Today in History - April 6
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402 Apr 6,
Battle at Pollentia: Roman army under Stilicho beat the Visigoths.
(MC, 4/6/02)
610 Apr 6, Lailat-ul Qadar: The
night that the Koran descended to Earth. Muhammad is believed by his
followers to have had a vision of Gabriel. The angel told him to
recite in the name of God. Other visions are supposed to have
Gabriel lead Muhammad to heaven to meet God, and to Jerusalem to
meet Abraham, Moses and Jesus. These visions convinced Mohammad that
he was a messenger of God.
(ATC, p.59)(MC, 4/6/02)
885 Apr 6, Methodius, Greek
apostle to the Slavs, archbishop of Sirmium, died.
(MC, 4/6/02)
1199 Apr 6, Richard I "the
Lion-hearted" (41), King of England (1189-99), died. Richard was
killed by an arrow at the siege of the castle of Chaluz in France.
(HN, 4/6/99)(MC, 4/6/02)
1250 Apr 6, Louis IX
(1214-1270), King of France, lost the Battle of Fariskur, Egypt, and
was captured by Muslim forces .
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Al_Mansurah)
1252 Apr 6, Peter of Verona
(45), [Peter Martyr], Italian inquisitor died.
(MC, 4/6/02)
1327 Apr 6,
Petrarch met Laura de Sade in a church at Avignon, and was inspired
for the rest of his life. He wrote his finest poems about her beauty
and loveliness... and about his later recognition that he had loved
her wrongly, placing her person ahead of her spirit. This event has
been taken to mark the beginning of the Renaissance
(V.D.-H.K.p.131)(MC, 4/6/02)
1348 Apr 6,
Laura de Sade, the arch love of Petrarch died of the plague.
Boccaccio retired from plague-stricken Florence, and in a country
residence began to write the Decameron.
(V.D.-H.K.p.131-132)
1453 Apr 6, Ottoman forces
under Mehmet II opened fire on Constantinople.
(ON, 10/00, p.11)
1483 Apr 6, Raphael (Raffaello
Sanzio, d.1520), Dutch painter (Sistine Madonna), was born to an
unremarkable painter in the Duchy of Urbino. He went on to paint
works in the Vatican. After an apprenticeship in Perugia, he went to
Florence, having heard of the work da Vinci and Michelangelo were
doing. His last 12 years were spent on numerous commissions in Rome.
He died on his 37th birthday, his funeral mass being celebrated in
the Vatican. [see Mar 28]
(HN, 4/6/98)(HNQ, 11/17/00)
1489 Apr 6, Hans Waldmann,
Swiss military, mayor (Zurich), was beheaded.
(MC, 4/6/02)
1520 Apr 6, Raphael (b.1483),
[Sanzio], Italian painter (Sistine Madonna), died on his 37th
birthday. His work included "The Veiled Lady" and a set of cartoons
that were woven into 10 tapestries titled "The Acts of the Apostles"
(1544-1557).
(WSJ, 4/11/02,
p.D7)(www.abcgallery.com/R/raphael/raphaelbio.html)
1528 Apr 6, Albrecht Durer
(b.1471), German painter, graphic artist, died in Germany. His wife
Agnes inherited his 6,874-florin estate.
(SFEC, 2/9/97, DB
p.6)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albrecht_D%C3%BCrer)
1590 Apr 6, Francis Walsingham
(~57), English secretary of state, died.
(MC, 4/6/02)
1593 Apr 6, Henry Barrow,
English puritan, was hanged.
(MC, 4/6/02)
1593 Apr 6, John Greenwood,
English Congressionalist, was hanged.
(MC, 4/6/02)
1631 Apr 6, Vincenzo De
Grandis, composer, was born.
(MC, 4/6/02)
1663 Apr 6, King Charles II
signed the Carolina Charter. [see Mar 24]
(MC, 4/6/02)
1671 Apr 6, Jean-Baptiste
Rousseau, French playwright, poet (Sacred Odes & Songs), was
born.
(MC, 4/6/02)
1672 Apr 6, Andre Ardinal
Destouches, composer, was born.
(MC, 4/6/02)
1707 Apr 6, Willem Van de Velde
(b.1633) the Younger, Dutch marine painter, died. His work included
“fishing Boats by the Shore in a Calm” (1660-1605).
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Willem_van_de_Velde_the_Younger)(SFC,
7/9/11, p.E1)
1722 Apr 6, In Russia Peter the
Great ended tax on men with beards.
(MC, 4/6/02)
1757 Apr 6, English king George
II fired minister William Pitt, Sr.
(MC, 4/6/02)
1760 Apr 6, Charlotte Charke
(b.1713), actress and writer, died. In 2005 Kathryn Shevelow
authored “Charlotte: Being a True Account of an Actress’s Flamboyant
Adventures in Eighteenth-Century London’s Wild and Wicked Theatrical
World.”
(SSFC, 4/3/05, p.F3)(http://tinyurl.com/5jnfh)
1773 Apr 6, James Mill
(d.1836), English philosopher, historian (Hist of British India) and
economist, was born in Scotland.
(V.D.-H.K.p.253)(WUD, 1994 p.909)(MC, 4/6/02)
c1786 Apr 6,
Sacagawea (also Sacajawea), American explorer, was born.
(HN, 4/6/01)
1789 Apr 6, The first US
Congress began regular sessions at Federal Hall on Wall Street, NYC.
(HN, 4/6/98)(MC, 4/6/02)
1815 Apr 6, At Dartmoor Prison
in southwest England 7 American prisoners were killed by British
soldiers under the command of Captain Thomas G. Shortland. Some
6,000 prisoners were awaiting return to the US. A farmer’s jury with
no victims or witnesses issued a verdict on April 8 of “justifiable
homicide.”
(AH, 10/02, p.36)
1826 Apr 6, Gustave Moreau,
French painter, was born.
(MC, 4/6/02)
1829 Apr 6, Niels Henrik Abel
(b.1802), Norwegian mathematician, died of tuberculosis. After him
comes the term Abelian group, an algebraic commutative group. In
2004 Peter Pesic authored “Abel’s Proof: An Essay on the Sources and
Meaning of Mathematical Unsolvability.”
(AHD, 1971, p.2)(SFC, 3/26/04, p.A15)(Econ,
5/15/04, p.80)
1830 Apr 6, The Church of Jesus
Christ of Latter-day Saints was organized by Joseph Smith and five
others in Fayette, Seneca County, N.Y. Joseph Smith published the
“Book of Mormon” in Palmyra, New York. He claimed that the
manuscript was based on ancient golden plates revealed to him by the
angel Moroni and written in the language of the Egyptians. The book
records the journey of an ancient Israelite prophet, Lehi, and his
family to the American continent some 2,000 years ago. [see 1827,
1831]
(SFC, 4/9/96, A-7)(NH, 10/96, p.19)(AP,
4/6/97)(HN, 4/6/98)
1841 Apr 6, Cornerstone was
laid for 2nd Mormon temple at Nauvoo, Missouri.
(MC, 4/6/02)
1844 Apr 6, Joseph Ludwig,
composer, was born.
(MC, 4/6/02)
1848 Apr 6, Jews of Prussia
were granted equality.
(MC, 4/6/02)
1849 Apr 6, Giacomo Meyerbeer's
opera "Le Prophete," premiered in Paris. [see Apr 16]
(MC, 4/6/02)
1858 Apr 6, President Buchanan
issued a proclamation declaring Mormons in the Utah Territory to be
in a state of rebellion against the US government.
(AP, 4/6/08)
1860 Apr 6, Rene Lalique
(d.1945), French goldsmith, jeweler, glassmaker and artist, was
born. He helped mold the shape of 20th century art nouveau, art deco
and architectural ornamentation.
(SFC, 3/26/97, z1 p.7)(Hem., 6/98, p.134)(MC,
4/6/02)
1862 Apr 6, Two days of bitter
fighting began at the Civil War battle of Shiloh as the Confederates
attacked Grant's Union forces in southwestern Tennessee. Union
commander Maj. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant, planning to advance on the
important railway junction at Corinth, Miss., met a surprise attack
by General Albert Sidney Johnston's Army of Mississippi. The
Confederates pushed the Federals back steadily during the first
day's fighting, in spite of Johnston's death that afternoon. Only
with the arrival of Union reinforcements during the night did the
tide turn, forcing the rebels to withdraw. The opposing sides
slaughtered each other with such ferocity that one survivor wrote,
"No blaze of glory...can ever atone for the unwritten and
unutterable horrors of the scene." Gen. Ulysses Grant after the
Battle of Shiloh said: “I saw an open field... so covered with dead
that it would have been possible to walk across... in any direction,
stepping on dead bodies without a foot touching the ground.” More
than 9,000 Americans died. The battle left some 24,000 casualties
and secured the West for the Union. In 1952 Shelby Foote wrote
“Shiloh,” an historical novel based on documentation from
participants in the battle. Recorded Books made a cassette version
in 1992.
(SFC, 6/19/96, p.E5)(HT, 4/97, p.13)(AP,
4/6/97)(AM, May/Jun 97 p.27)(RBI, 1992)(HN, 4/6/98)(HNPD, 4/6/99)
1862 Apr 6, Albert Sidney
Johnston (59), US and Confederate general, was killed in battle of
Shiloh.
(MC, 4/6/02)
1865 Apr 6, At the Battle of
Sayler's Creek, a third of Lee's army was cut off by Union troops
pursuing him to Appomattox. Skirmish at High Bridge, VA,
(Appomattox).
(HN, 4/6/99)(MC, 4/6/02)
1865 Apr 6, Reuben B. Boston,
US and Confederate cavalry colonel, died in battle.
(MC, 4/6/02)
1866 Apr 6, Butch Cassidy,
[Robert Parker], US desperado (Wild Bunch Passage), was born. [see
Apr 13,15]
(MC, 4/6/02)
1866 Apr 6, Joseph Lincoln
Steffens (d.1936), American investigative reporter and muckraker
journalist (Shame of the Cities), was born: "Nothing is done.
Everything in the world remains to be done or done over." "Never
practice what you preach. If you're going to practice it, why preach
it?"
(AP, 5/16/97)(HN, 4/6/98)(AP, 4/24/98)
1866 Apr 6, G.A.R. was formed
(Grand Army of the Republic). It was composed of men who served in
the US Army and Navy during the Civil War. The last member died in
1956.
(WUD, 1994 p.614)(MC, 4/6/02)
1868 Apr 6, Brigham Young
married his 27th and final wife (I am done with wifery).
(MC, 4/6/02)
1869 Apr 6, John and Isaiah
Hyatt applied for a new patent using collodion to manufacture
billiard balls. They later named their product celluloid. It was
similar to that made by English inventor Alexander Parkes, who
patented the process in England in 1855. The new plastic could be
molded and mass produced, but was very flammable and exploded when
struck with excessive force. [see Jun 15]
(HNQ, 5/8/98)(WSJ, 1/11/98, p.R18)(MC,
4/6/02)(PCh, 1992, p.467)(ON, 11/03, p.3)
1886 Apr 6, The City of
Vancouver, Canada, was incorporated. The ceremony was delayed when
it was discovered no one had thought to bring paper on which to
write down the details. The ceremony was held in Jonathan Miller's
house. The population of the city was about 1,000.
(www.vancouverhistory.ca/chronology2.html)
1889 Apr 6, George Eastman
placed the Kodak Camera on sale for 1st time.
(MC, 4/6/02)
1890 Apr 6, Anthony Herman
Gerard Fokker (d.1939), aircraft pioneer, was born in Java.
(www.britannica.com)
1892 Apr 6, Donald Wills
Douglas, US aircraft pioneer (McConnell Douglas), was born.
(MC, 4/6/02)
1892 Apr 6, Lowell Thomas,
author, journalist, broadcaster and world traveler was born in
Woodington, Ohio.
(AP, 4/6/00)
1893 Apr 6, Mormon Temple in
Salt Lake City was dedicated.
(MC, 4/6/02)
1896 Apr 6, The first modern
Olympic Games formally opened in Athens, Greece after a lapse of
1,500 years. 8 nations participated. [see Mar 25]
(SFC, 7/14/96, p.T1)(AP, 4/6/97)
1896 Apr 6, James Connolly, a
self-educated 27-year-old American, won the first gold medal at the
1896 Olympic games in Athens. Connolly‘s event, the triple jump,
which was then called the hop, step, and jump, was the first final
of the games. The U.S. Olympic team hadn’t realized that the Greeks
followed the Hellenic calendar, so they arrived not days in advance
but just a few hours before the opening ceremonies. Despite being
hastily prepared, Connolly competed last and beat his opponents‘
distances by more than three feet. He went on to become a successful
author of 25 novels. [see Mar 25]
(HNQ, 4/8/00)
1897 Apr 6 & 16, Frank M.
Chapman, ornithologist with the American Museum of Natural History,
observed large numbers of flying hawks over Veracruz, Mexico.
(NH, 10/96, p.37)
1903 Apr 6, French Army
Nationalists were revealed for forging documents to guarantee a
conviction for Alfred Dreyfus, an officer accused of giving plans
for France's defense to Germany.
(HN, 4/6/99)
1905 Apr 6, W. Warrick Cardozo,
physician and pioneer researcher on Sickle Cell Anemia, was born.
(HN, 4/6/99)
1906 Apr 6, John Betjeman,
English Poet Laureate 1972-1984 (Mount Zion), was born.
(MC, 4/6/02)
1906 Apr 6, 1st animated
cartoon was copyrighted.
(MC, 4/6/02)
1909 Apr 6, 1st credit union
formed in US.
(MC, 4/6/02)
1909 Apr 6, Explorers Robert E.
Peary, Matthew A. Henson and four Inuits became the first men to
reach the North Pole along with 4 Eskimos. Peary used Ellesmere
Island as a base for his expedition to the North Pole. The north
coast of Ellesmere lies just 480 miles from the Pole. He was
accompanied by Matthew Henson, an African-American, who had spent 18
years in the Arctic with Peary. The claim was disputed by skeptics
and in 1988 the original navigational records were uncovered from
the dog-sled voyage indicating that Peary probably never got closer
than 121 miles from the North Pole. In 1989 the Navigation
Foundation upheld that Peary reached the North Pole.
(NG, 6/1988, 754, 757)(SFC, 8/18/96, p.B8)(SFC,
10/2/99, p.A20)(AP, 4/6/08)(SFC, 9/11/08, p.B4)
1909 Arctic explorer Frederick
A. Cook claimed to have discovered the North Pole a year ahead of
Peary. Many historians suspect that neither explorer succeeded. The
term “Dr. Cook weather” refers to an incident where Dr. Cook once
left a chilly New York baseball game after which the city papers
trumpeted; “Game called—even too cold for Dr. Cook.” Cook's
assertion was later proved false.
(SFC, 8/18/96, p.B8)(SFC, 10/2/99, p.A20)
1911 Apr 6, In San Francisco
the Police Board examined 9 Mission saloon keepers who were cited
for selling liquor to women decoys. Mission District Police Capt.
Henry Gleeson faced a possible charge of neglect of duty.
(SSFC, 4/3/11, DB p.46)
1912 Apr 6, Cadillac adopted an
electric self-starter. Charles Franklin Kettering (1876-1958), as
president of Delco, introduced the electric-starter on the 1912
Cadillac.
(www.todayinsci.com/4/4_06.htm)(http://local.aaca.org/bntc/mileposts/1912.htm)
1916 Apr 6, German government
OK’d unrestricted submarine warfare.
(MC, 4/6/02)
1917 Apr 6, The US Congress
approved a declaration of war against Germany and entered World War
I on the Allied side.
(HN, 4/6/98)(AP, 4/6/04)
1922 Apr 6, Barry Levinson,
director (Rain Man), was born.
(MC, 4/6/02)
1924 Apr 6, Four open-cockpit
biplanes took off from Seattle for a round the world flight. Two of
the planes made it back. They flew 26,000 miles in 363 hours over a
175 days at an average speed of 77 mph. The US Congress had to
approve the financing and the airplanes were built by Douglas
Aircraft. [see May 3, 1923]
(Hem., 2/96, p.43)(HN, 4/6/98)
1924 Apr 6, Italy fascists
received 65% of vote of parliament.
(MC, 4/6/02)
1925 Apr 6, A Deutsche
Lufthansa flight debuted an in-flight movie, a silent-reel short.
(SSFC, 12/14/03, p.D2)
1927 Apr 6, Gerry Mulligan,
jazz saxophonist, was born.
(HN, 4/6/01)
1928 Apr 6, James Watson,
discovered structure of DNA, was born.
(HN, 4/6/98)
1929 Apr 6, "Crazy" Joe Gallo,
mobster, was born.
(MC, 4/6/02)
1929 Apr 6, Andre Previn,
pianist and conductor, was born in Berlin, Germany.
(HN, 4/6/01)(MC, 4/6/02)
1930 Apr 6, Hostess Twinkies
were invented by bakery executive James Dewar.
(MC, 4/6/02)
1930 Apr 6, 1st
transcontinental glider tow was completed.
(MC, 4/6/02)
1931 Apr 6, Richard Alpert,
later known as the spiritual leader Ram Dass, was born in Boston.
(SFEC, 5/23/99, Z1 p.5)
1931 Apr 6, 1st broadcast of
"Little Orphan Annie" on NBC-radio.
(MC, 4/6/02)
1931 Apr 6, The 1st Scottsboro
(Ala) trial began for 9 blacks accused of rape.
(www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/FTrials/scottsboro/SB_chron.html)
1934 Apr 6, 418 Lutheran
ministers were arrested in Germany.
(MC, 4/6/02)
1935 Apr 6, Edwin Arlington
Robinson (b.1869), US poet, died. In 2006 Scott Donaldson authored
“Edwin Arlington Robinson: A Poet’s Life.”
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edwin_Arlington_Robinson)(WSJ,
1/27/07, p.P9)
1936 Apr 6, A tornado killed
203 and injures 1,800 in Gainesville, Georgia.
(MC, 4/6/02)
1937 Apr 6, Merle Haggard,
American country musician, was born.
(HN, 4/6/01)
1938 Apr 6, Roy Plunkett, a
DuPont researcher in New Jersey, discovered the polymer,
polytetrafluoroethylene, later known as teflon.
(SFEC, 11/7/99, Par p.12)
1938 Apr 6, U.S. recognized the
German conquest of Austria.
(HN, 4/6/98)
1939 Apr 6, Great Britain and
Poland signed a military pact.
(MC, 4/6/02)
1941 Apr 6, Italian-held Addis
Ababa surrendered to British and Ethiopian forces.
(MC, 4/6/02)
1941 Apr 6, German Foreign
Minister Joachim von Ribbentrop gave orders for the attack on
Yugoslavia to roll forward. Hitler ordered the Luftwaffe to bomb
Belgrade prior to the final drive into the capital. From August 6 to
10, more than 500 bombing sorties were flown against Belgrade,
inflicting more than 17,500 fatalities. Most of the government
officials fled, and the Yugoslav army began to collapse. German
Luftwaffe Marshall Alexander Lohr commanded a surprise air attack on
Belgrade and 17,000 died. Lohr was later tried and executed for the
bombings.
(www.thehistorynet.com/wwii/blbelgradebybluff/)(SFC, 4/8/99,
p.A10)(WSJ, 5/20/99, p.A21)
1941 Apr 6, German troops
invaded Yugoslavia and Greece. Italian and Albanian forces attacked
and jointly occupied Yugoslavia. Germany, with support of Italy and
other allies defeated Greece and Yugoslavia.
(WUD, 1944, p.1683)(SFC, 4/5/97, p.A20)(www,
Albania, 1998)
1941 Apr 6-7, The Luftwaffe
delivered a heavy blow to the British expedition when German bombers
seriously damaged Piraeus, the port of Athens sinking seven merchant
ships, sixty lighters and 25 caiques.
(www.diggerhistory.info/pages-battles/ww2/greece.htm)
1943 Apr 6, British and
American armies army linked up in Africa.
(HN, 4/6/98)
1944 Apr 6,
German trucks rolled up to the safehouse of Sabina Zlatin in
Izieu-Ain, France, and 44 children and 7 teachers including Mr.
Zlatin were arrested. The raid was ordered by Klaus Barbie, head of
the German police in Lyons.
(SFC, 9/24/96, p.B2)(MC, 4/6/02)
1945 Apr 6, During World War
II, the Japanese warship Yamato and nine other vessels sailed on a
suicide mission to attack the U.S. fleet off Okinawa; the fleet was
intercepted the next day.
(AP, 4/6/99)
1947 Apr 6, The first Tony
awards were presented at a dinner in the Grand Ballroom of the
Waldorf-Astoria on Easter Sunday. They were named in honor of
Antoinette Perry (1888-1946), chairman of the board and secretary of
the American Theatre Wing throughout World War II.
(http://americantheatrewing.org/tony/history_of_the_tony_awards.php)
1954 Apr 6, Four weeks after
being attacked on the air by Edward R. Murrow, Sen. Joseph R.
McCarthy, R-Wis., delivered a filmed response on CBS' "See It Now"
in which he charged that Murrow had, in the past, "engaged in
propaganda for Communist causes."
(AP, 4/6/04)
1956 Apr 6, Polish communist
Gomulka was freed from prison.
(MC, 4/6/02)
1957 Apr 6, NYC ended trolley
car service.
(MC, 4/6/02)
1959 Apr 6, In the 31st Academy
Awards "Gigi," Susan Hayward and David Niven won.
(MC, 4/6/02)
1963 Apr 6,
The United States and Britain signed an agreement under which the
Americans would sell Polaris A-3 missiles to the British.
(AP, 4/6/97)
1965 Apr 6, President Lyndon B.
Johnson authorized the use of ground troops in combat operations.
(HN, 4/6/99)
1965 Apr 6,
The United States launched the Intelsat I, also known as the "Early
Bird" communications satellite.
(AP, 4/6/08)
1966 Apr 6, Emmett Ashford
became the first African-American major league umpire. The highly
regarded umpire was known for his dynamic and distinctive style of
calling balls and strikes.
(HN, 4/12/99)(HNQ,
4/15/00)(http://netscape.net/picassoaustin/homepage)
1968 Apr 6, In Richmond,
Indiana, gunpowder stocks at a sporting-goods store exploded and at
least 16 people were killed.
(www.gendisasters.com/data1/in/explosions/richmond-gasexplosion-apr1968.htm)
1968 Apr 6, Black Panther
member Bobby Hutton (17) was killed in a gun battle with police in
West Oakland, Ca., and Eldridge Cleaver was arrested.
(SFC,10/24/97, p.A15)(SFC, 4/25/98, p.A13)
1968 Apr 6, East German voters
approved a new socialist constitution by a 94.5% margin.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/East_German_Constitution)
1969 Apr 6, Sir Wally Herbert
(1934-2007), English explorer, reached the North Pole on foot along
with 3 others on his team. They became the first men to cross the
entire frozen surface of the Arctic Ocean on foot covering the 3,720
miles in 16 months. Roy Koerner, a glaciologist accompanying
Herbert, drilled more than 250 ice core samples during the journey.
(www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/obituaries/article1929131.ece)
1971 Apr 6,
Igor Stravinsky (b.1882), Russian-born composer, died in NYC.
(AP,
4/6/97)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Igor_Stravinsky)
1972 Apr 6, Six US helicopter
crew members were killed in Vietnam during a heroic rescue attempt
of Air Force Lt. Col. Iceal Hambleton (1918-2004), who had been shot
down on April 2. Five aircraft crews were shot down during the
rescue attempts. The 1988 film "Bat-21" was about their mission.
Hambleton was rescued on April 13.
(SFC,11/19/97, p.A3)(SFC, 5/29/03,
p.A19)(www.taskforceomegainc.org/g095.html)
1972 Apr 6, US Capt. John W.
Ripley (d.2008 at 69) helped stop a column of North Vietnamese tanks
by blowing up a pair of bridges at Dong Ha during the 1972 Easter
Offensive of the Vietnam War.
(http://kbc3337design.tripod.com/ripley.htm)
1973 Apr 6, Yankee Ron Blomberg
(b.1948) became the 1st designated hitter. He walked.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ron_Blomberg)
1974 Apr 6, Willem Dudok
(b.1884), Dutch architect (Hilversum Town Hall), died.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Willem_Marinus_Dudok)
1975 Apr 6, Bundy victim Denise
Oliverson (25) disappeared from Grand Junction, Colo.
(www.crimenews2000.com/memorial/00052902pg8.htm)
1979 Apr 6, The U.S. cut off
aid to Pakistan, because of that country’s covert construction of a
uranium enrichment facility.
(HNQ, 11/14/99)
1979 Apr 6, In India the United
Liberation Front of Assam was created to fight for independence from
India. The Ahom tribe was the major ethnic group of Assam.
(SFC, 4/5/00, p.A11)(AP, 4/6/09)
1977 Apr 6, The Seattle
Kingdome opened and the Mariners lost their to Angels 7-0. The
Seattle Mariners baseball team were created following the 1970
departure of the 1-year-old Seattle Pilots to Milwaukee.
(SFC, 2/18/02, p.B6)(WSJ, 4/7/99, p.B1)(MC,
4/6/02)
1978 Apr 6, Nicolas Nabokov
(b.1903), Russian-born American composer, died. His work included
the opera “Rasputin's End” with a libretto by Stephen Spender
(1958).
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicolas_Nabokov)
1979 Apr 6, The U.S. cut off
aid to Pakistan, because of that country’s covert construction of a
uranium enrichment facility.
(HNQ, 11/14/99)
1980 Apr 6, 3-M introduced
Post-It Notes. In 2010 inventors, 3M scientists Arthur Fry and
Spencer Silver, were inducted into the National Inventors Hall of
Fame.
(http://bookworm.typepad.com/blog/favorite_things/index.html)(AFP,
4/25/10)
1983 Apr 6, Saying rock 'n'
roll bands attracted "the wrong element," Interior Secretary James
Watt declined to invite the Beach Boys to perform at a Washington
Fourth of July celebration -- a stand he later reversed.
(AP, 4/6/98)
1983 Apr 6, Melida Anaya Montes
("Comandante Ana Maria"), Salvadoran FMLN guerrilla leader, was
killed in Nicaragua, where many Salvadoran guerrillas took refuge
under its leftist government. In 2007 her body was exhumed and
buried in her homeland.
(AP,
6/14/07)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ana_Mar%C3%ADa)
1984 Apr 6, Pioneer Courthouse
Square opened in Portland.
(SFC, 7/24/97, p.A6)
1984 Apr 6, 1st time 11 people
in space.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spaceflight_records)
1985 Apr 6, William J.
Schroeder became the first artificial heart recipient to be
discharged from the hospital as he moved into an apartment in
Louisville, Ky.
(AP, 4/6/97)
1987 Apr 6, The Dow Jones
industrial average closed above 2,400 for the first time.
(AP, 4/6/97)
1987 Apr 6, Sugar Ray Leonard
upset Marvelous Marvin Hagler to become middleweight champion.
(AP, 4/6/97)
1987 Apr 6, Los Angeles Dodgers
executive Al Campanis said on ABC's "Nightline" that blacks "may not
have some of the necessities" to hold managerial jobs in
major-league baseball. Campanis ended up being fired over his
remarks.
(AP, 4/6/07)
1988 Apr 6, Black Arctic
explorer Matthew Henson (1866-1955) was re-buried next to Robert
Peary in Arlington, Va.
(www.answers.com/topic/matthew-henson)
1988 Apr 6, Tirza Porat (15),
was killed in a West Bank melee, becoming the first Israeli civilian
to die in the occupied territories since the start of the
Palestinian uprising. Although Arabs were initially blamed, the army
concluded that a Jewish settler accidentally shot the girl.
(AP, 4/6/98)
1989 Apr 6, Soviet leader
Mikhail S. Gorbachev met with British PM Margaret Thatcher in
London, holding daylong talks that were characterized as
argumentative, but friendly.
(AP, 4/6/99)
1990 Apr 6, US Secretary of
State James Baker and Soviet Foreign Minister Eduard Shevardnadze
concluded three days of talks in Washington, after which
Shevardnadze handed President Bush a letter from Soviet President
Mikhail S. Gorbachev.
(AP, 4/6/00)
1991 Apr 6, Bosnian Serbs began
a war in a quest for their own ethnically pure republic.
(SFEC, 7/27/97, p.A6)
1991 Apr 6, Iraq reluctantly
agreed to accept United Nations conditions for ending the Persian
Gulf War.
(SFC, 2/24/98, p.A9)(AP, 4/6/01)
1992 Apr 6, Oriole Park at
Camden Yards opened and Baltimore beat Cleveland 2-0.
(www.ballparks.com/baseball/american/oriole.htm)
1992 Apr 6, The US Supreme
Court limited some undercover sting operations as it ruled that a
Nebraska farmer had been entrapped by postal agents into buying
mail-order child pornography.
(AP, 4/6/97)
1992 Apr 6, Microsoft released
Windows 3.1.
(www.microsoft.com/presspass/legal/poole.mspx)
1992 Apr 6, Molly Picon
(b.1898), Yiddish actress (Milk and Honey), died of Alzheimer's.
(http://www.jwa.org/exhibits/wov/picon/mp25.html)
1992 Apr 6,
Isaac Asimov (72), science fiction author, died in New York. He had
authored 467 books.
(AP, 4/6/97)(SFEC, 3/15/98, p.D1)
1992 Apr 6, Alija Izetbegovic
declared independence for Bosnia. The European Community recognized
the former Yugoslav republic of Bosnia-Herzegovina as an independent
state.
(AP, 4/6/02)(SFC, 10/20/03, p.A18)
1992 Apr 6, War broke out in
northern Bosnia between the Bosnian government and local Serbs who
began to lay siege to the capital Serajevo. Bosnian Serb leader
Radovan Karadzic, a psychiatrist, began the war in Bosnia with the
help of Serbian Pres. Slobodan Milosevic, who ruled Yugoslavia and
the old Yugoslav People’s Army.
(SFC, 5/8/96, p.A-11)(WP. 6/29/96,
p.A20)(SFC,10/16/97, p.A12)
1992 Apr 6, In Peru journalist
Gustavo Gorriti was kidnapped hours after Fujimori seized
dictatorial powers, announcing over television that he was closing
Congress because it was sabotaging his war against the rebels.
Gorriti was released the next day after an intense campaign by
international journalist associations and human rights groups for
his freedom. Pres. Fujimori closed Congress and the judiciary and
ruled by decree for the rest of the year.
(SFE, 9/17/96, p.A11)(AP, 1/5/08)
1993 Apr 6, In a televised
speech a year after ethnic warfare erupted in Bosnia, the president
of the Muslim-led government, Alija Izetbegovic, compared that
destructive nationalism to Nazism.
(AP, 4/6/98)
1994 Apr 6, Supreme Court
Justice Harry A. Blackmun announced his retirement after 24 years.
Two months before his retirement he declared his opposition to
capital punishment because the system was fraught with
discrimination and mistakes. He stepped aside to allow Pres. Clinton
to appoint his replacement. In 1999 David N. Atkinson published
"Leaving the Bench," a historical look At the conditions under which
Supreme Court justices retire.
(AP, 4/6/97)(SFC, 3/5/99, p.A15)(WSJ, 8/11/99,
p.A16)
1994 Apr 6, A car rigged with
explosives detonated next to a bus in Afula, Israel. 8 Israelis were
killed and 45 wounded in Hamas's 1st car bombing.
(WSJ, 3/6/96, p. A-15)(G&M, 7/31/97,
p.A8)(AP, 4/6/99)(SFC, 3/23/04, p.A11)
1994 Apr 6, The presidents of
Rwanda and Burundi were killed on a return trip from Tanzania in a
mysterious plane crash near Kigali, Rwanda; widespread violence
erupted in Rwanda over claims the plane had been shot down: Agatha
Uwilingiyimana, Rwanda’s and Africa’s 1st female PM, Cyprian
Niayamira (Ntaryamira), president of Burundi (1993-94) and Juvenal
Habyarimana, president of Rwanda (1973) were killed. In Rwanda the
Interhamwe, an extremist organization, and the Rwandan armed forces,
FAR, launched a massacre of Tutsis and sympathizers that killed some
800,000. [see Aug 1, 1997] A French report in 2004 concluded that
Paul Kagame, Tutsi rebel leader, was behind the crash. In 2010 a
Rwandan government-commissioned inquiry said Rwandan Hutu soldiers
shot down the Hutu president's plane and sparked the slaughter of
more than 500,000 people. In 2012 a French judge determined that the
missile fire that brought down the Rwandan president's plane and
sparked the country's genocide came from a military camp, and not
Tutsi rebels. This finding supported the theory that Habyarimana was
killed by extremist members of his own ethnic Hutu camp.
(WSJ, 11/15/96, p.A16)(SFC, 2/21/97, p.A26)(AP,
4/6/99)(SFC, 2/11/04, p.A8)(AP, 1/12/10)(AFP, 1/11/12)
1995 Apr 6, The US Senate
unanimously approved a $16 billion package of cuts in social
programs. Earlier in the day, Sen. Alfonse D'Amato, R-N.Y.,
apologized on the Senate floor for lampooning O.J. Simpson trial
judge Lance Ito on a nationally syndicated radio program by
employing a mock Japanese accent.
(AP, 4/6/05)
1996 Apr 6, A sorrowful
President Clinton was on hand at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware to
greet the arrival of 33 flag-draped caskets carrying the remains of
Commerce Secretary Ron Brown and other victims of a plane crash in
Croatia.
(AP, 4/6/97)
1996 Apr 6, US INS (Immigration
and Naturalization Service) agents pursued a stolen camper with more
than 20 suspected illegal immigrants when it plunged off a mountain
road in Temecula, Ca. and 8 people were killed.
(SFC, 4/14/96, p.C-5)(AP, 4/6/97)
1996 Apr 6, Actress Greer
Garson died in Dallas at age 92.
(SFC, 4/7/96, p.B-5)(AP, 4/6/97)
1996 Apr 6, Cilipi Airport
maintenance chief, Niko Junic, committed suicide at his home in
Dubrovnik, Croatia.
(SFC, 4/8/96, p.A-8)
1996 Apr 6, Fighting and
looting began in Monrovia, Liberia, and a six year civil war resumed
between rival ethnic groups. Supporters of Roosevelt Johnson faced
off against the ruling council of state, which sacked Johnson
as rural development minister and ordered his arrest for murder.
Johnson accused Charles Taylor of violating the Abuja accord of
August, which set up a transitional government.
(SFC, 4/10/96, p.A-4)(SFC, 4/18/96, p.a-12)
1997 Apr 6, NASA officials
announced they were cutting short the 16-day mission of space
shuttle Columbia by 12 days because of a deteriorating and
potentially explosive power generator.
(AP, 4/6/02)
1997 Apr 6, A blizzard shut
down much of the northern Plains.
(AP, 4/6/98)
1997 Apr 6, Jack Kent Cooke
(84), owner of the Washington Redskins, died. Settlement of his will
took 7 years and cost $64 million in professional fees.
(AP, 4/6/98)(WSJ, 7/9/04, p.A1)
1997 Apr 6, In Algeria
attackers massacred 90 villagers at various sites over the last 2
days. 52 people had their throats slit near Medea by about 50
killers; 15 were killed in Amroussa and their bodies were burned
with gasoline.
(SFC, 4/7/97, p.A8)
1997 Apr 6, In Burma a bomb
exploded at the Rangoon home of Lt. Gen’l. Tin Oo and killed his
daughter, Cho Lei Oo (34).
(WSJ, 4/8/97, p.A1)(SFC, 4/8/97, p.A10)
1997 Apr 6, In Peru Leonor
LaRosa revealed her torture and beatings to a television station.
(SFC, 6/28/97, p.A10)
1998 Apr 6, The British TV
program for toddlers, “Teletubbies,” opened in the US.
(SFC, 4/6/98, p.E1)
1998 Apr 6, Pres. Clinton
announced a ban on imports of 58 types of military-style assault
weapons.
(SFC, 4/6/98, p.A1)
1998 Apr 6, Energy Secretary
Federico Pena announced his resignation.
(AP, 4/6/99)
1998 Apr 6, The Dow Jones
industrial average closed above 9,000 for the first time.
(CNBC, 4/6/98)(AP, 4/6/99)
1998 Apr 6, Citicorp (Citibank)
under Sandy Weill and Travelers Group announced a merger in an $82
billion deal that would create the world’s largest financial
services company. The merger formed Citigroup and was completed in
October.
(SFC, 4/798, p.A1)(Econ, 2/5/05, p.69)(Econ,
8/14/10, p.63)
1998 Apr 6, National
Semiconductor announced a new single chip computer system. It would
hit the mass-market in June 1999.
(WSJ, 4/6/98, p.A1)
1998 Apr 6, It was announced
that the drug tamoxifen cut the risk of breast cancer by half, but
that it had potentially serious side effects.
(WSJ, 4/6/98, p.A1)
1998 Apr 6, Tammy Wynette (55),
country singer, died at her Nashville, Tenn., home. Her songs
included the 1968 hit “Stand by Your Man.”
(SFC, 4/798, p.A7)(AP, 4/6/99)
1998 Apr 6, In Algeria armed
groups killed at least 35 civilians in 2 separate attacks. 27 were
killed near Oran and 89 near M’Sila.
(SFC, 4/798, p.A16)
1998 Apr 6, Pakistan reported a
successful test of medium-range missile from its Kahuta nuclear
research lab. It was capable of carrying nuclear warheads with a
range of 900 miles.
(SFC, 4/798, p.A16)(SFEC, 5/17/98, p.A15)
1998 Apr 6, From Uganda it was
reported that rebels in western Uganda, who were short of food, had
abducted a number of villagers and resorted to cannibalism.
(SFC, 4/6/98, p.A12)
1999 Apr 6, Chinese Premier Zhu
Rongji began a 9-day, 6-city US visit in Los Angeles. He planned to
gain support for China's entry into the World Trade Organization
(WTO).
(SFC, 4/7/99, p.C12)(WSJ, 4/6/99, p.A1)
1999 Apr 6, In Massachusetts
Maria Grasso (54), a Chilean immigrant working as a baby sitter for
a millionaire, won the $197 million Big Game jackpot.
(SFC, 4/15/99, p.A2)
1999 Apr 6, In East Timor
gunmen fired shots and lobbed grenades into a church where 1500
residents had taken refuge. Some 40 people were reported killed in
Liquica and 5 people were shot to death at the home of a parish
priest. Military officials denied the massacre and a bishop later
said the number killed might be less than 40. At least 25 people
were killed by members of the Red and White Iron (Besi Merah Putih)
militia group.
(SFC, 4/7/99, p.C12)(WSJ, 4/8/99, p.A1)(SFC,
4/9/99, p.D2)(WSJ, 8/24/99, p.A10)
1999 Apr 6, In Indonesia troops
opened fire on Christian and Muslim gangs in the Spice Islands where
a week of rioting left 76 dead.
(WSJ, 4/7/99, p.A1)
1999 Apr 6, In Iraq 4 men were
hanged for the Feb murder of Mohammed Sadiq al-Sader, a top Shiite
cleric.
(WSJ, 4/7/99, p.A1)
1999 Apr 6, NATO bombed
Yugoslav forces in Montenegro.
(WSJ, 4/7/99, p.A16)
1999 Apr 6, In Serbia Pres.
Milosevic announced a unilateral Easter cease-fire through to
Sunday. NATO rejected the proposal and escalated its aerial
bombardment on Serbian forces and supplies.
(SFC, 4/7/99, p.A1)(SFC, 4/20/99, p.A7)
1999 Apr 6, A submerged truck
in the Danube at Kladovo was found to contain the dozens of
decomposed corpses that included women, children and old people.
Police took the bodies and blew up the truck. The bodies were found
in 2001 in a mass grave at a police training camp in Batajnica, a
Belgrade suburb.
(SFC, 6/1/01, p.D4)(SFC, 6/14/01, p.A14)
1999 Apr 6, In Sierra Leone
rebels ambushed 2 passenger boats on the Mabang River and 60 people
were killed.
(SFC, 4/7/99, p.C12)
1999 Apr 6, In Uganda rebels of
the Allied Democratic Forces killed 11 civilians near Bundibugyio by
the Congolese border.
(SFC, 4/8/99, p.A13)
2000 Apr 6, A private company
mapping the human genetic blueprint announced it had decoded all of
the DNA pieces that make up the genetic pattern of a single human
being.
(AP, 4/6/01)
2000 Apr 6, The Muslim new year
1421 began with the new moon.
(SFC, 1/1/00, p.A18)
2000 Apr 6, US and British
warplanes bombed military sites in southern Iraq and Iraqi military
reported 14 civilians killed and 19 wounded.
(SFC, 4/7/00, p.D2)
2000 Apr 6, Juan Miguel
Gonzalez, the father of Elian Gonzalez, arrived in Washington DC
with his wife and baby son to press his case for the return of his
son from relatives in Miami.
(SFC, 4/7/00, p.A1)(AP, 4/6/01)
2000 Apr 6, In Colombia
suspected rightist paramilitaries killed 21 unarmed residents of
Tibu.
(SFC, 4/7/00, p.D2)
2000 Apr 6, In Pakistan the
Anti-Terrorist Court declared the former PM Nawaz Sharif guilty of
attempted hijacking and terrorism and sentenced him to two life
imprisonment terms of 25 years each which would run concurrently.
(www.ciaonet.org/olj/sa/sa_jan01kus01.html)
2000 Apr 6, Two Russian
cosmonauts docked with Mir. The destruction of the space station was
delayed after MirCorp. of Amsterdam agreed in Feb. to pay $10-20
million to lease commercial rights.
(SFC, 4/7/00, p.D2)(SFEC, 6/11/00, p.T12)
2000 Apr 6, In Tunisia Habib
Bourguiba former president and independence leader, died at age 96.
(SFC, 4/7/00, p.D5)
2000 Apr 6, In Uganda
authorities issued 6 arrest warrants for the prominent figures of
the doomsday sect: Joseph Kibwetere, Credonia Mwerinde, Dominic
Kataribabo, Joseph Kasapurari, John Kamagara, and Ursula Komuhangi.
All were charged with 10 counts of murder, representing the first 10
identified victims of 924 corpses.
(SFC, 4/7/00, p.A16)
2000 Apr 6, In Venezuela Pres.
Chavez announced that the Pemon tribe had dropped their opposition
to construction of a 136-mile electrical line in the Canaima
National Park.
(SFC, 4/7/00, p.D2)
2000 Apr 6, In Zimbabwe ruling
party lawmakers approved a bill empowering the government to seize
white-owned land without compensation. The squatter occupation
reached to 940 farms. 6 Western donors suspended $10 million in land
reform aid.
(SFC, 4/7/00, p.D4)
2001 Apr 6, US officials
announced some progress toward the release of 24 military personnel
in China and hoped to establish a joint US-China commission to
examine the April 1 collision of a US spy plane and Chinese jet.
(SFC, 4/7/01, p.1)
2001 Apr 6, Algerian national
Ahmed Ressam, accused of bringing explosives into the United States
just days before the millennium celebrations, was convicted twice in
the same day — first in France for belonging to a group supporting
Islamic militants, then in Los Angeles on terror charges.
(AP, 4/6/02)
2001 Apr 6, US unemployment was
reported to be 4.3%, the highest since July, 1999.
(SFC, 4/7/01, p.D1)
2001 Apr 6, In California
PG&E filed for bankruptcy with $9 billion in debt in an offshoot
of the California energy crisis. Just before filing the utility
awarded bonuses and raises to 6,000 senior managers and other
employees. SF Judge Dennis Montali was assigned the case.
(SFC, 4/7/01, p.A1,3)(AP, 4/6/02)
2001 Apr 6, Bosnian Croats
stoned Nato peacekeepers after police and troops seized the
Hercegovacka Banka and its 10 branches. The bank was believed to be
used by the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) to promote a separate
Croatian ministate.
(SFC, 4/7/01, p.A10)
2001 Apr 6, In Japan Parliament
approved its 1st law to protect victims of domestic violence.
(SFC, 4/7/01, p.A11)
2001 Apr 6, In Pakistan the
Supreme Court set aside the conviction of Benazir Bhutto and her
imprisoned husband Asif Ali Zardari and ordered a retrial.
(SFC, 4/7/01, p.A10)
2002 Apr 6, Pres. Bush repeated
his call for Israel to "withdraw without delay" from West Bank towns
it had occupied since launching an offensive after a string of
suicide attacks. Bush also demanded the Palestinians call "an
immediate and effective cease-fire."
(SSFC, 4/7/02, p.A3)(AP, 4/6/03)
2002 Apr 6, Arab League
ministers in emergency session denounced the Bush administration’s
handling of the Middle East conflict. Some 15k Jordanians marched in
Ibrid. Over 20k marched in Paris and another 20k marched in Rome.
(SSFC, 4/7/02, p.A7)
2002 Apr 6, In Colombia FARC
rebels shot and killed police officers Norberto Perez and Victor
Manuel Marulanda as they tried to escape.
(SSFC, 4/7/02, p.A8)
2002 Apr 6, Israeli troops
intensified their assault on West Bank towns and refugee camps. Over
20 thousand Jews and Arabs marched in Tel Aviv demanding that the
government withdraw from the West Bank and resume talks.
(SSFC, 4/7/02, p.A1)
2002 Apr 6, South Korea envoy
Lim Dong Won said North Korea is ready to resume dialogue with the
US.
(SFC, 4/6/02, p.A8)
2003 Apr 6, Babatunde Olatunji,
Nigerian drummer, died at the Esalen Inst. in Big Sur, Ca. He
pioneered African music in the US with his 1959 album "Drums of
Passion."
(SFC, 4/9/03, p.A31)
2003 Apr 6, Afghan officials
announced a plan to disarm, demobilize and reintegrate an estimated
100,000 fighters over the next 3 years.
(SFC, 4/7/03, p.A3)
2003 Apr 6, Police in Chechnya
said they had discovered four graves filled with disfigured bodies,
many of them with their heads and arms cut off. Pro-Moscow Chechen
policeman Ruslan Visarigov was killed by a mine near his home in the
Shelkovskaya district. Rebels killed 4 servicemen and wounded 10
others in attacks over the past 24 hours.
(AP, 4/6/03)(AP, 4/7/03)
2003 Apr 6, In eastern China a
fire roared through a food processing plant, killing 21 workers.
(AP, 4/6/03)
2003 Apr 6, Indian troops
killed Fayaz Ahmad Khan, a top commander of Harkat-ul Mujahedeen, a
Kashmiri guerrilla group that is suspected in the 1995 abduction of
six Western tourists and a 1999 airliner hijacking.
(AP, 4/6/03)
2003 Apr 6, In the 19th day of
Operation Iraqi Freedom 18 Kurdish fighters were killed and 45
wounded in northern Iraq when a US warplane mistakenly bombed a
convoy. The 1st US transport plane landed at Baghdad Airport. US
forces near Baghdad reportedly found a weapons cache of around 20
medium-range Rockets, BM-21 missiles, equipped with sarin and
mustard gas and "ready to fire." David Bloom (39), NBC
correspondent, died of a pulmonary embolism south of Baghdad. Ahmed
Chalabi, Iraqi exile leader, was airlifted by the US along with 700
"freedom fighters" to southern Iraq to join coalition troops and
form the nucleus of a new national army.
(AP, 4/6/03)(SFC, 4/7/03, p.A1)(WSJ, 4/7/03,
p.A1)(WSJ, 4/8/03, p.A10)(AP, 4/6/08)
2003 Apr 6, The Int'l Committee
of the Red Cross said the number of casualties in Baghdad was so
high that hospitals have stopped counting the number of people
treated. A convoy of Russian diplomats, including the ambassador,
came under fire as the group was evacuating Baghdad. British forces
made their deepest push into Basra, Iraq's second-largest city.
(AP, 4/6/03)(AP, 4/6/08)
2003 Apr 6, Israeli troops in
the Gaza Strip killed a Hamas gunman and a 14-year-old boy.
(SFC, 4/7/03, p.A8)
2003 Apr 6, In Capetown, SA,
Roxanne Dickson (5) became the 7th child to die from gang violence
in the last month. Some 280 gangs operated in Western Cape, a
province of about 3 million people, 5 percent of whom are believed
to belong to gangs.
(AP, 4/12/03)
2004 Apr 6, The University of
Connecticut's women's basketball team beat Tennessee 70-61 to win a
third consecutive NCAA title, a day after UConn also won the men's
championship.
(AP, 4/6/05)
2004 Apr 6, China issued a
major ruling on how Hong Kong chooses its leaders, saying the
territory must submit proposed political reforms to Beijing for
approval.
(AP, 4/6/04)
2004 Apr 6, In Ecuador in the
midst of a national strike by prison guards, inmates in Quito's
women's prison took two television news crews hostage to press their
demands for shorter sentences and better living conditions.
(AP, 4/6/04)
2004 Apr 6, In Indonesia the
Golkar Party of former dictator Suharto held a slight lead in
parliamentary elections. Golkar won the most seats in the
parliamentary election with 21.6 percent. Pres. Sukarnoputri’s
Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) won 18.5%.
(AP, 4/6/04)(AP, 5/5/04)(Econ, 5/8/04, p.42)
2004 Apr 6, Insurgents and
rebellious Shiites mounted a string of attacks across Iraq's south
and U.S. Marines launched a major assault on the turbulent city of
Fallujah. Up to a dozen Marines were killed in Ramadi. Two more
coalition soldiers were reported killed. US warplanes firing rockets
destroyed four houses in the besieged city of Fallujah. A doctor
said 26 Iraqis, including women and children, were killed and 30
wounded in the strike. British troops killed 15 Iraqis in Amara. In
Nasiriya 15 Iraqis were killed in fighting with Italian troops
(AP, 4/6/04)(SFC, 4/7/04, p.A1)
2004 Apr 6, Jordan's military
court convicted 8 Muslim militants and sentenced them to death for
the 2002 killing of U.S. aid official Laurence Foley in a terror
conspiracy linked to al-Qaida.
(AP, 4/6/05)
2004 Apr 6, In Lithuania
lawmakers narrowly ousted Rolandas Paksas, the scandal-ridden
president, for abuse of office, passing all three accusations
against Paksas: that he illegally arranged citizenship for one of
his chief financial backers, businessman Yuri Borisov; that he
divulged state secrets; and that he used his office for financial
gain.
(AP, 4/6/04)
2004 Apr 6, The Barcelona city
council passed a resolution condemning bullfighting and declaring
the city Spain's first to come out against the centuries-old sport.
(AP, 4/6/04)
2004 Apr 6, With Tamil Tiger
rebels threatening to restart the civil war, Sri Lanka's newly
installed PM called on neighboring India to help revive the island's
faltering peace process.
(AP, 4/6/04)
2005 Apr 6, A joint session of
US Congress listened to Ukrainian Pres. Yushchenko as he called for
an end to trade barriers and a new era in US-Ukraine relations.
(SFC, 4/7/05, p.A8)
2005 Apr 6, Matthew Hale (33),
an avowed white supremacist, was sentenced in Chicago to 40 years in
prison for trying to have a federal judge killed in 2002.
(SFC, 4/7/05, p.A3)
2005 Apr 6, Frank Conroy (69),
novelist and director of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, died in Iowa
City.
(WSJ, 5/18/05, p.D14)
2005 Apr 6, The World Bank
warned that the global economic recovery has peaked and that the
severity of the coming slowdown depended on how skittish foreign
investors are about buying US-dollar denominated assets.
(WSJ, 4/7/05, p.A2)
2005 Apr 6, In southeast
Afghanistan a US military helicopter crashed in bad weather. 15 US
service members and 3 American civilians were killed when their
Chinook helicopter crashed.
(AP, 4/7/05)
2005 Apr 6, A government
official said China plans to build 40 nuclear power plants over the
next 15 years, making them the main power source for its booming
east coast.
(AP, 4/7/05)
2005 Apr 6, The European
Commission proposed a major boost in EU spending in the 2007-2013
period to create jobs, spur growth and fund programs to make the
25-nation European Union safer and healthier for its 455 million
inhabitants.
(AP, 4/6/05)
2005 Apr 6, Under pressure to
stem a rising tide of textile imports from China, the European
Union's executive unveiled guidelines for imposing curbs on a
country which already has 20 percent of a $400 billion market.
(AP, 4/6/05)
2005 Apr 6, Colombia's
president met top Chinese leaders during a visit to boost trade,
seek financing for an oil pipeline and to promote sales of Colombian
coal to fuel China's booming economy.
(AP, 4/6/05)
2005 Apr 6, Marxist rebels
ambushed a Colombian military convoy on Wednesday, killing 17
soldiers, the latest in a spate of bloody attacks that have
undermined government claims the rebels are being defeated.
(AP, 4/6/05)
2005 Apr 6, In India police
beat up hundreds of people protesting against the razing of their
homes by the government in the country's financial hub, Bombay.
Authorities flattened an estimated 90,000 shanties in the city early
in January. The slum clearance drive has left more than 300,000
people homeless.
(AP, 4/6/05)
2005 Apr 6, The Iraqi
parliament chose Kurdish leader Jalal Talabani as the country's new
interim president, reaching out to a long-repressed minority and
bringing the country closer to its first democratically elected
government in 50 years.
(AP, 4/6/05)
2005 Apr 6, In Srinagar 2
suspected Islamic militants stormed a building housing passengers on
the eve of a historic bus ride across the divided Himalayan
territory of Kashmir, in an attack targeting the biggest
India-Pakistan peace gesture in decades. Both attackers were killed
and at least six people wounded, but all the bus passengers were
safe.
(AP, 4/6/05)
2005 Apr 6, Ivory Coast's
warring factions agreed to end hostilities, start immediate
disarmament and make plans for new elections.
(AP, 4/6/05)(Econ, 4/16/05, p.39)
2005 Apr 6, Prince Rainier III
(b.1923) of Monaco died at age 81, nearly a month after he was
hospitalized with a lung infection. His fairy-tale marriage to
Hollywood star Grace Kelly brought elegance and glamour to one of
Europe's oldest dynasties.
(AP, 4/6/05)(SFC, 4/6/05, p.A8)
2005 Apr 6, Pakistani police
arrested some 40 faithful of the Muttahida Majlis Amal in Gujranwala
as they protested a mixed sporting event. The MMA, a 6-party
religious alliance, has demanded the ouster of Pres. Musharraf for
being pro-West and secular.
(Econ, 4/16/05, p.38)
2005 Apr 6, Security forces
killed one of Saudi Arabia's most wanted Islamic militants. At least
14 militants were killed over the 4 straight days of shootouts with
extremists in different parts of the kingdom.
(AP, 4/6/05)(SFC, 4/6/05, p.A3)
2005 Apr 6, South Korea, faced
with ballooning foreign-exchange reserves, announced plans to drive
companies to invest excess dollars abroad rather than at home.
(WSJ, 4/5/05, p.A15)
2005 Apr 6, Security forces
stormed the headquarters of Sudan's main opposition party, arresting
scores of its members and top officials, apparently because of
celebrations marking an anti-government uprising nearly 20 years
ago.
(AP, 4/6/05)
2005 Apr 6, In Trinidad gunmen
snatched Balram Maharaj (62), a US citizen, from a bar and held him
for ransom. The body of the Vietnam War veteran were found in a
forest in January 2006. 7 men were convicted in a US trial in 2009.
(http://washingtondc.fbi.gov/dojpressrel/pressrel09/wfo041509.htm)(AP,
3/23/11)
2006 Apr 6, Newly released
court records cited Lewis "Scooter" Libby saying that in the summer
of 2003 President Bush told Vice President Cheney to tell the vice
president's chief of staff, I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, to disclose
highly classified information regarding Iraq intelligence in order
to try and discredit legitimate criticism of the administration.
(AP, 4/6/06)
2006 Apr 6, Louis Eppolito (57)
and Steven Caracappa (64), former NYC detectives, were convicted of
moonlighting as hit men for Anthony Casso, a Luchese family
underboss from 1986-1990.
(SFC, 4/7/06, p.A8)
2006 Apr 6, At the death
penalty trial of al-Qaida conspirator Zacarias Moussaoui, former New
York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani described his own harrowing
experience in lower Manhattan on Sept. 11, 2001.
(AP, 4/6/07)
2006 Apr 6, US Rep. Cynthia
McKinney (D-Ga.) apologized for an altercation in which she'd
entered a Capitol building unrecognized, refused to stop when asked
by a police officer and then hit him.
(AP, 4/6/07)
2006 Apr 6, Maine’s Gov. John
Baldacci signed legislation to allow stiffer penalties for those
convicted of attacks on homeless people.
(SFC, 4/7/06, p.A3)
2006 Apr 6, Gold futures
climbed to a 25-year high of 601.90 in Asian trading and settled at
599.70 per ounce in NY.
(SFC, 4/7/06, p.D1)
2006 Apr 6, In California 3 ski
patrollers were killed when snow collapsed around a volcanic gas
vent at Mammoth Lakes.
(SFC, 4/7/06, p.A2)
2006 Apr 6, A manuscript called
the Judas Gospel, probably copied from the original Greek around the
year 300, was unveiled. Discovered in the 1970s near Minya, Egypt,
the volume, including the gospel and other documents, was sold to an
Egyptian antiquities dealer in 1978.
(Reuters, 4/6/06)
2006 Apr 6, A mortar blast near
the main US military base in Afghanistan left a civilian dead.
(AP, 4/6/06)
2006 Apr 6, Britain's national
farming union said tests have confirmed a dead swan found in
Scotland had the deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu.
(AP, 4/6/06)
2006 Apr 6, In Colombia bombs
exploded on two buses in a working class district of Bogota,
injuring two dozen passengers, including three children with burns
over half their body.
(AP, 4/6/06)
2006 Apr 6, A government
minister said Egypt has found two more people infected with the bird
flu virus, bringing the number of human cases in the country to 11.
(AP, 4/6/06)
2006 Apr 6, In Guatemala Mario
Pivaral, an opposition congressman, was shot to death as he stepped
out of his party's headquarters, the 2nd lawmaker assassinated in
the past two years.
(AP, 4/6/06)
2006 Apr 6, Students protesting
a new labor law put more pressure on France's embattled government
by blocking roads, trains and a convoy of parts heading to the
factory that builds the world's largest airliner.
(AP, 4/6/06)
2006 Apr 6, Shiite politicians
also blocked a bid to have parliament try to break the deadlock on
forming a new government. A car bomb exploded in the Shiite holy
city of Najaf, killing at least 13 people.
(AP, 4/6/06)(SFC, 4/7/06, p.A3)
2006 Apr 6, An Iraqi soldier
allegedly shot and killed a US Marine at a base near the Syrian
border. Another American Marine then wounded the Iraqi soldier. One
US service member was killed by a roadside bomb near Beiji and
another in action in Anbar province.
(AP, 4/7/06)
2006 Apr 6, Israeli President
Moshe Katsav formally chose acting Prime Minister Ehud Olmert to
form Israel's next government.
(AP, 4/6/06)
2006 Apr 6, Japan said it would
launch free trade talks with six Gulf kingdoms that provide
three-quarters of its oil imports, during a visit by a Saudi crown
prince aimed at expanding business ties.
(AP, 4/6/06)
2006 Apr 6, At least 28 people
received medical attention after suspected pickpockets used
pepper-spray to escape police at a Tokyo train station. Media
reports said the suspects are believed to be members of a South
Korean organized pickpocket gang which has preyed on Japan's train
system.
(AFP, 4/6/06)
2006 Apr 6, An attack in Laos
killed 26 Hmong civilians, mainly unarmed women and children. In
June the US called on communist-ruled Laos to investigate the murder
of the Hmong civilians amid allegations that Lao military forces had
killed the group.
(AFP, 6/2/06)
2006 Apr 6, In Mexico hundreds
of machete-wielding farmers opposed to a hydroelectric dam project
briefly seized a pumping plant, cutting off much of the water supply
to Acapulco just days before tourists flock to the Pacific resort
for their Easter vacations.
(AP, 4/6/06)
2006 Apr 6, In Nepal police
arrested 300 protesters in Katmandu, chasing them down narrow lanes
and beating them with batons on the first day of a general strike to
demand the king restore democracy. Maoist rebels said they had shot
down an army helicopter for the first time, during clashes in which
police reported five of their officers and three guerrillas killed.
(AP, 4/6/06)(AFP, 4/6/06)
2006 Apr 6, Palestinian PM
Ismail Haniya said his Hamas-led government would study any Israeli
offer for negotiations following an unprecedented peace overture to
the UN.
(AP, 4/6/06)
2006 Apr 6, Russian prosecutors
said Vasily Aleksanian, an executive recently assigned to saving
Yukos, Russia's former biggest oil producer, from bankruptcy was
arrested on charges of embezzlement and money-laundering.
(AP, 4/6/06)
2006 Apr 6, It was reported
that Russian health and sanitary officials had imposed a ban on
Georgian and Moldovan wines effective May 1. Authorities said the
wines contained pesticides and heavy metals. The ban was soon
extended to brandy and sparkling wines.
(AP, 4/6/06)
2006 Apr 6, Cheese and butter
from the Danish company Arla were back on supermarket shelves in
Saudi Arabia after an Islamic group ended a boycott of the dairy
producer sparked by Denmark's publication of drawings of the Prophet
Muhammad.
(AP, 4/6/06)
2007 Apr 6, The US Department
of Education said an official in its student financial aid office
has been placed on paid leave while his stock ownership in a student
loan company is being reviewed.
(Reuters, 4/6/07)
2007 Apr 6, Arizona authorities
found at least 80 suspected illegal immigrants in a house west of
Phoenix and arrested two suspected smugglers.
(AP, 4/7/07)
2007 Apr 6, In Florida US
District Judge Kathleen Cardone ruled that Luis Posada Carriles
could be released on $250,000 bond. He is being held at the Otero
County jail in New Mexico on charges he lied to immigration
authorities in a bid to become a naturalized citizen. Posada, a
former CIA operative, is wanted in Cuba in the 1976 bombing of a
Cuban jetliner that killed 73 people, a charge Posada denies. Castro
has repeatedly accused the US government of protecting Posada.
(AP, 4/11/07)
2007 Apr 6, Supernova SN2007bi
was first observed in a nearby dwarf galaxy. It burned steadily for
months. In 2009 scientists reported that the explosion was probably
that of a super massive star, at least two hundred times the mass of
the Sun.
(www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=astronomers-witness-biggest-st)
2007 Apr 6, in Afghanistan a
suicide car bomber hit a police checkpoint in Kabul, killing four
people, including a policeman who tried to stop him. Taliban rebels
seized control of Khak Afghan district in southern Zabul province.
(AP, 4/6/07)(AFP, 4/6/07)
2007 Apr 6, A Royal Navy
lieutenant who was among the captives held by Iran said British
sailors and marines held for nearly two weeks were blindfolded,
bound and threatened with prison if they did not say they strayed
into Iranian waters.
(AP, 4/6/07)
2007 Apr 6, Health officials
said teenage girls in Cambodia and Indonesia have died of bird flu
as the virus continues to stalk across Asia.
(AP, 4/6/07)
2007 Apr 6, China published new
rules governing human organ transplants in its latest effort to
clean up a business critics say has little regard for medical
ethics.
(AP, 4/7/07)
2007 Apr 6, The Greek cruise
ship Sea Diamond, which had struck a volcanic reef and forced the
evacuation of hundreds of tourists sank, 15 hours after it began
taking on water off the coast of Santarini Island. Navy divers
searched around the sunken wreckage for a Frenchman and his
daughter, the only two passengers still missing.
(AP, 4/6/07)(SFC, 4/6/07, p.A2)
2007 Apr 6, Iraq’s government
it has ordered that senior officers of Saddam Hussein's military
receive pensions and requested that lower-ranking soldiers serve
again as part of a sectarian reconciliation plan. The decision was
made last month. A suicide bomber driving a truck loaded with TNT
and toxic chlorine gas crashed into a police checkpoint in western
Ramadi, killing at least 27 people and wounding dozens. American
troops swept into the troubled, predominantly Shiite city of
Diwaniyah before dawn, killing three militia fighters and capturing
27 in the first day of an assault, named "Operation Black Eagle." In
Baghdad, two American soldiers were killed and seven were wounded by
two separate roadside bombs.
(AP, 4/6/07)(AP, 4/7/07)
2007 Apr 6, Amado Ramirez, the
Acapulco correspondent for Mexico's top television news network, was
shot to death.
(AP, 4/7/07)
2007 Apr 6, In southern Nigeria
gunmen kidnapped two Turkish engineers from their car in Port
Harcourt.
(Reuters, 4/7/07)
2007 Apr 6, Pakistani mullah
Abdul Aziz said he had set up a Taliban-style Islamic court at his
mosque in Islamabad and pledged "tens of thousands" of suicide
attacks if the government tries to shut it down.
(AFP, 4/6/07)
2007 Apr 6, Pasteur Bizimungu,
Rwanda's first post-genocide leader, walked free from prison after a
surprise presidential pardon of his convictions that included
inciting ethnic tension.
(AP, 4/6/07)
2007 Apr 6, In Saudi Arabia
Waleed bin Mutlaq al-Radadi, among the kingdom's most wanted
terrorists, was killed in a gunbattle with Saudi forces. Al-Radadi
was implicated in the Feb 26 killing of 4 French nationals.
(AP, 4/18/07)
2007 Apr 6, Somali pirates
freed two hijacked merchant ships, including one that had just
delivered UN food aid when it was seized more than a month ago with
12 crew on board.
(AP, 4/7/07)
2007 Apr 6, A Chinese
delegation arrived in Sudan's troubled Darfur region for a 4-day
visit. They met officials and visited camps for the internally
displaced.
(AP, 4/8/07)
2007 Apr 6, UN climate experts
issued their starkest warning yet about the impact of global
warming, ranging from hunger in Africa to a fast thaw in the
Himalayas, in a report that increased pressure on governments to
act.
(Reuters, 4/6/07)
2007 Apr 6, Human migrant
traffickers forced some 300 African migrants to jump into the sea
off Yemen causing at least 32 to die.
(SFC, 4/7/07, p.A3)
2008 Apr 6, American evangelist
John Hagee announced donations of $6 million to Israeli causes and
said that Israel must remain in control of all of Jerusalem.
(AP, 4/6/08)
2008 Apr 6, In Texas Erick
Daniel Davila (21) opened fire at a child’s birthday party killing
Annette Stevenson (48), her granddaughter (5) died the next day.
(SFC, 4/9/08, p.A4)
2008 Apr 6, US and Afghan
forces attacked a remote village in a mountainous region of
northeastern Afghanistan following reports that an infamous
insurgent leader was in the area. At least 16 people were killed.
(AP, 4/7/08)
2008 Apr 6, Thousands of
anti-China protesters draped in Tibetan flags disrupted the Olympic
torch relay through London, billed as a journey of harmony and
peace.
(AP, 4/6/08)
2008 Apr 6, In Merritt, British
Columbia, a girl and two boys aged 10, 8 and 5, were found dead by
their mother in her trailer home. Allan Schoenborn (40), their
father, was arrested April 16 in connection with the murders after
local residents discovered him hiding in rugged bush.
(Reuters, 4/16/08)
2008 Apr 6, In Egypt thousands
of demonstrators angry about rising prices and stagnant salaries
torched buildings, looted shops and hurled bricks at police who
responded with tear gas in a northern industrial town as part of a
nationwide strike. Three people were killed and more than 150
injured over two days of unrest in Mahalla, the culmination of more
than a year of strikes by workers at a giant state-run textile
factory.
(AP, 4/7/08)(AP, 4/4/09)
2008 Apr 6, Iraqi troops backed
by US forces battled Shiite fighters in Baghdad's Sadr City in
clashes that killed 20 people and wounded more than 50 despite a
cease-fire between the government and the militia. 3 US service
members were killed and dozens wounded in rocket attacks on the
fortified Green Zone. 2 more US soldiers died in roadside bombings.
(AP, 4/6/08)(AP, 4/7/08)(SFC, 4/7/08, p.A17)
2008 Apr 6, In Japan the Group
of Eight (G8) rich nations vowed to step up cooperation with
emerging donors such as China and India and said they remained
committed to a goal to double their own aid to Africa by 2010.
(AP, 4/6/08)
2008 Apr 6, In southern Mexico
a truck carrying Central American migrants in a hidden compartment
plunged into a reservoir, killing at least eight people. Most of the
migrants were believed to be from Guatemala.
(AP, 4/7/08)
2008 Apr 6, Montenegrins voted
in the tiny Balkan state's first presidential election since it
split from Serbia two years ago. President Filip Vujanovic won
re-election by a landslide, cementing Montenegro's westward economic
and political course since breaking away from Serbia two years ago.
(AP, 4/6/08)(AP, 4/7/08)
2008 Apr 6, In Nigeria
unidentified gunmen kidnapped an 11-year-old boy in Port Harcourt,
wounding his mother and killing the family's police guard and their
driver.
(AFP, 4/7/08)
2008 Apr 6, A Palestinian boy
(8) was killed by shrapnel in an explosion in the central Gaza
Strip. The source of the shrapnel was not identified.
(SFC, 4/7/08, p.A3)
2008 Apr 6, In Russia President
George W. Bush and Russia's Vladimir Putin ended their last
face-to-face meeting as heads of state with warm words for each
other but no solution to their row over missile defense.
(Reuters, 4/6/08)
2008 Apr 6, In Somalia 4 people
were killed in Mogadishu in separate attacks overnight, as violence
raged in the shattered east African nation.
(AFP, 4/6/08)
2008 Apr 6, Angry Sudanese
border guards killed one civilian and wounded three others in a
market after opening fire indiscriminately in Darfur's political
capital.
(AFP, 4/7/08)
2008 Apr 6, A suspected Tamil
Tiger suicide bomber assassinated Jeyaraj Fernandopulle (55), Sri
Lanka's highways minister, as he opened a marathon in an attack that
also killed 13 others and wounded 100.
(AFP, 4/6/08)
2008 Apr 6, In Yemen a housing
complex used by foreigners in the capital came under attack, with
explosions shattering windows and prompting residents to evacuate
with suitcases and boxes.
(AP, 4/6/08)
2008 Apr 6, Zimbabwe’s state
Sunday Mail newspaper reported that President Robert Mugabe's ruling
party demanded a vote recount and a further delay in the release of
presidential election results, prompting outrage from the opposition
party. Several foreigners, including New York Times correspondent
Barry Bearak, remained in custody after being charged with
"illegally observing an election without official accreditation."
(AP, 4/6/08)
2009 Apr 6, The US Federal
Reserve said it will supply new lines of credit worth up to $287
billion to the central banks of Japan, Switzerland, the United
Kingdom and EU.
(AP, 4/6/09)
2009 Apr 6, Andrew Cuomo, NY
state’s attorney general, filed a civil suit against J. Ezra Merkin,
a New York philanthropic leader and former chairman of GMAC, on
allegations that he betrayed hundreds of investors by repeatedly
lying to them about how he invested their money. Merkin had funneled
$2.4 billion from universities and nonprofit organizations into the
firm of Bernard Madoff, now in jail for running a multibillion
dollar Ponzi scheme.
(WSJ, 4/7/09, p.A1)
2009 Apr 6, German Chancellor
Angela Merkel made an unannounced visit to northern Afghanistan to
meet with her country's troops and view rebuilding efforts. She
pressed President Karzai to review carefully a new law that critics
say legalizes marital rape. In southern Afghanistan an insurgent
rocket attack hit the Netherlands' main military base, killing one
Dutch soldier and wounding 5 of his colleagues and 2 Afghan
soldiers.
(AP, 4/6/09)
2009 Apr 6, In Australia a
motorcycle gang leader surrendered to police and became the sixth
biker charged in connection with a brawl that left a rival bleeding
to death before shocked travelers at Australia's busiest airport.
(AP, 4/6/09)
2009 Apr 6, Bangladesh police
detained Faisal Mustafa, the head of a British-based charity that
funded an Islamic school in southern Bangladesh, where authorities
on March 24 seized weapons and explosives.
(AP, 4/6/09)(SFC, 4/7/09, p.A2)
2009 Apr 6, Belgium began World
Court proceedings against Senegal in an effort to bring former Chad
President Hissene Habre on trial for alleged widespread human rights
abuses during his eight-year reign. A Chadian commission of inquiry
has concluded that Habre's regime killed at least 3,780 political
opponents, but added that the figure likely represents only 10
percent of his victims.
(AP, 4/6/09)
2009 Apr 6, China announced it
will make improved health care services available to all its
citizens by 2020, taking aim at a system long derided as creaking
and inadequate.
(AP, 4/6/09)
2009 Apr 6, Egyptian police
were out in force to deal with a nationwide protest called by
pro-democracy groups, arresting Islamists and seeking to contain
small demonstrations in the capital, Cairo.
(AFP, 4/6/09)
2009 Apr 6, In India 2 bombs
ripped through crowded markets in the restive northeast, killing at
least seven people and wounding 60 others. A grenade attack left two
police officers injured. Authorities suspected the separatist United
Liberation Front of Asom was behind the attacks.
(AP, 4/6/09)
2009 Apr 6, An Indonesian
military plane carrying 24 people crashed into an airport hangar
during heavy rains and burst into flames, killing everyone on board.
(AP, 4/6/09)
2009 Apr 6, In Iraq a series
bombs rocked Shiite neighborhoods of Baghdad, killing 37 people and
wounding more than 100 in a dramatic escalation of violence.
(AP, 4/6/09)(AP, 4/7/09)
2009 Apr 6, In central Italy a
magnitude 6.3 earthquake knocked down whole blocks of buildings as
residents slept, killing 308 people in L'Aquila, capital of the
Abruzzo region, which was near the epicenter. It was the country's
deadliest quake in nearly three decades. Tens of thousands were
homeless and 1,500 were injured. 8 students were killed when their
dorm collapsed in L'Aquila. Investigations into shoddy
construction soon followed.
(AFP, 4/6/09)(AP, 4/6/09)(AP, 4/9/09)(AP,
10/19/09)(Econ, 9/17/11, p.86)
2009 Apr 6, Japan’s Finance
Minister Kaoru Yosano said PM Taro Aso has ordered a $100 billion
stimulus plan to boost the national economy. PM Aso and Venezuelan
President Hugo Chavez agreed to deepen ties in energy, investment
and trade, with Japanese companies ready to participate in gas and
crude production in the Latin American country.
(WSJ, 4/7/09, p.A8)(AP, 4/6/09)
2009 Apr 6, In Kenya justice
minister Martha Karua resigned in protest of Pres. Kibaki’s decision
to appoint judges without consulting her.
(Econ, 4/25/09, p.53)
2009 Apr 6, Somali pirates
seized the Taiwanese ship Win Far 161 with 29 crew onboard near an
island in the Seychelles in the Indian Ocean. A 32,000-ton
British-owned bulk carrier, the Malaspina Castle, was also hijacked
in the Gulf of Aden. Pirates soon began using the Win Far as a base
for attacking other commercial ships. Win Far 161 was released on
Feb 11, 2010, following the payment of a ransom. Three of its crew
died of malnutrition and disease during their 10 month captivity.
(AP, 4/6/09)(AP, 8/27/09)(AP, 2/11/10)(Econ,
2/5/11, p.70)
2009 Apr 6, In South Africa
prosecutors dropped corruption charges against Jacob Zuma, saying
the case had been manipulated for political reasons and clearing the
way for him to become the next president without the looming threat
of a trial.
(Reuters, 4/6/09)
2009 Apr 6, In Turkey Pres.
Obama, making his first visit to a Muslim nation as president,
declared that the United States "is not and will never be at war
with Islam."
(AP, 4/6/09)
2009 Apr 6, In Zambia western
nations and lending agencies meeting in Lusaka agreed a financing
package of more than $1 billion to improve infrastructure in
southern and central Africa at an investment conference meant to
expand transport links and trade. Britain said it would separately
provide 100 million pounds ($149.2 million) to transform the
region's infrastructure to increase trade and mitigate the effects
of the global financial crisis. New projects will link businesses in
8 African countries: Tanzania, the Democratic Republic of Congo,
Zambia, Malawi, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Mozambique and South Africa.
(AP, 4/6/09)
2010 Apr 6, Louisiana
authorities said a pipeline has spilled some 18,000 gallons of crude
oil into a canal in the Delta National Wildlife Refuge about 60
miles southeast of New Orleans.
(SFC, 4/7/10, p.A8)
2010 Apr 6, Virginia Gov. Bob
McDonnell proclaimed April to be Confederate History Month with no
mention of slavery. The next day he conceded that this was a major
omission and amended the document to acknowledge the state’s
complicated past.
(SFC, 4/8/10, p.A4)
2010 Apr 6, Wilma Mankiller
(64), the first woman chief of the Cherokee Nation, died.
(Econ, 4/24/10, p.84)
2010 Apr 6, In western
Afghanistan 27 insurgents were killed in ground fighting and
airstrikes in Badghis province, in what appeared to be a major blow
to Taliban influence in the region.
(AP, 4/6/10)
2010 Apr 6, Australia announced
its fifth rate hike since October and said borrowing costs would
continue to rise as growth and inflation return to normal after the
global crisis.
(AP, 4/6/10)
2010 Apr 6, In Brazil 14
straight hours of rain swamped Rio de Janeiro and killed at least
eight people in the city. 3 more died in Rio de Janeiro state. 5
were also are missing in a mudslide. The death toll eventually
reached 246.
(AP, 4/6/10)(AP, 4/9/10)(AP, 4/13/10)
2010 Apr 6, PM Gordon Brown
announced that Britain will hold a national election on May 6. The
bitterly contested race will be dominated by a recession-wracked
economy and a sense that 13 years of Labour rule may be coming to an
end.
(AP, 4/6/10)
2010 Apr 6, The Canadian dollar
rose to one-for-one footing with the US currency, hitting its
strongest level since July 2008, boosted by rising commodity prices
and expectations for higher domestic interest rates.
(AP, 4/6/10)
2010 Apr 6, A group of Canadian
researchers released a report saying a cyber-espionage group based
in southwest China stole documents from the Indian Defense Ministry
and emails from the Dalai Lama's office.
(Reuters, 4/6/10)
2010 Apr 6, China said it had
executed a Japanese man for drug smuggling, the first execution of a
Japanese citizen since the countries established relations in 1972.
Mitsunobu Akano (65) was convicted in 2008 of attempting to smuggle
2.5 kg (4.8 pounds) of drugs from China to Japan in 2006. He was
executed in Liaoning province.
(AP, 4/6/10)
2010 Apr 6, In central Colombia
Hector Jose Buitrago (71), a veteran paramilitary leader and reputed
founder of a bloody right-wing militia faction, was arrested after
more than a decade on the lam.
(AP, 4/8/10)
2010 Apr 6, In Ecuador 20
columnists and contributors to the state newspaper El Telegrafo said
they will no longer write for the paper because of alleged
censorship.
(AP, 4/6/10)
2010 Apr 6, Egyptian police
beat and dragged off protesters to disperse a gathering of a few
dozen in downtown Cairo calling for constitutional reforms and
fairer presidential elections. The next day Egypt's prosecutor
general ordered the release of all the protesters arrested during
the demonstration.
(AP, 4/6/10)(AP, 4/7/10)
2010 Apr 6, An African Union
conference on maritime security opened in Ethiopia. Somali Deputy PM
Abdulrahman Adan Ibrahim Ibbi called for outside help to clear toxic
waste dumped illegally on his country's vast coastline, arguing that
the fight against dumping goes hand in hand with the fight against
piracy.
(AFP, 4/8/10)
2010 Apr 6, Moody's Investor
Service downgraded Iceland's debt ratings outlook to negative from
stable over concerns about the tiny island nation's ability to tap
the foreign credit it needs to stay afloat.
(AP, 4/6/10)
2010 Apr 6, In eastern India
Maoist rebels launched a series of devastating attacks on government
forces patrolling the forests of Chattisgarh state, killing 76 armed
policemen in the deadliest strike against the state in the 43-year
insurgency.
(AP, 4/6/10)(Econ, 4/10/10, p.45)
2010 Apr 6, In Iraq at least
five bombs ripped through apartment buildings across Baghdad and
another struck a market, killing some 50 people and wounding more
than 160. Officials blamed al-Qaida in Iraq insurgents for the
violence.
(AP, 4/6/10)(AFP, 4/7/10)(AP, 4/9/10)
2010 Apr 6, Israel began
distributing millions of protection kits against biochemical
warfare, Deputy Defence Minister Matan Vilnai announced, stressing
the campaign was not linked to any imminent threat.
(AP, 4/6/10)
2010 Apr 6, In Kyrgyzstan
hundreds of protesters angry over rising heat and power prices
seized a government building in Talas, took a governor hostage and
clashed with troops after trying to seize a regional governor.
(AP, 4/6/10)(Econ, 4/10/10, p.43)
2010 Apr 6, In Mexico suspected
cartel gunmen wounded two soldiers in an unprecedented grenade
attack on army housing in the Gulf coast city of Tampico. 7 prison
guards were reported arrested for alleged complicity in the April 2
jailbreak in Reynosa. In Guerrero state police found the bodies of
two men who were shot to death and had their hands and feet bound
with tape. The bodies of 12 murder victims, 8 of them partially
burned, were found outside the town of Xalisco, Nayarit state. In
Nuevo Leon state gunmen kidnapped Oliver Garcia, police chief of the
town of Los Aldamas, from his home and the two officers from police
headquarters.
(AP, 4/6/10)(AP, 4/8/10)
2010 Apr 6, Nigeria's Acting
President Goodluck Jonathan installed his new cabinet, appointing
senior Goldman Sachs executive Olusegun Aganga as his new finance
minister. Jonathan also named former mines minister Deziani
Allison-Madueke and Godsday Orubebe as the new oil and Niger Delta
ministers. Police said that religious massacres have stopped, but
"secret" killings of Christians and Muslims continue on a smaller
scale across central Nigeria, claiming more than 30 lives this year.
(AP, 4/6/10)
2010 Apr 6, Pakistani police
killed two suspected suicide bombers during a raid in the Mittani
area on the outskirts of Peshawar.
(AP, 4/6/10)
2010 Apr 6, Russia's foreign
minister, Sergey Lavrov, said the new US-Russian arms control treaty
is a much better deal for Russia than its predecessor, but Moscow
reserves the right to withdraw from it if a planned US missile
defense system grows into a threat.
(AP, 4/6/10)
2010 Apr 6, Somali pirates
aboard the Faize Osamani tried to attack the MV Rising Sun. A
hostage onboard the hijacked Indian cargo dhow drowned after the
ship was used to attack another vessel and navies intervened. A
warship from Oman arrived and 9 hostages jumped overboard to try to
swim away from the pirates. One drowned and the other 8 were
rescued. The US destroyer USS McFaul arrived on the scene after the
Omani forces and helped persuade the ten pirates to surrender, which
they did after throwing their weapons overboard.
(AP, 4/7/10)
2010 Apr 6, In Thailand tens of
thousands of red-shirted protesters took over sections of Bangkok,
pelting police with eggs and dancing in the streets as they pushed
through barricades to press the prime minister to call new
elections.
(AP, 4/6/10)
2010 Apr 6, UN
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon criticized as "unacceptable"
Uzbekistan's placing of land mines along parts of its border with
Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan that have not been delineated.
(AP, 4/6/10)
2010 Apr 6, Venezuela’s
President Hugo Chavez said that eight Colombians have been arrested
as suspected spies and charged that several carried identification
indicating they are members of neighboring Colombia's military. He
said the suspects, who were detained more than a week ago, had
computers and satellite telephones and were using cameras to take
photographs of Venezuela's power plants.
(AP, 4/7/10)
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