Today in History - March 20
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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 was chartered to carry on trade in the East Indies.
The company 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.
(WUD, 1994, p.449)(Jap. Enc., BLDM, p. 215)(HNQ,
7/23/00)(SFC, 9/10/10, p.A2)
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.”
(AP, 3/20/97)(WSJ, 2/19/98, p.A20)(SSFC, 6/1/03,
p.M1)(Econ, 3/12/11, p.99)
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. He
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)
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)
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 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)
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
(41), Irish writer, poet, died.
(MC, 3/20/02)
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.
(SFC, 4/12/96, p.A-12)(SFC, 9/25/99,
p.A14)(http://foi.missouri.edu/jouratrisk/italysexpm.html)
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, Jean Harris,
former girls’ school headmistress, was sentenced in White Plains,
New York, to 15 years to life in prison for slaying “Scarsdale Diet”
author Dr. Herman Tarnower. Harris ended up serving almost 12 years.
(AP, 3/20/01)
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.
(WSJ, 1/30/96, p.A-16)(AP, 3/20/97)(HN, 3/20/98)
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)
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)
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 that has netted at least 65 dissidents accused of working
with US diplomats to undermine Cuba's socialist system.
(AP, 3/21/03)
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.
(AP, 3/20/03)
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)
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