Today in History - June 20
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451
Jun 20, Roman and Barbarian warriors halted
Attila’s army at the Catalaunian Plains (Catalarinische Fields) in
eastern France. Attila the Hun was defeated by a combined Roman and
Visigoth army. The Huns moved south into Italy but were defeated
again.
(V.D.-H.K.p.88)(HN, 6/20/98)(MC, 6/20/02)
1397 Jun 20, The Union of
Kalmar united Denmark, Sweden, and Norway under one monarch. The
alliance grew out of the dynastic ties of the Scandinavian countries
of Denmark, Norway and Sweden in response to rising German influence
in the Baltic. The union lasted from 1397 to 1523.
(HN, 6/20/98)(HNQ, 7/22/00)
1567
Jun 20, Jews were expelled from Brazil by order of regent Don
Henrique.
(MC, 6/20/02)
1597
Jun 20, Willem Barents, Dutch explorer who discovered Spitsbergen
& Bereneil, died. In 1995 Rayner Unwin authored “A Winter Away
from Home,” an account of Barents’ Arctic voyages.
(WUD, 1994 p.120)(SSFC, 12/10/00, p.C17)(MC,
6/20/02)
1632
Jun 20, Britain granted 2nd Lord Baltimore rights to Chesapeake Bay
area.
(MC, 6/20/02)
1674
Jun 20, Nicholas Rowe, poet laureate of England, was born.
(HN, 6/20/98)
1675 Jun 20, King Philip’s War
began when Indians--retaliating for the execution of three of their
people who had been charged with murder by the English--massacred
colonists at Swansea, Plymouth colony. Abenaki, Massachusetts,
Mohegan & Wampanoag Indians formed an anti English front.
Wampanoag warriors attacked livestock and looted farms.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/King_Philip%27s_War)(AH, 6/02, p.46)
1723
Jun 20, Adam Ferguson, Scottish man of letters, philosopher,
historian, and patriot, was born. He wrote "Principals of Moral and
Political Science."
(HN, 6/20/99)
1743
Jun 20, The British warship Centurion under Commodore George Anson
engaged and overcame the Spanish treasure galleon, Nuestra Senora de
Covadonga, near the Philippines. 58 Spaniards were killed and 83
wounded. Anson captured over 1 million Spanish silver dollars and
500 pounds of native silver.
(ON, 4/01, p.7)
1756
Jun 20, In India rebels defeated the British army at Calcutta.
British soldiers were imprisoned in a suffocating cell that gained
notoriety as the "Black Hole of Calcutta." Most of them died. The
exact circumstances of this incident, such as the number of
prisoners, originally put at 146, are disputed.
(HN, 6/20/98)(AP, 6/20/07)
1763
Jun 20, Theobald Wolfe Tone (d.1798), Irish nationalist, was born.
(MC, 6/20/02)
1782
Jun 20, Congress approved the Great Seal of the United States and
the eagle as its symbol.
(AP, 6/20/97)(SFC, 6/2/04, G9)
1789
Jun 20, Oath on the Tennis Court in Versailles, France, bonded
members of the Third Estate to resist eviction until they have a new
constitution.
(MC, 6/20/02)
1791
Jun 20, King Louis XVI of France attempted to flee the country in
the so-called Flight to Varennes, but was caught.
(AP, 6/20/97)
1819
Jun 20, Jacques Offenbach (d.1880), French composer (Tales of
Hoffmann), was born in Cologne. His work included the comedy opera
"Barbe-Bleue" (Blue Beard).
(MC, 6/20/02)(WSJ, 2/20/98, p.A16)
1819
Jun 20, The paddle-wheel steamship Savannah arrives in Liverpool,
England, after a voyage of 27 days and 11 hours--the first steamship
to successfully cross the Atlantic.
(HN, 6/20/01)
1825
Jun 20, Coronation of French king Charles X, the surviving brother
of guillotined Louis XVI.
(MC, 6/20/02)
1837
Jun 20, Queen Victoria (18) ascended the British throne following
the death of her uncle, King William IV (b.1765). She ruled for 63
years to 1901.
(AP, 6/20/97)(WSJ, 4/27/00, p.A24)(HN, 6/20/01)
1840
Jun 20, Samuel F.B. Morse, a popular artist, patented his telegraph.
(MC, 6/20/02)
1858
Jun 20, Charles Chesnutt, African-American novelist, was born in
Cleveland. In 2002 Werner Sollors edited “Chesnutt: Stories, Novels,
and Essays.”
(HN, 6/20/01)(WSJ, 1/22/02, p.A11)
1863
Jun 20, West Virginia became the 35th state.
(AP, 6/20/97)
1864
Jun 20, Battle of Petersburg, VA, in trenches.
(MC, 6/20/02)
1866
Jun 20, Lord George ESMH Carnarvon, Egyptologist (Tutankhamen), was
born in England.
(MC, 6/20/02)
1867
Jun 20, Pres. Andrew Johnson announced the purchase of Alaska.
(MC, 6/20/02)
1876
Jun 20, Antonio L de Santa Ana, president of Mexico and victor at
Alamo, died.
(MC, 6/20/02)
1887
Jun 20, Kurt Schwitters (d.1948), German artist, was born. He spent
a year and a half in an internment camp on the Isle of Man during WW
II where he managed to create some 200 works of art from salvaged
scraps.
(WSJ, 8/19/97, p.A17)(HN, 6/20/01)
1893
Jun 20, A jury in New Bedford, Mass., found Lizzie Borden innocent
of the ax murders of her father, wealthy Fall River, Massachusetts,
businessman Andrew Borden and his wife, Abby Borden. Lizzie Borden,
defended by a team of skilled lawyers, was acquitted—some say on the
strength of her lawyers’ portrayal of Lizzie as a respectable woman
who could not have committed such brutal acts. Local townspeople
were unconvinced, however, and Lizzie Borden was ostracized for the
rest of her life.
(AP, 6/20/97)(HNPD, 8/4/98)
1894
Jun 20, George Delacorte, philanthropist, publisher (Dell Books),
was born in NYC.
(MC, 6/20/02)
1898
Jun 20, During the Spanish-American War on the way to the
Philippines to fight the Spanish, the U.S. Navy cruiser Charleston
seized the island of Guam.
(AP, 6/20/98)(HN, 6/20/98)
1899
Jun 20, Jean Moulin, French Resistance fighter against Nazi Germany,
was born.
(HN, 6/20/98)
1901
Jun 20, Charlotte M. Manye of South Africa became the first native
African to graduate from
American University.
(HN, 6/20/00)
1907
Jun 20, Lillian Hellman (d.1984), American author and playwright
(The Little Foxes, Toys in the Attic), was born. “Success and
failure are not true opposites and they’re not even in the same
class; they’re not even a couch and a chair.”
(AP, 1/28/01)(HN, 6/20/01)
1909
Jun 20, Errol Flynn, actor who starred in “The Adventures of Robin
Hood” and “Captain Blood” among many other movies, was born.
(HN, 6/20/98)
1909
Jun 20, The first honeymoon in a balloon.
(HFA, '96, p.32)
1910
Jun 20, Chester Arthur Burnett (d.1976) was born in West Point,
Mississippi. He later became known as the blues singer Howlin’ Wolf.
(SSFC, 7/4/04, p.M6)(www.britannica.com)
1910
Jun 20, Josephine Johnson, Pulitzer Prize-winning author
(Jordanstown, Wildwood), was born.
(HN, 6/20/01)
1910
Jun 20, Mexican President Porfirio Diaz proclaimed martial law and
arrested hundreds.
(HN, 6/20/98)
1915
Jun 20, There was a German offensive in Argonne.
(MC, 6/20/02)
1919
Jun 20, Treaty of Versailles: Germany ended the incorporation of
Austria. [see Jun 28]
(MC, 6/20/02)
1920
Jun 20, Race riots in Chicago, Illinois left two dead and many
wounded.
(HN, 6/20/98)
1923
Jun 20, Pres. Harding set out on a 7,500-mile “Voyage of
Understanding” through the northwest. The 57-year-old Harding, who
suffered from heart disease, was so shaken by breaking reports of
corruption in his administration that he went on a cross-country
speaking tour to strengthen his position.
(SFC, 8/1/98, p.A19)(HN, 8/2/98)
1923
Jun 20, France announced it would seize the Rhineland to assist
Germany in paying her war debts.
(HN, 6/20/98)
1924
Jun 20, Chet Atkins, guitarist, was born.
(HN, 6/20/01)
1924
Jun 20, Audie Murphy was born in Kingston, Tx. He became the most
decorated American soldier of World War II who went on to make
movies and write a book about his war experiences called “To Hell
and Back.”
(HN, 6/20/98)(MC, 6/20/02)
1928
Jun 20, Jean-Marie Le-Pen, leader of the National Front party in
France, was born.
(HN, 6/20/98)
1931
Jun 20, Olympia Dukakis, actress (Moonstruck, Cemetery Club), was
born in Lowell, Mass.
(MC, 6/20/02)
1936
Jun 20, Jesse Owens of US set a 100 meter record at 10.2 sec.
(MC, 6/20/02)
1941
Jun 20, U.S. Army Air Forces was established, replacing the Army Air
Corps.
(HN, 6/20/98)
1942
Jun 20, Brian Wilson (Beach Boys), was born.
(MC, 6/20/02)
1942
Jun 20, Adolf Eichmann proclaimed the deportation of Dutch Jews.
(MC, 6/20/02)
1943
Jun 20, Race-related rioting erupted in Detroit; federal troops were
sent in two days later to quell the violence that resulted in 34
deaths and 600 wounded.
(AP, 6/20/97)(SSFC, 12/17/00, Par p.5)
1944
Jun 20, The US Congress chartered the Central Intelligence Agency
(CIA).
(MC, 6/20/02)
1944
Jun 20, Vice Admiral Marc Mitchner, commander of the U.S. Task Force
58, ordered all lights on his ships turned on to help guide his
carrier-based pilots back from the Battle of the Philippine Sea.
(HN, 6/20/99)
1944
Jun 20, Nazis began mass extermination of Jews at Auschwitz.
(MC, 6/20/02)
1946
Jun 20, Andre Watts, pianist, was born.
(HN, 6/20/01)
1947
Jun 20, President Truman vetoed the Taft-Hartley Act, but had his
veto overridden by Congress. The act declared the closed shop
illegal and permitted the union shop only following a majority
employee vote. [see Jun 4]
(WSJ, 6/19/96, Adv. Supl)(SFC, 9/26/96, p.C2)(AP,
6/20/97)(SFC, 10/4/02, p.A17)
1947
Jun 20, Benjamin "Bugsy" Siegel was shot dead at the Beverly Hills,
Calif., mansion of his girlfriend, Virginia Hill, at the order of
mob associates angered over the soaring costs of Siegel's pet
project, the Flamingo resort in Las Vegas, Nev.
(AP, 6/20/97)
1948
Jun 20, The variety series "Toast of the Town," hosted by Ed
Sullivan, debuted on CBS-TV. Guests included Dean Martin, Jerry
Lewis, concert pianist Eugene List, and Broadway songwriters Rodgers
and Hammerstein. The program became "The Ed Sullivan Show" in 1955.
(AP, 6/20/98)
1952
Jun 20, John Goodman (actor: Roseanne, The Flintstones, The Babe),
was born.
(MC, 6/20/02)
1954
Jun 20, Ilan Ramon, Israeli pilot and astronaut, was born in Tel
Aviv. He was among the 7 astronauts killed in the US Columbia space
shuttle tragedy Feb 1, 2003.
(SSFC, 2/2/03, p.A8)
1955
Jun 20, Michael Anthony, (bassist for Van Halen), was born.
(MC, 6/20/02)
1955
Jun 20, The 10th commemorative session of the UN opened in SF with
delegates from 60 nations. Pres. Eisenhower pledged a US policy of
“peaceful and reasonable negotiations” with all other powers.
(SFC, 6/17/05, p.F3)
1955
Jun 20, The AFL and CIO agreed to combine names
for a merged group.
(HN, 6/20/98)
1958
Jun 20, FBI headquarters learned of Ronald
Reagan’s desire to star in the film “The FBI Story.” The bureau
rejected the idea because of Reagan’s association with Communist
front organizations in the 1940s.
(SSFC, 6/9/02, p.F3)
1963
Jun 20, The United States and Soviet Union signed
an agreement to set up a hot line communications link between the
two superpowers and a treaty was signed limiting nuclear testing.
(TMC, 1994, p.1963)(AP, 6/20/97)(HN, 6/20/98)
1964
Jun 20, General William Westmoreland succeeded
General Paul Harkins as head of the U.S. forces in Vietnam.
(HN, 6/20/98)
1967 Jun 20, Boxer Muhammad Ali
was convicted in Houston of violating Selective Service laws by
refusing to be drafted. He was soon sentenced to five years in
prison but was released on appeal. His conviction was overturned
three years later by the US Supreme Court.
(AP,
6/20/97)(www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1G2-3404700148.html)
1971
Jun 20, A 5-day Glastonbury Fair opened at Worthy
Farm near Glastonbury, England. Arabella Spencer-Churchill
(1949-2007), granddaughter of former PM Winston Churchill, helped
found the fair. It featured Hawkwind, Traffic, Melanie, David Bowie,
Joan Baez and Fairport Convention, and attracted some 12,000 people.
Revived as a three-day festival in 1979, it had grown by 2007 to
draw 153,000 people to hear acts including Coldplay, Brian Wilson,
Kaiser Chiefs and Elvis Costello.
(AP,
12/21/07)(www.efestivals.co.uk/festivals/glastonbury/1971/)
1972
Jun 20, President Richard Nixon named General
Creigton Abrams as Commander-in-Chief of the U.S. armed forces.
(HN, 6/20/98)
1972
Jun 20, Pres. Nixon recorded on tape information
relating to the Jun 16 Watergate break-in. Sections of the tape were
later erased, allegedly accidentally by sec. Rose Mary Woods. A
panel of experts examined the tape to see if the 18-minute gap was
intentional. Richard H. Bolt (d.2002 at 90), acoustic expert at
Bolt, Beranek and Newman, later said that if it was an accident than
it was committed at least 5 times in the 18 minutes.
(SFC, 2/4/02, p.B5)
1973
Jun 20, Juan Peron (1895-1974) returned to
Argentina.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juan_Peron)(SFC,
12/24/96, p.A8)
1975
Jun 20, The Steven Spielberg shark thriller
"Jaws" was first released.
(AP, 6/20/05)
1977
Jun 20, The 1st oil of the Alaska pipeline began
to flow south 799 miles from Prudhoe Bay to the port of Valdez. It
reached Valdez on Jul 28.
(www.alyeska-pipe.com/pipelinefacts.html)
1979
Jun 20, Robin Samsoe (12) was kidnapped in
Huntington Beach, Ca. Her dismembered and decomposing body was found
12 days later in the Angeles National Forest. Rodney Alcala was
arrested and convicted of the slaying in 1980, but the sentence was
overturned. He was convicted again in 1986 but a judge faulted the
ruling in 2005 and a retrial was scheduled. Alcala pleaded innocent
to 4 other sex-torture killings that dated back to 1977.
(SFC, 11/23/05,
p.B3)(www.kleph.com/story/ruling.htm)
1979
Jun 20, Nikola Kavaja (d.2008 at 77) hijacked a
US passenger jet with the intention of crashing it into Yugoslav
Communist Party headquarters in Belgrade. He abandoned his hijack
mission in Ireland, saying at the time he was not sure of the exact
location of the downtown party office and did not want innocent
civilians to die if the jet missed the target.
(AP,
11/12/08)(www.nytimes.com/2008/11/12/world/europe/12kavaja.html)
1979
Jun 20, ABC News correspondent Bill Stewart was
shot to death in Managua, Nicaragua, by a member of President
Anastasio Somoza's national guard.
(AP, 6/20/99)
1980
Jun 20, Lake Powell, straddling the Arizona-Utah
border behind the Glen Canyon Dam, completed its fill, which began
in 1963.
(SFEC, 8/24/97,
p.A1)(www.lakepowell.com/travel/glen-canyon-dam.cfm)
1983
Jun 20, The crew of the space shuttle Challenger,
including America's first woman in space, Sally K. Ride, launched
the Indonesian-owned Palapa B communications satellite into orbit.
(http://tinyurl.com/2uu2fj)
1987
Jun 20, Tens of thousands of riot police in South
Korea clashed with demonstrators.
(AP, 6/20/97)
1988
Jun 20, The US Supreme Court unanimously upheld a
New York City law making it illegal for private clubs to generally
exclude women and minorities.
(AP, 6/20/98)
1989
Jun 20, Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev
greeted the speaker of Iran's parliament, Hashemi Rafsanjani, who
was visiting Moscow.
(AP, 6/20/99)
1990
Jun 20, South African black nationalist Nelson
Mandela and his wife, Winnie, arrived in New York City for a
ticker-tape parade in their honor as they began an eight-city US
tour.
(AP, 6/20/00)
1990
Jun 20, In Russia the Communist Initiative
created its neoconservative Russian Communist Party. Among the
founders were Gennady Zyuganov, Valentin Kuptsov, and Alexander
Rutskoi. Gorbachev still ran the country.
(SFC, 6/10/96, p.A16)
1991
Jun 20, Boris Yeltsin, the newly elected
president of the Russian republic, was welcomed to the White House
by President Bush.
(AP, 6/20/01)
1991
Jun 20, German lawmakers voted to move the seat
of the national government from Bonn back to Berlin.
(SFEC, 6/27/99, p.A24)(AP, 6/20/01)
1992
Jun 20, An enraged mob forced South African
President F.W. de Klerk to cut short a visit to the black township
of Boipatong, the scene of a massacre three days earlier.
(AP, 6/20/97)
1993
Jun 20, The Chicago Bulls won their third NBA
title in a row as they defeated the Phoenix Suns in Game 6 of their
championship series, 99-98.
(AP, 6/20/98)
1994
Jun 20, O.J. Simpson pleaded innocent in Los
Angeles to the killing of his ex-wife, Nicole, and her friend,
Ronald Goldman.
(AP, 6/20/99)
1994
Jun 20, Former airman Dean Allen Mellberg went on
a shooting rampage at Fairchild Air Force Base near Spokane, Wash.,
killing four people and wounding 22 others before being killed by a
military police sharpshooter.
(AP, 6/20/04)
1995
Jun 20, US Air Force Captain Jim Wang, a radar
officer, was cleared of wrongdoing in a
friendly fire attack on two US helicopters over northern Iraq in
1994 that resulted in 26 deaths.
(AP, 6/20/00)
1995 Jun 20-1995 Jun 21, The
Mount Zion AME Church in Greeleyville, S.C., was destroyed by fire.
On the next day the Macedonia Baptist Church in Bloomville was
burned. In 1996 two KKK members, Gary Cox and Timothy Welch, were
charged in federal court for setting the fires. They pleaded guilty
on 8/14/96. Former Klansmen Hubert Rowell and Arthur Haley pleaded
guilty to 4 counts of conspiracy in the fires in Dec 1996. In 1998
the Christian Knights of KKK and Horace King, Grand Dragon of South
Carolina, were ordered to pay $37.8 million in damages for the
burning of the Macedonia Baptist church.
(SFC, 7/9/96, p.A6)(SFC, 8/15/96, p.A4)(SFC,
12/10/96, p.A3)(SFC, 7/25/98, p.A3)
1996
Jun 20, The Clinton administration announced it
would veto the re-election of U.N. Secretary-General Boutros
Boutros-Ghali.
(AP, 6/20/97)
1996
Jun 20, Westinghouse Electric agreed to buy
Infinity Broadcasting for $3.9 billion.
(AP, 6/20/97)
1996
Jun 20, Scientists announced the identification
of the co-factor involved in human AIDS viral reproduction. Chemokin
receptor-5, CKR5, is the name of the HIV co-factor.
(SFC, 6/20/96, p.A3)
1996
Jun 20, The recent issue of Nature reported that
fossil bones from 130-120 million ago were found in a jungle
streambed in northeastern Thailand of a 21 foot tyrannosaur. It was
named Siamotyrannus isanensis. The finding added to evidence that
tyrannosaurs evolved in Asia.
(SFC, 6/20/96, p.C12)
1996
Jun 20, In 1996 there were allegations of
kickbacks from a 1988 European Airbus jets sale to Canada. Swiss
Bank records were sought in a corruption probe. Former Prime
Minister Mulroney filed suit for being named in the scandal.
(WSJ, 6/20/96, p.A14)
1996
Jun 20, "Revolt Against Modernity: Leo Strauss,
Eric Voegelin, and the search for a Postliberal Order" by Ted v.
McAllister was reviewed by Robert Devigne. It discusses the modern
political thinking wherein the search for knowledge is directed by
humanity to master its environment.
(WSJ, 6/20/96, p.A16)
1996
Jun 20, In Albania a court convicted 3 top
ex-Communist officials for deporting more than 70 dissidents when
they headed regional Communist administrations. The European
Parliament urged Albania to hold another vote due to balloting
irregularities in the May 26 and June 2 elections.
(SFC, 6/21/96, p.A14)(SFC, 6/22/96, p.A13)
1996
Jun 20, China was to announce the convertibility
of its currency, the yuan, for trade, services, debt payment and
profit repatriation by foreign companies.
(WSJ, 6/20/96, p.A14)
1996
Jun 20, In Indonesia fighting broke out when the
army backed dissidents who wanted to oust Megawati Sukarnoputri as
leader of the opposition Indonesian Democratic Party. Party members
fought with troops in Jakarta in support of Megawati who is seen as
a threat to Pres. Suharto.
(SFC, 6/21/96, p.A14)
1996
Jun 20, In northern Nicaragua mediators began
negotiations for the release of a group of about 30 election workers
recently kidnapped by 15 re-armed contras and taken to Honduras.
(SFC, 6/21/96, p.A14)
1996
Jun 20, In Russia Yeltsin fired 3 aides.
Alexander Korzhakov, head of his personal security force; Deputy
Prime Minister Oleg Soskovets; and Mikhail Barshukov, head of a KGB
successor agency.
(WSJ, 6/21/96, p.A1)
1997
Jun 20, US tobacco negotiators announced a
settlement that would require cigarette companies to pay $368.5
billion over the next 25 years to compensate states for
smoking-related illnesses, to finance anti-smoking programs, and to
underwrite health care for millions of uninsured children in
exchange for major relief from mounting lawsuits and legal bills.
(SFC, 6/21/97, p.A1)(AP, 6/20/98)
1997
Jun 20, The summit of industrialized nations
opened in Denver, with Russia taking its place as the new eighth
partner.
(AP, 6/20/98)
1997
Jun 20, A jury in Trenton, N.J., ordered the
death penalty for Jesse K. Timmendequas, whose rape and strangling
of his 7-year-old neighbor, Megan Kanka, led to the creation of
"Megan's Laws" requiring that communities be notified of sex
offenders in their midst.
(AP, 6/20/07)
1997
Jun 20, In Cambodia government sources announced
that former Khmer Rouge troops had captured Pol Pot.
(SFC, 6/21/97, p.A10)
1997
Jun 20, In Mexico authorities announced the
discovery of 53 properties, 36 bank accounts and 4 aliases for Raul
Salinas.
(SFC, 6/21/97, p.A11)
1997
Jun 20, In Spain former prime minister Felipe
Gonzalez quit as the leader of the Spanish Socialist Party. He was
succeeded by Joaquin Almunia.
(WSJ, 6/23/97, p.A1)
1997
Jun 20, In Turkey Pres. Demirel asked Mesut
Yilmaz, leader of the Motherland Party, to form a new government.
(SFC, 6/21/97, p.A10)
1998
Jun 20, On the eve of Father's Day, President
Clinton used his weekly radio address to announce the release of the
first wave of almost $60 million in prostate cancer research grants.
(AP, 6/20/08)
1998
Jun 20, Seven people were killed on the
Pennsylvania Turnpike when a Greyhound bus crashed into a
tractor-trailer parked on the shoulder. At least 18 people were
hurt. The driver was on his last run before retirement. he was among
the dead with his wife and boy that they took care of.
(SFEC, 6/21/98, p.A10)(WSJ, 6/22/98, p.A1)
1998
Jun 20, In Belarus ambassadors of the EU nations
announced that they would leave the country to protest a government
move barring them from their homes.
(SFEC, 6/21/98, p.A17)
1998
Jun 20, Iran reversed its opposition to a UN
plan, passed the previous day, permitting Iraq to spend $300 million
of revenues from the oil-for-food program to buy spare parts to
rebuild its oil industry.
(SFEC, 6/21/98, p.A25)
Jun
20, Suekiku Miyanaga (107), Japan’s oldest person, died in Osumi.
(SFEC, 6/21/98, p.A25)
1998
Jun 20, In Kosovo 3 Serbian police were killed
and four were held by the Kosovo separatist army during fighting in
the Decani area.
(SFEC, 6/21/98, p.A25)
1999
Jun 20, Golfer Payne Stewart won his second US
Open title, by one stroke over Phil Mickelson.
(AP, 6/20/00)
1999
Jun 20, Pres. Clinton met with Pres. Yeltsin in
Germany and they agreed to rekindle efforts to reduce their nuclear
arsenals.
(SFC, 6/21/99, p.A1)
1999
Jun 20, The Cuban Evangelical Celebration, billed
as the first Protestant gathering of its kind, was held in Havana's
Plaza of the Revolution with Castro present.
(SFC, 6/21/99, p.A10)
1999
Jun 20, The last Serbian officer left Kosovo.
Pres. Milosevic urged the Serbs of Kosovo to stay in Kosovo under
NATO protection. As the last of 40-thousand Yugoslav troops rolled
out of Kosovo, NATO declared a formal end to its bombing campaign
against Yugoslavia.
(SFC, 6/21/99, p.A1,7)(AP, 6/20/00)
2000
Jun 20, After a furious last-minute lobbying
blitz by the Clinton administration, the Senate voted 57-to-42 to
approve legislation making it easier for federal prosecutors to try
hate crimes, attaching the measure to a defense authorization bill.
However, the House stripped the hate crimes provision from the
defense bill the following October.
(AP, 6/20/01)
2000
Jun 20, Vivendi agreed to acquire Seagram’s Corp.
for $30 billion.
(SFC, 6/21/00, p.C16)
2000
Jun 20, Brazil decreed an immediate ban on the
sale of firearms as part of a broad $1.7 billion national security
plan.
(SFC, 6/21/00, p.A14)
2000
Jun 20, In Northern Ireland Ulster Freedom
Fighters threatened break their cease-fire and accused Catholic
groups of attacking protestant homes.
(SFC, 6/21/00, p.A12)
2000
Jun 20, In South Korea some 50 thousand members
of the medical association went on strike to protest a new system
that bans them from selling most drugs.
(SFC, 6/21/00, p.A16)
2000
Jun 20, In Russia the prosecutor’s office filed
to reverse the privatization of Norilsk Nickel, the largest metal
company, controlled by oligarch Vladimir Potanin.
(SFC, 6/21/00, p.A14)
2001
Jun 20, Billy Collins was named the 11th U.S.
poet laureate.
(AP, 6/20/02)
Jun 20, Andrea Yates (36) of Houston, Texas, drowned her 5 children,
ages 6 months to 7 years, at her home near the Johnson Space Center.
Yates had been under medication for post-partum depression. In 2002
a jury found Yates guilty of capital murder and sentenced her to
life in prison. Her conviction was overturned in 2005 by an appeals
court which ruled a prosecution expert witness gave false testimony
at her trial. In 2006 a jury found her not guilty by reason of
insanity.
(SFC, 6/21/01, p.A6)(SFC, 3/13/02, p.A1)(SFC,
3/16/02, p.A1)(AP, 1/6/05)(SFC, 7/27/06, p.A3)
2001
Jun 20, In Brazil the Central Bank raised the key
interest rate 1.5% to 18.25%.
(WSJ, 6/22/01, p.A11)
2001
Jun 20, In Belfast, Northern Ireland, police
battled sectarian mobs in the worst rioting since 1998.
(WSJ, 6/21/01, p.A1)
2001
Jun 20, In Pakistan Gen'l. Pervez Musharraf
dismissed the president and named himself to the post. He also
dissolved the national Assembly and 4 provisional assemblies.
(WSJ, 6/21/01, p.A1)(SFC, 6/21/01, p.A10)
Jun 20, In Peru American Lori Berenson (31) was
convicted by a civilian court of collaborating with rebels and was
sentenced to 20 years in prison. She already had served 5 years.
(WSJ, 6/21/01, p.A1)(SFC, 6/21/01, p.A10)
2002
Jun 20, The US Supreme Court ruled that the
constitution bans the death penalty for mentally retarded convicted
killers.
(SFC, 6/21/02, p.A1)
Jun 20, Paul Shanley (71), a retired priest, was
indicted in Cambridge, Mass., on charges of raping 4 children from
1979-1989. Shanley was convicted on 4 charges in 2005 and sentenced
12-15 years in prison.
(SFC, 6/21/02, p.A3)(SFC, 6/8/04, p.A3)(SFC,
2/16/05, p.A4)
2002
Jun 20, Colombian President-elect Alvaro Uribe
pressed President Bush for more help in fighting drugs, while Bush
cautioned him to respect human rights as he combats leftist rebels
who rely largely on drug trafficking for their income.
(AP, 6/21/02)
2002
Jun 20, A gas explosion ripped through the
Chengzihe coal mine in Jixi in northeast China and killed 111
miners.
(Reuters, 6/20/02)
2002
Jun 20, Liberian rebels attacked a refugee camp
near the border with Sierra Leone, seizing five nurses and sending
thousands fleeing as they battled government troops. Four people
died in the fighting.
(AP, 6/21/02)
2002
Jun 20, Thousands of Italians, from prosecutors
and judges to metalworkers, walked off their jobs to protest
government plans to reform the judiciary system and labor law.
(AP, 6/20/02)
2002 Jun 20, Palestinian gunmen
killed 5 Jewish settlers at the Itamar settlement in the West Bank.
The 2 assailants were killed. The mother of the family and three of
her children were murdered. Another two children were seriously
injured and a local security official was shot to death as he tried
to help.
(SFC, 6/21/02, p.A1)(AP, 3/12/11)
2002
Jun 20, In Saudi Arabia John Veness, a British
employee at Al Bank al Saudi al Fransi, was killed in a car bomb
explosion in Riyadh.
(WSJ, 6/21/02, p.A7)
2002
Jun 20, In Spain pickets clashed with police,
many shops closed and hundreds of flights were canceled as workers
staged Spain's first general strike in eight years.
(AP, 6/20/02)
2002
Jun 20, Turkey took over control of the 19-member
peacekeeping force in Afghanistan.
(SFC, 6/21/02, p.A10)
2002
Jun 20, In northern Tanzania more than 30 people
may have suffocated deep inside a tanzanite mine in northern
Tanzania after an oxygen pump failed.
(AP, 6/20/02)
2002
Jun 20-2002 Jun 22, A European Union Summit was
scheduled for Seville.
(SSFC, 5/26/02, p.C2)
2003
Jun 20, President Bush named Scott McClellan his
new press secretary, succeeding Ari Fleischer.
(AP, 6/20/04)
2003
Jun 20, Pres. Bush and Brazil's Pres. Lula da
Silva said that relations between the two nations remain on track
despite sharp disagreements over Iraq and some trade issues.
(AP, 6/21/03)
2003
Jun 20, Secretary of State Colin Powell met
separately with the leaders of Israel and the Palestinian Authority,
praising the Israelis for efforts toward an eventual peace
settlement and urging speed on the Palestinians.
(AP, 6/20/04)
2003
Jun 20, Gov. Davis announced that car license
fees would triple as of Oct. 1 and Finance Director Steve Peace said
California was now operating off of borrowed money.
(SFC, 6/21/03, p.A1)
2003
Jun 20, General Motors Corp. said it will sell
about $13 billion of bonds, one of the largest corporate debt
offerings ever, to help shore up its U.S. pension plan which ended
last year under funded by $19.3 billion. Standard & Poor's 500
companies had a combined deficit of about $239 billion and growing,
an all-time high.
(Reuters, 6/20/03)
2003
Jun 20, In Los Angeles County 31 train cars broke
loose and rolled over 30 miles before workers forced a derailing at
Commerce.
(SFC, 6/21/03, p.A3)
2003
Jun 20, Wildfires fueled by high winds burned 250
homes in southern Arizona.
(AP, 6/20/04)
2003
Jun 20, In China Guangdong health officials
reported 211 encephalitis cases with 18 children killed. 100,000
children were vaccinated as a precaution.
(SFC, 6/21/03, p.A5)
2003
Jun 20, China said it will move 42,000 soldiers
to civilian jobs this year as part of efforts to shrink the world's
largest military.
(AP, 6/20/03)
2003 Jun 20, A 31-nation
conference in Germany agreed to expand efforts to combat terrorist
financing and money laundering. The Financial Action Task Force
issued a 40-point program to keep international law enforcement
abreast of criminals' increasingly sophisticated efforts to conceal
illegal money flows.
(AP, 6/20/03)
2003 Jun 20, In Iran
student protests against Ayatollah Ali Khamenei spread to at least 8
other cities.
(SFC, 6/21/03, p.A8)
2003 Jun 20, Kazakhstan's
parliament passed a bill allowing private ownership of land for the
first time in this vast former Soviet republic.
(AP, 6/20/03)
2003 Jun 20, In Latvia Vaira
Vike-Freiberga easily won a second term as president.
(AP, 6/20/03)
2003
Jun 20, In Liberia Pres. Charles Taylor renounced his peace pledge
to cede power and announced that he will serve to the January 2004
end of his term — and might run again.
(AP, 6/20/03)
2003 Jun 20, Singapore launched
an automated commuter train system, filling a gap in the city's
subway network.
(AP, 6/20/03)
2003 Jun 20, A boat carrying
some 250 people toward Italy sank off the Tunisian coast, killing at
least 50 people. The boat's occupants were all thought to be illegal
immigrants.
(AP, 6/20/03)(AP, 6/22/03)
2003 Jun 20, In central Turkey
a student dormitory at an Islamic school exploded and collapsed,
killing 10 students.
(AP, 6/20/03)
2003 Jun 20, Morgan Tsvangirai
(51), Zimbabwe's opposition leader, was released on bail after two
weeks in jail on treason charges. He said he will not stop putting
pressure on Pres. Robert Mugabe (79).
(AP, 6/21/03)
2004
Jun 20, Bermuda-based Bacardi Limited agreed to
purchase Grey Goose vodka, distilled and bottled in France, from
Sidney Frank Importing Co. for roughly $2 billion.
(AP, 6/21/04)
2004
Jun 20, India and Pakistan announced they would
establish a new hot line to alert each other of potential nuclear
accidents or threats.
(AP, 6/20/04)
2004
Jun 20, In Iraq a roadside bomb exploded along a
highway leading to Baghdad's airport, killing two Iraqi soldiers and
wounding 11 others.
(AP, 6/20/04)
2004
Jun 20, Iraq resumed oil exports of about 1
million barrels a day through its southern Basra terminal after
completing repairs to pipelines sabotaged by insurgents.
(AP, 6/21/04)
2004
Jun 20, The Arab satellite TV network Al-Jazeera
aired a videotape purportedly from al-Qaida-linked militants showing
Kim Sun Il (33), a South Korean hostage, begging for his life and
pleading with his government to withdraw troops from Iraq.
(AP, 6/21/04)(SFC, 6/21/04, p.A7)
2004
Jun 20, A Philippine congressional committee
announced, six weeks after the election, that President Gloria
Macapagal Arroyo has won another term in office. In 2005 an audio
file, allegedly wiretapped by military intelligence, became
available with Arroyo speaking to election’s official Virgilio
Garcillano. The “Hello Garci? file became popular as a cell phone
ring tone.
(AP, 6/20/04)(SFC, 6/22/05, p.A2)
2004
Jun 20, Zimbabwe’s government said it would honor
ownership rights to land bought on the property market, backtracking
on previous announcements it would nationalize all farmland.
(AP, 6/20/04)
2005
Jun 20, During a joint news conference with
European leaders, President Bush said he was determined to complete
the mission of establishing democracy in Iraq because the world
would be a better place for it.
(AP, 6/20/06)
2005
Jun 20, A US federal judge threw out evidence
against four men charged with laundering more than $60 million
through their chain of US Virgin Islands grocery stores, ruling that
FBI agents acted in "reckless disregard for the truth."
(AP, 6/21/05)
2005
Jun 20, John Rigas (80), founder of Adelphia
Corp., was sentenced to 15 years in prison for looting the firm and
lying about finances. His son, Timothy Rigas, his ex-finance chief,
received a 20-year sentence.
(SFC, 6/21/05, p.D1)
2005
Jun 20, California state and federal officials
set aside $2 million to determine why smelt and other species in the
San Joaquin and Sacramento River Delta has dropped sharply. Numerous
causes were suspect including nonnative predators and increasing
herbicide and pesticide runoff as well as water draw down to supply
Southern California and the Central Valley.
(SFC, 6/21/05, p.B3)
2005
Jun 20, H.J. Heinz Co., the largest ketchup maker
in the US, said it has agreed to buy the HP Foods and Lea &
Perrins sauce divisions from France's Groupe Danone for $852 mil.
(AP, 6/20/05)
2005
Jun 20, Charles D. Keeling (b.1928), American
atmospheric chemist, died in Montana. His monitoring of the pure air
at Mauna Loa, Hawaii, and the South Pole, begun in 1958, provided
CO2 readings that climbed steadily and became known as the Keeling
Curve.
(WSJ, 6/24/05,
p.A1)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_David_Keeling)
2005
Jun 20, Jack Kilby (b.1923), Nobel Prize winner
and co-inventor of the integrated circuit (1958), died in Dallas.
(SFC, 6/22/05, p.A5)(Econ, 7/25/05, p.75)
2005
Jun 20, Fierce fighting between Taliban rebels
and Afghan security forces left 18 insurgents and three others dead.
(AP, 6/20/05)
2005
Jun 20, Dutch scientists reported that folic acid
improved the memory of older adults.
(SFC, 6/21/05, p.A3)
2005
Jun 20, European Union agriculture ministers
agreed to share out an annual 12.7 billion-euro ($15.51 billion)
package to support rural development.
(AP, 6/21/05)
2005
Jun 20, India raised retail petrol and diesel
prices by about 7 percent, the first increase since November.
(AP, 6/20/05)
2005
Jun 20, India approved a free-trade agreement
with Singapore.
(WSJ, 6/21/05, p.A14)
2005
Jun 20, In Iraq a suicide car bomber killed at
least 15 traffic police and wounded about 100 more outside the
unit's headquarters in the northern Kurdish city of Irbil. Suicide
attacks left 37 dead.
(AP, 6/20/05)(WSJ, 6/21/05, p.A1)
2005
Jun 20, Japan said it would dramatically expand
its research whaling, doubling the number of minke whales it kills
annually for scientific study.
(AP, 6/20/05)
2005
Jun 20, The leaders of Japan and South Korea
failed to make progress on mending ties damaged by a territorial
dispute over islands in the Sea of Japan and a flap over Tokyo's
militaristic past during a tense summit.
(AP, 6/20/05)
2005
Jun 20, Massouma al-Mubarak, Kuwait's first
female Cabinet member, took the oath of office over the shouts of
Muslim fundamentalist and tribal lawmakers opposed to women in
politics.
(AP, 6/20/06)
2005
Jun 20, Palestinian gunmen ambushed an Israeli
minivan driving through the northern West Bank, riddling the vehicle
with bullets, killing one passenger and wounding a second.
(AP, 6/20/05)
2005
Jun 20, In Thailand 3 Muslim men were shop dead
in Pattani.
(Econ, 7/23/05, p.40)
2005
Jun 20, In Vietnam officials said 2 more people
from northern Vietnam have been sickened with bird flu, and
thousands of chickens have dropped dead in the south.
(AP, 6/20/05)
2006
Jun 20, One of the largest US military exercises
in decades got underway off Guam island in the western Pacific.
(AP, 6/20/06)
2006
Jun 20, The US Mint at West Point, NY, staged a
promotion for the nation’s first 24-karat, pure gold one-ounce coin,
the American Buffalo. The $50 gold piece design was based on the
1913 buffalo nickel designed by James Earle Fraser. Orders for the
bullion version began June 19, and orders for the proof coin would
begin June 22 at $875 per proof coin.
(WSJ, 6/16/06, p.C3)(SFC, 6/21/06, p.C1)
2006 Jun 20, A Washington DC
jury found former Bush administration official David Safavian guilty
of covering up his dealings with Republican influence-peddler Jack
Abramoff. Safavian was sentenced to 18 months in prison, but the
underlying conviction was thrown out by an appeals court in 2008. In
Dec, 2008, Safavian was convicted of obstructing justice and lying.
In Oct 2009 he was sentenced to a year and a day in federal prison.
(AP, 6/20/06)(SFC, 10/17/09, p.A6)
2006
Jun 20, A US defense official said the United
States has moved its ground-based interceptor missile defense system
from test mode to operational amid concerns over an expected North
Korean missile launch.
(AP, 6/20/06)
2006
Jun 20, National Guardsmen rolled into New
Orleans to reinforce a depleted police department and battle a surge
in violence.
(AP, 6/20/07)
2006
Jun 20, CBS announced that Dan Rather, the
anchorman who dominated CBS News for more than two decades, is
leaving the network after 44 years.
(AP, 6/20/06)
2006
Jun 20, The Miami Heat won their first NBA title,
beating the Dallas Mavericks 95-92 in Game 6.
(AP, 6/20/07)
2006
Jun 20, Georgia Tech and IBM announced a
microchip speed record of 500 billion cycles per second (500
gigahertz) by applying liquid helium to cool a chip to 451 degrees
below zero.
(SFC, 6/20/06, p.C3)
2006
Jun 20, In southern Afghanistan an explosion tore
apart a coalition tank, killing one Romanian soldier and wounding
four others. Afghan and coalition forces clashed with Taliban
fighters in southern Helmand province, leaving 20 militants dead.
Coalition soldiers accidentally fired on an unmarked police car in
eastern Kunar province, killing 3 Afghan policemen and wounding 3.
(AP, 6/20/06)(AP, 6/21/06)
2006
Jun 20, British media reported that PM Tony Blair
and Queen Elizabeth II are to get two new dedicated aircraft, dubbed
"Blair Force One" and "Blair Force Two."
(AP, 6/20/06)
2006
Jun 20, Chad accused Sudan of cross-border
attacks and urged the Security Council to meet over its neighbor's
alleged "aggression and destabilization."
(AP, 6/20/06)
2006
Jun 20, The UN said production of the coca plant
used to make cocaine had increased by 8% in Colombia, to 330 square
miles.
(AP, 6/20/06)
2006
Jun 20, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan said in a
report that Congo's armed forces and police are responsible for the
majority of documented abuses against children in the chaotic
country, sometimes abducting kids to carry equipment or for sex.
(AP, 6/20/06)
2006
Jun 20, East Timor prosecutors ordered the arrest
of Rogerio Lobato, the former interior minister, for supplying
weapons to a hit squad tasked with eliminating the prime minister's
political opponents. International troops tightened security across
the capital as hundreds of protesters gathered to demand PM Mari
Alkatiri's ouster.
(AP, 6/20/06)
2006
Jun 20, US-led forces killed 15 terror suspects
and detained three others during raids in a village northeast of
Baghdad. Residents said 13 civilians also were killed. 4 Marines
were killed in insurgency-ridden Anbar province, three of them in a
roadside bombing and a fourth in a separate operation. The US
military recovered the booby-trapped bodies of two missing soldiers
in Iraq.
(AP, 6/20/06)(AP, 6/22/06)(AP, 6/20/07)
2006
Jun 20, Indonesian officials said a
14-year-year-old boy died of bird flu last week, raising the
country's death toll to at least 39 people.
(AP, 6/20/06)
2006
Jun 20, Italian police arrested at least 45
people in an anti-Mafia crackdown in Sicily, including top bosses
who had allegedly been in touch with Bernardo Provenzano, the
reputed No. 1 boss picked up earlier this year.
(AP, 6/20/06)
2006
Jun 20, Japan ordered the withdrawal of its
ground troops from Iraq, declaring the humanitarian mission a
success and ending a groundbreaking dispatch that tested the limits
of its pacifist postwar constitution.
(AP, 6/20/06)
2006
Jun 20, A second bus service rolled between the
Indian and Pakistani zones of disputed Kashmir, a move hailed as a
boost for the peace process between the nuclear-armed rivals.
(AP, 6/20/06)
2006
Jun 20, A senior UN official marked World Refugee
Day by welcoming home 125 Liberians from Sierra Leone where they
lived for years seeking haven from Liberia's civil war. Former
Liberian President Charles Taylor was taken to a Dutch prison to
await a UN war crimes trial for the killing, rape or mutilation of
hundreds of thousands in West Africa.
(AP, 6/20/06)
2006
Jun 20, Lithuania plunged deeper into political
crisis after lawmakers rejected their president's choice for prime
minister, edging the Baltic country toward early elections and its
14th government in 15 years. 52 lawmakers voted in favor of and 48
against Social Democrat Zigmantas Balcytis, who was nominated last
week to the premiership by President Valdas Adamkus. There were 32
abstentions.
(AFP, 6/20/06)
2006 Jun 20, Two Filipino oil
workers were kidnapped near the Nigerian oil city of Port Harcourt
in the southern Niger Delta.
(AFP, 6/20/06)
2006
Jun 20, Pakistani authorities negotiated a
temporary truce after at least 14 people died and 35 were wounded in
a gunbattle near Parachinar between two tribes over access to water.
(AP, 6/20/06)
2006
Jun 20, In Gaza City Mohammed Roka (5), Samia
el-Sharif (5), and Bilal Al-hassi (16) were killed by an Israeli
missile that hit a group of children, but didn't kill the militants
in the targeted car. After the air attack went awry, Israel defended
its pursuit of militants, but said it would "continue to take every
precaution to keep civilians out of harm's way."
(AP, 6/21/06)
2006
Jun 20, In Spain and France 12 people, including
one of the founders of the Basque separatists ETA, were arrested in
pre-dawn raids in a crackdown on illegal financing of the armed
group.
(AFP, 6/20/06)
2006
Jun 20, Sudanese state news said President Omar
Hassan al-Bashir ruled out letting UN troops into the Darfur region,
saying he would not permit such a deployment as long as he was in
power.
(AP, 6/20/06)
2006
Jun 20, A US Embassy spokesman said the United
States has asked Suriname to extradite a Guyanese man wanted on drug
charges in New York. Shaheed Khan was arrested June 15 by
authorities in Suriname.
(AP, 6/21/06)
2006
Jun 20, Turkey's PM Recep Tayyip Erdogan
announced plans to build three nuclear power plants by 2015 to meet
the country's growing energy needs.
(AP, 6/20/06)
2007
Jun 20, For the second time, President Bush
vetoed an embryonic stem cell bill as he urged scientists toward
what he termed "ethically responsible" research.
(AP, 6/20/08)
2007
Jun 20, Sammy Sosa, playing for the Texas Rangers
after a year out of baseball, hit his 600th home run, making him the
fifth player to reach the milestone.
(AP, 6/20/08)
2007
Jun 20, Isaac Kamali, who appears on Rwanda's
most wanted list submitted to Interpol, was detained at Philadelphia
airport.
(Reuters, 6/22/07)
2007
Jun 20, In eastern Afghanistan gunmen opened fire
on people praying in a mosque, killing three and wounding four
others. A series of roadside bombings in Afghanistan killed eight
people, including three Canadian NATO soldiers. One bomb blew up a
police vehicle in the eastern province of Khost, killing Qalandar
district police chief Ali Mohammad and one of his men. An ambush on
a convoy belonging to UN's Office for Project Services on the main
Kabul-Kandahar highway, killed two Afghan guards. Another bomb
exploded on a road in Ghazni province and killed a man who was
cycling home after buying groceries. Fighting in Paktika province
between US-led troops and suspected Taliban left 8 militants and a
policeman dead.
(AP, 6/20/07)(AFP, 6/20/07)(AP, 6/21/07)
2007
Jun 20, Australia announced that it will spend
9.3 billion US dollars on five Spanish-designed warships to boost
its capacity to face military threats in the region.
(AP, 6/20/07)
2007
Jun 20, In Chechnya a gunbattle broke out between
traffic police and a Defense Ministry unit in Grozny, leaving at
least five people dead and six wounded.
(AP, 6/20/07)
2007
Jun 20, China announced a nationwide crackdown on
enslavement and child labor. China's regulatory standards chief
pledged to update and boost enforcement of food safety rules as the
country faces intense international pressure for exporting unsafe
products from toothpaste to pet food ingredients. State media said
floods and landslides triggered by heavy rain have killed 36 more
people and left 13 missing in southwest and central China. A
knife-wielding man slashed four students, wounding one seriously at
a high school in Fuzhou, capital of southeastern Fujian province.
(AP, 6/20/07)(Reuters, 6/20/07)(AP,
6/21/07)
2007
Jun 20, Otto Roberto Herrera Garcia, a man
accused of turning Guatemala into a corridor for US-bound cocaine,
was arrested in Bogota, two years after escaping from a Mexican
prison. He offered agents $700,000 each in bribes to let him go when
he was seized.
(AP, 6/22/07)
2007 Jun 20, A Dutch
government-funded agency said China has overtaken the United States
as the top emitter of carbon dioxide, the main greenhouse gas,
because of surging energy use amid an economic boom. However
consumption and emission levels per head remained a mere fraction of
America’s.
P, 6/20/07)(Econ, 6/13/09, p.45)
2007 un
20, Starbucks signed a deal to credit Ethiopia's unique bean
varieties on its coffee labels, ending a long-brewing trademark
dispute.
(AFP, 6/21/07)
2007
Jun 20, In Athens, Greece, 7 police officers were
charged with torture and other offenses in the alleged beating of
two Albanian immigrants that was recorded on a cell phone camera and
posted on the Internet.
(AP, 6/20/07)
2007
Jun 20, Gunmen blew up two Sunni mosques south of
Baghdad, causing heavy damage but no casualties, in an apparent
retaliatory attack a day after a suicide truck bombing devastated a
revered Shiite mosque in the heart of the capital. The US military
said at least 30 al-Qaida fighters were killed and several bombs and
weapons caches destroyed as soldiers fought their way through the
streets of Baqouba. 4 US soldiers were killed and one was wounded
when their convoy was struck by a roadside bomb in a western
neighborhood in Baghdad. Southwest of Baghdad. Two US soldiers were
killed and 4 were wounded when explosions struck near their vehicle.
Two Marines also were killed while conducting combat operations in
Anbar province.
(AP, 6/20/07)(AP, 6/21/07)
7
Jun 20, Nazek al-Malaika (85), a renowned Iraqi
poet, died. She was famous as the first to write Arabic poetry in
free verse rather than classical rhyme.
(AP, 6/20/07)
2007
Jun 20, Israeli tanks entered southern Gaza, and
four people, including at least two militants, were killed in an
exchange of fire. Israel fired missiles at two rocket launchers in
northern Gaza in the first attack since Hamas militants took
control. Israel also let in a few seriously ill Palestinians who had
been holed up for days at a fetid border crossing. In the West Bank,
two Palestinian militants were killed in a shootout with Israeli
troops during an arrest raid near Jenin.
(AP, 6/20/07)
2007
Jun 20, Japanese lawmakers approved a two-year
extension of the country's air force transport mission in Iraq,
despite criticism of Tokyo's involvement in the unpopular war.
(AP, 6/20/07)
2007
Jun 20, Nigerian stocks dipped 1.74% as a general
strike called by the country's two main labor movements over a
15-percent hike in petrol prices took its toll. Nigerian health
officials said an outbreak of measles in a village in the northern
state of Borno had killed 20 children and caused a further 100
children to be hospitalized.
(AFP, 6/20/07)
2007
Jun 20, In Sierra Leone 3 former military leaders
were found guilty of war crimes by a UN-backed court, the first
verdicts from the country's civil war and the first convictions in
an international court for using child soldiers. Alex Tamba Brima,
Brima Bazzy Kamara and Santigie Borbor Kanu were indicted in 2003 as
the alleged leaders of a junta, called the Armed Forces
Revolutionary Council, which toppled the government in 1997 and then
teamed up with rebels to control the country until 1998.
(AP, 6/20/07)
2007
Jun 20, In Switzerland 2 people accused of
running al-Qaida-linked Web sites that showed the slaying of
hostages and gave details of how to make bombs and carry out attacks
went on trial. Moez Garsallaoui (39), a Tunisian based in
Switzerland, and Malika El Aroud 948), the Belgian-born widow of an
al-Qaida suicide bomber, appeared in court on charges that included
providing support for terrorists.
(AP, 6/20/07)
2007
Jun 20, Thailand’s legislature approved an
anti-rape law that widens the definition of the crime and makes it
illegal for a husband to have sex with his wife without her consent.
(AP, 6/21/07)
2007
Jun 20, Adm. William Fallon, a top US military
commander, met with Turkmenistan's new President Berdymukhamedov for
talks on regional security, counterterrorism operations and drug
trafficking.
(AP, 6/21/07)
2008 Jun 20, The US Federal
Appeals Court in Washington, DC, ruled that Huzaifa Parhat, an
ethnic Chinese Uighur captured in the early stage of the US war in
Afghanistan, was inappropriately designated an enemy combatant.
(SFC, 6/24/08, p.A5)
2008 Jun 20, Zinc prices closed
at $0.9157 per pound, down 3 cents. September copper added 5 cents
to $3.83 per pound in New York. Silver closed at $17.38 per ounce.
(www.adn.com/money/industries/oil/story/427858.html)(http://tinyurl.com/6xgaby)
2008 Jun 20, The widening
Salmonella outbreak sickened more than 550 people. US food safety
inspectors planned trips to Florida and Mexico this weekend to
examine tomato farms and distribution chains, hoping to pinpoint the
source of the outbreak.
(Reuters, 6/20/08)
2008 Jun 20, A rocket carrying
a US-French satellite for monitoring ocean surface height was
launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. The data will
be used to monitor climate change effects on sea level.
(SFC, 6/21/08, p.A3)
2008 Jun 20, NASA scientists
reported that the Mars Phoenix spacecraft had uncovered chunks of
ice.
(SFC, 6/21/08, p.A2)
2008 Jun 20, Wilbur Hardee
(b.1917), founder of the Hardee’s restaurant chain (1960), died in
Greenville, NC.
(SFC, 6/24/08, p.B5)
2008 Jun 20, In southern
Afghanistan a suicide bomber attacked a military convoy as it drove
through a town, killing five civilians and one soldier from the
US-led coalition.
(AP, 6/20/08)
2008 Jun 20, Brazil’s Pres.
Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva decreed a new 3.8 million acre (1.5
million hectare) Indian reservation in the heart of the Amazon rain
forest's logging frontier.
(AP, 6/21/08)
2008 Jun 20, Cambodian
officials said authorities working with Australian police had
destroyed an enormous stockpile of 33 tons of safrole-rich oil, a
key ingredient used in producing the synthetic drug Ecstasy.
Cambodian authorities have been working since 2002 to stem the
distillation of the oil and since then have succeeded in detecting
and dismantling more than 50 clandestine laboratories capable of
producing up to 15 gallons of oil a day. Cambodian officials are
trying to preserve the sassafras tree, which is classified as a rare
species that grows mainly in Cambodia's Cardamom Mountains.
(AP, 6/20/08)
2008 Jun 20, Maftuh Fauzi 27) a
student at Indonesia’s National University, died in hospital. He had
been among 100 fuel price protesters arrested May 24, but there were
conflicting reports about the cause of death.
(AP, 6/24/08)
2008 Jun 20, In Iraq hundreds
of followers of anti-US cleric Muqtada al-Sadr took to the streets
after prayers in Shiite areas to protest plans for a long term
security pact between Iraq and the US. An American soldier was
killed and five others wounded by roadside bombs northeast of
Baghdad.
(AP, 6/20/08)(AP, 6/21/08)
2008 Jun 20, Panicked youths
rushed for the exits during a police raid on a Mexico City
nightclub, leaving 12 people dead in the crush of bodies. The dead
included 3 underage teens and 3 police officers. Prosecutors later
charged the police commander who led a botched raid with 12 counts
of homicide.
(AP, 6/21/08)(SSFC, 6/22/08, p.A11)(AP, 6/25/08)
2008 Jun 20, Nigerian militants
blew up a key oil supply pipeline operated by Chevron, in the latest
attack targeting the country's multi-billion-dollar oil industry.
The breached pipeline prompted Chevron to shut down its onshore oil
production.
(AFP, 6/21/08)
2008 Jun 20, Paraguayan
prisoners rioted to press a list of demands including more sex.
Inmates seized the Esperanza prison's director and other
administrators, demanding nighttime conjugal visits and an end to
mistreatment by guards.
(AP, 6/20/08)
2008 Jun 20, Typhoon Fengshen
smashed into the Philippines' third largest island packing winds of
140 kilometers (87 miles) an hour as residents braced for flooding,
landslides and big waves. Flash floods and landslides triggered by
Typhoon Fengshen left more than 700 dead or missing in various parts
of the country.
(AFP, 6/20/08)(AFP, 6/21/08)(Econ, 6/28/08, p.49)
2008 Jun 20, In Saudi Arabia
religious police arrested 21 allegedly homosexual men and
confiscated large amounts of alcohol at a large gathering of young
men at a rest house in Qatif.
(AP, 6/21/08)
2008 Jun 20, The UN reported
that over 40 civilians had been killed this week in Mogadishu,
Somalia.
(SFC, 6/21/08, p.A3)
2008 Jun 20, South Korea's
embattled President Lee Myung-Bak Friday replaced seven top aides to
give his government a fresh start after weeks of mass protests
against a US beef import deal.
(AFP, 6/20/08)
2008 Jun 20, In Thailand
several thousand protesters pushed through a heavy police cordon
around the seat of government, vowing to besiege the compound until
PM Samak Sundaravej resigns. They accused Samak's government of
interfering with corruption charges against former PM Thaksin and
trying to change the constitution for its own self-interest. A Thai
army helicopter crashed in southern Thailand, killing all 10 people
on board.
(AP, 6/20/08)
2009 Jun 20, The US
pharmaceutical industry agreed to spend $80 billion over the next
decade improving drug benefits for seniors on Medicare and defraying
the cost of President Barack Obama's health care legislation,
capping secretive negotiations involving key lawmakers and the White
House.
(AP, 6/21/09)
2009 Jun 20, The SF Chronicle
displayed a picture of a 9x7x2 foot, miniature, toothpick construct
of San Francisco, created over the last 34 years by Scott Weaver of
Rohnert Park, Ca. Weaver spent some 3,000 hours creating the work.
(SFC, 6/20/09, p.B1)
2009 Jun 20, It was reported
that that the H1N1 swine flu virus has spread to at least 76
countries and caused over 160 deaths, and that Brazilian researchers
have identified a new strain of the virus.
(SFC, 6/20/09, p.D12)
2009 Jun 20, In eastern
Afghanistan one soldier serving with the US-led coalition was killed
in an insurgent attack.
(AFP, 6/20/09)
2009 Jun 20, In central China
hundreds of baton-wielding police dispersed protesters and cordoned
off a Shishou city hotel after a young man's mysterious death
sparked unrest [see June 17]. In eastern China an explosion at a
factory producing quartz sand killed 16 people and injured dozens in
Fengyang, a county in Anhui province.
(AP, 6/21/09)
2009 Jun 20, Greece opened its
new, $180.5 million Acropolis Museum with a lavish party, bolstering
its long campaign for the return of 2,500-year-old sculptures
stripped from the citadel more than two centuries ago. It was
designed by Bernard Tschumi and Michael Photiadis.
(AP, 6/20/09)(Econ, 6/27/09, p.89)
2009 Jun 20, Indian troops
regained control of Lalgarh town captured by Maoists during a
rebellion by the left-wing activists against West Bengal state's
communist rulers.
(AFP, 6/20/09)
2009 Jun 20, In Iran witnesses
said police beat protesters and fired tear gas and water cannons at
thousands who rallied in Tehran in open defiance of Iran's clerical
government, sharply escalating the most serious internal conflict
since the 1979 Islamic Revolution. A blast at the Tehran shrine of
Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini wounded two. The days clashes left at
least 10 death and 100 injured. Among those killed was Neda Agha
Soltan (b.1982), whose death was captured on video.
(AP, 6/20/09)(AP,
6/21/09)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neda_(Iranian_protester))
2009 Jun 20, Iraq’s PM Nouri
al-Maliki called the withdrawal of US troops from cities by the end
of this month a "great victory" and promised it would go ahead as
scheduled. Hour later in northern in Taza, a mostly Turkomen city, a
truck bomb exploded near a Shiite mosque following prayers, killing
82 people and wounding 163.
(AP, 6/20/09)(AP, 6/21/09)(AP, 6/27/09)
2009 Jun 20, Italian police in
Sicily said they have arrested 14 people and placed more than 250
under investigation in the country's biggest sweep against Internet
child pornography.
(AP, 6/20/09)
2009 Jun 20, Kashmir valley
closed down in the latest protest over the alleged rape and murder
of two Muslim women that has triggered massive anti-India
demonstrations in the disputed Himalayan region.
(AP, 6/20/09)
2009 Jun 20, Pakistani
warplanes resumed strikes against militant hideouts in South
Waziristan. There was heavy fighting in the villages of Barwand and
Madijan and about 50 militants were killed, the first confirmed
militant casualties of the offensive in South Waziristan. A
citizens' militia trying to drive out the Taliban killed seven
militants in a two-hour clash in the troubled northwest. Another
militant was wounded in the fighting night near the village of
Patrak. The military killed seven militants and arrested 16 others
in Malakand, which includes Upper and Lower Dir, Buner and Swat
districts.
(AP, 6/20/09)(AP, 6/21/09)(AFP, 6/21/09)
2009 Jun 20, In the southern
Philippines suspected Muslim guerrillas hurled two grenades near a
crowded town plaza where a beauty contest was being held, killing at
least one person and wounding 32 others in the predominantly
Christian town of Maasim, Sarangani province.
(AP, 6/21/09)
2009 Jun 20, Somali lawmakers
pleaded for international military intervention within 24 hours to
help fight Islamic insurgents, where fierce fighting has resumed in
Mogadishu. The government called for troops from Kenya and Ethiopia
to come to its aid.
(AP, 6/20/09)(Econ, 6/27/09, p.56)
2009 Jun 20, Venezuela’s
Commerce Minister Eduardo Saman, a close confidant of President Hugo
Chavez, announced that the government would annul patents on some
medicines under a reform of existing intellectual property laws.
Industry leaders soon responded saying the action could cause
shortages and scare off foreign investment.
(AP, 6/21/09)
2009 Jun 20, In Venezuela
authorities arrested Salvatore Miceli, suspected of being a key
intermediary in the drug trafficking trade and one of Italy's most
dangerous Mafia fugitives, as he left his apartment in Caracas.
Police also picked up two other Italian suspects.
(AP, 6/21/09)
2009 Jun 20, Zimbabwean PM
Morgan Tsvangirai was booed and shouted down by exiles during a
speech in London when he pleaded with them to return home to help
rebuild the shattered country.
(AFP, 6/21/09)
2010 Jun 20, In Montana a
tornado ripped the roof off the 10,000 seat Rimrock Auto Arena in
Billings. No injuries were reported.
(SFC, 6/21/10, p.A6)
2010 Jun 20, In southern
Afghanistan 2 bombs set up in push carts exploded minutes apart in
Lashkar Gah, the provincial capital of Helmand province. 3 Taliban
militants were killed and 33 others were wounded in a clash with
police. A NATO rocket, apparently targeting an airport in the Behsud
district of Nangarhar province, struck a house, killing two children
and injuring three men and a woman.
(AP, 6/20/10)
2010 Jun 20, China’s government
said major rivers have burst their banks in southern China,
triggering massive floods in 10 provinces and forcing 860,000 to
flee their homes. Dozens were missing with more storms forecast. The
death toll soon rose to 377.
(AP, 6/20/10)(AP, 6/21/10)(AP, 6/25/10)(SSFC,
6/27/10, p.N3)
2010 Jun 20, In Colombia polls
showed a huge lead for former Defense Minister Juan Manuel Santos
(58). Santos won 69% of the vote, the largest margin in modern
Colombian history.
(AP, 6/20/10)(AP, 6/21/10)
2010 Jun 20, In El Salvador
gang members set a bus afire near the capital, killing at least 14
of the people aboard.
(AP, 6/21/10)
2010 Jun 20, Egyptian security
forces beat and arrested dozens of protesters when they attempted to
march through downtown Cairo in the latest demonstration against
police brutality following the June 6 death of a young man.
(AP, 6/21/10)
2010 Jun 20, Indian troops
fired on hundreds of demonstrators who tried to torch a paramilitary
bunker in Kashmir, killing one person and wounding at least five.
More were injured in subsequent clashes.
(AP, 6/20/10)
2010 Jun 20, In Iran Abdulmalik
Rigi, head of Jundallah, was hanged for leading the Sunni insurgent
group active near the country's border with Pakistan.
(AP, 6/20/10)
2010 Jun 20, In Iraq two
suicide car bombers struck a crowded area outside a state-run bank
in Baghdad, killing 27 people. Police and morgue officials said the
decomposed bodies of six women and a man were found buried in the
backyard of a deserted house in the religiously mixed Zayouna
neighborhood in eastern Baghdad. The seven victims apparently were
killed two to three months ago. In Tikrit at least 5 people were
killed by a suicide bomber as police and onlookers responded to a
roadside bomb, apparently set as a trap.
(AP, 6/20/10)(SFC, 6/21/10, p.A2)
2010 Jun 20, The Israeli
government approved the construction of a massive new water
desalination plant to help the arid country deal with a severe
shortage.
(AFP, 6/20/10)
2010 Jun 20, Ivory Coast
President Laurent Gbagbo asked a state prosecutor to investigate
whether Interior Minister Desire Tagro has been skimming state
funds. Gbagbo specifically mentioned payments made by Dutch
oil-trading company Trafigura to victims of a 2006 toxic waste spill
in Abidjan.
(AP, 6/21/10)
2010 Jun 20, In Mexico a mayor
and another man in the southern state of Oaxaca were killed by
assailants in a dispute apparently motivated by a disagreement over
a mine. A man and his 12-year-old daughter were detained in Guerrero
state for allegedly killing a neighboring land owner in a dispute
over land.
(AP, 6/21/10)
2010 Jun 20, Moldova
authorities detained 2 former policemen and another person on
suspicion of trying to sell four pounds (nearly two kg) of uranium
on the black market, but it was unclear if this was enough for a
"dirty bomb." The uranium-238 had a value of euro9 million ($11.35
million). This was not made public until Aug 25.
(AP, 8/25/10)
2010 Jun 20, Poles voted for a
new head of state after president Lech Kaczynski perished in an air
disaster. Poland's centrist presidential candidate Bronislaw
Komorowski faced a tight run-off vote against his right-wing rival
Jaroslaw Kaczynski on July 4 after beating him by only a few
percentage points in today’s vote.
(AFP, 6/20/10)(Reuters, 6/21/10)
2010 Jun 20, Turkish forces
pushed into northern Iraq, killing 4 people, including a girl (15),
as they hit back against hideouts of Kurdish rebels who killed 12
soldiers over the last 2 days.
(AFP, 6/20/10)
2010 Jun 20, The Vatican
pledged that Naples’ Cardinal Crescensio Sepe would cooperated in an
alleged corruption probe over his real transactions and other
dealings.
(SFC, 6/21/10, p.A2)
2010 Jun 20, Yemen said it has
arrested the suspected mastermind of the spectacular June 19 attack
on Aden’s intelligence headquarters, which freed detainees and left
11 people dead.
(AP, 6/20/10)
2010 Jun 20, Zimbabwe arrested
two Pakistani men for using fake passports. State media later said
one man is potentially linked to the November 2008 attacks in
Mumbai. Suspect Imran Muhammad (33) was wanted in Pakistan for
alleged involvement in the Mumbai attacks, which left 166 people
dead. The second man was identified as Chaudry Parvez Ahmed.
(AP, 6/26/10)
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