Today in History - May 21
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427BC May 21,
Plato (d.347BC), Greek philosopher, was born. His work included the
"Republic," and the dialogues "Critias" and "Timaeus" in which he
mentioned the island empire of Atlantis. He claimed that an Egyptian
priest confided information about Atlantis to Solon, the Athenian
legislator, whose memoirs Plato claimed to have read. In 1998 2
books on Atlantis were published: "Atlantis Destroyed" by Rodney
Castleden and "Imagining Atlantis" by Richard Ellis.
(HN, 5/21/98)(WSJ, 6/26/98, p.W9)
685 May 21, Battle at
Nechtansmere: Picts trounced the Northumbrians.
(MC, 5/21/02)
987 May 21, Louis V, last
Carolingian King of France (966-987), died. The Carolingian period
of Frankish rule from the dynasty of Pepin the Short ended in France
with the death of Louis V (20). [see May 22]
(PCh, 1992, p.78)(AHD, 1971, p.205)(MC, 5/21/02)
996 May 21, Otto III (16) was
crowned the Roman Emperor by his cousin Pope Gregory V.
(HN, 5/21/98)(MC, 5/21/02)
1471 May 21, King Henry VI was
killed in the tower of London, and Edward IV took the throne.
(HN, 5/21/98)
1527 May 21, Philip II
(d.1598), king of Spain and Portugal (1556-98), was born. He invaded
England and roasted heretics. He collected a fifth of all the wealth
generated from the mines and trade in the Americas. He invested
heavily into his military and lost it all with the defeat of the
Armada in 1588. His debt at his death amounted to 85 million ducats,
or 300 tons of gold.
(HN, 5/21/98)(WSJ, 1/11/99, p.R8)(MC, 5/21/02)
1535 May 21, Imperial
authorities in Antwerp captured and imprisoned William Tyndale for
heresy over his translation of the Bible into English.
(WSJ, 12/22/94,
A-20)(www.hyperhistory.net/apwh/bios/b2tyndalew.htm)
1536 May 21, The Reformation
was officially adopted in Geneva, Switzerland.
(HN, 5/21/98)
1542 May 21, Spanish explorer
Hernando De Soto died while searching for gold along the Mississippi
River. His men buried his body in the Mississippi River in what is
now Louisiana in order that Indians would not learn of his death,
and thus disprove de Soto's claims of divinity.
(TL-MB, 1988, p.16)(AP, 5/21/97)(MC, 5/21/02)
1602 May 21, Martha’s Vineyard
was first sighted by Captain Bartholomew Gosnold.
(HN, 5/21/98)
1639 May 21, Tommaso Campanella
(b.1568), Italian philosopher, theologian, astrologer, and poet,
died. He spent 27 years imprisoned in Naples (1599-1626) for leading
a conspiracy against the Spanish rule. During his detention, he
wrote his most important works: The Monarchy of Spain (1600),
Political Aphorisms (1601), Atheismus triumphatus (Atheism
Conquered, 1605–1607), Quod reminiscetur (1606?), Metaphysica
(1609–1623), Theologia (1613–1624), and his most famous work, The
City of the Sun (originally written in Italian in 1602; published in
Latin in Frankfurt (1623) and later in Paris (1638)).
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tommaso_Campanella)
1650 May 21, James, Marquis of
Montrose, Scottish general, was hanged.
(MC, 5/21/02)
1674 May 21, Gen. Jan Sobieski
was chosen King of Poland. [see May 20]
(MC, 5/21/02)
1688 May 21, Alexander Pope
(d.1744), England, poet (Rape of the Lock), was born. His "Essay on
Criticism" contains the line: "A little learning is a dangerous
thing..."
(NH, 9/97, p.24)(MC, 5/21/02)
1786 May 21, Carl W. Scheele
(43), Swedish pharmacist, chemist, died.
(MC, 5/21/02)
1790 May 21, Paris was divided
into 48 zones.
(HN, 5/21/98)
1792 May 21, Gustave-Gaspard
Coriolis (d.1843), French engineer and mathematician, was born. He
became first person to describe the Coriolis force.
(SFC, 5/21/09,
p.D10)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaspard-Gustave_Coriolis)
1810 May 21, Charles Chevalier
d'Eon de Beaumont (81), French spy, cross dresser, died.
(MC, 5/21/02)
1819 May 21, The 1st bicycles
(swift walkers) in US were introduced in NYC.
(MC, 5/21/02)
1832 May 21, The first
Democratic National Convention got under way in Baltimore and
re-nominated Andrew Jackson.
(Hem, 8/96, p.86)(AP, 5/21/97)
1840 May 21, The Treaty of
Waitangi was signed by Maori chiefs of New Zealand and
representatives of Queen Victoria. It granted sovereignty over all
New Zealand to Queen Victoria, but only guaranteed the Maoris the
land they wished to retain. The treaty remained a source of friction
to the present day.
(NG, Aug, 1974, p.197)(AP, 5/21/97)(SSFC,
11/14/04, p.F11)
1844 May 21, Henri Rousseau
(d.1910), French painter (Dream), was born in Laval.
(HN, 5/21/01)
1856 May 21, Grace Hoadley
Dodge, philanthropist, helped organize the YWCA, was born.
(HN, 5/21/01)
1856 May 21, Lawrence, Kansas,
was captured and sacked by pro-slavery forces.
(HN, 5/21/98)
1860 May 21, Willem Einthoven,
Dutch physiologist, inventor of the electrocardiogram, was born.
(HN, 5/21/01)(MC, 5/21/02)
1861 May 21, The Confederate
Congress, meeting in Montgomery, Ala., voted to move the capital of
the Confederacy from Montgomery to Richmond, Va.
(AP, 5/21/07)
1861 May 21, Elena Molokhovets
(1831-1918), Russian writer, published “A Gift to Young Housewives,”
which remained popular in Russia for half a century.
(Econ, 12/20/08,
p.141)(http://tinyurl.com/6u8dj4)
1863 May 21, The siege on Port
Hudson, Louisiana, began.
(HN, 5/21/98)
1864 May 21, Gen. David Hunter
took command of Dept. of West Virginia.
(MC, 5/21/02)
1865 May 21, C.J. Thomsen,
archaeologist who named the Stone, Iron and Bronze Ages, was born in
Denmark.
(MC, 5/21/02)
1867 May 21, Frances Densmore,
ethnomusicologist, was born.
(HN, 5/21/01)
1871 May 21-July 28, French
government troops attacked the Commune of Paris; 17,000 died.
(MC, 5/21/02)
1878 May 21, Glenn Hammond
Curtiss, aviation pioneer and contemporary of the Wright brothers,
was born in Hammondsport, N.Y. He also originally made bicycles and
invented the hydroplane. Curtiss` entrance into flying began in 1904
when Thomas Scott Baldwin, famous lighter-than-air devotee, asked
Curtiss to make him a two-cylinder, air-cooled engine to power his
airship. The first plane Curtiss had anything to do with was Red
Wing, which Casey Baldwin lofted from the ice at Keuka Lake on March
12, 1908.
(HN, 5/21/98)(HNQ, 5/28/01)
1879 May 21, Battle of Iquiquw
was fought.
(HN, 5/21/98)
1881 May 21, Clara Barton
founded the American Red Cross.
(CFA, ‘96, p.46)(AP, 5/21/97)
1891 May 21, James J. Corbett
fought Peter "Black Prince" Jackson (1861-1901), in a much-heralded
bout between San Francisco cross-town rivals. Since Corbett and
Jackson were boxing instructors at the two most prestigious athletic
clubs. They fought to a draw after 61 rounds. Jackson had won the
Australian heavyweight championship in 1886 and the British Empire
title in 1892.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_J._Corbett)
1892 May 21, The opera "I
Pagliacci," by Ruggiero Leoncavallo, was first performed, in Milan,
Italy.
(AP, 5/21/97)
1898 May 21, Armand Hammer,
millionaire industrialist, was born.
(HN, 5/21/98)
1902 May 21, Marcel Breuer,
Hungarian-born architect, was born.
(HN, 5/21/01)
1904 May 21, Fats Waller
(d.1943), [Thomas Wright], jazz singer, composer (Ain't
Misbehavin'), was born in NYC.
(MC, 5/21/02)
1909 May 21, Sister Maria
Innocentia Hummel, artist, was born.
(HN, 5/21/01)
1917 May 21, Raymond Burr,
actor, was born in BC, Canada. He played Perry Mason on television.
(HN, 5/21/99)(MC, 5/21/02)
1921 May 21, Andrei Sakharov,
Russian physicist, was born. He is known as "the father of the
Soviet H-bomb" and was the first recipient of the 1975 Nobel Peace
Prize.
(HN, 5/21/99)
1924 May 21, Bobby Franks (14)
was murdered in a "thrill killing" committed by Nathan Leopold Jr.
(19) and Richard Loeb (18), two rich college kids of the University
of Chicago. The meticulously planned crime might never have been
solved had Leopold's unique eyeglasses not been found near Franks'
body. They were defended by Clarence Darrow, who pleaded his clients
guilty in order to keep the case from a jury. Richard Loeb was a
cousin of Bobby Franks. The sensational two-month trial generated an
outcry in favor of execution, but Judge John Caverly sentenced the
two to life imprisonment. Loeb was killed in a prison fight in 1936.
Leopold, with the support of Prosecutor Crowe, was released from
prison in 1958 and died of a heart attack in 1971. In 1956 Meyer
Levin authored “Compulsion,” an account of the case. A play
dramatizing the case was written in 1995 by John Logan. In 2008
Simon Baatz authored “For the Thrill of It: Leopold, Loeb, and the
Murder That Shocked Chicago.”
(AP, 5/21/97)(WSJ, 12/1/95, p.A-12)(AP,
5/21/97)(WSJ, 11/10/07, p.W8)(WSJ, 8/8/08, p.W8)
1926 May 21, Robert Creeley,
poet, was born.
(HN, 5/21/01)
1927 May 21, Charles Lindbergh
(Lucky Lindy) landed in Le Bourget Field in Paris after a 33.5-hour
nonstop, first solo flight from Roosevelt Field on New York’s Long
Island. In 1953 Lindbergh authored his memoir “The Spirit of St.
Louis.”
(F, 10/7/96, p.68)(AP, 5/21/97)(SFC, 10/20/99,
p.C10)(ON, 2/08, p.1)
1927 May 21, Dedication
ceremonies were held for the Carquinez Bridge over the Sacramento
River between Crocket and Vallejo, Ca. It had opened for traffic on
May 21. The cantilever bridge was built by American Toll Bridge Co.
A 2nd was added in 1958. The bridge was scheduled for demolition in
2004.
(www.cocohistory.com/photos-bridges.html#GTPhoto3)(SFC, 6/24/02,
p.B3)(SSFC, 11/9/03, p.A25)
1932 May 21, Amelia
Earhart made her first transatlantic solo flight from
Newfoundland to Ireland.
(HN, 5/21/98)(AP, 5/20/97)
1935 May 21, Jane Addams
(b.1860), a founder of ACLU (Nobel 1973), died. She was known for
her work as a social reformer, pacifist, and founder of Hull House
in Chicago in 1889. She was the first American woman to receive the
Nobel Peace Prize (1931). In 2001 Jean Bethke Elshtain authored
"Jane Addams and the Dream of American Democracy" and edited "The
Jane Addams Reader."
(AHD, 1971, p.15)(HN, 9/6/98)(WSJ, 1/2/02,
p.A16)(MC, 5/21/02)
1940 May 21, Nazis surrounded
the British Army at Dunkirk.
(HN, 5/21/98)
1940 May 21, British tank
forces attacked General Erwin Rommel’s 7th Panzer Division at Arras,
slowing his blitzkrieg of France.
(HN, 5/21/99)
1941 May 21, The first U.S.
ship, the SS Robin Moor, was sunk by a U-boat.
(HN, 5/21/98)
1944 May 21, In Hawaii the tank
landing ship LST-353 exploded at West Loch while handling
ammunition. In a short space of time, six LSTs were so damaged that
they sank. Two others were severely damaged. The total casualties
from the tragedy were 163 dead and 396 injured.
(www.nps.gov/archive/usar/scrs/scrs2z.htm)
1944 May 21, Mary Bourke
Robinson, first woman president of Ireland (1990-1997), was born.
(HN, 5/21/01)
1945 May 21, Actors Lauren
Bacall and Humphrey Bogart were married.
(SFEC, 5/18/97, Par p.6)(MC, 5/21/02)
1945 May 21, German
Reichsfuhrer, SS Heinrich Himmler, was captured.
(MC, 5/21/02)
1950 May 21, French sources
reported that Viet Minh guerrillas had infiltrated Cambodia and
opened an arms-smuggling corridor to Thailand.
(www.geocities.com/khmerchronology/1950.htm)
1951 May 21, The U.S. Eighth
Army counterattacked to drive the Communist Chinese and North
Koreans out of South Korea.
(HN, 5/21/99)
1955 May 21, The first
transcontinental round-trip solo flight was completed.
(HN, 5/21/98)
1956 May 21, The first known
airborne US hydrogen bomb was tested over Bikini Atoll in the
Pacific.
(WUD, 1994, p.1685) (EWH, 1968, p.1210)(AP,
5/21/97)
1959 May 21, The musical
"Gypsy," inspired by the life of stripper Gypsy Rose Lee, opened on
Broadway.
(AP, 5/21/97)
1961 May 21, Governor Patterson
declared martial law in Montgomery, Alabama.
(HN, 5/21/98)
1964 May 21, The 1st
nuclear-powered lighthouse began operations in the Chesapeake Bay.
(MC, 5/21/02)
1966 May 21, The new $114
million Stanford Linear Accelerator Center at Stanford Univ., Ca.,
began smashing atoms.
(SFC, 9/30/02, p.A5)(SFC, 9/26/07, p.B7)
1966 May 21, In Northern
Ireland a group calling itself the "Ulster Volunteer Force" issued
the following statement: “From this day, we declare war against the
Irish Republican Army and its splinter groups. Known IRA men will be
executed mercilessly and without hesitation. Less extreme measures
will be taken against anyone sheltering or helping them, but if they
persist in giving them aid, then more extreme methods will be
adopted... we solemnly warn the authorities to make no more speeches
of appeasement. We are heavily armed Protestants dedicated to this
cause.”
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ulster_Volunteer_Force)
1970 May 21, The National Guard
was mobilized to quell disturbances at Ohio State University. [see
May 4]
(HN, 5/21/98)
1975 May 21, The trial against
the Baader-Meinhof gang began in Stuttgart.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Army_Faction)
1978 May 21, The Unification
Church of Sun Myung Moon wed 118 couples in England.
(www.tparents.org/Library/Unification/Topics/U-Stuff/BLSS-HST.htm)
1979 May 21, Former San
Francisco City Supervisor Dan White was convicted of voluntary
manslaughter in the 1978 murders of Mayor George Moscone and
Supervisor Harvey Milk. The verdict set off the "White Night Riots,"
involving thousands of protesters outside City Hall. $400,000 worth
of property damage resulted including 14 police cars.
(SFC, 7/11/96, p.C2)(AP, 5/21/97)(SFC, 11/26/98,
p.A19)
1980 May 21, The $22 million
Star Wars sequel "Empire Strikes Back" premiered.
(SFC, 5/20/05, p.F2)
1980 May 21, Ensign Jean Marie
Butler became the first woman to graduate from a U.S. service
academy as she accepted her degree and commission from the Coast
Guard Academy in New London, Conn.
(AP, 5/21/00)
1981 May 21, Francois
Mitterrand began serving as president of France. He was the first
socialist president of the Fifth Republic and the first left-wing
head of government since 1957.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fran%C3%A7ois_Mitterrand)
1982 May 21, During the
Falklands War, British amphibious forces landed on the beach at San
Carlos Bay.
(AP, 5/21/07)
1983 May 21, Eric Hoffer
(b.1902), longshoreman-philosopher, died in SF. His writings
included "The True Believer" (1951), a critical view of mass
movements, "The Passionate State of Mind," "The Ordeal of Change,"
and "The Temper of the Time."
(SFC, 1/22/00,
p.A15)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eric_Hoffer)
1985 May 21, Patti Frustaci of
Riverside, Calif., who was expecting septuplets, gave birth to six
live babies, three of whom died in the following weeks.
(AP, 5/21/05)(http://tinyurl.com/ypm8k4)
1987 May 21, In the wake of the
Iraqi attack on the U.S. frigate Stark that claimed 37 lives, the
Senate approved a proposal requiring President Reagan to send
Congress a report detailing the threat to U.S. ships in the Persian
Gulf.
(AP, 5/21/98)
1987 May 21, The TV series “The
Days and Nights of Molly Dodd” starred Blair Brown as a divorced
woman living in NYC. The show continued to 1991.
(LSA, Spring, 2009,
p.44)(www.imdb.com/title/tt0092336/releaseinfo)
1988 May 21, Risen Star won the
Preakness Stakes.
(AP, 5/21/98)
1988 May 21, The Soviet news
agency Tass reported that the Communist Party leaders of Armenia and
Azerbaijan had been dismissed after fresh outbreaks of ethnic
tensions in the two southern Soviet republics.
(AP, 5/21/98)
1989 May 21, Thousands of
native Chinese marched in Hong Kong, Paris, Tokyo and scores of
other cities in a worldwide show of support for the pro-democracy
demonstrators in Beijing.
(AP, 5/21/99)
1990 May 21, Israeli soldiers
shot and killed three Palestinians in violence sparked by the
slayings of seven Palestinians by an Israeli civilian a day earlier.
(AP, 5/21/00)
1991 May 21, Ethiopia’s Marxist
president (Mengistu Haile Mariam) resigned and fled into exile as
rebels continued to advance. Mengistu left behind thousands of pages
of memoranda. (AP, 5/21/01)(Econ, 9/29/07, p.50)
1991 May 21, A Tamil suicide
bomber assassinated PM Rajiv Gandhi (46) at a campaign rally near
Madras. Tamil leader Velupillai Prabhakaran ordered the
assassination. Gandhi and 16 others were killed when the female
Tamil bomber, Dhanu, presented him flowers hiding explosives packed
with 10,000 metal pellets. 41 Indian and Sri Lankan suspects were
charged with murder and conspiracy. 12 suspects later committed
suicide when they were trapped by police. In 1999 4 of the 25
convicted had their death sentences confirmed. 3 death sentences
were commuted to life in prison and 19 sentences were set aside. In
1999 3 Tamil men and a woman, convicted in 1991, were scheduled for
execution.
(HFA, '96, p.30)(SFE, 9/16/96, p.A9)(SFC, 1/9/96,
p.A10)(SFEC, 8/3/97, p.A15) (SFC, 1/29/98, p.A10)(WSJ, 5/12/99,
p.A1)(SFC, 10/16/99, p.A16)(SFC, 5/30/00, p.A25)
1992 May 21, The US Coast Guard
announced that high-seas interdiction of Haitian refugees was being
drastically scaled back because refugee camps at the U.S. naval base
at Guantanamo, Cuba, were filled.
(AP, 5/21/97)
1993 May 21, President Clinton
met at the White House with Russian Foreign Minister Andrei Kozyrev;
afterward, Clinton expressed pessimism over resolving the ethnic
conflict in the Balkans and pledged not to send American soldiers
into a "shooting gallery."
(AP, 5/21/98)
1994 May 21, Israeli commandos
swept into Lebanon’s eastern mountains and abducted Mustafa Dirani,
a Shiite Muslim guerrilla leader of the Believer's Resistance. In
2000 Dirani sued Israel with charges of torture and sodomy. Dirani
was released in Jan 2004, as part of a complex prisoner exchange
between Hezbollah and Israel.
(SFEC, 11/17/96, p.A14)(SFC, 3/14/00, p.A10)(AP,
5/21/04)
1994 May 21, South Yemen
seceded from Yemen.
(www.al-bab.com/yemen/chron/yem94b.htm)
1994 May 21, John Henry Weidner
(b.1912), Dutch-US resistance fighter, died.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johan_Hendrik_Weidner)
1995 May 21, Les Aspin (56),
former US Secretary of Defense, died at a Washington D.C. hospital
after suffering a massive stroke.
(AP, 5/21/00)
1996 May 21, The US Congress
listed the California red-legged frog as an endangered species. The
year long moratorium blocking new listings by the Fish and Wildlife
Service ended last month.
(WSJ, 5/22/96, p.A-10)
1996 May 21, The Alabama Dept.
of Corrections decided to stop chaining prisoners together after one
year due to security problems.
(SFC, 6/21/96, p.A1,9)
1996 May 21, Al "Lash" LaRue, a
bullwhipping star of low-budget 1940s Westerns, died at 78. He had
performed in touring shows and attempted suicide in 1958. He was
arrested for possession of marijuana in the 1970s as a traveling
evangelist.
(SFC, 5/31/96, p.E2)
1996 May 21, Mary Perot Nichols
(79), journalist, died.
(www.upenn.edu/almanac/v42/n33/deaths.html)
1996 May 21, Bangladesh Pres.
Abdur Rahman Biswas accused the army chief. Lt. General Abu Saleh
Mohammad Nasim of ordering troops to march against the government.
There has been 2 presidents assassinated, 3 military coups, and 18
coup attempts since independence in 1971.
(SFC, 5/21/96, p.A-10)
1996 May 21, A bombing in New
Delhi, India, killed 25 people. Kashmiri separatists claimed
responsibility.
(WSJ, 5/22/96, p.A-1)
1996 May 21, A Tanzanian
ferry sank on Lake Victoria and at least 615 people, many of whom
were students, were killed. Pres. Mkapa called the sinking a
national disaster. The ferry, MV Bukoba with capacity for 441, was
traveling from Bukoba to Mwanza. 563 of the 663 aboard were presumed
dead.
(WSJ, 5/22/96, p.A-1)(SFC, 5/22/96, p.A8)(WSJ,
5/23/96, p.A-1)(AP, 5/21/97)
1996 May 21, The government of
Zambia adopted new constitutional amendments to prevent Kenneth
Kaunda from running for president. The amendments require that
candidates be at least second-generation Zambians. Kaunda is the son
of immigrants from Malawi.
(SFC, 5/22/96, p.A9)
1997 May 21, Prosecutors at the
Oklahoma City bombing trial of Timothy McVeigh rested their case.
(AP, 5/21/98)
1997 May 21, The space shuttle
Atlantis undocked from the Russian Mir space station.
(AP, 5/21/98)
1997 May 21, In Afghanistan
faction leader Gen. Abdurrashid Dostum, an ethnic-Uzbek, was up
against mutineers in 6 of his 8 northern provinces.
(SFC, 5/22/97, p.C2)(SFC, 10/10/01, p.A3)
1997 May 21, In Bulgaria Ivan
Kostov was elected the new premiere by the parliament. He planned
reforms for the economy, cleanup of corruption, and gaining
admission to the EU and NATO.
(SFC, 5/22/97, p.C3)
1997 May 21, In India an
earthquake killed at least 27. Its epicenter was near Jabalpur City,
about 400 miles southeast of New Delhi.
(SFC, 5/22/97, p.C4)
1997 May 21, In Mexico a
half-ton of cocaine was stolen from a police station in Sonora.
Seven government employees were later charged with the theft.
(SDUT, 6/6/97, p.A1)
1997 May 21, The UN approved an
agreement for equitable use of waters that flow through more than
one country. Only China and Turkey refused to sign the key UN
convention on transnational rivers.
(SFC, 5/22/97, p.C2)(AP, 4/16/11)
1998 May 21, In Anaheim, Ca.,
Disney opened its world of tomorrow.
(SFC, 5/22/98, p.A19)
1998 May 21, Frank and Shirley
Capaci of Streamwood, Ill., announced they were holding a winning
Powerball ticket worth $195 million.
(AP, 5/21/99)
1998 May 21, In Springfield,
Ore., Kipland Kinkel (15) killed 1 classmate and wounded 19 more at
Thurston High School. His parents, William (59) and Faith (57), were
found shot dead at home and a 2nd student died the next day. He had
been expelled from school the previous day for bringing a gun to
school. Kinkel dropped an insanity plea in 1999 and pleaded guilty
to 4 counts of murder and 26 counts of attempted murder. He was
sentenced to over 111 years in prison.
(SFC, 5/22/98, p.A1)(SFC, 5/23/98, p.A1)(SFC,
9/25/99, p.A3)(SFC, 11/11/99, p.A3)
1998 May 21, Canada ordered
major cuts in the catch of Coho salmon on the West Coast due to
declining stocks. Fishing on the Skeena and Thompson River runs was
banned and US officials were urged to take similar action.
(WSJ, 5/22/98, p.A1)
1998 May 21, India announced a
moratorium on nuclear tests and restated a willingness to negotiate
an agreement on a formal test ban.
(SFC, 5/22/98, p.D3)
1998 May 21, In the wake of
deadly anti-government protests, Indonesia’s Pres. Suharto resigned
after 32 years in power and appointed his vice-president, B.J.
Habibie (b. 6/25/36), as the new leader. In 2005 Richard Lloyd Parry
authored “In the Time of Madness,” an account of Indonesia’s
transformation following the resignation of Suharto.
(SFC, 5/21/98, p.A14)(AP, 5/21/99)(Econ, 4/2/05,
p.77)
1998 May 21, In Cuernavaca,
Mexico, police arrested the wife, son, daughter and daughter-in-law
of kidnapper Daniel Arizmendi Lopez. He was wanted for carrying out
at least 18 bold and brutal kidnappings since 1996.
(SFEC, 5/31/98, p.A24)
1998 May 21, In Portugal the
4-month Expo ‘98 was inaugurated in Lisbon. The theme of the fair
expanded on the UN theme Int’l. Year of the Oceans. 15 million
people were expected to visit with exhibits from almost 150
countries.
(SFEC, 2/1/98, p.T6)(SFC, 5/22/98, p.D3)
1998 May 21, In Russia armed
gunmen occupied a building in Makhachkala, Dagestan, in support of
Nadirshakh Khachilayev, who led demands for a new government.
(SFC, 5/22/98, p.D3)
1998 May 21, In northwest
Turkey rains caused floods and left at least 10 people dead.
(SFC, 5/22/98, p.D4)
1999 May 21, Susan Lucci won a
Daytime Emmy Award for best actress on her 19th try.
(AP, 5/21/00)
1999 May 21, Presidential
friend and fund-raiser Yah Lin "Charlie" Trie pleaded guilty to
campaign finance violations and agreed to cooperate in an
investigation of illegal Asian donations to the Democrats.
(AP, 5/21/00)
1999 May 21, The US urged a
buildup of ground forces to secure the return of Kosovo refugees.
(SFC, 5/22/99, p.A1)
1999 May 21, NATO forces bombed
the Dubrava prison near Istok and 19 inmates and guards were killed.
NATO said the facility was used as military barracks. NATO also
mistakenly bombed a KLA base in Kosare that had been seized 6 weeks
earlier and 7 KLA fighters were killed and 25 wounded.
(SFC, 5/22/99, p.A1)(SFEC, 5/23/99, p.A8)
1999 May 21, In Colombia Piedad
Cordoba, an opposition senator, was kidnapped in Bogota by suspected
ELN rebels. They said she would be freed with a message about the
peace process. Carlos Castano, head of the United Self-Defense
Forces later admitted that he ordered the abduction.
(SFC, 5/22/99, p.A16)(SFC, 5/24/99, p.A13)
1999 May 21, In Indonesia
students in Jakarta clashed with police during protests that former
Pres. Suharto be prosecuted on the one year anniversary of Suharto's
resignation.
(SFC, 5/22/99, p.A12)
1999 May 21, A luxury cruise
liner, the Sun Vista, sank off Malaysia's western coast; nearly
1,100 passengers and crew escaped safely.
(AP, 5/21/00)
1999 May 21, In Mexico the
northern states of Coahuila, Chihuahua, Sonora, Durango and Sinaloa
were declared disaster areas due to the ongoing drought.
(SFC, 5/22/99, p.A16)
1999 May 21, In Russia Pres.
Yeltsin reappointed several key members of the previous government
to a new Cabinet. He named Vladimir Rushailo as the interior
minister and Nikolai Aksyonenko as a first deputy prime minister.
The media described Rushailo and Aksyonenko as tools of Boris
Berezovsky. Yeltsin also signed permission to keep the Mir space
station aloft pending private financing.
(SFC, 5/22/99, p.A16)(SFC, 5/25/99, p.A8)
1999 May 21, In South Africa a
principal and teacher opened fire on students who were throwing
stones angered by field trip fees. Sithembiso Gcwenya (19) was
killed and 2 students were wounded near Scottburgh on the Indian
Ocean.
(SFC, 5/22/99, p.A12)
2000 May 21, "Dancer in the
Dark" won the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival; the Grand
Prize went to "Devils on the Doorstep."
(AP, 5/21/01)
2000 May 21, In Pennsylvania a
commuter plane, returning from Atlantic City, NJ, crashed in the
Pocono Mountains near Wilkes-Barre and all 19 people aboard were
killed.
(SFC, 5/22/00, p.A1)(AP, 5/21/01)
2000 May 21, Mark Hughes (44),
the late founder of Herbalife International, a maker of nutritional
supplements, died. His son Alex (8) was the sole beneficiary of a
$400 million trust.
(AP, 9/13/05)
2000 May 21, Sir John Gielgud
English actor, died in Aylesbury at age 96. In 2004 Richard Mangan
introduced and edited “Sir John Gielgud: A Life in Letters.”
(SFC, 5/23/00, p.A1)(AP, 5/21/01)(WSJ, 6/18/04,
p.W10)
2000 May 21, In Britain Dame
Barbara Cartland, author of 723 romance novels, died at age 98.
(SFC, 5/22/00, p.A14)
2000 May 21, In Fiji 10 junior
MPs were released after they signed resignation letters. Prime
Minister Chaudhry also agreed to sign a letter of resignation.
(SFEC, 5/21/00, p.B11)
2000 May 21, In Haiti elections
began for 7,625 positions. The Family Lavalas party of former Pres.
Aristide won 14 of 19 senate seats. The international community put
millions in foreign aid on hold until results are revised.
(SFC, 5/22/00, p.A11)(SFC, 5/27/00, p.A13)(SFC,
5/31/00, p.A13)(AP, 2/11/04)
2000 May 21, In the Philippines
soldiers rescued 2 children held by hostages on Basilan. 7 hostages
still remained with Muslim rebels.
(SFC, 5/22/00, p.A11)
2000 May 21, In Sierra Leone
rebels freed 54 more UN workers as government forces advanced on
rebel positions.
(SFC, 5/22/00, p.A10)
2001 May 21, The Supreme Court
ruled, six-to-three, that a radio host cannot be sued for airing a
phone conversation taped illegally by a third party.
(AP, 5/21/02)
2001 May 21, The Mitchell
Report on Mideast violence called on Palestinians to jail terrorists
and Israel to freeze settlement activity.
(AP, 5/21/02)
2001 May 21, Ford Motor and
Bridgestone/Firestone announced the termination of their century old
business relationship.
(WSJ, 5/23/01, p.A1)
2001 May 21, Joerg C. Tiller of
MIT said a new polymer, called hexyl-PVP, could be used as a surface
coating and was able to kill common disease-causing organisms.
(SFC, 5/22/01, p.A6)
2001 May 21, The body of
Quetzalcoatl Alba (15) was found in a storage room in the carport
area of the Park Plaza Drive apartment complex in Daly City, Ca.
Murder suspect Carlos Maldonado was arrested in Miami in 2007.
Maldonado attempted to escape police on arrival at the SF Airport.
He jumped a railing plunging 25 feet to the arrival area of the
airport, suffering serious, but non-life threatening injuries.
Police still sought Erick Morales in the case.
(SFC, 10/24/07, p.B4)
2001 May 21, In Seattle, Wa.,
members of the Earth Liberation Front torched the Univ. of
Washington’s Center for Urban Horticulture causing about $6 million
in damage. An Oregon tree farm owned by Jefferson Poplar Farms was
also burned. 4 people were later convicted of taking part in the
firebombing. One later committed suicide in prison. In 2011 Briana
Waters (35) pleaded guilty to arson and related charges in the
firebombing.
(SFC, 9/16/10,
p.C5)(http://uwnews.org/article.asp?articleID=3180)(SFC, 6/17/11,
p.C3)
2001 May 21, In Chile Pres.
Ricardo Lagos made a state-of-the-nation address and raised the
government’s job creation pledge to 150,000 to help offset rising
unemployment.
(WSJ, 5/25/01, p.A8)
2001 May 21, In Iquique, Chile,
26 prisoners, mostly first time offenders, died after rioting
inmates set fires in their cells. Authorities later said the fire
was started by accident.
(WSJ, 5/22/01, p.A1)(WSJ, 5/23/01, p.A1)
2001 May 21, In Cairo Saad
Eddin Ibrahim, an Egyptian American human rights campaigner, was
sentenced to 7 years in prison of charges of tarnishing Egypt’s
image, accepting foreign money and embezzling funds. His conviction
was overturned Dec 3, 2002.
(SFC, 5/22/01, p.A10)(SFC, 12/4/02, p.A19)
2001 May 21, Amid escalating
Middle East violence, an international commission submitted a report
calling for end to violence, but it was never implemented.
(AP, 9/6/03)
2001 May 21, Cardinals from
around the world gathered at the Vatican for a three-day meeting to
ponder the challenges facing the Roman Catholic Church and who might
lead it after Pope John Paul II.
(AP, 5/21/02)
2002 May 21, President Bush
warned that al-Qaida terrorists still "want to hurt us," while his
Pentagon chief, Donald Rumsfeld, said terrorists inevitably will
acquire weapons of mass destruction from countries like Iraq, Iran
or North Korea.
(AP, 5/21/03)
2002 May 21, The Bush
administration announced that it would resume economic aid to
Yugoslavia because it had met requirements to cooperate with the war
crimes tribunal in The Hague.
(SFC, 5/22/02, p.A15)
2002 May 21, The US State Dept
issued its annual report on terrorism: "Patterns of Global Terrorism
2001." Iran was branded as the most active supporter of terrorism
due to increased support for Palestinian militants.
(SFC, 5/22/02, p.A12)
2002 May 21, Merrill Lynch
agreed to pay $100 million to settle allegations that it misled
investors during the 1990s.
(SFC, 5/22/02, p.A1)
2002 May 21, Citigroup agreed
to buy Cal Fed Bank for $5.8 billion in cash and stock.
(SFC, 5/22/02, p.A1)
2002 May 21, In Medellin,
Colombia, fighting between security forces and guerrillas left at
least 9 people dead including 2 children.
(SFC, 5/22/02, p.A15)
2002 May 21, In Germany there
were anti-war protests on the eve of Pres. Bush's arrival.
(WSJ, 5/22/02, p.A1)
2002 May 21, It was reported
that scientists in Guatemala had found the source of jade deposits
used by the Olmecs and Mayans.
(SFC, 5/22/02, p.A2)
2002 May 21, Fighting between
Indian and Pakistan soldiers in Kashmir killed 9 civilians and
wounded 7 others. Gunmen in Srinagar assassinated Abdul Ghani Lone
(70), a moderate Kashmiri separatist leader.
(SFC, 5/21/02, p.A9)(SFC, 5/22/02, p.A13)(WSJ,
5/22/02, p.A1)
2003 May 21, Ruben Studdard
edged Clay Aiken to win the second "American Idol" competition on
Fox TV.
(AP, 5/21/04)
2003 May 21, Christie Whitman
(56), former New Jersey governor, announced her resignation as chief
of the Environmental Protective Agency.
(SFC, 5/22/03, p.A1)
2003 May 21, In Algeria a 6.7
earthquake struck near Algiers. More than 2,200 people were killed
and thousands injured. Thenia, 40 miles east of Algiers, was worst
hit.
(SFC, 5/22/03, p.A1)(AP, 5/25/03)(SFC, 5/27/03,
p.A12)
2003 May 21, American troops
guarding the US Embassy in Kabul shot and killed four Afghan
soldiers, apparently mistaking them for assailants.
(AP, 5/21/03)
2003 May 21, In Barbados PM
Owen Arthur's governing Labor Party won elections in a landslide
victory that secured the party 23 seats in the legislature. The
opposition Democratic Labor Party won seven seats in the 30-seat
Parliament.
(AP, 5/22/03)
2003 May 21, In northeastern
Congo the death toll from more than a week of tribal fighting rose
to 280 people.
(AP, 5/22/03)
2003 May 21, In Iraq US forces
captured Aziz Saleh Numan, former Baath regional command chairman
for west Baghdad. He was No. 8 on the most wanted list.
(SFC, 5/23/03, p.A20)
2003 May 21, Israeli troops
shot to death 2 Palestinians including a mother of 8 during a clash
at the West Bank village of Qarawat Bani Zeid.
(SFC, 5/22/03, p.A3)
2003 May 21, In Myanmar bombs
exploded on the border with Thailand, killing four people.
(AP, 5/21/03)
2003 May 21, The Mexican
Justice Department said that 258 women had been killed since 1993 in
Ciudad Juarez.
(AP, 5/22/03)
2003 May 21, NATO's 19 nations
agreed unanimously to start planning to help Poland lead a
multinational peacekeeping force in Iraq.
(AP, 5/21/03)
2003 May 21, Taiwan reported 35
new cases of SARS for a total of 418 with 52 deaths.
(SFC, 5/22/03, p.A3)
2004 May 21, Nearly 100,000
unionized SBC Communications Inc. workers began a four-day strike to
protest the local-phone giant's latest contract offer.
(AP, 5/21/04)
2004 May 21, In northeastern
Bangladesh a bomb exploded during noon prayers at a Muslim shrine,
killing two Bangladeshi men and wounding about 100 people.
(AP, 5/22/04)
2004 May 21, The UN Security
Council approved a peacekeeping force of 5,600 troops for Burundi to
help the African nation finally end a 10-year civil war.
(AP, 5/21/05)
2004 May 21, The European Union
confirmed its backing for Russia to join the World Trade
Organization, and Russian President Vladimir Putin said Moscow in
turn would speed up ratification of the troubled Kyoto accord on
global warming.
(AP, 5/21/04)
2004 May 21, In Iraq American
AC-130 gunships and tanks bombarded militia positions near two
shrines in the holy city of Karbala, killing 18 fighters loyal to a
rebel cleric.
(AP, 5/21/04)
2004 May 21, Israeli troops
pulled back from two neighborhoods in the Rafah refugee camp.
(AP, 5/21/04)
2004 May 21, Japanese automaker
Mitsubishi Motors Corp., struggling to survive, announced it would
cut 11,000 jobs.
(AP, 5/21/05)
2004 May 21, African finance
ministers began a two-day meeting in Uganda to discuss how their
governments can do more to reduce trade imbalances with rich
nations.
(AP, 5/21/04)
2005 May 21, Afleet Alex
regained his footing and his drive after being cut off by Scrappy T
in a frightening collision and breezed home to win the Preakness
Stakes; Kentucky Derby winner Giacomo finished third.
(AP, 5/21/06)
2005 May 21, In Oakland, Ca.,
groundbreaking took place for the new Cathedral of Christ the Light
at the northwest tip of Lake Merritt. It was built on the site of an
1893 neo-Gothic brick church damaged by the 1989 earthquake. The
$131 million Catholic project was designed by Craig Hartman.
Completion was expected in 2008. Dedication ceremonies for the $190
million cathedral were later set for Sep 25, 2008.
(SSFC, 5/22/05, p.A1)(SFC, 9/13/08, p.A7)(WSJ,
2/18/09, p.D7)
2005 May 21, In east Cleveland,
Ohio, a fire broke out during a sleepover at a crowded house,
killing Medeia Carter (33), 4 of her children and 4 other children.
In 2010 a judge ruled that suspect Antun Lewis (27) is mentally
disabled and can’t face execution. On Feb 14, 2011, Lewis was
convicted for the arson deaths.
(AP, 5/22/05)(SFC, 12/28/10, p.A6)(SFC, 2/15/11,
p.A10)
2005 May 21, In NYC a Cessna
172S crashed at Coney Island killing all 4 people aboard.
(SSFC, 5/22/05, p.A4)
2005 May 21, Howard Morris
(85), best known for playing poetry-spouting hillbilly Ernest T.
Bass on the "Andy Griffith Show," died at his home in the Hollywood
section of Los Angeles.
(AP, 5/23/05)
2005 May 21, In eastern
Afghanistan fighting between insurgents and US-led coalition and
Afghan forces left 12 rebels dead and one U.S. soldier slightly
wounded. In southern Afghanistan a bomb exploded near a U.S.
military patrol, killing one American soldier and wounding two
others.
(AP, 5/21/05)(AP, 5/22/05)
2005 May 21, Azerbaijani
protesters demanding free elections were beaten back by police, who
arrested dozens as they broke up a banned rally.
(AP, 5/21/05)
2005 May 21, The Belgian film
“The Child,” by Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne, won the Palme d’Or at
the Cannes Film Festival.
(SSFC, 5/22/05, p.A2)
2005 May 21, China ordered
emergency measures to prevent an outbreak of avian flu after
investigators said migratory birds found dead in a western province
this month were killed by the virus.
(AP, 5/21/05)
2005 May 21-2005 May 22, Some
160 delegates from Cuba’s opposition movement held an assembly in
Havana without government interference.
(Econ, 5/28/05, p.40)
2005 May 21, Germany's
prestigious Academy of Arts was reopened at its pre-World War II
site next to Berlin's Brandenburg Gate.
(AP, 5/21/05)
2005 May 21, Sunni groups
joined forces to form a political and religious organization to
represent the minority as it seeks to gain influence in Iraq's new
Shiite-dominated government.
(AP, 5/21/05)
2005 May 21, In South Korea
Chung Se-yung (76) died in Seoul. He helped build Hyundai Motor Co.
into one of the world’s biggest car companies.
(SFC, 5/23/05, p.B4)
2005 May 21, In Libya reporter
Daif al-Ghazal (32) was taken from the northern city of Benghazi by
armed men and taken to an unknown location. His body was found a
week later.
(AP, 6/5/05)
2005 May 21, In Lahore,
Pakistan, some 300 male and female runners participated in .06-mile
footrace in a symbolic victory for co-ed running.
(SFC, 6/1/05, p.A8)
2005 May 21, The Palestinian
interior ministry said the Hamas militant group has agreed to halt
mortar and rocket fire on Jewish settlements in the Gaza Strip, a
deal meant to save a truce threatened by three consecutive days of
violence.
(AP, 5/21/05)
2005 May 21, In central Peru a
passenger bus plunged off a bridge into a river on, killing at least
35 people and injuring 30 others.
(AP, 5/21/05)
2005 May 21, In South Africa
several hundred people, most of them white, demonstrated to protest
a proposal to change the capital's name from Pretoria, the name
given to it by white settlers, to Tshwane, as the site was once
known to its original African inhabitants.
(AP, 5/22/05)
2005 The Eurovision song
contest was held in Kiev, Ukraine.
(Econ, 5/14/05, p.57)
2005 May 21, In eastern
Venezuela armed gunmen stole a 2nd government-owned helicopter
before dawn after taking 3 security guards hostage at an airport in
Ciudad Bolivar.
(AP, 5/21/05)
2006 May 21, US Attorney
General Alberto Gonzales said the government has the legal authority
to prosecute journalists for publishing classified information.
(SFC, 5/22/06, p.A2)
2006 May 21, In Louisiana a
shooting spree at The Ministry of Jesus Christ church in Baton Rouge
left 4 people dead. Anthony Bell (25) then kidnapped his wife and
killed her. He was charged with murder in the deaths of his wife and
her grandparents, great aunt and a cousin.
(AP, 5/22/06)(SFC, 5/22/06, p.A3)
2006 May 21, In Oregon
demolition crews destroyed the 499-foot cooling tower of the Trojan
Nuclear Power Plant. Demolition of the containment dome was
scheduled in 2008.
(SFC, 5/22/06, p.A2)
2006 May 21, In SF some 62,000
runners participated in the annual Bay to Breakers race. Gilbert
Okari (27) of Kenya won in 34 minutes and 20 seconds. Among the
women Ukrainian Tetyana Hladyr won in 39:09. Mayor Newsom finished
the 7.46 miles in 59:04.
(SFC, 5/22/06, p.A1)
2006 May 21, Katherine Dunham
(96), a pioneering dancer, author and civil rights activist, died in
New York.
(AP, 5/21/07)
2006 May 21, Grand Ole Opry
legend Billy Walker (77) died in a traffic accident along an Alabama
interstate highway.
(AP, 5/21/07)
2006 May 21, In Afghanistan a
car bomb exploded on a busy road in Kabul, killing the driver of the
car and two civilians.
(AP, 5/21/06)
2006 May 21, Greek Cypriots
voted to elect a new parliament on this divided island, their first
vote since rejecting a UN reunification plan. Voters put their
weight behind parties in President Tassos Papadopoulos' governing
coalition, a result likely to be seen as an endorsement of his
rejection of a UN plan to reunify this war-divided island.
(AP, 5/21/06)
2006 May 21, In Egypt global
business and political leaders focused on dialogue, democracy and
development in the Middle East. 3 major players, Iran, Hamas and
Syria, were absent.
(AP, 5/21/06)
2006 May 21, Iraq's new PM
Nouri al-Maliki promised to use "maximum force" if necessary to end
the brutal insurgent and sectarian violence racking his country. A
suicide bomber killed at least 13 people and injured 17 when he blew
himself up in a downtown Baghdad restaurant frequented by police.
The attack came as PM Nouri al-Maliki pledged to soon fill vacancies
in his two key security ministries. Bombs and killings across Iraq
left a total of 30 people dead.
(AP, 5/21/06)(SFC, 5/22/06, p.A6)(AP, 5/21/07)
2006 May 21, The Israeli
Cabinet approved the transfer of $11 million worth of medicine and
health supplies to the Palestinians to help ease the deteriorating
humanitarian conditions in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Officials
said that Israel has approved plans to expand four Jewish
settlements in the West Bank, a practice the United States has
opposed in the past.
(AP, 5/21/06)
2006 May 21, Local authorities
said boats carrying more than 400 migrants have been intercepted off
Lampedusa over the past 48 hours, overwhelming the tiny island south
of Sicily.
(AP, 5/21/06)
2006 May 21, Islamic militants
dressed as policemen hurled grenades and shot into a rally by the
ruling Congress party in India's portion of Kashmir, killing at
least 7 people and wounding 22 others. Two attackers were killed.
(AFP, 5/21/06)
2006 May 21, Kuwait's ruler
dissolved parliament and called early elections amid a dispute
between the government and lawmakers over electoral reform.
(AP, 5/21/06)
2006 May 21, A Kuwait criminal
court acquitted five former Guantanamo detainees of charges that
they collected money for Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida network.
Abdullah Salih al-Ajmi (29), released from Guantanamo in 2005, took
part in a suicide bomb attack in Mosul in April, 2008.
(AP, 5/21/06)(SFC, 5/8/08, p.A8)
2006 May 21, In Liberia tens of
thousands of children marched against hunger, adding their voices to
a global event to tackle food shortages that many in the
war-battered west African nation have felt firsthand.
(AP, 5/21/06)
2006 May 21, Montenegro voted
by a slim margin to secede from Serbia and form a separate nation,
erasing the last vestiges of the former Yugoslavia.
(Econ, 3/4/06, p.47)(AP, 5/22/06)
2006 May 21, In Nigeria rock
star and activist Bono told African finance ministers that the
recent goodwill of wealthy industrialized countries toward Africa
could dissipate unless the continent tackles corruption.
(Reuters, 5/21/06)
2006 May 21, Pakistan and Iran
officials met again in Islamabad to discuss a proposed 1,735-mile
pipeline that would deliver Iranian gas to Pakistan and India.
(AP, 5/21/06)
2006 May 21, In Sri Lanka 2
soldiers were killed and two others wounded in two separate Claymore
mine attacks in the northeastern Trincomalee district and the
northern district of Vavuniya. Figures maintained by the
Scandinavian truce monitoring mission showed that 510 people were
killed in Sri Lanka's embattled regions since December. Suspected
rebels attacked the offices of three international aid groups in
what appeared to be their first assault on foreigners. Tamil
separatists denied the charge.
(AFP, 5/21/06)(AP, 5/21/06)
2007 May 21, US Democratic
presidential hopeful Joseph Biden called for US troops to help quell
the violence in Sudan's Darfur region, drawing a strong rebuke from
Sudan's UN envoy.
(AP, 5/21/07)
2007 May 21, A Chinese
delegation led by Vice Premier Wu Yi arrived in the United States
for two days of talks that will spotlight tensions over US trade
deficits with the Asian export giant. A Chinese state fund that is
buying a $3 billion stake in US private equity firm Blackstone Group
LP wants to avoid political backlashes when it makes other
investments abroad.
(AP, 5/21/07)
2007 May 21, Bill Richardson,
Gov. of New Mexico, officially joined the race for the Democratic
presidential nomination.
(WSJ, 5/22/07, p.A1)
2007 May 21, The US Supreme
Court ruled that parents don't need to hire a lawyer to sue public
school districts over their children's special education needs.
(AP, 5/21/08)
2007 May 21, The US Food and
Drug Administration issued a safety alert for the diabetes drug
Avandia, marketed by GlaxoSmithKline, which disputed a report saying
it was linked to a greater risk of heart attack. A doctor in
Maryland had linked Avandia to congestive heart failure in 2000, but
GlaxoSmithKline rejected her warning and tried to stop her from
talking about it with other doctors and hospitals.
(AP, 5/21/08)(WSJ, 11/19/08, p.B6)
2007 May 21, Florida set its
2008 presidential primary for January 29.
(WSJ, 5/22/07, p.A1)
2007 May 21, It was reported
that California’s spending trends would have the prison budget
overtake spending on state universities in five years.
(SFC, 5/21/07, p.A1)
2007 May 21, Afghanistan's
lower house of parliament voted to oust an outspoken female lawmaker
who has enraged former mujahedeen fighters now in President Hamid
Karzai's US-backed government. Malalai Joya (29) had compared
parliament to a stable full of animals in a recent TV interview. A
parliament rule known as Article 70 forbids lawmakers from
criticizing one another.
(AP, 5/21/07)
2007 May 21, Mining giant Rio
Tinto and energy powerhouse BP announced plans for a $1.5 billion
coal-fired power project in Australia which would capture carbon
dioxide to cut greenhouse gas emissions.
(AP, 5/21/07)
2007 May 21, The presidents of
Belarus and Iran sought to cement ties that the Belarusian leader
called "a strategic partnership." Belarus will develop an oil field
in Iran under an agreement announced by President Alexander
Lukashenko during a visit by Pres. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
(AP, 5/21/07)
2007 May 21, In Greenwich,
England, a spectacular fire heavily damaged the clipper ship Cutty
Sark, one of London's proudest relics of the 19th century tea trade
with China designed to be the fastest ship of its day. Cutty Sark
left London on its first voyage on Feb. 16, 1870, proceeding around
Cape Hope to Shanghai 3 1/2 months later. The ship made only eight
voyages to China in the tea trade, as steam ships replaced sail on
the high seas.
(AP, 5/21/07)
2007 May 21, In Chile Pres.
Michelle Bachelet apologized for failing to fix her capital's public
bus system and promised to raise education spending by hundreds of
millions of dollars.
(AP, 5/21/07)
2007 May 21, Ethiopian troops
backing Somalia's fragile government killed one person and wounded
another after their convoy was targeted by a land mine in Mogadishu.
Two Ethiopian rebel groups, the Oromo Liberation Front (OLF) and the
Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF), said they have killed 157
troops in the east of the country this month.
(AP, 5/21/07)(AFP, 5/22/07)
2007 May 21, Indar Jit Rikhye
(86), Indian peacekeeper, died. In 1970 he set up the Int’l. Peace
Academy in NYC to train military officers and diplomats in simulated
conflicts.
(Econ, 6/9/07, p.99)(www.ipacademy.org/our-work)
2007 May 21, Iran charged Haleh
Esfandiari, a jailed Iranian-American academic, with setting up a
network to overthrow the Islamic establishment, the government
announced. Esfandiari, director of the Middle East Program at the
Washington-based Woodrow Wilson Center for Scholars, has been held
at Tehran's notorious Evin Prison since early May.
(AP, 5/21/07)
2007 May 21, Gunmen in two cars
attacked a minibus outside Hibhib, Diyala Province, killing 7
passengers, including a child. In western Baghdad, a roadside bomb
exploded near a group of Iraqi soldiers patrolling the
Sunni-dominated Adil neighborhood in western Baghdad, killing three
of the soldiers and injuring two. The Iraqi newspaper Azzaman
reported that one of its reporters, Ali Khalil (22), was kidnapped
while leaving a relative's house in the increasingly volatile Baiyaa
neighborhood of Baghdad and found dead several hours later. Two
gunmen killed two police officers as they walked by the police
station in Muqdadiyah. In Basra gunmen killed one police officer and
wounding another in an attack on their patrol. A British soldier and
a civilian driver were killed when a supply convoy was attacked in
the center of Basra.
(AP, 5/21/07)(AP, 5/22/07)
2007 May 21, Israel pushed
ahead with its campaign against Palestinian rocket squads, pounding
the Gaza Strip with new airstrikes that killed five militants. A
rocket from Gaza killed an Israeli woman.
(AP, 5/21/07)(WSJ, 5/22/07, p.A1)
2007 May 21, Japanese Emperor
Akihito and Empress Michiko arrived in Sweden, kicking off a 10-day
tour of Europe that will take in the three Baltic nations and
Britain, where they have faced protests in the past.
(AP, 5/21/07)
2007 May 21, Kazakhstan's Pres.
Nazarbayev (66) approved a constitutional amendment that waives
presidential term limits and allows him to seek the top post
indefinitely.
(AP, 5/22/07)(Econ, 5/26/07, p.42)
2007 May 21, Lebanese troops
pounded a Palestinian refugee camp with artillery and tank fire for
a second day, raising huge palls of smoke as they battled a militant
group suspected of ties to al-Qaida in the worst eruption of
violence since the end of the 1975-90 civil war.
(AP, 5/21/07)
2007 May 21, Norway said it
would make its first transfer of direct aid to the Palestinians' new
government, more than two months after the Nordic country broke with
most Western nations by recognizing the Hamas-led coalition.
(AP, 5/21/07)
2007 May 21, In Pakistan
radical Islamist students kidnapped three policemen in Islamabad,
creating a second tense police hostage stand-off.
(AP, 5/21/07)
2007 May 21, Paraguayan
President Nicanor Duarte and Brazil's Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva met
in Paraguay's capital, Asuncion, and vowed to boost legitimate trade
and to strengthen cross-border cooperation in fighting smuggling in
the Triple Border.
(AP, 5/22/07)
2007 May 21, Polish doctors
launched a nationwide open-ended strike, demanding a pay raise amid
complaints that the health system is underfunded and medical
professionals are overworked.
(AP, 5/22/07)
2007 May 21, In northern Sri
Lanka 6 people were killed during deepening fighting between
government soldiers and separatist rebels.
(AP, 5/21/07)
2007 May 21, In Tanzania the
appeals court of the UN-backed Rwandan genocide tribunal upheld a
life sentence for Mika Muhimana (57), convicted on multiple counts
of rape and murder. Muhimana, a Hutu, was accused of involvement in
the rape of nearly 30 women from the minority Tutsi tribe during
Rwanda's 1994 genocide.
(AFP, 5/21/07)
2008 May 21, Pres. Bush signed
legislation to protect people from losing their jobs or health
insurance when genetic testing reveals they are susceptible to
costly diseases. The Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act was
designed to prohibit the improper use of genetic information in
health insurance and employment.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genetic_Information_Nondiscrimination_Act)(WSJ,
5/22/08, p.D6)
2008 May 21, American Airlines
said it will remove 75 of 954 aircraft in its fleet and start
charging some domestic passengers $15 to check a suitcase due to
rising fuel costs. Oil futures closed at a record $133.17.
(SFC, 5/22/08, p.C1)(WSJ, 5/22/08, p.A1)
2008 May 21, In Afghanistan 2
NATO soldiers and a civilian interpreter were killed when an
explosion hit them during a patrol in eastern Ghazni province. In
eastern Kunar province a rocket hit a schoolyard in Asmor district,
killing one student and wounding four others. The victims were
between eight and 14 years old.
(AP, 5/21/08)(WSJ, 5/22/08, p.A9)(AP, 5/23/08)
2008 May 21, In Australia
Milton Orkopoulos (50), the former New South Wales state minister
for Aboriginal affairs, was jailed for nearly 14 years on child sex
and drugs charges.
(AFP, 5/21/08)
2008 May 21, Ethiopian PM Meles
Zenawi claimed that government troops have killed or captured 95
percent of rebels in the separatist Ogaden region.
(AFP, 5/22/08)
2008 May 21, Hundreds of French
fishermen clashed with police in Paris and severely disrupted
cross-Channel traffic as they stepped up a 10-day-old protest
against soaring fuel costs.
(AFP, 5/21/08)
2008 May 21, Georgia held
parliamentary elections.
(AP, 5/22/08)
2008 May 21, India and Pakistan
signed a pact in Islamabad granting consular access to prisoners in
each other's jails but reported no significant progress in
negotiations on the disputed Himalayan region of Kashmir.
(AP, 5/21/08)
2008 May 21, In Indonesia
thousands of students took to the streets across the country to
protest the government's plan to raise fuel prices.
(AP, 5/21/08)
2008 May 21, At least 11 people
were killed when gunfire broke out after a roadside bombing in a
Shiite militia stronghold in eastern Baghdad near Sadr City, scene
of a major military clampdown. The shooting occurred in the Obeidi
neighborhood after three roadside bombs targeted joint US-Iraqi
troops. An Iraqi television cameraman, Wissam Ali Auda, of Afaq TV,
was killed in the fighting. A second journalist was killed north of
Baghdad. The bullet-riddled body of Hashim al-Hussein (35), a
correspondent for the Sharq newspaper kidnapped a day earlier, was
found dumped near the city of Baqouba. A US helicopter strike north
of Baghdad killed 8 civilians, including several children. The US
military said the assault targeted al-Qaida fighters but
acknowledged that children died.
(AP, 5/21/08)(AP, 5/22/08)
2008 May 21, Brian Keenan (66),
a commanding figure during the Irish Republican Army's long march
from war to peace, died of cancer.
(AP, 5/21/08)
2008 May 21, Israel and Syria
said they were holding indirect peace talks through Turkish
mediators on a dispute that centers on the Golan Heights.
(AP, 5/21/08)
2008 May 21, Premier Silvio
Berlusconi moved his Cabinet meeting to Naples, vowing to clean the
city's streets of the garbage that has piled up for months and
become a stinking symbol of government inadequacy.
(AP, 5/21/08)
2008 May 21, Lebanon's feuding
factions reached a breakthrough deal, following talks in Qatar, to
end the country's 18-month political stalemate. The deal gives the
militant Hezbollah group and its allies veto over any government
decision.
(AP, 5/21/08)
2008 May 21, In northern Mali
27 people were killed, including 10 soldiers, following an insurgent
attack on an army base. Ethnic Tuareg rebels active in the area
claimed responsibility for the attack. They said only one of their
fighters died in the skirmish and that they had taken some 60
soldiers hostages.
(AP, 5/22/08)
2008 May 21, UN chief Ban
Ki-moon began a mission for Myanmar's cyclone victims, saying "our
focus now is on saving lives," as the military government gave
approval UN helicopters to distribute aid.
(Reuters, 5/21/08)(WSJ, 5/22/08, p.A1)
2008 May 21, In northern
Nigeria 46 soldiers, who just returned from a peacekeeping mission
in Darfur, were killed in a road accident. 10 people drowned and six
were rescued when their boat capsized in Port Harcourt.
(AFP, 5/22/08)(AFP, 5/23/08)
2008 May 21, Pakistan's
government promised to "gradually" pull out troops from the
northwestern valley of Swat after signing a peace agreement with
Taliban militants.
(Reuters, 5/21/08)
2008 May 21, In Moscow, Russia,
Manchester United prevailed over Chelsea in the soccer final of the
Champions League.
(Econ, 5/24/08, p.77)
2008 May 21, The interior
ministers of Senegal and Spain signed an agreement extending
cooperation between the west African nation and the EU border
control agency Frontex to combat illegal immigration by one year.
(AFP, 5/21/08)
2008 May 21, In southern
Somalia dozens of heavily armed gunmen kidnapped two Italian aid
workers and their Somali colleague.
(AP, 5/21/08)
2008 May 21, In South Africa
xenophobic violence, that has killed at least 24 people, spilled
over to the volatile Zulu heartland and security officials discussed
whether to use troops to quell unrest.
(Reuters, 5/21/08)
2008 May 21, Dozens of men on
horseback armed with machine guns and rocket-propelled grenades
ambushed Nigerian peacekeepers serving with the joint UN-African
Union force in Darfur. No casualties were reported.
(AP, 5/23/08)
2008 May 21, Two Swedish
contractors were arrested suspected of preparing to sabotage The
Oskarshamn nuclear power plant in southern Sweden, after traces of
explosives were found on one of the men. Police released the 2 men
the next day as technical experts continued an investigation.
(AFP, 5/21/08)(Reuters, 5/22/08)
2008 May 21, Ukraine moved to
strengthen its currency, the hryvnia, by revising its peg to the
dollar form 5.05 hryvnia per dollar to 4.85.
(WSJ, 5/22/08, p.C14)
2009 May 21, Alaska’s Gov.
Sarah Palin became the only governor to turn down federal stimulus
money for energy efficiency, a move that legislators called
"disappointing" for a state with some of the country's highest
energy costs.
(AP, 5/22/09)
2009 May 21, In northern
California police arrested James Stanley Koenig (57), Gary T.
Armitage (59) and Jeffery A. Guidi (54) for running an alleged Ponzi
scheme that swindled thousands of people of more then $200 million
since 1997.
(SFC, 5/23/09, p.B1)
2009 May 21, In Florida 11
people were indicted in Miami on charges of running a money
laundering racket for the Bonano crime family of New York. A FBI
agent posing as a crooked businessman was key to the indictment.
(SFC, 5/22/09, p.A6)
2009 May 21, Linda Fleming
(66), a woman with late-stage pancreatic cancer, became the first
person to kill herself under Washington state's new assisted suicide
law, known as "death with dignity."
(AP, 5/23/09)
2009 May 21, In Afghanistan two
militants were killed and six others detained after a clash in
southern Helmand province. A US military statement said US and
Afghan forces had seized 16.5 tons of drugs and killed 34 Islamic
militants during a 3-day operation in the south.
(AP, 5/21/09)(SFC, 5/22/09, p.A2)
2009 May 21, Bolivia’s
President Evo Morales called for an about-face in relations with
Washington, saying past diplomatic spats can be overcome if the new
US government refrains from meddling in Bolivian affairs.
(AP, 5/21/09)
2009 May 21, The British
government announced a climbdown over settlement rights for Gurkha
veterans, saying all of the Nepalese fighters who have served at
least four years can apply to live here.
(AFP, 5/21/09)
2009 May 21, In Egypt Hisham
Talaat Moustafa, a real estate mogul with ties to Egyptian president
Hosni Mubarak's son, was sentenced to death for ordering the slaying
of a Lebanese pop star in a case that sparked a media frenzy in a
country where the elite is often perceived as being above the law.
Moustafa, a member of the ruling National Democratic Party, was
accused of paying a former Egyptian police officer $2 million to
kill Suzanne Tamim while she was in Dubai. Former officer, Mohsen
el-Sukkary, was also convicted and sentenced to death. On March 4,
2010, the Court of Cassation, the country's highest court of appeal,
overturned his conviction, and ordered a retrial.
(AP, 5/21/09)(AP, 3/4/10)
2009 May 21, In Georgia police
killed Giorgy Krialashvili, a former military officer accused of
plotting mutiny, and wounded two others in an overnight gunbattle.
Protesters condemned the shootings and blocked Tbilisi streets in
the seventh week of an anti-government campaign.
(AP, 5/21/09)
2009 May 21, In Iraq a suicide
bomber killed 8 US-backed Sunni paramilitaries as they waited in a
line to receive salaries at an Iraqi military base in the northern
city of Kirkuk. A bomb exploded inside a police station in western
Baghdad, killing 2 policemen and wounding 19 others. 3 American
soldiers were killed in a bombing in Baghdad that also killed 12
Iraqis.
(AP, 5/21/09)(SFC, 5/22/09, p.A4)
2009 May 21, Israeli security
forces demolished a minor Jewish settlement outpost in the West
Bank, three days after President Barack Obama told visiting Prime
Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that he must halt settlement activity.
(AP, 5/21/09)
2009 May 21, Japan’s PM Taro
Aso again urged the public to stay calm as a total of 292 swine flu
cases were reported, including the third in greater Tokyo, the
world's largest urban area.
(AFP, 5/21/09)
2009 May 21, Fathi al-Jahmi,
Libyan dissident and human rights activist repeatedly imprisoned in
Libya for defying the country's leader Moammar Gadhafi, died after
being released earlier this month to Jordan. He never regained
consciousness after having slipped into a coma following a stroke on
May 4 in a Libyan jail. He was sentenced to death in 2006 for
failing to recognize Gadhafi's authority, and remained behind bars
until his release to Jordan.
(AP, 5/22/09)
2009 May 21, Nepal's Maoists
agreed to stop blocking parliamentary proceedings so lawmakers can
choose a new government to ease the country's political crisis.
Lawmakers from the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) said that
although they had agreed to lift their protests, they would
permanently end them only if the chamber takes up a motion censuring
President Ram Baran Yadav.
(AP, 5/21/09)
2009 May 21, New Zealand police
launched an international search for Leo Gao, a businessman, and his
girlfriend, Kara Hurring, who allegedly took money and ran after the
Westpac Bank in Rotorua mistakenly put 10 million New Zealand
dollars ($6.1 million) into their account. The couple managed to
flee the country with about $2.3 million. Hurring returned to New
Zealand voluntarily in Feb, 2011. She will face trial in 2012 on
charges of stealing NZ$11,000 and money laundering HK$1.5 million
($192,000) in Macau. Hui (Leo) Gao was arrested by Hong Kong border
patrol on Sep 29 as he tried to enter the territory from China.
(AP, 5/21/09)(AP, 5/22/09)(AFP, 9/30/11)
2009 May 21, Pakistan said five
soldiers and an unspecified number of "miscreants-terrorists" were
killed in battles in several parts of the Swat valley during the
previous 24 hours. Seven militants were captured.
(AP, 5/21/09)
2009 May 21, South Korea’s
Supreme Court said that doctors treating a comatose woman (76) must
remove her from life support as her family requested, the first time
it has ruled in favor of a patient's right to die.
(AP, 5/21/09)
2009 May 21, Sri Lanka said it
planned to return most of the nearly 300,000 civilians displaced by
civil war to their homes this year as the president called on the
country to be magnanimous in victory.
(AP, 5/21/09)
2009 May 21, Sudan announced
the results of a nationwide census seen as crucial to prepare
constituencies for elections next year, but which former southern
rebels said they would reject. The census showed Sudan to have a
total population of 39,154,490, with 8,260,490 or 21 percent living
in the south.
(AFP, 5/21/09)
2009 May 21, In Venezuela
police and soldiers raided a property belonging to the head of the
only anti-government news network amid a growing confrontation
between the station and President Hugo Chavez's government.
(AP, 5/22/09)
2009 May 21, Zimbabwe’s PM
Morgan Tsvangirai said the unity government has agreed on key
appointments in an attempt to resolve the political impasse that has
paralyzed the new administration.
(AP, 5/21/09)
2010 May 21, In San Francisco
the city planning commission approved a plan to open a medical
marijuana facility in the Sunset District, despite objections by
area residents.
(SFC, 5/22/10, p.C1)
2010 May 21, The Texas State
Board of Education adopted a social studies and history curriculum
that amended or watered down the teaching of civil rights, slavery,
America’s relationship with the UN and hundreds of other items.
(SFC, 5/22/10, p.A6)
2010 May 21, European Union
finance ministers started laying out new, tougher rules for their
public finances in the hopes of winning back market confidence and
preventing a repeat of the debt crisis that is threatening the euro.
(AP, 5/21/10)
2010 May 21, In Bolivia retired
Gen. Gary Prado, famous for capturing Ernesto "Che" Guevara, was
ordered held under house arrest in connection with an alleged plot
against President Evo Morales. Prosecutors alleged that Prado had
exchanged "ultrasecret" encrypted e-mail with Eduardo Rozsa, a
Bolivian-born Hungarian who was slain in an April 2009 raid by an
elite police unit.
(AP, 5/22/10)
2010 May 21, In China some 1900
workers at a Honda auto parts factory in Guangdong province went on
strike demanding higher pay. Monthly pay at the facility in Foshan
city was about $117 per month. Similar companies paid between $292
and $365 a month. Honda announced a settlement on June 4.
(www.china.org.cn/business/2010-05/28/content_20133668.htm)(SSFC,
5/30/10, p.A4)(AP, 6/4/10)
2010 May 21, Three Americans
jailed in Iran for 10 months met with their mothers a second time as
Iranian authorities used their visit to underline their complaints
about their own citizens detained by the United States.
(AP, 5/21/10)
2010 May 21, In Iraq a car
bombing at an open-air market in Khalis, a Shiite town northeast of
Baghdad, left 30 people dead. A US Division-North soldier was killed
near Mosul in an incident that was put under investigation.
(AP, 5/22/10)
2010 May 21, In Indian Kashmir
thousands of people turned out to pay tribute to two slain
separatist leaders as a one-day strike called to mark the occasion
closed shops and businesses.
(AFP, 5/21/10)
2010 May 21, Mexican officials
said Jose Manuel Garcia, a senior member of the Sinaloa cartel, one
of Mexico's largest criminal gangs, has been arrested along with a
cache of weapons, money and drugs.
(AFP, 5/21/10)
2010 May 21, Nigerian officials
and residents said hundreds of Niger nationals, mostly women and
children, have flooded into the country in search of food.
(AFP, 5/22/10)
2010 May 21, Norwegian browser
developer Opera Software said it is moving its data processing
capacity to a newly-built center in Iceland, one of the first
foreign investment deals for the crisis-hit island as it tries to
rebuild its economy.
(AP, 5/21/10)
2010 May 21, Pakistani
protesters shouted "Death to Facebook", "Death to America" and burnt
US flags, venting growing anger over "sacrilegious" caricatures of
the Prophet Mohammed on the Internet.
(AP, 5/21/10)
2010 May 21, Two Palestinian
militants, Nader Abu Dakkar (17) and Hamdi Abu Hammad (17)
infiltrated Israel from the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip but were killed
in a firefight with Israeli troops. The Israeli military launched
aerial raids overnight in the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip, following a
rocket attack the previous evening. No one was injured or killed in
the sorties.
(AP, 5/21/10)(AFP, 5/21/10)(AFP, 5/22/10)
2010 May 21, Spain convicted 3
members of Basque separatist group ETA of detonating a car bomb at
Madrid airport in 2006 that killed two Ecuadorians.
(Reuters, 5/21/10)
2010 May 21, In southern Sudan
President Salva Kiir was sworn in eight months ahead of a scheduled
referendum on whether the south will secede from the north. The
south and the northern government, led by Sudanese President Omar
al-Bashir, must still negotiate how the two regions will share oil
revenues and divide access to the Nile River waters before the
referendum.
(AP, 5/21/10)
2010 May 21, Yemen’s Pres.
Saleh extended an olive branch to the opposition, offering to form a
national unity government and announcing an amnesty for imprisoned
southern separatists and Shiite rebels.
(AFP, 5/22/10)
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