Today in History - March 20
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2012 Jun 28, The United Nations declared that March 20 each year will be the International Day of Happiness.
(AFP, 6/29/12)
43BC Mar 20, Ovid (d.17or18AD), Publius Ovidius Naso, Roman poet, was born. His writings included: “The Art of Love."
(WUD, 1994, p.1032)(SFEC, 12/22/96, Z1 p.2)(HN, 3/20/01)
141 Mar 20, The 6th recorded perihelion passage of Halley's Comet.
(MC, 3/20/02)
842 Mar 20, Alfonso II the Chaste, king of Asturia (791-842), died. Asturias was a kingdom in NW Spain.
(MC, 3/20/02)(WUD, 1994 p.92)
1345 Mar 20, A conjunction of Saturn, Jupiter and Mars was thought to be the "cause of plague epidemic."
(MC, 3/20/02)
1413 Mar 20, Henry IV (b.1367), King of England (1399-1413), died in the house of the Abbot of Westminster. He was succeeded by Henry V (b.1387).
(AP, 3/20/97)(www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/henry_iv_king.shtml)
1501 Mar 20, Jean Carondelet (72), lawyer, chancellor of Burgundy (1480-96), died.
(MC, 3/20/02)
1525 Mar 20, The Paris parliament began the pursuit of Protestants (Papists proudly participated).
(MC, 3/20/02)
1549 Mar 20, Thomas Seymour of Sudely, English Lord Admiral, was beheaded.
(MC, 3/20/02)
1602 Mar 20, The Dutch East India Company (Vereenigde Oost-Indische Compagnie) was chartered to carry on trade in the East Indies. The VOC traded to 1798 whereupon its possessions were dissolved into the Dutch empire. In 2010 a student found a share in the company issued to an official named Pieter Harmenz dating to Sep 9, 1606. As a result, continuous trade in company stock emerged on the Amsterdam Exchange.
(SFC, 9/10/10, p.A2)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stock_market)(Econ, 2/25/12, SRp.4)
1616 Mar 20, Walter Raleigh was released from Tower of London to seek gold in Guiana. He took along his son Wat (22), who was killed during an attack on a Spanish outpost.
(MC, 3/20/02)(WSJ, 1/6/04, p.D10)
1727 Mar 20, Sir Isaac Newton (b.1642), physicist, mathematician and astronomer, died in London. Michael White wrote the 1998 biography "Isaac Newton" in which he revealed Newton’s passion for alchemy. In 2003 James Gleick authored the biography "Isaac Newton." In 2011 Edward Dolnick authored “The Clockwork Universe: Isaac Newton, Royal Society, and the Birth of the Modern World." In 2014 Sarah Dry authored “The Newton Papers: The Strange and True Odyssey of Isaac Newton’s Manuscripts."
(AP, 3/20/97)(WSJ, 2/19/98, p.A20)(SSFC, 6/1/03, p.M1)(Econ, 3/12/11, p.99)(Econ, 6/21/14, p.81)
1739 Mar 20, Eligio Celestino, composer, was born.
(MC, 3/20/02)
1739 Mar 20, In India, Nadir Shah of Persia occupied Delhi and took possession of the Peacock thrown. King Nadir Shah later took the golden Peacock Throne back to Persia.
(HN, 3/20/99)(SFEC, 5/21/00, p.T8)
1760 Mar 20, The great fire of Boston destroyed 349 buildings.
(HN, 3/20/98)
1792 Mar 20, In Paris, the Legislative Assembly approved the use of the guillotine.
(HN, 3/20/99)
1800 Mar 20, French army defeated Turks at Heliopolis, Turkey, and advanced to Cairo.
(MC, 3/20/02)
1811 Mar 20, George Caleb Bingham (d.1879), Missouri painter, was born in Virginia. His paintings included "Fur Traders on the Missouri."
(WUD, 1994, p.149)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Caleb_Bingham)
1811 Mar 20, Napoleon II, the Duke of Reichstadt, was born. He was the son of Napoleon Bonaparte.
(HN, 3/20/99)
1815 Mar 20, Napoleon Bonaparte entered Paris, beginning his "Hundred Days" rule.
(AP, 3/20/97)(HN, 3/20/98)
1816 Mar 20, The U.S. Supreme Court, in Martin vs. Hunter's Lessee, affirmed its right to review state court decisions.
(AP, 3/20/97)
1828 Mar 20, Henrik Ibsen (d.1906), poet and dramatist was born in Skien, Norway. His work included “Peer Gynt" and “Hedda Gabler." "The worst enemy of truth and freedom in our society is the compact majority. Yes, the damned, compact, liberal majority." In 1971 the 3rd and final volume of “Ibsen: A Biography" by Michael Meyer (d.2000) was published.
(HFA, '96, p.26)(HN, 3/20/98)(AP, 7/22/98)(SFC, 8/10/00, p.D2)
1833 Mar 20 The United States and Siam (now Thailand) concluded a commercial treaty in Bangkok.
(AP, 3/20/97)
1836 Mar 20, At Coleto Creek, Texas, Colonel James Fannin after being surrounded by Mexican forces under General Urrea, agreed to surrender to Colonel Juan Jose Holzinger. Fannin was unaware that General Santa Anna had decreed execution for all rebels. Urrea negotiated the surrender "at the disposal of the Supreme Mexican Government," falsely stating that no prisoner taken on those terms had lost his life.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goliad_Campaign)
1841 Mar 20, Edgar Allen Poe's The Murders in the Rue Morgue, considered the first detective story, was published. [see April 14, 20, 1841]
(HN, 3/20/01)
1848 Mar 20, King Ludwig I of Bavaria abdicated to marry dancer Lola Montez.
(MC, 3/20/02)
1852 Mar 20, Harriet Beecher Stowe's (1811-1896) "Uncle Tom's Cabin" was first published in book form after being serialized. It was based on the theme that slavery is incompatible with Christianity. In 2011 David S. Reynolds authored “Mightier Than the Sword: Uncle Tom’s Cabin and the Battle for America."
(SFC, 3/30/97, Z1. p.6)(AP, 3/20/08)(SSFC, 7/3/11, p.G4)
1854 Mar 20, The Republican Party was founded when former members of the Whig political party met to establish a new political party that would oppose the spread of slavery into the western territories. [see Feb 28]
(MC, 3/20/02)
1863 Mar 20, Battle of Pensacola, Florida- evacuated by Federals.
(MC, 3/20/02)
1865 Mar 20, Battle of Bentonville, N.C.
(HN, 3/20/98)
1865 Mar 20, Michigan authorized workers' cooperatives.
(MC, 3/20/02)
1868 Mar 20, The Jesse James Gang robbed a bank in Russellville, Kentucky, of $14,000.
(MC, 3/20/02)
1873 Mar 20, Sergei V. Rachmaninov, Russian-US pianist, composer (Aleko), was born. [see Apr 1]
(MC, 3/20/02)
1878 Mar 20, Thomas Fisher, an alleged member of the Molly McGuires, was hung at the Carbon County Prison of Mauch Chunk, Pa. He had been convicted of the murder of Morgan Powell, a supervisor for the Lehigh Coal and Navigation Company. Fisher insisted up to his death on his innocence.
(HT, 4/97, p.20)
1885 Mar 20, Yiddish theater opened in NY with Goldfaden operetta.
(MC, 3/20/02)
1885 Mar 20, John Matzeliger of Suriname patented a shoe lacing machine.
(MC, 3/20/02)
1888 Mar 20, Start of the Sherlock Holmes Adventure, "A Scandal in Bohemia."
(MC, 3/20/02)
1890 Mar 20, Lauritz Melchior, baritone, tenor (Met Opera), was born in Copenhagen, Denmark.
(MC, 3/20/02)
1890 Mar 20, Germany’s Kaiser Wilhelm II fired republic chancellor Otto Von Bismarck.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Otto_von_Bismarck)
1894 Mar 20, Lajos Kossuth (91), Hungarian freedom fighter, president (1849), died.
(www.thenagain.info/WebChron/EastEurope/Kossuth.html)
1896 Mar 20, U.S. Marines landed in Nicaragua to protect U.S. citizens in the wake of a revolution.
(AP, 3/20/97)
1899 Mar 20, Martha M. Place of Brooklyn, N.Y., became the first woman to be executed in the electric chair. She was put to death at Sing Sing for the murder of her stepdaughter.
(AP, 3/20/99)
1902 Mar 20, France and Russia acknowledged the Anglo-Japanese alliance, but asserted their right to protect their interests in China and Korea.
(HN, 3/20/98)
1903 Mar 20, Henri Matisse exhibited at the Salon des Independants.
(HN, 3/20/98)
1904 Mar 20, B.F. Skinner (Burrhus Frederic Skinner), American psychologist, was born.
(HN, 3/20/01)
1906 Mar 20, George B. Shaw's "Captain Brassbound's Conversion," premiered in London.
(MC, 3/20/02)
1906 Mar 20, Army officers in Russia mutinied at Sevastopol.
(HN, 3/20/98)
1907 Mar 20, A San Francisco grand jury returned a 66-count indictment against Abe Ruef and two executives of a Bell system telephone company who had bribed him.
(SFC, 7/18/15, p.C2)
1908 Mar 20, Frank Stanton, broadcasting pioneer and the president of CBS for 26 years, was born in Muskegon, Mich.
(AP, 3/20/08)
1908 Mar 20, Michael Redgrave (d.1985), actor (Browning Version, Lady Vanishes), was born in Bristol, England.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Redgrave)
1911 Mar 20, Winter Garden Theater opened at 1634 Broadway, NYC.
(MC, 3/20/02)
1911 Mar 20, Russian Premier Stolypin resigned in St. Petersburg.
(HN, 3/20/98)
1913 Mar 20, It was reported that Alcatraz island is to be abandoned as an Army prison and will be turned over to the Dept. of Justice for use as a federal penitentiary. It was deactivated as a military prison in 1933.
(SSFC, 2/17/13, DB p.42)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alcatraz_Island)
1914 Mar 20, Svyatoslav Richter, pianist (Stalin Prize-1945), was born in Zhitomir, Ukraine.
(MC, 3/20/02)
1915 Mar 20, The French called off the Champagne offensive on the Western Front.
(HN, 3/20/98)
1917 Mar 20, Dame Vera Lynn, British songstress, was born. She sang "White Cliffs of Dover" and "Lily Marlene" during World War II.
(HN, 3/20/99)
1917 Mar 20, Gideon Sundback, Swedish-born engineer, patented an all-purpose zipper while working for the Automatic Hook and Eye Co. of Hoboken, New Jersey. The zipper name was coined by B.F. Goodrich in 1923, who used it to fasten rubber galoshes. In 1994 Robert Friedel authored “Zipper: An Exploration in Novelty."
(ON, 7/04, p.5)(www.inventors.about.com)
1918 Mar 20, The Bolsheviks asked for American aid to rebuild their army.
(HN, 3/20/98)
1920 Mar 20, Pamela Churchill Harriman (d.1997) was born. She was later appointed by Pres. Clinton as ambassador to France. In 1996 Sally Bedell Smith wrote her biography: "Reflected Glory: The Life of Pamela Churchill Harriman."
(SFC, 10/23/96, p.E6)(SFC, 2/6/97, p.A14)
1920 Mar 20, Britain and its allies formally occupied Istanbul.
(Econ, 10/21/06, p.95)
1922 Mar 20, Raymond Walter Goulding, Radio comedian of Bob and Ray fame, was born.
(HN, 3/20/01)
1922 Mar 20, Carl Reiner, comedian (2000 Year Old Man, Dick Van Dyke Show), was born in the Bronx.
(MC, 3/20/02)
1922 Mar 20, President Harding ordered U.S. troops back from the Rhineland.
(HN, 3/20/98)
1922 Mar 20, The 11,500-ton Langley was commissioned into the U.S. Navy as America’s first aircraft carrier. Langley was not regarded as a beautiful ship. Her flight deck was 533 feet long and 64 feet wide with an open-sided hanger deck, inspiring the nickname “the Old Covered Wagon." Under the leadership of Commander Kenneth Whiting, Langley served as a base for reconnaissance aircraft and a laboratory to develop new procedures for launching and recovering planes, such as the use of cross-deck arresting wires to brake incoming aircraft.
(HN, 3/20/99)
1923 Mar 20, Bavarian minister of Interior refused to forbid the Nazi SA. [NOTE: The Sturmabteilung SA, German for "Assault Division" and sometimes translated stormtroopers, functioned as a paramilitary organization of the NSDAP – the German Nazi party. It played a key role in Adolf Hitler’s rise to power in the 1930s. SA men were often known as brown shirts from the color of their uniform and to distinguish them from the SS who were known as black shirts.]
(MC, 3/20/02)
1924 Mar 20, The Virginia Legislature passed two closely related eugenics laws: SB 219, entitled "The Racial Integrity Act" and SB 281, "An ACT to provide for the sexual sterilization of inmates of State institutions in certain cases", henceforth referred to as "The Sterilization Act". The Racial Integrity Act (one drop law) required that a racial description of every person be recorded at birth, and felonized marriage between "white persons" and non-white persons. The law was the most famous ban on miscegenation in the US, and was overturned by the US Supreme Court in 1967, in Loving v. Virginia. Virginia repealed the sterilization in 1979. In 2001 the House of Delegates voted to express regret for the state’s selecting breeding policies that had forced sterilizations on some 8,000 people. The Senate soon followed suit.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Racial_Integrity_Act_of_1924)(SSFC, 2/4/01, p.A3)(SFC, 2/15/01, p.C16)
1925 Mar 20, John Ehrlichman, Watergate conspirator, was born in Tacoma, Wa. He served Pres. Nixon as White House counsel and then domestic advisor and played a key role in creating the Environmental Protection Agency, passing the Clean Water Act, the Clean Air Act, the Endangered Species Act and the National Environmental Policy Act.
(HN, 3/20/98)(SFC, 2/16/99, p.A18)
1928 Mar 20, Hans Kung, Swiss religious theologian, was born.
(MC, 3/20/02)
1928 Mar 20, Fred Rogers, television performer (Mr. Roger's Neighborhood), was born in Latrobe, Pa.
(HN, 3/20/01)
1929 Mar 20, Ferdinand Foch (77), Marshal of France (WW I), died.
(MC, 3/20/02)
1930 Mar 20, Clessie Cummins set a diesel engine speed record of 129.39 kph.
(MC, 3/20/02)
1932 Mar 20, The German dirigible, Graf Zepplin, made the first flight to South America on regular schedule.
(HN, 3/20/98)
1933 Mar 20, Giuseppe [Joe] Zangara was electrocuted for an assassination attempt on FDR. [see Feb 15, Mar 8]
(MC, 3/20/02)
1934 Mar 20, San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown was born.
(SFEC, 1/5/97, p.A10)
1934 Mar 20, Test of practical radar apparatus was made by Rudolf Kuhnold in Germany.
(MC, 3/20/02)
1937 Mar 20, Jerry Reed, singer, actor (Bat 21, Smokey & the Bandit), was born in Atlanta, GA.
(MC, 3/20/02)
1937 Mar 20, A Franco offensive took place at Guadalajara, Spain.
(MC, 3/20/02)
1939 Mar 20, Franklin D. Roosevelt named William O. Douglas to the Supreme Court. He replaced Louis D. Brandeis (1856-1941), appointed in 1916, who retired. Douglas left the court in 1975, holding the record as the longest serving Supreme Court justice.
(HN, 3/20/98)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_Brandeis)(Econ, 11/20/10, p.95)
1940 Mar 20, The British RAF conducted an all-night air raid on the Nazi airbase at Sylt, Germany.
(HN, 3/20/98)
1941 Mar 20, Nazi German-Yugoslav pact was drawn.
(MC, 3/20/02)
1941 Mar 20, D.A. van den Bosch, anti-Nazi clergyman (Amersfoort Camp), died.
(MC, 3/20/02)
1942 Mar 20-21, There was a major German assault on Malta.
(MC, 3/20/02)(MC, 3/21/02)
1943 Mar 20, The Allies attacked Rommel's forces on the Mareth Line in North Africa.
(HN, 3/20/98)
1943 Mar 20, German U-384 was bombed and sank.
(MC, 3/20/02)
1944 Mar 20, A bus fell off bridge into Passaic River, NJ, killing 16.
(MC, 3/20/02)
1944 Mar 20, Pierre Pucheu (b.1899), French industrialist, fascist and member of the Vichy government, was executed following his arrest a year earlier in Casablanca. He was the first of the leading collaborationist figures to be executed directly under de Gaulle's jurisdiction.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pierre_Pucheu)
1948 Mar 20, "Gentleman's Agreement" won the Academy Award for best picture of 1947, as well as best director (Elia Kazan); Ronald Colman won best actor for "A Double Life," and Loretta Young won best actress for "The Farmer's Daughter."
(AP, 3/20/98)
1948 Mar 20, The 1st live televised musical Eugene Ormandy on CBS.
(MC, 3/20/02)
1948 Mar 20, A televised concert by NBC Symphony was conducted by Arturo Toscanini.
(MC, 3/20/02)
1948 Mar 20 A severe tornado moved through Tinker Air Force Base in Oklahoma City destroying 52 aircraft.
(SFC, 3/20/09, p.D8)
1948 Mar 20, The Communist administration of Lithuania decided on a plan for the organization of collective farms.
(LHC, 3/20/03)
1950 Mar 20, The government of Poland decided to confiscate the property of Polish church.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1950)
1952 Mar 20, At the Academy Awards "An American in Paris" was named best picture; Humphrey Bogart best actor for "The African Queen"; Vivien Leigh best actress, Kim Hunter best supporting actress and Karl Malden best supporting actor for "A Streetcar Named Desire"; and George Stevens best director for "A Place in the Sun."
(AP, 3/20/02)
1953 Mar 20, In the Soviet Union Nikita Khrushchev became the head of a five-man group called the Secretariat, although for all intents and purposes, he is in a leadership role that will gradually push Malenkov aside. In September Khrushchev was officially given the title of First Secretary of the Communist Party.
(www.history.com/this-day-in-history.do?action=Article&id=2612)(WP, 3/21/53, p.3)
1954 Mar 20, "King and I" closed at St. James Theater in NYC after 1246 performances.
(MC, 3/20/02)
1956 Mar 20, Union workers ended a 156-day strike at Westinghouse Electric Corp.
(AP, 3/20/97)
1956 Mar 20, Tunisia was granted independence by France. Tunisia became an independent nation under the leadership of Habib Bourguiba, a Francophone lawyer. He launched a campaign advocating birth control. By 2003 the fertility rate plunged from 7.2 in the 1960s to 2.08. Bourguiba created a paternalistic and monopolistic ruling party that continued for 3 decades.
(WUD, 1994, p.1685)(EWH, 1968, p.1247)(SFEC, 4/12/98, p.T5)(SFC, 4/16/98, p.B4)(WSJ, 8/8/03, p.A1)(Econ, 1/22/11, p.31)
1956 Mar 20, Mount Bezymianny on Kamchatka Peninsula, USSR, exploded.
(MC, 3/20/02)
1957 Mar 20, Shelton 'Spike' Lee, film director (Do the Right Thing, Malcolm X), was born.
(HN, 3/20/01)
1957 Mar 20, In Washington state the Dalles Dam pushed back the Columbia River to reap the benefits of hydroelectric power. In six hours the islands of Celilo Falls were gone forever beneath a mockingly tranquil reservoir pool.
(AP, 3/3/07)
1957 Mar 20, Britain accepted a NATO offer to mediate in Cyprus, but Greece rejected it.
(MC, 3/20/02)
1959 Mar 20, In SF Harry Bridges spoke to a crowd at the Commonwealth Club luncheon regarding his recent trip to Russia. The Longshore Union president gave his audience the challenge he received in Russia: Within 10 years the Soviet Union will give its workers the highest standard of living in the world, the highest wages, the shortest work week, the best free medical care, the best education, and no unemployment.
(SSFC, 3/15/09, DB p.50)
1962 Mar 20, C. Wright Mills (45), US sociologist (Power Elite), died.
(MC, 3/20/02)
1963 Mar 20, The 1st "Pop Art" exhibition was held in NYC.
(MC, 3/20/02)
1964 Mar 20, Brendan Behan (b.1923), Irish playwright and author, died in Dublin.
(SSFC, 3/16/14, DB p.42)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brendan_Behan)
1965 Mar 20, Lyndon B. Johnson ordered 4,000 troops to protect the Selma-Montgomery civil rights marchers.
(HN, 3/20/98)
1968 Mar 20, Pres. Lyndon Johnson held talks with Paraguay’s Pres.-Gen. Alfredo Stroessner in Washington DC.
(Econ, 2/14/04, p.34)(www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=28747)
1969 Mar 20, Senator Edward Kennedy called on the U.S. to close all bases in Taiwan.
(HN, 3/20/98)
1969 Mar 20, The Chicago 8 were indicted in aftermath of Chicago Democratic convention.
(www.cnn.com/ALLPOLITICS/1996/conventions/chicago/facts/chicago68/index.shtml)
1969 Mar 20, John Lennon married Yoko Ono in Gibraltar.
(AP, 3/20/97)(HN, 3/20/98)
1974 Mar 20, Chet Huntley (b.1911), newscaster (NBC Huntley-Brinkley Report), died of lung cancer.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chet_Huntley)
1976 Mar 20, Newspaper heiress Patricia Hearst was convicted of armed robbery for her part in a San Francisco bank holdup.
(AP, 3/20/97)(HN, 3/20/98)
1977 Mar 20, Voters in Paris chose former French Prime Minister Jacques Chirac to be the French capital's first mayor in more than a century.
(AP, 3/20/97)
1977 Mar 20, Premier Indira Gandhi lost her election in India.
(http://openweb.tvnews.vanderbilt.edu/1977-3/1977-03-20-CBS-2.html)
1979 Mar 20, In Rome, Italy, the Mafia killed Mino Pecorelli, a magazine editor. In 1996 Premier Giulio Andreotti went on trial for allegedly turning to the Mafia to kill the troublesome journalist. Andreotti was acquitted by a jury in 1999. 5 others were also acquitted. In 2002 an appeal court in Perugia sentenced Giulio Andreotti to 24 years imprisonment for ordering the murder of Pecorelli.
(http://foi.missouri.edu/jouratrisk/italysexpm.html)(SFC, 4/12/96, p.A-12)(SFC, 9/25/99, p.A14)
1981 Mar 20, Michael Donald (b.1962), a black teenager in Mobile, Alabama, was abducted, tortured and killed in what prosecutors charged was a Ku Klux Klan plot. Henry Hays (d.1997) murdered Michael Donald in a random abduction. Donald was beaten, cut, strangled and his body was strung up a tree. Hays was convicted and sentenced to death. He was executed Jun 6, 1997. In 1987 A wrongful death suit filed by Donald’s mother, Beulah Mae Donald, gave a $7 million verdict against the United Klans of America, led by Robert Shelton (d.2003 at 73).
(SFC, 6/6/97, p.A3)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Donald)(SFC, 1/21/02, p.A21)
1981 Mar 20, Former girls’ school headmistress Jean Harris (1923-2012) was sentenced in White Plains, New York, to 15 years to life in prison for slaying "Scarsdale Diet" author Dr. Herman Tarnower. Harris was released in 1993 following a grant of clemency by Gov. Mario M. Cuomo.
(AP, 3/20/01)(SFC, 12/29/12, p.A9)
1982 Mar 20, U.S. scientists returned from Antarctica with the first land mammal fossils found there.
(HN, 3/20/98)
1984 Mar 20, An indictment was unsealed against Denny McLain, former Detroit Tiger pitching star, on various charges of racketeering. McLain was named in all the indictment's five counts, which accused him of racketeering, conspiracy, extortion, possession and distribution of cocaine, and conspiracy to import cocaine. He would face up to 90 years in prison if convicted of all the charges.
(http://tinyurl.com/35zuwx)
1985 Mar 20, Libby Riddles of Teller, Alaska, became the first woman to win the Iditarod Trail Dog Sled Race.
(AP, 3/20/05)
1987 Mar 20, The Food and Drug Administration approved the sale of AZT, a drug shown to prolong the lives of some AIDS patients. Jerome Horwitz of the Barbara Ann Karmanos Cancer Institute and Wayne State University School of Medicine first synthesized AZT in 1964 under a US National Institutes of Health (NIH) grant. It was developed by Burroughs-Welcome (later part of GlaxoSmithKline).
(WSJ, 1/30/96, p.A-16)(AP, 3/20/97)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zidovudine)(Econ, 6/2/12, p.80)
1988 Mar 20, David Henry Hwang's "M. Butterfly" premiered in NYC.
(http://tinyurl.com/pztxh)
1988 Mar 20, Eight-year-old DeAndra Anrig found herself airborne when the string of her kite was snagged by an airplane flying over Shoreline Park in Mountain View, Calif. Not seriously hurt, she was lifted 10 feet off the ground and carried 100 feet until she let go.
(AP, 3/20/98)
1989 Mar 20, Baseball Commissioner Peter Ueberroth confirmed that his office was investigating "serious allegations" involving Cincinnati Reds Manager Pete Rose. Ueberroth's successor, A. Bartlett Giamatti, later banned Rose from baseball for betting on games.
(AP, 3/20/99)
1989 Mar 20, In Northern Ireland Harry Breen and Bob Buchanan, two senior Northern Ireland police officers, were murdered by the Irish Republican Army outside the village of Jonesborough, County Armagh. On Dec 3, 2013, a judge-led inquiry in London found that Irish police colluded in the murder.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1989_Jonesborough_ambush)(AP, 12/3/13)
1990 Mar 20, Namibia became an independent nation, marking the end of 75 years of South African rule. The South African colony gained independence after 25 years of guerrilla war. Namibians began petitioning the U.N. as early as 1947, developing political parties, most notably SWAPO (South West Africa People‘s Organization) to voice opposition to South African rule. Armed resistance to South African rule began in earnest in the 1970s and continued into the 1980s, which combined with drought and other factors, contributed to an overwhelming drain to South Africa‘s economy. The UN Security Council eventually demanded independence for Namibia, but transition elections were not agreed to by South Africa until December 1988 after a military disaster involving Angola. The UN Transition Assistance Group (UNTAG) started work in April 1989 with elections giving SWAPO 57% of the vote. On March 21 of the following year, the South African flag was lowered and the Namibian flag raised in Namibia‘s National Stadium.
(LVRJ, 11/1/97, p.20A)(SFEC, 3/1/98, p.T4)(AP, 3/20/00)(HNQ, 2/13/01)
1990 Mar 20, The last Indian peacekeepers left Sri Lanka.
(www.india-seminar.com/1999/479/479%20mehta.htm)
1991 Mar 20, Pres. Bush announced the US would reduce Poland’s indebtedness by a full 70%. The Paris Club, an informal grouping of the world's 17 leading industrial countries, announced a week earlier that it would halve Poland's enormous debt and reduce accumulated interest by 80 percent. The US portion of the forgiven debt was approximately $2.4 billion.
(http://dosfan.lib.uic.edu/erc/briefing/dispatch/1991/html/Dispatchv2no12.html)
1991 Mar 20, The US Supreme Court ruled employers could not adopt “fetal protection" policies barring women of child-bearing age from certain hazardous jobs.
(AP, 3/20/01)
1991 Mar 20, A US jet fighter shot down an Iraqi warplane in the first air attack since the Gulf War cease-fire.
(AP, 3/20/01)
1991 Mar 20, April Glaspie, the US ambassador to Iraq, told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee Saddam Hussein had lied to her by denying he would invade Kuwait.
(AP, 3/20/01)
1992 Mar 20, The US Congress passed, and President Bush immediately vetoed, a Democratic tax cut for the middle class that would have been funded by a tax hike on the rich.
(AP, 3/20/97)
1993 Mar 20, An Irish Republican Army bomb exploded in Warrington, England, killing 3-year-old Johnathan Ball and 12-year-old Tim Parry.
(AP, 3/20/98)
1993 Mar 20, Russian President Boris Yeltsin declared emergency rule, setting a referendum on whether the people trusted him or the hard-line Congress to govern.
(AP, 3/20/98)
1993 Mar 20, Pope John Paul II declared Duns Scotus (1266-1308) a saint.
(www.catholic-forum.com/saints/saintj55.htm)
1994 Mar 20, El Salvador held its first presidential election following the country's 12-year-old civil war. Armando Calderon Sol of the ARENA party led the vote, but needed to win a run-off to achieve the presidency.
(AP, 3/20/99)
1994 Mar 20, Ilaria Alpi (32), Italian journalist, was shot and killed in Somalia along with her cameraman, Miran Hrovatin, on the same day that Italian troops left the country. She had collected evidence of brutality by Italian officers against Somalis along with evidence of illegal gun-running.
(SFC, 1/26/98, p.A8)
1995 Mar 20, Commentator Pat Buchanan formally launched his presidential campaign in New Hampshire.
(AP, 3/20/00)
1995 Mar 20, Sidney Kingsley, US playwright (Pulitzer prize 1934), died.
(MC, 3/20/02)
1995 Mar 20, The Bosnian army, having gained strength despite an arms embargo, launched a major offensive in the northeast against Serb positions.
(WSJ, 6/11/96, p.A14)(SFC, 10/16/97, p.A12)
1995 Mar 20, A gas attack by the Aum Shinri Kyo cult on Tokyo's subways killed 12 people. More than 5,500 others sickened when packages containing the poisonous gas sarin leaked on five separate subway trains. Masato Yokoyama, a cult leader, was sentenced to death in 1999. In 2000 Robert Jay Lifton authored "Destroying the World To Save It: Aum Shinrikyo, Apocalyptic Violence, and the New Global Terrorism." In 2001 Haruki Murakami's "Underground: The Tokyo Gas Attack and the Japanese Psyche" was published in English. In 2004 Shoko Asahara was convicted and sentenced to hang for masterminding the deadly nerve gas attack on the Tokyo subway and other crimes that killed 27 people.
(SFC, 7/4/96, p.A10)(SFC, 5/27/98, p.A12)(AP, 3/20/97)(SFC, 9/30/99, p.D14)(SFEC, 1/16/00, BR p.9)(SSFC, 4/29/01, DB p.81)(AP, 2/27/04)
1995 Mar 20, In Nigeria General Sani Abacha appointed Dan Etete as Minister of Petroleum.
(http://tinyurl.com/mvzrpu7)
1996 Mar 20, A jury in Los Angeles convicted Erik and Lyle Menendez of first-degree murder in the shotgun slayings of their millionaire parents.
(AP, 3/20/97)
1996 Mar 20, The Mt. Zion Baptist Church in Ruleville, Miss., burned down. Arson was suspected and investigations by the FBI and ATF were later begun.
(SFC, 6/11/96, p.A16)
1996 Mar 20, The British government said that a rare brain disease that had killed 10 people was probably linked to so-called "mad cow disease."
(AP, 3/20/97)
1997 Mar 20, Bill Clinton and Boris Yeltsin met in Helsinki for talks on arms control and NATO expansion. They agreed to negotiate a new arms accord to reduce strategic warheads, and to give Russia a more formal role in the Group of Seven leading industrialized nations.
(WSJ, 3/21/97, p.A1)(SFC, 3/22/97, p.A1)(AP, 3/20/98)
1997 Mar 20, The Liggett Group, a tobacco company, agreed to settle claims with 22 state attorneys general. The settlement included a payment of 25% of pretax earnings over the next 25 years, a “smoking is addictive" label, access to documents heretofore claimed to be privileged and admitting the industry marketed cigarettes to teen-agers.
(WSJ, 3/20/97, p.A3)(WSJ, 3/21/97, p.A3)(AP, 3/20/98)
1997 Mar 20, A Houston jury awarded the MMAR Group, a bond firm, $222.7 million in a libel verdict against Dow Jones & Co. based on a 1993 article that portrayed the firm as reckless and destroyed its business.
(SFC, 3/21/97, p.A3)
1997 Mar 20, In Serbia the state telecommunications authority cut independent BK TV’s transmission lines from Belgrade. Hours later a Belgrade court ordered the authority and state-run TV to carry BK.
(SFC, 3/22/97, p.A10)
1998 Mar 20, President Clinton's lawyer, appearing before a federal court, declared that Paula Jones' evidence of sexual harassment was "garbage" unworthy of a trial.
(AP, 3/20/99)
1998 Mar 20, The Wall Street Journal published its first Friday cultural section, “Weekend Journal."
(WSJ, 3/20/98, p.W1)
1998 Mar 20, George Tenet, director of the CIA, disclosed that $26.7 billion was the 1998 budget secret intelligence activities, one-tenth the overall US military budget.
(SFC, 3/21/98, p.A4)
1998 Mar 20, An Indiana man, Chris Dean (35), was arrested for sending the pipe bomb that killed Christopher Marquis of Vermont. Marquis had defrauded Dean in a $400 trade of Citizens Band radio equipment arranged on the Internet.
(SFC, 3/21/98, p.A3)
1998 Mar 20, A twister killed 11 people in northeast Georgia and 2 people in North Carolina and injured 100.
(SFC, 3/21/98, p.A1)(AP, 3/20/99)
1998 Mar 20, At least 400 firefighters were sent to fight the fires in the northern Amazon. Firefighters from Argentina and Venezuela were also brought in. A UN offer of assistance was accepted Mar 23 to combat thousands of fires raging out of control.
(SFC, 3/21/98, p.A10)(WSJ, 3/23/98, p.A1)(SFC, 3/25/98, p.C14)
1998 Mar 20, In Germany thousands of protestors attempted to halt a train of atomic waste from southern Germany from reaching its final destination of Ahaus in northern Germany.
(SFC, 3/21/98, p.A10)
1998 Mar 20, In Mexico a new law, the Nationality Act, went into effect that allowed Mexican-born Americans and their children to hold Mexican nationality and US citizenship. The law permitted dual nationality but not dual citizenship.
(SFC, 3/21/98, p.A10)
1999 Mar 20, Balloonists Bertrand Piccard of Switzerland and Brian Jones of Britain became the first aviators to fly a hot-air balloon around the world nonstop. They established an around the world record after floating over Mauritania at 1:54 a.m. PST and won a $1 million prize from Anheuser-Busch as the first aviators to fly a hot-air balloon around the world nonstop.
(SFEC, 3/21/99, p.A21)(AP, 3/20/00)
1999 Mar 20, A war crimes tribunal at the Hague recommended that 3 Croatian generals be indicted for war crimes for "Operation Storm" in Aug, 1995.
(SFEC, 3/21/99, p.A17)
1999 Mar 20, In Paris thousands of French teachers marched to demand a greater say in educational reform.
(SFEC, 3/21/99, p.A22)
1999 Mar 20, Serb forces in Kosovo launched a new offensive along a 20-mile arc west and northwest of Pristina. The Yugoslav army, taking advantage of the departure of international monitors from Kosovo, launched a furious offensive against outgunned ethnic Albanian rebels.
(SFEC, 3/21/99, p.A1)(AP, 3/20/00)
1999 Mar 20, In Spain some 60,000 people marched in Bilbao to protest recent arrests of members and supporters of the ETA.
(SFEC, 3/21/99, p.A23)
2000 Mar 20, World Citizenship Day.
(SFC, 3/21/00, p.A18)
2000 Mar 20, The Clinton administration moved to phase out the fuel additive MTBE to avoid further contamination of groundwater.
(SFC, 3/21/00, p.A1)
2000 Mar 20, Pres. Clinton stopped in Bangladesh, but only stood for a reception at the US Embassy due to security reasons. This was the first such visit by an American president.
(SFC, 3/21/00, p.A14)(AP, 3/20/01)
2000 Mar 20, Former Black Panther Jamil Abdullah Al-Amin, once known as H. Rap Brown, was captured in Alabama; he was wanted in the fatal shooting of a Fulton County, Georgia, sheriff’s deputy. Al-Amin maintains his innocence.
(AP, 3/20/01)
2000 Mar 20, Some 2,000 farmers, ranchers and rural businessmen converged on Washington DC to lobby for an overhaul of farm programs and to strengthen antitrust enforcement on agribusiness.
(WSJ, 3/21/00, p.A1)
2000 Mar 20, In Texas Robert Wayne Harris (28) shot 5 people to death and critically injured one person at the Mi-T-Fine Car Wash in Irving. Harris was arrested the next day. He had recently been fired for exposing himself to 2 women at the business. Harris was sentenced to death on Sep 29.
(SFC, 3/21/00, p.A5)(SFC, 3/22/00, p.A4)(SFC, 9/30/00, p.A2)
2000 Mar 20, Natalya Estemirova (1959-2009), Chechen rights activist, went to the village of Aldi and counted 47 victims.
(Econ, 7/18/09, p.24)
2000 Mar 20, Pope John Paul II arrived in Jordan for the beginning of his Holy land tour. He prayed at Mt. Nebo where the bible says Moses first viewed the Promised Land.
(WSJ, 3/20/00, p.A1)(SFC, 3/21/00, p.A1)
2000 Mar 20, In Germany Angela Merkel (45) became the first woman to head the Christian Democratic Union.
(SFC, 3/21/00, p.A10)
2000 Mar 20, In Kashmir gunmen massacred 35 Sikhs in Chati Sionghpura Mattan.
(SFC, 3/21/00, p.A12)
2000 Mar 20, In the Philippines the Abu Sayyaf Muslim rebel group seized over 50 hostages from 2 schools in Basilan province. Most of the hostages were children.
(SFC, 4/18/00, p.A10)
2000 Mar 20, In Senegal Pres. Abdou Diouf conceded defeat to rival Abdoulaye Wade. The elections ended 40 years of Socialist Party rule.
(SFC, 3/21/00, p.A12)
2001 Mar 20, Pres. Bush met with Israel’s Ariel Sharon and urged him avoid provocative acts.
(SFC, 3/21/01, p.A12)
2001 Mar 20, The skipper of the USS Greeneville took the stand in a Navy court and accepted sole responsibility for the Feb. 9 collision of his submarine with a Japanese trawler off Hawaii that killed nine Japanese.
(AP, 3/20/02)
2001 Mar 20, New York native Lori Berenson, accused of aiding guerrillas in Peru, received a retrial in civilian court. She was later convicted of "terrorist collaboration."
(AP, 3/20/02)
2001 Mar 20, The US Federal Reserve lowered interest rates 0.5% but stocks dropped. The DJIA fell 238 to 9,720; the Nasdaq fell 93 to 1,857.
(SFC, 3/21/01, p.A1)
2001 Mar 20, Power-strapped California saw a second day of rolling blackouts.
(AP, 3/20/02)
2001 Mar 20, Now-Ruz, the traditional Afghan New Year, passed without fanfare. The holiday is also observed in Iran.
(SSFC, 3/18/01, p.A17)
2001 Mar 20, In Buenos Aires thousands demonstrated against plans to cut government spending. Domingo Cavallo was named to succeed Ricardo Lopez Murphy as economy minister.
(SFC, 3/21/01, p.A14)
2001 Mar 20, The damaged Brazilian P-36 Petrobras oil platform sank 75 miles offshore. 400,000 gallons of fuel and crude oil began leaking into the sea. An immediate revenue loss of $50 million per month was expected.
(SFC, 3/21/01, p.A12)(WSJ, 3/21/00, p.A1)
2001 Mar 20, Britain reported 46 new confirmed cases of foot-and-mouth disease, the largest daily number to date.
(SFC, 3/21/01, p.A14)
2001 Mar 20, In Haiti violence flared in Port-au-Prince as Aristide supporters attacked an opposition party office with firebombs.
(SFC, 3/21/01, p.A13)
2001 Mar 20, Liberia ordered its security forces to seal its border with Sierra Leone.
(SFC, 3/21/01, p.A14)
2001 Mar 20, In Macedonia security forces began a heavy attack against guerrilla fighters and issued an ultimatum that weapons be laid down.
(SFC, 3/21/01, p.12)
2001 Mar 20, In Spain Froilan Elespe, Socialist deputy mayor of Lasarte, was shot and killed. The ETA was blamed.
(SFC, 3/21/01, p.A14)
2001 Mar 20, In South Africa new AIDS statistics indicated that 25% of the adult population, one of every 9 people, was infected with HIV.
(SFC, 3/21/01, p.A13)
2002 Mar 20, The US Senate approved the bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002. It was better remembered as the McCain-Feingold bill on campaign finance reform after its senatorial sponsors. Pres. Bush planned to sign it. In 2003 a 3-judge panel ruled most of the provisions unconstitutional.
(SFC, 3/21/02, p.A1)(SFC, 5/3/03, p.A1)(Econ, 9/12/09, p.40)
2002 Mar 20, US began war games with South Korea, the biggest ever.
(WSJ, 3/21/02, p.A1)
2002 Mar 20, Arthur Andersen pleaded innocent to charges it had shredded documents and deleted computer files related to Enron. Andersen was later found guilty of obstruction of justice; it received probation and was fined $500,000.
(AP, 3/20/07)
2002 Mar 20, Heavy storms and severe flooding extended to West Virginia. Kentucky Gov. Paul Patton declared 12 counties emergencies.
(SFC, 3/21/02, p.A3)
2002 Mar 20, At Fort Drum, NY, a soldier was killed and 14 were injured when 2 artillery shells fell far short of their target.
(SFC, 3/21/02, p.A5)
2002 Mar 20, In Bosnia the US Embassy was shut down to the public due to a possible terrorist threat.
(SSFC, 3/24/02, p.A18)
2002 Mar 20, Steven Harper (b.1959), an evangelical Christian, was chosen as head of Canada’s conservative Alliance Party.
(Econ, 10/14/06, p.42)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canadian_Alliance)
2002 Mar 20, China deployed military police to at least 2 northeast cities to quell labor protests.
(WSJ, 3/21/02, p.A1)
2002 Mar 20, In Israel a suicide bomber blew himself up on a crowded bus and 7 people were killed. The Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility.
(SFC, 3/20/02, p.A1)(SFC, 3/21/02, p.A9)
2002 Mar 20, In Italy 928 illegal immigrants, mostly ethnic Kurds, arrived on a rusty cargo ship. A state of emergency was declared to deal with the problem.
(SFC, 3/21/02, p.A10)
2002 Mar 20, In Pakistan Gen. Musharraf met with members of the Muslim League and planned a referendum to support his rule for another 5 years. Civilian opposition leaders condemned the plan.
(SFC, 3/23/02, p.A13)
2002 Mar 20, In Lima, Peru, a car bomb explosion outside the US Embassy killed 9 people. Pres. Bush was scheduled to arrive 3 days later.
(SFC, 3/21/02, p.A8)(SFC, 3/22/02, p.A13)
2002 Mar 20, In Zimbabwe opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai was charged with treason, fingerprinted and released on bail.
(SFC, 3/21/02, p.A10)
2003 Mar 20, Operation Iraqi Freedom began with a few targeted strikes in Baghdad against Saddam Hussein, targeting him personally with a barrage of cruise missiles and bombs as a prelude to invasion. Iraq responded hours later, firing missiles toward American troops positioned just across its border with Kuwait. US Sec. of State Rumsfeld warned that the attack in Iraq would be "of a force and scope and scale that is beyond what has been seen before." A "shock and awe" strategy was planned based on a 1996 "rapid dominance" strategy. The US seized $1.74 billion in frozen Iraqi assets and declared it would be used for humanitarian purposes. Saddam Hussein appeared on state-run television accusing the United States of a "shameful crime" and urging his people to "draw your sword" against the invaders. Iraq set fire to at least 10 oil wells.
(SFC, 3/20/03, p.W1)(SFC, 3/21/03, p.W11)(WSJ, 3/21/03, p.A1)(AP, 3/20/04)
2003 Mar 20, Hundreds of thousands of people marched on American embassies in world capitals to protest the war against Iraq.
(AP, 3/20/03)
2003 Mar 20, Some 600 US and Romanian ground troops in Afghanistan began Operation Valiant Strike, an intensified search for Taliban, al Qaeda and loyalists to Gulbuddin Hekmatyar.
(SSFC, 3/23/03, p.A1)
2003 Mar 20, Tornadoes hit rural Georgia and 6 people were killed.
(SFC, 3/21/03, p.A7)
2003 Mar 20, Texas executed its 300th inmate since restoring the death penalty in 1982.
(WSJ, 3/21/03, p.A1)
2003 Mar 20, In the Central African Republic Gen. Francois Bozizea asked his fighters to hand over their weapons to troops from neighboring Chad, prompting the insurgents to accuse their leader of betraying them.
(AP, 3/21/03)
2003 Mar 20, China demanded that military action against Iraq stop immediately and said the initial attack was "violating the norms of international behavior."
(AP, 3/20/03)
2003 Mar 20, Fidel Castro's agents arrested some of the government's leading critics in a crackdown on dissidents accused of working with US diplomats to undermine Cuba's socialist system. Jail sentences of over 20 years were later imposed on 75 of the dissidents.
(AP, 3/21/03)(Econ, 1/4/14, p.11)
2003 Mar 20, The Czech Interior Ministry published a list of some 75,000 people identified as agents of the former communist secret police, the STB.
(AP, 3/20/03)
2003 Mar 20, Norwegian police arrested Mullah Krekar, the leader of a Kurdish guerrilla group suspected of links to al-Qaida, on kidnapping charges. After settling in Norway in 1991, Krekar founded the Kurdish Ansar al-Islam during visits to Iraq.
(AP, 3/20/03)(AP, 2/14/12)
2003 Mar 20, The Palestinian Authority broke up a Hamas training session and a firefight followed that killed one militant.
(SFC, 3/21/03, p.A15)
2003 Mar 20, In Serbia nearly 1,000 people were arrested in a crackdown on criminal groups following the assassination of Serbian PM Zoran Djindjic.
(AP, 3/20/03)
2003 Mar 20, A suspected Tamil Tiger rebel boat attacked and sank a vessel carrying Chinese fishermen off eastern Sri Lanka, killing 17 people on board.
(AP, 3/21/03)
2003 Mar 20, Turkey's parliament approved a motion allowing over-flights for US warplanes. Turkey announced plans to send thousands of troops into Kurdish-controlled northern Iraq.
(AP, 3/20/03)
2003 Mar 20, UN Sec. Gen'l. Kofi Annan asked to be put in charge of a humanitarian program to aid Iraq.
(SFC, 3/21/03, p.W14)
2003 Mar 20-Apr 9, At least 1,700 Iraqi civilians were killed and over 8,000 injured in the battle for Baghdad.
(SSFC, 5/18/03, p.A1)
2004 Mar 20, The US military charged 6 soldiers with abusing inmates at Abu Ghraib prison.
(AP, 3/20/05)
2004 Mar 20, The Rev. Karen Dammann, a lesbian Methodist pastor, was acquitted of violating church doctrine in a trial held in Bothell, Wash.
(AP, 3/20/05)
2004 Mar 20, A quickly spreading Internet worm destroyed or damaged tens of thousands of personal computers worldwide morning by exploiting a security flaw in a firewall program designed to protect PCs from online threats. The "Witty" worm wrote random data onto the hard drives of computers equipped with the Black Ice and Real Secure Internet firewall products. It spread automatically to vulnerable computers without any action on the part of the user.
(WaP, 3/20/04)
2004 Mar 20, Thousands of protesters marched in Australia to mark the first anniversary of the Iraq war. Protests extended across Asia with some 30,000 marching in Japan. Hundreds of thousands of people worldwide rallied against the U.S.-led war in Iraq on the first anniversary of the start of the conflict.
(AP, 3/20/04)
2004 Mar 20, The Economist reported that a Goldman Sachs study found consumers in Australia and Spain to be the most vulnerable, of 19 countries, to higher interest rates or recession.
(Econ, 3/20/04, p.85)
2004 Mar 20, In Guyana thousands marched through Georgetown, demanding the government order an independent investigation into claims of a state-sponsored hit squad blamed for more than 40 killings in the past year.
(AP, 3/20/04)
2004 Mar 20, Hundreds of thousands of people marched in Rome demanding that Italy pull its 2,600 troops out of Iraq.
(AP, 3/21/04)
2004 Mar 20, In Kashmir a remote-controlled bomb hidden in a motorbike exploded as an Indian army convoy passed over a bridge, killing two soldiers and wounding 40 others.
(AP, 3/20/04)
2004 Mar 20, NATO-led forces surrounded Kosovska Mitrovica in efforts to separate ethnic Albanians and Serbs and prevent a resurgence of attacks that killed 28 people and wounded 600. Ethnic Albanians looted villages and apartments abandoned by Serb civilians. Some 110 homes and at least 16 Serb Orthodox churches were destroyed by arson.
(AP, 3/20/04)(Econ, 9/11/04, p.47)
2004 Mar 20, Former Netherlands Queen Juliana (94), who presided over the dismantling of the centuries-old Dutch empire and witnessed the birth of a social revolution during her 32-year reign (1948-1980, died.
(AP, 3/20/04)(SSFC, 3/21/04, p.B7)
2004 Mar 20, Nepalese government forces killed as many as 500 rebels, and at least 18 police and soldiers died in some of the fiercest fighting since a cease-fire collapsed last year.
(AP, 3/21/04)
2004 Mar 20, The Pakistani military commander leading a five-day assault on armed militants holed up in mud fortresses said a "high-value" terror suspect remained inside, possibly wounded, but there was no way to know whether it was al-Qaeda No. 2 Ayman al-Zawahri.
(AP, 3/20/04)
2004 Mar 20, The hunt for terrorists on Pakistan's frontier appears to be narrowing on an Uzbek terror group that once trained in Afghanistan.
(AP, 3/20/04)
2004 Mar 20, Taiwan Pres. Chen Shui-bian narrowly won re-election, a day after being shot in an assassination attempt, but a referendum he had championed on beefing up defenses against China failed because not enough voters took part.
(AP, 3/20/04)(SSFC, 3/21/04, p.A1)
2004 Mar 20, Uganda government troops backed by helicopter gunships fought fierce battles with rebels in northern Uganda, killing more than 50 insurgents.
(AP, 3/21/04)
2005 Mar 20, Severe flooding caused by snowmelt and torrential rains across Afghanistan left nearly 20 dead and thousands homeless.
(AFP, 3/20/05)
2005 Mar 20, In Bangladesh about 15,000 people were left homeless after twin tornadoes simultaneously tore through northern Gaibandha and Rangpur districts, killing 55 people and wounding 1,000 others.
(SFC, 3/26/05, p.D10)
2005 Mar 20, UN forces raided a police station occupied by armed former soldiers in Petit-Goave, 45 miles west of Port-au-Prince, setting of a gunbattle that killed two former soldiers and one Sri Lankan peacekeeper.
(AP, 3/21/05)
2005 Mar 20, Insurgents targeted Iraqi security forces and government buildings with gunfire, suicide bomb attacks and mortar rounds, leaving at least five people dead. A bomb blast near Kirkuk killed a U.S. soldier and wounded three. US troops killed 26 militants following an attack on a convoy SE of Baghdad.
(AP, 3/20/05)(AP, 3/21/05)
2005 Mar 20, A magnitude 7.0 earthquake struck off the coast of southern Japan, killing one person and injuring at least 381 others.
(AP, 3/20/05)
2005 Mar 20, In Jordan an appeals court has overturned the conviction of a Jordanian found guilty of financing Abu-Musab al-Zarqawi's insurgent group in Iraq. The Court of Cassation said the Oct. 31 conviction of Bilal Mansur al-Hiyari by the military State Security Court "fell short of adequate justifications and causes."
(AP, 6/7/05)
2005 Mar 20, In Kyrgyzstan protesters stormed a police station in Jalal-Abad forcing officers to flee, a day after baton-wielding police evicted demonstrators from two government buildings they had occupied to protest alleged election fraud. 4 policemen were reported killed.
(AP, 3/20/05)(WSJ, 3/21/05, p.A1)
2005 Mar 20, A visibly frustrated Pope John Paul made a brief but silent appearance at his Vatican apartment window after missing his first Palm Sunday Mass in 26 years as pontiff.
(AP, 3/20/06)
2006 Mar 20, President Bush defended his Iraq record against skeptical questioning at the City Club in Cleveland. Protesters marking the third anniversary of the Iraq war made their voices heard around the world, with the largest marches in London, Portland and Chicago, though in numbers that were often lower than in previous years.
(AP, 3/20/06)(AP, 3/20/07)
2006 Mar 20, Paul Tagliabue announced he would step down as NFL commissioner after 16 years.
(AP, 3/20/07)
2006 Mar 20, In San Diego, Ca., Japan’s baseball team beat Cuba 10-6 in the World Baseball Classic. The US team was embarrassingly knocked out in the second of the four rounds.
(http://edition.cnn.com/2006/SPORT/03/21/baseball.japan.ap/)
2006 Mar 20, Otto Zehm (36), a mentally ill man, died after being struck and tasered at a convenience store in Spokane, Wa. In 2011 officer Karl Thompson was found guilty of using violating Zehm’s civil rights by using excessive force and making a false statement.
(SFC, 11/3/11, p.A6)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Otto_Zehm)
2006 Mar 20, The most powerful storm to hit Australia in three decades laid waste to its northeastern coast, mowing down sugar and banana plantations with 180 mph winds but causing no deaths or serious injuries.
(AP, 3/20/06)
2006 Mar 20, Bangladesh PM Begum Khaleda Zia began her first visit to India in five years. India and Bangladesh will be trying to rebuild confidence and end distrust that has crept into their relationship.
(AP, 3/20/06)
2006 Mar 20, European observers said that Belarus' presidential election did not meet international standards for a free and fair vote because of widespread detentions and intimidation.
(AP, 3/20/06)
2006 Mar 20, Save the Children, a British charity, said some 9 million children in Africa have lost a mother to AIDS, calling on donors to sharply increase aid to meet their needs.
(AP, 3/20/06)
2006 Mar 20, A Chinese cargo ship hit an anchored freighter and sank off South Korea's west coast, killing at least three Chinese crew members.
(AP, 3/20/06)
2006 Mar 20, In Ecuador police fired tear gas at dozens of Indian demonstrators trying to reach the government palace in Quito to protest free-trade talks with Washington.
(AP, 3/20/06)
2006 Mar 20, Chairman Michael Dell, speaking in Bangalore, India, said Dell Inc. plans to double the number of its employees in India to 20,000 in three years.
(AP, 3/20/06)
2006 Mar 20, Suspected insurgents killed least seven policemen with roadside bombs on the third anniversary of the US-led invasion of Iraq, and authorities reported finding 10 more bullet-riddled bodies dumped in the capital. One was that of a 13-year-old girl. Insurgents and sectarian gangs killed at least 39 people.
(AP, 3/20/06)(SFC, 3/21/06, p.F7)
2006 Mar 20, Millions of Shiite pilgrims, some of them flogging themselves with chains, surrounded a shrine in the holy city of Karbala to commemorate the 40th and final day of symbolic mourning for the Prophet Muhammad's grandson.
(AP, 3/20/06)
2006 Mar 20, Libyan leader Moamer Kadhafi said Saddam Hussein should still be considered Iraq's legal president and the current government illegitimate as it was elected under an occupation regime.
(AFP, 3/20/06)
2006 Mar 20, In Nepal About 1,000 pro-democracy activists marched in Kathmandu demanding King Gyanendra free political detainees and give up powers he seized last year.
(AP, 3/20/06)
2006 Mar 20, Palestinian gunmen from the ousted Fatah Party stormed government buildings, briefly took over a power plant and blocked a vital road in the Gaza Strip, injecting more chaos into the volatile area as Hamas militants readied to take power.
(AP, 3/20/06)
2006 Mar 20, Turkmenistan's President Saparmurat Niyazov told his nation's youth to read his book Rukhnama three times a day in order to go to heaven.
(AP, 3/20/06)
2006 Mar 20, Venezuela agreed to sell fuel under preferential terms to an El Salvador association created by a group of leftist mayors.
(AP, 3/20/06)
2007 Mar 20, Pres. Bush vowed that his top aides will not testify under oath before congressional committees on the scandal involving the firing of 8 US attorneys.
(SFC, 3/21/07, p.A1)
2007 Mar 20, In Arizona the Hualapai Indian tribe invited a select few to the unveiling of the horseshoe-shaped deck over the Grand Canyon in advance of a public opening planned for March 28. Tour packages with deck access will range in price from $49.95 to $199. The deck, which juts 70 feet beyond the canyon's edge, will accommodate up to 120 guests at a time.
(AP, 3/21/07)
2007 Mar 20, Rescuers found Michael Auberry, a 12-year-old Boy Scout, who was dehydrated and disoriented after four days in the wooded mountains of North Carolina.
(AP, 3/20/08)
2007 Mar 20, The second flight of Space Exploration Technologies' (SpaceX) low-cost Falcon 1 rocket reached 200 miles altitude but did not make it to orbit due to the premature shutdown of its second-stage Kestrel engine. SpaceX launched the two-stage Falcon 1 rocket from its Omelek Island launch site in the Marshall Islands, but the rocket failed to reach its intended 425-mile (685-kilometer) orbit due to a roll control glitch.
(http://spaceflightnow.com/falcon/f2/)
2007 Mar 20, The WWF conservation group said climate change, pollution, over extraction of water and development are killing some of the world's most famous rivers including China's Yangtze, India's Ganges and Africa's Nile.
(AP, 3/20/07)
2007 Mar 20, The African Union urged the UN Security Council to back a peace deal signed between Ivorian President Laurent Gbagbo and the opposition by gradually pulling its troops out of the country.
(AP, 3/20/07)
2007 Mar 20, Authorities in emergency-ruled Bangladesh said they have found "huge" amounts of undisclosed money in the bank accounts of dozens of prominent figures caught up in a major anti-graft drive.
(AP, 3/20/07)
2007 Mar 20, The British government said schools have the right to ban students from wearing Muslim veils if teachers believe the garments affect safety or pupils' learning. Britain ordered its military to stop using cluster bombs that lack self-destruct mechanisms in a decision intended to prevent the weapons, used as recently as the beginning of the Iraq war, from harming civilians.
(AP, 3/20/07)
2007 Mar 20, An explosion aboard the HMS Tireless, a nuclear-powered Royal Navy submarine under an Arctic ice cap, killed two British sailors and injured a crewmember.
(AP, 3/21/07)
2007 Mar 20, China approved four foreign banks to begin local currency services to individual Chinese customers, opening up access to the country's 30 trillion yuan ($4 trillion; 3 euros trillion) in household savings and surging demand for credit cards and other financial services.
(AP, 3/20/07)
2007 Mar 20, Ecuador's constitutional crisis took a new twist as alternate lawmakers were escorted into Congress under the cover of darkness and sworn in to replace some of the legislators fired by the country's highest electoral court.
(AP, 3/20/07)
2007 Mar 20, Guatemala police arrested 4 people on suspicion of being among those who orchestrated the killings of three Salvadoran politicians and their driver in Feb 19.
(AP, 3/21/07)
2007 Mar 20, Taha Yassin Ramadan (69), Saddam Hussein's former deputy, was hanged before dawn, the fourth man to be executed in the killings of 148 Shiites following a 1982 assassination attempt against the former leader in the town of Dujail. At least 15 people were killed or found dead, most in Baghdad, as the war entered its fifth year. Iraqi and US troops backed by American warplanes battled al-Qaida-linked insurgents for more than five hours in clashes in Amiriyah, near Fallujah, that left eight killed and five Iraqi policemen wounded.
(AP, 3/20/07)(AP, 3/21/07)
2007 Mar 20, Ali Mussa Dakdouk, a senior Lebanese Hezbollah operative, was captured in southern Iraq.
(AP, 7/2/07)
2007 Mar 20, Heavy rains triggered landslides that buried three homes in Pakistan's portion of Kashmir, leaving 31 people dead.
(AP, 3/21/07)
2007 Mar 20, A US diplomat met with the Palestinian finance minister, the first American contact with the new Palestinian government and a sign of a break in policy between Israel and its closest ally.
(AP, 3/20/07)
2007 Mar 20, In Peru 3 suspected leftist rebels were shot to death in a clash with troops in the highland jungle.
(AP, 3/20/07)
2007 Mar 20, Fire swept through a nursing home in southern Russia after the night watchman ignored two alarms, killing 62 people in the Azov Sea coast village of Kamyshevatskaya, where the closest fire station was nearly an hour's drive away.
(AP, 3/20/07)
2007 Mar 20, The commander of African Union forces in Somalia pleaded for reinforcements as the AU's security chief paid a flying visit to volatile Mogadishu.
(AFP, 3/20/07)
2007 Mar 20, The Madrid government said El Hierro, one of the smallest of Spain's Canary Islands, is to receive 100 percent of its electricity supply from renewable energy sources.
(AFP, 3/20/07)
2007 Mar 20, Russia confirmed that it has begun pulling out experts from the Iranian nuclear power plant they were helping build and that it is withholding nuclear fuel for Iran’s reactors.
(SFC, 3/21/07, p.A3)
2007 Mar 20, Nyamko Sabuni (37), a Congolese immigrant and Sweden's first black minister, said the oppression of women and girls in the name of family honor has become an urgent problem in Sweden with the arrival of growing numbers of immigrants over the past few years.
(AP, 3/20/07)
2007 Mar 20, Zambian President Levy Mwanawasa urged southern Africa to take a new approach to Zimbabwe, which he likened to a "sinking Titanic" as millions flee economic and political turmoil.
(Reuters, 3/21/07)
2008 Mar 20, The X Prize Foundation and sponsor Progressive Casualty Insurance Co. offered $10 million to the teams that can produce the most production-ready vehicles that get 100 miles per gallon or more.
(AP, 3/20/08)
2008 Mar 20, North Carolina lawmakers voted 109-5 to boot Rep. Thomas Wright, a Wilmington Democrat, from office for mishandling $340,000 in loans and contributions.
(SFC, 3/21/08, p.A4)
2008 Mar 20, In North Carolina Darryl Turner was killed after being shocked by a police officer’s Taser. In 2011 a jury ordered Taser Int’l. to pay Turner’s family $10 million. Lawyers said the company had failed to warn that a Taser shot near the heart poses a substantial risk of cardiac arrest.
(SFC, 7/21/11, p.A6)(http://tinyurl.com/3homyou)
2008 Mar 20, In southern Afghanistan security forces said an exchange of fire between British soldiers and police left a policeman dead and two men wounded from each side. A soldier with the NATO-led force died after being struck by a bomb.
(AFP, 3/20/08)(AP, 3/21/08)
2008 Mar 20, Flemish Christian Democrat Yves Leterme took over as Belgian prime minister, ending nine months of deadlock.
(AP, 3/20/08)
2008 Mar 20, Brazilian officials said an outbreak of dengue in Rio de Janeiro state has killed at least 47 people this year.
(SFC, 3/21/08, p.A4)
2008 Mar 20, The Bank of England said it would inject 5.0 billion pounds into short-term money markets every week until April 9.
(AP, 3/20/08)
2008 Mar 20, China sent additional troops into restive areas and made more arrests in the Tibetan capital Lhasa in an effort to suppress anti-government protests even as the Dalai Lama offered face-to-face negotiations with Chinese leaders. Tibet authorities said they had arrested dozens of people involved in a wave of anti-Chinese violence. China forced the last remaining foreign journalists out of Tibet, and stepped up restrictions on Internet and radio reports from people within the country.
(AP, 3/20/08)(Reuters, 3/20/08)(AP, 3/21/08)
2008 Mar 20, Cuba issued what appears to be the first public report on prices and inflation in the private sector, in an unusually realistic acknowledgment of the key role the informal economy plays in island life.
(AP, 3/21/08)
2008 Mar 20, Israeli defense officials announced they've worked out a tentative deal for Egypt to become the main electricity supplier to the Gaza Strip.
(AP, 3/20/08)
2008 Mar 20, In Mali clashes began around Tinzaouatene, near the Algerian border, as insurgents attacked soldiers clearing mines in what the rebels feared was a prelude to a government offensive. 3 soldiers were killed when their vehicle was blown up by a mine and four captured in combat by the rebels.
(AFP, 3/23/08)
2008 Mar 20, Mozambican President Armando Guebuza dismissed the head of the armed forces and his deputy, barely a week after firing three senior ministers.
(AFP, 3/21/08)
2008 Mar 20, Fidelis Omeni, an environment ministry official said, Nigeria has been suspended from the International Convention on Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) for alleged breaches of its provisions.
(AP, 3/20/08)
2008 Mar 20, Kim Yong-Nam, North Korea's de facto head of state, arrived in Namibia as part of his goodwill visit to three African nations, which also includes Angola and Uganda. Namibia and North Korea hoped to strengthen their economic ties. Kim Yong-Nam warned against countries plundering resources from poor African countries.
(AFP, 3/20/08)
2008 Mar 20, A suicide car bomb killed five Pakistani soldiers and wounded nine others near the Afghan border.
(AP, 3/20/08)
2008 Mar 20, Palestinian militants accidentally set off a large blast at a Hamas training base in the central Gaza Strip, killing 2 members of the violent Islamic group and wounding another.
(AP, 3/20/08)
2008 Mar 20, A Russian air force Su-25 fighter jet blew up in flight near the Far East city of Vladivostok and the pilot was killed.
(AP, 3/20/08)
2008 Mar 20, In Sri Lanka troops, according to a statement the next day, ambushed ethnic Tamil rebels with a roadside bomb, overran bunkers and engaged in firefights across the north, killing 29 insurgents.
(AP, 3/21/08)
2008 Mar 20, Turkish warplanes bombed Kurdish rebel hideouts in northern Iraq.
(AP, 3/20/08)
2008 Mar 20, Morgan Tsvangirai, Zimbabwe's main opposition leader and presidential candidate in March 29 general elections, said that the voters' register was filled with tens of thousands of ghost voters.
(AFP, 3/20/08)
2009 Mar 20, Two US Navy vessels, a submarine and an amphibious ship, collided during the early morning hours in the Strait of Hormuz between Iran and the Arabian peninsula. The USS Hartford, a submarine, and the USS New Orleans, an amphibious ship, collided. 15 sailors aboard the Hartford were slightly injured but able to return to duty. No injuries were reported aboard the New Orleans.
(AP, 3/20/09)
2009 Mar 20, The US Postal Service said it will reduce management by 15%, offer early retirement to 150,000 workers and close 6 of 80 district offices in response to the slowing economy and losses last year of $2.8 billion.
(SFC, 3/21/09, p.A4)
2009 Mar 20, Washington Mutual's holding company sued federal regulators for billions of dollars, saying the firesale of the bank's assets to JPMorgan Chase violated its rights.
(AP, 3/22/09)
2009 Mar 20, Walter Kuhlman (90), SF Bay Area artist and teacher, died. He was a noted figure in the postwar Bay Area abstract expressionist movement.
(SFC, 3/30/09, p.B3)
2009 Mar 20, Afghanistan's top Muslim clerics urged President Hamid Karzai to push ahead with a proposal for talks with the Taliban that would be mediated by Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah. In northern Afghanistan 9 policemen and a district chief were killed in heavy fighting with Taliban insurgents. 4 Canadian troops and a local interpreter were killed in two separate explosions. Another NATO soldier was killed in a "hostile incident" in the south.
(AP, 3/20/09)(AFP, 3/20/09)(Reuters, 3/21/09)
2009 Mar 20, Tens of thousands of Angolans welcomed Pope Benedict XVI. He urged Angolans to continue on the path of reconciliation after nearly three decades of civil war, saying dialogue could overcome all conflict and tension.
(AP, 3/20/09)
2009 Mar 20, China said a new WTO report rejected the majority of intellectual property complaints made by the US and broadly backed Beijing's stance against commercial piracy.
(AP, 3/20/09)
2009 Mar 20, The African Union suspended Madagascar, the strongest condemnation by the international community since opposition leader Andry Rajoelina took power with the support of the army.
(Reuters, 3/20/09)
2009 Mar 20, EU leaders pledged a 125 billion euros in support for eastern Europe and the IMF after rejecting calls to plough more taxpayer cash into their own faltering economies.
(AFP, 3/20/09)
2009 Mar 20, In France several teenagers were taken into custody after 11 adults were injured in a pellet gun shooting near a nursery school in Lyon.
(AP, 3/20/09)
2009 Mar 20, Iranian engineer Majid Kakavand (37) was taken into custody in Paris as he arrived in Paris from Moscow as part of a European tour with his wife. He was arrested at the airport under a US warrant suspected of evading export controls to buy US technology for Iran's military. He was held in La Sante prison until Aug. 26, then released on condition he stay in Paris. He faced a Feb. 17 Paris hearing on whether to be extradited to the United States.
(AP, 1/22/10)
2009 Mar 20, In Iraq followers of anti-US Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr protested US presence on the 6th anniversary of the start of the Iraq war. In Baghdad’s Karrada district a pair of roadside bombs exploded within 10 minutes of one another wounding 4 police officers and 3 civilians.
(SFC, 3/21/09, p.A3)
2009 Mar 20, Mexico’s central bank lowered its overnight lending rate by .75 to 6.75%, in response to the deepening recession.
(WSJ, 3/20/09, p.A5)
2009 Mar 20, The Mexican army in Saltillo, Coahuila, arrested Sigifrido Najera Talamantes, an alleged drug trafficker. He was suspected of organizing an attack on a US consulate as well as the killing of several soldiers in retaliation for a government crackdown.
(AP, 3/20/09)
2009 Mar 20, North Korea closed its southern border for the third time in recent days, even as it told Seoul it would restore a military communications hot line severed last week.
(AP, 3/20/09)
2009 Mar 20, In Sudan the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM), a major rebel group in Darfur, said it had decided to end peace talks with the Sudanese government until it lets back aid groups expelled from the troubled region.
(AP, 3/20/09)
2009 Mar 20, The UN Security Council gave a stamp of approval to Somalia's new unity government and urged increased international aid to African Union (AU) peacekeepers trying to contain the violence in the lawless country.
(AP, 3/20/09)
2010 Mar 20, The Plastiki, a boat with hull built of 12,500 plastic bottles, departed from Sausalito, Ca. to Australia.
(SSFC, 3/21/10, DB p.46)
2010 Mar 20, An estimate of gay men marrying heterosexual women in China was put at 90% as compared to 15-20% in the US.
(Econ, 3/20/10, p.48)
2010 Mar 20, In Florida 3 people were killed when a single-engine plane collided with a kit-built aircraft over Williston.
(SSFC, 3/21/10, p.A9)
2010 Mar 20, British Airways canceled more than 1,000 flights after its cabin crew launched a three-day strike, wreaking havoc on the plans of tens of thousands of passengers just before the busy spring holiday season. .
(AP, 3/20/10)
2010 Mar 20 In Canada a 3rd deadly avalanche in a week killed 2 French skiers in British Columbia.
(SFC, 3/22/10, p.A2)
2010 Mar 20, China's capital woke up to orange-tinted skies as the strongest sandstorm so far this year hit the country's north, delaying some flights at Beijing's airport and prompting a dust warning for Seoul.
(AP, 3/20/10)
2010 Mar 20, Croatia and Slovenia hosted the 1st locally organized conference of the heads of government of the former Yugoslavia.
(Econ, 4/3/10, p.54)
2010 Mar 20, In Iraq the latest partial results showed PM al-Maliki's secular Shiite challenger, former PM Ayad Allawi, pulling ahead again by a slim margin over the prime minister's coalition in the overall tally. Al-Maliki called on the election commission overseeing the counting to quickly respond to requests from political blocs for a recount.
(AP, 3/21/10)
2010 Mar 20, UN chief Ban Ki-moon, after getting a closer look at some of the Israeli enclaves scattered across Palestinian-claimed territories, said Israeli settlement building anywhere on occupied land is illegal and must be stopped.
(AP, 3/20/10)
2010 Mar 20, Nepal's former PM Girija Prasad Koirala (86) died. He served five terms, led mass protests that ended the king's authoritarian rule and was a key figure in peace negotiations with communist rebels.
(AP, 3/20/10)
2010 Mar 20, Pakistani police arrested three Taliban militants and seized a bomb-making factory in the southern city of Karachi.
(AP, 3/20/10)
2010 Mar 20, In Russia thousands of protesters rallied in several cities to protest the government's economic policy and demand more political freedoms.
(AP, 3/20/10)
2010 Mar 20, Spanish surgeons completed the world’s most extensive full-face transplant. It was the 11th known face transplant in the world. The 24-hour operation provided a young farmer (30) a new nose, jaw and teeth.
(SFC, 4/24/10, p.A3)(http://tinyurl.com/2fqgwfm)
2010 Mar 20, In Sudan 19 members of the Misseriya tribe and six from the rival Nuwayba tribe were killed as fighting broke out. More than 20 people were wounded.
(AFP, 3/23/10)
2010 Mar 20, In Togo thousands of opposition demonstrators took to the streets in the West African nation to protest presidential election results.
(AP, 3/20/10)
2011 Mar 20, US President Barack Obama held up emerging powerhouse Brazil as a model of economic and democratic transformation that leaders in the troubled Middle East should try to copy.
(AFP, 3/21/11)
2011 Mar 20, In Florida Christian preacher Terry Jones supervised a burning of the Koran in front of about 50 people at a church. News of this led to violent protests in Afghanistan in early April.
(Reuters, 4/2/11)
2011 Mar 20, In Wisconsin suspect James Cruckson (30) opened fire on police during a standoff in Fond du Lac killing Officer Craig Birkholz (28). Cruckson was found dead from an apparently self-inflicted gunshot.
(SFC, 3/21/11, p.A7)
2011 Mar 20, AT&T said it had agreed to buy T-Mobile USA from Germany's Deutsche Telekom in a $39-billion blockbuster deal enabling it to overtake Verizon as the biggest US wireless provider.
(AFP, 3/20/11)
2011 Mar 20, Bahrain's opposition asked for UN and American intervention in the government crackdown on the Shiite protests trying to loosen the monarchy's grip, in a brief protest in the capital that disbanded before police could arrive to break it up.
(AP, 3/20/11)
2011 Mar 20, Britain said its air and sea strikes on Libya had been "very successful" and stressed it was doing everything it could to avoid civilian casualties as it enforces a UN-sanctioned no-fly zone. at least seven demolished tanks smoldered in a field 12 miles (20 km) south of Benghazi, many of them with their turrets and treads blown off. Turkey was blocking NATO action, which requires agreement by all 28 members of the alliance.
(AFP, 3/20/11)(AP, 3/21/11)
2011 Mar 20, In Egypt 3 men kidnapped and raped a woman (24) after stopping a vehicle at gun point. She was driving with a male relative. In April a military court in Ismailiya ordered the execution of the three men who were convicted of the kidnapping and rape. In Qena province Muslim vigilantes arrested Anwar Mitri (45), a school administrator and Coptic Christian, for renting a flat to a woman they claimed was a prostitute and for allegedly having sex with her. Mitri was tried and had his ear lopped off.
(AFP, 4/11/11)(Econ, 4/2/11, p.21)
2011 Mar 20, Haiti held a presidential runoff election between Mirlande Manigat, the former first lady, and Michel "Sweet Micky" Martelly, a star of Haitian compas music, the top two finishers in a first-round vote in November. Martelly captured nearly 68 percent of the vote.
(AP, 3/20/11)(AP, 4/5/11)
2011 Mar 20, Japan’s ministry official Yoshifumi Kaji said that tests found excess amounts of radioactive elements on canola and chrysanthemum greens, in addition to spinach. He said the areas where the tainted produce was found included three prefectures that previously had not recorded such contamination. Tokyo Electric Power Company said two of the six reactor units are now safely under control after their fuel storage pools cooled down. The toll of dead or missing from Japan's worst natural disaster in almost a century neared 21,000.
(AP, 3/20/11)(Reuters, 3/20/11)(AFP, 3/20/11)
2011 Mar 20, A defiant Moammar Gadhafi vowed a "long war" after the US and European militaries blasted his forces with airstrikes and over 100 cruise missiles, hitting air defenses and at least two major air bases. Despite the strikes, Gadhafi's troops lashed back, bombarding the rebel-held city of Misrata with artillery and tanks. Arab League chief Amr Moussa condemned the "bombardment of civilians" as the death toll from the Western air strikes rose to 64.
(AP, 3/20/11)(Reuters, 3/20/11)
2011 Mar 20, In Mexico armed men stole some 157 million pesos, about $13 million, from a cash transporting company in Oaxaca state.
(AP, 3/21/11)
2011 Mar 20, Thousands of Moroccans demonstrated in Casablanca, Rabat and other cities calling for more democracy and social justice despite recent promises of deep political reform.
(AFP, 3/20/11)
2011 Mar 20, In Nigeria a bomb carried by two men aboard a motorcycle killed them when it accidentally exploded in the central city of Jos.
(AFP, 3/20/11)
2011 Mar 20, In Pakistan explosions triggered a collapse in a coal mine in Baluchistan province. Officials feared all 52 miners underground at the time of the accident were dead.
(AP, 3/20/11)(AP, 3/21/11)
2011 Mar 20, Palestinian militants fired a rocket into southern Israel, while Israeli troops killed two Palestinians in a fresh wave of violence along the volatile border with Gaza.
(AP, 3/20/11)
2011 Mar 20, In Saudi Arabia dozens of Saudi men and women, outnumbered by anti-riot police, protested outside Riyadh's Interior Ministry, demanding the release of thousands of detainees held without trial for years.
(AP, 3/20/11)
2011 Mar 20, In Syria more than 100 people were wounded as security forces fired live bullets and tear gas at thousands of demonstrators in the town of Daraa.
(AFP, 3/20/11)
2011 Mar 20, In Taiwan some 2,000 anti-nuclear protesters demonstrated, demanding an immediate halt to the construction of an atomic power plant.
(AFP, 3/20/11)
2011 Mar 20, Some 85,000 registered Tibetans across the world began voting for a new leader to take up the resistance against Chinese rule over their Himalayan homeland, as the Tibetan parliament-in-exile debated how to handle the Dalai Lama's resignation from politics.
(AP, 3/20/11)(SFC, 3/21/11, p.A2)
2011 Mar 20, In Yemen tens of thousands of people joined a funeral procession for protesters killed by government gunmen and the president's own tribe called on him to step down, robbing the embattled US-backed leader of vital support.
(AP, 3/20/11)
2012 Mar 20, Mitt Romney won the Illinois Republican primary with 47% of the vote compared with 35% for Rick Santorum, 9% for Ron Paul and 8% for Newt Gingrich.
(SFC, 3/21/12, p.A5)
2012 Mar 20, Afghans celebrated their solar-based new year.
(AFP, 4/15/12)
2012 Mar 20, In northern Australia a devastating "mini-tornado" tore through the city of Townsville, ripping roofs off houses, snapping trees in half and injuring 13 people.
(AP, 3/20/12)
2012 Mar 20, Russian banker German Gorbuntsov (45) was shot outside his home in east London and was put into a medically induced coma. Hew was days away from giving evidence to an investigation into the attempted murder of a former business associate. His lawyer believed the attack was connected to an assassination attempt on Gorbuntsov's partner and co-owner of Konvers Group, Alexander Antonov, in 2009. A bank he owned in Moldova, Universalbank, was closed down in February and he was wanted there for financial crimes. The Kommersant business daily wrote that Gorbuntsov said he himself was a victim of a raider attack that caused him to lose his stake of more than 70 percent in Universalbank.
(AFP, 3/24/12)(Reuters, 3/25/12)
2012 Mar 20, A Egyptian court in Cairo gave suspended one-year sentences to 11 policemen accused of killing 22 protesters and wounding 44 others during last year’s uprising that ousted Pres. Mubarek.
(SFC, 3/21/12, p.A2)
2012 Mar 20, In India 15 people were killed when a train collided with an overcrowded taxi minivan at an unmanned railroad crossing in northern Uttar Pradesh state.
(AP, 3/20/12)
2012 Mar 20, Iran ushered in its Persian New Year with a symbolic cannon blast from its flagship destroyer, and speeches from leaders vowing to fix an economy suffering under Western sanctions.
(AFP, 3/20/12)
2012 Mar 20, In Iraq a torrent of bombings and shootings ripped across 20 towns and cities, targeting police and Shiite pilgrims and killing 52 people with 255 wounded.
(AP, 3/20/12)(AFP, 3/21/12)(Econ, 3/24/12, p.48)
2012 Mar 20, Kenya wildlife officials said fires raging across Mount Kenya may have been set by poachers trying to create a diversion from their illegal attacks on animals.
(SFC, 3/21/12, p.A2)
2012 Mar 20, Malawi police arrested an opposition lawmaker who is the son of ex-president Bakili Muluzi, after his supporters torched a police station over the weekend.
(AFP, 3/20/12)
2012 Mar 20, In northern Mali an Islamist group led by a Tuareg rebel fighting for autonomy claimed control of the country's vast northeast, while also vowing to free dozens of prisoners.
(AFP, 3/20/12)
2012 Mar 20, ECOWAS, a 15-member West African bloc, said it has called on rebels in northern Mali to lay down their arms and said it would "take all necessary measures" to support the country's government.
(AFP, 3/20/12)
2012 Mar 20, In Mexico a 7.4 magnitude earthquake was centered near the border between the southern states of Oaxaca and Guerrero. It damaged hundreds of homes and sent thousands of people fleeing from swaying office buildings, yet even after 10 aftershocks there were no reported deaths. 2 people injured in Guerrero state died on March 22.
(AP, 3/21/12)(AP, 3/22/12)
2012 Mar 20, In Nigeria a spokesman for Islamist group Boko Haram ruled out further talks with the government after preliminary, indirect contacts aimed at ending scores of deadly attacks. Abul Qaqa said the government could not be trusted.
(AP, 3/21/12)
2012 Mar 20, In Nigeria the Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves, a UN Foundation-led initiative, launched a campaign aimed at preventing deaths due to toxic smoke from rudimentary cookstoves.
(AFP, 3/20/12)
2012 Mar 20, A Pakistani parliamentary commission demanded an end to American drone attacks inside the country and an apology for deadly US airstrikes in November as part of a review of its near-severed relations with the United States.
(AP, 3/20/12)
2012 Mar 20, Russia said it is ready to support a UN resolution endorsing Kofi Annan's plan for settling the Syrian crisis, signaling it is prepared to raise the pressure on its old ally.
(AP, 3/20/12)
2012 Mar 20, In Somalia Al-Qaeda-allied Islamist gunmen seized Dhusamareb, a key central, driving out the pro-government militia Ahlu Sunna Wal Jamaa, an Ethiopia-backed force who follow Somalia's traditional Sufi branch of Islam. Shebab fighters also fired mortar bombs at the presidency in Mogadishu as their commanders called for more attacks on the government. The pro-government militia later in the day wrested back Dhusamareb in fierce clashes both sides claimed killed several of their rivals.
(AFP, 3/20/12)
2012 Mar 20, South Africa’s Supreme Court ruled to allow a review of a 2009 decision by the National Prosecuting Authority that dropped charges of corruption, racketeering, tax-evasion and money laundering against Pres. Zuma.
(Econ, 3/24/12, p.49)
2012 Mar 20, Human Rights Watch accused some in Syria's armed opposition of carrying out serious abuses, including the kidnapping and torture of security forces, in a sign of the growing complexity of the year-old uprising against President Bashar Assad. Fresh clashes broke out in the capital and security forces killed at least 30 people, all but two of them civilians, in violence elsewhere across the country. Syrian soldiers backed by tanks seized the eastern city of Deir el-Zour from rebels.
(AP, 3/20/12)(AFP, 3/20/12)
2012 Mar 20, Thousands of Tunisians gathered in defense of liberty as they marked Independence Day amid fears of a widening divide between secular and religious groups in the newly democratized nation.
(AFP, 3/20/12)
2012 Mar 20, In Yemen all but two members of former Pres. Saleh's General People's Congress (GPC) walked out of a 34-member cabinet meeting. Opponents in the new coalition government soon accused members of Saleh’s party of trying to hamper political transition in the country. Three Filipino sailors were kidnapped in Mahrah province.
(AFP, 3/22/12)(SSFC, 3/25/12, p.A4)
2013 Mar 20, The US Congress foiled the financially beleaguered Postal Service's plan to end Saturday delivery of first-class mail when it passed legislation requiring six-day delivery.
(Reuters, 3/21/13)
2013 Mar 20, The US military and the Afghan government reached a deal on the pullout of American special operations forces and their Afghan counterparts from Wardak province after complaints that they were involved in human rights abuses.
(AP, 3/20/13)
2013 Mar 20, The US announced a $5 million reward for information leading to the arrest of American jihadi Omar Hammami and another $5 million reward for a 2nd American fighting in Somalia, Jehad Mostafa.
(AP, 3/21/13)
2013 Mar 20, It was reported that Starbucks has purchased a 593-acre farm in Costa Rica.
(SFC, 3/20/13, p.C4)
2013 Mar 20, Bangladesh’s figurehead Pres. Zillur Rahman (84) died at a hospital in Singapore.
(SFC, 3/21/13, p.A2)
2013 Mar 20, Chancellor George Osborne said Britain will raise the personal tax allowance to 10,000 pounds in 2014-15, a year earlier than expected.
(AP, 3/20/13)
2013 Mar 20, James Herbert (69), best-selling British horror writer, died at his home in Sussex. His 23 novels included "The Rats" (1974).
(Reuters, 3/20/13)
2013 Mar 20, A Bulgarian man, Plamen Goranov (36), set himself on fire to protest poverty in his country, becoming the 6th to do so in a month.
(SFC, 3/21/13, p.A2)(Econ, 3/23/13, p.60)
2013 Mar 20, China’s Suntech Power Holdings Ltd., one of the world's biggest solar panel manufacturers, was forced into bankruptcy court, becoming the latest casualty of a painful slump in the global solar industry.
(AP, 3/20/13)
2013 Mar 20, Germany’s Chancellor Angela Merkel's Cabinet decided not to attempt a ban of the country's biggest far-right party but said it would support a bid brought by the country's states — a resolution slammed by the Germany's main Jewish group as the wrong signal to neo-Nazis.
(AP, 3/20/13)
2013 Mar 20, US President Barack Obama arrived on his first visit and assured Israel of his personal commitment to its security. He delivered a blunt warning to its foes that the US has the Jewish state's back.
(AP, 3/20/13)
2013 Mar 20, In Iraq a car bomb in eastern Baghdad killed two civilians and wounded four on the 10th anniversary of the US-led invasion.
(AP, 3/20/13)
2013 Mar 20, Jordan’s King Abdullah II warned that a jihadist state could emerge on his northern border in Syria with Islamic extremists trying to establish a foothold in the neighboring country.
(AP, 3/20/13)
2013 Mar 20, Malaysian prosecutors charged 8 Filipinos with terrorism-related offenses following an armed siege in Borneo that killed 71 people.
(SFC, 2/21/13, p.A2)
2013 Mar 20, In Mali a suicide car bomber killed a Malian soldier near Timbuktu's airport. A vehicle containing two jihadists exploded as it attempted to infiltrate the airport.
(AP, 3/21/13)
2013 Mar 20, Mexico’s National Institute of Anthropology and History said Mexico has sent a diplomatic note to the French government seeking assistance in heading off an auction of 51 pre-Columbian Mexican artifacts scheduled in Paris for March 22-23, arguing they are protected national historical pieces. Mexico has had laws prohibiting the export of such artifacts since at least 1827.
(AP, 3/21/13)
2013 Mar 20, Myanmar's parliament agreed to set up a commission to review the pro-military 2008 constitution, a process that could eventually change the political landscape and allow opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi to contest the presidency.
(AP, 3/20/13)
2013 Mar 20, In Myanmar unrest between local Buddhist and Muslim residents erupted in Meikhtila. The troubles began after an argument broke out between a Muslim gold shop owner and his Buddhist customers. Over 30 people were killed and some 70 others injured.
(AP, 3/22/13)(Econ, 3/30/13, p.39)
2013 Mar 20, A Nigerian official said at least two people have survived after a boat carrying more than 100 people capsized over the weekend off Calabar.
(AP, 3/20/13)
2013 Mar 20, Slovenian lawmakers approved the new-left-leaning Cabinet of PM Alenka Bratusek, the first female to lead the government since secession from Yugoslavia in 1991.
(SFC, 3/21/13, p.A2)
2013 Mar 20, South African trade unions said they are shocked at the disappearance of 24.8 billion rand ($2.75 billion) from provincial governments. The auditor general reported last week that the money had "disappeared" in "irregular, fruitless and wasteful spending."
(AP, 3/20/13)
2013 Mar 20, In South Korea a cyberattack caused computer networks at major banks and top TV broadcasters to crash simultaneously. North Korea was suspected. Initial findings said a Chinese Internet address was the source of the attacks.
(SFC, 3/21/13, p.A4)
2013 Mar 20, Syria's main opposition group demanded a full international investigation into an alleged chemical weapons attack in the country's north, calling for a team to be sent to the village where it reportedly occurred.
(AP, 3/20/13)
2013 Mar 20, Venezuela's government halted lines of communication established by a top U.S. diplomat to protest what it says has been US interference in the country's internal affairs ahead of an election set next month to replace the late President Hugo Chavez.
(AP, 3/20/13)
2014 Mar 20, President Barack Obama said the US is levying a new round of economic sanctions on individuals in Russia in retaliation for the Kremlin's actions in Ukraine. Obama says he has also signed a new executive order that would allow the US to sanction key sectors of the Russian economy. Rossiya, Russia’s 17th largest bank, was included on the sanctions list. Its owners had ties with Pres. Putin.
(AP, 3/20/14)(Econ, 2/14/15, p.59)
2014 Mar 20, In NYC a 14-year-old boy opened fire in a gang dispute on a city bus in Brooklyn, fatally shooting a bystanding Dominican man in the head. Angel Rojas (39) of Brooklyn was pronounced dead at the hospital. The boy was arrested the next day and charged with 2nd degree murder.
(AP, 3/21/14)(SFC, 3/22/14, p.A6)
2014 Mar 20, In North Carolina US Army Gen. Jeffrey A. Sinclair, who carried on a three-year affair with a captain and had two other inappropriate relationships with subordinates, was reprimanded and docked $20,000 in pay, avoiding jail time in one of the military's most closely watched courts-martial.
(AP, 3/20/14)
2014 Mar 20, In Afghanistan four teenage gunmen walked into the Serena Hotel in Kabul, made their way to the restaurant, pulled out hidden pistols and started shooting diners. They killed 9 people, including shooting AFP journalist Sardar Ahmad, his wife and two of their children in the head. Police killed all four attackers after a three-hour standoff.
(AP, 3/21/14)(AFP, 3/22/14)
2014 Mar 20, In eastern Afghanistan a suicide car bomber blew up his vehicle near a police station in Jalalabad while other Taliban insurgents stormed the building, killing 10 police officers and a civilian.
(AP, 3/20/14)
2014 Mar 20, British regulators fined Mark Stevenson, an ex-Credit Suisse trader, for attempting to rig the price of government bonds in order to profit from the Bank of England's quantitative easing program. He was fined £662,700 ($1.1 million, 794,000 euros) for "deliberately manipulating" a government bond, or gilt, on October 10, 2011.
(AFP, 3/21/14)
2014 Mar 20, In Egypt a Cairo court sentenced 17 al-Azhar students to 14 years in jail for rioting, damaging public properties and attacking security personnel.
(AP, 3/21/14)
2014 Mar 20, In Iraq a suicide bomber struck a Baghdad café overnight killing at least 12 people.
(SFC, 3/21/14, p.A2)
2014 Mar 20, Italian authorities said they have rescued more than 4,000 would-be migrants at sea over the past four days as the war in Syria and instability in Libya spawn new waves of refugees.
(AP, 3/20/14)
2014 Mar 20, Japan’s NTT Data Corp. agreed to digitize some 3,000 historical Vatican manuscripts and make them available online.
(SFC, 3/21/14, p.A2)
2014 Mar 20, Kenya's parliament passed a bill allowing men to marry as many women as they want, prompting a furious backlash from female lawmakers who stormed out. Women are not allowed to marry more than one man in Kenya. The bill must now pass before the president to be signed before becoming law.
(AFP, 3/21/14)
2014 Mar 20, In northeast Nigeria an explosion at Ngurosoye village market near hideouts of Islamic extremists killed 29 people. Three more died of their wounds over the next few days.
(AP, 3/24/14)
2014 Mar 20, A Sudanese worker for the International Committee of the Red Cross was killed in El Fasher, the capital of North Darfur state.
(AFP, 3/21/14)
2014 Mar 20, Syrian troops raised the national flag on the Crac des Chevaliers, a famous Crusades-era citadel near the border with Lebanon, after days of intense fighting against opposition fighters. 93 of the opposition fighters were reported killed as they fled to Lebanon.
(AP, 3/20/14)(AP, 3/21/14)
2014 Mar 20, Pro-Russian crowds seized two Ukrainian warships and Ukraine said its troops were being threatened in Crimea as the European Union considered new sanctions against Russia for its annexation of the Black Sea peninsula.
(AP, 3/20/14)
2014 Mar 20, Turkey’s PM Tayyip Erdogan's defiantly vowed, on the campaign trail ahead of March 30 local polls, to "wipe out" Twitter, whatever the international community had to say about it.
(Reuters, 3/21/14)
2014 Mar 20, Several UN aid trucks crossed the Turkish border into Syria for the first time.
(Reuters, 3/20/14)
2015 Mar 20, The Obama administration issued the first federal mandates governing hydraulic fracturing on public land.
(SFC, 3/21/15, p.D1)
2015 Mar 20, US District Judge Alvin Hellerstein ruled that the US must release photographs showing abuse of detainees in Iraq and Afghanistan, in a long-running clash over letting the world see potentially disturbing images of how the military treated prisoners.
(AP, 3/21/15)
2015 Mar 20, The US FDA approved genetically engineered foods as safe.
(SFC, 3/21/15, p.A5)
2015 Mar 20, In New Orleans, La., police shot Richard White (63) three times at the Louis Armstrong International Airport after he attacked border agents with a machete and wasp spray. White was shot and died the next day at a local hospital.
(AFP, 3/21/15)(SSFC, 3/22/15, p.A11)
2015 Mar 20, Bulgaria's authorities said they had discovered the highly pathogenic H5N1 bird flu virus in two dead pelicans in a nature reserve in northeastern part of the Balkan country, close to neighboring Romania.
(Reuters, 3/26/15)
2015 Mar 20, In Canada Raed Jaser (37), a longtime resident of Palestinian descent, and Tunisian-born Chiheb Esseghaier (32), accused of plotting to attack a passenger train travelling from New York to Toronto, were found guilty of several terror-related charges. They will be sentenced April 10. On Sep 23 both men were sentenced to life in prison. Each would have to serve at least ten years before becoming eligible for parole.
(AP, 3/21/15)(SFC, 9/24/15, p.A2)
2015 Mar 20, Beijing shut down the third of its four coal-fired power plants as part of its campaign to cut pollution, with the final one scheduled to close next year.
(AP, 3/20/15)
2015 Mar 20, Cuban media reported that a local court last week condemned several government officials to prison terms of between five and 15 years for stealing and selling millions of eggs on the black market.
(AFP, 3/20/15)
2015 Mar 20, In Denmark two men suspected of helping the gunman who killed two people in attacks in Copenhagen last Feb 15 were jailed.
(AP, 3/20/15)
2015 Mar 20, Europol, the European Union's policy agency, said that raids earlier this week in Austria, Cyprus, Slovenia and Switzerland led to 26 arrests and the identification of 14 possible victims of the smugglers. The raids of brothels and restaurants targeted Chinese criminal networks that reportedly smuggled people to the continent.
(AP, 3/20/15)
2015 Mar 20, The EU and Balkan countries launched a campaign aimed at stemming the flow of fighters from southeastern Europe to join jihadists in the Middle East. The Balkans are generally considered to include Albania, Bulgaria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, about half of Croatia, Greece, the Republic of Macedonia, Montenegro, most of Serbia, and the European part of Turkey.
(Reuters, 3/20/15)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Balkans)
2015 Mar 20, The EU committed 2 billion euros ($2.15 billion) to help Athens deal with what even EU leaders now call the "humanitarian crisis" hitting Greeks in the wake of the financial crisis that left the nation on the brink of bankruptcy.
(AP, 3/20/15)
2015 Mar 20, EU leaders agreed to increase cooperation with Tunisia following an Islamist attack on tourists in the capital this week, saying they would also offer more economic assistance to the new Arab democracy.
(Reuters, 3/20/15)
2015 Mar 20, EU leaders, concerned about migrants using Libya as a jumping-off point to reach the continent, pledged to help the conflict-torn country regain stability but ruled out deploying any security operation.
(AP, 3/20/15)
2015 Mar 20, Ethiopian officials set fire to 6.1 tons of illegal elephant tusks, ivory trinkets, carvings and various forms of jewelry on a wooden pyre in Addis Ababa to discourage poaching and the ivory trade.
(AP, 3/20/15)
2015 Mar 20, Germany-based Lufthansa canceled hundreds more flights as pilots went on strike for the third consecutive day and announced they would continue the walk-out over the weekend.
(AP, 3/20/15)
2015 Mar 20, In eastern India education authorities said about 600 high school students in Bihar state have been expelled for cheating on pressure-packed 10th grade examinations this week.
(AP, 3/20/15)
2015 Mar 20, In northern India three coaches of a passenger train derailed, killing at least 32 people near Bachhrawan village in Uttar Pradesh state.
(AP, 3/20/15)(SFC, 3/21/15, p.A2)
2015 Mar 20, In Iraq and Syria the US and its coalition allies staged eight air strikes against Islamic State militants over the last 24 hours.
(Reuters, 3/20/15)
2015 Mar 20, Islamic State published a video purporting to show the beheading of three Kurdish peshmerga fighters in northern Iraq by militants who threatened to kill "dozens" more of those being held captive. The population under Islamic State control was about eight million people.
(Reuters, 3/20/15)(Econ., 3/21/15, p.17)
2015 Mar 20, Italy unveiled the newly restored ancient city of Pompeii. It had been destroyed by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD.
(SFC, 3/21/15, p.A2)
2015 Mar 20, In Kashmir suspected rebels wearing army uniforms stormed an Indian police station, killing a policeman. A four-hour gun battle then left 2 paramilitary soldiers, 2 militants and a civilian dead.
(AP, 3/20/15)
2015 Mar 20, Kenya launched Africa's first water fund, a public-private partnership aimed at raising $15 million to provide clean water to 9.3 million people by protecting the basin of the country's longest river.
(Reuters, 3/20/15)
2015 Mar 20, Liberian officials said a patient has tested positive for Ebola in Monrovia, deflating hopes that the nation had beaten the disease.
(SFC, 3/21/15, p.A2)
2015 Mar 20, In Mexico about 40 buses blocked one of the main highways leading north out of Mexico City in a protest over the latest killing aboard a bus by thieves.
(AP, 3/21/15)
2015 Mar 20, Russian President Vladimir Putin called for a single currency with the Kremlin's closest ex-Soviet allies at a meeting with his Kazakh and Belarusian counterparts in Kazakhstan’s capital Astana.
(AFP, 3/20/15)
2015 Mar 20, In Syria a twin bombing targeting Kurds celebrating their new year in the northeastern city of Hassakeh killed 49 people and wounded 177 others.
(AP, 3/21/15)
2015 Mar 20, Taiwan authorities introduced emergency water rationing as the country faced its worst drought in over a decade and the lowest rainfall in nearly 70 years. The government last imposed water rationing and anti-drought measures in 2001 in parts of Taiwan, including Taipei.
(AFP, 3/20/15)
2015 Mar 20, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said Turkey has offered a $50 million loan to Ukraine to help cover its budget deficit in a joint press conference in Kiev with Turkish counterpart Tayyip Erdogan. Turkey also offered Ukraine $10 million in humanitarian assistance.
(Reuters, 3/20/15)
2015 Mar 20, In eastern Ukraine one civilian was killed in an attack by pro-Russian separatist rebels in the government-controlled town of Avdiyivka despite a ceasefire deal.
(Reuters, 3/20/15)
2015 Mar 20, A new UN report warned that the world could suffer a 40 percent shortfall in water in just 15 years unless countries dramatically change their use of the resource.
(AP, 3/20/15)
2015 Mar 20, In Yemen bombings targeted two mosques in Sanaa and another in the Huthis' Saada stronghold, where an assailant detonated his explosives belt outside a mosque after failing to get in. At least 137 people were killed at the mosques attended by Shiite militiamen. The Islamic State jihadist group claimed responsibility.
(AFP, 3/20/15)(Econ., 3/28/15, p.51)
2015 Mar 20, In Yemen unidentified aircraft dropped bombs over an area that includes the residence of President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi in the southern city of Aden but he was unharmed. In southern Yemen Al Qaeda fighters captured al-Houta, capital of the southern Lahj province, killing about 20 soldiers, before they were driven out by the army late today.
(Reuters, 3/20/15)(Reuters, 3/21/15)
2016 Mar 20, The United States and its allies carried out 11 strikes against Islamic State militants in Iraq and Syria.
(Reuters, 3/21/16)
2016 Mar 20, Cleveland-based paint company Sherwin Williams said it is buying rival Minneapolis-based Valspar for about $9 billion.
(SSFC, 3/20/16, p.A6)
2016 Mar 20, In Pennsylvania retired state trooper Clarence Briggs killed turnpike toll collector Danny Crouse and security guard Ronald Heist in a holdup attempt in Fort Littleton. Biggs was shot dead by state troopers while trying to escape. Briggs had filed for banktuptcy in 2015 with debts of $315,000.
(SFC, 3/21/16, p.A6)(SFC, 3/22/16, p.A5)
2016 Mar 20, The Australian government ended its push to log World Heritage-listed forests on the southern island state of Tasmania, after the United Nations cultural agency UNESCO issued a report calling for the area to remain protected from logging.
(Reuters, 3/20/16)
2016 Mar 20, President Barack Obama arrived in Cuba for a three-day trip, the first by a US president in 88 years.
(Reuters, 3/20/16)
2016 Mar 20, Benin held a presidential runoff vote that put PM Lionel Zinsou against cotton magnate Patrice Talon, who was once accused of trying to poison the current president. The next day PM Lionel Zinsou conceded defeat to Patrice Talon in a vote hailed as an example for democracy in action.
(AP, 3/20/16)(AFP, 3/21/16)
2016 Mar 20, In Cape Verde Janira Hopffer Almada conceded defeat after the liberal opposition MPD party took more than 53 percent of the vote with nearly all ballots counted, ousting the PAICV after 15 years in power.
(AFP, 3/21/16)
2016 Mar 20, The Republic of Congo voted under a nationwide media blackout, in a tense ballot expected to see President Denis Sassou Nguesso (72) prolong his 32-year rule over the oil-rich but impoverished nation. Provisional results showed President Denis Sassou N'Guesso won re-election.
(AFP, 3/20/16)(AP, 3/22/16)
2016 Mar 20, In India the prime minister of the Tibetan government-in-exile called for China to engage in dialogue on autonomy for his people's homeland, as tens of thousands of Tibetans around the world voted for new leaders of a government that Beijing does not recognize.
(AP, 3/20/16)
2016 Mar 20, In eastern India three elephants killed 4 people. One elephant in the group, a male, was tranquilized and later died.
(AP, 3/21/16)
2016 Mar 20, Kazakhstan citizens voted in a parliamentary election expected to provide a commanding majority for ageing autocrat President Nursultan Nazarbayev's ruling party. Preliminary results showed Pres. Nursultan Nazarbayev's Nur Otan party winning 82 percent of the vote. International observers, who were allowed unfettered access, observed ballot-box stuffing and other irregularities.
(AFP, 3/20/16)(AP, 3/21/16)
2016 Mar 20, An Indonesian military helicopter crashed during a mission to capture Abu Wardah Santoso, the country's most wanted militant, killing 13 people in Central Sulawesi.
(AP, 3/20/16)(AP, 3/21/16)
2016 Mar 20, Niger's Pres. Mahamadou Issoufou ran for a second five-year term against opponent Hama Amadou, who campaigned from behind bars before being flown last week to Paris for medical treatment. Issoufou was re-elected.
(AP, 3/20/16)(AFP, 3/23/16)
2016 Mar 20, The Russian Defense Ministry recorded five violations of a tentative ceasefire agreement in Syria in the last 24 hours.
(Reuters, 3/20/16)
2016 Mar 20, Top level Rwandan genocide suspect Ladislas Ntaganzwa (53) was flown from Kinshasa to Kigali to face trial three months after his arrest in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
(AFP, 3/20/16)
2016 Mar 20, Senegalese residents voted on a constitutional referendum that could see sweeping constitutional reforms including a reduction of presidential powers and terms from seven to five years, on a continent where many leaders try to hold onto power. Partial results showed the pro-government "Yes" camp winning a majority.
(AP, 3/20/16)(AFP, 3/21/16)
2016 Mar 20, In southern Somalia Kenyan soldiers reportedly killed another 13 militants near Ras Kamboni.
(AP, 3/20/16)
2016 Mar 20, In northeastern Spain a bus carrying university exchange students back from the country’s largest fireworks festival crashed on a main highway, killing 13 female students and injuring 34 others in Catalonia province.
(AP, 3/20/16)(AFP, 3/21/16)
2016 Mar 20, Yemeni officials said at least 55 people, including 14 civilians, have been killed in two days of fighting between pro-government forces and Shiite Huthi rebels.
(AFP, 3/20/16)
2016 Mar 20, Elections were held in Zanzibar with security tight and an opposition boycott in place for the re-run of October's polls in Tanzania's semi-autonomous islands, cancelled due to fraud allegations. President Ali Mohamed Shein of the Chama Cha Mapinduzi party was re-elected with more than 91 percent of the votes. America suspended $472 million in aid over the election re-run.
(AFP, 3/20/16)(AP, 3/21/16)(Econ, 10/8/16, p.45)
2017 Mar 20, The United States criticized the UN Human Rights Council, saying addressing the human rights situation in Palestine and other occupied Arab territories as part of its agenda exhibited the group's "long-standing bias against Israel."
(Reuters, 3/20/17)
2017 Mar 20, FBI Director James Comey confirmed that the bureau is investigating possible links and coordination between Russia and associates of President Donald Trump as part of a broader probe of Russian interference in last year's presidential election.
(AP, 3/20/17)
2017 Mar 20, US Pres. Donald Trump asked Daniel Coats, the director of national intelligence, and Adm. Michael Rogers, director of the national Security Agency, to help him push back against an FBI investigation into possible coordination between his campaign and the Russian government. Coats and Rogers refused to comply.
(SFC, 5/23/17, p.A8)
2017 Mar 20, The US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency issued the first of planned weekly reports tallying each time local officials declined to hold foreigners eligible for removal long enough to be picked up by federal agents.
(Econ, 3/25/17, p.27)
2017 Mar 20, Chuck Barris (b.1929), a popular game show creator and producer, died at his home in Palisades, NY. His creations included “the Dating Game" (1965-1973) and “The Gong Show" (1976-1978). He penned the song “Palisades Park," which was turned into a 1962 hit by Freddie Canon. He also wrote included “Confessions of a Dangerous Mind," a spy comedy that was tuned into a film (1962).
(SFC, 3/24/17, p.D4)
2017 Mar 20, David Rockefeller (101), US banker and philanthropist, died. He headed Chase Manhattan Bank from 1969 to 1981.
(Econ, 4/8/17, p.82)
2017 Mar 20, In Afghanistan a suicide car bomb late today targeted a checkpoint in southern Helmand province, killing at least six members of an intelligence unit near Lashkar Gah. Seven other were wounded.
(AP, 3/21/17)(SFC, 3/22/17, p.A2)
2017 Mar 20, Belarus Pres. Alexander Lukashenko said Western intelligence agencies are using a "fifth column" to cause unrest and threaten the stability of his regime.
(AP, 3/20/17)
2017 Mar 20, British mobile phone giant Vodafone said it will merge its Indian unit with Idea Cellular to create India's largest telecoms operator, to help fend off the Mukesh Ambani-backed Reliance Jio, whose recent arrival has shaken up India's ultra-competitive mobile network market.
(AFP, 3/20/17)
2017 Mar 20, A Czech zoo started sawing off the horns of its 21 rhinos to protect them from poaching after the killing of a rhinoceros in France earlier this month.
(Reuters, 3/21/17)
2017 Mar 20, East Timor held elections. Former guerrilla leader Francisco Guterres and Antonio da Conceicao, the minister of education and social affairs were the front runners. Francisco "Lu-Olo" Guterres received 57 percent of the vote. His main rival, Antonio da Conceicao, got 32 percent.
(SFC, 3/21/17, p.A4)(AP, 3/25/17)
2017 Mar 20, The European Union said it is slapping sanctions on four high-ranking military officials in Syria over the use of chemical weapons in the war-torn country.
(AP, 3/20/17)
2017 Mar 20, French Pres. Francois Hollande said world donors pledged more than $75 million to an historic UNESCO-backed alliance to protect cultural heritage sites threatened by war and the wave of ideological-driven destruction carried out by Islamic State group militants.
(AP, 3/20/17)
2017 Mar 20, In French Guiana demonstrations started when workers from Endel-Engie, an engineering firm, and EDF, the local utility, blocked roads outside Kourou to prevent the launch of a rocket from the Guiana Space Center as they protested high living costs and neglect from Paris.
(Econ, 4/22/17, p.44)
2017 Mar 20, In Guatemala three policemen were killed late today and seven officers wounded in attacks on police across the country, hours after a bloody gang riot in a juvenile detention center was put down in Guatemala City.
(AP, 3/21/17)
2017 Mar 20, Hungary's defense minister inaugurated a small military base on the country's southern border for soldiers patrolling to prevent the entry of migrants.
(AP, 3/20/17)
2017 Mar 20, Iraqi forces battled Islamic State group fighters to push into Mosul's Old City where thousands of civilians remained trapped under jihadist rule. A car bombing in Baghdad killed 27 people.
(AFP, 3/20/17)(SFC, 3/22/17, p.A2)
2017 Mar 20, Japan and Russia agreed to step up work toward resolving a longstanding territorial dispute through cooperation in a range of areas.
(AP, 3/20/17)
2017 Mar 20, Japan-based Softbank bought a $300 million stake in WeWork, a trendy office-rental firm.
(Econ, 4/1/17, p.58)
2017 Mar 20, Norway jumped to top spot in the World Happiness Report despite the plummeting price of oil. Denmark fell to second, followed by Iceland, Switzerland and Finland.
(AP, 3/20/17)
2017 Mar 20, Pakistan's PM Nawaz Sharif ordered the reopening of the country's border with Afghanistan, ending a protracted closure that has cost businesses on both sides millions of dollars and deepened tensions between the two neighbors.
(AP, 3/20/17)
2017 Mar 20, A Polish court has convicted a lawyer, identified only as Stanislaw Sz., of spying for Russia and handed him a four-year prison term.
(AP, 3/20/17)
2017 Mar 20, A Russian group of reporters said they have uncovered details of a complex system in which $21 billion were allegedly transferred illegally out of the country through a network of banks. The reporters in Moscow had obtained bank records that show that funds were transferred worldwide via 112 bank accounts in Eastern Europe.
(AP, 3/21/17)
2017 Mar 20, Serbian police said they have seized over a ton of marijuana and arrested six suspected traffickers. Police said the marijuana was packed in Kosovo and was bound for western Europe.
(AP, 3/20/17)
2017 Mar 20, Sri Lanka’s Criminal Investigations Department (CID) told the Mount Lavinia magistrate's court that Gotabhaya Rajapakse, who was the country’s defence secretary during his brother's rule, directed a secret unit which is accused of assassinating former Sunday Leader editor Lasantha Wickrematunga in January 2009.
(AFP, 3/20/17)
2017 Mar 20, Uruguay's Pres. Tabare Vazquez said his country is pulling its soldiers out of a UN peacekeeping mission in Haiti, where they have served since 2004. The mission will end this month and the roughly 250 soldiers will return home in early April.
(AP, 3/20/17)
2017 Mar 20, Pope Francis met with Rwandan President Paul Kagame. Francis begged forgiveness for the "sins and failings of the church and its members" during Rwanda's 1994 genocide, and told Rwanda's president that he hoped his apology would help the country heal.
(AP, 3/20/17)
2017 Mar 20, Some 60 Venezuelan soldiers crossed the border into Colombia and raised their national flag in a camp they set up. They withdrew on March 23 after Pres. Juan Manuel Santos called his Venezuelan counterpart Nicolas Maduro to protest.
(AP, 3/24/17)
Go to http://www.timelinesdb.com
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Return to home
2012 Jun 28, The United Nations declared that March 20 each year will be the International Day of Happiness.
(AFP, 6/29/12)
43BC Mar 20, Ovid (d.17or18AD), Publius Ovidius Naso, Roman poet, was born. His writings included: “The Art of Love."
(WUD, 1994, p.1032)(SFEC, 12/22/96, Z1 p.2)(HN, 3/20/01)
141 Mar 20, The 6th recorded perihelion passage of Halley's Comet.
(MC, 3/20/02)
842 Mar 20, Alfonso II the Chaste, king of Asturia (791-842), died. Asturias was a kingdom in NW Spain.
(MC, 3/20/02)(WUD, 1994 p.92)
1345 Mar 20, A conjunction of Saturn, Jupiter and Mars was thought to be the "cause of plague epidemic."
(MC, 3/20/02)
1413 Mar 20, Henry IV (b.1367), King of England (1399-1413), died in the house of the Abbot of Westminster. He was succeeded by Henry V (b.1387).
(AP, 3/20/97)(www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/henry_iv_king.shtml)
1501 Mar 20, Jean Carondelet (72), lawyer, chancellor of Burgundy (1480-96), died.
(MC, 3/20/02)
1525 Mar 20, The Paris parliament began the pursuit of Protestants (Papists proudly participated).
(MC, 3/20/02)
1549 Mar 20, Thomas Seymour of Sudely, English Lord Admiral, was beheaded.
(MC, 3/20/02)
1602 Mar 20, The Dutch East India Company (Vereenigde Oost-Indische Compagnie) was chartered to carry on trade in the East Indies. The VOC traded to 1798 whereupon its possessions were dissolved into the Dutch empire. In 2010 a student found a share in the company issued to an official named Pieter Harmenz dating to Sep 9, 1606. As a result, continuous trade in company stock emerged on the Amsterdam Exchange.
(SFC, 9/10/10, p.A2)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stock_market)(Econ, 2/25/12, SRp.4)
1616 Mar 20, Walter Raleigh was released from Tower of London to seek gold in Guiana. He took along his son Wat (22), who was killed during an attack on a Spanish outpost.
(MC, 3/20/02)(WSJ, 1/6/04, p.D10)
1727 Mar 20, Sir Isaac Newton (b.1642), physicist, mathematician and astronomer, died in London. Michael White wrote the 1998 biography "Isaac Newton" in which he revealed Newton’s passion for alchemy. In 2003 James Gleick authored the biography "Isaac Newton." In 2011 Edward Dolnick authored “The Clockwork Universe: Isaac Newton, Royal Society, and the Birth of the Modern World." In 2014 Sarah Dry authored “The Newton Papers: The Strange and True Odyssey of Isaac Newton’s Manuscripts."
(AP, 3/20/97)(WSJ, 2/19/98, p.A20)(SSFC, 6/1/03, p.M1)(Econ, 3/12/11, p.99)(Econ, 6/21/14, p.81)
1739 Mar 20, Eligio Celestino, composer, was born.
(MC, 3/20/02)
1739 Mar 20, In India, Nadir Shah of Persia occupied Delhi and took possession of the Peacock thrown. King Nadir Shah later took the golden Peacock Throne back to Persia.
(HN, 3/20/99)(SFEC, 5/21/00, p.T8)
1760 Mar 20, The great fire of Boston destroyed 349 buildings.
(HN, 3/20/98)
1792 Mar 20, In Paris, the Legislative Assembly approved the use of the guillotine.
(HN, 3/20/99)
1800 Mar 20, French army defeated Turks at Heliopolis, Turkey, and advanced to Cairo.
(MC, 3/20/02)
1811 Mar 20, George Caleb Bingham (d.1879), Missouri painter, was born in Virginia. His paintings included "Fur Traders on the Missouri."
(WUD, 1994, p.149)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Caleb_Bingham)
1811 Mar 20, Napoleon II, the Duke of Reichstadt, was born. He was the son of Napoleon Bonaparte.
(HN, 3/20/99)
1815 Mar 20, Napoleon Bonaparte entered Paris, beginning his "Hundred Days" rule.
(AP, 3/20/97)(HN, 3/20/98)
1816 Mar 20, The U.S. Supreme Court, in Martin vs. Hunter's Lessee, affirmed its right to review state court decisions.
(AP, 3/20/97)
1828 Mar 20, Henrik Ibsen (d.1906), poet and dramatist was born in Skien, Norway. His work included “Peer Gynt" and “Hedda Gabler." "The worst enemy of truth and freedom in our society is the compact majority. Yes, the damned, compact, liberal majority." In 1971 the 3rd and final volume of “Ibsen: A Biography" by Michael Meyer (d.2000) was published.
(HFA, '96, p.26)(HN, 3/20/98)(AP, 7/22/98)(SFC, 8/10/00, p.D2)
1833 Mar 20 The United States and Siam (now Thailand) concluded a commercial treaty in Bangkok.
(AP, 3/20/97)
1836 Mar 20, At Coleto Creek, Texas, Colonel James Fannin after being surrounded by Mexican forces under General Urrea, agreed to surrender to Colonel Juan Jose Holzinger. Fannin was unaware that General Santa Anna had decreed execution for all rebels. Urrea negotiated the surrender "at the disposal of the Supreme Mexican Government," falsely stating that no prisoner taken on those terms had lost his life.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goliad_Campaign)
1841 Mar 20, Edgar Allen Poe's The Murders in the Rue Morgue, considered the first detective story, was published. [see April 14, 20, 1841]
(HN, 3/20/01)
1848 Mar 20, King Ludwig I of Bavaria abdicated to marry dancer Lola Montez.
(MC, 3/20/02)
1852 Mar 20, Harriet Beecher Stowe's (1811-1896) "Uncle Tom's Cabin" was first published in book form after being serialized. It was based on the theme that slavery is incompatible with Christianity. In 2011 David S. Reynolds authored “Mightier Than the Sword: Uncle Tom’s Cabin and the Battle for America."
(SFC, 3/30/97, Z1. p.6)(AP, 3/20/08)(SSFC, 7/3/11, p.G4)
1854 Mar 20, The Republican Party was founded when former members of the Whig political party met to establish a new political party that would oppose the spread of slavery into the western territories. [see Feb 28]
(MC, 3/20/02)
1863 Mar 20, Battle of Pensacola, Florida- evacuated by Federals.
(MC, 3/20/02)
1865 Mar 20, Battle of Bentonville, N.C.
(HN, 3/20/98)
1865 Mar 20, Michigan authorized workers' cooperatives.
(MC, 3/20/02)
1868 Mar 20, The Jesse James Gang robbed a bank in Russellville, Kentucky, of $14,000.
(MC, 3/20/02)
1873 Mar 20, Sergei V. Rachmaninov, Russian-US pianist, composer (Aleko), was born. [see Apr 1]
(MC, 3/20/02)
1878 Mar 20, Thomas Fisher, an alleged member of the Molly McGuires, was hung at the Carbon County Prison of Mauch Chunk, Pa. He had been convicted of the murder of Morgan Powell, a supervisor for the Lehigh Coal and Navigation Company. Fisher insisted up to his death on his innocence.
(HT, 4/97, p.20)
1885 Mar 20, Yiddish theater opened in NY with Goldfaden operetta.
(MC, 3/20/02)
1885 Mar 20, John Matzeliger of Suriname patented a shoe lacing machine.
(MC, 3/20/02)
1888 Mar 20, Start of the Sherlock Holmes Adventure, "A Scandal in Bohemia."
(MC, 3/20/02)
1890 Mar 20, Lauritz Melchior, baritone, tenor (Met Opera), was born in Copenhagen, Denmark.
(MC, 3/20/02)
1890 Mar 20, Germany’s Kaiser Wilhelm II fired republic chancellor Otto Von Bismarck.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Otto_von_Bismarck)
1894 Mar 20, Lajos Kossuth (91), Hungarian freedom fighter, president (1849), died.
(www.thenagain.info/WebChron/EastEurope/Kossuth.html)
1896 Mar 20, U.S. Marines landed in Nicaragua to protect U.S. citizens in the wake of a revolution.
(AP, 3/20/97)
1899 Mar 20, Martha M. Place of Brooklyn, N.Y., became the first woman to be executed in the electric chair. She was put to death at Sing Sing for the murder of her stepdaughter.
(AP, 3/20/99)
1902 Mar 20, France and Russia acknowledged the Anglo-Japanese alliance, but asserted their right to protect their interests in China and Korea.
(HN, 3/20/98)
1903 Mar 20, Henri Matisse exhibited at the Salon des Independants.
(HN, 3/20/98)
1904 Mar 20, B.F. Skinner (Burrhus Frederic Skinner), American psychologist, was born.
(HN, 3/20/01)
1906 Mar 20, George B. Shaw's "Captain Brassbound's Conversion," premiered in London.
(MC, 3/20/02)
1906 Mar 20, Army officers in Russia mutinied at Sevastopol.
(HN, 3/20/98)
1907 Mar 20, A San Francisco grand jury returned a 66-count indictment against Abe Ruef and two executives of a Bell system telephone company who had bribed him.
(SFC, 7/18/15, p.C2)
1908 Mar 20, Frank Stanton, broadcasting pioneer and the president of CBS for 26 years, was born in Muskegon, Mich.
(AP, 3/20/08)
1908 Mar 20, Michael Redgrave (d.1985), actor (Browning Version, Lady Vanishes), was born in Bristol, England.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Redgrave)
1911 Mar 20, Winter Garden Theater opened at 1634 Broadway, NYC.
(MC, 3/20/02)
1911 Mar 20, Russian Premier Stolypin resigned in St. Petersburg.
(HN, 3/20/98)
1913 Mar 20, It was reported that Alcatraz island is to be abandoned as an Army prison and will be turned over to the Dept. of Justice for use as a federal penitentiary. It was deactivated as a military prison in 1933.
(SSFC, 2/17/13, DB p.42)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alcatraz_Island)
1914 Mar 20, Svyatoslav Richter, pianist (Stalin Prize-1945), was born in Zhitomir, Ukraine.
(MC, 3/20/02)
1915 Mar 20, The French called off the Champagne offensive on the Western Front.
(HN, 3/20/98)
1917 Mar 20, Dame Vera Lynn, British songstress, was born. She sang "White Cliffs of Dover" and "Lily Marlene" during World War II.
(HN, 3/20/99)
1917 Mar 20, Gideon Sundback, Swedish-born engineer, patented an all-purpose zipper while working for the Automatic Hook and Eye Co. of Hoboken, New Jersey. The zipper name was coined by B.F. Goodrich in 1923, who used it to fasten rubber galoshes. In 1994 Robert Friedel authored “Zipper: An Exploration in Novelty."
(ON, 7/04, p.5)(www.inventors.about.com)
1918 Mar 20, The Bolsheviks asked for American aid to rebuild their army.
(HN, 3/20/98)
1920 Mar 20, Pamela Churchill Harriman (d.1997) was born. She was later appointed by Pres. Clinton as ambassador to France. In 1996 Sally Bedell Smith wrote her biography: "Reflected Glory: The Life of Pamela Churchill Harriman."
(SFC, 10/23/96, p.E6)(SFC, 2/6/97, p.A14)
1920 Mar 20, Britain and its allies formally occupied Istanbul.
(Econ, 10/21/06, p.95)
1922 Mar 20, Raymond Walter Goulding, Radio comedian of Bob and Ray fame, was born.
(HN, 3/20/01)
1922 Mar 20, Carl Reiner, comedian (2000 Year Old Man, Dick Van Dyke Show), was born in the Bronx.
(MC, 3/20/02)
1922 Mar 20, President Harding ordered U.S. troops back from the Rhineland.
(HN, 3/20/98)
1922 Mar 20, The 11,500-ton Langley was commissioned into the U.S. Navy as America’s first aircraft carrier. Langley was not regarded as a beautiful ship. Her flight deck was 533 feet long and 64 feet wide with an open-sided hanger deck, inspiring the nickname “the Old Covered Wagon." Under the leadership of Commander Kenneth Whiting, Langley served as a base for reconnaissance aircraft and a laboratory to develop new procedures for launching and recovering planes, such as the use of cross-deck arresting wires to brake incoming aircraft.
(HN, 3/20/99)
1923 Mar 20, Bavarian minister of Interior refused to forbid the Nazi SA. [NOTE: The Sturmabteilung SA, German for "Assault Division" and sometimes translated stormtroopers, functioned as a paramilitary organization of the NSDAP – the German Nazi party. It played a key role in Adolf Hitler’s rise to power in the 1930s. SA men were often known as brown shirts from the color of their uniform and to distinguish them from the SS who were known as black shirts.]
(MC, 3/20/02)
1924 Mar 20, The Virginia Legislature passed two closely related eugenics laws: SB 219, entitled "The Racial Integrity Act" and SB 281, "An ACT to provide for the sexual sterilization of inmates of State institutions in certain cases", henceforth referred to as "The Sterilization Act". The Racial Integrity Act (one drop law) required that a racial description of every person be recorded at birth, and felonized marriage between "white persons" and non-white persons. The law was the most famous ban on miscegenation in the US, and was overturned by the US Supreme Court in 1967, in Loving v. Virginia. Virginia repealed the sterilization in 1979. In 2001 the House of Delegates voted to express regret for the state’s selecting breeding policies that had forced sterilizations on some 8,000 people. The Senate soon followed suit.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Racial_Integrity_Act_of_1924)(SSFC, 2/4/01, p.A3)(SFC, 2/15/01, p.C16)
1925 Mar 20, John Ehrlichman, Watergate conspirator, was born in Tacoma, Wa. He served Pres. Nixon as White House counsel and then domestic advisor and played a key role in creating the Environmental Protection Agency, passing the Clean Water Act, the Clean Air Act, the Endangered Species Act and the National Environmental Policy Act.
(HN, 3/20/98)(SFC, 2/16/99, p.A18)
1928 Mar 20, Hans Kung, Swiss religious theologian, was born.
(MC, 3/20/02)
1928 Mar 20, Fred Rogers, television performer (Mr. Roger's Neighborhood), was born in Latrobe, Pa.
(HN, 3/20/01)
1929 Mar 20, Ferdinand Foch (77), Marshal of France (WW I), died.
(MC, 3/20/02)
1930 Mar 20, Clessie Cummins set a diesel engine speed record of 129.39 kph.
(MC, 3/20/02)
1932 Mar 20, The German dirigible, Graf Zepplin, made the first flight to South America on regular schedule.
(HN, 3/20/98)
1933 Mar 20, Giuseppe [Joe] Zangara was electrocuted for an assassination attempt on FDR. [see Feb 15, Mar 8]
(MC, 3/20/02)
1934 Mar 20, San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown was born.
(SFEC, 1/5/97, p.A10)
1934 Mar 20, Test of practical radar apparatus was made by Rudolf Kuhnold in Germany.
(MC, 3/20/02)
1937 Mar 20, Jerry Reed, singer, actor (Bat 21, Smokey & the Bandit), was born in Atlanta, GA.
(MC, 3/20/02)
1937 Mar 20, A Franco offensive took place at Guadalajara, Spain.
(MC, 3/20/02)
1939 Mar 20, Franklin D. Roosevelt named William O. Douglas to the Supreme Court. He replaced Louis D. Brandeis (1856-1941), appointed in 1916, who retired. Douglas left the court in 1975, holding the record as the longest serving Supreme Court justice.
(HN, 3/20/98)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_Brandeis)(Econ, 11/20/10, p.95)
1940 Mar 20, The British RAF conducted an all-night air raid on the Nazi airbase at Sylt, Germany.
(HN, 3/20/98)
1941 Mar 20, Nazi German-Yugoslav pact was drawn.
(MC, 3/20/02)
1941 Mar 20, D.A. van den Bosch, anti-Nazi clergyman (Amersfoort Camp), died.
(MC, 3/20/02)
1942 Mar 20-21, There was a major German assault on Malta.
(MC, 3/20/02)(MC, 3/21/02)
1943 Mar 20, The Allies attacked Rommel's forces on the Mareth Line in North Africa.
(HN, 3/20/98)
1943 Mar 20, German U-384 was bombed and sank.
(MC, 3/20/02)
1944 Mar 20, A bus fell off bridge into Passaic River, NJ, killing 16.
(MC, 3/20/02)
1944 Mar 20, Pierre Pucheu (b.1899), French industrialist, fascist and member of the Vichy government, was executed following his arrest a year earlier in Casablanca. He was the first of the leading collaborationist figures to be executed directly under de Gaulle's jurisdiction.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pierre_Pucheu)
1948 Mar 20, "Gentleman's Agreement" won the Academy Award for best picture of 1947, as well as best director (Elia Kazan); Ronald Colman won best actor for "A Double Life," and Loretta Young won best actress for "The Farmer's Daughter."
(AP, 3/20/98)
1948 Mar 20, The 1st live televised musical Eugene Ormandy on CBS.
(MC, 3/20/02)
1948 Mar 20, A televised concert by NBC Symphony was conducted by Arturo Toscanini.
(MC, 3/20/02)
1948 Mar 20 A severe tornado moved through Tinker Air Force Base in Oklahoma City destroying 52 aircraft.
(SFC, 3/20/09, p.D8)
1948 Mar 20, The Communist administration of Lithuania decided on a plan for the organization of collective farms.
(LHC, 3/20/03)
1950 Mar 20, The government of Poland decided to confiscate the property of Polish church.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1950)
1952 Mar 20, At the Academy Awards "An American in Paris" was named best picture; Humphrey Bogart best actor for "The African Queen"; Vivien Leigh best actress, Kim Hunter best supporting actress and Karl Malden best supporting actor for "A Streetcar Named Desire"; and George Stevens best director for "A Place in the Sun."
(AP, 3/20/02)
1953 Mar 20, In the Soviet Union Nikita Khrushchev became the head of a five-man group called the Secretariat, although for all intents and purposes, he is in a leadership role that will gradually push Malenkov aside. In September Khrushchev was officially given the title of First Secretary of the Communist Party.
(www.history.com/this-day-in-history.do?action=Article&id=2612)(WP, 3/21/53, p.3)
1954 Mar 20, "King and I" closed at St. James Theater in NYC after 1246 performances.
(MC, 3/20/02)
1956 Mar 20, Union workers ended a 156-day strike at Westinghouse Electric Corp.
(AP, 3/20/97)
1956 Mar 20, Tunisia was granted independence by France. Tunisia became an independent nation under the leadership of Habib Bourguiba, a Francophone lawyer. He launched a campaign advocating birth control. By 2003 the fertility rate plunged from 7.2 in the 1960s to 2.08. Bourguiba created a paternalistic and monopolistic ruling party that continued for 3 decades.
(WUD, 1994, p.1685)(EWH, 1968, p.1247)(SFEC, 4/12/98, p.T5)(SFC, 4/16/98, p.B4)(WSJ, 8/8/03, p.A1)(Econ, 1/22/11, p.31)
1956 Mar 20, Mount Bezymianny on Kamchatka Peninsula, USSR, exploded.
(MC, 3/20/02)
1957 Mar 20, Shelton 'Spike' Lee, film director (Do the Right Thing, Malcolm X), was born.
(HN, 3/20/01)
1957 Mar 20, In Washington state the Dalles Dam pushed back the Columbia River to reap the benefits of hydroelectric power. In six hours the islands of Celilo Falls were gone forever beneath a mockingly tranquil reservoir pool.
(AP, 3/3/07)
1957 Mar 20, Britain accepted a NATO offer to mediate in Cyprus, but Greece rejected it.
(MC, 3/20/02)
1959 Mar 20, In SF Harry Bridges spoke to a crowd at the Commonwealth Club luncheon regarding his recent trip to Russia. The Longshore Union president gave his audience the challenge he received in Russia: Within 10 years the Soviet Union will give its workers the highest standard of living in the world, the highest wages, the shortest work week, the best free medical care, the best education, and no unemployment.
(SSFC, 3/15/09, DB p.50)
1962 Mar 20, C. Wright Mills (45), US sociologist (Power Elite), died.
(MC, 3/20/02)
1963 Mar 20, The 1st "Pop Art" exhibition was held in NYC.
(MC, 3/20/02)
1964 Mar 20, Brendan Behan (b.1923), Irish playwright and author, died in Dublin.
(SSFC, 3/16/14, DB p.42)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brendan_Behan)
1965 Mar 20, Lyndon B. Johnson ordered 4,000 troops to protect the Selma-Montgomery civil rights marchers.
(HN, 3/20/98)
1968 Mar 20, Pres. Lyndon Johnson held talks with Paraguay’s Pres.-Gen. Alfredo Stroessner in Washington DC.
(Econ, 2/14/04, p.34)(www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=28747)
1969 Mar 20, Senator Edward Kennedy called on the U.S. to close all bases in Taiwan.
(HN, 3/20/98)
1969 Mar 20, The Chicago 8 were indicted in aftermath of Chicago Democratic convention.
(www.cnn.com/ALLPOLITICS/1996/conventions/chicago/facts/chicago68/index.shtml)
1969 Mar 20, John Lennon married Yoko Ono in Gibraltar.
(AP, 3/20/97)(HN, 3/20/98)
1974 Mar 20, Chet Huntley (b.1911), newscaster (NBC Huntley-Brinkley Report), died of lung cancer.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chet_Huntley)
1976 Mar 20, Newspaper heiress Patricia Hearst was convicted of armed robbery for her part in a San Francisco bank holdup.
(AP, 3/20/97)(HN, 3/20/98)
1977 Mar 20, Voters in Paris chose former French Prime Minister Jacques Chirac to be the French capital's first mayor in more than a century.
(AP, 3/20/97)
1977 Mar 20, Premier Indira Gandhi lost her election in India.
(http://openweb.tvnews.vanderbilt.edu/1977-3/1977-03-20-CBS-2.html)
1979 Mar 20, In Rome, Italy, the Mafia killed Mino Pecorelli, a magazine editor. In 1996 Premier Giulio Andreotti went on trial for allegedly turning to the Mafia to kill the troublesome journalist. Andreotti was acquitted by a jury in 1999. 5 others were also acquitted. In 2002 an appeal court in Perugia sentenced Giulio Andreotti to 24 years imprisonment for ordering the murder of Pecorelli.
(http://foi.missouri.edu/jouratrisk/italysexpm.html)(SFC, 4/12/96, p.A-12)(SFC, 9/25/99, p.A14)
1981 Mar 20, Michael Donald (b.1962), a black teenager in Mobile, Alabama, was abducted, tortured and killed in what prosecutors charged was a Ku Klux Klan plot. Henry Hays (d.1997) murdered Michael Donald in a random abduction. Donald was beaten, cut, strangled and his body was strung up a tree. Hays was convicted and sentenced to death. He was executed Jun 6, 1997. In 1987 A wrongful death suit filed by Donald’s mother, Beulah Mae Donald, gave a $7 million verdict against the United Klans of America, led by Robert Shelton (d.2003 at 73).
(SFC, 6/6/97, p.A3)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Donald)(SFC, 1/21/02, p.A21)
1981 Mar 20, Former girls’ school headmistress Jean Harris (1923-2012) was sentenced in White Plains, New York, to 15 years to life in prison for slaying "Scarsdale Diet" author Dr. Herman Tarnower. Harris was released in 1993 following a grant of clemency by Gov. Mario M. Cuomo.
(AP, 3/20/01)(SFC, 12/29/12, p.A9)
1982 Mar 20, U.S. scientists returned from Antarctica with the first land mammal fossils found there.
(HN, 3/20/98)
1984 Mar 20, An indictment was unsealed against Denny McLain, former Detroit Tiger pitching star, on various charges of racketeering. McLain was named in all the indictment's five counts, which accused him of racketeering, conspiracy, extortion, possession and distribution of cocaine, and conspiracy to import cocaine. He would face up to 90 years in prison if convicted of all the charges.
(http://tinyurl.com/35zuwx)
1985 Mar 20, Libby Riddles of Teller, Alaska, became the first woman to win the Iditarod Trail Dog Sled Race.
(AP, 3/20/05)
1987 Mar 20, The Food and Drug Administration approved the sale of AZT, a drug shown to prolong the lives of some AIDS patients. Jerome Horwitz of the Barbara Ann Karmanos Cancer Institute and Wayne State University School of Medicine first synthesized AZT in 1964 under a US National Institutes of Health (NIH) grant. It was developed by Burroughs-Welcome (later part of GlaxoSmithKline).
(WSJ, 1/30/96, p.A-16)(AP, 3/20/97)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zidovudine)(Econ, 6/2/12, p.80)
1988 Mar 20, David Henry Hwang's "M. Butterfly" premiered in NYC.
(http://tinyurl.com/pztxh)
1988 Mar 20, Eight-year-old DeAndra Anrig found herself airborne when the string of her kite was snagged by an airplane flying over Shoreline Park in Mountain View, Calif. Not seriously hurt, she was lifted 10 feet off the ground and carried 100 feet until she let go.
(AP, 3/20/98)
1989 Mar 20, Baseball Commissioner Peter Ueberroth confirmed that his office was investigating "serious allegations" involving Cincinnati Reds Manager Pete Rose. Ueberroth's successor, A. Bartlett Giamatti, later banned Rose from baseball for betting on games.
(AP, 3/20/99)
1989 Mar 20, In Northern Ireland Harry Breen and Bob Buchanan, two senior Northern Ireland police officers, were murdered by the Irish Republican Army outside the village of Jonesborough, County Armagh. On Dec 3, 2013, a judge-led inquiry in London found that Irish police colluded in the murder.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1989_Jonesborough_ambush)(AP, 12/3/13)
1990 Mar 20, Namibia became an independent nation, marking the end of 75 years of South African rule. The South African colony gained independence after 25 years of guerrilla war. Namibians began petitioning the U.N. as early as 1947, developing political parties, most notably SWAPO (South West Africa People‘s Organization) to voice opposition to South African rule. Armed resistance to South African rule began in earnest in the 1970s and continued into the 1980s, which combined with drought and other factors, contributed to an overwhelming drain to South Africa‘s economy. The UN Security Council eventually demanded independence for Namibia, but transition elections were not agreed to by South Africa until December 1988 after a military disaster involving Angola. The UN Transition Assistance Group (UNTAG) started work in April 1989 with elections giving SWAPO 57% of the vote. On March 21 of the following year, the South African flag was lowered and the Namibian flag raised in Namibia‘s National Stadium.
(LVRJ, 11/1/97, p.20A)(SFEC, 3/1/98, p.T4)(AP, 3/20/00)(HNQ, 2/13/01)
1990 Mar 20, The last Indian peacekeepers left Sri Lanka.
(www.india-seminar.com/1999/479/479%20mehta.htm)
1991 Mar 20, Pres. Bush announced the US would reduce Poland’s indebtedness by a full 70%. The Paris Club, an informal grouping of the world's 17 leading industrial countries, announced a week earlier that it would halve Poland's enormous debt and reduce accumulated interest by 80 percent. The US portion of the forgiven debt was approximately $2.4 billion.
(http://dosfan.lib.uic.edu/erc/briefing/dispatch/1991/html/Dispatchv2no12.html)
1991 Mar 20, The US Supreme Court ruled employers could not adopt “fetal protection" policies barring women of child-bearing age from certain hazardous jobs.
(AP, 3/20/01)
1991 Mar 20, A US jet fighter shot down an Iraqi warplane in the first air attack since the Gulf War cease-fire.
(AP, 3/20/01)
1991 Mar 20, April Glaspie, the US ambassador to Iraq, told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee Saddam Hussein had lied to her by denying he would invade Kuwait.
(AP, 3/20/01)
1992 Mar 20, The US Congress passed, and President Bush immediately vetoed, a Democratic tax cut for the middle class that would have been funded by a tax hike on the rich.
(AP, 3/20/97)
1993 Mar 20, An Irish Republican Army bomb exploded in Warrington, England, killing 3-year-old Johnathan Ball and 12-year-old Tim Parry.
(AP, 3/20/98)
1993 Mar 20, Russian President Boris Yeltsin declared emergency rule, setting a referendum on whether the people trusted him or the hard-line Congress to govern.
(AP, 3/20/98)
1993 Mar 20, Pope John Paul II declared Duns Scotus (1266-1308) a saint.
(www.catholic-forum.com/saints/saintj55.htm)
1994 Mar 20, El Salvador held its first presidential election following the country's 12-year-old civil war. Armando Calderon Sol of the ARENA party led the vote, but needed to win a run-off to achieve the presidency.
(AP, 3/20/99)
1994 Mar 20, Ilaria Alpi (32), Italian journalist, was shot and killed in Somalia along with her cameraman, Miran Hrovatin, on the same day that Italian troops left the country. She had collected evidence of brutality by Italian officers against Somalis along with evidence of illegal gun-running.
(SFC, 1/26/98, p.A8)
1995 Mar 20, Commentator Pat Buchanan formally launched his presidential campaign in New Hampshire.
(AP, 3/20/00)
1995 Mar 20, Sidney Kingsley, US playwright (Pulitzer prize 1934), died.
(MC, 3/20/02)
1995 Mar 20, The Bosnian army, having gained strength despite an arms embargo, launched a major offensive in the northeast against Serb positions.
(WSJ, 6/11/96, p.A14)(SFC, 10/16/97, p.A12)
1995 Mar 20, A gas attack by the Aum Shinri Kyo cult on Tokyo's subways killed 12 people. More than 5,500 others sickened when packages containing the poisonous gas sarin leaked on five separate subway trains. Masato Yokoyama, a cult leader, was sentenced to death in 1999. In 2000 Robert Jay Lifton authored "Destroying the World To Save It: Aum Shinrikyo, Apocalyptic Violence, and the New Global Terrorism." In 2001 Haruki Murakami's "Underground: The Tokyo Gas Attack and the Japanese Psyche" was published in English. In 2004 Shoko Asahara was convicted and sentenced to hang for masterminding the deadly nerve gas attack on the Tokyo subway and other crimes that killed 27 people.
(SFC, 7/4/96, p.A10)(SFC, 5/27/98, p.A12)(AP, 3/20/97)(SFC, 9/30/99, p.D14)(SFEC, 1/16/00, BR p.9)(SSFC, 4/29/01, DB p.81)(AP, 2/27/04)
1995 Mar 20, In Nigeria General Sani Abacha appointed Dan Etete as Minister of Petroleum.
(http://tinyurl.com/mvzrpu7)
1996 Mar 20, A jury in Los Angeles convicted Erik and Lyle Menendez of first-degree murder in the shotgun slayings of their millionaire parents.
(AP, 3/20/97)
1996 Mar 20, The Mt. Zion Baptist Church in Ruleville, Miss., burned down. Arson was suspected and investigations by the FBI and ATF were later begun.
(SFC, 6/11/96, p.A16)
1996 Mar 20, The British government said that a rare brain disease that had killed 10 people was probably linked to so-called "mad cow disease."
(AP, 3/20/97)
1997 Mar 20, Bill Clinton and Boris Yeltsin met in Helsinki for talks on arms control and NATO expansion. They agreed to negotiate a new arms accord to reduce strategic warheads, and to give Russia a more formal role in the Group of Seven leading industrialized nations.
(WSJ, 3/21/97, p.A1)(SFC, 3/22/97, p.A1)(AP, 3/20/98)
1997 Mar 20, The Liggett Group, a tobacco company, agreed to settle claims with 22 state attorneys general. The settlement included a payment of 25% of pretax earnings over the next 25 years, a “smoking is addictive" label, access to documents heretofore claimed to be privileged and admitting the industry marketed cigarettes to teen-agers.
(WSJ, 3/20/97, p.A3)(WSJ, 3/21/97, p.A3)(AP, 3/20/98)
1997 Mar 20, A Houston jury awarded the MMAR Group, a bond firm, $222.7 million in a libel verdict against Dow Jones & Co. based on a 1993 article that portrayed the firm as reckless and destroyed its business.
(SFC, 3/21/97, p.A3)
1997 Mar 20, In Serbia the state telecommunications authority cut independent BK TV’s transmission lines from Belgrade. Hours later a Belgrade court ordered the authority and state-run TV to carry BK.
(SFC, 3/22/97, p.A10)
1998 Mar 20, President Clinton's lawyer, appearing before a federal court, declared that Paula Jones' evidence of sexual harassment was "garbage" unworthy of a trial.
(AP, 3/20/99)
1998 Mar 20, The Wall Street Journal published its first Friday cultural section, “Weekend Journal."
(WSJ, 3/20/98, p.W1)
1998 Mar 20, George Tenet, director of the CIA, disclosed that $26.7 billion was the 1998 budget secret intelligence activities, one-tenth the overall US military budget.
(SFC, 3/21/98, p.A4)
1998 Mar 20, An Indiana man, Chris Dean (35), was arrested for sending the pipe bomb that killed Christopher Marquis of Vermont. Marquis had defrauded Dean in a $400 trade of Citizens Band radio equipment arranged on the Internet.
(SFC, 3/21/98, p.A3)
1998 Mar 20, A twister killed 11 people in northeast Georgia and 2 people in North Carolina and injured 100.
(SFC, 3/21/98, p.A1)(AP, 3/20/99)
1998 Mar 20, At least 400 firefighters were sent to fight the fires in the northern Amazon. Firefighters from Argentina and Venezuela were also brought in. A UN offer of assistance was accepted Mar 23 to combat thousands of fires raging out of control.
(SFC, 3/21/98, p.A10)(WSJ, 3/23/98, p.A1)(SFC, 3/25/98, p.C14)
1998 Mar 20, In Germany thousands of protestors attempted to halt a train of atomic waste from southern Germany from reaching its final destination of Ahaus in northern Germany.
(SFC, 3/21/98, p.A10)
1998 Mar 20, In Mexico a new law, the Nationality Act, went into effect that allowed Mexican-born Americans and their children to hold Mexican nationality and US citizenship. The law permitted dual nationality but not dual citizenship.
(SFC, 3/21/98, p.A10)
1999 Mar 20, Balloonists Bertrand Piccard of Switzerland and Brian Jones of Britain became the first aviators to fly a hot-air balloon around the world nonstop. They established an around the world record after floating over Mauritania at 1:54 a.m. PST and won a $1 million prize from Anheuser-Busch as the first aviators to fly a hot-air balloon around the world nonstop.
(SFEC, 3/21/99, p.A21)(AP, 3/20/00)
1999 Mar 20, A war crimes tribunal at the Hague recommended that 3 Croatian generals be indicted for war crimes for "Operation Storm" in Aug, 1995.
(SFEC, 3/21/99, p.A17)
1999 Mar 20, In Paris thousands of French teachers marched to demand a greater say in educational reform.
(SFEC, 3/21/99, p.A22)
1999 Mar 20, Serb forces in Kosovo launched a new offensive along a 20-mile arc west and northwest of Pristina. The Yugoslav army, taking advantage of the departure of international monitors from Kosovo, launched a furious offensive against outgunned ethnic Albanian rebels.
(SFEC, 3/21/99, p.A1)(AP, 3/20/00)
1999 Mar 20, In Spain some 60,000 people marched in Bilbao to protest recent arrests of members and supporters of the ETA.
(SFEC, 3/21/99, p.A23)
2000 Mar 20, World Citizenship Day.
(SFC, 3/21/00, p.A18)
2000 Mar 20, The Clinton administration moved to phase out the fuel additive MTBE to avoid further contamination of groundwater.
(SFC, 3/21/00, p.A1)
2000 Mar 20, Pres. Clinton stopped in Bangladesh, but only stood for a reception at the US Embassy due to security reasons. This was the first such visit by an American president.
(SFC, 3/21/00, p.A14)(AP, 3/20/01)
2000 Mar 20, Former Black Panther Jamil Abdullah Al-Amin, once known as H. Rap Brown, was captured in Alabama; he was wanted in the fatal shooting of a Fulton County, Georgia, sheriff’s deputy. Al-Amin maintains his innocence.
(AP, 3/20/01)
2000 Mar 20, Some 2,000 farmers, ranchers and rural businessmen converged on Washington DC to lobby for an overhaul of farm programs and to strengthen antitrust enforcement on agribusiness.
(WSJ, 3/21/00, p.A1)
2000 Mar 20, In Texas Robert Wayne Harris (28) shot 5 people to death and critically injured one person at the Mi-T-Fine Car Wash in Irving. Harris was arrested the next day. He had recently been fired for exposing himself to 2 women at the business. Harris was sentenced to death on Sep 29.
(SFC, 3/21/00, p.A5)(SFC, 3/22/00, p.A4)(SFC, 9/30/00, p.A2)
2000 Mar 20, Natalya Estemirova (1959-2009), Chechen rights activist, went to the village of Aldi and counted 47 victims.
(Econ, 7/18/09, p.24)
2000 Mar 20, Pope John Paul II arrived in Jordan for the beginning of his Holy land tour. He prayed at Mt. Nebo where the bible says Moses first viewed the Promised Land.
(WSJ, 3/20/00, p.A1)(SFC, 3/21/00, p.A1)
2000 Mar 20, In Germany Angela Merkel (45) became the first woman to head the Christian Democratic Union.
(SFC, 3/21/00, p.A10)
2000 Mar 20, In Kashmir gunmen massacred 35 Sikhs in Chati Sionghpura Mattan.
(SFC, 3/21/00, p.A12)
2000 Mar 20, In the Philippines the Abu Sayyaf Muslim rebel group seized over 50 hostages from 2 schools in Basilan province. Most of the hostages were children.
(SFC, 4/18/00, p.A10)
2000 Mar 20, In Senegal Pres. Abdou Diouf conceded defeat to rival Abdoulaye Wade. The elections ended 40 years of Socialist Party rule.
(SFC, 3/21/00, p.A12)
2001 Mar 20, Pres. Bush met with Israel’s Ariel Sharon and urged him avoid provocative acts.
(SFC, 3/21/01, p.A12)
2001 Mar 20, The skipper of the USS Greeneville took the stand in a Navy court and accepted sole responsibility for the Feb. 9 collision of his submarine with a Japanese trawler off Hawaii that killed nine Japanese.
(AP, 3/20/02)
2001 Mar 20, New York native Lori Berenson, accused of aiding guerrillas in Peru, received a retrial in civilian court. She was later convicted of "terrorist collaboration."
(AP, 3/20/02)
2001 Mar 20, The US Federal Reserve lowered interest rates 0.5% but stocks dropped. The DJIA fell 238 to 9,720; the Nasdaq fell 93 to 1,857.
(SFC, 3/21/01, p.A1)
2001 Mar 20, Power-strapped California saw a second day of rolling blackouts.
(AP, 3/20/02)
2001 Mar 20, Now-Ruz, the traditional Afghan New Year, passed without fanfare. The holiday is also observed in Iran.
(SSFC, 3/18/01, p.A17)
2001 Mar 20, In Buenos Aires thousands demonstrated against plans to cut government spending. Domingo Cavallo was named to succeed Ricardo Lopez Murphy as economy minister.
(SFC, 3/21/01, p.A14)
2001 Mar 20, The damaged Brazilian P-36 Petrobras oil platform sank 75 miles offshore. 400,000 gallons of fuel and crude oil began leaking into the sea. An immediate revenue loss of $50 million per month was expected.
(SFC, 3/21/01, p.A12)(WSJ, 3/21/00, p.A1)
2001 Mar 20, Britain reported 46 new confirmed cases of foot-and-mouth disease, the largest daily number to date.
(SFC, 3/21/01, p.A14)
2001 Mar 20, In Haiti violence flared in Port-au-Prince as Aristide supporters attacked an opposition party office with firebombs.
(SFC, 3/21/01, p.A13)
2001 Mar 20, Liberia ordered its security forces to seal its border with Sierra Leone.
(SFC, 3/21/01, p.A14)
2001 Mar 20, In Macedonia security forces began a heavy attack against guerrilla fighters and issued an ultimatum that weapons be laid down.
(SFC, 3/21/01, p.12)
2001 Mar 20, In Spain Froilan Elespe, Socialist deputy mayor of Lasarte, was shot and killed. The ETA was blamed.
(SFC, 3/21/01, p.A14)
2001 Mar 20, In South Africa new AIDS statistics indicated that 25% of the adult population, one of every 9 people, was infected with HIV.
(SFC, 3/21/01, p.A13)
2002 Mar 20, The US Senate approved the bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002. It was better remembered as the McCain-Feingold bill on campaign finance reform after its senatorial sponsors. Pres. Bush planned to sign it. In 2003 a 3-judge panel ruled most of the provisions unconstitutional.
(SFC, 3/21/02, p.A1)(SFC, 5/3/03, p.A1)(Econ, 9/12/09, p.40)
2002 Mar 20, US began war games with South Korea, the biggest ever.
(WSJ, 3/21/02, p.A1)
2002 Mar 20, Arthur Andersen pleaded innocent to charges it had shredded documents and deleted computer files related to Enron. Andersen was later found guilty of obstruction of justice; it received probation and was fined $500,000.
(AP, 3/20/07)
2002 Mar 20, Heavy storms and severe flooding extended to West Virginia. Kentucky Gov. Paul Patton declared 12 counties emergencies.
(SFC, 3/21/02, p.A3)
2002 Mar 20, At Fort Drum, NY, a soldier was killed and 14 were injured when 2 artillery shells fell far short of their target.
(SFC, 3/21/02, p.A5)
2002 Mar 20, In Bosnia the US Embassy was shut down to the public due to a possible terrorist threat.
(SSFC, 3/24/02, p.A18)
2002 Mar 20, Steven Harper (b.1959), an evangelical Christian, was chosen as head of Canada’s conservative Alliance Party.
(Econ, 10/14/06, p.42)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canadian_Alliance)
2002 Mar 20, China deployed military police to at least 2 northeast cities to quell labor protests.
(WSJ, 3/21/02, p.A1)
2002 Mar 20, In Israel a suicide bomber blew himself up on a crowded bus and 7 people were killed. The Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility.
(SFC, 3/20/02, p.A1)(SFC, 3/21/02, p.A9)
2002 Mar 20, In Italy 928 illegal immigrants, mostly ethnic Kurds, arrived on a rusty cargo ship. A state of emergency was declared to deal with the problem.
(SFC, 3/21/02, p.A10)
2002 Mar 20, In Pakistan Gen. Musharraf met with members of the Muslim League and planned a referendum to support his rule for another 5 years. Civilian opposition leaders condemned the plan.
(SFC, 3/23/02, p.A13)
2002 Mar 20, In Lima, Peru, a car bomb explosion outside the US Embassy killed 9 people. Pres. Bush was scheduled to arrive 3 days later.
(SFC, 3/21/02, p.A8)(SFC, 3/22/02, p.A13)
2002 Mar 20, In Zimbabwe opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai was charged with treason, fingerprinted and released on bail.
(SFC, 3/21/02, p.A10)
2003 Mar 20, Operation Iraqi Freedom began with a few targeted strikes in Baghdad against Saddam Hussein, targeting him personally with a barrage of cruise missiles and bombs as a prelude to invasion. Iraq responded hours later, firing missiles toward American troops positioned just across its border with Kuwait. US Sec. of State Rumsfeld warned that the attack in Iraq would be "of a force and scope and scale that is beyond what has been seen before." A "shock and awe" strategy was planned based on a 1996 "rapid dominance" strategy. The US seized $1.74 billion in frozen Iraqi assets and declared it would be used for humanitarian purposes. Saddam Hussein appeared on state-run television accusing the United States of a "shameful crime" and urging his people to "draw your sword" against the invaders. Iraq set fire to at least 10 oil wells.
(SFC, 3/20/03, p.W1)(SFC, 3/21/03, p.W11)(WSJ, 3/21/03, p.A1)(AP, 3/20/04)
2003 Mar 20, Hundreds of thousands of people marched on American embassies in world capitals to protest the war against Iraq.
(AP, 3/20/03)
2003 Mar 20, Some 600 US and Romanian ground troops in Afghanistan began Operation Valiant Strike, an intensified search for Taliban, al Qaeda and loyalists to Gulbuddin Hekmatyar.
(SSFC, 3/23/03, p.A1)
2003 Mar 20, Tornadoes hit rural Georgia and 6 people were killed.
(SFC, 3/21/03, p.A7)
2003 Mar 20, Texas executed its 300th inmate since restoring the death penalty in 1982.
(WSJ, 3/21/03, p.A1)
2003 Mar 20, In the Central African Republic Gen. Francois Bozizea asked his fighters to hand over their weapons to troops from neighboring Chad, prompting the insurgents to accuse their leader of betraying them.
(AP, 3/21/03)
2003 Mar 20, China demanded that military action against Iraq stop immediately and said the initial attack was "violating the norms of international behavior."
(AP, 3/20/03)
2003 Mar 20, Fidel Castro's agents arrested some of the government's leading critics in a crackdown on dissidents accused of working with US diplomats to undermine Cuba's socialist system. Jail sentences of over 20 years were later imposed on 75 of the dissidents.
(AP, 3/21/03)(Econ, 1/4/14, p.11)
2003 Mar 20, The Czech Interior Ministry published a list of some 75,000 people identified as agents of the former communist secret police, the STB.
(AP, 3/20/03)
2003 Mar 20, Norwegian police arrested Mullah Krekar, the leader of a Kurdish guerrilla group suspected of links to al-Qaida, on kidnapping charges. After settling in Norway in 1991, Krekar founded the Kurdish Ansar al-Islam during visits to Iraq.
(AP, 3/20/03)(AP, 2/14/12)
2003 Mar 20, The Palestinian Authority broke up a Hamas training session and a firefight followed that killed one militant.
(SFC, 3/21/03, p.A15)
2003 Mar 20, In Serbia nearly 1,000 people were arrested in a crackdown on criminal groups following the assassination of Serbian PM Zoran Djindjic.
(AP, 3/20/03)
2003 Mar 20, A suspected Tamil Tiger rebel boat attacked and sank a vessel carrying Chinese fishermen off eastern Sri Lanka, killing 17 people on board.
(AP, 3/21/03)
2003 Mar 20, Turkey's parliament approved a motion allowing over-flights for US warplanes. Turkey announced plans to send thousands of troops into Kurdish-controlled northern Iraq.
(AP, 3/20/03)
2003 Mar 20, UN Sec. Gen'l. Kofi Annan asked to be put in charge of a humanitarian program to aid Iraq.
(SFC, 3/21/03, p.W14)
2003 Mar 20-Apr 9, At least 1,700 Iraqi civilians were killed and over 8,000 injured in the battle for Baghdad.
(SSFC, 5/18/03, p.A1)
2004 Mar 20, The US military charged 6 soldiers with abusing inmates at Abu Ghraib prison.
(AP, 3/20/05)
2004 Mar 20, The Rev. Karen Dammann, a lesbian Methodist pastor, was acquitted of violating church doctrine in a trial held in Bothell, Wash.
(AP, 3/20/05)
2004 Mar 20, A quickly spreading Internet worm destroyed or damaged tens of thousands of personal computers worldwide morning by exploiting a security flaw in a firewall program designed to protect PCs from online threats. The "Witty" worm wrote random data onto the hard drives of computers equipped with the Black Ice and Real Secure Internet firewall products. It spread automatically to vulnerable computers without any action on the part of the user.
(WaP, 3/20/04)
2004 Mar 20, Thousands of protesters marched in Australia to mark the first anniversary of the Iraq war. Protests extended across Asia with some 30,000 marching in Japan. Hundreds of thousands of people worldwide rallied against the U.S.-led war in Iraq on the first anniversary of the start of the conflict.
(AP, 3/20/04)
2004 Mar 20, The Economist reported that a Goldman Sachs study found consumers in Australia and Spain to be the most vulnerable, of 19 countries, to higher interest rates or recession.
(Econ, 3/20/04, p.85)
2004 Mar 20, In Guyana thousands marched through Georgetown, demanding the government order an independent investigation into claims of a state-sponsored hit squad blamed for more than 40 killings in the past year.
(AP, 3/20/04)
2004 Mar 20, Hundreds of thousands of people marched in Rome demanding that Italy pull its 2,600 troops out of Iraq.
(AP, 3/21/04)
2004 Mar 20, In Kashmir a remote-controlled bomb hidden in a motorbike exploded as an Indian army convoy passed over a bridge, killing two soldiers and wounding 40 others.
(AP, 3/20/04)
2004 Mar 20, NATO-led forces surrounded Kosovska Mitrovica in efforts to separate ethnic Albanians and Serbs and prevent a resurgence of attacks that killed 28 people and wounded 600. Ethnic Albanians looted villages and apartments abandoned by Serb civilians. Some 110 homes and at least 16 Serb Orthodox churches were destroyed by arson.
(AP, 3/20/04)(Econ, 9/11/04, p.47)
2004 Mar 20, Former Netherlands Queen Juliana (94), who presided over the dismantling of the centuries-old Dutch empire and witnessed the birth of a social revolution during her 32-year reign (1948-1980, died.
(AP, 3/20/04)(SSFC, 3/21/04, p.B7)
2004 Mar 20, Nepalese government forces killed as many as 500 rebels, and at least 18 police and soldiers died in some of the fiercest fighting since a cease-fire collapsed last year.
(AP, 3/21/04)
2004 Mar 20, The Pakistani military commander leading a five-day assault on armed militants holed up in mud fortresses said a "high-value" terror suspect remained inside, possibly wounded, but there was no way to know whether it was al-Qaeda No. 2 Ayman al-Zawahri.
(AP, 3/20/04)
2004 Mar 20, The hunt for terrorists on Pakistan's frontier appears to be narrowing on an Uzbek terror group that once trained in Afghanistan.
(AP, 3/20/04)
2004 Mar 20, Taiwan Pres. Chen Shui-bian narrowly won re-election, a day after being shot in an assassination attempt, but a referendum he had championed on beefing up defenses against China failed because not enough voters took part.
(AP, 3/20/04)(SSFC, 3/21/04, p.A1)
2004 Mar 20, Uganda government troops backed by helicopter gunships fought fierce battles with rebels in northern Uganda, killing more than 50 insurgents.
(AP, 3/21/04)
2005 Mar 20, Severe flooding caused by snowmelt and torrential rains across Afghanistan left nearly 20 dead and thousands homeless.
(AFP, 3/20/05)
2005 Mar 20, In Bangladesh about 15,000 people were left homeless after twin tornadoes simultaneously tore through northern Gaibandha and Rangpur districts, killing 55 people and wounding 1,000 others.
(SFC, 3/26/05, p.D10)
2005 Mar 20, UN forces raided a police station occupied by armed former soldiers in Petit-Goave, 45 miles west of Port-au-Prince, setting of a gunbattle that killed two former soldiers and one Sri Lankan peacekeeper.
(AP, 3/21/05)
2005 Mar 20, Insurgents targeted Iraqi security forces and government buildings with gunfire, suicide bomb attacks and mortar rounds, leaving at least five people dead. A bomb blast near Kirkuk killed a U.S. soldier and wounded three. US troops killed 26 militants following an attack on a convoy SE of Baghdad.
(AP, 3/20/05)(AP, 3/21/05)
2005 Mar 20, A magnitude 7.0 earthquake struck off the coast of southern Japan, killing one person and injuring at least 381 others.
(AP, 3/20/05)
2005 Mar 20, In Jordan an appeals court has overturned the conviction of a Jordanian found guilty of financing Abu-Musab al-Zarqawi's insurgent group in Iraq. The Court of Cassation said the Oct. 31 conviction of Bilal Mansur al-Hiyari by the military State Security Court "fell short of adequate justifications and causes."
(AP, 6/7/05)
2005 Mar 20, In Kyrgyzstan protesters stormed a police station in Jalal-Abad forcing officers to flee, a day after baton-wielding police evicted demonstrators from two government buildings they had occupied to protest alleged election fraud. 4 policemen were reported killed.
(AP, 3/20/05)(WSJ, 3/21/05, p.A1)
2005 Mar 20, A visibly frustrated Pope John Paul made a brief but silent appearance at his Vatican apartment window after missing his first Palm Sunday Mass in 26 years as pontiff.
(AP, 3/20/06)
2006 Mar 20, President Bush defended his Iraq record against skeptical questioning at the City Club in Cleveland. Protesters marking the third anniversary of the Iraq war made their voices heard around the world, with the largest marches in London, Portland and Chicago, though in numbers that were often lower than in previous years.
(AP, 3/20/06)(AP, 3/20/07)
2006 Mar 20, Paul Tagliabue announced he would step down as NFL commissioner after 16 years.
(AP, 3/20/07)
2006 Mar 20, In San Diego, Ca., Japan’s baseball team beat Cuba 10-6 in the World Baseball Classic. The US team was embarrassingly knocked out in the second of the four rounds.
(http://edition.cnn.com/2006/SPORT/03/21/baseball.japan.ap/)
2006 Mar 20, Otto Zehm (36), a mentally ill man, died after being struck and tasered at a convenience store in Spokane, Wa. In 2011 officer Karl Thompson was found guilty of using violating Zehm’s civil rights by using excessive force and making a false statement.
(SFC, 11/3/11, p.A6)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Otto_Zehm)
2006 Mar 20, The most powerful storm to hit Australia in three decades laid waste to its northeastern coast, mowing down sugar and banana plantations with 180 mph winds but causing no deaths or serious injuries.
(AP, 3/20/06)
2006 Mar 20, Bangladesh PM Begum Khaleda Zia began her first visit to India in five years. India and Bangladesh will be trying to rebuild confidence and end distrust that has crept into their relationship.
(AP, 3/20/06)
2006 Mar 20, European observers said that Belarus' presidential election did not meet international standards for a free and fair vote because of widespread detentions and intimidation.
(AP, 3/20/06)
2006 Mar 20, Save the Children, a British charity, said some 9 million children in Africa have lost a mother to AIDS, calling on donors to sharply increase aid to meet their needs.
(AP, 3/20/06)
2006 Mar 20, A Chinese cargo ship hit an anchored freighter and sank off South Korea's west coast, killing at least three Chinese crew members.
(AP, 3/20/06)
2006 Mar 20, In Ecuador police fired tear gas at dozens of Indian demonstrators trying to reach the government palace in Quito to protest free-trade talks with Washington.
(AP, 3/20/06)
2006 Mar 20, Chairman Michael Dell, speaking in Bangalore, India, said Dell Inc. plans to double the number of its employees in India to 20,000 in three years.
(AP, 3/20/06)
2006 Mar 20, Suspected insurgents killed least seven policemen with roadside bombs on the third anniversary of the US-led invasion of Iraq, and authorities reported finding 10 more bullet-riddled bodies dumped in the capital. One was that of a 13-year-old girl. Insurgents and sectarian gangs killed at least 39 people.
(AP, 3/20/06)(SFC, 3/21/06, p.F7)
2006 Mar 20, Millions of Shiite pilgrims, some of them flogging themselves with chains, surrounded a shrine in the holy city of Karbala to commemorate the 40th and final day of symbolic mourning for the Prophet Muhammad's grandson.
(AP, 3/20/06)
2006 Mar 20, Libyan leader Moamer Kadhafi said Saddam Hussein should still be considered Iraq's legal president and the current government illegitimate as it was elected under an occupation regime.
(AFP, 3/20/06)
2006 Mar 20, In Nepal About 1,000 pro-democracy activists marched in Kathmandu demanding King Gyanendra free political detainees and give up powers he seized last year.
(AP, 3/20/06)
2006 Mar 20, Palestinian gunmen from the ousted Fatah Party stormed government buildings, briefly took over a power plant and blocked a vital road in the Gaza Strip, injecting more chaos into the volatile area as Hamas militants readied to take power.
(AP, 3/20/06)
2006 Mar 20, Turkmenistan's President Saparmurat Niyazov told his nation's youth to read his book Rukhnama three times a day in order to go to heaven.
(AP, 3/20/06)
2006 Mar 20, Venezuela agreed to sell fuel under preferential terms to an El Salvador association created by a group of leftist mayors.
(AP, 3/20/06)
2007 Mar 20, Pres. Bush vowed that his top aides will not testify under oath before congressional committees on the scandal involving the firing of 8 US attorneys.
(SFC, 3/21/07, p.A1)
2007 Mar 20, In Arizona the Hualapai Indian tribe invited a select few to the unveiling of the horseshoe-shaped deck over the Grand Canyon in advance of a public opening planned for March 28. Tour packages with deck access will range in price from $49.95 to $199. The deck, which juts 70 feet beyond the canyon's edge, will accommodate up to 120 guests at a time.
(AP, 3/21/07)
2007 Mar 20, Rescuers found Michael Auberry, a 12-year-old Boy Scout, who was dehydrated and disoriented after four days in the wooded mountains of North Carolina.
(AP, 3/20/08)
2007 Mar 20, The second flight of Space Exploration Technologies' (SpaceX) low-cost Falcon 1 rocket reached 200 miles altitude but did not make it to orbit due to the premature shutdown of its second-stage Kestrel engine. SpaceX launched the two-stage Falcon 1 rocket from its Omelek Island launch site in the Marshall Islands, but the rocket failed to reach its intended 425-mile (685-kilometer) orbit due to a roll control glitch.
(http://spaceflightnow.com/falcon/f2/)
2007 Mar 20, The WWF conservation group said climate change, pollution, over extraction of water and development are killing some of the world's most famous rivers including China's Yangtze, India's Ganges and Africa's Nile.
(AP, 3/20/07)
2007 Mar 20, The African Union urged the UN Security Council to back a peace deal signed between Ivorian President Laurent Gbagbo and the opposition by gradually pulling its troops out of the country.
(AP, 3/20/07)
2007 Mar 20, Authorities in emergency-ruled Bangladesh said they have found "huge" amounts of undisclosed money in the bank accounts of dozens of prominent figures caught up in a major anti-graft drive.
(AP, 3/20/07)
2007 Mar 20, The British government said schools have the right to ban students from wearing Muslim veils if teachers believe the garments affect safety or pupils' learning. Britain ordered its military to stop using cluster bombs that lack self-destruct mechanisms in a decision intended to prevent the weapons, used as recently as the beginning of the Iraq war, from harming civilians.
(AP, 3/20/07)
2007 Mar 20, An explosion aboard the HMS Tireless, a nuclear-powered Royal Navy submarine under an Arctic ice cap, killed two British sailors and injured a crewmember.
(AP, 3/21/07)
2007 Mar 20, China approved four foreign banks to begin local currency services to individual Chinese customers, opening up access to the country's 30 trillion yuan ($4 trillion; 3 euros trillion) in household savings and surging demand for credit cards and other financial services.
(AP, 3/20/07)
2007 Mar 20, Ecuador's constitutional crisis took a new twist as alternate lawmakers were escorted into Congress under the cover of darkness and sworn in to replace some of the legislators fired by the country's highest electoral court.
(AP, 3/20/07)
2007 Mar 20, Guatemala police arrested 4 people on suspicion of being among those who orchestrated the killings of three Salvadoran politicians and their driver in Feb 19.
(AP, 3/21/07)
2007 Mar 20, Taha Yassin Ramadan (69), Saddam Hussein's former deputy, was hanged before dawn, the fourth man to be executed in the killings of 148 Shiites following a 1982 assassination attempt against the former leader in the town of Dujail. At least 15 people were killed or found dead, most in Baghdad, as the war entered its fifth year. Iraqi and US troops backed by American warplanes battled al-Qaida-linked insurgents for more than five hours in clashes in Amiriyah, near Fallujah, that left eight killed and five Iraqi policemen wounded.
(AP, 3/20/07)(AP, 3/21/07)
2007 Mar 20, Ali Mussa Dakdouk, a senior Lebanese Hezbollah operative, was captured in southern Iraq.
(AP, 7/2/07)
2007 Mar 20, Heavy rains triggered landslides that buried three homes in Pakistan's portion of Kashmir, leaving 31 people dead.
(AP, 3/21/07)
2007 Mar 20, A US diplomat met with the Palestinian finance minister, the first American contact with the new Palestinian government and a sign of a break in policy between Israel and its closest ally.
(AP, 3/20/07)
2007 Mar 20, In Peru 3 suspected leftist rebels were shot to death in a clash with troops in the highland jungle.
(AP, 3/20/07)
2007 Mar 20, Fire swept through a nursing home in southern Russia after the night watchman ignored two alarms, killing 62 people in the Azov Sea coast village of Kamyshevatskaya, where the closest fire station was nearly an hour's drive away.
(AP, 3/20/07)
2007 Mar 20, The commander of African Union forces in Somalia pleaded for reinforcements as the AU's security chief paid a flying visit to volatile Mogadishu.
(AFP, 3/20/07)
2007 Mar 20, The Madrid government said El Hierro, one of the smallest of Spain's Canary Islands, is to receive 100 percent of its electricity supply from renewable energy sources.
(AFP, 3/20/07)
2007 Mar 20, Russia confirmed that it has begun pulling out experts from the Iranian nuclear power plant they were helping build and that it is withholding nuclear fuel for Iran’s reactors.
(SFC, 3/21/07, p.A3)
2007 Mar 20, Nyamko Sabuni (37), a Congolese immigrant and Sweden's first black minister, said the oppression of women and girls in the name of family honor has become an urgent problem in Sweden with the arrival of growing numbers of immigrants over the past few years.
(AP, 3/20/07)
2007 Mar 20, Zambian President Levy Mwanawasa urged southern Africa to take a new approach to Zimbabwe, which he likened to a "sinking Titanic" as millions flee economic and political turmoil.
(Reuters, 3/21/07)
2008 Mar 20, The X Prize Foundation and sponsor Progressive Casualty Insurance Co. offered $10 million to the teams that can produce the most production-ready vehicles that get 100 miles per gallon or more.
(AP, 3/20/08)
2008 Mar 20, North Carolina lawmakers voted 109-5 to boot Rep. Thomas Wright, a Wilmington Democrat, from office for mishandling $340,000 in loans and contributions.
(SFC, 3/21/08, p.A4)
2008 Mar 20, In North Carolina Darryl Turner was killed after being shocked by a police officer’s Taser. In 2011 a jury ordered Taser Int’l. to pay Turner’s family $10 million. Lawyers said the company had failed to warn that a Taser shot near the heart poses a substantial risk of cardiac arrest.
(SFC, 7/21/11, p.A6)(http://tinyurl.com/3homyou)
2008 Mar 20, In southern Afghanistan security forces said an exchange of fire between British soldiers and police left a policeman dead and two men wounded from each side. A soldier with the NATO-led force died after being struck by a bomb.
(AFP, 3/20/08)(AP, 3/21/08)
2008 Mar 20, Flemish Christian Democrat Yves Leterme took over as Belgian prime minister, ending nine months of deadlock.
(AP, 3/20/08)
2008 Mar 20, Brazilian officials said an outbreak of dengue in Rio de Janeiro state has killed at least 47 people this year.
(SFC, 3/21/08, p.A4)
2008 Mar 20, The Bank of England said it would inject 5.0 billion pounds into short-term money markets every week until April 9.
(AP, 3/20/08)
2008 Mar 20, China sent additional troops into restive areas and made more arrests in the Tibetan capital Lhasa in an effort to suppress anti-government protests even as the Dalai Lama offered face-to-face negotiations with Chinese leaders. Tibet authorities said they had arrested dozens of people involved in a wave of anti-Chinese violence. China forced the last remaining foreign journalists out of Tibet, and stepped up restrictions on Internet and radio reports from people within the country.
(AP, 3/20/08)(Reuters, 3/20/08)(AP, 3/21/08)
2008 Mar 20, Cuba issued what appears to be the first public report on prices and inflation in the private sector, in an unusually realistic acknowledgment of the key role the informal economy plays in island life.
(AP, 3/21/08)
2008 Mar 20, Israeli defense officials announced they've worked out a tentative deal for Egypt to become the main electricity supplier to the Gaza Strip.
(AP, 3/20/08)
2008 Mar 20, In Mali clashes began around Tinzaouatene, near the Algerian border, as insurgents attacked soldiers clearing mines in what the rebels feared was a prelude to a government offensive. 3 soldiers were killed when their vehicle was blown up by a mine and four captured in combat by the rebels.
(AFP, 3/23/08)
2008 Mar 20, Mozambican President Armando Guebuza dismissed the head of the armed forces and his deputy, barely a week after firing three senior ministers.
(AFP, 3/21/08)
2008 Mar 20, Fidelis Omeni, an environment ministry official said, Nigeria has been suspended from the International Convention on Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) for alleged breaches of its provisions.
(AP, 3/20/08)
2008 Mar 20, Kim Yong-Nam, North Korea's de facto head of state, arrived in Namibia as part of his goodwill visit to three African nations, which also includes Angola and Uganda. Namibia and North Korea hoped to strengthen their economic ties. Kim Yong-Nam warned against countries plundering resources from poor African countries.
(AFP, 3/20/08)
2008 Mar 20, A suicide car bomb killed five Pakistani soldiers and wounded nine others near the Afghan border.
(AP, 3/20/08)
2008 Mar 20, Palestinian militants accidentally set off a large blast at a Hamas training base in the central Gaza Strip, killing 2 members of the violent Islamic group and wounding another.
(AP, 3/20/08)
2008 Mar 20, A Russian air force Su-25 fighter jet blew up in flight near the Far East city of Vladivostok and the pilot was killed.
(AP, 3/20/08)
2008 Mar 20, In Sri Lanka troops, according to a statement the next day, ambushed ethnic Tamil rebels with a roadside bomb, overran bunkers and engaged in firefights across the north, killing 29 insurgents.
(AP, 3/21/08)
2008 Mar 20, Turkish warplanes bombed Kurdish rebel hideouts in northern Iraq.
(AP, 3/20/08)
2008 Mar 20, Morgan Tsvangirai, Zimbabwe's main opposition leader and presidential candidate in March 29 general elections, said that the voters' register was filled with tens of thousands of ghost voters.
(AFP, 3/20/08)
2009 Mar 20, Two US Navy vessels, a submarine and an amphibious ship, collided during the early morning hours in the Strait of Hormuz between Iran and the Arabian peninsula. The USS Hartford, a submarine, and the USS New Orleans, an amphibious ship, collided. 15 sailors aboard the Hartford were slightly injured but able to return to duty. No injuries were reported aboard the New Orleans.
(AP, 3/20/09)
2009 Mar 20, The US Postal Service said it will reduce management by 15%, offer early retirement to 150,000 workers and close 6 of 80 district offices in response to the slowing economy and losses last year of $2.8 billion.
(SFC, 3/21/09, p.A4)
2009 Mar 20, Washington Mutual's holding company sued federal regulators for billions of dollars, saying the firesale of the bank's assets to JPMorgan Chase violated its rights.
(AP, 3/22/09)
2009 Mar 20, Walter Kuhlman (90), SF Bay Area artist and teacher, died. He was a noted figure in the postwar Bay Area abstract expressionist movement.
(SFC, 3/30/09, p.B3)
2009 Mar 20, Afghanistan's top Muslim clerics urged President Hamid Karzai to push ahead with a proposal for talks with the Taliban that would be mediated by Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah. In northern Afghanistan 9 policemen and a district chief were killed in heavy fighting with Taliban insurgents. 4 Canadian troops and a local interpreter were killed in two separate explosions. Another NATO soldier was killed in a "hostile incident" in the south.
(AP, 3/20/09)(AFP, 3/20/09)(Reuters, 3/21/09)
2009 Mar 20, Tens of thousands of Angolans welcomed Pope Benedict XVI. He urged Angolans to continue on the path of reconciliation after nearly three decades of civil war, saying dialogue could overcome all conflict and tension.
(AP, 3/20/09)
2009 Mar 20, China said a new WTO report rejected the majority of intellectual property complaints made by the US and broadly backed Beijing's stance against commercial piracy.
(AP, 3/20/09)
2009 Mar 20, The African Union suspended Madagascar, the strongest condemnation by the international community since opposition leader Andry Rajoelina took power with the support of the army.
(Reuters, 3/20/09)
2009 Mar 20, EU leaders pledged a 125 billion euros in support for eastern Europe and the IMF after rejecting calls to plough more taxpayer cash into their own faltering economies.
(AFP, 3/20/09)
2009 Mar 20, In France several teenagers were taken into custody after 11 adults were injured in a pellet gun shooting near a nursery school in Lyon.
(AP, 3/20/09)
2009 Mar 20, Iranian engineer Majid Kakavand (37) was taken into custody in Paris as he arrived in Paris from Moscow as part of a European tour with his wife. He was arrested at the airport under a US warrant suspected of evading export controls to buy US technology for Iran's military. He was held in La Sante prison until Aug. 26, then released on condition he stay in Paris. He faced a Feb. 17 Paris hearing on whether to be extradited to the United States.
(AP, 1/22/10)
2009 Mar 20, In Iraq followers of anti-US Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr protested US presence on the 6th anniversary of the start of the Iraq war. In Baghdad’s Karrada district a pair of roadside bombs exploded within 10 minutes of one another wounding 4 police officers and 3 civilians.
(SFC, 3/21/09, p.A3)
2009 Mar 20, Mexico’s central bank lowered its overnight lending rate by .75 to 6.75%, in response to the deepening recession.
(WSJ, 3/20/09, p.A5)
2009 Mar 20, The Mexican army in Saltillo, Coahuila, arrested Sigifrido Najera Talamantes, an alleged drug trafficker. He was suspected of organizing an attack on a US consulate as well as the killing of several soldiers in retaliation for a government crackdown.
(AP, 3/20/09)
2009 Mar 20, North Korea closed its southern border for the third time in recent days, even as it told Seoul it would restore a military communications hot line severed last week.
(AP, 3/20/09)
2009 Mar 20, In Sudan the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM), a major rebel group in Darfur, said it had decided to end peace talks with the Sudanese government until it lets back aid groups expelled from the troubled region.
(AP, 3/20/09)
2009 Mar 20, The UN Security Council gave a stamp of approval to Somalia's new unity government and urged increased international aid to African Union (AU) peacekeepers trying to contain the violence in the lawless country.
(AP, 3/20/09)
2010 Mar 20, The Plastiki, a boat with hull built of 12,500 plastic bottles, departed from Sausalito, Ca. to Australia.
(SSFC, 3/21/10, DB p.46)
2010 Mar 20, An estimate of gay men marrying heterosexual women in China was put at 90% as compared to 15-20% in the US.
(Econ, 3/20/10, p.48)
2010 Mar 20, In Florida 3 people were killed when a single-engine plane collided with a kit-built aircraft over Williston.
(SSFC, 3/21/10, p.A9)
2010 Mar 20, British Airways canceled more than 1,000 flights after its cabin crew launched a three-day strike, wreaking havoc on the plans of tens of thousands of passengers just before the busy spring holiday season. .
(AP, 3/20/10)
2010 Mar 20 In Canada a 3rd deadly avalanche in a week killed 2 French skiers in British Columbia.
(SFC, 3/22/10, p.A2)
2010 Mar 20, China's capital woke up to orange-tinted skies as the strongest sandstorm so far this year hit the country's north, delaying some flights at Beijing's airport and prompting a dust warning for Seoul.
(AP, 3/20/10)
2010 Mar 20, Croatia and Slovenia hosted the 1st locally organized conference of the heads of government of the former Yugoslavia.
(Econ, 4/3/10, p.54)
2010 Mar 20, In Iraq the latest partial results showed PM al-Maliki's secular Shiite challenger, former PM Ayad Allawi, pulling ahead again by a slim margin over the prime minister's coalition in the overall tally. Al-Maliki called on the election commission overseeing the counting to quickly respond to requests from political blocs for a recount.
(AP, 3/21/10)
2010 Mar 20, UN chief Ban Ki-moon, after getting a closer look at some of the Israeli enclaves scattered across Palestinian-claimed territories, said Israeli settlement building anywhere on occupied land is illegal and must be stopped.
(AP, 3/20/10)
2010 Mar 20, Nepal's former PM Girija Prasad Koirala (86) died. He served five terms, led mass protests that ended the king's authoritarian rule and was a key figure in peace negotiations with communist rebels.
(AP, 3/20/10)
2010 Mar 20, Pakistani police arrested three Taliban militants and seized a bomb-making factory in the southern city of Karachi.
(AP, 3/20/10)
2010 Mar 20, In Russia thousands of protesters rallied in several cities to protest the government's economic policy and demand more political freedoms.
(AP, 3/20/10)
2010 Mar 20, Spanish surgeons completed the world’s most extensive full-face transplant. It was the 11th known face transplant in the world. The 24-hour operation provided a young farmer (30) a new nose, jaw and teeth.
(SFC, 4/24/10, p.A3)(http://tinyurl.com/2fqgwfm)
2010 Mar 20, In Sudan 19 members of the Misseriya tribe and six from the rival Nuwayba tribe were killed as fighting broke out. More than 20 people were wounded.
(AFP, 3/23/10)
2010 Mar 20, In Togo thousands of opposition demonstrators took to the streets in the West African nation to protest presidential election results.
(AP, 3/20/10)
2011 Mar 20, US President Barack Obama held up emerging powerhouse Brazil as a model of economic and democratic transformation that leaders in the troubled Middle East should try to copy.
(AFP, 3/21/11)
2011 Mar 20, In Florida Christian preacher Terry Jones supervised a burning of the Koran in front of about 50 people at a church. News of this led to violent protests in Afghanistan in early April.
(Reuters, 4/2/11)
2011 Mar 20, In Wisconsin suspect James Cruckson (30) opened fire on police during a standoff in Fond du Lac killing Officer Craig Birkholz (28). Cruckson was found dead from an apparently self-inflicted gunshot.
(SFC, 3/21/11, p.A7)
2011 Mar 20, AT&T said it had agreed to buy T-Mobile USA from Germany's Deutsche Telekom in a $39-billion blockbuster deal enabling it to overtake Verizon as the biggest US wireless provider.
(AFP, 3/20/11)
2011 Mar 20, Bahrain's opposition asked for UN and American intervention in the government crackdown on the Shiite protests trying to loosen the monarchy's grip, in a brief protest in the capital that disbanded before police could arrive to break it up.
(AP, 3/20/11)
2011 Mar 20, Britain said its air and sea strikes on Libya had been "very successful" and stressed it was doing everything it could to avoid civilian casualties as it enforces a UN-sanctioned no-fly zone. at least seven demolished tanks smoldered in a field 12 miles (20 km) south of Benghazi, many of them with their turrets and treads blown off. Turkey was blocking NATO action, which requires agreement by all 28 members of the alliance.
(AFP, 3/20/11)(AP, 3/21/11)
2011 Mar 20, In Egypt 3 men kidnapped and raped a woman (24) after stopping a vehicle at gun point. She was driving with a male relative. In April a military court in Ismailiya ordered the execution of the three men who were convicted of the kidnapping and rape. In Qena province Muslim vigilantes arrested Anwar Mitri (45), a school administrator and Coptic Christian, for renting a flat to a woman they claimed was a prostitute and for allegedly having sex with her. Mitri was tried and had his ear lopped off.
(AFP, 4/11/11)(Econ, 4/2/11, p.21)
2011 Mar 20, Haiti held a presidential runoff election between Mirlande Manigat, the former first lady, and Michel "Sweet Micky" Martelly, a star of Haitian compas music, the top two finishers in a first-round vote in November. Martelly captured nearly 68 percent of the vote.
(AP, 3/20/11)(AP, 4/5/11)
2011 Mar 20, Japan’s ministry official Yoshifumi Kaji said that tests found excess amounts of radioactive elements on canola and chrysanthemum greens, in addition to spinach. He said the areas where the tainted produce was found included three prefectures that previously had not recorded such contamination. Tokyo Electric Power Company said two of the six reactor units are now safely under control after their fuel storage pools cooled down. The toll of dead or missing from Japan's worst natural disaster in almost a century neared 21,000.
(AP, 3/20/11)(Reuters, 3/20/11)(AFP, 3/20/11)
2011 Mar 20, A defiant Moammar Gadhafi vowed a "long war" after the US and European militaries blasted his forces with airstrikes and over 100 cruise missiles, hitting air defenses and at least two major air bases. Despite the strikes, Gadhafi's troops lashed back, bombarding the rebel-held city of Misrata with artillery and tanks. Arab League chief Amr Moussa condemned the "bombardment of civilians" as the death toll from the Western air strikes rose to 64.
(AP, 3/20/11)(Reuters, 3/20/11)
2011 Mar 20, In Mexico armed men stole some 157 million pesos, about $13 million, from a cash transporting company in Oaxaca state.
(AP, 3/21/11)
2011 Mar 20, Thousands of Moroccans demonstrated in Casablanca, Rabat and other cities calling for more democracy and social justice despite recent promises of deep political reform.
(AFP, 3/20/11)
2011 Mar 20, In Nigeria a bomb carried by two men aboard a motorcycle killed them when it accidentally exploded in the central city of Jos.
(AFP, 3/20/11)
2011 Mar 20, In Pakistan explosions triggered a collapse in a coal mine in Baluchistan province. Officials feared all 52 miners underground at the time of the accident were dead.
(AP, 3/20/11)(AP, 3/21/11)
2011 Mar 20, Palestinian militants fired a rocket into southern Israel, while Israeli troops killed two Palestinians in a fresh wave of violence along the volatile border with Gaza.
(AP, 3/20/11)
2011 Mar 20, In Saudi Arabia dozens of Saudi men and women, outnumbered by anti-riot police, protested outside Riyadh's Interior Ministry, demanding the release of thousands of detainees held without trial for years.
(AP, 3/20/11)
2011 Mar 20, In Syria more than 100 people were wounded as security forces fired live bullets and tear gas at thousands of demonstrators in the town of Daraa.
(AFP, 3/20/11)
2011 Mar 20, In Taiwan some 2,000 anti-nuclear protesters demonstrated, demanding an immediate halt to the construction of an atomic power plant.
(AFP, 3/20/11)
2011 Mar 20, Some 85,000 registered Tibetans across the world began voting for a new leader to take up the resistance against Chinese rule over their Himalayan homeland, as the Tibetan parliament-in-exile debated how to handle the Dalai Lama's resignation from politics.
(AP, 3/20/11)(SFC, 3/21/11, p.A2)
2011 Mar 20, In Yemen tens of thousands of people joined a funeral procession for protesters killed by government gunmen and the president's own tribe called on him to step down, robbing the embattled US-backed leader of vital support.
(AP, 3/20/11)
2012 Mar 20, Mitt Romney won the Illinois Republican primary with 47% of the vote compared with 35% for Rick Santorum, 9% for Ron Paul and 8% for Newt Gingrich.
(SFC, 3/21/12, p.A5)
2012 Mar 20, Afghans celebrated their solar-based new year.
(AFP, 4/15/12)
2012 Mar 20, In northern Australia a devastating "mini-tornado" tore through the city of Townsville, ripping roofs off houses, snapping trees in half and injuring 13 people.
(AP, 3/20/12)
2012 Mar 20, Russian banker German Gorbuntsov (45) was shot outside his home in east London and was put into a medically induced coma. Hew was days away from giving evidence to an investigation into the attempted murder of a former business associate. His lawyer believed the attack was connected to an assassination attempt on Gorbuntsov's partner and co-owner of Konvers Group, Alexander Antonov, in 2009. A bank he owned in Moldova, Universalbank, was closed down in February and he was wanted there for financial crimes. The Kommersant business daily wrote that Gorbuntsov said he himself was a victim of a raider attack that caused him to lose his stake of more than 70 percent in Universalbank.
(AFP, 3/24/12)(Reuters, 3/25/12)
2012 Mar 20, A Egyptian court in Cairo gave suspended one-year sentences to 11 policemen accused of killing 22 protesters and wounding 44 others during last year’s uprising that ousted Pres. Mubarek.
(SFC, 3/21/12, p.A2)
2012 Mar 20, In India 15 people were killed when a train collided with an overcrowded taxi minivan at an unmanned railroad crossing in northern Uttar Pradesh state.
(AP, 3/20/12)
2012 Mar 20, Iran ushered in its Persian New Year with a symbolic cannon blast from its flagship destroyer, and speeches from leaders vowing to fix an economy suffering under Western sanctions.
(AFP, 3/20/12)
2012 Mar 20, In Iraq a torrent of bombings and shootings ripped across 20 towns and cities, targeting police and Shiite pilgrims and killing 52 people with 255 wounded.
(AP, 3/20/12)(AFP, 3/21/12)(Econ, 3/24/12, p.48)
2012 Mar 20, Kenya wildlife officials said fires raging across Mount Kenya may have been set by poachers trying to create a diversion from their illegal attacks on animals.
(SFC, 3/21/12, p.A2)
2012 Mar 20, Malawi police arrested an opposition lawmaker who is the son of ex-president Bakili Muluzi, after his supporters torched a police station over the weekend.
(AFP, 3/20/12)
2012 Mar 20, In northern Mali an Islamist group led by a Tuareg rebel fighting for autonomy claimed control of the country's vast northeast, while also vowing to free dozens of prisoners.
(AFP, 3/20/12)
2012 Mar 20, ECOWAS, a 15-member West African bloc, said it has called on rebels in northern Mali to lay down their arms and said it would "take all necessary measures" to support the country's government.
(AFP, 3/20/12)
2012 Mar 20, In Mexico a 7.4 magnitude earthquake was centered near the border between the southern states of Oaxaca and Guerrero. It damaged hundreds of homes and sent thousands of people fleeing from swaying office buildings, yet even after 10 aftershocks there were no reported deaths. 2 people injured in Guerrero state died on March 22.
(AP, 3/21/12)(AP, 3/22/12)
2012 Mar 20, In Nigeria a spokesman for Islamist group Boko Haram ruled out further talks with the government after preliminary, indirect contacts aimed at ending scores of deadly attacks. Abul Qaqa said the government could not be trusted.
(AP, 3/21/12)
2012 Mar 20, In Nigeria the Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves, a UN Foundation-led initiative, launched a campaign aimed at preventing deaths due to toxic smoke from rudimentary cookstoves.
(AFP, 3/20/12)
2012 Mar 20, A Pakistani parliamentary commission demanded an end to American drone attacks inside the country and an apology for deadly US airstrikes in November as part of a review of its near-severed relations with the United States.
(AP, 3/20/12)
2012 Mar 20, Russia said it is ready to support a UN resolution endorsing Kofi Annan's plan for settling the Syrian crisis, signaling it is prepared to raise the pressure on its old ally.
(AP, 3/20/12)
2012 Mar 20, In Somalia Al-Qaeda-allied Islamist gunmen seized Dhusamareb, a key central, driving out the pro-government militia Ahlu Sunna Wal Jamaa, an Ethiopia-backed force who follow Somalia's traditional Sufi branch of Islam. Shebab fighters also fired mortar bombs at the presidency in Mogadishu as their commanders called for more attacks on the government. The pro-government militia later in the day wrested back Dhusamareb in fierce clashes both sides claimed killed several of their rivals.
(AFP, 3/20/12)
2012 Mar 20, South Africa’s Supreme Court ruled to allow a review of a 2009 decision by the National Prosecuting Authority that dropped charges of corruption, racketeering, tax-evasion and money laundering against Pres. Zuma.
(Econ, 3/24/12, p.49)
2012 Mar 20, Human Rights Watch accused some in Syria's armed opposition of carrying out serious abuses, including the kidnapping and torture of security forces, in a sign of the growing complexity of the year-old uprising against President Bashar Assad. Fresh clashes broke out in the capital and security forces killed at least 30 people, all but two of them civilians, in violence elsewhere across the country. Syrian soldiers backed by tanks seized the eastern city of Deir el-Zour from rebels.
(AP, 3/20/12)(AFP, 3/20/12)
2012 Mar 20, Thousands of Tunisians gathered in defense of liberty as they marked Independence Day amid fears of a widening divide between secular and religious groups in the newly democratized nation.
(AFP, 3/20/12)
2012 Mar 20, In Yemen all but two members of former Pres. Saleh's General People's Congress (GPC) walked out of a 34-member cabinet meeting. Opponents in the new coalition government soon accused members of Saleh’s party of trying to hamper political transition in the country. Three Filipino sailors were kidnapped in Mahrah province.
(AFP, 3/22/12)(SSFC, 3/25/12, p.A4)
2013 Mar 20, The US Congress foiled the financially beleaguered Postal Service's plan to end Saturday delivery of first-class mail when it passed legislation requiring six-day delivery.
(Reuters, 3/21/13)
2013 Mar 20, The US military and the Afghan government reached a deal on the pullout of American special operations forces and their Afghan counterparts from Wardak province after complaints that they were involved in human rights abuses.
(AP, 3/20/13)
2013 Mar 20, The US announced a $5 million reward for information leading to the arrest of American jihadi Omar Hammami and another $5 million reward for a 2nd American fighting in Somalia, Jehad Mostafa.
(AP, 3/21/13)
2013 Mar 20, It was reported that Starbucks has purchased a 593-acre farm in Costa Rica.
(SFC, 3/20/13, p.C4)
2013 Mar 20, Bangladesh’s figurehead Pres. Zillur Rahman (84) died at a hospital in Singapore.
(SFC, 3/21/13, p.A2)
2013 Mar 20, Chancellor George Osborne said Britain will raise the personal tax allowance to 10,000 pounds in 2014-15, a year earlier than expected.
(AP, 3/20/13)
2013 Mar 20, James Herbert (69), best-selling British horror writer, died at his home in Sussex. His 23 novels included "The Rats" (1974).
(Reuters, 3/20/13)
2013 Mar 20, A Bulgarian man, Plamen Goranov (36), set himself on fire to protest poverty in his country, becoming the 6th to do so in a month.
(SFC, 3/21/13, p.A2)(Econ, 3/23/13, p.60)
2013 Mar 20, China’s Suntech Power Holdings Ltd., one of the world's biggest solar panel manufacturers, was forced into bankruptcy court, becoming the latest casualty of a painful slump in the global solar industry.
(AP, 3/20/13)
2013 Mar 20, Germany’s Chancellor Angela Merkel's Cabinet decided not to attempt a ban of the country's biggest far-right party but said it would support a bid brought by the country's states — a resolution slammed by the Germany's main Jewish group as the wrong signal to neo-Nazis.
(AP, 3/20/13)
2013 Mar 20, US President Barack Obama arrived on his first visit and assured Israel of his personal commitment to its security. He delivered a blunt warning to its foes that the US has the Jewish state's back.
(AP, 3/20/13)
2013 Mar 20, In Iraq a car bomb in eastern Baghdad killed two civilians and wounded four on the 10th anniversary of the US-led invasion.
(AP, 3/20/13)
2013 Mar 20, Jordan’s King Abdullah II warned that a jihadist state could emerge on his northern border in Syria with Islamic extremists trying to establish a foothold in the neighboring country.
(AP, 3/20/13)
2013 Mar 20, Malaysian prosecutors charged 8 Filipinos with terrorism-related offenses following an armed siege in Borneo that killed 71 people.
(SFC, 2/21/13, p.A2)
2013 Mar 20, In Mali a suicide car bomber killed a Malian soldier near Timbuktu's airport. A vehicle containing two jihadists exploded as it attempted to infiltrate the airport.
(AP, 3/21/13)
2013 Mar 20, Mexico’s National Institute of Anthropology and History said Mexico has sent a diplomatic note to the French government seeking assistance in heading off an auction of 51 pre-Columbian Mexican artifacts scheduled in Paris for March 22-23, arguing they are protected national historical pieces. Mexico has had laws prohibiting the export of such artifacts since at least 1827.
(AP, 3/21/13)
2013 Mar 20, Myanmar's parliament agreed to set up a commission to review the pro-military 2008 constitution, a process that could eventually change the political landscape and allow opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi to contest the presidency.
(AP, 3/20/13)
2013 Mar 20, In Myanmar unrest between local Buddhist and Muslim residents erupted in Meikhtila. The troubles began after an argument broke out between a Muslim gold shop owner and his Buddhist customers. Over 30 people were killed and some 70 others injured.
(AP, 3/22/13)(Econ, 3/30/13, p.39)
2013 Mar 20, A Nigerian official said at least two people have survived after a boat carrying more than 100 people capsized over the weekend off Calabar.
(AP, 3/20/13)
2013 Mar 20, Slovenian lawmakers approved the new-left-leaning Cabinet of PM Alenka Bratusek, the first female to lead the government since secession from Yugoslavia in 1991.
(SFC, 3/21/13, p.A2)
2013 Mar 20, South African trade unions said they are shocked at the disappearance of 24.8 billion rand ($2.75 billion) from provincial governments. The auditor general reported last week that the money had "disappeared" in "irregular, fruitless and wasteful spending."
(AP, 3/20/13)
2013 Mar 20, In South Korea a cyberattack caused computer networks at major banks and top TV broadcasters to crash simultaneously. North Korea was suspected. Initial findings said a Chinese Internet address was the source of the attacks.
(SFC, 3/21/13, p.A4)
2013 Mar 20, Syria's main opposition group demanded a full international investigation into an alleged chemical weapons attack in the country's north, calling for a team to be sent to the village where it reportedly occurred.
(AP, 3/20/13)
2013 Mar 20, Venezuela's government halted lines of communication established by a top U.S. diplomat to protest what it says has been US interference in the country's internal affairs ahead of an election set next month to replace the late President Hugo Chavez.
(AP, 3/20/13)
2014 Mar 20, President Barack Obama said the US is levying a new round of economic sanctions on individuals in Russia in retaliation for the Kremlin's actions in Ukraine. Obama says he has also signed a new executive order that would allow the US to sanction key sectors of the Russian economy. Rossiya, Russia’s 17th largest bank, was included on the sanctions list. Its owners had ties with Pres. Putin.
(AP, 3/20/14)(Econ, 2/14/15, p.59)
2014 Mar 20, In NYC a 14-year-old boy opened fire in a gang dispute on a city bus in Brooklyn, fatally shooting a bystanding Dominican man in the head. Angel Rojas (39) of Brooklyn was pronounced dead at the hospital. The boy was arrested the next day and charged with 2nd degree murder.
(AP, 3/21/14)(SFC, 3/22/14, p.A6)
2014 Mar 20, In North Carolina US Army Gen. Jeffrey A. Sinclair, who carried on a three-year affair with a captain and had two other inappropriate relationships with subordinates, was reprimanded and docked $20,000 in pay, avoiding jail time in one of the military's most closely watched courts-martial.
(AP, 3/20/14)
2014 Mar 20, In Afghanistan four teenage gunmen walked into the Serena Hotel in Kabul, made their way to the restaurant, pulled out hidden pistols and started shooting diners. They killed 9 people, including shooting AFP journalist Sardar Ahmad, his wife and two of their children in the head. Police killed all four attackers after a three-hour standoff.
(AP, 3/21/14)(AFP, 3/22/14)
2014 Mar 20, In eastern Afghanistan a suicide car bomber blew up his vehicle near a police station in Jalalabad while other Taliban insurgents stormed the building, killing 10 police officers and a civilian.
(AP, 3/20/14)
2014 Mar 20, British regulators fined Mark Stevenson, an ex-Credit Suisse trader, for attempting to rig the price of government bonds in order to profit from the Bank of England's quantitative easing program. He was fined £662,700 ($1.1 million, 794,000 euros) for "deliberately manipulating" a government bond, or gilt, on October 10, 2011.
(AFP, 3/21/14)
2014 Mar 20, In Egypt a Cairo court sentenced 17 al-Azhar students to 14 years in jail for rioting, damaging public properties and attacking security personnel.
(AP, 3/21/14)
2014 Mar 20, In Iraq a suicide bomber struck a Baghdad café overnight killing at least 12 people.
(SFC, 3/21/14, p.A2)
2014 Mar 20, Italian authorities said they have rescued more than 4,000 would-be migrants at sea over the past four days as the war in Syria and instability in Libya spawn new waves of refugees.
(AP, 3/20/14)
2014 Mar 20, Japan’s NTT Data Corp. agreed to digitize some 3,000 historical Vatican manuscripts and make them available online.
(SFC, 3/21/14, p.A2)
2014 Mar 20, Kenya's parliament passed a bill allowing men to marry as many women as they want, prompting a furious backlash from female lawmakers who stormed out. Women are not allowed to marry more than one man in Kenya. The bill must now pass before the president to be signed before becoming law.
(AFP, 3/21/14)
2014 Mar 20, In northeast Nigeria an explosion at Ngurosoye village market near hideouts of Islamic extremists killed 29 people. Three more died of their wounds over the next few days.
(AP, 3/24/14)
2014 Mar 20, A Sudanese worker for the International Committee of the Red Cross was killed in El Fasher, the capital of North Darfur state.
(AFP, 3/21/14)
2014 Mar 20, Syrian troops raised the national flag on the Crac des Chevaliers, a famous Crusades-era citadel near the border with Lebanon, after days of intense fighting against opposition fighters. 93 of the opposition fighters were reported killed as they fled to Lebanon.
(AP, 3/20/14)(AP, 3/21/14)
2014 Mar 20, Pro-Russian crowds seized two Ukrainian warships and Ukraine said its troops were being threatened in Crimea as the European Union considered new sanctions against Russia for its annexation of the Black Sea peninsula.
(AP, 3/20/14)
2014 Mar 20, Turkey’s PM Tayyip Erdogan's defiantly vowed, on the campaign trail ahead of March 30 local polls, to "wipe out" Twitter, whatever the international community had to say about it.
(Reuters, 3/21/14)
2014 Mar 20, Several UN aid trucks crossed the Turkish border into Syria for the first time.
(Reuters, 3/20/14)
2015 Mar 20, The Obama administration issued the first federal mandates governing hydraulic fracturing on public land.
(SFC, 3/21/15, p.D1)
2015 Mar 20, US District Judge Alvin Hellerstein ruled that the US must release photographs showing abuse of detainees in Iraq and Afghanistan, in a long-running clash over letting the world see potentially disturbing images of how the military treated prisoners.
(AP, 3/21/15)
2015 Mar 20, The US FDA approved genetically engineered foods as safe.
(SFC, 3/21/15, p.A5)
2015 Mar 20, In New Orleans, La., police shot Richard White (63) three times at the Louis Armstrong International Airport after he attacked border agents with a machete and wasp spray. White was shot and died the next day at a local hospital.
(AFP, 3/21/15)(SSFC, 3/22/15, p.A11)
2015 Mar 20, Bulgaria's authorities said they had discovered the highly pathogenic H5N1 bird flu virus in two dead pelicans in a nature reserve in northeastern part of the Balkan country, close to neighboring Romania.
(Reuters, 3/26/15)
2015 Mar 20, In Canada Raed Jaser (37), a longtime resident of Palestinian descent, and Tunisian-born Chiheb Esseghaier (32), accused of plotting to attack a passenger train travelling from New York to Toronto, were found guilty of several terror-related charges. They will be sentenced April 10. On Sep 23 both men were sentenced to life in prison. Each would have to serve at least ten years before becoming eligible for parole.
(AP, 3/21/15)(SFC, 9/24/15, p.A2)
2015 Mar 20, Beijing shut down the third of its four coal-fired power plants as part of its campaign to cut pollution, with the final one scheduled to close next year.
(AP, 3/20/15)
2015 Mar 20, Cuban media reported that a local court last week condemned several government officials to prison terms of between five and 15 years for stealing and selling millions of eggs on the black market.
(AFP, 3/20/15)
2015 Mar 20, In Denmark two men suspected of helping the gunman who killed two people in attacks in Copenhagen last Feb 15 were jailed.
(AP, 3/20/15)
2015 Mar 20, Europol, the European Union's policy agency, said that raids earlier this week in Austria, Cyprus, Slovenia and Switzerland led to 26 arrests and the identification of 14 possible victims of the smugglers. The raids of brothels and restaurants targeted Chinese criminal networks that reportedly smuggled people to the continent.
(AP, 3/20/15)
2015 Mar 20, The EU and Balkan countries launched a campaign aimed at stemming the flow of fighters from southeastern Europe to join jihadists in the Middle East. The Balkans are generally considered to include Albania, Bulgaria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, about half of Croatia, Greece, the Republic of Macedonia, Montenegro, most of Serbia, and the European part of Turkey.
(Reuters, 3/20/15)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Balkans)
2015 Mar 20, The EU committed 2 billion euros ($2.15 billion) to help Athens deal with what even EU leaders now call the "humanitarian crisis" hitting Greeks in the wake of the financial crisis that left the nation on the brink of bankruptcy.
(AP, 3/20/15)
2015 Mar 20, EU leaders agreed to increase cooperation with Tunisia following an Islamist attack on tourists in the capital this week, saying they would also offer more economic assistance to the new Arab democracy.
(Reuters, 3/20/15)
2015 Mar 20, EU leaders, concerned about migrants using Libya as a jumping-off point to reach the continent, pledged to help the conflict-torn country regain stability but ruled out deploying any security operation.
(AP, 3/20/15)
2015 Mar 20, Ethiopian officials set fire to 6.1 tons of illegal elephant tusks, ivory trinkets, carvings and various forms of jewelry on a wooden pyre in Addis Ababa to discourage poaching and the ivory trade.
(AP, 3/20/15)
2015 Mar 20, Germany-based Lufthansa canceled hundreds more flights as pilots went on strike for the third consecutive day and announced they would continue the walk-out over the weekend.
(AP, 3/20/15)
2015 Mar 20, In eastern India education authorities said about 600 high school students in Bihar state have been expelled for cheating on pressure-packed 10th grade examinations this week.
(AP, 3/20/15)
2015 Mar 20, In northern India three coaches of a passenger train derailed, killing at least 32 people near Bachhrawan village in Uttar Pradesh state.
(AP, 3/20/15)(SFC, 3/21/15, p.A2)
2015 Mar 20, In Iraq and Syria the US and its coalition allies staged eight air strikes against Islamic State militants over the last 24 hours.
(Reuters, 3/20/15)
2015 Mar 20, Islamic State published a video purporting to show the beheading of three Kurdish peshmerga fighters in northern Iraq by militants who threatened to kill "dozens" more of those being held captive. The population under Islamic State control was about eight million people.
(Reuters, 3/20/15)(Econ., 3/21/15, p.17)
2015 Mar 20, Italy unveiled the newly restored ancient city of Pompeii. It had been destroyed by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD.
(SFC, 3/21/15, p.A2)
2015 Mar 20, In Kashmir suspected rebels wearing army uniforms stormed an Indian police station, killing a policeman. A four-hour gun battle then left 2 paramilitary soldiers, 2 militants and a civilian dead.
(AP, 3/20/15)
2015 Mar 20, Kenya launched Africa's first water fund, a public-private partnership aimed at raising $15 million to provide clean water to 9.3 million people by protecting the basin of the country's longest river.
(Reuters, 3/20/15)
2015 Mar 20, Liberian officials said a patient has tested positive for Ebola in Monrovia, deflating hopes that the nation had beaten the disease.
(SFC, 3/21/15, p.A2)
2015 Mar 20, In Mexico about 40 buses blocked one of the main highways leading north out of Mexico City in a protest over the latest killing aboard a bus by thieves.
(AP, 3/21/15)
2015 Mar 20, Russian President Vladimir Putin called for a single currency with the Kremlin's closest ex-Soviet allies at a meeting with his Kazakh and Belarusian counterparts in Kazakhstan’s capital Astana.
(AFP, 3/20/15)
2015 Mar 20, In Syria a twin bombing targeting Kurds celebrating their new year in the northeastern city of Hassakeh killed 49 people and wounded 177 others.
(AP, 3/21/15)
2015 Mar 20, Taiwan authorities introduced emergency water rationing as the country faced its worst drought in over a decade and the lowest rainfall in nearly 70 years. The government last imposed water rationing and anti-drought measures in 2001 in parts of Taiwan, including Taipei.
(AFP, 3/20/15)
2015 Mar 20, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said Turkey has offered a $50 million loan to Ukraine to help cover its budget deficit in a joint press conference in Kiev with Turkish counterpart Tayyip Erdogan. Turkey also offered Ukraine $10 million in humanitarian assistance.
(Reuters, 3/20/15)
2015 Mar 20, In eastern Ukraine one civilian was killed in an attack by pro-Russian separatist rebels in the government-controlled town of Avdiyivka despite a ceasefire deal.
(Reuters, 3/20/15)
2015 Mar 20, A new UN report warned that the world could suffer a 40 percent shortfall in water in just 15 years unless countries dramatically change their use of the resource.
(AP, 3/20/15)
2015 Mar 20, In Yemen bombings targeted two mosques in Sanaa and another in the Huthis' Saada stronghold, where an assailant detonated his explosives belt outside a mosque after failing to get in. At least 137 people were killed at the mosques attended by Shiite militiamen. The Islamic State jihadist group claimed responsibility.
(AFP, 3/20/15)(Econ., 3/28/15, p.51)
2015 Mar 20, In Yemen unidentified aircraft dropped bombs over an area that includes the residence of President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi in the southern city of Aden but he was unharmed. In southern Yemen Al Qaeda fighters captured al-Houta, capital of the southern Lahj province, killing about 20 soldiers, before they were driven out by the army late today.
(Reuters, 3/20/15)(Reuters, 3/21/15)
2016 Mar 20, The United States and its allies carried out 11 strikes against Islamic State militants in Iraq and Syria.
(Reuters, 3/21/16)
2016 Mar 20, Cleveland-based paint company Sherwin Williams said it is buying rival Minneapolis-based Valspar for about $9 billion.
(SSFC, 3/20/16, p.A6)
2016 Mar 20, In Pennsylvania retired state trooper Clarence Briggs killed turnpike toll collector Danny Crouse and security guard Ronald Heist in a holdup attempt in Fort Littleton. Biggs was shot dead by state troopers while trying to escape. Briggs had filed for banktuptcy in 2015 with debts of $315,000.
(SFC, 3/21/16, p.A6)(SFC, 3/22/16, p.A5)
2016 Mar 20, The Australian government ended its push to log World Heritage-listed forests on the southern island state of Tasmania, after the United Nations cultural agency UNESCO issued a report calling for the area to remain protected from logging.
(Reuters, 3/20/16)
2016 Mar 20, President Barack Obama arrived in Cuba for a three-day trip, the first by a US president in 88 years.
(Reuters, 3/20/16)
2016 Mar 20, Benin held a presidential runoff vote that put PM Lionel Zinsou against cotton magnate Patrice Talon, who was once accused of trying to poison the current president. The next day PM Lionel Zinsou conceded defeat to Patrice Talon in a vote hailed as an example for democracy in action.
(AP, 3/20/16)(AFP, 3/21/16)
2016 Mar 20, In Cape Verde Janira Hopffer Almada conceded defeat after the liberal opposition MPD party took more than 53 percent of the vote with nearly all ballots counted, ousting the PAICV after 15 years in power.
(AFP, 3/21/16)
2016 Mar 20, The Republic of Congo voted under a nationwide media blackout, in a tense ballot expected to see President Denis Sassou Nguesso (72) prolong his 32-year rule over the oil-rich but impoverished nation. Provisional results showed President Denis Sassou N'Guesso won re-election.
(AFP, 3/20/16)(AP, 3/22/16)
2016 Mar 20, In India the prime minister of the Tibetan government-in-exile called for China to engage in dialogue on autonomy for his people's homeland, as tens of thousands of Tibetans around the world voted for new leaders of a government that Beijing does not recognize.
(AP, 3/20/16)
2016 Mar 20, In eastern India three elephants killed 4 people. One elephant in the group, a male, was tranquilized and later died.
(AP, 3/21/16)
2016 Mar 20, Kazakhstan citizens voted in a parliamentary election expected to provide a commanding majority for ageing autocrat President Nursultan Nazarbayev's ruling party. Preliminary results showed Pres. Nursultan Nazarbayev's Nur Otan party winning 82 percent of the vote. International observers, who were allowed unfettered access, observed ballot-box stuffing and other irregularities.
(AFP, 3/20/16)(AP, 3/21/16)
2016 Mar 20, An Indonesian military helicopter crashed during a mission to capture Abu Wardah Santoso, the country's most wanted militant, killing 13 people in Central Sulawesi.
(AP, 3/20/16)(AP, 3/21/16)
2016 Mar 20, Niger's Pres. Mahamadou Issoufou ran for a second five-year term against opponent Hama Amadou, who campaigned from behind bars before being flown last week to Paris for medical treatment. Issoufou was re-elected.
(AP, 3/20/16)(AFP, 3/23/16)
2016 Mar 20, The Russian Defense Ministry recorded five violations of a tentative ceasefire agreement in Syria in the last 24 hours.
(Reuters, 3/20/16)
2016 Mar 20, Top level Rwandan genocide suspect Ladislas Ntaganzwa (53) was flown from Kinshasa to Kigali to face trial three months after his arrest in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
(AFP, 3/20/16)
2016 Mar 20, Senegalese residents voted on a constitutional referendum that could see sweeping constitutional reforms including a reduction of presidential powers and terms from seven to five years, on a continent where many leaders try to hold onto power. Partial results showed the pro-government "Yes" camp winning a majority.
(AP, 3/20/16)(AFP, 3/21/16)
2016 Mar 20, In southern Somalia Kenyan soldiers reportedly killed another 13 militants near Ras Kamboni.
(AP, 3/20/16)
2016 Mar 20, In northeastern Spain a bus carrying university exchange students back from the country’s largest fireworks festival crashed on a main highway, killing 13 female students and injuring 34 others in Catalonia province.
(AP, 3/20/16)(AFP, 3/21/16)
2016 Mar 20, Yemeni officials said at least 55 people, including 14 civilians, have been killed in two days of fighting between pro-government forces and Shiite Huthi rebels.
(AFP, 3/20/16)
2016 Mar 20, Elections were held in Zanzibar with security tight and an opposition boycott in place for the re-run of October's polls in Tanzania's semi-autonomous islands, cancelled due to fraud allegations. President Ali Mohamed Shein of the Chama Cha Mapinduzi party was re-elected with more than 91 percent of the votes. America suspended $472 million in aid over the election re-run.
(AFP, 3/20/16)(AP, 3/21/16)(Econ, 10/8/16, p.45)
2017 Mar 20, The United States criticized the UN Human Rights Council, saying addressing the human rights situation in Palestine and other occupied Arab territories as part of its agenda exhibited the group's "long-standing bias against Israel."
(Reuters, 3/20/17)
2017 Mar 20, FBI Director James Comey confirmed that the bureau is investigating possible links and coordination between Russia and associates of President Donald Trump as part of a broader probe of Russian interference in last year's presidential election.
(AP, 3/20/17)
2017 Mar 20, US Pres. Donald Trump asked Daniel Coats, the director of national intelligence, and Adm. Michael Rogers, director of the national Security Agency, to help him push back against an FBI investigation into possible coordination between his campaign and the Russian government. Coats and Rogers refused to comply.
(SFC, 5/23/17, p.A8)
2017 Mar 20, The US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency issued the first of planned weekly reports tallying each time local officials declined to hold foreigners eligible for removal long enough to be picked up by federal agents.
(Econ, 3/25/17, p.27)
2017 Mar 20, Chuck Barris (b.1929), a popular game show creator and producer, died at his home in Palisades, NY. His creations included “the Dating Game" (1965-1973) and “The Gong Show" (1976-1978). He penned the song “Palisades Park," which was turned into a 1962 hit by Freddie Canon. He also wrote included “Confessions of a Dangerous Mind," a spy comedy that was tuned into a film (1962).
(SFC, 3/24/17, p.D4)
2017 Mar 20, David Rockefeller (101), US banker and philanthropist, died. He headed Chase Manhattan Bank from 1969 to 1981.
(Econ, 4/8/17, p.82)
2017 Mar 20, In Afghanistan a suicide car bomb late today targeted a checkpoint in southern Helmand province, killing at least six members of an intelligence unit near Lashkar Gah. Seven other were wounded.
(AP, 3/21/17)(SFC, 3/22/17, p.A2)
2017 Mar 20, Belarus Pres. Alexander Lukashenko said Western intelligence agencies are using a "fifth column" to cause unrest and threaten the stability of his regime.
(AP, 3/20/17)
2017 Mar 20, British mobile phone giant Vodafone said it will merge its Indian unit with Idea Cellular to create India's largest telecoms operator, to help fend off the Mukesh Ambani-backed Reliance Jio, whose recent arrival has shaken up India's ultra-competitive mobile network market.
(AFP, 3/20/17)
2017 Mar 20, A Czech zoo started sawing off the horns of its 21 rhinos to protect them from poaching after the killing of a rhinoceros in France earlier this month.
(Reuters, 3/21/17)
2017 Mar 20, East Timor held elections. Former guerrilla leader Francisco Guterres and Antonio da Conceicao, the minister of education and social affairs were the front runners. Francisco "Lu-Olo" Guterres received 57 percent of the vote. His main rival, Antonio da Conceicao, got 32 percent.
(SFC, 3/21/17, p.A4)(AP, 3/25/17)
2017 Mar 20, The European Union said it is slapping sanctions on four high-ranking military officials in Syria over the use of chemical weapons in the war-torn country.
(AP, 3/20/17)
2017 Mar 20, French Pres. Francois Hollande said world donors pledged more than $75 million to an historic UNESCO-backed alliance to protect cultural heritage sites threatened by war and the wave of ideological-driven destruction carried out by Islamic State group militants.
(AP, 3/20/17)
2017 Mar 20, In French Guiana demonstrations started when workers from Endel-Engie, an engineering firm, and EDF, the local utility, blocked roads outside Kourou to prevent the launch of a rocket from the Guiana Space Center as they protested high living costs and neglect from Paris.
(Econ, 4/22/17, p.44)
2017 Mar 20, In Guatemala three policemen were killed late today and seven officers wounded in attacks on police across the country, hours after a bloody gang riot in a juvenile detention center was put down in Guatemala City.
(AP, 3/21/17)
2017 Mar 20, Hungary's defense minister inaugurated a small military base on the country's southern border for soldiers patrolling to prevent the entry of migrants.
(AP, 3/20/17)
2017 Mar 20, Iraqi forces battled Islamic State group fighters to push into Mosul's Old City where thousands of civilians remained trapped under jihadist rule. A car bombing in Baghdad killed 27 people.
(AFP, 3/20/17)(SFC, 3/22/17, p.A2)
2017 Mar 20, Japan and Russia agreed to step up work toward resolving a longstanding territorial dispute through cooperation in a range of areas.
(AP, 3/20/17)
2017 Mar 20, Japan-based Softbank bought a $300 million stake in WeWork, a trendy office-rental firm.
(Econ, 4/1/17, p.58)
2017 Mar 20, Norway jumped to top spot in the World Happiness Report despite the plummeting price of oil. Denmark fell to second, followed by Iceland, Switzerland and Finland.
(AP, 3/20/17)
2017 Mar 20, Pakistan's PM Nawaz Sharif ordered the reopening of the country's border with Afghanistan, ending a protracted closure that has cost businesses on both sides millions of dollars and deepened tensions between the two neighbors.
(AP, 3/20/17)
2017 Mar 20, A Polish court has convicted a lawyer, identified only as Stanislaw Sz., of spying for Russia and handed him a four-year prison term.
(AP, 3/20/17)
2017 Mar 20, A Russian group of reporters said they have uncovered details of a complex system in which $21 billion were allegedly transferred illegally out of the country through a network of banks. The reporters in Moscow had obtained bank records that show that funds were transferred worldwide via 112 bank accounts in Eastern Europe.
(AP, 3/21/17)
2017 Mar 20, Serbian police said they have seized over a ton of marijuana and arrested six suspected traffickers. Police said the marijuana was packed in Kosovo and was bound for western Europe.
(AP, 3/20/17)
2017 Mar 20, Sri Lanka’s Criminal Investigations Department (CID) told the Mount Lavinia magistrate's court that Gotabhaya Rajapakse, who was the country’s defence secretary during his brother's rule, directed a secret unit which is accused of assassinating former Sunday Leader editor Lasantha Wickrematunga in January 2009.
(AFP, 3/20/17)
2017 Mar 20, Uruguay's Pres. Tabare Vazquez said his country is pulling its soldiers out of a UN peacekeeping mission in Haiti, where they have served since 2004. The mission will end this month and the roughly 250 soldiers will return home in early April.
(AP, 3/20/17)
2017 Mar 20, Pope Francis met with Rwandan President Paul Kagame. Francis begged forgiveness for the "sins and failings of the church and its members" during Rwanda's 1994 genocide, and told Rwanda's president that he hoped his apology would help the country heal.
(AP, 3/20/17)
2017 Mar 20, Some 60 Venezuelan soldiers crossed the border into Colombia and raised their national flag in a camp they set up. They withdrew on March 23 after Pres. Juan Manuel Santos called his Venezuelan counterpart Nicolas Maduro to protest.
(AP, 3/24/17)
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