Today in History - March 4
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561 Mar 4,
Pelagius I, Italian Catholic Pope (556-61), died.
(PTA, 1980, p.120)
1152 Mar 4, Frederick
Barbarossa was chosen as emperor and united the two factions, which
emerged in Germany after the death of Henry V.
(HN, 3/4/99)
1172 Mar 4, Stephan III, King
of Hungary (1162-72), died.
(SC, 3/4/02)
1193 Mar 4, Saladin [Salah
ed-Din]) Yusuf ibn Ayyub (52), Kurdish sultan of Egypt and Syria
(1175-1193), died. Saladin led the Muslims against the Crusaders.
(SSFC, 9/29/02, p.M6)(PC, 1992, p.100)(AP,
3/4/04)
1386 Mar 4, Jogaila was
crowned King of Poland.
(LHC, 3/4/03)
1394 Mar 4, Prince Henry the
Navigator, sponsor of Portuguese voyages of discovery, was born.
(HN, 3/4/98)
1461 Mar 4, Henry VI was
deposed and the Duke of York was proclaimed King as Edward IV and
continued as King of England until 3 October 1470.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_IV_of_England)
1484 Mar 4, Casimir
(Kazimierz), the son of Lithuania's Grand Duke Casimir, died in
Grodno at age 25. In 1602 he was declared a saint and protector of
Lithuania. St. Casimir was born Oct 3,1458, in Cracow.
(LHC, 3/4/03)
1540 Mar 4, Protestant count
Philip of Hessen married his 2nd wife.
(SC, 3/4/02)
1562 Mar 4,The Archdiocese of
Riga was attached to Lithuania.
(LHC, 3/4/03)
1570 Mar 4, Spain’s King Philip
II banned foreign Dutch students.
(SC, 3/4/02)
1590 Mar 4, Mauritius of
Nassau's ship reached Breda, Netherlands.
(SC, 3/4/02)
1595 Mar 4, Robert Southwell,
English poet, was hanged for becoming a Catholic priest.
(SC, 3/4/02)
1611 Mar 4, George Abbot was
appointed archbishop of Canterbury.
(SC, 3/4/02)
1621 Mar 4, Jakarta, Java, was
renamed Batavia.
(SC, 3/4/02)
1634 Mar 4, Samuel Cole opened
the first tavern in Boston, Massachusetts.
(HN, 3/4/99)
1665 Mar 4, English King
Charles II declared war on Netherlands.
(SC, 3/4/02)
1675 Mar 4, John Flamsteed was
appointed 1st Astronomer Royal of England.
(SC, 3/4/02)
1678 Mar 4, Antonio Vivaldi
(d.1741), Italian Baroque composer (4 Seasons) and violinist, was
born in Venice. [see 1675]
(HN, 3/4/01)(SC, 3/4/02)
1681 Mar 4, England's King
Charles II granted a charter to William Penn (37) for 48,000 square
miles that later became Pennsylvania. Penn’s father had bequeathed
him a claim of £15,000 against the king. Penn later laid out
the city of Philadelphia as a gridiron about 2 miles long, east to
west, and a mile wide.
(PCh, 1992, p.259)(AP, 3/4/98)(SFEC, 8/16/98,
p.T1)
1699 Mar 4, Jews were expelled
from Lubeck, Germany.
(SC, 3/4/02)
1741 Mar 4, English fleet under
Admiral Ogle reached Cartagena, Colombia.
(SC, 3/4/02)
1747 Mar 4, Casimir Pulaski
(d.1779), Count, American Revolutionary War General, was born in
Poland. Pulaski led troops in some of the bloodiest fighting of the
Revolutionary War.
(HN, 3/4/98)(SC, 3/4/02)
1774 Mar 4, The 1st sighting of
the Orion nebula was made by William Herschel.
(SC, 3/4/02)
1782 Mar 4, Johann Wyss, Swiss
folklorist, writer (Swiss Family Robinson), was born.
(SC, 3/4/02)
1789 Mar 4, The Constitution of
the United States, framed in 1787, went into effect as the
first Federal Congress met in New York City. Lawmakers then
adjourned for the lack of a quorum (9 senators, 13 representatives).
(WUD, 1994, p.314)(AP, 3/4/98)(HN, 3/4/98)(SC,
3/4/02)
1789 Mar 4, Pavel P. Gagarin,
Russian monarch, was born.
(SC, 3/4/02)
1791 Mar 4, President
Washington called the US Senate into its 1st special session.
(SC, 3/4/02)
1791 Mar 4, Vermont was
admitted as the 14th state. It was the first addition to the
original 13 colonies.
(HN, 3/4/98)(AP, 3/4/98)
1791 Mar 4, 1st Jewish member
of US Congress, Israel Jacobs (Pennsylvania), took office.
(SC, 3/4/02)
1792 Mar 4, Oranges were
introduced to Hawaii.
(SC, 3/4/02)
1793 Mar 4, George Washington
was inaugurated as President for the second time. His 2nd
inauguration was the shortest with just 133 words. Since George
Washington’s second term, Inauguration Day had been March 4 of the
year following the election. That custom meant that defeated
presidents and congressmen served four months after the election. In
1933, the so-called Lame Duck Amendment to the U.S. Constitution
moved the inauguration of newly elected presidents and congressmen
closer to Election Day. The 20th Amendment required the terms of the
president and vice-president to begin at noon on January 20, while
congressional terms begin on January 3.
(HN, 3/4/98)(HNPD, 3/4/99)(SC, 3/4/02)
1793 Mar 4, French troops
conquered Geertruidenberg, Netherlands.
(SC, 3/4/02)
1797 Mar 4, Vice-President John
Adams, elected President on December 7, to replace George
Washington, was sworn in. Adams soon selected Timothy Pickering as
his secretary of state. Pickering extended aid to Haitian slaves in
their ongoing revolt against French colonists. This policy was
reversed under Jefferson.
(HN, 3/4/99)(SSFC, 11/2/03, p.M6)
1798 Mar 4, Catholic women were
force to do penance for kindling a Sabbath fire for Jews.
(SC, 3/4/02)
1801 Mar 4, Thomas Jefferson
was the first President to be inaugurated in Washington, D.C.
(HN, 3/4/98)
1805 Mar 4, Pres. Thomas
Jefferson delivered his 2nd inaugural address.
(http://encarta.msn.com/encyclopedia_761570282_10/thomas_jefferson.html)
1809 Mar 4, Madison became 1st
President inaugurated in American-made clothes.
(SC, 3/4/02)
1813 Mar 4, The Russians
fighting against Napoleon reached Berlin. The French garrison
evacuated the city without a fight.
(HN, 3/4/99)
1825 Mar 4, John Quincy Adams
was inaugurated as 6th President.
(SC, 3/4/02)
1826 Mar 4, The Granite Railway
in Quincy, MA, became the 1st US RR to be chartered.
(SC, 3/4/02)
1829 Mar 4, An unruly crowd
mobbed the White House during the inaugural reception for President
Jackson, the 7th US President. The event was later depicted by
artist Louis S. Glanzman in his painting “Andrew Jackson’s
Inauguration” (1970).
(AP, 3/4/98)(WSJ, 1/17/09, p.W5)
1830 Mar 4, V. Bellini's opera
"I Capuleti e i Montecchi" premiered in Venice.
(WSJ, 11/10/98, p.A20)(SC, 3/4/02)
1831 Mar 4, Georg Michael
Telemann (82), composer, died.
(SC, 3/4/02)
1832 Mar 4, Jean Francois
Champollion (b.1790), French scholar, died. His work included the
2-volume book “Egypt Under the Pharaohs” (1814) and a translation of
the hieroglyphics of the Rosetta Stone, completed in 1822.
(ON, 8/10,
p.7)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean-Fran%C3%A7ois_Champollion)
1835 Mar 4, HMS Beagle moved
into Bay of Concepcion.
(SC, 3/4/02)
1837 Mar 4, Martin Van Buren
was inaugurated as 8th President.
(SC, 3/4/02)
1837 Mar 4, When Pres. Jackson
left office there followed a financial crash and a bitter depression
and the government was again forced to borrow money. Pres. Jackson
had returned surplus government funds to the state governments as
bonuses.
(WSJ, 2/6/97, p.C18)(WSJ, 6/26/00, p.A1)
1837 Mar 4, The Illinois state
legislature granted a city charter to Chicago.
(AP, 3/4/99)
1837 Mar 4, Weekly Advocate
changed its name to the Colored American.
(SC, 3/4/02)
1841 Mar 4, Dion Boucicault's
"London Assurance" premiered in London.
(SC, 3/4/02)
1841 Mar 4, Longest
presidential inauguration speech (8,443 words) to date was made by
William Henry Harrison.
(SC, 3/4/02)
1845 Mar 4, James K. Polk was
inaugurated as 11th President.
(SC, 3/4/02)
1848 Mar 4, Sardinia-Piemonte
got a new Constitution.
(SC, 3/4/02)
1849 Mar 4, The US had no
President. Pres. James K. Polk officially stepped down as the 11th
US president and President Zachary Taylor refused to be sworn-in on
a Sunday. US Sen. Some say David Rice Atchison (1807-1886) of
Missouri then technically held office as president until Zachary
Taylor took his oath the next day. However Atchison’s term as
president pro tempore of the Senate had also expired, and his new
term did not begin until March 5.
(AH, 2/03, p.18)
1852 Mar 4, Lady (Isabella
Augusta) Gregory, Irish playwright, was born. She helped found the
Abbey Theatre.
(HN, 3/4/01)
1852 Mar 4, Nikolai Gogol,
Russian writer (b.1809), died (NS) [see Feb 21].
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikolai_Gogol)
1853 Mar 4, Pope Pius IX
recovered Catholic hierarchy in Netherlands.
(SC, 3/4/02)
1853 Mar 4, William Rufus de
Vane King (D) was sworn in as 13th US Vice President.
(SC, 3/4/02)
1858 Mar 4, Sen. James Henry
Hammond, D-S.C., declared, "Cotton is king" in a speech to the US
Senate.
(AP, 3/4/08)
1858 Mar 4, Matthew Calbraith
Perry (63), the American naval officer who'd opened trade relations
between the US and Japan, died in New York.
(AP, 3/4/08)
1861 Mar 4, Abraham Lincoln was
inaugurated president.
(AP, 3/4/99)
1861 Mar 4, President Lincoln
opened the Government Printing Office.
(SC, 3/4/02)
1861 Mar 4, Confederate States
adopted the "Stars and Bars" flag.
(HN, 3/4/98)
1863 Mar 4, Battle of
Thompson's Station, Tennessee.
(SC, 3/4/02)
1865 Mar 4, President Lincoln
was inaugurated for his 2nd term as President. It was held at the
Patent Office, the site of a military hospital.
(SC, 3/4/02)(WSJ, 2/12/04, p.D12)
1865 Mar 4, Confederate
congress approved the final design of "official flag."
(SC, 3/4/02)
1869 Mar 4, Ulysses S. Grant
was sworn in as the 18th president of the US.
(ON, 9/01, p.7)
1873 Mar 4, Pres. Ulysses S.
Grant accepted the oath of office, administered by Chief Justice
Salmon Chase, for his 2nd term. At the inauguration ceremony 150
canaries, whose chirping was to amuse guests, froze to death in
their cages.
(SFC, 1/20/09,
p.A7)(www.bartleby.com/124/pres34.html)
1873 Mar 4, New York Daily
Graphic, 1st illustrated daily newspaper in US, was published.
(SC, 3/4/02)
1876 Mar 4, US Congress decided
to impeach Secretary of War (under Ulysses S. Grant) William Worth
Belknap (1829-1890) of malfeasance in office for accepting over
$24,000 in bribes from a post trader seeking immunity from removal.
It is not clear whether he was aware of the arrangement or whether
his wife had made the bargain and accepted the payoffs.
Nevertheless, he was impeached by a unanimous vote of the United
States Senate, though at his formal trial the Senate fell short of
the number of votes required to convict. By then he had resigned,
which doubtless accounted for his acquittal. He died in Washington,
D.C. on October 13,1890 and was buried in Section 1 of Arlington
National Cemetery.
(SC,
3/4/02)(www.arlingtoncemetery.net/wwbelkna.htm)
1877 Mar 4, The Russian
Imperial Ballet staged the first performance of Tchaikovsky’s
incomplete ballet "Zwanenmeer" (Swan Lake) in Moscow.
(WSJ, 5/18/99, p.A24)(HN, 3/4/01)(SC, 3/4/02)
1880 Mar 4, NY Daily Graphic
published 1st half-tone engraving made by S.H. Horgan.
(SC, 3/4/02)
1881 Mar 4, Fiction’s Sherlock
Holmes and Watson began "A Study in Scarlet", their 1st case
together.
(SC, 3/4/02)
1881 Mar 4, James A. Garfield
was inaugurated as 20th President.
(SC, 3/4/02)
1881 Mar 4, California became
the 1st state to pass plant quarantine legislation.
(SC, 3/4/02)
1881 Mar 4, South African
President Kruger accepted a cease-fire with the British in the First
Boer War (1880-1881 – aka Transvaal Revolt). [see Mar 23]
(SC, 3/4/02)
1883 Mar 4, John Gordon
Cashmans began "Vicksburg Evening Post" in Mississippi.
(SC, 3/4/02)
1883 Mar 4, Alexander H.
Stephens (71), Vice President Confederate States, died.
(SC, 3/4/02)
1885 Mar 4, Grover Cleveland
was inaugurated as 1st Democratic President since Civil War.
(SC, 3/4/02)
1887 Mar 4, William Randolph
Hearst (23) became "Proprietor" of the SF Examiner newspaper.
(SFC, 8/7/99, p.A9)
1888 Mar 4, Knute Rockne,
Norwegian-US football player, coach for Notre Dame, was born.
(HN, 3/4/98)(SC, 3/4/02)
1889 Mar 4, Benjamin Harrison
was inaugurated as 23rd President.
(SC, 3/4/02)
1893 Mar 4, Grover Cleveland
(D) was inaugurated as 24th US President (2nd term).
(SC, 3/4/02)
1893 Mar 4, Francis Dhanis'
army attacked the Lualaba and occupied Nyangwe (Congo).
(SC, 3/4/02)
1894 Mar 4, There was a great
fire in Shanghai; over 1,000 buildings were destroyed.
(SC, 3/4/02)
1895 Mar 4, Gustav Mahler's 2nd
Symphony, premiered in Berlin.
(SC, 3/4/02)
1897 Mar 4, Lefty O’Doul
(d.1969), baseball star, was born in SF in the old Butchertown
neighborhood south of Market. He played for the SF Seals, and spent
11 years in the major leagues with the Phillies, Dodgers, Yankees
and Giants before returning to manage the Seals and the Pacific
Coast League. He was the National League batting champ in 1929 with
the Phillies and again in 1932 with the Brooklyn Dodgers.
(SFC, 3/5/96, p.C1)(SFC, 7/18/97, p.A9)
1897 Mar 4, William McKinley
was sworn in as the 25th president.
(AP, 3/4/98)
1901 Mar 4, Charles Goren,
world expert on the game of bridge, was born.
(HN, 3/4/01)
1901 Mar 4, 1st advanced copy
of an inaugural speech was published by the Jefferson-National
Intelligencer.
(SC, 3/4/02)
1901 Mar 4, William McKinley
was inaugurated president for the second time. Theodore Roosevelt
was inaugurated as vice president. The team ran on the issue of
keeping the Philippines as a colony.
(HN, 3/4/99)
1901 Mar 4, Term of George H.
White, last of post-Reconstruction congressmen, ended.
(SC, 3/4/02)
1902 Mar 4, The American
Automobile Association was founded in Chicago.
(AP, 3/4/98)(HN, 3/4/98)
1904 Mar 4, George Gamow,
nuclear physicist, cosmologist, writer (1, 2, 3...'infinity'), was
born.
(SC, 3/4/02)
1904 Mar 4, Ding Ling, Chinese
writer and women's rights activist, was born.
(HN, 3/4/01)
1904 Mar 4, Russian troops
began to retreat toward the Manchurian border as 100,000 Japanese
advanced in Korea.
(HN, 3/4/98)
1905 Mar 4, The inauguration of
Theodore Roosevelt.
http://condor.stcloudstate.edu/~brixr01/theTIMEMACHINE.html
1905 Mar 4, Gerhart Hauptmann's
"Elga" premiered in Berlin.
(SC, 3/4/02)
1906 Mar 4, John McAllister
Schofield, a Union general in the Civil War and onetime commanding
general of the army, died in St. Augustine, Fla., at age 74.
(AP, 3/4/06)
1908 Mar 4, The New York board
of education banned the act of whipping students in school.
(HN, 3/4/98)
1908 Mar 4, A fire at Lake View
School in Collinwood, Ohio, claimed the lives of 172 children and
three adults.
(AP, 3/4/08)
1909 Mar 4, Harry Helmsley
(d.1997), billionaire New York landlord (Empire State Building), was
born in NYC.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_Helmsley)(http://tinyurl.com/ropqy)
1909 Mar 4, President Taft was
inaugurated as 27th President during a 10" snowstorm.
(SC, 3/4/02)
1909 Mar 4, US prohibited the
interstate transportation of game birds.
(SC, 3/4/02)
1911 Mar 4, Victor Berger of
Wisconsin became the 1st socialist congressman in US.
(SC, 3/4/02)
1912 Mar 4, The French council
of war unanimously voted a mandatory three-year military service.
(HN, 3/4/98)
1913 Mar 4, Gabriel
Fauré's opera "Penelope" premiered in Monte Carlo.
(SC, 3/4/02)
1913 Mar 4, Woodrow Wilson was
inaugurated as 28th President.
(SC, 3/4/02)
1913 Mar 4, Department of
Commerce & Labor was split into separate departments.
(SC, 3/4/02)
1913 Mar 4, 1st US law
regulating the shooting of migratory birds was passed.
(SC, 3/4/02)
1914 Mar 4, Doctor Fillatre of
Paris, France successfully separated Siamese twins.
(HN, 3/4/98)
1915 Mar 4, Petrus de Jong,
Dutch premier (KVP, 1967-71), was born.
(SC, 3/4/02)
1917 Mar 4, Republican Jeanette
Rankin of Montana took her seat as the first woman elected to the
House of Representatives.
(AP, 3/4/98)
1918 Mar 4, Terek Autonomous
Republic was established in RSFSR (until 1921).
(SC, 3/4/02)
1919 Mar 4, Czech Legions shot
and killed some 50 German demonstrators, including women and
children, in Sudetenland.
(http://tinyurl.com/856hg)
1920 Mar 4, Last day of Julian
civil calendar in Greece.
(SC, 3/4/02)
1921 Mar 4, Warren G. Harding
was sworn in as America’s 29th President. By the time Pres. Woodrow
Wilson left office, the top tax rate was 77%.
(HN, 3/4/98)(WSJ, 9/25/02, p.D8)
1921 Mar 4, Hot Springs
National Park was created in Arkansas.
(SC, 3/4/02)
1922 Mar 4, Bert Williams
(b.1874), Antigua-born black actor, mime and singer, died after
collapsing onstage in Detroit. In 2005 Caryl Phillips authored
“Dancing in the Dark,” a novel based on Bert Williams. His
recordings included “Nobody.”
(www.duboislc.org/ShadesOfBlack/BertWms.html)(SFC, 2/11/08, p.E1)
1923 Mar 4, Lenin's last
article in Pravda (about Red bureaucracy) was published.
(SC, 3/4/02)
1924 Mar 4, "Happy Birthday To
You" was published by Claydon Sunny.
(SC, 3/4/02)
1925 Mar 4, President Calvin
Coolidge's inauguration was broadcast live on 21 radio stations
coast-to-coast.
(AP, 3/4/99)
1925 Mar 4, Swain's Island
(near American Samoa) was annexed by US.
(SC, 3/4/02)
1926 Mar 4, De Geer government
in Netherlands took office.
(SC, 3/4/02)
1928 Mar 4, Alan Sillitoe,
novelist (Saturday Night and Sunday Morning, The Loneliness of the
Long Distance Runner), was born.
(HN, 3/4/01)
1928 Mar 4, The
Transcontinental Footrace began and 55 men ran from Los Angeles to
New York in 81 days. Andrew Payne of Oklahoma won the “Bunyon
Derby.”
(SSFC, 11/10/02, p.M4)(PBS-TV, 11/24/02)
1929 Mar 4, Herbert Hoover,
trained in California as an engineer, was inaugurated as the 31st US
President. Engineers in SF asserted: "the engineer dominates the
20th century."
(SFC, 2/05/04, p.E8)
1929 Mar 4, Charles Curtis
(R-Kansas) became 1st native American Vice President.
(SC, 3/4/02)
1930 Mar 4, Coolidge Dam in
Arizona was dedicated.
(SC, 3/4/02)
1932 Mar 4, The Pecora
Investigation began. It was an inquiry by the United States Senate
Committee on Banking and Currency to investigate the causes of the
Wall Street Crash of 1929. The name refers to the fourth and final
chief counsel for the investigation, Ferdinand Pecora, chief lawyer
on the Senate Banking Committee from 1933-1934. In 2010 Michael
Perino authored “The Hellhound of Wall Street: How Ferdinand
Pecora’s Investigation of the Great Crash Forever Changed American
Finance.”
(Econ, 1/9/10,
p.33)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pecora_Commission)(Econ,
11/13/10, p.103)
1932 Mar 4, Miriam Makeba,
singer (Grammy 1965), was born in Johannesburg, South Africa.
(HN, 3/4/01)(SC, 3/4/02)
1933 Mar 4, Henderson, DeSylva
and Brown's "Strike Me Pink" premiered in NYC.
(SC, 3/4/02)
1933 Mar 4, Franklin D.
Roosevelt was inaugurated to his first term as president in
Washington, D.C. He pledged to lead the country out of the Great
Depression: "We have nothing to fear but fear itself." The start of
President Roosevelt's first administration brought with it the first
woman to serve in the Cabinet: Labor Secretary Frances Perkins. He
chose Homer Cummings as his attorney general. Cummings served 5
years and 10 months. Herbert Hoover was denied the courtesy of
Secret Service protection traditionally accorded an outgoing
president.
(AP, 3/4/98)(HN, 3/4/98)(SFC, 1/11/99, p.A5)(HNQ,
1/16/01)(SC, 3/4/02)
1933 Mar 4, Chancellor Dollfuss
dissolved the Austrian parliament.
(www.ad2000.com.au/articles/2005/mar2005p17_1890.html)
1934 Mar 4, Easter Cross on
Mount Davidson, San Francisco, was dedicated.
(SC, 3/4/02)
1936 Mar 4, The 1st test flight
of airship Hindenburg was made in Germany.
(www.airships.net/hindenburg)
1939 Mar 4, Laurence Steinhardt
was named as the U.S. ambassador to the USSR
(HN, 3/4/98)
1941 Mar 4, 18 Geuzen
resistance fighters were sentenced to death in The Hague.
(SC, 3/4/02)
1941 Mar 4, Serbian Prince Paul
visited Hitler.
(SC, 3/4/02)
1943 Mar 4, Transport Number 50
departed with French Jews to Majdanek and Sobibor.
(SC, 3/4/02)
1944 Mar 4, The U.S. declared
the non-recognition of Argentina because of their collaboration with
the Axis.
(HN, 3/4/98)
1944 Mar 4, Louis Buchalter,
aka Lepke, was executed at Sing Sing along with Mendy Weiss. Lepke
and fellow gangsters had dispatched Weiss in 1935 to kill Dutch
Schultz, who had planned to kill NYC prosecutor Thomas E. Dewey.
(AH, 12/02, p.4)
1944 Mar 4, A squadron of
American B-17 bombers hit Berlin for the first time during daylight
hours. Col. H. Griffin Mumford (d.2007) led a group 4-engine Flying
Fortresses over Berlin.
(SFC, 7/20/07,
p.B12)(www.100thbg.com/mainmenus/history/historysummary_home.htm)
1944 Mar 4, Anti-German strikes
took place in North Italy.
(SC, 3/4/02)
1947 Mar 4, France and Britain
signed an alliance treaty.
(HN, 3/4/98)
1948 Mar 4, Antonin Artaud
(51), French poet, actor (Napoleon), died.
(SC, 3/4/02)
1949 Mar 4, In the USSR foreign
minister V.M. Molotov was replaced by A. Vishinsky and Minister of
Defense Marshal N.A. Bulganin was replaced by Marshal A.M.
Vassilievsky. Molotov and Bulganin continued as members of the
politburo.
(EWH, 1968, p.1197)(TOH, 1982, p.1949)
1949 Mar 4, Security Council of
UN recommended membership for Israel.
(SC, 3/4/02)
1951 Mar 4, The US Treasury and
Federal Reserve announced an accord. The agreement restored
independence to the Federal Reserve. In 2001 Martin Mayer authored
"The Fed: The Inside Story of How the World’s Most Powerful
Financial Institution Drives the Markets."
(WS, 6/27/01, p.A14)(http://tinyurl.com/2exjk8f)
1952 Mar 4, Ronald Reagan and
Nancy Davis were married in the San Fernando Valley, north of Los
Angeles.
(AP, 3/4/98)
1952 Mar 4, North Korea accused
the U.N. of using germ warfare.
(HN, 3/4/98)
1954 Mar 4, JE Wilkins was
appointed 1st Black US sub-cabinet member.
(SC, 3/4/02)
1954 Mar 4, In Bulgaria
Communist ruler Todor Zhivkov began a 35-year dictatorship.
During his rule he authorized a forced assimilation drive against
the 1 million ethnic Turks. Over 100 were killed and some 310,000
forcibly expelled.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Todor_Zhivkov)(SFC,
8/7/98, p.D3)
1955 Mar 4, 1st radio facsimile
transmission (fax) was sent across the continent.
(SC, 3/4/02)
1959 Mar 4, US Pioneer IV
missed the Moon and became a 2nd (US 1st) artificial planet.
(SC, 3/4/02)
1960 Mar 4, Lucille Ball filed
for divorce from Desi Arnaz.
(SC, 3/4/02)
1960 Mar 4, In Cuba Alberto
Korda took a photo of Che Guevara at a rally where Castro blamed the
US for the cargo ship disaster of the previous day. The photo later
became famous as a poster of Che and symbol for the Cuban
revolution.
(USAT, 10/8/97, p.8A)
1961 Mar 4, Paul-Henri Spaak
resigned as Secretary-General of NATO.
(SC, 3/4/02)
1962 Mar 4, AEC announced 1st
atomic power plant in Antarctica in operation.
(SC, 3/4/02)
1963 Mar 4, William Carlos
Williams (b.1883), American physician and poet, died in Rutherford,
NJ. In 2011 Herbert Leibowitz authored “Something Urgent I Have to
Say to You”: The Life and Works of William Carlos Williams.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Carlos_Williams)(Econ,
12/31/11, p.68)
1963 Mar 4, Six people got the
death sentence in Paris plotting to kill de Gaulle.
(HN, 3/4/98)
1964 Mar 4, Jimmy Hoffa was
convicted of jury tampering.
(SC, 3/4/02)
1965 Mar 4, David Attenborough
became the new controller of BBC2.
(SC, 3/4/02)
1966 Mar 4, John Lennon said:
"We (Beatles) are more popular than Jesus." Radio stations in the
Netherlands and in Spain quickly banned the playing of Beatle
records as did the South African Broadcasting Corporation, stating
that "The Beatles' arrogance has passed the ultimate limit of
decency. It is clowning no longer."
(www.beatles.ws/1966.htm)
1966 Mar 4, North Sea Gas was
1st pumped ashore by BP.
(SC, 3/4/02)
1966 Mar 4, Canadian Pacific
airliner exploded on landing in Tokyo and 64 died.
(SC, 3/4/02)
1968 Mar 4, Martin Luther King
Jr. announced plans for Poor People's Campaign. In late March and
early April 1968, Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. devoted his
organizing talents to a drive to bring the nation's poor people to
Washington, D.C. for a series of massive nonviolent demonstrations.
King's "Poor People's Campaign" would attempt to unify African
Americans, Latinos, and lower-income whites in pressing the Johnson
Administration and Congress in an election year to enact a $30
billion-a-year domestic "Marshall Plan" to alleviate poverty.
(SC, 3/4/02)(http://hnn.us/articles/49016.html)
1968 Mar 4, NASA launched its
Orbiting Geophysical Observatory 5.
(http://heasarc.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/heasarc/missions/ogo.html)
1970 Mar 4, The French
submarine Eurydice exploded and sank in the Mediterranean off Cape
Camarat killing all 57 of its crew.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eurydice_(S644))
1971 Mar 4, Five Turkish
militants kidnapped 4 US military men at Ankara, Turkey. The
kidnappers released the four airmen unharmed on March 8, and were
subsequently arrested, tried and convicted. Three were hanged, one
was imprisoned, and one was killed in a gunfight with Turkish
authorities.
(www.prophetofdoom.net/Islamic_Terrorism_Timeline_1971.Islam)
1971 Mar 4, Canadian Prime
Minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau (52) married Margaret Sinclair (22)
in North Vancouver, B.C. They later divorced.
(AP, 3/4/99)(SFC, 9/29/00, p.D7)
1972 Mar 4, Libya and USSR
signed a cooperation treaty.
(SC, 3/4/02)
1973 Mar 4, Khalid Duhham
Al-Jawary (b.1947), and possibly others readied cars with bombs in
anticipation of Israeli PM Golda Meir's visit to NYC. The bombs
failed to detonate and were discovered after two cars on Fifth
Avenue were towed. The FBI learned about a third car at JFK and
notified police. In 1979 Border police stopped Al-Jawary's car as he
and another man tried to cross into Germany from Austria. In the
trunk of the car, police found 88 pounds of high explosives,
electronic timing-delay devices and detonators hidden in a suitcase.
They also unearthed cash and nine passports inside a portable radio
that could be used to monitor transmissions from ships, airplanes or
the police. Germany released Al-Jawary long before the FBI knew that
he had been taken into custody. In 1991 he was detained in Rome and
picked up by the FBI. In 1993 a jury convict Al-Jawary, just days
after the first attack on the World Trade Center, based on evidence
that included his fingerprints on one of the NYC bombs. In 2009
Al-Jawary was deported to Sudan after completing only about half his
term, including time served prior to his sentencing and credit for
good behavior.
(AP, 1/25/09)(SFC, 2/27/09, p.A5)(WSJ, 3/5/09,
p.A6)
1974 Mar 4, The first issue of
People Magazine was dated March 4.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/People_(magazine))
1974 Mar 4, The play "Knuckle"
by David Hare (b.1947) premiered in London.
(www.lib.utexas.edu/taro/uthrc/00052/hrc-00052.html)(SC, 3/4/02)
1974 Mar 4, Harold Wilson, head
of the Labor Party, replaced resigning Edward Heath as British
premier. Wilson called elections for October and the Labor Party
defeated the Conservatives, after which Margaret Thatcher replaced
Heath as party leader.
(SC, 3/4/02)(SFC, 7/18/05, p.B6)
1975 Mar 4, Charlie Chaplin
(1889-1977), British-born American film comedian, was knighted by
Queen Elizabeth.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charlie_Chaplin)
1976 Mar 4, Pan Am was the
first airline charged with criminal negligence in a crash.
(HN, 3/4/98)
1977 Mar 4, A 7.4 earthquake in
Romania killed about 1,570 people and was felt across southern and
eastern Europe.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1977_Bucharest_Earthquake)(AP,
3/4/98)(SFC, 4/28/99, p.A15)
1978 Mar 4, Chicago Daily News,
founded in 1875, published its last issue.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicago_Daily_News)
1979 Mar 4, "Grand Tour" closed
at Palace Theater in NYC after 61 performances.
(www.ibdb.com/production.asp?ID=3913)
1979 Mar 4, The US Voyager I
obtained the first image of Jupiter's rings.
(http://spacephysics.ucr.edu/index.php?content=v25/v4.html)
1980 Mar 4, Robert Mugabe's
ZANU-PF won parliamentary election in Zimbabwe. Black nationalist
guerrillas led by Robert Mugabe laid down their arms and beat their
white-backed opponents at the polls. Rhodesia was renamed Zimbabwe.
Martin Meredith later authored "The Past Is Another Country," the
story of Rhodesia.
(WSJ, 9/8/98, p.A1)(SC, 3/4/02)(WSJ, 3/13/02,
p.A16)
1981 Mar 4, A jury in Salt Lake
City convicted Joseph Paul Franklin, an avowed racist, of violating
the civil rights of two black men who were shot to death.
(AP, 3/4/01)
1982 Mar 4, NASA launched
Intelsat V.
(www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/exploration/main/this_month_march.html)
1985 Mar 4, The EPA ordered a
virtual ban on leaded gas.
(http://www.epa.gov/history/topics/lead/01.htm)
1985 Mar 4, New Zealand floated
its currency.
(http://tvnz.co.nz/view/news_business_story_skin/477448?format=html)
1986 Mar 4, Aleta Carol Bunch
(16) was kidnapped, raped and murdered in Augusta, Georgia, by
Alexander E. Williams IV (17). Williams was convicted and sentenced
to death. In 2000 the state Supreme Court stayed the execution to
see if electrocution violated the state constitution. Williams, a
chronic paranoid schizophrenic, was kept synthetically sane with
forced medication. His execution, set for Feb 20, was stayed on Feb
19. Williams was granted clemency Feb 25 and his sentence was
commuted to life in prison.
(SFC, 8/23/00, p.A7)(SFC, 2/19/02, p.A3)(SFC,
2/20/02, p.A7)(SFC, 2/26/02, p.A5)
1987 Mar 4, President Reagan
addressed the nation on the Iran-Contra affair. He took full
responsibility for the affair acknowledging his overtures to Iran
had "deteriorated" into an arms-for-hostages deal. Michale Ledeen,
Pentagon employee, later authored "Perilous Statecraft: An Insider's
Account of the Iran-Contra Affair."
(AP, 3/4/98)(HN, 3/4/98)(SFC, 5/14/03, p.A19)
1987 Mar 4, Jonathon Pollard
(b.1954), US naval intelligence analyst convicted of conspiracy to
commit espionage, was sentenced to life in prison without parole. He
had sought to share US intelligence on Iraqi weapons with Israel and
did so when after his superiors disagreed.
(WSJ, 1/25/96, p.A-16)(WSJ, 1/28/98,
p.A18)(www.jonathanpollard.org/2000/010900.htm)
1988 Mar 4, The US Bureau of
Labor Statistics reported that the civilian unemployment rate had
dropped the previous month to 5.7 percent.
(AP, 3/4/98)
1989 Mar 4, Time Inc. and
Warner Communications Inc. announced a deal valued at $14 million to
merge into the world's largest media and entertainment conglomerate.
The supreme court of Delaware had judged that Time’s directors could
reject a $200-per-share hostile offer from Paramount, forcing
shareholders to accept a $138 friendly bid from Warner.
(AP, 3/4/99)(WSJ, 1/11/00, p.B1)(Econ, 3/11/06,
p.69)
1989 Mar 4, Eastern Airlines
machinists went on strike and were joined by pilots and flight
attendants.
(AP, 3/4/99)
1990 Mar 4, The 20th Easter
Seal Telethon was held.
(SC, 3/4/02)
1990 Mar 4, Atlantis 6, the US
65th manned space mission STS 36, returned from space.
(SC, 3/4/02)
1990 Mar 4, Voters in the
Soviet republics of Russia, Byelorussia and the Ukraine participated
in local and legislative elections, resulting in notable gains for
reformists and nationalists.
(AP, 3/4/00)
1991 Mar 4, 2:05 p.m., The
Army’s 37th Engineer Battalion blew up 33 Iraqi bunkers in the Iraqi
desert. The Pentagon later acknowledged that one of the bunkers
probably contained shells of sarin, a nerve agent, and mustard gas.
(SFC, 8/12/96, p.A3)
1991 Mar 4, George W. Bush
notified the SEC about his 1990 sale of Harken stock.
(SSFC, 7/28/02, p.A19)
1991 Mar 4, Iraq released ten
allied prisoners-of-war. A second group was freed the following day.
(AP, 3/4/01)
1991 Mar 4, The Bank of Credit
& Commerce International divested itself of 1st American Bank.
BCCI was majority owned by the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority
(ADIA).
(SC, 3/4/02)(WSJ, 10/21/05, p.A10)
1992 Mar 4, Another round of
Middle East peace negotiations concluded in Washington, D.C., with
Israel rejecting a plan for Palestinian elections.
(AP, 3/4/02)
1992 Mar 4, Arthur Babbitt
(84), Disney animator (Mr. Magoo, Goofy), died of heart failure.
(SC, 3/4/02)
1993 Mar 4, "Goodbye Girl"
opened at Marquis Theater in NYC for 188 performances.
(SC, 3/4/02)
1993 Mar 4, Authorities
announced the arrest of Mohammad Salameh, a suspect in the bombing
of the World Trade Center in New York City. Salameh was later
convicted of playing a key role.
(AP, 3/4/98)
1994 Mar 4, In New York, four
extremists were convicted of the World Trade Center bombing that
killed six people and injured more than a thousand.
(AP, 3/4/99)
1994 Mar 4, US Senate Majority
Leader George Mitchell announced he would not seek re-election.
(AP, 3/4/04)
1994 Mar 4, The space shuttle
STS-62, Columbia 16, blasted off on a two-week mission.
(AP, 3/4/99)
1994 Mar 4, John Candy
(b.1950), Canadian born actor and comedian, died in Durango, Mexico.
(AP, 3/4/99)(www.imdb.com/name/nm0001006/)
1994 Mar 4, In Egypt
machine-gun fire fatally wounded a German woman on a Nile cruise
ship at Abu Tig.
(SFC,11/19/97, p.C2)
1995 Mar 4, President Clinton,
in his weekly radio address, said spending cuts proposed by
congressional Republicans would gut safe-school and anti-drug
programs needed to protect children.
(AP, 3/4/00)
1996 Mar 4, Jury selection
began in Little Rock, Ark., in the trial of President Clinton's
Whitewater partners, James and Susan McDougal, and the man who
succeeded him as Arkansas governor, Jim Guy Tucker. James McDougal
and Tucker were later convicted of fraud and conspiracy; Susan
McDougal was convicted of fraud.
(AP, 3/4/06)
1996 Mar 4, Comedian Minnie
Pearl died in Nashville, Tennessee, at age 83.
(AP, 3/4/01)
1996 Mar 4, In Spain the
conservative Popular Party under Jose Maria Aznar won general
elections over PM Felipe Gonzalez and ended 13 years of Socialist
rule. The national government created an Environment Ministry.
Previously the environment was the responsibility of the Public
Works Ministry.
(WSJ, 3/4/96, p. A-1)(SFEC, 4/20/97, p.A17)
1996 Mar 4, A suicide bomber
blew himself up outside a Tel Aviv shopping center, killing 13
people in the fourth deadly attack in nine days.
(WSJ, 3/5/96, p. A-1)(AP, 3/4/01)
1997 Mar 4, Calling creation of
life "a miracle that reaches beyond laboratory science," President
Clinton barred spending federal money on human cloning.
(AP, 3/4/98)
1997 Mar 4, President Clinton
surveyed tornado destruction in his home state of Arkansas and also
declared Ohio and Kentucky disaster areas because of floods.
(AP, 3/4/98)
1997 Mar 4, Comet Hale-Bopp
directly above the Sun (1.04 AU).
(SC, 3/4/02)
1997 Mar 4, Two Albanian air
force pilots diverted their MiG-15 fighter to southern Italy after
being ordered to fire on civilians. Tanks were reported in
Gjirokastra and in Vlore, the hotel complex owned by Vefa, the
biggest investment scheme still officially intact, was destroyed
along with 6 factories.
(SFC, 3/5/97, p.A8)
1997 Mar 4, Brazil Senate
allowed women to wear slacks.
(SC, 3/4/02)
1997 Mar 4, In Chile the prison
population was reported to be 25,000 people. They were encouraged to
participate as employees in a joint government-business program.
(SFC, 3/4/97, p.A5)
1997 Mar 4, It was announced
that the US was providing as much as $20 million in military
supplies to Eritrea.
(WSJ, 3/4/97, p.A14)
1997 Mar 4, Russia launched
Zeya Start-1, a test satellite, aboard a modified SS-25 ballistic
missile from the new Svobodny cosmodrome in the Amur region of
eastern Siberia.
(WSJ, 3/5/97, p.A1)(SC, 3/4/02)
1997 Mar 4, In Spain the
matadors agreed to go back to work but the bull horn issue remained
unsettled.
(SFC, 3/5/97, p.A9)
1998 Mar 4, The Supreme Court
ruled that sexual harassment at work can be illegal even when the
offender and victim are of the same gender.
(WSJ, 1/4/98, p.R4)(AP, 3/4/99)
1998 Mar 4, The US House
approved a special referendum in Puerto Rico that would allow voters
to choose one of 3 options: continued commonwealth status, statehood
or independence.
(SFC, 3/5/98, p.A5)
1998 Mar 4, A judge ordered
Miami to hold a new mayoral election, saying widespread
absentee-ballot fraud played a role in the victory of Xavier Suarez
the previous fall.
(AP, 3/4/99)
1999 Mar 4, In North Carolina a
military jury acquitted Captain Richard J. Ashby of all charges in
the 1998 death of 20 people, who died when his jet cut the cable of
their ski gondola in the Italian Alps. Italian authorities were
outraged,
(SFC, 3/5/99, p.A1)(AP, 3/4/00)
1999 Mar 4, Manuel Noriega's
sentence was reduced from 40 years to 30 by a federal judge in
Florida. He would be eligible for parole in 2007.
(WSJ, 3/5/99, p.A1)
1999 Mar 4, Retired Supreme
Court Justice Harry A. Blackmun, who wrote the 1973 decision that
legalized abortion nationwide, died in Arlington, Va., at age 90.
(SFC, 3/5/99, p.A1) (AP, 3/4/00)
1999 Mar 4, In Brazil Arminio
Fraga, the new Central Bank president, raised the interest rates to
45%.
(SFC, 3/5/99, p.D2)
1999 Mar 4, Congo rebels who
served under Mobutu Sese Seko took the town of Bolobo, upstream from
Kinshasa.
(SFC, 3/5/99, p.D2)
1999 Mar 4, In Nigeria the
outgoing military government freed 47 political prisoners including
Gen'l. Oladipo Diya.
(SFC, 3/5/99, p.D2)
1999 Mar 4, In Russia Pres.
Yeltsin ordered Boris Berezovsky to be fired from his job with the
Commonwealth of Soviet States.
(WSJ, 3/5/99, p.A1)
1999 Mar 4, In Turkey a female
suicide bomber killed herself and wounded 3 civilians in the town of
Batman.
(SFC, 3/5/99, p.A14)
1999 Mar 4, Ugandan soldiers
killed 10 more Rwandan rebels inside Congo for the killing of
foreign tourists.
(SFC, 3/8/99, p.A16)
1999 Mar 4, In Venezuela the
bodies of 3 Americans, who were kidnapped Feb 25 in Colombia, were
found shot to death. Ingrid Washinawatok (41), Lahe'ena'e Gay (39)
and Terence Freitas (24) were coordinating a campaign for the U'wa
Indians when they were abducted. Raul Reyes, senior commander of
FARC, later said that local commander Gildardo and 3 rebels seized
and executed the 3 Americans without authorization. In Dec. German
Briceno, a FARC officer, was indicted in absentia on murder charges
along with Gustavo Bogota, a member of the U'wa Indian tribe. In
2000 Nelson Vargas was captured in Saravena and identified as the
guerrilla commander responsible for the kidnap-slayings. Police
later said Gildardo Gomez was the commander suspected in the
killings, but still held Vargas on suspicion of rebel membership.
(SFC, 3/6/99, p.A10)(SFC, 3/11/99, p.A10)(SFC,
12/22/99, p.A18)(SFC, 3/24/00, p.D3)(SFC, 3/27/00, p.A13)
2000 Mar 4, Ahead of Super
Tuesday, Republican presidential candidate George W. Bush charged
John McCain with “clouded” education views while the Arizona senator
asked “Where the outrage?” over a late surge of money to pay for
negative TV ads.
(AP, 3/4/01)
2000 Mar 4, On the AIDS crises
it was reported that 1 in every 50 black men in the US was HIV
positive. It was also reported that 1 in 300 of all people in the US
were HIV positive.
(SFEC, 3/5/00, Z1 p.1)
2000 Mar 4, In Bangladesh a
tornado hit the northwest Natore district and left nearly 3000
people homeless. 50 people were injured.
(SFC, 3/6/00, p.A12)
2000 Mar 4, In Beijing, China,
2,900 delegates from 32 provinces and regions gathered for the 10-11
day session of the Ninth National People's Congress. During the
session Hu Changqing, a former official in Jiangxi province, was
scheduled to be executed for taking bribes worth $658,000.
(SFC, 3/4/00, p.C1)(SFEC, 3/5/00, p.A22)
2001 Mar 4, President George W.
Bush dedicated a $4 billion aircraft carrier in honor of former
President Reagan. Nancy Reagan christened the ship. It was
commissioned in 2003.
(AP, 3/4/02)(SSFC, 7/13/03, p.A2)
2001 Mar 4, The US Coast Guard
found a record 13 (8) tons of cocaine aboard a 152-foot fishing
vessel, the Svesda Maru, in a Belize-flagged vessel 1,500 miles
south of San Diego. The ship’s crew were from Russia and Ukraine.
(SFC, 5/15/01, p.A5)(SFC, 5/30/01, p.A10)
2001 Mar 4, An oceanside
memorial was held in Hawaii for 9 people from a Japanese fishing
boat who were killed when their vessel was accidentally sunk by a
U.S. submarine.
(AP, 3/4/02)
2001 Mar 4, Singer Glenn
Hughes, the biker character in the disco band the Village People,
died in New York at age 50.
(AP, 3/4/02)
2001 Mar 4, Former Ohio 4-term
Gov. James A. Rhodes died at age 91.
(SFC, 3/5/01, p.A24)
2001 Mar 4, Harold E. Stassen
(93), former Minnesota 3-term Gov. and perennial presidential
candidate, died in Bloomington, Minn..
(SFC, 3/5/01, p.A24)(AP, 3/4/02)
2001 Mar 4, In England a bomb
exploded in London outside the BBC studios. It was the work of the
Real IRA and one person was injured.
(SFC, 3/5/01, p.A12)(WSJ, 3/5/01, p.A1)
2001 Mar 4, In Israel a
Palestinian suicide bomber killed himself and 3 Israelis in Netanya.
(SSFC, 3/4/01, p.A27)
2001 Mar 4, Macedonia sealed
its border with Kosovo after 3 soldiers were killed in heavy
fighting with ethnic Albanian rebels.
(WSJ, 3/5/01, p.A1)
2001 Mar 4, In Portugal a
bridge over the Douro River near Penafiel collapsed and at least 70
people in a bus and 2 cars plunged into the river and were killed.
(SFC, 3/5/01, p.A12)(WSJ, 3/5/01, p.A1)(WSJ,
3/6/01, p.A1)
2001 Mar 4, In Saudi Arabia
Muslim pilgrims climbed Mount Arafat as some 2 million gathered for
the annual hajj to Mecca.
(WSJ, 3/5/01, p.A1)
2001 Mar 4, Swiss voters
rejected membership talks with the EU by 77%.
(SFC, 3/5/01, p.A11)
2002 Mar 4, In Afghanistan at
least 7 US soldiers were killed while trying to drop off
reconnaissance teams in fighting in Paktia province. 6 of the
soldiers were killed in an effort to try to rescue a 7th during
Operation Anaconda.
(SFC, 3/5/02, p.A1)(SFC, 3/6/02, p.A1,12)
2002 Mar 4, Roy Porter
(b.1946), British historian, died. He had recently published
"Madness: A Brief History." His other books included “The Greatest
Benefit to Mankind” (1997), a survey of the history of medicine.
(www.guardian.co.uk/news/2002/mar/05/guardianobituaries.obituaries)(SSFC,
4/21/02, p.M3)(WSJ, 10/4/08, p.W8)
2002 Mar 4, European Union’s 15
members ratified the Kyoto Protocol on global warming, but failed to
set pollutant-emission levels to meet the accord’s targets.
(AP, 3/4/07)
2002 Mar 4, El Salvador
declared a state of emergency in the town of Berlin after some 60
horses died from apparent anthrax infections.
(SFC, 3/5/02, p.A7)
2002 Mar 4, In Ahmadabad,
India, Hindu militants razed the 80-year-old Manchaji mosque and
erected a foot-tall statue of the monkey god Hanuman in its place.
The death toll from Hindu-Muslim violence in the region climbed to
544.
(SFC, 3/5/02, p.A6)
2002 Mar 4, Israeli forces
killed at least 14 Palestinians including the wife of an Islamic
militant and their 3 children.
(SFC, 3/5/02, p.A1)
2002 Mar 4, In Kashmir
separatist violence left at least 17 people dead. This included 8
Islamic militants killed by Indian soldiers.
(SFC, 3/5/02, p.A7)
2002 Mar 4, In Kosovo Ibrahim
Rugova, moderate Albanian leader, became Kosovo’s 1st president and
joined PM Bajram Rexhepi to push for independence.
(SFC, 3/5/02, p.A7)
2003 Mar 4, It was later
reported that CNN top people found out that the US war on Iraq would
begin Mar 19. The Army's oldest armored division, "Old Ironsides,"
got orders to head for the Persian Gulf as the total of U.S. land,
sea and air forces arrayed against Iraq or preparing to go neared
300,000.
(SFC, 4/3/03, p.W2)(AP, 3/4/04)
2003 Mar 4, The Bank of
Canada raised its key overnight interest rate to 3 percent from 2.75
percent, as it fretted about a steeper inflation rate.
(AP, 3/4/03)
2003 Mar 4, In the
Indian-controlled portion of Kashmir a bus fell into a deep gorge,
killing at least nine people and injuring 52.
(AP, 3/4/03)
2003 Mar 4, Iran called
for UN-supervised elections in neighboring Iraq and urged the
divided Iraqi opposition to reconcile with Pres. Saddam Hussein as
part of a plan aimed at averting a US-led war on Iraq.
(AP, 3/4/03)
2003 Mar 4, In northern
Iraq Kurdish soldiers killed 5 Muslim men in a possible case of
mistaken identity.
(AP, 3/4/03)(SFC, 3/5/03, p.A10)
2003 Mar 4, Israeli
troops killed one Palestinian and wounded another in an shootout at
an Internet cafe in the West Bank.
(AP, 3/4/03)
2003 Mar 4, In the
Philippines a bomb hidden in a backpack exploded at the Davao
airport on Mindanao, killing 21 people and wounding some 150.
(AP, 3/4/03)(SFC, 3/5/03, p.A1)
2004 Mar 4, It was reported
that new nickels honoring the 1803 Louisiana Purchase have been
shipped to the Federal Reserve. A new Jefferson nickel was set for
2005.
(SFC, 4/25/03, B3)(SFC, 11/7/03, p.A2)(AP,
3/4/04)(SFC, 9/14/04, p.D3)
2004 Mar 4, George Pake
(b.1924), founding head (1970-1978) of Xerox's Palo Alto Research
Center (PARC), died in Tucson, Ariz.
(SFC, 10/25/00, p.D1)(SFC, 3/11/04, p.C5)
2004 Mar 4, Brunei officials
reported that two retired senior army and police intelligence
officers and a businessman had been jailed without trial for leaking
government secrets, some of them posted on the Internet.
(AP, 3/4/04)
2004 Mar 4, Mounir el
Motassadeq, the only person in the world convicted in the 9-11
attacks, won a retrial in a German appeals court.
(AP, 3/4/05)
2004 Mar 4, Israeli forces
raided the southern Gaza town of Rafah, killing a 14-year-old boy,
bulldozing houses and damaging the water and electricity networks.
(AP, 3/4/04)
2004 Mar 4, Ukrainian
authorities pulled a private station off the air, four days after it
began broadcasting U.S.-funded Radio Liberty's shortwave
programming.
(AP, 3/4/04)
2005 Mar 4, Pres. Bush
nominated career scientist Stephen L. Johnson (53) to head the
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
(SFC, 3/5/05, p.A1)(AP, 3/4/06)
2005 Mar 4, The DJIA rose 107
to 10,940, its highest level since June, 2001.
(SFC, 3/5/05, p.A10)
2005 Mar 4, Martha Stewart
returned from prison to the multi-million-dollar estate where she
will remain under the watch of federal authorities while trying to
revive her homemaking empire.
(AP, 3/4/05)
2005 Mar 4, India approved
cultivation of genetically modified cotton in its fertile northern
region, rejecting demands from anti-biotechnology activists.
(AP, 3/4/05)
2005 Mar 4, American troops
fired on a car taking Giuliana Sgrena to Baghdad's airport and
wounded her. Nicola Calipari, the Italian intelligence officer who
negotiated her freedom, was hit by the gunfire and died in her arms.
Sgrena returned to Italy the next day. In 2007 an Italian court
threw out the case against the US soldier charged in the shooting of
Calipari.
(AP, 3/5/05)(AP, 10/25/07)
2005 Mar 4, In Iraq Pvt. Gardi
Gardev, a Bulgarian soldier, was killed by friendly fire." President
Georgi Parvanov summoned U.S. Ambassador James Pardew on Mar 7 and
complained about the lack of coordination between coalition troops
in Iraq.
(AP, 3/7/05)
2005 Mar 4, Nepal government
forces killed at least 30 Maoist rebels in the western district of
Arghakhanchi.
(AP, 3/7/05)
2005 Mar 4, In southwestern
Pakistan police said Ramzan Mengal, an Islamic militant accused of
killing as many as 130 Shiite Muslims over recent years, was
arrested in Quetta.
(AP, 3/5/05)
2005 Mar 4, Palestinian gunmen
opened fire at a police station, sparking a gunfight that left three
people wounded.
(AP, 3/4/05)
2005 Mar 4, Tribes from western
Sudan and the neighboring Central African Republic signed a peace
charter in a bid to end cross-border clashes.
(AFP, 3/4/05)
2005 Mar 4, Swiss police said
they have detained five purported Islamic extremists suspected of
running Web sites that showed the execution of hostages and provided
details of how to make bombs and carry out attacks.
(AP, 3/4/05)
2005 Mar 4, Ukraine's former
interior minister was found dead of an apparent suicide, just before
he was to meet with prosecutors for questioning about the 2000
slaying of an investigative journalist. The minister had two shots
to the head.
(AP, 3/4/05)(Econ, 4/2/11, p.50)
2005 Mar 4, President Hugo
Chavez said Venezuela wants to supply crude oil to India, Asia's
third-biggest consumer, under a long-term agreement.
(AP, 3/4/05)
2006 Mar 4, The US Army
announced it would start a criminal investigation into the 2004
friendly fire death of former professional football player Patrick
Tillman in Afghanistan.
(AP, 3/4/07)
2006 Mar 4, Jenny McCarthy
received 3 Razzies: worst picture, worst actress and worst
screenplay as producer, for the gross-out romantic comedy “Dirty
Love.”
(SSFC, 3/5/06, p.A2)
2006 Mar 4, Some 10,000 fans
paid $50 to $450 to watch the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC)
at Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas.
(WSJ, 3/15/06, p.A1)
2006 Mar 4, A bomb killed four
Afghan intelligence agents when it blew up under their vehicle as
they were driving near the southern provincial capital of Lashkargah
in Helmand province.
(AP, 3/4/06)
2006 Mar 4, In Afghanistan
Taliban militia fatally shot Mohammad Hashim, a UN engineer, in the
Bala Buluk district of Farah province, where he was doing rural
rehabilitation work.
(AP, 3/6/06)
2006 Mar 4, Algeria began
releasing former Islamist fighters from prison, fulfilling an
amnesty aimed at promoting national reconciliation after more than a
decade of conflict.
(Reuters, 3/4/06)
2006 Mar 4, Detectives
investigating Britain's largest cash robbery arrested a 28-year-old
man on suspicion of the Feb 22 robbery in south London. Five people
have been charged so far in the case.
(AP, 3/4/06)
2006 Mar 4, Cambodia deported
an American for running websites that promoted the impoverished
kingdom as a destination for people who wanted to end their lives.
Californian Roger Graham, 57, who owned the Blue Mountain Coffee and
Internet Cafe in the quiet coastal backwater of Kampot, had
advertised his avid support of euthanasia, or mercy killing, on his
websites www.euthanasiaincambodia.com and www.asian-hearts.com.
(AFP, 3/4/06)
2006 Mar 4, Chechnya's
Parliament unanimously approved Ramzan Kadyrov (29), the head of a
security force widely accused of human rights abuses, as PM of the
war-battered republic.
(AP, 3/4/06)
2006 Mar 4, A government
spokesman said China's military budget will rise 14.7% this year to
$35.3 billion. China’s National People's Congress, largely a
rubber-stamp for decisions taken at the top level of the Chinese
Communist Party, approved a 14.7% increase in military spending to
35 billion dollars (27 billion euros). Although this is paltry
compared to the 419 billion dollar (325 billion euro) US defense
budget in 2006, the Pentagon last year estimated that China's
defense spending was two to three times the publicly announced
figure.
(AP, 3/4/06)(AP, 8/17/06)
2006 Mar 4, The French the
defense ministry said a French special forces officer was killed in
clashes with Taliban forces in southern Afghanistan. This was the
second French soldier to be killed in action in Afghanistan.
(AFP, 3/4/06)
2006 Mar 4, Youssef Fofana, the
suspected leader of a gang accused of torturing to death a young
Jewish man near Paris, was extradited from the Ivory Coast to
France.
(AP, 3/4/06)
2006 Mar 4, In India hundreds
of Hindu protesters rampaged through the town of Sanvodem in the
coastal state of Goa, storming a police station, beating officers,
looting Muslim shops and burning vehicles and buildings.
(AP, 3/4/06)
2006 Mar 4, Indonesia raised
its death toll due to the H5N1 strain of bird flu to 21 after tests
confirm that a boy (3) had succumbed to H5N1 in central Java.
(AP, 3/4/06)
2006 Mar 4, Iraq's Kurdish
president said that he joined Sunni Arab and secular politicians in
trying to block the Shiite Muslim prime minister from a second term
because Ibrahim al-Jaafari has become a divisive figure.
(AP, 3/4/06)
2006 Mar 4, The Arab League
said it will open offices in Iraq for the first time since the 2003
US-led invasion, part of its efforts to help reconcile the country's
Sunni Arab, Shiite and Kurdish communities.
(AP, 3/4/06)
2006 Mar 4, President Bush and
Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf recommitted their nations to
the difficult task of hunting down terrorists still hiding here and
across the globe. Police detained former cricket star Imran Khan and
arrested dozens of his opposition party's supporters to block a
rally against President Bush. Bush praised Pakistan's fight against
terrorism as unfaltering but turned down an appeal for the same
civilian nuclear help the US intends to give India.
(AP, 3/4/06)(AP, 3/5/06)
2006 Mar 4, Final results
showed that South Africa's governing African National Congress won
two-thirds of council seats in local elections. President Thabo
Mbeki vowed to repay the confidence shown by voters in the ruling
African National Congress and speed up delivery of services to
millions of poor blacks.
(AP, 3/4/06)(AP, 3/5/06)
2006 Mar 4, Supporters of the
Basque separatist group ETA clashed with riot police in northern
Spain to protest the deaths of two jailed members of the militant
organization.
(AP, 3/4/06)
2006 Mar 4, Sri Lanka said it
will put the clock back by half an hour and revert to its original
time after a 10-year experiment that largely failed to save energy.
"The change will take place from the Tamil and Sinhala New Year on
April 13."
(AFP, 3/4/06)
2006 Mar 4, An armed group
attacked a Tamil Tiger rebel checkpoint in eastern Sri Lanka,
killing two guerrillas in what the rebels called a "serious"
violation of the country's cease-fire.
(AP, 3/4/06)
2006 Mar 4, Sudanese President
Omar al-Beshir repeated his country's refusal to allow any UN-led
troop intervention in strife-torn Darfur, but still insisted
Khartoum was committed to working with the world community.
(AFP, 3/4/06)
2007 Mar 4, NAACP President
Bruce S. Gordon announced he was quitting the civil rights
organization after just 19 months at the helm, citing growing strain
with board members over the group's management style and future
operations.
(AP, 3/4/08)
2007 Mar 4, Stephen Grant (37)
of Mount Clemens, suspected of killing and dismembering his wife,
was captured as he fled searchers, running through snow in northern
Michigan. Tara Grant (34) was last seen on Feb 9. Stephen Grant
reported her missing five days later.
(AP, 3/4/07)
2007 Mar 4, In NYC a videotape
captured Rose Morat (101) as she repulsed an attack by a mugger in
the vestibule of her apartment. A suspect was later arrested.
(SFC, 4/28/07, p.A3)
2007 Mar 4, Thomas Eagleton
(b.1929), former US Senator from Missouri, died. In 1972 he served
as George McGovern’s nominee for vice-president until it was
revealed that he had been hospitalized for psychiatric depression.
(SFC, 3/5/07, p.D5)
2007 Mar 4, In eastern
Afghanistan a suicide attack by an explosives-filled minivan hit an
American convoy. US Marine Special Forces fleeing a militant ambush
opened fire on civilian cars and pedestrians on a busy highway in
Nangarhar province. As many as 19 people were killed and 34 wounded
in the violence. The marine unit involved was soon ordered to leave
Afghanistan. The attack was carried out by a breakaway faction of
Hezb-e-Islami that was once led by Younis Khalis, a former
mujahedeen commander who died last year. The group is now believed
to be led by a son of Khalis. A US-led coalition airstrike destroyed
a mud-brick home, killing nine people from four generations of an
Afghan family during a clash between Western troops and militants.
On May 23, 2008, Lt. Gen. Samuel Helland, the commander of US Marine
Corps Forces, Central Command, decided not to bring charges after
reviewing the findings of a special tribunal.
(AP, 3/4/07)(AP, 3/5/07)(SFC, 3/24/07, p.A8)(SFC,
1/9/08, p.A13)(AP, 5/24/08)
2007 Mar 4, In Algeria
suspected Islamic militants attacked a police checkpoint with
rocket-propelled grenades and machine guns, killing five officers
and wounding three others.
(AP, 3/4/07)
2007 Mar 4, In the Central
African Republic French fighter jets destroyed several rebel
vehicles in retaliation for an attack on French troops.
(AP, 3/4/07)
2007 Mar 4, Chad named the
former rebel leader Mahamat Nour Abdelkerim as its new defense
minister in a major reshuffle of the volatile central African
country's government.
(AFP, 3/4/07)
2007 Mar 4, China said it will
boost military spending by 17.8% this year, continuing more than a
decade of double-digit annual increases that have raised concerns
among the United States and China's neighbors.
(AP, 3/4/07)
2007 Mar 4, Copenhagen police
arrested dozens of people in a third straight day of unrest
triggered by the eviction of squatters from a disputed youth center.
(AP, 3/4/07)
2007 Mar 4, In East Timor
International security forces backed by helicopters raided a rebel
hide-out and killed four suspected insurgents, though their leader
Alfredo Reinado escaped.
(AP, 3/4/07)
2007 Mar 4, Voting stations
opened in Estonia's first Parliamentary election since joining the
EU. PM Andrus Ansip's center-right Reform Party narrowly won
parliamentary elections. Ansip's party had 27.8% of the votes, ahead
of the left-leaning Center Party led by political veteran Edgar
Savisaar, which had 26.1%. Ansip pledged to preserve the
market-friendly policies credited with the Baltic nation's
impressive growth. President Toomas Hendrik Ilves likely will ask
Ansip to form the next government of the country of 1.3 million.
(AP, 3/4/07)
2007 Mar 4, In Ethiopia a group
of French tourists who had also been missing since March 1 arrived
in Mekele, the Afar region's capital, and said they had not been
kidnapped, as was previously believed. Eritrea denied accusations
that it was behind the disappearance of five kidnapped Britons.
(AP, 3/4/07)
2007 Mar 4, In eastern India
suspected communist rebels assassinated lawmaker Sunil Mahato as he
watched a soccer game being played. Two bodyguards and a civilian
also were killed.
(AP, 3/5/07)
2007 Mar 4, Hundreds of US
soldiers entered the Shiite stronghold of Sadr City in the first
major push into the area since an American-led security sweep began
last month around Baghdad. US troops raided a mosque in Baghdad and
captured three suspected insurgents hiding inside. At least 10
people died in violence, including three women and a child, all
Shiite pilgrims heading to the holy city of Karbala, killed in a
roadside bombing in Hillah. Two policemen were killed and three hurt
in clashes the northern Iraqi city of Mosul. A British-Iraqi raid on
a police intelligence headquarters in southern Iraq found 30
prisoners with signs of torture and an alleged death squad leader
was captured.
(AP, 3/4/07)(AP, 3/5/07)
2007 Mar 4, Ivory Coast's Pres.
Laurent Gbagbo signed a peace accord with Guillaume Soro, the
country's main rebel leader, calling for a new government to hold
elections by the year's end, and for the dismantling of a vast
buffer zone separating the two sides. The latest deal is the result
of meetings between the two camps that started in early February
under the oversight of Burkina Faso President Blaise Compaore.
(AP, 3/4/07)
2007 Mar 4, An aide said PM
Shinzo Abe will stand by Japan's 1993 apology over forcing Asian
women to have sex with Japanese troops in the last century, after
the leader's denial that Tokyo used coercion caused an international
uproar.
(AP, 3/4/07)
2007 Mar 4, Officials said
Kuwait's Cabinet has resigned in a widely expected move that
pre-empts a vote of no-confidence in the health minister, who is a
member of the ruling family. Kuwaiti governments have previously
pre-empted votes of no-confidence by resigning and Cabinet
reshuffles. Such moves have even led to dissolving parliament.
(AP, 3/4/07)
2007 Mar 4, Avalanches killed
at least five skiers in the Swiss and French Alps following days of
heavy snow.
(AP, 3/5/07)
2007 Mar 4, Thirty-six Yemenis
with alleged ties to al-Qaida went on trial on charges they planned
to take part in foiled suicide attacks on oil and gas installations
in the country.
(AP, 3/4/07)
2008 Mar 4, John McCain
clinched the Republican nomination. Hillary Clinton won primaries in
Texas, Ohio and Rhode Island, halting Barack Obama's winning streak.
Obama won in Vermont. Obama came away with a large share of
delegates, too, in counting that continued.
(AP, 3/5/08)
2008 Mar 4, In Vermont voters
in Brattleboro and Marlboro passed a nonbinding, symbolic measure
that instructs town police to arrest President George W. Bush and
Vice President Dick Cheney for "crimes against our Constitution" and
"extradite them to other authorities that may reasonably contend to
prosecute them."
(Reuters, 3/5/08)
2008 Mar 4, Platinum prices
spiked to an all-time peak at $2,279.25.
(AP, 3/5/08)
2008 Mar 4, Gary Gygax
(b.1938), co-creator of the role-playing Dungeons & Dragons
game, died in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin. Gygax and Don Kaye had founded
Tactical Studies Rules (TSR) in 1973. In 1974 Gygax and David
Arneson published D&D. In 1997 TSR was sold to Wizards of the
Coast.
(WSJ, 3/8/08, p.A7)(Econ, 3/15/08, p.102)
2008 Mar 4, In eastern
Afghanistan a suicide car bomb exploded near a government compound,
killing a policeman. The bombing, claimed by the extremist Taliban,
was the fifth in a week in the eastern province of Khost. In
southwestern Nimroz province Taliban militants attacked a police
checkpoint, and the ensuing two-hour gunbattle left three policemen
dead. Near Hyderabad, Afghanistan, an Afghan man was killed. Master
Sgt. Joseph D. Newel faced allegations in the case that included
premeditated murder; wrongfully mutilating a dead body; larceny; and
violation of a lawful order. In 2009 Newell was acquitted of
premeditated murder and mutilation.
(AFP, 3/4/08)(AP,
3/5/08)(http://shadowspear.com/vb/showthread.php?t=13756)(SFC,
2/26/09, p.A4)
2008 Mar 4, Ethnic Armenian and
Azerbaijani forces exchanged fire for hours near the disputed
territory of Nagorno-Karabakh. Azerbaijan warned it could try to
reclaim the disputed region. Soldiers were killed and wounded on
both sides. Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty said in a statement that
its two Armenian affiliates halted the broadcasts to comply with an
emergency decree that allows media to only report news that is
sanctioned by the government.
(AP, 3/5/08)(WSJ, 3/5/08, p.A1)
2008 Mar 4, The Reserve Bank of
Australia raised its official cash-rate target by a quarter point to
7.25% in an effort to tighten credit as inflation remained
problematic.
(WSJ, 3/5/08, p.A2)
2008 Mar 4, An Australian
aquaculture company claimed a world first in artificially breeding
endangered southern bluefin tuna.
(AP, 3/4/08)
2008 Mar 4, The US embassy in
Sarajevo said the US government has cut development aid to the
political party of Bosnian Serb PM Milorad Dodik because of its
nationalist policy.
(AP, 3/4/08)
2008 Mar 4, In Brazil police
used rubber bullets and tear gas to remove 900 activists from a tree
farm they had invaded to highlight allegations its Swedish-Finnish
operators violated a law forbidding foreign companies from owning
certain lands.
(AP, 3/4/08)
2008 Mar 4, The Bank of Canada
slashed its overnight interest rate by 50 basis points for the first
time since November 2001, lowering it to 3.5% and signaling further
cuts to shield the economy from the damaging effects of the US
slowdown.
(Reuters, 3/4/08)
2008 Mar 4, China said its
defense spending would jump 17.6 percent this year but insisted the
rise was moderate, amid a flare-up in tensions with the United
States over Beijing's growing military muscle.
(AP, 3/4/08)
2008 Mar 4, China and Russia
scuttled a Western attempt to introduce a resolution on Iran's
nuclear defiance at a meeting of the International Atomic Energy
Agency.
(AP, 3/4/08)
2008 Mar 4, Costa Rican police
detained 14 people, including a family court judge and a lawyer, on
suspicion of participating in a scheme in which mothers allegedly
were paid to give up their babies.
(AP, 3/4/08)
2008 Mar 4, In Cairo US Sec. of
State Condoleezza Rice said she has released $100 million in
military aid to Egypt after telling the US Congress the money was
necessary for national security reasons. Police arrested 54 members
of Egypt's largest opposition movement, the first day for
registration of candidates for key local council elections.
(Reuters, 3/4/08)(AP, 3/4/08)
2008 Mar 4, France pinned the
blame on Sudanese forces for a shooting near the border with Chad
that left one French soldier wounded and another missing and asked
Sudanese authorities for help in locating the missing soldier. Sgt.
Gilles Pollin’s remains were formally identified Mar 7 and flown to
Paris from Khartoum.
(AP, 3/4/08)(AP, 3/7/08)
2008 Mar 4, Israel said it
would return to Hamas-ruled Gaza if necessary as it mounted new
airstrikes on the Palestinian territory after militants fired more
rockets at a nearby Israeli town. Palestinian President Mahmoud
Abbas declared that peace is his first choice in the Mideast and
visiting Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice exhorted Israel to
"spare innocent life" in the latest upsurge in fighting in
Hamas-ruled Gaza. Palestinians fired three rockets at Israel. About
25 Israeli armored vehicles rumbled into southern Gaza and clashed
with militants after nightfall. A 1-month-old baby was killed in the
crossfire. A local Islamic Jihad leader was killed and 8 militants
and 3 civilians were wounded.
(AP, 3/4/08)(AP, 3/5/08)
2008 Mar 4, Israel has said
Hezbollah is rearming and has an arsenal that includes 10,000
long-range rockets and 20,000 short-range rockets in southern
Lebanon, according to a report from Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.
(AP, 3/4/08)
2008 Mar 4, Italian police said
they have seized 150 million euros of property and goods from
feuding Calabrian mafia clans who are under investigation for the
murder of six Italians outside a pizzeria in Germany last year.
(Reuters, 3/4/08)
2008 Mar 4, Ian Paisley, the
fiery Protestant preacher who reversed a lifetime of stubbornness to
embrace an unlikely peace, announced his retirement as leader of
Northern Ireland's power-sharing government with Roman Catholics.
(AP, 3/4/08)
2008 Mar 4, In Pakistan 2
suicide bombers blew themselves up at a prestigious naval college in
the eastern city of Lahore, killing at least five people and
injuring 19.
(AP, 3/4/08)
2008 Mar 4, The Rwandan
government and the UN signed a deal allowing detainees sentenced by
the UN-backed court on the Rwanda genocide to be jailed in Rwanda.
(AFP, 3/5/08)
2008 Mar 4, In Sri Lanka 7
rebels were killed in ongoing clashes as government forces pushed
deeper into Tamil Tiger territory. 3 days of fighting left at least
90 guerrillas and nine government soldiers dead.
(AFP, 3/4/08)
2008 Mar 4, In southern Sudan
activists warned that the 2006 arrival of White Nile Petroleum
Company (WNPOC), a consortium led by Malaysia's Petronas, in Unity
State threatens the Sudd wetlands, the world's largest maze of
swamps, lagoons and tributaries. Villagers said thousands were
forcefully evicted to make way for the low-sulphur crude oil
venture. They lost ancestral homes, died from contamination and saw
livelihoods jeopardized.
(AFP, 3/4/08)
2008 Mar 4, Officials said
Turkey is ready to take part in a planned Mediterranean Union after
winning assurances that it is not meant as a substitute for Ankara's
eventual EU membership.
(AP, 3/4/08)
2008 Mar 4, Ugandan troops
clashed with rebels from the Lord's Resistance Army inside
neighboring Sudan.
(AFP, 3/6/08)
2008 Mar 4, Ukraine's natural
gas company warned that if Russia further cuts its gas supplies, it
could begin diverting shipments intended for western Europe.
(AP, 3/4/08)
2009 Mar 4, The Obama
administration kicked off a new program that's designed to help up
to 9 million borrowers stay in their homes through refinanced
mortgages or loans that are modified to lower monthly payments.
President Barack Obama approved an order to overhaul the way the US
government awards contracts for work to be done by the private
sector, reversing a Bush administration policy.
(AP, 3/4/09)
2009 Mar 4, British PM Gordon
Brown addressed a joint session of the US Congress and bestowed an
honorary knighthood for Senator Edward Kennedy.
(Econ, 3/7/09, p.65)
2009 Mar 4, In California David
Paradiso (28), a man accused of killing his girlfriend, was shot to
death in a Stockton courtroom after he attacked the judge presiding
over his murder trial.
(AP, 3/5/09)
2009 Mar 4, In Texas Kenneth
Wayne Morris was executed for killing a Houston man in a botched
burglary nearly 18 years ago.
(SFC, 3/5/09, p.A6)
2009 Mar 4, Joseph Bloch,
Juilliard School pianist and scholar, died.
(WSJ, 3/19/09,
p.D9)(www.nytimes.com/2009/03/15/arts/music/15bloch.html)
2009 Mar 4, In Afghanistan a
car bomb exploded outside the main US military base at Bagram and
wounded three people. The Taliban claimed responsibility.
(AP, 3/4/09)
2009 Mar 4, In central China
more than 2,000 people displaced by construction of the Three Gorges
Dam clashed with police during a protest over missing resettlement
payments, leaving 30 protesters injured.
(AP, 3/4/09)
2009 Mar 4, Channel tunnel
operator Eurotunnel said it will pay its first ever dividend after
making a net profit of 40 million euros in 2008 despite fire damage
of 200 million euros (250 million dollars).
(AP, 3/4/09)
2009 Mar 4, The Finnish
Parliament approved controversial legislation that allows employers
to track workers' e-mails.
(AP, 3/4/09)
2009 Mar 4, Union leaders on
the French Caribbean island of Guadeloupe agreed to suspend a
44-day-old general strike as most of their demands continue to be
met.
(AP, 3/4/09)
2009 Mar 4, In India officials
said investigators looking into an outbreak of hepatitis uncovered a
huge operation engaged in illegally recycling hundreds of tons of
used medical equipment. Gujarat state officials launched the probe 2
weeks earlier after 56 people died of hepatitis B.
(SFC, 3/5/09, p.A2)
2009 Mar 4, In Ingushetia a man
fired several grenades at the home of former President Murat
Zyazikov in Nazran. Zyazikov was unhurt, but the attacker died in
the explosion.
(AP, 8/17/09)
2009 Mar 4, In Iraq a suicide
bomber triggered an explosives-packed belt as he walked among
members of a police intelligence unit in central Baghdad, killing
three people. A suicide car bomb exploded at a police checkpoint in
Mosul, killing at least two policemen and wounding 15 people. Gunmen
killed a Sunni sheik, his wife and two sons near Samarra, 60 miles
(100 kilometers) north of Baghdad. Gunmen killed Brig. Gen. Salam
Salman Mohammed, a senior Ministry of Interior official, as he drove
to work in Baghdad.
(AP, 3/4/09)(SFC, 3/6/09, p.A2)
2009 Mar 4, The Israeli
military aircraft fired upon three smuggling tunnels along the
Gaza-Egypt border. An Israeli missile strike in northern Gaza killed
Khaled Shalan, described as a senior Islamic Jihad commander.
(AP, 3/4/09)(SFC, 3/6/09, p.A3)
2009 Mar 4, Salvatore Samperi
(64), Italian director, died in his house on Lake Bracciano. He was
best known for erotic comedies that challenged the morals of Italy's
middle class.
(AP, 3/5/09)
2009 Mar 4, In Mexico a fight
between gangs in a state prison in Ciudad Juarez left at least 20
prisoners dead.
(SFC, 3/5/09, p.A5)
2009 Mar 4, In southern Nigeria
gunmen seized two passengers from a ferry near the Bonny Island gas
terminal. 19 others were released shortly after the ferry was
seized.
(AFP, 3/5/09)
2009 Mar 4, The UN described
the war zone in northern Sri Lanka as an "unfolding humanitarian
catastrophe," where civilians were trapped and dying because they
lacked food and medicine.
(AP, 3/4/09)
2009 Mar 4, The International
Criminal Court at The Hague issued an arrest warrant for Sudanese
President Omar al-Bashir on charges of war crimes and crimes against
humanity in Darfur. He is the first sitting head of state the court
has ordered arrested. The French medical aid organization Doctors
Without Borders (MSF) said it was pulling staff out of Darfur after
the Sudanese government ordered them to leave. Sudan ordered at
least 10 humanitarian groups expelled from Darfur.
(AP, 3/4/09)(AFP, 3/4/09)
2009 Mar 4, Ukrainian masked
and armed security agents searched the headquarters of Naftogaz,
Ukraine's natural gas company, in a raid that the firm said
threatened a deal with Russia over the shipment of gas supplies to
Europe. The raid was said to be connected to a criminal
investigation launched this week into the alleged diversion of some
7.4 billion hryvna ($900 million) in Russian gas by officials at
Naftogaz.
(AP, 3/4/09)
2009 Mar 4, Venezuela’s Pres.
Chavez ordered the expropriation of the rice operations of US grain
giant Cargill Inc. and threatened to take over beer and food
manufacturer Polar, the country’s largest private company.
(WSJ, 3/5/09, p.A9)
2009 Mar 4, Zimbabwe’s PM
Morgan Tsvangirai made his first call for an end to international
sanctions, part of his bid to start rebuilding the shattered
economy. He also said the detention of political prisoners is
undermining donor confidence in Zimbabwe's unity government, hurting
efforts to rebuild the economy. US President Barack Obama extended
sanctions against Zimbabwe, saying the troubled African nation had
not resolved its political crisis.
(Reuters, 3/4/09)(AFP, 3/4/09)(Reuters, 3/5/09)
2010 Mar 4, A US congressional
panel voted to label as "genocide" the World War One-era massacre of
Armenians by Ottoman Turkish forces, prompting Turkey to recall its
ambassador from Washington.
(Reuters, 3/4/10)
2010 Mar 4, In California
thousands of protesters lashed out against budget cuts to the
state’s educational system in the “Day of Action to Defend Public
Education.”
(SFC, 3/5/10, p.A1)
2010 Mar 4, In Virginia John
Patrick Bedell (36) of Hollister, Calif., was killed in a shootout
with Pentagon police. He died from head wounds received when the two
injured officers and another officer returned fire. Bedell had
driven cross-country and arrived at the Pentagon’s subway entrance
armed with two semiautomatic weapons. Bedell apparently left behind
Internet postings resentful of the government and airing suspicions
about the 9/11 attacks.
(AP, 3/5/10)
2010 Mar 4, In Australia
Gurshan Singh (3), who was visiting from Punjab in northern India,
disappeared from a suburban house in Melbourne. His body was found
about six hours later some 30 km (20 miles) away, not far from the
city's airport. On march 7 police alleged that Gursewak Dhillon
(23), a part-time taxi driver who had been sharing a house with the
boy and his family, was responsible for the boy’s death.
(AFP, 3/5/10)(AFP, 3/7/10)
2010 Mar 4, Bangladesh police
said Mahbub Sarwar (26), a Dhaka-based Facebook stocks tipster with
more than 10,000 followers, has been arrested on charges of
illegally manipulating Bangladesh's overheated stock exchange.
(AFP, 3/4/10)
2010 Mar 4, Brazil’s National
Health Surveillance Agency, Anvisa, ordered all 1,987 passengers and
765 crew to remain aboard the "Vision of the Seas" anchored at
Buzios, while teams of doctors treat the 195 passengers suffering
vomiting and diarrhea and determine the cause of their illness.
(AFP, 3/4/10)
2010 Mar 4, A collection of 300
films capturing the final days of the British Empire in India and
other parts of south Asia was released by the University of
Cambridge. The free archive footage is available at
www.s-asian.cam.ac.uk/films.html. The silent films, taken between
1911 and 1956, celebrate unique moments in history, from life after
the Quetta earthquake of 1935 to the partition of India and Pakistan
in 1947.
(AFP, 3/4/10)
2010 Mar 4, Chile’s government
said it had identified 279 dead, dropping the confirmed official
death toll from 802. The Feb 27 magnitude-8.8 quake, one of the
strongest on record, and the tsunami that followed ravaged a 700-km
(435-mile) stretch of Chile's Pacific coast.
(AP, 3/5/10)
2010 Mar 4, US Secretary of
State Hillary Rodham Clinton, on the sidelines of a meeting of
regional officials in Costa Rica, said the Obama administration will
resume aid to Honduras that was suspended after a coup last year and
urged Latin American nations to recognize the new Honduran
government.
(AP, 3/4/10)
2010 Mar 4, A German court
jailed four Islamic militants who dreamed of "mounting a second
September 11" for a thwarted plot to attack US soldiers and
civilians in Germany. The two German converts to Islam, Fritz
Gelowicz and Daniel Schneider, each received 12-year jail terms.
Adem Yilmaz, a Turkish citizen, got 11 years while Atilla Selek, a
German of Turkish origin, was given five years in prison for what
the court called a supporting role in the plot.
(AFP, 3/4/10)
2010 Mar 4, Greece launched a
critical 10-year bond issue, a key test of its ability to raise
funds to pay off expiring debts, and dig out of a financial crisis
that has shaken the EU.
(AP, 3/4/10)
2010 Mar 4, In India a stampede
among thousands of poor villagers scrambling for free food and
clothes at a commemorative event killed 63 women and children at a
Hindu temple in Kunda, Uttar Pradesh state.
(AP, 3/4/10)(AP, 3/5/10)
2010 Mar 4, In Iraq a string of
blasts ripped through Baghdad targeting early voters and killing 17
people, raising tensions in an already nervous city as early ballots
are cast for the March 14 parliamentary elections.
(AP, 3/4/10)
2010 Mar 4, Liam Adams, the
brother of Sinn Fein party leader Gerry Adams, surrendered to Irish
authorities to face 23 charges of sexually abusing his daughter. He
fled to the Republic of Ireland to avoid a November 2008 Belfast
hearing over the charges of abusing his daughter Aine for eight
years when she was a child.
(AP, 3/4/10)
2010 Mar 4, Israel's Supreme
Court reprimanded Jerusalem police for not permitting groups to
protest the eviction of Palestinians from their homes in favor of
Jewish settlers.
(AP, 3/4/10)
2010 Mar 4, The new Ivory Coast
government announced it is now made up of 16 ministers drawn from
President Laurent Gbagbo's FPI party and the former New Forces
rebels as well as 11 ministers representing opposition parties.
(AP, 3/4/10)
2010 Mar 4, Throngs of Mexico
City gay and lesbian couples registered for marriage licenses, the
day Latin America's first gay-marriage law took effect.
(AP, 3/4/10)
2010 Mar 4, In Pakistan robbers
kidnapped Sahil Saeed, a five-year-old British boy, in the town of
Jhelum, about 100 km (65 miles) south of Islamabad, demanding a
ransom of 100,000 pounds, prompting his mother to make a tearful
plea for the return of her boy. In the northwest an overnight
gunbattle left 30 insurgents and one soldier dead in the Chamarkand
area of the Mohmand tribal region. Sahil Saeed was released on March
16. Spanish police arrested 3 suspects in the kidnapping in
Tarragona province. They were suspected of having traveled to
another European city to collect ransom money.
(AFP, 3/4/10)(SFC, 3/5/10, p.A2)(AFP,
3/16/10)(AP, 3/17/10)
2010 Mar 4, Gaza's Islamic
militant Hamas government banned men from working in women's hair
salons. The announcement came amid a Hamas campaign to impose
Islamic customs on Gaza's 1.5 million people.
(AP, 3/4/10)
2010 Mar 4, In Rwanda 2 grenade
blasts wounded 16 people in the capital, in the second wave of
grenade attacks to hit Kigali in two weeks. On March 6 authorities
said Deo Mushayidi, a former member of the then rebel group Rwandan
Patriotic Front that ended the 1994 genocide, was arrested in
neighboring Burundi. The government has also accused two former
senior army officers now exiled in South Africa of being behind the
attacks.
(AP, 3/5/10)(AFP, 3/6/10)
2010 Mar 4, Somali pirates hit
a Spanish fishing boat off the coast of Kenya with a
rocket-propelled grenade as private security on board returned fire
and fended off the would-be hijackers.
(AP, 3/4/10)
2010 Mar 4, A Syrian
archaeologist said more than 250 silver coins dating back to the
time of Alexander the Great have been unearthed. The coins were
discovered two weeks ago in a bronze box in northern Syria when a
local man was digging the foundations of his new home.
(AP, 3/4/10)
2010 Mar 4, In Taiwan a
powerful 6.4 earthquake and more than a dozen aftershocks jolted
southern Taiwan, injuring 96 people, toppling farm houses and
derailing a carriage on a high-speed train.
(AP, 3/4/10)
2010 Mar 4, Togo held
presidential elections. Jean-Pierre Fabre (57), a deputy in the
National Assembly and the top opposition candidate, said that this
time around the people will not let the ruling party steal the
election. Provisional results on March 6 indicated that Gnassingbe
won 1.2 million votes, representing 60.9% of the roughly 2 million
votes cast.
(AP, 3/4/10)(AP, 3/7/10)
2010 Mar 4, Yemen's Interior
Ministry said it has arrested 11 suspected al-Qaida militants during
a raid on one of their homes. The father of one of the suspects was
killed by police when he opened fire on police during the raid.
Sharif Mobley (26), one of the 11 suspects and a US citizen of
Somali descent, had worked for contractors at nuclear plants in New
Jersey, Pennsylvania and Maryland from 2002 to 2008, mostly hauling
materials and setting up scaffolding.
(AP, 3/4/10)(AP, 3/13/10)
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