimes.
(AH, 2/06, p.15)
1947 Feb 23, Shakira Caine,
actress (Man Who be King), Miss Guyana (1967), was born in Guyana.
(MC, 2/23/02)
1947 Feb 23, Gen. Eisenhower
opened a drive to raise $170M in aid for European Jews.
(MC, 2/23/02)
1947 Feb 23, Several hundred
Nazi organizers were arrested in Frankfurt by U.S. and British
forces.
(HN, 2/23/98)
1950 Feb 23, New York's
Metropolitan Museum exhibited a collection of Hapsburg art. It was
the first showing of this collection in the U.S.
(HN, 2/23/98)
1954 Feb 23, The first mass
inoculation of children against polio with the Salk vaccine began in
Pittsburgh. Jonas Salk created the Salk vaccine against polio. It
used a killed virus to induce immunization. Poliomyelitis is a viral
attack of the central nervous system and can cause paralysis and
death by asphyxiation. [see Apr 26] In 2005 David M. Oshinsky
authored “Polio: An American Story – The Crusade That Mobilized the
Nation Against the 20th Century’s Most Feared Disease.”
(SFC, 6/21/96, p.A10)(HN, 2/23/98)(AP,
2/23/98)(Econ, 6/18/05, p.79)
1954 Feb 23, In Egypt Pres.
Naguib resigned. The popular outcry was so great that Naguib was
reinstated as president. Nasser, however, took the position of prime
minister, previously held by Naguib, and remained president of the
Revolutionary Command Council (RCC).
(http://countrystudies.us/egypt/32.htm)
1955 Feb 23, Eight nations (the
United States, Australia, France, Great Britain, New Zealand, the
Philippines, Pakistan, and Thailand) met in Bangkok for the first
SEATO council.
(HN, 2/23/98)(HN, 9/8/98)
1956 Feb 23, Russian party
leader Nikita Khrushchev attacked the memory of Stalin. [see Feb 14,
25]
(MC, 2/23/02)
1960 Feb 23, Whites joined
Negro students in a sit-in at a Winston-Salem, N.C. Woolworth store.
(HN, 2/23/98)
1960 Feb 23, Naruhito, crown
prince of Japan, was born.
(MC, 2/23/02)
1964 Feb 23, The Beatles' 3rd
TV appearance on the Ed Sullivan show, taped in NYC 2 weeks earlier,
aired.
(SFC, 3/6/04, p.D17)
1964 Feb 23, The U.S. and
Britain recognized the new Zanzibar government.
(HN, 2/23/98)
1965 Feb 23, Stan Laurel (74),
the "skinny" half of the Laurel and Hardy comedy team, died in Santa
Monica, Calif.
(AP, 2/23/00)
1967 Feb 23, American troops
began the largest offensive of the war, near the Cambodian border.
In order to deny the Vietcong cover, and allow men to see through
the dense vegetation, herbicides were dumped on the forests near the
South Vietnamese borders as well as Cambodia and Laos.
(HN, 2/23/98)
1969 Feb 23, Pres. Nixon
ordered plans for the secret bombing of Cambodia.
(www.historycommons.org/context.jsp?item=a04242670parrotsbeak)(SFEC,
4/23/00, p.A19)
1970 Feb 23, Guyana becomes a
republic.
(HFA, '96, p.24)
1972 Feb 23, Black activist
Angela Davis was released from jail where she was held for
kidnapping , conspiracy and murder.
(HN, 2/23/99)
1974 Feb 23, William F.
Knowland, former Cal. state senator and Oakland Tribune newspaper
publisher and editor, committed suicide. In 1998 Gayle B. Montgomery
and James W. Johnson, in collaboration with Paul G. Manolis,
published the biography "One Step from the White House: The Rise and
Fall of Senator William F. Knowland."
(SFEC, 5/17/98, BR
p.5)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_F._Knowland)
1979 Feb 23, The US EPA
approved ARCO Petroleum’s petition for the use of MTBE as a 2-5%
blend in gasoline to boost octane .
(SSFC, 8/26/01, p.A17)(http://tinyurl.com/34a9bg)
1980 Feb 23, Eric Heiden (21)
won his 5th speed skating gold at the Lake Placid Olympics. He went
on to become an orthopedic surgeon.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Speed_skating_at_the_1980_Winter_Olympics)(SSFC,
9/22/02, p.E1)
1980 Feb 23, Oil tanker
explosion off Pilos, Greece, caused a 37-mil-gallon spill.
{Ship, Greece, Environment}
(http://tinyurl.com/2lgors)
1981 Feb 23, An attempted coup
began in Spain as 200 members of the Civil Guard and some of the
military invaded the Parliament, taking lawmakers hostage. The
attempt, led by Colonel Antonio Tejero, collapsed 18 hours later.
Juan Carlos spoke to the nation on behalf of democracy and the coup
collapsed. In 2011 Javier Cercas authored “The Anatomy of a Moment:
Thirty-Five minutes in History and Imagination,” an examination of
the coup attempt.
(SFC, 11/12/96, p.A12)(AP, 2/23/98)(Econ, 2/4/06,
p.48)(Econ, 3/26/11, p.96)
1982 Feb 23, Michael Frayn's
"Noises Off" premiered in London.
(www.qsulis.demon.co.uk/Website_Louise_Gold/Noises_Off.htm)
1982 Feb 23, In SF nearly 3,500
people applied for the lottery for 162 apartments at Mei Lun Yuen,
the newly completed, federally subsidized housing development in
Chinatown.
(SSFC, 2/18/07, DB p.58)
1982 Feb 23, Tucapel Jimenez, a
Chilean labor leader, was found with his throat cut and face shot in
his car. Gen. Humberto Gordon Rubio (d.2000), secret police chief,
was implicated in the killing.
(SFC, 6/17/00,
p.A20)(www.ilo.org/ilolex/cgi-lex/single.pl?query=0319822171117)
1982 Feb 23, In a consultative
referendum, Greenland, which became a member of the European
Community as part of Denmark, opted for withdrawal from the
Community.
(http://europa.eu.int/abc/history/1982/index_en.htm)
1983 Feb 23, Adrian Boult
(b.1889), British conductor, died.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adrian_Boult)
1984 Feb 23, Two oceanic
conservation groups reported that SF Bay Area fishermen have caught
only 10-12% of their 10,000 ton herring quota as they passed more
than halfway through the fishing season. Quotas had doubled since
1977 and they were concerned that the herring stocks may be at the
point of no return. The herring was harvested primarily for their
roe, which fetched up to $500 a ton and was eagerly sought by
Japanese consumers.
(SSFC, 2/22/09, DB p.54)
1985 Feb 23, Indiana basketball
coach Bobby Knight threw a chair during a game.
(http://www2.indystar.com/library/factfiles/people/k/knight_bob/knight.html)
1985 Feb 23, US Senate
confirmed Edwin Meese III as attorney general.
(www.ashbrook.org/events/memdin/meese/home.html)
1987 Feb 23, The IMB
(Irvine-Michigan-Brookhaven) radiation detector near Cleveland
recorded neutrinos from the supernova. Neutrinos were also detected
in Japan on a similar machine, Kamiokande II.
(NG, 5/88, p.636)
1988 Feb 23, President Reagan
named William L. Ball III to succeed James H. Webb Jr. as Navy
Secretary.
(AP, 2/23/98)
1988 Feb 23, Presidential
hopeful Bob Dole defeated Vice President George Bush in the South
Dakota and Minnesota Republican primaries; among Democrats, Michael
S. Dukakis won in Minnesota, Dick Gephardt in South Dakota.
(AP, 2/23/98)
1989 Feb 23, The US Senate
Armed Services Committee voted against recommending the nomination
of John Tower to become secretary of defense.
(AP, 2/23/99)
1990 Feb 23, James Gavin
(b.1907), US commander 82nd Airborne Div (Normandy), died. He was
known as “the jumping general” for parachuting along with combat
troops in WW II.
(www.britannica.com/dday/article-9000825)
1990 Feb 23, Former Salvadoran
President Jose Napoleon Duarte died at age 64.
(AP, 2/23/00)
1991 Feb 23, President Bush
announced that the allied ground offensive against Iraqi forces had
begun (because of the time difference, it was already the early
morning of February 24th in the Persian Gulf).
(AP, 2/23/01)
1991 Feb 23, French forces
unofficially started the Persian Gulf ground war by crossing the
Saudi-Iraqi border. Lessons learned in the savage 1972 Eastertide
Offensive paid off at the Battle of Khafji in the Gulf War.
(HN, 2/23/98)
1991 Feb 23, Tanks rolled in
the streets of Bangkok and a coup was held to get rid of the corrupt
government of Chatichai Choonhavan. After months of investigations a
military-appointed committee seized the assets of 10 men from the
ousted administration. Gen. Suchinda Kraprayoon toppled a civilian
government in a bloodless takeover. He was ousted in 1992 following
street demonstrations.
(WSJ, 12/11/96, p.A16)(AP, 9/20/06)
1992 Feb 23, The XVI Winter
Olympic Games ended in Albertville, France.
(AP, 2/23/02)
1992 Feb 23, Paul Tsongas won a
narrow victory over Jerry Brown in the Maine Democratic caucuses.
(AP, 2/23/02)
1992 Feb 23 In Jamaica Lester
Coke (aka Jim Brown), head of the infamous Shower Posse, died in a
mysterious prison cell fire.
(www.islandmix.com/backchat/f6/jamaicans-rope-131061/)
1992 Feb 23, In Moscow,
thousands of pro-communist demonstrators, some shouting, “Down with
the Russian government!,” clashed with police.
(AP, 2/23/02)
1993 Feb 23, President Clinton
won United Nations support for a plan to airdrop relief supplies to
starving Bosnians during an Oval Office meeting with
Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali.
(AP, 2/23/98)
1994 Feb 23, Nancy Kerrigan led
the women's figure skating short program at the Winter Olympics in
Norway, while Tonya Harding placed tenth.
(AP, 2/23/99)
1994 Feb 23, Military chiefs of
Bosnia's Muslim-led government and their second-strongest foes,
Bosnia's Croats, signed a truce.
(AP, 2/23/99)
1994 Feb 23, In Egypt, an
explosion hit a train in Assiut. 6 foreign tourists were hurt. The
militant Islamic group Gama’a al-Islamiya claimed responsibility.
(WSJ, 10/11/04, p.A17)
1994 Feb 23, Russia's new
parliament took a swipe at President Boris Yeltsin by granting
amnesty to leaders of the 1991 Soviet coup and the hard-liners who'd
fought him in 1993.
(AP, 2/23/99)
1995 Feb 23, Administration
officials said President Clinton would review dozens of affirmative
action programs.
(AP, 2/23/00)
1995 Feb 23, The Dow Jones
industrial average closed above the 4,000 mark for the first time,
ending the day at 4,003.33.
(WSJ, 12/16/96, p.C1) (AP, 2/23/00)
1995 Feb 23, Former U.S.
President Jimmy Carter arrived in Haiti to help prepare for peaceful
elections.
(AP, 2/23/00)
1995 Feb 23, James Alfred Wight
(b.1916), Scottish author Yorkshire veterinarian, died. His penname
was James Herriot and his work included "All Creatures Great and
Small," which was later made into a BBC TV series. His first book
was "If Only They Could Talk." His home and shop in Thirsk was
opened for visitors in 1999.
{Scotland, Writer, TV}
(www.todayinliterature.com/biography/james.herriot.asp)(SFC,
7/19/99, p.A22)
1996 Feb 23, FBI agents
arrested Robert Lipka, a former army clerk at the National Security
Agency, for espionage in the late 1960s.
(WSJ, 11/21/96, p.A1)
1996 Feb 23, Juan Pablo Roque,
Cuban defector and author of "The Deserter," vanished from Miami and
returned to Cuba. In 1999 his wife sued the Cuban government for
sexual battery.
(SFEC, 8/15/99, p.A5)
1996 Feb 23, William George
Bonin (49), known as the "Freeway Killer," was executed for the
robbery, torture, rape and strangulation of 14 Southern California
boys.
(SFC, 7/11/97, p.A16)(SFEC, 2/7/99, p.A1)(SFC,
3/13/00, p.A8)
1996 Feb 23, Dutch tourist
Tosca Dieperink, 39, was killed in a holdup at a Miami service
station. Two men later pleaded guilty to the slaying and were
sentenced to prison.
(AP, 2/23/01)
1996 Feb 23, Chechen rebels
blew up a big gas pipeline in southern Chechnya. Russia was bringing
in troops ahead of today’s anniversary of mass deportations of
Chechens to Central Asia in World War II.
(WSJ, 2/22/96, p.A-1)
1996 Feb 23, Two Iraqi
defectors were killed in Baghdad, reportedly by members of their own
clan who accused them of betraying Saddam Hussein by fleeing to
Jordan. The Iraqi News Agency reported that Lieutenant General
Hussein Kamel al-Majid and his brother Saddam Kamel al-Majid, a pair
of defectors who were also the sons-in-law of Saddam Hussein, were
killed by clan members after returning to their homeland.
(WSJ, 2/26/96, p.A-1)(AP, 2/23/01)
1997 Feb 23, NBC TV showed
"Schindler's List," completely uncensored and 65M watched.
(www.answers.com/topic/schindler-s-list)
1997 Feb 23, Former NAACP
leader Benjamin Chavis announced that he had joined the Nation of
Islam led by ailing Louis Farrakhan.
(SFC, 2/25/97, p.A10)
1997 Feb 23, In Philadelphia a
group of white men attacked a black family in the Grays Ferry
section. Nine men were tried in 1998 and 6 were convicted on a
variety of felony accounts.
(SFC, 2/10/98, p.A3)
1997 Feb 23, Ali Hassan Abu
Kamal (69), a Palestinian teacher, opened fire on the 86th-floor
observation deck of New York City's Empire State Building, killing
one person and wounding six others before shooting himself to death.
He was said to have acted on personal motives not associated to any
political group.
(SFC, 2/24/97, p.A1)(AP, 2/23/98)
1997 Feb 23, China’s
legislature voted to dilute Hong Kong’s civil liberties laws.
(SFEC, 6/22/97, p.A14)
1997 Feb 23, There was a flash
fire aboard the 11-year-old Russian space station Mir. New fire
extinguishers were brought up on Apr 8 along with oxygen generators
and carbon-dioxide removal canisters and other provisions by the
crewless Progress-34 ship.
(SFE, 4/9/97, p.A15)
1997 Feb 23, In eastern India a
fire in Baripada killed 190 worshippers at the 46th annual festival
in honor of the late Swami Nigamananda.
(SFC, 2/24/97, p.A10)(SFC, 2/25/97, p.a14)(AP,
2/23/98)
1997 Feb 23, In Israel PM
Netenyahu hired a lawyer as he faced charges of participating
in a deal to quash corruption charges against Aryeh Deri, the leader
of the religious Shas party, in order to get the party’s support for
the Hebron agreement.
(WSJ, 2/24/97, p.A1)(SFC, 2/25/97, p.a12)
1997 Feb 23, It was announced
that researchers under Dr. Ian Wilmut at Edinburgh, Scotland,
created a clone lamb from adult sheep DNA. The lamb was born in Jul,
1996, and named Dolly after Dolly Pardon. Dolly was put down Feb.
14, 2003, after a short life marred by premature aging and disease.
(SFEC, 2/23/97, p.C1)(AP, 2/23/98)
1998 Feb 23, President Clinton
gave cautious approval to a U.N. agreement reached by
Secretary-General Kofi Annan with Saddam Hussein for monitoring
suspected weapons sites in Iraq.
(AP, 2/23/99)
1998 Feb 23, The California
State Supreme Court ruled that anybody can sue a corner store or gas
station for selling cigarettes to minors.
(SFC, 2/24/98, p.A22)
1998 Feb 23, In Florida 6-10
tornadoes killed forty-two people. Some 2,600 homes and businesses
damaged or destroyed, by tornadoes in Seminole, Osceola, Orange,
Brevard and Volusia counties Florida.
(SFC, 2/24/98, p.A1)(WSJ, 2/24/98, p.A1)(AP,
2/23/99)
1998 Feb 23, In Afghanistan
Osama bin Laden declared a holy war on the US. Bin Laden announced
the formation of the World Islamic Front for Jihad against Jews and
Crusaders. It called on Muslims worldwide to attack Americans. The
Al Quds Al-Arabi newspaper published a statement that announced an
alliance between Dr. Zawahri, head of the Egyptian Jihad, and Osama
bin Laden. "We—with God’s help—call on every Muslim…to comply with
God’s order to kill Americans."
(WSJ, 4/2/02, p.A18)(WSJ, 7/2/02, p.A8)(SFC,
2/22/00, p.A8)
1998 Jan 23, In Albania troops
stormed into Shkorda to end 2 days of looting and burnings. Rioters
were demanding the release from jail of 2 men loyal to former Pres.
Berisha. Berisha denounced the violence and ties to the jailed men.
(SFC, 2/24/98, p.A10)
1998 Feb 23, A bomb exploded
under a passing train near El Affroune, Algeria. Ten people were
killed and 25 injured.
(SFC, 2/24/98, p.A10)
1998 Feb 23, In Columbia Pres.
Samper denied his weekend offer to resign in order to improve
relations with the US.
(SFC, 2/23/98, p.A12)
1998 Feb 23, In India in Andhra
Pradesh state leftist guerrillas set off a mine that killed 5
soldiers sent to guard polling stations.
(SFC, 2/24/98, p.A8)
1998 Feb 23, In Northern
Ireland a bomb leveled 2 buildings in Portadown. The Continuity IRA
was suspected in the blast that started a fire and damaged roofs and
windows across the town.
(SFC, 2/24/98, p.A8)
1998 Feb 23, South Korea’s
Pres.-elect Kim Dae Jung named Kim Jong Pil, founder of the Korea
Central Intelligence Agency, as prime minister.
(SFC, 2/23/98, p.A12)
1999 Feb 23, A jury in Jasper,
Texas convicted white supremacist John William King of murder in the
gruesome dragging death of a black man, James Byrd Jr.; King was
sentenced to death two days later.
(SFC, 2/24/99, p.A1)(AP, 2/23/00)
1999 Feb 23, Federal
authorities reported that Jay Scott Ballinger (36) of Indiana had
admitted to burning as many as 50 churches in the last 5 years. He
was charged with arson in 7 burnings in southern Indiana. In 2000
Ballinger pleaded guilty to setting 26 church fires in Alabama,
California, Indiana, Ohio, Kentucky, Missouri, South Carolina and
Tennessee.
(SFC, 2/24/99, p.A5)(SFC, 7/12/00, p.A2)
1999 Feb 23, In Brazil the $5
billion Sergio Motta Dam on the Parana River, 370 miles northwest of
Sao Paulo, was inaugurated. Full power to 18 turbines was expected
in 2003.
(SFC, 2/24/99, p.C3)
1999 Feb 23, The Disney film
"Mulan" premiered in China. Only 10 foreign films per year were
allowed into China so as to protect its own industry.
(SFC, 2/24/99, p.E3)
1999 Feb 23, Heavy rain and
snow in the Alps left 5 people dead and 13 missing in Austria,
Switzerland, France and Germany. An avalanche in the Austrian Alps
at Galtuer killed 9 people and at least 30 were missing. The death
toll in Austria rose to 33 by Feb 25.
(WSJ, 2/23/99, p.A1)(SFC, 2/24/99, p.A8)(WSJ,
2/26/99, p.A1)
1999 Feb 23, Ethiopian troops
attacked Eritrea with tanks and aircraft.
(WSJ, 2/24/99, p.A1)
1999 Feb 23, In France the
Kosovo Albanians agreed in principle to a peace settlement but asked
for 2 more weeks for consultations at home.
(SFC, 2/24/99, p.A1)
1999 Feb 23, Police fired on
warring Christians and Muslims on the island of Ambon and at least 5
people were killed and 12 wounded.
(WSJ, 2/24/99, p.A1)
1999 Feb 23, In Lebanon
Hezbollah guerrillas ambushed an Israeli commando squad and killed
the commander and 2 officers.
(SFC, 2/24/99, p.C3)
1999 Feb 23, Serbs agreed in
principle to give limited self-rule to majority ethnic Albanians in
Kosovo, thereby temporarily heading off NATO air strikes, but during
their talks in Rambouillet, France, the two sides failed to conclude
a deal for ending their yearlong conflict.
(AP, 2/23/00)
1999 Feb 23, In Somalia
militiamen loyal to Hussein Aidid reported that they had killed 60
civilians in the Baidoa town and the village of Daynunay.
(SFC, 2/24/99, p.C3)
1999 Feb 23, In Khartoum,
Sudan, health officials reported that some 140 people had died from
meningitis and that another 1000 suffered from the disease.
(SFC, 2/24/99, p.C3)
1999 Feb 23, Turkey formally
arrested Abdullah Ocalan on treason charges.
(SFC, 2/24/99, p.A8)
2000 Feb 23, Carlos Santana won
eight Grammy awards, including album of the year for “Supernatural,”
tying the record set by Michael Jackson in 1983 for most trophies in
one night.
(SFC, 2/24/00, p.A1)(AP, 2/23/01)
2000 Feb 23, At Pelican Bay
State Prison in California guards shot and killed one prisoner and
wounded 15 others as they quelled a prison yard riot between some
150 black and Latino inmates. Prison officials found 89 knives made
by inmates at the site of the brawl.
(SFC, 2/24/00, p.A1)(SFC, 2/25/00, p.A1)
2000 Feb 23, It was reported
that Ethiopia faced severe famine and the UN World Food Program
planned an appeal to raise $50 million for emergency aid.
(SFC, 2/24/00, p.A14)
2000 Feb 23, In Nigeria
residents fled Kaduna after 2 days of religious clashes left at
least 200 people dead.
(SFC, 2/24/00, p.A12)
2001 Feb 23, Pres. Bush opened
a two-day summit with British Prime Minister Tony Blair at Camp
David. They endorsed a European rapid-action force as long as it is
secondary to Nato.
(SFC, 2/24/01, p.A3)(AP, 2/23/02)
2001 Feb 23, Defense Secretary
Donald Rumsfeld ordered an indefinite moratorium on civilian
visitors operating military equipment, a possible factor in the
collision of a U.S. submarine collision with a Japanese fishing
boat.
(AP, 2/23/02)
2001 Feb 23, A US federal
appeals court upheld that the US government mismanaged and neglected
Native American trust funds.
(SFC, 2/24/01, p.A5)
2001 Feb 23, David Edward
Attias (18), a freshman at UC Santa Barbara, rammed his Saab into a
crowd in Isla Vista and killed 4 students, Nicholas Shaw Bourdakis
(20), Christopher Edward Divis (20), Ruth Dasha Golda Levy (20) and
Elie Israel (27). A 5th victim, Albert Arthur Levy (27), was
severely battered. Attias was charged with murder the next day.
Attias was convicted on 2nd degree murder in 2002 and jurors found
him insane.
(SFC, 2/26/01, p.A1)(SFC, 2/27/01, p.A13)(SFC,
6/13/02, p.A1)(SFC, 6/21/02, p.A17)
2001 Feb 23, Anthony Giacalone,
Detroit mobster, died at age 82.
(SFC, 5/3/01, p.B7)
2001 Feb 23, In Indonesia
Madurese refugees fled Borneo as the death toll from clashes with
the native Dayaks approached 200.
(SFC, 2/24/01, p.A1)
2001 Feb 23, Palestinians
demonstrated against the visit of Colin Powell and one was killed in
clashes with Israeli security forces.
(SFC, 2/24/01, p.A10)
2001 Feb 23, In Russia a Moscow
court threw out charges by prosecutors who attempted to ban the
Jehovah’s Witnesses under a 1997 law that prohibited religious sects
that incite hatred and violence.
(SFC, 2/24/01, p.A11)
2002 Feb 23, The US government
said it had clues that Osama bin Laden was still alive in
Afghanistan.
(SSFC, 2/24/02, p.A16)
2002 Feb 23, It was reported
that Bergen and Hudson counties of New Jersey were placed on water
restrictions as the worst drought in 75 years lingered on along the
East Coast.
(SFC, 2/23/02, p.A24)
2002 Feb 23, Penn State pole
vaulter Kevin Dare died after landing on his head during the Big Ten
indoor championships in Minneapolis.
(AP, 2/23/07)
2002 Feb 23, In Colombia FARC
rebels kidnapped Ingrid Betancourt (40), a presidential candidate,
near La Montanita enroute to San Vicente del Caguan. She was the
author of “Until Death do us Part: My Struggle to Reclaim Colombia.”
Clara Rojas (37) was also kidnapped. Rohas gave birth to a son in
2004 from whom she was separated. She was released in Jan 2008.
Betancourt and other hostages were freed in a military operation in
July, 2008.
(SFC, 2/25/02, p.A6)(Econ, 3/20/04, p.37)(SFC,
12/19/08, p.A1)
2002 Feb 23, Switzerland
largest bank said it was freezing accounts containing money of the
family of Sani Abacha of Nigeria, dictator from 1993-1998. The total
blocked now reached $720 million.
(SSFC, 2/24/02, p.A20)
2003 Feb 23, In the 45th
US Grammy's in NYC Norah Jones won 3 awards as did Bruce Springsteen
for his 9/11-inspired album "The Rising."
(SFC, 2/24/03, p.D1)
2003 Feb 23, Robert K. Merton
(b.1910), writer and sociologist, died. In 1965 he authored “On the
Shoulders of Giants” (OTSOG), wherein he traced the eponymous title,
usually attributed to Isaac Newton, to Bernard of Chartres in about
1130. [see 1159]
(www.asanet.org/footnotes/mar03/indextwo.html)
2003 Feb 23, In northern
Greece a bus plunged off a highway bridge, killing at least 14
people.
(AP, 2/23/03)
2003 Feb 23, In Iraq
Saddam Hussein met separately with Russian Yevgeny Primakov and
former US attorney gen'l. Ramsay Clark. Clark said Hussein feared
that Pres. Bush had made up his mind to attack and that there was
nothing he could do to prevent it.
(SFC, 2/25/03, A10)
2003 Feb 23, The UN
Children's Fund and Iraqi health teams began a five-day campaign to
vaccinate 4 million Iraqi children against polio.
(AP, 2/23/03)
2003 Feb 23, Israeli
troops raided Beit Hanoun in Gaza, blew up five homes of suspected
militants, battled masked gunmen and shot from tank-mounted machine
guns toward dozens of stone throwers. Six Palestinians were killed
and 28 wounded. 2 more Palestinians were killed elsewhere in Gaza.
(AP, 2/23/03)
2003 Feb 23, In Malawi a
lion, who escaped from Kasungu National Park and attacked and killed
about 7 people, was shot and killed by game hunters.
(AP, 2/24/03)
2003 Feb 23, The
Philippine government said it will not permit U.S. forces to join
Filipino troops in combat against Muslim extremists.
(AP, 2/23/03)
2004 Feb 23, Pentagon officials
opened a criminal fraud investigation of Halliburton on fuel
overpricing in Iraq.
(SFC, 2/24/04, p.A8)
2004 Feb 23, The US Army
cancelled a $39 billion Comanche helicopter program after spending
$6.9 billion. Boeing and Sikorsky were the main contractors.
(SFC, 2/24/04, p.A5)
2004 Feb 23, US Education
Secretary Rod Paige likened the National Education Association, the
nation's largest teachers union, to a "terrorist organization"
during a private White House meeting with governors. Paige later
called it a poor choice of words, but stood by his claim the NEA was
using "obstructionist scare tactics" in its fight over the nation's
education law.
(AP, 2/23/05)
2004 Feb 23, James Joseph
Minder (74) resigned as chairman of Smith & Wessen Holding Corp.
following revelations that he had served years in prison for armed
robbery in Michigan, where he was once known as the "Shotgun
Bandit."
(WSJ, 3/8/04, p.A1)
2004 Feb 23, British law
changed to allow immigrants to work but not claim most welfare
benefits.
(Econ, 2/28/04, p.52)
2004 Feb 23, Envoys from 6
nations gathered in Beijing for talks on the North Korean nuclear
crisis.
(WSJ, 2/24/04, p.A1)
2004 Feb 23, In northeastern
China a coal mine explosion killed at least 24 miners as rescue
workers scrambled to find 13 more trapped miners.
(AP, 2/24/04)
2004 Feb 23, Rebels who overran
Haiti's second-largest city began detaining people identified as
supporters of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, and said they soon
will attack Haiti's capital. Fifty combat-ready U.S. Marines were on
their way to Port-au-Prince to secure the U.S. Embassy and its
staff.
(AP, 2/23/04)
2004 Feb 23, In India an
explosion and fire at India's main space center killed at least six
people. The accident took place at the solid propellant fuel plant
at the government's Dhawan Space Center, on Sriharikota Island just
off India's southeastern coast.
(AP, 2/23/04)
2004 Feb 23, In Iran
conservatives formally reclaimed control of parliament after
disputed elections that were boycotted by reformists who called the
vote a "historical fiasco" without free choice.
(AP, 2/23/04)
2004 Feb 23, In Iraq a suicide
bomber detonated an explosive-packed vehicle outside an Iraqi police
station in a Kurdish neighborhood of Kirkuk, killing at least seven
people and wounding at least 35 others.
(AP, 2/23/04)
2004 Feb 23, The World Health
Organization launched a massive immunization campaign targeting 63
million children in 10 African countries as a polio outbreak spread
from heavily Muslim northern Nigeria.
(AP, 2/21/04)
2005 Feb 23, Pres. Bush and
German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder pledged to help developing
nations cut back on their output of greenhouse gases. They also
agreed to turn down the volume on their disagreements about Iraq and
Iran.
(SFC, 2/26/05, p.A1)(AP, 2/23/06)
2005 Feb 23, A real estate
report said uptown Manhattan, condo and co-op apartments sold for a
median price of $305,490 in 2004, up a whopping 349.3 percent from
$68,000 in 1995.
(Reuters, 2/23/05)
2005 Feb 23, In Homosassa,
Florida, Jessica Marie Lunsford (9), was last seen when her
grandmother tucked her into bed. The next morning, her father
discovered she was gone. [see Mar 19]
(AP, 2/27/05)
2005 Feb 23, In Afghanistan 2
Afghan relief workers were found shot to death on a remote southern
desert road.
(SFC, 2/24/05, p.A10)
2005 Feb 23, A military jury
convicted two British servicemen on charges of involvement in
abusing Iraqi civilians.
(AP, 2/23/05)
2005 Feb 23, Colombia's Supreme
Court authorized the extradition to the US of Miguel Rodriguez
Orejuela, who along with his brother Gilberto helped found the Cali
drug cartel. In central Colombia a leftist rebel deserter killed 7
of his comrades before fleeing his clandestine camp.
(AP, 2/23/05)
2005 Feb 23, Egyptian President
Hosni Mubarak said that he expects further Syrian troop
redeployments in Lebanon, and he dispatched his intelligence chief
to Damascus to meet with President Bashar Assad to discuss
increasing American and European pressure on Syria.
(AP, 2/23/05)
2005 Feb 23, French film star
Simone Simon (b.1910) died in Paris.
(AP, 2/23/06)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simon)
2005 Feb 23, India and Pakistan
agreed to cut red tape and ease barriers that hamper bilateral
trade.
(AP, 2/23/05)
2005 Feb 23, In India 4 people
were killed in police firing and a blast in Jharkhand and Bihar in
the final round of assembly elections.
(AP, 2/23/05)
2005 Feb 23, In Iraq a car bomb
exploded in Mosul, killing 2 people and wounding 14 others.
(AP, 2/23/05)
2005 Feb 23, Mexico’s high
court blocked prosecution of ex-President Echeverria for “dirty war”
crimes in the 1970s ruling that the statute of limitations has run
out.
(WSJ, 2/24/05, p.A1)
2005 Feb 23, In northern
Nigeria hunters burning land to flush out game set fire to a
munitions dump, triggering a string of explosions which damaged
military buildings and spread panic in the city of Kaduna.
(AP, 2/24/05)
2005 Feb 23, Paraguay President
Nicanor Duarte sacked his interior minister and 31 police officers,
shaking up his security forces a week after the kidnapped daughter
of a former Paraguayan leader was found dead.
(AP, 2/23/05)
2005 Feb 23, Serbia's prime
minister and other top officials flatly rejected Montenegro's
proposal for a final split of their joint state.
(AP, 2/23/05)
2005 Feb 23, In Sudan an
explosion at an ammunition dump in the southern town of Juba killed
24 people.
(Reuters, 2/23/05)
2005 Feb 23, Turkey's
parliament approved legislation allowing thousands of students
thrown out of universities to return, including women who violated
the staunchly secular country's ban on Islamic-style head scarves.
(AP, 2/23/05)
2006 Feb 23, A US federal judge
ordered the Pentagon on to release the identities of hundreds of
detainees at Guantanamo Bay to The Associated Press by March 3, a
move which would force the government to break its secrecy and
reveal the most comprehensive list yet of those who have been
imprisoned there.
(AP, 2/23/06)
2006 Feb 23, The US State
Department said that North Korea has agreed to hold talks with the
US on its alleged counterfeiting and money laundering activities
that led to US sanctions and a breakdown in six-nation nuclear
negotiations.
(AP, 2/23/06)
2006 Feb 23, A United Arab
Emirates company volunteered to postpone its takeover of significant
operations at six major US seaports, giving the White House more
time to convince skeptical lawmakers the deal posed no increased
risks from terrorism.
(AP, 2/23/07)
2006 Feb 23, In NYC Michael
Mastromarino, owner of Biomedical Tissue Services in New Jersey, was
charged along with 3 others of selling body parts for use in
transplants across the US. Joseph Nicelli, owner of a Brooklyn
funeral home, was among those charged.
(SFC, 2/24/06, p.A2)
2006 Feb 23, A New Zealand
teenager hacked into the University of Pennsylvania computer system.
Owen Thor Walker (18), known by his online name "AKILL," also was
linked to a network accused of infiltrating 1.3 million computers
and skimming millions of dollars from victims' bank accounts. In
2008 Walker was ordered to pay more than $11,000 in fines but
avoided a conviction so that he can help police solve computer
crimes.
(AP, 7/15/08)
2006 Feb 23, Environmental
Health published a study that found the chromium industry had
withheld key data from the government involving the health risks of
workers exposed to the carcinogenic metal.
(SFC, 2/24/06, p.A6)
2006 Feb 23, A fire raged
through a Bangladesh textile mill, killing at least 54 people in the
three-story building inside an industrial park in Chittagong.
(AP, 2/25/06)
2006 Feb 23, China warned Hong
Kong’s new Cardinal Joseph Zen that he should avoid mixing religion
and politics.
(WSJ, 2/24/06, p.A4)
2006 Feb 23, China’s Lenovo
Group, the world’s 3rd largest computer maker, announced it was
introducing low-priced desktop an notebook computers in the US and
other countries.
(SFC, 2/24/06, p.D1)
2006 Feb 23, In China a coal
mine explosion in eastern Shandong province killed 15 miners and
injured 12 others. The mine belonged to the Zaozhuang Mining Group
Co.
(AP, 2/23/06)
2006 Feb 23, A top UN
humanitarian official said thousands of civilians have taken refuge
on floating islands in the lakes of Congo's Katanga province to
escape rape and murder by government and militia fighters.
(Reuters, 2/23/06)
2006 Feb 23, Greece's seamen's
union called off a crippling eight-day strike and said it would
allow ships to begin sailing.
(AP, 2/23/06)
2006 Feb 23, Gunmen pulled
factory workers off buses northeast of Baghdad and shot dead 47 of
them. They left their bodies in a ditch as militia battles and
sectarian reprisals followed the bombing of a sacred Shiite shrine.
Sunni Arabs suspended their participation in talks on a new
government. The bodies of 23 men were found dumped at six sites in
Baghdad, most of them in predominantly Shiite parts of the city. In
total over 100 people were killed across Iraq.
(AP, 2/23/06)(SFC, 2/24/06, p.A1)
2006 Feb 23, The bodies of 3
Iraqi Sunni journalists were found near Samarra. They included Atwar
Bahjat, a well-known correspondent for Al-Arabiya television, and
her colleagues engineer Adnan Khairullah and cameraman Khalid
Mahmoud.
(AP, 2/24/06)
2006 Feb 23, Israeli troops
killed five Palestinians, including three fugitive gunmen, and
seriously wounded a sixth man during an arrest sweep in the Balata
refugee camp. The sweep, which began Feb 20, left a total of 8
Palestinians dead and over 50 injured.
(AP, 2/23/06)
2006 Feb 23, Japan's Shizuka
Arakawa stunned favorites Sasha Cohen of the United States and Irina
Slutskaya of Russia to claim the women's figure skating gold medal
at the Turin Winter Olympics.
(AP, 2/23/07)
2006 Feb 23, Tens of thousands
of Lebanese Shiites beat their chests in mourning and shouted
anti-American slogans in a rally to protest the bombing of a Muslim
shrine in Iraq.
(AP, 2/23/06)
2006 Feb 23, A powerful
earthquake sent thousands of panicking people fleeing from swaying
buildings in Mozambique and Zimbabwe, and killed at least two
people.
(AP, 2/23/06)
2006 Feb 23, Christians in the
southern Nigerian city of Onitsha burned Muslim corpses and defaced
wrecked mosques, showing little repentance after days of sectarian
violence that has killed more than 120 people across the country.
(AP, 2/23/06)
2006 Feb 23, In Russia the
concave, snow-covered roof of Moscow’s Basmanny market collapsed,
killing at least 66 people.
(WSJ, 2/24/06, p.A1)(AP, 2/25/06)
2006 Feb 23, Ugandan voters
lined up to choose between a leader who has ruled for 20 years and
four challengers in the country's first multiparty elections in two
decades.
(AP, 2/23/06)
2006 Feb 23, Venezuela said it
will prohibit Continental and Delta Airlines from flying into this
South American nation. Initially effective March 1, the ban was soon
delayed to Mar 30. The ban was in response to a 1996 FAA ban on
commercial jets registered in Venezuela, because Venezuela allegedly
didn't meet international safety standards. Venezuelan officials say
they have improved safety standards since then.
(AP, 2/24/06)(WSJ, 2/27/06, p.A6)
2007 Feb 23, A Mississippi
grand jury refused to bring any new charges in the 1955 slaying of
Emmett Till, a black teenager who was beaten and shot after
whistling at a white woman, declining to indict the woman, Carolyn
Bryant Donham, for manslaughter. Democrat Tom Vilsack abandoned his
bid for the presidency.
(AP, 2/23/08)
2007 Feb 23, Phoenix Sky Harbor
International Airport became the first in the United States to begin
testing new X-ray screening technology that can see through people's
clothes.
(AP, 2/23/08)
2007 Feb 23, In Kabul some
25,000 people, including top government figures and former fighters,
rallied to support a proposed amnesty for Afghans suspected of war
crimes.
(AP, 2/23/07)
2007 Feb 23, An Australian
soldier opened fire on a group of East Timorese attacking him with
steel arrows, killing one of the youths and critically wounding two.
(AP, 2/23/07)
2007 Feb 23, In northern
England one commuter died and five were seriously injured when the
high-speed London to Glasgow Virgin train, packed with 120
passengers and staff, derailed in the county of Cumbria.
(AP, 2/24/07)
2007 Feb 23, Canada's Supreme
Court struck down the government's right to detain foreign terrorism
suspects indefinitely and without trial, ruling that the system
violates the country's bill of rights.
(AP, 2/23/07)
2007 Feb 23, Chadian PM Pascal
Yoadimnadji (56) died at a Paris hospital following a brain
hemorrhage.
(AP, 2/23/07)
2007 Feb 23, It was reported
that China had established clinics to treat teens addicted to the
Internet.
(SFC, 2/23/07, p.A16)
2007 Feb 23, It was reported
that Cuban press authorities have told certain Havana correspondents
for the Chicago Tribune, the BBC and a major Mexican newspaper that
they can no longer report from the island.
(AP, 2/23/07)
2007 Feb 23, Egyptian security
forces discovered approximately 1 ton of explosives hidden
underground near Egypt's border with Gaza.
(AP, 2/23/07)
2007 Feb 23, In Guatemala a
330-foot-deep sinkhole killed two teenage siblings when it swallowed
about a dozen homes and forced the evacuation of nearly 1,000 people
in a crowded Guatemala City neighborhood. A 3rd body was found the
next day.
(AP, 2/24/07)
2007 Feb 23, In India the
Toxics Link environmental group said India has generated 150,000
tons of electronic waste each year for the last 3 years, with no
laws to regulate its disposal.
(AP, 2/23/07)
2007 Feb 23, In Iraq US troops
arrested Amar al-Hakim, the son of Iraq's top Shiite politician, as
he returned to the country from Iran. He was later released and US
Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad issued a rapid apology.
(AP, 2/23/07)(AP, 2/24/07)
2007 Feb 23, A fire raced
through a home for the elderly and disabled in western Latvia
leaving 25 people dead or missing.
(AP, 2/23/07)
2007 Feb 23, In Myanmar at
least five protesters who took part in a rare demonstration that
urged the ruling military junta to improve health care, education
and economic conditions were taken into custody.
(AP, 2/23/07)
2007 Feb 23, In Nigeria gunmen
shot dead a Lebanese engineer and kidnapped two Italians in two
separate incidents in the southern oil city of Port Harcourt.
(Reuters, 2/23/07)
2007 Feb 23, North Korea asked
the chief UN atomic inspector to visit four years after expelling
his experts and dropping out of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty.
(AP, 2/23/07)
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 23, Pakistan
successfully test-fired a new version of its long-range
nuclear-capable missile, two days after Pakistani and Indian
officials signed an agreement in New Delhi to reduce the risk of an
accidental nuclear war between them.
(AP, 2/23/07)
2007 Feb 23-2007 Feb 24, In
Gaza City Mohammed Ghelban, a 28-year-old commander from Hamas'
military wing, was killed in a drive-by shooting outside his home. A
22-year-old man from a Fatah family, Hazem Karouah, was killed
several hours later, as was 75-year-old Ismail Sabah, who was caught
in the cross-fire.
(AP, 2/24/07)
2007 Feb 23, A Somali official
said Uganda's top military officials promised to help train a
national army for Somalia and help provide security for its
government.
(AP, 2/23/07)
2007 Feb 23, European
cease-fire monitors said that nearly 4,000 people were killed in Sri
Lanka in the past 15 months and they emphasized the importance that
the government and the rebels adhere to the cease-fire.
(AP, 2/23/07)
2007 Feb 23, In Turkey Hilmi
Aydogdu, leader of the Democratic Society Party's branch in the
mainly Kurdish city of Diyarbakir, was charged with inciting hatred
and threatening public safety after suggesting that fellow Kurds
would rise against the state and fight if Turkey ever attacked their
Kurdish brethren in neighboring Iraq.
(AP, 2/23/07)
2007 Feb 23, Uganda's army said
that 400 rebel Lord's Resistance Army fighters and their leaders
have moved into the Central African Republic, dashing hopes of a
renewal of stalled peace talks.
(AP, 2/23/07)
2007 Feb 23, Teachers across
Zimbabwe called off a 3-week strike for better wages and working
conditions after the government agreed to a near four-fold increase
in their pay.
(AP, 2/23/07)
2008 Feb 23, In Santa Monica,
California, "Juno," a runaway hit comedy about a wisecracking
pregnant teen, picked up the top prize at the Spirit Awards, the
independent film community's version of the Oscars.
(Reuters, 2/23/08)
2008 Feb 23, It was reported
that Dr. Nathan Wolfe, a virologist at UCLA, was pushing for the
creation of the Global Viral Forecasting Initiative, a planet-wide
network to forecast epidemics before they happen.
(Econ, 2/23/08, p.97)
2008 Feb 23, A B-2 stealth
bomber crashed on take-off from the Pacific island of Guam, the
first such incident involving the futuristic craft. Both pilots on
board ejected safely as the 1.2-billion-dollar radar-evading plane
went down at Andersen airbase.
(AFP, 2/23/08)
2008 Feb 23, In eastern
Afghanistan 7 Afghan security guards died when their car hit a
roadside bomb in the Sarkano district of Kunar province. A gunman
killed a district police chief in the region.
(AP, 2/23/08)
2008 Feb 23, The presidents of
Argentina, Brazil and Bolivia gathered in Buenos Aires to try to
agree on how to divide scarce supplies of Bolivian natural gas.
(WSJ, 2/23/08, p.A6)
2008 Feb 23, Police on the
Channel Island of Jersey found a child's buried remains at Haut de
la Garenne, a former children's home. They soon widened their search
for bodies to six more sites in and around the home.
(AFP, 2/25/08)(Econ, 3/1/08, p.58)
2008 Feb 23, A senior Chinese
official said the freakish winter storms that coated much of central
and southern China in snow and ice have left 129 people dead so far
this year.
(AP, 2/23/08)
2008 Feb 23, In Iraq rockets or
mortars hit the US-protected Green Zone. Shihab al-Timimi, the head
of the Iraqi Journalists Union, was shot and wounded. A boat
carrying 11 Shiites to the holy city of Karbala overturned in the
Tigris river and six people drowned. a suicide bomb attack killed
Sheik Ibrahim Mutayri al-Mohamaday, the leader of one Awakening
Council in Saqlawiyah, in Anbar province. A group of gunmen first
opened fire on a checkpoint, killing one police officer. Then three
of the attackers armed with explosives belts stormed the checkpoint,
two blowing themselves up.
(AP, 2/23/08)(AP, 2/24/08)
2008 Feb 23, An Israeli army
missile strike killed 3 Palestinians in the northern Gaza Strip.
Militants from Gaza had fired 4 mortar shells at Israel earlier in
the day.
(SSFC, 2/24/08, p.A8)
2008 Feb 23, Japan's space
agency launched an experimental communications satellite designed to
enable super high-speed data transmission at home and in Southeast
Asia.
(AP, 2/24/08)
2008 Feb 23, In northern Kosovo
up to 2,000 Serb protesters chanting "Kosovo is Serbia!" marched
through Kosovska Mitrovica, an ethnically divided town, in a sixth
day of demonstrations against Kosovo's declaration of independence.
(AP, 2/23/08)(SFC, 2/23/08, p.A3)
2008 Feb 23, in Puerto Rico
Eddie Maco Campbells (b.1970) of Oakland, Ca., was shot and killed
after an argument at a bar in the popular tourist area of Isla
Verde. On March 13, 2009, a judge in Puerto Rico found Jose Perez
Pagan guilty of murdering Campbells.
(AP,
3/14/09)(http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4176/is_20080304/ai_n24373929)
2008 Feb 23, In Saudi Arabia
bus plunged over a cliff, killing at least 25 people on board.
(AP, 2/24/08)
2008 Feb 23, Janez Drnovsek
(57), former president of Slovenia, died. He helped lead Slovenia to
independence from Yugoslavia and later enthralled many of his
countrymen by adopting a New Age lifestyle.
(AP, 2/23/08)
2008 Feb 23, In Sri Lanka
fighting erupted in northeastern Welioya region, where soldiers
killed at least eight guerrillas. A bomb explosion on a bus wounded
at least 14 people in Mount Lavinia, near the Colombo.
(AP, 2/23/08)
2008 Feb 23, Turkish troops
pressed their offensive against Kurdish PKK guerrillas in northern
Iraq, two days after crossing the mountainous border.
(AP, 2/23/08)
2009 Feb 23, A government
official said US aid for the Gaza Strip's reconstruction will likely
top $900 million, as Secretary of State Hillary Clinton prepared to
make her first Mideast trip as America's top diplomat.
(AP, 2/24/09)
2009 Feb 23, The FBI said it
has rescued more than 45 suspected teenage prostitutes, some as
young as 13, in a nationwide 3-night sweep, Operation Cross Country,
to remove kids from the illegal sex trade and punish their accused
pimps.
(AP, 2/23/09)
2009 Feb 23, The DJIA fell
250.89 (3.4%) to 7114.78, nearly half the peak it hit 16 months ago,
and its lowest close in over 11 years.
(WSJ, 2/24/09, p.A1)
2009 Feb 23, California’s
Assemblyman Tom Ammiano of San Francisco introduced a bill to
legalize the recreational use of marijuana.
(SFC, 2/24/09, p.B1)
2009 Feb 23, In SF Leticia
Hunter (33) was shot and killed in the Tenderloin district. On March
17 three men were charged with murder, assault and cocaine
trafficking conspiracy.
(SFC, 3/18/09, p.B3)
2009 Feb 23, In Florida the
Rev. Francis Guinan (66) was convicted of 2nd degree grand theft for
embezzling thousands of dollars from his Delray Beach church.
(SFC, 2/24/09, p.A4)
2009 Feb 23, In Vassalboro,
Maine, the Grand View Topless Coffee Shop began operations with a
staff of 3 topless waitresses and one bare-chested waiter.
(www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/02/24/grand-view-topless-coffee_n_169670.html)
2009 Feb 23, Ford Motor Co.
said it has reached a tentative deal with the United Auto Workers
union on changes to retiree health care, becoming the first Detroit
automaker to secure union concessions on the key issue.
(Reuters, 2/23/09)
2009 Feb 23, Binyam Mohamed
(b.1978), Ethiopian-born former British resident, was freed from
Guantanamo after nearly seven year in US captivity without facing
trial. He claimed that he was tortured at a covert CIA site in
Morocco. He was arrested at the Karachi airport in April, 2002,
while trying to fly back to Britain on a false passport. During
three months of detention in Pakistan, he was allegedly tortured by
Pakistani agents. In 2004 he was taken to the US prison at Bagram
Air Base in Afghanistan and signed a confession, which he later
claimed was extracted under duress. On Sep 20, 2004, he was flown to
the US military detention center at Guantanamo Bay.
(AP, 2/23/09)
2009 Feb 23, In Afghanistan a
NATO air strike killed up to 16 militants overnight in Badghis
province. In Nimrod province a twin suicide attack killed a
policeman outside the counter-narcotics office of the provincial
capital of Zaranj. Lt. General Jim Dutton, the deputy NATO force
commander, said around 17,000 extra US troops earmarked for
Afghanistan will deploy as fast as possible and thousands more are
requested for August elections. 3 Afghan children died when a shell
blew up. Canada's army later said the children had died after they
brought back a Taliban improvised explosive device to their village.
(AFP, 2/23/09)(AP, 3/2/09)
2009 Feb 23, In southern
Australia more than 100 people evacuated their homes in Victoria
state when new bushfires threatened communities, two weeks after the
nation's worst fire disaster killed more than 200 people.
(AP, 2/23/09)
2009 Feb 23, China’s state
media said pig organs contaminated by a banned animal feed additive
have been blamed for sickening at least 70 people in southern China.
The pig organs tainted by the steroid clenbuterol were sold last
week in markets in Guangzhou, the capital of Guangdong province.
Another 14 cases in Guangzhou were reported on Feb 25.
(AP, 2/23/09)(AP, 2/26/09)
2009 Feb 23, Denmark seized
control of Fionia Bank A/S by injecting about $172 million in a deal
that will take away shareholder control and split the bank into two
parts until a sale can be realized. The bank was hit by mounting
losses on bad loans to property developers.
(WSJ, 2/24/09, p.C2)
2009 Feb 23, Finance Minister
Christine Lagarde said the French government is to provide 2.5-5.0
billion euros in loans to support the merger of banks Caisse
d'Epargne and Banque Populaire.
(AP, 2/23/09)
2009 Feb 23, Iraq's restored
National Museum was formally dedicated, nearly six years after
looters carried away priceless antiquities and treasures in the
chaos following the US-led invasion. Iraq's Interior Ministry said
it has arrested a Shiite police gang accused of killing the Sunni
vice president's sister. 3 US soldiers and an interpreter were
killed during fighting north of Baghdad.
(AP, 2/23/09)(AP, 2/24/09)
2009 Feb 23, Honda Motor Co.
named Takanobu Ito (55), head of core automaking operations, as its
new chief executive, in an effort to provide fresh leadership to
battle a global crisis in the auto industry. He replaced Takeo Fukui
(64) as CEO and president.
(AP, 2/23/09)
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 Feb 23, Pakistani
paramilitary forces killed 10 Taliban militants in a tribal area
bordering Afghanistan and destroyed more than a dozen vehicles and a
main communications system.
(AFP, 2/23/09)
2009 Feb 23, South Korea's
Defense Ministry said North Korea recently deployed a new type of
medium-range ballistic missile capable of reaching northern
Australia and the US territory of Guam.
(AP, 2/23/09)
2009 Feb 23, Sri Lanka's Tamil
rebels, facing likely defeat on the battlefield, appealed for a
cease-fire, a call immediately rejected by the government. Rebels
said more than 30 civilians were killed and many more injured as the
government advanced on Puthukkudirirppu.
(AP, 2/23/09)(AP, 2/24/09)
2009 Feb 23, Swedish power
company Vattenfall said it had made a friendly 8.5-billion-euro
(10.9-billion-dollar) offer for Nuon of the Netherlands in a
takeover aimed at creating one of Europe's biggest energy groups.
(AP, 2/23/09)
2010 Feb 23, Intel CEO Paul
Otellini unveiled a broad initiative, the “Invest in America
Alliance,” to create jobs and boost the nation’s competitiveness.
Intel and 24 venture capital firms planned to invest $3.5 billion in
US technology startups over the next 2 years.
(SFC, 2/24/10, p.D1)
2010 Feb 23, In Littleton,
Colorado, gunman Bruco Strongeagle Eastwood (32) wounded two
students at Deer Creek Middle School before math teacher David Benke
(57) subdued him.
(AP, 2/24/10)(SFC, 2/25/10, p.A9)
2010 Feb 23, It was reported
that Florida wildlife officials have created a special python
hunting season to stop the spread of the nonnative snakes throughout
the Everglades. A $26 permit allow hunters to kill the reptiles from
March 8 to April 17.
(SFC, 2/23/10, p.A6)
2010 Feb 23, In Afghan Gen.
Stanley McChrystal apologized for the Feb 21 strike in central
Uruzgan province that Afghan officials say killed at least 21
people. The Afghan Cabinet said 27 civilians were killed including 4
women and a child. The video was also posted on a NATO Web site. The
civilian deaths occurred as 15,000 NATO, US and Afghan soldiers were
in their 10th day of fighting insurgents in Marjah, Helmand
province. A Romanian soldier was killed and another was wounded in a
bombing in the south unrelated to the offensive. A morning explosion
in Lashkar Gah, the capital of Helmand, left eight people dead and
at least 16 others wounded. The death toll of US troops in the
Afghan war surpassed the grim milestone of 1,000.
(AP, 2/23/10)(SFC, 2/23/10, p.A3)
2010 Feb 23, PM Kevin Rudd said
Australia plans to fingerprint and face-scan visitors from about 10
high-risk countries in a bid to combat extremism, which is now a
"permanent" threat. He added that Australia will spend 69 million
dollars (62 million US) on new biometric facilities and will set up
a national control centre to coordinate efforts to fight extremism.
(AFP, 2/23/10)
2010 Feb 23, In Bangladesh at
least 20 people were injured and dozens of houses torched in fresh
clashes between tribal groups and Bengali settlers in the
insurgency-hit southeastern hills.
(AFP, 2/23/10)
2010 Feb 23, The Chinese
Communist Party issued a new code of ethics as the country's fight
against widespread corruption intensifies.
(AP, 2/23/10)
2010 Feb 23, In Cuba Orlando
Zapata Tamayo (42), an opposition political activist imprisoned
since 2003, died after a lengthy hunger strike. His 3 year prison
sentence for disrespecting authority had been lengthened to 25
years, in part because of his political activism while behind bars.
The next day Cuban President Raul Castro issued an unprecedented
statement of regret over the death of Tamayo.
(AP, 2/24/10)(AP, 2/24/10)
2010 Feb 23, Denmark's PM Lars
Loekke Rasmussen (45) announced a major government shake-up,
changing more than a dozen Cabinet posts including the ministers of
defense, justice and foreign affairs to build his own team 10 months
after taking office.
(AP, 2/23/10)
2010 Feb 23, Egyptian
newspapers reported that former UN atomic watchdog chief Mohammed
ElBaradei has said he is prepared to run for president of Egypt. He
said Mubarak, head of state since 1981, would not necessarily win a
free election and went on to criticize corruption and poverty in
Egypt. The constitution as it stands barred an ElBaradei candidacy.
It requires candidates to have been a leading member of a party for
at least one year and for the party to have existed for at least
five years.
(AFP, 2/23/10)
2010 Feb 23, India responded
cautiously to an offer by a top Maoist guerrilla leader for a
cease-fire and talks with the government, with the home minister
saying he would wait for a formal proposal before considering the
offer.
(AP, 2/23/10)
2010 Feb 23, India's biggest
carmaker Maruti Suzuki India announced it has recalled 100,000 of
its best-selling A-Star hatchback cars due to a fuel leakage
problem.
(AFP, 2/23/10)
2010 Feb 23, In Indonesia a
rain-triggered landslide at a tea plantation on the main island of
Java buried scores of workers. At least 46 people were killed or
missing.
(AP, 2/23/10)(AP, 2/24/10)
2010 Feb 23, Iran formally set
out its terms for giving up most of its cache of enriched uranium in
a confidential document, and the conditions fall short of what has
been demanded by the United States and other world powers.
(AP, 2/23/10)
2010 Feb 23, Iran said that its
security forces have captured Abdulmalik Rigi, leader of the
Jundallah group (Soldiers of God), an armed Sunni group whose
insurgency in the southeast has destabilized the border region with
Pakistan. State-run English-language Press TV said that Rigi was
captured on a flight from Dubai to Kyrgyzstan.
(AP, 2/23/10)
2010 Feb 23, In Iraq an
American soldier died in a vehicle related accident in Baghdad.
(AP, 2/24/10)
2010 Feb 23, In Italy an oil
spill began and spread south down the Lambro to Piacenza and Cremona
overnight, despite efforts to contain it. By the next day if reached
the Po River, with officials warning of an ecological disaster as
they scrambled to contain the sludge before it contaminated Italy's
longest and most important river. Milan regional officials said the
cause was certainly sabotage at a former refinery turned oil depot,
since the cisterns were opened and the oil allowed to flow unimpeded
into the Lambro River near Monza.
(AP, 2/24/10)
2010 Feb 23, Ivory Coast PM
Guillaume announced a new unity government. The opposition coalition
said it will participate in a new government, raising hope for an
end to nearly two weeks of deadly protests after the president
dissolved the previous one.
(AP, 2/23/10)(SFC, 2/24/10, p.A2)
2010 Feb 23, In Mexico Latin
America and Caribbean leaders, gathered at a summit in Playa de
Carmen, united to create a regional bloc excluding Canada and the
United States. The bloc's formation is expected to take years and
faces many challenges. The leaders agreed to meet again in Venezuela
in 2011.
(AP, 2/24/10)
2010 Feb 23, In Mexico gunmen
stormed the southern town of San Vicente Camalote and killed 13
people, including a rancher and his 3 sons. Gunmen attacked the
police headquarters in the town of Miguel Aleman. 6 officers were
missing and presumed to have been kidnapped. A series of clashes
along the northern border killed 6 gunmen and one soldier. 10
soldiers and a police officer were wounded. A small military
anti-drug patrol plane was reported missing in northern Mexico.
Wreckage of the plane with 3 dead occupants was reported found on
Feb 26.
(AP, 2/24/10)(AP, 2/25/10)(AP, 2/26/10)(AP,
2/26/10)
2010 Feb 23, In Myanmar a
Cameroon football player fled temporarily to the French embassy in
Yangon as he was being taken to court by police for allegedly
counterfeiting currency notes. He surrendered to police a short time
later could face life imprisonment.
(AP, 3/1/10)
2010 Feb 23, The New York Times
and Washington Post cited unnamed Pakistani security officials
saying Mullah Abdul Kabir, a member of the militia's ruling council,
was picked up several days ago in Nowshera district in Pakistan's
northwest.
(AP, 2/23/10)
2010 Feb 23, A Polish court
said a government move to slash the pensions of communist leaders
who imposed martial law in 1981 was illegal. The Constitutional
Tribunal ruled the move violated the constitution. It said the
portion of the pensions earned during the crackdown itself could be
cut but the rest could not. The cut, which took effect Jan 1, was
part of a wider law intended to punish former officials and security
agents for supporting the communist regime.
(AP, 2/25/10)
2010 Feb 23, South African’s
National Energy Regulator said approved electricity rate increases
of about 25% would become effective April 1, and that the increases
would continue for each of the next three years.
(AP, 2/24/10)
2010 Feb 23, Darfur's most
powerful rebel group and the Sudanese government signed a truce in
Cairo after a year of internationally sponsored negotiations,
raising hopes the bloody seven-year conflict could draw to a close.
According to the framework agreement, JEM would take part in the
government's executive, judicial and legislative branches.
(Reuters, 2/23/10)(AP, 2/24/10)(SFC, 2/24/10,
p.A2)
2010 Feb 23, In Turkey
prosecutors interrogated 51 Turkish military commanders over alleged
plans to destabilize the country by blowing up mosques to trigger a
coup and topple the Islamic-rooted government.
(AP, 2/23/10)
2010 Feb 23, In Turkey 13
workers were killed after a methane gas explosion caused a coal mine
collapse near Dursunbey, in northwest Balikesir province.
(AP, 2/24/10)(SFC, 2/24/10, p.A2)
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