Today in History - May 9
Return to home
May 9 is Europe Day.
(Econ, 7/28/07, p.55)
1079
May 9, Stanislaus, Polish bishop of Cracow, was
murdered.
(MC, 5/9/02)
1265 May 9, Dante Alighieri,
Italian poet (Divine Comedy), was born.
(WUD, 1994 p.367)(MC, 5/9/02)
1429 May 9, Joan of Arc defeated
the besieging English at Orleans.
(HN, 5/9/98)
1443 May 9, Niccolo d'Albergati,
Italian cardinal, died.
(MC, 5/9/02)
1460 May 9, In the Netherlands the
courtyard Episcopal palace at Atrecht had witch burnings.
(MC, 5/9/02)
1474 May 9, Peter van Hagenbach,
Elzasser knight, land guardian, was beheaded.
(MC, 5/9/02)
1502 May 9, Christopher Columbus
left Cadiz, Spain, on his fourth and final trip to the Western
Hemisphere. He explored Central America, and discovered St. Lucia, the
Isthmus of Panama, Honduras, and Costa Rica. Columbus left 52 Jewish
families in Costa Rica. [see May 11]
(TL-MB, 1988, p.8)(AP, 5/9/97)(WSJ, 6/15/00, p.A1)
1588 May 9, Duke Henri de Guise's
troops occupied Paris.
(MC, 5/9/02)
1657 May 9, William Bradford,
Governor (Plymouth Colony, Mass), died.
(MC, 5/9/02)
1667 May 9, Marie Louise de
Gonzague-Nevers, French Queen of Poland (1645-48), died.
(MC, 5/9/02)
1671 May 9, Colonel Thomas Blood
(1618-1680), Irish adventurer, attempted to steal the Crown Jewels from
the Tower of London.
(MC, 5/9/02)(Reuters, 8/24/01)
1707 May 9, Dietrich Buxtehude
(~69), German organist, composer, died.
(MC, 5/9/02)
1738 May 9, John Pindar, [Peter],
physician, poet, was born.
(MC, 5/9/02)
1740 May 9, Giovanni Paisiello,
Italian composer (Barber of Seville), was born.
(MC, 5/9/02)
1745 May 9, Tomaso Antonio Vitali
(82), composer, died.
(MC, 5/9/02)
1753 May 9, King Louis XV
disbanded the French parliament.
(MC, 5/9/02)
1754 May 9, The first American
newspaper cartoon was published. The illustration in Benjamin
Franklin's Pennsylvania Gazette showed a snake cut into sections, each
part representing an American colony; the caption read, "Join or die."
(AP, 5/9/97)(HN, 5/9/98)
1783 May 9, Alexander Ross,
pioneer, fur trader, was born in Canada.
(MC, 5/9/02)
1785 May 9, James Pollard Espy,
meteorologist (Philosophy of Storms), was born in Pennsylvania.
(MC, 5/9/02)
1785 May 9, British inventor
Joseph Bramah patented a beer-pump handle.
(MC, 5/9/02)
1791 May 9, Francis Hopkinson
(53), US writer, music, lawyer, died.
(MC, 5/9/02)
1800 May 9, John Brown, American
abolitionist, was born. His adventures came to an end at Harper's
Ferry, where he tried to start a revolution against slavery.
(HN, 5/9/99)
1805 May 9, Johann Christoph
Friedrich von Schiller (45), poet, playwright, died in Weimar.
(MC, 5/9/02)(SSFC, 8/1/04, p.D10)
1810 May 9, Louis Gallait,
historical painter, was born.
(MC, 5/9/02)
1813 May 9, U.S. troops under
William Henry Harrison rescued Fort Meigs from British and Canadian
troops.
(HN, 5/9/99)
1836 May 9, HMS Beagle with
Charles Darwin departed Port Louis, Mauritius.
(MC, 5/9/02)
1837 May 9, "Sherrod" burned in
Mississippi River below Natchez, Miss., and 175 died.
(MC, 5/9/02)
1843 May 9, Belle Boyd,
Confederate spy, was born. She helped 'Stonewall' Jackson during his
Valley campaign.
(HN, 5/9/99)
1846 May 9, US forced Mexico back
to Rio Grande in the Battle of Resaca de la Palma.
(MC, 5/9/02)
1846 May 9, Gen. Mariano Arista
crossed the Rio Grande and killed a number of US soldiers in a surprise
attack. Mexico believed that France and Britain would support it in a
war against the US.
(WP, 6/29/96, p.A15)
1859 May 9, Threatened by the
advancing French army, the Austrian army retreated across the River
Sesia in Italy.
(HN, 5/9/00)
1860 May 9, James Matthew Barrie
(d.1937), novelist (Margaret Ogilvy, Peter Pan), was born in
Kirriemuir, Scotland.
(www.angus.gov.uk)
1861 May 9, The Banshee, a British
ship designed to run the American blockade on Confederate ports,
departed Nassau for Wilmington, NC, on the first of many successful
runs directed by Thomas E. Taylor, a shipping clerk for the
Anglo-Confederate Trading Company.
(ON, 8/09, p.11)
1862 May 9, Battle of Ft. Pickens,
FL (Pensacola), evacuated by CSA.
(MC, 5/9/02)
1862 May 9, Battle of Farmington,
Missouri.
(MC, 5/9/02)
1862 May 9, US Naval Academy was
relocated from Annapolis MD to Newport, RI.
(MC, 5/9/02)
1864 May 9, Union General John
Sedgwick was shot and killed by a confederate sharpshooter during
fighting at Spotsylvania, Va. His last words before getting hit were "
From this distance they couldn't hit an elephant."
(AH, 2/03, p.35)
1864 May 9, Battle of Dalton, GA.
(MC, 5/9/02)
1864 May 9, Battle of Cloyd's Mt.
and Swift Creek, VA (Drewry’s Bluff, Ft. Darling).
(MC, 5/9/02)
1864 May 9, Austria and Denmark
held a ship battle at Helgoland.
(MC, 5/9/02)
1865 May 9, August de Boeck,
composer, was born.
(MC, 5/9/02)
1868 May 9, Anton Bruckner's 1st
Symphony in C premiered.
(MC, 5/9/02)
1873 May 9, Howard Carter,
discoverer of King Tutankhamen's tomb, was born.
(HN, 5/9/98)
1880 May 9, Johann Hermann Berens
(54), composer, died.
(MC, 5/9/02)
1882 May 9, Henry J. Kaiser,
builder of Liberty Ships for U.S. war effort, was born.
(HN, 5/9/98)
1883 May 9, Spanish philosopher
Jose Ortega y Gasset was born in Madrid.
(AP, 5/9/08)
1885 May 9, In the Battle of
Batoche, Saskatchewan, Metis rebels ran out of ammunition and resorted
to firing pebbles from their guns, until they were forced to retreat.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North-West_Rebellion)
1896 May 9, The 1st horseless
carriage show in London featured 10 models.
(MC, 5/9/02)
1899 May 9, A lawn mower was
patented.
(MC, 5/9/02)
1907 May 9, Baldur von Schirach,
German writer, Nazi Youth leader, convicted war criminal, was born.
(MC, 5/9/02)
1908 May 9, Dirk Fock became
governor of Suriname.
(MC, 5/9/02)
1909 May 9, In San Francisco 135
delegates of the anti-Japanese Laundry League took steps at a
convention at Golden Gate Hall, 222 Van Ness Ave., to boycott all
Japanese enterprises on the Pacific Coast.
(SSFC, 5/10/09, DB p.50)
1913 May 9, The 17th amendment to
the Constitution, providing for the election of US senators by popular
vote rather than selection by state legislatures, was ratified. [see
May 31]
(AP, 5/9/01)
1914 May 9, Carlo Maria Giulini,
conductor, was born.
(MC, 5/9/02)
1914 May 9, Clarence Eugene Snow
(d.1999), later known as singer Hank Snow (I Went to Your Wedding), was
born in Brooklyn, Nova Scotia. His songs included the 1950 hit "I'm
Moving On."
(SFC, 12/21/99, p.A27)(MC, 5/9/02)
1914 May 9, Pres. Wilson
proclaimed Mother's Day.
(MC, 5/9/02)
1915 May 9, German and French
forces fought the Battle of Artois.
(HN, 5/9/98)
1918 May 9, Mike Wallace,
newscaster (Biography, 60 Minutes), was born in Brookline, Mass.
(MC, 5/9/02)
1918 May 9, Orville Freeman,
(Gov-D-Minn.), Sec of Agriculture (1961-69), was born in Minneapolis.
(MC, 5/9/02)
1919 May 9, Arthur English,
comedian, actor (Malachi's Cove), was born.
(MC, 5/9/02)
1919 May 9, James Reese Europe
(b.1881), jazz band leader and founder of the NYC Clef Club, died after
he was stabbed during the intermission of a performance at Mechanic’s
Hall in Boston. Europe led the Clef Club Symphony Orchestra before WW I
and during the war led a US Army band in the all-black 369th Infantry
Regiment, which was attached to the French Army. In 1995 Reid Badger
authored “A Life in Ragtime,” a biography of Europe.
(WSJ, 11/10/05,
p.D7)(www.jass.com/Others/europe.html)
1921 May 9, The play "Sei
Personaggi in Cerca d'Autore" (Six Characters in Search of an Author)
by Luigi Pirandello (1867-1936) premiered in Rome.
(http://tinyurl.com/qs2xg8)
1925 May 9, Cornerstone for Hebrew
University in Jerusalem was laid. It was founded in Jerusalem in part
by Aharon and Yocheved Shulov.
(SFC, 6/3/96, p.A19)(MC, 5/9/02)
1926 May 9, Americans Richard Byrd
and Floyd Bennett made the first flight over the North Pole. [see
1888-1957, Byrd] Two teams of aviators competed to be the first to fly
over the North Pole. American Navy Lt. Cmdr. Richard E. Byrd and pilot
Floyd Bennett claimed victory when they circled the North Pole. On May
11, in spite of his disappointment, Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen
launched the dirigible Norge on its planned flight, not merely over the
pole, but all the way across the Arctic to Alaska. As depicted in a
painting by aviation artist Don Connolly, Byrd and Bennett in Josephine
Ford briefly accompanied Norge in a gesture of goodwill. Amundsen
reached Alaska on May 14, but even today experts suspect that faulty
navigation caused Byrd to miss the North Pole. Later archivists
determined that Byrd was probably 150 miles short of the pole. His
tri-motor Fokker monoplane named Josephine Ford probably came within
2.25 degrees of the pole.
(HFA, ‘96, p.30)(TMC, 1994, p.1926)(SFC, 5/9/96,
p.A-13)(HN, 5/9/98)(HNPD, 5/13/99)
1926 May 9, Joseph Malaby Dent
(b.1849), British bookbinder turned publisher, died. He began
Everyman’s Library in 1906, a collection of low cost classic books.
Random House and Knopf debuted a revived line in 1991.
(WSJ, 1/9/07,
p.D4)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J._M._Dent)
1932 May 9, Piccadilly Circus was
lit by electricity.
(MC, 5/9/02)
1933 May 9, Spanish anarchists
called for a general strike.
(MC, 5/9/02)
1934 May 9, Alan Bennett,
playwright, actor (Secret Policeman's Other Ball, Beyond the Fringe),
was born in England.
(MC, 5/9/02)
1934 May 9, The San Francisco
waterfront strike began. The Int’l. Longshoremen’s Association (ILA),
headed by Australian immigrant Harry Bridges, shut down seaports in
Washington, Oregon and California for 3 months. Union workers went on
strike for a 6 hour day and a hiring hall to replace the company
operated Blue Book Union on the waterfront. Strike breakers were housed
in ships to avoid getting beat up by the dock workers. In 1996 David F.
Selvin published "A Terrible Anger: The 1934 Waterfront and General
Strikes in San Francisco." [see Jul 5]
(SFEC, 12/15/96, BR p.5)(SFEM, 3/2/97, p.21)(SFC,
8/4/97, p.E5)(SFEC, 5/2/99, Z1 p.4)(SFC, 10/4/02, p.A17)
1936 May 9, Albert Finney, actor,
was born in Salford, UK. He starred in "Murder on the Orient Express"
and "Tom Jones."
(HN, 5/9/99)(MC, 5/9/02)
1936 May 9, Glenda Jackson,
actress (Women in Love), was born in Cheshire, England.
(MC, 5/9/02)
1936 May 9, Fascist Italy took
Addis Abba and annexed Ethiopia as Benito Mussolini celebrated in Rome.
(AP, 5/9/97)(HN, 5/9/98)
1940 May 9, James L. Brooks,
producer, director (Broadcast News, Taxi, Critic), was born.
(MC, 5/9/02)
1940 cMay 9, The Germans made
their panzer attack across the Ardennes.
(DrEE, 10/26/96, p.4)
1941 May 9, The German submarine
U-110 was captured at sea by the Royal Navy, revealing considerable
Enigma material. Enigma was the German machine used to encrypt messages
during World War II.
(HN, 5/9/99)(HNQ, 8/30/00)
1942 May 9, John Ashcroft, later
Missouri governor (1984-1992) senator (1995-2000) and US Attorney Gen’l
(2001-2004), was born in Chicago, Ill.
(USAT, 11/5/04, p.4A)
1943 May 9, The 5th German Panzer
army surrendered in Tunisia.
(MC, 5/9/02)
1944 May 9, Russians recaptured
Crimea by taking Sevastopol. [see May 6]
(MC, 5/9/02)
1945 May 9, U.S. officials
announced that the midnight entertainment curfew was being lifted
immediately.
(AP, 5/9/97)
1945 May 9, Czechoslovakia was
liberated from Nazi occupation (Nat’l Day).
(MC, 5/9/02)
1945 May 9, Jersey was liberated
from Nazis.
(MC, 5/9/02)
1945 May 9, Norwegian Nazi
collaborator Vidkun Quisling was arrested.
(MC, 5/9/02)
1945 May 9, Soviet citizens
celebrated their WW II victory in Europe at Red Square. This became an
annual holiday to commemorate the 27 million Soviet citizens who died
in the war.
(Econ, 5/7/05, p.45)
1946 May 9, King Victor Emmanuel
III of Italy abdicated and was replaced by his son, Umberto II. He
served until a June referendum abolished the monarchy.
(HN, 5/9/98)(SFC, 1/30/01, p.C2)
1949 May 9, Billy Joel, Bronx,
rock vocalist (Piano man, Capt Jack, Bridge), was born.
(MC, 5/9/02)
1949 May 9, In Monaco Prince
Rainier (26) succeeded his grandfather, Prince Louis II.
(SFEC, 3/28/99, p.T3)
1951 May 9, The U.S. Far East Air
Force launched a strike on Sinuiju, North Korea, on the Yalu River.
(HN, 5/9/99)
1957 May 9, Ezio F. Pinza, Italian
bass (La Scala of Milan, NY Met Opera, Broadway musicals), died.
(MC, 5/9/02)
1958 May 9, The film "Vertigo"
with James Stewart and Kim Novak was released. It was directed by
Alfred Hitchcock and had been shot in the SF Bay Area. "Vertigo"
premiered in San Francisco.
(SFEC, 8/11/96, DB, p.39)(AP, 5/9/08)
1960 May 9, The US Food and Drug
Administration (FDA) approved the pill Enovid as safe for birth control
use. The pill was made by G.D. Searle and Company of Chicago. It was
commissioned by Margaret Sanger and funded by heiress Katharine
McCormick. In 2001 Carl Djerassi authored "This Man’s Pill: Reflections
on the 50th Birthday of the Pill." Djerassi synthesized a key hormone
in the pill in Mexico City in 1951.
(SSFC, 10/21/01, p.R6)(AP, 5/9/00)
1960 May 9, US sent a U-2 over
USSR.
(MC, 5/9/02)
1961 May 9, In a speech to the
National Association of Broadcasters, Federal Communications Commission
chairman Newton N. Minow condemned television programming as a "vast
wasteland."
(AP, 5/9/97)
1962 May 9, A laser beam was
successfully bounced off Moon for the first time.
(HN, 5/9/99)
1964 May 9, Khrushchev visited
Egypt.
(MC, 5/9/02)
1967 May 9, Marine Sgt. James Neil
Tycz (22) and three other US servicemen were killed on Hill 665 near
Khe Sanh, Vietnam, close to the Laos border. In 2005 three of the men
were buried at Arlington National Cemetery on the 38th anniversary of
their deaths.
(AP, 5/8/05)
1970 May 9, Walter Reuther
(1907-1970) died in a plane crash. He was a die maker who pioneered the
establishment of the United Automobile Workers union and served as the
UAW president from 1946 for 24 years.
(WSJ, 6/19/96, Adv.
Supl)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walter_Reuther)
1971 May 9, In the 23rd Emmy
Awards: Jack Klugman won for his role in “The Odd Couple” & Jean
Stapleton won for her role in “All in the Family.”
(www.imdb.com/Sections/Awards/Emmy_Awards/1971)
1971 May 9, Friends of Earth
returned 1500 non-returnable bottles to Schweppes. Friends of Earth
became an international network this year with a meeting of
representatives from the US, Sweden, the UK and France.
(http://tinyurl.com/6yqzul)(http://tinyurl.com/5zmwfa)
1974 May 9, The House Judiciary
Committee opened hearings on whether to recommend the impeachment of
President Nixon.
(AP, 5/9/97)(HN, 5/9/98)
1976 May 9, Harvey Fite, professor
of art at Bard College, died in Saugerties, NY, while working on his
multi-acre Opus 40 landscape sculpture. In 2010 the 37-year project was
listed for sale for $3.5 million.
(SFC, 3/22/10, p.A4)
1976 May 9, Ulrike Meinhof
(b.1934), co-leader of the Baader-Meinhof gang, committed suicide in
German prison.
(SFC, 1/10/01, p.A8)(WSJ, 4/3/09,
p.A15)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ulrike_Meinhof)
1977 May 9, Pink Floyd opened a
2-night stand at the Oakland Coliseum.
(http://concerts.wolfgangsvault.com/dt/pink-floyd-concert/2923-5541.html)
1977 May 9, James Jones (b.1921),
US writer (From Here to Eternity), died. His work included the pre-WW
II novel "From Here to Eternity." His daughter later wrote the novel "A
Soldier’s Daughter never Cries," which was made into a film with Kris
Kristofferson as James Jones.
(www.kirjasto.sci.fi/jjones.htm)(SFEC, 7/12/98, Par
p.17)
1978 May 9, "Ain't Misbehavin'"
opened at Longacre Theater NYC for 1604 performances.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ain't_Misbehavin')
1978 May 9, The bullet-riddled
body of former Italian PM Aldo Moro, who'd been abducted by the Red
Brigades, was found in an abandoned automobile in the center of Rome.
In 2000 French police arrested Alvaro Loiacono in northern Corsica for
his alleged role in the murder.
(AP, 5/9/97)(SFC, 6/3/00, p.A12)
1980 May 9, In Florida 35
motorists were killed when a Liberian-flagged freighter rammed the
Sunshine Skyway Bridge over Tampa Bay, causing a 1,400-foot section of
the bridge to collapse.
(AP, 5/9/97)
1981 May 9, Nelson Algren (72), US
writer (Man with the Golden Arm), died.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nelson_Algren)
1982 May 9, The musical "Nine,"
inspired by Federico Fellini's film "Eight and a-Half," opened on
Broadway.
(AP, 5/9/07)
1984 May 9, In San Francisco a
5-alarm fire engulfed Piers 30 and 32 along the Embarcadero at the foot
of Bryant Street. Damages were estimated at $2.5 million.
(SSFC, 5/3/09, DB p.50)(SSFC, 5/10/09, DB p.50)
1985 May 9, Laurent Fabius, head
of the French Socialist government, blocked the sale of an AIDS virus
detection test made by Abbott Laboratories. Fabius and others were
later charged with criminal negligence and manslaughter in the deaths
of hundreds who died from transfusions of tainted blood. In 1999 Fabius
and Georgina Dufoix were cleared of the charges. Edmond Herve, the
health minister under Dufoix, was convicted of negligence in 2 cases.
(SFEC, 2/7/99, p.A2)(SFC, 3/10/99, p.A1)
1986 May 9, In Norway the
Conservative-led coalition resigned and Gro Harlem Brundtland (b.1939)
returned to power. She immediately appointed 8 women to her 18-member
cabinet.
(SFC, 10/24/96,
p.C3)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gro_Harlem_Brundtland)
1986 May 9, Tenzing Norgay
(b.1914), Tibetan climber (Mount Everest 1953), died.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tenzing_Norgay)
1987 May 9, All 183 people aboard
a Polish jetliner were killed when the plane, bound for New York,
crashed and burned in Warsaw after the pilot attempted an emergency
return.
(AP, 5/9/97)
1988 May 9, Education Secretary
William J. Bennett announced he would leave his position in
mid-September.
(AP, 5/9/98)
1989 May 9, President Bush
complained that Panama's elections were marred by "massive
irregularities," and he called for worldwide pressure on General Manuel
Antonio Noriega to step down as military leader.
(AP, 5/9/99)
1989 May 9, VP Quayle said in
United Negro College Fund speech: "What a waste it is to lose one's
mind" instead of "a mind is terrible thing to waste."
(www.realchange.org/quayle.htm)
1990 May 9, President Bush and
congressional leaders announced plans for emergency budget talks, with
tax increases and spending cuts on the negotiating table.
(AP, 5/9/00)
1990 May 9, A major cyclone made
landfall on Andhra Pradesh, India. It dissipated 2 days later over
central India. Strong flooding caused 510 human fatalities, but the
effect on agriculture was substantial. More than 100,000 animals were
killed,
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1990-1994_North_Indian_Ocean_cyclone_seasons)
1991 May 9, President Bush met at
the White House with UN Secretary-General Javier Perez de Cuellar, who
relayed Iraq’s rejection of a US-backed proposal for a UN civilian
force in northern Iraq.
(AP, 5/9/01)
1991 May 9, William Kennedy Smith
was charged with rape, nearly six weeks after Patricia Bowman accused
him of attacking her at the Kennedy family estate in West Palm Beach,
Florida. He was later acquitted at trial.
(AP, 5/9/01)
1991 May 9, Michael Landon
(d.7/1/1991) appeared on Tonight Show to talk about his cancer.
(www.sawilsons.com/highway_to_heaven.htm)
1992 May 9, Final episode of
"Golden Girls" aired on NBC-TV.
(www.tv.com/golden-girls/show/131/summary.html)
1992 May 9, President Bush, back
in Washington after a visit to riot-torn Los Angeles, promised in a
radio speech that he would work with the Democrat-controlled Congress
on proposals to help American cities.
(AP, 5/9/97)
1993 May 9, The White House said
President Clinton had directed Secretary of State Warren M. Christopher
to contact U.S. allies to discuss how they could ensure Serbia's
promise to cut supplies to the Bosnian Serbs.
(AP, 5/9/98)
1993 May 9, Major flooding began
in the Mississippi Valley. 1700 square miles flooded in Kansas,
Illinois, Minnesota, Iowa, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, South
Dakota and Wisconsin. Total damage was later estimated at $20 billion.
(SSFC, 9/4/05, p.A7)
1993 May 9, Paraguay held its 1st
presidential and parliamentary elections in 50 years. A democracy was
established in Paraguay. Juan Carlos Wasmosy was elected president.
(WSJ, 4/24/96, A1)
1993 May 9, Pope John Paul II made
an anti-Mafia speech in Agrigento, Sicily.
(www.cbc.ca/news/obit/pope/timeline.html)
1993 May 9, Penelope Gilliatt
[Conner], British author, died.
(www.britannica.com/eb/article-9104302)
1994 May 9, "Passion" opened at
Plymouth Theater in NYC for 280 performances.
(www.sjsondheim.com/passion.html)
1994 May 9, Comedian Bobcat
Goldthwait set fire to the couch on Tonight Show. A misdemeanor charge
soon followed and a fine of $3,888.
(www.courttv.com/news/flashback/May.html)
1994 May 9, Mass murderer Joel
Rifkin was found guilty in NY. By January 1996, Rifkin was scheduled to
serve at least 183 years for seven slayings, with 10 counts outstanding.
(www.crimelibrary.com/serial_killers/predators/rifkin/9.html)
1994 May 9, South Africa's newly
elected parliament chose Nelson Mandela to be the country's first black
president. Mandela promised a South Africa for "all its people, black
and white."
(AP, 5/9/99)
1995 May 9, President Clinton
arrived in Moscow for a summit with Russian President Boris Yeltsin.
(AP, 5/9/00)
1995 May 9, The United States
returned 13 Cuban boat people to their homeland, the first to be sent
back under a new policy bitterly protested by Cuban-Americans.
(AP, 5/9/00)
1995 May 9, Kinshasa, capital of
Zaire (later Congo), was placed under quarantine after an outbreak of
the Ebola virus.
(AP, 5/9/00)
1996 May 9, In dramatic video
testimony to a hushed courtroom in Little Rock, Ark., President Clinton
insisted he had nothing to do with a $300,000 loan at the heart of the
criminal case against his former Whitewater partners.
(AP, 5/9/97)
1996 May 9, In India the Congress
Party conceded to electoral losses.
(WSJ, 5/9/96, p.A-1)
1996 May 9, In South Africa the
National Party withdrew from a national-unity government with Pres.
Mandela’s African National Congress.
(WSJ, 5/10/96, p.A-1)
1996 May 9, In Germany the
parliament cleared the way for a high-speed, magnetically levitated
train system to link Berlin and Hamburg. The project is estimated to
cost $3.7 billion and is to be completed in 2005.
(WSJ, 5/10/96, p.A-6)
1996 May 9, Bacterial meningitis
had Infected more than 100,000 people in West Africa over the last 3
months and more than 10,000 died. The epidemic was most intense in the
region just south of the Sahara known as the Sahel.
(SFC, 5/9/96, p.C-5)
1997 May 9, During a visit to a
rain forest in Costa Rica, President Clinton urged nations not to
sacrifice their environment in pursuit of economic gain.
(AP, 5/9/98)
1997 May 9, HUD announced a suit
against A. Bruce Rozet, a prominent SF property owner, for kickbacks on
inflated management fees. Rozet and partner Deane Earl Ross had
holdings that included 21,851 housing units that received annual
federal subsidies of $71.6 million.
(SFC, 5/10/97, p.A3)
1997 May 9, The California state
Environmental protection Agency issued a report that linked lung cancer
to diesel exhaust fumes.
(SFC, 5/10/97, p.A17)
1997 May 9, A pesticide plant
burned after an explosion in West Helena, Ark. The chemical
Azinphosmethyl was not supposed to have exploded unless it was heated
and decomposed. A levee was built to keep poison-laden rainwater from
entering the Mississippi River. Three firefighters were killed.
(SFC, 5/10/97, p.A8)
1997 May 9, Australian scientists
reported in the journal Radiation Research that prolonged exposure of
cellular phone radiation in the 900 megahertz range increased the risk
of lymphoma cancer in mice.
(SFC, 5/9/97, p.A1,11)
1997 May 9, In Hong Kong a
3-year-old boy became ill with the flu. He died May 21 and the flu was
identified as subtype H5N1, a bird flu.
(SFC, 2/26/01, p.A9)
1997 May 9, In Italy 8 Venetian
separatists took over the bell tower at St. Mark’s Square. They were
overpowered by police after 7 1/2 hours.
(SFC, 5/10/97, p.A10)
1997 May 9, Marco Ferreri
(b.1928), film director, died. His work included “The Wheelchair” (El
Cochecit 1960), “Le Lit Conjugal” (The Conjugal Bed 1963), “Dillinger
Is Dead” (1969), “La Grande Bouffe” (1973), “La Derniere Femme” (1976),
and “Bye Bye Monkey’ (1978).
(SFC, 5/10/97, p.A20)
1997 May 9, In Russia Pres.
Yeltsin approved a new security doctrine that stipulated that right to
use nuclear weapons if it was attacked.
(SFC, 5/10/97, p.A12)
1998 May 9, In Britain the Israeli
transsexual, Dana International (Yaron Cohen), won the annual
Eurovision Song Prize with the song “Diva.”.
(SFC, 5/11/98, p.D5)(SFEC, 7/20/98, p.A9)
1998 May 9, In France a bomb
exploded near the Spanish border at Saint-Pierre d’Irube and caused
damage to a bank branch and the City Hall. Basque militants were
suspected.
(SFEC, 5/10/98, p.A22)
1998 May 9, In Greece Archbishop
Christodoulos was enthroned in Athens as the new head of the Greek
Orthodox Church. A recent proposal to force the separation of church
and state in Greece was rejected the previous week.
(SFEC, 5/10/98, p.A19)
1998 May 9, Indonesian President
Suharto left his troubled country for a summit in Egypt with a warning
his army would quell violence over his 32-year rule and the worsening
economy.
(AP, 5/9/99)
1998 May 9, The leading Group of
Eight industrialized countries imposed an investment ban on Serbia and
froze and froze the assets abroad of Serbia and Montenegro due to
conditions in Kosovo. The sanctions did not go into effect because
Serbia began talks with ethnic Albanians in Kosovo.
(SFEC, 5/10/98, p.A13)(WSJ, 5/19/98, p.A1)
1999 May 9, On Oahu, Hawaii, a
landslide at Sacred Falls State Park killed 8 people and injured
dozens.
(SFC, 5/11/99, p.A3)(SFC, 5/13/99, p.A5)
1999 May 9, In Louisiana a
chartered bus, bound for a Mother's Day gambling excursion, crashed on
I-610 in New Orleans and [22] 23 people were killed.
(SFC, 5/10/99, p.A1)(WSJ, 5/10/99, p.A1)(AP, 5/9/00)
1999 May 9, NATO struck artillery
and mortar positions along with armored vehicles and Serbian troops in
Kosovo.
(SFC, 5/10/99, p.A8)
1999 May 9, China announced that
it was breaking off diplomatic contacts with Washington on human rights
and arms control along with contacts on weapons proliferation and
int'l. security due to the bombing of its embassy in Belgrade. Furious
Chinese demonstrators hurled rocks and debris into the U.S. Embassy in
a second day of protests against NATO's bombing of the Chinese Embassy
in Yugoslavia.
(SFC, 5/10/99, p.A1)(AP, 5/9/00)
1999 May 9, In East Timor violence
in Dili between separatists and anti-independence militia began and
left 4 people dead over the next 2 days.
(SFC, 5/11/99, p.A12)
2000 May 9, Senator John McCain
endorsed Texas Governor George W. Bush for president.
(SFC, 5/10/00, p.A1)
2000 May 9, Former four-term
Louisiana Governor Edwin Edwards was convicted of extortion schemes to
manipulate the licensing of riverboat casinos. Edwards was sentenced in
January, 2001, to ten years in prison and fined a quarter of a million
dollars.
(AP, 5/9/01)
2000 May 9, In Kentucky a fire at
the Wild Turkey Distillery caused an alcohol runoff into an 8-mile
stretch of the Kentucky River and a huge fish kill followed within days.
(SFC, 5/20/00, p.D8)
2000 May 9, It was reported that
10% of the world’s 608 primate species and subspecies on 3 continents
were critically imperiled.
(WSJ, 5/9/00, p.A1)
2000 May 9, In the Philippines
Reomel Ramones, suspect in the “Love Bug” computer virus case, was
released due to lack of evidence. His girlfriend, Irene de Guzman,
failed to turn herself in as promised.
(SFC, 5/10/00, p.A12)
2001 May 9, Pres. Bush told Pres.
Kostunica of Yugoslavia that aid would depend on cooperation with the
Balkan war crimes tribunal.
(SFC, 5/10/01, p.A16)
2001 May 9, It was reported that
El Paso Merchant Energy had crimped space in its desert pipeline and
forced California power buyers to pay some $3.8 billion in excess over
the past year.
(SFC, 5/9/01, p.A7)
2001 May 9, China sought U.S.
understanding for its refusal to allow a damaged U.S. Navy spy plane to
fly home, saying public sentiment would be outraged if the aircraft
flew again over Chinese territory.
(AP, 5/9/02)
2001 May 9, In Split, Croatia, a
soccer brawl left 130 people injured including 30 police.
(SFC, 5/11/01, p.D4)
2001 May 9, In Ghana a stampede at
a soccer match in Accra killed 126 people. Police had use of tear gas
to quell fans which caused panic and the stampede.
(WSJ, 5/10/01, p.A1)(SFC, 5/10/01, p.A16)(AP, 5/9/02)
2001 May 9, In Kashmir Islamic
guerrillas, members of the Pakistan based Lashkar-e-Tayyaba group, set
off explosives in a paramilitary camp in Magam and killed themselves
and 6 civilians.
(SFC, 5/10/01, p.C5)
2001 May 9, In the West Bank 2
Israeli teenagers, Koby Mandell (13) and Yossi Ishran (14), were stoned
to death and found in a cave.
(WSJ, 5/10/01, p.A1)(SFC, 5/10/01, p.A16)
2001 May 9, Macedonian forces
intensified assaults on suspected ethnic Albanian positions.
(WSJ, 5/10/01, p.A1)
2001 May 9, In Papua New Guinea
the Bougainville Provincial Peace Consultative committee adopted a
peace plan and opposing factions agreed to lay down their weapons. The
agreement entailed the PNG government’s accepting greater autonomy for
Bougainville and a referendum on independence to be held between
2015-2020.
(SFC, 5/11/01, p.D8)(Econ, 2/9/08, p.48)
2001 May 9, In southern Sudan a
Red Cross plane was shot and its co-pilot, Dane Ole Friis Eriksen, was
killed. The plane managed to land in Kenya.
(SFC, 5/10/01, p.C5)
2002 May 9, Veteran Mexican
musician Juan Gabriel won four awards, including top songwriter, at the
Billboard Latin Music Awards held in Miami Beach, Florida.
(AP, 5/9/03)
2002 May 9, In Maryland Gov.
Parris Glendening declared a moratorium on executions. It was the 2nd
state after Illinois to do so because of doubts over its fairness.
(SFC, 5/10/02, p.A5)
2002 May 9, In Bahrain voters cast
ballots in elections for 50 municipal seats. Bahraini women were
allowed to vote and run for office for the 1st time, though none were
elected.
(SFC, 5/10/02, p.A20)
2002 May 9, In India rioting
between Hindus and Muslims in Ahmadabad left 9 people dead.
(SFC, 5/10/02, p.A20)
2002 May 9, In Liberia many
civilians were reported killed as rebels attacked Gbarnga, the
stronghold of Pres. Charles Taylor.
(SFC, 5/10/02, p.A16)
2002 May 9, In Russia a
remote-controlled terrorist bomb killed 43 people including 13 children
in Kaspiisk, Dagestan.
(SFC, 5/10/02, p.A1)(WSJ, 5/10/02, p.A1)(SFC,
5/11/02, p.A12)(AP, 5/9/03)
2003 May 9, The US and its allies
asked the UN Security Council to legitimize their occupation of Iraq
and sought permission to use revenue from the world's second-largest
oil reserves to rebuild the war-battered country.
(AP, 5/9/03)
2003 May 9, The Republican-led
House approved 222-203 a $550 billion tax cut package.
(AP, 5/9/04)
2003 May 9, The Fizzer computer
virus began circulating aided by its ability to propagate through the
Kazaa file sharing network.
(WSJ, 5/13/03, p.D3)
2003 May 9, In Cleveland, Ohio,
Biswanath Halder (62), a camouflage-clad gunman, fired hundreds of
rounds as he roamed the halls of the Case Western Univ. Weatherhead
School of management, killing Norman Wallace (30), of Youngstown and
wounding others. He was arrested after a 7-hour standoff. Halder was
later convicted and sentenced to life in prison.
(SFC, 5/10/03, p.A3)(SSFC, 5/11/03, p.A1)(AP, 5/9/08)
2003 May 9, In Tyler, Texas,
Deanna LaJune Laney (38) bludgeoned to death her 2 sons Joshua (8) and
Luke (6). A toddler was in critical condition. In 2004 a jury found
Laney legally insane.
(SFC, 5/13/03, p.A6)(AP, 4/4/04)
2003 May 9, Russell Long (b.1918),
U.S. senator from Louisiana, died. He was 1st elected to the senate in
1948 and served for over 32 years.
(HN, 11/3/98)(SFC, 5/10/03, p.A13)
2003 May 9, In northern Iraq 3
U.S. soldiers were killed when their helicopter crashed into the Tigris
River.
(AP, 5/9/03)
2003 May 9, Japan launched a
rocket carrying the Muses-C probe, which planned to make contact with
asteroid 1998 SF36 in June of 2005.
(SFC, 5/10/03, p.A7)
2003 May 9, Spain's highest court
barred nearly 1,500 Basque nationalists from running in municipal
elections, calling them camouflaged members of the outlawed party
Batasuna.
(AP, 5/9/03)
2004 May 9, Alan King, comedian,
died in NYC. King was born in Brooklyn as Irwin Alan Kniberg. His books
included “Is Salami and Eggs Better than Sex?” (1985).
(SFC, 5/10/04, p.A2)
2004 May 9, The Bangladesh
government put thousands of security forces on the streets of Dhaka and
nearby Tongi as a strike to protest the killing of Ahsanullah Master, a
member of the main opposition Awami League, brought the country to a
standstill.
(AP, 5/9/04)
2004 May 9, Canada rallied to beat
Sweden for the second straight year in the gold-medal game at the world
hockey championships, 5-3.
(AP, 5/9/05)
2004 Mar 9, In Chad 2 days of
fighting broke out as the army battled Islamic militants near a remote
village on the country's western border with Niger, killing 43
"terrorists" of a group suspected of links with al-Qaida. Chad’s
defense minister said hundreds of Arab militiamen from Sudan had raided
a village inside Chad, setting off gun battles with the army that
killed dozens of fighters.
(AP, 3/12/04)(AP, 5/9/04)
2004 May 9, The Chinese government
warned that AIDS is continuing to spread and estimated that there were
some 840,000 carriers of the disease.
(SFC, 5/10/04, p.A3)
2004 May 9, Akhmad Kadyrov (52),
the Kremlin-backed president of Russia's warring Chechnya region, was
killed along with 23 others when an explosion tore through a stadium in
Grozny, during Victory Day observances marking the defeat of the Nazis
in World War II. Russian Sergei Abramov was named acting president.
(SFC, 5/10/04, p.A1)(SFC, 5/11/04, p.A7)(AP, 5/9/05)
2004 May 9, U.S. and British
troops clashed with forces of radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr for
a second day. 4 Iraqis were killed in an explosion in a Baghdad market.
Militants loyal to al-Sadr took over Sadr City.
(AP, 5/9/04)(SFC, 5/10/04, p.A1)(SFC, 5/11/04, p.A9)
2004 May 9, Polish police in Lodz
mistakenly opened fire with live ammunition to stop a street fight,
killing a 19-year-old man and wounding three others.
(AP, 5/9/04)
2004 May 9, Brenda Fassie (39),
South Africa's first black pop star, who gave a voice to
disenfranchised blacks at the height of apartheid, died of
complications from an asthma attack.
(AP, 5/10/04)
2005 May 9, President Bush,
Russian President Vladimir Putin, French President Jacques Chirac and
German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder commemorated the 60th anniversary
of the Allied victory over Nazi Germany with a lavish military parade
in Moscow. President Bush then traveled to Georgia.
(AP, 5/9/06)
2005 May 9, Actress Renee
Zellweger married country music star Kenny Chesney on the island of St.
John in the US Virgin Islands. The marriage was annulled just months
later.
(AP, 5/9/06)
2005 May 9, Eight-year-old Laura
Hobbs and 9-year-old Krystal Tobias were found stabbed to death in
Zion, Ill.; Laura's father, Jerry Hobbs III, was later charged with
killing the girls.
(AP, 5/9/06)
2005 May 9, In Hingham, Mass., the
bodies of two homeless men were found. They had likely been killed the
previous April. In 2007 Eric Snow (25) and James Winquist (23) were
accused of beating the 2 men to death with baseball bats.
(SFC, 9/5/07, p.A3)
2005 May 9, In Espertantina,
Brazil, Mayor Felipe Santolia (32) declared May 9 as an official Orgasm
Day.
(AP, 5/9/05)
2005 May 9, In northern China
nearly a dozen homes built into hillside caves were buried when the
soil above them collapsed, trapping 24 people.
(AP, 5/10/05)
2005 May 9, In Ecuador former
President Gustavo Noboa was placed under house arrest on charges he
mishandled Ecuador's foreign debt negotiations during his three-year
term.
(AP, 5/9/05)
2005 May 9, In Tbilisi Pres. Bush,
before a cheering crowd of tens of thousands of people, said that the
former Soviet republic of Georgia is proving to the world that
determined people can rise up and claim their freedom from oppressive
rulers.
(AP, 5/9/05)
2005 May 9, Werner G. Seifert, the
long-serving chief executive of the German stock exchange, was ousted
by The Children's Investment Fund (TCI), a British hedge fund. In 2006
Seifert authored his account of the affair: “Invasion der Heuschrecken:
Intrigen, Machkampfe, Marktmanipulation.”
(Econ, 4/8/06, p.64)(Econ, 4/22/06, p.81)
2005 May 9, In Athens, Greece,
Christian leaders, theologians and religious activists from around the
world gathered for a meeting to assess some of the most serious
challenges for the faith, such as growing rifts between churches and
African congregations ravaged by AIDS.
(AP, 5/9/05)
2005 May 9, Iran confirmed that it
has processed 37 tons of uranium into gas, a key step into the using
the material as a fuel for reactors or weapons.
(WSJ, 5/10/05, p.A1)
2005 May 9, PM Ariel Sharon told
Israeli media that Israel's evacuation of the Gaza Strip will be put
off until mid-August.
(AP, 5/9/05)
2005 May 9, Leftist Mexico City
Mayor Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador announced that he will resign on July
31 to run for president.
(AP, 5/9/05)
2005 May 9, Nepali troops killed
26 Maoist rebels who attacked a military base at Bandipur. 3 policemen
and one soldier were also killed.
(AP, 5/10/05)
2005 May 9, Palestinian militants
and police exchanged gunfire in two West Bank towns Monday, defying
Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas' attempts to crack down on lawlessness
and put peacemaking with Israel on a more solid footing.
(AP, 5/9/05)
2005 May 9, World leaders joined
Russian Pres. Vladimir Putin on Red Square for a lavish military parade
celebrating the 60th anniversary of the Allied victory over Nazi
Germany.
(AP, 5/9/05)
2006 May 9, The United States
bowed to pressure from its allies and agreed to support a new program
to temporarily funnel additional aid directly to the Palestinian people.
(AP, 5/10/06)
2006 May 9, Vermont Gov. Jim
Douglas signed a health reform package to provide health insurance to
as many as 25,000 uninsured residents.
(SFC, 5/10/06, p.A3)
2006 May 9, Cory Anthony Booker
(b.1969) was elected the 36th mayor of Newark, New Jersey. The
Democratic politician and former Newark Councilman and community
activist had run unsuccessfully for mayor in 2002 against longtime
incumbent Sharpe James. Booker inherited a $44 million deficit from
James, who had boasted of a $30 million surplus.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cory_Booker)
2006 May 9, Gold futures closed
above $700 for the 1st time since 1980.
(SFC, 5/10/06, p.C1)(WSJ, 5/10/06, p.C1)
2006 May 9, Tornadoes swept
through two North Texas towns after dark, reducing houses to bare
concrete slabs in a path of destruction that left three people dead and
10 injured.
(AP, 5/10/06)
2006 May 9, Victor Gonzalez,
former butcher, murdered his roofing foreman Wilfredo Pinto. He
then dismembered and bagged the body parts and scattered them on NYC
street corners. In 2009 Gonzalez was convicted of murder.
(SFC, 4/9/09, p.A4)(www.mahalo.com/Victor_Gonzalez)
2006 May 9, Australia's government
unveiled a big-spending "boom budget" that will use a projected 10
billion dollar (7.7 billion US) surplus to finance across-the-board tax
cuts and build up the military and national security agencies.
(AP, 5/9/06)
2006 May 9, In Beaconsfield,
Australia, Brant Webb and Todd Russell were rescued from a mine more
than a half mile underground. A small earthquake on April 25 trapped
Webb and Russell in the 4-foot-tall safety cage they were working in
under tons of rock. Mourners gathered to bury, Larry Knight, who died
in the same rock collapse.
(AP, 5/9/06)
2006 May 9, A plan by Bolivia's
leftist government to redistribute up to 54,000 square miles of land to
the poor generated protests by leaders in the wealthy province of Santa
Cruz, the stronghold of opposition to leftist President Evo Morales.
(AP, 5/10/06)
2006 May 9, Bosnia's war crimes
court launched the trial of 11 Bosnian Serbs charged over the 1995
Srebrenica massacre of 8,000 Bosnian Muslims, its first genocide trial
since it opened last year.
(Reuters, 5/9/06)
2006 May 9, A land mine killed
five Cambodian soldiers and maimed another as they tried to remove it
from an area being developed to build a casino.
(AP, 5/10/06)
2006 May 9, The Canadian dollar
hit a 28-year high against the US dollar, as the greenback came under
broad selling pressure.
(AP, 5/9/06)
2006 May 9, Authorities said
Chinese and US had agents seized more than 300 pounds of cocaine in
March smuggled from Colombia in the country's largest ever cocaine
bust. Nine people involved in a drug ring were arrested in southern
China.
(AP, 5/9/06)
2006 May 9, In Egypt Nasser Khamis
el-Mallahi, the leader of an al-Qaida-inspired group wanted for last
month's bombings in Dahab, was killed in a gunbattle in the mountains
of the Sinai Peninsula.
(AP, 5/9/06)
2006 May 9, A German court handed
down a life sentence for murder to Armin Meiwes, the German cannibal
jailed for killing a man and feeding on his flesh, overturning a
previous manslaughter conviction.
(AP, 5/9/06)
2006 May 9, Officials said Iran
will supply crude oil and equity investment to build an oil refinery in
Indonesia that will supply China and provide Iran with a secure outlet
in the face of possible sanctions.
(WSJ, 5/10/06, p.A8)
2006 May 9, Iran's president
declared in a letter to President Bush that democracy had failed
worldwide and lamented "an ever-increasing global hatred" of the U.S.
government. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice swiftly rejected the
letter, saying it didn't resolve questions about Tehran's suspect
nuclear program.
(AP, 5/9/06)
2006 May 9, In Iraq a suicide
truck bomber hit a crowded public market in the northern city of Tal
Afar, killing at least 19 people and wounding 35. In Suwayra police
recovered the corpses on 11 people, 9 of whom had been beheaded. In
Salahuddin province 3 Iraqi detainees were shot and killed by US
soldiers near Samarra. On June 19 the US military announced murder
charges against 4 US soldiers of the 101st Airborne Division’s 3rd
Brigade. The soldiers said they were under orders to kill all
military-age males on “Objective Murray.” In 2007 Spec. Juston Graber
pleaded guilty to reduced charges. On Jan 25, 2007, Pfc. Corey Clagett
(22) was sentenced to 18 years in prison for murdering a detainee and
taking part in the killing of 2 others. In 2007 Staff Sgt. Ray Girouard
was found guilty on 3 counts of negligent homicide. He was sentenced to
10 years in prison.
(AP, 5/9/06)(SFC, 5/10/06, p.A3)(SFC, 6/20/06,
p.A4)(SFC, 7/22/06, p.A3)(SFC, 1/4/07, p.A3)(SFC, 1/26/07, p.A3)(SFC,
3/17/07, p.A3)(AFP, 3/20/07)
2006 May 9, Mexican lawmakers
handed federal investigators a box of evidence that they claim shows
that two of President Vicente Fox's stepsons were involved in fraud and
illicit enrichment through real estate deals.
(AP, 5/9/06)
2006 May 9, In eastern Nepal a
school van plunged into a canal, killing at least nine students and
leaving several others missing.
(AP, 5/9/06)
2006 May 9, Renewed clashes
between Hamas and Fatah militants wounded nine Palestinians, including
five children, raising fears that Palestinian territories could erupt
in a much wider conflagration.
(AP, 5/9/06)
2006 May 9, Somalian factions said
they have agreed to a truce following clashes between Islamic fighters
and a warlord alliance that have killed about 60 people.
(WSJ, 5/10/06, p.A1)
2006 May 9, UN members elected 47
countries to a new Human Rights Council. Cuba, Saudi Arabia, China and
Russia won seats on the new UN Human Rights Council despite their poor
human rights records. Two rights abusers, Iran and Venezuela, were
defeated.
(AP, 5/10/06)(SFC, 5/10/06, p.A17)
2007 May 9, The NY Times reported
on its Web site that Amgen Inc. and Johnson & Johnson are paying
doctors hundreds of millions of dollars every year in return for
prescribing anemia drugs which regulators now say may be unsafe at
commonly used doses.
(AP, 5/9/07)
2007 May 9, Alfred D. Chandler
Jr., American historian, died in Massachusetts. He helped establish the
field of business history. His books included “Strategy and Structure:
Chapters in the History of the Industrial Revolution” (1962).
(WSJ, 5/12/07, p.A8)(Econ, 5/19/07, p.91)
2007 May 9, Afghan civilians
fought with Taliban militants who hit a checkpoint near Sangin, leaving
three of the attackers dead. A suicide car bomber killed two Afghans
and wounded five when he detonated his car in the eastern Paktika
province.
(AP, 5/10/07)
2007 May 9, Police in Brazil and
Norway detained at least 25 people in simultaneous raids on suspected
criminal gangs, seeking evidence of money laundering.
(AP, 5/9/07)
2007 May 9, Britain’s Home Office,
once called "not fit for purpose" by the minister in charge of it, was
split into two in a bid to combat illegal immigration, crime and
terrorism more effectively. British police arrested four people in
connection with the suicide bombings that killed 52 bus and subway
passengers in London in 2005.
(AFP, 5/9/07)(AP, 5/9/07)
2007 May 9, Chad pledged to work
to demobilize hundreds of child soldiers fighting in the ranks of the
government army and rebel groups across the conflict-torn central
African country.
(Reuters, 5/9/07)
2007 May 9, China ordered
strengthened controls over its food industry after a series of health
scares with international repercussions laid bare lax standards. A
Beijing court sentenced a man to life in prison for taking nearly
$500,000 in bribes while posing as a reporter, and sometimes a top
editor, for the Communist Party's official newspaper, the People's
Daily.
(AP, 5/9/07)
2007 May 9, East Timor voted for a
new president, choosing between a Nobel Prize winner and an ex-freedom
fighter in polls critical to maintaining peace a year after the nation
was pushed to the brink of civil war.
(AP, 5/9/07)
2007 May 9, In the early hours
Internet traffic in Estonia spiked to thousands of times the normal
flow. May 10 was heavier still, forcing Estonia’s biggest bank to shut
down its online service for more than an hour. Hansabank continued
under assault and worked to block access to 300 suspect Internet
addresses. On March 12, 2009, Konstantin Goloskokov, an activist with
Russia's Nashi youth group and aide to a pro-Kremlin member of
parliament, said he had organized a network of sympathizers who
bombarded Estonian Internet sites with electronic requests, causing
them to crash.
(www.lunchoverip.com/2007/05/estonia_under_c.html)(Reuters, 3/12/09)
2007 May 9, France’s interior
minister said violence hit for a third night following the election of
conservative Nicolas Sarkozy, with about 200 vehicles torched by
vandals and more than 80 people taken in for questioning nationwide.
(AP, 5/9/07)
2007 May 9, In France Nayef
al-Shaalan, a Saudi Prince, was sentenced in absentia to 10 years in
jail on charges of involvement in a cocaine smuggling gang.
(AP, 5/9/07)
2007 May 9, Hundreds of German
police raided the offices and apartments of left-wing activists
suspected of planning to disrupt next month's Group of Eight summit,
leading security officials to tighten border controls ahead of the
gathering.
(AP, 5/9/07)
2007 May 9, US VP Dick Cheney and
Iraqi PM Nouri al-Maliki acknowledged problems in the pace of reducing
violence in Iraq, but both pledged their governments would continue
working together toward a solution. A majority of Iraqi lawmakers
endorsed a draft bill calling for a timetable for the withdrawal of
foreign troops and demanding a freeze on the number already in the
country. A suicide truck bomb ripped through the Interior Ministry
headquarters in the Kurdish city of Irbil, killing at least 14 people
and wounding dozens. Four Iraqi journalists were killed in a drive-by
shooting near the northern oil-rich city of Kirkuk. Gunmen killed two
members of the minority Yazidi religious sect and wounded another in a
drive-by shooting in Mosul. A car bomb exploded near an Iraqi military
checkpoint in Baghdad, killing one civilian and wounding two soldiers.
Police found four decapitated heads in the Sabtiyah area north of
Baqouba. The body of a security officer was found shot in the head and
chest in Diwaniyah. 72 people killed or found dead nationwide.
(AP, 5/9/07)(AP, 5/10/07)
2007 May 9, Japan's Supreme Court
rejected compensation claims by Chinese victims of atrocities committed
by Japan in the 1930s and 40s, which included the use of biological
weapons and a massacre in the city of Nanjing.
(AP, 5/10/07)
2007 May 9, In Mexico gunmen
opened fire on a naval commander in the Pacific resort city of Ixtapa
and killed his bodyguard. Suspected drug traffickers attacked a
military checkpoint in the Pacific resort of Huatulco. One attacker was
killed.
(AP, 5/10/07)
2007 May 9, In southern Nigeria
gunmen seized four American workers overnight as violence escalated in
the petroleum-producing region. South Korea's top builder Daewoo
Engineering and Construction welcomed the release of its kidnapped
workers in Nigeria and said the incident would not affect its lucrative
business in the country.
(AP, 5/9/07)
2007 May 9, Military officials
from North and South Korea reached an agreement clearing the way for
the first railway journeys across their heavily fortified border for
half a century.
(AP, 5/9/07)
2007 May 9, Pakistan and the Czech
Republic agreed to boost diplomatic links and promote relations in
trade, health and science.
(AP, 5/9/07)
2007 May 9, The Palestinian
information minister said Hamas militants have suspended a TV program
that featured a Mickey Mouse look-alike urging Palestinian children to
fight Israel and work for global Islamic domination. Hamas militants in
Palestine had enlisted a figure bearing a strong resemblance to Mickey
Mouse to broadcast their message of Islamic domination and armed
resistance to their most impressionable audience, children. The show
was broadcast as usual two days after the Palestinian information
minister said it would be suspended.
(AP, 5/9/07)(AP, 5/11/07)
2007 May 9, In the Philippines
Ernie Tatoy (41), an aide to a gubernatorial candidate, was fatally
shot and his daughter (13) wounded, as violence in the run-up to next
week's local and congressional elections claimed its 100th victim in
four months.
(AP, 5/9/07)
2007 May 9, Saudi authorities
beheaded an Ethiopian woman convicted of killing an Egyptian man over a
dispute. Khadija Bint Ibrahim Moussa was the second woman to be
executed this year. The kingdom last beheaded two women in 2005.
Beheadings are carried out with a sword in a public square.
(AP, 5/9/07)
2007 May 9, Authorities said
Somali security forces are seizing and even burning Muslim women's
veils in Mogadishu to stop Islamist insurgents disguising themselves
for attacks.
(AP, 5/9/07)
2007 May 9, In northern Syria 7
people were killed and 7 were wounded when a 5-story building collapsed.
(AP, 5/10/07)
2007 May 9, Pope Benedict XVI
departed for a 5-day visit to Brazil, as evangelical Christians packed
converted storefronts and cavernous churches every Sunday. Benedict
gave his first full-fledged news conference since becoming pontiff in
2005. When a reporter pressed Benedict on whether he agreed that
Catholic politicians who recently legalized abortion in Mexico City
should rightfully be considered excommunicated, the response was "Yes."
(AP, 5/9/07)(AP, 5/10/07)
2007 May 9, Zimbabweans braced for
darker days after President Robert Mugabe's government announced
20-hour daily electricity cuts for households across the country.
(AP, 5/9/07)
2007 May 9, A Zimbabwean court
authorized the extradition of Briton Simon Mann to Equatorial Guinea on
coup plot charges, sweeping aside concerns that he might face torture
or invalid justice there.
(AFP, 5/9/07)
2008 May 9, Oil closed at a record
high with light, sweet crude settling at $125.96 per barrel on the New
York Mercantile Exchange.
(WSJ, 5/10/08, p.B4)
2008 May 9, In eastern Afghanistan
the US-led coalition killed several militants during an operation in
Nangarhar province. Villagers claimed that 3 civilians were among those
killed.
(AP, 5/10/08)
2008 May 9, The government of
Central African Republic (CAR), plagued by unrest since 2005, and the
country's main rebel group signed a ceasefire and peace accord to take
effect immediately.
(AFP, 5/9/08)
2008 May 9, A newly disclosed set
of documents that Colombia's government says were recovered on March 1
from a slain rebel's computers indicate senior Venezuelan officials
tried to help arm Colombia's main guerrilla army. The price of crude
rose above US$126 a barrel for the first time as investors questioned
whether a Wall Street Journal report regarding the documents could lead
to a confrontation between Washington and Venezuela.
(AP, 5/10/08)
2008 May 9, Dominica legislators
balked at deciding who can marry whom. Chief Charles Williams, the
leader of the last remaining pre-Columbian tribe in the eastern
Caribbean, recently suggested outlawing marriage to outsiders to save a
dwindling indigenous population.
(AP, 5/9/08)
2008 May 9, In Balla, India, 5
armed men killed Sunita (21), 22-weeks pregnant, and her boyfriend,
Jasbir Singh (22). They were beaten, dragged into waiting cars, driven
away and strangled. Their bodies, half-stripped, were laid out on the
dirt outside Sunita's father's house for all to see, a sign that the
family's "honor" had been restored by her cold-blooded murder. At the
small police post in Balla, a constable later admitted the case was
unlikely to ever reach prosecution, with the village putting enormous
pressure on the police, and especially Jasbir's family, to quietly drop
the case.
(Reuters, 5/16/08)
2008 May 9, Shiite Hezbollah
gunmen seized nearly all of the Lebanese capital's Muslim sector from
Sunni foes loyal to the US-backed government in the country's worst
sectarian clashes since the 15-year civil war.
(AP, 5/9/08)
2008 May 9, Mortar shells fired by
militant Hamas killed an Israeli man in an Israeli communal farm near
Gaza. Israel fired missiles at two Hamas police station in retaliation
and killed five Hamas members.
(AP, 5/10/08)
2008 May 9, Myanmar's junta seized
UN aid shipments headed for hungry and homeless survivors of last
week's devastating cyclone prompting the world body to suspend further
help. According to state media, 23,335 people died and 37,019 are
missing from Cyclone Nargis.
(AP, 5/9/08)
2008 May 9, In northwest Pakistan
suspected Islamic militants killed a policeman and injured two other
police officers in a rocket attack.
(AP, 5/9/08)
2008 May 9, South African
President Thabo Mbeki held intensive talks with veteran counterpart
Robert Mugabe over Zimbabwe's post-election crisis as doctors reported
a dramatic rise in violence.
(AP, 5/9/08)
2008 May 9, A South Korean aid
group said North Koreans are dying because of food shortages in rural
areas, and a massive famine is just a matter of time.
(AP, 5/9/08)
2008 May 9, In eastern Sri Lanka a
bomb hidden in a package exploded in a cafe in the town of Ampara,
killing 11 people on the eve local elections.
(AP, 5/10/08)
2008 May 9, In southeast Turkey a
land mine explosion killed 3 people and injured 3 others. Air strikes
launched in retaliation for a rebel raid killed 19 Kurdish fighters.
Six soldiers died in the violence. The PKK denied the military's claims
of 19 rebel deaths saying "not a single guerrilla was killed."
(AP, 5/9/08)(AP, 5/10/08)
2009 May 9, Federal drug
enforcement agents began seizing about 351 pounds of meth from two
houses in Duluth, in suburban Atlanta. The 2-day operation included the
arrest of four Mexican nationals, three of whom were in the US
illegally. It was the biggest seizure of Mexican crystal
methamphetamine ever recorded east of the Mississippi River.
(AP, 5/13/09)
2009 May 9, Chuck Daly (b.1930),
NBA basketball coach, died in Florida. He coached the Dream Team to the
Olympic gold medal in 1992 after winning back-to-back NBA championships
with the Detroit Pistons.
(AP, 5/9/09)
2009 May 9, In Afghanistan 2
police died in a roadside blast in Zabul province.
(AP, 5/10/09)
2009 May 9, Australia and Japan
joined the ranks of affected countries with confirmed H1N1 swine flu.
New Zealand, the first country in the Asia-Pacific region to confirm
cases, reported two more for a total of seven.
(AP, 5/9/09)
2009 May 9, Costa Rica reported
the first swine flu death outside North America and the US announced
its third death from the virus, while Mexico delayed the reopening of
primary schools in some states.
(AP, 5/9/09)
2009 May 9, PM Nouri al-Maliki
said Iraq should launch an anti-corruption campaign that would match
the fight it has waged against insurgents and militias, amid increasing
complaints over criminality in the government.
(AP, 5/9/09)
2009 May 9, In Mexico gunmen
killed 9 people in three separate attacks in the western state of
Michoacan. 4 horses and a bull were also killed in one of the attacks.
The bodies of 4 US citizens (19-23) were found strangled, beaten and
stabbed in a van in Tijuana, two days after they reportedly left their
Southern California homes for a night at the Mexican clubs.
(AP, 5/11/09)(AP, 5/15/09)
2009 May 9, Pakistani civilians
cowered in hospital beds and refugees looted UN supplies, all of them
desperate for relief from the fighting that has engulfed a northwestern
valley as troops and warplanes struggled to drive out Taliban
militants. The army said it killed as many as 55 more Taliban fighters
in Swat. A suspected US missile strike killed nine people, mostly
foreigners, in another militant stronghold near the Afghan border.
(AP, 5/9/09)
2009 May 9, It was reported that
Peru’s police over the last two months have seized some $40 million in
near perfect replicas of American dollar bills in $20, $50 and $100
denominations. Most of the fake bills were sent to Ecuador and Panama,
which used the greenback as their national currency.
(Econ, 5/9/09, p.40)
2009 May 9, In South Africa Jacob
Zuma became president, vowing to work to fulfill the dreams of all
South Africans after he overcame corruption and sex scandals to reach
the nation's highest office.
(AP, 5/9/09)
2009 May 9, Human Rights Watch
accused Sri Lankan forces of repeatedly striking hospitals in the
northern war zone with indiscriminate artillery and aerial attacks that
have killed scores of people, a charge the military denied. Sri Lankan
police arrested three journalists for London-based Channel 4 television
news on charges of tarnishing the image of government security forces.
(AP, 5/9/09)
2009 May 9, UN officials said a
UN-sponsored treaty to combat highly dangerous chemicals has been
expanded beyond the original "dirty dozen" to include nine more
substances that are used in pesticides, flame retardants and other
products.
(AP, 5/9/09)
2009 May 9, In Venezuela police
and soldiers discovered 4,370 pounds (1,983 kilograms) of cocaine
during a raid on a ranch in central Miranda state. A Colombian and two
Venezuelans were detained.
(AP, 5/11/09)
2010 May 9, US Attorney General
Eric Holder said Washington had evidence that Pakistani Taliban were
behind a failed car bomb attack in the heart of New York City.
(AFP, 5/9/10)
2010 May 9, Lena Horne (b.1917),
jazz singer and actress, died in NYC at age 92. She was known for her
plaintive signature song "Stormy Weather" and for her triumph over the
bigotry that allowed her to entertain white audiences but not socialize
with them. In 1942's "Panama Hattie," her first movie with MGM, she
sang Cole Porter's "Just One of Those Things," winning critical acclaim.
(AP, 5/10/10)
2010 May 9, In Afghanistan an
insurgent rocket, apparently fired at a NATO convoy, missed its target
and hit a civilian vehicle in southern Helmand province killing four
civilians. A NATO service members died in an insurgent attack in
eastern Afghanistan.
(AP, 5/10/10)
2010 May 9, Australia's government
said 5 people are feared dead and 59 people were rescued from a
disabled boat carrying suspected asylum-seekers in the Indian Ocean.
(Reuters, 5/9/10)
2010 May 9, European Union leaders
agreed to provide $572 billion in new loans and $78 billion under an
existing lending program to contain its spreading government debt
crisis and keep it from tearing the euro currency apart and derailing
the global economic recovery. An IMF contribution of $325 million would
raise the amount to over $975 million. The European Financial Stability
Facility (EFSF) fund was conjured up as a backstop for Eurozone
countries should they shut out of bond markets. On Sep 20 it was given
a AAA grade by the three major ratings agencies.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Financial_Stability_Facility)(AP,
5/10/10)(SFC, 5/10/10, p.A2)(SFC, 5/11/10, p.D2)(Econ, 9/25/10, p.83)
2010 May 9, A plume of volcanic
ash snaked its way through southern France, Switzerland, Italy and
Germany, shutting down airports and disrupting flights across Europe.
(AP, 5/9/10)
2010 May 9, In Germany Angela
Merkel's center-right coalition lost control of Germany's most populous
state, North Rhine-Westphalia, in an election that also erased its
majority in the upper house of parliament, making the country harder to
run. The defeat followed a stumbling start for Merkel's new national
coalition government, which took power in October.
(AP, 5/10/10)
2010 May 9, In Indonesia an
earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 7.4 rattled the North
Sumatra province, prompting a brief local tsunami watch, knocking out
power and damaging some homes.
(AP, 5/9/10)
2010 May 9, Iran’s President
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad opened what is being dubbed as the Middle East's
biggest car plant set up by Iranian state-run automobile company Saipa.
(AFP, 5/9/10)
2010 May 9, Iran hanged five
Kurdish activists, including one woman, convicted of membership of
armed opposition groups and involvement in bombings.
(AP, 5/9/10)
2010 May 9, In Iran Newsweek
reporter Maziar Bahari was sentenced in absentia to more than 13 years
in prison and 74 lashes, raising concerns about a new government
crackdown ahead of the anniversary of disputed presidential elections.
(AP, 5/11/10)
2010 May 9, The second round of
Lebanon's municipal elections kicked off in Beirut and the Bekaa
region, respectively dominated by PM Saad Hariri and the Shiite party
Hezbollah.
(AFP, 5/9/10)
2010 May 9, In Nepal riot police
clashed with thousands of communists demonstrating outside the
government's main offices in Katmandu, injuring several protesters and
police officers.
(AP, 5/9/10)
2010 May 9, In Pakistan 10 people
were killed in a US drone attack in North Waziristan. 9 of the 10 were
said to be militants.
(AP, 5/9/10)(SFC, 5/10/10, p.A2)
2010 May 9, The Palestinians
announced the official start of indirect peace talks with Israel after
a 17-month breakdown, while Israel's leader urged a quick transition to
face-to-face negotiations to tackle the hardest issues. Israeli-Arab
leaders launched a boycott of 1000 companies that produce Jewish
settlement-made products, following Palestinian Authority Pres. Abbas’
call for a similar ban by West Bank Arabs.
(AP, 5/9/10)(SSFC, 5/9/10, p.A4)
Go to http://www.timelinesdb.com
Go to May 10