Today in History - September 12
Return to home
490 BCE Sep 12, Athenian and
Plataean Hoplites commanded by General Miltiades drove back a
Persian invasion force under General Datis at Marathon. [see Sep 9]
(HN, 9/12/98)
352 CE Sep 12, Maximinus van Trier, bishop of
Trier, saint, died.
(MC, 9/12/01)
1015 Sep 12, Lambert I with the
Beard, count of Leuven, died in battle at about age 65.
(MC, 9/12/01)
1185 Sep 12, Andronicus I
Comnenus, Byzantine emperor (1183-85), was lynched.
(MC, 9/12/01)
1213 Sep 12, Simon de Montfort
defeated Raymond of Toulouse and Peter II of Aragon at Muret,
France.
(HN, 9/12/98)
1494 Sep 12, Francois I of
Valois-Angoulome, king of France (1515-47), was born.
(MC, 9/12/01)
1556 Sep 12, Emperor Charles
resigned and his brother Ferdinand of Austria took over. Charles V
resigned and ended his days in a Spanish monastery. He bequeathed
Spain to his son Philip II, and the Holy Roman Empire to his brother
Ferdinand I. A few years of peace in Europe followed. The event
formed the basis for a later historical play by Friedrich Schiller,
which was in turn used by Verdi for his opera "Don Carlos."
(TL-MB, 1988, p.19)(WSJ, 3/21/96, p.A-12)(MC,
9/12/01)
1591 Sep 12, Richard Grenville
(b.1542), English vice-admiral and cousin of Sir. Walter Ralegh
(Raleigh), died in battle against Spanish ships at age 49. He made 2
voyages to Roanoke Island in 1585 and 1586.
(MC, 9/12/01)(www.nps.gov/fora/grenville.htm)
1609 Sep 12, English
explorer Henry Hudson sailed his ship, the Half Moon, into the river
that later took his name. Hudson sailed for the Dutch East India
Company in search of the Northwest Passage, a water route linking
the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans.
(AP, 9/12/97)(Econ, 7/4/09, p.28)
1612 Sep 12, Russia’s Tsar
Vasili IV (b.1552) died.
(www.etoile.co.uk/Romanov/Timeline.html)
1624 Sep 12, The 1st submarine
was tested in London.
(MC, 9/12/01)
1642 Sep 12, Cinq Mars, French
plotter, was executed.
(MC, 9/12/01)
1662 Sep 12, Gov. Berkley of
Virginia was denied his attempts to repeal the Navigation Acts.
(HN, 9/12/98)
1683 Sep 12, A combined
Austrian and Polish army defeated the Ottoman Turks at Kahlenberg
and lifted the siege on Vienna, Austria. The severed head of Kara
Mustapha, Turkish grand vizier, was preserved by Austria as a
souvenir of the siege of Vienna.
(WSJ, 3/27/96, p.A-16)(HN, 9/12/98)(SFEC, 2/6/00,
p.A1)
1683 Sep 12, Prince Eugene of
Savoy repelled an invasion of Vienna, Austria, by Turkish forces.
(Hem., Dec. '95, p.69)(WSJ, 3/27/96, p.A-16)
1683 Sep 12, Marco d'Aviano,
sent by Pope Innocent XI to unite the outnumbered Christian troops,
spurred them to victory. The Turks left behind sacks of coffee which
the Christians found too bitter, so they sweetened it with honey and
milk and named the drink cappuccino after the Capuchin order of
monks to which d'Aviano belonged. An Austrian baker created a
crescent-shaped roll, the Kipfel, to celebrate the victory. Empress
Maria Theresa later took it to France where it became the croissant.
(Reuters, 4/28/03)(WSJ, 6/3/03, p.D5)
1695 Sep 12, New York Jews
petitioned governor Dongan for religious liberties.
(MC, 9/12/01)
1720 Sep 12, Frederick Philipse
III, land owner (Bronx, Westchester & Putnam), was born in NYC.
(MC, 9/12/01)
1722 Sep 12, The Treaty of St.
Petersburg put an end to the Russo-Persian War.
(HN, 9/12/98)
1733 Sep 12, Francois Couperin
"Le Grand", French composer, died at 64.
(MC, 9/12/01)
1751 Sep 12, Amsterdam refused
to establish a Jewish ghetto.
(MC, 9/12/01)
1758 Sep 12, Charles Messier
observed the Crab Nebula and began a catalog.
(MC, 9/12/01)
1764 Sep 12, Jean Philippe
Rameau, French composer (Castor en Pollux), died at 80.
(MC, 9/12/01)
1776 Sep 12, Nathan Hale left
Harlem Heights Camp (127th St) for a spy mission.
(MC, 9/12/01)
1786 Sep 12, Despite his failed
efforts to suppress the American Revolution, Lord Cornwallis was
appointed governor general of India. [see Feb 24]
(HN, 9/12/98)
1789 Sep 12, Franz Xaver
Richter, composer, died at 79.
(MC, 9/12/01)
1808 Sep 12, Jose Celestino
Mutis (b.1732-1808), Spanish naturalist, died in Santa Fe de Bogote
(Colombia). He spent 40 years on his unfinished work “Flora de Nueva
Granada.”
(www.famousamericans.net/josecelestinomutis/)
1812 Sep 12, Richard March Hoe
was born in NYC. He built the first successful rotary printing
press.
(HN, 9/12/00)
1814 Sep 12, A British fleet
under Sir Alexander Cochrane began the bombardment of Fort McHenry,
the last American defense before Baltimore. Lawyer Francis Scott Key
had approached the British attackers seeking the release of a friend
who was being held for unfriendly acts toward the British. Key
himself was detained overnight on September 13 and witnessed the
bombardment of Fort McHenry from a guarded American boat.
(www.nps.gov/history/history/online_books/hh/5/hh5h.htm)
1814 Sep 12, The Battle of
North Point was fought near Baltimore during War of 1812. British
General Ross was killed by a sniper’s bullet in a skirmish just
prior to the main battle. The battle proved to be strategic American
victory, but since they left the field in the hands of the British,
tactically it was a defeat for the Americans.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_North_Point)
1818 Sep 12, Richard Gatling
(d.1903), American inventor, was born. The Gatling gun, an early
type of machine gun, was named after him.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Jordan_Gatling)
1829 Sep 12, Charles Dudley
Warner, essayist and novelist who, with Mark Twain, wrote "The
Guilded Age," was born.
(HN, 9/12/98)
1836 Sep 12, Mexican
authorities crushed the revolt which broke out on August 25.
(HN, 9/12/98)
1840 Sep 12, Composer Robert
Schumann married Clara Wieck.
(MC, 9/12/01)
1857 Sep 12, A wooden-hulled
steamship, the SS Central America under Capt. William L. Herndon,
sank off the coast of Georgia. The ship carried 21 tons of gold from
California to New York and 425 of 528 passengers were drowned. The
wreck was in 8,000 feet of water and in 1987-1988 salvage operations
were begun by Tommy Thompson. He hauled in $500 million worth of
gold bars, coins and nuggets. After a court battle he was awarded
92% of the gold. The story is told in the 1998 book "Ship of Gold in
the Deep Blue sea" by Gary Kinder. The loss of the gold sparked "The
Panic of 1857." The SS Central America sank off Cape Romain, SC.
(WSJ, 5/22/98, p.W3)(WSJ, 6/19/98, p.W9)(SFEC,
6/28/98, BR p.3)(WSJ, 12/3/99, p.W16)(WSJ, 1/28/00, p.B1)(ON, 7/01,
p.2)(MC, 9/12/01)
1860 Sep 12, William Walker
(b.1824), conqueror of Nicaragua, was convicted and executed by the
government of Honduras. The British had arrested him and turned him
over to the government. In 2008 Stephen Dando-Collins authored
“Tycoon’s War: How Cornelius Vanderbilt Invaded a Country to
Overthrow America's Most Famous Military Adventurer.”
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Walker_(soldier))(SSFC,
4/10/05, p.F4)
1862 Sep 12, The Battle of
Harpers Ferry took place in Virginia.
(MC, 9/12/01)
1866 Sep 12, The first
burlesque show opened in NYC. The show was a four act performance
called "The Black Crow", running for 475 performances and made a
reported $1.3 million for its producers.
(MC, 9/12/01)
1869 Sep 12, Peter M. Roget,
English physician and lexographer, died. In 2008 Joshua Kendall
authored “The Man Who Made Lists: Love, Death, Madness, and the
Creation of Roget’s Thesaurus” (1852).
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Roget)(WSJ,
3/22/08, p.W10)
1880 Sep 12, H.L. Mencken
(Henry Louis Mencken, d.1956), American author, social satirist, was
born in Baltimore, Md. He worked for the "Baltimore Sun" and later
edited the "Smart Set" magazine with George Jean Nathan. He wrote a
philological work entitled "The American Language." Nietzschean
iconoclast H.L. Mencken referred to "Boobus Americanus" and was
cynical about American democracy. Mencken won fame as a journalist
with the Baltimore Morning Herald and Baltimore Sun, editor of The
American Mercury magazine and as a literary critic. Mencken's
criticism was often directed at the American middle class and
members of what he called...the "boobeoisie (BOOB-WA-ZEE)." Very
popular in the post-WWI period, Mencken’s literary criticism was
instrumental in bringing writers such as D.H. Lawrence, Ford Madox
Ford and Sherwood Anderson to the fore.
(AP, 9/12/97)(HNQ, 6/20/98)(HN,
9/12/98)(www.todayinliterature.com)
1860 Sep 12, William Walker
(b.1824), US adventurer, was convicted and executed by the
government of Honduras. The British had arrested him and turned him
over to the government.
(SSFC, 4/10/05,
p.F4)(www.sfmuseum.org/hist1/walker.html)
1888 Sep 12, Maurice Chevalier
(d.1972), actor, was born in Paris, France.
(HN, 9/12/00)(www.jimpoz.com)
1892 Sep 12, Alfred A. Knopf,
American publisher, was born. In 1966 he received the Alexander
Hamilton Medal.
(HN, 9/12/98)(MC, 9/12/01)
1897 Sep 12, Irene
Joliot-Curie, French physicist (neutron, Nobel 1935), was born.
(MC, 9/12/01)
1898 Sep 12, Ben Shahn
(d.1969), American painter (1964 Arts & Letters), was born In
Kaunas, Lithuania.
(WSJ, 12/1/98,
p.A20)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ben_Shahn)
1902 Sep 12, The Yacolt Fire
burned 238,000 acres in Oregon and Washington and killed 38 people.
(SFC, 10/30/03, p.A15)
1906 Sep 12, Dmitri
Dmitriyevich Shostakovich, composer, was born in St. Petersburg,
Russia. [see Sep 25]
(MC, 9/12/01)
1910 Sep 12, Alexander D.
Langmuir, epidemiologist, was born. He created and led the U.S.
Epidemic Intelligence Service.
(HN, 9/12/00)
1910 Sep 12, Gustav Mahler's
8th Symphony premiered in Munich with 1028 musicians.
(MC, 9/12/01)
1913 Sep 13, Jesse Owens, track
and field athlete, was born. He was a four-gold medal winner at the
1936 Olympic games at Berlin.
(HFA, '96, p.38)(AHD, 1971, p.938)(HN, 9/12/98)
1914 Sep 12, During World War
I, the First Battle of the Marne ended in an Allied victory against
Germany.
(AP, 9/12/06)
1918 Sep 12, British troops
retook Havincourt, Moeuvres, and Trescault along the Western Front.
(HN, 9/12/98)
1918 Sep 12, During World War
I, U.S. forces led by Gen. John J. Pershing launched an attack on
the German-occupied St. Mihiel salient north of Verdun, France.
(AP, 9/12/97)
1919 Sep 12, Adolf Hitler
joined the German Worker's Party. In 2004 Robert O. Paxton authored
"The Anatomy of Fascism," on the rise and fall of Hitler and
Mussolini.
(HN, 9/12/98)(SSFC, 4/4/04, p.M3)
1927 Sep 12, Sigmund Romberg's
musical "My Maryland," premiered in NYC.
(MC, 9/12/01)
1928 Sep 12, Actress Katharine
Hepburn (b.1907) made her stage debut in "The Czarina."
(MC, 9/12/01)
1931 Sep 12, Kristin Hunter,
author, was born. Her work included "God Bless the Child" and
"The Survivors."
(HN, 9/12/00)
1931 Sep 12, George Jones,
country singer, was born.
(HN, 9/12/00)
1931 Sep 12, Ian Holm, actor
(Henry V), was born in Ilford, Essex, England.
(MC, 9/12/01)
1931 Sep 12, In Honolulu,
Hawaii, Thalia Massie, wife of a Navy officer, accused 5 nonwhite
island men of gang rape. A trial that followed resulted in a hung
jury. On Jan 8, 1932 a vigilante group that included the Massie’s
killed, Joseph Kahahawai, one the rape suspects.
(SFC, 5/28/05, p.E1)
1932 Sep 12, The German
Reichstag under the new chairmanship of Hermann Goring gave a vote
of no confidence to Franz von Papen and his government. Just before
that vote was taken, Papen had slapped an order on Göring's
desk dissolving the Reichstag and calling yet again for new
elections.
(www.historyplace.com/worldwar2/riseofhitler/collapse.htm)
1934 Sep 12, Estonia, Latvia
& Lithuania signed the Baltic Entente in Geneva against the
USSR.
(LC, 1998, p.24)(MC, 9/12/01)
1935 Sep 12, Millionaire Howard
Hughes flew his own designed plane at 352.46 mph.
(MC, 9/12/01)
1936 Sep 12, Bill Sam (34) was
hanged at San Quentin Prison for the murder of his wife in Stockton
2 years earlier. The Chinese man said he killed her to spare his son
the stigma of having estranged parents.
(SSFC, 9/11/11, DB 46 p.46)
1938 Sep 12, Tatiana Troyanos,
mezzo-soprano (Octavian-Der Rosenkavalier), was born in NYC.
(MC, 9/12/01)
1938 Sep 12, In a speech in
Nuremberg, Adolf Hitler demanded self-determination for the Sudeten
Germans in Czechoslovakia.
(AP, 9/12/97)
1939 Sep 12, In response to the
invasion of Poland, the French Army advanced into Germany and on
this day made their furthest penetration-five miles.
(HN, 9/12/00)
1940 Sep 12, The Lascaux Caves
in France, with their prehistoric wall paintings, were discovered in
the Dordogne region. 4 teens, following their dog down a hole near
Lascaux France discover 17,000-year-old drawings now known as
Lascaux Cave Paintings. The paintings consisting mostly of animal
representations (horses), are among the finest examples of art from
the Paleolithic period.
(SFEC, 5/30/99, p.T4)(HN, 9/12/00)(MC, 9/12/01)
1940 Sep 12, Italian forces
began an offensive into Egypt from Libya.
(HN, 9/12/98)
1941 Sep 12, The US ship Busko
captured the 1st German ship in WW II.
(MC, 9/12/01)
1942 Sep 12, Free-Poland &
Belgium asked Pope to condemn Nazi-war crimes. He did not.
(MC, 9/12/01)
1943 Sep 12, Michael Ondaatje,
Canadian novelist and poet, was born. His work included "The English
Patient."
(HN, 9/12/00)
1943 Sep 12, German
paratroopers took Benito Mussolini from the hotel where he was being
held by Italian resistance forces. Waffen-SS troops under Otto
Skorzeny freed Mussolini at Gran Sasso in the Abruzzi Mountains.
(AP, 9/12/97)(SFC, 4/25/97, p.A15)
1944 Sep 12, The second Quebec
Conference opened with President Roosevelt and British Prime
Minister Winston Churchill in attendance.
(AP, 9/12/06)
1944 Sep 12, During World War
II, U.S. Army troops entered Germany for the first time, near Trier.
(AP, 9/12/97)(HN, 9/12/98)
1944 Sep 12, A US submarine
patrol that included the USS Pampanito, the Growler and the Sealion
II, came upon a Japanese convoy carrying war material. The Japanese
transport Kachidoki Maru, carrying over 900 British soldier, was
sunk by the Pampanito. Much of the convoy was sunk including most of
some 2,000 Allied prisoners of war. The subs after chasing
stragglers of the convoy returned to find 159 British and Australian
survivors clinging to wreckage [see Sep 14]. Some 1000 POWs from
Australia were on the Japanese freighter Enoura Maru sunk by the USS
Sealion. Alistair Urquhart of Scotland, a prisoner on the Kachidoki
Maru, was picked up 5 days later by a Japanese whaling ship and
taken to Japan, where he was forced to work in a coal mine.
Kachidoki Maru had been captured earlier in the war as the President
Harrison home ported in SF. The Pampanito was later berthed as a
visitor attraction in SF. In 2008 Urquhart (89) visited the
Pampanito.
(SFC, 5/27/97, p.A17)(SFC,12/5/97, p.C3)(SFC,
9/17/08, p.B1)
1945 Sep 12, French troops
landed in Indochina.
(HN, 9/12/98)
1949 Sep 12, Irina Rodnina,
USSR, pairs figure skater (Olympic-gold-1972, 76, 80), was born.
(MC, 9/12/01)
1952 Sep 12, Noel Coward's
"Quadrille," premiered in London.
(MC, 9/12/01)
1953 Sep 12, Senator John
Fitzgerald Kennedy (36) of Massachusetts married Jacqueline Lee
Bouvier (24).
(AP, 9/12/03)
1953 Sep 12, Nikita Khrushchev
became the 1st Secretary of USSR Communist Party. His glass and
marble Palace of Congresses obliterated the last vestiges of the
17th century palace of Tsarina Natalie Kirilovna Naryshkina, the
mother of Peter the Great. [see Sep 13]
(MC, 9/12/01)(AM, Jul/Aug ‘97 p.33)
1954 Sep 12, Lassie premiered
on CBS-TV.
(AP, 9/12/04)
1957 Sep 12, James Vicary
(b.1915), a market researcher, announced that he had invented a new
way to get people to buy things, whether they wanted them or not. He
called it subliminal advertising and said that he had tested the
process at a New Jersey movie theater. In 1962 he admitted that his
results were fabricated in order to drum up business for his market
research firm. A subliminal projector called a tachistoscope had
been used during World War II in training soldiers to recognize
enemy aircraft. A book published in 1898 (The New Psychology by E.W.
Scripture) laid out most of the principles of subliminal response.
(WSJ, 11/5/07,
p.B1)(www.straightdope.com/classics/a1_187.html)
1957 Sep 12, Archbishop
Makarios of Cyprus visited the US.
(MC, 9/12/01)
1958 Sep 12, The
science-fiction movie "The Blob," starring Steve McQueen, billed as
"Steven," was released.
(AP, 9/12/08)
1958 Sep 12, The US Supreme
Court, in Cooper v. Aaron, unanimously ruled that Arkansas officials
who were resisting public school desegregation orders could not
disregard the high court's rulings.
(AP, 9/12/08)
1959 Sep 12, NBC launched
"Bonanza," the first color western on TV. 428 episodes were produced
and the show ran to 1973. 431 episodes were filmed at the 570-acre
site in Incline Village, Nevada. Michael Landon (d.1991) played
Little Joe, Lorne Greene (d.1987) played Ben Cartwright, and Dan
Blocker (d.1972) played Hoss. [see Jan 16, 1973]
(SFC, 9/3/98, p.A12)(SSFC, 6/9/02, p.A29)(SSFC,
8/8/04, p.D2)
1959 Sep 12, The Luna 2, a
Soviet space probe, was launched for the moon.
(SFEC, 9/28/97, p.A14)
1960 Sep 12, Democratic
presidential candidate John F. Kennedy addressed the issue of his
Roman Catholic faith, telling a Protestant group in Houston, "I do
not speak for my church on public matters, and the church does not
speak for me."
(AP, 9/12/00)
1964 Sep 12, Typhoon Gloria
struck Taiwan killing 330, with $17.5 million damage.
(MC, 9/12/01)
1966 Sep 12, "The Monkees"
debuted on NBC TV. "Hey, hey we're the Monkees- and we don't monkey
around." The show ran to 1868 and won an Emmy.
(WSJ, 1/9/97, p.A8)(AP, 9/12/01)
1966 Sep 12, The situation
comedy Family Affair'' premiered on CBS.
(AP, 9/12/06)
1966 Sep 12, The Beatles
received a gold record for "Yellow Submarine."
(MC, 9/12/01)
1970 Sep 12, US professor
Timothy Leary, LSD proponent, escaped from a California jail. Leary
escaped from the State Men’s Colony in San Luis Obispo with the help
of his third wife, Rosemary and the Weather Underground. He went to
Algiers and joined Black Panther leader Eldridge Cleaver, who
kidnapped the Learys after a political disagreement. They soon
escaped and made their way to Afghanistan. In 1974 he was caught and
revealed his collaborators to the FBI.
(http://tinyurl.com/4ncp8t)(SFC, 6/1/96,
p.A7)(SFC, 7/1/99, p.A9)
1970 Sep 12, The Univ. of
Alabama under coach Bear Bryant football team played against an
integrated opponent for the 1st time losing to the Univ. of Southern
California 42-21.
(WSJ, 9/8/05, p.D10)
1970 Sep 12, The Soviet Union
launched its unmanned Soviet Luna 16. It was the first robotic probe
to land on the Moon and return a sample to Earth.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luna_16)
1972 Sep 12, The situation
comedy "Maude" premiered on CBS.
(AP, 9/12/02)
1972 Sep 12, William Lawrence
Boyd (b.1895), American film actor best known for portraying
Hopalong Cassidy, died.
(www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?GRid=2123&page=gr)
1974 Sep 12, The start of
court-ordered busing to achieve racial integration in Boston's
public schools was marred by violence in South Boston. The Boston
desegregation plan had been drafted by Robert Dentler (1928-2008)
and Marvin Scott of Boston Univ.
(AP, 9/12/99)(SFC, 4/8/08, p.B5)
1974 Sep 12, Haile Selassie I,
"King of Kings, Lord of Lords, and Conquering Lion of the Tribe of
Judah," was deposed by the military from the Ethiopian throne. A
military committee (known as the Dergue) was established from
several divisions of the Ethiopian Armed forces. General Aman Amdon
was elected as spokesperson for the Dergue and implemented policies
for the country, which included land distribution to peasants,
nationalizing industries and services under public ownership and led
Ethiopia into the Socialism.
(AP, 9/12/99)(http://tinyurl.com/7lnnz)
1974 Sep 12, In its 1st major
attack ETA killed 12 people with a bomb at a Madrid cafe.
(AP, 3/22/06)
1977 Sep 12, Robert Lowell
(b.1917), US poet (Near the Ocean), died of a heart attack in NYC.
In 2003 Frank Bidart and David Gewanter edited "Robert Lowell:
Collected Poems." In 2005 Saskia Hamilton edited “The Letters of
Robert Lowell.”
(www.kirjasto.sci.fi/rlowell.htm)(SSFC, 7/13/03,
p.M6)(Econ, 7/25/05, p.73)
1977 Sep 12, In South Africa
Steven Biko died while under police custody. He headed the Black
Consciousness Movement and was the country’s best known political
dissident. He was detained and held in Port Elizabeth and later
driven naked in a truck 700 miles to Pretoria where he died in a
prison cell. In 1997 the five police officers involved in his
detention filed for amnesty. They were retired Col. Harold Snyman,
retired Lt. Col. Gideon Nieuwoudt, Ruben Marx, Johan Beneke, and
then Capt. Daantjie Siebert. In 1999 former Detective Sgt. Gideon
Nieuwoudt was denied amnesty because he denied any crime. This
killing was the breaking point and led to international protests and
a UN imposed arms embargo.
(SFC, 1/28/97, p.A7)(WSJ, 2/6/97, p.A9)(AP,
9/12/97)(SFEC, 1/10/99, p.A23)(MC, 9/12/01)
1978 Sep 12, The TV sitcom
"Taxi" premiered on ABC television.
(http://www.timvp.com/taxi.html)
1978 Sep 12, The first annual
"Day of Martyrs" was held in South Africa to remember those who gave
their lives in the struggle against apartheid.
(http://tinyurl.com/3xydbn)
1980 Sep 12, Yao Ming was born
in Shanghai, China. He grew to 7’6’’ and in 2002 was drafted to play
for the Houston Rockets basketball team.
(SSFC, 5/22/05, p.24)
1980 Sep 12, Turkish military
took over in coup after factional fighting. All political parties
were abolished. Gen. Kenan Evren led a bloodless coup in response to
years of street battles between left and right-wing radical groups
that left some 5,000 dead.
(AP,
11/4/02)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1980_Turkish_coup_d'%C3%A9tat)
1981 Sep 12, George Leong,
poet, organized the first Annual Asian American Jazz Festival.
(SFC, 5/12/96, p.C-1)
1981 Sep 12, The TV show
"People's Court" (1981-1993) premiered with retired Judge Joseph
Wopner premiered. Rusty Burrell was the bailiff (d.2002).
(www.tv.com/the-peoples-court/show/12330/summary.html)(SFC, 4/20/02,
p.A23)
1983 Sep 12, Filiberto Ojeda
Rios (d.2005), a Puerto Rican nationalist leader, was involved in
the robbery of a Connecticut armored truck. It was considered an act
of domestic terrorism because the money was used to fund activities
by the Puerto Rican nationalist Macheteros, or Cane Cutters. Only
about $80,000 of the $7 million was recovered. In 2005 Rios was shot
and killed by FBI agents in Puerto Rico. In 2008 Avelino Gonzalez
Claudio (65), a Puerto Rican militant suspected in the Connecticut
robbery, was arrested in Puerto Rico, where he lived quietly under
an assumed name. In 2011 FBI agents arrested Norberto Gonzalez
Claudio, one of two remaining fugitives from the robbery.
(www.amw.com/fugitives/case.cfm?id=24432)(AP,
9/25/05)(AP, 2/8/08)(SFC, 5/11/11, p.A2)
1983 Sep 12, The USSR vetoed a
UN resolution deploring its shooting down of South Korea’s KAL
flight 007 plane.
(www.globalpolicy.org/security/membship/veto/vetosubj.htm)
1986 Sep 12, Joseph Cicippio,
the acting comptroller at the American University in Beirut, was
kidnapped; he was released in December 1991.
(AP, 9/12/97)
1986 Sep 12, Frank Nelson
(b.1911), actor (Jack Benny Show), died in Hollywood, Ca.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Nelson)
1986 Sep 12, The United States
released Soviet physicist Gennady Zakharov. On Sep 29 the Soviet
Union released journalist Nicholas Daniloff. Both had been accused
of espionage.
(http://www.russianlife.net/article.cfm?Number=407)(AP, 9/29/01)
1987 Sep 12, Reports surfaced
that Democratic presidential candidate Joseph Biden had borrowed,
without attribution, passages of a speech by British Labor Party
leader Neil Kinnock for one of his own campaign speeches. The
Kinnock report, along with other damaging revelations, prompted
Biden to drop his White House bid.
(AP, 9/12/97)
1988 Sep 12, Hurricane Gilbert,
called the storm of the century, smashed into the Gulf coast. It
slammed into Jamaica with torrential rains and winds of 145 mph,
killing 45 people and causing damage estimated at up to $1 billion.
It also devastated the Yucatan peninsula and left 225 people dead.
The storm hit the Dominican Republic, Haiti, Jamaica, Cuba, Cayman
Islands and Mexico before striking Texas.
(NOHY, 3/90, p.181)(AP, 9/12/97)(SFC, 10/10/97,
p.A15)
1989 Sep 12, David Dinkins,
Manhattan borough president, won New York City's Democratic mayoral
primary, defeating incumbent Mayor Ed Koch and two other candidates
on his way to becoming the city's first black mayor.
(AP, 9/12/99)
1990 Sep 12, The TV drama
“Gabriel’s Fire” premiered with James Earl Jones as Gabriel Bird.
(LSA, Fall, 2007,
p.27)(www.imdb.com/title/tt0098801/)
1990 Sep 12, Representatives of
the World War Two allies and West and East Germany signed the Two
Plus Four Treaty in Moscow giving international sanction to German
unity.
(AP,
9/12/00)(www.foothill.fhda.edu/divisions/unification/finalset.html)
1991 Sep 12, Saying Middle East
peace negotiations might be in jeopardy, President Bush told
reporters he would use his veto authority, if necessary, to delay
action on Israel's call for $10 billion in housing loan guarantees.
(AP, 9/12/01)
1991 Sep 12, The space shuttle
Discovery blasted off on a mission to deploy an observatory designed
to study the Earth's ozone layer.
(AP, 9/12/01)
1992 Sep 12, The space shuttle
Endeavour blasted off, carrying with it Mark Lee and Jan Davis, the
first married couple in space; Mae Jemison, the first black woman in
space; and Mamoru Mohri, the first Japanese citizen to fly on a U.S.
spaceship.
(AP, 9/12/97)
1992 Sep 12, Actor Anthony
Perkins died from AIDS in Hollywood at age 60.
(AP, 9/12/97)(www.imdb.com/name/nm0000578/bio)
1992 Sep 12, Ed Peck, actor
(Zoot Suit, Bullitt), died of heart attack at 75.
(www.imdb.com/name/nm0669653/)
1992 Sep 12, In Peru the
Shining Path guerilla leader Abimael Guzman was captured by police
chief Ketin Vidal with help from a CIA operative nick-named
“Superman.” Oscar Ramirez, aka Feliciano, took over the leadership.
Guzman, a former philosophy professor, was tried by a military court
and sentenced to life in jail. The verdict was overturned in Jan
2003.
(SFE, 9/17/96, p.A11)(SFC, 7/14/99, p.C10)(SFC,
12/8/00, p.A20)(Econ, 10/30/04, p.44)
1993 Sep 12, The space shuttle
Discovery blasted off from Cape Canaveral on a 10-day mission.
(AP, 9/12/98)
1993 Sep 12, Actor Raymond Burr
(76) died of liver cancer at his Northern California ranch.
(AP, 9/12/98)
1994 Sep 12, A stolen,
single-engine Cessna crashed into the South Lawn of the White House,
coming to rest against the executive mansion; the pilot, Frank
Corder, was killed.
(AP, 9/12/99)
1994 Sep 12, Tom Ewell (S.
Yewell Tompkins), US actor (7 Year Itch), died at 85.
(www.imdb.com/name/nm0263885/)
1994 Sep 12, In Canada the
Parti Quebecois won a parliamentary election.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quebec_general_election,_1994)
1995 Sep 12, The Belarussian
military border guards shot down a hydrogen balloon during an
international race, killing its two American pilots.
(SFC, 9/2/96, p.A12)(AP, 9/12/00)
1995 Sep 12, Jeremy Brett,
English actor (Sherlock Holmes), died at 59.
(www.imdb.com/name/nm0107950/)
1996 Sep 12, Last-minute
intervention by Republican presidential candidate Bob Dole led to
Senate postponement of action on a treaty designed to eliminate
chemical weapons. President Clinton said the agreement was
threatened by "a bitter partisan debate."
(AP, 9/12/97)
1996 Sep 12, The first
African-American civil War memorial was dedicated in Washington DC.
(SFC, 9/11/96, p.C1)
1996 Sep 12, The Turkish
government agreed to allow some 2,500 Iraqi Kurds, former US
employees and their families, to enter Turkey and be evacuated to
the US.
(SFC, 9/13/96, p.A13)
1996 Sep 12, In Columbia
government officials promised to halt forcible destruction of small
coca plantations for the time being in order to end protests.
(SFC, 9/13/96, p.A13)
1996 Sep 12, In Taiwan a
five-year-old girl's remains were found in a drain outside a toilet
at the Air Force Command headquarters in Taipei. In 1997 Taiwanese
soldier Chiang Kuo-ching was found guilty of rape and murder and
executed by firing squad. A task force found that Chiang had
masturbated in the toilet and some drops of his semen fell onto the
tissue. He had been tortured into confessing, but was not the
murderer. Chiang Kuo-ching was posthumously acquitted by a military
court in September, 2011, followed by a ruling that his family be
paid Tw$131.85 million ($4.4 million) in compensation. A court in
November launched legal action to bar former minister Chen Chao-min
and seven other ex-military officers involved in the case from
transferring their assets.
(AFP, 11/29/11)
1997 Sep 12, Pres. Clinton
named Dr. David Satcher, 56, as the new surgeon general.
(SFC, 9/13/97, p.A20)
1997 Sep 12, With little to
show after three days of shuttle diplomacy, Secretary of State
Madeleine Albright declared she wouldn't return to the Mideast until
Israeli and Palestinian leaders made the "hard decisions" necessary
to restart peace talks.
(AP, 9/12/98)
1997 Sep 12, Senate Foreign
Relations Chairman Jesse Helms, exercising iron control, prevented
any committee hearing on William Weld's nomination to be ambassador
to Mexico.
(AP, 9/12/98)
1997 Sep 12, Edwin Lawrence
Njuguna of Kenya was stabbed to death in Napa, Calif., after being
dragged with two friends from a car by skinheads.
(SFC, 10/1/97, p.A12)
1997 Sep 12, It was reported
that Comoros government troops under Pres. Mohamed Taki were routed
on Anjouan and half of a force of 300 were killed or captured by
people who demanded to be French again.
(SFC, 9/12/97, p.A12)
1997 Sep 12, In southeast Congo
a plane crashed enroute to a religious meeting. All 20 aboard were
killed.
(SFEC, 9/14/97, p.A24)
1997 Sep 12, The Chinese
Communist Party Congress opened under Pres. Jiang Zemin and embraced
a program of bold economic reform. The event was held every 5 years.
Jiang Zemin was expected to stay as general-secretary. The positions
of Li Peng and Qiao Shi were in question. Jiang issued a call to use
layoffs, bankruptcies, shareholding and other capitalist policies to
attack the nation’s industrial ills.
(SFC, 8/28/97, p.C2)(SFC, 9/13/97, p.A8)(SFC,
9/15/97, p.A10)
1997 Sep 12, In Mexico a crowd
of tens of thousands rallied in the central square of Mexico City in
support of the Zapatista movement.
(SFEC, 9/14/97, p.A24)
1998 Sep 12, Sammy Sosa of the
Chicago Cubs became the fourth major league baseball player to hit
60 home runs in a single season.
(AP, 9/12/99)
1998 Sep 12, Lindsay Davenport
won the U.S. Open, defeating defending champion Martina Hingis, 6-3,
7-5.
(AP, 9/12/99)
1998 Sep 12, The White House
responded to Kenneth Starr's graphic report on President Clinton by
calling it a "hit-and-run smear campaign."
(AP, 9/12/03)
1998 Sep 12, Leaders of
striking pilots at Northwest Airlines ratified a new contract,
ending a walkout that began August 28.
(AP, 9/12/03)
1998 Sep 12, In Albania
Democratic Party leader Azem Hajdari (35) was assassinated.
(WSJ, 9/14/98, p.A1)(USAT, 9/15/98, p.12A)(SFC,
9/14/98, p.A12)
1998 Sep 12, In Chile the
anniversary of the 1973 coup was marked by weekend clashes with
police and 2 people were killed and 77 injured.
(WSJ, 9/14/98, p.A1)
1998 Sep 12, In Israel as many
as 100,000 people rallied in Tel Aviv demanding that the government
move the peace process forward.
(SFEC, 10/4/98, p.T11)
1999 Sep 12, "The Practice" and
"Ally McBeal," both created by writer-producer David E. Kelley, were
named best drama series and best comedy series at the 51st Emmy
Awards.
(AP, 9/12/00)
1999 Sep 12, Andre Agassi
captured his second US Open title, dominating Todd Martin 6-4, 6-7
(5-7), 6-7 (2-7), 6-3, 6-2.
(AP, 9/12/00)
1999 Sep 12, In Bangladesh
police clashed with protestors seeking the resignation of Prime
Minister Hasina. Opposition parties called for a 3-day general
strike.
(WSJ, 9/13/99, p.A1)
1999 Sep 12, In Dagestan
Russian troops seized control of the villages of Karamakhi and
Chabanmakhi.
(SFC, 9/13/99, p.A13)
1999 Sep 12, In Indonesia Pres.
Habibie under intense international pressure said he will allow
armed foreign peacekeepers into East Timor. Reports had reached
Jakarta that troops had attacked 30,000 people in the seminary town
of Dare.
(SFC, 9/13/99, p.A1,10)(AP, 9/12/00)
1999 Sep 12, North Korea agreed
indirectly to freeze its missile testing program.
(SFC, 9/13/99, p.A10)
2000 Sep 12, Hillary Rodham
became the first first lady to win an election as she claimed
victory in the New York Democratic Senate primary, defeating
little-known opponent Dr. Mark McMahon.
(AP, 9/12/01)
2000 Sep 12, Chase Manhattan
agreed to acquire J.P. Morgan for about $36 billion in stock.
(WSJ, 9/13/00, p.A1)
2000 Sep 12, Stanley
Turrentine, saxophonist, died at age 66.
(SFC, 9/13/00, p.A23)
2000 Sep 12, A series of
clashes between police and protesters marred a generally peaceful
second day of the three-day Asia-Pacific Economic Summit in
Melbourne, Australia.
(AP, 9/12/01)
2000 Sep 12, The EU lifted
diplomatic sanctions against Austria.
(SFC, 9/13/00, p.A12)
2000 Sep 12, In Chechnya a
truck bomb killed a woman and her daughter in the Oktyabrsky market
in Grozny.
(SFC, 9/14/00, p.C7)
2000 Sep 12, In the Netherlands
a bill was passed that converted same-sex partnerships into
full-fledged marriages.
(SFC, 9/13/00, p.A12)
2000 Sep 12, In Zimbabwe the
stock exchange made a record 500 point gain after the IMF announced
that it would not resume financial assistance. The official
inflation was 53.6% and local cash could not be moved out of the
country.
(WSJ, 9/15/00, p.A17)
2001 Sep 12, Pres. Bush called
Tuesday’s terrorist attacks "acts of war." Stunned rescue workers
continued to search for bodies in the World Trade Center's smoking
rubble a day after a terrorist attack that shut down the financial
capital, badly damaged the Pentagon and left thousands dead. The US
began building a broad int’l. coalition for a possible military
retaliation against those responsible for the terrorist attacks on
Sep 11. Federal authorities said followers of Osama bin Laden were
responsible for airline hijackings directed at NYC and the Pentagon.
The US air system remained grounded and financial markets closed.
(SFC, 9/13/01, p.A1,16)(AP, 9/12/02)
2001 Sep 12, The FAA gave
airlines a 3-page security directive to guard against further
terrorist attacks. It included a ban on curbside checking and
effectively eliminated the jobs of thousands of skycaps.
(WSJ, 9/13/01, p.A1)(WSJ, 9/17/01, p.A6)
2001 Sep 12, In Afghanistan
Mohammad Omar, the Taliban leader, went into hiding. The Taliban
military repositioned weaponry in anticipation of a US strike.
(SFC, 9/13/01, p.A12)
2001 Sep 12, An Israeli woman
was killed by a Palestinian shooting ambush in the West Bank.
(SFC, 9/13/01, p.A12)
2001 Sep 12, In Mexico a
twin-engine LET 410 plane crashed in the Yucatan and all 19 people
aboard were killed. The 16 passengers were all Seattle-area tourists
on a Holland America cruise.
(SFC, 9/13/01, p.C3)(SFC, 9/14/01, p.A32)
2001 Sep 12, In Nigeria
fighting resumed in Jos and the death toll estimate was raised to
165. Police moved to quell the violence.
(SFC, 9/13/01, p.C2)
2002 Sep 12, Pres. Bush
addressed the UN and laid out his case against Iraq's Pres. Saddam
Hussein. Bush told skeptical world leaders at the United Nations to
confront the "grave and gathering danger" of Saddam Hussein's Iraq,
or to stand aside as the United States acted. Bush was expected to
announce US plans to rejoin Unesco, headquartered in Paris. France
favored a demand for weapons inspectors in Iraq along with force if
Iraq resisted.
(WSJ, 9/12/02, p.A1,4)(SFC, 9/13/02, p.A1)(AP,
9/12/03)
2002 Sep 12, L. Dennis
Kozlowski (55), former CEO of Tyco Int'l. was indicted along with
Mark Swartz, financial adviser, for a $600 million racketeering
scheme. 3 former Tyco International executives were charged with
looting the conglomerate of hundreds of millions of dollars; all
three pleaded innocent at their arraignment in New York.
(SFC, 9/13/02, p.B1)(AP, 9/12/03)(WSJ, 10/30/03,
p.C1)
2002 Sep 12, Tahitian
authorities found a 55-foot catamaran, the Hakuna Matata, that
belonged to former NBA star Bison Dele (b.1969 as Brian Carson
Williams). His brother, Kevin Williams (Miles Dabord) was seen
docking the catamaran on July 16 in Taravao, Tahiti. Williams met
his girlfriend on July 8 in Papeete and described a scuffle that
left 3 people dead. He was last seen Sept. 5 in Phoenix, when he
tried to pick up an order for $500,000 in American Double Eagle
coins using his brother's passport. A comatose Williams was arrested
Sep 19 at a San Diego hospital and died Sep 27.
(SFC, 9/14/02, p.A15)(SFC, 9/17/02, p.A1)(SFC,
9/19/02, p.A7)(SFC, 9/20/02, p.A1)(SFC, 9/21/02, p.A1)(SFC, 9/28/02,
p.A5)
2002 Sep 12, In Maine 14 guest
workers from Honduras and Guatemala were drowned when their van fell
off a bridge into the Allagash Wilderness Waterway.
(SFC, 9/13/02, p.A3)
2002 Sep 12, The World Bank
pledged $120 million to help Angola rebuild after more than two
decades of civil war, but told its leaders they must take measures
to dispel suspicion of high-level corruption.
(AP, 9/12/02)
2002 Sep 12, In western
Guatemala heavy rains loosened a mountainside, burying about 30
homes and killing at least 17 people. Officials said that nearly two
dozen others were missing.
(AP, 9/13/02)
2002 Sep 12, In Nicaragua
prosecutors have filed new corruption charges against Amelia Aleman,
sister of former President Arnoldo Aleman, accusing her of
embezzling funds from a state-owned construction company and
ordering its work force to handle her private home-improvement
projects.
(AP, 9/13/02)
2003 Sep 12, A climate
prediction experiment, expected to involve two million people around
the world, was launched. The program, downloaded from
(www.climateprediction.net) and ran on an ordinary desktop or laptop
computer.
(Reuters, 9/11/03)
2003 Sep 12, Johnny Cash (71),
singer, died. His rough, unsteady voice championed the downtrodden
and reached across generations with songs like "Ring of Fire," "I
Walk the Line" and "Folsom Prison Blues."
(AP, 9/12/03)(SFC, 9/13/03, p.A12)
2003 Sep 12, In Colombia 4
Israelis, 2 Britons, a German and a Spaniard were kidnapped near
archaeological ruins high in the Sierra Nevada, about 465 miles
north of Bogota. 2 of the tourists were freed Nov 24. The
other 4 were released Dec 22. In 2004 the German government billed
Reinhilt Weigel $17,630 to cover the cost of a helicopter used to
bring her part of the way home, after she was released by rebels. In
2009 she lost her appeal.
(AP, 9/15/03)(WSJ, 11/25/03, p.A1)(AP,
12/23/03)(SFC, 5/29/09, p.A2)
2003 Sep 12, In Bombay
(Mumbai), India, police shot and killed a man believed to have
masterminded car bombings in Bombay last month that killed 53
people. Naseer and his aide were traveling in a car that carried
explosives, guns and detonators when police intercepted it.
(AP, 9/12/03)
2003 Sep 12, US soldiers
mistakenly opened fire on uniformed Iraqi policemen chasing highway
bandits at night, killing eight officers and a Jordanian security
guard in Fallujah.
(AP, 9/12/04)
2003 Sep 12, The Palestinians
urged the UN Security Council to demand that Israel not expel Yasser
Arafat and halt any threats to his safety.
(AP, 9/12/03)
2003 Sep 12, In Portugal's
Madeira Islands a small airplane crashed into the sea, apparently
killing all nine people on board. The Beechcraft 200 was carrying
eight Spaniards and a British pilot from the islands off northwest
Africa to the southern Spanish city of Malaga.
(AP, 9/12/03)
2003 Sep 12, In Rwanda Paul
Kagame took the oath of office as the nation's first popularly
elected president since the 1994 genocide.
(AP, 9/12/03)
2003 Sep 12, Typhoon Maemi, the
most powerful ever to ever hit South Korea, flipped over a floating
hotel, twisted massive cranes, killed at least 117 people. The main
port of Busan reported $1.3 billion in damage.
(WSJ, 9/16/03, p.A1)(AP, 9/13/04)
2003 Sep 12, The UN Security
Council lifted 11-year-old sanctions on Libya after Moammar
Gadhafi's government took responsibility for bombing a Pan Am jet
over Scotland and agreed to pay the victims' families $2.7 billion.
(AP, 9/12/03)
2004 Sep 12, The US fiscal gap,
measured as future receipts minus future obligations, was reported
to be between $40 and 72 trillion. The debt portended a severe
economic decline or financial collapse.
(SSFC, 9/12/04, p.A1)
2004 Sep 12, US Airways filed
for bankruptcy protection for the second time in two years.
(AP, 9/12/05)
2004 Sep 12, In Columbus, Ohio,
a suspected arson fire in an apartment complex left 10 people dead.
(SFC, 9/13/04, p.A3)
2004 Sep 12, Jerome Chodorov
(93), playwright, died in Nyack, N.Y.
(AP, 9/12/05)
2004 Sep 12, In southern
Afghanistan US forces backed by helicopter gunships killed 22
insurgents, including 3 Arab fighters.
(AP, 9/13/04)(SFC, 9/14/04, p.A7)
2004 Sep 12, In Heart,
Afghanistan, mobs loyal to Gov. Khan burned a half dozen int’l. aid
compounds and as many as 7 people were killed.
(SFC, 9/13/04, p.A3)(WSJ, 9/13/04, p.A1)
2004 Sep 12, Hurricane Ivan
skirted Grand Cayman with winds near 155 mph as it churned toward
Cuba. The storm has been blamed for 56 deaths across the Caribbean
so far, including 34 in Grenada and 11 in Jamaica.
(AP, 9/12/04)
2004 Sep 12, People in Hong
Kong turned out in large numbers for a legislative election, many
venting anger at their leaders and hoping to hand pro-democracy
opposition politicians unprecedented clout in the Chinese territory.
Pro-democracy opposition figures gained more clout in Hong Kong's
legislature with three new seats, but they fell short of
expectations.
(AP, 9/12/04)(AP, 9/13/04)
2004 Sep 12, Militants pounded
central Baghdad with intense mortar barrages, targeting the Green
Zone and destroying a U.S. vehicle along a major street. At least 25
people were killed, including an Arab television journalist, some of
them when a US helicopter fired at crowds around the burning
vehicle. The death toll across Iraq reached 59.
(AP, 9/12/04)(SFC, 9/13/04, p.A1)
2004 Sep 12, Three Polish
soldiers were killed in Iraq when they were attacked with grenades
and machine-gun fire as they returned to their base from a demining
operation.
(AP, 9/12/04)
2004 Sep 12, Pakistani security
forces and militants clashed in fighting that killed at least nine
people in the mountains near the Afghan border.
(AP, 9/13/04)
2005 Sep 12, Michael Brown, the
director of the US Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA),
resigned after being recalled to Washington amid criticism of the
federal response to Hurricane Katrina. Officials reported that 45
bodies were found at Memorial Hospital in New Orleans. This raised
the official death toll from Hurricane Katrina in Louisiana to 280.
(Reuters, 9/12/05)(SFC, 9/13/05, p.A8)
2005 Sep 12, At the start of
his confirmation hearing, US Supreme Court nominee John Roberts
pledged to judge with humility and without fear or favor'' if
approved as the nation's 17th chief justice.
(AP, 9/12/06)
2005 Sep 12, In California
worker error at Toluca Lake caused a power outage in the LA area.
Most of the power was restored within 90 minutes.
(SFC, 9/13/05, p.A3)
2005 Sep 12, Oracle Corp.
confirmed that CEO Larry Ellison would pay $100 million to a charity
to settle charges of insider trading.
(SFC, 9/13/05, p.D1)
2005 Sep 12, EBay has agreed to
buy fast-growing Internet start-up Skype for up to $4.1 billion in
cash and shares, in a move to tap new sources of growth and add free
Web telephone calls to its online auctions. Niklos Zennstrom of
Sweden and Janus Friis of Denmark founded Skype using a programming
team from Estonia.
(AP, 9/12/05)(Econ, 9/17/05, p.69)
2005 Sep 12, Business software
maker Oracle Corp. is buying its struggling rival Siebel Systems
Inc. for about $5.85 billion, continuing a recent shopping spree
that has eliminated two of its biggest competitors in nine months.
(AP, 9/12/05)
2005 Sep 12, An official said
China will no longer consider death tolls and other relevant
information about natural disasters to be state secrets in a move
aimed at boosting government transparency.
(AP, 9/12/05)
2005 Sep 12, In Colombia
Porfirio Ramirez (42) and his son, Linsen Ramirez (22),
hijacked a Colombian airline. The father in a wheelchair
dodged a checkpoint and smuggled grenades onto a plane. All
passengers and crew were eventually freed unharmed. The elder
hijacker said he hijacked the plane to bring attention to a case in
which he was partially paralyzed by a police bullet during a raid on
his house some 14 years ago and had unsuccessfully sought government
compensation.
(AP, 9/13/05)
2005 Sep 12, An international
environmental group warned that only 887 hippos are left in Congo,
and that they will be extinct in the African country. The latest
aerial survey puts the hippopotamus population in northeastern
Congo's Virunga National Park down to under 1,000 animals, compared
to some 29,000 in 1974.
(AP, 9/12/05)
2005 Sep 12, President Jacques
Chirac, following a weeklong hospital stay, met with India's PM
Singh.
(AP, 9/12/05)
2005 Sep 12, The new Hong Kong
Disneyland theme park on Lantau Island opened. Zeng Qinghong,
China’s vice-president, presided over opening ceremonies.
(SSFC, 9/18/05, p.C2)(Econ, 9/17/05, p.44)
2005 Sep 12, A huge car bomb
exploded outside a popular restaurant in Baghdad's upscale Mansour
neighborhood. At least one person was killed and 17 were wounded.
(AP, 9/12/05)
2005 Sep 12, In Japan PM
Junichiro Koizumi's triumph in parliamentary polls handed the leader
a new mandate to harness his revitalized ruling party and turn
promises into action for a range of sweeping economic reforms.
(AP, 9/12/05)
2005 Sep 12, King Abdullah II
of Jordan paid Pope Benedict XVI a visit, saying he wanted to foster
an honest dialogue between the West and moderate Islam.
(AP, 9/12/05)
2005 Sep 12, In Mexico Chinese
President Hu Jintao promised Mexican leaders that he would crack
down on the millions of dollars worth of Chinese contraband entering
their nation, goods that undermine Mexican businesses ranging from
sandal makers to religious icon sellers.
(AP, 9/12/05)
2005 Sep 12, Armed men broke
into an upscale Amsterdam home and kidnapped Claudia Melchers (37),
the daughter of a millionaire whose fortune came from selling
chemicals, including to Iraq in the 1980s. Her children were left
unharmed.
(AP, 9/13/05)
2005 Sep 12, Protestant
extremists attacked Northern Ireland police and British troops into
a third day, littering streets with rubble and burned-out vehicles
in violence sparked by anger over a restricted parade.
(AP, 9/12/05)
2005 Sep 12, Norwegians lined
up at polling stations in what promised to be a close race between a
governing center-right coalition advocating lower taxes and a
left-leaning opposition that wants to spend more of the Nordic
nation's oil wealth on the welfare system. Jens Stoltenberg, head of
the Labor Party, and 2 allied parties won 87 of the parliament’s 169
seats.
(AP, 9/12/05)(Econ, 9/17/05, p.51)
2005 Sep 12, Pakistan’s
President Pervez Musharraf offered to construct a security fence to
deter incursion of militants and drug merchants from Afghanistan.
(AP, 9/12/05)
2005 Sep 12, Joyous Gazans
flooded into empty Jewish settlements and Palestinians climbed ropes
and clambered over walls to the Egyptian side of Rafah to join a
chaotic celebration of the end of 38 years of Israeli military rule
over the Gaza Strip. Palestinians set fire to abandoned synagogues.
(AP, 9/12/05)
2005 Sep 12, Samsung
Electronics of South Korea unveiled the world's first 16-gigabit
NAND flash memory chip, a device the firm said will usher in a new
era in data storage.
(AP, 9/12/05)
2005 Sep 12, Syria consented to
a UN investigator's request to question top officials about the
assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, a
probe that increases the pressure on an increasingly isolated
Damascus.
(AP, 9/12/05)
2005 Sep 12, Turkey sold a 51%
stake in Tupras, an oil refinery, for $4.1 billion to a consortium
of Koc Holding and Royal Dutch/Shell.
(Econ, 9/17/05, p.64)
2005 Sep 12, A senior UN
official said traffickers have been shifting to the manufacture of
amphetamine-type drugs in Asia as cultivation and production of
heroin drops sharply.
(AP, 9/13/05)
2005 Sep 12, Uzbekistan,
increasingly hostile toward foreign non-governmental organizations
it accuses of fomenting revolution in the ex-Soviet state, shut a
second US charity in four days.
(AP, 9/13/05)
2006 Sep 12, In California Gov.
Schwarzenegger signed a minimum wage bill that will boost the hourly
rate by 75 cents in January and another 50 cents a year later to $8
an hour.
(SFC, 9/13/06, p.B3)
2006 Sep 12, Hewlett-Packard
named CEO Mark Hurd to succeed Patricia Dunn as board chairman as of
mid-January 2007 following the recent furor over phone probes of
board members.
(WSJ, 9/13/06, p.A1)
2006 Sep 12, Joan Valerie
Bondurant, former spy and UC prof. of political science, died in
Tucson, Az. She had translated documents for the CIA in India where
she met Gandhi and grew fascinated by satyagraha, a thesis of
nonviolent resistance. Her books included “Conquest of Violence: The
Gandhian Philosophy of Conflict” (1958).
(SFC, 9/21/06, p.B5)
2006 Sep 12, Hurricane Florence
headed toward north Atlantic shipping lanes after blowing out
windows, peeling away roofs and knocking out power to thousands in
Bermuda.
(AP, 9/12/06)
2006 Sep 12, Afghan forces
killed 12 suspected Taliban militants in a shootout south of Kabul.
More than 30 suspected insurgents were detained as security forces
fought back against a deadly spike in violence. The UN urged NATO
forces to take military action to destroy the opium industry in
southern Afghanistan, saying cultivation of the crop is out of
control.
(AP, 9/12/06)
2006 Sep 12, In Bangladesh
police in Dhaka baton-charged thousands of opposition supporters in
violent clashes outside the prime minister's office that left at
least 110 people injured. A 14-party opposition alliance led by the
Awami League is demanding electoral reforms ahead of January's
national elections.
(AP, 9/12/06)
2006 Sep 12, Canada and the
United States formally signed an agreement to end a protracted
dispute over Canadian softwood lumber.
(Reuters, 9/12/06)
2006 Sep 12, Pope Benedict XVI
delivered a speech at Regensburg Univ. that included brusque words
about Islam. He quoted a 14th century Byzantine emperor as saying
“Show me just what Muhammad brought that was new, and there you will
find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by
the sword the faith he preached.” The speech quickly provoked
criticism from the world’s Muslim communities. The pontiff later
said he regretted that Muslims were offended.
(SFC, 9/15/06, p.A17)(AP, 9/12/07)
2006 Sep 12, Iraqi PM Nouri
al-Maliki made his first official visit to Iran since taking office
and planned to ask Tehran to prevent al-Qaida members believed to be
in Iran from crossing into Iraq to carry out attacks. A parked car
bomb detonated in Baghdad's upscale Mansour neighborhood, killing at
least six people and wounding 18 others. Bombings, mortar attacks
and shootings overnight and during the day left at least 24 people
dead and dozens wounded around the country.
(AP, 9/12/06)
2006 Sep 12, An Israeli
military court ordered the release of 18 imprisoned Hamas lawmakers,
including three Cabinet ministers, and raised questions about the
army's case. A spokesman for the outgoing Hamas-led administration
said the group is prepared to back peace efforts with Israel as part
of the new coalition government being formed by the Palestinians.
Hamas militants killed an Israeli soldier during a gunbattle in the
Gaza Strip.
(AP, 9/12/06)
2006 Sep 12, In Mexico gunmen
ambushed and killed Enrique Barrera, police chief of the town of
Linares in the border state of Nuevo Leon, in the latest slaying of
a law officer in a region ravaged by a war between drug gangs.
(AP, 9/13/06)
2006 Sep 12, Montenegro's
election authorities said the governing pro-Western coalition led by
Prime Minister Milo Djukanovic won last weekend's parliamentary
elections.
(AP, 9/12/06)
2006 Sep 12, Serbia toughened
its stand on Kosovo as parliament decided that a planned new
constitution would refer to the disputed province as an "integral"
part of Serbia, regardless of U.N.-led negotiations on whether to
grant it independence.
(AP, 9/12/06)
2006 Sep 12, In Syria armed
Islamic militants attempted to storm the US Embassy in Damascus.
Four people were killed, including three of the assailants. One of
Syria's anti-terrorism forces was killed and 11 other people were
wounded. The only Islamic militant arrested in the attack died from
his wounds, and authorities were unable to question him.
(AP, 9/12/06)(AP, 9/13/06)
2006 Sep 12, In Turkey a bomb
exploded near a park in a primarily residential area of Diyarbakir
and 10 people were killed. 7 children were among the dead. The bomb
was made by hand, placed in a thermos and went off as it was being
transported.
(AP, 9/13/06)
2006 Sep 12, Uganda extended a
September 12 deadline for the rebel Lord's Resistance Army to agree
to a peace deal or lose an amnesty offer for war crimes charges its
leaders face.
(AFP, 9/13/06)
2006 Sep 12, In Yemen a
stampede during a campaign rally for President Ali Abdullah Saleh
killed at least 51 people and injured more than 230, most of them
schoolchildren and teenagers.
(AP, 9/12/06)
2007 Sep 12, The US SEC said it
had filed civil fraud charges against Douglas Hamilton, Craig
Johnson, James Kinney and Kenneth Taylor, the former vice presidents
of finance for Toronto-based Nortel's optical, wireline, wireless
and enterprise business units.
(AP, 9/13/07)
2007 Sep 12, Exxon Mobil Corp.
said in a filing with the SEC that it had filed a request with the
Int’l. Center for Settlement of Investment Disputes for arbitration
over compensation from the Venezuelan government for seized oil
production assets.
(WSJ, 9/14/07, p.A9)
2007 Sep 12, Oil prices briefly
topped a record $80 a barrel.
(AP, 9/12/08)
2007 Sep 12, The World
Conservation Union's 2007 Red List of Threatened Species reported
that more than 16,300 species of animals and plants are on the verge
of disappearing from the planet, with nearly 200 more species
approaching extinction within the last year. Gorillas and orangutans
were both classified as Critically Endangered.
(www.livescience.com/animals/070912_red_list.html)
2007 Sep 12, Phil Frank
(b.1943), creator of the Farley and Elderberries comic strips, died
from a brain tumor in Bolinas, Ca. His Farley strip had run in the
SF Chronicle for decades.
(SFC, 9/14/07, p.A1)
2007 Sep 12, Qari Yousef
Ahmadi, a Taliban spokesman, said that US and other military forces
must leave Afghanistan before the militant group would consider
holding peace talks with the Afghan government, backtracking from an
earlier statement. Fighting in Afghanistan killed some 75 people as
the Muslim holy month of Ramadan began, including 45 suspected
Taliban militants who died in airstrikes and Afghan army gunfire.
(AP, 9/12/07)(AP, 9/13/07)
2007 Sep 12, The specter of
foot and mouth disease returned to haunt Britain after a new
suspected outbreak was detected close to last month's outbreak site.
(AFP, 9/12/07)
2007 Sep 12, Canada’s defense
minister said Canada will give a one-time payment of $19,200 to
people who say their health was harmed by US military Agent Orange
spray programs at a base in eastern Canada 40 years ago. The US
military tested Agent Orange, Agent Purple and several other
powerful defoliants on a small section of the base in Gagetown, New
Brunswick, over seven days in 1966 and 1967. Roughly 4,500 people
were expected to be eligible for the payment, at a total cost of $92
million.
(AP, 9/13/07)
2007 Sep 12, Police in Chile
battled rampaging youths over night on the anniversary of the 1973
military coup. One officer was killed, 41 people injured with some
304 people arrested.
(SFC, 9/13/07, p.A4)
2007 Sep 12, Beijing showed off
its new multibillion-dollar airport terminal, a mammoth structure of
glass and steel with a gracefully sloping roof that the owners said
is meant to impress visitors to China's capital for the 2008
Olympics.
(AP, 9/12/07)
2007 Sep 12, Li Changjiang, the
head of China's product safety agency, said the Chinese-made toys
children receive for Christmas this year will be safe, pledging that
problems over the use of dangerous lead paint will be resolved in
time for holiday exports.
(AP, 9/12/07)
2007 Sep 12, Akmal Shaikh (51),
a British citizen, was arrested in Urumqi, in China's western
Xinjiang region, with four kg (8.8 pounds) of heroin. He was later
convicted and sentenced to die on Dec 29, 2009. Supporters of Shaikh
said he was duped into carrying the drugs for a criminal gang. If
the death penalty is carried out, Shaikh would become the first
national from a European Union country to be executed in China in 50
years.
(AFP,
12/22/09)(www.amnesty.org.uk/actions_details.asp?ActionID=638)
2007 Sep 12, The Republic of
Congo, the smaller, oil-rich western neighbor of the Democratic
Republic of Congo, numbered about 3.7 million inhabitants.
(AFP, 9/12/07)
2007 Sep 12, Ethiopia entered
the third millennium 7 years after the rest of the world, amid
lavish celebrations, religious fervor and messages of hope from the
troubled country's leaders.
(AFP, 9/12/07)
2007 Sep 12, A massive 8.4
earthquake struck Indonesia, killing at least 10 people, injuring
dozens and triggering a tsunami that hit one city on the island of
Sumatra.
(AP, 9/12/07)(Reuters, 9/13/07)
2007 Sep 12, Gunmen ambushed an
Iraqi police checkpoint in the Gayara area south of Mosul before
dawn, killing six officers in a sophisticated attack on fledgling
Iraqi security installations. In Diyala's al Salam area, gunmen
opened fire on a car at 9 a.m. killing two and wounding two others.
An hour later in another area, assailants shot into a crowd in
central Muqdadiyah killing two and wounding two. Other scattered
violence left at least five other Iraqis dead, including a civilian
killed by a roadside bomb on Palestine Street, a popular shopping
district in Baghdad. The bomb targeted a passing convoy of SUVs, and
left five other people wounded. Robbers dressed as police commandos
hijacked an armored truck in eastern Baghdad, bound and gagged its
guards, and made off with about $550,000 in Iraqi currency.
(AP, 9/12/07)
2007 Sep 12, Japanese PM Shinzo
Abe announced he will resign, ending a troubled year-old government
that has suffered a string of damaging scandals and a humiliating
electoral defeat.
(AP, 9/12/07)
2007 Sep 12, Allies of
Pakistan's military ruler blocked opposition leader Imran Khan from
entering, Karachi, the country's biggest city, just days after the
government sent a former prime minister back into exile. City police
chief Azher Farooqi said the former cricket star was barred because
his presence could cause unrest. Rebels armed with rocket launchers
surrounded a security post on the outskirts of the troubled city of
Bannu, which borders North Waziristan. They wounded a policeman and
a soldier before whisking away 12 paramilitary troops. Pakistani
helicopter gunships and artillery pounded pro-Taliban militant
hideouts in a tribal region near the Afghan border, killing up to 40
insurgents.
(AP, 9/12/07)(AFP, 9/12/07)
2007 Sep 12, In the Philippines
a court found former Pres. Joseph Estrada guilty of taking more than
$85 million in bribes and kickbacks and sentenced him to life
imprisonment, ending a trial that spanned 6 years.
(SFC, 9/12/07, p.A19)
2007 Sep 12, Russia’s President
Vladimir Putin dismissed his long-serving PM Mikhail Fradkov and
nominated little-known Cabinet official Victor Zubkov (b.1941) to
replace him in a surprise move that could put Zubkov in the running
to replace Putin next year.
(AP, 9/12/07)(WSJ, 9/13/07, p.A3)(Econ, 9/15/07,
p.64)
2007 Sep 12, Serbia warned the
EU it would not accept any decision on Kosovo taken outside the UN,
and its ally Russia told the US to stop backing Kosovo independence
while talks continue.
(AP, 9/12/07)
2007 Sep 12, Turkish troops
killed 4 Kurdish guerrillas in a the southeastern province of Siirt.
(AP, 9/12/07)
2008 Sep 12, The US accused
Rodriguez Chacin and 2 other top aides to Venezuela’s Pres. Chavez
of helping Colombian guerrillas traffic cocaine and procure weapons
for FARC. Chacin had just resigned on Sep 8 from Venezuela’s
Interior Ministry.
(SFC, 9/13/08, p.A5)
2008 Sep 12, The SF Opera said
it had received a commitment from board chairman John A. Gunn (64)
and wife Cynthia Fry Gunn for a gift of $40 million. John Gunn
served as chairman and CEO of Dodge and Cox Investment Managers.
(SFC, 9/13/08, p.A2)
2008 Sep 12, In southern
California a commuter train smashed head-on into a freight train
killing at least 25 people in the deadliest US passenger train
accident in 15 years. Officials the next day attributed the accident
to failure of the passenger train engineer to stop at a red light.
It was later found that engineer Robert Sanchez, who died in the
crash, had sent a text message 22 seconds before the crash.
(AP, 9/13/08)(Reuters, 9/13/08)(WSJ, 10/2/08,
p.A11)
2008 Sep 12, David Foster
Wallace (b.1962), the author best known for his 1996 novel "Infinite
Jest," was found dead in his home in Claremont, Ca.
(AP, 9/13/08)(SSFC, 9/14/08, p.B7)
2008 Sep 12, Taliban militants
attacked a logistics convoy in western Afghanistan, sparking a clash
that killed 10 insurgents and five Afghan guards. Afghan police said
they had arrested three suspects accused of giving the US military
false information that led to the August 22 bombardment of the
village of Azizabad.
(AP, 9/12/08)(AP, 9/14/08)
2008 Sep 12, Bolivian President
Evo Morales decreed a state of siege and sent troops to the eastern
province of Pando where at least 16 people were killed in street
battles between pro- and anti-government activists. Another 2 people
were killed at Pando's main airfield as government troops took
control, opening fire to disperse protesters.
(AP, 9/12/08)(AP, 9/14/08)
2008 Sep 12, British and French
firefighters extinguished a 1,000-degree inferno in the Channel
Tunnel but tens of thousands of travelers faced more delay as they
waited for the undersea link to reopen.
(AP, 9/12/08)
2008 Sep 12, Shops throughout
China pulled a milk powder, suspected sickening babies, from shelves
in the latest safety scandal to rock the country's food industry.
Investigators soon detained 19 people and were questioning 78 to
find out how melamine was added to milk supplied to Sanlu Group Co.,
China's biggest milk powder producer. On Sep 15 Zhang Zhenling, vice
president of Sanlu Group, read a letter of apology at a news
briefing in Shijiazhuang, capital of Hebei Province, where the
corporation is based. China later reported that more than 6,000
babies had fallen ill and three died after drinking contaminated
milk powder. Consumer complaints to Sanlu Group regarding its baby
milk formula had begun as early as last December.
(AP, 9/12/08)(AP, 9/13/08)(AFP, 9/15/08)(AFP,
9/17/08)(SFC, 9/24/08, p.A12)
2008 Sep 12, Pope Benedict XVI
urged France to take Christianity into account despite its secular
tradition, saying on his first visit there as pontiff that church
and state should be open to each other.
(AP, 9/12/08)
2008 Sep 12, Tens of thousands
of Muslims joined pro-independence rallies across Indian-controlled
Kashmir, leading to scattered clashes with police that left at least
two protesters dead and dozens injured.
(AP, 9/12/08)
2008 Sep 12, Mexican police
found the bodies of 24 men with their hands bound and shot to death
execution-style outside the capital. On Nov 27 prosecutors charged a
municipal police commander and an alleged drug cartel member with
homicide in the September massacre.
(AP, 9/13/08)(AP, 11/28/08)
2008 Sep 12, In Pakistan a US
Predator drone fired 2 missiles at a home in the village of Tolkhel,
North Waziristan, killing at least 12 people.
(SFC, 9/13/08, p.A3)
2008 Sep 12, Poland's last
communist leader, General Wojciech Jaruzelski, and seven other
Soviet-era officials went on trial over the declaration of martial
law more than a quarter of a century ago. The 1981 decision led to
the deaths of dozens of people and the jailing of hundreds more.
(Reuters, 9/12/08)
2008 Sep 12, Russia’s Itar-Tass
news reported that Syria’s Tartous port is being renovated to
provide a permanent facility for the Russian navy.
(SFC, 10/3/08, p.A14)
2008 Sep 12, A South African
judge ruled that prosecutors were wrong to charge ANC President
Jacob Zuma with corruption, effectively clearing way for the
66-year-old former freedom fighter to become the country's next
president.
(AP, 9/12/08)
2008 Sep 12,The Sudanese
government army and Janjaweed militias launched new attacks in a
mountainous area of south Darfur according to rebel claims made the
next day. UN boss Ban Ki-moon welcomed the establishment of an Arab
League panel led by Qatar that will work with the African Union and
United Nations to sponsor peace talks in Sudan's Darfur region.
(AFP, 9/12/08)(AFP, 9/13/08)
2008 Sep 12, Samak Sundaravej
ended his bid to return to power as Thailand's prime minister, after
a revolt within the ruling party torpedoed his re-election in
parliament.
(AFP, 9/12/08)
2009 Sep 12, Researchers
reported finding dangerous methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus
aureus (MRSA) bacteria in sand and water for the first time at five
public beaches along the coast of Washington state.
(AP, 9/12/09)
2009 Sep 12, William E.
Sparkman (51), a US census worker, was found bound with duct tape
and a rope around his neck near a cemetery in Clay County in a
remote patch of Kentucky’s Daniel Boone National Forest. The word
"fed" was scrawled on his chest. The area where Sparkman was found
has a history of problems with prescription drug and methamphetamine
trading. State police later said evidence at the death scene
indicated that it was staged as a murder and that Sparkman had
committed suicide.
(AP, 9/24/09)(SFC, 11/25/09, p.A4)
2009 Sep 12, Dr. Norman Borlaug
(b.1914), Nobel Prize winner (1970), died at his Dallas home. He was
known as the father of the “green revolution” for his work in
high-yield crop varieties, which helped to more than double food
production between 1960 and 1990.
(SFC, 9/14/09, p.A7)
2009 Sep 12, Christopher Kelly
(51), former chief fundraiser for ousted Illinois Gov. Rod
Blagojevich, died in Chicago after being found slumped over in his
car the previous evening. An overdose of drugs was suspected. Kelly
faced at least 8 years in prison after pleading guilty to fraud
charges in 2 separate cases.
(SFC, 9/14/09, p.A4)
2009 Sep 12, In Afghanistan a
Taliban ambush killed six private security guards working for a
construction company in the eastern province of Kunar. In Khost
province a suspected militant rocket attack killed three civilians
in Sabari district. In Kandahar 3 suicide bombers tried to attack an
office of the country's intelligence agency. Officers and the
bombers traded gunfire. One bomber blew himself up and killed an
intelligence officer, while the other bombers’ explosives went off
but didn't kill anyone. Coalition and Afghan forces killed 11
militants during an overnight raid in northern Kunduz province. In
Kunduz province a turncoat policeman poisoned 8 other officers at a
guard post, killed his commander and called in the Taliban who
beheaded or shot 7 other policemen. A roadside bomb killed two US
troops in the east. In western Afghanistan 3 US soldiers were killed
following a roadside bomb attack and small arms fire. Altogether 50
civilians, security forces and militants were killed in the spate of
attacks, including 20 noncombatants killed in two roadside bomb
explosions. In western Farah province a battle that included
airstrikes killed about 50 Taliban militants after an insurgent
ambush left 3 US troops and 7 Afghan soldiers dead.
(AP, 9/12/09)(AP, 9/13/09)(SSFC, 9/13/09,
p.A4)(SFC, 9/14/09, p.A2)
2009 Sep 12, Australia
intercepted a boat carrying 83 suspected asylum seekers off its
northwest coast after it was spotted from the air by a military
patrol plane. Later in the day the Australian navy intercepted a
suspected people-smuggling boat carrying 65 asylum seekers off the
country's northwest coast.
(AFP, 9/12/09)(AFP, 9/13/09)
2009 Sep 12, President Evo
Morales said Bolivia has decided to buy a presidential plane from
Russia after Moscow offered to set up an aircraft maintenance center
in the South American nation. Defense Minister Walker San Miguel
announced in early August that Bolivia had agreed to purchase an
Antonov presidential plane with satellite phone, Internet links and
a meeting room from Russia for $30 million.
(AP, 9/12/09)
2009 Sep 12, In Chechnya three
police were wounded when a suicide bomber blew himself up in Grozny.
An alleged militant was killed in a separate incident in Chechnya.
(AP, 9/12/09)
2009 Sep 12, China decried a US
decision to impose added duty on Chinese-made tires, saying the move
sent a dangerous protectionist signal before a G20 summit and could
stoke reactions impeding global recovery. The tire duty was the
first time Washington has applied special "safeguard" provisions
Beijing agreed to before joining the WTO in 2001.
(Reuters, 9/12/09)
2009 Sep 12, A court in western
China's Xinjiang region sentenced three people to up to 15 years in
prison in the first trials over a series of mysterious syringe
attacks that led to mass protests against the local government. In
eastern China 3 people died and an additional 17 required medical
treatment after they were exposed to bags of a toxic chemical
illegally dumped by a factory in Dongyang.
(AP, 9/12/09)(AP, 9/16/09)
2009 Sep 12, Costa Rican
authorities detained 54 US-bound migrants from Africa and Nepal
after their boat arrived on the country's coast. Authorities also
took into custody three suspected Colombian smugglers who were
traveling with them.
(AP, 9/13/09)
2009 Sep 12, In Dagestan
security forces besieged a home and killed four alleged militants.
(AP, 9/12/09)
2009 Sep 12, Willy Ronis (99),
the last of the great French photographers, died. Lovers, nudes and
scenes from Paris streets were the mainstay of Ronis' photographs in
an award-winning career that began in the 1930s.
(AP, 9/12/09)
2009 Sep 12, In Iraq 2 bombs
exploded moments apart near the tomb of a revered Shiite religious
figure in central Baghdad, killing three people and wounding 22. A
bomb attached to a civilian car exploded in the northwest of
Baghdad, killing the driver and wounding two passengers. 4 people
were killed by a roadside bomb in Diyala province. In the northern
city of Mosul, a roadside bomb went off near an Iraqi army patrol,
prompting soldiers to open fire to scare off any attackers. A stray
bullet from the shooting killed a traffic policeman.
(AP, 9/12/09)
2009 Sep 12, In
Indian-administered Kashmir suspected Islamic militants set off a
powerful bomb blast killing three people and wounding at least seven
others.
(AP, 9/12/09)
2009 Sep 12, In Lebanon Salah
Ezzedine (47), a Shiite businessman with connections to Hezbollah,
and his partner Youssef Faour were arrested on suspicion of cheating
investors of hundreds of millions of dollars. They charged with
fraudulent embezzlement.
(www.nytimes.com/2009/09/16/world/middleeast/16lebanon.html?_r=3&ref=world)
2009 Sep 12, Mexican police
said they have found the bodies of five men dumped in a landfill
near the resort city of Acapulco. The men had been shot to death and
officers found a note with the bodies signed "The boss of bosses."
(AP, 9/12/09)
2009 Sep 12, In Pakistan
paramilitary troops destroyed three militant hide-outs and killed 22
insurgents. Officials said hundreds of tribal police in the
northwestern Khyber region have quit their jobs because of militant
threats.
(AP, 9/12/09)
2009 Sep 12, Uganda’s army
killed five rebels in the CAR, including Arit Santos, a commander of
the LRA insurgent group. Soldiers also seized 24 sub-machineguns,
several rounds of ammunition, medicine and laptop computers in the
operation.
(AFP, 9/14/09)
2009 Sep 12, In Venezuela
opposition Mayor Lluvane Alvarez was shot by unidentified assailants
as he entered his home in western Tachira state, which is plagued by
crime related to drug trafficking and other illicit activities.
(AP, 9/12/09)
2009 Sep 12, Zimbabwe’s
President Robert Mugabe welcomed the first top-level European Union
delegation to visit in seven years with "open arms" and said talks
on implementing a power-sharing deal went well.
(Reuters, 9/12/09)
2010 Sep 12, The 2010 MTV Video
Music Awards were presented in Los Angeles.
(AP, 9/13/10)
2010 Sep 12, In Afghanistan 2
protesters were shot and killed in Logar province and 4 were injured
as Afghans protested for a third day against a plan by an American
pastor to burn copies of the Islamic holy book, despite his decision
to call off the action. A series of NATO airstrikes killed 14
insurgents after a joint patrol with Afghan soldiers came under fire
in Uruzgan province. A rocket was fired by militants toward an
Afghan army supply base in Jalalabad city, in eastern Nangarhar
province. The rocket missed its target and slammed into a house,
wounding nine civilians, including four children, all members of one
family.
(Reuters, 9/12/10)(AP, 9/13/10)
2010 Sep 12, In Cameroon six
hostages, four Ukrainians, a Croatian, and a Filipino, were
kidnapped by unidentified gunmen off the port city of Douala. On Sep
30 the hostages were freed following a secret operation by Cameroon
security forces.
(AP, 10/1/10)
2010 Sep 12, An Egyptian
security official said 16 Russians and Moldovans, who killed an
Egyptian smuggler, have handed themselves over to police. Some of
the would-be migrants to Israel attacked and fatally stabbed
smuggler Massud Salim (31) after he attempted to rape one of the
female members of the group.
(AFP, 9/12/10)
2010 Sep 12, Germany's top
bank, Deutsche Bank, announced a rights issue worth around 10
billion euros ($13 billion), saying it sought fresh capital to take
over retail bank Postbank.
(AFP, 9/12/10)
2010 Sep 12, In Conakry,
Guinea, one person was killed and dozens were wounded in clashes
between supporters of rival candidates just days before the
country's historic presidential runoff vote.
(Reuters, 9/12/10)
2010 Sep 12, In Indonesia
assailants stabbed Asia Sihombing, a Christian worshipper, in the
stomach and pounded Rev. Luspida Simanjuntak in the head with a
wooden plank when she tried to help him as they headed to morning
prayers in Bekasi, 25 miles east of Jakarta.
(AP, 9/12/10)
2010 Sep 12, A senior Iranian
prosecutor said that authorities will release Sarah Shourd, a jailed
American woman, on $500,000 bail because of health problems, another
sudden about-face by Iran in a case that has added to tension with
the United States.
(AP, 9/12/10)
2010 Sep 12, Israeli PM
Benjamin Netanyahu reiterated his demand for the Palestinians to
recognize Israel as a Jewish state, in remarks ahead of a second
round of US-backed peace talks. A rocket fired by Palestinian
militants in the Hamas-run Gaza Strip struck Israel without causing
any casualties or damage. A burst of Israeli tank fire killed three
civilians in the northern Gaza town of Beit Hanun, a man (91), his
grandson (17) and another man (20). A senior commander on Sep
14 said the killing was a mistake.
(AFP, 9/12/10)(AFP, 9/14/10)
2010 Sep 12, In
Indian-administered Kashmir hundreds of stone-throwing protesters
defied a curfew and attacked security forces in two towns, injuring
9 police officers and 4 soldiers. The protests erupted hours after
police formally accused Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, a key separatist
leader, of treason for allegedly inciting participants in a massive
rally to torch government offices a day earlier.
(AP, 9/12/10)
2010 Sep 12, The Venice film
festival ended with an awards ceremony. Jury president Quentin
Tarantino faced charges of favoritism after he handed out two major
awards to his friends, including best picture to his ex partner
Sofia Coppola's "Somewhere."
(Reuters, 9/12/10)
2010 Sep 12, In Kosovo a French
Gendarme was shot and wounded during clashes between ethnic
Albanians and Serbs in the ethnically divided city of Mitrovica as
European Union police fired tear gas to disperse the violent crowd.
(AP, 9/12/10)
2010 Sep 12, Mexican marines
captured Sergio Villarreal Barragan (“the Child-eater”), a presumed
leader of the embattled Beltran Leyva cartel, along with 2
accomplices in a raid in the central state of Puebla.
(AP, 9/12/10)(Econ, 9/18/10, p.53)
2010 Sep 12, In Pakistan a
suspected US missile strike in North Waziristan killed at least five
associates of warlord Hafiz Gul Bahadur, who was fighting Western
troops in Afghanistan.
(AP, 9/12/10)
2010 Sep 12, Philippine
authorities at Manila's airport found a newborn baby in a garbage
bag that was apparently unloaded from an airplane that landed from
the Middle East. On Sep 16 Rep. Lani Mercado said she met with the
mother, who told her that she had been raped by her employer while
working as a maid in Qatar and became pregnant.
(AP, 9/12/10)(AP, 9/16/10)
2010 Sep 12, Turks voted on
whether to amend a military-era constitution in what the government
says is a key step in Turkey's path to full democracy, despite
opposition claims that the proposed reforms would shackle the
independence of the courts. Some 58 percent of voters approved a
package of 26 amendments to the constitution crafted after a 1980
military coup, making the military more accountable to civilian
courts, backing gender equality and other citizens' rights and
lifting immunity from prosecution of the coup leaders.
(AP, 9/12/10)(AP, 9/13/10)
Go to
http://www.timelinesdb.com
Go to September 13