Today in History - April 29
Return to home
1289 Apr 29,
Qala'un, the Sultan of Egypt, captured Tripoli.
(HN, 4/29/98)
1429 Apr 29, Joan of Arc led
French troops to victory over the English at Orleans during the
Hundred Years’ War. Legend has it that King Charles VII of France
had a suit of armor made for Joan at a cost of 100 war horses. In
1996 a suit of armor was found and proposed to be Joan’s armor.
(ATC, p.107) (SFC, 6/19/96, p.A10) (AP,
4/29/98)(HN, 4/29/98)
1522 Apr 29, Emperor Charles V
named Frans van Holly inquisitor-gen of Netherlands.
(MC, 4/29/02)
1535 Apr 29, John Houghton,
English, was executed.
(MC, 4/29/02)
1550 Apr 29, Emperor Charles V
gave inquisitors additional authority.
(MC, 4/29/02)
1553 Apr 29, A Flemish woman
introduced to England the practice of starching linen.
(MC, 4/29/02)
1584 Apr 29, Melchior Teschner,
composer, was born.
(MC, 4/29/02)
1623 Apr 29, 11 Dutch ships
departed for the conquest of Peru.
(MC, 4/29/02)
1624 Apr 29, Louis XIII
appointed Cardinal Richelieu chief minister of the Royal Council.
(HN, 4/29/98)
1636 Apr 29, Esaias Reusner,
composer, was born.
(MC, 4/29/02)
1661 Apr 29, Chinese Ming
dynasty occupied Taiwan.
(HN, 4/29/98)
1667 Apr 29, John Arbuthnot
(d.1735), Scottish mathematician, was born. With Alexander Pope,
Jonathan Swift, John Gay and Thomas Parnell he founded the
Scriblerus Club in 1714, whose purpose was to satirize bad poetry
and pedantry. The club was short-lived.
(http://www-gap.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/Mathematicians/Arbuthnot.html)
(MC, 4/29/02)
1672 Apr 29, King Louis XIV of
France invaded the Netherlands.
(HN, 4/29/99)
1676 Apr 29, Michiel A. de
Ruyter (69), Dutch rear-admiral, (Newport), was killed.
(MC, 4/29/02)
1707 Apr 29, English-Scottish
parliament accepted Act of Union and formed Great Britain. [see May
1]
(MC, 4/29/02)
1727 Apr 29, Jean-Georges
Noverre, French dancer, choreographer (ballet d'action), was born.
(MC, 4/29/02)
1745 Apr 29, Oliver Ellsworth,
third Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, was born.
(HN, 4/29/98)
1769 Apr 29, The Duke of
Wellington (1769-1852) was born.
(CFA, '96, p.44)
1781 Apr 29, French fleet
stopped Britain from seizing the Cape of Good Hope.
(MC, 4/29/02)
1783 Apr 29, David Cox
(d.1857), English watercolorist, was born. He books included
“Treatise on Landscape Painting” (1813).
(SFC, 4/29/97,
p.B5)(www.chrisbeetles.com/pictures/artists/Cox_David/Cox_David.htm)
1784 Apr 29, Premiere of
Mozart's Sonata in B flat, K454 (Vienna).
(MC, 4/29/02)
1798 Apr 28, Joseph Haydn's
oratorio "The Creation" was rehearsed in Vienna, Austria, before an
invited audience.
(AP, 4/29/07)
1813 Apr 29, Rubber was
patented.
(HN, 4/29/98)
1834 Apr 29, Charles Darwin's
expedition saw the top of Andes from Patagonia.
(MC, 4/29/02)
1842 Apr 29, Karl Millocker,
conductor, composer (Beggar Student), was born in Austria.
(MC, 4/29/02)
1852 Apr 29, The first edition
of Peter Mark Roget’s Thesaurus was published. Roget (1779-1869) was
a London physician of French-Swiss ancestry who began to collect and
organize English words to improve his public speaking.
(HN, 4/29/98)(WSJ, 9/3/98, p.B1)
1854 Apr 29, Henri Poincare
(1912), French mathematician, astronomer, philosopher, was born. He
investigated the idea of space and led to the notion that space is
too complex for mathematics. Rather space is an assumption, and it
can be described and controlled only so far as we assume it. In
other words there is no such thing as space. Instead, there are as
many spaces as there are people... for every person can assume an
indefinite number of different spaces.
(V.D.-H.K.p.272)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henri_Poincar%C3%A9)
1855 Apr 29, Anatol K. Liadov,
Russian composer (Bewitched Lake) [OS], was born.
(MC, 4/29/02)
1856 Apr 29, During the Tule
River War Yokut Indians repelled a second attack by the 'Petticoat
Rangers,' a band of civilian Indian fighters-some wearing body
armor-at Four Creeks, California. The Yokuts lived along the shores
of Tulare Lake in the Central Valley, which disappeared by 1900 due
to water diversion and farming.
(HN, 4/29/00)(WW, 6/99)
1856 Apr 29, A peace treaty
between England and Russia was signed.
(HN, 4/29/98)
1858 Apr 29, Austrian troops
invaded Piedmont (Italy).
(HN, 4/29/98)
1859 Apr 29, In the Italian
Campaign some 150,000 Piedmontese troops invaded Piedmontese
territory as the French army raced to support them and the Austrian
army mobilized to oppose them.
(HN, 4/29/00)
1860 Apr 29, Lorado Taft, US
sculptor (Black Hawk), was born.
(MC, 4/29/02)
1861 Apr 29, The Maryland House
of Delegates voted against seceding from the Union.
(AP, 4/29/98)(HN, 4/29/98)
1861 Apr 29, In Australia the
Burke party shot one of their last 2 camels after it got stuck in
mud. Supplies were divided between the 3 men and one camel.
(ON, 12/01, p.4)
1862 Apr 29, Forts Philip and
Jackson surrendered to Union forces under Admiral Farragut outside
New Orleans.
(AP, 4/29/98)(HN, 4/29/98)
1862 Apr 29, 100,000 federal
troops prepared to march into Corinth, Miss.
(MC, 4/29/02)
1863 Apr 29, William Randolph
Hearst (d.1951), American newspaper publisher, was born. He helped
launch the Spanish-American War. "Any man who has the brains to
think and the nerve to act for the benefit of the people of the
country is considered a radical by those who are content with
stagnation and willing to endure disaster." In 1998 Ben Proctor
authored “William Randolph Hearst – The Early Years, 1863-1910.”
(HN, 4/29/99)(SFEM, 12/12/98, p.8)(AP, 5/1/99)
1868 Apr 29, The US government
and the Sioux Indians signed another treaty that ended Red Cloud’s
War, but it did not last long. The treaty at Fort Laramie (Wyoming)
made the Black Hills part of the Great Sioux Reservation.
(www.suite101.com/lesson.cfm/17638/1146/8)(Econ,
8/2/08, p.37)(AH, 6/03, p.36)
1877 Apr 29, Tad Dorgen,
cartoonist and columnist, was born.
(HN, 4/29/01)
1879 Apr 29, Sir Thomas
Beecham, founder of London Philharmonic, was born.
(HN, 4/29/98)
1893 Apr 29, Harold C. Urey,
physicist (Deuterium, Nobel 1934), was born in Indiana.
(MC, 4/29/02)
1894 Apr 29, The Commonweal of
Christ, called Coxey's Army, arrived in Wash, DC, 500 strong to
protest unemployment; Coxey was arrested for trespassing at Capitol.
(MC, 4/29/02)
1895 Apr 29, Malcolm Sargent,
English conductor (Promenade Concerts), was born.
(MC, 4/29/02)
1899 Apr 29, Edward Kennedy
"Duke" Ellington (d.1975), jazz composer and musician was born in
Washington D.C. His compositions included "Take the A Train."
(HN, 4/4/98)(SFEC, 2/21/99, DB p.32) (AP,
4/29/99)
1901 Apr 29, Hirohito, emperor
of Japan (1926-1989), was born.
(HN, 4/29/99)(MC, 4/29/02)
1901 Apr 29, In the 27th
Kentucky Derby: Jimmy Winkfield on His Eminence won in 2:07.75.
(MC, 4/29/02)
1901 Apr 29, Anti Semitic riot
took place in Budapest.
(MC, 4/29/02)
1907 Apr 29, Fred Zinnemann
(d.3/14/97), Hollywood film director, was born in Vienna. His films
included “A Hatful of Rain,” “The Sundowners,” “The Nun’s Story,”
“From Here to Eternity,” “Julia” and “A Man for All Seasons” (1966)
with Paul Scofield.
(SFC, 3/15/97, p.A19)(AP, 4/29/07)
1909 Apr 29, Tom Ewell, [S
Yewell Tompkins], actor (Tom Ewell Show, 7 Yr Itch), was born in Ky.
(MC, 4/29/02)
1912 Apr 29, Henri Poincare
(d.1912), French mathematician, astronomer, philosopher, died. He
investigated the idea of space and led to the notion that space is
too complex for mathematics. In 2002 Russian mathematician Grigory
Perelman solved the 1904 Poincare Conjecture. In 2007 Donal O’Shea
authored “The Poincare Conjecture.”
(V.D.-H.K.p.272)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henri_Poincar%C3%A9)
1913 Apr 29, Gideon Sundback of
Hoboken patented an all-purpose zipper. The name was coined by B.F.
Goodrich, who used it to fasten rubber galoshes. [see Apr 21]
(HN, 4/29/98)(SFEC, 5/23/99, p.B7)
1916 Apr 29, The Easter Rising
in Dublin collapsed as Irish nationalists surrendered to British
authorities. Irish nationalists set post office on fire in Dublin
during Easter Uprising.
(AP, 4/29/98)(HN, 4/29/98)(MC, 4/29/02)
1918 Apr 29, America's WWI Ace
of Aces, Eddie Rickenbacker, scored his first victory with the help
of Captain James Norman Hall. He eventually racked up 26 victories
before the end of the war.
(HN, 4/29/99)
1919 Apr 29, A parcel bomb
aimed at US Senator Thomas Hardwick and designed to explode on May
day, exploded unsuccessfully. It was one of nearly 30 devices sent
by anarchist groups to politicians, judges and businessmen.
(Econ, 11/6/10, p.74)
1922 Apr 29, A 100-mile-long
battle raged near Peking, China.
(HN, 4/29/98)
1924 Apr 29, Open revolt broke
out in Santa Clara, Cuba.
(HN, 4/29/98)
1927 Apr 29, Construction of
the Spirit of St Louis was completed. B.F. Mahoney was the ‘mystery
man’ behind the Ryan Aeronautical Company that built Lindbergh’s
Spirit of St. Louis. Engineer Donald Hall designed the $10,580 plane
to carry 400 gallons of fuel.
(HN, 4/29/98)(ON, 2/08, p.1)
1927 Apr 29, With concern that
Mississippi flood waters could overflow the city of New Orleans the
levee at Caernarvon, Louisiana, was dynamited downstream of the
city, with the intention of increasing the speed of the river as it
passed New Orleans and hence reducing the height of the anticipated
flood wave.
(www.rms.com/publications/1927_MississippiFlood.pdf)
1930 Apr 29, The film “All
Quiet on the Western Front,” based on Erich Maria Remarque's novel
“Im Western Nichts Neues,” premiered.
(HN, 4/29/01)
1930 Apr 29, Telephone
connection England-Australia went into service.
(MC, 4/29/02)
1933 Apr 29, Constantine Cavafy
(b.1863), Greek poet, died in Alexandria, Egypt. The 1996 Greek film
"Cavafy" was a profile of the Greek homosexual poet, and a winner of
Greece’s National Film Award for best feature of the year. Cavafy
spent 30 years working as a clerk in the Ministry of Irrigation. In
2006 “The Collected Poems of C.P. Cavafy,” translated by Aliki
Barstone, was published.
(SFC, 6/18/98, p.E4)(SSFC, 6/24/01, DB
p.64)(www.kirjasto.sci.fi/kafavis.htm)
1935 Apr 29, It was reported
that live rabbits were being sewn onto dog-track racing machines in
the San Francisco Bay Area counties of San Mateo and Santa Clara.
(SSFC, 4/25/10, DB p.54)
1936 Apr 29, Zubin Mehta,
conductor (NY Philharmonic 1976), was born in Bombay, India.
(MC, 4/29/02)
1939 Apr 29, Whitestone Bridge,
connecting Bronx and Queens, opened.
(MC, 4/29/02)
1940 Apr 29, Robert Sherwood's
"There Shall be No Night," premiered in NYC.
(MC, 4/29/02)
1940 Apr 29, Norwegian King
Haakon and government fled to England.
(MC, 4/29/02)
1942 Apr 29, Japanese troops
marched into Lashio and cut off the Burma Road.
(MC, 4/29/02)
1943 Apr 29, Noel Coward's
"Present Laughter," premiered in London.
(MC, 4/29/02)
1943 Apr 29, Internationally
prominent theologian Dietrich Bonhoffer was arrested by Nazis.
(MC, 4/29/02)
1943 Apr 29, Karl Adrian
Wohlfart (68), composer, died.
(MC, 4/29/02)
1945 Apr 29, American soldiers
liberated 31,601 in the Dachau, Germany, concentration camp; that
same day, Adolf Hitler married Eva Braun (b.1912) and designated
Adm. Karl Doenitz his successor. Hitler and Braun committed suicide
the next day. In 2011 Heike B. Gortemaker authored “Eva Braun: Life
With Hitler.”
(AP, 4/29/98)(HN, 4/29/98)(SSFC, 10/30/11, p.F5)
1945 Apr 29, The German Army in
Italy surrendered unconditionally to the Allies. Venice and Mestre
were captured by the Allies. In 1956 Norman Kogan, historian at the
Univ of Connecticut, wrote "Italy and the Allies."
(HN, 4/29/99)(SFC, 9/21/99, p.E4)(MC, 4/29/02)
1945 Apr 29, Japanese army
evacuated Rangoon.
(MC, 4/29/02)
1946 Apr 29, In Japan 28 former
leaders were indicted in Tokyo as war criminals; seven ended up
being sentenced to death.
(HN, 4/29/98)(AP, 4/29/07)
1947 Apr 29, Irving Fisher
(b.1867), American economist, died. His Fisher hypothesis is the
proposition that the real interest rate is independent of monetary
measures, especially the nominal interest rate.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irving_Fisher)
1951 Apr 29, Ludwig
Wittgenstein (b.1889), Austrian-born philosopher, died in Cambridge,
England. His “Tractatus Logico-Philosophicos” (1921) purported to
address all of philosophy’s major problems. His posthumous work was
edited by Elizabeth Uncombed (d.2001), and included his
"Philosophical Investigations" (1953).
(SFC, 1/16/01, p.C4)(WSJ, 2/28/09,
p.W10)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ludwig_Wittgenstein)
1957 Apr 29, The 1st military
nuclear power plant was dedicated at Fort Belvoir, Va.
(MC, 4/29/02)
1958 Apr 29, Daniel Day-Lewis,
actor (Last of the Mohicans, My Left Foot), was born in England.
(MC, 4/29/02)
1958 Apr 29, Michelle Pfeiffer,
actress, was born in Midway City, Calif.
(MC, 4/29/02)
1959 Apr 29, Premier Castro
denied any Cuban role, direct or indirect, in a Panamanian invasion.
(DBD, p.824)
1961 Apr 29, ABC's "Wide World
of Sports made its debut.
(SFEC, 5/24/98, DB p.38)(MC, 4/29/02)
1961 Apr 29, The diesel-powered
aircraft carrier USS Kitty Hawk was commissioned at the Philadelphia
Naval Shipyard. In 1976 the ship was drydocked in Bremerton, Wa.,
for a year-long overhaul.
(AP,
8/5/05)(www.kittyhawk.navy.mil/history/history.html)
1962 Apr 29, In the 16th Tony
Awards: Man For All Seasons and How to Succeed won.
(MC, 4/29/02)
1965 Apr 29, Seattle
experienced an earthquake. 7 people were killed and damage was
estimated at $12.5 million.
(http://neic.usgs.gov)
1965 Apr 29, Australian
government announced it would send troops to Vietnam.
(MC, 4/29/02)
1968 Apr 29, The counterculture
musical "Hair" opened on Broadway following limited engagements
off-Broadway.
(AP, 4/29/08)
1968 Apr 29, Dr. Ralph
Abernathy led The Poor People's Campaign in Washington D.C., less
than a month after the assassination of King. It concluded on June
23. The campaign was for reforms in welfare, employment and housing
policies. Abernathy was the successor to Rev. Martin Luther King as
head of the Southern Christian Leadership conference.
(HNQ, 1/19/99)
1970 Apr 29, Andre Agassi,
tennis star and winner of an Olympic gold medal in 1996, was born in
Las Vegas, Nev.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andre_Agassi)
1970 Apr 29, Uma Thurman,
actress, was born in Boston, Mass. Her films included “The
Adventures of Baron Munchausen” (1988) and “Pulp Fiction” (1994).
(http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000235/)
1970 Apr 29, In Australia a
large wooden log was placed on the winding track in front of a royal
train carrying Queen Elizabeth and her husband Prince Philip to the
town of Orange. The train did not derail as it was traveling too
slowly. The incident was only revealed in 2009 by a retired
detective.
(AFP, 1/28/09)
1970 Apr 29, 50,000 US and
South Vietnamese troops invaded Cambodia [see Apr 30].
(SFEC, 4/23/00,
p.A19)(www.democraticcentral.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=1972)
1971 Apr 29, Bill Graham
announced the close of the Fillmore in SF and the Fillmore East in
NYC along with his retirement from concert promotion. He was angered
by his perceived greed of rock bands and the anger and distrust of
his audience. He soon relented and put on shows with Led Zeppelin,
the Allman Brothers, Pink Floyd, the Who and the Grateful Dead. The
final concert at Fillmore East took place on June 27.
(SFC,12/13/97,
p.A15)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fillmore_East)
1974 Apr 29, President Nixon
announced he was releasing edited transcripts of some secretly made
White House tape recordings related to Watergate.
(AP, 4/29/98)
1975 Apr 29, US forces pulled
out of Vietnam. The U.S. embassy in Vietnam was evacuated as North
Vietnamese forces fought their way into Saigon. Just hours after the
last American was lifted out by helicopter from the roof of the
embassy, James Reston of the NY Times issued an apologia for the
press. NVA shell Tan Son Nhut air base in Saigon, killing two U.S.
Marines at the compound gate. Conditions then deteriorate as South
Vietnamese civilians loot the air base. President Ford orders
Operation Frequent Wind, the helicopter evacuation of 7000 Americans
and South Vietnamese from Saigon. At Tan Son Nhut, frantic civilians
begin swarming the helicopters. The evacuation is then shifted to
the walled-in American embassy, which is secured by U.S. Marines in
full combat gear. But the scene there also deteriorates, as
thousands of civilians attempt to get into the compound. Three U.S.
aircraft carriers stand by off the coast of Vietnam to handle
incoming Americans and South Vietnamese refugees. Many South
Vietnamese pilots also land on the carriers, flying American-made
helicopters which are then pushed overboard to make room for more
arrivals.
(WSJ, 10/5/98,
p.A21)(www.historyplace.com/unitedstates/vietnam/index-1969.html)
1975 Apr 29, The last four
Americans killed in action in Vietnam included two Marines: Lance
Corporal Darwin Judge of Marshalltown, Iowa, and Corporal Charles
McMahon Jr. of Woburn, Massachusetts, by rocket and artillery
bombardment following an air raid on Tan Son Nhut. Two Marine
helicopter pilots died when their chopper crashed into the sea near
an aircraft carrier taking part in the evacuation: Captain William
Craig Nystul of Coronado, California, and First Lieutenant Michael
John Shea of El Paso, Texas.
(www.dixiedavis.com/michaelshea.htm)
1977 Apr 29, Donald Evans
(b.1945), American artist, died in a fire in the Netherlands. His
work included the creation of postage stamp series for imaginary
countries.
(WSJ, 2/5/03,
p.D10)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donald_Evans_(artist))
1979 Apr 29, Democracy was
restored in Ecuador. Jaime Roldos Aguilera was elected as president
in a 2nd round of voting. He was killed in plane crash in 1981.
(AP, 4/21/05)(Econ, 10/14/06,
p.39)(www.binghamton.edu/cdp/era/elections/ecu79pres.html)
1980 Apr 29, Alfred Joseph
Hitchcock (b.1899), British director (Psycho, Birds), died in Los
Angeles.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfred_Hitchcock)
1981 Apr 29, Truck driver Peter
Sutcliffe (b.1946) admitted in a London court to being the
"Yorkshire Ripper," the killer of 13 women in northern England
during a five-year period. He was convicted on May 22 and sentenced
to serve a minimum of 30 years.
(AP, 4/29/00)(AP, 1/13/04)
1981 Apr 29, In Sydney,
Australia, 16 patients died in a nursing home fire in suburban
Sylvania Heights.
(AP, 11/19/11)(http://tinyurl.com/6sq3xp8)
1982 Apr 29, The Dance
Committee of the International Theatre Institute, UNESCO, created
International Dance Day to be celebrated every year on the 29th of
April. The aim of International Dance Day is to celebrate dance as
an art form and to bring people together in peace and friendship
through the shared language of dance. The date was chosen in
commemoration of the death of the greatly influential dancer,
choreographer and innovator Jean-Georges Noverre (1727-1810).
(http://www.pch.gc.ca/arts/dance/danse_e.htm)
1982 Apr 29, Alfredo Magana was
elected president of El Salvador.
(www.cedmagic.com/museum/press/ced-timeline-1982.html)
1983 Apr 29, Harold Washington
was sworn in as the first black mayor of Chicago.
(AP, 4/29/98)(HN, 4/29/98)
1986 Apr 29, Some 350,000 books
were damaged by fire and water in the LA Central Library.
(http://tinyurl.com/y3ssgk)
1986 Apr 29, Seamus McElwaine
(25), Irish IRA-terrorist, was killed by undercover members of the
British Army in County Fermanagh.
(http://cain.ulst.ac.uk/sutton/chron/1986.html)
1988 Apr 29, Molloko, the 1st
California condor chick conceived in captivity, was born in the San
Diego Zoo.
(www.highbeam.com/library/docFree.asp?DOCID=1G1:6703253)
1988 Apr 29, McDonald's
announced it would open its first restaurants in Moscow.
(AP, 4/29/98)
1988 Apr 29, James McCracken
(61), US tenor, died.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_McCracken)
1988 Apr 29, In Pakistan Pres.
Zia-ul Haq dismissed the government Mohammed Khan Junejo on charges
of incompetence.
(SFC, 1/30/97, p.A9)
1989 Apr 29, In a sign that
student demonstrators in Beijing had gained influence, China's
government conducted informal talks with leaders of the democracy
protests, and then televised the discussions.
(AP, 4/29/99)
1990 Apr 29, The space shuttle
Discovery landed safely at Edwards Air Force Base in California
after a mission which included deploying the Hubble Space Telescope.
(AP, 4/29/00)
1991 Apr 29, US troops
continued airlifting Iraqi refugees from a camp in southern Iraq to
Saudi Arabia.
(AP, 4/29/01)
1991 Apr 29, George Sperti
(91), inventor of Preparation H, died.
(www.msu.edu/~daggy/cop/bkofdead/obits-so.htm)
1991 Apr 29-1991 Apr 31, A
cyclone in Bangladesh killed an estimated 131,000 people. 9 million
were left homeless. Thousands of survivors died from hunger and
water borne disease.
(http://tinyurl.com/duk2u)(www.emergency-management.net/cyclone.htm)
1991 Apr 29, More than 100
people were killed and some 100,000 were left homeless when a strong
earthquake struck Soviet Georgia.
(AP, 4/29/01)
1992 Apr 29, "Falsettos" opened
at John Golden Theater in NYC for 487 performances.
(www.ibdb.com/production.asp?ID=4686)
1992 Apr 29, Exxon executive
Sidney Reso was kidnapped outside his Morris Township, N.J., home by
Arthur Seale, a former Exxon security official, and Seale's wife,
Irene, and held for ransom; Reso died in captivity. Arthur Seale is
serving a 95-year prison term, while his wife is serving a 20-year
sentence.
(AP, 4/29/02)
1992 Apr 29, Deadly rioting
erupted in Los Angeles after a jury in Simi Valley acquitted
four Los Angeles police officers of almost all state charges in the
videotaped beating of Rodney King. White truck driver Reginald Denny
was beaten by a mob in south Central LA angered by the acquittal of
4 police officers caught on video tape in the beating of black
motorist Rodney King. Three days of violence ensued with 55 people
killed, 2,300 injured and an estimated $1 billion [$717 million] in
property damages. Rioters tore through the city following the not
guilty verdicts on state charges for Los Angeles Police Department
Sergeant Stacey C. Koon and officer Laurence M. Powell for beating
Rodney King. 1093 buildings were damaged or destroyed. Of these, 764
retail stores were owned by Koreans. The US Congress later
authorized $1 billion to revitalize south central Los Angeles.
(TMC, 1994, p.1992)(SFC, 6/14/96, p. A4)(SFC,
1/1/97, p.A16)(SFC, 4/29/97, p.A8)(WSJ, 6/4/97, p.CA1)(AP,
4/29/98)(SFC, 2/5/00, p.A3)
1993 Apr 29, Britain's Queen
Elizabeth II announced that, for the first time, Buckingham Palace
would be opened to tourists to help raise money for repairs at
fire-damaged Windsor Castle.
(AP, 4/29/98)
1994 Apr 29, Israel and the PLO
signed an agreement in Paris granting Palestinians broad authority
to set taxes, control trade and regulate banks under self-rule in
the Gaza Strip and Jericho.
(AP, 4/29/99)
1994 Apr 29, A ferry boat
capsized near Mombasa, Kenya, and 272 people were killed.
(http://65.18.147.106/archive/102002/msg00163.html)
1994 Apr 29, Hundreds of
thousands of refugees fleeing the terror of ethnic massacres in
Rwanda were pouring into Tanzania.
(AP, 4/29/99)
1995 Apr 29, 10 days after the
blast, rescue workers in Oklahoma City continued the grim task of
searching for bodies and pulling debris from the Alfred P. Murrah
Federal Building, where 168 people died.
(AP, 4/29/00)
1996 Apr 29, "Rent" opened at
Nederlander Theater in NYC.
(www.broadway.com/_grp/groups_show.aspx?SI=1257)
1996 Apr 29, Opening ceremonies
were held for The Stratosphere Tower of Robert Stupak in Las Vegas.
The structure rises 1,149 feet. The last 149 feet consist of a
needle perched atop a swollen bulb.
(SFC, 5/26/96, T-3)
1997 Apr 29, The Global
Anti-Golf Movement, GAG’M, proclaimed a World No-Golf Day.
(Hem., 1/97, p.47)
1997 Apr 29, Staff Sgt. Delmar
Simpson, a drill instructor at Aberdeen Proving Ground in Maryland,
was convicted of raping six female trainees. He was sentenced to 25
years in prison and dishonorably discharged.
(AP, 4/29/07)
1997 Apr 29, A worldwide treaty
to ban chemical weapons went into effect.
(AP, 4/29/98)
1997 Apr 29, Astronaut Jerry
Linenger and cosmonaut Vasily Tsibliyev went on the first
U.S.-Russian space walk.
(AP, 4/29/98)
1997 Apr 29, It was reported
that a monster fountain of antimatter was discovered erupting from
the core of the Milky Way. Observations from the Compton Gamma Ray
Observatory launched by NASA in 1991 made the observations since
last November.
(SFC, 4/29/97, p.A5)
1997 Apr 29, Newspaper
columnist Mike Royko died in Chicago at age 64.
(WSJ, 4/30/97, p.A1)(AP, 4/29/98)
1997 Apr 29, In Brazil a court
injunction stopped the privatization of the Companhia Vale do Rio
Doce, the huge state-owned mining company. Some 1,000 demonstrators
protested the attempted privatization in downtown Rio de Janeiro.
(SFC, 4/30/97, p.A11)
1997 Apr 29, In China at
Rongjiawan in Hunan province a train crash killed at least 67 and
injured 260 people.
(WSJ, 4/30/97, p.A1)
1997 Sep 29, The French oil
company Total signed a $2 billion contract to explore for gas in
Iran despite warnings from the Clinton administration.
(SFC, 9/30/97, p.A14)
1997 Apr 29, In Indonesia
police broke up a demonstration and 5 activists were given 7-13 year
prison terms on charges of subversion.
(SFC, 4/29/97, p.A10)
1998 Apr 29, The United States,
Canada, and Mexico agreed to eliminate tariffs on items accounting
for $1 billion in trade at a meeting in Paris of the North American
Free Trade Agreement.
(AP, 4/29/99)
1998 Apr 29, The US and
European powers decided to impose new sanctions and agreed to freeze
the assets of Yugoslavia. A ban on investments would follow in 10
days if security police was not withdrawn from Kosova.
(SFC, 4/30/98, p.A8)
1998 Apr 29, The US Supreme
Court called for ending judicial delays of execution in a 5-4 vote.
This reversed the US Court of Appeals Aug, 1997, reprieve for Thomas
Thompson, accused of the 1981 murder of Ginger Fleischli in
California and reinstated his death penalty.
(SFC, 4/30/98, p.A1)
1998 Apr 29, In England it was
reported that Nicholas van Hoogstraten was building the largest and
most expensive house of the century in Sussex, named Hamilton Place
at a cost of $50 million. The palace was to include a gallery for
his French furniture and a mausoleum for his future.
(WSJ, 4/29/98, p.A20)
1998 Apr 29, British writer
Douglas Adams, author of the 1979 classic “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to
the Galaxy,” began marketing his CD-ROM game “Starship Titanic.”
(SFC, 4/29/98, p.E1)
1998 April 29, Israel formally
opened the celebration of the 50th anniversary of its founding.
According to the Gregorian calendar, the anniversary fell on May
14th.
(WSJ, 4/30/98, p.A1)(AP, 4/29/03)
1998 Apr 29, In the Philippines
Imelda Marco withdrew from the presidential race.
(SFC, 4/30/98, p.A8)
1999 Apr 29, Rev. Jesse Jackson
and a delegation of religious leaders arrived in Belgrade to talk
with Pres. Milosevic concerning the release of 3 captured Americans.
(SFC, 4/30/99, p.A13)
1999 Apr 29, The US decided to
sell an early-warning radar system to Taiwan.
(SFC, 4/30/99, p.D4)
1999 Apr 29, US planes bombed
sites in the no-fly zone of northern Iraq after being attacked by
missiles and anti-aircraft fire. Iraq said 20 civilians were injured
in Mosul and 4 in separate attacks in the south.
(SFC, 4/30/99, p.D8)
1999 Apr 29, NATO jets struck
Yugoslav army headquarters in Belgrade and the federal interior
ministry. A telecommunications tower was hit and knocked Serbian TV
off the air.
(SFC, 4/30/99, p.A1)
1999 Apr 29, In Bulgaria an
errant NATO HARM missile hit a home in Gorna Banya on the outskirts
of Sofia. There were no casualties.
(SFC, 4/30/99, p.A13,D2)
1999 Apr 29, China announced
that 1.6 million people would be allowed to move to Hong Kong over
the next 10-13 years.
(SFC, 4/30/99, p.D7)
1999 Apr 29, In Colombia a
2,500 member group of the Embera-Katio Indians called for a safe
haven in Europe due to the civil war in their homeland.
(SFC, 4/30/99, p.B1)
1999 Apr 29, In India Jessica
Lall, a young New Delhi bartender, was shot and killed by Manu
Sharma (24), after she refused him a drink at closing time. On Feb
21, 2006, Sharma the son of a powerful and wealthy politician with
interests in sugar mills, and 8 friends were acquitted. Protesters
took to the streets, holding candlelight vigils and waving signs
calling for justice; officials from the president to the capital's
police chief called for a review of the investigation. Courts
convicted Sharma in 2006 and sentenced him to life in prison. In
2011 the Hindi film “No One Killed Jessica” was based on this story.
(AP, 3/10/06)(Econ, 1/15/11,
p.96)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_of_Jessica_Lall)
1999 Apr 29, In Macedonia
another 6,500 refugees arrived. 3 refugees were killed by a mine as
they attempted to cross the border northwest of Blace.
(SFC, 4/30/99, p.A13)
1999 Apr 29, In Japan Honda
announced that its last EV Plus electric car was built in March.
(SFC, 4/30/99, p.A1)
1999 Apr 29, In Russia Pres.
Yeltsin approved a plan for upgrading thousands of short-range or
tactical nuclear weapons.
(SFC, 4/30/99, p.D5)
1999 Apr 29, Yugoslavia filed
World Court cases against 10 countries, including the United States,
claiming their bombing campaign breached international law.
(AP, 4/29/00)
2000 Apr 29, Lennox Lewis
knocked out Michael Grant in the second round at Madison Square
Garden in New York to retain his WBC and IBF heavyweight titles.
(AP, 4/29/01)
2000 Apr 29, Tens of thousands
of angry Cuban-Americans marched peacefully through Miami’s Little
Havana, protesting the raid in which armed federal agents yanked
six-year-old Elian Gonzalez from the home of relatives.
(AP, 4/29/01)
2000 Apr 29, In Washington DC
some 1000 gay and lesbian couples proclaimed their love at the
Lincoln Memorial as part of the events leading to the 4th annual
Millennium March the next day.
(SFEC, 4/30/00, p.A13)
2000 Apr 29, In Chechnya Alman
Mesiyev, the mayor of Khattuni, was shot at close range by rebels
for cooperating with Russian troops.
(SFC, 5/4/00, p.A16)
2000 Apr 29, In Malaysia a
court upheld the 1999 corruption conviction against former finance
minister Anwar Ibrahim.
(SFEC, 4/30/00, p.A17)
2000 Apr 29, In Pakistan it was
reported that the worst drought in 100 years ravaged southern Sindh
and Baluchistan provinces. Up to 500 people were dead from diseases
related to the drought.
(SFC, 4/29/00, p.A14)
2000 Apr 29, In the Philippines
fighting on Basilan Island left 4 soldiers dead and 27 wounded. On
Sulu Island kidnappers made a written demands that included the
return of barter trade to the southern Philippines, a ban on large
fishing boats to protect local fishermen, and full implementation of
a 1976 agreement that called for a 13-province Muslim autonomous
region.
(SFEC, 4/30/00, p.C14)
2000 Apr 29, In Vietnam Pham
Van Dong, former revolutionary and prime minister, died at age 94.
(SFC, 5/3/00, p.A24)
2001 Apr 29, Nasa scientists
reported that they had contacted the Pioneer 10 spacecraft, launched
in 1972, after 8 months of no communication.
(SFC, 4/30/01, p.A7)
2001 Apr 29, The International
Monetary Fund endorsed a program to establish better procedures to
prevent a repeat of the 1997-98 Asian currency crisis that plunged
two-fifths of the world into recession.
(AP, 4/29/02)
2001 Apr 29, China offered to
allow US officials to inspect the US Navy spy plane on Hainan
Island.
(SFC, 4/30/01, p.A1)
2001 cApr 29, Sri Lanka
appealed for peace talks following bloody battles and retreats in
the north.
(WSJ, 4/30/01, p.A1)
2001 cApr 29, In Uganda Pres.
Museveni withdrew from a peace pact in anger over a UN report on
plundering.
(WSJ, 4/30/01, p.A1)
2002 Apr 29, A year after the
loss of a seat it had held for over 50 years, the United States won
election to the UN Human Rights Commission.
(WSJ, 4/30/02, p.A1)(AP, 4/29/03)
2002 Apr 29, US forces in
Afghanistan engaged al Qaeda fighters near the Pakistan border and
killed 4.
(SFC, 4/30/02, p.A14)
2002 Apr 29, The 1st 20 of some
2000 US soldiers landed in the former Soviet republic of Georgia.
(SFC, 4/30/02, p.A14)
2002 Apr 29, Two suits were
filed against Cardinal Roger Mahoney of LA for violation of
racketeering laws by protecting priests who molested children.
(SFC, 4/30/02, p.A1)
2002 Apr 29, Britain decided to
treat al Qaeda and Taliban fighters as prisoners of war and turn
them over to the interim Afghan government.
(SFC, 4/30/02, p.A15)
2002 Apr 29, Israeli forces
went into Hebron and at least 9 people were killed and dozens
arrested. It was a retaliation for the Apr 27 attack.
(SFC, 4/30/02, p.A1)
2002 Apr 29, In Liberia Pres.
Taylor suspended all political activity. Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf,
leader of the opposition Unity Party, returned to Liberia to gear up
for elections.
(SFC, 4/30/02, p.A13)
2002 Apr 29, In Madagascar the
High Court ruled that opposition leader Marc Ravalomanana received
over 51% of the vote in December and that Pres. Ratsiraka won close
to 36%. Ratsiraka said he would not abide by the vote.
(SFC, 5/1/02, p.A13)
2002 Apr 29, Turkey officially
agreed to take command of the peacekeeping mission in Afghanistan.
(SFC, 4/30/02, p.A15)
2003 Apr 29, Pres. Bush
embraced a plan for a $15 billion AIDS initiative that included
money for groups that promote birth control and abortion.
(SFC, 4/29/03, A3)
2003 Apr 29, The US said it
would withdraw all combat forces from Saudi Arabia.
(SFC, 4/29/03, A14)
2003 Apr 29, The governor of
Virginia signed a tough anti-spam law that called for prison and
asset seizures.
(WSJ, 4/30/03, A1)
2003 Apr 29, Tyco Corp.
reported some $1.2 billion in fresh accounting problems on top of
some $265-325 million reported in March. [See Sep 29]
(WSJ, 1/2/04, p.R9)
2003 Apr 29, The World Health
Organization ended its warning that travelers avoid Toronto, Canada.
(AP, 4/30/03)
2003 Apr 29, China reported 9
more deaths and more than 200 new cases, most of them in the capital
Beijing.
(AP, 4/29/03)
2003 Apr 29, In Colombia the
high court has stripped President Alvaro Uribe of the emergency
powers he assumed last year to battle leftist rebels.
(AP, 4/30/03)
2003 Apr 29, Croatian wartime
army chief Janko Bobetko (84), hailed at home as a hero of Croatia's
1991 struggle for independence but charged with war crimes by a UN
court, died.
(AP, 4/29/03)
2003 Apr 29, The leaders of
France, Germany, Belgium and Luxembourg, all critics of the U.S.-led
war on Iraq, agreed to beef up their military cooperation in an
effort to make Europe's defense less reliant on the US.
(AP, 4/29/03)
2003 Apr 29, Indian troops
raided a base of suspected Islamic militants in Kashmir, sparking a
firefight that lasted more than five hours and resulted in 17
deaths.
(AP, 4/29/03)
2003 Apr 29, Pakistani police
arrested six men linked to al-Qaeda, including a Yemeni man, Tawfiq
Attash Khallad (Waleed bin Attash), wanted in connection with the
Sept. 11 attacks and the bombing of the USS Cole.
(AP, 4/30/03)(WSJ, 5/1/03, A1)(AP, 4/29/04)
2003 Apr 29, The Palestinian
parliament approved Mahmoud Abbas as prime minister, clearing the
final obstacle to the launch of a U.S.-backed "road map" to peace.
(AP, 4/29/04)
2003 Apr 29, A Palestinian
suicide bombing killed 3 Israelis in a crowded Tel Aviv nightclub.
The bomber, Asif Hanif (21), grew up in Britain. A 2nd bomber
escaped.
(AP, 4/30/03)(SFC, 5/2/03, p.A8)
2003 Apr 29, Qataris voted on
their first permanent constitution.
(AP, 4/29/03)
2004 Apr 29, The US Sep 11
panel held a joint interview behind closed doors with Pres. Bush and
VP Cheney.
(WSJ, 4/29/04, p.A1)
2004 Apr 29, A national
monument to the 16 million U.S. men and women who served during
World War II opened to the public in Washington DC. Official
dedication was set for May 29.
(AP, 4/29/04)(SFC, 4/30/04, p.A3)
2004 Apr 29, GM ended
production of its Oldsmobile line (b.1897), named after Ransom E.
Olds. The last Olds Alero rolled of a GM assembly line in Lansing,
Mich.
(SFC, 4/28/04, p.C1)
2004 Apr 29, Google unveiled an
IPO that could raise as much as $2.7 billion.
(SFC, 4/30/04, p.A1)
2004 Apr 29, Cleanup crews
arrived at Suisun Marsh in the SF Bay area to tackle an estimated
60,000 gallon diesel fuel spill from a pipeline operated by Kinder
Morgan Energy Partners of Houston, Texas.
(SFC, 4/30/04, p.A1)
2004 Apr 29, Thousands of
Cubans, young and old, played their favorite game into the night to
break the world record for most people playing chess simultaneously.
(AP, 4/29/04)
2004 Apr 29, US Marines
announced an agreement to end a bloody, nearly month long siege of
Fallujah, saying American forces will pull back and allow an
all-Iraqi force commanded by one of Saddam Hussein's generals to
take over security. Elsewhere 10 U.S. soldiers were killed, 8 of
them from a car bomb south of Baghdad.
(AP, 4/29/04)(WSJ, 4/30/04, p.A1)
2004 Apr 29, In Peru 800 people
in a village near Lake Titicaca took five aldermen hostage Thursday
after their mayor fled in fear of his life.
(AP, 4/29/04)
2004 Apr 29, A Russian court
acquitted 4 commando officers in the shooting deaths of 6 Chechen
civilians, after the officers admitted in court that they mistakenly
opened fire on their vehicle and set the car on fire to conceal the
incident based on orders from superiors.
(SFC, 4/30/04, p.A3)
2005 Apr 29, NASA again delayed
the first space shuttle launch since the Columbia disaster, worrying
that ice falling off fuel tank could doom Discovery.
(AP, 4/29/06)
2005 Apr 29, Apple began
selling the Tiger operating system, OS X version 10.4, for the Mac
computer.
(SFC, 4/30/05, p.C1)
2005 Apr 29, Afghan security
forces opened fire during a celebration in a western city, killing a
mother and her daughter. In central Afghanistan an airstrike on a
suspected insurgent camp killed three civilians and four militants.
A bomb tore through a jeep carrying Afghan anti-drug police in
eastern Afghanistan, killing 3 officers and injuring two more, in
the first deadly attack on the country's new counter-narcotics
forces.
(AP, 4/30/05)(AP, 5/1/05)
2005 Apr 29, In Colombia
government troops consolidated their grip on Tacuejo, a mountain
town retaken from leftist rebels, and the town's Indian residents
slowly began to return despite fears of more violence.
(AP, 4/29/05)
2005 Apr 29, The German
government finally scaled back its 2005 growth forecasts,
acknowledging that its earlier prognosis had been too optimistic in
face of high oil prices and an unexpected economic contraction at
the end of last year.
(AFP, 4/29/05)
2005 Apr 29, An audiotape
purportedly by America's most-wanted insurgent in Iraq, Abu Musab
al-Zarqawi, posted on the Internet and threatened more attacks
against U.S. forces and urges followers to be wary of any American
attempts at dialogue.
(AP, 4/29/05)
2005 Apr 29, Insurgents staged
a series of car bombings and other attacks, killing at least 41
people, including three US soldiers, a day after the country's first
democratically elected government was approved.
(AP, 4/29/05)(AP, 4/29/06)
2005 Apr 29, India signed a
pact with the United Nations to combat HIV infections among military
personnel after defense authorities sounded a health alert last
week.
(AP, 4/29/05)
2005 Apr 29, The head of
India's new task force, fighting to save the nation's dwindling
stock of tigers, said the big cats were on the verge of extinction,
because of rampant poaching for their body parts.
(AP, 4/29/05)
2005 Apr 29, Insurgents set off
at least 17 bombs in Iraq, killing at least 50 people, including 5
US soldiers, in a series of attacks aimed at shaking Iraq's newly
formed government.
(SFC, 4/30/05, p.A1)(AP, 5/1/05)
2005 Apr 29, Italy and the
United States said they had failed to agree on whether U.S. soldiers
were at fault in the death of an Italian intelligence agent in Iraq.
(AP, 4/30/05)
2005 Apr 29, Italy slashed its
2005 growth forecast by almost half to 1.2 percent and warned its
budget deficit could hit 4 percent of gross domestic product.
(AP, 4/29/05)
2005 Apr 29, Japanese PM
Junichiro Koizumi wooed India, aiming to build a partnership with
New Delhi to cope with the growing clout of China in a changing
continent.
(AP, 4/29/05)
2005 Apr 29, Heavy rains in
western Romania have flooded hundreds of villages, forcing 3,700
people to abandon their homes and disrupting rail and road traffic.
(Reuters, 4/29/05)
2005 Apr 29, Russian President
Vladimir Putin laid a wreath on the late-Palestinian leader Yasser
Arafat's tomb and held talks with Arafat's successor, Mahmoud Abbas,
but Palestinians held out little hope for concrete results.
(AP, 4/29/05)
2005 Apr 29, Sri Lanka's
government ordered a "full-scale investigation" into the slaying of
a senior Tamil journalist who was abducted overnight as he left a
restaurant.
(AP, 4/29/05)
2005 Apr 29, The UN health
agency reported 18 new cases of polio in Yemen and said more people
are believed infected, sparking fears of an epidemic in the Middle
Eastern country with a low immunization rate among children.
(AP, 4/29/05)
2005 Apr 29, Vietnam marked the
30th anniversary of war's end.
(AP, 4/29/06)
2006 Apr 29, Thousands of US
anti-war demonstrators converged on lower Manhattan to call for an
immediate withdrawal of troops from Iraq.
(AP, 4/29/06)
2006 Apr 29, A rock slide at
Ferguson Ridge, 8 miles west of El Portal, Ca., shut down the
Highway 140 connection to Yosemite National Park.
(SSFC, 6/25/06, p.B1)
2006 Apr 29, John Kenneth
Galbraith (97), an influential liberal Canadian-born economist and
author, died in Massachusetts. His more than 40 works included
“American Capitalism” (1952), "The Affluent Society" (1958), in
which he argued that the US had become rich in consumer goods but
poor in social services and “The New Industrial State” (1967).
(Reuters, 4/30/06)(Econ, 5/6/06, p.86)
2006 Apr 29, Afghan security
forces clashed with Taliban militants hiding in a cave complex in
the southern Helmand province, killing 11 insurgents after militants
killed three policemen and wounded another in an ambush. An Afghan
cell phone company confirmed that an Indian contractor was being
held hostage by the Taliban. Afghan soldiers and police attacked a
Taliban camp co miles north of Lashkar Gah and killed at least 2
militants.
(AP, 4/30/06)(SSFC, 4/30/06, p.A3)
2006 Apr 29, Bolivia's new
left-leaning president, Evo Morales, signed a pact with Cuba and
Venezuela on rejecting US-backed free trade and promising a
socialist version of regional commerce and cooperation. Bolivia
became the 3rd member of the Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas
(ALBA).
(AP, 4/29/06)(Econ, 5/6/06, p.38)
2006 Apr 29, A cyclone hit
Burma with 150 mph winds. Scattered deaths and injuries were
reported.
(SSFC, 4/30/06, p.A3)
2006 Apr 29, A coalition of
Chinese Web activists launched a petition decrying censorship of the
Internet and challenging the legality of government information
controls on China's more than 100 million net users.
(Reuters, 5/1/06)
2006 Apr 29, In northwestern
China a gas explosion at a coal mine killed at least 30 miners and
left eight missing at the Wayaobao Coal Mine in Shaanxi province.
(AP, 4/30/06)(AP, 5/1/06)
2006 Apr 29, It was reported
that just over 8% of workers in France belonged to a trade union
compared with 12% in America and nearly 30% in Britain.
(Econ, 4/29/06, p.54)
2006 Apr 29, In Hong Kong while
riding a bus Elvis Ho asked Roger Chan to lower his voice while
talking on his cellphone. Chan proceeded to berate Ho for nearly 6
minutes and the encounter was captured on video camera by another
passenger, Jon Fong. The video became famous as “Bus Uncle.” Some
phrases in the video, such as “I’ve got pressure” and “It’s not
over,” quickly became part of Hong Kong’s lexicon.
(WSJ, 6/6/06, p.A1)
2006 Apr 29, In central India
13 people abducted by insurgents were found dead but 37 others were
freed. 2 people were found dead a day earlier. Rebels had abducted
52 people from a single village in the district of Dantewada in
Chhattisgarh state on April 25.
(AFP, 4/29/06)
2006 Apr 29, In Iraq 6 people
were killed in scattered violence. A top Iraqi official said
sectarian violence has forced about 100,000 families across Iraq to
flee their homes. A US Army soldier died when a roadside bomb hit
his convoy near Baghdad.
(AP, 4/29/06)
2006 Apr 29, In Kyrgyzstan
thousands of protesters demanding reform gathered in the main square
in Bishkek but dispersed peacefully after President Bakiyev and PM
Felix Kulov addressed the crowd.
(AP, 4/29/06)
2006 Apr 29, Newly returned
Nepalese legislators demanded that King Gyanendra be stripped of
control over the 90,000-strong army, fearing he could use it to
regain power after his recent concession to weeks of pro-democracy
protests.
(AP, 4/29/06)
2006 Apr 29, A car bombing in
the Nigerian oil city of Warri destroyed at least five tanker
trucks. The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND),
which demands more local control over the southern delta's oil
wealth, said it had used a mobile phone to detonate 30 kg (66 lb) of
dynamite in the bombing.
(Reuters, 4/30/06)
2006 Apr 29, North Korea
claimed that the US conducted about 160 spy flights against the
communist state this month.
(AP, 4/29/06)
2006 Apr 29, Peru recalled its
ambassador from Venezuela over what it called President Hugo
Chavez's "persistent and flagrant interference" in its upcoming
presidential elections.
(AP, 4/29/06)
2006 Apr 29, In the Philippines
military intelligence agents captured Abdasil Malangka Dima, an
alleged member of the Muslim extremist Abu Sayyaf group, in Isabela,
the capital of the southern island province of Basilan. He was
allegedly involved in the abduction of three Americans, including a
missionary couple, from a resort five years ago.
(AP, 4/29/06)
2006 Apr 29, A Qatar newspaper
reported that Qatar has frozen bilateral free trade talks with the
US, saying Washington was imposing preconditions that were not in
Doha's interest.
(AP, 4/29/06)
2006 Apr 29, Russian Foreign
Minister Sergei Lavrov told his Iranian counterpart Manouchehr
Mottaki to suspend enriching uranium and ensure full-scale
cooperation with the UN nuclear watchdog, the IAEA.
(Reuters, 4/29/06)
2006 Apr 29, The UN said
reports of a Ugandan army incursion into Congo were "credible" after
peacekeepers conducted a verification mission in the remote
northeastern border region.
(Reuters, 4/29/06)
2006 Apr 29, Scientists tried
to discover why some 400 dolphins washed up dead on a beach popular
with tourists on the northern coast of Zanzibar.
(AP, 4/29/06)(WSJ, 4/29/06, p.A1)
2007 Apr 29, A stretch of
highway near the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge collapsed after a
gasoline tanker crashed and burst into flames, leaving one of the
nation's busiest spans in a state of near paralysis. Officials said
traffic could be disrupted for months. Driver James Mosqueda (51)
managed to away with 2nd degree burns.
(AP, 4/29/07)(SFC, 5/1/07, p.A1)
2007 Apr 29, In Kansas City,
Mo., David W. Logsdon, driving a dead woman’s car, was shot and
killed by police after he killed 2 people in the parking lot of a
mall.
(SFC, 4/30/07, p.A3)(AP, 4/29/08)
2007 Apr 29, St. Louis
Cardinals relief pitcher Josh Hancock, 29, was killed in the crash
of his sport utility vehicle.
(AP, 4/29/08)
2007 Apr 29, Hundreds of angry
protesters chanting "Death to Bush" demonstrated in eastern
Afghanistan after six people, including a woman and a teenage girl,
were reportedly killed when US-led coalition and Afghan forces
raided a suspected car bomb cell. Afghanistan's education minister
said at least 85 students and teachers were killed last year in
attacks blamed on insurgents who oppose education for girls and
teaching boys anything other than religion. In western Afghanistan
coalition and Afghan forces attacked the insurgents and called in an
airstrike, destroying seven Taliban positions and killing 87
fighters during a 14-hour engagement in Herat province.
(AP, 4/29/07)(AP, 4/30/07)
2007 Apr 29, Octavio Frias de
Oliveira (94), who published Brazil's biggest newspaper and Web site
and helped modernize the country's media, died of kidney failure.
(AP, 4/30/07)
2007 Apr 29, In China 7
suspects went on trial in the beating death of a reporter at an
illegal coal mine in northern Shanxi province. Lan Chengzhang was
attacked along with a colleague when they went to interview Hou
Zhenrun, the owner of the small unlicensed coal mine outside the
northern city of Datong on Jan 10. He died the next day from head
injuries.
(AP, 4/30/07)
2007 Apr 29, Colombia's navy
made the largest drug seizure in the nation's history as it
uncovered up to 27 tons of cocaine buried along the Pacific coast.
(AP, 4/30/07)
2007 Apr 29, In Ethiopia 7
Chinese oil workers and two Africans kidnapped during a rebel attack
on a Chinese oil field near the Somali border were released.
(AP, 4/29/07)
2007 Apr 29, In Egypt police
arrested two lawmakers and at least 10 other members of the banned
Muslim Brotherhood group as part of an ongoing campaign against the
country's strongest opposition group.
(AP, 4/30/07)
2007 Apr 29, American troops
also detained 72 suspected insurgents and seized nitric acid and
other bomb-making materials during raids targeting al-Qaida in Iraq
in Anbar province. Britain said one of its soldiers was shot to
death while on patrol in southern Iraq. In Basra 5 people were
reported killed by an explosion. Iraqi police initially said it was
a car bomb, but the British military said it appeared the blast
accidentally occurred while explosives and weapons were being moved.
A roadside bomb killed 3 American soldiers and an Iraqi interpreter
on a combat patrol in eastern Baghdad. A Marine was killed during
combat operations in Anbar province.
(AP, 4/29/07)(AP, 4/30/07)
2007 Apr 29, Japan and the
resources-rich United Arab Emirates agreed to launch a high-level
dialogue aimed at boosting economic ties and to speed up talks on a
free trade pact. Officials of the governmental Japan Bank for
International Cooperation decided to extend massive loans to Abu
Dhabi National Oil Co. in exchange for securing a stable oil supply
for Japan.
(AP,
4/29/07)(http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20070430a2.html)
2007 Apr 29, Saudi Arabia's
King Abdullah held an unannounced meeting with Palestinian President
Mahmoud Abbas to discuss the recent escalation in
Israeli-Palestinian tensions. Saudi Arabia banned the sale of
concentrated fertilizer, a favorite component of homemade terrorist
bombs.
(AP, 4/30/07)(Econ, 5/5/07, p.60)
2007 Apr 29, Tamil Tiger rebels
bombed a fuel refinery and gasoline storage facility near the Sri
Lankan capital, and authorities cut power to the city. Hours later,
the military pounded rebel positions in the north.
(AP, 4/29/07)
2007 Apr 29, Protests took
place around the world to demand that world leaders act to prevent
further bloodshed in Darfur on the fourth anniversary of the
conflict's start.
(AP, 4/29/07)
2007 Apr 29, Suspected Muslim
insurgents in southern Thailand killed two Buddhist villagers,
beheading one of them, and left a note saying the attack was revenge
for a deadly weekend bombing at a mosque.
(AP, 4/30/07)
2007 Apr 29, Some 700,000 Turks
waving the red national flag flooded central Istanbul to demand the
resignation of the government, saying the Islamic roots of Turkey's
leaders threatened to destroy the country's modern foundations.
(AP, 4/29/07)
2007 Apr 29, President Hugo
Chavez said that Venezuela hopes to gradually sell off its
refineries in the United States and build a new network of
refineries in Latin America, part of a plan to offer his leftist
allies in the region a stable oil supply.
(AP, 4/30/07)
2008 Apr 29, Sen. Barack Obama,
US presidential candidate, angrily repudiated Rev. Jeremiah Wright,
his former pastor, for his recent remarks on race and US foreign
policy.
(WSJ, 4/30/08, p.A1)
2008 Apr 29, California’s Gov.
Gov. Schwarzenegger said the state deficit could grow to as much as
$20 billion.
(SFC, 4/30/08, p.A1)
2008 Apr 29, James Woodward
(55) walked out of a Dallas court after DNA testing overturned his
conviction over 27 years ago for the murder and rape of his
girlfriend.
(Reuters, 4/30/08)
2008 Apr 29, The videogame
“Grand Theft Auto IV,” produced by Take-Two Interactive Software,
hit the stores with expectations of record sales. First week sales
topped $50 million.
(WSJ, 4/29/08, p.B7)(WSJ, 5/8/08, p.B8)
2008 Apr 29, In Afghanistan a
suicide bomb tore through a team preparing to eradicate opium poppy
fields, killing at least 19 people and injuring over 40 others in
eastern Nangarhar province. 12 police officers were among the dead.
(AFP, 4/29/08)(SFC, 4/30/08, p.A2)
2008 Apr 29, Australia's
government promised to spend about $2.9 billion to buy river water
from farmers in a bid to address the country's worst drought in a
century.
(AP, 4/29/08)
2008 Apr 29, A Chinese court
jailed 30 people for terms ranging from three years to life for
their roles in Tibet's deadly riots, which triggered anti-China
protests across the globe ahead of the Beijing Olympics.
(AP, 4/29/08)
2008 Apr 29, In China a
newspaper reported that thousands of children in southwest China
have been sold into slavery like "cabbages," to work as laborers in
more prosperous areas such as the booming southern province of
Guangdong.
(Reuters, 4/29/08)
2008 Apr 29, Colombia police
killed Victor Manuel Mejia in a raid at his ranch hideout. The
government initially said it was his brother Miguel Angel. Both were
wanted for extradition to the United States, with US$5 million
rewards for their capture. In 2009 Miguel Angel Mejia was extradited
to the US on drug trafficking charges.
(AP, 4/30/08)(SFC, 3/5/09, p.A2)
2008 Apr 29, Gastao Salsinha,
the leader of a group of East Timor rebels accused of trying to
assassinate President Jose Ramos-Horta, surrendered with 12 of his
men, raising hopes that the troubled young nation can find some rare
stability.
(Reuters, 4/29/08)
2008 Apr 29, European nations
failed to convince Lithuania to allow the EU to launch talks on a
new partnership pact with Russia.
(AFP, 4/29/08)
2008 Apr 29, EU nations signed
a premembership trade-and-aid pact with Serbia to help pro-Western
parties win elections. The deal would only be implemented if
Belgrade fully cooperates with the Yugoslav war-crimes tribunal.
(WSJ, 4/30/08, p.A11)
2008 Apr 29, A $7 billion gas
pipeline that would link Iran and India topped the agenda as the
Islamic republic's president made his first visit to New Delhi,
despite strong US objections to the project.
(AP, 4/30/08)
2008 Apr 29, In Iraq a roadside
bomb hit Dhia Jodi Jaber, director general at the Ministry of Labor
and Social Affairs, as he left his Baghdad home in his car.
Militants killed the nephew of Maj. Gen. Abdul-Karim Khalaf, an
Interior Ministry spokesman, and hanged the body from an electric
pole in Baghdad. The attack was in apparent retaliation for the
spokesman's role in a government crackdown against Shiite militias.
US soldiers killed 28 militants during a four-hour firefight in
Baghdad's Shiite militia stronghold of Sadr City. 2 US were killed
soldiers in separate attacks in Baghdad.
(AP, 4/29/08)(AP, 4/30/08)(SFC, 5/1/08, p.A2)
2008 Apr 29, Migrant rights
activists applauded a vote by Mexico's Congress to remove
long-standing criminal penalties for undocumented migrants found in
the country. President Felipe Calderon's office declined to say
whether he would sign the popular measure into law.
(AP, 4/29/08)
2008 Apr 29, Human rights
watchdog Amnesty International accused Mozambique police of killing
and torturing people with impunity as the country struggles to deal
with growing crime.
(AP, 4/29/08)
2008 Apr 29, The International
Criminal Court in The Hague published an arrest warrant for Bosco
Ntaganda (35), known as "the Terminator," a Congo militia leader
wanted for allegedly using child soldiers.
(Reuters, 4/29/08)
2008 Apr 29, Russia announced
it was beefing up its peacekeeping force in Georgia's breakaway
Abkhazia and South Ossetia regions, saying it had evidence Tbilisi
was readying its forces for an attack.
(Reuters, 4/29/08)
2008 Apr 29, Workers returned
to the Grangemouth refinery in central Scotland after a 48-hour
strike that forced the closure of a major North Sea pipeline system.
(AP, 4/29/08)
2008 Apr 29, An explosion in
southwestern Somalia killed four Ethiopian troops and the subsequent
gunfire killed two civilians.
(AP, 4/29/08)
2008 Apr 29, Albert Hofmann
(102), the father of the mind-altering drug LSD, died. His medical
discovery inspired, and arguably corrupted, millions in the 1960s
hippie generation. The Swiss chemist discovered lysergic acid
diethylamide-25 in 1938 while studying the medicinal uses of a
fungus found on wheat and other grains at the Sandoz pharmaceuticals
firm in Basel. He became the first human guinea pig of the drug when
a tiny amount of the substance seeped onto his finger during a
laboratory experiment on April 16, 1943. Hofmann to LSD for the last
time when he was 97.
(AP, 4/30/08)(Econ, 5/31/08, p.21)
2008 Apr 29, In Taiwan the de
facto US envoy assured incoming president Ma Ying-jeou that
Washington will continue to back Taiwan militarily while it pushes
for peace talks with China.
(AP, 4/29/08)
2008 Apr 29, A power outage
left wide swaths of Venezuela without electricity, including much of
the capital. The blackout was caused by a forest fire that
overheated power lines in the central state of Guarico.
(AP, 4/29/08)
2009 Apr 29, The Obama
administration joined a federal judge in urging Congress to end a
racial disparity by equalizing prison sentences for dealing and
using crack versus powdered cocaine.
(AP, 4/29/09)
2009 Apr 29, It was reported
that more than 50 million American retirees can expect to receive
$250 payments from the government in the next few weeks as their
share of the economic stimulus package enacted in February.
(AP, 4/29/09)
2009 Apr 29, In Florida Juwhan
Yun, a Korean American who had served prison time for attempting to
broker the sale of nerve gas bombs to Iran, was indicted in Miami on
charges of trying to help South Korea obtain advanced Russian rocket
technology.
(SFC, 4/30/09, p.A4)
2009 Apr 29, In New York Teresa
Tambunting of Scarsdale was charged with grand larceny and criminal
possession of stolen property. Prosecutors said she had stolen over
$12 million in gold over six years from the Queens jewelry
manufacturer where she worked. Police found 450 pounds of gold at
her home.
(SFC, 4/30/09, p.A4)
2009 Apr 29, The WHO raised its
alert for swine flu from level 4 to level 5, its 2nd highest alert
level. Austria and Germany confirmed cases of swine flu, becoming
the third and fourth European countries hit by the disease. US
health officials reported that a 23-month-old child in Texas has
died from the disease. The World Health Organization called an
emergency meeting to consider its pandemic alert level.
(AP, 4/29/09)(SFC, 4/30/09, p.A8)
2009 Apr 29, In Afghanistan
US-led troops battled militants and announced they killed 42
suspected insurgents. Two attacks on German forces killed one
soldier and wounded nine as Germany's foreign minister began a
two-day visit to the country.
(AFP, 4/29/09)(AP, 4/29/09)
2009 Apr 29, Australia
announced it will increase by almost one half its troops in
Afghanistan to about 1,550 as part of the US-led surge of
international forces to bolster the faltering fight against Taliban
insurgents.
(AP, 4/29/09)
2009 Apr 29, Two boats carrying
almost 80 people were intercepted off Australia's northern coast as
the conservative political opposition called for an independent
inquiry into refugee policy.
(AFP, 4/29/09)
2009 Apr 29, Britain’s PM
Gordon Brown said it will boost its troops in Afghanistan to 9,000
to help the country through upcoming elections, unveiling a new
strategy for Afghanistan and Pakistan.
(AP, 4/29/09)
2009 Apr 29, Britain and Libya
ratified a prisoner transfer deal that could potentially allow Abdel
Basset Ali al-Megrahi (57), the man convicted of the Lockerbie
bombings, to serve out the remainder of his sentence in the North
African country.
(AP, 4/29/09)
2009 Apr 29, The prime
ministers of China and Japan pledged to lay a stronger foundation
for cooperation between the historic Asian rivals amid global
economic and health crises.
(AFP, 4/29/09)
2009 Apr 29, China Mobile said
it would buy 12% of Far EasTone Telecommunications, a big Taiwanese
mobile operator.
(Econ, 5/9/09, p.65)
2009 Apr 29, A Boeing 737 on a
test flight from Brazzaville crashed southeast of Kinshasa, killing
7 people.
(AP, 4/30/09)
2009 Apr 29, In Cuba a
statement published in state newspapers said that effective
midnight, flights from Cuba to Mexico would be grounded due to swine
flu. After that, airlines can fly presumably empty planes to the
island and pickup Mexico travels. This amended a blanket 48-hour ban
on flights between Mexico and Cuba announced a day earlier.
(AP, 4/29/09)
2009 Apr 29, Egypt began
slaughtering the roughly 300,000 pigs in the country as a
precautionary measure against the spread of swine flu even though no
cases have been reported here yet.
(AP, 4/29/09)
2009 Apr 29, An Iraqi-US patrol
was ambushed while distributing grants to Iraqi businesses near the
northern city of Kirkuk. Iraqi officials said two civilians were
killed when the Americans returned fire, but the US military said
those killed were enemy fighters. Five bombs hit various
neighborhoods of Baghdad, killing at least 48 people in another
powerful strike by suspected Sunni insurgents seeking a return to
sectarian chaos.
(AP, 4/29/09)(SFC, 4/30/09, p.A2)
2009 Apr 29, Youssef Magied
al-Molqui, one of the 4 Palestinians who hijacked the Achille Lauro
cruise ship and killed an American passenger in 1985, left prison in
Palermo, Sicily, after more than 23 years in jail. Ibrahim Fatayer
Abdelatif, another convicted Achille Lauro hijacker, was released
last year.
(AP, 4/30/09)
2009 Apr 29, Lebanon released
four generals held for nearly four years in the 2005 truck-bomb
assassination of former PM Rafik Hariri after a UN-backed tribunal
in the Netherlands ordered them freed, setting off celebrations with
fireworks and dancing.
(AP, 4/29/09)
2009 Apr 29, Mexican police
arrested suspected Zeta gang leader Gregorio Sauceda Gamboa, one of
Mexico's 24 most-wanted drug traffickers.
(AP, 4/29/09)
2009 Apr 29, NATO and Russia
resumed formal contacts eight months after they were suspended
because of last year's war with Georgia.
(AP, 4/29/09)
2009 Apr 29, Pakistani
airstrikes killed dozens of Taliban fighters in a fierce struggle to
drive them from the Buner district, within 60 miles (100 kilometers)
of Islamabad. Troops faced an estimated 450-500 militants in Buner
and forecast that the operation to drive them out would take about a
week. Gun attacks in the mega-city of Karachi killed at least 34
people and threatened to ignite ethnic tension. 2 Muttahida Quami
Movement (MQM) activists were gunned down by unknown shooters,
sparking street violence.
(AP, 4/29/09)(AP, 4/30/09)
2009 Apr 29, A South Korean
presidential advisory committee announced that South Korea will lift
a three-year ban on human stem cell research.
(AP, 4/29/09)
2009 Apr 29, In Sri Lanka the
visiting French and British foreign ministers urged Sri Lanka to
accept a cease-fire in its war with ethnic Tamil rebels, saying it
needed to act quickly to save the lives of civilians in the war
zone.
(AP, 4/29/09)
2009 Apr 29, Taiwan said it had
persuaded China to allow it to participate in a key UN body,
offering a victory for President Ma Ying-jeou's campaign to win
greater international recognition for the democratic island. China
confirmed that Taiwan will attend next month's meeting of the World
Health Assembly in Geneva as an observer.
(AP, 4/29/09)
2009 Apr 29, In Tanzania huge
blasts rocked an ammunition dump at an army camp in the coastal city
of Dar es Salaam. More than a dozen people were killed.
(AP, 4/29/09)(SFC, 2/18/11, p.A2)
2009 Apr 29, In southeastern
Turkey suspected Kurdish rebels detonated a roadside bomb that
killed nine soldiers in a US-made armored personnel carrier.
(AP, 4/29/09)
2009 Apr 29, Zimbabwe's
teachers vowed to go on strike when the new school term begins next
week after government reneged on a pledge to increase their
salaries.
(AFP, 4/29/09)
2010 Apr 29, The US Navy said
the first US women allowed to serve aboard submarines will be
reporting for duty by 2012.
(AP, 4/29/10)
2010 Apr 29, Alabama shrimpers
filed a class-action lawsuit against oil giant BP Plc and owners of
the drilling platform that exploded in the Gulf of Mexico, as claims
for economic losses anticipated from the disaster began to mount.
(Reuters, 4/30/10)
2010 Apr 29, In Oakland, Ca.,
Parking director Noel Pinto issued a memo curtailing nighttime
parking enforcement, effecting as of May 13. The recently begun
practice had enraged local residents.
(SFC, 5/11/10, p.C3)
2010 Apr 29, Australia said it
will force tobacco companies to strip all logos and color from their
packaging, in a move aimed at driving people away from smoking.
(SFC, 4/30/10, p.A2)
2010 Apr 29, A giant NASA
science balloon crashed during take-off in Australia, destroying its
multi-million-dollar payload, toppling a large car and narrowly
missing frightened observers.
(AFP, 4/29/10)
2010 Apr 29, NATO troops in
Nangarhar province raided the home of a prominent Afghan lawmaker
overnight, killing one of her relatives. In Laghman province a
suicide bomber blew up a car packed with explosives near an Afghan
army training facility, killing a soldier.
(AP, 4/29/10)
2010 Apr 29, Belgium's lower
house of parliament banned burqa-type Islamic dress in public, but
the measure faced a challenge in the Senate which will delay early
enactment of the law. There were two abstentions. No one voted
against.
(AP, 4/30/10)
2010 Apr 29, The president of
the Central African Republic scrapped plans to hold polls May 16
after the elections commission told him it would be unable to
organize them in time.
(AFP, 4/29/10)
2010 Apr 29, In eastern China a
knife-wielding jobless man, Xu Yuyuan (47), attacked a kindergarten
class of 4-year-olds, slashing 29 children and 3 teachers in what an
expert said was a copycat rampage of two other episodes at Chinese
schools in the past month. On May 15 Xu Yuyuan was sentenced to
death. He appealed the death sentence, saying the punishment was too
severe considering no one was killed.
(AP, 4/29/10)(AP, 5/15/10)
2010 Apr 29, Colombian
authorities detained Congressman Luis Carlos Restrepo Orozco on
allegations of receiving drug money.
(AP, 4/29/10)
2010 Apr 29, Avigdor Arikha
(b.1929), Holocaust surviving artist, died in Paris. He was perhaps
the best painter from life in the last decades of the 20th century.
(Econ, 5/15/10,
p.94)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avigdor_Arikha)
2010 Apr 29, The prime
ministers of India and Pakistan agreed to resume peace talks between
their top diplomats and work toward rebuilding trust shattered by
the deadly 2008 Mumbai terror attacks that New Delhi blamed on
Pakistani militants.
(AP, 4/29/10)
2010 Apr 29, Iraq's election
commission said recounting all the ballots from the key Baghdad
province will take around 2 to 3 weeks, further delaying the
formation of a long awaited new government. 8 people were killed and
20 injured in car bomb outside a Baghdad liquor store. Iraq's banned
Baath party, booted out of power in the 2003 US-led invasion, held
its first public meeting in the Syrian capital.
(AP, 4/29/10)(AFP, 4/30/10)
2010 Apr 29, Mexican police
said that a crowd of villagers in Guerrero state chased down a group
of alleged kidnappers, freed their victims and shot 3 men to death.
The men had apparently entered the hamlet of La Union, near the
coastal resort of Zihuatanejo, and abducted a man and two boys. They
allegedly also shot another man to death.
(AP, 4/29/10)
2010 Apr 29, In Myanmar
pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi filed a lawsuit with the
country’s Supreme Court in an attempt to prevent the dissolution of
her party under a controversial new election law.
(AFP, 4/29/10)
2010 Apr 29, Thailand's "Red
Shirt" protesters called on the European Union to send observers to
prevent a crackdown by the army, but the government warned others
not to meddle in its internal affairs. Theo-establishment activists
demanded military action against anti-government protesters and an
end to "anarchy" in the capital.
(AFP, 4/29/10)(AP, 4/29/10)
2010 Apr 29, In Venezuela
Father Esteban Woods (68), an American priest, was slain inside his
apartment in the eastern city of Puerto Ordaz.
(AP, 4/29/10)
2010 Apr 29, In Vietnam a Javan
rhino, one of the world's rarest large mammals, was found shot dead
with its horn chopped off in a southern national park, a suspected
victim of poachers. There were only three to five Javan rhinos
believed left in Vietnam. The animal was first caught on camera at
the park in 1999.
(AP, 5/10/10)
Go to
http://www.timelinesdb.com
Go to April 30