Today in History - April 19
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843 Apr 19,
Judith, French empress, 2nd wife of Louis de Vrome, died.
(MC, 4/19/02)
1524 Apr 19, Pope Clemens VII
fired the Netherlands inquisitor-general French Van de Holly.
(MC, 4/19/02)
1529 Apr 19, The 2nd Parliament of
Speyer banned Lutheranism. At the Diet of Speyer the Lutheran minority
protested against restrictions on their teachings and were called
"Protestant" for the first time.
(TL-MB, 1988,
p.13)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Speyer)
1539 Apr 19, Emperor Charles V
reached a truce with German Protestants at Frankfurt, Germany.
(HN, 4/19/97)
1587 Apr 19, Sir Frances Drake
sailed into Cadiz, Spain, and sank the Spanish fleet.
(MC, 4/19/02)
1600 Apr 19, The Dutch ship
Liefde, piloted by Will Adams, reached Japan with a crew of 24 men. 6
of the crew soon died. 4 other ships in the expedition were lost.
(ON, 11/02, p.8)
1666 Apr 19, Sarah Kembel Knight,
diarist, was born.
(HN, 4/1901)
1689 Apr 19, Residents of Boston
ousted their governor, Edmond Andros.
(HN, 4/19/97)
1689 Apr 19, Christina (b.1626),
Queen of Sweden (1644-54), died. In 2004 Veronica Buckley authored
“Christina: Queen of Sweden.”
(www.sweden.se)(WSJ, 10/29/04, p.W10)
1721 Apr 19, Roger Sherman, signer
of the Declaration of Independence, was born.
(HN, 4/19/97)
1763 Apr 19, Teedyuscung, a Lenape
Indian, burned to death while sleeping in his cabin in the Wyoming
Valley, Pa. The fire destroyed the whole Indian village. A few days
later settlers from Connecticut arrived to resume their construction of
a town.
(ON, 1/03, p.6)
1764 Apr 19, The English
Parliament banned the American colonies from printing paper money.
(HN, 4/19/97)
1770 Apr 19, Capt. James Cook
first saw Australia. [see Apr 9]
(MC, 4/19/02)
1774 Apr 19, Gluck's opera
"Iphigenia in Aulis," premiered in Paris.
(MC, 4/19/02)
1775 Apr 19, Alerted by Paul
Revere the American Revolutionary War began at Lexington Common with
the Battle of Lexington-Concord. Capt. John Parker mustered 78
militiamen on the town green of Lexington to send a warning to the 700
British soldiers marching to Concord to seize weapons and gunpowder.
Maj. Gen. Thomas Gage sent a force of 700 British troops to Concord,
west of Boston, to capture colonial weapons and arrest Patriot leaders
Samuel Adams and John Hancock. Arriving at Lexington on their way to
Concord, the British were met on the town common by about 70 Minutemen.
The “shot heard ‘round the world” ignited the American Revolutionary
War. No one knows who fired the first shot, but when the smoke cleared,
eight Americans lay dead. The British suffered more than 250 casualties
as they opposed more than 1,500 Massachusetts men. The events are
documented in the 1997 book “Liberty by Thomas Fleming.” Isaac Davis
was among the first to die at Lexington and Concord.
(HFA, '96, p.28)(V.D.-H.K.p.224)(AP,
4/19/97)(SFEC,11/23/97, Par p.14) (HN, 4/19/97)(HNPD, 4/19/99)(HNQ,
10/17/00)
1782 Apr 19, Netherlands
recognized the United States.
(HN, 4/19/97)
1794 Apr 19, Tadeusz Kosciusko
forced Russians out of Warsaw.
(HN, 4/19/97)
1798 Apr 19, Franz Joseph Glaser,
composer, was born.
(MC, 4/19/02)
1802 Apr 19, Spain reopened the
New Orleans port to American merchants.
(HN, 4/19/97)
1813 Apr 19, Benjamin Rush (67),
physician, revolutionary (signed Declaration of Independence), died.
(MC, 4/19/02)
1819 Apr 19, The USS Alabama and
Louisiana destroyed a pirate base at the Patterson's Town Raid on
Breton Island, Louisiana.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Action_of_31_August_1819)
1824 Apr 19, George Gordon, (6th
Baron Byron, b.1788) aka Lord Byron, English poet, died of malaria in
Greece at Missolonghi on the gulf of Patras preparing to fight for
Greek independence. In 1999 Benita Eisler published the biography
"Byron: Child of Passion, Fool of Fame." In 2002 Fiona MacCarthy
authored "Byron : Life and Legend." In 2009 Edna O’Brien authored
“Byron in Love.”
(SFC, 6/9/97, p.D3)(WSJ, 4/26/99, p.A16)(HN,
4/1901)(SSFC, 12/29/02, p.M2)(SSFC, 6/21/09, Books p.J5)
1832 Apr 19, Lucretia Rudolph,
President Garfield's first lady, was born.
(HN, 4/19/97)
1861 Apr 19, President Lincoln
ordered the blockade of Confederate ports.
(http://history.state.gov/milestones/1861-1865/Blockade)
1861 Apr 19, Baltimore riots
resulted in four Union soldiers, 9 civilians killed. The 6th
Massachusetts Volunteer Regiment, the first Union troops to pass
through pro-secessionist Baltimore, Md., entered Baltimore expecting
trouble. As they marched through the streets on their way to the
defense of Washington, D.C., the troops were attacked by rock-throwing
rioters bearing Confederate flags. Four soldiers and nine civilians
were killed in the daylong melee.
(HN, 4/19/97)(HNPD, 4/23/99)
1862 Apr 19, Simon Fraser,
Canadian explorer, died.
(MC, 4/19/02)
1864 Apr 19, Naval Engagement at
Cherbourg, France: USS Kearsarge vs. CSS Alabama. [see Jun 19]
(MC, 4/19/02)
1868 Apr 19, Paul P. Harris,
founder of the Rotary Club, was born in Racine, Wisconsin.
(www.rotary.org/en/AboutUs/History/paulharris/Pages/Timeline.aspx)
1877 Apr 19, Ole Evinrude,
inventor of the outboard marine engine, was born.
(HN, 4/19/97)
1880 Apr 19, The Times war
correspondent telephoned a report of the battle of Ahmed Khel, the
first time news was sent from a field of battle in this manner.
(HN, 4/19/99)
1881 Apr 19, Benjamin Disraeli,
1st Earl of Beaconsfield, British PM (1868, 1874-1880), novelist, died.
(WUD, 1994
p.415)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benjamin_Disraeli)
1892 Apr 19, The prototype of the
first commercially successful American automobile was completed in
Springfield, Mass., by Charles E. Duryea and his brother Frank.
(AP, 4/19/97)
1882 Apr 19, Charles R. Darwin
(b.1809), English naturalist (Origin of Species), died at Downe,
England, at age 73. In 1995 Janet Browne authored “Voyaging” the 1st of
her 3-part biography. In 2002 her 2nd volume “The Power of Place” was
published.
(MC, 4/19/02)(WBO, 2002)(FT, 12/14/02, p.IV)
1893 Apr 19, The Oscar Wilde play
"A Woman of No Importance" opened at the Haymarket Theatre in London.
(WSJ, 9/16/98, p.A20)(AP, 4/19/03)
1894 Apr 19, Jules Massenet's
opera "Werther," premiered in NYC.
(MC, 4/19/02)
1897 Apr 19, 1st performance of
Debussy's "Pelleas et Melisande."
(MC, 4/19/02)
1897 Apr 19, The first Boston
Marathon was run from Ashland, Mass., to Boston. Winner John J.
McDermott ran the course in 2 hours, 55 minutes and 10 seconds.
(AP, 4/19/97)
1898 Apr 19, Congress passed a
resolution recognizing Cuban independence and demanding that Spain
relinquish authority over Cuba. President McKinley was also authorized
to use military force to put the resolution into effect.
(AP, 4/19/97)
1900 Apr 19, Richard Hughes,
English novelist and playwright (A High Wind in Jamaica), was born.
(HN, 4/1901)
1903 Apr 19, Eliot Ness, Treasury
agent, was born. He fought for prohibition in Chicago, Ill.
(HN, 4/19/99)
1904 Apr 19, Much of Toronto was
destroyed by fire.
(MC, 4/19/02)
1905 Apr 19, Tom Hopkinson,
British writer, was born.
(HN, 4/1901)
1906 Apr 19, Pierre Curie, French
physicist, chemist (Nobel 1903), died. Curie, was hit by a truck
and killed as he crossed a street in Paris.
(ON, 3/00, p.2)(MC, 4/19/02)
1909 Apr 19, The new Orpheum
Theater opened in San Francisco, Ca.
(SSFC, 3/8/09, DB p.45)
1909 Apr 19, In Persia Howard
Baskerville (b.1885), an American Presbyterian preacher, was shot dead
while trying to break the siege of Tabriz as a defender of the new
Iranian constitution.
(Econ, 7/17/10,
p.87)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Howard_Baskerville)
1910 Apr 19, After weeks of being
viewed through telescopes, Halley's Comet was reported visible to the
naked eye in Curacao.
(AP, 4/19/00)
1912 Apr 19, Glenn T. Seaborg,
first head of Atomic Energy Commission, was born. He won a Nobel Prize
in 1951 for co-discovering Plutonium.
(HN, 4/19/97)(MC, 4/19/02)
1913 Apr 19, California passed the
Webb Bill, excluding Japanese from owning land. It was signed into law
on May 19, 1913.
(HN, 4/19/97)
1922 Apr 19, Erich Hartmann,
German WW II pilot who later downed 352 Russian aircrafts, was born.
(MC, 4/19/02)
1924 Apr 19, The "National Barn
Dance" premiered on WLS in Chicago.
(MC, 4/19/02)
1925 Apr 19, Hugh O'Brian,
[Krampke], actor (Wyatt Earp), was born in Rochester, NY.
(MC, 4/19/02)
1927 Apr 19, Rudolf Friml's
"Vagabond King" opened in London.
(MC, 4/19/02)
1927 Apr 19, In China, Hankow
communists declared war on Chaing Kai-shek.
(HN, 4/19/97)
1933 Apr 19, Etheridge Knight,
poet, was born.
(HN, 4/1901)
1933 Apr 19, The United States
went off the gold standard by presidential proclamation. FDR tied this
with orders that 445,000 newly minted gold $20 “Double Eagle” coins be
destroyed. Ten coins escaped and one was scheduled for auction in 2002.
The coin fetched $7.59 million. [see Jun 5]
(TMC, 1994, p.1933)(PCh, 1992, p.819)(AP,
4/19/97)(SSFC, 3/29/02, Par p.6)(SFC, 7/31/02, p.A2)
1934 Apr 19, Shirley Temple
appeared in her first movie.
(HN, 4/19/97)
1935 Apr 19, Dudley Moore
(d.2002), film actor, comedian and musician, was born in Dagenham, East
London.
(SFC, 3/28/02, p.A15)
1936 Apr 19, Clarence Darrow.
Lawyer and social reformer Clarence Darrow voiced the opinion that
“There is no such thing as justice—in or out of court” in an interview
for the New York Times.
(HNQ, 6/27/00)
1936 Apr 19, Anti-Jewish riots
broke out in Jaffa, Palestine.
(www.palestinefacts.org/pf_mandate_riots_1936-39.php)(http://tinyurl.com/j93pg)
1938 Apr 19, General Francisco
Franco declared victory in the Spanish Civil War.
(HN, 4/19/97)
1939 Apr 19, Connecticut finally
approved Bill of Rights.
(HN, 4/19/97)
1941 Apr 19, Michel Roux, chef de
cuisine, was born.
(MC, 4/19/02)
1941 Apr 19, B. Brecht's 1939 play
"Mutter Courage und ihre Kinder (Mother Courage and her Children),"
premiered in Zurich.
(www.theatre.ubc.ca/mother_courage/subject.shtml)
1943 Apr 19, Willy Graf, Kurt
Huber and Alexander Schmorell, German resistance fighters, were
beheaded.
(MC, 4/19/02)
1943 Apr 19, In Warsaw, Poland,
young Jews under Mordechai Anielewicz directed the 1st urban uprising
against the Nazis. During World War II, tens of thousands of Jews
living in the Warsaw Ghetto began a valiant but futile battle against
Nazi forces. SS-Gen Jurgen Stroop led the destruction of the ghetto of
Warsaw: "The Warsaw Ghetto is no more!" he wrote proudly to Heinrich
Himmler and Adolf Hitler. Stroop was hanged on the site of the Warsaw
ghetto after the war. Jacek Zlatka (Jack Eisner, 1925-2003) smuggled
arms for the revolt. Eisner made a fortune in the import-export
business after the war and in 1980 authored the autobiography "The
Survivor."
(SFEC, 3/2/97, p.T11)(AP, 4/19/97)(HN, 4/19/97)(MC,
4/19/02)(SSFC, 8/31/03, p.A29)
1943 Apr 19, Swiss chemist Albert
Hoffman, following up on an experiment on April 16, deliberately
ingested .25 milligrams of LSD and soon began to feel its effects.
Hallucinations continued on his bicycle ride home and lasted for some 6
hours.
(SFC, 5/9/96, p.A-1)(Econ, 5/10/08, p.98)
1943 Apr 19-1943 Apr 20, Lance
Sgt. Haane Manahi (d.1987) of New Zealand performed gallant actions
against overwhelming odds in the bloody battle for Takrouna, a
fortified citadel in Tunisia, North Africa. In 2007 the Maori trooper
was posthumously honored he 64 years after he was denied a top
gallantry award despite a commendation signed by four commanding
generals.
(AP,
3/17/07)(www.nzetc.org/tm/scholarly/name-004807.html)
1945 Apr 19, The Rodgers and
Hammerstein adopted Ferenc Molnar’s “Lilliom” and produced the musical
“Carousel” on Broadway.
(SFEC, 8/25/96, DB p.40)(AP, 4/19/97)
1945 Apr 19, US aircraft carrier
Franklin was heavily damaged in Japanese air raid.
(MC, 4/19/02)
1946 Apr 19, Tim Curry, actor
(Rocky Horror Show), was born in Cheshire, England.
(MC, 4/19/02)
1947 Apr 19, Murray Perahia,
pianist (Avery Fischer Prize-1975, Grammy 1988), was born in NYC.
(MC, 4/19/02)
1949 Apr 19, Paloma Picasso,
[Gilot], actress (Immoral Tales), was born Paris, France.
(MC, 4/19/02)
1949 Apr 19, The Foreign
Assistance Act authorized $5.43 billion for the European Recovery
Program.
(EWH, 1968, p.1207)
1949 Apr 19, The Amethyst Affair
began when the British frigate Amethyst came under fire from Communist
Chinese artillery and ran aground in the Yangtze River. A tense,
103-day standoff followed until the frigate made a daring escape on
July 30. The Amethyst lost 22 men killed and 31 wounded in the ordeal.
Rescue attempts by the Royal Navy resulted in another 23 British
sailors killed.
(HNQ, 2/5/99)
1951 Apr 19, Gen. Douglas
MacArthur, relieved of his command by President Truman, bid farewell to
Congress, quoting a line from a ballad: "Old soldiers never die; they
just fade away."
(AP, 4/19/97)
1956 Apr 19, In southern England
Cdr. Lionel "Buster" Crabb, a decorated Royal Navy veteran, disappeared
while diving near Portsmouth. Secret documents released in 2006 showed
that British authorities lied to cover up the fate of a Crabb, who died
during a scuba diving spy mission near a warship used by Soviet leader
Nikita Khrushchev.
(Econ, 7/23/05, p.78)(AP, 10/27/06)
1957 Apr 19, Charles Funk (76),
Encyclopedist (Funk & Wagnall’s), died.
(MC, 4/19/02)
1958 Apr 19, The last Key System
train left Oakland for SF. Ferry service from the Ferry Building ended
the next day when the Southern Pacific "Eureka" made its last crossing
from SF to Oakland.
(SFC, 8/10/98, p.A5)(SFC, 9/4/98, p.A25)(SFC,
8/7/07, p.A6)(SFC, 4/18/08, p.B1)
1960 Apr 19, Baseball uniforms
began displaying player's names on their backs.
(HN, 4/19/97)
1961 Apr 19, Cuba’s air force by
this time shot down 9 of the invader’s 16 aircraft and US invaders,
with ad death toll of 114, began to surrender. Subsequently 36 died in
Cuban prisons. Many survivors were released between 1962 and 1965 after
private donors paid $53 million in food and medicine for Cuba.
(AH, 4/07, p.18)
1961 Apr 19, Howard Anderson was
executed in Cuba after being convicted of arms smuggling to
anti-Communist rebels.
(WSJ, 9/15/06,
p.A1)(www.cubanet.org/CNews/y02/jan02/09e5.htm)
1961 Apr 19, Cuban forces shot
down a B-26 bomber piloted by Captain Thomas Ray north of Larga beach,
an area they controlled. Ray was flying the bomber from Nicaragua while
on contract to the US CIA. In a 2004 trial in the US, forensics on
Ray’s body proved that the cause of his death was a small bullet entry
thru the head.
(WSJ, 9/15/06, p.A1)(http://tinyurl.com/kzeh2)
1964 Apr 19, There was a rightist
coup in Laos. Suvanna Phuma remained premier.
(MC, 4/19/02)
1965 Apr 19, An article in
Electronics magazine by Gordon Moore, later Intel Chairman, noted that
chips seem to double in power every 18 months. Thus was born Moore's
Law. Moore later asserted that his claim was that the number of
components that can be packed on a computer chip doubles every 2 years.
In 2005 Intel offered $10,000 for a pristine copy of the magazine.
(SFEC, 12/21/97, p.A2)(SFC, 10/11/00, p.A6)(SFC,
4/12/05, p.A1)(SFC, 4/18/05, p.E1)
1965 Apr 19, At a cost of $20,000,
the outer Houston Astrodome ceiling was painted because of sun's glare.
This in turn caused the grass to die.
(MC, 4/19/02)
1966 Apr 19, Lt. Lee Aaron Adams
of Willits, Ca., was killed when his F-105D Thunderchief fighter plane
was shot down in North Vietnam. His remains were returned home in 2005.
During 1966 the US Air Force lost 126 Thunderchiefs.
(SFC, 6/2/05, p.A1)
1967 Apr 19, Conrad Adenauer
(b.1876), West Germany chancellor (1949-63), died.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Konrad_Adenauer)
1968 Apr 19, Ralph S. Plaisted
(1927- 2008), insurance salesman turned explorer, reached the North
Pole by snowmobile with 3 other men. This was the first expedition to
indisputably reach the North Pole.
(SFC, 9/11/08, p.B4)
1968 Apr 19, The Secretary of the
National Assembly in Czechoslovakia promised rehabilitation of
political prisoners and freedom of the press, assembly and religion.
(WUD, 1994, p.1687)
1968 Apr 19, Makhosetive,
later King Mswati III of Swaziland, was born.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mswati_III_of_Swaziland)
1969 Apr 19, In Ithaca N.Y. some
80 armed, militant black students at Cornell Univ. took over Willard
Straight Hall. They demanded a black studies program and cut a deal
with frightened administrators for total amnesty. In 1999 Donald
Alexander Downs described the events in his book: "Cornell '69."
(WSJ, 5/20/99, p.A18)
1971 Apr 19, Charles Manson and 3
accomplices were sentenced to death for the Sharon Tate murders.
(www.trutv.com/library/crime/serial_killers/notorious/manson/23.html)
1971 Apr 19, The Soviet Union
launched Salyut 1, the world’s first space station into orbit.
(HN, 4/19/97)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salyut_1)
1972 Apr 19, The Broadway
production Don't Bother Me, I Can't Cope" opened at the Playhouse
Theatre, where it ran for two months before transferring to the Edison.
It had a total run of 1065 performances. The cast included Grant, Alex
Bradford, and Hope Clarke.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Don't_Bother_Me,_I_Can't_Cope)
1975 Apr 19, India announced it
had launched its 1st satellite, from the Soviet Union atop a Soviet
rocket.
(AP, 4/19/05)
1977 Apr 19, Alex Haley received a
special Pulitzer Prize for his book "Roots."
(HN, 4/19/99)
1982 Apr 19, Astronauts Sally K.
Ride and Guion S. Bluford Jr. became the first woman and first
African-American to be tapped by NASA for U.S. space missions.
(AP, 4/19/97)(HN, 4/19/97)
1987 Apr 19, The last free-flying
condor in California, a 19-pound, 7-year-old male, was captured. He was
released in 2002.
(SFC, 3/3/00, p.A21)(SFC, 5/2/02, p.A6)
1987 Apr 19, Maxwell D. Taylor
(85), US commander 101st airborne (WW II), died.
(www.arlingtoncemetery.net/mdtaylor.htm)
1987 Apr 19, Argentina’s President
Raul Alfonsin obtained the surrender of dozens of armed rebel soldiers
who had been holed up at a military base for three days.
(AP, 4/19/97)
1987 Apr 19, Antony Tudor
(b.1909), dancer, British choreographer (American Ballet Theater) died.
(www.cmi.univ-mrs.fr/~esouche/dance/Tudor.html)
1988 Apr 19, Republican George
Bush and Democrat Michael Dukakis handily won the New York presidential
primaries.
(AP, 4/19/97)
1988 Apr 19, Sarah LaChapelle (56)
was found murdered at her home in East Oakland. Gregory Tate (21) was
arrested later that day in LaChapelle's stolen Oldsmobile Cutlass. He
was convicted in 1992 for her murder and in 1993 was sentenced to
death. He had cut off a finger to steal LaChapelle’s wedding and
engagement rings. In 2010 the California Supreme Court upheld Tate’s
sentence.
(http://abclocal.go.com/kgo/story?section=news/local/east_bay&id=7544217)
1989 Apr 19, A jogger was raped
and beaten in Central Park and 5 black and Latino youths (14-16) were
arrested and convicted in a case that attracted worldwide headlines. In
2002 DNA evidence identified Matias Reyes (31) as the rapist. A judge
then overturned the original convictions. 3,254 other rapes were
reported in the park in 1989. In 2003 Trisha Meili identified herself
as the victim in her book “I Am the Central Park Jogger.”
(NG, 5/93, p.16)(SFC, 9/6/02, p.A3)(SFC, 11/21/09,
p.A7)
1989 Apr 19, The battleship USS
Iowa's number 2 turret exploded while on maneuvers northeast of Puerto
Rico. 47 sailors were killed and a $4 million investigation was
launched. The Navy attempted to lay the blame on Clayton Hartwig, a
seaman described as gay soldier disappointed in a gay affair. In 1999
Charles C. Thompson II published "A Glimpse of Hell: The Explosion of
the USS Iowa and Its Cover-Up."
(AP, 4/19/97)(SFEC, 6/13/99, BR p.1,8)(HN, 4/19/00)
1989 Apr 19, Daphne Du Maurier
(82), English writer (Rebecca, Jamaica Inn), died.
(www.kirjasto.sci.fi/dumaurie.htm)
1989 Apr 19, Adnan Khashoggi, a
Saudi financier, was arrested in Switzerland at the request of the US
Government, which is seeking his extradition to New York to stand trial
on charges of racketeering, fraud and obstruction of justice. He faced
charges stemming from ''illegal property dealings'' on behalf of
Ferdinand E. Marcos, the ousted President of the Philippines, and his
wife, Imelda. In 1992 Khashoggi and Imelda Marcos were found not
guilty of racketeering by a jury in Manhattan.
(http://tinyurl.com/qp8da)(www.maykuth.com/Archives/marcos90.htm)
1990 Apr 19, Nicaragua's
nine-year-old civil war appeared near an end as Contra guerrillas,
leftist Sandinistas and the incoming government agreed to a truce and a
deadline for the rebels to disarm.
(AP, 4/19/00)
1991 Apr 19, Evander Holyfield won
a unanimous decision over George Foreman to retain boxing’s heavyweight
title in Atlantic City, New Jersey.
(AP, 4/19/01)
1991 Apr 19, Soviet President
Mikhail S. Gorbachev arrived in South Korea for talks with President
Roh Tae-woo.
(AP, 4/19/01)
1992 Apr 19, After six days,
engineers plugged the tunnel leak under the Chicago River that caused
an underground flood that had virtually shut down business in the heart
of the city.
(AP, 4/19/97)
1993 Apr 19, The 51-day siege at
the Branch Davidian compound near Waco, Texas, ended as fire destroyed
the structure after federal agents began smashing their way in; dozens
of people, including leader David Koresh (Vernon Howell), were killed.
In 1999 the FBI admitted that it used incendiary tear gas canisters but
still maintained that it did not start the fire. An undisclosed tape
recording of the assault was also disclosed in 1999.
(TMC, 1994, p.1993)(AP, 4/19/97)(SFC, 8/25/99,
p.A3)(SFC, 9/2/99, p.A30)
1993 Apr 19, South Dakota Gov.
George S. Mickelson (52) died in an Iowa plane crash.
(AP, 4/19/97)
1994 Apr 19, A Los Angeles jury
awarded $3.8 million to beaten motorist Rodney King.
(AP, 4/19/99)
1994 Apr 19, The US Supreme Court
outlawed the practice of excluding people from juries because of their
gender.
(AP, 4/19/99)
1995 Apr 19, At 9:02 A.M. Oklahoma
City, USA, a large car bomb exploded at the Alfred P. Murrah Federal
Building killing 168 people, and injuring 500 including many children
in the building’s day care center. Within a week a suspect, Timothy
McVeigh, was caught and charged. Two suspects, Timothy McVeigh and
Terry Nichols, faced trial. McVeigh was arrested during a routine
traffic stop 78 miles from Oklahoma City on weapons charges the same
day. Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols, were later convicted of charges
related to the bombing. Michael Fortier, a key government witness and
friend of Nichols and McVeigh, was sentenced to 12 years in prison in
1998 for failing to warn authorities, lying to the FBI, transporting
stolen weapons and conspiring to fence stolen weapons. In 1999
Fortier's sentence was overturned and a more lenient sentence was
ordered under manslaughter guidelines. In Oct a new 12-year sentence
was issued. McVeigh was later convicted of federal murder charges and
executed.
(NPR, 4/19/95)(SFC, 4/29/97, p.A2)(SFC, 5/28/98,
p.A3)(SFC, 7/1/99, p.A3)(SFC, 10/9/99, p.A7)(AP, 4/19/06)
1995 Apr 19, J. Peter Grace Jr.
(81), CEO (W R Grace), died.
(www.sec.gov/litigation/investreport/34-39157.txt)
1995 Apr 19, In Spain a failed
ETA car-bomb attempted to kill conservative opposition leader and
future Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar.
(AP, 3/22/06)
1995 Apr 19, In Sri Lanka the
Tigers broke the truce and blew up 2 navy boats and killed 12 sailors
in the port of Trincomalee.
(SFC, 7/24/96, p.A9)
1996 Apr 19, On the first
anniversary of the Oklahoma City bombing, hundreds of mourners paused
for 168 seconds of silence at the site where the federal building once
stood.
(AP, 4/19/97)
1996 Apr 19, President Clinton,
visiting Russia, paid tribute to the hundreds of thousands of Russians
who died in the Nazi siege of Leningrad -- and to the victims of the
Oklahoma bombing as well.
(AP, 4/19/97)
1997 Apr 19, In Newton, New
Jersey, Giorgio Gallara, a Pizza shop owner, and employee Jeremy
Giordano, were killed after being lured to an abandoned house. [see Apr
21]
(SFC, 12/23/99, p.A9)
1997 Apr 19, In North Dakota the
Red River overran sandbags and broke dikes in Grand Forks and floods
sent nearly half of the 50,000 population into evacuation. Damages were
estimated at over $1.5 billion.
(AP, 4/19/97)(SFEC, 4/20/97, p.A1)(Econ, 4/4/09,
p.39)
1997 Apr 19, The British drought
was now two years old and London was the driest it had been in 200
years.
(SFC, 4/19/97, p.A10)
1997 Apr 19, In Bulgaria the
United Democratic Forces (UDF) under Ivan Kostov won elections with 52%
of the vote. The former Communist’s renamed Socialist Party won 19%.
(SFC, 4/21/97, p.A8)
1997 Apr 19, In India Inder Kumar
Gujral was chosen to lead the United Front Coalition government. The
Tamil Manila Congress withdrew from the coalition.
(SFEC, 4/20/97, p.A14)
1997 Apr 19, In Spain a Barcelona
court found Jose Puignero, factory owner, guilty of illegally dumping
chemical dyes into a river in the town of Sant Bartomeu del Grau. This
was the first punishment for crimes against the environment ever handed
out.
(SFEC, 4/20/97, p.A17)
1998 Apr 19, Wang Dan, the noted
dissident and student leader of Tiananmen Square, arrived in the US
after being freed by China and was taken to Henry Ford Hospital in
Detroit for medical evaluation.
(SFC, 4/20/98, p.A8)(AP, 4/19/99)
1998 Apr 19, In Madison, Wi.,
Salim Amara doused a fellow passenger on a city bus with gasoline and
ignited a fire burning himself and others severely.
(SFC, 4/21/98, p.A9)
1998 Apr 19, A small plane crashed
on the west side of Detroit. It was reported to have contained cash and
marijuana that neighbors quickly picked up. The pilot was believed to
be Douglas C. Dufresne (66) of Florida.
(SFC, 4/21/98, p.A4)
1998 Apr 19, In Austria Thomas
Klestil was re-elected president with 63% of the vote.
(SFC, 4/20/98, p.A10)
1998 Apr 19, In Bhutan a fire
destroyed the Taktsang Monastery, that dated back in some form to the
9th century.
(SFC, 4/22/98, p.A9)
1998 Apr 19, In Chile leaders of
the 34 Western Hemisphere democracies at the second Summit of the
Americas agreed on a free-trade zone to be created by 2005. The first
summit met in Miami in 1994.
(SFC, 4/20/98, p.A1)
1998 Apr 19, An Israeli settler
was shot and killed and three others, including a Palestinian man, were
wounded. Dov Dribben (28) of Maon was killed when settlers tried to
force a group of Bedouin shepherds off a contested piece of land.
(SFC, 4/20/98, p.A9)
1998 Apr 19, In Japan Pres.
Yeltsin held a summit with Prime Minister Ryutaro Hasimoto at the
Kawana resort. Yeltsin promised to had over KGB documents of
interrogations of captured Japanese generals from WW II.
(SFEC, 4/19/98, p.A14)
1998 Apr 19, In Mexico Octavio Paz
(84), poet and essayist, died of cancer. His work included “The
Labyrinth of Solitude” and the poem “Sun Stone.”
(SFC, 4/20/98, p.A17)(SFC, 4/21/98, p.A12)
1998 Apr 19, In Nigeria police
shot dead at least 3 Shiite Muslims, supporters of Ibrahim El-Zak Zaky,
and wounded many more in Kaduna in clashes over 2 days.
(SFC, 4/21/98, p.A13)
1998 Apr 19-20, In Arizona
grasshoppers by the millions descended on communities along the lower
Colorado River.
(SFC, 4/21/98, p.A3)
1999 Apr 19, The 103rd Boston
Marathon was won by Joseph Chebet of Kenya in 2h:9m:52s. Fatuma Roba of
Ethiopia won the women's category in 2:23:25.
(WSJ, 4/20/99, A1)(AP, 4/19/00)
1999 Apr 19, The US Supreme Court
ruled that a federal law aimed at limiting e-mail smut does not violate
free-speech rights.
(AP, 4/19/00)
1999 Apr 19, The annual Goldman
Environmental Prize went to: Ka Hsaw Wa of Burma for reporting on the
plight of indigenous people and environmental abuses on a gas pipeline
across Thailand and Burma; Bernard Martin, a Canadian fisherman, for
his work opposing large factory trawlers; Jacqui Katona and Yvonne
Margarula, Australian aboriginal women, who have led a fight against
the mining of a uranium deposit by Kakadu National Park on lands owned
by the Mirrar people; Samuel Nguiffo, a Cameroon lawyer, for his work
in protecting rain forests and opposition to the slaughter of
chimpanzees and other rare wildlife; Jorge Varela, a Honduran
conservationist, for fighting the destructive shrimp farming practices
in the Gulf of Fonseca; and Michal Kravcik, a Slovakian hydrologist,
who successfully fought a government plan to dam the Upper Torysa River
in 1996.
(SFC, 4/19/99, p.A2)
1999 Apr 19, In Florida the
Everglades fire charred had 130,000 acres and continued to rage.
(SFC, 4/20/99, p.A3)
1999 Apr 19, In Canada a Toronto
transit strike forced 800,000 commuters to seek alternate
transportation.
(WSJ, 4/20/99, A1)
1999 Apr 19, In the Congo Kabila
in 1997 set this date for presidential and legislative elections.
(SFC, 5/30/97, p.A15)
1999 Apr 19, The German parliament
inaugurated its new home in the restored Reichstag in Berlin, its
prewar capital.
(AP, 4/19/00)
1999 Apr 19, India and Bangladesh
border guards had a shootout that left 6 people dead and 60 wounded.
(WSJ, 4/20/99, A1)
1999 Apr 19, In Hallac, Kosovo, 20
Albanian men were killed by Serb paramilitaries. 11 were shot in a
vacant lot and 9 were killed in their homes. They were buried in a mass
grave and later reburied individually just before NATO forces moved
into Kosovo.
(SFC, 6/14/99, p.A12)
1999 Apr 19, In Puerto Rico two US
Marine jets in training dropped bombs over the island of Vieques and
missed their targets. One civilian, David Sanes Rodriguez, was killed
and 4 people were injured.
(SFC, 4/20/99, p.A3)(SFC, 7/26/99, p.A3)
1999 Apr 19, Yugoslav authorities
shut down the Morini border crossing to Albania. NATO bombing continued
and a Serb government headquarters building in Novi Sad was badly
damaged. An estimated 500,000 to 850,000 ethnic Albanians remained were
still inside Kosovo.
(SFC, 4/20/99, p.A1)(WSJ, 4/20/99, A1)
2000 Apr 19, President Clinton
knelt among 168 empty chairs memorializing each victim of the Oklahoma
City bombing and declared the site “sacred ground” in the soul of
America during a fifth-anniversary dedication ceremony.
(AP, 4/19/01)
2000 Apr 19, The new Oprah Winfrey
magazine “O” hit the newsstands.
(WSJ, 4/20/00, p.A24)
2000 Apr 19, In Arizona Richard
Glassel (61)(55) killed 2 women and injured 4 others in a retirement
community in Peoria.
(SFC, 4/20/00, p.A10)(WSJ, 4/20/00, p.A1)
2000 Apr 19, In Tennessee Robert
Glen Coe, convicted for the 1979 murder and rape of Cary Ann Medlin
(8), was executed by injection. This was the state’s first execution in
40 years.
(SFC, 10/12/99, p.A3)(SFC, 3/24/00, p.A5)(SFC,
4/20/00, p.A4)
2000 Apr 19, In the Brittany
region of France a bomb exploded in a McDonald’s restaurant in Dinan
and one worker was killed.
(SFC, 4/20/00, p.A18)
2000 Apr 19, In southern Congo 6
Rwandan army officers and 4 Russian crew members were killed when their
Antonov-8 aircraft crashed on takeoff at Pepa.
(SFC, 4/21/00, p.A20)(WSJ, 4/21/00, p.A1)
2000 Apr 19, In Israel 13 Lebanese
prisoners, held as bargaining chips for an Israeli airman, were
released.
(SFC, 4/20/00, p.A14)
2000 Apr 19, In Nigeria dozens of
boat passengers were missing and feared dead after a boat carrying as
many as 500 villagers sank on the Nembe River.
(SFC, 4/21/00, p.A20)
2000 Apr 19, An Air Philippines
Boeing 737-200 jet crashed and all 131 people aboard were killed on
Samal Island following an attempted landing at Davao City. It was the
worst air crash in Philippine history
(SFC, 4/19/00, p.A1)(AP, 4/19/01)
2000 Apr 19, In Somalia over 110
people died over the last 2 days from an outbreak of cholera. 70 dead
were in the Ufatest commune and 40 in the village of Bulo Addey.
(SFC, 4/20/00, p.C4)
2000 Apr 19, In Sri Lanka the
Defense Ministry reported 12 soldiers dead from fighting over the
causeway linking Jaffna to the mainland. Rebels reported 100 soldiers
killed and 26 rebels dead.
(SFC, 4/20/00, p.C4)
2001 Apr 19, The musical "The
Producers" opened on Broadway.
(AP, 4/19/02)
2001 Apr 19, US and Chinese
negotiators failed to reach any agreement over the US spy plane. The
Chinese showed video images from flights last year and the US presented
a written proposal for the return of the plane.
(SFC, 4/20/01, p.A14)
2001 Apr 19, Pharmaceutical giants
dropped a lawsuit against a South African law that could provide
cheaper, generic AIDS drugs to millions of Africans, ending an
international battle over patent rights and profit.
(AP, 4/19/02)
2001 Apr 19, The space shuttle
Endeavour went into orbit with 7 astronauts on an 11-day mission to
install a billion-dollar robot arm on the Int’l. Space Station.
(SFC, 4/20/01, p.A6)
2001 Apr 19, Former New Hampshire
Gov. Meldrim Thomson died at his home in Orford at age 89.
(AP, 4/19/02)
2001 Apr 19, Thousands of
protesters gathered in Quebec City to oppose the Summit of the Americas
and plans for a hemispheric free trade zone.
(SFC, 4/20/01, p.A14)
2001 Apr 19, A US cargo ship
departed from Jacksonville, Fla., for Cuba, the 1st scheduled ship in
40 years. 2 days later the ship failed to dock in Cuba.
(SFC, 4/20/01, p.A13)(WSJ, 4/23/01, p.A1)
2001 Apr 19, Israel removed road
blocks to Palestinian travel in the Gaza Strip.
(SFC, 4/20/01, p.A15)
2001 Apr 19, In Mexico there was
an execution style slaying of 8 peasants of the Fray Bartolome Alliance
in the Chiapas village of Canalucum. [see Jun 25]
(SFC, 6/26/01, p.C2)
2001 Apr 19, In Kosovo Nato troops
broke up Serb roadblocks set up to protest UN tax collections on goods
from elsewhere in Yugoslavia.
(WSJ, 4/20/01, p.A1)
2002 Apr 19, US and British planes
bombed Iraqi air defense systems in response to anti-aircraft fire.
(SFC, 4/20/02, p.A13)
2002 Apr 19, Protesters gathered
in Washington DC and rallied against US policies in Latin America ahead
of weekend meetings of the IMF and World Bank.
(SFC, 4/20/02, p.A3)
2002 Apr 19, The space shuttle
Atlantis returned to Earth after installing the first girder in what
eventually will be a giant framework at the international space station.
(AP, 4/19/03)
2002 Apr 19, Israel announced that
“Operation Defensive Shield is over” and their forces completed
withdrawal from Jenin. Israeli military reported the capture of Husam
Ataf Ali Badran, a Hamas leader, near Nablus. 2 Palestinians were
reported killed by Israeli gunfire in Gaza. A suicide bomber blew
himself up in central Gaza. 3 Palestinians were reportedly killed by
Israeli fire in Gaza. The UN approved a fact-finding mission into
Israeli actions at Jenin.
(SFC, 4/19/02, p.A20)(SFC, 4/20/02, p.A1,14)
2002 Apr 19, In Colombia a
Russian-made Antonov jet, used to transfer inmates, crashed near
Popayan airport and at least 2 prison officials were killed.
(SFC, 4/20/02, p.A15)
2002 Apr 19, Congo peace talks
broke down over power-sharing.
(SFC, 4/20/02, p.A13)
2002 Apr 19, In Peru a prep school
collapsed in Puno and at least 13 people were killed.
(SSFC, 4/21/02, p.A17)
2002 Apr 19, In Venezuela a
military helicopter crashed in fog-shrouded mountains north of Caracas
and 10 people were killed including 4 generals.
(SSFC, 4/21/02, p.A16)
2003 Apr 19, In northeast
Pennsylvania Hadley Bilger (13) was abducted by her uncle after he shot
and killed her parents. Bilger was released the next day and Robert Lee
Hixson (42) surrendered to police.
(AP, 4/20/03)(SFC, 4/21/03, p.A3)
2003 Apr 19, US forces captured
Abd al-Khaliq Abd al-Ghafar (4 of hearts), Saddam's scientific research
minister.
(AP, 4/21/03)
2003 Apr 19, In Brazil a tourist
schooner with 64 people on board sank in a canal east of Rio de
Janeiro, killing at least 11 people.
(Reuters, 4/20/03)
2003 Apr 19, In Burundi a mortar
shell apparently fired from rebel positions in the hills northwest of
Bujumbura crashed into a house, killing three children and wounding a
woman and another child. The latest fighting has forced 50,000 people
to flee their homes.
(AP, 4/19/03)
2003 Apr 19, Cameroon was reported
to have banned gorilla, chimpanzee and elephant meat from its
restaurants with prison terms and fines up to $16,000 for violations.
Extermination of the animals in a decade was feared if hunting was not
stopped.
(SFC, 4/19/03, p.B6)
2003 Apr 19, In Colombian rebels
kidnapped eight people on Mucura Island.
(AP, 4/20/03)
2003 Apr 19, Hong Kong reported 12
SARS patients died in a single day. Malaysia banned workers from
Vietnam, which considered sealing its border with China due to the
disease.
(AP, 4/19/03)
2003 Apr 19, India's prime
minister acknowledged the government had manipulated elections in
Indian-controlled Kashmir and promised residents it would not be
repeated.
(AP, 4/19/03)
2003 Apr 19, Nazeh Darwazeh (45),
an cameraman with Associated Press TV News, was killed while covering
skirmishes between Israeli soldiers and Palestinians who were throwing
rocks and firebombs. He died of a bullet wound to the head and
Palestinian witnesses said he was shot by an Israeli soldier.
(AP, 4/19/03)
2003 Apr 19, The Israeli army
killed 5 Palestinians and wounded around 70, many of them civilians, in
a raid on the Rafah refugee camp in the Gaza Strip. Near the West Bank
city of Qalqilya, soldiers shot dead a Palestinian who threw a petrol
bomb at them.
(Reuters, 4/20/03)
2003 Apr 19, In Nigeria elections
Pres. Olusegun Obasanjo, a former military ruler turned civilian
statesman, sought a second term against some 20 other candidates.
Obasanjo won 62% of 42 million votes. Opponents denounced the elections
as fraudulent and claimed serious rigging in 16 of 36 states.
(AP, 4/21/03)(WSJ, 4/22/03, A1)(Econ, 1/29/05,
p.45)
2003 Apr 19, Striking Nigerian oil
workers took about 100 foreign workers hostage on several offshore oil
installations.
(AP, 4/29/03)
2003 Apr 19, A Pakistani
helicopter flying over tribal areas in southern Pakistan came under
fire from the ground, injuring three US officials and four Pakistani
army personnel.
(AP, 4/19/03)
2003 cApr 19, In Sierra Leone an
international war crimes tribunal indicted Augustine Gbao, a former
rebel battlefield commander in the decade-long civil war declared over
in 2002. He was the 8th person indicted by the special court.
(AP, 4/20/03)
2004 Apr 19, In the Boston
Marathon Timothy Cherigat of Kenya won for the men at 2:10:37;
Catherine Ndereba of Kenya won for the women at 2:24:27.
(WSJ, 4/20/04, p.A1)
2004 Apr 19, Researchers reported
in the Annals of Internal Medicine that fairly heavy alcohol
consumption appears to moderately increase the risk of cancer in the
colon and rectum.
(Reuters, 4/19/04)
2004 Apr 19, The annual
environmental Goldman Prizes were awarded in SF. Winners included
Rashida Bee and Champa Devi Shukla of India for their work following
the Bhopal catastrophe; Margie Richard of the US for her work following
chemical leaks in Norco, Louisiana; Rudolf N. Amenga-Etego of Ghana for
his work in suspending a water privatization project; Libia R. Grueso
Castelblanco of Colombia for her work in securing territorial rights
for rural communities; Manana Kochladze of Georgia for winning
concessions to protect villagers and a pristine gorge from an oil
pipeline; Demetrio De Carvalho of East Timor for his environmental
efforts.
(SFC, 4/19/04, p.B5)
2004 Apr 19, Jim Cantalupo (60),
McDonald's Corp. Chairman and Chief Executive, died of an apparent
heart attack in Florida and the company named Chief Operating Officer
Charlie Bell to replace him as CEO.
(AP, 4/19/04)
2004 Apr 19, John Maynard
(1920-2004), a leading British evolutionary biologist widely credited
with taking the radical step of applying game theory to the subject,
died in Lewes, England. His books included "The Theory of Evolution"
(1958) and "The Evolution of Sex" (1978).
(SSFC, 4/25/04, p.B7)(AP, 4/29/04)
2004 Apr 19, Norris McWhirter
(78), co-creator of the Guinness Book of Records (1955), died in
England of a heart attack.
(WSJ, 4/21/04, p.A1)
2004 Apr 19, In Brazil riot police
used tear gas and rubber bullets to eject hundreds of squatters who had
seized a vacant building in Sao Paulo to demand the government speed up
redistribution of land to the poor.
(AP, 4/19/04)
2004 Apr 19, Chilean troops
prepared to take up posts in central Haiti, extending the peacekeeping
presence where as many as 400 rebels still hold sway.
(AP, 4/19/04)
2004 Apr 19, Honduras President
Ricardo Maduro announced the pullout of his 370 troops from Iraq "in
the shortest time possible."
(AP, 4/20/04)(WSJ, 4/20/04, p.A1)
2004 Apr 19, In Iraq US officials
and local leaders in Fallujah agreed to a number of measures to reduce
tensions.
(SFC, 4/20/04, p.A1)
2004 Apr 19, Pierluigi Vigna,
Italy's national anti-Mafia prosecutor, said Italian mobsters and
Islamic terrorist groups have forged links in arms and drug trafficking.
(AP, 4/20/04)
2004 Apr 19, North Korean leader
Kim Jong Il reportedly held talks with Chinese President Hu Jintao
about the North's nuclear arms program and requests for economic aid.
(AP, 4/19/04)
2004 Apr 19, A Russian rocket
roared into space carrying an American, a Russian and a Dutchman to the
international space station on the 3rd manned mission since the halt of
the US shuttle program.
(SFC, 4/19/04, p.A5)(AP, 4/19/05)
2004 Apr 19, Saudi police seized 2
explosives packed SUVs on a highway outside Riyadh. It the 3rd day in a
row that such a seizure was announced.
(WSJ, 4/20/04, p.A1)
2004 Apr 19, The Uzbek government
labeled the activities of George Soros' foundation "undesirable" after
the billionaire philanthropist said its office was being forced to
close and blasted human rights abuses in this Central Asian nation.
(AP, 4/19/04)
2005 Apr 19, The US government
sacked its one-size-fits-all food pyramid in favor of a dozen different
guides geared to individual nutritional needs and lifestyles.
(AP, 4/19/05)
2005 Apr 19, The US Mint said it
will produce its 1st 24-karat gold coin in 2006.
(WSJ, 4/20/05, p.D2)
2005 Apr 19, General Motors
reported a loss of $1.1 billion for the 3 months ending in March, its
worst quarterly performance since 1992.
(Econ, 4/23/05, p.71)
2005 Apr 19, US forces killed more
than 12 insurgents in a clash in southeastern Afghanistan.
(AP, 4/21/05)
2005 Apr 19, Britain's GW
Pharmaceuticals announced its multiple sclerosis (MS) pain relief drug
Sativex, the world's first containing cannabis, has been approved for
use in Canada.
(AP, 4/19/05)
2005 Apr 19, Canada released a
federal policy statement that said it will use more soldiers, more
foreign aid and more diplomats to carve its own niche in a
fast-changing world.
(AP, 4/19/05)
2005 Apr 19, A car exploded in the
southern Russian region of Dagestan, killing two people in what
investigators believe was a botched attempt to kill a local prosecutor.
(AP, 4/19/05)
2005 Apr 19, Hours after Ecuador's
embattled President Lucio Gutierrez said he would not resign, at least
30,000 people tried to march to the presidential palace in the
capital's largest demonstration yet against the country's leadership,
demanding that Gutierrez resign.
(AP, 4/20/05)
2005 Apr 19, Ethiopians welcomed
the return of the first piece of a giant, 1,700-year-old granite
obelisk that was looted from the African country 68 years ago by
Italian troops.
(AP, 4/19/05)
2005 Apr 19, India and its eastern
neighbor Bangladesh traded blame over a weekend border clash that
killed an Indian military officer and two Bangladeshi villagers.
(AP, 4/19/05)
2005 Apr 19, A suicide car bomb
outside an Iraqi army recruitment center and other attacks killed a
dozen people and wounded more than 50.
(AP, 4/19/05)
2005 Apr 19, In Kuwait lawmakers
agreed to permit women to vote and run in local council elections,
although the measure requires more legislative action before it becomes
law.
(AP, 4/19/05)
2005 Apr 19, Nepali soldiers
killed 22 Maoist guerrillas as the royalist government brushed aside a
rebel prediction of a victory in the nine-year civil war.
(AP, 4/19/05)
2005 Apr 19, Dutch authorities
arrested a Chechen citizen in the Netherlands in connection with the
November 2 slaying of Dutch filmmaker Theo van Gogh. A 2nd suspect was
arrested May 18 in Tours, France. Both were believed to have ties to a
group of Islamic fundamentalists which prosecutors dubbed the Hofstad
network.
(AP, 5/27/05)
2005 Apr 19, A Spanish court
convicted Adolfo Scilingo (58), a former Argentine naval officer, of
crimes against humanity for throwing 30 naked and drugged prisoners
from planes during his country's "dirty war" more than two decades ago.
It sentenced him to 640 years in prison. During the trial, Scilingo
insisted he fabricated the taped testimony to trigger an investigation
into Argentina's "dirty war."
(AP, 4/19/05)
2005 Apr 19, Cardinal Joseph
Ratzinger (78) of Germany became Pope Benedict XVI. As the 265th pope
he promised to enforce strictly conservative policies for the world's
Roman Catholics. In Germany Ratzinger's latest book, "Werte in Zeiten
des Umbruchs" (Values in Times of Upheaval), was already sold out after
its release a week ago. Ratzinger viewed secularism and moral
relativism as the chief adversaries of God and the church. After
Ratzinger was elected pope, the Holy See's No. 2 official, Cardinal
Angelo Sodano, signed a decree assigning "in perpetuity and worldwide"
the copyrights of all Benedict's works, including the hundreds he wrote
before becoming pope, to the Vatican's publishing house, Libreria
Editrice Vaticana (LEV).
(AP, 4/19/05)(WSJ, 4/20/05, p.A1)(AP, 2/19/06)
2006 Apr 19, White House press
secretary Scott McClellan announced his resignation as part of a
shake-up of President George W. Bush's senior aides. White House
political mastermind Karl Rove surrendered his role as chief policy
coordinator.
(AP, 4/19/07)
2006 Apr 19, The US government
released the most extensive list yet of the hundreds of detainees who
have been held at the Guantanamo Bay prison. Nearly all 558 on the list
were labeled enemy combatants, but only a handful of whom have faced
formal charges.
(AP, 4/20/06)
2006 Apr 19, The 2006 US estimated
cost of the war in Iraq was put at $94 billion.
(SFC, 4/20/06, p.A1)
2006 Apr 19, US Immigration agents
arrested 7 executives and 1,187 illegal immigrants employed by IFCO
Systems, a Netherlands-based manufacturer of crates and pallets, as
part of a crackdown on employers of illegal workers.
(AP, 4/19/06)(SFC, 4/21/06, p.A3)
2006 Apr 19, In Croatia workers
who have been occupying a tobacco factory in Zagreb for nearly two
weeks asked the chief state prosecutor to investigate their claims that
the facility was illegally sold to a local tobacco giant.
(AP, 4/20/06)
2006 Apr 19, Cuba agreed to buy
another $30 million in food from Nebraska, strengthening trade
relations with the US farm state already selling corn, wheat, soybeans
and other products to the communist island.
(AP, 4/19/06)
2006 Apr 19, Ecuador approved
revisions to its Hydrocarbons Law to increase state revenue from
private crude-oil producers. The changes became effective on April 25.
(WSJ, 4/21/06, p.A7)(WSJ, 4/26/06, p.A8)
2006 Apr 19, The Egyptian
government said it had arrested a group of 22 militant Islamists
planning bomb attacks on tourist targets, a gas pipeline near Cairo and
Muslim and Christian religious leaders. The statement listed 22
members, led by a 26-year-old humanities student named Ahmed Mohamed
Ali Gabr.
(Reuters, 4/19/06)
2006 Apr 19, In Guatemala a mob
burned a man and a woman to death after accusing them of several child
abductions in the predominantly Mayan town of Sumpango, where residents
have long claimed youngsters are snatched and the police do nothing.
(AP, 4/19/06)
2006 Apr 19, Militants broke into
two schools in a mainly Shiite district of Baghdad and allegedly killed
a school guard in front of students and a teacher as he arrived. The
attack occurred at the Amna and Shaheed Hamdi elementary schools in
Baghdad's Shaab neighborhood. Police in the neighborhood denied that
the attack occurred.
(AP, 4/19/06)(AP, 4/20/06)
2006 Apr 19, A top Italian court
confirmed the slim electoral victory of center-left economist Romano
Prodi over Premier Silvio Berlusconi, according to Italian television.
(AP, 4/19/06)
2006 Apr 19, Japan defied South
Korean protests and dispatched two ships to begin a maritime survey
near disputed islets between the two nations, raising the stakes in the
territorial standoff.
(AP, 4/19/06)
2006 Apr 19, In Kyrgyzstan Pres.
Bakiyev threatened to expel American troops from the Central Asian
nation unless the US agrees to pay more for its military presence.
(AP, 4/19/06)
2006 Apr 19, The Mexican Congress
enacted a law that allows journalists to protect the confidentiality of
their sources.
(SFC, 4/20/06, p.A3)
2006 Apr 19, In southeastern Nepal
security forces opened fire on thousands of pro-democracy protesters,
killing at least 4 and wounding several others.
(AFP, 4/19/06)
2006 Apr 19, Nigerian militants
killed two people in a car bomb attack on an army barracks in the
southern city of Port Harcourt, extending a four-month onslaught
against the world's eighth largest oil exporter.
(Reuters, 4/20/06)
2006 Apr 19, Hyundai Motor Co.
said its chairman and his son will donate $1.1 billion worth of
personal assets to the public amid a slush fund scandal engulfing South
Korea's largest automaker.
(AP, 4/19/06)
2006 Apr 19, A UN spokesman said
Sudan has refused to grant visas for a UN military assessment mission
planning a UN peacekeeping operation in Darfur.
(Reuters, 4/19/06)
2006 Apr 19, In Venezuela a riot
erupted at a western prison, leaving 10 inmates dead and one wounded. A
day earlier authorities had seized weapons and illegal drugs from gang
members in the jail.
(AP, 4/19/06)
2007 Apr 19, US Senate Majority
Leader Harry Reid offered a bleak assessment of Iraq, saying the war
was "lost," triggering an angry backlash by Republicans.
(AP, 4/19/08)
2007 Apr 19, One-time CEO Joe
Nacchio was found guilty of illegally selling $52 million in stock amid
an accounting scandal that nearly sank Qwest Communications. The jury
acquitted Nacchio of all 23 insider trading counts involving sales
before April 2001 but convicted him on 19 counts tied to sales of 1.33
million shares for $52 million in gross proceeds from April 26 to May
29, 2001.
(AP, 4/20/07)
2007 Apr 19, Luis Posada Carriles
(79), an anti-Castro exile wanted in Cuba for the 1976 bombing of a
Cuban airliner, was freed from a New Mexico jail after he posted
$250,000 bond and his family put up another $100,000. He must wear an
electronic monitoring device while under house arrest at his wife's
home in Miami pending his May 11 trial on immigration fraud charges.
Posada's immigration case was later thrown out by a federal judge, but
the government appealed
(AP, 4/20/07)(AP, 4/19/08)
2007 Apr 19, A Brooklyn jury
convicted Gerald Garson, a former matrimonial court judge, of taking
bribes. His arrest in 2003 prompted investigations into judicial
corruption.
(www.cnn.com/2007/LAW/04/20/judge.cigar.ap/index.html)
2007 Apr 19, A jury in Selmer,
Tenn., convicted Mary Winkler of voluntary manslaughter in the shooting
death of her preacher-husband, Matthew. Winkler spent seven months in
custody, with two months served in a mental facility.
(AP, 4/19/08)
2007 Apr 19, The DJIA rose 4.79 to
a record 12,808.63. Nasdaq fell 5.15 to 2,505.
(SFC, 4/20/07, p.D1)
2007 Apr 19, Helen Robson Walton
(b.1919), widow of Wal-Mart founder Sam Walton, died in Bentonville,
Ark. She had pushed for a profit-sharing plan for employees in the
Wal-Mart’s early days and demanded that the family live in a small,
rural town.
(WSJ, 4/21/07, p.A6)
2007 Apr 19, British aerospace
engine maker Rolls-Royce said that it will withdraw from Sudan, citing
"increasing international humanitarian concerns" in the
violence-scarred region of Darfur.
(AP, 4/19/07)
2007 Apr 19, China jailed Huseyin
Celil (37), a Uighur-Canadian, for life for separatism and terrorism
and warned Canada not to get involved even as Ottawa announced it would
send its foreign minister to discuss the case. Celil was detained in
Uzbekistan in March 2006 when he was visiting relatives and sent to
China last June.
(Reuters, 4/19/07)
2007 Apr 19, In Cuba the Committee
to Protect Journalists denounced the Apr 13 arrest and sentencing of
Oscar Sanchez Madan (44), an independent Cuban journalist, who wrote
critical articles about dissident groups and the hardships of island
life.
(AP, 4/19/07)
2007 Apr 19, European Union
members agreed to new rules to combat racism and hate crimes across the
27-nation bloc, including setting jail sentences against those who deny
or trivialize the Holocaust.
(AP, 4/19/07)
2007 Apr 19, Former Rwandan army
major Bernard Ntuyahaga went on trial in Brussels, charged with the
murder of 10 Belgian peacekeepers and the Rwandan prime minister in
1994.
(AP, 4/19/07)
2007 Apr 19, Iranian engineers
began filling a new dam as archaeologists warned that its reservoir
will flood newly discovered antiquities and could damage Iran's
grandest site, the ancient Persian capital of Persepolis.
(AP, 4/19/07)
2007 Apr 19, A Sunni insurgent
coalition posted Web videos naming the head of al-Qaida in Iraq as
"minister of war" and showing the execution of 20 men it said were
members of the Iraqi military and security forces. A suicide bomber
breached Baghdad's heavy security presence, killing at least 12 people
and wounded 34 in a mostly Shiite district. A US Marine in a rocket
attack on a base south of Baghdad.
(AP, 4/19/07)(AP, 4/20/07)
2007 Apr 19, Israeli Knesset
speaker Dalia Yitzik arrived in Jordan, the second Israeli official to
visit the Arab kingdom this week for talks on ways to revive
Israeli-Palestinian peacemaking.
(AP, 4/19/07)
2007 Apr 19, Kyrgyzstan police
used tear gas and stun grenades to disperse thousands of opposition
protesters who had marched to the president's office in Bishkek to
demand his resignation.
(AP, 4/19/07)
2007 Apr 19, President Sidi
Mohamed Ould Cheikh Abdallahi took over from a military junta as
Mauritania's civilian head of state.
(Reuters, 4/19/07)
2007 Apr 19, North and South Korea
formally opened economic aid talks, after a delay caused by Pyongyang's
insistence that Seoul pledge food assistance to the impoverished nation
despite its failure to live up to a pact on nuclear disarmament.
(AP, 4/19/07)
2007 Apr 19, Chanting "down with
Talibanization," hundreds of human rights activists marched through
Pakistani cities, urging the government to rein in clerics who have
launched an anti-vice campaign in the capital.
(AP, 4/19/07)
2007 Apr 19, The heads of seven
men who were kidnapped by Muslim extremists on a volatile southern
island were delivered to a Philippine army detachment. The men, six
road project workers and a dried-fish factory worker, were kidnapped at
gunpoint in two separate incidents April 16 near the town of Parang. A
group of civilians was ordered to take the heads to Parang by Muslim
rebel commander Habier Malik.
(AP, 4/19/07)
2007 Apr 19, Romania's parliament
voted to suspend the popular president who ushered in economic and
social reforms to help the country join the European Union, accusing
him of abusing his constitutional powers. President Traian Basescu had
earlier vowed to resign "within five minutes" if lawmakers voted to
suspend him. His resignation would prompt a new election within three
months, and he has said he would run again for office. Former president
Nicolae Vacaroiu (1992-1996) became acting president.
(AP, 4/19/07)(Econ, 4/28/07, p.61)
2007 Apr 19, Rwanda filed a case
against France at the UN's highest court in The Hague over a French
request that President Paul Kagame be tried by the Rwanda war crimes
tribunal.
(AP, 4/19/07)
2007 Apr 19, In Somalia fighting
between Ethiopian troops and insurgents left at least 12 people dead in
Mogadishu, while a suicide car bomb exploded at an Ethiopian army base.
(AP, 4/20/07)
2007 Apr 19, A Sudanese rebel
group said government aircraft destroyed a village in northern Darfur
in an air strike.
(Reuters, 4/19/07)
2007 Apr 19, Venezuela launched a
Zeppelin to patrol Caracas, seeking to fight crime in one of Latin
America's most dangerous cities but also raising fears that President
Hugo Chavez could be turning into Big Brother.
(Reuters, 4/19/07)
2007 Apr 19, In Zimbabwe 82
members of the Women of Zimbabwe Arise group were arrested in Bulawayo
during a protest against power outages. 18 of the women were stripped
and jailed for hours.
(SFC, 4/23/07, p.A10)
2008 Apr 19,
In NYC Pope Benedict XVI preached in St. Patrick's cathedral,
assuring priests and nuns that he was close to them as they battled the
damage left by the clergy sex scandal.
(AP, 4/19/08)
2008 Apr 19, Alfonso Lopez
Trujillo (b.1935), Vatican enforcer and former archbishop of Medellin,
died. In 1995, as head of the Pontifical council for the Family, he
published a “Lexicon of Ambiguous and Debatable Terms.”
(Econ, 5/3/08,
p.93)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfonso_L%C3%B3pez_Trujillo)
2008 Apr 19, In southern
Afghanistan a roadside bomb hit a civilian vehicle, killing three
people and wounding another. An Afghan policeman and two Taliban
fighters were killed in a firefight in Panjwayi, Kandahar province.
Afghan police clashed with Iranian forces at the southwestern border
with Iran, leaving one civilian dead and two Iranian officers wounded.
(AP, 4/19/08)(AFP, 4/20/08)(AP, 4/20/08)
2008 Apr 19, In Argentina
President Cristina Fernandez surveyed more than 200 raging brush fires
by air as a thick cloud of smoke covered Buenos Aires for a fifth day.
She vowed to prosecute anyone who lit the blazes that have sent smoke
clouding highways and grounding jetliners.
(AP, 4/19/08)
2008 Apr 19,
In Australia PM Rudd opened a summit of the nation's top minds to
discuss fresh policy ideas for the future.
(Reuters, 4/19/08)
2008 Apr 19,
In Austria 3 men posing as policemen were shot along S1 highway,
one fatally, when they tried to rob two men who turned out to be real
officers.
(AP, 4/19/08)
2008 Apr 19,
In central Bangladesh a speeding bus plunged off a road, killing
at least 18 people and injuring dozens.
(AP, 4/19/08)
2008 Apr 19, In Ecuador flames
started by fireworks swept through a nightclub in Quito, killing at
least 14 people who were unable to escape through the club's padlocked
doors.
(AP, 4/19/08)
2008 Apr 19, In France the charred
body of Sussanna Zetterberg (19), a Swedish teenager, was discovered in
woods outside Paris just hours after she left a nightclub. A postmortem
showed she had been stabbed.
(Reuters, 4/24/08)
2008 Apr 19,
Twelve people died in overnight clashes in Baghdad's Sadr City
district. The US military said one of its attack helicopters located
and hit a mortar crew in Sadr City at 3:30 a.m., killing two gunmen and
destroying the weapon. In the town of Suq al-Shiyoukh a firefight
killed one militant and left six policemen injured. The US military
said an American soldier was killed by a roadside bomb while on patrol
in Salahuddin province.
(AP, 4/19/08)
2008 Apr 19, In northern
Kazakhstan a Soyuz capsule, carrying South Korean bioengineer Yi
So-yeon, American astronaut Peggy Whitson and Russian flight engineer
Yuri Malenchenko, landed 260 miles off its mark.
(AP, 4/19/08)
2008 Apr 19,
Typhoon Neoguri swept through Macau, after it struck Hainan
island south of mainland China the night before.
(AFP, 4/19/08)
2008 Apr 19,
Pakistan's ambassador to Afghanistan, who went missing in
February in the Khyber region, appeared on Arabic television saying he
was being held by the Taliban and urged Islamabad to meet their demands.
(AP, 4/19/08)
2008 Apr 19,
Hamas militants drove two cars laden with explosives to an
Israeli border crossing with Gaza under the cover of morning fog and
detonated one. 4 militants were killed in the huge blasts and exchanges
of fire with at least 13 Israeli soldiers wounded. Israel killed 5
Hamas militants in a series of airstrikes after the group detonated the
explosives.
(AFP, 4/19/08)(AP, 4/20/08)
2008 Apr 19, In southern Spain a
crash of a bus filled with Finnish tourists left nine people dead near
the resort town of Benalmadena. Police arrested the driver of the other
vehicle, who was not seriously injured, after he failed a blood alcohol
test.
(AP, 4/20/08)
2008 Apr 19, In Syria defying US
and Israeli warnings, former President Jimmy Carter met again on with
Khaled Mashaal, the exiled leader of the militant Hamas group, and his
deputy, Moussa Abu Marzouk.
(AP, 4/19/08)
2008 Apr 19,
Zimbabwe held a partial recount of votes from last month's
general election as the opposition accused President Robert Mugabe and
his party of trying to rig their way back to power.
(AFP, 4/19/08)
2009 Apr 19, The annual Goldman
Environmental Prize was awarded to 7 activists from 6 nations. Rizwana
Hasan (40) of Bangladesh was awarded for exposing environmental damage
and exploitative practices used in the country’s ship dismantling
industry; Marc Ona Essangui (45) of Gabon, the founder of Brainforest,
was awarded for exposing secret agreements for a Chinese mine project
that threatened Gabon’s rain forests; Yuyun Ismawati of Indonesia was
awarded for designing environmentally safe waste management systems for
poor Indonesia n communities; Olga Speranskaya (46) of Eco-Accord in
Russia was awarded for her efforts to control and store chemicals in
Russia and former Soviet republics; Wanze Eduards (52) and Hugo Jabini
(44) of Suriname, leaders of the maroon community, were awarded for
their efforts that led to a landmark ruling ending tribal exploitation
by the government. Maria Gunnoe (40) of West Virginia was awarded for
her fight against the practice of removing of the tops of mountains and
filing valleys below with tailings.
(SSFC, 4/19/09, p.A18)
2009 Apr 19, In Arizona Doug
Georgianni (51) was shot and killed while collecting data from a
traffic enforcement camera inside an SUV in Phoenix. The next day
police arrested Thomas Patrick Destories (68) on 1st degree murder
charges.
(WSJ, 4/21/09, p.A7)(WSJ, 4/22/09, p.A6)
2009 Apr 19, In Afghanistan
roadside bomb in Kandahar city killed one police officer and wounded
another.
(AP, 4/20/09)
2009 Apr 19, Algerian President
Abdelaziz Bouteflika vowed to pursue national reconciliation, after
being sworn in for a third five-year term.
(AP, 4/19/09)
2009 Apr 19, Bolivia's leftist
president was headed to the airport when Barack Obama gave him what he
requested the day before: public repudiation of an alleged attempt on
his life.
(AP, 4/19/09)
2009 Apr 19, Author J.G. Ballard
(b.1930), a China-born author and survivor of a Japanese prison camp,
died in London. His vision was so dark and distinctive it was labeled
"Ballardian." His first novel, "The Wind From Nowhere" (1962) sold well
enough for Ballard to become a full-time writer. Other works included
the novels "The Drowned World" and "The Crystal World" and the story
collection "Vermilion Sands." He reached a wide audience with the
autobiographical "Empire of the Sun" (1984), adapted as a film (1987)
by Steven Spielberg.
(AP, 4/20/09)(WSJ, 4/25/09, p.W12)
2009 Apr 19, The Shanghai Motor
Show opened. Porsche kicked off the show by unveiling the Panamera, the
German luxury carmaker's first foray into the sedan segment.
(http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/8007484.stm)
2009 Apr 19, Turkish Cypriot
nationalists won a parliamentary election that could stifle a promising
effort to reunite Cyprus, an ethnically divided island. The right-wing
National Unity Party (UBP), led by Dervish Eroglu, garnered 44% of the
vote. The ruling leftist Republican Turkish Party (CTP), of Turkish
Cypriot leader Mehmet Ali Talat, won 29%.
(AP, 4/19/09)(Econ, 4/25/09, p.56)
2009 Apr 19, In Haiti
clear-plastic ballot boxes were nearly as empty as Port-au-Prince's
unusually deserted streets as few voters turned out for Senate
elections in which candidates from a major populist party were not
allowed to run. Supporters of ousted former President Jean-Bertrand
Aristide, whose Fanmi Lavalas party was disqualified from the election
by Haiti's provisional electoral council, had urged an estimated 4
million registered voters not to participate.
(AP, 4/19/09)
2009 Apr 19, Iraq's parliament
ended months of political paralysis by electing Ayad al-Samarraie, a
prominent Sunni lawmaker, as its new speaker. Armed with pistols
equipped with silencers simultaneously raided two jewelry stores near
one another in northern Baghdad. At least 7 people were killed in the
daylight heist.
(AP, 4/19/09)(SFC, 4/20/09, p.A2)
2009 Apr 19, Italy agreed to
accept 140 migrants stranded aboard a Turkish cargo ship that rescued
them in the Mediterranean, ending a four-day standoff with Malta about
who would take them in.
(AP, 4/20/09)
2009 Apr 19, In Jamaica Stephen
Fray (20) forced his way though Montego Bay airport security and
hijacked a Canadian jet, holding six crew members hostage. He fired his
father's licensed .38-caliber revolver into the air, stole money from
some of the 167 passengers aboard and demanded to be flown off the
island. After 6 hours police and soldiers stormed the aircraft and
captured Fray. On October 8 Fray was sentenced to 20 years in prison.
(AP, 4/20/09)(AP, 10/9/09)
2009 Apr 19, In Pakistan a
suspected US missile attack aimed at Taliban and Al-Qaeda rebels on the
outskirts of Wana, the main town in South Waziristan district along the
border with Afghanistan, killed at least three militants. Pakistan
helicopter gunships raided suspected militant hideouts near Ghiljo in
the semi-autonomous tribal district of Orakzai near the Afghan border
killing 20 insurgents and destroying their positions.
(AFP, 4/19/09)(AFP, 4/20/09)
2009 Apr 19, In central Somalia
two Medecins Sans Frontieres (Doctors Without Borders) workers were
seized by around 25 gunmen traveling in two trucks. Dutch national Kees
Keus (49) and Belgian Jorgen Stassijns (40) were released on April 28.
(AP, 4/19/09)(AP, 4/28/09)
2009 Apr 19, In Sudan 21 people
were killed when a bus they were travelling in collided with a truck
about 25 miles south of Khartoum.
(AFP, 4/19/09)
2009 Apr 19, In Trinidad a Western
Hemisphere summit wrapped up with President Barack Obama hopeful he'd
boosted the image of the US among its friends in the region and perhaps
even made some new ones. Caribbean leaders asked the US to expand a
$1.4 billion program to help Mexico and Central America fight drug
trafficking and organized crime to include aid for their island
nations. The final declaration of the Summit of Americas, which Hugo
Chavez of Venezuela and his leftist bloc refused to sign, turned out to
have just one signatory. It was PM Patrick Manning, host of the
34-nation summit.
(AP, 4/19/09)
2010 Apr 19, Arizona lawmakers
passed a controversial immigration bill requiring police in the state
that borders Mexico to determine if people are in the United States
illegally, a measure critics say is open to racial profiling.
(Reuters, 4/20/10)
2010 Apr 19, San Diego, Ca.,
Sheriff Bill Gore said that 24 documented gang members and eight gang
associates have been booked on suspicion of various offenses following
the two-day multi-agency operation called "Allied Shield."
(AP, 4/19/10)
2010 Apr 19, In Los Angeles Brian
Alexik (34) slipped out the back window of his apartment as detectives
interviewed local tenants regarding a gas odor. Detectives found a
cache of loaded weapons, including an AK-47, next to a mosaic depicting
the CIA seal. They found equipment for counterfeiting money.
High-powered binoculars were trained on the US Federal Reserve building
next door. Alexik had been paying about $4,000 cash for his rent but
had recently stopped paying and was on the verge of getting evicted. He
allegedly had been bleaching low-denomination bills then using a
printer to change the value to $100 or $50. In all, police recovered
about $15,000 in bogus bills. Alexik was caught on June 3.
(AP, 6/27/10)
2010 Apr 19, Winners of the 2010
Goldman Environmental Prizes, known as the "green Nobels," were honored
in San Francisco. Sereivathana Tuy of Cambodia won for his efforts in
stopping farmers from killing elephants. Randall Arauz of Costa Rica
won for his campaign to halt the maiming and killing of sharks for
their fins. Humberto Rios Labrada (47) of Cuba won for his campaign to
shift farming practices toward increasing diversity and reducing
chemical use. Malgorzata Gorska of Poland won for her fight to stop a
highway through the Rospuda Valley, one of Poland’s last vestiges of
untouched wilderness. Thuli Makama of Swaziland won for her efforts in
getting citizen participation on the Swaziland board in charge of the
environment. She helped prompt investigations into allegations of
private park rangers killing suspected poachers in sub-Saharan Africa's
last absolute monarchy. Lynn Henning of the USA won for exposing
polluting practices of livestock ranches in Michigan.
(AP, 4/19/10)(SFC, 4/19/10, p.A1)
2010 Apr 19, In Oregon Jorge
Ortiz-Oliva (40), the kingpin of one of the biggest drug organizations
in Oregon history, was sentenced to 30 years in prison.
(AP, 4/20/10)
2010 Apr 19, In Tennessee a man
opened fire outside the Parkwest Medical Center in Knoxville killing a
woman and injuring 2 others before committing suicide.
(SFC, 4/20/10, p.A6)
2010 Apr 19, The Afghan
intelligence service said security forces have arrested nine members of
a terrorist cell and seized nearly a quarter-ton of explosives, foiling
a plot to stage suicide bombings and other attacks in Kabul. In
southern Kandahar province, a remote-controlled bomb planted on a
donkey exploded near a police checkpoint, killing three children aged
11, 12 and 15. An American soldier was killed and several wounded in an
explosion at an Afghan National Army facility just outside Kabul. 3
students and a police officer were killed in crossfire between foreign
soldiers and insurgents in eastern Khost province. Insurgents killed
Azizullah Yarmal, the vice mayor of the southern city of Kandahar, as
he prayed at a mosque.
(AP, 4/19/10)(AFP, 4/20/10)(AP, 4/20/10)(AP, 4/21/10)
2010 Apr 19, Algeria's Energy
Minister Chakib Khelil said 11 major natural gas exporting countries
have decided to work towards a long term plan to index prices with oil.
(AFP, 4/20/10)
2010 Apr 19, In Australia Carl
Williams, known as the baby-faced killer, was killed in Victoria
state's highest security prison by a fellow inmate who attacked him
with part of an exercise bike.
(www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2010/04/19/2876669.htm)(AFP, 4/30/10)
2010 Apr 19, The chief of British
Airways said test flights have proven that the blanket restrictions EU
governments have imposed on flights because of volcanic ash are
unnecessary. The airline industry said it has lost at least $1 billion
due to five days of closed airports. A senior Western diplomat says
several NATO F-16 fighters suffered engine damage after flying through
the volcanic ash cloud covering large parts of Europe.
(AP, 4/19/10)
2010 Apr 19, China’s government
passed amendments revising the Border Quarantine Law as well as China's
Law on Control of the Entry and Exit of Aliens. The changes were
effective immediately. This lifted a two-decade-old ban on people with
HIV and AIDS from entering the country, just as it is about to welcome
the world to the Shanghai Expo on May 1.
(AP, 4/28/10)
2010 Apr 19, In western India
police found 12 fetuses dumped near a garbage bin in Ahmadabad, the
main city of Gujarat state.
(AP, 4/19/10)
2010 Apr 19, Indonesia’s
Constitutional Court ruled 8-1 that a 45-year-old law banning religious
blasphemy was constitutional. The law limited officially recognized
religions to six: Buddhism, Catholicism, Confucianism, Hinduism, Islam
and Protestantism. Up to 5 years in prison could be imposed for anyone
found guilty of heresy.
(SFC, 4/20/10, p.A2)
2010 Apr 19, In Iran a senior
adviser said President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has approved the location
for a new uranium enrichment facility Iran plans to begin building over
the next year.
(AP, 4/19/10)
2010 Apr 19, In Iran the
semi-official Fars news agency reported that the Press Supervisory
Board ordered the pro-reform Bahar daily closed for "spreading doubts
on fundamental issues such as elections. The official IRNA news agency
reported that Iran has sentenced prominent political activists Mohsen
Mirdamadi, Mostafa Tajzadeh and Davood Soleimani to six years in prison
each for involvement in the country's post-election turmoil. They were
convicted of spreading propaganda against Iran.
(AP, 4/19/10)
2010 Apr 19, An Iraqi panel
investigating election complaints ordered a recount of more than 2.5
million votes cast in Baghdad during the March 7 election, agreeing to
a demand by PM Nouri al-Maliki that could swing the outcome in his
favor.
(AP, 4/19/10)
2010 Apr 19, Israeli Defense
minister Ehud Barak said Israel must recognize that the world will not
put up with decades more of Israeli rule over the Palestinian people.
(AP, 4/19/10)
2010 Apr 19, The Nigerian army
averted an attack by suspected Muslim extremists on a mainly Christian
village in the flashpoint central Plateau State, killing two gunmen. 2
Christian farmers were killed and two others went missing in fresh
attacks by suspected Muslim-Fulani nomads in central Plateau State.
(AFP, 4/19/10)
2010 Apr 19, The Chosun Sinbo, a
pro-North Korean newspaper published in Tokyo, said mobile phone
subscriptions are spreading fast in North Korea and could number
600,000 by the end of this year. In December 2008, North Korea
introduced a 3G mobile phone network in a joint venture with
Cairo-based Orascom Telecom.
(AFP, 4/19/10)
2010 Apr 19, In Pakistan at least
23 people including police officials were killed in a suicide bombing
in the Qissa Khawani Bazaar in Peshawar. Hours earlier a boy (8) was
killed and at least ten people were injured in a bombing outside a high
school in Peshawar. A later explosion Boharh Bazaar slightly damaged a
parked car and two shops.
(AP, 4/19/10)
2010 Apr 19, In Puerto Rico the
naked body of Ashley Santiago Ocasio (31), born as Juan Antonio), was
found at his home in the town of Corozal. Rico Ashley Santiago Ocasio
(31), a transgender beauty salon owner with high cheekbones and a flair
for fashion, had been shot in the head. Her car was missing and there
were no signs of a break-in.
(www.dosmanzanas.com/tag/ashley-santiago)(AP,
4/25/10)
2010 Apr 19, The Slovenian
parliament ratified a border arbitration deal with Croatia vital for
Zagreb's EU membership bid, but the deal still faces a much tougher
test at a June referendum in Slovenia.
(Reuters, 4/19/10)
2010 Apr 19, In Venezuela former
boxing champ Edwin Valero committed suicide in his jail cell just hours
after he was arrested in his wife's killing.
(AP, 4/19/10)
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